Here at Flowfeather you will always find references to the Polynesian or Hawaiian Huna teachings – simply because the Huna teachings can provide many good suggestions and ideas for a conscious and fulfilled life.
That's why I thought it would be a good idea to write an article just about the Huna philosophy, so that you know what is actually behind it.
In the first part of the article, you will learn what Huna is and what it is not. Then I will introduce you to the seven principles of the Huna philosophy – a kind of guideline for how Huna views the world. In the last part, we will then look at a concrete example of what the 7 Huna principles mean for practice and how you can use and apply them in your life.
How I Came to Huna Philosophy
I first heard about Huna during my biology studies in the 1990s. At that time, a fellow student had lent me a book that was supposed to be the starting point of a long journey for me.
The book was called " The City Shaman " (advertising) and comes from Serge Kahili King .
In the book, King describes the basic features of the Huna philosophy – a kind of philosophy of life with Hawaiian roots, which has become an important companion for me since that time.
Later I attended various trainings, seminars and lectures on Huna, among others with Serge Kahili King, Steward Blackburn, Ingrid Stadler-Pree and Susanne Weikl.
Over the years, the Huna philosophy with its ideas about life has become an explanatory framework for me, with which I can better classify and understand many things in my life.
Why Huna has become important to me
We live in pretty challenging times. No matter where you look, the next crisis seems to be lurking everywhere: climate crisis, economic crisis, Corona crisis, refugee crisis, plus perhaps one or two personal crises in life.
One can ask oneself how and why there are so many problems and so much suffering in this world.
In the past, such questions were the responsibility of the churches. I can remember that when I was a child, the church in my home village was so crowded on weekends that some people stood outside the door.
But the churches – above all the Catholic Church – are struggling with their own crises today. Declining membership numbers, cases of abuse, worries about young people – for most people today, the churches are no longer the ones who answer the big questions of the meaning of life.
Maybe that's a good thing in some places.
The problem with this, however, is that everyone now has to find their own answers to these questions. And for many people, this means that they no longer have any answers at all.
And therefore no longer deal with the "important questions of life" and prefer to distract themselves with consumption and shopping.
Of course, this does not work in the long run.
Back to Huna:
For many years, the Huna philosophy with its explanatory approaches and various techniques and means for an active life has been a wonderful framework for me to find my own personal answers to the big questions of life.
How and why it can do this for me, what exactly Huna actually is and how you can perhaps use the Huna philosophy for yourself, that's what this article is about.
Let's start with what Huna actually is. To understand this, it may be quite helpful to first look at what Huna is not.
What Huna is not
Perhaps most importantly, Huna is not a religion. Neither the religion of today's Hawaiians, nor that of the ancient Hawaiians (who actually knew many different religious practices).
Huna is also not Hawaiian in the sense that Huna would have been an important basis of everyday life for Hawaiians.
But: Huna has Hawaiian roots, which shape the Huna philosophy and connect it with Hawaiian culture.
But Huna is not a dogmatic teaching about life that has ready-made answers about how to look at what in life and what to do.
On the contrary, one of the most important characteristics of the Huna philosophy is its openness and flexibility.
But what exactly is Huna?
What Huna is
The Huna philosophy itself is not a religion, but the origin of Huna can certainly be viewed against the background of the Hawaiian religion and spirituality.
Most religions have two sides: a more dogmatic, outward-looking side, represented by priests and the "officials" of the religion, and a hidden, mysterious side, whose followers seek on a personal level the experience of the divine and the answers to life's big questions.
Let's take Christianity, for example.
The heads of churches and priests have been the representatives of the official, dogmatic doctrine for 2000 years. In addition, there is the Christian mystic – above all Thomas Aquinas, Meister Eckart and Saint Hildegard of Bingen – who sought and often found the inner path to God.
In Buddhism it is Zen, in Judaism Kabbalah and in Islam Sufism.
What they all have in common is the search for the immediate, personal experience of unity with life.
The Hawaiian religion also knows (or knew) such a mystical, mysterious tradition. And out of this the Huna philosophy has emerged.
This is also expressed in the word "Huna": Huna can be translated as "secret" or "secret knowledge".
However, what is meant is not that the knowledge should be kept secret, but that this knowledge is not obvious. You have to look closely if you want to understand the connections of life.
How Huna came into being
If you look at the history of the origin of the Huna philosophy, you will quickly realize that there is no such thing as THE Huna philosophy. Because actually there are different "systems", all of which bear the name Huna.
The two most important: the Huna, which goes back to Serge Kahili King, and that of Max Freedom Long .
The American linguist Max Freedom Long worked as a teacher in Hawaii in the 1920s and was very fascinated by the healing arts of the local "Kahunas" (more precisely: Kahuna kupua).
The Hawaiian word "Kahuna" refers to a master of his craft, the "Kahuna kupua" were masters of the healing arts – comparable to the shamans or "medicine men" of other cultures.
Even though the Huna philosophy is not Hawaiian in the true sense of the word, it still has Hawaiian roots and is deeply connected to the Hawaiian view of life
However, the Kahunas did not want to reveal their healing secrets to Long. Eventually, Long gave up his attempts, returned to the American mainland, where he had the idea that the secrets of the Kahunas might be encoded in the Hawaiian language.
From these considerations, he developed a philosophy about life, which he called Huna, and which was intended to express the wisdom of the Polynesian shamans that Long was so fascinated by.
The second system, called Huna, was created by Serge Kahili King.
King, like his father before him, was adopted by a Hawaiian family. According to King, this was one of the families in which the knowledge of the Kahunas had been passed on from generation to generation.
And King himself was also trained by his adoptive family in the knowledge of the Kahunas.
Later, King studied psychology, ran a psychological practice and "translated" the knowledge he had received from his adoptive family (with their consent) into a more modern form of expression.
The system that emerged from this, which is an expression of Hawaiian shamanism, he also called Huna.
In this sense, therefore, the Huna philosophy of life is not, strictly speaking, an original, Hawaiian philosophy of life. But Huna is very closely connected to the Polynesian and Hawaiian view of life and was strongly influenced by it.
That is why the headline says "traditional wisdom in a modern guise".
Don't conceal: Criticism of Huna
I would like to mention that the Huna philosophy is sometimes viewed very critically. Not so much because of its content (more on that in a moment), but rather because it is assumed that Huna sees itself as an expression of Hawaiian religion and spirituality.
However, it should have become clear by now that this is not the case.
Sometimes one even reads that Huna is only an esoteric New Age invention, has nothing to do with the actual Hawaiian view of life and world and should be seen more as cultural exploitation than as an expression of Hawaiian thinking.
Most of the time, such criticism comes from very traditionally oriented Hawaiians who see their own cultural identity threatened – which is understandable given the current nationality of the formerly independent Hawaii to the USA.
But anyone who has ever heard a lecture by Serge Kahili King knows how much knowledge King has about Hawaiian culture and language and how appreciative he is of Hawaiian culture (see for example this video ).
And:
Not every "native Hawaiian" is so critical of the "export" of Hawaiian ideas and Hawaiian knowledge about life. Serge Kahili King emphasizes in several places that his adoptive family explicitly gave him permission to pass on the knowledge and wisdom he learned in his education within this family tradition in a modern form.
And also the "native Hawaiian" Morrnah Simeona , which Ho'oponopono (originally a Hawaiian family conference to clarify disputes and problems) made known beyond the borders of Hawaii, had no problems adapting and passing on Hawaiian cultural heritage to modern times.
Ultimately, everyone has to decide for themselves to what extent they can adopt and adapt ideas and concepts from other cultures. On the other hand, this happens everywhere and every day in the world – which is exactly how humanity ultimately evolves.
Buddhism is even famous for integrating other cultures into its own system. And we do exactly that every day, for example, when we practice yoga, meditate or use expressions borrowed from other languages.
In addition:
When I use ideas from the Huna philosophy for my life, I do so in the awareness that these ideas are an expression of universal principles of life, not with the idea of adapting Hawaiian culture.
And indeed, many of these ideas can also be found in many other cultures of the world, but often not in the clarity that they are contained in the Huna philosophy.
But what are these ideas and universal principles of life? This leads me to the seven principles of the Huna philosophy.
The 7 principles
The seven Huna principles form the basis of the Huna philosophy according to Serge Kahili King. They form a kind of guideline with which one can look at the world.
However, King also emphasizes again and again that even during his training in the family tradition of the Kahilis, he did not learn these Huna principles in the form of fixed guiding principles. It was more of an oral tradition in the form of legends and with the help of stories and examples from everyday life, which gave him a view of the world that he only later put into the form of the seven principles.
He has given each of these 7 basic principles a Hawaiian name: Ike, Kala, Makia, Manawa, Aloha, Mana and Pono.
And behind each of these principles is a way of looking at life that can be very helpful for one's everyday life and can help bring about healing changes.
1) The world is what you think it is (Ike)
The first of the seven principles alone has the potential to turn your world completely upside down.
Because it says that your world is exactly what you think it is.
You think Mondays suck? According to Huna, there is a high probability that you will experience many such montages. Think you have two left hands? Your subconscious will confirm that you are right.
But Ike goes beyond these everyday occurrences.
We are used to looking at the world "out there" and perceiving it as independent of us. The first principle of Huna philosophy, on the other hand, invites us to see ourselves as the creator of our world.
We create our world with our beliefs and expectations. Or to put it another way: We get confirmation of our expectations by shaping the world around us in such a way that it meets these expectations.
Is stress deadly?
An impressive example of this is provided by a Study from 2011, which can be explained very well with this first principle of the Huna philosophy.
In the study, the researchers asked a total of 30,000 subjects how they assessed the extent of stress in their lives and looked 8 years later at how many of the subjects had died.
The result of the study: Stress increased the risk of an earlier death by 43% – but only in those who believed that the stress could kill them. For the others, there was no significant difference in mortality rates.
If you're worried that your thoughts could make you sick, I can reassure you.
The fact that the study participants with the conviction that stress can be fatal actually died earlier on average does not mean that this conviction was the reason for the higher death rate.
It could be, for example, that these study participants were exposed to additional stress due to their expectations, thus had less energy overall and therefore perhaps did less exercise to compensate for stress.
And that would then be the cause of the overall higher mortality rate.
Scientifically speaking:
A correlation (a statistical relationship) is not the same as a causality (a causal relationship).
So Huna does not say that thoughts "just like that" become reality out of nowhere.
According to Huna, this is possible if you focus very intensively on one thing for long enough, but usually it goes like this: Our thoughts determine our actions and our actions determine our reality.
By the way, the idea that we shape and shape our reality ourselves with our thoughts, beliefs and expectations does not only exist in Huna philosophy.
Already from Buddha there is a quote that expresses this idea: "We are what we think. Everything we are arises in our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world" (Buddha).
And Johann Wolfgang von Goethe has his Faust say: "Everyone sees what he carries in his heart" (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in Faust I).
"We are what we think. Everything we are arises in our thoughts. We make the world with our thoughts."
Does Ike now mean that we can control life and the world around us? After all, we make the world with our thoughts, as it says in the Buddha quote.
By no means.
Because: We are not alone in this world and are therefore influenced by everything around us - mostly unconsciously and without us really noticing.
The world is a co-production
We do not live isolated in a world for ourselves, but together with others. And are therefore also influenced by others on many levels: by our relationship partners, family members, friends, the media and the society in which we live – to name just a few.
And in the same way, we influence other people around us.
We therefore do not create our world alone: the world in which we live is a "collective product" of all of us.
This also means, for example, that each of us has a responsibility to take good care of ourselves. Because only then can you make a positive contribution to this "joint product".
Ike – the first of the seven principles of Huna philosophy – could be the subject of an entire book. Just like about each of the other seven principles.
But I want to keep this article somewhat manageable, so I now come to the second of the seven principles: Kala.
2) There are no limits (Kala)
The second principle – there are no limits – seems at first glance to contradict our experience. After all, there are borders all around us.
National borders, which unfortunately are still to be changed by acts of war in the 21st century, regulations, rules of conduct – all borders that we experience every day in our lives and to which we have become accustomed.
And there are also plenty of limits on a personal level. My energy supply and my performance are limited, my time is limited and even money is not limitlessly available to me.
How does this fit in with the second principle?
Kala could perhaps be formulated differently: Borders only exist in our heads.
And because according to the first principle, my world is shaped by my thoughts, this is of course reflected in my life.
The freer I become in my thinking, the fewer limits I experience in my life.
The Buddhist monk, who has since died Thich Nhat Hanh says: "Because you are alive, everything is possible" (Thich Nhat Hanh).
If we develop an awareness of what limits we have in our heads, we can consider whether we want to continue to accept these limits or not – and then consciously expand them.
The Roger-Bannister Effect
Here is also a – in my opinion – very impressive (and rightly quoted) example:
On 06.05.1954, the English athlete Roger Bannister achieved what no one had thought possible. He runs the English mile under four minutes and thus secures the world record (here is a Original Video from its course).
For decades, athletes all over the world had tried in vain. After all, it was concluded that it was simply impossible for humans to crack this time mark.
Until Roger Bannister proved that it could be done.
The really interesting thing about it, however, is something else. In the same year that Bannister set his world record, another runner managed to beat the four-minute mark. A year later, there were three more runners.
The numbers are not quite as spectacular as you sometimes read on the internet (on one page I read that there would have been 300 runners who would have undercut the mark the following year), but still: The Roger Bannister effect, as this phenomenon is called today, illustrates very impressively what it means that borders only exist in our heads.
Everything is connected
Another aspect of Kala is that everything is connected to everything else. Because if there are no limits, everything is infinite and separation is therefore an illusion.
Eckart Tolle says: "You are not separate from the whole. You are one with the sun, the earth, the air. You have no life. You are life." (Eckhart Tolle).
The Islamic mystic Rumi, who lived in the 13th century and from whom the following quote has been handed down, expresses it in a very similar way: "You are not a drop in the ocean. You are an entire ocean in one drop." (Rumi).
I realized a few years ago that all this is not just theory.
At that time, I had studied Huna philosophy very intensively, read many books, attended seminars and met weekly on the Internet with Serge Kahili King and a group of like-minded people.
Now I'm a teacher and at the beginning of a lesson we usually greet each other with a "Good morning".
In one day I had a mixed course of several classes. Some of the students (grade 7) did not know each other at all and when I said "Good morning" as a greeting, I was greeted by a loud "Aloha!" from the students.
After my first surprise had subsided a bit, I asked the students how they had come up with it.
They couldn't explain it to me.
They hadn't coordinated (that wasn't possible at all, because some of them didn't even know each other) and they didn't know the word aloha either.
I later asked Serge Kahili King about it.
For him, the matter was less surprising. He said that because of the second principle, everything is connected and because I had dealt very intensively with Huna and the Aloha principle, the students had absorbed this energy unconsciously.
3) Energy follows attention (Makia)
You have probably read or heard that energy follows attention in other places. Of course, this does not mean physical energy (such as light or heat energy), but spiritual energy, i.e. the life force, of which I have already spoken at one point or another.
This spiritual energy follows your attention. It flows to where you focus your attention.
Behind the third principle of the Huna philosophy is the idea that if we focus our attention on something, it will then increase in our lives. The more focused we are, the more energy flows towards our attention and the sooner our lives will show what we are focusing on.
In order for things to manifest themselves, i.e. to become visible in our lives, we need not only our thoughts (the first principle), but also focused energy.
Everyday thoughts therefore do not create reality, focused thoughts do.
That's why it's not enough to just go through the day with some wishful thinking. Only when there is the right energy behind the thoughts can they show up in our lives.
Emotion = Energy in Motion
And this energy comes to the thoughts in the form of conscious attention and as emotions.
Only when I am really convinced of a thought and consciously focus on this thought, the necessary energy for its realization is available.
However, if I am too tense, i.e. try with all my might to "push through" something, it blocks the energy behind my thought. So it's about focusing on your goals from a relaxed, joyful attention.
And the best way to do that is to align my goals with how much joy they trigger in me. Then I have the right goals and nothing stands in the way of realizing my goals.
Actions direct energy to a particular degree
By the way: Our actions are one of the most important ways to direct and align our focus! That's why our thoughts get a lot of energy when we get into action and the probability increases that our thoughts can become reality.
The famous inventor Thomas Alva Edison the following quote is attributed: "Success is only achieved by doing something while waiting for success" (Thomas Alva Edison).
"Energy follows attention" does not mean sitting back and waiting for your own wishes to be fulfilled.
"Success is only achieved by doing something while waiting for success."
By the way, the whole thing also works the other way around:
Energy not only follows attention, our attention also follows energy.
From the point of view of Huna philosophy, this is one of the reasons why we quickly focus on the negative things in life – because they are often associated with strong emotions.
4) Now is the moment of power (Manawa)
Manawa – the fourth principle of the Huna philosophy – suggests to us that we can only exert influence and consciously create our lives when we are in the present, i.e. in the present moment.
The writer Leo Tolstoy puts it this way: "Remember – the most important time is the present moment." (Leo Tolstoy)
Often, however, our thoughts are in the past or the future. We think about everything that went wrong or paint and some gloomy (or happy) future.
But then we are not in the present and cannot influence our present. So we lose the influence on our lives, because that always finds now instead of.
"Life is now and never not now!" says Eckart Tolle (German: Life is always now and never not now).
The more we manage to live in the here and now again, the greater the influence we have on our lives – this is the core message of the fourth principle of the Huna philosophy.
The question is, of course, how to get back to the present.
This is exactly what the mindfulness teachings, which have their origins in Buddhist meditation practice and have been developed in recent years mainly through Jon Kabat-Zinn has become popular in the West.
Here at Flowfeather, you'll find lots of ideas for how to bring your thoughts back to the present through mindfulness practice exercises.
For example, take a look at the Daily Flow! exercises on this page. Among them are some that have their origins in mindfulness.
A particularly good way to come back to the present moment is to stay in nature. Because it appeals to all our senses and brings us back to the now very quickly.
5) To love is to be happy with something or someone (aloha)
Aloha is not only the fifth principle from the Huna philosophy, Aloha is the basis of Hawaiian thinking and feeling – "Hawaii – The Aloha State". In and in Hawaii, people also speak of the "Aloha Spirit" or the "Way of Aloha".
Although it is the fifth of the seven Huna principles, it is a kind of basic principle of Huna and the core of the Huna philosophy of life.
The Importance of Aloha
Aloha is also used as a greeting in Hawaii. Aloha is usually translated as "love" – a nice idea that people in Hawaii call out "love" to each other as a greeting.
But there are other meanings in the word aloha.
"Alo" figuratively means the sharing of something in the present moment. "Oha" means joy and "Ha" is the breath and the life energy.
Hawaii is famous for the ALOHA spirit
Together, Aloha means the "joyful sharing of life energy in the present moment". Or to put it another way: To be happy with something or someone.
Accordingly, love and the creation of harmony and compassion are important pillars of Huna philosophy and run through all aspects of Huna teachings.
What does that mean in concrete terms?
Love always makes you happy. Everything else is not love, but has to do with fears, doubts and uncertainty. "Happiness is love, nothing else. He who can love is happy," says the German-Swiss writer Hermann Hesse.
A relationship is therefore loving to the extent that the two partners are happy with each other. Love in the relationship becomes less the more you criticize each other in the relationship.
And also the other way around:
The more appreciation you show each other in the relationship (for example, in the form of mutual compliments), the greater the love in the relationship.
Because this automatically reduces criticism.
Huna regards love as our natural state. Only our fears, fears, worries and doubts bring us out of this natural state.
The more love we feel for someone or something, the deeper the connection we have with each other. Fears and doubts, on the other hand, separate us from each other.
This ethical mindset is called Aloha Spirit.
Following the "Aloha Way of Life" means treating oneself and others with respect and love – through mutual appreciation and by complimenting each other (in Huna philosophy it is called "blessing").
The power of thoughts
From the point of view of the Huna philosophy, it does not matter whether I do it directly or only in my thoughts.
Because:
Because of the second principle (Kala – there are no limits), everything is connected. Therefore, my thoughts also have an influence on the other person – the deeper our connection is (remember my experience at school).
And:
Because everything is connected to each other and ultimately everything is one with it on a certain level of consideration, every criticism that I direct at another (or something else) is at the same time a criticism of myself!
From the point of view of Huna, our subconscious does not distinguish between itself and others and therefore applies any criticism to itself. The more I criticize others, the more I tense myself. The more I praise others and compliment them, the better I feel about myself.
Another aspect:
Because the energy follows attention (Makia), the good in our lives increases through the compliments and the appreciation we receive.
Criticism of others, on the other hand, directs the focus to the negative and thus reinforces the negative even further.
There are many more levels of meaning in the word aloha. If you're interested, be sure to check out this article .
Everything is alive
I would also like to mention a – in my opinion, very interesting – idea from the Huna philosophy in connection with Aloha:
If there really are no borders (that was the meaning of Kala), then everything is limitless. Then every living being and everything in this universe is limitless, i.e. infinite.
But this means that everything in this universe has the same origin.
If I follow the idea that this origin is an intelligent consciousness, then it follows that everything in this universe – whether a tree, a bird, a person or even just a cup – is a part of this intelligent consciousness.
The famous physicist and Nobel Prize winner Max Planck puts it this way: "There is no matter, but only a web of energies that has been given form by intelligent mind. This spirit is the primordial ground of all matter." (Max Planck)
"There is no matter, but only a web of energies that has been given form by intelligent mind. This spirit is the primordial ground of all matter."
Huna, therefore, regards everything in this world as alive and capable of responding to us in some way. Therefore, from the point of view of Huna, we can communicate with the elements of nature as well as with natural forces.
For example, by talking to a tree. Or even with their own car – which many people already do anyway, regardless of the Huna philosophy ("Jump on, you ... Car!").
Aloha invites us to be loving in this communication – not only in dealing with each other, but in dealing with everything in this world. Because everything in this world is alive and capable of responding to us – because everything in this world is an expression of the same intelligent consciousness.
6) All power comes from within (mana)
Especially in the sixth principle of the Huna philosophy, it is expressed that Huna is a very shamanic way of looking at life.
Mana – all power or power comes from within – results as a logical conclusion from the second principle, according to which everything is limitless.
If this is true and the source of the universe is an intelligent consciousness that stands as the creative force behind everything, then the power of this intelligent consciousness is present everywhere and in every place in the universe.
So also in every person, in you and in me.
And by the way, the same applies to every animal, every plant, every stone and also to all man-made objects.
From the point of view of Huna philosophy, everything in this world is an expression of the infinite creative power of an infinite, intelligent consciousness and, due to the second principle, also possesses this infinite creative power.
This makes it possible, for example, to use the power of the wind, the power of the deer or that of the ant for oneself.
This is exactly what people did thousands of years ago by painting animal representations on their tents or houses.
Today, we do this by placing animal representations in company logos or attaching them to car radiators. Depending on the car brand, we can find a jaguar, a lion, a ram or a bull, for example.
Responsibility
The Huna philosophy assumes that we all create our own lives and the circumstances in which we live with our attitudes, beliefs, thoughts and fears.
This does not necessarily happen automatically with a snap of the finger (although this is also possible in principle from the point of view of the Huna philosophy). Rather, it is the actions and habits that arise from our belief system – i.e. from our attitudes, beliefs, thoughts and fears – that shape and determine our lives.
The American coach and motivational trainer Tony Robbins therefore aptly says: "Our life is a mirror of our habits" (Tony Robbins).
From the point of view of the Huna philosophy, we are responsible for our own circumstances – and therefore have the opportunity to change them at any time.
There are no energy vampires
You may have heard the term "energy vampire" before. This refers to people who virtually suck out the energy of other people in order to feel better about themselves.
Surely you also know such people who make you feel empty and powerless afterwards when you have been with them for a while.
From the point of view of the Huna philosophy, however, there are no "energy vampires" at all.
It's not the other people who suck your energy. When you are with such people and feel empty and powerless afterwards, you choose out of your own power in response to these people to tense up inside.
In the Huna philosophy, there are no energy vampires. Because all power comes from within ourselves, we are the ones who cut ourselves off from the energy when we are with certain people – for example, by tensing up inside
As a result, you lose access to the limitless energy that surrounds us at all times. It is your reaction to these people that makes you so powerless and energyless.
So you are responsible for how you feel after encountering such an "energy vampire". You could also choose a different reaction to such a person's behavior that doesn't leave you powerless and energyless.
This may not always be easy, but it is possible. And it gives you the opportunity to shape your own life instead of just being a victim of life circumstances.
By the way, this also applies to the "good vibes" of nature:
If we feel energetic and full of strength after a walk in the woods, it is because we let ourselves be infected by the energy of nature. We resonate with this energy, relax and thus become open again to the limitless energy of the universe around us.
Ultimately, all these "energy things" are about getting into your own inner center. Then we have contact with the source of our being (in Huna philosophy we speak of the Higher Self ) and are connected to the energy of the universe.
Then we are in the flow. And that's what Flowfeather is all about.
Responsibility is not to blame
By the way, being responsible for one's own living conditions and taking responsibility for one's actions is not the same as being to blame for one's living conditions.
In our society, we often confuse responsibility and guilt.
Guilt, however, implies that one consciously acts against one's own principles. However, many (most) of our decisions about what our lives look like are made unconsciously.
We let ourselves be influenced by other people, by the media and society's expectations of us and adopt the underlying views into our own belief system.
In this way, we then create our own living conditions without noticing what role these adopted views and beliefs play.
That's why we can't say that someone is to blame for their circumstances.
We can't control life
Even if we create our own lives and our living conditions – we cannot control life, only influence it.
In life, things always happen that we don't want.
But from the Huna's point of view, these do not happen because we are victims of circumstances, but precisely because we accept these things on a subconscious level and create them ourselves.
It is therefore always about mindfulness and developing an awareness of one's own thoughts, beliefs and lifestyle habits.
To the extent that I become aware of my own belief system and succeed in changing my thoughts, beliefs and habits, I regain the opportunity to consciously shape my life and no longer be a victim of life circumstances.
This is the core message of the sixth principle of the Huna philosophy.
7) True is what works (Pono)
The last principle from the Huna philosophy has it all. In fact, it took me a very long time to understand what this principle means in practice.
In short, the seventh principle of Huna philosophy states that there is no universal truth.
Just as the sixth principle is a logical consequence of the second principle, "pono" is a logical consequence of the first principle.
After that, the world was what we think it is. And of course, that also means that what we think is true is true.
"Truth is in the eye of the beholder," one might say.
Of course, this is spontaneously very reminiscent of the "alternative truths" for which Donald Trump rightly made the headlines during his time in office.
Why does the seventh principle still make sense?
What is reality?
To answer this question, I always think of a comic that I saw somewhere. In the comic you can see a number lying sideways and two men looking at the number from the opposite side.
One shouts "6!", the other shouts "9!".
Who is right? Both and neither. Because it depends on the perspective and one's own point of view.
We interpret the world around us according to our own beliefs, ideas and assumptions. Depending on what they look like, we then come to completely different conclusions.
If we look at the world with different assumptions, we see a completely different reality.
Even science, which is generally committed to the search for truth, has come to the conclusion that there is no such thing as "one reality" – and therefore no absolute truth.
Stephen Hawking, physicist and mathematician, Nobel Prize winner and holder of Isaac Newton's Chair of Mathematics at Cambridge University during his lifetime, who has unfortunately passed away in the meantime, says: "There is no concept of reality independent of image or theory" (Stephen Hawking).
Of course, the question arises as to what is actually still true and false. The Huna philosophy has a very simple answer to this: true is what works.
Or to put it another way: Effectiveness decides whether something is true (for me) or not. Effectiveness is the measure of truth.
And depending on what goal I am pursuing, my truth can therefore look completely different.
Or, to quote Albert Einstein once again: "Truth is what survives the test of practice" (Albert Einstein, Nobel Prize winner in physics).
"Truth is what survives the test of practice"
Interestingly, in German, we have two terms for the reality that surrounds us. In addition to the word "reality", there is also the word "reality".
"Reality is what works," one could say. And thus comes quite close to the seventh principle from the Huna philosophy.
There is always a (different) way
The Huna philosophy assumes that we live in an infinite universe. In an infinite universe, there are endless possibilities.
Therefore, there is always another way – another possibility – to achieve one's goal.
The seventh principle of the Huna philosophy tells us to use everything that helps us to achieve our goal. If one method doesn't work, try another until you find one that works for you.
If there is no absolute, universal truth, there is no one, correct, always functioning method to achieve one's goals.
Specifically related to the area of personality development:
If a vision board doesn't work for you, try using the Wheel of Life work. If that doesn't work, use affirmations. Or try self-coaching techniques from NLP. Or use everything at the same time, if that works best for you.
Use everything that helps you achieve your goal.
The end does not justify the means
Now, of course, one might be tempted to think that the end justifies the means. After all, the seventh principle says that what works is true and that you should do what works.
But:
According to Makia – the third principle of the Huna philosophy – the energy follows our attention.
Therefore, if I use methods that harm other people, animals, plants or the earth, my focus is on "harming others" and my energy will also move in this direction.
Since everything is connected to everything else according to the second principle (Kala), I am harming myself in the end.
Peaceful methods produce peaceful results, harmful methods produce harmful results, Serge Kahili King writes in his book "The City Shaman".
This was a relatively detailed overview of the meaning of the seven principles of Huna philosophy. Now let's see what this means to everyone in practice.
The Seven Principles in Practice
Imagine you work in the financial accounting department of a small, medium-sized company. The tax audit has been announced and you have the task of preparing everything for the audit.
A huge additional amount of work that comes on top of your already existing tasks.
Opposite you sits your colleague, who could help you, but has already announced in advance that he sees no reason to do anything that is not ordered by the boss and that you should watch how you can cope with the matter on your own.
Not only are you now extremely stressed because you hardly know how to get the work done, but you're also frustrated and angry because your colleague doesn't want to help you and lets you down.
The stress haunts you until the end of the day, at home you are irritable and at your partner at every opportunity and at night you can no longer sleep well because your thoughts are constantly revolving around work and you imagine what could happen if you don't have all the documents prepared in time.
Admittedly, the example is contrived, but this or something similar could be a typical stressful situation in everyday work.
Now let's see how the seven principles from the Huna philosophy could help here to get out of the stress again.
1) Ike – The world is what you think it is
Ike, the first principle, suggests that you consciously pay attention to your thoughts in this situation. When we are stressed, we usually have the feeling that things are the way they are and that we can't change anything about our stress.
We then have the feeling that we are helplessly at the mercy of the stress and can only try to cope with the stress somehow.
But of course, if the world is what we think it is, so is the stress in our lives: it's our thoughts that cause the stress, not the things themselves.
My NLP instructor once put it this way: "There are only facts out there. In order for a fact to become stress, you have to do something about it" ( Susanne Lapp , NLP trainer).
And coach and motivational coach Tony Robbins says: "Stress comes from making things more important than they are" (Tony Robbins).
In the situation from the example, you may think: "If I don't finish on time, I'll lose my job. Then I can no longer afford the rent and lose everything that is important to me."
Or – not quite as dramatic as in the first example – you think: "There's no way I can do all this. Never, no matter what I do."
It is such thoughts that create the stress, not the fact of the extra work itself.
But is it really true that you will lose your job if you don't finish on time? And would that automatically mean that you certainly wouldn't find a new (maybe even better) job?
And is it really true that you can't do the work no matter what you do? Can you be sure that there is absolutely no way to get the tax preparation done on time without your other tasks falling behind?
Even if it doesn't look like it at first, there are probably ways to get the work done without having to work around the clock.
This is what Kala, the second principle, has to do with me.
2) Kala – there are no limits
One meaning of Kala was that there are always several ways to do something.
Based on our example, this means that you could ask the boss if he could relieve you in other areas. Maybe you are also thinking together that you could work from home for a limited time. This could save you an hour of travel time per day, which you would also have available for tax preparation.
And even if that is not possible, there may be ways to make tax preparation more efficient. One method for this could be timeboxing.
Timeboxing means setting fixed time limits for completing your tasks. Studies confirm that this can increase efficiency and reduce the time it takes to complete tasks.
Behind this is the Parkinson's Law , which you know from project management.
You could also think together with the boss about what exactly you have to do for tax preparation and whether all documents really need to be reviewed. Maybe it is enough to prepare the most important things and go through the rest together with the tax inspector.
You see, what hovered threateningly above you before may not be as set in stone on closer inspection as it first appeared.
3) Makia – Energy follows attention
"Energy follows attention" means that we should look very carefully at what our focus is. Because that's where our energy goes.
And that also means that if I don't have a focus on anything at all, my energy dissipates.
So instead of watching TV after work to distract yourself, scrolling through social media sites or watching YouTube videos, you could consciously focus on the things that bring energy up.
For example, you could get off one or two stops early after work to get some exercise. You might even have the opportunity to take a walk in the city park or in a nearby forest. You know, hardly anything brings our energy up as effectively as spending time in nature.
Going for a short walk through the city park or even better through a forest after work can work wonders
You could also do breathing meditations or yoga exercises to boost your energy. Or you could meet up with friends or go to the gym or sauna.
All things that replenish your energy instead of dissipating it even further.
This would leave you rested and refreshed the next day at work, less stress, more effective work and faster task progression – which in turn helps to further reduce your sense of stress.
4) Manawa – Now is the moment of power
When we are stressed, it is often because our thoughts are in the future. We imagine all the terrible things that could happen and are then stressed by these thoughts.
The American author Mark Twain once put it very aptly: "I am an old man and have experienced many terrible things, but fortunately most of it never happened" (Mark Twain).
We had already seen earlier how much our thoughts influence the stress we experience. Manawa means that we should consciously try to return to the here and now – especially when we are stressed.
In our Western world, the present is in the vast majority of cases a place where we are safe and where we are not exposed to any threat. That's why our stress automatically decreases when we return to the here and now.
In our example, you could consciously come into the present moment with different mindfulness techniques. Breathing meditations and, of course, spending time in nature are also very good ways to get into the here and now.
In our example, Manawa also means that you could consider the extent to which "procrastination" plays a role in your stress. Often it is the things we don't do, but which haunt us in our heads, that cause the stress.
There is also a nice quote from Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach: "Only the work we leave behind makes us tired, not the work we do." (Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach).
Focus on what tasks you can do now instead of putting them off until sometime in the future. What can you do now to achieve your goal of getting tax preparation done on time?
Inquire about methods of dealing with procrastination and "procrastination" and integrate such methods into your everyday work. This can also help you to be less stressed and relax more.
5) Aloha – To love is to be happy with something or someone
How can you use the fifth principle of the Huna philosophy in the situation described to find your way back to your center?
On the one hand, Aloha encourages you to treat yourself lovingly even and especially when other things seem to be much more important. Often we forget ourselves first when things get stressful in life.
Good self-care would be especially important when we are stressed. Because then it is particularly important that we retain access to our resources and energy.
"The time to relax is when you don't have time for it," says the American journalist Sydney J. Harris aptly.
In the example above, you should pay special attention to a good rest after work.
For example, you could deliberately go out on the weekend and ensure a change of scenery. Maybe you could even go to a wellness hotel to regenerate.
Good self-care also means that you consciously make an effort to eat well and healthily during stressful times (and outside of them). Instead of eating chips in front of the TV in the evening, you could, for example, prepare a healthy dinner with your partner.
In this way, you not only replenish your energy with healthy food, but also through the increased closeness in the relationship.
But aloha has another meaning that is less plausible at first.
The magic of compliments
In our example, there was a co-worker who was not very cooperative and who left you alone and whose behavior you are very angry about. Instead of insulting this colleague in your mind and getting upset with him, Aloha suggests the exact opposite.
Namely, to compliment this colleague at every opportunity – directly or only in his mind if the colleague is not open to a direct compliment. In Huna philosophy, one speaks of blessings.
You could compliment the coworker on how he looks, how good his clothes look, for coming to work every day, for making a sincere effort to do his job well, for making coffee every now and then, or for taking good care of his family.
No matter what it is, find something good about your coworker and compliment him on it. As I said, it doesn't matter if you do it orally or in your mind (because according to the second principle, everything is connected to everything else).
If you treat your colleague in this way, there's a good chance that they'll become more open to you and your situation, and eventually even be willing to help you (provided you mean your compliments honestly, which admittedly wouldn't be easy in such a situation).
Why?
Because energy follows attention. And good thoughts therefore do good.
You can't control your colleague's behavior with it. But if there is a part of him that is receptive to the positive thoughts, then there is a good chance that he will change his behavior towards you.
6) Mana – All power comes from within
Even if you might feel overwhelmed in the example - realize that you have the power to shape the situation in such a way that you can deal with it.
We have already seen a few possibilities for how this could work.
Often, the problem is not that we don't have the resources to deal with a situation, but that we don't have access to those resources.
For example, because we are not even aware of these resources or because we have beliefs within us that block access to these resources ("I can't do that anyway").
You could therefore make a list of all the skills and competencies you have that can help you deal with the situation better.
These can be things like:
- I can communicate well
- My family supports me
- On my doorstep there is a wonderful piece of forest where I can recharge my batteries
- I'm good at blocking out distractions
- or something completely different...
Now you could consider which of these resources you don't have good access to right now and work on improving access to those resources.
There are many helpful Self-coaching methods that you can use for exactly this purpose. Or you can look for a good coach with whom you can work together to get better access to your resources.
Always remember: "If there is a faith that can move mountains, it is faith in one's own strength" (Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach).
"If there is a faith that can move mountains, it is faith in one's own strength."
Be aware of your resources ("self-confidence") and trust that you can access these resources ("self-confidence"), then you can also deal with difficult situations – that is the meaning of mana.
7) Pono – True is what works
Pono means that in the situation described, you should be open to anything that can help you deal with the situation better.
For example, you shouldn't focus on a single time management method, but try out and use everything that can help you – even if it should be very unusual at first glance (such as perhaps complimenting from the aloha section).
Then you look at what works for you and use the methods and approaches that deliver the best results for you in this situation.
Of course, you first have to be clear about what you want to achieve in the first place. You need to know your goals so that you can decide which method and tool will actually help you.
"For those who do not know the harbor, no wind is favorable," says the Roman philosopher Seneca rightly.
Concrete:
Write down your goal ("By 31.03., I will have prepared all the documents for the tax audit") and divide it into individual sections and subsections. Then determine for each step by when you want to have achieved it.
This way, you can always check where you stand and whether the tools you use help you work more efficiently and better.
Result
This has now become a rather long article about the Huna philosophy. Thank you for sticking with it this far!
In my opinion, the Huna philosophy is a very valuable explanatory framework that can help to better understand and classify many things in life.
What I particularly appreciate about the Huna philosophy is its flexibility.
Huna is very undogmatic and says of itself that it is only one of many ways of looking at life. And depending on which option you use – which glasses you put on, so to speak – life looks completely different and offers different possibilities and limitations.
I hope that there were some valuable suggestions for you in this article and that the article could provide you with valuable information about the Huna philosophy!