The Japanese word "gassho" means bringing two hands together. The Gassho meditation technique consists of bringing the palms of one's hands together upright in the prayer position with the thumbs touching the heart chakra. In the meditation one focuses attention on the spot where the two middle fingers (the third finger from the thumb) touch. Any thoughts that arise during the meditation are briefly acknowledged and then put to the side. What I find useful in Gassho is to gradually reduce the pressure on the spot where these two fingers touch until there is just the barest sense of contact and then focus on this sense.

The Gassho meditation technique is described in detail in Frank Arjava Petter's book "The Original Reiki Handbook of Dr. Mikao Usui".

In Reiki Chakra Work, we modify the Gassho technique in the following ways. First, the hands are opened slightly - just enough so that the practitioner can see the palm chakras. Then the practitioner visualizes various Reiki symbols entering the palm chakras. Keeping the hands slightly open, the practitioner places them over the chakra that he/she is working on and begins beaming Reiki into the chakra. Then the practitioner re-beams (that is, recycles the same Reiki energy) from the chakra back into the palms and repeats the entire process again and again. The effect is to set up a continuous feed-back loop of Reiki energy.

In this Practice, you will be focusing your attention on each chakra. One way to help yourself in this process is to place a small object on each chakra. Then, as you cycle through your chakras, you can visualize the object or sense its weight as a way of anchoring your attention.

You can use a variety of objects. You can purchase a ready made chakra "kit". These typically contain crystals or other small objects, usually color-coded for each chakra, and a guide to the location of each chakra. Alternatively, you can make your own kit. This can be as simple as selecting seven crystals, small stones, or other small sacred objects you already have. You may even use other objects, e.g., coins, etc. As with other spiritual processes, you may find it useful to cleanse or dedicate these objects to a spiritual purpose.