As the world shakes, it is the center that must hold.
2025. Across the globe.
Political polarization is deepening. The flood of misinformation, manipulation, and outrage-driven narratives is dismantling public trust. Economically, the global system is sinking into prolonged stagnation, and some analysts say we have already entered the early stages of a new Great Depression.
Housing markets are collapsing. Construction and small businesses are failing in waves. Youth unemployment and elderly insecurity have become part of daily life. Even major corporations, once thought invincible, are staggering under the weight of geopolitical conflict, supply chain breakdowns, and collapsing consumer demand.
Meanwhile, social media platforms and digital networks have turned into ideological battlefields. Every day becomes a struggle to determine “who is right” and “what is true.” For some, these questions are urgent matters of identity or even survival. But we must ask ourselves:
Where is all this conflict taking us?
At the end of this war of words, will we find a better world—or a more broken one?
In Dojeon 9:76, Sangjenim, the founder of Jeung San Do, once recited this verse to His disciples:
Do not speak of whether heaven is right or wrong,
speak instead of cultivating and purifying yourself with dao.
Abandon worldly desires, and seek eternal life.
— Dojeon 9:76
This is not simply a poetic idea.
It is a direct challenge to the very habits that are draining our strength today.
We spend vast amounts of mental and emotional energy trying to judge who is right, who is wrong, what is real, and what should be condemned. But the energy we use for constant judgment was originally meant to protect our vitality and renew the world. That is life force—and it is being consumed by noise.
Families are divided by politics. Online comment sections resemble battlegrounds. And even the search for justice can turn into yet another form of destruction. Yet all of this—when viewed from the perspective of the Great Transformation (Gaebyeok), a profound shift in human history—may appear no more significant than dust blowing in the wind.
Because the true question of our time is not
“Who is right?”
but rather
“How will we survive?”
“What are we truly living for?”
In an age oversaturated with information—news, analysis, opinions, algorithms—we feel we know everything.
But most of us are strangers to ourselves.
We do not sense how deeply our vitality is being depleted.
We do not notice how fragmented our hearts have become.
And so, the most important question we must ask today is not about others, but about ourselves:
“What is the condition of my body and mind right now?”
Sangjenim’s call to "cultivate and purify yourself with dao" is not a command to escape the world, or live as an ascetic. It is a call to return to something profoundly human and utterly practical.
- Step away from the debates that cloud your mind.
- Take even ten minutes a day to breathe and center yourself.
- Reflect: Are my words and actions giving life—or taking it?
- Instead of arguing for justice, ask: Is my own heart just?
And beyond these first steps, we must recognize one vital truth:
This is not just an age for spiritual reflection.
This is an age when awakening is essential to survival.
Jeung San Do offers a path of spiritual practice rooted in the original traditions of humanity—an inheritance of over 9,000 years. These include:
- Breath cultivation,
- Sacred mantras,
- Practices of silent meditation and dynamic meditation, and
- The “Flower of Light” meditation, a method of harmonizing body, mind, soul, and spirit.
This is not merely a practice for peace of mind.
It is a way to regenerate vitality, recover clarity, and prepare for the profound upheaval to come.
It is a path of transformation through which we survive, and begin anew.
Even as the world shakes,
the current of Dao flows on—calm, precise, and unchanging.
It does not flow from outside.
It rises from within—
from the center of each life.
So do not spend your strength debating the rightness or wrongness of the world.
Instead, speak clearly and simply:
“I will cultivate myself with dao.”
That is the first step we must take, in this time of great transformation.