The motivation to practice Naikan is very individual.
Here are some reasons why people attend a Naikan retreat:

• Understand oneself better
• Understand others better
• Find a solution to a difficult situation (e.g. problems with partnership, difficult working situation, illness...)
• Prepare for a new situation (e.g. new job, marriage, moving to another town, retirement...)
  
• Have a close look on one's conduct of life with regard to one's spiritual or religious belief
• Wish to change something in one's life in order to find happiness
  

Naikan requires your active participation. A Naikan retreat is no entertainment programme. There is no doctrine, no guru, no religion. It's all about you finding your own truth.

Naikan is for people of every age.

Multi-dimensional effects of Naikan

Self-awareness

• Naikan is a method to explore your inner self. You will discover treasures deep inside of you. Naikan helps to understand yourself and others better.
  
• Naikan helps to find peace with things that happened in the past. Based on this, you will find new ways to live your life in happiness.
• Naikan helps to develop inner peace under any adverse circumstances.

Self-healing and therapeutic effects

• If you are struggling with a problem (e.g. in your partnership, in your working situation, illness, etc.), Naikan can give you support.
• Exploring the past and looking at things through the lense of the three questions, Naikan often opens new perspectives to the problem you are dealing with.
• Naikan has therapeutic effects, that's why it's seen and applied as psychotherapy in Japan. As we understand Naikan and psychotherapy in Europe, Naikan cannot be considered as psychotherapy. Naikan lies on the borderline between psychotherapy and spirituality.
  

Self-realization and spirituality

• Through Naikan you can get in touch with your spirituality.
  
• Although Naikan has its roots in Buddhism, Naikan has no religious content. Whatever is your religion, Naikan can deepen your belief.
• No path of self-realization can exist without finding and developing one's potentials. Naikan is a tool to have a close look on your attitudes, thoughts and actions. Naikan shows how your spirituality or religion influences your everyday life.

Naikan guides see Naikan as a way of life. Being aware of what you are doing, verifying your actions asking the three questions of Naikan, in every moment.

Only condition required to practice Naikan is the ability to clearly distinguish memory and reality from fantasy and fiction. For this reason Naikan is inappropriate for people suffering from perceptual disorder, psychosis, dementia.

There are Naikan centers and Naikan guides in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Japan, USA, and other countries. Some of them you find on the list of Naikan links.

In German speaking countries Naikan is practiced in the following fields:

Drug and Alcohol addiction treatment
Drug Addiction Treatment Centers have introduced Naikan to their clients, e.g. Drug Addiction Treatment Center Erlenhof in Austria, diefleckenbuehler.de in Germany, projektalp.ch in Switzerland.

Prison
The Naikan Center Tarmstedt naikan.de has introduced Naikan in prison in Germany. In Austria naikido.at introduced Naikan to a juvenile prison.

Business and organisation
Franz Ritter naikan.com has introduced Kodo-Naikan in Austria. A special Kodo-Naikan program was developed by zenintelligence.com and introduced to medical centers in Austria. Kodo-Naikan guides in Austria and Germany present their work on the website kodo-naikan.com.

In Japan, Naikan's country of origin, Naikan was spread very early at the prison. In Japan Naikan as psychotherapy has proved it's effectiveness in various fields (e.g. treatment of drug and alcohol addiction, treatment of depression...).

Naikan - a wonderful journey into your inner self!