1) Learning from Nature

I spent my childhood in a rural district. When the seasons changed, various migrating birds came and also various kinds of flowers blossomed. I was raised under those conditions. When I was young, wherever you went in Korea the seasons were clearly distinguished, and as they changed we could see the beauty of nature. Today, unfortunately, if we walk around Seoul, we don't come across nature. Every area has been urbanized here, and all that we can see is artificial When I think of people who grow up under these urban circumstances, I feel sad because they lack emotional feelings. Since there is no opportunity for them to feel the mystery and beauty of nature, there is a tendency for people to become violent or individualistic. You must know these things. People learn many things and realize many things through encounters with nature.

I learned and experienced many things through nature. Through it I learned on my own what true love and happiness are. What we learn through the natural world is more fundamental than what we learn through school education.

When a new season came, beautiful birds flew around. When I saw those beautiful birds I ran after them and observed how they laid their eggs and hatched their chicks.

Sometimes I spent a whole week looking for a bird nest. I once spent more than 10 days watching a bird lay its eggs and hatch its chicks. I looked at how the beautiful chicks resembled their parents, and it confirmed the deep mystery and love of God. (1986 Jan. 3)

In those days I was living in a rural district. What I hated most was to feed the cows. Although in the beginning I felt disgusted, I later learned to love the cows from the bottom of my heart. One day the following happened. Cows know when lunch time comes around. However, in my case, when I was playing, I hated having to feed them before having finished playing, so I said to myself, "Wait another 10 minutes or 30 minutes," and then played for another hour or two. The cows waited for me wondering, "Where is our master, the one who was supposed to pick us up? Where has our master gone?" If I had been a cow whose master had come very late I would have gotten angry and become violent. However, the cows just looked at me without saying a word. So when I saw them I said in my mind, "Oh how great! You are great. I'm sorry." That happened many times.

I then realized that "Cows are greater than I am." And I said to them, "Now that I know that you have an aspect greater than I do, I will feed you a great deal, and I will indemnify my short comings." I kept feeding them until after sunset and it was dark. The cows continued to eat because their master was feeding them.

They could eat throughout the whole night because they have big stomachs, and they can put a lot of food into their stomachs, like a savings account.

Like this, there were many things I learned from the cows. Cows sometimes look great and kingly as they lie in the burning sunlight on a midsummer's day shedding sweat and looking over the remote mountains meditating calmly. So people all over the world like to eat their meat. People don't like to eat dogs, tigers, etc.; Cats meow, dogs bark, etc. So I said to myself "That's why everybody likes cow meat." In those days tooth brushes were made of cow bone. So every part of the cows was utilized. There was nothing to discard: even their manure was used as fertilizer. Therefore everything about a cow is good. Do you understand? (109-40)