Shingon Reiki – Level 1
Reiki as it was before it came to the West — the living Japanese source.
Most of the world knows Reiki as a gentle method for relaxation. That is real — but Mikao Usui was reaching for something far deeper. For him, Reiki was never mainly about treating symptoms. It was the awakening of a natural human ability: to perceive subtle energy, to transmit it through your hands, and through that practice to develop yourself and come into living contact with the spiritual world.
Shingon Reiki goes back to that source — the esoteric Buddhist tradition Usui himself drew from, and which was never carried over when Reiki traveled to the West.
Whether this is your very first contact with Reiki, or you already carry a master's training in another lineage — here you receive the ground the whole practice grew from. Beginners find a clear, complete beginning. Experienced practitioners find the depth and origin their path has been missing.
The initiation at the heart of it
At the center of the weekend stands something no other Reiki system offers: an initiation into the power of the Medicine Buddha, Yakushi Nyorai — received through the three mysteries of Shingon: mantra, mudra and siddham (sacred sound, sacred gesture, sacred script).
From that moment, you can bring the Medicine Buddha's power through your hands — alongside Reiki itself — in every practice. Where most traditions only wish that beings may be well, here you cultivate that power within yourself and channel it actively, for yourself and for others.
This is what makes Shingon Reiki different from a simple laying-on of hands: the energy is carried by a tradition with deep roots — in esoteric Buddhism, Shugendō, Shinto and shamanic Daoism — and it is handed to you directly, the way it has always passed through the lineage.
What you receive
Four initiations into the Reiki power
The traditional foundation, given live across the weekend — the opening of your own channel, step by step. Together with the Medicine Buddha initiation, this is the complete ground of Level 1.
The 7 secret Reiki techniques
Methods I developed over decades to awaken perception in your hands — and to strengthen the Reiki power flowing from them, already at Level 1, without needing a Level 2 amplifier. When I first brought these to the West, some called them "non-traditional." Years of research in Japan showed the opposite: they are more original than the Western lineage — Usui himself worked this way. They were simply never carried across.
Self-practice with intention
Guided sets of hand positions you carry into daily life — for clarity and motivation in the morning, for calm and letting go of the day's tension, for returning to your own inner balance. Many describe their hands growing warm within minutes. This is where the ability becomes real, and yours.
Working with aura & chakras
Aura-stroking, systematic chakra work, and focused work with specific themes. You come to sense the energy field and to work with it — clearly, intuitively, with growing confidence.
Shuchuu Reiki — the group experience
Group Reiki carried by the Medicine Buddha, where the energy becomes tangible in a way that is hard to describe and easy to feel — for many, one of the most moving moments of the whole weekend.
Where the path leads
Level 1 is the doorway. Beyond it lies Level 2, and then the Master Path — where more Buddhas join your practice, each carrying a power of its own. This is what sets Shingon Reiki apart: you don't only work with energy in general, but with specific presences, each with its own gift.
Senju Kannon — the thousand-armed presence of compassion, reaching each being in a different way. His power is the clearing of heart and mind: not making you pure, but uncovering the clarity that was always beneath what life piled on top. It is his compassion that lives in the second Reiki symbol.
Jizō Bosatsu — the one who brings comfort in grief and hope where it seems only darkness remains. That is his great gift.
Dainichi Nyorai — the Great Sun Buddha, the source from which Reiki itself ultimately flows. His is not a distant summit you may reach one day. It is the quiet certainty that you are, at your core, already pure and already awake — revealed not in one great awakening, but in small daily moments of "ah, there it is," each one showing you where the path leads. A beginner feels it as a first spark. A practitioner of many years knows it as the ground they keep returning to.
Guided from the source
I'm Dr. Mark Hosak — PhD in Japanese Studies from the University of Heidelberg, with three years of research and practice in the temples of Kyoto, and the 88-temple Shikoku pilgrimage walked on foot. I'm a Shingon practitioner and researcher, and the founder of Shingon Reiki.
I've written three bestselling Reiki books over thirty years of research and practice — among them The Big Book of Reiki Symbols (available in English) and the first Reiki practice book ever published by an academic medical house. Everything I share here comes from that source, carried directly to you.
The format
Two days, live online in a small group, with everything fully accessible in English. You receive the actual initiations directly — wherever you are in the world — not a recording. No prior experience is required. Level 1 is the beginning of the path, and everything you need, you receive here.
Begin where Reiki itself began
A small circle · live online · the initiations given directly to you. 🙏
This course is for personal spiritual experience and individual development. Every experience described is one person's own account, and experiences vary. This work is not a substitute for medical, psychological or therapeutic treatment.