“Hoʻoponopono (ho-o-pono-pono) is an ancient Hawaiian practice of reconciliation and forgiveness. Similar forgiveness practices were performed on islands throughout the South Pacific, including Samoa, Tahiti and New Zealand. Traditionally hoʻoponopono is practiced by healing priests or kahuna lapaʻau among family members of a person who is physically ill. Modern versions are performed within the family by a family elder, or by the individual alone.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ho%CA%BBoponopono
I don’t want to give you my own definition but what I want to do instead is tell you why I recommend it to many and the effectiveness of it.
Many times when working with a client related to the law of attraction I recommend its use. It is very affective at clearing away the blocks that are in the way of a person manifesting their desires. It is also affective when it comes to healing relationship between you and others or situation.
One of the greatest causes of disease is not forgiving. Not forgiving yourself and others. Guilt can manifest in so many negative ways. Many times when Jesus healed a person that is what he did. He released them of the guilt they were holding or cleared away resentment they were holding onto. He used the power of the spoken word by saying “Thou sins are forgiven thee!” (Matthew 9:5, Luke 5:23, Luke 7:48) That is not the only way to release the guilt and resentment. Actually other things could be said and it would still work as it did for Jesus so many times. That is the power of reconciliation and forgiveness and that is what practicing Ho ‘oponopono can do. Anything, situation, problem, issue…Ho ‘oponopono can be use and you will experience successful results IF you believe that it works and you stick with using it and don’t just repeat it three times and call it a failure. With anything, there is the need to put a little time and effort in to receive good results.
HO’OPONOPONO
by Joe Vitale
“Two years ago, I heard about a therapist in Hawaii who cured a complete ward of criminally insane patients” without ever seeing any of them. The psychologist would study an inmate’s chart and then look within himself to see how he created that person’s illness. As he improved himself, the patient improved.
When I first heard this story, I thought it was an urban legend. How could anyone heal anyone else by healing himself? How could even the best self-improvement master cure the criminally insane” It didn’t make any sense. It wasn’t logical, so I dismissed the story.
However, I heard it again a year later. I heard that the therapist had used a Hawaiian healing process called ho ‘oponopono. I had never heard of it, yet I couldn’t let it leave my mind. If the story was at all true, I had to know more. I had always understood “total responsibility” to mean that I am responsible for what I think and do. Beyond that, it’s out of my hands. I think that most people think of total responsibility that way. We’re responsible for what we do, not what anyone else does – but that’s wrong.
The Hawaiian therapist who healed those mentally ill people would teach me an advanced new perspective about total responsibility. His name is Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len. We probably spent an hour talking on our first phone call. I asked him to tell me the complete story of his work as a therapist.
He explained that he worked at Hawaii State Hospital for four years.
That ward where they kept the criminally insane was dangerous.
Psychologists quit on a monthly basis. The staff called in sick a lot or simply quit. People would walk through that ward with their backs against the wall, afraid of being attacked by patients. It was not a pleasant place to live, work, or visit.
Dr. Len told me that he never saw patients. He agreed to have an office and to review their files.While he looked at those files, he would work on himself. As he worked on himself, patients began to heal.
After a few months, patients that had to be shackled were being allowed to walk freely, he told me. Others who had to be heavily medicated were getting off their medications. And those who had no chance of ever being released were being freed. I was in awe.”Not only that,” he went on, “but the staff began to enjoy coming to work. Absenteeism and turnover disappeared. We ended up with more staff than we needed because patients were being released, and all the staff was showing up to work. Today, that ward is closed.”
This is where I had to ask the million dollar question: “What were you doing within yourself that caused those people to change?”
“I was simply healing the part of me that created them,” he said. I didn’t understand. Dr. Len explained that total responsibility for your life means that everything in your life- simply because it is in your life – is your responsibility. In a literal sense the entire world is your creation.
Whew. This is tough to swallow. Being responsible for what I say or do is one thing. Being responsible for what everyone in my life says or does is quite another. Yet, the truth is this: if you take complete responsibility for your life, then everything you see, hear, taste, touch, or in any way experience is your responsibility because it is in your life. This means that terrorist activity, the president, the economy or anything you experience and don’t like – is up for you to heal. They don’t exist, in a manner of speaking, except as projections from inside you. The problem isn’t with them, it’s with you, and to change them, you have to change you.
I know this is tough to grasp, let alone accept or actually live. Blame is far easier than total responsibility, but as I spoke with Dr. Len, I began to realize that healing for him and in ho ‘oponopono means loving yourself.
If you want to improve your life, you have to heal your life. If you want to cure anyone, even a mentally ill criminal you do it by healing you.
I asked Dr. Len how he went about healing himself. What was he doing, exactly, when he looked at those patients’ files? “I just kept saying, “I’m sorry” and “I love you” over and over again,”
he explained.
“That’s it”
“That’s it. ”
Turns out that loving yourself is the greatest way to improve yourself, and as you improve yourself, you improve your world.