How can we obtain 'happiness' and 'peace'?
When people are asked what they want, most of them are willing to say consistently that they want happiness and peace. However few people know about how they can get happiness and peace. Therefore, it seems that, although people don't know what happiness is and what peace is, they come to say that they want happiness and peace just because it is tough to live and therefore for the reason why they want happiness and peace.
Then how can we get happiness? How can we get peace?
From old times, a number of teachings have been passed down in the world. Among them, we hear the word, the truth(眞理, Natural law) a lot, which is expressed differently according to cases. Do(道, dào, way), principle or promise etc. are the same words as truth. When we define truth depending on principle or Do(道), it can be explained that truths are ways, the ways to make the world exist. And Do-Deok(道德, way and virtue) means that right behaviour builds up great virtue. Right behaviour and right life are the very Do(道) and way. That is, truth is a way, Do(道) is a way and principles are ways to let certain phenomena come into being. Promise is also included in the same meaning.
If we do not keep what we have to keep, happiness and peace cannot exist there. Happiness and peace come into being only when the requirements are satisfied.
When we live with bright minds in a bright world, true peace comes to exist in our minds. When we do not encounter any unfortunate things and if it guarantees that no such unfortunate things will happen to us, peace can be maintained in our life and we can always feel it. Otherwise, peace does not exist. When we keep our conscience in a world of justice and when we make our consciences stand upright, peace will exist in us.
However, because these kinds of things have never been rightly taught in human society so far, people have lost the way to attain peace and peace has become an object which only exists in an ideal. They say that they want peace because their lives are tough and uneasy. However, from their ignorance, they are overlooking the fact that peace can be obtained only by their own efforts.
What in the world is happiness? What is the law of happiness?
If you can live without hunger, without loneliness and with a bright mind and if that kind of mind exists, it is called happiness. In order to live without hunger, without loneliness and with a bright mind, you have to fulfill the requirements.
Then, how can the requirements be met?
First, if you work hard and live frugally to be able to save, your wealth will increase to alleviate hunger.
Second, if you live diligently and frugally, you will win people’s confidence. If you work hard without deceiving them, you can win their trust to be able to make friends with good people. If you make friends with a good person, in other words, a good Do-Ban(道伴, a kind of partner who walks along the same way), have talks with, depend on and share blessings with each other, you can lead a life without loneliness.
Third, it is honesty. If you don’t tell lies, your mind will become bright.
Therefore, being diligent, frugal and honest are the very right way and the law to attain happiness.
But there is a society where you can’t gain happiness, no matter how diligently, frugally and honestly you live. In certain circumstances where truth and justice are ignored, this meaning is not valid. In this kind of society where truth and justice are ignored, even though you keep this kind of duty, you cannot feel happiness easily. The reason is because the society is dark. No matter how bright a mind you may have, it is difficult to see light in a dark world. No matter how good eyesight you may have, if you live in a totally dark world, there is no difference between your eyesight and the blind's. On the contrary, the blind have less inconvenience living in that kind of a dark world.
Now peace and happiness cannot be the simple terms which exist in ideals. Peace and happiness are the things which are made by yourself. It means that these have to be achieved by yourself. Except for yourself, nobody can bring you peace and happiness. And certain enlightenment is necessary for you to achieve peace and happiness.
Enlightenment is the most important thing in human life. Hence there have been lots of people who did all kinds of foolish things in order to attain enlightenment. As for enlightenment, however, you aren’t bound to know even where the way is unless you open your eyes to the truth. It means that you don't know what is on what way. If you don't know what comes into being by what, it becomes difficult to achieve the goals which you want to.
What we always explain through what is is the importance of life and what exists in the truth. If people know what exists in the truth, you can lead a life for yourself which you want. This is a very crucial point.
In mass media, a good number of people have heated debates on certain matters. By the way, listening to the debates causes us to feel so heavy. Recently the debate on the subject of ‘Lay-off, How can we solve the problem?’ was on TV. Several professors of economics said various things on the subject respectively and listening to them in detail revealed that actually they had been talking about what they didn't know. They were just putting forward their thoughts like, " We should restructure" or "we should not".
What is urgent and important to be done in our society now is not the controversy on lay-off but creating the social environments where those who want to work can do. It is important to promote the social environments where people who are healthy and able to work can work easily. However, today's system or ideas that most people are tied up to the conglomerates, chaebol, and are living on them are really wrong.
A nation cannot take care of its every single individual's life. It means that one single political ruler cannot manage all the others’ lives or their rights to live.
If so, we must demand our rights confidently. "Make the society where we can have jobs." This is an important thing. Actually, lay-off or restructuring isn’t that important.
How can we produce goods which make profits if wages are still high? What can we do by paying people who are unnecessary and by producing unprofitable goods? In this country, each government has demanded that enterprises do this, and therefore, the government has been impaled by the pressures from the conglomerates. As a result, back-scratching alliances between government and businesses as well as the poor management of companies have come into being. It seems that the shaky finance of this country is much more serious than we have expected. The deficits might be over hundreds of trillion korean wons.
Why does such a phenomenon happen? It's because one single person has ruled and interfered with everything. There are no people in this country who are happy because they believe that all the happiness is under the control of a ruling class. In other words, when you get comfort and come a good deal of wealth momentarily to achieve your ideal, you may think that you are happy for the time being but it is not true happiness.
Here is an example. When a passer-by gives a beggar 5,000 Won for food, is this love? No, it isn't. It is a feeling of pity or sympathy. However, people usually call it love. Actually this is an incorrect idea. Love must be a blessing. Serving a beggar to five dollar food does not become love. It is showing a feeling of pity or sympathy. As mentioned before, obtaining momentary satisfaction cannot be happiness.
Why do we need education? The study of the field of technology such as engineering is necessary for the development of our daily life and most of the other studies are necessary for knowing right and wrong and cultivating our personality, which are the biggest purposes in our life. The education which helps know right and wrong is necessary for opening eyes to things the world. By the way, if the world is dark and justice disappears, education cannot teach people right and wrong.
Actually a strange trend has been in our society since 1970. An international news said, "Korean high school students go to school at 5 a.m. and come back home at 10 p.m. in order to prepare for the university entrance exam. This kind of country does exist in the world."
What is the reason for putting sensitive youngsters in school until late at night? Although schools put students in school for over 15 hours a day, they never teach the studies for the completion of personality, while forcing students to memorize the contents of the textbooks. And the questions in exams are made to be too tricky and difficult to solve. As a result, extra reference books for difficult questions have to be published, which students cannot help memorizing.
Building up the right social environments will contribute to our gaining happiness and peace. As mentioned before, when social environments can provide people with jobs, even people who are not specially outstanding can fit themselves into settled ways of life through jobs. Sometimes if they accept good teachings they can accumulate fruitfulness of life through living frugally. Only in this way, people can achieve the happiness they want.
In this country, the phenomenon of ‘When ignorance is bliss, ‘tis folly to be wise.’ The highest intellectuals are committing plays upon words.
If farmers are asked about how to do farming, they give realistic answers. "This seed has a certain kind of nature. If it is put into the low temperature, it sleeps feeling that winter has come. And then, if it is planted in a greenhouse in the winter, it buds feeling that spring has come.” That is correct.
But intellectuals are saying what does not fit in with reality. Why does this kind of phenomenon happen? This is also due to social environments. When we try to understand a problem, first of all, we have to look at what is and find out precisely why it became like that. Then, the problem can be solved properly.
It is dangerous to prescribe for a patient without examining the patient who comes to hospital. After diagnosing the patient, prescription is to be followed. Nonetheless, today diagnosing problems is not made properly in our society. Where doctors diagnosing patients are not seen, baseless claims for prescriptions are loudly heard. Those who say right things are instead denounced. Lots of kinds of wrong opinions fabricated by wrong people make right people denounced in one morning and become bad people after all. When a patient who is seriously ill goes to hospital, just saying, “You will recover soon.” “Have courage.” “Be healthy.” “Get up.” cannot make him healthy. To solve a problem, a reliable diagnosis is always necessary and then an accurate prescription must be followed.
The true purpose of education is to properly inform people of what is and help them understand it correctly. In order to understand correctly what exists, first, you have to become aware of the fact that there is right and wrong in what is. That is, there are right things and wrong things in what is.
It is called enlightenment that we come to know or open eyes to what is. If an education system cannot help open eyes of consciousness on what is, the education system is a failure.
Today, the wrong education system is responsible for our society’s getting into trouble under the economic structure where conglomerates are dominant. Today's social conditions are like this. Elementary school graduates are willing to work in factories on low wages. Middle school graduates choose jobs such as delivery service, vegetable dealer, carrying a handcart and farming. The problem is those who have high educational backgrounds. They prefer work of using their brain to physical labour work. For them, conglomerates are the only means and purposes of their life
Why do we have to depend on others? Human beings are able to take care of and be responsible for themselves. Only if the government maintains fairness in the society, individuals can solve all the things for themselves. It is a pity that our society hasn’t been so.
'Everything comes into being by one meaning.' The one meaning is the law, the truth, the promise and 'Do'(道, way). We must not ignore this meaning. It is right to teach people to live abiding by this meaning through education or teachings. It is true that people such as Admiral Sun-Shin Lee and General Mun-Deok Eul-Ji shielded the country when it was invaded by foreign countries. The important point is that we must not spend time just worshiping them. We, the entire nation, have to be and make efforts to be Admiral Sun-Shin Lee and General Mun-Deok Eul-Ji. "Andrew Carnegie from the USA became the king of steel. Under difficult circumstances, he became the king of steel in the world and obtained both honor and wealth.'' This is a good lesson. What is important is not reading his biography and yearning for him but becoming a Carnegie.
Education means to make all the young a Carnegie and the most important purpose of education is to make all the people with dream and courage brave commanders such as Admiral Sun-Shin Lee and General Mun-Deok Eul-Ji. However, for the last decades, these kinds of things have never happened in our society. That is the problem.
It isn’t totally understandable why this era abandons what is right and takes what is wrong. The way to live like a decent human being is opening eyes to right and wrong. We must be able to keep ourselves by staying away from what is wrong. Why do we have to try to stay away from wrong things? It is for keeping ourselves. We must never have weak thoughts that we try to live relying on others.
Today, the reason why our society is unsafe and the problem of being unsafe can’t be solved easily is that social environments are not improved. If something is wrong, we must abandon it.
Let's assume that you are participating in gambling by mistake now. After gambling at cards a few times, if it does not go well, then you must stop. It is the best way to give it up when you don’t have confidence. It means that even though you lost 9,000 wons out of 10,000 wons, you’d better not lose the remaining 1000 wons by not trying to recover your loss. Leaving the gambling place, you must think that you won 1,000 wons in gambling today and you will lose even the remaining 1,000 wons unless you quit right away.
If you find that you fall into the wrong place, we must leave the place immediately. If our society finds that something is wrong, it must break loose from the structure right away. If we decide that something is wrong, we must cut ourselves off the wrong things without hesitation. Today in our society, this kind of decision isn’t made properly.
This is the cause that keeps our country and our society where a lot of people are living staying away from happiness and peace. If you open eyes to what is, you can tear yourself loose from wrong things for yourself. This is the way to honor our society and country.
These days we are publishing the magazine, Nature's Teaching. In bookstores, people say, "Why does this book cost 3,000 wons even if it has less than 100 pages ? Another book costs 2000 wons, even though it has 150 pages." We answer the question like this. “Even though this book has only 100 pages, it has truths and ways in it. A price can’t be put on this book.”
Unless we do this kind of work, we have to live and die as incompetent people who know things of the world but can’t contribute anything to the world. That is why we do this work. If we publish ten thousand copies and one of them reaches someone's hand and comes to teach them bright ways, it makes this job successful. The purpose of living is for obtaining our own blessing and, furthermore, for blessing others. If we know this purpose, we have to try much harder.
To fertilize farmland isn’t bad at all. When we cultivate farmland and make it fertile and good, the farmland will surely give us good fruits.
Enlightening, loving and blessing people are making our social environments good and it will become a much bigger blessing for us in return. Therefore, although it makes us suffer personal damage and feel agony, we cannot draw back from doing it. Whether other people recognize what we are doing or not, everything will be known in time but we don't care about it.
The practically important matter to us is that we are alive and we can present one conclusion that the purpose of life is to bless ourselves.
We have to behave, making wise judgments for our lives. The important thing in life is wisdom. If we become distant from the wisdom and so we misunderstand what is, we will come to make tremendous mistakes. A small mistake at first can change into a big one in time.
We strongly emphasize once again that we have to view right and wrong importantly, learn and attain enlightenment.