The Seoulite

2009.
According to the general zeitgeist, we’re about to get a slap in the butt this year… like wave after wave of overdue punishment. So the Seoulite is making New Year’s resolutions a bit more carefully… and with more thought. This requires some major meditation and prayer. But how does one go about it? Below is an excerpt from a mediation blog. Does it work? Let us know!

How To Meditate Mindfully:Just Watch

Acceptance

Meditation is not striving to get somewhere in the way we we usually do with most activities. In fact trying to be more relaxed, or to achieve a certain state with meditation, is likely to be counter-productive. Meditation is best practiced by letting go, with an attitude of patience, trust and acceptance of the present moment.

Ekhart Tolle in his book “NOW” says, ”Surrender (acceptance) is the simple but profound wisdom of yielding rather than opposing the flow of life. The only place you can experience the flow of life is now, so to surrender is to accept the present moment unconditionally and without reservation”.

So important elements of meditation include patience, acceptance, non striving and letting go. All these attitudes are to do with not pushing or trying too hard, fully being with this moment not trying to change it, whether it is pleasant or unpleasant.

Acceptance can be practiced during meditation, by observing physical sensations, thoughts and emotions. Pain and discomfort for example can be an opportunity to practice. When sitting the usual tendency for most of us is to shift position if the slightest discomfort arises, trying to achieve a more comfortable, more pleasant position, and stop the unwanted sensations.

It may be worthwhile trying not to move at the first sign of discomfort, but if possible just observing the sensations, accepting them for what they are. Accepting, surrendering to discomfort may improve it, as pain is often made worse by our anxious and tense reactions to it. Of course sometimes you do need to move during a meditation, the best way to judge when is probably simply to be mindful of what your body is telling you.

When we sit and look at the mind thoughts and emotions stream past. Perhaps surprisingly this seems to be the normal state for our minds. Some thoughts are pleasant, some unpleasant or painful, often dwelling on the past or looking hopefully, or anxiously to the future. As with physical discomfort the natural tendency is to retreat from anything unpleasant, to push these experiences away or suppress them (in which case they may reappear later as physical symptoms).

Here again the suggestion is to try to accept, to surrender, be with whatever comes up. To try to view thoughts and emotions with a detached interest, with equanimity. This process can be helped sometimes by visualisation. For example when you sit to meditate imagine your mind as a vast open blue sky, and any thoughts and emotions that arise as clouds drifting by. Realize that they’re in the sky (the larger mind) but not affecting it. Watch them pass by and disappear.

As Ekhart Tolle says , surrendering to whatever is present now, somehow changes it, and reduces its power over you.

Who wins in the exchange rate battle currently pommeling the South Korean won? Dollars coming into Korea. It’s a GREAT time for US travelers. Visit Korea if you’re a tourist and go shopping because everything will be literally on a massive sale. If you’re a saver, then buy some Korean won to sit on until the exchange rate shifts back.

If you’re in Korea, may heaven be with you if you have send money over to the states. One year ago, the exchange rate was approximately 1,000 won / dollar. So, if you saw a pair of shoes for 100,000 won, it would cost approximately 100 dollars. Today, if you see the pair of same shoes, they would cost you 66 dollars. I’m not kidding… the entire country is 33% off!

For Koreans who have to pay tuition in dollars or anyone who wishes to send money over to the states, their buying power has been cut in half. The horror! On this side we’re screwed. But for those on the other side of the pond who want to make good use of their money, the smartest thing to do is send money to Korea where you get an immediate 50% return because of the exchange rate and put it into a one-year savings account which currently gets about 7% in interest (much higher than US CD rates).

Check out the latest exchange rates in the Asia Pacific Region on Bloomberg here. It will only give you the basic rate though so if you can read Korean, type in ‘환율’ into Naver.com because there you can see the bank rates for cash and electronic transfers - including the differing rates when buying vs. selling.

This is of course based on the assumption that banks won’t fail and that the won will one day return to its 1,000 won / dollar level as it did after the last Asian Financial Crisis ten years ago. If not, then let’s meditate on this if any medication is not nearby at hand.

Looking at the sky makes material problems seem so immaterial.

Hi, I’m Sean Lim, an American expat living in South Korea.  This is my blog about becoming a Seoulite.

What is a Seoulite?
A ‘Seoulite’ (서울깍쟁이) is a citizen of Seoul, just as a ‘New Yorker’ is a citizen of New York. Of course the label ‘Seoulite’ doesn’t simply denote a place of residence [...]