MOHALU: INSIGHT

Be still. Live the question. Find freedom as your true nature.

Mohalu Insight is a 12-week program journeying through contemplation and introspection. Once a week, for two hours, we gather in circle to sit, listen, talk-story, and make our way through a curriculum of introspection. Through universal questions, insight practices, and peering into the reality of direct experience, we explore what it means to awaken to “that within you which can never be locked up.” 

In Hawaii’s prisons, the program ranges from 5 to 20 participants and reflect the diverse realities of Hawai‘i’s incarcerated – Native Hawaiians comprise 40% of the prison population in a land where they make up only 10% of the state population. 

THE CURRICULUM

5 Topics 5 Questions 5 Outcomes

Meaning of Life

Essential question: What is the meaning of life? 

Outcome: Find a deep sense of fulfillment and gain clarity and direction over our thoughts, words, and actions.

Existence

Essential question: What is the nature of existence? 

Outcome: Foster a genuine sense of empathy.

Time

Essential question: What is the nature of time?

Outcome: Find a profound connection to every moment.

Mind

Essential question: What is the nature of the mind?

Outcome: Find freedom from the binding power of thought.

Self

Essential question: Who am I? What am I? 

Outcome: Recognize our true nature and entertain the possibility of complete and absolute freedom in life.

TOOLS TO PRACTICE

No paywall to keep you from the good stuff. These questions are what we talk about in our circles, questions that become the very practices and tools that people use to find freedom in life. The question is the practice. By contemplating a question, you loosen the beliefs that uphold suffering. There are infinite questions to contemplate — you only need one to take you to freedom.

    1. In any given moment, why am I doing what I’m doing? Why are others doing what they’re doing? Is there any reason other than happiness?

    2. Where do I think happiness lies? Is happiness in an object, experience, relationship, or thought?

    3. What is my definition of happiness? Based on that definition, how do my thoughts, words, and actions align?

    1. If all suffering relates to a past or future, what time-related thought is causing my suffering?

    2. How do I deaden or numb the moment by confining it to my concept of a past or future?

    3. When do all thoughts of the past or future take place? Can I be out of the moment?

    4. What is the quality, texture, or feel of my experience when I am wholly in the moment?

    1. What labels am I superimposing on a moment, situation, or person? Recognizing these labels, can I imagine what this moment, situation, or person would be without labels?

    2. What are my favorite labels to dwell on? What are subtle labels that have an effect on the way I view people, situations, or life?

    3. How do my labels cause separation, judgment, or suffering?

    4. How would my conduct consist of kindness, compassion, and love if I live free from labels?

    1. What are the perils of obedience? What are the perils of believing a thought without questioning it?

    2. Is there any statement that is 100% true? Is my current thought true? Can I absolutely know that it’s true?

    3. Is a thought the same as what it refers to? Dropping my belief in thoughts, what is life like?

    4. Do I want to be right or happy?

    1. Am I aware? What is aware before, during, and after a thought?

    2. Without reference to thought, who am I?

    3. What in my experience does not come and go?

    4. What size, shape, color, form, beginning, or end is there to awareness?