In honor of 9-11-2001

Even I am a day late, I cannot just ignore this day. I want to pay respect to the wonderful, beautiful country of ours, and to all the people that have made it the great nation that it is. I want to thank everyone who stood up to the terrorists that day, from the President to every person who started to fly a flag to show they are ready to fight terror.

I remember the day it happened so well. I got a phone call in the early morning from Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim - she had already watched it happen and shared the news with us and suggested I turn on the TV and watch. I remember the horror of the day unfold.

And yet, amidst all the reports coming in and amidst death, destruction and despair, a new energy started to emerge. A spirit of togetherness, of unity, of something uniquely American. There was pride in being a US citizen. There was pride in our country.

That night, we had a very special class at Jung SuWon. Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim gathered us together and talked about what happened. Each person got a chance to express their feelings and deal with their emotions. Some of our students had relatives in New York and had just faced incredible losses. And yet, through meditation and prayer, a new peace started to develop - a very fragile inner peace, that would give rise to new hope. There were heart felt tears, there was outrage, there was anger, just about all emotions were there....each person dealt with their feelings differently. And yet each person had their chance to express and share.

The class ended with a beautiful candle ceremony, led by Grandmaster Kim, with each student lighting a candle in honor of all those that had suffered so much that day, whether victim or rescuer... With lit candle in our hands, we formed a circle and meditated. It was a beautiful expression of how we all felt.

Celebrate Life!

Today I would like to take a minute and write about my mother. She passed away August 31st, 2006. She was healthy, happy and full of life! She was one of those rare people that can always find the positive in any situation.

Her passing was completely unexpected. She was gone from one moment to the next, just as she had always hoped it would happen. She was kind, compassionate, and helpful. She loved to cook and made the best meals she could, even when we were so poor we only had bread..she found a way to make it "new" every day..... She was an awsome mother, a wonderful grandmother, and an all around great person. Even after she retired from her business, she couldn't sit still and started volunteer work with the mentally retarded. She even received an award from the President of Austria for her work with the mentally challenged people!

I was shocked when I got the news that she was gone. It was hard to swallow. It was hard to digest the fact that this person, so bursting with gusto for life, was now gone. But Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim really helped me get through this. Yes, of course I had my family to fall back on and we encouraged each other, but sometimes it is very helpful to have someone that is not directly involved with the pain that goes along with this sort of thing. I resorted to reading her book, "The Silent Master" and found a much needed peace of mind and heart.

"We do not have the feeling from day to day that eventually we are going to die, or that our time here is limited. We don't live from moment to moment with the awareness that we could die at anytime. Even if we ask a question like, "Am I were I want to be?" its all too easy to reply "Well, I'll get there some day," and drop the matter right there. We tend to put off the fulfillment of our real goals to "when I retire," or, "when the kids are out of the house," or "when I have time."

"Someday" is never going to come. The only time there is, is now. When "someday" comes, it will be now. So what you think and do right now is what will happen on the mythical "someday."

Unfortunately, death seems to mysterious, baffling, horrible, and final that we don't want to consider it in our daily lives. But we must have the courage to look squarely at the limited time frame death gives us, and act accordingly. You don't know when death will come. The "someday" you wait for may never come, simply because you won't be here to experience it!

Of course, in reality what is really you will never die. Your Silent Master consciousness is eternal; only your manifestations - including your present body and life - come and go from your consciousness. So we're talking now about the death of your physical manifestation, and not of your eternal true self.

I am at peace. I know my mom is too.

Determination - one of Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim's most important teachings

I am excited to write about this one - determination! I have learned a lot about that in my martial arts classes at Jung SuWon Academy, but I have also learned to apply that in my daily life.

Let me quote from Dr. Tae Yun Kim's book, Seven Steps to Inner Power to illustrate:

"Here's the unfortunate thing about determination: it only works when you want it to.
Unswerving determination is one of the most important factors in reaching your goal, in reaching any goal. Only you can make your determination work for you. And if you use it, your determination will attract to you all the other factors needed for your success - the right associates, the right information, being in the right place at the right time, and so on. Determine now to value determination!"

And today, I'll use someone else's example for illustration. Even though I have experienced it myself a lot, today, I would like to share the following video with you, to show that determination brings great results:



Determination!!!
(FYI, this is not a one-time fluke - this Jung SuWon Student has done this before....)

Jung SuWon Video

I think by now you are getting the idea: Jung SuWon training is nothing what you ever expect. Just when you think you got it all figured out - you realize you just don't!

We were preparing to participate in a regional tournament. Now we don't usually go to tournaments because they have deteriorated so much, and made political events out of a very ancient Martial Arts form. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying people shouldn't participate - I am just saying, we usually don't.

During that preparation time, we also had a demo at a local high school. It was a very large school, and we had several demos scheduled during the day. Late in the afternoon, I was a bit careless and while breaking a couple of cinderblocks with an axe kick, I slashed open my heel, blood everywhere. I ended up with stitches in my heel and doctors telling me I wasn't supposed to walk much, let alone train.

No good! The tournament was in 3 days, and I am grounded? So I was going to just wing it and participate anyhow.

But Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim wouldn't have any of that. No, she had an entirely different plan for me. Grab the video camera and film! Now I had never filmed anything in my entire life, nor had I even held a camera before. I knew nothing, not even how to turn this thing on! Well, ok, so I asked, what about doing the forms? I agred to film the sparring, but what about forms? Expecting that Grandmaster Kim would say I could do at least compete in forms. But, she just calmly replied, "You can film those too."

You can imagine that the remaining days I spent every minute I had with the camera and trying to learn what to do and how to do it....

Martial Arts is a whole lot more than punching and kicking....it's all about living life to the fullest!

Obstacle course a la Jung SuWon, or, conquer your fears and weaknesses!

Re-reading my previous post I realize that I haven't really told you much, especially about that obstacle course. Well, it was one even the army wouldn't have minded to have, I am sure!

It started out innocently enough, with kicking and punching bags hung from nice redwood trees. You could almost pretend like you were right at home at the Jung SuWon Do Jang! It slowly increased in intensity - but when you first started the course, you couldn't see the tough part, only the nice, inviting bags....so with gusto I started out....

...until I stared at the rope suspended from another Redwood tree, and - watching the people before me, I realized I was supposed to grab the rope, run, and swing over a tree stump. Not!

I stood there, sweating, considering, thinking - but there was no time for that since others lined up behind me and urged me to go. With a resounding "He Can Do, She Can Do, Why Not Me!" I was gently propelled towards the rope, that an ever so helpful instructor held out to me....so I grabbed the rope and started running...I was way scared, but did jump - well, sort of, I bypassed the stump but did jump up in the air and was flying for a little bit

Ok, so with that out of the way, I ran along the course and saw the tires...a LOT of tires! Looking ahead, I saw people hopping through them, you had to step into each of them, ok, at least nothing too scary with this and I started - thank goodness everyone behind me was very patient because it seemed I was in those tires forever, hopping around like a chicken without a head! I fell a few times too, but so what!

Next thing I remember (and I am sure I forgot some stations of this course) was a set of balance beams, starting with one low to the ground, and the next one higher and so forth, you had to walk along each of them and then step onto the next higher. So far, so good. I started out and it wasn't so bad. The next one was ok too, but then it started to get serious for me.

Funny how the mind works. The balance beams were all the exact same width and length. Exactly! However, the higher up they were, the narrower they seemed, and the longer! All of a sudden I kept loosing my balance, got wobbly and got very scared.

But Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim had the solution. Instead of letting me come down - no way! She simply extended the end of her bamboo stick to me, to "hold on" to. Now if I had seriously started falling, that stick could of course not have held me up. However, it provided the mental railing I needed and with holding on to that small point, I was able to complete this task.

After jumping off the last beam, I found myself face to face with a tall wall, that I hadn't seen yet - I was so absorbed in what I was doing that I hadn't paid attention to that high wall looming ever so high and unapproachable.



I simply didn't want to even try this. It was just too high! I don't know if it was 10 feet tall or more, it was TOO HIGH! Didn't anyone realize that? I just stood there looking for a way out and this time, seriously for a way out. I stepped to the side a little and for a few minutes I was allowed the illusion of actually getting out of climbing the wall, while others passed by me and did the climbing - or the attempting.

Watching others climb made me even more scared and I was relieved I was just able to stand off to the side. I was hoping I could turn into a tree and just blend into the forest. But, Grandmaster Kim had a different plan for me.

Of course she had not forgotten about me, nor was going to just let me "weasel out." She had everyone stop and then asked me to climb. Oh no! Not that! Not only climbing the wall, but with everyone watching? I must be having a nightmare!

I was standing there in a daze, but someone moved me somehow closer to the wall and put the rope into my hands, the rope that was supposed to help me over the wall. I looked up and it seemed the wall was melting into the sky, it was so high! I was so scared I wanted to run off and cry. But all around me there was a circle of people, smiling so nicely and everyone telling me I could do it.

With so much positive energy around me, how could I resist? Well, at least I could try - I was already convinced I couldn't do it, so at least I could give it a good try, right? I grabbed the rope and started, half heartedly. Of course I kept plunking right back down. I looked around for a possibility to "escape" this, but not a chance. I got the idea that I was actually expected to make it to the top! Nobody was physically or mentally forcing me, just everybody was smiling and happy and really wanting me to make it! All of a sudden I felt pumped up and thought, well maybe there is a chance...and with gusto this time I grabbed the rope and "rope-walked" the wall. After a few more tries I got close to the top, but now what! How do I get over the top? Somehow an instructor appeared seemingly out of nowhere and reached over, grabbed me by the belt and helped me over the top.

Whow, what a feeling! I was so happy I was crying. It wasn't the wall, it wasn't that I was standing however many feet up in the air cheering and clapping like mad, it was the fact that I was sooooo convinced I couldn't do it and yet, Grandmaster Kim showed me, yes, I could do it! And everyone with their clapping and cheering and yelling and even screaming almost carried me up that wall.

To me that wall became a symbol in my life. That whenever something seems just too impossible to get done, I remember, yes, it can be done!

Jung SuWon "camping" - the infamous obstacle course

One of the things we did you'll have seen in the video from a couple of postings ago. Yes, a real outdoor obstacle course, one even the Army would have been proud of!

It included all sorts of items and "things", most of which I would have put into the category of turture instruments, but I did grow to love it - the thrill of it, the feeling of accomplishing something so utterly unimaginable to me.

Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim, of course, wanted to show us our potential. She explained that each of us already has all the potential we'll ever need and that her job is to show us a bit of that potential. So even though I was scared out of my mind, and didn't think I could do any of the Obstacle course exercises....after a round or two, yes, I was doing it.

After that, we all sat down around the camp fire and expressed. Grandmaster started by saying....see what you did today! If you can do that, you can do anything you set your mind to!

More of Jung Su Won Style camping...

So while I thoroughly enjoyed the physical workout - I very much loved the Ki energy lessons as well. The first Ki Energy lessons were simple - Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim would have us sit down either under some beautiful trees, or right there in the grass, and give a brief lecture, drawing from the environment around us. It was so exciting for me, to finally actually feel, and eventually, see Ki energy! I had thought that such a privilege was reserved for only the most ancient, Oriental Masters who live on top of tall mountains....

And here we were, total and complete Westerners, learning about the secrets of Ki Energy, from a true Master!

We also learned energy forms, like the one you see in the video above...and yes that is Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim in the video......