Welcome to Pacific Wisdom!

The Elders say that it is a new dawn. The sun is rising in the hearts of the people, filling them with goodness, kindness, peace and light. They call these people Kaborakeia Taari—the People of the Rising.

Pacific Wisdom is sourced from the tiny atolls that rise from the depths of the equatorial Pacific. Like strands of rare, precious pearls, they adorn Earth’s mid-section with a stunning brilliance, yet, so very subtle. Traveling by boat, you can sail close and still miss them, rising as they do, only six-feet above sea level.

The people who inhabit these islets are more of the sea than of the land. Their world is subtle, yet vast and deep like the infinite ocean that cradles them. The wisdom they hold comes from those depths. It has been passed in a chain, unbroken, for thousands of years.

Wisdom is not the same as knowledge that is regularly disproved then updated and replaced as new information is made available. Wisdom is timeless truth. It comes from Spirit, and it has a power.

The Elders of these atolls hold their wisdom tight, like the giant clam. When approached with respect and devotion, they slowly open. Those who show disrespect will only see the shell. That is all.

In the west, we often mistake the shell for wisdom. We can analyze, theorize, repeat, and replicate, which is very useful, but it is not wisdom. Wisdom dwells in the stillness of the essence, in the depths of the sacred unseen. It rises up, like a magnificent Whale, for the revealing, and then disappears from view. In order to glean the gifts given, we must learn to absorb the unseen treasures left in its wake, the pure essence that cannot be seen or spoken, only transmitted and absorbed. And then we must learn to hold in that same purity and strength.

Most days in the tropics, the wind blows, and the sea moves along in the same direction. As the wind speed increases, the swell becomes steeper, and the ocean, rougher. Conditions can change on a dime, so if you are on a sailboat, you must be watchful.

There are times, however, when the wind stops long enough for the sea to calm and become completely still. You pull your sails in and motor along slowly, reverently. It is like moving through liquid glass, that is, simultaneously, a living, breathing being, its body, gently rising and falling, stretching endlessly around you.

When the sun rises and sets, indescribable beauty floods in, as colors explode across the sky and reflect off the prism of the sea. And you are in it, breathing the same air, moving in the same exquisite rhythm—a vibrant, living part of the same design.

When the sun rises and sets, indescribable beauty floods in, as colors explode across the sky and reflect off the prism of the sea. And you are in it, breathing the same air, moving in the same exquisite rhythm—a vibrant, living part of the same design. There is no separation.

And so it is when we still the flow of thought within the pathways of our minds. A similar phenomenon occurs. A window opens, and much is revealed for our experiencing. This is intimate to each person, to be held as the highest, most sacred treasure. The true journey of awakening has begun.

Julie Vance, and her husband Tom, have had the rare opportunity to live upon the sea in their forty-foot sailboat since 1997, forging lasting friendships in the islands of Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia. In 1999, their lives were forever changed when they visited a small atoll in Micronesia, where they began a love affair with the people and their culture of kindness, awareness, and happiness that continues to this day.