We all have a beautiful mind, a heart seeking to benefit others and the world. I call it, "
inner greatness." You have probably already felt many times that you have such a mind. What should you do after awakening to that mind? The only way to continue growing and developing your inner greatness is to choose it, using it ceaselessly. You'll feel and realize this when you try using it.
Realizing "inner greatness," creating it for yourself, might be a tiny change for you, or it might be a huge plan, requiring a lot of time and devotion. It might mean saying, "I'm sorry," first to a friend, someone with whom you're now estranged after a fight over something trivial. It might mean starting something new with new people in a new place, following a greater, more beautiful, heart-pounding dream. Whatever your thoughts or plans may be, if it's what you really want and something that will help others, too, then it's beautiful and noble. Now all you have to do is continue developing your feelings and thoughts through expression and actions.
Developing the thoughts that arise in our minds is like knitting. When we knit, we start with a picture in our minds, an image we want to create using certain colors and patterns. No matter how clear we picture it, the project doesn't look like much when we start, working the needles a few times. Like knitting one stitch at a time, we grow through the simple process of putting our thoughts into action one by one, even in small things.
If you understand, act
I went to Mt. Moak to find out who I was 25 years ago. There, I obtained an answer: "
Chunjikiun is my energy, my energy is Chunjikiun; Chunjimaeum is my mind, my mind is Chunjimaeum." And I saw arising in my mind true worry for the future of the earth and humanity. Having such a heart, I felt in myself beauty and sublimity. Moved by that mind, I chose to give the rest of my life for the planet and the human race. That was the greatest, most intense awakening, the most beautiful choice of my life.
I had that awakening, but the environment around me had not changed at all. Everything was as it had been. I had such a realization and made such a choice, but nothing else had changed. People commonly think that, when they have some self-realization, everything about their surroundings changes automatically along with their perspective. And they are disappointed or despair if their environment doesn't change as they want it to. In fact, there's no reason for that. Nothing about the environment itself changes just because you have some awakening. Enlightenment is thus a point of departure, not of arrival.
If you've had some awakening, then, afterward, the most important thing is putting that awakening into action. No matter how small your awakening, no matter how trivial your deeds, your environment will change through sustained action.
The first thing I did after awakening on Mt. Moak was get up early the next morning and go to a park in the early dawn. On the first day in the park, I met a stroke patient in physical discomfort. To help, I taught him some methods for exercising and breathing.
Had I gone to the park only for that one day, thinking, "Is the world going to change because I help one stroke patient?" nothing of what followed may have happened. After exercising together, seeing the man joyfully describing how he now felt much lighter, I made him a proposal, suggesting that we diligently exercise together and see what kind of changes he would experience.
I went to the park every day to keep that promise. While I was exercising with him every morning for over three months, people around us started joining in, one or two at a time, our numbers growing until, later, dozens were doing morning exercise together. I taught them
methods of meditation, breathing, and exercise I had learned, talking with them, coming to think more intensely and in greater detail about the principles and training methods of Dahnhak; this became a foundation for the development of the Dahn centers. The little actions that from a desire to help one stroke patient I met in the park that morning, it turns out now, almost 40 years later, were the start of something, the beginning of the work of helping millions of people recover health of body and mind.
Go all the way, without giving up
I want you to give yourself a high score for your thoughts that come from your "
realization of inner greatness," whatever they may be. Otherwise, those thoughts can't grow to be beautiful, not if you judge them to be "no big deal," pushing them away though they come to mind again and again.
You have to understand how important each of your thoughts is. Those thoughts, in the process of developing through action, are a beginning, a start toward inspiring countless people and making the earth a better, more beautiful place, like interwoven threads growing into mittens or a sweater. Additionally, if you sincerely develop those thoughts with full devotion, you'll find helpers appearing, partners to join you in the work.
You're now planting a tree. You're now sowing a seed. And you're now starting to knit with a single thread. Your first step or two are nothing, but think about what happens when you've done the work for 10 years or so. Your tree grows into a forest, your seed into a wheat field, your single thread into beautiful fabric.
What's important is doing this continuously. When a silkworm first pulls silk from its body, it's no more than a single, short thread. Much later, though, it creates a beautiful cocoon, giving birth to a moth with shining wings. That is the mystery of the life hidden in the cocoon. The very same thing is there inside us. If we trust the life that's there, believing in the
great, holy mind within us, continuing to act on what we have chosen, amazing things will be created.
If you try a few times and then soon give up in disappointment because things are not working out, what scenario will follow? Your confidence in yourself will collapse, and you will resent your environment and blame others. And, every time you attempt something similar, you will experience resistance from your mind because of the thought, "I tried this before, but it didn't work." It's as if the thread of your knitting has snapped. It will take some time for the strands of your thought to be woven into a beautiful fabric, but, if you give up, those threads will have broken, unfortunately before having time to show their promise.
It's important to go all the way, without giving up, once you've made up your mind. While knitting a mitten, if your thread breaks when you've gotten as far as the thumb, it's enough to quickly recognize that and start again, fixing the string and continuing where you left off. You shouldn't repeat the foolishness of being disappointed with the fact that the thread has broken, throwing the whole bundle of yarn away and denying your beautiful, original intention of knitting mittens for someone.
Express your feelings and thoughts without fear
What's truly important is having profound respect for yourself. When you respect and are immersed in yourself, your unique ideas and power start manifesting, allowing you to act on your
inner greatness in a sense of oneness with yourself. In the course of acknowledging and expressing those ideas, sharing and working on them with others, greater ideas emerge, and greater power develops.
Express your feelings and thoughts without fear. Many people shut down the flow of their own thoughts and feelings, turning off that faucet completely because of their
fears and worries about what others might think. You have to turn on that faucet; no one else can do it for you. Some turn off their faucet, closing it tightly, worrying, "I have no power. Why do I have so few feelings and good ideas?" all the while ceaselessly envying others, saying, "This is my limit," still making themselves small. Have courage and open up that faucet, letting the inspiration flow. If you open it, you'll discover incredible life there. That life keeps developing only when you use it.
I want you to awaken to the fact that everything around you exists for your sake. Immediately stop blaming your personality, blaming your environment, blaming others. Trust in your inner greatness and create for yourself the environment and life you want.