• In :
• Personal Growth

January 2008

By Luis S R Vas

Ho’oponopono is a hawaiian cultural practice that enables you to regain your harmony and health

Ho’oponopono (making it right) is a Hawaiian cultural practice that incorporates various components to realign the participant(s) with spirit, mind and body or past, present and future. Ho’oponopono’s intent is to bring harmony into your life, to help you regain cultural values of respect and caring for one another, and to open your eyes to a healthier life ahead.

The practice was “updated” by Kahuna Lapaau (Hawaiian healer) Morrnah Nalamaku Simeona (1913-1992), who was named a “Living Treasure of Hawaii” in 1983 by Hongwanji Mission of Honolulu, and the Hawaii State Legislature.

Dr Ihaleakala Hew Len has been practising the updated Ho’oponopono since 1982. He was taught the process by Morrnah. He was staff psychologist in the forensic unit for the criminally mentally ill at Hawaii State Hospital for several years, where his technique of working on himself rather than on the patients had produced spectacular results. He has taught the updated Ho’oponopono around the world, and at the United Nations several times. Dr Len has a doctorate from the University of Iowa.

Dr Len maintains that Ho’oponopono is really very simple. For the ancient Hawaiians, all problems begin as thought. But having a thought is not the problem. The problem is that all our thoughts are soaked with painful memories, memories of persons, places, or things. The intellect working alone can’t solve these problems, because the intellect only manages. Managing things is no way to solve problems. You want to let them go! When you do Ho’oponopono, what happens is that the Divinity takes the painful thought and neutralises or purifies it. You don’t purify the person, place, or thing. You neutralise the energy you associate with that person, place, or thing. So the first stage of Ho’oponopono is the purification of that energy.

Now something wonderful happens. Not only does that energy get neutralised; it also gets released, so there’s a brand new slate. Buddhists call it the Void. The final step is that you allow the Divinity to come in and fill the void with light.

To do Ho’oponopono, you don’t have to know what the problem or error is. All you have to do is notice any problem you are experiencing physically, mentally, emotionally. Once you notice, your responsibility is to immediately begin to clean, to say, “I’m sorry. Please forgive me.”

Dr Len narrates an incident: “The other day I got a call from the daughter of a woman who is 92. She said, ‘My mother’s had these severe hip pains for several weeks.’ While she’s talking to me, I’m asking this question of the Divinity, ‘What is going on in me that I have caused that woman’s pain?’ And then I ask, ‘How is it that I can rectify that problem within me?’ The answers to these questions come, and I do whatever I’m told. So if X has some pain and comes to me, I say to the Divinity, ‘Please, whatever is going on in me that I have caused this pain in so-and-so, tell me how I can rectify it.’ And I will apply whatever information I’m given indefinitely, until your pain is gone or until you ask me to stop. It’s not so much the effect that is important as the getting to the problem. That’s the key.”

If you want to solve a problem, no matter what kind of problem, work on yourself. If the problem is with another person, for example, just ask yourself, “What’s going on in me that’s causing this person to bug me?” People only show up in your life to bug you! If you know that, you can elevate any situation, and you can release there, says Dr Len. It’s simple: “I’m sorry for whatever’s going on. Please forgive me.”

That’s the beauty of this, he maintains. You don’t have to understand. It’s like the Internet. You don’t understand all this! You just go to the Divinity and you say, “Can we download?” and the Divinity downloads, and then you get the necessary information. But because we don’t know who we are, we never download direct from the Light. We go outside.

Here are two ho’oponopono proven ways to heal yourself (or anyone else) of anything you notice. Remember that what you see in another is also in you, so all healing is self-healing. No one else has to do these processes but you. The entire world is literally in your hands.

First, this is the prayer Morrnah (the creator of this new process) said to help heal hundreds if not thousands of people:
“Divine creator, father, mother, son as one …
If I, my family, relatives and ancestors have offended
you, your family, relatives and ancestors in thoughts,
words, deeds and actions from the beginning of our
creation to the present, we ask your forgiveness …
Let this cleanse, purify, release, cut all the negative
memories, blocks, energies and vibrations and transmute
these unwanted energies to pure light … And it is done.”

Second, the way Dr Hew Len likes to heal is to first say “I’m sorry” and “Please forgive me.” You say this to acknowledge that something – without your knowing what it is – has got into your Body/mind system. You have no idea how it got there. You don’t need to know, either.

If you suffer from an addiction, you simply caught the programme that is making you that way. By saying “I’m sorry,” you are telling the Divine that you want forgiveness inside yourself for whatever brought it to you. You’re not asking the Divine to forgive you; you’re asking the Divine to help you forgive yourself.

From there, you say “I love you” and “Thank you.”

The “I love you” transmutes the energy from stuck to flowing. It reconnects you to the Divine. Since the zero state is one of pure love, and has zero limits, you are beginning to get to that state by expressing love. When you follow that statement with “Thank you,” you are expressing gratitude.

You are showing your faith that the issue will be resolved for the highest good of all concerned.

What happens next is up to the Divine. You may be inspired to take action of some sort. Whatever it is, do it. If you aren’t sure about the action to take, use this same healing method on your confusion. When you are clear, you’ll know what to do.

In other words just say:
“I love you”
“I’m sorry”
“Please forgive me”
“Thank you”

That’s it! By creating a mantra of saying those four things pretty much as often as you can day after day and week after week, you will quickly come to the realisation that you can create your life to be “right”.

The secret seems to be to say it from the heart or mean what you say and persist. Use the same four-phrase process on any block that crops up. For example, ask yourself ‘What am I doing wrong that his/her medication is not working?’ and repeat the four-phrase process on every block that comes in the way of full success.

Irrespective of the area in which you notice an ‘error’ be it your or another’s health or relationship issue – irrespective of the nature of the problem – it is up to you to start correcting or nullifying it, and you do so by using the four phrases as tools : by Loving yourself, by Apologizing to yourself for your wrong-doing and Forgiving yourself for it (even if you don’t know what it is), and finally by Thanking yourself for the opportunity to create Good, as well as to stop creating what is Bad.

The end result may not be as quick as a steroid but practitioners seem to agree it is surer and more efficacious than one – no side-effects – no relapses. And it can handle all your problem areas, not health alone!!

A practitioner says: “I tried ‘the process’ on my weight and although I didn’t feel any different, I’ve lost a pound a day for the last 14 days with no change in diet or exercise habits. I did the process on the couple upstairs two nights ago, and they stopped arguing almost instantly! My hip and lower back pain that I’ve had for the last nine years is gone after only three uses of ‘the process’ on it.”