"살고 싶고 죽고 싶은 마음은 늘 같이 있어. 그러나 사나 죽으나 그냥 욕심을 버리고 몸을 낮추어 하루하루 감사하며 살 뿐, 무슨 욕심을 더 내랴. 이것을 아는 것이 지혜이다." —김영석
"The desire to live and the desire to die always coexist. However, whether living or dying, I simply let go of greed, humble myself, and live each day with gratitude; what more could I greedily crave? Knowing this is wisdom." —Yung Suk Kim
Do we exist to serve the system, or does the system exist to serve us? In a modern world filled with rigid rules and faceless institutions, it’s easy to feel like a cog in a machine. This video dives into a revolutionary "Human-Centered" philosophy shared by Jesus and Confucius.
We examine Jesus’s radical claim that the Sabbath—a sacred divine institution—was made for the benefit of humankind, not the other way around. We then look at Confucius’s empowering insight that "The Way" (the Dao) only becomes great through the people who walk it. This video is a reminder that you are the subject of your life, not an object of the rules.Is there a single truth that transcends time, geography, and culture? In this video, we explore the "Golden Thread" of human ethics—a principle discovered independently by the greatest minds of the East and West. From the teachings of Jesus on the Mount to Rabbi Hillel’s famous challenge while standing on one leg, and Confucius’s profound concept of reciprocity (Shù), we discover a shared moral compass.
Yung Suk Kim, PhD
What does it truly mean to live a life of transformation? After two decades of research, teaching, and writing, I’ve come to realize that the core of meaningful change lies in a single, complex concept: Justice.
By engaging with both the beauty and the brokenness of 2 Corinthians, readers will encounter the gospel and its full, paradoxical power.
True wisdom is experiential, evocative, and embodied. It is not merely a collection of abstract ideas, but a lived reality forged through real-world experience. It does not just inform the mind; it evokes deep reflection and inspires transformation in others. Ultimately, true wisdom must be lived out, showing up in our daily presence, choices, and actions.
-Yung Suk Kim
The following is an excerpt from my ongoing book project, Yung Suk Kim, The Architecture of Wisdom: Constructive, Deconstructive, and Integrative Paths in Biblical and East Asian Traditions.
A poignant example of the current malfunction of constructive wisdom can be seen in the contemporary educational sphere. I recently observed a South Korean production on Netflix entitled Teach You a Lesson, a series that has garnered a significant global audience. The show’s popularity across diverse cultures suggests that the crises it portrays—the breakdown of primary and secondary education (K-12)—resonate far beyond the borders of the Korean peninsula. In the drama, we see a vivid depiction of teachers who are effectively paralyzed, stripped of their authority to enforce the rules and ethics that are foundational to a thriving collective life.
Two specific phenomena within this case study illustrate the dismantling of the "Constructive" pillar in the modern world. First, we see a distorted application of the concept of relative deprivation. When a teacher attempts to prize or commend a diligent student for their hard work, the parents of other students often protest. They argue that by singling out one student’s success, the teacher causes the others to suffer a sense of relative deprivation. In this mindset, the celebration of excellence is viewed as an injury to the collective, rather than an inspiration for it.
Second, we see the weaponization of the term emotional abuse. When a teacher attempts to reprimand a student for misconduct, school violence, or blatant disruption—employing socially acceptable forms of detention or discipline—parents frequently accuse the teacher of emotional abuse. This accusation effectively silences the educator and prevents the student from learning the essential lesson that actions have consequences.
This phenomenon represents a systemic failure of constructive architecture. If a society can no longer commend good work or reprimand bad behavior, the "house" of wisdom has no foundations. While this specific narrative is framed through a Korean lens, its global reach on a platform like Netflix underscores a universal anxiety: the sense that in many modern societies, the collective structures required to help a person learn how to live together—even within competition—are being eroded. We have forgotten that reward and punishment are not merely "punitive" but are essential pedagogical tools for the formation of a person.