Ho'oponopono: The Hawaiian Ritual of Forgiveness

By Ulrich E. Duprée

A new expanded edition of the bestselling guide to Ho‘oponopono

• Includes new practical exercises and contemplations to help you immediately create positive changes in your everyday life

• Explores the process of practical forgiveness and how to use Ho‘oponopono to transform personal problems, resolve relationship conflicts, and heal the past

• Looks at how to use Ho‘oponopono on a collective level to bring peace to the world

Ho‘oponopono is the ancient Hawaiian method for transforming personal problems, resolving interpersonal conflicts, and healing the past through the power of forgiveness. At the core of Ho‘oponopono are four magical sentences: I am sorry, Please forgive me, I love you, Thank you. A deceptively simple yet enormously effective practice, Ho‘oponopono is centered on the concept that we are all deeply connected and that small acts of forgiveness and reconciliation can ripple outward to help and heal others.

Newly revised and expanded, this bestselling guide offers practical exercises and Ho‘oponopono contemplations to help you immediately create positive changes in your everyday life. The author explains how Ho‘oponopono means “restoring the divine order.” Whether it is your relationship with your partner, your children or parents, your health, Mother Earth, your business, job, or financial situation, Ho‘oponopono can help you set straight anything veering off course through understanding and self-forgiveness. The author explores the process of focusing on difficult conflicts within personal relationships, whether in the present or the past, and shows how, by addressing these issues, owning one’s feelings, and accepting unconditional love, unhealthy situations transform into positive outcomes and growth. He also looks at how to use Ho‘oponopono on a collective level to bring peace to the world.

Presenting a step-by-step introduction to the ancient ritual of Ho‘oponopono, this book shows how practical forgiveness work can help bring healing to self, family, and community as well as support all of humanity to become more connected and loving again.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Inner Traditions/Bear & Company
• Release date: Sep 26, 2023
• ISBN: 9781644118818

Ulrich E. Duprée

Ulrich E. Duprée is a spiritual seeker, a teacher, and a leader of seminars. He has studied and trained in yoga, philosophy, and metaphysics and he lived in a Hindu monastery for four years.

Book preview

The Adventure Begins

This book is about forgiveness—so what better way to begin than with a dramatic story of sacrifice? It was just before Christmas 1970, when I was eight years old, that my father bled to death on the carpet in front of me. Why? How was this fair? What did it mean?

Whenever we are about to embark upon a journey, such as the journey of life itself, we have no way of knowing what will happen, and so it is only in retrospect that we can really grasp the significance of the events in our life. No doubt you have also experienced how a significant event such as a divorce or an illness can later turn out to have been beneficial or indeed even a blessing after bringing about an important turning point in your life. The low points we encounter often prove to be among the most fruitful. During my search for answers to the meaning of life I have met people who, each in their own way, have opened a new door and afforded insight into different spiritual paths: Christian teaching, gnosis (esoteric knowledge), anthroposophy, Taoism, yoga sciences, and finally huna. While all of these paths might appear very different at first sight, I have come to the conclusion that they are merely different productions of the same play, to use the theater as a metaphor—the one universal truth that is revealed in every age and in every culture.

I was conducting a family constellation in 2008 when one of the participants came up to me and handed me an audiobook about Ho‘oponopono (and Cosmic Ordering) by Bärbel and Manfred Mohr (Ho‘oponopono, eine Methode zur Realitätsgestaltung). He told me that I would get something out of it. I had seen the word Ho‘oponopono before but had not given it much thought because of its odd spelling and pronunciation. After the constellation, I listened to the audiobook’s introduction and then had what people call a mystical experience—one that was to be repeated. In a kind of vision, I saw four white fields melt into one. My skin seemed to be glowing, and I felt as though something was breathing right through me. I was rather taken aback, but the principles of Ho‘oponopono and Huna lay spread out before me. As a Hawaiian shaman later explained, something had been reactivated within me, and just as the right side of our brain often grasps things as a whole in a fraction of a second, the left side takes a little longer to piece things together, so I began to research, learn, and practice Ho‘oponopono.

In 2009 I wrote a book about healing oneself and the world (Heile dich selbst, und heile die Welt), probably the first book in German to describe in detail how to conduct the original Ho‘oponopono, the Hawaiian family ritual, using case studies and a Hawaiian glossary. I would like to use this book to introduce you, the reader, to the spirit and the concept of Ho‘oponopono and Huna in an accessible manner rather than as a dry textbook. I am deeply grateful that you have taken an interest in this book and I have no doubt that you will find a number of pearls of wisdom hidden within.

In the Hawaiian forgiveness ritual of Ho‘oponopono we are in possession of a key that can open doors in what were previously simple blank walls. That is why at this point I would like to express my thanks and deepest respect for all those throughout the world who have left behind the keys to such doors for us, and for all those who will do so in the future.

In the protected seclusion of a small archipelago in the middle of that most peaceful of oceans, the Pacific, a method of healing has survived through the ages. I would like to introduce you to this precious flower from Hawaii, a tender and delicate—indeed, holy—bloom that is also considered the most effective way of resolving conflicts and problems. Welcome to the world of Ho‘oponopono.

What Is Ho‘oponopono?

Ho‘oponopono is a way of solving and resolving internal and external problems and conflicts while at the same time healing relationships: your relationship with yourself, with other people, and with your environment. It is one of the traditional cleansing techniques in Huna, a practical system for shaping your life in a purely positive way. Hu means knowledge and na is wisdom. The keepers of these old and in some cases secret teachings are known as kahunas (experts in Huna).

In a Ho‘oponopono we cleanse ourselves not externally but rather internally—mentally and spiritually—of destructive patterns of behavior, negative beliefs, misunderstandings, and wrongdoing. In other words, we cleanse ourselves of whatever causes problems for us and for others. At the very heart of the process is a simple and effective forgiveness ritual. This dignified and elegant method of forgiveness and reconciliation makes it possible to resolve challenges that

Reviews for Ho'oponopono

[biunicorn_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Ho`oponoponoThe Hawaiian Forgiveness RitualAs the Key to Your Life's Fulfillmentby Ulrich E. DupreeThis little 95 page wonder has fast become my new best friend. As a spiritual seeker and also in my role as a spiritual adviser I have come to realize that the biggest stick point for most of us has to do with the ability to forgive and love ourselves and others. The coolest thing about this precious bundle is that in just four simple easy steps it showed me how to release the old pain and flow with spirit.This blessed ritual can be used at anytime for any situation.I also fell in love completely with the gorgeous pictures throughout and the gentle exercises that helped me get back in touch with God. This wee giant has easily made it's way onto my bedside table. I would recommend this mighty warrior to anyone seeking a road map for smooth sailing into peaceful waters. Thanks Ulrich, this tiny messenger will save millions.Love & Light,Riki Frahmann