This is how Love energizes you

Dr Tae Yun Kim is a martial artist, an author, a speaker and much more.  Here is an excerpt from her book, The Silent Master.
  

This is how Love energizes you. It gives you inner joy, enthusiasm and awareness that helps you carries out the work of meeting your goals.

Would you be surprised to know that you may be wasting your energy, spending it on things that undermine and sabotage your goals and desires? You may have habits that weaken the quality of your energy on a regular basis. Your energy is a creative tool! It must not be wasted.

When I teach my students to break bricks with their bare feet or hands, I'm teaching them to control and direct their energy in a positive way. Jung SuWon training does not teach only martial arts movements. Since body and mind are one, this physical training helps students contact their own spiritual energy. There is always a balance between the two. You can't have a pure body without a pure mind, and vice versa. You may develop your mind but if you don't take care of or develop your body it will have an effect on you. When your body gets hurt, doesn't that cloud your thoughts? Likewise, if you only pay attention to developing your physical body and neglect your mental training you will be unable to deal with life situations. Body and mind must always work together.

Your whole being physical, mental and emotional is an expression of energy. To create, transform, or reshape your life, then, your energy must be pure and free. And as you purify your energy, you move into the next stage of examining the content of your life.

What is Energy?

Dr Tae Yun Kim is a martial artist, an author, a speaker and much more.  Here is an excerpt from her book, The Silent Master.
 

What is energy? I want to show you that energy is an expression of the Life Force of the whole universe. And you and this Life Force are one! Being at one with the Life Force of the universe, you are energy. And the sun, wind, water, and all of nature is also energy.

When you cannot find this energy within yourself, often you can go into nature to feel and connect with the Life Force.

This Life Force, this energy, is Love in action.

When you start feeling this natural Love within you, It will change how you see and respond to the whole world. You will start feeling a warmth, buoyancy, and enthusiasm that flows out of you as naturally as breathing.

Certainly, one of the goals of self discovery is to be able to enjoy this natural energy of Love and share it with everyone. You may wonder why we often feel such a lack of energy if we are indeed one with the Life Force behind the whole universe. The answer is that our own negative thoughts, attitudes, and emotions act like filters to keep this mighty river of energy down to a trickling stream. One purpose of the Jung SuWon training I teach is to purify this filter to purify your thinking and feeling so that energy flows more freely and powerfully.

For example, one of the black belt instructors in my school told me how his teaching changed when he began to approach it with this natural Love. Before he began to feel his spiritual energy increasing, his teaching consisted of making sure the students did every move correctly or learned at the proper rate. This is part of being a good teacher, of course. But when he began to feel more of the natural Love within him, his teaching went beyond this physical instruction. He listened and responded with more awareness and sensitivity to everyone's special needs and unique feelings. He not only desired to see the students learn the correct moves, but desired to help them defeat their weaknesses and shine with self confidence and self esteem. He cared about every step of their growth with as much enthusiasm as his own growth. In short, he began loving the students as well as teaching them, and it made his job more joyous and fulfilling than he'd ever known. 

Time For Action

Dr Tae Yun Kim is a martial artist, an author, a speaker and much more.  Here is an excerpt from her book, The Silent Master.

Action

When you are really ready to become new and cast off the old, and when you have accepted that you will necessarily change and are prepared to do so, you're going to have to actually do something about it. We've already discussed how good intentions alone are not sufficient to bring about change. You'll have to take action. One way or another you'll have to set a plan in motion. In Chapter Six, we will look at numerous actions you can take to reach your goals. At this readiness stage, however, the important thing is the willingness to take action. And perhaps the very first action you take on your journey is to begin the self discovery stage of energizing.

2. Energizing

The readiness stage is like getting a clean sheet of paper ready to write on. Obviously you don't want to write on paper that's already marked up. You are ready to move further on yourself discovery path when you're open for development, like the clean sheet of paper. You are then prepared for the next stage: energizing.

This stage involves getting your energy under control purifying it, increasing it, and directing it toward goals and activities that promote your growth and development rather than self destructive or limited ends. Because you are unique, it is important not to compare yourself with others or have unrealistic expectations for what you want to accomplish. There is already within you a quiet recognition of the goals that are appropriate for you. An unrealistic goal will make you feel "pushed" or anxious, whereas a realistic goal will bring a sense of excitement and eager anticipation.

Have a Large Empty Cup!

Dr Tae Yun Kim is a martial artist, an author, a speaker and much more.  Here is an excerpt from her book, The Silent Master.

"I also say have a large empty cup! Let your cup be ready to hold many new things. If we focus only on looking for a pearl, we miss the diamond at our feet. It's good to have a specific goal, but also be willing to receive all kinds of new ideas, new feelings, and new visions. The only way we can ever truly learn something is if we are totally open and receptive. The greatest obstacles to our learning are our own doubts, suspicions, and self imposed limited judgments.

Having a large empty cup means you are willing to fill it with anything and everything good, not just one thing. You may start on a self discovery journey to lose weight, for instance. But if you limit yourself to just that you may not let your spiritual growth open other avenues for you. In the process of losing weight, for instance, you may develop interests that remind you how much you like reading. What may have begun as a journey to lose weight could end up being a journey to become the librarian you were meant to be, and had always wanted to be. "

Have an Open Mind

Dr Tae Yun Kim is a martial artist, an author, a speaker and much more.  Here is an excerpt from her book, The Silent Master.

An Open Mind

This requires having an open mind. You may have to say, "I don't know all that I am to be, but I know what I am not, and I desire to be rid of my old self. I am willing to try something new."

I call this openness forming an empty cup. This means you are willing to regard your body and your life as an empty vessel ready to be filled with the new. The Bible expresses this idea in this way:

No one sews a patch of un-shrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins. (Mark 2:21-22)

These words tell us that transforming your life does not mean patching up or fixing the old. It means starting over. It means getting a new vessel to hold a new you. You need a new mind and a new body to create a new life. Sometimes in my classes I actually bring a full cup of water to class and show my students what happens when you try to pour new water into a full cup. The full cup simply overflows and cannot hold anything new.

You Must Be Willing To Change

Dr Tae Yun Kim is a martial artist, an author, a speaker and much more.  Here is an excerpt from her book, The Silent Master.

Change

Next, after commitment, you must be willing to change. You must be willing to become a new person, a different person. And you must be willing to give up old concepts of yourself even before you see your new qualities. The autumn leaves must fall before spring can bring new growth. Death of the old is necessary to prepare for the new.  

I love watching children because they can teach us so much about the process of learning. They are focused when they learn something new, as they drink in every drop of information. Why do we so often stop learning and growing as we become adults? Why is it so much more difficult? Isn't it because we stop questioning or examining what's around us? We become satisfied that we've learned enough. We get comfortable with the habits we've acquired. Some people refer to this as a comfort zone, which describes how we tend to hang onto worn out, ineffective attitudes and habits simply because they're familiar. Things that are familiar don't stimulate or scare us the way new situations might, so we tend not to question familiar patterns. But the price we pay for familiarity is that we stop experiencing, and instead repeat old habits over and over.

We also avoid new experiences by being overly judgmental about people and events. We make up our mind ahead of time about how something will be instead of remaining open to the unexpected. In order to find a new you, you'll have to put aside all your perceived limitations and problems and look at yourself with new eyes. You will have to look at yourself as if for the first time, looking with the eyes of a child discovering something new.

How We Form Priorities

Dr Tae Yun Kim is a martial artist, an author, a speaker and much more.  Here is an excerpt from her book, The Silent Master.

Suddenly you come to a patch of sand that's darker, harder, and firmer than the rest. Your heart beats faster with anticipation as you mind contemplates the possibility that water is there. You fall to your knees, and tear at the sand, digging deeper and deeper as your fingers scratch and bleed. Then the ground goes moist and you feel within yourself a burst of energy that you didn't know was possible. With renewed strength, you dig faster and harder until you feel the cool liquid on your hand, and you take it and splash it quickly into your parched mouth.

This story is a picture of how priorities form. In a desert situation like this, you become completely focused on what you want and what you need! This is what I mean by commitment. Are you possibly in some kind of desert situation in your life right now? Are there some situations in your life that stubbornly resist a solution? Then you will need to look for the solution with the same commitment as the person in the desert did.

This desert traveler was totally committed to the goal of finding water. As a result, he found it! Was he thinking of the pizza parlor during his search? His girlfriend? The movie he saw the week before? No, there were no distractions here. Just the commitment to find water, and the perseverance to keep going until the goal was won.

In the same way, when you decide you want to find your true Self, you will need to commit to the process. In this illustration, the person's commitment was forced on him by circumstances. Like the rabbit in the previous story, he had to find water or die! Although this seems like an extreme example, your need to know your real Self can be just as great. Even if you don't have a life threatening situation that could be healed only by the power of your real Self, it would be a terrible waste to let your life slip away without realizing your full potential. 

Are You Ready to Seek & Find Your True Self?

Dr Tae Yun Kim is a martial artist, an author, a speaker and much more.  Here is an excerpt from her book, The Silent Master.

Whatever your motive for seeking your real Self, there are four things you must be willing to do if you are ready to seek and find your true Self. You must be:

Willing to commit

Willing to change

Willing to have an open mind

Willing to take action

 Commitment

Here's an illustration I use when talking to students about the importance of commitment and setting priorities at the beginning of their journey.Imagine that you are lost and alone in a Fiery Hot Desert, the sun beating down on you as you trudge through the burning sands. You've gone for days with no food and little water, and your body is weak with exhaustion and exposure. Heat waves are rising in front of you, blurring your vision, and there is nothing but hot, dry sand all around you.What's on your mind? What are you thinking about? Are you still worried about what color you're going to paint the kitchen?Most likely there is only one thought in your mind, and that is getting what you need for survival: water. Desperately you need water. Only this thought keeps you moving, and keeps your feet wading through the scorching sands. Whatever else you may have wanted at other times in your life pales in comparison to this one goal.

All that's left in your mind is an overwhelming thirst, a need for the one substance that will save your life. What are you willing to give in order to get it? What are you willing to sacrifice in order to get it? Aren't you resolved to commit all your resources at the present moment to get water the thing that will save your life?

Self Discovery is going on every moment of your life

Dr Tae Yun Kim is a martial artist, an author, a speaker and much more.  Here is an excerpt from her book, The Silent Master.

THE FOUR STAGES OF SELF-DISCOVERY

"Self Discovery is going on every moment of your life. The question is: Are you sitting in the driver's seat? That is, are you guiding the process so that you discover a self that has freedom, energy, and love? Or are you discovering a more limited self every day?

I have learned there are four basic stages in true self discovery. These four stages may recycle over and over again as you grow and rise to higher levels of knowing yourself. As a tree grows, doesn't it create more than one branch? To some extent, of course, the four stages may overlap or happen at the same time. But for the sake of discussion, we can talk about them separately to see what the main challenges are at each stage.

I call the four stages of self discovery: Readiness, Energizing, Life Examination, and Rebirth. We will discuss these stages in depth in the following chapters, but for now we can just define them.

    

1. Readiness

There's a story about a Rabbit that fell into a hole in the woods. He hopped up and down inside the hole time after time after time, trying so hard to get out, but never succeeding. Many other woodland animals came and watched this show, feeling sorry for the rabbit and expressing all kinds of sympathy and concern. But of course, that was no help. Finally they all left. The next day when they returned to continue watching, they found the rabbit sitting calmly by a tree covering the hole. "You got out!" they exclaimed in amazement. "How did you do that?" "Well," the rabbit replied, "there was this big tree falling down over the hole, and well...I had to." 

 And so it is that many of us aren't ready to discover our spiritual nature until we feel we have to. Suddenly you may have a life threatening illness, or perhaps experience some kind of loss. At these times you generally feel the need to search for a way to cope and a deeper meaning to life. You naturally turn within yourself, looking and listening for a feeling of something true and real. That something is your real Self, your Silent Master consciousness.

This is why adversity can be a blessing in disguise. It turns you to your true self, where you not only find healing, but more of your undiscovered potential as well.

You May Not Be On Your True Path

Dr Tae Yun Kim is a martial artist, an author, a speaker and much more.  Here is an excerpt from her book, The Silent Master.

 
 "If you feel unfulfilled, out of place, or generally unhappy, your disharmony may be telling you that you are not on your true path. There could be many reasons why you may have taken a path in life leading you away from rather that toward your true purpose. But the truth and purpose of your being, as well as all the mental, emotional, and physical tools you need for action, are here right now in your Silent Master consciousness. Who you are in truth is available right now for you to know. Right now, this minute, you can make a decision to commit to your true self, to finding your real power, purpose, and life.

Sometimes there are powerful environmental obstacles to overcome when you seek true self discovery. If this is so for you, then you may have to work hard to overcome them. Self discovery is not necessarily easy, but difficulty is not a reason to abandon your goals. What does it matter if overcoming obstacles is difficult? When you reach your goal, the difficulties settle in the dust behind you as you enjoy your success.

I had to overcome centuries of prejudice against women in my country just to devote my life to martial arts. Everything in my oriental environment said it was impossible for a woman to become a martial arts master, let alone a grandmaster. Women were supposed to cook and sew and look after children. The pressure to conform to this "law" was enormous. But I did not listen to that, and instead focused all my energy on my goals. I succeeded. When I arrived in the United States, I had more obstacles to overcome learning to live in a different country and establishing my school. But again, I worked until I succeeded. Even today, I have more goals and, therefore, more obstacles. But I use my understanding of Jung SuWon to help me build my life, and to help others develop using the same principles."

Seven Steps to Inner Power

Dr Tae Yun Kim is a martial artist, an author, a speaker and much more.  Here is an excerpt from her book, The Silent Master.

  

We first work to bring our body and mind as one so that we can apply and focus ourselves to learning. So often we are distracted and unfocused. In order to dedicate ourselves to self discovery, we must unite our whole being in this task.

Next, our second step inward is to seek the truth in ourselves and in the world around us. We look at who we really are, not who others say we are. This introspection helps us to discover both our strengths and weaknesses. It also allows us to discover what our real goals are. As we glimpse who we are, we discover the things we want to change in order to become who we want to be.

The third step is purity. As we recognize our fears and weaknesses we build the desire to remove these impurities. Our goal is to purify our bodies, minds, and spirits from the chains we've imposed on them from our lifestyle, attitude, and environment.

The fourth step is to learn to love ourselves with a pure, accepting, and spiritual love. We build on ourselves overcoming our weaknesses, developing our strengths, discovering our potential. As we see ourselves through our inner eyes, a growing sense of beauty and acceptance forms within us, ultimately leading to inner peace and self contentment. 

 

This love for ourselves multiplies our self worth and makes our goals and development become priorities, so next we develop a loyalty to ourselves and our growth, to our beliefs, our purpose, and our path.

Sacrifice is the sixth principle in our lives: to eliminate unnecessary activities, and to make decisions about where to spend our energy, time, and money so that we achieve our goals. We realize that many of the things we originally thought would be sacrifices turn out to be distractions sidetracking us from our ultimate goals.

Finally, we develop patience. Through the growing process of self discovery we become more patient with ourselves and others. We learn to be content with the path we choose, our direction, and our progress. We stop living for tomorrow and live and breathe the journey right now, weathering life's surprises and disappointments, remaining at peace with our direction and ourselves.

A Journey of True Self Discovery

Dr Tae Yun Kim is a martial artist, an author, a speaker and much more.  Here is an excerpt from her book, The Silent Master.

THE SEVEN STEPS TO SELF-DISCOVERY

If your life is not filled with forms that are as pure and true as you'd like them to be, be assured that even these negative pictures have a purpose. The negatives in your life simply show you where your thinking can be corrected, where your beliefs need to be examined, and where you can take positive action to change your environment. Any disharmony, any illness, limitation, unhappiness, or tragedy is an opportunity to open to the reality of your True Self, to tap into your ever present Silent Master consciousness within. It's an opportunity to start on a journey of true self discovery.And what are the goals of this journey? The discovery of peace and joy. The discovery of inner power, healing, and freedom! Whatever path develops for you when you make the decision to discover your true self starts you on the way to the goal of freedom.

There are seven qualities or principles that are the foundation of the path of self discovery. No matter how your path progresses for you specifically, or whatever individual conditions you develop, these principles remain the same for everyone. They are the basis of all creative power. These qualities are: Body and Mind As One, Truth, Purity, Love, Loyalty, Sacrifice, and Patience. In developing these qualities, you bring your Silent Master consciousness to bear on all aspects of your life. The Silent Master consciousness is a mover and shaper, and because you are one with this consciousness, you have freedom to re-shape or transform your life.

We are responsible for creating our environment

Dr Tae Yun Kim is a martial artist, an author, a speaker and much more.  Here is an excerpt from her book, The Silent Master.

Most of us are so preoccupied with our physical pursuits our marriages, our jobs, the kids' education, politics, the evening news, the economy and so on that we don't think in terms of self development, much less Self Discovery. If we don't understand how we are responsible for creating our environment, we may not feel motivated to take responsibility for the quality of our thinking. We may vaguely feel that the world is just "out there," and we try our best just to survive. We may feel isolated, unimportant, and separate, believing that we have no real or significant role to play in the world. Sometimes it isn't until some sort of tragedy or illness strikes that we are motivated to dig deeper into who we really are and what we can accomplish.

Self discovery is actually going on all the time, whether you realize it or not. With or without tragedy or illness, every minute of your life is some sort of self discovery. That's because everything you think, say and do every minute is reflecting your present concept of yourself. Your life is a picture of who you think you are. How very important, then, to know who you really are.