Sangsaeng

Sang (상 相) means “mutual”, or “together” and saeng (생 生) means “life” or “to give birth to life.” Sangsaeng (상생 相生) is often translated as “mutual life bettering or mutual life saving.” Sangsaeng (상생 相生), mutual life-giving and life-saving, is a principle premised upon gaebyeok’s creation of a new order in later heaven. Sangsaeng (mutual life-giving and life-saving) does not mean simply helping each other and coexisting. It is a principle premised upon gaebyeok’s creation of a new order.

Through Autumn Gaebyeok, heaven and earth’s order transforms from that of the Early Heaven’s reign of sanggeuk (상극 相克), mutual conflict and domination, into that of the Later Heaven’s reign of sangsaeng (상생 相生), mutual life-giving and life-saving. Sangsaeng is a core precept of Jeung San Do. The principle that resolves all conflicts of the past is the principle of sangsaeng of the coming cosmic autumn. Sangsaeng also represents the universal state of existence in the Later Heaven.

Sangsaeng (상생 相生) is a natural dynamic of the five elements in which one phase engenders another. Water engenders wood (水生木), wood engenders fire (木生火), fire engenders earth (火生土), earth engenders metal(土生金) and metal engenders water (金生水))

Sangjenim (상생 相生) also used this word to explain the universal state of existence in the later heaven. Sangjenim said: People have sought riches and renown in contests of authority and force throughout the Early Heaven, for such is the Early Heven’s legacy fo Sanggeuk (相克). Now, shall bring forth thje Later Heaven and its destiny of Sangsaeng(相生) to build a world in which goodness is the way of life. (English Dojeon 2:16)

The word Sangsaeng (상생 相生) had never been used as a word for human relations, but Sangjenim gave a new con cept to this word. Sangjenim said: All nations will practice Sangsaeng (相生), both men and women, and superiors and subordinates will be in harmony and content with their lot in life, comporting themselves in concord with Dao.(English Dojeon 2:16) Sangsaeng is the acts of bettering one another’s lives and ultimately saving lives, attaining harmony among all life.

Sangjenim declared that He would disassemble and reconstruct the diseased world and supersede heaven and earth’s order of mutual conflict with the Dao of Sangsaeng to open a new world. The new world of Sangsaeng (상생 相生) in the Later Heaven will be about helping others realize happiness, and it will be about helping one another and improve on another’s lives, Thus, life in the new world will be filled with Dao mind, justice, goodness, and virtue.

Along with the resolution of bitterness and grief, which is the means of healing humanity’s malaise, Sangsaeng, mutual life giving, is the new way of life in the new world, the great Dao of deliverance that enables our return to the origin. The resolution of bitterness and grief is central to ending all relationships of conflict among all life in the universe, while Sangsaeng, mutual life giving, is crucial in enabling a harmonious co-existence among all life. That is why Sangsaeng (상생 相生) is the main precepts of Jeung San do.

If the Early heaven is characterized as the time of bitterness and wickedness under the reign of sanggeuk (상극 相克) “mutual conflict”, then the later Heaven is the time of bless“mutual life-begetting” or “mutual life-saving.” The resolution of bitterness and grief may be seen as the release of these negative energies that are lodged like thorns in the life energy of humans, spirits, and all matter, whereas sangsaeng (상생 相生) is the saving and betterment of one another’s lives. Along with the resolution of bitterness and grief, which is the means of healing humanity’s malaise, mutual life giving is the new way of life in the new world the great Dao of deliverance that enables our return to the origin. The resolution of bitterness and grief is central to ending all relationships of conflict among all life in the universe, while sangsaeng (상생 相生) mutual life-giving is crucial in enabling a harmonious co-existence among all life.

Sangjenim declared that He would disassemble and reconstruct the diseased world and supercede heaven and earth’s order of mutual conflict with the Dao of mutual life-giving to open a new world.

I will bring harmony among the spirits so that the bitterness that has built up over the ages can be resolved. Through the Dao of mutual life-giving, the dojang of Creation-Transformation will be established and an unprecedented world of immortality will be realized. (Dojeon 2:31:1~2)

The new world of mutual life-giving in the Later Heaven will be about helping others realize happiness, and it will be the societal norm to better one another and improve one another’s lives. Thus, life in the new world will be filled with Dao mind, justness, goodness, and virtue. Our work is the practice of helping others do well. After others prosper, we need only to take what remains and our work will be accomplished. (Dojeon 2:15:8)

The Dao of mutual life-giving begins with the requisite conditions of offering gratitude and repayment and the resolution of bitterness and grief. In practice, these three precepts depend on one another and merge into one. Offering gratitude and repayment renews the relationships between: humanity and its parents, heaven and earth; spirits and humans; humans and humans; humans and nature. Such a renewal of relationships will aid in the resolution of bitterness and grief, cleansing all relationships tainted by mutual conflict. Mutual life-giving will establish a condition of harmony among all life in the universe.

From the ashes of such bloodshed and oppression, Jeung San Do was born in 1901 through the search for a new way of life. Jeung San Do has not come just to bring the East and West together into a new unified civilization, Jeung San Do informs that the nature of the universe will change from sanggeuk (상극 相克), mutual conflict and domination, which has caused and is causing all suffering and grief, to sangsaeng (상생 相生), mutual life-bettering.

This autumn culture shall be a unified culture. In the days to come, the order of heaven and earth will be altered. In other words, instead of the culture of sanggeuk (상극 相克) and its process of division that has been dominant, there shall appear the culture of sangsaeng (상생 相生), i.e., a unified culture of convergence. I speak often of this, the emergence of the culture of fruition. It is an inevitable consequence of nature, an unmistakable and absolute principle.