April 12, 2026. India Schedule Day 4
Hello. Today, Sunim spent the day traveling from Sujata Academy to Korea.
At 4:15 AM local time in India, the morning bell rang to open the day at Sujata Academy. Sunim began the day with morning practice and meditation. After a simple breakfast, Sunim worked on manuscript editing and other tasks until it was time to depart for Korea.
After Sunim boarded the vehicle and the luggage was loaded, members of the India community came to bid farewell just before departure.
“Sunim, have a safe trip. We’ll see you when we return to Korea.”
Sunim headed to Gaya Airport by car. Having allowed extra time for the journey in anticipation of traffic, they arrived with time to spare. A foreign monk recognized Sunim and greeted him warmly. The foreign monk mentioned that he had met Sunim several times in Kushinagar when he was young. Sunim had a brief conversation with him through Dharma Teacher Bogwang’s interpretation.
After arriving at Kolkata Airport and handling some business matters, Sunim plans to return to Seoul via Bangkok on an evening flight. After passing through security at Kolkata Airport and waiting at the gate, an airport staff member approached saying there was a charger in the luggage. Following the staff member to the baggage inspection area and opening the bag, it turned out that a handheld fan received as a gift yesterday was the issue. After removing the handheld fan to carry it separately, all departure procedures were completed.
Sunim will depart India today and arrive at Incheon tomorrow after flying through the night.
Since there was no Dharma talk today, this post concludes with content from a previous Dharma Q&A session.
Can a Sensitive Personality Be Turned into an Advantage?
Standing Firm as ‘Myself as a Person’
“Your question seems ordinary, but it’s actually full of greed. (laughter)
However, before being an actor, it’s more important to first stand firm as a human being. You can only act properly when your sense of self is clear. Otherwise, if you live your life sensitively reacting to external environments, even if you become famous, you’ll inevitably live a very painful life. In fact, among famous actors and socially successful people, many suffer from mental anguish leading to suicide or live with conflicts due to discord with those around them. The more famous you become, the greater your unhappiness might grow. That’s why it’s important to first establish ‘myself as a person.’
Things like becoming famous, having lots of money, or holding high positions are all like bubbles. Even former presidents were riding high right after being elected. At that time, it must have seemed like their position would last forever. But looking from a distance, it’s all like moths to a flame. How much better it would have been if they had been more humble then. The five-year presidential term passes more quickly than you think. Rather than worrying about how to avoid one’s shortcomings or mistakes, it’s more important to let go of everything and have an attitude of loving the people and dedicating oneself to the nation. The attitude of a great person would be to say ‘I’ll take responsibility if there are any mistakes’ after completing their term. If they lived this way, the people would eventually accept their mistakes. We need to look at life from a bigger perspective like this. Life becomes difficult when we cling too much to small things. That’s why we need an attitude of stepping back and looking from a larger perspective.
Using Your Sensitivity as an Advantage
Next, you can utilize your sensitivity when acting. Rather than just being a sensitive person, you can turn your sensitive habits, your karma, into an advantage in your acting. If you identify with your sensitivity, your life becomes emotionally unstable with severe mood swings. So you shouldn’t rationalize your sensitivity.
If mental sensitivity becomes a major source of suffering in life, first, you should go to a hospital for a checkup. While everyone is sensitive to some degree, if it’s excessive enough to cause suffering, you may need treatment to alleviate the sensitivity. This is the easiest method. Second, you need to know that you’re a person who reacts sensitively. When someone’s words suddenly upset you, recognize it: ‘Ah, an unpleasant feeling is arising.’ You need to examine whether the emotion you’re feeling is because that person spoke badly of you, or because you’re sensitive.
But while you say it arises from sensitivity, you’re still blaming others. You haven’t escaped from the perspective of ‘I’m struggling because you said that.’ Instead of trying to eliminate the sensitivity, just recognize: ‘I’m getting angry because I’m sensitive!’ Know that this is your karma, your karmic pattern. When you recognize this, you still react sensitively, but you don’t get caught up in that sensitivity. Then what people call your ‘difficult temperament’ gradually disappears. It’s because it doesn’t show outwardly. The reason people say you’re difficult is because you blame others for your sensitivity. If you recognize that your temperament is difficult, you don’t need to express it outwardly.
Utilizing Sensitivity Without Identifying with It
To summarize, first, get checked at a hospital and receive help from a doctor. Second, be aware that you’re sensitive. Know that this isn’t because of specific people or external environments, but your karma, your karmic pattern. It’s like knowing that it’s not because someone pricked you with a needle, but because your skin is sensitive. When you become aware like this, you can become a bit freer from this sensitivity. This is the perspective for living a more stable life as a human being.
When acting, you can use that sensitivity as it is. This isn’t acting that you artificially create. Even if you express emotions that react sensitively, it’s not a problem. Because that’s acting. Some people have to artificially create emotions, but yours come naturally. So you can utilize them well.
However, if you identify with that sensitivity, life becomes difficult. So first, you need to center yourself as a human being, and then have the perspective of utilizing your sensitive tendencies when needed for acting. You don’t need to worry about whether to be the sensitive you or the non-sensitive you. Center yourself and utilize that tendency. For example, just because you were a bit of a thug when young doesn’t mean you have to live as that person forever. Your human self exists separately, and when acting in such scenes, you draw on those experiences. You utilize it for acting. It would be good to have this perspective.”
“Yes, thank you.”
