THE SILENCE and DIALOGUING
The Silence is an altered state similar to meditation, yet it does not involve the deep states associated with meditation practice. Unlike meditation, which is usually described as a deep communion with the divine, the Silence is a lighter form of trance state where communication takes place between the Three Selves using words, symbols, or pictures. The Silence begins with relaxation and quiet in a safe, comfortable place. Use whatever process you need to become quiet, relaxed, and contemplative. Heavy foods, alcohol, and drugs are not conducive to this state. Relaxation techniques that lessen tension in the body are helpful. Put your mind in a state of peace by letting go of thoughts of work, family, politics, and all the daily concerns. Give yourself the time and space to be alone without interruption. A designated space in your home where you can close the door is ideal.
There are no hard and fast rules about the Silence. It can be entered in many different settings and times. Focusing on the highway while driving at night produces a kind of altered state, but it is not advisable under any circumstances to enter the Silence while driving a car. Learn what works best for you to enter the state. You may want to create a place in your home with an altar where you can light a candle. When you have a special place for going into the Silence and use a bit of ritual, like music, incense, and a candle, your Basic Self will soon know exactly what to do when you enter that space. If you choose to enter the Silence outdoors, find a place where your Basic Self will feel comfortable and safe.
83- For first-time meditators, it is helpful to do a relaxation procedure at the beginning of your session. Sit in a comfortable chair in which you can keep your back erect and both feet on the floor. Remain quiet, with your eyes closed, and, beginning with your feet, consciously relax each part of your body. Bring your attention there, and say, “I am now relaxing my feet. I am letting go of every bit of tension in my feet. I am now relaxing my feet.” Then, when you feel your feet relaxing, continue: “I am now relaxing my legs,” and so on, until every part of your body has been consciously relaxed. When you have finished relaxing your body, sit with your hands clasped in your lap, both feet on the floor, and focus your attention on a spot on your forehead, between and a little above your eyes. Hold your attention there.
With your eyes still closed, empty your mind of thoughts, and take four slow, deep breaths, exhaling slowly through pursed lips. Continue to breathe slowly, and be aware of your breath. When thoughts come to your mind, gently dismiss them and bring yourself back to a place of emptiness. Take several more sets of four slow, deep breaths until you have entered a state of calm receptivity.
Some practitioners find it helpful to count slowly from one to five and with each number enter deeper into the Silence. By the count of five, they are fully in the Silence. Though people experience the Silence differently, the body is always in a resting state, while the mind has let go of active thinking. If you go too deep into this state, you will fall asleep. After repeated practice, you will learn to go into a meditative state between conscious mental activity and sleep. When you are truly in the Silence, you will have a sense of being somewhat detached from sensory input: temperature and sounds will still register but in a different way. Your body and mind will both feel at rest.
When you want to come out of the Silence, simply count from five to one and then open your eyes. (Before going into the Silence, give yourself the general suggestion that you will feel awake and fully alert when you reach the count of one.) It would be good to practice going in and out of the Silence on several different occasions until you are comfortable with this state before beginning to dialogue with your High and Basic Selves.
Your goal is to quiet the “mind that talks”—the Middle Self—so that communication with the other Selves can take place. Your Middle Self has a tendency to run off on verbal tangents. When this happens, simply return to the place in your mind that you have established as a quiet zone. Invite your Basic Self to be present and to speak with you. Listen for an inner voice (not an audible one), that seems to emanate from the area of the solar plexus. Your Basic Self may be reluctant to speak to you at first. Be patient and loving and encourage it as you would a child.
Some people experience their Basic Selves as children, some as adolescents, and as male or female. Many people experience their Basic Selves as being the same gender that they are. This does not have to be the case, however. Don’t characterize your Basic Self ahead of time, rather let it be whatever it is. The Basic Self, of course, is not an “it,” but that word is used here since the gender is not known. The Basic Self may give you a name and if so, you may address it by name when dialoguing.
Once you have entered the Silence, invite your Basic Self to tell you what it is feeling—without interruption from the talking mind. Your initial words might go something like this: “My dearest Basic Self, I wish to communicate with you and to hear your voice. I will be silent and I invite you to speak for as long as you wish. I love you.” This can be said silently or audibly. The Middle Self then clears out all thoughts and waits. Perhaps you will not get a response at first. Try it again at a later time. One reason you may not receive a response is that your Basic Self may be upset or angry with you (the Middle Self), and just as a child or adolescent goes into a room and locks the door, the Basic Self may withhold words. With loving persistence, however, the Basic Self will begin to communicate.
When dialoguing with the Basic Self, remember the ways of a loving parent who knows that love works more wonders than harshness. See the Basic Self as a cherished part of your makeup—one of the keys to creating personal harmony and wellness. Treat the Basic Self with respect, love, and caring. As your Basic Self begins to communicate with you and your relationship grows, both your Middle and Basic Selves will be more comfortable in this dialogue. Many people have found that using a pendulum facilitates the process.
Once you have established contact with your Basic Self, you can ask questions and receive answers. This dialogue is crucial to understanding manifestations in the body. The body is an amazing instrument with endlessly inventive means of expression. The Basic Self can turn an unexpressed feeling of anger into a headache, a feeling of resistance into fatigue, and even longstanding resentments into cancer. When the Basic Self cannot communicate in any other way, it uses the body to send a signal about its feelings. That is why it is of utmost important to dialogue with the Basic Self and reach an understanding on a regular basis—before the need for expression in the body. Once a situation has been created in the body, the Middle Self can ask the Basic Self to provide information about it and to participate in resolution and healing. Cooperation between the Basic and Middle Selves is essential.
One of the best ways to accomplish any of your goals is to forge a bond between the Middle and Basic Selves and to reach an agreement about a suggested course of action. Frequently, the Basic Self and the Middle Self have different and often conflicting agendas. For example, your Middle Self may wish to learn a new language, but the Basic Self finds this study tedious and even threatening. Your Middle Self may want to lose weight for health and beauty reasons, but the Basic Self doesn’t want to give up desserts and snacks. The Basic Self loves painting pictures, while the Middle Self finds it a waste of time. All of these are conflicts that have to be resolved by agreement between the Selves. If the Middle Self forces the Basic Self to do something such as learn a language (which involves memory) without agreement, the Basic Self will sabotage the work. A diet will go much better if the Middle Self does its homework by dialoguing with the Basic Self about the real need for the changes in eating habits. Making time for activities the Basic Self enjoys, such as music, art, and sports, is a good way of showing the Basic Self that the Middle Self respects its concerns. Dialoguing and reaching agreement on relatively minor issues sets the stage for cooperation over more complex problems.
Communicating with the High Self is the next step for the student, and this can be an enlightening, joyous experience. Go through the body relaxation procedure as above, with eyes closed, hands clasped in your lap, and both feet on the floor. Focus your attention on the spot on your forehead and go into the Silence. Take several sets of four slow, deep breaths, blowing the air out softly through pursed lips. Clear the mind and enter a state of quiet receptivity in which all thoughts are gently laid aside. Then, ask the High Self to come down into the body and to be completely present within you. You will likely feel a gentle warmth and a surge of energy, or you may just feel a quiet sense of presence. Sometimes the High Self will announce its presence by saying simply, “I am here.” Again, this is an internal voice experienced as different from the Basic Self and the everyday talking mind. It is never an audible voice.
While in the Silence, you may feel other unfamiliar sensations such as heat, tingling, and a rocking motion. You may also feel an urge to sleep. After a while, you will find the right state for dialoguing. Generally this is a light form of meditation in which you are consciously receptive while remaining in a mildly altered state.
The High Self is your source of wisdom and guidance, your connection with the infinite. This self is experienced as a loving friend, a benevolent parent, and your personal “guru.” What students of Huna know is that the Basic Self will block access to the High Self if the Basic Self is feeling unworthy, ashamed, or conflicted. As a being of peace and harmony, the High Self is reluctant to enter a place of discord. Establishing a working relationship with your Basic Self first is the best way of assuring that you can dialogue with the High Self. It also assures that you will be able to gather the mana you need at the Basic Self level to send to the High Self. Once in contact with your High Self, you are free to ask questions and request advice, just as you would of a teacher or counselor. The answers you receive often will “feel right” to you and affirm your inner wisdom. As you become more adept at communicating with the High Self, you will be able to get whispers and glimpses from the High Self during your day-to-day life that will come to you in the small silences when your mind is calm and your body relaxed. The High Self will never interfere with your free will. If you allow yourself to be open and to ask for guidance, then it will come to you as often as you need it. The High Self literally will answer your prayers.
After you have made contact with the High Self on several occasions, go into the Silence and ask the High Self what you can do for it. Listen for an answer. It will most certainly be something that benefits you. When you feel lots of trouble around you, ask the High Self to come to you and take full charge of your affairs, bringing to you whatever you need to evolve. If you have a hard task to perform, ask the High Self to assist you. If you are upset, ask the High Self to restore your balance. If you have to deal with a difficult person, ask the High Self to help you deal with the situation. When you need healing for yourself or someone else, request it. You will know when you are getting answers from the High Self because they are serious, usually short, and very authoritative in tone. After a while, you will know whether the answers are coming from the High Self or Basic Self. If the answers come very slowly, they are not from the Basic Self, but from the Middle Self. The experience of Huna practitioners is that both the Basic Self and High Self answer quickly.
Over time, you can condition yourself to go into and out of the Silence quickly. Give yourself a suggestion to do this, such as “When I take four slow, deep breaths and then count slowly from one to five, I will enter the Silence. When I count from five to one, I will come out of the Silence.” In that way, you can get answers to questions and stay in frequent contact with your Selves. As you communicate with the High Self and Basic Self on a daily basis, it will become easier and more natural. You may also find that your Basic Self will “bring up” information about problems that you need to work on, while the High Self will send you the means of help and moments of divine inspiration.
GUIDES, GUARDIANS, AND ANGELS
Your High Self is your personal link to God/Goddess and the higher realms and is always available to you for help. There are other cosmic beings who assist those in physical bodies, and you can call on them for special kinds of help. Your guides are those beings in spirit form who take a special interest in you and whose wisdom can be accessed on a personal level. During the Silence, you may make contact with such a spirit guide, learn its name, and communicate with it often. Guardians are spirit beings who look after your welfare and exercise a protective role in your life. In old Hawaii, guides and guardians often took the form of deceased relatives, totem animals, and elements of nature. Gods and goddesses may also function as guides or guardians to you.
Angels are highly evolved beings who perform nurturing roles on a cosmic level. They often appear spontaneously when needed but their help can also be requested. Archangel Michael, a universal being, is a special helper to students of Huna and can be called on for help in difficult situations.
As you begin to spend more time in the Silence and to work with your own Higher Self, you make yourself open to the benevolent effects of your guides, guardians, and angels on a daily basis. The Great Company of High Selves can be called on for assistance when the request is for larger societal or global changes.