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合掌 is the act of greeting someone (can also be done when departing) with hands brought together prayerfully.
In India, this would be accompanied by the verbal greeting and blessing of “Namaste.” In China, Japan, and Korea, this is how Buddhists will greet each other. Sometimes done by people who are not devout Buddhists in China, Japan, and Korea to show respect, reverence, or great thanks to someone for a gift, forgiveness, or some honor that has been bestowed.
In Japan, this is almost always associated with a deep bow. In China, where bowing is not an everyday occurrence, there may be a shallow bow, but the act will be done with deep feeling. Korean culture seems to have more bowing than China but less than Japan.
See Also: Namaste
These are the precepts of Reiki that are attributed to Usui Mikao.
Here is a breakdown of the characters and a rough translation:
招福の秘法, 萬病の霊薬。
Invite blessings of [the] secret method, 10,000 illnesses of spiritual medicine.
今日丈けは: 怒るな, 心配すな, 感謝して, 業をはげめ, 人に親切に。
At least for today: Do not be angry, do not worry, be grateful, work with diligence, and be kind to people.
朝夕合掌して, 心に念じ, 口に唱へよ, 心身改善。
Morning [and] evening perform gassho (join hands), [with your] heart/mind in silent prayer, [with your] mouth chant, [thusly] mind [and] body [will] reform/improve.
臼井靈氣療法! -肇祖, 臼井甕男。
Usui Reiki Ryōhō! -Founder, Usui Mikao.
The middle portion of this is often titled, “The Five Principles of Reiki” and makes a nice calligraphy selection by itself. The Japanese text presented here can be considered the more verbose version.
Note: Because this selection contains some special Japanese Hiragana characters, it should be written by a Japanese calligrapher.