This practice of forgiveness and healing literally translated means something like ‘to put to right; to put in order or shape, correct, revise, adjust, amend, regulate, arrange, rectify, tidy up, make orderly or neat” and it is quite similar to the Buddhist notions of clearing karma. It’s a ritual that can be implemented to rectify injustice and put the relationships in a community – personal or public, within a family or wider groups – in order, to clear the emotional clutter and reconnect once again, or it can be used daily as a small mantra, as an antidote to arrogance and selfishness, a spiritual and emotional exorcism and reminder that resonates by repeating the sentences: ‘I’m sorry, please forgive me, thank you, I love you’.

The Hawaiian shamanistic heritage and rituals pertain to the nature of all things by saying all life is connected and the Ho’oponopono ritual and mantra therefore depart from the Western notion that you can only actively heal your inner universe. In Ho’oponopono we heal others as well because by regulating our energies, taking responsibility and answering the questions that will arise through the mantra itself -“What am I sorry for? Who have I wronged in any way? Who do I need to forgive now? What do I have to be grateful for? Why do I love you? Do I show you love?” – We take responsibility for our behavior and actions in the world and therefore fix the collective energies.

As a regular spiritual practice this forgiveness is based in the intertwining of our lives and all we are, where the separate beings are manifestations of the same and a part of a larger fabric of society – ‘you are in me and I am in you’. And if energies are disturbed it will cause dissonance, malice, resentment and evil as well as the sickness of the body. By forgiving, letting go, being responsible for the wrong doings as well as a means to fix the relationships you’ll heal yourself and put all around you in order. This is Ho’oponopono – arrogance cannot live in a place where there is forgiveness