Ho'oponopono: What Are We Cleaning? Lessons from Morrnah and the River Iao
The Iao River on Maui, whose Iao Valley was the scene of the battle of Kepaniwai ("damming of the waters") in 1790. So many warriors died that the river was jammed with their bodies. Today the river runs clean and free -- and is still a very sacred place. Someone asked me the other day what Ho'oponopono is about, and what we are "cleaning" when practicing this process. Morrnah Nalamaku Simeona, the Kahuna Lapa'au who was inspired in meditation to simplify Ho'oponopono for modern times, provided one of the best answers to this I've ever read. Ho'oponopono literally means "to correct an error," or "to make right." But what kind of errors are we talking about, and what is there to make right? Morrnah explained : " We are the sum total of our experiences, which is to say that we are burdened by our pasts. When we experience stress or fear in our lives, if we would look carefully