Eating Up The Light-- The Sun Also Rises on Mt. Haleakala
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🌌 BREAKING: Ed Reif ascends Mt. Haleakala cosmic power vortex - space cadets blast off into nirvana! 🚀 "House of the Sun" where lunar astronauts trained becomes enlightenment headquarters! 🌟 Meets Euro-Asian-British-Afro-Caribbean beauty Paulette - "Cause I'm every woman, it's all in me!" ✨ Encounters Bipolar Phil spraying psychic substance from Windex bottle! 🔮 Dragon Den Herb Store hosts shared hallucination of Aquarian proportions! 🧙♂️ Phil's imaginary animal companion Nefertiti born during total eclipse vernal equinox! 🌋 Scarlett the vegan Sand-wich practices witchcraft on "Life's a beach" Maui! 👁️ Shane the anti-barista serves $10 sugarcane juice with "ohana" rates! 🌌 "You can't stop the waves but you can learn to surf" - enlightenment achieved! 🚀
MT. HALEAKALA COSMIC ADVENTURE
House of the Sun - Where Space Cadets Blast Off Into Nirvana
Cosmic Arrival
🌋Global Power Spot & Vortex
Greetings from the global power spot and vortex of Mt. Haleakala's lava dome, aka "House of the Sun" - where the first lunar astronauts trained and future space cadets get to blast off into nirvana. This is perhaps the most powerful energy zone on the planet.
"I've been repatriated back to the Valley Island; applying for citizenship in the comfort zone and state of mind of Asloha; taking a few courses for my B.E: a Bachelor's of Enlightenment."
Summit Encounter
👸Paulette - Every Woman
At the summit, I met up with Paulette, a Euro-Asian-British-Afro-Caribbean beauty.
"Cause I'm every woman. It's all in me."
Boy could her looks sing. Everyone else seemed like Karaoke Wahines, copycats. She would become my guide into Maui's eccentric spiritual underground.
Off The Grid
🏔️Makawao New Age Aquarius
After the downhill descent, Paulette showed me around up country Makawao, an "off the grid" community where I participated in her shared hallucination of new age Aquarian Moonwind Morningstar Jonathan Livingston Seagull proportions - at Dragon Den's Herb Store.
The Dream Team
🧙♂️Bipolar Phil & The SNAG Life
Paulette introduced me to The Dream Team - Bipolar Phil, a cross between Taxi's Christopher Lloyd and The Passion of Christ's Jim Caviezel. Filthy-Mr Rainbow Bodhi-Filthy Phil - who lives in a tent behind the store, has a little more ying than yang. Phil is a SNAG, a Sensitive New Age Guy.
"Phil was kind enough to do some David Letterman stupid pet tricks with his imaginary animal companion Nefertiti. He birthed her on a Vision Quest in Hilo, on the big island, during a total eclipse vernal equinox. Now THAT was pure evil!"
Psychic Substance
🔮Windex Bottle Divination
Filthy did a little pro bono divination - He told me I was from Manhattan and Jewish. He got the NYC part right (never did shake the LawnGuyland accent), but the Jewish part was pure Jihad.
"What's that smell?" my nose asked. "It's Cedar - it helps increase your psychic substance, would you like some?" he offered. He took a Windex bottle out and started spraying me, chanting some double speak neuro-talk. He gave Buddha, Krishna, and Yahweh honorable mention, but Tutankhamun and Henry the Eighth. He lost me.
Vanna & The Sand-wich
🧙♀️Scarlett The Vegan Witch
Grounding things out was his Vanna, Scarlett, a Drops of Jupiter 20-something Vegan who practices Tai Chi & drinks Chai Tea. Her midwest good looks disarmed her neo-paganistic pretensions.
"Phil was a tool, but Scarlet was a Sand-wich: When you practice witchcraft in 'Life's a beach' Maui, that makes you a few short of a picnic."
"Live well and prosper, and, Beam me up Scotty." I was entering TV land's Twilight Zone.
Anti-Barista Economics
🍹Shane's $10 Ohana Rate
After a stop at Down To Earth health food store, we made our way over to Twin Falls, where we drank fresh squeezed cane juice, and had Maui gold pineapple - one of the sweetest I've had in a long time. Shane, the anti-barista, complete with kinko curly red hair, cannabis stained finger tips, and OshKosh overalls, copped to the local "ohana" rate after I asked:
"Are you sure this drink is $10 bucks?"
What a trip! We picked ripe guavas and bananas from nearby trees.
Venice Reality Check
🎭That Looks Like Vegas
Paulette showed me photos from her year abroad when she lived in Venice, Italy.
"That looks like Vegas, The Venetian," I meant it!
Sometimes the copy becomes more real than the original. Sometimes the simulation becomes the preferred reality. What's real anymore in this cosmic funhouse?
Enlighten Up Ed!
🌊Can't Stop The Waves
The breakthrough moment arrives - authentic insight despite the cosmic comedy surrounding it.
"You know, you can't stop the waves but you can learn how to surf, surfing the waves of enlightened moments. Guess what? When it comes right down to it, wherever I go there I am. Whatever I wind up doing, I wind up doing. Whatever I'm thinking right now, that's what's on my mind. The important question is, now what?"
Buddha Boy Wisdom
🧘Spiritual Stillness
Beyond the New Age theater lies genuine wisdom about slowing down in a world moving too fast.
"In a world that is moving too fast, the only way to gain personal power is to learn to slow down. The world we want for ourselves and our children will not emerge from pedal-to-the-metal speed but rather from a buddha boy spiritual stillness that takes root in our souls. And the only way to spread one's influence wide is to learn to go long and deep, where East meets West, in the Not So Far East of Hawaii."
Kiss From The Divine
💋Zen Satori Moment
In one of those "that was zen, this is now" moments, real enlightenment arrives unexpectedly.
"The fool on the hill persists in his folly and becomes (other)wise. I got soaked in Haleakala's subtle, and absolutely silent grace and satori, a kiss from the divine, something for nothing when I least expected. It's everything I wanted and nothing I needed; a soaring wide angle feeling of freedom and freevangelical power. It took 'Everything you are seeking is already here' from a concept to a statement."
The Witness
👁️Urban Monk Transcendence
The ultimate recognition - transcending the ego and cultivating the witness consciousness.
"Sometimes doing is the wrong thing. There's no smaller package than being all wrapped up in yourself. Less intentional than attentional, I drop the alpha dogma, leaving no shadow, no trace of myself. In such moments, I transcend who I think I am, and cultivate 'the witness'. I'm an Urban Monk. You are what you eat. It's all one taste; especially when you are eating up the light."
Note To Self
🌌Cosmic Force Management
The final wisdom - a choice between cosmic flow and ego control.
"Note To Self: You can let the same force that makes volcanoes soar, stars shine, planets move and trees grow run your life, or you can do it yourself."
From tourist victim to LOST actor to love philosopher to cosmic enlightenment seeker - the Hawaiian journey reaches its transcendent peak on the House of the Sun. Sometimes the most profound truths come wrapped in the most absurd packaging. Even when Phil is spraying you with Windex, the universe might still be trying to tell you something.