✨ Introduction
🌿 In this reflective and vivid narrative, Master Woo Myung shares a journey from his youth that reveals the deeper meaning of human life and time.
🌊 Through the imagery of the ocean, island life, and fleeting encounters, he illustrates how people live within their own circumstances, desires, and struggles, often without understanding the true nature of existence.
🕊️ As the journey unfolds, a quiet realization emerges—life passes like a dream, and all stories, emotions, and efforts eventually fade away.
✨ This writing invites us to reflect on the futility of human life lived without Truth, and to awaken to what truly remains beyond time.
🧘 Original Writing by Master Woo Myung
An Island Journey During My Youth
In the middle of the vast ocean, the waves swell and surge –
it is impossible to know how far I’ve come
or how far there is left to go
but the boat pushes on, carrying me with it.
The waves are so strong,
the sound of the water slamming against the sides
shudders throughout the boat.
The thought occurs to me that we will die
if the waves overturn the boat
but the captain and crew go about their duties
as if all is normal.
The sea holds so many sad stories
yet it is silent, as if they had not happened.
In Korea, a country surrounded by water on three sides,
there are many widows whose husbands
lost their lives while fishing.
For them, the ocean must have been a sea of sorrow.
The wind blows without words,
and the sorrowful stories of those who lived by the sea
pass through my mind.
After a few hours, the pounding of the waves subsides
and a lone island comes into view.
From the bow of the boat
I can see villages scattered here and there.
Contrary to the lonely place I thought it would be
there are many villages, even in this faraway place.
The scenery of the rocky cliffs is magnificent,
and seeing them for the first time,
I stare at them in wonder.
Seagulls hover over the deep blue rolling sea,
it appears they nest in the rocky cliff face.
I arrive at the island and get off the boat.
Unlike the complicated people living in bustling cities
the people here are docile and without malice,
perhaps because they take after the mind of the sea,
the mind of the island.
To explore the island, I walk down a path
and along the way there are waterfalls and a steep mountain rise.
I walk with a group of female divers from Jeju Island
who have come all the way to this distant island to earn money.
Some are old, some are married,
and there are some who are single.
Since I am in my twenties
the younger ladies walk with me.
Perhaps because she does not want to dive anymore,
or perhaps because she dislikes the chilly sea water,
one brazen young lady earnestly begs me
to take her to Seoul.
Even though we have only known each other
for the length of the walk,
I see how blindly she longs to go to Seoul
and it seems she really dislikes her life as a diver,
always fighting against the waves.
There does not seem to be a weak diver
among the group walking in stoic silence;
without a word, they walk with ease.
As the sun begins to set, I climb mountain after mountain
and on the opposite shore from where my journey began
the ocean comes into sight.
I can see rocks jutting out of the sea
and a village with a town office.
There are many people living on this distant shore.
In the olden days,
the villagers would have used this mountain path
to get from place to place.
Here, when the fishing season is over
the men play cards and drink,
their lives passing with the sound of the waves.
The drinking houses are filled,
ringing with sounds of singing and drinking.
The waves pound against the rocks then shatter
just as they have done in the past,
coming and breaking, coming and breaking –
this is all they do.
But man lives his life as a slave to his own mind
and each has his own troubles and woes.
I decide to stay a night
in the only inn on the island.
The female divers are also staying here.
The diver who spoke to me knows I am here
but she ignores me and gets a room with her friends.
She stares at me blankly before closing the door to her room
perhaps because I had not replied to what she had said.
At the time I had no thought to respond
as I had come to the island to rest;
it was so far removed from what I had planned.
For the divers this place is their destination
but I carry on the next morning, after breakfast.
Along the seashore where the waves roll in and out,
alone, I walk and walk.
I see a house from time to time on the peak of the mountain
or built on a mid-cliff.
Perhaps there are other houses that cannot be seen,
hidden by the mountain.
Near the shore, there are places with a few houses
and areas with none.
On the way walking over the mountain alone
I come across a stranger.
I approach him cautiously and he too is cautious
but when I smile and greet him amiably
he responds with a friendly voice also.
After chatting awhile, I ask for directions
then we each go our separate ways.
I stop for some water at a shabby worn house in the mountains
and they tell me of their ancestors
who moved here from the mainland.
As I walk on I think of them.
The water flowing in the valley is so pristine –
pure snow melted into clean, icy cold water.
All the events in human life,
the stories of the people who live here,
as well as those who have come namelessly and gone,
remind me of the futility of life.
I leave the mountain and come to a village near the sea
and in a drinking house I ask for a bowl of makgeolli.
As I drink the hostess asks me,
Young man, where did you come from?
I answer her and ask which road to take, and then leave.
A little tipsy, I don’t realize how tired I am
and walk on and on.
The seawater reflecting the sunlight sparkles
and the waves wash over the pebbles making them chatter softly.
Walking without purpose or meaning
I mull over human life –
living in vain in one place then passing away.
Alone, with my mind full of sorrow, I journey on.
The diver who wanted to go to Seoul in her youth,
must be a grandmother now,
or perhaps has already passed away.
Time flows by like a tale in a dream;
it was all a dream.
– Woo Myung
🌠 Practice at Santa Clara Meditation
At Santa Clara Meditation, you can learn and practice the method taught by Master Woo Myung step by step. 🌿
Through meditation, one can reflect deeply on life, transcend the illusion of time and memory, and awaken to the true existence beyond all passing stories.
✨ Begin your journey toward Truth, clarity, and a life beyond illusion today.
