Nestled on the cusp of the windward and leeward side of the island is Waimea. Where the hot air warmed on the black surface of the lava fields pulled up the slopes of the mountain collides with the moist northeasterly trade winds, a visual feast of low hanging clouds is created. The clouds patrol the streets like ferocious monsters, buffeting the rollings hills in protest. The unique arrangement of the hills churn the weather in a kaleidoscope of changing shapes, shadows, and atmospheric creatures which grant this land is particular glory and ever-changing vista. Never have I seen weather move so quickly - as if it has somewhere to be. These are not passing giants, but playful sparks of an engine of life that gives each street its own micro-climate. At times, these wisps move so low that you can almost touch them. I cannot believe that this will be my home.
The Traditional Chinese Medical College of Hawaii (TCMCH) could not have chosen a more elemental place. The Qi (Chi) of the land brings wave after wave of unpredictability and new energy, allowing its residents to feast on the spoils of its turmoil. I am moved each day at seeing the same landscape changed with infinite combinations of light, time of day, weather, wind, and rain that give each feature of the landscape a brief and newly created facet.
I am in awe at how the universe is rewarding me for this great risk. Liberation from one's fears and entanglements through hard work, commitment, perseverance, and humility to ask for help where needed, plus a conviction that all will be looked after should I do the above is rewarding me in wave after wave of emotion, visual pleasure, and new encounters with people, places, and creatures which bring me to tears of joy, a thankfulness I have not felt, and a continued connection to a realm of myself I have longed to re-experience since I was a child. The play a child experiences before being told by society what they are and what they are not is cracked and evaporated by this place and its people who all feel the magic of the land healing, nurturing, and nourishing them as a pure gift the island instills to its caretakers.
The ardent support of friends and a family who gave me a ceremonious blessing and a loving send off from my small and docile life in Maryland will never be forgotten. The gratitude for which I hope I can find a way to bountifully express . I hope that what I learn here in earning my Oriental Medicine degree, and in living and becoming with the Land of Equanimity will be of service to them and others which I meet.
My House...
The house is fully furnished, and is nestled on the dividing line of the wet and dry side of the island. It is less than one city block away from the school (about two minutes walking distance). Walking to school is something children do in the old world. I've never walked to school. It is also near the center of town, and is walking distance to all restaurants and services. The town after all have only one main intersection, but room enough for three large grocery stores (one of which is organic), huge Starbucks, many local coffee shops selling local Kona coffee, a major hospital, clinics, Blockbuster, a small mall with a food court, and many retail shops to keep one very well occupied.
People don't lock their homes or their cars here. Mainly because if someone where to take something, where would they go? Also, since everyone knows everyone and most people are outdoors so much, everyone keeps an eye on the island's activities and would be happy to tell you that so and so came by your house and 'borrowed' a few things :)
For those who know a little about Feng Shui - the Celestial Guardians of this location could not be more auspicious. The Black Tortoise is the Mountain range of the Hawi peninsula in the North, the Red Phoenix is the fiery pits of Pele in the South, the Green Dragon is the windward wet and lush side of the island, and the White Tiger is the Western desert tundra. The bā guà of Feng Shui Taoist cosmology aligns perfectly in this place.
In exchange for a discount on the rent, we will need to look after the garden which includes orange, tangerine, lime, and grapefruit trees, among bushes of lavender. We will likely plant avocado and bananas as well as an herb and vegetable garden. Its a four bedroom house, with a carport, a wrap-around lanai and all amenities anyone could wish for.
The Dancing of the Hula...
I went on a random shopping expedition to a very chic mall on the leeward coast where I encountered a Hula performance being put on by a Hula school which trains both natives and Haole (Children of Caucasian immigrants). The performers were of all ages, but the second performance of a single solo dancer had me riveted with tears in my eyes. A beautiful woman of Chinese-Hawaiian descent of about 65 years old, with back and gray hair to her hips danced and chanted the Hula in a way I had never witnessed nor imagined possible. Hula is more than a dance when not distilled down into a trite performance for tourists and then further perverted by the media. Hula is a story-telling tradition which originates in Tahiti but is richly developed by the native Hawaiians.
Hula is an act of evocation. Every movement of the hands represents an object, concept, or event. The weaving of each movement stitches together a story with a particular emotional timbre. The speed and subtleties of the movement indicate emotion, and intent of each kinetic axiom. Through gestures alone, the dancer-become-sorcerer gathers up the elemental energy and richly manifests a legend, myth, or a story with complicated kinetic vocabulary. A person versed in the syntactic elegance and complexity of this esoteric tradition could fully comprehend the story being evoked. Through watching this, it occurred to me that today's interpretations, a renaissance of which took place under the cultural stewardship of the late monarch of Hawaii - Queen Liliuokalani, were but a shadow of the potential the Hula form had of providing a forum for true spiritual development as well as Shamanistic mystical practice whereby Hula tradition in its less artistic, but more ethereal form could imply the same type of power possible to harness by a human being as in the Chinese practice of T'ai Chi, or Qi Gong made famous by the Shaolin Temple legends which have made their way into popular culture as Martial Arts movies.
As she weaved her magic dance, and her face told of histories past, I could sense the ancient Kahuna traditions in her story which I have read about. Kahuna - one meaning of which translates as "The keepers of the secret", once ancient and still present - a cast of sorcerers and medicine healers had a long and documented history of spiritualism, evocation, and manifestation. Many documented stories are found in the literature of original Christian settlers where the manifesting power of the ancient Kahuna were known to summon processions of armies of the dead who would be heard marching down the old King's Road during dark nights - the sound of their feet stomping, drums beating, and chanting would frighten the settlers who could not explain the sounds. The King's Road was a path that cleared for the ancient King Kamehameha so that he could walk with his armies and survey the lands that he governed. The Night Walkers are the dark armies that patrol this dirt road around the island and are most active during the full moons.
Many of these traditional healers were later forbidden from practicing their arts by the early Christian missionaries, but the traditions of using elemental energy for healing is still alive in small groups of the elders who still live and practice the Kahuna way. Only a native Hawaiian may be called a Kahuna. Those from the West who wish to learn the healing practice are respectfully asked to refer to the art as Hawaiian Energetics. The Hula is but one glimpse into this ancient world.
Realizations of Our Part in Turning the Wheel..
This evening's adventures into the enchanted beauty of the Hula dancer and the sunset over the ocean made me aware of how utterly brief, fragile and vibrant life is. Not a single spec of dust is out of place in the universe. There is so much in this world that I will not have time to experience. But what I wish to experience is the awe of that which I do not understand but can only intuitively perceive as the wondrous manifestations of God, Gaia, the Universe, or whatever Spiritual force of name man has invented images and religions for since the dawn of time. We have made God in our image, and not the other way around - its arrogant to think otherwise.
The complete unbelievable nature of a mountain of fire rising about the waters, and becoming adorned with life from other distant lands, while supporting its people with all the healing, community, and harmony is what the fact of living, of being here, as myself, as a portion of this cycle is all about.
We are not born on this planet, nor placed here as some foreign object - we are born of it, out of it - a piece of the whole unified creation, as the most glorious manifestations of Life itself, wanting to celebrating itself out of its own brilliant excitement. We are not foreign bodies, placed here to dominate nature and bend it to our will. Unfortunately 90% of Hawaii's food is imported, mainly because the tourist industry is so prolific. The average age of Hawaii's farmers is 65 years old. The next generation, hypnotized by the promise of instant riches an illustrious education and jobs on the mainland are leaving the islands in quest of iPhones and other pretty and shiny things. All of the milk on the island is imported from California. By the time it reaches circulation it has been treated three times to kill bacteria and to prevent it from rotting. Preservatives are added throughout its journey. By the time it enters circulation it is almost completely dead and filled with chemicals. And we wonder where cancer, AIDS and mental illness came from. We are poisoning our land, and out bodies with our man-made substitutes as apparently no one is willing to wait for food to grow naturally, nor do people wish to share in their crops. Life is just something that happens between the maternity ward and the crematorium, and though people do stop to think and scratch their heads that it shouldn't be this way, few see the full picture of man's atrocities on the world and find a meaningful way to contribute to the race's wellbeing and to the encouragement of their friends and neighbors to do the same.
I am here to heal my body, my mind, my emotions, and my spirit, and when I am renewed, I will offer healing to those who need it. I cannot heal or help anyone if I am myself out of integrity (as in - whole and complete, lacking nothing, rather than a moralistic and judgemental view of what integrity has become known as). Its not a militant self-obsessive or arrogant conviction to attain a sanctimonious and self-righteous, an deluded perfection in all three areas - its simply finding the equilibrium formula for myself to remain in balance throughout life's humors.
While I personally don't want anyone's yard polluted with plastic bottles and aluminum cans, as a race, we deserve to die - as such, I am not going to adopt every cause out there for healing a planet that is actually perfectly fine without us. The planet may be hurting, but its in the people that its screams for help are heard in their illnesses, their depression, their dementia. 1 in 6 people have Schizophrenia, 1 in 3 get cancer.
Every culture, from the Mayans, to the Hawaiians, to the Native Americans, the Judeo-Christians have an end-of-time prophecy. Every single culture in the world all calculates the time to be close and many interpretations are all converging on these times. But the end of the world is not man made, nor is there a specific clock which is God-established. It is simply the result of man's poor custodianship of our planet which will ultimately lead to the end result.
The planet may need to wipe us out not as punishment, or moral retribution, but as a simple fact of nature bestowed upon those who no longer know how to listen to their cultural traditions and the land. So-called "Progress" is a poison which slowly kills. I saw a bumper sticker today which stated - "The human race will know peace, when man's thirst for power is extinguished." I am not worried, however. All cycles repeat themselves over and over again.
As far as the Earth and our relationship to it - we are grown out of it and nourished by it. Our every cell is but another level of organization of every molecule, where the one works as a whole. We are here as the universe's high priests and priestesses, eliciting the magic of the land in our praise of existence itself.
Why do we lose the wonder for life we had when we were kids? I used to think that this was necessary for the survival of our species. There is nothing ordinary about life.
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