Ilchi Lee Blog Network

Reflections on Former South Korean President Moo-hyun Roh’s Suicide

Going, going; I, to, am going.
Going, going; you too, are going.
Windblown clouds.
Soaring birds.
Old and young.
Going, going; we’re all going.

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.

One, Ilchi, and Reality

One is the first number. It’s the beginning and also the ending at the same time.

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.

Jewels from Ilchi Lee

Every jewel, which has a bright and beautiful light, has been hardened deep inside the earth. After enduring this hardship, it becomes more beautiful. Same as our soul, after we are tried in the furnace, we get stronger. Ichi Lee shows us how much stronger we can become.

The Human Brain, according to Ilchi Lee

The human brain is an amazing organ. It is in charge of all our physical

functions, and it is the source of all our emotions and thoughts. All human

creations—our art, our architecture, our technologies—begin with the brain.

Our brains, in fact, are what make us essentially human. The unique abilities

of the human brain are what most clearly separate us from apes, and it is our

brain, not brawn, that has established our predominate role on the planet. Our

physical bodies, while amazing in their own right, are relatively weak. We have

no fangs or talons, and even the most developed human musculature pales

compared to that of a grizzly or an ox. Nevertheless, we thrive as no other

animal has thrived on this planet. Why? Because the brain has allowed us to

control and adapt the environment to suit our needs, delivering us from many of

the harsher realities of nature.

from Power Brain Kids by Ilchi Lee

Birds, Ilchi Lee, energy, and freedom of flying

Birds fly freely in the sky. When I do energy dancing, I can become a bird. I can’t become a bird physically, but I can share their energy with them, and feel an echo of their joy in flying. When I practice Dahn Yoga I can become more connected to everything and feel a sensation of sharing energy together. Ilchi Lee wants everybody to experience this, which is why he started Dahn Yoga.

Memories

Each of us knows some people who are suffering from bad memories. Perhaps they were hurt, or witnessed something terrible, or any of the other myriad reasons that we become scarred. Those memories are so painful that they can’t get away from them. I am reminded of Ilchi Lee’s training methods, which in many cases have helped people learn to overcome difficult memories and reclaim their emotional autonomy.

How Ilchi Lee Uses Music

Most people would agree that music gives us so much benefit. Soft music helps us relax, dance music gets us excited, and classical music enriches our spirit. Dahn Yoga (founded by Ilchi Lee) is usually taught in a way that focuses around the style of music used for a particular class or training — like the music, the class gives us a similarly specific benefit. Ilchi Lee always uses special music during his trainings to help audience members feel the messages and get a deeper experience of the training.

How to work with your emotions, according to Ilchi Lee’s teachings

One day, my aunt asked me how you could be so calm even somebody makes you get mad?

She said, “I can’t control my emotions and they hurt me.”

Yes I have emotions too. I get hurt when somebody is hard on me.

But the important thing is not whether I have emotions or not, but how am I dealing with it.

If I am a slave of emotions I could be miserable, but I become a master of them I can live my life much more as I wish. In my case that’s the result of Dahn Yoga and Brain Respiration, and Ilchi Lee suggested these way.

Progress and resistance, as Ilchi Lee teaches

Our belief systems often end up being quit limiting to us, when the time comes for us to expand into a new paradigm, or accept a new idea; to grow. If you want to get out of your limited beliefs in order to progress, instead of avoiding or denying pain, usually there is something you have to accept. Then change comes to you. If you resist, don’t accept what’s happening, or push back against reality, often you create more difficulty for yourself. However, the catch is that you must sometimes challenge reality in order to bring about deep and long-lasting change. You must simply trust in your intuition to know what is the right course of action for you. This is the sort of thing that Ilchi Lee teaches, and each of his students bring these truths into the world, in their own way.

Trees, human beings, and Ilchi Lee’s healing society movement

I was thinking the other day about how human beings are very much like trees. The main difference is that we can walk. Trees give oxygen in the circle of life. What do human beings give to the Earth? Well, a pessimist would say it’s suffering from what human beings experience, but Ilchi Lee believes otherwise. He pioneered the healing society movement as one of the ways to heal the Earth.

Learning from Ilchi Lee how to manage your information

With some focus, you can control the information that forms your worldview. Each part of your daily experience is based on information, and with careful scrutiny you can choose what information you keep and what you discard or reject. Even pain is simply information, translated into feeling. When you don’t give up in the face of difficult information, or negative information, or discouraging information, but you proactively choose different information instead, you will discover like Ilchi Lee that you have the power to get over the pain, to move beyond your challenges. You can say ‘I did it!”

Ilchi Lee: Choosing what I want

When we go down a road for the first time, we feel nervous and look carefully as we move forward. But we don’t think anything of going down a well-travelled road and just proceed without caution. The brain is the same way. When making a new choice, we ask all kinds of questions, such as “Is it right?” or “Is it safe?”. But if we continue this same behavior, then it becomes a habit and we just do that action each time without thinking about it. This means that a circuit which has been habitualized in the brain is performed by the brain without doubt or fear. But when making a new decision which is not an everyday practice, we must overcome the functions of doubt and fear that strongly resist our decision.

How can we increase the power to overcome doubt and fear? One effective way is imagination. Keep an imagination that how great or joyful we feel when we achieve a new decision or dream. Repeat and repeat. Then a new circuit will be formed in our brain. If that dream is really what we want, such an imagination will be not that difficult.

Now I’m thinking about habits I want to change. And I’m asking to myself if I really want to change them. If not, I need a new information and practice for my brain ready to accept that information. For example, through ‘Brain Wave Vibration method by Ilchi lee. Let’s become a master over our brain.

Ice cream

I just ate ice cream for the first time in a while… oh my gosh. My body is sooooo confused! How do children eat this much sugar and not feel the body stress?

laughter as inspiration

Good morning again! I seem to find myself posting in the morning often. Today as I drank some delicious peach juice, I found myself wondering about the inspirational power of laughter. What do you think?

Education!

This might be the best thing I’ve seen all day:

trust the life process

How can we become centered in our choices, trusting our life experience instead of our formal education? Upon this distinction depends our happiness, I believe.

a “brainiac” is…

Today when I logged in, I though for longer than usual about my id, “brainiac”. What exactly is a brainiac, anyway? I went to dictionary.com, and here’s what it said:

“brain·i·ac /ˈbreɪniˌæk/

–noun

–adjective

So there you have it. I did have a feeling that it was a not entirely complimentary term…

brain humor

Jokes about the human brain abound. Consider this image, representing one common are of brain humor:

But what does this really say about human beings: that we are cynical? We don’t value half the population? What??

Good morning!

Good morning world!

Isn’t that a great way to begin? Of all the choices we can make at the start of the day, what feels better?

Buddha lessons?

I don’t know much about the Buddha. Does anyone else out there? I’d love to learn a little about him, but I don’t know where is a good place to start.