When I was young, I once caught a pair of birds and tried to make them kiss each other. In order to see them kiss each other, I made a cage, placed them in it and fed them. With the heart of a little boy, I wanted to see the birds loving each other and singing joyfully. It was a child's experiment, done out of curiosity about the laws of nature. Thinking back, I did these mischievous things for quite some time. Eventually, I realized that love happens in a natural environment. True love occurs in the most natural and free environment. It took me a long time and many experiments until I clearly understood this about love.

When I was young, I grew up in the countryside where migratory birds visited and different flowers blossomed as seasons changed. Wherever I went in Korea, there were four distinct seasons. As they changed, I could experience in each the beauty of nature. In Seoul today, you can walk around all day long without seeing anything of nature. I feel sad that Seoul has become such a barren city where the only environment is man-made. You should know that people who grow up in an urban environment lack tenderness and sensitivity. Having no opportunity to experience the mysteries and the beauty of nature, they easily become violent or selfish. When human beings interact with nature, they can learn and become aware of many things.

I was able to learn and practice many things from living with nature. I became aware of what true love and happiness are. It was from the natural world that I could learn the most basic things, more than from education in school.

When the season changed and I saw a beautiful bird flying about, I followed the bird and watched to see how it built its nest and how it lived. Sometimes it took me more than a week to find the bird's nest, and sometimes I might wait more than ten days to observe the bird laying its eggs and hatching them. Looking at the cute baby bird, which so resembled its mother, deeply confirmed for me God's mystery and love. That baby bird, so like its mother, could not have resulted from evolution. Would the baby bird hatch if you brooded the egg? A bird was made to be hatched through the warmth of its parents' body and the warmth of its parents' love.

I once brought a baby bird home and raised it devotedly. Although I took the baby bird quietly, the mother bird cried whenever she saw me. She was crying, pleading for her baby's return. In the bird's world also, mother's love is very strong. When an intruder tries to steal a baby bird, the mother bird will try to protect it, even at the cost of her life.

If a person does not value love, what difference does it make if he receives a college education? He would merely gain knowledge, turn individualistic, and become a believer in materialism. Korean bean-paste stew (denjang chige) tastes best when cooked in an earthenware pot. Likewise, a person's efforts at cultivating character only bear fruit when they are based on love.

World civilization should blossom based on an artistic harmony. To have the best taste, charbroiled ribs (kalbi) should be served on a plate, and bean-paste stew should be cooked in an earthenware pot. Once you get used to the earthly smell and taste of bean-paste stew, you will never forget it wherever you go.

Similarly, once you savor the taste of genuine love you will never want anything else. As we quickly tire of instant foods that have been sweetened, so we quickly tire of love that can be obtained easily anywhere. It is like instant food, and cannot be called true love.

Nowadays, people everywhere are practicing love like instant food. This is a problem. One does not deepen love by bathing in scented water. Rather, love is purer, deeper and longer-lasting between a husband and wife living in the countryside who go to bed after taking a cold bath.

If a husband and wife get ready to kiss each other by brushing their teeth, their love is not natural. They cannot taste each other's personal scent due to the smell of the toothpaste. When I look at people who brush their teeth before kissing, I wonder whether they want to taste love or toothpaste. Observing the way of the world these days, we see that calculating, artificial and feigned love is so widespread that it confuses our notions of human happiness. We can truly say that such love is the chief culprit leading this world to destruction.

When you like and love someone of the opposite sex, it is a natural instinct to want to hug and kiss each other. The reason I come in close touch with the environment is to like and love this universe. This is the natural behavior of human beings as they seek a partner.

When all men treat women and all women treat men according to the teaching of reciprocal relationship /ethic of reciprocity / vertical and horizontal relationship, there will be no missteps or acts that violate the order of love. When men and women relate to each other according to this teaching, they will establish the order of true love. However, where people violate the order of love and disregard their environment, they cannot establish the order of true love.

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