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Turning on lights

I feel honored to be an Examiner. I read articles written by the other Examiners, all of whom know what they’re talking about. To be accepted as one of them means I am expected to know what I am talking about, too. Someone apparently believes in me. Examiners report facts then toss in their two-cents. Without their two cents their articles would be boring; mere facts can lull you to sleep. There are lots of happenings every day for sure, but not many are eye openers like the orange-colored disc seen in the Central Oahu skies which was as large and round as, but brighter than, the full moon.  Hundreds, if not thousands, including myself, witnessed this phenomenon on February 9^th at about 9:00 p.m., but there was nothing in the news about it- until February 20, 2009, eleven days late!  More often than not, reporters are in the right time, but in the wrong place. 

The Examiners need not worry about being at the right place at the right time. They have quite a different mission, perhaps an even more difficult one: They have to turn ho-hums into interesting readings in so short of a time period. Whether I can do this in the field of spirituality, a field that’s wide open but culture-sensitive, remains to be seen. Needless to say, the readers will be jury and judge. I do not pretend to be an expert in spirituality.  No, I am not. Each article I publish will be a challenge for me. There will be detractors. I have made a vow to respect what they say, or at least listen with a keen ear. I may even gain additional insight from them for future articles. 

 Although spirituality is a given concept to many people, if not most, there is no authority to regulate, standardize or define what it is or what it should be. We don’t know what shape and form it takes; we don’t know its density, its size, or its origin. There are no facts, no hard core evidence of its existence.  There is only faith, shaped by culture, organized religion, and personal experience. What I write about will be driven essentially by my personal experience. I am the captain of my ship. But as the captain, I put the ship on auto pilot and just observe what passes by and take notes.

In this initial article, it is fitting to mention the man who steered me into seeing spirituality in a new way. He changed my view of the world and, in effect, my life. He was my Religion professor at the University of Hawaii, the late Dr. Mitsuo Aoki. I loved this man. I admired him for his ability to simplify the abstract and to bring life to boring and tedious topics. He left a lasting impression on many people.  Many became lifetime students of spirituality, including me, because of him. 

The following, in dialogue format, is a paraphrase of one of his lectures:   

“Take a Ficus Benjamena,” he said, “commonly known as Chinese Banyan, not to be confused with Indian Banyan, which sends roots to the ground from the branches. Ficus Benjamena is excellent for making Bonsai trees, which, as you know, are miniature trees that have the proportionate dimensions of their large counterparts. The problem is that the roots of Bonsai Ficus Benjamena can still get large and, eventually, will break through the pot if you don’t watch out. This is because it still has a built-in code to grow large. Turning them into Bonsai does not affect the code. You have to prune the branches often to prevent the roots from growing, and, if you do this, it will oblige you by staying so beautiful, so miniature, for hundreds of years. “

At this point he stopped talking.  He put his lecture notes back into his manila folder and, without looking at us, exited the auditorium. There was a buzz of uneasiness in the auditorium; the class had just barely begun.   After about five minutes, we started leaving, realizing that the class was over. At the next class session he didn’t show up. On the board was written “WE ARE LIKE BONSAI TREES.” His graduate student assistants handed out our assignment to be completed in class that day:  Write an essay no less than five pages explaining why we are like Bonsai trees. 

I knew why we were like Bonsai trees; his short lecture made it obvious. The challenge was to write the answer in five pages! This exercise was ingenious; it brought additional inspiration. New ideas and thoughts kept cropping up into my head as I wrote. I could not write fast enough to keep up.  In my young age that day in the auditorium, I had experienced Satori or enlightenment for the first time. It may take one many years of meditation and training, sometime a whole lifetime, to experience Satori. But that day in the auditorium, I experienced it in just a matter of minutes.   

In another lesson he said “at night look up at Tantalus (a section of the Koolau range that towers over Honolulu). It is dark up there, you can’t see anything. But the people living up there can see us. They can see us because we are all lit up.”  He paused for a drink of water, then said “however, they can see only to the shore line.  It’s pitch dark beyond that.  A stranger to the place would not know what’s out there.  We, who are aware, know it’s the Pacific Ocean. Of course, when the sun rises, the stranger will know.  Likewise, only until there is light will a stranger know what’s up there on the opposite side- Tantalus, the beautiful verdant, living mountain.”   

He again paused then said “there is infinity of dark spots in life.” He emphasized this point by going tip toes and forming a wide arch with his hands. “But you can turn on the lights yourself. That’s the beauty of being alive in this world.”  This is the Dr. Aoki I remember so well, the man who put my spirituality in the forefront of my life. These are his exact words: “You just have to find the light switch. Keep searching, keep growing.” 

I wish to do for readers what Dr. Aoki did for me; he made my life richer by making me understand and identify with my spirituality. We may be Catholic, Protestant, Born Again, Buddhist, Moslem, Jewish, atheist- it doesn’t matter. We are of the same essence. If we set aside our differences and focus only on our sameness, we, in effect, will be turning on lights.