INTRODUCTION ✨
In this final reflection, Master Woo Myung describes a profound inner transformation: the fear of death is overcome, burdens are released, and one reaches great enlightenment. He speaks of finding the original non-existence and recognizing nirvana — the state where life and death no longer bind us. This teaching points to true freedom: not an escape from life, but a total awakening in which Heaven becomes the mind and one sees clearly the heavenly work to be done. 🌼
ORIGINAL WRITING BY MASTER WOO MYUNG 🕊️
Last Words
I was one who could not die, for I was afraid of death.
But now that I have died
and have thus become free of all my burdens,
I have reached the state of great enlightenment.
People do not know that this is possible
and so they live with pain and burdens
while ceaselessly regretting the fact
that they live bound to them.
A young shepherd with a familiar face passes by,
and his faint footsteps remain.
But people do not know this
and so they just sigh.
It is in the state where there is no life or death
that the yellow dandelion that is in bloom is Truth,
but people live on,
not knowing it.
Though I count how many go and how many come,
though I have laid the foundations in Heaven –
this place where none go or come –
over numerous years
and await the arrival of man,
none have come.
Arrival into that place is nirvana;
it is freedom.
I had never actually sought out
my original non-existence.
But now that I have found it,
I can see at one glance the heavenly work I must do.
Since I have found it, my mind is Heaven;
from the start, I have never lived in the world
nor have I ever lived at all.
I am me just as I am;
I have become the infinitely large me.
– Woo Myung.
REFLECT AT SANTA CLARA MEDITATION 🌿
Master Woo Myung’s Last Words invite us to consider that true freedom comes when the fear of death and the attachments that bind us are fully released. Through the practice taught at Santa Clara Meditation—discarding false karma, habits, and body—one can encounter the original non-existence, realize that mind = Heaven, and take up the heavenly work of guiding others toward Truth. This is not an escape but a completion: living fully as the infinitely large self. 🙏
