Pillars of SOOM Civilization
meant to last a thousand years

PREAMBLE

Preamble (前文) to the SOOM Civilization Charter

1. 01Crisis

   An age has come in which machines replace the body and artificial intelligence replaces thought (思考). Civilization has expanded dazzlingly, yet the inner vitality of the human beings who should guide it is being deeply depleted.

   Burnout, chronic fatigue, loss of meaning, the collapse of community. These are not individual failures; they are a warning to civilization as a whole that human beings are losing their ‘self-generating system’ — the capacity to produce their own life energy.

2. 02Ancient Wisdom

   Yet humanity has an ancient wisdom. The teaching of practice, handed down for 9,774 years since high antiquity at the root of Eastern civilization, has demonstrated through the body that, through ‘breath (息)’, human beings can restore their own vitality and become one with the order of the universe.

   This teaching belongs to no particular people or sect. It is a universal law of life given to every human being who breathes. The threefold order of Mugeuk (無極), Taegeuk (太極) and Hwanggeuk (皇極) operates within the body as Jeong (精), Gi (氣) and Sin (神) — Neok · Ryeong · Eol — and right breathing is the one physical switch and adjustment interface that reawakens this entire system of life.

3. 03The Lineage

   The lineage of this Way began with Cheongi Doin (天氣道人), passed through the eras of Hwanin, Hwanung and Dangun, and continued unbroken through Muun (無雲) Doin, Cheongun (靑雲) Doin and Cheongsan (靑山) Doin. Grandmaster Cheongsan (靑山亻天師), who revived and founded Kouksundo Bakdol-beop, said, ‘I only pass it on and go,’ and in 1967 openly shared this Way with the world for the first time.

4. 04The Mission of the Bonwon

   In 1984, after Grandmaster Cheongsan returned to the mountains, the practitioners of the Kouksundo Bonwon (本源), who had remained at the source to guard the flame of the Way, founded SOOM Civilization to fulfill the mission of their time: passing this lineage on to future generations. The ancient Way was profoundly deep and refined, yet because of its special nature and the limited development of science, technology and medicine, past practice was largely transmitted from one person to another — and these limits of the lineage made wide sharing with all of humanity difficult.

   Honoring the will of Grandmaster Cheongsan, who revived and founded it, we seek to keep the original meaning of the Way alive, root it in reality, and bring real help to humanity far and wide.

5. 05Rooted in Reality

   To this end, firmly grounded in the real world, we seek to transform the metaphysical (形而上學) Way into the physical (形而下學) — into scientific data and operating systems that anyone can see and verify — and to share it widely.

   We declare that SOOM Civilization (Soom Civilization) will act as a practical, solid organization capable of reaching the wider public.

6. 06Root and Flower

   Education and the training of core leaders will be carried out at The Soom Campus on Jirisan, while public education for expanding into a civilization of life for humanity will unfold in every direction, at the scale of SOOM Civilization, from the SOOM Civilization Global Bonwon in Jeju.

   Jirisan is the root, and SOOM Civilization in Jeju is the flower. Through this great governance we will spread SOOM Civilization across the globe, share breath with many people so that the great 9,800-year lineage of the Way continues unbroken for generations to come, and nurture global talent.

7. 07A Movement for a Great Paradigm Shift

   SOOM Civilization (Soom Civilization) is a movement of the age of breath and a great paradigm shift, unfolding this 9,774-year wisdom in the world so that all of humanity may share in it.

   The ideals of Hongik Ingan (弘益人間) and Guhwal Changsaeng (救活蒼生) form the backbone of SOOM Civilization. It is not an organization serving any individual or group, but an open, public mission body devoted to returning humanity’s lost vitality and building a civilization overflowing with life energy.

   Transforming the principles of the metaphysical (形而上學) into the physical (形而下學) — into scientific data that anyone can see and verify — is the mission of SOOM Civilization in this age and the fulfillment of its wide sharing. SES (vitality score) and SEU (life energy unit) are the tools of that transformation.

8. 08Rejection and Enactment

   At the same time, we firmly reject any distortion or mystification of the Way that deceives and misleads people (惑世誣民), and we convey the teaching to humanity in truthful, verifiable and rightful ways.

   Accordingly, the SOOM Civilization Council, placing first the authenticity of the lineage and the integrity of practitioners and holding contribution to humanity as its highest value, enacts this Charter — setting out in writing the Council’s authority, the corporate structure, the qualifications of leaders, the principles of transmission, and the rights and duties of practitioners — so that SOOM Civilization may endure and spread as humanity’s civilization of life.