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The Great Spirit - opihikao - 07-15-2015
Our Hawaiian culture is quite similar to our Native American/Indian brothers and sisters, who have also seen progress and change over generations. Mahalo to our brothers and sisters, for The Great Spirit we should embrace together.
If we all just pick five (5) or ten (10) of list below, the world could be a much better place for our keiki and mo'opuna. Maybe, even for ourselves.
Imua kakou. Aloha kekahi I kekahi.
(Now, back in "time out". [
])JMO.
NATIVE AMERICAN CODE OF ETHICS
1. Rise with the sun to pray. Pray alone. Pray often. The Great Spirit will listen, if you only speak.
2. Be tolerant of those who are lost on their path. Ignorance, conceit, anger, jealousy - and greed stem from a lost soul. Pray that they will find guidance.
3. Search for yourself, by yourself. Do not allow others to make your path for you. It is your road, and yours alone. Others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you.
4. Treat the guests in your home with much consideration. Serve them the best food, give them the best bed and treat them with respect and honor.
5. Do not take what is not yours whether from a person, a community, the wilderness or from a culture. It was not earned nor given. It is not yours.
6. Respect all things that are placed upon this earth - whether it be people or plant.
7. Honor other people's thoughts, wishes and words. Never interrupt another or mock or rudely mimic them. Allow each person the right to personal expression.
8. Never speak of others in a bad way. The negative energy that you put out into the universe will multiply when it returns to you.
9. All persons make mistakes. And all mistakes can be forgiven.
10. Bad thoughts cause illness of the mind, body and spirit. Practice optimism.
11. Nature is not FOR us, it is a PART of us. They are part of your worldly family.
12. Children are the seeds of our future. Plant love in their hearts and water them with wisdom and life's lessons. When they are grown, give them space to grow.
13. Avoid hurting the hearts of others. The poison of your pain will return to you.
14. Be truthful at all times. Honesty is the test of ones will within this universe.
15. Keep yourself balanced. Your Mental self, Spiritual self, Emotional self, and Physical self - all need to be strong, pure and healthy. Work out the body to strengthen the mind. Grow rich in spirit to cure emotional ails.
16. Make conscious decisions as to who you will be and how you will react. Be responsible for your own actions.
17. Respect the privacy and personal space of others. Do not touch the personal property of others - especially sacred and religious objects. This is forbidden.
18. Be true to yourself first. You cannot nurture and help others if you cannot nurture and help yourself first.
19. Respect others religious beliefs. Do not force your belief on others.
20. Share your good fortune with others.
May The Great Spirit Smile down on you and keep you and yours safe
May the trail rise up to meet you
May the wind be always at your back
May the sunshine warm upon your face
May the rain fall soft upon your fields
And until we meet again
May The Great Spirit hold your hand in the palm of his hand.
May there be Beauty above me
May there be Beauty below me
May there be Beauty within me
May there be beauty around me
May I always walk in Beauty,and May you also walk in Beauty for the rest of your lives.
RE: The Great Spirit - Guest - 07-15-2015
Thank you Opihikao, great points and reminders. I may be missing both of my parents as they have decided to visit others above and to start other journeys. Thankfully I can still pick up the phone and call my 92 year old Grandmother, bless her heart. She reminds me that my great,great, grandmother would call on this great spirit (Unetlanvhi) for guidance or patients at times to help provide for the children (keiki). She ( my grandmother) said this morning to stand strong for what I believe in, to not give up my way of love and life. She is against big business and big government, she believes the Hawaiians should have the final say to how they are to live, and what they want to live with. The right to make and sleep in their own bed, as she put it?
A Cherokee morning song worth listening to is " I am of the great Spirit". Have a great day, enjoy the blessings by the heavens.
RE: The Great Spirit - PaulW - 07-15-2015
"19. [...] do not force your beliefs on others."
Wise words indeed, maybe the protestors blocking roads and ignoring the rule of law should take note.
RE: The Great Spirit - Susan - 07-15-2015
Thank you Opihikao. Wonderful words as I go to sleep.
RE: The Great Spirit - Lodestone - 07-15-2015
Very nice and all, but I just turned to my wife, who is 100% Cheyenne, a PhD, and very aware of most things Indian, and asked her about the Native American Code of Ethics. She had never heard of it. So, I googled. It looks like it originated in an article in "Inter-Tribal Times," in the October, 1994 issue. So, it's more aspirational than factual.
Hate to nit-pick such fine sentiments, but there are over 500 tribes of North American Indians, and they all have their own cultures and values. Traditional Comanches, for example, would have taken issue with items 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,12,13,14,and 17, at a minimum. (For details on that fun-loving bunch, I heartily recommend reading "Empire of the Summer Moon").
RE: The Great Spirit - rainyjim - 07-15-2015
Thanks for the reality check lodestone!
RE: The Great Spirit - Tink - 07-15-2015
Regardless of where it came from, they seem to be worth trying to go by to become a more peaceful, but strong soul with integrity instead of becoming a snarky, boisterous beast, in my opinion.
Community begins with Aloha
RE: The Great Spirit - pahoated - 07-15-2015
quote:They thought of themselves as the equivalent word to nations, and consisted of many tribes. It was the Sioux nation, the Apache nation, the Seminole nation, the Cherokee nation, the Mohawk nation, so on. And while they had a Sky Father, they were hardly all mellow aloha. Many of those nations existed on what is known as north America battling each other for thousands of years. They didn't think land could be owned but they definitely had territories. Before the Spanish lost some of their horses, the battles were fought on foot, hand to hand.
Originally posted by Lodestone
there are over 500 tribes of North American Indian
One thing about all this faux-emo blubbering about the gentleness of the Hawaiians is, yes, they brought aloha but they had sophisticated martial arts, with extremely sophisticated knowledge of the human anatomy, especially the fatal blow areas. The pre-contact Hawaiians preferred hand to hand combat, to see the eyes of their enemies for the mana. The enemies were other tribes from other islands. That was part of being Hawaiian just as much as lei making.
"Aloha also means goodbye. Aloha!"
RE: The Great Spirit - Lodestone - 07-15-2015
Sorry if I came off as too harsh. Like I said, good words and fine sentiments. It just pushed a few of my (and my wife's) buttons. Indians have always been portrayed as either ignorant savages or superhuman mystics. It gets old. They're just folks, trying to muddle through the day just like everyone else.
RE: The Great Spirit - dakine - 07-16-2015
instead of becoming a snarky, boisterous beast...
Have you ever wondered if places, like a piece of property, a rock, a building, have their own inherited 'vibe'? Like how it can be that on a given street corner one business establishment can thrive while another next door, regardless of what business comes and goes, can't make it. If that's the case does the same equally apply to entire areas? And if that's so, what would be the vibe, the energy, of Puna? As in contrast to other sides of the island. Elsewhere on the planet.
I know that western transplants often do not attribute a sense of place to where they stay, and often times have no sense of karma, or a spiritual connection to their ancestors, so I wonder does that exempt them? Does karma only apply to those that believe in it? Do ancestral ties only bind those that acknowledge them?
These thoughts, questions, arise because of opihikao's post, and the cynical response of those that would rather critically analyze rather than embrace it with the spirit it was offered. And they wandered into thinking about the legend of Ke-lii-kuku (The-Puna-chief-who-boasted).
In my and Frankie's book, Aloha O Kalapana we reproduced this legend as a reference to records of a time when Puna had an abundance of soil and was a rich agricultural center of activity. Though for many Hawaiians it is recalled as a lesson given by tutu when as a child one was too boastful and was being taught to behave with humility. To not boast. It is reproduced on page 31 of the Hawaiian legends of volcanoes (mythology) collected and translated from the Hawaiian that can be read online at:
https://archive.org/details/hawaiianlegendso00west
And I include here:
Another chief was the one who was called in Hawaiian legends Ke-lii-kuku (The-Puna-chief who boasted). He was proud of Puna, celebrated as it was in song and legend.
"Beautiful Puna!
Clear and beautiful,
Like a mat spread out.
Shining like sunshine
Edged by the forest of Malio." — Ancient Chant.
Ke-lii-kuku visited the island Oahu. He always boasted that nothing could be compared with Puna and its sweet - scented trees and vines.
He met a prophet of Pele, Kane-a-ka-lau, whose home was on the island Kauai. The prophet asked Ke-lii-kuku about his home land. The chief was glad of an opportunity to boast. According to the "Tales of a Venerable Savage" the chief said: "I am Ke-lii-kuku of Puna. My country is charming. Abundance is found there. Rich sandy plains are there, where everything grows wonderfully."
The prophet ridiculed him, saying: ''Return to your beautiful country. You will find it desolate. Pele has made it a heap of ruins. The trees have descended from the mountains to the sea. The ohia and puhala are on the shore. The houses of your people are burned. Your land is unproductive. You have no people. You cannot live in your country any more."
The chief was angry and yet was frightened, so he told the prophet that he would go back to his own land and see if that word were true or false. If false, he would return and kill the prophet for speaking in contempt of his beautiful land. Swiftly the oarsmen and the mat sails took the chief back to his island. As he came around the eastern side of Hawaii he landed and climbed to the highest point from which he could have a glimpse of his loved Puna. There in the distance it lay under heavy clouds of smoke covering all the land. When the winds lifted the clouds, rolling them away, he saw that all his fertile plain was black with lava, still burning and pouring out constantly volumes of dense smoke. The remnants of forests were also covered with clouds of smoke through which darted the flashing flames which climbed to the tops of the tallest trees.
Pele had heard the boasting chief and had shown that no land around her pit of fire was secure against her will.
Ke-lii-kuku caught a long vine, hurled it over a tree, and hung himself.
I bring up this legend and ask is possible that many here are afflicted with a boastful attitude? With a better than thou kind of outlook? And wonder if this is a part of Puna's vibe and as such a part of the struggles of the personal inner growth of those that are drawn to Puna? Or, is it a general condition to be found in equal parts everywhere?
Mahalo opihikao for this thread.