KAUA‘I — By meditating at the same time each day, Jenna Mahraj — best known as Sister Jenna — maintains that people can effect positive change in the world, peacefully. Sister Jenna, founder of the Meditation Museum and director of
KAUA‘I — By meditating at the same time each day, Jenna Mahraj — best known as Sister Jenna — maintains that people can effect positive change in the world, peacefully.
Sister Jenna, founder of the Meditation Museum and director of the Brahma Kumaris center of Washington, D.C., returns to Kaua‘i this month with series of guided meditation workshops around the island.
The workshops aim “to further empower our leadership, residents and guests to live in harmony with all of nature on this beautiful island,” according to a news release.
As a teacher and practitioner of meditation for more than 20 years, Sister Jenna has traveled to more than 80 countries to raise awareness of the self and the divine, according to her biography. She is both a powerful presence for peace and a community-oriented spiritual leader.
In 2008, Sister Jenna brought to Kaua‘i her “Kites for Peace” program, where local children hand-decorated kites for children in the war-torn country of Georgia.
This month, she returns to the island with her America Meditating initiative, a national outreach cultivating daily pauses for peace at 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.
“She will be focusing this practical spirituality on Kaua‘i under the theme Healing the Pain into Power to help us engender an empowering community response to the GMO consciousness raising event with Dr. Vandana Shiva on Jan. 17,” the release states. “Clearly moving toward a non-toxic emotional response is just as important as promoting a healthy physical environment.”
Sister Jenna says that it is the norm for people who are inflicted with violence to repeat — not necessarily exemplify — that violence.
“Perhaps 90 percent of us won’t play that (violence) card, but we do play the card of getting angry or losing our temper,” she said.
America Meditating focuses on breaking that cycle, turning wasteful and negative thinking into pure and original thinking.
Sister Jenna said each of her seven workshops this month will focus on a different spiritual practice, but all will involve the “American Meditating” initiative, which hopes to remedy the frustration and worn down feelings brought on by busy lifestyles and negativity in the world by encouraging individuals to take a few moments from their day to recollect their thoughts.
“The powerful thing about change is it starts with one person,” Sister Jenna said. “When one starts and then the whole island does it, there’s no telling what will happen.”
For Sister Jenna, meditation is an ongoing practice and an awareness of ones thoughts while in action. She says there are two factors within every soul — the “light part” and the “not-so-light part.” The “light” is made up of love, peace, purity, truth and joy. ALGAE — an acronym for anger, lust, greed, attachment and ego — makes up the “not-so-light” part.
“Whenever you look at your own life, all of your sorrows or discomforts will come from having felt one of these,” she said of the ALGAE. “In the meditation I will teach you how to reduce the percentage of this in your own consciousness and increase our inner light, which is who we are.”
By pausing for a few moments each day, Sister Jenna said people can reduce the ALGAE and return to an enlightened state.
“(Sister Jenna) lives what she’s teaching and you feel it,” said Deborah Burnham, who has organized Sister Jenna’s return visit to Kaua‘i.
Burnham was first inspired by Sister Jenna’s message in 2008 and has been practicing her form of meditation ever since.
“It has totally changed my life,” Burnham said. “I am able to stay stable emotionally when I used to get upset … I’m happier and I’m more peaceful.”
The month will mark Sister Jenna’s third visit to the island, and she said she could not be happier about returning.
“First, I love the purity of the land,” she said. “Secondly, anything away from Washington, D.C., in the winter is paradise … Third, I have found the folks on the island are conscious. They are really wishing to contribute something that’s very wholesome and natural to life’s existence, which I think in many metro cities we forget.”
As for the workshops, Sister Jenna said they will be interactive, entertaining, thoughtful and meaningful.
“I’m hoping maybe Kaua‘i will make an example to the rest of the world by leading America Meditating, where the whole island practices it.”
The free guided meditation workshops with Sister Jenna include the following dates and times:
• Feb. 6, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. — “American Meditating: Quenching the Thirst for Life by Remembering Who We Are” at Taj and Marc’s home, located at 4256 Kahilimakai St., off Kuhio Highway between mile markers 21 and 22, in Kilauea.
• Feb. 7, 6 to 8 p.m. — “America Meditating: A Peace-Creating GMO Conservation” at Storybook Theatre, in Hanapepe.
• Feb. 10, 10 to 11:30 a.m. — “America Meditating: Overcoming Depression” at the Kaua‘i Wellness Expo, located at the War Memorial Convention Hall in Lihu‘e.
• Feb. 11, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. — “America Meditating: Compassionate Governance,” with opening music by Elijah at Children of the Land, located at the Safeway Shopping Center in Kapa‘a.
• Feb. 12, 6 to 7:30 p.m. — “American Meditating: Healing Pain into Power” at Hanalei Beach. Bring a mat or chair and a flashlight for this special sunset mass meditation.
• Feb. 13, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. — “Karmic Law of Relationship: Transforming Attachment into Real Love, Part 1” at Children of the Land, located in the Safeway Shopping Center in Kapa‘a.
• Feb. 14, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. — “Karmic Law of Relationship: Transforming Attachment into Real Love, Part 2” at Children of the Land, located in the Safeway Shopping Center in Kapa‘a.
For a more information call 639-9436 or visit www.innerpeacekauai.com. More information about Sister Jenna and her work can be found at www.americameditating.org, www.meditationmuseum.org or www.bkwsu.org.
