“The basis of Reiki is love and we have to work upon this daily with all of our heart.”

Kimiko Koyama Sensei, President of Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai.

Finally, Frank Arjava Petter has written the book I wanted to read; placing Reiki within Japan’s culture and spiritual history.  I am so grateful he did this because I don’t want to go through twenty-years of training to learn what he has.

Many Reiki practitioners have written books about Reiki.  But few of these authors have immersed themselves in Japanese culture like Frank Arjava Petter.

Arjava Petter is not an academic, but he approached his research like a university scholar: he learned Japanese, moved to Japan, studied under Japanese masters, interviewed his primary sources in Japanese, taught and learned with his Japanese students, traveled to the towns and spiritual sites, and worked with Japanese translators to accurately interpret the kanji.

All along taking photos to make it easier to visualize.

When I studied with Arjava Petter, my sense was, although he understood Reiki’s spiritual origins, he has been a bit shy about emphasizing Reiki’s mystical aspect or reluctant to expose its “secrets” to his Western students – for fear of not being accepted as the wonderful, healing method it is.  He taught Reiki’s practical healing applications as being very easy, natural and straightforward.  Still, over the past twenty years, as more people have benefited from Reiki’s healing benefits as well as embraced other esoteric practices, the time to explain Reiki’s roots to the West has arrived.

In the Preface, he explains,

“A thorn in my heart continuously reminded me: you have to put the history right to get the misunderstandings out of the way and free Reiki of its excess baggage before it trips over itself.”

Arjava Petter is spiritual seeker and has practiced several spiritual disciplines so he combines that wisdom with his Reiki practice.  In this book, he brings all the knowledge he presented in previous books combined with his insights gained from his years teaching and practice to explain:

– What the Reiki kanji (Chinese characters) mean;

– A detailed history of the Japanese Reiki community and associations;

– The sacred Reiki sites and how Mount Karuma’s spiritual legacy fits within Usui’s Reiki revelation;

– How to visit Japanese sacred sites with reverence;

– The evolution Japan’s New Religions which 30% of the Japanese are affiliated with;

– The roots of Reiki’s symbols within Japanese Buddhism and Shintoism;

– Senju Kannon – the one-thousand armed Bodhisattva, aka Quan Yin;

– The relationship between the mind and the heart;

– The twenty Reiji-Ho meditation techniques to help build the practitioner’s ability to feel byosen and increase one’s compassion, the fifth Reiki principle.

Arjava Petter’s writing style is very much like his classes, open and casual.  He brings his love for Reiki and truth along with his personal experiences and photos which not only help explain Reiki but reveals Frank Arjava Petter and how Reiki has changed him.

Kansha Shite

Be Grateful

Both this post’s title and the quotes came from This is Reiki.  The post’s title is a paraphrase from Usui Sensei’s memorial stone, page 9.  The first quote is from a 1994 interview and came directly from page 93.