What Is the Buddho System and How Is It Practiced?
Buddho is a structured system of practice that works directly with awareness, perception, and the nature of experience itself. As a consequence, rather than focusing on changing what is experienced, it instead develops the ability to recognise how experience is formed in the first place. While it includes meditation, energy work, and healing methods, its primary function is to stabilise attention. This brings greater clarity to the processes through which perception arises, and those already exploring awareness as a field of experience can use Buddho as a structured way to engage with it directly through practice. While awareness development sits at its core, Buddho is not limited to meditation alone. It also includes structured energy work, physical movement practices, and healing methods that work directly with the body’s subtle systems.
Rooted in Buddhist and yogic traditions, Buddho operates at the intersection of consciousness and embodiment. It uses the body, breath, sound, and attention as entry points into a deeper recognition of how perception arises and how it can be refined. This article outlines what the Buddho system is, how it works, what it teaches, and how it may have developed from deeper Vajrayana and yogic sources.
What is Buddho?
Buddho, commonly translated as “seed of enlightenment,” refers to both the central meditation and the wider system built around it. That wider system includes mantra, yantra, chakra work, Chi Nadi movement practices, and structured healing techniques that develop both awareness and the capacity to work with energy directly. Specifically, the Buddho meditation takes the form of a cyclic meditation, and many believe Mikao Usui, the Japanese spiritual teacher and founder of Reiki, practiced it during his retreat on Mt Kurama in Japan. It’s believed that it was this practice that led to his experience of samadhi, which in turn gave rise to the method that would later become known as Reiki.
Buddho, Awareness, and the Nature of Experience
At a deeper level, Buddho works as a method for observing how experience is constructed. Classical Buddhist philosophy, particularly in the work of Nagarjuna, describes all phenomena as empty, not because they do not exist, but because they do not exist independently or in any fixed way. Experience arises through conditions and takes shape through perception and interpretation.
Buddho practice places the practitioner directly within this process. Through mantra, breath, and focused attention, the structure of perception becomes more visible. Sensations, thoughts, and emotions are no longer taken as fixed or inherently real, but recognised as movements arising within awareness.
From this perspective, what is often described as “energy” is the felt experience of these movements within the body and mind. The system provides a way to engage with that experience directly, without needing to separate meditation, perception, and embodiment into different disciplines.
In certain tantric systems, including the Kalachakra tradition, practitioners experience time through consciousness rather than as a fixed external sequence. As the mind settles, this becomes directly relevant. The sense of past, present, and future begins to loosen, and experience unfolds within awareness itself. This marks a shift from identifying with experience to recognising the field in which it appears, a transition that sits at the core of awareness-based practice. This same shift appears in the study of awareness, where attention moves from what is experienced to the nature of experiencing.
The Structure and Transmission of the Buddho System
The monk Seiji Takamori brought the Buddho meditation, along with the wider spiritual development and healing system that developed around it, from the Himalayas to the rest of the world in the 1990s. His teaching reflected the Mahayana Buddhist principle of upaya, or skilful means, offering only what a student was spiritually ready to receive and preserving the integrity of deeper levels through a structured transmission process.
The Buddho system is the backbone of Reiki Jin Kei Do and has its origins in ancient Indian meditation and healing methods and the Highest Yoga Tantra of Tibet.
The Three Core Elements of Practice
- Buddho Meditation – a cyclic meditation using mantra, yantra, visualisation, and chakra awareness to stabilise attention and refine perception
- Chi Nadi – structured movement practices combining breath, posture, awareness, and dynamic tension to cultivate and direct energy through the body
- Healing Methods – practical techniques using breath, attention, chakras, and marma (nadi) points, including point pulse awareness and distant healing methods
Together, these three strands support deep internal awareness, dynamic energy cultivation, and practical healing application.
A Complete Tantric System
As this structure develops through the levels, it becomes clear that Buddho is not simply a meditation method but a more complete Tantric system, requiring a greater level of commitment and practice than Reiki, and working more extensively with the integration of awareness, energy, and compassion.
Compassion also plays a central role within the system. In Buddho practice, Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, represents not just a symbolic presence but an experiential aspect of the meditation itself. Compassion is cultivated as a direct quality of awareness and becomes integral to both the meditative and healing aspects of the system.
The Buddho system shares strong links with the widely known Reiki system. The teachings and practices of Reiki, particularly within the Jin Kei Do lineage, draw from the broader Buddho system in a simplified and secularised form. Buddho preserves the Sanskrit and Tibetan origins, along with the mantras, yantras, symbols, and meditations that informed the development of modern Reiki. The Reiki Jin Kei Do lineage holds all of these teachings.
Without Buddho, there is no Reiki.
In this sense, Reiki works primarily through the felt experience of practice, while Buddho includes the structures of awareness that shape that experience, as a result, the two are not separate but operate at different levels of the same process.
Practice, Empowerment and Development
In Buddho training, each level includes an empowerment that shifts the practitioner’s baseline of perception and awareness. Consequently, people often describe this as increased sensitivity to energy, but it also reflects a structural change in how the practitioner processes and recognises experience.
These empowerments function in a similar way to initiatory practices found in Vajrayana and Shingon Buddhism, where the purpose is not symbolic but experiential. They also have a relationship to the attunements given in Reiki practice and are considered by some to be the origins of the Reiki attunements. The training introduces the practitioner to a different way of perceiving and stabilises it through ongoing practice. This shift operates experientially rather than conceptually, changing how awareness relates to what is perceived.
Various mantras and yantras are taught as focal points for attention. Some relate directly to the Buddho meditation itself, while others support different aspects of perception, embodiment, and application. These teachings also reveal the origins of the widely known Reiki symbols.
The Buddho system provides a broader framework that places the Reiki system within its original contemplative context and encompasses it in its original esoteric Buddhist form.
Embodied Awareness and the Experience of Energy
During the formal meditations and the Chi Nadi form, practitioners focus on the various sensations within the body, as well as their mental and emotional states. This develops a heightened awareness of the six faculties and how they perceive different sensory input.
A key component of the Buddho system, as with Reiki, is the cultivation of what practitioners commonly describe as energy. In practice, they experience this directly as movement, sensation, and change within awareness. Rather than treating it as something separate or abstract, practitioners use it to perceive how attention, breath, and the body interact.
Buddho meditation and Chi Nadi practices develop this capacity together, refining perception through the body. In this respect, the system shares common ground with disciplines such as qigong, where practitioners integrate physical movement and internal awareness rather than separating them. Here, energy does not add anything to experience; it describes how experience feels as awareness becomes more refined.
As this sensitivity develops, practitioners work more directly with the body’s energetic structure, including marma or nadi points, using techniques such as point pulse awareness in healing contexts.
Possible Historical and Spiritual Lineage
While what follows is interpretative rather than formally documented lineage history, it may help contextualise how Buddho evolved as a living system rather than a fixed tradition.
Some interpretations suggest Buddho may represent a synthesis of Tibetan Vajrayana techniques, Indian pranic systems, and Japanese Zen. There is historical precedent within Zen for individual monks adopting and adapting teachings from other Buddhist traditions. The practice of simplifying complex methods for wider transmission is consistent with the principle of skilful means.
Connection to Usui and the Emergence of Reiki
Mikao Usui is believed to have practiced Buddho meditation during his retreat on Mt Kurama, which led to his experience of samadhi and the emergence of Reiki. While no evidence suggests that he taught or transmitted the Buddho system as a whole, his use of its central meditation indicates that he drew from its methods in developing Reiki. In this sense, Usui’s creation of Reiki reflects skilful means, as he integrated elements from various disciplines and teachings to form a new system.
The Buddho system, as taught today, contains practices, meditations, and energetic methods that are broader and more esoteric than those found in Reiki. This points to Reiki not being the full system, but rather a synthesis and secularisation of certain elements within it.
Seiji Takamori passed on the teachings that later became known as Buddho. Ranga Premaratna subsequently named the system EnerSense, which later became known as Buddho EnerSense, with some teachers eventually referring to it simply as Buddho.
In this view, Buddho does not claim to preserve a single formal tradition, but rather carries forward the essential meditative, energetic, and healing methods that informed Usui’s original experience. It retains a level of depth and contextual integrity that was later streamlined for wider public access through the Reiki system.
Some Benefits of Practicing the Buddho Meditation
- The repetition of the associated mantras has a deeply calming effect on the mind
- Develops sensitivity to patterned experience often described through the chakra system
- Reveals subtle patterns that contribute to physical or emotional imbalance
- Supports stabilisation of attention and entry into deeper states of awareness (dhyana or jhana)
- Harmonises the subtle body through the transmutation of energy via seed syllables
- Purifies body, speech, and mind to open the path toward deeper self-realisation
- Strengthens the mind’s capacity to witness and integrate unconscious material
- Builds directly on the treatment techniques taught in Reiki, introducing more sophisticated and energetically nuanced methods of working with the body, marma points, and breath to enhance healing outcomes
- Develops clarity in how perception is formed and interpreted
- Reduces identification with thoughts, emotions, and reactive patterns
- Supports direct recognition of awareness as distinct from mental content
Taking Training in Buddho
Most students need to complete training and receive empowerment through Reiki Jin Kei Do Levels 1 and 2 before attending a Buddho workshop. Only Buddhist monks and those with an extensive personal meditation practice qualify for exceptions.
The training follows a gradual and deliberate progression based on the tantric model of development. Seiji Takamori applied skillful means by offering teachings that match each student’s depth of practice.
A typical route through the teachings would be something like this:
- Reiki Level 1 → Reiki Level 2 → Buddho Level 1 → Buddho Level 2 → Reiki Level 3 → Buddho Level 3 → Buddho Level 4
The Four Levels of Buddho
Foundation (Level 1)
- Empowerment to activate four major chakras
- Introduction to Buddho meditation
- Mantra and symbol instruction (2 Sanskrit, 3 Tibetan)
- Breathing methods to strengthen the nadis
- First Chi Nadi movements introduced
- Background on the origin and purpose of Buddho
Development (Level 2)
- Empowerment to deepen chakra activation and awareness
- Two more cycles added to the meditation
- Next sequence of Chi Nadi movements taught
- Healing mantras and yantras introduced
- Point pulse technique on marma points
- Distant healing and breath-based energy awareness work
- Exploration of 2nd Degree Reiki symbol origins
Teaching & Advanced Practice (Level 3)
- Empowerment to increase vibrational sensitivity and subtle awareness
- Required level to begin teaching Levels 1 and 2
- Training in jhana (absorption) states via Samatha
- Stronger mantras and yantras introduced
- Advanced Chi Nadi, breathwork, and subtle energy work
- Activation methods for Levels 1 and 2
- Origins of the Reiki Master symbol explored
Transmission (Level 4)
- Final empowerment for full transmission of Buddho
- Completion of full Chi Nadi form
- Instruction in higher meditative signs and absorptive states
- Introduction to the twelve links of dependent origination and the five aggregates
- Final yantra and mantra for deep meditation and healing
- Full initiation into the final level of teaching authority
Learn More
The Buddho training explores the system’s history in depth, explaining its origins, development, and transmission in context. It also introduces the Chi Nadi practices progressively, helping practitioners experience how they cultivate awareness and refine perception.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What’s the difference between Buddho and Reiki?
Buddho is the original meditative and energetic root system from which Reiki Jin Kei Do evolved. Reiki represents a simplified pathway. Buddho retains its tantric and yogic structure.
Do I need to be Buddhist to learn Buddho?
The system draws deeply from Buddhist and yogic traditions, yet it remains accessible to anyone with a sincere interest in meditation and energy work. Practitioners can adapt certain elements to align with their own spiritual, religious, or philosophical beliefs. Buddho’s effectiveness depends on the consistency and sincerity of practice, rather than on adopting any particular worldview.
Is Buddho suitable for beginners?
Buddho does not suit beginners in the usual sense. Students must complete Reiki Jin Kei Do Levels 1 and 2 before entering the Buddho system, unless they have already undertaken significant formal training in comparable traditional meditative disciplines. This prerequisite creates a stable energetic and contemplative foundation.
What is Chi Nadi and how does it work?
Chi Nadi is a sequence of meditative movement practices within Buddho, resembling qigong. It supports energetic cultivation by opening the nadis and deepening bodily and energetic awareness.
How is the energy in Buddho different from Reiki?
Buddho practices refine perception through sound, attention, and internal awareness. You experience what is often described as energy as changes within the body. The real difference comes from how deeply you engage and stabilise perception, rather than from the energy itself.
Is Buddho an energy system or a consciousness practice?
Buddho uses chakras, mantras, and internal sensation, so people often describe it as an energy system. At its core, it works with awareness and perception. In practice, practitioners experience what they call “energy” as changes in attention and consciousness felt within the body. In this sense, Buddho bridges both perspectives, using embodied experience as a direct route into deeper awareness. This makes it directly relevant to anyone exploring awareness as the foundation of experience—not just something to apply, but something to recognise.
Is Buddho just a meditation practice?
No. While meditation is central, Buddho is a complete system that includes energy cultivation, Chi Nadi movement practices, mantra and yantra work, and healing techniques such as working with marma points and point pulse awareness. Meditation develops perception, while the wider system applies that awareness through the body and in healing contexts.
Related Articles:
What Is the History of the Buddho System?
What is Awareness and Can It Be Trained?
How Different Practices Train Awareness: Meditation, Drawing, and Energy Work
Is Reiki Jin Kei Do the Right Fit for You?
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