hoʻoponopono

File:Oceania (World-Factbook).jpg

In many Polynesian cultures, it is believed that a person's errors (called hara or hala) caused illness. Some believe error angers the gods, others that it attracts malevolent gods, and still others believe the guilt caused by error made one sick.{{citation needed|date=May 2017}} "In most cases, however, specific 'untie-error' rites could be performed to atone for such errors and thereby diminish one's accumulation of them."{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/polynesiainearly0000doug |title=Polynesia In Early Historic times |last=Oliver |first=Douglas |date=2002 |publisher=The Bess Press |isbn=1-57306-125-5 |url-access=registration}}{{rp|157}}

Among the islands of Vanuatu in the South Pacific, people believe that illness usually is caused by sexual misconduct or anger. "If you are angry for two or three days, sickness will come," said one local man.{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/healingpractices0000unse |title=Healing Practices in the South Pacific |editor1-last=Parsons |editor1-first=Claire D. F. |date=1985 |publisher=The Institute for Polynesian Studies |author1-last=Ludvigson |author1-first=Tomas |chapter=3: Healing in Central Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/healingpractices0000unse/page/50/mode/2up |pages=51–64 |url-access=registration |isbn=0-939154-41-2}}{{rp|55}} The therapy that counters this sickness is confession. The patient, or a family member, may confess. If no one confesses an error, the patient may die. The Vanuatu people believe that secrecy is what gives power to the illness. When the error is confessed, it no longer has power over the person.{{rp|61}}

Like many other islanders, including Hawaiians, people of Tikopia in the Solomon Islands, and on Rarotonga in the Cook Islands, believe that the sins of the father will fall upon the children. If a child is sick, the parents are suspected of quarreling or misconduct. In addition to sickness, social disorder could cause sterility of land or other disasters.{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/healingpractices0000unse |title=Healing Practices in the South Pacific |editor1-last=Parsons |editor1-first=Claire D. F. |date=1985 |publisher=The Institute for Polynesian Studies |author1-last=Macdonald |author1-first=Judith |chapter=4: Contemporary Healing Practices in Tikopia, Solomon Islands |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/healingpractices0000unse/page/64/mode/2up |pages=65–86 |url-access=registration |isbn=0-939154-41-2}}{{rp|70}} Harmony could be restored only by confession and apology.

In Pukapuka, it was customary to hold sort of a confessional over patients to determine an appropriate course of action in order to heal them.{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/healingpractices0000unse |title=Healing Practices in the South Pacific |editor1-last=Parsons |editor1-first=Claire D. F. |date=1985 |publisher=The Institute for Polynesian Studies |author1-last=Hecht |author1-first=Julia A. |chapter=8: Physical and Social Boundaries in Pukapukan Theories of Disease |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/healingpractices0000unse/page/144/mode/2up |pages=144–157 |url-access=registration |isbn=0-939154-41-2}}{{rp|151}}

Similar traditions are found in Samoa,{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/healingpractices0000unse |title=Healing Practices in the South Pacific |editor1-last=Parsons |editor1-first=Claire D. F. |date=1985 |publisher=The Institute for Polynesian Studies |author1-last=Macpherson |author1-first=Cluny |chapter=1: Samoan Medicine |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/healingpractices0000unse/page/n17/mode/2up |pages=1–15 |url-access=registration |isbn=0-939154-41-2}}{{rp|12}} Tahiti,{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/healingpractices0000unse |title=Healing Practices in the South Pacific |editor1-last=Parsons |editor1-first=Claire D. F. |date=1985 |publisher=The Institute for Polynesian Studies |author1-last=Hooper |author1-first=Antony |chapter=9: Tahitian Healing |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/healingpractices0000unse/page/158/mode/2up |pages=158–198 |url-access=registration |isbn=0-939154-41-2}}{{rp|159}} and among the Maori of New Zealand.{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/healingpractices0000unse |title=Healing Practices in the South Pacific |editor1-last=Parsons |editor1-first=Claire D. F. |date=1985 |publisher=The Institute for Polynesian Studies |author1-last=Parsons |author1-first=Claire D. F. |chapter=11: Notes on Maori Sickness Knowledge and Healing Practices |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/healingpractices0000unse/page/212/mode/2up |pages=213–234 |url-access=registration |isbn=0-939154-41-2}}{{rp|217}}{{cite book |url=https://ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz/webarchive/20210104000423/http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-BucTheC.html |last1=Buck |first1=Peter |author1-link=Peter Buck (anthropologist) |title=The Coming of the Maori |date=1949 |location=Christchurch |publisher=Whitcombe and Tombs |pages=405–06}}{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/polynesianreligi0000hand |title=Polynesian Religion |last=Handy |first=E. S. Craighill |date=1927 |publisher=Berniece P. Bishop Museum |location=Honolulu, Hawaii}}{{rp|242}}

File:Hala lei.JPG tree. A hala lei was given at the completion of {{Transliteration|haw|ho{{okina}}oponopono}} in the tradition of kahuna Makaweliweli of Molokai.]]

File:Kokee.jpg from Koke'e State Park, where Nana Veary held retreats to teach {{Transliteration|haw|ho{{okina}}oponopono}}]]

{{Transliteration|haw|Ho{{okina}}oponopono}} is defined in the Hawaiian Dictionary as:

(a) "To put to rights; to put in order or shape, correct, revise, adjust, amend, regulate, arrange, rectify, tidy up make orderly or neat, administer, superintend, supervise, manage, edit, work carefully or neatly; to make ready, as canoemen preparing to catch a wave."

(b) "Mental cleansing: family conferences in which relationships were set right (ho{{okina}}oponopono) through prayer, discussion, confession, repentance, and mutual restitution and forgiveness."{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/hawaiiandictiona0000mary |title=Hawaiian Dictionary |first1=Mary Kawena |last1=Pukui |author1-link=Mary Kawena Pukui |first2=Samuel H. |last2=Elbert |date=1986 |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |location=Honolulu |edition=Revised and Enlarged |isbn=978-0-8248-0703-0 |pages=340–341 |url-access=subscription}} Also on [{{google books |plainurl=n |id=bHdRhjL9Y9EC}} Google Books]

Literally, {{Transliteration|haw|ho{{okina}}o}} is a particle used to make an actualizing verb from the following noun. Here, it creates a verb from the noun Pono (word), which is defined as: "...goodness, uprightness, morality, moral qualities, correct or proper procedure, excellence, well-being, prosperity, welfare, benefit, true condition or nature, duty; moral, fitting, proper, righteous, right, upright, just, virtuous, fair, beneficial, successful, in perfect order, accurate, correct, eased, relieved; should, ought, must, necessary."

{{Transliteration|haw|Ponopono}} is defined as "to put to rights; to put in order or shape, correct, revise, adjust, amend, regulate, arrange, rectify, tidy up, make orderly or neat." Therefore, {{Transliteration|haw|ho{{okina}}oponopono}} can be translated literally as "to make right" or "to make good".

Hawaiian scholar Nana Veary in her book Change We Must: My Spiritual Journey{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/changewemustmysp0000vear |title=Change We Must: My Spiritual Journey |first=Nana |last=Veary |date=1989 |publisher=The Institute of Zen Studies |isbn=0-921872-01-1 |url-access=registration}} Also: {{google books |id=3VsHAAAACAAJ |title=Change We Must: My Spiritual Journey}} wrote that ho{{okina}}oponopono was a practice in Ancient Hawaii{{cite book |url=https://ulukau.org/ulukau-books/?a=d&d=EBOOK-QLCC1.2.1.1 |title=Nānā I Ke Kumu (Look to the Source) |last1=Pukui |first1=Mary Kawena |last2=Haertig |first2=E. W. |last3=Lee |first3=Catherine A. |author1-link=Mary Kawena Pukui |date=1983 |publisher=Queen Lili{{okina}}uokalani Children's Center |isbn=978-0-916630-13-3 |volume=1}}{{rp|61–62, 67}} and this is supported by oral histories from contemporary Hawaiian elders.Chai, pp. 47–50 Pukui (born 1895) first recorded her experiences and observations from her childhood in her 1958 book.{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/polynesianfamily0000hand/ |title=The Polynesian Family System in Ka-{{okina}}U, Hawai{{okina}}i |last2=Pukui |first2=Mary Kawena |last1=Handy |first1=E. S. Craighill |author2-link=Mary Kawena Pukui |date=1972 |publisher=Charles E. Tuttle Company |isbn=0-8048-1031-1 |lccn=75-171998 |url-access=registration}}{{rp|184–185}}

Although the word {{Transliteration|haw|ho{{okina}}oponopono}} was not used, early Hawaiian historians documented a belief that illness was caused by breaking kapu, or spiritual laws, and that the illness could not be cured until the sufferer atoned for this transgression, often with the assistance of a praying priest ({{Transliteration|haw|kahuna pule}}) or healing priest ({{Transliteration|haw|kahuna lapa{{okina}}au}}). Forgiveness was sought from the godsKamakau, p. 95Malo, p. 75 (English) or from the person with whom there was a dispute.{{cite journal |last=Titcomb |first=Margaret |title=Kava In Hawaii |journal=Journal of the Polynesian Society |date=1948 |volume=57 |number=2 |pages=105–171 |jstor=20703155}}

Pukui described it as a practice of extended family members meeting to "make right" broken family relations. Some families met daily or weekly, to prevent problems from erupting.Chai, pp. 52–54 Others met when a person became ill, believing that illness was caused by the stress of anger, guilt, recriminations and lack of forgiveness.{{rp|60}} Kupuna Nana Veary wrote that when any of the children in her family fell ill, her grandmother would ask the parents, "What have you done?" They believed that healing could come only with complete forgiveness of the whole family.{{rp|34}}

The aim of {{Transliteration|haw|Ho{{okina}}oponopono}} is to correct, restore and maintain good relationships among family members and with their god(s) by getting to the causes and sources of trouble. It is usually conducted by the most senior family member, who gathers the family together. If the family is unable to work through a problem, they turn to a respected outsider.

The process begins with prayer. A statement of the problem is made, and the transgression discussed. Family members are expected to work problems through and cooperate, and not "hold fast to the fault". One or more periods of silence may be taken for reflection on the entanglement of emotions and injuries. Each person's feelings are acknowledged. Then confession, repentance and forgiveness take place. Everyone releases ({{Transliteration|haw|kala}}) each other, letting go. They cut off the past ({{Transliteration|haw|{{okina}}oki}}), and together they close the event with a ceremonial feast, called {{Transliteration|haw|pani}}, which often included eating Kala seaweed, symbolic of the release.{{rp|60–80}}

In a form used by the family of {{Transliteration|haw|kahuna}} Makaweliweli of the island of Molokai, the completion of {{Transliteration|haw|ho{{okina}}oponopono}} is represented by giving the person forgiven a lei made from the fruit of the hala tree.Lee, p. 49

"Aunty" Malia Craver, who worked with the Queen Lili{{okina}}uokalani Children's Centers (QLCC) for more than 30 years, taught courses in traditional ho{{okina}}oponopono.{{cite news |title=Keepers of culture named |work=Honolulu Star-Bulletin |url=http://archives.starbulletin.com/2007/01/13/news/story09.html |date=January 13, 2007 |access-date=19 August 2018 }} On August 30, 2000, she spoke about it to the United Nations.{{cite news |url=http://archives.starbulletin.com/2000/08/09/news/story9.html |title='Aunty' Malia Craver to address United Nations |date=8 September 2000 |newspaper=Honolulu Star-Bulletin |access-date=19 August 2018}}

In the late 20th century, courts in Hawai{{okina}}i began to order juvenile and adult offenders to work with an elder who would conduct {{Transliteration|haw|ho{{okina}}oponopono}} for their families, as a form of alternative dispute resolution. The {{Transliteration|haw|ho{{okina}}oponopono}} is conducted in the traditional way, without court interference, with a practitioner picked by the family from a list of court-approved providers.Rogers, p. 34

Some native practitioners provide {{Transliteration|haw|ho{{okina}}oponopono}} to clients who otherwise might seek family counseling.{{cite book |last=Shook |first=E. Victoria |title=Ho{{okina}}oponopono: contemporary uses of a Hawaiian problem-solving process |date=1985 |publisher=East-West Center |url=https://archive.org/details/hooponoponoconte0000shoo |url-access=subscription |isbn=0-8248-1047-3 |lccn=85-51886}}

File:Lapakahi3.jpg of the island of Hawaii, North Kohala district. Beginning in the early 20th century, this village has been a center for lapa{{okina}}au.]]

In 1976 Morrnah Simeona, regarded as a healing priest or {{Transliteration|haw|kahuna lapa{{okina}}au}}, adapted the traditional {{Transliteration|haw|ho{{okina}}oponopono}} of family mutual forgiveness to the social realities of the modern day. For this she extended it both to a general problem solving process outside the family and to a psycho-spiritual self-help rather than group process.

Simeona's version is influenced by her Christian (Protestant and Catholic) education and her philosophical studies about India, China and Edgar Cayce. Like Hawaiian tradition she emphasizes prayer, confession, repentance, and mutual restitution and forgiveness. Unlike Hawaiian tradition, she describes problems only as the effects of negative karma, saying that "you have to experience by yourself what you have done to others." But that you are the creator of your life circumstances was common knowledge for the people of old as "things we had brought with us from other lifetimes."{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/talesfromnightra0000kame |title=Tales from the Night Rainbow: The Story of a Woman, a People, and an Island |first1=Kaili{{okina}}ohe |last1=Kame{{okina}}ekua |first2=Pali Jae |last2=Lee |first3=Koko |last3=Willis |date=1990 |edition=Revised & Enlarged |lccn=87-191462 |publisher=Night Rainbow Publishing Co. |url-access=registration |page= 46}} Any wrongdoing is memorized within oneself and mirrored in every entity and object which was present when the cause happened. As the Law of Cause and Effect predominates in all of life and lifetimes, the purpose of her version is mainly "to release unhappy, negative experiences in past reincarnations, and to resolve and remove traumas from the 'memory banks'."Simeona, p. 36 Karmic bondages hinder the evolution of mind, so that "(karmic) cleansing is a requisite for the expansion of awareness".Simeona, p. 77 Using her 14-step-process would dissolve those bondages.Simeona, pp. 45–61 She did not use mantras or conditioning exercises.

Her teachings include: there is a Divine Creator who takes care of altruistic pleas of Men; "when the phrase 'And it is done' is used after a prayer, it means Man's work ends and God's begins."Simeona, p. 51 "Self-Identity" signifies, e.g. during the ho{{okina}}oponopono, that the three selves or aspects of consciousness are balanced and connected with the Divine Creator.Simeona, p. 31 Different from egoistic prayers, "altruistic prayers like ho{{okina}}oponopono, where you also pray for the release of other entities and objects, reach the Divine plane or Cosmos because of their high vibrations. From that plane the Divine energy or "mana" would come,"Simeona, p. 25 which would transform the painful part of the memory of the wrong actions in all participants to "Pure Light", on whatever plane they are existing; "all are set free".Simeona, p. 17 Through this transmutation in the mind the problems will lose their energy for physical effects, and healing or balancing is begun. In this sense, Simeona's mana is not the same as the traditional Polynesian understanding of mana.

Pacifica Seminars, founded by Morrnah Simeona, started the first Ho'oponopono seminars in Germany. Seminars are still held on a regular basis in Germany, Poland, France, and Denmark.Simeona, Morrnah, Selbst-Identität durch Ho{{okina}}oponopono, Self-identity through Ho´oponopono p. 128, Pacifica Seminars (1990){{cite web |author= Simeona, Morrnah |url=http://www.hooponopono.eu/artykul_anny_kligert.htm |title=Parę słów o moim spotkaniu z Ho´oponopono lit. A few words about my meeting with Ho'oponopono; Archived copy |access-date=2012-01-11 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120111081352/http://www.hooponopono.eu/artykul_anny_kligert.htm |archive-date=2012-01-11 }}Simeona, Morrnah, L'Identité de Soi-Même par Ho{{okina}}oponopono, Identity of the Self by Ho'oponopono 128 pg, Pacifica Seminars (1990)

In 1982, psychologist Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len, Ph.D took his first class with Morrnah Simeona.{{cite web |page=Self I-Dentity through Ho’oponopono® (SITH®) |title=In Memory of Dr. Hew Len |url=https://www.self-i-dentity-through-hooponopono.com/in-memory-of-dr-hew-len/ |access-date=21 April 2025 }} He trained as an instructor under Simeona, and later taught with her traveling in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. After Simeona's death in 1992, Len returned to Hawaii to continue work in Ho'oponopono'. In 2007, Len co-authored a book with Joe Vitale called Zero Limits,{{cite book |last1=Vitale |first1=Joe |last2=Len |first2=Ihaleakala Hew |title=Zero Limits: The Secret Hawaiian System for Wealth, Health, Peace & More |date=2007 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-0-470-4-0256-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/zerolimitssecret0000vita_i3g6 |url-access=subscription}} referring to Simeona's Ho{{okina}}oponopono teachings. Len made no claim to be a kahuna. In contrast to Simeona's teachings, the book brings the new idea that the main objective of Ho{{okina}}oponopono is getting to the "zero state — it's where we have zero limits. No memories. No identity."{{rp|31}} To reach this state, which Len called 'Self-I-Dentity thru Ho'oponopono', or SITH®, includes using the mantra, "I love you. I'm sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you."{{rp|32}} It is based on Len's idea of 100% responsibility,{{rp|41}} taking responsibility for everyone's actions, not only for one's own. If one would take complete responsibility for one's life, then everything one sees, hears, tastes, touches, or in any way experiences would be one's responsibility because it is in one's life.{{rp|22}} The problem would not be with one's external reality, it would be with oneself. Total Responsibility, according to Hew Len, advocates that everything exists as a projection from inside the human being.{{rp|24}}

{{reflist|3}}

==See also==

• Restorative Justice
• Ifoga

• Buck, Peter Te Rangi Hiroa, The Coming of the Maori, Wellington, Whitcombe and Tombs (1950)
• Chai, Makana Risser, Na Mo{{okina}}olelo Lomilomi: The Traditions of Hawaiian Massage & Healing, Bishop Museum Press (2005) {{ISBN|978-1-58178-046-8}}
• Handy, E.S.Craighill Polynesian Religion, Kraus Reprint & Periodicals (1971)
• Kamakau, Samuel, Ka Po{{okina}}e Kahiko (The People of Old), Bishop Museum Press (1992)
• Lee, Pali Jae, Ho'opono, I M Publishing (2008)
• Lee, Pali Jae, Koko Willis, Tales from the Night Rainbow, Night Rainbow Publishing Co. (1990) {{ISBN|0-9628030-0-6}}
• Malo, Davida, (Chun, trans) Ka Mo{{okina}}olelo Hawaii: Hawaiian Traditions, First Peoples Productions
• Oliver, Douglas, Polynesia in Early Historic Times, Bess Press (2002) {{ISBN|978-1-57306-125-4}}
• Parsons, Claire F., Healing Practices in the South Pacific, Institute for Polynesian Studies (1995) {{ISBN|978-0-939154-56-2}}
• Pukui, Mary Kawena and Elbert, Samuel H., University of Hawaii (1986) {{ISBN|978-0-8248-0703-0}}
• Pukui, Mary Kawena, Haertig, E.W. and Lee, Catherine, Nana i ke Kumu: Look to the Source, Vol 1, Hui Hanai (1983) {{ISBN|978-0-916630-13-3}}
• Pukui, Mary Kawena, E.S. Craighill Handy, The Polynesian Family System in Ka{{okina}}u, Hawaii, 1958, Mutual Pub Co, (Hawaii 2006) {{ISBN|978-1-56647-812-0}}
• Rogers, Kim Steutermann, "Sacred Harmony", Hawaii Magazine (Jan/Feb 2004)
• Shook, Victoria E. Ho{{okina}}oponopono: Contemporary Uses of a Hawaiian Problem Solving Process, University of Hawaii Press (1986) {{ISBN|978-0-8248-1047-4}}
• Simeona, Morrnah, Self-Identity through Ho{{okina}}oponopono, Basic 1, Pacifica Seminars (1990)
• Titcomb (1948) "Kava in Hawaii", Journal of the Polynesian Society, 57:105–71, 144
• Vitale, Joe, Hew Len Ph.D., Zero Limits, Wiley (2007)

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