This summer, at the request of Ritsumeikan Uji High School in Kyoto, Japan, we had the opportunity to introduce Ho’oponopono to its students during their visit to Hawaii Island.
The program grew out of a teacher’s hope that, over a study trip of about a week, the students would take time to face themselves while experiencing the nature and culture of Hawaii.
It Began with a Book
It all began with a message that arrived last year.
One of the teachers, while planning the destination and program of a study trip for third-year students, remembered a book on Ho’oponopono read some time before, and reached out to us.
The message included these words:
“Working with students every day, I sense that many people are so swept up in their busy days that they do not have time to reflect slowly on how they themselves are living.”
“I wonder whether, through SITH Ho’oponopono, they could have an opportunity to look at themselves.”
And so we came to introduce Ho’oponopono to high school students on Hawaii Island.
On the day, the mini lecture began in the breakfast room of the hotel where the students were staying.
SITH Representative Kamaile Rafaelovich (KR) and Irene Taira met the students, who were hearing about Ho’oponopono as part of their study trip of about a week.
After about an hour, when we stopped for a break, some students went out of their way to come and ask questions they had not raised during the lecture.
They were trying to take what they were hearing about Ho’oponopono for the first time as something about their own lives.
That is how it felt in that moment.
Cleaning on What Comes into View
For the second half, we went outside and walked along the shore.
“Using the cleaning method we talked about earlier, try cleaning on whatever comes into view and whatever suddenly comes to mind.”
With those words, the students and the teachers who had come with them each set off walking in their own way.
We found a pleasant patch of shade facing a cove and gathered together once more.
“What did you experience?”
We shared what each of us had experienced and, wrapped in the sound of small waves, ended by doing HA breathing together.
Even after it was over, no one seemed in a hurry to leave.
They seemed to be taking in, with their whole being, the breeze passing through the shade.
Right around then, an alert from the State of Hawaii went off with the news that the 54th episode of eruptive activity had begun at Kilauea volcano.
It was happening on the same island, during the very time the students stood on Hawaiian ground, cleaning.
Having just talked about how land, too, has an identity, it became an experience I will never forget.
What the Students Took Home
Later, Ritsumeikan Uji High School sent us some of the students’ post-trip survey responses.
“I actually encountered this way of thinking that does not exist in Japan, and I was able to learn many ways of thinking that I could never have considered just by staying in Japan.”
“We rarely get the chance to think about ourselves, our past, or our future, so it was really good that I came to Hawaii, encountered a new way of thinking in Hawaii’s environment, and had the chance to think about my own life.”
The teachers who accompanied the students also shared this summary with us:
“Encountering Hawaii’s own culture and ways of thinking gave the students a meeting with new values, and it became one of the most highly rated programs of this study trip.”
Another teacher also wrote to us that, among the programs of the Hawaii course, this one “received an especially large number of positive comments from students.”
Students meeting Ho’oponopono for the first time each took something in and spent time thinking about themselves.
Being able to hear their voices like this made us very happy.
Ho’oponopono Can Be Found in Many Places
Ho’oponopono is a door, open to all beings, through which we can meet our true identity.
Some young people, as on this occasion, meet Ho’oponopono for the first time as one part of a school study trip.
Outside the classroom, in the midst of Hawaii’s nature, there was time to think about their own past and future. Ho’oponopono was right there in that time.
Since the late Morrnah Nalamaku Simeona introduced to the world a Ho’oponopono that anyone can practice, it has spread to many different places.
It reached Japan as well, where many people have continued to practice it in their own daily lives.
And now, in unexpected places like this, a new generation is meeting Ho’oponopono.
We are sincerely grateful to have been present for one such opportunity, and to all of you who have cherished and practiced Ho’oponopono until now.
