As the Wind Becomes a Flower

By Jaewon Kang

One day a windflower bloomed suddenly in the void and disappeared after dancing for a while. The coming and going of life is like a windflower. To be alive is already a favor. It is a vacant truth, facing with black and white. It is beautiful to become itself as in the course of looking for the good in order to become one thing.

People can be happy in the life born alone and left alone because there is a hometown to return to and a friend to accompany. Where is the hometown to return to, and who is a friend to accompany?—that is a question rising someday.

As each flower’s color is different, an answer to life varies according to each person. People have to find the key to the secret approaching closer to the mysterious life by themselves because the key to the secret varies multifariously with the times and wise men’s instruction. What is the secret of the mysterious life that nobody teaches though everybody wants to know while alive?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 28, 2019
• ISBN: 9781796018417

Book preview

Copyright © 2019 by Jaewon Kang.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2019902317

ISBN:             Hardcover             978-1-7960-1831-8

                       Softcover               978-1-7960-1832-5

                       eBook                     978-1-7960-1841-7

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the

product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance

to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 02/27/2019

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CONTENTS

About The Author

Reader’s Voice

Once the Wind Rises

Chapter 1

Amoros Thought

How to Live

Amusement

The Scene of Life

These Kinds of Lives

Chapter 2

As the Wind Becomes a Flower

Light and Darkness

As the Wind Becomes a Flower

Survival Game

Chapter 3

The Five Mysteries of Life

What Is God?

Where Does All Existence Come From?

What Am I?

What Is Death?

What Is Love?

Becoming a Flower

One day a windflower bloomed suddenly in the void, then disappeared after dancing for a while. The coming and going of life is like that of a windflower.

To be alive is already a flavor. It is a vacant true, facing with black and white. It is the Beautiful to become itself, in the course of looking for the Good in order to become one thing.

People can be happy in life born alone and left alone because there are hometowns to return to and friends to accompany. Where is a hometown to return to, and who is a friend to accompany? That is a question arising someday.

As each flower’s color is different, the answer to life varies according to each person. People have to find the key to the secret, approaching closer to the mysterious life by themselves, because the key to each secret varies multifariously with the times and wise men’s instructions. What is the secret of mysterious life that nobody teaches though everybody wants to know while alive?

-Among the text of this book-

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jaewon Kang worked as a professional engineer after taking up environmental engineering at the graduate school of Yonsei University in Seoul.

E mail: [e-mail]

READER’S VOICE

God is perceived differently by several kinds of people in the world, but I know that even if we perceive God differently, still God is who He is. What is important is when we believe in God, we should manifest our faith as actions for the common good. The author’s idea is reasonable for us to believe God is within our faith.

- Lito Galinada, Teacher

The ideology of God may be divided by the times, and a major factor of the variation is very much connected to the many ethnicities around the world, e.g., Elohim for Israel, Allah for Muslim countries, the 10 million gods of India, etc. The idea of divine existence is often taken as human beings’ effort to justify unexplainable events or circumstances in their lives. In addition, the idea of a good-hearted, watchful, and rewarding God serves as a moral imperative for the strong and able to help the weak. Greece and India are two of the many ancient nations that have a polytheistic faith. The oldest monotheistic faith and the pioneer to monotheism is Zoroastrianism. In addition, Greek myths in modern society have been reduced from a form of faith to literary studies, e.g., Zeus is recognized by Greeks as no longer a god but a literary character. As humans, curious by nature, we have the tendency to sensationalize any or every claim for mystical performance. I like the author’s insight.

- Manasseh Mark Bombeo, Journalist

Genes that cause aging is now deeply studied because humans believe that there is something from it that can bring human lives on the same level of supreme individuals. It is always a desire of human beings to have immortal lives and be superior over their environment. It rests upon each member of the human race to choose: Either to struggle under the law of natural selection and survival of the fittest until we develop supremacy or to accept and believe that God is able to give eternal life. Everything lies on what is so-called faith. Nowadays, hundreds to thousands of Christian sects debate and claim to be the true religion. These issues, however, will not have an effect on what God is. It is just a misunderstanding or misinterpretation among themselves, but the picture of God will never be changed. God is known to be loving and merciful.

When a young Christian boy had his hair cut in a barbershop, the barber told him that God doesn’t exist.

What made you say that He doesn’t exist? the boy asked.

Simply because if He exists, then there are no deaths, no famines, no one will suffer and cry, and no bad things will happen, replied the barber.

After having his hair cut, the boy went outside and saw men who had long hairs. And so the boy called the barber and told him that barbers don’t exist. The barber was surprised and asked the boy, What made you say that barbers don’t exist when just a while ago I had your hair cut?

The boy smiled and said, If barbers exist, then there will be no long hairs.

The barber said to the young boy, That’s because they did not come to me and had their hair cut.

- Eliazar Peniton Jr., Biologist

The thoughts of the author are deep yet revealing. They are very philosophical and present a new aspect of God, yet they appeal to the ordinary experiences of ordinary mortals. His penetrating reach into God’s nature must be a product of long meditation and sustained inward travel to the inner sanctum of the human mind. While God can be experienced in our everyday and ordinary lives, this experience can easily be clouded by the tremendous pull of material limitations and distractions. For this reason, I am truly astounded by the depth with which the author journeyed into the secret realm of human imagination, transcending the boundary of ordinary senses. However, to devout Christians and Muslims alike, many of his insights might not easily be accepted or even be dismissed as heresy. There is a clear contrast between and among the great religions of the world and the author’s concept of the Eternal. While Christian and Muslim teachings espouse the element of grace to achieve ultimate salvation or the worship of God according to certain daily rituals, one of the author’s ideas is that an individual unites with the whole through their faith. In this case, could there be an element of grace also, as the author thought that the way to eternity could be through faith? Is this faith the same as a kind of direct revelation from God or a product of pure human effort to commune with God? I surmise that this faith is primarily a product of human effort. Regardless, the author presents a very refreshing hope to many, especially to those who believe that salvation is far and unreachable due to the many temptations in this material world and man’s propensity to sin.

- Florencio A. Narido Jr., Attorney

First, the author comprehends God as well as humans. He lays the concept of God on humans as a precious thing. Second, the author’s profound comprehension for the perfect unification is marvelous. As mentioned in this book, to unite into one seems an aspiration for God. If human to human, human to God, and faith to faith unite into one, it will be just heaven. Third, the comprehension of God is an awakening of the self, forward to the state of metaphysics from physical science. The author has discerning eyes, not allowing to pass by the sound and phenomenon arising in his surroundings, and he observes how human faith affects every aspect of life. Fourth, the author emphasizes rest and peace as the ultimate blessing together with God. It might be peace like how an infant nestles in his or her mother’s breast. The author shows such peace to us. Fifth, the author observes power exceeding the bounds of humanity. He shows that the power of change is just love and faith. The eternity of humans is based on love and faith. The gift of faith cannot be possessed by human power. Faith is not to be obtained by human will but to be deepened by understanding, feeling, and experiencing the subject of faith. We live confronting good and evil on earth, and we live choosing good from evil. Therefore we need discerning eyes to distinguish true good from evil. That is spiritual growth and the enlargement of awakening.

- An In-sik, Pastor

I enjoyed reading these very much as they were full of insightful thoughts and wisdom. However, I am a foreigner with admittedly much less understanding of cultures and live views of people in this country. Nevertheless, I did retain some and found the writings to be both thought-provoking and well-spoken. How to live—this theme was the one that I found most relatable to my own life. The underlying theme that stood out to me was how to approach life with contentment and peace, in order to get the most fulfillment. In my own country (USA), most people are not content, and so this rings true to me. I believe this philosophy is most beneficial. I also believe that this particular writing spoke to me because of how it was portrayed. The metaphors were very clear, and I felt that most people could easily relate to them. What am I? This theme stood out to me much like poetry. I think maybe I am not smart enough for such deep philosophical questions. I believe that part of it was speaking on the importance of community to one’s life and not being a solitary figure. What is love? This theme seemed to me very much like poetry as well. The underlying theme of sacrificing oneself for those you love was well-portrayed, and I liked the metaphor of the male and female mantises. As a Christian, the desire to understand love is a common question in my own faith, and I believe there were many good thoughts in this paragraph attempting to explore the answer. The meaning I think I did understand was ultimately that it is better to live (or die) for another than for oneself as this is the greatest expression of love.

- Joshua Doak, Correctional Officer

For people who don’t believe in a divine presence, God is just a three-letter word, a word that is spoken as derogatory slang, in fits of rage or casual conversation. There is no meaning other than to fill up a sentence. In their search for meaning in their lives, they look to what they can visualize, touch, and feel. The word God is given to the satisfaction of their desires. But for a Christian, God is the ever-living Presence who desires so much to be a part of our freedom in Him that He became Life to us. I understand we all have our differences. But while learning about this book, I feel so lighthearted because if we are just of the same mind as this book’s author, we have no disagreement. Our faith in God intensifies when we invite Him into our lives. In accepting that God’s ways are far better than our own, we can release that we cannot manipulate or guarantee our future. I applaud the publication of this wonderful book, which is about rearing all people, specially the new generation. I have shared some of the author’s ideas about God with my co-workers, and we have all found delight in them. It’s a good reminder to look on the real meaning of God. Thanks to the author for sharing with us the gift that he had worked so hard to refine. I trust this book will soon be on the best sellers list.

- John Anthony Anderson, Economist

ONCE THE WIND RISES

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It’s been a long time ago since the wind and the flowers became friends in Amoros, the southern part of the Philippines close to the South Pacific, where tropical flowers bloom and fall continuously regardless of seasons. While one day passes like that, the glow of the sun setting between coconut trees is really fascinating due to the extremely beautiful sunset of the South Pacific. It’s just a scenery I saw on a Philippines postage stamp when I was young.

In chapter 1, Amoros Thought, I collected petals falling whenever a thrill of joy for unknown things flutters into the abyss of my mind, coming like the wind in nature’s wonder. In chapter 2, As the Wind Becomes a Flower, I just recently edited the contents, still touching my heart even when a long time had passed since a windflower bloomed where I lived on the banks of Han River in Seoul. During this time, in chapter 3, The Five Mysteries of Life, I observed myself moving close to questions about life that nobody has answers to, even when everybody wants to know.

This book is not fiction. If you try to read this book in one sitting because it is interesting to you, you are apt to lose its deep meaning. As this book consists of twelve topics, I recommend you read only one topic per session, together with your family or friends. Choose your favorite topic regardless of the order of contents.

As the wind means freedom flowing without barrier, and a flower means completion of life, I hope that the wind becomes a fragrant flower, so it is new and pleasant to all readers.

From Amoros in January 2019

CHAPTER 1

Amoros Thought

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UNITE INTO ONE, INDIAN INK PAINTING

1. How to Live

1. Sweat is good medicine to awaken happiness hidden in life. Try to sweat with a suitable activity if you really want to be happy.

2. Live pleasantly satisfied with 80 percent. Life will collapse if fretted to get 100 percent. Compared with 1,000 percent, 80 percent is almost the same as 100 percent. In this world, the poor can share something to those poorer, while the rich frets to get