True leadership grows from lived experience, purposeful action, and a commitment to serve the greater good.
For the first time in years, I spent New Year’s in South Korea. I took the opportunity to make a surprise visit to a couple of the centers that teach my Brain Education method there. I always love meeting new people, and connecting with practitioners gives me great joy. I ended up teaching one of their morning classes and had so much fun guiding them through the practice. I was impressed by the focus of even the newest practitioners.
Seeing them drove home what I think it means to be a leader and a teacher. Especially during these times, when facts and figures are always at our fingertips, I think it’s more important than ever to engage in experiences. Through our experience, we gain a deeper, more complex understanding of life that we can put into use. Feeling and then doing are both important.
That even applies to energy. We can feel energy, receive it, and gain awakenings from it. However, we need to act on those awakenings, or else our energy—and our bodies and minds—become stagnant. Without action, we can’t have true enlightenment. I believe leaders and teachers exemplify this principle.
Leadership Is About Empowering Others
Being a leader or mentor is not necessarily about being a boss or maintaining a hierarchy. It isn’t even necessarily about knowing more than one’s students. I think it’s about empowering the people around us to be their best selves and to serve Hongik—to act for the good of all.
The best way to do that is not through separation or distinction, for such a consciousness forgets that, ultimately, we are all one. Instead, leadership or authority comes from having a purpose, from experience and realization, and from endless love.
We Can All Be Leaders
My purpose since my own awakening forty-five years ago has been Earth Management: to help people make themselves healthier, happier, and more peaceful, leading to a peaceful, harmonious world where everyone benefits. That purpose has spurred me on, kept me going, and guided me to be a leader and teacher wherever I go. I try to help whoever is in front of me with love, and I connect them to their own purpose and infinite value.
In this way, leadership is not something reserved for a few, but a role we all share. Throughout our lives, we have the opportunity to grow and change. As we do so, we have more to give. No matter who we are, we can act as leaders and teachers to one another. We are always both teachers and students, both leaders and those who serve others. I started teaching Brain Education techniques in a park, and I’ve grown through everyone I’ve taught. I’m so grateful to move through life with people who share my values and purpose.
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