We are the current kiai of this aina. We consider it our sacred kuleana to keep things in a sustainable balance as best we can. It is a great honor to live on Bamboo Mountain, to be entrusted to malama ka aina and malama na ola (to care for the health of the land as well as ourselves).
We are a small band of poets and philosophers, monks and mystics, healers and helpers. We practice living in right relationship to each other and all living things.
We embrace the Hawaiian Na Waiwai based on Aloha and have deep respect for the Hawaiian culture and history which still lives in this land.
This is who we are. We are not alone. Like you, we are a bridge between the ones in whose footsteps we walk and the young ones still coming up. We are a very small mention in a much larger story. The wheel is always turning.
Our dedication and commitment are to always Nānā I ke kumu (look to the source, look to the ancestors) and to strive to do the right thing, Kulia I ka pono.
WINTER SOLSTICE 2024
Wow, here we are another year down the road! The wood (ironwood, Japanese cedar, eucalyptus, kiawe) for this year’s Winter Solstice fire has been split and stacked and smudged. The patient tunka sit quietly in their stoic prayer robes. We will be sparking grandfather...
REMEMBERING BUSHI
She was probably less than a month old and weighed not even a pound when she first “appeared” in my life. A passerby had heard her mewing desperately from the crawl space beneath the local shelter for battered and abused women, “Women Helping Women”. She was all...
ON FAMILIARS
Having been raised by strict Catholics, I was exposed to a plethora of fantastical stories. Upon first hearing them, I believed each one of them wholeheartedly albeit somewhat wide-eyed. Some, like the existence of guardian angels, made a lot of sense to me. Others,...
HANA HOU
Each time you allow the universe to expand through you, it is a living prayer. My Dakota hunka showed me by her example that the truest prayer is how you live this one precious life that has been entrusted to you. Do you selfishly squander it or do you “walk in...
WALK IN BEAUTY
I have lived for so long in the midst of so much stunning natural beauty that it has, astonishingly, come inside me and taken up residence. It had entered me without me fully knowing it. But I see now how it defines my inner landscape with its gentle contours,...
The Elementals
ʻO nā kumumea ʻehā o ke ao nei, ʻo ia nō ka honua, ka wai, ke ea, a me ke ahi. The elements of Nature are fourfold: Air (ke ea), Water (ka wai), Earth (ka honua) and Fire (ke ahi). The synergistic interplay of these four elements empowers the world to support life in...
Bearings
The Hawaiian Islands are the most geographically remote inhabited islands on earth, 2500 miles in any direction from the nearest populated landmass. The island of Maui is divided into 12 districts called moku. Two of the districts on the windward North Shore are named...
Backstory
E uhi ana ka wa i hala i na mea i hala ("Passing time obscures the past") When it comes to the history of a particular piece of land, particularly hallowed ground, there is no better “visitor log” than the names and stories that are inscribed in the earth herself. Its...
Consciousness and Destiny
By Raphael O'suna It has been said that human destiny depends upon the scope of a person's or a people's consciousness. That consciousness may be thought of as a vessel, capable of containing human potential. But over the past 2000 years, societies generally have not...
On Death and Dying
By Raphael O'suna There have always been people who remind us that the state of one's consciousness at the time of death may be as important as one's belief in an afterlife. In fact, Eastern Teachings indicate that where one goes, and to what circumstances one may...