Master Woo Myung Truth Poem – The Right Way to Live
To all of you living in the world:
learn how to be unknowledgeable
before being knowledgeable.
Knowledge confines you.
Being unknowledgeable will free you.
To have knowledge but to not dwell in it –
to be unknowledgeable –
will free you.
To all of you living in the world:
learn how to not live before learning how to live.
When you learn how to not live,
the life you live will be endlessly peaceful,
and you will understand the logic of life.
To all of you living in the world:
learn to want not before learning to want.
Wants are what confine you in life.
To be in want of nothing will liberate you.
Thus to having nothing
will set your mind at infinite peace.
To all of you living in the world:
learn to say goodbye before creating bonds with others.
If you force yourself to create bonds,
it would be nothing but laborious.
If you were to create bonds
after having learned to say goodbye,
those bonds would be new every day;
they would be full of affection and endless peace.
To all of you living in the world:
before you learn love, compassion, and benevolence,
learn to be absent of mind when dealing with others.
When you deal with others
after having learned to be absent of mind,
they will be at great peace.
When you deal with others
after having learned to be absent of mind,
you will be at great peace.
To all of you living in the world:
do not regard various things as being different.
If you dwell in those various things,
your sense of self will become greater,
and you will dwell in your mind.
The state in which
you no longer view objects as being objects is
the boundlessly peaceful state.
Furthermore, when you no longer have
a discerning mind,
you will be able to live a true life.
To all of you living in the world:
do not be bound to words.
If you do, there will be no freedom for you;
you will be shackled.
Your thoughts are what destroy you.
To be able to see all things in Nature clearly
is what it means to live a true life.
To all of you living in the world:
do not be deceived into creating
your own conceptions of things.
Your own thoughts are what deceive you.
You do not realize that everything is Truth as it is
and that God and Buddha do not exist
separately from creation.
It is only when you live knowing that
everything in the universe is Truth
that you will live the right way.
-Woo Myung-
