“I didn’t know studying the mind could be this fun.”
"This is a great lecture that keeps you up late."
“It was so fun that I kept listening and before I knew it, I was up all night and it was morning.”

A place for mind study that begins with laughter and ends with enlightenment!
A Hot Lecture: Monk Boman's "Buddhist Psychology"

The place where Monk Boman gives lectures is always full of people.
Even with only a few hundred seats, the hallways and stairs are packed with people.
It is visited by people who have been visiting the temple for decades, as well as those who want to find some peace of mind.
People from all over the country gathered for the YouTube lecture "Buddhist Psychology" after word of mouth spread.
At the center of it all is Monk Boman, who is currently the most popular 'star monk' in South Korea.

When a monk steps onto the podium, the air changes.
The temple's characteristic 'Eomgeunjin (sternness, dignity, seriousness)' is nowhere to be found, and it is filled with laughter and joyful energy.
Dialogue is more important than preaching, empathy is more important than doctrine, and the audience is free to share their concerns.
What makes Venerable Boman's lectures so special is that he approaches Buddhism and mindfulness in an accessible and enjoyable way! Audience reactions speak for themselves: "I never knew mindfulness could be this fun," "These are masterful lectures that keep me up late into the night." "They're so engaging that I keep listening, and before I know it, I've stayed up all night and it's morning."


Is it simply the "pleasantness" and "fun" that people seek out? No.
The monk's laughter is not a light joke, but a form of practice.
He says.
“People are too serious.
“The moment you believe that the world is true, that your thoughts are right, that ‘I’ actually exist, you become serious and life becomes heavy.” He says that if you let go of the seriousness, life becomes lighter, and only then can you laugh.
This is why it permeates the public without losing its cheerfulness.
His laughter is not humor, but a smile of insight that penetrates life.
That's why, between the laughter, a sentence that pierces the heart flies right into the heart.

Less seriousness, but more sincerity.
The monk reveals his past without hiding anything, from the time he couldn't control his anger and lived a life of only causing harm, to the time he was caught 'banting' with high school girls, to the accident where he burned down the entire temple warehouse.
Since "Buddhist Psychology" is not a study to accumulate knowledge but to change 'life', all of its experiences become mirrors that reflect the mind.
Thanks to the monk's sincerity, the audience also gains the courage to look into their own hearts.
The lively and honest conversation between the monk and the audience was born as a book.

My heart keeps ticking, I thought it was broken
The truth is, I just didn't know how to use it!

Doesn't everyone have those moments? Even when I don't know my own heart! I get upset over trivial things, and feel anxious even when nothing is wrong.
Why does the more I try to control my emotions, the more my mind becomes violent? So, I ask.
“My mind, why on earth is it like this?” Following that question mark, the book that unfolds the structure of the mind before your eyes is 『When I Don’t Know My Mind, Buddhist Psychology』.
This book says:
The mind is not a fixed entity, but rather a process in which memories and opinions meet and flow.
The thoughts and feelings that arise within it are merely fleeting phenomena.
But we mistake it for 'me' and we constantly reproduce the pain.
And at the bottom of the pain there is ‘meaning’.
'Meaning' arises from a cycle in which past memories create views that interpret present experiences, and those interpretations, in turn, reinforce memories.
We see the world through these accumulated ‘glasses of memory.’
So the same words can be hurtful to some people and a joke to others.
So, rather than trying to force a good meaning into it, try taking out the meaning that has already accumulated, one by one.
When you can see things as they are, life becomes simpler, and as it becomes simpler, it becomes lighter!

Although the term "psychology" is borrowed from the meaning of "dealing with the principles of the mind," "Buddhist psychology" and Western psychology follow completely different paths.
If psychology is the study of 'words' and 'actions' to infer the mind, 'Buddhist Psychology' explores the 'structure and principles of the mind' that operate behind it.
Also, the biggest goal is to break away from the framework, thoughts, and perspectives that were previously considered the 'self' and confirm the 'unhindered self [無我]'.
As you read the instruction manual and understand the workings of your mind one by one, just like assembling an object, you will eventually come to understand.
"It wasn't that my heart was broken! I just didn't know how to use it!"

As it turns out, 'I' am a being who is constantly realizing!
The Great Law of the Mind, the Manual of My Strong Mind!

Here, close your eyes and look into your heart for just one minute.
What do you feel? You can see dozens of thoughts flowing through your mind even in a short moment.
But we pour our whole heart into that one scene that will linger for a moment and then disappear.
At that time, Monk Boman asks quietly.
“What is watching all this?”

Suddenly, my heart stops.
It is a moment when I become aware of myself as the 'watcher' among all the scenes that arise and disappear.
The most essential basis of the mind, as revealed in “Buddhist Psychology,” is the spirit [覺].
Thoughts change and emotions flow, but the place [覺] that notices all changes is always calm.
To those of us who have only tried to ‘fix’ our minds, Monk Boman says this.
“That place, that place of awareness, can never be damaged, destroyed, or lost.
From there we just watch the world forever.
Through sorrow, through joy, through suffering and through joy, we are constantly realizing.
You live as beings who are endlessly aware.”

Yes, that's right.
“Buddhist psychology” is a study of becoming aware of the “seat of the mind.”
Thoughts are the work of the mind, and emotions are the traces of that work. To be aware of the mind is to remember the fundamental law that causes all change.
The moment I follow that law, ‘I’ am not shaken in any situation.
Now we know.
That the mind is not something to be 'fixed', but rather something to be 'understood'.
By the time you finish this book, you will have already discovered the 'realizing me'.