There is a point in this work where reading stops being useful.
You can study the symbols. You can learn what every character means, where it came from, which sutra it appears in. I have spent thirty years doing exactly that, and I still do.
But the ability to send this energy through your hands is not something you can read your way into. In this tradition it is not learned — it is transmitted. Someone who carries it opens it in you. That is what an initiation is, and it is the one thing that cannot be put into a classroom.
Shingon Reiki Level 1 is that initiation. I hold it live and online, in small groups, because I work with each person in the room.
— Dr. Mark Hosak
Japanologist · Shingon practitioner and researcher · founder of Shingon Reiki