Ho’oponopono And The Law of Correspondence

Do you know the expression ‘As above, so below’?’ It’s based upon this Law of Correspondence. It’s a Western idea that claims that whatever is going on in your life is a mirror of what’s happening inside of you.

It’s the opposite of the concept that our contexts determine our behaviours because we must adapt to them.

The most well-known example of this is the story of Viktor Frankl who spent some time in a Nazi concentration camp. There he was surrounded by death and brutality yet he noticed that some fellow prisoners didn’t allow the context of the camp to affect them psychologically (even though whenever required to walk around they avoiding the gazes of guards, stooped and were careful in what they said, and to whom they spoke). To them the camp was a challenge to be overcome, much as our much softer generation might find challenges in the various layers of a video game.

Eventually Frankl was released, but not before his wife and child had been murdered.

Frankl isn’t the sole example. The singer Barry White grew up in poverty on a project in California. At first he survived by being a member of a gang where he carried out a number of crimes common to the life of a gang member. Eventually, he was sent to jail where his sole ambition was to turn his life around and his back on the crimes of gangland. People thought him crazy, yet he walked twenty miles into Hollywood which was a completely different context for him. The rest is history.

The popular YouTuber Mr. Beast also wasn’t an overnight success. He made videos from the age of twelve and was determined not to be sent to college (where his mother was determined he attend after he finished high-school). In the knowledge that he was really a YouTuber (and was probably also a philanthropist at heart), after leaving high school he doubled down to make a success of his YouTube career. Since then he’s given away millions of dollars, sponsored free food kitchens for the poor, planted huge numbers of trees, and continues to go from strength to strength.

All this is possible because Mr. Beast is inspired rather than following the dictates of society (which are encoded as memory).

The whole idea of the correspondence between our Inner and Outer Worlds is so commonplace that proponents of Advaita will tell you that there is no inner and outer. Instead there simply Is what there Is. Shri Ramana Maharshi held this to be the case for all of his lifetime. At the age of twelve he gave up a middle class (Brahman) experience, gave his gold earrings to a stranger and lived as a sadhu (much to his parent’s dismay).

Once again Ramana is acting from Intuition, rather than any kind of context based upon norms, values, or memories.

The aim of ho’oponopono is to get back to a similar space as that of Ramana Maharshi, yet in doing so we may experience the sense of fun provided by Mr. Beast, the determination of Barry White, and the tragic insight gained by Viktor Frankl and countless others.

Ho’oponopono is never about the acquisition of health, wealth, or other things for their own sake, or our personal pleasure. Rather, it’s concern is for us to act impeccably (which means to follow Divine Intuition rather than be derailed by Karmic-Data and memories).

Rather than focusing on the external chaos, cultivate peace within yourself.