HUNA LESSON #2 : HUNA THEORY OF PRAYER
Lesson No. 2. For Huna Research Associates. Giving additional Huna and comparative materials for study, and tentative guidance for the experimental use of HUNA, as it is now understood.
By Max Freedom Long, F.H.F.
Dear Friend and Huna Research Associate:
If you have arrived at the point of taking up the second unit of the materials I am endeavoring to transmit to you, and if you have managed until now to keep from having the toes of your favored psycho-religious beliefs trodden upon painfully, you are indeed to be congratulated.
Most of us arrive at this point in the approach to the study and experimental practice with the bark rubbed off on at least a few exposed corners, so, if you have found the going hard, be encouraged. Almost every one of us has had the same painful experience, and nearly all of us have come on through with colors flying. The fact is, that people who have not gone into the study of religions and the related magic and psychic lore, deeply and earnestly and curiously enough to arrive at some very definite conclusions, are usually very superficial students.
If you aren’t peeking ahead to see what is in the “next lesson”, before you have completed the work of Lesson I, you should now have arrived at a decision in the matter of what you wish to have built into your future. Probably you will be short on details, but you should have a good general idea of what you wish to DO, to BE, TO HAVE, and HOW YOU WISH TO SERVE HUMANITY.
Or, you may have found that you could not make a decision, and that it seemed best to start your work by making your Huna prayer-action for help and guidance in deciding.
The theory is, as nearly as we can find out, that the conscious mind or middle self, has grown through a few incarnations and levels of intelligence, and has now come to the place where it has to learn to paddle its own canoe, and at the same time learn to guide, direct and care for the low or subconscious self. The creative power of mind has been partly entrusted to us, and we will be held with noses to this particular grindstone until we get over the childish way of drifting through life. That is the way we did a few lives back when we were low selves in some body. Back in those days we depended on the conscious mind self who bossed us, to decide on things. We may have brought across the tendency to let someone else do our thinking and planning for us, or to drift along, pushed this way and that by chance happenings or by associates. Whether this angle of theory and speculation is valid or not, makes very little difference just now. Anyone needs a plan to follow, even if it is only a plan to go down to the corner store for a loaf of bread. None of us start out aimlessly, not knowing that we are going to the store or that we are going to get bread — EXCEPT when we start out living our lives. That’s why so many of us find ourselves in places where we had no desire to be, and with a stone for bread.
With that little lecture off my chest (you could probably have delivered a better one), we come to the third thing you may have decided. This is that you have worked your way into a situation which exactly suits you. In that case, you need only to make your Huna prayer-action to insure yourself against being shaken out of your snug (no, I did not say smug) nest.
Service, with a big “S”, is a synonym for SAFETY, in matters where we wish to let well enough alone. Get your hand in and do some healing while you are in good health. (I hope you are). Someday you may need some other fellow to help you. It doesn’t take theories to teach us that this is good common sense. We learn either by falling over everything and barking our shine, or by stopping to take a good long look around to see what is the best direction to go, and to map a course between the brambles and pitfalls. Out of these three choices may come something very like the “Three Guesses”, or even the “Three WISHES”. Who knows? MFL
SUGGESTED APPROACH TO HUNA – SECOND STEP
Once you have decided on at least some elements to build into your future, with the aid of the High Self or Aumakua, you are ready to begin learning to pray in quite a new way — the Huna way.
THE HUNA THEORY OF PRAYER must be studied and understood, then kept well in mind, otherwise you may fall into a slovenly way of doing what is the most important action in the series of experiments that you are undertaking.
The Huna prayer-action differs from the ordinary prayer in many respects.
In the care with which the decision is made as to what to pray for.
In the fact that the prayer must be sent telepathically through the low self, and along the aka thread to the High Self, as thought-forms, and on a carrying and empowering flow of mana or vital force. (This set of thought-forms must be created and made ready beforehand. The supply of vital force must also be readied.)
If there is a hindering guilt sense, fixation or complex, or if there is doubt (lack of “faith”), or too much fear, or if there may be lack of ability to control the low self to the proper degree, then preliminary work must also be done to meet these obstacles — to clear the “blocks” from the “path”, as the Kahunas would say.
In Huna one does not pray in the supposedly Christian manner of the Germans in the first World War, “God strike England.” We learn in Huna that the best way to set the High Selves of others to working against us is to try to injure the ones over whom they stand as Guardians.
In Huna one does not pray as a part of religious duty in the way we moderns often do. To the kahunas prayer was a very serious business. In prayer one can cry “Wolf, wolf!” once too often. The real meaning of “taking the name of the Lord in vain”, seems to have been making a prayer action for something of no importance or with part of the action forgotten or carelessly performed. The word of profanity tossed out by a man, is usually of no importance because it involves none of the actions that make a prayer “strike the mark”.
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This is as good a place as any to get out our text, SSBM, and brush up on the Huna concepts of the low self, the low mana, the thought-forms, the aka thread of contact with the Aumakua, the guilt sense, the fixations, and the blocks in the path. Set yourself a series of readings, and make notes from day to day so you will be sure where to look for items in the [book]. (Unfortunately it has no good topical index.) Begin with Chapter 3, page 59, and wade through to the end of the book if you wish to pick up all these points and get them well in hand. Or check through the pamphlet HUNA, where the material is set out in condensed form. Or, if you have a good idea what the text reported on all the points, go ahead.
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Here are some RANDOM NOTES
The idea of “God Within” caused some confusion in the approach of a number of HRAs in our first year. They wrote to me to quote line and page to show that “God” was within each of us and that the use of the telepathic method of sending the prayer was not necessary. And, if telepathy need not be used, there could be no need for a flow of mana, and if thought-forms had to be used, we could make them as we talked directly to God inside our own bodies, minds and souls. (“Ye are gods”, “The Kingdom of Heaven is within”, etc.)
I also had it explained to me repeatedly that all one has to do to be free of a guilt complex is to pray for forgiveness after repenting. In Christianity Jesus had died on the cross to pay for all of our sins, if we would only ask in His name for forgiveness.
I also was belabored with the question, “Don’t you know that if we do not get what we pray for, it is because our karma is such that we do not deserve help?”
Let me quote for you a bit from a special article which I wrote to cover the stumbling block of the modern idea of “God Within” (God: being considered as a Universal Consciousness or Spirit, in the last analysis.)
HUNA AND THE GOD WITHIN
… Men first worshiped their gods as things outside themselves, in trees or rocks or idols, or in the sun and wind and sky. Only much later came the concept of “God Within”. (This is not a Bible doctrine, as a check will soon show.) We may well pause to put to ourselves the very serious question of whether or not there IS a god or God within us.
We must go far back into the yesterdays of mankind to find the first part of the answer. Savage man was a believer in spirits at a very early age, for the simple reason that mediumship was common and that many could see or sense the spirits of the departed (living on in their aka bodies). The best of these mediums came to be regarded with awe, fear and respect. They were quick to take advantage of their power, and frequently pretended to be taken over bodily by a god — the god apparently talking through their lips and giving commands. The claims of importance of the gods grew, and with the claims, the stature of the gods. Eventually the tribal medicine men reached the stage in which they claimed that the god which spoke through them was the ONE and ONLY and SUPREME GOD. It was easier, apparently, to go apart into the desert or mountains, and come back to tell what the god had said. Moses came back with the Ten Commandments. As time went on, the many “revealed” scriptures were given through direct mediumship by the disembodied, or by the process of the holy man writing down what had been revealed to him. These scriptures give us the phrase, “Thus sayeth the Lord.”
In this way the psycho-religio-magical systems evolved. (Huna with the rest, in all probability.) Through all the pages of holy writ we can trace the labored growth of these man-made and spirit-made concepts. They were childish and savage at first, with jealous and savage tribal gods who ruled over their “chosen people”, and them only. Later the concepts matured slowly so that the god became a world God and demanded dominion over all the world. The zeal of the missionary movement was kindled, and in some cases the conquest of the world was pressed with fire and sword.
As the concepts matured, Ultimate God became too wise and powerful and awe-ful to speak through human lips. This was because what was said by his self-announced representatives-on-earth, was not in keeping with the idea that HE was all powerful and knew the future. The all-powerfulness was not often exerted as promised, and the prophet was, with good reason, “without honor in his own country”. Predictions too seldom “came true”.
In the West, in modern times, a few bold individuals undertook to find a better God concept. They turned to science and found it less than helpful. Psychology, then a budding semi-science, offered the ideas of the subliminal part of consciousness, with a possible supraliminal. They accepted that to a degree — and then found themselves forced to go back to do the old, old thing of making a FIRST PREMISE, and accepting it without proof. This was the premise that the universe must have been created through a process exactly like the creative processes man can imagine (not like some infinitely different process which a higher form of consciousness might imagine).
The result was the usual guess that there was a SINGLE, one-and-only kind of Creative Consciousness, and that IT was. ALL that could possibly be, also that IT was omnipotent and omnipresent.
With this FIRST PREMISE accepted (out of seeming necessity because nothing better could be evolved), the rest was easy. They had only to begin drawing logical deductions. (Always with the play on words that confuses.) They argued that if God was All, we were a part of Him, and so we had apart of God in us. It followed very logically, that we should, therefore, be able to appeal to the part of God within us, and be heard instantly.
The new concept of “Universal Mind or Consciousness” was, however, just a very old set of ideas under new names. Not only were the ideas old, but the old drawbacks were fastened tightly to the fine new package. The prayers made to the part of God within, still got no better average of results than the prayers to the God without.
With the advent of Spiritualism and Psychic Science, a new approach to the idea of God Within was made. Premonitions were found to come in our dreams and as SOMETHING THAT AROSE IN OUR MINDS AS FROM SOME INNER PART OF THE MAN. Now, after a number of years, the battle still rages over the…
- source from whence come the glimpses of the future, whether from an outside conscious entity, blanket or Universal Consciousness, or
- from some undeveloped native sensory faculty or mechanism, perhaps involving the pineal or pituitary glands (the gland ilea being borrowed from India via the Theosophists.)
At this very late date, comes the rediscovery of HUNA, and, for the first time in recorded history, we have before us a simple answer to the problem. This answer involves not more than a dozen elements (3 manas, 3 entities, 3 aka bodies, and the aka threads, and the “fixations” that “block” them to prevent contact and interchange with the High Self.)
Huna presents the “Ultimate God” as something that appears to be a blanket mixture of consciousness, energy and matter, all spread through the universe, but allowing individual centers of conscious being to appear and exist with a sense of separate individuality. These individual units may be of endless levels of growth or movement-through-environment. They may be embodied in gross visible matter or in invisible aka bodies. They may be gods or microbes – or three-self man.
Under this Huna explanation, we have our problem reduced to whether the unit in man — the High Self — just above the conscious mind self in evolution and mental power, is WITHIN THE PHYSICAL BODY or connected to it by an aka thread, while remaining OUTSIDE (at least for the most part). We no longer have to worry about the part of God on Arcturus (a distance so great that the imagination might be badly strained to bridge with even an aka thread — and certainly too great to allow that part of God to be within us. In other words, the High Self (as the lesser god to whom we are able to pray, and who will know when and how to pray for us to still higher gods, if that should be necessary,) is the god without which sends messages to us across the aka thread — premonitions, etc., — by way of the low self who is WITHIN the body, as if at the other end of a telephone, and who passes up to us the messages. These messages seem to come from deep inside ourselves — as they really do, according to Huna — and this may account for the conviction that there is a god within. (End article quotation.)
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In the prayers made down the centuries by methods other than those of the kahunas, ALL the ADJUNCTS, from sacrificing a living animal and burning its body on an altar, to the modern use of “affirmations” and “decreeing”, are efforts to find a way to get better answers to prayer.
If we are to understand the various prayer methods favored by various cults, we will do well to analyze them in terms of Huna, asking whether the thought-form of the prayer is clear and strong and uncontaminated by doubts and fears; whether the telepathic mechanism is indicated, and whether the vital force is brought into play to do its part. Most important of all, we must ask whether any particular method of prayer recognizes the complex and takes steps to find and remove it.
Many things in prayer rituals can be classed as useful because they act as physical stimuli to impress the low self and help establish faith, or help us to cause the low self to act as requested in presenting the prayer to the High Self. Kneeling and clasping the hands is an example. Any posture to which the low self is habituated and trained to react is useful, even if not necessary. To go to confession and to be absolved of sin is a help for those brought up to that rite. Lighting a candle before the altar before prayer is a ritual act of great value to some, as is the presence of a shrine, be it nothing more than a tiny corner in the home, before which to kneel.
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A letter arrived one day from one of the newer HRAs, puzzling over the part assigned by Huna to the matter of supplying the High Selves with mana or vital force in order that they might have sufficient force at their disposal to make the prayed for changes in the future. “I have always believed,” this HRA wrote, “that WHATEVER GODS THERE MAY BE were GODS because they were wiser and infinitely STRONGER than we who pray to them? Why should we now think that we have to make the High Selves stronger before they can help us by answering our prayers – or have I overlooked something in your report on Huna?”
The matter was not too clear in my book. And, right here, let me call attention to the fact that we are unable at this point to test the validity of the Huna idea — unless by getting better answers to prayer.
However, as we are mainly concerned with the work of understanding Huna, and trying to make certain that we know what the kahunas believed and did, we can let a fruitless argument about the power of the High Selves lie for the moment. The only thing that is important to testing out the Huna system just now is to know enough about it to be able to make the tests intelligently.
A look at the whole ritual of prayer and worship, from the kahuna’s point of view, may be had by examining the meanings of the words they used and by making a comparison with similar words and their meanings in other systems.
I realize that word studies may be dull to some students, so apologize in advance. I also admit a tinge of self justification, for I have had superficial students of things Hawaiian call my interpretation of Huna “Longism” not Kahunaism”, and, of all things, I wish to avoid being classed as a cult founder.
Back in the dim past, the pre-Egyptian kahunas may have given voice to a few cryptic utterances, and so misled their half-savage contemporaries. Be that as it may, we find in history the ritual by which the gods were asked for help.
There was first a ritual of worship, with dancing and such music as could be made, with praise and thanks offered vocally by the priests. Then came the sacrifice and the burnt offering, after which the prayer was offered. Before hand, the purification rites were observed, usually a washing, and, perhaps, a confessional and absolution such as we find appearing in the Catholic Church at a later time, without authorization in the New Testament. (Check the years of purification in India and Burma before fire-walking was undertaken as a test of the final attainment of purity.) In between times there crept in the element of magical signs and formulas, ceasing and other rites. One half of the world was constantly borrowing makeshifts from the other half and adding them to their systems.
NOW THE KAHUNAS. They danced as a preliminary, using several individuals, and having rhythmic bodily movements, standing or sitting, with drum and rattle, and with chanting. This was usual in the formal or temple worship, not with the busy kahunas with their single client before them. The dance was the religious hula. This word is a compound of the roots hu and la, the first root meaning to rise up and overflow as water in a fountain (along with a dozen other rather similar meanings) and the second root meaning “light”, which is the symbol of contact with the High Self, as “water” (in the first root) is the symbol of the mana. It will be noted that the dance and its movement and chants and sounds is thus described by its very name as a method of causing a supply of mana to accumulate and “overflow” as a means of making contact with the High Self. (In the temple worship, the needs of the entire tribe were being stressed, and prayers were being made in which all members of the tribe participated more or less through a “braiding of the cord” or uniting of the many aka threads to contact the united High Selves as the Po`e Aumakua or “Company of High Selves”. (More of this work of praying together will come later as we take up the Telepathic Mutual Healing Group activities of the HRAs.)
The prayer, which had been decided upon after much careful thought (and often after asking the Aumakuas, mediumistically to a degree, (see cases in SSBM,) if the prayer was something that could be granted, (the prayer) was delivered, vocally and with the command to the low self to deliver its thought-forms on a flow of the accumulated mana (overflow of water in the fountain — symbol of the body) to the High Self.
It will be noted that the element of the SACRIFICE has not appeared as yet.
THE RITUAL PRAYER OF THE KAHUNAS followed these steps:
Hoo (to make) anoano (seeds). “Seeds” are the symbol of the thought-forms, of the conditions which one wishes built into the future so that it will appear in due time as a REALITY in the present. The thought-forms act as a mold, at least symbolically, which is used by the High Self in forming the future as requested. The root ano has several meanings. Note their significance.
- An image or likeness (mold) of a thing
- To have or take on a form or appearance
- To change or transform
- To change the appearance of a thing
- To change the state of things (meanings taken from the Hawaiian-English dictionaries)
Hoo (to make or cause to be) mana (the vital force of the low self). This word is translated “To worship”. It means, from the roots, “to accumulate more mana than is ordinarily present in the body.” We see that after the thought-forms are made by visualizing and otherwise building an accurate and complete picture of what we desire, the next step is to accumulate a surcharge of vital force. As this is accomplished, the thoughts turn to the High Self) as the loving Parental Father-Mother Spirit, and with gratitude and expectation. (“Worship” is to acknowledge or attribute “worth” to.)
Mo-hai-hoo-mana is a continuation of the accumulation of mana. To hoo-mana is added mo-hal. (mo: “to strike, as with a spear”. This meaning is a symbolic one as in kaa and ku, and indicates the act of making a quick and exact and full contact with the High Self by means of mana sent along the connecting aka thread to vitalize it and call the attention of the High Self. If the low self does not make this contact when we wish it to, we are said “to miss the mark”. The second root, hail means to “sacrifice or present a gift on an altar when this root is combined in the mohai form, but by itself, hai has a special meaning of “TO PUT SOMETHING INTO A DEFINITE PLACE”, (my caps for emphasis), and this is the symbol of PLACING THE THOUGHT-FORMS EMBODYING THE PRAYER — the actual prayer essence — in the High Self, (its aka body, supposedly, as all thought-forms are stored in aka bodies by all three of the selves of the man). The root idea of “altar” in the Hawaiian is, basically, “a high place”, which is the symbol of the abode of the High Self, as is the word for “sky”: lani or “heaven”. It will be seen that Bum throws a great light on the matter of the inward meaning of the idea of the sacrifice. The kahunas had but one word for this ritual of giving, and that word (mo-hai-hoo-mana, given above) tells us in exact detail, once we know the common symbols of the “SECRET”, just what was sacrificed. It was a gift of MANA, nothing more, nothing less.
In the ritual, the contact is made with the High Self, as already mentioned, and on the flow of consciously sent or “given” or “sacrificed” (made sacred by the act of giving it to the High Self) mana, the thought-forms are sent as seeds drifting on a stream. The kahunas often voiced their prayer at this point, describing carefully, three times over in the same words, this serving to make the thought-forms embodying the pictured future strong and clean-cut. (Care was taken not to contaminate the “mold” by thoughts of the undesired present or of fear or doubt.)
The prayer was a ritual performance that was made with swift directness and ended very definitely so that extraneous thought-forms NOT belonging to the prayer would not also flow along the aka thread. One did NOT pray aimlessly with something else in the back of one’s mind. One did not leave a prayer dangling and drop off to sleep. The kahuna said, in effect, “Here are the thought-forms of my prayer and the mana to use in constructing the new future (also tear down the patterns or molds of the already constructed future which was not wanted). I now hand over the prayer to you (“it takes its flight”), I ask for the return flow of blessing and refreshing high mana from you (“the rain of blessings”, and I now end my action and break the contact. (“the kapu is lifted”).
The prayer-action-ritual, if expertly made and if enough mana had been sent for the work, might result in an instant healing or in an immediate answer to the prayer. However, if the prayer involved much change of the already crystallized future, the symbolic “seeds” (thought-forms) were “watered” daily, in other words, the thought-forms were sent afresh with additional mana daily, thus building strength into the thought-forms as well as supplying the needed mana for the continuation of the work (and for any other work being done by the High Self, and which called for supplies of mana of the low self kind as raw power to be changed into the high mana, the latter being the miracle working force.)
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In the above steps the business of clearing the guilt or other fixations away, is not included. This “unblocking of the path” is done before hand.
In the Hawaiian language there are three main words for “pray”. The ones used by the missionaries in translating the Bible into Hawaiian were:
Noi: “To beg”
Pule: “To supplicate or pray”
The root pu gives the meaning of “To come forth, as words from the mouth. (Or, as we would say, as thought-forms with words.) The root le is found in the word lele, “To fly or jump upward”. So from the two roots we see that prayer as described in pule conforms to the idea of sending thought-forms flying to the High Self (on the mana flow. The “SECRET” was preserved, it would seem, but never putting all the eggs in one basket –- by never putting all the symbolic meanings in the roots of one word.)
The word for “prayer” probably favored by the kahunas, was wai-pa, but because this means “To divide water” (as well as ‘pray’ and as its roots gave no other meaning, the missionaries, quite naturally, selected the other words. However, this word is very important to us. We know that water (wai) is the Huna symbol of mana or vital force. And, in the root ma we have the opportunity to find out what the kahunas did with the mana when they performed the prayer ritual.
The root ma (in wai-pa: pray) has over twenty variations of meaning. I will not stop to list these in the order given in the Hawaiian dictionary, but will touch the highlights of significant meanings pertaining to our study.
- A pair, or something done by a pair or by several. (This points to the Huna belief that the High Self is a united pair of entities, male-female, also to the fact that several may engage with the High Selves in prayer.)
- To divide. (In this case, to divide “water” or mana, giving the High Self what it needs, or giving vital force to one who is ill, through the hands when laid on the body.)
- To STRIKE, or hit, as a spear, or to touch. (This is the symbol which is found in word after word, for making contact certainly and freely with the High Self along the aka thread.)
- To be barren, childless, or parched and wilted and dry. (This is the Huna symbol for the condition in which there is a lack of mana. The implication is that the creative effort to be made in the mechanism of prayer demands a goodly supply of mana — the “water of life” (wai ola).
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THE TIME ELEMENT IN PRAYER is of great importance in Huna. This is one of the things that sets it still farther apart from other psycho-religious systems.
In Christianity we find a very slight reference to the time element in prayer in the instructions attributed to Jesus in the gospels. Mark, 11:24 is the cause of an amazing modern warping of the TIME ELEMENT in prayer. This passage related to faith rather than time, but was made to turn on time instead. In the King James version we read, “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall receive.” Note that the word “NOW” is not there. Nevertheless, by some strange straddling of the horse of time and the camel of faith, at one and the same time, the proponents of the modern schools of affirmation and of decree, have managed to convince a surprising number of us that we must believe that we have already received the thing for which we ask in prayer.
Upon the correction of this misconception depends the question of whether time is time or something else. If it is not time, Huna is based on a false premise, for in Huna the prayer is aimed at making a change within the limitations of time and space. (The two ideas blend in mana-wa as a time-space complex.)
In order to try to follow the modern style of “Perfection here and now,” we have had to admit that the thing or condition, be it dollars or health or love, is NOT here NOW, otherwise we would not be praying for it. We have to explain that it is already created in answer to our prayers, and that we have received it NOW, but we must invent some explanation to show why time must be allowed to pass BEFORE the “here and now” aspect is apparent.
How much more logical and easy to go with one of the other modern schools, and simply DENY that the thing we wish to rid ourselves, as poverty, sickness and lack of love, exists. Just call any condition that falls short of the postulated perfection of the ALL GOOD, an error of thought in mortal mind.
One of these bold stratagems tosses time out of the window, the other uses a play on words to toss physical being off the globe, if not out of the universe. Both strenuous efforts were made to obtain more of the element of FAITH in the “here and now” handing down of the answer to prayer. It has been a muddle of warped thinking.
From the Huna angle, the denial of the thing that is bothering us is futile BECAUSE our low self — I like to call mine “George Aunihipili” or just “George” — is a very literal fellow indeed. It is very difficult to convince him that the broken leg is not real, or the pain, or the hunger.
More than that, we who are middle selves, are rather practical and common sense about almost everything but politics, love and our religion. WE, also, find it difficult to believe that the broken bone is healed “here and now” or that the next payment on the income tax is just “error” and does not exist.
Of course, there is nothing against your right to affirm “Eternal life, here and now,” if you happen to be inclined to do so — But be sure to go back over the fence to the side opposite Huna when you affirm. (I am permitted to give this advice, because I once made that affirmation daily for all of a month.)
The importance of keeping your George from deciding that you are talking through your hat, is that he is the one whom you have to convince that what you ask him to do in the prayer ritual is REASONABLE. Consider what happens when we have a sense of guilt. The prayer falls short of the mark because George is ashamed of himself and his man, and refuses to enter the presence of the High Self. And the reason the middle self does not pray, under such conditions, is that it also refuses to enter the Presence with soiled hands and heart.
In the first year of Huna experimentation we have found that it took just as much time to clear out accumulations of dogmas and misconceptions as it did to replace them with a corresponding amount of Huna — And every day some new absurdity bobs up to be dealt with.
We can hardly unlearn fast enough. Each day brings new ideas as we read, and the less valid they are, the more beautifully they are dressed and worded to make them seem utterly true — until we examine the first premise upon which the statements are based. Let me quote from Ralph Waldo Trine.
“Prayer, as every act of devotion, brings us into an ever greater conscious harmony with the Infinite for it is this harmony which brings all other things. Prayer is the soul’s desire, and thus is its own answer, as the sincere desire made active and accompanied by faith sooner or later gives place to realization; for faith is an invisible and invincible magnet, and attracts to itself whatever it fervently desires and calmly and persistently expects. This is absolute … the fault, the failure, lies not in the law but in ourselves.”
This sounds wonderful. When I first read it, back in 1908, I gave my own meanings to his “Infinite”, his “harmony, realization”, and even his “magnet”. It was not clear to me how “faith” and “desire” alone could produce such marvels but I liked the ideas. They sounded like ultimate authority. (It was some years before I made the sad discovery that “Authorities” never agree, and that if one is correct, the other 9,999,999 must be wrong. I never found the one that was right, unless, perchance, it is the blanket one-authority to be found in Huna.) If, like myself, you can’t figure out how “faith” can “fervently desire and calmly and persistently expect”, or how even “desire” might do this, just tell yourself that you must not be too critical of the kind of writing. It still sounds grand and true and lofty. Besides, just think what Trine could have done if he had known Huna!
WHAT WE NEED TO LEARN is just how to make the thought-forms of the prayer once we have decided on what we wish built into the future; just how to accumulate a surcharge of mana; just how to cause the low self to make contact along the aka thread with the High Self and send the thought-forms on a flow of mana to the Aumakua; just how to have “faith”; just how to end the prayer action; and how long to continue the repetition of the prayer action. (These are the basic parts of the mechanism, but there are many more small points to be considered later on.)
IN ADDITION TO THIS we need to learn how to remove guilt, doubt, unworthiness and similar feelings, convictions and fixations, or to steer a course around them and so keep clear of “blocking” elements in the “path” of communication with the High Self. This work with the blockings begins before the prayer action.
A letter came to me one day which may express the feeling of most of us at this point. In it a new HRA wrote, “It looks so terribly complicated that I do not think that I’ll ever be able to learn to make a prayer like the kahunas did. I guess I’ll just have to content myself with the study of Huna, and keep on praying in the less difficult way, even if I do almost never get results.”
As a matter of fact, the ordinary and simple prayer contains a little of each of the elements of the Huna prayer ritual. We decide what we will ask for, we reach out mentally to God or some Universal or Infinite (and so contact the High Self). We voice our prayer aloud or silently, and if we feel emotionally moved by desire, love or the urge to worship, the mana flows and the thought-forms are carried along the aka thread to the High Self. We say our “Amen” and bring the prayer to a close. While the low self is not expert at doing its part in the work, it sometimes does well, even if many times it does not react as we might wish it to do.
For this simple prayer work, a person in good health should have a constant supply of mana in their body so that there is enough to spare to use to send the thought-forms to the High Self and to donate a supply for use in rebuilding the future. The rebuilding may be slower than when a very large supply is given, but this is something still to be experimentally determined.
The way the kahunas accumulated a surcharge of mana was to command the low self to start accumulating. A picture was held in mind (as one way of doing it) for the correct physical stimulus. This was the picture of the body filling with vital force, as a fountain, until full and overflowing. Mana, when accumulated, or when flowing, often causes a tingling or prickling sensation in the limbs or body proper. (The return flow of High Mana, called the “rain of blessings” by the kahunas, and always requested as a part of the prayer ending, seems frequently to cause a tingling in the region of the base of the spine.)
Once you have a good understanding of the Huna prayer mechanism, you will, because you have it in mind, automatically begin to train the low self to conform to the pattern. Its skill in making contact with the High Self (and its willingness to respond to our desire or order) will grow, as will its natural ability to accumulate mana. You can now begin practice. Fine points are to follow. M.F.L.
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