Like most of you, my journey continues to expand and to grow. Several new avenues have opened to me on my path recently that have brought about constructive process.
One is the concept of Ho’oponopono. It revolves around the concept of forgiveness. This has been a topic of huge interest to me and like many of you has been central to my faith as a Christian. The whole concept of Christ providing a ransom to forgive our sins is one that has fascinated and confused for ages.
I was quite surprised to find that this concept of a sinful nature is not universal as the only experience I had up til the last few years was based on Judeo-Christian principals. Reconciling what I still held to be true from my still strong (but evolving) Christian faith with the new knowledge coming at me from every direction has been an interesting part of my journey.
Back to forgiveness…
Forgiveness for what?! For my “sinful nature”? Do I even still believe that I have a sinful nature? That is a tough one to answer! The short answer to that is yes, I do. But the full answer is much more complex. It goes right to the heart of my own spiritual journey and perhaps sharing it will help you with yours.
Sin. The concept as literally translated from the original scriptural texts carries the meaning of “Missing The Mark”. The obvious question is “What is the Mark”? My understanding of this comes down to complete connection to God and his dynamic energy. The source of all energy in the universe.
And since the whole universe, or all of creation to put it another way, is composed of energy that means connection to the entire universe through that connection to God. The original Bible texts give God’s name in the form of what is known as the Tetragrammaton. These are the four Hebrew consonants of Yod Hee Waw Hee. or in our own alphabet, J (or Y) H V H. The exact pronunciation has long since been lost but is generally pronounced as either Yaweh or Jehovah. Either way, the meaning is roughly translated as “He causes to become”.
I couple this with my understanding of what the scriptures call the Holy Spirit as God’s active force and I come away with a very strong feeling about what it is that I am trying to connect to. With amazing results.
To achieve this, I have needed to find a path to forgiveness. So now I have come the long way around to Ho’oponopono. A Hawaiian concept and ritual that has helped me to understand the whole idea of forgiveness in ways I had never imagined…
My initial exposure to Ho’oponopono was in the form of a translation. Ho’oponopono translates roughly as:
I Love You: I Am Sorry: Please Forgive Me: Thank You.
Not sequentially, but simultaneously. You see being concurrent there is no possibility of doubt as to that forgiveness. My first experience with this was in the form of a prayer. I held my widening awareness of God as “the one causing all things to become” in my heart and at first recited the four tenets of Ho’oponopono sequentially, having had not experience with any other kind of thought. It didn’t take long though to experience it as a simultaneous occurrence.
I knew from my own scriptural studies and meditation that personal forgiveness is tied to being personally forgiving. Another area where Ho’oponopono can open new horizons…
There is a Ho’oponopono ritual that moved me further along my path. You picture a platform below you. Then picture someone on the platform that has either wronged you in some way, or someone that feels that you have wronged them. Either way you then envision the same forgiving power that you experienced while meditating (or praying) the four tenets of Ho’oponopono coming down through the top of your head and passing through you and down onto whomever is on the platform.
The entire experience is one of amazing discovery and can move you to whole new understandings of your relationship to and through Yaweh, Jehovah, God or the Unified Field: and with the entirety of creation.
More soon!
