Ho'oponopono: "The Light is Always On"

A new year is always a chance to start anew, releasing what no longer fits.

Some of this could be grudges and hurts held for years. You know the ones: she said this to me; he didn't do that; I got passed over for a promotion; my spouse left me . . . and on and on.

Sometimes we simply aren't speaking to someone, and we can't even remember the original insult because it happened so long ago. Perhaps the length of passing time makes it feel too embarrassing to break silence -- after all, how could we explain that we've been stewing in resentment all this time? We might continue the glacial freeze rather than lose face.

One of the most painful situations can be when we've sincerely apologized to someone for a hurt we've caused, but they continue the silence anyway. Then we're left with both guilt from our earlier transgression as well as feeling rejected anew.

Oh, we can really get embroiled in our woundings.

Sometimes we can become so aligned with having been hurt that this becomes our identity. I am an "Adult Child of an Alcoholic", for instance. This may be factually true in one sense, and yet I am also more than this.

This "more than" part of me, this inner observer, makes it possible to choose to let go of resentment and pain.

As a psychiatrist I have heard more stories of hurt, abuse, torment, rejection, abandonment, despair, fear, and anger than most. I used to think years of therapy were the only answer for working through these kinds of pain. A therapist can be helpful while one is processing and healing, and feeling pain is certainly human enough. We've all been there.

But what if none of it is real, and what happened is not what we think?

I don't mean that hurts don't happen and pain isn't real. But, what if Ho'oponopono is correct, and we really don't know anything about what we think we're seeing or experiencing from others?

What if we're all flailing at ghosts of our own making -- or simple misperceptions -- when we attack or get angry at others? And what if our egos (which we've created for self-protection and getting along in the world) are what we're defending most of the time?

According to sages such Jesus, Buddha, and Mohammed, we all have Souls more eternal and pervasive than any of these more temporary facades that are so prone to squabbles and pain. If Ho'oponopono is true, then our actual Identity is complete and outlives all that.

This also makes it possible to forgive, no matter what happens. We don't need to blind outselves to current danger signs or fall prey to the same kind of hurt or misuse again, but we can release old burdensome grudges we might be lugging around.

One thing Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len is fond of saying is that we are here to clean the memories that are clouding our vision and experience. In doing that, we find out Who We Really Are: Zero, the potential from which everything is created and all is possible.

To be nothing and everything at the same time is great freedom.

Dr. Hew Len and Mabel Katz spoke about this and more on a free (and recorded) interview through Blog Talk Radio on 12/17/08.

One phrase of Dr. Hew Len's in particular sticks with me:

"The Light is always on."

He was talking about Peace, our true Identity, the Zero state where no memories or chaos are clamoring for attention.

To experience this state we can clean with "I love you" or any other Ho'oponopono tool we choose. We can decide in any moment to hang onto whatever anguish or struggle we're experiencing, or forgive and let it go . . . thus giving it to Divinity. The clouds are illusions created by our perceptions; the Light is real and always on.

Ho'oponopono is not the only spiritual practice leading to this kind of release, but it does offer a very simple way to do it. Forgiveness like this seems a wonderful way to start 2009 . . . with gratitude to Dr. Hew Len, Motel 6, and lighthouses all over the world. When the Light is always on, everything is possible.

Peace Begins with Me,

Pam