Enjoy Life to the Full Through Self Cleaning Method: Ho’oponopono

How to enjoy life is an issue for many of us.  Few months ago you, my viewers and readers, told me through a survey that this is an area you would like me to write about. Today I am exploring Hoʻoponopono with you. It is a Hawaiian self cleaning healing method Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len with Joe Vitale through his book ‘Zero Limit’ made  famous in the West.  I decided to immerse myself in it to be able to evaluate its merits.  At first I was sceptical. Now, a few months into it,  I realise enjoying life was one of the many positive side effects of this teaching, I decided it was time to share Hoʻoponopono and my experiences with it with you.

Dr. Ihaleakala Hew who has a doctorate from the University of Iowa, was staff psychologist at Hawaii State Hospital in the forensic unit for the criminally mentally ill for several years.  The miraculous results he achieved with inpatients attracted curiosity. His methods were so effective that all inpatients were discharged and finally the unit closed in 4 years. Len learned this method from a native healer called Morrnah Nalamaku Simeona and has been practicing the updated Ho’oponopono since November of 1982.
Let’s start with a quote from Morrnah Nalamaku Simeona:  ‘If we can accept that we are the sum total of our past thoughts, emotions, words, deeds and actions and that our present lives and choices are coloured or shaded by this memory bank of the past, then we begin to see how a process of correcting or setting aright can change our lives, our families and our society.’

This approach includes a few presuppositions about how we understand life and relationships:

• The physical universe is an actualization of our thoughts.
• Our thoughts often reflect conscious as well as unconscious experiences of ourselves and those of our ancestors. These memories dominate our minds.
• The Soul comprised by the Subconscious Mind and Conscious Mind, experience vicariously, through memories replaying and Inspirations.
• The world within and without are the same. Everything exists as thoughts in our minds.
• The nature of our thoughts creates the nature of our reality. For example if my thoughts are anxious, they would create an anxious physical reality. If my thoughts are inspired by the Divine, they create a physical reality filled with Love.
• We are 100% responsible for the way our physical universe is.
• We are 100% responsible for correcting when our physical reality contains illness, pain, anger, in fact anything other than bliss.

The Definition of the Problem and the Source of Disease

Often we think the problem is in the world or in ourselves.  We say: ‘If only I was smarter, calmer, more beautiful, more disciplined.’ If only my partner was happier, if only I had better teachers, if only the politicians were more honest, if only my father was more understanding! So does the list goes on. All would be bliss if only….

Ancient Hawaiians believed that any wrongdoing is memorized within oneself and mirrored in every entity and object which was present when the cause happened.  We would also suffer from our ancestors’ sins.  The sins of the father will fall upon the children. If a child is sick, the parents may have quarrelled or were not conducting themselves well.  Disasters may be caused by social disorder.  Harmony could only be restored by confession and apology.
Every thought/memory from when we were first created is stored within our subconscious or the Child within us. This memory bank is an integral part of the Self.  The Self is made up of the Child/subconscious, the Mother/conscious and the Father/superconscious.  Not only each of us as individuals carry our own Inner family, every atom, cell and molecule has an inner family of their own as well.  In this tradition all problems begin as thought of a painful memory. But having a thought is not the problem in itself. The problem is the consequences of memories occupying our Subconscious Mind!

Conscious and Unconscious Memories Need Cleaning

Every second, millions of bits of information reach our system of which we can consciously process only 20%. The same had happened with our ancestors.  We know from scientific research that our DNA carries memories of our ancestors.  Therefore our Subconscious Mind is inundated with masses of memories we are not even aware of, but we might say our Inner Child carries. The body and the world reside in the Subconscious Mind.  They are constantly created by memories replaying, and occasionally by Inspirations; only when these memories are cleaned Inspiration can find its way to our consciousness.
But, who controls this replay of memories? When and how can the Inspiration reach us?  We know from contemporary research on free will that we do not make our decisions at a conscious level.  Research by Professor Benjamin Libet of the University of California at San Francisco showed that decisions are made before Consciousness makes them. Your intellect is not aware of this. It creates a concept, called your ego-identity, which claims that it decides.

We seem to be at the mercy of our conscious and unconscious memories going back generations and generations.   No wonder we feel so lost most of the time!

How Does Cleaning With Ho’oponopono Work?

Our conscious mind desperately attempts to solve the effects of these memories rather unsuccessfully. Let’s say you experience a physical illness, or feel extreme emotions towards a situation such as fear, anxiety, anger or mental difficulties such as an inability to concentrate and get things done on time or you suffer addictions, such as eating or drinking problems, debilitating obsessions and compulsions. We know that these are the effects of the painful memories your Inner Child carries.  Even though you may not know the exact content of the problem, through Ho’oponopono Divinity purifies the energy of everything associated with this difficulty.

Here is how you do the Cleaning.  Let’s say you feel anger rising in your body-mind when your child is making too much noise, or when your partner fails to understand you persistently on a sensitive issue:

1) You can start by saying ‘I love you; my anger and my Inner Child’:  You may wonder why you should say you love a feeling that is so uncomfortable and unhelpful.  We often are super critical towards ourselves and deep down many of us feel unlovable. The act of cleaning respects the pain that is accumulated over the generations.  Notice how whilst you are taking the full responsibility for cleaning there is no blame, no judgement, no labelling, no force; but only loving acceptance.  This is loving acceptance of the conditions that has led to this consequence as well as of the Inner Child who has had to carry these ‘memories’.

These loving words literally open the gateway for the conscious and unconscious memories registered in our DNA coming all the way from our ancestors to purify and transform to love.

2) Another part of cleaning involves saying, ‘I’m sorry. Please forgive me for all the reasons I am aware and not aware that contributed to this anger’.

Often couples bring to their therapy many events they have not been able to resolve and accumulated. During couple therapy being heard by the therapist helps them to perceive the events and each other’s emotional states from a different angle.  However when I think of all the pain and suffering involved in the process Cleaning seems such an efficient way of moving on from such painful interactions!

3)  The simple act of Cleaning is sealed with a statement such as ‘I thank you, my anger and my Inner Child for allowing me to Clean’. We are really thanking because as the energy associated with such thoughts and emotions gets released, we feel at peace.

What is so beautiful is that when we Clean something in our own consciousness we Clear it for everyone, every place and every object associated with this memory.  As a result the space for Inspiration opens up, perfect solutions present themselves.  Intuition fills the space and we discover our life’s purpose, becoming the person we were meant to be from moment to moment.  As a couple we achieve deeds beyond our dreams.

It is easy to see how Cleaning ourselves is also healing the world.  It also resonates with 13th century scholar and poet Rumi’s words:  ‘Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world.  Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.’

The world without is a reflection of the world within.  If we see division in our world, it is because we are carrying division within us.  As we ask to release divisive thoughts within us, division no longer has to be reflected out into our world.

If your children, your partner, your friends or your community are experiencing division within their lives, focus on your own Inner Family.  What ideas within you have drawn these reflections into your outer world? Ask for any thought which reflects this division in your own life to come forward for clearing, and ask for forgiveness for holding such a thought which is out of alignment with the principle of Oneness and Love.  As you Clean your own thinking observe and enjoy how it affects those within your life.

Here is a summary of what Hawaian native wisdom advises:

• Put aside your thinking hats as thinking is about trying to understand the nature of things, remember that our intellect is simply not up to it.
• Get in touch with Divinity within; develop a working relationship with that Divine part of yourself.
• Learn to ask that errors in our thoughts, words, actions and deeds be cleaned.
• Allow the situation to unfold naturally without effort or suffering.
• Stay open for the Inspiration.
• Enjoy the peace balance and love.

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