Student days in Seoul first school vacation`

The first school vacation`

On the first vacation I had while studying in Seoul, I did not go home. Although other students were rushing to buy tickets to their hometowns, I solemnly stayed back alone. I notified my parents, who had been waiting for me to visit, and explained that I could not come home. Why did I do that? The path I had to follow was different from that followed by the satanic world.

When other students were going back home with their luggage, I thought, "Although I want to see my parents, I am longing for God who can save them," and I cried inside. Bearing that longing, I devoted myself for the sake of the nation and my goals.

My relatives were clamoring for me to visit. They said there was an emergency at home and I should come. Still, I did not visit them. When my friends came back, they thought it was strange. I told them, "I must not waste this precious time, which is the result of thousands of years of history." I lived with that kind of attitude.

Investigating back-alley life

I'm not sure how much I wanted to go to movies when I was young. Going to movies was a shocking experience for us then. My temperament is such that I could scream with joy, but I never went to movies. It's not that I had never seen movies. Once in fact, I saw five movies in a day. After having such a movie-going experience, I stopped going to movies. I went from one extreme to another. It is not worthwhile if you do not go at all and never have the experience. That's why

I stopped going to the movies immediately after going five times in one day. I said to myself, "You rascal, you are not coming here anymore."

Don't you think there were things that I was envious of when I was your age? You often go to movies, don't you? You should know that there was a time that I did not see movies at all and would not even walk past one. Why? This is because I had to cross beyond the line to where it was impossible for me to fall into sin if I were to go into such places, or even sleep or live there.

Nowadays I can permit you to go to movie theaters on the condition that you maintain the standard at which you cannot be corrupted.

After you achieve that standard, everything will be fully open to you.

In the old days, Jongro 3-Ga was all a red light district. [A borough of Seoul] I thought I should investigate it. Why must beautiful women have to do such things with just anyone? If they were your sisters, what would you do? What if they were your daughters? What would you do if you were their older brother or father? That is a serious question. I am thinking of how I talked with those women during the night. Everyone should go through that. We should love our country, shouldn't we? We have to love our fellow citizens, don't we?

I needed to understand that world. How can I save them if I do not understand what that world is like? By talking to those involved, you should understand their sorry situation and the whole story behind it, and save them.

What are leaves without roots? When I went to that kind of place, I made an internal determination beforehand, so that I could not be snared by anything that goes on there. Members of the Unification Church should go through such a training process. You need that kind of training.

When I was living in Heukseok-dong, though a streetcar ride downtown cost only five jeon, [A defunct monetary unit equal to one-hundredth of a won] I walked. It took forty-five minutes to the Hwashin Department Store on foot. I walk fast. [This four-story building, the first Korean-owned department store.] It took an hour and a half for an average person. On a hot summer day, I walked to the city in my school uniform, sweating. What did I do with the money I saved? I gave it to the poor. I said, "I'd like to give you a thousand tons of gold and help you immediately. For now, though, I'll give you this on behalf of the whole nation. I hope this will be the seed of good fortune."

I lived in Noryangjin for a while then. It cost five jeon to go to school by train, but I walked and donated the money. I did the same with the money saved by walking home. I remember patting the trees while walking, saying, "Grow well until I become someone in this country. Don't die; let's grow together." Those trees are all gone now, though.

When you take a train, bus or taxi, you should remember the standard I set as I walked from place to place. You should have the same attitude of heart toward this nation and people as I did, anxiously longing for the day when God can embrace the country.

When I received tuition from home, it was gone within a month. I just gave it to poor people. I could tell many stories like that. How did I pay for my schooling? I did several things, including newspaper delivery and sales. I remember those days very clearly.

I have also experienced living in a slum, in rags. Lice were crawling everywhere. I had that kind of experience.

One time, returning to Seoul from home with tuition money in hand, I met a dying person. I spent all the money I had to put him in a hospital and to make him better. I cannot forget the fact that that situation made paying my tuition only possible with the help of my friends. I know how much of an impression the experiences I had during that short period have made on my life. I emptied my wallet of my tuition, lodging fees and money to buy books that time. I vividly remember carrying him a mile on my back to the hospital.

Anguished, tearful prayer

When you pray, you should pray so hard that your back is bent and calluses form on your knees. There still remains callus on each knee that formed when I was praying in the old days. Prayer should be offered on a hardwood floor. You should shed tears as well. I would experience a peak several times in prayer; I shed so many tears the tear-stains didn't have time to dry.

Knowing that so many people pass away without coming to understand the purpose of life, I offered tearful prayers every day to solve that issue. While I prayed, I shed so many tears that I could not even see the sunlight. That's how I found this path.

My prayers lasted twelve hours on average and sometime seventeen or eighteen hours. I was on my knees and did not have lunch. I wept loudly. I could not have continued without this prayer. It would seem that all sides were blocked and there was no way forward. I saw the pin-prick sized opening only when I prayed. By undergoing such trials, I found the Principle.

There is a saying that hard work is never wasted. Isn't it true? You should labor hard for God. You need to enter into a state where you yearn for God so much that you would go crazy without Him. If God dwelt on earth, He would visit us a thousand times a day. However, since that's not the case, God sent me. Because I have some mysterious quality, you cannot help feeling love for me. Do you feel affection for me for no reason?

There was a time in the cold winter when my cotton clothes were soaked with tears from prayer. Think about how astounding that is. I offered many serious, sharply penetrating prayers.

I cried for the nation under Japanese occupation... I shed more tears for the nation than any patriot. Even now, the streets in Heukseok-dong... Although the road to Yongsan is now paved, [A borough in central Seoul] I feel as if something is missing. There were trees such as poplars in those days. I still cherish the good impression I had of the area then. Myungsudae, the river...

When you cross the Han River, you can see an island in the center of the river. On that island, I would lament and speak to the river, saying, "Although you have been flowing for thousands of years, do you flow with the single-minded desire to embrace this nation and people? Water can be a lifeline. Han River, you should be a stream decorating this beautiful and fertile land like a rivulet of mother's milk. If you do not do that, I will." This is vivid in my memory. There was only one bridge across the Han River then. I would stop at this island while walking across the bridge.

You students who are studying hard! When I was studying in the old days, I cried even after reading one page because on every page I was looking for secrets that might save the nation. I prayed in the same style. Make your hand into a fist. When I was praying in those days, I clenched my fist so tight, it hurt when I opened it. Can you imagine how tight a fist I made? I was making pledges, clenching my fists tight, regardless of how much I was sweating.

Myungsudae and Seobingo

There was a sandy beach along the Han River at Seobingo in the old days. It is sad to see the beach is gone. Don't you feel that way? It's good to see buildings standing on that spot, but I deeply miss the beach. Many memories were made there. The Myungsudae Worship Hal1, which my friends and I built, was in Heukseok-dong. On many Sundays, the church in Myungsudae and one in Seobingo held a joint service on the beach. When the wind was blowing, it would stir up the sand and small pebbles. It was bad, so we found a place in between piles of pebbles to sit closely together to offer Sunday service.

While I was attending school in Seoul, I taught Sunday school. I taught at both the church in Heukseok-dong and the one in Seobingo. [Seobingo was almost directly across the Han River (on the north side) from Heukseok-dong, which is close to the south bank of the Han] During the cold winter, the Han River froze, and you could hear the ice splitting... It was scary when you were alone. I crossed that frozen river to teach Sunday school.

I was a good Sunday school teacher. I am not a good storyteller now, but I may have been back then. When I shed tears, everyone else wept. Once you make them cry, you expect them to beg you to stop But they didn't. Instead, they followed me, asking me to tell more stories. I told them stories like that. I was an excellent teacher, guiding the Sunday school students. I felt a lot of hope for them. I loved them more than anyone else did. They were so attached to me that they used to follow me, even skipping school.

I had been living like that. I served and took care of little children, elementary school children, middle and high-school students and old people. I served them as if I loved them more than I did anyone else. I served them even better than I served my parents. When I had something to eat, I packed it for them.

I was good at making people feel at home in any situation. That is how I made friends with grandmothers, ladies and little children. When I told stories with a loving heart, like a kindergarten teacher, nobody could forget it. That's true even now.

I know the backgrounds of people like Rev. Park Jae-bong and Rev. Lee Ho-bin very well. However, I have never said anything bad about them. They had many followers. They and their followers met because some kind of spiritual destiny brought them together. As God connected them with strong ties, the person who weakens that connection between them is responsible for that. Something planted in that soil should be harvested there.

Witnessing

When I was your age, I used to go to parks and give public speeches wearing a hat -- I wore a hat then -- carrying my books in a bag hanging down my back. I urged people to listen to me. It was leadership training for my future. You need to try many times. It is a good experience to ask many questions and to give many answers. One day when we went on a picnic at Chang Gyung Won, something happened. It was so crowded, but I started witnessing there. I witnessed with my school uniform jacket off. Nobody knew it was me. Even though I was giving a speech in public like that, who would have guessed it was me, who was quiet in the classroom?

Other students were saying, "Wow, he looks like Moon, but can it be him?" In class the next day, it was clear that my classmates had not figured out it was I who had given the speech. I knew who was at the picnic because I saw them while speaking, but they hadn't recognized me. [Laughter] Nobody would have guessed I would speak in public when I didn't speak in class.

When I was living in Heukseok-dong, there was a grove of pine trees on the way to Sangdo-dong and across from it was a Japanese style house with many flowers. Farther down, around a corner, was a rice field and a small town. In that town, there was a house I used to go to when I was doing pioneer witnessing.

School diary

I kept a diary, and on certain days I might write thirty pages, or fill a whole book. It was during the Japanese occupation, and as events transpired, the Japanese police used my diary as a starting point to investigate incidents that had taken place, about which I had expressed my strong determination in what I wrote. The police arrested as accomplices many people mentioned in my diary. Since then, I stopped keeping a diary. I do not even carry a pocket notebook even now. I keep all the important things in my memory.

If I had kept that diary until now, it would be invaluable. All the descriptions of the world of heart I inhabited while growing up, that traced my footsteps through mountains and the various villages, were destroyed because I was being pursued by the it Prominent Christian leaders of the time; Lee Ho-bin was the first leader of the Jesus Church religion. Japanese police. There are many stories related to that -- traces of what led me toward my goals.

As I was burning those diaries, I wept. I vividly remember talking to myself, about the historic materials that I would need as I took this path. Those diary entries could have shown the way to liberation for young people groaning in distress, but I was burning them. In my youth, I worked hard to implement God's plans for the nation and the world, while overcoming hunger and other difficulties.

I left my hometown when I was eighteen." For my entire life since then, I have been working hard to save the satanic world. I forgot my hometown. Leaving Chongju for Seoul was like going to a foreign land. What will happen if I go overseas from Korea? Seoul will then become a hometown to me. That's right. Seoul will be a hometown.

I have since visited Heukseok-dong several times, thinking of the old days, but because Seoul has changed so much, I couldn't find anything that triggered memories. I was so disappointed. Development is good, but how can it be like this? Nothing that dates back to the old days remains. I could not have imagined what I saw on top of the high mountain nearby. They have dug up the whole place and built houses. Even the valley that I thought was so deep has been filled. Many houses have been built there.

It felt so bleak. Still, I looked for the old house. It was difficult because of all the new houses. Little by little, I was able to discern the way there. How great it would be if there were even a model of the original Heukseok-dong house as it was! This kind of attachment is human nature; we retain significant events in our memory. Having emotional ties, those memories stimulate us to grow and develop further. We need museums for that reason. Likewise, you need to leave behind something like this in your families.

The foundation for hope

I have paved the way for Heaven to go. That's why when I visit Heukseok-dong and see the rocks on which I shed tears in those days...

When I was about 70 years old, I searched again for the house I had lived in during my school days, though I had failed to find it when I had searched a few years earlier. The Unification Church began as the smallest of houses. Did you know that a long time ago, I built a house?...

When people tracing the history of the Unification Church come to Heukseok-dong... Heukseok-dong should become "Baekseok-dong." [Father is playing on words: "heukseok" means "black stone" and "baekseok" means "white stone."] That's what I think. That dark valley, where I was living in the old days, should become a foundation stone of historic value emitting the light of hope for all humankind. When I think about that... I also bought the church there.

Why did I buy the church? It was not because there were many church members there. Even if I cannot find people who used to live there in the old days, many of their descendants are there. How inspiring it would be to meet their sons and daughters! The spirit of the history enacted there will resurrect. You can make this present age blossom by talking about the past and resurrecting that historical spirit. You should know that this is the reason we study about great people and history. Only the owner knows the value of these precious treasures.