Ilchi.com – Make your Life a Masterpiece

Ilchi Lee relates the story about how he was lead to create Brain Wave Vibration after falling off a horse. Brain Wave Vibration is a simple method of getting ki (chi, qi) flowing so your body can heal itself better. This simple moving meditation can be done sitting, standing, and even lying down, and merely involves moving your body to its own innate rhythm while focusing on your body or brain.

What was school like for me 50 years ago? Lost and wandering during my school years because an attention deficit disorder kept me from making progress in, or feeling the need for, my studies, I released the tensions of this conflict in physical training through martial arts and in reading. Fortunately, my parents didn’t break my spirit—they called me a “late bloomer”—and, thanks to their approach, I could comfort myself, saying, “I’ll find something I want to do sooner or later.”

However, after failing the all-important college entrance exam three times in a row, I couldn’t bear to see my parents, nor could I lift my head in the small country village where we lived. Then one day I was passing our village bridge—the area beneath it served as a makeshift garbage dump—when I looked at the pile of rotting garbage and felt horribly sad because it seemed to reflect my own situation. I made up my mind to clear away the garbage. I dug more than 300 holes in the mountain behind our village. Then, I started transporting the garbage using a jigae, a carrying-frame you can put on your back, and burying it in those holes.

On that hot summer day my face was sunburned red and the skin on my shoulders had peeled off from carrying that heavy jigae, but my efforts to turn my garbage-like life into hope continued. When a hole would fill up with garbage, I would plant a pumpkin seed in it. In accordance with the laws of nature the garbage acted as a natural fertilizer and the pumpkins grew thick on the mountainside. I felt joy and a sense of accomplishment as I shared the pumpkins with my neighbors. The small hope I discovered in myself at that time grew into a new strength, enabling me to attend college as I ran a Tae Kwon Do school. The joy I felt in sharing with others helped me make up my mind to devote my life for the good of all. And that “hope that changed garbage into pumpkins” gave me the will many years later to teach health-oriented training methods free of charge to people I met in a park for five years.

My early experience with education has left me solving life’s problems using my own approach instead of that of academic institutions. In the process I’ve had no choice but to focus on my brain. So my primary concern has been how I could make myself and everyone around me happy by operating my brain well, a brain that hates memorizing or solving problems assigned by others, a brain that can’t stand things that are habitual and never change, a brain that likes ceaseless imagining and instant action. My personal experience and research naturally developed into interest in how I could really apply my brain, which grew into the academic discipline of Brain Education.

That’s why Brain Education is not a system for how to memorize facts or solve rote problems better. Instead it’s a system for using your whole brain, for developing your character in order to discover your existential value, and actualizing that value with infinite creativity. When our brains deem something necessary, they focus on it. The time it takes will differ from person to person, but most people end up being able to do well in their field. So, when I see parents worrying that their children are distracted and unable to sit still, I actually praise the kids, saying that they have great potential to achieve their dreams. The children are healthy, unable to sit still because they’re overflowing with energy. They may be distracted because they haven’t found something they want to do, and this could be a process of searching for it themselves. Once they find it, they will focus on it naturally and wholeheartedly.

My hope is that my personal experience as someone with an attention deficit disorder, who discovered hope in himself and worked ceaselessly to establish the academic discipline of Brain Education, who founded a college and become its president, will contribute at least a little to education reform.

Recently, I have discussed the ways that our modern wealth of information has not necessarily brought us happiness. The breadth of information and information technology highlights our responsiblity to connect with our souls and choose wisely among the information available to us. Though movies are not new technology, I marvel at the ways films have been presented in recent years and the fact that previously obscure information has made its way to so many people at the same time. Today, I’d like to share with you the top four movies of recent years that I have recommended and quoted a lot in my lectures.These movies have themes that complement or reflect messages that I think are important for humanity.

1.   The 11th Hour (2007)

As you watched the parade of experts illustrating the dire condition of our planet in this documentary hosted by Leonardo DiCaprio, you may have felt many emotions, including fear, sadness, and anger. Regardless of how we felt, however, it’s difficult not to conclude that as a planet and a species we are out of time. Being angry won’t do any good, and being sad won’t solve anything either. Now is the time to act. It is up to us to heal our ailing planet. I think the movie’s message is this: “The reason I exist on earth right now is to love it. I can no longer entrust the planet to anyone else and believe they will solve all of its problems. I, myself, must act immediately.” Watching this movie, we must ask ourselves “How am I taking action?” I hope to impress this awareness and sense of urgency on everyone I meet. It is in this context that the Earth Citizen Movement and One Dollar Project I have advocated were started. Leaving aside nationality, race, ethnicity, and religion, we need to adopt a primary identity as Earth Citizens and act to heal the planet.

2.   Eight Below (2006)

A touching tale of loyalty, Eight Below demonstrates that mind can commune with mind in the animal realm as well as the human one. It is thrilling to watch the eight sled dogs cooperate to survive as they move toward hope. They lift themselves out of desperate circumstances, and remain true to their trainer to the very end. In one particular scene I was moved by seeing the dogs moving across ice. When the ice is thick, they just run in a straight line. But when the ice seems thin enough to break, they fan themselves out, preparing to help each other should one of them fall through. Besides being smart, I think this kind of teamwork demonstrates their trust, faith, and love. It also reflects a meeting of their minds and their ability to work together in harmony. Isn’t that life, mind communing with mind? We can achieve true success when we each give it our all to move directly toward our goal, pulling each other and helping each other along. I think we can see a model for our own lives, and indeed, all of human life, in this movie.

3.   2012 (2009)

Rather than just having another “end of the world” message, I felt the movie 2012 suggested that we should prepare for a new civilization. While in deep meditation on Mt. Moak 30 years ago, I saw two potential futures of the earth. One was the planet tragically being destroyed by a natural disaster like in 2012. Another was human beings recovering their humanity and remaking the planet into a world more beautiful than any other. I think that our planet is suffering growing pains as it creates a springboard for transformation into a greater consciousness, a new civilization. As I watched the movie, I saw that the hopes and dreams of our species and our planet would vanish unless the consciousness of the whole human race grows. Ultimately, this change in consciousness, and therefore the future of the species and the planet, depends on how human beings use their brains. We can continue to use our brains to create destruction and competition for resources, or we can access the harmony and oneness inherent in our brains and trust that our brains will find the solutions for creating a healthy, peaceful planet.

4.   Avatar (2009)

Avatar was one of my favorite movies because I felt it expressed the messages I have been delivering for the past thirty years better than any other movie I ‘ve seen so far. I felt like this movie was almost made for the Earth Citizen Movement. I saw the battle of the people from Earth against the those of Pandora as symbolizing the struggle of the ego versus the inherent divine nature, of the loss of humanity versus its recovery, and the valuation of the material world versus the spiritual. Human beings had caused the degradation of the Earth and turned it into a world of material values and desires, a world of the ego characterized by competition, invasion, and domination. The world of Pandora still expressed its divine nature, harmony, and spirit when the humans attacking it threatened to do the same to it as they did to the Earth. The Navi lived in harmony and communed with all creation. They connected to the cosmic consciousness that linked the planet, spirit, and all beings as one. This movie shows us how the ego causes the collapse of cosmic harmony and order through endless human greed. The same battle and dichotomy is reflected within the main character, Jake Sully. Before he dons his avatar and meets the Navi, he has a purely human perspective and is mostly concerned with protecting his team and getting his legs back. His thoughts are mostly ego-based. But as he learns how to “see” like the Navi, his central values shift and he can perceive and connect to the spiritual wonders around and within him. The movie Avatar offers a message on the value of life, and on the loss and recovery of our humanity.

In this short interview, Ilchi Lee explains how his Brain Wave Vibration method improves concentration and relieves stress, allowing practitioners to be more healthy, successful, ethical, and considerate of their communities, countries, and the world.

Visit http://www.brainwavevibration.com to learn more about Brain Wave Vibration.

Education of both children and adults has been my ongoing interest. When I look at the state of school education, especially in my native South Korea, I am concerned.  I see a focus on rote memorization of facts and figures and a lack of attention to collaborative problem solving. And once students reach high school (around age 15), they have to focus intensely on passing multiple-choice tests, especially the ultimate final examination, in order to be eligible to attend a university. They go through what is widely-termed “examination hell”, sacrificing much of their family and social lives, in order to study for that exam.

Like many others, I believe education should be more than rote memorization. More is needed in order for a society to have happy, healthy, and productive adults. An acquaintance of mine recently introduced me to a school in Kanghwa Province, South Korea that is experimenting with a better way. Looking for hope for our education system, I decided to visit this alternative school. On the afternoon of Korean Independence Day, while the students had a day off, a group of  us headed there by car. We drove for a little over an hour from Seoul until we spotted a school surrounded by greenery, looking like a small village nestled at the foot of a mountain.

A sign that read “Mountain Valley School” greeted us on our approach. Principal Youngso Yoon and Superintendent Kyuho Jo gave us a warm welcome, complete with bright smiles. This alternative high school has special recognition by the South Korean Department of Education, similar to a “charter school” and is quite competitive to enter. Each class has only 20 students, while most South Korean high schools have 40-50 students in a class room. Around 120 hopefuls compete for these 20 spots every year.

The principal gave us a tour of the school, with one of the first stops being the dining area. Since it was the largest space at the school, it also served as a lecture hall and a meeting room. One of the schools outstanding features is its integration with the natural environment. For example, the meals are planned in an environmentally-friendly way, with food that is grown in-season. Instead of the Korean staple of plain white rice, they are served a healthier mix of rice with over 12 kinds of grains. Even though the food is considered healthy, the students there eat every bite. Even those who, at first, may have picked out the large, black beans, eat everything after three months. And as far as we could tell, there was no place for the students to deposit leftover food when they returned their trays.

Just around the corner from the dining hall, we saw a large solar panels. Interestingly, they put the panels to additional use as a roof for a small, open-air ampitheater, used for lectures. It’s an incredible idea. I tried sitting there for myself, and as soon as I did,  we decided it was the perfect time for the principal’s Q&A session. Although it was the middle of the day in midsummer, it was cool beneath the solar panels.

Behind the main buildings, there was a vegetable garden that the students cultivate. Various vegetables such as peppers, corn, yellow melon, and eggplant grow there. The students work in groups on a portion of the garden, about 8 square yards, which they tend once or twice a week. I noticed the students’ rubber boots and shovels lined up, waiting for them to return from vacation. When I tried a bite of the yellow melon that the superintendent picked for us, it was really fresh and sweet.

The garden included a rice paddy, where the rice shoots had just started blooming. Fruit-like, pink things were stuck along the stems of the rice plants, which our guides said were river snail eggs. Beneath the surface of the water, the coin-sized river snails eat any weeds that pop up before they grow very large. Like the school, these snails have a symbiotic relationship with their immediate habitat. Nearby, chickens were clucking and strolling casually around a coop, and there were old-fashioned composting outhouses that used sawdust. They didn’t smell, even from nearby. I noticed two frogs with a beautiful green color resting, unconcerned, even when people approached them and leisurely sat nearby.

The pride of this school is its eco-friendly architecture. The wife of the chairman of the board of trustees is an architect, so they built facilities that conform to an environmentally sound and harmonious philosophy. All classrooms used geothermal energy from deep in the ground to cool the rooms in the summer and warm them in the winter. Even without air conditioning, a classroom cottage with a pine roof felt comfortable inside.

The building design also fosters character-building among the students as part of the holistic approach of the the school. For example, when I went into the classroom for first-year students, the doorway was so low that a tall student would have to duck his head to enter, and the ceiling of the classroom was also low. Our guides said it was built low so that students who are full of unrestrained energy could learn to calm themselves in modesty and humility.

The students live in dormitories about 100 yards away from the classrooms. There are several buildings, and they say students can choose their housing. When we first walked into one of the dorms made of natural materials, we saw a common room, and found that each bedroom has a loft so it can accommodate up to four people comfortably without the use of bunk beds.

On the other hand, the hallway  is so narrow that two people cannot move pass through at the same time, so one person always has to give way to another. They also have to take turns to using the showers, which are individual rather than group showers. The administrators said that the dorms were intentionally designed to be slightly uncomfortable to cultivate a considerate and respectful character. At this school, the students learn how to live with each other in harmony.

Scattered throughout the grounds, we saw large, covered outdoor meeting places where up to 30 people could sit comfortably. These common areas were yet another unique characteristic of this school that demonstrates their desire to foster community and personal growth.

I was quite impressed with Mountain Valley School’s principal. He seemed like a sincere educator who understood the students’ dreams and unique characteristics, and who studied and worked tirelessly. He was open and kind; he also spoke frankly about the challenges facing school operations and his concerns as an educator.

This upstanding educator matched the ideology of the school–one of strong character, and peaceful cooperation and collaboration with nature and human beings. While 70% of its curriculum is the same as regular high schools (Korean, English, Math, Science), the other 30% of the classes are unique to Mountain Valley. They include classes such as creative arts, ecological farming, community theory and practice, philosophy, and regional and global studies. Since there are 20 teachers, there’s 1 teacher for every 3 students, so they can give them the time and attention they need to do well.

I could see that the school was making an effort  to restore balance for their students while thriving in a national educational system that is centered on college entrance exams. Every year, out of the 20 graduating students, most go to college. Every so often there is a case where a student leaves the school to pursue special education befitting their personal life path, and there are cases where they join the army to volunteer for the special forces as soon as they graduate.

As we ended the tour, I wished the principal well and thanked him for kindly giving us a tour of the school. I told him, “In the traditional spirit of Korea, this school utilizes all of the energy of nature. It is infused into the education and environment here.”

I promised to donate some of my books to the school that would be helpful to the students. The people who had come with me all said that they wished they could go back to their high school years and attend a school like this.

I hope that many alternative schools like this one are established so they can allow education to breathe and create hope. My wish is that a competition to create schools where the students and teachers are all happy can take the place of the competition to pass the entrance exams for college.