Patience

 

 

 

 

 

 

When a childish person becomes angry and hurls insults at me, overcome him with silence and patience.

 

 

 

Please listen well.

Usually, we are patient with superiors, because we are afraid of them regardless of the fact that our actions and opinions may be right. 

When we are patient with equals, it is because we don’t want a confrontation.

 

 

 

Thus, being willingly patient with inferiors is the supreme patience. 

 

 

 

From the Agama Sutra

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Water or Tonic

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let’s say that you are parched with thirst, and there is water and tonic in front of you.  Which will you drink?

Of course, people say that tonic is good for the body.

You also know that tonic is good for the body.

However, since you are parched, what you need now is just the water.

 

 

 

In our unstable lives, rather than following our will, we occasionally follow a path that we don’t want to take because of surrounding conditions. 

If we cannot become the master of ourselves and follow our own will, then like the example above, we may not be able to resolve life’s thirst. 

 

 

 

Jang Yong-cheol

 

 

 

Poet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looking for the Perfect Mate

 

 

 

 

 

 

There once were two friends.

One man was looking for the perfect beauty.

The other man was looking for an average woman.

He met an average woman and married her.

The man looking for the perfect beauty grew old, remaining single.

 

 

 

After many years, the friends ran into each other at a marketplace.

The married friend asked the single friend,

“You still haven’t found anyone?”

“I did find someone once.”

“Then, why haven’t you?”

“She was also looking for the perfect beauty.”

 

 

 

Ven. Beop-hyun

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heart

 

 

 

 

 

 

A wayfarer, on a ferry lost a knife into the water.

He began to inscribe a sign on the side of the boat.

“I’ll make this mark, so I can find the knife later.”

Yet the boat had already left that place, following the current.

 

 

 

I wondered if this is not how we search for our hearts in the same way as this wayfarer looked for the knife.

 

 

 

Mang Nanja

 

 

 

Essayist

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Weather of Life

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an Asian trend to winter weather.

Three days are cold, and four days warm.

Like this, in our lives, happy and unhappy days come in turn.

Just as we must weave together two strips of straw to make a strong rope,

We must intertwine joy and sorrow for our lives to become healthy and fulfilling.

In dark and cloudy days, we must remember the happy and sunny days.

Those who have fallen to the earth must use the earth to pull themselves up.

 

 

 

Jang Yong-cheol

 

 

 

Poet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happiness and Suffering

 

 

 

 

 

 

A young man with a quixotic dream married a woman called ‘Happiness.’

On the first night of the honeymoon, a strange woman was sitting in the room.

The startled groom shouted, “Who are you that you would be in this room?”

 

 

 

“I’m a woman called ‘Suffering.’  I share the body with ‘Happiness’ so I follow her like a shadow throughout her life.”

 

 

 

The groom yelled, “Stop such nonsense and leave this room right now.”

 

 

 

To this, the woman said softly, “If I leave the room, the woman called ‘Happiness’ must leave together.”

 

 

 

Kim Won-gak

 

 

 

Poet