How Was Sunim Able to Maintain Unwavering Dedication Throughout His Life?

Hello. Today is the second day of the Youth Camp with Jungto Society’s young volunteers.

About 100 young people staying at the Jungto Retreat Center in Seonyu-dong, Mungyeong woke up at 4:30 AM, completed their practice and meditation, and then participated in group work.

Some pulled weeds around the retreat center, while others picked up broken branches and pine cones on the forest walking path. After working in various places, they had breakfast at 7 AM.

They enjoyed a delicious meal of rice and soup prepared with care by senior members of the Special Youth Division, along with side dishes they had brought from home.

After breakfast, they went for a walk with Sunim. After morning exercises, they left the retreat center and walked slowly to Hakcheonjeong, an area with large, oddly-shaped rocks.

They chatted with fellow practitioners while listening to the sound of water flowing in the valley and breathing in the fresh air.

After listening to Sunim’s explanation at Hakcheonjeong, the young people enjoyed some healing time by dipping their feet in the valley stream flowing between the wide rocks and playing in the water.

Due to knee pain, Sunim returned to the retreat center by car, while the young people spent more time at the stream before walking back along the same path.

After the healing time, they gathered in the main hall at 10 AM to begin a dialogue session with Sunim. This session focused on the topic of “Balancing Work, Practice, Career, and Jungto Society Activities”.

First, Sunim explained in detail what Jungto Society means by “unifying work and practice”.

“Our daily lives consist of work and play, or work and rest. We usually call it work when we do productive activities, that is, when we earn money. We call it rest when we relieve physical fatigue. And we call it play when we relieve mental stress. Most play involves spending money. When we work hard to earn money, we become physically tired and mentally stressed. So we need to rest physically and play mentally. If we can’t rest because of work, we become physically exhausted, and if we can’t play enough, stress builds up.

**Why Does the Same Act of Dancing Become Work for Some and Play for Others?
**

At a disco, there are dancers on stage and people dancing below the stage. The people on stage are paid to dance, while those below pay to dance. When the music plays, everyone dances the same way. But we say the people on stage are working, while those below are playing. Why do we say one person is playing and the other is working when they’re both dancing? The difference is whether they receive money or spend money. We call it work for one person because they earn money, and play for the other because they spend money. For example, let’s say the people on stage agreed to dance for an hour and get paid, while those below agreed to dance for an hour and pay. If the owner tells them to dance for an extra 30 minutes for free, the people below would cheer, while those on stage would complain about not getting overtime pay. It’s the same act, but what determines whether it’s work or play? It becomes work if you get paid for it, and play if you pay for it.

This is what we call ‘volunteering’ – when there’s no exchange of money. If you’re supposed to get paid but don’t, it’s called forced labor. What’s the issue that causes this difference? For example, let’s say two people are working in a field. One is a laborer and one is the field owner. You can tell who’s who when the work is done. The one who pays money is the owner, and the one who receives money is the laborer. We like to receive things, but that’s not the path of an owner, it’s the path of a servant.

How about from a historical perspective? In ancient slave societies, there were masters and slaves, and slaves had no rights. They worked without compensation, just like livestock that are fed and sheltered. When people use livestock, they just feed and shelter them, not pay them money. They work them hard and then sell or eat them. From today’s perspective, we can see this as forced labor without any compensation for work.

An improvement from this was the serf system in medieval times. Serfs couldn’t be bought and sold like slaves. They were tied to the land and received money for cultivating it. For example, they might cultivate 3,000 pyeong for the landowner and keep 1,000 pyeong for themselves. However, the landowner couldn’t buy or sell the serfs.

Further progressing from this, in modern capitalist society, we have wage laborers who work for money. Wage laborers are bound by money. Slaves were bound by status, serfs were bound to the land, and wage laborers are bound by money. Because they’re bound by money, they can be employed regardless of their status or education, as long as they’re paid. That’s why you might work for one company and then move to another if they offer more money. This might seem like the attitude of an owner, but in reality, you’re bound by money. Slaves were happy if their master fed them well, clothed them well, and gave them a good place to sleep, because they were receiving the best benefits from their master compared to other slaves. Serfs were happy if their master gave them more land. Wage laborers consider it the greatest happiness to work less and earn more money. So the way for wage laborers to be happy is to work less and earn more money. If possible, they want to do easier work rather than difficult work, clean work rather than dirty work, comfortable work rather than dangerous work, and get paid as much as possible – that’s considered the best job.

Looking at human history, originally all humans were free. For example, African Black people were originally free individuals. But white people came to Africa and forcibly captured black people to sell as slaves. Those who were living as free people resisted. Half died when they were forcibly captured, half died on the ship journey, and half died trying to escape after arrival. Slaves were treated just like livestock. It’s very difficult to tame wild animals. Wild animals resist and either escape or injure people. But if you raise the offspring of wild animals as livestock from birth, even large elephants become docile. Similarly, if someone is raised as a slave from birth, they can only think like a slave. It’s like installing a program on a robot that only does what it’s told. People were originally free, but they fell into slavery, then became serfs, and now they’ve become wage laborers.

What Is True Liberation from Labor?

So is reducing working hours and increasing wages the liberation of labor? Is it liberation for slaves if the master doesn’t beat them, feeds them well, clothes them well, gives them a good place to sleep, and makes work less difficult? The liberation of slaves is freedom from their status. The liberation of serfs is freedom from the land. The liberation of wage labor is freedom from the bondage of money. Working less and earning more is not the liberation of labor. Owners are not bound by working hours. Whether the business is big or small, owners don’t set fixed working hours because all work is their own work.

Reducing working hours or providing overtime pay is improving conditions, not liberating labor. True liberation of labor is turning work into play. For work to become play, it must become your own work. People who dance for fun are doing their own work. People who play pay money to sing. But laborers receive money after singing. From the perspective of not receiving money after work, forced labor and volunteering are the same. However, forced labor is when you want compensation but don’t receive it, while volunteering is when you choose not to receive compensation.

That’s why I think the next stage of civilization will be the era of volunteering. True liberation from labor is when work feels like play. Because it feels like play, you can decide how much to play. Just as we rest after working, if we play too much, we get tired and need to rest. Rest means resting because the body is tired. But play doesn’t require separate rest. For work to become play, we need to return to the mindset of an owner.

Practice Is Turning Work into Play

You might find it mysterious and think I’m like steel when you see me doing so much work, but I’m just doing it for fun. Because work has become play, there’s no need to play separately. To turn work into play, it’s important to organize your perspective. Having the attitude to accept work as play is what we call ‘practice’. When you turn work into play, it becomes practice itself.

We can also connect practice with productive activities. When doing walking meditation, you need to be aware of your movements and the sensation of your feet touching the ground. Similarly, when picking peppers in a pepper field, you focus on your fingertips and become aware of the sensation of grasping the peppers. When practice combines with productive activities in this way, productive activities become play and rest rather than work. This can be called the new civilization of the future and liberation from all bondage. Volunteering is like love. Just as we call it love when a couple lives together without any transactions between them, it becomes volunteering when we do necessary work without transactions. If there are transactions, it’s called prostitution.

Practice is turning work into play. When we turn work into play, we can truly be liberated from labor. We use tremendous energy to earn money and then spend a lot of money to relieve the stress we got from earning money. This is because we think living well means earning a lot and spending a lot. You think living well is earning 10 million won and spending 10 million won. But isn’t living well not receiving even 10 won and not spending even 10 won?

You need to look at your life more seriously. The method of working hard, accumulating wealth, and planning for retirement is an outdated and risky approach. The most reliable method is the Buddha’s way. He left everything behind, begged for food, wore discarded clothes, and slept under trees, so there was no risk of losing property or being deceived. Moreover, the fact that he was formerly a prince didn’t have a negative effect, but rather a positive one. People naturally trusted him because he was a prince who gave up everything and left the palace. When he lived as a prince, he had several guards following him, and guards watching over him even when he slept, but he slept comfortably alone under a tree in the forest without anyone guarding him. If the Buddha lived 100% comfortably by giving up 100% of what he had, we can live 50% comfortably by giving up 50%, imitating the Buddha.

“When we make our lives a practice and our work into play, we can say that ‘the ordinary mind is the Way.’ The Way is not something separate; we can say that walking this path is the Way. To achieve this, we pray in the morning when we wake up and do volunteer work. One of the methods to move in that direction is practice, giving, and service.”

Following this, there were various questions about the difficulties of balancing work life with Jungto Society activities. Three people raised their hands and had a conversation with Sunim.

While helping with the Buddhism Course, I find myself dedicating more time than expected, and I feel like withdrawing, seeing Jungto Society activities and work life as separate. What perspective should I have when engaging in Jungto Society activities?

I’ve joined an agricultural company and am farming. I find farming very difficult, but how can Sunim maintain a calm state even in harsh conditions while farming?

I’m doing smart farming as an alternative to climate change, but I’m doubtful if it can really be an alternative due to high energy consumption. How should we view smart farming?

How can we balance maintaining a frugal life and pursuing financial stability for the family, and how should young people with significant financial burdens view marriage and childbirth?

After two hours of conversation, the young people had lunch.

After finishing the meal and taking a break, Sunim resumed the conversation at 2 PM. This time, Sunim gave a Dharma talk on the theme of “Self-realization and Social Practice” and took questions about any uncertainties.

Sunim explained what it means to live a life well-used and then told young people who find social practice activities burdensome that this is also a path for themselves. Through Sunim’s Dharma talk, young people could clearly realize that practice can go beyond individual mind training to social practice.

After the Dharma talk, questions were taken about any uncertainties. Not only those who had applied for questions in advance but also those who wanted to ask questions on the spot freely raised their hands. The conversation continued as long as time allowed.

One of them asked how Sunim could walk this path without wavering throughout his life, saying that he experiences a lot of afflictions while doing Jungto Society activities.

How Could Sunim Engage in Activities Without Wavering Throughout His Life?

“Sunim, you started a movement to create a new civilization centered on practice about 40 years ago when you were in your 30s. I know that the agricultural economy and the four sights that Buddha experienced in his youth had a decisive influence on Buddha’s renunciation. However, I have many worries and afflictions while engaging in activities. Because even though this path is good and I’ve decided to take it, there’s always wavering. There are many enjoyable things in the world, concerns about career paths, thoughts about needing to do some economic activities, and small but constant thoughts about wanting to date and get married. I’m curious if you had no interest in dating and marriage at all in your younger days. I’m curious how you could devote yourself to social practice and propagation activities throughout your life with self-confidence.”

“Looking back, it seems like I walked a path full of confidence, but I can’t say I was confident at the time. I had moments of wavering too. (Laughs)

The biggest wavering for me was during the May 18 Gwangju Democratic Movement. When the Gwangju Democratic Movement occurred, I was also greatly shocked. In the same year, there was the October 27 Buddhist Persecution. On October 27, the new military junta arrested several hundred monks and took them to Samcheong Re-education Camp. I was greatly disappointed that the Buddhist community did not participate in the people’s pain when the Gwangju Democratic Movement occurred, but I could understand to some extent. However, when the October 27 Buddhist Persecution occurred, I became greatly disappointed with the Buddhist community as I saw them unable to even make a sound while being trampled under military boots. I thought, ‘If this is such a group, I want to leave too,’ and went to America. My older brother in lay life was living in America and often told me to come to America. When I was young, my dream was to become a physicist or astronomer. But as I entered the temple, I forgot that dream. However, after experiencing these two incidents that year, I thought, ‘Now that it’s come to this, I should go to America and study,’ and eventually went to America.

About six months after going to America, I saw scenes of the massacre in Gwangju. When I was in Korea, I only heard rumors but didn’t see it directly. But in America, I saw those scenes vividly on video. I studied in America, but I didn’t have a clear sense that this was my path. So I decided it would be better to return to where I had lived and struggle, whether I lived well or not, and came back to Korea. I think that was when my mind wavered the most, and after that, although I felt bad at times, I never wavered greatly. If I had made a mistake, I might have just stayed in America and taken the path of scholarship. Because I had dreamed of becoming a scientist when I was young, at some point that desire arose uncontrollably in my heart.

After returning from America, I started anew from the bottom. Because although it was said that there were ten million Buddhist believers, it was all inflated numbers. Among the ten million Buddhists, there wasn’t even one or two people who could stand up for social justice. The human network and assets I had built up during ten years of activity in the Gyeongsang region were practically nonexistent in that sense. So I came up to Seoul and started anew with college students. That was in 1982, when I was 29 years old. If before I had mainly tried to bring about change by guiding middle and high school students within traditional Buddhism, now my activities changed to interpreting and lecturing on Buddhism from a social movement perspective after coming up to Seoul.

I was good at teaching people from a young age. When I was in second grade of elementary school, our class didn’t have a homeroom teacher. So I learned all subjects and taught the children in my class. When I was in the first year of middle school, I rented a room in a teacher’s house, earned living expenses by teaching their elementary school children, and attended school on a scholarship. During middle and high school, I served as the president of the Buddhist Student Association and the president of the Yeongnam Buddhist Federation, and then immediately became a propagator and taught many people. So I have a very long teaching career. I received early education very well. Thanks to that, I was able to become independent early. (Laughs)

Even when I was doing Buddhist student association activities in high school, I did activities independently without receiving help from others. Because I always took new paths, I couldn’t receive help from others. Even my teacher didn’t help me with a single penny. Because the teacher would help if I did traditional Buddhist activities, but I did new activities that were not traditional Buddhist activities. Even in high school, I collected and sold waste materials or did part-time jobs to be independent, and never asked adults for help saying, ‘Please help me because I’m doing such good activities.’ When we needed food for students during training, I pulled a handcart to nearby temples to get rice or soybean paste, but I never asked for financial support. Because I did all activities in a self-reliant way from a young age, once I started a project, I never quit in the middle. This method continued even after founding Jungto Society. Although all the early activists of Jungto Society worked very dedicatedly, we don’t do activities that are not self-reliant. Even when haengjas living in temples go on pilgrimages to India, we give them a three-month vacation so that they can earn their own airfare and go on the pilgrimage. The reason this activity method was possible is partly due to my personal background and tendencies, but broadly speaking, it can be seen as a characteristic of the era I lived in. First, it was an era of change where rural areas were collapsing and cities were forming. The number of farmers decreased, urban poor were formed, and various problems erupted under poor labor conditions. Second, as women also received education, gender equality issues were raised, and various social issues erupted. Living in such an era, if you were a little awake, it was more difficult not to get involved in world problems. If you saw those things and didn’t get involved in world problems, that was the path to becoming part of Korea’s privileged class. Whether you became a judge, prosecutor, or doctor, to become part of the privileged class, you had to close your eyes to social problems. However, seeing the social problems of that time, it was very difficult to ignore them.

The reason I helped North Korea is the same. Because I directly saw the bodies of North Korean residents floating down the Yalu River and refugees becoming beggars and crossing into China, I couldn’t help but help them. In India too, if I had stayed in hotels from the beginning while on pilgrimage, I would have just seen beggars to a small extent. However, because I happened to enter Calcutta and directly saw the miserable lives of the poor, I felt I had to do something. When I arrived in Calcutta, I keenly felt the four sights that Buddha experienced. Korea was the palace, and Calcutta was outside the palace. Of course, not everyone who sees such sights goes out and acts, so my tendencies must have played some role here. I had some ideals, albeit imperfect, and as I experienced situations where they clashed with reality, I gradually gained a center and engaged in activities. If you want to date, try it once. If you actually date, you’ll realize that dating is very troublesome. Pleasing one person is no ordinary task. It can be more complicated than living with all the Jungto Society activists. So one person who became the general affairs manager of a Dharma center and had to please the members said this after finding it too difficult: ‘Because I couldn’t please one human, I’m receiving the karmic result of having to please dozens of people.’ This person had divorced because they couldn’t get along with their spouse. If they had just pleased their spouse well, there would have been no problem, but because they couldn’t do that, they ended up having to please not one but dozens of people. You can’t imagine how much the people around laughed when they heard this.

When you live with many people, individual demands are not that great. But when you live with one person, their demands can be much more than those of dozens of people. When you live together, they make demands down to the smallest things. Matching the subtle emotions and pleasing one human is more difficult than meeting the demands of a thousand people. But if you still want to date, try it. (Laughs) If you try dating and find it okay, you can get married or live together, and if you try dating and find it doesn’t suit you at all, you can just cut off your interest in whether others do it or not and do other activities.

For me, cutting off the affection for my mother when I became a monk was really difficult. It seemed easy on the outside, but there were difficult points inside. Because it was hard to cut off affection for my mother, who was not a relationship I chose but a given karmic connection, I thought it was absolutely not something I could do to choose and form new relationships.

‘It is something that only reckless people can do. I am too fainthearted for that. I am having a hard enough time with my existing relationships, so how could I possibly form new ones?’

I had such thoughts. So you always have to organize your perspective based on your own experience and using Buddha’s teachings as a standard. Even when your perspective is organized like that, afflictions arise again next time. Then you experience again and organize again, and this is how you move forward. It’s not like you suddenly become enlightened once and all afflictions are cut off. In my case too, looking back, it seems like I walked a single path without any problems, but in fact, it turned out this way luckily.

That’s why the title of the book I wrote for young people is ‘It’s Okay to Wander.’ It means it’s okay to wander when you’re young. When you’re wandering, you feel like you’re going back and forth on your own, but looking back, it becomes a single path you’ve walked straight.”

After finishing the conversation, the young pepole took a short break, and from 4 PM, they had a special lecture on “Using Korean Language Correctly” by Ms. Choi Han-sil, the representative of the ecological community Purin Nuri, who has been researching Korean language for 20 years.

The teacher explained in detail the historical background of why our language has been gradually disappearing.

“We use words as if they are all Korean, but in fact, there are too many words that are not Korean. Our people bloomed excellent word flowers before other words were mixed in, but after that, the people who ruled the country brought in Chinese characters and used them in written language, so they gradually took root in our language. The Chinese character ‘江 (river)’ came in and pushed out the Korean word ‘garam’, and the Chinese character ‘山 (mountain)’ came in and pushed out the Korean word ‘moe’.

Moreover, most of the words we use today are Japanese words. Our language life was framed to learn and use all Chinese words when we were under Japanese colonial rule, and we’ve been trapped in that and come this far without anyone looking deeply into it.”

The teacher introduced that there are more than ten words related to rice in Korean. He interestingly talked about abundant Korean words such as narak, ssinnarak, beopssi, mo, uke, ssal, bap, juk, me, nwi, etc. Everyone perked up their ears and focused on the story, seemingly fascinated.

As the young people focused on the Korean language story that they didn’t know well usually, time flew by. After finishing the lecture, the young people expressed their gratitude to the teacher.

“Korean is so interesting. I learned a lot through the lecture.”

The teacher replied.

“Was it interesting? Then you should spread Korean language widely around you.”

After dinner, the sun had set.

From 7 PM, we had a session to introduce and discuss various overseas relief projects conducted by JTS under the theme of ‘International Volunteering’.

Before the discussion, Kim Je-dong, who had traveled a long way to be with the youth despite his busy schedule, greeted everyone.

“Seeing you all gathered here like a river on such a hot day makes me very happy. I find it hard to speak more using only Korean. I’ll end my greeting here.” (Laughter)

As Kim Je-dong sat down smiling, Sunim also joked with a smile.

“Thank you for your greeting, Mr. Kim Je-dong. Your Korean seems to be worse than Rinchen’s, who came from Bhutan.”

Kim Je-dong stayed until late, attentively listening to Sunim’s Dharma talk and the youth’s stories.

Sunim explained in detail the principles behind JTS projects being carried out in various countries including North Korea, India, the Philippines, Pakistan, Cambodia, Syria, Rohingya refugee camps, and Bhutan. In particular, after introducing the sustainable development project in Bhutan, which many young people are interested in, he talked about the vision that young people participating in such activities can have.

“The development that JTS is doing in Bhutan is sustainable development. It’s not just relief or development, but a mix of relief and development that is sustainable. Sustainable development means developing without promoting excessive desires. In other words, it can be called minimum development. At first, we only thought about Bhutan, but other countries like Cambodia are showing interest, saying ‘We want to try it too.’ So if this new attempt at sustainable development succeeds, I think the speed of its spread will be very fast.

However, there is one prerequisite. It’s that the residents must take the lead in promoting it. If they just ask ‘Please do this for us,’ JTS refuses. But if they propose ‘We will do this, but we need this,’ JTS accepts. It is JTS’s principle to ensure that residents always participate collectively with a sense of ownership. When we tried a pilot project in Bhutan, we found that residents’ participation rate is high for tasks like repairing roads or laying irrigation channels, but it’s relatively low for building houses for the poor. They go, but they don’t really want to go, so the participation rate drops. So during my last inspection, I told the residents, ‘Let’s not think of this activity as simply building someone else’s house. Let’s think of it as gathering our strength to build a house for our family.’ In other words, I persuaded them to build houses thinking of them as their own homes, and we’re currently carrying out the project this way. This is how JTS is trying to do sustainable development. Of course, no one can force others by saying ‘Don’t develop any further.’ If they want to develop more, that’s up to them. We’re just carrying out this project from the perspective that we will work together up to the minimum level of development.

Why You Don’t Need to Worry About Not Having a Job

So it would be best if you quit your jobs and come. I always welcome that. That’s why I always smile when Korea’s unemployment rate is high. Originally, volunteering should be done voluntarily, but since such people are so few, I joke that someone needs to fire people so that the number of volunteers increases. If there are many jobs for young people and you all have a lot to do in Korea, you don’t have to come all the way to Bhutan. Then I plan to gather retired people and continue this project.

So don’t worry about not having a job. You shouldn’t be too temperamental at work, but you don’t need to be too anxious either. If you don’t like your job, you can leave and go to Bhutan. You can volunteer for about 1 to 2 years and then come back to Korea to find a job.

Now is the time for us to create a new civilization together. For example, South Korea is currently causing a Korean Wave with K-dramas and K-pop. Thanks to this, even Korean food has become famous. But honestly, isn’t the Korean Wave all about consumer culture? Is it just pride-worthy that the Korean Wave is blowing? Of course, it’s good that South Korea is getting attention from people around the world. But I’m saying this alone is not enough. That’s not all. If weapons like tanks and artillery that we sell as ‘K-defense industry’ are used for offensive purposes, it’s no small problem. If we are truly conscientious and love peace, we should at least hold rallies to ensure that offensive weapons are not exported, even if defensive ones are okay. If they’re trying to massacre residents in Myanmar with the artillery we sold, shouldn’t we refrain from selling weapons to such places?

If we simply try to provide money to people, a lot of money would be needed, but JTS aims to have residents develop and cultivate their own land themselves. By developing in this way, we can produce good results without spending a lot of money. Because it’s a method that requires little money, we can easily solve poverty problems in Southeast Asia using just 1 percent of South Korea’s budget. For this development to succeed, we need to cooperate not only with our country but also with local volunteers from each country.

How to Spread True K-Peace to the World

Even if the South Korean government doesn’t participate, Jungto Society alone can do very meaningful work. I’m not trying to tell you, ‘Quit what you’re doing and join Jungto Society,’ or ‘Only do Jungto Society activities.’ There are many choices in life’s path. So I want to tell you not to live too discouraged, but to view life a bit more positively and be more active. I hope you’ll have a slightly more open attitude, ready to go for short-term volunteering without hesitation whenever you have free time. So if South Korea can help improve the lives of poor people in other countries beyond just being popular, this could truly be called K-peace. In fact, I think South Korea’s future direction should be in this direction.”

Then, the young people had time to freely discuss questions and suggestions about international volunteering and Jungto Society activities. When they announced that they would take questions on the spot, several people raised their hands. Many questions poured in over the course of three hours.

To change the world, it seems we need to make an effort to persuade people with different thoughts when voting. How should we persuade them?

After switching to online, it seems the fun and vitality, which were advantages of offline, have disappeared. It would be good to combine online and offline.

I make a lot of personal efforts to practice environmental conservation, but I keep being conscious of my family members and people around me who are not interested in environmental practices. What perspective should I have when practicing environmental conservation?

I applied to participate in the Seonjae Youth Program, a volunteer activity in India this fall, but I wondered if it would be more helpful to donate the airfare to JTS instead.

How does Sunim access news, and how can we view news objectively without being biased?

It would be good if we could do local practices or offline volunteer activities in groups.

When he finished the conversation, it was well past 9 PM. Today was a long day of dialogue with young people from morning to evening.

Tomorrow is the third day of the Youth Camp. In the morning, Sunim will have a conversation on the theme of ‘The Future of Youth’, then move to the broadcasting room of Mungyeong Retreat Center to live stream the Baekjung closing Dharma talk. In the afternoon, after live streaming the Jungto Dharma School graduation ceremony, he will return to Seonyudong Jungto Training Center to wrap up the 3-day Youth Camp with a closing ceremony.

A Day in the Life of Sunim is translated by AI, edited by volunteers