The past week March 26- March 31

After arriving from Jeju Do we have had some time to train at Kook Hak Won. It has been good to stay at one place for a while. Our bodies are still getting accustomed to the food here although it is really good. On thursday we had a lecture about the heavenly code which is an ancient scripture. Through this lecture we learned more about Korean ancient history and the roots of its people. I then got some great acupuncture healing from our Team leader on my back. It really help release a lot of tension in my shoulders and relax my neck which had been hurting since the morning. It was all very interesting since I am more used to western medicine but I felt really great afterwards. The next day MM sabunim came from the United Stated and joined our team. It is great to have him on board. We had a relaxing day where we did some Brain Wave Vibration training and then we played SuJoKu outside along with knock out and some soccer. It was nice to get out and move our bodies in a fun way for a while. The next day we had the opportunity to go to Daegu and share our presentation here. On Sunday we did the same but at a lecture in Seoul. There were a lot of people at each lecture and it was really great to see all their bright faces after our demonstration. Since we have a lot of time in the van going to each city we have been doing some great neck exercises that at the beginning hurt a lot but have helped us release a lot of shoulder tension. After the lecture we met with some BNB members from different universities around Seoul. I hope we see all of them again at the YEHA may camp in Kook Hak Won. We were then invited to have Korean BBQ. Even though I am not a vegetarian anymore this was a lot of meat. It was really tender and tasted kind of sweet but I ordered rice and veggies also to not eat only meat. We shared dinner with the B-Boys and then watched a movie. It was a relaxing night out in Seoul. I wanted to thank the team managers since they have been amazing to us and everyone here in Korea for being so open and welcoming and patient. Kamsahamnida, saranhapnida.

Jeju Do - Peace island

March 20th we had some great partner healing led by our team leader and we prepared to go to Jeju Island for 5 days. This will be a short summary of our time here. We had the opportunity to go to two universities and share our experiences with the students there. We also got to go to a YEHA event where I lead the warm up exercises. Even though I did not have a translator it was easy to follow and people were really smiling which made me smile even bigger. We also had the opportunity to try different foods typical from the island. We also demonstrated at Dr. Ilchi Lee’s brain wave vibration lecture at the International Convention Center on Jeju Do and participated in a lecture he gave to Jeju congressmen. I had the opportunity to experience that Jeju is truly a PEACE ISLAND. They have no gates, thieves or homeless and base their society on helping each other. They live in Hong Ik but don’t know it. It has been great to share this with them and share with them about this great philosophy and how it is spreading around the world, even into the UN. So amazing how people react when they realize how powerful and special their culture is, it is great to see their big smile.
We also had free time to enjoy Sunrise Peak and an island called U-Do (cow island). If you ever have the opportunity to travel to Korea, Jeju island is a must! We met with the director of the peace and corporation division Kim Wan-Taek. He shared his plans for the future of Jeju and how they are trying to develop four special areas such as tourism, medicine, education and information technology. It was very interesting to see the future of Jeju.
One night we also were invited to have a soybean paste intestinal cleansing. It was a very interesting 3 hours where they applied soybean paste on top of our abdominal area, wrapped it in plastic and covered our midsection with a heated pad that wrapped all around. We then lay down for about 3 hours and did intestinal exercises as long as most of us could stay awake. We then did some stretching and strengthening and were recommended to take a shower that night by going one min in cold water and one minute in warm water exchanging 11 times total, ending and beginning in cold. I did it that night overcoming the fact that I really hate cold showers and I am so glad I did. I slept really well and deeply.
All in all Jeju-Do was a great experience. I am very grateful for this opportunity and really happy to share it with wonderful people.

KookHakWon and Seoul

On March 16th we had a demonstration for about 2300 instructors of Dahn Hak. It was an incredible experience, it felt as if there were 10,000 people. The next day we traveled to Seoul to do our demonstration in front of a group of news reporters that Dr. Ilchi Lee was going to meet. I could see how important news reporters are to society and how they can have an impact on the day to day of so many people. I hope they felt a sense of hope and will stay more positive when they deliver their daily message.
March 18 and 19 we got to meet with the YEHA groups of both north and south Seoul. In total we met with about 140 young people, did a demonstration and talked about the Hong Ik Philosophy. It was a great opportunity to get to know the younger crowd and be able to share what we are doing with them. I had the opportunity to share in front of the group and I noticed that I could feel their big heart and it reminded me of the YEHA group in Houston and how their heart was the same. It was the same because our vision is the same; a vision of living in a harmonious world towards the benefit of earth and humanity. So GREAT!
These days I also heard many amazing things about the YEHA DMD camp in Sedona. I also got to see a video from that camp. It was so inspiring to see everyone training outside while the snow was falling! It reminded me of our first day in Korea.

Being hong Ik March 14th, 2008

Today we met with Master Gaia once again. She saw three of our presentations and gave us really good feedback. She really has a mother feel to her. She explained what a Hong Ik being has to have in 5 simple areas. These are:

1. To be physically healthy: have the 5 main organs in your body working in harmony
2. To have a conscience: to acknowledge your soul and live by your true self
3. To be able: to be able to set a vision and achieve it
4. To be emotionally rich: to know how to communicate and interact well with others
5. To be spiritually holy: to seek for completion

People believe that those that need to solve the worlds problems are always those that have power or wealth. It is important to acknowledge that we all have created the worlds problems and therefore we are all equally responsible to take action in the solution. We all have a brain so it is our responsibility to change the future of our planet and humanity. If not us, then who? If not know, then when? If we keep waiting for others to take our responsibility upon their shoulders, nothing will be accomplished. Embrace your brain and know that you have the choice and power to change the world.

Chunhwawon to KookHakWon March 11-13

Sometimes when you have a vision you embrace this vision with your whole body and you can feel it with every cell of your physical being. But as the days pass and you keep focusing on this vision and have it always in your mind, you body can start to become numb and stop feeling the passion that you had inside when making and committing to this vision. It is so important to keep lighting up this passion from inside so that the vision is not just an idea. This was the message that I stated today.
Also, we were able to see a little more of this wonderful place by visiting a waterfall and sharing its strength and perseverance. We had some time to train and enjoy our surroundings. As we walked back over ChunsunGogai we started our journey back to KookHakWon. We also had the opportunity to get some REALLY good Korean style chicken. I believe it was boiled for a very long time. We had a lot of side dishes as is custom with Korean food and porridge. It reminded me of my mom's cooking back at home in Colombia.
Continuing on our journey back, we stopped at Gukjochun, built for the memory of the DanGun founder of Korea in 2333BC. There was an enormous statue of the first DanGun and we all played the gong 3 times focusing on a wish which they say comes true if you want it with all your being and a sincere mind. We then continued to our home.
The next day we practices HSP 12 step to walk on our hands, some parts of our demo, and the lecture presentation. We got some great feedback from the other members of the group. We also did 30 minutes of sincerity practiced to get connected to our vision and get ideas of what do to to be able to accomplish it. I was really good training.

Chunhwawon

There are really no words to express Chunhwawon. If you ever have the opportunity to travel to Korea this is a place you just cannot miss. The story goes something like this: the energy here is very strong and wild and throughout the years people have tried to build temples in this area. What has happened is they have all been killed by lightening. When Ilchi Lee decided to build Chunhwawon he asked to put up three pillars. ChunTap, JiTap, and IhnTap: one for heaven, one for earth and one for humanity. We visited JiTap today and heard the story about how 4 Masters had to carry the pieces of rock up the mountain to build it. After having some training here we went back to the main hall and after lunch we were given the opportunity to get some of the best DahnMuDo training.
DahnMuDo is different they other martial arts in that it focuses on using your energy to heal yourself and others. The first part of the training was about stretching and opening your energy (meridian) channels by applying pressure to certain points in your body. It hurt a lot but felt very good afterwards. The training we had today was about strengthening our individual brightness. We practiced gathering our energy and using / giving our energy. We did two really good exercises in partners. In one one partner would gather energy and send it to the other partner and then the other partner would receive and take that energy down to their lower energy center and into their feet. Then they would circulate it and gather it to give it back to their partner. It is definitely not an easy exercise and made me realize how much there is to learn. The second exercise was very similar. I was very grateful for this training.
In the evening we gave each other healing. Today was a day where we worked a lot in partners and sharing between us. We also started to prepare the lecture that we will be giving for about 30min to college students here in Korea. It was also a team effort and we still have a lot to work on.

First week in Korea

March 5, 2008
On our 2nd day in korea, 9th day of the Earth-Human Leadership Team we visited Sungyemun. A national treasure that burned down in January of 2008, it was built in the Chosun era as the south gate, a gate protecting the city from fire energy. There are three more gates, the north one was built to protect the city from disease. These gates are all found in the surrounding mountains. Here we shared our wishes that the Sungyemun will be rebuilt. We sang Arirang to the people of Korea and did a demo of Chun Bu Shin Gong. We had the opportunity to share our vision through the media and reach millions of people, it was incredible. Afterwards, we walked through a typical Korean market where we had a great lunch and an even better desert, the hottok. Its a pastry filled with brown rice and sesame seeds and cooked on a stove and you just buy it on a street corner! So good!
We then had the opportunity to watch a movie called eight below, which I strongly recommend if you have not seen it. It is a great example of loyalty, determination, humbleness, perseverance and gratitude. I will not say more to not spoil it =)
This evening we had a great opportunity to hear Dr. Ilchi Lee's lectures (called KangChun). His message was very simple and yet so profound. There are two types of ways to use your brain, either for the selfish self and desires or for the benefit of all humanity: Hong Ik. Which one will you choose?

March 6, 2008
Late last year there was a big oil spill of the west coast of South Korea. Today we went to Taeahn, a beautiful place badly affected by the spill. The first thing we noticed was the strong smell of oil. We put on special clothes, boots and gloves, and headed out to clean the rocks with bags full of rags. It was hard work since the oil is gooey and sticky. It was also a great opportunity to go inside and meditate. It made me realize how quickly we can hurt the earth and ourselves but how long it takes to heal (10 years to clean up the oil spill). Today for lunch we had hamburgers, and might I say I have not have red meat for 3 years. It was a challenge to eat the burger but I did it and accepted the food as a blessing. I came to Korea to have an open mind and try everything with humbleness and gratitude. After lunch we had the opportunity to clean side by side with the Korean volunteer group. Since we were all wearing the same protective clothing it was hard to tell who was our neighbor. Even though we did not speak the same language we had the same vision and we worked together as one. This was an incredible experience to feel as one with people across the world we had never met before, but that shared our same goal. There were no language, racial, religious etc barriers when we were one.
After a long day we had a much needed sharing time. Here we had to write on a piece of paper something about each member of the group. It was an exercise to put on paper all of your feelings, good or bad, and learn to be open with each other and not hold things inside. It was much needed to keep the group together.

March 7, 2008
This morning we had a guide at Kuk Hak Won that shared with us the principles and history of Korea and the Dahn Hak philosophy. We also had the opportunity to learn archery. Our trainer started by sharing how one of the most important aspects to remember is your stance and making yourself as strong and rooted as a tree. He then had us focus on our breathing and to use this to calm our thoughts. If your posture is not correct the arrow will move side to side and if you have not calmed your thoughts it will mopve up and down. I saw it also hard to focus on the target. My arrow went down and to the right, I have a lot to improve on =). I also saw that I need more patience.
We then had a relaxing game of SuJoKu, a game YEHA Korea invented and then headed out to Masan.

March 8-9 2008
This weekend was our first demonstration weekend. The first lecture was in Masan and the second lecture was in Pusan (about 2 hours south). At first my heart was pounding really hard and you could feel the nerves starting to come. As soon as we got on stage it felt so focused and connected, calmness inside but yet very strong. While on stage we tried to focus on our brain stem to connect to the oneness of the group and to our audience. Even though we skipped a part of the form in our first demo the group stayed strong and together. It was interesting to see how having a different arena affected the group and also how different audiences can be. It was a great learning experience none the less and a lot of feedback was given.
We went to dinner at a seafood place where we had many different experiences. Even the reactions to the food were very diverse from different members of the group. It was hard to keep my center when live squid was on a plate, I tried all the food and accepted this part of the culture. We then drove to Chunhwawon where we will stay for two nights and have more training.

From Mee kook to Han kook

Seoul, March 4, 2008

Wow! In the last 24 hours it has been incredible how much the ELT YEHAP team has done. We started out training in Sedona, Arizona creating one mind -Hap Shim between the group. It was long days of great training, that all of us really needed. After a 1hour flight to Sedona and a 12 hour flight to Korea, we were received with warm smiles and open arms. We then had the great opportunity to visit the Dahn Hak headquarters building and meet all the power brains involved in spreading HSP across the world. We received and shared so much energy with everyone it was a great experience. We then got to eat some amazing Korean food and had some Brain Wave Vibration training in the afternoon (by the way BWV is amazing!). This is a very simple exercise in which you stimulate the creation of positive brain waves by moving your head. As we all know the brain has three parts, the outermost neocortex, the middle limbic system and the brainstem. The brainstem is in charge of basic functions such as your heartbeat and breathing. By doing BWV you can go into the brainstem and be the creator of positive brainwaves. You can be the Master of your brain and create a healthy body. If we all did this basic exercise imagine the positive kind of world we could all create together! A world of peace, not peace of one nation or religion but peace of all Humanity!

Having said that, we finished BWV training and practiced our demonstration along with the B-Boys. After a long day, we arrived at our sleeping quarters in Kook Kak Kwan around 10pm.

I have faced many challenges today with simple things such as food and sleeping accommodations (a heated floor is wonderful to sleep on!) but I have felt so much energy from simple gestures (ie. a handshake or a hand massage) it is incredible. I am very grateful for this opportunity and thank Dahn and Dr. Ilchi Lee deeply. -Love-