322 Quotes by Ilchi Lee

When you make choices, please remember: what is good for you but not good for others won’t be good for you either, eventually; what’s good for you and others but not good for the Earth won’t be good for you or others either, eventually; what’s good for you, others, and the Earth will be good for all.

As long as I can find hope in myself, there is hope for the future of the earth and the human race. If I fail to discover hope in myself, there is no hope for the earth or the human race. If I discover the goodness of human nature in myself, I can find it in the entire human race. If I fail to discover it in myself, I can’t expect it from anyone else, either.

Many of the activities we pursue, the resources we consume, and the waste products we create are the products of our desire to make our bodies a little more comfortable and carefree. Whether it’s food, exercise, music, alcohol, sex, drugs—whatever the stimulus—ultimately what we seek is a feeling of satisfaction. In the end, though, true satisfaction arises from a balance of healthy, harmonious energy. And that harmonious, balanced energy is the core of the natural healing power.

You will be able to live as your authentic self when you find that infinite source of energy and that mind, bright and shining like the sun. Then you won’t need to become anyone other than yourself. You won’t need to depend on externals for your health and happiness, and you won’t need to look outside yourself to find passion and hope for life.

As the gift of the Creator, natural healing power is ours. That’s why no special method is needed for recovering it. There are no perfect methods, no matter how effective or powerful they may be. What is perfect is our sense of life itself.

What we should understand here is that it’s not food or breathing that life ultimately needs, but energy. And the most direct expression of energy is heat. In this sense, temperature expresses the essence of life. When you feel the heat in your body, you’re observing the most central operations of your life. You’re connected to the essence of life.

I believe the key to solving everything from individual problems to the global environmental crisis or political and religious conflicts is to be found in restoring this link with the great life force. By recovering our natural healing ability and the goodness of human nature, we can create a truly peaceful, sustainable world. And I don’t believe that these are things that social institutions or prestigious experts can do for us: they must happen within each and every one of us.

If our minds are like a garden, then emotions are like the different flowers that bloom and wither in it all year round, according to the season. Emotions sometimes bring dynamism and significant change to our lives, but we must never be led around by them.

Basically it is your choice. No matter what spiritual path you have taken, no matter what experiences you have had, choice is still choice. Spiritual development doesn’t happen automatically. It is choosing the eye of Tao that sees both the whole view of things from a distance and the core of reality from deep inside.