Everyone dreams for an extraordinary life. The standard of being ‘extraordinary’ will be different from one another but they run and run pursuing the standard. Kids dream for fame and success while reading biographies of the greats. Adults satisfy their fantasy about the extraordinary self by watching superhero films. However, we all know that it is impossible. That’s why the ideal self that you draw in your mind is always crashing with the self of the reality deep in your mind. We fall in frustration. From some point of time, such words as Supermom and Superdad can be easily heard in our society overall. These words refer to those people who accomplish everything perfectly at work and at home with their families and children. Many people have been suffering from ‘perfectionism’ that subconsciously moves them. We struggle to fit into the standards of perfection and extraordinary that the society suggests and we ourselves make up. However, those standards are merely ‘fantasy’; and thus, it cannot be achieved and frustration eventually grows bigger.
So-called ‘extraordinary’ people seem to have everything from others’ eyes and have outstanding talents in every aspect. However, they actually perceive that they are not that happy. This instance explains a lot. In the ordinary daily life, they cannot tolerate some vacancy that is lacking or any clumsy part. While ‘ordinary’ people discover happiness from the ordinary daily life, ‘extraordinary’ people continue to run chasing their fantasy.
Now, let’s look at natural creatures around us. Branches shaking back and forth by winds, the warm sunlight that evenly illuminates the world, pure water pouring out from the tap, sounds of birds chirping outside the windows… Let’s suppose that all of these very ordinary and natural things vanish all at once. Do you believe you can endure the world in which such ordinary things vanished? When discovering the extraordinary ‘truth’ within everything that we regard ‘ordinary,’ the real happiness exists there. Let us not forget that the world is comprised of these ordinary people and creatures. Let us be reminded of the old saying, ‘water that is too pure has no fish.’ Everything of the world seems lacking, however, it has the complete truth within. Characteristics of each of the creatures that seem lacking are perfectly living in harmony. I wish you could learn that the ordinary is the extraordinary through teacher Woo Myung’s writing below.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
The Ordinary Is Extraordinary
The Ordinary Is the Greatest
We think that being the greatest is not realistic. We think that some other great being exists and that greatness exists outside of oneself. True greatness is to just live as is, to exist as is, and to accept everything. True greatness is true nature’s mind which has the entire universe. True greatness does not change; it is ordinariness itself. To be extraordinary is to be prominent.
However, the person whose mind is the biggest and whose life is ordinary is the most extraordinary and the greatest one.
Greatness is to be the biggest person. We think that the greatest person is one with grand achievements and that to win a war is great. However, to defeat one’s self is more difficult that conquering millions of soldiers. The person who defeats his self and become Truth is the greatest one.
The person who has become Truth does not have any self. He is the living, everlasting and never-changing God. He lives in the eternal world where only the greatest live.
One who thinks he is the best will die imprisoned in his own excellence and one who thinks he is greatest lives confined in his greatness. However, one who is just ordinary accepts everything and lives silently and harmoniously with others, and is therefore the greatest and the best. Only one who knows the law of nature and becomes Truth and works for the true works is Truth. This is the one who is the greatest.
…<The Way to Become a Person in Heaven While Living>
