All things found in the world and beyond
Are illusions created by one’s own concepts.
Grasping at them but further distorts perceptions.
Give up grasping and see things as they are.
THE SEVENTH DALAI LAMA
To Master Transformation is to Master the Art of Dreaming…
By using the Four Agreements in our own life, we modify our personal dream, and soon our new dream will modify the outside dream. There is no need to actively try to modify the outside dream. This happens naturally as a result of our own transformation. Deciding to focus on our own freedom isn’t selfish; it is the greatest gift we can give to humanity.
- Don Miguel Ruiz, “The Four Agreements”
While preparing for this class, it became clear to me that to master the art of transformation really means to undergo some sort ofparadigm shift.
At the same time, I was guided to go to a deck of oracle cards and this was the card I pulled!
Buddhists sometimes speak of the ‘beginner’s mind’ - that which assumes nothing and therefore is open to everything. A spiritual psychologist might call this the ‘inner child’, as it is innocent, curious, unfixed and always learning. It doesn’t get stuck on an answer having to be one way. There is openness to the unknown with curiosity instead.
Old souls can sometimes find it hard to recapture their ‘not-knowingness’. Asking someone with a lot of life experience, who may have become a bit world-weary, to drop expectations and look at the world through fresh eyes can be challenging. Yet life becomes much more energizing and interesting when you are open and don’t hold expectations about what will be. Suddenly, you are receptive to the Universe helping you in ways that, in the past, you did not believe possible - all because you kept an open mind.
If you are feeling that you don’t really know yourself, or your relationships or your place in the world as you once did - if you are feeling that what you once held to be certain now seems to be a little shaky - these are signs that you are going through a paradigm shift. This will bring you new perceptions that will free you to be in the world in new ways. You will find yourself shedding old limits. fears, and misconceptions. You are stepping beyond what you have known. You are a bit like a traveller in a new city feeling awkward until she gets the ‘lay of the land’ and how things operate in that new place. As you trust the unexpected and unknown, the Universe will be able to help you in unexpected and previously unknown ways.
If you find yourself questioning the views in mass media or spoken in the conversations that those around you are having, take heart and know that you are awakening from a fear-based world into a love-filled reality. Your confusion will soon transform into joy at discovering that you are free and have no reason to be afraid.
You are encouraged by the Universe to embrace the power you have to be a free thinker. Dare to think thoughts of love rather than lower your vibration by choosing thoughts of fear. Trust, for something helpful and empowering is happening in your soul.
- From the Lightworker Oracle Cards, #4 Paradigm Shift by Alana Fairchild. Alana Fairchild
After reading this card, I felt drawn to the Ho’oponopono Forgiveness Ritual. So I pulled that book from my shelf and immediately turned to the page called “What is Ho’oponopono?”, and the first heading was “The Paradigm Change”….so, that was enough guidance for me to believe that sharing this Hawaiian Forgiveness Ritual was the best way to share the Mastery of Transformation!
Ho’oponopono: the Hawaiian Forgiveness Ritual
Ho’oponopono is yet another treasure to weave into the tapestry of oneness, compassion and open-heartedness. This simple meditation flows so beautifully into the practice of Qigong and has the potential to amplify its ability to release energetic blockages.
Ho’oponopono means a return to the Divine Plan…
Ho'oponopono belongs to a system of ancient Hawaiian teaching called the 'Huna'. 'Hu' means 'knowledge', and 'na' represents 'wisdom', and the guardians of this ancient teaching are called 'kahunas' - Huna experts.
The Hawaiians call their group of islands 'The Land of Aloha’, the Land of Love. 'Aloha' contains the essence of the Huna teaching of knowledge and wisdom, and it forms the basis of Ho'oponopono. 'Aloha' means, 'I see the divine in you, and I see the divine in myself'. This carries the understanding that you and I travel a common road, and that there is only one power in the Universe, namely the energy of unconditional love, 'mana aloha' in Hawaiian.
Aloha has a single commandment: never to harm, always to help. The command to harm no one begins with not harming oneself. And thus, to love your neighbour as yourself. 'Mana aloha' is the essence of God's energy, the energy that penetrates and informs everything. The wise Hindu monks call this energy 'bhakti' , meaning 'devotion', and the Tibetan monks call it 'compassion'. By this, they did not merely have in mind an emotion, but a directly experienced energy that influences the environment and creates a new reality. Ho'oponopono is this compassion in action.
Ho'oponopono is a simple way of arriving at unity, inner peace and returning to harmony. It expresses the deep need to live once again in harmony with oneself and with humanity, nature and God. Ho'o means 'to make' and pono is translated 'right' or 'correct'. And so ho'oponopono quite simply represents to 'make rightly right'. To 'make anything rightly right' means to join oneself again with one's Higher Self and the Source of All Being - to be in one's own centre, returned to harmony, and balanced once again so that one is able to realign the environment and reshape reality.
The forgiveness ritual of Ho'oponopono is love in action. You forgive yourself and others for having inflicted any sort of hurt, or for having failed to help when needed. 'Making things rightly right' is a simple four-step procedure that helps you learn to forgive yourself unconditionally, to love, and, additionally to make things better.
I am sorry
Please forgive me
I love you
Thank you
These four sentences seem like a mantra or a magical formula, but they are rather a mediation and a prayer. They operate through time and space, beyond cause and effect, and transmit themselves directly to your Inner Family, the Higher Self, the Inner Child and your waking consciousness. After a short while you achieve inner peace and change from disharmony to harmony.
You move yourself from separation to union while you say:
I am sorry. Please forgive me. I love you. Thank you.
- Ho'oponopono: The Hawaiian forgiveness ritual as the key to your life's fulfillment, by Ulrich E. Dupree
The Ho’oponopono ritual can be applied to any relationship or situation in which you feel disconnected or troubled. More often than not, you may find yourself saying these four sentences silently… they need not ever be spoken out loud. Please note that when saying sorry you are not blaming yourself rather you are expressing a heart-felt apology for being part of a situation or relationship in which there is disharmony. Ho’oponopono is about opening the heart and liberating guilt, blame and shame - it is a method of accessing the universal energy of unconditional love.
What I most want to emphasize is the power of these four simple sentences when applied to oneself…anytime you feel regret, self judgement, doubt, self-criticism or are otherwise separated from Oneness (aka: Source, God, the Universe, Divinity, Energy, Qi, Presence)…simply pause and say to yourself and to Oneness:
“I am sorry. Please Forgive me. I love you. Thank you.”
To live out the four agreements is to undergo a paradigm shift - to move from viewing yourself as separate in the world to viewing yourself as one with all of life. The Ho’opnonopono is one such tool to assist you in this transformation. In addition there are several other tools, such as those that Don Miguel Ruiz offers in The Four Agreements Companion Book:
Mastering The Art of Transformation:
Using your will and attention for the second time (the first time our attention was hooked by other people who taught us how to dream). In the dream of the second attention, you choose to believe what you want to believe, and that includes believing in yourself.
Using the Four Agreements to change your actions-reactions. Every choice you make has a consequence or result. When you change the action, you change the result, and you change the dream of your life.
Using attach-detach to surrender to the angel of death. The angel of death can teach you to live in the present moment instead of the past or the future. When your attention is in the present moment, you enjoy life more intensely because you are fully alive.
THE SECOND ATTENTION
In the dream of the second attention, we live in the same world, but with a difference. We control our attention from the inside, escape the dream of the planet, and create a brand new dream: our personal dream of heaven on earth.
In the dream of the second attention, we find out that we are responsible for our choices. What we agree to believe is our own choice, not the choice of the images we think we are, not the choice from our ego who pretends to know everything, but a choice from our own integrity. In the new dream, we only put our faith in agreements that support Life, which add to our joy, to our happiness, to our freedom.
We don’t need to escape from life; we don’t need to deny our own nature. What we need is complete awareness and self-acceptance. We need to learn to make our own choices and finally control our will from the inside.
Tools for Transformation
1. INTENTION
2. ATTENTION
3. ACTION
4. REPETITION
ACTION - REACTION
Dream masters create a masterpiece of life; they control the dream by making choices.
Every action has a reaction, and for all of our life we repeat our actions and suffer the same reactions. Perhaps we cannot see the choices or the actions when we make them, but we are always going to see the reaction, the result of what we do.
The only way to change your life is to change the choices, to change the actions. If there is something in your life that you don’t like, first you have to be aware that it is the result of something that you do. Once you find out what action you took, the next step is to forgive the reaction and change the choice, change the action, and see what the reaction is. If you don’t like the result again, you change it again and again until you have the result you want.
You cannot control what is going to happen around you, but you can certainly control your own reaction. If you can learn to change your own reactions, then you can change your habits and routines, change the program, and change your life. Your reaction is the clue to having a wonderful life.
Tools for Transformation
1. AWARENESS OF THE REACTION
2. FOCUSED ATTENTION TO IDENTIFY THE ACTION THAT CAME BEFORE THE REACTION
3. NOTICE WHICH OF THE FOUR AGREEMENTS WERE BROKEN
4.APPLY THE FOUR AGREEMENTS
ATTACH - DETACH
Toltec mythology tells us that the angel of death is always beside us, ready to take everything away from us. Nothing is ours to keep, including our physical body. Knowing this, we surrender to the angel of death and accept the transformation of Life.
What the Toltec call “ surrendering to the angel of death” can also be called “detachment.” Detachment doesn’t mean that we stop loving someone or something; it only means we accept that there is nothing we can do to stop the transformation of Life. Detachment is so powerful because when we learn to detach, we respect the forces of nature, which means we also respect the changes in our own life.
We can detach from agreements and beliefs that limit the expression of our creativity and our love. This frees our energy to create a new dream. And what we create is a masterpiece of art: our own life.
Tools for Transformation
1. Notice attachments to moments, people, objects and especially your beliefs.
2. If you enjoy the attachment then enjoy it as fully and intensely as you can in every moment
3. Be willing to detach and fully let go of moments, people, and objects when they pass.
4. Practice detaching from any belief and knowledge that goes against you or anyone else
Our Closing Meditation:
Through divine grace and unconditional love, I open my mind to the higher truth of love. May my mind be cleansed from conditioning and gently opened to the light of love. I am willing to unlearn what no longer serves me. I am willing to receive teachings and information, guidance and assistance from those beings of pure light and unconditional love that can assist me on my life journey, now. May my paradigm shift bring me closer to peace, love, empowerment and happiness. May this process be held in guardianship by the Universe, with grace, mercy and tenderness. Through my own free will so be it.
- Invocation from the Lightworker Oracle Card #4 Paradigm Shift, by Alana Fairchild
As I shared in class, I used to be afraid of calling myself intuitive and I certainly was not ready to claim the title of “Lightworker”. Like so many others, I used to suffer from imposter syndrome). I am no longer afraid to shine my light and do the work I am meant to to do. I’m also passionately aware that the fear of being perceived as “special” holds so many of us back. In my opinion, each of you is a Lightworker!! ☀️
