School of Soom

Over the past twenty years or so, the world's leading educational initiatives have greatly shifted the paradigm of education — from classrooms that one-way “delivered” knowledge to project-based settings where students “think and act” for themselves, and from rote memorization to self-directed inquiry.

This was clear progress. But now that artificial intelligence (AI) has begun to perform on par even in the realms of “thinking” and “execution” — analysis, summarizing, problem-solving — there is an intrinsic human value that machines can never replace.

[Essential Values Future Education Should Pursue]

• An autonomous foundation of body and mind (心身) that does not waver
• Social and emotional maturity that nurtures relationships and helps others grow
• Ethical judgment to discern right from wrong for oneself, and ecological sensitivity
• A life-affirming mission that reaches beyond oneself toward community and the world

Even many existing innovative approaches to education have not yet placed these at the “root” of the curriculum. Character and communal values have been treated only as side branches that supplement achievement and skills.

The School of Soom begins precisely from this empty space at the heart of global education. Going beyond making skills and thinking more efficient, it is a school that places the full restoration of human nature and the foundation of body and mind at the very center of education — this is the singular place the School of Soom occupies on the map of education.

We live in an age when information appears with a search and AI organizes knowledge in an instant. But wisdom is different.

Wisdom is not a fragmentary “what do I know,” but the power to see through to “why it is so” — the practical ability to thread individual pieces of knowledge onto a single principle and live it out. The School of Soom calls this Tongni (通理): the study of seeing through to the principle of things.

Therefore, the School of Soom does not instill correct answers. It guides each person to ask their own questions, to inquire with body and mind, and at last to awaken on their own. Not handing down knowledge by teaching, but helping each person awaken on their own — this is how the School of Soom passes on wisdom.

The School of Soom curriculum has an unwavering central axis: the principle that “theory (philosophy) and practice (breathing and haenggong) are never separated.”

Abstract concepts understood only with the head must be embodied. Knowledge not yet engraved in the body and breath does not move on to the next stage. Deep philosophical principles are tested within breath practice, and breath and the flow of energy (ungi) deepen within philosophical insight.

Learning at the School of Soom moves in this cycle:

We embody it in the body (體得), live it out in life (實踐), inquire into it ever more deeply (窮理), and share it with the world.

An archetypal cycle in which knowledge becomes wisdom, and wisdom in turn becomes life and civilization.

Whole-person (全人的) character cannot be instilled through character-education classes or admonition. A person's foundation does not change through the imperative “live rightly,” through theoretical study, or through forced efforts to suppress selfishness.

The root cause of suffering in modern life is that people have blindly clung only to managing the energy of Neok (physical survival and possession) — the most basic dimension of the human life mechanism — creating an imbalance in the system. Human relationships and the waves of life must keep evolving beyond Neok into Ryeong (靈), and finally into the relationship and dimension of Eol (one's true nature). This is the process of growth by which a human being, once dwelling in animal instinct, is reborn as a whole person endowed with bright ethics and morality.

From here emerges the core philosophical and scientific principle of the School of Soom curriculum. Ethical and moral values such as Kouksundo's noble Five Virtues (五道德: wisdom, courtesy, benevolence, righteousness, trust) and Six Bonds (六倫: sincerity, reverence for heaven, devotion to one's country, filial love, harmony, truthfulness) are not products of abstract instillation.

[The Principle by Which the Five Virtues (五道德) and Six Bonds (六倫) Emerge]

• Five Virtues (五道德): Wisdom (智), Courtesy (禮), Empathy (仁), Justice (義), Trust (信)
• Six Bonds (六倫): Sincerity (誠心), Respect for Nature (敬天), Love of Country (忠國), Love for Parents (孝親), Harmony (親和), Truthfulness (眞實)
• Mechanism of emergence: it is a “bio-thermodynamic phenomenon” that blossoms spontaneously when the inner life energy fills Neok to overflowing and naturally flows through into the energies of Ryeong and Eol — that is, when energy passes a critical threshold and becomes abundant.

The only physical and biological act that lets the energies of Neok, Ryeong, and Eol flow through in accordance with natural order, generating (發電) them on its own, is “right breathing (breath and haenggong).” When the breath settles evenly and the circulation of energy in body and mind becomes abundant, the whole-person character of the Five Virtues and Six Bonds blossoms on its own, without being forced. Therefore, learning at the School of Soom is not the instilling of character but “the restoration of one's original humanity.”

Historically, the methods of deep practice and awakening have been handed down only to a few individuals. But a method that remains only in one person's experience and attainment of the Way (道通) disappears together with that person when their life (生) comes to an end.

The School of Soom fully preserves the original form and essence while redesigning it into a universal educational system that the next generation can inherit rightly and accurately.

From practice methods to teaching methods, from personal experience to universal principles, from the oral (口傳) lineage to clear records and systems

To elevate one person's great awakening into a sound educational system that anyone in humanity can learn and practice — this is the mission the School of Soom has given itself.

Learning at the School of Soom goes beyond digital screens; it is a passage of life that opens only when people meet in person and breathe together.

Here there is room for depths that solitary self-study or searching cannot reach — guidance, verification, and sharing together with teachers and fellow learners. Step by step, engraving it into the body, we move forward so that breath, haenggong, the flow of energy (ungi), and the circulation of gi and blood grow in balance.

• Stage 1 [Foundation]: An embodiment course for establishing breath and the center of body and mind
• Stage 2 [Practice · Application]: A Tongni course for flowing through Neok, Ryeong, and Eol to embody the Five Virtues and Six Bonds in life
• Stage 3 [Leadership]: A systematization course for accurately passing on the right True Method (眞法) to others
• Stage 4 [Integration]: An integration course for inquiring, on the basis of the philosophy of breath, into the transition to a civilization of life

(Detailed curricula for the full program will be released in stages.)

SOOM Civilization begins from the seed of an original philosophy, grows through the stem of practice and education, and bears fruit as the School of Soom.

And within that fruit are new seeds that will in turn raise up other lives. The wholeness of one person is rightly passed on to the next, and these connections gather to become, at last, the foundation of “a new civilization that gives life.”

The School of Soom helps people stand whole, and those who stand whole in turn help the world to stand.