Sunday, April 27, 2008

last 5 days briefly

Today is the first day back from a very eventful 5 day trip away. First, we left kuk hak won early in the morning and headed to a university. Aaron sabumnim made an awesome presentation about brainwave vibration and Hongik ingan spirit. The students were of course very shy to participate in the exercise, but they seemed to enjoy us and understand what we were all about. Some girl asked if there was a Dahn center in China because she was from there. Maybe not in China yet, but hopefully some day. The second lecture at the other university that day was even better. It was really a lot smoother and engaging and natural. One professor there is in Dahn, so she likes us a lot. Also, the Dean of Admissions took us to lunch and gave us business cards.
Anyway, people at the universities were interested in us because we knew about their own ancient philosophy and are passionate about it now.
then we went to a middle school and it was absolutely insane. as soon as we got out of the bus what seemed like an infinite number of middle school children gathered and screamed "HIIII" "MY NAME IS CHUNGSUKWAKjkdalkj," and “WHERE ARE YOU FROM," ...etc. i was actually a little scared. but it was very funny. We were very popular that day.
That night Ilchi Lee met with MMnim and Aaron nim and let them know how pleased he is with us. He was happy about our performance at the universities, so he introduced some new ideas for what we could do, and what other potential YEHAP could do in the future to spread this huge vision for peace. I am really happy about that, too. Hwarang!
the next day, we got the opportunity to go up mount moak. we went hiking for many hours. It was so beautiful and pure. We heard stories about Ilchi Lee’s 21 day training on the mountain. We saw a giant Dangun statue.
yesterday was the 10,000 Jeja meeting in Cheonan. 10,000 students of Ilchi Lee. We were the opening performance. We did the phoenix dance!!!!! It was amazing. I felt so much passion and energy from the people and from my heart. We really made one mind that day. Yes we can! That was the very short version of what we did!!! There is too much to share, too little time.

Monday, April 14, 2008

yeha night, lecture, and trip to sunheung

hello!
we just got back from a trip to a region in the south of south korea near pusan. it was really awesome so see that part of the country. i love to see all the beautiful mountains and interesting buildings and people. we performed at Ilchi Lee's lecture there. again, huge lecture hall, many many people, a lot of energy. we had a really good translator this time, so i could fully understand the lecture, and it was a lot of fun. Ilchi Lee is giving a tour about his book, Nwepa Jindong.
the week before, we had received a very special lecture by Ilchi Lee. it was really exclusive training-- a huge gift from him since we would normally have to pay a lot of money. i learned a lot from this lecture. one piece of wisdom after the other. the most poignant part of the lecture to me was when someone asked him how he thinks we should heal the worlds problems like war and hunger. for a while he just stared at us, but then lifted his finger to the sky and slowly turned it around to face all of us. it's us! what this means to me is that us humans are the ones who have created war, depression, hunger, etc-- and we're the ones who can get ourselves out of the hole. what do i have in common with Koreans, Iraqis, South Africans, Indonesians, etc? we call earth home. it's a great home. there is enough for everyone here but humans have caused huge problems with the distribution of resources, etc. I really want a peaceful world where we all have enough and no one is in need. i want to use my talents and abilities, heart and spirit to make that happen. there was a lot more from his lecture, but i will share about his lecture later.
we also went to a YEHA night last night. it was amazing because the people had so much energy!!! they were crazy loud. i lead warm up exercises for the first time. at first i was really nervous about it but i just had a lot of fun. the people had so much joy and excitement just to be there doing yoga with other young people. i love them so much!!!! i could feel their passion and their hearts! a lot of them said that they will see us at the spring camp. my favorite part was singing "from a distance" with them-- there was a korean translation so that everyone could understand. we all held hands and sung a song about peace. that's all for now. good night!

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

First days in korea!

I just arrived in Korea about a week ago, and I am really glad to be here. It feels great to be on my journey, moving and working towards a larger goal. It’s hard to know where to start with blog entry number one--many things have already happened. I arrived the third of April, and I was very tired after spending an unexpected night in Tokyo with a couple of military kids from the states.
The day I arrived, the team performed in front of a group of professors, workers and students from Hallim University, in Kangwondo Province. Since I didn’t perform the first time, I got to watch them. It was incredible! They’d made some adjustments to the Chunbushingong since our training over a month ago. It was so beautiful that it almost made me cry. It flowed 100 times better than when I last saw it. They were so peaceful and I could see, through their performance, how much they’d grown already in Korea. I really love everyone and I'm so thankful to have this opportunity and to be a part of this team.
The next day after I arrived, we performed all together in front of a lot of people. Dr. Ilchi Lee was sitting in front center. I watched him when Aaron sabumnim was introducing us and telling them why we are here. Ilchi Lee had the biggest smile on his face! I could tell that it makes him so happy that we are here.

And adjusting to living with 5 other girls is difficult, especially since in seattle, I just lived with one girl who I spent very little time with. I spent a lot of time alone or with one other person. There’s not a lot of space and privacy and quiet. Here, I must learn to share and not reserve myself. I want to have more confidence to share what's on my mind and my progress.
Also there have been so many things happening, like huge performances, meeting a lot of people, pretty intense training, different food, and not being caught up with sleep. It’s been awesome but tiring. I can feel my physical body getting a lot stronger. That is all for now.