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“The life of thinking about death and the life of ignoring death. These two are the difference between heaven and earth.”
Let’s seize the opportunity to turn pollution into wisdom
There is hope in an honest life with yourself
On the 29th of last month, the wind in Gangcheon-myeon, Yeoju-si, Gyeonggi-do, was cold. There I met Father Suh Se-Won (67) in the Dole Stone Field community. A Canadian-born Jesuit priest, he retired last year as a professor in the Department of Religion at Sogang University. Today, I am doing organic farming, meditating, praying, studying and teaching together with community dobans. In the new year, I asked the bride about ‘crown, life and death’.
Father Seong-won said, “Thanks to Corona 19, life has become an ocean of pain. But now is the process. This is also happening. Ultimately, we are the strangers of life, the pilgrims of life. “Reporter Kim Seong-ryong
- Many people are suffering from the crown crisis. Many are directly threatened for their livelihoods and many are confirmed to be battling the disease. Most of all, everyone cannot escape the fear of corona infection.
- “Every time I hear such news, my heart aches. In addition, the pain of those who earn weekly and eat and live each week is even greater. Not long ago, I took the subway and a grandmother took off her mask for a while and talked on the phone. Then the woman sitting across from him pointed and screamed loudly. I thought, ‘Everyone is scared.’
- Is it fear of infection?
- “After all, it is the fear of pain and death. That is the root of the fear of the crown. But what if I live alone in that fear? Wouldn’t life get more depressing? In Buddhism, devotion is said to be barley (菩提 · wisdom of enlightenment). So it would be nice to turn the agony of the ‘crown’ into the wisdom of life. “
Father Seong-won said, “Because of the crown, we have been staying in one place since March. Even staying in one place is a microcosm. Thanks to that, it was a great opportunity to reflect and reflect on my life for 67 years ”. Reporter Kim Seong-ryong
- Corona is the fear of death. How to turn it into wisdom.
- “Sometimes I ask people. Have you ever thought deeply about ‘my death’? So, nine out of ten answer “nothing”. Why. Because everyone sees death as something that has nothing to do with me. I don’t think it will happen to me. I did too.”
Father Seo was a medical student before becoming a Jesuit priest. He attended a 600-year medical school at the University of Bordeaux in France for 6 years. During the summer break, I returned to my hometown of Quebec, Canada. And I worked part-time in the dissection room at St. Mary’s Hospital in Montreal.
“Actually, even after going to medical school, there are few opportunities to dissect a body. While working part-time on summer vacation, I dissected 350 bodies over 5 years. I can’t forget the first day of anatomy. Although the body was slightly decomposed, I thought it was very dark due to the terrible smell from the intestines. Even if the body was dissected 10, 20 and then 100, 200, the death was not mine. Death has always been someone else’s, nothing to do with me. ”
“While cultivating in Yeoju, I realized that there were so many things that I didn’t know. I don’t know the name of the insect, I don’t know the name of the grass. During that time, I thought that I had lived isolated from nature. “Reporter Kim Seong-ryong
- Didn’t you see the naked figure of death? Still, why didn’t you think of ‘my death’?
- “During World War II, there were Nazi Jewish camps. Numerous Jews were massacred. At that time, a Jew put Jews into the poison gas chamber and opened the gas valve. How many deaths must that person have witnessed? He was in the crucible of death. However, he said that he didn’t even think he might die. I was doing it. That is human. We live as if we will live forever. ”
- When did the priest break that thought?
- “One day I looked around the bodies in the anatomy room. Some children, some young people, some babies who died as soon as they were born, some who committed suicide. Men and women of all ages, regardless of age. Then suddenly I realized that I was dying too. It wasn’t until I faced my death. “
Father Seong-won said, “Complying with capitalist values makes us consumers. Tell them to be satisfied when they buy and consume something. I’m not interested in ‘my death’ ”. Reporter Kim Seong-ryong
- What changed after accepting it?
- “I deeply accepted the fact that I ‘die.’ Then a question arose. So how should you live? ‘What am I to do in this finite life?’ ‘What should I live for?’ It was an inner voice. I call this the “GPS (satellite navigation system) of my mind”. From that moment on, the GPS started working. “
In his sixth year of medical school, he went to a monastery in Lyon, an eight-hour train ride from Bordeaux. I wanted to hear the ‘inner voice’ while doing an 8 day retreat in a place where no one knows me. As the eighth day approached, the inner voice became more pronounced. Finally, he dropped out of medical school in the summer of that year and entered a Jesuit monastery in France in the fall. Of course, the opposition and the accusations from the parents were great.
“Many Koreans live in cities. Even if you go to a fancy department store, it is nature that you cannot buy. Nature is truly a ‘bright’ world ”. Reporter Kim Seong-ryong
- Korean parents are anxious because they cannot send their children to medical school. The priest himself dropped out of the difficult medical school. What if you look back at the life that followed the ‘Inner Voice’?
- “My grandfather and my father were doctors. My mother wanted to create a family of doctors for the third generation. It was a great ‘Helicopter Heart’. A younger brother committed suicide in the basement the day he received enough points to pass medical school. Because the doctor was the life my mother wanted. Another younger brother left the doctor as soon as his mother died. Now he said he wanted to live doing what he really wanted to do. He said, ‘I will live like my brother.’ So what about me? When I was a medical student, I lived as ‘the me my parents wanted’. Now I live like ‘I want to be myself’. Could there be greater happiness than this? If he had lived as a doctor, he would not have been happy. ”
- Why don’t we think so much about ‘my death’ or ‘orientation to life’?
- “The capitalist civilization we live in makes it difficult to do so. Instead of letting us look for it, it makes you a consumer of all kinds of things. They travel abroad to Paris or New York, travel in foreign luxury brand cars, and consume better computers, better perfumes, and better clothes. They are told to find satisfaction in life through it. Without our knowledge, we live only as consumers, not as meditators. I stop hearing the sounds inside me. “
Father Seong-won said, “When you read a classic, you have to see what kind of mind it comes from.” Reporter Kim Seong-ryong
- What kind of effort do I have to make to hear the sound inside me again?
- “We have to change the conditions of our life. You have to set aside the minimum amount of time to listen to your inner voice. It is not just one time, but on a regular, regular and continuous basis, you must find teachings that awaken you. I call it “classic”. It can be a Buddhist meditation method and it can be a philosophy of Socrates or Descartes. Lao-tzu’s moral book is good, and the teachings of Jesus and Buddha are good. “
- Can I read a classic like that?
- “No. You must understand and embody in depth what kind of mind the classic comes from. You must get as close as possible to the original intention. In that way we listen to the inner voice.
- The deep confrontation of ‘my death’ made me question the meaning of life. Did that make my mind’s GPS work?
- “Yes. It’s paradoxical, but it would be nice if Corona 19 could be such an opportunity. Doesn’t everyone feel the fear of death? It would be nice to take the time to take a step further and think deeply about ‘my death’. So, Couldn’t we turn the crown problem into wisdom in life? Wouldn’t it be an opportunity to listen to your inner voice? I want to have those expectations. “
Father Seong-won said, “Socrates, Confucius, Jesus, and Buddha are people who lived according to their inner voice.” Reporter Kim Seong-ryong
- Why is it important to live by the inner voice?
- “Confucius, Lao-tzu, Jesus and Buddha constantly said something. ‘You have to live honestly.’ What is it to live following the inner voice? It is living honestly. It’s about living honestly with yourself and not with anyone else. What a hopeful life. “
After the interview, when I came out, the snow fluttered. There is life when there is death and there is spring when there is winter. Spring was approaching in the frozen furrow.
In the winter field where perilla seeds were planted in the Challenge Stone Field community, Father Signature-Won is standing. When the interview ended, it started to snow, so I took the photo below again. Reporter Kim Seong-ryong
Yeoju = Baek Seong-ho, a religious reporter [email protected]
Who is the signing bride?
Father Seo said: “My center is Christianity. However, due to Buddhism, my religion and spirituality expanded and deepened. “He joined the Jesuits in 1979, came to Korea as a missionary in 1985, and encountered multi-religious cultures. From 2005 to last year, he served as a teacher. at Sogang University Now, in Yeoju, Gyeonggi-do, we are establishing a challenged stone field community that combines agriculture and spirituality.
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