Beopjeong’s Flowers Bloom in the Mountains

The Buddhist monk Beopjeong, known for Non-Possession, spoke to the spirit of his time. In an increasingly materialistic society, his book found a wide readership by showing how a person might step away from the pursuit of possessions and live with a freer mind.

I was in middle school when I read Non-Possession, and it gave me a glimpse of how Beopjeong thought about life. One idea still stays with me. If I use only one of a thing, keeping several does little for me. Often it just gives me more to think about.

Written by Beopjeong, Collected by Ryu Si-hwa

Flowers Bloom in the Mountains brings together Beopjeong’s writing in a collection edited by the poet Ryu Si-hwa. Like Non-Possession, it gives readers time to think about how they live and what they are pursuing.

We live amid plenty. We can own more than we need, and that excess brings its own problems. Once you start wanting to acquire something, the desire can keep renewing itself. It takes practice to know when to let it go.

That practice grows out of the way you live each day. Small choices add up, and the first one can be quite ordinary.

Making Room by Letting Go

Since reading Non-Possession as a child, I have tried to live with a little less wherever I can.

I want to keep gathering knowledge and learning how to use it wisely. With material things I try to do the reverse. Things pile up naturally over the course of a life. There is a skill in keeping what you need and letting the rest go.

One Will Do

What I still respond to in Beopjeong’s writing is the idea that one of a necessary thing is enough. Owning several can scatter your attention and make you less attached to the one you actually use.

If you need a pen, it may be worth choosing the one that does the job and keeping that one.

I cannot quite imagine living as Beopjeong did, alone in the Gangwon mountains without running water or electricity. I can try to apply some of his wisdom where I am, by making fewer demands of the present and resisting the urge to keep acquiring things. Perhaps there is a kind of freedom in living like a traveler, ready to leave whenever the time comes.

Book Information

Flowers Bloom in the Mountains

Author and editor

Beopjeong, edited by Ryu Si-hwa

Publication date

25 April 2009

ISBN13

9788995904992

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