📖 Introduction
Growing up in a difficult or impoverished environment often leaves a lasting mark on our minds. To protect ourselves from the shame and vulnerability we felt as children, we build thick walls of fake pride. We become obsessed with appearing flawless, constantly competing, and pretending to be stronger and better than everyone else. We hide our true selves behind a mask of superiority, running relentlessly toward success. But eventually, this exhausting performance takes a toll on our closest relationships, leading to constant friction and a deep sense of emptiness. What happens when you finally stop trying to cover up your shortcomings?
In this post, a 53-year-old man shares an incredibly moving story of self-reflection. After watching his wife transform through meditation, he arrived full of doubt. But as he looked back on his life—from an impoverished childhood filled with hunger and shame to an adulthood driven by an intense inferiority complex—he realized his entire life had been a stressful performance meant only for show.
Read his beautiful reflection to see how giving up his holiday to discard his false picture world led to the most precious gift: discovering the unwavering, eternally happy true world.
💬 Story: 🎁 “A Precious and Marvelous Time, Giving Up Even the Lunar New Year Holiday”
By Je Jung-gwon / Age 53 / Level 1
Watching my wife, who started this meditation a few years ago, gradually transform into her true self, I came to this meditation Main Center half in doubt. However, contrary to what I had thought, this meditation was not just a meditation space to make oneself classy and refined, but a marvelous process of exploring the truth to find the real world by discarding the picture world, which is the fake world inside one’s mind.
Looking back at my life, during my impoverished childhood, I hated going to school because I was scolded by the teacher for not being able to pay tuition, and I frequently had to fill my empty stomach with water because I couldn’t pack a lunch.
“When I returned home from school, I always devoted myself to farm work to help with household chores. Because of this, I lost confidence in front of others, became timid, and rather than revealing my shortcomings, I only tried to cover them up by putting my pride forward.”
Before starting this meditation, because I acted within my own mold, I lacked the means to express love even among family members, and we constantly argued over trivial matters. Growing up in a difficult environment, a strong inferiority complex surfaced, so I had to be flawless in my relationships with people and in handling tasks at work. Also, because I hated losing to others in competition and only ran forward with the drive for promotion and success, looking back now, it was me doing useless things without a real “me.”
Living for 53 years, every time I discarded the remembered thoughts from the pictures I had taken in my mind according to the method, I could confirm the change in my mind. Also, as I discarded the remembered thoughts of the life I had lived, the true world gradually became clear.
“I regret my past when I think about why I couldn’t recognize this lifeless, overwhelmingly dark, and illusory world earlier, and instead believed it to be true, followed it, and thought I was superior. Pretending to be better than others, pretending to be stronger, having negative thoughts rather than positive ones—I wasted my life living in a fake world meant only for show.”
As I discarded the picture world I had taken with my body throughout my life, the universe that was revealed was the unwavering, eternally unchanging world itself. It was the truly happy mind itself, impossible to express in words. To me, who thought I was the best due to an inferiority complex and greed for work, this meditation method made me realize the correct answer to the most important question in life.
Finishing Level 1 by giving up my Lunar New Year holiday is a precious and valuable gift to me. Now that I “know the real world,” I firmly pledge to complete all the levels until I become this very existence. Why does the spring rain falling outside the meditation room window feel so cozy today of all days?
#Gift #FamilyPractice #TrueNature #HalfInDoubt #Enlightenment #InferiorityComplex #LunarNewYearHoliday #PretendingToBeGreat #SelfReflection
🌱 NEXT STEPS: Clear Your Mind Today
Are you exhausted from pretending to be flawless, hiding your childhood wounds behind a mask of pride, and constantly competing just to prove your worth? You do not have to live your life as a performance. Discard the painful pictures of your past, drop the heavy fake pride, and discover the cozy, unwavering peace of your true self.
👉 Book a Free Introductory Session at Santa Clara Meditation https://santaclarameditation.org/free-meditation-introduction
