I found a wonderful explanation of this Hawaiian Forgiveness Ritual written by Ulrich E. Dupree.
Powerful yet concise, this guide summarizes the Hawaiian ritual of forgiveness and offers methods for immediately creating positive effects in everyday life. Exploring the concept that everyone is deeply connected—despite feelings of singularity and separation—four tenets are disclosed for creating peace with oneself and others: I am sorry. Please forgive me. I love you. Thank you.
This simple four-step system encourages readers to focus on difficult conflicts within personal relationships and heal the past. By addressing these issues, owning one’s feelings, and accepting unconditional love, unhealthy situations can transform into favorable experiences.
The Core of the Ho‘oponopono: The Four Magic Sentences
Together we will apply the four magic sentences of the Ho‘oponopono in small exercises to solve problems and conflicts. If something troubles you, if some thing sends prickles up your spine and you would like to turn around and walk away, and above all, if someone ‘presses your buttons’, always direct your thoughts to the following sentences:
I am sorry. Please forgive me. I love you. Thank you.
These four sentences work like a sort of mantra or magic formula; they are like a meditation. They operate through time and space, beyond cause and effect, and transmit directly to your Higher Self, your sub- conscious 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.
What do these four sentences mean?
I am sorry
I apologize. I perceive that I suffer, and that connects me to my feelings. I no longer reject the problem, but recognize my learning task. I, or my forebears (through whom I am connected energetically, genetically and by tradition as much as by history) have caused harm. Now, through the power of the spoken word, I am freed of this guilt.
Please forgive me
Please forgive me for having, through myself, or my forebears, consciously or unconsciously disturbed you and me in the course of our evolution. Please forgive me for having acted contrary to the divine laws of harmony and love. Please forgive me for having, until now, judged you (or the situation), and in the past dis- regarded our spiritual identity and connectedness.
I love you
I love you and I love myself. I see and respect the divine in you. I love and accept the situation just as it is. I love the problem that has come to me to open my eyes. I love you and myself unconditionally with all our weaknesses and faults.
Thank you
Thank you, for I understand that the miracle is already underway. I thank God and the angels for the transformation of my request. I give thanks, because what I have received and what will come to pass is what I have deserved through the law of cause and effect. I give thanks because, through the power of forgiveness, I am now freed from the energetic chains of the past. I give thanks that I may recognize and join with the Source of all Being.
I wonder how your life will be different practicing this ritual?