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light of intelligence in man is thus "daylight intestines" or that gut-feeling reaction that prompts enlightenment (na’auao) and the mana of enlightenment in man's wisdom and intelligent use of power. In this context, therefore, mana is inherited by mankind from the gods, as both are spiritual (‘uhaneo) and therefore in constant contact between birth and death; that is, mana is transferable.
In being thus transferable, it can be either increased by function or decreased by dysfunction, so that mana has quantity in indefinite amount of flow, and if it is not maintained it is diminished. Therefore, mana can also be acquired by intelligent use and need not be inherited, necessarily, in a direct conduit between gods (akua) and men as chiefs (ali’i). The common man (kanaka maoli) or woman (wahine) is born with intelligence (akamai) and with intelligent use of akamai and na’auao (wisdom) acquires skill (no’eau), thus increasing mana in possessing all three: akamai, na’auao and no’eau. Thus, inherited mana as possessed by chiefs in the kupua (demigod) role as gods incarnate, through which they rank higher than the kanaka maoli, does not guarantee superior rank as automatic privilege in the afterlife. mana as power and as a "good" in itself, as possessed by gods or by men, is a force that does not inhibit the free will of mankind to produce either "good" (maika'i) or "evil" ('ino), as evil doing takes as much intelligence and power as doing good requires.
So, it also follows that in Hawaiian ethics mana in productive or destructive use by man in daily existence does not automatically will him into good acts. Therefore, it is not mana that places the spirit of man into favorable circumstances in the afterlife by virtue of rank. No spirit (‘uhaneo) of man or woman ascends into the spiritual life guaranteed into eternity except by pono, which means duty/ responsibility, justice, and righteousness. Without pono no good life for mankind either on earth or beyond earth develops. Thus, in ancient Hawaiian society, history records the lives of good and bad kings, of good and bad spirits, in order to demonstrate what pono is and how it is achieved through the intelligent use of mana in all positive attributes of the total activity of man. Thus, mana can be diminished by negative transference, and in order to be vital must be maintained and kept moving positively through every activity of the economic, political, social, aesthetic, and religious life of ancient Hawaii.
The discussion can continue here indefinitely into volumes of analysis, but suffice it here to define mana as the three-fold manifestation of power with its regional source in the spiritual world, or the world of neither birth nor death, and its perceptive function in the visible, material world as:
- 1) The source mana, that is, supernatural power of sacred spiritual beings (akua, 'aumakua, ‘uhaneo), as seen abstractly in their manifold inanimate forms of natural energy (potential, kinetic), or concretely in their manifold animate forms of corporeal life.
- 2) The mana of human beings, inherited or acquired, by either direct descent from the gods, as chiefs (ali’i), or by intelligent, wise, or just and productive use for the good life (pono).
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