The Mojo of Contentment
I’m beginning to realize that it’s one thing to be striving to be happy but contentment is where the mojo is. Contentment goes way beyond happiness as it includes being satisfied, which has a deeper, more long lasting flavor to it.
I have found Ho’oponopono to be a powerful mindfulness practice for letting go of all that is in the way of being truly content. What I love is that it’s so simple! Even though it’s also complex. 🙂
The complex part is understanding the simplicity of it.
Let me explain.
It’s simple, it’s easy, to say the mantra, “I’m sorry, please forgive me, thank you, I love you.” And yet there is a lot in the way blocking the simplicity of it all. The blocks are our unconscious beliefs, which in the language of Ho’oponopono is described as data, programming or memories. This data is what is blocking inspiration, our inner muse, contentment.
Lets see if this resonates with you, because it has the potential to change your life. No joke.
In the teachings of Ho’oponopono, the whiteboard is used as a metaphor to describe “Zero.” Essentially, you can erase the writing on a white board (the writing is the metaphor for all of the beliefs and programs and memories blocking inspiration) but you can’t erase the whiteboard itself. You can’t erase Zero, you can only erase what’s blocking zero.
The Whiteboard = Zero (the void where you can receive inspiration)
The writing on the whiteboard = Data
The eraser = The Ho’oponopono Mantra
The Ho’oponopono mantra erases the data, the programming, the memories blocking you from living your life from inspiration. It’s this data that creates the same old dramas and patterns over and over again.
Inspiration is the key to getting off the treadmill and creating something new in your life.
I’ve written in earlier blog posts about Dr Hew Len, the well known Hawaiian Psychologist who worked in the Hawaii State Hospital many years ago. He didn’t do typical psychotherapy with these criminally insane patients. Instead, he healed them by healing himself.
What I’m saying is that he didn’t see the patients professionally, although of course he did see him in the halls and around the Hospital. He would instead sit at his desk and read their charts. As he read them, he would clean and clear himself by saying the Ho’oponopono Mantra.
Now, you may be wondering, how could clearing and cleaning himself help criminally insane patients get better? Literally all but one did. This doesn’t make much sense, does it? Read on…
Dr Hew Len would look at patients charts, and he would see they were a murderer, rapist, done something pretty terrible.
As he looked over the charts, he paid attention to what he felt inside HIMSELF. And this is the CRUX of Ho’oponopono. He could have been feeling anger, sadness, resentment, and judgement. Whatever he felt within himself is what he “erased” off the whiteboard. This is what he meant by clearing…He wasn’t trying to clear the mentally insane patient, he was trying to clear what he noticed within himself that participated in the creation of the patient.
Read that one again. Or maybe even a few times. Yes, he is saying he participated n the creation of the patient and all the crimes committed.
You may be asking yourself, how on earth did Dr Hew Len participate in the creation of a mentally ill criminal that he knew nothing about until he met them at the hospital? I get it, it’s pretty mind expanding to think this way.
This is the deal; If you believe you create your own reality, like I do, the practice of Ho’oponopono takes this belief to the furthest level of responsibility that I know of. Dr Hew Len has been known to say “if you create your own reality, and someone shows up in your reality that happens to be a mentally ill criminal, then you created them too. After all, if you create your own reality….they are in your reality. Right?”
Gulp.
The good news is you can erase the data by saying the mantra. Your choice in every single moment is to live your life from inspiration or memory. Virtually all of us are coming from memory most of the time, without this kind of awareness. We are coming from something we have done before, from past programming vs something new spring boarding out of inspiration. It’s all of this “programming” that In Dr Hew Len’s teachings we want to “clean” and “erase. ”
It’s pretty cool because when practicing Ho’oponopono we can clear programs, memories, beliefs that we are both consciously and unconsciously aware of. We can “clean” the feelings and fears and everything else we are conscious are coming up by saying the mantra, on those very specific feelings. And, we can say the mantra in the background of our minds pretty much all of the time too. When we do we are “cleaning on” the data we are completely unaware of. I know this is mind boggling to understand, and it’s best not to attempt to figure it all out. Instead, “clean on it” and let go.
I’m finding that the more I clean and clear and erase, the more I even ever so briefly get to zero and receive inspirations…new business ideas, new thoughts, aha moments! Don’t you want to live your life from inspiration vs the stuckiness of past programming? I promise you, that’s where the mojo is!
When you are at zero, at what Buddha called “the void,” you will experience a moment or maybe many moments of clarity and inspiration. This will expand the more you dedicate yourself to this profound mindfulness practice. When you are living your life from past programming, from memories, from unconscious beliefs, from what the Hawaiians call “story,” you are STUCK. And that just simply doesn’t feel good.
When I notice I don’t feel good, I say the mantra! Not only does this practice bring awareness to my thoughts and feelings, it allows me to let go and receive new thoughts…..inspiration.
Ho’oponopono is about letting go, so that you can be content with what is! It helps you let go of the same old drama that shows up over and over again by erasing the unconscious beliefs creating the drama in the first place. Isn’t it time to get out of your own way and create your heart’s desire? Are you ready to take the plunge?
Aloha Nui Loa,
Dona