Ilchi Lee's Blog, page 19
July 7, 2022
Create a Web for Catching Your Dreams
Our dreams can only be made together, so let’s treat each other with sincerity and kindness.
Throughout the work I’ve been doing, what’s always struck me as most important is people. It’s people who can care for each other and the earth, and it’s people whose hearts and minds can open and come together to change the trajectory of the future.
Humans are beings that not only have a profound effect on the physical world; they have an energetic system and a conscious awareness that can intentionally influence the energetic and spiritual worlds that underlie the physical.
Destined ConnectionsEverywhere I go, I make an effort to meet as many people as I can. And no matter whom I meet or where I meet them, I completely focus only on delivering the brightest, purest energy to them and helping them create their own health and happiness. I share my heart completely with each person and approach them with the most kindness and friendliness and the brightest smile that I can. I do this because I hope they can at least get a glimpse of the pure, bright self they have inside.
In the process, I feel that I’ve made many connections with people that seemed destined. Some of them are historical, such as the Body & Brain Yoga member from South Korea who moved to New Zealand and discovered a center there years later or the middle school teacher who started a Body & Brain Yoga club at his school, from which two students became Body & Brain instructors when they grew up. Others are with people doing their own work on a similar dream, such as don Miguel Ruiz or a Rinpoche running a spiritual retreat center in Spain.
Some of these connections have turned into people who share my dream and are working together with me to open hearts and minds and to teach people to use their bodies, consciousness, and energy to create their own dreams. These connections have expanded more and more into a golden web of energy that’s making the world brighter behind the scenes.
The more dedicated I am to my dream, the more of these connections I encounter. I find meeting people like this very rewarding, and it makes me happy. When I see those people I meet help others to be bright and happy, my heart becomes so full.
We never know how all the various people existing in this world will come to meet us and with what timing within the flow of the world. And we never know what a connection will create, either now or somewhere down the line. I believe that no destined relationship or special connection is accidental. There’s nothing that happens out of nowhere, that just comes without effort. I think such auspicious meetings are the result of long-cherished yearning and of choice and creation.
It’s all by these relationships that I was able to make it this far. Even if it was a very small connection, if I cherished it and kept sincerely cultivating it, it would lead me to another person, and so on. Every connection is simply a passing one if you look at it with indifference. However, for someone who has a dream and always focuses on that dream, all connections great and small change into gifts for achieving that dream.
Why did we come to this earth and meet each other? Having come to this star called earth in this solar system, with what meaning do we exist? If we know that, the meaning of our lives will be different, and if we know its value, the attitude, method, and goal of the lives we live will be different.
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Meet One New Person Every DayWhat is your dream? If you have a dream, the people you meet are your lifeline for achieving it. Making an authentic, generous connection with everyone you meet—or at least smiling readily and sharing good vibes and kind words—will create a net of positivity around you that will eventually bring in the help you need. Our personal goals and a bigger dream for a better world can only be reached by helping one another.
So, whether it’s online or offline, I suggest making the choice to meet one new person a day. It can be someone that you haven’t been in touch with, it can be a new friend online, or you can help a random person you happen to encounter in passing. You can even simply say, “Hello!” Whoever it may be, deliver positive vibes to one new person. A new bright rhythm will come into your life if you start each morning with that kind of intention.
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June 30, 2022
The First Rule of Your Brain Operating System: Wake Up and Pay Attention
[Photo derived from video by stock_cookie via Envato Elements]
Wake up to who you really are and keep your attention focused on your dreams.
We are reborn and die every day. Not a single day is like the day before it. There is never an hour that is like the hour before it, either. We are riding the earth, traveling through the cosmos. We’re going into the future, heading toward a new world.
Those who would welcome each new time and space headed toward us can’t live with the thinking of the past. That newness will just pass us by unless we lay hold of it. It’s possible to lay hold of newness with an awakened consciousness.
Instead of living mired in past ideas or habits, we can wake up and pay attention. That’s the first law of our Brain Operating System (BOS). The Brain Operating System is a way of comparing the human brain to a computer. Brain cells are the hardware, and the brain’s thoughts, ideas, and functions are the software. The laws of the Brain Operating System tell us how we can consciously run our brain’s software.
The Brain Operating System always serves the interests, security, and joy of the being we perceive as “self.” It actualizes the “self.” So the BOS is very sensitive to information about the self and its values. I believe that one of the reasons there are so many broken families, people addicted to drugs, people committing suicide—cases of people not valuing themselves or others—is that many people’s sense of self remains focused on the ego. With such a focus, their consciousness becomes dark, and they lack the power to make positive choices.
I’ve found that another self lies beyond the ego—one that shines brightly. When our sense of self focuses on what I call the true self, then our consciousness also becomes bright. Our Brain Operating System can run optimally with the values and input of the true self.
In the moment we really wake up and pay attention, we understand that our ego is an illusion. We come to know our true selves. Then the door to a new world will open for us. Those who live with new minds and create newness every day are their own hope and the hope of these times.
Attention is our brain’s most expensive resource. It was the most recent of the brain’s features to evolve, and more energy is allocated to the prefrontal lobes—the areas in charge of attention and complex thinking—than to any other part of the brain. As one strategy for using this resource efficiently, the brain limits how long external stimuli remain in the prefrontal lobes. Nothing remains there for long unless we intentionally focus. By focusing, we can selectively control how long information remains in our short-term memory.
Energy flows to the objects toward which attention is directed. That energy turns into tangible consequences in the real world. The longer we can hold something in our short-term memory, the more energy that will go to it, and the more chance it will have of manifesting in our lives. Developing that ability and choosing what holds our attention, then, is important. Instead of being lost in fantasy or distracting thoughts, we can keep our sights on a goal that thrills and satisfies our true selves. Waking up and paying attention means being startled into awareness and realizing what we’re doing right now and where our thoughts are being directed.
Time is often measured in length, but what makes time truly significant is quality. Attention and focus are what increase the quality of time. “Wake up and pay attention” creates an incredible difference in the quality of the time we spend.
To What Should We Wake Up1. Our true selves and our chosen purpose.Waking up and pulling ourselves together means recovering our spirit and recovering the zero point—going back to our center, from which we can see everything clearly without bias and from which the life energy that flows through everything in the universe comes forth. From the center, we have a deep sense of truth and what we need to do to express it. That truth includes our own answers to the questions, “Who am I?” and “What should I live for?”
2. The wisdom of the cosmos.The first time I woke up, I was enlightened to the essence of who we all are: cosmic energy and the cosmic consciousness. We are able to use cosmic energy the way we intend when our own consciousness aligns with cosmic consciousness. That happens when we become aware of our true selves and take action for what our true selves want. When the dream and vision of our true selves has been inputted into our BOS, then our brains act to turn that dream into a reality. And we become connected through cosmic energy with other brains who share that dream, and we exchange information with them.
All cells and organs in our bodies are connected to our brains. They report information to the brain and receive orders from it. For example, let’s say that I’m driving. If a red signal light comes on in front of me, the brain tells my right foot to step on the brake. Brains linked through cosmic energy are exactly the same. They are connected with the cosmic brain, i.e., cosmic consciousness, and receive messages from the cosmic brain. If we ask, “What should I do for my dream?” we will be shown a message consistent with our interests and roles.
The information we receive from cosmic consciousness is primal information. It’s natural—from the source. When our BOS pays more attention to our egos instead of our true selves—instead of the cosmic mind—we can’t access this primal information. You could also call connecting to our essence this way “listening to our conscience” and acting on it “building our character.”
3. Opportunities and connections that support our true selves and purpose.When we see clearly from our center, opportunities that support our true selves and its dream become more visible. By waking up and paying attention, we can use everything around us and get cooperation and support from the people, places, and things in our environment.
4. The need to constantly grow and change.Change is the nature of the cosmos, and if we’re not also changing, we become disconnected from our essence. Without change, we are not awake; we are asleep. But first, we need to be awake enough to realize that we are not changing and that we are going down a path that leads us away from our true selves.
Our BOS is most active when we’re unable to find answers in the information already stored in our brain, such as when we challenge ourselves to do something we don’t normally do. When we commit ourselves to a really difficult task and choose to grow, our BOS creates the answers we need.
5. The inner workings of our body, mind, and energy.The true self we need to awaken to can only be discovered inside of us. We can keep part of our mind trained on it to maintain that connection. And keeping part of it trained on the sensations in our body further melds our body with our brain, letting the brain work to heal and maintain the body. Being aware of everything we have within us with a clear-eyed perspective lets our BOS fully manage our body and mind in alignment with our true selves and our dreams.
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All Five Laws of the Brain Operating SystemOur awareness comes and goes, like a breath inhaled and exhaled, like waves on the ocean advancing and receding. We can observe our awareness coming and going. When we’re really sleepy and tired, there are times when we nod off without realizing it, even if we sit with our back straight. If we watch carefully, we can catch the moment our consciousness starts to go. Then we can wake ourselves up again.
It doesn’t take long for a lightbulb to turn on. It comes on in a flash. It doesn’t take time for the brain to wake up, either. The brain must wake up. It’s the first thing we need to do, but knowing this is not enough. A car doesn’t play its role as a car just because we own it, have a key, and know how to drive. Just because our brains have awakened doesn’t mean they will fully play their roles in our lives. We need to use our brains to act somehow, create something, and run something. When we run something, then we start to change. Having a great instrument is useless unless we play it, and our skill will continue to increase the more we play it.
That’s where the other four laws of the Brain Operating System come in. I will explain these laws and how to use them in future blog posts, but here is the full list:
Wake up and pay attention.Good news makes a good brain.If you choose it, it will happen.Become the master of time and space.Design every environment and circumstance.A New Evolution of ConsciousnessThere are too many people who are living without waking up and paying attention. Yet, I believe that awakening the conscience through the Brain Operating System and enhancing its information processing and creative abilities together are the shortcut to the evolution of human consciousness.
But each of us has to decide for ourselves. We have to choose to wake up and pay attention to the flow of cosmic energy and cosmic mind that reflects our true selves, for living without awakening is not living at all.
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[Video] The Power of Having a Dream
This is another clip from the interview I gave for my Korean YouTube channel, which was broadcast live. They asked me how I have enough energy to do all the things I do, even though I’m in my seventies now. I told them that my energy comes from having a big dream. It gets me up in the morning. My desire to achieve it keeps motivating me to work hard.
What big dreams are in your heart?
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June 23, 2022
3-Step Breathing for Stress Relief
[Photo by Pressmaster via Envato Elements]
Discover an effective way to breathe mindfully to turn stress into strength.
None of us can avoid stress, and we may not want to. Some people seem to thrive under pressure. They react to stress by focusing more intensely, which appears to strengthen them. However, others crumble under pressure. How about you? Maybe you’ve had both experiences.
The difference between wilting versus thriving lies in how we react to stressful situations. Do we lose our cool and start following a cascade of negative thoughts and emotions? Or do we channel our stress energy into controlled and productive processes? I want to share something that has helped me and many others deal with stress: breathing.
Breathing is like a shield when we’re under attack from stress. Or it’s like aikido, a martial art that focuses not on blocking but on redirecting an attacker’s energy to throw them off balance. Breathing can help us redirect the energy of anxiety or frustration into productive avenues.
Breathing is like a shield when we’re under attack from stress.
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Why is breathing so powerful? It’s the one vital function we have conscious control over.
The autonomic nervous system regulates the critical vital phenomena of our bodies, such as pulse, blood pressure, temperature, and respiration, and plays a critical role in our body’s stress response. These functions happen spontaneously, whether we’re aware of them or not. While we cannot intentionally raise or lower our blood pressure or body temperature directly, we can make our breathing slower or faster. By consciously controlling our respiration, we can alleviate the stress response occurring in our autonomic nervous system and positively affect our other vitals.
Most of us spend little to no time focusing on our breath. After all, it happens whether we pay attention or not. But does it really? Of course, we’ll keep breathing, even when we’re asleep. But the quality and effect of our breath can be quite different depending on our awareness, especially under stress.
Have you ever measured how many breaths you take per minute? If not, give it a try now. The normal breathing rate for an adult at rest is 10 to 15 breaths per minute. What would happen if you cut your usual rate in half? Even lowering it to less than 10 breaths per minute will make your mind feel more relaxed. The ideal rhythm is a breath every 12 seconds so that you breathe five times in a minute. Consciously breathing at this rate increases cardiorespiratory efficiency and provides a surprising sense of groundedness.
There are many methods of consciously breathing. The best one is the one that works for you. Your body will tell you which approach is best suited to you.
I’d like to share three simple steps for better breathing that will help turn stress from an enemy to an ally.
The first step is to relax our shoulders and chest because this is where much of our stress and tension is held, and these areas are relatively easier to relax than some of the deeper parts of the body. So, start with a couple of deep breaths, exhaling through the mouth. Breathe in through your nose for three or four seconds; if you’re feeling significant stress, two or three seconds is long enough.
If you can, hold your breath for a comfortable moment, feeling the expansion of your chest. Then exhale as smoothly as you can through your mouth. If possible, lengthen your exhalation to four to six seconds, and feel your rib cage relaxing. Repeat this breathing four or five times if you can, lengthening your exhalation a little more each time. Focus on the center of your chest, and imagine any tension you are holding there melting away.
The next area to focus on is your solar plexus, or stomach area. Inhale through your nose for three or four seconds and gently exhale through your mouth for four to six seconds. Focus on relaxing your upper-abdominal muscles.
This might be an unusual thing to feel. If you tend to hold your tension near your stomach (think butterflies in the stomach), you might notice more tension before you sense any relaxation. Keep going, imagining your stomach getting softer and lighter.
As with most things that involve mind and body coordination, relaxation breathing techniques become more effective the more you practice. Try these techniques at home when you’re not under stress, and you’ll find them working better the next time you’re in a stressful situation, such as giving a lecture, resolving an argument, driving in traffic, or taking a test.
Step three is where the magic really happens because it activates our main energy center. In Korean, we call this center the “dahnjon,” and it’s located 1 or 2 inches below the navel and 2 or 3 inches inside the body. If you’ve heard of “abdominal breathing,” then you’ll have some idea of the importance of deep breathing to stimulate this area. By focusing specifically on the dahnjon area, you may tap into something beyond relaxation. With practice, you can feel a precise and powerful sense of your center.
Breathe using the method introduced in the previous steps. If possible, breathe in and out only through your nose, without using your mouth. Concentrating your awareness in your lower abdomen, slowly inhale while pushing your belly out. Pause until you feel a sense of fullness, and then exhale until you get the feeling that your lower abdomen is being pulled in. Hold your breath only to a comfortable degree—not until your chest is tight and your face turns red. Slowly, consistently, and rhythmically repeat the movements of pushing out your lower abdomen as you inhale and pulling it in as you exhale at a pace that is comfortable for you.
Your inhalations and exhalations continue naturally when your body and mind are comfortable. You automatically exhale when you’ve breathed in enough, and you automatically inhale once you’ve breathed out enough. Your lower abdomen will grow warmer, and you’ll get a pleasant feeling of fullness as energy accumulates in your dahnjon as you breathe.
When doing the three-step breathing described above, beginners can place their hands on their chest, upper abdomen, and lower abdomen, respectively. Feeling through your hands the rhythm of each body part rising and falling with your breath will help you concentrate.
Chest breathing and upper abdominal breathing are good for relaxing the body and mind and releasing tension and anxiety. Dahnjon breathing, which focuses on the belly, not only helps with relaxation, but helps build a powerful center in the lower abdomen with regular practice.
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Breathing in Threes: Three In, Three OutWhen you only have a little bit of time and you find yourself stressed, you can practice this abdominal breathing method. Inhale three times and exhale three times. This lets you take in and let out more air than when you breathe once each way. I base this on my own experience of exhaling very slowly, several times, bit by bit, when my breathing had stopped after I was thrown from my horse. Inhale, feeling yourself filling your lungs with air, once, twice, three times. Then hold it, concentrating on the feeling of your chest expanding. When you exhale, breathe the air out of your lungs completely, over three outgoing breaths. Feel full when you inhale, refreshed when you exhale. Repeating this just 5 to 10 times slows your brain waves and brings mental stability.
Breathing Consciously Means Loving YourselfThe most important thing in the breathing methods I’ve introduced is to breathe “consciously.” Normally your brain keeps you breathing, but now you’re giving your brain a signal, saying, “I’m doing the breathing.” You’re breathing consciously, not just letting it happen automatically.
Aim to breathe with devotion in each breath. Get the feeling that you’re giving the kiss of life to yourself. Try to do your best, imagining that your body won’t breathe unless you breathe for it, unless you breathe consciously.
Breathing is the highest act of love for your body. Through breathing you can interact with yourself, control your emotions, and give yourself confidence. The more time you spend breathing consciously, the more your composure will increase and the more your consideration for others and your care for nature will grow.
Editor’s Note: This post was excerpted and edited from Ilchi Lee’s new book, The 100-Year Golfer: 7 Arts for a Lifetime with the Game.
June 16, 2022
5 Kinds of Joy We All Need Right Now
[Photo by StudioVK via Envato Elements]
When times are tough, we can shine the light of joy in every area of our lives.
Sometimes amid the big problems in our lives or all the negative news in the world, joy may seem far off or even not useful. In fact, joy links to peace as well as trust in the infinite potential of the essence of who we are. It’s exactly what we need when times seem dark.
True joy may be grand, or it can be found in our everyday lives. I would describe five kinds of joy:
Joy of eating: We have to eat to live, and we feel joy when we eat something delicious. This kind of joy is primal and linked to our desire to survive.Joy of possessing: When we are babies, our greatest joy is eating, but, as we get a little older, we awaken to the concept of possession. That’s why we fight over toys and clothes asserting, “Mine!” Besides wanting to possess material things, we want to possess the important people in our lives, especially in romantic relationships. The joy of possessing is just as great as the joy of eating.Joy of achievement: We feel this joy when we satisfy our desire to achieve a goal or reach a milestone. Joy of helping others (acting Hongik): Beyond the joy we feel when we are fed by food and success, we can feel the joy of opening our hearts and acting for the benefit of many.Joy of being one with the universe: This is the joy of enlightenment, when we know that heaven, earth, and humanity are one.All of these joys are important. If we ignore the first three personal joys and only talk about enlightenment, then we are acting unrealistic and absurd.
These five kinds of joy are a growth process. First, we build a solid foundation with a healthy body full of bright, clear energy. Then we open our hearts to others, and finally we can develop our spiritual awareness.
Without a strong foundation, we may find it difficult to keep our hearts and minds open and connected when times get tough. We may know and say the right things, but we won’t have the power to back them up with our actions.
We need joy right now and so does the world. A steady, daily practice that makes our body, energy, and spirit strong and bright will make us into people who illuminate the world. In the process, we can find ourselves becoming masters of our bodies, our emotions, and our minds.
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New Book Coming: The 100-Year Golfer
In less than a week, on June 20, 2022, Ilchi Lee’s latest book will be released as a paperback and an ebook at all major booksellers. The 100-Year Golfer: 7 Arts for a Lifetime with the Game shares the wisdom he gained from playing golf for almost forty years. Through trial and error and a passion for the game, Ilchi Lee learned how to make golf more natural, joyful, and connected. Golf has become an integral tool for training his brain and body and for seeing himself clearly. All of his experience led Lee to want to golf until he’s at least 100-years-old, and this book shows you how.
The 100-Year Golfer includes the author’s personal stories as well as illustrated exercises that connect body and mind to strengthen your game. Testimonials support practical advice, and a new YouTube channel, Ilchi Brain Golf, makes the book’s tips and exercises easier to follow.
This new book can be found for pre-order now. The publisher, Best Life Media, is offering access to a free seventy-minute video featuring exercises from the book during the pre-order period. This class includes qigong exercises and is taught by Ilchi Lee’s student, Body & Brain Yoga instructor David Driscoll, who is also an enthusiastic golfer. The video can be viewed after entering your name, email address, and book purchase receipt number here on the book’s official website.
An audiobook version will be released shortly after the paperback and ebook.
The 100-Year Golfer has already attracted the attention of notable golfers and golf writers. Yeonhee Han, former coach of the South Korean National Golf Team, said about the book: “I saw a new horizon in golf by reading The 100-Year Golfer. . . . I would like to recommend this book to golfers who need golf for themselves, not for recognition from anybody else.” Sangho Choi, a South Korean golfing legend who holds the record for most wins in KPGA history explained, “This book reminds us that training the body and mind is a shortcut to better golf. It presents practical meditations and unique exercises, along with the inspiration to make golf part of a deeply fulfilling life.”
More information about this upcoming book and links to purchase it can be found at ilchi.com/the-100-year-golfer.
June 13, 2022
[Video] Why I Wrote the Book, The 100-Year Golfer
I had a chance to give a live talk for the Korean Ilchi TV YouTube channel last month. They asked me a few questions, one of which was about my upcoming book, The 100-Year Golfer: 7 Arts for a Lifetime with the Game. I was able to share how my experiences with and passion for golf eventually led me to write it. I also emphasized that any activity that makes your brain healthy can be categorized as “BrainSports.”
I hope that we can use all the things we do as a means to develop ourselves, grow our characters, and live authentic lives.
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June 9, 2022
Let’s Answer the Fundamental Questions of Our Time
[Photo by Johnstocker via Envato Elements]
Here’s one simple answer to all important questions.
Many years ago, I was asked a few questions by a gathering of world-renowned experts on education, the environment, religion, and various other fields. They asked me these questions because I had been introduced to them as an “enlightened man from the East,” but really, I don’t think they expected answers. That’s how big these questions were. Even all these years later, the questions they asked still apply because we still haven’t solved the issues they addressed.
I would summarize them into three main questions:
How can we live a good life?How can we overcome inter-group conflicts?How can we live harmoniously with the earth’s environment?How would you attempt to answer these questions? If you start by looking at the small details, you could discuss possible answers forever. But if you take a step back, you might see only one response: We just have to play well with each other.
For peace and harmony, let's learn to play well with each other.
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Of course, if we’re going to play well with each other, we need to learn to play well with ourselves first. That’s our first hurdle—and our first solution—to a more harmonious world. Many people struggle with being alone. In the absence of external stimulation or support, we feel anxious, bored, and especially, lonely. That’s why we turn to entertainment, retail therapy, or drugs. But if we don’t let ourselves be with, empathize with, and accept ourselves, we start running on a self-love deficit, and it becomes harder to empathize with others. Then under stress, we may lash out against others, or ourselves, in ways we may regret.
But we don’t need much to entertain ourselves or get to know ourselves. We have the best medium of all—our body. When I’m alone, I stretch and exercise, or sometimes just observe my breathing. As I keep focusing on my body this way, I find my thoughts ceasing, and I reach a state of lightness and peace.
From that state beyond thought or emotion, I can meet and hang out with my true self in my heart. Being with that inherently harmonious and loving self, I realize how valuable I am, and I gain respect for myself.
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Harmony Begins with RespectTo play well with ourselves and others, we need respect more than anything else. It’s the same with all “tribes,” however we choose to define them. It is because we cannot respect each other that we cannot play well, and we fight.
It’s the same with the earth. If we don’t respect the earth, how can we consistently treat it well? How can we make it a prominent factor in our decisions instead of merely an afterthought or a point of contention?
Why then can’t we respect each other and play well with each other? It’s because we have incorrect information in our brains. We have too much information that’s based on our collective and individual egos, rather than peaceful information based on a higher standard.
The political, societal, and environmental crises we face exist because we neglect the principle of harmony in favor of unbalanced self-centeredness. Therefore, recovering our harmonious minds and living by the principle of harmony is the way to establish world peace and environmental sustainability. In other words, it is the way to discover our true nature.
The Information of HarmonyWhat information do we need, then, in order to live by the principle of harmony with ourselves, society, and the earth? The first is: “I am an Earth Citizen.” I live on earth; I’m dependent on the earth; and the earth depends on me. If we make this realization an axiom of our lives, then all other information and realizations can flow from it.
This idea may make sense when we think about how interconnected the world is today. However, we don’t need to accept it with only the logical side of our minds. Such a “truth” can actually be felt with our hearts if we connect our minds, hearts, and even bodies.
The fact that we all can do this is a source of hope for me. Since we are all able to do it, I work every day to help people feel that they are Earth Citizens who live from the perspective of managing the earth.
It’s a matter of managing our priorities, as I believe was expressed by one of the leaders of the liberation movement that worked to free Korea from Japanese colonization in the early 20th century. Kim Gu, who I consider to be an Earth Citizen, said: “I want our country to become the most beautiful nation in the world, not the most powerful. My heart aches because of the invasion of others, so I don’t want my country to invade the countries of others. It’s enough if we have the economic power to lead abundant lives and the military power to defend ourselves from the aggression of others. What I really want to have without limit is the power of high culture. For the power of high culture will make us happy and bring happiness to others, too.”
Together, we can make an earth-centered culture that places harmony and sustainability above our others wants and needs. For in the end, that’s the only way we’ll be able to play well with each other.
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Bringing You the Wisdom of Hwangchil Trees
Trees hold great wisdom for us when we clear our minds and listen.
I’ve been spending a lot of time in South Korea and Japan lately, particularly around the hwangchil trees in those places. Hwangchil trees are very special to me. When I first rediscovered one while hiking in Japan, I was struck by its energy and fascinated by the sap that oozed out of one of the knots on its trunk. I felt so much gratitude, joy, and reverence for the tree that I even bowed to it.
Since then, I have created farms and greenhouses full of hwangchil tree saplings in Korea, Japan, and New Zealand, and I’ve been developing products using its leaves, roots, and sap. Hwangchil has a long history of being used as a medicinal plant, and the golden lacquer made from its sap was prized by royalty.
Hwangchil saplings
Painting wood with hwangchil lacquer
One of the most important effects of using hwangchil (also known as Dendropanax morbifera) that I’ve observed is that it helps your consciousness reach the zero point. At this point, our awareness rests beyond thought and emotion. Even our subconscious becomes clear. From this place of complete neutrality, we can observe everything within and outside of us clearly, and we can start to create what we want in our lives.
I feel a lot of hope for the world when I think about and commune with hwangchil. I see it empowering people to take back their own health, happiness, and peace. These trees are like ancestors lifting up future generations.
Message from HwangchilBefore I brought a group of my students to greet these special trees in Japan, a message came to me that I shared with them. I’d like to share some of it with you as well.
Don’t worry anymore.
Don’t hesitate.
What words do you need and what thoughts and worries would you need?
Become simple and become pure.
Right here, right now, you are meeting with me and meeting with the spirit of hwangchil, and just like the before and after of meeting with this time and space has become completely different, as much as you have more thoughts, as much as you weigh and measure and argue over this and that, that’s how much the scales of time flow by and you get out of the zero point and your dream becomes distant, and you move farther away from your true self.
Become simple and become lighter.
That’s the proof that you’ve been reborn.
Just receive the energy of hwangchil, accept what your true self really wants, and go out courageously to create it.
That’s when you live.
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Simple Nature MeditationBeing in nature, breathing in fresh air, feeling the sun and wind on our faces and the ground beneath our feet can wash away our worries. It helps us become simple, light, and full of life.
Now that the weather is warming up (in the Northern Hemisphere), I hope you have a chance to immerse yourself in nature. Whether you go to a local park or find a remote wilderness landscape, take some time to be quiet with yourself. Use all of your senses to take in your natural surroundings—touch the rocks, hug a tree, smell a flower, and listen to the birds sing. Let these inputs help clear out all of the busyness and worry in your mind.
Many of us highly value information and learning. We want to become smarter and better informed. While information is useful, I’ve found that true wisdom comes from what lies beyond information, at the zero point. In daring to be simple, we become our most powerful.
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May 30, 2022
[Video] Ilchi Lee’s Three Stages and One Exercise for Spiritual Awakening
In this workshop to help people develop their spiritual nature, Ilchi Lee called out their name and advised them to call out their own name frequently. By doing so, we can remind ourselves of who we really are—bright, everlasting souls—and advance to fully embody it.
Korean to English interpretation by Michelle Seo.
