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"As for the future, your task is not to foresee, but to enable it," said French novelist Saint-Exupery in his 1948 book The Wisdom of the Sands.
But human beings want to know the future by nature, especially when that future seems quite uncertain. At present, the global community seems to be threatened by many new risks. Not only in Korea but in the United States, Europe, China and North Korea, the future is by no means clear.
Even in peaceful times, fortune-tellers make their worldly fortunes by giving tips about the futures of politicians in election seasons. Business people also frequent their advisory prophets to get help with decision making on important matters and big deals.
These arts can be considered semi-scientific because they are partly based on probability derived from statistics.
Most Koreans now say they are sick and tired of listening to the endless layers of lies, perjury, criminal acts and ugly betrayal stories coming from the "Choi scandal" investigations.
New names of suspects still appear on the scene weekly. No one has admitted his or her offenses. The most unexpected turns of the case came from the conservatives, and the president herself. The first media reports that broke the news of scandal, producing a tablet notepad as the "smoking gun" of the crime, has now been charged to be a fake.
President Park Geun-hye, on the other hand, seems to have chosen a strategy to simply delay the process. Many factors such as a slated change of Constitutional Court judges and the schedule of a special prosecutors' investigation will affect the timing of final verdict on her impeachment. And that in turn will decide the dates of President Park's term in office, with the next presidential election swiftly approaching.
At this very subtle point in time, a scholar of Buddhist Folklore and a popular columnist, Dr. Cho Yong-heon, gave a lecture on scenarios for the future. At Wonkwang University, he teaches Eastern Studies which focus mainly on the Four Pillars of Destiny, geomancy (pungsu-jiri or fengshui) and other traditional philosophical theories and wisdom.
His audience was a group of Korean social leaders, who have studied for more than 10 years theories of the Book of Changes (I Ching), the Four Pillars, rules of life and death, parapsychology and the occult.
Believe it or not, let me introduce a few points of his presentation for your reference. I do this, because the scenario, in general, is not a doomsday story but a message of hope.
When the Westernized education system was adopted in Korean public schools in the early 20th Century, traditional science and technology, folk wisdom and skills were disparaged as mystical, superstitious and heretical.
Only the traditional herbal medicine has regained its due position with the public. Other expertise of studying the principles of cosmic order is still considered irrational.
However, serious researches have continued, and academics and practitioners from many Asian countries will gather in Jeonju Korea, in 2018 at its third international conference on the topic. .
Cho is called a "field scholar" in contrast to the "classroom scholars" of academia as he specializes in global-out-reach research work in-situ. Visiting numerous temples, old villages and other such sites, he met with ascetics, hermits, gurus and other such traditional teachers.
"Foreseeing the destiny of a nation is one of the most difficult jobs," Cho said. Instead of forecasting the future of Korea, Cho quoted the famous 1975 prophecy of the late Buddhist master-monk Tan Huh (1913-1983).
"About 30 years after the moon above Mt. Worak-san shines on the lake-waters, Korea will have a lady president; and then near the end of her presidency, unification will come."
A huge dam was built near Chungju City in late 1970s, that eventually created this nation's largest reservoir-lake, which indeed reflects the moon and Worak-san peaks. Then, what about his second prophecy of unification? We will just have to wait and see.
The unusual power vacuum which may plague both parts of Korea might open an exceptional chance for a dramatic change that would lead towards unification. Koreans have been strong in crisis. That is our belief, as well as our hope.
The writer is the chairwoman of the Korea Heritage Education Institute (K*Heritage). Her email address is Heritagekorea21@gmail.com.
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