One thing I disagree with in it though is that discovery of true love does not always take time, although time and growth help. I think the essential ingredient is a pure, open, and accepting heart that will not give up on love regardless of the circumstances within or without. True love is not something you get or find, but simply who you are. For me, expressing it is the key.

I thought I would share the poem with you for your own reflection and inspiration. What do you think about true love? What do you think it is? How do you think you can experience it?

True Love

Love is beautiful
Powerfully addictive
Paralyzing logic
Banishing fear
Erasing loneliness

Obliterating self-consciousness
Embracing shyness
Imparting courage.

Love is selfish
Seeding hatred and tears
Turning people into knives
Cutting wounds into lovers’ hearts
Inflicting pain, grief and despair.

To know the face of true love
Requires time
Your hair frosts over
Your eyes and ears dull.
When you realize
That love is not ego
And cannot be possessed
Your body is cold
Your skin marred with age.

Then your eyes open
To new possibilities of love
Neither hot nor cold
Full of grace and forgiveness.

Loves’ essence blossoms
With respect
Its’ gentle fragrance sustains the soul
Let us open our eyes
To true love.

Ilchi Lee from Sedona

“What if I told you that a thought … any tiny idea that forms in your mind … actually has a mass? What if I told you that a thought is an actual thing, a measurable entity, with a measurable mass? A miniscule mass, of course, but mass nonetheless. What are the implications?”

“Hypothetically speaking? Well, the obvious implications are … if a thought has mass, then a thought exerts gravity and can pull things toward it.”

Katherine smiled. “You’re good. Now take it a step further. What happens if many people start focusing on the same thought? All the occurrences of that same thought begin to merge into one, and the cumulative mass of this thought begins to grow. And therefore, its gravity grows.”

“Okay.”

“Meaning … if enough people begin thinking the same thing, then the gravitational force of that thought becomes tangible … and it exerts an actual force.” Katherine winked. “And it can have measurable effect in our physical world.”

This excerpt is from Dan Brown’s latest novel, The Lost Symbol. Refreshingly, the The Da Vinci Code author has chosen many New Thought concepts, including those that happen to be taught by Ilchi Lee, as the theme and message for his new book. Compare the above to Ilchi Lee’s rules for your “Brain Operating System” or BOS:

1. Good news makes a good brain.
2. Choose it and it will happen.
3. Stay awake and pay attention.

These rules acknowledge the creative power of our brains, and remind us to pay attention to what we are thinking, and to keep it positive and focused on what we really want. They acknowledge that, as Dan Brown writes:

“We are creators, and yet we naively play the role of ‘the created.’ We see ourselves as helpless sheep buffeted around by the God who made us. We kneel like frightened children, begging for help, for forgiveness, for good luck. But once we realize that we are truly created in the Creator’s image, we will start to understand that we, too, must be Creators. When we understand this fact, the doors will burst wide open for human potential.” […]

Ilchi Lee has spent his career developing Brain Education to help people harness the true creative power of their brains. He’s also helped them open their hearts, so that they can choose goals that their hearts, their souls, want—those that benefit all humanity. Because he knows that:

“The most amazing part,” Katherine said, “is that as soon as we humans begin to harness our true power, we will have enormous control over our world. We will be able to design reality rather than merely react to it.”

Langdon lowered his gaze. “That sounds … dangerous.”

Katherine looked startled … and impressed. “Yes, exactly! If thoughts affect the world, then we must be very careful how we think. Destructive thoughts have influence, too, and we all know it’s far easier to destroy than it is to create.”

He’s also gathered people into a community who want to use that power to create a happy, healthy, and peaceful world. They focus and work together in harmony because they know, as Ilchi Lee has taught, that:

“…two heads are better than one … and yet two heads are not twice better, they are many, many times better. Multiple minds working in unison magnify a thought’s effect … exponentially. This is the inherent power of prayer groups, healing circles, singing in unison, and worshipping en masse. The idea of universal consciousness is not an ethereal New Age concept. […]

Through Brain Education workshops such as Shim Sung, Ilchi Lee has enabled people to experience this truth personally and viscerally. He has helped them find the lost symbol inside themselves so they can make it their own and endeavor to live it. Mr. Lee believes that when 100 million people in the world are doing this, a critical tipping point will be reached, and the consciousness of humanity will shift to embody this truth.

I’m grateful to Dan Brown for using these concepts in his novel, because I think novels are great purveyors of ideas—Animal Farm, Atlas Shrugged, 1984, The Way of the Peaceful Warrior, The Celestine Prophecy. All have made people think about powerful concepts, or at least made them more common parlance in our society—a critical step toward the shift in consciousness the characters in The Lost Symbol predict is on the horizon.

He knows that only when enough people experience Oneness can we really come together as a society, as a people, and as Earth Citizens. The time for the chosen few is over. The whole of humanity needs to realize the truth for us to change the fortune of the human race.

But we can start with one hundred million. One hundred million is a critical mass, just a little more than one percent of the total population of the Earth, the tipping point to a mass realization of every individual’s true nature and for what we should live–love for humanity and love for the Earth. Instead of killing and competition, this strong community of Earth Citizens Ilchi Lee has been working to form will engage in acts of healing to uplift our collective human consciousness until we are indeed living in Heaven on Earth.

To realize this dream of a spiritual civilization and peaceful Earth requires the will, discipline, and fortitude to see it through to its completion. It also requires training people so that they can experience Oneness and have the strength and ability to share it with others. These people will raise the consciousness of 100 million Earth Citizens and gather them together in one exemplary community.

The root of your soul lies in your True Self, the essential, unchanging part of you. The root of your True Self lies in Chun-Ji-In, the Heaven-Earth-Human triumvirate that is One. To listen to your soul is to get in touch with your True Self.

Covering your True Self, is your False Self—all of the information and emotions in your brain. It is your philosophy, value system, and personality; it is your body and mind, and the illusion that life and death are distinct and separate. Your False Self is a mask manufactured by your ego for protection. It’s something you build on and construct throughout life to have a role to play in the world. Your False Self craves safety, recognition, and control. Your True Self on the other hand craves the highest forms of human interaction, such as unconditional love and harmonious unity with others.

People’s life struggles stem from the inherent discord between the True Self and the False Self. When people believe they are their False Self, they are denying or are unaware of their own infinite power. On the other hand, when your True Self acts as the master of your body and mind rather than the False Self, you are tapped into the creative potential of the universe. As you follow your True Self, you will let go of your instinctive need for safety, recognition, and control, and replace these desires with the desire to be Hong-ik, or widely benefitting others.

The True Self’s purpose in this life is the completion of your soul, known as Chunhwa in Korean. When your soul is complete, you truly feel happy and at One with the creative divine energy of the universe. When a body dies, a complete soul returns to this energy; an incomplete soul becomes a ghost or reincarnates again.
Completing your soul is a life process for which you must be aware of this life purpose and follow four steps:

1. Train your brain to be peaceful and healthy.
2. Develop relaxed concentration, or the capacity to concentrate, strongly and consistently, which can be only achieved through focused and rigorous training.
3. Use your brain with 100% effort.
4. Unleash the full creativity of your brain to manifest the dream of benefitting your and everyone’s life to actualize a harmonious and peaceful world. This dream is known as Hong-ik Ingan Ee-hwa Saegae.

As you develop your soul, your consciousness expands, meaning the love that is your true nature expands. Love is the unifying element that bonds people together. When we are able to love widely and unconditionally, our True Self will shine more brightly in the world. As our ability to love others grows, it radiates outward from us, reaching farther and farther in its ability to touch others. As love grows, it follows this basic pattern of expansion: self ➛ family ➛ country ➛ the world. The expansion of our consciousness renews our lives, gives us hope, and leads to a beautiful future.

Just like any other form of citizenship, Earth citizenship carries with it certain responsibilities.

I believe that the ultimate responsibility of an Earth Citizen lies in the care of the Earth and of other beings on the planet. Presently, our dominant cultures do not support this because they are largely based on values inconsistent with peaceful, sustainable living.

I cannot be the one to tell you or anyone else what these specific values must be. For many years to come, we must grapple with the various moral and ethical questions that are part of human society. HOwever, I do know that we urgently need to create a culture that will support, rather than detract from, our common humanity. That part of the transformation needs to happen now.

It will take time to create a better world. But the primary responsibility of all Earth Citizens is to work consistently and diligently toward this goal.

Men and women.
Children and adults.
Going, going.
We’re all going.
Some die from a fall;
Some from a beating;
Some from old age;
Some from sickness;
Some from resentment;
Some from loneliness;
Some from abandonment;
Some from hunger;
Some from war;
Some from an accident.

Countless diseases and innumerable accidents kill us.
And we kill ourselves.
Is this world Death’s playground?
Or Death’s museum?

We live forgetting that we all die.
We forget that death is coming for us,
For the traveler.

For the student in his extracurricular studies,
For the bride and groom on the church steps,
For the would-be lawmaker running for public office,
For the voter,
For one eating noodles,
For another eating soup.

Blind to this,
Unaware of our doom,
We head carelessly toward our deaths.
You’re going.
I’m going.
We’re all going.

They smile when asked, “Why go on living?”
The person asking for a cigarette,
The person dreaming of love,
The person wanting to “make it,”
The person trying to earn a buck,
The person seeking success.

Failing to use their good head on their shoulders,
With plots, threats, and fear,
They prepare to bribe Death;
They make offerings to the god they workship.

Striving for money, honor, and power,
During their short journey toward death,
They fail to use the good head on their shoulders.

Without knowing the value of life,
People have lost their life’s goal.
No one teaches the goal and value of life.
Even those who are taught are blinded and deafened by their own desires.

We must go back to our roots,
Back to the principle of Hongik Ingan Eehwa Segae—Widely Benefitting Human, Harmonious World.
We must all wake up and pay attention.

We must see to it that we don’t have another unhappy president,
Whose last words were, “Hey, you got a cigarette?”
We must now bring an end to this environment,
In which a president had no choice but to jump off a cliff only one year after leaving office.

The choice of former president Roh Moo-hyun was courageous and resolute;
It was a final cry telling us that the Republic of Korea must no longer be this way.
The president made a choice,
And his choice was death.
He showed us that our lives are the only thing we choose.
It was entirely his choice,
Not the fate of a cow or pig,
Which has no choice but to be led pathetically to its death.

We must learn a lesson from the choice the president made.
Our lives belong to no one else;
We choose them.
They are not ours unless we choose them.
Those who choose their own life,
Those who choose to live and die,
Gain victory in life and death.

Suicide was neither holy nor beautiful for the former president,
But he was not cowardly.
He made a decision concerning what he had done,
And he can never decide again.
It wasn’t something impulsive.
He left his last words, and he said that he would embrace everything.
He was a flower that had bloomed in adversity and extreme poverty.

Everyone respected and had expectations for him.
It couldn’t last though.
There is no position of success in this world more precious than that of president.
He showed us what success is.
Even success, with all the money, honor, and power it entailed,
Ultimately ended in sad futility.

A life lived for completion is greater and more beautiful
Than one lived struggling for success.
As we pray that the soul of President Roh Moo-hyun might find peace,
We must understand why we exist at this time and what we should live for.

Let’s do our best in these times to share with others the Hongik spirit.

In cosmic terms, we start from the One and go back to the One. So, One is birth and is also death. Birth and death, beginning and ending, light and dark — these are some of the essential polar opposites that make up our reality.

The Korean character “Il” means “one”, so Ilchi Lee also shows these basic principles of reality in his name. “Il Chi” means “pointing the way” in the sense of pointing to the one path, the best option, the only way to go.