A Small Pedal That Brings Great Happiness

Ask people if they’re happy, and most will likely say happiness is fleeting while troubles abound. Though circumstances differ, most people live day by day in worry and anxiety according to their own karma. Stop someone walking down the street and ask, “Since you’re walking, you must be free from worries?” They’ll look around nervously and retort, “Are you mocking me?” They too are full of concerns, constantly thinking about how to live tomorrow and next month. No one in this world is free from such worries.

You might have had this experience: “Why was I born in this small, poor piece of land, suffering like this? How much better would life be if I were born in a wealthy country like America?” With such thoughts, if you climb to the top of Namsan Tower for one last look at Seoul’s night view before jumping, you might find it surprisingly beautiful and magnificent. Not just Namsan – from the peaks of Seorak or Halla mountains, the world seems to open up as one, and you can’t help but marvel at nature’s beauty.

Yet even those mountains you find beautiful are full of struggles when examined closely. Countless trees bury their roots deeper into the soil to survive, stretching their branches to catch a bit more sunlight. Among these branches, insects writhe and compete for more sap. When we view the world as a whole, gazing mindfully, it appears beautiful, and we can feel ourselves as part of it. But when we look at things individually, everything has its troubles. Even our earth, which seems infinitely complex when examined piece by piece, is simply one planet when viewed from a different perspective.

Whether you live well or poorly, the Earth remains round, and you remain a beautiful part of nature. You’re complete as you are. Whether you’re a molecule in America or Korea on this small Earth – you’re complete.

Then why do some enjoy more while others starve? Why do some suffer while others live happily? Who created this? We did. There’s just one crucial difference: those who recognize themselves as both part and whole gain the power to move their world. Those who think only of themselves remain trapped in the worries of their molecular existence.

For a bicycle to move, each chain link must engage with the sprocket one by one. While the bicycle’s movement might seem significant and a single chain rotation trivial, the most crucial element for the whole bicycle’s motion is that single chain movement. Similarly, we must realize that when we move as a single chain, an organization can move, and even the vast Earth turns through the movement of single chains.

Those with families know how greatly their home can be shaken when one person’s mind briefly strays. Though we might seem insignificant as individual chain links, when we recognize the whole, that single link can create tremendous impact. Without awareness of the whole, we don’t know where the bicycle might crash. When we understand the whole, we know its direction. Once we clearly see where the bicycle is going, we mustn’t hesitate. We should pour our best into it without reservation. We must lose ourselves, become the chain’s role, and be absorbed into the whole bicycle. That’s when we truly become the chain fulfilling its purpose. Then, though the chain itself seems like nothing, its turning enables an unexpected third power. Something beyond both chain and bicycle emerges – the third power of ‘riding.’