Tathagata, the reincarnation of Buddha, made himself to be born among people who had the most difficult life in the world. And he made himself to be taught and learned by things that exist in him, he found out the greatest enlightenment in himself which nobody could achieve through tens of thousands years time.

Tathagata was born in 21st February 1942(lunar calendar) in a country called Chosun (old name of Korea) which was located in east part of Asia. His house was in the mountain which was far away from the village and he had three brothers and one sister, all of them were under 10 years old at that time.

His father was in a situation that he could not even look after himself because of his long-term illness and his mother had to look after her family’s life from a situation that there were no grounds ready for living.

From the very day of his birth Tathagata had to get fed with boiled water of root of trees and wild edible greens for his hunger and a few days after he was born he was thrown outside the door several times by his father and in more severe case he had abandoned in the mountain. After one year later he was born he lost his father through death and his two older brothers also died from starvation because they could not last from that. After this happened his mother left the house in the mountain and moved to a small house nearby village, bak seok gol. From that time he had to be left alone in the house as day comes. His mother came home after she worked for people’s house in the village everyday without missing even one day as well as his older sister who was living together did not stay home during the day time. Tathagata spent his childhood without receiving any affection by anyone because of situation at home.

When Tathagata was nine years old his mother died from a disease as she had gone through many difficulties from two wars and three years of bad harvest after she had Tathagata and left young Tathagata alone. Since his mother died Tathagata had nobody to depend on any more.

When he became eleven years old the house that his mother left had gone to someone else’s hand and there was nobody wanted to help him in such situation. So he had to leave his village alone at very young age. He visited his relative’s house in a city for the first time he never seen before. But their circumstances were also too bad for young Tathagata to stay for a long time. When the night comes there was no place in a room for him and when the day comes he felt uncomfortable to show his pitiful self. So he had to leave there one day or another and he had to wonder strange streets because of that. From that moment he made himself to learn the method of living without bothering others.

At first, when he saw a carter with a heavy load having a difficulty because the carter could not go up the steep hill, he pushed from the behind all the way and helped the carter’s work. So he bought some newspapers and sold them with the money he got from the carter for bread and he had to overcome all the trials by himself from that moment. When he was hungry he had to drink underground water out of pump in the street until he was full and sometimes he had to solve his hunger by eating shells and muscles that he caught from an isolated seaside where nobody was around.

He had to do any job in order to escape from his hunger. Even though when he was suffering from tearing pains and pulling pains in all of his body because of continuously engaging heavy labour but he had to continue the same work again when the day comes. Later he wrote about this in his autobiography like this.

"I thought nothing at that time but my only dream was that I wanted to become an adult quickly so that I could feed myself enough by my own ability."

He had to spend such a long day after day because of his situation until his age reached seventeen.

When he was seventeen years old he could join the army after he applied for an army second time and he was discharged from the service when he became a healthy and energetic young man from six years of army life.

What he wanted to do at that time was becoming a good politician, so he established a political party and tried to contact people around him in order to accomplish his intention. At last he could stand before public together with other candidates in dignified manner at 26 years age.

He became familiar with many people very soon by his healthy physique, smart appearance and a good communication skill and he made a legendary story of himself through these by himself. He never ever compromised with injustice in any cases nor did things which would damage others in all his life. But people were not willing to give him an opportunity to someone like him so that he could do service for his country.

Not even less than one year since his name started known, tremendous incidences happened in the society where he was living and people who had political power proclaimed law by the exercise government power which they could indiscriminately suppress people with conscience and justice. He saw his political party being dissolved and people around him were sent to prison. He had put on under the surveillance and he felt lonely when he saw people feeling fear because they might be damaged when they became close to him.

For the first time he felt dependent mind on someone at that time and taken this opportunity he met his wife and got married on 13th of May in 1973. When he and his wife had a son and a daughter he could not place responsibility on his wife for their living any more. He needed income but he could not find a job, so he set up a business by himself. His business, which started with his bare hands, succeeded to produce the best income among same line of businesses within a year. People around him started to talk about him with pleasure when this happened and taking this opportunity he started to attract public attention again. So he could not ignore his conscience even though he was under all sorts of bad conditions. I October 1978 he warned public like this.

"An answer is in the question. We should not place the future of this country on people who hide problems. Politics are not existed for people who have wealth, an academic clique and dignity. If they believe that everything will be solved because they shut our mouth, ears and eyes but it will only bring the destruction of our country."

After the election his words became the cause to explode. He had to be suffered by government power several times and when he knew that a conspiracy was creating in order to arrest him, he gave up all his activities by himself. At that time Tathagata was thirty-six years old and he did not want to concern with the reality of the country any more since he had noticed that his country tried to kill him.

He looked out for alcohol in order to forget things of the world but people around him, who know him, felt sorry for his ability. When he was forty years old he started to write sitting in his house in order to arrange his life. When his autobiography was published in 1983 he looked for a solitary island and a mountain for a while.

From this time he was thinking that he had to leave for his new life to somewhere.

TATHAGATA'S LOVE FOR MANKIND
&
NEW ORDEALS THAT CAME FROM HIS ENLIGHTENMENT

Tathagata had never ever been interested in the word 'enlightenment' until he became forty-two years old. He started to stay in a small island called Yeonwhado since 13th October 1984. He did not specially know someone in the island. His house was by the valley in the half way up the big mountain. There were two or three houses around his house but when there were no people coming in and out he felt no human traces all day.

After about one month later since he started to stay there, it was nearly at the end of November. It was very windy outside and he felt especially tranquillity inside room that day. Suddenly Tathagata had this thinking came across from inside himself at that moment.
'Who am I?'
And then the self gave him the answer, 'You will know that when you go over the state of.' 「ip sin」
He asked to himself again.
'Then, how can I enter the state of 「ip sin」?'
The answer came from himself this time again.
'Go back to the world before the birth.'
So he started to count numbers, laid himself in the room and closed his eyes as he was directed by himself, 42, 41, 40, 39 and at the very moment when he finished to count the last one he could see the empty space where there was nothing exist. Soon after, he came back to everyday life. Since this happened there came tremendous changes to him. He did not feel bored even though he stayed in the room for several days and the idea of complicated things of the world did not occur to him. The days when he stayed alone his mind was always calm. And sometimes when he thought or when he saw things that exist he became to recognize the questions that the existing things have. And when he saw the questions he became to know easily what were in the questions.

From this time whenever he was conscious something, his queries in his consciousness were being solved straightaway. After this experience, he knew who he was and he could understand why he had a different life from others.

Tathagata received messages twice from the sky since his enlightenment. At the very moment when he was deeply impressed, as if his heart seems bursting, these words conveyed to him through his heart. The first message let him to know that the world could be saved by conscience, justice and love. And the second message told him that someone who knew the Truth would become lonely and if someone spoke the Truth one would be cursed.

He went back to his family after he stayed in Yeonhado for two years. But from this time he had to face with things that he could not understand. When he met people around him, they tried to avoid him and when he tried to tell things in truth, most of them ridicule or argue with him. He could not say his words easily because of these. So he went out to look for strangers but most of them were not different from people who he saw around him. He had to have a new anguish from this time. When the day comes he had nowhere to go and as the night goes darker he had to stay up by thinking all sorts over. And such thing repeated innumerably.

From April in 1988 he started to travel abroad and he went to Japan alone without any fellow traveller at that time. He knew no one in Japan at that time as well as there was nobody who could help him.

Once he arrived in Japan there were many things that bothered him. Neither could he communicate nor read and write foreign languages, so he could not even ask the way.

When he came out of his accommodation he marked a certain object by eye measure that he could find his place. When he found an appropriate place as he walked along the road he put his message on the ground that he prepared by himself and let passing people to see. But it was not allowed for a long time in any place. Policemen came straightaway as if they knew, then he had to explain what he was doing by using body languages and left the place to a different place. Eventually he had to find Korean who he had to pay as an interpreter. At last, he found an interpreter so he visited newspaper publishers and broadcasting stations in the city and kept after them for an opportunity to prove his words and truth.

It was about 15 days later since he had arrived in Japan. One day when he left his room for a few minutes leaving his belongings and he was burgled all his money that he had. He was in the situation where he could not stay any longer such a place like he could not communicate and it even became difficult for him to return his country.

October in the same year, Tathagata went to travel with a companion. At first, he met Praya Seong Bon, the teacher of King of Thailand, and Tathagata explained to him the difference between the teaching of Buddha and the teaching of modern Buddhism. Secondly, he preached about the principle which let things of the world exist in the 'Dhammasatan' in Chulalongchon University, the best university in Thailand. Thirdly, he introduced things that exist in individuals with the subject of the world of enlightenment in Chulabhuratan Buddhist monk’s school in Bang Kook. And he tried to enter India through Nepal but he had to come back from the border line.

In 1989, he left for India again. The first place where he delivered his teaching was the estate of J P Vaswani, one of the ten famous gurus in India, who was living in Pune. Vaswani, who invited Tathagata after reading Tathagata’s message, asked Tathagata, "How could you recognize who is enlightened or who is not?"
Tathagata answered, "When I show them 'what is' I can find out immediately whether they are enlightened or not."
As soon as Vaswani heard that he changed his attitude and paid respect,
"You are the one who truly is enlightened." said he.

The next day he went to Pune University by the invitation of the vice chancellor, Dr. Kupte. Kupte asked, "Could you tell me where my soul is?"
Tathagata answered when he heard Kupte's question, "A bean produces a bean plant and a bean plant produces beans. Your soul is placed within yourself and you produce your soul through what you do. And you will be reborn through your soul after your death."
Kupte said when he listened to Tathagata, "Many people amongst us put a lot of effort in order to know that but none of us could find our."

When Tathagata left Pune he went to Delhi. He received an invitation from Dr. Agwani, the vice chancellor of Nehru University, through people who delivered Tathagata’s message.
When Agwani saw Tathagata he asked this question at first, "How are you being treated in your country?"
When Tathagata heard that he started to laugh and he said, "I am the person who is not even treated well from my wife at home."
As if Agwani solved his curiosity he said like this with respectable attitude, "You are a truthful person. And I believe your enlightenment."

Tathagata saw many things while he was travelling the world. And he has travelled abroad several tens of times and he has taught things in truth throughout hundreds of lectures and individual meetings. But no one could recognize what he was doing and no one wanted to know things that exist in themselves.

He continues his lonely travels in order to prevent the destruction of human world only with his own ability.