What Is The Ho’oponopono Prayer?

The short answer to this question is that the ho’oponopono prayer is:

I am sorry
Please forgive me
Thank you
I love you

It originated with Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len (a native Hawaiian who had trained in psychology at three American Universities, before he became disillusioned and so spent the remainder of his life as an ambassador for ho’oponopono).

Dr Hew Len attempted to complete four workshops with the founder of modern day ho’oponopono, walking out of each as he was unable to come to terms with what was being taught. Finally, he completed his first workshop on the fifth attempt.

He is said to have ‘healed’ an entire ward of criminally insane patients (using only this prayer) whilst working as a psychologist.

During this period, he says that he only worked with the patient’s notes and never the patient in person.

One must be cautious about the validity of this claim for all the reasons given in my book.

Dr. Hew Len says that ‘It was not easy’, also that three patients were relocated elsewhere and that he didn’t complete his work alone.

Many attest to the effectiveness of Dr. Hew Len’s prayer (myself included).

It is directed at your subconscious (inner child). This part of your psyche clings to you. It records everything in many different dimensions (rather like these words, typed on a computer, aren’t stored within it as letters but as binary numbers indicating how the computer is supposed to behave). 

This computational-like data is the target of the prayer. The aim is to clean (delete) it.

Once it’s deleted from one mind it goes from all others who share it.

In the case of the three patients who were transferred elsewhere after the psychiatric ward closed shared no more karmic-data with Dr. Hew Len yet they continued to do so with others.

This is why they continued to be held by the State of Hawaii.

In order to understand why the prayer works through the unconscious you must understand more of the structure of the psyche as defined within ho’oponopono.

This topic is addressed elsewhere on this website.

There are older, and different prayers in ho’oponopono. In particular there is Morrnah’s prayer.

Morrnahs Prayer

Divine creator, father, mother, son as one…

If I, my family, relatives and ancestors have offended you, your family, relatives and ancestors in thoughts, words, deeds and actions from the beginning of our creation to the present, we ask your forgiveness…

Let this cleanse, purify, release, cut all the negative memories, blocks, energies and vibrations, and transmute these unwanted energies into pure light….

And it is done.

This was part of how Morrnah Nalamaku Simeona, the founder of modern day ho’oponopono worked.

It’s is used in longer ho’oponopono ceremonies (which may be necessary when addressing complex problems).

Recently, Dr. Joe Vitale has promoted a fifth phrase which he adds to the prayer.

This is ‘I forgives myself’.

This is taken to mean that Divinity (in which we are enmeshed as the ground of being) forgives the individual ‘you’ that you imagine yourself to be.

In my view, this addition isn’t ho’oponopono because Divinity has no interest you your imagined ‘wants’ or ‘desires’. You do not command it, although you may be able to command forces hierarchically beneath it.

If anyone, or anything is forgiving an individual, it’s either Divinity (because it has been petitioned, and will delete harmful data and replace it with pure white light) or a function of your subconscious and consciousness (operating as the system, commonly thought of as the Soul).

I do NOT use the fifth phrase.