I am Responsible for What You Think and Do

Ho'oponopono Prayer

In my book "Unicorn Magic" I write about a therapist in Hawaii who cured an entire ward of criminally insane patients - without ever seeing even a single one of them. The healer's method consisted in studying an inmate's chart and then look within himself to see how he created that person's illness. Then, as he improved himself, the patient improved. The therapist had used a Hawaiian healing process called ho'oponopono ("to set right").

As lightworkers, we know that we have "total responsibility" for what we think and do. But can we really influence others for the better, just by working on ourselves? The Hawaiian therapist who healed all those mentally ill patients would say yes. He teaches us an advanced - complete - perspective about total responsibility.

His name is Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len. He worked at the Hawaii State Hospital for 4 years. The ward where they kept the criminally insane was dangerous. Psychologists quit on a monthly basis. The staff called in sick a lot or simply quit. People would walk through that ward with their backs against the wall, afraid of being attacked by patients. It was not a pleasant place to live, work, or visit.

Dr. Len on the other hand never once saw his patients face-to-face. He agreed to have an office and to review the inmates' files. While he looked at the files, he worked on himself. As he worked on himself, his patients began to heal.

"After a few months, patients that had to be shackled were being allowed to walk freely. Others who had to be heavily medicated were getting off their medications. And those who had no chance of ever being released were being freed. The staff began to enjoy coming to work. Absenteeism and turnover disappeared. We ended up with more staff than we needed because patients were being released, and all the staff was showing up to work. Today, that ward is closed." 

The million dollar question: "What were you doing within yourself that caused those people to change?"

"I was simply healing the part of me that created them", he said.

Dr. Len explained that total responsibility for your life means that everything in your life - simply because it is in your life - is your responsibility. In a literal sense the entire world is your creation. If you take complete responsibility for your life, then everything you see, hear, taste, touch, or in any way experience is your responsibility because it is in your life.

This means that illness, terrorist activity, the president, the economy - anything you experience and don't like - is up for you to heal. They don't exist, in a manner of speaking, except as projections from inside you. That's what the Buddhists mean when they say "nothing exists from its own side". The problem isn't with them, it's with you, and to change them, you have to change you. This is tough to grasp, let alone accept or actually live. Blame is far easier than total responsibility, but healing for Dr. Len, and in ho 'oponopono in general, means loving yourself. If you want to improve your life, you have to heal your life. If you want to cure anyone - even a mentally ill criminal - you do it by healing you.

How did Dr. Len go about healing himself? What was he doing, exactly, when he looked at those patients' files? He explains it this way:

"I just kept saying, 'I'm sorry' and 'I love you' over and over again. Turns out that loving yourself is the greatest way to improve yourself, and as you improve yourself, your improve your world. I was simply evoking the spirit of love to heal within me what was creating the outer circumstance."

"It would take a whole book to explain this advanced technique with the depth it deserves. Suffice it to say that whenever you want to improve anything in your life, there's only one place to look: inside you."

"When you look, do it with love."