Aloha: A New World and New Time on Maui
The view of the world from Upcountry, Maui
~Hexagram 59~A Tiny World~Contemplative Awareness~
TL; DR: Through learning to move with contemplative awareness in our everyday life, we break through the barriers and distractions of modern life with crystal-clear clarity. Through the presence of moment-to-moment living, the world becomes smaller and simpler. Life opens its mysteries.
My wife and I are in the process of moving our family. What began as a casual conversation last October has blossomed into a commitment to transition from one world to the next. Along with entering escrow for a new home, we are moving ourselves and our little one, 6 month old Satori, from the rolling hills and banks of Lake Merritt, Oakland in the San Francisco Bay Area, to the sloping mountain of Haleakala, Maui.
There is a mythic element within this otherwise practical movement. As in Hexagram 59 of the I Ching, “Dispersion,” with the image of wind and wood over water, we have climbed into the boat of our lives to - as the ancient Oracle sometimes counsels - “cross the great waters.” For me, this movement evokes the elves in Lord of the Rings, leaving Middle Earth for Aman, the Undying Lands. It also evokes a perhaps mythic but remembered ancestry, of enlightened beings carrying the dharma. Long before Columbus, these dream figures left Tibet, Mongolia, and Japan on flying boats, bound for America and the promise of a new anchor point in the world.
For our family, in 2020, at the Age of Aquarius, that new world is now Maui.
Maui is (much) smaller than California. It is smaller than the San Francisco Bay, with only a fraction of the people and land mass of the American continent. And yet, as my wife and I have remarked to one another over and over since our arrival, it seems to contain everything. There are a multitude of worlds here, within the span of a few dozen miles.
During our initial 2-week quarantine, we didn’t leave our residence. This stationary assignment forced us to become present to what was immediately in our vicinity. While a week’s vacation to Hawaii might have driven us to race around the island to try and see it all, now we were asked to go nowhere. The result was we became very present to the tiny wonders of where we were. In one place we could watch bugs, animals, bamboo and fruit. We could sit and observe sun and stars and moon, clouds and rain. We could feel the humidity in the air. Along with nature, we could become present to the passing thoughts, emotions, dramas and fantasies of human nature and human relatedness, all taking place inside.
When we emerged from this period, the island was suddenly enormous. The roads and vistas mysterious and vast. If all of the above could transpire in a single point of origin, then what could possibly be waiting for us “out there” - beyond that ridge, across that valley, in the folds and mindset of the next day?
On a recent weekend, we visited a classic Hawaiian beach along the side of the Lahaina highway. We also drove up into the cloud covering the ridge of Haleakala, and hiked in the mist through foliage more reminiscent of our old home in California than your stereotypes of the tropics. Eucalyptus, pine, and even redwood stood resolutely in the gray air. Only the ubiquitous vines of passion flowers and ripening fruit reminded us that we were far, far away from where we had come from.
Driving down the mountain, you look out and see the world. Like an hourglass, like a person, the island draws in at the isthmus connecting the two mountains, then widens out again. In the distance are the ridges of Lanai and Molokai. Dense pine forests and green, stonewall criss-crossed and goat-dotted pastures that look like a scene from Ireland give way to browning patches of farmland and formerly sugar cane fields, before rising again into green, jagged ridges and another mass of cloud. Beyond the eye’s grasp, lush foliage, waterfalls, volcanic rock and lava tunnels await. The ocean, with its shades of white, sand, sky, and deep blue, holds it all.
This is now the world.
The invitation we have been given is to engage the world in contemplation and deepening awareness. Yes, Maui is beautiful, but what goes along with it and is perhaps more powerful and more beautiful than the stunning external world is the Ask from life to slow down. Life is saying: focus on what’s essential. Reflect with depth on the moment-to-moment passing of your lives.
You do not need to be in Maui to engage this process. The gift of contemplation is available to you, right now. And as awareness builds, things start to happen. I think it’s fair to say that we actually ended up in Maui due to putting this mindfulness into practice in California everyday. We started to get clearer. We listened for and heard the signs. And eventually, it just made the most sense. It was natural. It was time.
Learning to dream and move with contemplative awareness is what allows us to be break through the dream barrier. It’s what makes it possible to see our dreams come to life. All around us is a world of wonder. Often, in the busyness of modern life, we are too distracted, scattered, hurried or bored, hurt or sullen, to be able to truly notice.
Contemplation brings us back into the sacred order of things. It is a process of becoming present to what is, and to what the world is speaking. For the spiritual voyager, the world is always communicating with us. It does so in images, in signs. In synchronicities and events which pull us toward that which is essential.
Ultimately, what is essential? It is our true nature, and through that, the world’s. It is the emptiness and stillness of presence, buoyed by the buzzing fullness of life, the brightness that fills the void. It is that which truly matters - which guides us on our way back home. To family, to meaningful relationship, to connection with the heavens and the land.
If this resonates with you, perhaps you’ll consider getting an I Ching reading with me to discern more clearly what the universe is calling to you. And, please subscribe to our newsletter to keep getting doses of good energy and insight! I wish you auspicious and bountiful voyages as you contemplate and move within your dreams.