How Can I Take Care of Myself?

Hello. Today is the 14th day of the Bhutan survey. It is the day to leave Zhemgang and move to Thimphu. On the way to Thimphu, Sunim stopped by Trongsa to have a conversation with the Trongsa Governor and arrived in Thimphu to meet with the Cabinet Minister.

Sunim finished his early morning practice and meditation, proofread manuscripts, and left Zhemgang at 5 AM for Trongsa. It was dark when he departed, but as dawn broke, the surrounding landscape gradually revealed itself.

The terraced fields undulating along the mountains and the breathtaking scenery that unfolded like a sheer cliff elicited spontaneous exclamations of admiration. Especially, the snow-capped mountains shone red in the rising sun, standing out clearly between the mountains, adding to the emotional impact.

The car carrying Sunim arrived in Trongsa after driving along the winding road that followed the picturesque mountain range.

Upon arrival at the Trongsa Hotel, the Governor warmly welcomed the group.

“How have you been?”

“I’ve been well. You must be hungry, let’s have a meal first.”

The group moved to the dining room. While waiting for the meal, Sunim watched a video of the project conducted in Phuntsholing village and had a conversation. The Governor asked about the Zhemgang survey itinerary.

“How was your Zhemgang survey? Was it not too tiring?”

“It went well. With this survey, we’ve visited all 40 chiwogs in Zhemgang. Now that we’ve been to the actual sites, it seems we need to expand the scale of support more than initially expected.”

Sunim explained the survey results in detail. Initially, he estimated about 100 households needing new houses and 200 households needing repairs across Zhemgang. However, after visiting the sites, it appears that these numbers should be increased to 200 and 400-500 households respectively. This is because the living conditions in the newly surveyed areas were worse than in the pilot areas.

He then pointed out that despite Bhutan being a country with relatively well-established infrastructure such as roads, electricity, and water supply, many cases of water shortage were reported in the villages. As people’s water consumption increased, the existing water sources and tanks were unable to meet the demand. He added that this would be an ongoing issue that needs to be addressed in the future.

He then discussed the tasks to be addressed after the Zhemgang survey.

“The government’s administrative power and manpower support are crucial. First, we need to carefully assess the living standards of each household. Second, engineers need to visit the sites to provide accurate estimates for repairing or laying new roads or waterways. Third, we need a system where each chiwog and gewog submits proposals, which are then reviewed and approved before materials are supplied. Fourth, on-site monitoring is also essential.”

Sunim emphasized that to carry this out, an increase in administrative personnel should be considered. He also discussed ways for engineers and residents to collaborate. He added that it would be efficient to provide technical training to residents so they could perform simple repair work themselves. However, he requested that the government be responsible for the budget for professional personnel, as JTS cannot cover labor costs.

As the conversation continued, the meal was prepared. The Governor presented a special kimchi made of cabbage seasoned with red chili powder, saying it was prepared with great care. Sunim smiled brightly as he put the kimchi on his plate. It not only tasted good but also conveyed the Governor’s sincere heart.

After the meal, the conversation turned to the Trongsa survey scheduled for February. Sunim asked the Governor.

“When we survey Trongsa in February, would it be better to visit only the poor chiwogs or all of them?”

“We would be grateful if you could visit all of them since you’re coming. There are 25 chiwogs in total in Trongsa. All of them are connected by roads.”

“I understand. Rinchen won’t be able to accompany us during the February survey. This means we’ll need to translate twice – from Bhutanese to English, and then from English to Korean. Therefore, it would be helpful if you could assign an interpreter who is fluent in both the Trongsa local language and English. We’ll also need to allocate more time for the survey.”

“Yes, I understand.”

The meeting concluded with a review of the preparations for the February survey. After an hour-long meeting, he set out again at 9 o’clock. Sunim thanked the JTS Bhutan project manager who oversaw the entire Zhemgang survey schedule as he left Trongsa.

“Sunim, I hope you complete your Thimphu schedule smoothly and have a good pilgrimage.”

“Thank you for your hard work. See you again in February.”

After a deep sleep in the car, Sunim was already passing through Dochula. After a brief restroom stop at Dochula, he headed towards Thimphu again. Sunim asked the group.

“How was this survey for you? We haven’t had a chance to share our feelings.”

First, Yeshi from the central government responded.

“Before we started, I thought this schedule would be long and difficult, but I’m surprised at how quickly time has passed. At first, I felt unfamiliar with the areas I hadn’t visited before. But as time went on, I enjoyed the survey more and more as I met the pure and kind villagers.”

Rinchen also shared his thoughts.

“I had similar thoughts to Yeshi. In particular, it seemed that the poorer the village was, the more simple and pure the people were. People in poor villages were more voluntary, saying ‘We will do it, we can do it.’ On the other hand, people in well-off villages seemed to have an attitude of ‘What kind of help does JTS provide?’ and tried to calculate and receive help. I felt that it’s not easy for well-off people with more possessions to maintain a humble and giving heart.”

After listening to everyone’s stories, Sunim spoke.

“There’s a Korean proverb that says ‘The rice stalk bends lower as it ripens.’ In nature, it’s natural for rice stalks to bend lower as they ripen. But for humans, as their status rises or they acquire more possessions, they tend to become stiff and raise their heads without realizing it. If we don’t consciously watch ourselves, we can easily slip into such attitudes. So, visiting these remote villages and meeting poor people is not a hardship. Rather, it provides an opportunity to objectively view our daily lives and realize how grateful we should be for them. It helps us appreciate what we have and reminds us to be mindful and introspective.”

Sunim’s words felt like a special gift to everyone in the group.

After arriving in downtown Thimphu, Sunim had a simple lunch of dumplings and then moved to the Sanmaru restaurant to work. At 4 o’clock, he headed to the Cabinet Minister’s conference room.

Sunim shared the results of the survey of the entire Zhemgang region with the Cabinet Minister and discussed the necessary steps to start the full-scale project. Sunim emphasized that the government’s administrative and manpower support was essential, particularly stressing the importance of systematic cooperation for on-site investigations, planning, and technical support.

After finishing the meeting, he left the Cabinet Minister’s office and moved to the BNF Foundation. Darkness had already fallen. Sunim organized his luggage at the accommodation, proofread manuscripts, and then went to bed.

Tomorrow, he will broadcast the Enlightenment Day Dharma assembly live and have a conversation with Karma Tshiteem, who served as the chairman of the Royal Civil Service Commission and the GNH (Gross National Happiness) Commission.

How Can I Take Care of Myself?

“I’d like to ask about how I can take care of myself. What do you mainly do just for yourself, Sunim? I’m curious if you do anything for yourself too. And how should I talk to myself to know what I truly want?”

“I don’t do anything special for myself. The more you insist on something, the more afflictions arise. For example, when an event occurs, you might question whether it’s inevitable or coincidental. Let’s compare people from 100 years ago with modern people. Who do you think were more likely to believe that the events they encountered in life happened were coincidental – people from the past or people today? If people from the past thought more events were coincidental, why would that be? We call something inevitable if we know its cause, and coincidental if we don’t know the cause. If you know the cause of an event, there’s nothing you can call coincidental. If you don’t know the cause, everything becomes a coincidence. Because we don’t know the causes of all events, both coincidental and inevitable events occur. There’s no separate coincidence or inevitability. If we don’t know the cause, it becomes a coincidence; if we know the cause, it becomes inevitable. The question of whether we can choose our life or whether it’s given to us without choice is similar. If we look at a short time frame and narrow scope, we can choose most things. But if we broaden the scope and look at a longer time frame, it seems like we haven’t chosen anything. It appears as if everything was predetermined, no matter how much we try. So, in retrospect, life seems like fate. But what about the immediate future? It seems like we decide everything. This isn’t a matter of whether we make choices or not. It’s a matter of whether we look at events in the long term or short term. Think about when waves rise in the sea. From a narrow perspective, it’s clear that waves rise and disappear. But what if we look at the entire sea? Do waves rise and disappear? Or is it just water rippling? Looking at the entire sea, it’s just water rippling. Similarly, from a broader perspective, there’s no arising or ceasing. It’s just rippling. That’s why we say ‘neither arising nor ceasing.’ If you cling too tightly to the notion of self, afflictions keep arising. The question ‘What do you do for yourself?’ arises because the questioner distinguishes between others and self, constantly grasping at the notion of self. By distinguishing between self and others and having a sense of self, the thought ‘What should I do for myself?’ arises. Of course, we unconsciously make these distinctions in reality. But if there were no such distinctions, thoughts about doing things for oneself or for others would decrease.

With the emergence of big data, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to determine the extent to which an individual’s free will influences their life. While your thoughts, choices, and beliefs may feel like your own, they are actually formed within given conditions. Even your current feelings and emotions in response to what you see are reactions that occur based on your pre-existing karma, much like apps installed on a smartphone. So what would happen if we could know in advance what apps are installed on a phone, or in other words, what a person’s karma is? To tempt someone with a karmic tendency for money, you could use bribes. For someone who likes the opposite sex, you could use an attractive person to charm them. For someone who craves honor, you could praise and flatter them. This makes it possible to manipulate people. In the past, this was called mind-reading – knowing a person’s mind in advance and controlling them. It’s the same principle when a leader uses carrots and sticks to manage subordinates. Threatening or tempting others to achieve one’s goals all fall under the same context. Think about a time when you were scammed. While the scammer is at fault, you were also tempted by the bait they threw. You like to gain a lot of profit. So do you think a scammer would offer high or low returns? Of course, they would promise high returns. But the higher the promised return, the higher the probability of being scammed. Falling for such temptations ultimately means there’s a cause within yourself. If someone has scammed you, think about the scammer for a moment. Are they good at speaking or not? They are very articulate. Do they look decent or not? They look quite presentable. Are they well-dressed or not? They dress very well. They drive nice cars, have well-furnished offices, and provide excellent service. When fishing, would you use bait that fish like or dislike? Of course, you’d use bait they like. It’s exactly the same principle. So if someone appears to have a nasty personality, at least you won’t be scammed by them. You don’t get scammed by people with unpleasant personalities. Similarly, to manipulate someone, you use what they like. Therefore, as big data and AI technology advance, you are more likely to be manipulated. In the past, when you needed to buy something, you went to buy a hoe if you needed a hoe, or a fan if you needed a fan. But it’s not like that now. Advertisements make people want to buy things. Some of these are things you need, but often you end up buying things because the ads induce you to want them. As a result, you end up with many unused items after purchase. This happens frequently in real life. You see an ad, think “That looks good,” and buy it, but often end up hardly using it. Of course, you might be scammed with low-quality products, but more often, you end up not using even proper products. This is because you didn’t buy them out of necessity. These phenomena occur as reactions to karma formed in childhood. It’s like a dog being led by a leash. According to the law of gravity, even when nothing is visible between two objects, there’s an attractive force that moves them. Similarly, in your life, you feel like you’re being pulled somewhere even though no one is holding your leash. This is where the concept of fatalism comes from. In reality, you are living and reacting based on your formed karma. Practice is about becoming free from this life of being pulled along. Ancient Zen masters expressed it as “We are ruled by the world.” This means our state of being controlled by given circumstances. Becoming free from this means that I rule the world. It doesn’t mean doing whatever I want. For example, if a husband has an affair and decides to divorce, who becomes the subject of the divorce? The husband does. It becomes a situation where I didn’t choose the divorce. By shifting the responsibility to the husband, you might feel better, but you become a person ruled by the world. You might say the other person didn’t keep their promise and acted differently, but situations always change. The important thing is what choice you will make in the changed situation. This is not something that should be blamed on someone. “What will I do in this changed situation?”, “Will I continue as it is in this situation, or will I make a different choice?” If you change your perspective like this, you become the master. Resenting others means you are dependent. If you are the master, there’s no need to resent. It’s because you are making the choice in the changed situation. By maintaining this perspective, you can stay grounded. However, if you keep insisting on your own way, you’ll continue to be pulled along by external circumstances. When things don’t go as you want, you get angry, irritated, and lament. It’s better to simply observe the given environment and notice, “Oh, I’m reacting like this to the other person’s behavior.” But we automatically get angry when others get angry at us. To stop this automatic reaction, you need to become the master. When the other person gets angry, you should be able to choose whether to get angry or not. That’s how you become the master. But usually, we react by saying, “Why are you getting angry?” when we see the other person angry. We get angry at seeing the other person angry, and then when they ask, “Why are you angry?” we answer, “Because you got angry!” This perspective assumes that my anger is justified, but the other person’s anger is problematic.

In such situations, it’s best to first examine your own reactions. This is called ‘mindfulness’. Instead of having intentions like ‘I should do this’ or ‘I shouldn’t do that’, observe what state you’re currently in. By being aware of thoughts like ‘I’m getting angry because of what that person said’ or ‘I’m feeling good because of what that person said’, you can be less swayed by others’ words. The reason emotions arise in you is partly due to what the other person says, but ultimately it’s because your karma reacts to those words with joy, anger, sorrow, or pleasure. Through this process of observation, you can understand how your own karmic tendencies are formed. Previously, you may have automatically become angry when someone spoke a certain way because you were unaware of your karmic tendencies. But by first becoming aware of your own reactions, you can reach a point where you don’t react even when someone says the same thing. This way, you can become free from being controlled by others. The key is not whether you get angry or not. What’s important is getting to know yourself through this process. This is what we mean by ‘loving yourself’. However, we often tend to love others or blame others rather than loving ourselves. Jesus said, ‘Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?’ So, it’s important not to focus only outward, but to maintain an attitude of self-examination.

“Thank you.”