Sorry that I'm a
little late.
Based on Korean Tradition, just a few days
ago we passed Thanksgiving. (Chu'sok the Korean "Harvest Moon" festival is
on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month)
What are we thankful for? When you are
first born... I don't know if a baby can realize the status of their own
being at the moment of inception when they emerge from the womb venturing
into something that is absolutely foreign to them.
That's a different state. I don't know
whether the newborn coming out of the womb can actually feel that stuff or
anything for that matter. This is something that I wish that I could
understand. Does the infant coming right out of the womb feel anything, and
if it feels anything what does it feel? That's pretty much where you have to
start.
Anything that is going to be anything;
that is the start. Do you see God? And that kind of stuff. Do you know God
personally? Do you have His cell phone number? (Laughter) That kind of
stuff. We believe in something because we want... because of our
intellectual capacity to look at the past. And the past doesn't really look
pretty in terms of building what we want in the ideal sense.
That's why religion is a powerful force in
history. Because we want to know "what did I think when I first came out of
the womb?" Think? If I did then what did I think? Was I happy to be here or
not happy? We could start with that.
Do you remember what you thought when you
were first born? Can you honestly say to somebody else, yourself even, that
you know absolutely, for sure, that I know the answer, "I was happy." I was
not happy." Or what ever in between, I don't care. Do you have that answer?
Pretty much, basically that's where we start from, our individual self.
Everything else is influenced. If you are nor sure of yourself, if you don't
know who you are, if you don't know your limit, pretty much you're the
product of influence around you, your reality.
Go back and think about your situation.
Think about your reality. How far can I go back? To my beginning, my
beginning. Now just put aside somebody else for now Okay? Your
beginning. How far can I go back and start to fundamentally ask myself and
give myself fundamental answers?
What am I thankful for? If you want to
change the world you'd better answer that question. As far as you can go
back, teenage years, whatever. Middle class parents want to do their best to
put their children through school and a good school is all the better, Ivy
League even better right? Because they will get preferential treatment and
go on to the next level.
You start off with an annual salary of
$70,000 or $80,000 up to $120,000 with a law degree from an Ivy League
school, an MBA or whatever. The more the better. Actually, just for fun
because this information is so easy to get these days I found that from
established schools like Harvard, Yale, etc., about 25,000 to 30,000 kids
come out every year. Obviously there are more prominent schools out there in
America; every state has state universities from grade "A" to whatever and
it's like that everywhere in the world.
Then what? Other issues? What is free in
America? It's an opportunity sure. You know mind and body stuff to me is
sometimes very simple. I look at it sometimes as life and death, life and
sense, and life and love. You kind of have to measure people based on that
kind of stuff. When you look at civilizations what are they chasing?
Of course even in spirit it can be good
and bad. Even in intelligence there is good and bad. Even in body there is
good and bad. Right? Just because in comparison to some spiritual dumb ass
on a physical level you might be better off than that because you seem
opposite it doesn't make it right forever; It is very temporal.
Father has invested in the second
generation I know for sure two kids that have gotten a PhD in economics.
They're doing well on their own, but that's about it. I could go into
detail, but it's not necessary.
There is a lot of stuff that it is not
necessary to talk about. You just have to understand the essence of stuff.
You have to ask yourself "Why do I want to give thanks to something? Do I
mean it?" When you are thankful for something what happens? Most likely
you're thankful for some kind of personal reasons, that some kind of
personal benefit might happen to you. People who are thankful, what happens
to them if you're normal? You make some kind of offering right? You don't
make an offering unless you feel something like that. Obviously unless you
have something to be grateful for or thankful for it (the desire to make an
offering) isn't going to last long. That's reality right?
That's why that I guess in a sense that
you have reached some mind of understanding that in spirit there is an end
to reality as we understand it. Because of that basic reality our ability to
understand stuff, God doesn't want to be alone. God is almighty by Himself
He doesn't need law, but because of His counterpart He has to have law. Law
exists for the sake of the counterpart, that's it.
When you have that reality obviously there
is a give-and-take principle that's the basic law to bring about that
happening, to bring about somebody wanting to give something because they
are genuinely thankful. That's why there is a funny phenomenon in
America where you always try to look for bigger Gurus. In this wealthy
country you have time and money and I guess you have nothing better to do.
Find the greater defining meaning of being
truly thankful. That's (those Gurus) what we have to compete against. Do you
actually believe that stuff? I've tried it all; there are so many ways in
which you can abuse things. There are so many ways in which you can do
right; but you have to make that choice. When you try to do right you
will suffer. You will suffer, suffer, suffer. If you take, take, take or you
try to do the opposite, you'll suffer, suffer, suffer. It's up to you. It
never ends.
What's the difference between Mother
Teresa and the Bill Gates of the world? Both started with nothing,
seemingly. They're self-made people. That's the commonality between Bill
Gates and Mother Teresa. That's why people respect them whether they like
them or not. For whatever their reason it doesn't matter. You respect them
to the core, to a point; they started from nothing in general.
They've gotten something based pretty much
on the traditional kind of sacrifice based on religious dictum regardless of
what religion. A self made man is a good opportunist that comes along at the
right time and something was there beyond themself. They were in the right
place at the right time. Their contribution will stand and they will at
least be given the credit for discovery and application, and implementation.
To what degree? It doesn't matter. They did something and we accept that. It
seems like some sort of offering.
When we have to try to teach ourselves to
be thankful on a daily basis remember your life is an offering in the end.
Right? The way I look at it, and I'm a simple and morbid kind of guy, even
if you die it's not important. It's about an offering. There is a
connection between freedom and desire. If you have uncontrollable desire
what good is freedom? How did the fall occur? Because desires couldn't be
controlled. Why? Because of individual responsibility. So even if you're
given the freedom to make the choices... Freedom means we have the ability
to make choices unlike dumb animals that act in instinct and impulses.
We have the faculty of higher developed
intellectual processing to determine, beyond the fate of impulse and
instinct, to actually go further to the desire. It is constantly expanding
and seemingly infinite. What the heck is freedom then? It has no meaning in
the end. We have to live by the law of God in the end, right, whether you
like it or not. Why, Because God says "When I made you I had... Because of
you law has to exist. Otherwise I'll kill you. The law exists so that I
won't kill you.
Sometimes no matter how much you love
something, I don't feel that way all the time, maybe everyday once, but what
if God is more extreme than me? (Laughter) How the heck do you know?
Some second generation ask me "should I go
to school, what should I do? What should I major in?" I tell them that in
your life you have to make choices and in the end it's about making an
offering, whether you make your livelihood out of it or from the body you
make something greater and greater. Pretty much it's about that.
What are you good at? What do you like?
Start from there. Don't ask me! How the heck do I know? I have a hard time
keeping my self on track sometimes. There are so many things that can
distract you in a tick-tock moment. Just do whatever you learn apply
it. Sometimes you can really logically process everything till it makes
sense to you.
How many of those thanksgivings that we
talked about do you think I will see? How many will you see? It happens once
a year, how many times? How many times did you see? Most of you maybe forty
or fifty times, maybe some of the young kids here ten or twenty. Will you
see three digits? Good for you. That's reality. You can't deny that.
You have problems; I have problems, why,
because stuff happens. The thing is; what can you do about it? What am I
willing to do about it? I can blame stuff 'till kingdom or hell freezes
over. I'm just doing my part here. What you take from it doesn't really
matter.
You really don't have to own the world to
change the world. What we do with our lives and the choices that we make can
make a difference and inspire each other. What kind of choices do you want
to make? You don't need a billion dollars to change the world as long as
intention is correct. I know about self-promotion and I really don't do it.
I go out of my way not to do it. I know it better than you. Trust me. It's
not about that. Why do you want to promote yourself?
You see this terrible situation in the
Amish community where those children were shot. (Hyo Jin Nim is referring to
a horrible school shooting where five little girls were killed in Lancaster
Pennsylvania last week) (Hyo-Jin-nim broke into tears and I could not
make out his words. I believe the thought of those parents loosing their
daughters reminded him of his own loss of Shin-Gil-nim less than one year
ago.)
We aren't always good and great all the
time, but you don't want to be foolish and judgmental. If you think that you
can judge someone, and then prepare to explain according to what standard
you live. We all want to receive love from God equally and we should
all try to do that. That is the only definition of the ideal world that
really matters.
Our life is an offering; correct yours,
its depending on the choices you make and history will judge you by it.
Include God and you won't die.
See you later.
