After contemplating for a long time, Ilchi Lee tells that he went to the mountains. I vowed not to come down until I had found the answer for which I had been searching. For the next twenty-one days I did not eat or sleep, driving myself to the brink of death in my struggle to know. At the very end of my journey, a clear voice rang out loud within me: “My energy is Cosmic Energy, my mind is Cosmic Mind.”

I realized that I was a flower blooming from life. I was enlightened to the truth that I was a phenomenon of life. I realized that infinite life was expressing itself through me. I sensed life’s divinity breathing inside of me, and that by becoming one with that divinity, I was someone who could help create a world of blessings and creation. I felt great peace and love, and a healing mind, spring forth from my heart to the world.

But a question arose. My enlightenment felt so true and real to me, but how could I know if this was true enlightenment? Is my enlightenment real? Or is it nothing but an illusion? Who or what can prove my enlightenment?

I felt that I needed to check, verify for myself, whether my enlightenment was true or not. I believed the proof lay in whether I could communicate it to the world through practice.

I reasoned that if my enlightenment was real, I would be able to communicate the peace and love I experienced to others. If I could not do this, then the experience must only be my own mistaken thinking. Enlightenment that cannot be shared is not enlightenment. Enlightenment that cannot create is not enlightenment. This is how I set the definition and standard of enlightenment for myself. Sharing my enlightenment with as many people as possible to authenticate my own enlightenment—this is my life purpose.