Is Ho’oponopono A Religion?

This frequently asked concern has a simple (and a more complex answer). The simple answer is, there’s nothing in ho’oponopono practice that any religion contradicts. In my view you can be a Hindu, a Christian, a Jain, a Buddhist, or Jewish. Just do your cleaning and you’ll be fine.

The more complex answer has to do with where Ho’oponopono originated. It also is concerned with the nature of the original Christian missionaries who came to Hawaii (where ho’oponopono was practiced) during the 1820s.

Ho’oponopono (strictly a ho’oponopono) is a rite carried out by a specialised elder (known as a Kahuna).

It is a form of therapy created originally in order to correct a perceptual error between groups of people (villages or island tribes) who were in danger of fighting each other.

The error was one of perception in which the cares of the world were having more bearing upon the groups than what people had in common.

When every person in a dispute is balanced, then fighting is impossible.

The ancient tribes of Hawaii were never defeated in a battle by Westerners (who were undergoing changes in their technologies due to the agricultural and industrial revolutions).

The problem was that the tribes were more psychologically balanced, and so the unbalanced Westerners (who were enclosing lands back home, colonising the Indian sub-continent and much of the world, and warring amongst themselves) were inevitably better prepared for fighting.

Every colonising force brings with it a religious culture. Colonists attempt to destroy the previous culture and impose their own religious beliefs.

Unfortunately, ho’oponopono was already an established practice when the first missionaries arrived.

Moreover, these people weren’t conventional Christians, but belonged to sects from Boston (who had migrated there from Europe where they were persecuted).

As a result of the missionaries influence, the traditional Hawaiian practices were suppressed. The Kahunas robbed of their power, and ho’oponopono was treated as one of their rites.

Today, ho’oponopono is about taking 100% responsibility for whatever comes into your life.

No matter the problem it’s 100% yours to solve.

When you think you’re only 50% to ‘blame’ for whatever is occurring, or it’s all the other person’s fault, you’re acting under the influence of memories housed in your subconscious.

Western courts of law attempt to calculate such numbers, but that’s not how things work in the psychological world.

Providing your religion has no objection to you taking 100% responsibility for whatever challenges you face, then by practicing ho’oponopono you cannot be doing anything ‘wrong’.

Taking 100% responsibility does not mean that you must bear all of the costs in a dispute, and the other person pays nothing. Rather, you are both 100% responsible. However, when you clean on any emotional baggage arising within you as a result of your conscious mind’s reaction to a dispute, this baggage gets cleared from your opponent too.