Ilchi Lee's Blog, page 30

Finding Yourself in Stillness

Amid life’s hustle and bustle, it’s easy to lose track of who we are. But through meditation, we can create the inner stillness we need to see ourselves clearly. It’s only by seeing with clarity that we can begin to take control of our lives.

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Discover the Spirit of the Earth in Sedona

Sedona’s strong earth energy helps you discover who you really are.

Every land has a sacred mountain or a place of wonder where people gather, drawn by the extraordinary energy there. I’ve traveled to many of these places around the world, but Sedona is the sacred place that draws my heart the most.

A small city in the center of Arizona, Sedona is known for its striking red rock formations. Its “high desert” environment and creek running through it support evergreen and deciduous trees, many kinds of cacti, tall grass, short bushes, and a rainbow of wildflowers. As it’s surrounded by state and national parks, it’s easy for people to enjoy this unique natural area through many hiking trails, swimming holes, and picnic areas.

Native Americans have called Sedona “the land where Mother Earth’s energy, which gives eternal life, comes out.”
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But that is only the beauty you can see with your eyes. Sedona is known for the powerful vortexes of energy that cannot be seen. Native Americans have called Sedona “the land where Mother Earth’s energy, which gives eternal life, comes out.” Power spots are scattered throughout the area that help you get in tune with yourself and with nature. They help you realize more quickly and easily that your true nature is that of Mother Nature, that your spirit resonates with the spirit of the earth.

The vortexes of Sedona also have the power to correct imbalances in the vortexes of our bodies—our chakras. The instant our chakras meet Sedona’s energy vortexes, damaged systems can revert to their original balanced state.

Connecting to the Sacredness of Sedona

Cathedral Rock by Oak Creek

Some of the three million tourists that visit Sedona each year are so struck by it that they feel called to make it their home. Even the Native American tribes who’ve lived in northern Arizona for thousands of years have long-regarded Sedona and the surrounding Oak Creek Canyon as an especially sacred place. Then and now, they too are called to Sedona to conduct traditional ceremonies and blessings.

But not everyone who comes to Sedona can feel Sedona’s spirit—the spirit of the earth. In order to experience the sacredness of Sedona fully, we need to:

Empty ourselves by clearing our mind and body of old thoughts and emotions so that we are open to receiving what Sedona has to show us.Be silent and open our inner ears and eyes to the truth that exists in the present moment.Feel the energy of the land and how it affects our bodies and minds.

Those who are able to do these can realize for themselves what I’ve often said: “Sedona is beautiful. But your soul is far more beautiful. Please don’t just become drunk on Sedona’s beauty, but open your ears to your inner self. Then you will hear a voice from within. That’s the message that Sedona is giving you.”

Sedona is beautiful, but your soul is far more beautiful. Let Sedona help you open your ears to your inner self and listen to the voice within.
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Sedona Takes Away Your Defensive Shield

Courthouse Butte at sunrise

Sedona is a place where it’s easy to take down any defensive walls that surround our heart. These walls not only become an obstacle to interacting with other people, but they also block the energy of Mother Nature from coming into us. Inside such a defensive shield, we cannot look deeply into ourselves and experience the wonder of who we are. The beautiful and magnificent landscape of Sedona and its wide-open, unrestrained energy clears away that shield very naturally.

This is the spirit of Sedona—the strong energy of the earth interacting with our energy so we can recover our true spirit. The sky that opens so wide and deep above the red rocks, the juniper trees and cacti that emanate vital power, the golden full moon that cuts through the desert night . . . all these environments help us to feel the earth and allow energetic and spiritual interactions with the earth.

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The experience of interacting with the earth connects us with a greater and more permanent power beyond the limited and finite self to bring us spiritual fulfillment and a sense of unity. It leads us naturally as inhabitants of planet Earth to earth-centered living in which we coexist with all life.

More than anything else, though, the Sedona spirit is the spirit of creation. The primordial beauty of nature in Sedona awakens a great creativity within us. With this innate creativity, we are able to change any difficult situation and create it anew. We can choose hope, no matter what the circumstance. In this way, we can design our lives and become the drivers of our destiny.

The Healing Garden at Sedona Mago Center

Because of Sedona’s powerful spirit, I established the Sedona Mago Center for Well-being and Retreat, where people can stay and open themselves to the restorative energy of the earth. Learn more through my New York Times bestselling book, The Call of Sedona: Journey of the Heart.

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[Video] You Are the Master of Your Own Life

Sometimes, we forget that we are the master of our lives. People often live according to what society or others want them to do. However, when you know that you are really the master of your own life, you can create many things. Learn how to free up your creative nature with this clip from a lecture I gave in June 2003 at the first gathering of the Humanity’s Leadership Team in Portland, Oregon.

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Four Ways I Live Earth Day Every Day

Keeping the spirit of Earth Day in our hearts, we can find our own ways to care for the earth.

Today is Earth Day. First celebrated in the United States in 1970, each year it has become a bigger part of global consciousness and culture. But those who care about Earth Day would agree that the world does not yet embody the ideals and goals that give this day meaning. We all have a lot more to do.

Each of us has our own capabilities and interests. By keeping the spirit of Earth Day in our hearts and minds, we can each use them to find our own authentic and innovative ways to celebrate the day and to live throughout the year as Earth Citizens—stewards of the earth who live in harmony with all life.

Let's keep the spirit of Earth Day in our hearts and minds and use our unique capabilities and interests to find our own ways to live Earth Day every day.
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In my own way, I’ve been working for the ideals and goals of Earth Day throughout my career. So today, I’d like to share a few of the things that I do as an Earth Citizen. By sharing our stories, I hope we can encourage each other, for our brains love good news. Positive and helpful information expands our imagination, confidence, and self-efficacy so that we can be and do more. I hope you will also share your stories with me.

Positive and helpful information expands our imagination, confidence, and self-efficacy so that we can be and do more.
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What I’ve Been DoingRaising consciousness.
The framework through which we interpret the world and move in it determines our health, happiness, and peace and that of the people around us. Through the ripples of our actions and energy, it can even influence that of the planet. So my primary work is helping people elevate their consciousness through Brain Education. The mind-body exercises in this system of self-development help us connect with ourselves—from our body to our heart and soul to the divinity in our brain. When we do that, we experience our true nature and take on the awareness of all that is natural, for we are part of nature. In this way, we adopt the consciousness of nature, that is, of the earth itself.Respecting life.
With the consciousness of nature, I feel a part of all life. I sense the energy of the trees, the rocks, the birds, the butterflies. Observing them closely, I feel as if they are also observing me. Connecting with nature even more, I feel as if I am the trees, the rocks, the birds, and the butterflies, and even the stars and the moon above. That’s why when I go to a natural area, I respectfully greet it and ask its permission to enter. When I see a sick animal on the farm we created in New Zealand, I do everything I can to heal it. When I saw a goose rejecting its egg, I put it under a brooding hen to hatch. Whenever I meet a person, I do whatever I can to empower them to heal their body and to discover their deepest, most authentic selves.Building Earth Citizen communities.
By coming together as Earth Citizens, we can do more than we are capable of alone. I’ve been starting organizations, websites, media companies, educational institutions, yoga centers, and meditation centers, both for-profit and non-profit, that bring people together to study and spread Brain Education and the Earth Citizen spirit. The actions of all of these individuals who have proclaimed themselves Earth Citizens carry forward the Earth Citizen Movement. Learn how you can be a part of it here >> Living sustainably.
This is an area of ongoing development and improvement in which we try to balance the ideal with the practical. At the meditation/Brain Education training centers I’ve built in the United States, New Zealand, and elsewhere, we’ve increasingly implemented green systems and construction practices. For example, the Sedona Mago Center for Well-being and Retreat in Sedona, Arizona, USA is a certified sustainable business that has implemented gray water and composting practices and has plans to erect solar panels. The Earth Village being developed in Kerikeri, New Zealand grows the medicinal herb Dendropanax morbifera (also called Korean dendropanax or commonly hwangchil in Korean) in greenhouses that also collect rainwater and use solar power.

While I feel like I’ve made some progress over the years, I’m pressed by the urgency to do more every day. I hope many more people will find their own ways of loving themselves, loving each other, and loving the earth in the spirit of Earth Day.

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[Video] Start Your Day Bright and Positive

In Korean, the word gaebyeok refers to the dawn of civilization as well as the beginning of life, the start of the day, and the first breath. In our lives, we can think of gaebyeok as the cycle of life beginning anew. It’s the recognition that after each ending, a new beginning comes. The inspirational message in this video gives you a sense of gaebyeok to help you start each day and each moment with renewed hope.

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Empower Yourself as an Earth Manager

[Photo 141768871 © Antoniodiaz – Dreamstime.com]

Caring for ourselves becomes caring for the whole earth. Caring for the earth is caring for ourselves.

We’ve all heard countless times about where the earth is right now, and what kind of demise we’ll have to face if we continue this way. I think many of the people who read this blog care about the earth and want to do something to help it. But living day to day while thinking about the future of the earth may still feel hard. We may ask, “I’m already so busy trying to keep up with my own life. Do I really need to take on the extra headache of worrying about something like this? Even if I were to pay attention to it, would it change anything?” Perhaps this is an indication of how disconnected many of us have become from nature or of how desensitized we have become to tragedy. Maybe we look at the actions of powerful organizations or countries and feel cynical or hopeless.

I would like to encourage people who feel this way not to be disheartened or apathetic. I hope they know that their concern matters; what they do matters. We can use our concern to question, interact, and create. No one has all of the answers for solving the earth’s problems, but I’m confident that if we all keep applying our minds and hearts to the problem at hand, we’ll start to see hope. This is what’s amazing.

Start with Yourself

There is a saying in the classic text, The Great Learning of Confucius: “After self-management and home management comes governing a country and the entire world.” This statement reminds us that everything is inextricably connected as one—from self-management to governing a country or the entire world. The earth cannot be healthy and peaceful unless people are, and people cannot be healthy and peaceful unless the earth is.

We can start with caring for and loving ourselves, and we can extend that to our families and organizations. We can also care for our countries. Not stopping there, we can extend our concern to the whole earth. With our concern so wide, our own individual challenges may seem more conquerable.

Starting with people is important, and it’s our hope. Organizations and groups are made up of people. And wherever we go on earth, we’re likely to find people. So if we want organizations or countries to change, if we want to change the earth, we first need to change the people. We can’t get away from changing ourselves.

If we want organizations or countries to change, if we want to take care of the earth, we first need to change the people.
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If we make ourselves healthy and we coexist peacefully with the people around us, if we find happiness inside ourselves, we will become models of this for others. Our actions will have ripple effects beyond what we can see. We’ll naturally create environments and situations that empower others to be peaceful and healthy as well. Healthy and peaceful people form healthy and peaceful groups, healthy and peaceful countries, and a healthy and peaceful world.

Keep a Wide Perspective

A little as a century ago, the largest unit of organization, and people’s major focus of attention, was the state. It was enough if your country, and only yours, became wealthy and powerful. Now, though, with the development of transportation, information, telecommunications, and industry, we’ve already transcended national borders and are moving into the era of a global village. We can immediately see what’s happening on the other side of the world on TV or the Internet, while we drink drinks and wear clothes of the same multinational brands. However, our consciousness remains trapped within the confines of the old belief systems defined by national borders. Although the reality has changed, we have been unknowingly trained in these beliefs by our countries, cultures, and religions our entire lives.

The environmental crisis facing the human species right now, however, can no longer be solved by regional and organizational self-centeredness. Damage due to environmental destruction has already gone beyond national borders. To solve these problems, we now need what I call “Earth Management.” Earth Management sees the earth as united and approaches issues on a global scale.

Each of us can consider ourselves Earth Managers if we take on this global perspective. The idea of Earth Management can be applied to our own lives as we make decisions about what we eat, how we live, and where we put our garbage. It can influence what we buy and who we vote for. As Earth Managers, instead of fighting for resources, we figure out how to best use them for the good of all. We consider the needs of people on the other side of the world and of future generations.

From the perspective of Earth Management, I would like to create a system that brings everyone happiness and peace. When people work together for the dream of Earth Management, I think this world will surely become a better place.

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[Video] Let’s Play Well with Each Other

Play well with each other . . . What do you think this means? Sometimes we are too serious about our life, but if you think of your actions as play, it wouldn’t seem so serious. In this recorded audio lecture, I talk about how playing well with each other is actually one of the keys to growing your soul.

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If You Want to Be More Loving, Connect with Nature Through Meditation

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What is the root cause of all humanity’s problems? I think they begin and end with the human brain. It’s the brain that creates the ideologies that keep us polarized and embroiled in disputes. It’s the brain that determines us versus them. Fortunately, all of the answers to our problems lie in the brain as well.

Human beings are unique among the world’s creatures because of our ability to choose. We are not limited to predetermined instincts and behaviors. Because of the capacity of our brains, we can choose to be selfish or selfless in every moment. But many times we get stuck in one frame of mind and find it difficult to see the ways we may be limiting our capacity to love, forgive, and give. It may also make it more difficult to choose loving words and actions.

To overcome these limitations, I suggest turning to nature. By connecting our awareness and energy to that of nature, we resonate with the unconditional acceptance and harmony that characterizes the Earth. We can then apply nature’s awareness and energy to all of our decisions and interactions.

By connecting our awareness and energy to that of nature, we resonate with the unconditional acceptance and harmony that characterizes the Earth and then can apply it to our decisions.
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If you’d like to connect with nature, try this meditation for breathing with trees based on my book Mago’s Dream: Meeting with the Soul of the Earth. Everything on Earth is connected by breath. What we breathe in, others breathe out. This cycle is repeated endlessly, linking all life forms. We can feel a sense of life through our breath.

Close your eyes and imagine a tree in front of you. (It’s even better if you do this meditation outdoors among trees.) See it’s strong branches packed with healthy leaves and filled with vitality.

The oxygen that the tree pumps out comes into our bodies to help generate the energy that allows us to live. Conversely, the energy that we breathe out as carbon dioxide feeds the tree and helps maintain its life. Feel the air as it enters your body. Feel every particle, every molecule of the air as it flows through your nose, mouth, and into your lungs, being absorbed by every single cell in your body. Feel the refreshing and life-giving pleasure provided by the simple act of inhaling. Now exhale, letting your body relax, newly invigorated.

Continue to breathe, picturing the tree. Feel the tree’s energy transmitted through the air and communicated through breath.

This tree has its roots embedded deep within the earth. From the earth to the tree, from the tree to you, from you back to the tree, the cycle of life and energy can be sensed, not on an imaginary plane, but physically through your senses. Through this endless cycle of breathing, the Earth’s energy is transmitted to you, showing you that your life is not separate and isolated even for a moment. This interchange of energy is a fundamental function of life at all levels. Breathe with the tree, and you will feel the inescapable oneness that connects us to one another and to the Earth.

Ultimately, a tree is a tree, the Earth, and the universe. It is you, me, and all of humanity. When we fully realize this, we will treat each other and nature as we ourselves would like to be treated.

[Video] Lecture and Meditation for First Chakra Healing

Your first chakra is the foundation of all your chakras and your physical health. So, if something is wrong with the first chakra, everything else fails. In this video, I show you how to awaken and balance the energy of your first chakra with LifeParticles—the purest life energy.

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Use Vibration to Refresh Your Brain

Photo 148513009 © Sam Wordley – Dreamstime.com

Vibration helps us remove deeply embedded information and emotion so we can begin to refresh our lives.

Are you tired of being triggered by the same events over and over? Do you have a sense that the way you view the world is holding you back? Do you wish to see who you are and what you want clearly?

Start by refreshing your brain.

Why would you want to refresh your brain? And why do I say “brain” instead of “mind”?

The mind is one aspect of the brain, but there’s so much more that the brain does. The mind’s in charge of the conscious aspects of our brain, especially our reasoning and logic. There’s a lot of unconscious aspects as well, such as the initial processing of all of our sensory input, regulation of automatic processes, and underlying emotional trauma. All of these aspects of our brain affect each other.

Some of those aspects may be working well for us and some may not be. Luckily, most of what’s in the brain is not fixed; we can change it. First we need to remove what we don’t need, and then we can add what we want. That includes not only the thoughts in our mind, but everything that affects them.

Clearing out unnecessary or undesired clutter in the brain is what I call Brain Refreshing. Just as we clean the outside of our body or detox our gut, we can clean our brain.

Do you wish to see who you are and what you want clearly? Start by refreshing your brain with vibration exercises.
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Use Meditation

When we refresh our brain, we remove the information and emotions built-up by our past experiences and our ego until our brains move into a natural, authentic state. This is a state of love, joy, and clarity. We all already have the ability to manifest health, happiness, and peace latent in our brains.

This state can be achieved with breathing and meditation, but it’s hard to clear our brain only by sitting and watching our mind. In fact, we may find ourselves with even more thoughts and reactions. With practice, we can learn to accept our thoughts and emotions as they come up and let them go. Eventually, they will subside. We can move them through us faster, though, if we shake them out.

Vibration practices such as Brain Wave Vibration release the tension in our body, which allows us to meditate longer. This kind of moving meditation is easier for people who have trouble sitting still or who may have a lot of pain in their body.

The rhythmic movement also automatically slows down our brain waves. This lets our awareness drop below the thinking, logic, and executive parts of the brain to the subconscious parts, making us more aware of them. Shining the light of awareness on the subconscious areas of the brain helps to release whatever is there. When we become aware of something inside us, it starts to move and change.

Shaking and/or taping our body, besides quieting the mind, moves the subtle life energy in our body. Energy that was stuck begins to circulate and clear. The thoughts and emotions associated with this energy, even those embedded in our very cells, also release. As they move through us, we may see old, stored thoughts and emotions that we didn’t even realize were there but that were dislodged by the shaking of our body.

Vibration Tips

There are no strict rules for doing vibration exercises like Brain Wave Vibration. In fact, that’s the key. Although we might start out by shaking our body deliberately, as our brain waves slow down and our awareness sinks into our subconscious, we may find ourselves moving automatically. Or at least we may allow our body to lead the movement instead of our mind.

You may want to start out gently until your body and mind relax a little. Then move vigorously to dig out the deeply embedded energy all over your body. After a while, in addition to the energy being generated by your muscles, you may feel a deeper, subtler vibration inside. This is the vibration of energy.

However you move, keep your awareness inside you. Feel the movement of your body and all of the sensations and thoughts it stirs up. Like when you do sitting meditation to clear your thoughts, let go of everything that comes up when you do moving meditation. Think of what you notice as scenery you pass by as you walk down a road.

The longer and more often that we do vibration exercises, the more we may have a sense of space inside. We may find ourselves being less reactive to our environment, because there’s fewer buttons inside to get pressed. Releasing the pains of life, the happiness of our natural selves gets expressed. All of this happens from refreshing our brain.

If you’d like to learn more about vibration exercise and Brain Refreshing, you can check out my book, The Power Brain: Five Steps to Upgrading Your Brain Operating System. You can also take classes with vibration exercise at Body & Brain Yoga & Tai Chi centers in the United States and around the world. Find a U.S. center near you at www.bodynbrain.com.

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