Traditional Japanese Reiki – Okuden
Looking more deeply within
Okuden is often translated as Inner Teachings or Inner Truth, and for me that gives us a clue to where the practice is taking us.
Okuden isn't simply about learning more Reiki or adding more techniques to those you learnt at Shoden. It is an opportunity to look more deeply within ourselves, shining a light on some of the beliefs, attachments and layers of untruth we may have absorbed along the way.
We aren't looking at these things so that we can judge them or immediately try to change them. We are learning to notice what is there and become curious about it. As we begin to soften some of the emotional attachments and distractions that can pull us away from ourselves, we may find that there is a little more space to see things differently.
Four weekly evenings · Friday 7.00pm–9.30pm · In person at Navitas, Crewe
Three Okuden attunements, Traditional Japanese Reiki symbols and mantras, Distant Reiki and continued exploration of the Reiki Precepts. Shoden is a prerequisite.
Okuden is an invitation to shine a light within.
Why four weeks?
Like Shoden, I teach Okuden over four weekly evenings because I want there to be space between the learning.
Each week you have an opportunity to experience new aspects of the practice, take them into your everyday life and notice what happens. When we meet again, we begin with those experiences. What did you practise? What did you notice? Has anything changed in you or in the way you are seeing something?
This also means I can allow the course to respond to the students who are actually in the room. If a conversation or practice needs more time, we give it more time. Something I thought we might cover that evening can wait until the following week.
For me, that is more important than rigidly following a timetable. You have four weeks in which to learn, practise, notice and return, with my support alongside you as the experience unfolds.
The space between our evenings is part of the course.
From Shoden to Okuden
Shoden began the process of developing greater awareness of yourself and your relationship with Reiki. At Okuden we continue that practice while beginning to look a little more deeply at what can take us away from our natural state of balance.
We explore attachment and what happens when we become fixed in one belief, one perspective or one way of seeing something. Even practices that support us can become something we hold onto too tightly.
The Reiki Precepts remain an important part of this exploration. Rather than being something we learnt at Shoden and then left behind, they continue to give us opportunities to notice how we are meeting ourselves, other people and the experiences that arrive in our lives.
None of this is about trying to become perfect at Reiki or at life. It is about becoming more aware and perhaps creating enough space to see more than the one side of the coin we may currently be holding.
Experiencing Okuden through practice
During the four weeks you receive the three Okuden attunements and are introduced to the three traditional Reiki symbols and mantras. We also explore Distant Reiki and continue developing your experience through a number of Traditional Japanese Reiki practices.
I often describe the symbols and mantras as training wheels. They aren't something I want you simply to memorise or believe you need forever. They give us another way of experiencing and recognising different qualities within Reiki.
As with Shoden, I don't want to tell you what you should experience. We practise together and you have the opportunity to notice what happens for yourself. Sometimes something makes sense immediately; sometimes understanding develops much later through continued practice.
Distant Reiki also gives us an opportunity to explore something beyond the technique itself — our understanding of connection.
Connection is not necessarily something we have to create. Perhaps sometimes it is something we have to remember.
Seeing more than one side of the coin
As Okuden unfolds, we begin to explore the idea of duality and how easily we can become attached to one side of our experience. When we are caught within something, we can become very certain about what it means, what is right or wrong, or what somebody else should or shouldn't have done.
What happens when we begin to see more than one side of the coin?
We aren't trying to dismiss our own experience. We are simply creating a little more space around it, allowing the possibility of a broader perspective and perhaps greater insight.
Traditional Japanese Reiki takes this exploration much further as our practice develops. At Okuden, I see it as sowing a seed. There is nowhere you are expected to have arrived. We are simply becoming curious about what we notice as we move towards greater awareness, balance and neutrality.
After Okuden
When our four evenings together come to an end, I don't see the most important next step as another course. It is giving yourself time to practise and allowing what you have learnt to become part of your experience.
I continue to support you by email over the following weeks, and you are invited to join the monthly Reiki Practice & Share where you can continue practising alongside other students.
There is another level within the Traditional Japanese system, Shinpiden, but there is no expectation that you should continue to it. If at some point you do feel drawn towards Shinpiden, I generally recommend allowing around 12 months to practise and embody what you have learnt at Okuden before moving forward.
You don't need to come to Okuden simply because it is the next level after Shoden either. Perhaps you have noticed changes in yourself since Shoden, perhaps your relationship with Reiki has continued to develop, or perhaps you simply have a sense that you are ready to explore a little more deeply.
One of the first questions I ask when we meet is:
Why Okuden, and why now?
There isn't a right answer. I am simply interested in yours.
Okuden at a glance
Traditional Japanese Reiki – Okuden
Four weekly evenings
Friday 7.00pm–9.30pm
Face-to-face
Navitas, Crewe
Your course includes
Three Okuden attunements, Traditional Japanese Reiki symbols and mantras, Distant Reiki, further Traditional Japanese Reiki practices and continued exploration of the Reiki Precepts.
Between sessions
Practice and reflection between each evening, with continued support after the course.
Prerequisite
Shoden is a prerequisite. Okuden is a continuation of the Traditional Japanese Reiki pathway begun at Shoden.
For the current course price and to book your place, please follow the booking link below.
Inner Teachings. Inner Truth.
The further I have travelled with Reiki, the less it has felt like a journey towards acquiring something I didn't already have.
Perhaps that is why Inner Teachings or Inner Truth feels such an appropriate description of Okuden.
Rather than continually looking outside ourselves for another answer, Okuden gently invites us to look within and become curious about what may already be there.
Perhaps, little by little, we are learning to recognise what was already there.