When I was a student I didn't go to school by streetcar. I never rode one. The fee was only five won. Yet I always walked to school to save the money and to give it to the beggars in the street. I observed those beggars very closely. There were many. When I passed them I looked at them, and then on the way back I looked at them again. I made distinctions among the old and the young. I did not give my money to the young, but only to the poor elderly people. I also served the old people. So when I make offerings I do it in that way. (50-308)

I remember one day walking from Heuk-Suk Dong to Seoul station. In the summer all my friends used the street cars wherever they went, but I walked. I thought: "I'm different, I should not go this way." When I got to the train station I gave that money to the beggars, and I prayed for them saying, "Although I can give them only a small amount of money, please make the time come that the beggars of this nation can have a day of liberation."

Thus you should know what the conditions are in this miserable nation which is in great difficulty and in trouble. Also you have to know your own tribe. Who are the members of your tribe who are shedding blood, sweat and tears during the days of tribulation of the nation; and you have to know your own family and your own parents.

When I went to Japan, I still remember, I cannot forget how many days I spent covered by my overcoat from Seoul station to Shimonoseki station. In those days, the Koreans on the train were those going to Japan where their parents lived. So I prayed to God saying, "Oh God, I understand that I have to pass through the path of tears by going out with burning love and a burning heart so that I may lay the foundation on which I can go forward with all my forces along the path of your Will, so please let me follow that path."

I did not follow that path from a high position. I walked it from the lowest position, from the ghettos of the people, from the bottom of society. I experienced everything in every field in order to know the situations of the suffering people of the world. I also experienced doing physical labor, doing farm work, and working on a boat. There was nothing I did not try to experience.

I prayed to God, "Please let me inherit all the sorrowful hearts and miserable resentments of people through my life, and if You still have any sorrows or resentments please go ahead and strike this son of yours, and please feel in Your heart that you can solve those resentments by striking me." I have been following that kind of path. (127-230)