- Sahng-jeh-nim Pushes the Sea Away
- 1 One day in the early summer of 1903, while eating a meal, Sahng-jeh-nim suddenly said, “Let’s go. Let’s go to Bup-sung Port in Yung-gwahng to load up money.” And He began singing.
- 2 Thinking they were really going to load up money, Ho-yun asked, “Where can I put the money if I don’t have any pockets?”
- 3 Sahng-jeh-nim said, “Don’t expect to be carried on My back.” Suddenly, they were arriving in Yung-gwahng.
- 4 Followers living there said joyfully, “Our Teacher has come.” They prepared food for them and offered Sahng-jeh-nim new clothes.
- 5 After that, Sahng-jeh-nim asked Ho-yun, “Would you like to go to Japan or Jeju Island?”
- 6 Ho-yun hesitated, and Sahng-jeh-nim said, “Let’s go to Jeju Island.” They arrived on the island and there met Hyung-yul.
- 7 Some islanders served them cooked barley and fish. Ho-yun complained, “It smells too fishy. I can’t eat it.”
- 8 Sahng-jeh-nim took Hyung-yul and Ho-yun to the seashore.
- 9 In the sea, female divers tied small hoes to their waists, left gourds floating on the surface, and busily dove underwater to collect sea creatures.
- 10 Standing on the breakwater, Sahng-jeh-nim raised His right arm, pulled it toward His chest, and then pushed out as if to push the sea away. While doing this, He said something.
- 11 Suddenly, with a loud sucking sound, the seawater withdrew, leaving behind a great field.
- 12 Dumbfounded and not knowing how such a thing could happen, the divers, who had just been under the water, looked at each other, still clutching in their hands what they had caught.
- 13 Before long, people with baskets came from all directions. Not paying heed to anything else, they gathered the fish and other sea creatures.
- 14 After a while, the seawater suddenly tumbled in and everyone scrambled so as not to be swallowed by the waves. Ho-yun enjoyed this so much she forgot her hunger.
- 15 Sahng-jeh-nim said, “This is heaven and earth’s power of creative change.”
- 16 Every day for ten days, once in the morning and once in the evening, Sahng-jeh-nim made the seawater withdraw.
- (JSD Dojeon 5,29)
