Huna Article

Huna International

911
by Jim Brinkley

Everything is a reflection. This phrase defines the third aspect of reality. In other words, every thing, every event, and every idea that we experience in some way reflects our thinking. Another way to say this is that everything is symbolic. For several decades now, 9-1-1 has symbolized help in a time of crisis. Many people add the numbers 911 at the end of a numeric page when they want the recipient to understand that the call is fairly urgent.

Now 9-11 will always symbolize the essence of crisis itself. The catastrophe of September 11, 2001 left us all stunned. I personally felt the same shock, fear, sorrow, outrage, and loss of faith in America and in God as I did on those terrible days in 1957, 1963, and in the early 1970s. Briefly. Then my Huna training kicked in.

When the USSR was first into space in 1957, there was panic and many Americans were certain that our way of life was over. They envisioned bombs raining down on us from outer space and total domination by the Russians. A scant twelve years later, we had men on the moon and had far outstripped every other nation technologically. When President Kennedy was shot in 1963, there was panic and many Americans were certain that our way of life was over. Yet today we are freer, more prosperous, and more envied than ever before. When the first airliners were hijacked in the early 1970's, there was panic and many Americans were certain that our way of life was over. At first we found it hard to accept that we must all go through a metal detector and submit to having our private luggage searched but we accepted it and as the twenty-first century began, air travel was stronger than ever. And so now, in 2001, we shall weather this crisis.

Why did the events of 9-11 happen? I discarded that question almost immediately. One of the very first things Serge taught me when I began my spiritual studies with him fourteen years ago was that there is never an answer to why. It is a question without meaning. Then how? How could it happen?

The first principle of Huna says that The World is What You Think It Is. Another way to state this principle is, Ones World is a Mirror of Ones Thoughts. What thinking could possibly reflect back as the loss of 5,000 innocent lives?

Almost 50,000 people in the World Trade Center could not have been thinking the kind of negative thoughts that could bring on such a disaster. In fact, most of them were thinking, on some level, that they were safe, secure, and that any emergency would be dealt with in such a way that they would not be harmed. And that is why so many people got out unharmed . In fact, about 90% of people in the towers and the Pentagon were evacuated safely.

That does not diminish the horrible loss of the 5,000 people who did not escape. What then were their thoughts that allowed this tragedy to occur? We can never know what any individual is thinking, unless (s)he wants us to know. We can however imagine that some had their thoughts so focused on what they were doing that they were not immediately aware of the danger. Others were probably so focused on helping others that they made a decision to disregard their own safety. Some may have carried with them enough fear so that they panicked. Undoubtedly, some never had time to think of anything at all.

What then of the thoughts of the attackers and their accomplices? It is obvious that their thoughts were of hatred. Their hatred was so intense that it did not discriminate between those who may have had some responsibility for the plight of the terrorists and their families and those who were totally innocent, nor even between men, women, and children. How does hatred like this arise?

It seems to me that hate can be defined as sustained directed anger. Sadly, this anger is usually directed in an inappropriate direction. Serge has defined anger as trying to push something or someone away and fear as trying to move away from something or someone. As I see it, anger is in turned caused by lack. This lack may be a physical one (something is missing), an emotional one (someone is missing), a mental one (an idea is missing), or a spiritual one (the whole is missing; i.e., one feels separated.) It may be a real lack (there is not enough food to feed the family), a relative lack (there is not enough champagne to go with the caviar), or an imagined lack (there is not enough food on hand to feed the family for a month).

Recall the last time you were angry. Can you perceive where you felt a lack? Very often the lack is merely a lack of being able to control the situation exactly as you might wish to. When someone last cut in front of you on the road, did you lean on the horn, scream a curse out the window, and continue to mutter to yourself for several minutes? If no one was hurt, nothing was damaged, and you were not seriously delayed, why were you so upset? It is because in that moment , you perceived a lack of control at the time of a threat. Anger (or fear) when threatened is normal. Anger (or fear) that persists after the threat is gone is dysfunctional .

In most cases, the lack (or apparent lack) fades quickly, as you regain control of your situation. However, if you cannot regain control, the lack persists and the anger builds. In time, unresolved anger leads to immense frustration. Because the lack apparently cannot be eliminated, this frustration is vented by directing the anger toward a target in a sustained fashion. Unfortunately, the target often has nothing to do with the lack.

Shortly after September 11, I was chatting with some co-workers about the attacks when it was suggested that religion is the cause of much of the hatred in the world. Religion does not cause hatred, although it can certainly be a vector for hatred but I do believe that, at least here in the west, Islam is held in lesser regard than other great religions. When we feel revulsion that some Moslems might consider a "holy war" against those of other religions, would it not be wise to remember the Crusades, when Christians did exactly the same to them?

How can religion be a vector for hatred? When a lack is major and sustained, so that the anger becomes major and sustained, the resulting frustration demands a target on which to direct the hatred and vent the frustration. At some level, we each realize that we are responsible for our own destiny but it is often difficult to accept the responsibility for our own lack. It is much easier to turn it outward, toward others whom we perceive in some way to be different from us. Obvious places to find differences are in appearance (race, skin color, hair length, manner of dress) or in beliefs (religion, politics).

The lack that the terrorists perceived was real. Many people in their part of the world have little with which to sustain themselves, even though some of the richest nations and richest people on the planet are there. The people in the World Trade Center were not in any way the cause of this lack, nor were those in the Pentagon or on the hijacked airliners. Why was America the target? I believe it is because of envy. We usually can control our destiny, our moments. It must cause great frustration for those who apparently cannot control theirs to see us consistently do so.

I am not saying for a moment that this lack justifies the actions of 9-11. Nothing can do that. In fact, I wholeheartedly support the effort to hunt down all terrorists and to bring them to justice. However, having done that, lack will still remain.

Even though we were not the cause of this lack, we can do something about it. Former Senator George McGovern proposed recently that we should set aside five billion of the forty billion dollars earmarked by congress to fight terrorism and use it to feed the world. When asked why, he replied, "because we are the only ones who know how!" There is much to be said for that idea. In fact, if each American contributed just five percent of his or her income to the cause of providing education, food, clothing, shelter, opportunity, and freedom (things which we have always taken for granted) to those in the world who do not have them, couldn't we virtually remake the world?

Harmonizer shamans know that every obstacle is an opportunity in disguise. If the horrific events of September 11 galvanize all Americans (and perhaps all citizens of the planet) to aggressively defeat terrorism and to equally aggressively promote genuine freedom and democracy throughout the world, all those who gave their lives will become true American heroes.

The opposite of anger is love, which is the joyous sharing of life energy. One way to share joy is to bless. To bless is to enhance the positive in something and its opposite is to curse, or to enhance the negative in something. Pierre Pradervand has said, "To bless all without discrimination is the ultimate form of giving . . . it is impossible to bless and to judge at the same time."

There are two very profound spiritual truths which were well understood by the Kahuna Kalakupua of Hawaii Nei. The first is, "Everything is an Illusion." Our entire existence on this planet may be viewed as a dream. This current nightmare is only one dream of the many that each of us dreams. It is not the true or the permanent reality. The second truth is that there is no evil. There is lots of bad judgement, ineffective thinking, and very poor decision making. What we perceive as evil is simply dysfunctional anger run amok.

Shortly after the events of 9-11, a letter from Deepak Chopra ("The Deeper Wound") was widely circulated over the Internet. It contained more questions than answers but the last sentence is well worth quoting here. Dr. Chopra said, "But if you and I are having a single thought of violence or hatred against anyone in the world at this moment, we are contributing to the wounding of the world."

Your world is a mirror of your thoughts. Now is the time to direct your thoughts to peace, love, freedom, prosperity, health, and joy for everyone in the world. Bless, bless, and bless again. Aloha a me malu.

Copyright Huna International 2001