Ki Is Inner Power

  What is ki?  In 2 words, ki is inner power!  The breath of life, the power of the universal life force manifesting in you.

Later in this chapter I will share with you a story of how one of my students worked to develop his ki power and turned a suicidal life into one filled with joy, radiance, and achievement.  Like my student, you can learn to access and increase your ki power.  But sometimes it shows its power to you before you even know what it is.  Have you heard stories about people who perform amazing feats of strength or endurance, such as a mother who lifts a car off her child trapped underneath?

 Or perhaps you've heard of a person who walks several miles on a broken leg to seek help... or a feeble person who suddenly finds the strength to break down a door in a fire.. or a person with terminal cancer who suddenly experiences total remission. 

By Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim

Page 1, First Element
Other books by Tae Yun Kim

New Years Message from Dr. Tae Yun Kim

Life is precious. Making real & lasting change requires commitment & constructive action. Awaken the power within & make 2017 your year.
by Dr. Tae Yun Kim, Chairman and CEO Great Grandmaster of Jung SuWon Martial Art Academy from #tykcando - Twitter

Do Not Forget!

Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim told me that in general, people have bad memories and tend to forget.  I wondered what that really meant?

Did you ever have an incredible life changing event, that motivated you greatly.  Maybe a close friend did something crazy and got in a bad accident.  You promised yourself that you would take care of yourself and never forget the lessons learned.  But somehow, you do forget.  The event becomes less impressionable.  Sometimes you are just mentally lazy.  Sometimes it was a very sad situation, and somehow you would like to forget.  But somehow that energy that it gave you to strive to be better, softened over time, and now does not have the same effect.

Think about another situation concerning gratitude.  Someone helped you to pass tests so you can go onto a very prestigious college.  At the time you were so thankful.  But over time, going to the school, getting involve in other life projects, your feeling of gratitude fades away.  Why?  Because you forget the details and the feelings as when they were fresh in your mind.

Those that forget the past, are bound to repeat it.

Take another situation.  Setting New Year's resolutions.  You visit an old roomate from 15 years ago. They didn't take care of themselves and gained 100 pounds.  They look very bad and overweight. You promise yourself you will take care of yourself, and lose 30 pounds.  You are very motivated.  But in a short time, you forget the effect of seeing your old friend.  You forget the energy behind seeing your overweight friend.  So you don't really pay attention to yourself and start gaining weight yourself.  Why?  --> Do Not Forget.

This applies to many different type of lessons.  Physical events, Mental events, and spiritual events.
Do you remember?

Wisdom by Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim

Particles

Particles - if matter is made up of particles,
what is energy made up of?

It is certainly very perplexing... you look around you and you notice the apparently concrete nature of all the things you interact with (like desks, chairs, computers, etc.). These things are termed matter and you know that matter is made up of particles (like electrons, protons, and neutrons). That makes sense, right? Particles must be just miniature versions of what you see... maybe like little balls or solid spheres... that make up all the "things" around you... But energy? What the heck is that? You've never felt energy... never seen it. Or have you? In fact, energy is all around you and interacts with you constantly.

Inspired by Tae Yun Kim - Great Grandmaster of the martial arts.


What about happiness or anger energy? What about positive or negative energy? What about confidence or fear energy? All these are made up of miniature versions of what you see and feel. Tae Yun Kim - Grandmaster of Jung SuWon Martial Arts, reminds us we must be completely aware and alert of our energy and the energy around us. Just when we think everything is going smoothly, those small particles of opposite energy are forming and preparing their assault on our well being. This is the principle of Yin-yang. You must first be aware of this phenomena, and then diligently monitor yourself for invading particles. Meditation helps this tremendously. They you must be disciplined and fight and win. Thus Jung SuWon Martial Arts - the art of overcoming. As a warning, watch out for those particles of arrogance. Often they fool you into thinking you are okay and on the right track. Be aware, and be truthful to yourself.

Pay Attention

Prior to being a student at Jung SuWon Academy of Martial Arts, and prior to being a student of Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim, I just lived each day as it came.  I really didn't think much about what was going on.  I just got up, and faced each day as it came.  Whether things were good or bad, and I never questioned anything.  If I felt like doing something, I would just do it.  I would call friends that of similar thinking and we would hang out together.  I wasn't shaping my world.  I was more or less, just existing, and letting outside forces determine my destiny.  I didn't have any direction, and I went any direction the wind was blowing.

I really respect Dr. Tae Yun Kim.  As I read about her life and her challenges growing up in a 3rd world country, during the Korean War, and being born into the Asian culture as a girl, I feel like I had it very easy.  Probably too easy.  The hardships and challenges she faced, help to mold her into who she is today.  She is very successful, brilliant, a great teacher, and yet has a large loving heart.

When I first met her, I was just dust in the wind.  But as I studied under her guidance, and she showed me I had great potential and abilities.  I didn't know my potential, and I didn't know how to realize that potential.  First I had to add some discipline and structure to my life.  I started training in the martial arts regularly.  I started to feel stronger and healthier.  She constantly pumped us with positive energy and positive thoughts, like, that we can accomplish many great things in our life, if we only believe, and go for it.  We regularly shouted out after each class, "He can do, She can do, Why not me!".  After a while it started to sink in.

She also taught us to meditate.  She often pointed out to us what would happen if we didn't take showers regularly.  Why do you shower, she would ask?  And after some thought, we would realize that if we didn't shower, we would smell, and be covered with dirt and bugs, and it would be a grave health concern.  So we shower regularly because it is good for us, but what about our minds, Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim would ask? When and how do you wash your minds?  I never thought about that.  Wow, what have I been missing all this time?  What kind of gunk have I been collecting?  I never even thought about washing my mind.  But as I learned more and more about it, and as I practiced meditating regularly for months and months, I started to gain a greater awareness of the world around me, its influences, and my inner dialog.

Great Grandmaster's powerful message to us, was to pay attention.  Pay attention to your surroundings.  How are they effecting your thoughts and feelings?  Are you surrounding yourself with things that generate good and positive thoughts?  or negative and ugly thoughts.
What about the people you surround yourself with.  Are they helping you to support you with positive energy, or are they holding you back?  Or worse yet, are they a negative influence on your life?  So Dr. Tae Yun Kim would say "Pay Attention".  That is part of one of the Seven Steps To Inner Power, called "Truth". So by paying attention, you can discover the truth about what is affecting you, either good or bad.  Only then can you do something about it.

Thank you Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim, for you incredible teachings and guidance.  These things have had a great positive effect on my life.  I am now very happy and successful.
With appreciation and honor, your student.  :)  Jung Su!

Appreciation and Gratitude - Lets go deeper

Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim, helps me to look deep inside myself.  Here is one of those dives.

It is easy to say, thank you, and I really appreciate something.  I have done this thousands of times. But is there a deeper meaning to this.  If you do this only once when it happens, and you forget about it?  How thankful were you really?

I can't speak for everyone, but I can speak about me.  I have said thank you many times in my life to many people.  At the time when I said it, I felt very sincere.  And if I go back in time and think about it, I will be thankful again.

But that is the point,  I never or rarely really go back in time to review, and so I really don't experience and relive those feelings of appreciation and gratitude.

I have had some a few people in my life, such as Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim, that have been my teachers or mentors in life.  These people have helped me take the right paths in life.  And to be honest, many times I have taken a wrong path in life, and needed help getting back on the right track.

These can be major inflection points in your life.  They were for me.  The difference between being homeless or successful.  The difference between being happy or sad,  the difference in a happy relationship, or a damaging relationship.  We all have major inflections points in our life. What school did we go to?  What friends do we socialize with?  What relationships did we choose.  What major decisons have we made.  All these had and will have a major effect on our lives.

Most of us, would pay anything, to change from a bad relationship to a good one.  Most people desire success over failure.  So when we are miserable, we tend to think about this things, and we can get hateful and negative about the world.

On the other side, when things are going good, we tend to take things for granted.  We tend to think we somehow deserved it, or somehow we were just lucky.  But this is exactly why Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim's teaching is so powerful.  She would say to never take gifts for-granted.  Review your past and review these major inflection points in your life.  Review people that have helped you, and always remain humble.  Don't take these things for granted, or you can also lose them very quickly.

If you were lucky or fortunate enough to have taken a good path, play out in your mind the opposite set of choices.  What if you had made a bad choice.  Where would you be today?  Would your success fade away?  Would you be in a terrible divorce?  Would you be in jail or worse?  Would you be alive?  Do you see how bad it could have been?  If you truly can see this, your appreciation and gratitude to the people in your life that made a positive difference will really stand out.  I know they do for me.

Now that I am aware of this topic on a deeper level, I can't be thankful enough.  The few people that really made a difference in my life, those that reached out to me and were very patient and helpful to me, and I owe them so much.  I don't know how to ever repay them.  First, I really want to stay in this state of "thankfulness" and humbleness.  I didn't get here by myself, and I need God's help, and my teachers and coaches help.  Next I will continue to improve, and I feel that I can repay them, both thanking them again, but more importantly by continuing to do good, and helping others as they helped me.

Inspired by Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim

Death and Taxes

There are a few things in life that we can not avoid, and a common saying in the US, is that everyone, someday, will have to confront "Death and Taxes".

Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim teaches us that we all have to face 4 things in our life:
     1. Birth
     2. Aging
     3. Sickness
     4. Death

As a younger student, I only thought about the first 3.  The first one, I didn't think much about, because I was already here.  And "Aging" - when I was younger I felt like I would live forever.
And "Sickness" - I figured that I would eat good and train regularly and stay healthy.  So through arrogance, and some ignorance, I thought to myself, "don't worry, I got this".

But as I get older, Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim continues to remind me about the limitation in our life.  I am almost 60 now, and so how many more healthy years left do I have?  Years, where I can move freely, drive, cook and go to the bathroom by myself.  How long can I live without the help of others?  And financially too?  Is it really worth living if you can't take care of yourself, and/ or if you are in a hospital bed hooked up to alot of hoses.  I don't want to live that way.  

So whether I like it or not, I better start confronting the truth.  As painful as it is to think about these things, I must face reality and the truth.  I must admit, it is very painful and sad, and sometimes it just doesn't make sense.  Why are we born, and work so hard to accomplish and build things, only to die and wither away?  These are deep pondering questions.  

Okay, I understand.  In this world, I will be leaving soon, and saying goodbye to this world and the people around me.  So how can I leave something special to this world and the people around me?  It is time to think about others, and not be selfish.  This is something I have to think about more.  How can I leave the special training behind that Great Grandmaster has taught me all these years?  These are thoughts for me, but for all of you.  Lets think about it before it is too late.  

I know that Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim thinks about this deeply, and really wants to dedicate her life to teaching and helping others.   I admire that greatly.  So it is time for me to start thinking that way.

On the spiritual side, it is also important to have faith and believe in something.  I strongly believe in God and Jesus, and our lives after death.  I believe that how we live our lives now, will determine where and how we are treated later.  So live good, and do good to others.  At least try.  Many times I have tried and not everyone takes it with a smile.  But at least inside, you can slept at night knowing that you really tried.
Thank you Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim for guiding me and teaching me all these years.  These teaching of the ancient martial arts must be passed on to the next generation.

With love, respect, and honor,
Ju Hahn
I am a very grateful student and warrior of Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim

Tae Yun Kim: Life is time, time is life.

I have been very fortunate to be Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim's student and instructor.  Even after many years I am still learning from her.  As we age, she emphasizes our health, and also our death.  I have never really wanted to think about death.  It feels like such a depressing subject.  But it is unselfish, practical, and fruitful to realize that our time is limited, and prepare for our eventual passing.

Just based on aging, our time is limited.  We all have limit, especially to the life we have where we can be healthy, take care of ourselves and live an active life.  So, do I have 10 years, or 20 years, or 30 years?  We all have a limit.  We are all dying.  But this has caused me to really dig deep, and try to deal with the emotion and consequences before anything happens.  I have found, there are a few major things to consider.

1. Quality vs. Quantity - For me, it is very important the quality of my time.  I don't want to be sitting at home doing nothing, or laid up sick, or unable to move.  I want to be healthy, full of energy and optimism, and my life full of purpose, meaning, and love.  I want to use my time wisely, and at the end of every day be able to say, "this was a good day".

2. Your family and loved ones - Don't be selfish.  Take the time to plan out what will happen when you pass.  Be considerate of all those around you.

2. Plan out the next 10 years of your life - If you truly realize how short life is, plan out the rest of your life.  I used to think about setting 10 and 20 year goals.  Now I have to set only 3 to 5 year goals.  It makes me more focused on my goals, and gives me more courage to achieve my goals.  It allows me to be bolder, because time is limited.  Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim told me that life is time, and time is life.  Don't throw it away, it is all you have.

3. Build your legacy - Think about what you will leave behind.  Did you help people?  Did you make a difference?  How do you want people to remember you?  When you look back on your own life, how do you want to remember yourself?

4. Spirituality - The closer I get to death, the more I seek a deeper relationship with God.  There is so much beauty here in this world, and I believe we are here for a greater purpose.  I believe in spirituality, and that our spirit will live on.  We must prepare ourselves for this next spiritual trip.

With love, respect, and honor,
Ju Han
Student and Warrior of Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim