Although they use different terms for the
concept, many religions and philosophies emphasize the high importance of "being
centered." They may tell you in their own language to be centered in God, in Love, in
Spirit, in Service, in Your Heart, in Beauty, or in The Present Moment.
The Hawaiian "place" for being
centered is the piko, the navel, which also means a "center." One of the names
for Easter Island is Ka Piko O Ke Ao, the "Navel of the World". Quite a number
of ancient cities or areas have used that or a similar name for themselves, and that gives
us a clue to a deeper meaning. In this respect it refers to "that point from which,
toward which, and around which everything else moves." Literally and figuratively,
the navel represents our connection to the source of life. Symbolically then, the navel is
a direct conduit to the source itself, and to be centered in the navel is to be centered
in the source.
In Hawaiian culture the navel area is
also the center for the "heart, mind, and feelings" because these are alternate
meanings for the word na'au, "intestines." Another word, mana'o, relates to
thought, mind, belief and opinion, but in addition to expectation, concentration and
memory. Hawaiians recognized intellectual thought as being something quite different and
associated it with the brain. Manawa, the key word for a Huna principle "Now is the
moment of power," also means "heart, feelings, affections" in addition to
"the crown of the head."
It is reasonable to suppose that in order
to be centered you have to know what centeredness is like. Very little is written or said
about the experience itself. The terms "bliss" and "oneness" have been
used a lot, but they don't really convey anything to someone who has never been there.
It's like trying to describe your trip though the Sahara Desert to friends and family back
in your home town who have never traveled outside of their own area. First they try to
look interested, then they go blank, and finally, as soon as they can, they start to fill
you in on the local gossip. In order to want to be somewhere, there has to be something
there that you would consider worthwhile, something you can relate to as a good thing.
One characteristic of centeredness is
peacefulness. When you are centered you feel peaceful. You have no conflicts causing
stress, your mind is clear, and your body is relaxed in a way that really feels good.
Another characteristic is loving connectedness. You feel loved and you feel like loving
everyone and everything around you. Fear ceases to be. An additional characteristic is
confidence. You feel able to do what you want and feel able to handle any circumstances
that may arise. It's a creative feeling where anger and frustration are non-existent.
Another characteristic is harmony.
You feel like a significant part of
everything that was, is and will be. All sense of insignificance, alienation, and being
out of touch with life is gone.
Everyone can have centeredness, but that
doesn’t mean that it’s easy to attain. If it were easy we'd all be there right
now. But it is attainable.
Here is a way to get there. Just as we
often hear the term "Rome wasn’t built in a day," centeredness is not
something we can get in a day. It is the acquiring of a certain kind of behavior to
practice. It can be compared to the building of a great pyramid. The object is to get
closer and closer to centeredness each time you try – to become a little more
peaceful, a little more loving, a little more confident, a little more in harmony –
over time, a little at a time, day by day.
Many of the ideas mentioned earlier lead
to the idea that feelings, or emotions, are the meeting place of mind and body. They are
the means by which your mind and body communicate, with each other and with the world.
Feelings are your feedback. The better you feel the more centered you are. So the practice
is one of doing something that will make you feel better, without a lot of effort,
something specific. All you have to do is to practice giving, the kind expressed in the
Hawaiian word manawale'a. It means "to give freely and willingly' and a root
translation would be "glad heart."
So, what do you give? Anything you want,
so long as it's done consciously, freely and willingly. You don't have to be limited to
material things. And it's not a question of giving anything away. It's about giving gifts.
Here are some ideas of what you can give:
acknowledgment, attention, appreciation, gratitude, prayers, wishes, encouragement,
support, presents, and healing or helpful thoughts and acts. You can give to other people,
to anything in your environment, to anything or anyone you know of, to God or the
Universe, and to your own body, mind and spirit. The objective is to give as much as you
can as often as you can, and to give with the conscious intention of giving a gift. It
sounds easier than it is. At some point you are likely to experience resistance or strange
sensations as the practice stirs up deep patterns of thought and behavior. But the path of
giving leads to centeredness.
Consider this: the state of being
centered, the ability to remain calm in the face of difficulty:
He po'i na kai uli, kai
ko'o, 'a'ohe hina puko'a
"Though the sea be deep and rough, the coral rock remains standing."
