Ho'oponopono is useful for any imbalance we perceive "out" there in the world. Whether that imbalance is a family member's "incurable" diagnosis or it whether it be a wildfire in another state.
It cares not for remoteness, and is equally effective for a child with malaria in tropical countries half a globe away, as issues up close and personal issues. (In the collective, nothing is really far or close. In One, it's all here now.)
In the subjective world of ho'oponopono (and if you've some experience in Zen or Advaita or that sort of thing, you can feel into what I mean that it's all occuring to the All) we are responsible for everything as it is all arising from one consciousness. (Note that responsibility is not fault. Many new practitioners in Ho'oponopono begin by cleaning up old, repeating patterns of guilt and blame. This is no-fault stuff.)
So getting personal.... I read in the newspapers that unemployment rate in Las Vegas is up to 14.2%. Of course, that is the folks that are still reporting to the officials within last 30 days--the actuals are much higher. I've been reading newspapers much more thoroughly in the last few months (whereas I normally stay away from mainstream media) seeking out the recurring patterns in the collective unconscious to clean on through Ho'oponopono (and often I also use Byron Katie's The Work as well).
There are two patterns or messages that feel closest to me, because they are directly impacting and showing up in my life as well as "out there." One is scarcity/poverty-thinking and the other is "not being able to enjoy the sweetness in life." I think they are related.
I'll keep this post short, as this will be a recurring topic until it is actually resolved. I've found lately that with Ho'oponopono the stakes get higher. At first, we clean up all the low-hanging fruit. Later, the patterns and programs we run up against are so ingrained we actually believe they define us (they don't, but it doesn't make it any easier). Saying, "I love you. I’m sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you," alone does not suffice. No matter how heart-felt that mantra is, it isn't meant to be mantra.
On August 9th, I wrote to a friend:
"I was getting a lot of syncs around Steve Jobs about 2-3 weeks ago.... and not in normal sense, more around his health problems (and he's younger than I thought when I looked up). So looked up pancreatic cancer it has to do with not allowing in sweetness of life (paraphrasing). And that was SO true. I was pretty locked into working on myself, and figuring all manner of things out and fixing this and that.... that just simple ordinary savoring was missing when I was ruthlessly honest with myself."
On August 24th, Steve Jobs resigned his post as CEO. It is not clear why, but speculation is his health. From his resignation letter: "I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come."
For all his wealth, the speculation is (as it is quite plausible that Jobs simply wishes for a break from decades of long hours of work so he can enjoy himself) that doctors and drugs have not healed him completely from and of after-effects of pancreatic cancer (2004) and his liver transplant (2009).
Louise Hay simple message for pancreas problems is, "Not being able to enjoy the sweetness in life."
This past Saturday, my aunt's husband died from complications due to diabetes (he was quite old, so there may have been more complications upon complications). A fairly good site (as far as the symbolism) on Chinese Medicine states as far as the pancreas: "Metaphysically then diabetes represents a difficulty in processing the sweetness of life. One may be bitter at the world. Things are not the way they should be."
I have noted (being completely honest here, as in Ho'oponopono it is necessary to be honest with oneself) that I do feel bitterness. For the past 12 months, I have not been able to create more than $125 per month in income no matter what I do, think, or offer to others. You can do the math yourself, and realize this is not a living wage in the USA. (And if you are wondering how this is even a possibility, I'm living with family--basically mooching.)
I used to be a highly-paid professional, but now it feels (doesn't mean it is real) as if my gifts are worthless. That's bitterness talking.
For me, ultimately it is not about the money (I live on $1500/month even in hot spots like NYC or SF because of my ability to be resourceful and easily satisfied; however, $1500/year isn't frugality, it's depravation). It's the feeling (again, that could be the imprint talking) that I am being withheld from offering, contributing value that's bugging me. I think all people do want to express their gifts and contribute their talents:
"It is ironic indeed that money, originally a means of connecting gifts with needs, originally an outgrowth of a sacred gift economy, is now precisely what blocks the blossoming of our desire to give, keeping us in deadening jobs out of economic necessity and forestalling our most generous impulses... Our purpose for being, the development and full expression of our gifts, is mortgaged to the demands of money, to making a living, getting by, surviving. Yet no one, no matter how wealthy, secure or comfortable, can ever feel fulfilled in a life in which those gifts remain latent." - Charles Eisenstein, "Living the Gift," Ode magazine, September 2011 (edited excerpt from book, "Sacred Economics: Money, Gift, and Society in the Age of Transition")
After a long period of studying the similarities between health and wealth, I'm coming close to cracking the whole code. I decided to treat poverty as a dis-ease, too, since I already knew that health (i.e. ease manifesting itself in the body) was not dependent on hospitals, doctors, drugs, money, or anything external. (More on this topic of scarcity or infinity-thinking in future posts; here's an out-of-the-box-thinking video on the subject by Story Waters that combines the sweetness/joy and the wealth topic to kick it off:)
H(w)ealth is a matter of knowing well-being as an unshakeable wholeness that lies beyond (feels more like beneath to me) any appearances to the contrary. (In Zen, simply dropping into no-mind or awareness meditation simulates this knowing.) It is the natural ease of flowing with life rather than opposition to the flow of life which asserts itself as dis-ease.
Through ho'oponopono one can clear away the vibrational pattern from a habitual imprint (could be anything from trauma to cultural conditioning) that re-asserts a particular ailment.
For all the "I love you. I’m sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you," I did prior to August 9th, when I wrote a friend an email about how much I'd been thinking of Steve Jobs' health (trust me, that's odd, as I don't even own any Apple products and he doesn't pop into my consciousness that much). I have to balance my imbalance. Is there sweetness in my life? Am I expressing that sweetness? Or is there bitterness? Am I acknowledging it? I have to clean the pattern within myself. Ho'oponopono isn't about reciting empty words with more emphasis on each refrain. If a recurring pattern is truly acknowledged deeply and appreciated for what it's shown you, it drops away in favor of a fluid state (what Dr. Len calls zero state) that is more responsive to the current moment, thus not automatic and reactive based on unconscious stores from ages ago.
Since the income issues, my life has become much heavier, more serious, more solemn than ever before. That's not like me, but it's been like me for over a year; closer to two years. I look at the newspapers, the radio shows, TV (again, this is recent development as I didn't used to) and I notice how dour and doom-and-gloom everyone else is too. The imbalance is inner and outer.
It is possible to enjoy the sweetness of life just as it is.
To that end, I'm living this experiment in changing a habit.
There's a quote that goes, "Worry is the misuse of imagination" so I'm focusing my imagination on whimsy, on playfulness, on my dreams and visions, on magic and even laughter to get out of this serious mode, and into sweetness mode. I'll be using (loosely) some of the concepts in The Art of Soaring and The Power of Luck (between the two, there are 48 pages of excerpts that pretty much spell out of the gist).
If you'd like to join me in this, I'm creating an online circle to share our whimsical new imaginings and imaginative gift-giving that really draw out the precious aspects of an ordinary life day by day.
I've tried to do the exercises in The Art of Soaring and The Power of Luck on my own, and I'm not consistent enough. I think 30 days without fail might help to make it into a habit. If you'd like to join, I'm starting Tuesday, September 27 through October 24, 2011 for $30 --Mage Your Own Luck for a Buck* (a day).
Another reason I'm reaching out to do this with a community is that the Chinese Medicine site I quote above continues (on the theme of pancreas and diabetes): "Excess weight, metaphysically, is a way of putting distance between ourselves and others; a way of emphasizing our separation and isolation from others." Isolation imprinting is another theme that I've noted to be getting more rampart in last few years, and unfortunately, now that I moved to a city where I don't know anyone (and so many social events depend on paying money) it is all too easy to justify isolation. To break the pattern of isolation on collective and individual levels, I am also purposefully doing outreach on things I'd normally keep to myself.
Please read The Art of Soaring and The Power of Luck excerpts first to see if this is interesting for you. (The books are NOT required to join in to share your daily gift, magic, luck, etc.)
* With ho'oponopono, based on 100% responsibity for everything in your world, I like to say to myself, "The buck stops here."
p.s. In Wired magazine, February 1996 Jobs said:
"The problem is I’m older now, I’m 40 years old, and this stuff doesn’t change the world. It really doesn’t.
“I’m sorry, it’s true. Having children really changes your view on these things. We’re born, we live for a brief instant, and we die. It’s been happening for a long time. Technology is not changing it much — if at all.
“These technologies can make life easier, can let us touch people we might not otherwise. You may have a child with a birth defect and be able to get in touch with other parents and support groups, get medical information, the latest experimental drugs. These things can profoundly influence life. I’m not downplaying that.
“But it’s a disservice to constantly put things in this radical new light — that it’s going to change everything. Things don’t have to change the world to be important.”"
"Shake me and you'll get no ringing [of pennies]" a translation of a saying from my world. I have to say i am pretty much in the same place as you, and have been meditating on that secret code.
I've been doing wonderful with manifesting mental things, such as information. But not much luck with MONEY. I started with my images and beliefs about money. found a few, and processing them.
Today it occurred to me that i don't appreciate material things as much as i appreciate ideas, feelings and intentions. I place HUGE value on those, but somehow look down on money. But if everything is ENERGY, i need to respect all forms energy not only those that belong to the heart and mind.
Next week, i'm starting a training on fund-raising for NGOs. That ought to be good. and hopefully will contribute into me cracking the code a little more.
Posted by: Doaa Akram | 09/20/2011 at 05:50 AM
Thanks Doaa,
Yes, I do believe that appreciation is a key. To appreciate all of the creations. I forgot to mention above that in 1999 (for context against everything else I said) I earned $8000/month. The difference? I worked in a role that is socially regarded as being lucrative and well-paying. It's ever since I switched to being an indie artist that things have been more of a 'struggle.'
Since you mentioned energy, I had two mentors tell me (separately, they do not know each other) that money is like a focused energy or crystallized power, and to investigate where I am leaking energy and giving away power in my life.
Well, I do not necessarily need to start yet another blog... but today (and I'll see if I still feel this way in one more day) I can see starting a temporary blog just to get some money and abundance thoughts out of my system. I have found (for me) writing it out sometimes shifts something so I find my own answers to questions that were baffling me when they were just rattling around in my head.
The poverty and poverty-thinking issue is too specific (yet huge on its own) to cover in this blog in any depth.
Posted by: Evelyn Rodriguez | 09/20/2011 at 11:21 PM