CHAPTER 1
A Taste of Mana
... the human beings (Native Americans), my son,they believe everything is alive.Not only man and animals. But also water, earth, stone.
Grandfather Old Lodge Skinsin Little Big Man
This book is about a philosophy, a technique, a process called SelfI-dentity Through Ho`oponopono®—simply referred to hereinafter asHo`oponopono. This term traditionally refers to an ancient Polynesiansystem of conflict resolution and forgiveness. Here, Ho'oponoponorefers to an inner process that is a natural development from its historicalpredecessor.
It is, first and foremost, a problem-solving strategy. What distinguishesit from most other such strategies is that it seeks to solve problems byworking on oneself rather than on external circumstances. When usingHo`oponopono, one finds that, as the self is brought into a state ofbalance and clarity, the external world is experienced as less problematic.In fact, problems are seen as opportunities to achieve greater balanceand clarity. In addition, the ongoing practice of Ho`oponopono can leadto a more harmonious experience of life, and the knowledge that one'shappiness is not dependent upon external events.
While this subject can stand on its own, for me its beauty andrichness are enhanced by reference to history and cultural context.Our modern western mindset reduces our healing interventions to the"active ingredient." Yet, that ingredient in an herbal medicine, whenextracted, synthesized and concentrated, brings daunting side effects inthe absence of buffering influences supplied by the "inactive" rejectedplant components. So historical and cultural factors surrounding apractice add to a person's ability to assimilate it so it is no longer merelyone more technique in the repertoire.
I trust that learning somethings about the soil from which Ho`oponoponosprings will also help you appreciate its beauty as well as its utility. Ibelieve you will come to see that, while Ho`oponopono is thoroughlyHawaiian, it carries a universal resonance that is needed to achieve acomplete understanding of our human nature and, in turn, achievehealing and wholeness.
From Kaua`i to the Big Island of Hawai`i, Hawai`i is a land that is atonce ancient and newly forming. As the lava of Klauea volcano flowsinto the sea, cooling and solidifying into new land, the ancient teachingsare at the same time flowing into new forms and new expressions.
The psychospiritual teachings of Hawai`i express the collective experienceof a tropical island civilization and carry the spirit of this particular landand people. While the beauty and profundity of the teachings may beseen as unique facets of this beautiful land, their ultimate value is thatthey have tapped universal principles embedded deeply within humannature itself. These principles address the structure of mind, its relationto the Divine, and knowing how to use the energy that powers thisstructure to evoke internal freedom and healing.
Anyone who is open to the people of these islands soon learns thatsovereignty is a big issue. Statehood was not welcomed by consensus,and there is lingering resentment concerning the overthrow of themonarchy in 1893 and the annexation by the U.S. in 1898. Whilepolitical issues are peripheral to the heart of this book, the desire ofall people to be free, independent and self-determining is not. Just asthe Hawaiian nation might find its fullest expression free of foreigndomination, so individual human beings can find fullest expressionfreed from the domination of deeply imprinted thoughts, attitudesand beliefs that hide their true identity and highest potential. In a veryreal sense, we are all colonized people. We all struggle against powersthat seem to dominate us—addictions, worry, self-defeating behavior,depression, disease, or other afflictions that overrun us with regularityand persistence, so that we often cast ourselves as victims, rather thanthe heroes in our own stories. The quest for personal sovereignty is, in avery real sense, the central sacred task of each person. A psychologicallysovereign individual is comfortable in her own skin—self-assured yetflexible, at ease with change, and able to participate in the affairs offamily and community in a way that benefits all.
The challenge is how to lay the groundwork for such a sublime stateof being. Often, our desire to pursue it begins with a spontaneousand unexpected experience. I had never had any particular interest inHawai`i, but in 1999 my wife Judith attended a professional conferencein Honolulu and I went along. I spent the days driving around O`ahu.
Leaving Waikk on the first day, I headed windward on the PaliHighway and pulled off on a spur road with a view of stunning greencliffs descending to the ocean. When I was a very young child I used toplay, over and over again, a 78 rpm recording of South Pacific in whichJuanita Hall sang Bali Hai. This haunting melody resurfaced in my mindwith all its original magic upon encountering this remarkable visage justminutes outside Honolulu. After lingering awhile and allowing myselfto begin to ease in to these powerful new surroundings, I then proceedednorth on Kamehameha Highway, named after the ali`i (chief) whounited the islands under one rule in 1810. After passing through thecity of Kne`ohe the scenery steadily merged into more rural stretcheswith blue-green ocean to the right and verdant mountains to the left,reflecting the long process of island-building by the central volcano.O`ahu actually consists of two such volcanic ridges, whose ancient lavaflows merge into a central valley.
I began to enter an extraordinary state of mind, a sense of profoundwell-being that was clearly more than a sense of pleasure in the beautifulscenery or the relaxation associated with being on vacation. It wasparadoxically ecstatic and serene at the same time. My internal beingand the external environment seemed in resonance, an energy thatfelt loving, welcoming and powerful. This remarkable state persistedthroughout the remainder of the day and beyond.
Later, in attempting to understand this experience, my reading ledme to the Hawaiian notion of mana. Mana is supernatural energy orspiritual power contained and expressed by objects both animate andinanimate. People of outstanding ability or mastery in any field arethought to possess more mana than the ordinary person. It did notseem to me to be a far stretch to think that certain geographic locationscould be regions of abundant mana, and that this might account for myexperience of heightened awareness.
Our next trip to Hawai`i included a visit to Kaua`i, geologicallythe oldest of the eight main Hawaiian islands. On our first fullday there we went to the Hikina A Ka L Heiau and adjacentHauola City of Refuge. A heiau is a place of worship that servedthe indigenous religion. There are many heiau still standing. Mostwere abandoned with the dissolution of the old religion and whatremain are often arrangements of volcanic boulders that give animpression of the contours of an ancient structure. These sacred sitessuffered along with the rest of Hawaiian culture as foreign influencescame to dominate the islands. The reawakening of native Hawaiianconsciousness is restoring respect for the ancient practices, sites andinstitutions such that now the heiau are once again accorded thesacred status they deserve.
Judith and I felt moved to spend some time in silent meditation at thisheiau and when we were finished we were approached by a Hawaiianman wearing sunglasses and a feathered hat. Because his eyes wereinvisible, I wasn't altogether sure of our situation. Had we angeredhim by unintentionally violating a sacred protocol? He said "I see youguys are hangin' out at the heaiu." I replied "Yes, we were meditatinghere. I hope that's OK." "Ohhh, that's good!" he responded. He thenintroduced himself as Kopa Kaluahine, a spiritual healing practitioneron the island. Further experience affirmed him to be a Kahuna Lapaau,an individual who had achieved a high level of mastery in this field,having been trained initially by his grandmother. We struck up afriendship that has continued to this day.
At one point the conversation turned to the subject of mana. Hesuggested that the unusual experience we had had from our first visitto O`ahu was that of the mana of the islands. He allowed that, for him,the mana of Kaua`i is stronger than that of any of the other islands, andhaving been to several of the others, I had to agree that this seemed truefor me also. Whether the individual's experience of the mana is purely afunction of the island itself or of one's connection to a particular islandis unclear to me. "People have their own feelings about one island oranother. For me, the connection to Kaua`i is stronger," he noted. Oneof his gifts to us was a Phaku, or stone, that he had used in his healingwork. He had invested the Phaku with some of his mana so that wecould make use of it in our own healing practices back on the mainland.The combination of a clear and powerful experience of the mana of theislands, with its linkage to the activity and vocation of healing via ourKahuna friend, formed the character of our introduction to Hawai`i.It also cued my attention to any practice that owes its origins to thisremote archipelago. As a transpersonal psychologist I am naturallydrawn to investigate any approach that has not artificially separated thepsyche from the spirit, and the fact that a contemporary practice canlegitimately claim ancient origins suggests a track record to be takenseriously.
My remarkable taste of mana on O`ahu and Kauai—including a sublimeresonance between self and environment—is characteristic of being atease, "in synch" or "in the flow." The fact that such an experience canhappen indicates that we are equipped for it to happen—given the rightconditions of specific environments or circumstances. While my ownexperience suggests that the particular mana of a given geography issupportive, if we limit our thinking to this sort of contingency, we areironically setting a trap of dependency on external conditions of placeand time in order to experience peace and happiness.
Perhaps the ultimate value of extraordinary experiences is to acquaint uswith the fact that it is within our potential as human beings to be in astate of real connection with ourselves and our world, and that this may,in fact be our natural state. Once we have tasted such an experience, ourassignment naturally becomes how to configure ourselves to remain inthis state of flow regardless of where we are or with whom. This is truesovereignty and true freedom—and is the import of what will unfoldin these pages.
CHAPTER 2
It's A Beautiful Day
To see a world in a grain of sandAnd heaven in a wild flowerHold infinity in the palm of your handAnd eternity in an hour
William BlakeAuguries of Innocence
Our friend Joshua shifted the Nissan pickup into 4WD as we pulledonto what loosely passed for a road leading away from Polihale beach.For several days rain had pelted the island, even on the usually dryleeward side. The storm system hovering just off the north shore wasstretching around to the margins of the southernmost pali (cliffs)that form the northern reach of Polihale. Where the sunny day metthe boundary of the storm there was a stunning alchemical fog ofa furious wind blasting and conjoining sand, ocean spray and rainwith sunlight turned diffuse and orange in a chaos of sensation.Hawaiian legend holds that it is in this region that the spirits of thedead make their departure for the next world. The cocoon of orangelight with rain and sand pellets assaulted me and launched me intoa clearly altered state. In addition to the striking visual field, theacoustics seemed to form a murmuring drone that resembled humanvoices chanting a repetitive refrain, perfect for an excursion beyondthe ordinary.
But the storm had created some very ordinary hazards on the road back.Many water-filled potholes were large enough to deserve names on amap and require fishing permits. There was no way to judge how deepthey were, nor could we avoid all of them. We lurched and bouncedahead, coming upon a car whose radiator was well below sea level. Twoyoung men stood helplessly beside it.
"You need some help there?," asked Joshua.
"Yeah, the axle is broke. Can you give us a lift?""Sure. Come on up."
The cab being full of us verging-on-carsick mainlanders, theyboarded the truck bed and we lurched along, praying that we hadnot taken on our new passengers' vehicle karma. Near the cutoff tothe main highway we passed a sodden cultivated field in which alarge piece of farm machinery was poised at an awkward tilt and ayoung woman was going about her work. The fellows in the back ofthe truck hailed her.
"Yeah, we stick our car back there in the pothole. Broke the axle. Don'tknow what we gonna do."
"Yeah," she said, "I know some that stick theirs and earlier we stick thisone" (pointing to the farm machine).
They carried on awhile about the hardships caused by the storm.Catching pieces of their conversation, I was reflecting on how we wouldhave dealt with "sticking" our truck: walk until we had cell connection,arrange for a tow truck, and do what one does to get back to normal.
What for us would be an inconvenience, to these individuals couldeasily be a profound hardship. In their shoes, would I have mentallyamplified this inconvenience into a full-blown hardship? Had I becomeso soft and attached to agendas that this would rise to the level ofemergency in my mind? Which was the problem—the situation itselfor my appraisal of it? My attention was drawn back to the conversationthat had by now established the fact that the situation sucked all around.The young woman paused thoughtfully, then looked up at the sky andswung her arm with hand upraised in a wide ark and announced forall to hear "But ... It's a beautiful day!!!" We burst into laughter andheaded on down the road.
I remembered calling Joshua and Annaleah, when they lost their 23 yearold daughter last year. Mary—what a beautiful spirit—had struggledwith the complications of a congenital heart defect and finally madeher transition. Joshua's voice was breaking in a grief still powerful asthe island storm. After awhile, he paused. "But ... it's a beautiful dayon Kaua`i." It was not with the exuberance of the young woman in thefield, but it was nonetheless an affirmation of the spirit that soars aboveadversity and even death to touch the larger story.
How We Stick Ourselves
There are no limits to our ability to get stuck, to "stick" ourselvesin the lesser story. Two factors conspire to keep us stuck. First is theSubconscious Mind, which warehouses imprints of all that we haveexperienced and have not made peace with. When cleansed of this debris,however, the subconscious is also a region of mind that can resonatewith Divine Inspiration. Second is the universal human propensity toproject blame—to see a person or thing "out there" as the source of oursuffering. When these two are combined, you get war—between thesexes, between friends, colleagues, states, nations, or religions.
If I define something as a problem, whether it is a broken axle or aremark you made, something associated with it hooks onto it from thesubconscious mind. Because subconscious content is beyond reach, weonly are aware of the emotional charge. The here and now situation thatis defined as a problem has become a much bigger problem than if thewarehouse had been empty. If it's a remark you made, the emotionalcharge around every similar remark that I have not made peace withwells up. Because this internal arousal is so unpleasant, I project blameonto you to take my attention off my intolerable feelings.
This is a truly delusional state of mind that can take a problem that canbe solved systematically with a minimum of bother and turn it into anightmare. Or even if it cannot be solved presently, it can at least beviewed as difficult, but not catastrophic.
Our failure to deal with the subconscious and our tendency to blameothers adds up to an inability to take responsibility for our lives. Thefeeling of powerlessness—and eventually hopelessness—that thisengenders is an emotional cancer. If the Center for Disease Controldealt with emotional plagues, this stressful state of mind would bejudged a pandemic. But this delusional state of mind is shared by nearlyeveryone, so it is regarded as normal.
There are many philosophies and techniques that have been developed,some recent and some ancient, for reducing stress. They all offer toolsto help us move from helplessness to mastery of taking responsibility forourselves. I can't take responsibility for the offensive remark you madeto me, but I can, if I know how, take responsibility for my reaction toit—by cleaning the subconscious mind of all the experiences riding inon the coattails of the present situation. That greatly reduces the level ofunpleasant arousal, so I don't have to project blame on you. Then I cancomment on your remark without having to hit you with the full powerof my emotion that flows from a history you had nothing to do with.
