Who Am I?

Have you ever noticed that whenever a problem comes up, you are always there? Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len, a well-known student of Morrnah Nalamaku Simeona, who founded the popular ho’oponopono, used to say this. He revealed the incredible presumption behind ho’oponopono in this statement with a Zen Koan-like elegance.

You cannot tell who you are, so much as ‘know’ who you are. Morrnah Simeona tells us that in traditional Polynesian Hawaiian culture, children were brought up to know who they are from a very early age. The Polynesians who came to Hawaii eons ago were remarkable people. They knew how to navigate the vast Pacific Ocean in small canoes with outriggers, yet without compasses. They simply knew where they were by creative, inspired instinct. Australia and New Zealand’s aboriginal people can do something similar by foot. For them and the Hawaiian Polynesians, the act of living (and dying) are spiritual experiences.

Morrnah calls this ability Creative Divinity, and it is indescribable, yet mystics and poets have always attempted to point to it, either in words or deeds. Westerners would call it love, before the term was diminished in value by ideas about romance or holy doctrines.

‘The Analysis of Sensations’ by Ernest Mach, 1897.

Let’s try an exercise: Two people look into a paper tube from opposite ends. On the basis of the evidence of your own eyes, how many faces can you see? You may only see the person at the opposite end of the tube. The concept that you’re present has to be created as a conjecture. Try as you might, you’ll always discover yourself using such ideas as ‘others have heads, and say that they can see mine’ rather than experiencing yourself as a head directly.

An Hawaiian symbol for a person as described by Morrnah Nalamaku Simeona

This is the same kind of tangled hierarchy (or strange loop) which Dr. Hew Len speaks of in his comment about the nature of problems. According to Morrnah, the ancient Hawaiians represented the individual as a triangle within a rectangle. All things are comprised of the rectangle’s substance (and radiated from it). Via a process within the rectangle, they are filtered until they appear in 3D as your familiar world. The fact remains; however, they are filtered and so life appears to happen. There is no world out there upon which to act. All perceived activity is the result of filtering, and it’s apparent solidity is due the 3D plane upon which you find yourself as a result of the karmic data that you carry.

So, remember that you are always there when a problem comes up, and you can’t tell who you are so much as ‘know’ who you are. You have the ability to navigate life with creative, inspired instinct like the Polynesians and aboriginal people. Embrace your Creative Divinity and understand that all perceived activity is a result of filtering. You are in control of your own perception of the world.