Continuing with my quest to understand what draws different people to Huna and what they value about it, I am pleased to present a wonderful contribution from friend and fellow Alakai Jeff Donohue. Jeff is also a volunteer at the Bailey House Museum and Hale Ho’ike’ike (Home of objects) part of the Maui Historical Society.
Jeff provides some background about what led him to using Huna and gives 5 reasons why he loves Huna – plus a bonus one! These are great reasons, and it is an interesting story. The following is in Jeff’s own words.
I live on Maui in the town of Kahului. I am a retired Marine Engineer who had almost 50 years working aboard various ship’s before pulling the plug. I have lived on Maui for over 30 years. My wife and I have been married for 32 years and we have two daughters that recently graduated college. My wife is a born and raised Maui Girl. We met in the Seattle, Washington area where she attended college and became a Special Education Teacher. We moved to Maui because her family are all here and I loved the place. My job usually kept me away from home at least 6 months a year so Maui was a good place to raise a family for us.
To lay some background on my Huna adventures let me say that my Maternal Grandmother planted a seed when I was young. She was a Spiritualist, a Clairvoyant and Psychic Healer who had a successful business reading cards and tea leaves. They say she was extremely accurate in her readings. One thing that bothered me about her healings was that she would adsorbs another person’s sickness into herself but did not know how to release it. She died at 68 years old, which is young for my family. She had awfully bad arthritis and polio. You could not convince her to not do healings. Anyway, this was a problem I sought to solve as I grew older. Grandmother came from the days of Edgar Cayce. She was ordained by the Spiritualist Church in Chicago and held a charter in Kelso, Washington. My mother knew how to do everything my grandmother did but was scared to practice any of it except tea leaf readings. She read cards for herself. She taught me tea leaf reading.
As a teenager I loved muscle cars. I learned how to work on engines helping at the local drag strip. Later I had my first job working in tyres. My boss had been a professional stock car driver and he taught me how to drive. He stopped racing when he had his first son. I loved driving but soon realized I was a much better mechanic. This led me into the US Navy later and into a career as a Marine Engineer. I still had this nagging thing on my mind regarding my Grandmother of being a healer and her challenges. In my younger days there were no teachers or anyone to talk to about it.
I had always been on the lookout for a really good martial arts teacher, but none really hit the bar I was looking for until we moved to Maui. Hawaii has all kinds of world class martial artists, especially on Oahu. Maui had Suzuki Sensei of Aikido who had been inducted into the instructor hall of fame several times. He had trained for years with Morihea Ueshiba, the founder of Aikido. I was 38 years old at the time I met him, and we hit it right off. We shook hands and I thought he would tear my arm off. This is the real deal I thought. It was not a tight grip or something physical, he just grabbed me with his mind.
I was a Vietnam Vet who had PTSD and he had me just sit, to breathe and meditate for over 2 years. I was a changed man because of it. Then he wanted me to learn the arts, which I kind of refused until I had an experience where I needed them. He would say something to the effect, you must learn the arts, but you have to get beyond them. The aikido arts were for learning how to read energy and how to apply it in everyday life. Most people never got that. There was healing involved but it was through training. In two years of regular training you could heal from most anything. Sensei told us that he was not a healer, but healing was a side effect of training.
There were many psychic experiences during this time period, many deep lessons that would be hard to explain. Some of them I remember took me 16 years to finally understand after I left the dojo. There was a group of old Sensei’s that ran the business of the Dojo. They advised me to learn more about healing. They could not teach me that, I would have to find another teacher. Later I found Master Chunyi Lin who taught Spring Forest Qigong and healing technics, which I still use today because I understood them so well. This answered the question I had regarding my Grandmother, how to pull sickness out of someone and release it without it bothering yourself.
Sometimes I ran into things where Qigong healing did not work, and no one had an answer. This opened the door to Huna. I knew of Serge Kahili King, some of my old friends had attended his classes on Kauai and raved about him. When the time came, I looked him up online and found he was now on the Big Island. There was a class coming up on Miracles in Manifesting. I did a reading with the I Ching and received the most powerful reading I had ever gotten. Well, I did not have to think too hard about that one.
This class was a big joy to me. We talked about energy objects, locations and how to use the energy to manifest. Having studied Feng Shui this just fitted right in with a local style. I built energy rods that Serge taught and made up a chair that I use in my long-distance healings. Locally I use it for people to sit in while I work on them. Sometimes, just sitting in the chair corrects everything and raises their energy.
In the advanced Huna classes with Serge you learn about some of the things that Qigong does not address like Soul Retrieval, Power Objects and their retrieval, going on Journeys, etc. This opened doors for me, and it also gave me a great sense of freedom. I have had to use these Huna techniques only a few times, but they made such a difference for people and myself.
Huna also answered questions I came up with from my Aikido days. Morihea Ushiba wrote that he, during meditation, had met and befriended all the Gods and Dragons in Japanese Mythology. None of the students or teachers had a clue about what he was doing. When I learned about Journeying it became quite clear. He was a great Shaman. He was taught his martial arts by the forest demons (Tengu) but he had a light that has shown all over the world. I think he was one of the greatest human beings that ever lived.
Jeff shares five things he loves about Huna and in the spirit of generosity provided a bonus one too 😊
In keeping with my Aikido meditation, there are the 7 principles of Huna. You can do a meditation and just lightly ponder a principle. This will open deeper and deeper meaning to each one as you relax into it. This is like grokking a principle I suppose. Maybe you discover there is no end to mastering it.
In the last year I have begun Hawaiian Basket weaving. I think that learning a Hawaiian craft does help to understanding Huna more deeply. It could be Hula or playing music or fishing but the act of doing something traditional opens many insights and you make many friends, even if they are a basket.
The topic of Aumakua can be very fascinating. You have many different types, and every civilization has a name for it, like Group Spirit. The group spirit is known by many but do not know how to express it. Ancient Hawaiians knew this very well. When you relax and tune in you have an opportunity to absorb some deep knowledge and maybe become part of the Aumakua. The subject of Aumakua covers many areas of the meta-physical realm. Your super consciousness, family ancestors, the vast and numerous deities. To one practicing Huna, they become your friends and normal as conversing with your neighbour.
Journeying is such a feeling of freedom for me. When everyday life seems rather confining or provides too much drama, a good Journey is better than a long drive on a country road.
I am not much of a group person. When I taught academy kids who were up and coming engineers, I pretty much did it one on one so I could dial in on what they needed. I tend to do healings or training the same way. Maybe it is like art, you try to do the best you can with what you have. Hopefully, you create a masterpiece. Maybe it is not perfect, but it sure looks good.
As a ship’s engineer this probably made me the most successful at what I did. Communicating with machinery was an aptitude I had since my younger days. When something broke, I would just go down and Grok that piece of machinery. Sometimes I would wake up at night and know something was wrong and discover it before the Watch had found it. It has been a very handy skill learning to communicate with everything and in the same way, they communicate with you. Like my getting woke up knowing something needed attention.
Jeff can be contacted at: jeffdengr@aol.com
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