Mana for the Doctor's Soul

Mother Earth is bleeding. The above photo has been widely published , showing the rupture of a BP oil well pipe 5000 feet deep in the Gulf of Mexico. From this wound gushes live, liquid, and pressurized crude oil into the ocean above. I can't help likening it to hitting a major vessel in an accident or surgery -- I have seen this too many times in my career not to be triggered this way. But with human patients, bleeding eventually stops. Either doctors can repair the injury, or the patient bleeds completely out. In comparison, Mother Earth shows no sign of stopping her bleeding. It continues billowing forth, despite multiple attempts to shut off or cap the broken pipe. Ever since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded and burned several weeks ago, many sources have spewed as many estimates of "how much" oil is actually gushing into the water. Eleven men died in the disaster, whose story becomes more graphic and painful with time. I have watched this news evolve, and wep...

"Behold, I make all things new. " ~Revelations 21:5 I don't usually quote the Bible in my blog, mostly because I'm not a biblical scholar. But when I saw the above view from my backyard the other evening, the verse suddenly popped into mind. That is, after the initial "WOW!" that surged through my soul. I had been struggling for many months with some family issues, cleaning with them through Ho'oponopono . Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len had even given me a particular tool for this, which I had been using. In between storms of anger, resentment, and worry, of course. :-) Had I been cleaning perfectly, there would have been no inner or outer struggle. Nor would I have been so flooded with the kinds of pain mentioned above. But I am human. This is both a limitation and gift, since it brings all kinds of opportunities to make things right. Ho'oponopono is all about "making things right," in fact. Ho'oponopono is a very practical method for allowi...

"Do not despair. Your work will bear fruit in 700 years or so . " ~The Dalai Lama I had to laugh on seeing this quotation from the Dalai Lama -- it reminded me so much of teachings from Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len and Morrnah Simeona . How often have YOU questioned whether your Ho'oponopono cleaning "does any good"? While laughing, I'm also acknowledging that my human sense of time is probably very different from that of Divinity's. On the Big Island of Hawaii there is an active volcano: Kilauea. It's said to be the home of Pele, the volcano goddess described in Hawaiian chants as "She Who Shapes the Land." Kilauea has erupted some 34 times since 1952, and has been continually active since 1983. (see my photo above) When I was on Hawaii in February, only smoke was coming from the crater -- and yet in previous years I've seen lava flowing into the sea from the volcano's east flank. Land is being created constantly, no matter what stage ...

I'm still sifting through my recent experiences with the Hawaiian kahunas (mentioned in my last post). The benefits were plenty while there, but have increased since my return home. One of these I'll share is the Lesson of the Pipe Wrench. It may sound a little strange, but please bear with me. In addition to being trained since childhood in kahuna ways, Mel Ha'Makua Mason has several other businesses. One day, he had just finished a plumbing job before coming to our small group to teach. He looked around the room at us, and brought out his tool box. It looked ordinary enough . . . and contained no plant roots or other magical concoctions. Each of us was to silently choose a tool. I asked him what the task was? How could I choose without knowing this? He shook his head and told me to choose anyway. I picked the hammer because it could both dismantle old things, and help build new ones. Several other people liked that tool also. He went around the room listening to...

I've been in Hawai'i for the past couple of weeks, gifted with an opportunity to learn from some very wise and articulate kahunas on the Big Island. How rare to spend time with people whose every breath is Ho'oponopono , in a land known as "the Breath and the Water of the Divinity." * My journey overlapped with many, many humpback whales visiting from Alaska. They migrate to Hawaiian waters every year to have their babies, sing, and mate. You really can hear their songs even outside the water . . . and it is an amazing experience also to hear them breathe and see them spout. Not to mention leaping out of the water -- all 80,000 pounds' worth! Even with all their activities, they don't eat while in Hawaii from late November through spring -- they only do that in Alaskan waters. Sometimes the nursing females are skin and bones by the time they migrate back north; baby humpback whales can drink 150 gallons of milk a day. Pretty hefty appetites, yes? Som...

Creatures have volumes to teach us, if only we allow it. Inspiration seems to speak through them -- but not in words. A dear colleague, Dr. Lucinda Sykes in Toronto , responded to my story about the roadrunner roosting serenely on my patio through last week's storms. Besides being an excellent physician, Dr. Sykes is also a long-time meditator and yoga practitioner. She's truly found her calling: she teaches patients to maintain calm awareness through Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction . Doctors refer patients with all kinds of anxiety, pain, and suffering to her classes -- and they get good results. She's also attended some Ho'oponopono trainings with me, and loves God's critters as much as I do. My roadrunner friend reminded her of something. So she sent me this poem, which she'd received at a meditation retreat: THE LITTLE DUCK by Donald C. Babcock Now we are ready to look at something pretty special. It is a duck riding the ocean a hundred feet beyond the ...

We've had some vicious storms here in Arizona the last few days -- high winds, damaged homes, flooding, road closures, large event tents sailing away and landing on freeways, and some drownings. Not to mention all the snow in Flagstaff and Sedona. It's nowhere near the suffering in Haiti, but enough to get people's attention. In the midst of it all, a little bird taught me some Ho'oponopono . During the swirling rain and winds the other night, I went outside to wrestle with my dancing patio furniture. It needed a safer place, closer to the house. While out there, I happened to look up at the patio light . . . . where perched in all its fine fluffery and gawky-long tail was my friend, the Roadrunner. S/he (I don't know which) visits often, but usually flies away when I come out. This time s/he looked as if sitting on a nest -- which are usually made of sticks and such in a tree or shrub. Sometimes they even include worn-out rattlesnake skins. If s/he had made ...