Why Attend Ho'oponopono Seminars, if I've Read the Book?

Every time I attend one of Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len's Ho'oponopono training seminars, my own practice deepens. While at this last one in Woodland Hills, someone asked what had changed for me -- and why I would keep attending.

After all, hadn't I gotten the information down yet? Haven't I read the books and articles, watched the DVD's, and listened to the teleseminars? Well, yes -- I have done those things.

I have also attended more Ho'oponopono trainings now than I can count. And if it truly was a matter of information alone, I could have stopped long ago.

But it isn't. The process goes much deeper than my conscious mind, where intellectual learning takes place. When I practice in a room with others, clean with all our questions, listen to Dr. Hew Len, and ask questions that come up in myself, my soul quiets further.

The Ho'oponopono process includes the subconscious mind, the Inner Child or Unihipili, which must be lovingly attended to. This is the part of me that suffers, and can also inflict suffering on others. For eons, this part of us has been brutalized and neglected. Repeated practice in loving and caring for my Inner Child helps calm its anguish. I learn gentler attitudes towards myself and others -- see them modeled -- through Dr. Hew Len's teaching and being. These are life-changing for me.

It isn't him alone who guides me, but something he is pointing to instead. Every time I steep myelf in this practice, I feel closer to Divinity within. The need for consistency in practice is also reinforced. If you're anything like me, this is useful.

This past weekend Dr. Hew Len pointed out repeatedly that "information -- data -- runs us." Regarding this, we have a choice: would we prefer to be open to this information coming from Divinity as inspiration, or to be full of age-old tangled memories that repeat ad infinitum instead?

If we choose the latter, he explained, our "inner child goes crazy -- just goes nuts!" I can imagine what this looks like, in all manner of pain and distress. I have felt plenty inside me, and seen this in others too.

Today, a fellow psychiatrist shot, injured, and killed many people on an Army base. It is a horrific tragedy; I hear the news and weep. I clean. I wonder, is this in me? An answer comes: of course it is. I ache for the wounded and dead. I ache for the pain in the person who did this. I know that all of us have this potential inside us. There is nothing out there, but us; we see the world as we are -- or rather, as the data runs us.

The same data that showed up as my colleague killing, is also in me. So I choose to clean and ask Divinity to transmute this to pure light.

And Divinity knows much better than I what's "really" going on, and what needs cleaning in me. What appeared in the news today is just a backdrop.

What a gift to have been with my fellow Ho'oponopono students and Dr. Hew Len this past weekend, especially before these events. My conscious mind has no idea "why" this shooting showed up in my colleague. But my 2 days' steeping in Ho'oponopono practice prepared me a little better, maybe, for how to clean with it. I know my pre-Ho'oponopono attitude about this would have been very different.

I am grateful to be shown a process for dealing with such pain and suffering. Perhaps my own Unihipili can let go of a few more layers now, so that less of it will need to show up tomorrow.

Thank you, Dr. Hew Len, for your presence and directness. I will keep showing up, cleaning, and practicing. Others can keep on asking me "why". I will simply smile, say thank you, and clean some more. :-)

Peace begins with me,
Pam