📖 Introduction
✨ Master Woo Myung shares a deeply personal reflection on life, poverty, greed, and the search for Truth. Through his experiences, we see the contrast between a life driven by survival and one lived with true understanding.
🌱 This writing reveals how people often live with greed and ignorance, not knowing the meaning of life or what it means to truly live. Yet even in hardship, there exists a path toward Truth and enlightenment.
🌌 It reminds us that beyond money, struggle, and social status, the ultimate purpose of life is to awaken—to live with clarity, compassion, and Truth.
📝 ORIGINAL WRITING BY MASTER WOO MYUNG
My name
In winter, the strong winds in the hills feel heartless,
but the wind in the summer hills arouses gratitude.
The wind always blows,
but people judge the wind.
The wind is something that neither comes nor goes,
but people judge it because they do not know.
Not knowing what life is, and what it is to live,
they are greedy.
Children who cried of hunger in a poverty stricken Korea
are now the leaders, the driving force, of the world.
They struggle, in order that they may never go hungry again.
People live immaturely, purely to survive,
but I wish for people to live knowing Truth.
Do not bury Truth in your heart,
but live diligently.
What good is there
in living only for yourself?
What good can come of caring only for yourself?
I see the lives that you live,
and they are so filled with greed.
You live looking down on others
with your greed for money,
but to me, it seems absurd.
When you die, as all of us will,
will you be able to take that money with you?
When you die, as we all will,
what need will you have for money?
I too was born with nothing,
and I tried my best to live as other people do.
This blasted world of money,
in it, one is a fool without it,
and without it, he cannot do anything;
it is dumbfounding.
Money is that which bruises people’s hearts.
I worked hard,
twice as hard as other people;
I really worked hard.
What I wanted was to live like a human being should –
a life of calmness and peace.
Those who flattered government officials,
and those who used government money,
could spend money;
people without power could not see a penny.
How many people who were too poor to go to the hospital
died in their homes?
The rich may be happy
taking advantage of the less fortunate,
but they leave heartache in their wake.
It was not easy to live a human life;
it was no easy feat to raise kids
and support a wife.
Although it was not easy to live, I sought Truth.
After I became enlightened,
the affairs of the world are my will.
The life I lived as a human being
was endlessly futile.
When I was young, many people became pock-marked
from small pox, and many people died.
Stricken with poverty,
many people died.
The old hungered and died senile – these were the common
circumstances of my village when I was young.
My elementary school was close to home,
so I would go to school barefooted.
My nickname was Puppy.
Children were often given this nickname,
because they kept dying.
It was said that if they were given humble names,
death would pass over them.
Why did I hate this childhood nickname so much?
I often lost my temper
when people called me Puppy.
Both of my older brothers suffered from smallpox
and passed away,
so Puppy was my name until I grew up.
It was my name.
– Woo Myung
🌿 Reflect at Santa Clara Meditation
At Santa Clara Meditation, one can reflect on the deeper meaning of life beyond material success. 🌠
Through meditation, individuals learn to discard greed, understand Truth, and live with a peaceful and awakened mind.
