All of us have greatness within us. Whether or not that greatness is expressed in our lives depends on the amount of effort we put into developing it.

However, we cannot develop our greatness without a goal. But not just any goal will work. We need a goal that makes our hearts sing and that brings happiness and joy to ourselves and others.

Without such a goal, we won’t even have the desire for greatness. Without a dream, every day is arduous and we cannot create what we want. A goal that comes from our heart is based on the truest truth, and only the truth itself can create.

So as 2011 approaches, look inside your heart for that precious dream, a dream you are willing to pray fervently for and one you will never give up. Although that dream may seem impossible, keep visualizing and feeling what it will be like when you achieve it. Feel grateful for your dream and everything that comes with it, even before it becomes a reality.

To inspire you, here is a song I’ve been playing a lot lately. If you keep listening to this song, your consciousness will awaken, your heart will open, and you’ll be ready to move forward toward your dream.

The Impossible Dream
Sung by Rhydian Robert
From the 1965 musical, Man of La Mancha

To dream, the impossible dream
To fight, the unbeatable foe
To bear, with unbearable sorrow
To run, where the brave dare not go

To right, the unrightable wrong
And to love, pure and chaste from afar
To try, when your arms are too weary
To reach, the unreachable star

This is my quest, to follow that star
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far
And to fight for the right, without question or pause
To be willing to march into Hell, for a heavenly cause

And I know if I’ll only be true, to this glorious quest,
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm,
When I’m laid to my rest

And the world will be better for this
That one man, scorned and covered with scars,
Still strove, with his last ounce of courage,
To reach,
The unreachable
The unreachable
The unreachable star

I’ll always dream, the impossible dream
And yes I will reach

The unreachable
Star

When I was at the United Nations in 2000 for the Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders, I was asked three questions:

1. How can I live my life better?
2. How can we erase conflicts among religions?
3. How can we live in harmony with nature and the environment?

These three questions don’t have to be complicated and hard. So I jokingly asked my questioner, “Please, ask me a hard one! Those questions are too simple.” You can solve them with one answer. Ultimately it boils down to playing well with each other.

Although the answer was easy to give, many of us don’t even know how to get along with ourselves. In order to play well, we first need to respect ourselves, other people, and the earth.

However, too many of us are not engaged in mutual respect. Respect comes from a true understanding of our nature and our value, and that comes from the information we hold in our brain and the way we use it. Is the information in your brain productive, creative, and peaceful? It’s only when we can truly see and feel that we have the same eternal, divine essence as each and every creature, as well as the earth itself, that we can live in peace with ourselves, with others, and with the earth.

Have you ever just laughed for no reason at all? Laughing naturally makes you feel happy, because it tells your brain that life is great. You can laugh whenever your mood needs a boost.

There is an acupressure point behind the ears that makes it easier to laugh, even when you’re down. You’ll feel a little dent on either side at the bottom of the skull. Press this point toward the front of your head. It may be a little sore at first, but if you press it and focus on what you feel and then laugh, the laughter comes more easily.

You may feel awkward in the beginning, but please, keep going. Eventually, you will feel relaxed and happy. Once you do, let yourself be free! Start to move as your body wishes, letting it flow with its internal energy. Now you’re doing a deep form of meditation. Keep doing it until you feel joy pouring out of you.

I hope with this acupressure point you can give the gift of laughter to yourself and your loved ones this holiday season. May it make your life and our world a little brighter.

And don’t forget, if you would like to say a prayer for a brighter and more peaceful world on the first day of 2011, you can read one I wrote. To see the prayer, and pledge to read it, click here for our Prayer of Peace event.

My first experience with ki energy came when I was five years old in rural South Korea. One day, my mother woke me early in the morning in a panic because she had forgotten that her mother-in-law’s birthday was that day. Forgetting your mother-in-law’s birthday was unthinkable in those days.

It’s a Korean tradition to cook a seaweed and meat soup on someone’s birthday. But we had no meat in our house, and the nearest butcher was over five miles away over rough, mountainous terrain and knee-deep snow. When I saw how my mother was panicking, however, I suddenly volunteered to go and buy a pound of meat. In her panic and the absence of my father, she actually gave permission to her five-year-old son to go alone in the middle of the winter.

The way to the butcher shop passed by a public cemetery and over underground caves that were treacherously hidden in the snow. One misstep and I would never be found until spring. But I had only my mother’s panicked face in my head, and how I had to go buy the meat so that my mother wouldn’t be horribly embarrassed. It was only years later that I realized that such a feeling of unselfish love most often triggers a palpable experience of ki energy. That is the energy that animates all living things, which most people can’t sense without learning to do it.

As I walked along the path in knee-high snow, I felt like I didn’t leave any footprints as I almost sailed over the fresh and fluffy snow. I felt this incredible warmth all around me, as if the air itself was a warm blanket. I hummed as I raced along and knocked on the door of the butcher shop, which hadn’t opened yet. It seemed like even the butcher was affected by the warmth of positive energy filling my heart. His drowsiness dissapeared as he gave me double the weight of meat for the same price, saying I was a nice boy for doing errands so early in the morning.

As I raced back, I felt as if the true “me” woke up. It was disorienting, but at that time I could see who I really was beyond the confines of current societal norms and relationships. I could ask the important questions that we all eventually ask: “Why am I here at this particular time and place? What is my life all about?”

When I got back home, my mother greeted me with delight and shock. She was delighted I had brought back the meat, and shocked because it had taken me less than half the time it would’ve taken a grown man. This was my first experience with ki energy and its power not only to create certain physical manifestations, but to get me in touch with my True Self.

The energy of our True Selves is the same in all of us, despite our differences. I believe that when we relate to each other from that pure, innermost part of ourselves, we can learn to live in harmony and peace. I have found that to be a principle of the energy of life, and I wrote the Prayer of Peace to express it. Please join in affirming this principle by reading the Prayer of Peace on 1-1-11.

I composed the Prayer of Peace because I believe we can only achieve peace in ourselves and in the world by awakening to the fact that we are all one–one part of the same life force that lies beneath the illusion of our differences. For this reason, I shared it at the United Nations Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders. For this reason I would also like to share it with you now, more than ten years later.

I’d like to invite you to acknowledge this truth and pray for true peace together on January 1, 2011. As you pray, imagine the kind of world you want to live in and the kind of person you need to be to create it. Wouldn’t the best New Year’s resolution be to take the steps necessary to become that person? The potential to do that lies within each of our brains. We just need to make the choice, and then center our thoughts, words, and actions around that choice.

Thank you in advance for taking this small step toward being, as Mahatma Gandhi said, “the change you want to see in the world.”

Please click here to pledge to read the Prayer of Peace.