Something in the Middle Called Life
Hyo Jin Moon
February 19, 2006
Belvedere
Here are my notes taken while Hyo Jin nim spoke last Sunday. I am a poor note taker and these at most convey some sense of what was on Hyo Jin nim's mind and are not a verbatim record.
Joe Kinney
My topic is Something in the Middle Called Life.
We don't really have a choice about our birth or our death. Life is that thing in the middle between our birth and our death.
Scientist can claim to "create" live by in-vitreo fertilization. They use their knowledge to combine genetic material in a Petri dish but they can't really take credit for creating life.
Just because you have knowledge and power doesn't justify your activities.
You can use suicide can control the time and manner of your death, but it isn't really right.
So finally life is that thing in the middle between life and death. You have the power of choice which gives you control.
As you get older and older because life gets more complicated, choices can be more difficult.
If we consider life is 90 years and we sleep 8 hours a day, then we spend 30 years sleeping. The rest of the time you put stuff into your mouth and it is processed and then comes out and you move your body around from place to place.
You spend 18 years getting an education and this determines your life's goal.
Based on challenges you have to make choices.
Who is the biggest employer in America? The government is the largest and the next is Wal Mart. Maybe the high-tech government contractors which have the brightest engineers and influential people have more power than Wal Mart.
Any major project requires government support and organization, but besides that the economy is up to the free market which is fundamentally driven by greed for money.
So what is the end purpose of this economy? Money? Is that what's most important?
What is the purpose of power and money?
The best investment is to invest in people.
People want wealth and power. Everyone wants to move up.
Its very difficult to unify a single nation, much less the whole world.
What do you see in the USA's largest employeer Wal Mart or Sam's Club? You see food, TVs and other stuff for your body.
Parents tell their kids to become doctors and lawyers because these are the most secure professions, not because they want them to find a cure for cancer or something. If they do it's just a side benefit.
Out of 90 years on earth you have just 30 years of time that you can use to make a difference. So how can you do it? You must have some kind of value and direction.
How can you use direction in your life? Two realities, pessimistic or optimistic.
We are always dealing with this kind of dualities.
We need a greater principle and higher value to make the right choices under the pressure of dualities.
God's command is called our responsibility.
It's fun to act irresponsibility and not to care.
I'll try not to curse, but that's the kind of people that I grew up with.
So if there is a market demand and I make a right product, I can make lots of money in the free market.
There is a limitation to this.
The free market can be very nationalistic. Americans may only want to buy made in USA and Koreans may only want to buy Korean mad goods.
You have to make choices every day and it can be overwhelming. That's called life.
This is why Father does things. Whose value is the greatest value?; The value that can tie everything together.
All the value of this (speaking every week) is if I can give you one or two thoughts that you can think about for a week. You have to know the limit of this.
Vainglorious stuff can really ruin everything.
There are no guarantees in life, but every day we need personal values to make choices.
Knowing what I can do. Knowing what I have to do. Knowing how to die well. Those are the choices we can make.
I made stupid choices in my life and I will pay for those till the day I die.
See you next week.