BEING IN THE CANOE
Ka Hana Pono was the ancient Hawaiian approach to living with Aloha Spirit – the daily practice of staying in pono.
To be in pono means to be physically, emotionally and spiritually healthy/connected. The result is harmony in being.
Being pono is like being in a canoe.
Life’s circumstances are like the ocean and her waves, they are constantly in motion. They are whatever they are, wherever they are at any given moment.
Being pono is like being and staying in the canoe. You’re riding the waves, safe in your own space inside the canoe, no matter what the sea is doing around you. It’s clearly black and white. You’re either in the canoe – in pono – or you’re not. We always know when we’re pono. We know when we’re reacting to life in a calm, connected manner. We also know when we’re not connected. No one has to tell us when we fall out of the canoe. We’re all freaked out: minds racing, hearts pounding, our guts clenched in knots … survival mode, what the Hawaiians characterize as the seaweed entangled in your rudder, pilikia, the opposite of pono.
You cannot hope to live for any extended amount of time in the ocean. You could surf out there, swim out there, and survive for a brief period of time, but unless you’ve got a canoe, a good solid boat underneath you, you cannot survive indefinitely in the ocean. It’s just too big. Ancient Hawaiians felt the same way about life. They understood that life was just too big, too variable, too unpredictable.
Ka Hana Pono offers a way for you to shift out of pilikia and back into pono. It’s designed to help get you back into your canoe so that you can complete your journey and make land once again.
When you are Pono, your creativity will flow without effort: your inner beauty and light will shine through and all will see you as that shining Bowl of Light i ka ‘uhane nui au … you, as Spirit Greatness, paddling in your canoe … full sail!