Hello, I’m your host Kristine and welcome to Woo Myung Cast, where you can listen to Great Teacher Woo Myung’s words of wisdom.
Today’s story is called < A Bear and a Tiger>.
A long, long time ago, there were a tiger and a bear. They had only one wish – that was to ‘become a human.’
Their wish was so earnest that the tiger and bear ardently prayed to god to teach them how to become a human.
God listened to their ardent wish and said to them, “You can become a human if you endure 100 days of eating garlics and spring onions in a dark cave.” Then, they went into a cave deep in a mountain.
Tough days went by, one by one; ten days passed, twenty days, a month passed. Both the tiger and bear had fickle minds as they wanted to give up many times every day.
One day in their second month, the tiger could endure no longer.
“I cannot do it anymore! I’d rather live as a tiger!”
Upon looking at the tiger running out, the bear also wanted to give it up but made a stronger determination once again. “I can become a human if I endure a bit more. If I give up right now, everything that I’ve done so far becomes a bubble.”
The bear alone in a cave felt more lonely and tough. However, the bear patiently endured.
Time went on and on; 90th day, 91st day, …, 99th day, and it became the 100th day.
The bright light shined into the dark cave and wrapped around the bear. The shape of the bear came off as if it melted down in the light. Instead, a beautiful lady was standing there.
This myth is a part of the birth myth of an ancient kingdom, ‘Gojoseon.’ Many stories interpret the symbolic meanings of a bear and a tiger. It can be also interpreted as human beings who have found the truth. It would be as difficult as a bear becoming human as for a human to have the mind of god, which is the truth. However, if a human patiently cleanses his mind like a bear, he can come out from his self and his mind can become the same as the god’s mind, in the end, just like the bear’s shape melted away. It doesn’t just apply to becoming the truth, but every work you do is the same: what’s the most important in accomplishing what you want is patience. Successful people all had diligence and patience. Look back at yourself: are you a tiger or a bear?
This poem by Teacher Woo Myung is called A Realization Only For the Devoted.
A Realization Only For the Devoted
Man is a slave to the delusions he has inside him,
And thus the image in which he lives is
The image of his delusions.
Delusions are non-existent thoughts.
Non-existent thoughts do not exist because they are not Truth.
Every single thought that man has is not Truth;
They are false.
A person in whom his delusional standards are strong
And who has a self-centered, narrow mind
Will have difficulty reaching Truth.
A philosopher once said
That humans were like a ‘thinking reed’
Which meant that the thinking mind sways back and forth.
The human mind is one of delusions,
And the only thing he has in that mind is self-centeredness.
Thus he is unable to know
What the Truth is,
How to find it,
Or decipher that which is indeed the righteous Truth.
One who has a mind that is simply diligent
Like the legendary bear in the story of Dangoon
Can complete this Meditation.
This mind of his is
A reflection of how he has lived his everyday life.
He alone must completely abandon everything,
And only then will he become complete;
He will know all things are not another person’s fault
But his own.
Even when it comes to knowing that he himself is at fault,
He can only know this when he is free from
His narrow-minded conceptions and habits.
No matter how loudly I speak,
He cannot see or hear
If he is a person whose consciousness is not big.
No matter how much I speak to them and encourage them
So that they may complete their meditation,
I have seen how those who have strong selves
Were unable to practice this meditation.
Only those who are devoted and single-hearted
Can become complete.
Unless they become
The everlasting, unchanging, and living Truth,
There is not a single one of them who will be able to
Live forever in Heaven as Truth.
Basically, there is Truth and falseness within man,
And the battle between this Truth and falseness
Is what Meditation is about.
If Truth wins, then one will go to
The eternal, true Paradise while one is alive.
If Truth loses, one would not become reality
But would be falseness;
He would forever be dead.
Only those whose falseness has completely died
Will be reborn as Truth and thus live;
For him, this place is true Paradise and reality,
In which even if one were to no longer be of one’s body,
He will live forever just as he is.
Now is the time when people are born as human beings
And go to true Paradise while they are alive.
Therefore, what a pity it would be
If one could not achieve this due to his delusions.
Let us all throw away our delusional selves
And thus become Truth
So that we may live in the eternal and true Paradise.
This is an excerpt from the book The Living Eternal World by Teacher Woo Myung.
We hope you enjoyed today’s insightful poem by Great Teacher Woo Myung.
Thank you for listening and please show in us next time on Woo Myung Cast where the more you listen to Great Teacher Woo Myung’s writings, the more you gain wisdom. This Woo Myung Cast is sponsored by Maum USA. If you would like to learn more about Great Teacher Woo Myung, please visit Woomyung.org.
