Mirror (eBook)

The Essay of Wisdom

Andy Kim (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025 | 1. Auflage
156 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
9798350988116 (ISBN)

Infos

Now, as I enter the autumn of my life, I have the opportunity to reflect on who I am and what thoughts I have lived with. Where did I come from, and where am I going? How does this world appear to me? Based on the milestones I have organized through these questions, I hope to live a slightly more developed and meaningful life tomorrow.

Currently am Vice-Chairman of Kainos Medicine, a bio-tech. co., in San Diego, California. Born and raised in South Korea, and has worked in the bio-pharmaceutical field for many years.

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During times when I felt my days were mundane and ordinary, I did not feel happiness. But now I realize that these mundane and ordinary days are indeed blessed and grateful days; they are happy days. An ordinary day that is 'safe today' is a day for which I am grateful. Now, I set aside my worries about tomorrow and focus on this moment. I am to live humanely, concentrating not on major changes, but on small changes - especially, change within myself. When I wake up in the morning and look in the bathroom mirror, I am often startled to see that, at some point, the image of my youth has vanished, and instead, I see my father's reflection standing there. As I realize how much my face resembles that of my late father, I find myself reflecting on my life anew. The mirror, though an illusion, is a grateful presence that confirms my existence. I particularly feel thankful for the James Webb mirror, as it vividly shows the image of the universe, our human home. In this book, I have described my thoughts on birth, living, success, hapiness, religion, philosophy, wisdom, politics, and death of our human beings.

Textauszug

2.
Birth

The birth of a human being is a significant event in existence, and the birth of each individual creates their own historical narrative. Therefore, if I do not exist, this world would not exist either.

In my case, what I know about my ancestors mainly involves my father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, thanks to the stories my parents told me during my childhood. Looking at my family’s genealogical record, it states that our progenitor is Kim Suk-seung (? - 935), the grandson of King Gyeongsun of Silla. Silla was a Kingdom located on the Korean Peninsula, existing from 57 BC to 935 AD. Among the population during the Joseon Dynasty (1392 - 1897), only a small minority were noblemen, while most were commoners, lowborn, or slaves. However, most people, including the lowborn and slaves, had surnames even if they did not have personal names. It is well known that the class system completely collapsed after the turbulent time of the late Joseon period and under Japanese rule. With collapse of the class system, many people likely forged their lineage as a nobleman. Today, we mostly believe that anyone can trace their lineage back to the nobleman class. It is fortunate that the Republic of Korea was established, everyone started from a position of equality. I believe that this foundation of an equal society has contributed to South Korea’s development into a developed country today. Given these historical facts, while I am certain that my surname is ‘Kim,’ I still cannot ascertain whether my family’s ancestral home is indeed ‘Andong’, or if my ancestors were truly descendants of King Gyeongsun. The city of ‘Andong’ is the ancestral home of the ‘Andong Kim’ clan, located in Gyeongsangbuk-do province. Korea, with its well-preserved records of family lineage and blood relations, boasts a commendable traditional culture.

Who my true ancestors are, or who my historical ancestors might be, is not what matters. What is important is the undeniable fact that someone was living as ancestor 500 or even 1,000 years ago. For now, let’s trust the genealogical record of my family. To be born, I need the presence of Kim Suk-seung, as recorded in our genealogy. As the progenitor from the Silla period, Kim Suk-seung must have firmly existed at the time he lived.

If we expand our thinking around my birth, we can trace back to the Neolithic period on the Korean Peninsula (estimated to be around 10,000 years ago), the birth of Homo sapiens (around 70,000 years ago), the Paleolithic era (estimated to be around 300,000 years ago), and further back to the emergence of primordial life (estimated to be 3.8 billion years ago), the formation of Earth (approximately 4.5 billion years ago), the birth of the solar system (around 4.6 billion years ago), and the beginning of the universe with the Big Bang (estimated to be 13.8 billion years ago).

Logically, the primordial life that emerged in the universe gave rise to who I am today. Therefore, not only I but all currently living Homo sapiens could not have been born by mere chance. Each individual’s unique birth event must trace back to the starting point of cosmic life and traverse billions of years through eternity. Only then can I exist as I do now.

The birth of life is a monumental event in the universe. Whether it is a matter of chance or inevitability is something no one can know, but the meaning of birth is easily understood as a cosmic event. However, reflecting on my own case, even though I was born well, I feel that I have chosen the wrong time and place to be born. However, looking at the world today, I feel incredibly fortunate to have been born in South Korea rather than North Korea. What even if I had been born as a woman in Afghanistan? In this era, where you are born and later where you live and work as an adult determines everything about your life. The category of being a ‘Soeumin’ has become the starting point of my birth and destiny.

While it is regrettable that I have physical limitations, I find solace in having had the opportunity for higher education thanks to my parents and the people around me. Until recently, the structure of Korean society was such that children were responsible for economically supporting their aging parents. However, times have changed, and now children are not obligated to take on their parents’ financial responsibilities. Unless in special circumstances, we now live in a era of ‘self-sustenance,’ where individuals must take care of themselves until death.

I am able to live without financial help from my children, so I am grateful to my parents and everyone who has cared for and supported me along the way. Since childhood, there have always been grateful people who have encouraged me and guided me. Without their help, I would not be who I am today. My life has been fortunate in many ways. While the fate determined at the moment of birth is important, many scholars emphasize that humans are also greatly influenced by their environment. My life, from birth to now, is undoubtedly shaped by the care and support from those around me.

Humans are beings that cannot escape the cycle of birth, aging, illness, and death. When we examine the records of human history - myths, history, religion, philosophy, and the humanities - we see that anxiety about nature and death has always been at the center. In ancient times, when science and technology were not yet developed, how much fear must ancient people have felt about all natural phenomena? Modern individuals can hardly imagine the anxiety and darkness that dominated their lives.

Today, we live in a world where we have learned a great deal about nature compared to ancient and medieval times, which has alleviated much of our anxiety. I remember that when I was a child, I believed that ghosts and goblins appeared everywhere at night, and even during the day, I would see various spirits in dark alleys or secluded places. However, as times passed and science advanced, the world brightened, and the existence of ghosts and goblins faded away. Although many questions about life and death have been answered, we still have much to learn, leaving us with lingering anxiety.

Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has spread globally, resulting in the loss of countless lives. However, as research on the corona virus has progressed and vaccines and treatments have been developed, the initial anxiety has significantly diminished. Anxiety and fear tend to amplify when we unaware, and they decrease once we gain knowledge. Despite the tremendous advancements in human civilization and science, questions about death and what comes after still cause us the greatest unease.

When examining the phenomenon of ‘birth and death’, we see considerable differences between Western philosophy and Eastern perspectives. In Western thought, birth and death are perceived as separate and distinct concepts. This dualistic view can also be traced in the development of Western religions and philosophies. In contrast, Eastern thought understands birth and death as interconnected concepts. The scattered ‘qi’ gathers and coalesces to give rise to life, while over time, the qi weakens and disperses, leading to death. Ultimately, this is merely a manifestation of the same qi.

I am particularly fascinated by the concept of ‘qi’. It conjures images in my mind reminiscent of a thick fog at dawn.

The concept of ‘qi’ developed by ancient Eastern philosophers can be understood, from a contemporary perspective, as entities similar to protons, neutrons, and elctrons, which are the basic building blocks of elements that exist in the universe, or even smaller units like quarks. It is currently known that there are 118 elements in the periodic table, and the essential elements for all life forms on Earth, including humans, are hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen. When examining all elements with different properties, we find that they all share a common structure: electrons orbiting around a nucleus composed of protons and neutrons, just as the Earth orbits around the Sun. Each element has its unique characteristics, but protons, neutrons, and elctrons can be understood as fundamental entities that compose the elements, similar to the concept of ‘qi’ in Eastern thought. In modern physics, there is a concept known as the law of conservation of energy, which states that assuming no external interactions, the total amount of energy remains constant; it can change forms or be trasferred elsewhere but cannot be created or destroyed. Therefore, we can recognize that everything in the universe and on Earth appears and disappears like ‘qi,’ and from the perspective of modern physics, while they may appear and disappear, the overall sum of existence, or the sum of energy, is always constant. The science and technology developed by humans do not have the ability to create new entities, but simply change forms or move things from one place to another.

Throughout history, qi has been regarded as a metaphysical concept, but it now approaches the status of a physical reality. When observing the numerous life processes occurring within human cells under an electron microscope, one can witness organic substances that resemble fog coalescing and dispersing.

If we look beyond our bodies to the universe, the images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, launched into low Earth orbit in 1990, reveal astonishing views of space. However, in December of 2023, the James Webb Space Telescope, launched...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 11.1.2025
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Gesundheit / Leben / Psychologie ► Esoterik / Spiritualität
• ISBN-13: 9798350988116 / 9798350988116