I was recently presenting a workshop on spirituality and the topic of kindness came up. We also touched on how to act kindly to others and oneself (the latter often gets overlooked!). I was reminded of the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation[1] which promotes kind actions and provides great ideas for doing so.
Of course, kindness has many benefits to the recipients of the kind acts and kind acts help to foster a more compassionate and considerate environment and society. Also, the person demonstrating kindness benefits personally even if the recipient is unaware of who has acted kindly. Not only that, but studies have shown that in essence kindness is contagious – there is a ripple effect – it rubs off on other people and they are then more likely to do kind acts and so on[2].
This got me thinking about something else that enables us and others to increase effectiveness, harmonise, increase the sense of connection and foster compassion. Yes, you probably guessed it – Huna! To live according to Huna principles is to live the Aloha Spirit, of which kindness is an important value, and to honour the principle of Aloha – ‘the joyful sharing of loving energy in the present moment’. In Huna we have a set of extremely powerful and useful principles to live and act by.
Huna is not dogmatic or prescriptive. If we consider the principle of Pono which can be described as ‘effectiveness is the measure of truth’ – anything that increases success, effectiveness and harmony can be considered to be Huna. So, we have a lot of options to choose from.
A key aim of the Aloha Project established by Aloha International in 1973 is to use Huna to contribute to making the world a better place. This supports the idea of service to self, others and the planet, in order to spread healing and harmony.
A primary reason for sharing Huna knowledge is to encourage its use for practical ends. And a great way of learning Huna is by using it and doing it. Huna gives us an almost limitless toolbox from which we can draw on to achieve this. I believe that, like kindness, practicing Huna benefits ones self and others and can become contagious.
So, here’s a suggestion to anyone reading this: get into the habit of carrying out at least one random act of Huna at least once a day. It’s a great way to develop your skills and contribute to making the world a better place. It doesn’t have to be a huge gesture something small and simple is enough.
A favourite Hawaiian proverb of mine is:
Ukuli’i ka pua, onaona i ka mau’u
Tiny is the flower, yet it scents the grasses around it
This points to the power of even the smallest thing to have an influence for the better. No act carried out with intention and Aloha is too small or worthless. You can make a difference day by day, act by act and you’ll benefit yourself in the process.
There are many many things you can do on a physical, emotional, mental and spiritual level. There are at least four levels of reality from which you can act (objective, subjective, symbolic and holistic). And there are seven principles within which there are lots of actions that can be taken.
There are also many places that you can look for ideas about what to do. One good source of ideas and inspiration is the growing number of articles in the Huna International library archive
Just a quick scan through some articles randomly (sic) has provided some great examples including:
Stewart Blackburn’s The Like Button
Jim Fallon’s Distant Dynamind
Janet Maika’i Rudolph’s Blessing Sandwich
Serge Kahili King’s The Aka Web of Healing
So why not commit to a daily random act of Huna and help make the world a better place? I would love to hear your experiences and ideas, please email me at pete@urbanhuna.org and let me know.
Have fun changing the world!
Pete Dalton ©2022
[1] https://www.randomactsofkindness.org/kindness-ideas
[2] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/kindness-contagion/
