“True North” – By Ken Crisson, Maui resident

As featured in upcoming June issue, Neighbors of West Maui

We tend to think of an all-pervasive pandemic as bad luck, a twist of fate that is holding us back. It may be good fortune in disguise, however, saving us from a much worse fate. Maybe the universe feels a need to give us pause, to reconsider our direction, to examine ourselves, and ask new questions. A rude awakening, yes, but a necessary slap in the face. Wake up! Your house is on fire!

From the beginning, humans have looked outward to alter the environment to our advantage. It was necessary for our survival. But our headlong pursuit of progress led to the development of technologies that have perhaps exceeded the scope of our wisdom, and left our fate hanging in the balance. We’re more comfortable, and many other aspects of our lives are more accessible and convenient, but the quality of our lives is seriously diminished by the complexity, chaos, and stress of the reality we’ve created.

The arsenal of nuclear chemical, biological, conventional, and now electromagnetic and gamma-ray weapons suggests we’ve excelled in the manly art of transforming hatred and paranoia into death and destruction. Our technology needs to be redirected from a higher realm of our consciousness.

We’ve used knowledge to achieve remarkable things. But knowledge alone is easily misguided. There is no inherent heart in knowledge. Cavernous, slumbering warehouses of microchips cannot stir your spirit and bring you peace. Life needs more. Knowledge must be tempered by wisdom to use it the right way. Our ultimate solutions are spiritual, heart-smart over unbridled technology.
We’ve created a situation that necessitates learning more and more about less and less in this fast-paced age of specialization. The focus is narrow and the demand is debilitating. There is an avalanche of information, and disinformation can be a factor. Sometimes, it’s hard to know what to believe. Balance is lost. The obsessive preoccupation with mind matters dominates us, and that which is truly important is often neglected. The mind should be harnessed by wisdom, restoring perspective and balance.

Confucius said that only the supremely wise and the ignorant do not alter their ways. This pandemic pause is life presenting us with the opportunity for necessary change. This is the junction where a major shift in consciousness can come into play. The focus needs to shift from without to within, from material to spiritual.

When we do this, values change. Defining oneself in terms of wealth, position, and possessions loses power and emphasis. The shift from material to spiritual results in peace from within, being happy while wanting less. The tendency to connect and share with others deepens. The mind opens and tolerance and compassion prevail. Ego and self-separateness fade and the strength of empathy evolves.

We should have more respect for our own miraculous and mostly dormant inner spiritual potential. Computers pale by comparison. Everything you need is inside.
The mind is a relatively small aspect of our consciousness. In another region, beyond intellect, is an open space of stillness and infinite possibility.

The spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle says that it is through this gap that anything fresh and new comes into this world. This is the divine realm of creativity. It’s where you’ll feel the joy of being. It’s been said that God speaks in the language of stillness.

I feel a sacred presence there, a peace that surpasses understanding. The Lakota Prayer expresses it well:

Great Spirit,
Teach me how to trust
My heart, my mind, my intuition
My inner knowing, the senses of my body
The blessings of my Spirit
Teach me to trust these things
So that I may enter my sacred space
And believe in loving beyond my fear
And walk in balance
With the passing of each glorious sun.

This is an age of multi-tasking: we’ve created a complicated reality in which we take pride in our ever-developing ability to do many things at once. This is necessary to keep up with incessant demands. Our consciousness becomes fragmented. We’re losing the spiritual practice of putting our heart, our entire being, into one pursuit at a time. Everyday life, as we live it, is our spirituality. It’s not something to be compartmentalized. Thoreau’s cry of “simplicity, simplicity, simplicity,” has been long ignored by most. Our hearts are losing ground. When we’re detached from our hearts, we’re less human.

As life evolved from bacteria that somehow sprang forth from the primordial soup, consciousness has evolved right along with it. How does a bacterium experience the world? What was the world like as experienced by a T-Rex ? Such is the consciousness we evolved from for the last billion years.

It’s as if the universe has been struggling to take a peek at itself. We’ve been evolving to awareness, a higher consciousness, closer to God. The universe is curious and likes to explore. Consciousness is always aspiring to higher consciousness. There is no ceiling (unless that ceiling is God). Life is the light, and it somehow finds a way.

We’re in a struggle for survival. George Bernard Shaw said that biological evolution was the only hope for our survival. We need to focus upon and expand consciousness itself. Measured with magnetic field readers, the magnetic field of the heart is 5,000 times more powerful than that produced by the brain.

Our collective consciousness as a nation reflects a decline in spiritual values. Is the world a safer place now than it was 100 years ago? Is our planet healthier and more beautiful? Are we happier?
I feel the heart is wiser than the intellect. Thought is fickle and subject to manipulations. We can go the wrong way in our minds and get lost, but the compass of the heart always points true north. It points within you. Follow your heart.

The sages throughout the ages have been pointing true north. Socrates’ dictum, “Know thyself”. Buddha told us nirvana is beyond words, beyond concept. Carl Jung believed that at the center of each of us is pure love. And Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven is within you. We fail to recognize our divinity. We persist in looking “out there” for all of our answers.

Hungry Homeless Heroes (HHH) continues along a shining path that unfolds before us as we branch out. We now have access to Maui Enchanted Gardens in Kula, 8.5 acres of nature at its most resplendent in the colorful indigenous diversity as well as exotic plant specimens imported from around the world.

Our path converged with two other like-minded groups, the Jedi Alliance and The Consciousness Caravan, on the same day here at Enchanted Gardens. We all came to examine the property for opportunities to expand and serve. We’ve connected and combined with other talented and resourceful volunteers to raise money by hosting events in order to further cultivate and beautify the land and to develop educational and environmental programs and opportunities for children and adults.

We have educational speakers and others offering their contributions in art, music, healing, plant knowledge and cultivation, and any other positive avenues leading to awareness, spiritual development, and heightened consciousness.

Feel free to stop by and stroll along the paths of this special place. They will take you to the sacred place of stillness inside you so that you may walk in balance and beauty, and feel the love that takes you beyond fear.

I’ll be writing more about Maui Enchanted Gardens in future articles along with a newsletter to keep you informed of future developments and events. Around 400 people came to the event last Saturday, and the only problem we had was with parking (please carpool if you are able).

Donations are welcome to expand and improve the quality of our services as well as ongoing grounds maintenance. If you are unable to spare the money, you are welcome with open arms all the same.

Add your light to the sum of light and feel your life deepen and transform from the benefits of loving collective consciousness.

Ken Crisson is an unsheltered Maui resident who volunteers daily with the Hungry Homeless Heroes Hawai’i project. You can learn more by following HHH (Hungry Homeless Heroes Hawaii). With a degree in literature and years of world travel, Ken has a unique perspective. You can contact Ken on 298-8293.

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