To Be Good or Not To Be Good

April 15, 1953

 

THE TESTING OF SIGNATURES, OLD PHOTOS, still older signatures, etc., for the new GROWTH-DEVELOPMENT project still goes on in all spare moments. I am sure I will get everyone processed for preliminary tests before the second set is due on June 1st. When the second set of signatures arrives, I will test them in turn and compare the readings with those of signatures made before the intensive effort period started. If there is no change in the reading, we will say that no progress was made. If there is a change, we will recheck all signatures and try to see the significance of pattern or brain radiation changes.

All who are participating in the test project are urged to work faithfully and hard on whatever lines you have selected. This may be one of the most important projects we have ever undertaken. HRA Edw. S. Schultz, of Buffalo, N.Y., well known to readers of ROUND ROBIN, and one who knows well the   Theosophical and East Indian beliefs, writes:

“Great idea, that of breaking the cyclic wheel of rebirth. No greater project is conceivable!”

I say amen to this in two ways. First, if the endless cycle of rebirth is as endless as it is supposed to be, it is a curse of the first water and needs to be shortened. Second, if it should turn out that there is no such cycle of rebirth, it would be a wonderful blessing to a large part of the world’s population to relieve them of the hopeless feeling that they have almost no chance of ever getting free and being able to go on to whatever lies ahead. My personal feeling is that I have been here at least several times before, and, while life is not too painful, especially in these days of greater freedom and of doctors and dentists and opticians (at least in the more fortunate parts of the world), I would like to get ahead as fast as I can. I once managed, through the practice of   Zen exercises, to get into the state of “realization” a few times, and I must confess that it spoiled me for wanting to come back. I glimpsed a state of consciousness which has always made me desire greatly to reach at will. It is a state in which one lives in the midst of the perfect patterns of all sorts of things, and these perfect things are so much more real and perfect and wonderful than the imperfect imitations of them down on this physical/mental level that there is no comparison. It is something of the same distress I have felt when returning to the very ugly world after spending a few hours in one of those miniature Japanese gardens where everything is on a small scale and is entirely perfect in beauty. There was one in Honolulu some years ago, made by a famous craftsman from Nippon. It lay at the foot of Diamond Head and belonged to a retired doctor. The shock of the return to the world of billboards and claptrap shacks was hard to bear. A similar experience was an afternoon spent listening to the magnificent music of the London String Trio which pulled me up so high above the honking of car horns that the descent later was depressing in the extreme for some hours. It takes a strong man to live in the world and like it after tasting perfection.

ON THE OTHER HAND, for those who like life as they find it and who prefer to keep coming back to have some more of the same, please, that may be the sign that reliving would be best for them. Be that as it may. I suggest that it would be a very fine thing to learn how to improve or perfect one’s “will” and general “constructive” personality pattern as well as raise one’s brain radiation rate. If one comes back with the same character and talents one had in the life previous, it will be cumulative – good wampum to have and to hold and to carry along from one happy life to another which can be still happier. Looking at it either way, one can’t help but win. If, as we are told by the spirits who gave the Oahspe Bible some years ago, there is no such thing as reincarnation, then there is a very similar kind of life as a spirit after physical death, and happiness and progress is greatly determined by what was done while in the flesh.

The Christian churches of today still lean, for the most part, to the idea that we live once and either go to heaven, purgatory or hell at death. Wherever we land, we have the chance eventually to become better, or, if we do not respond to the stimuli of hell-fires, we can stay there and bake. This is the old dogmatic concept. The Huna concept, which we are working out through the code and symbol pointers at this time indicate that there is a coming back unless the complexes and evil spirit influences are removed and the work done while here to perfect the personality.

No matter what religion (or lack of one) we may prefer, we are bound to do as the Cockney pitchman at the fair explained to his audience, “You pys yer shillin’ and you tikes yer choice.” The main thing in this project is to work hard to correct your personality and will defects – to “py yer shillin’.” This game is very much worth the candle if we will but pause long enough in our mad rush to learn how to play it.

Several sets of test cards have come in from the HRAs who are just beginning the Frederick Marion course. Or did I mention this in the last Bulletin? In any event, they will give a fine opportunity for testing.

THE TINY THUMBPRINT of an HRA baby girl was sent in from Florida for the beginning of a growth-development test in which the parents will do their best to progress the child. This test will cover several years, I would imagine, before much real training could be seen to take effect. However, things should move rapidly later on. I wish we all had thumbprints of ourselves from about our third month – they might tell us very interesting facts about the times when complexes were formed, and by locating the time, we might be able to get at the cause. I wonder if the footprints made of babies for identification in modern maternity wards would give a reading. Anyone able to get me a footprint and a thumbprint to compare? I’ll write to Florida for a footprint to match the thumbprint I already have.

A CORRECTION IN ADDRESS has been requested by HRA Major C.L. Cooper  Hunt, whose excellent little book on Radiesthetic Analysis (50¢ will get you one still) was mentioned in a recent Bulletin. The address should be: Solent Lodge, 19 Marine Drive East, Barton-on-Sea, New Milton, Hants, England. Major Cooper-Hunt wrote a very interesting letter. He heartily approves the new project and the testing with the biometer, being himself an expert in such matters. It is good and it is encouraging to have the pat on the back by one who knows this part of the field so well. He also remarks, “Re: Huna-in-Bible – I have recently thought much of the phrase in Ecclesiastes 4:12, ‘A three-fold cord is not quickly broken.’ This surely might be a Huna statement referring to the three selves, Aunihipili, Auhane and Aumakua, and stating that when these three are in perfect harmony and accord, health results. And again, ‘If two of you agree upon anything on earth’ (the realm of the tiro na Aunihipili) ‘it shall be done of my Father’ (Aumakua). This teaching of Jesus, the Kahuna, is surely significant.”

The Major certainly has put a finger on important points in the older as well as newer Biblical lore. The three-fold cord could cover the idea of the three manas, three selves and the three aka bodies, all of which are involved in the work of the man when his three selves are at work in the normal and proper way. That the Aunihipili and Auhane must be agreed is pure Huna. If the Aunihipili disagrees on what is to be asked for in prayer, or refuses to play its part, the Aumakua or “Father” never gets a chance to take a hand in the matter.

The Huna word for “agree” is kuikahi. Its basic meaning is that of “to unite,” and from this we also see that unless the Aunihipili is willing to obey the request to reach out and make the contact with the Aumakua,  to unite the three selves as well as just the two lower ones, nothing can be accomplished. Jesus gave the formula for this work in the words, “I and the Father are one.”

MISFORTUNE, ILLNESS AND SORROW may be the natural result of being cut off from one’s Aumakua. Karmic retribution comes under this heading in part. The simpler concept has been stated, “The wages of sin are death.” In Proverbs, 3:12 it is written, “For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth…” In all of this we see the suggestion that the Aumakua may allow its man to suffer in order to cause him to think upon the better things and to continue his growth-development.

THE HUNA WORD FOR “CORRECT” throws light on this angle. It is paipai, and it means not only to “smite” in order to correct, but also to “arouse, awaken, stir one to action.” It is also a painful “reminder” to get on with the job of living the good life that allows for evolution. If we look on the problem from this point of view, we must draw the conclusion that all the painful things which the Aumakua may allow to overtake us will be, almost automatically, changed to good things or conditions as soon as one falls into line and begins to live in accordance with the best he knows, becomes hurtless and helpful, makes amends for past hurts done to others, and (in all probability) undergoes a foot-washing in order to get his complexes removed so that he is once more in working and free contact with the Aumakua.

THE WICKED WHO FLOURISH AS THE GREEN BAY TREE have been the exception to the above rule for centuries. The Devil has been supposed to be helping very wicked men so that they escape punishment for this life at least. In Genesis, the “serpent” of the Garden of Eden was a Huna symbol of evil spirits. These influenced Adam and Eve so that they were cutoff from the face of God. Evil spirits, if not removed from us, may protect us for a time – perhaps for a long time – from the natural sorrows brought about when we are cut off from our  Aumakua. The Devil who tempted Jesus in the wilderness is a personification of the most evil and most powerful spirits of this kind. It would seem that they may, for a time, stand between man and his Aumakua, but, as all teachers agree, there comes a time when the piper must be paid. One must then either win back to the good and come under the care of the Aumakua, or one goes on to become one with the evil spirits, these apparently forming a dark band bent on promoting darkness.

Kahunas seem to have been interested mainly in the lesser spirits who fastened themselves to their clients or obsessed them. However, they also recognized more powerful entities and in the Hawaiian Dictionary I read the note, “Po was counted as a god along with the poe Akuanoho.” Po is “darkness.” It is a place of evil spirits, also the condition of ignorance and hurtfulness [and] sin. It is the chaos into which the Light was made to shine to light men to the higher levels of consciousness and goodness. A “Lord of Darkness” took the place of the Devil. The poe Akuanoho mentioned by the dictionary is the Great Company of High Selves or Aumakuas. They are called Akuanohos or “gods who dwell with men,” as an interchangeable name, indicating especially the state in which the three selves are in good, normal working order – united in so far as possible. In this state, “The Father and I are one,” we might say, as HRA Frederick Marion puts it, the ordinary knowledge is turned into wisdom because of the inspiration given by the Aumakua or “Universal Mind.” In the guise of the “god” who gives wisdom and inspires one, the Aumakua was called the Akua`ulu, and ulu is the breadfruit tree of the kahuna version of the temptation of Eve in the Garden. The Bible does not say what kind of tree it was, but kahunas stated very definitely in their version that it was a breadfruit. This is important because the same word, ulu, means “to be possessed by a spirit, either good or bad,” and if the spirit attracted to us because we are evil is also evil, we are, symbolically, ejected from the Garden and made to live with the evil spirits and to till fields where briers and thorns – complexes – thrive to our detriment. But this is so important that it deserves a special heading.

THE AUMAKUA AS THE AKUA`ULU

The Aumakua as the Akua`ulu, therefore, is the one who is given mana by the foot-washer so that it can remove the evil spirit influences and complexes of the one who is being assisted in the rite. It is a digging down from the top, so to speak to clear the aka cord path of “stumbling blocks” so that the Aumakua may then “inspire” or guide and enlighten and inform and aid the lower pair of selves. The word ulu also means “to become excessively strong” and this tells us that the evil spirits who must be driven out in the cleansing rite, may be “excessively strong.” Ulu also means “to be wet,” and because of this meaning we can see clearly why, in the foot-washing rite, Jesus girded himself with a towel or malo, this word for towel meaning “to dry out,” and signifying the taking away of the mana from the strong evil spirits so that they become weak and powerless to resist ejection. Yes, very clever men and women, those ancient kahunas who invented the many special words to be used as the common tongue of the people, but also to be used to hide and preserve for posterity the greatest “Secret” of all history.

TO BE GOOD OR NOT TO BE GOOD, that is the question. Too many just talk about being good. Too few do something about it. Inertia holds back so many of us. The sages of India were not content to say that one who was too indolent to do more than TALK about being or doing good, was just lazy. With the typical carefulness of their kind, the sages meditated on the problem and came up with a very excellent idea concerning the indolence. They invented three great “qualities” which they asserted had been born from Brahma as the personification of Nature. These qualities were, sattva, rajas and tamas. They were three driving forces which move all mankind. In Huna terms, we may say that these are the natures most often expressed by the three selves of the man. The Aumakua has the good sattva nature, which is called in the Bhagavad-Gita, “Light or Truth.” The Auhane has the rajas nature, which is marked by passion and desire. The Aunihipili nature, tamas, is indifference and darkness, (and to this kahunas add the characteristic stubbornness of the Aunihipili).

Patanjali, in his Yoga Aphorisms, speaks of the obstacles which prevent men from getting on through meditation and action into the way of goodness and progress. In Aphorism No. 30 he wrote:

“The obstacles in the way of him who desires to attain concentration are sickness, languor, doubt, carelessness, laziness, addiction to objects of sense, erroneous perception, failure to attain any stage of abstraction, and instability in any state when attained.”

The good sage goes on to give what he considered very definite instructions concerning the ways and means of overcoming these obstructions and of getting to be able to hold an attitude or state/determination/stand of mind once it is attained. Some years  many ago I made a brave effort to try out the directions as given. I spent much time and energy in the effort, and came out wondering vaguely whether Patanjali had, perchance, overlooked something of great importance. His methods did not work very well for me. I could find no one for whom they had worked much better.

The secret seems to be – looking at the problem from the Huna angle – that in India they failed to get from visiting kahunas a proper knowledge of either the complexes or of the influence of evil spirits who influence the living to their great detriment. The Hindu chelas who were instructed to meditate, might have had much greater success had they first been helped with a good foot-washing or kahuna kala rite. My own experience with Patanjali’s methods might have been much happier with the same preliminary aids. Tomorrow we may have much better success when we retire to sit on our seat of kussa grass and get on with meditations and concentrations aimed at controlling the bothersome “modifications of the mind” which are blamed for so many difficulties.

There is a possibility that hardly bears passing up without mention. It is that Patanjali might have had an inkling of the facts of the complex and eating companion spirits. He might have tried to hide this knowledge in his writings as kahunas hid theirs in setting down the accounts of the foot-washing and other rites. What makes one suspect that Patanjali knew more than he told is his assertion in Aphorism No. 49 that success in the use of his methods leads to the ability of the ascetic: – “… to move his body from one place to another with the quickness of thought, to extend the operations of his senses beyond the trammels of place or the obstructions of matter, and to alter any natural object from one form to another.” This reminds us strongly of the levitations, transportations, apportings, and instant physical changes connected with instant healing in Psychic Science and the healing results often observed at Lourdes.

In Huna we say that all such things come about through the intervention of the Aumakua when it has been furnished with a sufficient amount of mana to enable it to produce changes in the dense levels of the physical. The ideal of Huna is not to attain Patanjali’s goal of “isolation” in which one becomes united with the Over-Soul. Rather, it is to be able to attain a working union at will with one’s own Aumakua so that it can perform the miracles at the behest and with the help and co-operation of the Aunihipili and Auhane. True, the “isolation” may be attained after death by a general graduation of each of the three selves to the next higher grade in the school of life, but it would seem the more sensible way of doing things would be to remain normal and useful, about as we are, until death comes to cause the natural transition and graduation.

FROM EARLY EGYPTIAN WRITINGS we find the problem set before us in a slightly different and veiled manner which makes one look behind the scenes for a kahuna. In a bock by John. M. Pryse of Los Angeles, SPIRITUAL LIGHT (1940, 192 pages, and $2.50, if I remember rightly), page 21, I find a section under the heading of:

“ON OPENING THE SECRET DOOR

“Osiris, triumphant, saith:

“In secret was it told me: ‘Behold a little Door!’ My soul rouseth like a lion, eager for his prey; he smelleth it afar off.

“The heat of the day is like a blast-furnace. The sands of the desert spread before me; I cross them, and lo! the narrow crevices in the rock were my passage. Wolves laid in wait for me by day; by night the bats blinded my eyes.

“But Ra, the glorious, led me by day; Hathor aided me by night; by great labor I came to the Door. I assayed to open the Door by the strength of mine arm, but it was too feeble. Then I took levers and wedges, but they opened it not. I looked about me for aid, but none was able to help me. Despair seized upon me; vultures drew nigh to carry me away. I laid my forehead against the Door, my right hand over my heart.

“Lo! a light shone upon me as the light of day and the light within was combined with the light without. Then received I the light of Ra, and I entered into full understanding.

“Open unto me are the circuits of the spheres; open unto me are the ways of Gods and men, for I, Osiris, triumphant, am become as one of the race of Gods. Anubis greeteth me familiarly and, taking me by the hand, leadeth me to the Father of Gods. He knoweth my name. So it was  with me, Osiris, triumphant. Lo, I am free! I am like to Ra in his splendor, when he ariseth in the morning, glorious.”

COMMENT: The author of the book from which the above is a sample, does not tell us the exact source of the materials which he has assembled under a subtitle of NEW SCRIPTURE, but most of it seems to be from the early Egyptian inscriptions and manuscripts such as the Book of the Dead. That the material is genuine, for the most part, I have no doubt. My test is a simple one. I know that Huna was known, at least in part, in the Egypt of a certain period, and I have only to check the meaning of key symbolic words in the passages with the counterpart Polynesian translations to get at the inner secret meaning.

It is a fascinating thing to see how the evidence continues to build up to show that there were kahunas behind such writings. Also to see that they were using the same veiled way of writing that we meet centuries later in the New Testament. Consider some of the word symbols and their significance.

The Door is the Huna symbol of the space through which the aka cord runs on its way to the Aumakua. A closed door is a condition in which the Aunihipili is prevented by eating companions, evil spirits or a sense of guilt/fear/unworthiness/doubt, or a complex, from making the contact along the cord with the Aumakua. This is also the “Path” blocked by “stumbling blocks.” (Note that our study of such meanings is not based on the personal opinion of different students. It is based on the outer, root and symbol meanings of the words when translated back into the language used by kahunas of all times and places. This is very important. While we cannot say that the original discoverers of Huna were entirely and utterly correct in their conclusions and findings, we can say that their system holds more water than any other now known. This is true in the light of modern psychological discoveries as well as because of the things kahunas were known to have been able to accomplish through the use of their secret knowledge.) The roots of “door” are, in the language of the Secret, pu`ka. A puka is a hole or door. Pu means “To call,” as to the Aumakua, symbol of the contact along the aka cord. It means “to come out of,” as the mana being sent along the aka cord in the contact if the door is “open.” It means, “to hold water in the mouth and to try to call out or talk at the same time,” giving us a delightfully plain statement that the water (symbol of mana) is not being made to go forth along the cord, and that the call to the Aumakua is not being made by the Aunihipili. It means “to be together with” or something that goes along with something else, and this tells us that something must go with the “call,” probably the mana, or also the thought-forms of the prayer which is to be made to the Aumakua when the door is “opened” and contact is made.

The second root in pu`ka is ka, which has several Huna meanings which one meets time after time in studies of this order. It means “to bail water, as from a canoe,” and this is done with a scooping motion, very rapidly, so that the water fountains up over the side of the canoe. It is the symbol of sending the surcharge of mana to the Aumakua along the aka cord. It means “a vine,” also a symbol much used for mana. It means “to radiate out” and to “braid,” both symbols of the use of the aka cord. The “braided” cord was the very special symbol of a number of people praying the same prayer together at the same time, all addressing the Great Company of Aumakuas. The thing that radiates is light, and this is the symbol of mana, especially the mana in the hands of the Aumakua, whose symbol is La (Ra) or Light.

The wolf is a symbol of either a complex or an evil spirit. It is a dog gone wild or savage – a normal idea lacking its proper rationalization, or an evil spirit out of control and forcing the living to evil thoughts and following deeds. The influence of the wolf or evil spirit (root hae in ilio`hae, for “wolf”) fills its victim with such great desire, passion or anger, that it cannot be resisted.

The “bat” is o`pea`pea. O`pea is “to drive away,” as Adam and Eve were driven from the Garden because of their sin of letting the “evil spirit” Serpent influence them. It means “a cross,” symbol of the complex and of the blocked path to the temple or to the Aumakua. It means “to turn aside” as out of the right “path.” It means “to be bound so that one’s hands form a cross,” again symbol of the complex, also “TO ABUSE OR TREAT ONE IN AN EVIL WAY WITHOUT REASON,” as Jesus was treated for no just reason in the crucifixion; “to be perverse, villainous, not to be trusted.”

The “vulture” is a bird, and all birds symbolize a spirit of some kind. The vulture is a “pilau” or stinking bird, and this identifies it in Huna as an evil spirit.

The door was made to open by placing the forehead against it. Lae, the “forehead,” symbolizes the Auhane in its meaning of “to make clear, as a thought or statement, to enlighten.” This is correct thinking as against the unclear thinking caused by the complex or other “blocks” of the path. The word also means, “to be unlettered,” as released from the cross-complex; “to be free to move or act, to be separated from another,” this pointing to the evil spirits who must be removed.

The “heart” is the standard Huna symbol of the Aunihipili. The hand over the heart is the symbol of bringing the Aunihipili under the control of the Auhane so that the mana can flow and be “divided” with the Aumakua. The word for “hand” also means to divide,” and no initiate kahuna could miss that pointer.

The outer light was made to shine or radiate as low mana sent along the aka cord to the Aumakua. This mana was changed by the Aumakua to the inner light and was returned to the man to bless him, help him and make it possible for him to pass through the “door” and to have full contact with the “gods” – to be blessed by this contact in every way.

TO DESIRE GREATLY TO BE GOOD is the first necessity of any of us who aspire to get on swiftly with our growth or development. That is why I stress the necessity to the best of my ability here. One first gets the gleam – grasps the idea of the bright goal of progression/graduation, and decides to try to reach it. Second, the “will” must be used, strengthened and not allowed to relax while we grip the Aunihipili and force ourselves to be GOOD. The eating companions and complexes must be removed, and for this we need foot-washing, otherwise the desire to progress and be GOOD will fade. But once we get free and begin to be good and do good, there comes the “Joy of Service” which is the most satisfactory reward this side of graduation. One moves ahead from good to good, never allowing a permanent slip back into the old hurtful or indolent ways. THAT, as I now see the problem of living and progression, is the situation in its briefest form. We develop the “will’ as the biometer will show, and then perfect our biometric “good” circle. Let’s try.
MFL