All the stories in the world are in the first, second, or third person. At this time it’s the first person that is important. Now it’s not the saint, martyr, or great hero who is the protagonist. It is the “I.” It is you.
Many people tend forget how important they are. Instead, others are always emphasized. You live for your family and your country. Although it may seem noble, this emphasis on others is a value of a purely material civilization.
However, an era of spiritual enlightenment is not a time of him or her or them. It’s a time in which the self is important and you create you. You have to exist in order for there to be a him or her or them—even the country and the earth. In each of us exists everything else. If I exist then you and he and she can exist—that is enlightenment.
Before now we’ve studied so much about others but did not consider loving ourselves and interacting with ourselves to be as important. However, each of us is at the center of everything. We are each important and should value ourselves as such. Value is not something given to you by others but something you create.
The world’s problems are not going to be solved by a he or she, but by an I. You are standing at the center of history in 2012. But what will you choose? If you choose it, it will come true. What creates history is millions of choices. For the future of humanity, there is work we must do and this work is done in the first person.
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Yes! I agree so strongly. We must have a passion to develop ourselves. Thank you for this wisdom of the first person perspective. Wishing here to be the best Hong Ik person I can. I see the world as possibilities waiting for us all. Let’s do it together!
Thank you Ilchi Lee. I will take a keen interest in myself through breathing and meditation.