Be a person who knows love
Kama ‘ia ke aloha a pa’a I loko
Bind love that it may remain fast within
Be a person who knows love.
‘Olelo No’eau by Mary Kawena Pukui
#1452, Hawaiian Proverbs & Poetical Sayings
Maui has been on my mind. Wild hurricane winds combined with Lahaina’s bone dry ‘aina was primed for a spark maybe from a downed electric pole that caused a horrifying conflagration. The death toll continues to rise (115 at this writing) and the number of missing continues to fluctuate. Many of the dead were burned alive as they could not get away from the fire in time. The New York Times had a riveting interview with a survivor who had to jump into the ocean to escape the fast-moving fire.
As I experienced Hurricane Iniki, I saw the aloha spirit spring alive in full force after the news. So many people from all over contributing money and goods to help the people who survived! I hope also that the funds contributed will also help them rebuild their lives and Lahaina will be like a phoenix rising from the ashes.
We will dedicate our October 1st (hybrid) Celebrate Aloha Concert as a Benefit for Lahaina with 100% of the proceeds going to the Hawaii Community Foundation’s Maui Strong Fund.
We just completed a 3-day silent meditation – our Healing Harvest Retreat. These silent retreats are medicine for my body mind. In Buddhism, body mind refers to a wholeness: not just head and not just body but both as one. In my regular life the duality of body and mind becomes more reinforced as I spend more time in my head and less time with my body. When I forget my body, I’m forgetting a kind of grounded wholeness, and my ego stress just keeps piling on.
During sesshin, we practice doing one thing at a time: sitting, working(samu), eating, resting, stretching. It’s being mindful and quite relaxing actually. For example, in samu when we wash the rice, we just wash the rice. When we sweep, we just sweep. When thoughts arise, we let them go, and return to what we’re doing in the moment.
Meditation helps me to know what is real and to be real. It can be a challenge to be real, especially if you disagree with someone. So many past and present conditions can affect the way you articulate your thoughts and feelings (or not). Recently we had a wonderful Sunday Morning Zen speaker, Jitsujo Gauthier who shared these three questions that were important for her:
How to train the body-mind to appropriately respond to hardness, violence, and difference?
How to stay fresh moment to moment?
How to continue seeing self as other and other as self?
These questions are important to someone who wants to cultivate aloha/love.
My meditation practice helps me live the answers to these questions (not always perfectly) moment by moment. Remembering that we are innately loving beings and practicing that love, aloha, or compassion for others as well as ourselves is a key.
Malama pono (Take good care of body, mind and heart),
June Kaililani Ryushin Tanoue
Kumu Hula, Roshi