Natural Human Documentary Philosophers of Nature - Episode 35 'Like an Empty Sack, Emptied' Broadcast on November 25, 2022 ■ A Life in Nature Without Overflowing Here, there is someone who has been practicing in seclusion in a deep mountain valley for 38 years. He is Monk Yukjam, who went into nature himself as a form of resistance against the world's blind pursuit of civilization. After spending 20 years in a mountain valley in Geochang without electricity, telephone, or running water, he moved to Yeongyang, Gyeongbuk, where he built a hermitage of about 10 pyeong (33㎡) himself and is quietly practicing. It's been 10 years. He became a monk in 1982 and took on the role of chief priest in his twenties. He was so extraordinary that he was good at poetry, calligraphy, and painting and held several exhibitions, but he says that his greatest joy was his simple and modest life in nature. Washing your face in the sunlight in the morning, warming yourself by the fire under the moonlight at night, walking through the autumn forest, and looking at simple flowers is also a joy. Monks live each day in nature, enjoying the emptiness that seems lacking but is never lacking. ■ Seon-nong-ilchi (禪農一致), farming is the work of cultivating the field of the mind Monks grow all the food except rice by hand. From cabbage to radish, pumpkin, pepper, perilla, and deodeok, they plant and harvest only enough to eat. However, farming is not simply about obtaining food. They learn the wonders of life by watching the sprouting shoots, and they learn how to adapt to nature when they see the fields ruined by bad weather. Farming is the work of cultivating the field of the mind. In other words, Seon-nong-ilchi, farming is practice. When darkness falls, monks put down their hoes and take up their brushes. They quietly grind ink, write, and draw. During the day, you farm with your body, so at night, you farm with ink. Monk Yukjam said that if you are obsessed with the desire to be better at farming or calligraphy, you will never succeed. Today, he is plowing the field of his heart and advancing toward the Way. ■Life is not restless (生命不息), all living things must be diligent Although living in the mountains may seem leisurely, mountain life is such that if you do not move diligently, it is difficult to fully survive even a single season. Especially in winter, there are countless days when you have to fight the -20 degree cold and wrestle with frozen water. The monk who endured that winter with his body became a 'pillar master'. His daily routine includes carrying a pilgrim's load up on his back and going up the mountain to find daily food and to gather wood to use as firewood. Moving dirt on his pilgrim's load and repairing the bumpy mountain paths is also part of the monk's job. With the mindset of earning his keep, this is the way and the way for a mountain monk to make a living, so he moves and moves diligently. That is why the phrase that Monk Yukjam always thinks about as a topic of discussion is 'Life is not resting', meaning 'living things move without rest'. If you don't move, you will starve to death, but if you just move your body diligently, you can easily live another day. This is life, and the role of the living, he naturally learns. ■ A monk who simply and plainly, and so carefreely says, 'The world becomes beautiful with flowers, and with that beauty, we can nurture life on this land'. The gourds that he planted to see the white gourd flowers become precious food, and the gourds that he hollows out are made into bowls and used as precious household items. A monk who has been a monk for 40 years has only two sets of monk's robes. When they wear out, he patches them up, and patches them up again. Even the lattice windows that blow in and out of the wind are not changed, and every fall, the window paper is re-applied, and they live in the same way they used to live. All things, once they are in the monk’s hands, are basically 10 years old. There is not much need for household goods. If there is nothing, it is nothing, if it is inconvenient, it is inconvenient. The monk says that if you live in nature, you do not necessarily need many things. The simpler and more humble you become, the more free your mind becomes. You can be abundant with just one carrying pole. Monk Yukjam says that life is vain, like an empty carrying pole that has done its part and does not ask or wish for more, through his life in nature. #Philosophers of nature #Practice #Farming