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Body of Light
Light
Will someday split you open
Even if your life is now a cage...
Love will bust you wide open
Into an unfettered blooming new galaxy...
......A life-giving radiance will come...
From a sacred crevice
in your body
A bow rises each night
And shoots your soul into God...
- Hafiz
This beautiful, arresting poem by Hafiz, speaks to me about the dynamics of Transformation. It is this life-changing process that is inherent in the Wisdom Teachings of the ancient Hawaiians.
What we speak of today as 'Spiritual Light' and 'Divine Love', was known to the Ancients through the miracle of the body. Their inner and outer harmony with all that surrounded them, allowed them to access the Light that lives within our cells. Today, science has measured at least an aspect of this light as 'biophotons' — packets of electromagnetic frequencies emitted by each cell. Divine Love was perceived in the Spirit of Aloha — in one definition: the pure acceptance of all that is within us, and compassion for all that exists.
The deepening awareness of this Light and the movement towards Self-Acceptance and Total Compassion, is a process which leads us to come face to face with every resistance we have either learned or constructed. As we open ourselves to all of who we are, we expand the connection to the Spirit that lives within and become our own vehicle for transformation. Resistance, patterning, trauma, imbalance and dis-ease are transformed into vibrancy — as Hafiz says: 'a life-giving radiance' — in the alchemy of this process.
The Ancient Hawaiian path is one which by-passes the mind, working directly with the Light and natural harmony of Life that lives in each of our cells. It is said that 'the body gets it first, and the mind catches up later.'
The galaxy that Hafiz speaks about is within. To the Ancients, it is the limitless Life that animates us. Our system is constantly in the movement of Union, of dynamic Balance and blossoming Harmony. We are not just minds seeking for God. We are all of it: Body, Mind, Emotions, Spirit, Hopes, Dreams, Memories, Sensations, Vibrations, Awarenesses, Fears, Regrets, Love.....all of it, in One seamless Whole. The voice of this One, from deep inside, is the bow that 'rises each night, and shoots your soul into God.'.
—Still Mountain Retreat Guide, April 2011 © 2010 Ancient Hawaiian Bodywork
The Heart of Living
Have you ever felt that there is something stirring under the surface of your life - that there may be something more to life than the job, the relationship, or hanging out with friends? If so, it's quite likely that this elusive stirring is the Life inside of you, waiting to be lived. We all come into this existence with a unique combination of gifts. And our purpose, according to some, is to allow them to grow. When these gifts are submerged, blocked, or unrecognized, something inside of us becomes unsettled.
Even though we may 'have it all,' we develop a feeling that something is missing from our lives. What may be missing is 'you,' living the life you were meant to live, on a path fueled by your own unique gifts. The opening, development and sharing of our gifts causes us to wake with excitement, alive with eagerness, passion and wonder at what this day will bring. Our innate gifts are part of the foundation of our expression in this life, what we came here to offer. Without our foundation, life becomes insubstantial and at worst, meaningless.
Ancient Hawaiian Wisdom offers us the tools to break through the status-quo and discover who we truly are underneath all the conditioning, patterning, trauma and programming. Shedding these allows us to be in touch with the essence of Life flowing through us, and uncover our innate gifts.
Discovering and exploring our gifts not only benefits us, but has a profound effect on our families, communities and world. In this time of pivotal change, we are each called upon to bring the fullness of Life inside of us into being. Our gifts from God / the Universe / All That Is, become our gifts to each other, the planet, and to humanity. This is truly a life worth living.
—Maui Vision Magazine 05/11, © 2011 Ancient Hawaiian Bodywork
Our Lineage of Light
In every ancient culture, spiritual masters see the Universe, and everything in it, as completely interconnected. Modern spirituality has translated this as: ‘we are all one’. Nothing truer has ever been said, however, there is a vital difference between the knowing of the Ancients, and our conceptual understanding of ‘Oneness’. No matter how much we understand the concept, we cannot truly embody it until we experience it for ourselves. Australian Aboriginals experience our interconnectedness through The Dreamtime; Ancient Incan Shamans identified ‘The Lumnious Energy Field’ infusing our bodies, and all of Existence; Alternative health and energy workers speak of ‘the body’s innate intelligence’.
How amazing that Ancient Hawaiian Wisdom accesses the body as a way to Spirit. The Teachings say that “the body gets it first, and the mind catches up later.” Within our DNA, lie all of all of our more commonly known genetics, as well as our Lineage of Light. As an organic, living expression of Life itself, this Lineage cannot be ‘thought awake’, but must be accessed directly through the body, bypassing all of our mental and emotional limitations and programming.
You can begin this process by becoming aware of the patterns in which you consistently move. Any habitual pathways in your life reflect habitual thoughts, emotions and even outcomes. As we change the patterns in our physical world, all the other levels of our existence have to change. Why? Because, as every ancient wisdom tells us: ‘Everything is connected to everything else.’
What a gift of empowerment our Ancient Hawaiian ancestors have given us — the opening to our Lineage of Light, and the access point that is ‘closer than breath’. As my teacher Kahu Abraham Kawai’i said: “.....Finally, you know yourself to be the walking, breathing truth....”
—Maui Vision Magazine, October 2010 © 2010 Ancient Hawaiian Bodywork
We Are The Moving Universe
Expansion and contraction is the motion of the universe, the ebb and flow, the in breath and out breath. How can the ocean be alive without the waves? How can the river run without its motion up and around rocks, down into valleys....it’s all the river, it’s all the flow. The mind wants to stop life in the place we are comfortable with, the place we feel safe, and freeze it there. But Life, if it is to be lived, is constantly moving. If we are able to move with it, we are fully engaged, fully alive. If we stay in the 'freeze frame' of our comfort zone, holding on for dear life, the waves will seem stronger and stronger — simply because we have become stagnant in a moving Universe — and we will wonder why we are ‘pushed’ ‘hurt’ ‘discombobulated’ ‘foiled’ again and again. It is not anything outside, but our own resistance that creates disharmony, pain, lack. When we can finally let go of the 'freeze frame', we experience a release into more energy, more joy, more of who we really are — a vital, dynamic being. Letting go of our picture of how we thought life 'should be' does not leave us without or diminished, it leaves us MORE. It leaves us inside a movement in which there is continual and endless possibility.
In Ancient Lomi Lomi and Hawaiian Wisdom Trainings we watch our perceived limitations, unconscious fears, blocks and patterning fall away — not through doctrine, or any mental process — but by accessing the body's innate intelligence directly. As the physical, mental, emotional and energetic fields of the body/mind change, everything around us begins to respond in kind, and Life becomes a continual opening into the flow of All That Is. Because of this opening, anyone we touch — both in the bodywork and in life — then has an opportunity to move more fully into their authentic being, alive with the movement of the Universe.
—'Lomi News From Jody', © 2009 Ancient Hawaiian Bodywork
Maika'ike — "The Strength of the Knowledge"
At the basis of Hawaiian Wisdom Teachings is the principle of family, of interconnectedness - the knowledge that everything is part of one mystical being. Rather than being simply a concept, however, the ancient Hawaiians ingested, lived and breathed this knowledge in every cell.
We in the West are programmed to be completely engaged with the conceptual mind and it's continuous demands, judgements, commentaries and expectations - all based on the past - what we have learnt, been told, conditioned to believe, want to believe. The pathways from the mind to the body are well traveled. We are constantly telling our body where to go and how to get there. Often the only time we pay attention to it is when it falls ill - and even then, we are busy telling it to hurry up and get better! Many of our concepts around diet, health and fitness revolve around the idea of the body as a machine which needs the right fuel, exercise and water. The Ancients believed it to be a living, breathing, intelligence far beyond the conscious mind.
The Maika'ike Training provides tools to open the pathways from the wisdom of the body to the mind. Ancient Hawaiians believed that spirit and matter were one......and that deep in our cells lay the most profound truth of our being. Hawaiian Wisdom teachings enable us to move through the layers of conceptual reality to access this truth. As this is experienced, it becomes embodied - The Light is able to shine through our experience of living. This happens without thought and without effort as we embrace our Natural State of Being - something which has been forgotten. Indigenous peoples, people who find themselves living with the earth, are able to remember and inhabit this state. We are blessed that these sacred teachings are making their way out of the confines of the culture to touch our lives.
The Maika'ike Tranings provide a permanent acceleration of our 'internal speed' and alignment of our total self - mental, emotional, physical and spiritual - through ancient, encoded movement. The Light opens from within us as we walk Home.
© 2009 Ancient Hawaiian Bodywork
'Ohana Nui — The Great Family
Family is the starting point. The beginning of our place in the world. Connections are made by blood, by love, by intention. If we become very scientific and think of 'family' as those with whom we share genetic material, we think of course, of our blood family: parents, grandparents, siblings, cousins, etc. We wouldn't ordinarily think of an ant or an antelope or a berry as our family, but the truth is that we share genetic material with every living thing on the planet. Could it be that our family is endless?
Inextricably tied to nature, and consciously connected in every cell of their bodies, Ancient Hawaiians experienced the natural world within their own being. Each connection was awake, vibrant and full of Life - no difference between fellow humans, ocean beings, or the clouds. It was this connection which defined 'ohana or 'family'. The taro plant, or 'Kalo', which sustained the Hawaiian people for hundreds of years, is still considered to be an ancestor — a blood relative of the Hawaiian people. The connection of 'Ohana extended to the entire natural world — all the way to the stars, which the Hawaiians believe to be their place of origin.
Similarly, inside of us: all of our thoughts, feelings, memories, hopes, dreams — deeply inside every cell, are considered part of our 'Ohana. Every glance, sensation, taste or trauma we have ever experienced — also members of our family. As we begin to embody a world view that everything outside of us and everything inside of us is our family, we begin to move, touch, relate to and experience things in a new way - a way that connects instead of separates, a way that embraces instead of rejects, a way that becomes more and more accepting, willing and selfless. This is the journey we embark on in the study of the Ancient Ways - the journey towards 'Ohana Nui — The Great Family.
—'Lomi News From Jody', © 2009 Ancient Hawaiian Bodywork
Ke Ala Hoku - Pathway to the Stars
Lomi Lomi, the Hawaiian word for 'massage', is a general term meaning 'to knead' or 'to pound' and applies to every type of massage found in Hawai'i. Lomi Lomi Nui, literally translated, means 'The Great Massage'. There are many other names for this work, such as: Hawaiian Temple Bodywork, Temple-Style Lomi Lomi, and Kahuna Bodywork. The most beautiful, rare and most sacred form of the work is from the far-ancient past, pre-Polynesian Hawai'i's original inhabitants: It was called 'Ke Ala Hoku' - Pathway to the Stars. I have come to call it simply: Ancient Lomi Lomi.
In the Kumulipo, the Creation Chant of Hawai'i, the ancients trace their lineage back to the Pleiadies constellation. In other words, the Hawaiians claim their heritage, and most distant relatives as coming from the Stars. In fact, every ancient culture, including Greek, Celtic, Iranian, Chinese, East Indian, Aboriginal and The Indegenous Peoples of the Americas, carries sacred stories around the Pleiades. Ancient Lomi Lomi is designed to awaken the body's cellular intelligence: all of the infinite wisdom of nature and all the wisdom of our ancestry....all the way back to the stars!
As we begin to access that place where nature flows freely through us, we are able to transmit this awakening to another through the work. Ancient Lomi Lomi is truly a gift from the Ancient Ones. We are blessed to have the opportunity to offer this dance of awakening to another human being!
—'Lomi News from Jody', © 2009 Ancient Hawaiian Bodywork
Cellular Wisdom and Ancient Lomi Lomi
The ancient Hawaiians believed that the body was the keeper of Universal truths: answers to the same questions 'man' has asked throughout the ages -- "Who am I?" "What/Who is God?" "What is the meaning of Life?" This is a challenging idea for those of us raised in western traditions. It can be a stretch to think that this same body of ours - which we may have been taught to view, at best, as simply a 'tool' for living, holds the very keys to our spiritual search.
The Kahuna (shaman-priests) of Hawai'i believed matter and spirit to be one. They knew no separation -- spirit was to be found in the midst of matter and therefore all was treated with great reverence. Lomi Lomi Nui is an art of ancient Hawai'i - a ritual honoring the sacredness of the body and providing reverent space for the flowering of its wisdom.
Thousands of years ago, the original Hawaiians knew of the profound wisdom we hold in every cell of our bodies. Only very recently in our modern world have scientists found the DNA. To the ancients, the body's wisdom was far more revered than any mental process. What beats our hearts, courses through our veins, and ingests and processes billions of bits of information in every moment of our life is this innate intelligence. It is Nature itself. The ancients believed that this Intelligence held the ultimate truth of our being. What a relief to know that all we need to move to the next level is right here.....has been here all the time!
—Maui Vision Magazine 04/09, © 2009 Ancient Hawaiian Bodywork
The Power of Attention
There is a story about a pilgrim in search of the truth who traveled thousands of miles, and finally, after an arduous climb to the top of a mountain to consult a Holy Man, asked his question: "Master, if you could give me just one wisdom that would serve me in all of life's moments, no matter what the situation, what would it be?" The Holy Man replied: "Pay Attention".
We can direct our attention towards an infinite number of things in each moment, but to be attentive - simply 'paying attention' - is a state of listening. Paradoxically, as we learn to connect and listen on deeper and deeper levels, our awareness becomes more and more vast.
In ancient Hawaiian teaching, we develop present awareness of each moment in all it's dimensions: our movement, breath, sensation, thought, impulses, the nature of the wind, the sunlight, sounds, smells.....etc. Each moment is full of information, insight, power and possibility. It is by being attentive, listening with an openness that discards any pre-conceived ideas, that we are fully present, fully empowered in each moment of our lives.
Suddenly, life becomes incredibly exciting as we realize that each moment is brand new. Even though we can repeat the same activities and encounters for days or years on end, if we are really paying attention, we see that, actually, everything is completely different. Now we have the opportunity to respond to each moment as it is Right Now......and thereby break free of old patterns, paradigms, belief systems, actions and reactions that have been ruling our lives by default. This is when our Life begins to Blossom.
—Maui Vision Magazine, 06/09; © 2009 Ancient Hawaiian Bodywork
Manifesting from the Inside Out
"Manifesting" is a modern word which has inspired our culture to create our life exactly the way we want it. For many, this means having plenty of money, vacations, love, joy and success. Amazingly, many ancient cultures were deeply connected to the process we call "manifesting", but in a much more profound way. If there are 'gaps' in our ability to manifest, perhaps we can look to the Ancients to fill in the missing pieces.
My teacher, Kahu Abraham Kawai'i, used to say: "To achieve anything, you have to have already arrived." But how do we do this? How many of us have visualized and 'felt the outcome' over and over with mixed results? The Ancient Hawaiians were able to contact the Innate Intelligence that is the Source of all things, and from this place, truly become a creator. Exactly the opposite of 'mentally redefining reality', they began with the body. In their teachings, '....the body gets it first, and the mind catches up later...' In other words, once we have contacted this Source as a physical experience - very different from a mental concept - it becomes embodied. This connection is ours forever and the ability to move our life forward into the life of our dreams becomes more fully realized.
The art of Ancient Lomi Lomi is a vehicle for this very transformation. Far more than a bodywork practice, these studies entail a broad spectrum of ancient physical techniques to raise what the kahuna called our 'internal speed', quickly and efficiently drop resistance that has prevented your forward movement in life, and contact the expanded intelligence in every cell. The bodywork is a beautiful by-product of the Training and can enhance any bodywork practice. For the Hawaiians, finding Grace inside the body was their key to creating a life fed by Spirit.
© 2009 Ancient Hawaiian Bodywork
Contact : lominews@gmail.com
Ancient Hawaiian Bodywork
16 Baldwin Avenue, 2nd Floor, Paia, Hawai'i
808.269.0591
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