Hello, this is Dr. Lee. During the last class, we discussed about stress. The responses were absolutely enthusiastic. There also was a lot of attention paid to me personally. Many people were concerned about my claustrophobia too. Thank you. Fortunately, I am now able to fly in airplanes very well. If anyone invited me, I could fly anywhere to lecture. After seeing your responses, I once again, recognized that, we are all really living in stress. Well, let's hurry and do the self reflections. Close your eyes. Please remember all of your lived life and related memories, especially those memories related to stress. Keep your eyes closed and concentrate to remember. Try to remember your most current stressful times. When are typical situations which cause you much stress? Is it when you want to improve? Try to remember the times when you wanted to gain approval and needed to be praised. There may have been time when you were fearful or afraid of people's eye on you. Think about the time when you were in the thick of competitions. The situations where you were competing with peers for grades, and competing for job promotions at work. The pressure to be a good child to your parents, or be a good parent to your children. The pressure to be a role model in societal positions, or be a good person, an excellent person. Remember how hard it was because of the pressure. When you were stressed, how was it? Perhaps you just suppressed, screamed or cried. Did it make you feel better? But if such situations were repeated, you would still get stressed again similarly. Why do you still vision, for such a stress to keep happening? Reflect on the cause of all your stress. Where would it have started? We will do up to this point. Even though we reflect it briefly, we could see that, we are constantly exposed to stressful situations, big and small. It wouldn't be an exaggeration if we said that our lives principles were stress itself. These memories were causes of stress, more we have such a stress, we are unable to focus and always anxious. For example, if an athlete feels the regret about the past defeat and was afraid of the same things occurring, he wouldn't be able to concentrate on the present event. Truly, athletes would be in great pressure since they must always compete in the midst of victory and defeat. I evaluated many, observing them during athletic event or games. So they strive to build a strong mental capacity. Archery in Korea is a world famous spot. It has been known that they can control their mind very well. Jae-hun Chung, the Director of a Korean National Team, as well as an archery team of Shangdi still, and Kim Soo-nyung, gold medal distance, 1992 at Barcelona Olympics, the Director of an Archery Team of Shanghai Department Store, as well as a trainee athlete, a psychology professor of the team and the Physical Therapy team, all experienced the self reflection meditation. After the meditation they said, "I felt that I started to come out into the true world little by little, from the picture world. I was imprisoning myself in a frame of mind and condition which said, 'I must do this.' I have learned the method to enjoy my life through breaking the frame of mind using the self-reflection." "Ultimately, I found that all problems gets bigger in my own imagination to encroach on me and that my trauma from past childhood is still repressing me." "This became my opportunity to self-reflect and solve my concerns and worries sufficiently. After throwing away my pictures of mind, I was at ease and without my knowing, I started to think positively. This meditation was my turning point of life." Concentration is also important in golf. Ryu So-yeon, a world-famous professional golfer who won 2012 Korean KLPGA championship, also said this after the meditation, "In the end, only the infinite wisdom of the universe and happiness are the root of power, which move all things of the world. But I tried to move things using my human mind, sight, and the thinking. The universe is one and all are the universe, including myself and my environment. The flowing and the circulating mind is also one, and whatever I considered mine is the universe itself and owned by others. Why was I so attached to it? After the meditation I now wear a light smile instead of suffering." If golf and the archery are considered individual sports requiring concentration, basketball is more intense, yet even violent at times requiring much team work. Seung-jin Ha, who is a member of a Korean national team and the current professional basketball players of Jeonju KCC Egis team, also tells us he did the self-reflection meditation as a method to solve his stress. Basketball is an intense sport. It is also very delicate sports because it requires work of hands. So condition of players can impact on winning the game. The boosters transfer relate to performance. It is ironic. But even when the team's performance is good, if the individual player's performance isn't, it is easy to fall into a slump. "I also injured my body and the games I played weren't good. When my mentality sharply spiraled down, I started the self-reflection meditation upon my coach's recommendation. As I self-reflected, I repented on many things. I saw how I approached others in a certain mindset." "It's as if I thought I was living in clear water, but when stirred up, I felt all those submerged deep within were revealed. As I self-reflected one by one and took out those minds, my fundamental anxiety disappeared and I was so much at ease. These days, I do self-reflection meditation every day. Previously, I used to hold on to losing games or my slump for a long time, but as I started the meditation, I was able to let go quickly and concentrate on my next game. During the seasons, I typically couldn't sleep well due to having too many thoughts related to pressures about the games. But these days, I liked that as I lay down to do the meditation, I fall deep asleep before I know it. Athletes grow up in the midst of competitions since childhood. If they don't win others, they lose, so subconsciously their stress is great. When meditating those stresses are emptied so one can always return to a beginner's mind to start fresh. I'm grateful to this meditation, which is a very important to sports players requiring concentration." Now that I looked at it, the similarities between the sports and examples used was the archery target, a small round area from far away. The golf target, a small hole to put his ball. The basket target, a basket to goal in a ball. All these require tremendous concentration. These players all said that after throwing away their accumulated mind through self-reflection, meditation, their stress due to anxiety, regret, and the fear about their games were gradually reduced and eased mind and the concentration increased. How about it? To think, it really helped these sports athletes. Isn't it be an amazingly big help to ordinary people like us? These athletes are continuing to do the self-reflection meditation like they practice their sports. I hope that this self-reflection also becomes a natural daily activity to us as well. Currently, I'm talking about beneficial effects and the stories of people who became happy and improved personally through the self-reflection meditation. Why? This is so that your motivation would be heightened. Only then the ultimate goal of escaping the force picture world, which is the human mind, and living happily in the true world with the universe mind, can be achieved as we discussed in the fool's day. Do you understand? If there is anything you do not understand or have questions about, you can always ask. For the next lecture, I would like to give you a simple homework. It is something very easy you can do while walking around. As you walk, please count each step. There shouldn't be any thoughts while you are counting up to 100. One, two, three, four, if there were any thoughts at all, go back to the beginning and count from one. I will see you next lecture. Thank you.
