I Used To Ask Why

I have journeyed from feeling like a victim to taking personal responsibility. Victim hood was probably a step up from where I started in that I suffered quietly and alone. When I looked outside myself and compared myself to others, blame came in and with it victim status. Then my question might have been, "Why did this happen to me"?

Along the way I made choices and took responsibility for them and saw projects through to completion. But I still blamed Dad for our poor relationship and Mom for dying when I was a teenager. That perspective took a radical turn when I went to a lecture at a Science of Mind Church that presented the idea that I chose my parents. While that idea did not make me happy, I did see the potential in it. If I did make that choice then there was a reason I knew in some space and time. So I extended my sense of responsibility beyond my conscious choices to include other things that directly impacted me.

My next awareness along the personal responsibility continuum would be illustrated by the question, "Why me, why this, why now"? This reflected that I was drawing people and experiences into my life on some level. Everything was feedback for my spiritual consciousness. The answers reflected some theorizing like, "Did I break my toe because there is something going on I can't stand", or "Is there some way I am not wanting to stand on my own two feet", or even, "Is there someplace I should be standing up for myself more"? I didn't usually know the answers to my questions but I asked them and moved on without feeling the victim of circumstance.

And until recently, I would explain things to myself by saying, "There is no one out there but me". Somehow this meant to me the reaction I was getting back from others and circumstances is somehow a mirror of what I am projecting. So if I didn't understand or agree with what was happening, I would call it "Curious Karma" knowing, or at least believing, somehow it was connected to me. I encouraged others to take responsibility for what was happening in their lives. I helped other people solve their problems. I could be insightful and incisive.

All this leads me to my recent encounter with Ho'oponopono as presented by Joe Vitale and Ihaleakale Hew Len, PhD. in "Zero Limits". I thought I was pretty far out there on the personal responsibility scale, but Joe and Dr Len were much further out than I had ever even entertained. They are saying that I am responsible for creating even the problem situations that everyone are experiencing through erroneous thoughts within myself. This is more radical than "there is no one out there but me" and also a logical extension of that idea.

There is an power to this idea. If I am 100% responsible for actualizing the problem, then I can be 100% responsible for resolving it using love, forgiveness and gratitude. The system is elegant in it's simplicity of using the mantra, "I love, you, I'm sorry, please forgive me, thank you", to address the Divinity within me to transmute the erroneous thoughts resulting in whatever shows up in my life.

I have been experimenting with this approach whole heartedly now for 3 weeks. The outcome is that I no longer ask why. Not "Why me, why this, why now". I don't expect to know. I am simply cleaning my and my ancestors' erroneous thoughts. The result is a great decrease in stress since I don't need to figure out the solution. I repeat the mantra until I come to a place of peace or get an inspiration of what action to take next. I am not trying to explain Ho'oponopono as you can read the book. I am noting personal movement even further out along the personal responsibility scale.

It is yet another way I love my life so much and definitely falls into the Gamzu department. This too is for the best!