A New Welfare Paradigm

The greatest Tao in this world is welfare. The Korean word for welfare is “bokji.” It combines the characters for “happiness” and “benefit” to mean “blessings upon blessings.” Welfare describes a happy life, and there is no Tao more ideal. That’s why I call it Bokji Daedo, or the “Great Tao of Welfare.”

There probably needs to be a shift in the awareness of welfare from the perception of it prevalent in western culture. The definition I associate with it, is welfare as “collective well-being,” which I feel must be the center of all values and take priority over all other values in the world. If you earn money, if you want to be famous, or if you attain power for the sake of collective well-being, then it is a beautiful and holy thing.

In order to actualize true welfare, everyone needs to have the right understanding of it. What the current material civilization sees as welfare is fundamentally different from a spiritual civilization’s take on welfare. In material civilization, welfare generally describes when those who are wealthy, or the country, provide people who can’t secure food, clothing, or shelter for themselves with food to eat, clothes to wear, and a place to sleep. Such welfare, given as charity, cannot be lasting welfare, causing people to lose their self-respect and at times even making them beggars forever.

When we herald the era of a spiritual civilization, however, welfare must essentially focus on the soul and promote dignity and real self-esteem, awakening respect toward people and restoring their conscience. A welfare nation of such a spiritual civilization has a high happiness quotient; it would be a country where all people are happy. More specifically, this means that it would be a country where at least 90% of the citizens declare for themselves that they are happy, and even the other 10% who say they aren’t happy can still find dignity and self-respect.

In order for this to happen, we need a shift in political culture from materialism to spirituality. In terms of legislation, most advanced nations are almost perfectly ready to actualize a welfare nation in an era of spiritual civilization. Because humanity has the “Hongik spirit,” we have the potential to actualize welfare nations with an advanced spiritual culture.

It’s time to create a model for pursuing real welfare, welfare that restores conscience and a sense of humanity. Welfare is essential for people to connect with what makes them humane and to follow their conscience, so that they can sustain dignity and self-respect.

Human beings are the driving force behind welfare. With true welfare, rather than simply becoming a recipient of charity, everyone works hard and is committed to their life so that they may also become, sooner or later, people who grant welfare. This precisely describes “Hongik”—serving the good of all. Pursuing success is a good thing if it’s for the sake of welfare as collective well-being and for the happiness of all people.

All of the work I have done for the past 30 years was done for the “Great Tao of Welfare” (Bokji Daedo) and welfare nations. For the sake of this great welfare, not small material welfare, the Hongik spirit is imperative. The first thing to do is communicate the value of the Hongik spirit. For this purpose, I have offered Dahnhak and Brain Education, LifeParticles and the MindScreen, and Younggamudo to the world. All of the organizations of the global Hongik community were made for the sake of greater welfare.

Welfare is the ultimate value that humanity must pursue, and it’s the only way to create heaven on Earth. Now, it’s time to actualize not an incomplete welfare of capitalism and socialism, but Hongik welfare, a complete welfare built on a foundation of spiritual culture. The messages of heaven, the reverberations of the earth’s soul, and the yearning of all souls to herald an era of spiritual civilization, actualize nations of true welfare, and create heaven on Earth are now sweeping towards humanity. Great blessings will come to the awakened souls all over the world who hear this message and work to fulfill their mission.