Story of a small giant

[Ryan95227]

There's a man in South Korea by the name of "Im Gi Jong." He's a man who carries up to 140kg worth of food, gas, supplies, and even small refrigerator on his back and climb the treacherous mountains for 3+ miles everyday. He has been doing this for 46 years. His meal consists of fruit and only rice with water. He married his mentally disabled wife because he was mesmerized by her innocence and kindness. He vowed to take care of her throughout his life. In his free time, he also buys food for orphans and takes elderly people out to vacation. He also donates 70% of his income to charities and people in need.

From buddhist perspective, how can a normal person like him who has never been exposed to buddhist teaching do such generous activities that remind me of the buddha? I can't even fathom of anyone generous as he is. Many people are astounded by such selfless acts atm.

[chownah]

Sort of reminds me of me.....but in a smaller way of course.....I can't even lift 140kg and I certainly couldn't carry it up a treacherous mountain for 3+ miles everyday and I don't think I would do this for 46 years every day even if I could....there are no orphans around here to feed that I know of....if he climbs the treacherous mountain every day then the vacations he takes the elderly on must be only a few hours long or perhaps he does the mountain early one day and then when he is done he takes them on an overnite vacation and returns the next day to do his mountain gig.....

The thing I'm really puzzled about is that it seems that you think that only buddhists can be generous....this is a very huge and serious misunderstanding about the way people are in the world. There are millions of very generous people around the world who have nothing to do with buddhism and perhaps even scoff at its precepts......maybe you should get out more often and learn about the way real people are in the real world....
chownah

[Dhammanando]

There's a man in South Korea by the name of "Im Gi Jong." He's a man who carries up to 140kg worth of food, gas, supplies, and even small refrigerator on his back

What is the source of this story? 140kg would be roughly the weight of an adult giant panda.

At a weightlifting contest in Pattaya yesterday, a Chinese Olympic weightlifter won a gold medal and broke the world record for a snatch lift in the 61kg class by lifting just 145kg.

https://www.iwf.net/2019/09/19/li-fabin ... ld-irawan/

[chownah]

Dhammanando,
Thanks for your post....I am much relieved....I thought I was deficient in not being able to lift up 140kg and now I'm not worried about it in that I'm not going to try to break any records (or vertebra) trying.
chownah

[Alīno]

Dhamma is amazing !

Happiness and joy are purely mechanic (anatta) phenomenas
Happy and joyfull mind is a light mind, light mind is mind that give up weight, that not grasp on thing, generous and open...
So wise people (those who sees clearly with dicernement) sees that while they are generous they feel light and happy, full of joy... seeing that they develop generosity naturally.

Many people think that practice of generosity it's some kind of religious thing "you need to be generous because Buddha said it!". But generosity it's a beginning of happiness, of joy, of lightness, of wisdom. By giving up things (material and mental, like views etc) practitioner generates space between object and subject, it's no more "me, mine myself", so mind is liberated, being liberated mind is happy and joyfull.

It's better to glide throught the life like a skillfull men glide on the open ice; rather being stuck in it like a lost men is stuck in the dirty and sticky forest swamp..

[anthbrown84]

Why would someone have to be Buddhist to be nice?

Spiritual qualities come under The Dhamma, but they are not the whole path.

He will have a nice rebirth... He will still be in samsara regardless

[justindesilva]

There's a man in South Korea by the name of "Im Gi Jong." He's a man who carries up to 140kg worth of food, gas, supplies, and even small refrigerator on his back and climb the treacherous mountains for 3+ miles everyday. He has been doing this for 46 years. His meal consists of fruit and only rice with water. He married his mentally disabled wife because he was mesmerized by her innocence and kindness. He vowed to take care of her throughout his life. In his free time, he also buys food for orphans and takes elderly people out to vacation. He also donates 70% of his income to charities and people in need.

From buddhist perspective, how can a normal person like him who has never been exposed to buddhist teaching do such generous activities that remind me of the buddha? I can't even fathom of anyone generous as he is. Many people are astounded by such selfless acts atm.

We often do not realise that we continue our past habits from our past lives. Good habits as well as bad habits.
We can realise this by watching different kids having special acts especially martial arts etc.
Right now a 4 year girl keeps explaining the abidamma
on u tube which is unbelievable as only a learned bante could do it. Another utube shows a 5 year old repeating bruceli acts similarly. These are only some examples of repetitions in samsara.

[dharmacorps]

Why would someone have to be Buddhist to be nice?

Exactly my thoughts. Nice people exist whether the dhamma does or not. Not all Buddhists are nice or generous either.

[cappuccino]

There's a man in South Korea by the name of "Im Gi Jong"

I think he is fictional

[Ryan95227]

There's a man in South Korea by the name of "Im Gi Jong." He's a man who carries up to 140kg worth of food, gas, supplies, and even small refrigerator on his back

What is the source of this story? 140kg would be roughly the weight of an adult giant panda.

At a weightlifting contest in Pattaya yesterday, a Chinese Olympic weightlifter won a gold medal and broke the world record for a snatch lift in the 61kg class by lifting just 145kg.

https://www.iwf.net/2019/09/19/li-fabin ... ld-irawan/

here is a clip

[Ryan95227]

There's a man in South Korea by the name of "Im Gi Jong"

I think he is fictional

I posted a clip

[char101]

In programming language design there is a concept called duck typing: "if it quacks like a duck then it is a duck". If someone follows the principles taught by the Buddha then he can be called a Buddhist, regardless of what he calls himself. Also, Dhamma can be found in any book if it follows the principles taught by the Buddha not just in Buddhist scriptures. And vice versa, wrong dhamma can also be found in books labeled Buddhism.

But doing good is not a teaching specific to Buddhism though. So, in this case, he can be called a good man but not specifically Buddhist.

[cappuccino]

Velāma Sutta: About Velāma

[chownah]

Did you see the legs on that guy? He might actually be able to carry 140kg. Notice how his carrying frame puts the weight right over his hips so the only part of his body that carries all the weight is his legs.

Why are all the people standing around clapping for him?....is he a tourist attraction? Who pays him to carry this stuff up?....what is the name of the place up the mountain where he delivers this stuff and what are they going to do with the commercial stlye refrigerator?....do they have a generator to power it?....did he carry up the generator?
chownah

[Ryan95227]

Did you see the legs on that guy? He might actually be able to carry 140kg. Notice how his carrying frame puts the weight right over his hips so the only part of his body that carries all the weight is his legs.

Why are all the people standing around clapping for him?....is he a tourist attraction? Who pays him to carry this stuff up?....what is the name of the place up the mountain where he delivers this stuff and what are they going to do with the commercial stlye refrigerator?....do they have a generator to power it?....did he carry up the generator?
chownah

People are clapping for him because they saw him in other tv show. The restaurant/shop owners at the top of the mountain pay him. The mountain name is "Seol Ak Mountain" Yes he carries pretty much everything (sometimes injured tourist).

At just age of 10, he lost both of his parents. He could not graduate from elementary school due to money issue and started working as a house servant for other families. At 16, he started working as a carrier and has been working ever since. He actually loves working at the mountain because he feels that whenever he looks at the mountain at top he feels as if he is connected to the world and the world is inside him.

Another thing about him which is interesting to me is that he doesn't quite understand why people are desiring for material means. He said "I don't know why people are greedy when they suffer because of it.. just as one is born naked into the world one dies naked, taking nothing with him I think it's best to live everyday with effort."