1) Life and Knowledge

When we think of the value of knowledge and the value of life, can these be equal? Would you risk your life in order to become an academic doctor? Would you exchange your life for a doctorate degree? Then, if you compare a person living in the countryside who knows the value of life and a doctor who does not, who has more value? (The person who knows the value of life.) Therefore, life and knowledge cannot be compared. (41-176)

What did the saints come in touch with? They did not come in touch with knowledge. A person is called a sage if, centering on a more valuable and meaningful life, he practices and longs for life's transcendental value, greater than the nation, greater than the world; the universal value. That person is called a sage if he dies longing to establish an ideal nation even under a life and death situation.

Therefore, Socrates cannot be included in the group of saints.

What changes current trends of thinking? Philosophy does. However, philosophy has nothing to do with life. You all must know that.

Philosophy cannot stand as the very origin that influences life.

Philosophy can be the source of knowledge that stands in the objective position to life. However, it cannot determine the context of life.

Therefore, we can conclude that life cannot be saved by philosophy.

Saints are not philosophers. What was the basis for the lives of the saints? They did not have any life strategies. Of course, they did teach knowledge. They taught one aspect of the way of life, but based upon what? Did they teach some kind of a strategy to occupy the world? What they taught was different. They were all different.

The more knowledge you acquire, the more it makes you want to possess. Today's Western philosophy is very possessive. The more you learn, the more possessive you will become. \The more you learn, the more you will try to expand to the world. Centering on what? Centering on the world or yourself? Philosophy says it follows the way which is for the sake of the world. But centering on what? Philosophy is always centering on you, on yourself. Philosophy says you are the center. Philosophy cannot solve the problems of our life in a fundamental way. Therefore, philosophy can be included in objective value, but it cannot be the fundamental determining factor.

Since the saints knew this, what did they pursue? Even if they pursued knowledge, they did not pursue it just horizontally. What was always at the center of the saints' principles? It was not the self. Do you understand? What is philosophy centered on? It is centered on a person who asserted the learning. That was the problem. Saints also assert, but they do not assert centered on a person. That was the difference.

With philosophy, the person who asserts the idea always becomes the problem. Take, for example, Marxism. The person who asserts Marxism plays the leading role. It has developed worldwide in order to unite all the people under that territory of thought. Who is at the center? Humankind. Today's philosophical trend is working to unite the environment centering on humankind. (40-330)

Human life is more valuable than anything else. However, if we do not live as the objects of the power that moves and gives impact to our lives, we will not be able to settle down peacefully in this world, which is also the object of that power. Therefore, humans try to relate to the Being of absolute life, who is larger than their lives.

\This is a natural outcome. The Will is not ours, and we are not responsible for determining it. This is why people confer nouns such as the Absolute Being or God on the one who carries out the providence according to the Will.

You all know that the more knowledge a person living in this final age of fallen history has, the greater burdens he will have. Anyone knows that burdens will control a person's life and so not allow him to pioneer the blessed land in which he can settle peacefully. What is required the most at this time is a place of settlement for life that comes from the Absolute Being. We are all in need of that. We must all know that everyone, regardless of race and culture, East or West, is in need of this. Here we can recognize that what we are longing for is to relate to the Absolute Being. The more a person is knowledgeable and has gone through moral mental training, and the more sensitively aware he is, the more he knows that he cannot pioneer the place of settlement within just the area of his major. (9-306)

You people say out loud, "I go to this university," or "I went to that university and got a doctor's degree and became this..." But you couldn't even eat, couldn't even go out to play, with a towel always around your head. Are you saying that you got a doctor's degree by studying overnight, not even being able to rest? We say you are a great person if you received the Nobel Prize, but if you look at yourself closely, there are lots of things that are miserable. It's the same. It's the same. It doesn't matter if you received the Nobel Prize. That's only a small area of study. You have only dug a small tunnel within this broad world, and because you know about that area, you are just sitting inside that enclosure. When you look at the entire world, you are just an extremely small being. You boast that you know something, but you know very well that you are only an extremely small being.

When we think of that, does knowledge or the fact that we know something bring happiness to human beings? Does it bring a sense of ease? No, it doesn't. You will find that the more you study, the more you realize how little you know.

Just try going to a good school and becoming a famous professor. You will always have a pen in your hand, writing something and being asked to be responsible for something. Think about living your entire life like that. Eating ink... Even if you boast, you are merely boasting about your major. What influence can you have on the world? You will know nothing about what's happening in the world. There will not be room in you to think about changing the world. God's Will or not, there will be no room in you to think about it.

You don't know anything more than a person who does not know because you are sunk deep inside yourself. Even if you have knowledge, you merely finish your life as a bookworm. You did not acquire confidence in yourself. When a person says a word that is related to your major, you are just picking it up and collecting it and doing comparative research again. If you are like this, then you are in a bad fix. You don't own yourself. Even if you become a famous professor, what is that? It's such a waste to put all your life and everything you have there. (98-84)

When we say, "Oh, that person is good," are we saying that based on his or her knowledge? That person has to have a good heart. In order to be called a good person, the person has to have an innately good framework of life and original nature. Whether that person is knowledgeable of not, he or she has to have a good heart. (39-315)

You try to become rich or famous because you want to be the center, respected by everyone. You don't want to go to a country far away to be respected, right?