Peace Begins with Me
Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len reminded me recently that his teacher Morrnah Simeona , the kahuna who updated the ancient Hawaiian problem-solving practice of ho'oponopono, kept a sign upon her desk. "Peace Begins with Me," it said. People came to Morrnah from all over for various kinds of healing, especially spiritual; she was also expert in massage. She was apparently very relaxed about all this, and was even known to fall asleep during training seminars. She went about her business, practicing the inner peace conveyed by her desk sign. She also got results. This kind of calmness sometimes eludes me. People come to doctors hoping for some kind of relief. So I get anxious when they're suffering; I feel both their pain and and the need to relieve it. Morrnah probably cared a great deal for others, or she wouldn't have made herself available to them. But she also taught that getting too wound up in others' pain makes one useless as a healer. In my own case, the danger ...