The Land Where a New Tao Will Emerge

Before I visited Sedona, I had been crossing the United States from the east coast to the west coast in search of a land where I could establish a meditation center. The moment that I saw Sedona, I felt a strong intuition that this could be that very place.  However, although I looked around the famous vortex areas, including Bell Rock and Cathedral Rock, and the downtown area while I stayed in Sedona for three days, I was still unable to make a final decision during that first visit.

One of the reasons I hesitated was that Sedona was a desert.  According to the Eastern practice of feng shui, a harmony of the five energies—wood, fire, earth, metal, and water—is essential. Sedona had wood, fire, earth, and metal energy, but since it was a desert terrain where water was scarce, the thought that water energy might be insufficient kept bothering me.

I went back to LA, but returned to Sedona after a few days. That’s when I saw something that blew away all my concerns. That was Oak Creek Canyon, where the creek flowed right alongside the highway going up from Sedona to Flagstaff.  During my first visit, I couldn’t see it closely, but there was clear water flowing abundantly through the canyon. I realized then that Sedona had the necessary amount of water energy, too. I found passion and hope for making a new start in Sedona, where, although it was desert terrain, the energy of the five elements was harmonized so well. And I started to feel certain that in a place like this, I could establish the meditation center that I had dreamed of. On my second visit to Sedona, I decided to move there.

As I drove back to Los Angeles to make preparations for my move, I had a premonition that something good was going to happen, and I felt a nervous excitement. I kept repeating the name of the land, “Sedona,” over and over in my mind. Se-do-na. Se-do-na. Se . . . do . . . na . . . . Then, all of a sudden, a thought came to my mind. Se-do-na . . . . If you look at the syllables of “Sedona” broken up into Korean sounds, it means “the land where a new Tao will emerge.”

From that point onward, every time I pronounced Sedona’s name, every time I told other people about Sedona, and every time I practiced meditation as I went everywhere in Sedona, I started to believe that a new enlightenment would indeed arise from this place. That was my belief and it was also my profound hope.