Woo Myung's World Beyond World Man Tries To Attain Truth Through Possession But Nothing Can Be Attained By Possession Human life has only taught us to have and possess more. That mind of possession and attachment arises from one s feelings of inferiority. Many seek do - Truth or the Way - not for the purpose of becoming a true saint but to use what he learns from do to earn money or to trick ignorant people into thinking that they are great. However do is not about possessing or attaining; it is about discarding. Discarding one s false self and becoming true is do. A person who tries to possess things is foolish for he will not be able to possess anything; and he who seeks is also foolish for he will not be able to find what he is seeking. Rather, such a person will add to his burdens and suffering eventually leading to a mental breakdown. For someone who achieves something through gain or possession, his achievements reside in his 6 7
false self. The more one discards what is in his mind, the more Truth will enter his mind and the more he will be able to know Truth. If he continues to discard, and discard again, all of one s desires - to become great or to achieve something - which arise from his feelings of inferiority will vanish. He will then be able to go to the world beyond these minds - the land of God - and everything that he had desired in the world will all be fulfilled. Fulfillment or achievement comes from casting off all of one s preconceptions and habits; it does not come from giving in to the greed of one s feelings of inferiority. This only leads to committing more sins and such a person ultimately becomes possessed by greed. Woo Myung is the founder of Maum Meditation, an author, and a poet. He has been teaching the Way to the Truth through world tour lecture every year. He is the author of many books about Truth. The English edition of his most recent book, Stop Living In This Land Go To The Everlasting World Of Happiness Live There Forever, hit #1 Overall Weekly Bestseller in Amazon and won 4 international book awards such as IBA, NIEA, IPPY, and elit in the categories of Self-Help, Philosophy, Spirituality, and Meditation. Calligraphy Woo Myung 8 9
And Become One Traveling to Anuta Islands of coexistence and sharing Written and photo by Park Jong-woo Anuta Island is situated in Southern Pacific. Last fall, to film documentary <Last of the Empire>, I got into a sailboat toward Anuta Island. I was traveling to find an alternative to materialism, having arrived at its limitation due to human greed and infinite competition. But traveling toward the island wasn t easy. Using stars as a guide for four days, we arrived at Anuta Island after a long voyage.
As soon as we arrived, children came to greet us. White sandy beach, jade green sea, palm trees that covered the island such gift of nature made us think of a paradise. But this wasn t a land of plenty. The small island the size of 600 meters or so was mostly hills and surrounded by rocks which was barren; and unable to have boats to come in. To them, the ocean was the base of their lives and sometimes, fearful war zone. Due to the natural disasters or hurricanes, family members can be lost; also it s not easy to go fishing due to the changing weather. But amazingly, singing and dancing in the village continues. Innocent children playing naked. Joy and rhythm learned since childhood rings all over the island. People in Anuta Island solve everything together. It s natural to 40 41
Park Jong-woo, a documentary photographer, graduated from Hankook Uni. of Foreign Studies and also completed graduate degree at Joong-ang Uni. He was a photojournalist with Hankook Ilbo and became a documentarist to record minority cultural groups all over the world. His major works include documentary <The Record of 1000 Days of Chamagodo> <Sa-hwang-ji-ro> and <Last of the Empire>. other spread as aropa ; a rule to live with each other. About the time all names of 280 islanders were memorized, after a month s filming, we left the island. Before the boat left, about a half of the islanders came to the beach and cried. And sang us a song of goodbye. Anuta informed us that how human beings lived originally for many years was different from how we lived today in frontlines of materialism. I wished that the word of hope aropa is spread to our more and more difficult reality. help bring up children who lost their parents; every other house has someone who adapted a child. When a child is born, until the mother is able to, people take turns helping. If unable to fish, whatever fish was caught is shared among 24 houses equally. Anuta Islanders call this aropa. It means love, compassion, sympathy ; it is a value of sharing and coexistence which they feel is the most important. Through aropa they learn the wisdom to live helping one another. About 300 years ago, aropa became the root of life philosophy. At that time, in order to monopolize limited resources, many people fought for power and died, leaving only four people alive and at a danger of extinction. The enlightenment that people must help each 42 43
Age of Subtraction Now I am going to subtract now Shin Young-tae (40), a Korean classical musician. He is a great drum player I want any concerns and worrying to fly away through joyful drum sounds Shin Young-tae, a Korean classical musician Summary Kim Hye-jin & Photographs Choi Chang-won and was a part of many events such as: 2001 closing ceremony concert for Peking Universiade; 2002 opening ceremony for FIFA World Cup; and 2012 MBC drama <Horse Doctor>. Even though he was successful in many renowned concerts, he says at a certain point in his life, he could not find his performances to be worthwhile or fun. Why is this happening? While struggling, he found Maum Meditation and regained the joy of being on a stage. This is a mind-subtraction story of Shin Young-tae. Bangbang~ bangbang~ bangbang~ The origin of drum started when people from a long ago killed animals to eat and banged on leathers to comfort their sorrowful minds. The drum sounds are similar to a person s heartbeats. Normally the heart would beat rub-dub, but when strained it goes faster. Without realizing it, a person is performing all his life from birth till death. As you watch the concert today, please see how your heartbeats are sometimes soft, and sometimes fast. I am currently doing a national tour of Maum Talk Concert and I say the above as an opening. This concert was planned with a purpose of providing a healing path of self-reflection to alleviate stress suffered by the contemporary people. It would be good to selfreflect on one s own mind as one listens to own heartbeats during the concert. I feel it is very worthwhile when the concert attendees say We were suffocating before we came here; now our chests have lightened. In the beginning, my dream was to be a singer. I liked the feeling of 70 71
something being pulled out from me while singing. But with my family being poor, I couldn t think of getting music lessons and I decided to attend Haeyang University which assisted me with paying for tuitions. Getting up in the morning to a militarystyle roll call and a morning run, and wearing uniforms to school it felt like being in a military. Then by coincidence, I went with my friend to Seoul student club activities and that s when I first heard the Korean classical music. Other students my age were singing in the Korean classical styles and rudely playing around; and this was a cultural shock to me. When I heard such lively but also soulful music, I felt uplifted.. Since then I started to learn the Korean classical music. I was more and more attracted to the Korean classical music as I experienced the moments of full immersion during performances. In 1999, I joined an artistic performance group and became a fullfledged Korean classical musician. Since then, I started to perform with a great drum and other sets of drums. I especially remember the 2002 World Cup opening ceremony concert. I came down a high wire to perform on drums and there were thunderous applauses and roars from the thousands of people in the audience it was thrilling. After the World Cup, I had a plenty of concert offers, but starting at some point, I wasn t happy. I had started this work due to a sense of duty and pride I had about the Korean classical music, but the reality was it wasn t any different from any other show business. Between the idealistic view and the reality, there was a separateness causing conflicts. Many people around me were envious, it s great that you are well-known and was offered many concert performances. But as time passed, I could not find the reason for performing music and my own identity as a musician. Every time I was With Yi Jung-hoon, chairman of Goru on stage, I was fearful and artistic performance group wanted to avoid the attention of audience At that time, my wife recommended the Maum meditation. As I meditated, I found that I was wrong to think that I lived a good life like others. The Korean classical music which I truly enjoyed all of sudden became my job and I started to work to build relationships with wellknown teachers; and as I 72 73
did not major in Korean classical music in college, I felt a sense of inferiority and continued my endeavor to learn so as not to hurt my pride Instead of worrying about how should I play the rhythm for the audience? I was chasing after money and prestige. As I threw away those minds one by one, at one point, I was enlightened to the Universe being me. I was filled with such a deep happiness. The Universe is originally full of such joy! I understood then when one lives with the true mind, such joy naturally occurs. The true joy is possible when I am completely emptied. Only then, the original power and sound of Korean classical music can be revealed. Through throwing my mind away, I also understood why I felt drained after performing. As I was putting more efforts only on me to perform well, it made the performances much farther removed from the original meaning of Korean classical music and drums. After that, my mindset when performing started to change a little each time. I started to see the importance of a whole performance, not just my own. Originally, the Korean classical music has a meaning, a bright music that creates a big oneness. So when one reviews the Korean classical music, one does not say a good performance, but say it was profound. When the Korean classical music is played in a village and people gather to enjoy, even enemies become friends through the music the joy of music allows them to become one. I think about this these days. I feel suffering in their minds as I play on a stage and my job is to ease their minds The meaning of poong-mul means something that makes wind. It seems like through stimulating yin s energy beautiful sounds are made and they become a rain of blossom to ease their suffering minds. As I clearly understand this logic of music, I am very happy to performing these days. Going forward, I want to comfort and give joy through the drum sounds all over the world. As the drum sounds alerted a victory of war long ago, I hope people beat the drums of victory by winning their fights with selves through throwing away of their false minds to rediscover their true minds. 74 75