Peace on Earth-A Question for YOU!

I am an English as a Second Language teacher in Washington State. In my class, I have students from around the world. They come from different countries, religions, customs, traditions, and backgrounds. I feel so lucky to spend time with the world in my class. Somehow, when we come together each day, we are able to see beyond our differences. Our differences make us unique, but I have found, in my class, that we are more alike than you think. All of us strive to meet our basic human needs of food, water, shelter, safety, etc. Beyond that, most people feel love, peace, happiness, and care for the planet and the things on it are important. This morning I realized that 31 countries have visited my blog. Here they are in order of the number of visitors from each country:

USA, India, Australia, Canada, South Korea, United Kingdom, Indonesia, Germany, Netherlands, Japan, United Arab Emirates, Sweden, Austria, Turkey, Israel, Brazil, Italy, Costa Rica, Malaysia, Latvia, Estonia, Mongolia, Kiribati, Taiwan, Philippines, Kenya, Thailand, France, South Africa, Egypt, and Singapore.

Peace, in my mind, means living in harmony with each other and with this earth we live on. By achieving peace, we may have to go beyond boundaries of race, religion, politics, countries, etc.

How are YOU, as a citizen of this world, helping to achieve peace on earth?

This may seem like a very BIG question, but the answer may be quite simple. It may be as simple as how you choose to live on a daily basis.

I'd like to share some of your answers in a blog post. So please leave a comment at the end of this post. Don't be afraid to leave a comment. Your comment may be helpful to many people.

Thank You Brazil

This week I was attacked. I felt this heaviness that would not lift. Yesterday, after my first class at the college, I could barely move. My upper jaw and head hurt so bad, I thought my brain would explode. I found myself in my car driving in the direction of home, even though I had one more evening class. I went right to bed. My husband held a yoga class in the other room. Seven people moved silently in my living room, feeling themselves from the inside out. I imagined their bodies moving in unison, connecting to a universal self. I started to feel a sense of relief come over me and a sense of peace. I still felt a slight headache, but I felt I would be o.k.

Lately, Brazil has been in my world. This quarter I have two students from Brazil and both of them are so lovely. I've never had a Brazilian student before, now I have two! One of them is going to bring traditional cake to class today.

I was also deeply touched by Brazilian Paulo Coelho's book The Alchemist. I went to Barnes and Noble Bookstore last weekend to research magazines. I planned to submit some of my writing to a few magazines. The pile of magazines felt heavy in my hands, so I put them back. I wandered upstairs and found my husband in the Religion and Philosophy section of the bookstore. I sat down on a small stool and did nothing. Suddenly, from the corner of my eye, I saw The Alchemist. I had seen this book many times before, but have never been interested in it. This time, as a I held it in my hands, I knew it was my time to read it. As I read it, I felt the book was speaking to me directly.

In the Introduction, Paulo Coelho talks about personal calling. He says, "Whenever we do something that fill us with enthusiasm, we are following our legend. However, we don't all have the courage to confront our own dream." Later, he talks about four obstacles:

1. "We are told from childhood onward that everything we want to do is impossible."

2. "Love. We know what we want to do, but are afraid of hurting those around us by abandoning everything in order to pursue our dream."

3. "Fear of defeat" or fear of failure while following our dream.

4. "The fear of realizing our dream for which we fought for all our lives."

The book is about a shepherd boy from Spain who travels all the way to the Egyptian Pyramids in search of his dream. I couldn't put it down. I feel Paulo Coelho followed his personal calling. He achieved the exact things he described in this book. He followed his own legend. His book, an international best seller, sold 65 million copies in 150 countries and has been translated into 60 languages!

Last night, I felt the rhythm of the people doing yoga in the other room. I felt peace. With my headache subsiding, I decided to finish reading The Alchemist. I read the last words and put the book on my bed stand and said, "Thank you Brazil" and closed my eyes.

This morning I woke up to find that over 500 people in more than 28 countries have visited my blog. The most recent visitor??...........You guessed it, Brazil!

Bring an Open Mind: An Evening of Song and Dance in Honor of the Kiribati People

Last weekend, I was invited to an interesting event in Seattle on the waterfront by my friend. She invited us to a botaki. I had no idea what that was. She explained that is was an event where we would celebrate with song and dance of the Kiribati (pronounced kiri-bas) people. The Kiribati islands are located in the South Pacific along the equator. My friend's mother and stepfather sail there often. They spend most of their time living on their sailboat or with the Kiribati people in their village. This is very rare. According to my friend, there are very few people who know the Kiribati people intimately. They don't allow many outsiders into their culture. Julie and Tom spent so much time in the Kiribati islands, that they were adopted by several families on the islands. The elders of the islands are dying and so are their traditions. Julie and Tom have been recording the traditions of these people and have been preserving their song and dance. It is beautiful, to me, to see all the love they have for such a far-off land and such a different tradition. They have sacrificed their own comforts to live with these people and to learn from them. All the discomforts they have encountered are unnoticeable. In the botaki, Julie and Tom displayed a tremendous joy. They danced and sang and there was an enormous amount of food for everyone.




We could not help but feel uplifted up by this event. People from Asia, Africa, America, South America and other countries all came together to experience this intimate evening of celebration in a private home in West Seattle overlooking Puget Sound. The full moon was quite appropriate and seemed to symbolize how I felt that evening.....I felt full of all that is good.




When I was invited to the event, I wasn't sure what to expect. It was something I didn't quite understand. At the same time, I was curious and it sounded fun. I asked my friend what I should bring and she said, "Bring an open mind." So that's what I did. Here's the information we received from Julie before the botaki:

Mauri-oo!!

We are very excited that you will be joining us on Saturday for our celebration of unity with the Kiribati Elders and people. The theme for our botaki is E Naaka O.


E Naaka O refers to departure from the known, from routine, from the old, the seen, the everyday, from all you know and impart to others. E Naaka O---it is the wisdom of the Soft Wind blowing, cleansing, purifying, renewing, testing, changing, transforming.

The Elders say we live in the time of the dark moon, but that amid the encroaching darkness there is a tender blossoming that occurs, like the rare Pandanus bloom, the sacred Mataboro— the young, innocent flower that holds its love and promise for us all. It can be seen, felt, and heard in the stillness of your loving heart. It is an opening of great beauty, and the moment is now. (A picture of my husband, Seong Yoon, receiving a fern crown from a dancer)


We will celebrate E Naaka O with the traditional Kiribati dance, called the mwaie. This ancient dance comes from the ancestors of the Kiribati people. The mwaie is sacred and multi-dimensional. It is much more than what you see--an energetic dance in colorful costume. It is a sacred vehicle for journeying into the Beyond, a language that draws Spirit near, and a magic that draws people into unity, strength and happiness.

The dancers have been preparing themselves for many weeks for this day of merging and rising with Spirit. When Spirit comes, it can be very strong. Sometimes, the dancers cry, tremble, shake or scream. This is not nerves. It is the power of the flow passing through. It is different for each dancer, and different every time.




When this happens, you, too, may feel something. This is normal and good. The energies of the mwaie are very healing and uplifting. Take them in. They only bring goodness.


Below is a video of botaki that evening:

PBS Now had this to say about the danger the Kiribati people face:

Week of 12.12.08

Paradise Lost

Video: Paradise Lost

Just this week, a top UN official predicted that by the middle of this century, the world should expect six million people a year to be displaced by increasingly severe storms and floods caused by climate change. But for many island nations in the South Pacific, climate change is already more than just a theory—it is a pressing, menacing reality. These small, low-lying islands are frighteningly vulnerable to rising temperatures and sea levels that could cause flooding and contaminate their fresh water wells. Within 50 years, some of them could be under water. This week, NOW travels to the nation of Kiribati to see up close how these changes affect residents' daily lives and how they are dealing with the reality that both their land and culture could disappear from the Earth. We also travel to New Zealand to visit an I-Kiribati community that has already left its home, and to the Pacific Island Forum in Niue to see how the rest of the region is coping with the here-and-now crisis of climate change.


According to Julie, my friend's mother, The Kiribati are already dealing with contaminated water. Tom and Julie are trying to bring a water purifying system to the islands, but it is expensive. During the last Tsunami that hit Samoa, the Kiribati were prepared to die. According to my friend, they all gathered in the center part of the village to wait for their death, but when it didn't happen, they just carried on as usual. More horrors of global warming can be expected to hit this part of the world, but the people, who have lived the same way for thousands of years, do not appear to be in fear of this. How sad it is that a people who have only sought to live in harmony with nature are the very ones that will most likely be destroyed by it due to the modern world that continues to pollute it. It seems a bit unfair, in my mind, but these people continue to dance and sing and live in harmony with what remains.

Blogs I Follow

Hello everyone-the time is long overdue to share some amazing blogs with you. I'm particulary interested in blogs that describe interesting personal experience, talk about travel, spirituality or blogs that seek to promote positive change in the world. I love stories about people in search of their true selves...this seeking, questioning, wondering and observing and eventually finding is what I also hope to share in my blog. These are blogs I currently follow, but I am always seeking more blogs.

1. Chornicles of Sharnia
A story about an Australian woman who lived a city life in Australia and worked on a major newspaper there, moved to the countryside to help her father, fell in love with a farmer, went to Vietnam to teach English, found out she was pregnant, went back to the countryside with the farmer to raise her son. Sharni is always seeking and I love that! She recently interviewed me on her blog. You can check out the link here:http://chroniclesofsharnia-sharnanigans.blogspot.com/2009/10/lessons-i-learnt-from-lady-married-to.html

2. Wandering Photographer
An Irish photographer who wanders the countryside and camps out for days just to get a beautiful picture. He is also a seeker. He writes about his own observations and questions about life. He is the author of a beautiful photography book entitled Portrait of the Northern Ireland Coast.

3. Mes Joies et Chagrins
An Indian writer. We chatted recently. She is another observer and one of her recent posts talks of the poverty on the streets of India and her own questions of how and why she is so fortunate, while others are not. She prompted me to write my Incredible India diaries on my blog.

4. Woodstock Lily
While I have never talked personally to this amazing writer, I am inspired by her story. She was in a major car accident and still suffers from PTSD. After the car accident, her life changed drastically. She created a whole new persona, started a blog, did art and is working on a book called Six Days to Haight-Ashbury

5. Lotus Sutra Chronicles
O.K.-I love this blog because it's about Korea from an American English Teacher's perspective. I can relate to this and it brings me back to my time there. Often quite humorous!

6. Alone in Holy Land
This blog authors writes about her trials and tribulations of raising a young girl in Israel. She is also a seeker and an insightful observer of what is important in life.

7. Ruby Ramblings
A collections of books, places, pictures and stories. This blog author is also an English teacher in South Korea and has some interesting observations on living there.

Hope you enjoy these great blogs as much as I have. Peace to you all,
Kathy

WELCOME

Hello. Thanks for stopping by my blog. If you've just happened upon it, WELCOME!!!! Come and stay for awhile, get a drink...maybe a cup of tea.......... Most of my writing is about lessons I've learned while journeying through life with my husband, a former Korean Buddhist monk. While I mostly blog about my observations on life, there are three chapters on this blog from my upcoming book by the same title. The title is 'Lessons from the Monk I Married'. To all my fans and followers who have been reading and making comments on this blog, you don't know how much I appreciate it. It is so helpful to me! If you have just happened upon this blog, have browsed through it and like what you see, please follow it and make comments on posts that resonate with you. It is very helpful for me to know who is reading this and what you, the reader, think.

Peace to you all,
Kathy

INSPIRATION IS CONTAGIOUS

Look out!!!!! Someone near you might be very inspiring and cause you to want to run off and do inspiring things yourself. I live with one of those people. He's the person I'm writing the book, Lessons from the Monk I Married, about. He can see a vision of his life so clearly. He meets so many people on a regular basis and I feel like that number is growing every day. He gives all his energy to his students and the yoga classes he teaches. He strives to bring out the best in ever single yoga student he meets because he believes that everyone possesses a greatness inside that has yet to be tapped into. He has a way with creating a space where people feel comfortable enough to open up so that they are free to experience this greatness. He has inspired me to write a book, to keep up with my yoga and to keep expanding in my yoga practice. I have felt moved to record him in pictures, words, and videos. This is what I have been doing lately. Here is a video from one of his large classes. His classes seem to be getting larger and larger.



I believe that the people we are surrounded by and the environment in which we live are so important. Are there inspiring people around you? Do you feel invigorated by those near you? Do people you surround yourself with lift you up and make you want to do great things in this world?

I used to be somewhat of a pessimist. I couldn't understand why things wouldn't go my way. Sometimes it felt like I was the only one in the world who was suffering. Later, after lots of meditation, I realized that I choose my life. I choose how I react to whatever life throws my way. I choose who I want to surround myself with and what activities I want to do. It's my choice. There are plenty of people in this world who have suffered great losses or experienced great pain, but it is their choice what they will do with the situation that is given to them.

By choosing to be an optimistic person, I'm finding that more and more positive situations are entering into my life. This optimism is contagious, just as inspiration is contagious. Unfortunately, pessimism, depression and negative emotions are also contagious, but you have
a choice. You don't have to accept these negative emotions as your way of life. You can actually choose to be a happy person, or a giving person, or a kind person, or all of these things.

Like my husband, I'm also a teacher. I teach English as a Second Language at a community college. I have students from all over the world. They come from Iran, Iraq, China, Russia, Korea, Japan, Cambodia, Laos, Africa, etc. Some of them have experienced the most terrible atrocities that you can imagine. Yet, I'm so amazed to find that my students seem to be such happy people for the most part. They come to my class smiling and enthusiastic. They are kind, grateful and so happy to be learning English.


I am inspired by my students, but I think it's a two-way street. In order to be inspired by someone, we have to have to have that quality within us and be willing to accept that quality as part of us. Inspiration is contagious, just like all other positive emotions. By being great and by putting inspiration out into the world, you will find that it comes back to you. Your life starts to have this very amazing quality to it. You start to receive so many positive benefits and that makes you want to give even more.

Every single one of us has this greatness inside. This greatness is made up of qualities which include love, kindness, peace, understanding, generosity, happiness, etc. These are not qualities we have to look for, they are qualities that we naturally possess. It is in our nature.

Every day you have a choice. It's not that negative emotions are wrong, but it is your own choice on how you will act in this world and what qualities you will display. From my own experience, if you choose to allow anger, pain and negativity to become predominate emotions in your life, you will only attract more situations that will allow you to feel these emotions. If you start to allow love, peace, happiness and generosity into your life, you will attract more situations which will allow you to feel these as well. You will be surprised at how much will change in your life if you just choose to smile at someone or just smile for the sake of smiling. It can make all the difference in the world.

Have you been inspired by anyone lately?

Click on people's faces in the photo to tag them.

A Belated Thanks

In April, The Ruby Canary awarded me with the Premio Dardos Award. I know this is belated, but I want to thank her for mentioning my blog so many times on her own blog. It is such an honor to be recommended by a fellow blogger who I have yet to meet, but have read a lot about. I highly recommend her blog for interesting books and travel in Korea.

Premio Dardos Award

According to information sited on The Ruby Canary's blog,

“This award acknowledges the values that every blogger shows in his or her effort to transmit cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values every day.”

She also nominated other blogs, but had this to say about mine,

"A great narrative of a woman who married a South Korean monk she befriended while working overseas."

There are so many fantastic blogs out there and it is hard to find time to read all the posts I'd like to, but I read as many as I can. I am particularly interested in blogs that support a positive change in this world. I'm also interested in blogs about travel and also blogs about Korea, since I spent so much time there. Positive change in this world is not the work of one individual, it is the work of so many. By supporting each other, we acknowledge that all our own personal efforts for instigating change are only effective if there are other like-minded individuals who are also sharing writing, art, music, information and other talents or work with the world.

Here are just a few great blogs by some like-minded individuals. I have had a nice exchange with several of these blog authors:

1. Life Notes-A blog about gratitude and positive observations about life

2. Wandering Photographer- Beautiful photography of Ireland as well as lessons in life

3. Lifeworks Living-Funny, interesting stories about a woman who decided to leave it all behind and live her dream life in Mexico

4. The Lotus Sutra Chronicles-humorous stories and observations on living in South Korea

There are so many others I have just begun to follow, but don't know enough about to recommend yet.

I'm grateful to everyone who has read, become a fan or recommended my blog to others. I write because I feel I have something to share with the world. All of your kind words are what keeps me going and what gives me a reason to keep writing.

The Greatest Luxury

If you could have anything in the world right now, what would it be? Is it surprising that the things we think we want, never turn out to be the things we need. Humans are always chasing after the next thing. As soon as one desire is fulfilled, there's something else we want. Are we ever satisfied? My meditation teacher, SN Goenka, says this about human desire:


"It's a bottomless pit, you can't fill it."

If we have a car, we want a newer one. If we have a house, we want to remodel it. If we don't have children, we want children. If we have children, sometimes we'd like them to disappear. Most of the people I talk to on a daily basis feel that there simply isn't enough time to do everything they want to do. There isn't enough time? Hmmmmm....let's think about that one.

Actually, there's the same amount of time in every day, so saying that there isn't enough time isn't exactly true. Some people fill up every possible time slot in their appointment books. By the end of the day they are exhausted. Time is only made up of events. Without events like waking up, eating breakfast, taking the kids to school, and going to work, there wouldn't be time. If you tell someone you don't have time, what your are really saying is, "I value another event more than an event with you." Since that is socially unacceptable, we just say, "I don't have time."

If you are feeling worn out, exhausted, sleep deprived, over-worked and underpaid, are you really making good choices about the events you are choosing to fill-up this so called "time?"

In his book, A New Earth, Eckhart Tolle says, "it (time) isn't something that has an objective existence "out there." It is a mind-structure needed for sensory perception, indispensable for practical purposes, but the greatest hindrance to knowing yourself." He also says,

"The elimination of time from your consciousness is the elimination of ego. It is the only true spiritual practice."

He goes on to say, "whenever you allow this moment to be as it is, you dissolve time as well as the ego."

We have all had the experience of having expectations built up around an event, only to have everything come crashing down on us. Having expectations about something or someone often leads to disappointment. The most beautiful moments of my life happened when I let go of any ideas or preconceived notions of how an event should unfold. Witnessing each moment as it unfolds naturally leads to complete peace. Allowing each event to unfold on it's own, without trying to control it, brings deep happiness. The more this occurs in our lives the more freedom we will begin to feel.
If you have read this far, perhaps you already know what the "greatest luxury" is and you already possess it. For conventional purposes, we'll call it "time." If you fully understand, you will realize that time doesn't exist. All we ever really have is this moment. How are you spending this moment right now? It is all you have.

What Makes Us Happy?

Recently my friend sent me this:

Date: Tue, 12 May 2009 16:22:25 Hi-- I am passing along this article from The Atlantic called "What Makes Us Happy" based on a longterm longitudinal study. It's long, but worth the effort. I'll be curious to hear what you think of it if you read it. Here is the link: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200906/happiness

I still haven't had time to read it thoroughly, but I've scanned it several times. It's worth a look. It describes a study on happiness lead by George Valliant at Harvard University. 268 men were participants in this study which began in the 1930's. The study followed the men's lives from the time they entered college until death. The men are referred to by case numbers. Case Number 141 describes a fairy tale beginning with wealth, happiness and harmony in the home. The social worker studying this case could not find any problem. Case 141 continued to shine at Harvard and showed so much promise for success in the future. At age 31, the subject got married and took a posting overseas and then began to drink and smoke. By his mid-thirties, he dropped out of sight. What happened to Case Number 141? You'll have to read the article to find out.

Case Number 141 was also quoted as saying, "In the early years I used to pride myself in not having any (hostilities). This was probably because they were buried too deeply and I was afraid to face them." I think this describes the mass of society right now. There is a shift happening, but very few people are involved. Eckhart Tolle talks of that shift in his book The New Earth. The problem lies in where we place importance. So much importance has been given to the outside. We say, "Look at me! I have a nice body, a wonderful partner, intelligent children, a good job, a nice car, a this and a that." We are like children trying to get approval from society for something on the outside. There is so much stress in society these days. The world is getting faster with technology. As the world gets faster, we realize we can do more, so we add more to our plates. We want to have it all: a happy marriage/relationship, children, a good job, a nice car, a big house, a new this and a new that. We are so busy trying to get the next thing that we have to hire dog walkers, nannies, house cleaners, a masseuse, etc., etc. There's no time for happiness. Think about your life right now. Have you heard yourself recently say, "If I just had _______ I'd be so happy!" I have big news for you. NOTHING on the outside can make you happy. Everything on the outside is temporary. If you're depending on something from the outside to make you happy, what happens when that person, place or thing is gone? What happens when that person, place, or thing doesn't do what we want it to do or doesn't live up to our expectations?

True happiness is a state of being that is unaffected by what happens outside. Some call this a feeling of "inner peace". This feeling of "inner peace" happens when we clear a space and just be.

In that empty space of "just being", we enter into the present moment. There is no past or future in this space. We are able to witness and accept things as they are. Everything is perfect as it is in each moment. As we learn to accept things as they are from moment to moment, we open up a space within us. We start to feel our breath, hear birds sing, feel our feet in our shoes walking on the earth, feel our fingers grip the steering wheel when we are driving. Many people live in fear of that empty space because there is so much garbage buried deep inside. We fear what we might see if we allow ourselves to just be. If we allow whatever is buried deep within to just come up, if we don't try to bury it again, we start to become free from it.

I honestly believe, from my own experience, that deep meditation is needed to unwind all the knots we have tied within us. The behavior patterns that are deeply rooted do not disappear, they are stuck with us. When we go inside for extended lengths, we can see those patterns at a very deep level. We learn to face what comes up for us. Emotions, pain, memories and thoughts, that we have been carrying within us, are released by the very act of accepting them and letting them be. I explained in a recent blog about Ken Wilber's idea that the stages of human development can be used to describe emotional/spiritual development. It is necessary to go through those stages for our own evolution, I believe. Otherwise, we may be able to show that many things are going great on the outside (family, fame, fortune, activism, service), but these mean very little if we are stuck on the inside. This is where I believe all depression, mental illness, and other social problems come from.

If you think meditation or finding time to "just be" is too difficult for you or that you "don't have time", you are probably the person who needs these things the most. What makes us happy, I believe, depends on our inner state. It can never come from anything outside. Whatever pleasure we get from something outside, is temporary. If we have developed ourselves from the inside out, happiness becomes part of our nature and does not depend on the ever changing outside world.

Religion vs. Spirituality

I don't think of myself as a religious person, but I love anything that will expand my conscious
ness. Last weekend my husband went out for sushi in Seattle with Dr. Wayne. My friend Chaya, the acupuncturist, called and said, "Dr. Wayne Dyer??!" I had the same initial response. My husband's funny that way. He often says surprising or bizarre things very matter of factly. I can remember when he came home one evening and said, "I had a nice time at Starbucks with the Rinpoche." I had to ask, "And which Rinpoche might that be?" and he said, "The one I met in the library." I guess he met a holy Tibetan Lama in the Seattle Public Library and took him out for hot cocoa at Starbucks and a walk around Greenlake. When Seong Yoon came home from his evening out with Dr. Wayne, he had an armful of reading material that we have been devouring ever since. He hardly noticed our mailbox that lay in pieces across the street in front of our house. While he was dining on sushi and discussing psychology and religion with Dr. Wayne, I was picking up mailbox pieces and talking to police officers. It was the second time there was a car accident in front of our house since we've lived here. The neighbors claim it has happened more than 10 times in the same spot. Perhaps the culprit is a spirit, a black hole or maybe it's just a blind intersection which needs a stop or yield sign. So, anyway, one of the books he brought back from his dinner out is titled Introducing Ken Wilber: Concepts for an Evolving World. Wilber describes how all people grow upward along a spiral of development. There are different stages along this spiral just as there are stages of human development starting from the infant stage and continuing on to old age. Humans often get stuck in a particular stage of development and live out there entire life in this stage. Wilber uses colors to denote the stages. The color blue describes people who are stuck in the 6-11 year age bracket. Under the color blue are the words traditional, conformist, ethnocentric and agrarian. According to Wilber, 40 percent of the world's population live in this stage. If you are stuck in this stage, it will be difficult to understand the other stages of development because you have yet to pass through them. At the top of the spiral, which is represented by the color Turquoise, the words holarchial, integral, mature, worldcentric and informational are written. People who have passed through all stages of development can see the value of earlier stages. However, people stuck in earlier stages, will disregard anything that doesn't fit into their picture of the world. I find this very fascinating.

Recently, one of my colleagues at the college asked me to be on a panel on a discussion about "religion" and "spirituality" in her Cultural Issues class. The panel included one Muslim, one Christian and one Buddhist. I was the Buddhist, although I don't think of myself as a Buddhist. I am just a person who practices meditation. The goal was not to strike up an argument, but to find the commonality amongst all religions. The first question for the panel was What do the words "religion" and "spirituality" mean to you? We all agreed that the word "religion" may be the cause of separatism amongst groups of people. We can ask the question "What's your religion?" and from the answer we are given, we have already drawn a picture in our minds of this person. So, if you say you are a Muslim, a Buddhist or a Christian, you are, in effect, identifying yourself with a title. The definition of that title varies from person to person. Spirituality, we decided, is very different from religion. Spirituality describes a "oneness". It is something all of us can have. This word doesn't seem to discriminate. Spirituality is a quality that is in every human being's nature. Whether or not one chooses to develop it is up to that individual. It is a personal thing but, once developed, includes all things. This is where Wilber's idea of the spirit being something that we develop makes sense. The last question for the panel was What do you think is common or shared across all religious or spiritual practices? Our panel came up with many answers along a similar vein. One is that we as humans have a goodness inside of us. Also, that many people feel a sense of happiness or peacefulness when practicing their given faith. Last, if people are truly following their religion or spiritual practice, love, compassion, peace and wisdom should arise.

$5,000 on my Front Doorstep: Seeing Abundance Everywhere

Which part of my title caught your attention. Recently, my status update on Facebook
mentioned that I returned from a walk to find $5,000 on my front doorstep. While this is true, I was surprised at the response to my update. I received more comments on this than any other status update. I have concluded that most people, whether consciously or unconsciously, are drawn to money. What is it about money that takes hold of people? Do you believe that money will give you freedom, make your life easier, make you happy, give you status, or make you popular among friends? Perhaps you think of money as the cause of all evil. Maybe you believe that you are a very philanthropic person and money should be given to help those less fortunate or that you are a very spiritual person and should live without money like a monk or a nun. Or are you a person that always complains about being broke? What is your relationship to money? Obviously, it must have some hold on me, because I was surprised to find it on my doorstep.

So here's the story:

Seong Yoon and I went for a walk and returned to find a check for $5,000 written out to Seong Yoon on our front doorstep. Seong Yoon did not tell me, but he knew the check would be there. I asked him what it was for and he told me it was for a yoga class. A man in Virginia wrote a very touching letter, which I read later, about how he lost his wife. His daughter had recently taken an interest in yoga and the man wanted to give his daughter in Seattle the gift of private classes to help with her loss. Recently, Seong Yoon has been getting requests for private classes, so I was not surprised by the letter because I know from my own experience with Seong Yoon that he possesses an inner quality that attracts people. His presence is very strong and people feel it. I'm also his yoga student and attend his classes which have anywhere from 20-40 people. Many of these people have been coming to these classes since they started. While I know that he is a special teacher, $5,000 seemed like an awful lot for a yoga class. It turns out that there was an extra "0" added to this check by mistake. The check was supposed to be written for $500 for a series of private classes. The man in Virginia asked us to send back the extra money, which we did. While meditating, Seong Yoon felt there was something wrong. It turned out that it was a scam and Seong Yoon reported it to the bank. He did not feel anger, he felt very sorry for this man who must have been so desperate.

Before yoga class today, Seong Yoon told me that the lesson he learned is that you cannot be hurt by anyone if you have good merits. His intention, first and foremost, is to share his merits (good qualities) with others. If you have ever taken a class with Seong Yoon, you know this.

Over the years I have been with Seong Yoon, I have felt tremendous abundance. This is different than being rich, in the traditional sense. Abundance comes from the inside out. It is an inner quality. It shines from inside to outside. What you see on the outside is reflected from what is inside. You may have a nice car, house, wife, boyfriend, or job. Maybe you go to church, meditate, travel to holy places, practice yoga, or are an activist, philanthropist or lover of peace. These all mean nothing if you feel something inside yourself is missing or not right. If this is the case, you are just going through the motions of being someone or of fitting into society. This is very tricky because we identify so much with outward images. When you are alone with only yourself, how do you feel? Is there an inner joy and peace most of the time? Even when you are angry, do you feel space around that anger? Is there an understanding there of what it is? Only you can answer these questions.

I don't believe it is wrong to have a nice car, house, wife, boyfriend or job. Good for you if you go to church, meditate, travel to holy places, practice yoga or are an activist, philanthropist or lover of peace. But it doesn't matter what I believe. How you feel is all that's important.

I see abundance everywhere these days. I see it when I walk with my husband through the Broadview neighborhood along Puget Sound, I see it in the Camellia tree that is blooming in our front yard right now, I see it in a cup of tea, I see it in the sporty car next to me, I see it in a person practicing yoga or meditating, I see it in the $5,000 on my doorstep, I see it in a fancy house, I see it in the innocent faces of my friend's baby twins, I see it in the organic strawberries I had for breakfast, I see it in dirt, I see it in grass, I see it in three leaf clovers.

Unplugging for 45 days

Can you imagine cutting off all your communication for 45 days? That means no TV, cell phone, computer, or Blackberry. But it also means no written or spoken forms of communication. We are so plugged in these days with Facebook, blogs, Myspace, etc. To pull the plug seems so scary or you may even think, "Why would I do that?" My dear friends, I'm pulling the plug for 45 days. From January 27-March 15th I'm heading to Massachusetts to attend a 45-day silent meditation retreat (http://www.dhamma.org/). I have been practicing vipassana meditation taught by S.N. Goenka from India since 1996, when I sat my first course with Seong Yoon (then monk) in Nepal. Being a writer and a person who loves to tell a good story, it was hard to imagine stopping everything to sit in silence. We are a society that lives by status updates. By a click of a button we can find out what everyone we know is doing. I've actually found this to be quite phenomenal and I am so happy for the friends I have reconnected with and the new friends I have made. I am fascinated to read about the amazing things people are doing in the world. But I'm going to let it all go. I know, I know-I'm writing a book, how can I pull the plug just like that? While I am fascinated by all this new technology, I also realize that there is a need for balance. It seems that our world is moving at a rapid pace. We just keep adding more and more to the pile. We have become a society that focuses outward and it has left us sleep deprived. Many people go to bed with thoughts swarming around in their heads and find themselves up at all hours of the night. For fear of silence, some sleep with the TV or radio in the background. If this sounds like you, I have a simple answer. Pull the plug. What would happen if you were completely silent for one day? Could you arrange it? Come to think of it, has there ever been a day in your life when you didn't speak for 24 hours? O.K., maybe when you were born. That doesn't count. Some people ask me, "Why would you do that?" or "Are you crazy?" We haven't been taught to go inside. It hasn't been part of our education. In other parts of the world, like India, yoga and meditation are part of the curriculum in many schools. I guess it would be equivalent to "nap time" in kindergarten for this country. Have you ever stopped to feel your breath? Have you ever witnessed a time when all your thoughts stopped? When you were just there in that moment? It's a remarkable thing, to go inside. When I did my first 10-day course in Nepal with my husband, I was so ready to be quiet. I had this idea that it would be easy and I would be completely peaceful for 10 whole days. Oh, no. While I felt initial peace, other emotions started to emerge. Things that I had pushed deep down inside started coming to the surface. There were memories, pain, agitation, anger. I thought, "This is not what I came here for." By the end of 10-days, I wanted to run far from that place. I thought for sure that it was "the place" that made me feel that way. After the course, as I walked through the streets of Kathmandu, I felt this clarity. Like something had lifted. I felt lightness. I felt a peace I can't describe. So, I kept going. Year after year, I kept meditating. I felt more and more peace and gratitude in my life. I got something. So, I'm going back for another long course. I'll be unplugging myself from this blog. I'll return mid-March (I hope you'll all be eagerly waiting for Lesson 3!!!!) In the meantime, do me one favor, unplug yourselves, even if it is just for an hour (or maybe you'll be inspired to try 10-days). Keep yourselves linked to this site. More is coming soon. Peace to you all for reading this blog and for all your positive feedback. I'll talk to you all when I plug back in mid-March.

More on Signs and Tuning in

As a writer, I like words. Verbal or written, I'm always using them. My husband, Seong Yoon, is a bit conservative with his words. He doesn't usually say much and many think he's a quiet person. The opposite couldn't be truer. The difference is, Seong Yoon doesn't waste his words. I think, as Americans, we like to talk about everything under the sun. Our lives, our communities, our jobs, our husbands, our friends, our families, our children our this and our that. We are social beings and when we get together we open our mouths and a lot comes out. The conversations weave their way in all directions. Some of us are great story tellers. We know how to grab the attention of our listeners and draw them in. Great story tellers often make great writers, I find. In the vipassana meditation practice I do, we are taught that sila is of utmost importance. Sila refers to morality and includes five precepts, one of which is to abstain from wrong speech. In our society, where gossip is the norm, it is easy to quickly fall into wrong speech. We may not even realize we are there until someone says, "Maybe we shouldn't talk about this". Being a writer, a person who enjoys a great conversation and a person who is following sila, I realize I'm walking a thin line. Luckily, I still believe in signs to guide me. Our dear friend Aaron came to visit us for three days. We hadn't seen him for over a year and naturally we had a lot to talk about. He also follows vipassana meditation. We went on a long walk through the Broadview neighborhood in Seattle. We talked and talked and talked and walked and walked and walked. Aaron was looking for a canopy for his truck and there was one along the side of the road. It looked like it was in some sort of "free" pile. The pile also included garbage lids and a cookie tray. It was an odd looking "free" pile. Aaron bravely went to the door of the house near the pile and knocked. Seong Yoon and I curiously waited by the edge of the road while Aaron disappeared into the house for what seemed like a long time. He finally emerged with a bubbly looking woman who came out to greet us wearing one lime-green, dish washing glove. Aaron said, "This is Sheila." Sheila had blond hair, sparkling eyes and looked too young to have a 21 year old daughter. Her daughter crashed her truck, apparently and Sheila was left with the canopy. According to Sheila, the trash lids and the cookie tray were remains of the sledders who used the top of the hill where her house stood as launching point for sledding. She picked up the make shift sleds with her green-gloved hand and said, "I don't know if I should throw these away, they just left them here." Sheila smiled at us and let our friend know that the canopy was his if he wanted it. We thanked her and turned to walk back the direction we came. I turned to Aaron and said, "Sheila seems nice". For some reason we both heard "Sila seems nice". Later that evening, while Seong Yoon was teaching yoga, we decided to check out what movies were playing. Revolutionary Road, with Kate Winslet and Leonardo Di Caprio was playing at 5:15pm downtown. It was 5pm when we left in the pouring rain. We had to fight rush hour traffic and so it took us an hour to get to the theater. Since Aaron used to live on Capital Hill, he knew some back roads. Once again, we started talking about this and that. We rounded a corner downtown and a large, black sign with white lettering in front of a restaurant stood out like a sore thumb. We both said in unison, "Shilla". The sign was referring to a Korean restaurant. I knew that Shilla was also a dynasty which was located in Kyongju, South Korea, where I met my then Buddhist monk husband. In his little red truck, cruising the rainy streets of Seattle, we fell silent for a moment. I don't think we had much more to say.

Can You See the Signs?

Signs are everywhere. Can you see them? A few days ago I took a break from writing my book and went for a walk with my husband. We went down to Carkeek Park in Seattle. The tide is usually high when we visit this park, so we can't walk far on the beach. On this particular day, however, we could see that there was a strip of sand between the sea wall and the Sound. We walked and walked and walked on that strip of sand. The sun was blaring down on us. It got brighter and brighter and we were blinded by it. We were forced to stare down at the gray, sparkling sand while we walked. We both commented on how unusual the weather was for winter in Washington. We felt the light wind mixed with the smell of seaweed. The waves lapped gently on the shore. A few people walking on the sand bar with their dogs appeared to be in a blissful, sun-filled state which showed on their smiling faces. It was the beginning of January 2009, a new year and a new life! I stopped for a moment. Someone had drawn a big heart with a stick in the sand and wrote two names inside. It said, "Joy+Rich". I said to my husband, "Look, a couple wrote their names in the sand!" My husband said, "No, I think that's their new year's resolution!" At that moment, it occurred to me that maybe it was and that I felt those very words. It was summed up right in front of me. The signs you see depend on what you tune in to. What are you seeing right now?