About Ho'oponopono

The Ho'oponopono Story

Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, tells us, “Hoʻoponopono (Hawaiian pronunciation: [ho.ʔo.po.no.po.no]) is a traditional Hawaiian practice of reconciliation and forgiveness. The Hawaiian word translates into English simply as correction, with the synonyms manage or supervise. Similar forgiveness practices are performed on islands throughout the South Pacific, including Hawaii, Samoa, Tahiti and New Zealand.Traditional Hoʻoponopono is practiced by Indigenous Hawaiian healers, often within the extended family by a family member.”

“Hoʻoponopono” is defined in the Hawaiian Dictionary as:
(a) “To put to rights; to put in order or shape, correct, revise, adjust, amend, regulate, arrange, rectify, tidy up make orderly or neat, administer, superintend, supervise, manage, edit, work carefully or neatly; to make ready, as canoemen preparing to catch a wave.”
(b) “Mental cleansing: family conferences in which relationships were set right (hoʻoponopono) through prayer, discussion, confession, repentance, and mutual restitution and forgiveness.”

Literally, hoʻo is a particle used to make an actualizing verb from the following noun. Here, it creates a verb from the noun pono, which is defined as: “…goodness, uprightness, morality, moral qualities, correct or proper procedure, excellence, well-being, prosperity, welfare, benefit, true condition or nature, duty; moral, fitting, proper, righteous, right, upright, just, virtuous, fair, beneficial, successful, in perfect order, accurate, correct, eased, relieved; should, ought, must, necessary.”

Ponopono is defined, then, as “to put to rights; to put in order or shape, correct, revise, adjust, amend, regulate, arrange, rectify, tidy up, make orderly or neat.” So hoʻoponopono can be translated literally as “to make right” or “to make good”.

In many Polynesian cultures, it is believed that a person’s errors (called hara or hala) caused illness. Some believe error angers the gods, others that it attracts malevolent gods, and still others believe the guilt caused by error made one sick. In most cases, however, specific ‘untie-error’ rites could be performed to atone for such errors and thereby diminish one’s accumulation of them.

Among the islands of Vanuatu in the South Pacific, people believe that illness usually is caused by sexual misconduct or anger. “If you are angry for two or three days, sickness will come,” said one local man.

The therapy that counters this sickness is confession. The patient, or a family member, may confess. If no one confesses an error, the patient may die. The Vanuatu people believe that secrecy is what gives power to the illness. When the error is confessed, it no longer has power over the person.

Like many other islanders, including Hawaiians, people of Tikopia in the Solomon Islands, and on Rarotonga in the Cook Islands, believe that the sins of the father will fall upon the children. If a child is sick, the parents are suspected of quarreling or misconduct. In addition to sickness, social disorder could cause sterility of land or other disasters. Harmony could be restored only by confession and apology.

In Pukapuka, it was customary to hold sort of a confessional over patients to determine an appropriate course of action in order to heal them. Similar traditions are found in Samoa, Tahiti, and among the Maori of New Zealand.

Ho’oponopono In A Modern Age

In 1976 Morrnah Simeona, regarded as a healing priest or kahuna lapaʻau, adapted the traditional hoʻoponopono of family mutual forgiveness to the social realities of the modern day. For this she extended it both to a general problem solving process outside the family and to a psycho-spiritual self-help rather than group process.

Simeona’s vision of ho’oponopono is influenced by her Christian (Protestant and Catholic) education and her philosophical studies about India, China and Edgar Cayce. Like Hawaiian tradition she emphasizes prayer, confession, repentance, and mutual restitution and forgiveness. Unlike Hawaiian tradition, she describes problems only as the effects of negative karma, saying that “you have to experience by yourself what you have done to others.” But that you are the creator of your life circumstances was common knowledge for the people of old as “things we had brought with us from other lifetimes.” Any wrongdoing is memorized within oneself and mirrored in every entity and object which was present when the cause happened. As the Law of Cause and Effect predominates in all of life and lifetimes, the purpose of her version is mainly “to release unhappy, negative experiences in past reincarnations, and to resolve and remove traumas from the ‘memory banks’.”[31] Karmic bondages hinder the evolution of mind, so that “(karmic) cleansing is a requisite for the expansion of awareness”.[32] Using her 14-step-process would dissolve those bondages.[33] She did not use mantras or conditioning exercises.

Her ho’oponopono teachings include: there is a Divine Creator who takes care of altruistic pleas of Men; “when the phrase ‘And it is done’ is used after a prayer, it means Man’s work ends and God’s begins.” “Self-Identity” signifies, e.g. during the hoʻoponopono, that the three selves or aspects of consciousness are balanced and connected with the Divine Creator. Different from egoistic prayers, “altruistic prayers like hoʻoponopono, where you also pray for the release of other entities and objects, reach the Divine plane or Cosmos because of their high vibrations. From that plane the Divine energy or “mana” would come,” which would transform the painful part of the memory of the wrong actions in all participants to “Pure Light”, on whatever plane they are existing; “all are set free”. Through this transmutation in the mind the problems will lose their energy for physical effects, and healing or balancing is begun. In this sense, Simeona’s mana is not the same as the traditional Polynesian understanding of mana.

Pacifica Seminars, founded by Morrnah Simeona, started the first Ho’oponopono seminars in Germany. Seminars are still held on a regular basis in Germany, Poland, France, and Denmark.

After Simeona’s death in 1992, her former student and administrator, Ihaleakala Hew Len, co-authored a book with Joe Vitale called Zero Limits[41] referring to Simeona’s Hoʻoponopono teachings. Len makes no claim to be a kahuna. In contrast to Simeona’s teachings, the book brings the new idea that the main objective of Hoʻoponopono is getting to the “zero state — it’s where we have zero limits. No memories. No identity. ” To reach this state, which Len called ‘Self-I-Dentity thru Ho’oponopono’, includes using the mantra, “I love you. I’m sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you.” It is based on Len’s idea of 100% responsibility, taking responsibility for everyone’s actions, not only for one’s own. If one would take complete responsibility for one’s life, then everything one sees, hears, tastes, touches, or in any way experiences would be one’s responsibility because it is in one’s life. The problem would not be with our external reality, it would be with ourselves. Total Responsibility, according to Hew Len, advocates that everything exists as a projection from inside the human being.

Other Links About Ho’oponopono

Joe Vitale, Author (Zero Limits).
Zero Limits: The Secret Hawaiian System for Wealth, Health, Peace, and More (Ho’oponopono).

Get Started

Book a session with me today and let me help you solve that lingering problem within your life. Learn how you can apply Ho’oponopono in your day to day activities throughout your life.

Ho'oponopono Emotional Freedom Technique EFT Tapping Al Rodee