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Not only Jo-ri danbup, there are many other danbups. In the fall of 1955 I was 20 years old and had lived in the mountains for 7 full years. At that time I had a change of thought. So I came down from the mountains and lived in the world for 4 years of military service. Then I re-entered the mountains. There was a simple reason why I did this.
One evening in late fall I was deep in mediation watching the sea of trees and peaks when the image of my grandfather, who raised me, came up on my eyes as a picture. I was absorbed into the emotion (posture) of my heart of missing my parents, brothers, and hometown. This is an improper course of awareness for a Dao practitioner. But I was just 20 years of age and, you know, it can happen.
Master found me and said,
"You're not doing your haeng-gong. What are you thinking about?" So I told him the state of my heart.
Seven days later master brought me down to a small temple in Sok-li Mountain and began preparations for me to leave mountain life. Food was the main problem, above everything else, when descending from mountain life. I had been living in the mountains and eating raw food for over 7 years. It was not easy to switch to cooked food and be near houses. Even though I lived in a small temple, I encountered the smell of food, people, and muck. I could not keep these odors out of my nose. I wanted to get away from these smells. I locked myself in a closet. I ate only raw fruits and trained myself for a month so I could adjust to the smells of a house. For a good laugh, the asceticism of leaving the mountains was more difficult than the asceticism of getting into the mountains. After a month I began eating noo-roong-ji (scorched rice) with cold water. After 3 months I was able to begin eating rice and a few side dishes that didn’t taste fishy. It took almost a half-year of preparation and adjustment before I got the permission to visit my grandfather. After I visited my grandfather, I joined the Korean Army in 1956 and was honorably discharged from military service in 1959.
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