Monthly Archives: April 2016

Haola is a celebration of life and spirit. Haola is the first practice of the Six Golden Keys of Wisdom Healing Qigong. In Chinese, Hao means “so be it” and La means “all is well”. Chanting Haola, and greeting each other with Haola is a form of connection and acknowledgement that whatever else is going on in our lives and in the world, all is well as a foundation, as a universal constant. That implies that we are connected with this universal syncopation and our energy and lives are unfolding as an expression of that rhythm. Things are opening up in our lives and in our healing, Haola! We are making new connections with others, with Mother Earth, with ourselves, Haola!

A recent article in The Week brought into my life a real Haola moment. 🙂 This article is about the true meaning of the word Aloha. One of my wonderful qigong students who is also a Hula teacher brought this to my attention and I’m so grateful! I playfully first noticed that both Aloha and Haola have all the same letters–Haola is almost Aloha spelled in reverse! The spirit of Aloha is so similar to the spirit of Haola. Both have very superficial meanings, but once we understand the depth of those superficial meanings we come to understand very important concepts about energy and connection and our place in the world.

From The Week: The late Haleaka Iolani Pule (click for video, it’s beautiful!), a Hawaiian historian and healer, called aloha “the symbiotic relationship (you have with the world) and an acknowledgement of that relationship you have with everything in the universe around you, and recognizing exactly what your space within that is”. As I watched this video, I was so touched by this wise woman’s understanding and teaching of Aloha. She teaches that Aloha is “knowing who you are and what you’re here to contribute to the world…With us, our challenge is to bring our bodies together with our minds and to be able to give from our hearts.” This statement is so purely and simply connected to Wisdom Healing Qigong. Our first encouragement in WHQ is to come back to our bodies, come back, come back…and then we work on opening our hearts to give. She says Aloha is “knowing who you are and what you’re here to contribute to the world…our hearts are the givers and our mission is to go out and share Aloha”.  In WHQ, we purposefully and consciously begin our practice by opening our hearts to our deepest purpose for the healing of ourselves, others and this planet–to share Aloha!

Curby Rule, in The Deeper Meaning of Aloha, translates alo as sharing in the present and oha as joyous affection, and ha as life energy, life and breath. Or, “the joyful sharing of life energy in the present”.

But another layer of meaning can be found by factoring in the meanings of the roots words in aloha. “A” means “to burn” (figuratively, to sparkle) and it is also the name of mold found in souring foods. “Lo” is short for lo’o and loa’a which mean “to obtain or procure”. Together these indicate a transformation of energy (burning, sparkling, souring food), a product of an energy transformation (the mold), and an effort to get or obtain something. To me this sounds exactly like consciously manifesting or creating. This brings us to another translation of Aloha. “To consciously manifest life joyously in the present.” 

When I read the words about Aloha and energy transformation I became certain that Aloha and Haola are relatives and connect directly to manifesting source energy (qi) in the world. They are not only about coming back to the body and heart but about coming back to the Earth and transforming the human connection to the universe back to health and balance. 

Cultures all over the world have expressions that convey this connection, this affirmation of life: Aho, Mvto, Amen to name just a few. But sometimes we just say these words and don’t think about the deeper meaning, the commitment to the deepest fulfillment of life. It is my intent to immerse myself in the spirit of Aloha and Haola and focus on acknowledging and savoring that joyful sharing of life when I say or write or chant these words. So when I say Haola, I’ll be consciously saying I am so glad you and I and this universe are connected, and aren’t we lucky to be here sharing our hearts with this place and in this time. Let us celebrate and use this connection to make this world a better place.  Haola! Aloha!

Reciprocity: The practice of exchanging things with others for mutual benefit
Giving and Receiving. Reciprocity. Balance. We thrive on exchange, give and take, to survive as living beings. In Wisdom Healing Qigong, we learn the practice of Lachi as a way to cultivate, give and receive life giving energy to ourselves, others and the universe.  We open and close our hands and visualize cultivating the brilliant, beautiful light of chi concentrating as we close, and expanding as we open. We cultivate, give and receive a great gift with this practice–the gift of energy, connection and healing for ourselves, for each other and for our planet Earth.

“The open and close rhythm is the principle rhythm of all life.” Think about our bodies, our world, our lives. Our breath is about opening and filling our lungs with beautiful oxygen, and then closing and releasing CO2 to the atmosphere. Our hearts beat with the rhythm of expanding and gathering, sending out blood to become oxygenated and then receiving and sending that blood to all parts of our amazing physiology. The universe itself expands and contracts. Lachi is about an energy exchange with the universe unlike our usual autonomic exchanges. It’s like we purposefully become a chi pump or chi bellows to breathe energetically with the universe, with the Source Energy. Not only do we as usual take part in the O2/CO2 exchange with the world, we now are learning to exchange and enhance the positive energy on this planet, in this universe.

We chant while doing Lachi in order to focus our minds to make this exchange happen. We say Kai when we open our hands. Kai means to open, expand, liberate, and open to the chi energy around us. Think about opening and releasing all blockages and negativity. Open and let your minds and hearts be clear. Hui means to close, contract, draw inward, unite. As we close our hands, we visualize bringing life giving energy to each of our cells, organs, and glands. We envision receiving the pure white light into our centers and connecting with the highest wisdom inside ourselves.

In our classes here in Bishop, we have learned preliminary qigong practices that also are about expanding and contracting, giving and receiving. In Spinal Bone Marrow, the spine contracts and expands as we rotate and relax. In Chen Chi, we receive chi into our hearts as we draw the shoulder blades together, and we open or offer chi into the universe as we thrust our arms outward. “Open to release, close to purify and nourish.” Focus on the exchange, the receiving and the giving, the balance. Giving and Receiving. Reciprocity. Balance. Haola! All is well and getting better!