“A crack in the wall lets the wind in (壁隙風動), and a crack in the mind lets the devil in (心隙魔侵). What is a gap, then, is division.”

Ahead of the 27th anniversary of Buddha’s arrival in 2567 A.D., a Korean Buddhist monk from the Jongjeong Seongpa sect has sent a message to Korean society. “The politicians and the people are fighting for their own right without making any concessions,” he said, “and I am worried that the division is getting deeper and deeper, even though it is not enough to keep our minds alert now that wild beasts are attacking us from all sides.” He also spoke about Korea-Japan relations. “How long are we going to cling to the past and be pro-Japanese and pro-Korean,” he said, “We need to look back at why we were robbed of our country and build our strength by using it as a mirror.

Known in Buddhist circles as an artist who created lacquer folk paintings and the 160,000-piece porcelain Daegak Sutra, and as the originator of collecting 5,000 discarded intestines to make soy sauce in the traditional way, Seongpa is a representative Zen monk who has refrained from speaking about politics and current affairs, saying, “I know nothing.” When he was elevated to the pontificate in March last year, he made a splash by delivering an impromptu sermon, saying that he had forgotten his manuscript on the way up. The monk published a book of talks, “Working, Studying, Studying, Working” (Samter), ahead of this year’s Buddha Day.

No experience, no knowledge, nothing is past

-He’s not coming to Seoul this Buddha Day.

“He’s at Tongdosa Temple, where the general secretary is.”

-You did send up a blessing, didn’t you?

“I don’t have any special words (laughs).”

In the 15th consecration sutra, Ven. Sungpa said, “The suffering of this world will not be reduced without the devotion of love and compassion, and the suffering of sentient beings will not be relieved without the bodhisattva’s wish to carry it in my body.

-When he was installed as abbot, he gave an impromptu sermon.

“I don’t have anything to say, I don’t know anything, and these days the elementary school kids know more, they’re all highly educated intellectuals, and they eat a lot of foreign food, and people like us, who are old and live in the mountains, are frogs in a well.”

-I know this sounds like a rebuke to what I’ve learned in school, but what have I really unlearned?

“Absolutely not, you don’t know the world, so don’t tell others what to do, just do your job and do it well.”

-Don’t think you have a lot of experience, don’t think you know a lot, go back to the beginning.

“That’s what he’s saying to me, too. No matter how old I get, no matter how many years I’ve been around the block, I don’t think I’m more experienced, I don’t think I’m more knowledgeable. What’s past is zero, so it’s always the beginning.”

-Don’t live today recklessly and wastefully.

“You know what they say, don’t waste your time, whether it’s reading one more line in a book or going out into the field and tying grass.”

-Monk Tzu The hands of a monk who never stops working are called “worker’s hands” for their thick muscles.

“Even when I lie still, time passes; nature seems to stand still, but it never stops moving, not even for an hour or a second. The same is true of work and study. If there is a pause, water will leak and you won’t be able to work hard.”

-He also said, “I live for 500 years.

“It takes at least 50 years to become a craftsman in any field, but I don’t have time and I have to do many things at once, so I used the carpet bombing, simultaneous papule method (laughs).”

-What the world calls workaholism.

“If you think of work as learning, it’s not workaholism. It’s fun to learn while working, just like flowers don’t force themselves to bloom when spring comes.”

-And there’s a line in the book that resonated with me, “What’s the big deal about studying? Where you step is school, and who you meet is your teacher.

“It’s a self-help book. Nowadays, people go to school and go to a good university. I couldn’t do that (due to war and poverty), so I’m setting myself up for nothing (laughs).”

On the morning of the 17th, he stands at Janggyeonggak in Tongdosa Temple in Habuk-myeon, Yangsan-si, Gyeongsangnam-do. The 160,000 Buddhist scriptures enshrined in Janggyeonggak are the Buddhist scriptures made of ceramics over a period of 10 years. /2023.05.17 Kim Dong-hwan Reporter

If you decide to live as if you were going to die

-War and inflation have made the world’s economy difficult and the lives of ordinary people exhausted.

“There is a disease without a cause. Cause and effect. You have to find the cause of the suffering and cure it.”

-Young people are struggling to find jobs and housing.

“I keep getting stuck (when I talk about youth) because I grew up in the days when there was no electricity, no phones, and I went through the 6-25, and I went through the hungry days when I couldn’t go to school.”

-About how times aren’t so tough now….

“They say there’s no work, there’s no labor here, and the young people say I can’t do that because it’s not my job, and in the countryside, you can’t farm, you can’t do anything unless you’re a foreign laborer, so it’s really frustrating.”

-And just this morning, another young man in his 30s made an extreme choice because of a charter scam.

“If you decide to live like you decide to die, you can get through it메이저사이트. There’s nothing harder than dying, and if you choose to do that, there’s no reason why you can’t live. You know what they say about doing everything in your power to die? There’s nothing you can’t do if you’re determined enough to die, and if you choose to live, everything is solved.”

China is a beast, America is a beast.

-How is politics doing these days?

“There’s a monk in front of Donggu, and he’s been there for 100 years, in the rain, in the blizzard, listening to everything the villagers say, but he doesn’t say sweet, bitter, spicy, that’s a monk.”

-But don’t politicians come to visit monks, including former President Moon Jae-in?

“We just sat and drank tea. I don’t know politics, so I couldn’t talk to him. I didn’t say that he did a good job or a bad job.”

-If only politics could be like art, like a monk kneeling down and sprinkling stone dust on lacquer to paint the ten thousand peaks of Mount Kumgang.

“They must be doing it for fun (laughs).”

-The people don’t expect much.

“I can’t, but the people have to show some grace.”

-What does he mean?

“My