Entrevista con Reiki Guru Frank Arjava Petter 2008

Interview with Jason Richie, January 28, 2008

Question: What happened within your life to receive the calling to the Reiki path? What is your Reiki Lineage?

Answer: I came across Reiki accidentally, if there is such a thing. From age sixteen I was exposed to meditation, yoga, mysticism and the oriental healing arts. When I learned Reiki, many years later, it clicked instantly.

But I did have to overcome a few obstacles. The first Reiki treatment I ever received was boring and did not touch me at all. Yet I did not loose my interest. My first Reiki Teacher, my brother, was found out not to have taken a teacher’s training himself. That disappointed me, but I accredited that to human nature, and not to Reiki. In fact, this made me hungry for the origins of Reiki: I thought it marvelous that Reiki had been used and abused in so many different ways, and yet it had retained its original purity, its essence. And this essence was what I was interested in.

My second teacher was an old friend, Agehanand Popat, who had learned from someone (Peter Gilgen) belonging to the Reiki Alliance. What I learned from him was wonderful, but still it felt incomplete. Five years before I met with Reiki I already lived and worked in Japan, knowing its culture, its people and its fragrance. I was married there and ran a language school. This first hand experience made me look deeper for the roots of Reiki. I knew that what I had learned was a delicious New Age cocktail. To put it lightly, Reiki History and Teaching at that time (1993) was filled with questionable “truth”. So I made an effort to research both.

After one year of teaching, one of my students “found” a ninety- year old Japanese gentleman, who was one of the few teachers of the original Reiki Society. He was kind and taught us some of what he knew, but before I could formally train with him, he passed away.

Six years later, I met my third Reiki Teacher, Chiyoko Yamaguchi. She was 78 when I met her, having practiced Reiki since she was seventeen. What I teach today is mostly what I learned from her.

Question: What was the distance between you taking Reiki 1 to Reiki 2 and then furthering to Reiki Master and Teacher?

Answer: Chiyoko Sensei (respected teacher) as we called her, taught Reiki One and Two together on five consecutive days. This is how her teacher, Chujiro Hayashi, taught her.

She allowed me to begin the teacher’s training after two years under her guidance. Just before I finished my training she passed away in 2003, so I completed the training with her son, Tadao Yamaguchi in 2004.

Question: What are your feelings about the way in which Reiki is taught around the world today?

Answer: Reiki is such a beautiful spiritual path. It is clear and simple in its essence, but so many artificial flavours have been added to it. It is time to look at what the essence of Reiki really is, and to peel of all the layers of what was added later on. Simple is Best. The reason why so much has been added is to avoid the inner insecurity, the inner lack of trust that one has in oneself. If this issue is properly addressed and solved, life can be lived in simplicity.

On a practical level Reiki is a serious healing art that needs to be treated with devotion and respect. Devotion and respect need time to grow. In Japan Reiki is seen as a way of life, a love affair with existence that never ends. I have witnessed so many healings on all levels when Reiki is practiced seriously.

One of the main subjects in the original system is to learn how to find problem areas in the body with your hands. You are taught how to increase your perception, and how to understand the body’s inherent healing process. Once you know how to do that, you can successfully treat your clients. Before you do, you are fishing in the dark.

Question: Do you feel there is a right way and a wrong way in teaching Reiki?

Answer: Absolutely. The only right way to teach Reiki is to live it. If the teacher does not incorporate the teaching into his own personal life, it has no meaning. So in a way I would like to rephrase your question.” Is there a right or a wrong man to teach Reiki?” If the teacher walks his talk, he is worth studying with. Someone whose being radiates love and compassion can teach you something- just by being in his presence. Someone whose mind and heart is filled with all sorts of junk, is better to be steered clear of as a teacher. I am not saying that a Reiki Teacher must be a saint, but the fragrance of the process of awakening must be felt in his presence.

Reiki is not about curing a headache. It is about finding yourself, and not everyone can teach you that.

Question: What are your feelings about the many off shoots of Reiki, eg Angel Reiki, Wiccan Reiki, Rainbow Reiki etc...

Answer: We can do without most of them… During Mikao Usui ‘s time he word “Reiki” originally meant “Soul Energy”. I find it amazing that someone may think that he can improve upon that! As I said earlier, one reason for wanting to improve upon “Soul Energy” is insecurity. Another one is financial. Both are to be examined and let go of if you want to proceed on the path.

Question: Are you aware that Reiki in Spain is widespread?

Answer: Spain is one of the very few European countries that I have not taught in yet, so I don’t know your Reiki Community intimately. Perhaps this will change soon.

Question: How has Reiki changed your life?

Answer: Usui Sensei Reiki called Reiki “ The secret art of inviting happiness, the spiritual medicine for all illnesses”. This is exactly what it has done to me; I have become happy and content with what is happening inside and outside of myself. In the first part of my life- before I met Reiki- I revolved exclusively around myself. Reiki has shown me love and compassion…

Question: What are your aims and reasons for coming to Spain? Why have you waited until now to connect with the source in Andalucia?

Answer: Reiki is my boat. Wherever it takes me, I go. I don’t know why the wind did not blow this way before, but I feel it in my hair now…