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What is HO'OPONOPONO ?
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.
Let me give you a quick example of how this works:
one day, someone sent me an email that upset me. In the past I
would have handled it by working on my emotional hot buttons
or by trying to reason with the person who sent the nasty
message. This time, I decided to try Dr. Len's method. I kept
silently saying, 'I'm sorry' and 'I love you,' I didn't say it
to anyone in particular. I was simply evoking the spirit of
love to heal within me what was creating the outer
circumstance. Within an hour I got an e-mail from the same
person. He apologized for his previous message. Keep in mind
that I didn't take any outward action to get that apology. I
didn't even write him back. Yet, by saying 'I love you,' I
somehow healed within me what was creating him. I later
attended a ho 'oponopono workshop run by Dr. Len. He's now 70
years old, considered a grandfatherly shaman, and is somewhat
reclusive.
He praised my book, The Attractor Factor. He told me that
as I improve myself, my book's vibration will raise, and
everyone will feel it when they read it. In short, as I
improve, my readers will improve. 'What about the books that
are already sold and out there?' I asked. "'They aren't
out there," he explained, once again blowing my mind with
his mystic wisdom. "They are still in you. In short,
there is no out there. It would take a whole book to explain
this advanced technique with the depth it deserves."
"Suffice It to say that whenever you want to improve
anything in your life, there's only one place to look: inside
you. When you look, do it with love." The words of Dr.
Ihaleakala Hew Len: "Ho'oponopono is really very simple.
For the ancient Hawaiians, all problems begin as thought. But
having a thought is not the problem. So what's the problem?
The problem is that all our thoughts are imbued 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 neutralizes or purifies it. You don't purify the person,
place, or thing. You neutralize 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 neutralized;
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, whatever. Once
you notice, your responsibility is to immediately begin to
clean, to say, 'I'm sorry. Please forgive me'."
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To learn more, please visit the site http://www.hooponoponotheamericas.org/index.htm.
Click on the link to Articles, in the left hand panel. I
especially recommend reading the article entitled: There's Got
to Be an Easier Way with Ihaleakala Hew Len, Ph.D. & Mabel
Katz, ABA, EA Here's to our continued learning on this
beautiful journey.....
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