I’d like to continue answering questions I received from high school students in North Las Vegas about my latest book, The Call of Sedona. You can read the rest of the questions by clicking here.

“I had an experience about two weeks ago during my first time meditating. I put on the meditation track and followed a women’s voice throughout my journey. I was laying flat on the ground with my belly up and my hands behind my head. About 8-10 minutes into meditation, I began to feel a sensation as if someone was touching my dahnjon [energy center in the lower abdomen]. I kept my eyes closed because I was afraid that if I opened my eyes, I would interfere with my meditation experience. This feeling happened about 3 more times during my meditation period, I’m curious to know if you might know what that was. Also, I remember seeing patterns in my eyes even though they were closed. In addition, at one point of time, I remember the feeling that my hands were not touching anymore.”
It’s great that you had such a visceral meditation experience. Everything you experienced were different energy phenomena that occurred in your body and mind. If you keep practicing, you will have many more experiences of different kinds. However, it’s important not to dwell too much on a particular experience. Just notice what happens and then let it go and stay in the moment. It is this steady focus in the moment that is important rather than fleeting occurrences.

“Where would you retire to?”
My work is my passion and my fun. I feel called to do what I’m doing, as if it is part of my very nature. I cannot imagine stopping. I will continue to share the messages of Sedona and the Earth for as long as I am able.

“After reading the The Call of Sedona I realized that as long as you put your mind to do or complete an objective you can. I also feel like life is what you make it and how you would view where you are going by staying focused. But what gave you the idea to do a large journey like the one you did?”
As I wrote in The Call of Sedona, I had many questions about life and death in my youth that remained unanswered. These questions were so important to me that I felt like life was meaningless unless I knew its purpose. It was this desire to know the answers to these questions that began my journey.

“… my question is how has your family viewed your work to help heal the world? Do they support you at all?”
My family has been very supportive of my work, and especially now that my sons have grown, they take part in it. They help me share the messages I’ve received and the techniques I’ve developed. I am sorry I could not be there for them all of the time when my children were young, but I’m grateful they have stuck by me and my work, even when they did not always understand my decisions initially.

“In The Call of Sedona, chapters like, 5, 6 and 13, you discuss about the messages you have ‘received’ while dwelling in Sedona when you activate the Chunjimaum and Chunjikiun receptors within the human mind, body, and soul, when done correctly, you experience such divine phenomena, how did you know which events to include in the book? What process did you use to narrow down what you experienced?”
While I have a wealth of experience to share, I chose particular stories for The Call of Sedona because I wanted to inspire people to overcome their limitations and realize their dreams. I am not someone with special powers or an extraordinary upbringing, so by telling my own story I hoped I could show it was possible for anyone to create their dreams. Also, because the focus of this book was Sedona, I limited the majority of the experiences I wrote about to those that occurred in Sedona.

“Reading this book has gone out the realm of anything that a high school student usually learns about in any of their classes. I am so glad that I had the opportunity to read this book because now I have a better understanding of the world and reading it makes me want to realign my goals in life. If it is not too much to ask I would like to inquire about the woman who realized that she was reliving a sort of déjà vu, that she was a Native American who died there. I would like to know more about her story because that experience she had really struck a chord in me. I would also like to ask you about the difficulties you encountered while trying to become enlightened and also having to try to provide for your family. How where you able to balance the two without getting sucked back into the programmatic lifestyle?”
I found balance by maintaining my meditation practice and keeping in tune with the awakenings and enlightenment I had found. With that practice, I have been able to align my everyday thoughts and actions with my vision of creating a better world. Providing for my family has been a part of that rather than something separate. My vision is so vast and far-reaching that it requires my overcoming many obstacles, including my own limitations, which is not possible if you fall into a “programmatic lifestyle.” It is not yet complete, and its constant pull and my dedication to it keeps my mind and energy fresh and filled with a flow of new ideas.

One thing I know for sure about the woman you mentioned: Her life was not a “happily ever after” because of that experience. But I believe she discovered what truly mattered to her.

“What intrigued me most about your book Mr. Ilchi Lee is the great resonance of the use of Sedona as a great metaphor. What I believe your intention was is to show everybody that the place for enlightenment can be different for everybody; it’s just the place that one feels most at peace with. For example when you talk about the Lady the resembled the Native Americans and when she came to Sedona she felt that was where she belonged and that is when she realized that is where here roots are, I think everybody has that realization, that sense of belonging and a sense of being one with the environment around you. (please correct me if I’m wrong)”
I agree that everyone has the potential to have the realization that they are one with their surroundings. Sedona itself is not the answer. Sedona and any place you feel you belong to is connected to your own inner space that gives you meaning and value. Please nurture that space with great love and care.

“Dear Mr. Lee, you are my favorite Lee besides Bruce Lee and Jet Li. I greatly enjoyed your book. It helped me understand the difference between completion and success. I must admit that I always wanted to be complete but I would confuse it with success… Thank you for writing the book and helping repair my relationship with the earth and others.”
Thank you for adding me to your favorite Lee list. I’m also a fan of Bruce Lee and Jet Li.

I admire the youth that all of you have. You are now living the spring season of your life. Blossom it fully and make this world more beautiful with your colors and fragrance. Every blooming flower is beautiful.

A teacher from a North Las Vegas high school who read my book, The Call of Sedona: Journey of the Heart, introduced it to the seniors in her World Literature classes. They discussed the book, and then the students emailed their impressions to me through Ilchi.com and CallofSedona.com. I am very grateful to Ms. Montalvo-Arroyo and all of the students, especially for their heartfelt emails. I’d like to share parts of what they wrote with you, and answer their questions here.

“I am completely blown away on how dedicated you were in your 21 days of Moak Mountain, what gave you the strength to give up your human needs (food, sleep, & rest) for that long period of time? Do you feel that it is important for each individual to take drastic measures to find their true voice?”
When I went twenty-one days without food or sleep, I had already been training my body and mind with ki energy practices for a long time. What was more important to me than food or sleep, what I was determined to do, was find the answers to the questions: “Who am I?” and “Why do I live?” I no longer wanted to live without those answers. It was that determination, desperation, and training that kept me going.

Since my enlightenment, I have developed hundreds of training methods so that others don’t need to go through such drastic measures. Through a steady practice of meditation and breathing, and by continually asking yourself the questions, “Who am I?” and “What do I want?”, you can continue to keep yourself open and aware enough to listen to the voice of your soul and follow its guidance.

“Ilchi Lee, I would just like to start off by saying thank you for sharing your life changing experience with me in your book, The Call of Sedona. You have influenced me to become awakened and acknowledge my inner self. The way you described how the physical form (the human body) was created, but the soul has existed before then brings me to ask you this question. Does reincarnation happen where the soul is reborn into another physical form?”
Reincarnation is one thing that can happen to a soul after it finishes one life. Another is Chunhwa—a state where a soul has completed its growth and does not necessarily take on a physical form. I normally don’t focus on reincarnation and past lives, however. In this lifetime, regardless of what happened in a past life or even in the last moment, what we create in each moment is a choice with infinite possibilities. Nothing from the past or the future can hurt this moment. If we embrace the here and now, we can always create our own happiness. More than reincarnation, what’s important is the completion of the soul, or Chunhwa.

“I am very impressed of how much I have learned about myself by reading your book. I never thought that this book would have such a big impact in my life. Your explanations of your life challenges and how you became to be a surpasser of them makes me believe that I can do it too. The Call to Sedona has inspired me to clear my mind and to overcome anything that has hold me back, anything that I thought I was not able to do I would like to leave behind. I would like to ask you, can my energy be attracted to a tree that is just outside my back yard?”
Yes, you can be attracted to many things, including a particular tree. If you are attracted to the tree, I would suggest having a conversation with it like you would with one of your close friends. That is a form of meditation. The fact that you are attracted to it means the tree might have something for you to explore. Later, you may realize you are really having a conversation with yourself and exploring your own inner landscape. The tree is a mirror that reflects you and helps you to see yourself more clearly.

“Do you think there’s a certain philosophy, instead of mythology, that one must comprehend before being truly enlightened?”
There is a philosophy I’ve been sharing since my enlightenment. Understanding and studying that philosophy helps. But it is not enough. To truly be enlightened you need three studies: the study of principles or philosophy, the study of practice, and the study of living. When you practice exercises that change your energy and help you feel energy, such as meditation and breathing, you can actually experience principles and observe them happening through and in you. Enlightenment is not blindly believing in something. Through practice you will know and experience it for yourself. But it’s not fully real unless you bring it into your everyday life. That’s the study of living—when you apply your practice to your life. Enlightenment is an experience beyond a particular philosophy or story. But really, enlightenment is a matter of flipping a switch—of realizing you are actually already enlightened. The trouble is that it’s difficult for people to believe it. The reason for studying is so you can be 100% certain you are enlightened and live that enlightenment fully. To me, enlightenment is not some specific state of being. It is the choices we make moment by moment with honesty, integrity, and a deep sense of responsibility.

“’My body is simply mine, it’s not me.’ This quote confuses me. I think it means that our body does not define us; that our outside appearance is not what makes me me. If someone could enlighten me about what that means, I would truly appreciate it. Thank you.”
You are right; your body does not define you. It is yours to use to manifest your dreams in our physical reality. It’s also yours to take care of. So then ask yourself what does define you. Who are “you” really? Look at every part of you. Can you see a part of yourself that does not change or end? The physical body is a means or a method for the goal of completing your soul.

To be continued …

Many social interests–politicians, business people, educators, parents–have gathered around the drive to reform the U.S. education system. This reform movement has recently been made more visible by the documentary, Waiting for Superman, about which many people have become riled up. Waiting for Superman portrays 5 students trying to get into charter schools because they and their parents feel it’s their only chance for a decent education. Through their stories, the movie dissects the current public education system in the United States.

Last week, on the The Oprah Winfrey Show, former CEO of Microsoft Bill Gates, chancellor of Washington, DC schools Michelle Rhee, the movie’s director Davis Guggenheim, Newark Mayor Cory Booker, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, and others appeared to shed light on the issues brought out in the movie. They talked about how they are trying to solve the current problems and what the future of education should look like. Even the audience, both on the show and online, weighed in about what they thought. The concensus was, “We are all responsible. Our future depends on how we focus on education now.”

Some are already taking action, most notable in terms of finance are Bill and Melinda Gates, as well as Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, who created a $100 million start-up fund for revamping the education system of the City of Newark. During a TV interview on NBC, President Barack Obama pledged to renovate the public education system while he’s in office. He said, “Why am I sending my two daughters to private school?” Children shouldn’t need to go to a private school to get a good education, the president emphasized.

Plans to change the system include developing high-quality teachers, making a longer school day and school year, and creating a safe educational environment. These factors are so important, but one thing we shouldn’t forget is the true meaning of education. The word education comes from the Latin ‘educatio’, which means to draw out from the core. So the true meaning of education is to help students discover their real core value and help them express it in their lives. That means developing the true creative power and potential of their brain.

While the completion of an education system that can do that depends on good hardware such as educators, buildings, etc., it also depends on software that develops students’ creativity, conscience, and consciousness, which is found in their brain. That software are the ideas and preconceptions through which children view their world. What value and what dream are you planting in your children’s brains? What possibilities and what confidence are our schools and societies giving them?

When our children develop their infinite potential and develop their conscience brightly, then their lives will become light, and each individual’s light will light up our whole society and brighten the future of humanity. That is the true meaning of education.

The curious case of former Illinois governor, Rod Blagojevich, has been a frequent topic of conversation, especially after the recent court verdict against him. He was impeached by the Illinois legislature for accepting bribes and corruption between 2003 and 2008. As someone who is not native to the United States, it is surprising that this level of corruption could exist in 21st Century American politics.

However, corruption is not limited only to politics. The overall atmosphere of our society is one in which “honesty” has not been considered an important value. People who will use any means to get what they want have occasionally been regarded as clever, while the honest and conscientious have at times been despised as weak and naïve.

Given the widespread influence of this atmosphere, the importance of “living honestly” is not taught to children as much as it used to be, not even at home or at school. Talk about working to create a “fair society” and you find some actually worrying that this might hurt a nation’s competitiveness. Would it really?

No, it wouldn’t. These are merely the groundless fears of a distrustful society dominated by unfair rules. Since people think that they will be at a loss if they are the only ones who try to be honest, they use only a minimum effort. Studies have actually been done on how much trust contributes to economic growth, how ethical behavior positively impacts human life.

“Every time a society’s level of trust goes up 10 percent, its rate of economic growth rises 0.5 to 0.8 percent,” according to a study by Byung Ki Lee of the Korean Economic Research Institute. Suppose our society’s level of trust rises 10 percent. That could create over $8.6 billion in growth. So we can see that moral conscience contributes to massive increases in economic value.

“A child with a high morality index is highly competitive and has a high happiness index,” revealed Geum-ju Kim, a professor of education at Seoul National University. Research has shown that children who live with a good conscience are more confident in their own futures and more positive about life.

With integrity declining in political, economic, and educational circles, modern society has many contradictory elements when it comes to teaching our young children moral conscience. Children learn unconsciously that many of the values they are taught in the classroom don’t apply outside of it. Consequently, at the present time, the only solution is for parents and teachers to serve consciously as good examples often.

Our country’s standard of living will rise automatically once our society teaches that, “the life most worth living is one that contributes to the good of all.” What is the main culprit that is damaging the nation? It is selfish values that say, “Me, my children, and my family are all that matters.” This paradigm narrows our field of vision and makes us corrupt. A consensus that “this is wrong” must be formed if we are to stop our car from racing down the road of an outdated and ill-fated paradigm.

We can expand our perspective and change our lives for the better when we each realize that our own success is tied to the success of others, and that helping others is helping ourselves. We can expect genuine progress in our society when we are able to develop the desire to do good for each other.

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.