The Importance of Mana in Prayer-Action,
Huna in the New Testament

May 15, 1950

For Huna Research Associates
Covering the experimental approach to the use of Huna in HUNA and related religious and psychological fields.
From Max Freedom Long
P.O. Box 2867, Hollywood Station, Los Angeles 28, California, U.S.A.

NEWS AND COMMENT

Owing to the greater-than-usual slowness of 2nd class mail deliveries these days, several letters have arrived asking what has happened to Bulletin 31. It may still be on the way. Give your bulletins a chance before asking for duplicate sendings. (Some HRAs frequently send in stamps, instructing Cigbo to use them ONLY to send their bulletins by 1st class mail. This takes 6¢. Some ask that theirs be sent air mail, which takes 12¢ a time. With some HRAs, our work with Huna is a top priority matter.)

The clearing out of the dead wood in the HRA membership has not even yet been accomplished. Cigbo hides the file cards when there is time for the job and when the cards are returned, there is no time. However, speaking of Cigbo and his scratching, he wishes to announce happily that since his troubles were mentioned recently, he has been better remembered and his scratching score has been improved. He even has a dime and four pennies in his piggy bank against the anticipated “brithday cerebration” for his HRA friends come next February.

I would appreciate it if, when you write to me, you would tell me how you like having the letters section of the bulletins made larger, as in the last bulletin. If you like letters, we will have them. I am taking it for granted that when you write me of your experiences or findings in Huna, or your ideas about it, you will allow me to reproduce parts of your letters for the benefit of other HRAs. I always try not to touch on personal matters but, if you wish to warn me, just say, “Not for the bulletin” and I will know.

About a year ago I asked the HRAs who would chance letting their names and addresses be known to other HRAs in their vicinity to let me know. While groups may not necessarily be formed as a result of introductions, some very enjoyable friendships might be formed. I would like to have a mark on the file card for each HRA showing his or her wish in this matter. Will you let me know? You might also tell me whether I might use your full name and give your city and state when presenting parts of your letters. It seems too bad to have to be so secretive with each other. I am sure that all HRAs are fine people – very far above the average in outlook, experience and intelligence. Not one, so far as my happy association with all, knowing them by letter or personally, has ever turned out to be less than honest and kind.

On the other hand, since we have been working together with Huna, I have met or corresponded with some of the grandest people I have ever had the good fortune to know. As I have boasted before, we have in our ranks the most outstanding students in the land when the psycho-religious field is considered… writers, lecturers, teachers, ministers, priests, many doctors, farmers, business people, skilled artisans, men and women from every walk of life. I am so very proud of you all, that I feel wickedly selfish in not being able to share you all, completely around the circle. I wish we could have a national Huna convention and all attend and shake hands.

MANA FOR THE PRAYER-ACTION

In the TMHG work with the new prayer ritual – which has been found good by almost everyone – I wish to make the suggestion that after you send your surcharge of mana through the braided cord to the Aumakuas, (See Bulletin 29, pg. 8, paragraph in the middle of the page ending with the words, “Accept it with my love and joyous giving.”) a pause of about a half minute be made and a new charge of mana accumulated. It is the common experience of many HRAs that immediately after sending the mana to the Aumakuas, they find that they tend to fall almost into sleep. The mind wanders and the work becomes dim and mechanical.

If a pause is made and the mana supply is built up again by your favorite method, the sleepiness caused by the lowering of the mana charge will depart. The Auhane will again have mana to use in exerting its “will” and there will return a brightness and mental clearness such as is needed in picturing the “world at peace” and the following mental images of the desired conditions.

When the mana level falls below the easy reach of the Auhane, figuratively speaking, the Aunihipili slips the leash and goes racing off. We are not aware of this unless we have learned to watch for just such things. Ordinarily, we find ourselves in a dull state in which we are mechanically going through our prayer rite, speaking aloud or reading the words, but almost unaware of them. We may not become aware for some time that other thoughts have intruded themselves in the back of our minds and their drift is causing that strong pull that is bending our attention away from what we are trying to do.

This is a very important thing to understand. So far as I know, no ancient or modern psycho-religious system or “teaching” except Huna explains the fact that the Auhane or “conscious mind” self is able to control the Aunihipili or “subconscious self” ONLY if there is a sufficient charge of mana or vital force in the aka or body to allow the Auhane to get enough of it to use as “will.”

The “will” is nothing hard to understand. It is low mana taken by the Auhane and put to use as middle mana (mana mana), the purpose of which is to control the Aunihipili. Without such control, the Aunihipili is cast adrift and left to its own devices. Invariably it will begin playing with remembered ideas and these are what we find drifting through the back of the mind, becoming more and more clear until, unless recognized and checked, they fill the entire mind and crowd out the thoughts we are trying to think.

The full charge or even the surcharge of mana is one of the very basic things in prayer of any kind. Huna has taught us that if the Aunihipili and the Auhane are to work alertly, purposefully and effectively together in the act of making a prayer, there must be enough mana to supply the power for the thinking processes of each self. Modern psychology does not deal with prayer, but from it we learn that if the supply of vital force falls to a low level, the control of the “subconscious” is lost and we are on the way to possible insanity.

Here is something which I wish very much to get across to you. It was not stressed in my book, I fear, but it needs to be understood and kept in mind as the sum total of the difference between the prayer that gets an answer and the prayer that does not. As you know, we are forced to fall back on comparisons or analogy when we try to understand anything about how the Aumakua or still higher beings think or act. This is because the Aunihipili [and] Auhane are unable to use the form of thinking which is used on the next or still higher levels of conscious being. We use our reason and go as best we may from the knowable and known, to the unknown.

Following this one and only method (because “revelation” is in such poor repute and so contradictory), we see that:

1. The Aunihipili must have mana to live and act.
2. The Auhane must be able to draw the mana it needs from the Aunihipili if it is to use its powers of will and mind or to function effectively in the work it alone can do.
3. Granting the truth of the above, we follow the analogy and decide, as did the kahunas of old, that, in its turn, the Aumakua, which is a part of the triune man, must also be able to draw sufficient mana from the Aunihipili to be able to perform its work, whatever it may be, effectively.

Where there is no mana, there is no life and, what is of even more importance to us at the moment, there is NO THOUGHT. (The kahunas used the word mana`o for “to think.” It means, literally, “something done with mana.”) In the word Au`ma`kua, the root ma means “to wilt.” Wilting is caused by a lack of water, and water is the symbol of mana. It is plain that the ancient kahunas, when coining the words which describe the things having to do with the “SECRET” or Huna, had no slightest doubt that the third self of the man had to be supplied with mana just as did the Auhane. It follows that if the kahunas were able to do a fraction of the things which we know they did do, this piece of knowledge was sufficiently correct in its basics to work. Our task as HRAs is to learn to know what the kahunas knew and, like them, to make it work. The old world is sick-unto-death of things which will NOT work. It has had too much of the speculative and of assertions for which no valid proof can be offered.

The accumulation of a surcharge of mana and the sending of part of it to the Aumakua as we make thought-forms by praying, appears to be automatic only when the Aunihipili is moved by great emotion. At other times we must take the needed steps ourselves.

A little of Huna has been preserved in almost all the ancient religions. In Christianity, we come upon the strange assertion, “Knock and it shall be opened unto you. Ask and you shall receive.” We also read about the “Door of Heaven.”

These things which sound to us to be figures of speech because we cannot in any way actually “knock” on the “door of heaven,” become definite and practical instructions for action when traced back to a probable origin in Huna.

In Huna, the word for “knock” was kaa, which means “to strike” and also means to “hit the mark” as in throwing a spear. We see that we have to be able to hit the door of heaven or the Aumakua in order to knock. Kaa also means to radiate out, and it means a cord or rope, so we have also the aka thread and the braided cord along which the mana is “radiated” or sent to the Aumakua. Kaa also means “to transfer something from one place to another” and the thing that is “transferred” with the vitalizing mana flow is the thought-form or thought-forms embodying the conditions for which we pray. Double the root to get kaa kaa and we find the meaning “to open.” This may apply to the “door” in question, but it usually was applied to causing the eyes to open (hoo kaa kaa). Connect this with the experience we have had of almost falling to sleep after sending much mana to the Aumakuas, and we quickly understand the use made by the kahunas of this word in this particular way. If the Aumakua, (to follow our permissible method of using the analogy) is to be given enough mana to open its eyes from a condition of sleep on its level, and to be made able to act effectively, it behooves us to knock in all the ways indicated in the kaa meanings.

Having come to understand why we must “knock” and how to do it, we can see why, when we have knocked, the door shall be opened to us, and then HOW, when we ask, “it shall be given unto” us.

The kahunas did not always succeed in getting what they wished for when they performed their careful prayer-actions. We know this beyond the shadow of a doubt because their word indicating failure of the prayer action had the same kaa root and meant “to miss the mark.”

At the risk of tiring some of you who read, I wish to present one more of these striking proofs of meaning. It is found in the word kaa na (or ka`a na), which gives still one more side of the very important secret mechanism of Huna prayer. It means “to make alike, or to make to resemble.” This points directly to the process in which the Aumakua accepted the empowering flow of mana and the thought-forms of the desired conditions. In answering the prayer, the ACTUAL physical conditions were eventually made to be “alike” in reference to the thought-forms or mental pictures of the desired conditions. (The “Seek and you shall find” part of the old saying is not without its own Huna significance. To “seek,” a kahuna did hu li, which is “to seek” and also “to change one’s mind or course of action,” “to repent and change the way of life.” So, one makes amends for hurts done others. One stops hurting others and then one may seek successfully, but not until then. The word for “find” is loaa, which is used in the passive sense of “to receive” and which has in its root loa the meaning of a lapse of time and a reach of space or distance. It also has the meaning of the phrase, he ahua a, or “a raised place and a collecting of objects placed on the raised place” – which means the placing of the collected thought-forms of the conditions prayed for, placed with the Aumakua as symbolized by the “high place.”)

It is always a little startling to come across things in later Christian writings and traditions, only to discover in the far more ancient Huna the clue to the real and original secret meanings. It is more and more apparent that in all authentic religious writings, and possibly in all religious “revelations,” we must look for the hidden meanings, philosophies and mechanisms behind simple statements or purported history. Many modern writers have realized this and have tried to reconstruct the secret meaning. On my shelves I have at least a dozen books and not one writer has hit upon the simple truth given us in basic Huna ideas which quietly knit all together.

FURTHER NOTE for those interested in the proof to be had from the words used by the kahunas. Skip this if it bores you. I have now and then letters from HRAs who are wearied by these things which are so important to the verification of our Huna conclusions. Often they say that it is too difficult for them to grasp and that they are going back to the old and simple way of prayer. Fortunately, some of us are able, at least at rare intervals, to cause all the needed machinery of Huna prayer-actions to turn automatically as we use the simple prayer of the churches.

HUNA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

In a recent letter an HRA asked if I had found any evidence in the books of the New Testament to show that there had ever been a knowledge – no matter how deeply hidden – of the fact that there is such a thing as the complex or fixation of modern psychology and of the ancient Huna lore.

I at once wrote back to explain that the idea of “path”‘ was a symbol as old as religion, and that the kahunas spoke of “the blocking of the path” or the “thing eating inside” when dealing with the fixations in the Aunihipili which caused illness or, what seemed to be more important to the kahunas, “blocked the path or way of the aka cord to the Aumakua – along which “path” the mana and the thought-forms of prayer are carried.”

“Path” in Hawaiian, is a la, which gives the root translation of “to the light.” The Aumakua is symbolized by “Light,” so the aka thread of connection is described in this version of “path.”

In the New Testament we find several amazingly similar accounts of what John cried when he came out of the wilderness. He said, in each account, “Make the path straight and clear for the Lord.” On the face of it, this seems only a flowery, Oriental figure of speech and it is supposed to mean that the way for the arrival of Jesus was to be made easy. There can be no question that it did NOT mean an actual road or path.

The account continues and the baptism of Jesus is the next thing of significance. Baptism is the most ancient of all rites for the purification of sins. Considering these two steps or items upon which four gospels agree and keep similar wording, we turn to the Huna lore.

In the prayer rite the first thing to be done is to make amends for the sins of hurting others, then, with the symbolic “path” of contact with the Aumakua “made clear and straight,” in so far as the logical Auhane is concerned (but not as concerns the Aunihipili), we turn to the Aunihipili to get its complexes or guilt fixations cleared away. These fixations are “blocks” in the path, and to be made free of them, a kala or cleansing, often a baptism or cleansing with water, is in order. The water furnished the physical stimulus as well as provided the symbol of mana used in all the work by the kahunas, as in mild suggestion that worked wonders with an accompanying stimulus.

A la, “to the light” is the straight “path.” Papani, is the word used for the “blocking” of it. If this word meant ONLY to block, it would be unimportant to our study, but it has another and cryptic set of meanings which refer us at once to the fact that it points to the strange way in which the Aunihipili hides its complexes from us.

It has the meanings of “to hide, to conceal, to veil, to put out of sight,” also “to close or stop the ears, to hide from or close the eyes,” and, very important, “to hinder one from doing a thing, to bind, to hold fast.”

In SSBM I gave the meanings of the roots in the word for the Aunihipili, which also described the Aunihipili and its odd tendency to hide and conceal as well as to resist stubbornly the efforts to control it.

In John, the “Baptizer,” we can see very clearly the kahuna demanding that the path be made straight and clear by making amends for sins of hurt. This done, he washes away the guilt fixations lodged in the Aunihipili and blocking the aka thread path to the Aumakua. The symbolic use of water for the baptizing – and of nothing else – brings us back to the part mana plays in all efforts to control the Aunihipili in any way. The “holy water” or “blessed” water used in ritual absolutions of sin is more than plain mana or water. It is mana mana or the Auhane’s higher frequency of mana. A kahuna performing certain kinds of magic involving the use of what we would call hypnotic suggestion, was called a kahuna hoo mana mana, and mana mana also means to “divide,” as in dividing the mana between the Auhane and Aunihipili. Holy water symbolizes the use of suggestion on the part of the priest, with the water only a physical stimulus. After the rite of cleansing, comes, in the Church, the Communion which must symbolize the opened path of contact and the interchange of mana and thought-forms between the three selves of man. This interchange is the normal condition. It should be preserved at all times – that is, the fixations should be kept from blocking the path.

(HRAs in Hawaii may wish to check the roots of the words pa pa ni. Some, who often question the root translation methods, may object that too much has been made of this word. For these, I wish to cite the significant meanings of the root pa. It means “barren” and the Aumakua is “barren” in so far as giving birth to the answer to the prayer if the “path is blocked.” Pa also means to “divide out to individuals” which points to the division of mana between the selves in the work of unblocking the path. Pa pa means “to prohibit,” and it is the complexed Aunihipili that, because of the complex, prohibits our free contact or communion along the aka thread “path” with the Aumakua.

In any case, the proof from roots of the Hawaiian does not lie with any one or two words used in Huna. Word after word after word shows the same amazing care with which secret meanings were hidden in the roots by the early kahunas who formulated the language and who, at that time, initiated the practice of keeping chants unchanged from generation to generation so that the language would remain unchanged. History tells us that the young kahunas of the temples, whose duty it was to memorize and recite the old meles, were punished severely if they made a slight mistake or if they changed a single syllable. This anxiety to preserve the secrets placed in the root meanings of words, explains the surprising cult aspect of the kahunas which caused them to insist that every prayer or chant which was handed down MUST [be] used word-for-word. The excuse often given that a change in wording would void the power of the prayer, holds little water, especially when we know the real and original purpose of this cult of exactitude.

In passing we may see that this cult moved from words into the daily practices of the people so that customs were likewise considered sacred against change. In Egypt the change in customs was amazingly small for 4,000 years.

BOOK REVIEW

HRA Meyer N. Bruskovsky, philosopher and student, has written a book which is titled, THE SUPREME PLAN The Way to Perfection. His approach is delightfully simple and direct. It is without pretense and is vital with the writer’s deep conviction that over all stands a God-Intelligence which has a good and very definite PLAN for the work of making men and their ways of living perfect.

This is such a book as we have all been trying to write – one which would consider the present condition of the human race and study the evidence that behind wars, the craving for power and superiority, the arts, music, and all the things to be seen about us, there must lie some plan for ultimate perfection.

HRA Bruskovsky reminds one in a way of a curious spectator who watches a great game in a world arena – and who quietly broadcasts for stay-at-homes what he observes. Between innings, he comments on the part of the great game which has taken place ages earlier. He is not partisan, but has the firm conviction that the best team will win in the end. And, like a wise and experienced coach, he explains, near the end of the broadcast, how the individual may best play the part he takes in such a game.

Let me give a few lines from his introduction so that you may get the flavor of his style and the simplicity and directness of his approach.

“Judging by conditions prevailing in the world today, it seems as though the present civilization might collapse before long, with the world returning to barbarism. Yet the remedy has been available all the time. It is not far off, but is within every one of us. The solution to our worldly ills is to be found within the Soul, or Spirit of Man, which is a spark of the Great Universal Spirit, or God.”

Here are the chapter headings:
The Great Plan
The Existence of God and His Plan
The Craving for Superiority
Sex
The Rule of Femininity
Profanity
Music
The Bible
Imagination in the Universal Plan
The Universal Language
The Search for Happiness
God’s Law and Man-Made Law
Communion With God
I Am What Men Call God (verse)
Prayer

The book is beautifully printed and bound [with] 150 pages. Price $2. Order from Meyer N. Bruskovsky, 5 W. 87th St., New York, N.Y. and he will be happy to autograph it to you if you wish. Here is an excellent addition to HRA written books. We are getting a rather imposing shelf of them.

******
Books here at the Study in process of reading or inspection include several on Ancient Egypt. A splendid one based on atomic physics and biology by Gustaf Stromberg, THE SOUL OF THE UNIVERSE, misses only the aka while describing how it functions as a pattern-mold of wave fields, and several less important books.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

HRA S.G.P., one of our most experienced workers in the psycho-religious field and one who has done outstanding experimental work with Huna, reports an experience in contact with the Aumakuas which shows what can be done and which should encourage us all to renewed efforts. I quote:

“I have had what is, to me, a very happy and encouraging experience. Before I got up this morning, I got the idea to make this chant or prayer. (S.P.G. once recorded one of his chanted prayers and sent me the record. He has an excellent voice and knows just how to use it.)

“’The Universal Life Force is flowing through me now. We feel it and store it in our kino aka (physical body and aka combined). We close all outlets and hold it in balance within. We discharge this mana over the aka cord, to activate the Braided Cord to the Po`e Aumakua, to unite mana with Mana Loa of the Aumakuas, in Love, Life and Light, and in the service of humanity.

“I kept the prayer chant up and the transmission of mana for about half an hour. When I stopped, after a little time there came such a downpour of Mana Loa from the Po`e Aumakua as I have never before experienced. It was a terrifically powerful vibration combined with a feeling of warmth. The vibration was so high that it was really not like any vibration I have ever before known – like extremely high voltage as if higher than x-ray, and pervaded with a light, spiritual quality like nothing I have ever experienced in all my years of occult work on vibration. It pervaded my entire body from head to feet and remained for probably thirty minutes. I seemed to be disembodied and floating or flying on the wings of the clouds. I cannot say there was instantaneous healing or restoration of sight to my left eye, but there is a wonderful feeling of coolness and well-being in both eyes. This feeling of well-being, coolness, poise and health is not confined to my eyes, but pervades my entire body.

“I have demonstrated to my own satisfaction, however, that the Po`e Aumakua do pour down great quantities of Mana Loa – so I give thanks and rejoice that my occult work, over many years, has resulted in this experience which is unlike any I have ever before known. I shall continue with the ‘Great Work’ and see if I can consistently get this downpour and if I can, so use it as to help and heal others as well as myself.

“Take a pendulum reading of this letter and see what you get.” (I got a reading of 480, which is very high.)

(In a letter written two days later, he says,) “Words are too poor to express the joy of the vibration and the Glory of the Light. The Po`e Aumakua seem to be more interested in using me as a channel for Mana Loa to the wide, wide world rather than for the healing of my personal ills and infirmities. I am happy to serve in any way I can.”

(In this letter be explains that, “as a result of TMHG work last night, and mana transmission this morning, came the following as a downpouring of Mana Loa or what I take to be that.” (With this, he found coming into his mind a number of lines, of which space allows only the beginning.) “Deep in the heart of Amanti grows a flower, flaming, expanding, drawing backward the darkness of night – in the heart a Mana Ray of great potency, life-growing, light-giving, filling with power all who come near it.”

HRA S.G.P. has done us all a great service and is to be congratulated on his progress and accomplishments. Our thanks go to him. M.F.L.