About eight weeks ago I was loaned a copy of Zero Limits. (You may recognize one of the authors (Joe Vitale) as being one of the people interviews on The Secret).

You can read the reviews on Amazon which I generally find to be accurate.

I'd summarize the book / philosophy as:

• All Is One / Everything's interconnected

• You're responsible for everything in your life, even the 'bad' stuff.

• Ho'oponopono is a tool you can use to 'clean' / 'clear' error patterns / belief systems / programs which are causing the 'bad' stuff from your life.

• As you clean with Ho'oponopono you clean everyone who has similar programs (All is Connected after all).

The first two assertions aren't unique - they're found in other worldviews familiar with anyone who's been on the Journey for any length of time.

The assertion that I'm responsible for everything in my life, including the icky bits is something I've had difficulty fully accepting e.g. how exactly did I choose to manifest my daughter being hospitalized for serious infections? One paragraph helped me reframe this idea:

"What happens in life is not your fault but it is your responsibility. ... In short, you can't blame anyone or anything for your current reality. All you can do is take responsibility for it, which means accept it, own it, and love it. The more you heal what comes up, the more you get in tune with the source."

Some of the reviews note that the book reads like one long sales pitch for the weekend Ho'oponopono seminar - no argument from me on that point. I will note that both in the book and on one of his sites Joe states that the mantra given in the book is the fastest way to clear i.e. my take is that really all you do need is the mantra that you can get from the book.

The same entry also states that for some people the more they cleaned, the more things have gotten difficult for them.

This has been my experience, at least initially.

After about a week or two I finally realized what this reminded me of - a Violet Flame Meditation, the main difference being that I've experienced things getting harder after doing a VFM once or twice, whereas with the Ho'oponopono mantra the process was more gradual.

The mantra is simple:

• I Love You

• I'm Sorry

• Please Forgive Me

• Thank You

visualized as being directed to the Divine.

I found as I did this that how I experienced it changed how I perceived to whom / what it was being directed.

Sometimes I'd perceive it as being directed to my self (little i), sometimes to the Divine, sometimes to both the Divine and little i, as part of a call and response. This isn't too surprising as one quote in the book noted that when you're asking forgiveness of the Divine, it's not that the Divine needs you to ask forgiveness but that you are asking to forgive yourself.

My experience with this mantra may be atypical in some respects. When I was introduced to it I was in about week four of what I later realized was an approximately nine week period where a lot of crud was being cleaned from my life. During this first four weeks I had spontaneously entered into two emotional detoxes, each of which lasted a week. About a day after I begin working with the mantra I triggered another emotional detox which also lasted about a week.

About two weeks after this last detox I experienced a "Perfect Storm" of stressful events in all the major areas of my life (work, divorce, children, car, physical health). Some of this released fairly quickly but a couple lasted another three to four weeks before clearing up.

Needless to say, it's been an, um, intense, nine weeks.

One more point which relates to manifestation which is also consistent with what I've read elsewhere in esoteric writings.

Anyone who's ever attempted to consciously manifest knows that sometimes you're hot and sometimes you're not. The general 'explanation' is that when you are not manifesting that it's the result of error patterns / belief systems / programs which are blocking the process. The point Joe makes is that while you can clear these blocks using Ho'oponopono, you need to realize that you're moving one step beyond manifestation into surrender (and here I'm paraphrasing using my worldview).

In other words for most of us manifestation is a little i directed process whereas Ho'oponopono is a surrendering, a Big I process.

While I wouldn't claim to have reached the point where I'm 'in the groove' wrt to surrendering I can see how as I've progressed on my journey I'm getting better at consciously realizing I'm at a 'surrender point' and then actually surrendering.

For me at least this has been a surprisingly long and arduous journey. YMMV.