My Connection to Taiwan and Maui (Hawaii)

This summer, June, 2015 I spent two weeks in Yilan County, Taiwan at the CiXin Waldorf Kindergarten. I have fallen in love with the people. In my spiritual inquiry into how it is that I am connected to the people of Taiwan, which I feel at the deepest levels in my mind and body, I have discovered interesting connections.

As many of you know I have been spending a month for the last nine years in Maui with my son and his family. I learned in my continual spiritual quest that Hawaii is a remnant of Lemuria, an ancient pre recorded historical civilization which Edgar Cayce, Rudolf Steiner and others mention in their teachings.

Lemuria was a continent in the Pacific area with an advanced civilization which lived in harmony with Nature. The Lemurians lived simply with little need for technology. They were well connected to the Elemental Beings, Nature Spirits and Higher Beings. They had mastered the wisdom of healing. When their practices degenerated the Life Energy misqualified to be discordant, inharmonious and negative created an energy field which attracted the healing forces to the continent of Lemuria so that the continent was submerged underneath the Pacific Ocean where it is being purified by the Nature and Water Spirits.

The inhabitants of that continent who were involved with the degenerate and discordant practices were taken to the Higher Octaves where the Angels and Higher Beings work with humans to cleanse the soul. Each life time on Earth we are given a body as the temple for the soul and Spirit to inhabit. Depending on our karmic issues and gifts from past lives and on our Destiny to be fulfilled in the current life, our body is filled with Light. Daily we receive Pure and Vital Life Forces to fulfill our tasks. In freedom we are allowed to choose how we shall use and qualify that energy freely and lovingly given to us. If we choose to use it in positive and constructive ways then the Light expands around the cells of our body. If instead, we choose a discordant and inharmonious way the Light is diminished around the cells of our body attracting disease until the body no longer serves our soul and Spirit intentions. When the body is filled with the darkness of discordant beliefs, thoughts, and feelings and it no longer serves the needs of our Higher Purpose, we are called to shed our physicality and purify our soul. Today, as in Lemuria, our Higher Presence determines when and if it is necessary to be removed to the Higher Spheres so that the soul and Spirit is given another opportunity to meet it’s Destiny with a fresh and vital body temple.

The inhabitants of Lemuria that used the Light bearing healing practices remained in relationship to their Higher Presence and followed the guidance to move to areas of safety.

Lemurians went to other areas of the Earth and the Hawaiian Islands and Taiwan are part of what remains of the continent. Some people of these islands remain in contact with Elemental Beings, Nature Spirits and Higher Beings. The traditional Hawaian values include a heightened awareness of the environment and the teaching and daily practice of Oneness and Self greatness known as the Aloha Spirit. They embrace the idea that the departed ancestors have changed their address when they have left the physical dimension to reside in Spirit wholeness where they might be called to serve as spiritual guides for those on Earth. They experience the Mana which is the power or energy of any living thing, in the land, rocks, gods, plants, in gods and goddesses. The traditional hula tells the stories with the hands of the sacredness of life, the power of deities, and respect for all living things.

The islands between the coasts of Japan and Taiwan, including Okinawa have many similar ideas, rituals, spirituality and gods and goddesses as Hawaii. Off the coast of Ryuka Island, the island closest to Taiwan, there are underwater ruins which are believed to come from the time of Lemuria. The nearby island of Kudaka is said to be the most sacred of all islands. The three hundred people who live there practice the rituals in the traditional fashion and believe there are deities for every single thing in existence. There is a belief that the people of these islands are Mu people, meaning Lemuria. They speak of Lemuria.

In Taiwan the three major religions are Bhuddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. Taoism is entwined with the Chinese traditional folk religion. The ethnic religious and spiritual experiences, disciplines, beliefs, and practices primarily are expressed in the worship and celebration of the consciousness, the gods, spirits, and archetypes of the energies that generate all things and make them thrive. These can be nature deities, city, group or national deities, and deities of kin, heroes and ancestors. There are more than 5000 temples in Taiwan. It is my belief that the spiritual beliefs of the traditional Hawaiians and more traditionally inclined Taiwanese are very similar. Also the teachings of Rudolf Steiner on the elementals and on the Spiritual Hierarchies are very similar.

There is a Taoist shrine for the land across the street from the Cixin Waldorf Kindergarten. The statue of the deity looked like a gnome to me. You can well imagine I was in seventh heaven. I have for years imagined living close to a sanctuary, church or temple. For two delightful weeks there it was. When I could I would visit it in the morning, pray, decree and light the incense. One could feel the great blessing that this temple bestowed upon the kindergarten and surrounding rice paddies and gardens. Generally, these sacred sites are located on the powerful ley lines of Mother Earth. Such an auspicious site for a Waldorf kindergarten!

My deep connection to Taiwan is rooted in another aspect of spirituality, namely the threefold principles of Liberty, Equality and Justice. For years I have gone to two sites in Maui honoring Sun Yat-Sen, who is known both as the Sun of Maui and the Founding Father of the Republic of China which is currently Taiwan. On the islands of Hawaii he discovered other forms of government than the Imperial government of China. As a doctor, he believed that the only way to overcome the disease and suffering of the peasants which he believed was rooted in poverty was to change the form of government. For many years Dr. SunYat-Sen led the revolt to liberate China from the last emperor of the Qing (also known as the Manchu) Dynasty. In the challenging quest to do that at one point his only place of refuge was at his brother’s ranch in Upcountry Maui near Kula Chinatown, also in the region of the Haleakala Waldorf School. Near here is the SunYat-Sen Memorial Park.

At the Heritage Park in the Chinese Garden near Iao Valley, the SunYat-Sen Foundation for Peace and Education has established a memorial in his honor. The following are samples of the inscriptions which give you insight into Dr. SunYat-Sen and the founding of the Republic of China, the first modern republic in Asia. The principles which he taught and practiced were:

* Cultivate Personal Virtue

*Faithfulness

*Justice

*Harmony

*Peace

*Search Into the Nature of Things

*Loyalty

*Extend the Boundaries of Knowledge

*Filial Devotion

*Make the Purpose Sincere

*Kindness

He worked to establish a democratically elected republic which would embody the essence of Abraham Lincoln’s quote “of the people, for the people, by the people” and also of the French Revolution and ideals of the Founding Fathers in the American Constitution embodied in “Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.”

He envisioned and proposed harmonious cohabitation of the five ethnic races of China, the Han, Manchus, Mongolians, Muslims, and Tibetans. He studied and enscribed the teachings of Confucius on the “Discourse on the Age of Harmony,” which stated the following:

*All people, including the aged, the sick, disabled and widowed would be cared for by the community.

*We have a world community to be shared by all.

*The worthy and able would serve as leaders.

*There would be employment for all.

*Money would be used by individuals for the benefit of all.

*Children would treat all adults with respect as though they were their

parents and parents would care for all children as though they were their

own child.

*With these ideals established there would be no need for locked doors,

nor for robbers, thieves, or the lawless.

*The “Great Harmony” would be realized.

Dr. SunYat-Sen was truly an inspiring visionary for all of us. I believe the Waldorf movement in Taiwan can and is making a great contribution toward this vision. His vision is expressed in many ways by Rudolf Steiner and definitely expresses my ideals.

In my next blog I hope to share more with you about my visit to the CiXin Waldorf School of Yilan County, which we have declared a sister school to Stargarden. Isn’t that amusing, the world’s largest Waldorf School and Stargarden such close sisters!

Vicki Kirsch