Aunty Mahealani Kuamo’o Henry, a ninth-generation, native-Hawaiian elder, spoke about the ancient wisdom of Aloha Lokahi, that is a Hawaiian value system of love and unity. It is an ancient, practical set of principles that reminds us to respect the ‘aina, the land, to enjoy ‘ohana, the family, and to stand pono, correct in all our actions. You recognize that all things are in excellence, I ka pono. In the right place, right time, right being, until you think not.
This was expressed through a form of Ho’oponopono called Ho’opono Pono Ke Ala — Making What is Already Right More Right, the Path. Many are surprised to learn about this form of Ho’oponopono that is rooted in the Aloha Spirit rather than in the Christian and Western adaptation for “conflict resolutions" that comes from the need to make what is wrong right through Forgiveness.
Ho’opono Pono Ke Ala predates both adaptations. It brings forward Aloha for the self and to promote “self-best” through self-permission, to recognize and accept self-greatness”, and experience it moment-by-moment in all areas of one’s life. It lays to waste the “fear-based” and negative mindsets for power and control. It is the ancient knowing that you are obviously the best “you” ever, there are no duplicates, you’re It, the original YOU; the god-goddess makes no mistakes!
The message of Aloha Lokahi is so simple you feel its truth. “We have all we need,” as Aunty would say; "but after we’ve been in this dimension for a while, we get so caught up in the human side of things; we forget the Lokahi, the unity with Spirit.”
Some people have become so alienated that they are destroying our own life-support systems on the planet, as we see so much today. Through Aloha, many people can reconnect with Spirit and rebound from this suicidal alienation, because it’s not a religion and not nationalistic, but universal. The word Aloha comes from Hawai‘i, but the Spirit of Aloha—Love—is Universal.
“Aloha is the heavenly energy we must feel in an all-too-human world in order to feel whole. Spirit and human come together as we walk the path of life. If you forget about Aloha, you feel alone on the life journey, but the ancestors will help you. They’ll never abandon you.”
Like the Balinese, Native American, and African cultures, traditional Hawaiians believe Ancestral Spirits counsel, caution, and help weave our lives with unseen, loving hands. The Wise Ones, Aumakua, have only “changed address,” says Aunty, who has also changed address and is now in the Spirit Realm; and they still speak to us through images, intuition, and nature’s movements, as she is now doing.
Scientific research is finally catching up with Hawaiian spirituality. According to quantum physics and evolutionary ecology, at least three to five atoms you just inhaled were once a part of the body of the Buddha, Jesus, or Queen Liliuokalani, the last queen of Hawai’i. “So again, it’s about how much of those other influences you want to make a part of your life. Or not.”
The most important Mo’olelo, stories are those that maintain harmony, buoyancy, and an uplifting attitude that begins within and radiates to the world around us. Aunty Mahealani said she learned this from her grandfather. “He learned it from Kumu Élili o na Kupuna, the Source Teacher and Messenger for the Ancient Ones.”
One day he drew a circle in the sand and said, “This is your center….this O. Around that, he drew another circle, and said, “This is mass society.”
“You are responsible for the Aloha in here, in your center,” Aunty says, placing her hand on her heart. Her Aloha was tested, but not defeated, when the State of Hawai‘i decided to cancel leases to Hawaiians on Hawaiian homelands in Puna. In the tradition of Gandhi and the Dalai Lama, she counseled peaceful means, Aloha, and the staging of a gala lu‘au to bring everyone to a consensual agreement.
"Instead of fighting them and losing my own Aloha, I helped educate them to not take back lands that never were the State of Hawaii’s to give or take in the first place,” she says. “The Kupuna (Ancestors) led me to put together a program that was strictly about Aloha.” And it worked. As the president of the Hawaiian Homelands group, Kulana, she orchestrated a new balance of power between the State of Hawai‘i and Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians).
We stay Pono through awareness of the stories we’re telling ourselves, the Mo‘olelo. If you’re going the Hawaiian way, with the purity of Aloha Spiritual Values for self, others, and the environment; you see the universe as perfect.
If Aunty is starting to sound like Maui’s mate, a Superwoman who captured not only the sun, but eternal delight, and who is continuing to fly around the world, now from the Spirit Realm, sharing this Superwisdom with the world; so be it.
I think Aunty would say we’re all supermen and superwomen, all carriers of the light, so pick up your capes and wings, and take flight.
One more thought from Aunty on Ho’opono Pono Ke Ala, this belief system and method for “making right more right, the path". The ancient Hawaiians, once so enlightened by the Aloha Spirit concepts and practices, believed that all things, all conditions, all people, and all of nature were/ are in PONO - excellence, rightness. And thought, that “changes” are normal occurrences indicating needs for adjustments in making Pono more Pono – right, more right in the never-ending flow for growth and evolvement.
Aloha Lokahi!
Kaleonahenaheonalani (Kaleo)
