Huna Article
Huna International
Mincing Words
by Graeme Kapono Urlich
Many years ago now, I wrote an article called “Negatively Speaking” that
talked about how expressing things in a more positive way, such as “I’m feeling poorly but I’m improving”
helps us to get well much faster than just saying “I’m feeling poorly” and how, when we are feeling good,
stating that we are feeling good rather than “not bad” helps us feel even better for longer.
The idea of “God Given” in terms of abilities as humans came up in discussion today. When I said I don’t
teach it that way, that I teach that these abilities are innate within us rather than “given”, I was told I
was “mincing words”. The question arises, since we are infinite beings, how were these expressed before
there were humans? How will we express it when there are no longer humans?
It’s not uncommon for someone to claim a difference in the way an idea is expressed is simply “semantics” or
“mincing words”. Sometimes it is and sometimes they are missing a subtle but important/useful distinction.
Language anchors belief and belief conditions experience so these subtle differences in concepts, even
though they may seem to be the same thing expressed differently, can have profound effects on the results we
get in life.
I wrote about this in “Spiritual Pitfalls”, where someone is working on change but
keeping themselves in the same place by habitually using clichés that they haven’t thought about what they
really mean to them personally.
In Huna the sixth principle is Mana, all power comes from within. For me this is absolute in my
understanding. This has been expressed many ways, most often as our god-self (aumakua/Kane) expressing
through the human form. I find many people find this hard to accept and interpret this as the source of this
power still being outside of oneself instead of acknowledging that the source of our power is not separate
from us, it is us.
Some people fear that power and find it difficult to accept it as themselves. Initially they may accept the
idea of an outside power more readily and allow themselves to use it and trust that they are guided by an
eternal and wise intelligence so I will not challenge that if I am helping someone resolve an issue in their
lives but I never lose sight of that fact that the guiding intelligence is them and do my best to be guided
in helping them, by them.
I find it useful to ponder the different ways people try to express various concepts and ask them how they
are defining the words they are using. I listen to the way I describe things and watch for physical reaction
to the words to see if I really do subconsciously think about the world in the ways I consciously think I
do. I’m often surprised by the differences I still find.
(December 2024)
Aloha New Zealand - School of Huna and Hawaiian Shamanism
|
