Where do we come from

A human is the infinite consciousness of the great mystery of God expressed as a point of awareness. The transcendent spirit of us existed before this body, and will exist after our body expires. That spirit is timeless and is the essence of what we are. We are one species of creature in the vastness of creation and that the interdependence of all of life is critical to the healthy existence of this living breathing entity, ecosystem and home called planet Earth.

Why don’t we know this?

We all carry beliefs that come from family of origin, culture, media, superstition, and trauma to name a few sources. This knowledge has been villainized and virtually wiped out by colonization and is precisely why we suffer here on Earth. Our human Ego has been fed a host of stories as if they are facts about the nature of creation, creator, and our purpose.

It is up to us to restore the relationship that our ancestors had to the great web of life before we humans destroy ourselves and countless other life forms through ignorance and ignore-ance driven by greed and fear.

We are born into this world knowing precisely what we are and why we are here. 

Unfortunately we cannot use language, and must learn to use our body, and communicate. That self knowing is over-layed by all of the influences in our early development. We grow up taking on beliefs that are in direct conflict with truth. What we are at the core is not lost but buried under all the masks of the false self we created. We created these masks in order to hide our unacceptable nature. We believe ourselves to be unacceptable by how we were trained to be in the world. In fact, even if we had the best parenting in the world, we are being trained how to be in this world by people who are teaching us the tools, skills, and beliefs that they learned in the world they grew up in. That world in fact does not exist. My pain is my parents pain is my grandparents pain going back so many generations that we can’t even point a finger and say “they started it”. What is that pain you might ask? The very belief that we are anything other than an emanation of the great mystery born of the great Mother Earth. We are not a creation of the sky god out there waiting to judge us. This left us as wounded children forever inadequate except by something outside of ourselves.

Since our parents were raised by wounded children, they could not teach us a full set of adult coping mechanisms. We appear to be wounded children throwing sand in each other’s faces. We set out into the world to try and make our way with an internal conflict between what we know to be true, and what we think in our minds. Our education trained us to believe our thinking mind is us rather than a tool for our awareness to use. We believe every thought we have and we believe the thinker is us. So we identify with our beliefs and take a mental position, as if they are fact.  Ultimately we came to believe that we are consciousness trapped in a bag of skin put there by the God we are supposed to serve who will judge us for the life we lived. This being will keep a count of every deed. It is no wonder we are lost and suffering, seeking any sensory experience to quell the feeling of inadequacy. Our mind is our identity, our wounding makes that mind our personal torture chamber and we are trapped. We have been trained into an almost schizophrenic mindset believing that our mind is us and that the quiet voice or essence of awareness is somehow separate from us. That quiet voice is awareness, essence, source, us. That is what we are. Ever say “if such and such happened I could not live with myself” Sounds as if there are two entities in there. 

We do this work to learn that our mind is not our identity; I have a mind not I am my mind. I learn to be present with what is, without judging it or needing it to be other than it is. We have been so trained to believe that this thing or that thing that we will do next week or next month or next year will complete us. The belief that something outside of us that will come in the imaginary future is another part of our delusion and suffering. When I come into the present moment I become aware and present to what is happening in this moment, what this body is feeling, seeing, learning, without needing to judge it, or create a story about it, or a problem with it. Then I can come to the transcendent place of spaciousness. 

Keala Rafana Temple of Sound and Source – What Is Our Struggle

 

Our struggle comes from our addiction to intellectualizing life, god, culture …et-al. There is nothing intellectual to pursue here. While it may not be comforting; know that the great mystery of God is.  We continue to judge, fight, kill, and die over our different understanding of this great mystery. We draw imaginary divisions between us and divide this great living breathing organism that supports all of life, while poisoning the entire ecosystem believing we have no responsibility to all of life. All of life is sacred and necessary. Earth and all of life suffers when any one life form gets out of balance. We are out of balance. 

We have created tremendous innovations with technology while completely destroying the ecosystem that supports us. We have no authentic connection to each other except where our national identity binds us to some extent, our racial identities on another level, our cultural identities, and probably most lastingly our religious connections bind us by belief. We have no connection to our food or where it comes from or how it’s grown. We have disappeared into our screens and minds, away from an authentic connection to the source of all life and to the nature of our existence and to each other. 

We have been trained to believe that religion has the answer to where we come from and where we are going but in effect has created a problem where none existed and named itself as the solution to that problem. We have been told we have been given responsibility for this world, while simultaneously disconnecting from life. We pray to an invisible God while completely ignoring the evidence of God in nature as we destroy it.

Keala Rafana Temple of Sound and Source – What Is the Source

The source is the consciousness or energy that science has found underneath everything in existence. Science has afforded us the ability to see what is really underneath everything in existence. All that science has found is energy. We see that and experience that energy as the one consciousness, the great mystery called God. By observing nature you can know something about the source. If you watch nature you see a completely balanced, interconnected, and interdependent system that births everything out of this earth from the sunlight streaming down. This source is the energy underlying everything. It is an abundant wellspring of giving. The source is the force of nature driving nature. Its true nature is hidden in this world but visible through the presence of life, and the existence of consciousness. Through observing nature it is easy to see this simple truth. The human is one species to become self aware. We know that the evolution of humankind is that the one consciousness underneath it all becomes self aware through human awakening.

Western religion has always tried to tell us that God was somehow outside and separate from us. God is up there, out there somewhere always watching, always judging. You live your life under this heaviness of what comes after. Living today for tomorrow, yet it never is tomorrow. The search for a God you can connect to, was only in a book through some intermediary, secret code, society or group. Only a few had the secret access code to connect to God to hear the great mystery. That has never been the truth around the world. At least half the world believes in a much more ancient knowledge that Kabbalah and many eastern philosophies and theologies knew  “We are the essence of the great mystery as expressed through a point of awareness. We are thoughtless awareness – consciousness.” The universe is conscious. We are an emanation of that consciousness, that divinity. 

Science has helped us in the pursuit of knowing the great mystery by figuring out how things work. Our science in its unstoppable pursuit of knowledge through the “scientific method” of experimentation and observation has caused us as humans to release old beliefs. However science has also caused us to see that underneath it all, there are simple rules by which all of this physical existence is here. And yet when we look deeply we can only find energy.

Before the big bang, what was there? Underneath the subatomic world into the quantum world, what is all of this?  Energy…somehow condensed into solid matter that allows us to experience physical reality. Many different traditions have served up a host of fantastic, complicated, and mythological explanations, but no facts and nothing provable. Yet we all cling to our creation stories like survivors of a shipwreck holding onto the metal parts of a sinking ship and allowing ourselves to drown rather than let go and float in the ocean. We continue to fall prey to addictions, especially addiction to our thinking to feel better when the rules we were given about life fail to make us happy. We pursue enormous amounts of stuff to give us some relief from the tortures of a mind which is trying to make sense of this world while doing so with the wrong map for getting there. We are dying every day a little bit,  living for tomorrow while skipping straight past this moment waiting to experience the next thing and the next thing. We look for some experience that will somehow heal us without ever knowing the truth that we were whole and complete when we arrived. 

We come to know that we are conscious thoughtless awareness having a human experience. 

The stillness that comes from this knowing brings a peace that passes all understanding.

World View

Everything is source and source is everything. We see all of creation as our family. We connect as humanity. It is through open and honest communication and action with respect to and for all of our family of life, that we gain our greatest understanding and recreate the world in a manner where all of our family is supported to thrive.

All the ways in which we have been taught that a human being can be measured and valued based on things like race, ethnicity, money, property, prestige, fame, achievement, education, religion, and so many others are not real and true measures of what a human is. All divisions and separations of people and life are in fact artificial and hazardous. We see that the greatest harm ever perpetrated on the human experience is the belief that we are separate from the creator, nature, or each other. 

The Current Challenges

We could do a lot to improve things on Earth. We are at odds with nature, destroying the natural world and ourselves through consumption and use of technology and resources that harm the planet, and all of life. We are divided by invisible walls that we defend to the death. While society continues to suffer from seeming insanity at times, the truth is simple. It is unconsciousness. We are addicted to our thinking and we do not question beliefs. We need to get outside our normal way of thinking in order to find solutions to our greatest challenges as people. Presence is the foundation of our work and unwinding our misguided beliefs is our practice to become fully present in the moment…NOW, to connect to the great mystery of God. We see that culture, trauma, education, family of origin, beliefs, superstitions, rumors, and many other outside influences created our false understanding and separated us from the truth of our authentic nature. We recognize that we do not need to be afraid to question everything we believe is true. We can stop assuming everything we think is true just because we thought it, someone else said it, heard it, or wrote it. Our race, religion, nationality, education, income, assets, children, looks, significant other, and fame, are some of the ways we have separated ourselves into little tribes of belief.

It has divided us. 

• These divisions are our creation.
• These divisions are not based on provable, incontrovertible, verifiable evidence or facts and therefore are not true. This makes them beliefs.
• These divisions are hurting all of us and all of life. 

Mission, Purpose, and Vision

Our Mission is to awaken to our authentic self and remember who we were when we arrived on this planet as whole and complete emanations of the great mystery of God and to support our tribe to connect to their authentic self. Connection to the truth of what we are is the foundation for true fulfillment. 

Our Purpose as the Keala Rafana Temple of Sound and Source is to rekindle the connection that we all have at birth to source, to our authentic self, and all of life and release the stories of our culture, trauma, education, family of origin, beliefs, superstitions, rumors, and many other outside influences that hold us back from being our authentic self.

Our Vision is that we can grow beyond our beliefs, superstitions, and cultural separations we have created that divide us. If we learn to release these false divisions and welcome and celebrate each other, we might disagree without needing to create an enemy for disagreeing;  see each other as allies. We could re-envision technology so that it supports all of life and the environment. We would bring balance back to Earth if we recognize the sovereign right of all creatures to live on this planet and see all of life as sacred, precious, related, interdependent, and necessary for this incredible eco-system called planet Earth to flourish. We can create a high standard of living for all while honoring the ecosystem and all life. We can be guided by the essence of the all that is by becoming truly aware. The answers we seek lie within. 

Keala Rafana Temple of Sound and Source

Creed

Our true identity is simply this-

We are an emanation of the infinite consciousness of the great mystery of God expressed as a point of awareness operating a human form.

1. We acknowledge that everything in essence is an emanation of the one divine consciousness we speak of as the great mystery of God. 
2. We acknowledge that all of life is sacred, divine, interconnected, interdependent and necessary for the healthy balanced function of this living Earth and all life on it.
3. We acknowledge that we are disconnected from our essence, from nature, and from each other and this disconnection is the cause of our suffering. 
4. We acknowledge that we humans are all equal as one race with one common ancestry. 
5. We recognize that all of life thrives when we are in balance with nature.
6. We recognize that we are responsible for and capable of solving our human social and ecological problems. 
7. We recognize the free will of all humans to make their own choices that do not adversely affect another’s free will. 
8. We recognize that wholeness comes through connecting to our authentic self to grow beyond our limiting beliefs, awaken, and be whole.
9. We recognize human awakening and the evolution of human consciousness are the way to transcend our suffering. 

Introducing Sono Ceremonia.

We had such a wonderful time speaking today with Felicia Marie Tomasko of LA Yoga Magazine about music and more.

You can watch it here!

 

ttps://www.facebook.com/LAYogaMagazine/videos/520897905751653

 

This is a sacred moment 

There is lots to be unsettled about since the arrival of the coronavirus. One thing is certain, we are all going through this at the same time but not together. I see people being kinder and connecting more now that we have to stay 6 feet apart. That is beautiful. We will have time to hug each other again and gather again in time. Right now is a time to pay attention. It is a time for introspection and observation.

To say that the rat race we were running for excessive consumption, materialistic status and exploitative power has come to a standstill is an understatement. Perhaps we will be able to see that this system we have been operating in functions by dominating others. The system seeks profit at the expense of others. We support the social structures that support this race. We are accustomed to looking through an ego-ic filter. It is after all, all about me. No wonder it is hard to see the positive impact of the restrictions to our lives that the coronavirus has brought.

Our country is getting slammed on all sides by an onslaught of glaring examples of how out of balance and how out of touch we are with life. We are racially confused thinking one color is better than another. We are seeing how money gets away with murder. We are seeing that politicians never give a second though to the constituency,  how rampant capitalism and profit no matter the cost to the consumer

Coronavirus is giving us an opportunity

Nature functions as a singular interdependent, interconnected organism. and acts to benefit the whole. Mother nature is intentional and encourages and fosters connection and balance. As individuals, if we only consider who and what we desire for our own benefit and comfort; If we are only in this for ourselves or our clan;  We cannot see the bigger picture. We lose the connection to the whole and the whole suffers. The innate quality of nature to foster connection heals any separation that arises.

If we step back and view humanity as one creature, we might see that the coronavirus has come as a kind of medicine to heal the body. It has come as a remedy for the egoistic, consumeristic, and materialistic addiction of some of its parts… humans. There is no negative in nature. What we perceive as negative is due to our opposition to the completely interconnected and interdependent way that nature is intending us to live. The human part of the Organism of Earth is out of balance with the rest. When the body is out of balance it needs to restore balance. When ill, sometimes it needs medicine.

If we view the coronavirus as medicine—we will see this as an opportunity to connect and realize our global interdependence in a mutually beneficial way. We will be able to create a sustainable, abundant, happy, and healthy world for all life.

In the beginning it might be difficult to overcome the divisions we have created between us. They seem important, real, necessary, and vital for our safety. They are deep, old, and we are afraid to let them go. If we help and support each other, we will have what it takes to transition into a sustainable, balanced, and harmonious world.

“Shall I tell you what I find beautiful about you? You are at your very best when things are worst. “ – Starman

What do we do Now

What are we to make of this new threat to humanity? We have been ordered to take shelter and only essential services will be available for who knows how long. We are frightened. Who will get sick? Who will die? How long will I be out of work? Is this the end of our economy and our way of life? I don’t trust the origin of this illness, is it man made? Is there some shadow organization that has the power and ability to create a bio-weapon to thin the herd. I mean is this some Eugenics plan created knowing that the most crowded places would take the biggest hit. The oldest would be hardest hit? Did the United States do this to China over the trade war?

Is Nature/Great Mystery starting to thin the herd because we have not seen the errors in our way of life?

This time is a deep ceremony. An immersion. We are all facing so many different shadow aspects as the medicine of this time is driving fear to the surface. We are seeing so much of what is not working in our system. Our government has not done its job. The government’s job is to protect the citizens and to create and foster prosperity for the governed.

We as a people have been blindly toxifying this planet with impunity until recently without a care or concern. Now we have polluted everything and we wonder why nature is responding harshly.

If we survive our immaturity and selfishness as a species, Eventually we will be confronted by the inevitable understanding that I am part of the whole of all existence.. All of which is governed by nature (Kabbalah 101) I am intimately related to all of the parts, which are made of the same things as me. Everything in this existence of the multiverse originated in some point of origin about 14 billion years ago. At that time everything in existence was smashed together in an incredibly small place. Everything is connected at the subatomic level to everything else.

Interdependent and interrelated.

Should I be dissatisfied with the current events going on with the whole? I am connected to the whole. Maybe I can see this as nature doing what it must do. Nature always moves towards balance. It is how this physical world operates. Anything out of balance will eventually be brought into balance. We eventually become aware of our unity with the whole because it’s inescapable unless we are completely invested in a belief system that teaches us otherwise on a daily basis. The awareness is wired into us because we are connected to all that is.

We can try as hard as we can to believe we are separate from the whole, but it causes suffering. Can we and will we wake up?

Welcome to Keala Rafana Temple of Sound and Source

The power of our community comes from its members, and we are grateful you chose to join us.

Among our tribe we hope you will find a safe and expansive place to explore your connection to the great mystery, your authentic self and your divinity. Through our courses and community you will get a greater sense of us and our work. There is so much to explore in a safe container where people share openly, freely and honestly. Here among our tribe you will find safety to share your authentic exploration of your self, your discoveries, challenges, fears and pain.  We pray, we sing, we cry, we laugh, we share our awakenings and we create the space to hear about other’s awakenings as well. It is our sincere hope that you discover your community here and 

Thank you for being here and for bringing your presence.

Keala Rafana Temple Of Sound And Source

-Is A Metaphysical Ministry of Consciousness

Keala Rafana means “the way of healing now”

From Keala in Hawaiian meaning  “the way”and Rafana in Hebrew/Aramaic meaning “healing now”

Hawaii and Hebrew hold special meaning for our founders

 

What is Metaphysics?

Metaphysics is the study of consciousness, existence, and reality, exploring the questions about who we are, where we came from, and how we fit in. It is a way of looking at the seen and unseen realms through present moment awareness that yields timeless wisdom teachings. These wisdom teachings have been around since the dawn of humanity. All theoretical study from astronomy to zoology is metaphysical in nature. Religion itself is metaphysical in nature, but metaphysics is more about how we view and seek to understand the Cosmos, rather than simply a religion of god. Since we see God as the consciousness or energy cloaked by physical form, no real definition of that Great Mystery can be offered in human terms. Our connection to our essence, to that consciousness or divinity is uniquely personal and therefore no definition of that can be provided for you. We do acknowledge a God of our understanding. Our work is to remember who we are and that is an emanation of that divinity. So in that way the term religion, temple, ministry fits. The journey to see the conditioning that holds us back from our authentic self can and should be explored in a community. In the physical form we cannot hope to know the totality of each other, however we can support each other to be our authentic self, and connect to the great mystery.

What is this great mystery of God?

Underneath everything we see in physical reality is a great mystery that has puzzled humanity for a very long time. Because of this puzzle we have created stories to make sense of the mystery. We have studied it with science to find God and prove God does or does not exist. We have fought wars over whose ideology holds the truth. Who is right and who is wrong? The struggles facing humanity today seem insurmountable. Our systems and institutions have divided and conquered us for they have conditioned us so far away from our divine essence that we have lost the connection to each other, to life, and ultimately to divinity.

How do we dissolve the illusion of separation and remember who we are!

Each of us is born whole and complete, awake, conscious, and aware. Over time, the conditioning we receive from generation after generation of unconsciousness imparted through familial and cultural conditioning creates a conflict in us. Since we were not seen, validated, and acknowledged for who we are, we got the message that our true nature was unacceptable. In the light of this we contorted our authentic selves, and created masks, an ego or false selves to fit the mold laid out for us and hide our authentic self. We suffer because we have not been seen, validated, or acknowledged as the emanation of divinity that we are. Instead we were pressed to fit into a mold not made for us. Unworthiness manifests in all kinds of self defeating and self limiting behavior. Once completely connected to source and divinity when we arrived, our conditioning pushes us further and further from our divinity by telling us it is outside of us. It is no wonder many of us came away from our upbringing with the belief that there is something fundamentally wrong with them and they don’t know who they are. Our work in the world is to wake up to this conditioning, heal our wounded child, and restore our connection to source energy and divinity.

What is god anyway?

All of life supports all of life by its very Nature, right down to the subatomic level. Everything in existence functions as a singular interdependent, interconnected organism.  Everything came from the same time and space; it is all therefore connected. The individual parts of the organism, from the subatomic level to the universal level operate and function in balance. The balance of microscopic organisms living in a macroscopic organism, like a human, is critical to its health. Every living creature includes a collection of creatures living in symbiosis with it. The creatures in an ecosystem operate to benefit the whole ecosystem, the whole organism. All of this operates according to simple rules on a grand scale. All of this was and is birthed by the great Mother Earth from the sunlight falling upon it. Nature is intentional. It is always moving us to recognize and experience connection and balance. Acting as separate is in opposition to this. When we only consider our own benefit as a family, a city, a nation, or a species without considering all of life; we cannot see the bigger picture. As a result we lose the connection, and the whole system suffers. Then, everyone and everything suffers. The great mystery as embodied in Nature is evolving everything and everyone to connect. We have disconnected ourselves from nature, forgotten who we are, forgotten our divinity, and lost our connection to the great mystery. You will know the great mystery for yourself once you realize that it is not out there! We see God as the energy of consciousness that exists underneath the veil of physical form.

How do we Remember who we are?

We remember who we are by relentlessly and doggedly deconstructing our conditioning into belief systems that are not true. By recognizing the impermanent and unpredictable nature of reality, we know that any attachment to how it is, how it looks, or how it goes is ultimately going to cause suffering. Born into the human world one journeys into a world of varying degrees of unconsciousness. One layer to that unconsciousness is the complete ignore-ance of the reality of our divinity as emanations of pure source energy.

To let go of conditioned attachment to the form of the world, we relentlessly challenge our beliefs about it while living in it.

We are born divine essence in human form. Our upbringing causes a split between who we were told we were by the conditioning of our upbringing, and the truth of our divinity. Keala Rafana is a place to reclaim your divinity. Come Remember Who You Are. Come Live Your Divinity! Find Wholeness.

Discovering or remembering our authentic self is a process of deconstructing our conditioning.

To begin, we learn to discern what is our conditioning and what is our authentic self. We like to say: If it isn’t love it isn’t me! If my thoughts are not loving or supportive I know they are coming from my conditioning and my wounding. Next we learn how to tap into our inner knowing through present moment awareness. We meditate, ground, and cultivate patience. Next we observe the mind, and practice deep inner listening. We do this so we can hear our authentic self.  Then we identify the fears and limiting beliefs our conditioning and wounding dictates. As a result, all forms of negative self-talk, fear and limiting beliefs begin to melt away in the light of truth, presence, and awareness. In this incredibly safe and nurturing container, there is opportunity for transformation. In this space we heal because we address the wounds and release the masks of ego. Through simple practices of breath we take on the personal work of revealing and acknowledging our authentic self. We pull the scabs off of our festering childhood wounds so they may properly heal. We become the parent to our own wounded self allowing us to grow. In the beginning, deconstructing and unwinding our conditioning is tricky. The ego, hiding the wounded one within, is clever. It is easy at first to be fooled by our masks of ego. In light of this, the work is well supported by a circle.

Can you relate to these reasons why people like you are here?

• There are repeating patterns throughout my life. I battle the same negative thoughts and limiting beliefs that I have battled forever. Because of that I have tried self help books, retreats, psychedelics, and therapy. I still find myself drifting back into old patterns.
• The pain of my past affects my life and relationships every day. I worry that my past will be my future and obsess about my past.
• Wow, I have had some kind of an awakening. I question beliefs and institutions I used to trust. It is shaking me to the core. I came from deep fundamentalism and need a safe place to land outside of that. As a result I can’t speak about this with my family, and I doubt my friends would understand. Since I am questioning the very things they believe, there is no one I feel safe to speak to about it.
• I need help unpacking and integrating a transformational spiritual experience into my life and I don’t know where to go to talk about it.
• I seek guidance and support to strengthen my inner wisdom and inner voice because I am weary of the feeling that everyone else knows something that I do not.
• I’m lost and I don’t know where to begin to find out who I am,  I’m stuck and I’m suffering.

 If you can relate to their reasons for being here, here is a safe place to explore. Come and find the authentic you in our community.

 

 

 

Welcome

Find Wholeness and Remember Who You Are

• Community
• Connection
• Consciousness
• Ceremony

Our Core Values

• integrity
• truth
• justice
• service
• sustainability
• ecology
• family
• fun