Forgiveness With Ho’opono pono
I First learned about Ho’opono pono through Ed Kiewe who is the Kahuna of the island of Kuaui. It was during a visit to the island that I came to know Ed and his family, I had been introduced to them by a friend who gave me their phone number and said “tell them you are a friend of mine”. With no other introduction, when I phoned, they invited me to visit the Heau which is a holy place for the native Hawaiians and the place that their spiritual elders “Kahuna” live and practice ceremony.
I had no idea what to expect but because they had a phone I assumed that I would be going to a house, instead, when I arrived at the address they provided, I faced an immense green meadow at the foot of a mountain surrounded by jungle. There was a telephone pole, an a framed roof of 4×6 plywood and a small building of concrete block with a footprint of about 4×6′, later I learned it housed a toilet and bathtub equipped with only a garden hose. The A frame roof was the only protection from the daily rains and housed their beds and a campstove.
My first meeting was with Leslie, Ed’s wife and mother of their angelic 2 year old. She said that Ed would return later and I was welcome to sit with her in the meadow until he arrived. We spent the day talking and sharing stories with her sister Laura who was visiting from Canada. When the Kahuna returned later that afternoon Leslie announced that “Jeannie needs to come and stay with us here and she will bring her belongings tomorrow”. I was amazed and honored to be invited to stay longer and a more than a little nervous about the prospect of living out on the land as they did.
The next week I spent most days touring the island with Laura, who had rented a car and wanted to take as many photographs as possible to capture the memories of the garden island, Kauai. Evenings were spent around a campfire which provided warmth and our evening meals. Food was routinely provided to the Kahuna as ceremonial gifts and often consisted of organically grown produce and grass fed beef. Everything was roasted over the open fire and was always delicious without any extensive marinades, rubs or seasonings.
During the evening Ed would give council and teachings sprinkled in and out of story-telling. He had been a soldier in the Viet Nam war and was a survivor of the famous battle known as “Hamburger Hill”. Just writing the words now sends a chill through my body, I could not imagine how this war was justified by our government and shudder at the loss of lives and dignity as a result. Other stories included Hawaiian lore, ancestral lineage and customs, one of which was called “HO’ opono pono – which Ed described as “making right – right”. This puzzled my brain but I felt the intention with which he described the process and recognized it as a form of forgiveness. I had been coached in forgiveness from a very young age and so I knew that it was an important custom, even if I didn’t understand the language use involved in the name. In essence one could express forgiveness in their conscious and subconscious mind by repeating these words:
Ho’oponopono Cleaning is an ancient Hawaiian process to remove subconscious blocks and achieve permanent positive shifts in all aspects of your life. Ho’oponopono healing process was originally taught by Morrnah Nalamaku Simeona who in 1983 received a great honor by being designated as a living treasure of Hawaii.
The word Ho’oponopono means to make right.
Originated from ancient Hawaiian teachings and later greatly improved by Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len, this method has proven to offer strong positive life changing effects for practitioner and for everyone connected to him.
To learn more about this powerful practice you may download and read the following ebook. It is a pdf so you will need Adobe Reader to open and read it:
