This excerpt was taken from the book “Peaceology” by Ilchi Lee after he discovered the sensation of “Ki” or “Energy” flowing through his body on the last day of his hundred day meditation training and his experience with 21 day training at Mt Moak (part I):

One morning, in the bitter cold, I sat in the middle of fresh snow, meditating. This was the last day of the hundred consecutive days of training I had promised myself If I did not finish this day, I would not acheive my goal. The previous ninety-nine days would have been for naught. With this in mind, I sat like a stone statue in the middle of the snow-covered field, braving the skin-biting wind. My body shook and my breathing became haggard.

Despite the obvious danger, with my determination to not give up after ninety-nine days, I thought to myselg, “I do not live simple becaue I want to, and I cannot die simply because I want to. Everything is heaven’s will.” My consciousness began to fade as my body began to freeze.  “So this is how I am to die”, I thought to myself. I fully offered myself up to heaven praying, “Becaue I am here by your will, you must do as you wish with my life…”

At this moment I felt my body come alive, furiously spewing out heat, melting the snow around me. Ifelt a powerful stream of Ki energy coursing through my body as it formed a capsule of energy to protect me from the extreme cod. This was not something I could have accomplished alone. This surge of my innermost life energy at the moment of utmost urgency and absolute trust was the ultimate experience in the power of energy, yet it felt empty.

It was empty because I was still unal to anwer the simple question, “Why was I born” Without an answer to this question, I was just a person capable of playing with energy, a mere technician, nothing more. What good was that? What good was it to know that I could survive in freezing temperatures using the power of Ki energy if I lacked the answer I had been looking for all my life?

Bemoaning my own ignorance, I returned to Moak Mountain in Central Korea and vowed not to come out until I had aswers to the questions I was looking for. I decided to test my physical and mental endurance by not sleeping for twenty-one days, with only water for sustenance. I tried everything to stay awake, including sitting at the edge of a sharp cliff, my arms wrapped around the thick branch of a tree, so that the fear of falling would keep me awake. I rolled down a steep mountainside several times due o sitting on the edge of a rock in an effort to keep myself from fallng asleep.

“Peaceology” by Ilchi Lee