Be The Change ...

Think twice before you apply labels to yourself or other people even in your mind.  Give them and yourself the benefit of the doubt!

Money, in our world, usually represents certainty and stability. But, if your supply is wobbly, what’s your choice? Without money there’s uncertainty. This realization amplified my spiritual life tremendously because, if you’re going to keep your sanity, the only choice is spirit. That’s where I keep focusing today.

You see, without money, you can have adventures. That's right. Real adventures. Because with money, situations are contained and controlled. But, adventures have a wild and unpredictable quality. And, that sense of adventure liberates your Inner Child. When you're having an adventure, you remember to put your attention on something and just keep your mind open, because you just might get there —or get pretty close. Indeed, I focused on the religions of the world to assist in defining my adventures. I began meditating daily and often. It's how I got to my Ph.D's in Divinity, Metaphysics and Religious Philosophy. What probably made me quit Law finally was the fact I was already doing so much spiritual practice. There was just this disconnect between how one feels inside in the spirit and how we act in society, especially in these corporate realms where I was; that life became extremely painful, the incongruity of it all. 

Think about what this incongruity is for a moment. We humans are doing all this work, but we’re devastating the planet. We’re doing all this work and people are impoverished. We’re doing all this work and we can’t communicate with each other, even inside our organizations. All that stuff became so obvious and the drive for wholeness became like a life and death thing for me. That became my focus, and it changed my whole life.

Interestingly, during this same period in my life, my physical disability in my hands was spreading fast into my back and my physician was already planning four more surgeries on top of the two I already experienced. So, after a couple of years of struggling with that unhappy space, I left The Firm. I found myself sitting in my rented apartment and pretty soon people are visiting for Reiki classes. I had small gatherings in my living room that often spanned three to four hours per session. I was just being myself. I spoke of a Hawaiian view taught to me as a girl that encompassed a simple, direct way of relating to your self and others in your community ... I was exploring Shinto, Tibetan Buddhism, Sikhism as well as my native shamanic Baybalin experiences. I was exploring psychic phenomena. I was examining everything possible.

Now, here's the part of my teaching experience that I've embraced which has caused some students to balk and call me incompetent in metaphysics:

In the past several years, their has been a suspicion that technology is changing how we are as human beings. There’s even a movement referred to as “transhumanism” where it’s thought that we’re evolving very rapidly now into some kind of new creature. Our genes will be re-engineered and our bodies may be fused with various technological implements. We’ll become “enhanced” in various ways and will be connected to a larger intelligence that’s growing spontaneously and, in many ways, out of our control. And in some sense, that’s true. Stop yourself and really think about that one.

For many people memory is now Wikipedia. The Internet changes our behavior and our perspective and how we relate to the world. Education is already rapidly changing. These are things we could talk about for hours. But personally, I don’t think the singularity is going to work out very well. 

What I do think is going to happen is actually far more amazing, maybe closer to what Chardin calls the noosphere. Or, like what Peter Russell wrote about in Global Brain many years ago. He felt that we would reach a real crisis point as we approached 10 billion in population. He had the idea that the network and the development of systems would enhance human intelligence, but it’s not a view of machines taking over, it’s a view of a change in how human beings are in the world. Up until now, human beings have been makers of things and sellers of stuff, but the world cannot sustain that kind of thing. What is needed is an expansion of our consciousness and taking the things we have and using them wisely — actually doing what the machines were supposed to be about — freeing us from labor. Once we are free from labor, we are free to pursue our spiritual consciousness.

Unfortunately, many of us continue to watch TV, hold tightly to our cell phones and perpetuate our love affair with electronic media. This is the unfortunate thing. It’s a fulfillment of the old Protestant saying that "idle hands are the Devil’s workshop." We haven’t used education for raising the human spirit. We’ve been using education as training to prepare individuals for businesses and careers, even as teachers and philosophers.

The Halau is an educational non-profit organization, and not a religious church because it must be understood that humanity is not going to automatically be given a door into heaven. We have work to do. A very special kind of work. This is like taking the idea of the enlightened kingdom of Shambhala and making Shambhala universal, by creating a good society. We have work to do in terms of having a very broad dialogue all over the world. I think that dialogue is possible now. I see students moving toward dialogue about consciousness with each other. There’s a dissatisfaction with education as it has been. So we have to rethink this.

A basic part of the work we need is towards what Socrates said: know thyself. You could even say that meditation would be a fundamental part of this. My work is to try to find a way to alter the path of education. I didn’t really realize it until the years had passed by. Somehow all the elements, beyond my own control, have come into existence. And, it’s not just meditation. It means allowing consciousness, which grows out of meditation, to grow into the rest of life and to change how people work and the choices we make.

The transformational work performed by The Halau is to assist students who wish to change their orientation towards consciousness and the world. It’s an approach to relationship by focusing on connectivity. Realizing that we all undergo the same life experience situations shows everyone that we do share a common ground, and that realization breaks barriers. Embracing Connectivity is what opens the doors to expanding spiritual consciousness.

We’re living in hell, but heaven is breaking in; it’s knocking at the door. Socrates showed us that thinking the truth is not enough. Truth demands to be lived. And so it is here at The Halau.

Embrace your Self and forgive your shortcomings, then release those negative feelings of guilt and your fears of acceptance and of success. We welcome you into our Circle as Family because the truth is, All are One. Liberate your Inner Child. Live Aloha!