Ho¹oponopono Part 1

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Part 1 of 4

By: Robert Elias Najemy

Possible Reflections of Our Inner World in Others and the World at Large

Note: As this subject needs a deeper explanation the article is broken down into four parts. The first deals with the nature of interconnectedness and the technique of Ho¹oponopono. The second explains how we create reality through interpretation and projection. The third deals with how our mutually created realities are formed. The fourth analyzes the details of our inner content and how we contribute to the world situation.

The ancient Hawaiian healing technique called Ho¹oponopono asks us to take 100% responsibility for whatever appears in our reality - for whatever we perceive or comes to our attention. In this process we cleanse ourselves and thus, our personal input into the matrix of our mutually interactive reality. This then affects our life, our relationships and the world we live in. It is simultaneously a method for solving problems, for healing persons and situations and for spiritual development and enlightenment.

The process is simple:

1. We realize or remember that whatever we are observing or is affecting us in any way is there because it is reflecting something within ourselves mainly our personal memories, beliefs, emotions and programming.

We are attracting ³that² because it is time to clean a certain part of ourselves that is contributing to that reality in some way. The specific reality might be persons or situations that seem to be not-well not harmonious. Or it could be something that bothers us personally ­ such as someone¹s behavior or a world situation.

2. Now we ask that person, situation or attribute for forgiveness for our participation in the specific reality that has come into our awareness.

It is highly unlikely that we will understand what our ³contribution² to this is. It could be from our deep subconscious or even deeper dimensions of ourselves that we are not aware of. The ³cause within us² may be a simple as the fact that we are unable to perceive the divine in ourselves, in others and in what is happening and thus are allowing whatever it is to annoy us.

3. We then express our love to ³that² which was bothering us or seems to be ³not well or harmonious². When doing so, we seek to feel acceptance, love, unity, and well wishes for that person, event or situation.

4. Then we say ³thank you² expressing our gratitude - which has two aspects. We thank the person, event or situation for offering us the opportunity to clean whatever is within us that is attracting this reality. Secondly we thank the Divine for dissolving these unenlightened memories, tendencies, fears and beliefs into the light of pure divine consciousness, which is our true self.

We are then able to return to the state of purity without ideas, memories, beliefs, emotions and prejudices or judgment on what is happening. We simply do not know. We become like pure loving children more aligned with our innate divinity.

100% Responsibility???

This concept of responsibility is quite difficult for most of us to digest. Can we take responsibility for other people¹s irresponsible or unethical actions? How can we be responsible for those who are abusing women and children or killing innocent persons in Iraq or Africa or wherever else? Can we take responsibility for terrorist acts around the world? Such reactions naturally come to mind when we are asked to believe and employ this revolutionary system.

How can we be responsible for what ³we² have not done and for what we would ³probably² (we never know until we find ourselves in the same circumstances) would never do? How can we be responsible for what others are doing on the other side of the world and or for perpetuated by leaders that we never voted for, do not agree with and even condemn?

Also how do we reconcile this truth with another equally obvious and valid truth that each of us in the exclusive creator of his or her reality and that others do not create our reality and we do not create theirs. These truths seem to be irreconcilable.

In order to get even a smallest hint of what might be the answer to this question we need to dig deeply into the nature of reality. I do not claim to understand this with my conscious mind but I will try to play with some ideas that might help us both to understand.

Why am I interested to do so? Because, I find Ho¹oponopono to be a really superb technique; leading ultimately to purity, love and freedom from negativity, and thus to happiness and unity.

Let us play with ideas and see what will happen.

Our Collective Unconscious

We have many common emotions, beliefs and modes of functioning as hypothesized by Carl Jung in his theory of the Collective Unconscious. We share many programming, fears, emotions and desires. It may just be that we are all affected by each other¹s subconscious. Many experiments today are showing that we can be affected by what others are feeling, even though consciously we are not aware of what is happening. This is especially true of people with who are closely emotionally bound.

Psychologists are also aware of the ³connected container effect², which speculates that people are like two containers with water connected by a pipe at their base. When we suppress the water in one container, it will rise in the other. It is well know that in a martial or family situation, one person¹s suppressed emotions are communicated and often expressed by other members. Whatever we do to our own ³water system² will affect the others who are connected to us in this way. We are affecting others by our invisible emotional connections to them.

Social Paradigms

We are also affected by and participate in the common social paradigms in which we are born and raised. When we accept and limit our perceptions to these paradigms, we are augmenting them for everyone else. Thus we are supporting others¹ belief systems by allowing ourselves to be limited by those belief systems. If we believe we that those who are different from us (race, religion, social class) are a danger to us, then we are co creating that reality. If we believe there is not enough for all of us, we are co creating that reality. If we believe that life is difficult and people are not to be trusted, we are co-creating those realities those with whom we interact.

Our Common Morphogenetic Field

Biologist Rupert Sheldrake¹s theory of the morphogenetic field adds a biological dimension to this. He believes that our bodies and minds get their information from a common pool of knowledge and tendencies that exist in a field commonly accessible to us all. When any one of us makes a change in lifestyle, emotions, ways of thinking, those affect to some small degree the consistency of our commonly shared field and that makes this new way of thinking or reacting more available and more possible to all others sharing that field. This works for all emotions, beliefs and behaviors, negative and positive. Remaining in our old unenlightened beliefs and behaviors affects all others through this shared field. We are co-responsible for what is happening. Our positive changes enable others to do the same.

Our Personal Causal Body

Philosophical systems teach that we each have a personal ³causal body² where all of our soul memories and tendencies, qualities and abilities are stored along with all of our fears and other emotions. All of our positive and negative tendencies are stored there. Upon birth these dictate the type of physical body we will have as well as the conditions of our birth and our emotional and mental tendencies. These affect, but do not exclusively determine, most major events of our lives. We are attracting realities that to a great degree are formed by the content of our causal body. This does not, however, create an ironclad fate, because in each moment we are adding and removing qualities from that causal field when we change the way we perceive, think, act and react.

When we perform Ho¹oponopono and other perception-and-reaction-altering methods, we are changing the content of our conscious and subconscious minds as well as our causal body. We are requesting and allowing for all tendencies in our causal bodies, which might be contributing to what we are perceived and being affected by, to be removed and dissolved once again into pure consciousness ­ which is what they ultimately are.

Universal Consciousness

All thoughts, emotions, memories, actions and reactions as well as all physical objects and beings and the interactions between them are simply manifestations of one universal consciousness. This is similar to the fact that all images on the movie or TV screen are temporary manifestations of one white light that only temporarily takes these forms ­ including the good, bad, loving, hateful, mineral, plant, animal, humans and all interactions between them.

The white light of the TV, when nothing is playing, is the like the zero point from which all appears and re-dissolves. We are asking the Divine to dissolve all tendencies that might be contributing to what we are witnessing, back into their real nature, which is white undifferentiated light.

Our Common Causal Body

Similar to the morphogenetic field, we all share a common universal causal body. There is a causal body for each species of animals and plant and one for all men and one for all women and one for all humans and one for the planet itself.

This common causal body includes all of our shared tendencies that affect humanity and the planet as a whole. Thus when we get free from anger, fear or guilt, we make those tendencies less available in the shared causal body. Love, understanding, responsibility and peace then become more available.

Ho¹oponopono and all forms of energy psychology such as EFT, TAT, TFT, BSFF, EMDR, The Sedona Method, Freeze frame, meditation, prayer and wide variety of other methods allow us to perceive and react differently. Then old memories and programming dissolve ­ not only from us but also from our interactive relationships and from humanity as a whole.

Beyond Time and Space

Quantum physics explains to us that time and space, as we perceive them, is not real but a matter of perception. We are forced to abandon these concepts when we seek to explain the fact that in laboratories in the USA one particle can appear in more than one place at the same moment. In one experiment a particle appeared in 3000 places simultaneously. We need to let go of the concepts of space and time when we need to explain why, if we alter the state of one particle, that another particle with which it seems to have a ³relationship² is affected simultaneously thousands of miles away.

David Bohm, one of Einstein¹s students believes that all matter ­ including our bodies and all that we know ­are actually, at some level, one united field ­ what he calls the ³implicate order² or ³zero state field². In this field, there all is no time or space. All is one and all is potential. All objects large and small exist in this state together until they manifest in the ³explicate order² that we experience in time, space and separation.

All of the above concepts support the truth of Ho¹oponopono that there is no you and me. All is one energy - one consciousness. We all constitute one united field of energy and consciousness that appears as separate beings and objects.

When we perform Ho¹oponopono and other techniques in order to purify our vibratory input to that system, we change the whole system.

Spiritual Teachings

All religions teach the concept of divine justice. Everyone is getting exactly what they justly deserve based on what they have done in the past until now. In Christianity this is expressed in Christ¹s words, ³As you sow, so shall you reap,² ³As you judge, so will you be judged.² Also when Christ healed the paralyzed man, he said to him, ³get up and walk - your sins have been forgiven², indicating that he was paralyzed because of some past mistakes.

According to these spiritual teachings and the law of karma taught by eastern religions, no one could possibly do us harm if the universal laws of perfect justice did not allow them to. Thus if the universe is allowing someone to behave in negative ways, our only conclusion can be that even thought this feels totally unjust and wrong, it is being allowed and thus, there must be some hidden justice and thus there must be some ³cause² within me which is attracting or allowing this.

The actual meaning of Ho¹oponopono is to correct or make right again. We simply assume that we, in this or perhaps (if you believe so) in some past life have done something that is contributing to what is occurring. Another possibility is that it is happening because we need to learn something. In which case we can express our gratitude and love to the other for giving us this opportunity to learn and grow through this experience.

So if we believe that we are indeed connected through a collective unconscious, a morphogenetic field, a united causal body or a quantum zero point field or one united universal consciousness, it is obvious that we affect each other with every thought, word and action.

The next question is how do we affect each other and how is our personal and common reality created?

Ho¹oponopono