Chapter Twelve: Exemplary Acts 8

After the March First independence movement of 1919, public sentiment grew extremely excitable and surveillance of the Founding Master by the Japanese authorities was becoming more intense every day. While he was staying at Kŭmsansa, he was called down to the Kimje police station, and while in Yŏngsan, to Yŏnggwang station, for several days of intensive police interrogation. Throughout his life, the Founding Master experienced numerous other occasions when he was detained and suppressed, but he never showed the slightest hint of hatred or resentment toward his oppressors; instead, he always treated them with equanimity. The Founding Master said, “They are only doing their job, just as we are only doing ours. If what we are doing is right, then in the long run no one will be able to harm or stop us.”