The First Reiki Symbol: Purification Through the Light of Vairocana

Rediscovering the Purpose of Purification

Among the symbols taught within the Reiki tradition, the First Symbol is often introduced as a method for increasing power, strengthening treatment, or focusing our intention. While these initial views and applications are valuable, from a Vairocana perspective the symbol reveals a far deeper purpose. It is not merely a tool that seemingly adds energy. It is a gateway to purification, alignment, and the restoration of harmony with the natural order of reality.

Within Makoto ReikiDo, purification is not understood as removing something inherently wrong or impure. Rather, purification is the process of clearing obscurations that prevent us from recognising our true nature. This can be thought of just like clouds that obscure the sun. Like this our afflictive emotions, habitual patterns, and mistaken perceptions veil the luminous wisdom that is always present.

Therefore, from a Vairocana perspective, the First Symbol may be understood as an expression of the Great Buddha’s illuminating activity within the mandala of our lives (Refer to the previous Blog).

Vairocana’s light does not judge, reject, or remove parts of our experience; rather, it reveals their true nature. Where we experience contraction, fear, confusion, or resistance, the First symbol brings awareness and harmony. Its just like the sunlight melting frost, its purifying function allows obscurations to soften and dissolve, revealing the natural wisdom, vitality, and interconnectedness already present within the Dharmadhātu. In this way, the First Symbol becomes not simply a method of healing, but a means of participating in the restoring and harmonising activity of awakened reality itself.

The First Symbol as a Mandala of Harmonisation

From an esoteric Buddhist perspective, Vairocana is the embodiment of the Dharmakāya, the all-pervading awakened reality from which all phenomena arise. His wisdom illuminates the Dharmadhātu, revealing the interconnected nature of all existence.

When viewed in this way, the First Symbol is not simply for energetic amplification. It becomes a mandala of harmonisation. Its function is to gather scattered conditions and guide them back into alignment with the greater field of awakened reality.

• Where there is fragmentation, First Symbol encourages integration
• Where there is confusion, First Symbol encourages clarity
• Where there is resistance, First Symbol encourages flow

Within the practice the practitioner is not forcing change upon a condition but allowing the light of awareness to penetrate and transform obscurations naturally.

Purification as Recognition

A common misunderstanding is that purification means eliminating difficult experiences such as anger, grief, fear, or worry. The Vairocana view suggests something more profound.

Purification can really only occur through recognition. When we recognise of see a defilement such as anger, when it is recognised without grasping, its underlying wisdom begins to emerge.

Just as when fear is illuminated by awareness, its constricted energy relaxes. Therefore, we can see that when confusion is held within the field of presence, insight becomes possible.

The First Symbol supports this process by creating conditions that allow obscured aspects of experience to become visible and then:

• What was once hidden is revealed to us
• What was rigid can be allowed to soften
• What was fragmented becomes integrated

This is purification through awakening rather than suppression, which is a common application of practice methods or the notion to rise above. In fact we do the opposite we step in to the obscuration just as it is but with clarity.

Returning to Original Balance

Nature provides a useful analogy. A muddy pond becomes clear not by attacking the mud but by allowing the sediment to settle. The pond’s natural clarity then reveals itself.

Similarly, Reiki practice does not manufacture awakening or healing. It supports the return to what has always been present beneath layers of conditioning.

From the perspective of Vairocana, the First Symbol serves as a reminder of this innate completeness. Every application of the symbol can be approached as an invitation for body, speech, mind, and environment to return to their original balance.

As purification unfolds, practitioners often discover:

• Greater mental clarity
• Reduced emotional reactivity
• Increased embodiment and presence
• A deeper sense of connection with others
• Greater sensitivity to harmony and disharmony
• An expanding recognition of interconnected reality

These benefits arise not because something external has been added, but because obscurations have gradually been removed.

The Light of Mahāvairocana

The Mahāvairocanābhisambodhi Sūtra teaches that enlightenment is not something separate from ordinary life. Rather, the awakened activity of Mahāvairocana is continuously present within all experience. Therefore there is no where to go, nothing to do as its all here right now. The art is seeing.

When practitioners engage the First Reiki Symbol with reverence and understanding, it can be contemplated as a manifestation of this ever-present enlightened activity. Its movement directs awareness towards purification, not as a process of becoming something new, but as a process of remembering what has always been true.

The symbol points toward the natural radiance of mind and the inherent purity of the Dharmadhātu itself.

A far greater opportunity

The First Reiki Symbol is far more than a symbol of power. From a Vairocana perspective, it is a sacred expression of purification and harmonisation. It invites practitioners to illuminate obscurations, recognise their true nature, and return to the innate balance that already exists within all phenomena.

As the light of awareness deepens, purification gradually reveals itself to be not the removal of impurity, but the unveiling of the wisdom and compassion that have always been present. Through this recognition, the practitioner comes to experience Reiki not merely as energy, but as the living expression of Mahāvairocana’s awakened reality.

Makoto ReikiDo Practices

• Reiki Self Care
• First Symbol Mantra through order
• First Symbol Mantra through momentum