The Words of Young Oon Kim
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The Words of Young Oon Kim |
Though the words of Miss Kim belong to the world, often they have gone no farther than the ears of the immediate people who hear them. We in the Washington Center want to share with all of you' in the field the precious inspiration and wisdom which she wants to share with us.
While Betty Curry was visiting Washington, Miss Kim gathered us for a testimonial evening. After the individual testimonies, Miss Kim shared with us many things.
She told about a devout Catholic woman in Korea who was spiritually gifted. One night during her prayer both Mary and Theresa appeared to her. They directed her to the Divine Principles. She went, and while in the teaching room saw a golden ladder which rose from the floor to the heavens. She returned home and again in prayer Mary and Theresa appeared. This time they said that the Divine Principles were evil and that she must depart from them. But this woman accused them, saying, "But you told me to go and hear the divine Truth. How can you change your mind? I am going to follow this teaching because I know it is true." Two times more Mary and Theresa tested the woman, but each time she stood firmly in the Divine Principle. At last, after this threefold test, the two saints again appeared. They said, "You are a true daughter of the Father. We envy you. We will serve you."
Miss Kim also spoke of the slowness of our work. She stressed the reason for our work to be slow at this stage, renewing our perspective on the restoration. Contrary to the idea of some, she said, restoration will not be completed quickly. Our mission is not to restore the world but to establish a foundation on which the world can be restored. Therefore, the members whom we find must be strong and dedicated. She pointed out that if A comes to the Principle, proves weak and falls away, but if through A, B comes, then all our effort expended on A has not been wasted. If B too falls away, but through him C comes, nothing has been lost. We must make the foundation strong.
Regarding our teaching of the marriage relationship, Miss Kim emphasized that to be a womanly object is not to be meek and sweet and spineless. We often think of the Oriental woman as this sort of person and idealize the subservience. This, said Miss Kim, is incorrect. Oriental heroines are most courageous. In teaching we must not distort the ideal relationship.
To illustrate this ~ Miss Kim told us a few stories:
A man once set out for another city to be educated. He had been gone for only a day or so when he missed his wife so much that he turned back and went home to her. When she opened the door to him, she immediately cut off her beautiful long hair. She handed this to him and angrily told him to leave her, that such a weak man she never wanted to see again. Moved by recognizing the truth of her words, the husband turned and left. Though he returned to the city he was unsuccessful in his study in the following years. During their long separation, the wife raised their son, educating and disciplining him.
At last, this young man went to study in the same city where his father was. The son was very successful in his studies. Then he returned to his mother, bringing his father with him. In this way the family was reunited, respect was preserved among them, and the husband was strengthened.
Another story to illustrate the wisdom and concern of a mother for her son was next. A widowed mother lived with her son near a market place. Each day her son would imitate the buying and selling of the market men. This distressed the mother. Knowing the cause of this behavior, she moved with him to another location but his one near a graveyard. Now the son spent his time performing imitative funeral services. This was unsatisfactory to the mother also. Therefore, she moved again. The new home was near a place of learning. The son imitated teachers and pupils, and in this way be came one of the famous philosophers of the country.
It seems that the impressive part of this story is the mother's wisdom and tact in her indirect approach. She showed delicate discernment of the source of her son's behavior; she made courageous decisions to remedy the situation; and she practiced indirect dominion of her son.
Another story is one of a mother whose son quit school in the middle of his education. The mother had trained him and helped him to educate himself. One day, while she was at her loom, her son came home and announced that he had withdrawn from his studies because he didn't think he was meant to learn such things and he felt uninspired. Upon hearing this, his mother slashed the fabric she was weaving from one side to the other. Her son was shocked. "Why have you done this?" he asked. She replied, “This is exactly what you are doing in quitting your studies." The son felt such remorse that he returned to school, studied diligently even in difficulty, became very successful as his mother had wished, and eventually was even a famous man in his country.
Another parable was told. A man had a mistress. The man's mother sensed the ruin of his life, and convinced him that he should cut off this relationship. Seeing the truth of her words, he ended the affair. One day, however, the man drank too much wine and be came muddle-headed. Being a military man, he had a horse which he loved. After his drinking bout he mounted the horse to go home. The horse, however, took him to the wrong place. When he went to the door, the mistress came out. At this point it dawned on him where he was. He was filled with anger.
He turned and with one stroke of his sword killed his beloved horse. Miss Kim emphasized then that when we recognize the source of evil in ourselves, we must cleanly cut it off -- with finality. Then, whenever it sticks up its head again we must be equally relentless.