Ilchi Lee Blog Network

Break Down Your Walls

I discovered this flash video on ilchi.com. It had a message by Ilchi Lee, and it struck a cord in me and I became excited to share it. So here it is:

I want to tell those who are encased in a wall of loneliness and emptiness,
Those who are trying to fill up that space with something, anything,
To stop trying to fill up that small space.
But instead to break down the walls and meet time and space,
The skies, the stars, and this earth.

That this is when they will feel true freedom.
That this when they will find a shining star of a vision inside their hearts.
That this is when their lives will be eternally bright and free.
That this is when they know they are eternal beings.

What do you feel when you read it? These are the kinds of messages that stir me awake.

Ilchi Lee’s Philosophy of the Soul

According to Ilchi Lee, before you were born, your perfect soul was fully connected to the universe, existing in a state of emptiness and nothingness. When a soul is born into a body, it is separated from the divine, and so generates feelings of loneliness and dissatisfaction. But when you connect your soul to universal energy, or Chunjikiun, your loneliness vanishes. Your soul is happy basking in Yuln’yo, the light, sound, and vibration that forms the source of all life.

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.

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.

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 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.

Flowers planted by Ilchi Lee

When the flowers bloom, the earth is filled with fragrance. When a flower blooms in the heart of a human being, the world is filled with peace. I believe that the Dahn Yoga programs developed by Ilchi Lee can make flowers bloom in human being’s hearts.

The Moon and Ilchi Lee

For centuries, human beings desired to get to the moon. We created different kinds of aircraft, and kept launching these physical manifestations of our dreams. Eventually, we succeeded in breaking our limitations, overcoming gravity, and showing ourselves that anything is possible. Ilchi Lee has been working to bring peace in this Earth, and has brought many hopes to fruition.

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 or wisdom?

Smith College (www.smith.edu) is a well-respected educational institution. While browsing their departmental webpages, I was struck by this image on the Education page:

What does it say to you? Does it inspire you to study? To fill your brain with information? To learn how to educate others? Or does it inspire you to find your own inspiration in teaching, learning, and becoming truly wise?

Perceptions

From our perceptions we construct explanations — themselves perceptions — by
which we govern ourselves. These explanations are “theories” so familiar
and established as the basis of thought and action that for us they
constitute the nature of reality. So what is reality, really?

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.

Don’t shampoo your… mice?

Here’s some shocking news for you: shampoo will mess up your brain! Diethanolamine (DEA) is a chemical that can be found in shampoo, hairspray, and soaps. When researchers at the

University of
North Carolina applied it to pregnant mice, the offspring suffered from impaired brain development.  

So the moral of the story is: don’t wash your pregnant mice with shampoo!

“Biggering” your brain: is it possible?

Is it possible to enhance your brain cells and have a positive effect on personal development? Recent research suggests this may be true. As described at Science Daily, adult neurons are more adaptable or “plastic” than we once thought. It is likely that development is actually an ongoing process, even into adulthood. Many have suggested that the benefits of physical exercise extend to your cognitive function and brain structure, and there is certainly some research supporting this view.

Nurturing children’s brains early

The human brain begins forming very early, just three weeks after conception, but brain development is really a lifelong project. Consider a parallel to the growth of a tree or garden plant. Since humans and plants have a similar growing process (this structure of growing is near-universal, actually) the parallel can be instructive. First you must fertilize the seed and plant it in a nurturing environment. Throughout growth you must provide sustenance, nurture, and other forms of support. When a child is not in an adequate environment, especially an abusive or otherwise damaging environment, their brain does not develop normally. Because young children, right from that first phase of brain development in utero, are incredibly impressionable, their brains incorporate their environmental stimuli more deeply and easily than adult brains. This feature of plasticity is both a benefit and a drawback: children learn well and deeply, but are easily influenced by detrimental input.

Life of the Brain

Recently PBS put out a marvelous special on the brain. PBS usually creates good quality programs, but this one is particularly special. It is organized according to phases of life: babyhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age. What about children’s brains? Somehow I feel that they’re leaving out an important stage of life…

Teenagers and Sleep

Perhaps you remember the pattern when you were a teenager: you were sleepy during the day, especially during classes; around 9 or 10pm you were wide awake and raring to go. You went to bed at perhaps midnight, and then woke up at 6:30 or even 6:00 to get ready for school, starting classes around 7:30. This rhythm created the infamous “sleep debt” that so many adolescents and adults carry, which directly affects performance, alertness, and enthusiasm for life. Many sleep researchers and adolescent advocates have pushed for later start times for older kids; the research shows that teenagers actually need more than 9 hours of sleep, as much as little kids. How’s that for surprising research?

Addendum for the night

One other thought for tonight, about concern on someone else’s behalf:

It seems to me that the point is to create caution, rather than fear, because fear paralyzes any kind of motion, including good developmental changes.