Abraham Kawai'i, a Hawaiian Kahuna formulated a bridge from ancient practice and principle to modern medium of bodywork as a way to be with the tangible creation of yourself and a way to accept all that you are.
Many people eroniously think it is only a type of massage, a 'healing' modality, a methodolgy. Because it was formulated by a Kahuna it is SO much more than that. The Kahuna were something beyond a Phd in whatever expertise they worked in. At the highest levels of Kahuna expression it was nothing less than enlightment. In light. Light is tangibile in that it can be seen. Light is the great connector between all aspects of creation. It is implicit in our understanding of time. Kahuna's embodied this understanding. They knew via direct experience the vastness of their being and could draw upon that to do anything.
Romi Kapalele utilizes the body as the beginning point to understand your unlimited nature. Bodywork does not just mean working on a body, but also includes the work the practitioner does on him or her self. It starts with understanding your own mind, your feelings, your responses to what happens to you. It is understanding how this manifests in your own body. That is the starting point! Then you learn how to extend that understanding to another body, consciousness and spirit. You learn confidence in working with others from the standpoint that you understand how you are connected to everything in existence.
In "learning" this art, one starts with ka'aleleau, an exercise that is based in Kahuna Navigation Principles. The Kahuna Navigator had to have an unshakable understanding of the environment he/she found themselves in. This meant that the training included honing their sight, smell, taste, hearing and touch to perceive the slightest shifts that occured moment to moment. Ka'aleleau was designed by the Kahuna to further develop this in the practitioner. In preparation for bodywork, it fosters greater timing, placement, rhythm, coordination and fluidity both in the body and in the mind. As we are all navigators of the unknown, we like the Kahuna Navigators cannot have any pre-conceived ideas that could block us from the clean perception of what is occuring NOW! Ka'aleleau trains us be hightly attentive and responsive to the information all around us in order to meet the unfolding circumstances in the most contributing way.
In Romi Kapalele bodywork training the practioner learns to 'see' with fingers, forearm and elbow, to smell and taste different states of consciousness in the self and of the 'self' on the table. You learn to recognize and listen deeply to the voice of inspiration. When performed by the practioner, Romi Kapalele is a means to taking full responsibility for the Self, to continually refine one's expression of innate beauty and love so that once established, one then extends this same understanding to a body on the table, to the family, the community, to all of Life. Romi Kapalele is an encounter with your unlimited nature, the light that allows you to see reality as it IS. In this way it goes way beyond the idea of healing. In ancient Hawiian there was no word for 'healing'. Instead it was understood that any illness, injury, or misfortune was a matter of mis-alignment and that there was no greater power than to understand yourself. Trainings then, do not require you to want to be a bodywork practitioner. It is a direct way to understand yourself. The principles you learn along the way can be applied to anything that you do and all that you are.
The Kahuna gave us this legacy as a powerful tool to navigate the increasingly uncertain and tumultuous times we now find ourselves in. Whether you receive the bodywork or train in this medium you gain deeper knowledge about yourself. It facilitates recognizing fear as a part of the family and learning how to go beyond it. From this position you can be anything and do anything. You can find harmony in yourself and with everything "out there". You can find a way to move with what ever is happening.