by Kumu Nālani | Aug 31, 2022 | Blog Posts, Changing, Growing
We think about the Spiritual Path as being fairly straightforward, but it isn’t really like that at all. Which is why people fall off the Path. Finding your way along the Path takes real commitment and tenacity. For as long as the memory within our stories tells us, Humankind has had to meet and face one uncomfortable truth – the truth of their humanness.
Sometimes it’s used as an excuse for our failings and mistakes. We can write them off as being “Human”. But is this level of our “Humanness” the same level of being “Human” as the Ancestors lived it?
So the real question is: what did they know that we do not? What is it that prevents each one of us living from the same level they did? And if we did, how would our lives be improved in some way, or would they?
When a set of Teachings is given within any traditional Cultural framework and you begin experimenting with what it’s like to live within them, each one of us is confronted with the weaknesses of our humanness because they are exposed and magnified by the Teachings we’re engaging with.
The roller-coaster of emotions (often labelled as unhappy ones) we experience is our resistance to letting go of what we have allowed ourselves to believe in for many years as Truth. As Humans we do not easily let go of anything we believe has valued and served us in some way. It is the not letting go that keeps us in a place of feeling stuck and unsatisfied. The more we hang on, the more rigid we become. We cannot move.
Often it is the very beliefs we are holding on to that are keeping us stuck – but we cannot see it because those beliefs have gotten us to where we are now. It is the Now that is telling us we are stuck and need to move, but it is the valuing of beliefs that we have outgrown – at some level we intuitively understand this even if it is a very vague intuitive sense – that is preventing the movement.
Every Tradition tells us that to prevent movement is to create suffering. We are the source and architect of our suffering…
Most people cannot take the roller-coaster of emotions. The roller-coaster feeling is the tension between holding on and letting go. Because we cannot cope with the intensity of the feeling, and because we have not learned how to experience the wide gamut of emotions in a healthy way, we resist the movement, telling ourselves all sorts of familiar fabrications: “I’m fine as I am”, “this is as far as I need to go right now”, “I’m OK, I don’t need to change”, “I like myself less now than before”, “itʻs normal to…” and 101 other one-liners.
All of them are the Voice of Resistance – we just don’t recognise it because itʻs a familiar voice and feeling the roller-coaster of emotions isn’t. When something isn’t familiar or when it fails to meet our imaginary view of what “becoming” looks like and what “light” feels like – we assess it as Bad or Not Good…what is really happening at the most profound levels is CHANGE…
And most of us arenʻt taught how to recognise it, embrace it, ride it out and live through it until it becomes our “norm”.
Which, if you really think about it, is why we actively seek out Spiritual Teachings in the first place – to make sense of ourselves…
People do not change because they cannot (or will not) go the distance. They haven’t learned basic coping mechanisms for being uncomfortable with uncomfortable experiences. They are thirsty for the quick fix that instantly makes them feel better and more approving of themselves – and that’s when the old “Stories of Resistance” like those one-liners really kick in.
That we have those thoughts is a normal process of personal change; that we allow them to keep us nailed to the same spot, is not. Are these words “pinging” you strongly in one way or the other? Are you feeling “the Yips”? Are you feeling uncomfortable? We hope so. That’s why we have given them to you. We want to be controversial. We want to create the Depths of Thought within you. We want you to objectively assess your own beliefs. We do not want you to stay nailed to the cross, sacrificing the finding of the Truth of Light within you. That is the mission of all Traditional Teachings in their pure form.
Uncorrupted Teachings help you to fight your way through; corrupted Teachings do not serve the Truth of You, they serve the corruption of your Spiritual Essence keeping you contained in “unpotential”, which is a wasteland, literally a wasting of your spirit and a wasting away of your potential. Uncorrupted Teachings teach you the Skill of Discernment, so you can see the Truth, corrupted Teachings will make it sound like truth, but really they’re hiding the Truth from you. They blind you to all that you can be. To all youʻre supposed to be.
You will only ever know this for yourself when you go the distance and follow the path to its end – in the process you will experience life unmasked. The roller-coaster of emotions is the first raw experience of unmasking. Only when you are unmasked, are able to decide the Truth. Which doesn’t require a decision at all…
How can I develop myself further Kumu?
- Join the School of Spirituality Spiritual Intelligence Training – Stage 1: 4 x Sundays in November 2022 @ 09:00am – 10:00am with Kumu Nālani live online or start the DIY Course and reach out to Kumu when you need to. This course is suitable for everyone
- Join the School of Hawaiian Spiritual Studies: Path to Paʻa. 7 x Mondays starting mid-October 2022 @ 6:00pm – 8:00pm with Kumu Nālani live online. This course is for those interested in learning about Hawaiian Spiritual Practices, Practitioners of Hawaiian Healing like Lomilomi and those thinking about becoming Lomilomi and/or Hoʻoponopono Practitioners.
- Get in on our mailing list to get our Free Magazine, overflowing with articles to get you thinking about life, growth and then what…👉🏽 join our community
- Do a 1:1 online Hoʻoponopono Session and start clearing the stones from your Path: Kumu and Wise Guide Deborah Halani both do these sessions Or doing live online Healing Sessions with one of the other Wise Guides – each Guide works with you in a different way
by Kumu Nālani | Jul 29, 2022 | Blog Posts, Spirituality
IT ALL STARTS WITH A SPECIAL KIND OF LISTENING. A listening, that is so deep, so clear, so unencumbered that there is no mistaking what you are hearing. It is in PŌ – The Place of Origin – that the Ancestors reside. The Ancestors who know and your potentials. They know all that is possible for you. Want to heal and develop personally and professionally? It all starts with discovering the interconnectedness of your own identity. It is only through that process you will truly understand your spiritual sacredness and the sacred nature and importance of your relationship with “place”…
Listening…to the “song” of Place is to listen into the “songs of PŌ – The Place of Origin. You might have a different name for it in your Tradition or way of understanding things.
We MUST come to understand the Place of Origin, if we are to really understand ourselves. Our history tells us how…
We can go back to the very first Kahunas, the first Kahunas of the First of the First Nations people. They migrated through the South Pacific trying to escape Spiritual Corruption.
Spiritual Corruption continues today and each one of us experiences it AND contributes to it at some point. That’s a confronting thought…
…at some point the Kahunas knew they would have to stop running. There was no escape from the corruption the human mind, the Ego, can inflict on the Practices of Spirit. There was only one decision, to stop and make a stand.
And that’s what they did.
They brought with them profound and intricate understanding – the level of understanding that can only come from Pō, the Place of Origin.
From the level of understanding of Pō, they constructed a way of life around the Teachings of Pō that encapsulated the Spiritual Energy of Pō into a way of thinking about life. And themselves as part of life. One fed the other. Because the thinking was uncorrupted, daily life was also uncorrupted…
And so it continued for generations… The Kupuna/Elders provided the direction of life which included the reverence of care of the land, which was not only part of life, but considered part of the family.
They ensured each person was educated in the TEACHINGS OF PILINA – Relationship, developing Protocols and Ceremonies that upheld AND continued the understanding of the INSEPARABLE UNIFIED NATURE of their relationship with land, the ocean, rivers, streams, rain, sun, clouds, stars, animals, birds, insects and fish – everything that could be seen, heard, touched, smelled, felt, tasted and everything unseen, unheard, untouched, unsmelled , unfelt, untasted as well.
People lived at a different level to most of us today.
They lived at a level of uncorrupted Spiritual Pilina that translated to HOW they lived in each day. They didn’t have to think about their Spirituality, they were it.
They understood themselves. They understood the Cosmos, the Universe. They understood Pō – the Place of Origin. They heard it, touched it, smelled it, felt it, tasted it and learned to see the unseen, then add this learning to how they lived their daily lives.
They heard its “song”, the many voices that are present within Pō. And because they heard its “song”, they could hear and understand the song of their Place, their land, where their homes were built. They understood that there was a COMMUNICATION between their Place and the Place of Origin – a PILINA.
One song is part of another song – the sound of your Place is the sound of Pō. That’s what makes a place SACRED.
Your ability to hear it, understand it and communicate with it – to understand and make yourself understood in return – is what gives you your SPECIFIC & UNIQUE PILINA with YOUR place.
It gives you your IDENTITY. Becomes part of you. You become part of it. It’s a reciprocal relationship. You can’t become separate from it – but when you do experience separation, that conflict you feel within, is the sound of place calling you back.
Your identification with Place, as part of Place, is what gives you AND It, sacredness. You both hold the mana/the spirit energy of the Ancestors, which reside within Pō, the Place of Origin. It’s like a fingerprint, and you and your Place carry it. Together. Sharing the same breath and the same life force.
Both of you powered by the Mana of Pō.
In our School of Hawaiian Spiritual Studies, we learn this type of Pilina has a name: WAHI PANA AU PAU. You and your Place are the sacred story of Pō. When you come to know Pō, which is ongoing by the way, you come to know more of yourself. It’s then that you really begin to understand yourself better.
Your unfolding story of Pilina, gives your Place more mana/spirit power. Makes it more sacred bese you come to know your own sacredness, and this is what you give back to place each time you remember it.
It’s you that keeps your place Wahi Pana – Sacred. And vica versa. Your Place is You…Pilina with Place is Pilina with yourself…
☝🏽 Where to next Kumu?
- Get to know your Place; what is it now? What is it’s history? What are First Nations stories about it? – doing you research can lead you into an exciting adventure and deeper connection with People & Place
- Get to know your Place by visiting a spot you feel drawn to: maybe intuitively, maybe through your reserach or other knowing and quietly meditate or pray in this Place. Observe Protocol 👇🏽
- Develop Yourself: our Spiritual Intelligence Courses 1 – 3 take you on a journey of self-discovery starting with yourself, then Nature and finally the Cosmos. You can do these by Distance Learning, at your own pace with support from Kumu and the Wise Guides when you need it 👉🏽 bingo
- Join our Path to Pa’a Course: this is for both Spiritual Seekers and Practitioners and is all about the Foundation Teachings of our Ancestors from Halawa Valley Molokai, including teachings about Wahi Pani and how you can develop your relationship .👉🏽 check it out with the free course intro
- Join our Hawaiian Studies Club: classess, forums, resources, biz building help, discounts on sessions 👉🏽 go here for more
📧 I’d love it if you keep in touch and get to know the SoHAD and what we do better. Every couple of months we send out our free News Magazine with Course Information, articles, first looks and Course Premieres and other goodies from ourselves and our friends.Get on the list if youʻre feeling it 👉🏽 here 😊
