Browsing Posts published in December, 2008

We need a new trend in spirituality, from the pursuit of enlightenment to actualization of enlightenment, from meditation to healing. When meditation was a fad, it was very difficult to distinguish between genuine and fake, real and fraud, for meditation is an experience that is intensely personal and non-transferable and not subject to scientific inquiry. We no longer have time for such flighty enjoyment. We no longer have time to discuss the truth as an exercise in wordsmiths. We no longer have the luxury to listen to the sounds of our own voices as we debate the meaning of the truth in catchy, seemingly profound terms, ultimately going nowhere concrete, all about Prof Ilchi Lee.

If truth is something that we can readily see, hear, and feel in our natural state, then what else is there left to say? What other explanations do you need to explain the phenomenon of seeing one finger as one finger? Unless you purposely try to see differently or distort your sight, you will see only one finger.

So, let us take this “one-finger” sight and gaze at our collective home, Earth. I see problems. How about you? With this sight, what do you see of our society, our world, our Earth?

Many “enlightened” people try to avoid taking responsibility for the problems that we face today by spouting the concept I summarize as “Existence is by definition perfect.” Which means that we cannot destroy the ultimate harmony of existence no matter what, for cosmic law ultimately will balance everything out in perfect cause and effect and give and take. This is “truth,” yet it is irrelevant to the situation we face today. I have no interest in such abstract discussions. Perhaps people who support this view haven’t considered that we all have roles to play in making the “perfect” in the perfectness of existence. If we have a cancerous cell in our bodies, the perfectness of our immune systems can be evidenced by the destruction of that cell; however, a higher perfectness of our healing power can also be demonstrated by converting the cancerous cell into a healthy one. In both cases, the cancer cell will be gone and harmony restored.

To be able to nurture the blossoming of a beautiful flower from the perfect seed of the soul is an exquisite accomplishment. However, something nobler awaits those with the desire to see, hear, and feel further. That is to become a gardener in the Garden of God and to help other seeds to achieve their perfect beauty. This is the true meaning of Healing. (Ilchi Lee’s book content)

The meaning of healing lies in helping others discover the divinity within and apply it to their everyday lives. If we call the realization of the divinity within “Enlightenment,” then we can call the actualization of this enlightenment, “Healing.”

Until now, we have been obsessed with attaining enlightenment; however, there is no true purpose in realizing that one finger is one finger unless you now put that one finger to good use. Action is the key. If enlightenment is a choice, then your actions will reveal your enlightenment. How else are you going to prove your own enlightenment other than through your actions? You can’t prove it through words or scientific evidence. What else is there except action with which you can prove your enlightenment? This is why the time has now come for us to concentrate more on healing than emphasizing the pursuit of enlightenment.

Your soul is this divine seed. We call this divinity. All souls are perfect. Depending into which soil you plant this seed and what care you give it, it will bear fruits or flowers of different sizes, shapes, smells, and tastes. The process of planting and nurturing this seed is a series of endless choices. An accumulation of such choices will become your habits, the root of the tree from which the flower, your character, will blossom.

We make judgments and choices based upon what we see, hear, and feel. Life in itself can be called a series of continuing choices. Whether we realize our own innate enlightenment or not, we continue to see, hear, and feel, and base our judgments and make our choices upon these underpinnings. Unless you have a handicap or a deficiency in your senses, there is no difference in what you see. hear, and feel and what I see, hear, and feel, regardless of whether you realize that you are enlightened or not.

In other words, enlightenment does not by itself guarantee you will make the best choices. Of course, the ability to see, hear, or feel something as it is will aid you in making a wise decision; however, it does not necessarily lead you to make the best possible choice. Ultimately, the process of making a choice depends not upon an acknowledgment or a realization, but upon your sense of discipline and character. Your choice is based upon your character.

Ilchi Lee said that the root of your character is your habits. A once-in-a-blue-moon choice does not reveal your character. Numerous choices will gel into a habit, out of which the flower of your character will bloom. A good character is a fruit borne from the tree of good habits. Your goal should not be to attain enlightenment, for enlightenment is something given to you already—whether you realize it or not, admit it or not. Enlightenment exists within you, independent of your choice; it is already a flower in the divine Garden of God. Your responsibility lies in nurturing a good character, bearing the best possible fruit or the most beautiful flower from the perfect seed in the Garden of God.

To see something, you don’t have to know the particulars of how your eyes work. In fact, the foremost ophthalmologists, biologists, and bio engineers do not agree on a single explanation as to how human beings see. However, we can see without knowing how we see. We know that we can see and that we are now looking at a single finger pointing towards the ceiling. Do not imagine that the world seen by an enlightened being is in any way different from a world seen by you. A finger is just a finger, no matter whose eyes focus upon it. Enlightenment is no different from the process of seeing, hearing, and feeling. To be in the natural state of seeing, hearing, and feeling—this in itself is enlightenment. All about Ilchi Lee’s advice.

Therefore, enlightenment does not take an effort. If you seek enlightenment through some type of effort, then it is not true enlightenment. An effort is needed to make something incomplete complete, something imperfect perfect. However, enlightenment is already perfect and complete, not needing any efforts at improvement. The reason that we cannot see a single finger as a finger is not because of the lack of ‘•enlightenment,” but because of prejudices, egos, and attachments. If you can divest your consciousness of these obstacles, you will realize your consciousness by itself is complete and perfect, the realization of which is enlightenment. Therefore, enlightenment is not something that you have to strive for; it is something felt and realized naturally without any effort. This is why your enlightenment and my enlightenment, your truth and my truth, are not different. Because truth is unchanging, it can be communicated and transmitted to others and expressed in actions. If enlightenment cannot be communicated and truth cannot be shared among all, then such things are merely personal illusions of grandeur.

Enlightenment is seeing, hearing, and feeling—a natural state of being, a realization at which we can arrive by allowing ourselves to acknowledge it. That’s why I say that enlightenment is a choice—the choice to acknowledge or deny the enlightenment that we already possess within. Therefore, enlightenment is not a finish line but a starting point.

When you acknowledge the perfect and complete enlightenment within you and realize that you are the master of your own choices and life, then you are ready to embark on a life of spiritual and universal responsibility. The important thing is not whether you consciously realize that you have joined the elite ranks of the “enlightened ones,” but to make your daily choices based upon what you see, hear, and feel, and to take responsibility for your choices.

Someone asked me in a recent lecture, his face hard set with doubt, “Are you really enlightened?” I answered him with a question: “Do you know what enlightenment is?” He said no. Then I told him, “If you don’t know what enlightenment is, you would not believe me if I were to tell you that I am enlightened or believe me if I told you that I was not enlightened.” He pressed on, again with an expression of someone reluctantly mining for the truth: “Then what was it that you were enlightened to?” Laughing, I answered him, “I was enlightened to the fact that there is nothing to be enlightened about.” These lines are copied from Ilchi lee book.

Although the reluctant truth-seeker did not continue with his interrogation, I sensed that many in the audience had the same question or curiosity in mind about the nature of enlightenment. I pointed to the ceiling with my index finger and asked, “How many fingers do you see?” The audience giggled, some looking mildly offended and others looking childishly eager to find the deep. Zen koan answer behind such a simple question. “I see only one,” I continued. “How about you? When there are no special conditions or devices preventing us from seeing something as it is, there is no difference in what you see and what I see. Truth is thus. Unless you have an impediment or a handicap with your sight, without any preconceived prejudice to see more than one finger, one finger will look like one finger to you all. This is enlightenment.”

The Twelve Ordinary Meridians are the Lung Meridian, Spleen Meridian, Heart Meridian, Kidney Meridian, Pericardium Meridian, Liver Meridian, Large Intestine Meridian, Stomach Meridian, Small Intestine Meridian, Bladder Meridian, Triple Energizer Meridian, and Gallbladder Meridian.

Meridians that are Yang in character flow downward along the backs of the arms and legs. Follow the helpful tips by Ilchi Lee.

Meridians that are Yin in character flow upward along the front of the body, under the skin.

the name of the organ with which they are connected, whether they flow in the arms or legs, the time they are active, and whether they are located in a Yin or Yang part of the body.

For example, the Bladder Meridian (in Korean, literally, “Foot, Strong Yang, Bladder Meridian”) flows in the foot, is located in a Yang part of the body, and is connected with the bladder. The Lung Meridian (in Korean, literally, “Hand, Strong Yin, Lung Meridian”) flows in the hand, is located in a Yin part of the body, and is connected with the lungs. However, these are usually abbreviated simply, “Bladder Meridian,” and, “Lung Meridian,” using only the name of the associated organ. They are also referred to as Yin and Yang anterior, posterior, and lateral meridians, according to their location at the front, back, or sides of the body.

Accordingly, the Twelve Ordinary Meridians can be classified by whether they are located in the Yin or Yang section of the body: with six Yin meridians stretching out in the Yin part of the body (from the trunk to the fingers and toes) and six Yang meridians stretching out in the Yang part of the body (from the head and face to the fingers and toes). They can also be classified based on their connections to the arms and legs: with six hand meridians stretching along the arms to the fingers and six foot meridians stretching along the legs to the toes. Of the six meridians flowing in the hands, three are Yin and three are Yang. The six meridians flowing in the feet are also divided into three Yin and three Yang channels.

In this book, Ilchi Lee show you that instead of passively accepting outdated ideas of the aging brain, you can take an active role in helping your brain evolve and unleash its potential. Brain Education System Training (BEST) is a method through which you can develop your innate human capacities for health, well-being, achievement, and inner peace through optimal management of your brain. With BEST, you can teach your brain to become more productive and creative even as you age. You can foster greater harmony between your mind and your body and discover new joy and peace in your life and in the world around you. In essence, you can defy traditional thinking about the aging brain and enjoy more mental agility and enhanced creativity in later life.

The information presented in this book is neither guesswork nor wishful thinking. It is the result of vears of scientific and experiential study of the brain’s nature and its responsiveness to the actions of the body. It is also the product of Ilchi Lee’s work with yoga, health and wellness education, meditation, and other Asian traditions that unify mind and body into a healthful, integrated whole, as well as Dr. Jessie Jones’s work, especially in gerokinesiology, the specialized science of the ways in which exercise and aging interact.

The truth about the aging brain and Dahn Yoga is simple but extraordinary: Although some loss of clarity and memory skill is inevitable as the years go by, much of the brain’s aging process is within your control. You can have a fit brain at age sixty, seventy, eighty, and beyond. You need only make the choice to educate your brain for a better wav of life.

EAR INFECTIONS, RINGING IN THE EARS Jung-jeu (Central Islet, THj): Directly behind the 4th and 5th metacarpal bones or knuckles.

KNEE PAIN
Dok-bi (CalPs Nose, 8X35): Below the kneecap. They are the two depressions you find under the knee.

HEADACHES
Baek-hwe (Hundred Convergences, GVzo): Draw two imaginary lines up to the top of the head until they meet from the highest points on the ears. Then, draw one line from the tip of the nose straight up to the top of the head. The Baek-hwe is located where the three lines intersect on top of the head. Thanks Ilchi Lee for info.

HEADACHES

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This is extract from Prof Ilchi Lee’s book. Hap-kok (Union Valley, LLj.): At the end of the crease that forms between your thumb and the index fingers when you put them together. Having someone else press down on these points on both hands simultaneously is most effective. It might be a little painful, but try to bear it. Press down for a slow count of five and release for a count of five as well. Repeat several times.

Tae-chung (Great Surge, LV3): Between the big toe and the second toe, one-half inch in from where they form a web.

Press down on the points on both feet at the same time. This is good for easing stomachaches caused by indigestion. Rub the stomach and the back: Lie down and have someone rub your stomach or back with a comforting circular motion. Make sure you keep both areas covered and unexposed to cold air. This helps food settle into your stomach and eases digestion.

-ji (Wind Pool, GB 20): Two inches out from the middle of your neck, underneath the base of the skull. Use the thumbs of both hands to press these points. Sit on a chair and bend over, with your elbows propped on a table or desk, to make the sustained pressure on these points most comfortable.

COMMON COLD OR FLU

Poong-mun (Wind Gate, BLiz): Two finger widths on either side of the second thoracic vertebrae. This is the most vulnerable point where cold and damp energy may initially enter the body. Its all about Ilchi Lee.

Dae-chu (Great Hammer, GVi4): Right below the 7th cervical vertebrae. You can locate this point by bending your head forward and finding the biggest bone where the neck and the shoulders meet. Place your finger right below this bone. Now return your head to an upright position. Make sure you find the point after the head has returned; when the head returns to an upright position, the location moves up slightly.

Joong-bu (Central Treasury, LUi): Place your middle fingers in the hollow areas directly below the protrusions of the collarbone just outside your upper breastbone. Press this point with your thumb or make a fist with your right hand with

your thumb folded in and gently tap this point on the left side. Do this for one to three minutes and then switch sides. If this is too painful or if blockages still remain, rub the pressure points with the pads of your fingers. [Rg.i4] Oon-mun (Cloud Gate, LUz): Just below the collarbone on either side of your shoulders. Press this point with your thumb or make a fist with your right hand with your thumb folded in and gently tap this point on the left side. Do this for one to three minutes and then switch sides. If this is too painful or if blockages still remain, rub the pressure points with the pads of your fingers.