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: Three Cents Column by Director Bong

Three Cents Column by Director Bong of RGO 24! 'Although I am lacking and my writing is only worth as much as 'three cents...' I share the Sunday messages and interpret them with 'the language of the world.''

칼럼_연재칼럼_Three Cents Column

What does a person live by?

A person grows through ‘inspiration’ and ‘admiration.’

What does a person live by? This is a question that elicits countless many answers. However, if we want to find the answer from this week’s message, we could say that a person lives by receiving and giving ‘inspiration.’

Professor Kim Jeong-un, a best-seller writer and a great lecturer, said, “A person lives to receive inspiration (admiration) and also to give inspiration (admiration).” The story of the scientist’s experiment, which he talked about on television, was a good lesson on the great power that ‘inspiration (admiration)’ gives:

Baby chimpanzees are very intelligent. Compared with human, around the same time period after birth, chimpanzees are actually much more clever. In an experiment [with a baby chimpanzee], when there was an acorn in a long and skinny glass bottle, the young baby chimpanzee licked it and tried to put its hand in it to eat [the acorn], but eventually it realized that it was impossible to eat. The baby chimpanzee thought for a moment and then had the idea to put water in its mouth and pour it into the bottle. By repeating this three to four times, the water filled up the long glass bottle and the acorn at the bottom floated to the top, so the chimpanzee was able to easily take it out with its hand and eat it. [Considering this] then, how come baby chimpanzees do not grow and develop to be more clever than humans when they are so highly intelligent as babies?

Chimpanzees clearly develop the ability to learn, and also they have a clear desire to learn. However, what is different from chimpanzees and humans is that chimpanzee mothers do not admire their babies’ learning behavior. When a baby makes even a small change, a human is moved and expresses his or her admiration while treating the baby like a genius or a hero who has accomplished a great achievement. However, mother chimpanzees do not show that they are moved or that they admire their baby. Human babies accelerate their learning more to move their mother and receive her admiration. In the end, they achieve amazing growth.

Not physically, but with inspiration from the Holy Trinity...

The reason people invest a lot of money to go to the Grand Canyon in America is to be inspired and to admire it. The purpose of visiting a great museum in Europe and standing in front of a great work of art is also to be inspired and to admire that work of art. In the same way, people begin to do things to give inspiration to others and make them admire them.This has a great possibility in ending as something beautiful. If this healthy ‘inspiration’ and ‘admiration’ becomes the motivation of life and moves our life, the world will absolutely grow closer to the image of the beautiful Heaven that the Holy Trinity intended.

The common cold is a very annoying and gross illness. However, one of the good things about catching a cold is that you can experience a decrease in your physical body’s desires. Your appetite and also the small desires in your daily life decrease, but you come to taste a [sort of] peace of mind coming from a corner of your heart. Haven't you experienced this [before]?

The 108 afflictions* from Buddhism emerge from all kinds of desire. They arise from the interaction between our six sensory faculties--the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and will--and our six consciousnesses--the counterparts of the six sensory faculties: color, sound, smell, taste, sense, and reason. When our desires are decreased by force, our afflictions also decrease together. Therefore, people may feel the state of nirvana while going through a cold that makes the body ache.

(Translator’s note: These are also called "impure thoughts," "vices" or "evils," or "earthly desires," but they are apparently not called "sins.")

In the same way, if we take action not physically, which refers to the six sensory faculties and six consciousnesses, but with ‘the inspiration’ of the Holy Trinity, which is at a higher level, our physical life will be filled with more inspiration and it will give off more inspiration. By taking action the moment we are inspired, I hope that we will live a great life that makes the Heavens admire us.