The Ho’oponopono Technique has two main modalities:
- The Traditional Ho’oponopono Practice
- The Individual or Self Help Approach
We are going to discuss what is Ho’oponopono and How is the Practice of this Technique in its both modalities.
The Traditional Ho’oponopono Practice
Ho’oponopono according to Hawaiian Dictionary means “Mental cleansing: family conferences in which relationships were set right through prayer, discussion, confession, repentance, and mutual restitution and forgiveness”. And also can mean “straighten the crooked”, “make something wrong right”, “amend, arrange, rectify, make orderly, etc.”
Originally the Ho’oponopono technique was a group practice where families had special meetings to “amend the broken family relations”. The reunions could be weekly or even daily in order to keep the relationships the cleaner possible, but why? (besides the good coexistence), well, because the Hawaiian Elders believe that illnesses can be caused by negative emotions like anger, guilt, and especially lack of forgiveness.
So the objective in this Traditional Practices is: Restore and maintains good relationships among the family members, and also with the divinity by finding the source of the problems and make the appropriate amends.
Usually, the elder member of the family leads the reunion and is responsible to gather the family together. The reunion begins with prayer and the recognition of the problems. Various periods of silence may be required in order to detangle the emotions and make reflections. Then four principles are applied:
- Repentance: To genuinely repent as if the one who did those things in the past no longer exists and would never repeat something like that.
- Reparation: Please Forgive me and give me the opportunities to make the appropriate reparations to you if I can. This includes “I’ll heal you, I’ll make it up to you if it is possible”.
- Balance: Being the victim is no better than being the victimizer, we must free ourselves from resentment and for this, we ask divinity to bring us to balance. If we feel that something was missing we let God take care of it and we consider the bills as paid.
- Gratefulness: This implies to de happy with the result, and that also implies love. This principle of appreciation involves joyful acceptance and being happy.
Everyone gains freedom and disconnect the ties from the past, then they have a ceremonial feast called Pani.
Here is an example of Huna Prayer that has the four principles implied:
Huna Prayer by Max Freedom Long
If I have hurt someone today
With thought or word or deed,
Or failed another in his need,
I now repent.
If I can take those steps again,
Tomorrow will I make amends
And heal with love those hurts.
I do this pledge.
And if a hurt has struck me deep
And no amends are made,
I ask the light to balance all.
I count the debt as paid.
Parental Spirits whom I love,
And who I know love me,
Reach through the door I open wide.
Make clear my path to Thee.
Ho’oponopono Technique – The individual Approach
This style of practicing Ho’oponopono was mainly extended by Morrnah Simeona (1913-1922) and that is nowadays recognized as the first Kahuna (Huna Secret Keeper or Healer) to conceive a modern version of the venerable Ho’oponopono practice. And also she was very important to bring Ho’oponopono throughout all the United States and to other continents like Europe and Asia.
In the 1970s she was divinely inspired to begin making some modifications to the traditional practice of Ho’oponopono so that it could be more practical in the modern world.
This resulted in a simple but powerful system that used sentences and phrases to create harmony between the three parts of the self as if they were the family that comes together to heal. These three parts are the Unihipili or subconscious, Uhane or conscious mind, and the Aumakua or superconscious. Click here to know more about these three parts in ourselves.
After this one of his most recognized and respected students in Hawaii, the therapist and Doctor Ihaleakala Hew Len began to take Ho’oponopono one step further by making it even more accessible while maintaining the powerful principles of his original practice.
As proof of the efficacy of this process, he was able to cure a hospital full of criminal patients with mental illness. In fact, in 2005 Dr. Joe Vitale wrote an article about this story and it began to become well known throughout the world.
In his style of the Ho’oponopono Technique, Dr. Ihaleakala did not see any patients personally but worked on himself so that patients would begin to heal. When asked what he did in himself so that people could experience these healing changes he replied:
I was simply Healing the Part of me that created them” – Dr Ihaleakala Hew Len
This is based on the principle of total responsibility, which means that you also have the power to do something about it, because if your whole world around is your creation then you can make the necessary corrections to heal it. According to this way of perception, all those people that we don’t like, all those situations that have hurt us, all those places that we dislike … are considered as projections of what we have inside and to change them we must change ourselves. If you want to heal anything, you start to see it as part of you and you do it by healing yourself, loving yourself.
“Whenever you want to improve anything in your life, there is only one place to look: inside you… when you look, do it with love” – Dr Joe Vitale
The great gift of all the work that Dr. Ihaleaka did is that we now have the opportunity to practice Ho’oponopono by ourselves. We do not need someone to be by our side or assist with a therapist to get started.
The principles of Ho’oponopono have been captured in these 4 phrases that you can repeat as a mantra for as long as necessary:
I love you
I’m sorry
Please Forgive me
Thank you
Let’s dive in each one of them:
I love you: Although some start with “I’m Sorry”, Dr. Ihaleakala in his official certification course comments that the first thing that starts to move things greatly is love, so he begins by saying I love you. When you say this phrase you are not addressing anyone in particular, but rather to the memories, to the information, the programs that created all this that you are experiencing and that you wish to heal.
I’m sorry: This phrase implies that you take responsibility for everything created and that you ask forgiveness for not having been aware of how things have been created. Even then, you don’t need to understand how, but you do need to express regret.
Please Forgive me: We ask for forgiveness in order to be clear, we are asking that the divinity take charge, that it can bring balance to this situation.
Thank You: Here it is implicit that we accept the balance and the healing that the divinity grants us. We cannot heal or erase or change anything really, we surrender everything to infinite zero, divinity, and then the transmutation occurs and we say thank you!
These phrases can begin to work the first time you speak them. However, like a recipe you can do the following:
- Use your name before the phrases
- Repeat the phrases 108 times
- If you can lie on your right side and with your right hand caress your left side and repeat the phrases. Your right side represents your conscious mind and the left one the subconscious or inner child. You can express affection to yourself by doing this for your subconscious to accept.
Thanks for reading, I hope this information has been very useful for you.
I love you, I’m sorry, please forgive me, thank you.
Stela Ahau
PS. Join Dr. Joe Vitale and Dr. Hew Len in this best-selling Ho’oponopono Certification at 90% off discount only available here: Certification Program
If you’re looking for an advanced certification program look here (exclusive 90% discount): Advanced Program
