Seiji, Ranga, Beth & Kathleen - Part One
Great interview on My Spirit Radio last week with Chrissie Rhyman. It was nice to be on the show and hopefully my comments about the origins of the Reiki symbols being held within RJKD are not going to upset too many people. The show is actually going out this week and will be broadcast for the next month on Chrissie's 'Body Bliss' show. After that it will be archived but still available and I hope to be able to put up a permanent link to it from my website at that time. In the meantime you can find it by clicking the link.
I thought that with this post it might be a good idea to begin to tackle some of the problems and misunderstandings that have arisen over the years in relation to the history of Reiki Jin Kei Do. This is 'Part One'. 'Part Two' will follow in due course.
This may only be of interest to die-hard Reiki people or RJKD practitioners and Masters, but I do feel that there is a need for me to detail this story. I actually play no part in this personally until the critical events that take place in 'Part Two' with the confirmation of the Reiki Jin Kei Do history given to me by Reiki Master Beth Sanders. Apologies to those for whom this is a lot of Reiki-navel-gazing.
For me this part of the unravelling and re-tangling of elements of the RJKD history began a few years ago when I first came across a post on Kathleen Milner's website relating a story about a Zen monk, a man in California and one of Ms Milner's students; Beth Sanders. The story it would appear is actually about the lineage head of Reiki Jin Kei Do, Dr Ranga Premaratna and his teacher Seiji Takamori (the 'Zen monk') as well as Beth Sanders - this assumption was later confirmed to me - see Part Two. Dr Ranga Premaratna had responded to this Newsletter item of Ms Milner's sometime ago via an open letter that was posted on my Reiki Master's (Gordon and Dorothy Bell's) website, which can be accessed here. As the story in part concerned Beth Sanders the open posting of this letter was also done in the hope that Beth would see it and respond as Ranga had lost contact with her a number of years previously. Unfortunately this did not happen and so the controversy has continued up until recent times. It is of course possible that the controversy will continue yet into the future for a period of time too! The story that appears in Kathleen's Newsletter is given below and appeared originally in the Winter 2003 Newsletter. At some point Kathleen moved this item from the Winter 2003 Newsletter and placed it in the Fall 2002 edition. I became aware of its disappearance from the Winter 2003 edition in February of 2006 and so contacted my Reiki Masters to let them know that it had gone. We all thought at that time that the issue was at least dead, even if not really resolved. In May 2006 however I discovered that the article was still alive and kicking in the earlier Newsletter and that a previously undiscovered piece of text on the same topic also existed on Kathleen's website, dated 2003. This latter text can be found here but is given below in any case.
First of all, here is the original piece of text from Kathleen Milner to which Ranga's open letter relates:
For example, I have received a significant number of inquires concerning Beth Saunders and the Zen Monk. The story as I wrote it in Reiki & Other Rays of Touch Healing is clear. Beth was one of my first Reiki students. She then taught a class in California. The man in California who sponsored the class convinced the Zen Monk, who had been initiated by Takata (the Japanese-American woman who brought Reiki to the United States), to come to California and take Beth's class on the grounds that the Truth should be exposed in the light of day. The way in which I teach Reiki Mastership everyone in the class practices initiating each degree three times on three different people. After the class, the Zen Monk told everyone that what I had taught Beth was exactly the same as what Takata had taught him.
After the class in California the Zen Monk went home to Shri Lanka. Sometime afterwards, he died. **** One of Beth's students in Wisconsin claimed that this same Zen Monk found him in Wisconsin and that he was the only one that the Zen monk taught and initiated. This individual claimed that this same Zen Monk had been initiated not by Takata, but through another lineage line from Dr. Usui (the Japanese man who had his own consciousness-raising experience over 100 years ago and was taught initiations into healing by the Ascended Master who met him in the Otherworlds). Around his story he created initiations and a Reiki system, which people around the world have paid to learn.
If we look at this logically, if the Zen monk had been enticed to come to California to expose the truth, wouldn't he have told everybody in the class that he had been initiated by someone other than Takata? Also, if his story was true then he and his students would be able to do, at the very least, the same healings that Takata did. (There is a witnessed account of Takata raising the dead.) They cannot!
There are many people who have taken the original Reiki initiations or Tera -Mai™ initiations and then tried to make up initiations of their own. Some of these initiations do not work at all, some produce a distorted energy, some work for a short time, some of these manmade initiations open the initiate's healing channels without connecting them to Source or God with the result that the initiate's healing channels are opened and they are taking on board the symptoms of the person they are working on.
Be cautious! Ask all of the questions! Who is your teacher? Where did this energy come from? (Tibetan Reiki does not come from Tibet; Usui Reiki is not the original Reiki that Takata brought over to the United States.) What kinds of healings are you able to do? (It is actually fraudulent to say that healings are happening when they are not for the purpose of selling attunements or initiations.) Ask to see a healing demonstration! Take a look at the teacher's students! Just because there is energy does not necessarily mean that it can be used for healing. I strongly suggest that people do this with regard to me, any Tera -Mai™ teacher or any instructor of any Reiki or other healing system.
For more information on Takata, Dr. Usui, Reiki or how the phenomenon of healing works, please read Reiki & Other Rays of Touch Healing.
Below is the letter that was written in response to this by Dr Ranga Premaratna - the lineage head of Reiki Jin Kei Do and which appears on Gordon & Dorothy Bell's website:
An open letter, regarding the transmission of Reiki in the lineage of Venerable Seiji Takamori, by Dr. Ranga J. Premaratne Ph.D (Reiki Jin-Kei-Do & Buddho-EnerSense Lineage Head)
It was brought to my attention that a totally misconstrued article regarding Reiki Jin Kei Do lineage has been published on Kathleen Milner’s website. The article states erroneous details about “ A Zen monk” who held a class in California . The article appears below. It seems Kathleen Milner wrote a story regarding her student Beth and a Zen monk. Since this story and the contents of this article referring to a Zen monk is similar in some ways to the Japanese Zen monk who trained me in Reiki and the student in Wisconsin ***mentioned later in the article seems like myself, I am stating the correct version of the “story”. First of all the name of Kathleen Milner’s student (one of her first students as she states) is Beth Sanders not Beth Saunders. I met Beth while I was a Post-doctoral research associate working at the Food Research Institute (of Wisconsin) through a advertisement she had placed for Reiki training at Shakthi Bookshop in Madison. Since I was looking for a teacher to do my Reiki master training I called Beth and received training during a weekend. She was a wonderful lady and I liked her as a teacher. However, the material she presented, particularly the Reiki “symbols” for Reiki II were no different to the ones I had received from Elke Petra Palm from whom I received Reiki I and II training. Because I had doubts about the symbols which were supposed to be Sanskrit symbols “Dr. Usui had seen in his vision”, to me they did not look like Sanskrit. When I received similar set of Reiki II symbols and the master symbol which did not resemble any of the Sanskrit letters, I was disappointed about the material. Among the material given to me by Beth there were other so called Tibetan symbols which again did not look like Tibetan letters.
This led to my search for true information and a teacher. I was fortunate to meet a Japanese monk who used to be a Zen monk. I was introduced over the phone to this monk by a relative of mine living in San Francisco at that time. He had met this monk, Venerable Seiji Takamori at a local park where he was sitting in meditation. My relative had invited Ven. Takamori to his house for a meal. I had called my relative to tell him about Reiki as he was suffering from ulcerative colitis. Because I mentioned Reiki and my relative was asking details about Reiki, the monk hearing the word Reiki had inquired my relative who was mentioning Reiki on the other side. Having found out that Seiji was a Reiki teacher, my relative handed him the phone. After my conversation with Seiji I managed to convince him to visit me in Madison to receive training in meditation and Reiki.
The erroneous facts in the article are that:
The Zen monk (if he were Seiji) never taught Reiki or meditation to anyone (other than myself) in the USA. He was just travelling.
He did not attend a class or sit in a class organized by anyone .
He certainly did not meet Beth Sanders. (I am hoping that Beth sees this article and confirms the facts.)
Seiji Takamori was not a student of Hawayo Takata. He met her and received master initiation from her in exchange for services as a monk. The reason Seiji requested the initiation from Takata was not because he needed training but to experience the energy transmission and information from another student of Hayashi, as his own teacher Ven. Takeuchi had received. It was important for him to see the material being taught in the west. Seiji had travelled in India, Tibet, and Nepal and found a group of Buddhist monks who practised a form of healing and meditation which had direct links to the Reiki he had studied with Takeuchi and was the reason for his travels to India, Tibet, and Nepal. He was empowered to teach this form of healing and as the Reiki symbols originated from the Sanskrit/Tibetan mantras, yantras, and symbols used in the ancient healing system he received training in, he needed to experience the energy and information imparted by Takata, the only master he knew of in the west trained by Hayashi.
After receiving training in meditation, Reiki, and the ancient system of healing that the Reiki symbols taught by Seiji originated from, I was empowered by Seiji to teach Reiki and the older system. I am the only person trained to teach Reiki and the older system of healing. After receiving this unique gift and seeing the differences between the Reiki that I had received from Elke Petra Palm and Beth Sanders, I decided to contact Beth to tell about my experience. After listening to me Beth visited me in Madison and received Reiki I, II, III in the system of Reiki I now call Reiki Jin Kei Do. Since I was not fully prepared to teach the older system, I taught Beth the very basic meditation of that system.
Since I left USA I have not been in touch with Beth Sanders.
I do not know where Kathleen Milner received her information from. It could have been a misinterpretation of what Beth had told her. But if the Zen monk and the student in Wisconsin refer to Seiji Takamori and myself, respectively, then the truth has been completely distorted. It is unfortunate that such articles and books are published without proper research. If Kathleen took the time to research her material, she could have easily contacted her former student Beth Sanders or myself (if Beth had given the name of her student in Wisconsin and if that was my name) to confirm the details before publishing in her book or on her website.
I hope that readers of my comments on the article contact for further information, myself or Gordon and Dorothy Bell (who received training in Reiki Jin Kei Do to master level and the older system (Buddho/EnerSense) to master and advanced master stages by me) who brought the article to my attention and kindly agreed to publish my comments on their website.
And just for the sake of completeness, here is the other piece of text by Kathleen Milner that also appears on her site:
Record of extract from Kathleen Milners website dated 2003: "Ask Kathleen Milner"
Another question is about Buddhistic energy (for example medicine Buddha and Kalachakra). Initiations (other than TM Reiki and TM Seichem) are done. Again looking at the TM registration form, I only can say that this is ok because there is no relation tot TM Reiki or TM Seichem. Can you please confirm for me that this is correct or in the other way explain why not?
Kathleen writes:
These are fine so long as they are administered by somebody who has been properly attuned and taught. Unfortunately, there are people who simply outright lie. For example, there is a type of Reiki that was supposed to come from the Zen monk that Takata initiated. The people who follow this kind of Reiki are told the story about how Beth Sanders (who was actually one of my students) brought the Zen monk over to the United States and that the Zen monk initiated and taught only one man, a man in Wisconsin the original Reiki initiations that he had learned from another one of Dr. Usui's students. The truth is that a man in California paid for the Zen monk’s flight to California and asks the Zen monk to take Beth Sanders Reiki mastership class. In this class the Zen monk, like all of the other students in the class, practiced all 3 Reiki initiations that I had been taught by my Reiki master. Margaret Shelton.
The Zen monk stated that everything was the same with the following exceptions:
1. Takata never emphasized any order to initiating the chakras. I had taught my students from the beginning to start with the crown and work down and this was later confirmed by Buddha in my consciousness-raising experience.
2. Takata taught the contractions and breathing but never emphasized them. From the first Reiki Mastership class I taught, I emphasized the contractions and breathing and found different ways to incorporate the contractions and breathing into my classes.
3. Takata never allowed questions.
So, just because somebody uses the word "Buddhism" or "Zen", it does not necessarily follow that they are able to pass on initiations. People seeking out attunements and metaphysical instruction are well advised to check things out. I hope this helps! If you have further questions please write again. Kathleen Milner
Reading the material from Kathleen it would appear that she is indeed refering to the story that is told by Ranga Premaratna regarding his training by Seiji Takamori and also the training relationship that existed around Beth Sanders at the time.
Having discovered in May of 2006 that Kathleen had still got these texts on her site, I sent her an email. I was at that time undertaking quite a lot of research into the history of Reiki Jin Kei Do and Kathleen's story was something that I felt needed to be investigated.
On the 14th May then, I sent Kathleen the following email:
Dear Kathleen,
I hope that you don't mind me contacting you but I have been intrigued by the story in your Fall 2002 Newsletter about the Zen monk and the training that he took with Beth Sanders.
I am doing some research into the history of Reiki and the various traditions within this and trying to make sense of some of the historical anomalies that keep coming up. It seems that you are aware of or know the man in California that sponsored the class by Beth Sanders that the monk took. Is there any chance that you could let me know how to get in touch with this man if you know his contact details at all? I would just like to check with him the details as you relate regarding the monk and why exactly it was that he wanted the monk to undertake the training with Beth.
I hope that this is OK and that you are able to help me with this. I have a few other little 'oddities' within the overall history of Reiki that I am trying to gather details on, but thought you might be able to help with this story. Who was the Zen monk by the way? Do you know anything about him?
Thanks for your time.
Many blessings,
Steve Gooch
In writing this email I felt that it was necessary to get Kathleen to come out and admit that her story was about Ranga, Seiji and Beth. I didn't see any point (legal issues notwithstanding) in hiding behind this 'no-names' veil of obfuscation. There clearly was a simple misunderstanding going on as Ranga had pointed out in his open letter. The reply that I got from Kathleen in response to my email is below:
The story of the Zen monk that is in my newsletter and has been in Reiki & Other Rays of Touch Healing from the very first edition in 1994 is all that I know, with the exception of one piece of information. The man from Wisconsin, who claims to have been taught Reiki Mastership by the Zen monk and given additional attunement information, did not come out with this statement until AFTER the Zen monk died. That should tell you something right there!
When Beth Sanders contacted me after teaching the California Reiki Mastership class, she did give me the name of the man in California who arranged the Reiki class that she taught. But that was a very long time ago and I do not recall his name.
A lot of people are looking for Beth. Nobody knows where she is. If you find her, please let me know. I think that at some point she will re-surface. My thought is that as she was very pretty and very young when I knew her, she probably got married and is involved raising a family.
Kathleen
Clearly then there was only one way to resolve the dilemma and that was to go to the one person who could tell me the truth one way or the other: Beth Sanders. Beth seemed to be the pivot around which this story revolved and only she could verify either Ranga's or Kathleen's story. So I contacted her.
Part Two coming soon.
