Lately, when I am finishing my meditation, I like to listen to a song that an e-newsletter subscriber recently introduced to me.

As I focus quietly on the song, I feel passion and conviction deep in my heart for the vision I have set for my life. I also feel more courage and hope for its realization.

Songs like this, with positive and empowering messages, are what I consider information that strengthens your brain power. It increases your ability to focus on your goal until you reach it.

I offer this song to you to help you find your own conviction and courage to achieve the deepest desires of your heart.

If We Hold On Together
From the soundtrack of Peter Pan (Universal Pictures Columbia, 2003)
Words and music by James Horner and Will Jennings
Sung by Diana Ross

Don’t lose your way with each passing day
You’ve come so far
Don’t throw it away
Live believing
Dreams are for weaving
Wonders are waiting to start

If we hold on together
I know our dreams will never die
Dreams see us through to forever
As high as souls can fly
Where clouds roll by,
For you and I…

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.

Hong Ik is true wisdom.
Hong Ik is hope.
Hong Ik is peace.
Hong Ik is oneness and compassion.
Hong Ik is the highest form of love.

The spirit of Hong Ik frees our mind; it allows us to see the whole. It inspires us to take care of our body, each other, and the earth.

Those who recognize the boundless spirit of Hong Ik inside themselves have no fear. They possess bold self-assurance even in the face of imminent death.

We must see and hear and speak and act with this spirit;
the world needs to recognize its Hong Ik spirit right now.

It can recognize it in us.
It is our hope.

When you see a problem or something you want, setting a clear goal will automatically bring you hope. Suddenly a solution will seem possible. But as you make a plan and begin to act it out, you will inevitably meet many roadblocks. Some of those roadblocks will come from outside of yourself. Some of them will come from inside—inertia, worrying, over thinking the problem, lack of focus, ineffective habits.

When you come head to head with those problems, move your body. Keep moving your body and taking action for your goal. Do pushups, run around, or do Brain Wave Vibration. Incorporate moving unconditionally into your lifestyle.

The more you think and worry, the more you will waste away your strength. Lots of extra thoughts and worry means you have a lot of unused energy. If you keep moving you will become stronger, more confident, and more peaceful. You will be able to focus better and the right answers will come to you. The movement will activate your brain and integrate its different parts. You’ll be able to use parts of your brain you don’t normally, and you’ll overcome your mental and physical inertia.

Your brain will wake up and see the possibilities more easily when you move your body. Possibilities and positive action are where hope lies. You can’t run out of hope if you keep moving.

The world of Pandora in the movie Avatar was one primarily of peace, harmony with nature, and wondrous beauty. After seeing the movie, many expressed a sense of sadness or regret that our own planet couldn’t be more like Pandora was before humans arrived. They yearned for a world that seemed just too idyllic to be possible.

But really, it is possible. The Earth has its own wondrous beauty in the patches of nature that still exist. When humanity has the consciousness to live in harmony with nature and each other, and to act for the greater good before their own individual desires, we will be able to create our own Pandora.

The most important ingredient for creating the world our hearts crave is hope. We must first have hope before we can do anything. We must believe sincerely and wholeheartedly that such a world is possible. Then through hard work, a good strategy, and sincere diligence, we can mold such a world together.

As they did in Avatar, by working together we can achieve the seemingly impossible. So please have hope, and spread that hope to whomever you meet.