The name Sufism is rarely encountered in South Korea’s meditation discourse. Few Koreans have traveled to India to study this practice firsthand, a tradition of Islamic mysticism that has endured for centuries across India and the Middle East. Recently, I happened to meet someone with the rare distinction of having explored all of these traditions. For nearly two decades, meditation practitioner Lee Chung-hak has moved among a range of traditions, including Eastern Taoist philosophy, Kuksundo, Indian yoga and Vedanta, and the unfamiliar world of Sufism. He now leads the LHS Personal Type Research Institute in Seoul, where he provides personal-type life consulting that reads each person’s distinctive qualities. I recently met with him after attending an event he hosted that offered participants the chance to experience LHS life consulting and Sufi meditation. He is also seeking participants for a small research project exploring each person’s innate, distinctive good fortune through mantras. Here is a look at the path he has followed and the work he is doing today.
A Boy Who Believed in Science Encounters the Tao Te Ching
Lee Chung-hak was an unusually science-minded child from an early age. Unable to readily accept the idea of a god who punishes wrongdoing, he happened upon the Tao Te Ching in middle school and began turning toward Taoist philosophy. In his midteens, he studied Gicheonmun and experienced energy directly through his body. That experience led him to a lifelong question: the relationship among body, mind and energy.
As a young man, after experiencing firsthand the futility of wealth and fame, he moved to Seoul with a dream of becoming a writer. While studying film, practicing Kuksundo and constantly reading, he met Dr. Lee Kyung-ryong and began studying Wang Yangming philosophy. Around that time, his direct experiences with Neo-Confucian meditation began in earnest.
From Kuksundo to Dongguk University, Philosophy Confirmed Through the Body
After choosing the path of a solitary seeker, he says he experienced deep states of meditative absorption several times, in which the boundaries of the body seemed to dissolve. While receiving instruction in yoga and meditative qigong from a teacher he met during this period, he reached a state he calls nondual awakening at age 24. This happened while he was studying philosophy and Indian philosophy at Dongguk University.
Still, he says he felt that the state was not complete. He had a clear sense of always remaining in the present, whether he was meditating or not, but a question about something unfinished continued to linger. To find the answer, he traveled to India.
An Unfamiliar Name Encountered in India: Sufism
While pursuing master’s and doctoral degrees in Indian religious philosophy at Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, Lee Chung-hak met two teachers who greatly broadened his horizons both academically and spiritually. In exchange for teaching Sufi Ismael Mervan about East Asian philosophy and qigong, he learned various perspectives and practices of Sufism. From Professor K. Mishra, an authority on Tantric philosophy, he studied the theory of sahaja samadhi. Around this time, he also began studying Sanskrit and delving into the principles contained in the sounds of mantras. The roots of the mantra research he would later begin in Seoul can be traced to this period.
He completed his doctoral dissertation by comparing the experiences of Jiddu Krishnamurti, Yogacara Buddhism and Zen Buddhism, including those of Master Daehaeng. During that process, he practiced Ramana Maharshi’s self-inquiry meditation and repeatedly experienced deep states of meditative absorption. Before returning to South Korea, he says, his teacher Ismael Mervan confirmed that he had reached fana, or the dissolution of the ego in Sufism.
Returning Home and Setting Out to Learn How to Read People
After returning to South Korea, Lee Chung-hak chose a different path instead of returning to academia. During a period of public service duty, he visited nearly 30 academies and educational programs in an effort to unlock the secrets of sound that he had been carrying with him since his time in India. He studied everything from foreign languages, acting, vocals and speech to sports massage, chiropractic care, Pilates and design. This wide-ranging education later became the foundation of his research institute.
Another insight he gained during this period was that, in a capitalist society, trading time for money is effectively trading one’s lifespan for money. He decided not to accept that exchange. Instead of taking a conventional job, he founded the LHS Personal Type Research Institute and began pursuing his own work focused on understanding people.
LHS Personal-Type Life Consulting: Three Lenses for Reading People
The guiding statement of the LHS Personal Type Research Institute is "Understanding people and finding their path together." To do that, Lee Chung-hak developed three analytical frameworks.
Seven-Atma Meditation Type
This approach examines the structure of the mind through seven atmas, using meditation to identify fundamental dispositions, inner patterns and potential.
Chakra Communication Type
This approach reads communication styles through the flow of chakra energy, analyzing patterns and characteristics in emotion, relationships and expression.
16-Constitution Physiognomic Core Type
This approach combines the 16 constitutions with physiognomy to examine innate temperament and practical characteristics, then suggests a direction suited to the person’s environment and trajectory.
He also adds a status analysis that identifies current strengths, weaknesses, possibilities and circumstances, as well as a historical analysis that uses the course of a person’s life and career to understand recurring patterns and life themes. All of these processes point toward one goal: the freedom to live as oneself, a fulfilled happiness and success grounded in the realization of one’s values.
Han Yu, a celebrated essayist of the Tang dynasty, wrote that even a thousand-li horse is useless without Bo Le, the person who can recognize its worth. Lee Chung-hak’s work is much the same. "Everyone needs different things, and everyone wants different things. Because meditation is a personal experience, anyone can obtain what they want once they awaken through awareness," he says. He considers helping people do that his life’s calling and supports individuals on their journey toward discovering their authentic lives.
A Journey to Find Your Own Good Fortune: Participants Sought for Mantra Research
The interest he developed while exploring the sounds of Sanskrit mantras in India has now grown into a small research project. Lee Chung-hak poses the question this way: If each person possesses a unique form of good fortune from birth, what is it?
The process is simple.
Meet at a cafe and learn a simple mantra sound meditation technique.
Practice the mantra consistently at home.
Record together any changes in daily life, including unusual coincidences or good fortune and changes involving people or work.
Over three or four meetings, discover your own good fortune.
This is a light research project collecting data on the unique good fortune each person possesses. Anyone curious about the subject or interested in experiencing it firsthand can participate without any special preparation, and a modest participation fee will be provided.
From a boy who questioned science to a consultant who reads people after passing through Taoism, yoga and Sufism, Lee Chung-hak’s story converges on one question: How do we discover what already exists within each of us? This mantra research offers one entry point for joining him in searching for that answer.
Inquiries about LHS personal consulting and mantra research participation: 010-3952-7445