May 27, 2026. Day 3 of the Community Dharma Teachers’ Retreat, Weekly Dharma Assembly (Morning)
Hello. Today is Day 3 of the Community Dharma Teachers’ Retreat. In the morning, the Weekly Dharma Assembly was held, and meetings continued throughout the afternoon.
Sunim began the day with early morning practice and meditation. From the early morning hours, he held meetings with the Dharma Teachers and then had breakfast.
Today is the day for the Weekly Dharma Assembly, held once a week, where Sunim’s Dharma talk provides an opportunity to reflect on the perspectives of practice.
The Dharma Teachers attending the retreat gathered in the Dharma hall to watch the Weekly Dharma Assembly live.
At 10 a.m., the live broadcast of the Weekly Dharma Assembly began from the broadcasting room at Dubuk Jungto Retreat Center. Sunim, wearing his kasaya (Buddhist robe) and jangsam, entered the broadcasting room and sat in front of the camera. After the Three Refuges and the recitation of the Heart Sutra, the “Weekly News of Jungto Practitioners” was shown as a video. The video featured Jungto practitioners preparing for the Buddha’s Birthday celebration at each main temple and various practice locations. The members of the Sangha then requested a Dharma talk from Sunim by singing the Song of Requesting the Dharma and offering three bows.
“Hello, Jungto practitioners. Today is the final Dharma assembly of this spring. The spring days we had been waiting for so eagerly are passing by in the blink of an eye. Last Sunday, all of you must have been busy with the Buddha’s Birthday celebration. The officers of Jungto Society and many volunteers worked hard to prepare and carry out the event, welcoming not only Jungto Society members but also general Buddhist practitioners and guests. At each main temple, countless tasks were carried out, such as lighting the lanterns, holding the Dharma assembly, and sharing the prepared food. Thanks to the volunteer service of Jungto practitioners, the Buddha’s Birthday celebration was completed successfully. Since I cannot visit each and every volunteer in person to express my gratitude, I would like to do so collectively here at this Dharma assembly. Thank you all so much for your hard work in preparing for and carrying out the Buddha’s Birthday event.
This year’s Buddha’s Birthday had clear weather and fell on a holiday, so I believe all the events were carried out smoothly and properly. Since Jungto Society conducted the Buddha’s Birthday celebration online overall, most Jungto Society members likely participated in the online celebration ceremony from home. Among them, about 4,000 people attended the Dharma assemblies in person at main temples across the country. At the Seoul main temple, members from four divisions—the Jungto Social and Cultural Center Special Division, the Seoul-Jeju Division, the Incheon-Gyeonggi West Division, and the Gangwon-Gyeonggi East Division—gathered, bringing the total to about 2,000 people. At Jangsu Jungnimjeongsa, about 600 people from the Daejeon-Chungcheong Division and the Gyeongnam Division gathered, and at Gumi Adomoryewon, 600 people from the Daegu-Gyeongbuk Division came. At Cheonnyongsa, about 600 people, including members from the Busan-Ulsan Division and some from the Gyeongju Branch, gathered, and at Muan Mireuksa, about 300 people joined. Overseas, members gathered at the Manila Dharma Center, the Sydney Dharma Center, the Seattle Dharma Center, and the Washington D.C. US Jungto Center, and others participated in the celebration Dharma assembly from their own homes, offices, and various other locations.
“Hip” Buddhist Culture for Young People
Socially, that day happened to be a Sunday, and being a holiday that also coincided with the election period, there was some confusion and complexity. However, compared to previous years, more people are said to have visited temples. Also, as young people these days approach Buddhism culturally, they use expressions like “hip Buddhism” and “hot Buddhism.” Perhaps because of this influence, an unprecedented number of citizens participated in Buddhist events such as the lantern parade, and many people, regardless of their religion, seem to be visiting temples. Last Sunday was a day not only for Jungto Society but for the entire Buddhist community to celebrate the Buddha’s Birthday and reflect on the Buddha’s teachings.
These days, we live in an aging society, and secularization is also progressing. Since COVID-19, the religious population has decreased significantly, whether in churches, temples, or cathedrals. In that respect, it is fortunate that young people these days are showing interest in Buddhist culture. I would like to take this opportunity to once again thank all the members who worked so hard on Buddha’s Birthday, as well as everyone who participated in the event.
After the Buddha’s Birthday celebration, the community Dharma Teachers—that is, the ordained Dharma Teachers—always gather for a retreat. I am also currently participating in the retreat, but since today is the Wednesday Dharma assembly, I stepped out from the retreat for a moment to join you here. Now, let’s hear your stories.”
After Sunim’s opening remarks, he had Dharma Q&A conversations with three people who had submitted questions in advance.
My father recently caused a disturbance in front of our family, and I couldn’t hold back and got very angry. In situations like this, what kind of mindset and attitude should a practitioner have?
My son, who is on a leave of absence from college, keeps demanding money and making life difficult for our family. I am currently living away from home with my daughter. I would like advice on what I should do in this situation.
This post concludes with the conversation from the last questioner.
How Should I Manage the Drive for Achievement That Arises in My 30s?
“When I first encountered Jungto Society in my 20s, the teachings I learned through practice and volunteering had a profound impact on my life. Now in my 30s, I’m working a typical job as a member of society. As my environment and conditions have changed, I feel a lot of anxiety, greed, and stubbornness within me. What I learned and realized at Jungto Society sometimes wavers in my current daily life. Recently, I keep feeling that I have to accomplish and achieve something. I feel I need to meet better people, get to better positions, live a better life, and I also have the desire to win in competition. While I want to be free from these desires, I also wonder if it’s natural to want to achieve something at a young age and to live intensely in society. In my 20s, I think I only understood the Buddha’s teachings intellectually while suppressing my desires and urges. From what perspective should I practice now?”
“There isn’t just one path in practice. There are many paths. Suppose you’ve learned that the appetizing food in front of you contains poison. Because you know this, one path is not to eat it. But if you still want to eat it, there’s also the path of eating the poisoned food and dying. Don’t think that eating and dying isn’t a path. If you choose it, that too becomes a path.
If you follow the desires and urges that erupt from within, suffering ultimately arises. Many young people these days live with dreams like making explosive profits from cryptocurrency or stocks, or developing an app that generates massive sales. Young people’s get-rich-quick mentality seems even stronger than that of people in the past. When I meet and talk with them, hardly anyone thinks about steadily earning money, saving up, getting married, having children, and buying a house. This isn’t just a problem of young people. The environment doesn’t allow young people to save up their salary and buy a house. It’s only possible through unconventional means like surges in stock or cryptocurrency prices. As a result, more people are relying on luck. I’ve heard that so many people are hiking up certain mountains because of rumors that you can receive good fortune there, and the situation has reached dangerous levels. More young people are also getting their fortunes told or having their saju read. Even when they go to temples, instead of practicing and cultivating their minds, they more readily believe folk beliefs that bowing to Buddha statues or touching stone statues will bring them good fortune. In the past, those who clung to faith for blessings were mainly older people, but these days, it’s actually young people who seek such things more. As the wealth gap in our society continues to grow, the majority of young people are heading in a direction where it’s difficult to achieve their goals through individual effort alone. From an adult’s perspective, the world has become better than before, but in the reality of competition that young people experience, hope and possibility are gradually diminishing. That’s why the psychology of relying on luck seems to be growing stronger.
You are also living as one of those people in this world. When you learned Buddhism in your 20s, your tendency to chase worldly desires improved to some extent, and you probably thought your karma had changed. But looking back now, you’ve realized that rather than your karma changing, you had rationally suppressed your desires. When you went out into society and actually faced reality, your desires resurfaced. However, you shouldn’t try to suppress them again. If these feelings come up again when you’re older, in your 40s, it will be even harder. You just need to become aware that you have these desires. ‘Ah, I have a desire for success.’ ‘Ah, I have sexual desires.’ ‘Ah, I’m hoping to get rich quick.’ At these moments, without judging good or bad, become aware of yourself and smile gently, thinking, ‘I thought I had resolved these desires to some degree in my 20s, but they’re still here as they were.’
Karma, formed over a long period from various causes including the environment in which we grew up, is deeply rooted in our unconscious. It cannot disappear just because you studied Buddhism a little in your 20s. It’s no more than painting over an old roof without repairing it. But when the paint peels off, the rust underneath is revealed as it is. Instead of rushing to cover it up with paint again, you should take the perspective that even if you repaint, you first scrape off the rust and thoroughly examine how rusted it is before painting. This is a method of studying centered on awareness, neither trying to eliminate desires, nor following them, nor discriminating between good and bad. As the suffering that arises from following desires grows greater, an awareness arises in your unconscious world: ‘Am I going to keep losing out by living this way?’ The self-improvement that arises through this kind of awareness is different in nature from suppression.
However, as I said at the beginning, if you really want to eat food that contains poison, eating it and dying is also one path. When desire arises, awareness and other methods may not work well. In such cases, since you are still young, just trying it once can be one approach. If you die, that’s the end; if you don’t die but get badly hurt, you’ll never make that choice again. Rather than blindly following desire without understanding it and regretting it later, you try it knowing that it leads to suffering. Set a period—three years or five years—try it, and then evaluate yourself afterward. If you have the realization, ‘Looking back, that was foolish,’ you can come to your senses before your 40s. Other people don’t come to their senses even in their 40s or 50s, so you’d be ahead of them. However, if you’re not prepared to try it yourself and accept the consequences, you must continue to be aware of your desires and improve from within. Suppressing desire while only decorating your outer appearance and feeling pleased about looking pretty cannot last long.
As you said, if the thought ‘I’m still young, why not try it?’ keeps coming up, then try it. To do so, you need courage and the willingness to accept the results. Even if your investment fails, if you can brush it off and stand up saying, ‘This is gambling, I’ll never do it again,’ it may actually be more helpful in the long run. Rather than always hesitating and lingering with regret, thinking ‘If only I had tried it back then…,’ it may be better to lose properly while you’re young. What I mean is, even if it’s a foolish thing to do, it can sometimes be necessary to do something foolish and learn from it yourself.
The Buddha’s teaching is wisdom that originally allows you to know in advance without having to experience such things directly. However, sentient beings find this difficult. Even if you learn and know in advance in your 20s as you have, it may not help much when the situation and conditions change. So experiencing it once can also be a method. It can at least serve as a second-best option. If you have courage, try it once; if not, just be aware of it yourself.
Awareness is neither following the desire nor suppressing it; it is simply knowing. For example, when you have the desire to smoke, the desire may disappear when you smoke, or even if you become aware of the desire and don’t smoke, it will disappear after some time. However, just as the desire to smoke arises again even after you smoke, the desire arises again even after you become aware of it. In this way, desires keep arising and disappearing repeatedly. You ask, ‘Does awareness resolve the desire?’ But does smoking completely resolve the desire? It’s the same story. As long as there is karma related to smoking within you, the desire will continue to appear. You shouldn’t think that the only way to resolve a desire when it arises is to follow it. At that moment, you can avoid it through awareness. Enduring and suppressing acts as stress, but becoming aware and avoiding it does not become stress. That’s why suppressing desire only makes it grow stronger, while becoming aware of it gradually weakens the desire.
Between the path of being aware of desires and cravings, and the path of trying them out, I recommend awareness. However, in your situation, even trying it once can be allowed as part of practice. But one thing you must clearly understand is that you need to know the losses involved in advance. You shouldn’t think, ‘I wasted money and time for nothing.’ That kind of experience is a learning process, and you should accept that it was worth trying once. If you sincerely hoped for a lucky break but things didn’t go as you wished, and you regret, ‘I foolishly followed my desires and wasted several years,’ then it becomes not an experience but a trauma, which becomes an obstacle going forward. So if you want to try something, know the losses involved, but if the risk is too great, I advise you to stop.”
“Yes, Sunim. I understand well.”
The conversations with the three questioners came to an end. Sunim asked each questioner for their reflections.
“Thank you so much for guiding me through various paths. I was quite nervous earlier, but as we talked, my tension eased and my mind became peaceful. Thank you.”
“Yes, Sunim, hearing that it isn’t a big problem, as you said, lightens my heart. Previously, I didn’t think of my son’s behavior as an illness, so I felt resentment and hatred toward him. From now on, I will try to be aware, thinking, ‘My son is ill.’ My heart feels much lighter. Thank you.”
“I will move forward with awareness. Thank you.”
Sunim then offered some concluding remarks.
“Thank you all for your hard work preparing for and running the Buddha’s Birthday events. I want to express my gratitude once again. Next week, I will be in Bhutan. I will be continuously traveling through remote areas of Bhutan to observe the difficult lives of the residents, and there’s a possibility that the internet may not work well, so I may not be able to broadcast the Dharma assembly live. If there’s a connection, I will do it; if not, I may not be able to. Please understand in advance. This doesn’t mean there won’t be a Weekly Dharma Assembly. I’m just letting you know in advance that there’s a possibility I may not be able to deliver the Dharma talk live myself. The following week, I will return to Korea, so I will see you again then.”
After Sunim’s concluding remarks, as the members of the Sangha were about to enter meditation, Sunim murmured softly:
“Ah, I forgot to announce the India pilgrimage. It was written on the note here, but I missed it. I was supposed to announce that applications for the India pilgrimage are starting… Will the pilgrimage announcement go out as part of today’s Dharma assembly notices?”
Sunim apologized for not being able to deliver the announcement himself and left the broadcasting room.
After the Weekly Dharma Assembly, Sunim and the Dharma Teachers gathered in the retreat room to discuss various agenda items. The meeting continued on the topic of Jungto Society’s future vision.
Outside, light rain was drizzling. Around 4 PM, the meeting wrapped up, and they decided to have an early dinner and take a walk if the rain stopped. Sunim and the Dharma Teachers shared conversation over dinner. They discussed various topics, from yesterday’s episode to the performers who appeared at the Buddha’s Birthday Eve cultural festival.
It was now 5:30 PM. Checking the outside temperature and rainfall conditions, the weather was not suitable for a walk. Today’s retreat schedule concluded with sharing dinner together. The Dharma Teachers moved to the Dubuk Jungto Retreat Center, performed the evening service at 7 PM, took care of personal matters, and went to bed. Sunim also handled work communications after the early dinner and wrapped up the day.
Tomorrow is the fourth day of the resident Dharma Teachers’ retreat. After the morning farm work, the closing ceremony of the Dharma Teachers’ retreat will be held.