Tutu Wisdom: The Story of Alana

As is common for most of this at this time of year, I have been thinking a lot about my family, my friends and my loved ones. I was thinking the other day about all the influences on my life and who has been the strongest. Without a doubt, my Tutu (grandmother) has been one of the major driving forces in making me the person I am today. She taught me about my people, our culture and how we can heal ourselves and others through both physical and mental work.

I spoke to my grandmother over the weekend as I was writing on the Aloha Life and wanted her advice on how to present certain concepts. As we talked, suddenly all of these memories and stories started to come rushing back to me. One I would like to share is the story of Alana.

Alana was a young girl who lived on the island of Kaua'i. Alana's family had often spoke of a magical place in the middle of the jungle where a fantastic waterfall cascaded down into a pool of the purest water. Alana dreamt about this place and one day asked her makua (father) how to get there.

Alana’s makua smiled at the girl and pulled out a large machete. He pointed toward the dense foliage covering the mountain and said, “My dear, that is the way. Go and enjoy yourself.”

Alana was upset that her makua would not just take her but she set out in the direction he sent her. She reached the edge of the jungle and realized she could not even see light coming through the trees. She began swinging the machete and began to cut away at the brush.

For hours Alana swung and hacked at the ferns and vines and as she did, she became tired and dirty. Makikas (mosquitos) swarmed her and she was bit more than once by the centipedes. Several times she thought about giving up but she did not. After nearly six hours of cutting her way through the jungle, she suddenly heard the roar of the water. She doubled her efforts and was suddenly in the most beautiful clearing where the birds sang, butterflies surrounded her and the waterfall cascading into the pool was even more beautiful than she imagined. Alana instantly dove into the pool and drank of its cool, fresh water. Never before had Alana felt a spring that filled her with such complete happiness.

That night, when Alana returned home, her makua asked her if she made it to the pool. “Yes,” Alana replied, “but why did you not take me? Why did you make me head out there on my own?” Her makua smiled and said, “My darling Alana, if I showed you the way, it would have been just another pool to you. I knew that if you cleared your own path, when you reached your goal, it would exceed every expectation.”

This story was told to me by my tutu the first time she ever told me of our practice of Ho'oponopono. Like Alana, I learned that I must clear what blocks my own path in order to reach my goals. Once I was able to remove my negative thoughts, guilt and all my other perceived blockages, a light shone through that allowed me to open my heart and mind to a whole new level of communication.

Ke aloha wale, ka mahalo wale,

Alika

Set Yourself Free Using Ho´oponopono

Every one of us has people, things, emotions and situations, that, good or bad, consume our mana, or energy, and deplete our personal power. Aside from the impractical option of shutting these forces out, how do we deal with these things without leaving our mana completely drained?

My Hawai’ian ancestors have a tradition called Ho´oponopono or, translated literally, "to make right". It originated as a way for the family unit to deal with life's difficulties and evolved into a healing process we use to mentally cleanse ourselves or simply, to turn everything over to our Amakua or higher power.

To make things right through Ho´oponopono is so simple—but to do so, we have to accept two simple concepts. First, everything we experience in our lives, positive, negative or simply the backdrop of the world around us, gets filtered through one simple truth—that our reality is what we have created.

To fully comprehend this, we can compare our lives to a movie. Every one of us is the star of our own movie. We have our supporting cast (friends, family), special guest stars, and many, many extras. Everything we experience, feel, hear, and see—it is all filtered through the lens of our lives.

So knowing that we are the stars of our own movie does that mean we have total control over everything that happens to us, allowing us to prevent anything bad from ever happening to us? Of course not! The reason for this is that while we are the stars of our own movie, everyone else is the star of his or hers. That person who you pass on the freeway while driving your car is just as wrapped up in his existence as you are in yours.

While it is important to understand that we create our own reality, it is equally important to understand everything is connected to every other thing. My Hawai'ian ancestors called these connections we all share aka cords and they can best be described as an ethereal bond between us and everything we experience. Visualize a spider moving around and leaving a thread at every point she connects to a surface. Like the spider, we create a thread of energy between us and everything we see, touch or feel.

Once we have accepted these two simple principles, it becomes very easy to “set things right” through Ho´oponopono.

Sit quietly and visualize all of your loved ones. See your parents stepping onto a stage below you being joined by your siblings, children, and extended family. Who else belongs on that stage, who else are you connected to? Exes, teachers, authority figures, pets, and friends—see them all joining your relatives below you on the stage.

Is it only people that deplete your mana? What else takes your energy from you? Money, temptation, judgments, your job, obsessions and probably most importantly, yourself.

You have assembled quite a cast of characters on the stage below you. Every person, thing, and emotion on that stage is connected to you through the aka cords. Each aka connection is taking from you while you take from them. Some of these connections are supportive, while some are parasitic. Look at everyone on the stage and ask them, “Do you support me with the merging of my Amakua, or higher self?” Those that you know answer yes will leave the stage with total love for you.

Everyone remaining on the stage have something that is a piece of you—your love, your power, and your energy. The aka cord connecting you to everyone on the stage sits in a shadow and is hard to visualize. Take back the missing piece from them and pull it back within you. If you have a piece of them, know that you have held onto this for too long and return it to them.

Imagine the white light from your higher power illuminating you. Breathe deeply of this light and then exhale forcefully, breathing the light onto everyone on the stage. As you share the light from your Amakua, the aka cords connecting you will be illuminated. These aka cords connecting you to everyone represent your past dealings with them – how long do you want to be connected to your past? Ask your higher power to offer forgiveness to everyone on the stage and when you do, understand that you are receiving forgiveness as well.

It is clear that when we stay connected to these past events, our mana is depleted leaving us with less energy to focus on living in the moment. It is time to cut these connections to the past. Pulling from the strength of your higher power, sever each aka cord connecting you to those still on the stage. As you cut each cord, watch as what is on the other end slowly drifts away. One by one, your regrets, guilt, anger and sadness all leave you and when you are done, one cord will remain—that of the love of your higher power.

Ho´oponopono is not a one time process. I incorporate it into my daily meditation.

As time goes by you will see that there are fewer and fewer aka cords connecting you to those remaining on the stage but they will still be there. Ho´oponopono allows us to deal with everything in a way so that a minimum amount of power is taken from us. It shows us that when we accept accountability for our actions and forgive everyone and ourselves, our existence is made right.

Ke aloha wale, ka mahalo wale,

Alika