HAKALAU- “THE LEARNING STATE” FROM THE HUNA TRIBE IN HAWAII

Observed by an NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) master in the Huna Tribe of Hawaii, Hakalau is the daily ritual that all people of the tribe follow religiously. “Hakalau” is english can be roughly translated as “the learning state.”

All people of the Huna community assemble in a circle each morning and do the practice of hakalau. Though it takes under a minute to do it, the impact of the Hakalau stays on for a long period of time. It is the zone of learning where taking in information, processing, storing and utilising it becomes easier. The information from the outside world is percieved by the five senses (though there are a lot more but let us keep it simple here) and because of the priority set by the brain based on previous experiences and the task at hand, a lot of information goes directly to the unconscious. Now, when you want to “unleash” the unconscious and go beyond the working of the consicous mind which can only store limited bits of information, we got to tap into the unconscious resources. Those resources become accessible to us when we can expand our awareness and sharpen our senses. Hakalau is one such easy, effective and efficient exercise.

Opening the learning state induces an expansion of senses and this sensitivity towards the awareness of the outside world making us sharper, quicker and wiser…

In all workshops, we start our day with the Hakalau.