Good morning.
The year is almost at its end. How
are you doing? People say that there are patterns in everything.
Life is learning patterns. There is a pattern in the universe starting with
the physical universe and obviously dealing with our lives.
Through religion we are trying to
understand a kind of relationship and patterns that bring us closer to God
because that is the search that we are on the path of. Anytime you take a
course of faith and because of religious faith, it’s a commitment that lasts
a life time in understanding how things work.
When you talk about patterns you start
defining formulas and learning the intricacy if there is more to be learned
based on a cursory observation of the depth of the formula. It’s a
commitment that pretty much will last everybody’s lifetime. I don’t know if
there is a guarantee that we will understand all of it. Why? Because I
don’t think you can know the faces of your grand children when you don’t
have them yet, that kind of stuff.
You know that there are a lot of treasure
hunters out there. They know that the diamond is somewhere underneath the
ground or they go for a sunken ship treasure and they know that is somewhere
under the vast ocean. History is riddled with people trying to find
civilization’s riches. You know that there have been a lot of tragedy’s
along the way just to achieve that kind of status. A lot of people are
hell bent on achieving that end. Because even just pursuing that takes
commitment. It will pretty much take the lifetime of somebody.
Let me just share with you about some
people that I know. They are people who live a very simple life. They just
love reading books. They spend every free time that they have in libraries.
They just go read books, every free moment in a library and they come to a
point after decades that their local library is not big enough because they
read everything in it. I don’t know if he was interested in a topic or he
just read it all…… So he has to go to a bigger library.
I also know a certain type of people that
just love to tinker. They love to tinker with stuff, whatever stuff. Some
guys just like to play with computers, because now there are so many kinds
of software that they can just tinker away all day long, because within each
kind of software they give you so many kinds of possibilities to play with
whatever that represents. They just sit there all day long every free time
that they get. Sometimes they even… it seems so important… they forget about
even sleeping, just playing with that thing, tinkering with that thing,
forever. That’s how they live their life. They find some kind of inspiration
in it.
So when you think about the stuff in life.
For instance, let’s focus on inspiration today. Is there some kind of
pattern? Is there a formulation in which inspiration is achieved? I think
so. When you look at those kind of people, simply put they’re geeks. They’re
just a bunch of geeks, but they inspire themselves. Through what kind of
pattern, it’s a kind of formation pattern, or growth pattern. I don’t
know if you can say that it is completion in the way that we see it because
it has to be seen by all. It has to be universal. Maybe on an individual
level it might be.
Inspiration also comes in that kind of
form of stages. You have to ask yourself "why are you inspired?" In what way
are you trying to inspire yourself? Are you inspiring yourself? Because you
would be inspired if you did those kind of things. On a formation stage
level, just read the books if you like reading books. That’s your escapism,
but it’s not just escapism; it’s about self-inspiration.
You do that to yourself. You’re telling
yourself "I need that, that’s how I’m going to get through this life. That’s
the kind of fix that I need" You have to ask your self so in what stage are
you? Formation? Growth? Perfection? When you look at everything that
inspires us, it has to do with the basic fundamental things in question,
with God and mankind.
We get inspired when big clues come
together, right? That’s the fundamental question that we need to resolve
when you talk about providence, when you talk about God’s dispensation. When
you say that based on my religious discipline God is a suffering God, then
you have to understand that that is important to you. When that is important
to you, when that happens, when extremes come together where it has been in
conflict for eons, you see somehow that a resolution is coming, and you see
the possibility of resolution, that gives you inspiration.
Obvious things: When you see a child
sacrificing him or herself for the sake of their parents or visa-versa. Or
you see the passing of the guard, the passing of authority or whatever. You
see it happening in fluid motion without any controversy without any
conflict between generational differences or arrogance, you get inspired.
It’s that basic fundamental relationship that brings us who we are and makes
us who we are, brings us to who we are and makes us who we are, to create an
ideal family centered on God.
When that happens you’re inspired. When
you see the basic recognition, basic happening coming together of that it
inspires you. Those things inspire you. Yes, they can start from even
yourself inspiration just by the possibility of formation, growth and
perfection of self love on an individual level. But as it grows it matures
into something greater in being the level of inspiration is obviously much
greater, powerful. So if you want to inspire the world, Okay, you just have
to accept that formula.
Where do you start? How do you inspire the
world? People of the world, especially in the big cities are jaded and
arrogant. They like big things. Unless you can somehow….getting there is
very difficult. You have to start from self and make every step of the way
yours and you have to somehow connect it to God. Otherwise you don’t have
proof in the eyes of people who are critical against you. That’s the
difficulty.
So if you want to change the world, there
is only one way, the old fashioned way, you have to struggle; you have to
suffer. (Hyo Jin Nim laughs.) The more you do, not just for your self, for
the maturity, the demand, the effort that is necessary to deal with the
greater value, the greater self, when you can put that forth, when you can
make that sacrifice, yes we can move a greater world.
How far can you go? It’s up to you. I
don’t know. I don’t know about me. How far can I push? How far am I willing
to push? Oh, just be straight forward; how far can I push? I don’t know. I
just have to keep on trying I guess. I cannot say what it is; the funny
thing is 'till I’m dead; and I can’t say it. You’ll say it. Somebody else
will say it, probably my children, my posterity.
The funny thing is that the greatest thing
that you think is important to you will be measured by somebody else other
than you. That’s the lesson. That’s the lesson in life when you try to
believe in God. Always something like that… You think you’re in control, but
you’re not because even when you think about "Let’s make a today a good
day." But even that is not as simple as it sounds. I know that we deserve…
every day we need to see goodness in you, new goodness from you and me. But
is that as simple as you say? I don’t think so.
Yes we deserve a lot of things that are
good, but it doesn’t happen automatically. Somebody has to try. Somebody has
to lead the way. If that is you, you can’t expect one person to do every
thing all the time. That’s why we need family. That’s why we need greater
family, right? Otherwise it will be a lonely place. Otherwise why did God
create mankind and give him such misery?
Even goodness is not appreciated when you
have it alone. It doesn’t have a concept that… So an inspiration, a
belief, everything in life has a formula, inspiration too. You must value
the fundamentals and try to work that into your life starting from self. I
don’t think that’s selfish. You’ve got to start somewhere and it’s the
individual, that’s where we start. We all start from there.
You can’t say that’s evil. You can’t put
that kind of distinction on it. Why? Because you can’t even do that to
yourself in good, because I don’t think you have that ability to turn your
back. Guess what? Somebody else will judge you, because that’s the judgment
that matters the most. That’s the judgment that will stick in the end, that
will define you.
We could go on seriously like this. I know
that there is a pattern in everything in life and we can find it. We can
find it together and help each other. That’s what makes things better for
all of us. Right? I think that’s more important than just you being happy
all the time. I don’t like that type of people.
Take care. See you next week.
