“One hour of compassionate deep listening
can bring about transformation and healing.”
La’au lapa’au is Hawaiian healing with spirituality and medicinal plants. La’au Lapa’au practitioners were the doctors in old Hawaii. Papa Henry Auwae, a master la’au lapa’au practitioner and teacher who lived on Hawaii Island, always said that healing is 80% spiritual and 20% the plants.
La’au lapa’au has five expectations. In English they are: to listen, to be prepared, to respect all, to sacrifice, and to be patient. There is no order, the intention is to practice them all and I find if you really practice one, you are practicing the others.
For me a spiritual life is very much the life of a good person with a good heart. They are pono which means right with themselves and their god. Pono also means loving yourself as well as loving and serving others. And that is practice! The five expectations help one to be pono and balanced.
Deep healing is heart opening and arises from this practice although it may be subtle. How can you tell when your heart opens?
For me, hula is very spiritual, and I ask my serious hula students to practice these five expectations in their lives. Ho’olohe – to listen was the first of five expectations that Papa Henry had of his la’au lapa’au students.
We practice Ho’olohe when we practice meditation. To listen deeply internally or externally, we quiet down. Talking ceases. We pause, maybe for a long time. That’s meditation for me - stopping activity and sitting quietly – essentially doing nothing.
When I meditate, I open to listening. I notice my busy mind full of thoughts one after the other. Some are very loud. Then I practice letting go. I notice if I’m ruminating. Then I let go and in zazen – I come back to breath. This is a process that I keep doing repeatedly on the cushion or chair. I still my body, I listen, and let go.
This helps my brain, my mental health. I calm down. When my body is still, my mind can also be still and vice versa because mind and body are one.
If I sit long enough, a deep focus and stillness can arise. In Zen we call that samadhi. And then 'ike - insight - can arise. One can hear what can't be heard. How am I treating myself? How am I treating others?
Ho’olohe. I love listening to birds when I’m sitting early in the morning or anytime of day. And yet, a lot of the time, I don’t even hear them singing as I’m so distracted by my thoughts...and so, I return to the practice of ho’olohe - being present to what is. Listening, again and again.
Meditating regularly. Hearing what can’t be heard.
Malama pono (Take good care of body, mind and heart),
June Kaililani Ryushin Tanoue
Kumu Hula, Roshi
P.S. Here are my recent talks given during our March silent meditation retreat: Ziyong's Earth https://youtu.be/jL60xtQO9sY and Instructions to the Cook https://youtu.be/rOWzi8kDHwE