Afterwards, he pursued his studies by getting a master’s in Harvard and his doctoral degree in Princeton, later teaching at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. He attended the University of California-Berkeley to study film but returned to his original interest of religion after realizing filmmaking was not what he imagined it to be. Haemin Sunim (“Sunim” is a title given to monks) was a sensitive boy attuned to philosophical questions about his existence from a young age and started reading books by philosophers in high school. If we accept ourselves fully, including our faults, we will become empathetic and compassionate, allowing us to more readily accept others for their imperfections and simply loving them for who they are: the sign of true love. Like his last book, Love for Imperfect Things focuses on attaining inner peace, except this time, the attention is put on accepting oneself. Originally published in 2016, it was released in the U.S. Love for Imperfect Things: How to Accept Yourself in a World Striving for Perfection is Haemin Sunim’s second book.

It has been published in 30 countries after its release through Penguin Books in 2017.

With over one million Twitter followers, his popularity gave him the opportunity to write his first book, The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down, which stayed at the number one spot on the Korean bestseller list for nearly a year and sold three million copies. He is a Korean monk known as the “Twitter monk” or “mega monk” that rose to fame after he started publishing bite-sized pieces of wisdom acquired through his life experience, training and meditation, and, above all, from the people who came to him with their problems.

Photo by Sehyen Jo.ĭespite having over a million Twitter followers and being an international bestselling author, Haemin Sunim is a somewhat unknown figure in the U.S.

Haemin sunim the things