Posted by Judy Moon
I recently had the fortunate blessing of vacationing on the magnificent island of Maui, Hawaii. The beauty there is breath taking and magical. The photo is my view from an amazing lunch date with my hubby at Mama’s Fish House. Funny that I used the word amazing -I don’t eat any seafood! But there was plenty of other choices and what’s not to like with a view like that!
I noticed locals using the word Aloha frequently. I thought it just meant “hello” and was used as a greeting. So I looked up the word and was pleasantly surprised.
“The literal meaning of aloha is “the presence of breath” or “the breath of life.” It comes from “Alo,” meaning presence, front and face, and “ha,” meaning breath. Aloha is a way of living and treating each other with love and respect. Its deep meaning starts by teaching ourselves to love our own beings first and afterwards to spread the love to others.
According to the old kahunas (priests), being able to live the Spirit of Aloha was a way of reaching self-perfection and realization for our own body and soul. Aloha is sending and receiving a positive energy. Aloha is living in harmony. When you live the Spirit of Aloha, you create positive feelings and thoughts, which are never gone. They exist in space, multiply and spread over to others.”
I also found this fun way to explain it –
alo, 1. sharing 2. in the present
oha, joyous affection, joy
ha, life energy, life, breath
Using Hawaiian language grammatical rules, we will translate this literally as “The joyful sharing of life energy in the present” or simply “Joyfully sharing life”.
So not only did I take away many fond memories from our trip, I just fell in love with the concept of the spirit of Aloha and I smile when I say “hello” now to people connecting with this concept of sending and receiving positive energy and joyfully sharing life.
Aloha!
Sources:
http://www.huna.org/html/deeper.html
http://www.to-hawaii.com/aloha.php
