眞永 Jang KO

Hello.

I am Jang KO, founder of SOOM Civilization.

At sixteen, I took Grandmaster Cheongsan as my teacher and entered Kouksundo Bakdol-beop.

For nearly fifty years since,
learning and practicing breath, life,
and the essence of the human being,
I have walked a single path.

Through those long years of practice, one question always remained in my heart.

1. 01

   ‘With such a precious teaching here,
   why do so many people
   live without knowing its value?’

2. 02

   ‘How can
   anyone come to learn and practice the value of breath?’

3. 03

   ‘How can
   the wisdom of the 9,800-year lineage of the Way
   be explained in today's language
   and connected to tomorrow's civilization?’

That question has been the guiding question of my whole life.

At sixteen, I entered the gate of the Way (仙門).

For nearly fifty years after that,

under one teacher,
within one organization,
I learned,
I practiced,
and I walked alongside others.

Following my teacher's teachings
and his intention,

walking,
running,
and at times crawling,

I spent many long years.

As the years went by,

through my teacher's teaching and guidance, I slowly began to understand his deeper intention.

And

though the practice was true,

I came to see
that the organization was gradually
drifting
in a precarious direction.

After a long time of reflecting on my teacher's will and confirming his intention again and again,

I resolved
not to be one who criticizes and judges,
but one who complements.

Establishing order,
building systems,
filling in where things were crumbling,

I worked for some twenty years to lay a foundation on which the organization could continue more fully intact.

But as time passed
and the organization's systems
began to take shape,

human desire
began to run ahead
of the organization's purpose.

In the end, the path that had been one
divided into many branches,

and went the way
of fragmentation and dispersal.

I did not fight.

I quietly stepped back,
and for twenty years
I learned about society,
came to know the realities of the world,
and took time to prepare for a new era.

Then I returned,
and for seven years
prepared a path of revival, rebirth,
and renewal.

The fruit of that
is SOOM Civilization today.

SOOM Civilization
is neither a new religion
nor a new ideology.

It is the restoring of the vitality human beings inherently possess,

a path of life on which body, mind and spirit, person and person, people and nature,

and civilization itself

are connected
once again as one.

Turning the language of practice
into the language of daily life,

the language of philosophy
into the language of action,

and connecting individual practice
with the future of humanity.

That
is the path SOOM Civilization walks.

Humanity today is passing through a great civilizational transition.

Technology advances rapidly,
yet people grow more and more weary.

Information overflows,
yet the direction of life
grows ever more blurred.

I believe
that the era ahead
will in the end be ‘the Age of Breath.’

Breath is

1. the beginning of life,
2. the process of life,
3. and the fulfillment of life.

Now I wish to connect the once-unseen practice of the Way with the world through today's language and education, and through science and data as well.

Nearly half a century of practice and research, the spirit of the 9,800-year Eastern lineage of the Way,

and the writings I have produced from long embodied realization all point toward one thing:

to help more people
know the value of breath,

restore their vitality,

and live
healthier,
happier lives.

SOOM Civilization
is not a finished answer.

It is a path we make together,
a civilization we walk together.