Art of COEXISTENCE by Ilchi Lee and Steve Kim | Book Review
Hi guys! This is Linda from Brain Education TV. In this video I’m reviewing the book “The Art of Coexistence” by Ilchi Lee and Steve Kim. Now I’m very excited to share my review about this book because it’s the latest book by Ilchi Lee. If you’ve been following our channel, you know that Ilchi Lee is the founder of Brain Education and Brain Education is the foundation of all the contents that I share here. So the reason why I love this book and I feel like everybody should read this is because of this question that I have
for you first. What type of person do you think the world really needs right now? Does the world really need more rich people, more smart people, more celebrities, more doctors, more lawyers, more scientists? Now it’s not to say that these jobs are not important, but on a fundamental level, us as a humanity in order for us to survive and thrive. What type of person do we need the most right now in this era? I believe the answer to that question is we need more people who have this thought of bringing humanity together. Now, the first
thing that I want to point out why I love the content that is here in this book is because when we typically think about coexistence, we
book challenge that thought and bring the word of coexistence to one step further. They pose the word coexistence as something that not just I let you live your life and you let me live my life, but going beyond that is me proactively taking action, thinking certain thoughts, behaving in a certain way, acting towards others in a certain way that allows me to thrive with this other person, that allows me to live the life I want. Yes. But also live a life that makes the other person in front of me thrive as well. So it’s like
creating a win win situation for everybody on this Earth. Now you might be thinking, that sounds way too good to be true. And there are some people who feel like this idea of coexistence is so big that I don’t know what to do. It sounds nice, but what are the concrete steps that I need to do? And is it even possible? So that’s where, again, this book comes in. I really love how in the different chapters Ilchi Lee talks about like how to break down this word of coexistence, this idea of creating a harmonious, peaceful
earth where you and I are thriving together. He makes it very tangible and very possible. He breaks down a very big, big concept into small steps and really realistic ways to think about it and steps in making that possible in my life and also making that possible for humanity. So just to kind of give you guys an idea, even when I just first opened this book, the kind of dedication, the first very first part, the dedication of this book I really love, he says. This book is dedicated to the bright, benevolent minds that find joy
in seeking the truth and helping others. Isn’t that the type of person we need right now? So some of the content, some of the chapters that he poses to kind of give you a sense of how realistic this book is in terms of creating a peaceful, harmonious world, is Chapter One is Seeing the World Through the Eyes of Coexistence. So being able to see circumstances, people, relationships in your life with the eyes of coexistence, not co-destruction. Chapter Two is A Connected World, a Divided Us. Isn’t that our reality? Our world is so connected through technology
and yet we’re so divided. So what do we do to fix that? Chapter Three is the Inner Guide to Coexistence. Now, I really love that because it assumes that we already have the seed of coexistence within us. It’s not something that we have to find that we’re lacking outside of us. It’s something that we already have within us. We just have to awaken it from inside. So I really like that because that makes me feel like more hopeful I could do something because I already have it. I’m not lacking it. Chapter Four is A Mind
That Feels the Earth. So another word for this is mindfulness, right? So if we feel connected to the Earth, then we already have this sense that I need to do something that benefits the Earth, not just benefiting my selfish life, which that small mindset is kind of the root cause of all of our chaos and suffering in the world today. So creating a mind that feels the Earth, in other words, feels connected to my environment, being able to practice mindfulness every day. Chapter Five is Accepting Contradictions and Differences. Boy, do we need this now in
our 21st century. So many conflicts, so many judgments, separation, all because we cannot accept each other’s contradictions and differences. It sounds so simple, but really look out there. Do we really accept each other even though we say we do? Or do we fight with each other all the time? You can see this in politics. Left wing, right wing, fighting each other all the time. Social classes fighting each other all the time, religions arguing whose God is better than whose God. Countries saying, I’m entitled to this and you’re not entitled to this. Not accepting people’s contradictions.
So that one’s a really good one. Chapter Six is The Earth as the Central Value. Now, this one is really big because most people in society, what is our central value? Our central value is money, success, competition. That is our central value, our lives. Even from school, we’re taught to compete. We’re taught to succeed. We’re taught to make a lot of money. And that those are the indicators of a good person. Those are the indicators of somebody who’s doing something with their lives. But going beyond that, if we place our central value, meaning every action,
every word, every thought that I have is for benefiting the Earth, for making the Earth a better place for everybody. How would that change my life? How would that change my choices? How would that change the energy that I bring out to the world? And how, if more and more people place the earth as a central value, how would that change our society and the fate of humanity? So that is a very important question. Chapter Seven is Managing the Earth Together, meaning these people who have awakened their consciousness of placing the Earth as the central
value rather than success, competition and money. How can these people now come together and make sure that the world is going in the right direction? So especially if you’re someone in a position of power like politics, or someone who is an influencer, someone who’s a business owner or someone who’s a community member, how can those people come together and work together to create a better tomorrow for everyone on Earth? Number Eight, Education that Teaches What’s Important. Now, this is another thing. Don’t we need this so badly? Our society even I can resonate with this in
school. I feel like I didn’t really learn the important things in school. Important things like character, about what I should focus on in my life. How to become a good human being. Schools don’t teach that. Our societies don’t teach that. They teach us all the non-important things like, I don’t know, like these math formulas that I’ve never even used in my lifetime. Or they teach us how to trample over each other because only one person can be the top of the class. Or they teach us to like, be successful and to chase a career and
to buy a house and to buy a car to check off all these boxes. I’m not saying that’s not important, but that’s not the most important thing in life. The most important thing in life goes beyond that to character, to relationships, to my consciousness, to my energy. So teaching people what’s truly important in life, I think that’s a very important topic to discuss. Number Nine, as I was saying, is Going Beyond Success Towards Completion. Finding some value beyond success. Now I think we’re kind of like set up to fail because society teaches us from a
very young age that success is the ultimate goal in life, that there’s nothing higher than success. That success is the thing that we should strive for. But we see so many people who are so successful and yet they are sick, they are unhappy, and they have mid-life crises. They don’t know what to do, even though they’re like CEOs of big tech companies. So that makes us question If success is the ultimate goal in life, then how come we’re not happy when we achieve it? Have you thought about that? If that truly is what’s important and
what’s the apex of human life, if we achieve it, we should be happy, we should be healthy, we should be peaceful. But the reality is, is that we’re not. So Ilchi Lee and Steve Kim they pose in this book this idea of completion, which in a nutshell is working for growing my soul, so working for growing my internal world rather than chasing success. So Chapter Nine is about that. Chapter Ten is about Technology Respecting the Value of Life. So technology, meaning A.I. A.I. is something that’s artificial intelligence. A.I. is something that’s coming up very fast
in 2023, and I feel like it’s going at an accelerated pace. So how does A.I. fit into this picture? How do we as human beings utilize A.I.? How can we work harmoniously with these new technologies that are coming in this rapidly changing environment? How do we find some security and footing in this unprecedented changing times? So Chapter Ten talks about that. Chapter 11 is True Welfare, The Social Foundation of Coexisting. So in here we presented this idea of how to create more equality in the world, because still there’s a lot of social inequality, racial inequality,
so many inequalities, even though, ironically, the United States is all for equality, there are so many inequalities. So how can we truly create more equality that’s harmonious, that’s respectful for all living things? That’s Chapter 11 and then Chapter 12 is Living Coexistence. So now that we went through all these different chapters, how do I now, in my mind, body and spirit embody coexistence? And I think that’s the key. If I can become somebody who becomes so inspired by this book and the content that’s presented here, that I become a living model that embodies coexistence. I
inspire others. I am a catalyst for change. I can be somebody who does good impact or I could be somebody who impacts the world in such a good way. So that’s Chapter 12. And then the last one, the Epilogue is my personal favorite, Choosing Hope with All of Our Might. Choosing Hope with All of Our Might, because there are so many things right now out there that make us feel very hopeless. Powerless, afraid, sad. But even in these times, even in this kind of environment, how can I not be so trampled down with hopelessness even
when the whole entire sky is gray? How can I find that one twinkling star in the sky? In other words, in this cloud of gray and hopelessness in our society, how can I find a single ray of hope that I can hold on to and I can grow. I can focus on that shining star of hope and grow hope more and more in my personal life and then also in the lives of other people. Because ultimately, without hope, without this wish that tomorrow will be and can be better, it’s very hard for us to go
on. So finding that hope with all of our might, even if everything in your circumstance, even everything in your environment says you should feel hopeless, how can I feel and focus on hope with everything that I’ve got? So that is a comprehensive overview of the contents of this book, The Art of Coexistence. When I read this, I really felt like, Wow, this is the kind of information that awakens the mind and awakens the mind and creates leaders that the world truly needs. And I think that’s what made this book so beautiful for me. Like I
said, we don’t need any more successful people, smart people. We already have so many of those people, but we still have problems on Earth, right? So with the contents here of how to think differently, how to think beyond the limitations of society, with how to expand my consciousness so that I can be somebody who really thinks big, sees big and acts big with this key word of coexistence in mind. I think this book is a must read for anybody who wants to make a great impact in this world, who has some desire to leave a
lasting legacy. Somebody who wants to inspire other people. If you’re an influencer and you have a big following, if you are somebody who even has a big following in your community, or even if you don’t have a big following, somebody who needs some sense of hope that they can hold on to with all of their might in our society today. This is the book for you. I cannot recommend it enough. This is awesome. It really shines a light on these dark times and gives us a way out, gives us concrete solutions on how we as
humanity can move forward, we can develop and we can progress together. So if you’re inspired or interested by the contents that I shared in the video today, I will leave a link in the description of the video where you can get a copy of this book. It’s available at your favorite bookseller and in many different forms, like paperback and online versions as well. So make sure you check it out, buy a copy and become super inspired on how we can all create change. So thank you so much for watching everybody. I’ll see you next time
in another video. Bye!
