Moon’s Zen Moment…
My father, who was born into a poor family in Korea, grew up with a lot of hardships. Being the first of 7 children with enormous responsibilities and raised during two brutal wars, he was just a victim of a difficult environment. I can say with certainty that he was never happy with his life. I love this picture of my father because it was the only few times in his life where he looked genuinely peaceful and happy…
My father passed away on June 7, 1998 of a heart attack — more than 15 years ago. While he was the ultimate atheist, shunning away any religious zealots who would show up at our door, my father ironically passed away at a Korean Buddhist temple named “Won Kak Sa” in upstate New York. They rushed him to the hospital, but to no avail, he could not be revived. I know that God wanted him to pass away in such a sacred temple to bring him back to a spiritual place where his troubled soul can find peace…
My father had his first heart attack in his early 50’s and, subsequently, had a triple bypass heart surgery. After the surgery, my father’s cardiologist told my mother, in confidence, that my father’s negative personality and outlook on life was a big contributing factor to his heart disease, and, as sad as that was, we all knew it was true. Stress and unhappiness were also the cause of my sister Sun’s early death, which I talk about often because Sun was my inspiration for creating Ying & Yang Living.
So, on this Father’s Day, I reflect with some measure of sadness on my father’s less-than-happy life, and how he could have changed it with self awareness and spirituality. No matter what circumstances we have been placed as a child or as an adult, we are all given the power of choice: to see the glass half full or glass half empty. And with this power, we can actively change our lives for the better. Our happiness is in the destiny of our own hands…
In passing on, I believe that my father’s soul will reincarnate into another body to learn the lessons he never learned in his previous lives. I also believe that the real purpose of our existence is to be educated or enlightened about our true Being and our relationship to this magical Universe so we may serve it well. In his next life, I am hopeful that my father will choose the prisms of a glass half full.
To all of the great father souls out there, Happy Father’s Day….
Oh, Moon, it is still an inspiring story. To think he lived through through 2 wars and survived shows his strength. I’m sure he was suffering from the stress of those wars, and the hardship of living, finding a way to feed his family, protect them, even though he was probably young at the time. And I’m also sure he found God in his own way, especially at the end. In this country we have been spared so much of the suffering he grew up with so far, but I can see it beginning, and I can see us having to struggle with all of that also. How we will handle it is yet to be seen, We can only pray for the future of our Earth, and that our children and grandchildren will grow up knowing what trees, flowers and grass look like. So much is being destroyed in the name of “progress”, but the real name is “destruction” of the world God made and gave his life for. We were made stewards of that land, and in the last 50 years have destroyed what so many centuries before took so long to build up. I will pray for your Father and for you. You have found the inner peace he looked for, so you have conquered his fears, and I think at the end, he found the peace he never found in life. Remember him with love and affection.
I share the exact sentiments of our mother Earth…how we are pillaging it and what we are leaving to our next generations…I have been deeply troubled indeed and is what fuels me to promote healthy & happy living messages… How wise of you to advise me to remember my father with love and affection…Thank you for those truly comforting words…
You are so welcome. My own father molested me when I was young and at one time I thought I could never forgive him, but as I grew older I realized it was an illness, we talked and I forgave. Life was so much better, love was renewed and I truly miss him now. He became my friend and ally in my family, stood up for me in stressful times, and reached out for my hugs on his death bed. Now I can remember his sense of humor, his jokes, the fun things we did as a family and all is well.
Wow, Angie. You are a woman I could never be…You are probably a living saint…
Oh no, please don’t burden me with that Moon. I’m just an ordinary person who finally made some right choices after years of bad ones. Now it is just so much easier to live and get along with people that I can enjoy life and live it out in relative peace. That is the main thing for me. Throw out the trash part and start over from where you are at any given point in life. And you are a strong woman living a good life helping others achieve the same Zen lifestyle you have found. Never forget that. You’re there Moon. And you got there a lot younger than I was when I made it.
thank you, I love corresponding with you and am always learning from you…God Bless your wonderful soul… Namaste…
Namaste. I even know what that means.