I received an email yesterday containing an interesting observation on the recent 30 Day Reiki Challenge. The writer was a brand new Reiki Practitioner who recently completed the Challenge and her comment was in reference to the first Reiki principle. I thought I’d share my response here that you all might have a gander.

She (I think it was a she, sorry if I’ve assumed incorrectly) went through all the daily challenges, completing those she could and reading all the forum posts in regard to them. In her email she explained that her English was not so good, so she did not send comments or make any forum posts herself (although she sent me several emails while on her journey). She explained to me that a gift such as the Reiki Challenge was serious business and she wanted to know how she could repay me for my efforts. Of course, as posted before, I explained that there was no need and that if she could help even one person as a result of the training, that would be repayment enough.

She asked if I knew how many people took the challenge, I told her about 500 people a day were logging on to the site and I have no idea how many were receiving the RSS feeds. She then asked if all those people were emailing me privately as she was, and I answered that I get hundreds of emails every day and I don’t exactly know how many are directly resulting from the challenge or other Reiki things I am involved in or other non-Reiki things I am involved with. She kept asking questions along those lines about it and I really couldn’t understand what she was getting at. Finally, she enlightened me.

She said that if over 500 people were taking the challenge, how come only a handful of people ever said thank-you. It was inconceivable to her that someone would take something like this and just walk away… especially since so many were Reiki teachers who were no doubt well aware of and actually taught the First Reiki Principle… Just for Today, Be Thankful.

Ah… that’s what was was troubling her.

I explained that I wasn’t doing it for the thanks, but as my own way of contributing to something that means so much to me. I explained that Mrs. Takata taught that you must charge for Reiki or people won’t appreciate it. I’m not sure exactly what Dr. Usui or Dr. Hayashi did (as the information is sketchy at best), but it was probably along similar lines. I’ve also had that experience myself, where I have taught Reiki for free and the people I taught it to never used it and never really appreciated the value of what they had received… so yes, unfortunately, charging for Reiki is necessary.

I also explained that the Internet is a strange beast, largely because of the anonymity and wealth of information. I visit sites every day, and far too infrequently do I bother to send a thank you to the owner for publishing such things, even when I happen upon a truly marvelous site (although I really do make an effort to). I spend a lot of time on the Internet and find that people act very differently when behind the protection of their firewall… when their true identity cannot be known. Some people are braver, some ruder, some more outgoing or extroverted, some more challenging, and some are even nicer. People in Japan are notoriously rude drivers, because when they are in their cars they are anonymous, while face to face they are among the most polite people in the world, so the difference is mind boggling.

Still… she sighed…

Uncle Thanks

It was then that I told her about Arigato Ojisan, a Japanese man who has made it his lifelong endeavor to educate people on the power of saying thank you. He has created t-shirts, bumper stickers, given hundreds of interviews and spoken at hundreds of events, explaining the spiritual power of “domo arigato gozaimashita” which is the formal, equivalent of “thank you very much”. He explains how the energy of those words, when used as a mantra, is truly powerful and will raise the vibrational frequency of your body. I’ve found it true myself and have no doubt that is why Dr. Usui included that particular principle. I’ve also experimented and found that indeed, the same vibrational frequency is found in the English form and that even a simple “thanks” has a powerful energetic field that interacts on both a speaker and listener level.

At my first Gendai Reiki training with Hiroshi Doi. there was a Reiki Master handing out sheets of “arigato gozaimasu” stickers to all the participants along with a copy of a newspaper article about Arigato Ojisan. Since then I’ve made a concerted effort to be more gratuitous in everything I do, whether giving thanks to people, places or situations, or giving thanks to the universe in general… a practice I highly recommend.

Please don’t take this post as a solicitation for thank yous… I get enough email… you can all show your thanks by spreading the word… that is thanks enough for me! And in case I don’t say it enough… thanks for reading! Your participation in that respect is greatly appreciated!!

For further explanation or discussion, your thoughts are most welcome and highly encouraged, please feel free to comment below!!!