Ilchi Lee's Blog, page 72

How Do You Be Honest?

Honesty is a virtue held in high esteem.

It’s also the highest aspect of enlightenment.

Without it, you cannot become enlightened.

Honesty brightens the mind and spirit;

Dishonesty makes them dark.

Being honest means being pure.

To be pure, chase away the shadows and cobwebs from your mind and heart,

and unify body, mind, and soul,

until you experience nothingness—the zero point.

Stand as a clear vessel of the purest and brightest energy before the world,

seeing yourself and the world clearly,

hiding nothing,

healing the world with your presence.

 

Ilchi Lee

 

Meditation to Discover the Bird of Your Soul

Do you want to have a vivid, visceral and visual sense of your soul? Many people search for their soul—the everlasting part of themselves that animates their bodies. It’s the purest energy of life, the center, and the true self.

If your soul has remained elusive, if you feel lost and lack passion for your life, try this simple visualization to meet your soul as a bird and set it free.

First, relax your body and stimulate its energy flow with vibration. Raise your left and and try shaking your body. Then raise your right hand as well. Shake for a few minutes until you feel calmer and clearer.

After you stop shaking, focus on your hands and try to feel the energy there. You might feel it as tingling, heaviness, stickiness, pulsing, heat, or cold.

Sit or stand with your spine straight and raise your left hand to chest height with your palm facing upward. Close your eyes, and feel the energy in your left hand.

Visualize a green-colored plant sprouting from the center of your left palm. As the plant grows, a flower bud develops and that flower bud grows larger. Suddenly, a very beautiful rose blooms. Notice the color of your rose. If you feel it and continue to concentrate on it, the rose will gradually grow more distinct in your mind. Give the rose energy with your focus.

Now the flower changes into a beautiful bird. Notice the shape and color of the bird as it flaps its wings and flies off your hand. Imagine energy from your right palm feeding the bird and making it stronger.

See the bird returning to your left palm and pet the bird with your right hand with energy. Lovingly caress your bird. Tell the bird of your soul that you love it, either out loud or in your mind. Commune with your bird.

Then inhale and exhale.

Now the bird of your soul becomes pure energy and enters your heart. Cover the center of your chest, over your heart chakra, with both hands, one over the other. Feel the love inside your chest. Breathe comfortably like this for a few minutes, keeping your focus inside.

You can commune with your soul with this meditation whenever you want. From now on, the bird of your soul will come out through your left hand whenever you call it.

When you return to your soul, you return to a peaceful world in which you can rest. It’s a world where you love yourself, and therefore can love others. True love and repose is found in your heart and mind, not in your external environment. When your consciousness unites with your soul, it also becomes bright and positive, allowing you to create a beautiful future.

The Value of the Brain Is the Value of the Human Being

What is the value of life? In this talk Ilchi Lee gave on Brain Education to a group of educators at the Union Institute and University in Miami in January 2014, he tells how respect for the brain is the value of a human being. Understanding the brain increases one’s confidence. Manifesting its highest value can create peace, health and happiness.

You Can Design Your Life

Body, mind and energy, as well as health, happiness, and peace, all come together in the brain. This is where Change begins. At the Union Institute and University in Miami in January 2014, Ilchi Lee talks about becoming master of your brain so as not to be a slave to your emotions. Then you can know who you truly are and design your own life.

All Change Begins in the Brain

The body, mind and energy all come together in the brain. When you know how to use your brain through having the consciousness of an impartial observer, you can use its full potential. Ilchi Lee explains this in a talk he gave in January 2014 at the Union Institute and University in Miami, Florida on Brain Education. You activate and utilize your brain’s potential by knowing how to use your Brain Operating System. When you know this, you will know how to transform your thoughts into things and “Take back your brain.”

The Best Community

A community

works together.

shares common values.

helps each other.

supports its members.

inspires impressive action.

can achieve greater things than an individual acting alone.

A community

can be an agent of great harm.

can be divisive and competitive.

can be oppressive and stifling.

regulates and mandates.

takes resources.

Human beings need community. But what is the best community?

The best community is one in which humanity’s innate divinity shines through each of its members, directing their decisions and integrating them into a harmonious whole.

 

Ilchi Lee

 

Dreaming of a Divine Community

Since the beginning of time, humanity has continuously evolved and developed itself as it strove for a more abundant and better future. More specifically, the Industrial and Scientific Revolutions ushered in technological advancements that brought material abundance and convenience to humanity.

Standing at the Edge of Material Civilization

As humanity has advanced materially, however, countless religions and ideologies have rationalized and manipulated not only social class, but also the gap between rich and poor, both of which have been more clearly differentiated by a materialistic society. This type of society incites the desire to possess more materials and to succeed over, control, and compete more strongly with others. Many enemies are made with the separatist mentality that I am different from others combined with the survivalist mentality that I can only survive by winning over others; this is the unfortunate reality that humanity has placed on itself.

I call this history of humanity the “history of corruption.” Corrupt people with equally corrupt habits have maintained this history by strengthening the corrupt system. Under this system, statehood, politics, economy, religion, and culture are all the by-products of corruption. Humanity so far has blindly sprinted forward to this point without any introspection or self-awareness. It needs to take a moment to stop and really take time to ask itself the question: how corrupt am I? Are we all truly happy right now? Is there a better way?

A New Era of Shinsung Community

So then, where lies the hope for writing a new history of humanity? I found the answer in a new culture of community that I call a “Shinsung Community.” Shinsung refers to the divinity, conscience, and true essence in every person. A Shinsung Community, then, is a society in which that essence is expressed. Its constituents have recognized the divinity that naturally exists within their brain and are of righteous human character. They pursue and enjoy a life of creating health, happiness, and peace for themselves and others. They are not satisfied with merely eating or sleeping well; they bring their conscience into fruition and awaken the true essence that everyone has inside.

A Shinsung Community practices hongik—it creates and enjoys health, happiness, and peace together. Hongik is a traditional Korean concept that goes beyond the dimension of public good to widely benefit all creation; it pursues happiness and peace for all for humanity’s true peace and welfare. The peace and well-being of a few does not constitute true welfare for a society.

A Shinsung Community Right Before Our Eyes

I recently discovered an example of a Shinsung Community when I watched a Korean documentary called Finland’s Hidden Secret to Success. It left a big impression on me. Finland—a small country primarily preoccupied merely with survival while it endured over 600 years of Swedish rule and more than 100 years of Russian governance—is now one of the top countries in national satisfaction, livability, and life quality. Its history reminds me of the same sad self-portrait of Korea, which overcame 35 years of Japanese colonization, a civil war, and economic modernization. Even after declaring independence from Russia in 1917, Finland was forced to confront a civil war and surrounding powerful countries for the urgency of its survival.

According to the documentary, Finland’s source of competitive power is its unity, transparency, and practicality. The relationship between the government and the people is close and positive. As a cooperative country with 84% of adults as its partner, Finland accepted that each individual citizen, not only the government, has the responsibility to maintain universal welfare. As the Finnish realized that their happiness depended on the competitive power of their country, they cooperated more to create an age and nation in which everyone can be happy and live a better life.

In Finland’s example, I saw hope for a new era in which the people and the world co-prosper with the same dream and goal. If the same cooperative mentality that dreams of everyone attaining material abundance could also brighten everyone’s divinity and strengthen the principle of enlightenment . . . is this not the dream image of humanity in the 21st century—for a new Shinsung Community?

The Key to Building a Shinsung Community Is Brain Education

If the future utopia for humanity is a Shinsung Community, then what is the key that can instantly open that door?

A Shinsung Community is only possible through a big change in the world. This change will not come through any of the solutions of the past such as any specific “savior class” of people, laws, or systems.

The change that is needed for the Shinsung Community to become a reality is nothing less than a total unification of body, mind, and energy, a revolution in consciousness, and a growth of the soul. Just as the Big Bang created the universe, the moment humanity chooses to make that big change, the divinity that lies dormant inside the human brain will shine brightly. Brain Education contains the method for awakening this divinity and using it.

Brain Education is synonymous with human character education; it recovers your conscience. Knowledge and technical skills can be taught, but one cannot teach another to have a righteous conscience. Conscience comes from the true self, so it always exists, but it can be neglected or covered. Through Brain Education exercises and principles, you can recover your conscience by first removing the false information in your mind that masks the conscience and then looking in at yourself objectively. A life of integrity lived according to your conscience makes your divinity shine brightly.

Through Brain Education, for the first time in history, we all can become the true masters of our brain through the process of first enhancing our brain’s awareness, then making it flexible, then purifying the information in our brain, and finally integrating new perspectives into our everyday lives.

When we have become the true masters of our brain we do not just simply absorb the information that is given to us; instead, we can create positive information for ourselves. The 21st century hongik human is someone who has brightened his/her divinity and chooses and creates positive information for a more beneficial world.

As such, the standard of living is completely different for a hongik human who has brightened his/her divinity through Brain Education. A hongik human’s purpose of life changes from success to completion, and the nature of his/her interpersonal relationships changes from control to respect. Moreover, his/her business transactions change from competition to harmony, his/her concept of fortune changes from possessions to management, and his/her concept of profit changes from private to public benefit.

The Constituents of a Shinsung Community: Earth Citizens

“Earth Citizen” is the term I use to call the 21st century hongik human who chooses to live for and actualize a Shinsung Community. The life purpose of an Earth Citizen, a constituent of the Shinsung Community, is hongik and the “completion of the soul.” For Earth Citizens conscience, Earth, and peace define their core values.

The Shinsung Community that these Earth Citizens will generate will place the Earth as its central value that supersedes all related opposing values because Earth Citizens look deeper than the values generated by ethnic races, religions, or cultures.

Moreover, these Earth Citizens find their own divinity by living in a society that lives in service to the Creator in an era that does not subjugate itself to the Creator but instead effectively utilizes It. Rather than chasing the fantasy of redemption, they accept their own internal enlightenment and actualize it in their lives. An era in which the entire Earth communicates and flows together is the representation of the Shinsung Community, an era of spiritual civilization.

If changing the way of life or philosophy for a Shinsung Community causes serious societal or personal stress, then succeeding in this change will be difficult no matter how important the change is. For the last 30 some years, Dahn Yoga and Brain Education have been presenting a healthy approach to life by teaching correct breathing methods and concrete ways of utilizing the brain that allow change to flow naturally

There is no more time to delay. Now is the time for a new Shinsung Community to make its appearance on the world stage and change the course of civilization. The moment you choose to be an Earth Citizen and a member of the Shinsung Community, you can open up the next golden thousand years. This, truly, is the beginning of the shining era of a spiritual civilization. Rather than a history of human corruption, let’s create a new history of human completion.

“Upbeat Philosopher” Says the Bay Chronicle

By Michela Mangiaracina

The main newspaper of Kerikeri, the largest town in Northern New Zealand, the Bay Chronicle, recently interviewed Ilchi Lee during his current visit there. Ilchi Lee has been frequenting Kerikeri, with its natural beauty and friendly people, because he finds it an excellent place in which to lead people in meditation. Here you can see the article the newspaper published on June 26, 2014:

Best-selling author, philosopher and teacher Ilchi Lee is visiting Kerikeri for the second time and he wants to came back to stay for three months.

The drawcards, he says, are Rainbow Falls in Kerikeri, the people and the peacefulness of the area.

The 63-year-old South Korean has followers across the world. He is the founder of a variety of mind-body training methods using yoga and meditation—a “humanity movement” aimed at creating world peace.

He says we should primarily consider ourselves earth citizens and work together to manage the earth’s resources.

Based on South Korea and the United States, Lee integrates ancient Korean philosophy and taekwondo culture with applied neuroscience, quantum mechanics and a wisdom for healthy living.

Lee says we are all made of the same elementary particles—what he calls life particles. But on a level everyone can understand and practise, he recommends becoming a “fun” person—someone who makes their existence beautiful.

“Becoming a fun person isn’t hard to do. Right now, at this very moment, change how ou smiles, how you speak, how you walk, and how you breathe,” he says.

“Practise it every day, in every moment. Smile, talk about good news, walk with a spring in your step, and breathe,” he says.

Lee struggled in school because of attention deficit disorder. In his adolescence he turned to the martial art taekwondo to help calm his restless mind. In 1977 with a degree in clinical pathology and physical education, he opened a health clinic, got married and settled down to raise a family.

However, Lee was fascinated by questions about the meaning of life and the universe. In his early thirties he engaged in 21 days of ascetic practice and meditation without food, water, sleep or lying down.

He began to teach methods to gain insight to classes gathered in a community park.

The popularity of the classes led to the opening of the first Dahn Center in 1985 in Seoul, South Korea, the first of hundreds of centres to develop in South Korea and later in the United States.

In 2013, Lee inspired a project for personal and global change. He calls it the Change Project, involving lecture tours, a documentary film, two books, and website, all aimed at helping people embrace a cultural movement for peace.

Lee believes peace can only be achieved if humanity gives up nationalistic identities and becomes more self-sufficient in health care.

He ponts to modern civilisation’s over-reliance on pharmaceuticals and specialised health care, and urges people to discover what he regards as natural means of health maintenance.

In 2011, Lee wrote The Call of Sedona: Journal of the Heart, listed as a New York Times best seller.

Ilchi Lee visits Oromahoe School on July 2 and Russel School at a date to be confirmed.

Light the Fire of Achievement

To accomplish any goal, you need focus and power. Your power comes from your lower Dahnjon, or energy center, in your lower abdomen. Build your power by kindling a fire in your Dahnjon.

To make a fire, three things are needed: air, fuel, and heat.

The fuel is the energy you get from eating food, so eat well.

The air comes from your breath, so breathe well into your abdomen.

The heat comes from your focus, so always keep part of your attention on your Dahnjon.

Then you’ll keep your fire burning.

Can you feel its heat?

 

Ilchi Lee

 

Everything is Qigong

What is qigong? Qigong is not something you do only with your hands and feet. Singing is also qigong. It’s qigong you do with your mouth. Let’s say you lecture. That, too, is qigong. There’s nothing that is not qigong. Farming is farming qigong, and cooking is cooking qigong. Laundry is laundry qigong, and giving birth to a child is childbirth qigong. Getting married is marriage qigong.

Qigong is about circulation, about communion. It’s about communicating—an expression of life energy through your body and your actions. You share truth through doing qigong. You express the truth you are supposed to share with qigong.

In each and everything you do, think of yourself as doing qigong. You don’t have to do set motions to practice qigong. You can practice qigong as you sing, you can practice qigong as you breathe, and you can practice qigong as you walk. If you put qi into any personal relationship, it’s doing qigong.

If you sing, or even say, “I love you,” without qi, without energy, it has no power. It’s no fun. Instead, if you make your voice come out ringing, it contains qi, and it has an attractiveness. You make other people feel cheerful. With that kind of attractiveness, you’re like a flower to a honeybee.

It’s just like food. It only tastes good if the flavor is right. Qi is the flavor of life. If you put qi into your actions, good fortune follows.

Be Yourself

You put qi into your actions when you express your true essence. So if, for example, you are doing singing qigong, sing enthusiastically until you are amazed by your own voice. Sing so you think, “Oh, my voice was beautiful.”

You need to be confident about your voice for your essence to come out. Don’t try to sing a song exactly as another person sings it. Everyone is different. Your vocal chords are different from theirs, and your environment is different, too. To do singing qigong, you have to make a song your own. Sing it in a way that is right for your own vocal chords.

Everyone has their own characteristics—their own special beauty. Develop your hidden abilities. Qigong is bringing out your unique characteristics and letting them be expressed.

If you’re having trouble doing that, however, don’t come to the conclusion that there is something wrong with you. Believe in yourself in whatever you are doing. Just think, “Oh, it’s just that I haven’t had enough practice. There isn’t anything wrong with me.”

It’s just like when you learn to drive: at first you don’t seem to improve, until, at some moment, you develop a sense for it, and then you can do it. The same goes for your body; you practice until you develop a sense for it, and then you can control your voice as you see fit.

Relax and Breathe

Your voice is ultimately breathing. You have to connect with your breathing. Only then can you sing comfortably and put qi—your emotions and your soul—into your voice. The potential abilities in our brains start to manifest once our voices, souls, and emotions have become completely one.

However, ideas, thoughts, fears, and worries may prevent your soul and emotions from connecting with your singing. Distracting thoughts block the flow of energy from whatever you are doing. They cut your confidence and trust in yourself. You can find your voice when you’re very relaxed and comfortable. Immerse yourself fully in the sound of your voice and become one with it. Then your distracting thoughts will fall away completely. Your own voice can intoxicate you, even as you control it. You don’t need to be loud. Try to get a feeling for it as you sing quietly. You’ll go into a meditative state and your inner divinity will come out through your voice.

Flowing through life with the energy of divinity is qigong.