The Third Precept of Usui’s Gokai
Further historical context of the Gokai
As an instructor of Usui Reiki Ryoho, I’ve noticed that students are drawn first to the tangible dimensions of practice: the hand positions, the symbols, the felt experience of energy moving. These have their place, but Usui Sensei placed the practice of the precepts before all of them. What follows first sets the Gokai in their historical context, then turns to that third precept in particular: its resonance, and the question every student eventually asks – why this, and why here?
Reliable, contemporary documentation of Usui’s life is relatively thin. The two primary written sources are a calligraphy on a well-known photograph of Usui and the inscription on his memorial stone at Saihoji Temple in Tokyo, erected by his students about a year after his death in 1926. The most direct evidence for the Gokai comes from that stone. In Hyakuten Inamoto’s widely used translation, it instructs that before teaching, “the ‘Ikun’ (admonition) of the Meiji Emperor should reverently be read and the Five Precepts be chanted and kept in mind mornings and evenings,” and then lists them: do not anger, do not worry, be thankful, work with diligence, be kind to others[1].
Two details from the stone are worth pausing on. First, its wording reads “today do not anger, do not worry, be grateful…” – the word “today” (kyo) appears once at the head of the list, not repeated before each line as in the familiar Western recitation. Second, the stone distinguishes between the Emperor’s admonition and the Gokai themselves; it does not say the precepts are the Emperor’s words, only that both should be read and chanted. For years the precepts were nonetheless assumed to derive from the Emperor’s waka poetry (gyosei). Later research points elsewhere.
Independent research — most notably the Reiki Ryoho historian James Deacon – identifies a likely direct source: a book commonly cited in Reiki-history literature as Kenzen no Genri (“Principles of Health”), published around 1914 by Suzuki Bizan. Its opening recitation reads almost identically in structure to the Gokai: “Today only: do not anger, do not fear, be honest, be diligent in your duties, be kind to people”[2]; . The parallel is close enough that Deacon’s work describes Suzuki’s text as almost certainly the direct source of the Gokai, rather than the Emperor’s poetry.
This matters specifically for “be grateful.”
Suzuki’s text contains no gratitude line at all – it reads “do not fear” (osore-zu) and “be honest” (shojiki ni) where Usui’s version reads “do not worry” (shinpai su na) and “be grateful” (kansha shite). If Usui was adapting rather than copying, then “be grateful” appears to be his own substitution – a deliberate choice, not an inherited phrase.
Daily recitation also has older Buddhist precedents. The Sutra of the Eight Realizations of the Great Beings opens with the instruction that “wholeheartedly, day and night, a disciple of the Buddha should recite and meditate” on its realizations[3]. Usui’s direction to recite the precepts “in the morning and at night, with hands in gassho” sits squarely within this older Buddhist pattern of morning-and-evening recitation as a way of keeping the teaching in both body and mind.
Be Grateful
The Five Precepts, or Gokai, are the ethical and spiritual foundation of the system of Reiki Ryoho, and among them the third – kansha shite, “be grateful” – is at once the most quietly transformative and the easiest to pass over.
Gratitude also held a noted place in the world Usui’s spiritual life was formed within. The temple on Mount Kurama where he undertook his pivotal 21-day retreat in 1922 belonged, in his era, to the Tendai Buddhist sect, and researchers describe his broader formation as drawing on Tendai and Shingon Buddhism and on Shugendo, the mountain ascetic tradition[4]. The Mount Kurama retreat came late in his life – he was in his late fifties, after years of prior study and life experiences.
Within Japanese ethical and religious thought, gratitude (kansha) can be read alongside the concept of
on (恩) – the recognition of an unearned debt of favor received from parents, teachers, ancestors, and
forces beyond oneself, which calls for acknowledgment and repayment (ongaeshi). In this context, gratitude is less a pleasant emotion than a form of accurate perception: seeing that one’s existence and abilities are not self-generated. Against that backdrop, Usui’s choice to insert “be grateful” (kansha shite) into the five lines feels less like personal preference and more like a deliberate nod to a value his culture already understood as foundational.
Why does gratitude earn its own place among only five precepts? What follows is interpretation, offered to readers as such, drawing on both the documented record and the living tradition of practice.
Gratitude as the antidote to anger and worry. The Gokai are often taught as a linked sequence. Anger and worry, the two precepts preceding gratitude in the Gokai, are both forms of resistance to what is happening – anger resists the past or present, worry resists the future. Gratitude, by contrast, is an orientation of acceptance toward what is, including its imperfections. Seen this way, gratitude functions as the practical remedy to the two states named just before it, not merely their opposite in sentiment.
A portal to the True Self. The Usui Reiki Ryoho Hikkei, a handbook circulated by the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai, records Usui’s answer to whether the system only heals illness: no – it corrects the mind, and then one is “able to lead a happy life and heal others with the mind of Kami or Hotoke [Buddha]. That becomes the principal object”[5]. That “mind” is the True Self – the innate divine or Buddha nature. To be an expression of gratitude from the heart is an act of humility that steps aside from the judging, wanting ego and aligns personal energy with Reiki. In traditional Japanese Reiki Ryoho teaching, this alignment is understood to clear the stagnant ki that underlies much physical and mental dis-ease – so the precept itself becomes a form of the “spiritual medicine” the Gokai describes.
Right relationship to the practice. A practitioner who receives Reiki without gratitude risks treating it as a technique they own, rather than something received through a source infinitely larger than the personal self. Gratitude maintains the practitioner in a posture of humility rather than ownership – and a Reiki Ryoho practitioner who forgets they are a channel is at greater risk of spiritual and ethical drift.
A practice, not a feeling. Perhaps the most important “why” is that “Be Grateful” (kansha shite) is a directive to practice gratitude, not a command to feel it. The opening phrase “Just for Today” applies to “Be Grateful” as much as to the other precepts, which is a compassionate structure: gratitude is not a permanent achievement but a discipline renewed daily, with yesterday’s failure not disqualifying today’s attempt. In the traditional practice the Gokai are chanted as a mantra – a “protection for the mind” – with long breathing from the lower tanden, the body’s center, so that sound and intention emanate from the core rather than the intellect. This moves the precepts off the wall of the mind and into the heart, until gratitude becomes a spontaneous response to life rather than a forced affirmation.
In closing
“Be Grateful” then, is far more than a suggestion for polite living. Set back into what can actually be documented – its appearance on Usui’s own memorial stone, its likely origin as his deliberate substitution for Suzuki’s “be honest,” its resonance with the Buddhist notion of on, and its position between “do not worry” and “be diligent in your work” – it stands as a daily, repeatable practice that stabilizes the mind, aligns the practitioner’s relationship to their own power, and opens toward the deeper aim Usui set for his students: the mind of Kami or Hotoke, the True Self. Its origins, rooted in a rich cultural and spiritual heritage, matter less than its function – a remedy for the illness of anger and worry, a doorway to our compassionate nature, and a tool for spiritual development we must actively cultivate.
As an instructor, my role is to guide students in seeing that these five precepts are the very heart of a Reiki Ryoho practice. They are not rules to follow but a path to walk, one conscious step at a time. When we embody this third precept – when we can live with a heart of sincere gratitude – we are not just practicing Reiki Ryoho; we are Reiki.
Sources
[1]Usui memorial stone (Reiho Choso Usui Sensei Kudoku no Hi), translation by Hyakuten Inamoto – International House of Reiki: https://ihreiki.com/reiki_info/reiki_history/usui_mikao/usui_memorial_stone/
[2]João Magalhães, “Reiki’s Five Principles in a 1914 Book: What’s the True Origin?”: https://www.joaomagalhaes.com/en/reikis-five-principles-in-a-1914-book-whats-the-true-origin/
[3]“Discourse on the Eight Realizations of the Great Beings” – Plum Village (Thich Nhat Hanh): https://plumvillage.org/library/sutras/discourse-on-the-eight-realizations-of-the-great-beings
[4]Frans Stiene, “Mikao Usui and Mt Kurama or was it Mt Hiei?!” – International House of Reiki: https://ihreiki.com/blog/mikao_usui_and_mt_kurama_or_was_it_mt_hiei/
[5]“Reiki is Kami is Buddha” (Usui Reiki Ryoho Hikkei, “mind of Kami or Hotoke”) – International House of Reiki: https://ihreiki.com/blog/reiki-is-kami-is-buddha/
Note: Much of the popular literature on Usui is written by Reiki teachers rather than historians, and repeats oral tradition without always distinguishing it from documented fact. Where this essay states something as established, it is drawn from the memorial stone or from the Gakkai handbook. Where it offers interpretation — including the “stagnant ki,” hara-centered chanting, and “gateway state” framings – that is drawn from the living tradition of practice and is flagged as such.