7.5 Character formed through diverse experiences

During my schooldays, I traveled to many places. There was almost no part of Korea that I did not visit. I would just jump on a truck in spite of its driver's reluctance, telling him that I didn't mind sitting on the luggage. He finally agreed to take me after I promised to buy him dinner, but during our mealtime conversation, he was so taken by my observations that he offered to foot the bill after all. Once, on the street, I spoke to a lady on her way to her husband working in the rice paddies, with his midday meal. After listening to me, she ended up giving me her husband's food!
I met many well-known and illustrious pastors in Korea along the way. I checked them all out, who was mature and who wasn't. Thus, when I started out, I already knew their grades, though they didn't know me yet. Perhaps they regarded me as nothing more than a bird of passage, but I wrote down all they had to say in my report to Heaven. (62-54, 09/10/1972)

Initially, I visited the underground churches, not wanting to deal with Christians who had compromised their faith by prostrating themselves under duress at a Japanese shrine. It was three years prior to the liberation of Korea that I started to meet members of the underground church. (211-142, 12/30/1990)

I'm very good at knitting. I have knitted my own sweater, socks, briefs and shorts by myself. I'm a person who has studied everything necessary to live even without a woman to fulfill God's Will as the main business of my entire life, even if I had to remain single. I can knit a pretty hat. When I knit a glove, I do it very fast. (50-291, 11/08/1971)

As a youngster, I really felt like going to the movies. For people like me, it was just such a shocking experience; I almost felt like screaming. I decided to cut off from it and to do that; I went five times every day until I was so jaded that I never wanted to see another movie again in my life. I said to myself, "You scoundrel! Don't go!" (123-242, 01/02/1983)

In those days, there was a red-light district in Jongno-sam-ga, downtown in Seoul. I decided to survey the matter. Why would pretty women pursue such a profession? What would I do were she my sister or a daughter? What would a brother or a father do? It's a serious problem. I would talk to those women about that all night. (182-167, 10/16/1988)

When I was living in Heukseok-dong (in Seoul), it cost five jeon to go downtown by train. I would go on foot instead of taking the train. It would take me 45 minutes to get there as a fast walker, while other people needed twice that time. In summer, I used to walk with my uniform bathed in sweat. I donated the money saved from the train fare to the needy saying, "My heart would like to give you money in the thousands and millions to create a happy nation, but instead I give this to you representing the Korean people. I pray this can be a seed of happiness and fortune for you." (184-246, 01/01/1989)

When I lived in Noryangjin (Seoul), I walked to school to save the five-jeon train fare in order to give it to the poor. I did the same returning home from school. I would strike the trees on the roadside, saying, "Stay alive until I succeed. Please grow up together with me." Those trees are no longer standing there now, though. (197-74, 01/07/1990)

On my way to school with the money to pay the tuition fees, I saw a person terminally ill lying on the road. I sacrificed my school fees for him to go to a hospital. I can never forget how hard-pressed I was to pay the school its fees, and how fortunate I was to have my friends rally around me in getting that sum together. Such experiences shaped my life profoundly. (90-251, 01/03/1977)

North of Harbin, there is a place I was thinking of going to in order to work at an electrical company at the time I was pursuing my studies in Japan. Why? From the workers there I thought I could learn the Russian, Chinese and Mongolian languages. I was planning to build a headquarters in Asia for the future. (186-317, 02/06/1989)

I trained myself in being the first to arrive and the last to leave my place of work. If I was not the first, I felt bad. I wanted to be a master, a winner. It's the same for God's Will. When you are the earliest for God throughout all your life, you will be the king of heaven (99-45, 08/27/1978)

There's one thing I've never forgotten. In the busy Ginza district of Tokyo, I pulled a wagon by myself without being in any uniform amid well-dressed passers-by. At that time I was thinking, "You guys, let's see if you step aside or not!
There was a barge loaded with coal at the Kawasaki Shipbuilding Company. It would usually take a team of three laborers three days to unload it. Our team of three finished unloading by the usual 1 am closing time of the first day. (37-37, 12/22/1970)

On holidays, I worked at a fertilizer plant in Kawasaki. They had laborers working inside the sulfuric acid tank, which was overdue for condemnation. The laborers were being sent inside in order to overhaul its system. It was impossible to work more than fifteen minutes inside that tank. Such were the harsh conditions in which I worked. (15-181, 10/08/1965)

People used to say you should go to a quiet, magnificent place like a mountain when you meditate. That doesn't make sense to me. Studying at a quiet place is also nonsense. I studied in a factory with the sound of thousand horsepower motors and engines blaring in the background. I trained myself to excel under the most adverse conditions. (15-131, 10/03/1965)

During the Japanese occupation, everywhere I went I was constantly under police surveillance. All my movements into and out of Korea would be relayed over the telephone, and I would always be met by agents at the port of entry. (34-286, 09/13/1970)

In spite of being a student, I was blacklisted. Several times, I was placed in a police cell during the Japanese occupation. When I was in Tokyo, every month I would be called up to the police station right next to Waseda University.
We had meal coupons in Japan, and together with my friends, I would take them to a restaurant to see how much I could eat. Walking down Takadanobaba Street, we could see many restaurants clustered around a Buddhist temple. After downing seven bowls of rice, I couldn't eat another grain. The pain was worse than the feeling of hunger to the extent of not being able to lift a finger.
I was always keeping myself hungry. When you are constantly concerned about filling your stomach, you cannot think of your nation and God. I thought I should love my nation and God more than I love to eat. It was a truth and also my faith. (15-182, 10/08/1965)

Please practice having two meals a day for 4 years. For 14 years, until I was 30 years old, I did it. During that period, there was not a day that I did not go hungry. It is a great thing to save one meal, with a mind of sacrificing yourself for the world. (185-111, 01/03/1989)

I wore old used clothing bought at a second-hand shop. I didn't pomade my hair, though people did to keep their hair in place. I didn't do it, even in spring and summer. Everywhere I walked, I lowered my gaze at an angle not exceeding forty-five degrees. (15-182, 10/08/1965)

How could a man who hasn't fulfilled his responsibility before Heaven satisfy his needs? That was how I thought throughout my life. Without discharging your debt to God, you can't face Him. (37-35, 12/22/1970)

Several times Japanese women sneaked into my bed, but I never sinned with them. (231-38, 05/31/1992)

Control your sexual desires. Not even beautiful women should be able to stimulate your sexual organ. Become able to control yourself, bearing in mind that the root of the Unification Church is deep and that you should engraft onto it to become a person like me as a healthy tree. (182-175, 10/16/1988)

When I was young, it was normal for me to be in jail. I had conditioned my nervous system to withstand such severe torture that would break down any other person being thus interrogated. (25-161, 10/03/1969)

I was beaten almost to death, covered with blood and bleeding profusely. They kicked my stomach with their jackboots. While two of them would hold me down, another two kicked and trod on me. Imagine the effect of that to my belly. Just trying to sit and stand up in the toilet was torment. (17-295, 02/15/1967)

Because I was accused of saying that I was going to cut the Japanese emperor's throat, I was imprisoned and tortured. The most excruciating thing was to be kicked in the crotch with spiked leather boots. You will not know what pain is without such an experience. (63-213, 10/14/1972)

Once after being interrogated and tortured for fourteen hours, I wasn't able to crawl even twenty meters. Nevertheless, I held out in faith to the end, enduring the pain while fainting repeatedly.
When I was twenty years old, I pledged to God that I would save my nation. I believed that, representing my nation, my love for God was stronger than the love the Japanese people had for their emperor. Therefore, I was convinced they would be eventually defeated. The party that launches a strike against the righteous is bound to lose ignominiously. (33-115, 08/09/1970)