Ilchi Lee's Blog, page 16

Ilchi Lee’s 5 Tips for Clearing Brain Fog

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The state of our brain is in our own hands.

Do you live in a perpetual haze in which your mind only finds clarity for brief moments? Or perhaps your brain normally feels foggy at certain times of day, such as when you wake up, in the afternoon, or after eating a large meal.

When our minds feel vague and confused or when they are spinning or racing with thoughts out of our control, the life energy that normally flows inside us has accumulated in our heads. Our heads may even feel hotter at this time, either inside or to the touch.

Our bodies and minds are healthiest, however, when our heads feel cool. We feel calmer when our energy concentrates in our lower abdomen between our hips instead of our heads. This energy state, in which we have a cooler head and a warmer abdomen, is called Water Up, Fire Down.

A Fundamental Energy Principle

Having Water Up, Fire Down is one of the most fundamental and important things we can do for our health. However, it’s very easy for Water Up, Fire Down to get reversed. Whenever we’re tense, stressed, or don’t have enough energy, the energy in our heads can’t flow down to our bellies. It get stuck in our heads, perpetuating our problems. We become foggy and more stressed and tired, making it more difficult to make healthy choices for ourselves that can improve our lives. Instead, we may turn to things that are stimulating and comfortable, which may help in the short term but don’t address the heart of the situation—Water Up, Fire Down.

We can bring ourselves back into this energy state whenever we want, and the more often we do it, the more easily we can keep it in the face of internal and external stressors. Mind-body-energy exercises create Water Up, Fire Down in two ways:

One is by releasing stress, tension, and emotions, which are also energy and block the energy flow inside, keeping too much energy in our heads.

The other is by strengthening our core. We feel calmer and more grounded when energy has gathered in our lower abdomen–our physical and energetic center (dahnjon in Korean). The stronger the energy here is, the better it’s able to pull energy down from the head. This effect makes strengthening our core help us not only get rid of brain fog but prevent it from happening in the first place.

Here are three types of exercises that have both of these effects and help you clear your foggy mind:

Tapping and Brain Wave Vibration

Create vibrations in the body that dislodge stuck energy and make energy flow. Concentrating the tapping on the abdomen helps accumulate energy there.

Head Tapping

Toe Tapping

Abdominal Brain Wave Vibration

 

Acupressure

Pressing and massaging your body also gets blocked energy moving. These are some key acupressure points you can target. Press into the point with your thumb or middle finger repeatedly about five times and/or press and make small circles. You can tap these points with your fingertips or fists as well.

Chunju (Bl 10)

Taeyang

Dahnjoong

Joongwan Point

Belly Button

Joksamlee (St 36)

Yongchun (Ki 1)

 

Held Postures (Yeondahn in Korean)

Certain positions allow energy to enter the body and accumulate in the lower abdomen. Make these postures using the correct angles, remain still, and concentrate on your abdomen as you do them. Your body will gradually relax as stagnant, stuck energy moves out of it, although it may automatically vibrate in the process. If you feel vibration, continue to hold the posture. Exhale out your mouth, although inhale through your nose, to release the energy. As your body relaxes, your breathing will become deeper by itself, and you will go into Abdominal Breathing. Here are two postures you can try for five minutes or more.

Sleeping Tiger

Chukkigong

 

Abdominal Breathing

The benefits of breathing are well-known, and Abdominal Breathing, or breathing so that the lower abdomen rises and falls instead of only the chest and/or neck, is one of the deepest and healthiest forms of breathing. We can be doing Abdominal Breathing automatically all the time if our physical and energetic condition allows it, but when we’re stressed, tired, or foggy, our breathing naturally becomes shallower. At those times, we can do it purposefully by bringing our attention to our breath and our lower abdomen. The moment we bring our present awareness to our body, we will feel our stress and tension more. In fact, it will be difficult to breathe from the abdomen at first. We can do some of the exercises above, such as tapping, to relax first, or we can continue to breathe mindfully. Over time, our bodies will relax and our breathing will grow deeper. Then, our minds will eventually clear. Here is a more detailed way to do it:

 

Walking Meditation

Walking circulates our blood, and it also circulates our energy. Going out for a walk gives us a simple way to clear away brain fog and make Water Up, Fire Down. Walking in a meditative way makes this exercise even more powerful.

 

Brain fog may seem like a plague in our minds that’s out of our control, but just like all mind states, there are ways to change it. We can reverse it whenever it appears. And we can maintain a Water Up, Fire Down state by integrating exercise into our regular health regimen, making brain fog a thing of our past.

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How to Give the Gift of Loving Energy from the Earth

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Loving energy is a gift that keeps on giving.

In my last blog post, I shared a morning meditation for having a deep sense of self through the breath. Without this feeling of self no matter how hard we try or how much we have, we may feel like we don’t have anything. When we have this sense, we are feeling our essential life energy inside, and when this energy grows strong enough, we can feel full and complete. Then, we naturally want to share it with others, especially those we know and love.

That’s why every day I also send energy to the people on my list who I want to help, as well as to the earth itself. I send it with the purpose of promoting their health, happiness, and peace by helping to make their energy brighter and stronger. With more brighter, stronger energy flowing through their bodies, their minds become clearer and more positive and their brains become better able to take care of their bodies. They are also more able to feel their true selves.

Giving the gift of energy doesn’t cost any money and often comes from our purest intentions. It’s a gift that automatically gives back. As we send energy to others, we receive more ourselves, so our energy grows stronger and brighter as well.

Give with a Mind as Grand as the Earth

Expanding our consciousness until it encompasses the earth gives us greater energy to send to other people. Connecting to the earth and feeling its energy connects us to the energy of life itself and fills us. It gives us the unconditional love and giving mind of a parent. A gift of the earth’s energy is a gift of love.

Sending Earth Energy Meditation Activate Your Energy, Prepare Your Mind Walk in place for two minutes. Pump your arms up and down as you take each step. Feel the bottom of your feet as they press against the floor to bring your awareness there and help circulate your energy.Then stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and parallel to each other, like the number 11. Bend your knees slightly, keeping them loose. You can also sit in a cross-legged or half-lotus posture or with your feet flat on the floor (if you’re in a chair). Straighten your spine while keeping your shoulders relaxed. Then tap your belly two inches below your navel with the pinky-side of both fists, alternating each one. Make a comfortable, steady rhythm as you focus your mind on the sensations in your abdomen.After two minutes, rhythmically tap the top of your head with your fingertips for about thirty seconds. Then tap all around your head and face for a minute or two more.With your fingertips, now tap on the center of your sternum. Breathe deeply in and out of your chest as you feel the sensations there. Do this for a minute. Finally, clap your hands twenty times and rub them together about twenty seconds.After clapping, hold your palms facing each other about a couple of inches apart. Bring your palms away from and then toward each other, without touching, rapidly and repeatedly about 100 times.

Feel Your Energy Then bring your hands in front of your chest, facing each other once again. Leave a few inches between your palms. Let yourself become more calm with a few breaths as you relax your concentration on your palms. You may feel some tingling or magnetism there: this is a feeling of the life energy (qi) in your body.Keeping your attention on the feelings in and between your palms, move your hands with your breath, separating them as you inhale and returning them to the start as you exhale. You may feel your body and mind relax more and more and your chest become lighter and emptier. You may also have a sense of expansion.

Connect with the Earth Imagine the earth between your palms. Give the earth energy, seeing it grow bigger and bigger. Let the space between your hands grow with the size of the earth until the earth becomes so large that it encompasses your entire body. Imagine the energy of the earth now filling you.Point your palms away from your body and imagine and/or feel energy going from the earth through your hands to the people, plants, and animals you wish to give energy. See their energy becoming brighter in your mind, and imagine them being happier and healthier.Lower your hands, and finish with three deep breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth.

This exercise sequence helps you get the energy flowing in your body and help your mind focus on your body. In this state, you’ll be more capable of feeling energy yourself. It becomes a full-body experience rather than just a mental exericise. While it’s always helpful to perform the entire flow, if you don’t have much time and/or you can feel energy well already, you can start with “Feel Your Energy” and simply share the pure, expansive, and loving energy of the earth—an energy bigger than our small selves—with anyone, anywhere.

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How to Make the Energy of Gratitude: It’s Already Inside

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Being grateful lets us be ourselves.

Each day when I awake, and the sun has risen, I feel immense gratitude. I feel gratitude for being born, for every breath, and every season that passes.

Gratitude is something that’s a part of our essential nature. Yet, it’s also something we need to learn and practice. So many things that are not essential pull us away from a grateful mindset. That’s why it’s important to remind ourselves of everything we can be grateful for—even, and especially, the trivial things.

Gratitude, and love, disappear when negative thoughts grow and the life energy that flows through our entire bodies becomes stagnant. This energy is infinite gratitude. If we are not full of bright energy, or it’s not flowing well, then complaints and dissatisfaction arise in us; these invite unhappiness. On the other hand, when we are full of bright, flowing energy, the stagnant energy inside us releases, and our energy becomes purified. Our hearts turn happy and peaceful.

In this way, the amount of gratitude we feel can be a standard for checking our energy status. The moment we feel that gratitude and love are missing inside, we can meditate quietly and look inside ourselves.

Morning Meditation to Become One with Our True Nature

When you open your eyes in the morning, sit quietly, and focus your mind on your body as you inhale and exhale slowly. Let your breathing become even. Feel the rhythm of life in the rhythm of your breath.

As you go deeper into it, the boundary between your body and your surroundings may disappear. You may feel or see light in and around you. At that moment, you can become completely one with nature, and feel your own true nature. The infinite love and responsibility for all things in the world, which are part of your true nature, may be expressed.

In this state, offer gratitude for this new day that has been given to you, and plan how you will use the time and energy that have been granted to you.

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Knowing Who We Really Are Is the Answer to Our Problems

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As we live our lives, we tend to draw pictures of ourselves. We draw them for others, and for ourselves as well. Our pictures look like the way we want to be. Sometimes we draw up several pictures, one for each situation. Sometimes we imitate one person or another.

There are deeper pictures of ourselves, however, that we haven’t consciously drawn. They are pictures we can’t seem to do anything about. Those pictures were drawn before we were twelve. Our childhood experiences formed pictures of ourselves and the world that we revert to over and over, no matter how much we try to change. We can become a slave of those pictures, screaming and banging our heads against a wall in protest.

Such memories, though, can float away without affecting us, as if on a flowing river. We can dump them all away. They have nothing to do with us once we realize that they’re just pictures we drew in the past. But we don’t realize that, and there are things that our own ideas love. Our pictures are convincing—too convincing to throw away, and they may be all we’ve known. So they stick with us.

Even more, we may think that being like a certain person or being a certain way will solve all our problems, and our own pictures don’t satisfy us. We keep trying and copying different pictures as we tell ourselves that we took care of things. But does that really help?

Our Pictures Don’t Fix Our Problems

There once was a celibate Buddhist priest who was overwhelmed by his own sexual desires. He felt that he was very filthy. It wasn’t a picture that he liked. So he took a knife and just cut it off. Do you think that kept him from thinking of such things? When we’re scared, if we try not to think scary thoughts, do those thoughts come to mind, or not? Actually, more come to mind, not less. After erasing the thoughts we don’t want to think, we keep thinking them, deceiving ourselves.

Let’s say that some people who are fasting haven’t eaten. They’ve fasted well for one week. Then, when they start eating, they eat what they went without for a week all at once. What happened as they endured their hunger? They kept inputting into their brains the thought of rice, bread, sweet potatoes, etc. Then, after suppressing these urges for a week, they just let it all go.

By stimulating the thoughts of what they were trying to get rid of, they continued to intensify their situation instead of solving the problems they should solve. They endured, regretted, and didn’t act, continuing to put their stamp on such thoughts. So, then, these things in the brain pounce, demanding payback with interest.

Say someone dislikes caterpillars and leeches. If you ask them why those insects seem creepy and keep explaining that they’re not creepy at all, they’ll seem even creepier to that person.

There is no human being who has never been stuck in such negativity, in fear or despair, at least once. It is even worse for people who grew up in poor environments. They have countless memories that come back even when they try to move on. Generally, they think that those memories are who they are.

Who You Are Before Being Subjected to Other Influences

Then, if we are not our memories, pictures, or experiences, who are we? If creating a new picture can’t solve our problems, then what should we do?

Many of the sages and enlightened people throughout the ages have come to similar conclusions, although they may have used different words: We are nothingness (Mu in Korean).

If we really understand that we have nothing, then all the memories and pictures we think about are really nothing at all. We are hanging on to emptiness, to nothing at all. It’s nothingness.

If we peel an onion and keep peeling it until we get to the inside, is there anything left? There’s nothing there. There is nothing eternal for those who always search for something, in whatever form or whatever world. Try to think of nothing existing at all, of Nothingness, of a great Emptiness, as your true form. Then you will find peace.

Then there isn’t any need, really, to try to force yourself to change somehow, is there? That is who you really are. That is perfect. If you have some form, whatever it may be, that form is imperfect. Something is pressing down on your heart. You’re lonely somehow. What is that? Who is it that’s lonely? It’s like a ghost is playing a joke on you. If you understand that Emptiness is who you really are, then you will find no guilt or fear or loneliness.

“I will now change somehow.” Don’t resolve to do that. Instead, center your awareness in the nothingness inside. Feel and trust the cosmic energy and cosmic mind that is that nothingness, and head solely toward your life purpose. Crash against any obstacles you meet and receive the revelations that come to you.

In that sense, don’t worry about what you will eat or drink. Don’t think or be anxious about what hasn’t yet happened. And don’t always be unhappy over things that are completely passed.

What’s important is this: Who are you really? You are Emptiness, and Emptiness is an infinite world, an eternal world. It has no beginning and no end. Remembering this and moving forward with the life energy inside you, you’re bound to become very simple. Do people with a lot of worries suffer from insomnia, or not? Uselessly they wander, unable to forget what’s already passed and continuously unable to sleep. Mired in the past, they can’t work, either. The problem is that their memories are too good. Forget what should be forgotten.

If, unable to rest in the seat of Emptiness, we become attached to some form or some picture we’ve created, then we become mired in darkness. Everything we have been doing with our bodies has been trying to depend on a form, and it has been wandering in search of a better form. What we have understood has been completely meaningless.

So, once we really understand the world of formlessness, the world of emptiness, we’ll have no regrets. That’s because, instead of chasing a picture, we will be creating all form ourselves.

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A Meditation Aid: Bitter Flavor

Bitterness brings our brains back to ourselves.

I often like to tell audiences I speak to: “Take back your brain!” Our brains may be frequently taken over by stress, addictions, habits, media—the many things that demand our attention and the ways we find to cope with them. But wouldn’t you rather be thinking clearly, creatively, and productively, while staying conscious of who you are and your infinite value and potential? Wouldn’t you like to be calm and collected and fully aware of your spirit? Getting to this state is what taking back your brain means. It’s being fully aware of your body, thoughts, and emotions and managing them.

There are many ways to take back our brains. You probably already know about various forms of meditation, including breathing methods and types of moving meditation such as yoga and tai chi. Even mindfully walking or being in nature bring us back to ourselves and influence our brains in a healthy way. One simple method of meditation you may not be aware of involves bitter taste, such as from bitter-tasting plants. Bitter taste can be used on its own or in combination with breathing or other meditation methods to focus our minds and stimulate physiological changes in our bodies quickly and naturally.

What happens when we put something sharply and strongly bitter on our tongues? Our brains automatically pay attention to it, and we have less head space for other sensations such as pain or discomfort. Saliva builds up in our mouths and our parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for relaxation and repair, becomes more active. When this system is turned up, our stress system, the sympathetic nervous system, is turned down. Our bodies relax, our minds relax, our hearts relax, and our self-awareness deepens. Our chakras open, and we may feel heat and/or vibrations in our body. Bitter flavor and the parasympathetic nervous system are also associated with increased immunity and better digestion.

Overall, it’s nature’s way of helping us regulate ourselves quickly and naturally. Through bitterness, we can create joy.

Bitter Herb Meditation

I’m always searching for ways to help people come back to themselves and take back their brains as quickly and as often as possible. The methods I’ve developed for this over the years have been getting simpler and easier. With my awareness of the benefits of bitter taste, I’ve been spending my time in Sedona, Arizona lately scouring the desert landscape for samples of bitter-tasting plants that have the best meditative effects. I test them on myself, noting what they do not only to my body and mind, but to my energy and spirit as well.

If you find a bitter herb or food, you can use it in this meditative way to access the power of bitter taste completely. You can do this exercise sitting down or standing up. If you are sitting, make a half-lotus or cross-legged posture, or put both feet flat on the floor.

Straighten your back, and put the plant on your tongue. Bring your attention to it. Sense the flavor.Start to chew it, noticing the increase in flavor. Feel its effects, starting from your mouth and going from your head and down your entire body.Shake your body deliberately. You can bounce up and down or shake side to side. Keep your senses focused on your body. Do this for at least three minutes, but you can continue to do it longer.Stop vibrating and become still, keeping your back straight. Inhale for three counts, hold your breath for three counts, and exhale for three counts. Continue this breathing pattern for another five minutes or more as you keep your awareness on your body’s sensations. If a part of you doesn’t “feel right”—if it feels cold, stuck, dark, empty, tense, painful, etc.—focus on that part longer, and it will gradually balance itself.

With regular practice, as with any meditation, you can feel inside yourself more and more deeply. You may feel your chest, shoulders, and jaw relax. All of the energy that is blocked inside, which should flow freely, will open and unhealthy energy will move out of you. You may even feel your inner energy grow and explode inside, making you feel awake and alive even down to your very cells. The things you don’t need inside will melt away, and you may feel a million times more positive and bright. Instead of feeling small, your awareness may expand until you feel connected with the whole.

Bitterness Brings Balance

The sense that bitterness gives us is the sense of balance that we’ve lost. It’s balance between our left and right brains, between our conscious and subconscious minds, between ourselves and others, and between ourselves and nature. If this balance is broken, we can’t see ourselves correctly, so we cannot come up with an accurate diagnosis of our condition and find the solutions we need in our lives.

But with a bitter taste, in a short period of time, our awareness becomes focused on ourselves, and as our parasympathetic nervous system is activated, our mind becomes calm and we become able to look at ourselves. As we look at our body, emotions, preconceptions, and consciousness, it takes us from being askew with preconceptions to returning to a sense of our highest self. If we incorporate this practice into our daily lives, we don’t waste energy on unnecessary things, and that power becomes accumulated energy that can be used for doing productive work.

Instead of depending only on sweetness to get through touch times, we can embrace bitterness and restore balance. With individual balance recovered, we can create balance in the world. I find hope in bitterness, a hope that all flavors and people can coexist peacefully together.

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Design Every Environment: That’s the Fifth Rule of Your Brain Operating System

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A bright consciousness has the power to change its environment.

Live for a while and you’ll find that life isn’t all clear days and sunshine. It might rain, it might snow, and the wind might blow. Our environment is always changing.

We can think of our environment as the physical spaces where we live, work, and play. But we can also consider the people around us as part of our environment, as well as the work and hobbies we pursue. Our internal parts—our thoughts, emotions, and bodies—also make up an important environment that’s influential on our lives.

We can spend our lives reacting to our ever-changing environment, being influenced by it and hoping for a better, or at least a more stable, one. Or we can design our environment, changing it to reflect and support our dreams and wishes.

Mastering our environment is the fifth and final rule of the Brain Operating System (BOS), the set of rules by which our brains work optimally.

Designing Our Environment Comes from Developing Our Consciousness

Many of the people who’ve been successful in the world weren’t handed good environments by their parents. Instead, they overcame difficult conditions. In the process, their consciousness changed, and they could believe in themselves. As their consciousness changed, their external environment could also change, affecting their consciousness in a continual cycle of growth.

In order to be able to learn from the difficulties we face and transform them, we need to be able to watch what goes on in our bodies, thoughts, and emotions objectively. Then we can see our unconscious habits as well as change them moment by moment. Just as we shouldn’t take our hands off the wheel when we drive, we can navigate the ups and downs, the left turns and right turns, of the road before us well if we hold onto the steering wheel of our consciousness.

But seeing ourselves clearly can only be done when we are in our center. That’s when our consciousness is linked to our true self and stays at the zero point beyond thoughts and emotions. Then, even though we have thoughts and emotions, we can say to ourselves, “Oh, that’s just our environment. I can change my environment.” We can make up our minds to love our lives instead of lamenting over our environment or situation.

Just having that awakening starts to change our consciousness. It changes from negative to positive. It becomes free of our environment’s ups and downs. Of course, our consciousness may leave the zero point and may forget this realization sometimes, but once we have it, we can always go back. With sustained practice of this process, our consciousness and internal environment can become healthier, more vigorous, and more resilient.

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Change Our Energy to Change Our Environment

On the other hand, when we’re not centered, we keep losing energy. Having less energy makes us more prone to be emotional—more lonely, fearful, and unhappy. The more centered we are, the more we gain bright energy, which makes our consciousness brighter and clearer. This bright strength is what makes our power to control our internal and external environment stronger. Even if our light is small at first, if we keep feeding and developing it, it will become as bright as the sun.

Sometimes, however, we’re too caught up in our thoughts and emotions, or our environment becomes too difficult, for us to easily stay centered. That’s when we can use tools to release the energy of those thoughts and emotions and snatch our consciousness back:

Practice Brain Education exercises such as Toe Tapping, Brain Wave Vibration, Belly Button Healing, and/or Plate Balancing Exercise. Or just move vigorously and joyfully.Use a strong sensation of touch, taste, or sound to snap out of any worry, fear, or sadness our consciousness is stuck in.Do deep, steady breathing, such as abdominal breathing in a 3-3-3 pattern—breathing in for three counts, holding for three, and then exhaling for three, to calm body and mind and allow our consciousness to return to its zero point.Tell ourselves, “I’m doing very well,” instead of focusing on our inadequacies or failures, for we can actually do better when we think we can do better.

We have our own environment, and we also participate in other people’s environments. We can choose to be a good or a bad environment for someone else. Our consciousness—the power of our brain—makes this choice. When we share bright energy and unrelenting positivity with those around us in hopes that all of them will become happier, we become a beneficial and reliable environment for them.

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Life Is Fun, If You Make It: Ilchi Lee’s Tips How

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Making each moment fun can be done to stay true to ourselves.

Have you ever fallen into a spiral of complaints? Your body hurts, you’re exhausted all the time, and you can’t seem to stay on top of the mountain of work you need to do. Self-care? What’s that? It all may seem like too much.

Of course, you may already know that complaining doesn’t help, even if you’re only complaining to yourself. Our mindset affects everything we do and how we perceive the things and events going on outside and inside of us. Complaints lead to more complaints.

At the same time, our mindset can be one of the easier things to change. It’s ever-malleable, and we are in complete control of it—whether it seems like it or not. Because it only exists inside us, it doesn’t take time, another person, or a particular situation to alter our perspective. We can just do it as easily as we can flip our hand over.

But it does take effort. We need to actively choose to change our minds. And, while we can gain a new perspective in a moment, the mental habits embedded in our neural pathways may drag us back to our old state of mind. Then, however, we can change it again, over and over, until we make new mental habits.

Make everything fun.

So what mindset do you think works the best for getting through life without dragging, complaining, or failing to achieve our goals? We may already know to stay positive. Let’s take it even further: Live a fun day every day.

This was the message that came to me as I meditated on the energy of the moon the last time it was full. In that meditation, my heart and mind became one with the moon’s energy, and I could commune with the harmony and oneness that lies at the center of everything. “Have fun” may sound like a platitude if we look at it superficially. However, making each moment fun makes each moment a reflection of our purest and truest consciousness and energy.

When each moment has that consciousness and energy, it becomes full of blessings. So by choosing fun, we are giving ourselves blessings. That means blessings are always available to us; we always have access to grace because it’s our very nature.

Living a fun life means that we have mental space to spare and that, no matter what the situation, we have hopes and dreams. Even when it’s not a big deal, we are always smiling, and our faces look bright. We gain an incomparable ease and a dignity that is unbreakable.

Move to make fun.

If we think of everything as being fun, then everything is fun and enjoyable, even our trials and tribulations. Have a “boring” task you have to do right away? Look for something fun about it, or simply tell yourself it’s fun.

Sometimes, though, it can be hard to switch into a fun mode instantaneously. That’s when we can use our bodies to change our minds. By moving our bodies and getting our energy and blood flowing more, we can shake off the heaviness and negativity that’s keeping us down. Take a walk, dance, do Brain Wave Vibration, take a yoga class, or just smile and laugh. We’ll make a fun perspective that we can bring to any situation.

We can also turn to the light of the sun, moon, and stars. Imagining their light going into our bodies and brains can help us feel brighter. This light lets us see the fun in things that may have looked dark.

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Start now.

All we have is the now. Tomorrow is not guaranteed. So, now, let’s have fun! Take every moment in a fun way. That’s within the scope of what we can choose.

We can live life in a fun way. This one choice will cause many ripple effects. With each moment of fun we have, we are creating a world that’s fun.

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Come with Me to a Sacred Sedona Cave

By responding to our intuition right away without thought or worry, we can break though our blockages and blaze new trails toward our goals.

After living in Sedona, Arizona for so many years, it seems like I’ve explored every nook and cranny. However, one day when I was hiking recently, I saw a cave in the rocks in the distance.

Even from afar, this cave appeared sacred and mystical. Its energy called to me; it was if a magnet was pulling me there. As I always do, I immediately responded. I headed straight for the cave.

There wasn’t a trail to the cave, so my team and I had to forge our own. The cave was up a hill that was about the height of the famous Bell Rock in Sedona (4,919 feet, 1499 meters). Some parts were tricky going up. There were loose rocks, prickly cacti, and steep inclines.

Sometimes my team worried about me, wanting to protect me. Although I’m a youthful seventy-something now, I was determined to reach the cave no matter what. The pure, sacred energy of the cave that was calling to me was like the call of my own vision to raise the consciousness of humanity to one of harmony with each other and the earth. I can’t give up that vision, and I couldn’t give up the goal of reaching that cave and meeting its energy.

Today is the youngest I’ll be for the rest of my life.
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And I knew that unless I rose to the challenge myself, nothing would happen, and the next action wouldn’t come. Each day is the day that I am the youngest in the rest of my life. It won’t get any easier tomorrow. If I focused on my age, environment, and all the other information around me, then I couldn’t do anything. Instead, I believed in the information I chose: I am young, and I can do this. I’ve heard the summons, and by meeting this challenge, I can share hope with others. I chose this information, and that’s what I trusted. And it propelled all of us forward.

We finally made it to the cave. Looking out at the Sedona landscape from that height, I chanted the ancient, sacred text of the Chun Bu Kyung three times; it matched the energy of the cave. I sang it as well to the spirits of those rocks and played the flute for them. It was also a prayer and song for my vision, and it was a time of becoming completely connected with nature. I did everything that I was compelled to do there; the sense of accomplishment that I felt was so indescribably great.

Don’t give up.

Although it’s no small feat to find one’s way on a path that’s not there, by responding to the energy and reaching the cave, I was able to break down the walls blocking the energy to achieving my vision. I was able to prove to myself that my vision is not impossible. It’s perfectly doable. As long as I don’t give up, the path will open to me.

That’s why when I receive inspiration like going to that cave, I don’t think too much about it and just do it. The more I think, the more the energy gets blocked. Without worrying about the obstacles, I just blaze my way forward.

Every moment is an opportunity to wake up and get moving without hanging onto previous thoughts and habits. Thoughts, emotions, and habits hide the essence and spirit that’s always calling to us to live as the most complete and honest version of ourselves. The more we challenge ourselves, hanging onto the vision we have for our lives with fierce determination, the more we can break through our thoughts, emotions, and habits. The small things and our small mind—attachments, worries, anxieties, and preconceptions—all melt away. Then our spirit grows ever bigger, our consciousness keeps expanding, and the path before us grows wider and smoother.

For the sake of your own vision and your own journey to completion, I’d like to share the energy of that cave with you through this picture:

Later, I learned that this cave is known as Keyhole Cave. There’s no mapped trail to it, but some people start toward it from the Sugarloaf Trailhead.

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What Is Reincarnation?

[Photo by rozum via Envato Elements]

Take a look at the afterlife from a higher energy perspective.

Our lives are defined by the fact that they seem to end. So understanding death and the afterlife or reincarnation can help us live our present lives. I would like to share my own understanding about it.

A long time ago, a famous person who does taekwondo came to South Korea from the United States. I took him to visit Moak Mountain, the place where I did my own ascetic practice and found my own enlightenment. I said to him, “If you go to Moak Mountain, you’ll be able to see a tomato becoming a person when the full moon rises.” He thought this was amazing, but he was doubtful.

As we climbed the mountain, we saw children eating tomatoes. This person traded one of the kids candy for a tomato. He then took the tomato and ate it.

The full moon rose above Moak Mountain that night, and he waited to see a tomato become a person. At about midnight, I asked him whether he’d seen a tomato become a person. “Where?” he asked. “The tomato that went into your stomach became a person. The energy of the tomato has changed into the energy of a person, so the tomato has become a person.” In that way, I shattered the illusions he had.

Energy is immutable.

With the energy and strength we get from the food we eat, we live our lives. Our bodies transform food and air into ourselves. Countless animals and plants enter our mouths. Huge numbers of them are circulating inside us. The giving and taking of life continues in our body.

In the same way, if someone plants a tree on my grave after I die, then I become a tree, and that tree will exchange vast quantities of energy with the world. We find ourselves in innumerable exchanges of energy, which is why we say that everyone lives forever.

All things in creation exist within moving time and space. And the energy in them is immutable. That is reincarnation.

We can transcend life and death.

To say that we reincarnate is to say that life and death do not exist; there is only a change of energy. That’s why we don’t need to get caught up in talking about how one thing is life and another death.

“This is life.” “That is death.” These are merely our thoughts, emotions, and feelings. We don’t know life and death by what we’re feeling. We don’t know life and we don’t know death unless we awaken. “Life” and “death” do not exist; these might just be illusions and word games.

But when we look at the world while in a state of illuminated divinity, the principles of the world are obvious at a glance. We realize that all have been one within them.

Our purpose in being born was to illuminate the divinity in human life. The concepts of life and death we have now can totally change once we connect with the divinity that is already in our brain. When our consciousness is at that level, we go to a place that has completely transcended life and death, and we are no longer mired in a fear of death.

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[Video] Use Sound to Share Your Spirit

Air is essential to our very lives. When we manage air with our bodies, we can create sound. Those who manage air well are artists. It’s about using everything we have to manage our bodies and minds and make a masterpiece of our lives.

None of us need to be self-conscious or unconfident about the sounds we make. If, instead, we play with sound, our spirit becomes free and can freely express itself through sound.

In this video, I play my drum for you freely so it can let your spirit feel free.

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