At the heart of Huna, an ancient Hawaiian system for living in harmony and developing our inner power, is ALOHA.
ALOHA is a word that has various meanings, and it is more than just a greeting. It means love, affection, compassion, sympathy, kindness. All different expressions of love. Ancient Hawaiians realized that ALOHA works better than anything else to get positive results in everything we do. Being in the spirit of ALOHA means being in harmony with yourself firstly and then with your family, the people in your community and the world.
Love is a very powerful force, we have all felt it, therefore when we apply this force into our lives, it will increase the energy or intensity of what we do, but in a positive way.
In the Hawaiian language, the root ALO means “to be with” and also “to be present”, and the root OHA means “joy”. When we combine both, it becomes ALOHA and means: “to be happy with someone or something in the present moment”. ALO also means ” to share” and HA refers to ” breath, life-force, spirit”. In this way ALOHA also means “to be joyful together and filled with the breath of life” or ” the divine breath is with us now”. Therefore if we use ALOHA as a greeting we are raising our vibrations to manifest love, positive energy and healing between us and others.
In old Hawaii, the Kahuna(masters) of healing and prayer, were taught to live according to the “secret” or the esoteric meaning of ALOHA. . This meaning included:
- A: ALA : watchful alertness
- L: LOKAHI : working with unity
- O: OIA’I’O : truthful honesty
- H: HA’AHA’A : humility
- A: AHONUI : patient perseverance
In this way, living in the Spirit of Aloha involves being observant of our lives and being aware of the way we relate to others and to the world around us, and this includes those closest to us as well as the larger world community. It encourages us to live in harmony with everyone and everything, respecting other individuals, the animal and plant worlds and earth, and this also means trying our best to work as a unity for the best outcome for everyone and everything. If we apply ALOHA in our lives we need to be honest with ourselves and with others, as well as living with humility. And lastly it relates to being patient and tolerant with ourselves and others and with those times in our lives when things may not be going as smoothly as we would want, it is then when we need to focus on “the great breath of patience”, ALOHA.
Living in the spirit of ALOHA is the greatest gift we can give to each other and to the world, it allow us to be strong, nurturing, unselfish while radiating peace, love, joy. May the spirit of ALOHA guide your path.
ALOHA: ” I greet all the light that is within you with all the light that is within me”.