Lee: That’s right. In the East, people have long thought of heaven and earth as living parents. “Chunji Bumo — heaven-earth parents,” they were called. People saw them as entities who gave birth to us and raised us, and as the final destination to which we would have to return. So they didn’t do things that would harm heaven and earth. They couldn’t. I mean, harming heaven and earth was harming themselves. This is the traditional view of nature in the East. It’s no different from the view of nature among American Indians, who saw the earth as Mother.
Such a spirit is also contained in Korea’s founding philosophy, Hongik Ingan. Hong means “wide,” Ik means “benefit,” and Ingan means “human” or “humanity.” So this phrase means “to be of wide benefit to humanity.” The concept contains three profound ideas.
First, is the notion of “humanity.” The word here means more than just people; it includes the world in which people live and even nature.
The second concept is “benefit.” As I mentioned before, the East traditionally viewed nature as humanity’s cosmic parents, so in the past, people didn’t do things that would harm nature. The spirit of Hongik Ingan takes this a step further by including the proactive step of doing good for others in the world, rather than just not doing things that harm others.
Third, one must consider the meaning of “wide.” I believe that this word, more than all the rest, is imbued with the essence of the Hongik Ingan spirit. Through this concept, the object I seek to benefit is not restricted to the individual and limited sphere of me and mine, the people I know, and the places to which I belong. Contained in this word is a sacred mind of compassion that wells up from a place deep within the heart, an impulse that seeks to do good for as many as possible.
I cannot have this mind unless I feel that others and I, and nature and I, are interconnected, organic living things. This mindset is the way to resolve the problems we currently face. It is deeply unfortunate that today even Koreans are unaware of the profound significance of the Hongik Ingan spirit.
It is so natural for me to think of myself and the earth as interconnected because, in fact, all life forms are dependent upon the earth, just as human beings are. Our thinking has degenerated, though, so that we too often think of nature as an object of conquest and domination. We are overcome by human selfishness and desire, endlessly seeking to achieve success. We have to find a way for humanity and nature to live together before it’s too late.
Pastreich: Yes, there is still some hope for the human race and for the earth if we embrace the essence of Hongik and change people’s way of thinking in a direction that’s more wholesome.
These days, we see a tendency for everyone to live alone, like isolated islands, detached from society. Community awareness is disappearing in a consumer society, and competition is growing fiercer. What’s worse, even brothers and sisters are competing with each other, and married couples compete with each other, too.
Lee: That’s inevitable if we pursue only material success. Brothers and sisters, and even married couples, end up competing when they rush to be successful, and balance is broken when they compete. People who seek success feel good only when they are better than others, and they feel very bad when they don’t do as well as others. Is there no way for everyone to feel better together, then?
I believe, if we can move our focus from success to completion, if we can just change that central value, then everything will change. The value of completion is actually much greater and higher than that of success. If we pursue only success, then the harmony and balance between our bodies and minds, between humanity and nature, and between human beings are all broken, but, if we introduce the value of completion, all these problems can be resolved.
In a life lived in constant competition with others, everything is about getting skills and qualifications according to the world’s standards of success. In a life lived for the sake of completion, the philosophy and values I pursue become my standard. If worldly success stirs up selfishness and a desire to compete, then completion fosters coexistence and harmony.
The article was excerpted from Emanuel Pastreich and Ilchi Lee’s “Earth Management: A Dialogue on Ancient Korean Wisdom and Its Lessons for a New Earth” and was republished in Brain World Magazine’s print edition.
