SOCIEDAD CIENCIA DE LA NATURALEZA
Faraway Travel
People who I met in Seoul
Soyeon, Yoon
Master lamented that it’s really hard task to reveal truths in the world and to enlighten people, as the miserable reality continuted where he had to face the desperate situation where he couldn’t reveal the truth. One day, Master told us to go to Seoul, saying that there had been nothing to fall back on and to anticipate. It’s May, 1990.
Master sat down at one corner of the entrance of Marronnier Park on College Street, spreading out the banner with his message in front of him. A lamp was on beside him.
‘I say that I am the one who attained the supreme enlightenment. I can say things of the world and I can answer the problems human have. I hope that what I have can be helpful to your future.’
Although lots of people were passing by the place, nobody had asked Master any questions. It is natural that, if a drunken man shouts out, people turn their heads to see what it is. However, though a man sat on the street for several hours with a lamp on, nobody gave a look. The first man who talked to Master looked a psycho. He was quite rude.
“Hey! Get out of here!”
“Who are you? Why do you tell me to get out of here?”
“I am a park keeper.”
He wasn’t a park keeper. He harrassed Master for a while, blabbering continuously. After a while, a man said.
“Are you an enlightened being?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Can you make a dead person alive?”
“I can answer that question after watching the body of the dead person.”
“Cure this man’s disease.”
“I can’t be sure whether curing people’s diseases is right or not. Lots of people have asked me to cure their diseases so far. I sympathized their pains so I cure the diseases with my virtue by accepting their karma into my body. However, even when I was suffering from their diseases instead of them, very few of them understood or thanked for me. Since then, I don’t cure people’s diseases recklessly.”
He said again.
“Where is your enlightenment?”
“It is in what exists.”
“Tell me what what exists is.”
“Then, I will tell you after I ask you a question. What do you know? If you know anything, tell me one of them. I will tell you something in what you tell me.”
“I know a puppy.”
“Do you? However, I don’t know what puppy you possess so I have nothing to tell you.”
He left, murmuring something in this mouth. After a while, the real park keeper came. Reading the message, he passed by, making fun of it.
“This person is publicizing himself.”
Just a few people have talked to Master for all day. Master lamented looking at people’s staggering figures.
“Can’t I help people with any method?”
On the next day, Master went back to yesterday’s place. Then, a man came and said imploringly.
“We have run our businesses since several years ago. If you sat near us, the park keeper will expel us as well as you. I hope you move to a different place.”
It made Master decide not to stay there any more and go out of the park. He sat down under a street tree at the roadside. As expected, all the passers-by disregarded or avoided Master.
Next day, Master sat on the underground passage in the crossing of Gwanghwamun Gate. However, nothing had changed. Nobody showed interest in him, though several hours went by.
On the next day, Master went to the same place again. As soon as he sat down on the passage, a few bulky men approached him. They ordered Master to stand up. Master asked them why he had to stand up. They said repressively.
“You can’t sit here. Go somewhere else.”
Master had no choice but to move. He went to Pagoda park and sat on one corner of the gate with the lamp on. A man came and shouted out abruptly.
“What a crazy guy! Why are you lighting the lamp in the daytime?”
His shouting gathered the crowd around the gate. Immediately, Master said to the crowd.
“I am out here to help you. I say I am the one who attained the supreme enlightenment. I can answer the questions the world has. The world makes all the things appear due to a meaning. According to whether or not humans accept the single meaning, things of the world will be different. What you desire lies in you. The results you make will exist in front of you. Knowing things of the world and of yourself is the way to gain your bright future.”
One of the crowd said.
“What will be the future of this country like?”
“The future of this country depends on what you do.”
“Then, how do we have to do?”
“What kind of country do you want this country become?”
“I hope it will become great.”
“How is it possible?”
He said after thinking for a while.
“It is to trust one another and for everybody to live well.”
“Such thing is really easy. It will be possible if first you have to learn conscience and justice and then teach them to other people.”
“We all are aware of it already, aren’t we?”
“If all of you are aware of it, why is this world so dark and are people eyeing warily one another? It is because they have neither taught nor learned conscience and justice.”
The crowd nodded approval. Another person said.
“What is my name? And quess what my job is.”
“What is your name and what do you do?”
He looked embarrassed. Master said.
“I have never heard of your name and seen you working. Then, how can I answer your question?”
“You aren’t the enlightened being.”
“Have you ever met the enlightened being?”
“No, I haven’t.”
“If not, although you meet the enlightened being, it is natural that you can’t recognize him, isn’t it? The enlightened being means the one who has opened his eyes, sees truths, says them as they are, and doesn’t tell lies.”
Another man said nervously.
“Your A-Sang(我相, kind of ‘arrogance’) is very big.”
“Which point of mine do you mean by?”
“It’s your way of speaking.”
“Then, if you find anything offensive, you call all of them A-Sang? To call beans beans is from truthfulness. The reason why I say I know because I know is that I have love. Therefore, to make judgment without knowing facts is very dangerous. If I am the one who have A-Sang, why do I have to come out here, sit on the street, and try to reveal things of the world? Nobody can do this, which means I am the one whose love is biggest.”
Master was also in front of Pagoda park on the next day. A religious man said.
“Do you believe in Jesus?”
“Jesus was a great person.”
“Do you believe that Jesus is the son of God?”
“I have never seen that kind of fact.”
“Have you read the Bible?”
“What are recorded in the Bible?”
“There are God’s words in it.”
“What are God’s words?”
“Truths.”
“Do you know truths?”
“I don’t know.”
“Bean trees are growing at the place where you sowed the seeds of bean. Is it the truth or not?”
“It’s the truth.”
“Yes, it is. Facts as the are are truths. A true person tells the truth but one who have no truthfulness can’t say truths, even though truths are just before him. It is a really good thing to try to understand what is but it is a miserable thing for someone to try to understand what doesn’t exist or to say as if they know.”
Another person said.
“How can we help the poor?”
“Teach them how to work.”
“What if they are in the state of exhaustion and so can’t even stand up?”
“Take here those who are that much hungry. I will tell you what you have to do after seeing them.”
On the next day, a man said.
“Do you know the secret of Cheon-Bu-Kyung?”
“What book is it?”
“It is a secret book which can save the world.”
“How did you know it is that kind of book?”
“It has passed down from the past in the world.”
“Then, tell me the contents.”
“Three multiplied by three makes nine and nine multiplied by nine is eighty one. In the book, there are eighty one letters and a prophecy that Korean people will conquer the world.”
“Read the book to me.”
Master said after his reading the book.
“I don’t know what words they are. It is obvious that the book has handed down by human hands. If a person knows things in the future, he/she also knows things in the present and past, which means he/she was the wisest person in that era. If the writer is identified, the truth of the book will also be revealed. Who is the writer? In the place where a great man appeared, good people come to follow him. It is like the same principle that good fruits are born from good farmland. If lots of competent people are born in one world, the world will become brighter and people in the world will prosper. If lots of people who deceive others by telling something without evidence appear in one world, the world will become darker and confusing.
Master couldn’t meet even one true person, even though he tried to find one day and night during his visit to Seoul.
