Tikanga, as its name suggests, te mea tika – the right thing to do. The very reason that the adjective ‘tika’ evolved into a noun form ‘tikanga’ justifies for its existence as guidance to our way of living, eating, working, and learning. The justice comes from the fact that tikanga embodies the wisdom of our ancestors that has been repeatedly tried and tested through their life experiences. But the universe is an evolving process, so are the human world, our lives, ourselves, and tikanga. We have to keep tuning up or synchronising ourselves and tikanga to the changing world through the process of adaptation and accommodation to make sure tikanga is not violated and still apply as guidance. As far as I can see, all major religions are correct in urging people to be good and do good things, but some believers believe only their tikanga is right and reject the rest. The problem may not lie in the tikanga themselves, but in people’s perception of them. There is a Tuhoe proverb: Kei a koe tōu tino rangatiratanga (The leadership is right inside yourself.) There is another one: Kei ia tangata tōna ake tikanga (Everyone has his own rules). The same idea can be found in many cultures because it’s a universal truth. I’m not Māori, but I identify myself with tikanga Māori just because of its universality. When we, no matter who we are, where we are from and whether we are religious or not, observe the world and experience life phenomenologically - without preconceptions, assumptions and judgement, we always arrive at the same place, share the same common ground, and recognise the same tikanga. The differences of us and of our views only lie in human world we are in but do not necessarily belong to. When we transcend ourselves to higher level of being and perceiving things, all the differences disappear. Tikanga is identical to rules. If we are not sure, we follow rules. If we are confident, rules are internalised and guide us at subconscious level. But we have to know rule well enough to break them. That is the best knowing of rules. In that case, we have become rule-makers. You have to be very wise to be able to do so as you are becoming a history-making ancestor guiding the coming generations. Lidu Gong
Posted on: Wed, 06 Aug 2014 00:48:46 +0000
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