I spent so much time in my life lost and wandering. I searched for something to do that made me feel that even if I were to die doing it, I could die happy. I finally found it, but there wasn’t anybody who showed it to me. My parents, my teachers at school, even religions or organizations or different meditation groups I went to couldn’t help me find my path to work I was passionate about.

In order to find it, I had to find my true self through meditation. I learned you have to know your true self well. Only when you find yourself will you find your path.

It’s not something you can locate because somebody tells you to go there. It’s something your soul has to discover. You have to find it for yourself.

Ask yourself, “Isn’t there some kind of path like that I could find?” Listen to the answers provided by your mind and heart once you’ve cleared them of extraneous thoughts and emotions.

You know you’ve found your own path when you’re able to say, “If it’s for this work, I’m willing to stake everything on it.” At just the thought of going down that path, you can feel electricity running through your whole body.

For the last 30 years, I’ve worked hard on the path I chose—the path of helping people find themselves, find their own path, and find health, happiness, and peace through meditation and breathing. I will continue to work hard in the future, living every day with work I could die happy doing.

You probably remember the news about the atrocious massacre committed by a religious fanatic in Norway. This right-wing extremist himself declared that he was not a person but a huge monster. Dogmatic conviction gone wrong made him lose his humanity and turned a human being into a slave of information.

Norway is the country that awards the Nobel Peace Prize; there are no religious or social disputes, the happiness quotient of its people is among the highest in the world, and it is praised as the model of an exemplary advanced welfare nation. However, through this incident, we can see how incomplete and precarious welfare can be when it has not fully restored a sense of humanity.

Welfare that doesn’t restore a sense of humanity is incomplete and does not have the potential to last. Even the welfare of northern Europe, envied by people around the world, stays in material limitations and the pursuit of equality. With welfare that cannot restore a sense of humanity, the happiness of all people cannot be achieved, and an era of spiritual civilization and true peace cannot come about.

Restoring a sense of humanity requires three factors:

1. - Finding self-esteem,
2. - Restoring and maintaining your conscience,
3. - Being healthy and hard-working.

True welfare actualizes all of these things.

People who are hard-working and live healthy lives with strong self-esteem and conscientiousness are able to accomplish anything and tend to be liked by everyone. They can live with confidence and self-assurance, and aim for unshakeable happiness.

Sometimes self-esteem can be confused with arrogance. But self-esteem comes from the essential being (True Self), while arrogance comes from emotion. Self-esteem comes from being centered in your higher self, and arrogance comes from being centered in others. People who have good self-esteem are not swayed or hurt by what others say, but those who are arrogant are easily influenced and hurt, and are always self-conscious. Positive self-esteem comes from self-assurance and comes with a philosophy.

Self-esteem allows you to live with conscience. If you have a strong conscience and strong self-esteem, rather than accepting the value given to you by the world, you can discover your own value, an absolute value independent of outside variables.

Self-esteem and conscience are the LifeParticle Sun, the source of the life energy of the universe. Self-esteem, conscience, and a healthy and hard-working lifestyle—with just these three factors, anyone can be happy. That happiness has the potential to last. It’s a happiness that is complete.

In this Inspirational Tale, we see a young Ilchi Lee at a low point of his life. But through a project that required hard work and dedication, he achieved something that benefited his whole village. Through it he found renewed self-worth and confidence that stayed with him for the rest of his life.

I’ve told the story of the pumpkin patch I grew in my youth many times. But I think this short animation brings it to life, just as growing the pumpkin patch and sharing the pumpkins with my village brought me to life. I hope you have opportunities to learn the value of hard work and doing things that help others.