THE ANCIENT HAWAIIAN TEACHING OF HOOPONOPONO: THE MARRIAGE

                                             Ihaleakala Hew Len, PH.D.

John views the text of his work on the computer monitor as he types. A message box pops up telling him there is a spelling error. He deletes the error and makes the correction. No one expects him to yell at or to blame the computer monitor for the error.

Peter has been reluctant to go to school for several days. This is unlike him. He is always up and dressed for school on his own. "The bus will be here in a few minutes, his mother reminds him. "You need to get ready." She has talked to him but still does not know what is going on. She will speak with his teacher. Her reactions are typical of parents in her situation. No one would expect her to look inside of herself for the source of the problem and its solution.

Bill, who is forty, has a severe chronic lower back pain. He is a volunteer client in a training program for therapists. "How long have you had the back pain?" a therapist asks. "How did it begin?" another one inquires. "Have you been experiencing stress lately?" another question follows. Then out of the blue springs an unexpected question. "What is going on inside of me that shows as Bills back problem?" "Whos the wise guy?" the instructor asks suspiciously.

Total responsibility, like money growing on trees, never happens. It occurs nowhere on the face of the earth, not in relationships, not in family units, not in work places, not in business enterprises, not in local, state and national governments, not in religious communities and certainly not in therapeutic settings. It just does not exist. Unfortunately, problems, disease and even death are the result.

There is a way, though, out of problems and disease for any individual willing to be 100 % responsible for creating his life the way it is moment to moment. In the ancient Hawaiian healing process of Ho'oponopono, the individual petitions Love to rectify errors within him. "I am sorry. Please forgive me for whatever is going on inside of me that manifests as the problem." Loves responsibility then is to transmute the errors within him that manifest as the problem. Love does this by erasing and correcting, as in Johns example errors in the computer bank of the mind.

If Petes mother petitions, Love will erase the errors in her mind that manifest as problems of her son. In their work, therapists can ask Love to cancel errors in their mind that show as problems in their clients. In the marriage of total responsibility and Love, problems are resolved, health restored, and life renewed. This is lyrically evoked in Shakespeares Sonnet CXLVI.
"Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross: 
 Within be fed, without be rich no more:
 So shall thou feed on Death,
 that feed on men, and Death once dead,
 theres no more dying then."

Learn true love and forgiveness through the ancient Hawaiian training of Hooponopono.