Jan 25, 2025 Delhi ▶ Travel to Sankasia
Good morning. Today is the day we travel from Delhi to Sankasia. After his morning practice and meditation, Sunim had breakfast with the pilgrimage staff. Before departing for Sankasia, he held a brief meeting with all the staff members.
“Now that the Indian pilgrimage is over, we need to focus on the sustainable development project in Bhutan and the 100-Day Special Practice.”
Sunim explained the direction for the Bhutan project and discussed the necessary tasks and personnel requirements. He also checked if there were any issues with the progress of the 100-Day Special Practice and confirmed the preparation status of the video team.
“Thank you all for your hard work during the pilgrimage. I will travel to Sankasia to give a Dharma talk to the Shakya clan members, then move to Sujata Academy to conduct training with the Indian staff, and afterward, I will spend 10 days surveying in Bhutan. I’ll see you in Korea.” 
Sunim said goodbye to the staff and departed for Sankasia. Ms. Kim Eun-hee was assigned to drive Sunim from Delhi to Sankasia.
About two hours into the journey to Sankasia, there was a noise from the car. Ms. Kim pulled over to the highway shoulder and found that a tire had burst.
We waved at passing cars to request help. One vehicle seemed to pass by but then it stopped in front of and came back to where Sunim’s group was.
Two men came to assess the situation and replaced the burst tire with the spare tire from the car. A passing truck driver also stopped nearby and helped, allowing us to change the tire within an hour.
“Dhanyavaad!” (Thank you.)
Sunim thanked the Indians who had helped. He was grateful for the assistance from people with no prior connection. The two men who helped said they were on their way to the Taj Mahal in Agra with their families. After thanking the family members who had waited, we set off for Sankasia again.
However, after just 30 minutes, there was another strange noise from the car. Surprisingly, the same people who had just helped change the tire earlier pulled up alongside, honking their horn. They gestured through the window for us to pull over.
After pulling over to the shoulder again, they found that this time the tire had lost air. It was due to a small rubber piece that prevents air from escaping the tire having gone missing. Fortunately, there was an engineer’s phone number written on the fence along the highway shoulder. We called the nearest tire engineer to replace the tire, and by then it was already noon.
After thanking those who helped once again, we parted ways. We had lunch at a nearby rest area and set off for Sankasia again. We exited the highway and passed through a village market.
At 3:30 PM, we arrived at the Sankasia Dhamma Center. The resident members of the Sankasia Dhamma Center welcomed Sunim.
“Welcome, Sunim.”
After organizing his belongings, Sunim had dinner with the members and then had tea with them in front of the Dhamma Center. Sunim discussed how to spend the schedule in Sancasia starting tomorrow.
Sunim thanked Ms. Kim Eun-hee for driving from Delhi to Sankasia and gave her a signed book as a gift.
After the evening prayer, Sunim went up to his room to proofread manuscripts and decided to rest early tonight as his cold symptoms were getting worse.
Tomorrow, he plans to hold a Dharma assembly for the Shakya clan members and attend the Sankasia Jungto Society board meeting.
As there was no Dharma talk today, we will conclude with a conversation between a questioner and Sunim from the Dharma assembly on the 22nd.
What Does the Buddha Mean by “Be a Light Unto Yourself”? What Part of Myself Should I Believe In?
“In ‘be a refuge unto the Dharma,’ Dharma refers to relatively objective facts. It means the principles of things, the principles of how the human mind works, or relatively objective facts. It’s difficult for us to know if there’s anything 100% objective in the world. Just as the uncertainty principle applies in particle physics, subjectivity is often involved in objectivity. So, Dharma means that it’s based on relative objectivity. However, if we rely too much on objectivity, while there are good points, it can become rigid and lose flexibility. Also, there’s a possibility that we might lose our self-centeredness and think that all truth is external, and we just follow it. In fact, any choice is made by oneself. In ‘be a light unto yourself,’ relying on yourself means taking ownership of your life.
If you can’t trust your father anymore because his advice was wrong, that means you’re not being a light unto yourself. It was you who chose whether to follow your father’s words or not. If you made a choice and it turned out to be wrong, that’s your responsibility, not your father’s. It’s not your father’s problem, it’s your problem. We usually tend to shift blame, so when things go wrong, we temporarily try to shift responsibility onto others, but in fact, everything ultimately falls under our own responsibility. You chose to believe those words. You made the decision because you judged it would be good to do as advised. Rather than believing it because it was your father, you believed it because your father’s words relatively appealed to you. So this is your issue.
This doesn’t mean that you follow your teacher’s words only if you like them and disregard them if you don’t. Of course, if you use your discriminating mind to judge whether the teacher’s words are right or wrong, it can no longer be called a teacher-student relationship. It would be more like a relationship between friends. It means that even though you follow the teacher’s words, you must take responsibility for the results. This is because you made that choice. Having this perspective clear is what it means to be a light unto yourself. As much as possible, base your decisions on objectivity, but be aware that everything is your own choice. If you can maintain these two perspectives clearly, you can live in this world with relatively little wavering.”
“Thank you.”
“Be a light for yourself.” All choices are mine, and all outcomes are my own responsibility. I want to be a wise person who is always awake and aware of myself.
Thank you, Sunum.