“Respect the soul of all people, and treat it preciously.
That is the way to make your own soul rare and precious.”

I read these words by Ilchi Lee today, and they really struck me, so I wanted to record them here in this log.

He goes on to talk about humility.

“The first step in practicing Hongik is humbleness.
Every time your ego is activated by habit, practice humbleness
and exercise deference and humbleness . . .
Be humble before your compatriots.
Humble yourself, and respect, praise, and love the people around you.
If you have made the choice to be humble, your actions will be different.
With humbleness, your ego is melted away . . .”

“Hongik is planning, design, prayer, and creation,
and it is endlessly rising to the challenge for boundless freedom.”

What is “boundless freedom”?

Boundless freedom means not being tied to anything—not your preconceptions nor your ego nor your past nor your family. Not even to your organization or country. Boundless freedom means being natural. If you follow your soul, naturally you will express humility, loyalty, creativity, trust, and especially, Hongik, and you will do it in a way that is for the highest good of all. It means that there isn’t anything you can’t do (if you apply enough focused energy).

If humility leads to egoless-ness, then ultimately it leads to boundless freedom.

Body & Brain instructors around the world started doing special pineal gland meditation this week to strengthen the clarity, brightness, and activity of our pineal glands.

[I stole this image from ChangeYourEnergy.com’s Pineal Gland course because I’ve always really liked it.]

The awakenings I had during the training were:

1. I’ve deliberately held onto anger and fear lately because I didn’t trust that if I let go, I could achieve specific goals. I knew I could feel good and have happy happy joy joy, but I didn’t think that would lead to something in particular. Lately my first and second chakra energy were growing, and I tried to direct them toward goals, but sometimes it just translated into reacting to my environment, and not always positively. It felt better than trying to hold that energy back though, because at least it was circulating instead of being stuck. Today I was reassuring that I can let it all go. Just trust. It’s ok.
2. This other awakening is related to that. I realized that I came into this life to be here for the Earth. That’s it. Everything else is extra, a game even. I need to be true to my soul and hold that energy for the Earth and be here for it. So if all these other things don’t happen, it’s ok. No worries. This also fits with a recent transcript of one of Ilchi Lee’s speeches that I read. It said something along the lines of: if you know the Tao, if you can live and eat and breath, what more do you need?
3. I also asked what do I need to do to gather people for all of the different jobs that I have. I need to gather people to book clubs and social media contests and worksite wellness programs, etc. But I often just gather people in ones and twos. The response I got was to be love. Not love them. Not bring them to me. Be love with a capital “L,” the love we all are. People will feel that, and they will be able to find it themselves. My focus has always been to help people find it within themselves, although I haven’t accomplished that very well and sometimes I get stuck in my emotions and ego. This reminded me of the Finding True Self workshop took years ago with Body & Brain Yoga and of what the leader of that workshop reminded me of years later. In answer to the questions, “Who am I?” and “What do I want?” I heard “Love.” So, the leader said, just be and create love, all the time, in everything you do. Then you will be yourself and answer your soul’s desires. I’ve gotten this answer in many different ways at different times. Even in the midst of my anger, I would remember it, but lately I couldn’t let go of my emotions that were inhibiting love. I chose those emotions instead. With the help of this pineal glad meditation, just by practicing every day, I hope I have the strength to make better choice—to be who I am.

So far, it’s been easier to remember these things today, but to keep it up, I have to be mindful of myself every moment. It’s a good practice.

To be continued . . .

Just playing with Adobe Photoshop. I like the holy glow.

This bunch gave a talk on I’ve Decided to Live 120 Years by Ilchi Lee at a Barnes & Noble store in Yonkers, New York. Apparently, they played Ilchi Lee’s Prayer of Peace at the end, and the whole store went quiet. It sounds like it was a powerful moment.

Here is the Prayer of Peace so that you can have your own peaceful moment of oneness.

BOBBY – ‘사랑해(I LOVE YOU)’

Minzy(공민지)_Superwoman

Yoonmirae(윤미래) _ Black Happiness

Shawn Mendes – There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back

(This song made me happy I was living in this day and age.)

Ani DiFranco – 32 Flavors

There’s more happy music out there. I don’t have time to find it right now, so I will post what I found easily and add more later :>)

The New Colossus
Sonnet on the Statue of Liberty by Emma Lazarus (1849 – 1887)
Originally published in 1883 to raise money for the statue pedestal’s construction.

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

I’m posting it here to preserve its sentiments for posterity. These are values I grew up with. I am a child of immigrants. Immigrants do not bring a country down, but add to its character. To me, this poem speaks of compassion, saying, “Don’t worry, we’re strong enough to take care of even you’re weakest.” By turning people away, we are sending the message that we are no longer capable—that we can’t handle it. But we all need to help each other. That’s how human beings survive.

I listened to a TEDx Talk that highlighted this very well. In it, the speaker talks about how she’s learned to get things done by sharing what she wants and what her challenges are. Someone, somewhere always has a way to help. She also goes around doing this for other people as well. This is her “practical” way to manifest reality.

Something so small changed the lives of many people. Many small things can add up to something great. This is my hope.

[AXIS] Katie Kim – “Remember”

Jay Park (박재범) X Yultron (율트론) – ‘Forget About Tomorrow’

Jay Park – SOJU ft. 2 Chainz

Ok, so I’ve been listening to a lot of Jay Park over the last couple of days. And then, here’s some other good stuff in a similar genre that pops up.

HYUKOH(혁오) – LOVE YA!

HENRY 헨리 ‘Monster’

에릭남 (Eric Nam) – 솔직히 (Honestly…)

에릭남 (Eric Nam) – Potion (feat. Woodie Gochild)

Gallant x Tablo x Eric Nam – Cave Me In

[STATION] 엠버 (AMBER) X 루나 (LUNA) ‘Lower’

[STATION] AMBER 엠버 ‘Borders’

Yoonmirae(윤미래) _ No Gravity

Junoflo – VISIONS (Duppy Freestyle)

And just because it’s awesome:
Sawyer Fredericks – Hide Your Ghost

These are in no particular order. Looking at them, I think I need to listen to happier music ^__^

That will be another post.

This is the one and only place where I can say what I want when I want the way I want. I have to write and post many things, but they are not my words or my plans or my desires. That is my opportunity to say no to my ego.

Yesterday, I heard that Kate Spade committed suicide at 55 years old. She’s not the first story of suicide I’ve encountered, nor will it be the last.

When I feel really low and sad, something inside comes and comforts me. I’ve always felt taken care of, even as a young child. A presence, or Jesus, or the trees . . . my lowest points have brought the deepest realizations and reassurances.

So this suicide thing—being so sad and hopeless and lost that you think dying is better—seems so foreign to me. Of course I’ve been sad and depressed and angry, but that is a whole new level.

I wonder what I could do or say to help someone with that, because it just sounds so horrible. It’s giving up on life. I don’t think anything can be so horrible as that.

Not all the time, but there have been times when I’ve just been walking and have felt that life itself, Life with a capital “L”, is in itself worthwhile and special. You don’t need to do anything or be anything. The fact that you are alive makes you special and important. Simply living is a worthwhile goal. No one and nothing can take that away from you. Just eat, sleep, and poop. It’s ok.

Life will end on its own; it has its own timing. At the same time, our life force will carry on I believe. So just let it do its thing. We are all a part of Life, so be alive while you’re alive and accept it when it’s time to move on.

This acceptance is very different from ending this current iteration of life because you’ve given up or because you believe you’re worthless. The Catholic Church, which I grew up in, says that suicide is a sin, and I can see why. It’s really turning your back on God, on Life, and saying I don’t believe in you or trust you. You are saying that you, as a part of Life and God, are not worth it. That God is not worth it.

It’s similar to when we put ourselves down, although to a lesser degree. When we do that, we are saying that we believe in the thoughts and emotions we have more than our True Selves, in God, in Tao, in Presence, in whatever you want to call it. It’s saying that the momentary passing of negative thoughts and emotions, no matter how strong or ongoing, are what is real and important. But that is an illusion.

How horrible the long-term depression people suffer from must be that they can never see the light just beyond the veil of darkness. Even if you can’t feel it, it’s there . . . always there . . . no matter what. No one and nothing else is more important. Absolutely nothing.

I received pineal gland opening training from Ilchi Lee last night via a live broadcast from South Korea. All of the energies and possibilities and happenings are still swirling within me, even after a decent sleep. I hope that by freely writing here, I can untangle some of them so that I may be clearer and more effective in my life.

During a recent training/meditation, I could feel that I was “annointed” and that the drive to “prove” it came from the heated buzzing in my head, from my ego. My frustration lately stems from the fact that deep down I have these truthful-seeming realizations that seem to have nothing to do with reality. So then I think that I need to bring them out, make them manifest, by changing myself and taking action. That’s what all of the teachers I’ve read or heard about say. But that’s when things get murky, because I’m not sure what that looks like in reality or what I’m supposed to aim for. In the end, I keep changing my idea instead of heading toward one thing like a stubborn bull with unwavering devotion toward one goal. Then other people tell me what I should be focused on and instead of focusing on it, I rebel and think, no, I will only do what my soul wants and not get distracted. But then I don’t.

Such dilemmas. It’s quite comical. I can laugh at myself at how crazy it is. However, I have felt the deep peace of being and doing exactly what my soul wants in that moment. I think that is true peace and joy. So it’s also not so crazy.

In writing this, I realize once again that, like everything else, following the voice of your soul is a moment by moment choice that needs to be renewed. It requires Presence, rather than running full-steam at something as if the thing itself was the point instead of the process of being immersed in your body and aware of your soul. I need to keep my focus and awareness where it belongs, not on some far away idea of what I think I should be—that is ego territory.

I need to do this regardless of my daily tasks or the sales goals I need to achieve. Although those are present in my life as tools for the growth of my soul, I’ve started to wonder about how helpful they are, at least in the way I’ve been thinking about them and approaching them . . . or rather, the way I’ve been thinking that I should think about and approach them. Mostly, I avoid them as much as I can.

Maybe my relationship toward them needs to change. Again, they may only be useful if I am focusing inside myself, rather than only using the goal as my standard. Perhaps if I do that, I will stop avoiding them and will embrace them instead.

Doing that will give me right direction and right timing. Ilchi Lee has been emphasizing the importance of going in the right direction lately—of following your conscience and doing Hongik actions. I guess it’s the same thing 🙂

Whenever I feel out of step, I realize that I wasn’t so far away after all. In writing in this blog, I often feel assured that I’m okay and on the right track. What a useful blog it is! It’s my personal therapist that helps me to live out the fact that I already have everything I need.

I can trust myself.

Have a beautiful Wednesday!

I’d like to explore the healing properties of sounds, so I’ve been collecting nature sounds whenever I find myself in a natural setting. The most distinct sound you can hear in nature is the sound of water, so most of the videos I’ve taken have been of water sounds in different places. I’ve recorded them from the ocean, streams, waterfalls, and lakes. I hope these videos give you a little peace in your day.

La Jolla, California

 

Saguaro Lake, Arizona

 

Horton Spring, Arizona

 

Pine Creek at Tonto Natural Bridge, Arizona