▲ Ascetic Joongsan Kim

When we think things go against us, we feel a sense of uncertainty about our lives. This is one of the most common reasons we seek an advice from a fortuneteller. Like any other business, a booming economy in a field accompanies a proliferation of unproven dealers and the fortunetelling is no different. This is the reason we had better find a knowledgeable and experienced fortuneteller to seek an advice. 

The Korean film <The Classified File> released in June 2015 is based on a true story that took place in Busan; a child is kidnapped and detective Kilyong Gong launches a secrete investigation. Meanwhile, the child’s family seeks advice from fortuneteller here and there but hear that the child is dead except one fortuneteller Joongsan Kim who says the child is still alive after looking carefully into the child’s four pillars of destiny (time, date, month and year of the birth), saying that the first contact is made from the kidnapper within 15 days. Exactly after 15 days, the kidnapper calls family that he keeps the child alive. Joongsan Kim we are talking about here is the model of the fortuneteller in the film.

“We cannot change four pillars of destiny but the course of our lives” says Kim. “The kidnapped girl ‘Hyoju’ had exactly this destiny. My reading on her told me that she was so bright to die in that early age. His father’s job was to kill living things so he must release living things in return and pray for the killed every day. In the four pillars of destiny of Hyoju, she has full of ‘gold’ and ‘soil’ which must be supported by the supportive four pillars of destiny and it was the detective Gong.” 

Kim and detective Gong became friends on this occasion and they have remained as the best friends ever since. Kim’s fame soared to the sky and people with lost family members flooded into him in a hope to find their beloved ones which he solved more than 300 cases.

Kim used to be a devoted Christian but changed to Buddhism. He served as the secretary general of the Korea Buddhist University Federation between 1964 and 1969. He always was the top at school and majored in law at Kyung Hee University to become a prosecutor. It was when he met monk Cheongdam that he absorbed in Buddhism. Cheongdam gave Kim a Buddhist name ‘Seonghae’. Kim had a great learning from late monk Seongcheol over a 12 hour session one day. He then launched his truth seeking journey. 

“I slang a sack which was just as simple as it got and traveled the nation to meet great monks. During this truth seeking period I had met many great monks: Seokam, Hyanggok, Seowoon, Hyobong and Seongcheol of course. Seongcheol asked me “Do you know what enlightenment is?” and he answered himself “It is the midway being turned into wisdom.” I’ve always carried this ever since.”

Time passed on and he met his teacher fortuneteller Park whom he shared the same ideas and goals with. He learned four pillars of destiny from Park but Juyeok and Cheonbugyeong from Byeongho Kim. 

Kim is an ascetic. He fasts on a regular basis and train himself harder with intensive pray for around 150 days a year. 

“Yuck is the sun and the moon. It means change but also easy. Easy is natural. In other words, the sun and the moon make the day and the night and this is natural. Living naturally makes things easy and vice versa. Everything depends on our minds. We cannot change four pillars of destiny but the course.”