Ho'oponopono

holding onto old patterns, old ideas ~ stinginess ~ constipation ~ the tree of life ~ and applying ho'oponopono

I thought I'd write about what appears to be minor blips and glitches in life, and how even those can be cleared through Ho'oponopono too. In addition, they are often interrelated to other seemingly bigger issues where innate harmony and well-being are yearning to be restored.

A friend of a friend is staying at the same house I am right now.  I'm still getting to know her,  and today she shared that she's been constipated for at least three days.  She is sensitive and aware of energy (and truthfully, New Orleans can be quite the underworld of subconsciousness--a great place to go to stir all that is hidden), so that could be it. A few months ago,  she experienced a spiritual awakening so I intuited that things would show up more subtly in her system.  Alot of purification (purification--which is not perfection, btw-- is  synonymous with Ho'oponopono) occurs pre- and post-awakening at an accelerated pace (see Jim Tolle's video "Spiritual Awakening and the Purification Process" and his article "Spiritual Awakening and the Purification Process" for extra context). 

The interesting thing is just before she shared this I'd been worrying and re-running all kinds of old ideas and patterns in an endless loop in my head. The essential nutshell of this re-run had to do with fear of not being supported by this exquisite Tree of Life (silly, of course if you think about a branch worrying about the tree not tending to its own complete being). These thoughts and beliefs and worry-mongering bring up tangible, physical symptoms of anxiety (a whole other post, as the other person staying at the house these days also shares my sensations of existential anxiety and cortisol overwhelm--so I'll address anxiety, endocrine system and adrenals in a future post soon). I  even cite recent evidence to back up my claims of "not being supported by Life" which in actually are closer to perceptions and interpretations rather than any type of truth (as there is more than ample evidence that I am).  Yet the throughline nonetheless continues unabated despite intellectually knowing that I'm making and shaping this up as a  particular interpretation of facts and circumstances, and that throughline is essentially that I'm "not supported," "not enough," and a feeling of uncertainty about survival that brain and hormones beat as a thundering drum so loud and insistently that it's hard to hear or pick up signals of anything resembling guidance or grace.

So as my friend was speaking, I was already online and so started to search on the symbolism of constipation in order to understand the root of constipation well enough that I could then begin to apply Ho'oponopono and begin clearing.

With Ho'oponopono (and actually it's also true in my spiritual path which may be, if we need to categorize it, be called nonduality) there is no other person externally or "out there" that I'm treating and healing.  It is more like the entire collective universe is essentially one organism, or one Being, that is being treated.  All the treatment does is remove stuck patterns--it's like gently and lovingly lifting up the needle on a record player that's stuck on a groove in a music album that's now repeating over and over and over  (yep, dating myself on that one).  I may feel my focal point of attention and awareness to emanate as a unique branch within a tree of life.  Note that a branch is also the tree.  As a wave is also the ocean.  In this way, if there appears to be dis-ease (not necessarily in terms of illness always--may show up in terms of discord, confusion, alienation, war, poverty, and other dis-eases of disharmony in communal life) affecting my finger, even though I may see and express myself as a nose in this universal "body," I am keenly aware that I am the finger just as well and it is in the best-interest of the Whole tree to care for the finger rather than ignore  it by insisting "Oh, that's a finger; that's not me. Me, I'm just the nose."

I'm going to continue to use the metaphor or symbol of a tree for the Whole or the Totality or the Infinite (all synonymous for the ineffable which Dr. Hew Len also calls the Infinite or the Divine) and my sense of individuated expression as a branch on that tree throughout this post.

Googling Louise Hay for the handy symbolism she often provides, I found that the essential symbolism is: "Refusing to release old ideas. Stuck in the past. Sometimes stinginess." Also, in her book, You Can Heal Your Life, Hay adds:

"Even if constipated people are not actually stingy, they usually do not trust that there will ever be enough. They hold on to old relationships that give them pain. They are afraid to throw out clothes that have been in the closet for years because they might need them some day. They stay in stifling jobs, or never give themselves pleasure, because they must save for that rainy day. We do not rummage in last night's garbage to find today's meal. Learn to trust the process of life to always bring you what you need." - You Can Heal Your Life, by Louise Hay

This resonates for me. When I find myself with $10 (or less) to my name (and I've no credit cards or other so-called safety nets), it seems logical and sane to assume and agree with this statement, "There is not enough." And view the process of life as NOT bringing me what I require for survival because there's only so much you can buy with ten bucks in the U.S. of A these days.

Yet, in the last week, these friends that moved in temporarily (the one reflecting the symbolism of constipation and the one reflecting anxiety and adrenal issues above) have brought with them an abundance of fresh, healthy food that filled the fridge and kitchen to the brim. They share everything they prepare with me. Another day, another friend with no electricity (yeah, it's a little like a frontier here at times) came by with a ton of produce and asked me to make  some warm soup (for all of us, too). This past Saturday, I was blithely returning home from an artists' roundtable discussion on digital art (and in the soaring mood that can burst forth into jubilant skipping and humming) when I serendipitiously happened upon the grand opening of a community acupuncture clinic--they had the most beautiful, homemade, sensuous banquet artfully arranged with fresh, colorful, bright foods including edible flowers in the salad, tropical fruits like papaya, banana, pineapple and a rose-hibiscus-nettles herbal tea. Then, that same evening, I went to an art installation literally called "Banquet," that featured an endless cornucopia of food where the artist fed you (and it was amazing interactive social experiment as well between the artist and the "audience" since only one person at a time sat at the table as others watched). (Serendipitiously, learning more about the "Banquet" artist, I find she hosts visiting artists in an informal artist-in-residence program that opens her home to guests.  And it actually all connects to this particular post, as you'll see.)

Earlier in the week, go figure,  I had "logically" entertained the fear of starvation. This fear you'd think would utterly dissolve in the face of grace and evidence to the contrary--and yet, there is the thought that arises unbidden fixated on imaginary futures--"And what of tomorrow? What if there is no food tomorrow? What then? What then? What's next?" And it all feels  like habit, not truth. Reeks of the way habits become addictive behavior, become karmic even. A stuck pattern; a rote defense. It is in moments that are re-runs of memory that is the space to invite Ho'oponopono.

Usually before I apply Ho'oponopono I try to understand the habitual pattern deeper. It's easy to pull weeds out if you just clasp them by their top, and it may even  appear temporarily nice to have a smooth garden free of those straggly unwanted weeds, yet if their roots are still underground it's only a matter of time before they pop back through the ground into the light of day. My intention is to get to the root, or heart, of the matter, not just treat surface symptoms.

I happened to find a used copy of a book last week at Maple Leaf Books (yes, there are times when spending $5 even when you're down to $20 and no inkling of where future cash flow may happen as your leads aren't turning up any potential gigs is absolutely the thing to do that moment anyhow). This book was vital and instrumental to me years ago when I was trying to reconcile the business world I was in with the spiritual path (at that time, I leaned Buddhist).  It's called The Diamond Cutter, by Geshe Michael Roach. I often wish I had a copy with me--and now I do. It has some very insightful things to say about "stinginess" too:

"Stop being such a cheapskate in your business dealings and your personal life. Give, give, give to others; make sure deals are win-win for both sides. Again, it's not the amount of money involved, it's maintaining--all day long--a truly generous, creative, flowing state of mind that wants to see everybody prosper. Ben Franklin was perhaps the greatest statesman, scientist, and businessperson in America's history--and his response to competition was to invite all his competitors to join a new society called a Chamber of Commerce, dedicated to finding ways to work together to expand markets, and make everybody involved richer."

To be continued in Part 2.

Art credits: Tree of Life, by  earth/body artist Ana Mendieta;  unknown photographer via Tree of Life Celebration Facebook page. 

ho'oponopono ~ financial hardship ~ everything is sacred, there are no ordinary moments ~ slicing potatoes and Sufi mystic Rabia of Basra

A spiritual mentor of mine mentioned a friend (or student) of hers that was experiencing a lot of financial hardship. Her friend was in jeopardy of losing her home (and she had kids to provide for too). She and several others helped to bail her out, but the dire situations just kept recurring over and over.

The mentor said this woman was seeking to find fulfilling spiritual work that was important to the world, while missing completely that each and every moment and every activity is already sacred. Paraphrased she said, "When you stop searching for power, there's power there. The power comes when there are no ordinary moments--even peeling potatoes [is important]."

This insight was very relevant for me as I've experienced a vicious cycle of poverty in the last few years--including homelessless.  Although things are slightly better, they don't feel quite right (right as in a natural grace rather than a stressful hustling, scrambling sensation.) I too felt that I dividing everything into those bins, "This is God, this isn't. This is Life, this isn't. This is holy, this isn't.  This is me, that is not me."

There is an inclusiveness that's nondual and nondivisive when you really grok Ho'oponopono at the level of your Being. And that's how it seemingly 'works.'

I felt with all the economic woes in the world at this time it was also a potent time to apply Ho'oponopono and share that here.  The crucial step (I believe) in Ho'oponopono is to acknowledge that the energetic pattern isn't out there, in that poor suffering person and surely not I.  And neither is it strictly personal. It's a holding pattern of energy that became cyclical and stuck (in comparison to fluidity of a current), somewhat like an eddy in a river. You're just helping to release it into fluid movement again through the embrace of acknowledgement:  I'm sorry, please forgive me (for previously ignoring or excluding, consciously or unconsciously),  I love you, thank you.

A day or two after hearing the "peeling potatoes" story I shared above, I opened a beautiful book called, "Love Poems from God," edited by Daniel Ladinsky straight to this page:

It helps,
putting my hands on a pot, on a broom,
in a wash
pail.

I 
tried painting,
but it was easier to fly slicing
potatoes.

I looked up who wrote the poem. It is a female Sufi mystic and poet from the eighth century, Rabia of Basra.  Rabia's profile in the book also shared this hint and poem that speaks to healing and Ho'oponopono:

When God said,  "My hands are yours,"
I saw that I could heal any creature in this world;

I saw that the divine beauty in each heart
is the root of all time
and space.

Art credits: Young Girl Peeling Potatoes, by Samuel Albert Anker

ho'oponopono ~ busting loose from the money game ~ When you get the Infinite thing, you can relax because everything you could ever want or be, you already have and are ~ i love huckabees

Apologies for being offline since October. It costs $180 per year to keep this blog up and going, and things have been pretty tight financially--so what happens is the software provider locks me out of the the website entirely so no updates are possible until I've paid up.

So I thought I would use this opportunity to talk about financial discord, and how Ho'oponopono can be of benefit.

Also, since this discord is a fixated pattern in the holographic universe, or you can say a pattern in collective unconsciousness applying Ho'oponopono has effects well beyond the individual (well, there isn't actually an  individual separate from collective consciousness; it's all a singular consciousness in flux).  The global economy today also attests to this pattern.

Getting back into the website today I had to go clear out months and months worth of spam comments. As you might already know, spammers use real words in their gibberish to make it past the software filters. One spam gibberish comment began with the words:

"The harmony is a bank account. . ."

Which is intriguing because I consider ho'oponopono to be about harmony.

First, I'd like to say that I wholeheartedly recommend a book that isn't your typical financial advice. It fits very neatly with Ho'oponopono. The title is Busting  Loose From the Money Game, by Robert Scheinfeld.

The book is significantly contrarian (to what we've been educated, conditioned, and domesticated to believe) that I couldn't possible distill it here since I don't have a common context or framework to rely on--another book would be necessary! Why Busting Loose From the Money Game ties into Ho'oponopono is the main technique used to reclaim and acknowledge we are infinite beings in Infinity has to do with looking at where we feel discomfort (comes in many guises--stress, anxiety, and other uncomfortable feelings of pressure, conflict, restraint, stuckness, etc.) As Dr. Len has said, he looked at his own REACTIONS in regard to each patient and their case history in the criminally insane ward of the hospital. He didn't treat them with talk therapy, he cleared his own discomfort and discord.

This is possibly the one area I may have neglected to be clear on using Ho'oponopono.

It's very important to look at if and where we feel discomfort or discord. We are looking at our reactions to external situations, more so than judging whether external situations are good or bad or should or shouldn't exist in the world.

For instance, if you read in the paper about homelessness and foreclosures rising in your state, if you feel neutral reading that, there is no need to apply Ho'oponopono, because you are not sharing the pattern. (Different events may be more your trigger points.)  However, if this causes you anguish or fear or sorrow--in other words, feelings of discomfort as author Robert Schienfeld calls it (or stressful thoughts as Byron Katie names it) then ho'oponopono can be useful to clear all held patterns you may have around that.

The way Schienfeld would possibly word it, we have given power and energy to these situations, events, people, institutions in Phase 1 of the Human Game that are now showing up again so that we can acknowledge that they do not any independent authority and in fact are forms arising from and within the infinite Consciousness we ourselves actually are.  In Phase 2 of the Human Game, we are realizing that infinite means infinite, and all that that implies. (Yes, it also implies you never need to hustle nor worry for money; I know I myself allowed money to have power and energy OVER me, and that doesn't reconcile with infinite totality. Although U.S.A. bills are printed with "In God We Trust," that's not typically lived out.)

Until we truly grok at every level of being that I are infinite, I will experience discomfort at the edges we have imagined out of boundless spaciousness, and experience the discordant affects of clinging to fixed conclusions of reality based on my imbalanced perceptions.

However, those areas of discomfort are precisely the clues that will free me/we! That's where we can apply ho'oponopono (and/or Scheinfeld's process and/or Byron Katie's The Work).

To give you a flavor of the book, here's an excerpt from the Q&A section. Note Scheinfeld uses "hologram" to denote the holographic nature of form/matter, and Expanded Self, to denote Infinite Consciousness flowing through an individuated expression of 'you':

Question: You said that my Expanded Self takes great care of me, supports me perfectly as I play The Human Game in Phase 1 and 2. However, based on the painful experiences you described as being part of your Phase 2 journey and the stories you shared about the painful experiences of others, it looks like many of the things that may happen to me aren't what would be called favorable. Is that right?

Answer: "Not favorable is a made-up Phase 1 concept and judgment. Everything that gets popped into your hologram is favorable, no matter how you choose to judge it, or it wouldn't be there. There aren't any accidents. Nothing is random. If it's happening, there's a pattern in The Field that your Expanded Self put there for a reason, with intelligence, and then popped into your hologram. We all make up stories about what it means and whether it's good or bad... We judge everything, sometimes negative and sometimes positive. In Phase 1, its slightly different, but in Phase 2, everything you call unfavorable is the exact opposite because it gives you the opportunity to reclaim huge amounts of power that translates into huge amounts of freedom and joy!" - Busting Loose from the Money Game, by Robert Scheinfeld

Bonus: I watched the movie, I Love Huckabees yesterday, and it was very funny and also gave a few hints around "infinite is infinite." Plenty of people have heard of this philosophy of nonduality and may hold it as a mental construct, but living It is another thing. I thought the movie did a decent job (for Hollywood) of showing how life will provide the clues (often in the form of discomfort or as my spiritual mentor says, "fierce grace") to liberation. The movie is much more experiential, less didactic, than this video clip shows:

 

In the first clip, the blanket scene, Dustin Hoffman is using the blanket to symbolize the Infinite. I'll share the rest of that scene's dialogue below:

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why do I need to see the blanket truth in the everyday stuff?"

"You wouldn't want to miss out on the big picture, would ya?"

"Uh-uh."

"That's partly why you're here, right? I'm talking about it right now. It'll take you a while to get it, you know. But it'll help you."

"How?"

"When you get the blanket thing, you can relax because everything you  could ever want or be, you already have and are.   That sound pretty good?"

 ART CREDITS: Freedom sculpture by Zenos Frudakis

ho'oponopono ~ money woes ~ homelessness, foreclosure and eviction ~ busting loose from the money game

Yesterday, I read this letter on a website:

"Pat,
I have tried for so long and I think it is safe to say I give up. I have tried to stay as positive as I can and nothing has worked unless I am blind to things happening. In June 2011 I lost my job and I have gone on so many interviews that I cannot understand why, I wake up at 5 every morning and live as though I am going to work actually get on my computer and do work. I have tried to manifest the things I need for my children but I nothing has worked. God knows I need a miracle, tomorrow at 1:30 I go to court to be evicted out of my home because I have not had money to pay the rent since August (I managed June and July). Today I sit here on my computer with a smile on my face because I know if I let go of this smile I will cry unstoppable. I have tried all that I am aware of and nothing has worked."

I was homeless for 18 days in 2010. And I'm not talking about couch-surfing at a friend's and not paying rent--been there, done that too. It was one of the most harrowing experiences of my life.

In some ways, it is sort of surreal as eleven years ago, I was making $88,000 a year and my ex-husband was probably earning something close to equivalent (I don't recall his income, he was consulting at energy companies part-time and day-trading Internet stocks). I never balanced a checkbook back then as there was always enough for whatever I dreamed up. I traveled all over the world. However, I'd not traded places for those times. I lived in a rather narrow, secular world that only consisted of what I knew through my five senses and cognition.

"Most people cannot conceive of any meaning when their life, their world, is being demolished." - Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth

*****

Ever since I hear that Obama read ten letters addressed to him each evening at the White House from citizens all over the USA, I've decided to read the individual, personal stories on WeAreThe99Percent site, and do ho'oponopono on them. A little each day. There are many people struggling right now. It's a big topic for one shot, yet it all fits the theme of power/powerless imbalance that already started a few posts ago.

Symbolically, which means unconsciously, the message in homelessness is not inhabiting your Self. It is a disconnect with your own Self. This abandonment of your Self happens long before the exterior home is lost; that's just the last straw. This is usually also the case in a foreclosure as well, losing touching with expressions of your Self. Most people are taking their mind-made little self as their Self... at some point, something internal/external appears to revolt at that confinement. Or maybe it is consciousness that asserts itself, I'm not sure what is the instigator as at the level of language it's all paradox.

It's the self coming home to itself I guess, no matter what.

*****

Why Bodhidharma Went to Motel 6

"Where is your home?” the interviewer asked him.

“Here.”

“No, no,” the interviewer said, thinking it a problem of translation,
“when you are where you actually live?”

Now it was his turn to think,  Perhaps the translation?

-- by Jane Hirschfield, After

*****

The origin of the word dwell means "to dig deep." I already know what happens when I stay on the surface of things. I already know what happnes when I avoid, or try to follow the cues of the culture. None of that digs very deep.

I see in that letter above my own little self scrambling to strategize and scheme up ways to stay afloat--all using what Dr. Len would deem memory. That worked in 2008, maybe I can do that. That worked for X, maybe I can do that. Scrambling.

Inspiration requires a bit of stillness and a bit of surrender to the moment without a reference point. The word surrender can be scary, I mean here surrender to the Infinite, not a capitulation to your self-pity, or a resignation to playing small. I see myself in that letter even though I'm not freaking out (now, I have). I can see how the letter brings up my own self-pity, the feeling of lack of options closing in on me, constriction, and clinging to old societal and 'safe' solutions as salvation. So I clear on that. I thank the letter-writer for reminding me how I can worry and try to solve my problems from an unconscious fear-driven place. I love you. I thank you. Forgive me. I'm sorry. I love you. 

Q: I imagine that the sapling that pushes its way through the soil can't be in total harmony with the present moment either because it has a goal. It wants to become a big tree. Maybe once it has reached maturity it will live in harmony with the present moment.

A: "The sapling doesn't want anything because it is at one with the totality, and the totality acts through it. "Look at the lilies of the field, how they grow," said Jesus, "they toil not, neither do they spin. Yet even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." We could say that the totality--Life--wants the sapling to become a tree, but the sapling doesn't see itself as separate from life and so wants nothing for itself. It is one with what Life wants. That's why it isn't worried or stressed. And if it has to die permanently, it dies with ease. It is as surrendered in death as it is in life. It senses, no matter how obscurely, its rootedness in Being, the formless and eternal one Life." -- Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth: Awakening to your Life's Purpose

*****

Early this week, I also read the below (so true). And laughed. It's hard. It's fierce grace. Yet as with 'health' I shall learn that 'wealth' doesn't depend on externalities. That will be a real liberation when flow and grace aren't about watching a bank account like a hawk, whether there is 24 cents there or $24 million. Most of the difficulty I experience is fundamentally resistance (i.e. not surrendering to the Infinite).

"In life, purifying experiences often move us into extreme places emotionally, so that we will release control, become vulnerable so as to be open, and allow our heart to rise above our head in surrender. On a 3D level, this can suck and be dramatic, but one eventually learns about grace (always an experience). On a 5D level, this becomes alchemical, and while discomfort likely remains a bit, there is also the “magic” of witnessing synchronicity and the universe/god meeting you just as you break through the veil of fear." - Britt Martin, October 17 2011

*****

I am reading a rather unconventional book called Busting Loose from the Money Game, by Robert Scheinfeld. Typically, I'd never read a book with a title like that. 

Yet these are not typical times. What felt like dire financial straits has me asking more open-ended questions about what I don't know that I don't know. And thus I stumbled into this book. It's very riveting in that it is not like any book on money I've ever read. It's about not allowing money to enthrall you into believing that power is contained in it. It's about know that power is in the Infinite and you are being guided to reclaim power, and once you know that (it's a very application focused book, not just to read, but to do) than money ceases to be a concern at all. I believe it has a lot of parallels to Ho'oponopono as the idea is to not see 'power' as external, to clear up any emotional reactions, and to trust Divine inspiration. Before I grok that, however, all the old beliefs--including work hard, keep your nose to grindstone, stay positive, worry, get more proactive and make things happens--get nearly violently challenged. The fiercer I hold onto old beliefs (memory, or programming as Dr. Len would name them), the harder I make it on myself.

"I explained that in Phase 2 all your core beliefs will be challenged and then dynamited to support you in opening up to The Truth and your natural state of Infinite Abundance." - Robert Scheinfeld, Busting Loose from the Money Game

*****

And finally, I had to love this story, that I also stumbled into two days ago.

"We had very little money and no foreseeable prospects. One evening after we had splurged on dinner and a movie, we walked back to our car to discover a $25 parking ticket. I just turned inside out with despair, but Steve did not seem to care. He had a deep well of patience when it came to discouragements. We drove to the ocean near Crissy Field in San Francisco and walked out onto the beach to see the sunset, where I began talking about money worries. He gave me a long, exasperated look, reached into his pockets and took the few last coins and dollars we had and threw them into the ocean. All of them."

Did you recognize who the characters in this true life story are? It's about Steve Jobs.  In an essay written by his first serious girlfriend Chrisann Brennan about when they were young (I didn't catch exact ages, maybe 18-21?). It's nearly unnatural for me to admit this, but I am clearly being supported in being shown patterns, seeing reactions clearly, and getting a chance to clear them once and for all.

Perhaps then I shall not put power into things, even things like coins and paper bills. 

There is one power and it flows through everything.

*****

I recently finished all the pages to scribble in a bland gray colored journal (yeah, and gray tends to reflect symbolically a confused/doubtful pattern of thought). The last notes in there are about the solar plexus chakra around power and my thoughts (references this list of chakras).

My mom gave me a new journal (and she's not particularly religious, btw, which made it all the more serendipitious). On the front cover are joyful teal and green colored birds flitting and alighting on tree limbs, and it reads:

Look at the birds of the air;

they do not sow or reap

or store away in barns,

and yet your heavenly

Father feeds them.

- Matthew 6:26 NIV

p.s. If you wish to donate... I also derive a great deal of benefit from feedback and exchange,  in comments or via email. Thanks.

ho'oponopono ~ mr. obama pained he cannot do more to help ~ how to help other people ~ power / powerless seesaw

I was reading about the El Hierro evacuation* this weekend, when my eye caught the headline, "Making Obama Feel Powerless."

I clicked over since the powerful/powerless pendulum of polarity was showing up powerfully and repeatedly for me in terms of Ho'oponopono clearing work.

And, in all honesty, when I have 24 cents as my total net worth, the whole world seems to collude in telling me I'm worth less and powerless. (Yes, a lie yet a powerful cultural meme. It's part of the shame/pride pendulum of polarity... which beyond that lies just simply growth that's not black-and-white failure/success.)

So as far as Ho'oponopono, I look at my own reactions. I must admit that Mr. Obama is coming across as tepid, unsure and powerless to me. This may reveal some recurring patterns that I also hold about myself. This isn't about fixing Mr. Obama, it's about what is within me that judges him--usually reflecting some conditioning, held memory, programming, shared pattern of perception, shadow stuff, etc. that relates to myself.

I read the story, which ends up being much more moving than the catchy blurb "Making Obama Feel Powerless" would lead me to believe. It's about how the president selects ten letters each day to read from the sackful of mail addressed to him personally. My first thought, truly, was whoa! that's a lot of ho'oponopono clearing to do... ten per day  (typically there'd be various number of issues in each). Although, I suspect Mr. Obama doesn't know about ho'oponopono.

"“Some of these letters you read and you say, ‘Gosh, I really want to help this person, and I may not have the tools to help them right now,’ ” the president said. “And then you start thinking about the fact that for every one person that wrote describing their story, there might be another hundred thousand going through the same thing. So there are times when I’m reading the letters and I feel pained that I can’t do more, faster, to make a difference in their lives.”

For the past year, I had been reading Obama’s mail and traveling across the country to spend time with some of the letter-writers. I had learned firsthand that people tended to write to the president when their circumstances turned dire, sealing a prayer into an envelope as a matter of last resort." -- "The letters that make Obama long for his community-organizing days," Washington Post, October 14, 2011

There might be another hundred thousand going through the same thing. That's often very true as many patterns are shared collectively, and dragged over and over again from the past into the present. 

I thought it was interesting that Obama used the word 'pained.' I admit to that reaction sometimes when confronted with some situations in the world today. A part of me was pained that there wasn't more I could have done to prevent Steve Job's death. It seemed so preventable to me. (More on that in future posts.) 

However, that is a dangerous role to play. That one of savior, helper, etc. That's not how Ho'oponopono operates. Speaking of power and powerlessness seesaw, it's a view that puts the 'other' in the role of being powerless. As well, it sets up a sort of dependency (quite distinct from interdependence). Someone on G+ pointed us to a Machiavellian list of ways to have power over other people. Rule number 11 was: "Learn to Keep People Dependent on You To maintain your independence you must always be needed and wanted.  The more you are relied on, the more freedom you have.  Make people depend on you for their happiness and prosperity and you have nothing to fear.  Never teach them enough so that they can do without you." The role of Ho'oponopono isn't to create dependency. Everyone is divine with exactly the same resource, Source.

"Dr Hew Len then learned that his job is to help himself by letting go of how he perceived handicapped children. Dr Hew Len learned that as he changed the way that he perceived handicapped children (quite like how he changed the way he perceived the mentally criminally insane at the Hawaii State Hospital in the late 80’s) they change.

Dr Hew Len points out that is most important to look at our own world first, and if we are willing to do that, our impact on the whole Cosmos will be enormous.

Dr Hew Len went on to stress that most people think they are here to help other people [and he was trained to do so] and bring peace to the world, but we are only here to bring peace to ourselves, because by bringing peace to ourselves, we bring peace to the world (and not the other way round).

Dr Hew Len says that the only thing that works is if we look within ourselves and clear up the “stuff” in us. He points out that as he does this, he notices that people get well and are able to start taking responsibility for themselves.

Dr Hew Len points out that we never experience things correctly, but we always experience our reaction of them. Dr Hew Len knows that when he meets people, he does not experience them the way The Divine created them, so he continuously cleans by saying to The Divine “I am sorry for what ever is going on in me that I do not experience people the way you created them. - What is Ho'oponopono? by Saul Maraney

 I'm not sure if that is clear to you. What it means in my application is I do not clear on Mr. Obama, nor do I clear on his reactions to his letters, nor do I clear on the letter-writers problems. I look within myself and see what does all this bring up for me? Reactions? Mirroring? Anything that I feel is relevant. And that's what I clear on. My own perceptions that are based on memory, rather than the Now.

So I perceive Mr. Obama as powerless. Fair enough. But that's not about him, I often judge myself as powerless. I can feel the imbalance, and I can feel how I give away power and energy too easily. Often in the form of being worried, concerned, pained about others (and trust me, that doesn't do them any good as then I am actually seeing them as incompetent and incapable rather than their true essence which is immaculate and whole as the Divine).

BONUS: I know it can be difficult to believe that the best thing you can offer another person that appears to be going through a difficult time is to clear yourself. Here is another perspective from Abraham-Hicks. (Note her use of "Vortex" here means when you are in a lucid spaciousness of being and operating from Inspiration rather than memory.)

When you expect another to succeed without your help, you see them as their Source sees them. When you believe another needs your help and you sure up their weakness with your strength, you help them not.

When you are in your Vortex and in alignment with your Broader Perspective, and are focused upon other humans, your attention to them is helpful. When you are aligned with the powerful Energy of your Source, anything you focus upon receives the benefit of your gaze.

When you are in your Vortex, and in alignment with your Inner Being, you are then tuned to seeing only success in the other humans you are observing. Whenever you are aware of the problems of others, it always means that you are not in your Vortex and you are not in alignment with the way the Source within you is viewing them.

When you are feeling the discomfort from seeing other people in a lackful or needy situation, and you decide to help them from your place of discomfort, no lasting value ever occurs, for two important reasons: first, you are not in alignment with the Energy of your Source, and so you have no real value to give; and second, your attention to their need only amplifies their need.

Of course, it is a wonderful thing to help others, but you must do it from your position of strength and alignment, which means you must be in alignment with their success as you offer assistance, and not in alignment with their problem.

It is easy to know if your offer is coming from a place of alignment or resistance because you can always tell by the way you are feeling. When your awareness of their situation makes you uncomfortable and you offer help to make them feel better and to make yourself feel better, you are not in the Vortex and you are not helping. When you feel an inspired eagerness to offer something because you want to participate in their happy, successful process, your attention to their success harmonizes with the point of view of your Source, and the infinite resources of the Universe are at your disposal. And that does help." - Getting Into The Vortex Guided Meditations, Abraham-Hicks

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ho'oponopono 100% responsibility ~ occupy wall street ~ i am the 100%

I wrote this for a by-request, private (only private as not everyone on Google+ wishes to receive spiritually-oriented posts) Google+ circle (join me there).

At the end of this post, I add in more about 100% responsibility aspect of Ho'oponopono. I'll also write more soon as far as my 'reactions' and how I cleaned them. Okay, here's what I wrote:

Below is an excerpt from a first-hand account from an Occupy Wall Street protester at Brooklyn Bridge today. Accounts vary, but anywhere between 500-700 people were arrested as the police appeared to pen in the marchers by blocking both ends of the bridge. (I'm not sure of the actual story as I was not reporting from the field.)

Exactly one year ago today I was living in NYC.

I'm not sure if I were there today I would take part in the Occupy Wall Street protest.

I can certainly identify with many of the frustrations of the protesters there today. I was broke, I was running out of options: tried and tired all the grant proposal crayon inside the line forms, tried potential investors (long story, 'twas a media venture), tried X and Y and Z's and Kickstarter campaign and plain hustle. Gave up. Try the government. Trudged to the food stamp office, uh-huh so they'd alert my landlord, and that would send them red flags (I was month-to-month, not on a lease) -- so there goes that. I'd never felt so powerless. So I left NYC before rent was due up again. I did not Make It in America. Near penniless with just enough for airfare, I moved in with family.

So yeah, I can certainly identify.... and yet.... I am not 1%. I am not 99%.

I am the 100%, and I don't see that message conveyed much.

Except I just did when I read this. There are instances... for instance, that one woman.. .you'll recognize her when you get to that point in the story below (and this again is an excerpt of a longer piece at http://carlygsdrafts.wordpress.com/2011/10/02/on-the-occupywallstreet-arrests-tonight-on-the-brooklyn-bridge/) conveys the I am the 100% (and no, I don't believe she was flirting, btw):

"We stood there for a while, and when it started to rain, we got under an umbrella with an older, white couple who looked to be in their mid-sixties or so. Then they walked up to a police officer, spoke to him, and he motioned for them to approach the ranking officer in front who was standing with a bullhorn. We then saw this couple walk out of the netted area and leave.

At this point, Rebecca and I walked up to the same ranking officer and politely requested to leave. We were told no and to get back in the crowd. We overheard two officers holding the netting asking each other what they were going to do with all these people. They obviously had no idea what the leadership’s strategy was, if any. We then went under the umbrella of a group of young women who were in their teens and twenties and were talking to a detective (or someone with the NYPD who was wearing an overcoat). He asked us some very leading questions: “Are you all together?”, “So no one told you to disperse?”, “Did you know you would end up here?” We said we had no idea what was happening. Then he told us to talk to the same ranking officer with the bullhorn. This time when we approached, the cops gave him a signal and he motioned for us to all pass through. Just like that.

As we were leaving, I asked one of the women what she had said to the officers before we came over and why they had let us go. She said she had struck up a conversation with an officer and told him he was “beautiful” and a “beautiful person” and that the “love and good vibes” she had sent his way seemed to have an impact on him."

Alas, in the next sentence the writer belittles the magic and power of the 100%, the compassion of unconditional love and remarks in response to the truthfulness of that woman, "Oh, I’m sure."

It's so easy to be jaded. Dig deeper. Be still. Feel the undercurrent.

Be sure of love. It's there's 100%.

*****

What does the 100% mean in terms of Ho'oponopono? Well, Dr. Len keeps repeating 100% responsibility for everything pretty much all the time, so if you follow this blog you've already heard that. Yet most people focus on the "responsibility" part of 100% responsibility. (And recall, responsibility isn't fault--don't guilt-trip on this.) In fact, just in writing this down I also was struck with idea that actually Ho'oponopono restores my ability to respond. Usually, I am operating from unconscious patterning, programming, conditioning, memories whatever you name it---it's  reactionary. I might call it responding, but the truth is it is very automated, even repetitive (if you've ever caught yourself repeating patterns or cycles you know what I mean) and thus reacting rather than responding. 

100% responsibility. Well, eventually the idea goes as that conditioning loosens up, I'll respond 100% of the time rather than blindly follow the commands of the unconscious, I'll be tuned to the vast present moment's Infinite intelligence.

100% is 100%. No wriggle room. Just consider it a little more next time you try Ho'oponopono. Sit with the idea of 100%. To me, it feels whole as in Wholeness. Totality. One. Nothing is left excluded. 99% is denying a part of the Whole.

I also like what Saul Maraney wrote in terms of 100% responsibility and Ho'oponopono:

By "taking 100% responsibility for whatever is going on in our lives, we are in essence saying to The Divine: “I am 100% responsible, the problem is within me, and I would like You to convert whatever that memory, debt [this could catch the attention of protestors?], block, error or problem is to nothing.”

And when The Divinity converts the block or memory to nothing, we return to back to our original state which is Zero or clarity.

Dr Hew Len says that only when we have clarity, can The Divinity provide us with insight, inspiration and whatever is perfect for us." (This last excerpt copyright © Saul Maraney - 2008. All Rights Reserved.)

I am the 100%.

ho'oponopono - diabetes & pancreatic cancer - pancreas = sweetness of life - gifts of imagination - steve jobs

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.”"