June 19, 2025

Article highlights: 

• My first spiritual teacher
• What longing in me attracted me to his teachings?
• Hu’Mata, Hu’Ukta, Hu’Varshta 

Initially, as I began to embark on a more “alternative” spiritual path, it was inner guidance, books and friends and associates that provided encouragement.  It was a while before I came across someone that was offering alternative spiritual teachings and oddly, it hadn’t occurred to me to seek that previously.

I think I’ve mentioned to you here that when I did finally meet a spiritual teacher, it was — surprisingly to me — a channel called Zarathustra.  Channeling was out of my comfort zone then, but it came about in a way that allowed me to observe over time.  What I saw moved me beyond my old religious programming about it.  And as time went along I’d say that this was the most impeccable spiritual teacher I’ve ever encountered.  

This channel didn’t want to amass a large following, groups were kept small.  He quietly offered simple but extraordinary training for how to comport oneself on a spiritual path and how to navigate the pitfalls.  The teachings primarily included basic tenets about the truth of our being and the necessity of having one’s own relationship with the One Life that flows through all life.  

Discussion often centered around the problems and opportunities of being human.  They included instruction about the truth of who we are, the magnificence of our spiritual heritage.  We learned of the nature of the in-dwelling Light and how to brighten and maintain it — and other things such as these. 

Zarathustra was, apparently, an Iranian prophet or mystic who was very long-lived, probably in the period of 600 years leading up to Jesus’ coming.  He is referenced in many ancient scriptures and writings of that area and time.  He is said to have been one of the so-called 3 wise men who attended the birth of Jesus. 

He is mentioned and documented by many historians and spiritual leaders of the time and poets such as Hafiz, and is said to have lived in that area as a prophet and sage.  However, very few of the details of his birth, life and teachings are known today.

Zarathustra, as a modern day channel, said he had lived and taught then in such a way as to prevent a cult or religion from rising up around him and he didn’t encourage us to research the happenings and beliefs from that previous lifetime, but to focus on our paths in this life.  He said his focus now was on teachings that awaken the teachers of these times, to remind them of who they are. 

There was one teaching he returned to often — it was the idea of one’s thoughts, words and deeds being unified and aligned with good.  One of his oft-repeated phrases was,  “Let your every thought, word and action carry your most aligned intentions into your world in every moment you possibly can.”  

He was realistic about that being an ideal, and said it was not something to harangue one’s self about.  But at the same time he was also beautifully encouraging that we each were capable of living that to a greater and greater degree in our lives as we progress spiritually.  He said in times of old this was called ‘The Pathway of Truth’.

During the period I was in my storage shed last week, I was in the process of writing this, thinking about my first teacher and wondering who your first teachers were when a serendipitous moment occurred.  Going through a box of books I came upon a tiny booklet, about 2.5×3 inches, called Thus Spake Zarathushtra.

I was delighted to see that this teensie book explains the two main teachings of Zarathushtra of old and gives as the main focus the belief in Ahura Mazda, the Source of all life.  It cites as the secondary tenet of his teachings a principle Zarathushtra apparently referred to as the Holy Triad.  The Holy Triad is not the so- called trinity of modern Christendom.  It is:

Hu’Mata — Righteous Thoughts
Hu’Ukta — Righteous Words
Hu’Varshta — Righteous Deeds

So there in the storage shed, I came across this affirmation of what Zarathushtra had in fact returned us to time and again — The Path of Truth, marked by our willingness to become aware of the importance and power of our every word, thought and action. 

The two simple tenets of Zarathustra seem to have been important to me since I was very young: my relationship with the Source of Life and the importance of my thoughts and words.  No wonder they were part of the teachings of my first spiritual teacher this time around.  They were key longings that led me to those teachings.

As you reflect upon your own spiritual path — when, how and with whom it began — what were the teachings that answered your own longings for spiritual satisfaction?  

Which teachings would you say were most core to you — perhaps already embedded in your being in such a way as to cause you to search for and recognize them in your teachers as you entered upon your own pilgrim’s progress? 

Something interesting to muse on today 😊 

With much love, 
💗 Mayet

June 12, 2025

Article highlights: 

• An unexpected road trip!
• Olga Island

A road trip happened suddenly and I find myself in the San Juan Islands between Seattle, WA and Vancouver, Canada.  I’d had the invite for some months, which included spending a week with a grandson and my oldest son before they left to drive the Alaska-Canadian Highway and I left to spend time with friends on Orcas Island.  It then included seeing my younger son and other family at the graduation of his step daughter from college in Washington State several weeks later.

What fun!  But I didn’t have funds for the trip and since I have a hard and fast rule about not putting things on my credit card that I can’t pay off right away, I waited to see what developed. 

I kept getting a clear nudge to go, so I felt hopeful and expectant that things might change.  At the very last minute they did!  You’ll remember my friend Kahuna Kalei who died in 2020?  Many of you knew her, too.  She made this trip possible all these years later, and so unexpectedly.  

Ten days ago I received an email from an airline I haven’t heard from in years — maybe their emails have been going to my spam folder?  This one was in my inbox and its subject seemed to indicate I had a LOT of air miles, which I didn’t, as far as I knew.

I called the airline and learned those miles had been transferred to me from Kalei in early 2020 sometime before she died and after I left her and Hawaii.  I have no memory of this transfer nor any conversation with her about it.

It was enough miles for this trip.  So I packed up and arranged for a month or two away and was quickly off, just in time to rendezvous with my son in the Seattle area.  After a week with family that included me going through an old storage and donating most of it, I now feel nourished in the way only family can offer and I feel so much lighter in the way that only divesting stuff can bring.  It was a terrific week.

Now, I’m writing to you in the beauty of a cool, misty island morning, listening to birdsong and the ferry’s horn sounding in the fog across the bay.  Shortly I’ll be picked up by one of you, dear readers.  Mary has been reading my weekly for some years now and we’ve become frequent pen pals.  She’s a delightful thinker and correspondent.  We’ll get to meet in person, have a cup of tea, get some groceries for me and maybe explore the island a little if the weather holds.  What a fun afternoon, right?

The photo today is from the ferry ride to the island. The quality of air, water and nature is so high in these islands; it’s a very special area.   I lived for 15 years on a neighboring island near here, many years ago now.  It’s one of the islands you see across the way, in the photo.  

It feels great to be back.  This part of the world is exceptionally beautiful, nurturing and healing.  I’m looking forward to a wonderful stay. 

More soon about this road trip, I’m sure, and much love until then,
X 💜 Mayet

June 5, 2025

Article highlights: 

• A truth that shocked me
• How it felt in me
• Where it led

I start today with a simple but confronting fact: as of 2024, the estimated percentage of white or Caucasian people in the world is around 16%. That’s right. Out of a global population of more than 8 billion (2024), white people are a clear minority.

Pause for a moment. Really take that in. It is a small number with the power to rock our world.

When I first tried to get a handle on this number, in the early ’80s I went to the library—where I struck out. I looked in encyclopedias and couldn’t find anything solid. I asked professors at the local university. No one seemed to know.

Twenty years ago, with a burgeoning World Wide Web at hand, I searched again. Figures were all over the place, ranging from 60% to 80% or more. There were no reliable sources, no consistent surveys, no conclusive percentages. Isn’t that odd? Isn’t it noticeable that there was no truth about this to be found?!!! Doesn’t that speak volumes in itself?

It’s only recently that I’ve found trustworthy estimates, and the figure hovers quite consistently between 15% and 17%. Some surveys suggest even lower.

How did I get started down this path in the first place? It was in fifth or sixth grade, in geography class. I’d look at maps of the world, learning about Asia, Africa, Latin America. So many places. So many people. And I clearly recall thinking: How can white people possibly believe we are the most? Just look! Most of the world is clearly not white. I said it out loud. Adults looked at me like I was two-headed.

The truth that white people are fewer in number—and always have been—runs counter to what many of us have absorbed unconsciously. We were often taught the opposite, directly or indirectly. Regardless of the color of our skin, we were steeped in a cultural narrative that presented whiteness as dominant and central by default. This was translated to include numbers.

When you’ve lived inside a story like that for generations, it can be destabilizing to realize it was never numerically true. Not even close.

Is that part of the fear at the root of racism? A root we all share? Is that the unspoken anxiety—an old karmic concern stemming from certain white people—that we might be “disappearing” because we are, and always have been, just a small portion of the human family?

Why do I bring this here, into our shared space of spiritual musings? Because this truth has spiritual weight. We who walk a spiritual path often speak of unity, oneness, shared humanity. But we must also reckon with the centuries—thousands of years, even—during which people who looked like me upheld the opposite of that truth. Dominance. Superiority. Extraction. Control. These are not imagined dynamics; they have shaped the world we live in.

What does it mean to face this? Why should we? To me it is sacred work. What does it mean to really feel ourselves to be among a 15% minority—not just to understand it with our intellect, but to feel it in our bones?

My reaction took me by surprise. Seeing it hit strangely hard. I’d been searching for over 40 years. I sincerely wanted to know. I’ve suspected as much since I was young. So why did I feel so struck? It landed hard in my body, in my nervous system, in the quiet rooms where ancestral memory hums and unexamined fears linger.

I noticed subtle fears in my body—not because I fear white people are endangered, but because of something older, deeper. There was a kind of kinetic reaction—a bracing, a shrinking—that seemed epigenetic in nature, not aligned with how my conscious mind works.

My response didn’t show up as consciously conflicting beliefs. It came as conflicting sensations. And that’s what makes it important to notice. The things we inherit unconsciously often run the deepest.

I had a sensation—and it shocked me to find this there—of being less powerful. An instinct of being at risk. Not in a rational or mental way, but in the way old identities flicker when exposed to new light. There were sensations of exposure, discomfort, nervousness.

Now? Now I sit with it. Not to wallow or dramatize, but to see. To allow. To cleanse.
Because if I believe in participating in the healing of the world—and I do—then I must, as usual, begin with me. That is the most effective place to start, always. Not by fixing or changing the external first. That comes next. This work is always best begun by shining light into the unexamined corners of my own lineage, my own conditioning, my own inherited roles. This isn’t about blame. It’s about spiritual integrity. It’s about telling myself the truth. It is the work of intent, of willingness, of opening to change.

When I—and we—can name what arises, welcome it, breathe with it, speak it aloud, then the patterns that limit our humanity start to move. As I said: deeply spiritual work.

What we all find there, regardless of the color of our skin, is our own experience of being dishonored, discriminated against, and shamed in whatever ways we have. And of doing this to others. Some find loss and anger of such proportions that the fear is being capsized by it. We all claim there the truth of human interaction and history. And release our shared pain.

Fifteen percent. A small number to ponder and open to realizations. By seeing clearly what has always been true: that whiteness is not the center of the world. This world was not given to the white of skin. That certainly was never meant to be.

In that realization lies the beginning of something cleaner, more honest, more whole. It is a vital opening on the true path to Integrated Oneness.

May we all know the truth about where we are and how we came to be here.
May we all know the truth about the color of our skin.
May we all know the truth of the Integrated Oneness of our soul.

That is my prayer.

With an open heart,
HuLiLi Leilani

After Notes, for those interested in More:

The percentage of the world population considered Caucasian or white depends on how the terms are defined, which can vary by context (racial, ethnic, anthropological, or cultural). Here’s a general, modern estimate based on “white” or “European descent” as typically used in demographic contexts:

🌍 Estimated Global Percentage of White/Caucasian People (2024):
≈ 15% of the world population

This includes populations primarily in:

• Europe (entire continent)
• North America (white populations in the U.S. and Canada)
• Australia and New Zealand
• Parts of Latin America with large European-descended populations (e.g., Argentina, Uruguay, southern Brazil)
• South Africa (white minority population)

Important Notes:

• The global population is over 8 billion as of 2024.
• “White” is not a scientifically rigid term; it varies culturally and nationally.
• The term Caucasian was originally an anthropological classification and is largely outdated in current science, though still used informally in some countries (especially the U.S.)