Five hundred people joined the Connect Book Talk and Workshop hosted by Body & Brain Yoga Tai Chi at the Hawaii Convention Center in Honolulu on Saturday, October 26, 2019. Close to another 3000 people watched the three-hour event live online on the Body & Brain Yoga YouTube channel. Ilchi Lee’s two-hour talk about his latest book, Connect: How to Find Clarity and Expand Your Consciousness with Pineal Gland Meditation, was the main feature. The hour preceding it, however, delighted the audience with taiko drumming performances, a special qigong performance, and Body & Brain Yoga exercises.
The main theme of the event in addition to “connect” was “Aloha,” a Hawaiian word meaning the presence of the breath of life. It is Aloha that unites us, said Kahu Mahealani Wong, who opened the event with a Hawaiian prayer called a Pule. At the end of our journey, she said, Aloha is what is left.
Ilchi Lee expressed that Aloha is a word for connection, for love, peace, and compassion for all. During his talk, Ilchi Lee had the audience on their feet, dancing freely with the “Aloha spirit.” He asked everyone to move with this spirit in their everyday lives so that they can live connected to themselves, to each other, and to the creative element of life itself.
To feel this spirit, Ilchi Lee said we need to feel the life energy that flows through us and animates us. This is a kind of meditation, which quiets the mind and emotions and enables us to feel the essence of who we are. Being truly spiritual, he said, means being able to create what we want in our lives from this energy, from the spirit of Aloha.
It was evident that event was filled with Aloha spirit, with each manager of the three Body & Brain Yoga centers and the one Body & Brain Energy Healing Center in Hawaii participating. Jen Angeli of the Energy Healing Center in Manoa served as the emcee and Aiea center manager Chul Kyun Park led Body & Brain Yoga exercises such as BHP (Brain Education Healing Point) Energy Healing. Many active members contributed as well, highlighting the engaged and enthusiastic nature of the Hawaiian Body & Brain community. Members there run forty-four outreach activities and have helped organize many events in Body & Brain’s twenty-two-year history in the area.
In her presentation on this history, Kaimuki center manager Cat Sawai said that Body & Brain grows “kupunas,” honored elders with a lot of life experience who are leaders in the community. Through the practice, members heal their bodies and raise their consciousness. Then they naturally want to share what they’ve gained with other people in their community. In this way, the Body & Brain community in Hawaii is working on its goal to create a happy, healthy Hawaii.
Body & Brain plans to host a larger event featuring Ilchi Lee in 2020.