TEXAS HO’OPONOPONO

Greetings All,

My friend and mentor, Dr. Joe Vitale (Mr. Fire) threw a lavish dinner party at The Cedar Grove Steakhouse in Wimberley, Texas last night. It is the story leading up to the Steak House that I wish to share this afternoon.

My wife, Suzanne is Dr. Vitale’s Publicist and Executive Assistant. She manages many of the minute details of all the moving parts of Joe’s amazing professional empire. For the most part that is a 7 day-a-week job. On Saturdays and Sundays she may not work as many hours but work she does. In fact when Joe invites us to these functions I actually get to spend more time with her one-on-one than I do at home.

Yesterday we knew this party was on the calendar and early in the morning we both talked about all the things we needed to do to be ready to leave on-time for Joe’s dinner. Yesterday of course was a Friday and the dinner was scheduled for 6pm. My wife knew this because she sent out all the invitations. Throughout the day we both clean as often as we can. She is especially good at cleaning when things start to get painful or complicated.

First, the steakhouse is in Wimberley, which on a normal day is about an hour and twenty minute drive. Secondly, the party was scheduled for 6pm which meant that Suzanne and I would be traveling during Friday-evening rush hour, which could bump the travel time to an hour and a half or more. We programmed this into our on-time schedule and chose to leave no later than 4:30pm. Suzanne also owns her own business and when she has completed her work for Joe at the end of each day she’ll stay up as long as she can keep her eyes open to work on her own business.

Yesterday was no exception. She anticipated meeting certain people at the party last night that she does business with and needed to make arrangements to get some materials to them. Before I started the cleaning practices of Ho’oponopono, I would often blame Suzanne for not being ready when it was time to go. We all know how well that will support a loved one (not).

Now though, I just accept what is in front of me and I clean and I clean and I clean (usually). At 5pm when Suzanne was still trying to wrap up her Joe-work and gather all that she needed for her “other” work and get ready for the dinner party I was “I love you I love you I love you…” When I pulled out of the driveway I looked at my watch and it was 5:07 pm. I took a new route that turned out to be a great time-saving way to get to the steakhouse. I set a personal new best-time from our home in North East Austin to the steakhouse in Wimberly, Texas. As the big hand moved on around to 12 on your standard analog clock, Suzanne’s pain in the truck became drinkable.

She revealed her shame and self-disappointment but then we cleaned and we cleaned and we cleaned all the way to the dinner party (that she sent the invitations out for). My new best driving time was one hour and three minutes to the steakhouse. That meant that we arrived at 6:10pm. We walked the short distance to the front door of the lovely restaurant and Suzanne asked where the large dinner party was already meeting. The hostess corrected Suzanne and said “The reservation isn’t til 7pm, you can wait at the bar.” We were by far the first ones to arrive.

My darling very hard working, juggles-more-than-you-can-imagine wife looked immediately relieved and we played two games of chess in the bar waiting for the rest of the crew to arrive. It was a great night.

I love you.

Bruce

Greetings All,

The first half of my life was spent exploring the vast spectrum of esoterica and the pathways of that which is often called metaphysical. The second half of my life until about a year ago was devoted to snickering at, being irritated by and actively disbelieving or unbelieving what I was drawn toward in the first half. At business meetings or social gatherings if anything touched upon that which I unbelieved and there was a need of some sort to reply I would simply refer to myself as the bitter skeptic.

I remember all too well how my process worked when I was being what I might sarcastically refer to as cultivated by various paths. 1)You hear an idea you really like. 2)You are given some “proof” of that idea in action. 3)You are given a method by which you can reinforce the original proof that was given to you. 4)You actively seek to continue proving what this outside source gave to you to begin with. 5) [like a good book] You actively suspend your disbelief [unlike a good book] forever.

My experience with Ho’oponopono has been quite different. Prior to being exposed to Ho’oponopono by my good friend Dr. Joe Vitale, I would say that I was in a terminally-indifferent state. Some might think this is akin to detachment - it is not. It’s more akin to practiced apathy. It was two words that created the mildest fizz in my brain as I sat eating a steak at a dinner Dr. Vitale put on with guest speaker Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len: “Zero State“. My practiced apathy was briefly suspended as those two words entered my thoroughly apathetic system. I had heard of Zero State in regards to science and something I could calculate or evaluate in a real world application was just the opposite of the “wu-wu”-think and “wu-wu”-talk of metaphysics.

The steak dinner and the words ‘Zero State‘ were all I took away from that first night with my dear friend Ihaleakala Hew Len. I remember people stranding in line to shake his hand and get autographs. My apathy produced these thoughts “Why bother?” I noticed that glazed-over wu-wu look the people in the line had as the stared at the “guest speaker” originally from Hawaii.

I could go on proving what a bitter skeptic I was but I think the point is well made. I’m still apathetic about many things - one of those things being the traditional celebration of Christmas. My wife and my beautiful in-laws are like Christmas addicts. Last night I was driving alone in my perfectly apathetic way to Christmas Dinner. The drive was about an hour into the Hill Country from Austin so I cleaned most of the way. On part of the drive I would agitate my apathy with some of the Ho’oponopono concepts. The one that dominates my attention these days is that all that is ONLY exists within me.

I was working with that at 65 m.p.h. in the center lane on Mo-Pac when an old pickup truck passed me on the left. I didn’t think much of it though with old pickups you can usually see right into the cab because this truck pre-date tinted windows. I noticed the man was not sitting squarly behind the steering wheel but was kind of leaning toward the right and foward a bit. “Probably talking on his cell phone.” I thought.

His speed was slightly faster than my own therefore he stayed in front of me for about a mile. I saw him swerve slightly into my lane and immediately correct his course and get back into his own lane. “Wind” I thought. For the last few days there has been a strong wind advisory in the Austin area and I know even my tank-of-a-truck gets pushed sometimes by the strong winds. Another mile passed and his speed had decreased enough for me to catch him. As I grew closer to his truck, I suddenly had the insight he wasn’t on his cell phone he was dozing off.

I wasn’t sure my “insight” was true but that was the last thought I had when I decided to take some action. I began to clean on the truck that was within me that I had seen swerving. I cleaned on the man that was in the truck that was within me as well. I cleaned like this for about two minutes slowing my speed to follow the truck. Two minutes into cleaning the old pickup suddenly crossed three lanes of traffic at about 70 mph on a hill with no guardrail in a second.

The man that I am grateful for inspiring me to clean on myself had fallen completely asleep at the wheel. He slept through crossing the entire freeway at 70mph. Somewhere in the last lane of traffic he must have awoken. As I continued to clean his break lights turned bright red and he straightened the direction of his truck from driving off the shoulder and off the hill to being on the shoulder and coming to a complete stop. I don’t know what else that man got for Christmas this year but I bet waking up and bringing his old truck to a complete stop was the best present he’s had in years.

When I describe these experiences (I’m having them all the time now)to my wife or friends, I preface these stories with “Another Twighlight Zone thing happened today.” I’m not so vain to think, let alone write that I know what really happened. I don’t. I only know that I was being 100% responsible according to the teaching of Ho’oponopono as I’ve been taught. I didn’t see any Angels, I didn’t hear any voices, no strange feeling came over me. I simply drove on to Christmas dinner as I passed the now parked man on the side of the road.

The truth that is present with my current experiences relating to Ho’oponopono is that I learn far more about Ho’oponopono from cleaning and working on being 100% responsible than all the seminars, books, DVDs and audios I’ve experienced so far. What I mean is that for me, Ho’oponopono is a perfect process in that I don’t have to take anyone’s word about what it does or how it works. I don’t have to conform to a set of experiences to validate that I’m doing something right. I’m not sure if I witnessed a miracle or not. I saw a man wake up and pull his truck to a stop. I’m inspired to keep cleaning to see what happens next.

If you are inspired to share a story, ask question or just comment on what I’ve shared today, please feel free to leave a comment or write me directly at bruce@hooponoponotexas.com. Tomorrow at 6pm I am facilitating the FIRST TEXAS HO’OPONOPONO Meetup. If you are interested in attending please click the Texas Hooponopono Meetup icon to the right of this post.

I love you.
Bruce

Greetings All,

I remember my father staying up all night to get way-too-hard-to-put-together items together for his childrens’ early morning rise of Christmas day. I’m sure I gave it no more thought than “neat”. Well some things never change I suppose. Last night the father-in-me spent 7 hours from 7pm to 2am tearing down my old office desk and building my new office desk. First of all I didn’t receive the new desk with all it’s parts and secondly NO INSTRUCTION MANUAL. So my map of how to put together my 700 seperate-parts desk was a googled photo online.

While I tore down the old desk I apologized to it for not taking better care of it and asked the deskto forgive me for never having cleaned it (physically and Ho’oponoponoishly). I cleaned and lived in that place where cleaning is everything. I remember appreciating how easy it was to get the 1000 pound desk down the stairs (I did all this “upstiars”) as a result of gravity and the slick relationship between carpet and smooth wooden surfaces.

Interestingly though when I hefted the first new piece to carry back upstairs suddenly I was cussing. I caught myself once I arrived in my upstairs office pondering how quickly I went from cleaning to data (cussing). It looks so easy when you are comfortable and there are no life pressures trying to drown you. One of the things I’ve found is that I feel more now as a result of cleaning. I know the part of me that DOESN’T want to deal isn’t happy about feeling so much now.

My wife was sharing a story laced with drama the other night and I finally had to raise my hand. I was experiencing so much pain listening to her story I had to make her stop. I’ve always prided myself on being a really strong guy. I’m not so sure anymore why that’s prideworthy. If these feelings or the ability to feel has always been present but I tricked myself out of them through the data-lie of “I’m a tough guy” then I’m ready to let go of that illusion.

So, back to the desk. The new desk was different in a few minor ways than the old desk. I was cussing and walking around it and NOT ACCEPTING the new desk I had just spent 6 hours building. I was not loving the new desk. I was projecting this faultiness onto the new desk. This particular desk holds most of my office equipment that represents tens of thousands of dollars worth of tools I use to create my income. It is the foundation on which those tools rest and I was cussing it.

When the 50 pound surface piece collapsed and fell on my face was the defining moment when I stopped cussing and thought about WHAT I was doing and WHAT I was creating. How typical of me. I remember how odd I thought Ihaleakala at first when I he talked about the sacredness of the room we were in and the chair we each sat in. He said (Zero Limits I) “The way you treat this room will tell me about the way you treat yourselves.” Does the way I treat my desk tell me the same thing? I believe it does.

Ho’oponopono is not always convenient, it’s not always easy. Sometimes, in the face of pain and tragedy or the sense of personal failure or personal loss it seems impossible to clean. That of course is the data speaking. Ihaleakala has suggested more than once “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you were to just clean all the time and avoid the pain and heartache of what the data will bring?” The first thing I’ve noticed with cleaning as much as possible nowadays is that the evidence of human drama has been shoved in my face. I’m like “I just want to clean” and all around me I get “But take a look at THIS!” The way that I describe this to my wife is often “Honey, life is so ‘twighlight zoneish’ now everyday!” and of course it is.

The desk is now put together and even when I am sleeping it serves it’s purpose. Perhaps I can teach the desk to clean.

I am the Organizer of a Meetup Group called Texas Ho’oponopono. Our first meetup is on 12/27/2007. You can find the details at http://spirituality.meetup.com/196. You can also find the Meetup.com decal in the right sidebar of this page (just click it).

I love you.

Bruce

Greetings All,

Since the recent Zero Limits II in Maui, my cleaning/hour has increased considerably.  Recently, I met with a business woman who offered her Acting Studio as a meeting place for the Texas Ho’oponopono Meetup Group.  I arrived early (an hour early) for our loosely scheduled meeting to find she was teaching a group of actors.  I bought myself a bottle of water to sip on while I waited.  I REALLY wanted to handle this particular moment right so I introduced myself to the building then asked permission to enter.  Being new at this I have no idea what the building’s response was so you’ll have to ask it yourself someday.

I sat in my beautiful gas-loving Surburban and cleaned.  I had no idea when I’d be able to meet my contact so it wasn’t like I could set my watch alarm.  I cleaned for nearly an hour in the cozy comfort of my truck and near the end I was nodding out.  I briefly wondered what some of the strangers might see if the exited the acting studio to pass by the big guy snoring at the wheel.  That being a fear - I cleaned on it as well and was sound asleep when the first actor exited the studio.  It was probably the changing of the light as the man walked by my truck that woke me up.

Rubbing the sleep from my face, I left my truck and asked the man if the acting lesson was over.  He looked at me a little odd then reassured me they were just taking a break.  I tried to find my massive bodily stores of caffeine hoping to wake up enough to make coherent sentences as I strode up to the studio door.   I was greeted with warm smiles and very thoughtful kind people as I entered the studio.  My contact wasn’t anywhere to be found so I made myself at home on one of the comfortable chairs in the studio.  After getting my bearings a moment longer I began to clean again.  While I was cleaning I noticed all the actor headshots placed neatly on several walls high up near the ceiling.  I thought to myself “All those people are in me”.

I’m a little bigger than a kitten but you get the idea. 

I had a fear I might fall asleep again in the studio so I cleaned on that as well.  After about 20 minutes a mature woman who looked like she was in charge suddenly appear nearby.  I say “suddenly” because maybe I had fallen asleep - I never saw her walk in the room.  Just to be clear, I have great staying-up tolerance.  I could easily sit in my office chair for 14 hours working and not be slightly tempted to fall asleep.  I could work on my feet that long as well and go another 8 hours if need be.  I’m speaking specifically of cleaning.

So, once I noticed the woman who looked to be in charge, I walked up to her and introduced myself.  She greeted me before I reached her and addressed me by name.  It must have been the pink Zero Limits T-Shirt with my name on it that gave me away.  She asked me what I thought and I said with a smile “It’s Perfect”.  I looked around a little more just to be convincing, thanked her and a few of the nearby actors then left.

I often clean when I’m driving.  I used to get caught up in Road-Drama sometimes.  I’d even call my wife and bitch about traffic (now that’s some conversation she’s really missing…not).  When my 4 wheel drive, Ranch-Hand front bumpered tank is in motion my main objective is not to hit the little cars.  When my cleaned rage-free driving turns to a nap though - I take a break from the cleaning til I can park the ‘Burb.

I mentioned to Ihaleakala while I was in Maui how hard it was to stay awake - I was passing out at 8pm (on vacation no less)fully dressed on top of the covers with the lights on.  He said something like “Oh yes.  I forgot to mention that would happen.  Cleaning takes a lot out of you.”   He also mentioned that cleaning while someone was asleep was the best time.

I love you.

Bruce

Greetings,

When I first met Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len in January of 2007 I told him a story about how I locked my keys in my truck. Two sentences into the story he grabbed his throat. Then he pointed at me. He said “A choking…something wrong…Is there someone in your family that has a hard time breathing?”

Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len 

He ran my story completely from my mind. My father had been diagnoised with Congestive Heart Failure and his major symptom was that there was fluid around his lungs which made it very difficult for him to breath. It was a family secret, no one besides my wife had a clue about that at the Seminar.

We talked about it briefly. He said “Keep me up to date about your father please.” So, I cleaned on the part of me that was “a sick father”. Ihaleakala sent me a specific technique I could use. For months I had attempted to get my father to come to Austin where there are some amazing alternative medicine practitioners. His greatest concern/complaint was that “modern medicine” was making him sicker, perhaps even killing him with the horrible side affects. Daddy was politely resistant to visiting “communist” Austin and dealing with the “quacks”. After having practiced the technique that Ihaleakala sent me for some months one day out of the blue I got a call from my father that he wanted to come to Austin. He liked one of the practitioners and didn’t like the other one. He got some relief from the one he liked.

My confession here is that I was (am?) lazy with Ho’oponopono. I treated it like a fad or a new card trick. I got the satisfaction of “I got my Dad to come to Austin with Ho’oponopono” and just dropped the practice. I had a life after all, who has time to clean all day.

Months and months went by and the second Zero Limits seminar was approaching. Lazy, no-cleaning Bruce experienced all the life-comes-to-a-screeching-halt-for-a-vacation-to-Hawaii anxiety and resistance. There were at least 10 times I told my wife “I just wont go then!” (pout pout pout).

We finally made it to Maui exhausted. The second night we were there was the beginning of the Seminar. I’ve participated and contributed to various forms of Seminars since about 1983 so I was ‘in my element”. All along the reports of my father were that he was getting worse. Being strong willed and determined my father flew back to Alaska where he works and worked while he was sick.

On the second night of the Seminar in Maui, I found Ihaleakala and some folks from New Zealand in the lobby as I was returning from a friends birthday party. I sat with him and listened for a while as he spoke to them. Finally he looked over at me and said “I see a stream of water gushing out of each ear. The water is very cold, almost freezing. I have no idea what it means. Some time later that evening he said “I see the water going to Alaska.”

About 3am the next morning I was awakened from a deep sleep to the sound of gushing water. I turned on a light and saw that two streams of cold water were pouring from the ceiling of our hotel room. The air conditioning had run amok.

Since the Maui Seminar in Maui I now clean most of the day while doing other things. A few days ago I had heard my father was in the hospital in Alaska. This worried me because he was so far away and if he needed my support it would not be easy to reach him. Note: My father’s condition was that he was retaining water so badly he couldn’t walk. Both thighs had swollen up two twice their size, he couldn’t put his shoes on because of how large he feet had swollen and everything from his waist down was basically double or tripled in girth from the water retention. He has been like this for a year and a half.

So I called him and he did affirm he was in a hospital in Alaska. He also informed me that he had lost 50 pounds of water weight in 3 days. That the treatment they were giving him was working. He said “Today I’m going to attempt to walk for the first time. I’m going to try to stay here (the VA) as long as I can. Whatever they are doing is working.”

I cannot prove to anyone in an empirical manner that there is a relationship between what Ihaleakala saw and what my father told me a few nights ago on the phone, however this is not the first time I’ve seen something miraculous occur as a result of cleaning.

Thank you Ihaleakala. I love you.

Bruce

Hello Readers,

I’ve started a meetup group at Texas Ho’oponopono.  Some of you will have arrived here from there.

First I want to say that I “learn”, “understand”, “get” Ho’oponopono to a much greater degree by cleaning than by listening to a teacher, discussing with a fellow cleaner or teaching it to someone else.

I have a client that I’ve been working with for quite sometime.  I’ve explained everything I “get” about Ho’oponopono to her and it almost as if something prevents her from hearing a word I’ve said.  I don’t mean that as a judgment.  That’s just the level of communication difficulty I’m experiencing with her.  So I clean on it.

Whenever we speak of Ho’oponopono, she will inevitably make the turn in the conversation about “What can Ho’oponopono do for my finances?”  I know that at least a few people have published information about wealth and Ho’oponopono.  For me, my answer to her in my heart is a) “nothing” and b) “I don’t know (just in case “a” is incorrect)”.

Here is what I’ve “gotten” out of cleaning on the topic:

1. There is nothing “outside” of myself.
2. When I look at my life, if there is a hole or a need or a question then I clean.
3. Once upon a time I would try to fill the hole with an intention.  If I was on the other side of the experience (something in a memory) I would try to fill the hole with an assumption (same as an intention just different time perspective).
4. An Intention is My Will.  Cleaning and Trusting the Divine Process is the Infinite Potential of Zero and some may know this as Divine Will.
5.  I see myself in a cave.  The “outside” of the cave is Zero or Infinity.  When I am faced with needing a change or the fulfillment of an outcome, then I can either construct my own human-based solution (closes the cave) or I can surrender my well being to the perfect will of God through the process of cleaning (pushes me out of the illusion of the cave into the reality of the infinite, the divine where all things ARE possible now.)
6. I think it’s silly that we might embrace a technique that is asking god to fix us but then backseat drive and tell Divinity how to do it via our “intention(s)”.
7. Since I think it’s silly obviously I need to clean on it so I am.

I love you.

Bruce

Hello Everyone,

Just back from Maui, Hawaii on the amazing Ka’anapali Beach. I spent 5 amazing nights there, mostly helping and learning from Ihaleakala Hew Len.

Just back and I’ve started my first Meet-Up group. You can find it at http://spirituality.meetup.com/196/

More later.

Love,

Bruce