My soul’s exposure to the raw, primal, spiritual energy of the most sacred of all of the Hawaiʻi Islands, Kahoʻolawe, is something I treasure as sacred. Sacred like this wiliwili tree on the island that survived the storms and the bombs. Presently, there are so many storms swirling about in the world, relationally, environmentally, socially. To be the calm in the eye of the storm is my mission in life.
A force for good
Let me back up a bit. My entire life I have felt compelled to make this world a better place. I have volunteered in beach clean-ups, tree plantings, trail maintenance, and political protests to preserve our planet. Yet I find most of my toils happen in the energetic realm of personal relationships. How can I be a force for good, be a part of the solution vs. feeding the paranoia of the human mind?
Halau ‘Ohiʻa
Joining Halau ‘Ohiʻa, a unique professional development opportunity, and engaging with our landscape through Hawaiʻi lifeways, positions me to learn more about this. This is the group of folks I went with to the remote island that was a previous target for military bombing. My classmates are primarily employed with natural resource management. My natural resource management has to do with managing our selves, our breath, and our relationships. Together, we are foundational to the well-being of the landscape. Together, we learn skills we can apply to our professional and personal lives.
Kahoʻolawe, also known as Kanaloa
We engaged in proper protocol for this experience on Kahoʻolawe, also known as Kanaloa. Chanting in the transitions, we chant to ask permission to enter this sacred space as well as to leave this sacred space. We readied ourselves completely.
The uninhabited island of Kahoʻolawe: she is the place of hope in my mind. I feel blessed to go there. To repair the wrongs of humans. To give and receive the spiritual mana (power) of Kanaloa. She represents conflict between peace/war, life/death, cultural perpetuation/forced assimilation. She calls on all of us to reflect in natural great beauty.
“training for peace through destructive means”
She is ravaged by years of U.S. military bombing and “training for peace through destructive means.” She is evidence of one of the greatest travesties of government taking over and destroying, temporarily, the natural great beauty of our earth.
I want world peace. I am working on it one relationship at a time. It seems, the mark of progress is not that world looks like I would like it look, with respectable leaders and genuine aloha radiating in all directions, rather, it boils down to my relationship with myself. I have grown patience and calm. In the midst of the storm.
The calm in the eye of the storm
Is it futile to believe that if we all did this inner work we wouldn’t have such a devastating storm of moral bankruptcy on our hands?
Hungry ghost realm
We all want protection and safety. Let it be based on love and caring and mutual respect for the inherent worth and dignity of all human beings. I don’t want war, fighting, missiles. I don’t want to feed the insatiable hunger of the hungry ghost. Imagine a beast with a pencil-thin neck and bloated belly that never gets enough of whatever it thinks it is lacking, this is the hungry ghost. Therefore, because it thinks it is lacking, its hunger is never-ending, the root is fear.
Replace fear with faith
Let us replace the fear with faith and break the change of habitual hydraulics of our paranoid mind. May it be so.