[An Essay from My Heart]

Welcoming the New Year through Jeonggwan (Quiet Contemplation)

The New Year is always bustling.

People flip through calendars, make plans, voice resolutions, and search for reasons to move faster and go farther. Yet, standing at the threshold of the New Year, I find myself naturally recalling the idea of Jeonggwan (靜觀, quiet contemplation) spoken of by Choi Rip (崔岦, 1539–1612)—a Joseon Renaissance figure who was both a diplomat and a man of letters. It is, as he understood it, “to look without moving,” and “to think first through silence rather than words.”

Jeonggwan is by no means a form of stagnation.

Rather, it is an intellectual posture that steps back from hasty judgments and noisy emotions, allowing one to gaze at things—and at oneself—just as they are. To Choi Rip, the world was not something to be conquered, but something that revealed its meaning more fully the more deeply one observed it. He was never in a hurry, nor did he raise his voice. He simply looked—quietly, patiently, and precisely—at whatever object or phenomenon lay before him.

As we welcome the New Year, what we truly need is not more resolutions, but deeper observation.

Instead of instantly judging last year’s successes and failures, we might calmly consider the contexts in which they occurred. Rather than being swept along by others’ words and the noise of the world, we might quietly examine for ourselves what within us wavered and what remained firm.

The gaze of Jeonggwan postpones judgment.

As a result, there is less reason to hate and less cause for impatience. In its place grows an understanding of the “grain of things” and a consideration for the “circumstances of people.” The serenity felt in Choi Rip’s writings is not the absence of emotion, but the presence of dense and disciplined thought.

The New Year begins not with novelty itself, but with a new way of observing.

Instead of reacting quickly, we learn to observe slowly; instead of speaking immediately, we pause to think once more; instead of rushing toward results, we seek to understand the process. This, precisely, is the virtue of Jeonggwan.

Even if this year becomes busier and more complicated for us, I hope there will be, somewhere in each day, a moment of “time for Jeonggwan.” It may be a quiet moment gazing out the window with a cup of tea, or a brief silence at day’s end spent reflecting on oneself. That short stillness will steady our thoughts and gently realign the direction of our lives.

Choi Rip showed us this quietly.

Those who observe deeply are never easily shaken, and those who think in quiet contemplation endure for a long time.

May this New Year not be a year that merely grows faster,
but one that grows deeper—
a year in which we walk, step by step and unhurriedly,
looking upon the world with the eyes of Jeonggwan.

January 1, 2026

On the morning of the New Year, the Byeongo Year…

At Sunstone

{Solti}

한글 번역: https://www.ktown1st.com/blog/VALover/348129