by: Zinn Jeremiah
The general belief among most people is that human beings are limited in terms of how they can affect the universe. In other words, a human being can do some things to alter their world, but certain barriers are in place that humans simply cannot pass through, no matter how much they should want to do so. This is not to say that humans are utterly powerless to shape their existence, because this is clearly not the case; but most of us presume that we humans are limited in terms of what we're able to affect.
Ways of thinking that contradict the belief that humans are limited are often viewed with a skeptical eye. The Law Of Attraction, for instance, advocates that people can and do make their worlds what they are simply through thoughts. So then people are where they are and are what they are because they've thought a certain way. And this approach isn't figurative: The notion of Law Of Attraction is essentially that humans can bring things of a material nature into their lives by the power of thought. It's probably no surprise that Law Of Attraction and its belief system of thoughts creating one's world has many critics among the general public.
A belief system that also advocates humans as active creators of their own reality is ho'oponopono. Ho'oponopono, unlike Law Of Attraction, does not advocate the idea of people being able to attract whatever they choose by thought alone; ho'oponopono instead states that people can change their lives for the better through submitting a proposal of sorts to a higher power and asking for positive change. Though this description may sound as if ho'oponopono is some form of religious practice, it truly isn't, at least not in the classic sense. Ho'oponopono does believe in a higher form of existence, sometimes referred to as God and sometimes referred to as something else; but there isn't any belief system within ho'oponopono that embraces an idea of sinful behavior and resulting punitive consequences.
The most vital question for most people would be whether ho'oponopono as a form actually results in a better existence. Evidence is certainly available that ho'oponopono gives one an improved outlook and a greater sense of optimism, so in that sense it could be said that ho'oponopono does indeed work. This sort of evidence almost certainly wouldn't appease all those with doubts about ho'oponopono's legitimacy, but ho'oponopono absolutely has a committed core of followers and their numbers get larger as more people become aware of ho'oponopono.
