Pure Light

Kuni HayashiArticles, English Leave a Comment

AO

AO, pronounced “ah-aw,” is a Hawaiian word for light. It means to dawn, to shift from darkness and to regain consciousness. In Hawaii it is told that every child enters this world carrying a bowl filled with pure light. This is“ao”— the light of all-knowing, of pure harmony and balance. But, the story goes, as the child grows older, she/he starts to fill the bowl with stones that begin to block the light eventually covering the entire bowl with darkness. These stones stand for greed for material possessions, addiction to profit maximization, obsession for power and control, and all other stress-filled fear, hatred, deceit, envy, resentment, jealousy, biased judgments and inequities which exist nowhere but in the ego mind. How do we get rid of this collection of “stones” that we have gathered all these years, making our bowl so heavy and tiring to carry? According to the Hawaiian elders, the method is simple: Return to the basics — our own nature within — and turn the bowl upside down allowing the stones to fall out.

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