🔹Ven Pomnyun’s Dharma Q&A
Selection from a Dharma Q&A session at George WashingtonUniversity (Oct. 8, 2014)
🔹Question: To what extend to you think the human body and the human mind can operate separately? Do you think that human body can become a separate entity to human mind? If it is possible how can we individuals be enlightened to do that?
🔻Jungto Dharma School(Introduction to Buddhism):https://www.jungtosociety.org/jungto-dharma-school-online-course/
🔻 All Jungto Society’ssocial platforms: http://linktr.ee/jungtoint
🔹Ven Pomnyun’s Dharma Q&A
Selection from a Dharma Q&A session at St. ThomasEpiscopal Church in Sunnyvale, California (Nov. 8, 2014)
🔹Question: You are traveling around the world and meeting a lot of people. I looked up and searched Google and saw your schedule. It seems to be overwhelming for a person to be engaged in the very busy schedule. How do you manage and balance the number of talks that put into your schedule?
🔻Jungto Dharma School(Introduction to Buddhism):https://www.jungtosociety.org/jungto-dharma-school-online-course/
🔻 All Jungto Society’s social platforms: http://linktr.ee/jungtoint
🔹Ven Pomnyun’s Dharma Q&A
Selection from a Dharma Q&A session at St. ThomasEpiscopal Church in Sunnyvale, California (Nov. 8, 2014)
🔹Question: We are going through a series of classes here at St. Thomas Church on the topic of dreams. Symbolism, how to interpret them, and neuro-biological reasons for dreams. Sosome personal questions for you. Do you dream? Could you share any of your dreams? What do you do with your dreams?
🔻Jungto Dharma School(Introduction to Buddhism):https://www.jungtosociety.org/jungto-dharma-school-online-course/
🔻 All Jungto Society’ssocial platforms: http://linktr.ee/jungtoint
🔹Ven Pomnyun’s Dharma Q&A
Selection from a Dharma Q&A session at St. ThomasEpiscopal Church in Sunnyvale, California (Nov. 8, 2014)
🔹Question: I study psychology and I actually study goals and motivations, so I am very interested in this topic. You talked about desires. You said there are three categories of desire which was survival needs, relative needs or desire and excessive needs. Because human has more intellect, I was thinking that humans also have desire that’s beyond survival desire. A desire to maintain identity or to accomplish something, or lead a purposeful life, so to say, to self-actualize. My question was whether this kind of desire falls inone of these three categories. How should we deal with this desire? Should we cultivate it, or should we suppress it, or regulate it? I thought this is out of these three kinds of desires.
🔻Jungto Dharma School(Introduction to Buddhism):https://www.jungtosociety.org/jungto-dharma-school-online-course/
🔻 All Jungto Society’s social platforms: http://linktr.ee/jungtoint
🔹Ven Pomnyun’s Dharma Q&A
session at Bethesda Chevy Chase Regional Service Center inWashington D.C. (September 18, 2019)
🔹Question: Hi. I have a question about what you, from your perspective, what would you quantify as success in life, if not materialistic things, maybe career success and these kinds of ways to measure success? What do you personally, how do you quantify that?
🔻Jungto Dharma School(Introduction to Buddhism):https://www.jungtosociety.org/jungto-dharma-school-online-course/
🔻 All Jungto Society’ssocial platforms: http://linktr.ee/jungtoint
🔹Ven Pomnyun’s Dharma Q&A
Selection from a Dharma Q&A session in UCLA (Nov. 16,2014)
🔹Question: I recently listened to your lecture about careers. And I thought about my job in jewelry industry which in a way allures people to spend money to show off and put emphasis on outer beauty. But I really love my job and my goal is to become a jewelry designer. Whether my designs are for fashion jewelry or high jewelry, it still can mislead people. SoI was wondering about how I should view my career.
🔻Jungto Dharma School(Introduction to Buddhism):https://www.jungtosociety.org/jungto-dharma-school-online-course/
🔻 All Jungto Society’ssocial platforms: http://linktr.ee/jungtoint
🔹Ven Pomnyun’s Dharma Q&A
Selection from Casual Conversation with Ven. Pomnyun Sunim (November 14, 2020)
🔹Question: Hello Sunim, I’m very happy to be here and talk to you. I was actually in South Korea for seven years. I worked at Samsung Electronics, then I finally moved to America in Seattle, Washington. So the first time I watched your dharma talk was in 2014 when you gave a talk at Google. From then, because of you, I got interested in Buddhism and understanding Buddhist Principles. So my question today is about how to make good choices using Buddhist principles. Even today, in the introduction you've talked about taking responsibility for the choices so this might be repetitive. I recently had two choices and one choice was to work for company A and the other choice was to work for company B. Before committing to a choice, I want to understand how do we apply some of the Buddhist principles and evaluate which choice to make. This kind of making choices happened to me many times, like choosing Seattle versus California, or choosing America versus South Korea. So before we make a choice, what things we have to go through in our minds?. That’s my question, how do we make choices and evaluate choices?
🔻Jungto Dharma School(Introduction to Buddhism):https://www.jungtosociety.org/jungto-dharma-school-online-course/
🔻 All Jungto Society’ssocial platforms: http://linktr.ee/jungtoint
🔹Ven Pomnyun’s Dharma Q&A
2022.2.4
🔹Question: It's a real pleasure to see you again, Sunim. I have two questions. The first question is last week you've responded about being in the death bed, diagnosed with acancer and still being grateful. How can I start training myself today so I can get to that state of gratefulness?
🔻Jungto Dharma School(Introduction to Buddhism):https://www.jungtosociety.org/jungto-dharma-school-online-course/
🔻 All Jungto Society’s social platforms: http://linktr.ee/jungtoint
🔹Ven Pomnyun’s Dharma Q&A
Selection from Live Dharma Talk with Ven. Pomnyun Sunim(March 6, 2022)
🔹Question: Hello! It's nice to meet you in person. I'm Catholic and about to graduate from medical school. I am pro-choice and believe in using contraception. It's something thatI will recommend to my patients if medically necessary. Is it okay to be Catholic and have conflicting values with my religion?
🔻Jungto Dharma School(Introduction to Buddhism):https://www.jungtosociety.org/jungto-dharma-school-online-course/
🔻 All Jungto Society’ssocial platforms: http://linktr.ee/jungtoint
🔹Ven Pomnyun’s Dharma Q&A
Selection from Live Dharma Talk withVen. Pomnyun Sunim (March 6, 2022)
🔹Question: It seems like if I'm not mistaken, Russia's claim is they don't want Ukraine to join these western forces, which is like NATO, and Ukraine leader, including their president, is trying to protect their independence. So in that situation, ofcourse, the citizens are dying daily. So do you think that, like in this kind of situation, a country like Ukraine should try to give up the fighting against Russia for citizens and should they stay neutral? That was my first question. And then the second question is do you see the possibility of the new cold war between NATO countries, western countries and maybe possibly Russia, China, and North Korea, joining forces together?
🔻Jungto Dharma School(Introduction to Buddhism):https://www.jungtosociety.org/jungto-dharma-school-online-course/
🔻 All Jungto Society’s social platforms: http://linktr.ee/jungtoint
🔹Ven Pomnyun’s Dharma Q&A
Selection from Casual Conversation with Ven. Pomnyun Sunim(October 17, 2021)
🔹Question: During the past year I took your online Buddhism and Sutra classes. I gained a good understanding of original Buddhism and its teaching as a spiritual practice. Iwork as a mental health and addiction counselor. I’ve been applying what I’ve learned from Sutra and Dharma talks to my patients. Most of my patients suffer from prolonged drug use and as a result, have experienced a lot of loss in their life, loved ones, housing, jobs, and their hopes and some become very suicidal. My question has two parts, first what’s the Buddhist perspective on suicide? And second, how can this perspective help my patients and manage my own anxiety while helping them. Thank you.
🔻Jungto Dharma School(Introduction to Buddhism):https://www.jungtosociety.org/jungto-dharma-school-online-course/
🔻 All Jungto Society’ssocial platforms: http://linktr.ee/jungtoint
🔹Ven Pomnyun’s Dharma Q&A
2023. 9. 18
🔹Question: Hi, thank you for the opportunity to ask a question. I'm actually a neurologist. I decided to go to a rural Florida to work in the community, thinking that I wanted to build a Parkinson's and movement disorder program from scratch. So, I was brought in and I received no support. It's because of the tight budget in the hospital. I thought that if I started it there, they'll give more support, but in the end, I didn't. So, I decided to leave the hospital. I'm in between deciding whether I want to go into a private practice or look for a hospital that would be more supportive. The one hospital that I found that actually is very supportive is located in another rural setting away from Asian community. And now I'm thinking about going to private practice in Atlanta, Georgia, possibly thinking that I want to be close to an Asian community. The reason is that I have elderly parents turning close to be 80s now, and I don't know how long I will have them. And I do miss the amenities that a city offers, as well as the Korean community, the Asian community that I missed because I'm pretty isolated in this rural Florida. There is a part of me wanting to serve this area just because there's no other Parkinson's neurologist within a 3-hour radius and I have established my reputation. So, I want to be here and practice because it will be easy for me. And yet, my personal other happiness not having access to an Asian community is going to be a disadvantage. If I were to go to Atlanta, yes, it's a new start, and building a program from ground zero is a pretty daunting process. It's not easy. A lot of effort goes into it. It's either that or do I just go to a supportive hospital and not worry about building a private practice. I fly to the city to be close to the Asian community whenever I have a break. So, I don't know which path would be the right one.
🔻Jungto Dharma School(Introduction to Buddhism):https://www.jungtosociety.org/jungto-dharma-school-online-course/
🔻 All Jungto Society’ssocial platforms: http://linktr.ee/jungtoint
🔹Ven Pomnyun’s Dharma Q&A
2024. 9. 23.
🔹Question: Hello, Sunim.Thank you so much for being accessible to ordinary people like me. Thank you. What you just answered felt like you were talking to me directly. I feel like you answered my question. I live in Vancouver, Canada. My job is to help customers achieve their financial goals and their financial well being. So, I'm in a very competitive financial industry. I have sales targets to meet, and how we get business is from referrals from my coworkers. I'm in a specialized work, and there are two people in my office
who do this specialized work, myself and my buddy. We have a very good working relationship. But my coworkers send all the business to my buddy, not so much to me. I was very hurt and angry, and I asked my coworkers the reason. They said it's because many of our clientele are Punjabi, Indians. They're looking for a Punjabi speaker although they speak English very well, and my partner can speak Punjabi. I think it's an excuse. I blamed my coworkers up until yesterday for my low number on sales because my partner's sales are high and mine is low. I realized it's my responsibility, and I should not blame others. I have learned from you and the Jungto Buddhism Course. My question to you is this. I want to meet my sales goals It's probably unrealistic because the sales target is unrealistic, but I want to do better than my buddy.
I know that gives me suffering because I'm putting that onmyself like you just said. How can I do well and meet my sales target, but, at the same time, surrender this want? I feel like I'm stuck.
🔻Jungto Dharma School(Introduction to Buddhism):https://www.jungtosociety.org/jungto-dharma-school-online-course/
🔻 All Jungto Society’ssocial platforms: http://linktr.ee/jungtoint
🔹Ven Pomnyun’s Dharma Q&A
2024. 8. 26
🔹Question: Good afternoon, Sunim. Thank you for answering my question and giving me another chance to ask. I suddenly had a couple of situations where I start to realize that I'm get older. I'm hitting 40 now, and the time shocked me. "Oh my God. I'm already at this age." I also did some review of my life and my current evaluation on how I'm working right now. I was thinking, "Is this really how I want to live, and is there something else I need to be doing?" I just kept doing calculations and reviewing. And then, I realize that, at some point, there's a part of me thinking that maybe I should start considering or thinking about retirement a bit earlier, or reduction of workload sooner than expected to consider or pursue other projects or things. That idea came about when I was asking for a vacation to go to the India trip that you're planning in January. It took a lot of effort and begging to the work to be able to take time off. In Jungto Society and other organizations you're running, there are a lot of volunteer projects and a lot of requests. There are a lot of things that I feel bad about that I can't really volunteer or participate in it. Workwise, I also realized, when going to work, there's always an exchange for making money. For making money, they're not going to give money for doing a stress-free job. It's always going to be a stressful job. So, I feel that, in part, I'm trading my health for making money. That is eating at me or bothering me as well. Ultimately, my main question is, "When is it really a good time to retire?" And some of those factors are what's going on in my mind.
🔻Jungto Dharma School(Introduction to Buddhism):https://www.jungtosociety.org/jungto-dharma-school-online-course/
🔻 All Jungto Society’ssocial platforms: http://linktr.ee/jungtoint
🔹Ven Pomnyun’s Dharma Q&A
Selection from a Dharma Q&A session at George WashingtonUniversity (Oct. 8, 2014)
🔹Question: I'm a medical doctor in Korea. As you know, the doctor's mistakes can be directly connected to patients' death or life. How can I manage it? Or how can I take care of it?
🔻Jungto Dharma School(Introduction to Buddhism):https://www.jungtosociety.org/jungto-dharma-school-online-course/
🔻 All Jungto Society’ssocial platforms: http://linktr.ee/jungtoint
🔹Ven Pomnyun’s Dharma Q&A
Selection from a Dharma Q&A session at Union TheologicalSeminary (Oct. 2, 2014)
🔹Question: I'm very forgetful person. On daily bases, I've been able to handle it. But I'm a resercher. I'm doing my Ph.D in biomedical sciences. This forgetfulness is hindering to my profession. I'm getting scholarship. It's a good position. They're not kicking me out yet, but I have self doubt. Should I keep doing this? Science is based on proof and evidence and I'm having trouble catching up. Should I still stay in this profession? Am I not taking somebody else's spot who shoulduse this resources?
🔻Jungto Dharma School(Introduction to Buddhism):https://www.jungtosociety.org/jungto-dharma-school-online-course/
🔻 All Jungto Society’ssocial platforms: http://linktr.ee/jungtoint
🔹Ven Pomnyun’s Dharma Q&A
Selection from a Dharma Q & A at Harvard University(Sep. 20, 2017)
🔹Question: I am thirty years old, employed for five years. And I worked very happily as a play and my work, my money, I was very happy. I did so many things. And what happenedrecently, my company, they are changing the structure that I don’t like to work there anymore. The company that I put everything in it. So eventually, in a month or so, I will be quitting voluntarily. And ever since I decided my mindset that I am going to quit, then I don’t like the job anymore. Then I have been searching for different things, anything that I wanted to do while I was working. But they didn’t satisfy me as I worked passionately before in the company. So now I am in the stage that I don’t want to work for the company, Idon’t want to go out. I mean, I go out, I have fun. But it’s not make me happy as I did. So it’s like, how should I say, an extension of what you have been saying that I found the job I loved, but now I hate it, and now I am lost.
🔻Jungto Dharma School(Introduction to Buddhism):https://www.jungtosociety.org/jungto-dharma-school-online-course/
🔻 All Jungto Society’s social platforms: http://linktr.ee/jungtoint
🔹Ven Pomnyun’s DharmaQ&A
Selection from a Dharma Q&A session at Jogye-sa Temple,Seoul, South Korea (June 15, 2018)
🔹Question: My questionis, you live in a very modern society with lots of technology right at ourfingertips which allows us instant gratification. What I would like to know isif you have advice or thoughts about how we maintain our patience in the faceof this growing instant gratification. Patience with the challenges we may facethroughout our daily lives are even more complex. Things that we face that wemay feel we have no control over.
🔻Jungto Dharma School(Introduction to Buddhism):https://www.jungtosociety.org/jungto-dharma-school-online-course/
🔻 All Jungto Society’ssocial platforms: http://linktr.ee/jungtoint
🔹Ven Pomnyun’s Dharma Q&A
Selection from Casual Conversation with Ven. Pomnyun Sunim (November 14, 2020)
🔹Question: I’m a scientist, and scientists in the United States at least are expected to work long hours including weekends and holidays. Though this culture is very normal, but in this pandemic time, it’s very difficult to work these hours. Because we have to split up our time with our co-workers, because we cannot be too closed to each other. So the problem is that, it’s not just my boss but I have noticed this and other senior scientists as well, they want us to work like it's normal times. At least in our lab, we still have the same amount of meetings where we were expected to generate data and update our boss, but it’s not really possible to be as productive as before. My question is how do you handle people who expect too much from you during this time?
🔻Jungto Dharma School(Introduction to Buddhism):https://www.jungtosociety.org/jungto-dharma-school-online-course/
🔻 All Jungto Society’ssocial platforms: http://linktr.ee/jungtoint
🔹Ven Pomnyun’s Dharma Q&A
“I Don't Like My New Job.” Selection from CasualConversation with Ven. Pomnyun Sunim (Septermber 19, 2021)
🔹Question: I recently changed my job but I feel a strongfeeling of uncomfortable with my job. I’ve been trying many new things and different responsibilities but my current job is very different from any other job that I had been doing before. I don’t feel comfortable doing it and I also don’t think that I could deliver my best here. And I don’t think I’m fit in this job. Also I’m still not passionate about what I’m doing right now. That often makes me sad. I think I need time to take a break. I’d like to know your opinion and advice on my situation. Thank you.
🔻Jungto Dharma School(Introduction to Buddhism):https://www.jungtosociety.org/jungto-dharma-school-online-course/
🔻Jungto Dharma School (Introduction to Buddhism): https://www.jungtosociety.org/jungto-dharma-school-online-course/
🔻 All Jungto Society’s social platforms: http://linktr.ee/jungtoint
