The Words of the Kovic Family

Adventures In Korea Part 2

James W. Kovic
February 2008

So, Yong-Do was where they sent me. It's a city of probably ten or fifteen thousand people. A port city with a busy downtown area like most American cities with no street signs.

Did I just say no street signs? Yea!

This is what weirded me out too. You see, being a foreigner, there would be no reason for me to concern myself with this if it wasn't for the fact that one of the things I would be doing in this mobilization would be delivering the newly published Segye Ilbo newspaper that our church over there had recently started. In fact, I would also be, along with my fellow church compatriots, soliciting people and businesses to get subscriptions to Segye Ilbo.

So, I'm doing all of this with, of course, a fairly decent handle on the Korean Language. Uh, nope. Yes, that's right; I'm in Korea involved in missionary activities and going out into the urban area of Yong-Do without knowing the language. Yea, that's about the size of it.

You see, you're thinking that I must be nuts or something to be involved in this sort of thing. How long would I last? How could I do this? But you see, that's just the perspective from which you're looking at this thing. What did I tell you about life in the Unification Church? Suspend all rationality. This is a spiritual organization. You're following the messiah.

Up until the messiah came to Earth we've all lived in this three dimensional world. We're born, we're children for a short time where feelings and dreaming and emotions occupy most of our experience. Then, between the time we're toddlers and we graduate high school we grow up so that we can live and survive in the real world. In other words, we become thinking individuals. We use the left part of our brain most of the time and that's how we see the world. This whole physical world seems so real and solid and seemingly constant. Thanks to the Renaissance and the last five hundred years of progress this is the way we have learned, uh excuse me, been conditioned to view the world.

You see, so when you join the Unification Church that's one of the things that you learn to change: the way you view the world around you. Buddhists understand the physical world as an illusion. I won't go into why that's so but ask any physicist and he or she will confirm what I'm saying. It's true.

So, when you get to the point where you're not so concerned with expecting a rational explanation for everything you learn to relax and expect the unexpected and have fun. So, being in a foreign country without knowing the language isn't so bad. Besides, all the time I was there I was surrounded by other members. It's an amazing support network. Now I'm going to tell you about an interesting experience I had which led to me finding my Korean language tutor.

Now, getting back to that street sign thing. I don't know if this is the case with other cities in South Korea but it is in Yong-Do. It's sometimes the case in some cities in America, even in my hometown of Norwich. Right, every now and then when you're looking for an address you run into a street without one and it usually happens to be for the street that you're looking for. But in Yong-Do this is the rule and not the exception.

I think the reason for this, as someone once told me, was for security sake. Ever since Korea became divided into north and south there's been this constant threat of invasion from the north. Therefore, in the event that Kim Jung Il's troops overrun the 38th parallel and take over cites all over Korea like Yong-Do then, I guess, they might get lost or something? Oh, I don't know but I guess eliminating the need for street signs is one of those lines of defense. Hopefully it's not the first.

My first run in with the missing street sign dilemma was when I went out for the first time to get kudokjas. That's Korean for newspaper subscriptions. Okay, let me back up a bit with a little preface to this because how are you supposed to believe that I went out on the streets of Yong-Do to do this all by myself?

In the church center headed up Reverend Lee there was me, a member from Africa, Austria and Canada. A very international mix, won't you say? And then there were about twenty Japanese women. The last time I saw that many Japanese women in one place was at that matching I told you about. Some of them were rather pretty. One thing that I liked was the fact that due to the fact that us men couldn't speak a word of Korean, we were paired up with one of these women because each of them was matched and blessed to a Korean husband. So every day I got a chance to go out to get kudokjas with a different one.

They were so charming. I have to be honest, oriental woman are some of the prettiest women on the planet. But there's a catch with that because it's easy when you're with one of them to take the role as a strong, independent male. That's a trap that I don't like to fall into because although I love women and I love to be around them, more than anything I desire for them to be independent and self sufficient and to think for themselves. And I don't know if this is a false conception of Asian culture but I think they instill in their women this subservience type of mentality.

This is one of the reasons why I love my wife and I'm happy to be married to her. She's very independent, very smart and she's nobodies fool. She likes to get her hands dirty and work hard but she also has a very feminine, intimate and gentle side to her as well. But I guess while I was there at the Yong-Do church center with these women I only saw the side of them that was submissive. But it was probably due to the language barrier otherwise I could have known them much better.

Okay, so let me tell you about the time I met a Korean woman on the streets of Yong-Do who became my language tutor. I'll set it up a little with an introduction and then I'll let you read an entry in my journal about what happened. What we did was we would alternate going to our respective areas around town to solicit kudokjas with witnessing. Witnessing for the uninitiated among you is talking to other people about the tenets of your faith. Fundamentalist Christians do it all of the time and so do Moonies. But usually, in the past I've done it in America with the use of a language I was brought up to speak. Now I had to do it in Korean. Man, this was really tough.

Naturally, with the help of my friend, Mira, whom I had been going out soliciting people for kudokjas, we did this together. Before we started I prayed to God to send us a person who was young and searching for the truth and this is what happened.

February 16, 1989

This morning we had a pretty good downpour of rain. It must have rained most of the night. Slowly but surely my route is becoming more developed, although my Korean is still very minimal. In the afternoon we all went witnessing in Yong-Do. I went with Mira, a Japanese sister. Before we left I had a good prayer. I prayed for God to prepare a person between the age of 19 - 20 who was pure, having no sexual relationship before. We went out to the marketplace and walked around. Then we stopped and I was trying to find out how to say some key phrases in Korean when a young lady stopped up to us and asked us in Korean if we needed any help.

Mira said that I was American so then she began speaking in English. Her name was Kwan Chung Im. (Note: In Korea and most Asian countries the family name comes first and then the person's name. In this case Kwan is her last name and of course Chung-Im is her first name.) Then I began explaining that we were inviting people over for a discussion about Unification Church teaching. She said that she might come in the evening. So, after that I tried talking with some more people but again it was extremely difficult. Later on I met up with two young men from the Mormon Church next door to our church. Charles had met them previously and invited them over for the lecture. I talked with them on the street. I testified a little bit about Father's life and the beginnings of the church in Pusan. They were very inspired and later that evening they came over for the lecture. Charles gave the talk on the introduction to the principle.

Chung-Im was this really charming young woman. She practically invited herself over to our church center. It was one of those serendipitous encounter that happens to you when you're in synch with the Holy Spirit and you're being guided. Then a person like this young lady shows up out of nowhere.

This was not a chance encounter. I'm going to tell you something that you're not going to believe. She is one of Tamara's incarnations come to meet me again after our brief encounter in 1982. I know this for a fact. I auto-write a lot and Tamara told this to me. Here, you can read it for yourself. The initials jk are mine and ci are for Chung-Im.

jk: Hello, am I speaking with Chung-Im's higher self.

ci: Hello, Jim. Yes this is I. Thank you for thinking of me.

jk: I haven't thought of you for a very long time, Chung-Im. It's been close to 20 years, hasn't it.

ci: Yes and I've missed you. Do you know who I am?

jk: You're Tamara, right?

ci: Yes, Oh I know what you're thinking. How could this be. You're so used to talking to me as I relate to Makiko. Well, I was Chung-Im too. But my life as Chung-Im hasn't been beset with the problems that Makiko's was. Perhaps I am more free. You see I had other things to work on and I wasn't concerned with that particular past life you know about. I needed to work on different things.

jk: Boy, it seems like when I met you in Korea as I met you in New York, it was a very brief meeting.

ci: Why are you continuing using that abbreviation for my physical self. Use Tamara, okay?

jk: Oh, I'm sorry, Tamara. I was just working on typing my journals into my computer and then there's this entry about how I met you in Pusan. It was so unusual. I was witnessing and you just came along and wanted to help me. And then you always came over to the church center. There was this one time when Reverend Lee gave you a lecture that…

tam: I know I know. What did you think when I went up to the blackboard and challenged him?

jk: I thought it was magnificent. You were so brave and courageous. I was so proud of you for doing that. I just knew that there was some connection between you and I. But you know, I'm really sorry that Reverend Lee and some other members gave you such a hard time and gave you this condition for coming back to our church. You should have been allowed to come anytime you want. I was so sorry that they did that to you.

tam: Thank you Jim. Anyway, it was just an opportunity to meet you, not join the stupid church. It was you and you alone. I hope you understand that. Just like when Lara made other appearances in your life and so did Leanna. We sisters of yours always love you and always find other ways to get in touch with you. we will never tire of it and never give up on you. We love you dearly, Nessyphia. Can't you see that and feel our love.

There's no way that I couldn't feel the love of my dear sister. Throughout the writing of "Tamara's Journey" which in a big way is really her journey, we've been so close. I sit down at my computer, think of her and create a space for her to accompany me and she's there. This is a reality that I've come to accept as much as a tangible reality as the presence of a flesh and blood person sitting next to me. I wasn't always so intuitive. Well, let's say that I was but I had not exercised those muscles in a while. But spirituality is something we all can experience. You don't have to work hard at it. It's more about becoming than trying but for most people, getting past that point where you believe in that seemingly intangible reality that is but an octave above this physical world is the real challenge. But "Tamara's Journey" is a absolute testament to this. Without having this relationship with Tamara as I have this book would not have materialized.

Well, as you can see from what she said in our conversation, Tamara, in her incarnation as Chung-Im really had no intention on joining the church. Now, this came up as a contentious issue soon after she began paying us regular visits at the church. It was all so simple in the beginning, that is, until Reverend Lee began to misinterpret her motives. You see, according to him, it wasn't enough that out of the goodness of her heart she wanted to be our friend and visit us often and help us learn Korean. And this is one particular issue that I have with the Unification Church and the mentality that we seemed to have generated among us.

You see, the more she frequented our church center the more Reverend Lee wanted to impose a condition upon her visits and demand that not only she be among us but that she make this commitment to join the church, or at least seem interested. She wasn't at all interested in what we believed and neither did she talk about our religion. She was a Buddhist and we were Unificationists and she was okay with that. Her relationship with us went beyond religion. But Reverend Lee and most people in the Unification Church can't seem to see beyond the religion thing. If in the course of our daily life we meet people whom we begin a rapport with then as members of the Unification Church we must eventually witness to them.

This has a lot to do with the urgency that we feel as people who are following the messiah. We think that since Sun Myung Moon is here, on Earth that this is it and that we have to quickly tell everyone about it soon or else people will lose their chance, not have the opportunity to recognize the messiah and fall into the clutches of Satan. It's what I like to call Restoration Madness.

First of all, we need to realize that you cannot change people. Second of all, you need to respect someone for the beliefs that they have already and not try to push what you happen to think is inspirational upon them. Thirdly, life should be lived effortlessly. There is this thinking that people are inherently evil, fallen and all that crap. My friends, it is nothing but a lie and a falsehood. When you get people to believe that they're no good and that they have original sin and are evil unless they are saved by a messiah then you have power over them. Now that is what I would call evil. The misuse of power. Fooling people into giving their power over to you and making them dependent upon you. This is a very important issue which I deal with in "Tamara's Journey". If you haven't yet read my book, please, if it's just to understand this one point, it's worth every page. And then there's so many other levels that are going on in the story as well.

So, when you take this misconstrued idea of fallen out of the picture and that we are inherently evil then what is left is that all we need to do to raise our consciousness is to Be. Just let go of your ego because that is the thing blocking you, the rational mind that has supplanted the heart which should be first and foremost the center of your being. And when you do it's so easy because then your path back to being connected with God is totally effortless. But it seems so easy and it's temping not to think that this could be so. But it is.

Don't let a messiah or a spiritual leader or a priest or a pastor stand in your way of salvation or higher consciousness. You are a Divine Being. God lives within you always. And how wondrous that is.

So that, in a nutshell, is what's going on in the Unification Church as far as why they seem so stressed out and uptight a lot of the time. If you were following the messiah and he had convinced you that you had original sin and needed his brand of salvation I think you would be too. Now this is not to say that the universe we live in isn't a fallen universe. It is, but it's much more complicated than how Sun Myung Moon describes it. But then again if he told you all that he knows about that -- and believe me when I tell you he knows a lot more than he's letting on -- then he'd end up confusing you all and possibly thinking way too much rather than getting down to the task at hand with building the Kingdom Of Heaven on Earth. So what he does is give you just enough information to keep you inspired and thus leaving you ignorant of many important things. Of what, you might ask. Read books about reincarnation and about spiritual masters. Read a very good book called "A Course In Miracles" which I've listed in my books to read page which channels the wisdom of Jesus. In fact, go to any esoteric book store and browse the titles. Just about anything you find there will tell you so much that this current messiah conveniently chooses to not inform his members about.

Well, getting back to the story. I didn't know it then but Chung-Im made me so proud. and here's why.

February 22, 1989

This afternoon was the first time that I went out canvassing for subscriptions by myself. It was very difficult but I tried a few places anyway. Chung-im came again this evening and heard the Principle Of Creation lecture. There was one point that Moksa nim (a title we use to affectionately refer to Reverend Lee with.) mentioned and when he did Chung-im stood up, went to the blackboard and began telling him how she understood it. She kept talking and writing on the blackboard until she was satisfied with an answer. I was so proud that she just didn't take any answer but challenged the truth. After the lecture, her and I and Charles and Egon talked together, witnessing to her about what she had heard. It was late so we got one of the Korean brothers to drive her home on his motorcycle.

I thought she'd get cold so I lent her my jacket to go home.

She's a fighter. She wouldn't just blindly accept what Reverend Lee was telling her. But then again, I think Lee used her headstrong way about her to say that she had an attitude and without her submission to True Parents she'd never find salvation. Well, eventually when she finally realized that good Unification Church members may argue about the truth but if they don't finally give in and throw away their former lives and live for the sake of God and True Parents then they're useless to us, Chung-Im began coming less and less to our church center. But perhaps it was supposed to be like that all along.

Perhaps, just as it was in New York in 1982, Tamara could only be with me for a short time just so that she could jog my memory covered up by my amnesia and wake me up to her reality. Eventually we said our good byes and she returned to classes at the university. 

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