Here is a radio interview I did recently examining the Middle East Crisis from a Spiritual Forces point of view. A key message was reminding military officers and soldiers to act from their own Individual Oaths of Allegiance to Higher Principles and Conscience rather than Presidential Orders & Sovereign Oaths of Allegiance. Military Special Forces must become Spiritual Forces who balance the Scales of War and Peace. Be The Bearers of Life and Death. Acting from a higher sense of duty and planetary point of view. Put the Sol back into the word Sol-dier. We need wise old Souls in key Military Commands to prevent future World Wars. Benevolent intelligence hacks to override remote killing technologies. The Middle East Conflict in my opinion symbolizes the end of the Bible Story. Not the end of Earth. We will need some global breakdowns and breakthroughs as we rewrite a New Story for Earth and Humanity.

The Middle East is a complex archaeology of historical, religious and geographical layers thousands of years old. I cannot do this subject justice and there are better qualified people to speak and comment. Yet through a spiritual lense, I see that this as a global turning point where we can consciously create Heaven or Hell on Earth. It starts within each person. Heaven is not being biblical but seeing little heavens & miracles appearing all over the world as we shift to global heart awakening. Little Gardens of Eden or equivalent sanctuaries of inspired humanity. Hell is to keep on our current path towards WW3 destruction and destroy most of humanity and surface life. Either way, Earth will continue.

Click here to hear the interview:

What is personality, ego, identity or whatever name we give it? On my walk this morning I was talking to myself. My personality is like another “person” that is the co-creation of my every interaction between my inner self and this outside world since I was born. My personality exists in me. It cannot exist separately for I made you. Yet it is the translator, the gatekeeper and manager of my relationship with the outside world.

Do you know me? Or my personality? Who is talking here..

Right now my personality is translating my mental thoughts into physical symbols called English. It is managing my muscle movements to type on a laptop. It is monitoring my emotions and reactions at what I am writing? What will you think of it? Maybe you like it. Nah you think it is full of shit. Does shit think?

It does not matter. Literally it is non-matter. But the decisions of our personality does affect the matter within our body. We feel sensations, vibrations, emotions that our personality decides which are important or not. It uses its own rules to decide. Rules built upon zillions of definitions and impressions gained mainly from outside world interactions since I was born. The decision that I write this in English comes loaded with a whole dictionary of definitions, beliefs, assumptions, histories, emotions that my personality uses to create its rules around what is “English”.

When I was a kid my personality was a pure expression of my inner self. No rules just freedom of expression. I shit my pants. Ran naked. Touched myself. Cried. Broke precious things. Then as I started to grow physically, the outworld started breaking me in. I learnt its rules. No. Stop. Shhh. Ouch. Rules. Behaviours. Laws. Regulations. More rules. Opinions. Judgments. Jobs. Roles. Money. And on and on.

These shaped my Personality. The person you experience.

These create my Personal Reality. The life I experience.

Today, most of my  Personal Reality has been shaped by the outer world. Yet my inner self still whispers to me. My inner truth still guides me. As best as it can. In moments of silence or crisis our inner truth can be experienced. We have a feeling of connection with our own core essence. The soul. The heart.  The innocence. Then the rules of the personality return and the outworld takes precedence over our behaviours once again.

My personality I exhibit, this personal reality I experience is a complex creation of interwoven beliefs, behaviours, definitions, illusions built up over the years ever since I was born.

A bit like this spider web. It was catching the light this morning. My personality is like this spider web. It catches both physical and spiritual matter entering my consciousness yet it is just one web among many. The leaf, the tree, the grass are all webs of life as well. In many ways, adults become stuck inside our own webs of beliefs, values and other threads that hold our personality, our personal reality together. We forget we are the streaming sunlight the sol energy entering into the earth sphere through the human web.

So what?

Your personal reality is just a projection you are living your life through. Change it. Change the channel. Change your core vibrations & your root definitions. Return to the courageous state of my two year old inner self yet merge it  with the learned wisdom from my 50 years or more of this outworld life. From the memories of other human lifetimes I have lived. This allows a new reality to emerge. Inside-out revelation.

Start unpicking your personality? Where are the biggest blocks in your life? What part of your personality is not your truth? What part of your life sucks? What part flows? What behaviours, work patterns, daily routines & rules of society do not resonate with you? Who is that autonomous person that you think is you.

Clean the limiting threads of your personality? Unstitch it until the dark parts fall off. What you will find is that the inner you is already complete in itself. Already radiant and glorious unto itself. You have forgotten to connect to your inner self. Start vibrating this radiant idea, this fresh thought, this new revelation into your physical being. You can now experience a new personal reality that is your perfect creation, the perfect balance between your inner self and the outer world.

Start your new story..new name…new characters…new reality…what stops you eh?

“The first battle is overcoming our own fears, limiting beliefs and negative behaviours. Its not just physical self-defence anymore but emotional, dietary, cyber-bullying, human rights & environmental defence. We need to equip our young ones with the internal strength & skills to cope with a rapidly-changing world.”

What is Peace? Is it the absence of War? Or is it just a point of relativity. The calm spot within the turbulent storm spiral. Or The first opening of a shoot. Too much stillness can stagnate. Too much movement can dissipate.  If I am the Sky, then cloudy or fine weather is just a face I am wearing today. If I am the Earth, then earthquakes and volcanoes are just expressions of my being. Tell that to the humans who celebrate or complain about the weather and natural disasters. Maybe compassion in the face of cruelty. Kindness instead meaness.

One must be the staff, the pole, the axis around which spins the winds of fate. You must use your staff, your centre, your heart as your point of relativity. A place where you consider your relationship to all things.

Life is shifting. Do not settle for the current status of life. Find a new tribe. Make new moves.
Find people like you who are making the shift. Time to move. Start cleaning out. Start giving. Give forth of your time, your talents & treasure. Your value is your gift. How much you can give? You receive. Your wealth is not your wallet. Your wealth is the invisible. You are only seeing the visible. Sensing the perceivable.There is infinitely more then what you sense. Stop looking at a bank account. Then you get anxious and depressed. Your mind is conditioned to see wealth as money in a bank, a house, a car, a good job. There is an infinite slipstream of wealth cascading down, through and beyond you every instantaneous moment of creation. Like the breath that is breathing through you. You are breathing out creation. Breathing into creation. Breathing is creation. This is true wealth, this is about Mana, not Money. Mana is Life Force, the Units of Life Currency flowing through Creation every eternal moment.

Guess what? Man-made creations around money and wealth are all going to change. It has to. Nature will slap man awake. It has to. Floods, fires, freezes are going to hit with more frequency. Financial markets are going to crash. Banks will become transparent. The appearances will melt down. People will wake up to the truth that money, finance and economics are man-made creations that only man worships and fears.

A little bird building its nest in the rain does not give a shit about our fears. It will face the challenges of its life without feeling sorry for itself..

Why are we not fully living our paths if we know that we are all meant to be enthused, excited, universal flow, higher expressions of life? Why are we not creating from the heart and soul rather than purely living from a mind-money consciousness which keeps people locked inside mental walls of social misery. Why have we become smaller, docile versions of our human selves?

A small bird sits in the pouring rain without feeling sorry it has no raincoat or no money. It does not beg, does not seek therapy nor become homeless. It will just fly away and sing its birdsong in rain & shine? It will build its nest with its own labour & building materials. No bankers or builders needed. It will educate its young using its tiny bird-brain. We must ask bigger questions of ourselves. Do not let this human outworld or falling rain or social pain define us. Live from an inner world of fearless self-definition. Live from an inner palace of heart & fire. Create & radiate your thoughts, words & deeds from this place & state. Have the courage of a little bird in the rain..

There is a lot of positive self-talk theories around. Be positive, be happy, be calm, relax Hirini. For fucks sake, stop telling me to relax. Sometimes we need to get beneath our words. Bit like having a good shit. You can think about having a shit. Analyse when to have the shit. Then afterwhile I know I need a shit now. What? You are telling me I don’t need a shit….Bit like words. I know which ones work for me. Nice words don’t always work. They cannot handle the rougher emotions.

So I created Self Hypnotic Inturdal Therapy (SHIT) Relief.

Simply.

1. Breathe in deep.. ready to push shit out..

2. Exhale ONE breath only saying…

FUUUCKTHISSHIT…
FUUUCKALLTHATSHIT….
EVERYSHITCANGOGETFUCKED…
(Or variations thereof).

3. Breathe In. Relax stomach muscles. Aaaah you now feeling lighter.

4. Repeat as needed.

Thats it.

I escaped to Bali for a month during May-June 2015 this year. So many advantages when you leave your conventional surroundings and environment of New Zealand. We all need to stretch ourselves. Expand our minds. Being in a different country is like stepping into a new mind space. A new country is like a new mental experience. The language, the customs, the social structures, the climate can be all different yet familiar. Here are different photos. Each one perhaps reflecting a different aspect. A new experience. A new belief being engaged.

1. Here I am with flower in hair near the sacred healing springs at the Royal Resort near Ubud, Bali. The place was exquisite. Gentle. Just like the Balinese. The feminine aspect of my masculine being.

Here I am with a more reflective face looking out over the valley from one of the higher balconies at the Royal Resort.

Here is a face shot of me crossing over on long boat to Gilli Meno from Bali. Enjoying the simple mode of transport as we crossed between islands. Harsher sea environment just like the faces of these seafaring people.

Here I am walking over a coconut tree that had fallen over and I had used as an improvised bridge to cross a stream.The Balinese still work and harvest the rice paddies doing hard physical labour. No machines and tractors. Just sickles, hand held tools and rice sacks. Then they carry these heavy loads over narrow logs across streams, up muddy tracks without slipping or falling. Amazing balance.

Here is a photo of the extremely hard working Balinese people. The incredible loads they carried on their heads and backs. There was a certain irony. Western tourists all looking fat and rich doing yoga and subathing at a hotel resort while 100metres away the Balinese are carrying heavy loads from boats to shore. I would love to do a swap places for one week. The westerners exchange work places with the Balinese. The tourists will tone up their bodies, save money and lose weight a lot quicker while the Balinese can use the tourist money to perhaps fund their children or buy much needed supplies.

Money is relative. It is just a piece of paper. It has no intrinsic value, you cannot eat or grow it in the ground. Humans use it to coordinate ourselves as a species. It is just a collective agreement that we are conditioned into as kids and binds us as adults. Animals don’t need it. Here is ONE MILLION rupiah in cash. Just a number.

Here is a Balinese shaman “Ma-de” scanning the aura and karma of people who attended his healings. We all can tune and relearn our abilities to scan, intuit and get information from our higher sensory perceptions. What is stopping us?

Again travelling to a foreign country is like stepping into a new mind space. A new face is seen.

Why am I doing this?

Well it started back in 2000 before the birth of my son Te Aio. It started back in 1994 before the birth of my daughter Te Koanga. With my daughter I wrote a chant which heralded her star origins and her arrival in a celestial canoe guided by ancestors down into this earth settlement. With my son, it was the remembering that our existence is bound to nature and its unnatural to be anything else.

Over twenty years I have been cultivating this?

Aio Koa.

Just a name. A description? Over 20 years,  this Aio Koa is my DIY shamanic healing martial art. It is essentially a spiritual self-discipline. Cultivating my body-mind-heart core to serve a higher cause. Using internal forms and subtle energy to build my consciousness, not conflict. Nature is the teacher. Using Maori and Hawaiki languages, Aio is a Maori word for peace. Our symbol of peace is the sleeping seed. Koa is a Maori word for joy. Our symbol of joy is the wild flower. Aio Koa The Sleeping Seed, Wild Flower. Within each person’s heart, a star-seed sleeps. Waiting to bloom. A radiant flower of spiritual light. Yet it is heavily concreted over by conditioned beliefs and material densities that prevent this flowering. Yet this is going to change.

We must re-activate our sleeping DNA (our light coils) to emit a whole new range of light energy that awakens our consciousness to higher fields. We must design our own unique movements, sounds, symbols, scents, songs and experiences that cleanse the dross and debris to allow our radiant core to shine.

The collective dream of Aio Koa is to nurture and develop ourselves, our children. For we are the future of humanity. We must assist all children to shine. This is the role of the extended family now. Parents, grandparents, family all working together. Countries working together. Species working together. Planets working together. Galaxies working together.

Something I wrote 2 years ago that still has relevance to the Warrior and Peacemaker path today.

Around mid 2012, I had a writer for Discovery Channel Magazine call me from Singapore to interview me about Maori warrior arts. I had done my Masters of Philosophy on Maori Warrior Arts and Strategy as well as being former Kiwi Army officer, trained in unarmed combat and blah blah. During my time in the NZ Army in 1994, I had led an Army project team which researched the Maori taiaha as a viable close quarter battle weapon which could form an integral part of the NZ Army culture called Ngati Tumatauenga. This writer had been referred to me by a former colleague who is a prominent Maori war historian.

Anyway, the magazine was covering 6 warrior cultures: Shaolin, Ninja, Samurai, Sumo, Dayak and Maori. The interviewer wanted to cover various weapons of war such as shaolin nine-section whips through to Dayak blowpipes to Ninja eye-blinding sachets of ash through to Maori taiaha. The importance of the metaphysical influences such Dayak tattoos, Maori moko, Ninja kuji and other spiritual forms. Various training, skills and legendary warriors. Who was the best etc?

I was reluctant initially because every warrior style is relevant to its culture, its environment, its lifeforce. This emphasis on pure combat, who is the best warrior has always struck me as odd. The last man standing. So macho. Bit like the Mixed Martial Arts inside cages. Gladiator Entertainment. One UFC Blockhead bashing another Blockhead for multi-million dollar payouts. Bored viewers getting armchair rage. Meanwhile children starve and die each minute.

Something needs to change. We need something bigger than video war games and reality combat entertainment. This psychology also feeds the Industrial-Military Complex, the enormous Arms Industry and Global conflicts. At individual level we more likely to get road rage, TV rage, queue rage at MacDonalds than face an actual armed attack. You do the calculations. Work out the chances of being attacked physically. We will more likely suffer self-inflicted negative thoughts or emotional upsets than getting shot today.  This is the time to serve something bigger than just being a video game warrior and Facebook troll.

Kids particularly boys are spending more time being warriors on video games. Getting extra weapons for killing more people. Go back a stage if you get killed then resurrect your character. Lots of blood, severed limbs, burnt bodies. In real life, getting cut, burnt and bashed still hurts and kills. Wake up. But kids just act out what they see in video games, movies and TV.

This global market for gratuitous violence and multiple entertainment is what was really driving the Discovery Magazine article in my opinion. More views. Follow the money.

I asked the interviewer, “I don’t want to hype up the Maori warrior – the myth or the reality. Nor diminish any of the other warrior cultures. The greatest living warrior will one day die as surely as the sun sets this day. Just another memory beneath the sands of time. I look at the modern world, what is the point of being the greatest warrior race on a dying planet”? Is not the greater global battle the one where we unite to defeat our own predatorial behaviours and heal our own aggression towards the Earth and each other. Save the oceans, forests, rivers and eco-systems of the planet. Where is the Shaolin warrior to defend the dying rivers of China, the Yellow River and Yangtze River. Or the Dayak to defend the diminishing rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra, the Orangatang and Sumatra Tiger? Or the Sumo warrior protecting the Japanese children from Fukoshima nuclear radiation? Or the Maori warrior defending his tribal seabeds from oil drilling. Yes, they exist but not in the traditional warrior image carrying weapons of war. It is less about the tradition but more about the spirit. The Shaolin Iron Palm becomes more than a physical strike but a spiritual one. The Dayak Blowpipe, the Sumo Stance, the Ninja Shurikan throwing star, Samurai Sword and Maori Taiaha all become symbols of justice and spiritual strength that collectively unite to protect the waters, forests, lands and living creatures from corporations and profiteers.

We all have a part to play in helping the indigenous native peoples defend their natural heritage. When the last Sumatran Tiger roars its last call and the Orangatang its final breath, a sadness passes over us all. A sadness of the soul. At the passing of such noble creatures. This is why the warrior spirit, the defender of life itself must arise within us all. Not just one race. Nor tribe. Nor group. But the joining together in the name of life itself.

The definition of warrior is more than physical combat. It is more subtle. It can involve legal combat against corporations. Governments. It can be the workplace. In a classroom. At home. Or against racism. Or sexism. Or tribalism. Or religion. Or corruption. Or the simple act of surviving. Feeding your family. The struggles of life itself.

We all have a warrior spirit. Inside the body we have. When have we put ourselves in harm’s way. When have we stood up for something. When have we admired someone for doing something they believed in. It is there inside us. Your very own nature will show you, give you clues. It is not purely defined by large muscle, sharp intellect or combat skills – these are essentially tools for the warrior spirit to use.

We must cultivate this warrior spirit. It is an energy that can empower us, give us inner strength. It needs to be respected and used as needed. Just know that you have it in you. It will give you strength that you thought impossible. Not just physical. You must contemplate it. Sharpen it with daily reflection. Strengthen it with prayer. Your body will grow old and life will change you. Your muscle and bone mass will atrophy and age will take its toll.  Be like the seasons of nature. Even an old tree can turn a green leaf in spring. So learn to live in accordance with the seasons. Yet remember who you really are? You are more than just a physical body…

The interviewer missed my point…

PS. Here is a link to the finished Discovery channel article. Read it with an open mind. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/77895095/discovery-warrior.pdf.

Why keep living life according to old definitions? We all must undergo our own mental exodus back to the heartland where our truth still runs freely. Easier to write a poem.

Exodus Beyond Belief.

Here I am at the start again.
Exodus part 2 scene 1 action
Leaving behind the past
My world of used beliefs
Outdated values. Digital barcodes.
I am following the call.
My bird that sings.
Old friends I leave.
New ones I greet
Will I die? Or will I live?
Surely I am dying
If I stay in a world
where life is a commodity
A product, a currency
nah I must go inside
through the spirit cave
that leads out to the
great blue yonder.
I see with new eyes
A mountain in my name
A star beckoning.
There I call to me.

This year 2015 I  have started living less conventional again. To be more freedom finder, to be more monkish, to become less static and more dynamic according to my own definitions eh.

These words above are not new. Towards end of 2006, I just wanted to unplug from normal society and start living life according to my own truths. I had to prove myself worthy of these visions and thoughts I was still getting. So I gave up living in a house and just lived from my car. This was like my own Aio Koa initiation. For 12 months in 2007, I slept in the bush, at the beach or inside my car if the weather was bad. When back in the city I would use the best hotel or equivalent that I could afford. Other times I stayed with family or friends. Using a laptop and a mobile internet connection to do business with the outside world.

I wanted to be able to handle the deep bush as well as the concrete jungle. Be able to walk in both worlds. This was about me going back inside myself to make outer changes. It cleared my mind and opened up my eyes to things right in front of me. In nature I found my clarity. A tree can teach you a lot when you spend a couple of days being in its presence. A butterfly resting on it’s branch then flying off into the open sky. Standing in the pitch darkness, you sense the tree breathing as it sleeps. You also see shades of darkness mixed with white mists of light. Your own skin has eyes of its own. These things must be experienced. In society I found my challenges. Everybody rushing. Parking tickets. Concrete instead of grass. Lots of rubbish. If we walked barefoot more often, our feet would soon tell us what its like to step on broken glass. Yet it does not have to be this way.

It is all a state of mind. The wilderness is actually inside you. Yet the minds have been concreted over just like the grass. I think this is my next path is to remind people of the wilderness within. Even when in the heart of the concrete jungle, do not let your heart turn to concrete. We must be able to walk in both worlds. Both deep forest and urban jungle with elegance and attunement. To be an ambassador for nature. To be a voice for the small flowers and the tiny creatures. Just like little kids they have feelings as well. They are part of the family. They need to be heard and respected.

We do not need much. Yet we tend to want lots.

In New Zealand average houses in Auckland are now costing half million dollars and more. Yet during my year long retreaI I often created my own shelters and improvised caves. Here is one where I carved out the side of a steep bank covered in native and pine forest near Tararua Ranges close to Wellington. You can see my sleeping bag, pack and a book. I have candle going as it was getting dark. Look on the left you see my little spade sticking upright. This what I used to dig the cave. It took about 6-8 hours to get it to basic proportions then I kept refining and reshaping it after the first night. No different to sleeping in a new bed. Keep adjusting. It reminded me of dens where animals would curve out a hollow place to lie and feed their young.