Three Treasures for Spiritual Completion

I write now to those who feel lost and are searching for something, perhaps something they cannot yet name. I, too, once searched for answers, adrift in the meaninglessness of life. I took extreme measures to find my answers, but since then, I’ve been helping people do it an easier way.

What I discovered from my own search is that the answers we need, even to life’s most existential questions such as, Who am I? and Why am I here?, are within us. You’ve probably heard that many times. The reason is that at our center, we have the divine and sacred energy and wisdom that is the creative force of all that exists. Spiritual growth means tapping into that energy and connecting it to the same energy that circulates outside of us, and then expressing that energy in our thoughts, emotions, words, and actions. We should embody that energy and consciousness, or what I also call the LifeParticle Sun.

There is a secret to accomplishing this spiritual growth and completion. In Korean, it is called sambo, or three (sahm) treasures (bo). These three treasures are guide, vision, and principle. Ultimately, these three treasures are three parts of one. They are the energy and wisdom at our center, they tell us how to get there, and they give us the tools and strength to embody it.

Guide
Guidance back to your center comes from the cosmic mind. This is a bit of a paradox since it’s your inner wisdom that you are using sambo to access. That’s why it’s often easier to have a human teacher whose mind is constantly in tune with the cosmic mind. Such a teacher can point you in the right direction with his or her words and actions and can help you sense the cosmic mind through training and simply being in his or her presence.

If you have not found a teacher, guidance can also come from your life—from things your heart is drawn to. When you are quiet and simple, and uninfluenced by others, what circumstances, books, people, foods, etc. call to you? As you follow this intuition, synchronicities will occur and your intuition will become stronger, leading you deeper and deeper into your center . . . your true self . . . making the wisdom of the cosmic mind clearer and clearer. In fact, while a teacher will help you find this path more easily, quickly, and clearly, you will still develop your own intuition as you grow.

Accessing guidance does not come from learning or having a lot of knowledge. The simpler and more accepting you become, the more easily you can open yourself to the consciousness that exists beyond your preconceptions and narrow understanding. When you exchange the small consciousness you developed from your life experiences with the infinite consciousness that encompasses everything, you will gain the guidance you need to express this consciousness in every moment of your life.

Principle
From cosmic mind comes cosmic energy; they are intertwined. Energy moves and transforms according to certain principles. By understanding these principles in your body and your experience through the practice of training and applying them to your life, you purify your own energy. And your energy, rather, the energy of the many layers around your center, resonates at the same frequency as cosmic energy. As your energy is purified, the cosmic energy and mind at your center become free to circulate. Eventually you become full of fresh, clean energy that overflows into your environment and the people in it.

Vision
A vision is a goal that makes your heart glad and beat faster with anticipation. It is the physical manifestation of the cosmic mind and energy at your center. The closer you are to achieving your vision, the more you are in alignment with your center—the more it is expressed in your life and the more you grow.

Once you choose a vision, you have to throw all of your focus and energy into it. By using 100 percent effort, you make a clear choice to be at your center. When you lose focus or do things that do not help, or, worse, hurt the achievement of your vision, you are off-center. You’ve lost your connection and must find your way back.

Because at your center there is cosmic mind and cosmic energy—the ultimate creative force of the universe—if you keep working toward and focusing on your goal 100 percent, you are guaranteed to achieve it. That is a principle of energy and cosmic law. In the process of achieving your vision, your true self grows until it completes itself.

Guide, principle, and vision are like a rod that pierces through the center of your body, giving you something to hold on to in the ever-changing chaos of life. Many people build walls and structures in their lives—relationships, tasks, theories, preferences—to give them stability and meaning. They hold onto things that were not meant to last forever, and even start wars over them. However, with one big change such as the loss of a job, the death of a loved one, or the loss of home or property, you can easily lose your footing. What do you have then?

When you focus too much on these structures, you lose your center, where infinite love, peace, oneness and creation lie. On the other hand, when you are firmly rooted in your center, you can cut down the walls that held back uncertainty and know you are okay. You know who you are and why you are alive. And you can handle change without fear and with the power to direct it.

If you only utilize only one or two of the three aspects of sambo, however, you cannot stay centered. Guide, principle, and vision balance each other, just as mind, body, and spirit. If you try to achieve a vision while disregarding energy principles and the compassion of the cosmic mind, rather than returning to your true self, you may become corrupted. The end starts to justify the means. Thinking you can ignore energy principles, which are essentially the way the universe works, is simply lying to yourself anyway. If you learn energy principles and try to follow your guidance, but don’t have a vision, then you are just playing with your imagination . . . it’s all in your head. It can feel good, but it isn’t whole or real. And if you follow a teacher with your mind and don’t connect with your heart, then you disempower yourself instead of opening yourself to cosmic mind and growing your center.

Our true nature yearns to be free. Real freedom comes from being centered, even while you follow rules and service others. Then you have the power and presence to soar in your life and complete your spiritual growth.