This is a translation of Masaki Nishina, a Jikiden Reiki Dai Shihan in Japan, talking about Reiju in relation to a question he was asked. The question was about our 'energy pipe' and why it is closed, why it doesn't stay closed forever and how it is that someone giving an attunement can open the energy pipe up.
Thanks to Mari Okazaki for the translation.
Masaki Nishina says....
"First of all, the wording “open the energy pipe” is a misleading description and creates a big misunderstanding in Western Reiki teaching. I would like everyone to be clear that we are NOT opening up the energy pipe, nor the energy network! Everyone is born with an energy network and the pipe is already open! We are not creating something new where nothing exists by doing an attunement. We are born with our energy network open... let’s call it an energy pipe.
Everyone should be able to do Reiki from birth, though, as our life goes on, we create strain on our hearts and bodies, and the pipe starts to be polluted or narrowed. It’s just like our blood vessels. Thus, if you don’t do anything to maintain it, there will be some difference between maintained and non-maintained energy pipes. The attunement is a ritual to let Reiki flow through and clean the energy pipe. Just like pouring a large amount of water through a drainpipe to clean it. By doing so, Reiki starts to flow better. Reiki flows through our physical body and brings this cleansing effect directly, but also, any anger and worries will be diminished by Reiki which helps to maintain the quality of our soul. This also helps to clean the energy pipe, indirectly. This pipe will not close up completely, although, it can get polluted and narrowed if your heart is in a negative condition, storing anger and worries, physically unhealthy, etc. If you can use Reiki on a daily basis, the pipe will stay open wider. Thus I would highly suggest you to use Reiki everyday to maintain the quality of your pipe! If you can use Reiki everyday, less or more, the energy pipe will maintain itself each time.
It would be a big influence if one would be given a brand new energy pipe through attunement after living with absolutely no energy pipe. It would be as shocking as being given an extra finger, or making a hole in a middle of your palm, something that would never happen. If that were the case, perhaps complications like side effects or losing your balance would occur.
However, attunements do not work like that. It is not unusual to hear the comment right after an attunement, “I don’t really feel any difference.” Because there is already an energy pipe, and the attunement worked to improve the existing function better, comments like “I didn’t feel anything after attunements” simply confirm the fact that an attunement doesn’t provide something brand-new to our body."