■ Living a Life of Moderation in Nature

Here is a man who has been practicing asceticism in seclusion deep in the mountains for 38 years. He is Monk Yukjam, who personally entered nature as a form of resistance against the prevailing trend of blindly chasing civilization. After spending 20 years in a remote mountain village in Geochang without electricity, telephones, or running water, he moved to Yeongyang, North Gyeongsang Province. There, he personally built a hermitage measuring just over 10 pyeong (33 square meters) and is now quietly devoting himself to spiritual practice. It has been 10 years since he began this life. Although he was extraordinary—having entered monastic life in 1982, serving as abbot in his twenties, and even holding several exhibitions due to his proficiency in poetry, calligraphy, and painting—the monk says his greatest joy was living a simple and modest life in nature. He says that washing his face in the sunlight in the morning, warming himself by the fire under the moonlight at night, walking through the rustling autumn forest, and admiring humble flowers are also sources of pleasure. Although he may appear lacking, the monk lives day by day savoring an empty fullness within nature that is never insufficient.

■ The Unity of Zen and Farming: Farming is the Work of Cultivating the Mind

The monk personally cultivates all food except for rice. From napa cabbage to radishes, pumpkins, chili peppers, perilla, and deodeok, he plants and harvests only what he needs to secure his food supply. However, farming is not merely for the purpose of obtaining food. Watching sprouts emerge, he learns the wonder of life, and facing fields ruined by bad weather, he learns how to adapt to nature. Farming is, in essence, the work of cultivating the mind. In other words, the Unity of Zen and Farming means that farming is spiritual practice itself. When darkness falls, the monk puts down his hoe and picks up a brush. Quietly, he grinds ink to write calligraphy and paint. He says that since he farmed with his body during the day, he farms ink at night. Venerable Yukjam asserts that neither farming nor calligraphy can ever be successful if one is consumed by the greed to do better. Today, he continues to cultivate the field of his mind in this manner, advancing toward the Way.

■ Life Never Ceasing: All Living Things Must Be Diligent

Although living in the mountains may appear leisurely, mountain life is such that it is difficult to survive even a single season without moving diligently. Especially in winter, there are countless days when one must battle sub-zero temperatures of minus 20 degrees and wrestle with frozen water pipes. Having endured those winters with his own body, the monk says he has become a "Zhi-ji Daoist." His daily routine involves shouldering a Zhi-ji to climb the mountain to find daily sustenance and gather firewood. Repairing the uneven mountain paths by moving soil onto the Zhi-ji is also his duty. With the mindset of earning his keep, and because this is the means and duty of a mountain monk to live, he moves diligently and moves again. Therefore, the phrase that Venerable Yukjam always contemplates like a koan is "Saengmyeongbulsik" (Life Moves Without Rest), meaning that living things move without ceasing. One naturally learns that while one will starve to death if one does not move, life is such that one can easily get through another day simply by keeping one's body busy; this is the lot of the living.

■ Simple and Unpretentious, and Thus Lightheartedly

The monk believes that "the world becomes beautiful with flowers, and it is because of that beauty that life can be nurtured on this earth." The gourds he planted to see their white blossoms have become a precious source of sustenance, and the hollowed-out gourds are made into bowls to be used as valuable household items. For the monk, who has been ordained for 40 years, he owns only two sets of monastic robes. He has mended them when they wore out, mending them again and again. He does not replace the latticed windows through which strong winds blow, and he simply re-papers them every autumn, living exactly as he did in the past. Once an item comes into the monk's hands, it lasts for at least 10 years. Housekeeping is not particularly necessary. If there is nothing, there is nothing; if it is inconvenient, there is inconvenient. The monk says that if you live in nature, you do not necessarily need many things. He conveys through his life in nature that the simpler and more modest one becomes, the lighter the mind feels. He shows that one can be abundant with just a single A-frame carrier. Like an empty A-frame carrier that has fulfilled its duty and neither desires nor demands anything more, Monk Yukjam speaks of life as being empty and desolate.

Natural Human Documentary Philosophers of Nature - Desolate Like an Empty A-frame Carrier

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