Frank Arjava Petter

Frank Arjava Petter (August 24, 1960 in Düsseldorf) is a German writer, poet, Reiki teacher and seminar leader. His best-known book, The Original Manual of Dr. Mikao Usui, has been translated into 22 languages. He is the vice president of the Jikiden Reiki Kenkyukai (Institute) Kyoto, under the direction of Tadao Yamaguchi. He lives on the Greek island of Lesbos|Lesvos with his third wife Georgia Bhakti Mouriki and their children Christina and Alexis.
== Life ==
=== Childhood and youth ===
Frank Arjava Petter was born on August 24, 1960, in Düsseldorf, the third child of Rosemarie and Hans Georg Petter. Both parents were landscape garden architects. His oldest sister, Cornelia, died shortly after her birth. His brother Martin lives in Berlin. Petter attended elementary school in Düsseldorf Lohausen. His subsequent career at the municipal Max-Planck-Gymnasium in Düsseldorf ended when he dropped out after the 10th grade. He wanted to become an organic farmer and learned conventional vegetable gardening in Krefeld.
=== 1979-1989 ===
In March 1979, he traveled to India to rescue his brother Martin from the hands of the then controversial Indian guru/mystic Bhagwan (now known as Rajneesh|Osho), but fundamentally failed. He spent the next eleven years under the guidance of the master in his spiritual communes in India and the United States, where he spent his life meditating and growing vegetables, and for a time as the master's bodyguard.
=== 1989-2002 ===
Between 1989 and 2002 he lived with his second wife, Mami Chetna Kobayashi, in Sapporo, northern Japan, where they ran a language school. In 1991, he learned Reiki, a Japanese healing technique, from his brother Martin in Berlin, which he then taught in Japan. Since what he had learned did not match his understanding of Japanese culture and spirituality, he began researching locally and decided to write a book on Reiki history and practice in 1994. In 1995, he became acquainted with a teacher from the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai, Ogawa Sensei, who generously shared his knowledge with him. At the same time, he began several years of training under the well-known German therapist Bert Hellinger, for whom he organized courses in Japan. In 1997 his first book The Reiki Fire was published by Windpferd Verlag, Aitrang, followed by Reiki, the Legacy of Dr. Mikao Usui in 1998 and The Original Reiki Handbook of Dr. Mikao Usui, 1999, the latter two books based on previously unknown original documents of Reiki founder Mikao Usui.
In 1999 he met Chiyoko Yamaguchi, a direct disciple of Chujiro Hayashi, in Kyoto, under whose guidance he learned Jikiden Reiki, traditional Reiki. In 2000, a joint project with Walter Lübeck and William Lee Rand followed under the title The Spirit of Reiki. In 2002, Reiki, best Practices was published in collaboration with Walter Lübeck.
=== From 2002 ===
After training as a Shihankaku (assistant teacher) in Jikiden Reiki, he met Georgia Bhakti Mouriki in Greece, left Japan and went with her to Düsseldorf, Germany, where they lived until 2008. In 2003 he published The Hayashi Reiki Manual with Tadao Yamaguchi, the youngest son of Chiyoko Yamaguchi. After Chiyoko Yamaguchi's death in August 2003, he invited Tadao Yamaguchi to teach Jikiden Reiki in Germany. The method subsequently spread throughout Europe, North and Latin America, Africa, Oceania, and Asia, and has become one of the most important Reiki schools worldwide. In 2004 his book Glücklichsein was published (only German edition), in 2005 Reiki Ganz Klar (German edition) and in 2008 This is Reiki. Since 2007 he has been Daishihan in Jikiden Reiki and the Vice President of Jikiden Reiki Kenkyukai, Kyoto.
In 2009 he moved with his family to Eressos, a seaside resort on the Greek island of Lesvos in the Northern Aegean, where they run a seminar center (The Reiki Dojo Eressos) and an organic olive farm. In 2015 he published his last book with Windpferd Publishing under the title One with Reiki (German edition). In 2021 he self-published in ...is... a book about self-discovery, meditation and living in the present, and the poetry collection Love Speaks.
== Bibliography ==
* Reiki Fire: New Information about the Origins of the Reiki. Lotus Press, Twin Lakes 1998. ISBN 978-0914955504
* Reiki-The Legacy of Dr. Usui. Lotus Press, Twin Lakes 1998. ISBN 978-0914955566
* The Original Reiki Handbook of Dr. Mikao Usui. Lotus Press, Twin Lakes 1999. ISBN 978-0914955573
* The Spirit of Reiki: From Tradition to the Present Fundamental Lines of Transmission, Original Writings, Mastery, Symbols, Treatments, Reiki as a Spiritual Path in Life, and Much More. With Walter Lübeck and William Lee Rand. Lotus Press, Twin Lakes 2001. ISBN 978-0914955672
* Reiki Best Practices: Wonderful Tools of Healing for the First, Second and Third Degree of Reiki. With Walter Lübeck. Lotus Press, Twin Lakes 2003. ISBN 978-0914955740
* The Hayashi Reiki Manual: Traditional Japanese Healing Techniques from the Founder of the Western Reiki System. With Tadao Yamaguchi. Lotus Press, Twin Lakes 2003. ISBN 978-0914955757
* This is Reiki: Transformation of Body, Mind and Soul from the Origins to the Practice. Lotus Press, Twin Lakes 2012. ISBN 978-0940985018
* One with Reiki: Love, Devotion and Being Present. Independently published, 2020.
* ...is...: Awakening, Wanting Nothing and Participating in Everything. Independently published, 2021.
* Love Speaks: Inspirational Poetry from the Island of Sappho. Independently published, 2021
== Success and sales figures ==
Until the publication of his first book, The Reiki Fire, there was virtually no provable historical knowledge, no sources, and no original documents on the subject of Reiki. Due to this fact, his bestseller The Original Reiki Manual of Dr. Mikao Usui was published in 22 languages and reached an estimated circulation of more than 200,000 copies, in Germany there are 13 editions so far.
== Criticism ==
Petter's first books stirred up the Reiki world because he cleared up the misinformation about Reiki practice and history that had been based on hearsay until then. The initial conflict turned around over the years due to his meticulous research and the publicized documentation of his work, which is now widely recognized and also the basis of several scholarly works on Reiki (by Jojan Jonker, Justin Stein, and Liam Horowitz, among others).
Category:German writers
Category:German poets