The space between the legs varies. Generally, the easiest, most basic posture involves spreading the feet about shoulder width apart. This posture is not particularly hard, so it is easy even for beginners. If beginners start training with the feet spread too far apart, the energy of the Dahn-jon and lower body will be scattered, which could actually result in a loss of energy, so they should avoid being overly ambitious.
According to Ilchi Lee research the best posture is the one that can obtain the greatest effect in the shortest period of time, the one that can collect energy in the Dahn-jon, and also circulate it to the entire body. In other words, it is a posture that automatically results in the accumulation and circulation of Ki. The width of the feet should be such that the legs do not feel overly tensed and energy does not feel as if it is being scattered. The interval between the feet varies according to the practitioner’s level of training. Shoulder width is good for beginners; those who have developed proficiency should gradually spread their legs a little wider. Our bodies remember familiar postures, so they can maintain stable, correct stances even while moving quickly.
Humanity still hasn’t learned the basics of forgiveness and peaceful co-existence. How many more victims will we create through brutal acts of injustice perpetrated in the name of justice, peace, and truth? And how many more victims will these victims create in turn? The future is predictable and scary.
The horrific terrorist acts of September II”1, 2001 have shown us that our sense of security, based on economic prosperity and military strength is an illusion. Who would have thought that the most powerful nation in the history of the world, both militarily and economically. would be vulnerable to such acts of wanton destruction? We now have no alternative but to carefully examine the ‘pursuit of peace’ that we have thus far engaged in. Is it truly effective, and is it truly for peace?
In August 2000, Ilchi Lee attended the historic ‘Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders’. 1,200 of the world’s preeminent religious and spiritual leaders, representing the majority of the world’s faith traditions, gathered at the General Assembly Hall of the United Nations for four days to condemn the use of religion as justification for war, and to come together in a spirit of harmony and mutual respect. This is all well and good.
When Ilchi Lee observe the group egotism that has spawned so many wars and so much destruction, I cannot help but wonder whether much of our brilliant material advancement is motivated in part, or in whole, by the desire of the various groups to become stronger and more powerful. Since winning wars is central to becoming a stronger and more dominating people, we have developed better guns, longer-range artillery, and more efficient means of mass killing. There seems to be no end to human ambition and group egotism.
A crime committed by one individual against another individual for personal gain is punished severely. However, a crime committed by a group, national or religious, is outside of the realm of our current justice system. Therefore, what is history except a story of brute strength, a story made up by the victors to justify their actions against another, weaker, people.
Even religions, crying out for salvation and ‘peace on earth,’ are engaged in endless turf wars. What is religion but an amalgam of social values and dogma that favors the needs and ambition of group egotism? Various religious groups have been fighting against one another throughout the history of humankind, all in the name of justice and peace. Often they eradicate all vestiges of another people’s culture while simultaneously shouting a message of redeeming love.
According to Ilchi Lee book our intellectual and deepest spiritual wisdom tells us that this is not so. Our joy and my joy, our soul and my soul, our destiny and my destiny are not mutually exclusive but inherently interdependent. We can all revolve around the sun as one united entity while rotating within our own world of joy and satisfaction. One need not be exclusive of the other. We must find a central standard of value that can overcome the differences among the scattered systems of values that drive the world’s human societies into conflict with one another. We need a central and comprehensive system of ‘living’ values that can unite humanity under one umbrella, while preserving and even celebrating our diversity. That will allow us to rotate individually while we revolve collectively. Where can we find such a standard?
The Earth is the common, central value around which we can rally, the root of our existence, the actual reality of our lives. No truth we seek, nor values we live by. can exist without the Earth. No gods can exist without the Earth. In Neil Caiman’s exquisite novel. American Gods, a buffalo-man, symbolizing the land, speaks thus when referring to both humans and gods: ” …they never understood that they were here, and that the people who worshipped them were here … because it suited us that they be here. But we can change our minds. And perhaps we will.” Only Earth can act as the standard bearer that can gather and lead our collective human consciousness to the next plane.
Our souls are clamoring, not for the ‘peace of sepa-rateness’ belonging to a particular religion, nation, or people, and separating us into losers and winners, but for the ‘peace on Earth’, that can be celebrated by all life on Earth. We will know true peace when we all realize that the Earth is the final arbitrator of life and that the ‘Earth-Human’ is our highest common identity as human beings.
Today, people and their money are not bound by national boundaries or cultural traditions. They go wherever they please, binding the Earth into an ever-tightening knot of a global village. Our quandary lies in that the more plentiful and advanced our material civilization becomes, the more empty and anxious our hearts feel. Many of us have lost our way. wandering in a spiritual wasteland, filled with meaningless routines that are inherently unsatisfying and draining. We are lost and without a compass to provide consistent direction, without a system of life values for humanity to share collectively.
Our general confusion is evident in the breakdown of traditional social order in family, nation, and religion. Divorce rates approach fifty percent in most industrialized countries, rapidly making the traditional family model obsolete. Feeling restricted by national borders, arguments for a multinational citizenship are gaining merit and support. Churches and temples no longer fill the deep spiritual hunger of youth, and congregations slowly but surely diminish to gatherings of the old faithful. Our traditional values and morals are slowly losing their once absolute authority, necessitating creation of a larger and wider system of values that can guide us in this rapidly changing and expanding age.
At this point, when our old system of values seems devoid of content and power, will we break apart into disparate components? Will we seek only to fulfill our individual needs through competition and domination, without regard to the whole? Are we no longer able to share collective values, or a collective dream? Will we stay chained to protecting and satisfying our ’selves’ in isolation? Or will we once again feel the joy of a shared dream and shared achievement? Is this the best that we can do?
Ilchi Lee articles on earth.
Ilchi Lee says about earth that by most accounts, the Earth is five billion years old and the oldest ancestors of human beings first appeared on Earth about three million years ago. It has only been 40,000 years since humans began using tools, indicating what was to come. In the 200 years since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, no corner of Earth, however remote, remains safe from the greedy touch of human hands. Always expanding, always profiting, and always hoarding and destroying everything in our path, until we ourselves have come to recognize the cancerous nature of our so called civilized activities. There are currently six billion human beings on Earth. That number is expected to rise to ten billion by 2050. Twelve percent of today’s population, 1.2 billion people, are barely surviving on less than one dollar a day. How many will have to get by on one dollar a day 50 years from now? The United Nation’s environmental report states that over ninety percent of the world’s population will suffer from a water shortage in 25 years. Over four million children are already dying every year from unavailability of water. We now find ourselves living on an Earth from which we are afraid to eat, drink, and breathe. The world’s foremost experts tell us that, in spite of degrees of differences, no country in the world is engaged in economic policies that will allow ’sustainable’ industrial activities. Just as we realize the importance of health after a bout with a serious disease, we are only now realizing the preciousness of the Earth and the environment, as the signs of distress become more evident and urgent.
We can choose our religion. We can choose our citizenship. We can even choose our gender nowadays. However, we cannot choose the planet we live on. We cannot choose, or not choose, the Earth. We can live without religion, without countries, and even without supermarkets. We cannot live without the Earth. Earth is the Mother of all life, as we know it, UFO proponents notwithstanding. Her gifts and love are plentiful and unconditional, but, unless we change course, neither will last much longer. It is only a matter of common sense and reasonable responsibility for children to care for an ailing parent. What will we choose to do, now that we know that our actions are harming our mother? And who can give us the guidance to choose wisely? As they say, Mom always knows best…
Life is a trip, not in a metaphorical sense but literally. We are all taking a trip through the universe on a spaceship called, ‘Earth.’ Our souls dropped onto the fertile plains of Earth and we became passengers, not knowing our point of origin or our destination, almost as if we were unwilling and unaware participants in a cosmic bungee jump. What we do know, however, is that this trip is a journey of growth, both for our individual souls and for the collective soul of humanity. These are not separate
Life is a trip, but not an endless one. or idyllic. Ilchi Lee tells that 1 am sometimes surprised by my sense of urgency when 1 think of the direction in which humanity and Earth are headed. Burning whispers hiss in my ear from every direction. “We really don’t have time…” “This is not the way…” “We can’t go on like this…” We, as humanity, are collectively feeling the critical nature of our situation. We are both bewildered and panicked, looking for a leader, a Messiah, who will lead us out of our current Egypt, only to fall back into mounting despair as we are repeatedly disappointed. A journey can be described as a trip only when you know the destination. If not, a journey is only aimless wandering.
The important thing is to build a bridge between our soul and the soul of the Earth. For this to occur, we must know the Earth not only on a material plane, but also on a spiritual one. We have to realize that the Earth herself is a living entity. With her unique energy and soul, she is capable of communicating with and nurturing the innumerable forms of life that populate her being. By feeling the soul of the Earth, I have been awakened to the Oneness of all life. The more people communicate with the soul of the Earth, experientially realize this Oneness, and socially actualize its consciousness-expanding consequences, the quicker will we achieve lasting peace on Earth.
Ilchi Lee says that It is my hope that my book, Peaceology, can be said to present a comprehensive philosophy and specific ways to actualize peace, and I hope that Mago’s Dream will be a guide that will lead you into an awe-inspiring and deeply comforting experience of bonding with the soul of the Earth, ‘Mago.’
You probably already know that all people of the world are brothers and sisters in our common human heritage, which cannot be broken by transitory barriers of ethnicity, religion, and nationhood. This is obvious to everyone. However, this knowledge itself has proven to be sorely deficient in effecting fundamental and lasting change. We need to understand this in a way that will shake us to the core of our being, and lift us from our lack of consciousness in a blinding swirl of enlightenment. Only then will our brains undergo a fundamental transformation, translate the knowledge into action, and change the world for the better. Meeting with ‘Mago’ will lead you to such understanding.
As a brother to a brother, a sister to a sister, a parent to a child, and a child to a parent, I offer you my soul, my life, my all, knowing that we share the common destiny of our collective creation. And as one Earth-Human to another, I salute you in our common spiritual heritage and love of the Earth.
Both the U.S. surgeon general and the British Heart Association have suggested that people try to increase their walking to 10,000 steps a day in order to increase general fitness. For most people, that means doubling or tripling the amount they walk. You could measure your walking according to time or distance as well, but it is important to establish specific goals for yourself.
But don’t try reaching the goal in one giant leap. If you want to go for the 10,000-step goal, first try counting the steps YOU take in an ordinary day. A pedometer is a relatively inexpensive tool that can help YOU do this. After you know how many steps you take in an average day, make a plan to add more steps, day by day.
Learn to welcome, rather than abhor, opportunities to use your legs more. For example, maybe you groan when you have to climb several flights of stairs. Perhaps YOU immediately look for the closest elevator. Really, YOU are just cheating yourself of an opportunity to energize yourself. Try applying the Jangsaeng Principles as you walk up the stairs, leaning for ward on your Yong-chun, and YOU will feel the difference when YOU reach the top of the stairs.
Dahn Yoga education by Ilchi Lee.
JANGSAENG WALKING PRINCIPLE 5 by Ilchi Lee
It is easy to think that we walk only with our feet and we hold things only with our hands, but it is a mistake. Even the easiest and simplest movement is made with every single bone and muscle corresponding to each other and only then do we feel healthy and comfortable. Therefore in every single step we take, we should make sure that all our body parts—including the hip joint, back, shoulders, and arms—correspond to each other.
People who walk with their hands in their pockets and heads do\vn have stiff shoulders, and their necks are putting all the burden of walking on their backs. Eventually the hip joint becomes stiff. The right posture must be the foundation in order to walk for the benefit of the entire body. Keep in mind the basic posture of Jangsaeng Walking, and walk with the feeling ol linking the Yong-chun on the sole to the top of the head. Walking with the conscious mind on our body itself is a great health method.
As we continue to walk linking the energy from Yong-chun to our brain, we soon come to feel the rhythm of our own bodv. Walk joyfully and naturally ride on that rhythm. Focus on your mind and bodv while walking. We can finally feel inner peace and can make better judgments more objectively outside of our own emotions. When the rhythm is alive in our inner world, our own sensation awakens, and creative ideas are actively generated.