Amidst many wonderful Huna related topics such as the magical utility of the seven principles, the illuminating view of what constitutes the ‘self’, the different levels of reality and various healing modalities and techniques, one simple and profound thing has been exceptionally valuable to me: the Huna adventurer attitude.
Out of all that, an attitude may not sound like very much at all, but I believe in Huna it is. Our attitude is the way we feel and think about something and this ultimately influences how we behave. The good news is that once we apply a little awareness to discover what our current attitudes are then we can use the wonderful power of choice and focus – makia to choose the attitude that serves us best.
The foundation of the adventurer attitude is aloha. Here qualities of love, compassion and gratitude are key. Love is the driving force of the Huna adventurer. Alongside that is an emphasis on connection.
Of course, in tandem with connection are qualities of curiosity and even a certain playfulness and smarts. It is no surprise that the demi-god Maui is sometimes considered to be an archetype of the adventurer attitude.
If we add into the mix the notion that in some way everything is alive aware and responsive, then the attitude results in a natural desire to connect with anything whether that be a person, an animal, a thought, a pain, an experience or a symbol. If we also introduce curiosity and aloha we get the approach of befriending things in our field of experience.
Let’s contrast this with some other attitudes and behaviours and consider this from the point of view of encountering a challenging situation.
One option is to take an attitude of resistance to an experience that we don’t want to have. The issue here is that it takes energy and focus to resist and doesn’t necessarily change anything. It is no coincidence that a common saying is ‘what we resist persists’. As we push things away, we actually cause ourselves to focus on the thing itself which we don’t want hence we sustain the status quo and feel worse in the process.
Another option is to fight an experience we don’t want to have. Here we seek to be strong, dominate and overcome an experience in order to change it. This has resulted in common metaphors about fighting diseases, combatting climate change etc. The experience is an adversary to overcome. This takes energy and produces tension and can only result in a winner and therefore a loser – which might or might not be you.
Another possible attitude is avoidance. Here the approach is to try to avoid the experience, however this is futile as the experience is already happening. Attempts can be made to ignore an unwanted experience and while this results in less direct focus on it, it can still take energy to actively ignore something and you are avoiding being in your present reality which strips you of much of your power. In addition, it does little to change or resolve the situation.
Another approach is to act aloof or distant. One form of this is a linked to a form of spiritual smugness. Another is a disassociated attitude. This has some similarities with ignoring a situation and has a limited chance of producing change.
The adventurer attitude of befriending may seem counter intuitive at first. Why would you want to befriend something you don’t want in your experience? There are many reasons including acceptance of your present moment experience. This can help to reduce tension which in turn can improve resourcefulness and increase your personal power in any given situation. It also provides the opportunity for you to increase your awareness and explore your experience in ways that you are less likely to when you are resisting, fighting and denying what is happening. Such exploration driven by curiosity and the desire to connect can be revealing and, in and of itself, lead to shifts in perspective which results in change. It also provides the basis of harmonising which is key to the adventurer approach.
Finally, to state the somewhat obvious, if you take the approach of befriending, you might just end up with new friends that you never expected to have. As lovers of connection, exploration and fun, this is music to any Huna adventurer’s ears!
Pete Dalton ©2021
This article first appeared on Aloha International
Related: Three Adventurous Reactions: a Huna perspective
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