Mind over Matter

 Won Hyo was a monk who lived in the Unified Silla dynasty and he is a historical person who had a reputation not only in the Buddhist world, but from lots of foreigners.

“The world of life is all in the mind and the phenomenon is only recognition. Everyone depends on their minds. But people always try to get something out of their minds.” +

According to this logic, Won Hyo discussed that conflict also come from ‘discriminatory mind’. We are happy because we can boast a historic person such as Buddhist leader Won Hyo. The legendary happening that Won Hyo experienced is famous. ++

It was when he was a youth when he went to study abroad to the Tang dynasty, the former land of China. When it got dark, he slept in a low hill. While he was sleeping, he was thirsty and groped around in the dark and drank the stagnant water of a jar.

When he woke up the next morning, he was amazing as he slept in a crypt where an old tomb had collapsed. And he was even more surprised that the water he had drank and quenched last night had settled in the human skull. At that very moment, he was suddenly nauseated and seemed to vomit.

After that, he realized that the water he taken itself wasn’t dirty or clean, it just depends on his mind. Then he gave up studying abroad and returned to the land of Silla, eventually becoming a world-class Buddhist scholar.

In this way, the root of Won Hyo’s thought seems to be in the mind. It is like a mirror that embraces all things, like a sea filled with countless streams of clean water or dirty water flowing out of it. The mind he recognizes is a mirror that embraces all things, as if the sea accepts all the flowing water, whether it is clean or dirty water. 

In fact, even before the COVID-19 Pandemic occurred, some Dongdaemun merchants recognized that the prospects for the future of the market as well as the various business difficulties they face would be very uncertain. However, many others are working hard to be patient, believing that the future market conditions will also be bright. 

Likewise, although the understanding and approach of the market situation and the future differs depending on the merchant, as it is in Won Hyo’s philosophy, its management performance will be greatly affected by his mindset.

-Some of the popular Dongdaemun fashion items we exported last week, seoulclick.com- 

The industrial hero who led the development of Korea’s economy and its miracles Hyundai motor and its corporate group chairman Chung Ju-young are widely known to people around the world. His younger brother, Chairman Chung In-young, who has led Halla since 1962, founded a new auto parts company called ‘Mando’ to save his company from crisis that was under political pressure from the coup government in 1980s. He said that he chose the name of the company as Mando, in the idea that anyone can do anything with their minds, namely, “Man do”

“When I lost everything, I could no longer be caught up in anger. Wouldn’t adversity be a solid asset for another new start? I shake the adversity off and pledge to start anew.” +++

Whenever he was weakened in his mind, he said alone, as above. He woke up at 2:00 in the morning and went to several domestic factories and went on business trips overseas to the United States and Japan almost every three days. So, after running busy for 10 years, one day, he was hospitalized with a stroke. Despite the concerns of many, however, he soon recovered and returned to his office in a wheelchair.

Sitting in a wheelchair, he moved earlier, farther and faster than before. The company continued to grow rapidly, and finally rebuilt a larger heavy industry company on the stolen ground.

This management case of overcoming a crisis is understandable as an empirical test of the logic of mind over matter which means as follow.

“Mind over matter represents the triumph of will over physical hindrance. Our thoughts are our weapon against the world.” ++++

As such a meaning of mind over matter, Chairman Chung In-young overcame many difficulties with a strong mindset and achieved surprisingly better management performance. As one US President Theodore Roosevelt said, all resources we need are in the mind. Chairman Chung also proved a quote from a US president Theodore Roosevelt that all resources we need are in mind.

Dongdaemun merchants are well aware that life is more of a famine than an abundance. The economic fluctuations and cycles of the Dongdaemun market were also more in recession than booms. 

Moreover, their traders, whose management scale is small and their market competitiveness is weak, often rely on mind, that is, invisible resources, rather than visible resources such as capital size or number of employees, for the survival of the company every year. What can be faithful is a strong mindset.

Why aren’t people saying faith will move a mountain!

Some of the latest books explored that mind over matter in a digital age and presents the importance of continued transformation of the mind to promote AI for greater good. In doing so, it focuses on the organizational and managerial practices that are critical in creating an environment that supports mindset and organizational growth. 

+ Bong Sul, Dondaemun Style, ebook.kstudy.com, Seoul, 2019, pp.44-45.

++ www.naver.com

+++ The Korea Economic Daily, Chung In-young, 2007, pp. 25-27.

++++ www.google.com/ mind-over-matter.

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Bong Sul (Advisor, SeoulClick)

www.seoulclick.com

Read more: Bong (Bong Sik) Sul, Dongdaemun Style, ebook.kstudy.com, Seoul, 2019.