Good morning everyone. Very good to be with you. As I begin the service today I want to touch on what is continuing to emerge in the world regarding the coronavirus situation. For those of us in Korea the situation is rather stable and therefore we may not be so aware of what’s going on in the world; therefore I want to touch on it. One bit of news that emerged as of yesterday is that around the world forty countries broke their one day record in terms of new confirmed cases—so the spread is accelerating rapidly. In the United States, for four days in a row the number of coronavirus deaths has surpassed one thousand people per day. Korea in the past six months has had only two hundred and ninety deaths. Another statistic in terms of confirmed cases in the United States is that the number of confirmed cases per day now, in the past two weeks, has been between sixty thousand and eighty thousand confirmed cases every day. In Korea it is under sixty per day. This is contrasted to one month ago in the US, when the confirmed cases were about half of that, and two months ago it was half of that yet, so the growth that is rather exponential. There are many experts that are saying that this current coronavirus situation is increasingly similar to the 1918 pandemic, which took several years, and many of the same mistakes are being made in this pandemic. Despite the impact of the coronavirus in the world, there is in the world an increasing shaking of the old systems of our civilization, and this enormous shaking that is going on in the world, we could perhaps see as a movement towards the birth of something new, something which is not entirely clear yet, but coming nonetheless. And as we touch on this world situation, I want to use the story of Moses and the Exodus as containing elements that are similar to this current cycle.
YouTube Video
The story of the Exodus, the departure of the children of Israel from Egypt is a story that occurred after four hundred years of slavery of the Israelites under Egypt. Coincidental to the story of four hundred years of slavery in Egypt, of the children of Israel, is the story of slavery in the modern European era, which began four hundred years ago exactly; and while we have recorded the ending of slavery in modern history as roughly one hundred and fifty years ago, in actual fact the residual accumulated effect of that slavery has continued to this day, and it is evident worldwide now in the mass demonstrations protesting inequality, and the trauma of inequality, in many places. There are aspects of the history of modern age slavery that we must face, confront, honestly and quite deeply. It is said that the number of slaves in this modern slavery period was a total of thirteen million people. The official count of the number of slaves in this modern slavery period is thirteen million, but in actual fact it was twenty million because seven million died in transit, two million while in the ships crossing over the ocean and five million in the slave training camps—so one third of those who were sent across the ocean died unbelievably torturous deaths—and these seven million dead, out of a total of twenty million slaves, is a number that if we were to translate it into our current period, it would be a number far larger in proportion. These seven million who died these torturous deaths, in a way were never really mourned properly. They are buried in history. In Korea we had the Sa Sam Massacre in Jeju, where a far smaller number died (30,000), and there has been a process of mourning for them that has happened at a national level, but it has only just begun; that process has not finished but it was begun. In the news recently I saw that a trauma center in Jeju was opened this year to treat the survivors and the descendants of the Sa Sam Massacre. If there is a Jeju trauma center, it was opened because it was clearly seen that it is needed. Where is the trauma center in the world for the seven million slaves that died these torturous deaths, and for the thirteen million and their descendants who survived and lived lives of trauma?What this shows is that this is a history that must be confronted, come to terms with and, in whatever way is possible, set right. If we look at history, we can see that atrocity, violence, has been naturally, and in an evolving way, confronted by people in history. The violence against native populations in various continents, as well as more recently, sexual violence, is being confronted, and there is an inexorable process by which violence of all sorts is being faced and confronted. In this context we can ask what is the symbol of Egypt that the children of Israel exited from? Egypt is a symbol of the oppression of self-centered control, and the oppression of the material level of control. We can ask, what is the symbol of the Pharaoh? Uranda speaks of the Pharaoh as a symbol of the self-active or self-centered mind. It was present in a specific way at that point in history, but it is present at all points in history.
How much the current civilization—let’s just take the last four hundred years—how much it was a civilization of oppression and inequality, a significant part of which was based on the use of slave labour is only now just beginning to be faced and confronted. The U.S. Declaration of Independence in 1776 was a declaration that, for that age, was an extraordinary breakthrough, and it pointed to a world in which human beings were to be treated with dignity, and with respect, and with equality. “All men are created equal.” The central kernel of that Declaration is that all men were and are created equal; and the deeper meaning of that is that all men are created equal, to be respected in their dignity as a fellow human being. But the two hundred and fifty year history after that declaration was written was unable to bring a society that reflected that. The actual meaning of that statement, “All men are created equal”, in application at that time was “All white men are created equal.” Of the founders of the United States that signed that Constitution there were quite a few that were slave owners; and yet there were probably some that wrote it and accepted it in it’s deeper meaning that all men of all colors are created equal. So this one statement, which is, really, you could say, at the center of modern, present day civilization, that all men are created equal, now has to be confronted. There is no way to step back from this statement that has been accepted throughout the whole world as a central value of civilization. Because this has been accepted throughout the world, what is left is only the question, “Why is it that we are not actually living the core principle and value that we have accepted as a civilization, and what must we do to live it?”
What is happening today is that the system that for four hundred years was not able to, in fact, bring into form this principle of dignity and of equality is now shaking. So the shaking in the world today we must see, and do see, as a shaking towards a world of dignity and equality. When sometimes people speak of dignity and equality, others say, “Are you a socialist?” Were the founders of United States of America socialists, then? Dignity and equality are not socialism. These are the highest values that have already been accepted in our civilization. So we can think of the time period that we are in now as being at a period similar to when the children of Israel we’re escaping from years that took away their dignity and their sense of equality—and we are in such a period. So let’s think a little bit together about what it must have been like for the children of Israel leaving Egypt. When the children of Israel left Egypt, did Moses have a five-year plan, or two-year plan? The children of Israel with Moses left Egypt with a complete unknown in front of them—an unknown time, an unknown world. They did not know what would happen as they left; but they left because they were compelled, because they could no longer accept what was before.
There are times in our lives when we also depart because what we have known before is no longer acceptable. We don’t know, we don’t have a certainty about what’s ahead, or the future, but we know for a fact that what has been is no longer acceptable; and compelled by the movement of life itself, in spirit we depart. We do so sometimes individually, and sometimes collectively. When we take departure in this way, from a situation that has been unendurable and no longer acceptable, that departure is sometimes exciting, with trepidation, but there is excitement in it. And we well know that when we make such a departure we won’t have a smooth, red carpet Road, all the way to the Promised Land. Soon the challenges come. In the days ahead for humanity it will be exactly like that—there will be challenges yet in what is unfolding. But no matter what difficulties there are, humanity cannot not go towards a world of dignity. It knows that it is life itself. Humanity knows that dignity, and a world of dignity, is life itself, just as we know that. Even if we have experienced personally times of oppression and of entrapment, we know a deeper compulsion in us that is a compulsion to live and stand in full dignity. Difficulties where we cannot see what is ahead come—they do come! Have some of you experienced where you could not see ahead and it was frightening?
In the story of Exodus there is a clear and precise lesson shown in what we must do personally, and collectively as a whole civilization, to confront a future that is unknown, and where fear and trepidation might be present. One of the most famous phrases in the Old Testament is the utterance that Moses gave in facing the Red Sea, and he spoke to the children of Israel. What is the Red Sea in this story? The Red Sea is a symbol of a challenge that seems insurmountable as we face into the journey and into the future. In our lives, such seemingly insurmountable barriers, like the Red Sea was for the children of Israel, come to us individually and collectively at times. Moses said to the children of Israel, “Be not afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD,” as they stood before the Red Sea with the Egyptian chariots in the distance approaching—Stand still in that circumstance! That’s quite a tall order. The meaning of “stand still” is be still, trust fully, completely—trust the creative process; trust a larger process that is working out fully. Trust the creative process fully. Fear not. Stand still. Be still. Fear not. Relax, and watch what is unfolding. The pathway through is already in the process of being created, already in the process of coming into form—trust the larger process. How did the Red Sea part? What all is involved in that we don’t have time to go into here, so we won’t touch on that right now. The instruction is stand still, be still, and feel and see the process that is already moving, and trust that. Don’t trust that just 50% and then impatiently wonder why nothing is happening, and turn around in nervous tension. Trust fully!
When I was in my twenties I wrote an essay on the philosophy of trust and its relation to our ability to perceive. It was called “The Epistemology Of Basic Trust.” The central point of this essay was that, when we are in a state of deepest trust and of tensionlessness, rest, relaxation, we are able to perceive the most accurately. I used an example in this essay of when we are walking and come across a barking dog—or on a trail, a snake—if we are in the state of panic, or fear or tension, our ability to perceive the situation in full spectrum and angle is reduced, and thus our ability to handle that situation most effectively is reduced. So as we face in our journey forward into the unknown, as we meet our Red Sea, or a barking dog, or a snake on the trail, as we remain in a state of deep relaxation and trust, trusting that there is already a way through, we have the ability to see in three hundred and sixty degrees in a way that tension and panic and fear would narrow and make us less capable.
When we are in a relaxed state and open to perceiving in three hundred and sixty degrees, certain key pieces of information come to us. It was likely similar for Moses. If Moses at the Red Sea was in a state of panic, the information that he needed, which was already coming to him, he might not have perceived. The meaning of this is our ability to stay in a relaxed, profoundly trusting state, open to guidance and information—the difference in the ability to do this or not is a difference that can be life and death, and that was certainly the case for Moses and the children of Israel. Had Moses panicked in that situation, and not been able to perceive from the still place where the path was, that history would have ended there.
Be still. Stand still, and in that quietness and stillness of profoundest trust, wait, and the perception of a path through will come to you. There is a way through. Simply put, don’t panic. The way through is already there, and in your stillness be open to it coming. It may be that perception of the opening of that pathway through doesn’t open immediately—even then, stand still, be still, and in that quietude, and in that trust, wait for the opening. And this doesn’t mean that we stand still and do nothing. In that standing still, and in that quietness and relaxation we are active, pursuing the investigations that we must investigate, taking the steps that we do need to take, but in a state of deep trust knowing that in one way or another the pathway will open. Also when a door closes, sometimes a door of opportunity as we move in our journey, the right way to translate it is that that door is closing so that another door can open.
As we move on this journey into the unknown, towards a world dignity, and as we face the challenges, we trust deeply the compulsion leading towards that world of dignity is the compulsion of life itself, and we trust that.
I want to touch very briefly on a topic that I meant to touch on at the beginning, but I didn’t have a chance, and it’s about the death of Mayor Park Won-soon. People are experiencing, even amongst friends, a division of opinion bringing conflict amongst each other, where one is standing on the side of the victim and the other on the side of Park Won-soon as a selfless servant. The thing I want to mention about this situation is that the truth, the real facts about the situation, are not all known, and we need to wait, without making judgment. The additional thing I want to say is that while there is a need to protect the woman who brought this charge, so that there is not a secondary violence against her, and there is a need to be with her and her pain, we need to be open to the possibility that there is a larger hidden, political conspiracy in this, as there has been in many other situations in the past. We know throughout history, both in Korea as well and rest of the world, but there have been many situations where devious political strategy was used to deceive people into believing, and therefore into siding, in one way. The beginning of the Vietnam War was an example of that; the beginning of the Second World War was another example of that. It was believed by the Americans in general that the Viet Cong attacked American soldiers, and the president declared war as a result. But the historical record now officially acknowledges the president lied. There was no such an attack, and that lie was used to deceive the people. In a time where there is the movement out of the old system of oppression and inequality into a new world, there are those who at all costs will seek to prevent that from happening, and they will do whatever it takes to prevent it, and to damage those who are leading that movement. So we must leave open the possibility, without believing necessarily that this was the case in this particular situation.
When we meet our Red Sea, stand still, and in that stillness and peace be open to where the pathway is that the Lord will show, and it will open. Because of what I said about former mayor Park Won-soon, it may have caused some of what I said previously to evaporate, but it is something that is important enough for me to speak about.
Thank you. A necessary and inexorable journey towards a world of dignity, a journey that we must take. Let’s move forward together in this active trust, and surrender to the vast creative process that is in motion through the events of the world, and the events of our lives, and as we rest in this let’s see what the Lord shall bring forth through us. Kamsahamnida. Thank you.
