Jul 25, 2024 – Meeting with North Korea Experts, Start of Summer Retreat
Hello. Starting today, Sunim will enter a two-week summer retreat. Most Jungto Society volunteers will also pause their activities and focus entirely on practice during this period.
After finishing morning practice and meditation, Sunim headed to The Peace Foundation for a breakfast meeting with North Korea experts.
After having a meal prepared with care by The Peace Foundation staff, the meeting began. They watched a video of Sunim’s visits to 10 Asian countries over the past month, then examined the living conditions of North Korean residents and checked changes in exchange rates and food prices.
In particular, Sunim and the experts expressed concern that the current inter-Korean relationship, including the release of propaganda balloons and the resumption of loudspeaker broadcasts towards North Korea, could potentially escalate into an accidental war if mishandled. They spent two hours discussing how the two Koreas could overcome the crisis of war and maintain peace in this situation before concluding the meeting.
Next, Sunim thanked Director Ko Kyung-bin for his hard work in drafting the manuscript for The Peace Foundation’s 20th anniversary white paper. After a final meeting with a guest who visited The Peace Foundation, Sunim completed all schedules before the retreat and departed Seoul at 11 AM for the Mungyeong Jungto Retreat Center.
After a two-hour drive, Sunim arrived at the Mungyeong Jungto Retreat Center at 1 PM.
In the afternoon, Sunim reviewed the meditation retreat program starting tomorrow, worked on manuscript proofreading, and then retired for the day.
As there was no Dharma talk today, the conclusion will share a conversation between Sunim and a questioner from a recent practice assembly.
How to Find Peace of Mind in Any Situation
“It seems life is quite difficult for you. But life isn’t inherently difficult. Even tiny insects living on leaves manage well. Frogs, squirrels, rabbits, deer, and even small, fragile creatures all survive. They don’t cry out in pain or ask others for help. They all find their own food, avoid danger, reproduce, and raise their young to continue their species. Even if their offspring are killed by other creatures, they don’t stop reproducing. They simply continue to have more offspring and raise them. That’s how they live until they naturally die when their time comes. This is the principle of the world and the phenomenon of life.
Humans are the top predators in the natural ecosystem and the most advanced animals. It’s unnatural for such beings to find life difficult. This doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with your physical body as a living organism, but rather that your mental processes are malfunctioning. You’re finding life difficult now because your mental processes are not working properly.
From what you’ve said, it seems you’re currently experiencing mental health issues. You mentioned having obsessive thoughts and anxiety, so it would be good to first visit a neuropsychiatrist for a consultation. If treatment is necessary, you should receive it. If you need psychological counseling, you should get counseling therapy, and if you’re excessively nervous, medication can help alleviate that. Sometimes when I make such suggestions, people disagree, saying things like ‘I just need to pull myself together’ or ‘I just need to straighten out my mind’, but that’s not the case. For example, telling an alcoholic, an arthritis patient, or a diabetic to ‘pull themselves together’ doesn’t cure them. These diseases occur due to abnormalities in certain physical secretions, so they need to be supplemented through medication. The same applies to mental illnesses. So firstly, you need to consult with a doctor at a neuropsychiatry clinic.
Secondly, you need to understand that all suffering stems from your own ignorance. Suffering arises from your desires, from wanting things to go your way. You need to recognize this mindset and let go of the cause of your suffering. However, you expressed that ‘when I try to let go of desires, I lose motivation.’ This indicates something is wrong.
For example, if you’re running and get out of breath, you can take a short break and then start running again. But if you take a break because you’re out of breath and then lose all motivation to run, something is wrong. Your body needs to rest because it’s out of breath, but you’re clinging to the idea that you should keep running, making the act of resting feel like falling behind. If you continue running even when your body has reached its limit due to being out of breath, the result might be worse than if you had taken a short break and then continued. If taking a short break and then running again is more effective, then resting isn’t falling behind, but part of the running process. If eating and then working is more efficient than working continuously without eating, then meal times are not breaks but an extension of work. So, resting well when you need to rest is actually a way to work better.
The Buddha’s teachings don’t tell us to let go of all desires. If you’re suffering because of your desires, you should let go of the cause of that suffering. If you lived doing everything you wanted to do and still didn’t suffer or feel constrained, the Buddha wouldn’t tell you not to live that way. But if you’re suffering despite doing what you want, you should let go of those desires that are causing your suffering. The problem isn’t the people or situations that prevent you from doing what you want. You can’t control external situations. Of course, if you can change the situation, you should do so. But usually, instead of trying to improve the situation, people just suffer within it. Not everything you want is greed. It becomes greed when you suffer because things don’t go as you want. If you approach any situation with a research mindset, trying this and that, you can avoid suffering even when things don’t go exactly as you want. When you don’t suffer even if things don’t go as you want, we don’t call that greed.
Thirdly, you need to learn to be satisfied with the present moment. But it seems you’re always dissatisfied with reality. You should be satisfied that you can go to work now, that you can receive a salary, and that you can work proudly as a woman in a company full of men. If you’re dissatisfied because you feel discriminated against or ostracized compared to male employees, you could quit the company. But if you don’t want to quit the company yet are dissatisfied with the situation, you’re holding onto the desire for everything to go your way. It’s because you have this desire that you keep feeling dissatisfied. If you react sensitively to even the slightest criticism, interpreting it as ostracism or discrimination, it’s you who is being overly sensitive.
Our society is gradually moving from a male-centered society to one where men and women are equal. However, we haven’t yet reached 100% gender equality. But we’re steadily moving towards that equality. If we were to quantify it, where society used to be 100% discriminatory against women, now that discrimination has reduced to about 20%. We should focus on the positive aspect that discrimination has decreased by 80%, and see the remaining 20% as something to overcome, rather than just complaining about it.
As a practitioner, you shouldn’t sit and complain, but see obstacles as something to overcome. What is the Middle Way? It’s based on a positive perspective that recognizes improvement compared to 10 years ago, even though some discriminatory atmosphere still remains. At the same time, it involves maintaining a critical perspective that recognizes the remaining discrimination as an issue to be gradually improved. When you have a positive view that change is good, along with a critical view that there are still tasks to be solved, you can become an agent of change without suffering yourself. This is the Middle Way in daily life.”
“I think I was clinging to my desires and trying to have everything my way. I will continue to practice diligently, being aware of my mind in every moment. Thank you.”
Notice of Hiatus
Starting tomorrow, the community practice group’s summer retreat (Ango) begins. During the retreat period, Sunim will conduct a 6-night, 7-day meditation retreat, followed by 9 nights and 10 days of joint study and training with the community practice group.
While Sunim’s days continue without pause, the production team for “Sunim’s Day” needs to participate in the retreat. Therefore, “Sunim’s Day” will be on hiatus from July 26 (Friday) to August 9 (Friday) during the retreat period. We will return with renewed energy when we resume publication on Monday, August 12.
A Day in the Life of Sunim is translated by AI, edited by volunteers
