Haemin Sunim

We like to get involved in other people’s business,

thinking we are doing so for them.

We offer unsolicited help and interfere with their lives.

We take away their power and make them feel incapable.

This stems from our desire for control and recognition.

It has little to do with love.

We do things for the one we love,

but sometimes just being there expresses even deeper love.

Give the gift of your full presence.

Some say they don’t really know what they are looking for in life.

This might be because, instead of getting in touch with how they feel,

they have led their lives according to other people’s expectations.

Live your life not to satisfy others, but to fulfill what your heart desires.

Instead of building up a résumé only to land a job,

enjoy the process of learning something new.

Don’t do it just for the end.

Delight in the means, too.

A boss should not be overly concerned with how she is perceived.

This is secondary.

Rather, she should focus on how her work affects the staff and clients.

Some people would like to have all their decisions made for them—

hence the opportunity for charismatic cult leaders

to take advantage of them.

“How should we consider a different spiritual path?

We shall approach it with humility

as well as a willingness to learn about another tradition.

If our faith can be shaken

from merely learning about a different tradition,

then that faith is not worth keeping.”

—REVEREND DR. KANG WON YONG (1917–2006)

We don’t receive more love from God by asking for it.

Rather, we awaken to the truth that God has always loved us unconditionally.

We don’t turn into a buddha by striving for it.

Rather, we awaken to the truth that we have been buddhas all along

in the stillness of the pause, the entirety of our being is quietly revealed.

Do you not feel compassion for yourself as you struggle through life?

You are so eager to help your friends, but you treat yourself so poorly.

Stroke your heart once in a while and tell yourself, “I love you.”