Sharing makes me happy, and giving away makes me feel light.

Yes, this is the taste!
It tastes like the soybean paste stew my late mother used to make.
The taste of the monk's writing that we have been waiting for so long!

Monk Hyangbong, who made a name for himself with the pen name “Loving and Forgiving” together with Monk Beopjeong and Monk Ohyeon in the 1980s, has once again presented to us “The Writings of an Old Monk from the Mountains.”
Monk Hyangbong is a forgotten monk.
There was a time when I was young, when I had no fear in the world.
He also played a role as a powerful figure in the Buddhist community and became famous as a best-selling author.
To borrow his expression, he 'came to his senses late' and suddenly disappeared around the age of forty.
He continued his quest for enlightenment, wandering through India, Nepal, Tibet, and China for 15 years.
After returning, he has been living at Sajasa Temple in Mireuksan Mountain, Iksan for 20 years, cooking, writing, and taking walks alone.
So he became an old monk in his mid-70s.


There will be many people who are encountering the writings of Monk Hyangbong for the first time.
It's light but tasty.
It's not smooth, but it has a deep resonance.
But every now and then I get emotional.
As I follow the cheerfully flowing sentences, a smile spreads across my face, but before I know it, my heart becomes heavy and heartbreaking.
I can't turn the page without shedding a few tears.
It is a rare and uncommon style of writing that is hard to find these days.
After a long time, my eyes are clear and my heart feels warm.
Through the monk's journey of life and the intense period of seeking the truth, the 'life of a free person' who becomes one with the truth is revealed.

I am a simple person.
If I lie down, I fall asleep within 5 minutes, and if I get angry, I get over it within 10 minutes.
His nicknames in his youth were 'One Way Street' and 'Fire Sword'.
It was because he had a very quick temper and his speech and actions were extremely rough.
However, he was a clumsy fool who easily felt sorry and grateful, and whose heart was so tender that he would shed tears while watching a movie.
He was even stronger against the strong, and he was not suited to the clumsy act of compromising, so it was either war or peace.
Since my education level was just above elementary school level, I read books whenever I had time and bought books at bookstores whenever I had money.
I read every editorial in any newspaper I could get my hands on, regardless of the topic, and by the time I left for India, I had amassed over 30,000 books.

--- p.20

A book is published, filled with small stories.
It was a small book the size of a palm called 『Museoljeon』.
Of course, it was self-published.
However, a publishing company called 'Love' saw the essay and made a tempting offer to collect more of the writing and publish it as a proper book.
In this way, “Loving and Forgiving” is published by Sarang Publishing.
This book was later published under the same title by Milal Publishing, and sold 600,000 copies.
It has enjoyed a long life as a bestseller.

--- p.38

Small joys in insignificant things make me happy and excited.
When the ice on the rock wall melts enough to make the mountain shake, I want to go somewhere without even saving up a single coin.
When I eat rice mixed with the remaining seaweed soup, I feel happy and content, as if the world is in my stomach.
Someone left an apple in front of the Buddha in the temple, and he is enjoying dessert with the apple. This is like finishing a sumptuous lunch for an old man in the mountains.
--- p.75

The head priest of Sajasaam Temple is a very fortunate person considering his appearance.
In winter, people enjoy eating sticky rice at the Winter Palace, and in summer, they often eat noodles with pickled cucumber at the Summer Palace.
If I want to sleep, I sleep, and when I wake up, I find a book or something to do and move my body without being lazy.
There are few people who come to visit, and those who do need to visit are scattered here and there, so it is quiet all day.

--- p.80

I am walking in the garden at dawn, flying like a bird through the forest of memories.
The remote path of training, which had been so harshly pursued, was not a path for humans, but a path outside the world that only the harsh could walk.
Now, as an old man with nothing to do, I must learn to console my faltering health and learn to forget the disappearance of a candle that goes out with a single blow.
Looking back, half was light and half was darkness.
It was a shadow of nothingness and a wind that did not stay.

--- p.113

“My dear! My heart aches so much.
They say that nothing in this world is eternal.
They say that when we meet like this, we grow older day by day in the pain of parting, and as we grow older, we slowly disappear.
You and I and all of us….”
--- p.135

In Tibet, when a person dies, they are put in a sack and brought to a burial site near a temple.
The British monks are cutting the corpses in the sack with a machete and scattering them as food for the vultures.
He already had the appearance of a superhuman who had attained enlightenment.
He had become a practitioner who was free from the suffering of birth and death and was moving towards the freedom of nirvana.
His strike with a chopping knife must be a search for the mysterious existence of true emptiness, free from convention and pretense.

--- p.182

Any thought or philosophy changes with the times.
Therefore, there is no set answer in our lives, and light and darkness are intertwined, and even religious faith can be shaken.
Even if you have ten lovers, you can't fill your stomach, and even if your pockets are full, you can still be hungry.
Everything changes.
Don't be obsessed.

--- p.218

In the Jogye Order, there is a system called Daejongsa Pumsu, which is the highest level of Buddhist monks.
I have already firmly and clearly refused the position of Grand Master.
I am just grateful and thankful for the blessings of an ordinary person and a monk.
Without embellishment, hiding, or standing out, I just want to live as a natural monk, Hyangbong, and then disappear like the wind…

--- p.243

Buddhism does not cultivate past and future lives.
Because Buddhism is today's religion.
Today is forever.
It is our duty to live as the eternal protagonists of today, enjoying freedom, peace, and happiness.

--- p.245