(203) There is but one step from success to despair

By Janet Shin

What comes to your mind when you think about destiny? Surprisingly, many people consider it dreadful. Why? Because it is something we cannot manipulate. Instead, the quirk of fate often throws us into confusion and makes us cry and laugh. We do not know how our destiny will unfold.

Personally, what made me study saju was to overcome the fear of an uncertain destiny. The same reason led me to teach people saju and to read their saju. By studying saju, or by knowing about our life, we may become true masters of it. Whether we are rich or poor, successful or not, we all are walking our life paths in utter darkness. Sometimes there may be some lights that shine on the road and we can figure out the way. But most of time we seldom recognize the condition of our life’s path.

Many people fear not knowing what will happen tomorrow and what will occur after a certain junction. Some even run away in the middle of saju courses for qualms of knowing the truth, as they are afraid of facing possible misfortune. Saju may reveal an unpleasant part of one’s life but one must have courage to confront the truth of both despair and hope. Since it is your own life, once you embrace it, you will become audacious to cultivate a further path.

All life, or what is read by saju, has its own distinct feature. Happiness is absolutely subjective and what defines one’s life as successful is variable. Let’s think about a life of an admired patriot, for example. He sacrificed his life fighting for national independence. There was a remote chance for him to accumulate wealth. It’s needless to say his family’s living conditions were miserable. Eventually he earned people’s respect for his activities, maybe after his death. How about his personal life, especially that of his family? The more saju we read, the more prudent we should become about life.

Here is the saju of noted filmmaker Kim Ki-duk, who recently won the Golden Lion Award at this year’s Venice Film Festival for “Pieta.” He received best director awards at previous Berlin and Venice film fests. Without listing his extensive filmography, it seems apparent that his life has been successful so far. We may look beneath the surface of his life by reading saju.

He was born with the energy of yang water. Water can nourish or enfeeble. Water people use their emotional sensitivity to influence and unify others. They trust their intuition and use flexibility and perseverance to succeed. Owing to its property, they are wise and do not express themselves directly until it is fully filled. The fluidity of water makes them gentle, caring and flexible. However they have their own guts and talents. Yang water sometimes shows explosive power, which does not explode at any time but only when it is fully concentrated.

The first thing that catches our attention is a clash between the fire element (a money star), and water (himself). He has such strong self esteem that he would never make a concession to capitalism. The fire and water elements often conflict with each other, which generates a peculiar psyche. It may explain the shocking scenes such as animal cruelty and violence in his films. The only knowledge star, the metal element dissipated at an early age but his strong ego doesn’t require a conventional education. The most important factor in his life, the expression star or wood element is not seen in any existing letters. However it is created by his day pillar as a hidden energy. It gives a valuable and realistic impact to his life only after his mid-thirties.

Reading the saju of this filmmaker, we may be concerned about the damaged money star, weakened knowledge star or absence of expression star as it can be the most important requirement for a filmmaker. Nevertheless, if we adjust our point of view just a little bit, we can see his high self-esteem plays the most important and practical role in his saju, even though he sees himself as having an extreme inferiority complex. The association of heavenly stems, water, earth and metal elements, makes his life wonderful despite some strife in reality caused by earthly branches.

Information: Are you interested in learning more about the ancient Chinese teaching about the “Four Pillars of Destiny?” For further information, visit Janet’s website at www.fourpillarskorea.com, contact her at 010-5414-7461 or email janetshin@hotmail.com.

The writer is the president of the Heavenly Garden, a saju research center in Korea, and the author of “Learning Four Pillars.”