Master Woo Myung Teaching – Those Who Follow Dō (Tao)
The reasons people follow or do dō (a Korean word meaning Truth or The Way) is in order to succeed, to become superior to other people in some way, or to appease their feelings of inferiority. However, dō is the opposite of these things because the existence of dō is the existence of Truth. In order to achieve true dō, one must discard his very self and shed all of his own preconceptions and habits. Only then is it possible to get to the place of dō. However many people fail because they try to achieve dō whilst holding onto their selves.
Dō is falseness becoming real. One’s false self needs only to be discarded but if one tries to gain dō within himself he ultimately fails because dō cannot be contained within something that is false. The “evil spirits” or “demons” spoken of in the Bible refer to one’s false self.
In Buddhism, achieving dō is spoken of as being more difficult than scratching one’s way out of a silver-iron mountain. It is a metaphor highlighting how strongly man has made his own mind world and how difficult it is to detach his false self.
When one completely discards his self, then in fact he achieves what he originally desired – he becomes a truly superior person and triumphs over his feelings of inferiority. However he who seeks to gain something in his own world is ultimately unable to gain what he seeks and only adds to his karma. It is important to know the principle that nothing can be gained for free in the world – such is the way of the world. There are many who try to achieve Truth without putting in the effort. They are showing the habit with which they have always lived. Man behaves and lives in the way dictated by the form of his mind. Thus, it can be said that man shows the “price” of his form. Whether or not one is able to achieve Truth also shows the price of his mind’s form. One’s form always pays its price.
-Woo Myung-
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