Aloha Gary’s guide to Hawaiian Ho’oponopono Healing and much more… Part 4 – The Origins of Hawaiian Ho’oponopono

Aloha Gary’s guide to Hawaiian Ho’oponopono Healing and much more…

Part 4 – The Origins of Hawaiian Ho’oponopono

‘A ohe pau ko ike I kau halau’ – think not all wisdom is in your school – Hawaiian proverb

To discover the origins of Ho’oponopono, it really helps to put this into context to understand a little more about the Hawaiian’s culture and history. Even Dr Len’s teacher, Morrnah Simeona, taught ho’oponopono differently from how it is now portrayed, so there are many ways for you to learn to help your ability to forgive.

After Captain Cook’s ‘discovery’ of the Hawaiians, it was commented by the explorers as to how fit and healthy the whole population was, and there were some who thought the Hawaiians were a race of giants as they were often well over six feet tall in an era when the common navy sailor was only five feet!

In fact, there was very little sickness, and no signs of any mental health issues whatsoever, in the days when Europe and USA were ravaged by dread diseases and sickness.

This can be attributed to the Hawaiian culture and way of life, which put great attention to being fit and healthy, for which the Hawaiian term is ho’omana, which means ‘to make life force energy’. Were you ever taught at school how to make life force energy? No? Me neither, it is not the kind of thinking or focus we are used to in the west!

In fact, the Hawaiians had a complete system of well being, more equivalent to the Indian Ayurveda, or Traditional Chinese Medicine, which included Lomi Lomi massage and acupressure, Ho’omanaloawhich means to make divine energy (similar in principle to reiki), La’au lapa au or herbal healing, dentists and child specialists, midwives, and La’au kahea, who made ‘talking cures’ which today we might call psychology, and all running alongside appropriate ‘pule’ or prayers.

These disciplines were overseen by the Hawaiian professional classes known as Kahuna, who were the equivalent of the university professors and experts of their day. There were over 40 different kinds, including kahuna of farming, cooking, building, ocean navigation, accountancy, history, Hula, priests, fishing and even kahuna of ‘tree choosing’ (to ensure the ocean-going canoes would not break apart in mid-ocean!)

In addition to the Kahuna, most families would have at least one person they could call on to help with the sick, and these skills and prayers were passed down within families, whilst others were jealously guarded by certain groups of Kahuna who we might think of as similar to medieval craft guilds of Europe.

When Captain Cook arrived, Hawaiian society was heavily stratified, with the local King, who might rule all or part of an island, with the Ali’i or ruling chiefs, then the Kahuna, and then the freemen, although this was not tied to land ownership as it was in Europe, all land ‘belonging’ to the King who apportioned it among his chiefs and family.

But it was not always so. Archaeologists tell us that the first settlers arrived in Hawaii around 1AD but these may not have been Polynesians. Certainly the Hawaiians own history highlights the arrival around 1200AD of a powerful Polynesian war chief and warriors from Tahiti who conquered the peaceful previous occupants, and it seems, may have wiped them out, although apparently not all of their teachings were lost with them, because these are the teachings which contribute to the ‘Spirit of Aloha’ or as we have seen it called here, ho’omana.

There was a great care to ensure emotional and mental well-being too, and part of the reason modern Hawaiians seem to be so laid back, is because they work at the attitudes and mindset needed to achieve this, and this is taught to the keiki  (children) as they grow up by their ’ohana kupuna  (family elders). Elders are not merely old, but are respected for their wisdom and knowledge, and are often given the name of Uncle or Auntie as a term of respect as well as endearment.

In ‘Tales from the Night Rainbow’ the oral history of Kail’ohe Kame’ekua, she tells “of ‘aha family meetings where the kupuna family council ruled because they had the greatest mana (power-energy) and wisdom, and for this reason they were our leaders. They handled all disputes within the family and with outsiders. Everyone went to the meeting, no exceptions.

At the meeting family members were reminded of teachings, when it was felt needed. One teaching that people needed reminding of most frequently was: to forgive and not forget is not to forgive at all. Forgiving and forgetting are part of the same whole. To say you have forgiven and continue to bring up the problem is a great error and is to carry a large rock in your ‘bowl of light’. Old hurts and stories are not revisited, and they die with the generation who lived them. The ‘aumakua, family spirit, was also part of the family circle, perhaps best understood as a family guardian angel“.

These meetings may include the whole extended family, with people travelling long distances to be present. Every family member was expected to attend.

Sometimes if family elders were too closely involved in the issues, or were unable to resolve them, a respected person, in ancient times a Kahuna, or in modern times a mediator or Minister, would be invited to facilitate the ho’oponopono meeting.

In ‘Nana i ke kumu’, Mary Pukui described it as a practice of extended family members meeting to “make right” broken family relations. Some families met regularly to prevent problems from erupting. Others met when a person became ill, believing that illness was caused by the stress of anger, guilt, recriminations and lack of forgiveness, believing that full healing without recurrence could only occur when the whole family fully forgave each other. Such meetings may take a few hours, or even days to complete, with each family member having their say. Sometime things would become heated, and a ‘time-out’ would be called, while the kahuna perhaps spoke or did healing for individuals involved in the situation, until everyone had their say and all were satisfied with the outcome, and no longer harbouring any grudges.

So knowing your own family, imagine bringing the whole family together and trying to resolve all the historical family issues? Now you can see why this may take several days!

This may seem strange or a new way of thinking to you. In fact, Harvard and other prestigious Medical Schools now agree that 95% of ALL ailments and dis-eases are caused by tension in the body, caused by emotional stress. (although Hawaiians would say this should be 100%!)

Some Hawaiians would go as far as to say that the physical body is caused by the emotional body which itself is caused by the mental body. In other words what you think about, you bring about, because energy flows where attention goes. The Hawaiian principle of Makia.

And amazingly as you will discover, certain ailments often have predictable causes! See Louise Hay’s powerful book ‘You can heal your life’ for more on this, as well as looking out for my later article on the causes of illness and other Hawaiian healing principles and methods.

So as you can see forgiveness becomes incredibly important in keeping you and your family well, but the question is, how?

As the Hawaiian proverb goes: ‘think not all wisdom is in your school’, in other words, lets be open minded to discover new ways that we may learn, and explore other people’s ideas and wisdom, to help us ho’omana or increase our life force energy.

Because although ‘family forgiveness’ was commonplace, not everyone called it ho’oponopono, but how this worked could differ from island to island and even from family to family, so here is an overview of the typical stages.

The process begins with prayer by all present, stating the desired outcome, and assistance is requested from the family ‘aumakua and ancestors and divinity in a way that is appropriate for each persons faith.

Appropriate attitudes and states of mind are explained and encouraged. The meeting opens with prayer as a group and individually, and family ‘ancestral spirits’ and guardians are invited.

A statement of the problem is made, and the illness/situation discussed. Everyone’s feelings are acknowledged and everyone participates telling their perspective, there are no observers, as a problem for one family member is deemed to effect everyone. Family members are expected to work towards a satisfactory outcome for everyone, and not to be intransigent. This is where an external authority figure such as a kahuna or minister can encourage shifts, that may not be possible within the family. There may be periods of silence for meditation or contemplation and reflection.

Everyone opens up and explains what happened and how they feel. Then the process of forgiveness begins, perhaps individually at first, and then gradually including the whole family.  Those involved admit their mis-takes, and if appropriate apologise or give restitution.

Everyone releases (kala – forgives) each other, letting go. They cut cords with the past, and together they close the event with a pule prayer of release and then perhaps celebrate the end of the situation with a ceremonial feast, called pani, which often included eating limu kala or kala seaweed, symbolic of the release.

This cutting cords part is really important and deserves more explanation, as this is a core part of the whole process, which is emphasised in the version of Ho’oponopono from the Island of Hawaii which I share and teach in my workshops, and is one of the three key healing meditations on my Ho’oponopono Hawaiian Chill Out CD. Along with the concept of forgiving people firstly, not for what they did, but for not being the person the other wanted them to be,

And you will get a little more insight from this video of the old story of 2 monks… http://www.youtube.com/user/MasteryPath#p/u/32/h3ZcwUMwQHY

Because the Hawaiians believe that we each have a body made up of aka a kind of ether or energy, for example, just rub your hands together quickly for a minute or so and then draw them apart, and then slowly bring them back together again and notice there is a point where you start to ‘feel’ the other hand even though they are not touching yet? This is aka.

And when we meet or connect with someone we make a heart to heart energy link of this aka, and normally when we part, that link drops. But if we have some kind of conflict or issue, then the link stays up and you continue to send energy to the other person, and the more you are emotional about the situation the more energy you send to them, even if they have totally forgotten they have ever met you!

So the question is, do you want to send energy to people you don’t like? No? I thought not! But the longer you hold onto the cord, the more entangled you become with the other person! These connections are also called Hala.

My mentor and inspiration, the late Uncle George Lanakilakeikiahiali’I Naope (Kahuna Po’o O ka Hula), told us that in ancient times, ALL things were considered forgiveable, sometimes even murder!

He outlined three main reasons for forgiveness:

Hala – To miss the path or to err by omission.

Remember that when you make a mistake you are making a mis-take, or a miss take. It is not the end of the world, simply a stepping off of the path. Very little is final. Most mis-takes can be rectified simply by stepping back onto your path and continuing. Perseverance is a great skill that is much undervalued today, you only fail if you give up, keeping going is often all that is needed.

This can also include repression, denial, avoidance, feeling sorry for…sadness, guilt, and not enforcing your boundaries strongly enough.

Hewa – To go overboard or to do to excess.

This includes but is no means limited to: workaholism, over-cleanliness or over-tidyness, not just things like alcoholism, or addictions, or food problems like bulimia. One of the most insidious that I see regularly on workshops or in my therapy practice is perfectionism – this can be a huge drain always trying to be perfect, which let’s face it is impossible. Time to cut yourself some slack.

It is also a major problem in business, slowing things down. Because of the over-focus on regulations these days, many are afraid of making a mistake, when often taking action and discovering the consequences can be the easiest and best value way to learn and to make progress!

This can also include excesses, obsessions, collections, anger, hate and revenge.

‘Ino – To do harm, either accidentally or even intentionally with hate in mind

Again this can include revenge or even trying to do down a rival at work either internally, or a competitor. Typically these are much more serious, yet even these are forgiveable, even if that may take a little more time for some.

Includes, harm to self, or judging self, or self deprecation. So note that Hawaiians sense of humour is not self-deprecating, and ‘banter’ may be taken personally.

So as we can see traditional Ho’oponopono is very different, albeit with some similar intentions to clear and release connections (memories) and disentangle us from our cords and webs.

I have researched many dozens if not hundreds of healing and therapy styles from around the world and I have not found anything as powerful at helping people to forgive as these Ho’oponopono techniques described, and the meditations often bring instant release of tears, or just a feeling of sheer relief at letting go such a burden. This is a major gift from Hawaii to the world.

So we can summarise the use and purpose of traditional Hawaiian Ho’oponopono as follows:

A system for maintaining good relationships among family, friends or colleagues or within an organisation or group.

A system for communal problem solving, righting mis-takes and creating balance and harmony within the family group.

A process for making right any stressful situation or relationship, including couples. All are set free from tensions released in these relationships.

It gets the family together to discover the source of illness or sickness. Sometimes this can be the ‘family ailment’, that is (allegedly) inherited or genetic. It is often the family’s faulty thinking that is inherited or passed down that leads to this ailment. It gets to the root cause and goes beyond symptoms.

It releases negative effects from the past and present, sometimes from generations ago, by cleansing physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually through the process of openness, love, forgiveness, and transmutation.

It is a very powerful method of conflict resolution that works in the real world, it is not merely theoretical, it has been practiced for hundreds of years.

It embraces spiritual truths, providing a deeper level of resolution and harmony.

Ho’oponopono is just one small part of the overall Hawaiian Spirit and Wisdom system, sometimes called Huna or Ho’omana, albeit a powerful and important one. There are many other tools and techniques within Huna to speed up the process too, because different people react, well, differently. Or ‘horses for courses’ as they say!

Plus there are other Huna techniques that can be used at the same time as the 4 statement process, and other tools which can run alongside it. The Ancient Hawaiians, really knew what they were doing, because they have had hundreds of years to perfect these techniques, of which, more in Part 6, What more can I learn from Huna and Ho’oponpono.

And so back to the origins of our ‘4 statement Ho’oponopono’.

I have seen this variously described :

• Ho’oponopono is an ancient Hawaiian technique that helps anyone to release resistance, remove blocks and improve energy flow.
• Ho’oponopono mantra cleaning meditations prayers I am sorry Please forgive me I love you I thank you.
• Hooponopono is a simple process of releasing negative energies, allowing a new space for the healing power of your true Divinity in thoughts, feelings, words, and actions.

These definitions would have Hawaiians puzzled and scratching their heads as this is very different from their traditional and ancient approach.

So now we reach the point at which you probably came in, Joe Vitale,  Morrnah Simeona, Dr Hew Len and …. in our next exciting episode…

Part 5 – The book ‘Zero Limits’ and the course-book ‘Self Identity through Ho’oponopono’™

Malama pono. In love and humbleness, All truths are my teachers, all mis-takes are my own.

Mahalo nui loa

Thank you for reading

Aloha Gary

For more on the amazingly powerful healing and wisdom teachings of Ancient Hawaii – visit Aloha Gary’s blog at http://www.alohagary.wordpress.com  or http://www.facebook.com/alohagary1

And please like/join the ho’oponopono facebook page http://www.facebook.com/ukhuna

© Gary Plunkett 2012 – all rights reserved

This article may be reproduced in FULL or part, ONLY if it includes the above weblinks, otherwise please contact author at gary@garyplunkett.com  to make appropriate arrangements

References:

Nana i ke kumu – Pukui, Hertig, Lee

Tales from the Night Rainbow – Willis and Lee

Self Identity Through Ho’oponopono – Morrnah Simeona

You can heal your life – Louise Hay

Aloha Gary’s guide to Hawaiian Ho’oponopono Healing and much more…Part 3 – Taking 100% responsibility for myself using Ho’oponopono

Aloha Gary’s guide to Hawaiian Ho’oponopono Healing and much more…Part 3

Taking 100% responsibility for myself using Ho’oponopono

I would like to thank my facebook buddy, Ellen Dyb Wedeld, for inspiring me to write this article. After reading Part 2  she wrote:

“Thank you Gary, you’re doing great!  I know the tricky part for many people is the concept of taking 100% responsibility, it’s a natural reflex to be asking…”but how can I be responsible for the people who get sick? …and what about  all the terror and hunger and turmoil in the world…” etc. I find it helps to think the universe is IN me, and I know it exists only through my perception – through my senses, and how I perceive it depends on the programming/memories that go back all the way to the beginning of creation…and when I don’t feel anything’s outside of me, it makes it easy to clean.

So here we are, what does it mean to take 100% responsibility, and how can I do that when I have been brought up to blame, (and even sue) people who make mistakes?

To be honest I see a lot of people getting caught up in the ‘taking 100% responsibility’ aspect of the technique, because up to now, most people have only been taught about ‘the blame game’ and they equate the two, because we have been taught that if something goes wrong someone is to blame and then we sue them!!

So the first thing I would say to you is this, if all of this is too confusing, simply ‘fake it til you make it’ – which is to say do the technique as outlined in part 2, and pretend that you are responsible for everything out there, such as the rioters or looters, or whatever it is that you want to ‘clean’. And what you will find is gradually, you will readjust to this new way of thinking. Now for those who want a head explanation, here are some words, and the important thing is your heart ‘gets it’! Happy reading…

Nothing could be further from the intention of ho’oponopono, than blame – the purpose is to empower you. And what would be the most powerful you could be? How about that you are responsible for the whole universe? Wow! You are powerful then aren’t you? Because let’s face it when you watch TV news and get upset about famine in Africa, or get angry about riots in London or war in the Middle East, then you have already started to take responsibility by getting emotionally involved haven’t you?

So let’s be really simple about this – if something is bugging you right now, then you are responsible for your feelings aren’t you? After all, who else can be responsible for your feelings but you?

But in general we are not taught this. I once heard a radio interview with a thug who said ‘he looked at me funny so I had to hit him’!!

This guy has given his power away to everyone who merely looks at him! How disempowering is that?

So where are you giving away your power right now? What emotional ‘buttons’ or triggers do you have? And when did you install them?

For most people, that would be their parents or guardians, learned behaviours from early home or school. When you  have an emotion or feeling, who does it belong to really?

Perhaps you have been ‘borrowing’ that anger or anxiety from someone like your father or mother? Close your eyes and imagine the young you saying to the person, ‘thank you for the loan of your …anger…(or whatever), I no longer need that, I give you it back thank you’, and go ahead and imagine giving them a basket with that emotion in it, and notice how you feel different inside, maybe a feeling of relief or something else.

I know this is a simple technique, but go on try it right now, before moving on, go on, it can only work.

We are not taught about empowerment in schools, in fact there are those who think that schools are actually designed to disempower you and make you conform to someone else’s opinions and agenda.

And also the media, who have their own agenda, firstly to make money for themselves, and then to make money for their advertisers so they can all stay in business. So when you see something on TV just ask yourself some questions:

–          How do I know this is true?

–          Who is benefiting from this

–          What is the most empowering response to this image for me’ – you may be surprised by the answer you give yourself!

The Hawaiians have already thought about empowerment. In fact they have spent centuries working out what is the best way to empower yourself.

The Hawaiians recognised the importance of what we would now call mental health and psychology and emotional intelligence, and created a way of being they code-named A.L.O.H.A. which contains all kind of wisdom and techniques, and as you can tell by the way I’ve written it, aloha is an acronym, with secret meanings known to only a few wise men, who wrote nothing down, but passed on everything orally, from teacher to student, and if you stick with us here, you will learn it too, as I was privileged to do so in Hawaii.

Ancient Hawaiian Ho’omana is more well known name for this, and is all about empowerment, in fact we already have met ho’o, meaning to make, and mana means ‘life force energy’. So ho’omana is literally to make life force energy. Wouldn’t you like some more life force energy to de-stress you and make your body and mind feel more energised and more alive?

This has also been called Huna, which means secret, but not as in psst let me tell you a secret, more like a secret hidden in plain view that not everyone notices or understands until they have reached a level of learning and experience that can make sense of these new concepts at a heart level. It has been said that magic is just a level of technology that nobody understands.

Imagine being transported back 60 years and trying to explain mobile phones, computers or even the internet to the people back then, most of whom didn’t even have a TV or a telephone? These would seem like magic to the people back then.

And it is the same for us now, we who have always been brought up with a Western mindset (begun by the ancient Romans and Greeks), focusing on logic and science, rather than feelings and connections to our own innate natural energies that these techniques help you to notice. There is a whole host of amazing ancient Hawaiian wisdom ‘technology’ that can be easily learned and this will be covered in a lot more detail in Part 5 of this series for you to look out for – How are Ho’oponpono and Huna linked and what else is there for me to learn?

As my great friend and teacher Dave Udy puts it : “ What other people do is just what other people do. What you do with that, you own”.

Or to put another way, other people are just doing the best they can with the inner resources they have available, some people have energy and are bright and clever and get over things quickly. Other folks are tired, stressed, not thinking straight, and they get stuck focusing on things in the past or worrying about what might come. And we have all been there from time to time.

So perhaps it can be more empowering to not get so involved in other people’s stuff? If some idiot cuts you up while you are driving, who does it serve to get angry once the moment is past? They probably do not even know you exist as you silently fume about it, and then you want to probably vent and let off steam with all your friends, and you have just upset the harmony and balance of your friends too by passing on your anger.

Would it not be more empowering for you to merely think, ‘oh, there is someone who needs to take more care’ and let the whole thing slide over you? Then if you take responsibility for having your car where the other driver wanted to be, and ‘clean’ on the whole situation, the other driver and you, you will likely find that you will have fewer and fewer such incidents.

Because there are always at least three sides to every story, your version, the other guys version, and what actually happened

So if you do not take responsibility for the rest of the world, you have to wait for the rest of the world to take action, and frankly you may have a long wait.

If you are feeling undervalued at work, you can stomp and moan about it, or you can develop a self-marketing strategy to get yourself noticed by those who make the decisions to give you a raise or a promotion. Or you can test the market by applying for other jobs where you will be more valued.

And first of all, you can clean on it using ho’oponopono. Because when you clean, what changes, is you! Maybe your perception changes, or you release some block at an unconscious level that you didn’t even know you had.

Let me give a personal example. When I lived in Edinburgh, Scotland I had not  learned any of these things I am sharing with you now. In fact, I had been brought up in a conflict oriented world, and this inner anger was going on inside of me, and I had a belief that the world was full of conflict.

In fact my main hobby at the time was military history and I would watch every war film and documentary and news item on TV, which reinforced my beliefs. When I went out to the local pubs, there seemed to be a fight every night!

Fortunately a wisdom teacher told me ‘no Gary, the conflict is all inside of you, not outside’. I was stunned, how could this be? And naturally I didn’t believe them. But after working on myself, the pubs and places I went to were perfectly normal and peaceful, if a little rough, but there were no fights!

What changed? Did the pubs and people in them change, or was it me? Perhaps somehow, my inner conflict energy was affecting the people in the places I went to and I was actually causing the fights! Imagine if that were true? And what if it were true for you too? What could you do if you could change your life like that? How would you like your life to be? That is the huge thing about the Ho’oponopono and Huna wisdom teachings that I share, they are totally amazing, and your life can be too if you choose to learn them with me.

So the point is we change others by changing ourselves, as per Dr Len’s story, that he helped heal inmates at a mental asylum for the criminally insane by working on: HIMSELF!! Which leads us neatly on to the origins of Ho’oponopono…

Next: Part 4 – Deeper secrets of the origins of Hawaiian Ho’oponopono

Malama pono. In love and humbleness, All truths are my teachers, all mis-takes are my own.

Mahalo nui loa

Thank you for reading

Aloha Gary

For more on the amazingly powerful healing and wisdom teachings of Ancient Hawaii – visit Aloha Gary’s blog at http://www.alohagary.wordpress.com

And please like/join the ho’oponopono facebook page http://www.facebook.com/ukhuna

© Gary Plunkett 2012 – all rights reserved

Article may be reproduced in FULL, ONLY if it includes the above weblinks, otherwise please contact author at gary@garyplunkett.com to make appropriate arrangements

Aloha Gary’s guide to Hawaiian Ho’oponopono Healing and much more…Part 2 How to get the most out of ‘4 statements Ho’oponopono’

Aloha Gary’s guide to Hawaiian Ho’oponopono Healing and much more…Part 2

How to get the most out of ‘4 statements Ho’oponopono’

Or put another way… how to make “4 statements ho’oponopono” work well, which is simplicity itself!

I’ve called it “4 statement ho’oponopono” because there is so much more to the full ceremony of “Hawaiian ho’oponopono”, which will be more fully explained in Part 3. I will focus just on this narrow aspect of the 4 statements and how to use them.

I will cover how / why this works later but for now let us focus on what you have to do to make it work for you…

1) Decide what you want to be different, so let’s say we want London rioting to stop and peace to return

2) Focus on the part of you inside that is the rioters outside. It is important that you are focusing INSIDE yourself. You can only change yourself; therefore ask your inner creativity to focus attention on what it is inside of you that is the rioters outside.

NB Do not translate this into something else such as ‘the part of me that is angry’ stick to the original words – rioter and/or looter – remember the importance of words from Part 1?

3) Once you have connected to the part of you inside that is that which you want to change, then repeat the 4 statements….

Personally I find it helps to speak them out loud, because all of your body is then involved – your mouth moves, and you draw breath through the lungs, which for me makes it more powerful, although I know Hew Len says it doesn’t matter.

Repeat these statements in any order…

I’m sorry

Please forgive me

I love you

Thank you

Remember the person you are saying sorry to is…yourself…the you that is the rioter (not your own inner rioter)

The person you are forgiving is…yourself

The person you are loving is…yourself

The person you are thanking is…yourself

Repeat for as long as feels necessary…I usually do so for about 5-10 minutes. For extra techniques to enhance this look out for Part 5, although they are not necessary. All you need is the 4 statements.

Often people report that at some point something changes in the feelings ‘inside’, although this is not always the case. If you are working on a personal issue then it can help to rate it before and after, which allows you to know that something has changed within.

Do NOT add in any extra statements to the 4 originals.

I recently saw a blog which added in “I forgive you”.

This is plain wrong and cannot work. I forgive the writer  for wasting their own time and those of their readers.

This implies that the person outside of you is part of the problem.

The whole point of the process is that YOU and only YOU are 100% responsible for your world, and that you are the creator in your world. The more you tune in and believe that, the more these techniques will work for you.

Some ask “and what about other people, don’t they affect my world too?” Well you can choose to believe that, but the more you pay attention to that, the more you back out and give yourself excuses for not being responsible for your world.

For example, if you get run over by a bus, you choose to be there at that time.

Do wars and famines around the world or world poverty bother you? Well you chose to live in the world right now.

If you give your attention to these and they ‘bug’ you, then you need to take responsibility and ‘clean’ up your inner self that is creating these things in your world.

The principle we are enacting is that our world is created by our memories, and that by ‘cleaning’ on these (that is, using the process above), we are able to let go of these memories and be in the present moment and in a place of choice, rather than being dictated to by our memories, beliefs etc (More of this in Part 4 – Self Identity through Ho’oponopono™).

Clearing the memories takes you to a place of zero memories – this is why the book these 4 statements come from is called “Zero Limits” by Dr Ihaleakala Hew Len and Joe Vitale.

If you have not yet bought this book then please do so immediately and read it cover to cover, if only to ‘give back’ in gratitude to those who have given this to you. In practice you will learn a huge amount more. A good friend has read it 18 times and says it is the most inspirational book she has ever come across!

(Extra tip: If you ‘take’ and use ideas and techniques from others, without ‘giving’ in return then you block your energy flow, and make abundance harder to come by for yourself.)

So the point is we change others by changing ourselves, as per Dr Len’s story, that he helped heal inmates at a mental asylum for the criminally insane by working on: HIMSELF!! Which leads us neatly on to the origins of Ho’oponopono…

Coming to you in Next week’s Blog: Part 3 – How to take 100% responsibility using Ho’oponopono

Malama pono. In love and humbleness, All truths are my teachers, all mis-takes are my own.

Mahalo nui loa

Thank you for reading

Aloha Gary

For more on the amazingly powerful healing and wisdom teachings of Ancient Hawaii – visit Aloha Gary’s blog at http://www.alohagary.wordpress.com

And please like/join the ho’oponopono facebook page http://www.facebook.com/ukhuna

© Gary Plunkett 2012 – all rights reserved

Article may be reproduced in FULL, and ONLY if it includes the above weblinks, otherwise please contact author at gary@garyplunkett.com to make appropriate arrangements

Aloha Gary’s guide to Hawaiian Ho’oponopono Healing – Part 1 The real meaning of “ho’oponopono”

Aloha Gary’s guide to Hawaiian Ho’oponopono Healing – Part 1

The real meaning of “ho’oponopono”

I see a lot of people lately wanting to use the amazingly powerful and brilliant 4 statements of ho’oponopono:
I’m sorry
Please forgive me
I love you
Thank you

And yet, I’m also noticing a lot of folks who don’t seem to know where this comes from or what it means, and understandably, are changing this 12 letter Hawaiian word ‘ho’oponopono’ to something that is  at best inaccurate and worst has the opposite meaning of what is desired, and this is very important because as the Hawaiian proverb states: in the word is life, in the word is death, in the word is power!

And you know from using the words in our 4 statements that they have very positive and beneficial effects, so we would not want to mistakenly use words to create more problems now would we?

For example, “ho’opo” could be interpreted to mean: ‘to make hell’!! Is that what they intend? Probably not!
Most likely, they mean ‘to forgive’, for which Hawaiians would probably use the word ‘kala’, which has a meaning of dis-entangling or freeing-up.

So where does ho’oponopono come from? Well it’s a Hawaiian word made up of 3 parts so let’s break it down:
Ho’o – means to cause or make
Pono – has many meanings but in this context means right,
Pono – ditto

So putting this together Ho’oponopono means ‘to make right right’ or to make doubly right, or very right, because doubling a word increases its intensity.

So why the vagueness of translation? Well, written Hawaiian has the same 5 vowels as in English, but pronounced short, as in Spanish; but only 8 consonants – h, k, l, m, n, p, w, ‘. The ‘ is called an okina in Hawaiian and pronounced as a glottal stop, a bit like the slang ‘init’ only the last t isn’t pronounced.

With so few letters, there are far fewer letter combinations so most words have multiple meanings, and pono has at least 6 in the Pukui-Elbert Hawaiian-English dictionary!!

Which means that the meanings of words can change depending on the context, which makes Hawaiian a little tricky to translate or understand, somtimes even for native speakers!

But just ho’opono on its own is not sufficient

Ho’opono – righteous, correct, upright, respectable.

For example, one of my teachers, the late Hula master, John Ka’imikaua, wrote a poem on the 20 minute flight from Honolulu, and apologised for it only having THREE meanings! As a revered expert he felt he was meant to do better!

So what words should we use and how should we shorten them?

Well to be honest there probably isn’t a good way round this. As we’ve seen, shortening changes the meaning, sometimes to the opposite of what we want, so the best bet is to just get used to typing out the whole word, or using shorter English ones.

Happy making things right-right in your world!!

Next: How to get the most out of using the 4 statements method of Ho’oponopono

Malama pono. In love and humbleness, All truths are my teachers, all mis-takes are my own.

Mahalo nui loa
Thank you for reading
Aloha Gary

For more on the amazingly powerful healing and wisdom teachings of Ancient Hawaii – visit this blog of http://www.alohagary.wordpress.com regularly or even subscribe/RSS or visit http://www.facebook.com/alohagary1
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