1982 May issue

Congregation of the seed of life! Greetings in the Lord!
There is absolutely no true peace within those whose blurred minds lead to aimless lives filled with, eating, drinking and revelry. The seeds of a country should be aware of what path their country is heading down and upon which tides the hearts of the people are drifting. Would there be true peace within those who have no idea of all this but, day and night, are focused merely on sleeping, awaking, eating, and frolicking in revelry?
The living seeds of life are those who agonize over their duties with an urgent heart and, in experiencing the grace of the living God, firmly decide to become living sacrifices daily. They are the ones that can truly live and carry history forward.
Yet, here I am writing this month’s draft on this day. How pitiful of me. May has almost gone and I have yet to write the draft for the May issue. Such a person is not one who knows how to publish monthly
newsletters well. I am ashamed.
Of course, the aim of this newsletter is for conversation between us seeds of life so I don’t really need to worry like a merchant who wasn’t able to publish the coming month’s newsletter at the beginning of the month.

However, we are not floating around in outer space. We are living in reality. We are not having a conversation atop the clouds but within the events of concrete reality. First, I cannot help but to confess my wrongdoing to my fellow seeds of life.
Firstly, I was lazy. Although Simon Peter received three loving warnings to stay awake, he could not overcome the weariness and dozed off. Suddenly, in hearing, “Here comes the enemy!” he jumped up and drew his sword. But I’m not even sure if I can even muster up such foolish courage as this. I lack he awakened heart to see where I have come from and where I am going. I lack the alert mind that seizes the opportune moment. If I was able to do so, a month would not have passed while I pondered and agonized over what to say and how to say it. Why do we fall into laziness again? It is because we lack vitality within us. What is vitality? It is the breath of the Spirit of God. Our vitality decreases because we do not inhale that breath. Without that vitality we cannot endure, and sleep comes upon us.
Behold, the fully bloomed lily! In certitude it stands amidst the ripening spring and its moisture-laden breeze. Though infinitely tender, the quivering flutter of its chastely white lips is unstoppable.

Behold, oh breath of life, the Word of the seasons!

The lily! I have told you how nothing in this world can stop the lily from inhaling the fresh spring breeze and opening its white lips. But it’s not that the lily has only drunk of the spring breeze, it has imbibed of the summer breeze and the winter’s also since then. And so it speaks, empowered by the strength of life which the lily has nourished
thenceforth.

The lily sleeps its summer slumber. Let us learn this summer slumber. Everyone knows that insects hibernate through the winter. And in early spring they wake from their slumber and crawl out onto earth like a groundhog on Groundhogs Day.
The easiest way for us to understand the lily’s summer slumber is through the garlic and wild chives that we commonly eat. These come out in early spring, bloom, and bear fruit. Afterwards, the vine and the leaves disappear and only the bulb is left quietly buried in the soil during the summer. Then, during autumn, or sometimes early spring the following year, the new sprouts come up.

To sleep in the summer is a unique way of enduring climates that do not quite fit one’s physiology. We call it slumber but in actuality it is not quite the state of being asleep. To explain it simply, it is like when you are awake though your eyes may be closed. Most people withstand the blistering and scorching heat of the sun through submission like the vines or flattery like the flowers that blossom in the fountains. If not these methods then the roots are simply driven deep into the underwater springs like the palm trees and coconut palms in the sparse oasis of the deserts…
This tender lily doesn’t care to portray heroism like the palm tree. Moreover, it can not bear to flatter like the vines nor walk the path of humility in neither submission nor opposition like a Taoist hermit. It stays cool deep in the earth in quiet meditation with its eyes closed and transforms the coming evil within into the mysterious good in preparation for the coming days.
The lily completes its duties in early spring and as if to say that it hates hearing that the decay and harshness of summer has defeated it, the lily clears away its petals first. And in neither keeping away from nor drawing closer to the severe heat of the sun it transforms the radiation from the sun to nourish itself from within. Is this not, in fact, the spiritual way?
The lily does not remain idle in the summer out of laziness or foolishness. The lily transforms not the essence of its life’s vitality but the lingering force that ensues into love and silence so that it can gather strength to be able to melt away the frost with its song at the proper time. In looking at it from such a perspective, this is truly the path of the seed of life. The lily does not flourish in high places but in the low, harsh swampy areas. Give the high places to he strong who want to live there. Let them take it as they please. And regard these wicked practices of this society, which are enough to drive one underground in midsummer, as heavenly bestowed land and sleep your summer slumber in it.
When spring arrives, thousands upon ten thousands of His people dance and sing the golden song in unison at the hint of a gentle breeze. This would not be possible if it were not for the seeds of life.
Congregation of the seed of life! The rapid tides of life once again roar at the bottleneck of history!