Can True Love Be Addictive

Hyo Jin Moon

February 26, 2006

Belvedere

Here are my notes from Hyo Jin nim's speech Sunday 26 Feb 2006. I am a poor note taker and I feel disappointed that I missed writing down many things because my writing is slower than Hyo Jin nim's speaking. These at most convey some sense of what Hyo Jin nim said and are not a verbatim record.

Joe Kinney

How are you doing? Today I am going to talk about something interesting.

Can True Love be addictive?

Can we make true love addictive?

Hey Richie! How are you doing? Long time no see. (To Richard Wolfe a former member of Hyo Jin nim's band.)

Is there good and bad addition? Does every human behavior result in a consequential action? Yes is does.

So what is the result of addiction?

As a concerned parent you worry about your children going out of control. The Children's argument is "How can I know my limitations if I don't test them?"

Even 80 year old parents worry about their 60 year old son. They say "Look both ways when you cross the street and like that."

How do you deal with addiction? Addiction is some kind of action that gives you pleasure, no matter how stupid or how bad. Different people are addicted to different things. Addition is part of life because we want to feel Joy, Pleasure.

So we question is it good or bad. People's pleasure is different.

In the South or Mid-West people like hunting. I used to like hunting, but I stopped because I didn't want to kill anymore. But what a great feeling killing your 1st deer together with your son.

What is True Love? It's when you can even love the Devil. True Love is God's Law, God's concept, God's will. How can you practice a concept?

You need a concept, but ultimately True Love too, must bring pleasure. So God is True Love. How do we make that concept work in our life?

How does one allow ones self to become addicted to something? You start with the need to feel something. Your goal is your expectation. You give your self a routine that matches the goal of your expectation.

You manifest some behavior which you try to make a habit. You try to become addicted to true love. When you become habituated to true love you want every action in your life to give you gratification and pleasure of true love.

There is something in between (ritual) which I will explain later.

Every kind of action can have an addiction. Power makes people crazy. Money does too. I've see so many people get just a little bit of power and they become crazy.

What is right and wrong? Before you talk about right and wrong you have to know your own addiction. You have to understand your limitation and WHY you feel joy with certain stuff.

It's easy to feel joy when you want to kill your enemy. Every pore in your body smells your enemy's blood. I beat up lots of kids when I was young. It's true it gave momentary pleasure. Kids do sports, academics, or art to prove them selves and get pleasure.

Just because you feel what you want to feel, is everything allowed? In love there is law. In true love there is true law.

Can you feel joy in doing a difficult task? It's very easy to judge, but everyone has their limitations.

If you give someone love they try to consume you. This phenomenon occurs 100% of the time. Maybe jealously or envy are involved.

Why do people become criminal? So where does it end? What is right and wrong? Certain things have certain consequences. Is there honor?

I'm trying to get back into the groove of things. It's not easy after 10 years. What you see is what you get.

(From this point till the conclusion of his speech Hyo Jin nim is in tears, but not sobbing)

I've had my problems. It's my fault. If it has affected you I'm sorry. I understand what I did was wrong.

I know my son is listening and I want to make a difference. If I can stay away 10 years, I can stay away forever, but I'm doing this for my reasons. I'm doing this because I feel I need to do this.

What is important in making addiction work for true love is you need some ritual, or symbol between expectation and habituation. Make it meaningful! Make it work!

Ultimately if you can make your habit acquire action, make your routine into a ritual. Make it something valuable and meaningful. Then one step at a time you can understand love. If you give someone power than they change overnight; that's crazy.

You need to be surrounded by a good community to bounce stuff off of. You have to know your limit and take your time.

It took five years to settle the Nan Sook Stuff and in 2001 I began to write 10,000 songs.

Two 2nd generation asked me "Make me a star!" How can I invest what little I have for that? Ultimately to be a star you have to prove yourself to the world. The two 2nd generation tried and just gave up.

You have to know your limitations. It's very difficult, but I'm Father's 1st son. I cannot do things just to make money. I get a lot of flack because of what I spent.

I know what's important in the 21st century. Ecumenism, that's every thing in the end.

Do that stuff, that little stuff in your own way, and if you shine, that's great.

See you next week.