The Founding Master began a levee project to reclaim tideland at Killyong-ni and, while supervising the work, he remarked, “Now you nine members, who are not accustomed to such heavy labor, are at the inception of a great religious order that will require you to undergo unusual hardship. But the joy it brings must be just as great, since it is always more meaningful to be an initiator and to carry out a project with your own hard work, rather than to be a mere custodian of something someone else established. The Order we are establishing is the sort of great religious order that was unheard of in the past and will be difficult to witness in the future. In order to establish such an order, we must prepare a dharma that enables a truly civilized world to be realized by advancing both study of the Way and study of science; that lets our practice and activities mutually progress by harmonizing action and rest; that creates harmony and accessibility without hindrances of any kind by incorporating various religious doctrines into a single corpus, as if in a single household. As our aim is to establish such a perfect order, naturally a great deal of work is inevitable.” <1>
The Founding Master said, “The great loving-kindness and great compassion of the Buddha radiates more warmth and brightness than the sun. Thus, where this loving-kindness and compassion reach, the ignorant minds of sentient beings melt away into the mind of wisdom; their minds of cruelty melt away into the mind of loving-kindness and compassion; the mind of miserliness and greed melts away into the mind of generous charity; and the discriminative mind of the four signs melts away into the all-encompassing mind. Therefore, the awesome power and radiant brightness of this loving-kindness and compassion are incomparable.” <2>
The Founding Master said, “‘Great loving-kindness’ means that, if an innocent child is healthy and robust, giving no trouble to its parents, and if its temperament is gentle and its speech and behavior well mannered, it will arouse much happiness and adoring thoughts in its parents’ minds so that they will love it even more. In the same way, when the Buddha observes all sentient beings, if he sees people whose temperaments are gentle, who are loyal to there countries, filial to their parents, affectionate to their siblings, respectful to their teachers, and harmonious with their neighbors, who help the poor and relieve the sick, who practice the great Way and are making progress toward the wisdom of prajñā, who remain free of thought in their applications, and thus accumulate merit that is free from the contaminants (anāsrava), then, overjoyed, he so loves those persons that he would guide them even more toward the wholesome path. ‘Great compassion’ means that, if parents see their blundering child hurt itself by poking its eye with its own finger or injure its hand by grabbing the sharp edge of a knife, and cry and throw a tantrum without knowing why, the parents would then feel such pity and sympathy in their minds that they would want to protect and guide the child even more. In the same way, when the Buddha sees all sentient beings become attached to greed, hatred, and delusion, and thereby bring suffering to their minds and injury to their bodies, creating the causes that could make them fall into baleful destinies where they would receive retribution accordingly－and yet they instead blame their punishments on heaven, earth, ancestral spirits, fellow beings, and laws－he then feels extremely sad and feels great pity toward them and tries to guide them with millions of expedients. Such is the Buddha’s great loving-kindness and great compassion. But sentient beings do not realize his grace even though they all live amid his great loving-kindness and great compassion. However, he does not mind their ingratitude, but merely devotes himself to the work of delivering sentient beings over thousands and tens of thousands of kalpas [eons]. Therefore, the Buddha is the great teacher of the Way throughout the triple world and the compassionate father of the four modes of birth.” <3>