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title: "ANALYSIS OF THE PRESENT TIME AND THE BLESSING"
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type: "speech"
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published: "2018-06-23T13:49:29+01:00"
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updated: "2018-06-23T13:51:22+01:00"
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source: "/blog/2018/06/23/analysis-of-the-present-time-and-the-blessing.html"
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speechYear: "1982"
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categories:
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- "Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982"
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tags: []
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---
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
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<h3 style="text-align: center;">June 13, 1982<br />
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Belvedere<br />
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Translator – Bo Hi Pak</h3>
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<p>Throughout history, no religious organization has put as much emphasis as we do upon the Blessing, or marriage. This is a point of major contrast between Catholicism and the Unification Church. As you know, the Catholic Church has always promoted celibacy, while we are strongly promoting marriage. Other religions have their own concepts about marriage, but generally the tone is discouraging. One “ample is Buddhism, which exalts celibacy and discourages married fife.</p>
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<p>Most religions have not put as much emphasis as we have upon the family, national and world levels of existence. They have mainly nurtured spirituality on an individual basis. They have also emphasized the spiritual aspects of life over all others. The Unification Church certainly emphasizes the spiritual aspects of life; we believe in the spiritual world and eternal life. But that is not all we emphasize. We stress the importance of this physical life on the earth.</p>
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<p>The Unification Church stands alone among all the other religions. People who look at us from the more common religious point of view think, “The Unification Church is preoccupied with worldly things. They go out selling flowers and they are always so busy making money” Many consider us less spiritual than a religion should be.</p>
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<p>On the other hand, those who embrace a secular point of view feel threatened by our activities. They observe the Unification Church moving into all different aspects of life-the media, economy, business, publications, and so forth. According to those people, the Unification Church is very mange as well as threatening.</p>
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<p>The parents of Unification Church members observe that their children have changed their life styles dramatically and they don’t know what to make of it. When you visit your family and relatives, they feel that you are somewhat different from the “good old days.” The old level of rapport doesn’t quite seem to be there and they sense some sort of gap between you and them. In the past, you might have spent your time casually voting your neighbors and relatives, but now you are spending all your time going out fund raising, knocking on doors for home church and trying to witness to people. Thus your relatives feel that your involvement in the Unification Church is very strange.</p>
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<p>When Unification Church members go to school, they stand out among all the other students because their focus is different. Other students occupy themselves with dating and parties, drinking and smoking; but Unification Church students have a different life style. Unification Church people have different interests and values.</p>
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<p>When the so-called Moonies gather together, people from all the races and nationalities freely relate with one another. Other people can clearly see that the Moonies really like each other. Furthermore the members of the Unification Church come from every sort of background.</p>
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<p>Regardless of their pasts, the members come together on a new basis as friends.</p>
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<p>People think Moonies talk about some strange things. They talk about the salvation of Korea, and it sounds funny because Korea seems to be doing nicely. Likewise, Moonies talk about saving America, but most people don’t understand what we are talking about. They even feel offended that we should say such things. Of course, when the Moonies really get started, we talk about the salvation of the whole world as well as the universe! We talk about serving the highest sovereignty and not stopping at any smaller level, such as the society or nation.</p>
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<p>Moonies talk about halting the spread of communism because it is the worst enemy of God and mankind. Yet, we never talk about “killing the commies” as some groups have in the past; instead we talk about “saving the commies” People dunk that what we are saying is incredible.</p>
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<p>Looking at the Moonies from the normal, common-sense point of view, we certainly appear to be a bunch of crazy people! We are talking about the salvation of the individual, family, tribe, nation, world, universe, cosmos-we are even talking about the liberation of God! When people hear these fantastic statements, they are convinced that we must have lost our minds.</p>
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<p>From the viewpoint of most religious people, we are talking about very strange things as well. We are saying that it is good to break down the barriers between different denominations and religions and that we should all come together as one, united religion. That is certainly big talk! Reverend Moon is claiming that God’s will is for all religions to come together.</p>
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<p>Unificationists and Reverend Moon claim that we will unite all different people as well as eliminate the problems that plague society, such as racism and cultural barriers. To others it sounds crazy, but to you it is most wonderful. Do you have the capacity to take on all the persecution of the world, as well as digest the differences between all the religions and races? When you go out into the world, persecution assaults you from six directions, including the vertical directions of up and down. Will you still continue?</p>
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<p>Why are we going this route? We ourselves need to understand why we must go this way. First of all, this is the historical destiny assigned to the members of the Unification Church; there is no one else at this time who can fulfill this responsibility. You are like a soccer ball. No matter how many times you may be kicked or in what direction, you have one goal. The more you are kicked, the more exciting and intense the contest. Furthermore, the more you are kicked, the greater is the chance that you will go into the goal.</p>
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<p>The two team in this soccer match are* God’s team and Satan’s team. Which side is taking the offensive in this soccer game? God’s side is, so they should be the hardest-working, busiest team. They should be moving faster, dashing in one direction and then another. Satan’s team is trying to move in and win the game, so Satan will always initiate the attack. God’s strategy of defense is always being hit then moving into the counteroffensive position.</p>
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<p>On the surface it looks as if God’s team is being defeated. However, the battle has come up to the final championship level. The side of evil has always attacked the side of goodness first. This is true even in street fights. Satan’s side not only attacks, but it is ruthless and tries to kill its opponents. Do you think God will take revenge and kill Satan and his forces? No, that is not God’s way.</p>
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<p>On the first level of confrontation, Satan inflicted heavy casualties against God’s side, killing many people. Therefore, God could claim a victory because Satan violated the rules, so God’s side could be elevated one step higher These have been God’s tactics-He allows Satan to kill those on His side. Yet by doing so, Satan violates the Principle, and God and His side can climb one step higher toward the final victory. Each time Satan strikes out and kills more on God’s side, then God is elevated one step higher. Step by step, this process has continue. God has not struck back, yet He is now facing Satan at the level of the final championship.</p>
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<p>God’s strategy is the opposite of Satan’s. Satan Will recognize at some point that God has come all the way up to the championship battle without ever killing anyone or even striking back. Satan will hurl the final challenge to God Himself God’s strategy has been to allow Satan to attack the religious people throughout history; Satan has killed many good people. At this time the religion of the last days is in position for the final showdown with Satan.</p>
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<p>Reverend Moon has the ambition to put the Unification Church in the position of the final challengers to Satan and to make the ultimate showdown with him. As God’s champions, we will declare, “God’s side has come this far in history without ever striking back at you, Satan, yet He has claimed the victory, based upon the Principle. You must have a grudge against God, Satan, because you think you handed over the victory too easily. So now you can come against us and do everything you want to do. Come on the individual level, the family, tribe, national-any level of attack. Do it now, once and for all !” There must be that final declaration by God’s champions. Likewise, God will declare that such a showdown must be the final one and Satan will accept it. God will say, “Satan, if you are defeated in this final battle, you must accept total defeat. You will be finished for eternity Do you agree?” And Satan will say, “Yes, I agree and promise”</p>
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<p>Thus God knows that Satan is approaching his final battle. This is one battle that God cannot afford to lose, so He needs a real champion. That real champion is none other than Reverend Sun Myung Moon. Reverend Moon is the “super soccer ball.” Wherever I go, every nation is kicking me, every society, everyone. That bell has had no idle moments but has been enduring constant kicking But when I see the goal for God’s side, I just jump in. When Satan kicks me toward his goal, even though be a very close, this ball goes in the opposite direction and jumps into God’s 908L Since this ball is completely aligned with God’s victory, He will not be able to low the game. When God’s side kicks the ball, it goes into God’s goal; and then when Satan kicks it, it turns around and goes into God’s goal again! God can’t lose!</p>
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<p>In the cosmic “soccer game between God and Satan, the ball is a special one. As it is kicked around and continues to go toward God’s goal all the time, it starts to grow. It becomes bigger and bigger and heavier and heavier Pretty soon, when Satan runs up and kicks it breaks his leg! Then he will be furious and say, “Why is this ball so heavy?” So he will cut the ball open and discover why it was so heavy-it was fail of Moonies! The more Satan kicks that ball, the more Moonies there are inside and the stronger and more united they become. That ball will become more and more substantial, no matter who lacks it; even if God kicks you, you will be solid.</p>
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<p>That special soccer ball which has grown bigger and heavier from being lacked around will end up in the museum of the world and universe. Does that make you fed. good? Those of you who have been lacked by the world, raise your hands please. What is the effect of being kicked? Do you want to give up in defeat, or do you want to fly like a ball to the highest heights? I think that you don’t want to be kicked like a soccer ball. Is that correct?</p>
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<p>When the ball is being kicked back and forth between God and Satan, it receives some tremendous blows and looks quite ragged, but it never bursts. It just continues to go toward the goal. You must be like that Even though you may look weak or even fragile, you must be able to take a lot of kicking and never break. Even though somebody steps on you and completely flattens you, still you must not burst. You just have to spread out; then as soon as that person releases his foot, you must bounce back with such energy it knocks him off balance. That is the right way for a Moonie to be-elastic and always bouncing back.</p>
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<p>Even at this time, I am in the position of that soccer ball. As you know, just the other day I was called into court by a certain judge and was kicked in all directions. But this ball never burst. They may attack me but I can claim more victory through that. After I was indicted, my opponents thought “Finally, Reverend Moon is finished!” But they were very wrong! While I have been fighting this court battle, I have been doing many other things. For example, we have been organizing The Washington Times project; also, we presented the Inchon film at the Cannes Film Festival.</p>
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<p>The producer of Inchon held a press conference at Cannes and declared, “Reverend Moon has a plan to produce a morally elevating, God-centered movie and spend A $ 1 billion on it:’ Everybody was stunned and thought, “Wasn’t Reverend Moon demolished in court recently?” The wealthiest Hollywood producer wouldn’t even think of spending $1 billion on one film, so many people are talking about Reverend Moon. Even while I am going to court, people are wondering how I can be doing so many things 11</p>
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<p>around the world.</p>
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<p>Just when people figured that Reverend Moon’s energies had to be depleted, I declared that we would hold a world-wide Blessing of 10,000 couples. I will officiate over a wedding of 2,000 couples on July I at Madison Square</p>
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<p>Garden! This is totally incredible to the world, people think that only a crazy person would try to do these things.</p>
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<p>Our activities here in America are not the end of the road. Even when we go to Moscow, that will not be the end. We will go all the way to the Heavenly Kingdom, with these activities as our stepping-stones. After the Washington</p>
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<p>Monument rally in 1976, 1 declared that Moscow was our next goal, and I am sure that the rulers inside the Kremlin were very amused by that. However, they are not so amused anymore; they are taking Reverend Moon very seriously now. Billy Graham recently traveled to Russia and became an unwitting tool of the communist leaders. But Reverend Moon will not do such a thing; I will challenge them squarely, face to face. I am sure that once the communists perceive me as a threat to them, they will want to kill me.</p>
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<p>The communists have their own strategy. They are thinking to take care of Reverend Moon before he ever gets near Moscow. They are saying, “Lets make sure Reverend Moon never even gets out of the free world; let’s clobber him there.”</p>
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<p>This court battle has arisen through the political maneuverings of people who want to dispose of Reverend Moon and finish him.</p>
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<p>Thus you must realize that we are engaged in a vicious, intense battle. Whatever you do as Unification Church members, including martial arts or boxing, become a champion at it. But we are not pursuing these forms of fighting in order to behave like gangsters; we are doing these things for the sake of righteousness and the justice of God.</p>
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<p>Will you women stand up for righteousness, too, or will you say to your husbands, “Oh, my beloved! I don’t want to lose you, so don’t go off to the battle!”?</p>
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<p>Whenever something is about to blow into your eye, your eye closes instantly. In that case, your eyes defenses are quicker than any offense. You must become a person with such defenses, capable of reacting as swiftly as your eyes.</p>
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<p>So far, I have spoken about what Moonies are. Why must you endure all of your struggles? It is because of the fall of man. Let this blackboard symbolize the universe. In the center, I will draw two small dots to represent Adam and Eve. The fall of man, in one sense, was a division between Adam and Eve, so they could never completely unite. Likewise their family became divided and the division extended to their tribe. The fall brought division all the way to the world level.</p>
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<p>The eight members of Adam’s family became divided. Thus there were eight different barriers. Within a clan of 100, there are 100 barriers; between 1,000 people there are 1,000 barriers. This is true all the way up to the present population of America, so there are 240 million barriers in this country. Each person lives within his own world with his own barriers. Who created those barriers, God or Satan?</p>
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<p>Look at your body. Is there a barrier and conflict between your eyes and ears? Consider this example. With your ears, you hear your parents say, “Don’t go to that particular movie,” but still your eyes want to see it. In that case, there is a barrier. Is there a barrier between your mind and body? Certainly there is. Since you recognize the barrier between your mind and body, there must also be a barrier between your physical senses and your spiritual senses. They are not communicating very well.</p>
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<p>If a thief steals something, his hand is reaching out even at the same time his mind is thinking, “I shouldn’t do this.” Thus there are barriers within individuals.</p>
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<p>What about men and women? They are very different. Women usually enjoy quieter pastimes, while men like to go out hunting and mountain climbing. That is a barrier. What about eating habits-are men and women different? They are also different in the way they dress. When a man has a little money, he might say, “I can go hungry next week, but tonight I want to go to a nice restaurant:’ A woman might prefer to go hungry so that she can spend her money on cosmetics or clothing, which she considers more important. There are a lot of barriers and differences between men and women.</p>
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<p>America is the so-called melting pot of the world, but is it really true? Are all the different kinds of people here really melted together? No, there are tremendous barriers between different kinds of people in America.</p>
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<p>Do you think that the ideal society would contain a lot of barriers between people? What power could break down the barriers between people and cause them to unite? Many Oriental homes have a low fence around them; the girls are supposed to stay inside their homes. But when the girls become teenagers, they are tall enough to look over the fence. Why? They are looking for boys! Here in the Western world the girls don’t have to look over any fences; they can just freely broadcast their interest at any time and place. Don’t you think that the subtle system in the Orient is more interesting for the boy-girl relationship?</p>
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<p>God has been wanting to break down the barriers between men and women. He wants to link up people with a “love ladder.” Do you think old people, the grandmothers and grandfathers, would like to climb on such a love ladder?</p>
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<p>That love ladder would link people from every position, beyond race and culture, beyond age; everybody would welcome it. Since Satan created the barriers, God has been thinking about how to knock them down.</p>
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<p>When two people are very much in love, they don’t want any barriers between them, so they try to break down all of them. They will dig a hole under any barrier that they can’t break down! I visited Rome and saw the ancient catacombs that were dug underground by the Christians.</p>
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<p>Satan sowed the first seeds of division, and he was the first criminal. Then Adam and Eve responded to Satan and multiplied that evil. The motivation of that first act of sin was love. Satan is the author of false love, while God is the author of true love.</p>
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<p>The action of fallen Adam and Eve, the false parents, was the beginning point of fallen human history. Therefore, we must begin history again with a new Adam and Eve. In order to turn from falseness to truth, everything must be done in the opposite way. In order to become a true Adam and Eve, you must do exactly the opposite from what the fallen Adam I and Eve did. Satan wanted to elevate himself, so the true Adam and Eve must be humble and willing to take the lowest position. All the religions, especially Christianity</p>
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<p>have taught man to become sacrificial, humble and meek for this reason. By going in the opposite direction from Satan, you can stand in the sight of God.</p>
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<p>You cannot come close to God without going in the opposite direction from Satan. Another important characteristic of Satan is his self-serving and completely self-centered nature. The opposite is to be unselfish and self-sacrificing. I know You have resisted me when I tell you that you should</p>
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<p>give everything of yourself for the sake of others. You think that You will lose what you have and gain nothing, but I want You to know that You will lose nothing and will gain the most important thing-God. You will be standing on the side of God and He will be right behind you.</p>
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<p>We are now creating the new Adam and Eve, the new families, clan, societies, nations, and world which are exactly Opposite from the old. We could say that we are building a new pyramid with the True Parents on top. The old pyramid was topped by the evil, false parents. How do we go from</p>
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<p>the old pyramid to the new one? Can we break down the barriers by violence and conflict? No, we cannot. It is only through the power of love that we can break down the barriers between this world and God’s world. That is because</p>
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<p>evil or illicit love brought the fall of man in the beginning.</p>
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<p>What is the difference between true love and illicit love? The difference is in the ownership. They are centered upon totally different philosophies of life. The person who tries to be humble, meek and sacrificial is behaving in a totally opposite way from those people under Satan. What is the goal of love-centered behavior? It is unification, or oneness. Instead of creating barriers, that kind of behavior creates harmony; through that kind of give and take, you create circular motion. The world of Satan is one of confrontation; the Heavenly world is one of give and take.</p>
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<p>True unification can only come through God-centered, sacrificial give and take. Why is this true? That is exactly the opposite way from the satanic way, which is self-centered and arrogant. Unless we create the God-centered Adam and Eve, and this type of family, tribe, nation and world, there is no way we can eliminate the satanic pyramid.</p>
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<p>This sounds very good, but the question is whether it is realistically possible. However, when you begin truly loving others and practicing sacrificial give and take, you will see 91</p>
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<p>for yourself that the barriers will start to break down. When you live Eke that, you will see that people will trust you and open all the doors of their hearts to you. They will want to confide in you about their personal matters. That is clearly an example of the barriers breaking down and the doors opening up. He who practices the truly sacrificial way of fife will find himself elevated into the central figure position.</p>
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<p>I want you to understand that we are at war, but it is a unique kind of war. Our weapons are love, service and sacrifice and with those, we can win. This is truly and wonderful!</p>
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<p>This tactic is one sure way to resist and win over persecution. You can melt persecution by love and sacrificial service for others, with the goal of unification. Do you think this is possible? What about the German people? Are they different and not under the same principle? How about the Anglo-Saxon “ladies and gentlemen”? The same principle applies to all people.</p>
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<p>Reverend Moon has been living by this principle and it has worked. Look at the way the Korean nation has changed. At first they persecuted and mistreated me tremendously but I continued to live by the Principle. Now there is a widespread mood among the nation of Korea that their only hope is in the guidance of Reverend Moon. Another amazing transformation has been taking place in Japan. When I first went there, the media tore me apart, using many cheap and discourteous accusations. But now the Japanese consider Reverend Moon to be a great person. They are proud to claim him as an “Oriental man.”</p>
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<p>Here in America, people are beginning to recognize that Reverend Moon is the only person who is squarely confronting the communist ideology. They will soon want to claim Reverend Moon as a “part of the free world,” and thus a part of them.</p>
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<p>I have been walking this one-way street guided by the Principle. Some people say, “Reverend Moon, why can’t you somehow be a little wiser? After all, you could be sneakier when you present yourself and the Church, since people are so completely negative against the Unification Church already.” But I cannot do that. I walk a one-way street.</p>
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<p>Many people felt threatened when I first came to this country representing not just the Unification Church of Korea, but the international Unification movement. Many people can do many things well, but there is one thing that no one can surpass me in-that is, in the practice of sacrificial, God-centered love. I have demonstrated clearly that I love America more than I love Korea. I have served this country first, giving my sacrificial best, because my goal is unification.</p>
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<p>At this time many people are opposing us in America, but soon we shall become the central religion and ideology. This nation and world will benefit because of us and will become unified. Both the communists and Reverend Moon came to this country to wage an offensive battle, but our goals were entirely different. Communism came to take for its own selfish purposes; Reverend Moon came to give and serve and create the atmosphere of unity. With this message, it doesn’t matter what people are saying today or tomorrow or next year Eventually the whole world will become united under God’s love, through this love alone can the world become one. Do you agree with me?</p>
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<p>Let’s talk about the terminology of “True Parents,” something which sounds strange to others. When you talk about True Parents, you are automatically denoting the existence of false parents. What are false parents? The parents who stand on the side of God are the True Parents; those who stand on Satan’s side are the false parents.</p>
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<p>The false parents are found on every level and have expanded to the tribal, societal, national and worldwide level. What about Mr. Reagan? What type of “parent” for America is he? Since he is the national sovereign, he is in the parental position. Do you think it is good that a parent keeps his position for only four years at a time and then someone else takes over? No, when you speak of parents, you speak of an eternal, unchanging quality. Therefore, no one can take the role of True Parents except those who were assigned by God Himself.</p>
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<p>Adam and Eve created the first barriers; therefore, every succeeding echelon of society had its own barriers. But there is always the live seed of man’s original mind, and through that God will be able to work. The original mind is not self-centered; it is public-centered and God-centered. That original mind is the door through which God will be able to penetrate into the fallen world, Satan’s pyramid.</p>
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<p>Who are the good people? They are those whose original minds are more alive than others. The degree of development of the original mind determines how good a person is. The person who wants to give and serve others the most is the one whose original mind is most developed. When you serve others, God can approach you. You must live for the sake of others. The more you do that, the more easily God can approach you and unite with you.</p>
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<p>The original minds of all people in the satanic world are still alive and hoping to grow. Therefore, the fallen world has hope for restoration. In order to restore this world, you must have a way of life that is directed toward the sake of others. You must five for them and serve them sacrificially. Then you expand that standard.</p>
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<p>Now you should understand why the Unification Church is always emphasizing, over and over again, that you must live for the sake of others. That is the only way you can expand your own original mind and that of others around you; that is the only way you can make room for God in this world. When you are really serving and living for others, you will exercise more freedom and have more flexibility in this life. You will be accepted by people around you, and you will encounter fewer and fewer barriers. Through this life style, God Himself will come and teach you bow to live. He will tell you, “Please serve and be sacrificial with true love and the victory will be won.” Is this clear to you?</p>
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<p>That is why I have been teaching you to Eve for the sake of others and asking you to follow my example, so that God can come and dwell with you. You will create the new world for God, and you will be the inheritors of that new world. You will be passing on true love to your descendants.</p>
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<p>Let’s suppose that there are ten members of a family living together. The person who serves the most getting up earliest and working hardest around the home, is truly living for the sake of others. One person might go to bed early while another stays up late every night, cooking or cleaning. Which is the more serving one? The person who wants to serve simply cannot lie in bed late in the morning or go to bed early at night. That person will want to sew buttons on the jackets of others or polish their shoes. Initially such a person will be taken for a fool, but eventually everyone will come to rely upon him and even bring him their personal problems. It will only be a matter of time before he learns all the secrets of the house. Even the master of the house will come to him. Therefore, he will be the central figure, without a doubt. Is this true or not?</p>
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<p>Do you like home church, then? The principle of home church is derived directly from this. You must pin recognition from the tribe before you are recognized by the nation; thus your arena is the home church. Unless you are welcomed by the tribe, you can never expect the nation to welcome you. For that matter, if you are not even welcomed by your own family, how can you expect the tribe to welcome you? Is this correct?</p>
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<p>The Bible contains a beautiful quotation: “Know the truth, for the truth shall set you free!’ Now you know the truth and you will be freed. You will become the center of your family, your tribe, your nation; you will be elevated and promoted in that manna. So now do you understand that you must live for the sake of others?</p>
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<p>The work of God within the fallen world is nothing other than to liberate man’s original mind and expand it. The entire world may say that it is all right to live just for oneself-, the selfish way of life is always being promoted. But now God has declared that people must live for the sake of others.</p>
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<p>There are many people from different nationalities working at East Garden. Some people evaluate themselves according to how long they have worked there-whether it is five years or whatever-but that makes no difference whatsoever. There are some people who think, “As long as I am fulfilling my particular responsibility, then your job has nothing to do with me. I don’t care about anybody else’s responsibility.” That person may think he is very clever, but I can see through that sort of thinking With My Special “true love eyeglasses.” I can see the truth within that person. There are people at East Garden who suddenly snap to attention and try to call attention to themselves whenever I walk outside the door. But as soon as I am gone, I know those people relax and take it easy again. The fallen world may live that way, but we must become different.</p>
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<p>The members of the Unification Church are different you look very smart, with shining and intelligent eyes, yet your deeds seem dumb to others. The Moonies are going to the lowest levels of society and serving others. You look smut, while behaving in a seemingly dumb way; but it is not really dumb. The Moonies are the cure-all for society. People will come to feel that with a Moonie around, they don’t have to worry. Furthermore, the Moonies are clever and whenever people have a question they can answer it for them.</p>
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<p>Perhaps a truck driver will feel fired, so even a small Moonie woman can come around and drive for him. Ordinarily a tiny woman would not even want to come near a truck, much less drive one. But for Moonies, doing something so out of the ordinary is merely natural. liars not all. That tiny Moonie girl can also drive a bulldozer if she sets her mind to it. The only reason we do what we do is that nobody else wants to do it. We do what others hate to do.</p>
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<p>I always dress in a humble, inconspicuous way. Wherever I go, I try to participate in the activities around me, wanting to help however I can. By practicing this way of life every place I have lived, I learned all the secrets of the people around me within a few months. What about you? Would you like to unburden your secrets to me, too? Yes, because you know you can trust me. I learned the secrets of many people who later became my enemies but I will never use those secrets against them. Once someone has trusted me like that, I will never betray him.</p>
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||||
<p>Some People have left the church after having told me everything about themselves. Now they are adversaries of the Unification Church and are doing many against us. But as soon as that person sees me, he has no strength to even look me in the eyes. He knows deep within himself that I am righteously keeping his personal secrets, no matter what</p>
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||||
<p>Do you think my teaching has been correct or not? Suppose I tried to kick you out of the Unification Church what would you do? Would you pack your luggage and go out the front door, but then sneak in through the back door?</p>
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||||
<p>You know that Satan hates Reverend Moon because Reverend Moon knows his every secret, so he is helpless in front of me. It is as if I am poking Satan’s eyes, plugging up his ears, zipping up his mouth, stopping his nose, and binding his arms and legs. The ironic thing is that by opposing me so much, Satan is actually helping me. I devised the strategy by which I cannot lose. As I already mentioned, it doesn’t matter who kicks the ball-whether it is Satan or God-it will always go to the goal. Now Satan is in a dilemma.</p>
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||||
<p>Did you make the right decision by leaving the secular world and joining the Unification Church? What land of a group are you in- -a very dramatic and joyful one? You can find everything you could want in the Unification Church. If you are looking for excitement, here it is. If you want to satisfy all your curiosity, you can do it hem When people first join the Unification Church, this way of life appears to be complicated and confusing. But once you penetrate into the heart of this life-style, you discover that the truth is very simple. We are simply striving to live sacrificially for the sake of others; period.</p>
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||||
<p>The satanic world cannot survive in the face of these tactics. I want you to understand that we are living in the midst of hostile territory known as the secular world. Our mission is like that of high-level spies for Heaven. There are other spies in this land, but they have a different method and goal. They seek to corrupt and ultimately destroy the country. But the Heavenly spy goes into the hostile land for a different purpose-to save it. Satan is saying that Reverend Moon is an intruder in this country, trying to hurt and deprive this country, eventually to destroy it. But actually I have come like a Heavenly spy with the mission of saving this nation. I did not come here to mislead young people but to direct them to the way of ultimate life.</p>
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||||
<p>Why is it that Reverend Moon and the Unification Church’s ideology will ultimately succeed, while the communist ideology, which is so powerful today, will ultimately crumble? It is because the communists are talking about a different Utopia. They say that the individual must reject his family, his society and nation and struggle against them. But Reverend Moon is talking about a Utopia that is centered upon God. In order to achieve it, the individual does not reject anyone. Instead he must become a restored individual and work to restore his family, tribe, nation and world with love. On every level, you must intensify your love. More than your family, you must serve and love your tribe; more than your tribe, you must love your nation. Rather than rejecting them, you must make them whole. This is truly an ideology of building, not destroying.</p>
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||||
<p>When a person accepts a certain system, such as democracy, he normally rejects any other, including the aristocratic or monarchic systems. But the Unification Church does not reject or deny the validity of any of these. We can appreciate the good points of every system. We can even accept communism, as long as God is placed at the center. This is a truly dramatic way of life.</p>
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||||
<p>We are climbing the ladder to restoration. At each higher rung, we must intensify our love. Love your neighbors and your family; then love your country more than that; love your world more than your country Love God more than your world. That is the way.</p>
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||||
<p>According to your culture, you may enjoy eating bread, butter, and cheese, while Korean people enjoy rice, hot pepper paste and kimchee. Do you like kimchee? Can you believe that true love can come out of the kimchee and rice culture? Or must it arise from the cheese, bread and butter culture? True love is the same in any culture.</p>
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||||
<p>Perhaps there are ten different nationalities and cultures represented within a single household. Then the cook would have to cook ten different meals for them. But every one of them will appreciate and respond to the same true love. The cook would be motivated by true love and thus would feel joyful to work so hard for others.</p>
|
||||
<p>Is true love a different experience for white people than for black people? No, it is the same. The Unification Church is a collection of all different cultures. I would enjoy seeing the Japanese members come to Belvedere dressed in their native costumes, likewise, the members from India and other countries. That is fine. The important common element that we share is true love. True love transcends all the aspects of culture, such as eating habits and customs. True love will unite the world.</p>
|
||||
<p>If you American people love your country with true love, you will become known as a true patriot. Often those people who embrace a worldwide ideology will deny the value of the nation, but we do not do that. We want to embrace all nationalities and in that way achieve harmony of the world. When we pray, we all pray in our different languages, but we are praying with the same common love. Thus we are all praying about the same thing.</p>
|
||||
<p>There is no other way to break down the barriers of the fallen world except through true love. By behaving in a sacrificial, serving way, the end result will be the unification of the world.</p>
|
||||
<p>Isn’t God smart to come up with this plan? Think about it-can you imagine any other way to unite the world except by true love? I thought about it, pondering whether there was any other way But the universe is centered upon the truth of the parent/child relationship-God and mankind. When you live this way, doing home church and serving other people, you are taking the parental position to your tribe.</p>
|
||||
<p>Once the unification of the world has come, those who helped to bring it about will be in the parental positions. That is the most holy position. You must be able to demonstrate how true parents five. Such parents are the epitome of the God-centered way of fife; they are the ones who love the children with truly unselfish hearts. You will know you are doing the right thing when people consider you to be like a parent to them.</p>
|
||||
<p>Reverend Moon looks at America in the role of parent. Every effort I am making in this country is motivated out of the parental heart. Therefore, whatever happens to this nation, the bond of Father/child cannot be broken between us. The True Parents are the parents of restored true love. They are loved and embraced by the family and, likewise, they are received and loved by the tribe. They are also received by the nation and the world. Ultimately they are connected with the heart of God, winch creates the vertical line of connection with the rest of the universe. Thus the True Parents become the axis of the restored world, from the heart of God all the way down to the individual. Every level of the world has the same center</p>
|
||||
<p>The God-centered parents become the center of the family, tribe, nation, world, cosmos, and the entire spirit world. What is home church? It is actually the microcosm of the world. Whatever you do on the tribal level of your home church area, you have the qualification to see it on the level of the world.</p>
|
||||
<p>Your home church area is the tribal level where you can practice your own parenthood. It is like your school to learn how to be a good parent. If you want to progress to the national level, you must establish your parental position on the tribal level. You will form your own tribes-the Smiths, the Michaels, the Thomases. To form a nation, all the tribes will come together and the perfected, parental tribes will join together as the foundation for the nation.</p>
|
||||
<p>As an example, let’s look at Korea with a population of 40 million. If every tribe had its own perfected parent, then the restoration of the nation would already be accomplished. When you are successful in the creation of your Abel tribe, the Cain tribe will be restored automatically. For example, when we restore the free world, the restoration of the communist world will come about automatically.</p>
|
||||
<p>What must be the center or the backbone of these things? It is the parental tradition, centered upon sacrificially living for the sake of others. At each stage, centered upon the parents, your scope becomes wider and wider, representing your growth. Parental love should be expanded from the family level to the tribal level, the tribal to the national level, and so forth, so that a horizontal base can be achieved, not just a vertical one.</p>
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||||
<p>In the spiritual center of America are the True Parents and their family; surrounding them is the Unification Church the Abel layer, and finally there is the rest of society. Those three layers must become united into one. The Cain world should unite with Abel; the Abel world should unite with the True Parents’ family; in this way all three layers become united.</p>
|
||||
<p>Also, the three different ages in the vertical relationship must become united-that is, the Old Testament era, the New Testament era, and the Completed Testament era. Thus we will have both the vertical and the horizontal lines united.</p>
|
||||
<p>In order for those lines to be fulfilled, they must consist of subject and object pairs. That is why we need marriage. We could say that on the left side of the central fine is the men’s world; but if we only have the men’s world, then we are crippled. We need both sides. Therefore, we need the women’s world on the right side. Do you think that men and women need only each other? No, they each need to fulfill their relationship with every level of existence, on both the horizontal and vertical level. Otherwise, they do not make room for their restoration.</p>
|
||||
<p>Some couples claim that they don’t want to worry about the rest of the world but only each other. They just want to enjoy each other’s company, but that will never work. Why not? God’s goal is to link together every level of human society, so He wants people to inherit His tradition on the worldwide basis, not just on the level of the couple. The isolated couple does not interest God at all.</p>
|
||||
<p>How about you? Do you only cam about your own couple? No, our marriages are not just for the benefit of one man and one woman. Our marriages are for the sake of the entire world. Why do you come to me and say, “Father, I want you to find my mate for me”? You could go out and marry anyone you wanted and do whatever you want, yet you come to me. You could say, “I want to make my own decisions and rule my own fife. My spiritual adviser isn’t going to do that for me.” Why don’t you say that to me? You want to receive the inheritance on every level.</p>
|
||||
<p>The True Parents have won the battle on every level, knocking down all barriers and gaining total freedom. When you inherit that tradition, you can also inherit that freedom. Within the Unification Church there are people from virtually every religion-Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist, Moslem. We have a woman here today who is a Buddhist monk and has come to join us in our worship service. We are bringing together all different ethnic and cultural groups.</p>
|
||||
<p>We Are even melting enemies into unity The relationship between many French and German people a like cab and dogs. Do you dunk such people would even think of marrying each other? For many French and German people, marrying each other would just be impossible, but within the Unification Church it happens. We are bringing together religions, races, and enemy nations. Do you think this is something Reverend Moon is going to do, or haven’t I already done it? I have also opened up the doors between Korea, Japan, and the United States.</p>
|
||||
<p>The most fundamental problems of life me being solved through our marriages. When black parents who hate white people see their son marrying a white girl, they may be stunned and feel that the worst possible thing has happened! The same is true with some white parents. But once those parents observe that white and black couple loving each other, having children and creating a beautiful family, they start to change. They my not completely change and forgive their children within their lifetimes, but at the moment of their deaths, when they are facing spirit world, they will forgive you! They will forget everything but their love for you.</p>
|
||||
<p>You know that the True Parents have the ability to unite races, religions, and enemies, and you want to inherit their total tradition. In order to do that, you must link yourself to the True Parents. What better way is there to do that than to have them pick your marriage partner for you? When I give you the Blessing, I am giving it on the worldwide foundation; thus you inherit that foundation. You gain freedom from all the barriers in just one stroke. You don’t have to break down all those barriers on your own because True Parents have already done it.</p>
|
||||
<p>Within your own lifetime, all you have to do is expand this vertical foundation to the horizontal level. The individual becomes a family, the family becomes a tribe, the tribe becomes a nation, the nation becomes the world. Your mission is to do this during this second three seven-year course. You receive the True Parent’s spirit and then you expand it horizontally. That is why we have the dispensation of home church as our method to accomplish that expansion.</p>
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||||
<p>Within the home church, you have the individual, family, tribe, Cain and Abel, and all the different stages that must be restored on the horizontal level. When you are successful on the tribal level, that would link you to the nation; you would be linked to the world automatically.</p>
|
||||
<p>During these three seven-year courses, we must expand the vertical dispensation to the horizontal level. Without the fall of Adam and Eve, there would not have been any barriers at all. People would have been able to grow naturally to every level, from tribe, nation, to the world. They would have created the circuit between the individual to the world, and everything would have flowed smoothly. That was how it was supposed to be.</p>
|
||||
<p>Since we do not have this kind of world, we must talk about restoration. This world needs True Parents in order to be restored into that original world. In order to move from the fallen world into the restored one, our methods must be exactly opposite from satanic methods. Whatever Satan will not do, God’s people will do. That is what we call restoration by indemnity.</p>
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||||
<p>Have you paid the indemnity for all the different levels? No, but the True Father has done that. I have cut through the jungle and built for you a superhighway. All you have to do is inherit that victory. Therefore, every husband and wife must be totally united with the True Parents. The original fall occurred when Adam and Eve did not obey their parent, God. So today, in order to restore that fall, husband and wife must obey the True Parents. God has been working through the True Parents, putting together the broken pieces of this world, like a Heavenly welder.</p>
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||||
<p>Each man must become a branch of True Father and each woman must become a branch of True Mother. Would you ever think of trying to prevent God from coming into you? Wouldn’t you want to totally demolish all barriers between you and God? God wants to come to you in order to love you, not to take anything away from you. The same is true of the True Parents. They come to you to love and serve you; they come in God’s heart. The True Parents are bringing God’s inheritance to you; thus how could you ever try to prevent them from coming to you?</p>
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||||
<p>If you say, “Don’t touch me!” to True Parents, you are resisting God Himself. Parents with a new baby will touch him everywhere; that baby doesn’t resist them. Parents are entitled to touch, not only the baby’s physical body but also the mind and heart of that baby. There is no barrier between them.</p>
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||||
<p>Imagine if True Parents knocked on your door at midnight and you and your spouse were in bed together. Would you shout, “Please come back tomorrow morning!”? The appropriate response would be to run and open the door, even if you were completely unprepared, and just welcome your Parents. When a person is totally joyful, he will forget about himself. That is the relationship between you and the True Parents-there are no barriers.</p>
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||||
<p>The relationship between you and the True Parents should be intimate and limitless; you can share everything and you can be absolutely one. You must appreciate the Parents. They have brought a great gift to you; everything has been given as your inheritance. This is your heritage and your prestige. Then how can you complain about the spouse the True Parents gave to you? Can you say, “I would rather disregard your decision and make my own”?</p>
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||||
<p>Some people might feel, “I have the right to choose my own mate and that is what I intend to do; so, Father, please stay out of it.” Is that the right or wrong frame of mind? After all, you were matched on the authority of True Parents, but you each had the right to accept or not. I gave you the chance to make your decision. But can you now say, “I didn’t think about it clearly and now I want to be re-matched”? That means you are denying your own judgment, denying your partner.</p>
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||||
<p>How can you ask to be re-matched? It is impossible. That lies outside the realm of Principle. You each had the chance to refuse your match, but once you accepted it, you made a covenant between God, the True Parents, and yourself. Can you imagine God changing His mind every day? Once you have made a decision, based on God’s recommendation, even if you think it turned out to be a mistake, it could not be a mistake.</p>
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||||
<p>You may not live a particularly happy married life, for one reason or another, but you should not worry. God has ample ways of repaying you. God is limitless and almighty. There are millions of ways God can reward you, for instance through your children, because God rules the realm of heart. If you are matched two or more times by True Parents and reject it, then you will feel ashamed before them. Acceptance of your spouse is an act of faith more than anything else.</p>
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||||
<p>Without your doing anything, you have been brought up to the top of the pyramid of the restored world by the True Parents and have been given the Blessing. The home church is like one little horizontal dot which represents the entire pyramid. You are setting the condition in your home church to claim the rest of the pyramid. God can accept that condition to give you the rest of the pyramid.</p>
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||||
<p>Some people say, “I don’t like home church so I’m not going to do it” They are not actually denying home church itself; they are denying the basic, fundamental principle behind it. They are actually denying the True Parents.</p>
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||||
<p>Your goal is to stand at the top of the pyramid and receive the Blessing. In order to get there, you must do home church. You will become true parents yourselves in your home church area. I have pioneered the worldwide level and I have experienced worldwide persecution; still I have succeeded. In your time, you will find that people will welcome you because the persecution has been so greatly diminished. Compared to what I endured, the persecution you will receive will be like nothing. Soon the people will completely welcome you. IN</p>
|
||||
<p>From the point of victory in home church, you will be able to leap into the Kingdom of Heaven. That is the place of Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, but you are not just in such a simple place. You have a huge “tail” or foundation, which will give you the boost to go to the top. It will not drag you down but will push you up. In order to be pushed up, you must take the position of parent, loving others with A parental heart.</p>
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||||
<p>That is why I said that home church is the base of the Kingdom of Heaven. Just like launching the Apollo rocket, you must have a launching pad-your home church-to be launched into the Kingdom of Heaven.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you go out to lay the foundation of your tribe, look at Jesus’ example. He had twelve apostles. Also there were two families-Joseph’s and Zachariah’s. Then there were seventy main disciples. That equals eighty-four altogether. Thus you need eighty-four people to form your own tribe. In order to accomplish eighty-four in the next seven years, you need to bring in one person every month; that is twelve spiritual children per year. Jesus’ crucifixion came because there was no unity between the twelve apostles and the seventy disciples. Strictly speaking, you should fulfill the eighty-four spiritual children in order to be eligible to receive the Blessing.</p>
|
||||
<p>According to the Principle, Noah had three sons. Together with their wives, including Noah and his wife, there were eight family members. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were three generations; Jacob had twelve sons who created twelve tribes. There the tribal center was begun. Moses had seventy-two elders who represented the people on a national foundation. The number three is included within twelve; twelve is included within seventy-two. The numbers are all parallel.</p>
|
||||
<p>Jesus had three major disciples-in the position of Noah’s three sons. That was the restoration of the Adam family in Jesus’ time. He gained twelve apostles in all, including the three, but at the same time Jesus suffered the Crucifixion due to the betrayal of Judas Iscariot. Thus Jesus could not fully establish the number seventy-two. However, after the Crucifixion, the 120 disciples gathered in Mark’s upper room to pray and they experienced the Pentecost. The Holy Spirit came down and the true beginning point of Christianity occurred. This was on the spiritual national level.</p>
|
||||
<p>The number 120 is significant. After World War II, when the number of predominantly Christian nations had grown to more than 120, it signified that the last days were here. The Messiah comes upon the foundation of 120 Christian nations. The number 360 is a multiple of 120. With each stage of formation, growth and perfection represented by 120, that equals 360.</p>
|
||||
<p>The role of the Lord of the Second Advent is to consummate the perfection of the three Adams. First of all, he comes to restore the original Adam who fell in the Garden of Eden; secondly, to restore the position of Jesus, who came as the second Adam; and thirdly, to fulfill the perfection of the third Adam in the position of the second Messiah.</p>
|
||||
<p>Jesus’ suffering and crucifixion had to be duplicated and paid for by the Christians. By the same token, when the second Messiah came and physically suffered through persecution, although he was triumphant in laying the foundation, certain conditions have to be paid by all the members of the Unification Church. By sharing in tribulations, you are inheriting Adam’s blessings.</p>
|
||||
<p>First of all, you must be courageous enough to declare, “I will not be like the first Adam and lose my vision and faith. I will be better than Adam. I will maintain my dignity as a man. If any woman tries to tempt me to eat of the fruit, I will not do it. I will never be the same as Adam in the Garden of Eden.”</p>
|
||||
<p>You women must declare, I will not be like Eve in the Garden of Eden. No matter who comes to me, no matter how attractive like the archangel, I will not listen to him. I will be smarter than that.”</p>
|
||||
<p>Once Adam and Eve get married, can they possibly divorce and marry again? No, there is no possibility of that. You must determine, I will never change my partner, no matter what. He/she is my only, God-given partner.”</p>
|
||||
<p>From the experience of the first Adam, you are learning the necessity of absolute purity. Is that correct? From Jesus’ life, you are learning the necessity of absolute faith. Jesus never had any qualms about obeying the order of God; he was not the slightest bit weak and he never complained. From the third Adam, you are learning the necessity of absolute heart and devotion to God.</p>
|
||||
<p>Centering upon true love, you must be meek and humble, giving your life in service to others. Jesus’ first teaching was, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” Repentance requires a lot of faith, and through that condition you can be forgiven by God. Then forgiveness brings about your restoration. So the first requirement for absolute faith is repentance. Then, once forgiveness has been given, your salvation begins. That is the process.</p>
|
||||
<p>You are given forgiveness by the third Adam. That means you are inheriting forgiveness for the sin of the first Adam; also, you are inheriting the foundation of the second Adam. Therefore, you inherit the ability to gain the true heart from God. The entire world must be brought into the realm of God through the heart of the True Parents. You must live in their heart. You must look at the entire world from the parental point of view. That is what you inherit from the third Adam.</p>
|
||||
<p>That is why you can go all the way up to the pure Adam and Eve’s position. By learning absolute purity, absolute faith, and absolute heart, you can stand in the position of pure Adam and Eve and receive the Blessing.</p>
|
||||
<p>If there had been no fall, there would still be at least 120 nations in the world, but they would all be living in harmony. Jesus came to fulfill the dispensation of a world community of at least 120 nations, centering upon the Roman Empire. At the time of the Second Advent, there is a foundation of 120 Christian nations. The 120 nations of each era equal 360; therefore, home church represents the entire dispensation.</p>
|
||||
<p>What would you teach people in your home church? There are three basic elements to teach-absolute purity, absolute faith, and absolute heart. The result would -be unification-not by purity or by faith alone, but by heart. Heart can unite them all. Thus you must set all the conditions and pass through all these three stages. Where must you do it? Within the realm of your 360 homes.</p>
|
||||
<p>You will live through the entire history of the Bible in your home church. Therefore, you must receive Old Testament type persecution, New Testament-type persecution and Completed Testament-type. That is inevitable. The best way to unite your area is to pursue those people who oppose you the most. Love them and gain their acceptance; overcome their opposition and then you have won. If you just go to those homes which welcome you, that is the wrong path. You must go where people persecute you and tame them with the power of love.</p>
|
||||
<p>Each couple, a man and woman, has 360 homes apiece, which totals 720, a multiple of seventy-two. The worldwide level is represented by seventy. The dispensation in Jesus’ time was on the national level, but at this time of the Second Advent, it is on the level of the world. Husband and wife have this job to do. If you are worrying about supporting your family, this is the way.</p>
|
||||
<p>Every dispensational number is contained within 360 – three, twelve, seventy-two, and 120. Of course, if you really don’t want to do it, then it’s up to you. But if you know the truth and you know that the truth shall make your free, then you will want to act. You have that freedom.</p>
|
||||
<p>I want you to understand that you are able to move forward to the Blessing because you are superior to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Your inheritance is superior to that of Jesus Christ’s of 2,000 years ago. Your inheritance is from the True Parents on the worldwide level; therefore, you can begin your own tribe in the home church. Even Jesus couldn’t do that because he didn’t have the foundation of True Parents. So your first great privilege is to have the True Parents.</p>
|
||||
<p>Your second privilege is that you are ready to inherit the base of the tribe, nation, and world, as well as the ideal of the Heavenly Kingdom. This inheritance is something that even Jesus did not have. Furthermore, the time of persecution will soon be over, particularly once the legal battle is finished.</p>
|
||||
<p>Don’t you think that I will win over all the persecution within my own lifetime? America and the free world are beginning to feel that they have been too cruel to Reverend Moon; their original minds are beginning to prick them. One side benefit of the recent court appearance was the headlines in the major papers: “Reverend Moon Met Jesus, Buddha, and Moses.” That clearly shows that Reverend Moon keeps good company! This particular publicity is showing people that Reverend Moon has the capacity to unite the different religions. Perhaps someone would say, “I think Reverend Moon was lying about meeting those people,” and you can say, “Not at all That was his sworn testimony under oath!”</p>
|
||||
<p>Now the Jewish people, the Christians and the Buddhists of the world have to look at Reverend Moon differently. The other day, a couple of Moslem believers came to the Church headquarters and asked, “Did Reverend Moon meet Mohammed, too?” When they heard that he had, they were very comforted. This is amazing testimony which gives us great joy. But I want you to realize that this is also very serious testimony; it is upon a long and serious background that these kinds of things can be said.</p>
|
||||
<p>We have initiated many different activities, such as the Religious Congress, the Professors World Peace Academy, the Science Conference, the Minority Alliance International. All these things are happening; they are beyond the realm of thought.</p>
|
||||
<p>Our topic today has been Analysis of the Present Time and the Blessing. Our basic conclusion is that without accomplishing in home church, everything else you do win be in vain. Even after my life on earth is finished, you can continue to be successful and accomplish in your home church base. Eventually our ideology, centered upon God’s true love, will be the power that unites the world.</p>
|
||||
<p>The forthcoming Blessing has this great significance. You are going to inherit the dignity and authority of Adam and Eve. I am giving you that position, so you must be worthy of receiving it. You cannot go to Heaven alone; you must have your mate. Husband and wife represent two legs walking together toward the Kingdom of Heaven. You must be well-balanced so that you can walk smoothly. If something is wrong with your marriage, and you are not realizing this ideal within your home, you will be like a cripple; you will not be able to move forward. That will also bring shame to your posterity.</p>
|
||||
<p>All this is what we call the Blessing. What more could you want? You can own everything by going this way. You win possess Heaven and earth, the True Parents, their inheritance, true love-everything. There is no better word than “Blessing” to describe this. The day of Blessing is the day when your entire self becomes expanded-your eyes should open wide. What will you see? You will see love.</p>
|
||||
<p>Even your nose will jump with the joy of love. For the first time, you will be able to experience the world of the opposite sex-the sounds, the smells, the sights. You will be supersensitive, emotional and joyful on that day. You must appreciate and be grateful to each other, saying, “Because of you, this Blessing has come to me.” When you do your three cheers of Mansei, it should be extraordinary. You should jump about six feet in joy. If we blow the roof off Madison Square Garden with our cheers, that’s OK, too.</p>
|
||||
<p>That exciting and glorious day of July I causes your heart to beat faster just to think of it. Perhaps you are panting in ,anticipation. Are you that excited? If you don’t feel excited, you should move out! You women, no matter how ugly your husband may be, he is still a man, that’s for sure. I can guarantee you at least that one thing-women will get men and men will get women!</p>
|
||||
<p>What could you women want more than a man, anyway? He can love you, he can kiss you, he can talk to you. Furthermore, he will not be a fake. I have given you a man of genuine breed. Do you think the ideal couple must be good-looking? How about a rough-looking man and a homely woman? Which would be more likely to be genuine? The more beautiful-looking person will probably be more bland and boring, less genuine.</p>
|
||||
<p>Don’t be too worried or serious about the coming of July 1. Rather, you should be joyful and think about my words. Just be serious within the context of the truth.</p>
|
||||
<p>Can you find anyone in the rest of the world who lives according to this philosophy? Only within our movement can you find people of such value. No matter how much money they might have, how good-looking they may be, or how much education they may have, others do not have this philosophy. If you women marry good-looking men from the secular world, they might take everything from you and eventually run away. But these ugly men here-they win give everything to you. They could cut off their own noses, arms, even their hearts to give to you.</p>
|
||||
<p>You can make your own analysis and it would have to agree with mine-Moonies have to marry Moonies, period. There are two kinds of people-superior and inferior. What is the standard to determine this? The secular world judges according to external standards such as appearance and money, but we decide according to internal standards and values. Thus a person may not have a perfect appearance but his value will continue to grow.</p>
|
||||
<p>Put yourself in God’s position. He might observe one unattractive-looking couple who are loving each other and creating beautiful harmony. Then, another couple might be very superior-looking and also making beautiful harmony. Where would God’s heart be more drawn? Toward the less attractive couple. He would give that couple some great bonus-perhaps He would give them superior sons and daughters. God wants to give the child that most resembles Him to that kind of couple, not to those couples who spend hours on their appearance. God loves those people who love one another unselfishly and without thinking of themselves.</p>
|
||||
<p>That is the standard I look for when I think of choosing my sons-and daughters-in-law. I want to find truly genuine and trustworthy people. I can predict this: most good looking couples will fight more, while the less attractive couples will not fight so much because they tend to be more humble. Good-looking people can more easily become very stubborn and arrogant. Those who are focused on their good appearance cannot be completely trustworthy and will always have more room for selfishness to creep in. But unassuming, less attractive people rely more upon their hearts, not their looks. Good-looking couples in the secular world will divorce more often because they are restless.</p>
|
||||
<p>How dramatic it is when a man who is sought after by lots of women marries a humble, lowly person, and loves her more than anybody else under the sun. That is the number one couple in the sight of God. That kind of dramatic couple would not be created, normally, out of a handsome man and a beautiful woman, but from a handsome man and an ugly woman, or vice-versa. However, I did not match you according to those categories. I matched you according to superior standards.</p>
|
||||
<p>You tend to look at your marriage as just “yours;’ and only related to your own personal future, but I look at marriage as, first of all, an offering to God and an offering to the world. Marriage is the most sacred offering we can make on the altar of God.</p>
|
||||
<p>Do you have any complaints? You really are glad to obey God’s direction? That means I gave you a good sermon this morning! Those who say, “Father, I will become the ideal spouse,” please raise your hands. Thank you.</p>
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---
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title: "BEFORE AND AFTER THE BLESSING"
|
||||
type: "speech"
|
||||
published: "2018-06-23T13:55:17+01:00"
|
||||
updated: "2018-06-23T13:55:17+01:00"
|
||||
source: "/blog/2018/06/23/before-and-after-the-blessing.html"
|
||||
speechYear: "1982"
|
||||
categories:
|
||||
- "Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982"
|
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tags: []
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---
|
||||
|
||||
<p><center></p>
|
||||
<h2>REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
|
||||
<p></center><center></p>
|
||||
<h3>June 27, 1982<br />
|
||||
Belvedere<br />
|
||||
Translator – Bo Hi Pak</h3>
|
||||
<p></center>Would anyone like to volunteer to translate the title of today’s speech? It is “Before and After the Blessing.” The Blessing is before us now.</p>
|
||||
<p>People generally keep wanting something more. God is like that, too. He created Adam, and when Adam looked lonely God wanted to create something additional for him. Therefore God created Eve. Some people might think that women are just a fringe benefit, but I don’t mean that.</p>
|
||||
<p>If you have one piece of fruit and decide you want another, you will probably choose something different the second time. If your first fruit was yellow, then you will want a red one, or perhaps a dark blue one.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you walk down the street you want to carry something in your hand or have something in your pocket. You want to decorate yourself with rings, necklaces, earrings and such. It is a fundamental human desire to look beautiful and ornament oneself. You want shoes that are not just functional but decorative. Women wear makeup for the same basic reason. All of this is good.</p>
|
||||
<p>A tree has many branches; if you ask why it needs so many branches and why it cannot be content with just one trunk, it would reply that you don’t know anything about trees! If you ask the tree why it can’t be satisfied with just one leaf, it would tell you that if a bug came and ate its single leaf, it would have none left.</p>
|
||||
<p>Everyone wants some sense of security. In order to be on the safe side, you need more than one of something. If one item is damaged you want to be able to turn to others. The same applies to children. Do you want only one child or more than one? Somebody here has 13! Actually, human nature is such that you don’t even want to stop at 13. What about 40 or 120? You might have a problem taking care of them and feeding all those mouths, but I have confidence that I can take care of 13.</p>
|
||||
<p>When somebody has many possessions, it means he has more to worry about, doesn’t it? What kind of houses do beggars like to call on: rich ones or poor? Are there lots of beggars? What is the next step up from being a beggar? (Fundraising!) So I must be the king of beggars! Fine; there is nothing wrong with being a beggar. What matters is your purpose: Are you doing it just to save yourself, or to save your country, or to save the world and its people? Fundraising activity may appear to be the same as begging, but because of the purpose behind it, it can be your source of pride.</p>
|
||||
<p>Some people have big ambitions. They may resort to violence, even killing other people, saying that this is the way to save the nation. However, instead of using violence to save our country, we fundraise.</p>
|
||||
<p>The Unification Church tradition of fundraising is a proud tradition. Actually, I did not initiate the practice of fundraising and I gain nothing from it except perhaps criticism. But as you confront hardship and tribulation, if you can focus every moment on the noble cause-your mission of saving your nation-you become great. The value of an activity is determined by its motivation. The same action may have temporary and trivial value or attain eternal noble value, according to its motivation.</p>
|
||||
<p>Furthermore, we receive criticism, accusation, and curses but that is not necessarily bad. It depends on what we are criticized for. I am extremely controversial; I have been criticized in every way. But everything I do is for the salvation of the nation and world and for the liberation of God Himself. This is the most sacred and noble purpose.</p>
|
||||
<p>There are two motivations for seeking freedom: One type of person wants liberation just for himself, while the other wants to liberate God from His grief. Which type do you belong to? When you think about it, to liberate even your spouse and children is already quite a challenge and a burden, so how extraordinarily difficult it must be to liberate God!</p>
|
||||
<p>Whoever is devoted to liberating God from His grief and bondage should be able to reach out to all God’s children. Such a person must not focus on helping only white people and disregard black and yellow people.</p>
|
||||
<p>No matter how many times I may have said that I want to liberate God, God says, “All right. Before you consider liberating Me, please take care of the problems of the world first. Then come and tell Me that you want to liberate Me.” This is why I have sought out the most difficult problems of the world and taken them upon my shoulders.</p>
|
||||
<p>The first and biggest problem is the loss of the order and discipline of love and the lack of a guiding philosophy of life. Love has become thoroughly degraded in America today. People have no guiding principle of how to express their love. To enable everyone to experience true, lawful love, we need to restore its discipline and order. Also, since people lack a superior philosophy of life, they live from day to day, with no central, guiding principle.</p>
|
||||
<p>The second worst problem in the world today is communism. Behind communism are the forces of Satan which must be driven out. So we have to reestablish the order of love and restore the eternal, unchanging ideology, the central theme of human life. These are difficult tasks. Can the Unification Church and Reverend Moon solve these problems? Yes, indeed! We are going to do it.</p>
|
||||
<p>The first task facing Reverend Moon and the Unification Church is restoring the central ideology which will reestablish the order and discipline of love. That will enable people to return to the true, lawful love. Our second task is to chase out Satan. God is saying, “All right, Reverend Moon, do it!” And I reply, “Yes, Sir, I’m doing it.”</p>
|
||||
<p>What about you? Are you restoring the order and discipline of love? You need the Blessing in order to do that. The Blessing is the pinnacle in your course of restoring love.</p>
|
||||
<p>The concepts and ideals that I have been teaching explain what the world should be like, what the nation should be like, how society should function, and how individuals should live. My central, organizing theme is the ideal pattern for individuals, societies, nations, the world, and even the Kingdom of Heaven. Each has a clear-cut formula to follow.</p>
|
||||
<p>We are presently trying to banish Satan from this world. Day in and day out, we are waging a “knock out Satan” campaign by restoring the order of love and ideology. Satan is always trying to promote illicit and abnormal love. Things are abnormal when they just float around, following no principle, confusing front and back, right and left. What is abnormal love? It is evident when a man goes with one woman one night and another woman the next night; or when people have sexual relations with their own relatives; or homosexuality. These are examples of abnormal, illicit love.</p>
|
||||
<p>Do you women desire an abnormal type of love or a normal one? Is the kind of life you are living abnormal or normal? Your thinking may be focused on normal love, but Satan will keep following you until you are fully practicing the normal way of love. Only then will he lose hope and give up.</p>
|
||||
<p>Satan is always right behind anyone who lives for a selfish purpose, but as soon as we start living for the sake of others, Satan will retreat. That is the dividing line. Do you understand? Satan cannot claim anyone who is living for the sake of others or for the benefit of the whole. I am living for the sake of all the people of the world. Therefore, eventually the entire world will welcome me and Satan will have to go away.</p>
|
||||
<p>I have been talking about the two principal needs of mankind: liberation from illicit love and liberation from the bondage of false ideology. When mankind is liberated, Satan will leave. Satan’s presence has kept even God in bondage because He has been unable to end Satan’s power over man. As soon as Satan leaves, God will stand up and slowly walk out to greet us. “Finally I’m free!” He will say. “I have no more worries in the world! Who did it? Reverend Moon did. He liberated me!”</p>
|
||||
<p>Until now, you didn’t fully comprehend what I meant by the liberation of God and mankind. You didn’t know the definition of liberation. By establishing the central ideology that restores the discipline of love and expels Satan, you are liberating mankind and liberating God. Now that I have explained it so simply and clearly, you understand, don’t you? Is the task easy or difficult?</p>
|
||||
<p>When every person receives this ideology and puts it into practice, there will be no room for Satan. God will be welcomed everywhere. That is how liberation will take place. So to liberate mankind means to liberate God. The two liberations are simultaneous; they are not separate events. One solution will suffice.</p>
|
||||
<p>Therefore, why do you go out to witness? It is to accomplish this very task. You witness for the liberation of mankind and the liberation of God. Who in history has taken up this incredible task? Only we-Reverend Moon and the Unification Church are bringing both the liberation of mankind and the liberation of God. What an important and illustrious position you have!</p>
|
||||
<p>The world is embroiled in an ideological war. There is a conflict between the God-accepting ideology and the God-denying ideology, between democracy and communism. What is the ideology of Reverend Moon and the Unification Church? It is Unificationism. We are bringing everything into harmony and unity. The role of our ideology is to digest everything; it is a “melting pot” ideology.</p>
|
||||
<p>I have a healthy stomach: I can take in everything and digest it. I can eat hot pepper sauce and Korean kimchee, and at the same time I can eat cheese and bread. It makes no difference; everything can be digested into one stomach. Such a stomach is ideal, isn’t it? You must be able to digest everything to be an ideal person. What kind of person are you?</p>
|
||||
<p>At the matching, many Westerners asked for Oriental spouses. This sort of thing flabbergasts the outside world. They cannot imagine what is going on. But from the heavenly point of view, such a phenomenon is wonderful. The newspapers labeled it “Matrimoonie. ”</p>
|
||||
<p>Regardless of what others may say, we are happy people, aren’t we? Aren’t you proud to live this way of life? The term “Moonie” refers only to the formation stage. “Sunnie” is the growth stage. Perfection stage people will be called “Kingies.” In the perfection stage, you will become a messiah. The world has no way of understanding the full implication of being a messiah. But you know exactly what the word means as well as the process involved. Through fulfilling the responsibility of a messiah in your home church area, you become a tribal messiah.</p>
|
||||
<p>At the beginning of my speech, I said that all people want to enhance themselves; we all want to add something of value to ourselves. My topic today is “Before and After the Blessing,” but I digressed and spoke about God’s liberation, so I already added something, didn’t I? Would you protest and tell me to stick to the subject? Would you rather have me stay within the conventional 15-minute sermon length? Actually, I can give 15 minute sermons. Yesterday I spoke at the Unification Theological Seminary graduation and delivered a sermon in English-and it was only eight minutes long. Would you prefer an eight minute sermon this morning?</p>
|
||||
<p>Have you ever thought about why I give such long sermons? I have a dramatic answer: because I hate to leave you. I enjoy every minute of my time with you. I study each of you, looking at your features, observing your reactions, inspecting your eyes, nose and mouth. I think about what kind of person would be your ideal mate. That is why the matchings go so fast: I have already done my homework!</p>
|
||||
<p>I’m not talking this way just to be charming. I mean it. A godly person should be fond of other people. Godly people should love and enjoy their fellow men. Whether you go east or west, north or south, whether it is day or night, it makes no difference. You must enjoy people. That is why people feel so drawn to me. If Africans were told not to come here, they would feel very sorrowful. They would try the front door, back door and side door and find some way of entering. Why? Because they would be attracted to the person who loves and cares most deeply for Africa. That is the result of my ideology. I want to meet everybody and establish bonds with them. I want to love all Americans; I love America more than the Americans do.</p>
|
||||
<p>Young people are most sensitive to the magnetic power of love. Even before I came to the United States, I knew that young people would be attracted to me, and my prediction was absolutely correct. You are young people, aren’t you? Actually, what I am saying is simply that young people have purer minds than older people. Young people are more attracted to true love.</p>
|
||||
<p>Where else could you go on Sunday to hear a minister preaching on a topic like “Before and After the Blessing”?</p>
|
||||
<p>Have you also been longing for other people? Have you been missing others, yearning to care for them? Throughout my entire life, my job has been to love people and pray for them. I find that my prayers are answered; my prayers become reality. Whenever I meet someone, I enjoy being with him or her; I can entertain, care for and love that person. When people are in love, there are no strange feelings between them. It makes no difference what habits they may have. It makes no difference whether they eat kimchee and kochee chang, or cheese and butter. There are no barriers between lovers. Their union is the beautiful culmination of love. Nothing else is more important.</p>
|
||||
<p>A perfect plus is like a dynamo; it always creates a perfect minus. It happens automatically, without effort. Wherever a perfect plus is found, a perfect minus appears. If you are a perfect plus, you can sit in the middle of a village doing nothing, and the villagers will come to you automatically.</p>
|
||||
<p>People are always drawn to me. Do you feel the same way about me? If I touch your hand, do you feel bad or good? How do you men feel? How do you women feel? Many members think that if they could only shake hands with me once, their heaven would be guaranteed. But they haven’t had the chance yet. My handshake is very expensive! I seldom shake anybody’s hand, but still people follow me.</p>
|
||||
<p>Imagine someone who has just met a woman for whom he feels a tremendous attraction. Perhaps the two have just recently fallen in love. But then that man meets the Unification Church and he completely forsakes his lover. Then he begins to yearn day and night, even weeping with longing to meet Reverend Moon. Only love can explain this.</p>
|
||||
<p>Only God’s love can work this kind of magic. Love opens every door, including the door to the Kingdom of Heaven.</p>
|
||||
<p>Such a person may come to where I am staying and I may yell at him, “Get out of here! Why are you sticking around?” But actually, if he loves me so much, I am already living with him in spirit. I will always remain with him. At night, such a person doesn’t have to worry about walking down a dark road, because I will take his hand and lead him. He could even close his eyes while walking down an alley, and I could tell him to step down and he would automatically do it. If I told him to step up, turn left or turn right, he would do so without even opening his eyes. That is how love works.</p>
|
||||
<p>Physically, I have only one body; I am physically limited. Spiritually, however, I can be a million persons; such a thing is possible spiritually. I am known as a mysterious person, someone with mystical qualities, but actually, it is not unusual. Many, many times throughout the years and decades of my life, I have shed tears out of longing for God. When I cried out for God, missing Him, aching for Him, the entire spirit world would open up to me.</p>
|
||||
<p>You should long for me just as much as I long for God. Actually, people in the Unification Church who don’t long for me, who don’t miss me, who have no tearful desire for me are not really members of the Unification Church. When you do reach that level of longing, you can immediately achieve unity, and the entire spirit world will open up to you.</p>
|
||||
<p>Bo Hi Pak comes to East Garden almost every morning at 7:00 to have breakfast with me. Sometimes he doesn’t show up because he has another commitment out of town. Then I long for him. You might think that if I saw someone day in and day out I would become sick and tired of looking at his face again. But I don’t feel that way. When his usual time of arrival comes around, I miss him and long for him.</p>
|
||||
<p>You may imagine that the elder leaders who visit East Garden have a wonderful time there. But actually, they don’t, and I will tell you why. When I call the leaders to East Garden for “special workshops” it is not at 0 easy for them. I keep talking on and on, for hours and hours, sometimes until midnight and beyond. This may continue day in and day out. In their minds they ask me, “Father, why can’t you let us go?” But of course, they won’t say it. And they think, “Father, you are not a young person either. You need some rest, and so do we. Please let us go.” All of them think like this inside. But I just hold them there and keep talking to them and pounding on them. Of course, all the elder leaders want to go to East Garden. But once they arrive, there is no time for sleep, and they don’t want to just walk out. After two days like that, they are completely exhausted. –</p>
|
||||
<p>My concept is that we should be people of deep longings; we should enjoy every minute we spend with someone. When we care about others, we have no dull moments. Meeting others is the proper job for people of God. That is what my life is all about. I am an expert at meeting others.</p>
|
||||
<p>Someone who comes to meet me at East Garden for the first time may plan to stay only half an hour, but he discovers it isn’t so easy to leave. I never tell anyone not to go, but people just don’t want to get up and leave. This is a result of the power of love that draws people to me.</p>
|
||||
<p>People are supposed to long for and miss one another. If love depended on appearances, an ugly person would have a burdensome life. Therefore, God, who is the king of wisdom and justice, designed us to be lovers. When you are in love, nothing matters; ugliness is no concern; you can accept everything.</p>
|
||||
<p>However, there is one important principle in matters of love. It should be a lawful, public love; that means unselfish love. True love is definitely public love. Through true love you can gain everything, even the spirit world. Since you cannot go alone to the spirit world, you need to go with your beloved. Therefore, a truly loving person can open up the spirit world.</p>
|
||||
<p>Those of you who are engaged, raise your hands. Your engagement is unique. Many of you were engaged to a stranger. But even so, when you first looked at that stranger, you didn’t hate him or her, did you? After looking at the stranger, you didn’t want to go anywhere else. That is the spirit I live by at East Garden. I cherish everyone who comes to sit with me, considering each as my beloved.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you meet people in your home church work, cherish them, too. Then no one will have to tell you to go and do home church. In the morning you will jump out of bed like a bullet and run to your home church because your beloved awaits you. Perhaps you are supposed to go to the dining room in the morning, but your feet take you to your home church instead. When your beloved is waiting, you forget eating, sleeping, and everything else. Don’t you like it when your feet head in the direction of your beloved? That is the way your original mind directs you.</p>
|
||||
<p>This morning I am giving you another secret: how to do home church. When you consider the people in your home church as your beloved, cherishing them above your own fiancee, spouse, or children, you cannot help going there. And while you are with them, the spirit world will open up and communicate with you. This is the secret of doing home church.</p>
|
||||
<p>You women, when you are married and your husband rises in the morning and says he must go to home church, will you complain and say, “You don’t love me anymore! Why do you go away so early in the morning?”</p>
|
||||
<p>This morning Mother couldn’t join us because she is recuperating [from the birth of Jeung Jin Nim). I know that she definitely needs a time of rest and some special care. But in my true heart, I still wanted her to be here. So I told her that even though she was not capable of being here physically this morning, she would be here in heart, spiritually. The husband should try to charm his wife and win her heart, so that she will go everywhere with him and not want to be separated even momentarily. This is such a great feeling. There is nothing more valuable.</p>
|
||||
<p>Dr. Durst is here today. As the national leader, he should long for and miss all the state leaders. He should meet with them, help them, and truly love them even if he collapses in the process. If such a love relationship is created between any national leader and the state leaders, the church in that land will boom and all of spirit world will open up.</p>
|
||||
<p>When I came to pioneer the work in the United States in 1973, I knew no day or night. Every moment of the day was so precious to me. I always wanted to see one more person, visit one more center. I drove from one place to an other, one meeting to the next. If you follow the same principle, your results will be greatly multiplied.</p>
|
||||
<p>Everything is deeply interesting to me. I am a lover of the ocean because it is another of God’s creations. That is why I go out to sea. When various national leaders, world leaders, Korean elders and itinerant workers come to East Garden, I keep waiting for them to ask me to take them out to sea. But so far none of them have done so!</p>
|
||||
<p>Here is a photo of me standing beside a giant tuna I caught recently. This tuna weighs over 1,000 pounds. How could I become a champion tuna fisherman so quickly? I know how to attract tuna: I do it by love. Every minute of the day when I am on the ocean I stay alert; I never nap. When people go fishing they usually become tired. Even the pilot of the boat sometimes sleeps, but I never lie down even for a minute on a boat. My eyes stay wide open because my interest is so intense. Even if a hundred boats are fishing for tuna, I know that no one loves the tuna more intensely than I do. Therefore, I know that the tuna will come. In Gloucester people say that I even brainwash tuna! Actually, it is not brainwashing, but love washing-or maybe Moon washing.</p>
|
||||
<p>During the matching the other night, 250 Japanese sisters came to the United States after a long plane ride. When they arrived at the World Mission Center, they set their bags down and came to see me with tears streaming down their faces. When I matched them, they accepted without question. All 250 were matched very quickly. The amazing thing is that, although 90 percent of them had never met me before, as soon as they saw me, tears of longing and joy burst from them. You saw it, didn’t you?</p>
|
||||
<p>Does that mean I am some kind of a magician or hypnotist? No. Something else was behind it; there is a definite reason why I affect so many people and move their hearts. It is the very thing I always talk about. The secret is to become a dynamo of love, become a lover. I look at people and even the whole world as my beloved. From the material point of view there is nothing special about me; but I am the richest person under the sun because I have that power to attract people. The secret is nothing other than love.</p>
|
||||
<p>You lay a cumulative foundation when you love people. When enough has been built up, the blossom opens up. Love is not destructive; it only builds and blossoms. When each of you creates your own love foundation, bearing such a blossom of love, then God will become one with you. Flowers attract butterflies, and the butterflies drawn to your flower of love are none other than God and His angels. It may sound like something incredible and miraculous, but it can happen.</p>
|
||||
<p>To make a long story short, you won’t enter the Kingdom of Heaven unless you love people, i s them and yearn for them. Before I came to America, my major study was how to love American people. I had many plans, I did much homework, and I have precisely fulfilled all MY pledges. There are many things you do not know, but one thing is for sure: After you met me, you became new men and women. You have changed. What power made that happen? The power of love.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you go out and work hard, you do it out of love for me. When you fundraise, for example, you think, “I really want to do my utmost for Father.” That is your motivation. Then whoever gives you a donation receives the benefit of that love.</p>
|
||||
<p>I have met some Koreans here in the United States who are well known in their community. One of them said, “Many Unification Church members have stopped me on the street or knocked at my door asking me to donate for some fundraising item, and I always do. I never refuse them.” I wondered how much they were contributing, but I didn’t ask. They reported their donation to me as though they had done something very important and were some kind of hero. Love is at work when people feel such an urge to help your fundraising.</p>
|
||||
<p>I want you to understand that you are in a position to disseminate this pure love. This love will affect other people and benefit them. When you get donations, every penny is spent for the sake of mankind, for the sake of the world, and for the sake of God. How wonderful that is! Both you and the people who give will benefit. When your position is one of true love, you want to keep giving until the very end.</p>
|
||||
<p>I would like to borrow as much money as possible in order to be able to give. For the sake of love, I want to be the most indebted person under the sun. When I live by such a philosophy, even the seemingly insurmountable obstacles can somehow be completely overcome. As I meet each large obstacle, I can jump over it. When I make plans, the difficulties ahead seem to be overwhelming but solutions come from totally unexpected places. Spirit world moves in entirely new ways. If money is needed, money comes; if people are needed, people come; the more money we commit to a certain project, the more resources come our way. When I act, spirit world mobilizes masses of people.</p>
|
||||
<p>Therefore, fundraising is a sacred responsibility. When you fundraise, you are giving love both ways: love for True Parents and love for people. You knock on people’s doors not to gain money from them but because you love each person.</p>
|
||||
<p>In a way, God, too, is a fundraiser. When you knock on doors, you are rejected 90 percent of the time. Likewise when God tries to pour out His love to you, you reject Him 99 percent of the time. So when you experience rejection while fundraising, you can be in a position to comfort God. When you have tearful experiences, you move. God’s heart and comfort Him. Then universal love begins to blossom in your heart. The blossom of love is the most sacred and noble kind of flower.</p>
|
||||
<p>Without question, I am a superb fundraiser. I never do things just for myself-, when I see a need and set the goal for meeting that need, I fundraise very boldly. You must be bold for the sake of the nation and the world. I can tell people, “You don’t have to give me anything. Just loan me the money. You can trust me because you know my motivation is correct. Therefore, I ask that you please lend me a large amount of money, not just a small amount.”</p>
|
||||
<p>I had one experience when I was studying in Tokyo during my younger days that illustrates this. I needed to return to Seoul, Korea, which involved a long trip by train and boat and was rather expensive. I didn’t have a wallet or any money that day, but at the Tokyo train station I met a very noble-looking woman, a total stranger, and began telling her who I was, where I was going, and how much money I needed, which was quite a bit. Then I asked if she would have enough faith in me to lend me the money. I was so sincere that the noble woman trusted me enough to lend me the money without asking for a receipt. After I completed the trip, I sent her back twice the amount of money she lent me. She was flabbergasted. She paid me a visit to return the money, saying, “You are such a good, honest man. I do not want this much money from you. Please take it back.”</p>
|
||||
<p>People can sense a person of genuine character; purity and genuineness are always communicated. That is the beauty of life. Fundraising is the best way to understand this kind of realm</p>
|
||||
<p>When I was a university student in Tokyo, I would ride the electric tram car on rainy days. When I boarded, I looked for the elderly people and stood next to them. Normally, young people wouldn’t like to stand close to shabby-looking old people, but I would. I wanted to stand near them in case they needed any help. I would look at some bedraggled old man and think, ‘Suppose this gentleman was my father. What would I do if my father was this wet? Could I run away and abandon him?” It is normal to feel repelled by smelly old women or men, but when I thought of myself as their son, everything about them became attractive, and I felt very affectionate toward them. Old people have a loving heart for their children, and on such occasions I wanted to reciprocate that love. So I would talk very warmly to an old woman, even though she was a total stranger. What beauty there is in such an intimate conversation!</p>
|
||||
<p>Sometimes I would wear dirty, ragged working clothes and a smelly jacket on the tram car. I would try to sit next to the most attractive woman on board, someone wearing eye makeup, lipstick, and manicured nails. Ten times out of ten, such women would move away. I was hoping to find someone who would ask herself, “What if this were my husband and he was working so hard for me? If he was suffering for my sake, what would I do?” Then, while these thoughts were going through her mind, we could have started speaking and she could have become the first person to hear the Principle and the first person to join the Unification Church.</p>
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||||
<p>I am able to do my mission now because I put myself in many different positions. I want you to understand that the Unification Church was born upon this foundation of sincerity and a genuine, loving heart. Whoever tries to use this foundation and exploit it for his own benefit is a robber, the worst kind of thief.</p>
|
||||
<p>I want you to become the same kind of person I am and inherit this tradition. That is why I am asking you to go out and endure tribulation.</p>
|
||||
<p>Still we have not come to today’s topic of “Before and After the Blessing,” but what I have been talking about is something you find very precious, isn’t it? You don’t think it’s a strange subject; you love to hear these things.</p>
|
||||
<p>I started out by saying that everyone wants to add something to what they have, so I keep adding on to my speech. You have already been given a great sermon, so you don’t need anything more today. You can go out and preach this same message to others.</p>
|
||||
<p>Have you had the experience of missing me and longing for me? Have you been able to love someone unselfishly? Those experiences will be your assets when you get to the spirit world. Such experiences are the only things you can take from this world to the spirit world.</p>
|
||||
<p>You have met someone whom you can love. What an incredible blessing that is for you. Think of all that lies behind this marriage. But this love should not be just a horizontal bond between you and your beloved; you must link it to the vertical dimension. It isn’t easy to add vertical love to horizontal love, is it? The horizontal aids links the husband and wife. However, unless a vertical line extends from your family upward, there is no way that the vertical realm can reach down.</p>
|
||||
<p>The vertical line above you is your nation. You should feel patriotic. Do you pay taxes because you have to, or because you love your country and want to pay them? Those who pay taxes because they can’t escape it are in the majority. However, in the original way of serving our country, we should pay taxes because we love our nation more than our family.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you and your spouse deeply love your country, this creates a reward for the future generations. The intensity of your love for your country will benefit your descendants; your children will receive the reward. Your blessings will multiply and your circle will expand. This is how you will become an ideal family and form an ideal nation.</p>
|
||||
<p>Once you create the full circle of love, -you can dwell at the core where you receive special protection. Also, once the core is established, true love can expand. When you and your spouse achieve the unity of true love for each other, when you devote yourself to loving your country, you will become the core. As you expand your territory of love to your country, you will be protected by it.</p>
|
||||
<p>It is an Oriental custom always to use both hands when you serve your elders. Also, Orientals have the custom of bowing. To bow means to empty yourself and to convey the attitude, “I am nothing; you are everything.” When you bow, you acknowledge your elder as the perfect plus, and you empty yourself totally to that person, becoming a perfect minus. Whenever the plus is perfected, the minus is automatically perfected as well; and the interaction between plus and minus creates energy.</p>
|
||||
<p>I want you to understand that whenever a man and a woman have give and take of love, a vertical element is always present. You cannot disregard it. God is the vertical element. He created Adam and Eve so He could meet them horizontally. Their love and blessing was to have borne fruit in their children, who would also be objects of God. This is how the heavenly four positions were to come about. When four directions are established, a circle can be formed. Circular movement is the only permanent movement.</p>
|
||||
<p>What holds a man and woman together? Men and women have interlocking shapes, to keep them from missing each other or sliding apart once they meet. The man has the additional role of anchor, so that when a couple is bolted together, they won’t slip and lose their footing. This way, a couple can be anchored and bolted together with true love. There is a space-age glue so strong that something mended with it may break anywhere else, but never at that joint. Likewise, a man and a woman bonded together in complete, true love might get hurt someplace else, but nothing will ever be able to separate their union. True love is the super glue which holds husband and wife together. Do you understand? Don’t just laugh. This is an operation of natural law; tell me whether you understand.</p>
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||||
<p>I could push, toss, knock down, or kick such a couple bonded by true love and they would never come apart. They will always stick together. I envision such a couple coming out of this Blessing. Are you going to be such a couple?</p>
|
||||
<p>I would like to take such a blessed couple to a mountain peak and try rolling them off, as a demonstration that nothing could separate them. I think many couples would be reluctant to be put to such a test. They would say, “Father, don’t kill me; keep me on level ground, or just gentle hills.” But I’m looking for a couple who would protest against an easy course and say, “That is nothing, take us to a bigger hill. Take us to the highest peak!”</p>
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||||
<p>What kind of couple would you like to become: one which stays on the plains and gentle hills, or one which challenges the highest peaks? Let’s see the hands of those who would challenge the highest mountains. Accidents could happen when you roll down the slopes; you could break your wrist, your leg, or your jaw. Would such a mishap weaken you? Not at all. You would be willing to tackle greater and greater challenges, so that by the time you reached the bottom you would become genuine gold.</p>
|
||||
<p>At the start of the plunge, you and your spouse are two beings with two purposes; but as you roll down, you get closer together. The two of you get mixed together, compressed, and finally totally one. When your spouse laughs, you would laugh, too, because you would share the same emotions. God will notice such a couple and say, “Hmm, this is a model couple, an ideal couple.” God has a museum in spirit world dedicated to the best of everything. He wouldn’t choose a single man or woman for the prize display; He wants an exemplary couple. God will pick the most united couple to display in His museum.</p>
|
||||
<p>A totally united couple is completely one; nothing can break them up. Even if someone drills a hole through them, the dust from the drilling won’t leave; it will return and stick to them! You can apply pressure to them until they are flattened out, but when the pressure is removed, they will become round again. Nothing under the sun can alter their unity.</p>
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||||
<p>Would you rather be a mediocre couple, or a completed, perfected couple? Therefore, will you be the kind of couple that chooses the easy way? Can you become an ideal couple if you say, “Today I want to stay home. I don’t care about home church. Why should I go out today?” Can you attain perfection as a couple if your focus is only on having fan and a good time; if you long only to see beautiful sights, smell nice things, eat good food and listen to good music; if you can relate only to good feelings?</p>
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||||
<p>If your husband is lazy and sleeps too late, you women should kick him and say, “What are you doing here? What about home church? Why don’t you go out?” Will your husband complain and threaten to divorce you for repeating such things? The ideal husband would say, “Well, my beloved wife, you are absolutely right. Now give me my home church clothes.”</p>
|
||||
<p>When you know you are sending your husband or wife out to suffer, your eyes fill with tears; but if you still push your spouse toward the ultimate goal, you are on the road to becoming an ideal couple. Do you follow me? An ideal parent is not always the one who pats the children and gives them candy. Rather, it is the parent who sternly sends them out and encourages them to do the right things. Knowing that the children will suffer, the ideal parent turns around and sheds quiet tears. Do you think I am telling you the truth? This is the challenge of the Blessing. This is the way to become an ideal couple.</p>
|
||||
<p>After being a single person so long, it is wonderful to get married because something is added to you. However, in order to sustain that added stature, you need a strong root and a broad foundation. Your roots are your parents and relatives. Anyone who tries to flee his parents by getting married is making a mistake. Once you are married, you cannot think of yourself as an individual but as part of the larger root system. Furthermore, once you are married, you have not only one family to worry about, but two. You have in-laws now-brothers, sisters, mother-in-law, father-in-law, as well as many other new relatives. You should be able to plant yourself firmly upon this new root and foundation.</p>
|
||||
<p>If you women try to be clever and take advantage of your husband’s relatives for your own benefit, you will be kicked out of the house. Here I am referring basically to women; if you act that way, your husband will eventually throw you out.</p>
|
||||
<p>Marriage is like a grafting process. The root of the man and the root of the woman are grafted together and become one. Your two roots join into one common trunk line, which branches out and produces blossoms, bearing the fruit of both families. A couple is not just one family but represents two families. Your parents and relatives will see your blossoms and rejoice; your in-laws as well will look on and feel joy. Marriage is not just the meeting of husband and wife, not just the union of one individual to another, but the joining of two families. Two roots come together and become one trunk; a new trunk, new branches, new leaves are produced, and then the blossoms, flowers and fruits come.</p>
|
||||
<p>Would you like to have a broad and embracing kind of tree, or would you rather ignore your in-laws and focus just on your spouse and yourself? Those who disregard the roots and focus only on their marriage relationship may try to justify themselves by claiming: “We are like Adam and Eve. We are the only ones that count. We just want to concentrate on ourselves. Life is simpler and more convenient that way; we don’t have any burdens. Why should we bother with the roots and branches?” Is that the right attitude? Unfortunately, however, this is the trend in America today.</p>
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||||
<p>One danger in focusing just on your spouse is that your relationship may easily break up. The wife may meet a man who is more handsome than her husband, someone who tells her how beautiful and attractive she is and how her husband is not treating her right. If she has no anchor or foundation, her heart can be affected. Or the husband may meet a pretty woman who flatters him telling him how handsome he is. Perhaps his wife never told him that, and when another woman says it, his heart starts to quiver. He thinks, ‘You know, my wife is like a stump; she is unattractive and ugly. She’s a good housekeeper but not adequate as a wife.” Then the marriage breaks up.</p>
|
||||
<p>Your marriage needs to be anchored to its roots and secured to its branches. Then when you consider all the foundation upon which you are standing and your commitment to the future, you cannot take your marriage lightly. You should tell yourself, “I am marrying for the sake of my spouse, my parents, and my future children.” You are the present. The present could not exist without a past, which is your parents. A future is coming, which will be your children. The past, present and future must be linked in your Blessing.</p>
|
||||
<p>Who bestows the Blessing? Who makes your Blessing complete? In the past, ministers of a church officiated at marriage ceremonies. But ministers are in the archangel position, so the archangel, in effect, officiates at such a marriage. In the Unification Church ceremony, however, the parents perform the marriage. By officiating, we are saying, “Go ahead and inherit our tradition, our love, and our discipline and pass this tradition on to the future.” By blessing you we are saying, “You are now husband and wife; live like your Father and Mother.” This is what Unification Church marriage is all about.</p>
|
||||
<p>Actually, when we give you our Blessing, we are telling you to do more than we have done. You should love each other more than we do. Why do parents want their children to have greater love? That is how families prosper. When the roots and trunk are strong, when more branches reach out, and when flowers and fruit are produced in abundance, this is prosperity. When you love your parents, you strengthen your own roots and increase the blessing your children will inherit. As you become parents yourselves, you are better able to love your parents, and you receive greater protection from them. Don’t you want your children to be prosperous? Don’t you want to be protected for the rest of your fife? The secret is to love your parents; the more you love your parents, the more you are protected and the greater the blessing you can pass on to your children. So you must serve and love your parents even more than your spouse.</p>
|
||||
<p>Since you became Moonies and have adopted this attitude, you women have become a different kind of woman, haven’t you? You are not ordinary American wives, but very special people. You want to become a trunk, with your parents as the roots and your children as the branches. You may have a good, strong trunk, but can you ever say, “I don’t care about the root”? A strong trunk can develop only on the foundation of a strong root. Then vigorous branches can grow from that strong trunk. The parents are the foundation of the tree; therefore, by loving your parents you are strengthening the trunk and the whole tree. You will secure future branches, leaves and flowers.</p>
|
||||
<p>I explained that if you are to become a giant tree, you must have strong roots. The basic root comes from loving God, who is the first parent of mankind. When you make God your root, you have an invincible, gigantic foundation, and you can become an enormous trunk, producing stupendous branches. When you grasp God as your root, your root spreads to all six continents: Europe, Africa, North and South America, Asia, and Australia.</p>
|
||||
<p>What kind of trunk would you like to become? An all-encompassing trunk, right? The formation level is the family trunk, the growth level is the national trunk, and the perfection level is the worldwide trunk. You are American families, so you should be grafted onto the American national root. When you have a strong family foundation connected to the national root, your branches and leaves will produce many blossoms; your children are your prosperity.</p>
|
||||
<p>But further down the line from the American root is an even greater foundation: the worldwide root. When you are anchored upon the worldwide root, will your trunk be an American trunk or a worldwide trunk? It will be worldwide. Then when your trunk is worldwide, your branches, leaves, flowers and fruit also will be worldwide.</p>
|
||||
<p>In the Unification Church we have a tradition of international marriages. Why do we take pride in our international weddings? It is because we want to form a worldwide trunk, a many-hued trunk, composed of living colors. Then from this one trunk, all kinds of multi-colored branches will spring forth: white, black, yellow, and red. When such a tree bears fruit, its fruit will seem delicious to every kind of taste bud. Whether one is white, black, or yellow it will make no difference; the fruit will be savory to all. Such fruit is suited to every taste, and everyone considers it delicious.</p>
|
||||
<p>Since such a foundation has not been formed, however, grafting is necessary. Grafting is like welding, or like mending broken bones. A shoot grafted onto a new root must be bound with tape for three years. Whether the plant likes it or not makes no difference. The grafting will work because the two parts are bound together; they have no choice.</p>
|
||||
<p>While you are struggling with the binding of black, white and yellow, you will notice things changing. When you look down, you will discover yourself sinking worldwide roots, and when you look up, you will see worldwide branches beginning. Soon you will become a grandparent and will be able to travel by plane throughout the world to visit your children. One day you will visit your white grandchildren, the next day your black grandchildren, and the following day your yellow grandchildren.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why should you try to live this way? Once you are elevated to the spirit world, you will meet the supervisor and owner of all the trees and orchards-God. God is ultimately picking everybody and arranging them in His basket. God visits all His grandchildren in turn, black, white and yellow. That is how God lives and works in the spirit world, so if you live that way here on earth, you can go wherever God goes in spirit world. You will be able to follow God everywhere; nothing will be off-limits to you. So your motivation for this way of life is to become like God.</p>
|
||||
<p>This is the spirit upon which your Blessing is founded. Do you think I am telling you the truth or not? After you are married, suppose some night a visitor unexpectedly comes knocking at your door and it happens to be me! Would you call me an intruder and run to find your gun? Perhaps you would grumble to yourself, “Why does Father have to come at midnight? He should have come in broad daylight.” Would you say that?</p>
|
||||
<p>I understand that when American parents want to visit their children, they have to call in advance and make an appointment. So if you find me at the door, would you say, “Oh, Father, why didn’t you call first?” Or would you jump up-no matter how you are dressed-and say, “Father, how wonderful to see you here? How many of you would say, “Father, do anything you want. Please come to our house”?</p>
|
||||
<p>There are about 4 billion people in the world. If they were all matched, there would be 2 billion couples. If I spent one hour in every home, I would need 2 billion hours to make the rounds! Would that be physically possible? So you must have good luck to get me to visit your house. It would be like hitting a jackpot, an incredibly rare opportunity. I would like to do that, however. I would like to visit as many homes as possible.</p>
|
||||
<p>If I arrived at lunch time, would you protest, “Father, you didn’t call me in advance so I could prepare lunch for you. I’m sorry, we have only water”? Or would you quickly prepare something and say, “Even though we do not have the very best, this is what we can offer you. Please stay for lunch”?</p>
|
||||
<p>This means that you should be prepared at all times. Suppose you spent seven years-or a thousand years-getting ready for my visit, longing for and missing me. Then even if I didn’t notice your home, God would tell me, “Reverend Moon, go visit their house. I demand it!” Don’t you think I would say yes to Him? If you have the spirit of yearning for one visit from, me, missing and anxiously expecting me, what else could be more important? Is there anything more precious?</p>
|
||||
<p>It is a happy family who lives in anticipation of the heavenly visit. Each day you clean the house thinking that today might be the day, the day God will visit you. Each meal you cook you tell yourself, “Today might be the day!” Day after day is spent in anticipation and love. You rise early in the morning to prepare the meal and make preparations for the visit. If God were to ignore the home of such a couple and not bless it, there would be no such thing as a Blessing and no such being as God.</p>
|
||||
<p>I, too, have always lived in anticipation of a heavenly visit. There was a time in my life when I would sleep curled up like a shrimp, feeling unworthy of sleeping comfortably, because I expected a visit from God at any moment of the day. I was always ready to spring up to welcome God.</p>
|
||||
<p>My parents had the tradition of feeding everybody that came to our house. They would offer them whatever money they needed. All kinds of visitors and travelers received food and money for their expenses. At my home, more food than what our family needed was always prepared in case someone came to the door. That is the kind of tradition I grew up in.</p>
|
||||
<p>You may suppose that my family received many blessings on account of me. But actually, because of me, incredible suffering was brought upon the household. Every single one of my family was exterminated by the North Korean communists, because Kim Il Sung knew me as the arch-enemy of worldwide communism. All these sacrifices were paid in order to establish the foundation upon which you can blossom right here in America today. I am not trying to obtain comfort or riches, either for myself or for my family. That has never been my goal. They have all become sacrifices.</p>
|
||||
<p>No country has undergone so much political upheaval as Korea. In order to give the blessing to the world, the Unification Church itself has to suffer as well.</p>
|
||||
<p>Considering all this, if you want to become a trunk and reach out to serve the branches, you must become sacrificial. In this respect, a good looking spouse is not necessarily the best one. The kind of spouse you should hope for is someone truly loyal, steadfast, down-to-earth, and sincere. That is the best kind of husband or wife because they can provide the utmost sacrificial service for the well-being of their children. Handsome or beautiful people usually become arrogant and boastful and think, “How can such a good-looking person as I stay home and serve a 90-year-old grandmother? Let somebody else do it. I should go out and show myself off.”</p>
|
||||
<p>A beautiful woman is often reluctant to nurse her children because she is worried about ruining her beautiful figure. There are two kinds of beauty to consider. One is the external beauty of face and body. A woman who focuses on external beauty spends much time putting on makeup; she tells her child not to come to her breast and disfigure it by nursing. That is one kind of beauty. The other kind of beauty says to her baby, “Well, my love, it doesn’t matter how I look,” and she smiles at her nursing child out of the joy of becoming a mother. Which is the true beauty?</p>
|
||||
<p>How dramatic it is when a woman with snow white skin nurses a very black baby! Don’t you think that God would like to witness such a scene? Which would God find most dramatic: a white mother nursing a white baby, a white mother feeding a yellow baby, or a white mother nursing a black baby? From an artistic standpoint, a white mother nursing a black child is the most dramatic scene.</p>
|
||||
<p>Which time of day do you like best: morning, noon, or evening? Noon is like white people, evening yellow people, and morning black people. Evening is the close of the day and heralds the darkness; darkness ends in the morning when a new day begins. The morning light is very sharp and luminous. The light is conquering all the darkness. In the daytime, everything is clear, because it is already broad daylight. In the evening, as the sun sinks in the west, yellow and orange tones are dominant.</p>
|
||||
<p>Just as morning is followed by noon and then evening, one dominant civilization or culture is followed by another. In the United States, for example, black people are becoming more and more prominent. Why? It is because white people have become rather lazy. The white people have already seen high noon; they have already experienced the best so they have become sluggish and negligent. They want to have fun; they have no true motivation. But black people have suffered so much under the darkness of oppression that they have more ambition. They want true respect and freedom. Most boxing champions, for example, are black; the same is true in basketball. In all fields of sports, more and more outstanding athletes are black. More than 50 percent of American football champions are blacks.</p>
|
||||
<p>There are 25 million black people here in the United States, out of a population of 240 million. The ratio of blacks to the population in general is one in nine. Black people have been developing healthy bodies and excelling at sports; next they will move to intellectual achievements. When you black people are educated and guided spiritually, physically, and intellectually, you can become super citizens, the number-one Americans. You can lead America. Why not? You can rise early in the morning, for instance, and clean your neighborhoods so that the black communities become known as the cleanest communities in the whole United States. Wouldn’t you like that?</p>
|
||||
<p>Then white women will say, “I don’t want to marry a white man because they are all lazy. I want a black man to be the father of my children.” Still the time is not ripe. I had hoped for even more interracial marriages in this last matching.</p>
|
||||
<p>Look at the Japanese brothers and sisters. They are standing in the forefront of our movement now as the most diligent and hard-working members. Therefore, I am sending them out in leadership roles all over the world. Am I doing the right thing in this case?</p>
|
||||
<p>The Blessing itself is special, of course, but you must be concerned about what happens before and after the Blessing. This is very, very important. More than your husband or wife, you must serve your parents. God has made incredible sacrifices to come this far. You have achieved your position upon His foundation. If you strengthen your root and sacrificially serve both the root and branches, you will become strong and steadfast people. After your life here on earth, descendants will come and bow down at your tomb, paying you tribute and respect because of the beautiful tradition you have left behind. This is the kind of tradition you should establish in your marriage.</p>
|
||||
<p>I think about my life this way as well. There will be a tomb for me someday. Visitors will come from all six continents to line up at my tomb; people of every color of skin will bring flowers and incense to pay respect to me. That is the kind of tradition I want to leave behind.</p>
|
||||
<p>In your home and in your nation, you should follow my example. Then God, the angels, and all of spirit world will come to visit your tomb and pay respects to you. Cemeteries will become holy places. People generally don’t enjoy spending time in cemeteries, but when you become an ancestor of love, that will change.</p>
|
||||
<p>Therefore, please live in love, serve in love, and set the tradition of love. Then you will leave behind the fruit of love and become the ancestor of love. Once you have planted this tradition and disseminated this love throughout the world, when you are lifted up to the spirit world, you will encounter no barriers and will be welcomed everywhere.</p>
|
||||
<p>In conclusion, set up the tradition of true love based on the family, not on the individual. That is the practice you should establish. The greatest treasure you can give to the nation and the world is true love. The tradition of love is the core of life.</p>
|
||||
<p>As husband and wife, you should unite and establish a vertical line centered on your nation. When you unite as subject and object centered upon the country, you become the vertical subject capable of spreading your blessing to the world. You will become the core, and the world will be your fence, embracing and protecting you.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you expand this to the scale of heaven and earth, you will be a victor of love. With such love, you will be welcomed everywhere you go. The bearer of true love is welcome even at the White House. The essence of your mission is to create this tradition of love and expand it to your posterity.</p>
|
||||
<p>I am sure you haven’t talked with your fiancee about all the practical aspects of your future life, but you should have already established the rule that both of you will follow my teachings 100 percent. If you have, you are ready to inherit my tradition of love, practice it, enlarge it, and hand it down to your descendants.</p>
|
||||
<p>Those who are resolved to carry this out in your family, raise your hands as a pledge. Thank you. Please do well, and serve your parents and brothers and sisters.</p>
|
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|
@ -0,0 +1,165 @@
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---
|
||||
title: "BLESSED FAMILY"
|
||||
type: "speech"
|
||||
published: "2018-06-23T13:53:25+01:00"
|
||||
updated: "2018-06-23T13:53:25+01:00"
|
||||
source: "/blog/2018/06/23/blessed-family.html"
|
||||
speechYear: "1982"
|
||||
categories:
|
||||
- "Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982"
|
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tags: []
|
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---
|
||||
|
||||
<h2 align="CENTER">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
|
||||
<h3 align="CENTER">June 20, 1982<br />
|
||||
Belvedere<br />
|
||||
Translator – Bo Hi Pak</h3>
|
||||
<p>All men and women are supposed to get married. We all think about marriage, isn’t that true? I hear that in America there are many men living as if married with other men and women with other women. Do you think this is normal and acceptable? Why not? It is not right because it is not parallel with the laws of nature and the universe. When you look at all forms of creation, whether plant or animal, everything exists in the reciprocal relationship between subject and object. God created two aspects or poles in everything and mankind is no exception to that system. Even plants have male and female flowers.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why do subject and object need each other? Why is the pair system mandatory? Truth is very simple: without a pair system, nothing could survive for long here on earth. If there were no male and female, all the animals and plants would have become extinct a long time ago. Adam and Eve would not have had any generations after them, so you certainly would not be here! The creation is deeply motivated toward one goal-its own survival.</p>
|
||||
<p>God wants us to leave good seeds and good generations behind us. In order to do that you need a good spouse. Anyone who wants a good spouse is reflecting the basic nature of all creation, and there is nothing wrong with that. Even more than one’s own survival, we want to leave behind us an improved species. This is the way God created us.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why do men and women love each other and what is the consequence of their love? Children are the fruit and the results of love; they are left behind when you are gone. Therefore beyond love there is a higher goal or objective- to reproduce so that your life will be extended.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why is it such an imperative, almost automatic thing that parents love their children? It is because as the fruit of the parents love children carry on to the future the love, image, and even the life itself of the parents. Your children are a part of you and because of that you love them.</p>
|
||||
<p>Nowadays many people think they have to follow “fads” in love rather than the ordinary laws of nature. As we have said, one very important purpose of marriage is the survival of mankind and another is the improvement of the species. Unfortunately, not many people today are thinking that far; few consider their future children or how to leave behind them an improved generation. America is rampant with all kinds of perversions of love. You know better than I what is going on in this society.</p>
|
||||
<p>Many people want to enjoy love but they refuse to have children. Even the animals do not get together just to “have fun;” they fulfill a definite purpose. The same rule should apply to humans. Historical love is created in this way and it is not just temporal but something permanent. Such a love dwells in the past, present and future. The past involves a historical tradition handed down from one generation to another.</p>
|
||||
<p>The present will be projected into the future. The present should be better than the past and the future better than the present. When you get married your hope should be to project to the future something better than yourselves. You should pray, “God, my spouse has ugly ears but lovely eyes, nose and mouth. I have nice ears so please combine our good parts and create Your masterpiece through us.”</p>
|
||||
<p>When you are with your fiancé, you might feel joy being together, but that is not the ultimate purpose. Your ultimate goal is to have children who are better than both of you and in order to achieve such a goal you must be united under true love. If the love that flows between you and your spouse is deceitful or dishonest in any way, you will be based upon a very rocky foundation. You would not be able to expect anything better to come after you. This is a sacred, holy and, in a way, fearful understanding. Universal law will not allow any dishonesty or impurity in love.</p>
|
||||
<p>Before now you might have said that you were getting married for love but now you know that you are also getting married for your children of the future. Love is the process toward that goal. Therefore men and women need each other in order to fulfill our ultimate purpose.</p>
|
||||
<p>Do you think America is a different place where men can get married to other men and have beautiful children? Certainly not. Homosexuality is a perverted form of love and it is the enemy of universal law. Spirit world does not accept homosexuality at all. Anything which violates the basic law of nature requiring beings to improve themselves from generation to generation is dishonest and dangerous. The Unification Church is not only adamantly against homosexuality but we will treat it as a sickness and cure it.</p>
|
||||
<p>Positive and negative, male and female, come together in nature to create a balance. That state of balance is like a horizontal line which represents the ideal base or foundation upon which the ideal home, nation, world and Heavenly Kingdom are created. Upon that horizontal base line, men and women become completely united. If this law of balance is not true or necessary then everyone should go to the hospital and have their sexual parts removed because they would not need them!</p>
|
||||
<p>When I went to bring Mother home from the hospital yesterday, I had a very intriguing conversation with the doctor. It made me feel ecstatic to think about the beautiful way in which God made His creation. The doctor said that women’s wombs are very small until a baby is conceived and then they start to expand like a balloon. When a Caesarean operation is performed, the womb is almost transparent from being stretched so far and the doctor can actually see the baby inside it. The womb seems to be fragile but in reality it is strong enough to contain a healthy, growing baby for nine months. That is truly mysterious!</p>
|
||||
<p>When such mystery and beauty exists, how can atheists accept the idea that mankind came into being by accident or chance? Mystery exists not only in human life but everywhere. Sophisticated, intricate beauty can be found in the world of birds, fish, and throughout the creation. When you look at a newborn baby it is almost spontaneous to think, “How perfect is this little baby! God did not forget anything-hair, eyes, ears, ten little fingers. How wonderful!”</p>
|
||||
<p>Love is the true ancestor of creation and the force behind generation. During my years of searching for the truth, the first question I asked God was about the essential nature of the universe. The answer was rather simple-the beginning point of the universe is love and the end result is the parent and child relationship. God created mankind and the universe in order to create a world of love through which He could dwell in that Parent / child relationship. This is the central truth and essence of the universe.</p>
|
||||
<p>Look at yourself from that viewpoint. You came into the world as a child, the fruit of the love of your parents, and you must fulfill yourself as a parent. That pattern of love is eternal-throughout the past, during the present, and into the future it will continue. Communist theory claims that everything in society evolves, so even love must evolve. Some people even claim that love used to exist solely between men and women but now it has “evolved” to the level that love between people of the same sex is normal. Would you say that is an advanced form of love? Not only you and I would disagree with that, but also the entire universe would reject that opinion. Nobody can dwell outside of universal law and be healthy and happy.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why do we say that one man must love only one woman? Some people have different love partners every day and feel they are justified in doing so, but we do not agree. True love requires total devotion, total love and total giving to only one mate.</p>
|
||||
<p>Women often ask their husbands, how much do you love me?” because they feel the need to be assured. So I will give you men some good advice at this time: be careful. Since throughout your life your wife will want to know how much you love her, don’t give too much initially. Save some for later. You might tell her at first, “I love you very much-like the size of a bean.” Later your love can be the size of a tennis ball, then a football and ultimately your love will reach the size of the universe. But don’t give the universe first, because you will have nothing more to give! When men and women meet for the first time and try to experience overnight love there is no way that can resemble true, eternal love.</p>
|
||||
<p>Women are more sensitive and capable of comparing than men; because of this, women are more prone to cause problems within the family. Do you women disagree with me and blame the men for being rascals? When God gay/ the commandment to Adam and Eve, He specifically commanded them not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which represented Eve. God knew very well the strengths and weaknesses of His children and in giving that commandment, He was concentrating on the women. Do you agree that God worried more about women’. Women must take extra care and precaution with ever, aspect of themselves.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why do you women like to wear makeup? It is because you have an advanced sense of comparison and want to look even more beautiful than you are naturally. When I was a young man, I would sometimes walk down the street with my younger sister. One day a good-looking man passed by us and I wondered if my sister noticed him. After a few steps I asked her and she said, “Yes, of course.” Then she told me what was right and wrong about the way his eyes were, his ears, his hair and the way he was dressed. Apparently she must have given him one quick glance and recorded him in some kind of a photographic memory! At that time I realized women have great sensitivity and capabilities of analysis and comparison. Do you women agree with me?</p>
|
||||
<p>You men may be in the position to deal seriously with women for the first time in your lives. They are your fiancees and are becoming your wives, so you must be able to understand women’s nature and be able to accommodate and satisfy that nature. Ask your fiancee, “What is my strong point? What am I the best at?” Let her tell you and try to change in order to satisfy her. Ask her what kind of clothes you should wear and she will give you good advice. Women have a good harmonizing ability. You should even practice the kind of laughter women like.</p>
|
||||
<p>Men and women ought to study each other. Men should wear the eyeglasses of women and through them see clearly what women are all about. But women should also wear their women’s eyeglasses, not men’s, and look at the true nature of men. You always look critically at men, don’t you? You should continue to look at them that way.</p>
|
||||
<p>You women have typical feminine hands-small beautiful, and without hair. Should that kind of hand be held by the same kind of hand or by a big, masculine, hairy hand? When a man embraces a woman, his hands usually go down to her waist, while the woman usually reaches up to the man’s neck. When they kiss, the woman usually has to be lifted up somewhat. High heels ought to be nicknamed “kiss shoes” because they allow the woman to kiss the man without jumping up! That must be why high heels were created.</p>
|
||||
<p>You see how difficult my position is? I have to teach about everything! We have to deal with the problem of homosexuality so we can get rid of it. It is a shameful action before all of nature. I know there are large numbers of homosexuals in America and they are gaining political power, trying to make laws for themselves. They despise the Moonies because we tell them they are wrong. What is important is who is right or wrong in the sight of God. Our viewpoint is certainly the right one.</p>
|
||||
<p>Another type of terrible sickness spreading in this society is that of sexual relationships among relatives in a family. It occurs between parents and children, brothers and sisters, and even grandparents and grandchildren. It is incredible to even think of it. Such things are like the root of a tree trying to become the flower; or the flower trying to become the trunk. There is a certain right order to things; in the tree, the root is a root and not a trunk; the flower is a flower and never the root. They always keep their proper position and they are never interchangeable.</p>
|
||||
<p>Moral decline is the worst enemy of America. Two thousand years ago Roman society collapsed from within, without any foreign soldiers attacking. Today America is declining from within and that is the worst danger. Can America call itself civilized when it is filled with jungles of immorality?</p>
|
||||
<p>Unless we can restore discipline and a strong moral fiber to this society, it will decline; there is no way to avoid it. There can be no order in love, no decency, nothing good in a family in which parents actually engage in sexual relationships with their children. No matter how good looking or strong a person may appear to be, if he is promiscuous in his love, he will eventually crumble. Look at history; when rampant immorality persisted within royal families in ancient kingdoms they were destroyed.</p>
|
||||
<p>The Unification Church is ordained to bring about a revolution in America by restoring moral discipline. We have undertaken this sacred mission not only for this nation but for the world as well.</p>
|
||||
<p>Yesterday Mr. Kamiyama told me about one member who joined the church four years ago, at the age of 20. He told Mr. Kamiyama, “I had relationships with at least 250 women before joining the church but since I joined, I have not committed even one fallen action.” That is the kind of moral revolution I am talking about.</p>
|
||||
<p>Perhaps many of you lived a life of free sex before joining this movement. Now some of you have been engaged for almost four years awaiting the blessing. Unification Church members all over the world are living in this extraordinary way. This is certainly remarkable. Detractors of our movement say that I am a fearful dictator, even that I “control the sex lives” of our members. But rather than controlling you, I have ignited a revolution among all races through which you can live together harmoniously under one set of moral rules. We will bring about a true, righteous world under God in this way.</p>
|
||||
<p>The American society we see today is wearing out. People are doing all kinds of extreme, perverted things but they are certainly not finding satisfaction. Free sex and immorality never bring satisfaction or happiness to anyone.</p>
|
||||
<p>You women should have a cardinal rule: only one man can touch you forever. True love and true marriage can only come about through one spouse. Dancing is fine as long as it is with your husband. When you are freely expressing your love as husband and wife, your conscience can be clear. Suppose you danced for many hours with your husband and your clothes got all sweaty and you looked very disheveled. There is nothing ugly or even unattractive about that. On the other hand, if you danced for hours with any other man and you still looked fresh and beautiful, that would actually be a very ugly scene.</p>
|
||||
<p>In New York City men and women embrace and kiss freely in the middle of the sidewalk or any other place, but those kinds of people cannot be trustworthy. Even though a Moonie woman may not be so colorful and her Moonie husband may not be so handsome, they are trustworthy. If the man has have to go thousands of miles away they can still trust each other. This is because they are living under the tradition of Reverend Moon and the Divine Principle.</p>
|
||||
<p>Children never want to see their parents being unfaithful to each other. Above all, children prefer that their parents love each other, even if they are not socially active or particularly exciting.</p>
|
||||
<p>God’s ideal of creation was to create greater and greater goodness and benefit for the world through the relationship of Adam and Eve. They were supposed to come together in love for that purpose, leaving behind children who were better than they. It is the natural hope of all parents to have children who are greater than they, because it is the hope of God himself.</p>
|
||||
<p>About half of the 240 million people in America are women. You women should think of yourselves as representing all the rest of the women of the nation when you get married. Each of you is unique among the four billion people of the world. You have been introduced to another unique individual who will be your mate for eternity. Instead of having to go out and directly meet people from every nation and continent, you can consider your own mate as a representative of the entire world.</p>
|
||||
<p>Do you think I came just to be a matchmaker? It is not a mandatory requirement from God that I match you couples, but everyone in the church wants it. I have become a victim of my own word, since I said that the individual must sacrifice himself for the larger good! It is incredible work but I must do it. Why is it so tough? When you get a good match you tend to think, “Because I am superior I received a good match.” On the other hand, those who feel they didn’t receive such a great spouse always want to blame me. Any good things become your credit but the difficulties become my fault. Is that true? Perhaps I should tell Dr. Durst to match the couples? If I did that, everybody would complain!</p>
|
||||
<p>I will give you my matching secret: I do not match you primarily as husband and wife but I see through you to your beautiful children of the future. Is that against the Principle or according to Principle? No matter what, the Principle persists here in America.</p>
|
||||
<p>There is still a large gap between the Principle and the American way of homemaking. Do you think the secular tradition of this country ought to continue or shouldn’t the way of Principle take hold and bring a victory for God in this country? Even when you are criticized, will you uphold the Principle? Our goal is true love so even in the face of difficulties and opposition, we must tirelessly walk toward that goal. Even though many Americans today misunderstand me the time will come after my death when they will realize the truth of what I have been speaking and doing.</p>
|
||||
<p>The real battle is already over. Regardless of court trials, regardless of whether someone is a lawyer or a judge, everyone will come to one trial ultimately and that is the trial of true love. No one will be able to deny in the future that I was the promoter of true love, that I lived and propagated the Principle and left a lantern of hope for the future.</p>
|
||||
<p>You are a part of the history which was passed on to you from your parents. Therefore you can never deny the tradition of parents. Often when people divorce in this country, they argue about the custody of children. Each spouse may want to keep the children, but who ever wants to take responsibility for the elderly parents? However, anyone who would want to take responsibility for the parents also deserves to take custody of the children. The vertical line of past, present and future includes the grandparents, parents and children. All three points must be connected.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why can’t we just live in the present and for the present? We want to possess God as our Father and have dominion over the entire universe. The closest distance to God is through the vertical line of your parents, while the link to the universe is through your children. Thus it is illogical to deny either the past or the future.</p>
|
||||
<p>I don’t think most Americans have been taught this way. Some of you call your own parents “senior citizens.” Raise your hands if you have denied or disregarded your physical parents. There are quite a few of you; you must repent. Regardless of the reason, you must not deny your parents. Likewise, you must never think that you will get married but avoid having children. You must understand the heart of parents and children. Children should be close to both their grandparents and their parents.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why do humans alone have a sense of history? It is because we alone are created as eternal beings. Because we have eternal life we cannot separate ourselves from history. This particular sermon is being heard not only by you, but also by the entire spirit world. As your ancestors listen to this sermon, will they think I am saying crazy things? No, they will say, “How wonderful that somebody on earth is speaking the truth. There is no one else but Rev. Moon who understands these things.”</p>
|
||||
<p>Do you engaged people think, “I wish my fiancé wouldn’t hear these words from Rev. Moon,” or are you wishing that your fiancé were here with you listening to my sermon today? Actually, everyone wants to understand the truth, including grandparents, parents, and children. Universal truth is the base for happiness.</p>
|
||||
<p>When someone visits his hometown, he wants to be welcomed by everybody he knows there. This is a natural desire and it is true for the spirit world and even God himself.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you men look at your fiancee, do you naturally desire to touch her face or her body? The body is designed to be touched. Certainly a person’s face is important, but the most important thing for a woman is that her spouse has a man’s body, and vice-versa.</p>
|
||||
<p>The innocent, pure baby loves his mother regardless of how she looks. Even if his mother is a hunchback with only one eye, the baby wants to be with his mommy. In the same way, men and women should love each other unconditionally; don’t try to evaluate each other. The same way you loved your parents as a child-purely and uncritically-you should love your spouse. Are you confident you can do it?</p>
|
||||
<p>When you give your first love it is always unconditional. Men and women are designed to experience the beauty and purity of first love and live together forever in that love. With that first love, there is no such thing as a racial or cultural barrier. Teenagers have minds of openness and sensitivity to all the joys, tragedies and beauties of life. They normally feel everything so deeply. Even when they see autumn leaves falling, they feel touched by that.</p>
|
||||
<p>Unfortunately here in America there are not many who have preserved their first love. Most of you already have some kind of a past, so what can we do? Realizing the preciousness of that first love and knowing that you have lost it for whatever reason, you should be more humble repentant, and fervent than before. In order to compensate be more sacrificial in loving your spouse, ready to accept him or her unconditionally. When you are humble and open to each other, you can compensate for the loss of your first love.</p>
|
||||
<p>If your conscience was really alive, you could not say to me, “I don’t have a good fiancé; he is not the kind I wanted.” Your original mind should be saying, “Father, because I am so impure, I don’t really deserve any person as my spouse. But since I have received this spouse as a gift from God, I will serve him/her for the rest of my life. I want to deserve this great blessing with all my heart and soul.” Those who do not have the privilege of giving your first love to your spouse must be repentful and at the same time most appreciative to God and willing to compensate. In this way you can restore your love and reach the same degree of Heaven. Remember the story of the one brother who had so many different relationships before the church. For him there is nothing but a sense of appreciation because of the blessing. Through the blessing everyone is being launched toward pure, sacrificial love. Without it, you cannot open the door to the Kingdom of Heaven.</p>
|
||||
<p>Do you think Adam in the Garden of Eden was thinking, “Maybe another woman has a better attitude”? Do you think Eve thought, “Some other man might be better than this one”? Suppose God happened to make Eve with only one eye? When Adam’s first love was ignited, Eve would seem even prettier for having only one eye. First love creates miracles.</p>
|
||||
<p>I am thinking that the blessed children should be married at an earlier age because I want them to be certain of marrying their first love. If each of you had been able to be blessed with your first love intact, you would feel so happy and grateful. You would not have a sense of evaluation but would be like a baby going after its mother with unconditional love.</p>
|
||||
<p>Such a loving man and woman create an ideal couple. The Kingdom of Heaven is designed for such a couple to give birth to children. No one can live in Heaven all by himself. Everyone needs a partner, no matter what. Many religious people seek their own individual Heaven, but Moonies are looking forward to their “family Heaven.” It is natural to want to be with your loved ones. Beyond the family Heaven, we are looking toward the society, nation and world-level Heaven. Beyond that, we want to see the cosmos, Heaven.</p>
|
||||
<p>We are preparing our eternity now by practicing the eternal principle of sacrificial service. By serving and loving others in a sacrificial way, a person will enjoy total freedom once he goes to spirit world. But unless a person is unselfish here on the earth, he will be blocked everywhere he goes in spirit world.</p>
|
||||
<p>Selfishness is very common within families. Many people are concerned only with their own spouse or children. What about you in the Unification Church? Will you say to your fiancé, “You are not educated enough; why don’t you sneak out of your public mission and finish your degree?”</p>
|
||||
<p>Why am I pushing you to live a sacrificial way of life? What am I gaining from it personally? I know that if I don’t do this now, you will really accuse me later in spirit world. I want to teach you the universal principles now so you can live them and practice them.</p>
|
||||
<p>Always I preach to you the same thing-the sacrificial way of life for the sake of something greater. The individual for the sake of the family, the family for the sake of society, society for the universe, and the universe for the cosmos. The Unification Church is like a tribe, so we must sacrifice ourselves for the sake of the nation and world.</p>
|
||||
<p>When Korean members come to this country, I want them to work harder than the Americans and demonstrate the sacrificial way of life. Many black people in Africa despise white people, but if you white Americans go to Africa and demonstrate this way of life you will be welcomed. This is the way I have lived in this country. If I had been thinking of my own comfort, I would not have come here. Likewise, I would never have returned to face the court battle. But for the sake of righteousness and the posterity of this nation and the world, I came to demonstrate the righteous way of life. That is the way a leader must be. Certainly God will never deny that. Even Satan himself will sign the certificate saying, “Rev. Moon was right in what he said and did.”</p>
|
||||
<p>Once you get married, where will you go? If husband and wife are alone and unprotected Satan can always invade. You need a fence around you. so as husband and wife you should go to home church. Through home church we will bring people of all different races together into one unity. With that horizontal unity we can achieve the sovereignty of Heaven.</p>
|
||||
<p>We need a nation centered upon the Principle in order to be protected so we are pursuing our goal, even through persecution. Home church will be the base of that sovereignty. By uniting our tribes of home church, we can bring about an entire nation under the sovereignty of Heaven. In order for that sovereignty to be protected, we will need a Constitution of the Heavenly Kingdom. We have the Divine Principle, but we still need a Heavenly Constitution. We must achieve this Heavenly sovereignty in order to bring liberation to both the communist and the free worlds. It is not for the sake of Rev. Moon, but for the sake of God that this must happen.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you go to spirit world, God wants you to be able to proclaim yourself as an exemplary citizen of the Heavenly nation and world so that He can take pride in you. I want to be able to say to God, “Father, I established my ideal family. ideal tribe, ideal nation and ideal world on the earth.” Where are we today? We are in the process of moving to the national and worldwide dispensation and ultimately to the level of spirit world.</p>
|
||||
<p>If you do home church without persecution you can make progress all at once. Think of it. The world is not so large that you could not spread the truth everywhere if you were all really focused on it. Imagine if we could broadcast a Divine Principle seminar by satellite! Such a day is before us.</p>
|
||||
<p>God is very scientific. Knowing what you want and need, and wanting to give you what you want, He gave you home church where you can do your mission as a family unit. You must set the example for your children in your home church work, telling them, “This is the way True Parents fought the battle, it is the way your mother and I are fighting the battle, and you shall follow our footsteps.”</p>
|
||||
<p>Your children will ask you why you call Rev. and Mrs. Moon True Parents. You can tell them it is because Rev. and Mrs. Moon established the heavenly tradition and they lived it. They lived the sacrificial way of life for the sake of others and the whole world.</p>
|
||||
<p>You must tell your children another important fact, “It doesn’t matter what race they are from; Rev. and Mrs. Moon are exemplary and your daddy and mommy are following their tradition in order to become true parents as well.” What is the messiah? The messiah is the one who fulfills true parenthood; so the Unification Church is like a factory for the mass production of messiahs!</p>
|
||||
<p>Will you say, “I will go to home church if the Unification Church will buy me a house, transportation and clothes”? Is that the way the messiah comes from Heaven? Not at all.</p>
|
||||
<p>You are very fortunate people. Do you know why? It is because you are living in a different era from me. I received nothing but persecution but from now on Moonies will be welcomed. The time is coming when the mood and atmosphere toward us will be completely changed. You are able to work now in an entirely different set of circumstances than those at the time of Jesus Christ. You are very lucky.</p>
|
||||
<p>I came alone, knocking on the doors of Christianity here on earth, and received nothing but a cold shoulder. But you do not have to go that way; you are going to be welcomed. An incredible foundation has been established for you. Judaism and Christianity shed blood, the True Parents gave blood, sweat and labor, heart and soul, to lay this foundation. You are inheriting everything free and your persecution will not last more than three years. When I was in the court battle, many people began changing their minds. They didn’t want to see me being persecuted because they knew it was not right.</p>
|
||||
<p>Home church is an incredible system. Since home church is the microcosm, without it you would have to deal in the macrocosm. the entire world. After you get married, then, where should you go? Home church. Jesus Christ united with the Holy Spirit after the resurrection and worked together with Heavenly Father as a trinity to begin the work of salvation. Likewise, you men and women are coming together and going to work in your home church area. You should be able to say to your fiancé or spouse, “I love home church better than I love you.”</p>
|
||||
<p>You have no idea how many hours I spent in prayer in my life. I really envy your position; if I were in it, I would go for 24 hours in excitement and joy. You have to give your body, heart and soul for the sake of others.</p>
|
||||
<p>Since the home church mission is installed all over the world, I can find my home any place-South America, Africa, Europe, Asia. What should be your central purpose and desire when you go to work in home church? How do you think I will choose which home churches I want to visit? I will want to visit either the ones which have been controversial and well-known or the ones in which the people have been completely won over and you are totally welcomed. I would go to those areas either to compliment you or to comfort you.</p>
|
||||
<p>The book of Revelation clearly states that people should either be hot or cold toward God, not lukewarm. You must start out with the coldness of persecution and turn it into the heat of acceptance. Certainly the word indemnity is a very ice-cold word.</p>
|
||||
<p>Your activities in home church have often been the opposite of that pattern so far. You usually go to the homes where you have been well-received, avoiding those where you are persecuted. However you should rejoice over the people who fight with you and should visit their homes with enthusiasm. When the person says, “Don’t come back!” you should show up every day. Clean up the area do all kinds of services. If that person still opposes you God will mobilize all the neighbors and they will say to him, “We have never seen such a good man as that home church person. Why do you persecute him? You are unrighteous.” They will kick him out and embrace you!</p>
|
||||
<p>In order to make a cold place hot, you must become like burning hot charcoal. Husband and wife must be totally united with each other and go to home church. The cold, negative people don’t want to see such hot people. You should chase each other out to do home church. The wife might say, “Why don’t you go to the people who are negative to you?” You should pray together and go out to those negative houses. then return and pray again.</p>
|
||||
<p>If your wife complains and says, “I need more sleep. You go ahead and pray by yourself,” you should not give up. Wake her up and persuade her to come and pray with you. It is most important to pray together. Why is that? It is because you want to be able to share in the success and rejoice together when it is a victory. If the husband is the one smiling and full of joy but the wife feels a bit guilty, that is dishonorable for the area.</p>
|
||||
<p>Mother just returned from the hospital yesterday after giving birth, and it was a long ordeal for her. I was anxious to bring her here to Sunday Service today but the Doctor said it was impossible. Why did I want Mother to be here ? I wanted her to show a heroic example to all of you. Even though she is very weak, still Mother managed to come here and listen to three or four hours of the sermon. That is truly historic. When Mother does that, how in the world can any wives or husbands in the church complain about their situations? That is the kind of tradition I wanted to set this morning.</p>
|
||||
<p>Do you think God will say to me, “Rev. Moon, what a cruel husband you are! How can you drag your wife out right after she came home from the hospital”? No, He will say, “You are indeed a wonderful husband. You truly love your wife.” I know that is the way God sees it. What kind of husband do you women want? Do you want a husband who thinks like me? Sometimes a husband can do things that appear to be cruel, but they are motivated by genuine love, as in this case.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you cheer for us, I want Mother to receive the same joy and praise that I do from you. When you cheer Mother, I truly want to be the first person to cheer her. To become that kind of wife is not easy. Ordinary women would definitely complain, “My husband doesn’t understand women and their special difficulties.”</p>
|
||||
<p>Mother and I have now had thirteen children. The number 12 was a good number and perhaps you wonder why we went on to have 13. Jesus and the 12 apostles together make 13. Now there are twelve children and one who will become like the central figure of the group. We have six daughters and seven sons; six is a number representing earth and seven represents heaven. Mother has consummated her mission.</p>
|
||||
<p>I always want to be a good example for every member of my family. I work hard, go to bed latest, get up early in the morning, and spend many sleepless nights meditating. Nobody in my home can say I am not working hard enough. Mother recognizes this and tells me, “Father, I surrender. Your standard is absolute.” Men should fulfill the man’s role with a man’s dignity. He should be in the position to educate women.</p>
|
||||
<p>You must know that there is a Principle standard for all the little details of daily life. Nothing of value can come easily or automatically. What kind of husbands will you men become? Will you be respected by your wife or criticized by her? Do you women want your husbands to become good Divine Principle lecturers? Certainly the women want their husbands to stand up wherever they are and be able to speak about Unificationism, VOC. and all those things.</p>
|
||||
<p>All women want their husbands to be capable of meeting congressmen and ambassadors; in short, women want their husbands to be well respected. Have you men achieved that? Women also want their men to be masculine, athletic, and capable at hunting and fishing. They want their husbands to be able to socialize and tell jokes and sing songs.</p>
|
||||
<p>My goal, therefore, is to transform all you dull men into such exemplary, brilliant husbands! In order to make you into such men, can I just sit and watch you do everything as you like? No, I push you out to do many things such as IOWC, fishing, witnessing, fundraising, etc. I want you to be exposed to all kinds of situations and get training from it.</p>
|
||||
<p>On any occasion, I can take the platform and give a speech to inspire any kind of audience. I can go to a sports arena and do well in any type of sports. I can sit down and write essays very well. I can sit and engage in stimulating conversation with anyone, for hours and hours. When I speak with Mother for a while, she always wants me to stay and continue talking with her. Boredom does not exist in our lives. I want to recreate all you men of the Unification Church into brilliant husbands. Is there anything wrong with that?</p>
|
||||
<p>When the seminary graduates are sent out to Ocean Church, they often complain saying, “But I’m a scholar!” However, what is a scholar? The scholar should be able to do anything, including catch and sell fish. Seminary graduates are given all kinds of missions such as being sent out to organize against communism. When someone learns too much in the classroom, he usually becomes skeptical and even scared of real life. Thus, I draw you out of the classroom and push you to work in the world. Even though some of you may not like it, usually you discover how stimulating and exciting VOC demonstrations and those things are. Once you learn to appreciate such things, you want to go out on your own.</p>
|
||||
<p>Women want a husband who is versatile and talented, not narrow and single-minded. So far, I have managed to catch a 1,000 pound tuna by concentrating my efforts and knowledge. I am revising my activities now, though. I am going out fishing to catch smaller fish and I am investigating ways of netting them in huge amounts. I am putting a great amount of interest and energy into fishing.</p>
|
||||
<p>Do you women want a husband who reflects my nature? You men have heard them say yes, so I am going to push you out. What if your husband goes out on the ocean? Will you go with him, even if it is a small boat and you must toss and turn all the time? When you become the wife of a versatile, multi-talented husband, you will have to support his activities. If you cannot be everywhere with him, at least you should support him and never complain against him. It is a tendency of some of you women to complain too much, saying, “Why did you come back so late last night? Why didn’t you call me?’ On many missions, there are no telephones. Without even knowing what your husband did or what kind of an important job he fulfilled the previous night, you should never shoot out complaints or remarks against him.</p>
|
||||
<p>Normally it takes several years preparation to start a new newspaper, but I told Bo Hi Pak to create a new one in only two months. He could hardly respond to that direction and he mentioned all the reasons why it was impossible. But I told him, “You have to start The Washington Times in two months; no matter how you do it, it is your responsibility.” When you are given a mission, you must be able to think of ten different ways to do it. The Washington Times started out being created in New York City and then being flown to Washington every night.</p>
|
||||
<p>Even though people look scornfully at the Moonies now, you are soon going to be respected. You will become the central figure in whatever society you move. There is no one else with your kind of character and ability, so you will be automatically respected.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you persevere in your area, visiting the negative people and trying to serve them, the opposition will crumble very quickly. Some people will change on the second visit. They will say, “I’m sorry. I was very rude to you yesterday, but I didn’t mean it. Won’t you come to our home as often as possible?” You might even invite all your home church contacts to a big banquet, telling them, “A very prominent, important speaker is going to give us a talk.” Then when they come to the banquet they will ask, “Where is that VIP?” You can reply, “Don’t you know the VIP? I am the one!” Then you can take the platform and deliver the most inspiring lecture about the Divine Principle. The people will be so impressed and say, “He certainly is a VIP!” From then on when you visit them, they will be completely open to you.</p>
|
||||
<p>When I was in prison camp in North Korea, nobody knew anything about me. But sooner or later, people came to respect me because they saw my actions. The prison police were supposed to treat the prisoners very harshly. but they couldn’t always treat me that way. Even some of them felt respect for me. At one point when I came out of my cell, the police bowed to me. Of course I never asked them to do that. That is the kind of life which is truly dramatic.</p>
|
||||
<p>I want to bring a revolution to the American church. The American mentality is sincere but you only like to do one thing at a time. You say, “Let me finish this mission before you give me any other responsibilities,” but I think you should be able to handle three-or even ten-missions at the same time!</p>
|
||||
<p>Suppose the cooks at East Garden said, “Cooking is my only mission. I don’t want to clean or baby-sit.” That is not the way it works. Everything comes together; if there is someone who is willing to help anywhere the need arises, that person will succeed.</p>
|
||||
<p>Fundraisers cannot speak too loudly in front of me because I am the forefather of fundraising. I know exactly where the money goes, as well. Every penny is spent for the purposes of God.</p>
|
||||
<p>Suppose I went out today and became a beggar on the streets. If I came to you saying, “Can you give me a quarter?” what would you do? Would you want to give me everything you have? Actually. that is not sufficient. If I went begging on the streets, you should want to do what I do. Then my heart would be truly warmed. If I had to go begging on the streets for the sake of someone else, I would never be ashamed. If you could save someone’s life by begging, you would do it a thousand times.</p>
|
||||
<p>In Korea I learned how to be a good farmer as well. In the Oriental countryside, human waste is used as fertilizer. We didn’t have proper tools, so I had to spread it all around by hand. Then when mealtime came there was no water to wash one’s hands. When we ate a piece of food we would hold it by a tiny corner and eat everything except that corner, which we would throw away. That is a very dramatic, even poetic, way of life. I learned how to take baths in muddy water and still get clean.</p>
|
||||
<p>Your mental attitude toward your experiences is all important. Diseases and bodily sicknesses can be controlled by your mind. If you think, “I don’t feel well. I think I will die soon,” you probably will! But if you can conquer your sickness in your mind, you can be healed. When sickness comes to you, you should think, “This illness came not to kill me but to make me stronger by fighting it off.” Then you find that the sickness actually helped you.</p>
|
||||
<p>Mother worries about my health and tells me, “Father, you are not a young man anymore. You should cut down the length of your sermons to only two hours.” But I knew that if I did that, she would say, “Two hours is a little too long, so why don’t you make it an hour and a half?” Then she would suggest one hour, then thirty minutes, then maybe 15 minutes. I have a secret: whenever Mother gives that kind of advice for a Sunday morning, the sermon that day will be at least four hours. I can’t work under pressure of any kind; I want to be totally free. Mother tells me, “I can’t understand you; you are an incredible mystery!” But once I explained my logic to her about this situation, she accepted it and had to consent to my thinking.</p>
|
||||
<p>There are Korean IW’s assembled here for a workshop. Every day I have been taking them out on the boat and giving! them training. On windy days and rainy days, they say to each other, “I wish Father wouldn’t take us out today,” although they don’t say anything to me. That very day, you can be sure, they will go out. I push them out and direct them to catch the fish on the front deck. If I discover them sitting comfortably inside the cabin, I kick them out again. My principle is this: not many people can succeed by doing only the things they enjoy. You should be able to do anything; even if you hate to do something, you should be able to do it well. By doing something you don’t want to do, you can become a person of success.</p>
|
||||
<p>I don’t worry about how to build the Kingdom of Heaven; and I don’t worry much about popular opinions. For example, the wealthy class of Korea doesn’t accept our church. Therefore my instruction is to focus on the working class; we will start at the grass roots and begin to build the Kingdom from there. This is my attitude-if one direction doesn’t work, I never give up; I just find another way. That is why the Unification Church has come this far.</p>
|
||||
<p>When God looks at that kind of attitude, do you think He likes it? What about people in spirit world? God and spirit world join together in an alliance to help the crusade of Reverend Moon. If the United States doesn’t support this movement, I think South America can be mobilized to save North America. If the European nations fail. we will mobilize the African nations to save Europe. Once I start something, I always see it through to the end. Is that bad? It is not bad, but it is not an easy life.</p>
|
||||
<p>The ideal blessed couple is the most determined husband and wife with a goal in their lives, who will not give up under any circumstances. They join their lives together and work steadily and patiently until they reach their goal.</p>
|
||||
<p>When children come, your burdens will not become lighter but heavier. If you worked eight hours as a single person you might have to work 16 hours once you become a married couple. Then when you have children, perhaps you will have to work even longer with hardly any time left over to sleep. You must have the attitude that you will not be indebted to anybody but will work as much as necessary. Your success will not come easily.</p>
|
||||
<p>Jewelers possess treasures but they are also the targets of robbers. By the same token, getting blessed in marriage is a good thing but there is also a cross to bear. You will actually have a double burden to bear: your own and your spouse’s. Then your children will bring their own burdens for you to bear.</p>
|
||||
<p>It is very exciting to get married but I want you to be prepared so nobody will get discouraged one week after the Blessing. You must have confidence now. If you truly adhere to the Principle, you will not be weakened. With confidence and strength and dedication to your mission you will overcome all difficulties. This is why I am speaking to you this way today.</p>
|
||||
<p>Perhaps some of you might envy my position, but my role is not an easy one. The problems of the church cannot go higher than me, so whenever any of the leaders needs a bigger budget, for example, I am the one they come to. What can I do? Can I go to God and say, “Heavenly Father, we need more money”? I have to take responsibility for all these things.</p>
|
||||
<p>I receive many serious reports of all the problems and suffering of our members around the world. Good reports do not normally come to me. I hear about our members getting persecuted in communist countries; there are so many problems our movement has to face.</p>
|
||||
<p>Are you thinking that since you did fundraising for three or five years you ought to receive a house and material benefits now from the church? I never think in those terms. I worked for God my entire life and I have never asked God to provide me with a house or such things. I pray for hours and hours but I never pray for money. Why is that? I want to tell God, “Heavenly Father, I am alive and active. You shouldn’t have to worry about money; I will take care of it.” You, too, should be self supporting; you should even be able to support others. Do not become dependent on others.</p>
|
||||
<p>There will be over 2,000 couples blessed on July 1. Have you ever considered that once I go to spirit world, you will be the ones to give blessing to your home church people? They will say to you, “Since Rev. and Mrs. Moon are not here, will you bless us on behalf of them?</p>
|
||||
<p>Would you like to become children of the master of the house or children of the servant? If you want to be the master’s children, you must be educated and disciplined. You must receive a special kind of education. When I give you the teaching of truth, you must have the heart of a child to receive it. A little child is guided by the hands of his parents. His mother tells him, “You must do this and you must not do that.” Does the little child say, “Mommy, I don’t think that’s right. Maybe part of what you say is right, but I think that part is wrong.”? The little child is not in that position. When you were young you received all kinds of guidance. When you tried to put it into practice you discovered what was good and what was bad but initially you just received everything. Without even receiving my words sometimes you try to analyze them first.</p>
|
||||
<p>We talk about home church but how many people are really doing home church? A student attending university must go consistently to class in order to get credit. Home church is far greater than any school but because there is no test, would you not go.? There are all kinds of excuses.</p>
|
||||
<p>We should all be most grateful for this power of home church. From the spiritual and providential point of view we do not recognize any boundaries in any part of the world. We will eventually do our home church in the communist countries as well.</p>
|
||||
<p>Surrounding Jesus, there were two central families- that of Zechariah, or John the Baptist, and that of Joseph, which was Jesus’ own family. Around them there were 70 elders. You will be restoring the position of Jesus if he had suffered no crucifixion. Such a foundation will extend to the national level very quickly.</p>
|
||||
<p>You are going to your home church in the position of John the Baptist and in the potential position of the messiah. When you go to home church you will actually be welcomed and not rejected. Within three years time this can be accomplished. These are not just empty words.</p>
|
||||
<p>You cannot reach the stage of perfection without fulfilling the growth stage. We must consummate home church victoriously. Without it, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven in spirit world.</p>
|
||||
<p>Three spiritual children are a necessity in order to restore the families of Adam and Noah, in which there were three sons and three daughters-in-law. Together with the parents, that makes eight. Without three spiritual children you are not entitled to the blessing. You are not sinless Adam and Eve but instead came out of the fallen lineage. Therefore you must go this course. Jesus Christ washed the feet of his disciples, trying to show them his love and unite them solidly together. However, disunity arose anyway and one of them betrayed Jesus. There were at least three disciples who contributed to that betrayal in some way.</p>
|
||||
<p>We are living in an era of “winterism.” Communism is spreading all over the globe and it originated in a northern, cold climate. The democratic culture originated in a mild weather climate and the ancient cultures of Rome, Egypt, and Mesopotamia arose in a hot climate. We are teaching the principles of Unificationism, which has the power to transcend all the differences of ideology. The communist ideology is spreading cold air all over the world and we must stop it. Otherwise the Kingdom of Heaven cannot be established.</p>
|
||||
<p>We must fight against communism. Like strong trees, when the cold of winter hits us we will maintain our life within, although our leaves may fall off. Our families must be able to overcome all difficulties and survive and prosper. We will see the surrender of all atheistic ideologies. Until then we must survive and prosper.</p>
|
||||
<p>Do you need three spiritual children? Jesus needed three major disciples but before those three could be distinguished, he needed all twelve. Unless you have three spiritual children, it is almost like Noah’s ark floating on the water with no condition to settle on the land. This is the truth of Divine Principle; it is not my concept. I myself had to be the first to live by this principle.</p>
|
||||
<p>Mother and I were engaged in 1960, but I waited until after the engagement of three spiritual children before we were married. Then we could give the blessing to those three spiritual children. Then there were the 36 blessed couples, then 72, 124, 430, and 777. The 124 couples blessing laid a solid foundation for the worldwide dispensation. The 430 opened the door for all Korean people to come to our movement. The 777 couples blessing allowed me to start working directly on the worldwide level.</p>
|
||||
<p>The years 1970, 1971, and 1972 were years of incredible ordeal for the Korean blessed couples. They had to leave their children behind with reluctant families and, in extreme cases, send them to orphanages, in order to accomplish their missionary pioneering. They were almost like Moses’ mother who had to leave him in the Pharaoh’s palace. As you know, Moses never lost his identity. Likewise even though the blessed children lived outside the heavenly domain, they did not think their parents had deserted them. They knew their parents were righteous and putting their missions ahead of everything.</p>
|
||||
<p>The grandparents usually complained against the parents leaving their children in that way. However the children received incredible sympathy from their peers in the secular world. As they grew, the other children supported them and helped them. In such a way the barriers between Cain and Abel were broken down. Also in that way the barriers preventing national unity were broken down at some level.</p>
|
||||
<p>During that time the blessed couples received much criticism from the grandparents and others. But now, since the Unification Church has become so famous, those grandparents are saying, “I deserve some of the credit. I took care of the children for three years!” The policy appeared to be unwise at the time but now it is clear that it was the most righteous way to go. The unity between Cain and Abel was a great victory.</p>
|
||||
<p>The time will come in the future when there will be another such condition necessary. Would you agree to leave your children behind, the way the Korean elders did? However, if you do your home church well you won’t have to do such a thing. Home church is so important. You can still live with your children and do home church, while in Korea the mothers had to brush aside their own and their children’s tears and go away to serve God. They did it because there was no other way to save the world.</p>
|
||||
<p>There is no personal benefit I could ever derive from such an event. I appear ruthless, in a way, but I do the things I do because the Principle requires it. I can do these things decisively, without any hesitation. Satan has been retreating step by step. Since the Korean elders laid that kind of foundation of suffering, you won’t have to suffer to that degree. All you have to do is home church. Now you know how important a task it is.</p>
|
||||
<p>All the sacrifices that were made by religious people through history were to contribute toward the perfection of one Adam and one Eve. Now the time has come to achieve that perfection. The victory of Adam and Eve should be shared with the rest of the world. We cannot achieve this victory for God without paying incredible indemnity. In the first centuries Christians were martyred and Jewish people suffered incredible ordeals during World War 11. All these things are not without meaning; they were not in vain. All have contributed to the consummation of human history. Today that martyrdom and crucifixion is continuing under the communist regimes. Many good people are being tortured and thrown into death camps.</p>
|
||||
<p>Each of you is in the position of Adam and Eve. You should think that because of you, all the sacrifices of history took place. I want you to understand that for the perfection of one Adam and Eve, all the suffering and religious persecution of history took place.</p>
|
||||
<p>Therefore we are in a position to consummate this on top of that foundation and we must be able to bring liberation to all. Spiritually, we are responsible to liberate our ancestors. Physically, we have to liberate our contemporaries and all the generations to come.</p>
|
||||
<p>John the Baptist, speaking of Jesus, said, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” You are now in the position to liquidate the sins of the world. You are bearing the cross for the world, but you cannot do this out of duty. It must be done voluntarily, because you want to do it. Because I have pioneered this course, you can go through your own course in only seven years; you do not have to pass through a millennium of difficulties.</p>
|
||||
<p>After 6,000 Biblical years, Satan has finally begun to retreat. He has been totally exposed through the discovery of Divine Principle. You should be able to say. “I participated in the holy war to subjugate Satan, the one who accused man throughout history.” As champions of God, we must be the ones to totally exterminate him. We are in the position of the Heavenly David against Goliath.</p>
|
||||
<p>You must walk this path with courage, the way David went out to face Goliath. He went all by himself, without any assistance. We have the weapon of shim jung, heartle that will be our rock in our slingshot. We will hit the power of Satan and he will be knocked down and killed.</p>
|
||||
<p>Do you understand the value of home church’ You are alive and strong; think of the thousands of Christians who became food for lions in the Roman Empire’s coliseums. Even facing such torture, they were not shaken in their faith but sang hymns as the lions tore at their flesh. At this time, the raging lions of Satan have become sick and old: all they need is one strong punch to be knocked out, can we not continue?</p>
|
||||
<p>You must feel, “Heaven and earth shall be restored to righteousness by my actions.” Unless you have that kind of conviction and dignity, how can you say, “I am a child of God”?</p>
|
||||
<p>Where will you go after you are married? Would you want to stay in the New Yorker, since it is a comfortable place? No, you should go to home church. For five years I have been talking about home church. When you walk the path, even without knowing very much about it, your reward can be great. But if you receive plenty of explanation and you still do not go the path, you will become burdened. I have spoken enough to you. I don’t have to give you any more sermons on home church because you will be doing it!</p>
|
||||
<p>The day of the blessing will be July 1, the first day of the seventh month. Seven plus one equals eight, which signifies a new start. Which ones of you are determined to spend your honeymoons in your home church area? Do you think Mother and I enjoyed a honeymoon? I still don’t know what the word means. When you inherit my mission fully, I might consider taking a honeymoon for the first time.</p>
|
||||
<p>When I left Korea, I left the mission there in the hands of the elder members. Will you send me off on my honeymoon saying, “We want to go with you!”? When I come back and see that your home church work is successful, I will buy a jumbo jet and take all of you to the places I visited.</p>
|
||||
<p>July 4 is the anniversary of America’s independence. You will be celebrating your honeymoon on that day. We should have fireworks on July I that outdo all the rest of the fireworks in the country.</p>
|
||||
<p>The most important thing is to gain spiritual children. I have told you how to restore your relatives and friends by writing letters to them. Have you just pushed away my advice, thinking, “I tried and I couldn’t bring any success.”? Is that a good excuse?</p>
|
||||
<p>After your wedding you may find more opposition from your parents and families. You must have a strong will and overcome many difficult situations. You should be able to purify yourselves and lift your standard higher that anyone else’s in history. In absolute love there can be no degradation.</p>
|
||||
<p>Once you are married, you will no longer be just fiancés. You can touch your husband or wife’s hand. You can even kiss if you want to, but you must be able to do so with a clear conscience. If all kinds of past impure memories come to you, you shouldn’t kiss. The 40 days after blessing are a period of purification and liquidation of sin. Husband and wife should sit down and talk with one another and pledge your lives to one another. You must come to the conclusion that you are the only ones for each other. You should pick out your wife’s picture and say, “Yes, this is the one God gave to me. She is the one I love absolutely.” Your every sense will be focused that day of your wedding. You must think that day is the day of fulfillment of all your dreams.</p>
|
||||
<p>You must consider your husband or wife as your king or queen. All the men and women you met in the past must be totally forgotten. You never had a king or queen before but now you do. The worst you can do would be to compare your mate to a past boyfriend or girlfriend.</p>
|
||||
<p>Remember when you look at your mate that what you can see is only the case. Inside that case, your spouse is a diamond or gold mine. A beautiful-looking box does not necessarily contain good contents. Faithful people don’t show off their faith by flashy appearances, but the beauty of true faith permeates them. An ugly man normally possesses a purer heart. Beautiful women normally do not possess the strongest faith; such people tend to be tempted in many different directions.</p>
|
||||
<p>Your family is the core of the universe. It will be a textbook for universal love. Within your family, everything will be contained: God, spirit world, your happiness, confidence, and the perfection of your life. When you say to your spouse, “My darling,” the entire universe is being harmonized. God will smile and applaud you. Nothing is more dramatic than having your family as your textbook for the universal standard of love. What kind of a family is that? It is what we call a blessed family.</p>
|
||||
<p>Just hearing the phrase, “blessed family,” makes you feel intoxicated! When you are husband and wife and dance together in ecstatic joy, you don’t need to focus too much on your partner’s face. You will want to touch each other’s hands and dance together in joy.</p>
|
||||
<p>I will pick some exemplary, united couples and ask them to learn beautiful dances and then we will have a heavenly dancing party. Since dancing is the expression of joy, the Heavenly Kingdom must have lots of dancing. Someday we can be linked around the world by satellite television and we can all take walks together, regardless of which time zone we are dwelling in. Everybody else will be asleep, but the blessed couples will be busy walking and laughing.</p>
|
||||
<p>My life has been very difficult and tragic, in a way, but I never lost my dream. What appeared to be an impossible dream was never impossible. It has become a reality, step by step. I used to dream of people of all five colors of skin dancing together around the world. We could even do that now, in this room. Dreams can become a reality!</p>
|
||||
<p>No matter how miserable you may look or how tired you may feel, you have the hope of home church. Your own dream will become a reality, just as mine has. Be thankful for persecution for it will make you great. Tears will flow from your eyes but your mouth will be saying, “Thank you.” Nothing in the world’s literature could express such a moment. This is a great, dramatic moment.</p>
|
||||
<p>Never be discouraged. Move on to home church and we shall win the victory there. Those who say, “I will do it,” raise your hands and show me. Thank you.</p>
|
||||
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content/speeches/1982/childrens-day-1982.md
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@ -0,0 +1,99 @@
|
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---
|
||||
title: "CHILDREN'S DAY - 1982"
|
||||
type: "speech"
|
||||
published: "2018-06-23T14:31:35+01:00"
|
||||
updated: "2018-06-23T14:31:35+01:00"
|
||||
source: "/blog/2018/06/23/childrens-day-1982.html"
|
||||
speechYear: "1982"
|
||||
categories:
|
||||
- "Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982"
|
||||
tags: []
|
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---
|
||||
|
||||
<h2 align="CENTER">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
|
||||
<h3 align="CENTER">November 16, 1982<br />
|
||||
World Mission Center<br />
|
||||
Translator – Bo Hi Pak</h3>
|
||||
<p>Today we are celebrating the 23rd Children’s Day. During the past 22 years the world has changed and the situation of the Unification Church has also changed and progressed quite a bit. Historians will testify that the period from 1960 to 1982 has been the most fluctuating, volatile and extraordinary epoch in the entire history of mankind. But there has been a providential reason for these historical events. We can conclusively state that history operates according to the providential will of God. How, then, is God’s providence moving in our realm, in the reality of our human life?</p>
|
||||
<p>Many nations have become independent since World War II. In contrast to previous history, the powers which gained territory during World War II gave the conquered people the right to independence; many colonies gained independence. These lands had been going through a period of development, progressing like children, but after a time of growth they became independent, autonomous nations. Providentially, parental nations need to be raised up on earth; therefore, brother and sister nations developed in order to usher in the parental nations and support them, and colonies had to be elevated from the position of slave nations to that of children nations.</p>
|
||||
<p>As you know, the world has been developing toward two major blocs: the communist world and the free world. According to the Principle, one bloc is Cain-type and the other Abel-type. There is a sort of brotherhood among nations within each bloc. Those in the free world developed as brother nations, governed by a God-accepting, or theistic ideology. The communist nations also became brothers and sisters, but under a satanic ideology; they are creating another world under Cain-type, or satanic influence. Satan has always taken the belligerent, warmongering approach.</p>
|
||||
<p>As you study history, you will see that whenever nations fight, they always lose ground; as these Cain-type nations continued to fight and lose territory, they came up with a proposal, an ideology that claims there is no God. Since Satan is a spirit, in effect he is denying himself by making such a statement. But even at the cost of denying himself, he wants to repudiate God’s existence. Satan’s ultimate ideology is atheism, God-denying communism.</p>
|
||||
<p>History also indicates that Satan has always taken the initiative; he has always waged war first, he has always launched the first offensive. Whichever party takes the initiative in trying to knock the other down represents Satan and is always on the evil side. That is Satan’s nature. Look at the three world wars. In World War I, the satanic side attacked first; in World War II, the satanic side attacked first; in World War III, the confrontation with communism, you know exactly who is taking the initiative.</p>
|
||||
<p>Providentially speaking, World War I was the battle to acquire land, property and colonies; it was a territorial war. World War II was a war for manpower. Now the communist bloc and the free world are fighting to absorb more population under their wings, trying to gain people to support them. Continuing the style of World War II, in a sense, they are fighting for the people’s support. The ultimate battle of World War III is the battle to take control of God. Communism denies God and is trying to eradicate Him from this planet; the free world affirms God’s existence. Thus, World War III is a war of minds.</p>
|
||||
<p>The current world conflict is an ideological conflict, centering on the existence of God: one side denies His existence and the other affirms it. One side will win. If all the religious communities of the world unite and affirm God’s existence, we can make God manifest; we can prove His existence. But unless religions can play that role in these days, they will be demolished or extinguished.</p>
|
||||
<p>As you look at today’s situation, you see that the religious world is on the defensive; not only that, it is daily losing ground – Christianity included. Communism is gaining more territory, winning more people all the time.</p>
|
||||
<p>I want you to understand that World War I focused on territorial gain, World War II on population gain, and World War III aims to gain God, to decide His existence.</p>
|
||||
<p>Therefore, in light of this total picture, when is the most crucial time? It is now, because God’s presence on this planet is in question. In the history of God and man, this is the most crucial time. If we cannot win this battle, the whole religious world will lose its reason, purpose and ground, and eventually be extinguished. Human history is reaching this point. This is God’s perspective on human history.</p>
|
||||
<p>Therefore, the past 20 years have witnessed tremendous change and fluctuation. These years have seen the most crucial battles in the war between God and Satan. World events and the changes that have taken place reflect God’s emergency situation.</p>
|
||||
<p>Of course, God’s ultimate will is to bring the entire world into unity, but the two blocs keep fighting among themselves, weakening each other. Therefore, God had to make a new force emerge in the world during these past 20 years, a force that would be His champion, His task force. This is the Unification Church, created to do God’s will. This new religious force is declaring to the world that land and territory belong neither to one bloc nor the other – but to God. Furthermore, all people of the world belong neither to one bloc nor the other, but to God. They are children of God. Finally, the Unification Church declares that God is the parent of mankind.</p>
|
||||
<p>Many Christian churches have talked of God as Father, but without truly knowing what kind of Father He is. The various denominations – Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, etc. – call God Father, but what kind of God is He, and of which denomination is He the Father? Are there dozens, or millions of fathers? No. Just one Father. There is one God and one Father, but so many different denominations each claim Him as their Father. What a difficult time God has had! He doesn’t know how to respond.</p>
|
||||
<p>At the same time, each of the world’s religions has been claiming, “God is our God” Is there a Muslim God, a Christian God, a Catholic God, a Buddhist God, etc.? Will God ration Himself out and decide, “Today I’ll be a Muslim God, tomorrow a Buddhist God, and the following day return to Christianity”? No, that is not the way God wants to work. God wants us to join under one name. His contention is, “Unless you are united, unless you become one, you are not worthy of coming to Me and calling Me Father”</p>
|
||||
<p>As you know, God’s providential scheme is always focused on some central religion. You know that Christianity is that central religion. So God is saying, “You Christians have too many divisions, too many denominations. Because you are the central religion, you should be the first to become one” That is God’s mandate for Christianity.</p>
|
||||
<p>Just as the nations of the world became brother and sister nations after World War II, God wanted all religions to become brother religions. But selfishness was always the governing factor, even as history was moving toward brother nations. The United States accepted other nations as brother nations, for example, but always with the attitude, “I am the master; you come to me and listen to me” It should have said, “You are my brother; let me share with you,’ but that spirit has been missing.</p>
|
||||
<p>The victory of World War II brought virtually the entire world under the wings of the United States. If the United States had behaved truly unselfishly, it could have exercised its influence to help other nations around the world. It could have said, “I want to play the role of elder brother. This is the tradition or philosophy of the elder brother, so let’s unite around it and become one family of God”</p>
|
||||
<p>If the United States had done so, the world would never have reached the state it is in today. Other nations would have ceased struggling among themselves. Religious people would have said, “There is one God and one Father; therefore, beyond the distinctions of denomination or religion we are all one, and we should live in one true brotherhood” If that had been the concept of religious leaders, the religious community would never have fallen into its present condition.</p>
|
||||
<p>When the United Nations was born after World War II, it was a family of nations trying to unite the world. Its hope was to live up to its name. At the same time, a world religious organization should have formed, with unity and unselfishness as its theme. Then when the Unification Church came forward with a new ideology, it would have encountered no opposition.</p>
|
||||
<p>Thus when the political United Nations was formed, a religious United Nations should also have taken shape. Then the two forces should have worked together in pursuit of the one fatherhood of God and one brotherhood of man. When the new ideology emerged through the Unification Church it would have been accepted, because it would have been the very thing they had been seeking. The world’s political and religious leaders did not know that God’s ultimate will we. to unite the world and bring about one family of man; the, did not realize that God’s ultimate plan was to bring al] nations and religions together under the one fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man. Still, they would have con eluded that the world needed a new ideology, and they would have recognized the Unification Church and its ideology as the answer.</p>
|
||||
<p>The United Nations was to have done the will of God from its formation. Atheistic, communist countries should have been barred from membership. They should have been told, “You are not entitled to be here; this is not your house” If the United Nations had taken this direction, centered upon the United States, a new providential history would have begun to unfold. But since the free world and the United States in particular failed to do this, the satanic countries took the offensive. Day after day, they tried to shatter the already-divided free world into pieces. Whenever you fail to live up to your responsibility, Satan inevitably comes and attacks you. This is an iron rule.</p>
|
||||
<p>The satanic side first attacked religion, then the young people, trying to draw them away from the church, and finally the institution of the family. Communism and Satan know very clearly that if you remove young people and families from the churches, religion can only collapse. Satan has been bombarding the United States and it is about to succumb. The United States has been a key victim in Satan’s strategy, and he has been very successful here. Since the United States did not succeed in winning over its brother nations throughout the world, internally it has become morally weakened. As a result, no one sympathizes with it or pays attention to it. “You deserve it,” people say.</p>
|
||||
<p>In the midst of all this, the Unification Church arose. It was supposed to have been accepted by the free world and by the world’s religions, but that did not happen. Because the United States failed to fulfill its role, world religions have not been united. Therefore, the Unification Church has existed in a lonely situation, opposed by both world religions and the United States.</p>
|
||||
<p>The United States, world religions and communism have Joined together to attack me, since I am a focal power. A central nation on God’s side, the United States, is now working with the communists to destroy me. Satan knows the situation very clearly; the only real problem he faces in the whole world today is Reverend Moon and the Unification Church. So he is amassing all the help he can to destroy us. He knows that the rest of the world will then become his.</p>
|
||||
<p>I am aware of how effective Satan’s tactics are. However, instead of retreating or taking refuge somewhere, I walk right into the heat of battle. I head straight for the trouble spots and the war zones. First I dedicated myself to knocking down atheism, restoring the churches, restoring young people, and restoring families. Wherever Satan is trying to destroy something, I head there and try to make it whole.</p>
|
||||
<p>My concept is completely different from that of the United States. This nation is focused primarily on itself and perhaps its neighbors, and principally on the white race. My focus is upon all people; I consider all races to be one family. My vision is global, and even beyond that. I can see the national situation, but at the same time I see the whole globe as one unit. So my standpoint is entirely different.</p>
|
||||
<p>Because of its restricted viewpoint and narrow way of thinking, the United States feels uncomfortable about my presence here. That is why this court battle came about. They are trying every method to get me out of this country. They see that I am an Oriental, a Korean, but my actions are not just for the benefit of Korea or Oriental countries. They see that I focus on the well-being of this country and the entire world. I am trying to rescue the United States from its present position and lift it up to a higher plateau, a higher standard. I know that is the only way we can bring God back home, the only way we can welcome Him back to the United States.</p>
|
||||
<p>The Unification Church has such a great name. Here all five colors can become one, all world religions can become one, and the entire world culture can become one. Our quest is the unification of heart and the unification of mankind. Don’t you think the Unification Church has the right name?</p>
|
||||
<p>After World War II, God gave the United States a great opportunity, but it did not seize it. Instead, it failed and lost territories, people and nations. What the United States lost, I have come to recover. The nations it lost, we want to restore; the people it lost, we want to restore. In order to revive America and bring this nation back to God, we need the spirit of General MacArthur. Therefore, we launched the “Inchon” movie project. The spirit of General MacArthur needs to come alive again in America, especially among its young people.</p>
|
||||
<p>Because America failed its mission, first it lost God, then religions were divided, people were divided, and world unity never came about. This country has a great motto: “One nation under God” Do you think the motto should be: “Ignore the rest of the world and don’t help it out; just eat well, sleep well and live well”? Is that what God is saying to the United States? Never. God wanted the United States to be one nation under Him and bring about one world under Him. That was God’s mandate. When the United States failed to do it, God allowed satanic attack to come upon this country.</p>
|
||||
<p>But we Unification Church members will never retreat even one iota, no matter if the United States or even the entire world comes against us. We shall move forward. We shall accomplish God’s mandate. Can you join me in saying, “America has already failed, but we shall restore its failure”?</p>
|
||||
<p>I knew that this critical emergency was coming up. The end of the fallen world is coming. To prepare for that time, I had to build up internal strength and lay an internal, spiritual foundation. Therefore, I established God’s Day, Parents’ Day and Children’s Day, in order to give a new understanding about God. We must clearly know God. Your skin may be brown, white, yellow or black – it makes no difference. Whoever listens to this truth arrives at the same conclusion: “God is my living Father and the Father of all mankind” This is Unification ideology.</p>
|
||||
<p>You are assembled here in this room because you have a historical responsibility. You came here to fulfill a historical task. Otherwise, you are unworthy to sit here. God automatically has to work with whatever church or movement proclaims to the world the unity of all races, religions, and nations – and not only proclaims it but seriously strives to accomplish it. This unity is the central theme of the new age, and those who labor to bring it about are the central players.</p>
|
||||
<p>When we have this ideology of one race, one religion and one nation under God, we can say to God, “You are our Father” Then for the first time, God will respond, “Yes, you are my sons and daughters; you are my children” This is the only time God can call people His children. Furthermore, He will say, “Not only are you My children, but your race is My race, your culture is My culture, your religion is My religion, your country is My country, and your world is My world.” Don’t you think God will say that?</p>
|
||||
<p>This is our starting point. No matter what people may say about God, we want to restore and protect the true God. This is our task – regardless of what communism, other religions, or other philosophies say. We stand for the true, righteous God, and we want to uphold and protect Him.</p>
|
||||
<p>God hears all kinds of prayers every day. But among them all, He is listening for one prayer: “God, I have brought the entire universe into unity” When God hears that prayer, He will wake up and say, “Is that true?” He will question you about that statement. Such a prayer will arouse God more than anything else. Think about it.</p>
|
||||
<p>All this time God has been listening to prayers from people of various denominations. He hears, for instance, “God, I am Presbyterian. You know how that Methodist church next door gives us a hard time. That black church across the street and the Mormon church down the road are not following Your will; they are satanic. Please give Your blessing to our church!” For 2,000 years God has been listening to such divisive prayers. How do you think He responds to them?</p>
|
||||
<p>If someone at least prays, “God, I haven’t quite united the world yet, but I have been working at it. Look, God, I brought this person in, this religion in, and this nation in, but I need a little more help” – God will quickly reply, “Oh, what do you need?”</p>
|
||||
<p>Suppose God were looking at various eyeglasses to decide which to use. He might try on Presbyterian eyeglasses, Catholic eyeglasses, Muslim eyeglasses, Buddhist eyeglasses, etc., and not find any of them appropriate. But the moment He puts on Unification Church eyeglasses and sees the entire world through them, He will exclaim, “This is it!”</p>
|
||||
<p>You resemble God. You bear His image, so can’t you understand the way He feels? How many of you members of the Unification Church really feel that we are destined to fulfill this mission of unification? Will the task be easy or difficult? Even if people of all five races come together, united as solidly as a rock, resolved to live or die together, and if all the world’s religions unite in devotion to this one cause, it still may not be enough. Our task is not easy.</p>
|
||||
<p>Do you sometimes complain about your mission? Perhaps you say, “I don’t like fundraising (or whatever it may be); let someone else do it, Father. I’d rather go some other way” Can you achieve the ultimate task that way? Suppose the entire mission were placed upon you, could you follow joyfully, willingly, voluntarily – even if the results were not guaranteed?</p>
|
||||
<p>What an important mission we have! Did you enter this room thinking, “If I fail my mission, heaven and earth will be shattered,’ or did you think, “Well, we might fail; but one way or another I shall endure. The Unification Church might be broken, but not me. I shall survive” Which attitude do you have?</p>
|
||||
<p>On my part, even if I am shattered into a million pieces, I shall preserve the Unification Church and our tradition. Even if the church is smashed, its spirit of Unificationism must march forward. It must fulfill its goal on the worldwide level. That should be our pledge.</p>
|
||||
<p>There is a new phenomenon in the Unification Church. After the July I Blessing and the Korean Blessing, members are saying, “Oh, my husband (or wife), my darling, we have to create something here” Before your marriage, you looked straight forward, without deviation, but now you are looking around in many directions. Is this new trend a good one? It could destroy our movement, the free world, and the entire tradition that God has been building! God married you so you could support each other and push each other toward the same goal. The mission has not changed even one iota.</p>
|
||||
<p>In giving you the Blessing, did I want you to march forward more hesitantly or more strongly? Our goal is the world. It is still in trouble; its people dwell in darkness. We have to reach out to that world to save it and restore it. When we reach the end of the world, I will look at each of you and ask where your spouse is. If he or she has been away, I will tell you to join each other and stay together. Then I might not allow husband and wife to be separated for even five minutes! The important thing is what you are going to concentrate on now: being with your spouse or saving the’ world. What is your decision? You say you want to save the’ world, but I think your answer sounds a little reluctant! You didn’t even want to say it!</p>
|
||||
<p>The same thing happens all the time between Mother and me. God gave us each other for mutual support. I keep pulling Mother and she keeps pulling me – but in the same direction and towards the same goal. If Mother deviates from this principle, the heavenly dispensation will not work. If I say, “Let’s go to South America ‘ she will reply, “Yes, Father” If the destination is Africa, she will say, “Yes, Father” If it is Korea, she will say, “Yes, Father; wherever you go” She deserves your applause.</p>
|
||||
<p>Maybe a hundred years from now we will hold another gathering like this in the spirit world. I will announce a special banquet and invite those couples who devoted their heart and soul while on earth to the fulfillment of God’s will. In the invitation, I will tell them, “I want to give a banquet for you couples alone” When you receive that invitation and accept it, you may wear anything you wish – any amount of rings, earrings, necklaces, etc., made of diamonds or whatever you like. You can have a diamond car, for instance! You will arrive at the banquet as a proud couple. Would you like to attend that banquet?</p>
|
||||
<p>In order to be entitled to attend it, you should run to do your mission every day. Don’t ask for personal favors. If your wife becomes too slow, urge her forward. You women can shout out to your husband to keep on running, even though you cannot keep up with him. As long as you encourage your husband, even though you collapse in his wake, I will give you credit for fulfilling the mission – because your mind and your spirit have gone all the way. What do you think? If your husband runs to fulfill the mission and you lag farther and farther behind, will you be sorry for yourself or feel victorious? Will you want your husband to push on and fulfill God’s will even though you may falter behind him? Or will you call out to him, “Darling, I’m tired; come back and pick me up”? Actually, I have told you that individuals cannot go to Heaven by themselves, but only as couples, so you would have a good excuse to ask him to come back for you! But which kind of woman do you want to become? I am very grateful for those of you who raised your hands as the first type. You are great women!</p>
|
||||
<p>You men, if your wife calls you to stay behind with her, how many of you would reply, “I have to go forward for the mission”? Thank you for raising your hands.</p>
|
||||
<p>You see, what is most important is not the husband or wife, but the mission. At this one time in history, God has given us this special, extraordinary mission. The mission is everything. If you fulfill it, you gain everything: your spouse and your eternal future. If you lose the mission, you lose everything else as well.</p>
|
||||
<p>We live on earth only once, and God has sent us at an incredible time of destiny. What a joy and what a privilege! What a great honor to live with this mission! Nothing greater is conceivable.</p>
|
||||
<p>Since I know that mission, nothing else bothers me, including the United States, the free world and even communism. Not only that, but as I charge bravely forward into the enemy camp, they will ultimately surrender. The tougher the situation I face, the stronger, more powerful and more determined I become. I can do this because I clearly know the mission, the end result, and the extraordinary opportunity that is at hand. I do not want to lose that opportunity.</p>
|
||||
<p>People sometimes receive special missions from the owner of their company or even from the president of their country. But this is not a presidential or a company order. It is an order from Heaven. Our eternal Father in Heaven is telling us, “You are chosen to do this mission” If it were just the president of a nation, you could leave the country; if it were the owner of a company, you could quit your job. But when God gives a mandate, since He is the Father of the entire world, where could you go to evade the mission? You might think you could escape it by dying, but not so. You will be picked up when you enter spirit world! If you succeed, you will be glorified.</p>
|
||||
<p>This Children’s Day is the day to make your pledge to God. There are three kinds of pledges you can make:</p>
|
||||
<ol>
|
||||
<li>Well, Father, I will try to do it.</li>
|
||||
<li>I’m doing it now.</li>
|
||||
<li>Yes, Father, I have done it.</li>
|
||||
</ol>
|
||||
<p>Which of these three pledges can you give this Children’s Day? This is a very serious point. It applies to everyone, me included. Even I have not completely fulfilled the mission. I can say, “Yes, Father, I have done some portions of it, but others still remain incomplete” What about you?</p>
|
||||
<p>This morning you may have suddenly awakened to your mission. But I would hope that all this time you have been living with a sense of mission and dedication. So far, you have been doing all kinds of things your way, complaining about why the church operates a certain way, protesting about being asked to do something. “I’m not born for that,’ you complain.</p>
|
||||
<p>Think about it. Has the Unification Church been walking your way, or have we been trying to go God’s way? Ask your heart which way you have been walking. What proportion has been your way, and what proportion God’s way? Half and half Can you answer that you are living 100 percent for God’s will? Perhaps you came here expecting to celebrate a good holiday and enjoy the festivities, and now you feel like you have been hit by a sledgehammer! “I was knocked out again!” you exclaim. When I talk this way, do you feel discouraged, or do you resolve to do it with tears flowing down your cheeks? Are you holding your head up or down?</p>
|
||||
<p>I always feel this intensity in my mission. I feel that I am in a tug-of-war with all the various groups that are trying to pull me their way. I feel one thumb hooked to the United States, another thumb to Russia and her satellite countries, and my fingers hooked to various religions and groups. I am trying to pull them all in my direction. The spirit world is like a cheering section, calling out, “Reverend Moon, go on!” Sometimes I feel like a fire engine sent to quench an emergency fire.</p>
|
||||
<p>When I am deadly serious about this tug-of-war with the entire world, other things don’t enter my mind. I ignore sleepiness, hunger, family affairs and secular matters. You should do the same.</p>
|
||||
<p>For this reason I am unique and extraordinary. When God looks down on the earth, He cannot help coming to protect me. He has to, because He has no alternative. You too can motivate God to come to assist, protect and support you.</p>
|
||||
<p>What direction are you taking? Suppose I disappear for a while – like Moses, who climbed the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments, leaving the children of Israel down below in the desert for 40 days? Maybe you will do whatever you want. Maybe you will think that finally you have a vacation. Or would you determine to march across the desert to Canaan? The Israelites looked around for Moses, but he was gone. They must have said something like, “Oh, too bad. Darn it!” But suppose they had resolved instead: “Well, Moses has disappeared. He must be somewhere doing God’s will. Let’s become like Moses and go to Canaan”? Those of you who resolve to become like Moses raise your hands.</p>
|
||||
<p>If that is your reply, I can leave the United States with deep confidence. If I am away, you will become additional Reverend Moons, able to march forward even faster, won’t you? Theoretically, you younger ones should be able to go faster than me!</p>
|
||||
<p>If you really made this pledge to me, I feel I have been a success. I have nothing to fear. Now there are many Reverend Moons who can restore the world! God knows very well that I have no rest. Day and night, morning and evening, I am always working and pushing you people. If God looks down and sees so many other Reverend Moons doing the same thing, think how comforted He will be! He will feel true joy for the first time.</p>
|
||||
<p>Everything I have been doing in the United States has happened since December 18, 1971. That was the day I landed in this country to expand the providence in America. When I started the science conferences, many members – and even the leaders – complained about throwing money away to the scientists. Now after ten years of conferences, eminent scholars from around the world are begging to have an appointment to talk with me. But I don’t have enough time. If I were to grant one request, it wouldn’t be fair to deny the privilege to others. So I will see no one.</p>
|
||||
<p>The academic community trusts and admires me, as does the theological community, because of the deep foundation which has been laid. Modern theology has hit a stone wall; theologians cannot break through it by themselves. I have pioneered opening up the wall and giving them new horizons.</p>
|
||||
<p>My work has not ended there. I moved on to the news media. The fifth World Media Conference in Seoul, Korea, is another example. Representatives came from around the world and rallied around me, because they see me as the only hope for the world.</p>
|
||||
<p>Somebody had to do it in order to bring all aspects of life into unity, in order to fulfill God’s providence. No one else was doing it. We are uniting the academic community under absolute values. The Unification Church is uniting the theological community under one God as the rallying point.</p>
|
||||
<p>This year we launched the World Youth for God crusade. Young people from many different religions – Christians, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, Confucianists, Buddhists, etc. – would never have found a common ground otherwise. Only we could unite them under a common theme, “World Youth for God” People have urged me not to abandon the effort. “Reverend Moon,” they say, “you cannot give up because you are the only one who can do this” This is how I am bringing unity.</p>
|
||||
<p>I knew that the ultimate satanic work of communism would be directed towards fomenting racial and religious wars. The only way to prevent such wars is to create one family of man, transcending race and color. The means of achieving this is the Holy Weddings. The power of the president of the United States could not accomplish true unity; certainly the power of totalitarian communism could not. Only God could bring the hearts of people together in unity, as a love race. What is the purpose? To bring all mankind together.</p>
|
||||
<p>This group is still only a capsule, but it is a capsule that can be expanded to ten million, a hundred million, a billion people. What if a third of the population of the United States were Moonies? Would anybody dare persecute you or me? The Unification Church is bound to grow, because our vision is world salvation, beyond race and color. There shall be no limit.</p>
|
||||
<p>I am not speaking of these gigantic things in a joking tone. This is absolute truth. There is absolute commitment behind these words. When I talked about such things 20 years ago, it sounded crazy. But impossible dreams have become a reality. In the next 10 years, our movement can accomplish 10 or 20 times as much as what we did in the past 20 years.</p>
|
||||
<p>During the past 20 years, the news media around the world have come out and called me a bad person. But in spite of such persecution, the Unification Church has grown to its present worldwide scale. Once the news media and the world in general start to admit that I am right, that I am a good and just person, our rate of accomplishments will be multiplied a hundred or a thousand times.</p>
|
||||
<p>In a long fence, when one post starts to fall down, it sets off a kind of chain reaction, and the whole fence may collapse. This is a shining truth, and a nation will inevitably come to recognize it.</p>
|
||||
<p>North American newspapers describe me as “the controversial Korean evangelist,” or as an “industrialist” But in South America the newspapers describe me as “the most famous international spiritual leader, Reverend Sun Myung Moon” I always expected it to happen this way. If one side of the globe is in shadow, the other receives the sunshine. If it is dark in North America, something may dawn in South America. Moreover, the Western world is entering darkness and the sun is rising in the Eastern world. In the beginning, Korea and Japan both persecuted me, but now even the Japanese newspapers no longer describe me as a Korean but as the “world-famous spiritual leader coming from Asia”</p>
|
||||
<p>This is fair play. Things balance out. Whoever wants to live well in the secular life, eating abundantly, sleeping like a king, shall have the most miserable life in the spirit world. Those who devote themselves for the sake of mankind, for the sake of God’s will – though they may look miserable here and suffer hunger – shall be welcomed to the most glorious heaven.</p>
|
||||
<p>In a way, I have been the most wretchedly persecuted figure on earth. The world has given me all kinds of dirty titles; I have been imprisoned and tortured under the Japanese imperial government, communist North Korea, and even South Korea. I was virtually put to death. Nobody on earth has suffered like me. But in the spiritual world you will find me occupying an entirely different position.</p>
|
||||
<p>Just like me, Moonies are persecuted all over the world. We are not on the sunny side of the globe yet. Do not regret it, however, because this will result in a glorious future. The most radiant heaven is reserved for you. I took up this way of life, regardless of what may entail, because it is right and just. There is no better way of life on earth. This was my decision. Is it also your decision?</p>
|
||||
<p>As children, the best way to commemorate this Children’s Day is to promise your absolute loyalty, devoting your whole life. Those who want to make this pledge before me, raise your hands. Thank you very much.</p>
|
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content/speeches/1982/destiny-and-judgment.md
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content/speeches/1982/destiny-and-judgment.md
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|
@ -0,0 +1,172 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
title: "DESTINY AND JUDGMENT"
|
||||
type: "speech"
|
||||
published: "2018-06-22T06:03:37+01:00"
|
||||
updated: "2018-06-22T06:03:37+01:00"
|
||||
source: "/blog/2018/06/22/destiny-and-judgment.html"
|
||||
speechYear: "1982"
|
||||
categories:
|
||||
- "Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982"
|
||||
tags: []
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
<p><center></p>
|
||||
<h2>REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
|
||||
<p></center><center></p>
|
||||
<h3>January 31, 1982<br />
|
||||
World Mission Center<br />
|
||||
Translator-Bo Hi Pak</h3>
|
||||
<p></center>We must realize that an individual’s life is not fully under his own control. A person’s surroundings and destiny are not something he can regulate, for the environment was there before he ever existed. Of course, each person feels he is important and envisions himself at the center of things. As a rule, people disregard their surroundings in the process of advancing. Without an environment, however, there is no center. Only within an environment can a subject-object relationship exist. This is a universal law of existence.</p>
|
||||
<p>God created the environment first and within it all things in pair systems of subject and object. This applies to the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms. Finally, God created one person-Adam-in that prepared environment. Adam was a unique creation in that he could harmonize and fit into his surroundings. Since everything around Adam existed in subject-object relationships, Adam also needed an object, Eve.</p>
|
||||
<p>A person may be proud and boastful as he talks about himself, but upon deeper reflection he will wonder for whom he was created. Each individual exists to harmonize with his environment and create perfect surroundings.</p>
|
||||
<p>All creation exists in harmonious give and take. Man is meant to be the central point of harmony in creation, but a solitary person would be unable to have the fullest give and take with his environment. Therefore, man alone cannot fulfill his central role as harmonizer. A man and woman together in harmonious give and take can be the center of all creation. Now you can explain clearly why men need women and why women need men: if all of your surroundings exist in subject-object relationships, then you also need an object in order to fit in.</p>
|
||||
<p>Men and women clearly belong to their environment first of all. In order for your presence to have value, however, you must make a relationship with your surroundings. You lose value if you try to remain isolated. The environment must recognize your worth and affirm that you are needed. Next, you must be recognized by your object. Before you can claim to be the subject, your object must want you to be subject; that is only natural. You should not be subject because you need to be one, but because your surroundings feel that they need you. This should be a key element in your thinking. When this value system is lacking, people find themselves constantly embroiled in struggle. Strictly speaking, you cannot say that God gave you everything for your own sake. Actually, what you were given is also for the sake of your environment. Particularly here in America, people have fundamentally mistaken attitudes about this.</p>
|
||||
<p>Suppose you asked your eye why it exists. It could not reply that it exists for itself. Certainly the eye serves to provide vision for the body, not just for itself. It exists to fulfill a larger purpose. For your ear to proclaim that it hears for itself makes no sense. Ears listen for a higher purpose.</p>
|
||||
<p>If your nose wanted to exist only for itself, you would have the right to cut it off. Why would it be needed? It has a purpose to fulfill for the rest of the body. Does your mouth receive food for its own sake? Suppose one day it refused to open up! The mouth clearly functions for the sake of the whole body. Your sense of touch also exists to benefit the entire body.</p>
|
||||
<p>Obviously, all five senses exist for the whole. Expanding this pattern, we can visualize one person having the position of an eye, another the position of a nose, existing for a greater whole.</p>
|
||||
<p>It wouldn’t make sense, then, for a man to say that he exists only for himself. A man’s masculinity was not created to be appreciated by other men but by someone different-women. Likewise, women are not shaped for other women, but for someone different-men. Men and women were both shaped by a creative mind that envisioned them relating to a counterpart. Do any of you women feel you were created for the sake of other women?</p>
|
||||
<p>In creation we find positive and negative, convex and concave fitting together harmoniously. It is not natural for positive to join with positive, or convex with convex. Upon analysis, this appears to be a simple principle, but it expresses a profound truth. A man is a man in order to fulfill something for the sake of others; women also have a purpose connected with others. The individual exists to satisfy someone other than himself. Everyone is involved in daily activities; you carry on your daily life to satisfy some universal purpose in your environment.</p>
|
||||
<p>Do you engaged brothers regard your fiancee as your personal possession? Do you sisters feel that you can forget about the church now and depend on your fiancee to take care of you? Do you want to simplify your existence by forgetting the complications of church life?</p>
|
||||
<p>All of you are anxious to know when I will announce the Blessing. Why do you want me to be involved in your life this way? Am I a good person or a bad person? You have a family environment, a social environment, a national, worldwide and cosmic environment, as well as God’s environment. Before the Creator began His work, He already had certain ideals in mind such as a desire for a love-centered environment.</p>
|
||||
<p>God created mankind to fulfill a central role in the universal environment, so mankind has a unique quality not found anywhere else in the animal kingdom: the ability to think. We function the same as animals, but we are set apart since we can conceive of moral and spiritual values.</p>
|
||||
<p>For what values do we live: animal or human? Are people today really living according to human values, or are they closer to animal values? What about you? If an engaged member is annoyed that the time of Blessing hasn’t yet been announced and gripes every day about how complicated Unification Church life is, can we say he is living closer to the human level or the animal level?</p>
|
||||
<p>When a husband and wife hold hands and rejoice together, they are representatives of the universe. Our whole environment will find satisfaction in our unity as couples and families. You should realize that your unity is fulfilling a cosmic purpose. All your deeds, including your engagement, are meant to satisfy the rest of creation. You can feel that God, mankind, and all creation take delight in your engagement.</p>
|
||||
<p>You can delight in truly living on the human level in this way, for this is where human dignity begins. Why do we need such human dignity? It is so we can be welcomed by the environment. When you have satisfied the needs of the environment, God can rejoice and welcome you personally, dwelling in love with you.</p>
|
||||
<p>Evaluate yourself and ask whether your actions truly represent the nobility of human life. If your five senses did not exist for the whole but only for themselves, why would you need them? A man does not exist for himself, nor a woman for herself. We exist for a universal purpose, and we must harmonize with our surroundings, uniting everything. When you live this way, the universe can help compensate for any shortcomings you may have. Therefore, you don’t need to feel discouraged or worry about being inadequate. You don’t need to be concerned about your fiancee being less than perfect.</p>
|
||||
<p>In Unification Church life we have certain rules and traditions, but what is their purpose? I am trying to show you how to harmonize with the universe, not isolate yourself from it. We need to shape ourselves in a certain direction in order to create perfect harmony. The path of this universal principle seems difficult, but by following it, you will ultimately be victorious. If you ignore universal destiny and just try to make things serve your own purpose, nothing will work out; obstacles will block you in every direction.</p>
|
||||
<p>Should someone who tries to do things his own way be accommodated or rejected? If you make wrong decisions, history will judge you. I want you to make the right decisions and harmonize with the universe. Through this teaching we are rejecting the animalistic way of life, and striving to create heartistic relationships with one another and also with God.</p>
|
||||
<p>By practicing divine love you can have an eternal relationship with the Creator. Let’s use the term “divine humanity” to represent true human dignity. We don’t want to bring God into our lives except in the dignity of divine love.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you join the Unification Church you cannot avoid confronting the rule of subject and object. In order to find fulfillment in the Unification Church, you have to be able to harmonize with Reverend Moon as its subject. If you don’t want to harmonize with this subject, the environment will kick you out. There is no way you could remain.</p>
|
||||
<p>Perhaps after several years you may think, “I have gone along with Reverend Moon for some time now; why doesn’t he do things my way for a change?” I have no objection to doing things differently-as long as it produces greater achievement of that divine element. In such a case I will become your follower!</p>
|
||||
<p>I am definitely developing my leadership and traditions according to the universal destiny, never in accordance with my own desire or whim. I feel that eventually the United States will follow this way of life, not because I insist upon it but because it is the only way this country can elevate itself to the level of the divine human life. Whoever opposes that universal goal is only opposing his own well-being.</p>
|
||||
<p>Universal power supports these principles, not America’s present way of life. As long as I live within these principles, I cannot help but prosper, and my opponents will dwindle away. This principle is like a rock and my commitment to it is unshakable. God is in a position to sustain and strengthen this way of life. If God supports it, then judgment has already been passed. Anyone who thinks I am merely trying to justify myself should step forward with a better alternative. This is not just a theory.</p>
|
||||
<p>We begin in the small environment of the family and then move on to successively greater levels of environment, finally reaching the spirit world and the Creator. You have to harmonize with what the Creator wants you to be. Otherwise, you are simply destroying yourself.</p>
|
||||
<p>Because I keep moving from one level of the environment to another, people discover new aspects of me as they relate to me. Twenty years ago, the Korean members felt that I would always be with them, talking often until midnight. But now they recognize that I am not just a Korean teacher; I have a universal mission. When Korean members come to the United States, they don’t receive all my attention. They miss those times in Korea. Some day you too will talk about the “good old days” when you sat here listening to me.</p>
|
||||
<p>There are different methods of education for each level of a child’s development, each presenting him with varying challenges. But no matter at which level I am teaching you, the central principle will always be that of universal harmony. I want to move with God’s destiny, not my own, and receive all the protection of the universe.</p>
|
||||
<p>Those who examine my life at a given point may feel that I am zigzagging, but if they look at the whole picture it will be clear that I am always following a certain vertical line. Since I have to deal with the reality of this world, I may have to make certain turns, but I never lose sight of the central line. In order to reach people on the right or on the left, I have to move back and forth. When I came to America, for instance, I had to reach out to you where you were. If I had been rigid and unyielding, we would never have made contact. But once my course crosses a certain boundary, the path will lead only straight forward.</p>
|
||||
<p>The directions I give you may sound too steep, and you might prefer that I demand less of you. But you should know that your present activities are at an elementary school level. The high school and university levels are much tougher. When you finish the Unification Church Ph.D. course you will be truly universal men and women, able to overcome any obstacle.</p>
|
||||
<p>After your education in the Unification Church is finished, you have another course to undertake: dealing with society and the rest of the world. The Unification Church is not only a place for spiritual training; you also receive social and economic training here.</p>
|
||||
<p>Many people evaluate themselves from a very pragmatic, materialistic standpoint. “I joined the Unification Church five years ago,” someone might say, “and all this time I have really done my best. As far as I’m concerned, I have given everything, but what have I gained? All I can see is that I’ve gotten five years older. I had several suits when I joined, but now I have only one. I had lots of shoes, but now I have only one pair-and even they have holes in them. I have a fiancee, but she doesn’t seem to be anybody special. What’s good about this life?” He might even think about the girl he dated five years ago and remember her as being so much better than his fiancee.</p>
|
||||
<p>You may think you have gained nothing, but once you go out into the secular world, you will find that you excel in many ways. Of course you will excel in spiritual matters, but you can surpass people economically and socially too. In other words, no other kind of education can approach the one you received from five years in the Unification Church.</p>
|
||||
<p>From a pragmatic viewpoint, members might wonder why the Unification Church way of life keeps getting tougher. “I thought I finished the lower levels and things would get easier,” some people might say. “Instead, it’s getting tougher and tougher.” Once you finish elementary school and enter middle school, the standards are higher and the expectations greater. When you go on to high school, more is expected. All the way up to the Ph.D. level, more and more is demanded. The higher you are elevated, the greater the demands upon you. Do any of you think you have graduated from my school, or are you still in the process of learning? There is no university in America where you can hear this kind of lecture. That’s for sure.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you really listen to what we are discussing, you will realize that we are not talking about some specialized ideas but about the very roots of life. When you understand and absorb the Principle and achieve a high standard in your life, although you may not have a college degree, you will have your “Reverend Moon degree.” When you go out into the world and discuss things with professors and people with doctorate degrees, you will realize what a deep knowledge you have gained about all aspects of life. Because of the depth and breadth of the understanding you have acquired, you will even feel confident to teach college professors. The secular world will come to respect Moonies because they have such shining inner strength.</p>
|
||||
<p>When a little child begins kindergarten, her mother dresses her up in the nicest clothes. But as that child goes on to higher and higher levels of education, the less time she will have to spend on external appearances. Especially at the university level, the exams, term papers, dissertations-all the demands on students’ time-leave virtually no room for worrying about clothing. Sometimes college students have such a demanding schedule they don’t even take time to wash or shave! The university student might look back and envy his easy time in elementary school. Just because a student has no time to shave or keep himself attractive, however, doesn’t mean he is miserable. There is something within him that is solid, valuable, and growing.</p>
|
||||
<p>You are in Reverend Moon’s university, and you are being called upon to do many demanding things. Under such pressure, you may look pale or even sloppy. However, although you may not appear so great externally, you are like a dynamo internally. In your true, internal self, you are becoming a life-giving force, like the sun.</p>
|
||||
<p>What about me? I am well-dressed today because I came to give you a sermon. But normally I dress very casually, even carelessly. Does that alter my value? Am I more valuable when I am well-dressed than when I am sloppily dressed? Of course not. No matter how I dress, people respect me for my internal qualities.</p>
|
||||
<p>Yesterday Bo Hi Pak said, “Father, all the leaders would like to give you and Mother a day of rest during your birthday celebration. We feel sorry that you have to work such long hours every holiday, and we would like to take over your speaking responsibilities for you. However, the truth is that nobody else has the ability to inspire the members the way you do!” Why is it that nobody else can duplicate my role? Am I fulfilling this role with external or internal qualities?</p>
|
||||
<p>You may look at me and feel you know me, but nobody truly comprehends the entire depth of my internal self. If I were to preach for ten years continuously, do you think I would run out of sermon material? No, I wouldn’t.</p>
|
||||
<p>We talk a lot about the spirit world. You realize that it exists, but how much do you really know about it? Once you reach spirit world, all of you will feel lost and will call out for me to guide you! Then I will come and speak to you. Don’t you think there are further things I can teach you in the spirit world? Certain things cannot be explained here on earth, but only there. Ten years of sermons in the spirit world would not even scratch the surface of knowledge about it that I have to share with you.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you look at me, you see a very mysterious person. I am doing unique and extraordinary things. The main reason the United States is troubled about me is that it cannot measure me or figure me out. Even if the greatest computer companies wanted to run all the data about me through their sophisticated equipment, they wouldn’t be able to enter everything into their computers. I wouldn’t register on the screen, because I just don’t compute!</p>
|
||||
<p>You may have been following this way of life for the past several years and feel that you have achieved a certain degree of understanding. But knowing that the horizons are unlimited and the realms of knowledge infinite, how can you demand that I do things your way? How can you say you have learned enough from me?</p>
|
||||
<p>The physical world and the spirit world are linked together. The spirit world is already under God’s direction. Being the world of truth and order, the spirit world is controlled by the Principle. In this world, however, I have been treated like a swindler and a charlatan.</p>
|
||||
<p>In the spirit world, do you think there will be a special Dr. Durst-type of heaven, since he has such a high academic degree, or will the Kingdom of Heaven be a Reverend Moon-type heaven? Do you think heaven will adopt my style or Dr. Durst’s style? How about a Bo Hi Pak-style heaven? How about a Rev. Kwak-style heaven? You say Reverend Moon-style heaven, but which would you prefer: a Reverend Moon-style heaven or a God-style heaven? I want to live in a God-style heaven and I am sure you do, too.</p>
|
||||
<p>There are many leaders in our church: state leaders, national leaders, and directors of various activities. Some of them think, “I want to create my own way of reaching heaven; I want to compromise just a bit on the Principle.” But that is crazy. In this respect, I am absolutely logical and scientific.</p>
|
||||
<p>Some people, without any scientific reasoning or logic, decide they want to go a certain way just because they feel like it. That is superstitious and wrong. We must base our actions on logic and deep philosophical understanding. If someone decides he wants to go off in his own direction, do you think the rest of the world will follow him? Perhaps people in this world will, but what about the spirit world? Will God go along with him?</p>
|
||||
<p>Many people complain about the way I am going and fight against it. I have created a great deal of controversy and endured much persecution here on earth. But the amazing thing is that whenever someone tries to follow this way, he receives help from the spirit world and from God as well.</p>
|
||||
<p>The Japanese leaders have followed my direction and have received showers of blessing from the spirit world. But they know that if they begin to be skeptical about what I say, all such assistance will cease.</p>
|
||||
<p>Many people have their own logic and method of doing things. If you listen to their various ways, you might get confused. Why not just disregard all the other ways and follow this one? And if you don’t like to do things this way, then I recommend you try to find another way to do God’s will. Since you probably don’t have a method of finding God’s direction, you will have to rely on someone’s expert guidance.</p>
|
||||
<p>If you want to place an overseas telephone call, could you just dial numbers at random and expect to be connected? Of course not. You must go through certain channels; you must call an operator, who rings another operator and ultimately connects you to your goal. If you said, “I’m going to discover my own, unique way of placing an overseas call; I’m just going to dial the number my way,” you could dial all day long and never reach your goal. It wouldn’t work. Even though you may not like the voice of the particular operator you have to use to place your call, still you must call her first.</p>
|
||||
<p>Likewise, in order to go to heaven, you must go through a certain channel. You may say, “I don’t like Reverend Moon’s way of talking or the things he teaches,” but you have to talk to the right operator in order to connect with God.</p>
|
||||
<p>If you should call the wrong operator, she might plug you into a totally wrong place; you might end up talking to Moscow instead of Norway, for instance. Likewise, the wrong spiritual leader might plug you into Satan instead of God and the good spirit world.</p>
|
||||
<p>The members of the Unification Church are smart people. You are clever and know where the truth lies. You pay attention to me because you know where the greatest value lies. You are interested in what I have to say. You are curious about what I look like when I laugh; you wonder what makes me angry! Whole new horizons have appeared; an entire new spectrum is visible to you.</p>
|
||||
<p>When I came to America, I never disregarded the reality of this environment. Each nation has its own head of state and government. When I came, Nixon was President, followed by Ford, Carter, and Reagan. I realize that they faced many serious challenges. My viewpoint is to solve problems on a worldwide level, but the highest consideration of national leaders is usually their own nation. I can offer answers that will resolve not only national problems but the problems of the world as well. Whoever brings universal solutions will become the universal subject.</p>
|
||||
<p>The three major problems in the world are the spread of communism, the decline of Christianity, and the moral corruption of the young people. Once someone can bring a solution to these three challenges, he will definitely be in a subject position. Heads of state, the world’s external leaders, are suffering from an inability to deal with the onslaught of communism. The world’s internal leaders the religious leaders-agonize over the global decline of religion, especially Christianity. Young people are the hope for the future. If the youth are corrupted, there can be no hope for tomorrow.</p>
|
||||
<p>We are tackling all three problems and offering solutions. We are bringing hope for the future by assembling renowned scholars from all over the world to give the world intellectual direction. They have concluded that there is only one power strong enough to deal with communism: Reverend Moon’s ideology. The major foundation has been laid. These unique assemblies of scholars and intellectuals have agreed that the hope for the future lies with Reverend Moon’s new ideology.</p>
|
||||
<p>In December 198 1, a truly unique conference was convened: a conference on God. Leaders of all major religions, including Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam, assembled for the first time in history. The discussion focused on the Creator, God.</p>
|
||||
<p>A long time ago, I initiated a World Religious Congress, aiming at the unity of all the world’s religions. I announced very plainly that wherever a movement for unity among religions occurred, I would give funds to support it. There are tremendous divisions within all religions, not only Christianity. There are religious leaders who long to find some bond of unity, and I was the only one volunteering to help. So they used the assistance I offered and called this conference. In dealing with the unity of religions, their discussion first focused on their shame that they could assemble only with the help of Reverend Moon.</p>
|
||||
<p>I want to stimulate unity among all the religions of the world. During this conference, the religious leaders could evaluate themselves and begin to realize how trivial are the things which separate them and cause them to fight each other.</p>
|
||||
<p>Out of this conference a great movement-World Youth for God-has begun. Beginning this summer, an evangelical team of young people, accompanied by famous scholars, will go from nation to nation and continent to continent trying to create an international movement for unity. When they visit a Muslim country, they will invite all the famous Muslim scholars to discuss the Creator. When they go to Asia, they will examine religious concepts with Buddhist leaders. And when they travel to Christian nations, they will invite Christian scholars to speak to them.</p>
|
||||
<p>With such a movement, denominational in-fighting will have to stop. Once the various religions begin to communicate with each other, the era of denominational differences and divisions over dogma will cease. What is amazing is that this entire project is sponsored by Reverend Moon. Can they point their fingers at each other, in front of me, and cry heretic? How can they accuse another religion of being inferior or take issue with certain aspects of another belief? They will be unable to accuse and judge each other that way.</p>
|
||||
<p>Participants at this past conference knew it was funded by Reverend Moon and that Moonies would be there to help them. They came to the conference totally ignorant of my philosophy. They knew only one thing: they were great scholars. They began the conference in a very boastful manner, looking at our members somewhat scornfully. They thought we had nothing to offer them, but within three days, the participants’ attitudes had completely changed. They concluded that religious unity in the world was possible. They could feel hopeful.</p>
|
||||
<p>This was the culmination of many years of hard work and suffering, particularly in the founding of the Unification Theological Seminary, which is the base from which all these things can happen. During 1981 there were at least 30 major academic conferences sponsored by the Unification Church, the International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences being only one of them. Many thousands of scholars and professors became exposed to Unification ideology as well. All of them have concluded that it is an advanced philosophy with unique, extraordinary thought behind it.</p>
|
||||
<p>They are experiencing the dawn of new hope; they feel that a new day is beginning. They see that we are talking not just about a dream but a reality, and this gives them hope for world unity in the future. They thought that the world had come up against a stone wall, but now they realize that there is a way to push that stone wall aside and witness a new era on the horizon.</p>
|
||||
<p>It is amazing that Christianity had been confronting Judaism for 2,000 years without any genuine dialogue taking place-only accusation, hatred and killing. But the Unification Church is now fostering dialogue among the religions of the entire world, including Judaism and Christianity.</p>
|
||||
<p>On February 4, 40 top Korean Christian leaders are coming to New York as my guests. They will be taking a 40-day tour of the United States and other countries. I want them to open their eyes and realize that the world is far bigger than they assumed.</p>
|
||||
<p>Until now, all kinds of persecution have been mounted against the Unification Church, but people no longer have any excuse to harass us. The decline and degradation of the religious world is obvious; this has been a dark night for religion and spiritual values. But now all of a sudden, religious people can see the coming of the dawn in the philosophy of Reverend Moon. This has been achieved in a very short time.</p>
|
||||
<p>We will not have to keep climbing as we have been. We are reaching the pinnacle of the mountain. Soon it will be easier; once we go over the peak, we will pick up speed. As I mentioned, the greatest headache for God as well as for all philosophical and religious people has been the problem of communism. And now we are offering a solution, both internally and externally. We are also bringing a solution to the religious decline by starting a new movement for religious unity. Nobody had thought such a thing possible, but it is happening.</p>
|
||||
<p>Communism is like a cancer spreading freely all over the world, including the United States. It is even more rampant in Latin America. The world is helpless in the face of this cancer. Consider what is happening in Central America. The people in these countries are looking for an answer but weapons are not the solution; an ideology is needed. Before Unificationism, however, there was no ideology capable of combating communism. Young people are finding new life through Unificationism. What is taking place is almost like a resurrection.</p>
|
||||
<p>I have one worry: leaders may get so inspired by this new ideology that they will organize a home church system. Then the Moonies will be out of a job! If such a situation arises, however, they will seek out experienced leaders to help them do home church. And whom will they call upon? You.</p>
|
||||
<p>You may think you are repeating the same activities every day; you may find your duties monotonous. “I am doing home church,” you think. “I go fundraising, I witness, and on Sundays I go to hear Father speak.” You may think your life is repetitious, even perfunctory, and you don’t see many results. But I want you to know that while you are fulfilling your responsibility, the world is changing. When America realizes it has to confront the challenge of communism, it will choose our way.</p>
|
||||
<p>There are many religious leaders, but they don’t stimulate much true excitement, so people will have to come and listen to my teachings. What result do my teachings bring? You bright young people are its fruits. You are so young; you look green and fresh, while other churches are filled with gray people almost ready for the cemetery! Religious leaders will have to notice this amazing difference. When smart young people come and stay, when they are filled with fervent, burning zeal, something must be happening. This is the very thing America needs. Therefore, people will come and ask for my advice.</p>
|
||||
<p>I have been talking about a global evangelical team traveling around the world. They will hear lecturers from Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, and the Unification Church. When people hear speakers from all those religions, which one do you think will be the most convincing?</p>
|
||||
<p>One feature of our religion is that we deal with the reality of the present society and offer a solution for the future. In many cases, religions are concerned only about the next world. Many religious philosophies have almost no bearing on this world or offer any hope or solution for the future. Bright, idealistic young people long for some solution to the present world and some hope for the future. If they choose a religion, would they choose the Unification Church and the Principle, or Islam or Hinduism?</p>
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||||
<p>The Unification Church is a wonderful, extraordinary church. You are part of it, but you don’t recognize its value. You tell me, “Father, you are just doing things the Oriental way. You are forcing the Korean way upon us. You give us a bunch of tough Korean leaders who are difficult to deal with.” Although you might not think they are desirable, soon people will fight to get these Korean leaders to come to their country! Nations will compete to have the most Korean leaders. Can you envision such a day? Do you think you have too many Korean leaders, too many foreign leaders? Do you think they don’t understand the pragmatic, American way? Actually, they are not the problem-they are the solution.</p>
|
||||
<p>We have been talking about the challenges presented by the rise of communism and the decline of world religion. The third problem is the moral degradation of the youth. You are mostly young people. Let me ask you honestly: do you have the same problems with moral corruption as the young people in secular society? How often do you write to your fiancee: once a week? once a month? Since the recent engagements, church telephone bills have been skyrocketing. Couples talk about silly things like getting diarrhea! The church cannot keep up with these telephone bills, so I have instructed that people who make long-distance calls should pay the costs themselves. Is this a good system?</p>
|
||||
<p>The Unification Church can give evidence that we have a solution to the moral decline of the world’s young people today. We are not talking about something ten years from now; we mean the reality today, That reality is sitting in this room right now. You are that reality.</p>
|
||||
<p>The world says all kinds of evil things about me; they are even talking about a new kind of Mafia, a “Moonie Mafia.” Satan has such a way of twisting things, inducing people to make all kinds of accusations about me and the Unification Church. But no matter what the outside world may say about us, you shouldn’t pay attention to them, because the important thing is what we are accomplishing, Secular society offers no hope for the future, especially for solving the world’s three worst problems. But the Unification Church has tackled them, one after the other. It is important to focus not on the opinion of the outside world, but on what we are gaining, what we are accomplishing.</p>
|
||||
<p>When we have solved these problems, our task will continue. We must lead the world into the Kingdom of Heaven. Part one is finding the solution; part two lies ahead. The outside world doesn’t have a part one, much less a part two. When we move forward into part two, will the world still regard us as the Moonie Mafia?</p>
|
||||
<p>I have already discussed who will play the central role in the environment and how we can become the subjects of our environment. According to this principle, it is only a matter of time until this movement and this philosophy will play a central role in the world. You should be convinced that what we are discussing this morning is not simply a possibility or a potentiality. It is a reality; it is already a way of life, and we should be proud of it. We should thank God and all creation that we have this way of life, that we have the solution, and that we have this wonderful vision and hope for the future. This is truly a blessing.</p>
|
||||
<p>Since this is a fact, anyone who assists this movement is a wise person. Those of you who are here are the wisest people. Whoever cooperates with this direction is a discerning person, indeed. This is how to distinguish between a wise person and a fool: a wise person recognizes the subject and becomes an object to him and follows him. To live in a harmonious relationship of give and take with your subject is the true way of life.</p>
|
||||
<p>How can you become the best objects? First, recognize that in the Unification Church, Reverend Moon is the subject. Then use the same approach I took when I came to America. I declared I was going to take on the worst problems in this country. You should do the same, saying that as a member of the Unification Church you want to take on the worst problems in the church. What is the worst problem of the Unification Church? We have two major problems: first, we need a financial base, and second, we need more people. Everything else will be taken care of once we solve those problems. I am always thinking seriously about those two problems. We have no difficulties with our ideology, and certainly we know that we are the channels for God’s absolute love. Without a doubt, we have those treasures; the question is how to expand and share them.</p>
|
||||
<p>The home church system is the basic plan by which we will solve these two problems. In order to gain a result, you need to invest your money, your time, your energy, and your manpower. This principle operates on every level. It begins with two people, then a small family, a tribe, a nation, the world, and the spirit world.</p>
|
||||
<p>In a school classroom, the teacher is the subject. In order to become great objects in school, you need to solve the concerns of the subject. What are the teacher’s concerns? To teach well and for the students to learn well. By working hard and studying, you can return great satisfaction to your teacher and thus become a good object in that environment. A lazy student will never become a good object; only a hard-working, diligent student can do that. The student who suffers the most and focuses on his studies will earn the position of best object.</p>
|
||||
<p>The same is true in every aspect of human society. If you work for a business and take on the worst problems of the company in order to help the president, you are that company’s best object. That is the truth. When you join a company and try to take care of its problems, investing your heart and soul into your work day in and day out until you finally solve the problems, you become the number one object in that company. There is no way to avoid it.</p>
|
||||
<p>Look at New York City. What is its worst problem? Now there is a garbage strike going on. During the Christmas season the city was almost buried in its own trash. I have been thinking about solving the garbage problem. If we ever did such a thing, we would inevitably become the number one object in the eyes of New Yorkers. But is it easy to become the number one object?</p>
|
||||
<p>I am pursuing my goals with logic, not according to mere whim or random thinking. I use scientific and logical ways of thinking. When I came to this country, I asked what its worst problems were and I determined to attack them, no matter what. I have tried to help solve the problems of Nixon, Carter and Reagan. Many Americans have looked at me scornfully and said, “You, an Oriental man from Korea, are trying to solve America’s problems? Ha!” But it doesn’t matter to me whether they pay attention to me or not. Eventually they will come to realize that I was right.</p>
|
||||
<p>I have dedicated myself to devising solutions to all the major problems of Korea. Take communism, for example. We have been spreading the teachings of Victory Over Communism throughout the nation. VOC provides the only ideology with which Koreans can arm themselves against communism. Education has been another need in Korea. I was the first person to send people out every summer to teach literacy in every village. Also, the New Village Movement which has become so famous in the past decade was an idea which I started ten years ago.</p>
|
||||
<p>No matter how hard people try to ignore me, it won’t work. Sooner or later, they will have to deal with me. If you deny me, you will be denied by the universe. People have laughed, but eventually everything I have said has turned out to be true.</p>
|
||||
<p>I am a spiritual leader, a religious leader, but I don’t act “holier than thou.” Wherever I go, I harmonize with the environment. When I am among laborers, I like to sound like a laborer. When I attend some function of high society, I know how to fit in there. I can adapt to the academic world and I can find a common ground for conversation with politicians.</p>
|
||||
<p>When I work among professional fishermen, I become completely immersed in their world. I smell just like they do! For seven years in Gloucester, I went out on the “New Hope” early each morning and returned late at night. The town folks never expected me to work so hard and dress so humbly. Sometimes when I was standing right beside Daikon, people would ask him: “Where is Reverend Moon?” Not for one moment did they expect Reverend Moon to be dressed so humbly and have such a dirty face! They assumed I would dress well and look like a boat captain. The captain of the “New Hope” was a professional boat captain, but he completely surrendered to me. He simply could not keep up with me in terms of knowledge, persistence and experience. Initially, he would tell me where to go and where to set out the lines. But soon I was directing him and telling him where to place the lines, and he just said, “Yes, sir. ” The places I chose seldom seemed logical, but that was where the tuna were swimming.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you say you are a Moonie and a member of the Unification Church you should commit yourself to solving its worst problems. If you don’t tackle it, then I myself must do it. I know you want to do it and you will accomplish it. Until this tradition is established and until someone who can outdo me comes forward, I will remain the subject.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you get married, you are no longer just an individual but part of a family. You women will have responsibilities as a housewife and a mother. If you would prefer studying for a Ph.D. degree and being a career woman to doing what marriage entails-serving your parents and all your husband’s parents-that’s all right. But do first things first. You must first become a total object to your family, conquering your environment and adapting perfectly to it, before you can move on to another level. If you try to avoid your primary environment, however, you will never make it.</p>
|
||||
<p>There is one thing which I can do expertly and that is adapt to my environment. When I go to a fanning area, I become a farmer. When I am among fishermen, I become a fisherman. When I am in a factory, I become a factory worker, and so on, no matter where I go.</p>
|
||||
<p>The Korean word in our title which was translated as “destiny” means the movement of life from one place to another. You want to develop yourself and move on, isn’t that true? If you sit idly within the Unification Church thinking, “I don’t want to move; I don’t want to advance any further,” you are a dead person. You contradict the universal principle of life. Life never stands still; it is always moving forward, always advancing. The key word for life is advancement. If you are trying to preserve your status quo, you are like a dead person. You are retreating instead of advancing.</p>
|
||||
<p>Suppose the Unification Church is the wrong place to be; suppose Reverend Moon is the wrong leader to follow. Even if such a thing were true, as long as you keep moving forward and advancing in life, you are bound to end up in the right place. You will never be a loser as long as you persist in your determination to forge ahead. You cannot lose anything; you will only benefit from such a way of life. If the Unification Church is not the truth, it will pass away. However, the members who diligently apply the principles I am teaching can never be losers. Therefore, you cannot lose anything by going this way.</p>
|
||||
<p>In my early years, when difficulties came to other people in my village, I never felt it was only somebody else’s business. I always involved myself right away in their situations. When I solved a particular problem for the village leader, he had to come and bow down to me and thank me. That is because of the Principle. When you learn to apply such a way of life to every situation, always taking on problems, always advancing, you will be able to swim across every obstacle of life and come out the winner.</p>
|
||||
<p>Let me give you a good example. When I was in Germany, I went to a port city to buy a boat. The vice president of a shipbuilding company and the captain of a 3,000 ton boat came to welcome me. I was a stranger to them, of course, but as soon as we met I treated them just like friends. I gave them a friendly punch in the stomach and said, “Hello, buddy!” and they totally melted. “‘What kind of a man is this?” they wondered. “He acts totally natural with us.” Within a matter of seconds, we were transformed from total strangers to friends. This is what I mean by controlling your environment and taking charge of it.</p>
|
||||
<p>High-ranking executives don’t know how to do this. They may struggle for ten years to develop friendships and it takes me only five seconds. For me, it’s completely natural. I can walk into the home of a total stranger, sit down at the dining table and start eating-and everybody would naturally feel as though I were a member of the family. Instead of asking who I was they would just say, “Hello there, have some potatoes.” This is because I know how to make everyone around me feel natural. If I were to walk into such a home, sit down and share their meal, and then get up and wave good-bye, the family would feel that I was just one of them, coming home to eat and then going out again. “We’ll see you later,” they would feel like saying.</p>
|
||||
<p>How can I be so natural? Because I really feel that they are members of my family. I honestly feel that such people are my cousins, my uncles and aunts, my brothers and sisters, my mother and father. There have been times when I have walked into the homes of strangers, taken off my jacket, and started to sweep and mop the floor. Those people never felt it was strange. It seemed thoroughly natural to them.</p>
|
||||
<p>Sometimes I have even argued with someone and it seemed very natural! I once got into a heated argument and my opponent missed me very much when I left. “I wish he would come back and fight me again,” he said.</p>
|
||||
<p>Knowing this secret, I can conquer Satan and deal with the satanic world. You state leaders are in the position to solve the problems of your state. If you look upon it as your home church, you can be the subject of that state.</p>
|
||||
<p>Each of you is advancing every day. No one is standing still. On God’s Day I spoke about the “Victory of Home church.” Since then I have talked about home church every Sunday and at every meeting. Members are thinking, “Home church-what is it?” But before you question it, you should get out there. Go to your area and then ask how you are going to do it! Whatever the most difficult problem of the Unification Church may be, you should tell yourself you are the one to tackle it. You should resolve to do home church so well that even I cannot surpass you. When you become such champions, I will gladly follow you. I must follow the Principle. When you truly put yourself in the object position, you will be able to make the proper decisions.</p>
|
||||
<p>I have been encouraging international and interracial marriages. Some of you who asked for an international marriage thought it would be sweet, but now you wonder what you did, since you can’t even converse with your fiancee! But don’t you realize that this is the very reason you have an international marriage? This particular difficulty should taste sweet to you. You should tell yourself. “I was given the responsibility to face the challenges of an international marriage. By overcoming them I will become a champion!” All the international couples of the present and future will come to you and follow your standard. You will become the subject of all international marriages. This is very true.</p>
|
||||
<p>Some of you don’t like fundraising and wish there were no witnessing in the Unification Church. Perhaps you can’t stand 5:00 a.m. meetings, either. But 1, the subject, like fundraising, witnessing and 5:00 a.m. meetings. If you want to become a good object, you know what you should do.</p>
|
||||
<p>I trust that when you made mistakes it was because you didn’t know any better. But from this morning on, you have no more excuse. Now you know what is wrong with those mistakes. When I hold a meeting at Belvedere on Sundays I ask the church leaders to attend. Many of them do but others think, “How can I make it to Belvedere by 5:30 Sunday morning? I just can’t do it.” They try to make excuses for not coming. Such excuses indicate that the leader is not doing the right thing.</p>
|
||||
<p>If your leader tries to defend his absences, you can tell him, “I won’t make any excuses. I know what Father’s instructions were. You, as the Abel figure, don’t want to go to Belvedere? I will lead if you won’t.” You can give such straight advice. If you say correct things like this and your Abel figure persecutes you, he will be judged rather than you, so do not fear.</p>
|
||||
<p>.Some Performing Arts members may think, “Oh, I’m an artist; I’m a sensitive, cultured person. I’m so sophisticated I don’t need to go to Belvedere. Besides, if I get up too early, my voice gets damaged.” One excuse after another. Such people will not remain long in Performing Arts. That is not how the department was set up. Universal principles do not protect such a person; they actually repel him. Like it or not, everyone must comply with the law of the universe; it is the master, the subject, and you are the object. If you do not cooperate with universal principles you will become -me a loser.</p>
|
||||
<p>Imagine yourself riding a horse through the pastures, over the hills, and through the valleys and plains. Your life should be like that, always pushing forward toward new, undiscovered horizons.</p>
|
||||
<p>Now do you know how to receive the inheritance of the master? Because I learned this secret, I am a man of stubborn convictions and total commitment. Regardless of what other people say, universal law will protect me as long as I act in accordance with it-even if nations or the entire world oppose me. Whoever goes against universal law will be excommunicated by the universe!</p>
|
||||
<p>When Carter became President, I knew that he was not the right man to direct this nation; he would only lead the world toward destruction. I made uncompromising criticisms of him. I could have softened my statements with the thought: “After all, he is the President. If I say strong things against him, he will certainly come after me with revenge in his heart and I will be the one to suffer.” But that is not how I think. Truth must be spoken, and I will never shrink from the truth. When Reagan was elected, I knew God’s dispensation was being fulfilled, and I had no reserves about speaking to that effect.</p>
|
||||
<p>I take responsibility for national and worldwide matters. It makes no difference whether other people appreciate my efforts; as long as God knows what I am doing and recognizes my work, that is all that matters.</p>
|
||||
<p>Since destiny means the movement of life from one place to another, you must keep moving and keep advancing, following the Principle. Do not stand still and accept the status quo. Move forward every day. I will give you the proper guidance, and your life will turn out very well.</p>
|
||||
<p>Suppose I were to drop in for a visit someplace where people were drinking and dancing. I may not drink or dance, but I would never make those people feel embarrassed. I would at least clap my hands to the music. Without drinking or dancing, I could still harmonize with the situation and feel very natural. That is how to make relationships with such people. Those people need to be saved. How can you help them without even creating a relationship with them?</p>
|
||||
<p>Don’t make blind judgments against such people and call them bad because their actions are bad. You must make an effort to educate them first; only after investing much effort could you make a judgment. Without educating them, how can you call them evil or wrong? Actually you are responsible for them!</p>
|
||||
<p>Today I have been speaking about topics such as subject and object relationships. In order to stimulate you to live up to these teachings I have been using some judgmental words, but that is the process of education. Love requires me to speak firmly. Do you want to move on? Do you want to advance?</p>
|
||||
<p>When people leave our movement, they are called ex-Moonies. There are quite a few ex-Moonies. Have you ever seen any of them achieving a life better than a Moonie life? Furthermore, does the rest of the world embrace ex-Moonies and treat them as heroes? They are not even accepted by the secular society! Ex-Moonies are those who flunked the course; they couldn’t pass the test or measure up to the standard of the Unification Church. Once they leave the church, they try to justify themselves and say all kinds of twisted things about the church.</p>
|
||||
<p>I really have nothing against the ex-Moonies, but I would like to hear just one of them say: “I joined the Unification Church and did exactly what Reverend Moon instructed me to do; but I want to do more. There wasn’t enough to learn in the Unification Church. I left because I could not advance. I want to start my own church.”</p>
|
||||
<p>If that were the case I would welcome those comments. But so far I have not seen a single ex-Moonie say such a thing. The main reason people leave the Unification Church is that they do not want to follow our disciplined way of life. They don’t have enough courage to face the challenges and overcome them. They simply don’t have the perseverance and endurance to succeed in the church, and that is why they try to make excuses.</p>
|
||||
<p>Even within the Unification Church there are people who talk and complain all the time. They are not the doers; they are not people of action. Other members the doers-are silent. They just go out and fulfill their mission every day. They don’t talk about the rules and leadership of the Unification Church. Those who are sitting down and doing nothing are seeking to justify themselves by talking and complaining. They make all kinds of excuses for their lack of action. Which are the majority: the doers or the non-doers?</p>
|
||||
<p>I would rather hear a different kind of complaint: “Father, I have been to my 360 homes, and it’s just too small an area for me to take care of. Why can’t I take care of all New York City-or even the whole United States?” I wonder why I don’t hear such complaints! The ones who work hard and challenge themselves have eyes shining with hope; they have the energy to climb to greater heights tomorrow.</p>
|
||||
<p>We are here to continue celebrating True Parents’ birthday. I would really celebrate if you made one complaint today: “Reverend Moon, you are 62 years old. What have you been doing for the past 62 years? Is that all? Let me do more. I’m only 35 (or 29, or 25), and by the time I am 62, 1 will accomplish more than you have.” I would welcome such a protest.</p>
|
||||
<p>Cowardly people, those who try to make excuses for their failures or lay the blame on others, receive terrible treatment in the spirit world. I could never behave in such a way; I couldn’t even consider it. You should not whine over trivial matters. Become big men and women-make big complaints, such as the one I mentioned.</p>
|
||||
<p>A kindergarten child will have the most trivial problems and complaints, while someone enrolled in a Ph.D. program has an entirely different attitude. Our goal is to save the world. Can you say, “I devoted two years of my life to the movement, and I have given up too much”? Do you think that your two or three years are adequate to move the world? Whoever feels that way is like a thief. It may take 300 years or more to move the world.</p>
|
||||
<p>If you live this way from now on, people will embrace you and welcome you. Even if persecution comes your way, persevere and overcome it; afterwards the universe will need you.. That is inevitable. The victorious way of life is to meet your subject and do his will, not your own. That is the secret of survival and prosperity. Furthermore, when you are in the subject position, you must be like a rock grounded on the Principle. Don’t keep shifting; don’t be swayed by the opinions of others. This is the Principle and law of the universe and holds true for the past, present and future. If you live by this law today, tomorrow and throughout your entire life, you will never regret it. You will be a winner in life.</p>
|
||||
<p>What is our goal and what is the fastest way to achieve it? You cannot move in a straight line; there are always ups and downs. However, instead of making such long detours down and up, you can devise a way to jump from one high point to the next, from one pinnacle to another. The most difficult position is that of the follower, the object who tries to take care of the greatest problems of his central figure. Once you have conquered one obstacle, rather than relaxing and taking it easy for a while, you should move right on to the next difficulty. By moving from one challenge to another, you shorten the time span for accomplishing the goal.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you go to your home church area, the best way to become its subject is to take care of the worst problems in each home. This principle works everywhere. I asked God what His worst problems were, and then I went from one difficulty to another. I have challenged one obstacle after another, going from the individual level to the family level and all the way to the world-wide level. After you embrace each challenge and solve it, you can move on to the next.</p>
|
||||
<p>After overcoming one peak of difficulty, you could descend to a less difficult level and then try to work your way back up to the next peak. But to leap from one pinnacle to the next takes much less time. You can cover the same territory faster by leaping over the valleys.</p>
|
||||
<p>When I deal with established Christianity, I inquire into its greatest difficulties. They have to know how to deal with society, for instance, and how to make a relationship with God. I treat one problem after another and solve Christianity’s worst headaches.</p>
|
||||
<p>Another difficulty in the religious world today is that people talk a lot but don’t know how to act. There is too much talk and not enough substance. So we have demonstrated a religion of action. God is looking for people who not only know the answers to the universal problems but can act upon them.</p>
|
||||
<p>Wherever you go, whatever mission you have, do not complain that it is too difficult. Instead, you should ask, “What can I do that is even more challenging? This is nothing! I want something even worse.”</p>
|
||||
<p>I took up tuna fishing because tuna are the most challenging fish in the world to catch. It is very difficult to outwit tuna. They are such smart creatures. After several years, my boat “New Hope” has become known all over the world as the champion tuna-fishing vessel. If I ever presided over a tuna-fishing seminar, I know that the best tuna fishermen would come from all over the world to hear about my experiences and learn from me. Why? It is because I have overcome more difficulties than any other tuna fisherman, so naturally I know more about it.</p>
|
||||
<p>We want to jump from one pinnacle of suffering to another. From the Unification Church, we want to take the one final leap into the Kingdom of Heaven, on earth and in heaven. How can we do it? By digesting the worst problems in the Unification Church, by making the best contribution toward solving them.</p>
|
||||
<p>How many of you have experienced national MET? There are many who haven’t. Would you rather not go to MET? When you realize that your present mission no longer challenges you to improve yourself, you should move on to something else. Do you have a home church area? After I have been speaking about it for five years, is it right not to have an area? Some of you may be thinking, “I’m going to leave the Unification Church anyway, sooner or later, so why should I have a home church area?” If after five years you still don’t have a home church area, who is wrong: me or you?</p>
|
||||
<p>Do you think my teachings are logical, or am I just a tricky speaker who can make all kinds of things sound right? What I am saying is the truth, so why don’t you try it? Some of you will be able to accomplish things more quickly while others will take longer, but truth is truth. It’s just a matter of time. Your achievements will correspond to the effort you make. When you put forth greater effort, the time period will be shortened.</p>
|
||||
<p>Once I set a goal for accomplishing certain things, I totally commit myself to it. Whether eating, sleeping, talking or walking, I am always focused on that goal, concentrating 100 percent of my attention there. If my strength is not sufficient, I know God will supplement it and I will never get exhausted. This is not just my opinion; it is universal truth and applies to everybody.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you get married you may face seemingly insoluble problems with your mother-in-law or other relatives. But actually, when you look at such a problem from my point of view, the solution will be very simple: just follow the Principle.</p>
|
||||
<p>Do you want to take a long time, zigzagging back and forth, or would you rather leap forward from one pinnacle to another? Is it easy to leap? You don’t like to take the difficult way, do you? But you know the truth. To become true sons and daughters of God, you need to be champions of leaping from one difficulty to another. I will be the umpire and judge your accomplishments.</p>
|
||||
<p>Once you decide to take the righteous path you should not stop until you reach the end of your life. Even at the risk of your life, you must follow the course to its completion. Trying to avoid risks is what places you in the greatest jeopardy. That is why Jesus told people, “He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it.”</p>
|
||||
<p>This is the moment of decision and commitment. Nobody can make this decision for you-not your wife or husband, not your friend, not even me. The commitment is only yours to make. Those of you who can say, “Yes, I want to leap to the goal of perfection. I will continue, even at the cost of my life,” please raise your hands.</p>
|
||||
<p>You have made this resolution and I pray that God will be with you all the way, just as He has been with me throughout each day of my 62 years. That same Heavenly Father shall be with you every minute throughout your entire life. In your life you shall have hope, you shall have joy, you shall have vision. You have the best future under the sun.</p>
|
||||
<p>Shall we do home church? Who will make the commitment to do your home church: me? Rev. Kim? Only you can make that resolution. You must push yourself to complete home church-even if it is midnight or 4:00 a.m., it makes no difference. Whether people see you work or not doesn’t matter. Just persevere for three years. You love me, but the people in your home church will love you even more-you will gain the authority to become their tribal messiah. Until you go through this route, you cannot link yourself to the nation or the world.</p>
|
||||
<p>Do you know that you have a destiny to live? Who makes the commitment? You do. You must choose the Kingdom of Heaven or the kingdom of hell. I am not the one to make that decision, you are.</p>
|
||||
<p>Today is already the last day of January, 1982. This is the year of “Victory of Home church,” our slogan for the new year. Whoever says, “I don’t want to be persecuted in my home church area,” is really a heretic. The greater the persecution you receive, the more assurance you have that you are leaping from one pinnacle to another. You ought to have a competition among yourselves over who can get the most persecution.</p>
|
||||
<p>If I had come to America and sat here idly and comfortably for ten years, do you think the Unification Church would have advanced to this point automatically? Not at all. I never sat still for one moment. I have always been on the move, visiting all 50 states, going on the 21-city</p>
|
||||
<p>tour and the 8-city tour, speaking at Yankee Stadium and the Washington Monument. I was constantly shocking people and they could not ignore me. In other words, I even instigated controversy. Through such good controversy, I have been introducing solutions to the worst problems of this nation.</p>
|
||||
<p>Bo Hi Pak has been reporting that although American conservatives have been negative toward me in the past, they are changing. They have been looking for a champion, and finally they see one emerging: Reverend Moon. In the recent past, the power of the conservatives has been very minor, but there has been an upsurge of conservatism which was able to put Reagan in the White House. Since our battles with Fraser and Carter, many conservatives have been giving us a lot of credit because we have been constantly speaking out, injecting good ideas into the American way of life.</p>
|
||||
<p>We are seated here in a wonderful gathering place; we have a wonderful way of life. My final direction to you today is this: don’t behave in a small way. Act like a giant. Go out into the world like a superman or superwoman. Be proud of what you are, who you are, and where you belong. Express that pride. Once you have committed yourself and have succeeded in some project, you will have a great sense of accomplishment. Then go on to another project and carry it out. Then go on to another. Eventually you will feel invincible; you will feel power coming to you directly from God. That is the real way of life of the real Moonies.</p>
|
||||
<p>Are you strong and committed? You are the master of yourself, the number one person to decide your destiny. Do everything the best way, and you will gain the position of subject over your environment. Your destiny is in your hands; you shall be the one to decide.</p>
|
||||
<p>We are too busy to complain. Once you have made your decision, then act on it. Those who don’t act have no right to speak. You can’t just follow the ways of the world, taking vacations and enjoying easy times. In all my 62 years I have never thought about taking time for rest and relaxation. Mother has been worried because I push myself so hard, and she constantly reminds me that I am no longer a young person. “So what?” I reply. “Age is no justification to stop and rest. If I go to the spirit world, plenty of work needs to be done there, too, so I will continue to work-whether I am here or in the spirit world.”</p>
|
||||
<p>There are eight stages of restoration, eight decision points and opportunities to leap. If there was a way to make one leap that would cover the entire distance, would you take it? There is such a way: home church. When YOU perfect home church you jump the “A-1” way. Home church is that one leap from bottom to top.</p>
|
||||
<p>Now persecution is decreasing and our job is becoming easier and easier. This is the time to take up the task and do it well. Can you tell me, “Father, even if you abandon us and go away somewhere, you won’t need to worry. We will pursue the mission to its fulfillment and victory. Trust us, Father, we will do it”? Can you show me such confidence? There are many methods; it doesn’t matter which one you use. You can devise the best one.</p>
|
||||
<p>To become a victor in home church is the greatest of all titles you could desire. Won Pil Kim will no longer be needed if you can make your own judgment and decision. Then you are your own leader. That is the best way. You shouldn’t wait for anyone else’s instructions. Become a dynamic leader yourself. Go out and do it.</p>
|
||||
<p>We have made the decision and have determined our destiny for the victory of home church. Let us march forward and obtain that victory. Amen! Thank you very much. God bless you.</p>
|
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content/speeches/1982/emergency-time-period.md
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content/speeches/1982/emergency-time-period.md
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@ -0,0 +1,94 @@
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---
|
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title: "EMERGENCY TIME PERIOD"
|
||||
type: "speech"
|
||||
published: "2018-06-23T14:35:05+01:00"
|
||||
updated: "2018-06-23T14:35:05+01:00"
|
||||
source: "/blog/2018/06/23/emergency-time-period.html"
|
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speechYear: "1982"
|
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categories:
|
||||
- "Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982"
|
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tags: []
|
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---
|
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|
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<h2 align="CENTER">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
|
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<h3 align="CENTER">December 12, 1982<br />
|
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Belvedere<br />
|
||||
Translator – Sang Kil Han</h3>
|
||||
<p>In the English language just a small difference between “y” and “e” changes “emergence,” meaning “to come forth” to “emergency,” which means a critical time. One letter creates a drastic difference in meaning.</p>
|
||||
<p>In the history of God’s dispensation, there have always been critical time periods during which indemnity had to be paid. Sacrifice is always required during these critical time periods. The people in Abel’s position are always the ones who must make the sacrifices and pay the indemnity. Abel’s ability to do this can lead the dispensation forward or their failure can bring a halt to the dispensation.</p>
|
||||
<p>God’s substantial restoration began with Israel, starting with Jacob on the individual level and leading up to the national level. Israel means “the victor.” There was a 21-year time period for Jacob’s indemnity condition. For Moses’ mission there was a 40-year time period of indemnity. Jesus was supposed to fulfill at least 40 years of life, which would have been his condition of indemnity.</p>
|
||||
<p>On the foundation of Jacob’s victorious family foundation, the tribal level of dispensation could begin. Moses’ mission brought the tribal or racial level to the beginning of the national level of dispensation. On that foundation, Jesus started the dispensation toward the world level.</p>
|
||||
<p>If Jesus had been able to go to Rome and teach the people there, the dispensation would have been carried on to the world level. That never happened, so after 2,O00 years we are still working on the level of the nation and once again moving forward to the world level of dispensation. Today America is in the position of Rome and is in the same position to welcome the messiah and move the dispensation forward. Now is the dispensational time period to restore the entire physical world and the entire spirit world.</p>
|
||||
<p>Until this time, the physical world and the spirit world have been separated and in conflict with each other. Persons in spirit world could only work with specific religious leaders or those of similar beliefs. Today, with the advance of the Second Coming, spirit world can relate directly with the entire physical realm, not just on a limited basis.</p>
|
||||
<p>Now is the time for restoration of relationship between God’s realm, the realm of Adam and Eve, and that of the archangel. In the original scheme, those four would have been united harmoniously. But since the fall took place, those four realms have been replicated by the satanic side: Satan, in God’s position; evil men and women; and evil angelic world. The pure, original standard became contaminated with evil elements. There are good men and women centered on God and there are bad men and women centered on Satan. How many more bad people than good exist in the world? Certainly evil takes the strongest, most active role in the world and is the most numerous. Who are those few who are centered on God and are situated clearly on God’s side? Simply stated, they must be the genuinely religious persons of the world.</p>
|
||||
<p>In the realm of religion there are both Cain and Abel elements. By the same token, in the realm of secularism not all people are so bad; some are in the Abel position and some in the Cain. The Abel people on the satanic side can be drawn into God’s realm; likewise, those Cain persons on God’s side can be pulled over into Satan’s realm. It is a common occurrence that people are dropping away from their religions and embracing the satanic standards, while those who have been non-religious are drawing closer to God’s side.</p>
|
||||
<p>While one possesses a physical body, it is rather simple to move from Satan’s side to God’s side, or vice versa; however, once a person is in spirit world it cannot be done. It is only possible with a physical body. Why is that? Only the physical body spans both the world of body and of spirit.</p>
|
||||
<p>In the Heavenly realm, the Abel people are closest to God and the Cain people are next to them. Then there is a borderline and beyond that is the realm of Satan. Closest to the borderline are the Abel people in Satan’s realm and closest to Satan are his Cain people. Thus, God continually tries to win those Abel people on Satan’s side and Satan is trying to do the same with the Cain people on God’s side.</p>
|
||||
<p>Within each individual, there is that borderline between God and Satan. Perhaps one person has every part of himself on God’s side, with only one foot straddling the line over to Satan’s side. Or maybe he has only his big toe hanging over into Satan’s realm and he thinks he is OK. But Satan can loop a string around that toe and try to pull him all the way over to the other side. Once Satan successfully pulls half of him over, he will claim the whole person. Satan will use winches and ropes and drag him completely over and God cannot do anything to prevent it.</p>
|
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<p>Between hostile nations, the borderline is watched very carefully. If someone steps over the line with just one foot, he is considered to have invaded the other country. He might argue that he was mostly on his own side, but that would not prevent the other country from claiming an invasion. By the same token, when a person sets one foot on Satan’s territory, he is claimed by Satan and God cannot do anything.</p>
|
||||
<p>According to this viewpoint, are you clearly on God’s side or are you still on the borderline, moving back and forth? If you are standing on God’s side, do your eyes still wander over to the satanic side? Now it is the Christmas season and you are involved in your mission work, which means that you probably have to make the sacrifice of not seeing your family during this special time. By dedicating yourself now’ you know you are offering that sacrifice for the sake of God and the world</p>
|
||||
<p>When Lot was commanded to leave the city of Sodom, he had no idea of where he was going or what he was going to do. He and his family were leaving behind familiar, comfortable surroundings and heading towards the unknown. When Lot’s wife was tempted by her past situation and she looked backward, she turned into a pillar of salt.</p>
|
||||
<p>This is a time of fundraising. Do you think everyone went out willingly or reluctantly? The Korean word for a highly changeable person is pyun duk. If you were such a person, you would move back and forth across the border line several times an hour. Sometimes a person will set one foot over the border once a month, just to see what it’s like. Another person might do that once a year; another, once every ten years; another, only once in his life. Or someone might never, in his whole life, set foot on Satan’s side. According to this broad spectrum, to which category do you belong?</p>
|
||||
<p>If you are a person who changes and leaves God’s side frequently, suppose you were to pray fervently to God. How would God respond to such a prayer? Just from an objective point of view, should God listen to and grant such a person’s prayer or shouldn’t He wait until that person has become more stabilized?</p>
|
||||
<p>God is called the God of love. Does that mean no matter how many times a person does something wrong, God will just blindly forgive him without some consideration of that person’s sincerity? If an incredibly changeable, untrustworthy person prays to God piteously, does God come closer to him or would He have to move further and further away from such a treacherous person? God looks at you with an eye of deep love, but if you squint at Him with a satanic eye and say, “God, I love you,” does that mean God should feel loved?</p>
|
||||
<p>Today millions of religious persons are praying to God. Certainly none of them is praying for the demise of America but instead pray for God to help America and the world. However. America is falling into a worse and worse condition; therefore, God is not granting those prayers. Likewise, every Christian prays for the proliferation and prosperity of Christianity but is that happening? On the contrary, Christianity is becoming weaker and weaker. That means God has not granted those prayers.</p>
|
||||
<p>What does this mean? Prayer is the most fundamental element of our religious life. When we pray, we must stay far away from that borderline between God and Satan in order to be answered by God. You must be cleansed and pure of past ambiguities before you approach God in prayer. Many people claim, “I prayed and prayed, but it never produced anything.” If someone is strongly within Satan’s domain and praying to God for satanic purposes, how can he complain that God doesn’t listen to his prayer? Why should God listen to such a prayer? God is a God of justice, so how can He just answer every person’s prayer, regardless of the quality or where it is coming from?</p>
|
||||
<p>How many really good Christians do you think exist who spend all of their efforts moving toward God’s side, not paying any attention to Satan’s realm? When God was about to demolish Sodom and Gomorrah, He told Abraham that if there were just fifty righteous people there, He would save the city. Abraham begged to God and He agreed that if there were only ten righteous people in the city, He would spare it. That means there were not even ten good people.</p>
|
||||
<p>Even within the Unification Church, how many people are totally clear of the borderline and are, without a doubt, true sons and daughters of God? How about you, yourself, as a Unification Church member? Are you very confident to proclaim yourself as a citizen of Heaven, as God’s son or daughter? If very few of you can say that, what a serious situation this is for God. God created religions to save not only individuals but eventually to restore the entire world; this is not a concept but is reality. If, when God looks at you closely, you are not sure of yourselves, how miserable God would feel!</p>
|
||||
<p>This time period is a true time of emergency for God. God is asking, “Who is helping me in my time of emergency? Who will help me save the world?” God is in agony over this situation. When you deeply understand this, you cannot help but resolving, “I would rather spend my life in jail, as long as I can stay with You, God. If I am free, perhaps I would be tempted over the borderline, so I would rather stay in prison in order to guarantee my relationship with You.” How many of you feels so deeply the desire to be on God’s side that you do not even mind staying in jail and being beaten every day, as long as you are guaranteed of being on God’s side? Or are you the kind of person who thinks, “I want to do things the way I want; I don’t think about God so much.”? This is a very serious question.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you look at yourself from this standard, you should even feel ashamed for the way you have been praying in the past. “God, I was praying all the time out of shallow habit, but now I have come to see that I was in no position to pray to you. I am ashamed.”</p>
|
||||
<p>This is not only the emergency time for God, it is also the emergency time for the world; also it is a dire emergency for all religious people. Are you confident about yourself as a religious person or are you still the target of the satanic world? You, your family, your society and nation are very much involved in this emergency time. Do you think this is an exaggerated picture, or is it reality?</p>
|
||||
<p>Religions are struggling and panting amidst the satanic world now, but the day will come when religions, centering on Christianity. will be the predominant force for cleansing the world. When is that day going to come? That time was supposed to occur in the past-when the U.S. won in World War 11, they were supposed to sweep over the entire world carrying the Christian spirit, under God’s banner. But America lost that chance. At that time, China, England, and all the powerful countries of the world were sided with America and Russia didn’t have anything.</p>
|
||||
<p>We cannot change the past but we can see the events clearly. After World War II, America had the greatest potential for evangelizing the entire world. She never had the ability before that and since that time, she has gone into a sharp decline. That was the highest level for America-a God-given opportunity to do His long sought-after will.</p>
|
||||
<p>Looking at the 2,O00 years of Christian history. we can see that millions of Christians have prayed deeply and unselfishly to God. In the beginning of Christianity, what do you think was the predominant prayer? Their constant plea to God was, “Oh, Lord, please send Your son again as You promised.” That was very different from the kinds of prayers most people are praying today: “Lord, please help my family to be prosperous; bless my church,” etc.</p>
|
||||
<p>We can imagine that Christians prayed consistently and strongly for hundreds of years for Christ to come again. Certainly that is God’s desire, too, so when would God do it? He would send Christ at the most opportune time for the world-the time when the Christian spirit was at the highest and there was every possibility that the world could be evangelized. That was the very time after World War 11. It is a reasonable thing to assume, just by logic. Of course, no one knew the preciousness of the moment because if they had, they would not have failed; but God knew clearly.</p>
|
||||
<p>Christians have been steadfastly waiting for Christ to come again-on a cloud. If he came on a cloud, perhaps wearing a parachute, he would come in the position of messiah, undoubtedly. But isn’t there any chance at all that he would not come on a cloud, but would appear as a regular person? What kind of a messiah would mankind need: one who descends from the clouds as a supernatural non-human being; or one who is one of us, with the same flesh and the same mind? Certainly, people need a real person to relate with in the position of Christ.</p>
|
||||
<p>Jesus described himself as, “The way, the truth, and the life.” It really didn’t make any difference which manner he came into the world-even if he had come on the clouds, or whatever, they were not the way, the truth and the life. It was Jesus himself who was important’ nothing else. However he came to the world, he taught clearly about the way to live, the truth for mankind and how to gain life. ALSO, Jesus was “the love,” which was not recorded; he did not say that, perhaps because he could not go all the way, but he was the love for the world.</p>
|
||||
<p>Would mankind prefer to receive a messiah who came dramatically on a cloud, without teaching and being all those things which Jesus was, or a messiah who came normally but was able to convey those precious understandings? Certainly, mankind would value the second kind of messiah.</p>
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||||
<p>Considering the realities of this world, when the true messiah emerges it is almost inevitable that everyone, including the religious world, will oppose him. Those who firmly believe that Jesus will come again on a cloud have rejected the Unification Church.</p>
|
||||
<p>Satan will do everything to stop and destroy the Unification Church. He is very accomplished at killing people and destroying goodness; that is what he consistently does. When God sees this situation, He feels like saying to Reverend Moon and the Moonies, “Be strong and healthy and please bring my world back to me.”</p>
|
||||
<p>If it is true that the Moonies are the only hope of God, yet they themselves are vacillating back and forth over the borderline between God and Satan, are those kinds of Moonies worthy of their name? They are more worthy of being struck by lightning, isn’t that true?</p>
|
||||
<p>Are you proud of being a Moonie? Perhaps when you first joined the movement, you were reluctant to identify yourself as a Moonie. Have you gotten over that now? When I was in the courtroom, I was totally confident that I was doing exactly what the universe needed. I never thought I should get some sympathy from the judge or anyone. No matter where I go, whether it be a prison or a palace, I must preserve the dignity of God’s position.</p>
|
||||
<p>You must be able to see the borderline but you must determine that it is out of the question that you will ever cross over it. God knows that Reverend Moon has had nothing to do with that borderline; therefore, do you think God trusts me? That is something no one else understands, so when others give me advice I must be the one to decide, ultimately, which is the one way toward God’s direction.</p>
|
||||
<p>Is it so unbelievable that an entire country would oppose me? Actually, it is a natural occurrence, given how sinful this world is. If the entire world of religion comes against me, I know it is because they are ignorant of what they are doing. It is common knowledge today that there is only one person who has been opposed by everyone, by the whole world. Yet what evil did he do to cause everyone to go against him? Therefore, I must be the champion of receiving opposition; perhaps it is in the Guinness Book! Is that because I am so selfish, or do I receive opposition because I am so faithful to God?</p>
|
||||
<p>Have you taken the same stance as I have? When Jesus went to the cross, all his disciples fled. Have you ever felt, “If Reverend Moon goes to jail, we will all go with him?” Jesus could not trust his own people. who were all of the same race and culture. You Americans are of a totally different race and culture than me, yet you say you will follow me wherever I lead. Can I trust that?</p>
|
||||
<p>You are from an individualistic culture; “I” is always capitalized. Compare yourself with the disciples of Jesus; their culture allowed them to believe in Jesus wholeheartedly because they did not have training in individualism. Yet you are the product of individualism; you look at what I say and do with a skeptical eye. You take what suits you and then discard what doesn’t because you feel you have that “right.” According to this situation, to what degree have you believed in me? You can easily say, one hundred per cent, but is it true?</p>
|
||||
<p>When you become aware of how far you are from the standard of a true Moonie, you will want to lower your head in humility. But from that position, are you going to give up and back away from God’s will, or move forward. It is very difficult to move forward, so do you really want to go? This is the reality of Jesus’ telling people that if they wanted to live, they would die, but if they were willing to die, they would live.</p>
|
||||
<p>Can you glimpse how difficult it has been for me to come to this point? If I go to jail, it is possible for all my followers to drop away from me and I will have to start all over again. I have seen this happen before and not just once. It happened in my own home country of Korea; so how can I trust that the people of America won’t do the same? If you can give some indication that you might be able to follow me 100%, I can have consolation. Yet, look at your situation: do you have a life of faith with tears? Most people do not see such a thing in Americans. How can you be worthy of being trusted?</p>
|
||||
<p>Does the path become easier as you go along, or more difficult? Many Americans joined without knowing anything about this situation; they just “tagged along” with the movement. Therefore, once things became really difficult they said, “This is too hard for me, so I will escape.” This is always a possibility. The attitude we must have is, “As hopeless as it seems now, what does God want?” Do you think God would like Reverend Moon to forsake America because it is utterly impossible to educate? Certainly not. This is very serious, both for God and for me.</p>
|
||||
<p>I have seen that Americans are very well-educated and knowledgeable, yet very individualistic and analytical. You must satisfy yourselves before you can do anything. I must weigh your potential with that of the African people, most of whom are uneducated and very simple and the South American people who are in-between. I must ask if they will function better for the sake of God’s dispensation than the North Americans.</p>
|
||||
<p>In the Bible it says that it is more difficult for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to go to Heaven. In the same way it is as difficult for a rich nation to go Heaven. To realize the Kingdom of Heaven on earth through American people is just that difficult. However, it will be easier for a poor nation and culture, such as South America and Africa. Do you think my observation is well-founded?</p>
|
||||
<p>The only way to overcome this problem would be for you Americans to throw off the effects of all your education and sophistication and give yourself up in sacrifice for the sake of others. With that, we can have hope for North Americans; but if you want to keep everything you have and try to follow God, it won’t work. If you voluntarily take on a miserable situation, maybe there is hope for you. In fact, if you did that, the Kingdom of Heaven on earth could emerge very quickly. Even if we could establish the ideal in Africa or South America, still we must return to North America to do the same thing. Therefore, no matter how difficult it is, we must use North Americans for God’s dispensation-this is God’s will and it is what Reverend Moon and Moonies in the whole world want.</p>
|
||||
<p>How does this sound: we must live on the same standard as the African people, eating and living the same way they do. Can you do that? I know you Americans don’t want to do that. But I know God’s ways; therefore, what if I determine to make your lives miserable like the Africans? Will you welcome that?</p>
|
||||
<p>America is in the highest position, materially. Americans try to take the most trouble-free path to greater and greater levels of comfort. But God wants to redirect your paths temporarily, in a way that will cause you more difficulty. You want to continue to go upward, but the law of the universe requires that you must first go down, then move up higher and higher. If all Americans decided that they should adopt the spirit of God and Christ and start sacrificing themselves, that would be very good. That means that they would have to start living with a much lower standard than they are familiar with. At that lower point, they would experience greater unity and cohesion among themselves. When they started to go up again, they would go up much higher than they were before.</p>
|
||||
<p>You have always learned to try to progress toward easier and more comfortable ways of living; yet according to that way, you become less and less significant to God’s work. Ultimately, God has to leave you if you just pursue that way. God would have to leave this entire country.</p>
|
||||
<p>At this time of emergency, should our way of thinking be to get an easier and more comfortable way of life each day? Or shouldn’t we determine that each day should be a little more challenging than the one before? At this time there is only one way for America to continue its prosperity under God-by voluntarily tightening their belts and inch by inch lowering their standard of living.</p>
|
||||
<p>You may understand that what I am saying is correct, but you need to know the reasons why to support you in the future when you are trying to live by it. Until 70 years after the end of World War I and 40 years after the end of World War II, the whole world has been in turmoil. There has never been such a confusing, tumultuous time in history to compare with this time period. Especially since 1960 as the peak year of transition, things have been changing so rapidly most thinking people do not know what to expect. John F. Kennedy, Dag Hammerskjöld, and other public figures who had a righteous influence on the world died shortly after 1960. America plummeted from its loss of leadership.</p>
|
||||
<p>Intelligent, realistic people in the world do not see any hope for America. It seems to be a certain prey for communism. Therefore, many intelligent, but not so righteous American media people are deserting the sinking ship and supporting what they see as the coming communist domain here. Some intellectual professors honestly believe that communism is the only hope for the future, so they are helping to promote that. In this difficult atmosphere, Carter came into the presidency; during his term, 14 more American allies were sold out. Now Reagan has started to redirect the country in the right way, but he is receiving much unrighteous pressure from many quarters. The stronger the communist influence becomes here, the more Reagan will be opposed.</p>
|
||||
<p>Consider the conflict between the liberals. who are greater in number in the government, and the conservatives. What will happen here if liberals win in the struggle for power? The country must see the emergence of a group of dedicated, intelligent people who are opposing communism, proclaiming that with their lives they will cause communism to be eradicated from the earth. Who is that group? It is the Moonies. Even though we are just a handful of people, if America were inspired by us, the situation would be different. In reality, as a handful of people we are trying to achieve such a large goal and the majority of the country is going against us. It is logical that communists would want to stop us, but even the free world is trying to stop us. Where will this world go? Can Reverend Moon be solely responsible for that?</p>
|
||||
<p>Does Reverend Moon have a country of his own? Even Korea is not following along with me. There are only a handful of people around the world who are supporting me. I determined that these few people and I are going to sacrifice and dedicate ourselves for the sake of the world. Because of that, God has a tangible hope for the future of the world. Through this one condition, God can accomplish many more miracles.</p>
|
||||
<p>The situation of the Moonies is like God’s situation, desperate. Yet we know we can do it. Even when we are suffering on the point of death, if we can pray for God’s liberation and victory and forget our own situation, that is a miracle for God. As Moonies, we are opposed to communism because we want to bring all people over the border into God’s world. Can that possibly be an easy way to go?</p>
|
||||
<p>This is why we are living in an utmost emergency situation for God, this country, and the whole world. Jesus was described as the lamb who carried the sins of the world. Today, Reverend Moon should be described as the person who has the power and the duty to liberate the entire world and God. This is the reality. We can clearly compare the time of Jesus and the time of the Second Advent. Which was more difficult: the situation Jesus faced. or the one which the Unification Church is facing? Today’s situation is more difficult.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you visit the catacombs in Rome, you can learn a lot of things. Early Christians were so strong and faithful they would go willingly to be eaten by lions. Today we should literally do better than they, in order to liberate the entire world. We must determine that we would be able to die for the sake of the world, just as the early Christians did. You must make up your mind, “I am the independent soldier for the liberation of God and the world.” Unless each and every one of the members of the Unification Church do that, we cannot achieve our goal and truly be the hope for the world. This is the responsibility of the members.</p>
|
||||
<p>This is the 37th year since the end of World War II. America’s entire future will be decided in the next three years. President Reagan is providing hope for this country. What about the Unification Church? All Moonies must determine to change the tide of public opinion toward us in the next three years, or else America will be lost. I have my own strategy on how to achieve the goal of saving this country. I decided that through the court battle, I would change the public opinion of Moonies.</p>
|
||||
<p>For seven years, the American government has been scrutinizing and investigating Reverend Moon and everything I have done. If they proclaim that I have not done anything wrong, no one could say anything against us. There is no higher level of battle than this one, against the governmental authorities.</p>
|
||||
<p>You are following me, so you must determine that you can go through whatever difficulties or court battles you may encounter, anywhere you might encounter them. With that determination, the world will once again have hope in you. When such a determined attitude emerges’ God will seriously open up a way for us to march toward Moscow and reach the Russian people. With God’s help. victory will be on our side.</p>
|
||||
<p>I know God will be with us when we go to Moscow. This has been God’s goal. which He tried to achieve through Christianity; but Christians didn’t fulfill their opportunity after World War II. As a result, Christianity has declined sharply since then. Therefore, the Unification Church has emerged to accomplish that purpose of God.</p>
|
||||
<p>People who look at me without the knowledge of all these things cannot help but think I am a crazy person. Once they understand my reasoning, however, they will bow down and weep. Only God and Reverend Moon know how strongly God wants to see the liberation of Moscow and Russia. If you pray sincerely, God will tell you this truth.</p>
|
||||
<p>Are you the kind of person who just agrees with me with your mouth? Or do you really feel, “Father, your goals are my goals for life, as well.” You must prepare yourself to meet the challenge of achieving God’s goals. Perhaps you feel that you have been dedicating yourself very sincerely for many years, but now you must concentrate on starting your family and that relationship. Instead, you must realize that this is no time to focus on yourself, but it is an urgent time. You must be willing to take your new pregnant bride with you, on foot, marching to Moscow if necessary, instead of planning on flying in comfort there.</p>
|
||||
<p>Do you expect that I will take good care of you and buy an airplane to fly you to Moscow in? Which has more value and leaves behind the highest tradition for the world-if you flew in comfort on an airplane to Moscow, or if you marched barefoot there?</p>
|
||||
<p>Why do you think God allows the world to persecute us and make us suffer? I think it is good training for Moonies to go through, but it is only the beginning. Are you ready to face the truly harsh situation of walking to Moscow? Just because you have been in training, does that mean you are not also in a war? Maybe the war is just going on in America, but the world is at peace? No, the whole world is at war.</p>
|
||||
<p>Eldridge Cleaver is now traveling around the college campuses with CARP speaking out against communism, shaking the students into awareness. He is a very effective enemy who seemed to come out of the blue sky, so those communists who were trying to be discreet have come out publicly, even wearing T-shirts proclaiming their ideology. It is becoming very obvious now who are the communists. Therefore the communists are also facing an utmost emergency time, not just the Moonies! I have provided inspiration for the CARP members; even though I do not go myself to the campuses, [ have inspired the battles there.</p>
|
||||
<p>When I pray, do you think God responds? At the time of the early Christians, their standard of sacrifice was so high. Can the Moonies have a standard any less high? We have to be able to pray, even on the verge of death, “Oh. God, please send us to Moscow.” We can’t afford to wait thousands of years for that to happen, so we must be very intense at this time. If we tell God we are different from the Christians who have been praying to Him for thousands of years, He might respond, “I don’t see any difference. Your prayers aren’t any more intense than the Christians.” Then you will have to confront God, “No, God, we are different. Even though there have been millions of Christians praying intensely, they were praying for a smaller purpose-for the well-being of their denominations, their families, and their own salvation. We are praying for the salvation of the entire world and for Your own liberation.”</p>
|
||||
<p>You can tell God, “Father, you don’t have to send me to Heaven; that’s not what I am here for. I may go to hell, but I will be satisfied as long as mankind and You are liberated.” Will such a person be sent to hell? Never. That is the standard of the true Moonie-is that what you are?</p>
|
||||
<p>Are you capable of giving up the people and things who are closest to your heart, in order to accomplish God’s will to save Russia and liberate the people there? What if God told you that the only way to do that would be for you to send your wife to Russia and never see her again? Are you capable of taking her to the border and kissing her good-bye, saying, “I never thought I would do this but if you leave me, God will be able to bless the entire world, so good-bye and God bless you.” Would you be crazy or wonderful? If there is a person who thinks that way and is ready to literally do such a thing, wouldn’t God like to live with him for eternity?</p>
|
||||
<p>We know that this is the utmost emergency time. It is just like the time of the match between David and Goliath. David threw his stone with a simple faith in God; today, you are much more knowledgeable than David. You know the entire history of the dispensation and you understand why God must support you. David didn’t know why God supported him, but he had the confidence that he was going to liberate his own nation. You, however, have the world to liberate and your mission is more important. If God helped David, wouldn’t He be very anxious to help you? You have to have pride and confidence in that fact.</p>
|
||||
<p>Very soon the day will come when Americans will have to bow down in repentance for what they did to the Unification Church. When that time comes, our sole business will be to care for America. Have you planned what kind of responsibilities you will have in 20 or 30 years? As you rise up in society, you will have certain positions of influence. We will reach that point in the future, and that is why we are working so hard today. Are you determined to rise to this emergency time? Can you say, “Even if I lose my eyes, or my limbs, or my life, I will never stop short of my destination.” You should have no other goal in your life than to liberate mankind and God.</p>
|
||||
<p>One of my children told Mother and me the other day. “Because you are so completely public and the parents to the entire Unification Church, I cannot feel sometimes that you are my own parents.” Our children candidly feel distant from us sometimes. I thought about it and had to admit that such a thing must be true. Even if Mother said, “The children are right, Father. It’s not fair for your family, so why don’t you make yourself available for more family activities?,” my response would be to say. “No, I will not do that yet. If I had achieved my goals, maybe I would be able to do that, but I haven’t. Therefore, I cannot commit myself to anything else yet.” Do you understand?</p>
|
||||
<p>What if my family did not follow me? That would not stop me. If I had to choose between forsaking them and following God’s will, or the other way around, I would never forsake God’s will. I know that is the only way God approves of my being a family man. God can tell the entire world, “Reverend Moon has even forsaken his own family for the sake of the cosmos.” What about that? Was my decision right? What is your decision? Can you split your attention in half at this time, or direct it completely toward the ultimate purpose?</p>
|
||||
<p>Are you going to follow my pattern, even more than I? If you do that, the world will come to life. The hope of God and the world is connected with such a commitment.</p>
|
||||
<p>No matter how humble your individual family may be, the important thing is what kind of attitude you have. I know that even if I cannot take care of my family, God will protect them and help them to understand the situation. Therefore, I can be relatively free of worry.</p>
|
||||
<p>There is no better place than America for the accomplishment of God’s will. There is no room for consideration of another person’s race or nationality when we are all working together for the sake of God, at this emergency time. Whenever Moonies get together. we will discuss the best ways to bring results for the sake of America and the world. As people of five colors of skin and all different nationalities come together in discussion of ways to liberate God and mankind, the world and God have hope. Without us, they have no hope. When we realize this fact, there is no room for any other attitude.</p>
|
||||
<p>Only by living this way will we digest this emergency time. This is the central thought of the Moonies. This emergency time of the world is very real. When we grasp this situation and we pray earnestly to God, God always responds and helps us. How much sin have you committed according to this standard? How much have you been up and down, changeable and undependable? Even other people do not approve of changeable people, so how can you expect God to approve?</p>
|
||||
<p>As Moonies, you have an understanding of God that is far superior to anyone else’s in history. If you are dedicated to the service of mankind, God can accomplish His goals, even though you are few in number. What a wonderful realization this is! You must know that this ability is the most precious thing you own-not even your own spouse is more precious.</p>
|
||||
<p>If you carry out your mission, you can possess the Creator and all of His creation. How wonderful that is! Will you do it? If so, then God bless you.</p>
|
||||
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content/speeches/1982/everyone-is-heading-somewhere.md
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|
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|
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---
|
||||
title: "EVERYONE IS HEADING SOMEWHERE"
|
||||
type: "speech"
|
||||
published: "2018-06-22T06:06:33+01:00"
|
||||
updated: "2018-06-22T06:06:33+01:00"
|
||||
source: "/blog/2018/06/22/everyone-is-heading-somewhere.html"
|
||||
speechYear: "1982"
|
||||
categories:
|
||||
- "Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982"
|
||||
tags: []
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
<p><center></p>
|
||||
<h2>REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
|
||||
<p></center><center></p>
|
||||
<h3>March 7, 1982<br />
|
||||
Belvedere<br />
|
||||
Translator – Bo Hi Pak</h3>
|
||||
<p></center>When we say, “Everyone is heading somewhere,” this is a universal statement. People in the past were heading somewhere; people in the present and also those in the future will all be heading somewhere. But what is their destination? When children set out for school in the morning, the schoolhouse is their goal. Although students may go to the same school, they can be learning entirely different subjects.</p>
|
||||
<p>Modem science has become so specialized that it is divided into many fields, with each scholar focusing on something different. Years ago, before modem technology was highly developed, people who worked in factories were involved in the whole manufacturing process. Everybody knew what the others were doing. But in factories today, the workers feel like a small cog in a giant machine. They don’t know what is going on in the rest of the factory and many feel that they play an insignificant role.</p>
|
||||
<p>People enrolled in a Ph.D. program are often focused on a very narrow, specialized area. When they accomplish their goal in that field and contribute to the body of knowledge about it, they can be awarded a doctoral degree. They are like residents of a metropolitan area, such as Seoul or New York, who go to the countryside and search the streams for a certain insect or tiny pebble. For that person it may be important to pursue the study of such a pebble or insect because through it he will get his degree. But the realm of metropolitan New York cannot fit into the world of a tiny insect! Such research needs to connect to the realities of New York.</p>
|
||||
<p>Western civilization is headed toward more and more specialization, concentrating its focus on very tiny areas. Blinded by their limited outlook, people lose sight of the whole. They lack the perspective of the world, nation, society or even family. Many people don’t want to think about ideology; traditional value systems are crumbling. Americans and people of the free world are suffering because they don’t know what is taking place in the universe. Lacking any vision, they don’t know what to expect tomorrow.</p>
|
||||
<p>After someone obtains his Ph.D., what direction should he move in: up toward the universe, or down? To go down is to decline, to plunge into darkness. The further you descend, the less you see until everything is pitch black. You become more and more confused. Your path is blocked and you see only people’s misery and suffering. That is the direction many intellectual people are heading in. Many so-called learned people actually have closed minds. Great universities and institutions are headed that way because of the individuals leading them.</p>
|
||||
<p>When people become animalistic, wanting only to have fun and enjoy life, they see no need for ideology or morality. “Why should I follow a disciplined life? I don’t care; I just want to eat, play, have fun and be stimulated, one way or another.” People live for such goals.</p>
|
||||
<p>Without any -foundation, individuals can’t relate to something greater than themselves, some higher cause. They don’t even want to think about a higher purpose. They see themselves just as individuals. They realize the world is full of wrongs, but they want to have fun anyway. They don’t worry about history because they think somebody else is running it.</p>
|
||||
<p>Those who have such an attitude aren’t concerned about their community and they don’t have strong patriotic feelings. They have no goal and they make no effort to go anywhere. They have a country so they could at least pursue its well-being. If they cared about their home town, they would have some place to return to. People meander around and when they look back on the past, they conclude that God doesn’t exist because they can find no trace of Him. Then they also conclude that religion is unnecessary.</p>
|
||||
<p>In a tough competition at school, the student who is a little better than the others will be the winner. Young people see someone with a doctorate from Harvard and think he is worth following. But to follow a Ph.D. who has no goal or purpose in life and keeps running into stone walls will cause you to find disaster. Mankind is heading towards disaster. We have to go somewhere, but where?</p>
|
||||
<p>There is a comer of the human mind which simply cannot accept a totally animalistic way of life. Some portion of the body rebels and says, “Ms isn’t the way it should be.” People hear such a voice whispering to them from within. Their carnal desire tries to push them rapidly in a certain direction, but some part of their mind applies the brakes, saying, “No, that’s not right.”</p>
|
||||
<p>Suppose someone decided to sample all the Chinese food in town. Let’s say he ate at ten Chinese restaurants a day for a whole week. By the end of the week, he wouldn’t even want to look at the Chinese food he had coveted such a short time ago when he was hungry.</p>
|
||||
<p>This is the age of free sex. People meet and have relations without even getting to know each other. They may satisfy their carnal desires, but then what? Imagine a man who has sex with dozens of women and believes that he is getting full physical satisfaction out of life. But when he sits down to think about it, he feels empty. He may recall a time many years ago when he was a youth and loved a simple country girl. That girl may not have been pretty; she may not have worn make-up, but she had a pure heart.</p>
|
||||
<p>He reflects on the days when he was in love with her and realizes how much better a time it was. Even though the girl may have smelled like the cows, still he will think of her and miss her. Although the man thought he had everything he needs to enjoy life, it doesn’t satisfy him. He feels empty when he looks back upon his early days, when he was living a pure life and feeling pure love for someone.</p>
|
||||
<p>There are people who will quarrel once with their spouse and then say, “You don’t care about me. You have nothing to do with me and I have nothing to do with you. I’m leaving.” On the other hand, a true husband and wife may disagree at times, but their relationship has a cohesiveness that nothing can destroy. They may fight but they don’t break up. Which kind of person would you prefer for a spouse? You like the first kind, don’t you? Why do you say no?</p>
|
||||
<p>Not only Moonies, but anybody with a conscience will say no to this. Everyone comes to the same conclusion. Can you talk about the ideal in such a situation? Can you find true love? In a society of selfishness, can you find righteousness? You feel, “This is an evil world-bleak, dark and sinful. I don’t want to have anything to do with it.”</p>
|
||||
<p>To follow the path of the world brings only calamity and disaster. Does anyone disagree with me? Since that is the road to disaster, collapse and death, what shall we do? There is no solution in America, nor in Great Britain, nor in the great Western world. In fact, the Western world and all the so-called advanced nations are walking that path of destruction.</p>
|
||||
<p>We can conclude that if God exists, He must be hastening the decline of Western civilization and letting it crumble in order to give birth to a new world. The less developed nations-the relatively unstained societies out there-need to be protected. It is almost like killing germs so the rest of the world will not be infected.</p>
|
||||
<p>Don’t you think this is a logical conclusion? If God exists, He must want to exterminate the evil germs quickly, to keep the mom healthy parts of the world from becoming infected. People whose thinking is parallel to God’s are also concerned about reversing the trend of Western civilization and guiding it toward a new direction.</p>
|
||||
<p>Some Western people decide they would rather live somewhere else, so they pack their things and leave, denying their own home country. But when Americans take their dirty smells to another country, they are not welcome. People are rejecting U.S. civilization saying, “Yankee, go home.” This is the reality today.</p>
|
||||
<p>America’s greatest need today is finding hope in the midst of despair. There must be a beacon of hope somewhere; it must be possible to stem the tide. Anyone thinking about how to accomplish this change is taking up the most critical challenge in America. Has any philosophy or religion been able to save America? So far, there is none. God seems remote to most Americans. The power of religion appears to have been eradicated.</p>
|
||||
<p>Is there a solution? Various philosophies have been proposed which offer some pragmatic compromise, attempting to justify. people’s fallen way of life. Religions have become virtually powerless. Many people today claim that God is dead. Where can we find the solution? God almighty, the God of love, must somehow devise a solution for this nation. Something new and great needs to come about so that change can come to the United States.</p>
|
||||
<p>Communists claim there is no God and they scorn Western civilization. ‘Me Marxist ideology has been on the offensive in the world and many Western societies have been intoxicated by its overwhelming ideal. The problem is that if you follow communism, you decline. But if you follow the Western way of life, you also decline. There seems to be no hope in either camp. One side, communism, denies God; the other side, the free world, recognizes God but has departed from Him. Then where should we go? Everybody is headed someplace, but where?</p>
|
||||
<p>The situation of humanity is like that of blind people in a boat approaching Niagara Falls. Everyone knows they are going somewhere, but they are unaware of the imminent danger of plunging thousands of feet to their death. How can we stop moving toward destruction? Ibis is not just my theory, but a very real problem. Can we make some extraordinary, revolutionary leap and escape disaster? Is there enough energy out there to do it?</p>
|
||||
<p>The world scornfully calls those of you sitting here “Moonies. “The entire world scorns me as well. Who are we? Why are we here? First, we proclaim that God exists; He is not dead. Next, we have a concrete philosophy of hope, not despair. Our philosophy is based not on expedience, but on the living God. Furthermore, our religion has a genuine solution to the world’s problems and is capable of bringing people into unity.</p>
|
||||
<p>Communism is the arch-enemy of God and religion;. thus communists also hate me. Because the United States has abandoned God, it has also become my adversary. Both camps have fought against me and have tried to destroy my work. But if I disappear, what can be done for this world? Where would you turn? Would you go back to the same old America?</p>
|
||||
<p>You have been pulled out of the United States to become a new breed of people who can go out to the world, bringing new life everywhere. You Americans of this new revolution can go to Africa, for example, and instead of hearing, “Yankee, go home,” you will be welcomed with, “Yankee, please come.” When that change comes about, we can quickly influence the world and turn it in the right direction.</p>
|
||||
<p>When people of the United States demonstrate such a new way of life, I know that the rest of the world, particularly the less-developed nations, will follow. This is the reason I came to America to work and force a showdown here. Is that wrong? Is it wrong for you to join me?</p>
|
||||
<p>Western civilization has been based on selfishness, not caring about others. Many people just want to take advantage of the poorer and less-developed nations. But I am working to transform the American way into an unselfish and sacrificial way of life. For the first time, a group of white people are going out giving their sweat and blood for the sake of other nations, creating a true revolution. This is the only way the United States can survive and prosper.</p>
|
||||
<p>Who will establish this turning point? Will professors from Harvard University or the dean of the Harvard Business School do it? I am the only one who is proclaiming this and working to make it a reality. Yet I have been opposed by the United States and the entire world. Still I am like a tower of strength, an immovable rock. When you see me living by this standard and moving in this direction, it makes you feel repentful, remembering how often you criticized me in your heart and misunderstood me.</p>
|
||||
<p>You think, “Of course, Father is trying to do some good, but he is doing it in his Oriental way. He is just forcing the Korean direction on us.” But let’s think together this morning. Does America need my direction and the solutions I offer? How much does, America need a solution? If your parents oppose you and if the government or the entire nation came against you, would you still be convinced that this is the right way of life? But what would you do if nobody helped you? If you were all alone, would you give up? We must not give up. Our devotion will continue as long as we have breath. Can you say you are fired of doing home church, witnessing or fundraising?</p>
|
||||
<p>I came to the United States from somewhere else. This is not my native land, so if anybody gets tired, it should be me. If anybody retreats, it should be me. ‘Mere is no way you can compare your position with mine. I never get tired and I will not retreat. I just march forward without faltering. Do you want to say, “Let’s go further,” or Let’s take a rest”? When you set out for Belvedere this morning, I’m sure you thought, “Oh boy, why should 1 90 this early? It’s raining outside.” Do you truly like and love me? Maybe you think I’m just a big swindler!</p>
|
||||
<p>March is a revival month. All things of creation are preparing to burst forth in springtime. This is the season to grow by leaps and bounds; we need to make an extraordinary jump.</p>
|
||||
<p>I have drawn an open book hem on the blackboard. Do you want to turn over the page? If you turn the page, you have to cover the previous one. In order to go another direction, people must turn 180 degrees; to find a new course, you have to turn about-face. Each of you is Re this book. You want to get rid of your past and become a new person. You are going to turn over a new leaf and begin a new life.</p>
|
||||
<p>The Unification Church uses key terms which the rest of the world does not have: True Parents and true children. We are becoming new people, new family members, new men and women. We have completely turned around and are heading toward the greatest ideal. People never before worked for such a goal; most never even dreamed about it. We are not only thinking about it but we have turned around and am reaching out for it.</p>
|
||||
<p>When Christmas time comes, you want to go home to see your family and old friends, don’t you? I have the same emotion. I want to return to my home town, mingle with my old friends, and take some time out to play and relax. The only reason I don’t do it is that it would hold me back instead of helping me advance. I cannot allow myself to retreat; my thinking does not permit it. New horizons and new goals are there waiting. I want to work to fulfill them every moment of the day. Every moment is so precious.</p>
|
||||
<p>How about you? Do you see new days ahead? Do you foresee a new life? When you go fundraising, do you say, “Oh boy!” and ask, “What is the next goal, Father? I want to accomplish if’? Or do you go out listlessly, expecting another tough day? Sometimes you hate fundraising; sometimes you feel passive about it. But you will really appreciate such training once you go to work in Africa, Asia, or Latin America. You will be very grateful for the kind of discipline you gained here.</p>
|
||||
<p>I am determined to eliminate immorality in America. Likewise, with my own hands, I want to save the Mafia, the drug addicts, and prostitutes. I want to drive out communism. Do you feel the same way and are you determined to accomplish this with your own hands? Perhaps you see no mason to try, since the other 240 million Americans aren’t doing much. Perhaps you want to live your life like everyone else?</p>
|
||||
<p>Am I doing this because I am a fool? By coming to know me, you have learned about the true value of existence, the meaning of creation, God’s will, the true way of life, and true love. But in your heart, how often have you scorned the movement and even me? Those of you who wished the Unification Church didn’t do fundraising, please raise your hands. I’m sure that not only these, but practically all of you have felt that way. When you listen to me, do you think, “Oh no, I don’t want to fundraise”? The world is decaying, and our mission is to go out there and save it. Our responsibility is to apply the brakes and stop the world’s decline.</p>
|
||||
<p>I heard that the 120-day workshop included some periods of 24-hour lecturing or fundraising. You may protest that it is too much. You all have your opinions about this and that, don’t you? You may be right. The United States may not need it, but we have to turn the page. Think about it. Is what we are doing an easy task? You and I know it isn’t. I know it better than anyone else. But does that mean we shouldn’t do it? God realizes that this way of life is essential for mankind and the whole spirit world. Heaven and earth need it. Eventually, the entire universe will recognize our deeds. This truly is a precious way of life.</p>
|
||||
<p>Do you want to go this way or not? This world is not everything; we will all go to another world eventually. Your every deed on earth will be judged in the spiritual world, which is the real, eternal world. When you get there will you say, “Boy! I didn’t know the truth”? God will reply, “What are you talking about? I sent Reverend Moon, my messenger, to earth and through him I told you the truth clearly. You heard it in his Belvedere sermons.” What excuse would you offer? There is no excuse. This kind of instruction is so important, even though it may seem bitter. We have to make a leap. Now you know that unless something drastic happens, this world will crumble.</p>
|
||||
<p>After you joined the Unification Church, did you make a little change or a giant change in your way of life? It’s virtually impossible for you to return to your original life. If you went back, you couldn’t stay there even one day. You would have to turn around and come back, even though it’s difficult. You are a new kind of citizen, not ordinary Americans at all.</p>
|
||||
<p>I have dealt with tens of thousands of people. Many have betrayed me, many have left. I didn’t say anything when they left, but I knew they would eventually return. When you are doing God’s work, you can face me. But someone who becomes weak and turns away cannot face me; he runs away when he sees me. Still, in many cases people return with a bowed head and say, “Father, can you forgive me? I was weak. I wasn’t thinking deeply. But when I went back to the world, I saw your true value.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you joined the Unification Church, you learned the truth and you came to know God. You know you made contact with a true religion. Whether you fulfill or not is up to you. Many fail, but many succeed. I want you to be successful. You have taken a giant step-those of you in this room are transformed people, no longer your old selves.</p>
|
||||
<p>Can anybody remove the knowledge of Principle from your brain? Think about it. Even if you went away and tried to live like a millionaire, nobody could eradicate the Principle from your mind. Even if you became a millionaire, would your life be satisfying if you knew you were not following God’s will? I know that nobody can be happy until he lives up to the requirements of the Principle way of life.</p>
|
||||
<p>Today is the first Sunday in March, the first month of spring. Now the truth rings clear in your heart, doesn’t it? You entered this room with a cloudy mind-rainy, like today’s weather-but now your thinking is all sunshiny, right?</p>
|
||||
<p>When I came to America ten years ago, I foretold this nation’s decline. I declared that the United States must turn around and make a change, but nobody took me seriously. People laughed at me then, but now many of those who mocked me have come to the realization that I was correct. The problems haven’t ended-ten years from now you will see people weeping as they realize how right I was. But in ten years I will not even be in this country.</p>
|
||||
<p>I have done my duty in the sight of God. I received a mandate from God and I have done my best to fulfill it. I have dealt with the highest possible authorities of this nation. I carried out my mission for the sake of America.</p>
|
||||
<p>Of course, most people of this nation have not treated me with anything like true courtesy. This nation has done a lot of wrong to me on the individual level, but I always transcend my personal feelings. I act based on the Principle, for the sake of the nation and the world. So who is doing the right thing: me or the government administration? History will be the judge. Them will come a time when the people of the United States will recognize what I have done for them. They will flock to my tomb to pay their respects. My tomb will receive more homage than the tomb of any President.</p>
|
||||
<p>There is hope for America. A new generation of people will come to understand the true value of our movement. People may not understand today, but in the future they shall. I know this. I have brought hope to people. Do you think this is so? Do you know it in your heart? You will see that this is true. You will see my words fulfilled.</p>
|
||||
<p>I know this like I know the sunlight. I see this truth so clearly. Once we turn America around, the whole world will turn around. Think about it. The United States is a gigantic country, so it’s not going to be easy to turn it around. I knew this from the outset.</p>
|
||||
<p>Are you moving forward or standing still? You all think you are moving forward, but I tell you there are three types of people among you. One is indeed moving forward, another is standing still, and another is retreating.</p>
|
||||
<p>Where do you stand? Which group do you belong to? If you say you don’t know your status, you are fooling yourself. Those who think they don’t know where they are exactly, those who can’t evaluate their position, raise your hands. You know precisely where you are, don’t you?</p>
|
||||
<p>Who should get an approval rating of 100%? The one who wants to relax and go slowly every day because tomorrow is always another day? Or the one who moves forward constantly without stopping? It is the one who moves forward. Give yourself a grade. Are you 100%, 50%, 30%. minus 30%? Is anyone minus 100%? There must be someone here who is spying for the communists. Someone else may be an informant for the CIA, FBI, or another group. The communists in particular who come and sit here listening to me are truly minus 100%.</p>
|
||||
<p>To be called a Moonie, you have to be at least above the 50% mark. Those of you who think you are above 50% might wonder why you should be marching forward, since nobody is ahead of you and nobody is coming along behind. You might think you should turn around and join everybody else! Those of you who are 50% and above, will you still move forward? Are you 50% and going up, or 50% and going down?</p>
|
||||
<p>When you listen to me speak at Belvedere for an hour and a half, you suddenly find you are a new person. “Boy, I changed so much,” you say. You discover great power surging through you. You shout, “Mansei!” and “Yes, Father,” but when you reach the World Mission Center a couple of hours later and discover a mountain of work waiting for you, you wonder, “Where has all my energy gone?” When you go back to the dining room and find the same old peanut butter and bread, when there’s no time to watch even one television program, when Sunday is no holiday, you wonder, “What am I doing here?”</p>
|
||||
<p>Well, there’s one simple solution: quit. I also have that option. I could tell God to let somebody else do this job. Do any of you want to be a candidate for my position? All kinds of tough news and difficult situations are brought to me. “There’s a problem here,” someone says. “There’s been an accident,” another person reports. There are fundraising campaigns, new developments, and various problems to be solved in Great Britain, Germany, Asia, South America, Africa, and everywhere. Our movement has spread throughout the world and our members are engaged in all kinds of intensive activities. We suffer casualties, like in a time of war-people are dying on the front line.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you face one problem, you wonder how you can handle it. But I listen to difficult news every day. So many discouraging, shocking, and agonizing things happen, day after day. Think about how many problems nation and throughout the world-are on my side. I know that conscientious people, especially young people, are on the side of God. What about you Moonies? Central figures are being chosen right now for the world stage. Are you indecisive, wishy-washy, mediocre, half-hearted? If you are at the 50% point, you are 150 points away from the minus 100% point. If 100% on the plus side is the destination, you have only 50 more points to go. If you are wise men and women, which direction should you choose: plus or minus?</p>
|
||||
<p>The most important thing is not to stand still. You must move forward, like running water. The world is stagnant, corrupt, and rotten. The world’s water is too impure to drink. But if you become running water, everybody will come and drink and be nourished. Where are you now: standing still or moving? Moving forwards or backwards?</p>
|
||||
<p>You are smart. Others might say you are foolish for investing yourself in the home church providence. They wonder why you are working so hard. Maybe someone would prefer you to do only a little so the central figure won’t be able to compare you. If you do very well, the central figure will come after someone else and chew him out for doing so poorly!</p>
|
||||
<p>Do you welcome a person with great accomplishments? Do you want to move forward and take the tough route? Maybe you would rather not move forward and prefer standing still. Perhaps we need a baseball bat to move you forward! Shall we make a special resolution and vote on it? You don’t like a dictatorship, so let’s decide it democratically. Will you join me in the resolution?</p>
|
||||
<p>Think about it. If there were no Reverend Moon, the Unification Church would not exist. Whether you like me or not, I am here. A true, real central figure of the universe is exerting mental and spiritual force to move everybody forward. There is no way you can drop out. You have to go forward and reach the goal. I am a spiritual force, like a hurricane. We could go on analyzing this point for hours and hours, but I don’t think you need that kind of thing. You are already inspired, aren’t you?</p>
|
||||
<p>You want to enjoy a beautiful sunny day, don’t you? Maybe you only do distasteful home church work when it’s raining or snowing. If you go to home church only in stormy weather, taking time off when it’s nice, what do you suppose your home church area will think of you? “Boy, you are weird. We waited for you all day when the weather was nice and you never showed up. How come you’re here only on rainy days?” Do you think people would say that? Or how about the other way around: you go to home church when the weather is good, and on rainy, miserable days you stay home. Then you will be accused for not moving on the rainy days.</p>
|
||||
<p>How does God think? If it’s cold, if it’s raining, if there is a hurricane, God will feel concerned about the people suffering in home church and want to go and help them. That is how a saint thinks. You may not be ambitious to reach sainthood, but at least you should become a great person. That is the way of a great person. Whose way do you want to follow: that of a normal person, a great person, or a saint?</p>
|
||||
<p>Am I walking a normal or abnormal way? Mother tries to bring me closer to a normal way of life. “Father, you aren’t a young man anymore,” she says. “Please don’t act like a 20 year old!” Mother also has another good piece of advice: “You shouldn’t give sermons longer than two hours. It’s bad for your heart!” When I go beyond two hours, Mother always gives some warning signal. Indeed, I am surely living an abnormal way!</p>
|
||||
<p>Normally people expect to eat three meals a day, but I don’t have such a concept. Who wrote a law that we have to eat three meals a day? One meal is okay. Two meals are okay. No meal is okay. Sometimes I speak all day long and at the dinner table I say, ‘This is my breakfast.” That is the kind of schedule I keep. I don’t know whether I’m having breakfast or dinner! I am always hungry when I eat and always enjoy a meal, no matter what its content. I think that’s how I keep healthy.</p>
|
||||
<p>What benefit do I get from this? How does the abnormal way of life benefit you? It is far better than a normal way of life. You are doing it not for selfish reasons, but for the sake of the generations to come. People who follow you will benefit from your abnormal way of life. History will never forget those who live that way today. Posterity shall always honor and revere them.</p>
|
||||
<p>In our world there are two basic groups of people: those who act altruistically for the sake of others, and those who act primarily for their own bodily pleasure. The latter type don’t like to think deeply because when you really think deeply, you have to forget yourself. When someone’s thinking is self-centered, he will act accordingly. So we are talking about people who seek to live sacrificially for something greater than themselves, and those who want to live only for themselves.</p>
|
||||
<p>Unselfish people revere patriotism, altruism, saints and religious role models. They try to apply that to their contemporary way of life. The other type of person doesn’t care how the saints felt, what religions teach, what the Bible states, or what philosophers write. They don’t want to listen to any of that. They just pursue the carnal life or, shall we say, the animal life. They live for physical gain and seek their own satisfaction.</p>
|
||||
<p>Which type are you-selfish or unselfish? Which way is real for you? The problem is that you know the altruistic, righteous way is correct, but you can’t always follow it. Fallen people are geared up to automatically think of themselves first and follow their physical instincts. There are many “don’t care” people in the world. Students don’t care about anyone or anything else. They say, “Nobody tells me what to do. I know what is good and fun for me and I don’t want to be bothered by anybody else.” What about you? Are you that type of person? What does your original mind tell you?</p>
|
||||
<p>As the fallen descendants of Adam and Eve. people have inherited a selfish mind. Adam and Eve passed on a, self-centered attitude to all their offspring. How can that way of thinking be revolutionized? How can such people be turned around? To be free and do whatever you please sounds like a wonderful way of life, so why aren’t we going in that direction? Why are we even trying to prohibit such a way of life?</p>
|
||||
<p>There are all kinds of perverted activities and lifestyles in the world and people don’t even feel guilty about them. In a family, the father may sleep with his daughter, or the grandfather sleep with the granddaughter. Some people reason, “The animal world does it, so why shouldn’t we? We are part of nature, after all. Why should we be different?”</p>
|
||||
<p>From the perspective of the world, the Unification Church lifestyle is weird and abnormal. Some of you people have been engaged for two years and don’t even talk to each other very often. You don’t write very many letters, either. That is going against nature! Why should people do this? No teacher out there is telling people clearly what is wrong with their free, pragmatic and fun way of doing things. There is great confusion in the United States right now, particularly among the young people.</p>
|
||||
<p>What about you? Do you think first and then act, or do you just do something and think about it later? Only Moonies can answer the way you do. Do you want to go back to that other way? Many people want to act on their physical urges; they let themselves get carried away by their emotions so they can have fun first and think about it later. But a confrontation is occurring between the new age and the old. Two ideas, two schools of thought are clashing: the carnal way of life versus the thinking way of life, the selfish way of life versus the unselfish way of life.</p>
|
||||
<p>To go in the right direction, we need a clear standard of right and wrong, good and evil. If six self-centered people comprise one family, there are six different ways of life in that family. The daughter says, “Daddy and Mummy, you follow my way; I think I know best.” The son says the same: “Daddy and Mummy, you are old fashioned. I want a new, fun-filled way of life. You just listen to me.” In such a home, there are daily arguments and fights. After every battle, morale drops until a disaster results. Can people become greater by fighting? No. Fighting brings division and weakness.</p>
|
||||
<p>Democracy is based on a consensus of the majority of people. Their unity is meant to safeguard the whole. We can conclude that in a democracy each individual cannot just proclaim his own way of life. People must reach a consensus about what benefits everybody. When we speak of benefiting everybody, are we moving up or down? It means moving upward. As individuals move upward in consensus, they reach the level of society. As society moves upward, it will reach the nation. As the nation moves upward, it will reach the world. That is how it works. If them is something beyond the world, we want to transcend the world to reach it.</p>
|
||||
<p>Nobody can deny the truth of that theory. Nobody can say it’s no good or that it doesn’t work. In your heart, you want to be appreciated and popular, don’t you? You want recognition from the society and nation; you even want to become a world champion in something. You want to go still higher and be recognized by God and the spirit world on an eternal basis. That is human nature. Isn’t it true?</p>
|
||||
<p>If Orientals think that way, do you Westerners think the same? Then we are all the same people, aren’t we? We have the same course, the same original mind, the same origin. That is why we have potential for world unity. We must come up with a unified way to benefit everybody and raise them up. In order to survive and prosper, we have to devise some course, not only for the present. The same principle should apply equally to past, present and future. We have to come up with one criterion or principle that will enable everyone to unite and move forward. Is this something only Koreans want, or do Americans and all mankind desire it as well? Is this something only people want, or, does God want it too?</p>
|
||||
<p>We all have to move upward together. Do you think you can solve the problem by yourself, or is a joint effort needed? Can such a unified effort be found by following a selfish or unselfish way? Only by following an unselfish way can people be united. The selfish person would say, “I want to benefit from you. Work for me and sacrifice yourself for me.” But nobody would respond. The basic principle by which you can reach the goal is to five for the sake of goodness. The credo of history is to live sacrificially.</p>
|
||||
<p>Sacrifice and service are the cardinal rules of life even though nobody really likes those words. Fallen people hate a sacrificial and serving way of life, but that is the only way to reach the ultimate goal of human life. No one can deny it. So you need somebody to assist you. If you are a very self-centered person, do you think others will like you and want to help you? However, if you truly practice the sacrificial and serving way of life, everybody will want to help you. Such a way of life will raise you all the way up to the spirit world and beyond, to God. Everyone wants to assist a sacrificial person and accompany him.</p>
|
||||
<p>Do you think that because I am a great speaker, because I am such a gregarious person, I can make anything sound reasonable? Whether I were here or not, what I have explained would still be universal truth. All these years, I have been teaching you how to be sacrificial, dedicated, and serving people. Is that a great teaching? Why do you answer yes? It is because you are living this way. You know it. Because I have always practiced this way of life, people have followed me. It is incredible for a Korean to come to the United States and gain so many followers. Not only in this country, but in more than 160 countries around the world, people are following me even at the cost of their lives. Why do they do it?</p>
|
||||
<p>You are clever, sophisticated people. Do you realize this truth? I was born with a rather tough spirit, so I could have been a very selfish person. A self-centered person faces constant difficulties and obstacles because of how he treats others. Truly the most loving teaching one can give is how to live in harmony with others.</p>
|
||||
<p>Someone who truly practices a sacrificial way of life is totally free. He can overcome any obstacle and can pass freely in all directions, finding welcome everywhere. When such a person returns home, his whole town will give him a hero’s welcome. When he leaves, they will give him a farewell party. Such a person is free to come and go with honor, any time he wishes. That is the ideal way of life and it should be your target. Of course, such a way of life is not easy. Is isn’t easy for unselfishness to become ingrained in you, is it?</p>
|
||||
<p>Whoever lives unselfishly dedicates himself for ever bigger goals. He sacrifices himself for his family, his family for society, society for the nation, the nation for the world, and the world for the entire cosmos and God. That is the most ideal way of life. It is God’s way but most people don’t want to follow that way. From this standpoint, the Unification Church is truly offering the greatest teaching. Our way of life is very clear: we are learning to sacrifice ourselves for the family, our family for society, our society for the nation, the nation for the world, the world for the cosmos, and the cosmos for God. Is there anything wrong with this?</p>
|
||||
<p>My desire is to make every one of you a truly great person. Since I live this way and I practice this Principle, Koreans who initially misunderstood and persecuted me are now calling me the greatest hero of all Korean history. Asian people are calling me the great Asian man who has affected the world. They take pride in Reverend Moon. Why are they changing their attitude? It is because they come to understand the value of this truth. They have realized that I am living for the highest ideal and that I am leading mankind toward a new hope and goal.</p>
|
||||
<p>How do you demonstrate that your way of life is one of sacrifice and service? What is the content of sacrifice and service? Would you give away money? You have to give the very best you have. The sacrificial and serving way of life is a reflection of the heart of God. Religious people emulate their religious leaders, saints, the spirit of their founder. Christians follow the way of Jesus Christ. In your home, you learn the heart of a parent. Toward the nation, you learn to exhibit a patriotic heart. Toward the world you embody a saintly attitude. To express God’s heart, to live God’s way of life is the most dramatic way.</p>
|
||||
<p>There are no loopholes to this theory. You should do everything possible to reach the goal. You have been freely taught and guided along the way. If there were no Reverend Moon, you would have to go out and look for this way of life yourself. However, I came here and have freely given it to you, making your job much easier.</p>
|
||||
<p>You are pursuing a “Ph.D. degree” in God’s heart the greatest knowledge one can seek. A Ph.D. from Harvard doesn’t compare; it doesn’t even come close. I would like to sign your certificate. Are you doing everything possible to earn my signature, or are you just doing whatever you wish each day and expecting to come and receive my signature? Even if it is difficult, you have to live the right way. Great scholars, as well as the presidents of Harvard, Princeton and Yale Universities all have to go this way.</p>
|
||||
<p>You don’t deeply realize my value. In many cases, you treat me with less respect than you do secular people. You honor government leaders, you admire senators, and you think congressmen are great people. But when you look at me, what do you feel? When I was a very young man, I discovered this universal truth of the Principle. I have sacrificed everything to pursue this truth and bring it to fulfillment. I never gave up and I gained a triumphant victory.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why is self-centeredness wrong? It never succeeds because it causes division. It will isolate you and hold you back. But when you live with the sacrificial heart of God, you will encounter no barriers. You will just move on, always advancing with total freedom.</p>
|
||||
<p>You may think I am wrong and my ideas are crazy and you may tell me so. But the important thing is that this way of life should be followed, no matter what. If you don’t follow, somebody else will. If white people don’t follow, black people will. If black people don’t follow, yellow people will. If yellow people don’t follow, somebody will. One way or another, this way of life will certainly influence the entire world.</p>
|
||||
<p>If this same sermon is given hundreds of years from now to your great-great-grandchildren, will they agree with it? Why? Because it is truly describing the best, most righteous way of life. It is the eternal way of Principle. You cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven in spirit world without going on this broad, well-paved, special super-highway. Don’t you like this way? Now you understand clearly.</p>
|
||||
<p>I From this standpoint, do you see that America is heading in the wrong direction? We have to stop it and make it turn around. Even though Americans put up a big fight, we have to do it. Are you confident you can do it?</p>
|
||||
<p>If you are a fighter, can you just sit thinking at a desk all day long, never doing anything? You know the way; you have thought about it and reached a clear conclusion. Only action remains. You have to make a move now. Are you going to keep on thinking, mulling things over and over? If you encounter a barrier, break through it. You may think that you have hit your head against it so many times, your head will break into pieces. But actually, the stone wall will break when you are strong with the truth. That is why I am strong, bold and courageous.</p>
|
||||
<p>I am fearless in this court battle, standing up to the fight. An incredible conspiracy has been at work, but I will shatter it. They can go ahead and put me in jail, but I know that the jail door itself cannot defeat me. I am tough and strong and I am not acting blindly. My actions are based on commitment as well as logic.</p>
|
||||
<p>People may call you crazy but if you are revolving in a disciplined fashion along the true axis, you are not crazy. When people turn without any central point, without any axis, they are truly crazy. But the Moonies have a disciplined craziness. I am the king of craziness!</p>
|
||||
<p>The reality is that I am centered on the axis and I never waver from the center even one iota. No matter how many turns I make, the axis remains firm, like a rock. But the problem is that as you turn, your axis moves.</p>
|
||||
<p>I want to ask you a very frank question: do you think you made a big mistake by joining the Unification Church? If you say no, you are better than I am! Every day I wish I weren’t the leader of the Unification Church! The only mason I stay in this position is that I have accepted the responsibility. No matter how I evaluate the situation, this is the only right way. I cannot leave it. What about you? I know exactly how you feet. Whether you say yes or no, I see your heart. I know dud sometimes you lie a great deal!</p>
|
||||
<p>To make a long story short, this is the only way Period. No student likes to work hard to prepare for an exam, but still he has to do it. People have to discipline themselves to Set good grades. The Unification Church is a tough school- -ours is a lifestyle test. Nobody likes to live our way of life every day. However, it is the only way. We must do it to reach the eternal heaven.</p>
|
||||
<p>I have come this far successfully and so have you. Am you going to pack up now and go home? I have a solid foundation now. In many places people are asking me to come and visit. When I go to Korea, I will be welcomed. But what about you? Have you laid your own foundation? Do you want to be a coward? You Americans hate cowards, don’t you? You admire bravery and a courageous spirit. In western movies, you applaud the strong hero and you boo the cowardly characters, don’t you? Do you think I want the Moonie movement to be cowardly?</p>
|
||||
<p>Our title today is, “Everyone Is Heading Somewhere.” As we have said, them are only two basic ways we can go: the selfish way, or the unselfish way. Which way is the Unification Church going? Is it selfish or unselfish not to meet with your fiancee? Are you for this concept or against it? When you meet your fiancee, if you have the time or energy to kiss her, you should be thinking mom about your nation, your world, and God. Your fiancee can wait. He or she is a good person and will not be corrupted, but this nation is crumbling, society is crumbling.</p>
|
||||
<p>You have to become the spiritual fire fighters and doctors who can save this nation. Is what we are doing right or wrong? Perhaps I will hold the next engagement ten years from now! Why? I want you to devote your youth totally to the salvation of the nation. Think about it: is my teaching wrong? You are engaged, but in the meantime, you am fighting for the salvation of this nation. You am sacrificing yourselves during this time, but God will preside at your marriage. You can have no better wedding than this!</p>
|
||||
<p>I have no reservations about letting you suffer for the sake of the nation and the world. When you do that, the entire earth, spirit world, and God Himself will embrace you. This movement will be the guide for America to follow. You will automatically become leaders of the nation.</p>
|
||||
<p>We are going the right way. We are headed in the proper direction, so we must march forward with courage. You bear the name of the Unification Church on your forehead. This is truly the most prestigious and distinguished way of life. You should be proud and never try to hide it.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you finally come before God, He will ask, Are you proud to be a member of the Unification Church?” What will you say? Will you be able to answer “Yes” with confidence? Or will you have to reply, “God, I wasn’t that proud; I was hiding sometime?</p>
|
||||
<p>Whatever I do, I do with pride. For example, I am always proud to be fishing. People may no know me now, but the time will come when they will follow</p>
|
||||
<p>proudly. They will want to profess my name over and over and over. In years to come and during future generations, I will still be proud of myself and my way of life.</p>
|
||||
<p>I have lived a truly remarkable life-one filled with great drama. I may appear to be a normal person, doing nothing and knowing nothing, but I have special penetrating vision. I have super-sensitivity to the heart of other people, so I know many things about each of you. My way of life is to sacrifice myself, my family, my wife and children for the greater purpose.</p>
|
||||
<p>You should know your direction clearly now. Those who are determined to follow this unselfish way of life the Unification way-raise your hands and show me. God bless you.</p>
|
||||
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content/speeches/1982/god-and-my-home.md
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|
@ -0,0 +1,129 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
title: "GOD AND MY HOME"
|
||||
type: "speech"
|
||||
published: "2018-06-22T06:09:46+01:00"
|
||||
updated: "2018-06-22T06:09:46+01:00"
|
||||
source: "/blog/2018/06/22/god-and-my-home.html"
|
||||
speechYear: "1982"
|
||||
categories:
|
||||
- "Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982"
|
||||
tags: []
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
<p><center></p>
|
||||
<h2>REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
|
||||
<p></center><center></p>
|
||||
<h3>April 25, 1982<br />
|
||||
Belvedere, America<br />
|
||||
Translator – Bo Hi Pak</h3>
|
||||
<p></center>People have always wondered about the fundamental questions of the universe, and whether or not God exists. In addition, when people recognize that there must be a Creator of all things, this always brings up the problem of who created the Creator. This is a great historical question that no thinker or philosopher has been able to answer.</p>
|
||||
<p>God’s existence is an eternal truth. Then what has God been doing? We must assume that He is a living God and therefore is constantly in action. When we think about movement, we wonder what kind of movement God makes. There are fundamental pulling and pushing motions in the universe, centrifugal and centripetal forces. When these two coexist, how do they harmonize? Do they neutralize each other, or contradict each other? We come to the conclusion that these dual forces exist for give and take action; rather than clashing head-on and shattering each other, they turn and harmonize.</p>
|
||||
<p>To recognize this natural truth of the universe helps us understand God’s movement. In order for something to move, it must have two aspects engaged in give and take. Inside the person of God there are also two complementary forces of give and take action. In other words, God’s give and take action does not shatter anything but works instead towards complementing and making oneness.</p>
|
||||
<p>Plus and minus energies, such as centrifugal and centripetal forces, have different effects on movement. When something is thrown it always moves in a curved line. Why doesn’t it just shoot out straight? Because a curved line represents the natural, turning action of the universe.</p>
|
||||
<p>When the Apollo 11 spaceship went into orbit, its flight path was curved. We must realize that everything in the universe is involved in some sort of revolving, circular motion. Every form of creation turns in some fashion. No individual stands still; each person makes a circular motion in relation to the rest of the universe. You are independent beings, yet you must harmonize with the universe.</p>
|
||||
<p>From this universal principle we can derive God’s essence. God is the core of the universe that initiates action, the first cause of all the movement of the universe. From that core, movement spreads out. Rotation needs two elements, a subject and an object. The universal turning action begins from the core, from a small circle, and spreads to larger and larger circles, creating a gigantic plus and minus.</p>
|
||||
<p>For plus and minus to be created horizontally, both must exist in the vertical plane. As you know, plus repels plus and minus repels minus, but plus and minus attract each other; this is the basic principle of a motor. In a motor the motion of plus and minus initiates the turning. Everything that is created from the core’s essence should complement or duplicate the characteristics or action of the core. God being the center of the combined forces of subject and object, He is like the generator of the universal give and take of plus and minus.</p>
|
||||
<p>Let men represent plus and women minus. There is a core motivation of men, and everything men possess reflects that core or essence. Likewise for women. So even when a man moves his eyeball, it does not act on its own but rather in conjunction with the rest of his body, which reflects his essence. So the movement of a man’s eyeball is distinct from that of a woman; it differs because the essence is different.</p>
|
||||
<p>Have you ever compared how laughter and weeping are expressed? They are extremely different emotional responses and may seem totally unrelated. Laughter and weeping represent two opposite emotional poles, one plus and the other minus, so how could they harmonize? The most dramatic kind of emotional change is intense weeping that suddenly turns into laughter. Crying and laughter are two opposite poles, so the more rapid the movement circling between them the more dramatic the effect. Swift transformations produce more striking results than slow changes. Thus, the faster the shift, the more dramatic its results.</p>
|
||||
<p>In the Unification Church we are taught that God exists in dual essentialities. To make it short, God is subject and object, two extremes harmonized into one. This is the basic explanation of God’s dual essentialities.</p>
|
||||
<p>Many difficult questions have been raised about the origin and essence of the universe. A classic question is which came first, the chicken or the egg. Scientists say that the universe is an assemblage of energy, that it is nothing more than energy in motion. Is that correct? In a universal sense, which came first, energy or motion? Or, from another perspective, which came first, energy or mind and spirit?</p>
|
||||
<p>Let’s consider the source of energy. Do you think that energy suddenly popped out somewhere, coming down from heaven? In order for energy to be created, there is a prerequisite: the relationship between the poles of subject and object, or plus and minus; energy depends on subject and object, or plus and minus. Thus we can conclude that before action there must be energy, and before energy there must be subject and object, or plus and minus.</p>
|
||||
<p>Let’s look at the reasons why people do things. Generally speaking, when you sing, you do so for the sake of others, not just for yourself. When you talk, it is to someone else. Your nose generally functions not to smell yourself but something else. Your ears listen to sounds from outside yourself Your hands exist to serve someone or something else. None of these organs or capabilities exists for its own sake; every action you make has an objective related to somebody else. Isn’t that true?</p>
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||||
<p>If you are laughing very hard with nobody or nothing nearby, people will look your way and think you must be crazy. However, to laugh at a little piece of chalk is justified because that laughter has an object. This is an extreme example of the principle that no action occurs without purpose or objective; there must be an object to justify every action. To wander around with no goal or purpose is just a waste of energy; each of your actions should have some objective or goal.</p>
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||||
<p>Why are you the person you are, with the appearance you have? Do you just exist for yourself? No. For whom do you exist? Existence is never just for its own sake but always for somebody else, for a subject or object. Since this holds true throughout the universe how can you ever say you want to do something just for your own sake? Such an attitude is contrary to the universal truth and will surely bring destructive consequences.</p>
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||||
<p>So you men acknowledge that you live for others, but for whom? You say you five for God, but He is too far away; you need to five for somebody nearby! Men live for women; somebody has dominion over man, and that happens to be woman.</p>
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||||
<p>On the other hand, who has control over women? Men. What is the essence of the control which men and women have over each other? You say love, but are you sure it isn’t power? All right, since you insist, I surrender to you! It is love. Love is the only important element in controlling others.</p>
|
||||
<p>Today is the beginning of Daylight Saving Time, so you lost one hour’s sleep this morning, didn’t you? Well, even the birds have to get up earlier when the sun starts coming up earlier! The female birds chirp to their mates, and they chirp back. They answer each other immediately. Why? Male and female respond to each other for some reason, and that reason is love.</p>
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||||
<p>The East Garden birds are in love, sending out signals to one another saying, “Here I am; come and control me with love.” This is the essence of the universe, that all living creatures want to be controlled by the love of their subject or object.</p>
|
||||
<p>God also exists in dual essentialities; therefore, even within God there is the need to be controlled by love. Love and joy complement each other. When birds search after love, they express the heart of the universe. That means the core essence of the universe, which is God, is motivated by absolute love. Do you agree? Absolute love is the essence of the universe, the essence of God Himself, and the motivation of all creation. In the realm of absolute love there is no destruction or disharmony.</p>
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||||
<p>Why do people long for love? Why do we search after love? To be happy. I understand that scientists say that the human body consists of at least 40 billion cells. When do these myriad components of your body reach their peak of action? When you are in love. Love ignites all 40 billion cells into full action.</p>
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<p>When a man comes near a woman all his cells wake up and become fully activated. When man and woman touch there is an explosion. That is why our church has a rule that men and women shouldn’t get too close, don’t shake hands very much, and certainly don’t kiss each other. Why? Because such actions can make sparks fly prematurely. Scars caused by premature love have no cure. This is why God gave mankind one strict rule in the beginning: you are absolutely free to do anything except touch the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This was a warning not to misuse love, to wait until the correct time for its expression.</p>
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||||
<p>Love fully activates every cell, and without wasting a moment the cells harmonize and seek a higher level. Once your cells are energized by love they want to take off. The power of love is much like the thrust of an Apollo rocket, lifting you off the ground and propelling you into the orbit of God’s love. You are meant to find eternal harmony in love with God, but God’s love doesn’t just stand still. As soon as your love takes off God’s love starts to come down toward you, and you meet each other in the middle. So God’s love and human love are meant to come together and create a spark, make a dramatic crash. That spark does not cause eternal destruction; it results in a new, harmonized creation. The fusion of human and divine love generates something new.</p>
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||||
<p>Once such a love core is created, the entire universe is meant to sing along in its harmony and rhythm. Your every. action is meant to harmonize with the universal core. Every hair, every cell in your body is meant to dance together with the universal core. Once you reach that plateau, you will discover the original ideal world, the absolute and true ideal world. Thus we can conclude that God created the universe, including human beings and all things, in order to consummate love.</p>
|
||||
<p>Let’s imagine that I could ask the grass on the lawn why it was created. Would it answer, “I just like the color green and wanted to see a lot of it”?</p>
|
||||
<p>I might ask it how it could be tough enough to survive the harsh winter cold and grow anew every spring.</p>
|
||||
<p>Then the grass would say, “Daddy, you don’t know why? We know why! You must know!” The answer of even the little blade of grass is, “I am living in order to consummate love and receive the love of the universal parents. I am waiting for the spirit of love.”</p>
|
||||
<p>If anybody can come up with a better answer, please give it to me. How about Dr. Yoon, the physicist: do you have a better answer? No one can give a better answer.</p>
|
||||
<p>What is the ultimate reason for doing anything? Why does a person go to school, for example? Scholars ultimately seek the fastest route to the consummation of love. If somebody asks you why you live, you wouldn’t say your purpose is to eat three meals a day; that is not the purpose of living. The best and most dramatic answer is that we live to consummate the ideal love of God.</p>
|
||||
<p>So far, I have spoken about the composition of creation. Action or motion is preceded by energy, which is preceded by subject and object, or the give and take between plus and minus. The motivation behind all this is to consummate love. Therefore, action does not take place unless there is a plus and minus, or subject and object. Is that true?</p>
|
||||
<p>Think about it a little more. Someone working an a laboratory tries to force certain elements to combine harmoniously, but unless they are meant to come together they won’t. When the proper relationship of plus and minus or subject and object is formed, union will happen.</p>
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||||
<p>Each element has either a basic plus or a basic minus characteristic and can relate in different combinations and form various subject/object unions. These are the results of different forms of give and take. All relationships must follow universal law; if they go against that law there can be no give and take. For example, men and women naturally relate with each other, but a human being and an animal cannot interact in the same way. Animals must relate within their own realm.</p>
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||||
<p>The major problem in America today could be called the distortion of the universal rule governing the action of love. There are many kinds of perversions in the realm of love, such as homosexuality, which are destructive because they go against the universal principle.</p>
|
||||
<p>People think of men and women co together in merely physical terms. Many couples live together for a while and then split up, but to do so is to deny the four directions of a relationship: north, south, east and west. You cannot shake off those four directions, because your position is always related to these axes. For example, in order to determine the location of an airplane or boat, you cannot refer only to the east and disregard the west; furthermore, there is always a due north, no matter what. Unless you take into account all four directions you won’t be able to determine your own position.</p>
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||||
<p>The sun rises from the east and goes down in the west. If you refuse to recognize the west, what will you do when the sun sets? After sunset it gets dark; when night comes you have to adjust to it. In other words, you cannot deny the process of the universe. Ask your eyes whether they like only north and south, or east and west. Your eyes recognize all four directions; you wouldn’t want it to be otherwise.</p>
|
||||
<p>In spring everything looks beautiful and green, with lots of flowers blooming. In winter, however, you can experience another kind of beauty; to ski down the snow-covered mountains is another kind of dramatic activity. Can you say you love summer but hate autumn? You cannot skip autumn. If you like only the springtime, how will you manage to survive during the other three seasons? You cannot avoid them. The person who appreciates only the spring will eventually alienate all the other seasons; summer, autumn and winter will want nothing to do with such a limited person. In order to harmonize with the whole universe you have to experience and love all four seasons, spring, summer, autumn and winter. Do you follow? Death means the loss of one’s subject of give and take.</p>
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||||
<p>When I match you, it is important to bring together complementary elements. For example, if a very small, cute woman were matched with a small, cute man it would not produce harmony; the man should be opposite to the woman – bigger and more masculine, with lots of muscles. Also, a spring-type person should be joined with an autumn-type person, because in order to make unity the spring-type person must travel through the summer and the autumn-type person travel through the winter; thus between them they encompass all four seasons. Don’t you agree that this is ideal? A very dramatic combination is a tall man and a very short woman, or a fat woman and a man who looks as thin as a chopstick. Do you think I am just explaining my own concepts, or is this universal truth? The important thing is to harmonize the extremes. That kind of harmony is the ideal.</p>
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||||
<p>Most of you have a fiancee, but some of you have your own preferences and think that your fiancee does not match your ideal. A woman with large eyes might prefer a man with eyes like hers. To think like that is to forget the most important element in the universe: harmony. Parents with big eyes might produce children with monstrous eyes! Would that be the ideal? Sometimes a person with small, narrow eyes is able to penetrate issues and see things very deeply, while a person with big, wide eyes notices only the surface of things. So I always try to bring together differing elements. The key word is universal harmony.</p>
|
||||
<p>Wherever you travel, you encounter subject/ object relationships and the four directions. Because you are always in an environment where these principles operate, you can never deny the subject object relationship or the four directions.</p>
|
||||
<p>The Unification Church also operates according to these principles at all times. Subject and object generate energy, which creates motion and action. Who is the subject of the Unification Church? It is the very controversial Reverend Moon. Perhaps you consider me so controversial that you don’t want to have give and take with me, but to do so is to reject your environment, and it will eventually drive you out; you will be unable to remain. In the Unification Church, I set the policy and spiritual direction for certain activities, such as witnessing and fund raising. You might say you like the Unification Church but not those activities. If you hate to do fund raising, the activity of the Unification Church will eventually expel you. Someone with such an attitude is like a stranger or foreigner in the church.</p>
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||||
<p>In school, you experienced a certain environment with which you had to harmonize. Schools have a principal, teachers and students, and the various relationships among them. You can be comfortable in that academic atmosphere as long as you follow the rules. Schools exist to provide for learning. Therefore, if a girl says she goes to school not to learn but to look at the boys, her attitude is contrary to the school’s purpose and eventually she will be driven away. These processes are a product of universal law.</p>
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||||
<p>We are living in the gigantic environment called the universe, and those who want to be comfortable within the universe must follow the rules of the game, the laws of the universe. If not, they will be rejected by the universe. The universal law is the law of love, and violators of that law will be expelled by the universe. The most important thing to know and understand is the nature of the law of love and why and how we practice it. Why should we be good people and do good deeds instead of evil? Essentially, because by doing good we harmonize with the universal essence; thus the universe will recognize that we are not strangers and will protect us.</p>
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||||
<p>I am teaching you universal principles because I want you to become a comfortable member of this universe by following the law of love. I have always taught you to live for the sake of others and not just for yourself, because selfishness is your own worst enemy. When you are living for others you will be embraced and accepted by the universe; thus the unselfish way of life is the most dramatic and most inspiring.</p>
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||||
<p>Let’s test whether this principle is correct. Good deeds are always welcomed wherever you go. You good deeds will be appreciated here in the United States and even in Moscow. Those who practice true love will be welcomed in Washington, DC, and also in Moscow. Those who live for others will be appreciated in Washington, DC, and also in Alaska. Since good deeds are so highly regarded here on this earth, how are they received in the spirit world? The same. They play by the same rules in the spirit world.</p>
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<p>The teaching of the Unification Church is simple: five for the sake of others and practice love. Devote yourself to a sacrificial way of life because it is the one way of life which is totally acceptable, anywhere in the universe. When you practice this way of life, you will be universally welcomed here on earth and ultimately in the spirit world as well.</p>
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<p>In the American way of life you have been accustomed to eating bread and butter, but imagine that you were elevated to the spirit world and could only eat rice ‘and hot pepper paste. How would you feel? You would feel you were living in a foreign place. In a similar way, if you lived on earth according to a set of rules which did not apply in the spirit world, you would not be able to enjoy life in the spirit world. My endeavor here on earth is to transmit to you the reality of the spiritual atmosphere so that you can learn to live with it comfortably. Then when you enter the spirit world you will feel totally at home. Instead of getting a stomach ache because the food is strange, you can have your usual bread and butter to eat all the time! Since you have already been accustomed to the spiritual way of life, you will have lots of energy in the spirit world and feel like doing all sorts of things.</p>
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<p>You see what a simple truth the Unification Church is teaching. I am guiding you how to live according to the spiritual rhythms while we are here on earth. Having become thoroughly accustomed here to the environment of the spirit world, you will feel very much at home there. I can teach you these things because I know the spirit world very well.</p>
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<p>Mastering the spiritual environment can be compared to mastering other disciplines. Let’s say you are studying law, working toward a bachelor’s degree, then a master’s degree, and finally a doctorate degree in order to master your field. By the same token I know about the environment where we will dwell for eternity and I am teaching it to you. When I transmit that environment to you and you become accustomed to it through self discipline, you are ready for eternity.</p>
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<p>Let’s suppose this young man has been pursuing a strange and wild way of life. If he were to enter spirit world in such a condition he would find himself completely isolated, without any object for give and take. The spiritual environment would be completely foreign to him since he did not live that way while on earth. Do you follow? Then do you welcome my discipline?</p>
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<p>Fund raising is one important aspect of our training. Through it you learn how to handle persecution and how to care for material things.</p>
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<p>I have learned how to adapt to whatever environment I enter. For example, if I go someplace where everybody is drinking and having fun, I can harmonize with them even without drinking just by showing lively interest in the people. I can even speak about God to them. With just a glass of Coca Cola, I can feel more intoxicated than the others, and they will comment, “How strange! You are only drinking Coke, but you are enjoying it more than we are enjoying our wine. What is your secret?” I could tell them, “Your taste buds get numbed by wine so you can’t appreciate how good Coca Cola tastes. But I really enjoy the taste, so it has made me intoxicated.”</p>
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<p>If I go to a construction site, I know exactly how to deal with the laborers and how to do the things that they do. When you go into the laborers’ environment, you must play by their rules. Do you understand? In other words, wherever you are you can always represent good. The universe protects a harmonizing person; it is even responsible to protect such a person.</p>
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<p>Many religious people feel bound by innumerable laws and restrictions, but the fact is that once we come to the core truth of the universe and follow it we can be free. Therefore, in a way, the Unification Church offers a freer way of life than any other religion.</p>
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<p>Consider how free we are to examine other ideas. Established Christian churches often view us as heretics, and they are even afraid to deal with us. However, each of you feels comfortable to enter any church and pray and fellowship with its members. You can be absolutely natural and unafraid wherever you go, because you are in touch with the core truth of the universe.</p>
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<p>When I came to the United States I behaved in a very natural manner and never got upset by any hostile atmosphere. When I go to Japan I never consider the past enemy relationship between Korea and Japan; instead, I transcend those feelings and make myself completely at home in Japan and love the Japanese people. When I go to Germany, it is the same. Any new place I visit I always think, “I am coming into a different season, like going from spring to autumn. I must adapt myself to the changes. No problem.” In other words, I do not feel like a stranger anywhere in this universe. Everybody everywhere is a part of God’s family and creation, and I can always embrace people wherever I go because I know the universe is protecting me. My distinguishing characteristic the ability to adjust immediately to any circumstance.</p>
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<p>One extreme example of this adaptability was my response to being imprisoned in North and South Korea. I didn’t tell myself I shouldn’t be in such a place; instead, I became a leader of people no matter where I was. There are always people to talk to and teach about God, even in jail.</p>
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<p>This harmonizing way of life doesn’t spring from a shallow perspective; this ability to make myself at home wherever I go is anchored to the core truth of the universe. I have walked through life as an absolute subject, so wherever I have gone, an object has automatically appeared. Don’t you think this is a wonderful way of life?</p>
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<p>I know that the core or essence of the universe is God, and He functions in exactly this fashion. To recognize God is to recognize the spirit world as well. The spirit world is subject realm and we are living in the object realm. I know the rules of that subject world.</p>
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<p>Everybody needs a home, so don’t you think God does too? Why does God need a home? The answer is simple but true: since we as God’s objects need a home, our subject needs a home too. God needs an object just as we do. In the Bible Jesus said that when two or three are gathered together in his name he will be there. Why didn’t he say he would be present when one person prays? Why does God come to two or more people? When a man prays by himself he might forget about the needs of women and ask just for his own concerns. God abhors a self-centered prayer, but when a man prays for God to forget about him and give a blessing to a woman instead, such a prayer sparks God’s interest.</p>
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<p>Suppose a devout man and a devout woman pray continuously, each claiming to need only God. Such a life of faith creates a simple, straight line between a person and God, but it doesn’t allow for circular motion and harmony; linear motion without harmony does not produce laughter and joy. Universal truth requires that the ideal always contain at least three points. Therefore, a woman needs another point, in addition to herself and God. When a devout woman reaches God, will she turn back toward herself, or head in man’s direction? She is more likely to turn toward the man.</p>
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<p>Those who ignore other people will eventually collapse from lack of energy. In contrast, circular movement is like refueling, because in so doing you pick up energy. Husband and wife in interaction with God have increased energy. Joined with your spouse in a circuit of love with God, your batteries are recharged. You are snappy and bounding with enough energy to launch you into orbit! The woman is always moving toward her husband’s territory in order to occupy it, and the man is moving toward his wife’s territory – all in order to consummate love. Such a couple inscribes a gigantic circle in the universe and draws God into the center. In other words, when a man and woman swap positions in love, God can come down and dwell in their midst. Such a united couple goes up, and God comes down, creating all kinds of circular motion.</p>
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||||
<p>After establishing a dynamic relationship as three individuals, God, husband and wife, you are always looking for a fourth point. With such love, you can consummate your ideal and give meaning to everything. But without such love, your life is as dry as an autumn leaf, lacking energy and vitality.</p>
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||||
<p>God is the universal plus and universal minus. Plus and minus always seek their complement. The universal minus comes down to earth searching for a physical plus, and the universal plus comes down to earth searching for a physical minus. Since minus repels minus and plus repels plus, the meeting place for give and take between the spirit world and the physical world is always a crossing point. When the universal minus comes down in search of plus energy on earth, it crosses the universal plus coming down in search of minus energy on earth, creating a beautiful cosmic interaction.</p>
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||||
<p>Plus and minus keep pulling on each other. There are two basic kinds of give and take movement between them, vertical and horizontal, and both kinds are essential. Vertical and horizontal are brought into focus at the crossing point where heavenly plus and minus meet earthly plus and minus.</p>
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||||
<p>From a universal viewpoint, solitary individuals, no matter how great they may be, are like cripples, unable to truly move forward. Men and women must t search for each other, because alone they cannot experience true joy and laughter. A man and woman joined together is the center of the universe.</p>
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||||
<p>Your mind is the vertical element and your body the horizontal element. Within your mind you should establish the vertical subject object relationship and within your body the horizontal sub</p>
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||||
<p>ject / object relationship. Your mind is always searching after something higher and nobler; that is vertical give and take. To recognize your mind means to recognize your mind’s object, since without an object for give and take the mind cannot function. To. recognize your mind is to recognize the existence of subject and object in the invisible world. Then who is the subject of your mind? It is the universal mind, or God, the center or essence of love. Your mind longs for absolute love; it constantly searches for a higher perfection of love. It is amazing the strange internal excitement people feel upon joining the Unification Church! Your mind just wants to pursue the church. School no longer seems appealing; your job no longer is interesting; you just want to go this direction and hear more about the church and see True Parents. Why? It is the magnetic pull of universal love.</p>
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||||
<p>However, you cannot experience fulfillment just through a vertical relationship with God. God also created the horizontal world in which you must have loving give and take as men and women, subject and object. Your vertical give and take, combined with the horizontal give and take, forms a universal circle, a gigantic sphere. Why do you want to make a gigantic circle? Because it thrusts you into the realm of eternal life, eternal love, and eternal perfection, in which you are totally embraced by God.</p>
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||||
<p>Think of it: if God is truly almighty, surely He has designed some kind of eternal life, eternal love, and eternal perfection. To state it another way, even the almighty God couldn’t find a better topic than ours this morning! God is listening to what I am saying and He is responding, “Amen!”</p>
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||||
<p>When you live in this manner, inscribing such a gigantic circle, every creature you encounter win respond “Amen!” to you. The grass will say “Amen” when you step on it. You can touch a tree and it will respond, “Amen.” You can pick a flower and it will say, “Amen.”</p>
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||||
<p>This morning we have covered a great deal of material. I have spoken about the essence of the universal and the core of existence. There is a gigantic universe, and each human being is a small universe; we are the microcosm of the macrocosm. The microcosm corresponds to the macrocosm; the core of each is love.</p>
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||||
<p>Let’s say this side of the blackboard represents woman, the minus element, and the other side represents man, the plus element. If the man and woman each have perfect vertical relationships, by what power can the two be united? What will bring the two together, from bottom to top? What kind of glue can you use? Diamonds? Power? Knowledge? You say love, true love, and you are right: the glue is love. But does this love-glue work only in the twentieth century and not in the first or thirtieth century? No, love-glue holds throughout eternity.</p>
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||||
<p>Let’s consider why men and women need to be united in the first place. Men and women joined together form a gigantic plus and minus. Vertically, they create an enormous spiritual plus and minus, and horizontally, a physical plus and minus, together forming one gigantic revolving circle. Perfected men and women who are united vertically and horizontally create a vast revolving circle, and their perfected plus and minus has give and take with the plus and minus of God.</p>
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||||
<p>When you establish your give and take with God’s universal love, He comes down to live within you. When God dwells within you, you experience perfection. The man draws the woman towards him and the woman draws the man towards her, each inviting the other to move closer. As plus and minus approach, does each thrust itself forward in a straight line, or move in a circular way? Once men and women or plus and minus meet, do they touch on one side or meet at the center? They join at the center, because that is where the vertical axis is. You and your spouse should link up at the midpoint because that is how you become the center of the ideal.</p>
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||||
<p>Considering all this, a woman cannot demand that her husband move over to her position and enter her way of life in order to love her. American woman tend to sit and wait for the man to open the door for them, like a chauffeur. Should the Unification Church do things in reverse and have the women open doors for the men? That would be nice for a change – although not all the time! When a woman goes to the bathroom and sees that it is out of toilet paper, does she call out, “Man, come and bring me some tissue”? For a change, why not have the man sit on the toilet and cry out to the woman, “Bring me the tissue”? If you are concerned only about your dignity, you might tell your spouse, “Come and get your own tissue.” But if you are thinking from the perspective of love, you Will be willing to go and say, “Here is a tissue for you, my dear.” Love should be the motivation for all your actions; then you will experience no complaints but only joy.</p>
|
||||
<p>Sometimes you might give your spouse a massage. When the one who asks for the massage does so out of love, and the one who offers it does so out of love, that is give and take in love. In extending yourself to your spouse out of love, the two of you meet in the center. When husband and wife have give and take of such universal love, all the birds will come and want. to listen to the songs of love pouring out if their house, even if there are no trees nearby for them to perch upon. I think there are more birds dwelling in our trees at Belvedere and East Garden than any other place in Tarrytown because they can see true love being shared. This morning the birds are out there singing. When you hear them, you should think, “The birds are calling me; I want to respond to them.”</p>
|
||||
<p>The sun wants to hit Belvedere and East Garden first in the morning because there is so much love here. Even the spring breezes want to blow here because all existence heads for the place of greatest love.</p>
|
||||
<p>People can go about life in two different ways: one person constantly whistling out of love for God and another living from day to day, just eating, working and sleeping, existing in animalistic darkness. How different the two extremes are! What kind of life would you prefer: the life of divine love or an animalistic existence?</p>
|
||||
<p>People may say various things about the Moonies, but what do we care, as long as we are living in a God-centered way and the universe recognizes us? Who are truly the happiest people? Moonies, right?</p>
|
||||
<p>Do you like Moonies? Even if I said I didn’t like Moonies, as long as God says He does, you can be proud of your identity, right? You know that is true.</p>
|
||||
<p>Actually, today’s sermon turned out to be a Principle lecture focusing on chapter one, the Principle of the Creation. Until I explain to you these deep truths about the universe, you cannot comprehend them. Would you like me to write a book on Principle myself? If I did, chapter one alone would be too thick for you to carry!</p>
|
||||
<p>There is a most natural conclusion to this principle. The vertical dimension is the spirit world, and the horizontal dimension is the physical world. On the horizontal level, there is the Oriental world and the Occidental world, which engage in give and take through their crossing point. What power under the sun do you think can unite the Western world and the Eastern world? Knowledge? Culture? Love? You answer love, but what kind of love? True and absolute love. Absolute means always present, never missing for a moment. Absolute means night or morning, any time, any place. Even when you are alone, you are still living in absolute love. Whether at school, at home, or out in society, you dwell in absolute love.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you peel off the skin of a seed, you find two parts inside. The outer part, or the wrapping, represents God and the universe; inside it you find plus and minus. The potential of life lies in that seed, but that potential is not activated until some vertical power operates from the outside. The horizontal atmosphere also must add some elements for growth. So the seed itself is a small universe. When it is buried inside the soil, with the proper moisture and temperature, its function can begin. A new life commences, and inside the seed give and take action takes place in a circular motion. The essence of life, the embryo, remains dormant and waiting until the right horizontal conditions are added, when that sleeping embryo can wake up and start to emerge. Then people see the bud, the sprout. Thus, in compliance with universal law, harmony is necessary between the vertical and horizontal dimensions for even the seed to grow.</p>
|
||||
<p>The little sprout becomes a sapling, which grows into a big tree, which will blossom, produce flowers, and create more seeds. Thus the new seeds become another essence of life, completing the cycle of circular motion, and history goes on. The circle of life which starts from the seed moves up, blossoms and produces more seeds. Every seed is formed through such a cycle. This is how life is multiplied. Whoever wants to take a shortcut instead of following that circle cannot become a good seed.</p>
|
||||
<p>It may take three years for a tree to create a new seed, but after a hundred years there are hundreds of seeds. Two centuries later, there are even more seeds. Are each of these seeds the same or are they totally different? They are identical because they have all been formed through the same disciplined cycle and have not deviated one iota.</p>
|
||||
<p>There is an analogous process in human beings. A person is born, grows through a certain cycle to maturity, then marries and gives birth to new life. This is the way human life has continued and multiplied. This cycle has a certain length which no one can shorten. Within this cycle men and women meet, unite horizontally as husband and wife, and give birth to children, completing the cycle. So people are supposed to have children. Without children a couple feels lonely and unfulfilled, since they are not completing that cycle. Without completing that cycle you do not feel like you are fully part of the universe.</p>
|
||||
<p>Even a bird lays eggs, incubates and hatches them, and brings food to the hungry chicks’ mouths. It is amazing the way they know how to feed their young. Watching a sparrow feeding its chicks you can feel the close relationship between people and birds. Children are conceived and carried by their mother, who nurses them at her breast.</p>
|
||||
<p>When a Western couple goes to the Orient they are almost always fascinated by the children. They may not be so interested in the adults they meet, but the little children with black hair and dark eyes are so cute the visitors want to squeeze them. Even a negatively-inclined person looks upon his children with affection. A hungry lion will refrain from killing another animal if it is a mother nursing its young. Until you have a baby of your own you cannot know this kind of feeling.</p>
|
||||
<p>You women here, would you like to have your own children? What about you men? I thought that Western young people felt they didn’t need children; they just seek the fun life between men and women! That’s not true?</p>
|
||||
<p>The ultimate goal of men and women is to have great children. Even people who are far from perfect long to have good children, both physically and spiritually. What are good children? Those who embrace and represent the universal essence, which is absolute love. I have one big ambition: to see such good children coming from all the Unification Church men and women.</p>
|
||||
<p>To have good children, you need to be able to parent them. To be a capable parent, you have to know how to love nature, the universe, and your fellow man, as well as how to love God. That is the fundamental principle behind our fund raising activities in the Unification Church. The last reason for fund raising is because we need money. The money gained on MIT is not for yourself but for the sake of the world. You try to gain as much money as possible for the purpose of world salvation. Like watering seeds in the soil so they can grow into plants, you earn money and it gets sprinkled all over the world. When you get married, you can go out and harvest the results of those seeds you sprinkled all over the world.</p>
|
||||
<p>Another key to raising your children is the ability to love unselfishly. For that purpose you go out to the world before marriage, during your three-year engagement period, and practice loving the world and learning how to care for other people. Ultimately, you will love your husband and children more than anybody else, but first you demonstrate your love for your fellow man-including the strangers on the street and even the people who oppose you. When you can taste all the persecution and pour out even more love than before, that is a beautiful thing to behold.</p>
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||||
<p>Unification Church members practice loving others not only in preparation for marriage but after marriage as well in order to create the most exemplary families before heaven and earth. Once you have been disciplined through undergoing persecution and still loving your persecutors, you and your spouse and children will be able to endure any adversity. Even though your spouse may be unkind to you at times, there is nothing you cannot endure; compared to the challenges you have overcome in the past, marital problems will be easier to resolve.</p>
|
||||
<p>Without such training under adversity, you may be too touchy when you get together with your spouse. Your spouse may say something just slightly harsh and you may respond like a firecracker immediately and violently. Without the above foundation you would have no ability to endure.</p>
|
||||
<p>The core of love binds the universe together. Marriage is very important, but you need preparation. In a way, marriage is the bond between the heavenly kingdom and the earthly kingdom. Marriage is the meeting point between eternal life and physical life. Husband and wife may start out at quite a distance from each other, but as they build a marriage the gap between them gradually narrows until eventually they meet at this one crossing point. Once you create this loving core, you can expand from it, your love spiraling out in one direction and then another, becoming wider and wider, until it covers the entire earth.</p>
|
||||
<p>According to this principle, you could say that love alone can encompass the entire universe. Any action centered upon this love is welcomed in the universe. Nothing centered on this love can be rejected or expelled. The training ground for this kind of personality is the topic of my message today, “God and My Home.”</p>
|
||||
<p>Who was Adam? The visible, horizontal God. God in heaven is the vertical God, but Adam was</p>
|
||||
<p>the horizontal God. The creating originator is God and the created originator was Adam. How wonderful that is! In other words, human beings are co-creators with God.</p>
|
||||
<p>Vertically, there is the subject God, but He needs an object God. The horizontal God needs a mate, and Eve is that mate or partner. Another way of expressing this is that God is the Father and Mother of mankind, the dual essentialities, and Eve represents the motherliness of God on the horizontal level while Adam represents the fatherliness of God on the horizontal level. Through marriage men and women are united, linking the horizontal father and mother God with the vertical God, creating a home in which every essence of the universe dwells. This is truly home, sweet home where every creature can be harmonized. Such a family and such a home is the kernel of God’s ideal for the universe. Such a home is the love-seed for creating all other creatures. Do you agree with me?</p>
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||||
<p>Man is to live with the dignity of God, and woman is to live with the dignity of the wife of God. Such dignity should characterize your married life.</p>
|
||||
<p>When men and women come together it is like two universes joining. The Western way of life is concerned primarily about the horizontal universe, eliminating the possibility of the vertical universe entering it. However, the vertical and horizontal universes must come together, and it is important to put the proper one first, the vertical. Therefore, you must find the vertical love first.</p>
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||||
<p>I am sure that many of you feel you have gone through much hardship in the Unification Church, doing so much fund raising, being engaged for such a long time with no wedding in sight. But such experiences give you the opportunity to mature and perfect your vertical love. I have been telling you almost to ignore your fiancee because once you find your vertical love with God your relationship with your fiancee will automatically develop.</p>
|
||||
<p>Since the human fall was the failure of human beings to consummate their vertical love, the first priority of restoration is vertical love. Therefore, you must learn first to consummate your vertical love and transform fallen love into something holy. Until you gain that perfected vertical love, you must not engage in horizontal love; the restoration of vertical love is the prerequisite for the expression of horizontal love.</p>
|
||||
<p>Am I speaking the truth? Raise your hands, those who are engaged. How many of you can say with confidence you have perfected your vertical love? Whoever dares to get married before perfecting vertical love is like a heretic before God.</p>
|
||||
<p>The key point of this morning’s sermon is to develop the attitude that God’s house is your house, and your house is God’s house. This is the right topic for the right day. Today is a beautiful spring morning. In weather like this, surrounded by beautiful flowers and green plants, your mind tends to be dreamy and your thoughts naturally float toward your fiancee, wondering how many more days you must wait before I give you the real marriage!</p>
|
||||
<p>We have touched on some very important points this morning. Our goal is to create a world in which God and all the creatures of the universe can smile for the first time. We are like a baseball player hitting a home run into that world. The sensation of love can be compared to hitting the ball is hit with your love bat, hearing it spin through the beautiful sky with the sound of love through the beautiful sky, making a home run. The echoes of our accomplishments reverberate throughout the world.</p>
|
||||
<p>One final question: are God’s home and our home two different dwellings, or one and the same? They must be the same. The ultimate goal is for the seed of divine love to germinate and grow. God’s love-seed and human love-seed must be the same; therefore, our home must be the dwelling place of God. The love-seed is the God-centered family, the building block of heaven, and when it is planted it creates the ideal society, nation and world. Once that love-seed germinates and grows to completion and every flower has bloomed, that will be the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and thereafter, in heaven. Amen.</p>
|
||||
<p>Please concentrate your energies and your thoughts on nurturing the love-seed within you. The preciousness of this love-seed is greater than any diamond or even mountain of diamonds; even the marvels of springtime cannot compare with its beauty. Just to contemplate the prospects of developing this love-seed can bring more happiness than the free expression of fallen love. The ultimate goal is for the embryo within the love-seed to germinate and transform you into a new creature.</p>
|
||||
<p>Once you consummate this vertical love and once society has been perfected, it will be all right for couples to kiss in public, and God will be able to rejoice in such expression of affection. But people in this fallen world understand nothing about the vertical dimension of love and they just seek to satisfy their physical drives and desires. Animal-type behavior is abhorred by God. Some time ago, I visited Miami Beach, Florida, and observed the young people, those so-called hippies, who live in such a shameless manner. They kiss and embrace with total abandon on the beach. I counted one couple’s kisses and how long each kiss lasted; one kiss lasted more than 30 minutes. I almost went and kicked them! To live just for physical sensations is a virtually unforgivable affront to the universe.</p>
|
||||
<p>In contrast, we are seeking the eternal spiritual sensations. How different is the way of life I am teaching you! We are Moonies, and our pride is the Moonie way of life.</p>
|
||||
<p>Those of you who can say, “Father, now I understand the truth more deeply. I am proud to be a Moonie, and I am determined to become a love-seed and the center of the universe,” raise your hand. God bless you.</p>
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@ -0,0 +1,86 @@
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---
|
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title: "GOD AND US"
|
||||
type: "speech"
|
||||
published: "2018-06-22T06:04:03+01:00"
|
||||
updated: "2018-06-22T06:04:03+01:00"
|
||||
source: "/blog/2018/06/22/god-and-us.html"
|
||||
speechYear: "1982"
|
||||
categories:
|
||||
- "Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982"
|
||||
tags: []
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
<h2 align="CENTER">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
|
||||
<h3 align="CENTER">February 1, 1982<br />
|
||||
World Mission Center<br />
|
||||
Translator – Bo Hi Pak</h3>
|
||||
<p>Throughout history mankind has been pondering the fundamental question of whether or not God exists. But history has developed until the present time without a definitive answer being found to that question. However, if God exists and is a personal God as well, whatever God may think and plan is the ideal which all mankind ought to seek. Therefore, the most basic question of man’s life revolves around whether or not God exists and what is the true relationship between God and mankind.</p>
|
||||
<p>Considering the question of whether or not God exists, let us for the time being think philosophically about ourselves, or “I”. Do “I” exist and how do I know that I exist? Historically philosophers have held differing views. Some have asserted, “I think, therefore I am. I cannot doubt that I doubt.” But what is the origin of thinking? Some say thought comes from the brain, while others assert that man’s spirit is the origin of his thought. But whatever the origin of thought, man himself has a separate origin, so we have to consider the two questions separately.</p>
|
||||
<p>Many people believe that man came into being through an evolutionary process. This is an expedient explanation but it cannot actually be the fundamental one. Even evolution must have had an origin somewhere. Did the animal become a human through an evolutionary process? Where is the origin of man’s spirit, mind, and thought within the animal? Where did human thought begin in the evolutionary process? Did animals have any spiritual ancestors?</p>
|
||||
<p>The simplest organism is the one-celled amoeba. Suppose the amoeba has the capacity of a simple consciousness. How then did that simple consciousness evolve into the sophisticated human mind? Did the noble spirit of mankind evolve from that little organism? It is not very logical to assume such a thing. There must have been some point in the process of the development of man’s body when the human spirit came into being. We know that the capacity of the human mind is tremendous. Are we to believe that elements of greater and greater thought were added bit by bit to the simple consciousness of the amoeba until we reached the human mind and spirit? That is the logic of evolution.</p>
|
||||
<p>Does the amoeba, the beginning point of the evolutionary theory, contain the energy necessary to propel itself forward into a higher form of being? If not, that extra energy must be supplied from the outside. Who is in a position to supply the energy necessary to make one object into another object? Observers of the phenomenon of evolutionary development do not try to figure out this question. They only observe the end result and call it evolution. But if we look more deeply into the internal aspect, we conclude that there must be some additional source of energy besides the object which is changing.</p>
|
||||
<p>When amoebas collect in greater numbers do they somehow produce the human spirit? Even the simple amoebas do have an external form and an internal aspect. These internal and external aspects work together as a joint unit, with the internal aspect behaving as the central point.</p>
|
||||
<p>There are two major schools of philosophical thought: materialism, which considers matter as the essence of the universe, and metaphysical idealism, which considers spirit as the essence around which everything else in the universe revolves. The age-old philosophical question is whether consciousness precedes existence or existence precedes consciousness. From an external observation, it would seem that existence came before consciousness. But from the internal point of view there was an awareness or a consciousness first, from which sprang being or existence. Depending upon how this question is answered, two entirely different viewpoints emerge. On one side is the materialist philosophy and on the other the acceptance of God. In between these two extremes there are thousands of different theories.</p>
|
||||
<p>Between these two opposing viewpoints, call them “internal” and “external”, struggles arise. It is very important to determine which came first, consciousness or existence, and which is subject and which is object. When we can discover the order of their appearance, we can understand the overall order of things, and there is no need for struggle. But if we believe that matter and spirit coexist on an equal level there will always be struggle. Marxism is founded on the belief that the universe sprang from the essential element of material and that consciousness is a by-product of matter.</p>
|
||||
<p>The basic component of matter, the atom, can be broken down into smaller and smaller particles. Within the atom is the neutron and the proton with the electron circling around it. The proton occupies the center and is in the subject position; however, within the proton there is another give-and-take action and further breakdown is possible. All the elements coming together began with some motion. Did they all begin their motion at the same time or was there some order? Whichever particle initiated the motion had to become the subject.</p>
|
||||
<p>The central point of the atom, the nucleus, was the initiator of the movement within the atom. Within the amoeba the same thing applies. It contains an internal nucleus character and an external, orbital character. Each of the billions of cells within the human body has a nucleus as well.</p>
|
||||
<p>The concept of a “center” requires the existence of four directions. As on a graph when one has four points, there is a point central to the four. The nucleus of a cell is in the center. If the cell is not a perfect circle but is an oval shape, there still must be a balanced central point within. What purpose is served by that center? The central position determines the location of the axis; it is the position of the starting point. Without it nothing can move.</p>
|
||||
<p>There are 104 different types of atoms and the shapes of each of the 104 atoms are different. The determining factor for the shape and characteristics of each atom is its nucleus. Even for the smallest atom there is still a center which determines its shape and characteristics.</p>
|
||||
<p>The characteristics of the nucleus determine the substance of the outer body, so the central nucleus is the key determining factor for the entire being. This is true in the development of the different forms of existence. As atoms congregate and move together into different types of nuclei, the outward characteristics become markedly different. In one direction there is the vegetable world, in another, the animal world, in another, the mineral world. The central nucleus character is determined first then the outward phenomenon, or the external form, is determined.</p>
|
||||
<p>However, evolution rests on the assumption that the development of life just happened-by chance or accident on its own, automatically. But there is no way for such development to occur automatically. When there are two different types of nuclei there will be two different types of external forms. For example, no matter how hard a radish and a Chinese cabbage try, the radish cannot become a Chinese cabbage and the cabbage cannot become a radish. It is impossible for them to come together and produce some new form of life. They have totally different types of nuclei with totally different characteristics. Unless the elements of the nucleus are changed, the external forms cannot be changed.</p>
|
||||
<p>The shape of the monkey and the human being resemble each other. Other animals, such as the dog. the cat, the cow have eyes, noses and ears just as humans do. But does that mean that the cow can become a man and the man can become a cow? No, because the determining factor of any existence is its nucleus, the center. Humans have the internal determining factor of humanity; cows have the cow-determining factor; dogs have the dog-determining factor. As long as those nuclei are different, no matter how much effort is spent on external unity, they can never become interchangeable.</p>
|
||||
<p>To begin with they are different items, monkey and man. The monkey has a monkey-determining factor and the man has a man-determining factor. They have entirely different purposes. as well. It we try to come to the conclusion that the monkey automatically evolved into a man, it doesn’t hold true.</p>
|
||||
<p>The nucleus is the core and the subject; it is in the position to relate in all four directions. It can exert influence in all four directions and can receive energy from all four directions. It can determine its own character. In other words, it shapes its substance. With this concept of a core-nucleus, the internal and external aspects of man can be understood. The theory of evolution cannot explain the internal and the external because it has no understanding of the core.</p>
|
||||
<p>The elements might not have occurred in all four directions at the same time. Maybe they began with one direction; but ultimately they covered the entire four directions. The four directions of east, west, north and south have different characteristics from each other.</p>
|
||||
<p>Every essential element of matter has a different origination point. Between the nucleus and the objective body, the nucleus comes first in the subject position and it determines the nature of the objective body.</p>
|
||||
<p>Even though it is invisible, the internal is first. Whoever takes the initiative becomes the subject. For example, in order for those of you sitting in the front row to get here first, you had to have motivation and take the initiative to get here earlier than others. The motivation for an action comes from within the nucleus, the center point. You determined in your thinking that you wanted to be here first on the front row. The motivation came from a nucleus, the idea, and it pushed your body to do it. Your body did not push your mind to come here early. Since that core-nucleus exists prior to objective embodiment, the internal occurs before the external. That core makes the external embodiment possible, not vice-versa. This same principle can be applied everywhere. The internal reality and internal character is first and is in the subject position.</p>
|
||||
<p>The theory of evolution falls apart simply because evolution cannot explain how one nucleus changes itself into another nucleus. Imagine a scientist in his laboratory commanding several elements with differing nuclei to come together the way he wants them to. No matter how many times he shouts at those nuclei, unless there is a certain element of mutual interaction or possibility for reciprocal relationship, those nuclei will defy him and will not come together. Knowing this, how can we be convinced when people try to tell us that the universe developed according to the theory of evolution with things happening by accident? How can we believe that life just came rolling down the line and mankind happened to come about? There must be some source of power, will and initiative, some universal nucleus-idea which is the governing factor of the entire universe.</p>
|
||||
<p>Let’s analyze the existence of Reverend Moon. Is he the result of some evolutionary accident or was there some nucleus or will of Reverend Moon that expanded to become the substantial Rev. Moon? The nucleus, the essence of Reverend Moon, went through the process of gathering up the substance of Rev. Moon. The Rev. Moon nucleus has its own characteristic. Therefore, liking and disliking, willing and not willing, everything is determined by that central nucleus of character. It is, therefore, different from others; it is unique. That nucleus character exercises the power to gather and create what is to become the actual Rev. Moon. Rev. Moon’s nucleus has already determined the size and character of Rev. Moon, so Rev. Moon cannot go beyond his own characteristic nucleus, nor can he become any less than the nucleus requires. Exactly what the nucleus was, Rev. Moon became. Nothing can be added to it because it would be foreign. Unless the nucleus ordered certain substances they would not become a part of Rev. Moon. Once the character requires certain elements then they must become part of the substance of that body. But unless the nucleus dictates it, no matter how much other elements try to enter into that character, they will not be accepted. They will always be foreign.</p>
|
||||
<p>In a way, all men are “cells” for some universal nucleus character; they are a part of something bigger than themselves. But the central characteristic of man is heart and this central characteristic is common to all. This is why each is a part of the human family; we are a cohesive group. Man is man. We cannot mingle and relate equally with the animal world because we are human beings and they are animals.</p>
|
||||
<p>As humans we have a common character working within us. We strive for betterment and we pursue goodness. Because these strivings are common to all men, we continually reach out for new horizons, for greater and higher universal character; in other words for something better, some way to progress. Since such character distinctly exists within the common human nucleus, the whole of humanity continually moves itself toward betterment.</p>
|
||||
<p>Because there is a common human search for goodness and betterment, there is something bigger than our own character within the universal character. As a collective group we recognize that there is some greater nucleus; we recognize ourselves as objects to that greater subject. The human consciousness involves this collective effort to reach out to that universal consciousness. Because of our human consciousness, we can reach out to that greater consciousness and we can communicate with it.</p>
|
||||
<p>In that way universal consciousness becomes subject and we become its objective body, the substance of that universal consciousness. We are glad to become the objective consciousness of that nucleus consciousness. We want to communicate; we want to align ourselves with that central consciousness. Man stands uniquely as the microcosm of the macrocosmic universe.</p>
|
||||
<p>The human body is composed of many different kinds of cells. Also the different races of man can be represented in the cells of one body. An example would be the cells in the whites of the eyes, representing white people. The dark cells on the sole of the foot might represent the black people. All are making up the one body, simply in a different location. Who could say that the cells of the whites of the eyes are superior to the cells on the bottom of the foot? All human cells are equally valuable, working for the same purpose and serving a joint will. How about husband and wife? From the universal point of view, husband and wife are like two cells which are next to each other and have close give and take- virtually one cell.</p>
|
||||
<p>From this universal point of view all human beings are equal. We have a common nature which belongs to that one universal nucleus consciousness. Among all the billions of human “cells” there must be a certain harmonizing factor which brings people together peacefully. This is the power of love. The power of love is like a thread between every cell making smoothness and harmony. In a way, love is like glue, binding and cementing together all the cells of humanity. This is why love is universal and love is good. The action of love is ultimate. Therefore’ without love everything would fall apart. The action of love unites subject and object and mind and body.</p>
|
||||
<p>Without love the interaction between subject and object is very clumsy. However, with the power of love we can experience total freedom of action, and freedom of movement between east and west, north and south. In a way love is a shocking intoxication which can make everybody drunk. That is why love is good. There is a drunkenness which comes from drugs or alcohol, but this is merely an artificial and momentary intoxication.</p>
|
||||
<p>Because of the power of love differing individuals are pulled together, particularly men and women. Men love women and women love men. Within the action of love no one can remain dulled; it is like connecting to an electric circuit. One becomes totally electrified through love. Love must go to the nucleus because when the nucleus is activated the whole self become excited. Love penetrates to the nucleus-center and the entire objective body is activated. True man is the center of true love; thus. when true love activates the nucleus of a man all his actions will be true Love will “turn you on” and true love will turn you on truly.</p>
|
||||
<p>If man is to pursue the action of true love, he must recognize the nucleus first. Love must first go through the nucleus turning on every cell. Therefore. in order to fulfill and consummate love, we first have to recognize the existence of the nucleus, the center.</p>
|
||||
<p>In terms of consciousness and existence indeed it is within the consciousness that the internal character, the nucleus, is created. This must be recognized. When we are pursuing ideals and love, we must first give recognition to the existence of the nucleus-both the individual nucleus and the universal nucleus. Thus consciousness comes first; will, idea and thought come before existence.</p>
|
||||
<p>The true man is the person who realizes true love. The only way of becoming a true man is to connect yourself with the truth of the universe, that central nucleus of consciousness. When people find a true man, they compete with each other to establish a relationship with him. He is like a magnet pulling everything from all directions, and he has a relationship with all the rest of the world.</p>
|
||||
<p>This explains God very plainly and beautifully. Who is God? God is the center and nucleus of true love. He is a personal God and He has a personality. The personal God becomes my God, my personal God; in this way I become one with the universe. This core of love of God is a requirement for unification. God is the subject of love, spreading out His wings under which all of His creation can gather in His embrace. Through the force of His true love, all things of the universe are pulled towards Him. as if by a magnet.</p>
|
||||
<p>We exist for the fulfillment of love, in order to become a perfect object for that perfect subject. Thus. the universal circle can be drawn; the central circle is God where the nucleus, will, and love exist. This love can radiate in all directions, in 360 degrees. The amazing and beautiful part of this is that even if God is almighty, without His object. mankind, He cannot fulfill His ideal and goal of love. Therefore, we become an indispensable existence in the sight of God.</p>
|
||||
<p>Love is a magnetic force. When you recognize love you are immediately pulled towards it. Your eyes become crazy at the sight of love; your nose becomes excited at the smell of love. In other words, love turns your eyes on. it turns your nose on, it turns your ears on. But usually when people talk about love they only talk about horizontal love between men and women. However. that is not the ultimate love which we are talking about. We are talking about the love which connects us to the nucleus center, God, and the true love of God. The ultimate goal of human life is that central nucleus of love. In order to reach it we need the horizontal love between husband and wife. For this reason the love between husband and wife is precious. since it brings them into unity and into a relationship with that universal love. We should know that the ultimate position of man and the ultimate purpose of life is a living relationship with the nucleus, which is God. We have to love as husband and wife in order to link up with that nucleus of love.</p>
|
||||
<p>The Divine Principle talks about the universal prime force. The universal prime force is that very power which can link you to the central nucleus of love. Prime force is the energy which brings everybody into unity with the nucleus. This is absolutely logical. This is the way the universe was created and has been developing.</p>
|
||||
<p>Internal existence comes first before external form. The ideal essence of love comes through the nucleus and touches all the substance of phenomena, which is the created, objective body. In other words, consciousness precedes existence. People may reply, “I cannot believe such a thing because I cannot see consciousness.” How can you prove it, then?</p>
|
||||
<p>You can use the analogy which I use all the time, the eye. Who created the eye? Your father had an eye, your grandfather had an eye, your great-grandfather and so on. Somewhere in your family tree, there must have been a first eye somewhere. Do you think that particular eye must have thought, “I want to be this shape, this color.”? Maybe the first eye was such a genius that it designed itself, thinking, “I must be capable of turning. I will be very sensitive, so I need some kind of covering. There might be water coming down, so I need an eyebrow to divert it. Maybe there will be dust in the air, so I need eyelashes.” Do you think the eye recognized that it would be living in an atmosphere with dust so it would need eyelashes? The eye must have been designed by someone who realized that the eye was going to be functioning in this particular atmosphere. But whether by its own will or not, the eye is designed in such a way to adjust to an atmosphere where there is wind and rain and dust. Do you think the eye could have calculated all that? If it didn’t, there must be some other will which knows more than the eye, which designed everything for the eye. There must be some consciousness in the universe which already knew that moisture would evaporate from the surface of the eye, so there had to be some liquid which would lubricate the surface. Do you think the eye knew all that and determined everything? Thus before the creation of the eye. there was a will. a consciousness, and a purpose which determined exactly the environment in which the eye would be functioning and how the eye should be made. Do you recognize that there must have been such a will?</p>
|
||||
<p>In my student days, there was a lot of discussion about God and my opponents said, “There is no God. Existence came first; I believe in evolution.” I would counter their arguments. When I got to the eye argument and used these analogies, everyone would surrender.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why is there hair inside your nostrils and ears? Somebody thought this out. In other words, there is some universal mind or consciousness capable of figuring out things in advance and making a blueprint in order to coordinate everything. Before an object is made. coordination is done. in spite of this evidence of incredibly detailed planning for the creation of man. some people still say, “No! man evolved by accident; you are the byproduct of some accident.” Do you accept that?</p>
|
||||
<p>Thought or consciousness comes before everything. The ideal thought is centered upon true love. The fulfillment of true love is the purpose of that ideal thought. The Unification Church has truly penetrated to the depths of this universal truth. That is a miracle; that is a joy!</p>
|
||||
<p>Where does our existence come from? God’s ideal is the universal subject; the center of that ideal is true love. The fulfillment of the ideal of love is the purpose of creation. Therefore, everything was designed by God under this plan for the purpose of the fulfillment of love. That is the way men and women are designed and that is why we were created.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why are men attracted to women? That’s the step to reach the ideal of love. Why are women attracted to men? It is an inevitable step in the search for the ideal of love. The people who marry and divorce freely are behaving like animals and have no way to connect with the eternal nature of the love of God. Everything God has created is based upon the eternal quality of love. Some people go after carnal knowledge or physical love, love “just for fun,” using their bodies for the consumption of love. This is terrible. Such catastrophic love should be removed from mankind.</p>
|
||||
<p>Do you want momentary love or eternal love? You want eternal love because the central nucleus of love is eternal; you can connect to that nucleus through eternal love. Therefore, only love can remain throughout eternity. Your body will not remain; it comes and it will go. but your love endures. This is why some of the greatest masterpieces of literature throughout history have been portraits of love.</p>
|
||||
<p>We are not the by-products of evolution, but we are created beings and ideal harmonized creatures. Would you prefer to be a creature of ideal harmony or would you like to be a product of evolution? Would you like to be the cousins of monkeys or the children of God? Why do you want to be the children of God? If you are to be the cousin of the monkey you are linked with the monkey which doesn’t know true love, only physical love. God alone has true love; God alone has eternity. Can you imagine going to the zoo, looking at the monkey cage and bowing down to them saying, “I revere you, my ancestors.” Does anyone do that?</p>
|
||||
<p>It has become clear to us now that the origin of all existence was thought and mind which formed the universal nucleus. The universe is heading toward the fulfillment of true love. We have to recognize that there is a universal consciousness, a universal thought, that wants to fulfill this ideal of love throughout the universe. We call Him God. This is a logical, modern and scientific conclusion. It is not mystical or superstitious. It’s a fact that we are reaching together toward God.</p>
|
||||
<p>We must recognize: “I do need a subject. I must relate myself to the thought of that subject. Therefore, I pray to God, I believe in God, I know God. I am a part of God.” That must be our way of thinking. God is the subject and we are His objects. We are God’s cells. When we become objects to God we unite with our subject in an inseparable relationship. You cannot ask for any better way of life than this. By uniting yourself with the subject, you fulfill the ideal aspiration that all men have in common for the greatest goodness. This nobility of goodness and the fulfillment of highest virtue can only come through the fulfillment of love. What is your answer now, is there a God or not?</p>
|
||||
<p>Every morning when I get up, I wash my face, looking in the mirror. Every morning I am totally intoxicated by my own face, not because it is anything special but because of Who designed this face. It must have been a genius! How could He put the eyes like that, the nose, the mouth, the ears? Is there any better way of making the combination? I cannot think of any improvement. How about putting the two eyes in the center where the nose is or extending the nose up to the forehead? How about bringing the eyes down to where the mouth is and placing the mouth higher?</p>
|
||||
<p>The position of the eyes, the nose and the mouth all have Divine Principle meaning. First of all the eyes in the highest position represent God. The nose represents Adam and Eve; one nostril representing man and the other woman, united in the center. The forehead represents God’s ideal extending down to the eyes and nose. The mouth is horizontal and represents all things of creation, all creatures. The bridge of the nose reaches to the highest point. Thus, the face is symbolic of the universe. Adam and Eve are in the center, standing at the highest position in Creation reaching up to God. What about God? God has the creeper position, so you have to look deeply into the eyes. You will find God hiding behind deeper things. The mouth represents all the things of creation, so you have 32 teeth, the product of 4 times 8, significant numbers of creation. Ears represent the four directions.</p>
|
||||
<p>Then you have a body and two legs and two arms. The foot has three joints and your fingers have three joints as well. The thumb has only two, however; the thumb represents God. When a baby is inside the womb, its fist is clenched with the thumb hidden inside. The thumb is hidden, because God is hidden within the universe. Altogether we have twenty-four joints in the two hands, with God hiding in the center. In all the universe and all creation God’s central masterpiece is man. That is how God feels about man; man is the most precious piece of all His creation.</p>
|
||||
<p>There are similarities among all the animals and man as well because there was a certain basic process of which they were all a part. Externally God made use of previous experiences in successive creations. But man’s internal character is totally different because he is a totally new creation. God created a whole variety of nuclei but on their own they cannot come together. There is one universal force outside of them which brings everything together and binds them into oneness.</p>
|
||||
<p>By now we know that God exists and we certainly need Him. Once this fundamental awareness is revealed to us all kinds of theories and principles can be derived. The Principle of Creation explains what the world was made to be; the Principle of Restoration explains why the world is the way it is and how God has been working to restore man since the fall. This is the understanding the Unification Church is bringing. The Divine Principle of the Unification Church embraces all the phenomena of the universe and all historical phenomena to fulfill the ideal of unification through the way of restoration. To make a long story short, Reverend Moon’s ultimate method is home church.</p>
|
||||
<p>Home church is where we create a base for the love of God. All human beings can come together in this ground. We have talked about the True Parents, their heart, God’s heart, and so forth, but you don’t really know them until you do home church. An early Korean member came and told me that the Korean members are all dispersed in different regions doing home church. It almost seems as if the church disappeared and became inactive. But that is the wrong concept; unless we have individual perfection in the area of home church, how can we talk about the, perfection of the whole’.> We must start with individual perfection. Without going through the home church providence you cannot link yourself with me. We have been talking today about very deep theological and philosophical ideas, but if you just do home church you will know what I mean.</p>
|
||||
<p>Where will we meet God? In the perfection of home church we have the meeting ground for ourselves and God. In order to perfect the universe, we need to create an altar, and home church is that altar. I can guarantee you that when you create this altar of home church, you will meet God there. I assure you of this. Now you know God, you know you need God and you know where to meet Him.</p>
|
||||
<p>Once you really know God-really and truly, not just in concept-you cannot do anything to hurt Him. If everyone knew God, not just by his reason but in his heart, no one could commit a crime, no one could hurt anybody. Your own eyes would be the watchdog of God. If there were anything evil or bad within your mind, when you looked into the mirror, your eyes would judge you and force you to repent. Have you ever considered that when you look into the mirror the person in the mirror is God, watching over you? If you commit crimes or sin, how can you say to your leg, “Work for me”? How can you order your hand to feed your mouth if you are doing evil? The mouth would have no right even to open to receive the food. When he is eating a meal, if a criminal opens up his spiritual senses he will discover that the food is protesting, “Oh NO!! I don’t want to go into that mouth! You are a thief; I don’t want to go into your stomach and become your nourishment.”</p>
|
||||
<p>But on the other hand when you are a good, God centered person working for the sake of your fellow man, the food wants to be your nourishment. All the things of creation, food included, want to become a part of God. When you are godly, then they want to be eaten and get inside you, for then they can become a part of God. Even animals can be killed and eaten by you when you are a man of God.</p>
|
||||
<p>There are two totally different types of human beings: one is the animal-type and the other is the noble, God centered human being. You are making a determined effort to become perfect, isn’t that right? Do you do so only out of duty, or do you do it from your own initiative? We are in the process of linking with the eternal God, who is the center of eternal love, and by doing it we are immortalizing ourselves. We become immortal beings by uniting ourselves with the immortal center. Perfection must come while we are engaged in life here on earth.</p>
|
||||
<p>If it hadn’t been for the fall of man, everyone would have been born in this position and within their lifetime they could have perfected themselves in their relationships.</p>
|
||||
<p>Then they would have gone to the spirit world; that was the blueprint of God’s creation, as you know. Within our lifetime here on earth, we have a golden opportunity. If you miss this opportunity, you will lose this position forever. When you think of it, nothing else really matters. You want to invest your energies during this lifetime for the perfection of yourself and your relationship with God. That is the most essential and all encompassing aspiration of life. Think, “I will become a person in whom God takes delight because I will perfect my love and become an inseparable part of God.” When you are in that position, how joyful you are! There is no other position, no better aspiration than this. Even becoming President of the United States or President of the world would not even come close.</p>
|
||||
<p>No one in history could have imagined that this was possible. It’s unbelievable that it has been done in one lifetime. I could have become “somebody” in society if I had aspired to that. But I gave up everything for this one way, this one purpose. By fulfilling this one thing, you will fulfill everything, not only for your own sake but for the sake of the whole world. How can you find any better way than this?</p>
|
||||
<p>It is such a poignantly gratifying realization that the ideal God is real and that He is searching after us. He’s not just sitting apathetically on His throne and enjoying Himself, but is coming down and reaching out for us. As much as we need God, He needs us too.</p>
|
||||
<p>People experience great joy in their family relationships, but sometimes tragedy strikes and a husband or wife can die suddenly. But you don’t have to worry about the death of your husband if he has lived for the sake of God. If both of you are pursuing that one central, universal way of life and you know that you are doing the right thing, you will never be separated from your husband, wife or loved one. The reason why I push you out to fund raise on the MFT, for instance, is that those experiences can shorten your path to reach that awareness of God.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you work all day long, you don’t want to spend money on yourself but you need to give energy to your body so you can continue. Therefore, you might go into McDonald’s and order a hamburger for $1.75. It’s a simple meal, but it is precious, and you feel grateful and pray, “Thank you, Heavenly Father. I need this McDonald’s hamburger to renew my energy.” How wonderful! Even if there is no seat for you to sit in, the food will be delighted to come into your body because you are a person of God. When everything you do represents God’s world, that hamburger will love you and want to be part of you. How lovely and joyful! If you just gobble it up in one big gulp, the hamburger won’t complain. It will be happy.</p>
|
||||
<p>Compare yourself today to the person you were before becoming a member of the Unification Church. Can’t you feel a world of difference? You have gone through a priceless transformation in your goals and your spiritual state. You could never buy this with money. The position you are in is precious.</p>
|
||||
<p>You Unification Church members love Reverend Moon, but you don’t like to be called “Moonies,” do you? If you really love Reverend Moon, you will love to be called a “Moonie.” When Rev. Moon is the nucleus, you are objects to him. This is our subject and object relationship. If you really know and love the nucleus, then you love everything about it.</p>
|
||||
<p>It is our aspiration and our desire to meet God, to live with God and have Him dwell with us. When you connect yourself with the eternal love of God, you and God become inseparable beings for eternity. When you are connected with the God’s love, your hand radiates spiritual light. Your whole body is like a spiritual light bulb when you truly become the embodiment of God.</p>
|
||||
<p>Every cell of yours is totally satisfied when the love of God surrounds you. When you are enjoying sleeping, you feel you want to sleep forever; when you are dancing, you want to dance forever. You don’t want to be separated from the source of joy; and that is like the love of God. While you are here on earth you must experience the ecstatic joy of love. You’ve got to do that; that is really perfection.</p>
|
||||
<p>Then when you lose your body of flesh you can easily be pulled right up, as if by a big magnet, to God in heaven. You will be like a little piece of metal flying up directly into the magnet of God’s bosom. There is an eternal magnetic field of love and you are a part of that; for eternity you cannot separate yourself from the origin of love. Every single element of the creation is heading that way, longing to become a part of that field of love. They will come to you and want to stay with you. That is what we call the ideal world, and that ideal world is a reality. That ideal world is within our reach. We have to apply ourselves 24 hours a day. When you think of it, with this aspiration there is no way you can get tired. Even death would not be enough to stop you. When you fulfill yourself and then death comes, you will be liberated into absolute freedom, and your maneuverability will become unlimited. It’s an exciting life. I don’t want to talk about it too much or you’ll get too excited!</p>
|
||||
<p>Let us prepare a package of love and go to meet God. Home church is the launching pad – a “Love Apollo.” You have a big launching pad. and you must create lots of love. You have to create lots of Acts of the Apostles in your home church area, and make lots of journeys of love. Make your life dramatic, ultimately exciting; persecution is not necessarily bad. Those of you who can say, “I want to create a package of love and I want to meet God in the home church area,” raise your hands. Amen. God bless you.</p>
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---
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title: "IDEAL FAMILY AND IDEAL WORLD"
|
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type: "speech"
|
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published: "2018-06-22T06:13:44+01:00"
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updated: "2018-06-22T06:13:44+01:00"
|
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source: "/blog/2018/06/22/ideal-family-and-ideal-world.html"
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speechYear: "1982"
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categories:
|
||||
- "Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982"
|
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tags: []
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---
|
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|
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<h2 align="CENTER">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
|
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<h3 align="CENTER">June 6, 1982<br />
|
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Belvedere<br />
|
||||
Translator – Sang Kil Han</h3>
|
||||
<p>Many people in the world do not have a precise idea of the meaning of the word <em>“ideal”</em>. However, in our movement we immediately connect the meaning of ideal with the original ideal of God’s creation. What are the contents of that ideal? Have you ever stopped to think about that in detail? Do you think the ideal is something which we cannot touch, something which is invisible? No, you know it is more than that.</p>
|
||||
<p>One thing you can never do is to lose yourself. By the same token, you are always linked with other people. When you think about the ideal, is it you who is at the center or is it others? The broadest area is the realm of the ideal. You can never completely overrule yourself; so how can you gain a perfect connection with others? The key question is how do we connect ourselves with others.</p>
|
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<p>An individual has four limbs, two arms and two legs. Also you have a nose, ears, and other organs. Physically, when you have all the necessary components, you have the ideal. Are you an ideal self? The body might say, “I don’t need anyone else. I only need to eat,” but that kind of thinking can never be ideal.</p>
|
||||
<p>The ideal has to include not only oneself but also all things. When you listen to music, is it for only your sake or for the sake of all things? When you are hearing something, your underlying attitude should be that you are listening with your own ears and it is a pleasure, but you are a representative of all things around you when you do it. When you choose the kind of music you listen to, you would want to choose the most universally pleasing kind, the kind which is most pleasing to all things. How do you decide such a thing? All things in nature exist in harmony. For example when the birds chirp, do they chirp in the style of rock music or are they closer to the classical music style? They certainly sing in a “traditional” way. The crow sings in his own way; the swallow does the same. The swallow never sings like a crow and vice-versa. When you sing or listen to music, you are connecting yourself to something lofty and elevated.</p>
|
||||
<p>I have thought about the differences between rock music and classical music. For one thing, rock music is always accompanied by physical gestures; people constantly move their bodies in time to rock music. Therefore rock music is a “body music.” On the other hand, classical music is more of a “mind music.” A person doesn’t normally move his body, yet when he listens to classical music his mind is elevated and it follows a certain path.</p>
|
||||
<p>Compare the way you feel after you dance and sing to rock music and after you experience classical music. What is left inside of you? A person who sings rock music empties himself out completely; he is exhausted. However, when a person listens to classical music he is enriched; many new feelings have come to him. We could describe classical music as vertical music and rock as horizontal.</p>
|
||||
<p>I am not saying that only classical music is valuable; I am only pointing out its obvious differences and distinctions. The whole point I am making here is not about music itself; rather, the question we should consider is what kind of content does any one thing have? Instead of music, let’s consider the way a person enters into academic studies Either he can be thinking, “Once I have completed my courses, I will be able to gain something more from the world,” or he can think, “I want to be able to serve my country and the world better.”</p>
|
||||
<p>Most ordinary-thinking people are centered upon themselves or their families, at best. It is not usual for people to think about the world or the nation when they approach their studies. In order for a person’s studying to be “ideal,” what would be the standard? The larger the purpose of that person’s studying, the closer to the ideal it would be. If his purpose is to help the universe, that could certainly be considered the ideal way to study.</p>
|
||||
<p>What is the ideal life that someone could live? Is it to live only for oneself? Certainly, living for one’s family is more ideal; living for the nation is even more ideal; and living for the world and the universe is even more ideal. Living for God is the greatest ideal. There is a connection between oneself and the larger entities. Each person must pay attention to those larger levels of existence in whatever he does.</p>
|
||||
<p>My topic today is about the ideal family and ideal world, yet before these things can exist, there must be an ideal individual. All those who believe themselves to be ideal individuals, please raise your hands. Out of this large crowd there is not even one ideal person? What is an ideal person? The ideal person is one who is welcomed and liked by all those around him. He is connected with all things in the universe and all things can make unity with him.</p>
|
||||
<p>In order to qualify for the title of “ideal man,” three people must agree with it. Those three people must represent the three races-black, white, and yellow. Heaven and earth must agree with that, as well. What is the criterion by which they could all agree? Is it because that “ideal man” speaks very well? Or is it because he is very knowledgeable? Or because he possesses enough power to protect everyone? No, he must have true love at the center of his being.</p>
|
||||
<p>Nothing other than love can be the central element in an ideal person’s being. We can test if this is true. Do only young people appreciate love, while grandparents do not? No, people of all ages desire love; in fact, the older they are, the more people are likely to appreciate love because they know more about it. Parents, teenagers, babies, and even people who have already gone to spirit world like and desire true love. What about the millions of people to be born in the future; will they also follow this pattern? Yes, all people, past, present, and future, like and desire love.</p>
|
||||
<p>What kind of love are we talking about? True love. What is the definition of true love? True love can penetrate everything, go anywhere. When you say “pure gold,” you can also say “true gold.” Such a gold is like true love-it is the same throughout, with nothing other than gold within it. Pure gold has had constant value throughout history, in all nations, to all people. True love is the same; it has value beyond time and space, beyond history. Its value is eternal. In order for the ideal family to exist, then, we must have that true love at the center.</p>
|
||||
<p>True love is desirable to a person at any time of the day or night, regardless of one’s moods or situation. When you are in pain, sorrowful or suffering, still you would welcome the visit of true love.</p>
|
||||
<p>Let us examine the true couple-true husband and wife. Will the true wife put limitations upon where her husband can touch her? No, regardless of where her husband touches her-even if he accidentally hits her in a sensitive spot-she doesn’t mind; she loves him and she is happy with him. Suppose your lover caressed you, not with his hand but with his foot. Would you reject that? No, you don’t mind being caressed even with his feet. Is there anyone who will welcome true love only during certain seasons of the year? Perhaps someone will enjoy love only in springtime, while in wintertime he pushes love away from him. No, this is not normal.</p>
|
||||
<p>Consider a married couple who has been living together happily for ten years or more. Will they stop enjoying their love once they get older? Can they only love each other when they are young? Unfortunately, we see in America today many people who seek after “convenient” love; they are not interested in investing very much into their love relationships. Moonies, however, do not follow that pattern of the secular world.</p>
|
||||
<p>Can you see ideal love with your eyes? Can you observe a well-built man and conclude that he has ideal love? You say no, but don’t you women feel attracted to a handsome man and think that perhaps he has a better quality of love to give than someone else? Consider a beautiful woman. Chances are that she will actually have significantly less true love to give than a woman who is not so beautiful. A less attractive woman is more likely to have purer, truer love to give than a beautiful one.</p>
|
||||
<p>When a man and woman who are very similar are married, how ideal is that? The best match is between people who are very different. Their couple will encompass all different varieties of people; everything and everyone can relate to them. Do you like the concept of an ideal couple? How do you like the combination of a very tall man with a very short woman? In order for such people to get along with each other in harmony, what has to be the unifying element? Is it power, wealth or knowledge? No, only true love has that ability.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why should a man have to pay much attention to the way a woman’s eyes, nose, mouth or hair look? There are much more distinguishing and important aspects that make a person a man or a woman. Why should not a man be satisfied with a woman, even if all he knows is that she wears women’s clothing?</p>
|
||||
<p>God is ideal and therefore He would like to see the most beautiful woman marrying the most ugly man. Which kind of a mate do you prefer-the one who is best looking or the one who is closest to the ideal? Actually, if a woman marries a very handsome man, she will probably have to endure a lot of worries! She might wonder, “Will some other woman be chasing after him?” and she will not be able to relax! Women in the secular world constantly chase after the most handsome men; they will try anything to get their love. If your handsome husband is late coming home, you might inadvertently start to worry about him.</p>
|
||||
<p>The same thing is true with men who have beautiful wives. If his wife spends a lot of time on her makeup and clothing, the husband might wonder who she is trying to impress, especially if she goes out without him looking very fancy. Men in the world are very much attracted to a woman who looks like that, especially men who are more physically oriented. Therefore, the world is full of dangers for a beautiful woman or handsome man.</p>
|
||||
<p>However, the person whose spouse is only average looking can be free of such worries. Even if your homely husband is gone for two or three days, you don’t worry so much about him getting stolen by another woman! You figure he must have some good reason for being late.</p>
|
||||
<p>The man with a beautiful wife may start out with a lot of affection for her, but his worries will increase the longer they are married. On the other hand, the man with an average-looking wife may only have to worry in the beginning about how he will learn to love her. But then, as they continue their life together that worry diminishes to nothing.</p>
|
||||
<p>The man whose wife is very attractive will find things to worry him out of nothing. If she brings home a new pen, he will wonder where she got it or if she had some ulterior motive for buying it. Everything she does can be a source of suspicion to him which he must wrestle with in his mind. If she spends an extra five minutes in front of the mirror before going off for the day, her husband will find some nagging fear inside of him, such as, “She never used to spend so much time in front of the mirror. What has made her change?” The smallest differences in her actions whether she starts to polish her shoes more often or carry a different kind of handkerchief, will become a source of concern to the worrying husband. He will find himself without a moment’s peace of mind.</p>
|
||||
<p>The lesson here is that we must be able to distinguish true value within a person regardless of what that person looks like. What kind of families are we striving for within the Unification Church? Certainly, we are striving for ideal families but what is the definition of that ideal? Is the marriage of a white man with a white woman necessarily the most ideal way? Actually, the most ideal way would be for a beautiful white American to go to Africa and find his or her spouse there. Such a bringing together of contrasts would be closest to the ideal.</p>
|
||||
<p>You are standing now on the earth, looking up towards the highest ideals of Heaven. A woman should never look down on a man and a man should never look down on a woman. A woman is an absolute necessity for a man, yet in America even that natural law is being challenged. Men are trying to legally marry other men, isn’t that true?</p>
|
||||
<p>Why do men need women? It is beyond your choice; it is the way you were created. Women are built with certain physical indentations, while men have certain protrusions. What is marriage? It is the unity of these two differing shapes and characters. This is seen throughout nature, without exception; that is the way God built this world.</p>
|
||||
<p>God is fair. The man protrudes in one place, but the woman also protrudes in another. The man has broader shoulders while the woman has broader hips. That is very attractive and shows a balance. God displays this harmony throughout the entire universe.</p>
|
||||
<p>The waves on the ocean do not follow a straight line but rather a curved one. However, the wind blows in a straight, simple direction. Air density varies in different places. When a sparse area of air hits a dense area, it is pushed up or down. It is natural that there be a certain amount of wind on the earth; when the air is perfectly still, it doesn’t feel natural or comfortable. People enjoy seeing the leaves on a tree swaying in the wind; when a tree is stark still, it is not as stimulating to look at.</p>
|
||||
<p>Generally speaking, do you prefer a high, lofty place or a deep, low place? Women would answer “deep,” while men would say, “high.” What is the difference between man and woman? One is “protruded” and the other is “indented.” Why do we say that the man is the subject? Who is the plus-man or woman? Although I may be talking about this today, who is the one to truly determine that man is the subject and woman is the object? Are you or I the ones to decide? No, God is the one.</p>
|
||||
<p>Who is in the position to receive? Why is woman in that position? Woman is like a “receptacle.” Unless the woman is in that position, babies simply cannot grow inside of her. The rain falls and the earth receives it, not the sky. That is why woman is symbolized as the earth not the sky or the heavens. The most natural position for a loving man and woman to assume is for the man to be above the woman. The woman naturally receives from the man, therefore she should be on the side of the earth.</p>
|
||||
<p>All of us are part of the universe; once we understand the laws of the universe, we must go along with them. The man has the greater tendency to give to the woman; that is natural. However, the woman should always think about the welfare of the man in order to harmonize with the universe. Without a man, the woman cannot achieve that harmony.</p>
|
||||
<p>What distinguishes a famous mountain from an average one? For one thing, a famous mountain will be very high. Also, it will have a great variety of slopes which will make it a great challenge to climb. Do women enjoy a man who is full of variety, or a simple man who is very predictable? Naturally, women prefer a man of interest and variety. Conversely, men naturally prefer a woman of simplicity. It is important that a woman have a basic simplicity; added to that, it is fine for her to have variety. Simplicity in a woman is her best virtue. A woman should be deep, but being deep doesn’t mean being complicated.</p>
|
||||
<p>Is the Unification Church a lofty, high religion or a low, false religion? You say high. Does that include a lot of variety, or just sameness? Why is the Unification Church a good and high religion? If you compared it with our description of a famous mountain, you could say the same-it has lots of variety. To go through the way of faith of the Unification Church is a difficult thing. You may sit here listening to me for several hours but once you stand up, you have to run back to your mission. There is no in-between.</p>
|
||||
<p>Moonies have certain common characteristics which are the same all over the world. Do you think you did a good thing to join the Unification Church? Would you like to stop now where you are, or do you want to continue to climb? Certain American leaders contend, “I have my own style so I don’t need anyone else’s.” Also many Americans automatically assume that the Oriental way is inferior to the American one. The Western way alone can never embrace and be accepted by the whole world; the Eastern way must be incorporated together with it. Only then can the whole world be covered.</p>
|
||||
<p>How can a person decide whether his spouse is good or not before they have lived together? Although I may advise you about the choice of your spouse, you are the one who ultimately must decide about his or her value. You must take that responsibility and make that decision. Although you might have in mind someone other than the spouse I suggested for you, is there any guarantee that that person is actually a better match for you? When I am considering potential spouses for someone, I think about every aspect of each person. Once I approve of a particular marriage, I know that is the best available match for those people. I always think of the children that will come from such a union. I can look at a woman for only a half minute and discern the deepest qualities of her character. For instance, I can see if a woman has a very bad temper. If I were to match her with a man with the same problem, they would not be able to survive together more than three days. Moreover, even if they had children, those children would be terribly damaged because of the conflict that would exist between the parents.</p>
|
||||
<p>When a man is a great athlete, he needs a soft woman who will be like a cushion for him. One’s family is the basis for all of the historical actions a person will make. The family is the place in which an individual learns to digest life’s experiences.</p>
|
||||
<p>For a woman with a bad temper, the best mate is someone who can look at her and be intrigued by her nature. He will say, “How interesting that such an element exists in her nature.” The woman may shout shrilly at him, “Come here right this minute, John,” but John will be in no particular hurry to respond. He will take his time and then come to her, asking, “Did you want to say something to me?”</p>
|
||||
<p>There are different kinds of echoes into a valley. Certainly the most interesting one is full of reverberations, not just a simple one. When a woman shouts out at her husband, he should have a good echo for her. This is reality. The husband should be able to give back a reply which will cushion her shrillness and return something interesting to her. He shouldn’t just give back to her whatever she shouts at him.</p>
|
||||
<p>You want the best match for you, of course, but how can you decide who that person is? Your ability to judge is quite limited; your viewpoint is rather narrow. However, I have a wide variety of knowledge and resources to draw upon in judging people’s character. I have been known for quite a long time as a specialist in the knowledge of people.</p>
|
||||
<p>At the time of the 36 couples’ blessing in Korea, I went through great difficulty to match those couples. If someone was very headstrong and refused to accept my advice, I couldn’t force him. Yet time has proven my judgment correct, without exception. After 21 years, such a fact is common knowledge now among the 36 couples. Therefore, those couples understand in a deep way the value and meaning of the matches I recommend for people, perhaps even better than I do.</p>
|
||||
<p>Of course, you don’t know from experience these things which I am speaking of. You must live for at least three years with your spouse before you can accurately begin to judge whether your match is a good one or not. Therefore, those who are rejecting each other after only three days are being too hasty! Within those three years, you should have at least one baby in order to make that decision properly. At the end of the three years, any person who resisted his spouse in the beginning will be embarrassed to admit how wrong he was. Especially when your baby comes, you will be able to appreciate the value of your spouse. After all, without him or her, that special baby could never have been born.</p>
|
||||
<p>The reason you marry is more for the sake of your offspring than just for yourself. Some couples’ marriage may serve the primary value of paying indemnity, which is of the utmost importance. Those couples may have to go through lots of indemnity so that plenty of blessing can be given to the country and to the world, as well as to their own family in the future. God wishes some couples to marry for that purpose. Privilege and responsibility go hand in hand. Of course, it is natural to desire the blessing but one must also love indemnity if he loves the blessing. If you fulfill both indemnity and blessing together, that is very good.</p>
|
||||
<p>There is always a wavelike motion of up and down. When you are well off at a certain time, you will have to come down to a lower position in order to eventually go up higher again. Western civilization has been going in an upward direction for a long time. Natural law requires that those in the upper position, such as America, must keep in mind those who are in the lower position, such as Africa. Unless they do that, they cannot maintain their fortunate position.</p>
|
||||
<p>I am in the leadership position of the Unification Church so I am at the top of that church. However, I am always thinking of those who are at the lowest point within the church, particularly those suffering missionaries in Africa or South America. I always want to hear any news I can about those members. Did I come to America in order to say nice things and encourage Americans to continue as they have been? No, I came to make America aware of her responsibility. Since America is on the top of the economic curve, she should be helping those at the bottom, such as Africa and South America. Why should I stay here for a long time and still keep such a rigorous schedule and work so hard? Although America is at the top economically, she is incredibly low and miserable in a spiritual sense.</p>
|
||||
<p>This earth does not prosper economically everywhere at the same time. While one part of the world is going up, another part is bound to go down. When a certain country is at the top it should help those who are in the lower positions; therefore when the cycle is reversed, they will receive help too.</p>
|
||||
<p>If a man is particularly handsome and special yet is perfectly willing to marry any woman, even the least attractive and least desirable, when he receives the best quality wife, no one will blame him. When a man happens to be matched with the best quality woman, God is not telling them, “You are the best and deserve to be the happiest couple.” Instead, God expects such a couple to serve others from the lowest, most humble position. If a couple dislikes such an expectation from God, they are not worthy of that blessing.</p>
|
||||
<p>What is it that creates the ideal? Certainly, it is true love. Within the ideal family, there is the father and the mother, the daughters and the sons and ultimately the grandchildren. Why did God create this scheme for the family? This is the dwelling place of God’s love. How does God’s love dwell here? If there were only one person on the earth, a man, could he be the dwelling place of true love? No, one individual could never be the all-inclusive center of God’s ideal love because he would be limited. There are more elements to God’s love than just the masculine.</p>
|
||||
<p>Always two elements must be connected through the cycle of give and take. Electricity flows because of this principle. There must be give and take between a man and a woman before the cycle of love can be complete. Within the ideal nose, there must be harmonious give and take between two nostrils. When one nostril is plugged up, that nose is not so harmonious. The two eyes are connected at the same point to the optic nerve; when they are not connected, that person will have double vision. Likewise, the ears must focus together on the same sound to hear properly. Why didn’t God create man with only one strong arm and leave the other one off? Through these examples, we can clearly see that the ideal requires a circuit or give and take between more than one part.</p>
|
||||
<p>The family is basically comprised of true love- unique, eternal, unchanging love. There is an Oriental story about love and the different qualities of a man’s and woman’s love. A couple had a baby but the baby died; so the mother wept for many days, day in and day out. The father, however, didn’t show his grief so much; he ate his meals and continued to function. The wife, however, could not even eat; she became angry at the man and said, “Are you made of stone? How can you not have any emotion at such a time?” Then the husband, rather than saying anything, just vomited blood. He was suffering inside to such a degree, but on the outside he never showed it to anyone.</p>
|
||||
<p>This story illustrates that women are not really more sensitive to love than men. What if both men and women expressed their feelings in the same way, with both of them weeping or laughing very strongly? That would not be so good for the stability of the family. God figured all these things out. Men and women are essentially the same, yet very different in expression; they are so different sometimes, they irritate each other. However, that is the way of harmony. Within love, these two different natures are bound to be harmonious.</p>
|
||||
<p>On the horizontal plane, the man is in the plus position and the woman in the minus. Even though he is an individual, the man represents all other men in the world; the woman can appreciate all men through her husband. The same is true for the man. Therefore, a man and woman are not constantly competing with each other; instead, they only seek to make total oneness with each other and encompass the world with their love.</p>
|
||||
<p>The man and woman together represent all mankind; within the family, all elements are represented. Women tend to be more realistic while men are more idealistic. Women usually want to keep their men close to them and do not normally like to have them far away. However, for the sake of his high ideals a man may decide to go away from his family for even a few years, but this is not because he doesn’t love them. A woman can normally never do such a thing; only a man.</p>
|
||||
<p>Only because of the striving nature of men has mankind achieved what it has so far. Men are made that way; they are designed to reach out for things which they cannot see with their eyes but can only imagine. A man naturally seeks after his dream, his ideal, while women are more concerned with the here and now rather than the future, intangible realm. Isn’t this true? This is why we say that man is symbolized by heaven and woman by earth.</p>
|
||||
<p>What is the will of the universe? Basically, the universe desires the harmony of true love. When a man and woman are dwelling together in harmony, they represent all of mankind, also heaven and earth. When they are dwelling in this way, they have achieved the realm of the ideal.</p>
|
||||
<p>Marriage is the means by which God can bring heaven and earth and all of mankind into focal unity. Such unity is not merely conceptual; it is within people, so it is entirely real. Men and women yearn for each other continuously, even in spite of themselves, to fulfill this cosmic will. Within the focal point of the family, people eat, sleep and go about their daily lives. When the family dwells at the focal point of God’s love, that is the ideal family.</p>
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||||
<p>Now you know what is the ideal family. The father is there representing heaven, the mother represents earth and then the children represent all mankind. Also, the family represents the sovereign nation. The father is like the “president” of the family; that means he must take responsibility for upholding all the laws and orderliness of the family. He must be the one ultimately to distinguish between what is right and wrong within that family. If the father is in the position like a judge, then the mother’s position is like that of a lawyer. The position of prosecutor is filled by the law itself We know that it is necessary to uphold the laws of a country; likewise, within each family there should be laws which are upheld and enforced by the father. That is one of the father’s responsibilities. There is a great distance today between this original standard and the reality of today’s families. Young people in many families deny that they need the guidance of their parents. What those children are actually saying is, “I don’t care about the past or the future; I only care about now.” That is animalistic. The grandparents are the generation of the past, the parents are the generation of the present, and the children are the generation of the future. Thus past, present and future must be united and harmonious for the betterment of mankind.</p>
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||||
<p>There is always room for revolution in such areas as economics and politics; however, in the relationship of heart within the family, no revolution is possible. Love is beyond revolution because it is eternal and unique. You needed your parents’ love as a child but then at some point you left their home for the sake of a higher love or ideal. If your parents really loved you, you would have to go back to them at some later date.</p>
|
||||
<p>We must experience the three generations of love: grandparents, parents, and the love of brothers and sisters. Before you stand as a completed individual of ideal love, you must have experienced these three kinds of loves. These are the three objective purposes of love.</p>
|
||||
<p>Most contemporary families are living only for the sake of the present; however, the husband and wife must give serious consideration to the past as well as to the future. If they have only the horizontal connection and no vertical connections, they can hardly qualify as an ideal family. Let me ask you women: do you need your mother and father-in-law, no matter how old and crippled they may be? Will your children respect and love their grandparents? The most important connection is the vertical one, rather than the horizontal, because it is the root and the basis of the universe. Love came down to mankind from above; it did not move from west to east in a horizontal direction. Thus the first direction of love was vertical; then the horizontal direction came to exist.</p>
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||||
<p>Whom should a person love first-his spouse or his grandparents? He should love those in the vertical direction. Two people love each other horizontally, but they must always re-connect to that vertical relationship. Thus their love can flow downward to their children and create one complete cycle. The husband and wife should love each other with all their heart; then together they love their parents and their children.</p>
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||||
<p>More and more people are divorcing their spouses yet no one wants to divorce their children. Why is that? It is because the love between the child and the parent is more fundamental to a person than the love of a spouse. That love between children and parents is along the vertical line which connects each person to God. The immediate question that arises when a couple thinks about divorce is over who will have custody of the children.</p>
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||||
<p>It is according to the ideal that a couple love each other and then they love their children, but they also love their own parents as much. That would be the accomplishment of the triple objective purpose. Western civilization must take heed of this truth. Unless they establish their families with the proper center, this civilization will be destroyed. How can we say such a thing so certainly? It is because of the law of the universe-the universe itself will not permit an unlawful civilization to exist for very long.</p>
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||||
<p>That is why we say that the family is the textbook through which we learn about the ideal country. The ideal country is the textbook for the ideal world; the world is the textbook for the ideal universe. Thus, we have four textbooks for learning but the family is the most basic one. Husband and wife must completely love each other; then they must completely devote themselves to their children and their own parents.</p>
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<p>The nation is basically a collection of families in which all the generations are included. Each extended family symbolizes one small country. You must make your family one which is loved and approved of by all those around you-your parents must approve and your children must appreciate it. That is when the man actually becomes the “president” of his family, which is a micro-country.</p>
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||||
<p>Thus the directions of up and down, left and right and front and rear must remain connected harmoniously to the couple. How much should you love your parents? The standard is to love them as much or more than you love each other. As much as you appreciate your own family, you should respect other families; in that way, the interconnections of one peaceful nation will come into existence. If you want to truly love your country, you must do it in this fashion-by loving those in your immediate surroundings, then loving your more distant relatives, and then branching out further and further until you can love anyone within the nation. All you need to focus on is learning to love all your relatives. Once you have mastered the art of loving all those different relatives, you can go to any nation, in any part of the world, and love anyone there. The president of any nation must meet this qualification.</p>
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||||
<p>Such a principle can be expanded all the way to the world level. Thus there could be such a thing as a king of the whole world, if he had such a level of love. This can be expanded all the way to the spirit world and everything else in the cosmos is included within. In the family, the individual level is the first realm of challenge; however, within the level of the world one must be able to love nations and races. On the level of the universe, one must be able to love beyond time-past, present, and future must be within your realm. How can you hope to find unity with generations of thousands of years ago when you find it difficult to find unity with your grandparents and parents? The same is true of the future.</p>
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||||
<p>All of this training must begin in the family. There is a family president, then a nation’s president, then a world’s and ultimately a cosmic president. Doesn’t this stand to reason? Who was supposed to be the original cosmic president? It was Adam, along with Eve. The ideal was to have Adam’s family populate the entire earth and cosmos. As time went on, all of spirit world would be filled with ancestors of that family and the earth would be populated by the descendants of Adam. Adam’s and Eve’s country would have been God’s country.</p>
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<p>Spirit world is the place where Adam would have been the ruler, the president. Earth was supposed to be the place where Adam’s descendants would have ruled according to Adam’s tradition. Such would have been Heaven on earth. Do you understand Heaven on earth now? When a person goes to spirit world, he is bound to go where his ancestors are. Each person has innumerable ancestors in spirit world. They will all try to test the new person by their own yardstick-they will judge him according to their standards. How will you pass that judgment from your own ancestry? The qualification to pass that judgment must come from within your family.</p>
|
||||
<p>There are many levels of judgment in the spirit world and the only way to pass all of them is by going successfully through the training of the family while we are on the earth. The ideal tradition is that of the true parental tradition. The true parent is the president of his family. The nation as well must be ruled by a true parent. If someone is president of the United States, he should be the true parent of the nation. His mind should go beyond his own family, beyond his clan, and care for the entire nation. That is required of a president.</p>
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||||
<p>As we have discussed, the larger a person’s realm of heart, the closer he is to the ideal-a person must be able to go beyond himself, his family, his nation, and so forth. The ideal nation can come into existence when the people love the true parents on the national level more than their own families.</p>
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||||
<p>No matter how important a person may be on this earth, if he doesn’t satisfy the requirements of spirit world, he will not be welcomed there. That is the most practical reason why a person must fulfill those requirements. The very reason why we must love the true parents of the nation more than our own personal family is in order to realize the ideal world. Beyond the national level, there are the true parents of the world who must be loved more.</p>
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||||
<p>What is the difference between the marriages of the Unification Church and those of the secular world? We are – different because we know that we must be able to go beyond our own personal families and dedicate ourselves for the larger and larger purpose-the country and the world levels, for example. Everything we do is dedicated toward achieving that goal of living for the highest purpose -that means we get married for that purpose and everything we do is to realize God’s ideal. In other words, the Unification Church is a movement in which we are bringing the true parental heart to all levels of life in order to realize God’s ideal. That is why we must sacrifice smaller levels such as family for the sake of larger levels, such as the nation and the world.</p>
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||||
<p>When we actually carry out this standard it will remain as the new tradition for the realization of the ideal world. We are seeking with so much effort to achieve this tradition while we are here on the earth. That is what we mean by the Kingdom of Heaven on earth-the creation of the ideal family and its expansion.</p>
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||||
<p>That is the position I am in now-I have been sacrificing all smaller levels of my life, including my own personal family and nation, for the sake of achieving a world family.</p>
|
||||
<p>Language is a real barrier. When Dr. Durst attends breakfast at East Garden, he is sometimes the only American there. I might give detailed direction to the Korean leaders and he cannot understand any of it. I feel sympathy for him because he has to miss out on so much. How much better it would be if all the world only spoke one language! My studies of English in Korea did not do any good when I came here; the only words I easily understood were yes and no. Do you feel content to receive only the translation of the words I speak to you, or do you desire to understand the Korean in order to know the deepest meaning? You want to know Korean because it is the original language of the Divine Principle.</p>
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||||
<p>Imagine if some comedian such as Bob Hope tried to tell jokes by translation – could the effect possibly be the same? The audience could only understand a small percentage of the true humor behind the jokes, perhaps only 20%. When you go to spirit world, you will feel so much pride if you can say, “I listened to Father in Korean. I studied very hard in order to be able to understand him.” You will feel much better than if you have to say, “I didn’t study Korean so I had to depend upon the interpreters to tell me what he said.”</p>
|
||||
<p>Language is ultimately for the sake of the expression of love. When two people are in love, they certainly don’t want another person standing between them interpreting their words. In the fourth part of our Pledge, we say, “I am proud of the one culture.” You might ask, “Why should we only have one culture?” However, in regard to the ideal, one culture is truly a must. One culture must arise out of one heart. If you really want to achieve that one heart, you should realize how important it is that you learn the language of the True Parents before you go to spirit world.</p>
|
||||
<p>When I reach out to someone in love through my language, he cannot receive the depth of that love if someone else must stand in between interpreting my words. In an ideal family you cannot have a language barrier. Without the achievement of the tradition of the ideal family, you can never achieve the ideal world.</p>
|
||||
<p>The ideal world is inextricably linked with tradition- the tradition which comes from true parents and true children. This is the case in a school, where the teacher is in the position of parent and the student is in the position of child. Likewise, within a company the employer is in the parental position and the workers are in the children position. This principle extends throughout the society, within all organizations. The subject-object relationship, or that of parent-child, pervades all levels of existence.</p>
|
||||
<p>Due to the fall of man, the improper kinds of relationship within the family came about; thus the great philosophical questions and difficulties of societies could never be solved. The relationship between employer and employee, for example, has never been understood. Where is the solution found? As we have said, the solution to mankind’s long sought-after social problems is within the ideal family and the extension of that ideal to all larger levels. This is truly the only answer.</p>
|
||||
<p>Today many people in America think that Reverend Moon is somehow “enslaving” young people by requiring them to work hard every day. However, I am giving you training for your survival in the future-you are learning to become people of larger and larger heart and capabilities. The best way to achieve that goal for your future is by going the way we are going at this time. You do fundraising and that money is dedicated for the sake of the world, not just for the sake of the nation. Why do we work at the world level? You will be living on the level of the world soon, so your work now must be dedicated to that level.</p>
|
||||
<p>I know where you will be going in the future-if you tried to get there alone without any guidance from me, you would have to struggle for a very long time, even for thousands of years. However, when I push you toward certain accomplishments which seem very difficult at the time, you can achieve in five or six years what would have taken you five or six hundred years on your own, at the very least.</p>
|
||||
<p>Do you think that the American church president or the Japanese church president is capable of setting the tradition for the entire world? No, only the True Father can set the tradition properly. I know that and that is why I push you-and why I push myself first. We all have a limited time on this earth. During my lifetime, I have been very busy establishing the necessary economic traditions and social traditions, especially in education. This is in order that you and your descendants can follow this tradition in the future-the formula course is for the sake of the future, even more than for today.</p>
|
||||
<p>There is no secular leader who can solve the problem of violence in society. The answer must come through the Principle. The problems of the breakdown of morality and religion, as well as the rise of communism, cannot be solved by secular means. Where is the solution to be found?</p>
|
||||
<p>The things I am teaching you are the things which ought to be done by the entire world. Your fundraising is genuinely for the sake of the world; there is no other group which is doing such things for the sake of the whole world. Which lifestyle is more difficult-yours or mine? Because I am taking responsibility for the world and all the consequences, my life is certainly more difficult. This is in accordance with the Principle-the parents must work harder than the children.</p>
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||||
<p>You have been educated to dedicate the use of any money you receive for the sake of a larger good than yourself, especially the world and our descendants in the future. If we did not have a deep love and concern for the future generations, we would certainly not have to work so hard. Why should I work so hard and push you to work hard, unless I have that kind of concern?</p>
|
||||
<p>The very basic building block of the ideal universe is the true parental heart, which is found first within the ideal family. As you learn to love within your family unit it should lead you to higher and higher levels of serving. It is virtually impossible for a member of the white race, for example, to learn to love people of the black race all by himself. However, within the family a person can learn to love all kinds of people and expand his heart to include those for whom he has very little in common. For example, when you learn to appreciate your parents-in-law, who may be very different from you, you can come to understand people who are very different from you, such as those of other races. Without gaining such an understanding from God, how can we even think about contributing to the future of this world?</p>
|
||||
<p>Mr. Kamiyama’s brother has been working very hard in Brazil. Recently I asked him to come to America and work here and I know it was very difficult for him. He was very comfortable and established in Brazil and America is truly a foreign place to him. However, he thought, “Brazil is one nation, while America is a representative of the whole world. If I go there, I will be taking a step toward a larger level.” He has come here and is working very hard. I know that if I asked him to return to Brazil, he would go back very eagerly and happily.</p>
|
||||
<p>When any of you are asked to go to some communist satellite country, will you be afraid or will you go forward eagerly and gladly, happy to do the will of God? The president of the American church should be ready to go to Africa and be president there.</p>
|
||||
<p>The ideal wife is one who is willing to say, “I do not mind if God sends my husband on a dangerous mission.” That family has the capacity to stand at the center of the world-level family. They must suffer in the present, but later their day of recognition will come. That is for sure.</p>
|
||||
<p>Now you know the meaning of the ideal family. That ideal family is situated at the center of the world. When a person has lived his life on earth and learned from his family as his “textbook,” he can go to spirit world and adapt freely in any place. He will know true freedom there. That is why we urge ourselves and each other to sacrifice our families now for the larger purpose-the country or the world’s purpose.</p>
|
||||
<p>When we go to spirit world, we will meet with literally thousands of generations of our ancestry. Each one will want to test us but we can pass with one qualification, if our family life is according to the requirement of the ideal family. They will welcome you with the greeting, “This is your eternal homeland. God is your parent; may you have an everlastingly happy life here in Heaven.”</p>
|
||||
<p>There is an inseparable link between the ideal family and the ideal world. This is eternal truth; therefore, it is unchanging, unique and absolute. I pray to Heavenly Father that I may move in accordance with His timetable. If a person has a certain heavy responsibility, he must repent deeply if he doesn’t do well.</p>
|
||||
<p>I have taught many things to the members of the church. What if I do not accomplish those things myself? That is my first consideration before I teach you something. If my own conscience were continually bothering me, I could no longer communicate with you spiritually. There would be a barrier between us. The fact that I can communicate spiritually with you indicates that I have been achieving my portion of responsibility. Whenever I hear rain fall on a tin roof and it makes a lot of noise, I immediately think about our African members who must sleep beneath such roofs. I don’t worry about my own children first and whether they are warm and safe. Instead, I think about other people first. That way of thinking becomes a habit.</p>
|
||||
<p>I must remain one step ahead of our members. When you are on the family level, I must be working on the national level. Likewise, when I am working on the world level, you are on the national level. I must continue to pioneer the way for you. I must continue to do this until the end of my life. I know that I may not be well understood while I am living on the earth but in time the world will understand me. In spirit world, I will be completely understood-God himself, as well as all the people in spirit world will understand me. I can be satisfied with that knowledge, even though many people in this realm do not understand me at this time.</p>
|
||||
<p>I try not to pay much attention to those who unjustly criticize me and persecute me. I know that if I suffer in this way, the way all the saints did in the past, there will be that much more satisfaction and fulfillment in the spirit world. Therefore I want to forgive those who persecute me; they are enabling God and spirit world to love me all the more. This is the most positive attitude to have.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you are permitted by God to start your family, you are being permitted to begin working on your basic right to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. In other words, that is the first step towards realizing the Kingdom of Heaven. With such awesome significance to your marriage, can you look at your spouse and say, “Oh, I don’t like the way he/she looks,” or “l wish he had more education,” or some sort of criticism? This is especially wrong when you haven’t even spent three years together. How can you dislike someone before you have even given the relationship a serious try? This is absurd.</p>
|
||||
<p>Perhaps you have some ideal type of person in your mind, with a certain appearance or characteristic and you insisted that you be matched with such a person, even though I was not so enthusiastic about the match. What if you received that person you found desirable, but soon afterwards he or she was killed in an automobile accident? I am asking if you can have absolute assurance that when you choose someone according to your own tastes, you will have healthy, normal children and will live together with your spouse in a long and happy life? Can you make your own happiness by yourself? No, you need someone who can help you. Who is that someone? That is the True Parents, the Divine Principle, the Heavenly world, and especially God.</p>
|
||||
<p>How do you know about someone’s background? How can you judge someone’s character? Will your spouse have a larger or smaller background than I do? If you know your background is smaller than mine, then you know that you will have a smaller reason for making decisions. Also, do you think I am taking your marriage less seriously than you do since I am not the one getting married? No, because I know more about marriage and children than you, I am even more serious about your marriage than you are.</p>
|
||||
<p>When I tell you, “Such a marriage will not work,” you may wonder how I can know. I have a special spiritual “antenna” which never fails. When I feel a match is bad, it is always bad. That is not because I want it to be bad; it is simply the truth.</p>
|
||||
<p>Are you ready to create an ideal family? In my own experience, when I once said something that was wrong it took seven months of intense effort and prayer to indemnify that. Still the situation wasn’t as good as before. If just saying some words that were wrong had such consequences, imagine what would be the result of one action of love that was wrong. It would take tens of thousands of years of indemnity to wash that away. Your marriage is the most awesome and truly fearful position to be in. This is a chance that comes once in hundreds of thousands of years. Do you think that deeply about it? I do.</p>
|
||||
<p>Have you ever considered that when you newly blessed couples go out into the world, all the attention of the world will follow you? I have already told you that blessed families are the focus of God’s love. Is that just a concept? No, it is a reality. Even though you may not see it, the attention of the spirit world is always upon you. This is the awareness I have whenever I do anything or go anywhere. I know that I am always under an invisible limelight from spirit world. I am like the locomotive or the pulling force for the entire Unification Church family; whatever I do or pray for will be followed by you. We are like a Heavenly “love-train,” and I am the engine car. Have you ever stopped to think like that?</p>
|
||||
<p>You can never just evaluate others, including your spouse, according to superficial qualities or physical appearances. The ideal is much deeper than such things. Do you understand? Are you already thinking about kissing each other? Yet according to Heavenly standards, your mouth is that of a thief’s. Can your hand caress your bride’s hair and have the hair exclaim, “Oh, my husband’s hand is an ideal hand.”? Can you look at your bride with ideal eyes? Do you have a genuine, pure and spiritually elevated feeling toward your spouse?</p>
|
||||
<p>The place of your wedding ceremony is actually the place of your great judgment because if you make something good out of your marriage, you will receive all the rewards of Heaven. If you make something bad out of it, that damage is irreversible; you will be making Hell for yourself. Perhaps you say, “I feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of all this. What should I do-the wedding is imminent?” One thing you can do is to have complete trust in the words I have spoken. Receive those words as your protection and your supervision. If you try to live in accordance with those words for your life, you can be confident about the future. If you resolve not to waver or look back you can have confidence. Pledge to God one thing, “Father, whatever the difficulties may be in the future, I know that my best friend and best helper is my spouse. I will never let go of him, even if he kicks me. It is out of the question to ever disown him.” You should pledge this to God above all else. If you do not do this, you may get married but you may not bear the best fruit.</p>
|
||||
<p>If you should transgress your pledge of love, someday in the future when your children are born they will remind you of your past sins of immorality. How guilty you would feel for the rest of your life-even into spirit world! This is true especially now because you have been given the truth; if you did not know, you could make a mistake with less consequence. Who will judge you and curse you? Not I, nor anyone else, but your own heart, body and spirit.</p>
|
||||
<p>Bear in your mind more than anything else since the blessing is less than a month away that if you do well, all goodness will come to you. Make up your mind that you will not make a mistake. Don’t look at other people and try to find fault with them; look instead at yourself. When you do that, others will respect you. Your spouse will respect you and will be inspired to love you. When the husband treats his wife and others with great respect, she will be inspired to be obedient because he represents the standard of Heaven.</p>
|
||||
<p>If you have really listened to today’s sermon, you will realize that what you can see in a person’s external appearance is a very small amount of what that person truly is. Before you criticize your spouse, you should criticize yourself. If you can honestly say that you are completely perfected in heart and spirit, then perhaps you are qualified to choose any spouse you wish or to criticize your spouse any way you wish.</p>
|
||||
<p>In the Bible there is a very graphic illustration of this point. Jesus came upon a crowd preparing to stone to death a woman caught in immorality, according to the law of the time. Before they killed her they asked Jesus his opinion about the situation. At first he just bent down and wrote with his finger in the sand, pretending to ignore them. However, the people pressed him to answer and he told them that those people who were free of sin should throw the first stones. One by one, the crowd dispersed until there was no one there except the accused woman who bowed down to Jesus.</p>
|
||||
<p>How about you? Are you any better than those people? Can you say, “I refuse to be criticized but I will criticize others.”? This is a very serious matter. You women should consider yourselves as representing all of woman kind. If you treat your spouse unjustly no one else will know; however, the women in spirit world will know and they will accuse you for that. The same is true for you men.</p>
|
||||
<p>You must pay more attention to the true meaning of your marriage. I am speaking today to give you a reminder in preparation for your upcoming marriage. You have been receiving guidance and preparation for a long time.</p>
|
||||
<p>You understand what I am saying very clearly, don’t you? There is nothing ambiguous about it. I wish all of you very good fortune and I ask you to prepare yourselves very seriously during the next weeks. You must remember that all eyes in spirit world and even in this world because of the publicity, will be upon you. All your blessings in the future begin from your marriage. According to the maturity and genuineness of your love, the real blessings of life <i>will </i>come to you. Those couples who maintain their appreciation for the special age we have been born into, continuously praising the love of True Parents and feeling truly grateful for everything that comes to them <i>will </i>realize the deepest blessing in life. Even if you must endure great difficulties and work endlessly without any break, if you maintain your gratitude to God under every circumstance then where else would God want to give His blessing except to your family?</p>
|
||||
<p>As I observe the 36 couples I see a wide variety of experiences-one was thrown into jail and endured extreme difficulties while another had a much easier situation. I observe how they responded to everyday life. Those who are grateful in every situation, including the difficult ones, are the ones I want to praise and single out for greater blessing. I have looked at those 36 couples with a mind to match the children of the most worthy with my own children. I have been saying to Mother lately, “Pay the most attention to the spiritual standards of people, not to the worldly standards. Observe how much they have prayed and worked hard with tears. Recognize those people above the secularly successful ones.” This has been our frequent topic of conversation lately.</p>
|
||||
<p>Sometimes I give money to someone in order to see how he will spend it. I always respect the person who carefully uses his money and saves as much as he can to use for the best purpose. Some people just spend money without thinking.</p>
|
||||
<p>To establish a tradition, you need to have three generations observing it, grandparents, parents, and children.</p>
|
||||
<p>It is not so valuable to be grateful to God when you are receiving a lot of blessing-anybody can be grateful then. However, when you are in a painful, bitter situation and still grateful, that is what really means something.</p>
|
||||
<p>You know that Mother is a good mother, right? Do you think I asked for that kind of wife for myself? No, I prayed to God, “I will be satisfied with anyone You give to me. I will help her to become the best woman in the world, regardless of who she is.” That was my thinking. Because I was able to appreciate all kinds of women, God was able to give me such a wife as Mother.</p>
|
||||
<p>That is the principle. Whoever you are matched with, remember that he or she is the fruit of a long and complex background. Without any love in your heart, can you say, “I don’t like him/her?” What makes you so great that you have that kind of privilege? If you think you are that great, then you are greater than God-God himself cannot reject anyone. I cannot, either. All the earlier generations of blessed couples in the Unification Church never made demands according to their own narrow preferences and tastes. Therefore you should digest the bad points of your spouse, whatever they may be, and learn to love him or her.</p>
|
||||
<p>May God’s blessing be with you. Let us pray.</p>
|
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content/speeches/1982/in-search-of-our-home.md
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|
@ -0,0 +1,189 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
title: "IN SEARCH OF OUR HOME"
|
||||
type: "speech"
|
||||
published: "2018-06-23T13:56:22+01:00"
|
||||
updated: "2018-06-23T13:56:22+01:00"
|
||||
source: "/blog/2018/06/23/in-search-of-our-home.html"
|
||||
speechYear: "1982"
|
||||
categories:
|
||||
- "Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982"
|
||||
tags: []
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
<h2 align="CENTER">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
|
||||
<h3 align="CENTER">July 11, 1982<br />
|
||||
Belvedere<br />
|
||||
Translator – Sang Kil Han</h3>
|
||||
<p>You are the people who understand about God’s dispensation of restoration. Within that dispensation is involved not only mankind but also all the other elements of the universe: God, spirit world, and all things. Perhaps the most important aspect in the restoration process is the fact of man’s responsibility. In essence the wrongs of the universe were caused by man, not God, so the critical issue is always man’s actions. Restoration progress occurs according to what man has or hasn’t done.</p>
|
||||
<p>When we say “man” we include men and women of course. The fall of man occurred between the first man and woman; let us take a closer look at how it happened. Adam and Eve fell as husband and wife so those positions are the most critical in restoration. What is the next level of relationship which is most critical? It is that of brothers and sisters, or the children.</p>
|
||||
<p>As a result of what took place in the beginning of human history, all people are now situated somewhere below the line of the fall. We must realize that people are constantly struggling to rise above that line. We would all like to become husband and wife and brothers and sisters who can live above the line of the fall.</p>
|
||||
<p>Satan dominated the position of the parents first, then the children, the brothers and sisters. Therefore the process of restoration is now centering upon the role of parents and the relationship between husband and wife. A major characteristic of the satanic world is that of reversed or improper order. For Satan to continue his domination, he must maintain that wrong order of relationship in the world.</p>
|
||||
<p>If God cannot establish the right tradition, neither can He establish true and eternal justice for everyone. Satan knows that God’s dispensation of restoration is moving forward so he is very desperate to maintain the improper order of relationship in this world. He is very afraid to see the new, right order of relationship being introduced.</p>
|
||||
<p>What chance does God have to move into this world? Remember that man is composed of both spiritual and physical elements. The original nature of each person is pushing him toward God’s design for him. If the fall had not occurred every person could have maintained a good relationship between his original mind and his actions. Even now with the incredible entanglements of fallen nature, the original mind of each person is directing his body to behave in the proper way. But is the body able to obey the commands of that original mind or isn’t the body usually going in the opposite direction?</p>
|
||||
<p>Why does the body continue to go the wrong way? It is because of the element of “I” which is stained with the sin of the fallen world; this “I” is always conscious of its own needs above all others. For example a person will want to see his family focusing upon his desires; he will even want to have the world centering upon his will. That kind of viewpoint is very common.</p>
|
||||
<p>You might ask, “Didn’t this kind of nature come from God?” However, if someone believes that God endowed man with his self-centered nature he is actually ascribing to the theory of two sources for man-one of the mind and one of body-which are not necessarily supposed to be united.</p>
|
||||
<p>Which should be subject, the mind or the body? You answer “mind” but when you observe the world at large, which seems to be playing the subjective role over mankind, the body or the mind? Certainly it is the body. Thus you can clearly see that this world is not what it is supposed to be; it is existing below the line of the fall.</p>
|
||||
<p>It is most common for a person to think that the world is the source of his problems, not that there is something wrong with him. However the focal point of all the problems of the world is actually the individual, the “I”. The problem is “me” not society or the rest of the world. The proper, rightful “I” will create the good family which will multiply into the largest levels.</p>
|
||||
<p>Ask yourself a simple question: do you regard yourself as more important than the society; what about the world? If so you can know that there is something wrong with your point of view. Your “I” is wrong. There is always a tendency for people to consider themselves the most important entity in the universe.</p>
|
||||
<p>Some people say, “Let’s just enjoy life and do whatever we want to do. I don’t want to think about anything serious like God or society; we can worry about all that later.” However if someone thinks like that he cannot expect to create anything like an ideal family; certainly an ideal society is out of the question. Happiness can never be achieved through such an “I”-centered viewpoint because no one can find happiness alone without a good family, clan, society and world. You must realize that the nation, the world and the universe are all absolutely necessary for you personally to find true happiness.</p>
|
||||
<p>Is the sun created for your sake alone? The sun, water and all the things of nature do not exist just for you but for the benefit of all beings of the earth. The universe will never support someone who tries to claim all the things of the earth as existing for his sake alone. When a man and woman share all their belongings with each other, saying, “These are ours, ” they can enjoy harmony. However if one tries to say, “These are mine,” disharmony will result.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why do we need law and order? Law and order exist to protect the right ownership of Creation; in other words, to ensure that everything remains “ours” and not just a few people’s. We can classify laws; one kind exists to prevent fighting among individuals over their positions. For example among the brothers in a family, who has the seniority? The eldest brother does, not by anyone’s choice but by the order in which they were born. The one who exists first is closest in the lineage to God, who came before everyone.</p>
|
||||
<p>Law also dictates that between parents and children, the parents are more important; they always exist before the children without exception. Imagine yourself in the position of a son or daughter within a very large family. You would have many cousins, uncles, and aunts within your clan. Could you demand the position of greatest authority within such a clan? Certainly all your elders would not allow that.</p>
|
||||
<p>Some people ask, “Why does law exist? Why can’t I just do as I please. Isn’t that the ideal?” However if the universe was a place where each individual could do whatever he pleased the inevitable result would be that simply the strongest would rule. Whoever was weaker could be destroyed in the absence of law and order. Have you ever felt seriously how fortunate you are that law exists? Freedom itself only exists under the domain of law. People are confused today and do not understand this; they want to manipulate the law for their own sake.</p>
|
||||
<p>It is very wrong for a person to join a business and consider himself the most significant person there, even if he has a high position with the company. He should realize the foundation was laid by those who came before him and made the company as prosperous as it is.</p>
|
||||
<p>When the simple law of right order is not fulfilled all kinds of confusion occur. The same is true within the Unification Church. Someone may ask, “Why am I not as important as Rev. Moon?” However, such a person will not be welcomed by our church society because he is violating the simple law of right order.</p>
|
||||
<p>Another kind of law is that which provides for the well-being of all. Consider the government of a nation which has different departments within it, such as the Justice Department, the Energy Department, etc. The purpose of each department is to serve the entire nation, not for the nation to serve them. The ideal way for the different departments to operate would be for them to compete with each other to spend less money and still provide the greatest benefit for the sake of the people. That would be according to the law which provides for the well-being of the largest entity.</p>
|
||||
<p>This same law applies to the family level. The husband should do everything for the sake of his wife and the wife for the sake of her husband. The children should respect each other and care for each other. This is how the second kind of law works in the family.</p>
|
||||
<p>There is one ingredient which guarantees that these laws will be observed-true love. With true love the things which laws require seem natural. True love inspires a sacrificial attitude in a person. It is natural to think, “I will ignore my own needs in order to make that person happy,” when you are living with true love. Where love is present, even the laws are humbled. The law is incorporated within true love so law itself wants to be ruled by true love.</p>
|
||||
<p>With true love you can go unhindered to every level of the universe because you will not be in conflict with anything good. So long as one is living under this principle he does not need any other guidelines for his life. It is very simple. Once you are living sacrificially for the sake of others before yourself, evil will automatically be chased out of your life.</p>
|
||||
<p>Suppose an elder brother was so humble before his younger brother that he said, “I am your younger brother. ” This does not break any law nor does it destroy orderliness. Although the parents come first in the family and are in the position of authority, there is nothing wrong with them serving humbly and sacrificially for the sake of the children. When parents lower themselves to the position of external servants to their children, the children are inspired to live in such a way as well. The motivation for this kind of action comes from the original mind, which is always directed toward the maintenance of right order.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why do I push you and ask you to do certain things? I do this because I want you to be able to live consistently in the future with all the laws and nobody will be able to ;accuse you. You can go anywhere including spirit world without receiving any kind of accusation, when you live by the Principle of heart and true love. Once you are living by thin; great principle all the little details will be incorporated within it.</p>
|
||||
<p>Satan takes advantage of the laws of the world. He knows the differences between worldly laws and the laws of God and when he sees those differences, he accuses human beings. You want to be restored and be free of all accusation as well; it is a general desire of all people. If you can live up to the principle of serving and loving others you can achieve this freedom wherever you may go.</p>
|
||||
<p>If an individual insists upon living in a self-centered way, everyone around him must suffer. In order that everyone be protected, the laws are necessary. It may seem “natural” to insist upon one’s own way throughout life, since everybody seems to do it. However once you understand the true original nature of man, you can see that nothing is more foolish than to center upon one’s self first. Is it more logical to try to change all the laws of the universe to suit oneself or to try to change oneself to achieve harmony with the existing laws? Certainly it is more logical to do the latter.</p>
|
||||
<p>You may feel that a certain worldly law is unjust so you may work to try to change it. This is fine, but as long as the law is in effect you must live under its restrictions if you want to enjoy freedom. The law has the power to restrict individuals; therefore it is above the individual.</p>
|
||||
<p>Between the two laws of mind and body, the law of the mind tends to consider the benefit of the whole first. Therefore the law of the body has to be humbled to the law of the mind. That is the best way of life. You must realize that this is the proper conclusion to reach for living your own life.</p>
|
||||
<p>Where does “myself” come from? The “self” of each individual is manipulated by Satan. Satan seeks to maintain wrong order in the world to maintain his dominion. He will do anything and sacrifice everybody to achieve his own desires. As long as he successfully maintains the improper order in the world, he will be successful in keeping everyone under his dominion.</p>
|
||||
<p>Perhaps you realized on your own that living only for yourself was getting you nowhere. However you probably could not explain in a logical way the reasons why self centered living was actually self-defeating. Now you can understand that selfish living violates the laws of heaven and it helps Satan maintain his power. Now you can have the strength to change.</p>
|
||||
<p>When one person is arguing with another, boldly asserting his demands and disregarding the desires of the other, he may show no hesitation or weakness. However somewhere inside his mind he will feel that he is doing something wrong. His original mind senses that he is willing to sacrifice another’s benefit for his own and it is not right. With every word he speaks he shoots out satanic bullets of destruction, like a machine gun, but he cannot stop himself. Perhaps you find yourself in such a situation at times.</p>
|
||||
<p>The desire which is within each person to promote himself above all others comes directly from Satan. Satan’s way of thinking has always been, “God’s love is flowing to Adam but I demand that it come to me!” He puts “me” first, before everybody else. The second selfish attitude is to look at everything as “mine.” Certainly everyone can claim certain things as “mine,” but each person must realize that everyone else has things which are his, too.</p>
|
||||
<p>God existed before everyone else; then the parents, then the elder brothers and sisters, and finally oneself. Therefore the order of ownership is that way too. What is “mine” is fourth in line after all the other levels. When you put things in their proper order, no one objects to your owning things.</p>
|
||||
<p>Suppose you had ten dollars to share among your family. The proper way of division would be to give five dollars to the parents, who are most important and most worthy.</p>
|
||||
<p>Next you should give three dollars to your brothers and sisters and finally you can claim the remaining two dollars as yours. In this way, no one would object to your having $2. They would recognize that your ownership was according to the law of orderliness. However, the more common attitude would probably be to say, “I’ll give S3 to my parents, $2 to my brothers and sisters, and keep $5 for myself, since I am the most important.” That is the wrong order according to the law of the mind.</p>
|
||||
<p>According to satanic law the most important person is “I”, and everything is primarily “mine. ” This simple criterion is one which condemns many people to hell. If you were asked to judge which is the better of two people, would you say that the one who is nice to you is the good one? No, the standard of goodness is unselfishness and concern for the benefit of the whole.</p>
|
||||
<p>Once you understand this you can know how to go to Heaven. The good man is the one of unselfishness and he is guaranteed to achieve Heaven. When you live by this standard you will be free of conflict with others. Who would oppose you if they knew you were living for their benefit? This is the same teaching I have been giving to you every time I speak to you. This simple point is all-important and must be repeated over and over again. You say I am teaching the truth and I am right but haven’t you sometimes complained, “I don’t want to hear that!”?</p>
|
||||
<p>This principle applies even to satanic realms. Of course in the Heavenly realms and in spirit world you will have a free pass to travel everywhere. You will be set free by this way of life. The most important element of restoration is man’s portion of responsibility. Therefore once the law of giving unselfishly is followed you will be accomplishing man’s portion of responsibility</p>
|
||||
<p>Why is God trying to bring you into the position of His children? He wants to give you the right to love and enjoy the same level of love that He does. He wants you to be able to give true love, rather than just simply receive it. Of course you want to enjoy the position of dwelling in the embrace of God, but because your love has not yet been restored you cannot share total love with God. You cannot yet enjoy your rightful position with God because you have not yet achieved the restoration of yourself or the world.</p>
|
||||
<p>If man had not fallen, he would have been perfected in God’s love so he could have claimed his rightful ownership over whatever he wanted. However, because man lost that all-important element of God’s love, he has no right to insist upon “himself,” or his ownership according to his desire. When the fall took place Adam and Eve disregarded God’s love and embraced Satan’s love; yet they still tried to claim ownership over everything.</p>
|
||||
<p>God’s standard is: true love first, then “me” and “mine.”; but Satan’s standard is “me and mine” first. Fallen man may be claiming the things that man was supposed to have but he actually has no right to claim those things. Can you understand why it is so wrong to claim “me and mine” before you possess true love?</p>
|
||||
<p>What happened at the fall of man was an action that was supposed to occur eventually anyway. God wanted to give Adam and Eve the blessing but they Refused to wait and they just grabbed it for themselves. However what they actually did was no different from what they were supposed to experience at the proper time. Similarly the right to claim “me and mine” is supposed to come about but only at the right time.</p>
|
||||
<p>You now have a good comparison between what is Heaven and what is Hell, don’t you? When there is a dispute between the mind’s desire and the body’s it is good when the mind prevails over the body. However when the body prevails over the mind, that is what we call bad. This is a simple distinguishing characteristic between good and evil.</p>
|
||||
<p>We might give this as an example: an individual may think, “Everyone in my society and family is advising me to marry that person because he is a very good person, but I don’t want to listen to anybody. I just want to do what I want to do.” Isn’t it wiser to accept the guidance and advice of one’s elders. But what is your attitude? Are you thinking, “I don’t want to listen to anyone else’s opinion about my marriage partner.”?</p>
|
||||
<p>How typical are Unification Church marriages? Our marriages are very different in background from worldly marriages. We have God above us, caring for our lives in the minutes” detail; then you have the True Parents who even make the suggestion of your mates for you. Among such circumstances you are married. The simple but most serious fact of our marriages will be the path for the world to be restored. Hell originated from the wrong marriage in which God was excluded and Satan was embraced. The position of husband and wife were the first to exist under Satan’s dominion; next the children, or brothers and sisters; the parental position was filled third by Satan.</p>
|
||||
<p>At the last days most secular parents are finding themselves without power to direct their children’s marriages in any way. This is the historical fruit of the fall. However we are going a different way. As the Unification Church brings God’s right order closer and closer to completion the secular world drifts farther and farther out of control. Within our marriages we follow heavenly tradition with seriousness, passing it on to all succeeding generations. In the secular world there is virtually no tradition to be inherited by the couples, therefore no tradition to be passed on to their children. This is the way the world falls further and further down into Hell. God cannot be there, so it is Hell. In our marriages we follow God and the True Parents and the original tradition of Heaven which God always intended to pass on to His children.</p>
|
||||
<p>We have discussed so far the most important principle of our lives – that of true love and sacrificing oneself for the sake of others. In the animal kingdom power or strength is one of the most important aspects of life. For instance among deer the strongest stags will fight with each other and then the female deer will go off with the winner. Among human society, as well, there exists this tradition. In the Western culture men used to fight duels for the love of a woman. Love was not so important but power was the key. There is almost no difference at all between such a tradition and that of the animal kingdom.</p>
|
||||
<p>If two men wanted to settle their differences according to God’s desires how would they do it? Each should say, “You prove that you love her more than I do. I will gladly relinquish my claim if you do.” They would not fight with the desire to overpower each other; instead their competition would be to give the most and love the most. They could both agree according to that standard. What kind of love are we talking about here? The one who has the greatest love is the greatest master.</p>
|
||||
<p>Some of you might be thinking, “I am now married to a wonderful person. In fact he is so wonderful, I am afraid that someone will try to take him away from me.” However, worrying about something like that will never do any good. You must simply love that person three times more than you loved him when you were engaged. Determine that no matter how beautiful the women may be around your husband, you will be such a wonderful source of love to him there will be no problem. Besides, even if such a husband is stolen away by some other woman, as long as you have given him your 100% effort and love, Heaven will give you another husband three times better. Likewise with a man, if he has given his entire heart and effort to a wife who leaves him, Heaven will bring him another wife three times better than the first. There is nothing to worry about as long as you do your best. Anyone who willingly departs from God-approved marriages will not find true love.</p>
|
||||
<p>Those of you women who feel confident to say, ” I am here as the rightful wife of my husband,” please raise your hands. If you don’t feel that way, why not? I am telling you this simple lesson: resolve to be the one woman in the world who loves your husband more than anyone else. Don’t worry about what he does, just do your very best to love him. Determine that your eyes will be for him and that they will be the most beautiful eyes, beautiful not in the simply physical sense but in the sense that they reflect the complete unity between your physical body and spirit body. Those kind of eyes are the eyes of true purity and they are truly the most beautiful. They belong to those who never think about their earlier love relationships but are working hard to eliminate all traces of such memories. Let me ask you at this time, have you erased all traces of memory about your former affairs?</p>
|
||||
<p>Each woman should think to herself, “I have a huge pool of love within me. No matter how good a swimmer my husband may be and even if he dives down 100 feet, my pool of love is larger than his capabilities to swim it. He may even kick or hit me but my pool of love will never be diminished. ” Do you have such a pool of love within your mind? No matter what your husband does, you must be generous enough to contain him within your “pool” of love. After a few times of behaving in a wild way, he will become very docile knowing that he can do anything he wants. He will become very happy and he won’t want to do harmful things.</p>
|
||||
<p>Perhaps this way of thinking never occurred to you before you got married, how could you marry your Prince without good preparation? If he treats you harshly, you should let him. Let him take out all his historical feelings of revenge or whatever he may feel towards women. Let him get out in one week what he would have done through a whole lifetime. How big is the pool of love within his wife? He will discover how free he can be within your pool. Even though a big storm comes up, the ocean is calm and placid after it passes. So, too, your pool of love should be able to accommodate the turbulence of your life.</p>
|
||||
<p>Now that you are matched and blessed I feel a tremendous burden of responsibility about the future. I am thinking, “Will they live the right way? Will they grow closer to God and not drift away?” I am speaking to you today in all seriousness. You have heard before that true love is important and you have agreed with me, but do you really know how important it is?</p>
|
||||
<p>I always enjoy watching people do high, dramatic diving acts. You women must allow your husbands to climb up to the highest peak and dive down freely into your pool of love. Or would you put a rock in the water for him to fall on? You should try to put more water in the pool so it will be deep enough to cushion him. You know that no matter how high your husband may climb, he can never reach the bottom of your love when he dives in. He might think he can swim from shore to shore in your pool but he will find that he will get exhausted and will cry out to you for help. Will you say, “You jumped in so get yourself out.”? You should tolerate him, throwing him a lifeline to help him out.</p>
|
||||
<p>One thing that you will see is that a man is very straightforward and candid. He may not know very much about you women. He may think that because you are small and quiet you don’t amount to much, but when he jumps in to your pool of love he will be completely surprised by the experience. He will say, “I never knew you were this way.” He will think, “My wife appears to be a certain way but actually she is quite different. ” He will feel very proud and secure in that knowledge; as a result he will be able to do everything better after that. He will respect you more and more as he comes to know you better and better. However you women must always reserve something about yourselves which cannot be easily understood by your husbands. Let your husband be saying, even after many years of marriage, “My wife is a mysterious woman.” If that happens, you are a success. You will never run out of things to share and talk about.</p>
|
||||
<p>I felt so inspired at the Wedding when the sister in the wheel chair and her spouse came in. My thought was, “We must cherish and care for that couple.” I admire them very much-love can do such wonderful things.</p>
|
||||
<p>There are not just big boats afloat in the ocean; in fact, there is also a lot of debris. Also there are many small boats closer to bathtubs than boats, but the waves hold them up just as effectively as the luxury yachts. The waves do not discriminate. If you have such a mind of non-discrimination, you are bound to have excellent families.</p>
|
||||
<p>If God had the choice of swimming in two swimming pools, either the man’s or the woman’s, which one would He choose? I think He would choose the woman’s.</p>
|
||||
<p>God likes artistic things; that’s why He made woman in such a way that she can look different depending upon how she wears her makeup and clothes. This capacity in woman exists for the sake of God, not herself. If you wear your makeup in order to give pleasure to God, it is very different from a secular reason. Sometimes men look very drab but women look extremely colorful, especially in this culture. Even the old grandmothers here wear bright red dresses and bold jewelry. It is a natural instinct for every woman as soon as she comes of age to start trying to adorn herself with beautiful clothes and accessories. It was the way God created women; since He is artistic, He made his daughters artistic, too.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you observe paintings hanging in art galleries do you notice more men or women as subjects of the paintings? Artists have always painted more women than men. For many years people have been trying to figure out the enigmatic smile of the Mona Lisa. What if the Mona Lisa had been a smiling man? A smile is the rightful aspect of a woman, more than a man. When a man is full of smiles all the time it is not so natural, but when a woman bestows smiles upon her surroundings, she brightens up the day for everyone. That which is most natural is also the most simple.</p>
|
||||
<p>Woman observes the sun even when she is alone with a smile on her face. This is natural and beautiful. However a man normally doesn’t look at the sun or at a flower and break into a big smile. It is very becoming to see a woman laughing so hard she has to sit down. Usually a man will laugh so hard he has to stand up! When she smiles the woman usually tries to hide her face, while the man will just erupt into a loud, bold laugh.</p>
|
||||
<p>You women must become loving pools of love, giving a smile to your husband from morning to night. Have you ever stopped to wonder why men and not women have beards? A man doesn’t express so much on his face so a beard doesn’t block his self-expression, while women express their emotions clearly on their faces. That is why they should not have beards, according to my opinion!</p>
|
||||
<p>Women want to dance to please men, not other women. Once you start living together as husband and wife you might want to dress in a beautiful way and dance for your husband once in a while. God will certainly approve of that.</p>
|
||||
<p>A woman ought to try to smile, regardless of how her husband treats her. Just as you feel yourself about to cry out in anger, you should force your mouth into a smile. I can give you one very important reason for this: the children. Once the mother of a family weeps in front of her children, that memory may stay with them for a very long time. The children will be very hurt to see their mother hurt. If you were the type who cried all the time, they might get used to it, but you don’t want to be that way. Who weeps more easily, men or women? Certainly it is women, so even if you women weep sometimes, you ought to end up smiling. Some American women are very persistent in whatever they do- once you start to weep you make it a point to continue. However you should make it a point to smile, once you start to cry.</p>
|
||||
<p>You know how difficult it is sometimes to manage your own life. Imagine how difficult it is to manage a family. You must care for your husband and your children who may not want to listen to you. You have to “wash” your family every day, not with soap and water but with your mother’s love. The father’s love cannot do that. When a little child starts to cry and his daddy tries to console him, usually he keeps crying. Only the mother can comfort him and make him stop crying. If the child goes to his mother to cry but she turns him away for some reason, he has absolutely no place in the world to go-he knows he cannot receive the comfort he needs from his father. He has to receive his mother’s love, so as a mother you must provide constant love in great quantities.</p>
|
||||
<p>The husband cannot cleanse his own heart without you; you must do that for him. Women’s love can wash anything or anyone, while the man’s love is usually “tinted” and not so pure. When you were a child didn’t you naturally seek the love of your mother first? When the child is in bed with his parents, he naturally wants to sleep next to his mother, who is softer and plumper than the father, who is usually more skinny and hard. All living creatures come from a mother so they naturally seek out their source. I have had many experiences since Mother and I have had thirteen children, so I can understand the differences between boys and girls. If I happen to feel a little ill, the boys will express sincere concern and repeatedly ask, ” How is Father?” They will shout out to me when they see me, “Father are you feeling OK?” and then they will go out, never coming near. However, the daughters are different. They won’t say much, but they will do many things to try to make me feel better, such as bringing me juices, rubbing my shoulders, and so forth.</p>
|
||||
<p>In the past, wealthy kings always had more women serving in their palaces than men. Why was that? Simply because women create a more beautiful atmosphere than men. The important point I am stressing is the significance of the woman in the family. If we were to compare, we could say that men are like the bones and women are like the flesh. Even externally, men are supposed to be bonier and women are softer and plumper. Difficulties often arise in marriages because the woman has the attitude, “When I get married, my husband will take total care of me.” That is certainly the wrong attitude.</p>
|
||||
<p>Have you men ever stopped to consider what it is in women that you envy the most? What do they have that you wish you had? If you haven’t even thought about that you are very dull men indeed. How can you appreciate your wife in the future? You say “sensitivity,” “softness,” and “intuition”-what else? Let me answer this for you: women can conceive and bear your children and then nurse them at their breasts. That is one thing you men can never do so you must be very envious.</p>
|
||||
<p>I was made most keenly aware of this recently. I was holding Jung Jin Nim shortly after we brought her home from the hospital and before long I realized that she was very uncomfortable. So I gave her to Mother and she soon fell sound asleep, but she never sleeps in my arms! I felt envious of Mother.</p>
|
||||
<p>The mother who nurses her baby is sharing her life and body with that baby. She is giving away a vital part of herself but she feels so happy to do it. This kind of intimate relationship with the baby is something which the man is bound to most precious privilege in the universe and men cannot approach it. Do you agree with me? Some of you men may be thinking, “Father, have we come to the point where I must listen to this kind of guidance?” Yes, you must listen to this; this is the one time in your life when you need to receive this advice. Later you can use these words to educate your own children and grandchildren. This is a very important time for you to learn about these things.</p>
|
||||
<p>I am explaining why I admire women. You women must strive over and over again to fulfill these guidelines I am giving you. As a baby I was nursed by my own mother. Every man, every king everywhere was born of woman and nursed by her, then he grew up. Men should be proud of that; I am proud of that. I have that kind of background which enabled me to get to this point. When we study sociology, we learn that in some societies the women were the centers-matriarchal societies. Perhaps there were some bad side-effects of that but it certainly had its virtues.</p>
|
||||
<p>So far I have stressed that all you women must become great loving pools and you must learn to smile for your men. Be a smiling mother, a smiling younger sister, a smiling wife. You have an imagination so think about the fall of Eve. How do you imagine the give and take developed between Eve and the archangel? Don’t you think Eve probably smiled at the archangel in order to get his attention? That was a self centered smile and not a truly giving smile for the sake of the universe.</p>
|
||||
<p>The smile of a woman is not supposed to be for her own selfish benefit; it is supposed to be for the sake of others. The definition of “smiling” has no room for selfishness. Maybe when you are putting on makeup you will smile into the mirror to test how it looks, but that is the only time it is normal to smile for yourself. All other times you should be smiling for the sake of other people, to wish them well. We can conclude that your role is to provide for the happiness of your man, even more so than he may do for you.</p>
|
||||
<p>I realize how hard American women have worked. In the past they had to work very hard to complete all their difficult chores around the house. They also had to make peace between in-laws and relatives. I think these kinds of things could not have been possible without the woman’s smiles. She must have had to smile and laugh a lot to keep the family in good humor.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why does it usually happen that the woman follows the man once they get married, rather than the other way around? It is because women are more easily adaptable to difficult and changing circumstances than men. With a sincere smile, a woman can be accepted into a new place; even the harshest person will feel his heart moved by that. Especially when the woman he loves smiles, a man cannot resist her.</p>
|
||||
<p>A smile is the most essential part of diplomacy; many diplomats have to learn to emulate a woman’s smile. The genuine smile of a woman gives her more beauty than all the decorations of a queen. You don’t need to speak when you smile. In fact, when a person is talking and smiling at the same time, it is not attractive.</p>
|
||||
<p>If you men and women were to adopt all the guidelines I have given you and then got together and started your family, you would be like a well-oiled machine. Your family life would be that smooth. But maybe you American women protest, “It’s not fair that we have to do all these things; we don’t get much in return.” You may think I am saying that a man doesn’t have to do anything, while you have to do everything for the relationship. However, the man will be doing something very profound; deep inside himself he will be admiring and loving you more than anyone else in the whole world. If you were to get annoyed and tell your husband to help you by cleaning the bathroom, he might respond slowly but he would do it. You will actually have dominion ova your husband because of your own constantly giving attitude. He will never mind doing whatever you desire for the rest of his life; he will be happy to serve you. I ought to know about this-I am a man!</p>
|
||||
<p>Because of my mission, I cannot listen to anyone else’s advice unless I am sure it is the best. I must be the total master of my activities, yet I find myself somehow spellbound by Mother! I always want to tag along with her when she goes somewhere. I am big and Mother is just a small person, but there is a universe of experience between us. I love Mother beyond all the things I must do in the future or the present. My love for her transcends everything else. Certainly between Mother and me there are complications and difficulties which we must overcome but through love we are always able to do that. Mother is the one who must initiate the leadership in the relationship, not 1. I have many different responsibilities and much more to accomplish than Mother in the outside world. However, women have the more important role than the men in their relationship.</p>
|
||||
<p>In the practical sense, you women generally obey me better than the men do. Isn’t this true? You men always feel the desire to rise to a position equal with me; you don’t so naturally feel you are in the object position to me. When I speak to you and I express some interesting idea, you men think, “Oh, I knew that. I could have said that, too, Father!” Whereas the women just enjoy and throw themselves into the experience of the sermon. Isn’t this generally true? This alone is proof that women listen to and obey me better than you men, right? What you are actually saying is that the women are purer than you.</p>
|
||||
<p>Now that I have given the blessing to the 2,000 couples they will be playing a very significant role in establishing the tradition of the future. Between the men and women of those couples, I must depend more directly upon you women for this to be successful. Hope for the world has been launched. If this prototype for the future succeeds, the entire Western world can have substantial hope. If you fail, however, so much will be washed down the drain.</p>
|
||||
<p>I know that you may be too young to understand the historical significance of the words I am saying but in the future you will understand. If you do not practice the way of life I have been teaching you, history will judge you: “That blessed couple did not live the way Rev. Moon taught them. Shame on them.” Do you understand?</p>
|
||||
<p>What I am saying to you this morning is that women’s responsibility is even more crucial than men’s. I have told you the secret: get rid of your selfish self. There is no room for “me” in the family. Think, “My husband and my children, my parents and God are all that matter to me.”</p>
|
||||
<p>Of course this will not be an easy path to follow. However you can always think, “This is not as difficult as God’s way has been throughout the history of restoration. True Parents, too, have had a more difficult path than 1.” You women are the teachers for your husbands in the realm of heart. You also have to give good influence to your in-laws and relatives. Another way of thinking is that your husband is not just marrying you, he is hiring a tutor of love for his household.</p>
|
||||
<p>Your husband cannot be the best teacher to his own clan; they all know him too well, so they probably won’t listen to him. But you who are not so well known to them will come into his household and be received like a saint. They will love you and you will have a much better chance of educating your husband’s clan than he ever will. This was true even in Jesus’ clan.</p>
|
||||
<p>Must you give first or receive first? Certainly you must give first. In order to join your husband’s clan, try your best to listen to and care for the people around you in the sincerest, true way. In the Orient there is a folk saying that it is not good if a woman falls asleep during the day-with one exception. The new wife can take a nap when she is nursing her baby and that is totally acceptable to everyone.</p>
|
||||
<p>What a deep feeling a sacrificial mother will have towards her children! When those children grow up, they will understand a mother’s love and they will understand how a man should adore his wife.</p>
|
||||
<p>You must realize this: whether a family is rich or poor has no bearing upon the quality of their love. Don’t worry about your family’s wealth; only center upon your family’s wealth of love. How rich is your love? That is all that really matters.</p>
|
||||
<p>It seems that you women are being called upon to sacrifice everything and have nothing for yourselves But if you continue to give and serve your family and clan, you will receive wonderful blessings from them in the future. Your husband’s mother may surprise you with a gift of the family heirloom or something of immense value within the clan. You will see that everyone will appreciate you eventually as the one who gave and loved the most.</p>
|
||||
<p>As you enter into the next phase of your life you must realize that it will not be easy; there are bound to be many complications and difficulties but will you women be queens of love anyway?</p>
|
||||
<p>We have discussed the complications of life for women, but you men don’t have to have such complicated thinking. All you need to know is this: women are always bearing the heavier cross-that of the heart, emotion, or love. You must remember that a heavy cross is invariably being laid on the woman even though it is not always visible. Your attitude should be, “How can I help her and lessen her burden?” You should console, praise and encourage her; in other words, give her hope. You must encourage her by reminding her of the value of living for God’s will. Tell her, “We are living like this in order to set the example for the restoration. Once we have done this successfully all the generations in the future will be indebted to us. We will achieve the greatest happiness in the future if we accomplish our mission now.” If you talk to your wife like that you will be fulfilling the ideal standard for a family. Simply speaking, this means that you must give your wife consolation and hope.</p>
|
||||
<p>Do you men understand? You should not expect your woman to come and console you. She is the one who is truly carrying the cross so you should always try to comfort her. If you notice that she is continually suffering, apologize to her and give her hope.</p>
|
||||
<p>Do not ever hurt your woman because she is already bearing a heavy cross upon her shoulders. If you hurt her you are jeopardizing not only yourself but also your whole clan in the future, who will suffer if your wife is hurt. She is emotionally vulnerable-do you understand that one point?</p>
|
||||
<p>What have I said so far? I have said you must console your woman and give her hope. There are other things you can do but those two are the most basic. If your woman has the kind of loving pool which I described what kind of pool must you men have? You must have a very clear, fresh air pool so that when your wife comes into contact with you, you will refresh her. Women should feel refreshed from their contact with men.</p>
|
||||
<p>Even though you may believe something your wife is doing is not right and you would like to tell her, don’t say anything and don’t fight about it. Even though it is very clear that she is wrong, leave her alone. Give her enough time to change. She knows she is wrong, so she will change. I mention this specifically for men who feel that when they know something is wrong they must say something in criticism. If you have a critical nature you should not say all the things you might feel like saying.</p>
|
||||
<p>When a big crane cries out it is with a long, shrill shriek while the swallow chirps constantly. Man should be more like the crane. I don’t talk very much when I am at East Garden; everybody is afraid of me in a way because I am silent. When a man talks and chatters a lot he is not being manly.</p>
|
||||
<p>Can you now tell each other, “Father told you to console me”? That is not the right attitude, You should strive to give hope to each other, never despair. People often like to share their despair but that is wrong. If your husband totally fails to give you women any kind of hope and just imparts negativity to you, you can report that directly to me and I will try to help you. But you must remember that your husband is still very young; even if he is thirty years old he may only be in the “third grade. ” Someday he will graduate and he will be able to fulfill my standards. You are the teacher for him, anyway, so don’t discourage him. When a woman comforts and encourages her man he is always inspired.</p>
|
||||
<p>Are you men going to give more to your wives, or are you going to be indebted to them? You have promised to give more, so you must take it seriously and carry it out. Don’t try to meddle in her management of the home-she is like the Home Minister and you are like the Foreign Minister!</p>
|
||||
<p>Where is your home? It is not necessarily where you are living. Home is where you create it and you haven’t done that yet. From now on you are trying to find your home. So far no home has been handed down by God to us; we are the prototypes of the ideal family for the future. The most important aspects of the family are economic concerns and proper education for your children.</p>
|
||||
<p>Unlike the secular world your life is never centered upon just the two of you “having fun” together. Your goal is solving the two major problems of economics and education and the establishment of an enduring home. When one problem or the other becomes a source of great difficulty, there will be tension between you and your husband. Perhaps your husband will complain about the way you are educating the children, or perhaps you won’t have the money to pay bills and the electricity will be cut off sometimes.</p>
|
||||
<p>However, all of you have learned how to fundraise so you should not have a problem with that. You have learned enough from Divine Principle to educate your children to some extent; in that respect you have already learned more than the world at large. But you have no guarantee that your husband or wife will not get sick or that your children will be free from defects or difficulties. Are you guaranteed freedom from such afflictions just because God gave you the Blessing? No.</p>
|
||||
<p>Can you say, “The church will take care of us in the future”? No, the church has a much bigger mission to accomplish, that of reaching out to the world. Your attitude should be that you don’t want the church to worry about you but to care for those who are less fortunate than you. If the whole world is flourishing under the domain of God and you are still struggling, you will have the right to ask for help. But as long as there is such terrible suffering around the world you cannot complain about your situation.</p>
|
||||
<p>If I asked you to donate ten percent of your meager earnings to the church’s world fund, would you do it? Instead of taking from the world fund to give to the blessed family fund we should do the opposite, even though it might be very difficult. I knew the Principle so I made a strict rule for myself when I started the Unification Church not to depend upon others but to create the foundation with my own effort. Accordingly I have educated the members of the church never to become indebted but instead to consistently contribute to the church and the society.</p>
|
||||
<p>With your fundraising training you should be able to support yourself and also your missionary activities. I have been taking money from the rest of the world and spending it here for the sake of America. Strictly speaking this is in violation of the Principle but there is such a thing as the in between time of necessity. The proper way is for America to raise funds for the sake of the whole world and just set aside the bare necessities for its own sake. At this time, the reverse is happening and this is truly abnormal.</p>
|
||||
<p>My situation is much different than what you may think. My responsibility is not on the individual level nor even the family or national level; the world is my responsibility. Americans must live up to that true standard of Principle; you must completely take care of this country and help my work in the world-level mission as well. I am not indebted at all to this wealthy country; we have never received any “aid” from the government.</p>
|
||||
<p>My desire is to establish the right tradition and show the proper example of raising funds for the sake of the whole world. As you know the church owns hundreds of acres around Tarrytown which is not for my sake. It is for the future of the Unification Church and for the purpose of education in the future.</p>
|
||||
<p>There was no way I could avoid economic activities as well as religious ones. No one else is coming up with enough money to lead this gigantic world mission so I am compelled to find ways to help the church missions. When we bought the property here in Tarrytown and the New Yorker Hotel, it was only two years after I had come to America. I came here with no funds but was soon able to purchase those things.</p>
|
||||
<p>Soon you will have your own Abel family with as many children as possible. What about the other families in the society, the Cain families? The American tradition is to say, “We don’t want to worry about Cain. Let them worry about themselves,” but that is not God’s way of restoration. Cain is your elder brother and you cannot ignore him or his family. The country of America itself is in the position of Cain to you and your family. Since you cannot deal with the entire country, you must have a representative area to deal with and this is your home church area. It is Abel’s job to create unity with Cain; God cannot just hand you that unity.</p>
|
||||
<p>Your family as a unit is in a direct lineage from the True Parents and God; the Cain families are in the side-lineage. You and they must be united. We have a primarily spiritual mission but we must work within the physical realm to accomplish our mission. Abel’s family must play the leading role in every way, spiritual as well as economic. Without your serving Cain, the restoration will not take place. To the extent that you sacrifice for the world’s sake they will want to offer you great rewards. They will offer you material things and they will want you to teach them and their children. In this way you will have restored your parental position toward them. When you have established that, the satanic family will be able to cross over into the Heavenly domain and be free of Satan.</p>
|
||||
<p>Very soon many of you will start having children. Can your attitude toward your baby be, “I will love this child more than anyone else”? You must love Cain first and then Cain will turn around and love and care for your own children in order to pay you back. This is the proper way for your children to be loved. This is my tradition; I always served other families before my own. When Cain is united with you, together you can love your own children.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why do we live in such a way? We must restore the position of the angels. We must restore the proper order of God first, Adam and Eve second, children third and angels fourth. Because of this we cannot love our own children with all our attention and focus as we are naturally inclined to do. In the original world it was not supposed to be that way, but since we are restoring the fall we must serve other families before our own. Then we can let the other families serve our own children together with us, thus restoring the position of the angels.</p>
|
||||
<p>In order for you to restore the position of true parent, you must love the elder son, Cain, first. Your own son will be in Abel’s position, or the second son. Until you have loved the first son you cannot love the second. Your elder Cain son will be subjugated by heart, not by force. He will rebel against you at first but you must keep trying to serve and subjugate him with your love. One day he will bow down to you from his heart. The Principle teaches that you must not love your Abel son first even though it is painful to do that. Is it clear to you?</p>
|
||||
<p>You may be thinking, “Why did I have to join the Unification Church and learn all these things?” But your destiny is to become true parents, so you must go exactly the same way that God and True Parents have gone. Since I have learned these things I have been passing them on to you as your inheritance.</p>
|
||||
<p>You American leaders may resent the 36 couples, thinking “If it weren’t for them getting in the way, we could easily get closer to Father.” However, that is not the case. I have set up the situation in this way. I must love and care for the 36 couples and their children as well.</p>
|
||||
<p>I have to worry about the homes in which the 36 couples live. Since I cannot love all families directly I selected the 36 couples as representatives of the world. You American members know that when each of the 36 couples came here from Korea I tried to buy things for their homes. You have wondered why I made such a big fuss over them. It is because of this very principle which I am teaching you; I must live this way successfully in order for each of you to be successful. As you live this way successfully the families of the l future will be able to live this way as well. The tradition will have been established.</p>
|
||||
<p>I never went out selecting furnishings for the American leaders and they wondered why not. It is because of this principle. Your time will come but first I must take care of my Cain family level, then clan, then the nation-not the other way around. When you build a house, you build the foundation, then the lower parts and you go up from there.</p>
|
||||
<p>When the 36 couples find themselves capable, the first thing they will do is help you find your homes, furniture and other things. The Japanese members are working so hard here in this country and they don’t even have their own furniture. The 36 couples will inevitably start worrying about that before they worry about their own children. That is the Principled way.</p>
|
||||
<p>Before your physical child arrives you had better start loving Cain’s children so they will love your child. I never paid a lot of attention to my own children; of course I love them but I paid more attention to the 36 couples and gave them precedence. Even now I am not able to pay my full attention to my own children. In other words my own children are being sacrificed for the sake of the world without their even understanding it. That is why members from all over the world want to serve and love my children. It is only natural.</p>
|
||||
<p>Once you give birth to children you will take the position of true parents. If you love your Cain children first and they make unity with your Abel children, you will successfully fulfill your position of true parents. That is what we are striving for. If you don’t want to go this way it means you don’t want to be true parents and ultimately you don’t really want to get close to God. Only after you have become true parents can you go to Heaven. What else can we do but go this way?</p>
|
||||
<p>It seems that every other word which comes from some of you is “my” and “mine”-“my fiancee”, or “my wife.” Have you ever thought about Cain’s fiancee, Cain’s wife? It is your business to worry about Cain’s love and marriage even more than your own.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why did God have to extend the restoration for thousands and thousands of years? It was a very simple foundation that needed to be laid but until now nobody knew the secrets which would allow God to truly make progress. Satan’s family has been like a cancer which, once it started, extended itself all over the world. The world is now on the verge of death at the hands of this cancer, but I have discovered the secret to curing it. Through the lessons I have been giving you, you can establish the well-founded, healthy family for the first time in history. These can multiply and destroy the cancer cells.</p>
|
||||
<p>The only way this world can be cured of satanic love is by establishing the kind of marriages and families which I have been describing this morning. A world with cancer can never go to Heaven. Likewise you cannot expect to live in a worldly and satanic way and go to Heaven. If you refuse to pay attention to my words how can I help you? That is like saying, “I have cancer but I am happy and I want to live with it.</p>
|
||||
<p>I am not responsible for you to go to Heaven. If I speak plainly to you and tell you the way to go but you choose the wrong way that is your portion of responsibility; I have no control over that. I am not threatening you, I am merely showing and explaining to you: “This is the way to Heaven and that is the way to Hell. ” If there were any way you could avoid all these complicated things, certainly I would have applied it to my own case. God would have been able to give me a pleasant, royal path and you could have followed that too.</p>
|
||||
<p>The way of Principle is the way God himself has to follow; even He is not exempt from it. No matter how famous Reverend Moon may become, he too must follow the Principle. Are you exempt? No; no matter how capable and famous you may be, you must follow the Principle too. Do you have a complaint against this?</p>
|
||||
<p>Imagine if you were living in the wilderness where there was no school or education whatsoever. Suppose somebody built a school and provided the teachers, textbooks, and school bus for you. But if you didn’t want to go to school for some perverse reason, how could you be helped?</p>
|
||||
<p>We are not citizens of any Heavenly country yet; we do not have our sovereign fatherland. You are all students now; until you have finished all your schooling, you will still be students. If you can come up with an idea which is better than the one I have, I will proclaim it as the standard. So far I have the best path for you to follow. If you do not, you will all find yourselves in some in-between spirit world which is neither Heaven nor Hell.</p>
|
||||
<p>Until this time Heaven has been empty because there has been no legitimate husband and wife. The best people remained as individuals in Paradise. But there will soon be a certain level of Heaven opened when Unification Church couples go there. They are legitimately married but they have not quite finished their training course yet. Their children will accuse them if they did not teach them properly and live the Principled way. What would they say to them? My own children can never say to me, “You didn’t do what was right. ”</p>
|
||||
<p>Now that you have gone through so many years of hard work and knowing that some of you have waited so long to be married, I would like very much to be able to tell you, “Please get married and enjoy life.” I certainly don’t like to have to give difficult direction to you.</p>
|
||||
<p>Until now you have been just an individual and not a true unit of Heaven; but now that you are a blessed couple you are beginning the real business of membership in the Unification Church. It can no longer be somebody else’s business. This is your church and you are the elements of the church. If you don’t fulfill the right tradition you cannot inherit the heart of the True Parents. This is the way for you to be registered into Heaven. Do you understand?</p>
|
||||
<p>Those of you who understand the importance of the home church as your immediate business before your physical children arrive, I praise you and your ability to understand.</p>
|
||||
<p>I am training you to provide not only for your family but also for the 360 families and homes in your area. The only way to do that is to forge ahead without all kinds of indecision and doubt. Once you know you are going in the right direction you don’t need to question over and over again what you are doing, you just need to do it.</p>
|
||||
<p>You should care for the children of the people in your area and bring them presents. When you care so diligently for other people’s children they will want to bring gifts to your children, in turn. That must be the way your children receive gifts.</p>
|
||||
<p>By loving your home church people you are loving your own children and by that relationship your own children will benefit immensely. When you bring your children up strictly according to the Principle, they will grow up and work for the sake of the country. At that point the Abel children will fulfill the elder son’s position. That will be the beginning of the new history. You are laying the foundation now by uniting the Cain and Abel factions. In that way your children will be able to go directly to God without having to make Cain/Abel unity.</p>
|
||||
<p>Ultimately one country will appear which God can call His own. Once this country appears all the other countries will have to follow. God’s order will thus be established.</p>
|
||||
<p>It is so important what we do now! We are in search of our home but it is not waiting for us somewhere. It must be cultivated and created by us. Before we can do that we must accomplish all these points of understanding. When I started pushing you so strongly for home church, I gave you slogans like “Home Church is the base of the Kingdom of Heaven.” Home church is the base of the Kingdom of Heaven because it is your base.</p>
|
||||
<p>The immediate goal of restoration is the restoration of the lost elder son. God has tried again and again to accomplish this and now all the multiple complications of history have to be straightened out. It has come to the culmination point of home church and I am passing on the inheritance of home church to you blessed couples.</p>
|
||||
<p>Adam came as the eldest son. Jesus was in the position of second son. The third Adam must restore the elder son’s position. The whole family of fallen Adam became the satanic elder son’s family while True Parents’ family is the beginning of the family of God’s elder son. This is the time of the historical changeover when two worlds are clearly being distinguished.</p>
|
||||
<p>Once we solve the problems of Cain through home church there will be no more Cain/Abel problems for our children in the future. They will be able to go to God directly without needing to make unity with Cain. The home church areas are the last foothold of Satan. By loving and sacrificing yourself for the people in the area Satan will be chased out and will no longer have a foothold on the earth.</p>
|
||||
<p>The path of restoration has come to the point where you can now claim the legitimate position of elder son of True Parents through home church. This is truly the beginning of the civilization of True Adam and the end of fallen Adam. The new civilization is being passed through the True Parents down to you and down to your children. Those three generations are the elements of the Heavenly foundation. You must follow True Parents’ way and your children must folio, your way. You cannot escape the Principle but must follow absolutely.</p>
|
||||
<p>The Principle is now revealing itself so clearly that there is no room for misunderstanding or ambiguity. If you do no go this way now you must go millions of years later. Since the True Parents are here on the earth now you have the greatest chance for success. They can guide you and push you in the right direction if you begin to stray. After the death of True Parents there is no guarantee where the tradition will go. Don’t you want to inherit directly from me? That is a serious question.</p>
|
||||
<p>It is good that you don’t have children yet because if you haven’t accomplished you have to carry your children on your back and go to serve Cain’s children and beg for you’ own. I feel this is the most serious moment for all American members since I first came here ten years ago. If you are truly serious you will relieve me of my burden here in this country. When we truly sacrifice ourselves for the sake of others nobody will dare to oppose us. How can they?</p>
|
||||
<p>Your family responsibility can be done to perfection without any more help from me. You are now going beyond just “man’s portion of responsibility” and starting to fulfill the “family portion of responsibility.” God took 95°70 responsibility to man’s 5°70, yet as man fulfills his responsibility he earns total dominion over the earth. Symbolically I had 95°70 of the responsibility for home church and you had 5°70 but you will receive 100°70 of the credit because you will be the one to actually do it. I am not going to help you do it.</p>
|
||||
<p>You must be very grateful that God gave you an opportunity to be of such great benefit to the nation through your family. I paid all the levels of indemnity but you only have to pay up to the family level. Your family’s 5°70 responsibility is still remaining; you have just begun. You have a good start now because you have received every bit of instruction you need.</p>
|
||||
<p>All of mankind’s restoration has been delayed and postponed mainly because mankind has failed over and over again on the family level of responsibility. All levels of restoration have remained incomplete until now – individual, family, nation and world-but the main level of responsibility was the family. I have re-indemnified all the other levels but I have left the family part of the indemnity to you, the blessed couples. When you accomplish that, you have accomplished everything.</p>
|
||||
<p>If someone is not really confident about that, how can I relate with him? For many of you the formula course is still incomplete-7 years including 3½ years economic restoration and 3½ years witnessing. The seven year basic course is required of all members. After that your work of home church can be begun.</p>
|
||||
<p>After you are married you must accomplish these requirements during a three year period and then you will start your family. There has always been a three year course after Blessing. For an acceptable condition of indemnity there are always three crucial elements: the person who does it, the proper conditional offering (such as the dove and pigeon of Abraham’s offering) and then the time period over which it is done. In other words there is a correct time and situation through which an offering of indemnity can be acceptable. This is not according to our whim; the Principle prescribes what is necessary. When people faithfully adhere to these conditions, all their problems of fallen life such as drug abuse and sexual promiscuity will be cured.</p>
|
||||
<p>From now on there will be a clear line of demarcation between the fallen “old America,” and the new America- the free world of Principle. The new world of God will prosper and the old world of Satan will decline and perish.</p>
|
||||
<p>Our topic today is “In Search of Our Home” and you cannot exclude home church from your home. Your home is within the same fence as your home church area. No one will be able to invade your boundary. The position of “fence” will be fulfilled by the good angels: they exist to protect God’s world from Satan’s invasion. Your home will thus be a safe place within the protective boundary of your home church.</p>
|
||||
<p>Those of you who have not completed 3½ years fundraising must do that now, even though you are married. You can fulfill the requirements for the formula course while you are living in the home church area.</p>
|
||||
<p>God must be the owner of all things. Your children will belong to God, you as husband and wife will belong to God, and thus the parents will belong to God. Until now God has not truly had dominion over those positions, even though He was supposed to own everything. The angels must help in the restoration of all things. You must take the place of Adam and restore all things back to God.</p>
|
||||
<p>In order for God to be able to re-make man, someone must prepare the conditions and the property. That is our fundraising activity-you are returning God’s property. Actually 14 years are needed for these conditions but I have established it that man and woman can each take seven years. Think that I am making up the other seven years for each of you. I am determined to do that for you until I am seventy years of age. Once I reach seventy, that is the time for resting. God rested on the seventh day of His creation.</p>
|
||||
<p>Have you yet won your position as the original Adam free of the fall? If Adam had not fallen he would have had proper dominion over the archangel; but because of the fall, the archangel Satan has dominated man. We must reverse this dominion by taking the reverse way. You can return to the proper position of Adam only through the way of Principle. The fallen generations must follow Principle strictly in order to go to Heaven.</p>
|
||||
<p>You must go out and fight for 3½ years against Satan by doing fundraising. You will be cursed, spit at and even kicked; but no matter how intense it is you must endure it. If it is very difficult, the result will be that much the better. You cannot evade your destiny; you must go through whatever is required with gratitude.</p>
|
||||
<p>Adam and Eve were at the top of the growth stage when they fell to the position of Satan’s children. Now you must return to the position of elder child of God. In home church you serve the Cain people as your elder children; then you have your own children. Ultimately you will reverse their positions and your son will become your rightful elder son. In that way you will elevate yourself to the direct dominion of God and you will become true parents.</p>
|
||||
<p>Can you substitute anything else for home church? No matter how difficult it may be you must go through it. Jesus was able to indemnify the elder son’s position on the national level but he was crucified before he could reach the world level. We must go through that stage successfully no matter how difficult it is. Those who want to save their lives will lose them, while those who are willing to die for God will live-that is the Biblical paradox. Likewise when you are willing to die for the sake of home church you will be successful and you will live with God. This is the time of fulfillment of God’s goal of restoration; this is the time which all the books of the Bible were pointing to.</p>
|
||||
<p>If Satan wants to come along to Heaven he can do so but only by taking the position of younger son and honoring the elder son’ position. Satan’s tactic has been to claim the position of the first son saying, “God, I am the first son so you cannot bless the second son.” Only by acting correctly can you be freed from Satan.</p>
|
||||
<p>Do not make excuses for yourself, but face up to your responsibilities. Realize that because this way is so difficult it is that precious.</p>
|
||||
<p>Immediately after Adam and Eve fell God wanted to restore them on the individual level and then the family level but it always failed because man always failed his responsibility. God has always had an over-all objective for restoration so since the population has expanded, God has expanded His dispensation to larger and larger levels. God had to lay the foundations for the clan levels, the national level, and all the way up to the world level, but no family victory was accomplished. The True Parents came to accomplish this.</p>
|
||||
<p>All levels have come against me – community, society, nation, and world – for no legitimate reason, but I was never defeated by that and won over it instead. Why did I come here to America and what have I done here? I have told young people they must return to God-that is all I have said and done.</p>
|
||||
<p>At Yankee Stadium I said that when a house is on fire it must be saved by a firefighter coming from the outside. I came to put out the fires. However, that hurt the pride of the Americans who did not want to hear such things from a nonwhite person. It is too bad they had to hear it from a nonwhite person, but if God arranged it, what can we do? I wouldn’t say such things unless I had to; because God directs me, I will say whatever He tells me to say.</p>
|
||||
<p>I urged this country to forgive President Nixon for the sake of America’s position in the world and for the world, as well. If my motivation had been “political” I would never have supported Nixon. Nixon’s doctrine was to exclude South Korea from the defense line.</p>
|
||||
<p>Since I was concerned about the future of America, I supported the conservative Mr. Reagan. This was not out of political motivation but out of religious motivation to help the world. Since the government could find no fault in our religious activities, they tried to find some fault in the IRS tax returns. The last resort of the government has been this tax fraud case. It did not happen because they wanted to see justice done; they only wanted to find some way to stop Reverend Moon. Many other people are able to see this, not just members of the Unification Church.</p>
|
||||
<p>If I were only trying to promote the church or myself, I would never have spoken out about the political situation. It was for the sake of America that I did so. If you were in my position would you have simply let the country drift under Satan’s direction more and more? No, you would have done the same thing; you would have tried to tell the American people the truth in order to help them. I have been trying to direct the course of America according to God’s will.</p>
|
||||
<p>As blessed couples you must understand what I am doing. This course is what I pass on to you. I cannot give it to you as individuals but only as couples and families. Do you understand?</p>
|
||||
<p>We have discussed the restoration of the original position of elder son. Also we have discussed the restoration of Adam and Eve’s position. This rightful relationship must be restored. Before you can return to God you must restore the proper subject/object relationship. In this country women have been more often responsible for the breakdown of marriages than the men. The woman has become the “boss” in American families. You have to turn this right side up. This is not what Reverend Moon says, it is what Principle directs.</p>
|
||||
<p>We can see clearly that God is alive but so is Satan. Satan is always trying to lead man in the wrong direction but now God is exercising His maximum power to turn things around. What is God’s way? God is giving the inheritance to the blessed couples and they are being given the power to chase Satan away. Are you confident of the important position given to you by God?</p>
|
||||
<p>You may have been thinking that the church should provide you with a home but now you are clearly being told that you must search for your own home and build it. How will you do that? You must fulfill man’s portion of responsibility. All of you are indebted to me for the teaching and example I have given you but I am not even hinting that you should pay it back to me. I am directing that you pay it back to your own American people, your own contemporaries. You are doing this now for the sake of the generations of the future.</p>
|
||||
<p>What I am trying to teach you is to become a good ancestor. From this time forward it shouldn’t make any difference whether or not you see me often. You shouldn’t need anyone else telling you what to do. You know clearly the path you must go according to the Principle and you should not even need any more sermons from me. Many times when God made it clear what He expected from me I didn’t even pray to tell Him I would do it, but instead simply did what he expected.</p>
|
||||
<p>Many people have worked very hard but I always determined to work harder than they. I always slept less and ate less than any of you, bearing more of a cross than you; therefore I am not indebted to America for anything. 1 have never worn the finest clothing. Today I am wearing the shoes which I have been wearing for three years. I bought them on sale at a very low price.</p>
|
||||
<p>These kinds of facts are very puzzling to people. I have never made a habit of wearing neckties, although I have received many neckties as gifts. I only wear them when I must give a sermon or when I must dress up for a special occasion. I never go to a nice Chinese restaurant unless I bring many members with me. I always go to McDonalds otherwise. You Americans probably thought, “He must like McDonalds” but do you do everything that you like to do? People are curious when they see a black, shiny limousine pulling up to McDonalds’ parking lot. It doesn’t make sense!</p>
|
||||
<p>Today I am wearing stylish-looking slacks because Mother insisted that the ones I have been wearing are too old and worn out. I have never worn any rings on my hands, although I could if I wanted to. I certainly don’t need any rings to meet with God. I don’t look at Belvedere or East Garden and think to myself, “I own that.” I am not interested in owning a house; I can make my home in any peaceful place. However if I didn’t have these external things white people in this country probably would not pay any attention to us. Since your church owns such places as Belvedere and East Garden and Reverend Moon is the leader of a world-wide organization, people call you “Moonies” with derision, but inside they feel respect and even awe. It is largely because of this external foundation that we receive attention from the world.</p>
|
||||
<p>There is nothing for which I am ashamed, nor is there anything which I fear. This is the correct attitude for pursuing God’s will in the world. It is not to maintain the big house for my own comfort that I send you out to do fundraising. Much more money is spent here for the sake of America than the American family has ever been able to raise.</p>
|
||||
<p>Shall we find our own home? Determine that you will create your home with your own effort and that of your family. Don’t depend upon God, the Church, or America; they will not do it for you. Are you Americans confident to do that? If You are confident. raise your hands.</p>
|
||||
<p>Thank You.</p>
|
||||
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|
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|
|||
---
|
||||
title: "IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD"
|
||||
type: "speech"
|
||||
published: "2018-06-22T06:08:43+01:00"
|
||||
updated: "2018-06-22T06:08:43+01:00"
|
||||
source: "/blog/2018/06/22/in-the-presence-of-god.html"
|
||||
speechYear: "1982"
|
||||
categories:
|
||||
- "Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982"
|
||||
tags: []
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
<h2 align="CENTER">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
|
||||
<h3 align="CENTER">April 11, 1982<br />
|
||||
Belvedere<br />
|
||||
Translator – Sang Kil Han</h3>
|
||||
<p>Nobody was born by his own choice; none of us planned to be born. This is true not only for us but also for people of the past and future. A great mixture of people are born. Some boast of their superiority, others lament their inferiority. Some are good, others we bad. History will continue with such a mixture of people.</p>
|
||||
<p>Do people know their destiny or fate? People’s lives take many different courses; there is no single pattern. Each of us is born as a man or woman with our own life to live. What direction are men and women going in? Where is our nation going? Where is the world going? The most important question for each person to ask is, “Where am I going?”</p>
|
||||
<p>Those of you who are engaged may answer that you are going toward your fiancee. But is your fiancee going forward or backward? Is he or she moving with confidence? Is he or she about to go up, or down? You may say that you never thought about the question and frankly don’t care. You may suppose that when you are with your fiancee you will be satisfied. But what good does it do for two uncertain people to meet? If one confused person joins another, what will result? They will become even more puzzled.</p>
|
||||
<p>Two confused people will collide with each other. Your eyes will clash, your ears, mouths and minds will clash. Them is a good chance that all aspects of you will conflict. You might reason that since everyone else lives that way, you should, too. Perhaps you think that you have no other choice. But what about your family? Once you are living together, children will be born to you-that’s virtually automatic! But will your baby be able to see straight, hear straight, think straight? Perhaps your baby’s eyes will be crossed or only able to look in a certain direction. If you truly realize the position you are standing in, you feel some awe or dread. Once you are aware of it, you cannot just casually enjoy life.</p>
|
||||
<p>Let’s look at how we were born biologically. Out of millions of sperm, only one reaches the egg cell. Still, each sperm has to head in the proper general direction in order for at least one to reach the goal. If their direction is off, will they ever reach their destination? So even before you were conceived, something must have been heading in the right direction. After fertilization, the egg travels down to the baby’s home, the mother’s womb. There it settles and starts growing. But what if the egg doesn’t find its proper lodging to settle down? In such a case, could you have grown to become the person you are? If the fertilized egg settles outside the womb, the embryo cannot continue growing there.</p>
|
||||
<p>Suppose while the baby is in the mother’s womb he refuses to get oxygen from her. He has a nose, so he wants to breathe air through it. He has a mouth, so he wants to use it to cat. If an unborn baby tried to do that, it would choke with the first drink of fluid, The unborn baby has perfectly formed mouth, ears and nose, but every opening is closed. Where does it get its oxygen and nourishment from? Through the navel, of course. However, after birth that nourishment ceases.</p>
|
||||
<p>The umbilical cord needs to be protected because it is the baby’s lifeline and source of nourishment. Inside the mother, the baby does not have unlimited freedom of activity; to a certain extent it can move around, but it has to stay within bounds and maintain order.</p>
|
||||
<p>The environment of the mother’s womb is liquid, not air. Does the baby feel good in there? How can you say that the baby likes being in water? During that stage of life, water is the most comfortable environment. Does the baby remain there by its own choice? What keeps it there? Natural law. When we live within natural law, we are protected. Even the time of birth is not the baby’s own choice.</p>
|
||||
<p>You sisters, was it your choice to become a woman? Did you plan to be a woman and have a big bosom and shapely hips so people would admire you for your physical beauty? Did any of you think like that? Who decided you would be a woman? You may say that your father and mother determined it, but actually no one knows how such a decision is made. It is definitely decided, even though we cannot comprehend it or explain how.</p>
|
||||
<p>At the time of birth, is the baby aware that it is about to come out of the protected, watery environment and down the narrow birth canal? Does it know what it has to do? Does it realize that somehow it has to dilate the cervix and expand the mother’s bones enough to pass through the birth canal? Its head is larger than the passages it has to go through . If the baby were aware of all that, it would probably conclude that it couldn’t make it, and give up.</p>
|
||||
<p>Were any of you aware of your situation at birth? Still, when the time was at hand, you came out. Do you think that a baby can be born without making effort of its own? The baby has to put forth all its energy. Of course, the mother in labor gives all her strength to deliver, but the baby has to cooperate with her for a safe delivery, too. Something kicks the baby on the bottom and tells it, “Go out now, or else!” It tries really hard to get out.</p>
|
||||
<p>People don’t understand why the baby cries at birth. It had such a difficult time coming out that it bursts into tears. If the baby started crying while in the womb, it would be in trouble. But don’t you think the baby wants to cry out even before birth? Certainly it does, but it cannot; it has to wait. To cry inside the womb is against the law of nature. When the baby is born, the change in pressure in its lungs makes it start breathing and it cries.</p>
|
||||
<p>Even at this stage, the baby doesn’t have much awareness. Before, it couldn’t survive five minutes without the umbilical cord, but now the cord is severed, and the baby’s existence no longer depends completely upon the mother. It is more or less independent. Now the baby has a choice in eating. What doesn’t taste good gets spit out, what tastes good gets swallowed. What is the best tasting food for a baby? It is mother’s milk, of course.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you really think about it, isn’t it mysterious and miraculous how the mother’s body produces such perfectly nutritious milk? Why does the nipple protrude rather than indent? Who designed the nipple to protrude for nursing? Will the breast answer that it designed its own nipple? No, a higher order designed it.</p>
|
||||
<p>We have observed that until birth, the baby’s life is very orderly; it can do nothing other than fellow the steps planned for it. A sperm projected itself toward an egg; that fertilized egg developed as a male or a female destined to walk on this earth as a living, growing being.</p>
|
||||
<p>Each person on earth needs a direction in life. The general direction in life is for men to go toward women, and women toward men. That is the truth. There is no woman who can claim she doesn’t need a man; no woman can expect to remain just as she is and be perfectly well. Just as we observed order in each stage of prenatal development, there is order in our lives now: men must head toward women, and women toward men. There is no exception. This is an unchangeable, irreversible order.</p>
|
||||
<p>Once a man and a woman become one, they need direction as a couple. When husband and wife meet, they go to a home. When the sperm and egg unite, they go to a home: the womb. Life before birth is a microcosm, or concentrated form of life in this world. This is the second stage of life, and the equivalent to our mother’s body here is parental love. We need parental love to make a home; this is what parents provide for their children.</p>
|
||||
<p>Before birth, the baby relies on the umbilical cord as a source of life. In this world, parental love is the umbilical cord for growth and nourishment. Can you imagine a baby denying his need for parental love? What about people who claim that they are totally independent and that they don’t need any parental support either?</p>
|
||||
<p>The parental heart yearns to give full and eternal support to the children. Parents love their children, even when those children become grandparents and beyond. While the unborn baby is growing bigger and bigger, will the mother ever tell it to stop? The baby kicks inside its mother, giving her jolts and sometimes even pain. It bothers the mother, but she feels more joy than annoyance because it shows that the baby is healthy. That is her primary thought.</p>
|
||||
<p>People should be aware that in our life on earth, we receive perpetual nourishment from the universe; without that, we could not survive.</p>
|
||||
<p>To go to the next stage of life in the spiritual world is the same kind of transition as emerging from our mother’s womb into this world. The only difference is the duration of that stage. This life on earth, during which we breathe air and eat food, lasts perhaps a hundred years. Our physical parents’ protection extends perhaps 50 or 60 years. But once we are born again into the other world, we will live with our eternal Parent for millions and billions of years.</p>
|
||||
<p>Dwelling in the eternal love of that world, we will become the very incarnations of love. There the invisible, but still very real, umbilical cord win be attached not to our belly but to our head, and we will keep growing and improving, becoming the image of God Himself. We will become the incarnations of love to become subjects of love, like our own invisible Parent.</p>
|
||||
<p>There we will be freer than ever before, enjoying the greatest conceivable liberty. Nothing will limit or fetter us. In that world we won’t have to walk with our head up and feet down; we could reverse it and still move freely in any position. We can walk any way we wish and it will be perfectly normal. Whatever we want to do, we can.</p>
|
||||
<p>But until that time, we have to go step by step, according to proper order. When we die, our body will be buried. People regard death with tremendous uncertainty, and even fear, wondering where they will go afterwards. But you don’t have to worry about such things. What you should be concerned about is how to live better on earth until the time comes to move on. You need to gain the proper nourishment while on earth-not just physical food, but spiritual elements as well. That is what you should focus on.</p>
|
||||
<p>So what are the other types of nourishment we need while on earth? Simply stated, it is the ability to harmonize with the order of the universe. It is obedience. A child may not want to eat something, but when his mother serves it and tells him to eat it, he will eat it. When the child follows that order, he gets a nod of approval from his parents as well as from the universe, which is the greater parent.</p>
|
||||
<p>On the other hand, if the child tells his parents, “I don’t want to eat what you ask me to,” he is not justified because it goes against the order of the universe. With such a rebellious attitude, even the food he eats will disagree with him once it reaches the stomach; it won’t even be digested. If he keeps eating that way, his muscles and cells will become rebellious, and the order of the universe will exclude him instead of loving him.</p>
|
||||
<p>Someone who opposes the order of the universe will feel fear. His conscience will bother him and he can never be comfortable. Even if no one else is afraid, he will still feel fear creeping up on him. There is a reason why people experience this. If you rob somebody’s food, wear nice clothes that you stole, or hurt other people, your conscience will bother you, won’t it? What makes you feel that way? You may try to justify your actions, but you cannot steal without feeling something painful. What is that something? It is the universal force at work.</p>
|
||||
<p>Everything fits into a pattern. We know that people live in three orderly stages: first, inside the mother’s womb; second, on earth; and third, in the spirit world. Compare life in your mother’s womb to life on this earth. There is a very clear con-elation between the two. Now consider that even your present existence is like living in a womb and one more step awaits you.</p>
|
||||
<p>You had very little range of movement inside your mother’s womb, and even now you are not completely free; a freer state is still to come. In your mother’s womb you wiggled a little and you thought it was a lot. Here we can move around and travel pretty fast in airplanes. But in the spirit world, you can move a hundred times faster than here, just by thinking! Should people follow the rays of the sun, or should the sun rays follow us? It must be possible to travel faster than light. Don’t you want to become that kind of person and go into such a realm?</p>
|
||||
<p>You are limited in what you can hear now. But wouldn’t you like to hear things whispered hundreds of thousands, or even millions of miles away?</p>
|
||||
<p>You always want the best. If the order of the universe had been ideal, we could experience such things without having to learn about them. But even in the present state of confusion and conflict, people want to go up rather than come down. It is natural to want to go up. How high can we go? The ideal realm is one of freedom through love. You could ride around on God, like children riding on a horse, or riding piggyback on their parents.</p>
|
||||
<p>Have you thought about how life’s transitions always involve weeping? When a baby is born, it cries, not laughs. When people die, those around them weep, not laugh. But in the final stage, we can be reborn laughing, not crying like a newborn baby.</p>
|
||||
<p>We live in dim stages: as a baby in the mother’s womb, then here in this world, and ultimately in the spirit world. After we become the incarnation of love and experience the fullest dimension of life on earth, then we can feel really joyful about being born into the spiritual world.</p>
|
||||
<p>People always seek freedom. Actually, people are so limited; people’s thinking is so narrow. One direction is bad but another is good. Where is true freedom? Where am human rights? Human life exists within the realm of the order of the universe. If a person does not live in accordance with the universal force, he doesn’t have true human rights.</p>
|
||||
<p>What is the banner or standard of human life? What kind of flag best symbolizes human life? Love. Love is life. People may seek power, freedom or some other value, but the basis of all life is love.</p>
|
||||
<p>Freedom which is not based on love is not freedom at all. If it denies, destroys or rebels, it is not freedom. Ultimate freedom means to follow the course best suited to us under the protection of universal law. Only then can we make the right choices and exercise true freedom. We should realize that our liberty is guaranteed only as long as we are protected by universal law, only as long as we develop in the direction of our original state. Anything that does not contribute to this is not freedom.</p>
|
||||
<p>Just because you do something doesn’t mean you are exercising your freedom. Here is one brother constantly dozing off. He thinks he is free to listen or not, but that is not true. Not listening denies freedom for the brother, the others in the audience, and the teacher himself. It drags down the atmosphere. He knows that, more or less, so when he becomes aware, he wakes up in surprise. Why should he jump in surprise? Do you understand?</p>
|
||||
<p>American young people need to clearly understand this concept. Does anyone disagree? Does anyone have a better idea? “It’s my life,” people in this country claim. “I’m free to marry whomever I wish.” Is that true or not? You ask why you should care about your parents, why you should listen to True Parents, why you should pay attention to those who teach you. “It’s my life; it’s my freedom,” you assert.</p>
|
||||
<p>Some Moonies are engaged for five years before they marry. Many of you think it is wonderful, but other people call it crazy. What do you think? Is this truly wonderful? You say yes, but not very convincingly. Something is holding you back. But when you analyze it further, it really is wonderful. Why? Because this is the only way the universe can have hope. This is the proper way for you to go. It is not just these few years that matter, but hundreds of thousands of generations to come will learn solid lessons from the patterns we establish right now. So think about how wonderful this is. You are laughing now and proclaiming with confidence how wonderful it is; but when you are not so sure, it is like clouds being drawn across a clear blue sky.</p>
|
||||
<p>Perhaps you say you wish you could wait five mom years. so you could do something more meaningful for the world and for history. Would you choose to wait ten years rather than five? When you think how wonderful it is, am you ready to wait that long? Some of you laugh, but I would like to find out why you laugh. Is it because you think it is wonderful or for some other mason?</p>
|
||||
<p>Do I take pleasure in making Americans suffer? Out of all the pain and frustration you go through, I hope to see a new America reborn. I want to see a new standard Of marriage in America. Waiting five years is not easy, but we have to conquer it. I have been observing young American men and women for many years now, and I am not at all satisfied. For some odd reason, people think they have the freedom and right to get divorced. But I know that the universe does not work that way. Once you choose love, it should last forever and ever. That is the value of love. All human value rests on that.</p>
|
||||
<p>This world is not an isolated realm; it is part of the continuous universe. You are trying to isolate it, and I am teaching you that it is a continuous one. What makes this world perpetual? What sustains its physical existence and causes it to endure? It is the consistent flow of love: the love that parents feel toward their children, and vice versa; the love of teachers for their students, investing themselves to make sure that they learn; the love a president has for his country, its cities and its people; the love saints feel for mankind, present and future; the love God feels for the human race and all things. In all these, the pattern of love is consistent; love alone endures.</p>
|
||||
<p>Suppose a husband and wife are both perfectionists and they give birth to a child with a deformity. Can they end its existence and say, “Well, we can try again”? Is that true love? No, of course not. By the same token, once a person chooses to marry another, he or she should try to make up for any shortcomings and compensate for whatever faults may show up in their spouse. That is the proper course here, and such love will endure in the spirit world, where love is more visibly dominant than it is here. Such a person is a true husband or wife. True love means that when it is easy to love, you love, and when it is difficult, you still love. This distinguishes true love from false love.</p>
|
||||
<p>That criterion also distinguishes the true teacher. When a student listens well, learns easily and shows respect, the teacher can easily love the student. But when a student doesn’t appreciate the teacher and rebels against him, the teacher almost wants to disown him. Yet a true teacher continues to make effort.</p>
|
||||
<p>In much the same way, when everything goes well in a country, its president can really appreciate the citizens. But when the citizens don’t act properly, the president may feel like cursing them. But a true president still takes responsibility for his country.</p>
|
||||
<p>The only thing which makes the relationship between God and man eternal is love. God, the king of the whole universe, offers people His love, but His love needs some channel to reach us. When His love is blocked, it is like a bridge being destroyed along that route.</p>
|
||||
<p>Electricity, for example, needs a conductor. Gold and copper are the best conductors because they offer the least resistance, and the power can flow through them without losing strength. We all want God’s love to flow through us, don’t we? In order to avail ourselves of God’s love, we have to become spiritual gold or copper. It’s very simple and easy to understand.</p>
|
||||
<p>Which color of skin is the purest? Which race is the best conductor of God’s love? Let’s say this white woman is the most beautiful-not only the most beautiful white women but the most beautiful woman in the entire world. But if she becomes arrogant, God’s love cannot possibly flow through her. Purity is mom important than outward beauty. The things you see in your fiancee are most likely the external things. You notice, first of all, whether he or she is white, black, or yellow. You may not believe that a black person can be gold; only white people qualify. But you could think of your fiancee as black gold.</p>
|
||||
<p>My title this morning is “In the Presence of God.” Why am I discussing so many things? It is because you have a lot of extraneous matter in your thinking. I wanted to trim you a little bit!</p>
|
||||
<p>When I state that there is no such thing as freedom in our present world, does it please you or disturb you? What I mean is that to act for a selfish purpose is not freedom. True freedom preserves the order of the universe. In this sense, there is no true freedom on this earth. The universe will protect true freedom, but it will ignore or oppose what is untrue. Them is no way to reach the realm of true freedom without following the universal order.</p>
|
||||
<p>Them is order in the mother’s womb and a different order in the spirit world. But we must abide by the order we dwell in. We need parental love throughout our fife on earth, unceasing, undying parental love.</p>
|
||||
<p>A pregnant woman eats good food in order to nourish her baby. Suppose she orders a $10.00 steak. Will she pay $9.00 and charge her baby the remaining $1.00? That’s not rational.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you plant vegetables, does nature send you a bill for their growth? Nature is completely free. As long as you do everything with love, you will meet with no resistance from nature. Suppose you cut the most beautiful flower in the world and put it in a vase. As long as you deeply love that flower, it won’t mind. But suppose you give that marvelous flower to some girl in order to entice her and take advantage of her. In that case, the flower will do its utmost to rebel against you. However, if the flower knows it is in good hands and is being carried to your eternal love, it will sing out with every step you take. That’s true! Flowers have feelings about people. Flowers best fulfill their purpose of existence when they am used by the person with the greatest love.</p>
|
||||
<p>Poetry dealing with themes of love is the most beautiful. The most enduring literature deals with love. The greatest science is also done out of love. When political affairs am conducted out of love, certainly that is marvelous to behold. In a tournament of love, no competitor will ever feel resentment because the winner always raises the degree of love. Any country will welcome an increase in its number of loving citizens. And the president of a country should run the government by love.</p>
|
||||
<p>Suppose you have a handkerchief steeped with the greatest love. It may have cost just a few cents, but you would never exchange it for a million dollars, would you? If you misuse it, the handkerchief would feel sorrowful; but if your heart is filled with love, the handkerchief won’t mind if you are too busy to wash up or too busy to clean and press it. Whatever truly loving eyes behold will always reflect that love.</p>
|
||||
<p>You may Re opera, but if someone sings of love in squeaky tones, it should please your ears more than a highly-trained voice. You may have unsightly ears-as long as a rabbit’s-but if those ears can discern the notes of true love, you should be proud of them.</p>
|
||||
<p>Not all sleeping is bad. If you became tired in the cause of love, an afternoon nap is a beautiful sleep. A good painter would want to portray such sleeping beauty on canvas.</p>
|
||||
<p>Any activity related to love will be welcomed; people won’t mind it. Suppose someone gets whacked on the head. It’s painful, whether done with love or not. But as long as the motive was love, when the pain subsides you will exclaim, “Oh, I love that!”</p>
|
||||
<p>With your bag full of true love, you can go anywhere, day or night, and be welcomed by all.</p>
|
||||
<p>If a stunningly beautiful woman enters a man’s bedroom, and he realizes she has something other than true love on her mind, the man should throw her out in an instant. That is love. In such a case, to kick someone out, rather than to welcome and embrace her, is love. If the woman is an American, she will be hurt because she doesn’t know what love is and what it is not!</p>
|
||||
<p>The happy person is one who makes his goal to follow love and embrace loving things throughout his lifetime.</p>
|
||||
<p>I can take care of myself, but I like to lean on Mother and be protected by her; I want to follow her wherever she goes. That’s beautiful. Likewise, Mother always wants to lean on me. Even though she wants to be independent, she says she is better off leaning on me, since I have more security than I need. That is so beautiful.</p>
|
||||
<p>Children want to be included in the love between their father and mother. They want to lean on them, talking things over with them, and just be in the same neighborhood of love.</p>
|
||||
<p>A lot of people are pursuing their Ph.D. degree. They may reason that they have reached the pinnacle of life and that there is no one better than they. They consider themselves independent and able to take cam of themselves. But without love, what good is all the knowledge in the world? They will be counted among the most miserable of all people. This is even more true of kings or others who exercise earthly sovereignty.</p>
|
||||
<p>Even God wants to rest in the embrace of love. He wants to lean on the arm of love, just as everyone else. I feel I am such a small part of the entire universe, but God really wants to come and rest on me. In such a position, I want to offer everything to God because I am so awed by the opportunity to protect and comfort Him. No matter how great God is, He wants to make Himself small enough to be completely embraced in the arms of a loving person. He, too, wants to feel protected. That is the pure love of God. Knowing that, I will do anything to fulfill it. Can you imagine any greater value for human beings?</p>
|
||||
<p>In such a relationship with God, whether your skin is black or white has no bearing whatsoever. The only thing important is to have a responsive nature.</p>
|
||||
<p>Now you know what kind of life you should be living. You need a banner announcing to the world who you are. What do you want inscribed on that banner? “True Love.” Wouldn’t you like that?</p>
|
||||
<p>I want to remind you that the world is full of eyes; the eyes of nature and the universe are constantly watching over you, observing everything you do. You must also realize that there are invisible ears, waiting for you to speak words of true love. All the noses of the universe an waiting for you to emit some fragrance of love. The mouths of the universe are speaking to you; they will call out to you over and over, until you hear them. The universe is waiting to feel your touch.</p>
|
||||
<p>What are these sense organs of the universe concerned about? Are they interested in some of the great studies being done in this world? No? Perhaps money, because people say there is nothing that money cannot buy. No? Authority? Power? What is unanimously cherished by all these sense organs as the greatest value and source of the greatest enjoyment? It is true love.</p>
|
||||
<p>Have you seen true love? Where? Suppose a parent is carrying a bag with a very yummy and tasty treat for his child. Wherever he goes, he carries it in his pocket and won’t let go of it-even in the bathroom. Now suppose the bathroom isn’t one of the toilets hem, but like those in the less-developed countries: just a bucket and natural smells-nothing artificial! If he stays long enough among those natural smells, some of them will be absorbed through the bag. Later, the father gives the bag to his child and says, “This is the most delicious thing I have ever eaten; have some.”</p>
|
||||
<p>If the child is an American, he will probably refuse to taste it. He will protest, “Oh, Father, why do you think this is the best thing in the world?” But the true child will really appreciate it because he knows his father will bring him nothing but the best. There may be finer things, but in his mind they cannot be better than what his father brings him, so he will eat it. How about that!</p>
|
||||
<p>True love transcends everything. It goes beyond all visible barriers. Where true love exists, nothing else matters. Do you understand?</p>
|
||||
<p>True love must be something really good for everybody, all the time. I am usually very dignified; I am careful about what I do, and I don’t smile or laugh easily. But once I sense true love, I grin from ear to ear; I can’t help it. What does that signify? All my cells jump into peak activity, even without my knowledge. Although they aren’t told to do so, they focus upon love, and I become totally excited and jump up and down without reservation. Once true love is activated and its engines get rolling, it will continue forever and ever, without fading away.</p>
|
||||
<p>If you fight in true love, it should. be a good love fight. Then nobody would mind. Do you understand? That is the kind of law which is ruling over you.</p>
|
||||
<p>You have a limited time period in which to pass this course. The most you will live is about a hundred years, but within that life span, you should pass the grade. Then you can make the transition properly. The transition is what people call death. Once we die and go to the other side, being reborn over there, we will be in the presence of God.</p>
|
||||
<p>Compared to the life we now experience, an unborn baby is almost the same as being dead. It doesn’t speak; it doesn’t express itself-, it hardly does anything. But once it is born, that baby begins a life of greater freedom; it stands in the presence of its parents. Likewise, after so-called death, we are reborn and stand in the presence of God-not the parents of this world, but God. God is our eternal Parent. The parents of this world are our limited parents.</p>
|
||||
<p>Recently “Tiger” Park went to the spirit world. You may feel some grief about his situation, but I completely disagree with you. In one way, I feel, “Lucky guy; he must be doing well now.” Remember what I spoke about earlier. With your physical body, could you keep up with God when He travels so fast? When you shake off your body, you become invisible and can follow God. In that respect, a body is something of a nuisance. Also, the universe is so immense that even by the fastest known method it would take a billion years to go from one end to another, but God can cross that vast universe at will. Don’t you want to follow Him wherever He goes? The only way to do that is by becoming like God and existing without a body. speak of love at breakfast, lunch, dinner, or bedtime, but is it easy to attain? Yet you speak about it as if it were not difficult. Who says so? God. God is watching over us.</p>
|
||||
<p>These are not just concepts. This is the reality which we will experience when we stand in the presence of God. We need to devote our time on earth to fulfilling this.</p>
|
||||
<p>How does God view us? What does He look for in us? God looks for order. There are eight kinds of order: the central order; the order of love; ethical order; family order; social, national, worldwide, and universal order. All mankind is encompassed within this array. God looks at us within these various realms of order.</p>
|
||||
<p>It is not easy to stay in the mainstream in these eight stages. Without the Principle, very creative or smart people can be successful in only one or two levels. Something unjust or unloving cannot be elevated; only what is genuine and principled can be carried from one level to another. By living a good and principled life, you can successfully penetrate and cross all barriers.</p>
|
||||
<p>Who can freely pass these checkpoints? It is the person who embodies Principle: the person who can respect his parents, who can love the president of his company as he loves his parents, and love the head of his nation in the same way. Only those who have this principled nature can advance.</p>
|
||||
<p>These qualities start in the family, in the vertical relationship between parents and children and in the horizontal relationship of husband and wife and brothers and sisters. If you can apply these three relationships on a worldwide level, you can deal with any situation. Once you master this art, you will not find it difficult to take command anywhere. The teacher is like a parent at school; the company president the parent of a business; the head of state the parent of a nation; and God the universal parent. If you can develop this basic heart and expand it to each successive level, you will have freedom on each level. In fact, this is the only way you can go around freely.</p>
|
||||
<p>You may go to Africa, but still you will develop subject/object relationships there. All other relationships are encompassed within the concept of True Parents. With True Parents, we can transcend differences of history, culture, or geographical location. In the East and the West, True Parents are the same.</p>
|
||||
<p>We cannot jump directly to heaven from the family level. First we must go through the levels of society, nation, world and universe. Therefore, we must cherish society more than our family and our nation more than our society. The smaller is subjugated by the greater, the individual is the smallest entity. Those who remain on this course, the A students, will land in the very center of love. The less successful ones will be outside the center. Since we are trying to connect with the universe, we have to remain on the central road. After landing in the center of the universe, we link up all the other parts; we become the center of love. God operates through this central axis of love. God is in the center.</p>
|
||||
<p>This can be explained simply in terms of subject/object relationships. For whom do you live? You answer God, but in reality, often you are thinking of no one but yourself. Before you can establish a subject/object relationship, you have to think of someone else. If you focus your mind on that person, you can begin to create an ideal subject/object relationship.</p>
|
||||
<p>There is a central order in the universe with which everything has to conform or harmonize. In that order, God is the subject and human beings the object. Also, human beings are the subject over all things of creation, as object. All things are further subdivided into the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms; all of these need to be connected through love. So all things direct themselves towards mankind as the center of love, connected with God.</p>
|
||||
<p>Who is the subject and who is the object in the Unification Church? You might ask why you can’t be the subject for a change. You might want to do things as you wish, instead of listening to me. Or you might want me to listen to you once in a while. But them is an order governing subject/object relations. You might start collecting reasons to support your desires. For instance, you might say you are a white person and I am yellow, and since the white race has been dominant throughout history, there is no reason to change it now. But our relationship has nothing to do with race. This tradition is centered on love; through love we find our parents.</p>
|
||||
<p>I thoroughly understand this principle, and therefore I can adapt to situations more quickly than other people can. I can go from one extreme situation to another and adjust with ease. When I enter any place or social gathering, I immediately look for its center. I also examine the subject/object relationships.</p>
|
||||
<p>How do you distinguish between good and evil in a particular situation? Goodness is long-lasting and applies to all circumstances. Evil is relatively short-lived and applies better to some situations than others. Cheating, for example, works for a while, but not for long; the more you cheat, the less your chances of success in the future. Justice, on the other hand, may not be clearly understood; but as time goes by, it becomes more apparent and gains strength.</p>
|
||||
<p>The same rule applies in my court case. Certain forces think they have something against me. But we have been devoting our lives to this cause, and we will continue doing so for the rest of our lives and even beyond. Our actions have continuity; wherever we go, we maintain the core subject/object relationship, and any horizontal relationships are formed around that center.</p>
|
||||
<p>The fall of man denied this central order. God is subject, but as a result of the fall, people became ignorant of God and either knowingly or unknowingly submitted to the control of evil. However, we am being taught to have absolute faith in God. Do you suppose that anything less than absolute faith can bring us back to the original, central order from which we deviated through the fall? Absolute faith is a prerequisite for returning to God.</p>
|
||||
<p>You have learned a great deal about God by now. Do you have complete confidence in Him? Is your faith absolute? If you do not regard God as the absolute subject, that means you are not absolute objects. You can drift away at any time. Your direction varies; sometimes you are closer to the center, sometimes farther away.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you came to the Unification Church, you were convinced it was right and good. But now after many years, perhaps you are more inclined to think your old life was better. Christmas, birthdays, and family occasions were important to you, but after joining our church, you don’t even go back home for those events.</p>
|
||||
<p>Well, there is a reason. You can explain to yourself that you need an absolute relationship with God, and since you do not have that yet, you do not qualify for these other things. Therefore, you have to deny yourself completely. Then, after rejecting all these things and after becoming an absolute object to God, you can own everything. In order to attain the goal, we have to deny everything else. We even fast on our birthday to deny it, don’t we?</p>
|
||||
<p>We deny everything in order to re-establish our relationship with God. Denying the fallen world is not bad after all, right? Unless we deny things temporarily, we cannot re-establish our relationship with the ideal being.</p>
|
||||
<p>This applies not only to Unification Church members. I myself do it. I tried both ways. I tried not denying everything, but it didn’t work out. But through denial, I have been able to establish something permanent for God.</p>
|
||||
<p>Since you call us True Parents, your physical parents must wonder what they are: untrue parents? Bad parents? They aren’t happy with that thought, so some try to kidnap their own children. When you find something true, you have to jump for it, isn’t that right? If existing families had been true families already, you wouldn’t have wanted to change. But when you met the true family, you jumped for it. To jump for something is to deny something else.</p>
|
||||
<p>People want to stop me from teaching and propagating this message, but if it is the way of truth, how can I stop sharing it? This is what God has been striving to create all throughout history, and I want to follow His way. It is so simple and clew. We have to be victorious in God’s sight, whether other people approve or not. Do you understand?</p>
|
||||
<p>Through the fall, the order of love was reversed and human relations and human ethics were turned upside down. Man was supposed to be the subject but now wom-en have more or less become the subjects. That is a result of the fall.</p>
|
||||
<p>The center of the home is no longer God, but someone else, namely Satan. How can I say such a thing? It is very easy to see. If God is the center of a family, people will live for each other, serving and sacrificing themselves for one another. But in families today, everybody wants to work for personal benefit, even at the sacrifice of their relatives. Therefore, it is clear that someone other than God is at the center.</p>
|
||||
<p>Look at society. Nobody is concerned first for society and second for his family. People should focus first on the benefit of society, second on the family, and finally on themselves as individuals. But that original order has been completely reversed. Instead, each individual looks first after himself. Someone who is a little mom loving will work for the sake of his family, and, if he has mom time, will serve society as a third priority. People think about the individual first and then the family. Even at work, employees put things into their pockets and bring them home. Anybody can see that the original order has been reversed in such a case.</p>
|
||||
<p>Furthermore, people should love their country first. But do people think about their nation and work first for its well-being, and later think about their society and family? It is the other way around.</p>
|
||||
<p>Do Americans think about the world and cherish it more than their own country? Do they think in an orderly way? They frankly do not care about the world; at best, they are concerned about their country. But the way the world is going, Americans must focus on the world first and their country second. In fact, the United States would have an easier course if there were another country which could live up to this standard, but there is no other country. Americans assume that there is nothing else they can do, since all the other countries act the same way. The world needs the Unification Church’s ideal; without it, it could never survive.</p>
|
||||
<p>In order to be confident about all these things, you need to understand the eternal spiritual world. This pres-ent world exists for the sake of the spirit world, which is closer to God, but many of you are not sure about the spirit world. You are not absolutely convinced that it exists. We are right next to the big city of New York, for example; you can step out and go there. You are certain that it exists, but not as sure that the spirit world exists. It does, though.</p>
|
||||
<p>Perhaps I know more about the spirit world than anyone else on earth. Some people ask me, “How do you know? Have you been there?” They may not really want to listen, but I am convinced of these things and I base my actions on them.</p>
|
||||
<p>The spirit world is where God personally resides; anybody can feel Him in the spirit world. Then for whom and for what does God exist? For the sake of true love. Only through love can we be sure of connecting with God.</p>
|
||||
<p>What is Satan’s operating principle? It is easy to explain: Satan’s way is anything that reverses or goes against God’s desire. God doesn’t even want to look at what Satan does.</p>
|
||||
<p>Knowing this, whose side are you on: the side of God or Satan? Since you say you are on God’s side, the next question is whether you cherish the spirit world more than this world. If you die young, you will go there early. So to die is not altogether bad; in fact, under these circumstances, it is good news. Long ago, Jesus said loud and clear that whoever is willing to die shall live. What he said is true, isn’t it? Now we understand why.</p>
|
||||
<p>When Jesus talked of dying, he meant dying for the sake of God. You may say, “But Father, you taught us the principled order. I’m not even married. I should experience family life and have children. How can I die now?” Well, if God approves, you can transcend that order. Dying for the sake of God is more precious than living for the sake of something else. When you go to the spirit world, how wonderful it would be if your eyes, ears, nose and mouth could all claim that they died for God’s sake! How wonderful, in the spirit world, to be able to say that you also sacrificed love for God’s sake!</p>
|
||||
<p>Do you actually love the world more than your own country? Do you love your country more than your society? Do you love your society more than your family? And do you love your family more than yourself? We cannot live by just following our impulses or seeking what is nice and comfortable. We are supposed to live for this higher order</p>
|
||||
<p>The United States has no equal among the nations of the world. But what can it be proud of today? What achievements can it boast of before God? Is its predominant way of thinking true or false? It’s false, isn’t it? There is no central stream of thought hem. Is there any order to love in America? When you answer no, you have to be sure of what you are saying. If you say human ethics are missing, that means only animal ethics apply Does it sound good to say that Americans we living like animals?</p>
|
||||
<p>You cannot deny it. There is sex even among close relatives. Well, at least you still have a sense of shame. We have to change this situation.</p>
|
||||
<p>Is there original order in society? Do people cherish society more than their family? No, the reverse is true. What about devotion to their country? Do they have a world view? A universal view? You may not know precisely, but you can assume that if something is missing at a lower level, the situation will be worse at higher levels.</p>
|
||||
<p>But the United States is not just any country. Whether Americans like it or not, other nations look up to you as an example. Other people copy the morals of Americans. If the world is washed away, the first country to be punished will be the United States. I came here to prevent this from happening. If Korea collapses, the world could still be saved; but if America goes under, it will be so much more difficult to save the rest of the world.</p>
|
||||
<p>All these deviations of society have to end. Do you think the gay movement is in accordance with God’s central thought? So many things in this country go against God’s order. An alarming number of American young people use drugs. After prolonged use, people can no longer function as normal human beings; they become ill and cannot think straight. The number of drug users is increasing, not decreasing. Society is drifting farther and farther from God’s order.</p>
|
||||
<p>God will be the judge, Jesus the defense attorney, and Satan the prosecutor. Satan will accuse people of all these crimes and claim them as his offspring. Jesus will try to defend them, but he knows more clearly than anybody the original law by which mankind must abide. Do you think he can effectively defend the whole of mankind when it is measured against that original standard?</p>
|
||||
<p>Communism denies God. It does not believe in any need for order in the family; it places no special importance on parents. Communism wants to eliminate the need for nuclear families and for the parental role in families. They call these lofty ideas hallucinations and tell people not to worry about something that isn’t there. Communism claims that history advances through struggle and revolution and that the victory belongs to the strongest. Communism denies any central guiding thought in this universe. It denies any order of love, claiming that everything is random. This is a perfect description of the satanic world. South America is becoming more and more inclined toward the satanic side.</p>
|
||||
<p>Our task is to propagate the truth and restore what has been lost. Tins court case is based on what we have proclaimed. We will never compromise our message. That is why people halt and accuse us. Which step could we compromise on? There can be no compromise</p>
|
||||
<p>Them are two types of Americans today. One group knows the truth and will defend it with their life; they will not mind dying to preserve it. Another group says they know this, but they don’t really care; their personal liberty, safety, comfort and satisfaction take priority. They aren’t concerned about God. They don’t even know whether He exists. In God’s court, the first type will be the true witnesses for righteousness, and the second type will be witnesses for unrighteousness. A judge who understands both sides will rule in favor of the righteous. He will strike out the unrighteous and preserve the righteous, no matter how small their number may be.</p>
|
||||
<p>You should remember that it is not just one individual who goes to court; it is everybody. At some time in our life, we must stand before the court of the universe.</p>
|
||||
<p>This court case deals with events that happened not this year or last year, but ten years ago: 1972, 1973, 1974. In the spirit world, it is very much the same. You will face everything that happened ten, twenty, thirty or more years ago. And it is a very serious matter. You shouldn’t worry about whether people prosecute you but whether you have done anything wrong. If you have developed a character pleasing to God and have not done anything wrong, then it doesn’t matter who tries to blame you. If you are willing to take on tasks nobody else wants to do, if you sacrifice yourself for greater and greater causes, when you stand before the court of justice in the spirit world one day, the judge will favor you Those of you who are studying for a doctorate degree, are you studying for the sake of God, for your fellow human beings, for your fellow Americans, or for yourself? If you study for God, His greatest mandate is that you use your influence to save this nation and its people-not to focus on your future and so-called career.</p>
|
||||
<p>You may object that since you have spent so much time studying, you should be entitled to lead an easy life. That is wrong. ‘Me more you study, the mom indebted you are to society and the universe.</p>
|
||||
<p>nose who are going to school should feel more indebted than the average church member. The average members go fundraising and witnessing; some may even lose their life in an accident. You have security and prestige, and you are enjoying the pursuit of so much knowledge. But why are you continuing your studies? When you master Principle, you should be able to witness better than your less-learned brothers and sisters. With your higher education, you should be able to raise mom funds than those who had to work all the time without the chance to further their education.</p>
|
||||
<p>After you graduate, you could become the most respected scholar in your field, correct what is wrong, and steer its development in the proper course . If that is your ambition, your studies are justified. But if you think the challenge is too difficult and you don’t want to devote yourself to that task after graduation, there is no purpose to your studying.</p>
|
||||
<p>For this reason, I send the Seminary graduates to CARP and Ocean Church. They are the most difficult missions in our movement. Those of you who are pursuing a doctorate degree, do you expect to keep going up after graduation, or are you willing to go down first and rise later? You have to know what course lies ahead of you. Your mission is to make a confrontation. You were sent to school to proclaim clearly what is right and wrong. Your task is to challenge the wrong and effectively deny it. That means you have to work harder than anybody else. Don’t dream of just being a white-collar worker and having a nice career; that will give you no position in history.</p>
|
||||
<p>People must prepare themselves for their appearance before the court of the universe. You should be concerned about how you can be acquitted, how you can leave no room for Satan to accuse you. The judge knows everything; he sees who is right and who is wrong. The prosecutor knows more about the bad side than anybody else, and the defense attorney should know everything about the good side. He has to repel every argument the prosecutor may raise.</p>
|
||||
<p>As I said, all Unification Church members will one day have to stand before God’s court of the universe and face Satan as your accuser. I will be your defense attorney. If you don’t listen to me and follow everything I direct you to do, can you survive before the court of the universe? Those who don’t listen will have to go through an ordeal. The ideal would be for you to get my signature testifying that you have passed the course. Then you wouldn’t have to stand in court at all. If you had your choice, would you prefer to stand trial, no matter what? Certainly, you would rather avoid it. How wonderful it would be to have a pass entitling you to enter the spirit world freely, without having to face the court of the universe.</p>
|
||||
<p>What is the pass? True love, on all levels. Wherever I go I carry this banner of true love. If you can take this banner to Africa, to Korea, or to whatever land, and live up to its standard, you won’t have to stand trial. Without it, however, you will be stopped and questioned.</p>
|
||||
<p>You all know that. If you live a different way, you realize that the court will eventually call you to account for it. If you don’t satisfy the law of God, you cannot enter His realm; bad people cannot trespass there.</p>
|
||||
<p>I have lived by this principle while in the United States. I don’t feel indebted to America; rather, America is indebted to me. People may judge me, but I know clearly the ultimate judgment. Nothing that happens to me will cause me to waver. Even if I am condemned, there will be a day of resurrection.</p>
|
||||
<p>If your hands work against God, their deeds will testify in court. The same holds true for your eyes. Can you pull out your eyes to indemnify their wrong doings on earth? Certainly not. Especially if you misuse love on earth, how can you avoid embarrassment and shame in the spirit world? If you don’t do something about it here, how can you escape the misery to come? Your shame will not be confined to yourself and your generation alone, but to your entire lineage. All the hundreds of generations connected to you will endure the same situation as you.</p>
|
||||
<p>Unless you pass every detail of the course here, such a trial surely awaits you. We must prepare for the time when we will stand in the presence of God. If you need proof, when you die you will see whether my teaching was wrong.</p>
|
||||
<p>Every day you should improve yourself, always building up your qualifications for the day when God can commend you and give you His approval. The prosecutor will still bring out the bad things in your life, but you should devote every day to the task of winning the title. It is difficult to persevere, without enough food or sleep, but you should overcome all those challenges for the sake of your country and for the love of God. Once you build up credit, the universe will need you and protect you, no matter how viciously Satan attacks.</p>
|
||||
<p>People think they are free to do anything they wish, but it is not true. Our only real choice is to do good, in accordance with God’s order. We need to choose the best way to do that and continue on that course so that we can stand blameless in front of God. Do you understand?</p>
|
||||
<p>The law of the universe governs us, whether we are aware of it or not. That law demands that we go a certain way. Don’t imagine that you can take just any course and be successful. The best way to transcend this law and be free of its restrictions is by love. If you live with love, even though you may be ignorant of the law, you can never violate it. You can freely pass through any place, even hell. If you have absolute love, hell will open up its gates for you.</p>
|
||||
<p>Actually, Unification Church members don’t live with as much a sense of guilt and fear of hell as other people. While others may fear it greatly, we don’t. But we should realize that hell definitely exists. We are not in it now, so we don’t know too much about it. Our task is to march forward with the banner of love and put that love into practice. If we don’t do that, a truly formidable future awaits us.</p>
|
||||
<p>So I want each of you to be victorious in the trial which you will face. If you are guided by love, you don’t really need any leader’s recognition or approval, do you? You can be your own leader, you know best how to go the way of love Whether people take notice or not, whether people approve or not, I will do what I have to do, and I will not do what I know I shouldn’t. Likewise, you don’t need an MFT leader, a witnessing captain, or a home church director. You know the purpose of home church; you know the goal. Whether people are watching you or not, you should continue your course.</p>
|
||||
<p>Actually, love develops better when you do things without other people being aware. Sometimes you see a man and woman embracing and kissing in the street and wonder what kind of special privilege from the court of the universe they think they have. I told you not to kiss or even hold hands while you are engaged because it could lead to something more. But if you are truly grounded in Principle, it is hypothetically possible for you to kiss without it being bad. But until the proper time, don’t do it.</p>
|
||||
<p>Our entire purpose is to elevate the value of love. Something may not be wrong, and we may want very much to do it, but we will hold back because if we can overcome it, our level of love will be greater. Do you understand? In front of True Parents, yes is the only proper answer.</p>
|
||||
<p>Even bad parents don’t want to teach their children bad things. Even bad teachers want their students to learn good things.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you follow the proper direction, you will always rise because the universe will protect you. If you object to what I say and refuse to do it, you are taking the opposite course. It’s impossible for you to reach the goal by merely doing whatever you wish. Doctoral students may know a lot, but they cannot receive their degree without the approval of their examiners. No matter how good you are, somebody still has to approve of you. So it is natural to conclude that, if you want to go to the same spirit world as I do, you will have to follow my way of thinking and acting. You will have to value the things I value and live by the same law I live by.</p>
|
||||
<p>My desire is for you always to focus on this one goal and think of nothing else. I want each one of you to become a victor and be free from any accusation by the court of heaven. Will you put this into practice and five each day for this goal? If you will commit yourself, please raise your hands. God bless you.</p>
|
||||
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content/speeches/1982/let-us-protect-ourselves.md
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|
@ -0,0 +1,114 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
title: "LET US PROTECT OURSELVES"
|
||||
type: "speech"
|
||||
published: "2018-06-22T06:10:23+01:00"
|
||||
updated: "2018-06-22T06:10:23+01:00"
|
||||
source: "/blog/2018/06/22/let-us-protect-ourselves.html"
|
||||
speechYear: "1982"
|
||||
categories:
|
||||
- "Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982"
|
||||
tags: []
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
<h2 align="CENTER">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
|
||||
<h3 align="CENTER">May 1, 1982<br />
|
||||
Belvedere<br />
|
||||
Translator – Sang Kil Han</h3>
|
||||
<p>All people want to be healthy, happy and successful. It is easy to say such a thing, but when you think deeply there are enormous implications behind it. For instance, in order to be healthy we must overcome all the influences which would make us unhealthy. In order to assure our happiness, we must combat all those things which would make us unhappy. Success, likewise, requires overcoming many obstacles.</p>
|
||||
<p>The person whose life is basically healthy, happy and successful must have the power to overcome all the obstacles to those desirable goals. Each person’s life span could be represented by a curving line which goes up and down. We must always be aware of where we are, either above the zero point or below; either up or down in terms of our goals.</p>
|
||||
<p>We cannot deny the link each of us has with larger entities such as the society and the nation. Whenever a Unification Church member says “I” he is including himself within the larger entity of the Unification Church. By the same token, each individual is automatically a part of his family. The student is a part of his school besides being just an individual. It is natural for each person to want to belong to a larger entity; but unfortunately individuals easily tend to think of themselves as separate from those larger entities.</p>
|
||||
<p>We could represent the universe as a big circle with smaller circles within. In the center is a tiny dot representing the individual. It is natural for each individual to want to be at the center of his universe. No other being besides man has such a desire. Neither monkeys. dogs nor cats ever think of being the center of the universe. What is it that makes humans the “supreme beings” of the animal kingdom? It is simply this point-only man finds himself at the central point of the universe, linked with all the larger levels.</p>
|
||||
<p>The circles surrounding the individual are those of the family, society, nation, world and cosmos. One could also consider himself at the top of a pyramid which rests upon the foundation of all those larger entities. Each person wants to be “on top” or above everything else. This is human nature.</p>
|
||||
<p>When someone wants to follow his whims, regardless of his environment and surroundings, what are the implications? Such a person will isolate himself from all the larger entities of life. America is one country where the word “I” is spoken very often, but that American “I” is frequently detached and private, isolated from all the larger realms of existence.</p>
|
||||
<p>Suppose the human eye decided it wanted to go somewhere else in the body besides the head. for instance on the arm. That would be very strange, but it is actually similar in principle to Western young people trying to cut themselves off from their proper position within all larger levels of existence. Can a person find happiness in such a way? The person who steps outside of his relationship with the family, society, nation and world and tries to set himself up in some private, isolated realm has actually lost everything! No matter how hard he may work, he cannot connect the results with anything other than himself.</p>
|
||||
<p>However, when a person stands within his proper position at the central point of the universe, all his work and accomplishments are extended and connected with the largest levels. Such a person simultaneously possesses everything of value within the universe because he is connected with the entire universe.</p>
|
||||
<p>Most people move back and forth, into and out of their proper positions. When a person remains somewhere other than his proper position within the universe, the universe will strive to expel him. That position is similar to a tumor within the body, an alien substance in the wrong place. Many people find a solitary, purely individualistic attitude in life very attractive; they believe they have freedom because they are able to direct everything according to their own will. However, all their efforts to succeed and be happy will be repelled by the force of the universe. They will eventually be pushed into a very unhappy position. But when a person stands in his proper position, all his efforts are aided by the force of the universe and his life is naturally smoother and easier.</p>
|
||||
<p>If you are in the center and turning with a certain velocity, the next layer of existence, the family, will turn too. Their movement will not automatically be as great however. The further out the layers of existence, the less they will be affected by your own movement as an individual. It requires tremendous movement on the part of one individual to affect the entire universe. Normally no one wants to make such effort.</p>
|
||||
<p>Consider what is required to be an important leader with many responsibilities. Certainly the most important leader in the United States is the President. Being the most important person, can he get up every morning and follow whatever whims strike him during the day? Does an important person normally go to bed whenever he feels like it? No, the truth is that every minute of an important person’s day has to be accounted for. When he is simply eating dinner, someone will want to know where he is and what he is doing.</p>
|
||||
<p>Can the President tell everyone to just leave him alone and quit following him around? Can the President discriminate among his many responsibilities and choose only the ones he enjoys taking care of? Can he control the time and place where his various responsibilities will demand his attentions? Certainly he cannot off any of those things. When something happens in the middle of the night, the President must be willing to respond to the situation. If he is not, he cannot be the leader of the nation. In this sense, he doesn’t have any freedom. Therefore, most of the time he simply has no freedom to do as he pleases.</p>
|
||||
<p>A typical individual in this country has an extraordinary amount of freedom. Many housewives are free to spend their days entirely according to their desires. A housewife is an individual but she also represents her husband and children within the home. If she detaches herself from those other responsibilities, she detaches herself from her true value. Sometimes a crisis might arise in the house just when the mother is ready to go out and do something she enjoys. Is she free at that moment to ignore the needs of her children and go ahead? She may have the freedom, but she would not be right in doing it. She would not be a good person according to universal principles if she indulged her own desires at the expense of the larger entity, her family.</p>
|
||||
<p>Of course, such a self-centered person will probably believe she is good, but she will find herself suffering from the criticism of her husband, her children and other people in the society. They will all convey the message to her that she is bad. What is “bad” in this sense? A bad person, simply speaking, is one who has abandoned his position within the larger scheme of things and thus has lost his connection with everything else. He is someone who once had something which he lost. The housewife in our example would be rejected eventually by her husband and children if she lived by her selfish standard all the time and she would deserve the label of “bad person.”</p>
|
||||
<p>When someone is praised as being good he will invariably be a person who brings goodness and benefit to other people. When a good person owns or controls many things, other people welcome it because they realize something good will result. However, a bad person is avoided by others and even when he has a small amount of wealth, other people are not happy to see it. A good person can even own the universe, while a bad person is not encouraged to own anything.</p>
|
||||
<p>Goodness can go anywhere within the frame of God’s universe and be well received, while evil cannot pass or be acceptable anywhere. Are you a good or a bad person? If you are both good and bad, that is actually bad! Why does a parent urge his child to become good? By doing that the parent is wishing the ultimate benefit for the child. By being good the child will be entitled to own everything in the universe. Goodness is unchanging and universal, so a person who is recognized as good in Korea will also be known as good in America. Even in Moscow. people will recognize goodness in someone.</p>
|
||||
<p>Normally a good person is not able to follow his whims. One aspect generally attributed to a bad person is his habit of indulging himself and living only for his own desires. Therefore within the current popular concept of freedom there is more evil than goodness. Many young people are confused about the true nature of freedom. They think simply following one’s impulses is freedom and it is good.</p>
|
||||
<p>Someone might be a great lover of music so he might feel that whenever the inspiration strikes him, he should be able to sing at the top of his voice. If he indulges his inspiration at four o’clock in the morning, how would that be greeted by others? His neighbors would not be very enthusiastic about such “artistic freedom.”</p>
|
||||
<p>Directly connected with the level of personal freedom is the family level of freedom; next are the higher levels of society, national and world freedom. It sometimes happens that these different levels of freedom are in conflict. The individual’s freedom may not coincide with the nation’s freedom. The national freedom may not coincide with the world’s freedom. If the greatest value is placed upon the freedom of the individual, the family will have to suffer. If the nation’s freedom is given highest priority, the order and harmony of the world can be shattered. When the world itself focuses only upon its own freedom, the freedom and harmony of the universe can be destroyed. Did you ever think that there was a larger level of freedom than even the world’s? The freedom of a smaller level can easily damage the freedom of the larger level if the smaller one takes priority at the wrong time.</p>
|
||||
<p>Now that you have come to understand this principle. you can examine your past experiences. You have probably asserted your right to individual freedom but without an understanding of Principle.</p>
|
||||
<p>If you want to be a good student you must go along with the direction of the school and do what the rules require. If you do that you can enjoy the greatest freedom within that school. Some student may constantly break the rules by being tardy every day and think he is exercising his freedom to the maximum, but he is not really entitled to that kind of freedom within the school system. He does not have the freedom to follow whatever whims strike him at the moment. By stressing his own “freedom” he damages the freedom and harmony of the entire school, and thus he is a bad student.</p>
|
||||
<p>The current war over the Falkland Islands is an example of the national level of interest dominating the world level. If Britain and Argentina could understand the Principle they would understand the mistake they are making. In such a dispute, the world should be the arbiter. Since both countries have a claim, there must be some way to settle the conflict. If a world-level of order is established, war can be avoided and peace in the world can be maintained; each country could be controlled and cared for.</p>
|
||||
<p>We know that the American system allows for disputes between states to be resolved by the federal government. Certainly the overall freedom and benefit of the United States is far more important than that of one of its individual states, should they come into conflict. Suppose there was someone who looked upon a certain law with the attitude, “That’s a bad law. I know some crooked Congressman introduced the bill and got it passed, so I’m not going to obey that law.” He will not be supported by the nation, regardless of why he holds such an opinion. The law must be followed by everyone, regardless of each individual’s opinions; otherwise he must pay the consequences.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why must the laws of the nation be followed by all the individuals within that nation? The laws are created for the sake of the benefit and stability of the nation as a whole; they are not necessarily designed to accommodate every individual’s preferences. In this way the freedom of the nation is protected and the freedom of the individual is subordinated to that larger good.</p>
|
||||
<p>By the same token all living beings within the universe must respect and follow the highest laws of the universe. The law of the universe is the law of God.</p>
|
||||
<p>Which should the individual value more, his own or his family’s freedom? Certainly he should cherish his family’s freedom above his own. However, an individual may be willing to sacrifice his family’s benefit for his own sake, as when a young man goes out dancing and stays out all night while his family is worried and cannot sleep. What kind of freedom is that? Such “freedom” has no right to exist when it violates the peace and well-being of the family.</p>
|
||||
<p>Likewise the family’s freedom must serve the nation’s freedom. In order for a family to be protected within the country, it must respect and serve that country. This applies all the way up to the universe-level of freedom. which must be subordinated to God’s freedom. At what point does God’s freedom become established and secure? God himself has been suffering because of the blindness and ignorance of human beings.</p>
|
||||
<p>If an individual does not conform to the expectations of his family, the whole family is disturbed. If a certain family follows a decadent way, the entire society will suffer because of it. If one country pits its own benefit against that of the world. the entire world will suffer and be forced to change the direction of that country.</p>
|
||||
<p>When God looks at His created universe, He sees it trying to enjoy its own freedom without thinking about Him and He suffers because of that. How do you think God will treat an individual who consistently destroys other levels of freedom’.’ Will He pat him on the head and say, “Fine.” No, God will try to set that person straight. He cannot take any joy in that individual’s freedom when it ruins larger levels of happiness.</p>
|
||||
<p>Many individuals and families pray very earnestly for their own benefit. Do you think God is inspired to bless self-oriented individuals and families? God will have the inclination to cause hardship for such people so that they might realize their error. God is not a bad God; whatever He does is always for a good reason, so if He gives hardship to someone it is to ultimately help that person.</p>
|
||||
<p>What if someone prayed, “God, if you don’t give me what I want, I’ll just cut off my leg!” God would look at him and feel. “Go ahead and do it, you self-centered child.” Consider the white supremacist who prays. “Oh God, bless this world and bring peace to it-by getting rid of all the black people.” Will God grant such a prayer? Absolutely not’ God would want to punish and correct such a terrible way of thinking.</p>
|
||||
<p>Can a saint be the kind of person who goes wherever he feels like going and doing whatever he feels like doing? No, the saint is just the opposite. He can rarely do what he feels like doing.</p>
|
||||
<p>Some people in the secular world think that because Reverend Moon is at the top of the Unification Church, he must have the greatest amount of freedom and flexibility to indulge himself! People believe such things because they have no Principled understanding of what a leader is or should be.</p>
|
||||
<p>The truth is that wherever I go, I feel I must be able to answer to my family, my church members and everything around me. Even if I want to go and sit on the grass, I have to wonder, “Am I taking the spot where a dog wants to sit? Am I possibly destroying an anthill if I sit here?” I can never stop feeling responsible for every motion I make, even the movement of my foot. This is how I have lived my entire life.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why must I live the way I have? What kind of joy and meaning do you think I have found in life? I live like this because I have a clear goal: I am living for the sake of the freedom of the universe and the freedom of God. That is why I have come into conflict with all the other levels of freedom and benefit.</p>
|
||||
<p>A bad person will not like a good person because their realms of interest and benefit always collide. A good person always pushes for the benefit of the largest level, ultimately God’s benefit, and this always conflicts with a bad person’s willingness to sacrifice the larger purpose for his own.</p>
|
||||
<p>Many American young people have a habit of not listening to the guidance and direction of others. I have been teaching you and guiding you with all of my energy and you have only slightly moved from your former ways, but that slight change happens to contradict the way the vast majority of Americans want to go. For many Americans, the individual and the family level of benefit are the only things of value. Now you members of the Unification Church are sacrificing those smaller benefits temporarily for the sake of God and the benefit of the universe. Therefore your society has complained loudly and has strongly opposed your changing.</p>
|
||||
<p>The fact is that in order to establish God’s dominion and God’s freedom, all the lower levels of freedom which come into conflict with that must be sacrificed. Persecution is an automatic reality whenever someone tries to advance toward God’s level of freedom. You may ask. “Why don’t you exalt individual, family and every other kind of freedom at the same time you are honoring God’s freedom?” However, such a thing is not possible; when all the other levels of freedom are violating God’s freedom, one must be subordinated to the other. If the world is going against the direction of God and His freedom, someone must push it toward the proper direction. That is why we are living the way we do and why we receive the kind of persecution we receive. People call you “Moonies” with great scorn now, but at the same time, you are being elevated in the eyes of God and the universe.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why do we choose to go a difficult way? Some people ask, “Why can’t we just live the way we have always lived?” Actually, we have no other alternative than the way we have been going because the ideal can only be realized in this way. Universal freedom and happiness can only be found when we ensure God’s happiness and freedom. That is the Principle. Only when the benefit and freedom of the highest Being is assured can all the lower levels of being have their lasting happiness and freedom. Once God’s level of freedom and happiness has been achieved, He can bring about true universal peace and happiness for everyone on every level of existence.</p>
|
||||
<p>This is the conviction that has guided my entire life In the beginning, no one understood me, but gradually more and more people could appreciate what I was teaching. Even now the majority of the world does not understand; only God can understand the meaning of my life and actions. It has been like God’s ambassador coming into Satan’s territory; all the forces of “authority” have investigated me, since I am different from others. Having been reviled and rejected by satanic forces, I am only truly appreciated and understood by God in Heaven.</p>
|
||||
<p>Although many countries have tried to stop me and even now the US government is trying me as an accused criminal, another realm is very happy and excited. All of good spirit world and the realm of God is very eager to assist me because they understand that I am working to establish and maintain God’s freedom, the highest level of goodness. If God Himself were here on earth, He would certainly have been arrested. put on trial and jailed but once He was able to gain freedom, He would be able to create the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. At that point God could live happily with His people within a truly happy, free world.</p>
|
||||
<p>What, then, is the meaning of Home Church? Home Church is the way to give God an area in which He can dwell according to the way He wishes. It is a place where there is no antagonism against God but where everybody wants Him to come and live with them. This was the original plan of God; but because of the fall, all the doors of the world have been closed against Him. Barriers and blockades have been erected.</p>
|
||||
<p>The original plan was for all people to travel freely within the world and to enjoy total freedom on all levels- individual, family, etc. Once he left the physical world, each individual was supposed to enter the Kingdom of Heaven in spirit world. This was the original plan but because of the fall, nothing remained except the individual level of freedom. Ultimately the purpose of Home Church is to shatter the walls which obstruct all the other levels of freedom.</p>
|
||||
<p>Each individual, as the center of the universe, occupies the position which can liberate God. You are in the center of your family, your society, your nation, and ultimately the entire universe, and you can create the freedom of all those other levels. How can you do that? By doing Home Church.</p>
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||||
<p>If this is the truth, then Satan is really in trouble; he can no longer dominate any part of this world. Therefore Satan is exercising his fullest power now. Since the first level of freedom is individual, kidnapping was the first attempt against our movement. However, kidnapping of our members because of their religious preferences has now been ruled illegal. In one state the government tried to block us from fund raising by passing a law against it, but the Supreme Court ruled against that law. Satan is thinking, “If Rev. Moon stays in America any longer, the entire nation will turn to God. I must get him out of here!” At this time, the fight is reaching its peak.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why have I gone this way throughout my entire life? It has been only for the sake of God. You may have wondered, “Why doesn’t Rev. Moon stay in Korea and help the people there, since they are suffering and miserable? Americans are well-off.” You must understand that my objective is to liberate God; once America puts God in the central point, the entire world will open up to God. Once the foundation is laid in America, God will have access to any other place in the world. That is why I came here.</p>
|
||||
<p>The foundation of America was good and the people of America are potentially very good, but there has been much corrupting influence upon the young people. Each of you has had thoughts of complaint, such as “I don’t like Korean leaders!” Your faces show the truth!</p>
|
||||
<p>Are you going to listen absolutely to what I say? Usually Americans don’t like the word “absolute”, but why is the concept of absolute so necessary? In order to make a connection with the absolute God, you must reflect Him in His absoluteness. You must work absolutely if you want to reach the absolute God. It is up to you, however; you can choose to listen to me or not.</p>
|
||||
<p>For four years I have been telling you that you must work hard in Home Church, but how much actual work have you done for the sake of Home Church? Our whole objective is to invite God to dwell with us. Are you making a base for Him in Home Church? Within your own minds, how much do you want to go out and do Home Church? Your words alone do not prove anything. Too often American young people say something but cannot carry it out. How can such a standard be trusted? Will the people of South America or Africa be able to make a better result?</p>
|
||||
<p>I have done what God has directed me to do in this country. If you do not respond to my direction, I cannot do anything about it. I have taught you deeply, explaining everything to you. Are you actively involved in Home Church? You say, “I have been too busy to do Home Church,” but you must realize that I am far busier than you and I have been doing what is necessary for God’s providence continuously. How can you think you are busier than 1?</p>
|
||||
<p>The church leaders have offered to take responsibility for Sunday sermons during this court trial, but I refused. It is a basic church requirement to meet together every Sunday morning and first of the month, and then we must do our other missions. Once we make a promise to God, it must be carried out. If we die we will have an excuse for not accomplishing our promise, but as long as we are alive and capable of moving, we must do our basic mission. This is the way I have lived my entire life, without any compromise.</p>
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||||
<p>Do you really feel Home Church is the most important thing in your life? Do you consider how important it is to liberate God through Home Church? For the sake of God, there must be nothing we cannot do. We can even go into a desert and turn it into a garden; once God is dwelling in that desert it will literally be a Heavenly palace.</p>
|
||||
<p>Whatever happens in the present moment must be viewed as the preparation for future achievement. I know this is true. I have dedicated all my energy and resources for the sake of this country. Even if I must go to some other nation with no resources now, I know God will ask me to repeat all over again what I have done here in this country. I know it will be accomplished, too.</p>
|
||||
<p>My path has been a difficult and painful way but everything I have done has been blessed and prepared for by God. I am never lonesome; God himself is supporting me. I know very clearly that doing everything for the sake of God is the best and only way to protect and defend myself. I know that wherever I may go, the universe will support me. If I go to the remote countries of Africa or South America, those places will become the focus of God and spirit world.</p>
|
||||
<p>Have you ever heard of anyone before in history who has made such statements as you have heard me make? I am saying and doing things that are unparalleled. Whatever I accomplish on earth will remain forever; as long as God is defending something, it will not perish. You, too, are a participant in my path. As the numbers of people increase who are following the Principle, the world will increase in hope.</p>
|
||||
<p>You are truly the only hope for the world to return to God. If no one was doing anything about the conditions of America today do you think the vitality of the country could continue? No, America would certainly perish. But if Americans become more and more in line with the Principle, they will begin to prosper spiritually. Are you going to be people who can just sit on the sidelines and watch your country perishing?</p>
|
||||
<p>We all say we want to be righteous persons, but what is a righteous person? The righteous person is one who will go against any odds, any difficulties, as long as the right path is clear. For example, Abraham’s prayer in the Bible was for God to spare Sodom if there were only ten righteous people in it. God answered that He would. This is the very same position of Moonies today. When you follow my direction and work diligently in your Home Church area, you will be the righteous persons before God in America. Because you are righteous, some day all your Home Church members will also be righteous. By observing the way you sweat and shed tears for them, those people will find their hearts reviving; they will eventually have the strength and life to behave as you do.</p>
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<p>If you are only focusing on when your wedding will occur, you are certainly not serious enough. America is literally in a last-minute position, so how can you be concentrating on your marriage? The country has to be alive first before your individual and family situation can be secured. How can you worry about how you look, whether or not you have nice clothing and makeup and so forth, when the country is in such spiritual danger?</p>
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||||
<p>Whenever Mother asks me, ‘ How much do you love me?” I always tell her that I cannot love her any more than what we can accomplish in building the Kingdom of God on earth; that is our mission. My response is always the same, even towards Mother. That is the Principled way and I will abide by Principle.</p>
|
||||
<p>I know that all normal young women want to wear make up and nice clothing. I promise to you that once the mission is done, I will bring to you all the cosmetics you could ever desire. But now we are engaged in a spiritual war and nothing else is more important than winning that war. Do you understand that?</p>
|
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<p>Some people say, “I need to study more and then maybe I will be able to do Home Church,” but they have not realized the urgency of the situation. Your shoes should wear out from walking in your area. The number of pairs of shoes you wear out will be your pride and your record of accomplishment in the future. Spirit world is always eager to help you, but you must create the conditions that enable them to do so.</p>
|
||||
<p>Our topic today is <em>“Let Us Protect Ourselves.”</em> It is only when you are properly situated within that central position of your family, society, nation, world and cosmos that you can be properly protected by them. What is your ultimate mission? It is to fulfill your responsibility of liberating God. No responsibility is more important than that and no human being can do anything greater than that.</p>
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||||
<p>I know that wherever I go in spirit world, all the saints will come and inquire of me what I accomplished on the earth. I will say to them, “I worked during my entire life to liberate God and it was my whole effort. However, I had to leave some of the work undone so I have that much regret in my mind.” That is the best answer anyone could expect in spirit world and no one could question the quality of my life on the earth. Satan will be unable to say anything against me. You too will be asked how you lived your life. When your honest answer is, “I worked my hardest throughout my life to liberate God,” God will be fully satisfied. You can bring no greater glory to God than that.</p>
|
||||
<p>Suppose you went to spirit world and said to God, “I worked my entire life for the sake of America. I gave myself to more charitable activities than anyone else in the country.” God could not feel that was of the greatest value. God has the power to make people happy and healthy, once His power is unbound; but as long as He is not liberated He can do very little. The only thing that matters to God is to be able to freely express His love to His children. Whatever assists Him in that is most precious to Him because until He is freed, He cannot do anything for His children.</p>
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<p>Certainly every person here wants to gain the love of God. What should you do then to receive that love? It is very simple-work for the sake of God’s freedom and then He will be able to give all of His love to us. We won’t have to ask for His love but it will be given automatically. All problems and barriers will be broken through when God’s love can flow freely to this earth.</p>
|
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<p>We must win the freedom of God and we must maintain it. How do we actually penetrate all the barriers and the levels between ourselves and God? Is it really possible?</p>
|
||||
<p>How can you penetrate the barriers in spirit world? By doing Home Church successfully you can create the condition to achieve the breakthrough on all those levels. Home Church is incredibly valuable.</p>
|
||||
<p>If you accomplish only the level of messiah to your Home Church clan, you can still go to spirit world with the highest level of accomplishment. You will receive credit for having secured and maintained God’s freedom. In other words, you will receive the highest level of credit for a much lower level of accomplishment. This is because once that basic level of God’s freedom has been established, Satan will have no right to remain in your area. Who moves into your area when Satan moves out? God.</p>
|
||||
<p>Only in the late 1970s did Home Church become possible; this is the first time in history. We can go beyond the national boundaries by doing Home Church, not only here in America but also in every other part of the world. Before just a few years ago, Europe was rigidly divided between nations with strict border regulations everywhere, but such a way of life was not comfortable. Now people can receive a simple piece of paper that permits them to travel easily between France and Germany, for example, or anywhere in the European Economic Community. America may be isolated from the rest of the world by the fact that she is a continent unto herself, but Americans are finally realizing that they must be a part of the whole world in order to survive.</p>
|
||||
<p>If something happens within your Home Church area it is not just an isolated, local incident. It is literally a world affair and even a universal affair. If someone sprains his ankle in your area it is as significant as if some prime minister sprained his ankle. The time has come when God’s attention is focused upon the small Home Church areas; those areas are the most important to Him. Just like with the Falklands, which is such a tiny place with more sheep than people-why are the leaders of the world so excited about it? If the United States President loses sleep over the Falkland Islands, certainly it is not strange that God would be very excited and interested in Home Church.</p>
|
||||
<p>How is achievement made in Home Church? On one side, God is putting all His focus on your Home Church work and on the other, Satan is trying to thwart you. However, Satan cannot stop you from achieving results. Never before in history has there been the chance for Satan to be completely eradicated from the clan-level. Home Church is your clan-level of messiah. As the messiah of your area. what is your qualification? Your qualification is that you represent God and His providence and dispensation in history.</p>
|
||||
<p>In the position of clan-messiah, you stand upon all the indemnity of history and the True Parents. The clan messiah is the branch of the big tree, which is the True Parents. As long as you are a part of the True Parents, resembling their nature and living within a give and take relationship with them, that small branch will grow.</p>
|
||||
<p>Within your Home Church area your roots will appear. Each house in the 360 homes will be one root. Perhaps the people living in each of the 360 houses will try to uproot you from their homes. Even if they all get together and try to remove you, if you do not budge it will be because you have secured the ground and your roots are firm. Even if the trunk of the tree breaks in half, as long as the roots remain in the ground the tree will stay alive.</p>
|
||||
<p>Once the True Parents plant something in your area, no power can root it out. No power of Satan can damage that root. Someone can follow you and continue your work if you have to leave. God will automatically protect that root.</p>
|
||||
<p>Your own roots are your ancestry in spirit world and even if Satan tries to pull up those roots, he can never do it. Your branch is your physical clan on the earth. The roots of both the physical and spiritual worlds are in Home Church. Jesus was in the position of clan messiah when he first came and he was meant to go beyond that to the national, world and cosmos level.</p>
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||||
<p>The level of clan messiah is your starting point. Why is that level of messiah necessary? The clans around Jesus should not have separated from him but should have united with him. They were also supposed to be united with the family that Jesus would have established himself. If John the Baptist had been united with Jesus, that level of clan unity would have been established.</p>
|
||||
<p>Joseph’s family was in the Abel position, while Zechariah’s family was in the Cain position. Their unity was the essential key that would have enabled Jesus to be received. One essential point of Principle is that the position of parent can only be secure upon the unity of the children, Cain and Abel. That unity is what allows the restoration of Adam. The messiah’s position is that of parent so through Home Church, unity can be established between the Cain and Abel clans.</p>
|
||||
<p>Once the Home Church foundation is established on the clan level, the nation will be automatically protected. How does it work? Satan must go away once Cain humbles himself to Abel; he has no place to dwell when that happens. All over the free world, Home Church will become successful.</p>
|
||||
<p>As soon as Abel becomes one with the parents, on the foundation of his unity with Cain, Satan will have to be expelled. Right now we are in the process of achieving that Abel-parental unity. This is why we are working so hard to do Home Church and unite the Cain and Abel clans. Once unity is achieved in your Home Church area. the whole free world will quickly be united with the Parents. The free world will be entirely different at that time. Once the Home Church foundation is successful, the rest of the world will have to follow and success in the communist world will be simple.</p>
|
||||
<p>As you know, we are dwelling in a new era which was proclaimed on February 23, 1977. Since then the Abel world and the parents have come to the verge of unity; it will happen very soon. Such unity will transcend all national borders. Communism will be throttled with the appearance of Home Church unity. They have been unable to expand very much at all since 1977; also they have been experiencing more and more corruption and breakdown within their societies. On the contrary, we will be experiencing more and more of a revival.</p>
|
||||
<p>Although the secular free world is also becoming corrupted and is declining at this time, there are some elements within the free world the are reviving and prospering. The element which is reviving is that of Home Church; it will become more and more prosperous while every other aspect of the secular world will decline more and more. Do you understand?</p>
|
||||
<p>Until now, God and the Abel world have been on the defensive and the world of Cain, or the communist world, has been on the offensive. However, from this time forward it will be the other way around. For the first time in history on the world level, the Abel groups will become united with the parents’ position, that is, True Parents and God.</p>
|
||||
<p>After the Abel forces and the parents become one Cain’s world will have no power. Jesus couldn’t win the unity of his Cain and Abel tribes. However, you are inheriting the ability to bring Cain and Abel unity on the tribal level; this is not because of anything you have done, but because of the accomplishments of the True Parents. Nonetheless, it is still legitimately yours.</p>
|
||||
<p>At this time, the Home Church area is in the position of Adam and the spirit world is in the position of archangel. You must connect the two and bring unity. The fall occurred because of a conflict between those two positions, but now we must bring them into harmony for the purpose of restoration. Your Home Church is directly connected, of course, with the spirit world because of all the ancestors of the people living there. Since the fall, spirit world and physical world have continually been in conflict but it is our duty to unite them.</p>
|
||||
<p>Once you make the foundation in your area, you make it easy for the good spirit world to come freely to the earthly realm. Satan has had a claim on your area, but when you enter it spirit world wants very much to make unity with you, their Abel. The people in your areas are under the impression at this time that Moonies are bad; but they will totally change their attitude toward you once they see how good you really are. In turn, those Home Church people will pass the word to their own relatives.</p>
|
||||
<p>Only by creating the beginning of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth can we go to the Kingdom of Heaven in spirit world. God will be able to dwell on the earth when you bring unity in your area between Cain and Abel. between the people and yourself and ultimately the True Parents. That is what we mean when we say, “Home Church is the base of the Kingdom of Heaven.” The Kingdom of Heaven is waiting to begin in your area. Your base for the Kingdom is your area; likewise, the people in spirit world must use Home Church as their base.</p>
|
||||
<p>On February 22, 1982, I declared the ceremony of unity between spirit world and physical world. The Unification Church is now moving into the world dispensation level, beyond the level of nation. As soon as this court case is over, the world will not have the power to oppose us further.</p>
|
||||
<p>You have been persecuted in the past and have said nothing, but now you will have greater power than your persecutors. When someone criticizes you. don’t just meekly tolerate it but demand to know why he opposes you. If he doesn’t have a good reason, you can give him a hard time! Times have changed; the day of martyrdom for the Unification Church is coming to an end.</p>
|
||||
<p>I have built our strong foundation thus far under seemingly impossible circumstances. Now that the opposition is dwindling, imagine how much you can accomplish if you continue to work just as hard. You can accomplish enormous victories within ten years; that is the literal truth. From the base of Home Church, you can bring down the good spirit world and drive out the satanic elements. The satanic realms will become liberated and the Heavenly realms will grow wider and wider.</p>
|
||||
<p>These points are completely consistent with the Principle. How can you make Satan retreat? If you try harder than anybody ever tried in history to liberate God, any spirit man regardless of his stature can come and help you. Also the leaders of the major religions can come to assist you. Any of your ancestors can help, too. Religious leaders in spirit world are in the Abel position; your own ancestors are in the Cain position. With this unity between Cain and Abel, the progress of Heaven will be automatic; it is the way of Principle and no one can stop it.</p>
|
||||
<p>You must have confidence because each of you stands at that central position. Once you are truly confident in the Principle, all the good people in spirit world and your ancestors can help you. You can direct them how to help you. Your position is the same as Adam. who was supposed to be subject over the spirit world, the world of the archangel.</p>
|
||||
<p>The indemnity of the archangel is achieved when good spirit world, at your command, chases out the bat spirit world from your area and enables you to restore God’s ideal. In that way you reverse the fall by exercising your proper dominion over the archangelic world. Such is the meaning of Home Church. Unless you actually do it you cannot understand it and you cannot actually accomplish God’s will.</p>
|
||||
<p>Times change and the focus and advantages of the times change as well. This is the time when spirit men. especially your ancestors in spirit world, can influence your physical relatives to support you. Once it becomes clear to the general public that the Unification Church is truly a good group, most of your relatives will come to you and apologize for not understanding what you were doing. When that happens, your task will be much easier. You will have achieved unity between the Cain and Abel elements in your family and can stand together on God’s side. Therefore shouldn’t you work even harder to do Home Church? Be confident that you are indeed the tribal messiah, standing on a great foundation.</p>
|
||||
<p>What is our basic purpose? It is first to gain God’s freedom and then to protect it and maintain it. At that point, God’s original love will be able to pour out on the horizontal level. God’s love has certainly always been here but the world has had no physical connection with it. Home Church now can serve as that connection. Very quickly the world will be nourished by that love from God; the mood toward peace will grow and the past days of war will disappear.</p>
|
||||
<p>This is what I have been working for throughout my life-the ability for God to freely give His love to the world. Once the court battle is over, this country will realize that their judgment of me was wrong. My purpose of coming here will be accomplished at that time. That doesn’t mean everything will be ideal, but our movement will be able to pick up great momentum then. You will be able to teach the people very effectively and turn this country back to God.</p>
|
||||
<p>Each individual must preserve his central position within the family, society, and so forth. Where is that central position? It is in Home Church. By defending the realm of God’s freedom within your Home Church, you are defending all other realms of freedom under Him. Your 360 homes represent the entire world so when your area is living within the Principle, God will have a condition to move into the entire world. You will see sharp changes of direction within this world toward the side of goodness; a very effective time for God’s providence will be happening.</p>
|
||||
<p>The Columbia space shuttle is very symbolic. It takes off from the earth, goes into space and returns, repeating the cycle over and over. In exactly the same way, spirit world will be able to come back and forth to the earth; passage between the heavenly realms and earthly realms will be opened up. How wonderful this is for the sake of the world!</p>
|
||||
<p>Today is the first day of May. The springtime is now upon us; all the things of nature are beginning to revive. Likewise, the spirit of the Unification Church will begin to revive; that is my wish for you. Let us all say Amen!</p>
|
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content/speeches/1982/master-guests-and-others.md
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@ -0,0 +1,88 @@
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---
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||||
title: "MASTER, GUESTS AND OTHERS"
|
||||
type: "speech"
|
||||
published: "2018-06-23T14:00:01+01:00"
|
||||
updated: "2018-06-23T14:00:01+01:00"
|
||||
source: "/blog/2018/06/23/master-guests-and-others.html"
|
||||
speechYear: "1982"
|
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categories:
|
||||
- "Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982"
|
||||
tags: []
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
<h2 style="text-align: center;">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
|
||||
<h3 style="text-align: center;">September 1, 1982<br />
|
||||
Belvedere<br />
|
||||
Translator-Bo Hi Pak</h3>
|
||||
<p>All of you have parents, and most have brothers and sisters. You also have a relationship with other relatives, your country and the world. We are born from our parents and we grow up in our parents’ house. Where does that house belong? Every house is within a certain nation, and each nation is a part of the world. Those who know there is a spirit world also know that life continues there after this life on earth.</p>
|
||||
<p>This cosmos we live in is vast, but it must have a center. We call that center God. We might say that God is the “super-center” of the entire creation, but under Him there am other centers. For instance, the earth has a certain center, as does the spirit world. Societies, nations and families also have their centers. The central figures on the different levels must have something in common.</p>
|
||||
<p>If a person is asked what is his ultimate desire, normally he would reply that he wants to be in the best position, right on top. That is an innate human desire. Even if we are born in a humble place, we want to reach the highest level. There must be a way to get there. What is the shortest, most direct way to reach that goal? The shortest way is to go through the central figure. In your family, you go through your parents. In your nation, you go through the sovereignty.</p>
|
||||
<p>Since you set out to reach that goal, the central figures must support you instead of blocking your way. If your family opposes your direction, they will try to block you head-on. But if your central figures are supporting you, it is like a tail wind helping you along. Your parents win push you to the national leader, your national leader will push you to the world, and the world leader will push you to the universe. Then you have no problem.</p>
|
||||
<p>Suppose you went all the way to the top and became the central figure of the universe. No one would block you then. If God is the central figure of the universe, who is in a position to stop Him and refuse to allow Him to go through the family, nation, world and cosmos? The best way to get to the top is to make a relationship with the central figure. One should make some relationship with God.</p>
|
||||
<p>We commonly talk about central figures in our church, but what is the definition of a central figure? He or she is the one who is the master of the house, whether large or small. The President of the United States is the master of this house of America. If the President wanted to visit the 70 million homes in the United States, would anyone refuse him? Normally, people would open their homes to him, and feel honored to have him. Is there any company or organization that would refuse to host him? The master of the house has freedom in every part of that house.</p>
|
||||
<p>What is the role and responsibility of the central figure of the United States? He is responsible for everything happening within this country. He has to take cam of whatever happens to the people of the United States. If something good happens, he rejoices with the people. If something bad happens, he tries to correct the situation so it won’t happen again.</p>
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<p>The central figure has a tough job trying to fulfill his responsibility and must work harder than anyone else. Although he may not want to see or hear some things, he must see and hear them because he has the responsibility to know everything about the situation. He cannot decide to take responsibility for the good things and blame others for the headaches. A good central figure lets others have the joy while he takes ‘on the problems. A central figure who becomes a true master of the house doesn’t make excuses and blame outside circumstances for his problems. He feels, instead, that he is not worthy of his responsibilities.</p>
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<p>The person who can shed mom tears and sweat in serving his own people is die good central figure. He must be the first person to shed tears, the first to sacrifice. If there is a need for sacrifice, even unto death, the central figure should be the one most willing to volunteer. This definition is true on every level, whether at work or in the family, the nation or the cosmos.</p>
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<p>Everyone has a desire to go through the central figure, all the way to the top. What is the reason for getting to the top? Is it to escape hardship and sadness and only receive glory and wealth? The person who reaches the top must give and serve the same way be did on his way to the top. Then people will ask, “What’s so good about getting to the top? If I’m going to suffer there, too, I might as well stay here!” It is important to know the value of getting to the top. If you are giving more and mom on the horizontal level for the sake of the public, then something invisible is growing vertically as well. Therefore, you are gaining something.</p>
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<p>In this universe there must be a perfect horizontal and perfect vertical line. If the earth is round, them isn’t actually any “up” and “down.” But from the Creator’s point of view there must be some line, some standard somewhere. Human society has established certain reference points for measurement on the physical earth-for instance, Greenwich Mean Time, or latitude and longitude. By the same token, there must be some standard in spiritual life. This central standard line must be established between two points of origin; then you can start to measure what is parallel to the central line. Once die central model is set, you can compare yourself and others to it.</p>
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<p>The central line is unchangeable, so your relationship with the central vertical or horizontal line will determine your position and value. In relation to that absolute line, you can determine your own position and value, horizontally and vertically. What is in that central position? How about money? Power? Knowledge? Think about all the different kinds of people and cultures in the world. What kind of standard would no one complain against? Even if we excluded God, we could come up with nothing better than love as this standard.</p>
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<p>You can’t touch love or see it, so what’s good about it? One thing is true-when love starts to approach, even though you can’t see it, your every sense strains in that direction. Your eyes, cars and hands reach out, and your whole soul reaches in that direction.</p>
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<p>In navigating the ocean a compass is needed which gives a point of reference so the location of the boat can be figured out. A boat may seem to be moving randomly on the ocean, but actually it is being steered according to dud one reference point. In that way the captain can always know where the boat is on the ocean.</p>
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<p>Everything in our lives works like that. Every country has a constitution which is the center of all its laws. All the other laws will be set up according to that constitution. If a certain law doesn’t parallel the constitution, it will have to be repealed. You can’t convince anyone of the position of the United States unless they understand what is the central point of measurement.</p>
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<p>In the realm of physics, scientists refer to many formulas which are like scales to measure and evaluate things. In our way of life, them must be an absolute central measure and formula by which all people can be evaluated. What is it? That formula must not change, even in a billion years. Some people have a simple answer: everyone else has to measure up to them! That’s very convenient, isn’t it? If you am the measure, then you can do whatever you wish.</p>
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<p>Don’t you think God foresaw the need for an absolute formula when He created mankind? God didn’t want to be criticized for creating a formula that wouldn’t work anymore after a thousand years.</p>
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<p>What is absolute true love, then? It must be the kind of love that people everywhere can recognize and rejoice over. Absolute love has no limitation; it can travel anywhere and never tarnish or decrease in value. It must be welcomed by East, West, North and South. The movement of true love must be based on five absolute reference points at all times. Even if such movement is in the opposite direction, its ultimate aim is to connect to the reference point. Absolute love must have the kind of movement that always keeps in touch with the five reference points.</p>
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<p>What if them is no movement and you are stationary instead? That means your position must be centered; in that way you maintain the four directions. Suppose love were a visible material; it would be totally round, and round objects must have a center. The distances from an four reference points to the center are equal; therefore, no one can complain or disregard it. Maintaining that relationship involves give and take and turning forever. This is what we mean when we speak of the ideal.</p>
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<p>If you want to become the master of your house, what kind of master will you be? The master of love, or the master of money, power or knowledge? Do you women also want to become masters of love? Absolute love means freedom. After going through all the reference points, absolute love has no restrictions. It has absolute freedom to go everywhere. Absolute love will always lead you to the reference point. This is why you like absolute love: it brings you to the central points. You can go in any direction as long as absolute love takes you to those reference points.</p>
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<p>Therefore, absolute love is universal. Within it everyone has every freedom and happiness. Absolute love can go through the tiniest hole. How can you go through the tiniest opening? Would freedom give you the power to do it? Can you take a vote on it? Absolute love is not confined or determined by democracy. You have to go through the form of true love. An effort is needed to thread something through a hole; it doesn’t happen easily. However, the eye of love’s needle is flexible; sometimes it gets bigger, sometimes smaller.</p>
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<p>The important thing is that you don’t give up. If you hit it right on the bulls-eye, the hole will get bigger and accommodate you; your whole body can go through! Maybe you think you will suffocate if you are inserted into that hole. Certainly courage is needed to go wherever true love goes. When you plunge in, you will discover that there is no suffocation but only more freedom opening up. What is marriage all about? It is a commitment, inserting yourself into a situation and not looking backward. There is no time to choose the color of thread; you just plunge in.</p>
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<p>Will you break into pieces if you throw yourself in? Never. When you land, you will recognize that you are on God’s territory where everything is prepared. It is a bold adventure. The most adventurous action in the entire world is the adventure of love. Once you determine the value and formula, you can measure what other people are doing. It doesn’t matter where you travel in pursuit of true love-you will be natural and comfortable with white, black, or yellow people because true love is universal. There are all kinds of love. What about a love that only works with white people; would you like that? That is not universal love.</p>
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<p>What are the principles of creating the vertical and horizontal lines of love? First, that love has to be needed by both God and man. God must be concerned about how the line is drawn. When does God want to start drawing that line-in 1982, or 2000, or when? In the beginning God drew the line, but who else was there? The angels and then Adam and Eve, so God must have called a conference among them to talk about this. Should the line of love be relative to each one’s situation, or the same for everyone? The situation common to all was absolute love.</p>
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<p>Why should the vertical line come before the horizontal? No matter how straight you may think you’re drawing your horizontal lines, unless you have a vertical reference point the whole thing can be tilted. The vertical line is your reference point for the horizontal line; they must intersect at a 90 degree angle. After having the central vertical and horizontal lines, we can draw any number of additional lines. Who should represent the vertical line-man or woman? Maybe you will say I am anti-woman if I say it is man, but the Principle is not just my opinion. Even if you feel like crying, still you have to accept it! Without going through the Principle, you cannot be a landing base for absolute love.</p>
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<p>There are many people in the world who never even think about this. There is only one place on this planet, here at Belvedere, where these things are being talked about. Almighty God in heaven knows everything already, so maybe He is dozing sometimes, but when I am speaking about true love at Belvedere, do you think God wakes up and takes notice? Are you interested too? Do you women feel good-even though you may think you are oppressed here? I am pressing you down to push you into the land of absolute love.</p>
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<p>The women’s role is simple and easy, in a way; all you have to do is maintain a 90-degree line with men. Wherever men move, make a 90-degree line. Maybe you wish I hadn’t let your husbands hear this, but men have their job as well. Their job is to parallel the central absolute line. Women are destined to follow men and be deter</p>
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<p>by their accomplishments. No matter how great a woman is, her destiny is determined by what her husband does. This is according to the Principle.</p>
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<p>The man’s job is to love the absolute God absolutely and also to love mankind absolutely. By doing so, he will parallel the vertical line. God will love that kind of man for eternity and protect him. It is in God’s interest to have that kind of man prosper. God goes back and forth, up and down, to that dot of absolute love. That dot should rest upon the head of man.</p>
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<p>Why are human beings the one species in the world that walks vertically? It is because we are spiritual creatures, connecting with vertical love. Therefore, men pursue the ideal and want to create big things and accomplish noble deeds. Many times women, because they tend to think more conservatively, don’t like certain things men do. If a man wants to go away and do something crazy or adventurous, the women in his life usually try to stop him. If conservative women were in charge of the world, do you think technology would have developed this far, or would the oceans and outer space have been explored?</p>
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<p>No matter how great you women am, you are compelled to follow the truth. By virtue of the fact that I am a man, I am in the position to appreciate you women. Our subject-object relationship is more clear than that between other men and me, so what do I gain by giving you a hard time?</p>
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<p>Would you be content with a tiny little accomplishment, or do you want a great one? If you want a great accomplishment, would you pull your husband back, or push him forward? If you pull him back, will you go up or down? You women must not have husbands who stay home at night just to keep you from complaining about them being out so much. Let your husband feel totally free to go and do anything that parallels the vertical line. Let him be confident that if he goes away for ten years, you will be there when he comes back. When he comes back after ten years, you may be living in a log cabin somewhere, but then you may eventually end up in the White House! Who knows what prominence he may bring to you? Do you want a henpecked husband who trembles in front of you, or a truly subjective, courageous and adventurous husband?</p>
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<p>I spent the whole summer with Ocean Church members and gave them a tough time. They went to bed at midnight, and then were ready to go out again at 3 a.m. Maybe they weren’t all that crazy about the ocean or thrilled to get up that early! But I am setting a standard, the vertical line, and if no one responds then there will be no horizontal line drawn at 90 degrees. Whether you like it or not, you have to apply yourself 100% to form a line perpendicular to the vertical. Anyone who makes that determination will prosper.</p>
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<p>Corning to Belvedere at 6 a.m. is not easy. I know that 10 a.m. would be more convenient for you. But even if you don’t like to come so early, you force yourself out of bed. Your being here sleepy is like being 60 degrees to the vertical, but it is better than nothing! Still it crosses the vertical line, and the vertical has something to do with you. However, if you did not respond at all, no matter how great the power of the vertical line, it couldn’t do you any good. So you must apply yourself willingly.</p>
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<p>There are two major differences between Westerners and Asians. Asians have a strong tradition of obedience, while Westerners are used to making their own choices. The misuse of freedom is prevalent in the West and that has brought great damage. The Western world can crumble very quickly under difficulties, but the Eastern civilization will decay only slowly. Also, the West has no way to recover once it crumbles, while the East has room to bounce back.</p>
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<p>You will have freedom as long as you observe the absolute reference points. Then you can move in any direction; you can draw thousands of lines through the central point and they will be accepted. Patrick Henry proclaimed, “Give me liberty or give me death,” but he wasn’t talking about the misuse of freedom that we see in America today. Freedom according to the central reference point is different from license. Is my concept of freedom correct, or the secular concept we see Way? If you have every freedom except the freedom of love, your other freedoms have no value. ‘Me ultimate application of freedom is determined by love.</p>
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<p>Since the July I Blessing, I have been observing how the newly-married couples have behaved. Actually, I have been detecting a bad smell from some people who seem to think they have graduated from the Unification Church. They think they don’t have to worry anymore about doing God’s will, but only about their own families. When you reflect on this principle, however, where is your vertical line? My general rule is that the wives should take over the responsibility for homemaking. Why is that? In that way your husband can go parallel to the vertical line in service to God and humanity.</p>
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<p>A blessed couple can become one of two types. One will feel that no matter what, the vertical line comes first, and service to God and humanity is the law of their family life. Another type would focus on becoming parallel with each other, not the vertical line. Honestly ask yourself which type you are. Are you compromising with the vertical line? You know better than anyone where you are.</p>
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<p>Some couples don’t stop at worrying about getting an apartment and having a family. They go a step further and want the Church to support them, telling me that I should stop worrying about the restoration of the world and take cam of them instead! I too am a family man; I have a wife and children, but still my primary mission is the vertical line assigned by God. I remember vividly how my first marriage did not work out because I would not compromise on this matter; I insisted on going with the vertical line. When my wife wanted me to worry about our situation instead, it could not work.</p>
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<p>Nothing under the sun can keep me from following the vertical line-serving God and humanity-first. That is what has made me what I am today. If I had followed my first wife and been sympathetic to her and my child, I would not be here talking to you today. Because I sacrificed my life for God and humanity, great accomplishment could come. God knows why I made that sacrifice, and He has amply blessed me in return. That’s why Mother and I could have great blessing in the form of 13 True Children.</p>
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<p>You must become holy men and women who can be remembered by God. He remembers those who can go beyond their own suffering and put the mission and success of the dispensation first. Of course, He knows you need groceries in the house and your children need care. You women will move God’s heart when He sees you in dire need but refraining from criticizing your husband. When He hears you saying, “Don’t worry about me, Heavenly Father, but instead please bless my husband’s efforts to do Your will,” His heart will be melted. When you want to take responsibility for the family yourself so your husband can be free to work hard, God has to sympathize with you.</p>
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<p>Your husband can succeed because of your prayer, and when he comes before God’s throne, God will say, “Wait a minute. Where are your wife and children? They are the greatest ones.” God will come down from His throne and bring you to His side and reward you first. God and your husband will stand together and bow down to you and your children who endured such sacrifice with a willing heart of devotion. That is the kind of wife and children I want.</p>
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<p>The husband must be absolutely sure that he is suffering for the providence more than his wife and children are. That is the one criterion. If you are just enjoying yourself, that is no good. You must be enduring more for the sake of God and humanity. I chose that way of life and walked that path and I had the courage to do that because I knew the truth. I will not compromise. Even now I am totally committed to God and humanity, and I am sure I am receiving more persecution and working harder than anyone else. As long as I am doing this. no power can destroy the Unification Church. I have already obtained the sip of the victor. Whether I will win or not is not in question; it is already decided.</p>
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<p>What kind of wives do you American women want to become? Your burden has actually become much heavier since you have married. Now you are bearing three crosses instead of one-your husband’s and your child’s, plus your own. You may wonder what you will gain with all these extra tears and suffering, but behind you is the true love of God. No one can take that away from you. It is the true wife who can say to her husband, “Your job is to love True Parents and God. Go their way.” Your husband should also be saying the same to you. When you get exhausted, still pursue true love. I have lived that way of life for years. At your age I lived exactly that way.</p>
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<p>You know I love you, don’t you? To me you are my children, so why should I put you through suffering like this? No parent would do that except for one reason: the only inheritance I can give you is true love, and in order to receive it you must know suffering. Once you have received that, you are truly free people. Wherever you go in the universe you shall be welcomed. Then you are participating masters of true love and have that authority. You can go in any direction to any central figure when you have true love, all the way up to God. Once you meet this criterion, you pass every test.</p>
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<p>I look at Mother with this in mind. She is always concerned about my health. I am not a young man, and she worries when I’m out on the ocean all day. I understand her heart and I appreciate it, but at the same time, I must continue to move ahead with the providence. If Ocean Church will help the providence, I must continue to work until early morning.</p>
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<p>At one point we were out at sea constantly for two days and nights, not returning to port at all, and I did not sleep for one moment. On the second night, members were sleeping beside their fishing poles. When I looked at them, I wondered whether I was committing a crime against them, but the key question was whether I did it for a selfish purpose. Since I did it for the sake of God’s providence, I was helping them to become saints. They shall receive the blessing together with me. Therefore, you are not unfortunate people. You are the most fortunate for participating in this historical providence.</p>
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<p>Still I am fighting my way along this road. Our legal battle is continuing and forces are trying to destroy me. But when I look back on my path, I see great accomplishments. Some day people of all colors of skin will come to respect me. Even as I was fighting the legal battle during the trial, I never abandoned the fundamental mission. For example, we accomplished several things-The Washington Times was begun, and we also held the historical Blessing of 2,075 couples at Madison Square Garden. From September 17, over 1,000 theaters will be showing the movie Inchon. All these works were conceived and carried out during my trial.</p>
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<p>Everyone will wonder why I made Inchon; this is a question I want people to ask. Our critics will have a big headache! They indicted me and thought that was the end of it, but now they see our movie all over the country. In every respect, Inchon is a history-making movie. No film was ever re-made on location five times. This is the most expensive film in Hollywood’s history. The most controversial fact is that I produced it. Why did a religious leader do this, Americans will ask. This film has one simple purpose: we want to make General MacArthur a hero for Americans. Young people today do not know who he was, or the true causes of World War II and the Korean War-how they started and progressed, and how they ended. By showing what a hero MacArthur was, a new spirit can come to America and the public can be educated about the providential significance of these wars.</p>
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<p>Why did I do that, instead of some other movie-maker? First of all, it is because MacArthur loved God. The Inchon landing was an impossible strategic plan in a military sense. No sane general would normally have proposed or accepted it because the Inchon harbor has the world’s highest and lowest tides in the course of one hour. That meant that within 45 minutes, 250 ships had to pass through the small channel into the harbor. It was an incredible impossibility. MacArthur could only do it with absolute faith in God. He believed and trusted that the Korean conflict was a holy war and that God would be with them. On that condition alone he came up with his plan and he offered it into God’s hands.</p>
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<p>Secondly, MacArthur loved mankind. Japan was the worst enemy of America in World War 11, but after Japan was defeated, MacArthur worked hard to restore that nation. Out of his compassion he helped make the foundation for what Japan is today, Thirdly, MacArthur abhorred communism. Why? Because communism denies God and strips human beings of their dignity.</p>
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<p>General MacArthur’s spirit and my spirit are parallel, and I invested great amounts of energy to make this movie. With this film we can inspire America and awaken the people to the realities of communism. I’m sure that one thing is clear: this film will generate controversy. Let the demonstrators come! There will be conversations over breakfast and banquet table alike about this film Inchon and MacArthur. Some will be for it, some against it, but anyone who has not seen the movie cannot participate in the discussion. Wives will badger their husbands to go with them to see it!</p>
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<p>Students in particular must see this film. In two hours they can learn about MacArthur’s spirit. Their conversations will focus on the movie, pros and cons, about why they think MacArthur is a hero or not. I want to see such excitement coming from young people. Do you think we are wasting money in this endeavor? You fundraise for $5 or $10 at a time, so what do you think? Even at the cost of millions of dollars we must achieve this goal.</p>
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<p>Gamblers in Las Vegas can lose millions of dollars overnight. But this is far greater than gambling-it is a great adventure. Even if the movie doesn’t recoup the investment we made, the money has been well spent for the sake of America and the posterity of this nation.</p>
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<p>Why does my name receive top billing in the movie? From a secular, promotional point of view it is detrimental, but I still insisted. This movie has a historical purpose, not just for now but for the future. In a hundred or ten thousand years, the name of Reverend Moon will not vanish from history. When that movie is seen in the future my name will come first. History will remember that this film was made during my utmost persecution from the U.S. government. Even during the dirtiest fight, Inchon was made for the benefit of mankind. My spirit of victory over communism will remain on earth forever.</p>
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<p>In a commercial sense, the easiest thing would be to leave my name out entirely. After the movie became a success, then we could talk about who produced it. This is pragmatic thinking. But my thinking is that we may not make money, and may even be set back financially, but if we don’t put my name on it, this film will just disappear. Because Reverend Moon’s name is on the film, it shall be immortal.</p>
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<p>Right now people may be scornful of Inchon, but the more scorn we receive now, the mom decoration we shall receive in the future. There are superstars in the movie, such as Sir Laurence Olivier and Terrence Young, the director- These people haven’t protested the fact that Reverend Moon’s name is listed first in the credits. Why should such big-name stars be silent about that? They know mom than anyone else that the film is a product of Reverend Moon, not just financially but spiritually. Initially they protested when I wanted to make changes in the movie, but every time I did they could see the improvements. After five times, they were completely convinced of my capabilities. Even my suggestions on changes for the promotional posters were welcomed and praised by the Hollywood artists. Reverend Moon is a mystery man to these people.</p>
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<p>Don’t you women want your husbands to be mom like me? I ask you that because it is exactly what I want to do-mold your husbands into men who resemble me and live according to my standard. To do that job well, I need mom than one or two years-I need at least 10 years. Both husband and wife need to be raised up in this manner, but which should come first? Therefore, perhaps I should take your husbands away from you for a while. Do you willingly offer him to me? You want me to train him in the fastest way possible, right? So you will all give me your husbands to train? No, thank you, I don’t want that kind of burden! Are you men ready and willing to follow me? This is truly a wonderful day! You women are ready to give up your husbands so they can become more like me, correct? You may not like to have to, but you are willing-that is wonderful! Here you are, joyful, happy, laughing, even though you know you face hardships in the future. That is our wonderful way of life.</p>
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<p>From now on, since you are part of a family unit, we might initiate special fundraising teams of wives. Even though people may oppose us and our activities, we can declare to the world, “We have a purpose and a goal. This is the way America will live, survive and prosper. Them is no other way. We have the ideology and way of life that will always protect us and our children. We are destined to prosper, without question. We shall not give in!” Is that right? “Right” means privilege, even authority.</p>
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<p>What is the meaning of our topic, “Master, Guests, and Others”? By living this way of life, you will be respected and followed wherever you go, whether in Korea, Europe, or anywhere. All creation and all mankind want to be led by the person of true love, and they respect and admire that kind of person. Such a person is always selfless and conveys a parental attitude of love toward others. That is the ultimate formula we should accomplish.</p>
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<p>Do you want to meet that kind of master, or do you want to become that kind of master yourself.? To become one is not easy. In order to. do that, you have to shed a lot of tears and sweat, suffering many backaches and legaches. Without enduring such difficulties, you can never become a master. The challenge to you men is great. When you hear my sermon this morning will you pursue your spouse, or God and the Church? Will you go together with me and resemble me? If you do that, you shall truly become a master, not just find a master.</p>
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<p>So far I have talked about the master, but what is the definition of the guest? The master has one purpose, but guests can come for two different purposes. They either become indebted to the host, or they lift his burden. When you welcome a guest into your home, do not expect him to do anything for you or to help you. The guest is always a guest-an outsider who comes and goes. People who come to visit you usually end up taking something from you, instead of bettering your situation. If you want to become a master, you need to look for a master and become his good follower. Do not look for a person in the position of guest. This doesn’t mean that you should treat a guest harshly, but you shouldn’t expect anything from him.</p>
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<p>What about your physical parents? They are your guests, not hosts or masters. As blessed couples, you should be the hosts. Therefore, you should not be in a position to be influenced or dominated by them, but to influence them. We have to be very careful with any guests and give them a good impression. Do not talk too freely with them or you will create a problem. But if husband and wife want to talk together all night, that’s all right because you are the host and hostess.</p>
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<p>All others are what we might call strangers-they cannot be trusted because they are unfamiliar to us. You have to know clearly how to distinguish between the three categories of master, guests and others and know exactly how to deal with them. I see the 2,075 Couples as representing the heart of Western civilization here in New York. The Blessing at Madison Square Garden is a historical event for all eternity, and through it you have entered the boundary line of God’s territory. That boundary line is very important and clear.</p>
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<p>Conclusion</p>
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<p>I have described three categories to you-master-or host and hostess-guests, and others. The most important point to remember is that the vertical line penetrates three points-top, center, and bottom. That vertical line is the beginning point for everything; that is God, husband and son. The horizontal line is where husband and wife and neighbor dwell. There is only one absolute reference point and it cannot be changed. For that reason, marriage in the sight of God means only one husband and wife. The law of love requires that husband and wife love each other and their children. Children must love their parents. By following this law, you always stay connected with the absolute reference point. Why should you all love God? By loving Him, everyone can be brought into harmony. That central vertical line becomes the axis of the universe.</p>
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<p>The wife should always teach her children, “As much as I love your father, you must love him, too.” Your practice of love will become their standard. The husband will say, “As much as I love your mother, you should love her, too.” You can both say, “As much as we love God, you should love Him, too.” You teach your children by example. That is the best and only way.</p>
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<p>In that way you create a love center, and then the four position foundation will truly come alive. The love between husband and wife is the core training to learn how to love God and children more. When the wife loves the children more than her husband, he should not be jealous; he should rejoice instead. If the wife loves God more than her husband, it is a poor husband who will complain. He should be grateful and call her a saint instead. The wife should also encourage her husband to love God more than her.</p>
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<p>Setting that kind of example is your central responsibility. By loving God and your children more than your spouse, you shall find unity with the center. That is the original point for the ideal world of absolute love. It is the pride of the Unification Church that we are practicing this way of life. The purpose of creation and the will of God is to fulfill the heavenly four position foundation. We must dwell for eternity with God at the center.</p>
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<p>Even if your husband were to die at an early age, you wives should transfer that tradition to your own children and it will continue. The same is true for you men. If God were here personally, He would say the same thing: love God and your children more than each other Then the vertical line will be the center of everything in your life.</p>
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<p>This universal principle applies from God down to everyone. Wives live for the sake of God, husband and children. Husbands live for the sake of God, wife and children. The children live for the sake of God and parents. God lives for the sake of His children. This is the realm of total giving. Do you understand?</p>
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<p>Concentrate on the central line and fulfill the ideal that you have been taught this morning. Become a master, a true host. Do you welcome it? Will you do it? Thank you very much. God bless you.</p>
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title: "NEW FAMILY GIVEN BY GOD"
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type: "speech"
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published: "2018-06-23T14:00:37+01:00"
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updated: "2018-06-23T14:00:37+01:00"
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source: "/blog/2018/06/23/new-family-given-by-god.html"
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speechYear: "1982"
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categories:
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- "Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982"
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tags: []
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---
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<h2 align="CENTER">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
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<h3 align="CENTER">September 5, 1982<br />
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Belvedere<br />
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Translator – Bo Hi Pak</h3>
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<p>Those who received the Blessing on July 1, please raise your hands. Each person was born as a descendant of the fall. You have an awareness of fallen nature and of being part of a fallen generation, but other people don’t usually have that concept. The secular world only knows that they are born from their parents to live their one life here on earth. What is wrong with living without any sense of being part of history? The problem with that point of view is that it doesn’t prepare one to meet the final terminal of life, which is death.</p>
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<p>No one wants to face death, yet it is inevitable. Death is ordained by universal law. In this universe there is someone who enacted universal law, so death comes under that Creator’s realm. How shall we live correctly and wisely in order to avoid the tragedy of final death? We are limited people and cannot forecast even one day in advance. How, then, could we know the day of death in advance and prepare for it? We cannot. We have to rely instead on some truth and principle to guide us and prepare us to meet death properly.</p>
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<p>If there is a God in this universe, His goal for mankind cannot be simply death. Neither do men want to meet a catastrophic end. If there is a way of eternal life instead of death, the Creator must want to lead us to that path. God will guide us with a firm hand and we should follow His direction. Both God, the leader, and mankind, the followers, should seek to solve the problem as quickly as possible, not drag everything out until the final day. If everyone desires a quick solution, we can live with confidence and find a solution. Human beings need strong, organized leadership from God, who knows how to get to that ultimate goal. He knows all the threats and obstacles to it.</p>
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<p>Of course, everyone would like to be traveling on a super highway where all the signs are clear and the way is obvious. But that is not the situation. In the Bible we read that the gate to life is narrow and difficult to pass through, while the gate to destruction and despair is wide and easy to enter. This is true because of the fall of man. For that reason, God initiated the work of religion. God has given us religion as a manual or guide to lead mankind in a certain direction in order to reach the gate of life instead of death.</p>
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<p>So far, the religious goal has centered on individual salvation, but then where is family salvation? A good answer would be that family salvation begins after individual salvation. Then what about the tribe or clan salvation? That will begin after family salvation. What about the race or nation? That level will be saved after completion of the tribe’s salvation. What about world salvation, as well as salvation of the entire spirit world, including hell? That will begin after all the other levels are completed.</p>
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<p>When can God feel the fulfillment of His joy? God will declare His joy after He finishes cosmic salvation. What, then, is the relationship between God and mankind? Do you feel to the bone that it is one of Father and child? Is it really your Father, God, who is in heaven? As the child of God, do you know what your Father is doing right now, how much agony and grief He feels looking at the world, and what effort He is making to bring salvation to mankind?</p>
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<p>Why did religion come into being? Religion is the instrument or the means by which we can reach the maim of God and participate in His joy. In that realm we can receive liberation from death. Who governs the realm of death? Satan is indeed the master of death, governing its darkness and dungeons.</p>
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<p>What is the difference between those who belong to the satanic empire of death and those who belong to life? The people are different in those two empires. How are the worlds of life and death different? What is the difference between America and Great Britain? Britain has a queen, for one thing. But the people of both countries speak the same language, and British faces are similar to Americans. What is the real difference?</p>
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<p>There is an invisible sip on the foreheads of the British which says, “I am British.” There is a national spirit that only the British have, shaping the way they think and act. Those who are citizens of Great Britain are concerned about the benefit of their own country. They may find some very beautiful item in an American museum, and their first reaction is to wish it were in a British museum. When a British citizen discovers wonderful things in the world, they would like them to glorify their own country, their homeland. Isn’t that true?</p>
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<p>When an American sees something precious and valuable, where would he want to bring it? He would want to take it to his hometown. People always long for their roots. Where does this trait come from? No one is taught such things in school. Each individual has the innate desire to relate the good things in the world with himself and his home.</p>
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<p>Perhaps someone is wild about gold and goes around the world collecting pieces and nuggets of gold. Is there some limitation to how much he will want? Will he ever think he has enough, or will he always want more and more? Does human greed have any limit? What would you do if you gathered a mountain of precious stones? You would go crazy trying to keep thieves away! After something precious like that, your worries and agonies would become immense. Even with your life you could not successfully defend your mountain. There are many thieves with weapons stronger than anything you might have.</p>
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<p>There is no satisfying human greed. Even in the midst of dreadful paranoia, a person might go on trying to amass more possessions, whether gold or jewels or whatever. But imagine that you found something better than gold or diamonds, something you would swap all your wealth for. Perhaps it is something you can hide completely, so it is not in danger of being stolen. It’s light and easy to carry. Even a million thieves would not discover your precious item. Something like that would have to be invisible first of all, so thieves cannot see it. Is there such a thing-invisible, precious, and priceless? Yes. It is God and true love, of course. God is our Father-Father and true love. Nothing else would satisfy everyone. From this, all the joy of the universe begins.</p>
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<p>A new family needs a husband and wife. Do you sisters have good husbands? You don’t seem very confident! Do you rascal brothers have good wives? What makes them good? You call them good if they love God and True Parents, don’t you? It is only through God and True Parents that true love can flow. God is our invisible, true Father on the vertical plane, while we have the True Parents on the horizontal plane.</p>
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<p>In my last sermon I talked about the absolute vertical line and the absolute horizontal line. We must link the vertical and horizontal-one is our spiritual Father in heaven, the other is the physical True Father on earth. What is the difference between them? One is the absolute vertical, and the other is the absolute horizontal. Between them there is a perfectly perpendicular, degree angle. When they are harmonized them is an eternal circular motion. It has no end. The motor turns but no power turns it; it just ignites. Once perfect vertical and horizontal begin give and take and create circular motion, them is no end. It is eternal. Plus and plus repel each other, likewise minus and minus, but plus and minus pull each other. Once there is a small impetus or spark, the whole begins to turn.</p>
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<p>Therefore, we need a vertical father and a horizontal father. Why do we need both the invisible God and visible True Parents? Love has dual characteristics-one is invisible, the other visible. Between the two, invisible love is the central and subject position. When you love someone, the invisible heart or mind exists first before you take certain loving actions. You do not take action and then think of love.</p>
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<p>Why do we regard God as most important of all beings? Because He is subject, even though He is invisible. When you practice the two kinds of love, you are doing all fight-love for the invisible Father and love for the visible Father. Visible love, which exists in the horizontal realm, is love in the dimension of time, while God’s love is in the realm of eternity. We can expand horizontal love without limit, but there is only one point where that expansion can begin: at the perpendicular, 90-degree point. That is the mediation point where the love of our invisible Father and our visible parents can begin.</p>
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<p>Once you know this, you can use the opportunity to grab that love and hide it in the most secret place in your heart. From that point, you are free to initiate universal action. Everything is free. Then you can expand the circle as much or as little as you want; you are totally free. How can you do that? Since the vertical line has no limit, it can accommodate your direction. God’s true love will want to follow you. The supply of true love is only limited by the size of your love. When your love is fused with God’s invisible and True Parents’ visible love, the intensity of your love will determine its scope.</p>
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<p>Isn’t that great? Would you rather have gold pieces the size of a continent, or hold onto this kind of love? Perhaps you prefer true, invisible love because it is mom convenient to carry around? You pragmatic American people! Is that the only reason?</p>
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<p>You said universal love has more value, but why? True love is like an ID card. When God sees it, He will give you carte blanche over the whole world. You can demand anything and everything without limit with that true love. I know how greedy you are and what requests you will make. “I want You, God! Please come and join with my true love right away.” God will say, “Yes, I will!” God will come down to your true love at your request, and so will True Parents. Even if you kept God and the True Parents in a small bag, they would not feel suffocated. Inside true love, God and the True Parents feel incredible joy.</p>
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<p>When lovers come together, they hold each other tightly and they actually seem to get smaller; they almost want to crush each other. It is the same between you and God and True Parents. In the intensity of your love, you will all be compressed into a small ball, like a marble. That is good because the smaller the ball, the faster it can turn. When God comes closer and closer inside that ball, the speed intensifies, going faster and faster.</p>
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<p>When you run fast, you breathe hard. The faster you move, the faster you breathe. God wants to experience suffocating, breath-taking love inside that tiny marble ball. How wonderful that is! All you need is one, invisible little thing called true love. With that ID card you have a free pass to go see kings and queens, or even thieves and murderers and melt their hearts. Don’t you feel good just thinking about it? When it is real, how much better it is!</p>
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<p>Now you should be able to answer whether your spouse is a good one or not. Your wife or husband is the conducting wire of true love to you. You should think, “My husband may not be so handsome, but all he needs are two qualities: love of God and love of True Parents.” Through that, true love can come. Your husband or wife is the conveyer belt between the visible father and invisible Father.</p>
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<p>Most people tend to think a lot about physical appearance and want to marry someone like a Hollywood movie star. Can you tell the difference between a true diamond and an imitation? In appearance a man-made diamond is mom organized. A natural diamond has certain irregular qualities that have to be made the best of. The important thing with men and women is the original quality.</p>
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<p>I know that each of you has some false areas as well as your original qualities. Who has more original qualities men or women? Men am not as changeable. For example, they tend to wear the same suit every day, while women think, “I wore red yesterday, so I have to wear a different color today.” Something which is not genuine, an imitation, has more of the changeable quality. Don’t hate me for saying this. I’m only telling the truth. I have nothing against American women!</p>
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<p>From God’s point of view, the most handsome man and beautiful woman are those who can draw the straightest line of love and thus be the best conveyer belt. The question is whether that straight line is imitation or genuine. If that line is drawn with 24-karat gold wire, the purest kind, its conductibility is 100%. Would you prefer a thick line that was only gold-plated on the outside, or a thin fine of pure gold? You have seen men who come from rich families and look handsome but who are really only gold-plated. Wouldn’t you women prefer a poor husband of genuine gold?</p>
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<p>Outside our church we see many beauty queens Hollywood stars, models and cover girls. But many Unification Church women look like ghosts! Do you want a wife with the gold on the outside or the inside? You men are looking for the genuine qualities of heart. You won’t find it in those movie stars or cover girls. What changes mom quickly-the outside or the inside of a woman? What about men? Do you find men and women with unchangeable qualities in the Unification Church? Is that good fortune or bad? Yes, it’s good!</p>
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<p>You are looking for a good wife or husband. That means a man or woman of God. Can you find many such people in the secular world? Why not? It is because they don’t have True Parents. Men and women in this world are looking for sensational love, which is changeable, but in the Unification Church we are looking for unchangeable love. We aren’t thinking so much about whether our spouse looks like a ghost, but whether he or she has that genuine gold wire inside.</p>
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<p>Can you find that unchangeable love within one year? How do you know love won’t change after one year? You have to live together ten or twenty years to really discover your mate’s unique, unchanging qualities. Those are the qualities that will intoxicate you and last for all eternity.</p>
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<p>Marriage is a journey that men and women begin together. Where will it end? Can you imagine living for 10,000 years? Compared to eternity, that is just the beginning. Some people realize that. Others think, “Boy, one month is eternity! I can’t even stand to look at my wife.” Marriage is like exploring a gold mine. In one month or one year you can barely find one sewn of gold. There may be all kinds of foreign elements in it, so unless you dig deeper down, you won’t know what’s there. That is the adventure of married life.</p>
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<p>There are two different kinds of appearance. A Broadway stage can look like a golden palace, but them is nothing behind the facade. On the other hand, a simple mountain may look plain, but when you dig into it you discover limitless resources inside. I always ask whether genuineness can be mom frequently found in an attractive person or a homely one. You greedy guys always think you can be genuine and handsome, too! Actually, there are always exceptions, so you can be the exception! But generally the unchanging qualities are more often found in the homelier-looking people.</p>
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<p>We see women wearing elaborate cosmetics, false eyelashes, high heels and beautiful dresses. They may change their costume three times a day in order to parade down Fifth Avenue. Is that the ideal for a woman? What about a man with flowing hair and mustache, wearing a fancy breast pocket handkerchief going into a bar to find girls? Is that ideal? Then consider a man who smells bad, even from a distance, and who only has two teeth; perhaps he is almost blind, too. Could someone like that be genuine 24-karat gold? You have to focus your concept of an ideal man and woman.</p>
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<p>A 24-karat gold wire can conduct electricity even if it is crooked and has all kinds of loops and twists. Would you prefer such a gold wire, or a perfectly straight one? As long as they are of genuine gold, their conductibility is just the same. If the amount of energy passing through is the same, why go after the straight wire? When you unwind the crooked wire, you have a greater amount of gold! The important thing is the genuineness and purity of the gold.</p>
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<p>A pure gold person will probably be ugly. There are exceptions, but usually this is true. After listening to this explanation, you sisters who are proud to have the ugliest husband in the Unification Church, raise your hands! At night he may be uglier than in the morning because he is tired from living the sacrificial way of life for God. Perhaps your husband doesn’t worry about you or the children as much as doing the will of God. Is he an impossible husband?</p>
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<p>From all the usual standards of appearance and education, your husband may seem impossible, but the important question is whether he is genuinely living for the will of God. However ugly that person may be, his gold can be refined by dressing him up and educating him and teaching him manners. The handsome man, on the other hand, would more likely think it is dumb to live for God and True Parents and not for himself. Which type of husband would you want?</p>
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<p>I experienced this very thing in my own life. My first wife was outstanding as an individual, but she only thought of her own well-being and our family. But I was looking for a woman who would take care of everyone else first. I wanted our home to be open for public service and a place of God’s love, but she could not live like that. If I listened to that woman, would I be here today teaching you this message? I knew that my wife had a very difficult task to truly live for the sake of others, but to follow her direction would have lead to permanent death. I could not possibly live that way. When she knew she could not change my mind, she just left.</p>
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<p>I could not leave God’s destiny. I know this from my own experience. This can also happen to you. You must keep your two eyes focused on God and True Parents. Please be like spearheads and penetrate to the goal.</p>
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<p>What kind of spear is your husband? Does his handle look worn out? The important thing is the spearhead; if that is genuine gold then you have a lot of hope. No matter how sharp the spearhead of true love, it does not hurt or destroy but embraces. It can penetrate anything else. When your husband penetrates the true love of God, it will bring happiness and prosperity and everything good to YOU.</p>
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<p>Am I handsome or ugly? I would describe myself as a cruel man for pushing you out so much. There must be something wrong with your eyes if you still think I am handsome! But you know that I am pushing you out so that you can find life and true love. If I were doing that for my own wealth and glory then I would be a monster. If my motivation were anything other than true love, then the closer you got to me, the uglier I would look. Your heart would turn cold and you would depart. You have found that I look stem and merciless, yet still you want to be close in order to find love and beauty.</p>
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<p>Do you think Mother is a very fortunate and happy woman to be married to me? In one sense she is fortunate, but them is untold suffering behind her appearance. I know her suffering because she has virtually no freedom. She does not determine her own schedule. She has no freedom to sleep whenever she wants, but only when I allow it. It is not easy to be my wife. My life is absolutely public. Yesterday Mother didn’t feel very well, but I had said that we would visit Washington, DC, so she just obeyed and followed. She had a headache and felt dizzy, but do you think Mother slept all morning? Absolutely not. Do you still think Mother is a happy woman?</p>
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<p>I went to Washington yesterday and visited the members at The Washington Times, and Mother was there with me every minute. You know my sermons don’t last just ten minutes but go on for hours, and Mother was there the whole time. I’m sure she was thinking I could give a great message in just a short time, but she sat and listened for hours. Even this morning I’m sure she would like me to give a short sermon because there is a celebration scheduled today at East Garden. Mother is concerned that I will get too tired. She feels anxious when I go on and on, but still she obeys and sits calmly Mother does not have an easy life at all. You may think she is the happiest person under the sun with nothing to worry about, but that is not the case.</p>
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<p>Mother knows that she must follow my will because everything I do is for the salvation and benefit of other,,,. I care about the lives of The Washington Times people so I talked a long time to them. Mother knows this so she supports me. I just came back from Gloucester. After a whole summer on the ocean I was very fatigued and would have liked to rest. I could have sent Bo Hi Pak here to give the sermon this morning, but I came anyway, pounding on you again! I come here to give the milk of life to you, almost like spiritual breast feeding. When you drink it like a child, your eyes and ears, as well as your spiritual mind, open up. Wherever I am, when Sunday comes I want to bring resurrection to you.</p>
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<p>When you come to Belvedere expecting to see me, the air is tense with anticipation and you feel keyed up. But then if I am away and someone else speaks instead, you feel let down. I know exactly what happens, so I push myself to come here every Sunday morning. I couldn’t rest at East Garden while the church leaders spoke here in my place. It is impossible for me to even imagine that. I push myself up no matter how tired I am.</p>
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<p>No one gives me money to speak like this. I receive no honorarium. I understand that because of the system at The Washington Times, our members have to get paid and, because of that, other members want to work there. Let them go and see how long they could maintain themselves. It is a sort of heretical system in the Unification Church tradition. I allow it because I am realistic enough to know how to deal with the secular world. Do you prefer the heavenly system instead?</p>
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<p>In the traditional heavenly way, there is no danger, but there is a risk involved in going the way of the secular world. You must take extra caution. If you go the traditional way then your husbands will go out for the mission and the wife must support the family. Does that sound better than having your husband get a paycheck from the Times so that you can stay home all day? The secular way may sound sweet, but I have walked the heavenly way.</p>
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<p>Now you know what a genuine wife and husband are all about. I want you to understand that your husband or wife is not your private property. You come out of the fallen world, yet your mate comes as a gift from heaven, through True Parents. You must be able to read the label that comes on your spouse. That label tells you where that item comes from. “Made in Heaven.” That gift is given to you in order that you might consummate true love. It is impossible for love to be consummated by one person alone.</p>
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<p>This is the Principle. Husbands and wives, look at each other as representatives of God and True Parents. Your duty is to love each other, and by doing so you are loving True Parents and your Heavenly Father. By loving his wife, the husband is loving True Mother. The wife is loving True Father by loving her husband. As you love each other, you are loving God and True Parents. Your journey is to eternity, and the achievement of true love is our goal.</p>
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<p>Even if your husband or wife cannot make it, that does not give you the right to give up. Think, “You may abandon me, but I will not abandon you or this path.” There is no such thing as abandonment in God’s world. Our way of life requires us to be patient and persevere. If you are abandoned, that is not your responsibility. Think, “Because God exists, I have hope. I will return to Him one way or another.” That is the meaning of the Blessing given on July 1.</p>
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<p>I am giving you men and women a mandate. You are destined to live this central life where the vertical and horizontal lines cross, where you can find the invisible love of God and the visible love of True Parents. You are destined to consummate that love and expand it to the world. Of course, there are difficulties on this path. Whenever my boat, “New Hope,” leaves port it is in good shape and everything is functioning smoothly. But something invariably happens. Maybe a storm will come up, or the engine will develop trouble. A crew member may make a mistake and overlook something. But the important thing is to cope with any situation and persevere to find the solution. Instead of panicking, take care of the matter and go on.</p>
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<p>At first glance your husband may not seem so attractive, but then look at him from the point of view of his father and mother. You should be competing with his parents to love that man more than his parents do. The wife should be able to do this because his parents couldn’t know true love. You are in a position to know true love, and it should be much more intense and sacred than that of his physical parents.</p>
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<p>You must feel that you are superior in love to any other couple in the secular world. You must be more united and pure in your love. You men and women must live up to this credo I am giving you this morning. This is exactly the same covenant Mother and I fulfill. Sometimes I look at Mother as a daughter, sometimes as a mother. I want to love her more than any other person loved her, including her parents, because I represent true love. From that point on, the true love of God can be linked to us. Everything is discussed and organized in matters of love. The dispensational matters don’t have to concern Mother, but in matters of love everything is openly discussed and we are united. Purity must always be preserved.</p>
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<p>I want to share an episode that happened in Gloucester. I was out on the ocean for two days and nights, without sleep, and I lay down exhausted when I returned. Mother asked Mrs. Lee, a 36-Couple wife who was helping in the house, to give me some massage since she is an expert in Shiatsu. I was lying down on the floor, and Mother was on the bed, while Mrs. Lee was giving me a massage. I was dead tired, like a log, almost unconscious. Whenever I reach over at night, naturally the person I touch is always Mother. In my semi-conscious state, I reached over and caressed who I thought was Mother. But it felt different, so I woke up to see what happened, and it wasn’t Mother at all!</p>
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<p>The next morning when I got up and remembered what had happened, how do you think I felt? How do you think Mrs. Lee felt? Such a thing can never be permitted. I just woke up Mother and told her, “I had an accident,” and asked her to take care of the matter. Mother received the news very calmly and absolutely believed me. She told me not to worry. Mother told Mrs. Lee what I had said, and then we met together with Mrs. Lee. She was completely understanding and her comment to me was, “Father, I knew exactly what happened and I feel very honored!” Mrs. Lee also said that from a professional point of view, it was understandable. When you massage a certain point, the person’s arm will automatically come up.</p>
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<p>I see the episode as a beautiful one because there was complete purity and trust between each person, with nothing to cover up inside. I am telling you this story because you are now husbands and wives, not just single men and women. All kinds of misunderstandings can be created if your motivation is unclear. But love and purity must prevail. There are no secrets in true love between husband and wife.</p>
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<p>You are your spouse’s bridge to the love of God. You are the extension of God’s love. The husband is the extension of my image, and the wife the extension of Mother’s image. That is how you are to unite all mankind, making a complete circle of love. When two circles come together, truly a new home is born which is an educating ground for the love of Father and Mother and God. The women represent the post of Mother’s love and men represent the post of Father’s love; together they represent God’s love You should be absolutely clear that you are making a heavenly home where love can come, where a true husband and wife can be born.</p>
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<p>Do not consider that you are a true husband and wife simply because you were sprinkled with holy water on July 1. You must be sealed by God. You represent God and True Parents and must become masters of love. Until then you cannot be sealed as true husband and wife. All the people around you will bear witness to your love, including the angels. Under those circumstances you will give birth to a child, like Adam and Eve who were surrounded by angels.</p>
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<p>God, Adam, Eve, and the angels were all meant to rejoice together over the birth of each child. In the same way, when you are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses, your child will be celebrated by everyone. People will say, “Behold, this beautiful couple gave birth to a beautiful new child.”</p>
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<p>Whether you are Japanese, German, British, American or whatever doesn’t matter because we are wiping out the past. We have only one citizenship that matters. Our country is the Heavenly Kingdom, and the precious historical contents of its museum are what we will offer to God. You are creating your contribution to that museum the family period, tribal period, national period, world period, and cosmic period. At that point, you completely enter the direct dominion of God where God dwells with you. Your family should enter God’s museum as a unit. Do you have confidence in this?</p>
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<p>I want you to be absolutely free of self-centeredness. Considering your past, when you present your body to your spouse, you must feel humble, meek and ashamed because your body and mind are not quite ready to become containers of true love. You should feel repentful. Your children should be able to say that their parents are truly saints. Educate your children through your own example, and help them to feel inspired by your life. Your children should say they never saw their parents fight. Mother and I are under the same law. Under no circumstances do we show strain or tears in front of the children.</p>
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<p>You are trying to create a precious treasure for God’s museum. That task begins with your holy wedding. You sisters want to become true daughters, wives and mothers, don’t you? Who will acknowledge your accomplishment and sign your certificate? Your husband, True Parents and God must sip your certificate. What is the criteria we will use to decide? It all centers on whether you have true love. The center of true love is God, True Parents and your husband, and you must serve these three. Never think that you possess true love by yourself.</p>
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<p>Only through true love can you have any relationship with God and True Parents. You brothers want to become true sons, husbands and fathers, don’t you? Who shall sign your certificate? Your wife, God, and True Parents. It is not enough for your wife to say that you love her. True Parents and God must also recognize your true love. Thereafter, anywhere you go on earth or in heaven, you will be welcomed. Once you reach that level, no matter how poor you are, you will never starve, and your children will never desert or betray you. That is the center of the force of the entire universe, and it will protect you according to natural law. You will never be destroyed.</p>
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<p>If you live in the world with a selfish point of view, you will not go anywhere. When you reach out to hold your wife’s hand, you should first ask whether your hand has received the love of God and True Parents. If your conscience says no, you have no right to hold your wife’s hand. If your eye does not deserve the love of True Parents and God, it is a thief’s eye. When you embrace your wife, do you have that pure, unselfish love which represents heaven and earth?</p>
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<p>The love between husband and wife should sprinkle fragrant goodness all over the world so that the rest of the universe harmonizes with you. Everything in the universe should welcome your love, and the consummation of it should be a new child.</p>
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<p>Your children will be the ones to eulogize you when you go to spirit world. At that time, they should be able to bear witness to their parents and say that you were truly righteous and lived for the sake of God and True Parents and the family. Your children should say their mother was truly a great mother, wife and daughter of God. Your children should be able to say that their father was a true father, husband, and son of God. That is the end of the first chapter of your life, and then the next glorious chapter begins in the spirit world.</p>
|
||||
<p>Your children will be the ones to ask God to take cam of their parents. When God hears such a prayer He will be moved to fulfill their request. That is the goal of our families. If you have nothing to be ashamed of when you come before God, True Parents and your family, then you have nothing to be ashamed of in all of heaven and earth. In the true home given by heaven, everything becomes yours when you become God’s and True Parents’. Keep this invisible, priceless treasure in your bosom.</p>
|
||||
<p>Before you joined the Unification Church, I am sure you did things that you would be ashamed of in front of your parents and brothers and sisters. Without knowing the truth, you acted unwisely. This is why you want to cleanse the past through the engagement and wedding ceremonies, making yourself into a new person. There is no solution other than true love. You have to follow it. Now God is giving you a new home; do you know the priceless value of it? I want you to know what a precious position you are in. Even Jesus Christ, with all the power and authority of the Messiah, could not cross over this barrier, but you have done so. How very precious that is.</p>
|
||||
<p>Does your husband or wife belong to you? Are they your private property? You must become the master of true love so that you can become true wives and husbands, true sons and daughters of God. If we do not see things from God’s point of view, then the small matters of everyday life can become problems. But when you see the broad path, then everything else can be solved. Do you think Mother and I truly love one another? Will my children testify to this? Will God and spirit world testify to it?</p>
|
||||
<p>Have I given you too much tough material this morning? Did my sermon interfere with plans you had for your future family life, perhaps a cozy apartment with no interruptions and lots of love and joy? I preached the wrong sermon for that! I’m sorry, but I have to do it. Do you thank me or hate me for these words today? Within this principle of true love you have total freedom of conscience and you can be truly happy. For eternity you will not be able to praise each other enough. Was this Blessing given to you freely or was it earned by you? It is given by heaven, as God’s gift. Why does God give it to you? He wants to see true love consummated within you and your home.</p>
|
||||
<p>Some of you lived very dishonorably in the past, with no moral standards. You are grateful to True Parents for teaching the right path. From now on, however, you cannot make a mistake because you know the truth. You shall become righteous husbands and wives. Religious people of the past made tremendous sacrifices to bring you into this position to consummate true love. They were like the fertilizer for your victory because they helped create the atmosphere for today. God has been suffering for 6,000 biblical years, persevering in incredible agony to see this one true couple, the True Parents. I am looking for American couples who can be visited at any time by God and True Parents.</p>
|
||||
<p>From the anchor of true love, you can extend your line anywhere. Your boat can go freely anywhere in the ocean as long as your anchor is connected to this principle. You can have a free pass to the highest palace in heaven. One thousand years from now we will all be in spirit world, and if you want to go in to greet the True Parents, you must present your ID card of true love. Otherwise, you cannot enter that East Garden in heaven, If you have that ID card, though, you can be with True Parents at any time, rejoicing and having fellowship with them.</p>
|
||||
<p>Where is God then? In spirit world God is still invisible, but you can feel His presence perfectly. Just as your conscience guides you now, God is present in your heart, guiding you in spirit world. By then you will truly feel the value of having followed the True Parents here on earth. You will be victorious in heaven and earth and feel deeply grateful to God and True Parents. That precious thing can only be achieved through the foundation of the family I have described. In order to achieve such a family, I gave you the Blessing.</p>
|
||||
<p>Your smile should be a universal one which can correspond with history. Love goes beyond time. In describing this world of true love, English is inadequate. There are no words to describe the manifestations of true love. You must feel to the bone how precious one man is, one woman is. The love organs of man and woman are the final terminals of the love of True Parents and the love of God.</p>
|
||||
<p>It is almost like you are fishing for each other with true love as your bait. Men are hooking women and women are hooking men. Even if blood is coming out of your mouth because of the hook, you still feel good. Build this role of husband and wife from now on. Do not be excited by the sensation of physical love, but first by the spiritual contents of love. Then the physical side will follow, subject and object, and be sanctified.</p>
|
||||
<p>If you have been skeptical and wishy-washy so far, can you commit yourselves now to living up to the purpose of Heaven and the True Parents? Thank you all.</p>
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---
|
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title: "ORIGINAL RACE FROM ONE LINEAGE"
|
||||
type: "speech"
|
||||
published: "2018-06-23T14:32:59+01:00"
|
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updated: "2018-06-23T14:33:27+01:00"
|
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source: "/blog/2018/06/23/original-race-from-one-lineage.html"
|
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speechYear: "1982"
|
||||
categories:
|
||||
- "Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982"
|
||||
tags: []
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
<h2 style="text-align: center;">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
|
||||
<h3 style="text-align: center;">December 1, 1982<br />
|
||||
Belvedere<br />
|
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Translator – Bo Hi Pak</h3>
|
||||
<p>The literal translation of the title is blood family, a family or a people united by the same blood lineage. But you don’t use a phrase such as blood race, do you? So a better translation might be the original race from one lineage.</p>
|
||||
<p>Where did all of us come from? The key question is always one of origin. Consider yourself: what are you? You consist of mind and body. There are also various other symmetries and relationships in your nuke-up: right and left, up and down, etc. Everything is relative.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you look at your face, you may wonder why it happens to be the way it is. You can imagine some very funny variations. Suppose the various facial features were arranged differently. Everything might be upside down, for example. If your mouth were higher dun your eyes, your eyeballs would move up and down every time you brought food to your mouth. If your meal consisted of soup, every time a spoon carrying hot liquid went up, your eyes would declare an emergency! Then what if your nose were upside down, with the nostrils facing up? Any liquid failing from the mouth would enter those two holes and create tremendous problems.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why do the eyes happen to be in their particular position? If they were on the top of your head, you would have to make incredible effort to look down. Any time you try to select a better position for the eyes, you come to the conclusion that this is the best place for them. Generally speaking, the eyes are centrally placed. Why? It is so you can see straight; your eyes move back and forth at a 90 degree angle from your standing position, which is a vertical line.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you sleep at night, how do your eyes move: up and down, or right and left? When you are lying down, it doesn’t really matter whether the eyeballs move right and left or up and down. They still operate on a horizontal plane, don’t they? You probably never thought about that.</p>
|
||||
<p>What if you didn’t have eyelashes or eyebrows? Look at someone and try to visualize him without eyebrows. In the summer when you work hard and the sweat pours down from your forehead, what would happen if the eyebrows were positioned upside down like a bowl? The sweat would stay in the bowl and spill over into your eyes! It’s almost incredible how the features of your face are arranged.</p>
|
||||
<p>Now, when you look at someone’s eyes, you realize how strategically they are positioned and how well they are protected. The eyes are normally set in and the bones around them stick out. They are framed by eyebrows and eyelashes so they are well protected by their surroundings. In addition, the eyes are recessed and the eyelids extend over them, so liquids, including sweat, cannot get in. Suppose the hairs of the eyelashes extended over the nose. Have you thought about why them is hair around the eyes?</p>
|
||||
<p>Many people probably look at their face and take it for granted. But so many things were considered in the creation of that face; so much thought went into making certain that it would function perfectly. Incredible thinking was invested in the face.</p>
|
||||
<p>Suppose the eyeballs were immobile and the only way to look to the right or to the left was to move your face, or even your entire body. If the eyeballs didn’t move, the neck would have to work double, triple, or even quadruple time. It would protest to the eyes: “You rascals, you give me such a hard time!”</p>
|
||||
<p>Your eyelids don’t stay still; they blink steadily. But do you feel uncomfortable blinking? Does blinking inconvenience you? Are you aware of your eyes blinking? From the time you get up in the morning and as you do your mission throughout the day, your eyelids blink without resting. Have you ever thought about how your eyes have to blink all day long? If they remained open like windows, without blinking, what do you think would happen? Your eyes would dry out; they would become sore and bloodshot; the various disturbances coming into your eyes would make them painful. So think what a priceless gift of fortune it is to have even one perfect eye functioning for you!</p>
|
||||
<p>Suppose the line of your nose went downward and then suddenly turned up. Suppose it were circular. Suppose it ended right in the mouth. Why is there a slight bulge on both sides of the end of your nose? It is to keep any min or sweat from entering your nostrils. Any liquid coming down the top of your nose will fall to the side and never get into your mouth.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why is there a line separating each cheek from your mouth? Each line and each shape has meaning. When I look at someone’s face, I can tell a great deal about that person by the shape of those two lines. Those lines can tell me, for instance, whether a person works hard and sweats a lot. Your eyes also reveal a lot about you. Some people don’t look straight at you; they always look up or down. Other people constantly look from side to side as they walk. There are even distinctive ways of closing one’s mouth. Some people press their lips tightly and thrust them out. One person may shut his mouth, making a long horizontal line, while another points his lips out.</p>
|
||||
<p>What was the original kind of face? What do you consider the most natural face? Is it a smiling face? The original face may be that of a newborn baby crying and shouting out to the world. A brand new baby doesn’t just whimper, he puts his last ounce of energy into his cry. Actually, crying is an excellent exercise for an infant. His lungs contract all the way and his chest moves up and down; in this way he is exercising his lungs.</p>
|
||||
<p>A baby who has just been born makes a declaration of life as he cries out to the world. A mother loves to hear her newborn cry. If the baby doesn’t cry, something must be wrong. For nine months prior to birth, the baby was compressed into the small space inside the mother’s womb. It had no elbow room; it needed exercise. The baby has to be curled up into the smallest possible mass inside the womb. Finally, when the baby is born, his body can stretch out; his lungs expand and he starts to breathe.</p>
|
||||
<p>I don’t know what the medical books say about this because I haven’t read them, but I know what nature says very well. The newborn baby’s cry is a cry of joy, a cry of bursting into nature. It is an incredible outburst of life.</p>
|
||||
<p>Both crying and laughing are extreme expressions of feeling, linking emotional and physical functions. When you look at someone laughing, you see not just the mouth but the whole body is involved. It is awkward and unnatural for someone to laugh only with his mouth. Laughter is an emotional expression of the whole face and body.</p>
|
||||
<p>Another amazing thing is that tears are produced both when you laugh and when you cry. The emotions of laughing and crying are extreme opposites, but both are expressed by the same tears. Does that mean the two emotions are far apart or close? Is it bad to cry? Do you want to live a crying life? Would you want to spend your entire life as a crying baby? Would you prefer a laughing life or a crying life? One is an upward expression and the other a downward expression, so the two emotions are different. What kind of face would you want to wear daily? You say a happy face. Show me one.</p>
|
||||
<p>Happiness can be described as a smooth, natural and harmonious expression-a full circle. Unless your circle is completely full, there is no true happiness. We could say that the universe exists to fill the circle. The various parts of your body are rounded; there are no sharp edges. Even a person’s face is generally round; a person’s head is rounded. A round face and head are good.</p>
|
||||
<p>There are distinct features that differentiate Oriental and Western people. Oriental heads are normally broad in front, but short in depth, while Western heads are narrower in front but quite long. People usually evaluate a person’s attractiveness from the front, but I think the most important angle is the rear view. A good-looking person should be attractive from the rear, side and top as well; all directions should be perfect.</p>
|
||||
<p>When I look at someone’s mouth, it tells me lots of stories about him. From the shape of the mouth I know whether someone speaks bluntly and honestly.</p>
|
||||
<p>It is not easy to become a totally original, natural person. To be natural, everything has to be straight, parallel, and organized. It even means walking in the most natural manner possible. To conform to the original human standard is not easy; to reach the original level is an almost insurmountable physical task.</p>
|
||||
<p>It would be absurd to say that the intricate human body just happened by accident. By looking at the human face alone, one cannot deny the existence of God. You sometimes wonder how I can match so many couples in such a short time; now you have been given a glimpse into the process. This is a very elementary explanation, but it still offers some hints about how I get insights into people.</p>
|
||||
<p>A person’s chin and cars offer insights as well. A person’s chin generally protrudes slightly. Do you know why? It is for the sake of harmony. If all the lines go straight down, the face looks too flat, so the chin makes the face more interesting. The shape of the ears is absolutely beautiful. There are even three stages to the ear.</p>
|
||||
<p>Just as them are three focal points in the face-eyes, nose and mouth-them are also three distinct areas: from the hairline to the eyebrows, the eyebrows to the tip of the nose, and the nose to the chin. Each of these levels also has three distinct areas. Everything, even your fingers, has three parts.</p>
|
||||
<p>The features of one’s face are also proportionate to the face as a whole. When God gives someone a long face, for instance, He has to give him a long nose. Can you imagine how unbalanced a long face with a very tiny nose would look!</p>
|
||||
<p>Everything we are talking about hem is scientific. What does it mean to say something is scientific? The scientific process involves making logical, organized links between cause and effect. This whole discussion of facial features is very logical.</p>
|
||||
<p>Let’s talk about the ancestors of your eyes. Where do your eyes come from? Which do you think came first, the eye or the environment? Why did the environment come first? Before the eyes were even created, they knew there would be a sun; eyes were designed on the assumption of sunshine. Perhaps someone would claim, “No, no. The sun knew what kind of eyes them would be, so it adapted itself to them adjusting its brightness to give them enough light.”</p>
|
||||
<p>We might ask another question: how did the eyes know they would need some kind of moisture to keep from drying out? Whoever designed the eyes provided tear ducts and eyelids to protect the eyes from dust. So did that somebody create eyes first and then put dust into the air? No. Your answer is correct: the environment came first; nature came first.</p>
|
||||
<p>Therefore, it is obvious that even before they came into being, your eyes knew them would be sunshine, rain, sweat, dust, atmosphere, and so on to deal with. When the very first eyes came into the world, did they know they would encounter sunlight, dust and moisture, etc.? The eyes didn’t know that, but their designer did.</p>
|
||||
<p>Then who is that designer? You say God, but have you seen Him? How do you know He did it? We can conclude, very logically and scientifically, that before the eyes ever came into being, some intelligence which knew the circumstances of the atmosphere designed the eyes to function properly. If eyes had come into being on their own and encountered some unforeseen circumstances, do you suppose they would go searching throughout the universe for some hairs they had neglected to provide!</p>
|
||||
<p>Your eyes are like two windows opening out to the universe. So when you open your eyes, you are not just moving muscles but you are exposing yourself to the universe. You can acquire universal knowledge through them.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why do the eyeballs move left and right and up and down? Many people believe that everything happens by accident, that life evolved through random mutations. But you must recognize that there is direction and will in evolution. If there were no discipline in development, your eyes might have evolved in all kinds of ways.</p>
|
||||
<p>A crucial question in philosophy is which came first, consciousness or existence. If you say consciousness was the origin, you are calling it the seed of everything. If you say existence came first, you mean that matter is the essence of the universe. So what is the answer?</p>
|
||||
<p>How many eye doctors do you think there are in the world? Tens of thousands, right? If your eyes are healthy and don’t need the care of an eye doctor, that means they are protected and beyond the realm of knowledge of the doctors. All the intelligence of all the eye doctors together is not enough to fathom the eye. How many volumes of books do you think would be needed to describe all the knowledge about your eyes? What’s more, your eyes are not just physical organs; they perceive the universe. Therefore, a comprehensive book about eyes would also have to describe universal phenomena!</p>
|
||||
<p>In addition, your eyes, mouth, nose and ears don’t just function separately, but they are all interconnected. If you take a deep breath and hold your nose, for instance, you can feel your eyes and ears pop. How many books would be needed to describe the five functions of your face? Would one book be enough? A million books? That and many more. You have never seen anything more intricate, sophisticated, disciplined, or more organized than the organs of your face. What a lot of nonsense for someone to say it all came about by accident!</p>
|
||||
<p>Actually, each person contains the essence of the universe including solid, liquid and gas elements. To bring one person into existence would require mastering the total knowledge of the universe and projecting it into one perfect microcosm: a human being. So you are not an accidental phenomenon. It would be nonsense for a person to declare, “I don’t care about the universe; I have nothing to do with it. I happen to be here by accident.”</p>
|
||||
<p>Some people claim that human beings evolved from monkeys. All right, but who determined the way the monkey is? Who decided there would be male and female monkeys? Was there some clever monkey who chose whether it was going to be male or female? Perhaps a female monkey declared she wanted to be a male from then on. Suppose none of them wanted to be female, and all the monkeys ended up being males. What would happen then? Male monkeys ire tall, strong and powerful, while female monkeys are smaller and weaker, so maybe nobody wanted to be a female monkey. But does a monkey have the right to decide?</p>
|
||||
<p>The theory of evolution leaves a lot of questions unanswered. Who determined the direction of evolution? Who said that monkeys should become humans? Why shouldn’t the monkeys become more primitive and go back to being amoebas? Did the monkeys make up their mind to head one way and not the other? Who decided that life should evolve from a primitive state to a more advanced, sophisticated state?</p>
|
||||
<p>In order to become something else or to achieve a higher state, one needs extra energy. Where can one get that extra energy to invest? Can you say, “I don’t need anything. I will create my own energy?” Does created matter generate creative power within itself? When we really understand scientific logic, communism has no ground to stand upon. But scientists are too timid, in a way, to come out and declare it.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you think about it deeply, nothing is accidental in the human body. For instance, why do men have a beard and women not? Whoever designed men knew that men were going to sweat a lot; therefore, when the sweat comes out, it is absorbed by the hair instead of dripping all over the face. Everything has a reason. Nothing on your face or in your body is there without a reason.</p>
|
||||
<p>Which comes first, consciousness or existence? A long time ago I had many friends who were communists. I kept teasing them, “Oh, you conic from a monkey, so you are a monkey boy. Why don’t you evolve into a man? I’m a man, but you’re a monkey. You can be my friend when you conic up to the human level!”</p>
|
||||
<p>When you look into a mirror, you are looking at a mystery palace. How big a price tag would you place on your body? One human being is so precious that even if you offered the entire universe, it would not be sufficient compensation. What are the distinctive human attributes and qualities? We have consciousness; we have the ability to think. But any discussion of human lineage requires understanding of the original human beings.</p>
|
||||
<p>What was the original human being like? The original human being looked like you! Every person has the same number of features in his face: two eyes, two ears, one nose, one mouth. How many holes are there in your face? Seven: two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, and the mouth. The number seven comes from four plus three.</p>
|
||||
<p>Where can we find the number three in our face? It is divided into three levels and each part has three aspects of segments. Where can we find the number four? Your ears hear from all four different directions; your nose also deals with four directions. In the Bible, the numbers three and four are very important, as well as seven (three plus four) and twelve (three times four). Nature is designed around twelve months, twelve hours, and twelve directions, for example.</p>
|
||||
<p>The number one is a symbol of God. The thumb has two joints, representing God who exists in dual essentialities. The hands of an unborn baby are clenched, with the thumb inside the fist. Why is the thumb inside? Because God is the center of the universe; His position is the pivotal, inner position. The other four fingers of our hand have a total of twelve joints, signifying the twelve months, twelve directions, and twelve hours that represent the universe. So the four fingers represent the universe and the thumb represents God at the center.</p>
|
||||
<p>Your face is also a microcosm. The most mysterious part of your face is the eyes, because they represent God. The nose, at the center, represents Adam and Eve. The mouth represents all things of creation. A normal, healthy person has 32 teeth, four times eight, representing the whole. Also, the mouth deals with all things, represented by the food it takes in. Only the mouth takes in food but it also corresponds to the mind because words come out of the mouth. Of the five sensory organs, only the mouth has a dual responsibility: eating and speaking. Speaking is a spiritual function, while eating is a physical function. Taking in food deals with physical elements, while speaking deals with spiritual elements.</p>
|
||||
<p>The connection between your mouth and your mind is a crucial one. This is obvious, because when your mind feels it wants to go somewhere, your mouth should immediately say it wants to go. The mouth responds to the mind and is completely harmonized with it. This is another way of explaining that the mind and body are not separate; rather they are one harmonious whole. Mind and body cannot be separated.</p>
|
||||
<p>What would happen if your mouth disobeyed your mind? What if the mind said, “I want to go there,” and the mouth replied, “No, you don’t?” ‘Your mind would be saying “Yes, yes,” and your body “No. no.” Actually, in the original concept, there was to be no separation between mind and body. But what has happened? Do you sometimes feel a contradiction between your mind and body? Does your mind belong to the spiritual realm and your body to the material realm, or vice versa? Your mind deals with consciousness and your body with matter, but the problem is that we have found no way to harmonize the two.</p>
|
||||
<p>Disharmony exists on all levels, from the individual to the worldwide level. On the global level, two fundamentally contradictory worlds exist: democratic and communist. Their conflict has caused tremendous confusion and chaos. Do you have such confusion and chaos? Since you don’t, Moonies are number one! You are clever, aren’t you?</p>
|
||||
<p>This disharmony of the world was not the original intention. We can say that universal consciousness or intelligence is parallel with our minds; both have the same essence. Also, our body and the material world have the same origin. Is it possible that the two were designed to be fighting a the time? The original concept was for mind and body to be harmonized, but our problem today is that they are divided and contradictory.</p>
|
||||
<p>Throughout history, philosophers and secular thinkers could not determine why this division came about. Only religion has a clear understanding, teaching that man fell. To say that there was a fall means that something is out of order. Fallen men and women are like broken-down instruments that need to be sent back to the manufacturer for repairs. Who is the owner of all these broken-down instruments? It is God. Looking at such disorder, God thinks, ‘They need to be sent to a repair shop.”</p>
|
||||
<p>In God’s sight, religion is the repair shop, but there are many different levels of religion, from the most elementary to the most sophisticated. The Unification Church is one of God’s repair shops, but which kind? As our name indicates, we are the repair shop that brings unification; the end result of our work is unification. In the Unification shop, everything must harmonize; all parts must click together.</p>
|
||||
<p>I am the shop foreman. When I speak to you and rap your forehead. you feel good because you can say, “I am being remolded; I am in the process of being repaired.” Those who sit in front want to be fixed first. Clever people who want to be repaired first look for the right position!</p>
|
||||
<p>When you have a choice between a mediocre repair shop and an excellent one, which would you choose? Do you look for meticulous work? Do you want to be worked on a lot or just a little? Is the Unification Church repair shop an easy place, a mediocre place, or a hard place? Do you like such a hard place?</p>
|
||||
<p>Why is this a good repair shop? Once you have been through this shop, you become a superior product and everybody in the world wants you! Who can determine the quality of product you will become? You can. Compare what you get here with what you could get from the world. You have come to the right repair shop, haven’t you?</p>
|
||||
<p>Is MFT duty in the Unification Church okay? How do you like witnessing? You go through a great deal of hardship when people criticize and persecute you for witnessing, but is it okay? Why do you have to endure it? I know it is tough for you, but through this process you are being molded into a new being; you are actually elevating yourself.</p>
|
||||
<p>Are you confident that you can become a new person through following faithfully the Unification Church doctrine? Do you really mean it when you say yes? Once you are repaired, your mind and body operate in harmony what the mind wants the body does, and what the body wants the mind does.</p>
|
||||
<p>Do you find my way of thinking and describing things ordinary or extraordinary? You learn a lot in this repair shop, don’t you? How much tuition do you pay? If we were to charge tuition, it wouldn’t be cheap. You aren’t dumb! You know these are expensive lessons.</p>
|
||||
<p>Once you are repaired, I will give you a final test; every product will be tested, and I will seal you with my signature, Sun Myung Moon. Furthermore, I will give you a guarantee not just for one year or ten years, but for eternity. Once I sip the eternal guarantee, you will be welcome not only here on earth but everywhere. People will say, “Hem comes a perfect specimen. I want it.” Isn’t that what you want to be?</p>
|
||||
<p>To gain a worldly Ph.D. from Harvard University takes 10, 15, or maybe 20 years. But you have come to the Unification Church and learned incredible, extraordinary lessons. Can you say that three years or seven years is too long? At the end of your course, you will receive an eternal guarantee. A university degree represents competence in basically only one area, but I want you to become multi-faceted people, able to understand every phase of human life. The only reason I can lead you is that I understand every facet of human life.</p>
|
||||
<p>People admire champion athletes. But do you know who was the greatest wrestling champion of all? It was Jacob, whose opponent was an angel. God was the umpire of that competition. When you ask other people who is the most famous boxing champion, they might think of the movie Rocky, but we in the Unification Church think of biblical characters such as Jacob. How different the two are! There is no comparison.</p>
|
||||
<p>If there were a tournament for religious leaders, don’t you think I would be an extraordinary champion? In any competition, the important point is who will be the judge. Who will decide whether I am the champion? Jesus was the chosen contender and he fought in the ring, but did he win the battle? My opponents have always been nations or governments. In Korea, I faced the government, in North Korea it was the communist government, and here in the United States, the legal battle is defined as the United States of America versus Reverend Sun Myung Moon. Ultimately, when I go to Moscow, I will contend with the Soviet government.</p>
|
||||
<p>Today I am definitely struggling with the U.S. government. It is like Reverend Moon and Uncle Sam are wrestling! You Moonies form an incredible cheering section. Uncle Sam’s group shouts out, “Uncle Sam, you cannot be defeated. Go on. Hit him!” “Booo,” the Moonies reply. Who is the umpire? It is God. Even if the United States declares a victory, God will say, “No, you made a misjudgment. That is not the correct verdict.” Who will be the ultimate winner? The key question is always who will be the judge.</p>
|
||||
<p>To be a religious person, you need some religious purpose in your life. Is the Unification Church the right place to come? Among religious doctrines, does my teaching come first or last? Who knows? God knows. No matter how loudly you may declare it, I won’t believe you if you are the only ones saying it. But if God declares that my teachings come first, I will trust His word.</p>
|
||||
<p>I am a religious leader, but that does not mean I focus only on religion. I may speak about business, health, art, literature, science-every aspect of human life. All human pursuits, even journalism, should serve the highest purpose.</p>
|
||||
<p>The United States is a country with a free enterprise system. There are an incredible number of wealthy people and wealthy groups such as the Rockefeller Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the Ford Foundation, who should be serving this country. Therefore, when Washington, DC, the nation’s capital, ended up with only one, very liberal newspaper, The Washington Post, I waited for some rich people with a lot of resources to come forward and publish a patriotic newspaper there. Since no one did, I stood up and said, “Let’s do it.”</p>
|
||||
<p>Was creating The Washington Times a good or bad thing to do? For whose sake was the paper created? It was to serve America and the largest purpose. Ultimately, God shall be served. Did I get any personal benefit from it? No, but that is perfectly all right because I am not seeking personal benefit. I am a religious leader, but every day I have to deal with finances because there am so many projects that need money. People always come to me requesting funds for one project or another.</p>
|
||||
<p>There is a lot of money in the Chase Manhattan Bank, in the Bank of America, in the various Swiss banks, but my bank is a pocket bank! That’s the only bank I have. My pockets are always empty, however, because the needs are always larger than the pockets! I am always looking for more funds to support our various projects.</p>
|
||||
<p>When I wondered what I should do to support our projects, God said, “Reverend Moon, don’t you know there is a beautiful solution? We have great young people. Let them go out and bring in the necessary funds.” What kind of attitude should you have as you raise funds? Will you go in slow motion, or run and challenge the goal? Actually, the ideal motion is that of a fighting spirit.</p>
|
||||
<p>Also, since we need more people, I am sending you out to witness. Suppose God said, “We need not only a Washington Times but also a Boston Times or a Baltimore Times,” how should I respond? God is telling me we need all kinds of Times, so maybe we can create a Times Club-the Times Club News Companies! This is plural thinking, rather than singular thinking! Is it a good way to think?</p>
|
||||
<p>Such a connection of heart fills us with joy. We are happy people because even though we receive all kinds of persecution as we go out, when we get together we can laugh with heavenly humor, rejoicing over the truth.</p>
|
||||
<p>When God looks around, what location will He find most amusing? None other than Belvedere. Why is God’s attention so drawn to this place? Nowhere else can God find so many Westerners sitting in front of one Oriental leader and laughing. This in itself is an extraordinary vision of unity. Another aspect of Belvedere’s humor is that the Western world is a chair-culture, but here nobody cares about chairs. You can sit on the floor for hours and hours and enjoy yourself! So God must really love to look down at this unusual setting.</p>
|
||||
<p>Most pastors worry keeping their services short enough. Their sermons rarely exceed 15 minutes because they say no soul is saved after 15 minutes! They feel that the entire service should not exceed 40 minutes. But you come here and don’t even look at the clock. One hour, two hours, three and even four hours pass, and you still laugh. So God must find this a fun place to be!</p>
|
||||
<p>Is God really interested in this place? Where else can He find such an unusual assembly of people who work hard but give every ounce of their energy to serve the world? Where else can He find people who raise funds and never keep one penny in their own pockets? If there is a God, He has to be on our side. The conclusion is that simple.</p>
|
||||
<p>Let me ask you another tough question: To whom will you listen, your spouse, me, or God? Suppose I tell you that since you are over 30 you should start your family life, and then God suddenly overrides me. Whose direction should you follow? Certainly, if I give a certain instruction and God says no, you would follow the higher order. If you have a rare opportunity to go to the theater with your wife and suddenly I call you, would you still go on your outing? Would you cancel it?</p>
|
||||
<p>Would you like to live deeply indebted to others or be debt-free? One couple may borrow money to go to a movie, but another husband and wife make a love-pact and then leave for separate missions. Which life would you prefer? Are you sure you want the second one?</p>
|
||||
<p>This morning I have been explaining the universal principle that the mind and body need to unite and harmonize, centering upon truth. When you extend mind and body to the ultimate scale, they become the spiritual world and the physical world, or heaven and earth. One is internal and the other external. When they are harmonized, everything in between becomes harmonious and free from contradiction.</p>
|
||||
<p>I have also been helping you understand the significance of your face. Every day when you rise, look at yourself differently in the mirror. After listening to this morning’s sermon, look at your eyes in particular and by examining them, you can tell if your thinking is lowly and physical, or more lofty and spiritual. The eyes are clear indicators. Because the eyes represent God, their shape and their brightness reveal your story. When you ask your eyes whether they like this world of truth and spirit, they should say, “Yes, yes, that’s it!” When you have MFT duty and you tell your eyes you are going fundraising, will they cry or laugh?</p>
|
||||
<p>Your nose represents Adam and Eve, therefore, you should be straight, true and faithful. The nose develops last on the face, because Adam and Eve were the final beings created. Because the nose represents the center of the universe which is able to communicate with God, it is vertical. Also, the function of the nose is breathing. That is a symbol of mankind inhaling both the physical and the spiritual elements.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why do people get married? A nose functions properly when it has two nostrils. By the same token, a single man or woman is not complete. All your organs should function for the sake of truth.</p>
|
||||
<p>You should tell your mouth to speak the one truth. You have only one tongue, not two. Looking in the mirror, tell each organ you want to take in only the truth and digest only the truth. Don’t listen to anything that is lowly or ungodly. You are responsible to control the organs of your body.</p>
|
||||
<p>There are seven openings in your face, plus your hands and feet, making 11 items. Tell your hand not to touch anything except godly things. Your original, pure mind says your hand should not touch a woman’s hand until you are married. Your eyes should look only in the right direction, your nose should smell only the right things, your mouth should eat only the right things, your hands touch only the right things and so on.</p>
|
||||
<p>As soon as a man and woman see each other, 12 different organs, or instruments, are mobilized. The opposite sex is the most effective mobilizing force! If a woman asks her eyes what they would most like to see, would they answer another woman? No, they want to see a very rough, hairy man! What do your eyes exist for? They seek an object. Likewise, the nose seeks an object to smell. It is most logical that the organs of your body function for the sake of your object, not for yourself.</p>
|
||||
<p>Is a woman supposed to live for the sake of another woman? A woman’s original purpose of creation is for the sake of man. And a man exists for the sake of a woman. Therefore, men and women need each other; they have to meet.</p>
|
||||
<p>In what phase of your life do your faculties reach their peak function? It is when you have the greatest sensitivity to love-in your youth.</p>
|
||||
<p>American women usually don’t want to be in the lower position; they want to take the upper position and have power. They want to be in control. But biologically, God made women as a container. Therefore, in order to fulfill that function, you need to be in a low position. Only love brings a man and a woman together. A new baby, new life, is conceived in the very center of a man and a woman. This is where each of us originated.</p>
|
||||
<p>This brings us back to today’s theme: the original race from one lineage. Where did each of us come from? We came from the center of love of our parents. Which comes first: life or love? Love gives meaning to life, now let us ask which comes first: love or God? This is a very huge question, but the explanation is very simple: God also exists for love. Without the reality of love, there would be no reason for God to exist.</p>
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||||
<p>This is clear from an observation of life. Human life didn’t precede love; it was love which created life. Where does consciousness originate? It is the same answer: consciousness starts from love. Even your eyes originate from love. Your eyes, ears and nose all look forward to living with love and going to a loving place; your entire body is heading towards the destination of love. You are searching after love.</p>
|
||||
<p>It is entirely natural for you to search for love because this was how your life began. When a newborn baby cries out, it fills the father and mother with joy. Would a mother criticize her newborn for crying? Even wet and messy diapers are a source of joy; the parents are glad to serve the baby by changing them. Do you write down a charge slip for every time you change a diaper or feed your baby so you can present your child with a bill later? Would you tell your child, “It took this amount of money to raise you, so please repay me”? A parent’s mind does not function that way. Parents always want to give mom and serve mom; they find joy in giving.</p>
|
||||
<p>As you keep on giving, do you find yourself depleted and empty? No, you will be replenished over and over, beyond what you have given. When you invest energy you receive some return. In the physical world, it is impossible to obtain 100 percent return on your energy output. The output is always greater than the return. However, there is one exception and that is the power of love. In the realm of love, you always get back mom than you give.</p>
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||||
<p>God is eternal and cannot be diminished. For thousands of years He has been pouring out His love without becoming any weaker. By giving love, God has prospered. According to the laws of physics, fuel and energy are always needed to operate a machine, and eventually the supply of energy runs out. God has been operating this entire universe from the beginning until now and He has always been spending without receiving. He has been pouring out Himself, but He has never become empty because in the realm of love, the more you give, the more you receive. Therefore, everything balances out and a revolving action can exist.</p>
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||||
<p>This replenishment of love is an incredible new discovery. Because of this, eternal life can be seen as very logical, even scientific. In the world of love, by giving you become more active and by receiving you be-come more prosperous. Therefore you can go on for eternity. You were born in love and you live and grow in love; you will continue for eternity in a love that will never diminish. This is the most beautiful secret in the universe. Do you follow?</p>
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||||
<p>Eternal life is made possible only with love. That is why the philosophy or creed of the Unification Church is always to give out to the world. Can anyone of you say you have nothing to give? No, you can always give love true love that will never be depleted, true love that will never diminish.</p>
|
||||
<p>Think of it. When you know someone is giving you 100 percent genuine love, you want to reciprocate, don’t you? What’s more, you don’t want to reciprocate just 50 percent of what you received, but more than 100 percent. That’s love. According to the principle of love, when you receive 100 percent, you want to return 100 percent, or even 150 percent.</p>
|
||||
<p>Eternal love is created in the family. When individuals are joined as husband and wife and live together for eternity, their interaction is a spiraling motion that goes to the core and then heads outward. It is always circling in and out, in and out, like breathing. There is a mother’s side and a father’s side, but there must be some circuit of interaction between them; otherwise a child could not be conceived.</p>
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||||
<p>The father and mother breathe in harmony and rhythm. Father and mother experience ecstatic joy when the child is conceived and take delight and satisfaction in its birth. We are born as individuals and grow up with brothers and sisters; then we become husband and wife and live with the universe. So we experience three levels of life while on earth. The final stage of life is linked to universal consciousness; human beings are the center of the universe and dwell in love forever.</p>
|
||||
<p>What kind of world is the spirit world? It is the eternal world. It has no air like ours on earth but its atmosphere is love. There people breathe the air of love. All human beings are meant to experience this.</p>
|
||||
<p>The original race comes from the same blood line. We all go through three stages of life. These three stages create the heavenly four position foundation. We experience brotherly love, parental love, and ultimately divine love. Along the way, we become husband and wife and develop conjugal love.</p>
|
||||
<p>We start life in the watery atmosphere of our mother’s womb where we receive oxygen and nourishment through the umbilical cord. However, even inside the mother’s womb, lungs are developing for breathing air, which is the atmosphere of the next life. Do you follow? The unborn baby has a nose, but since the umbilical cord provides oxygen the nose doesn’t function until birth. However, along with the lungs, the nose perfects its capacity to function within the mother’s womb.</p>
|
||||
<p>When the time of birth arrives, the baby experiences a revolutionary shakeup! The previous system for receiving oxygen and food-the umbilical cord-is cut and tied. Since the former existence is severed, as far as the baby is concerned it suffers a kind of death! The end of the world has come! All its previous environment-the placenta, the umbilical cord-is broken, and the fluid that surrounded the baby drains away.</p>
|
||||
<p>But birth means entering a new womb-that of the universe. We are all living now in the universal mother’s womb. In the previous life, we lived in a liquid atmosphere; here we breathe air. While surrounded by amniotic fluid, we were preparing for this present atmosphere. By the same token, while living in this universal mother’s womb, we are breathing air but also we are developing our capacity for love. We are preparing for one final stage.</p>
|
||||
<p>Before birth, many of the baby’s capabilities we re latent; the nose and the lungs had developed, but they remained dormant. By the same token, the capacity to live in love which we must nurture while we am on earth remains dormant until we experience another birth. This new birth is a revolution like our first birth; it involves some destruction as well.</p>
|
||||
<p>In the spirit world we don’t need a physical body, a physical atmosphere, or physical clothes. There, we take off our shackles and see new horizons as our latent capacities begin to function. We put our ability to breathe love into action. In the sight of God, what people call death is actually a new birth and our entry into eternal life.</p>
|
||||
<p>To be able to live in that atmosphere of eternal love, we have to prepare our “love lungs” here. Thus in our short time here on earth, we must nurture our capacity to love and our sensitivity to it. Eventually, we will leave this universal physical womb and be born into the divine womb-the spirit world, the universe centered upon God. God exists at the core of love, so when we awaken into the new world, we too, can exist at the core of love. We can become. the center of love.</p>
|
||||
<p>When we are elevated to the sphere of God’s divine love, we have total freedom. We can have a body if we like; or if we don’t want a body, we don’t have it-we can be like God and function exactly like Him. Love is an absolute prerequisite for this; without love we would choke to death there. Once we are the center of the universe, we can go to the realm of perfect resemblance to God. Ultimately, every person is entitled to be exactly like God; when we move into the divine realm, God is in us and we are in God; we are inseparable.</p>
|
||||
<p>A seed represents a circle. A seed has a covering called a seed coat. Inside there are two parts called cotyledons and between them, in one comer, an embryo. An embryo contains the mystery of life. When it germinates, the two cotyledons provide its initial nourishment. Before you were born, who was the source of your nourishment? Your mother. Now, who is your nourishment? It is the universe.</p>
|
||||
<p>Like the seed, everything in this world exists in relationship: there are men and women, plus and minus, subject and object. People are like embryos nestled within this world. The child grows and flourishes, blossoming during the teenage years. Men begin to seek women and women seek men. Love-centered activity ultimately bears fruit: a child, which is another seed.</p>
|
||||
<p>The Unification Church teaches the incredible truth that God exists in dual essentialities. So we might say that God is like a big, super seed! Within God is the embryo, the life essence. In our life’s journey, we begin as an embryo, are born and grow throughout our lifetime so we can ultimately return to God and be like Him.</p>
|
||||
<p>We need to have give and take with the universe, but how can we keep it up for eternity? It is only by love. The virtues of meekness and humility will sustain love for eternity, because when one is meek and humble he meets no resistance. He can keep giving out and move wherever he wishes because there is no opposition. So the secret of being able to move without resistance is meekness and humility.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why must we be sacrificial? It’s not an easy thing. There is no better way to develop our capacity to breathe the atmosphere of love in the next world than by leading a sacrificial life. Sacrifice is the most dramatic and intensive way to complete the love lungs we need in the next world.</p>
|
||||
<p>All living things go through the same basic process of growth. When seeds germinate and receive sunlight, moisture, and various fertilizing elements they start to sprout. Plants go through three stages, animals go through three stages, and human beings also go through three stages. This is entirely logical.</p>
|
||||
<p>Look at a cricket. This little insect comes in the summertime and sings loud songs! The egg was laid perhaps in some warm place underground; it hatched into a larva, became a pupa and finally an adult cricket. The ultimate stage of the cricket is the flying, singing stage.</p>
|
||||
<p>Mankind also grows through three stages. When you reach the spirit world you will realize why you had to live this way on earth. Our ultimate goal is to become like God-to become perfect like Him and become friends with Him. The fear of death can be eliminated because there is no more death. In the truest sense, death is a new birth! Those who try to deny the existence of spirit world are pitiful people.</p>
|
||||
<p>Think of the launching of the Apollo and Columbia spacecraft. Once in orbit, they reach a zero gravity stage. They need no additional fuel to maintain their orbit because they meet no resistance at all. By the same token, once we are elevated into the spiritual plane of life, we will find no resistance. We will be able to travel throughout the entire universe in a moment, at the speed of thought.</p>
|
||||
<p>If there is a star made out of diamonds, wouldn’t you want to go see it? Perhaps there is a planet made out of gold and silver. These celestial bodies may be billions of light years away, so even by traveling at the speed of light you would not be able to reach them. But in the spiritual realm, you can go there on the spur of a moment-by thinking, you can be there instantly. So would you rather live here in this clumsy world for eternity, or upstairs?</p>
|
||||
<p>Each blessed couple has received a special kind of energy from me. When I gave you the Blessing, I actually gave you a special commission. The Blessing is like plugging into the outlet of the True Parents. As soon as you turn on the switch, You receive the energy of True Parents which enables you to fly throughout the universe without any limits. That is what the Blessing is all about: commissioning people as heavenly “supermen” and “superwomen.” Isn’t that good?</p>
|
||||
<p>I am eager to explore every comer of the cosmos. Given the physical distances of this universe, it might take many billions of light years, but in the spirit world everything is right in front of you. If you want to see something, it appears before you; you don’t even have to wait!</p>
|
||||
<p>Life on earth is a time of preparation. When you are elevated into the spirit world after your life in the Unification Church, will you look for me? In the spirit world there will be two types of people seeking me: those who really served God, True Parents and mankind here on earth and those who didn’t. If you are the first type, you can call me when you enter the spirit world and I will embrace you immediately. But if you didn’t live this way and didn’t develop your love lungs here on earth, I won’t be able to embrace you automatically.</p>
|
||||
<p>My responsibility is to guide you to pass the standard of the spirit world. No matter how difficult it may be, my duty is to push you out so each of you can meet its qualifications. Inside its mother’s womb, the baby is preparing to dwell in the atmosphere of air. By the same token, while you are here on earth, you should be preparing your love lungs for the next world. Are your preparations complete? I want you to attain the highest value. Will you be the center of the universe? Will you live for the sake of God, mankind, brotherly love and True Parents?</p>
|
||||
<p>When you are fully resurrected, you attain the same value as God. The creation of a human being is actually the creation of another God! This is an amazing truth. That is the true, absolute value of mankind. Today, people have lost that value. People have reduced themselves to dirt, below the level of even insects. Do you like that kind of life? So do you want to undergo this training?</p>
|
||||
<p>Some women in the Unification Church are very conscious of their beauty. “I was born a beauty queen,” they say; “but Father gave me this ugly-looking man for a husband. I can’t accept that. I just couldn’t live with him. Them are lots of handsome men out on Fifth Avenue in New York. Why couldn’t God and Father pick one of those for me?” Is that how you think?</p>
|
||||
<p>In some cases I matched a very sensitive woman to a dull, insensitive man. If she can love that man, her love lungs will really develop. When a sensitive woman can make a dense man become sensitive, she becomes a master genius! Actually, the all-knowing God created only 95 percent of our being, and He asks us to create the remaining 5 percent. So a woman can go to God and say, “You gave me 95 percent of a husband, so I will create the remaining 5 percent, making him a whole being.” The ideal woman resolves to create her husband.</p>
|
||||
<p>What do you think I am doing this morning? I am remolding, recreating you. That is the secret behind the ideal, to remake men and women. All morning long, I have been working so hard to remold you! Because love is the motivating factor, I am not even aware of how much time passes. I don’t think of hunger, either. When I speak like this for three hours I am working intensely to remake you, and I don’t feel any fatigue. But as soon as I return to East Garden, both my legs give out. Only love and desire could generate such intensity; I could never do this out of a sense of duty.</p>
|
||||
<p>We can reach perfection and become ideal people by passing through the three stages we have spoken about. Therefore we have to adjust our life according to those three stages. The original race means the race connected by the same blood lineage, linked together like the features of the face-eyes, nose, ears, and mouth. All races and all people are supposed to be linked like that.</p>
|
||||
<p>The eyes represent grandfather and grandmother. the nose husband and wife, and the mouth truth. This forms one family, one blood race in which everything is connected and no one is isolated. I exist for the sake of my grandparents, my parents, and my children. Grandparents exist for the sake of their children and grandchildren. These bonds must develop on earth, which is our workshop for perfecting these relationships.</p>
|
||||
<p>The original race is very precious. You are born with a certain face. Would you ever want to replace your eyes? No. For your grandparents to divorce and remarry would almost be like replacing your eyes, wouldn’t it? Your father and mother are like your nostrils. Would you like it if they were to separate and remarry? That would be almost like chopping the nose in half and replacing it. Don’t you want your brothers and sisters to be of the same blood race? You long for your original brothers and sisters.</p>
|
||||
<p>Something that is original has undergone a continuous process, from beginning to end. The original essence never diminishes or disappears. In conclusion, what is the meaning of perfection? In order to be perfect, you must master all the relationships within a family. You should be able to put up with all kinds of grandparents: bad, good, talkative, cheerful, whatever.</p>
|
||||
<p>If your grandmother cannot take care of her bodily functions and you have to clean up her urine and stools, can you do it without complaining? You should be able to deal with such a grandmother joyfully and happily. That is a sign of a perfect person. Your grandfather may be the most tough, stubborn, arrogant and demanding person, but you should be able to digest everything he does. You should become the kind of person that your grandmother will reach out to when she is dying, in order to thank you for serving her.</p>
|
||||
<p>You men may have a wife who fights you or even bites you-someone like Socrates’ wife or Lincoln’s wife but if you can digest her, control her, and work out a solution, she will eventually surrender before such genuine love from her husband. Or you women may have a husband who is ill-tempered; if so, you should be able to win him over.</p>
|
||||
<p>You should be able to gain the victory in the six different stages of love: grandfather and grandmother, husband and wife, son and daughter. The number six represents a satanic number, so there are six stages to overcome in your family. In the Bible Jesus said that your enemy is within your own family; your closest relatives can be your biggest obstacles. But later they will remember that they gave you too hard a time, and at the moment of their death they will say, “You are number one. I am indebted to you. I will give you everything because you deserve it.” Men and women who win such love are perfected people.</p>
|
||||
<p>Do any of you protest this conclusion? Do any of you think God will come down and say, “No, Reverend Moon, you are wrong. You are not conveying my teaching. You are giving your own teaching”? Or do you think He will say, “Reverend Moon, your definition of perfection is absolutely correct”?</p>
|
||||
<p>God’s perfection is similar. At the end of their life, all people will say, “God, please take everything I have; it is all Yours. My only desire is for You.” So God is in exactly the same position. Now you can understand that when people are hard on you, it is not necessarily bad. They are playing the role of difficult grandmother or grandfather, husband or wife, son or daughter. You can say, “Thank You, God, for this opportunity to develop dignity and authority.”</p>
|
||||
<p>Jesus Christ’s goal was to become a perfected man. The greatest saints followed this route he took. Today I am striving to achieve this goal of perfection. Since Mother is too kind and good, I need other women to give me a hard time. That is why I get such a hard time from you American women!</p>
|
||||
<p>What kind of person do you want to become? You should strive to develop the kind of universal mind God has. If you can think like God and act like Him, you will be perfected men and women. Even Satan will acknowledge your perfection. Then God can “I accept you.”</p>
|
||||
<p>Every day, all kinds of people come to Robert Morton, the editor of The News World, to complain about something, to demand favors, or to argue with him. They take his time and energy. Should he try to deal with them on their level, or should he just love them? If he can treat each person as his grandparent, parent, or child, eventually everybody will say, “He is very unusual, an extraordinary person!” Do you follow me?</p>
|
||||
<p>The family is your workshop, training you to pass the heavenly test. What an incredible opportunity it presents you! Once you have attained the highest possible standard, you will serve everybody as if they were your grandparents, parents, spouse, or children, and you will be welcomed, accepted, admired, and loved wherever you go. When you continue such a process in the next world, your dwelling will be heaven.</p>
|
||||
<p>Now you understand the training process which the original race from one lineage must complete in order to become perfected people and reach the Kingdom of Heaven. Would you prefer to hold on to your narrow way of thinking or adopt this gigantic perspective? You must make up your mind and then act on it. Will you do it?</p>
|
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---
|
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title: "OUR FATHERLAND"
|
||||
type: "speech"
|
||||
published: "2018-06-23T13:55:49+01:00"
|
||||
updated: "2018-06-23T13:55:49+01:00"
|
||||
source: "/blog/2018/06/23/our-fatherland.html"
|
||||
speechYear: "1982"
|
||||
categories:
|
||||
- "Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982"
|
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tags: []
|
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---
|
||||
|
||||
<p><center></p>
|
||||
<h2>REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
|
||||
<p></center><center></p>
|
||||
<h3>July 4, 1982<br />
|
||||
Belvedere<br />
|
||||
Translator: Sang Kil Han</h3>
|
||||
<p></center>Every Sunday and on the first of the month we recite the Pledge of the Children, especially the fifth paragraph. That paragraph begins, “I am proud of the one sovereignty.” It lists what we are proud of: the one people, the one land, the one language and culture centered upon God, becoming the child of the one True Parent, the family who is to inherit one tradition, and being a laborer who is working to establish the one world of the heart.</p>
|
||||
<p>If you are asked, “Who are you, and where are you going?” what would you answer? Blessed wives might be likely to answer, ‘Well, I never thought much about it. I’m going toward my husband, whom I’ve just met, and I don’t know so much about him.” The husband might say, “Well, for the time being I’m going toward my wife and afterwards, I’ll do my best.” When you are asked what you are seeking you might reply that you don’t desire much more, you are content with what you have: a person who cares about you. That is how most people live. That is not a wrong answer; it is partially true, but it is not all we seek.</p>
|
||||
<p>Until now you were told not to hold hands as brothers and sisters, but after the Blessing things change. In fact, to fulfill married life, you must hold hands, kiss each other, and go to bed together! Your situation has changed a lot. Along with that, some of you might start hoping for some position, some money, and some power. You start longing for lots of material possessions. To some extent that is inevitable, but there is something beyond that.</p>
|
||||
<p>If you had a great treasure, where would you store it? You would probably want a safe place but still somewhere readily accessible. Instead of asking another person to guard it, you would probably want to keep it in your home.</p>
|
||||
<p>Where is your home? Is it the house you are renting now? Many people come to the United States: some come on business, some as tourists; some become permanent residents and even citizens. They may have an apartment in this country, but is this country home or is home their land of origin? Home becomes more difficult to define. There is a popular saying in the United States that home is where you hang your hat, but that definition is not satisfactory. We need a more stable, permanent home, a place where we can dwell for eternity. You might call it your home town, or your native land.</p>
|
||||
<p>YOU want to live in your original home town, in a house that you can call home. But your original home includes not just -you and your spouse but also your parents. You may be living in the United States with your spouse and children but AM miss your home town because there you find your parents, your brothers and sisters, and your relatives, including your third, fourth and fifth cousins. In Korea we count relatives as far as the eighth degree.</p>
|
||||
<p>Before our relatives came into being, an environment already existed. That is our homeland, the source of our relatives. Where would your relatives like to live? If you ask this country where it would like to be located it might say, “How do I know? I had no choice in the matter, I happen to be here.” That might be the best answer the United States could give. But it would be better to long to be situated as close as possible to the place of origin. Thousands of years ago the United States did not exist; it is a rather young country. But the world has been around a long time. Different races and peoples branched out of their homeland and came to places like America and settled down.</p>
|
||||
<p>Michael, one of the security guards at East Garden who accompanied me to England, seldom expresses personal desires or opinions. He is very quiet and fulfills his responsibility without speaking much. One day he came to me apologetically and asked if he could visit Ireland. He had never made such a request before, so I asked him why he wanted to go there, since we had not yet seen other parts of Great Britain, including Scotland and Wales. “Because that’s where my ancestors came from,” he replied</p>
|
||||
<p>This young man’s relatives had been in the United States for generations, but he couldn’t help wanting to seek his origins. He thought that by going to Ireland he could feel one step closer to his native land. His mind was seeking something which he didn’t fully understand, but he knew that somewhere he would find something closer to his homeland. Even Americans want to return to their place of origin. People came from all over the world to the United States, so in that sense the world’s existence is more real than the United States’ existence.</p>
|
||||
<p>If you ask the world where it would like to be, it would ultimately answer that it wants to return to its original ancestors: Adam, Eve, and God Himself. Since Adam and Eve and God are the root, the world wants to return to its root.</p>
|
||||
<p>Picture a very tall tree with a tiny leaf hanging on to its top. If you ask the leaf where it would like to be, it might reply that the question had never come up and that it is satisfied with where it happens to be, at the top. But if the leaf is a little smarter it would travel in its imagination down the tree, through the trunk, and all the way down to the deepest roots and realize that rather than existing by itself it is sustained by its neighboring leaves, branches, trunk and even the roots. Since all those elements keep sending nourishment to the leaf, it would want to pay visits here and there to see how all the elements that support its existence are doing. A smart leaf would think like that.</p>
|
||||
<p>A tree is an interconnected whole, just as is mankind. All of us are like leaves of a vast universal tree. We would like to visit each country. We realize that although customs vary, still each person is part of the same universe and comes from the same origin. Because our fatherland i’s the same we share the same roots. Isn’t that how you feel? You would like to visit all the various places in this world, wouldn’t you? Furthermore, our world is not only horizontal but vertical, and when we become aware of the vertical aspect, we would like to go there too.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you get married you want to visit not only your own home town, but also that of your spouse. You wouldn’t demand that your spouse, visit your home town and refuse to visit his or hers. You want to go there because you are equally interested in his origins.</p>
|
||||
<p>After you have been everywhere you have to settle down somewhere to live and raise your family-but where? Fundamentally, you want to stay in the center because that is where all things are connected.</p>
|
||||
<p>In order to bisect a circle, for instance, a line must pass through the center. If you are at the center nothing bypasses you; everything goes through you and you are aware of everything that goes on. You are linked to everything.</p>
|
||||
<p>What is the most important part of a tree? When you look at a tree and appreciate its beauty what part do you focus on? Do you admire the leaves? The branches? The roots? I don’t know about Westerners, but Orientals evaluate a tree’s beauty by its trunk. If you compare God, mankind and the universe to a tree, who is the root? God. Who Is the trunk? Someone answered True Parents.</p>
|
||||
<p>A young tree has roots, trunk and leaves, but they are small and fragile. Even though the trunk is flimsy, still it is the center. When a tree is very tiny the distance between the roots and the leaves is very small; they are practically neighbors. But as the tree develops and matures, the trunk and branches grow; every year the branches become a few inches longer. As the tree grows up, the roots also penetrate deeper. Suddenly the roots become aware that the leaves which had been its neighbors have grown and are separated by a long distance. Do you think the roots would min the leaves and wish they could come back and stay closer to it, or would the roots focus only on penetrating deeper and deeper into the soil? Don’t you think the root would somehow miss the leaves? One tree may boast of being taller, another of having better branches, another of having more leaves, another of healthier roots; but the true quality of a tree lies in the connection among all the parts.</p>
|
||||
<p>The typical American married couple today doesn’t care much about leaves and branches; people don’t know much about their roots or origins. Men and women just focus on each other. “We will live together and die together, just the two of us, leaning on each other,” the husband and wife think. “That is all we care about and all we want.” Can such people claim to enjoy the greatest happiness? No. For two people to be able to get along harmoniously with each other is a very good thing; a lot of people don’t even achieve that. But theirs is not the ultimate happiness because while they may be able to connect with each other, they cannot be the center for linking all other things. The center has to be aware of all the far-flung elements that need to pass through it. Those who are hundreds or thousands of miles off to one extreme certainly cannot be the center.</p>
|
||||
<p>A couple may appear content and free from worries about children, free from concerns about pleasing their parents and making sure the parents are happy. You wouldn’t mind looking as fortunate as they do! But if you really look at them closely, theirs is not a truly happy state, because they are not at the center. Is it good for a couple to live a carefree life, just enjoying each other? If it is not good, do you know why? Goodness needs to be defined.</p>
|
||||
<p>For husband and wife to focus just on each other is parasitic because they are living off others. We all depend on other elements. All mankind, including such a couple, is indebted to the universe. Man represents heaven and woman earth, and all parts of heaven should freely pass through them and connect in them. That is how we were created to live. The universe supports us in every way, giving us air, water, food and love. But a selfcentered couple returns nothing to the universe; they are not even aware of what they are receiving. Because their awareness is confined to themselves, they are not functioning as the center through which everything is supposed to connect.</p>
|
||||
<p>In order to be healthy, grow, develop and bear fruit, all parts of the tree need to be properly interconnected. The center should be excited about being the center and help nutrients pass up and down and back and forth through it. It must help the traffic flow in order to become fruitful. Although it is important for the different parts of the tree to have proper give and take and fulfill the function of the center, there is an ultimate goal: to bear fruit. What is the fruits? Of all the parts of the tree, the fruit is closest to the original form. By bearing fruit, the tree completes a cycle. No matter how big a tree becomes, it started from one seed. The roots, trunk, branches and leaves grew from that one origin and produce a beautiful fruit. The fruit bears the seed. The tree sprouted from a seed and returns to a seed.</p>
|
||||
<p>The process of development is not a straight line. Development expands in ever larger circles out from one central point. In a tree, for instance, the roots reach an ever greater depth and extent, while the branches and leaves reach higher and wider. Each growing cycle creates bigger and bigger circles. At first the distance from trunk to root tip or branch tip is small, but each cycle increases the span.</p>
|
||||
<p>All this growth requires a lot of action, but by its very nature action is never produced by an individual. It always takes two: a subject and an object.</p>
|
||||
<p>Women seek men and men seek women for the same reason: to develop. Knowing all this, can you say that a husband and wife should care only about each other and nothing else? Are you sure that is not the ideal pattern of development?</p>
|
||||
<p>If I ask an individual if he or she would like to develop, the inevitable answer is yes. People would like to develop to the extent of forming a country-and not just a small one, but a large one. Everybody is ambitious. Is there a limit to development? You would not be content to occupy just a small comer of humanity; you would want everything to come within your embrace.</p>
|
||||
<p>For a married couple, development means having children. You may have questions about other things, but whether or not you want to have children shouldn’t be an issue. Let’s say you have children, would you be so concerned about their safety that you would want to keep them in your bosom forever and never let them go? No, you want your children to go through a course of development too. The mother and father naturally want their children to be healthy, grow and reach out to the world.</p>
|
||||
<p>Parents long for their children to grow faster so they can quickly extend out to the world. Parents tell their children, “We and your brothers and sisters enjoy being with you, but we would much rather that you develop yourself for the sake of the world. That is what we are here for.” Parents don’t want to keep their grown children at their side for the sake of their own happiness, ignoring the larger world; they want them to go out. Even though they miss them, parents encourage their children to go out and develop and become greater people.</p>
|
||||
<p>Would you prefer to have only one child, so you don’t have to worry about how to support him or her? You might think that you are capable of raising two children-perhaps three, if you -try harder. Or would you like to have four, five, six, seven children? Soon you will face this problem.</p>
|
||||
<p>I began by talking about the fatherland. Now you are married. After you start your family and children come, you may have so many children that you can form a country! If you are going to have children anyway, would you like to have lots of them so you can expand your embrace to a big country-or would you be content with just a small country? You are so greedy! You aspire to big things; you look for what is good, you want the center. It’s a difficult task, but do you mind going through difficulty? Do you prefer the easy way or the hard way?</p>
|
||||
<p>Among American couples it has become fashionable to consider raising children a nuisance. People think that since they have only a short life to live, they should marry and enjoy each other as much as they can, without having children. But back to the former question, which is better: to have lots of children or no children? Even though it is a simple question, you should understand whether it is good or bad to have children. You think it’s good, but how good is it?</p>
|
||||
<p>You say you want to be at the center, but what geometric form do you aspire to be the center of? Those who want to have children may be content with just one son and one daughter. That means just two lines connect through you; at best you can define only four positions and create only a quadrilateral. But a circle is a more ideal form -than a square. Your eyes, your face, and even your body resemble a circle. All movement, all sports, all vigorous activities form a circle. Circular movement is the most efficient because it consumes the least energy; a ball is easier to push than a cube, for instance. Two lines drawn through a center can define a four-aided figure. If you draw another line through the center, you can define a six-aided figure; a hexagon is much closer to a circle than a square-and much easier to roll. The more lines you draw through the center the closer your come to defining a circle.</p>
|
||||
<p>I have 13 children, and sometimes I think of each one as a month. I have January, February, March, April, etc. There are 12, one for each month, and a 13th, representing the center. When you think about the 12 months of the year, do you visualize them stretched out in a line or joined in a circle? They are like a circle, aren’t they.? Even more than a circle, they are like a sphere.</p>
|
||||
<p>You Unification Church members know how to draw a flat circle, but I am hoping somehow to coax you into drawing a sphere. Is that a bad idea? Even outside people can understand our approach more easily if we explain that True -Parents focus on transforming flat circles into spheres. It takes True Parents to do that. If you talk about your father and mother everyone can identify with your concern, but in the Unification Church we talk about True Father and True Mother because we are seeking the ideal. Those who are not seeking the ideal are content with just parents.</p>
|
||||
<p>If you are ever going to roll, would you want to roll in just one direction or in all possible directions? Ideally, a ball revolves very smoothly; the bottom rotates to the top and the top to the bottom No matter what position you may be in temporarily, you can keep revolving without being hurt, Now you can draw your own conclusion to the question of whether lots of children are preferable over a limited number.</p>
|
||||
<p>Someone came to one of our international itinerant workers and boasted of a couple that after 30 years of marriage had multiplied into a clan of 300. Would you like to have 300 descendants, or 30007 Why is it so precious to have many descendants?</p>
|
||||
<p>Why are people constantly seeking to increase themselves? It must be because our origin is so big. Is God big or tiny? He is infinitely vast. If God is so big His love must also be boundless. If God has power it must also be tremendous. If God could have money His wealth would be incalculable. We all prize knowledge for we couldn’t live without it, but God’s knowledge must be far more comprehensive than ours.</p>
|
||||
<p>Let’s come back to you. What would you like to possess? (God!) You are good students. But what would you do with God? Why do you long for God so much? If I somehow arranged it that you could have your desire, could you receive such a vast God?</p>
|
||||
<p>Suppose we were talking about a diamond. If I offered you a large diamond and you had only a small place for storing valuables, would you be able to handle the gift? You might say with confidence that you want to own God, but I would say in return, “Okay, you can have God, but what are you going to do with Him? How would you accommodate Him? Do you have a sheet large enough to wrap around Him?” If you ask me how big my container is, I would answer that it is large enough to contain God hundreds of times over!</p>
|
||||
<p>Actually, your mind is so big that if you want to accommodate God you could-with much room to spare. Because your mind is infinite, you are always seeking more and more things to fill it up. I have won over all of you by this answer. I can</p>
|
||||
<p>thing</p>
|
||||
<p>defeat you in a race of thinking The amazing is that no matter how tiny your body may be, your mind is big enough that, if you want to, you can accommodate God and still have a lot of room to spare!</p>
|
||||
<p>How big do you think God’s mind is? We can only imagine it, but it is at least big enough that all four billion people on this earth and their minds could be rolled up into one huge ball and stuck into it–and hardly fill it! Do you suppose that God’s mind has lots more available space, or would it be almost filled to capacity? When we realize that it has lots more room we can feel at peace. At least I feel at peace. If I were worried about heaven being too small I would not feel good. But with your help, we have reasoned it out that God’s mind is immense, and so is heaven, so my worry is</p>
|
||||
<p>resolved.</p>
|
||||
<p>Like a good pitcher, I toss everything to God and He catches every single ball, even the big ones, in His mitt. For hundreds and thousands of years, God has been catching balls and His mind still hasn’t filled up. There is room to spare.</p>
|
||||
<p>How big a mind do you want? Of course, we have some limits , but wouldn’t you like to have a mind as big as God’s? Well, not as big has His, of course, but you want it to be as big as possible. Your mind desires that, doesn’t it? You certainly did not create such a mind, so where did it come from? From God. Why would God give you a selfish mind? God had a valid purpose in giving us such a huge mind. You were born with such a mind, and even if you try to throw it away, you could not. If you resolved to throw that mind away, it would return to you the next moment. You might keep trying to get rid of it, but it would keep returning to you. So you must realize that you cannot help but live harmoniously with your mind. You can’t be successful if you try to keep pushing that mind down, for it will constantly spring back up to you.</p>
|
||||
<p>Unlike your physical body, you will carry your mind over into the spirit world. It won’t go away as you shed your physical body but will remain for ever and ever in the spirit world-and be far freer. You may wonder when your mind will be liberated. When your mind is no longer confined, it win stretch out and exclaim, “Now I have gotten everything I wanted. I have fulfilled everything. I am satisfied. I can do anything I want to without restriction.” Our minds are in prison now. When will they be liberated? What shall we do to break out of this prison?</p>
|
||||
<p>Let’s examine the mind more closely. Is the mind of a man exactly like that of a woman? It’s important to know how they differ. Let’s look first at a woman’s mind. Consider the interactions among three beings: God, man and woman. Would the woman reach out for God first and then the man, or would she reach first for the man and then God? Think about your answer. If you say you are reaching out first to God, have you caught Him yet?</p>
|
||||
<p>Before deciding what the woman should do, let’s consider God. Would God reach out first to the woman or to the man? It is important to know this answer also. Let’s reason this out We know that God is fair. Think really hard about it. If God reaches out for the man first, someone will sniffle and complain. Women know how to complain, don’t they? On the other hand, if God reaches out to the woman first the man will complain, because men are not exempt from jealousy. Actually, men are more greedy than women-greedy like a thief! So the only possible solution is that God must have two hands and extend a hand to each one and bring them together. According to the Principle, this is inevitable.</p>
|
||||
<p>Let’s return to my question about whether the woman should reach out first to God or to the man. Would God want the woman to reach out to Him first, or to become completely united with the man and then both reach out to God together? You have a hard time answering! This is like a primary school question, and I thought you Moonies were a lot smarter than that. When man and woman are completely united, God’s love appears.</p>
|
||||
<p>Have you seen God? Have you seen God’s love? Can you find love in God? Suppose I were to say that there is no love in God, and you protest that there is, how could you prove your assertion? To state that love can be found in God is correct, but the reasoning that leads to such a conclusion must also be correct.</p>
|
||||
<p>The Bible clearly states that God created man and woman in His image. As a man and a woman become intimate and experience great love for each other, we can deduce that God too must have the same kind of love, because we have essentially the same qualities as God. Because we are in God’s image, we have the same aspects He has. Since we have love, God must have love. Isn’t that simple enough? In essence, what difference would there be between human love and divine love? Wouldn’t their essence be the same? If it were different, we would repel each other. But since the essence of love is the same, it tends to draw us closer together and bring us into unity.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why does a man seek the right woman and a woman the right man? A woman reaches out to a man so she can contact God and dwell in God through him. The man does the same; only through finding a woman and becoming one with her can a man have God. In essence, we possess God through love. Suppose you possess God’s mind, God’s love, and God’s everything, would you need anything else? As far as you are concerned, when God fills you up, you lack nothing, you want nothing more.</p>
|
||||
<p>God’s mind is big, but if His mind is filled with you that means your mind is also big. Your mind has never been fully satisfied, has it? It’s so big, once you possess God I think that more likely than not, your mind will be full.</p>
|
||||
<p>If you love a man with genuine love and someone offers to trade the entire United States for him, would you accept the offer? You say no, but perhaps the United States is too small for you, so would you trade your beloved for the world? Well, what about something of unlimited magnitude; would you trade your beloved for God? That is a hard question, isn’t it? You might reply that if the negotiator threw love into the bargain, along with God, you might trade. You wouldn’t trade your beloved for God alone, but you might do it for God and God’s love together! Do you want to know why this would be a good exchange? Actually, God wouldn’t know what to do with your beloved, so He would just give him back to you! When you understand this point, then you can graduate.</p>
|
||||
<p>The almighty God already has the world and everything in it, so why did He go through so much effort to create people? You say for love, but so what? God could enjoy a the love He wants, since there’s nothing He cannot do if He is omnipotent. So why did God create human beings? If you saw God off by Himself rolling around on the ground convulsed in laughter, what would you think? Even if it was God you saw doing that, you would feel troubled. You know that an individual cannot love in solitude. Man cannot love without a woman and a woman cannot love without a man. So why did God make people? To fulfill love. A person cannot love by himself; an object is needed for give and take of love. That was God’s very purpose in creating man and woman.</p>
|
||||
<p>Unfortunately, Christianity and other major religions teach that God is divine and the supreme being, and that people are sinful and mortal. They teach that God and mankind are on two different planes that cannot be connected.</p>
|
||||
<p>God’s love is always reaching out to others. God’s love was to be expressed in Adam and Eve. Wherever a pure man and a pure woman are completely united, God will automatically be found. That is why God created us. When a husband and wife achieve such a bond and conceive a child, all three can go to heaven directly. Such people don’t need sermons and prayers.</p>
|
||||
<p>Let half of a circle represent Gods mind and the other half represent mankind. Mankind consists of men and women, and if you analyze God further you find two elements, positive and negative or plus and minus, which resemble men and women. Within God plus and minus elements have give and take and their interaction forms the basis for God’s existence. God’s dominant characteristics are manifested in man and the subordinate characteristics in woman. What was the purpose behind that? For true love.</p>
|
||||
<p>The core of love is true love. Vertical and horizontal, plus and minus intersect at that center. All of us were born with a mind as big as God’s so we could encompass a being such as Him, for God longs to encompass everything.</p>
|
||||
<p>We like to see precision products, but even a large machine always has some uneven surfaces. The action of true love, however, seals all the crevices and smoothes all the irregularities until a perfect circle is formed. True love can go anywhere because of its shape; it flows wherever an opening exists. It can penetrate the physical and spiritual worlds equally well. True love knows no boundaries.</p>
|
||||
<p>When true love touches you, it ignites you. No matter how strong the dosage, you savor it. You become so filled with true love it’s almost like being drunk with it, Maybe the analogy of being intoxicated makes it easier to understand! You see, when every part of you is numb with contentment-however you may phrase it-you are full, you are satisfied. Every one of your billions of cells is relaxed and happy, brimming with God’s true love. How about that! You can experience this wonderful love forever. Eternity is possible only in connection with love. Nothing else lasts forever. Love is eternity.</p>
|
||||
<p>Would you like me to say something about the spirit world? But if I go into that subject, you will really lose your balance!</p>
|
||||
<p>We can talk about science, religion, or a lot of things, but no other topic can compare with love. Love is interesting and satisfying. Needless to say, love has been very, very misused, so people are even afraid to express love! Still, you have done a very good job of understanding it. Here in the United States I have been talking about true love, but love is not unheard of in America; in fact, it’s everywhere. Surrounded by free sex and all different types of love, how do you know which is true love? Does each type get an equal chance? We can come to the unmistakable conclusion that true love is the love between a man and woman that attracts the presence of God.</p>
|
||||
<p>Does God’s love change according to the four seasons? Of course not. God’s love is constant. The four seasons come and go, but the center of love cannot vary. It retains the same quality, the same essence, the same form. The love that people talk about is a kind of love, yes, but when it strays further and further from God and becomes &in it is no longer love. Two days ago I explained that original sin was caused by illicit love. Illicit love is unlawful; it transgresses the cosmic law. Not only mankind but all creation comes under the jurisdiction of cosmic law. Illicit love caused the original sin. Do you understand?</p>
|
||||
<p>True love can erase original sin. There is a constant struggle between your desire to overcome sin and sin’s determination not to give in. Unfortunately, promiscuity is widely practiced in the United States. When something other than original true love prevails God must leave. Many parents have come to realize that Moonies are pursuing true love. If they are going to say you are wrong, they should come up with a good reason to substantiate that conclusion. If people continue too long being promiscuous, even the universe will expel them! The universe will repel those who continually violate God’s law.</p>
|
||||
<p>Unification Church members possess a very deep truth. Other people may not comprehend when you try to tell them these things. You may not even realize it, but every single one of you is equipped with this understanding, plus a powerful reasoning ability.</p>
|
||||
<p>Take the Blessing, for instance. People came to this wedding because they are searching for true love. One reason we form interracial couples is that a white person’s domain is extended when he or she can go through the center line and reach out to the opposite world, such as the world of black people. People who marry someone from their own race are more limited, while interracial couples have a broader domain of freedom. Americans wonder why democracy cannot be the center through which everyone should pass, but it so happens that it is not.</p>
|
||||
<p>When husband and wife from different races come together, they can reach out for a more ideal experience of God’s love. You may be at the north pole and be able to relate to your immediate vicinity, but if you want to reach the opposite pole you must go through the center. When you meet your opposite at the center point your thinking and ideals become more elevated, reaching up to God. This was God’s original plan before the fall, but people have dosed their doors to it, not realizing its value. How wonderful it is that we can get married in order to serve the world and live in harmony with God!</p>
|
||||
<p>How many of you here this morning are blessed? Do you understand clearly your purpose for getting married? It is very clear that until you have a true husband or wife you can never meet God. You may be able to contact God occasionally, but when that happens what would you do with Him? What would you say to Him? The purpose of meeting God and experiencing His presence is to have Him fill our mind and heart. When you are saturated with love you want to keep giving, and you are able to do so without diminishing your love or exhausting your supply. True love is like a spring of water, the deeper you dig, the more abundantly it springs up. It is true that the more you give the more you will receive. Even money is no exception to this principle; if you give money generously the universe will keep replenishing your supply.</p>
|
||||
<p>My whole point is this: do you realize how precious your spouse is? Would you trade your dear husband for me? Would you men feel happy if your wife says she loves me more than she loves you? No, you’re right. Before you get married, you love True Parents more than anybody in the world, more than even your own parents. I love you more than anybody else, too. But from now on, if you continue to love me that way I will say, “Bad girl! You should love your husband more.” You have already established your center-, you know how to love True Parents.</p>
|
||||
<p>How much do you love your husband? If your husband is dying, as a true-wife you- should wish you could die in his stead. As a true husband, you should love your wife so much that when she is about to die, you would wish you could die in her place, or perhaps die together. When your children are in danger or their life is in peril, as parents you will try to save your children at the cost of your own life. This is the heart of true parents. This is truelove.</p>
|
||||
<p>Now you know the nature of a true husband, a true wife, and true parents. Anything that does not fit this criterion is bad and has nothing to do with truth. It belongs to the realm of Satan, or hell.</p>
|
||||
<p>Everything that has to do with God is heavenly. Heaven is the opposite of hell. True Parents, true husband and wife, true children all belong to the same realm, heaven. That is where the Unification Church is going, and we will help everyone throughout the world reach it as well. Any family that adheres absolutely to this principle is a true family and the beginning of heaven. Always remember that God is the true center.</p>
|
||||
<p>The center of true love does not come into being all at once-not even after 2,00.0 couples get married! It expands from a small beginning. According to the Principle, nothing comes about all of a sudden; everything grows. A tiny speck could be the center of the universe. The center of the smallest circle can be the center of the largest circle at the same time. Two lines can meet to form a small 90 degree angle or a large one. Two 90 degree angles can be superimposed to fit precisely. Once we ascertain that an angle is aligned with the model right angle, then we can forget about the model. We know that the angle is properly formed and that each successive angle based on that model will also be a right angle.</p>
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||||
<p>Is man above woman or woman above man? Men may answer one way and women another, but there should be a valid basis for the answer. Isn’t it true that a receptacle or container is positioned below what it is to receive?</p>
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||||
<p>Something that goes up is bound to come down, and whatever is down always wants to go up. There is a plus/minus relationship between the sexes, with man constantly seeking woman and woman constantly seeking man, and their interaction forms a big circle.</p>
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||||
<p>Ownership is determined through interaction. All people want to own something, don’t they.? If you have nothing, you are only a flat line, but nobody wants to be just a flat line. Your domain is determined by the extent of your interaction.</p>
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||||
<p>What differentiates men from women? Is it the nose? No, men and women have similar none, mouths and eyes. However, in one area there is a significant difference: one is protruding and the other hidden, one is plus and the other minus. No matter how many years you may study at Harvard you cannot change this law. On this point, simpleminded people have really misunderstood me and accused me of being anti-feminine, someone who devalues women. Not at all. I cannot change this difference because it’s not something I made. I won’t live more than a hundred years on this earth, but during my life span I will teach what is right and what is principled. That which endures forever is closest to the Principle.</p>
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||||
<p>So is woman in a higher position or lower position relative to man? If you are not satisfied with my answer I can elaborate on it. If you say my reasoning is inadequate, lees take a further look. Men have broad shoulders and a thick chest, and their body tapers in, while women have a larger mass at their hips. The typical masculine physique is almost the reverse of a typical feminine physique. This relationship reveals a lot of truth; it is an unalterable fact. Well, do you remain unconvinced that men should be in the upper position?</p>
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||||
<p>Conscience is something which sets human beings apart from animals. It is a common Korean expression to say that someone has a straight conscience, while in the Western culture, people talk about a clear conscience. There is a difference between a straight conscience and a clear con. science. To say that a person has a straight conscience means that it is exact and maintains a 90 degree angle with the vertical line.</p>
|
||||
<p>Human beings are considered to be the supreme animal and that is because other animals walk on all fours while we stand on two legs. We walk upright because our conscience is meant to be straight. There is a correlation between a straight mind and a straight body-, to stand erect is the true human posture. We should maintain a 90 degree angle; nothing should be ambiguous or deviated. Some people’s conscience may be at an angle of 50 or 60 degrees. Furthermore, some people have a straight mind but a bent or twisted body, and they experience pain as a result. Do you understand such a mind-body struggle? A straight person is someone with a straight conscience as well as an upright body.</p>
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||||
<p>We have five physical senses and five spiritual senses as well. Our spiritual sight should intersect at a right angle with our physical sight. Then our eyes can see straight into both this world and the spirit world. This should be very natural, since we were born to see this way. Also our spiritual hearing should be vertical. We should listen to the sounds of not only the horizontal world but also the vertical world. In general, when our mind and body are truly healthy and straight, everything is aligned at a right angle and our physical and spiritual senses both operate. The five spiritual senses overlap with the five physical senses. If men and women can lead such a straight life and re i</p>
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<p>true to the original love, isn’t it logical to think that God will come and dwell with them?</p>
|
||||
<p>We know that people should not tell lies, but why not? Some people say it isn’t good to tell lies, others say it isn’t ethical. To he means to abandon the right angle. When you he, not only does your conscience stray from the right angle but also your actions deviate from it and you feel ashamed. Our purpose on earth is to correct deviations and live according to the proper standard; otherwise we will not pass the universal grade. Do you follow me?</p>
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||||
<p>Just as we have mind and body, we have a spiritual mind and a physical mind. When our physical mind and spiritual mind are aligned according to that right angle, that intersection forms the center of our being. From that center we can extend lines above and below, left and right, front and back. The right side is plus and the left side minus.</p>
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<p>All levels of society are connected through the family center. We are reforming love through families-man, woman and children centered on true love. Such a family center is God’s dwelling. Can the center of the family be different from the center of the clan or tribe? No. It is easy to understand that both tribe and family must have a common center that treats family and tribe on an equal, lawful basis. The center of the family should treat the clan with at least as much concern as his family. The center of the tribe must love the tribe more than his own family. The center of the nation should do the same. The love for ones nation should be the same quality as the love for one’s family. Should you love your nation more or less than your family? What if your parents tell you not to love your country more than your family? They may try to discourage you or even kidnap you to prevent you from doing that. Then what would you do?</p>
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<p>Does the family encompass the nation, or does the nation encompass the family? The family fits within the nation, doesn’t it? For the sake of the’ world, it is inevitable that we should love the nation more than our own family. You must remember that this is the ideal way.</p>
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<p>What if your parents insist that you pay more attention to them or other things and forget about your nation? What if they ask you to be faithful just to your family? A home based on such values may exist for a time, but without the nation it can never be permanent, because it is open to invasion at any time. Sooner or later, a family that is focused only on itself is bound to be overrun by Satan.</p>
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<p>If you extend this principle a little further, it is obvious that you should love the world more than your own family, in order to be the at the ideal family center of the world. People feel that a nation should love the world more than itself, so other nations have been highly critical of Americans, crying out, “Yankee, go home.” Of course, communism has played a role in provoking this response, but Americans tend to feel that since the United States is a great nation, rather than serving the world, the world should serve it The United States is just one country-one component of a larger entity, the world-but the American people want to away the world.</p>
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||||
<p>God’s will on this point is obvious. He says that the world encompasses the United States and not the other way around. In other words, the world is more precious in God’s eyes than the United States. There is a similar relationship between the mind and body. Which do you think is more correct. for the mind to be subordinate to the body, or for the body to be subordinate to the mind?</p>
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<p>You must clearly understand that there are two greatly differing systems of thought, one materialistic and the other spiritual. Each challenges the other, one clai that matter is subject and the other states that spirit is subject. This conflict has created so much turmoil, and the people perpetrating this struggle are not peaceful. The clash of these two opposing systems of thought creates uncontrollable confusion, and people don’t know where to find a solution.</p>
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||||
<p>We certainly need both mind and body; there is no question about our need for a body. We don’t say that we need only a spirit, because both matter and spirit, body and mind, are necessary. Communists mislead people when they call the conflict between mind and body a natural phenomenon and part of an inevitable process of evolution. That is not true at all. According to the law of nature, when things fight they diminish. A lot of intelligent people are attracted to the concept that to fight is natural and that only by struggle can people develop and evolve, but that is not correct.</p>
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<p>The truth is very logical. We must make it clear to all people who they are and how they should live. Mind and body must take their proper position and be aligned in a right angle before ideal families can be formed Only such families can sustain a country; without many such families nations cannot endure. Do you understand? This is why it is important to know these things.</p>
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<p>The family and the world can have the same center, but the smaller entity is contained within the larger entity and serves it. This principle must be followed in the family, clan, tribe and nation.</p>
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<p>The same principle applies even to the relationship between the spirit world and the physical world. Which of the two worlds should we love more? The spirit world. But today many people do not know that God exists and are therefore unaware of the spirit world. All they know is what they see, so they insist that with their physical body they can comprehend the world. By emphasizing the horizontal axis to the exclusion of the vertical axis they are in danger of tipping over!</p>
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<p>Religions generally put most of their emphasis on the spirit world and the life hereafter, rather than the physical world. Beyond the spirit world is God. More than all else, we cherish God. This is our conclusion. Somehow, people have known that it is right to love the greater whole, but they didn’t understand why. We love the greater whole because that is how we can reach God. For the first time, we can touch God.</p>
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<p>Which do you cherish more, true love or God? Which takes priority, true love or God? Even God is willing to sacrifice Himself for the sake of true love. In contrast to the belief of some Christians that God is omnipotent and carefree, God still keeps sacrificing Himself for the sake of true love.</p>
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<p>In summary, the Unification Church and I keep teaching you to expand the scope of your love until you eventually occupy God through true love. If you consistently follow this process you will gain true love and, ultimately, God. If you love God more than anybody else in the world you will receive God’s love and even more. What is so great about obtaining God and true love? Once you possess true love, it enriches every part of your being and you become the wealthiest person in the world! What more could you want? After that, you can dance. and sing in the spirit world. Do you understand?</p>
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<p>Now that I am in the presence of a lot of parents for the first time, I have to say something straightforward. Many people believe that I am making these young people work incredibly long hours for the benefit of the Unification Church. What I am doing here is helping them to align their life properly, expand the scope of their love, and ultimately reach God.</p>
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<p>My teaching is very direct. I teach that a wife should love her husband so much that she will willingly make sacrifices for him. Are you agreeable to that? Why? Because it conforms to universal law; it is the most righteous and straightforward way of life according to God’s law. Do you women welcome this command? Will you abide by it forever? Amen. Likewise, for the sake of ideal love, each of you men realize that you should love your wife more than anybody else.</p>
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<p>Through true wives and true husbands true love is beginning to be born. Some time in the future this country may reach the point where every wife becomes a true wife and every husband a true husband. Those who fully agree to this and pledge to love your spouse more than anyone else, raise both hands, representing husband and wife. That is great! Now you have a very clear concept of this.</p>
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<p>My sermon ventured out in various directions in order to reach this very simple conclusion, and it took three and a half hours. But you must not forget it; you should keep it in mind throughout your lifetime. You will not always hear such a talk I may leave this country to visit somewhere else. Once you leave this place and return to your mission it is not likely that we will gather like this again for a couple of years. In the meantime, some may lose their fives-it may be God’s will and we cannot help it. Or some may go as missionaries to a far country. So bear in mind these fundamental principles.</p>
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<p>Once you have become an ideal husband or wife, what is your next task? Forming an ideal family. Does having children make your family ideal? No. You will be a family, but it may not be an ideal family. An ideal family is one that is will-ing to sacrifice for -the sake of the ideal. Such a-family is welcome in the ideal world. How can you be sure of this? Because forming an ideal family brings you one step closer to God’s true love. God’s true love is always our goal.</p>
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<p>What is an ideal tribe? It is one that sacrifices itself for the sake of the nation. Do you want such a tribe? What is an ideal nation? It is one that sacrifices itself for the sake of the world. Then what is the ideal world? One that sacrifices itself for the spirit world. What is the ideal of the cosmos and all creation? It is true love.</p>
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<p>Returning to ourselves, why was each of us born? We were born for true love, Women were born for true love. Men were born for true love. Families exist for true love. That is the beginning of life.</p>
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<p>Even a nation like the United States became great not for its own sake but for the sake of the world. This nation may not have understood the reason; Koreans. did not realize why their nation developed as it did; the world has not known where it is going. But something in your mind indicates the correct direction. Somehow people perceive something of the ideal, although they may not clearly understand the reason. For the first time, now we know our destination.</p>
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<p>To know is one step of the process, but to practice such a way of life is not easy. Once you sample the taste of love your course is less difficult; you keep wanting to go further so you can experience more of God’s love. Without love, such a high ideal is almost unattainable.</p>
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<p>Have you met God? Do you see Him in dreams or visions? Someone once asked me whether I could make a drawing of God, since He doesn’t have a body. No, it is impossible to draw God. In the original purpose of creation, since God did not have a body He created one with which He could unite: that of Adam and Eve, especially Adam. God wanted to dwell in Adam like a mind dwells in a body. God Himself was to be the spiritual focal point of existence and Adam the physical focal point. These two focal points, God and Adam, were to intersect at a 90 degree angle. This was God’s purpose of creation.</p>
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<p>Mankind longs to follow the principle of love, the principle of creation. Had it not been for the fall, all people would be able to recognize God in the spirit world through their parents; but since the original parents fell away God has never manifested Himself in the spirit world. Had it not been for the fall, we would all have been good offspring of parents without original sin -and we would cherish our parents like God. Even now, we should try to live that way.</p>
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<p>Unification Church members call Mother and me True Parents. What are True Parents? You have seen us exemplify the nature and function of True Parents. True Parents, for instance, don’t expect others to come and serve them One function of True Parents is to carry out the work which God Himself cannot do because He doesn’t have a physical body. When I asked you whether you see God in dreams or visions you said yes, but actually when my image appears in your dreams, God is present, isn’t He? Those who have had such experiences raise your hands please. Other people cannot understand this phenomenon unless they have experienced it. One hundred percent of all Unification Church members have such experiences.</p>
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<p>Your original mind teaches your body everything. Likewise, my function is to appear to you and teach you. The world is unaware of this relationship. You may know this very deeply, but there is no way you can convince your father and mother about it unless they too experience it. They probably want to rid you of what they consider undesirable elements, but as long as they exist in you, you cannot help being a Moonie. As long as you remain in God’s love, nobody can snatch you away.</p>
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<p>Now that you are joined in marriage as husband and wife and are resolved to form an ideal family, complete with children, you must work for three and a half years to fulfill the three steps of love-parental, fraternal and conjugal. Will you welcome this course? How can you say yes with such confidence? There is a very obvious reason for answering yes, which I will describe to you.</p>
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<p>The road to heaven is the road which all individuals must inevitably take. It takes time–your whole life long, and even afterwards in the spirit world. Every single person must travel this way. Beggars must go it, everyone must go. But accompanied by a spouse, it is easier, therefore, now that you are married you are about to set out together. Your husband goes out to do the will of God, working hard day and night, sometimes returning very late in the evening. At home waiting for his return, will you make a face at him when he comes in?</p>
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<p>In the beginning many husbands are not very considerate of their wife because marriage is a new kind of relationship. If that is your situation, you need to become like a mother to your husband. If you cannot do that-perhaps, because your mother did not show the example-at least try to be a good elder sister. Wives usually don’t consider their mate “my dear husband” in the beginning. More often than not, you begin by considering him a good brother or a good father, and after a long time he will begin to be a good husband.</p>
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<p>The other day I explained how conjugal love is the third important type of love. How fantastic it is when you wives can regard your husband as your real father and he can regard you as his real mother! In the next stage, you will regard him as a good elder brother and he will regard you as a good elder or younger sister. Afterwards, you will become true husband and wife.</p>
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<p>Look at couples in America today. When one gets angry with the other, he or she goes out and gives affection to someone else. The husband comes home, kisses his wife and the next moment they are fighting each other-, the following day they are still arguing. That cannot be. If you ever want to kiss, you must not make war on each other!</p>
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<p>In the early days of your marriage, you women should serve your husband as if he were your own father-not as a husband or as an equal, but as a father Then he win treat you like a revered mother. Later, as an elder sister your position is to take care of him as if he were your younger brother. Finally, in the third stage, you can say you are ready to be a wife and consider him your husband. This is part of the tradition you should practice.</p>
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<p>It would be nice if there were a partition here so I could tell you women something in secret: when you baby a man, he melts and becomes like a child. It doesn’t make any difference how old the man is-he may be a grandfather 70 or 80 years old-if you treat him like a baby he is happy! That is how men are. Who do men resemble? God. So even God is like that. God is like the King of babies! You have to know how to treat a baby. For American women, the best analogy for this kind of tender care is to treat your husband “like your fine china,” but of course it encompasses more than that.</p>
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||||
<p>You must know dearly what the future holds. What is our fatherland, and where is it? It is our beautiful original home. When we arrive at our fatherland, we will find the original God. Are we able yet to relate to God as the original God? No. We have seen God trying desperately to save us, but that was not God’s ori al intent. God is a</p>
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||||
<p>ginal desperate God; He passionately longs to save us.</p>
|
||||
<p>In our original fatherland, however, we will know God as our original Father, and through our original Father we will experience original love. Children born from such an original couple, receiving original parental love, will multiply into an original tribe, form an original nation and an original world. After going through all these steps we win finally arrive at the fatherland. We are taking this way of sacrifice and hardship because we want to reach that original land, we long to be restored to the original country from which we actually came. Soon we must find our ideal fatherland on the earth.</p>
|
||||
<p>The ideal fatherland is different from anything that presently exists. Within God’s love there are no racial distinctions, no black or white. This earth is filled with barriers and national boundaries, but the original world which God intended knows no boundaries, no passports, no states or provinces.</p>
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||||
<p>What is our role in relation to the fatherland?</p>
|
||||
<p>We are the founding army, the soldiers of heaven, doing heavenly work-God’s work-to restore the world which God originally intended before Satan shattered the ideal. Look how horribly Satan has missed up this world! It has deviated so far from the ideal that hardly anything original re i . We so difficult to connect with God, and our mind keeps wondering whether God feels the way we do. But now we know what God intended and how Satan demolished it. We know what we are supposed to do: transform this world into the original world.</p>
|
||||
<p>Our ultimate mission is to save and restore that world, but those tasks are not the most urgent ones now. Fighting takes priority. The kind of fighting we are involved in is more intense than physical fighting with guns. Either we win or we will get hurt. We are using ammunition of love; when our arrows or bullets strike people in their heart they are born again in God. Satan’s ammunition is jealousy, slander, lying, etc. Satan tries to hurt people, but that is not our aim We are bombarding people with love. The more the forces of</p>
|
||||
<p>evil shoot at us, the more intensely we have to return volleys of love. Our love must be greater than the enemy’s opposition. Their weapons are ineffective against Unification Church members; no matter what kinds of bullets people fire our way, they just bounce back to them. People may slander us but we don’t believe their words. In contrast, our bullets are extremely powerful and effective; whoever is struck by our bullets will be melted in love and born anew.</p>
|
||||
<p>I have been striving to reach this point not only for the sake of God but for all mankind. The more people harass me, the more progress I make. The more people persecute me the higher I rise. Look at this court case: its ridiculousness has become apparent to almost everyone. The American government, versus Reverend Moon, a religious leader. This government, with all its arrogance at being the most powerful nation in the world, makes the competition more dramatic-like Goliath and David. Goliath had such a huge body, like the United States; but David was more righteous than Goliath.</p>
|
||||
<p>The United States is trying to fight me, but it is a useless effort. Even if I die, millions of people will follow me and dedicate their lives for my cause-which they will take up as their own. The United States will perish if it carries its wrongdoing to the extreme. When it becomes apparent that I am right and the United States wrong, all the world’s condemnation will be directed towards this country. Nobody will sympathize with it. This is why my conscience is always clear, this is why I can always act so boldly; this is why I can persevere in this great cause.</p>
|
||||
<p>I have never been indebted to the United States. The food I eat and the house in which I live are not the product of the United States; they have not been provided by Americans. I supply my own means, from countries other than the United States. The food I eat, the clothes I wear and the house I live in were not bought with one red cent from America. You, more than anybody else, know that that is true.</p>
|
||||
<p>Each of you should remember that you and your spouse are heavenly soldiers on active duty. That is your first qualification. You should remember that no one can embody the ideal as an individual; no individual can reach the ideal without a spouse. Once our fatherland exists ideal families can emerge within it, but the proper order is give the fatherland priority. Each of our families needs the environment of our original fatherland, and we are the soldiers to create and recover that fatherland. We are soldiers not as individuals but as families. The family is the soldier. Without fighting as soldier-families we can never hope to reach the fatherland.</p>
|
||||
<p>These are not merely words. I have been demonstrating this truth to the world. I began in the family, but I never allow the family to stand in my way. My attitude has never been, “Let’s be happy and let others worry about the world.” Until now, my family has been like Gypsies. Gypsies don’t have a fatherland; they traipse around from one place to another. I don’t have a fatherland.</p>
|
||||
<p>Each of us must recognize that the central purpose of our family is to dwell in this original fatherland, together with the original God and our parents and everyone we can save. That is not only our purpose but the purpose of the many millions of people who will follow us. Unfortunately, communism is impeding the fulfillment of this purpose. If we don’t accomplish the work of reaching the original fatherland, the communists will destroy all of us and everyone else, and nothing will remain. Do you understand? You must realize this clearly.</p>
|
||||
<p>Already I have explained everything in detail. We must give this truth to the world;- we must reach them before the communists do and influence them first, teaching them the truth and leading them back to the original way. If we don’t do that, the communists will overrun the world and ravage it; they will lead the world in a godless, materialistic way and cause its eventual destruction. We must realize that we have been entrusted with a heavenly mission to reach out to the world before the communists get their hands on it and mesa it up even further. We must reach all mankind and bring them back to God. This is our mission.</p>
|
||||
<p>I could go on and on all day, giving you more detailed explanations, but time is limited. For this cause I am risking everything to stand on the front line to fight communism. President Reagan would very much like to contain communism and overcome it, but he can’t. Only Reverend Moon can. The government wavers back and forth; political leaders have no effective means of accomplishing the goal. But I can demonstrate the proper course and show the solution. I know the path. You must understand that this is why we need CARP, ocean church and home church. As soldier-families, we are going to fight this war.</p>
|
||||
<p>If you go on a honeymoon now, even your best destination is still in the satanic world, for you have no true place to go. I have never entertained the idea of a honeymoon; that is somebody else’s invention. You newlyweds will indeed enjoy a honeymoon someday-a fantastic one such as no one has ever enjoyed before-but only after we get to. this -fatherland. This is the course of the ideal couple.</p>
|
||||
<p>Each of us is supposed to do our portion of responsibility. As an individual I have fulfilled more than my share. I have taught you everything about the world. I have explained what communism is and why we have to fight it; I have explained the position it occupies in relation to God’s overall ideal. I have guided you in each activity, such as fundraising. All these details I have taught and demonstrated. The most precious and important things I have given to you without price.</p>
|
||||
<p>People in South America are approaching me and saying, “Reverend Moon, why do you put up with those North Americans? We knew they were not so good. Why don’t you come and live with us?” People are making such an offer. If I were a satanic person I could go to South America and start an anti-United States movement. But I cannot do that. Even if I go there I would still have to work for the sake of the United States, and the South Americans might still protest that I am unduly concerned about this nation.</p>
|
||||
<p>If I do go to South America, even from there I would drive you more intensely to save the United States. Do you understand that? Is someone with such an attitude a bad person or a good person?</p>
|
||||
<p>We should protest against those parents and those nations that have been opposing our missionaries. Your children will suffer if this generation doesn’t do its job.</p>
|
||||
<p>I have great confidence that we will achieve our goal, but it is based on meticulous planning and accomplishing each step along the way. I know that there is no room for mistakes. Therefore, I have no fears about this court case. I will be brave as I face the judicial system. You too should never be intimidated. Do you understand? Do you really understand?</p>
|
||||
<p>This is doubtless a major transition in your life. You have been single, and now you are united in matrimony and your goal is clearer than ever: our fatherland. You must do your very best to reach it.</p>
|
||||
<p>I have given you all the reasons and explained the purpose for reaching this objective, so will you pursue the goal on your own, whether asleep or awake-or will you need someone to keep encouraging and supervising you to make sure you get there? Will you do it voluntarily, even if nobody keeps reminding you? Do you really mean it?</p>
|
||||
<p>I will not remain in this country much longer; I have already spent ten years here. You will be left here all by yourself. When I leave, will you Voluntarily remain and pledge to take responsibility for the United States-or will you follow me?</p>
|
||||
<p>Will you work more intensely than 1, or will you slow down and complain that you cannot keep up with my pace on your own ? Your numbers are many, and I am only one individual, so you have that advantage.</p>
|
||||
<p>Actually, saving America is not the final goal. Our next objective is Moscow. We have to liberate those people too. Do you have that confidence? You men might say yes, but how about you women?</p>
|
||||
<p>You are embarked on this course together as husband and wife, but it is unlikely that you will die at the same time. When one dies and goes to the spirit world, haw will the survivor respond? If the husband remains on earth, will you hold your family together single-handedly until you join your wife in spirit world-or will you remarry?</p>
|
||||
<p>You must live at least for the sake of your country. This is not my country, the scope of my mission is far more than one country. I have done enough for the United States. I have worked for the sake of this nation, but it treats me like an enemy. Still, I never tried to retaliate but continue to embrace it with love.</p>
|
||||
<p>You know how difficult it is to reach out with my heart through an interpreter because much of the meaning and impact is diluted. You, in contrast, don’t have to use an interpreter to reach out to your fellow Americans. You speak the same language and you are from the same culture. Americans won’t persecute you no matter how intensely you work-even if it is ten times harder than I have. Therefore, you should work harder than I for your own country. Can you do that?</p>
|
||||
<p>Are you determined as a couple to reach our fatherland? Are you resolved to work harder than I have for your country? If you lack confidence, you don’t have to pledge. Those who can voluntarily make this pledge, raise both hands to God. God bless you.</p>
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---
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title: "OUR PLEDGE"
|
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type: "speech"
|
||||
published: "2018-06-23T14:32:32+01:00"
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updated: "2018-06-23T14:32:32+01:00"
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source: "/blog/2018/06/23/our-pledge.html"
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speechYear: "1982"
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categories:
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- "Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982"
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tags: []
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---
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<h2 align="CENTER">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
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<h3 align="CENTER">November 21, 1982<br />
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Belvedere<br />
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Translator – Bo Hi Pak</h3>
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<p>Two Chinese characters represent the word “pledge” and they are pronounced “Mengseh” in Korean. The meaning in Chinese is symbolic and very profound.</p>
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<p>The Korean race originated in the Manchurian area of mainland China, but recent archeological studies show evidence of ancient Korean civilizations scattered much further west. Confucius himself is believed to be of that early Korean origin. The great Chinese king Chin She Wang, comparable to Alexander the Great, has also been linked with Korean origins by archeologists. All these things from the past are being revealed by scientific excavations of tombs and relics.</p>
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<p>I would like to start a project combining three great scholars, one each from China, Japan, and Korea, to uncover the roots of the Korean people.</p>
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<p>The literal meaning of “Mengseh” in Korean is to make a promise before the altar of God. It can also mean simply a promise for the future. We recite our Pledge every Sunday morning at 5:00. The first part of the Pledge deals with the original creation and the loss of that ideal through the fall of man.</p>
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<p>The second paragraph deals with restoration of the children that were lost. The third paragraph refers to the way in which God has fearlessly striven for the restoration of mankind and the world. Number four outlines the scheme through which the ideal will be restored step by step, beginning with the individual, family, society, nation, world and cosmos. The goal and hope for the future are projected in part four. Part five of the Pledge is the conclusion. It projects what we are going to create-one sovereignty, one nation, one people. etc.</p>
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<p>Let us look at ourselves and ask where we are situated now. Mankind is located between good and evil. between God and Satan, between Heaven and earth, as a result of the fall of man. Goodness and Heaven are the realm of God, while evil and the earth itself are the under the domain of Satan. Without question. God is the central figure of Heaven and He created the goodness of this world and the goodness of Heaven. Satan created the evil world and earthly hell.</p>
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<p>Heaven is organized with God at the center and the very best, highest spirits immediately around Him; close to them are the next highest spirits. and so on. Satan organized his realm in a similar way. He occupies the center of hell and surrounding him are the most evil spirits; close to them are the next worst spirits, with the layers filled with spirits of lesser and lesser evil as they go out. Between these two worlds there is a distinct boundary which keeps them separate.</p>
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<p>This is reality. and as human beings we are situated in either of these two areas. In spirit world there is a specific location designated geographically as hell. What is the division between Heaven and hell; where is Heaven? If men and women had not been present to respond to evil, hell would not have been created. Both Heaven and hell were created because of human beings.</p>
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<p>Mankind is composed of both men and women, with man being created first. Who initiated the fall of man? We always blame the archangel, but without men and women he would not have had anybody to work with. In the long historical process of striving for a world of goodness, women have been victimized and used more often as obstacles to that goal. During the past 70 years, the movement for women’s rights has become widespread and prosperous; prior to this, women’s rights never became a strong issue in the world.</p>
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<p>America is a country in which women have great controlling power over the men, who often behave like servants. This is actually a providential occurrence. Since God knew that the messiah was coming in the position of bridegroom, the bride’s position had to be elevated. Women must not be trampled into the ground, so God inspired the effort to give rights to women. Since the USA is a central country in the providence, American women had to play a central role.</p>
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<p>The providence of God could be looked at as a hill. During the arduous climb up to the top of the hill, men took the initiative and pulled the women. However once we near the top and start to go over, women have to take the initiative and lead the men. As the central representative of all men. the messiah comes to restore his bride. He has to find that bride and carry her over the hill. Before the bride is restored the women must play the leading role, but afterwards the men must regain their subjective position. Instead of going down the hill together, they will go upward toward Heaven. At the very top of that providential hill are American women, who are very important and very articulate.</p>
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<p>Homosexuality is rampant here in America today. One reason for this social phenomenon can be said to be the growth of women’s power. When men become afraid of women, they separate themselves into homosexual behavior. Likewise, women freely engage in lesbian behavior.</p>
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<p>When men think of their ideal wives, they don’t generally think of stubborn, aggressive women. If Adam had been in firm control of Eve in the Garden of Eden, there would not have been any fall; she would not have been vulnerable to the enticement of the archangel. Therefore in the restoration process at the culmination of the providence, man must have a firm, guiding hand over woman. That is the way indemnity must be paid.</p>
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<p>In the secular world, women follow men but often with the intention of, controlling them or preventing them from doing something wrong When the ideal world is established, women will follow men but not with such a hostile purpose. They will follow out of a desire to help or serve the man. out of a spirit of total trust.</p>
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<p>This morning’s message doesn’t make you women feel too good, it appears! The truth is that many men have been victimized throughout history because of women. In Western culture, men used to duel with each other for the right to a woman. If two men wanted the same woman, one or the other would have to die. Oriental culture has never seen such a phenomenon. The woman had to wait helplessly for the outcome of the duel; she had to accept the man who won the duel, even if she didn’t like him. Women never normally duel with each other. however. over the love of a man. A duel is almost like Eve pushing God and Satan into the position of dueling for her.</p>
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<p>Women were often regarded as a commodity throughout history, like personal property or jewelry. Conquering soldiers would take women as the spoils of war and those women would be forced to live with whatever man claimed them. The queen of a defeated nation could become a servant. The only alternative to living that subjugated way of life was to kill themselves. but women generally didn’t do that. They normally submitted to their slave situation in order to survive.</p>
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<p>Historically, the side of evil has been more efficient and aggressive in the struggle against goodness. Between a good man and an evil one, the evil man is more vicious in a conflict. Evil has no discretion, conscience or moral limitations. An evil man can do anything. killing and hurting without compunction.</p>
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<p>Between evil men and evil women, who are the most vicious fighters? It is the evil men. Genuine. good. lovely women have been the victims of evil men throughout history. What kind of women have normally been drawn into prostitution: the ugly. unappealing women or those who are good-looking? It was usually the attractive women. We can draw the conclusion that those women who pride themselves on their beauty are more likely to be victims of satanic attack. In wartime invasions. evil men go after beautiful women as their first targets. Dictators with absolute power always pick beautiful women as their slaves or concubines. This is illustrated in movies, novels. and historical archives.</p>
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<p>Evil men have robbed good men of their wives and daughters throughout history. Good men are supposed to have good women, but because of evil men. the good ones have suffered more. Thus women have been the source of great suffering to good men.</p>
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<p>In their greed and out of desire to make their women happy, evil men will do anything: organize gangs, rob banks, plunder diamonds and jewels. etc. Thus evil men have the capacity to satisfy women materially. However good men are usually poor because they will not resort to evil methods of gaining money to entice women.</p>
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<p>Men who are famous and very masculine-looking are often sought after by women. For example, Elvis Presley used to be chased around by women wherever he went. Women tried to kiss him and cried and screamed over him. If he had made an announcement to the world, “Any woman who likes me can come to see me tonight,” I’m sure millions of American women would have lined up, even leaving their husbands behind. Elvis Presley was like the king of rock music, but in the sight of God. did he fulfill a satanic or Heavenly role? Certainly the superstars of the secular world generally influence the world in a satanic way. Men and women who always worry about their appearance, watching their weight, putting on more makeup, and trying to be alluring to others, are making a basically satanic effort in the world.</p>
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<p>What is the standard of the Heavenly side? The Heavenly way is what Satan always rejects. For example people frequently say, “We don’t like Moonies or the Unification Church.” What kind of people are saying this: good, conscientious people or those who are more on the evil side?</p>
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<p>Many American parents today are pushing their children to go out and have lots of dates, worrying about them if they don’t. They are actually almost pushing their children toward a promiscuous life. On the other hand, here in the Unification Church I always direct people not to date. not to touch. not to have premarital sex. This teaching is completely opposite from the secular standard. Which do you think is the more Heavenly and which the more satanic?</p>
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<p>Do people raise commotion and criticize our church because we are so satanic or so Heavenly? What about you Unification Church members, do you like me? What about you women? Even though you like me, I don’t treat you in a warm. intimate manner; I normally don’t even shake your hand. However when a woman in the secular world gives the signal that she likes a certain man. he will immediately try to move in and claim her for himself.</p>
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<p>Sometimes beautiful, talented and intelligent women have heard that I am such a straight upright man and have joined the Unification Church in order to entice me. Of course, none have succeeded yet! If I paid attention to such women, do you think this religious crusade could have continued? God is always pushing me towards a certain goal. So I have no time to get involved with such temptations.</p>
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<p>When I came to the United States. I met many capable and charming women. If they tried to wink at me, do you think I winked back? On the contrary, I was likely to make a funny face. Women have the special gift of being able to attract others. The negative way of doing it is for the purpose of enticing someone; more positively, a woman can charm and delight someone. Whenever I see a woman trying to entice me, I become more stern and more severe towards them.</p>
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<p>Out of the approximately four billion people on the earth at this time, what percentage of them do you think could be classified as genuinely good? Perhaps you might estimate one percent; that would mean 40 million people. Are there that many genuinely good people in the world? In the time of Abraham, God announced His judgment on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham pleaded with God not to destroy those cities, so God promised to relent if Abraham could find ten righteous people in them. Abraham could not come up with even ten righteous people, so the cities were destroyed.</p>
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<p>Do you think New York City today is better or worse than Sodom and Gomorrah? It is worse. This means that New York, and actually every city on the earth. deserves fire and brimstone today. The angels told Lot to leave Sodom because God was going to destroy it. Such an order is about to be given to people in the world today, “Leave that place behind; don’t try to save anything, just come out of there.” What would you do in such a situation?</p>
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<p>Most of you Moonies are in a honeymoon mood now, after the July I blessing and the Korean blessing. Many of you are thinking of setting up your own sweet homes, but suppose God ordered you all of a sudden to leave everything behind, including your spouse? Suppose God said. “Husbands go north and wives go south,” what would you do? Would you protest and try to accompany your wives or husbands?</p>
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<p>In the perspective of history, this is not a normal time; it is a time of emergency. In an emergency such as a fire, you would leave a building through any possible exit, even if it were only a small hole. You wouldn’t wait to find the normal door. You might lose an arm, a leg, even break your neck trying, but you would still do anything to get out. If a hotel is on fire, the fireman would go in and even throw someone out the window if there was no other possible way of getting him out. That is an act of goodness in a time of emergency.</p>
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<p>I am like a fireman coming into a burning hotel. I am very busy gathering people and throwing them out of the burning building. In this emergency, do you think my actions are justified?</p>
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<p>Why am I speaking to you of such things this morning? Look at the evils of the world. God is a sad and suffering God who must look at this world and see the condition of His children. It is apparent when we look at this world that God must be experiencing terrible suffering. This is a vicious, dangerous world. Therefore. when you go out to do your work in the morning, you must be well prepared. Pray to God for help in meeting the difficulties of this world so you can return safely at night. When you return at night, look at yourself in the mirror your eyes, nose, mouth, ears, hands. Those are your most susceptible parts, most ready to commit sin. Ask each of your features, “Were you righteous today? What did you do?” You must control your circumstances, rather than being distracted and drawn away by your environment. You must be able to guide your circumstances from the central righteous position.</p>
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<p>You are being trained as leaders in the Unification Church so that you can control your circumstances, not become victims of circumstances. We must change the world, not become changed by it.</p>
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<p>You did not come to Belvedere for a picnic or as a joke. We came here to do battle, to gain the power to go out for the confrontation with Satan. You will either survive or die.</p>
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<p>When you go out, people point their fingers and call you, “Moonie, Moonie!” but that is actually a blessing because they are constantly reminding you of your mission. You can’t forget what you are doing. However, if people were totally embracing you as a Moonie and inviting you into their homes, that would be bad news for you!</p>
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<p>Throughout history, the good and righteous religions prospered during times of persecution. Why is that? Persecution actually protects people by spurring them on to greater discipline and devotion to their mission. As much as you are persecuted for your religion, God’s support intensifies. At the point where their persecution becomes so strong that it threatens their lives, God can distinguish the true believers, those who are truly faithful.</p>
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<p>Shall we avoid persecution in every possible way, or shall we confront it? Should we look for the easiest possible route, or go the toughest way? The most timeless teaching of Jesus in the Bible has been that of sacrifice and service, willingness even to die for the sake of others. That means we do not kill those who oppose us; we forgive them. We must embrace our enemies.</p>
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<p>God and Satan are engaged in battle. Satan abhors one thing above all: people who love their enemy. He has no way to deal with such people and is helpless before them. When people have that attitude, there can be no war, bloodshed, or confrontations. Satan always wants to create and wage war while God is always trying to stop war.</p>
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<p>When you are working on the front line, Satan will try to trip you up. using the people and things closest to you. This is why the Bible clearly states that one’s worst enemies in the pursuit of God’s way are often the members of one’s own family. In the same sense. the closest thing to your mind is your body; so Satan will always try to work through your body. In that way, your body is actually your enemy.</p>
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<p>God is telling you, “Don’t doze during the sermon,” but Satan is whispering to you, “Don’t listen to him; go ahead and sleep. You have every reason to be sleepy here because Reverend Moon constantly pushes you: he doesn’t understand you. Go ahead and sleep.” Satan can always give you some justification. “You worked at the News World all night last night. Naturally you have the right to sleep,” he might say. Satan likes to use the word “naturally.”</p>
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<p>We could draw a line representing the division between God’s realm and Satan’s. That which is above the line is Heavenly and that below is satanic. How does your own life measure up? Would more of your life exist below or above the line? When you live more time below the line. do you think you deserve Heaven or hell? You don’t like hell, so why do you permit yourself to exist below the line? It requires great concentration of all your faculties to stay above the line; without that, you become dull and loose, slumping below the line.</p>
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<p>Do you like Chinese food? If I were to tell you to go every day and eat Chinese food and enjoy yourself. would that activity be above or below the line? You should decide, “I could go out to eat at a Chinese restaurant every day but that would be pleasing only to my body, so I won’t do it. Instead, I will eat the most tasteless kind of bread.” Could you resolve to eat the worst kind of food and do the best kind of work? That is the way I am resolved.</p>
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<p>Compare the origins of two babies. One couple might go out to a nice restaurant and drink and dance, having lots of fun; afterwards they go home and conceive a baby. Another couple might be very poor, working hard for their missions and able to afford only the worst kind of bread to eat. But they pray with gratitude to God for giving them nourishment to allow them to continue doing their missions and afterwards, they make love and conceive a baby. Two babies are conceived, but the motivations of their parents are entirely different. Which of the two babies would have its start above the line. on the Heavenly side? Undoubtedly, it is the second baby.</p>
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<p>Among the blessed couples, there are many variations. One couple might have a very comfortable apartment or a good room at the New Yorker, living well each day with no hardships. Then there is the couple in which the husband goes out for his mission, traveling to the south while his wife heads north. both working like beavers. They might meet only once in six months to spend a night in a room at the New Yorker, and at that time conceive a child. Thus even in our movement. there are two different ways of having a baby. Which do you think is more sacred and Heavenly? Which way would you choose’.’</p>
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<p>The messiah, Jesus Christ. was born into the world and laid in a manger. The angels came there and gave praise to the son of God. They were the only beings around, so their songs were shouted out with great strength, since no one else was there to give praise. Imagine, however, if Jesus had been born in some royal palace in Rome. There would have been a large gathering of people. including prime ministers and important people. In such a case, the angels would have been just one of the crowd. Since the messiah was born in a lowly place, the angels had to shout out their praises with tremendous power and excitement.</p>
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<p>Reverend Moon came to this world with a mission. Would it have been more dramatic for me to have been welcomed by the world as a prince of God, dwelling in a golden palace, or to suffer in the lowest possible circumstances, trying to construct a victory for the sake of God? We are only a handful of people who know this wonderful truth, so how much more excited and inspired we should be! We have to face tremendous opposition from the world, and we have to teach them the truth. Do you have the power, energy and commitment to face the world? There is no way you can retreat in the face of all that opposition. You can move forward and endure any kind of hardship.</p>
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<p>Would you rather follow a God whose demands are easy and an easy-going Reverend Moon, or a fighting God and a fighting Reverend Moon? It is easy to say you want the harder way, but it is difficult to do it.</p>
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<p>It is more difficult to witness to people when their language and culture is entirely different from your own, but would you like to do that? When you white members go to black cultures. do you think it will be easy? Certainly you will be opposed initially. Likewise you black people, would you like to go to the white culture and make a breakthrough, or stay in the familiar black world? Which is more dramatic? The richest and most privileged people should go to the most primitive countries and the poorest people should go to the richest cultures. When they get to the affluent societies, they should suffer even more than before for the sake of that society. Is such a thing absolutely impossible? There is a principle and truth behind what I am saying.</p>
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<p>I have gone through incredible suffering, battles and persecution throughout my entire life, and I have not had even one entirely good day. Under such conditions I have been persevering every minute of every day. Compared to such a life, the one-time martyrdom of the first century Christians was much easier. Am I striving so hard now for my own salvation or for the sake of the world? The first century martyrs died for the sake of their own Heaven, without any concept of dying for the sake of the whole world. However. I am working every day to bring the world back to God and into salvation.</p>
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<p>Do you come here to Belvedere to listen to me so that you can build your own Heaven for yourself? That kind of person is not needed at Belvedere. Have you ever considered that Belvedere is like the “mother’s womb” of salvation for the world? In the future, long after all of us are gone. people will come here and touch this blackboard and say, “This is where Reverend Moon spoke and that is where all the members sat.” They will touch the walls, everything, trying to feel what it was like here. If some chalk dust still remained in the room from when I wrote on the board, those people would want to touch or feel even one particle of that historical dust.</p>
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<p>In the future, great numbers of people will make pilgrimages to this auditorium at Belvedere. Kings and queens of many countries will come here and kneel down to pray with tears. If you are living at that time, you will be able to proudly announce to those kings and queens. “When Reverend Moon was preaching, I was sitting right here on the front row and he even hit me on the head with a piece of his chalk. I have it right here. I have kept this piece of chalk for fifty years.” Those kings and queens will regard you as a sacred, holy person. Have you ever thought about the Unification Church rising to such a position in the future?</p>
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<p>Jesus was able to redirect the history of the past two thousand years, yet he lived only 33 years and had a public ministry of only three years. He was able to leave virtually nothing substantial behind, but look at how many things I will be leaving behind. Through the works and words I have spoken the world has hope.</p>
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<p>The very reason I bought Belvedere and East Garden was not for my own comfort, but for the sake of future generations. I know that they will need a holy land to visit, so Belvedere and East Garden will fill that need. I am leaving footprints for posterity.</p>
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<p>When I came to the United States. I had virtually nothing in Korea. I built a church there, but no home of my own. I am telling you this so you can realize what a precious position you are in today and how precious each of you is. When I leave the United States. you will come here to Belvedere to feel my spirit. At that time you will say, “I wish I could hear Father speak here again,” and you will cry and cry. Why don’t you do something about it while I am here?</p>
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<p>I want you to understand that what Satan hates the most is love. We must make a pledge to God this morning. Our determination must be to do the things in which God will have the utmost delight and Satan will hate the most. If you make that promise to God then Satan will kick you and persecute you wherever you go. As one man, I have been totally opposed by the world, including the communist world and the democratic world. Every nation, as well as organized Christianity, Judaism, and other religions have opposed me. Do you think that I am doing such evil things that I deserve this kind of opposition from the entire world? By any standard you may use to evaluate me, I am a force for goodness; in the sight of God’ I am faultless. The rest of the world hates me simply because I promised to God something totally pleasing to Him.</p>
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<p>When I first came to this country and visited New York, I saw Eighth Avenue, the street of prostitutes. I promised to God, “When I return, Father, I will take responsibility to clean up this street.” The secular world doesn’t appreciate that kind of moral stand, so they opposed me. In 1976 it reached a peak. Everybody was opposing me, like village drums beating so strongly against me. However, since that time the opposition has been declining and all their efforts only serve to make the name of Reverend Moon more famous.</p>
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<p>The Korean nation has been the one to oppose me the most. They called me a traitor, a shameful Korean-all kinds of names. But what do they call me now? The beacon of hope for Korea. They are saying that Reverend Moon is the only true patriot since our founding father, Tangun, five thousand years ago. Now there is a consensus even among the children that, as Koreans, they are proud to present Reverend Moon to the world.</p>
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<p>The Japanese at first called me by a scornful name, without any designation of respect. Later they gave me the title of teacher. Now they are referring to me as the greatest religious teacher the Oriental race has ever produced. They don’t want to call me just Korean, because they want to be included too, so they call me Oriental!</p>
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<p>At this time the Western world is striking at me to the highest possible degree, but have I been declining or retreating? On the contrary I am prospering and the opposition is declining. Even while facing trial in the courtroom I did not lose even one iota of my spirit.</p>
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<p>I want you to be aware of what is happening in the Orient. In that way you can measure what will happen in America. I began there at the worst possible level and have risen to the highest level of success. In New York, people are learning that Reverend Moon’s friends consist of Moses, Buddha, and Jesus. I keep good company!</p>
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<p>There has been a great change in Washington, DC. People there are wondering, “Who is Reverend Moon?” Discussions of the Washington Times often end up with one question, “Who is he?” Whether they like me or not they are weighing the issues and asking the right question. Once they start asking the right question, soon they will come to the right answer.</p>
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<p>People at least are concluding that what Reverend Moon is teaching makes sense. If that is the case. he must be at least a candidate for messiah. They are watching and waiting for one more step to be taken.</p>
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<p>Our detractors thought they could knock me down at any time, so they put up a strong opposition. However, nothing happened to me, while they have become weaker and are about to be defeated.</p>
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<p>God’s dispensation is moving up to the summit, the pinnacle. Going up takes the most energy, but as soon as we near the top, it becomes much easier. Communism is not the problem; the free world is the problem. As soon as the free world accepts the truth. communism will fall down the hill, pulled by its own weight and the force of nature.</p>
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<p>I have now climbed to the top of the tree. The world is making a final effort to shake me off and the wind is blowing strong from all directions, trying to dislodge me. I am holding on tight, so as soon as the world admits they cannot shake me off, the whole tree will be conquered.</p>
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<p>You are all holding on to me; would you also like to have someone else holding on to you? Right now people are clinging to me, but the line doesn’t extend far enough to reach all the way to the ground. As soon as the line extends that far, we will have a stabilizing line which will anchor us no matter how hard the wind blows. Nothing will be able to shake me off from the top of the tree and we will have three or four lines reaching up to me like ladders from all directions. People can climb up to me on those ladders. Therefore, you should welcome anyone who wants to hang on to your back.</p>
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<p>In the secular world people live selfishly and don’t want other people hanging on to them or stepping over them. But in the Heavenly world people offer themselves and let others use them as ladders to the pinnacle first. Some of your parents and brothers and sisters are trying to pull you back into the secular world, but the Heavenly world is the opposite. Here we push our brothers forward and children push their parents ahead of them. With this illustration, I want you to understand how tar the Unification Church has come and where we are standing now.</p>
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<p>Do you think the hurricane winds are blowing harder now than ever? Our adversaries thought that indicting Reverend Moon would put an end to him and the Unification Church and that no more young people would follow him. However they made a big mistake; it is not happening that way at all. Even while fighting the court battle, I continued my work. If I am put in jail, that will not be the end either. Would you respond, “While Father is in jail, I will stand around and wait for him”? No, I am sure our people will go to the State Department, the Justice Department, the While House, and demonstrate, protesting that the United States cannot torment a righteous man of God.</p>
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<p>We will not stand still: we have been given the marching order and we will not tolerate this. Our weapon is not a sword or rifle, but the truth, the most powerful weapon God has given us. Let the New York Times and the Washington Post write whatever they want: we shall keep them informed of the truth. Are you determined to do so? Do you have the confidence that you will do that ?</p>
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<p>We have already gone over the pinnacle and we are winning. We will let the world know that the Unification Movement is the toughest and most powerful movement of all. We are not resorting to violence. The U.S. Constitution and laws are on our side, so we simply demand that justice prevail.</p>
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<p>Personally speaking. I would enjoy having a few months’ vacation in a private place such as a prison. My job is tough-speaking here at Belvedere is hard work! To take off for several months and do nothing, just meditating and having fellowship with God, would be a pleasure for me. However. we cannot let that happen. We are going to do what Satan hates the most. Our pledge is to do whatever is pleasing to God and at the same time what Satan hates the most.</p>
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<p>Satan hates the idea of one sovereignty centered on God. He wants all kinds of divided, fighting sovereignties his tactic is to divide and conquer, having people fighting among themselves. But God’s message is to bring people together, uniting them. Therefore, the effort of Reverend Moon is to unite people, to bring denominations and religions and races together. Satan wants to see war between the races and the religions. Are the Christian denominations who fight among themselves helping God’s efforts? The Unification Church is dedicated to regaining God’s sovereignty in this world, to putting Satan out of the picture and exposing his work at corrupting people and inciting them to racial and religious wars.</p>
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<p>The basic motivation of Satan is self-indulgence. People drink, smoke, and bribe each other because of Satan’s influence. Since we understand that fact. we go the opposite way. Satan starts out big and self-important, but he always shrinks to the smallest entity: himself. His only thought is “Me first.” In the Unification Church we are taking the opposite course; we deny the individual, ourselves, in order to dedicate ourselves for the family. We dedicate the family for the sake of the nation; the nation for the world and the world for the cosmos. At the center. the individual is no longer just yourself but is connected with the universe. What you do as an individual is what the universe does; you are a public person.</p>
|
||||
<p>Satan’s way, however, was to grab for the largest level and then to fall down to the smallest level, himself. He fell even further down, all the way to the dungeons of hell where there is no way out. The person who lives on an individualistic. selfish level is in hell; the size of his selfishness determines the degree of his hell. The person who could sacrifice the world for his own sake is in the worst place in hell. Those who would sacrifice the nation or the society for his own sake are accorded a corresponding position in hell.</p>
|
||||
<p>However, even from those positions in hell, if a person begins to deny himself for the sake of something greater, his family, the society, etc. his acts will bring him up. Only unselfish, public actions can raise people out of hell, step by step.</p>
|
||||
<p>In modern day America, the most popular way of life is centered around selfishness. Do the young people generally care about the world, nation, society, or their fellow man? In general they are only oriented to seek fun for themselves. The journey of such Americans toward God must begin from that point of selfishness and when they achieve a certain level, they can become a Moonie. As Moonies, you go up and down continually and some of you never achieve the highest level, although that is a necessity. If you step too low, you can reenter the domain of hell. It is natural for your life to go through ups and downs; but your movements must take you steadily higher. You may go up, then down a little less, then up more than down, then gradually you are moving in an upward direction.</p>
|
||||
<p>For the Unification Church, the world is our stage, our center of concern. Therefore, if you go to Africa or Asia or South America and serve for the sake of the world, you will transcend the up and down level; you will jump right into the center.</p>
|
||||
<p>If you go to Africa with such a heart, you will truly become a central figure because you will be with God, the central figure of the universe. If you are truly aligned and one with God, you can even say, “Africa exists for me,” and God will not be upset with you. If Satan tries to accuse you, God will intervene and defend you because you are motivated by His heart. God may allow Satan to test you to determine whether you are truly with Him or not and Satan may give you many difficulties like He did Job. Regardless of Satan’s test, however, God’s man or woman will not be shaken.</p>
|
||||
<p>This has been my situation here in America. Satan has been testing me through all the opposition. It has been like a prizefight with Satan trying to knock me down. God is winning His ultimate, final victory and He is telling me, “Yes, my son, you are doing well. Keep going.” Don’t you think God is delighted to see the consistent fighting spirit of Reverend Moon?</p>
|
||||
<p>I want you to understand that the time has come for us to go completely over the hill and cross over to victory. However, each of you has a hindrance, like a “tail,” of fallen nature which you must be able to cut off in order to get over the boundary. If you cling to your own narrow identity as an American. that will stop you. Are you willing go cut that tail off? How can you do that? The answer is simple: don’t do anything that Satan likes and do whatever God likes.</p>
|
||||
<p>We are living for the sake of the one sovereignty of God, our Heavenly citizenship in the Kingdom of God. This is what God wants, and Satan doesn’t like one sovereignty at all. From the first day of God’s creation, He has desired a world of one sovereignty. This morning in the Pledge you said, “I am proud of the one sovereignty.” I am talking about that as a reality now, not just an empty dream. The time has come in which that point has been reached.</p>
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||||
<p>What is your citizenship, then? You are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven and independent soldiers of that Kingdom. You must resolve to take the difficult way; have pride and authority as the unique, historical independence army, fighting for the independence of the Kingdom of Heaven.</p>
|
||||
<p>George Washington actually betrayed his mother country, England. If the Revolutionary Army had been defeated, he would have been condemned as a traitor; surely he would have been dragged to London and beheaded. Likewise, Satan is calling me a betrayer of his principality; I am a traitor to his sovereignty. He is telling me, “You are taking away my people and property.” This is similar to what the Queen of England felt about George Washington.</p>
|
||||
<p>Some of your parents believe that Reverend Moon is evil and that I am stealing their children from them. Consider the fact that God’s providence called for America’s independence. George Washington was God’s chosen champion, fulfilling a sacred duty. The independence of America was not the work of George Washington; it was God’s work. Washington was God’s instrument, like a messiah restoring sovereignty back to God.</p>
|
||||
<p>Historically, American independence was similar to our mission today, but on a smaller scale. People joined George Washington’s army because they believed in the cause and entrusted their lives to him. Among the descendants of those first Americans, God is summoning His independence army today. My position is like that of George Washington; I am asking people to join with me and restore a nation and world under God. That is our battle cry.</p>
|
||||
<p>Satan is accusing us of being traitors but from the Heavenly point of view, this is the most significant and sacred war that God has ever waged. As the heavenly soldiers of independence, your weapons are not rifles and swords but truth and love. God gave you those weapons with which to conquer and win the world. Truth is like a sword and love is like an atomic bomb. An atomic bomb sets off a chain reaction that creates enormous power; likewise, true love will create a chain reaction of goodness, expanding and multiplying. An atomic bomb is so powerful, it wipes out everything in its path: by the same token, true love can wipe out all the opposition and cleanse all corruption.</p>
|
||||
<p>Reverend Moon has come to work in the worst possible place in America: New York. It is the most famous. but also the worst place. Therefore, I established our headquarters in New York and launched the Home Church crusade there. This tactic is like the Inchon landing, in the middle of the enemy camp. Do you want to fight an intense battle or a mediocre one? As the commanding general of Home Church, I must be the most tireless and courageous soldier, pushing everybody forward for the sake of the one, Heavenly sovereignty of God.</p>
|
||||
<p>The Unification Church is truly a great movement; it is the unique beacon of hope in the sight of God. Communism will never conquer the world; but Godism, one sovereignty under God, will prevail over all the world. “One nation under God” was a wonderful slogan at the time of American independence. However, today our slogan is “One world under God,” a leap forward. America was supposed to be a spearhead for one world under God, but at the moment this country is the worst enemy to that goal. America must decline, then, because she is not following God. Therefore, American Moonies have the greatest commission to turn this nation from its atheistic attitude toward the concept of one world under God.</p>
|
||||
<p>Communism is proclaiming, “One world under communism and Karl Marx.” Can you permit that to happen? Should Africans, Koreans, or Americans be standing on the front line in this battle? Americans should be the ones and that is the reason I came to this nation. I never came because of American skyscrapers, her money, or her technology. I came here because Americans must spearhead this battle for one world under God. I came here to teach the new philosophy to awaken America, to point her toward the new goal. Is that evil? You must rally around me and form that new independence movement.</p>
|
||||
<p>Until this time in history, all independence movements were only for the sake of small groups or nations, but this movement is working for no national sovereignty, only God’s sovereignty. Therefore all five races of man, all colors of skin-white, yellow, black-have come together and are marching forward as one family.</p>
|
||||
<p>Which major race is marching forward now, at the head of the line? I foresee many Africans and Latin Americans joining the Unification Church, far surpassing the white people. If I had a satanic mind I might say, “Let’s just get rid of white people; they have done so much evil and committed so many crimes in the past. We don’t need them in the future world.” On the contrary, I came to the leading white nation, the U. S. A. Because of this historical fact. once the American people are awakened to the new ideology they will be the first to truly appreciate it. They will bow their heads in humble apology, asking to compensate for past evils by serving others. American people will not be saved by arrogance but by humility and service for others.</p>
|
||||
<p>Every Sunday morning you have been saying the Pledge, containing the words, “We are proud of the one sovereignty.” Although you have been saying the words, you have never taken them seriously; that is the problem. We are the final, ultimate independence army. There has never been in history an army like ours. We are fighting the unique, fundamental battle. Once we win this battle, there shall be no more war.</p>
|
||||
<p>Remind your body that it was made to participate in this volunteer movement for the Kingdom of Heaven. Tell your body, “Be strong. The time has come now for us to wage the battle.” You must be activated for the purpose of Heaven. All your five senses and all your organs must be immune to satanic influence. We must change the satanic environment instead of being changed by it.</p>
|
||||
<p>Although we may have children, we have no country in which to register them as citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. You should desire to set up that territory of Heaven before you have children. Every minute of the day we must be determined to winning this battle for God’s sovereignty. You are candidates with reservations for the Kingdom of Heaven, but you are not yet registered as citizens. At this time in spirit world the Unification Church is like a paradise, still waiting for the opening of the Kingdom of Heaven. By the same token, we have not yet reached the goal of the Kingdom on the earth. We are moving to that point at this time; therefore, we are at the level of Paradise soldiers. Do you want to remain at that level? We must be committed to marching forward in this battle.</p>
|
||||
<p>I have another court battle to wage, but I will never lose the dignity of Heaven. The desires of God and all of spirit world are in harmony with us. We are privileged to be participating in this most glorious crusade.</p>
|
||||
<p>It doesn’t matter what specific activities you may be doing, whether you are selling flowers or sweeping floors in your home church area. Realize that you are working in order to bring about the establishment of the Heavenly Kingdom on earth. You can think, “As a volunteer soldier, I am selling these flowers to support the independence movement. I am not ashamed.” If you feel ashamed to be selling flowers for the sake of the independence army of Heaven, what is the meaning of dignity? How can you be ashamed?</p>
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||||
<p>In our army, there are no ranks or classes. We all have the same, sole purpose: the achievement of God’s independence. Wives should not worry about whether or not your husbands have college degrees or not. You need only worry about whether your husband is fulfilling his duty as a true independence soldier.</p>
|
||||
<p>God has declared an emergency at this time in history. Perhaps you have seen that movie, “The Guns of Navaronne.” The members of that task force were totally determined and disciplined to achieve their goal. We must be more disciplined than they.</p>
|
||||
<p>Because you are the independence soldiers for the establishment of God’s sovereignty, if you fail this mission here on earth, you will be unable to lift up your face when you go to spirit world. That is why I am so serious, every moment of the day. When the Washington Monument Rally was over, I immediately set the next goal: the Moscow Rally. I would like to take the independence movement to Red Square and hold the greatest rally of all there. How much joy that would bring to God! You must be bold and strong.</p>
|
||||
<p>In the Pledge, we say that we are proud of one sovereignty, and then one people. We must help the poor and suffering people of the world. The Japanese members have been helping the American movement, rather than thinking of themselves. The U.S. has the responsibility of helping the rest of the world. Americans may love their nation, but God’s people must love this nation even more. America is more than just one nation; it is a microcosm of the world and therefore represents all the nations of the world. I am very aware of the fact that Korea is a very needy nation. If our movement invested all our activities. wealth, and energy in Korea, it could be instantly improved and the people there would accept me better. But because America represents the world, I am dedicating our movement at this time to help this country.</p>
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||||
<p>You American people should love this country in the position of independence soldiers of Heaven. You should love this nation and all others more than their countrymen love them because they belong to God. America could never decline if Americans were giving that kind of love to the world. All around the world at this time. people are crying, “Yankee, go home,” because America has become a selfish nation. However, once they see America giving unselfishly for the world, they will start welcoming Americans.</p>
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||||
<p>Is it a bad thing that Reverend Moon has come to this country to educate you Americans how to become great. to make America great? We raise money here in America and then spend it for the sake of the world. Is that bad’.’ God welcomes such a thing. America’s hope lies in serving the world. People today are becoming involved in such things as drugs. free sex, and homosexuality. Is that for the sake of the world? We Moonies don’t take drugs, smoke, drink. etc. What do we devote our energies to ? To serving the world. We are doing this because that is what Satan hates the most. Satan does not want to allow this to happen, because these things will cause his kingdom to crumble. However, God’s Kingdom will spread and grow. Therefore, the more people follow the teachings of Reverend Moon, the greater the joy of God.</p>
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<p>The third phrase of part Five says, “We are proud of the one land.” Who was the originator of national boundaries? It was Satan.</p>
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||||
<p>The American immigration department is one of the toughest in the world. What if they started a new requirement for people coming into this country? Suppose they required each new immigrant to complete the 120-day workshop in Divine Principle. Think of the benefit this would bring to this country. Communism would be no problem. Within a matter of years, the whole nation would be restored. Once everyone was living according to Divine Principle, do you think America would need immigration offices? No, they could welcome every citizen of God’s world.</p>
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<p>That would begin a movement for all the national boundaries of the world to be abolished. Certainly the free world would welcome that. Ultimately. the result would be one world under God. Once a Divine Principle person becomes commissioner of immigration, or Secretary of State, such a thing could happen in this country without too much difficulty. What is wrong with such a thing, which would benefit the entire world?</p>
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<p>By then, we would not need to do fundraising. Every citizen would contribute to the Heavenly Kingdom by paying their taxes. In the present, everybody tries to dodge taxes in any way possible, but when the ideal world comes, all Divine Principle people will want to pay, even more than is requested. Satan certainly hates to see people giving more than is required for the sake of Heaven.</p>
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<p>Right now in Latin America. the Unification movement is working hard to confront communism and fight immorality. If North America refuses to listen to us, we will work for 21 years in Latin America. the way Jacob worked in Haran to eventually win unity with Esau. After we win the victory in South America. we can return to North America. bearing many gifts and in that way, we shall win the victory here If that is the fastest route, we should not continue to spend time here but should all go to South America.</p>
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<p>What if all the Moonies moved out of the U.S.? It would become such a boring place! Americans would not have anything of interest and they would long to have the Moonies hack. They might ask me to send some Moonies back: maybe they would even make a new immigration law giving tree passes to all Moonies.</p>
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<p>Regardless of what the world is saying. you must he determined to continue to go forward. Are <em>YOU</em> proud to he a Moonie?</p>
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<p>We are proud of the one land. Korean members are asking me to spend some money for Korea, since I am a Korean. American members are saying. “Please spend the money here; this is the best place.” However. the money is being spent for the sake of the world, wherever it will bring the best result in bringing the entire world back to God.</p>
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<p>We are proud of the one sovereignty, one people, one land. and one language and culture. When I go to South America, I will not feel that I am visiting a “foreign country.” I am at home wherever I go. When I go to South America, the unthinking person will say. “I want to go to South America, too.” However, the clever person will say, “I will go to Africa while Father is in South America because he will be coming to Africa next.” What would be your response if I asked everybody to go to Africa tomorrow. while I go to South America? By working hard in Africa, you would be able to restore a nation much easier than by continuing to work here in America.</p>
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<p>Have you ever before realized the exciting contents of our Pledge? When Sunday comes, do you get bored by the idea of saying Pledge, or do you say, “I wish Sunday would come every day.” Perhaps you would like to say it every hour? I know you rascals, though! You are always thinking Sunday morning comes around too quickly!</p>
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<p>God is fond of Moonies because we have such exciting contents to our lives. He never looks at people from an external viewpoint; He is always looking at your mind and your heart and taking His delight through that. You must pledge to God. “No matter how difficult it becomes, I will never let You down. I will make one sovereignty, one land, one people.” There is no better prayer than the contents of our Pledge. If you seriously recite the contents of the Pledge and live with them all the time. God will stay very close to you. Therefore, be strong and bold.</p>
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<p>Consider how small-minded you have been sometimes and what ridiculous things you have thought about. You can never enter the Kingdom of Heaven as simply a citizen of the United States; you must be a citizen of the world and the cosmos. By living and serving others for the sake of the world, you shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven.</p>
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<p>If you live in an expedient, fun-seeking way, you will never have a place to settle once you die and go to spirit world. However, if you are a true Moonie. Living for the goal of loving the world and emulating the True Parents, nothing will be wasted in your life. When you are close to God and the True Parents, you must think the same things as they.</p>
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<p>When husbands and wives embrace each other. are you only looking forward to a small goal. such as your own apartment? How wide is your world? Let the world be your apartment. Even if you have to dress and eat like a beggar. when you are working for the sake of Heaven. you are living a dramatic life. Maybe you will be so poor you can only afford to eat pretzels from street vendors. The word “pretzel” sounds like “blessing,” so when you eat pretzels under such circumstances, you will feel you are receiving a blessing. I have eaten the simplest of barley meals and enjoyed them.</p>
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<p>I always felt I was going to Heaven, even when I was on the way to prison. When I was being escorted to the prison in North Korea, I raised my handcuffed hands above my head to wave to my followers and I felt no shame at all. I knew I was still on my way to Heaven. In my mind, I can still hear the sound of those handcuffs clanging against each other. Even then, I knew that many movies would be made in the future about that time and young people would be inspired by that sound.</p>
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<p>Jails in America, compared to those in North Korea, are like first-class hotels. In totalitarian regimes, jails are slow-killing death chambers. Many lice live in the seams of your clothing; when you press your thumbnail along the seams, it turns red from your blood, which the lice have been sucking. However, each of those lice represents a medal of honor in the Kingdom of Heaven.</p>
|
||||
<p>Nobody else can compete with me because nobody else thinks the way I do. Any normal person would collapse and eventually die in such a prison as in North Korea, but I survived.</p>
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||||
<p>Next in the Pledge we say, “I am proud of the one language and culture centered upon God.” Many American people think such an ideal is virtually impossible. People all over the world are trying to learn English, so maybe you American members think we should say, “I am proud of the one English language and culture centered upon God”? But what is the mother tongue of the Heavenly Kingdom? The mother tongue should be the language of the True Parents.</p>
|
||||
<p>Are there many True Parents in the world today? Once the world receives the one. central True Parents, many branches of them will spring up. Those branches will be connected, not all separated and different. When the wind blows through a tree, all the leaves and branches sway in the same direction. A culture is like the wind, like the direction of a given country.</p>
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||||
<p>God happens to be working through Korea. so we consider Korea the fatherland of our faith. During its 5,000 years of history, Korea was invaded 931 times. Yet Korea was never totally destroyed; it always continued as a distinct entity. Korea originally was a gigantic empire, including parts of mainland China. It has continued to shrink because it never invaded any other country and has always been in the position to defend itself from attackers. Korea lost territory each time it was invaded and moved east, eventually to occupy the current Korean peninsula.</p>
|
||||
<p>The Korean people suffered incredible heartbreak, much bloodshed, and made great sacrifices. Because of the foreign invasions. Korean people have shed more blood than any other race, yet Koreans never sought revenge: they continually forgave their invaders.</p>
|
||||
<p>Korean people were very bold and strong whenever they were attacked. The Mongolian hero, Genghis Khan, built up a gigantic empire and, according to history. he was never defeated except on one occasion, when he attacked the Korean people.</p>
|
||||
<p>Korea was primarily conceived for a special dispensational mission. From the beginning of their history, Korean people worshipped God. For that reason, Koreans are peace-loving and, at the same time, brave and independent in spirit. That is evident in the Korean leaders of our church in America! They have a very stubborn spirit and they never give in. Ten Korean leaders may have ten different opinions and none of them will give in! There is only one person who can control them-me! They are very obedient and loyal to me. so whenever I make a decision they follow with no reservation.</p>
|
||||
<p>Koreans are everywhere and have become the center of controversy in many places. In the markets of New York City, they own so many vegetable and fruit stands that people think they are trying to take over! According to U.S. government statistics, Koreans have the smallest ratio of recipients of welfare among all the ethnic groups. The basic spirit of Koreans is to want to help others rather than to be helped. It is a great shame to Koreans to have to become a burden to others. This is the cultural background from which Reverend Moon arose. It is a natural kind of background for such a person as me, don’t you think?</p>
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||||
<p>Nothing happens as the result of pure accident. including the reason why I was born in Korea. Another quality of Korean people is their absolute messianic fervor. Many revelations have heralded the coming of the messiah to Korea. I am not saying these things in order to propagandize for Korea. Its history is filled with stories of evil men plotting against good and innocent men. Korea has been an Abel-type nation tormented by Cain-type countries. Within the country as well, Cain-type people have always tormented Abel-type people. This is a persistent theme in Korean history. However, the good people always depended upon God.</p>
|
||||
<p>According to the law of indemnity, Korea was the most appropriate nation to further the providence and play a central role in human history. From that historical background. Reverend Moon’s spiritual ideology will spread to the entire world. This is not just my own personal, individual ideology. God gave His revelation through Reverend Moon. who must spread it clearly as God’s revelation.</p>
|
||||
<p>For thousands of years, Korean history has traveled through a labyrinth, yet it has always been heading toward a distinct goal. Because Korea served as an Abel nation, it has suffered throughout history. Now the Korean peninsula is surrounded by major world powers: China, that gigantic country of over one billion people; North Korea; Soviet Russia which borders close to the Korean peninsula; and Japan. The communists are trying to “unify” Korea by force, but the South Korean people do not want any part of that. The Unification Church, which has emerged from this land, will bring together not only North and South Korea but eventually the entire world. That is our claim.</p>
|
||||
<p>Which do you think is easier: creating a world language, or bringing people from all races of the world together and marrying them? Is it easy to bring young people from over 100 languages and cultures together and unite them under one parent, who matches and marries them? It is definitely easier to learn Korean than for black and white people to come together and accept each other as eternal spouses. I know you have been thinking that “one language and culture centered upon God” is impossible. Yet people are coming together in marriage without even knowing each other’s language, so unification is happening! Learning a language is just a technical matter!</p>
|
||||
<p>The original language of the Divine Principle is Korean, so if you want to become a true authority on the subject you must learn Korean. If one person studied the translated English version of Divine Principle for twenty years and another the original Korean version for only five years, who would be the true authority? If a dispute arose between them, the person who studied only the translation would have to bow to the understanding of the one who studied the original version.</p>
|
||||
<p>You are hearing my words through Col. Pak today. When I listen to his translation, I hear him leaving out many things; some things he doesn’t have time to say, some things he doesn’t remember, and all kinds of mistakes occur. Do you want to understand me directly in my own tongue or through an interpreter? You are children who have to have an interpreter to hear your father. even after all these years. You should be ashamed.</p>
|
||||
<p>You have not fulfilled your pledge of one language and culture centered on God. I came here and have been trying to learn English. in order to be able to communicate with you. If the parents are trying to learn your language, how much more effort should you be making to learn their language! I am certainly a lot older than you, yet you young people try to excuse yourselves because it is too difficult. Are you learning Korean now?</p>
|
||||
<p>What if, when you go to the Kingdom of Heaven. the only language is Korean? You would be in deep trouble! Later on. when the Unification Church becomes larger, the official language of our church will be Korean. All official conferences and meetings will be conducted in Korean. The Catholic Church has always used Latin for their official language.</p>
|
||||
<p>There have been untold difficulties in the world because of language differences. If the best encyclopedia was written in the Korean language, students around the world would surely learn Korean in order to gain the benefits of that encyclopedia. The encyclopedia of the Heavenly Kingdom will be compiled in Korean.</p>
|
||||
<p>There will be a permanent museum in the Kingdom of Heaven. Do you think the most prominent displays will be about the United States heroes, such as George Washington and Abraham Lincoln? Or perhaps they will show the accomplishments of Great Britain, or German technology? Or do you think the displays about the life of Reverend Moon and the members of the Unification Church, the soldiers of the independence army of Heaven, will be most precious? Your own faces are museum pieces. Do you want to be priceless museum pieces, or cheap ones? You must work at it if you want to be priceless. Certainly the entire spirit world will visit those museum displays. When the guidebook for the museum is written, which language would it be written in? True Parents’ language.</p>
|
||||
<p>Not learning Korean would be your eternal shame. Your ancestors will say to you, “You were on the earth at the same time as the True Parents, yet you didn’t even learn their language. Shame on you!”</p>
|
||||
<p>You spend a lot of time and money eating three meals a day and a lot of work goes into their preparation. You will probably eat tens of thousands of meals while you are on the earth. If you go to Heaven and proclaim, “I ate a hundred thousand meals on the earth,” nobody will even look at you. Such a thing will never be a source of pride. However, even though you may not eat so many meals, if you can say. “I learned Korean.” you will be regarded with great respect.</p>
|
||||
<p>I know many of you want to live in Korea but since it is such a small country. there isn’t room for all of you. Therefore, we would have to live in North Korea, as well. In that way, North and South Korea would be united, and then you could overflow into Manchuria and Red China. Soon we could make a UN resolution abolishing national boundaries. Don’t you think all the embassies would be glad to learn they no longer had to issue visas? Starting with everybody coming together centered on the Korean language, the movement to abolish national boundaries everywhere would automatically arise. When Kim 11 Sung in North Korea hears about this, he will tremble.</p>
|
||||
<p>Once we have one sovereignty, one people, and one land, it is most natural that we would have one language and culture centered on God.</p>
|
||||
<p>Next we say, “I am proud of becoming the child of the One True Parent.” Because we are all children of one Father, all the people of the world are our brothers. No one is our enemy; even the Russian people are the victims of communism and not our enemies.</p>
|
||||
<p>“I am proud of the family who is to inherit one tradition.” What is that tradition? It is the tradition of the parents. The purpose of creation is to build the Heavenly four-position foundation, the Heavenly family. Adam and Eve were the parents and God was the grandparents of their children. Three generations are necessary to make the four positions. God is the Origin, Adam and Eve are the product of His division, and the Union results in the children. The give and take between the horizontal and vertical elements makes the four positions strong. Within those relationships, we must learn how to love. Give and take is expressed in turning, circular motion.</p>
|
||||
<p>You are connected with your spouse, your parents and your children. Men are in the position of father, husband, and son. Women are mothers, wives, and daughters. When you love, you love your parents first, then your children, before you love your spouse. This is Heavenly law. Even in the secular world, when a couple gets divorced they often go back to their parents and they want to keep their children. Universal, natural law operates in people’s minds, moving their lives.</p>
|
||||
<p>The True Family tradition is the textbook of love. You are learning to apply that textbook to different levels, such as the society, nation, and world, based upon what you learn in the family. Contrary to the secular standard, we do not ignore the rest of the world and center only upon our families. We look at the family as a microcosm of the universe, so whatever we learn in the family we use as training and discipline for the way we must act in the society, nation and world.</p>
|
||||
<p>You should regard all elderly people as your grandparents, people of your own age as your brothers and sisters, and younger people as your children. In this way, you can relate to everyone. With the family as your center, you can reach out in any direction to any distance. The furthest extension of this circle is in Heaven; automatically you will be entitled to dwell in Heaven. There is no room for boundaries between people or separation based on races, religions, or cultures. There is never any war in such a concept.</p>
|
||||
<p>Because of the satanic element. we have not yet fulfilled this family tradition. We must expand the family tradition through sacrificial service, until we briny the entire world under God.</p>
|
||||
<p>Finally we say, “I am proud of being a laborer who is working to establish the one world of the heart.” through heart we shall fulfill the Heavenly ideal. We will tight anything that goes against that ideal, not with swords and rifles, but with these three weapons-the parent/child relationship, Heavenly tradition, and Heavenly heart. We must use these tools with our whole lives.</p>
|
||||
<p>The seven points of #5 of our Pledge are the things which Satan hates the most and what God loves the most. Therefore, these seven points are the battleground upon which God and Satan are fighting. You are at the center of this battle. You are learning to go beyond the family, all the way to the society, nation, world and cosmos; finally you will reach the Heart of God. We have to get rid of all traces of Satan in this world; only God’s vertical and horizontal lines will remain. Those individuals who are championing this great cause call themselves Moonies.</p>
|
||||
<p>From the Heart of God, we inherit the true tradition, gaining the true parent/child relationship; then we will fulfill the goal of one sovereignty, one people, one land, and one language and culture centered upon God. That is the Pledge we make every Sunday morning. When we make this Pledge, we are promising something to God and we must fulfill it.</p>
|
||||
<p>Today you have come to realize fully that the Pledge is not just a ritual of our movement. They are words we must live by and determine to fulfill, as the champions of God. They will become reality here in America and throughout the world. Those who are making this promise to God, raise your hands and say Amen!</p>
|
||||
<p>God bless you.</p>
|
||||
63
content/speeches/1982/public-life.md
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63
content/speeches/1982/public-life.md
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|
|
@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
title: "PUBLIC LIFE"
|
||||
type: "speech"
|
||||
published: "2018-06-22T06:07:53+01:00"
|
||||
updated: "2018-06-22T06:07:53+01:00"
|
||||
source: "/blog/2018/06/22/public-life.html"
|
||||
speechYear: "1982"
|
||||
categories:
|
||||
- "Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982"
|
||||
tags: []
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
<h2 align="CENTER">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
|
||||
<h3 align="CENTER">April 1, 1982<br />
|
||||
Belvedere<br />
|
||||
Translator – Bo Hi Pak</h3>
|
||||
<p>It is very true that the thoughts of people are usually self-centered. From that point of view, people think about their parents, brothers and sisters, nation and the world. Everyone wants to have all his circumstances centered upon himself. If that is the case, how can people relate to one another?</p>
|
||||
<p>Let us take another perspective. Suppose you are working for a certain company. If you do not contribute to the welfare of that company, sooner or later you will probably be fired. The same is true for school life. A person receives his education at school, but that person is also considered a part of the school. The school is not a part of that person. Some people may wish the school existed solely for them, while others wish the nation existed solely for them, but that is not the way society works. The individual must become a contributing part of that nation. In the same way, you are a part of the world; the world does not exist solely for you.</p>
|
||||
<p>This particular principle also applies to the spirit world; and expanding one step further, God Himself exists within this principle. The principle of the universe says that each individual lives in relationship to all things and must be disciplined to become a part of the larger whole.</p>
|
||||
<p>Thinking more deeply, we have to ask, “How can I fit into this world, nation, and society. and still be able to fulfill my own personal ideals and desires?” Everyone has the tendency to do whatever he wants, and to see events occur exactly the way he likes them, but that seldom happens. Once your thinking is totally self-centered, you will find that you will be expelled wherever you go. The school, the factory and the nation will all reject a person with such thinking. Even the spirit world and God will reject such thinking.</p>
|
||||
<p>Think about your own spouse or fiancé. Although he or she feels very close to you, if you try to do everything centered upon yourself, the relationship will become strained. There must be some common ground toward which you can both dedicate yourselves. When you think about all these things. you must conclude that promoting yourself above everything else is a very, very foolish thing to do.</p>
|
||||
<p>Let us consider what freedom is. Does having freedom mean that you can do everything only according to your own desire? When speaking of freedom, there is one golden, iron-clad rule that can be set: freedom can exist only within the framework of consideration for the freedom of all. Only upon such a public foundation can freedom truly flourish. The individual must recognize the larger entity before himself. You might say, .’What kind of freedom is that? I don’t like it.” But if you don’t honor that standard, your freedom will only bring you destruction, chaos and confusion. Today a very mistaken concept of freedom prevails in this society. Living in a free country doesn’t mean that people can do whatever feels good. or follow their every impulse. However, many people have this attitude.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you became a member of the Unification Church, you joined a new kind of disciplined environment which has certain rules and regulations. In order to enjoy true freedom, you have to see your personal desires and ambitions in a new light. You are learning to direct yourself according to a certain discipline.</p>
|
||||
<p>Who is Rev. Moon and what is he doing? The court asked me to come and be present. Do I have freedom, then, not to report? No, now Reverend Moon has the freedom to be persecuted. Is that the kind of freedom I desire? No, it is painful and bitter many times, but I stand up to all these experiences, conquering them in order to acquire true freedom, true joy, and true fulfillment. Whenever there is a conflict between two elements, the more public element will ultimately prevail, be victorious, and move on. The universal principle is such that the one who has the most public standard will be triumphant. The one with the less public standard will diminish.</p>
|
||||
<p>After this sermon today I am going to the court. Many Unification Church members are very solemn and gloomy, thinking that this is a terrible day, but they should not think that way. You should feel that this is a confrontation in which the more public standard will overcome. I have never been afraid of court battles, and this is not the first time I have faced such a thing Throughout my life, I have endured incredible injustices, but each time I have been confronted in public arenas I have prevailed. This will be no exception.</p>
|
||||
<p>How public are we in the Unification Church? Let’s grade our public standard. What position does the Unification Church stand in: top, bottom, or middle? The important thing is whether God says we are the top, and the spirit world must agree. That is the true recognition. If you are really convinced that our public stand is the highest possible one, then hold on to your commitment and persevere. For whose sake should you do that? It’s not just for your sake, but for the well-being of the public. If you are truly moving forward unselfishly for the attainment of that public goal, God will always be following you. As soon as you have won the battle, God will step forward and put the victory flag in front of you.</p>
|
||||
<p>If you are in competition with other nationalities and you win the contest, the American flag will be brought forward as a symbol of your national honor. With that victory you can truly rejoice and then enjoy freedom. At such a time celebrating in an outburst of emotion could be tolerated. If you accidentally knocked someone over as you were jumping around, do you think that person would automatically take you to court? Wherever you move in your country. you shall be praised and glorified because you have won a victory for the nation.</p>
|
||||
<p>As soon as you take even one tiny step beyond the national sphere into a higher realm of living for the world, you will be judged by that higher standard. Our goal and public standard is to be number one in living for the highest purpose. In the Olympic games there are many kinds of competitions, but the contest which has the most prestige is certainly the marathon race. It is the supreme test of the human spirit and body; nothing else requires more endurance and strength. Once a person wins the gold medal for the marathon, he is admired by everyone else.</p>
|
||||
<p>There is also a supreme gold medal that is sought after in this universe. In the competition of living the highest public life everyone would like to win the gold medal. Since the goal is high, an incredible amount of hardship must be overcome to achieve it. However, sometimes people cheat in order to try to win in an easy way. Even though a person ran 26 miles in a marathon if he were to cheat by riding piggyback for just ten meters, he would lose the honor of winning. Cheating for just one meter would ruin the value of victory. Even if someone rode piggyback for five meters, then got off and retreated ten meters and started running again, such a thing could not be accepted because the rules of the race were violated. In other words, because the desire to cheat was there, the honor was lost. You cannot violate the rules of the race or the rules of the universe and be a winner.</p>
|
||||
<p>Our goal of living in the Unification Church is to comfort the Heart of God and to create the world of the Heart of God. Can we go an easy way to reach that goal, or randomly do whatever we want to do? Rev. Moon is the coach in our marathon race toward that goal. Should he give the runners an easy training schedule, or should he push them every minute of the day so that they can accomplish the goal? Which kind of coach is best?</p>
|
||||
<p>The Unification Church is under a tough coach, that’s for sure! After you have received two or three years’ discipline from this coach, you cannot help but change. People recognize these changes. They see that under Rev. Moon’s tough coaching you become very charming and attractive, and they say, “I wish I could have a son-in-law like that!” People say all kinds of bad things about “Moonies” until they actually meet one of you. First they may think that you are the only good one; but then they meet another one, then another, and another, one after another! When they realize that all of you are such good people, they completely change their opinion.</p>
|
||||
<p>If the people of the world feel very attracted to you, and even God likes you, then what other goal can we have? We can become the hope of the world, as well as the hope of God. Do you choose to live this public way of life, or do you just want to live according to your own whims? The person who only lives according to his own selfish desires is simply digging his own grave.</p>
|
||||
<p>True victory can only be attained by a person with a public heart doing public deeds. The word “public” is synonymous with ‘.unselfish.” We have come to understand why we have to pursue this public way of life, even under persecution. People just don’t understand why there are still thousands of young people following me even though I have been brought to court by the U. S. government. In our public path, this court proceeding is just one more obstacle we have to overcome.</p>
|
||||
<p>In order to overcome an obstacle you must be able to jump high to go over it. Can you determine that you can follow my example, living your entire life for the sake of righteousness and the public value, always overcoming the obstacles and attacks against you?</p>
|
||||
<p>Sometimes you start to think more pragmatically, looking for easier ways to dodge difficulty. You might look at it another way, thinking that a little while later you will try to achieve the ultimate goal, but for now you will just do anything you want to do. I thought about those shortcuts a long time ago and I came to the conclusion that there is no easy way out. We must each think, “I was born for the public purpose, so I am going to walk the public path every inch of the way.”</p>
|
||||
<p>Do you think that my parents decided that they had to have a son and refused to give birth to a daughter? Can a woman pick in advance the day her child will be born? Is it possible for a child to determine what his character will be? Can a child dictate the love of his parents? No, the love of his parents is almost beyond his control. It is not at your will that you are born, but someone else’s will. You were conceived through uncontrollable conditions, your parents’ love. and you were shaped by your environment as you grew. You cannot control the feelings between you and your fiancé either. Some mysterious power is definitely working in our lives. In your minds you may have a certain ideal for your spouse, but in many cases they have turned out to be very different from your image!</p>
|
||||
<p>Maybe you would rather look like a certain movie star, but you cannot shape your own features. You have to recognize that behind each of us is something larger than ourselves. Where did this brother here get the material to grow from a six-pound baby to a 200-pound man? He is indebted to nature, which freely offered nourishment to him. Suppose nature decided to reclaim all the material that it has loaned out to mankind!</p>
|
||||
<p>Is the air you breathe your own possession? Does the sunlight belong to you, or the food you eat? Even your sexual parts came from nature. Nothing really belongs to you; you are only a custodian of these things while they are on loan to you. From the very moment that you were born, nothing was yours. As you grew you became more and more indebted to your parents. to nature, your society, your nation, and so forth.</p>
|
||||
<p>Your vegetables will have some opinion about whether or not you are worthy of eating them. In that respect we are all under public scrutiny. In a publicly oriented universe, how dangerous it is to live only for oneself; it is like sitting on a bomb while striking matches! Of course, you are free to light matches. but the public would indignantly say that you are a saboteur of the public good.</p>
|
||||
<p>If a selfish person is sitting on a chair. that chair will even have the urge to kick him off! If he stubbornly believes that the chair is his personal property, all the other things around him will seethe inside and feel that he doesn’t deserve to sit on that chair. A selfish attitude is totally abhorrent to nature. In looking back on your life with all this in mind. you could reasonably feel accused by the things around you for living selfishly in the past. But you can tell them that now you want to change and you want to live a public life .</p>
|
||||
<p>Within the Unification Church. the attitudes and standards of our members vary a great deal. There are those whose standards could be compared with hell. and those whose standard could be compared with heaven, from a public point of view.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you are growing up you don’t know what kind of a person you will marry. Some American brothers would like Korean fiancees, but before they joined the Church they never thought about Korean women, or even about Korea. In the same period that you were born in the West, a girl was born on the mountainside of Korea. Would you ever have imagined marrying her? This would have been totally beyond your way of thinking. White men have deep-set eyes, sharp noses, and are often tall. On the other hand. a Korean girl is short, with a flat nose and thin, slanted eyes. It is an amazing thing that you would like a Korean fiancee, in spite of the fact that your parents may not have desired it or your old friends might not like it. Since you have met the church, however, you have a new way of thinking and have become like a new person. You are now living for a different goal and purpose, and because of this you would like to be married to a person of another race. That desire is born of the urge to live a more public life. When men and women want to marry someone of a different race or culture for the sake of international unity, they have a wonderful public standard.</p>
|
||||
<p>The motivation behind the teaching you have received from Reverend Moon is that of seeking a greater and more public way of life. With this motivation, even if your parents and society oppose you. you have the strength to continue this way of life. From the public point of view, no one can deny that Rev. Moon has given his heart, soul and resources for the sake of this country, which is so central to God’s providence at this time. My public position has been that America is the center of the free world; therefore, it is necessary that other parts of the world support America at this time.</p>
|
||||
<p>History shall be the real judge of what happens today and in the next several weeks. Regardless of what is happening at the present moment, the time will come when a more publicly-minded group of Americans will praise and honor Reverend Moon for what he has been doing. No matter what, we are walking the road of victory every day. We must be strong and bold, because we have nothing to be ashamed of.</p>
|
||||
<p>No one has absolute freedom in his life. We do not decide how long we will live. Everyone lives under this universal rule. whether or not he is great and influential. We never know the moment of our death. so each person should be prepared by living according to the most public standard.</p>
|
||||
<p>You family is a higher public level than you as an individual; the society is higher than your family; the nation is higher still; the world is more public than your nation; God is more public than the world, and God’s Heart is the ultimate realm of public-mindedness. Why is the Heart of God the highest standard of public life? There is no other heart or mind that can embrace the entire universe with love.</p>
|
||||
<p>Someone may ask why he can’t just jump in one leap to God’s Heart, that highest standard of public life. But that is an impossible short cut. A giant oak tree started many years ago as a tiny acorn, which grew into a small shoot, then a sapling. Could the sapling decide that it would become a big tree overnight? Of course not. When the tree was young, it was vulnerable to many dangers such as drought; and when it became big, it was exposed to other sorts of dangers, such as winds and lightning. But the tree had to follow the rules of nature in order to become fully grown. In the same sense, the Unification Church has certain rules or steps for an individual to follow in his life. The individual must learn to live for the sake of his family; the family exists for the sake of society; society exists for the sake of the nation; the nation for the sake of the world; the world for the universe, including the spirit world; and all of these exist for the sake of God and God’s Heart.</p>
|
||||
<p>Once the individual has reached that highest public level, he can return to himself in the greatest fulfillment. Then he can automatically recognize that everything is related to him, and feel a part of the universe without even trying. Such a person is automatically at the central point of the universe, without even desiring such a position, because the universe itself will push him into that position.</p>
|
||||
<p>With this kind of existence, you have no contradiction or conflict, but only harmony with your environment. In such a world you can truly say you are free and can enjoy eternal freedom. That is the ultimate goal of our lives. At such a time, you will come to the realization that you are truly the center of the universe, but not because you have promoted yourself into that position. The universe will push you into that position because it will be proper for you to be there.</p>
|
||||
<p>Within the minds of people there is a glimmer of understanding that we were destined for that central position in the universe, yet too often people try to obtain it by denying every other element in the environment. They want to take the shortest path to their goal, trying to gain instant satisfaction. It would be nice if someone could just press a button and automatically see a harmonious, peaceful world, but that is not possible. I started my path sixty years ago and have carried on the struggle all of my life. Even today the struggle and the journey are not complete. I knew that every step along the path would bring me closer to the goal. This is the reason why you have followed me. Certainly there are greater speakers and more comfortable churches, but you have given up all these fine things in order to listen to an Oriental man who has to use an interpreter. It is because you can discover here the most public life.</p>
|
||||
<p>You do all kinds of hard work in the Unification Church, yet you feel peace. joy and fulfillment here. I almost never pat you on the back or comfort you, and there are thousands of members who have never even seen me in person. Why do they stay? Their minds can detect what is right and wrong, and they have been able to find the greatest public life through Reverend Moon’s teaching and standard of heart. The truth is actually rather simple, but we have been living in such a chaotic world that it has been difficult for anyone to clarify and explain the truth in a simple way.</p>
|
||||
<p>The value of a person is not determined by the kind of work he does. Your motivation, thinking and your heart are what determine your value. When your thoughts are 100% for the public purpose, no door will be closed to you. Wouldn’t you want to leave the door to your home open if you knew I was coming to visit? Even a newly-married couple would want to open their home to the person with the most public standard.</p>
|
||||
<p>Suppose the President of the United States has an appointment to come to your home. What makes it such an honor? The President is not coming as a private individual, but as the head of the nation, in the most public position in the country; that is why it is a great honor for him to visit. The President is in a very public position, but within God’s universe, there is an even greater public position. The person who lives for the highest public purpose in God’s point of view would certainly be welcomed by everyone in the universe. In this respect, there is no difference between white, black or yellow; everyone, regardless of his race, will feel honored to receive a visit from such a public person. Even hell and heaven are the same in the sense that they will open their doors and wait for him. The most public person can go anywhere. even if there are normally locks and bolts on the doors.</p>
|
||||
<p>Is the US Supreme Court the highest, most ultimate court? No, there is another historical, super Supreme Court in heaven, where God Himself presides. In that Court God and history have judged that Reverend Moon is not only innocent, he is also honorable. That is the ultimate victory, and it has already been won. The verdict has already been reached about what kind of public life and standard Rev. Moon has lived.</p>
|
||||
<p>Most people think courts are found only on earth, but I know that there is a Supreme Court of Heaven. Everyone on earth must face that Supreme Court of Heaven someday. I have faced it during my lifetime, but most people face it only after they die. When someone passes that court’s judgment while he is living, he has already passed beyond death. Don’t you want to be judged “not guilty” by God’s Supreme Court while you are living here on earth? This is most dramatic.</p>
|
||||
<p>I have no fear; the road of righteousness is always a road for the bold and strong. Do you think it is easy to pass the judgment of God’s Supreme Court while you are living on earth? I want to see you judged as honorable, and that is why I send you to Africa and South America, to primitive jungles, to suffer for the public purpose with the most public minds. In this respect our way of life and our value system are supreme; nothing can surpass them.</p>
|
||||
<p>Normally, when someone has to go to court he feels very bad; certainly he doesn’t have a wonderful morning service beforehand! When the indictment against me was handed down, I was out of the country; I didn’t have to return, but I immediately flew back to face the charges. My desire is to allow true justice to prevail; therefore, I cannot evade national-level laws. I have to go over all obstacles and therefore I confronted these charges face-to-face. Throughout history, righteous persons have gone the same way. I never feel lonely; all the righteous people in history who have suffered and been persecuted are with me today and every day.</p>
|
||||
<p>Never make excuses for yourself, no matter what. Walk the path of righteousness with your chin held high; be bold and strong. Even if I should no longer be among you, today’s sermon should be a guide for the rest of your life. The spirit of this teaching will live forever, even if Rev. Moon is no longer here. My spirit will remain in America, no matter what, to guide this nation in the path of righteousness. The time will come when righteous people of America will take this path and follow the example of my teaching. Then America will once again be moving in the right direction. I do not focus on those Americans who are opposing me at the present time. I am thinking of those righteous Americans of the future who will follow my path. This is the way I look at America, and there is no doubt that such a thing will happen. My prayer today is for my accusers, that their lives may not become miserable because of the judgment of history. I ask God to forgive them.</p>
|
||||
<p>You will never find such an ideology from a political or economic viewpoint. It is only within the true religious life that such a superior ideology can exist. The true religion is the most righteous and strong. We are standing in that righteous and strong position today with great pride. It doesn’t matter where I go, even to a courtroom, for the flag of righteousness shall be unfurled. The attention of God and the entire spirit world shall be directed to that position of righteousness.</p>
|
||||
<p>You may forget many things, but never forget this one point: we are destined to live a public way of life; we were born for this. Who will be the judge of whether you have lived for the public good? God will be the judge, and His verdict alone will stand throughout history. Each person is creating a public record of his entire life; and it is being recorded for judgment in that ultimate courtroom of Heaven.</p>
|
||||
<p>In that courtroom Satan will be your prosecutor; Jesus and I will be your defense lawyers and God will be your judge. Everyone will be called into that courtroom eventually. The public way of life is your preparation for the final judgment in God’s courtroom and the foundation upon which you will be found “not guilty” and an honorable citizen of the universe. Every deed you do in every moment of the day is recorded and will be judged in that final courtroom. The criterion will be whether or not you lived for the public purpose.</p>
|
||||
<p>Let us live the public way of life. I want to conclude my sermon today by saying that everyone of you who truly follows my teaching will be judged honorable; your public way of life will shine like a beacon of hope for the rest of mankind and for all generations to come. I want you to be those beacons of hope and light.</p>
|
||||
<p>God bless you. Amen.</p>
|
||||
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,140 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
title: "PURE WAY OF TRUTH AND PUBLIC RIGHTEOUSNESS"
|
||||
type: "speech"
|
||||
published: "2018-06-23T13:58:09+01:00"
|
||||
updated: "2018-06-23T13:58:09+01:00"
|
||||
source: "/blog/2018/06/23/pure-way-of-truth-and-public-righteousness.html"
|
||||
speechYear: "1982"
|
||||
categories:
|
||||
- "Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982"
|
||||
tags: []
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
<h2 align="CENTER">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
|
||||
<h3 align="CENTER">July 18, 1982<br />
|
||||
Belvedere<br />
|
||||
Translator – Bo Hi Pak</h3>
|
||||
<p>Whenever the truth is manifested in a pure way it is an example of public righteousness. The Chinese characters I am using for the title today have a profound meaning. They have a surface meaning and an internal, hidden meaning as well. The first letter is composed of two parts; the top part signifies the number 8. The number 8 according to Divine Principle is a very significant symbol of a new beginning and the completion of a cycle.</p>
|
||||
<p>The bottom part of the letter is a triangular shape. The number 3 is important according to Oriental philosophy and in God’s providence, as well. Only two points are needed to draw a line; however you need three points to create a circuit or begin a circular motion. In doing surface surveying, there must be three points in order to begin. A triangle in a vertical direction creates the shape of a mountain. The direction of up and down movement requires three points.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you throw a ball it hits the ground and bounces broadly then gradually it bounces closer and closer together until it stops. The opposite of that is the increase of energy in which the up and down motion gradually becomes broader and stronger. A nation, too, can be seen in this perspective. If some country is declining and nothing happens to stop it, it will reach its end. But if that country then is able to regather its energy, it can begin to move forward with greater vigor; it will begin to climb upward and to have new hope. In other words, if the citizens become united and determined to begin anew, there will soon come a point when that nation will start to bounce back toward prosperity.</p>
|
||||
<p>The Unification Church operates according to the same principle. Many people observing the church from the outside think that we must be declining, since we are now suffering a great deal of tribulation. However the court battles and difficulties we are experiencing are a preparation for a great leap forward toward new growth on our part. Externally it appears that the Unification Church is declining; but if the members are totally united internally and highly motivated and inspired, this will be the point when we will start to bounce back.</p>
|
||||
<p>Included within the Chinese character for “public” are the concepts of heaven and earth in harmony with mankind. The word “public” is used very freely in this country but you need to understand clearly what the word really means. The Chinese character representing “righteousness” includes a top portion signifying a lamb and the bottom portion signifying “oneself.” Together they mean that oneself should resemble the lamb. This is parallel with the philosophy of the Bible in which Jesus is referred to as a lamb. Certainly Jesus’ life was a life of total righteousness.</p>
|
||||
<p>The life of the lamb exists solely for the sake of its master; it does not have its own will but does whatever the master desires. The lamb is the most sacrificial animal since it gives every part of itself to be used, including its wool and its flesh; everything provides a service to the master. Thus the meaning of public righteousness, according to the internal meaning of the Chinese characters, includes a person dedicated to living a lamb-like, sacrificial way of life for the sake of heaven, earth and mankind.</p>
|
||||
<p>Within the Oriental way of thinking there are always dual reasons for something existing or happening, the obvious, external reason and the less apparent, internal reason. There is no concept within oriental thought of an entirely private individual who is independent from the whole. However there is such a concept in Western thinking, so individuals in the West can more easily feel they are totally free to do anything they feel like doing. They do not usually feel that they are bound into a relationship with the larger society.</p>
|
||||
<p>The individually oriented way of thinking produces a society which does not have a clear focus or cohesion. However in the Orient, the concept of a central person and the concept of the center of society is more natural. The only way Western societies have been able to unite and organize has been by law; through law, these societies have tried to maintain order and unity. But the Oriental societies are linked more by the underlying philosophy or way of thinking, not so much the law.</p>
|
||||
<p>Within Western society each individual can go in his own personal direction feeling that he is alone. However in the Orient people feel a greater burden of responsibility for the society at large in their own personal actions. That is one way to describe the differences between the two worlds. This is a simple but very important way to analyze the two cultures.</p>
|
||||
<p>Not only the universe and mankind, but also God is included within the concept of public righteousness and truth. What is the goal or purpose of public righteousness? It is to leave behind something better; to better the environment. This is a goal which everyone would like to achieve, including every individual, society, nation, and even God himself. Every being is striving toward something better than the present.</p>
|
||||
<p>In Western cultures people have the ambition to leave behind them a better name or reputation through their descendants. In order to leave behind a good name each person must fulfill his responsibilities in a meaningful way. When you want to leave behind something better, you cannot imitate others or take on their reputation but you must be an initiator and a creative person. How can that be done? With a sacrificial attitude, you can be a creative person of initiative for goodness.</p>
|
||||
<p>The goal of leaving behind something better than oneself can only be achieved by giving oneself sacrificially, like a lamb. Someone might think such a way will damage him and that he will only lose if he lives that way. However, look at the trees out on the lawn. Have you ever considered that they might get tired of wearing their green colors every day, without any variation? Can you imagine the tree asking, “Why can’t I wear a different color for a change, like red?” Perhaps for the sake of the tree alone, he would like to wear different colors besides green; however, it is for a larger purpose that he wears green every day.</p>
|
||||
<p>It is summertime, so today will be very hot. Imagine how you would feel if all the grass and trees were a bright, burning red color. It is a terrible notion! Or what if all the trees were multi-colored when you walked into Belvedere on a hot day? Suppose you were to turn all the green of nature into a yellow color. You might like it at first but within a short time you would be yearning for the green color again. The green of nature is designed for people; green is a comforting, peaceful color. The basic color of all nature is green; green is the harmonizing color for all existence.</p>
|
||||
<p>Likewise, green is a basic color within each human body. There is a harmony between man and nature. In order to complement the basic green of the earth, the sky and water are blue. With green as a background, God gave brilliant colors to the flowers, such as red, pink, yellow and so on.</p>
|
||||
<p>Once a year at autumn time God allows nature to turn different colors. Imagine if everything were always red, including the trees and grass; then a red flower would not even be noticeable. Because it is supported by its green background a red flower stands out and looks more beautiful. We cannot complain about the ways in which God created the harmony of the world.</p>
|
||||
<p>The trees are green for the sake of others, namely people. When you go out into nature to pray during the early morning, you can hear the birds singing beautifully. At night there are the sounds of an orchestra of insects. I sometimes think about why these creatures of nature are making this music while everybody else is sleeping. It is because they are fulfilling their role in achieving harmony with the universe. For the insects nighttime is the time of activity. If they come out during the day, they are eaten by birds and other animals.</p>
|
||||
<p>Once sundown comes the insects all come out and rejoice because it is their time. Sundown is like their dawn and they sing to celebrate. There is such a poetic beauty in the singing of the insects under the moonlight. God is the greatest romantic poet, since He is the author of all this beauty.</p>
|
||||
<p>The sun is truly the most important heavenly body to those of us on earth; without it we would not survive. Yet during broad daylight people almost never look up and give thanks to the sun for being there. However when the moon comes out at night, people frequently notice it and appreciate it even though its usefulness is much less than that of the sun.</p>
|
||||
<p>The moon has poetic stages during the month. At first it is just a tiny sliver and finally it becomes a full moon which disappears and becomes a new moon again. In Oriental philosophy, the sun is Nature’s father and the moon is Nature’s mother. Women reflect the moon’s nature; you like to change your appearance and show romantic beauty. You like to look in the mirror and figure out ways to make yourselves look more beautiful.</p>
|
||||
<p>Children within a family naturally are drawn toward their mother. They like to comb their mother’s hair and get close to her beauty. In the universe the sun represents the father, the moon represents mother and all the creatures of the earth are like the children. Within the small universe of a family, then, the father is in the sun’s position, the mother is in the moon’s and the children are in nature’s position. When they mingle in harmony there is great joy and beauty.</p>
|
||||
<p>Teenagers have a tendency to wish they were completely grown up. They want to quickly achieve the status of adulthood. However, when they try to move too fast toward that goal, they will be damaged. It is not just by movement and action that a person grows and blossoms. Young people must also cultivate their strength and endurance; they should not be restless all the time. By developing a more meditative and contemplative attitude, a person c an truly blossom at the appropriate time. When you experience suffering, if you can endure it and set your mind toward the future you will be victorious.</p>
|
||||
<p>What is righteousness? We could say that it is the effort to harmonize everything for the sake of beauty; it is not chastisement or division but harmonization. Don’t you want to leave behind you something better? What will be the central, most valuable thing you can leave behind? Loving harmonization is the most central value to leave behind you. Many things can be harmonized, but the harmony of love is the greatest. You can harmonize with words, with songs, with art and painting-but the most precious harmonizing is that of love.</p>
|
||||
<p>Transcendent of everything past, present and future, the value of love shall remain. Why is the harmonization of love the greatest of all? It is because everything is contained within love, including God himself and the whole universe. If you try to achieve harmony with your academic knowledge, you will have nothing more than the dry books. You cannot dance joyfully with a bunch of books. However when you are dancing with love, you never get tired; you will dance with your wife, your children, other people, even God himself. You will have everything. The insects at night have a beautiful orchestration; their music is that of love. The males and females sing together in their bass and soprano insect’s voices. The ear of a man is created to listen to the voice of a woman, more than another man’s. There is a harmony between the two voices since one is low and one is high. Their give and take creates a wave-like sound. The entire universe is moving in a wave, never according to a straight line. A wavelike motion is a sign of life; the absence of that is a sign of death.</p>
|
||||
<p>Harmony is the means of survival of the universe. A woman’s voice is naturally high and it needs the balance of the lower voice of a man. When a man is sitting quietly, he often produces a calming effect upon a woman, even if she is high-strung. When a husband and wife argue, the woman usually reacts very sharply. She might get very angry and just run out of the room; but a few minutes later she will cool off and come back. This is the way a woman’s mind works. I do not criticize you women for this; it is actually your privilege and it is also a beautiful aspect of you. Without it you lose some of the beauty of your character.</p>
|
||||
<p>Within a neighborhood, women normally visit with each other and are very interested in their surroundings while the men are usually more prone to be content within themselves. It is normal for women to talk freely and to have a lot of give and take with others; there is nothing wrong with that as long as it is done for the sake of others. Don’t criticize or hurt anybody. As long as you are doing things to benefit others, you are living properly. Give of yourself to help each situation; never exploit it. This is the way of achieving harmony.</p>
|
||||
<p>The best standard would be for the women to bring harmony within their neighborhoods and the men to support them in that. The women would be the pioneers. When men talk a lot it is not natural; it is more natural for the women. As long as a person is talking and acting for the sake of others, that person will not make a mistake. But as soon as you start centering your talking and your actions on yourself, you will start to make mistakes.</p>
|
||||
<p>I want you to understand that self-centeredness is your worst enemy on the road to public righteousness. When you step forward you are a representative and a part of the entire universe. “You” includes your eyes, mouth, ears, mind and your love; it includes everything about you. Your righteous mind must govern your eyes and ears.</p>
|
||||
<p>Sometimes your eyes might say, “I love to see movies so I just want to do that all day long.” However from within you the public mind will reject such desires. Otherwise your eyes will become your master. Suppose your ears insisted upon listening to music all day long and refused to listen to Rev. Moon’s sermons. Your ears might say, “I won’t go to Belvedere because we will have to suffer hearing those strong words.” However, your public mind must take subjectivity over those ears and reject their desires.</p>
|
||||
<p>Maybe you men will find your noses wanting to smell the lovely perfume of women. Likewise your hands may have the urge to touch a woman’s hand or body. However, your public mind will tell your nose hands to stop distracting you and will tell them, “You’ve got an important job to do!”</p>
|
||||
<p>The body has certain urges and desires for sensation; but they must be disciplined by your public mind. The body must endure for the sake of public righteousness, just like the green of the trees. You are like the green trees; day after day you must endure the same “color.” When you make effort and strive for this goal, you know that you are accumulating in your life something noble; you are leaving behind something better.</p>
|
||||
<p>Even though you may appear very unassuming, when you walk the road of public righteousness all the goodness of the world will follow after you. An ugly man who practices public righteousness will find that beautiful women will admire him and want to follow him. A plain-looking woman will be sought after by handsome men if she embodies the beauty of public righteousness.</p>
|
||||
<p>When a homely man is teaching the truth to a beautiful woman and she is intoxicated to hear it that is a holy, dramatic scene. This is far different from a man saying cheaply and shallowly, “I love you.” He is giving her an understanding of a profoundly righteous way of life and she is respecting him for it.</p>
|
||||
<p>There are many ways to convey love to another. One way is by becoming intense, passionate and overpowering that person with your words of love. But another way is to express your love in a poetic way, perhaps by singing or in some way communicating your love without so many words. Which would you prefer?</p>
|
||||
<p>Western culture usually has a more outgoing way of expressing love, for example by saying “I love you” so freely. However the Oriental culture is one in which love is not spoken about so freely. In fact, the language doesn’t even contain the words, “I love you” but that doesn’t mean love is not there. In Western societies love is more freely manifested, but in the Orient one does not observe such things; love is more profoundly expressed. East and West are two different shades of expression.</p>
|
||||
<p>The Western and the Eastern ways of expressing love both have certain deficiencies. I am not saying that one is right and the other wrong. The most ideal form of love would be a combination of the Eastern and Western ways. God has been thinking about who would be able to accomplish this merging of the two ways to bring about the ideal form of love, so He assigned Reverend Moon to do the job. This merging of the two ways can never be accomplished by force or coercion. It can only be done through education and enlightenment by the truth. Do you feel that when you hear my teachings you are being commanded or you are being inspired and enlightened? You feel enlightened.</p>
|
||||
<p>In the Unification Church when people first come to hear my sermons they often feel their logical minds pulling them in one direction saying, “No. that is just the Oriental way of acting, ” but they find themselves intrigued and they try out what I say. After a while they can see through experience that what I was saying was actually logical all the time and they really get inspired to follow my teachings. This happens very frequently.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you first go out to do fundraising or witnessing, your logical mind is saying, “No, I wasn’t born for such activities! I can’t do this.” Yet you make effort to do it. Now, after Blessing many of you are really running along the path feeling so strongly how important it is that you learn to raise spiritual children and do fundraising.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why do you not boycott completely such activities? It is because you have developed certain “Moonie habits.” You have become accustomed to receiving nourishment for your daily life from the inspirational words you hear and the publicly-oriented work you do. If you feel this life within the Unification Church is just too difficult then go and live in the secular world for a time. You may think you will enjoy every sort of freedom and indulgence, but you will discover something different. You will find yourself desiring the joy of the beauty and inspiration of your Moonie habits; at that time you will realize the value of this way of life.</p>
|
||||
<p>Once someone understands the Divine Principle he cannot deny the truth of it. Many people have left the Unification Church and tried to totally forget and deny the Divine Principle but they cannot.</p>
|
||||
<p>Everything we do in our daily lives is guided by the Principle. Sometimes common sense tells someone, “This will never work. Reverend Moon’s method is totally impossible.” However, after watching for one or two years that person observes that it is working and the method is entirely successful. It is a phenomenon of our church that the person who was a nondescript personality before joining often becomes totally different-a celebrity of the Unification Church!</p>
|
||||
<p>Many people think Reverend Moon is going through the worst period of his life right now. They think I must be completely miserable; but on the contrary, I feel totally high and inspired every day! The trial has not perturbed me at all.</p>
|
||||
<p>Do you think the sentence is a judgment against me? Actually I feel an exhilaration from witnessing this drama being played out. I observe the government trying to control my mission in any way they can. Yet I know that ultimately I will be the one to take the subjective position and give direction and education to this nation about God’s providence. My life is basically just like everyone else’s. I have high points, low points, bright and dark times, but the important difference is that I will never cease to move forward toward God’s goal.</p>
|
||||
<p>I am always thinking, “At this junction of history, what can I and the Unification Church leave behind which will better the world and all mankind?” At the courthouse during these past months I felt that God was saddened by the events. Therefore instead of being sad myself. I stayed busy comforting God and spirit world. I continually told God, “Do not worry about me. This will only make me more loyal, stronger and more righteous. When I think of the world and mankind I have even greater determination to serve them.” I am confident that righteousness and justice will prevail eventually and I will be vindicated.</p>
|
||||
<p>I feel that this is a special opportunity for me. Why?? During ordinary times it is easy to love God and mankind-it is normal. But when a person is subjected to suffering and tribulation and at that point still comforts God and loves mankind, that is something special. I actually thank God for giving me this opportunity to demonstrate a special love for God and humanity.</p>
|
||||
<p>When the sentencing was pronounced my thought was not about “my sentence,” but I was concerned about how I could lead the Unification Church and inspire the members. When I received a heavier sentence than Mr. Kamiyama I was the first to rejoice. I was very happy that Mr. Kamiyama received a lighter sentence.</p>
|
||||
<p>I recognize this time as an opportunity to exhibit the words which I have been teaching. Instead of being discouraged, I actually felt hopeful on the day of the sentencing, knowing that a much greater good could come out of it. This is the road of righteousness. My immediate reaction was to tell everyone-Unification Church, Korea, God-“Do not worry about me. Goodness will come out of this event.” At this hour I am continually searching for the ways to leave behind me a better tradition, a better example for others. This comes out of my heart very naturally.</p>
|
||||
<p>How are you looking at this time? Do you think. “Father is a great and righteous man so everything is wonderful”? You should realize that your attitude ought to be different from mine. Even though I feel exhilarated, you American people especially ought to feel deeply sorry that the nation of America has treated me this way OUT of their ignorance and misunderstanding. You ought to be thinking, “I am responsible for this.”</p>
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||||
<p>I told you that by 1978 our movement needed a certain number of supporters in this country. You elder members should feel that you should have worked harder to achieve that goal, knowing that such a mistake would not have happened at this time. When you consider the injustice which has occurred, you should bow your head in repentance for the sake of this nation.</p>
|
||||
<p>Mr. Kamiyama should be thinking, “What a terrible injustice that I got a lesser sentence than Father. I wish I could have gotten ten years and Father could have gone free! This judge is making a terrible mistake.” Such a way of thinking is beautiful.</p>
|
||||
<p>I feel the desire to take on all the burdens of my followers; I rejoice at the opportunity. But that kind of feeling should be reciprocated in order to produce a beautiful give and take and a manifestation of true public righteousness. I know that I am a victorious person from that standpoint. Whoever is not vindicated from that standpoint will be the one to diminish.</p>
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||||
<p>When I suffered in the prison camp in North Korea. I established the foundation for my prosperity in South Korea. By the same token if I am sentenced to prison here in the United States, I know that God will be able to open a new door for my work in some place like Soviet Russia. I always see myself as paying for some greater event in the future.</p>
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||||
<p>I have always walked the road of public righteousness throughout my life so I never feel lonely. I can exhibit great courage because God is with me and the universe is supporting me as I walk according to the Principle. Nothing can stop me from moving forward. Even my physical death will not be able to stop my work on this earth. However, those who oppose righteousness will truly be stopped by death.</p>
|
||||
<p>When Jesus was hanging on the cross, he spoke to the women weeping beneath him, “Do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children.” Even the crucifixion could not stop the power of Jesus’ righteousness; it continued to move forward. Jesus was only concerned for the future of the children of Israel.</p>
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||||
<p>What is the purpose of public righteousness, then? It is to leave behind something better than oneself. Through this court battle, I have not been diminished but have used this as a way to leave behind an even better tradition for America. Do you think scholars in the future who research my life will end their studies with this trial? Certainly not. The trial will be the jumping board for a new leap forward in my life.</p>
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||||
<p>The court trial is a new beginning and there shall be greater accomplishment in the future. America will eventually have to follow the path of public righteousness; it will never be the other way around. with public righteousness following the secular path of America. Anyone who follows the path of public righteousness will eventually flourish and rise up; likewise, he who goes in the other direction will eventually diminish and be cast out through the judgment of public righteousness.</p>
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||||
<p>The entire life of Reverend Moon has been embroidered with experiences such as those of the past few months. This is the fourth attempt of a government to stop me and contain my ministry. First the Japanese government tried to eliminate me during my youth, while I was in college. Then I was imprisoned by communist North Korea for three years and liberated through the Korean War. Then the government of South Korea also tried to convict me of a crime but after a short time they had to acquit me; they simply could not find anything wrong. Now I have come to the United States and have been put on trial by this government as well.</p>
|
||||
<p>I certainly did not murder anyone or steal anything; I did nothing wrong at all. The only “crime” I am guilty of is giving my total energies and resources for the youth of America so that they can be restored and made whole and healthy again. They should become the source of new life for the whole world as well. This is what I have been working for and will continue to work for.</p>
|
||||
<p>There has even been misunderstanding among some American church leaders. Some of them thought, “Rev. Moon must have come to this wealthy country for the sake of the money and he is using Mr. Kamiyama for financial assistance. There must be something strange going on.” I know that this kind of thinking occurred until just recently. However through the court trial, everything surfaced and it became clear that I have been giving every ounce of my energy for America’s sake. I have not been spending American money for this country. Since 1970 I have been bringing money here to assist the movement in this country.</p>
|
||||
<p>I want very much to be able to help feed and clothe American people. Also, my desire is to give the youth of this nation some joy in their lives. If this is a crime, then I am guilty. However if America sustains the conviction against me at this time, they only have to wait for a while. History will show who was right and who was wrong.</p>
|
||||
<p>If America refuses to embrace the way of public righteousness, she will only experience greater internal corruption and turmoil. As proud American youth you should be saying to me, “Leave it to us. We will be the ones to change this nation and set it free from its evils.”</p>
|
||||
<p>At this time many people of the world will regard Reverend Moon as a “convict” or criminal. In such a case, will you follow the opinion of the world or will you support me with even greater fervor? Will you say to the world, “If Reverend Moon has to go to jail for a year and a half, I shall go the rest of my life vindicating his name and carrying on his message to change this nation.”? That should be your determination.</p>
|
||||
<p>Regardless of the court trial and the sentencing, my path and my goals shall not be altered. However. unless you have a redetermination to make a new beginning you will not be able to go parallel with me along the path. Many people around the world will think when they hear the news of the court trial, “If Rev. Moon had come to our country, we would not have treated him in such a way. I wish he were here in our country.”</p>
|
||||
<p>Those Americans who are living as my contemporaries will now have a greater responsibility. These are not my words but those of Heavenly Father and the universe. You know that I have no feelings of guilt this morning as I stand before you; but many of you feel very heavy and even guilty somewhere in your hearts. This is the reality.</p>
|
||||
<p>You are in the position to indemnify the wrongs which have been committed by this country. I never spoke during the trial; I did not relate on that level. By the same token, you must not complain at this time about your situation. These are not the remarks of Reverend Moon alone but they are the words of public righteousness.</p>
|
||||
<p>I will not abandon my responsibilities for America; I will continue to pray for and love this country. However, my mission for America is over; my mission for the rest of the world is now at hand.</p>
|
||||
<p>You Americans must take on the responsibility for this nation; unless you do it, the future will be very dismal for this country. Since America treated me in such a way, how can I restore it on the world level? Of course, we have the Appeals Court and we are assured that the victory will ultimately be won, but the damage is already done. Do you understand?</p>
|
||||
<p>Therefore the way of public righteousness requires you to commit yourselves today without waiting for the appeal to take on this new responsibility. Of course I am not in any way negating my responsibility here; I feel it down to my bones. Since all the American members will have to bear a greater burden from now on, my heart goes out to you. I want to care for you more now because I have a parental heart toward you. More than myself I am concerned about you and your future.</p>
|
||||
<p>When Jesus was crucified he was in the company of two thieves. Why did the miserable death of Jesus have such a great impact upon history? It is because he perfectly represented this road of public righteousness.</p>
|
||||
<p>If any country should mistreat an American ambassador they are actually mistreating the American government because he represents them. By the same token, when a nation or the world mistreats the ambassador of God the consequences are universal. Particularly when he was more than an ambassador but was also the son of God, the consequences would be even greater. In such a case, there would be no way for anyone to comfort the heart of God except to work a hundred times harder than God’s son did.</p>
|
||||
<p>I am quite calm and peaceful and I have no turmoil within my mind; I see my path clearly. I shall continue to walk as a representative of God. No obstacles will be able to hamper my path.</p>
|
||||
<p>If you asked the Korean people today, “Is Rev. Moon an evil man?” what would they say? If they do not know me personally, how would they be able to deny that I am evil, since it appears I am about to go to jail? What about you members of the Unification Church? Do you feel you must reevaluate your membership because Rev. Moon was condemned by the law of this nation?</p>
|
||||
<p>The truth will prevail. I am not the way America has perceived me so there has been an even greater gap created between me and America. However the more I am attacked by negative, evil forces, the more blessings come over to my side from the evil side. If the members of the Unification Church adopt the determination to take on even greater burdens than I have and to vindicate the name of Rev. Moon in this country, then blessings will surround you. This is your opportunity to transfer the blessings to God’s side.</p>
|
||||
<p>Who will be responsible for stopping the degradation of America’s youth? Who will attack the problems of drug abuse and communism? There is no one except Rev. Moon who is determined, as well as destined, to eliminate these problems. You must take upon yourselves the responsibilities of these burdens together with me.</p>
|
||||
<p>Once I have completed this court battle I will have no further reason to remain here in America. You must be serious at this time to inherit the way of public righteousness. This is your duty to fulfill. You must have the attitude that until the name of Rev. Moon is completely vindicated, you will not be vindicated, either. You should want to suffer more than I; this is the only way we can defeat our opposition and walk the road of public righteousness.</p>
|
||||
<p>I returned to this country to face the court trial with a very serious attitude because I knew all the implications and consequences of it. I made up my mind how to fight the battle and I determined that I would not complain against or hate America or any of those who prosecuted me. When the sentence was read last week, I smiled and shook hands with all the defense lawyers and then tried to shake hands with the prosecutors. The first one was stunned; seeing me shaking his hand, the other two prosecutors quickly assembled their papers and practically ran away so they wouldn’t have to face me. I certainly wasn’t running away from them but it was the other way around! That was a moment in which the judgment of public righteousness was pronounced.</p>
|
||||
<p>I have nothing to fear or feel ashamed about in the sight of God, America or its forefathers. My own dignity is intact. I have never hated the prosecutors; I know that although they do not understand me, their children will come to appreciate me in the future. How will their children feel when they learn that their parents organized the prosecution against Rev. Moon?</p>
|
||||
<p>The road is set for men of righteousness. Although it often appears to be dark and difficult, that way will always prosper in the end. The road of men of evil appears to be easy and prosperous, but it always leads eventually to destruction. That is a universal truth.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you face some difficulty, ask yourself, “Did I do my duty toward my parents, toward my teachers, toward God, the community and the world?” You must feel a certain shame if the answer is no.</p>
|
||||
<p>Today you must remember that righteousness requires a person to become like a lamb, totally giving of himself. I have been teaching this truth for a long time and I always want to practice it; thus the court trial is merely a test for me and my way of life. It doesn’t matter, really, what the verdict or the sentence was; what matters is how I behaved in the situation.</p>
|
||||
<p>Many people expected that Mr. Kamiyama would receive a much heavier sentence than I, since he had more counts totaled against him. Because of that my heart was pained; so as soon as I heard his sentence was only six months I felt jubilant. Also, Mr. Kamiyama has to think in the other way in order to balance things. He should be telling the Japanese members that he is repentful because I received a greater sentence than he. He must demonstrate to the entire Unification Church his righteousness.</p>
|
||||
<p>If I were in Mr. Kamiyama’s position, on the day of the sentencing I would have gone to East Garden with the Japanese leaders to apologize sincerely. Likewise if I were in the American leaders’ position, I would have done the exact same thing. In that way, the heart of the father and the children can be melted together.</p>
|
||||
<p>I do not show any signs of emotion but that does not mean you should not, either. I restrain myself because of your benefit. You are in the position to reflect God’s feelings about this situation and in such a way you can give me great comfort. When the Japanese leaders have come to me and repented and the American leaders have done the same, I can then apologize and repent to God, saying, “Heavenly Father, all these members and leaders have come to me to apologize; on behalf of the entire church I apologize for all the grief caused to You.”</p>
|
||||
<p>In that way everyone can share the blessing from God at that time. Otherwise I would be the only one to receive it and that would mean a separation between me and the rest of the Unification Church members. That would not be good.</p>
|
||||
<p>We are discussing the way in which a person of public righteousness should behave. You cannot laugh while your I parents are crying and you cannot dance when your spouse is dying. Universal law dictates that. At this time I am very calm and dignified, but how is God and the spirit world feeling? Is God happy about these recent events?</p>
|
||||
<p>Those members and leaders of the American movement who have not done their proper duties are collectively responsible for this situation happening. There was not one bit of evidence presented in the courtroom that showed I was personally involved in any of the alleged wrongdoings.</p>
|
||||
<p>The one who is suffering the most is God and I am in the position to comfort Him. At the same time, you’re in the position to comfort me. This is truly a beautiful example of give and take. Do you understand? You must feel repentful together today for what has happened and you must make a new determination to begin again. This is the attitude of public righteousness.</p>
|
||||
<p>What will you do now? Can you go forward without me? You must be able to do that. If I should go to jail, when I come out I would like to see that everyone has surpassed me in their accomplishment. So far you have felt yourself in the position of followers but from now on you must feel you are the leaders of this crusade; you must be the front-line soldiers. That is what my message is all about today.</p>
|
||||
<p>The Blessing has been given and I have said everything that needs to be said to you. I have spoken here at Belvedere time and again about how you should live your life. Today I am only emphasizing public righteousness. In the position of parent I am urging you to fulfill your proper role as children. You know precisely what you should do in order to save this nation and the world.</p>
|
||||
<p>In your diary you can record an unforgettable day, July 16, the day of sentencing. Spiritually that day in America was completely dark; it was the repetition of the time of crucifixion. Thus we must create a new “sun”. Each of you must become the new suns in America. Even though I will leave this country, before you follow me you must fulfill your responsibilities here; then you can have the right to follow me.</p>
|
||||
<p>No matter how sad you may be, you must recognize that you are in the position to comfort and encourage God, mankind, the movement, your family and friends. If there had been no such a terrible event you might have simply followed me wherever I went after this, but it won’t be that simple now. You should think about this. You must pay the indemnity. I have already walked this path, so now you must bear the burden.</p>
|
||||
<p>Now I must move on; this means all the attention and support I have been giving to America must move on as well. This is not to say that I will leave behind me a vacuum. You must be the ones to take over the responsibility of the country. No matter what tribulations you might encounter, you must be ready and willing. If you are low and weak at this stage, the entire Unification Church will also reflect that weakness. If you get inspired and spurred on to greater accomplishment, so will the whole church worldwide. Unless you take the harder path there can be no success or prosperity. If you try to take the easy way out, no success can follow because the blessing will now be moving out of America.</p>
|
||||
<p>Wait and see. Even though America seems almost almighty, the power of God can reduce it to nothing. America could very easily decline drastically and her prosperity shift to either South America or Asia, perhaps. This is simply a law of nature which no one can defy.</p>
|
||||
<p>Your determination today must be great. I was aware throughout the court trial that if I could not fulfill my responsibility to act in the appropriate way, my own children would be affected and would have to pay indemnity. The same law applies to you. At this time, you must pay the indemnity and act in the proper way. You must take responsibility for America and for the evils which she has committed. Do you follow?</p>
|
||||
<p>You must have the attitude that no matter how difficult things may be, you will not complain or make excuses for yourself. Now you are married and will be having families; but all that must come second to the public responsibility you have toward this nation.</p>
|
||||
<p>You are luckier than the people of Israel 2,000 years ago. If they had been able to follow Jesus and his words, they would not have had to face such misery later, but they did not have such a clear path. Today however you have a clear teaching and you know precisely where you are, where you are destined to go, and what your mission is.</p>
|
||||
<p>Many of the members of the worldwide Unification Church have never even seen me or heard me speak in person. Yet they are following the very same path which you are following. You are in a privileged position; therefore, you have an extra burden of responsibility. You must determine today that you will fulfill it.</p>
|
||||
<p>John the Baptist witnessed to Jesus as the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world. Today the Moonies are in the position to become like lambs, bearing the sins of America on your shoulders. After this battle is completely over, including the appeal, I will not remain here. I will leave and go elsewhere; therefore I am preparing you to take over.</p>
|
||||
<p>At this hour you must make your commitment. Today I want you to enter into a covenant with me-that you will not let me down but will take responsibility for America. Are you willing to do that?</p>
|
||||
<p>With this kind of commitment from you, I can look forward with hope for America. If you are making that serious commitment in your heart, perhaps I will leave my children here so that you will have at least a link to me and Mother. Otherwise, if there is not true determination or feeling on your part, Mother and I will not only leave but also the children.</p>
|
||||
<p>I will not come here again, in such a case, even if Americans send a luxury jet to pick me up. I never came to this country because of its wealth or beauty; I only came here because of God’s providence and my mission. I am walking the road of the providence, not the way of America. Do you understand?</p>
|
||||
<p>Today you have heard me speaking about public righteousness. Can you pledge to me that even if Mother and I leave America you will not abandon the mission but will take upon yourselves all the added responsibilities and make it a success?</p>
|
||||
<p>Those who pledge to vindicate the name of True Parents and bring all glory to God must also be willing to bear the cross for the sake of the world. I will be watching you; through you I shall take comfort and hope for America or I will have to give up on America. These are not my words alone; they are the words of Principle and public righteousness.</p>
|
||||
<p>Those of you who pledge yourselves absolutely to this goal, raise your hands. Thank you. I am wearing new shoes today, signifying a new beginning. The old ones I had been wearing for three years and to the court every day became almost worn through. Today is the day of a decisive, new beginning.</p>
|
||||
<p>So far you have been given more than enough guidance from me about what you need to do. You know how to share what you have heard with the rest of the nation and world. In that way you shall become true disciples of the Unification Church and the future of the world will be in your hands.</p>
|
||||
<p>Do not think that you will always be able to listen to me the way you are doing today. Even if the Appeals Court overturns the verdict I will not remain in this country, so you should not expect that I will always be coming here to Belvedere to speak to you on Sundays. The responsibility is being passed on to you.</p>
|
||||
<p>This place at Belvedere should become another “upper room” where the Holy Spirit came to the 120 disciples and initiated the activities of Christianity. The same thing must happen to you when you come here to pray; a new revival and a new infusion of spirit must come to you as you give yourself in fervent, tearful prayers here.</p>
|
||||
<p>Don’t even ask where I am or where I am going. You must be occupied with your own responsibilities for the world. Those of you who know now my will and my desire for you, please raise your hands and pledge that to me.</p>
|
||||
<p>Thank you and God bless you.</p>
|
||||
<hr />
|
||||
<p>Col. Pak’s Prayer:</p>
|
||||
<p>Most loving Heavenly Father, we’re absolutely sorry from the bottom of our hearts that we have to hear this heartbreaking word of farewell, in a way, from our True Father to the members of the Unification Church of America and to this nation as a whole.</p>
|
||||
<p>Our True Father is one man who came with Your burdens to this nation and suffered incredible persecution, as he labored day in and day out to bring the truth to the people of this nation.</p>
|
||||
<p>In the 200 years of the history of America, who ever came to these shores with a greater love for this nation besides Rev. Sun Myung Moon, Heavenly Father? But this nation has crucified our Father and we cannot allow this to prevail.</p>
|
||||
<p>We pledge to You this morning that we shall see the day of resurrection; we will take responsibility for the resurrection of the name of Reverend Sun Myung Moon. We shall become Your harbingers and messengers; we shall become Your fighters. We shall even become Your martyrs if necessary and we will bear the cross for the True Parents so they won’t have to.</p>
|
||||
<p>Over and over again this nation has been told by our Father that it is the chosen nation of the world and He has blessed it. Now the chosen nation of this century has crucified the Messiah once again! Oh Heavenly Father, we’re not proud of America any more. This nation has sinned so much.</p>
|
||||
<p>Our True Father has consistently demonstrated his love for this nation, even upon hearing his conviction and his sentencing. He has never ceased blessing America and he even tried to shake hands with his prosecutors, symbolically forgiving the government and this nation so that it can continue and Your will can prevail.</p>
|
||||
<p>Today we have been commissioned for a new responsibility. We are going to bear the cross, not our True Father. Our mission is to vindicate the name of the True Parents and bring them their proper victory. We shall win the victory on every level-in this nation and around the world. We heard the mandate and we have received our mission.</p>
|
||||
<p>Heavenly Father, this chosen nation of America has sinned. Now we shall become America; we shall not point an accusing finger at anyone else but shall take upon ourselves the responsibility for America’s sin in the spirit of public righteousness, as our True Father has taught us today. We shall walk this way of public righteousness.</p>
|
||||
<p>We have already been given enough messages, enough sermons and more than anything else, we have been given such an incredibly perfect example in the persons of True Father and True Mother.</p>
|
||||
<p>Heavenly Father, we repent and we pledge at the same time that our life is Yours. We only regret one thing: that we have only one life to give for this mission. Heavenly Father, if we had 1,000 lives, we would give all of them willingly. Oh, how I wished that I could have taken the guilty sentence instead of Father; I wish I could have been sentenced to jail for the rest of my life instead of our True Father. But there was no way I could take on our Father’s role in that courthouse. I know there must be some way to vindicate the man of righteousness by someone else bearing his burden, even though I could not do it at the courthouse.</p>
|
||||
<p>We shall find the way to vindicate our True Father within our hearts, since we could not do it in the courthouse. We shall be Your sons and daughters who desire to bear the prison term for our True Father. We will not let You down, our dear Heavenly Father. We will show our pride in our True Parents and we cannot ever be defeated because they are with us. We have the greatest possible blessing of all-we are living as contemporaries of the True Parents. We pray to be proud sons and daughters of our True Parents and in so doing we will give comfort to You, our Heavenly Father!</p>
|
||||
<p>How can we be defeated? We shall continue. We have only one final prayer: we do not ask to be forgiven, because our sins are so great but we simply ask You to use us in the future as Your sacrificial lambs on Your altar. We will not hesitate to take even the road of martyrdom, if that is Your need. Please use our bodies and our strengths to save this world and to vindicate the name and the truth of our True Parents. That will be more than an honor for us.</p>
|
||||
<p>Today this is our determination. We have received the message from our True Father and have made our covenant with him, in Your presence. We will move ahead and be totally victorious. Thank you so much for this opportunity to pledge our lives for this nation and world. We shall fulfill, we shall overcome and we shall be victorious. In the names of our True Parents, the Reverend and Mrs. Sun Myung Moon, we pray all this,</p>
|
||||
<p>Amen</p>
|
||||
93
content/speeches/1982/standing-in-the-presence-of-god.md
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|
@ -0,0 +1,93 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
title: "STANDING IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD"
|
||||
type: "speech"
|
||||
published: "2018-06-23T14:01:30+01:00"
|
||||
updated: "2018-06-23T14:01:30+01:00"
|
||||
source: "/blog/2018/06/23/standing-in-the-presence-of-god.html"
|
||||
speechYear: "1982"
|
||||
categories:
|
||||
- "Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982"
|
||||
tags: []
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
<h2 align="CENTER">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
|
||||
<h3 align="CENTER">November 7, 1982<br />
|
||||
Belvedere<br />
|
||||
Translator – Sang Kil Han</h3>
|
||||
<p>It has been only 40 days since I was here last, but doesn’t it seem like a much longer time? Why should such a short time seem so long? The time you spend while you are together with someone you love passes quickly, but the time you spend apart seems to go very slowly. The more you love someone, the more this is so.</p>
|
||||
<p>We can imagine the spirit world where we will dwell within the love of God. There we will live for tens, thousands, millions of years and the time will go so quickly; you can imagine how quickly the time would pass. Would people who are living in the love of God in spirit world ever pause to think about getting old? There is nothing but goodness in such a place; the days begin with goodness, progress in goodness and end with goodness. People always feel joy and happiness; they are free from anxiety or need, since every desire is fulfilled. Therefore, life in the eternal spirit world can be simply described as happy.</p>
|
||||
<p>Can you imagine such a place as Heaven which is full of love? When you are in God’s presence, you naturally say, “God, I really love You and I never want to be separated from You.” Let me ask you, do you love God? How much have you loved God? This is the most important element in our religious life. There is nothing just conceptual about God; God is as real as your own spouse. You have to feel that with every breath you take.</p>
|
||||
<p>Those whose relationship with God is only within the realm of concept are inevitably unstable people. Since we don’t normally meet with God constantly, there is nothing wrong with keeping God in our thoughts and dwelling with the concept of His constant presence. But if you just think about God once in a while and maintain a totally imaginary concept of Him, that is not enough.</p>
|
||||
<p>Is your love for God a realistic love, the same as I feel when I hold Jeung-Jin-Nim and love everything about her? Sometimes she drools, her nose runs, and she has dirty diapers but it doesn’t make any difference; she can do anything and I still love her. Have you ever felt that way for God? Such a love has no room for any rejection; whatever the beloved does is just fine.</p>
|
||||
<p>What kind of prayers do you pray? If you love God so much, do you pray to Him, “God, please help me!”? Who is supposed to offer the help, the one who loves or the one who is loved? According to human relationships, when you like someone you automatically want to give him whatever you can; you want to help him. How would it sound if you said, “I like you, so please give something to me.”?</p>
|
||||
<p>Which is the more normal way of relating: “I like him, so I will help him,” or “Since I like him so much, he should help me.”? Certainly it is the first. The person who has the second attitude is really saying, “I don’t really like you but I want your help.” This is because if you really like and love someone, you don’t expect anything from him; instead your desire is to give to him and to help him.</p>
|
||||
<p>This is actually a very simple thing. When you really like someone, you want to continually give to him; after a while, if he wants to give to you, that is fine. However, your desire is not to receive from him in the first place. Similarly, to like someone and give to him with the secret desire to receive repayment from him eventually is hardly a true attitude of affection. Such an attitude has very little value.</p>
|
||||
<p>There are some people who count up all the benefit they give to others and expect 100% return on their “investment.” If you gave someone $100 with the expectation of receiving it all back, then your love is worth only $10O, or even less.</p>
|
||||
<p>The question is, then, how much do you love God? Ten thousand dollars times ten thousand is $100 million. Do you like Him that much? What about one hundred times that? Ask yourself seriously this question: have you ever given anything to God that had real value? Do you really love God? Whom have you ever loved in the past in a comparable way? Do you love Him as much as you love yourself?</p>
|
||||
<p>When you are cold, you put on warmer clothes; when you are hungry you feed yourself. You take really good care of yourself, but do you do the same for God?</p>
|
||||
<p>You should know that this is a very important matter for your life. We all have only one lifetime; at the end of your life, the serious question you must answer will be how well did you actually love God. The question has already been raised by Jesus, as recorded in the Bible. He demanded of people that they love him more than their own spouses or children or anyone else.</p>
|
||||
<p>Love is of all different qualities. What is the standard for loving which we must be able to meet before we are actually qualified to say to someone, “I love you”? You must know where you are in relation to that standard. Jesus’ standard of loving included everything in a person’s life: his loved ones and his precious belongings-everything. Each person has a claim on his own environment, his family, his country and his world. All of that had to be abandoned, if necessary, in order to love Jesus; this was the clear-cut standard which the Bible records.</p>
|
||||
<p>Perhaps you think about these things and you pray with that attitude, but the true test is in how you live your life. Suppose you owned a whole country. If you really loved God, shouldn’t you be able to sell the entire country and dedicate the money to God’s service? When the citizens of your country heard about your dedication, perhaps they would be so inspired they would encourage you. On the contrary, perhaps those citizens would protest, saying, “No, we don’t want to be sold!” Could God be happy with such a gift? God would tell you not to sell that country.</p>
|
||||
<p>Perhaps such an idea is impossible, so consider if you owned a company which was very profitable and successful. What if you decided to sell the company? Some employees would encourage you, saying, “Yes, please sell the company and love God,” but others would protest, saying, “No, I don’t want to be sold.” Would God say, “Go ahead and sell them, anyway, even though they don’t want it”? No. God would not want to force them to be sold.</p>
|
||||
<p>Coming down to a smaller level. suppose you decided to sell everything you owned, even your home, and dedicate the money to God? What is your standard for loving God ? Each of you may want to do anything at all for the love of God, but you must realize the difficulties involved when you actually try to carry out your wishes.</p>
|
||||
<p>The value of God is greater than all the rest of the world; everything put together cannot equal the value of God. However, there has not been one single person who has had a love of such magnitude for God. For that reason, God has found Himself reduced to the value of just another small part of a person’s life. God’s value cannot be fully realized unless He has someone who can love Him according to the fullness of His true value.</p>
|
||||
<p>If someone has done nothing at all for God’s sake, yet freely asks His help at any time, what kind of sense does that make in terms of love? Perhaps you think you are ready to do absolutely anything for the sake of God. However, thinking is very different from doing. Thinking is very easy; acting is very difficult.</p>
|
||||
<p>When God calls out to me, saying, “Reverend Moon, do you really love me?” I answer, “Yes.” Then God asks. “What kind of love have you shown?” God wants to receive a huge love, in accordance to His true value. While I have been giving that kind of huge love to God. have you been helping me?</p>
|
||||
<p>Instead of talking about a country or a company. Let’s talk about our church congregation. Suppose I decided to hire out every one of you and dedicate the money to God? How would you respond? Would you say, “Yes, go ahead,” or would you protest, saying, “No, I don’t want to go!” Would you say, “But, Father, I belong to my family as much you, so I have to consult with my wife and children”?</p>
|
||||
<p>If those of you here cannot agree to such a possibility, then God can only say, “I have never had a group of people who were willing to be dedicated to me. My value isn’t even as great as a group of 300 people.” In other words, God hasn’t even received the love which was worthy of 300 persons.</p>
|
||||
<p>Unification Church members constantly think and say that they are willing and able to give up their homes and their countries, but the problem is that they are only saying the words. You have never done anything like that. so it is a problem.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you decide to go somewhere you must have the cooperation of your whole body-your feet, hands and faculties. If you don’t, it is impossible to move and you feel very tired. What about God? He knows the right way for mankind to move, but sometimes you are willing and sometimes you are not. Doesn’t God feel tired when you are not willing to cooperate? This is a serious problem.</p>
|
||||
<p>Recently 6,000 couples were blessed in Korea. For whom were those couples married? It was for the sake of God. That means every aspect of their marriage must be for the sake of God, not just the ceremony. Will you say, “I will dedicate my spouse and marriage to you, God, after we have had some time together”? That is not true dedication. Out of the 6,000 couples, how many do you imagine are truly willing to be entirely dedicated to God? That is a serious matter, too.</p>
|
||||
<p>Certainly God is worthy of having the entire universe dedicated to Him, not only 6,000 couples. Imagine if God told Jesus, “Dedicate the entire universe to Me.” What would have been Jesus’ response? Suppose Jesus had been able to gain Heavenly dominion over the Roman Empire? Would he have been willing to give it up if God demanded? Certainly, he would have done it willingly, in spite of the great difficulties involved in gaining dominion.</p>
|
||||
<p>Consider the immensity of spirit world. If God gives a direction to someone in spirit world, he must obey. If someone refuses to do what God directs, he must repent and then turn in the direction which God has directed him to go. If he had a different opinion from God’s, he must empty his mind and then follow God. However, it is very difficult to move or change direction in the spirit world. Even though a person’s mind desires to move somewhere, the feet might refuse to budge. Once we shed our physical body, it is much more difficult to change our minds and move in a different direction.</p>
|
||||
<p>Suppose I directed you to sell everything you owned and dedicate the proceeds to helping Africa. How would you respond? Would you jump to do it immediately? It is very easy to say yes, but doing it would be another matter.</p>
|
||||
<p>The schooling process involves many steps: kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, and so forth. Kindergarten makes it possible for you to enter elementary school and each step does the same for the next step. Now you must attend the school which will enable you to live in the Heavenly Kingdom. How far do you want to go in your schooling? You must go all the way to the highest level, the PhD level for Heaven. The standard for that level is that you can love God more than anybody or anything else in the universe.</p>
|
||||
<p>At what level of schooling are you now? Suppose you went to spirit world and God asked you, “How much did you love me while you were on earth?” Could you answer Him, “Well, Heavenly Father. I wanted to love You but my wife prevented me from it.”? Such an answer is not acceptable. You must be sure while you are living that you are not only willing but able to love God.</p>
|
||||
<p>Jesus’ teaching was crystal clear on the standard of loving God. When one of his disciples asked him if he could go and assist in the funeral of his father, Jesus told him to stay with his mission and “Let the dead bury the dead.”</p>
|
||||
<p>Suppose someone were walking down the aisle to be married, the Wedding March was playing and God called him and told him to go somewhere else. God would not expect that he would go ahead and finish the ceremony, but instead would want to see him drop everything and obey His direction. Could you do such a thing?</p>
|
||||
<p>As you know, I was called by God to go to North Korea at a very crucial moment when I was on my way to get food for my wife and child, who were hungry. Regardless of my situation, God told me “Go now,” and to go to a dangerous place. If I had hesitated and tried to finish what I was doing before I listened to God, the Unification Church would not be anything today. Because I responded to God immediately, dropping everything else and doing what He directed, God could recognize that I loved Him more than anything else in the universe. Even though my first wife left me, God was able to give me a better wife and thirteen good children because of that early condition.</p>
|
||||
<p>By the same token, I am ready and willing to give up all that I have accomplished so far in the Unification Church; therefore, God would be able to give me even greater things. The entire universe would appreciate such a thing, as well. There has never been anyone who was able to meet all the expectations of God but we are about to accomplish just that.</p>
|
||||
<p>You must have a clear determination for your own life. You must think, “Even if I drop dead on the way, I will be so much better off than if I never began the journey. My descendants will be able to finish the task because I started it for them.” When you have such a clear vision of your goal, you will achieve it; but if you don’t, you might as well forget about it.</p>
|
||||
<p>A dramatic example of this was seen in the history of the Israelites, when they were traveling in the wilderness toward Canaan. They should have been so determined to escape Egypt, because it was the will of God. that they would have been willing to rush forward into the Red Sea. even if it didn’t open and they all drowned. At this time the Unification Church is engaging in an exodus on the world level-out of this secular world and into the Heavenly one. Therefore, each of you must face obstructions from your families and friends who try to hold you back, saying. Don’t go to those Moonies!”</p>
|
||||
<p>What is God’s purpose in leading people into Canaan? Why couldn’t people just stay where they are and try to create an ideal from there? It is because God needs to be able to call some place His own. God wanted the Israelites to go to Canaan and establish a nation where He could say, ‘This is the nation in which the people loved God more than anyone else on the earth.” That was the reason for the exodus. They had to know very clearly that God had such a clear purpose in leading them from Egypt. But we have learned from history that the Israelites complained and faltered and died in the wilderness; they became the prey of eagles.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why did they have to go through a wilderness before entering Canaan? There was a good reason-it was the responsibility of the Israelites to establish the condition of enduring difficulty and gaining victory by themselves.</p>
|
||||
<p>The Israelites hoped and waited for 4,000 years for the messiah, but were they supposed to just live happily ever after once he came? No, they had to work together with the messiah to establish the kind of country that loved God more than anyone else in history had ever done. Moses was their leader and he gave them their directions. There should have been no complaints; it was difficult enough. If they had followed faithfully, they would have successfully entered into Canaan.</p>
|
||||
<p>Today we are repeating the exact same process. We are repeating the 40 years of wilderness at this time on the world level, to enter Canaan on the world level. Canaan was occupied by 31 enemy tribes of Israel. Where is our Canaan and who occupies it?</p>
|
||||
<p>Moscow is where we “must go.” It is not a peaceful place which will welcome us with open arms, so why is God directing us to go there? It is because we must also go through our portion of responsibility on our own; only in that way can God give us the credit for winning our own victory.</p>
|
||||
<p>The 40 years of wilderness on the world level for the Unification Church is the time in which we must establish that we have loved God, collectively, more than anybody else in the past. What is the Red Sea of today? It is the red ideology of communism, far more formidable than any body of water. We must clearly realize now-and remember-that we have an historical task ahead of us. We must complete our 40 years in the wilderness, reaching our destination safely by following the command of our leader and establishing God’s nation. This is our whole purpose for being here.</p>
|
||||
<p>I came to America for this reason. God wanted me to come here and accomplish this on the world level, in a country which represented the world. America is not welcoming our exodus or our efforts to establish God’s country. The efforts of communists are strong, but we must be stronger.</p>
|
||||
<p>The Israelites slaughtered lambs and put the blood on their doorways as a sign that they belonged to God. By our doing home church, we too will have such a sign on our doorways. God certainly realizes that although you are Americans, you are treated like aliens when you go to home church. People do not consider you one of them, but instead call you “Moonie.” This is exactly what the Israelites had to endure. They took all their possessions with them on their exodus and we are in the same position. They dedicated everything to their new cause. This is why many new members of the church dedicate their belongings to help the cause of the church.</p>
|
||||
<p>When we stand in the presence of God, what would God want of us? Certainly it is clear that God wants to receive the largest dedication, the entire universe. We are the soldiers of Heaven; good soldiers do not think about whether or not they will get hurt. They just work for their victorious objective.</p>
|
||||
<p>As you know, you can jump forward and land on the target. However sometimes you can become too cozy at different stages on the way. Sometimes you feel so comfortable with your family, your home and so forth that you forget your purpose has not yet been achieved. You are still in the wilderness and you will become the prey of eagles if you stop moving forward. If you are not confident of winning over all the various temptations, you must authorize someone else to drag you to the goal. You should determine, “It is better to die along the way than to stay where we are.”</p>
|
||||
<p>Why must we do all this? We must fulfill God’s fervent desire to see someone on the earth willing and able to establish the condition for God to claim the entire world. As Moonies, you must be strong soldiers willing to fight on the world level for the sake of the love of God. Do you have that kind of clear-cut purpose? Moonies are the only ones who can give God true hope at this time.</p>
|
||||
<p>We have a reason to be thankful to God because He has given us this opportunity to be the ones to fulfill His hope. Our situation is unique in all of human history; therefore, you must be proud soldiers with the ability to go over all obstacles, no matter how difficult. God is asking you, “How far will you go? Where will you stop?” You must tell Him that you will go all the way to the goal. Can you do that?</p>
|
||||
<p>When good soldiers march. they never straggle and wander; they keep straight lines and proudly display their colors. When there is a command all the Unification Church members will be mobilized. God can look down and be so proud and say, “My victorious people! Amen!” and He will bless us.</p>
|
||||
<p>These things must not be considered only when you are attending Sunday sermons. You must have this kind of determination even when you are kissing your bride, or when you mothers are nursing your babies. Always your basic purpose in life must underscore all your activities. This is the way I have lived my entire life. I know clearly that God wants you to set the standard of those who have loved Him more than anyone else in history. Even if we must land in jail or even if we die, it is better to do that with our Heavenly pride intact than to give up. Of course, we must achieve our goal here on the physical plane before we go to spirit world.</p>
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||||
<p>When I was flying across the Pacific Ocean on my way back to this country, I was thinking, “Accomplishing this goal is going to be difficult for American people but nevertheless this is the goal. They must go this way regardless of how difficult it is. They must not forget their goal no matter what.” This has been my prayer since returning to America. Although your fundraising and witnessing work is difficult, you must be able to go through it. If somehow you die before you achieve your goal, it is better than just giving up. You must not drop your responsibilities, even though the burdens may be so heavy; once you have done that you cannot pick them up again. We must simply keep going, now as in the past.</p>
|
||||
<p>More importantly, your activities must not be motivated out of obligation-because your leaders or I say you must. This is truly the only path and you must feel the desire to go, on your own. Our only chance for success is for each person to want to go, on his own, regardless of who opposes us. God is watching each of you, so you had better make this your own philosophy. When the Israelites lost their perspective and desired a different direction from Moses’, they all perished. Above all, you must do what you do because you want to do it. This is the most important element of success.</p>
|
||||
<p>Twenty-one years ago I predicted that there would come a time when the whole world would come against the Unification Church and that would be the sign that our time was drawing near. Today we see that such a thing is happening and opposition is all around us. We must go through these barriers, ready to face more opposition in the future. Although many have complimented me and called me a success in Korea and America, we must continue to consider our situation tentative. We still have the formidable goal of Moscow. Therefore we must never be content or satisfied; any moments of rest we have must be used as preparation for the fight ahead.</p>
|
||||
<p>When David stood in front of Goliath, he could not have ordinary thoughts and still win over that giant. We, too, must take the position of David and with the attitude solely of serving God, we must win the victory. With that determination, the Goliath country of communism will appear much more vulnerable.</p>
|
||||
<p>America will only come to our aid when we have won over Moscow and the whole world can see it. Have no wishful thinking that secular America will help us accomplish our victory; we must be able to do it on our own. You must realize that our opposition is not altogether bad; they oppose you because you are not worthy enough. When they persecute you and kick you, you must determine to become better than you are now; use your opposition as a lesson. In fact, they are kicking you to prepare you for going to Moscow.</p>
|
||||
<p>Can you say, “I am an American and I will participate in the American dispensation, but I can’t go to Moscow.”? That means you are resting here in America, but this is no place to rest. If you stop here, everything will come to destruction; you must have the attitude to go all the way to the end.</p>
|
||||
<p>We must go to communist China and the communist satellite countries too. We have many church members who have been imprisoned and even died in those countries, so how can you confidently think you are an exception? You may have to be next. I myself went through such a course, so you must resolve yourselves to take on that way, too.</p>
|
||||
<p>I have never thought I was in a safe place when I did my dispensational work; the higher the dispensation, the more the risk has grown. You should realize what level we have achieved and align yourself with my movements. It is your responsibility to set up your own condition of faith on your level which will agree with my level.</p>
|
||||
<p>What will be your attitude when I go to Africa? Will you just want to stay behind here. or will you say, “No matter what, if Father goes to Africa, I will go, too”? What if I had a big, huge ship located in the middle of the ocean and I called for you to join me there. Would you do it, determined to live the rest of your life there? Would you complain of seasickness and excuse yourself? You must determine that even if you died of seasickness, you would go on that boat in order to remain with me.</p>
|
||||
<p>If you were on that big boat. you might have to dwell down in the cargo area and couldn’t see anything outside. Only 1, as the captain. would be able to read the compass and determine where we were going. Therefore, you would have to trust in my judgment absolutely, isn’t that correct? Do you really believe in me?</p>
|
||||
<p>You do not know exactly what I did while I was in Korea the last time and what kinds of instructions I gave. The professors on college campuses and many organized Christian groups were astounded by the impact I had there. Just the assembly of 6,000 couples for the blessing was an incredible testimony to the Korean people, more than any words could be. After that, I was able to give guidance to many people. even those who were not members.</p>
|
||||
<p>Do you like to receive directions from me? Perhaps you feel burdened by these sermons. But in no time at all, you will receive word that the battle is finished and the victory is won. Then you will ask, “Where is my heavy load?” Don’t you think I have many heavy burdens to carry? I must take responsibility for hundreds of millions of dollars of expenses for the church around the world. Do you know why I receive most of my persecution? It is indirectly because of you. If even one of you behaves in a shameful way, such as getting drunk and acting wildly in public, automatically the shame is transferred to all the members of the church and Reverend Moon. Ask yourself how you have eased the burdens I must carry.</p>
|
||||
<p>Once you have gone beyond the national levels and ,rained victory, the injustices of the past can be redeemed. This is what I expect. Do you think it is good or bad to carry a heavy burden on your shoulders now? It is good. God is contained within that goodness. Can we say that God is truly victorious at this time? Only when God can claim His victory on the level of the physical world, man’s body, can He be truly victorious. God will be a substantial reality in the substantial world. Every part of your body must be that of goodness-your eyes, your legs, your arms. Always guide your actions by what God would do. If God would do something, then you can, too.</p>
|
||||
<p>What do you think would have happened had the Israelites successfully entered Canaan? We have no way of knowing, but chances are good that God would have sent the Israelites back to save Egypt. The same applies to you. Once you win victory, God will want to send you back to your hometowns and families, no matter how much they oppose you.</p>
|
||||
<p>God wants me to go to the communist world to win the victory there. My plan is to leave America, win the victory elsewhere and then return here to share that victory with the people here. At that time Americans will finally understand how wrong they were. God himself will be able to share in that victory.</p>
|
||||
<p>What do you think will happen once we have won this court case in America? The war will be finished here and I will feel free to leave at any time. Even if members beg me to stay here, I will follow God’s will and go wherever He directs. What about you? America” could be read “A merry car”-this country certainly has lots of beautiful cars and everybody wants to enjoy life and ride around in their beautiful cars. Do You want to stay here and enjoy the good life? Or will you be different from the rest of the country? You are Americans. but very far from the mainstream of secular life because you are anchored to the teachings of Reverend Moon.</p>
|
||||
<p>You must focus on goals, even at Christmas time when everyone else becomes very sentimental and wants to go home. When Lot was told to leave Sodom and Gomorrah, he obeyed immediately. However, his wife was much more reluctant and she turned into a pillar of salt when she looked back. The same principle is true of the Moonies. When Reverend Moon is told to leave Belvedere, East Garden, and Barrytown behind, what must be my attitude? I will go forward, never looking back. Sometimes my wife might call to me, “Look back here!” but I tell her, “No! You must follow me!”</p>
|
||||
<p>You have your spouses, your current responsibilities and projects, and perhaps you have some material possessions, but you must be able to drop everything the way I have described and follow God’s direction. The only thought we must have is how to accomplish the expectations of God.</p>
|
||||
<p>There are many PhD candidates in the audience today. Do you share my viewpoint like the rest of the members? Perhaps you have already decided that you will work as a professor after you graduate in order to restore other professors? Or do you think that the PhD doesn’t really matter, that the only thing important is to become a worthy child of God, pure and unstained your whole life? You must think, “Because I have a PhD, I will love God on the highest level.” Do you love God more than your PhD?</p>
|
||||
<p>Have you loved God more seriously and earnestly than your new husband or wife? Your relationship with God is more fundamental and important than that of your spouse. If you were desperately hungry, would you be able to think of God before food? Sometimes you men might have thoughts of an old girlfriend or lover and you feel an intense desire taking over a certain part of your body. That is the moment when you must command your body to subside and remember that it must love God first and foremost. This is a serious matter. It is not really your fault that as men you have strong appetites for love-God made you that way. The three strongest desires in human beings are for personal ownership, love, and food. The only way we are different from other people is that we are able to overcome those desires when we want to.</p>
|
||||
<p>If you owned two things, would you give the better or the lesser one to God? Actually, you would want to give God the better, but God would want you to give the better gift to someone else. People usually are greedy’ however, wanting to keep the best things for themselves Also people have tremendous desires for the opposite sex which can become obsessive. In your daily fight against yourself and your appetites, you ought to keep a diary and record each day whether you were victorious or not. At the end of your year you can tally up how many days of victory or defeat you had; each year you have to improve. This is not abstractions we are talking about but daily reality.</p>
|
||||
<p>We must live this way because we must prepare during our lives on earth for our eternal lives in spirit world. I have experienced every honorable occupation in order to understand what they are like. When God directed me to do that. I could only obey. I worked as a farmer because God told me to. I even fought with my fists, hunted’ etc. Certain members told me that drinking the blood of the deer was good to do, so I had to rise to the challenge and do it. Suppose God was watching me, observing that I could do anything challenging for the sake of His providence, but I faltered when it came to drinking the blood of deer. I would have stopped just one step short of doing everything God directed.</p>
|
||||
<p>The point is that I had to be willing to do anything for the sake of God and not limit myself according to my own concepts. I could go out and captain the fishing boats. As a result of that I have had an unlimited realm of activity and I can associate with a unlimited number of people. But if someone limits himself, he must be confined only to certain society.</p>
|
||||
<p>Therefore, for the sake of God’s dispensation, there must be nothing you cannot do. How would you like to be a spy for God? There are lots of spies in the secular world, so how about God’s world? Shouldn’t He, too, have spies? As you know, Moses sent Joshua and Caleb into Canaan to spy for the Israelites. Our members in the communist satellite countries are inevitably in the position of spies; they can never proclaim their religion openly without suffering certain imprisonment or death. Each of you must think that if something is good enough for God, it must be good enough for you. Do you understand?</p>
|
||||
<p>Moonies must be able to choose the most difficult way, the way of liberation for God. We must revive the foundation of Christianity and overcome moral problems. Will you follow my way, even though it is most difficult? That which is most difficult is also the most valuable.</p>
|
||||
<p>Whenever God gives a direction. we must be able to respond without hesitation. Are you going to continue the struggle upward now, choosing the steepest, roughest slope? It is going to be very difficult, so are you confident you can do it? In some armies. the soldiers are helpless without some command from the general. However, the better army can rely on the lowest level commander, such as a platoon leader, when the general is away because they already know what the general would desire. Certainly the second army would be the most successful.</p>
|
||||
<p>In the Unification Church. Reverend Moon is the general. Even when I am away, you must have the willingness to obey any other leader’s direction. That will make us the strongest army. Do you think the general would ever reprimand the soldiers for totally obeying their platoon leaders? Not at all. He will appreciate that and will be very proud of them; perhaps he can rest better at night because he knows he can trust his soldiers. Raise your hands if you only came to Belvedere today because you heard that l had returned. In the future, you should come to Belvedere whether or not I am here. Will you do that?</p>
|
||||
<p>I want each of you to become worthy of receiving all of God’s blessings. Do you resolve to do that? Thank you.</p>
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---
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title: "THE DAY OF ALL THINGS - 1982"
|
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type: "speech"
|
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published: "2018-06-23T13:54:11+01:00"
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updated: "2018-06-23T13:54:11+01:00"
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source: "/blog/2018/06/23/the-day-of-all-things-1982.html"
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speechYear: "1982"
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categories:
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- "Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982"
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tags: []
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---
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<h2 align="CENTER">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
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<h3 align="CENTER">June 21, 1982<br />
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Belvedere<br />
|
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Translator – Bo Hi Pak</h3>
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<p>Can anyone make a good guess at my topic this morning? You are right, this is the <em>Day of All Things</em>, and that is the title of my message this morning.</p>
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<p>In the Unification Church we celebrate four major holidays each year, and Day of All Things is one of them. As all of you know, we have God’s Day, Parents’ Day, Children’s Day, and the Day of All Things. What other celebration day do we need? Everything is celebrated in these four major holidays.</p>
|
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<p>When we say Day of All Things, we include all things of creation, without exception. Are people involved as well? Certainly. First of all, let us think about the reason for creation. Why did God create all things? Why did He create human beings? The answer is very simple: God created all things for the sake of mankind.</p>
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<p>God also created all things after the image of mankind. As a tree breathes through its leaves, we breathe through our lungs. The tree trunk is like our heart, and its roots like our stomach. Human beings are part of the animal kingdom, but in whose image are we created? The obvious answer is in the image of God.</p>
|
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<p>Then whom does God resemble? Within God there is the image of mankind, animals, plants, and everything. Why did God create all these things? You say for joy. That is correct, but whose joy are we talking about? Joy must belong to someone. The purpose of creation is God’s joy, of course, but in order to insure and fulfill God’s joy, mankind and all things need to achieve abundant joy.</p>
|
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<p>There are all kinds of joy: joy in which God can take delight, joy in which mankind can take delight, and joy in which all things can take delight. Joy is created by the action of give and take between subject and object, producing harmony and fellowship.</p>
|
||||
<p>Whose joy should come first? Is God the first one to feel joy? Where should joy start? You answer that it begins with God, but how can God feel delight alone, without somebody else? Mankind is created to be God’s object, but even joy in the human realm is not simple, because there are men and women. A solitary individual cannot feel joy; people have to enter into a relationship in order to experience joy. Furthermore, a couple’s experience of joy will be different if their environment is barren, such as a desert or outer space, than if they are surrounded by the beauty of creation.</p>
|
||||
<p>When we talk about man and woman, love immediately comes to mind. But think about Adam and Eve: were they created in an instant? Did they suddenly experience love? Can love be savored in a moment? According to the Principle, everything passes through a growth period in order to reach perfection. Did God create Adam and Eve as adults or as infants? As babies, were they able to shout out, “I am in love,” or did they merely coo and smile? Well, nobody can be sure, because we weren’t there in the Garden of Eden! But it is logical that God created them as babies, in the formation stage, with the destiny to grow into perfection.</p>
|
||||
<p>So there were two babies, Adam and Eve. Imagine them growing day by day and learning to walk. However, even Adam and Eve could not experience total joy by themselves; they needed support, an appropriate environment, things to touch, look at, and enjoy.</p>
|
||||
<p>Suppose Belvedere were the Garden of Eden, and Adam and Eve were created right here on the grounds. What would they enjoy? Very likely the trees; they would touch them, run around them, look at their blossoms, etc. The trees would give Adam and Eve a lot of things to talk about. For example, Adam, being a boy, would probably claim all the big trees for himself and Eve would reply, “Well, you can have them, but all the cute little trees are mine” But perhaps Adam became greedy and wanted all the trees for himself! Then Eve might claim all the grasses, plants and flowers. They might talk among themselves, arguing and joking about the things of nature. What if one day Adam got a little nasty and told Eve, “All the trees-pine trees and oak trees, big trees and small trees-are mine; how can you enjoy the grass when it is so dirty?” And Eve might reply, “I have something even beyond your trees: all the birds flying over the treetops are mine!”</p>
|
||||
<p>What I am trying to describe is that in order to enjoy life, people need some surroundings, the beauty of nature. Adam, being a little greedy and thinking on a large scale, would claim all the big things and love them, while Eve would be attracted to the tiny things, finding them so cute and fascinating. She might say to Adam, “You don’t have any pretty little things, do you?” and Adam would reply, “Where are your pretty little things? Show them to me” Then Eve would point and say: “Look at this ant, this little black dot,’ and Adam would have to agree that nothing like that ant existed among his big things and admit that the ant is a very wonderful creature. So the ant would bring dignity to Eve.</p>
|
||||
<p>Then one morning Adam might abruptly announce, “Among all the birds, the mighty eagle is mine” Eve might reply, “Your eagle may be large, strong and swift, but I’ll take the swallow; it is also fast, but more than that, it is beautiful” This bird is a symbol of femininity and beauty. It is a unique bird; it seeks fellowship with people, arriving each spring with a beautiful song and building its nest in people’s houses. This bird’s appearance brightens the entire house; it’s almost like being visited by a beauty queen!</p>
|
||||
<p>Adam would marvel at the power, dignity, and masculinity of the eagle, but Eve would point out that even though it looks so vigilant and powerful, it lacks the qualities of love, beauty, peace, and femininity. She wouldn’t like the eagle as much.</p>
|
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<p>So the behavior of the two children, Adam and Eve, would be different. Adam would be very masculine and impetuous, always running around doing wild things, while Eve would be very feminine, charming, kind and tender. While Adam would be out racing with the deer, Eve would lie down against a big rock and play with some little flowers!</p>
|
||||
<p>So far, I have been describing how all things were created for men and women to enjoy. Through their give and take with nature, Adam and Eve must have found much stimulation for their thoughts, conversation and, ultimately, joy. These examples can help you visualize the purpose for the creation of all things.</p>
|
||||
<p>Think about how women’s clothes are designed. You don’t find images of eagles, tigers, snakes or lions on women’s fabrics. Rather there are flowers, grasses and tiny trees. You women pick such patterns because your mind is drawn to such things; something within you resonates with the flowers, grasses and trees. Men’s jackets, in contrast, tend to have eagles, tigers, lions, etc. They fit more with men’s character.</p>
|
||||
<p>Suppose for a moment that all things of creation were taken away from you. How desolate the world would be! Furthermore, we need to eat in order to sustain life; our food and our nourishment comes from the things of creation.</p>
|
||||
<p>Then why did God create all things? To be the environment for Adam and Eve. Creation was to give Adam and Eve joy, fulfillment, and nourishment.</p>
|
||||
<p>All things of creation also exist in pair systems, in subject- object relationships. Every kind of animal, large or small, has a pair system, a male and female aspect. An incredible world exists just in the little piece of ground you are sitting on! No matter how small a creature may be, you will find male and female creating a beautiful family in their little piece of grass-mommy bug, daddy bug, elder son bug, younger son bug, etc. So when Adam and Eve saw that even bugs create families, they probably wanted to create a family too, just like the insects.</p>
|
||||
<p>Did Adam and Eve suddenly discover that love is to be expressed by kissing and then start kissing each other, or was their discovery stimulated by the things of nature? What do you think: did they learn it or invent it? I say that they observed the animals, that nature was their teacher.</p>
|
||||
<p>Watching nature, Adam found out that sometimes the male goes first and the female follows him, and other times the female goes first and the male follows her. But wherever they looked, they found that male and female somehow cooperate. When the male finds good food, he signals the female to join in the meal. Did Adam and Eve invent the signals they used for each other, or did they learn them from other creatures? Each morning, birds call out to one another; the male bird sings and the female responds in harmony.</p>
|
||||
<p>Actually, Adam and Eve learned from nature; nature was their best teacher. They might not have had a house like Belvedere, for instance, but they must have had some small cave or cabin. During the day, did Adam and Eve just lie around, bored to death, or were they busy and active? They had not a moment to be bored; there was so much to look at and explore: birds, rivers, fish, rocks, mountains, fruits, flowers, etc. Suppose they came upon a frog. What an odd creature a frog is! When they tried to catch it, the frog immediately jumped into the water. “Boy!” Adam thought, “I should learn some jumping too”</p>
|
||||
<p>I want you to understand that God gave Adam and Eve a textbook to learn from and that textbook was nature and all its creatures. All things were created to be a manual from which Adam and Eve could learn. But today many people forget the benefits of learning from nature. They don’t care about trees and plant life; they get bored to death! They aren’t concerned about their neighbors; they just stay in their house.</p>
|
||||
<p>For lovers, even something as little as a handkerchief means a great deal. Suppose a man leaving to fight in a war gives a handkerchief to his wife. If the man was killed in action, that handkerchief becomes a memento treasured by his wife for a lifetime. That handkerchief might have cost less than a dollar, but when it is transformed into a symbol of love, its value is priceless.</p>
|
||||
<p>Who is the king of love in this world today? You know the answer. God is the King of love. The King of love wanted to express His love to His sons and daughters. In order to do that, as a gift to His children, He created all things. Think about it in this way: God is the one great King of love in this universe.</p>
|
||||
<p>On the other hand, after a President of the United States has served for four or eight years, he settles down and creates a museum or library. His desk, his pen set, the documents he signed, etc., are placed on display. That happens Just because he was President of the United States for four years. What do you think is more precious: all the displays in a presidential museum, or a simple little flower created by the King of love? Can one of God’s tiny masterpieces be less significant than a suit worn by the President of the United States?</p>
|
||||
<p>Today I want you to really feel that the Love-King of the universe gave His children the creation as a gift. Each leaf, each rock, each blade of grass, each detail of creation is priceless and of far greater worth than any museum display on earth. All people today are living in God’s museum- nature. Look around you: you are in God’s museum! Museums are generally filled with antiquities, but this is a living museum, a living treasure in which we can enjoy freedom, love and joy.</p>
|
||||
<p>What is the most priceless object you can think of on display here in America? The “Mayflower”? The “Mona Lisa”? God’s masterpiece, a tiny blade of grass, is far more intricate and beautiful. One is dead, the other living. Which is more valuable? Whose hand is behind the crafting of this tiny blade of grass? The President of the United States? No, the King of kings, the Love of loves. So to behold a masterpiece, don’t just visit a museum and see dead items. Of course, there is value in going to museums, no question about it, but you should also go to a park, where works of far greater value are displayed. Walk down its lanes and listen to the birds chirping on all sides; look at the trees, the bushes, the flowers.</p>
|
||||
<p>God created all things for the sake of Adam and Eve. Flowers could be their jewels, leaves could be their spoons, etc. Today we are touching the same things of nature that Adam and Eve touched in the Garden of Eden: the same grass, same flowers, same trees. If I asked the flowers whether they saw Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, they would reply, “No, I don’t go back that far, but at least my great-great-great-great-grandfather did, and I am connected to them in that way; there is a giant line linking us all the way back to Adam and Eve” And if I ask the flowers what Adam and Eve said to them, they would reply, “They told us we were so beautiful!” So even this very flower is part of Adam and Eve’s legacy to us.</p>
|
||||
<p>Since all things were created before people, they know how God touched them. They can say, “I felt how God formed me. Here He pushed me very strongly, there He was very tender, etc.” They can share their experiences with us. The flowers can add, “When the Creator made me, He was whispering to Himself He didn’t know I was listening, but I heard Him say, ‘Boy, I am going to make you a very special flower!’ ” Actually, the things of creation have more to be proud of than we do, because they came into being before us. In a way, they are our elder brothers.</p>
|
||||
<p>The important thing is the heart which created those first flowers in the Garden of Eden for Adam and Eve. That same unchanging heart has been handed down, throughout the generations, to us today.</p>
|
||||
<p>Suppose you were God, and today you are about to create all things. Many of you are thinking about the upcoming holy wedding ceremony. You are wondering what to give your fiancé to make him or her happy. Imagine yourself in God’s position, with the power to create a few things for your beloved. What would you make? How many days would it take you to create a flower like this one in my hand? Even to paint it on canvas would not be easy. With the limitations some of you have, it might take ten years! Even if you were an expert artist, you could never paint a flower and give it life. What a pitiful fiancé you are! How helpless you are!</p>
|
||||
<p>If you had the power to create a living flower, wouldn’t it be great to go to your fiancé and say, “Look, this is just for you! I created this flower from scratch” Although you are incapable of creating even one tiny flower, you have been given a whole world of flowers for free-masterpieces of art handed to you as a gift. Mankind has received such incredible gifts, but how many people are aware of them and offer their gratitude to God from the depths of their heart? How many people truly thank God for His bountiful gifts?</p>
|
||||
<p>Suppose you spent ten years creating a living flower-a real flower and proudly offered it to your fiancé.-If he or she said, “Oh, that’s ugly. I don’t want it; go away,’ how deeply hurt you would feel! You hoped he or she would receive the flower with great joy and appreciation-perhaps even dance around for months and months telling everybody, “My beloved fiancé created this flower for me!” You would want him or her to feel joy not just for one day, but for months and even years.</p>
|
||||
<p>How pitiful modern people are! God has given us such incredible, priceless blessings, and hardly anyone even appreciates them. People are blinded and engulfed in their human problems. Sometimes very trivial matters cloud their vision of God’s great gifts. Nature looks down on them and says, “What a paltry life you are leading!” People consider committing suicide, and some even do so, never able to comprehend the value of the favors they have received. Nature feels so sad when it sees how dark and clogged up people’s minds have become.</p>
|
||||
<p>The Creator who made all these things for His children invested them with incredible, infinite value. He poured His whole heart into His gifts. But the recipients-you and me, men and women of this world-took them with disdain, seeing no value in them. Instead, people have been mistreating the world and leading such miserable lives. When the things of creation look down on the human race, they feel no enthusiasm; they can only sigh with sorrow. The things of nature realize their worth, because they know how much value God invested in them. But looking at the human world, they realize that nobody appreciates even the surface of nature. Neglected by people, the things of creation are unable to return to God, their Creator. As a result, creation grieves, feeling sorry for God and pity for human beings.</p>
|
||||
<p>Today the Unification Church alone observes the Day of All Things. We want to wake up, return to the original human condition, and become truly able to cherish God’s masterpiece of creation. This is the meaning and purpose of the Day of All Things.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you lie down on the grass without any blanket, you can tell yourself, “I am lying on God’s blanket, in His special bedroom, adorned with His handiwork” Isn’t God’s green carpet more precious than any man-made blanket? Which would you prefer to sleep on?</p>
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||||
<p>Once the Unification world becomes a reality, nobody will want to live in high-rise apartments; they will want to go back to nature, resting on God’s green carpet, climbing the mountains, exploring the rivers, etc.</p>
|
||||
<p>Animals, far more than people, recognize the original value of all things. Animals live in nature as their home. When you think this way, nature will become very intimate with you; it will become closer than your own jacket or clothes.</p>
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||||
<p>Man-made noise is so disturbing; the sound of airplanes flying overhead is annoying. But if you become absolutely quiet and listen to nature’s music, you can hear singing going on even right now. This is truly the most beautiful, original music. God’s living masterpieces, the birds, are singing. Can anybody create that kind of music? If you sold the entire United States of America, you could not raise enough money to buy such music. Can you listen to nature’s music with an angry face? You automatically find yourself relaxing and responding with joy.</p>
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||||
<p>When you roam the valleys, climb the mountains, and enjoy the tiny flowers, plants and animals, will God accuse you of wasting time and tell you to get back to work? No, I am sure He would be happy to see you appreciate His handiwork and say, “Bravo! I am proud of you.”</p>
|
||||
<p>Each tree has its own history. One tree might tell you, “My ancestor was in the Garden of Eden, and one night Adam and Eve climbed up in its branches and slept there” We must become men and women who can value God’s living museum better than any man-made museum. If you express such appreciation, won’t heaven be your ultimate destiny?</p>
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||||
<p>You should wake up each morning with this heart of gratitude. Look around at nature and open up your spiritual eyes; you will see all nature bowing down to you, greeting you and pleading with you to caress it. It will invite you, just like a little puppy begging its master to pet it. Trees, flowers, and all plants long to be touched by their true masters. People who can appreciate this true museum as a gift from God are close to perfection. Such people are entitled to receive God’s love and God’s bounty. Can you feel what I am talking about?</p>
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||||
<p>Some people might wonder why the omnipotent and almighty God created poisonous snakes. They think the world could do without them. Furthermore, rose bushes have lots of thorns, and when you go to cut the blossoms, you may get pricked by the thorns. So you wonder why God created roses with thorns. Actually, thorns are necessary to educate people. If the roses had no protection, people would try to ruin them, and some greedy person would pick them all. But since the bush has thorns, only appreciative hands can take the flowers. Roses have sweet fragrance as well as thorns; the two come together. Whenever there is something precious, God creates some security devices to protect it! God thought, about everything.</p>
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||||
<p>Then what about the snakes? Poisonous snakes love sunny spots, just the kind of place where everybody would like to go for a nap. The poisonous snake says, “Well, I we! here first; when you come here to take a nap, you have to be careful. You should be very courteous and humble when you ask me to relinquish the spot!” Snakes dwell in place. favored by somewhat wild people-like the settings of some’ Western movies! But since snakes may be around, the people there have to be a little more decent and careful; they have to appreciate things more. So even the snake is needed, isn’t it?</p>
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<p>Too much indolence is not good. When people find a spot with good water, they should be careful because there might be a snake nearby. So is the snake God’s mistake, or is it acceptable as part of God’s creation?</p>
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||||
<p>From another point of view, it has been discovered that the venom of some snakes can be used as a curative. When venom enters your bloodstream, it endangers you and may kill you; but taken through the digestive system, it can become an incredible cure-all! In the Orient, snake poison is a very precious medicine. People catch poisonous snakes, extract the venom, and put it in a kind of liquor; it can be preserved for several years and used as a strong curative drink.</p>
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||||
<p>So all creation has a purpose and reason for existence. The overall reason is that God created the world for men and women to enjoy. Look around in all four directions. Look at the trees, plants, river, sun. For whom was the sun created? For you and me. What about the moon? God created it for you and me. When you say “me,’ don’t just think of yourself, but think about God who created the sun and moon for all things of creation; think about God who created the mountains, rivers and plants for Adam and Eve. That “me” is the center of all creation. All the gifts of the universe are given to “me” You are the recipient of all this bounty, but what a pity if the recipient doesn’t care about accepting it, doesn’t even look at it, and spends all his time preoccupied with trivial affairs! You should open your arms wide like a receiver. Practice it. You are about to welcome the entire universe between your arms. Say, “Thank you, Father” Doesn’t it feel good? Just to think about it makes you feel good, but when it truly happens to you, how much more joy will you feel!</p>
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||||
<p>Therefore I really love nature. The birds are my dear, good friends. I have pursued birds for many, many miles. Sometimes when a very friendly bird which has been singing to you every day flies away, you feel even sadder than when your parents leave, because your parents don’t sing for you every morning like the bird does!</p>
|
||||
<p>Look at a butterfly visiting one flower after another. Feel like a butterfly and join it in its tour. One time I got so caught up in that feeling that I became exhausted. Then, Lying down on a flower bed, I fell asleep and went immediately to the spirit world. In my dream, I was flying like a butterfly or honeybee, and all the other butterflies and honeybees were following me like a flock of birds. It was an incredible scene. Looking at us, God smiled and laughed with great joy and exclaimed, “My son, you really know what I have created!”</p>
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||||
<p>I have entered the spirit world many, many times. In this world, tigers and lions are considered fierce animals and are feared as killers. But in the spirit world, I could jump around among the lions and tigers. If I hit a lion on its hip, it runs away. It isn’t a vicious or hostile animal at all! I have even ridden around on a lion’s back.</p>
|
||||
<p>The Unification Church is sometimes thought of as a weird church, because it has such an extraordinary leader like me who thinks of such incredible things and proclaims them on the Day of All Things!</p>
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||||
<p>Right now I am middle-aged. I have become a little overweight, with a big belly! But when I was young I was very slim. Often I was so hungry that I felt the sides of my stomach sticking together. Those were such hungry times, but I was so intoxicated in give and take with nature that I forgot my hunger. And after exhilarating interaction with nature, I fell asleep with a hungry stomach. Then in my dreams, angels from God came with food, bread, Korean rice cakes, and even flower cakes. They brought me the most beautiful flowers right from heaven. What was more amazing was what the flower cake said to me: “Father, please take me and put me in your mouth; I will be very delicious for you. I will go to your stomach and work a lot of miracles for you. Please eat me” All the food was urging me to eat it. Every little cake was yelling and jumping up and down, begging to be eaten first. So I ate them one after the other. Then when I woke up, I no longer felt hungry. My stomach felt solid and full, and I was charged with energy!</p>
|
||||
<p>But I must stop talking here. This conversation could go on and on, and all of you would be lifted up out of this world! I seldom talk about these experiences, but today I have given you a little taste. Do you want more?</p>
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||||
<p>According to the Bible, all things of creation are in deep grief, but why? I want you to understand that all living things are truly alive and that they have feelings. It is our mission as Unification Church members to restore all things to their original position, so they will be liberated from their groaning and travail. We must restore them to their rightful position before God and man, so that they can finally be enjoyed and valued. Originally there was no need to fertilize plants; everything was-supposed to grow in a healthy way and bear fruit. What nature needs is human love. Creation is waiting and longing for your love. When people love nature, their love becomes the fertilizer and nutrients plants need to grow. Your love is like an injection of special energy that can boost a plant’s vigor for two or three years! This is the best food nature can receive. Nature is waiting for love. Nature is thirsty for love.</p>
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||||
<p>What nature is looking for is loving people, people from whom it can receive that kind of love. When you walk in nature with a heart filled with love, you will never get hungry. When you have love, there is plenty of food out there.</p>
|
||||
<p>If you have been fundraising all day out of duty, you become exhausted; but when you do it out of love, you never get tired. I know that many of you have been fundraising to get ready for your wedding. I know how tough that is! One’s wedding can be a challenging experience; you may be wondering how difficult it will be to spend your entire life with your spouse. I understand that many people are discouraged. But my advice is to do it with love; love will give you a special injection of energy and keep you from getting tired or bored.</p>
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||||
<p>I look at everything with a sense of love. I see nature, trees, all things, people, and even Bo Hi Pak with the eyes of love. I can look at Bo Hi Pak’s face for several hours every morning and never get bored! Nature trained me how to love. When I look at things from the angle of love, everything is exciting; nothing bores me. When I look at a person with this kind of heart even before he speaks I know exactly why he came, what his problems are, and what he will speak about. This is not some special magic; it is the love of God. Love harmonizes everything, love permeates everything, love embraces everything, love imbues one with all knowledge and power.</p>
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||||
<p>What is the secret of my being able to match hundreds of couples from around the world? Simply having a loving heart. Love is everything, love has knowledge and power, love can penetrate and understand everything, love endows one with a vision of the future. Because I can match with such a heart I am the world’s greatest match-maker. Aren’t you glad of that?</p>
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||||
<p>I have two different reputations. Some people say that I am an excellent matchmaker and others call me a bad one. Those who call me a bad matchmaker simply don’t know the facts. After you have lived together for three years, you will discover why I matched you and your spouse, and you can come back and report to me!</p>
|
||||
<p>Sunlight illuminates a person’s surface, while x-rays allow one to see the bones; x-rays penetrate the interior. I have not only sunlight vision, but also x-ray vision! That’s true. I can see much more than just the surface of a person.</p>
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||||
<p>Look at what I am doing today on the worldwide level. Extraordinary, gigantic things are going on. Sometimes they are controversial. I can initiate such things because I can see into the future. It doesn’t matter what people may say now, I can see the end result of activities. Ten years ago when I announced the foundation of certain far-reaching programs, many people thought I was crazy. But now, in hindsight, they realize how prophetic my words were and that my decisions were correct.</p>
|
||||
<p>Where did all these things begin? In the history of love. Love is omnipotent and omnipresent. The most elementary force of all things is love. Such insight helps you realize how precious each individual is. Every one of you is so precious.</p>
|
||||
<p>I have heard that some women wake up every day and curse their face. “Why did my mouth have to be shaped like this? And why is my nose so flat? Why didn’t God make me different?” It’s not good to hate yourself like that. I want you to understand that your face is essential to the universe. Without your particular face in its particular configuration, the universe could not be perfected and completed. Therefore, how beautiful you are!</p>
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||||
<p>Suppose some hole in the universe needs to be filled, but no one could fit its exact shape. So God formed several faces which together fill that hole. That is why your face looks Just the way it does. It was made to match a particular space in the universe. Without you, that space could not be filled. This is really true. The whole creation needs to be perfected; every gap needs to be filled. So don’t complain. You are a unique segment of the creation! Even though you may not find your face beautiful, it should help you love yourself even more, because that means God specifically needed your unique face to fill a certain hole! Do you follow me?</p>
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||||
<p>Suppose you were creating a piece of sculpture. Do you think it is harder to make something beautiful, or something ugly? Actually it is much harder to make something ugly and irregular. Of course, to make a masterpiece of beauty is difficult, but it is even more challenging to make a masterpiece of ugliness.</p>
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||||
<p>In a beautiful portrait, a rather drab background is needed to make the face stand out. The combinations of light and shadow and many other elements work together to accentuate beauty in a painting. Light represents beauty and dark ugliness. Which is more beautiful: lifting one leg or standing on both legs? You might say that a raised leg represents beauty and the one on the floor ugliness, but you need both in order to walk! Alternating right and left feet is normal when you walk, but it is possible to walk in strange ways as well. Often when you put your right foot forward, your left hand is extended, but you could do that differently too. In dancing, partners alternate their movements, so even dancing shows the harmony of beauty and ugliness.</p>
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||||
<p>How can you know someone is beautiful unless there is an ugly person to compare him or her with? There is a saying that to look at the face of a beautiful woman will bring bad luck that day. There is another saying that a beautiful woman lacks blessings, because she had to pay for her beauty with her blessings; she is poor in blessings, because they were used up in her appearance!</p>
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||||
<p>We have been talking about appreciating the things of nature, but what about our fellow human beings? Should we love them or disregard them? You men can’t pick out another man and say you will spend the rest of your life just with him. You all need to research many different kinds of people. If you analyze ten different types of people, you can understand everyone in the world, because everyone fits into one of ten or so different types. If you investigate deeply into someone who has a certain kind of face, whenever you meet anybody with the same type of face, you can predict his or her character with 80 to 90 percent accuracy. So think of other people as objects for character research!</p>
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||||
<p>I have researched this person, Bo Hi Pak, very well; after studying him and his wife I could predict how their children would turn out. It’s good to study other people and learn all you can about them.</p>
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||||
<p>Unless you can love nature, however, you will be unable to love other people. Think about your spouse. You are going to live together for eternity, so will every single day be a sweet, honeyed experience? Some days you won’t even want to look at your spouse’s face! Don’t you suppose you might sometimes get bored with each other? Before you tire of each other, however, you should learn to know his or her characteristics well. For instance, you may realize that your wife has a mouth like a machine gun; once it opens, it fires words like bullets and nothing can stop it! But at the same time you recall that she has a beautiful nose. So when she opens her mouth to shoot bullets, just focus on her lovely nose and take comfort from it! Or if she has lovely eyes, focus on them when you feel in danger of getting tired of her.</p>
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||||
<p>Some people consider fat persons totally unattractive. But heavier women do have larger bosoms and broader curves in general. If your wife is overweight, learn to appreciate those aspects of her. An additional advantage of having a heavy spouse is that you can lie down and rest on him or her; they are nice and soft when you need a pillow! So research and discover the strong points of each other.</p>
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||||
<p>No matter how great a genius you may be, it still takes from three to seven years to know another person well. You can look at his or her eyes, nose, mouth and ears and compare them with those features in other people. That in itself is an incredible research project. It’s also interesting toe compare the various ways people laugh. Each individual has a unique style of laughing. Some people are unattractive or even ugly when they aren’t smiling, but as soon as they begin to laugh they light up and look very special. I always match such a woman to a man who can make her laugh a lot- someone who will tell her Jokes from morning to night. Such a couple will be balanced and their home will be happy.</p>
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<p>Have you analyzed your fiancé this deeply? Do you really know every little detail about him or her? Have you studied the way he or she walks, the shape of the feet, hands, etc.? I can give you a demonstration of a multitude of ways of walking! Your fiancé should be the subjects of your research. Stupid men and women look at only a small part of the body: the face. But the face is far from everything. Actually, the neck is more important than the face! You women admire a man’s broad shoulders, don’t you? And you men find women’s features very attractive!</p>
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<p>Even a person’s hands are important in everyday activities. Is it better to laugh or to eat, for instance? You couldn’t survive if you spent your whole life only laughing. You need your hands to bring food to your mouth, and later to help clean up the waste. So the hands participate in both the best times and the worst times! Use your right hand for the best times, and your left hand for the worst times.</p>
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||||
<p>No matter how good looking a man may be, with fine shoulders, torso, etc., if his leg or foot is crippled, he is almost like a house with a poor foundation. Some things aren’t very noticeable, but I can tell a lot about people Just by watching how they walk.</p>
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||||
<p>Some of you have already concluded that you cannot accept your match, even though you have never lived together or even gotten to know each other. You have even asked me for new matches, but I have said that is ridiculous, since you don’t even know each other. Sometimes I have counseled engaged couples who have come to see me at East Garden. “Did you know your fiancé had this or that characteristic?” I ask them. Both have been completely surprised, because they haven’t gotten to know each other at all. They knew far less about each other than I knew about them.</p>
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||||
<p>I am an expert on human beings, in a way, because I have dealt with so many different people throughout my life. Many people have betrayed me, and many have been completely loyal; some have exploited me. All kinds of people have come and gone, and I have studied and researched every one of them. My mind is very analytical, and I never let any experience pass me by without observing it closely and learning from it. I have considered millions of situations and human variables. So I have millions of mental “index cards” that I can pull out and refer to when I match people. I can see that someone with one kind of nature will need a spouse with a particular characteristic. That is how I match couples.</p>
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||||
<p>To make a long story short, let’s say your fiancé turned out to be a large, broad woman, and you immediately thought of her as undesirable. But suppose she (or he) has an incredibly warm and wide heart of pure love. Then what would you say? On the other hand, many women with beautiful faces possess only a flat, shallow love. Through my research I have learned that the love of an ugly woman is very round and possesses great depth and nobility. It’s easy to stand on net love, while spherical love is harder to balance on, but which kind of love would you prefer in your mate? Certainly, spherical love is better.</p>
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||||
<p>So if you think your fiancé is more attractive than you, you ate most likely getting net love. But if he or she is uglier than you, you are most likely getting spherical love. This rule of thumb applies to both men and women. When you learn to love a fiancé whom you previously disliked intensely, you will give birth to the greatest of children.</p>
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||||
<p>There is a universal law that everything eventually evens out. One generation may look very beautiful, while the next one is ugly. There is a universal up and down motion that causes things to even out. If you are in the upper range now, you can expect to go down.</p>
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||||
<p>Tall men are often attracted to short women, and thin men to heavy women, and vice versa. Someone with big hands will seek a mate with small hands. A big-nosed man married to a big-nosed woman might produce a little Pinocchio! Some men with strong faces need a wife with a soft, vulnerable, innocent face. I have analyzed all the different races and nationalities, thinking which ones make the best combinations. Harmony is the key factor.</p>
|
||||
<p>Love is the basis and foundation for everything. You need to learn to look at nature and the universe-as well as at each other-with the eyes of love. You may ask your parents, “Dad, why did you choose Mother? What is so good about her?” There must have been some reason why they were attracted to each other.</p>
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||||
<p>What characteristic do you suppose Mother finds most attractive in me? What would she consider my most unique, lovable point? I would like to know what you think! I can well imagine, but I won’t tell you, because I cannot speak for her unless she is here.</p>
|
||||
<p>But I know precisely what I like about Mother, from A to Z. Do you think I have yet to appreciate all her good characteristics 100 percent? No, not yet. That means I have to continue doing research and make more effort to understand and cherish her. Even by the time I die, I don’t think my research will be finished. Therefore, there is no time to be bored, because so many things remain to be learned.</p>
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||||
<p>By the same token, there are many aspects of me that Mother still has to learn about. She is always telling me, “Father, how do you find so many different things to talk about? I thought you would have run out of stories yesterday after speaking for seven hours, but here you are giving another sermon!” She is constantly amazed at the depths of my thought.</p>
|
||||
<p>Mother has some standard by which she measures people. When she looks for an ideal daughter-in-law or son-in-law, she looks at them with those criteria. I also have certain standards that I use to select a daughter-in-law or son-in-law.</p>
|
||||
<p>No matter how ugly your fiancé may be, still he or she is the supreme form of creation and therefore more special than anything else in nature. He or she is the crowning glory of God’s masterpieces of creation. You may call upon the things of creation to sing a song for you and they would be unable to comply, but your fiancé could. So unless you are able to love nature, you cannot love other people.</p>
|
||||
<p>You may look at sparrows and think that each one has exactly the same kind of eyes. But do you suppose the sparrows think that they all have identical eyes? When a sparrow looks at a human being, it may imagine that since they all have two eyes, one mouth and two ears, they all look alike! Do you think a sparrow can distinguish between John and Joe? People consider all sparrows are the same, and I’m sure sparrows think all people are alike, but when you look at other people, does everyone seem identical? When a flock of sparrows goes on a picnic, do you suppose they can distinguish their mate from the others in the group? I’m sure they can. What about their songs? To us, they all sound identical, but I’m sure a female can distinguish her mate’s voice. How do you know this is the case? It is logical, for one thing, and we can compare human and animal behavior. When birds hear humans sing, for instance, they probably can’t distinguish between Oriental and Western voices!</p>
|
||||
<p>There are great differences between the worlds of men and women. Biologically, all men resemble each other, and all women resemble each other. But beyond that, there are many incredible individual differences. When you listen to your fiancé talk, you can tell whether he or she is speaking out of worry, joy, depression, or hope-just by the tone of voice. Do you research such things? Even birds change their tones, so how much there must be to study in that area! A scholar will always dig deeper and deeper into his field of research; your field of research is your spouse.</p>
|
||||
<p>A woman who considers herself very well-qualified, with lots of talents and education, may look down on her husband as incapable and very unlike her. But if she really focuses on studying him, she will find incredible and unknown areas and discover truly superb things about him. So you are in no position to judge another person too quickly. Try writing a book about your husband; fill five diaries a year with nothing but observations about him!</p>
|
||||
<p>There are beautiful women here today, aren’t there? Look at the array of beautiful hair colors: black, brown, blonde, and so forth. Some men who were hoping to marry a blonde woman might be disappointed with a red-headed wife. But before you can say you are dissatisfied, you have to study the history of red hair. Dig back a few centuries into history and find out about all the incredible beauty that has come from red hair. Furthermore, check out all the great philosophers, artists and saints who had red hair. Then you can give your wife’s hair color a nickname: “The great scholar so-and-so’s hair color” Thus you can always associate her red hair with that of a great historical figure.</p>
|
||||
<p>There is a great variety in how people laugh. Some women show off their whole mouth when they laugh, while others hardly open their lips. You may not be able to study how people in the past laughed, but you can study contemporary people and learn all about the varieties of laughing faces. Then you can compare your discoveries with your wife. You might discover that some famous person laughs exactly the way your wife does. There must be some reason why he or she became famous!</p>
|
||||
<p>You can study the many varieties of shapes of noses. You can examine the eyebrows, the jaw, the forehead, the neck. Have you studied all the aspects of your fiancé? If you only look at the outside of a house, how can you call it bad without going inside? You would be very foolish. Suppose a house looks bad both inside and out, but somewhere inside is a secret safe containing a special treasure. Even if the house is totally demolished, that special safe will provide you with the means to live.</p>
|
||||
<p>Actually everybody has a treasure, a special safe within them. I have a special safe, just like each of you. You need to dig out that value, that treasure place, and polish it, enhance it, cherish it, and live forever in love. That is the beauty of marriage. Value is something that always needs to be connected. The value of a man needs to be connected with the value of a woman. Mankind’s value needs to be connected with the value of nature.</p>
|
||||
<p>Today, on this Day of All Things, I am speaking about these things because people haven’t known anything about their universe, about nature, about God’s creation, about the spirit world, or even about human beings. So our attitude should be to explore and love, love and explore each other. Adam and Eve were schooled in the living museum of nature; that was their great source of education.</p>
|
||||
<p>In ten more days, a historical event will take place in New York. This is an occasion of world-wide importance. You will be participants in this incredible event. Do you think it will happen again and again? Suppose I bless you on July I and then die on July 2. Then what would happen? Don’t you see the uniqueness of this opportunity? You must grab it by any means possible, even if only by a stick or pole! Participation in this historical event is in itself the greatest of honors.</p>
|
||||
<p>Just being admitted into Harvard is already a great honor, whether you attend for four years, six years, or whatever. If you really think of the value of the Blessing, it transcends imagination. Even if your fiancé were like the Elephant Man or the ugliest, most disabled woman, to walk down the aisle and be sprinkled with water by the True Parents is a historical marriage.</p>
|
||||
<p>You may have traveled the world looking for a loving woman, without being able to find one. Suppose you are given a document by the King of love, certifying that you are a master of love and that you have loved all of creation and even the spirit world. Still, you would need to find someone of the opposite sex with whom to relate. Without consummating that kind of relationship, nothing is really fulfilled.</p>
|
||||
<p>Your attitude should be: “July 1 is the day on which God will finally give me the person through whom I can consummate my love” You will be participating in an incredible, unique and holy opportunity. You should be able to declare, “I have graduated in loving nature and creation and in loving the entire spirit world. Now I have found the person whom I can love for the rest of my life and throughout eternity. Therefore, I am going to devote every ounce of my energy in loving my mate”</p>
|
||||
<p>July I should be your day of declaration and new beginning. On that day, tell the world and the universe that you will love your mate more than anybody you ever loved in your life. Then when you walk through Madison Square Garden to the notes of the Wedding March you will not look at your fiancé and think, “I wish his (or her) face were a little bit better” How could you imagine such a thing? Your spouse is better than anything in nature; your spouse far surpasses the birds and trees. On that day, your love must be unconditional. Everything you see in him or her should be beautiful to your eyes. That is how you should begin as a couple.</p>
|
||||
<p>During the period of growth, in late adolescence, everything in a person’s body and consciousness goes crazy. Teenagers are so sensitive; they can laugh at everything, and the next moment it all makes them cry. They can go crazy looking at someone’s eyes, mouth, ears, etc. They are unconditional, totally blinded by love. Love hits them like a torpedo. With such an unconditional, focused love you should embrace your spouse. Don’t ever step back to wonder why you ended up with this person.</p>
|
||||
<p>The man is like a positive electrical pole and the woman like a negative electrical pole. When they approach, sparks fly and everything is connected and fulfilled. Don’t you like that kind of love? Electricity doesn’t stop to evaluate things; when plus and minus come near, sparks automatically fly. All electricity needs is the wire.</p>
|
||||
<p>The Unification Church has always been known as a gathering place of unusual people. We don’t need anything other than love. We are the love race. Explosive men and women approach each other and melt everything around them, burning up every foreign object and leaving only the pure essence!</p>
|
||||
<p>Have you ever listened to the sound doves make when they are in love? They coo all night long. Do doves adore each other because of how they look? Does the female say she likes her mate because he looks so handsome? No, not at all. Love is precious in itself We are going to become crazy for love itself!</p>
|
||||
<p>Yesterday I spoke about first love and how it is most ideal for marriage to take place in the teenage years. During those years, all a man needs is a woman, and all a woman needs is a man. That accomplishes everything. Are you that kind of love-crazy people?</p>
|
||||
<p>Nature, too, is love-crazy. God created Adam and Eve for the fulfillment of that very ideal, but it was never consummated. We are in the position to complete it. From now on, let this be a time of repentance. Whoever has a wishy-washy attitude about your fiancé, please repent now, beginning today. Liquidate your past and open a new diary of your relationship today. Base it on what I spoke about today. You are bound to improve and eventually perfect your relationship.</p>
|
||||
<p>Today is the Day of All Things, the celebration of all the gifts God prepared for mankind but which had no proper master to receive them. Today we are pledging ourselves to become worthy recipients, true Adams and Eves, so that we can deserve those gifts. We must consummate the ideal which God intended us to reach. Nature and mankind together long to accomplish the ideal for which God created us.</p>
|
||||
<p>We must fulfill the ideal standard of love. The love of Adam and Eve should have set the standard of love for the entire universe. They were the core, the center. But there has been a vacuum throughout history. Therefore, we must set that standard today. You are the ones to set that standard.</p>
|
||||
<p>On July 1, you should meet that ideal standard and join with your ideal mate. As we celebrate this Day of All Things in anticipation of this historical Blessing, all nature can be deeply inspired and rejoice with us. Those who want to pledge to consummate the true standard of Adam and Eve’s love on July 1, to become the flag bearers of heaven and liberate the grief of all things, enabling them to rejoice under their true masters-raise your hands. Amen!</p>
|
||||
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,84 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
title: "THE DEEP DESIRE OF OUR ORIGINAL NATURE"
|
||||
type: "speech"
|
||||
published: "2018-06-22T06:04:40+01:00"
|
||||
updated: "2018-06-22T06:04:40+01:00"
|
||||
source: "/blog/2018/06/22/the-deep-desire-of-our-original-nature.html"
|
||||
speechYear: "1982"
|
||||
categories:
|
||||
- "Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982"
|
||||
tags: []
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
<h2 align="CENTER">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
|
||||
<h3 align="CENTER">February 14, 1982<br />
|
||||
Belvedere<br />
|
||||
Translator – Sang Kil Han</h3>
|
||||
<p>What is the desire of our original nature? When you say “nature” to most people, it conveys something they can see, something which is manifested. In other words, “nature” refers to the result, rather than the cause. But when you say “original nature,” you are referring more to the cause than the result. What is the deep desire of that original nature?</p>
|
||||
<p>It is generally understood that there is some general background or cause for a person’s nature; something which formed it. The direction of the effect is determined according to that cause. The destiny and direction of the result will be different, according to its cause. This is also true with individuals. People receive certain surnames from their parents, such as Smith or Jones. The way they are formed from their parents is different also; each individual comes from a different cause from which he takes a certain direction and moves toward a certain destination. We can see this in the fact that some people like a certain thing, while other people don’t like it at all.</p>
|
||||
<p>The universe is a big sphere. We as individuals are in that sphere. All spherical shapes have a central point from which a line can be drawn outward in all directions, as on a graph. Each person has a certain position within the largest sphere, and he forms his own sphere, centering on that central core. From that point he will proceed toward a certain direction, according to what he inherited from his ancestors. Another person at approximately the same point within the larger sphere might take an opposite direction; it depends upon what he inherits.</p>
|
||||
<p>You as individuals within the giant sphere of the universe occupy a certain position; some of you will go toward the north, others will go toward the west, and so forth. But when the person who heads west reaches the limits of the west, he has to do one of two things: either he can stop there, and cease to move, or he can change directions and keep moving. We know that everything in motion wants to perpetuate itself; without exception, everything wants to keep moving and continue forever. Since we are talking about a sphere, the person who has reached the limits of the direction of west can turn to the north and then turn back toward the east.</p>
|
||||
<p>If a person is willing to think, “I have been going in a western direction and it is very meaningful to me, but I can also go east; I am flexible,” then he can keep moving. If he insists upon going to the west however without flexibility, then he is really in trouble when he reaches the limits of the west. He will be forced by the nature of the sphere to change his direction. Perhaps he will be pushed toward the south. He can then do one of two things: either he can allow himself to be absorbed by the environment of the south, or he himself can digest the environment of that new direction. The person who is moving toward the east may feel the same way: “I will move in an easterly direction and I will never deviate from it.” But unless that person can move to a new direction once he has reached the limits of the east, he cannot continue to progress.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why should it be necessary for someone who has been going in a western direction to start going to the east? Why can’t he just ignore the east and keep moving west? It is the will of the universe, which is in the shape of a sphere, to maintain that spherical nature. Therefore, changes of direction are necessary.</p>
|
||||
<p>Here I am, Reverend Moon, an Oriental man. People wonder, “Why doesn’t he stay in the Orient? Why did he come to the west and face all this criticism?” Externally, there are many barriers for people to understand this, but internally I am well understood and able to communicate. Your original nature, your true nature, can estimate your own value, the value of Reverend Moon, and the value of the relationship you can have by uniting with me. Although I came from the east, it is also important for me to move toward the west.</p>
|
||||
<p>When a person goes a certain way and he comes to another person’s property, he must ask for permission to enter that property. He can’t just enter freely. When you are asking to enter another person’s property, you must tell him, “I will obey the rules in your territory.” The same thing applies to the existence of men and women. If a woman says, “I am sufficient unto myself. Why should I need a man?” She does not understand her need to move in a different direction. Or a woman may have been searching seriously for a man, but once she finds him she tells him, “Now that we are together, you must do things the way I want.” Certainly, the man would not like such a woman. In other words, her movement towards another direction-towards a man-only came to a certain point. She cannot actually enter into the territory of a man if she has such an attitude.</p>
|
||||
<p>By the same token, a man who has been in search of a woman must be willing to accept her and behave in a way that pleases her. Otherwise he too stops right there and does not actually enter into the territory of a woman. He does not actually change his direction.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why should men and women live according to the desires of the other? By doing so, they make a spherical movement, not a linear one, and there will be no end to their movement. They will continue forever. While they move in a spherical manner, they are headed in a certain direction or along a certain path. When a man and a woman are in perfect harmony with one another, they are able to go as a couple to any place in the world and adapt, no matter where it is. That couple might move toward the east and say, “This is what we want. We don’t want to go to the west.” But once their motion has brought them all the way to the end of the east then there is nowhere else for them to go; they will stop right there and cease to develop.</p>
|
||||
<p>Again, we need to ask why we must be able to change our direction from east to west. Why do we actually need the opposite direction? It is because we need to keep moving and a spherical motion requires that we embrace the opposite direction.</p>
|
||||
<p>All living things move like a spiral which is small at the center and large on the outside. We breathe in and out; all living things go through the motion of shrinking and expanding. This phenomenon ensures that the central point will eventually move to the outside and the outer point will eventually move to the inside. If we draw a large circle and trace a spiral from the outer rim gradually moving inward, we will eventually reach the core. From here, the movement can only go in the opposite direction, retracing in the spiral until it returns to a point on the outer surface.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why does this spiral motion lead toward the center point, the core? Since the cause lies in that direction, the result is naturally drawn to that central point where the cause is. Then, the spiral also moves outward because the inner cause naturally moves out towards its result. The spiral moves outward and becomes big, then it moves inward and becomes small. A point will lie in the outer position, then it will move to the inner position, while another point moves from the inner to the outer position. This is the natural way of movement.</p>
|
||||
<p>Our bodies go through this normal shrinking and expanding in the exercise of muscles. People breathe in different ways; some people take in a deep, long breath but exhale in short puffs. Others take in a short, strong breath which takes a long time to exhale. The earth itself expands and shrinks; A line moving up and down in a wave would represent the normal kind of motion, not a straight line.</p>
|
||||
<p>What can we understand by realizing that the inner and outer points on the spiral must be connected? We can see that we must be connected to the rest of the universe and have a relationship with it. For instance, do you only want to be recognized by others in your school, or by everyone in the United States, or even by the whole world? Ask yourself why you want to be recognized on the largest scale. You might not know why. Actually, the reason is that by being recognized by the largest element you will be connected with it and can move out to the largest level of value.</p>
|
||||
<p>Another way of expressing your desire for recognition from the world is by saying that it is only natural to want to relate with the cause of your being. It is good to go back to our cause in order to participate in the value of the whole universe. Your value as an individual can be involved in the value of the universe. If you pluck out a strand of hair from one person’s head. to whom does it belong? The hair is found in one place on the body, but the elements of that hair are contributed by the whole body.</p>
|
||||
<p>All beings are perpetually in a spiral, spherical motion, homing back to their cause. We can draw a spiral, beginning at the outer rim and going to the inner point, but we can also draw a straight line leading from the outer point directly to that inner point. You might ask, “Why not take this direct way to get to our cause? That is the shortest distance.” But the universe doesn’t work in that way. Only in a drawing can we move in such a straight line, not in the realm of the ideal.</p>
|
||||
<p>Where should I go after having been here in the west? I will go to South America and Africa, then to the north and such countries as Russia. There is work that needs to be done in the southern and northern countries. When a person goes to another country, he has two options: either to be absorbed by that country or to digest everything there. I came here to the United States, traditionally a place where other cultures are quickly absorbed. Have I been absorbed or have I tried to influence America to become a better place?</p>
|
||||
<p>America has been going in a certain direction, and Americans feel it is the best direction because they have always been successful. Americans don’t even want to accept the suggestion that they ought to move in other directions. They insist that America is the greatest and they refuse to think that any other nation can be great or is worth understanding or learning from. Actually, according to Principle that viewpoint will never work. If a nation moves forward in one direction, when it comes to the end of that direction it simply will perish if it is not willing to change. This is the law of the universe.</p>
|
||||
<p>I have been teaching you Westerners that you must change your direction. After coming to the limits of the west, you must go toward the south. The people of southern countries are predominantly dark-skinned. Can you digest that? If Americans go to the southern counties with the attitude that their way is superior and black people should bow down to them, this is not good. This is the same attitude manifested by the man who refuses to harmonize with the woman, which I explained earlier. Of course, the woman will not accept that man so he will be isolated. If the western people refuse to recognize the value of any other direction, saying, “We have been going in this direction and we have no intention of changing,” then they are going to be isolated, with no place to go.</p>
|
||||
<p>All over the world there is strong anti-American sentiment. Some nations are very bitter towards America. You, of course, sitting here in the heart of New York and the coziness of the American culture, can never know until you are exposed to that feeling. Somebody has to point out this fact and tell Americans, “You have been successful so far, but you must recognize that you have come to the end of this direction and you have to turn and go another way.” Who in the world can teach Americans this important lesson? Why do I do it? America was started from a certain cause and has come to a certain result. Now the spiral must begin to turn inward toward the original cause. Perhaps someone is agreeable to finding God, but still he wants to continue to expand himself. However, to go inward toward the cause means that one must become smaller. The spiral motion can go inward only by shrinking, not expanding; therefore, modesty has been traditionally considered a virtue. A selfish person is not normally a modest or humble person. By becoming smaller, a person can return to that cause in the center.</p>
|
||||
<p>Sometimes a person may be criticized for being too humble. He may be told, “You should express yourself more; reach out to the world and give yourself more.” Such a person has become small, and has gone to the inside of the spiral, but then he has to move out again to the outer part, toward the result level. Once he has gone all the way down to the smallest point, there is no other direction to go but up and out. If he lingers and doesn’t want to go out, someone will come and push him.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why must there be continual motion? This is the nature of eternity; and eternal motion is the purpose of all movement. Once the cause and the effect have become one with each other in perfect harmony, they can move in any direction, as in the example of the harmonized couple who will be welcomed anywhere in the universe.</p>
|
||||
<p>As a human being and a small universe, you have within yourself a mind which is the cause, and a body which is the result of your mind. They want to be in motion. The mind wants to express itself and get outside of itself through the body. The body wants to get inside of the mind. Who is subject and who is object? The one who takes initiative is the subject, so the mind is subject over the body. Sometimes the body will refuse to respond to the mind. The general nature of Satan, as we know, is to resist ever becoming smaller. Once he is up, he never wants to go down. But the true, original nature of man works according to the principle of perpetual motion from inside to outside, from up to down.</p>
|
||||
<p>If this is true, do Western people need Eastern people? Yes, because both directions are required within the sphere of the earth. By going around in a circular motion we change positions and occupy different places. The one who gets closest to the center is the one who is adaptable and willing to go in all four directions no matter how difficult it may be. That kind of element is qualified to be closest to the center. There might be a small, humble woman who is close to that central point; but by just looking at her others might not be able to see how good a person she is. However, she actually has the quality of beautiful adaptability to all four directions.</p>
|
||||
<p>She never demands for herself but is always harmonious within all four different directions, able to digest them all. Even if she doesn’t realize it, as such a person continues to move she will eventually end up at that central position.</p>
|
||||
<p>Do you need yourself, or do you need your neighbor more? If you are a Westerner, whom can you learn the most from-another Westerner or a Northerner, Easterner or anyone from another direction? We come to the inevitable conclusion that because of this principle, all people must live for the sake of others.</p>
|
||||
<p>A student may be asked why he goes to school and he may answer, “Because I want to promote my position in life. I want to marry a better person and have a better life.” Such an answer is not universal. The better answer would be, “I go to school so that I can have more to offer in service to my nation and the world.” That actually makes more sense.</p>
|
||||
<p>If an individual starts out in a very humble way, moving step by step up the ladder of success until he becomes a rich man of great influence, eventually he returns those accomplishments to his cause, his parents. Even though the whole world may be willing to bow down before a man of greatness and influence, will he demand the same attitude from his own parents? No, he will still have to be humble to his parents, like the day he was born. This is natural, more so than someone trying to remain in a lofty position and never wanting to go back to his origins.</p>
|
||||
<p>In the English language, there is no simple word which expresses the idea, “Please go out and come back soon.” But in Korean, with just one word you can say it. (Tonyo oseyo) It is a common word which parents say to their children, meaning, “Go out and come back quickly” and is a way of wishing their child well. Implied in such a wish is the knowledge that unless you are welcomed by the world, you cannot go out and come back quickly. So they want the world to welcome their child.</p>
|
||||
<p>You may feel proud of your own eyes. Perhaps everyone tells you that they are beautiful. But do the cells of the eye feel isolated from the cells of the rest of the body? The eye is a part of the whole and it wants to be harmonious with the rest of the body.</p>
|
||||
<p>It is a common desire for parents to send out their child to become successful, then to come back. An individual wants to go to the level of true family, for the original mind needs to reach that level before it can move on up to all the other levels. This is the standard way, and no one can change it. Some people might think, “I just don’t want to move up to other levels. I am very satisfied by myself. I don’t even want to reach for the family level.” If someone insists on such a position he will be miserable, eventually.</p>
|
||||
<p>Once a person reaches the world level, he must come back and make contact with the lower levels of the nation, society, tribe, family, and his spouse, then he is ready to move out toward the world level again. Such a person will be welcomed everywhere around the world, no matter where he goes. He will be sought after by all other peoples and cultures.</p>
|
||||
<p>Deep in our minds we know that this principle is the true way for a person to advance to his fullest potential. Do you support me in my desire to go to the south, after leaving the west? If I go to the southern countries, will you stay here? I’m sure you will want to go where I go; but since we cannot all go to the same place at the same time, we are spread all over the world and constantly changing positions with each other. But the objective of each person is that the spiral motion from outer to inner and from inner to outer is always in progress.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why do you go out witnessing so enthusiastically? Why do you do missionary work? You go out with a desire to get good results, but also you want to be able to come back and give a proud report to me. In that sense, you are coming back to the cause of your activity and not just staying at the level of the result. This is the way to unite the result with the cause.</p>
|
||||
<p>We know that man is not a causal being but a resultant being. Certainly any resultant being would want to know and become one with the world. Eventually, he would desire to go back to God, his ultimate causal being, and report all his experiences to Him, both good and bad. The resultant being wants to share his life with the causal being. Everything we do is part of this process of going back to our cause, which is God.</p>
|
||||
<p>Do you think this is something I made up, or do you think it may be true that returning to God is the ultimate path for all mankind? You have to have the right reasons for saying yes.</p>
|
||||
<p>Every existence or any pair of subject and object has to have these two tendencies: to move towards the center and to move towards the outer expression. Nothing is in motion at random. There are two controlling factors which determine the way everything moves. These two directions always exist to ensure the purposefulness of the object’s motion. One pushes the object in a certain way, the other pulls it in a certain way. In this manner the motion of going from the causal point to the resultant point is continually repeated. This is the way the universe moves.</p>
|
||||
<p>Your mind and body want to have good give and take during your life, so a person with that good give and take is a happy person. A man with that harmony wants and needs to meet a woman with that harmony. Together, they want to have the same kind of good give and take that they achieved between their individual minds and bodies.</p>
|
||||
<p>The ideal within the Church is to achieve a good give and take relationship between the subject and object. In this case, you receive direction from me and you work hard to achieve your goals. Then you return to me with your good results. In this way we can expand the influence of goodness to the largest level. Sometimes a person will live according to this ideal for a while, but then he may start to criticize the directions I give. Let me give an illustration of this. In baseball, the catcher stands behind the batter to catch every ball the pitcher throws. Does the catcher judge which balls he wants to catch? No, he tries with all his might to catch every ball that is pitched. Even when the pitcher throws a very fast curve ball, the catcher reaches out and may even turn all the way around in a circle as he catches it. No catcher will just stand still in front of a fast ball and try to stop its motion with a stiff arm. When he catches it with a turning motion, absorbing the strength of the pitch, his action contains a quality of beauty. You should think that when you make some motion, even just raising your hand, you are moving with the universe.</p>
|
||||
<p>This principle of motion applies to everything in a person’s life. Today many American youngsters have what they think is a great time, by just going off with their friends and ignoring their homes and families. If they are really having such a great time, then they would naturally come back home and have an equally great time with their parents and family. But unfortunately young people don’t regard their parents as being very valuable. They scorn them as being part of the “older generation” and even try to ignore them completely. This is not really a great life. The natural way of enjoying life for a young person is to go out and have a good time, then to return to his home and share his experiences with his grandparents and the whole family. It is not natural to go out and have a good time and then to come home and isolate oneself from one’s family. How can the grandparents and the parents really want such a child to come back home? It would be a very painful existence. If the youngster lives in his own world without sharing in a positive way, the family will feel very offended.</p>
|
||||
<p>Most intelligent people today don’t understand the universal reasons why it is good for a child to come back to his home, sharing his experiences in a positive way with his family. Now you know that going out and coming back in harmony is the law of the universe, and no one can live happily in violation of this law. Now you can understand that a person who lives according to this law is a person of health, a natural person. Such a person will be sought after by others who desire to learn from him the proper way to live. He will naturally become a teacher to all people who don’t know how to live naturally and harmoniously.</p>
|
||||
<p>This principle is the standard for what a man should be. The president of some country should not be decided by any external element such as what skin color he may have. The person who lives according to the law and standard of harmony should be the natural center and leader. He will be the one who is welcomed by everybody, not only in his country but also in the rest of the world. This is the criterion which God uses; it is also the standard of all living things of the universe. All the things of creation live by this standard. It is only natural, therefore, that the person who leaves the boundaries of this principle of harmony will gradually lose power.</p>
|
||||
<p>While a person is growing up, he gathers and absorbs all the elements of his environment; but once a person is grown and mature, he starts giving of himself to his surroundings. As people age they become smaller physically, not bigger. When a person dies, his body returns to the earth completely. Whether it is invisible or visible, everything is guided by this cycle.</p>
|
||||
<p>It is clear that the people who are recognized throughout history are those who did the most for the sake of the world. It doesn’t matter whether the person was from the east or west or black or white. Whoever gives the most for the sake of the world is the person the world wants to remember. Do you think I have come to a hasty conclusion here, taking a few examples and trying to make up some general statement? Actually, everything I have said here is applicable to your own life. Beyond this physical world of mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms the spirit world is guided by the same principles which I have been discussing. God Himself is guided by these principles. Once we as people are living according to the universal principles, we can begin to relate with God in an intimate way. We can talk with God, dance take with Him, and have deep, personal give and take with Him. All men, according to their own inherited characteristics, want to perfect their natures because they need to come back to that cause, God.</p>
|
||||
<p>Suppose there was to be a meeting of superior people from each part of the world. Do you suppose they would struggle among themselves to decide who is the best of the best? Can that be decided by fighting? Actually, the best person would have to be recognized by all the others on their own volition. The greatest person would be recognized as having something which all the rest want and lack, so naturally they would want him to be their leader. The person who possesses the universal characteristics of every direction is the one who is acknowledged by those from east, west, north and south. This is simply logical.</p>
|
||||
<p>The Unification Church has been training you to become such universal people. Well-educated western members have gone willingly to backward countries and offered their time and effort to help the people raise their standard of living.</p>
|
||||
<p>In the past, Western countries have sent out their best people to less developed nations only for the purpose of gaining dominion over those countries; but we have reversed that in the Unification Church. We take the best person and send him to the backward country to live in the worst position there. His purpose is to raise up all the people there to a better position, instead of raising himself over them and keeping them in their miserable situation.</p>
|
||||
<p>Are we going this direction simply out of a desire for something different? No, we do this because this is the original, true way, no matter how many people have gone in the other direction. There is no other way to go for the unity of the world. Do you think this is the solution? This is the law of the universe, and if anyone goes against it, he will eventually perish.</p>
|
||||
<p>I have sent missionaries from America, Germany, and Japan because they represent well-developed nations. They come from nations who have a history of never wanting to bow down to any others. I told them that the one among them who was most willing to sacrifice for the sake of others should be the leader.</p>
|
||||
<p>Let us consider the reality of the world situation today. If America continues along her current path, she will be totally despised by the poor nations. The black people of Africa who are struggling with poverty and misery will turn against predominantly white America. All the people around the world are beginning to wish bad things would happen to America. Even if they don’t express those thoughts, many people are wishing America would perish. They didn’t have such an idea twenty or thirty years ago. At that time, they looked toward America as their ideal. The terrible thing is that, as resentment toward America continues to spread, the voices of negativity will become stronger and stronger. According to the principle of the universe, if there are many, many people who wish you to decline there is no way to avoid that decline.</p>
|
||||
<p>If some person, nation, or entity boasts of its great success in the realm of result, unless it connects itself back to its cause-the central, internal part-that entity simply cannot continue to exist. This phenomenon is everywhere. In the American family there is a breakdown between inner and outer in the relationship between the younger and older generations. Also, there is rarely a feeling of good give and take between the American President and the citizens.</p>
|
||||
<p>Somehow people have come to use an economic standard as the measure of their success. Money and economic concerns are only the results. If this nation continues to be concerned only with money and resists connecting itself again with the causal element, the consequences will be terrible. There is nothing wrong with money and economic well-being, but why do we need money? If we want money only to enjoy ourselves and live well, then we are wrong. Money is the result of a fruitful cause and it is meant to serve the purpose of that cause. America needs its money only in order to make the world a better place-the way God would like it to be.</p>
|
||||
<p>The purpose of wealth is to make God happy when He looks at a healthy, good world. If you recognize this, then it is fine for you to acquire money. Even if your level of concern is only the nation and you want to use money in order to reverse the destructive trends in America, this is fine. Suppose someone wants to make his parents’ lives more comfortable and easy. This is good, too. Everybody will approve such a person having money because he will spend it for the sake of a larger purpose than just himself. If a person clings to his money for his own self-centered purposes, even his parents won’t approve of him.</p>
|
||||
<p>The person who lives for the sake of the whole world is welcomed in any place and has unlimited freedom of movement around the world. However, if a person wants to live in a small, self-centered way, all the other elements of the universe will wish him ill. Those self-made millionaires who only live to acquire wealth are never loved and welcomed by the world, especially if they hurt others in their quest for money. Such people are considered violators of universal law. Their success is not looked upon as a virtue but as a manifestation of their sinfulness.</p>
|
||||
<p>Money is not the only thing which falls under this principle. Knowledge, too, can be used properly or improperly, depending upon whether one uses it for the sake of others or just to advance his personal goals. Likewise with position and prestige. All these things must be guided by this principle of harmony, and then there is nothing wrong with them.</p>
|
||||
<p>When a person is living his life in violation of this principle, someone else who doesn’t seem to have much power may step up and criticize the unrighteous one. Eventually, the unrighteous person will become the loser, not the one who criticizes him. But now that we know the correct way to live we need not criticize others; the only thing we need to do is go the right way. We will make money and spend it for the sake of the world. If someone else doesn’t want to spend his money for the right purpose, leave him alone-certainly it cannot benefit him to live that way.</p>
|
||||
<p>It doesn’t matter who is great and powerful and wealthy today-those who live by the Principle are actually going to become the great people of the future. The way of the Principle is the way of success; the way of non-Principle is the way of decline. For whom do we go fundraising? Certainly we don’t do it for ourselves. The money which we raise is used for the sake of God and the world, the cause and the result. This activity is acceptable no matter where we go, according to universal law. Consider the money itself. Where does money want to go; where does it want to be spent? Certainly, the material world wants to be in the dominion of God and be used by Him. All things want to be used by the world and then return to God, moving in that universal spiral motion.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why do you want to witness? Once you have a successful experience, no one can keep you from witnessing. You are opening a way for other people to be connected with their cause, God. You are helping a person to find his path toward health and perfection. There is nothing more valuable that you can give to another person.</p>
|
||||
<p>A traffic policeman at a busy intersection is there to direct traffic in the most efficient way. That is your function, too. You are in the position to tell people what direction to go. How grateful people are when they find someone like you who can guide them through the wilderness of this world! As the spiritual “traffic cop” you can see that the great power of universal law is about to collide with your country. Naturally you must tell the country to stop moving in that direction. However, the people are ignorant and don’t know what is about to happen, so they want to keep moving forward. You must explain to them why they have to stop and show them sufficient reason. You have to explain to them, “If you go to the left, you will come to a decrepit bridge. If you go to the right, you will find a good highway.”</p>
|
||||
<p>People are seeking to find someone who really knows which direction they should take. When they find out that you really know what you are talking about, they will value you more than anyone else. If you are guiding people, you must do so with love. You must love them more than their own parents love them. In this way you will find yourself in the center of love; this is the greatest and most wonderful way to live. This way of life will lead you closer and closer to that central point, God.</p>
|
||||
<p>The topic of our speech has been, “The Deep Desire of Our Original Nature,” That original nature most deeply wants to go back to its center, its cause. This is the center of God’s realm of love where we can live for eternity. You were born for the purpose of returning to your center. Every single person has a deep desire within himself to return to his cause and center, God, but often his conscious mind isn’t aware of this. People are constantly being stopped by the world’s influence. This is why the most conscientious and sensitive people are often in agony-they want to go “somewhere,” but they don’t know where and they don’t know how. All they know is that they are not fulfilled. It is a very painful existence.</p>
|
||||
<p>Suppose someone has been fundraising with the MFT for three years, or even five years. He may feel, “My central figure doesn’t appreciate me and doesn’t recognize me. No one seems to realize my value.” He should be aware that God and the universe recognize his value, even better than his leaders. The same is true of my own situation. If I do something and work hard for the sake of others, but no one even acknowledges it, still I know that God understands my situation and He appreciates what I do.</p>
|
||||
<p>This year our motto is <em>“Victory of Home Church.”</em> We appreciate home church because it is the result of 6,000 years of religious history. Going successfully through the home church providence enables us to launch ourselves like a rocket back to our source, God. It literally took thousands of years to arrive at the point where we are. If you wanted to, you could spend another six thousand years retracing the steps of Biblical history, but if someone could guarantee that by going in a certain direction you could get back to God in a shorter time, wouldn’t you jump at the chance? This is the value of home church.</p>
|
||||
<p>I have been pushing you in a certain direction, and I recognize that it is difficult for you in the Western culture to change yourselves. Nevertheless, I push you forcefully to go a certain way. Why do you think I do this? Judged from a personal standpoint, I am losing much more than I am gaining. If I were living for my own benefit, I would never live in this way. I live this way because I know that I can teach you the solution to all the problems in life.</p>
|
||||
<p>We know that there is always a conflict between man’s true nature and his fallen nature; but you know that the deepest desire of your original nature is for God. You have discovered this for yourself; thus you understand a profound truth. You cannot say, “I understand that I need to go this way, but I don’t want to. Let someone else do it.” Knowing that your purpose is to go in the direction of God, it is normal to wish that someone would push you; you know that if you were left to your own weaknesses, you would never get there. It is of the utmost importance that we achieve our purpose and our goal of returning to God.</p>
|
||||
<p>Now that we understand these things, there should be much less reason to complain. You will not even want others to praise you by saying such things as, “He is a great witnesser.” You don’t want to hear that because God and the universe know that you are still far away from your perfection. You don’t want to hear a lot of praise and you don’t want to complain about your situation. You only want to go toward your goal, hoping that you can achieve it during your own lifetime. This is really all you want if you understand how important it is to reach your perfection.</p>
|
||||
<p>Those who resolve to go toward that goal, raise your hands. Thank you.</p>
|
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content/speeches/1982/the-harvest-season-for-gods-providence.md
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---
|
||||
title: "THE HARVEST SEASON FOR GOD'S PROVIDENCE"
|
||||
type: "speech"
|
||||
published: "2018-06-23T14:01:05+01:00"
|
||||
updated: "2018-06-23T14:01:05+01:00"
|
||||
source: "/blog/2018/06/23/the-harvest-season-for-gods-providence.html"
|
||||
speechYear: "1982"
|
||||
categories:
|
||||
- "Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982"
|
||||
tags: []
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
<h2 align="CENTER">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
|
||||
<h3 align="CENTER">September 19, 1982<br />
|
||||
Belvedere<br />
|
||||
Translator – Bo Hi Pak</h3>
|
||||
<p>The word “providence” is used in relation to several factors. Besides mankind, God, of course, is involved; and the planet earth is the place where the providence has unfolded. The earth represents the material world and mankind lives on top of that material foundation. God presides over all of mankind. Therefore, the three factors involved in the completion of the providence of God are earth, mankind and God, Himself.</p>
|
||||
<p>These three do not bear fruit separately but come together to bear fruit. There must be a season for the harvesting of their combined fruits, as well.</p>
|
||||
<p>When God began His creation of trees and plants, how many seeds do you think He created for each kind? Always God uses one perfect unit to initiate forms of His creation. He devised the pattern through which multiplication can occur: one seed multiplies and starts the infinite process of growth and multiplication.</p>
|
||||
<p>One seed is not just a solid entity because inside of it there are several elements. The aspects of plus and minus interact within a seed and produce a plant. When you peel off the cover of any seed, there are two pieces inside and in one corner there is the small germ or embryo of the plant which is to grow. These three elements are covered by the skin of the seed. The universe can actually be summed up in the beautiful microcosm of one seed.</p>
|
||||
<p>All of life exists like a seed; it has both plus and minus aspects, and also an embryo inside which is the origin of new life. The skin of the seed protects it from outside influences. By the same token, there is a protective “skin” around the universe and that skin is none other than love. The skin covers the seed tightly and prevents the two pieces of plus and minus from separating from each other.</p>
|
||||
<p>In mankind, love brings plus and minus together, covering them up and creating harmony between them. When plus and minus come together within the protective skin of love, the embryo, which is the origin of life, can sprout. The universe itself interacts with the tiny plus and minus within the seed. It is natural and even necessary that men and women love each other because in that way we, too, reflect the law of the universe and its strength.</p>
|
||||
<p>The earth has a north pole and a south pole and they exert a constant magnetic power or pull upon each other. Everything on the earth is pulled by that magnetic force. By the same token, everything in the universe is pulled by the magnetic force of love. When small pieces of metal are exposed to a magnet, they are pulled to it and stick there. Men and women are pulled together by the magnetic force of love; no matter how hard someone may try to resist that magnetic force, he cannot move outside of its influence. Everyone is pulled by it.</p>
|
||||
<p>It is because of the give and take between the poles of plus and minus that a magnet has the power to attract metal. As men and women we are pulled toward the core or the origin of life. The embryo is that core or original place where life springs forth. The embryo is linked with the force of the entire universe so the gigantic plus and minus of the universe ultimately affects the tiniest embryo. When energy touches the embryo, life bursts forth.</p>
|
||||
<p>A seed cannot create life all by itself. It must have a relationship with its surroundings. There must be fertile soil, moisture, and warm temperatures for that seed to grow. The soil is like a womb for the seed since it gives it birth. Within the seed, there is give and take between the plus and minus factors, out of which new life is born.</p>
|
||||
<p>What is the meaning of the word “lonely,” and why do we recognize that condition as undesirable? When you are all by yourself, without an object for give and take, you feel lonely. In a way that feeling is protection for you because it moves you to do something about it. If you never felt any pain from loneliness, you would be satisfied and complacent by yourself. Since it is painful to be lonely, however, you are driven to seek a partner with whom to share your life. In that way, loneliness is a protective feeling which pushes you to live parallel with universal law.</p>
|
||||
<p>Universal law pushes a child to seek out his mother or father when he gets lonely; when people grow up, they naturally seek the opposite sex for companionship. This is the natural way for remedying loneliness. However, this world is not natural and the perversion of homosexuality exists. This is a destructive force which violates universal law. The simple proof of its destructiveness is clear when you consider what would happen if everyone in the world were to live as homosexuals for one century. All humanity would simply cease to exist! Homosexuality is a satanic force which is exactly opposite universal law. It brings destruction rather than creation.</p>
|
||||
<p>The universe exists in continual give and take action, turning from the inner to the outer core of existence and back again. The power of the entire universe goes into the tiniest embryo and then the embryo sprouts and gives itself to the entire universe. This is the ultimate form of give and take.</p>
|
||||
<p>Each individual is a tiny being compared with the size of the universe. However, each individual feels the need to link himself with the whole universe. Why do we have that need? There must be a reason for it. It is because the vast universe is truly linked with each tiny life. The universe relates itself with each embryo, each person’s origin; then each embryo expands itself to the universe. The universe comes within you; you relate with the universe. Like a continually moving spiral from inside to outside.</p>
|
||||
<p>Once each individual life expands itself to the universal level, the natural movement is to remain within that spiral motion, going back inside toward one’s source.</p>
|
||||
<p>Suppose the individual decides to take off on his own, toward a different direction? When such a thing happens, the ideal is destroyed. It is within the ideal that each individual must be able to unite himself with both the largest, universal things and the smallest, most particular things.</p>
|
||||
<p>If an individual takes off in his own direction, he might say, “I just want to do anything I want to do. This is my universe and it exists for me to indulge myself to the utmost.” The more such a person would move, the more destruction he would bring to the universe. If enough people followed his example, everything would be destroyed. The order and harmony of the whole world would be ruined by such a “freedom-loving” attitude.</p>
|
||||
<p>When life expands outward it does not go in a random direction but must move parallel with the motion of the entire universe. That turning in and out motion is comparable to a coil through which electricity can flow unhindered. There need be no loss of energy or diminution of life. Our universe is not consuming itself but is always maintaining its own existence through the vitality of this give and take. It is like the waves of the ocean which come crashing to the shore; first they are high and strong, then they disappear into the water but the ocean itself is never diminished by the waves.</p>
|
||||
<p>Did you know that the earth itself is constantly breathing? When it exhales it is about one foot smaller and when it inhales it is one foot larger. Every day it is breathing, even though you can’t feel it. This is universal law.</p>
|
||||
<p>Whenever there is movement it creates a certain shape or form, such as the triangle or rectangle. This form will not be destroyed unless the movement ceases. The force of give and take is always contained within the particular form it sprang from. Each individual carries within him the original pattern he inherited from his parents. It is obvious that everyone has a certain physical appearance which he received from his parents, but some people want to say, “No, I am a totally unique, self-sufficient being.” However, he still came from two parents whose traits can always be found within him.</p>
|
||||
<p>Everything within the universe comes under this law of origins; it is a very interesting thing to observe from the viewpoint of Principle.</p>
|
||||
<p>Can you imagine that a bird would ever exist and sing all by itself? No, birds naturally live and sing together in harmony. Male and female naturally blend their voices in song. When deer run across a field, the male deer normally runs in front and the female follows immediately behind him. This is according to the pattern of harmony and is totally natural.</p>
|
||||
<p>In any kind of literature, whether it is Korean, French, English, or whatever, much of its beauty is in the way the author uses adjectives, the words of description and comparison. “Dew-like morning,” or “Dove-like eyes” are samples of the use of adjectives. The ability to use such descriptions comes from the universal law of parallel or comparable existences. If you simply say something is beautiful it is not nearly as clear or as meaningful as if you compare it with something else. “Beautiful like a flower,” “Lovely as a rose,” are phrases in which we take an example from the universe and compare it with the subject we are talking about.</p>
|
||||
<p>According to universal law, everything in the universe is in motion for prosperity and multiplication, never for self-destruction. The ideal we are trying to achieve is that for every movement or motion we make. we receive a corresponding benefit. If we do 100 activities, we want to gain 100 benefits from them. Certainly we do not do things for the purpose of losing. This is a clear explanation of the meaning of “ideal”, that everything we do ought to create goodness or benefit for someone or something.</p>
|
||||
<p>What is the ideal of the universe? Certainly anything which carries the universe toward its infinite, eternal benefit is considered ideal. Is there any way that mining a lot of diamonds would be part of the ideal of the universe? Suppose you panned millions of dollars worth of gold from a river; would that be considered part of the universal ideal? Certainly people have pursued such things with great fervor. In the Western movies, gold is always the source of conflict between people!</p>
|
||||
<p>Perhaps the ideal of the universe can be found within the acquisition of great power. Some people have left the Unification Church because they felt a desire for personal power; but is that truly pursuing the ideal? Would you sacrifice everything else for the sake of education and knowledge? Some people feel their lives are worthless unless they can go to Harvard, Yale, or some prestigious school.</p>
|
||||
<p>What is the truly ideal action which always benefits the entire universe? It is the action of true love. What is true love and what distinguishes it from all the other types of love? True love is always welcomed by the universe- everywhere, anywhere.</p>
|
||||
<p>Can you produce your love for me and show it to me on your palm? Can you see magnetic fields? You can prove scientifically that the north and south poles are pulling each other, but can you actually see the magnetism? True love exists in the realm of the invisible, as well. You know it exists; you can even prove it, but you cannot see it.</p>
|
||||
<p>From the beginning point of true love, everything good can happen. From there the ideal world can begin. As we have said, the ideal of motion is for every activity to bring about a corresponding benefit. True love is the power by which to create that ideal of motion; wherever it exists. it always brings benefit and prosperity. Therefore the ideal world can be achieved by true love. It is only logical.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why is true love so good? Everything begins from true love and is consummated in true love-it is the alpha and the omega of the universe. The motion of true love is unlimited; it can go anywhere within the universe. It can penetrate your whole being and be totally welcomed. You never want to reject true love; wherever it touches you. you respond with joy and openness.</p>
|
||||
<p>Does the current American habit of husbands and wives maintaining their own separate savings accounts reflect an attitude of true love? Can you tell your spouse, “I love you, but don’t ever touch my savings account!”?</p>
|
||||
<p>Anything less than true love within the home is going to produce something less than the ideal, but most families do not understand the basic, true philosophy of true love. Some Americans protest to me, “Oh, you don’t understand anything about America. We are a highly advanced and first-class culture. You have no right to talk about us!” However, by the rule of true love many things can be understood. Do you think true love affects the President of the United States? Is he immune to it because he is so great? Even God himself will never say, “I don’t care about true love because I have omnipotence and I don’t need it.” The almighty God is completely vulnerable to true love. When He is approached with true love, He is helpless to resist.</p>
|
||||
<p>Think about your life; why were you born and what are you here for ultimately? You are here for the fulfillment of true love. The ideal of existence is for every person to be glowing with the spark of true love twenty-four hours a day. As men and women, you are like the plus and minus of electricity which gives off a tremendous spark when a connection is made. Sparking brings light, heat and other phenomena. When two beings come together in true love, it is the most exciting element of our lives.</p>
|
||||
<p>Men and women come together and “spark” with the power of true love, creating heat, light, and multiplication of energy. Then together they become a larger plus entity; as soon as a bigger minus comes along, they spark with that, always growing and multiplying energy. There is never the destruction of energy between plus and minus. That is the kind of life which Divine Principle is taking you towards.</p>
|
||||
<p>In the Unification Church we always talk about plus and minus. We speak of the unity between mind and body to produce a “spark” of prosperity for the individual. Then a man and women must “spark” together to produce a family; the family spark becomes a society spark, which becomes a nation spark and so on, all the way up to the level of the universe.</p>
|
||||
<p>Reverend Moon has brought this message to the world and because of it the world looks at him as a very controversial religious figure. Rather than feeling bad when people describe me as controversial, I welcome it very much! The strong controversy exists because I have brought a tremendously magnetic force field to this world. When people come close to that magnetic field, they are like small iron filings clinging to a magnet. It is the same when your parents try to pull your legs and drag you away from the Unification Church: you refuse to budge. Likewise when society exerts pressure on you. Thus many different explanations of this phenomenon have come up in society: “Brainwashing” for example.</p>
|
||||
<p>When the teachings of the Unification Church hit you, the spark occurs and a new kind of ideal is born within your heart and mind. A new kind of personal prosperity becomes yours and no power can separate you from that.</p>
|
||||
<p>In electricity when the plus and minus circuits come together, all impure and foreign elements are burned up in the heat of their union. All that remains is the genuine, pure conductivity of electricity. Likewise, that is what happens when you are contacted by true love and you spark with it. All foreign elements of sin will be burned up; you will be cleansed and become a truly sinless person.</p>
|
||||
<p>Like a spiral you are involved in a never-ending motion; going in, going out, circling always within the universe and vibrating with the universe. True love never stands still but is always in that positive motion. This is the answer to the question, “What should I pursue in my life?” Now you know what is the true goal of your life.</p>
|
||||
<p>What is the central force moving God’s providence along? Certainly the central theme of the providence has been true love. With true love alone can God fulfill His own ideals and purpose. True love alone can harmonize everything, activate all things, unite and move everything in the universe. How wonderful that is! True love is so powerful and wonderful that once you have the hope of acquiring it for yourself nothing else really matters to you. The taste of true love gives you power and determination to pursue it further.</p>
|
||||
<p>All machines on the earth will eventually wear out; even a brand new Cadillac will run for years but will eventually deteriorate. The human body is the same. If you over exert any part of your body it will eventually break down. The whole body is destined to die. Well, then, is God’s creation destined to end in decline and destruction? If God is almighty and eternal, He must have created something which, the more it moves and exists, the more it grows and increases. There must be something which doesn’t break down but always continues from greater to greater levels of prosperity. What is it that would enable a person to be anchored for thousands of years but never get bored, as long as he has it? You know the answer is true love.</p>
|
||||
<p><em>“True love”</em>, two simple words which describe the pinnacle toward which all the pursuits of mankind have been striving. Throughout human history, all the great philosophers and sages sought to understand the ultimate truth of life but usually they tried to be too sophisticated in their approach and could not find it. Once a person has acquired the knowledge of true love, he doesn’t need any other philosophy. The more movement a person of true love makes, the greater the benefit; he never declines. A person is anchored for eternity and can never get bored within the universe. You will never get tired of living in true love.</p>
|
||||
<p>Once I observed a young couple on the beach; they were obviously deeply in love. They sat with their heads pressed together for the longest time. In fact, I was timing them to see how long they could sit like that. After thirty minutes they were still together, but I couldn’t stay any longer because I had a plane to catch. Maybe they are still pressing their heads together even now! If that is just the imperfect standard of secular love and it is that strong, imagine how much more powerful true love is!</p>
|
||||
<p>Love in America today has become very cheap, but if even the cheapest love can bring a man and woman together in bliss like that couple, what about the “most expensive” variety of love, true love? It can do so much more for men and women. You could sit with your heads together for hundreds of thousands of years and never get bored! If true love is capable of doing that for you, what else under the sun could you want?</p>
|
||||
<p>The ideal we are describing is simple but very dramatic and romantic. True love is totally flexible; it fits the needs of every individual perfectly. None of the billions of people in the world will be dissatisfied with the presence of true love; each person will be fulfilled.</p>
|
||||
<p>The purpose of the Unification Church is to train each of you and graduate you with a “license of true love.” Regardless of where your license is printed, the important thing is who signs it. The PhD candidate can never receive his degree until the professor in charge signs for him. You want to receive the signature of God and the True Parents on your true love license. Reverend Moon is like the professor in charge of the members of the Unification Church. The subject of learning is true love; I push you out into situations in society that will train you and season you as true love champions. You do not sit in classrooms but learn through activities. The purpose of all those activities is to enable me to sign your true love certificate.</p>
|
||||
<p>As an ambitious candidate for your certificate of true love, how will you respond to my pushing you and giving you more and more burdens? Will you accept it willingly or will you complain against it” when the major leaders come to visit Mother and me at East Garden. they are always grateful to see us initially. However I always grind them down-keeping them up until 3:00 a.m., for instance for three or tour days in a row. Soon they are all worn out because their scale of thinking is different from mine.</p>
|
||||
<p>True love can overcome anything, so nothing is more important than finding and dwelling in true love! I always sacrifice sleep for the sake of true love. Sometimes I can get up early and speak to members and at midnight I am still sitting in the same chair, having spoken all day. However, I never get bored with such activities because every minute of the day is exciting when true love is present.</p>
|
||||
<p>I have the absolute conviction that anybody who lives his life in total intoxication from true love, forgetting everything else, must receive protection and support from the entire universe. My way of life is constantly evoking such give and take action with the universe. This is what the Unification Church is all about.</p>
|
||||
<p>The essential truth of the universe is contained within one seed. Without the “skin” of love, nothing in the universe could survive but would be destroyed. Seeds germinate in the warmth of the springtime sun. The spring sunshine is a symbol of true love which gives life to everything.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why have so many religions come and gone throughout history? It is because they have not been able to live up to the demands of true love. True love can never decline or be destroyed. Religions talk about true love but they have not been able to give a crystal clear understanding of what they are talking about; their understanding has been somewhat hazy and unclear and therefore they have been weakened.</p>
|
||||
<p>You members of the Unification Church, do you need your marriage partner? Why do you say yes? Is it just for the sake of your own satisfaction? No, you know that you need your spouse for the fulfillment of true love. In an electrical circuit, do you ever see a positively charged wire rejecting a negatively charged one, saying, “That wire is ugly; I don’t want to connect with it!” No, you will never see such a thing. Actually an “ugly” wire would probably be bent and twisted and would therefore have a greater area for the electricity to travel through, whereas a simple straight wire would be far less interesting. When you love your ugly spouse with true dedication, that is truly the best realization of true love. You will become a universal heat conductor, giving warmth and light to the entire universe.</p>
|
||||
<p>According to natural law, whenever an object must overcome some tremendous obstacle, its path will be very smooth after that. Likewise, after tremendous joys it is normal that things will level out. This is the wavelike motion which is a part of natural law. It is natural for air to go from being very dense to sparse; it makes a wavelike motion, as well. When a boat is on the ocean, its motor must work very hard to move through rough waves, but then it is very easy to move over smooth seas. Married life is often like that-up and down, intense and smooth, dense and sparse. Those couples who come together in sweetness and lots of romance will experience difficulties in a later time of their marriage. However, if you have to overcome difficulties in the first part of your marriage, your later life together will be beautiful. Everything comes into balance.</p>
|
||||
<p>Because I am aware of this secret of balance in the universe, I always push young members to take on difficulties and suffering during the first part of their church life, because they will be taken care of by the law of nature. When you get older you will automatically have a smoother, prosperous life. I am pushing you up a steep mountain, but it is definitely exciting.</p>
|
||||
<p>While we are on earth, we want to cross the highest possible mountain; then we want to go down deep into the ocean. Out of all religions in history, membership in the Unification Church is the toughest. I deliberately make it a challenging and difficult course for you. There are other religions that are much easier to belong to. I have no awards to give to easy-going people, but I have great medals and prizes in store for those willing to go this path. The easy-going person should go somewhere else, because he simply won’t make it within the Unification Church.</p>
|
||||
<p>I am 62 years old now but I have the same mental capacity as a young person. You may think I am an old man but I do not feel old at all. Although some have endured worse physical suffering, no one endured more mental anguish than 1. Why do I always put myself in the position to receive such negativity, in Korea first, then Japan, now the U.S., as well as making myself a target for international communism? Why do I choose to live in such a way, since no one is forcing me? It is because I want to hit the peaks of human experience so that no one can ever compete with me. I want to set a record of going higher and down deeper into life than anyone else. Do you accept that I have set that record?</p>
|
||||
<p>I have worked for ten years to establish Ocean Church. Do you like Ocean Church? I went to Provincetown and pushed the members to get up at 3:00 a.m. and go out onto the ocean. They hated it, although they didn’t say anything; I know they simply do not understand such activity, or why I did it. We went out onto the ocean all day, then even after midnight we didn’t come back. Nobody likes it when I lead the Ocean Church members. My family seems to suffer, the leaders don’t like it, the members don’t like it. So why do I still push you in that way?</p>
|
||||
<p>My body is not made of iron. 1, too, get tired and fatigued, but I always think of the future of mankind. My actions are always for someone else’s benefit, so because of that I can go on and on, beyond my physical limitations. I don’t get tired or discouraged.</p>
|
||||
<p>My favorite thing is true love. I am in love with true love and you yearn to be with me because you also long for true love. Since I embody true love you always want me to come and visit your homes and centers. You want to wear the clothing that I buy for you, not because you don’t have clothes but because they represent true love.</p>
|
||||
<p>Because of my relationship with true love, I am always with you wherever you are; we can always have give and take. I am only one person, but there is something different about me. The missionaries in Africa can feel a communion with me every day. They can see me through true love and there is no distance or boundary between those who share true love.</p>
|
||||
<p>The motion of the universe is one circling motion, in and out, from the center of the spiral to the outside. Everything within the spiral is connected. Everywhere within the spiral of true love, God is omnipotent and omnipresent. God is not everywhere randomly, at whim, but only in the sense of true love. He has always wanted to dwell everywhere here on the earth, but He couldn’t do that in reality because Satan and his power have dominion. God can only dwell directly in the places where true love prevails; in those places He is truly omnipresent and omnipotent.</p>
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||||
<p>God has total vision into the future where true love reigns; time and space present no limitations. Regardless of the vastness of spirit world, with true love you can connect yourself anywhere there with true love.</p>
|
||||
<p>Is it good to be willing to die for the sake of true love? Jesus said, “He who seeks to lose his life for my sake will gain his life.” Another way to say it is that those who are willing to die for the sake of true love will live in true love forever. Those who live for their selfish purposes will die permanently.</p>
|
||||
<p>According to Principle, we must love our enemy with a heart of true love; without that it would be impossible. There is actually no room for the concept of “enemy” within the realm of true love. We can conclude that all beings in the universe relate with each other within the universal “glue” of true love. As I mentioned in the beginning of this sermon, God, mankind and all things of creation can come together under the power of true love.</p>
|
||||
<p>According to Principle, the world is first in order of importance, then the nation, then the society, then the family, and finally the individual. Today however, the world embraces the exactly opposite way of thinking. Many people put themselves first in their lives, calling it “individualism” and do not care much at all about the world, their nation or their society.</p>
|
||||
<p>Looked at from the overall point of view, individualism is totally wrong because it is self-centered. On the other hand, if a person is concerned about his own self perfection or completion, that is justifiable. Everyone has an innate desire to perfect himself. Thus, taking care of oneself is not totally evil from God’s point of view. If the goal of an individual is to perfect himself or herself in order to form an ideal couple, the universe will accept that.</p>
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||||
<p>Most people do not understand how to direct their natural desires for self-fulfillment and instead create all kinds of chaotic ways of living. Each person is designed to become a perfected, God-centered individual; then he can find his partner and create a family. From the base of the family, both the vertical and the horizontal worlds come into being. Before you create your family, you are a plus or a minus being but you are without a true point of reference with the center. Once plus and minus join into one, you merge for the first time with that universal center. Therefore, we need to get married not for our own personal pleasure but more importantly to gain harmony with the universe. When you are joined with the universal plus and minus, you form around you a universal circle.</p>
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||||
<p>When a man and woman embrace in true love, each feels completely fulfilled; they have everything they want. They actually “own” the universe because they are relating with the entire universe. That is an experience which can never be bought with money. As a couple, you become a seed or representative of the universe and through your love you create an embryo. That embryo becomes your child, a new life which blossoms forth for the universe.</p>
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||||
<p>Have you ever wondered why God didn’t create women with beards? Women represent the virgin earth, prior to Creation. Men are like the vegetation which God planted on the earth-plants, trees, flowers. The process of creation made a complete circle, coming at the end to the creation of women. Why were women created last? The alpha of creation was the virgin soil of the earth; the omega was the virgin “soil” of the woman. Therefore, you have no beards because you are like the earth, before seeds were planted and without vegetation. It all falls within a logical system and framework.</p>
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||||
<p>The skin of women is soft, smooth, and pliable, almost like clay. Clay is a basic material of the earth, out of which artists create sculpture and many useful materials are made. Men are like the bones, so when men and women come together, they make up one body. If both were like bones, that would not be complete, or if both were like clay it would be formless. People naturally seek their opposite-men like to receive the soft, tender touch of a woman and women like the feel of a masculine, hairy man. A man isn’t attracted to a woman with a lot of coarse, rough hair on her face and body. This is because of the law of complementation; we are drawn toward those things in each other which we don’t have.</p>
|
||||
<p>In school, little girls usually learn how to draw and write earlier than boys; this is because girls have a natural sensitivity and gift of observation. They are also capable of imitating well. Boys, however, pick up a drawing pen and just make all kinds of strokes which don’t look like anything else. They don’t want to imitate anything but simply want to express themselves. Men and women have different proportions. When a woman sits down she has a natural cushion; she doesn’t even need a chair! Men are more developed in the shoulder area. Man is like a triangle which is broad at the top; woman is a triangle which is broad at the bottom. The Western business suit for men is actually more parallel with the natural needs of a man; thus even in the Orient men are wearing Western type suits. Because of the proportions of a woman’s body, it is usually easier for her to move and sit in a skirt; trousers are more restricting.</p>
|
||||
<p>It is natural that a woman should take care of the home while the man should be going out into the world. It seems much more natural that a woman come to the door whenever you go to visit a home; when a big man comes and opens the door, it seems less inviting. Men are more easily capable of driving trucks, firing guns, using heavy machinery; women more naturally do well at detail-oriented tasks, such as typing, bookkeeping, sewing, etc. This is a reflection of the law of nature. Nature is a great teacher. The things of nature do not violate the law at all; if they did, they would quickly be extinguished.</p>
|
||||
<p>Look at the birds; the male is larger and more dominant, while the female is smaller and follows the male. It is not always possible for the female to keep up with the pace of the male; therefore, she has a nest to stay in. Likewise with women; you need a comfortable home to stay in and take care of. When you go out and try to keep up with your husband’s pace, you may have to take 15 steps to his 10; therefore you get more tired. It is natural for you to want to get back home where you can rest.</p>
|
||||
<p>Sometimes I receive the criticism that I am “anti-woman” and “pro-man” but that is not true. I am simply pro-natural law. At this time, many women are trying to take over the societal positions and responsibilities of men; but you are not equipped to do that. You have your own strengths and virtues. Unless you can understand the reality of natural law, you can never understand or make sense of all the crazy things going on in today’s world.</p>
|
||||
<p>Let us return to the topic of the seed. According to Divine Principle, having children is the natural and desirable result of the love of husband and wife. If you have felt that you did not want to have children, this sermon will teach you why it is so valuable that you do so. Without a child, you and your spouse cannot enjoy the heavenly four position foundation; you remain as a triangle, without a vertical line from God to that fourth position.</p>
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||||
<p>The Oriental viewpoint is that parents should live for their children; the children are all-important in the family. The Western viewpoint emphasizes men and women just living for each other. Therefore, the Oriental way is more vertical, the Western more horizontal The vertical way is safer and more stable. There must be an axis for any circular motion; a spinning top always turns on its axis. Therefore, the motion of the universe is determined by its vertical, central axis and everything in the universe turns around that axis.</p>
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||||
<p>The give and take of men and women originated from the universal give and take of plus and minus. Spiritual values, things of truthfulness and beauty, are at the center of the universe. We naturally pursue experiences of goodness and beauty in a big way because the center of the universe is one of bigness, goodness and beauty.</p>
|
||||
<p>Whenever there is a turning action, the result is the appearance of a circle. Even when a triangular shape turns around and around, it appears as a whirling circular object.</p>
|
||||
<p>Children are the result of the combined effort of a man, a woman, and God. Why do we need God in the relationship? It is because we want to create a rectangular, four-position foundation. You need God, the children, and the relationship between man and woman to produce the ideal. As man and woman come closer, God, too, comes closer. When you unite in love, God is involved too; likewise, the child you create is involved in that action. Therefore, all four positions are brought into unity through the act of love.</p>
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||||
<p>God is big, good and beautiful; by the same token, you see your husband or wife to be big, good and beautiful in your life. You look at each other as the image of God. Your children, likewise, reflect that same nature which is big, good and beautiful.</p>
|
||||
<p>What power can create bigness, goodness and beauty? The power of true love alone. Therefore, the heavenly four-position foundation is the focal point of the teachings of the Unification Church. Within the four-positions, every subject and object has three directions in which to relate. This motion creates the rectangular shape.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why should you love your children more than even your spouse? Even in the secular world, the importance of the vertical relationship between parents and children is very apparent. In American society, you see that divorcing couples often struggle over custody of the children. Why do people never want to divorce their children? It is simply because the child is in that object position to God; God and the child dwell in that vertical line of relationship and there is only one vertical line. It is possible to make all kinds and levels of horizontal relationships, but there is always only one vertical line of relationship. In a way, by holding on to your child, you are holding on to God.</p>
|
||||
<p>Within the Unification Church, you always put your relationship with God first, then your children, and finally your spouse. We can conclude that the Oriental philosophy toward the family is closer to the Heavenly standard than the Western way. This is not because I am an Oriental person; I am only interested in teaching Heavenly tradition.</p>
|
||||
<p>For the embryo within the seed to blossom forth, it needs the warmth of the sun. By the same token, in order for a true and valuable human life to blossom it needs the warmth of love coming from God. During the teenage years, a young person is very sensitive and poetic and romantic. Life is very exciting to him. Often the mind of the teenager is full of fantasy; and as soon as the energy of love touches him, he immediately responds and is ready to act on it. The teen years are the time of preparation for the response to love.</p>
|
||||
<p>One individual represents the entire universal force. Men and women bring down the power of heavenly love between them. They feel that, instead of two units, they were meant to be one unit, one entity. Through their love, germination of the embryo occurs. The action of physical love is an expression of harmony between the two different plus and minus physical human shapes.</p>
|
||||
<p>I want you to understand that love is not yours; it belongs to God. Love is truly God’s property. When you are in love with your husband or wife, don’t ever think that it is just between the two of you. When you embrace each other, also remember that you are embracing God and you are sharing God’s love. Men and women started out from the same origin, God, divided into their separate existences, and then, through the expression of their love they are brought together into the center with God. Each wants to swap positions freely with each other; a man wants to be able to take the position of the woman and vice-versa. They want to share everything.</p>
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||||
<p>Love between husband and wife thrusts them in two directions: toward the center, or unity with each other, and toward the future-to the ideal and hope of future goals. God is in the same position-His love moves in two directions-toward mankind and toward the future realization of His goals.</p>
|
||||
<p>The child in the womb lives with the constant heartbeat of its mother. His life throbs with the love of God, with the heartbeat of his mother, and gradually his own little heart begins to beat. It is the parents who are closest to true love who will produce a child of the greatest goodness and beauty.</p>
|
||||
<p>God’s providence has been moving toward this day of completion, the time of fulfillment of true love within the family. It is a mandate from God that men and women come together as husband and wife to bring forth children who will take dominion over all creation with greatness, goodness and beauty.</p>
|
||||
<p>To summarize, the act of love between husband and wife should not be conducted with a selfish attitude. It is actually the most public action which is for the sake of the universe, mankind and God!</p>
|
||||
<p>As parents, you must have purity of heart and a sense of gratitude toward God. It is not so valuable to have great ambition and say to God, “I want to have a wonderful child who can become a powerful person and take dominion over all creation.” What you need is simply purity of heart and through the sanctity of your love, your child will reflect the highest ambitions of anyone.</p>
|
||||
<p>The fruit of the providence is certainly the fruit of true love. Who shall harvest that fruit? The husband and wife together. Once you make the harvest, you store it in Heaven’s storehouse.</p>
|
||||
<p>A child is a representative of God and his parents. He can see the manifestation of true love in his parents and he can know that he is the fruit of their true love. The mother is like the railroad tracks, the father is like the railroad car and the children are like the cargo riding inside. All they have to do is just move toward the goal. This means that the parents must be the example of true love for the children. When that is the case, you don’t even have to say “I love you”-your every day actions are the living manifestation of your true love. Your children will be totally devoted to you and will never want to abandon you; even if they go away, they will have to come back.</p>
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||||
<p>It is human destiny to search for true love. Even after the fall of man, the traces of true love still remain so everyone is seeking for it. Mankind has always tried to find that original source of true love. In form, everything for the ideal world already exists; our task in building the ideal world is to make everything true-true parents, true children, true couples, true ideal. This is the most significant aspect of our movement.</p>
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||||
<p>The true, ideal world means the world of true love. When that is accomplished, everything will be fulfilled. Everything will be okay. That is the goal of the harvest of the providence-for everything to be okay. We are looking forward to the harvest of that seed of true love; we are working every day to create that true love seed.</p>
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||||
<p>In the electronics field, such companies as Sony can say “everything is okay” when it comes to their products. No matter how sophisticated the equipment that breaks, the Sony Co. could take care of it. By the same token, we want to have a spiritual “Sony Co.” that can take care of everything spiritual-don’t you want to be a member of that kind of church? Such a church would be a true love church, a church of ideal love.</p>
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||||
<p>The church of true, ideal love is one in which God is totally satisfied and vulnerable to being moved by His children. In such a church, God is everywhere-in the bathroom, in the kitchen, etc. Body odors would not offend God. In true love, everything is okay.</p>
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||||
<p>You are consummating your family life now. The most important question you must face at this time is what kind of harvest are you going to make? What kind of child do you want to bring to this world? When your mental, spiritual or physical condition is not prepared, how can you pursue your spouse? You have no right to do so. If your spiritual or physical situation is not proper at the time of your child’s conception, you will have much regret after he is born. That child will be the reminder of your situation over and over again. You do not want to bear that kind of pain. You don’t want to be in the position to be constantly reminded of how poorly you treated your husband or wife; your child will exhibit signs of that and remind you constantly.</p>
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<p>Are you ready to pray, “God, I am ready to bear a true child for this world”? Actually, nobody can pray such a prayer because nobody is truly ready or worthy. The alternative is to pray, “I am not worthy, so I am throwing myself into my mission. I will work hard and take on persecution and suffering, but I will do it with a truly grateful heart and never quit.” That is one way in which you can move God.</p>
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||||
<p>When husband and wife work hard in your Home Church area, bearing rejection after rejection but never cursing the people, you can pray together in tears for the sake of the people. God will look at such a couple and think, “They deserve a true child-so I am going to bless them.” He will tell them, “My son and daughter, don’t worry, I will give you a child who will vindicate you and take his proper dominion over all things. He will be the source of your glory.”</p>
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||||
<p>God is looking for suffering people who have such noble hearts-it doesn’t matter in which country, whether it is large or small-He wants to see people who truly represent the suffering heart of the parents to this world. Korea is one nation in that position; it has suffered much tribulation, yet it clings to its hope and faith in God. Within that nation, God called on me to represent His heart to this world. Actually, if anyone could curse the Korean people it would be me because they have given me a harder time than anyone else. However, I am not in such a position to curse Korea. In America, likewise, I have been misrepresented and mistreated but I am still reaching out m compassion toward this country.</p>
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||||
<p>I knew that God would bless me with better and better children further and further down the line and that is what has happened. Those children who were born in this country were bestowed with superior blessings. Each child has been greater and greater in their devotion and filial piety.</p>
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||||
<p>You should be pulling your beloved’s hands, not into the bedroom but along the road of tribulation for the sake of God. God called Abraham and told him to leave his country immediately. Do you think Abraham went gently to his wife and allowed her to get lots of sleep before he obeyed God’s command? No, he must have shaken her awake and pulled her out of bed to follow him. If she asked “Where are we going?” he would have answered, “Don’t ask. Just follow me.” Abraham didn’t even know where they were going.</p>
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||||
<p>You women should look at your husbands as if they were in Abraham’s position. Don’t demand an explanation from him when he pushes you to get up and out of bed; just trust and follow him. Usually when someone is trying to explain all the details about the providential path, the providence has already gone on ahead without him! Your husband might tell you, “Don’t ask questions, just follow me. Beyond that horizon, wonderful things are waiting.” You should follow him without having any idea what kinds of things are waiting.</p>
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||||
<p>Perhaps when you and your husband get on the other side of that mountain where wonderful things were supposed to be waiting, there will be a howling wolf instead. Then your husband might say, “Don’t worry, we must cross over another mountain and then we will come to Canaan, that wonderful land.” Even if the wife is not so cooperative, the husband must somehow persuade her to go with him over all the mountains. Do you men understand? That is your job. Actually, in some cases the husband is the one who is confused and not sure of what to do or where to go.</p>
|
||||
<p>Sometimes you have to give an ultimatum and tell your spouse, “All right. You can stay here, but I’m going ahead.” Do you rascal men hear me correctly this morning? So many men feel they have to discuss their missions and mandates from God with their wives first before doing them. But you must feel, “I must talk with God alone; let my wife follow me.”</p>
|
||||
<p>You know that I have taught you American women many things. You love and trust me, is that correct? From now on you must truly be different from all secular American women. Think of it: if I had been the sort of man who always cleared things with my wife before acting on them, there would not be any Unification Church today! I am speaking now of my first marriage. That woman was very brilliant and capable. She told me, “All you need to do is just love and pay attention to me and our child; I will make you happy. Just stay here; why do you have to go to North Korea, anyway? You have no guarantee that you will survive there!” However, I did not listen to her; I only discussed with God and obeyed God’s commands. Even more than Abraham, I left everything behind and went directly to North Korea as soon as God directed me. I didn’t even go to visit my own home town there in North Korea-that is not why God sent me. I went to North Korea in order to do exactly what God commanded me.</p>
|
||||
<p>When I came to the United States, there was opposition, too. People said to me, “Father, you have success now here in Korea. Why must you go to another strange country and suffer there?” At that time, I left Mother behind and brought only those missionaries who could translate for me. So again I left my wife and children behind and took off for a foreign land. My immediate family felt unhappy, but I didn’t pay much attention. Mother felt that she would like to accompany me everywhere I went, but I had to leave her behind. I was coming to a place similar to a spiritual “combat zone.” I had to go to all fifty states setting up the holy grounds in forty days’ time.</p>
|
||||
<p>In that way, I was able to demonstrate my love for this country. I wanted to be able to say, “I love this country more than anyone else, even any American.” In the process of giving true love to this country and its people, I incurred persecution on the worldwide level. Although I received so much opposition and hostility, still I loved this nation with a father’s love. Therefore, no one can compete with such love.</p>
|
||||
<p>At this time people are wondering why Reverend Moon is spending so much time and energy trying to promote the memory and image of General MacArthur, especially through the movie <i>Inchon.</i> Julius Caesar was the emperor under whose rule the messiah, Jesus Christ, was crucified. MacArthur has been nicknamed the “American Caesar;” but he was like a heavenly Caesar. The kind of character which Caesar embodied was authoritarian, not democratic. Caesar, in the position of emperor, should have been able to love his people and his public mission; of course, he could not do that. Caesar did not love God, first of all.</p>
|
||||
<p>On the contrary, MacArthur showed his trust in God through the Inchon landing. Without trust and faith in God, it would not have been possible. There is much more that could be said about this, but I want to wait until some future time.</p>
|
||||
<p>At this time in history, Reverend Moon has promoted the memory of MacArthur, thereby stirring up people throughout this country. I want to see the image and spirit of MacArthur welcomed here. When that happens, I myself will receive a kind of liberation because Reverend Moon’s position is parallel to that of MacArthur. When this movie is released all over the country, America’s perception of Reverend Moon will become different. When people see that .’Moonie movie” and gain inspiration from it, they will have to change their minds about Reverend Moon. When General MacArthur and Reverend Moon become one, it is symbolic of America and Korea becoming one. It’s almost like achieving the impossible unity between Jesus and Julius Caesar-such a thing is almost unthinkable, but if such a thing had occurred, human history would have been different.</p>
|
||||
<p>This is the time of the revival and resurrection of General MacArthur. That great soldier of America was actually rejected and fired; but now Reverend Moon has come and led the revival of MacArthur’s spirit. In modern history, the only person who achieved the status of a true hero was General MacArthur. Some people name Winston Churchill as a true hero, but he was limited to the European area, not the world level. However, the Korean War was a worldwide conflict between the United Nations and the combined forces of the communist nations.</p>
|
||||
<p>Julius Caesar controlled the entire civilized world during his time. If MacArthur could have gained unity with Truman, he could have created a different kind of “Roman Empire” of modern times. If he had been allowed to advance beyond the Yalu River and liberate all of Korea, Manchuria, and even China, he could have destroyed communism in Asia. Certainly he could have become president of the US on that foundation. Undoubtedly, the history of this country would have been very different.</p>
|
||||
<p>Therefore, America must restore the memory and the spirit of MacArthur. When his spirit prevails here, this country can re-discover a true dream, an ideal. Where can a true ideal be found at this time? Nowhere else but in the Unification Church. If General MacArthur had heard and understood the ideology of Unification Church, what do you think would have happened? Don’t you think one world under God could be possible?</p>
|
||||
<p>I want to bring General MacArthur to the attention of American young people. If they see <i>Inchon </i>and read the program, they will be inspired to think, “I want to be like General MacArthur.” Three characteristics of MacArthur are very distinct through the film: he was a man who loved God, loved humanity, and hated communism.</p>
|
||||
<p>There is a part of the movie program which states that a national movement to promote General MacArthur’s anti-communism needs to arise here. MGM, the distributors of the film, protested strongly saying, we won’t be a propagandistic company.” There was much discussion back and forth, and finally we said, “If you don’t accept it, we won’t allow you to distribute the movie.” They surrendered at that point.</p>
|
||||
<p><i>Inchon</i> is a movie that will ignite a new fervor in the hearts of American youth. All together, approximately $60 million was spent on this project. This was not done for the sake of making money. If even 100 young people become inspired and strive to emulate the spirit of General MacArthur the money will be very well spent.</p>
|
||||
<p>The words I have spoken will not vanish throughout history. I want to register for history these remarks at Belvedere about McArthur long after I am dead, this movement will continue and prosper; it will become the leading force for the world. There shall be a museum in which all the words I have spoken and written will be preserved for people of the future to see. The day will come when the name and spirit of Reverend Moon will be justified and glorified. At that time, those who persecuted me will be regarded by mankind as traitors. Therefore, I am not perturbed by having to go to court or by any other experience. I am considering the future; for the sake of 100 years from now, I can never be a coward or try to beg for mercy from unjust accusers. I have not done anything wrong and history will prove it.</p>
|
||||
<p>This is why I have been carrying on many different activities at the same time as this court battle has been going on. This year we began the Minority Alliance International for the sake of Black, Oriental and other ethnic groups. Then we carried out the Conference on God, an idea which was impossible for most people to even think about. We had the Youth Crusade for God, with people from different religions coming together. Then <i>The Washington Times </i>was created. The Professors World Peace Academy was greatly expanded. Then, on July 1, there was the blessing here in America; soon another blessing will be held in Korea. On September 17<i>, Inchon </i>was released. All these things have been done within one year.</p>
|
||||
<p>Those people who are neutral about Reverend Moon and the Unification movement will soon be swayed toward positivity. Do you think the Unification Movement is going up or down in this country now? Certainly, it is going up. Do you think <i>Inchon </i>will lead America toward further corruption or toward her resurrection? I love and forgive America and I am demonstrating that through the <i>Inchon</i> film and everything else. As long as you Americans are strong and faithful to the ideal, this nation will have hope; you are the only hope of this country. You cannot falter; you must go out and teach this nation the truth and bring it resurrection.</p>
|
||||
<p>Religion is not for the purpose of destruction; it is for the purpose of living and salvation. I have come here as a foreigner and have given this much; you as native Americans should do one hundred times more. I want to push you harder so that you can achieve your potential for this country; you can be doing far more. Do you welcome my pushing you? You have got to educate this country out of its ignorance.</p>
|
||||
<p>My role is not just to teach Americans; America’s role is to teach the world. Therefore, I am doing all this here so that you, in turn, can teach the rest of the world. I know that if you cannot do the job, God will mobilize other forces. There are many professors who appreciate what I am doing and they can be the ones to teach the truth in their own classrooms. If that happens, you will be in a shameful position because you will have failed your mission. I don’t want you to be in that position and therefore I am pushing you hard at this time, seemingly ruthlessly. I want you to fulfill your mission. If you can accomplish just one kind of record-even if you can only say you suffered the most-that is at least something you have done at this historic time.</p>
|
||||
<p>Every year at the Science Conference, the chairmen want to meet with me, but I have not yet granted them that request. Those people admire me and respect me, while many average people look at me with tremendous disrespect. What is your position? You call me Father so in order to be in that kind of position, you must be a defender of the family, standing up against opposition and fighting the negativity. Otherwise, you are not truly in the position to call me Father. If you feel that you cannot go beyond certain limitations because of your own reputation and your own job, can that be enough?</p>
|
||||
<p>In America, Reverend Moon is in the position of “No man.” Your job is to make him a “known man,” to educate the public about him. You American women, will you listen well to your husbands? You fierce American guys, do you want to lead your wives well? You must maintain your subjective position, even in love. You must have your own dignity. You women must help your husbands maintain their dignity; if your husband comes to you with a whining, self-pitying attitude, you should kick him!</p>
|
||||
<p>Your love relationships now must set the tradition for the future; they must not contain anything dishonorable. The tradition you set now will be the model for the world in the future; if your standard is crooked now, people in the future will have a crooked model to follow. That tradition has been walked by God, True Parents, and now it is your turn. Millions of people will have to follow that standard; that is why I do not want to compromise it in any way. It must be a dignified tradition.</p>
|
||||
<p>Husband and wife, you must have a disciplined life not a loose one. Your sexual relationships have an impact upon the universe itself. You must bear beautiful, healthy fruit through that; otherwise, you are offending the universe.</p>
|
||||
<p>I would like to see flowers of hope, the ideal, and future prosperity blooming through your children. Our love exists on an entirely different level than the kind of love which people get from prostitutes. When you approach your spouse, you should do it in the name of God, True Parents and humanity; you must maintain your dignity at that time. Are you confident that you can do that? Although you may have been in the church for 3 or 7 or 10 years, that can’t be enough to wipe out the memories of the past if your life was open and undisciplined before you joined. You must become totally new men and women, eliminating all traces of the past; otherwise you are not worthy of loving each other.</p>
|
||||
<p>We are raising a serious question here: how can we create an ideal couple? Let us harvest the most beautiful seed in the form of our children, as the fruit of God’s providence. You must pledge to God that you will love your children; nothing else can matter. Your education, your money, and all those secular worries cannot be important. First things must come first and you must establish the tradition of true love.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you women come here to Belvedere, you are always very quiet and obedient before me. As soon as you get out of here, however, do you revert back to being typical American women? I want you to understand that God knows exactly what you need. God knows me completely, and He is still pushing me out further and further.</p>
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<p>Satan is always trying to exploit your weaknesses, but you must be strong and have no weaknesses for him to exploit. The ideal of the Unification Church is the greatest one, but if you fail to practice it, it will bring the greatest tragedy to you. You want to enjoy the sweetest part of the ideal first, but I push you to taste the worst suffering first. Once you overcome those difficulties, you will be completely separated from accusation from Satan. In that position, God will give you the three blessings.</p>
|
||||
<p>Do you feel regret for having given so much effort and time doing your work for God? At this time, you must continue to work hard and suffer together with your spouse and family and you will become the subjects of the Completed Testament Acts of the Apostles of God’s Kingdom. Even though you may work so hard you feel completely exhausted and cannot go on, you will not be finished. You will receive the true, unending admiration of all the people of the future, year after year.</p>
|
||||
<p>That is why Mother and I have lived with the same spirit, year after year. Mother has given birth to so many children and her body is not the same as it was; she endures incredible suffering. However, I still push her to go together with me everywhere. Do you object to that or do you approve of it`? You approve? Does that mean you want Mother to suffer more ? No, but you understand the Principle and you know the reasons why I must push her. 1, myself, am over 60 years of age and I don’t really have to work as hard as I do, but that is not the way I want to live my life. I cannot sit complacently in a reclining chair for even one day.</p>
|
||||
<p>God is telling me that I should take it easy now, since the age of the children has arrived; I could just offer guidance and not work so hard. However. I will not live that way. Do you think God will say, “You have broken the law: I asked you to rest and you did not rest, so I am going to punish you'”? No, there is no such law in God’s kingdom. Even though God may be telling me strongly in front of all the angels in spirit world that I should take it easy. inside of Him He is filled with pride. He is thinking. “Reverend Moon is really my champion. I am so proud of him.”</p>
|
||||
<p>Now I am treating you the same way. When I send you out on some mission, you respond quickly with, “Yes, I will do it!” and you set out with enthusiasm to do it. Then you should complete it and come back to me asking, “Okay, I did it. What’s next?” However, I have never yet seen one member or one leader come to me with that spirit and say, “My mission is accomplished; what’s next. Father?” Furthermore, usually your attitude is a quivering, fearful “What’s next?” Where do you stand? Are you always afraid of what I am coming up with next?</p>
|
||||
<p>Unless you Americans restore that kind of aggressive, pioneering spirit, this country will decline and some other forces will be able to take over this country. Look at the lesson of Japan: that tiny little nation is the number one competitor to the United States. Thirty years ago, Japan would never have been regarded as capable of such a thing. The great U.S. corporations thought they were untouchable in the world market, but now Japan is ahead in many markets, such as automobiles, electronics, etc.</p>
|
||||
<p>I would like to hear you black people asking me what’s next, because it is your time to rise up. I must tell you that what is next is that you must go out and give more, suffer more for the sake of God and humanity. What is next? The real Moonies are what’s next on the horizon. More than anybody else, the Moonies are the people who are ready to suffer and give ourselves for the sake of God and humanity. According to this criteria, no one can compete with us. That will be our pride. We have a definite path in this life, like a certain railroad line. You may not have a first-class cabin or seat, but you must somehow stay on that train, even if you are just hanging on.</p>
|
||||
<p>I am running swiftly and every corner of the world is emitting protests, like barking dogs. Controversies are swirling around me and my activities. This is truly a sign that I am not standing still but am moving swiftly- running along the path. Some people have depicted me in the ugliest possible ways. It is like the graffiti vandals who have painted the outside of the New York subway cars. But once you get inside my “railroad car” you see that it is beautiful, golden and clean-it is a royal car. Precious stones and glittering walls are on the inside.</p>
|
||||
<p>When passengers enter that car, they can feel the regal elegance and totally enjoy being there. However when those passengers, namely the Unification Church members, look outside the windows they see all the swirling protests and controversies. They can become so confused that they even try to run out of that car while it is moving. If someone does that on a real railroad car, it is surely fatal. Likewise, if you pay attention to the secular world and get affected by it, you will be a victim of the secular world. When you come to Belvedere, you should not be thinking. “When I was living in the ‘outside world’ I slept till ten o’clock every Sunday. Why should I get up now at 4 in the morning?” You should not compare your life now with the past.</p>
|
||||
<p>Even women are going to Ocean Church now and are being made boat captains. Are you women wondering, “How can I possibly do such a thing?” and comparing your past life with this? On the contrary, you should go out to the seashore and wait for my boat and tell me, “Father, I want to be the first captain!” That is the winning spirit.</p>
|
||||
<p>At the leaders’ conference last week, I integrated all the fifty state centers with Ocean Church. Everybody in the church will be giving at least two weeks a year to Ocean Church. If you are a very fat person, you may tip the boat over-but still you have to go to the ocean for two weeks! Perhaps I will send all the husbands to Alaska in the winter time and the wives to Alabama in the summer time. How would you like that? You must be able to bring salvation to people in every climate-hot, cold, northern and southern.</p>
|
||||
<p>When the parents work with such a spirit, the children will automatically follow. Do you want your children to be universal, world citizens? Or do you want them to be small-minded? You must train yourself first.</p>
|
||||
<p>What, then, is-the harvest of God’s providence? The children of your families are that harvest, that fruit. Can you do it properly? We will see the result. I asked all the blessed couples to send their children to Korea for their schooling, but one mother in England protested, “Father, Korea is not our culture. Our children cannot survive there.” I directed them to send their child, anyway. but they soon took the child away. Is that right or wrong? I am sure that among you there is the same kind of thinking and that is why I am announcing this now. You need the right kind of training.</p>
|
||||
<p>Suppose I asked a white couple to trade places with a black couple. Suppose I asked them to go and take care of each other’s children with true love? We need that kind of capacity to change and become parents to other people’s children. Suppose I asked all American men to swap missions with German men. If you say no, you are distancing yourself from the ideal of Heaven and you cannot inherit the Heavenly tradition. Suppose I asked all Tarrytown members to stand up and trade places with African members, taking their missions.</p>
|
||||
<p>Are you thinking, “Finally the blessing came and we can be husband and wife and take a honeymoon!”? Any honeymoon without God’s tradition will produce great problems. I would like to see that you are in the position to inherit God’s tradition. This kind of tradition has to be lived by the Moonies first, not the secular world first. Would you say that even Moonies cannot live it? Or would you say, “Yes, we can welcome such a tradition”? If you can do that, it means that you can inherit the world and take true dominion over the world. Those who are rejecting and shying away from the Heavenly tradition are actually digging your own graves, because the world and universe will move away from you in the future.</p>
|
||||
<p>It’s a great world and we have great hope for the future, but it is not easy to live properly. Husband and wife and family are important, of course, but the Unification Church cannot truly settle down yet. Certainly Reverend Moon has not settled down yet. Nothing of what I have established here in America has been for the sake of my own future-not even for the sake of the Unification Church. If God commanded me to, I would leave here without even telling you good-bye this afternoon. You might think, “How can you be so impersonal and cruel, Father?” But it is not cruelty to obey the providence of God without hesitation.</p>
|
||||
<p>I want you to understand that you are the pioneers of the tradition of the future. You are making the mold for others to fit into. I want you to prepare your home and clan for every eventuality. Those of you living close with me feel more to the bone this tradition. You must be ready to learn and take over the tradition.</p>
|
||||
<p>Almost everybody who was important in God’s providence had to leave his own hometown. Jacob had to go away and you, too, must go into enemy territory at one time or another. The best way would be to marry with a person who represents your enemy. Those who marry interracially, especially white and black, are accomplishing this and bringing together two extremes.</p>
|
||||
<p>I want to instruct you new wives how important it is that you breast feed your babies for at least the first 100 days; they need to receive their mother’s milk. During that time when you are feeding your baby, you should be thinking, “My beautiful child, you are the child of God. When you were in my womb, I may not have given you everything perfectly, but now I want to give you everything-my love, my very body to nourish you.” You should feel like asking that child for forgiveness, “When you were in the womb, I fought with your father and I had many unhappy moments. I complained against God’s providence and being pushed too hard; I complained that the church wasn’t taking care of me properly. I repent very much, so as the representative of God, please forgive me. As you grow, I will try my absolute best to be a Heavenly mother.” You should pray, “God, please accept this child as Yours and bring him up as a great champion for Your Kingdom.”</p>
|
||||
<p>The heart-to-heart relationship between the child and the mother can be best formed through breast feeding. Since it was the mother who denied God first in the Garden of Eden, it is the mother who can restore the home and family. First you should repent to your child and tell him,</p>
|
||||
<p>“As much as I love you, I will love your father, as well.” Your child is the fruit of your blessing. When your husband must travel all around the world, busy with God’s providence, he will come home and he will discover that his wife is becoming more and more beautiful, both inside and out.</p>
|
||||
<p>Husband and wife should have heart-to-heart talks and confess your shortcomings to each other. The wife might tell her husband, “I complained about this and that, but can you forgive me?” The husband will say, “Of course. When I hear you confessing to me, I am moved to confess my sins, too. I was very mean and unkind to you and I am very sorry. I have not been so good, but can you forgive me?” Your child will be like a representative of God in your midst, bringing husband and wife together. You will see that once your baby is born, repentance and confession will come much more easily and quickly to you.</p>
|
||||
<p>You must pray together, holding your child between you. Do your five o’clock Pledge service together, with your child. That will be your hour to have communion with God and True Parents and that should be how you approach it. How beautiful that will be!</p>
|
||||
<p>Our children are the only hope of the future; they are going to be the stars of the Kingdom of Heaven. Those of you who pledge to bring to this world such exemplary children, please raise your hands. Thank you. From now on, I will look forward to your accomplishing this goal.</p>
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---
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title: "THE IDEAL WORLD OF ADAM"
|
||||
type: "speech"
|
||||
published: "2018-06-22T06:13:09+01:00"
|
||||
updated: "2018-06-22T06:13:09+01:00"
|
||||
source: "/blog/2018/06/22/the-ideal-world-of-adam.html"
|
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speechYear: "1982"
|
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categories:
|
||||
- "Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982"
|
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tags: []
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---
|
||||
|
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<h2 align="CENTER">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
|
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<h3 align="CENTER">June 1, 1982<br />
|
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Belvedere<br />
|
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Translator – Bo Hi Pak</h3>
|
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<p>Everyone looks forward to reaching the ideal world, a world of peace and happiness. Let us examine the world in which we live at this time. Is it a happy world or not? Is it a peaceful world or a world of struggle? Is this a good world or an evil one? Furthermore, is this world governed by a true master or not? We can see in this world a mixture of both goodness and evil; it fluctuates between them. There is an ongoing struggle between opposing elements such as happiness and unhappiness, peace and war, the ideal and the most secular.</p>
|
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<p>Under these circumstances, evil is trying to control the entire world. At the same time, the forces of goodness are trying to resist evil and gain dominion over the world as well. This is the general setting of the world in which we live.</p>
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<p>Let us talk about the kind of ideal we are looking for. The ideal world is a balanced world in which give and take actions create a circular motion. No matter where you might be in that ideal world, you would have no restrictions but would be able to turn and move in any direction.</p>
|
||||
<p>Is there a balance between the Eastern world and the Western world at this time? No, there isn’t. Right now, the Western world is like an isolated unit; within that unit there are many different nations struggling among themselves. They certainly do not enjoy balance and harmony. What about the United States-is it a totally balanced, harmonious country? Not at all. An example is the conflict between the black and white races within this country; there is virtually no balance between them.</p>
|
||||
<p>In order to balance two elements, there must be some central theme that they can harmonize around; some element must bring them together. Two lines coming from opposite directions must be joined together by some common point; they do not just automatically meet.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why is it necessary and desirable to bring unity and harmony between two elements? Using the example of two lines, if they were to meet without achieving harmony, it would be in the form of a collision. All things naturally want to be enhanced and made greater, not diminished, by their meeting.</p>
|
||||
<p>There is a purpose for every movement; energy must be motivated first by that purpose. When you get up early in the morning to come to Belvedere, you have a specific purpose in mind. You do not come here in order to be hurt or to be made smaller. The birds start to work very early in the morning: they sing and make a lot of noise as they fly from one tree to another. Do they do all this in order to diminish themselves? Certainly not; they are trying to gain something. Throughout our lives, we move around constantly. Do we do this for the purpose of self destruction? No. we always move or act for the purpose of gaining or accomplishing something.</p>
|
||||
<p>What is it that you are seeking to gain? Is it something material? If a person lived his life continuously gaining only material things, he would be completely weighed down and overburdened by the time he was old. There must be something which people seek to gain which never becomes too much, too big a burden, something which you can always desire more of the next day. Could money, clothing or shoes, for example, fit this description? In order for you to truly benefit by the thing you are acquiring, it must not be too big or require too much storage space. It must always be there and accessible, as well as continuously stimulating and exciting. That is a difficult requirement!</p>
|
||||
<p>In order to meet all these criteria, should your goal be a visible one or an invisible one? Should it be very heavy or very light? It must be something which is invisible and so light it can never be a burden to you. Furthermore, the more one gains of it, the greater must be his joy. What is such a thing? Where do you look for it? It is true love, without any question. Is that love inside of you? Can you take it out and show it to someone? Is that love activated when you are all by yourself? No, love demands an object in order to be activated.</p>
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<p>Love is the ultimate value in the universe; to activate it, we need to have a circuit between subject and object. The universe itself was created by the use of such a circuit. People in the secular world talk a great deal about achieving happiness, peace and an ideal world but they have not been able to give a clear definition of what they are talking about. In order to understand happiness, we must talk about the ideal subject and ideal object, centering upon God. Should we center it upon money, since America has so much of that? Or should political power be our center? What about knowledge?</p>
|
||||
<p>There is no alternative to love as the center of the ideal. Isn’t it amazing that nobody here wants to protest against such a statement? Ideal movement involves the infinite give and take of ideal subject and object centered upon true love, with no limits and total happiness.</p>
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<p>What, then, is the definition of the ideal? First of all there must be a circuit between subject and object, with love at the center. Then there must be give and take. From this point on, whenever you talk about the ideal world you will immediately think of true love, true subject and object, and true give and take. The problem is that in the secular world all these elements can be found-subject and object, love, give and take-but none of them is true in the sight of God.</p>
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<p>What is the difference between true love and false love? We say that self-centered love is false love and is therefore bad. Why is it bad? In order to call something “true” it must contain four characteristics. It must be unique, eternal, unchanging, and absolute. You can measure self-centered love against those four criteria. Certainly it is not unique; it is not eternal; it is not unchanging; and it is not absolute.</p>
|
||||
<p>When someone desires true love, he desires unique and eternal love. No one wants to have changeable love and everyone wants absolute love, not mediocre love. Why must love be like this in order to satisfy us? To obtain a relationship with the absolute, ultimate plus Being, you must share the same qualities. That ultimate plus Being has those four qualities. Each person is seeking to become an absolute minus to the ultimate plus in a vertical, give and take relationship.</p>
|
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<p>When there is this level of give and take on the vertical level, it will create a circling motion on a giant scale. We are creating a giant globe within which to maneuver without any limitations. You can do anything you want freely, without any opposition or resistance. A black person and a white person can move together freely in total joy within that globe. That kind of harmony is created because of the presence of absolute love. In order to obtain absolute love, it is necessary to have an absolute subject and an absolute object. Once you are securely within that framework, you will not contain any contradictions.</p>
|
||||
<p>This is the central ideology of the universe. Doesn’t it make you feel good just to talk about the ideal world? Does anyone worry about losing his ideals of democracy within the ideal world? The current political systems, such as democracy and communism, are merely canes by which people are helped to walk toward the ideal world. When you finally meet with your beloved at the point of the ideal, would you hold up your walking cane and say, “This is my ideal, my ultimate?” No, you would throw that cane away and embrace your lover because you wouldn’t need it any more.</p>
|
||||
<p>What is the ideal world of Adam? Whenever we speak of Adam, don’t forget that we are already including Eve. When you speak of an absolute subject, you automatically include the absolute object. Within the ideal world of Adam, there must first of all be a man and a woman. Also, God as the ultimate subject is the center and subject of love.</p>
|
||||
<p>Your love does not originate with you; it comes from somewhere else. When a baby is born, he doesn’t have any awareness of love; he certainly doesn’t have the ability to love others right away. There is a giant love line coming from somewhere else; wherever we are. we must hang on to that love line. When you are above that line, you are in the plus position; when you are below it, you are a minus. It is almost like a big electric wire to which is attached all kinds of bulbs; you are like one of those bulbs hanging from the wire.</p>
|
||||
<p>One major source of energy-one absolute subject- engenders the love for everyone, like a “love power plant.” From that origin springs the plus and minus charges which multiply the circuit. The love current causes a response everywhere it goes; wherever there is a plus and minus, sparks are created.</p>
|
||||
<p>You might ask, “What do all the simple things of nature know about love?” However, everything within the universe exists within the plus and minus, subject and object relationship. When you go to a city like New York or Las Vegas you can see the huge, colorful neon lights that shine all the time; it is staggering to think of the power that can create such spectacles. Of course, such magic is created through the power of electricity. Depending upon the type of bulb, electricity shines in red, blue or yellow. The bulb is the object to electricity, which is the subject.</p>
|
||||
<p>Look at the earth, which is composed of dark soil. When a flower springs from that brown soil, it may be red, yellow, pink or a multitude of colors. Why are flowers all so different, since they all come from the same soil? Likewise there is tremendous variety among the trees and grasses, the animals and of course people. Depending upon the shape and form of the subject and object relationship, the resulting give and take creates the myriad of beautiful existence’s.</p>
|
||||
<p>Every creature on earth, including man and woman, has its own unique pride. Even the most homely woman has her own unique self and her own unique form of beauty. No matter how unattractive a woman might be, she has a special skill; she can win the hearts of men. She should think “When I sing or laugh, I can melt those men!” Everyone is like a different flower and everyone is unique.</p>
|
||||
<p>We have the terminology of “individual truth body” within the Unification Church. Those words signify that everyone is an individual unit with his own unique character. Each of you is an individual truth body. Each individual truth body harmonizes with every other, with love at the center. The concept of the ideal immediately includes the relationship of subject and object, centered upon true love.</p>
|
||||
<p>If you know that you are not a very handsome man, that does not have to be a problem. Look at yourself like a multicolored neon sign with red, yellow, and all the colors harmonized within you. You should think, “I am not handsome but I am an integral and unique ingredient of the masterpiece of creation.” Look at yourself and say, “I am MOST important because I am unique, eternal, unchanging and absolute!”</p>
|
||||
<p>There is endless variety in the plant and animal worlds. Yet, some people support the notion of “white supremacy.” They think, “Why did God make such a mistake in creating black people? I want a world in which there are only whites, not black and yellow people'” Why do they end there? Why don’t they try to bring about a world in which all the cows and the birds are white? What about the grasses and leaves, the fruits and vegetables? What kind of world would that be?</p>
|
||||
<p>The singing of all the different varieties of birds each morning does not clash; their songs all combine to produce a harmonious, beautiful sound. The reality of subject and object is everywhere in creation; love is the central theme. When the male and female birds sing in the morning, they are not singing to themselves but to each other. We cannot deny this absolute truth.</p>
|
||||
<p>When we discuss philosophy, ideology and truth, we are talking about big ideas, but actually these big ideas can always be boiled down to simple truth. Truth is basically simple. What is philosophy? Philosophy is a pursuit of the perfection of man. What is the purpose of religion? It is the same-the perfection of man’s love. The ultimate purpose of a democracy is the same, too. Likewise, the communists seek the perfection of man, although their methods are wrong. Everything seeks for perfection in man.</p>
|
||||
<p>Everything within creation seeks to be included within the central theme of true love. People ask big questions such as, “What is the purpose of life? What is a true man or woman?” However, all these big questions have one simple answer.</p>
|
||||
<p>The universe is in constant motion and the goal of all that motion is true love. A turning motion occurs through the relationship between two opposite energies- one is pulling and the other is pushing. One is centrifugal and the other is centripetal. The result of all this pulling and pushing, both vertically and horizontally, is a circling motion.</p>
|
||||
<p>Within the universe there are two kinds of forces needed to create motion; one is action and the other is reaction. Some people think that “reaction” implies something bad; they think action is the only desirable thing. But I want you to understand that there is no protection without reaction. Within your body you have the power to push forward and the power to resist. With the interaction of these two, you can keep your body in good shape; you need the balance of both forces. Thus you must not think that reaction is automatically bad.</p>
|
||||
<p>What about good and evil, which are two opposing forces. Am I saying that evil is somehow good? No, I am saying that evil is a reaction but it is a destructive reaction. It does not create anything.</p>
|
||||
<p>Two plus powers naturally repel each other; likewise two minus powers. Two beauty queens don’t desire the company of one another; they certainly don’t have any need for each other. A beautiful woman will prefer the company of even the ugliest man, rather than another woman, no matter how beautiful she might be. In other words, a beautiful minus will prefer a plus rather the any other minus.</p>
|
||||
<p>Before two beautiful women get married, they can be very good friends. They may call each other all the time and go everywhere together; they can share all their experiences. However, when one woman finds a man he will not desire the same degree of closeness with her girlfriend. Is that necessarily bad? That woman will not want to hurt her friend, but her heart is telling her that she doesn’t want to share her time with anyone as much a her husband. This is simply human nature.</p>
|
||||
<p>Universal law automatically protects the unity a plus and minus; that unity should not be invaded or broken that. is the ultimate goal of the universe. Therefore, it is within the universal principle for one minus to reject another. This type of conflict actually leads to a grease harmony. Thus the woman in our example may feel neglected, but she should not have resentment. She should say “This is a good thing; I can see the beauty within your love relationship.”</p>
|
||||
<p>Let me give you another example. When you are sick with the flu, you feel pain and aching all through your body. Is it the disease itself which makes the boat ache? Actually, it is the protective law of the universe the is creating the pain. As long as your body is enjoying the harmony of plus and minus forces, you are protected. But as soon as you lose that harmony, the universal force will reprimand you in order to warn you that you are of balance. Certain unhealthy elements need to be removed from your body so that harmony can be restored. Thus he pain you are feeling is the result of the universal law pushing you toward harmony again. As your body gradually returns to a balance between plus and minus, you feel better and better until finally all the pain goes away.</p>
|
||||
<p>The breaking of the natural give and take action of health is like the breaking of a circuit. Medical treatment given in order to restore that circuitry again. If nothing happens to reestablish the plus and minus harmony, the person will eventually die.</p>
|
||||
<p>The existence of a giant plus field occurs when man, mall pluses have congregated. How do these pluses come together? When I was in college, I majored in electrical engineering and I studied the principle behind the growth of plus charges. Once a plus charge finds a minus, the, create a unit which repels all other charges. Thus the we, which plus charges can gather is that they attract each before they encounter any minus charges. The same is true with the minus charges. As the plus and minus fields increase, they become bigger and bigger and finally they meet in a gigantic clash, known as thunder and lightning.</p>
|
||||
<p>The actions of both uniting and repelling are necessary. Thus, we should not consider “reaction” as something negative; it is part of the universal law which protects the universe. An example of this is when parents restrict their teenage sons and daughters from staying out late or going to certain movies. Those parents might be saying “no” to their children a lot. Is this a destructive thing, since it is a negative reaction to the children? No, it is a constructive reaction for the protection of those children. Until that teenager is fully mature, he needs those protective forces around him.</p>
|
||||
<p>However, young people today often disregard any social restrictions and do absolutely anything they feel like doing. They engage in almost animalistic love affairs, having relationships with anyone. Such young people are searching for only sensual pleasures and nothing else. This kind of purely instinctual living can only bring them to destruction. They are not obeying universal law so they will meet tragedy if they do not change.</p>
|
||||
<p>The adolescent years are extremely sensitive ones the smallest things cause tremendous emotional reactions in teenagers. Their reasoning is often obscured and their feelings are often strong and uncontrollable. At such a time, more protection is needed and therefore discipline is necessary during this growth period.</p>
|
||||
<p>There are numerous destructive forces of evil in the world which seek to penetrate the protective forces of the universe. Thus we are talking about a central ideology upon which we must create the spiritual tradition. What are the characteristics of such an ideology? It must be absolute, as well as absolutely unique, absolutely eternal, and absolutely unchanging. God is our universal subject, the universal Plus. Standing in the object position to God is man, the universal minus. All of life results from the give and take between plus and minus. Constant give and take creates an ever expanding circling motion. This motion is the global circling of love, which is the goal and purpose of life.</p>
|
||||
<p>Depending upon the person, his global motion can be all different sizes and at different levels. The stars in the night sky are all different sizes and configurations; likewise, the “love circles” within the human world are all different. The entire universe has give and take with the absolute center. Likewise, the smallest cell in your body engages in give and take with that absolute center.</p>
|
||||
<p>When cells are healthy, their give and take is healthy and the multiplication of cells is constant. But when sickness occurs, the cells do not have the power to recreate so much. Human life does contain struggle and conflict without a doubt, but the purpose of that struggle is for the protection of the larger balance. Anything which invades the ideal unit will be struggled against and repelled.</p>
|
||||
<p>The laws of any country exist for the protection of that entire society; they are there to prevent the destruction of that society. National and social laws arise from an understanding of the universal law, which protects the universe. Because the universe has its protective laws, the nation does too. Once we understand this, we can appreciate the importance of obedience to the law.</p>
|
||||
<p>According to this principle, smaller existence are sacrificed for the greater purpose. Why is it all right for people to eat vegetables, as well as animals in the form of meat? They are forms of life, so isn’t it a crime to eat them? No, they are lower forms of the creation which are made to serve the greater purpose by contributing to the higher forms of creation. They leap in this way from the lower to the higher forms of life. As far as the vegetable is concerned, when it goes from being a simple plant to a part of the human body, it is a greater accomplishment. From being simple plant cells they can be transformed into human cells; thus they have advanced themselves. And by becoming part of human cells, they are moving toward a relationship with God and His love.</p>
|
||||
<p>Without understanding this principle, many different secular theories have come about. Darwin’s theory of evolution says that higher life forms prey upon and consume the lower forms, in a sort of destructive and negative sense. But when the universal law is understood, one can see that this phenomenon occurs in order to protect the overall harmony; all of these things happen for the purpose of the greater advancement of life.</p>
|
||||
<p>Communism sees the existence of struggle throughout human history but interprets it with evil results. Communists do not recognize the existence of the vertical relationship between God as subject and man as object. They concentrate only upon the horizontal realm and look at everything as a struggle. Communism denies the most important truth of the vertical subject / object relationship and thus it is a false and evil ideology. It has destructive results because it disregards the universal law of protection.</p>
|
||||
<p>It is most important that you inherit the spiritual tradition. The first requirement is that you recognize and claim your own absolute uniqueness. Nobody wants to be anything other than absolutely unique. Likewise, each individual desires to be unchanging, as well as eternal. Most people believe only in what they can see, which is this life on earth; thus they do not recognize that they have eternal life. They seek to find value only within this short span of life. Those of you here recognize the existence of eternity; thus you are members of the “eternal class.”</p>
|
||||
<p>The fourth requirement for fulfilling the spiritual tradition is achieving the quality of absoluteness. No matter how average a person you may be, there is always something within you that is totally unique. Something within you never changes. Likewise, you have an eternal life; and finally you are capable of an absolute quality. Everybody has that dignity and that pride.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why is it that every person possesses these qualities? As objective beings, we could not have such internal, spiritual qualities without some subject. That subject must also have the same qualities. We call that subject God. God is our subject of uniqueness, unchangeability, eternity, and absoluteness. Those are God’s central characteristics.</p>
|
||||
<p>God put people in the position of object and wanted to form a give and take relationship with us. In order for people to have the capacity to appreciate God, He put within every heart the same spiritual qualities which He possesses. We can know God because of this. You can recognize that God is unchanging, unique, eternal, and absolute.</p>
|
||||
<p>How great is that ideal! As the center of the universe and the absolute subject, God needs love too. Therefore, God needs people. He desires to experience true love in relationship with men and women. You must recognize that you are the object of the love of God. Who is God’s object? Say to yourself, “I am!” How does that make you feel? Not just good, but uniquely, eternally, unchanging, and absolutely good! When you respond to God, it can only be with those spiritual qualities. Nothing in the material realm, including diamonds, money, power or knowledge can compare. Since God’s love and goodness is unique, eternal, unchanging and absolute, only those with the same qualities can respond to that love and goodness.</p>
|
||||
<p>What is it that God considers good? On the sixth day of creation, God created Adam and Eve and He said, “It is VERY good.” Did He say that because Adam had a handsome face or Eve was a beautiful woman? No, God said “It is very good,” because through men and women He had the potential for the fulfillment of His love. He could finally see the possibility of that love being realized.</p>
|
||||
<p>Does God need a lot of flashy diamonds? How about lots of power? God has everything-except a love relationship. We can answer the profound question of why God created the universe with a simple statement: God created the universe in order to fulfill His love. Love can only be fulfilled through a subject / object relationship and therefore God created this universe. Can you imagine God being happy and jolly all alone, without creating anything? As soon as God had the humblest of objects with which to relate, He could begin to be fulfilled. Each of you has the potential for a constant communication of love with God.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you encounter God in the morning, you can ask Him. “Where are you going?” He will not say. “I’m going off to a picnic.” Rather, He will tell you, “I am pursuing absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal love.” These are the goals of God. If you asked God, “Why do you work so hard for the restoration of this world?” He will answer, “No matter how hard the road may be, I continue because I must restore mankind in order to fulfill my love.”</p>
|
||||
<p>Suppose God were to confront you in the morning and ask, “Where are you going?” Could you tell Him, “I’m going out to play and goof off”? What would you answer God? If you said, “Home Church,” that would be good. The purpose of Home Church is the fulfillment of that love which is unique, eternal, unchanging and absolute. You must do Home Church because you must fulfill that kind of love in your life.</p>
|
||||
<p>If you asked me, “Where are you going, Reverend Moon?” do you think I would answer that I’m going out to make a lot of money in business activities, as some have accused me of doing? No, Reverend Moon came to America for the pursuit of love on a universal level-love which is unique, eternal, unchanging and absolute. Our next goal is Moscow; we “Must Go” to Moscow. Why do we have this goal? Is it to make the Unification Church or Reverend Moon famous? No, we are going that way for the same goal, in order to obtain a greater amount of unique, unchanging, eternal and absolute love.</p>
|
||||
<p>I like the terminology of ‘docking” used in the Apollo space project. We are going into orbit for the purpose of docking with God. For two things to dock, they must have certain parallel components; they must be able to fit together. God has certain aspects and Reverend Moon has certain aspects; if they are not parallel, there can be no docking. Their parallel characteristics must be unique love, unchanging love, eternal love and absolute love.</p>
|
||||
<p>When that docking occurs, the sound would be greater than the loudest thunder. It would be such a gigantic sound, it would wake up the entire spirit world and the whole universe. All the billions of people in spirit world would be shocked by that sound and then they would rejoice to hear it. They would start to sing and dance in ecstasy. Would people only seek out those of their own race to dance with? No, everybody would be oblivious to race and color-they would be colorblind- and mankind would dance together as a jubilant unit. God would see this and say, “Well, my work has been done. Ha Ha Ha!”</p>
|
||||
<p>This is not just a daydream or empty thoughts; this is a reality. Don’t you want to inherit such a spiritual tradition ? Those of you who say, “Father, I am going to inherit that spiritual tradition without fail!,” raise your hands please. Once you receive that spiritual tradition, you receive a crown; you become a representative of God</p>
|
||||
<p>It is wonderful to even think that you were born to fulfill this spiritual tradition-unique, unchanging, eternal and absolute love. You must make up your mind that this is your way of life; thus you will have no room for second thoughts or wishy-washiness. You women must think, “I am different from ordinary women; I am God’s woman.” Don’t have second thoughts about it.</p>
|
||||
<p>Are you in that absolute position now? You are on your way. Now that you are about to receive the Blessing, everybody is excited. That’s fine, but what about this tradition? Have you inherited it? Are you living it? If I gave you the Blessing regardless of your qualifications, would I be doing the right thing? Certainly not. What shall we do, then? This is a very serious matter. Your marriage is not the problem; the problem is whether or not you are inheriting this tradition.</p>
|
||||
<p>God has been longing for a relationship with mankind for so many thousands of years and now He is just about to come down to reach you. You are men and women who are supposed to be living for God, but how much is your heart truly longing for God and His love? How hard are you trying to live up to His expectations? Marriage is nothing other than the manifestation of the ideal of God. It is the connection between the horizontal reality and the vertical inheritance from God.</p>
|
||||
<p>God’s ideal is to consummate the Heavenly four positions of God, man, woman, and children. Why did God divide mankind into two poles of male and female? He wanted to make a substantial world of depth and width so He created the world with global dimensions. What is it that brings men and women together into oneness? As men have give and take with God and women have give and take with God, they can have give and take with each other and unite in the center with God. At that central point of love, men and women become harmonized into one. There everything is a manifestation of love; your eyeballs look at each other with love, you talk with love, hear with love, touch with love. Absolute, unique, unchanging, and eternal love is manifested in every aspect of your relationship.</p>
|
||||
<p>Every part of you is longing to be touched by that absolute, eternal, unique and unchanging love. When the hands of a loving husband touch his wife’s hair, the hair is drawn to him like a magnet. Love is a magnet which draws everything to it. The whole body, particularly the lips and mouth, were supposed to function under those circumstances, to talk about true love and exchange the ideals of true love.</p>
|
||||
<p>Love travels freely among the four positions; from the center it goes around God, down around Adam and Eve, and around the children. It has no limitations. The ideal family is the base of all human unity. How do you like that? There is great significance to the Heavenly four positions; it is the fulfillment of God’s ideal of creation. When you look at this from the ideal point of view, how far away are you from it? How much impurity do you have, compared to this absolute ideal?</p>
|
||||
<p>Your life must have total depth so that even when you laugh, it rises up from the bottom of your feet and travels through your whole body, finally to be uttered by your mouth. When you are such people, you can hold hands together as husband and wife and God will rest upon your shoulders, embracing you in unity. Out of that unity, your children will be created. Are you confident that you can achieve that ideal? You know the truth and the truth will make you free.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you eat your food, you should think, “I eat for the purpose of consummating love-unique, absolute, unchanging, and eternal love.” The food will say, “Mansei!” before jumping into your mouth. Those who eat with that kind of attitude will never have stomach problems or indigestion because everything they eat will cooperate with their body. But if you do not have that attitude food will have a protest demonstration against you when it gets into your stomach!</p>
|
||||
<p>Look at the universe from this point of view. Look at the trees, the flowers, birds, the ocean and everything from the point of view of the love of God. When you go on a picnic, you can lean against a giant tree and say, “You have been waiting for me, haven’t you?” The tree will giggle, “Hee tree! I have been waiting for you to lean against me for so long! I love you!” That tree has been wanting to receive unique, absolute, unchanging and eternal love from you. As a representative of that love, you will be loved and appreciated by all the things of nature, including the mountains and the ocean.</p>
|
||||
<p>Do everything with this in mind. Walk, talk, and think with the ideal in mind. When you live this way, you will never get bored. When you are with your beloved spouse, you can talk for an entire night without sleeping even one minute and you won’t mind. You can talk your love talk all night and find yourselves leaning against each other in the morning, asleep. That is the kind of beautiful couple God wants to see.</p>
|
||||
<p>Without the beginning point of the ideal couple, we can’t even talk about any higher form of ideal, such as society, nation or world. What is the way of life of the ideal couple? What is your way of life? Whatever we do becomes the manual by which our posterity will live; we set the example. Thus we must live this ideal love, beginning with the husband and wife and then expand it to the largest level. We must cover the entire world with this love. The way to do this is for the smaller level to be cover for the larger purpose. Thus the family must be sacrificed and serve the sake of the tribe; the tribe must serve the nation; the nation must serve the world.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why is this true? Look at one of the giant trees on the lawn outside. For that tree to be healthy, every part of it must exist in connection with the whole. Even the small leaves have a vital connection with the rest of the tree. There must be freely flowing give and take between the roots, trunk, the big branches, the smaller branches, and finally the leaves. If the leaves ever stopped their relationship with the rest of the tree, they would die; ultimately the whole tree would die, as well. You too must link yourself with the trunk and the roots; in that way, your little branch will grow and prosper.</p>
|
||||
<p>The United States of America is like a big branch on the tree of the world. Your family is like a cluster of leaves on the big branch. You can’t say, “I don’t need the trunk! All I need are the other leaves around me,” because you would die. Whether you like it or not, you must communicate with the trunk to receive your nourishment. Likewise, the US cannot say, “We don’t need the trunk or the roots on the world tree. We are a big enough branch to survive alone.” The American nation is a branch which has to serve the roots and the trunk, otherwise it is not fulfilling its true purpose.</p>
|
||||
<p>The leaves should serve the little branches and the little branches should serve the needs of the major branch; the major branch should serve the trunk. When the tiniest leaf is contributing itself and is connected with the root in that way, it can say, “This tree is completely me, from here all the way down to the root! Look at me-I may look small, but I’m mighty!”</p>
|
||||
<p>This is the reason we must serve a larger purpose than ourselves. Always be a minus for the greater plus; in this way your own prosperity is assured. Do you think I am speaking the truth? The tradition for your lifestyle, then, is to live as a representative of the whole. Everyone has the desire to be a representative of the largest value and to be a champion for something great.</p>
|
||||
<p>You are not just an isolated husband and wife but you are husband and wife who can make your brothers and sisters, your parents, your tribe, your nation and the whole world proud. But you cannot be exemplary by staying in your own home. Your parents can be proud of you when they can say, “My son and daughter are representatives of the whole world.”</p>
|
||||
<p>That is why our name is the Unification Church; our lifestyle is for the sake of unification. I gather you here every Sunday and the first day of the month in order to nurture and teach you how to live for something greater than yourself. Once you are married. will you say “Why doesn’t Father leave us alone and let us enjoy our lives?”</p>
|
||||
<p>Why should I interfere in your lives-why do I bother? It is because when you are isolated, you are like a dried up leaf on a branch. The only way to grow is to expand yourself. Thus you must leave the confines of your family and serve for the sake of the tribe. In that way, your territory expands and the love between husband and wife becomes greater too. Husband and wife will be respected by the entire tribe.</p>
|
||||
<p>Furthermore, the individual as a small minus should go to the level of the nation and serve that purpose. By relating on that level, you can return to your family and you will be the representative of the national level. You will carry with you greater glory and love.</p>
|
||||
<p>I spend very little time with my own children at East Garden. Virtually all my time is spent with church elders and visitors. Sometimes the children, without understanding my heart, have felt very lonely and asked me, “Daddy, why don’t you spend time with us?” But I always tell them, “If I give more love to the 36 couples than I give to you, their love and my love will combine into one and return to you that much greater. Therefore, I am not neglecting you but loving you that much more.”</p>
|
||||
<p>An example of this is when Ye Jin was married and she and her husband were presented to the church membership here at Belvedere. Everybody was jubilant and expressed tremendous praise and love. Why do you love them? It is because you love me, isn’t that true? I have practiced the formula which I have been explaining today and the results have been great.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you go beyond yourself to serve a greater purpose, you receive the greater benefit. Even if you lose your life, you will receive that benefit in some other way. Perhaps your children and descendants will receive that benefit. This is a rule. Perhaps the Americans living today will not recognize or appreciate the love I have for them but it doesn’t matter because my love will be acknowledged and returned by Americans in the future. They will understand and appreciate my descendants. That is certain.</p>
|
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<p>This is why the Bible teaches us to love our neighbor as ourselves. You must love your neighbor, love your spouse, love everyone you meet. In this way you will convert every place you go into Heaven. You will not see anyone as your enemy. You will enjoy life 24 hours and day and every one of the twelve gates of Heaven will be opened to you when you go to spirit world. This is our way of life.</p>
|
||||
<p>I have spoken of achieving a spiritual tradition and a lifestyle of unity. In order to achieve these, you must have one basic philosophy-that is, to live for the sake of others. Make up your mind that you were born to serve others and that you will live your life that way. Ideal love is fulfilled only when you serve for the sake of others If everyone is saying, “Others must serve and respect me,” nothing good will happen. The proper attitude for husband and wife is one of support, saying, ‘I serve you and you serve me; we push each other.” That is the way turning movement occurs. To push each other requires that you spend energy for that other person; it requires an outgoing motion.</p>
|
||||
<p>By serving others you are fulfilling the purpose of your existence. You are fulfilling the spiritual tradition, the proper love and life tradition. We practice this way of life from the individual level to the family, tribe, national, world, universe and all the way up to the very heart of God. As you are turning, constantly expanding your energies for the larger and larger purpose, you will find yourself going all the way up to the bosom of God, being held and embraced by Him. Then with God’s presence, you can turn in the other direction and go back to the original point where you started. You will complete a circle in that way.</p>
|
||||
<p>You started out by doing everything for the sake of others, from the smallest level to the universal; then when you have returned to your original point, everything in the universe will be existing for you! At that point, you are a person of deity, a Christ-like person. Because of your oneness with God, anywhere you go you will live the way God does. God is the invisible Deity but you will be His visible form. That is what we call the perfection or completion stage; the journey toward restoration ends there. By your achieving this, the ideal world of Adam will come about and the central ideology will be fulfilled.</p>
|
||||
<p>Are your minds clear about this now? What have we spoken of today? First of all, we speak of inheriting the spiritual tradition composed of love. The four major elements of that love are: unique, unchanging, eternal, and absolute. By receiving and living that vertical tradition we will bring about unification on the horizontal level. That is what we call the tradition of life or the unity of life.</p>
|
||||
<p>In order to fulfill these things, we must recognize our purpose of existence and live our lives in service for’ the sake of others. When you live your entire life for the sake of others, ultimately the entire universe will serve you and live for you.</p>
|
||||
<p>Look at me; I am a good example of this. I was born in a very humble area of northern Korea. I took on the way of life of serving others, beginning with the people in my village. Then I worked for the sake of larger and larger levels, from the national level, to the Asian level, to the worldwide level, and have gone all the way to the universal level. The more I give for the sake of the largest levels, the more I am recognized by the world. I know that ultimately the world will love and appreciate me because of this principle of which I have spoken today.</p>
|
||||
<p>There are no exceptions to this principle and you should not have complaint. If you say, “This way is too difficult, Father; I have an easier solution,” then I say, “Show it to me.” The truth is, nobody has an alternative to this way because there simply is no other way to go. Do you feel that you must adopt this philosophy and way of life?</p>
|
||||
<p>What if somebody tells you, “That is the wrong way; don’t do it.”? There are so-called deprogrammers whose job is to break your faith; will you let them do that? It is better to lose your physical life than your spiritual life. If you go to the spirit world with your heart and faith intact, you will be elevated to the highest level and will be happy there. But when your spirit and faith are broken, you really have nothing of eternal value.</p>
|
||||
<p>It is not death or imprisonment that we fear; it is only losing the tradition of God that we must fear. Therefore, be bold and strong. Those of you who want to live in Adam’s ideal world according to this tradition, please raise your hands. God bless you.</p>
|
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|
|
@ -0,0 +1,103 @@
|
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---
|
||||
title: "THE PRESENT SITUATION, CENTERING UPON THE WILL OF GOD"
|
||||
type: "speech"
|
||||
published: "2018-06-22T06:12:12+01:00"
|
||||
updated: "2018-06-22T06:12:12+01:00"
|
||||
source: "/blog/2018/06/22/the-present-situation-centering-upon-the-will-of-god.html"
|
||||
speechYear: "1982"
|
||||
categories:
|
||||
- "Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982"
|
||||
tags: []
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
<h2 align="CENTER">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
|
||||
<h3 align="CENTER">May 23, 1982<br />
|
||||
Belvedere<br />
|
||||
Translator – Bo Hi Pak</h3>
|
||||
<p>Because of the events during the past week, many of you have gone through extreme turmoil and sadness, but I want you to know that the things which have happened are all part of God’s providence. I want you to understand, too, that the most important consideration is not what is happening externally at the present moment. The main thing to consider is the true providential meaning behind an event; also, it is most important whether or not God is on our side. As long as God’s providence and will are with us, we have nothing to fear or worry about; in fact, we can always rejoice. Therefore, the key question is whether or not God is with the Unification Church. The answer is an absolute yes.</p>
|
||||
<p>If God is with the Unification Church, those who oppose us cannot also be on God’s side. The US government and the Unification Church are in a Cain and Abel situation. Within the nation, the government and the US people are also in a Cain and Abel situation. When a government fails to fulfill the Abel position, the people of that nation should not accept it; they should follow where the will of God leads them. Throughout history, one nation after another has encountered struggles when governments tried to lead in a certain direction which the people did not desire. When the central leaders of any nation consistently fail to go in a good direction the general population will eventually oppose that government. Whenever a government has adamantly continued in an unrighteous direction, either the people have rebelled or they were ruled under tyranny, or else God has used a third power from outside that country to change the situation. This has been an almost unfailing formula throughout history.</p>
|
||||
<p>Let us consider a family as an example of this principle. The parents, who are in the central position, may commit some grave mistake without realizing it. In such a case the children of the family would naturally band together and try to change their parents’ course in order to help them. If the parents responded to their children, the situation would be remedied and the family would be preserved. However, if the parents stubbornly refused to listen to their children, some outside force or third party would invariably come along and disrupt the family. They might even be completely destroyed.</p>
|
||||
<p>If one family within a community fell victim to severe disunity and fighting among themselves, they would eventually be rejected and ostracized by that community. Within the individual, the same principle applies in the unity between mind and body. If a person’s mind starts to go in an unhealthy direction, the body should stop it. When the mind and body are working together in harmony, the individual can live in health and happiness. But if some conflict arises and the mind and body cannot work together properly, that individual will be brought to destruction.</p>
|
||||
<p>Religion is absolutely necessary because it is a way in which people can reach out to God and allow Him to intervene in human affairs. Another necessary element within society is the teachers and elders who can be trusted to intervene in a good way within people’s lives. The internal intervention for goodness in man’s life is religion, while external intervention comes in the form of teachers and respected elders. Together, these two elements can work to solve the problems of any society.</p>
|
||||
<p>Within the Unification Church, there is total harmony between myself and God. Regardless of what the government says or what public opinion is, God is not happy to see Reverend Moon taking a beating. As long as God approves of what I am doing, nothing else can matter. I feel no shame to come before God; nor do I feel any shame looking at the world. No matter what the United States government has accused me of, I feel no shame for anything. Certainly the verdict in the court will not alter the direction of the Unification Church in any way.</p>
|
||||
<p>Do the events of the past week change the relationship between you and me? Our relationship is not only the same externally, but internally it is even closer and stronger. Since Reverend Moon and the members of the Unification Church are one in heart, the difficulties I endure only make the bonds stronger between us. If I should no longer be with you, you would be able to fulfill my role because of our deep unity. If I were not here, you would have to lead the people of the United States toward God’s direction. You would be in the Abel position, while the government which is opposing you would be in the Cain position. God would work with you and through your efforts, and the government would ultimately change their perspective.</p>
|
||||
<p>As a member of the Unification Church of the United States, your sympathy for me is not needed at this time. What I need is your stronger commitment and your renewed determination to fight the same battles for righteousness which I have been fighting. This is the only way the salvation of America is going to be achieved. Without some breakthrough in that way, some third party or power will intervene and destroy this nation and its heritage.</p>
|
||||
<p>Around the world, the United States is being backed into a comer. The proud Anglo-Saxon race is deeply in trouble as well. Great Britain, the United States and Canada are basically Anglo-Saxon in their heritage. At this time the war being waged between Argentina and Great Britain over the Falkland Islands could be described as a racial war between an Hispanic power and an Anglo-Saxon power. Behind the scenes, international communism is also in action.</p>
|
||||
<p>The real value of the Falkland Islands themselves is almost negligible. The winners of this war will also have to be the winners of world opinion. England’s history has been one of colonialism and the world is well aware of the many grievances against the way England treated her colonies in the past. Because England dominated her colonies without a Godly perspective, those she governed suffered while England prospered. God will be on the side of those who suffered, not the ones who inflicted the suffering.</p>
|
||||
<p>The world is in a state of extreme confusion at this time. Recently Billy Graham went to Russia and made a remark about religious freedom that brought him a lot of criticism, even among his followers. Another attempt was made recently to attack the Pope, exactly one year after he was shot. Although this was a crazy incident, the Catholics around the world cannot be described as totally united with the Pope. Also, Ronald Reagan’s policies are being attacked by many of the people of America and he is losing a lot of his influence. It seems that the major leaders of the world are being attacked for one reason or another-people are rejecting Billy Graham, the Pope, Ronald Reagan, and Reverend Moon, as well.</p>
|
||||
<p>One very important question is this: among all these leaders, which of them are acceptable to God? No matter what people think at the present moment, which of them is behaving in a blameless way? God desires to see a group which can proclaim His will to the world and bring all of mankind into unity. The current struggles of the major world leaders reflect a tremendous disunity within their following. The whole world is confused and struggling in ignorance of right and wrong. Mankind needs the direction and guidance of the Unification Church at this time because we are proclaiming the way for the world to find peace and unity. The only major world group which has banded together even more tightly in the face of criticism of its leader is the Unification Church.</p>
|
||||
<p>After the jury returned a guilty verdict this week, the public was more interested in seeing what it would do to my followers than to me. They were expecting to see the church dissolved in despair, but what they saw was the church drawing even closer to me and becoming stronger and more committed. When they saw that, they saw the real truth of the Unification Church. In this worst situation, the truth shines out: God is with the Unification Church. The Unification Church has always had the foundation upon which God could dwell, but this particular event allowed that fact to be manifested to the entire world.</p>
|
||||
<p>You should evaluate yourself today and consider if what I say is true within your own heart. As United States citizens, you actually feel apologetic towards me when your government mistreats me. Should I be the one to apologize to you? After all, I was the one who was condemned. Because you recognize the injustice being done, you arc a different kind of American citizens; you will be the ones to bring salvation to the rest of the country. If I were to leave here and embark upon a crusade to the African continent, would you try to go with me? Would you wave me goodbye, thinking, “Now I can relax and take a vacation”? The way you should think is, ” I will take over your job, Father, and save this country. I will work ten times harder than you have to accomplish that.” If you worked ten times harder than I have, you might all end up in jail! My thinking is not to take all my followers with me wherever I go. When I leave this country, I want to leave you behind to complete the mission.</p>
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<p>This is a time of incredible confusion for the world; the differences between good and evil, right and wrong are very unclear. I want you to understand, however, that we are the people who can show the world exactly what is good and what is evil because we have an historical principle as our guide. If I went to South America, you North American members would have an instant heartistic unity with that continent. The only way to link North America with South American nations is through heartistic unity. If I went to Africa, the same thing would happen to the members of Europe; they would feel intimately linked with Africa because I would be there. We are all one people, no matter where we are. We are instantly linked all around the world. No secular power can achieve such a thing. When I am in Korea, there is an automatic linkage with the entire world; the Korean government certainly doesn’t have such a linkage.</p>
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<p>I want you to realize that never before in history has there been a movement like the Unification Church, with a membership throughout the world united as one family regardless of race, nationality or geography. We are one family under one parenthood. The most dramatic demonstration of our unity came last week in the way you behaved after the guilty verdict. The moment the jury proclaimed their verdict, the Unification movement around the world drew together, solidly as a rock. Through this experience, God has bound our movement into one tight bundle of unity. Because of this trial, all of our members have shed tears – black, white, and yellow people have all shed the same kind of tears in a universal display of unity. Why did you shed those tears? More than for the sake of Reverend Moon, you have shed tears for the sake of mankind and for God, knowing that all three purposes are linked together.</p>
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<p>At this time, we are going over the hill of crucifixion of the heart and we are moving toward new horizons. The purpose of God’s dispensation has been to achieve the restoration of all things of creation; the restoration of all mankind, in the position of children; and the restoration of the position of parents. Here in the United States, every step of this path has been blocked. In this way, America has unwittingly linked itself with the goal of the communists.</p>
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||||
<p>There has been concerted effort on the part of some governmental people to stop our movement from fundraising. Recently the US Supreme Court upheld our right to fundraise, after we had fought a long legal battle. Even though the government tried to stop us from restoring the material things of creation, God opened the way for us. Likewise, the efforts of “deprogrammers” became very strong in America and many of our members were forcibly removed from the church. The ultimate goal of such activity was to stop our membership from growing. In the early part of 1982, we won another victory in the Supreme Court when they ruled that a member of our church had the right to sue his abductors for violation of his religious freedom.</p>
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<p>The United States government totally rejects the concept of true parents; therefore a systematic attempt is being made to remove the True Parents from this country. However, those two very important and basic victories have already been won by the Unification Church: the right to fundraise and the right to proselytize. As long as we have these two victories as a foundation, even if the True Parents leave this country, no one can sever the relationship you share with them.</p>
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<p>If Mother and I traveled to the top of the Alps, you would still be connected to us and would want to receive our direction. The US government might try to stop you from following me because your loyalty is supposed to belong to them. Would you listen to them? You would have the right to say to the government, “You are bound by the US Constitution to preserve my sacred right to religious freedom. Don’t bother me!” Even if the government succeeds in ejecting Reverend Moon from this country, the two most important victories have already been won. If this trial had occurred before those decisions, probably it would have been more difficult to win those victories. The legal struggles pertaining to our right to fundraise and witness have been going on for several years. God knew they had to be resolved victoriously before the end of the trial in May, so the decisions came within two months of each other at the beginning of 1982. Certainly God must have a computer!</p>
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<p>I have absolutely nothing to worry about or fear. Even if I am sentenced very severely, it would not affect our destiny at all. Perhaps I will establish the Unification headquarters inside the prison! America is becoming more and more disliked around the world; therefore, anyone who is disliked by America will be cheered by the rest of the world. I am telling the government to wait and see what happens. Even if I am put in jail, our home church work and witnessing will succeed. My own life would actually be much easier if I were in prison; I am so busy when I am at East Garden, I can only sleep for two or three hours a night. In prison, I could take some rest and relaxation! In my lifetime I have endured the most unimaginable kinds of prisons; therefore, you should not worry about me.</p>
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<p>When Jesus was hanging on the cross, people were weeping for him. He told them not to weep for him but to weep for their children. Likewise, I tell you not to feel sorry for me; feel sorry for this nation and its future. For the sake of God’s providence, I have mobilized and spent many millions of dollars on such projects as the Science Conference, the creation of the <i>Washington Times a</i>nd the movie <i>Inchon. </i>I have been doing these things for the sake of this nation and the world and virtually all of the expenses were met by our movement in other nations. Yet, the US government believes that I am trying to take money away from it. This is truly an historical mistake. Year after year, century after century, the records of this trial will be a source of embarrassment for this country.</p>
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<p>Have you made a new resolution today? You must be willing to show to the world your support for Reverend Moon and the Unification movement. From today forward we must clearly demonstrate our strength and commitment. There are 53 days from today until July 14, when the sentencing is given. We must mobilize to proclaim to the people of the United States the truth about our movement. We must speak to the people until our mouths cannot work anymore; our eyes will be bleary; our legs will be weak, until we tell the whole nation and world the truth.</p>
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<p>God has given us this period of time in which to make the solid foundation of victory for this country. I have asked you in the past to witness, but how much have you actually done? Have you done your home church work as much as I expected you to do? If you do not fulfill your responsibilities, I am the one who must pay the indemnity. Instead of having each of you suffer, God asks me to suffer and make restitution. That is the focal truth of the restoration; Abel is always in the most sacrificial position. The one in that position must not complain at all but must simply obey. I have no complaint and no excuses. Although others have shed tears for me, I do not shed any tears for myself; I want to comfort God, knowing how He is grieved whenever I have to suffer. You must be willing to adopt that attitude and comfort God by taking responsibility. Will you do that?</p>
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<p>During this period of time, we must mobilize thoroughly to awaken this nation to the truth. From now until July 14, we must bring total victory in those areas which we have not been able to accomplish before. We need to gain more strength and manpower. Therefore, I want to see us increase our membership three-fold during this next 53 days. Our goal has been to bring one spiritual child each month and this 53-day campaign involves May, June, and July. No matter what your mission may be. if you try to claim you have no free time to witness it is only an excuse. There must be some way to achieve this goal, once you have made your resolution. If you have laid a good foundation in your home church area, you should be able to bring not only three spiritual children but thirty. During this time, even the MFT will have a special program by which to accomplish this goal. You can write letters to your friends and relatives in order to witness. From this moment, I am directing a total mobilization of our efforts toward this goal. Are you going to do it?</p>
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<p>What is the fundamental will of God? God desires the completion of the ideal of creation. What does that mean? It means the completion of the heavenly four-position foundation. The heavenly four positions are filled by God, the two parents, and the children. The line between God and the children is along the vertical line, while the parents’ relationship is necessary to provide the horizontal line. God is the overall plus, the father is a plus, the mother is a minus, and the children are in the overall minus position. Along the vertical line, God is most directly linked to the children’s position. Along the horizontal line, the parents must be perfectly harmonized and united for that vertical line to be straight and secure between God and the children. Before the children can receive their connection with God, the parents must provide the intermediate minus and object position. Only the power of love between the father and mother is able to thrust that love of God all the way down to the children.</p>
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<p>The love between men and women, as plus and minus, creates a minus before God. This is why conjugal love is important. However, in the current fashion, people come together in love only for their own sake; this is not right. Since their love is self-centered it cannot stand in the object position to God. Only when a couple comes together as perfect objects to God can the vertical line of the heavenly four-position foundation be established. Out of their God centered love, children will be created. Those children who are born under the dominion of heavenly love cannot wander randomly in their lives; they must come under the direction of that central, vertical line of God’s love. The parents have the responsibility to maintain the stability of that vertical line until the children grow to adulthood. In American society it is common that children leave their parents as soon as they reach the legal age of adulthood, but according to heavenly law this is not good. The children should stay with their parents until they form their own four-position foundation in marriage.</p>
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<p>It is natural for God to dwell within the family where the parents dwell with the children. God always operates within three generations – God, the parents, and the children – in order to fulfill the four-position foundation. This is a stable foundation which will prosper wherever it goes.</p>
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||||
<p>Within the heavenly four positions. God’s natural movement is toward the right, positive side. Even though God is the overall plus, there is no repulsion between the two plus charges. In fact, plus charges naturally come together until they meet with a minus charge; at that point, they begin to repel each other. For example, until a man is married, he usually finds his best friends among other men; but once he gets married he isn’t so interested in other men. The repulsion between similar charges, then, is for the sake of preserving the give and take between opposites. It is by this principle that lightning and thunder occur. For the tremendous clash to come about between positive and negative, many positive electrical charges had to first accumulate. Thus, the universe itself naturally turns toward the right, plus direction. The natural direction in which people usually draw a circle is toward the right, in a clockwise direction.</p>
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<p>The give and take between positive and negative charges is actually motivated by the negative charges. For example, lightning could not occur unless there was a low pressure area for it to go to. Normally, low pressure is created before a high pressure area exists. Thus, the minus electrical charge actually engenders the movement of the plus charge. By the same token, when a man and woman come together the love is engendered by the woman first. Women are very sensitive to love. As a young boy grows into a young adult, he does not look extremely different, just larger. However, for a young girl to become a woman requires many changes in her proportions. Women also smile and respond to their environment more easily than men. Young girls are usually very prone to giggling and talking a lot among themselves. This is the way in which women convey to the world that they are open; they are issuing an invitation to men. Women love color and beauty in everything including cosmetics and clothing, because your senses are more developed and open. Since you are in the minus position you are in the position to engender the motion of the plus. Woman is the motivation of the action of the man. The minus is in the lower position within a circle; in order to move up, it requires extra energy. It is easier for the positive element to come down toward the minus; therefore, the minus encourages and motivates the plus to come to it.</p>
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<p>Many people think that men are always the ones to take initiative and be aggressive, but in the love relationship between men and women, the woman gives the first motivation. Women naturally enjoy being embraced by others; it is more comfortable than doing the embracing yourself. This is part of universal harmony.</p>
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<p>In the sight of God, the children of Adam and Eve are more important than Adam and Eve themselves. Why is that? Until the children are born to them, Adam and Eve cannot truly feel parental love. Within the relationship of Adam and Eve and their children, God can come to dwell totally. Those three elements are necessary for the total fulfillment of God’s love; anything less than that is not complete. When the three basic forms of love are complete – parental, conjugal, and children’s – the ideal of creation is realized. This is the heavenly four-position foundation.</p>
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<p>The question arises as to which of the three forms of love is primary. The love between husband and wife can be destroyed; but the relationship between parents and children is eternal. If people had to choose between their spouses and their children, they would naturally choose the children. The order of importance in love for any individual is his parents’ love first, his children’s love second, and his spouse’s love third. The parent-child relationship is part of that vertical line extending down from God, which is the unchangeable trunk line of the universe. When that vertical line is protected within a marriage by serving and loving parents and children, that marriage will invariably be stable. However, many young couples in American society feel resentment toward their parents and do not desire to have children. They think they can enjoy the “good life” together as husband and wife and hate the idea of taking responsibility for any children. This kind of selfish motivation is totally contrary to the Principle of Creation. When someone tries to maneuver his way around the Principle, he finds that his path is continually blocked and frustrated. He can never be accepted and embraced by the universe. Because the trend of American society today is contrary to the laws of the universe, it is in deep trouble. People don’t even want to hear how far they are from the ideal; they only want to continue pursuing a self-centered “fun.”</p>
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<p>The parental position in society can be seen in other places besides the family. The president of a company is in the parental position to the employees. The school principal and teachers are in the parental position to the students. Satan hates this age-old institution of God, the parent-child relationship. This is why communism, as an agent of Satan, strongly attacks the nuclear family and the authority of teachers as part of “class oppression.” They are the first things communism tries to eliminate whenever it takes over a society. Any ideology attempting to destroy the relationship between parents and children and the nuclear family is a satanic ideology, not a God-centered ideology. The Unification Church has declared war against communism because it is the most evil, satanic ideology mankind has ever known.</p>
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<p>No grandparents want to be deserted by their children and grandchildren; they naturally want to enjoy a love relationship with them. Three generations within a family make it whole, both vertically and horizontally. The ideal is for the grandparents, the parents, and the children all to be united in a harmonious relationship. Certainly the most desirable kind of mate would be a person who enjoyed that harmonious relationship with his grandparents and parents as a child. Children who grow up in that kind of wholesome environment experience a balanced and harmonious life; they learn about the width and depth and all the dimensions of loving relationships. Their families are a training ground for the balanced, global experience of all kinds of love.</p>
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<p>The experience of love in all directions is absolutely necessary for a person to live happily in spirit world. Once you enter spirit world, you are a part of the society there. If you have learned how to love and relate to all kinds of people-children, old people, your peers-you can go anywhere and be accepted and welcomed. Thus, your grandfather on the earth is in the position of God. As you serve your grandparents, you learn how to serve God.</p>
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<p>What is the position of the True Parents? They are in the position of ancestors to God-centered mankind. Thus, in every home True Parents are in the parental position. Each of you is in the position of children.</p>
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<p>The most basic teaching of the Unification Church is to live your life for the sake of others. By doing this you can automatically relate with anyone and everyone, becoming the central figure wherever you go. Unless one learns how to love others and live for their benefit, he cannot attain peace in his life; he will always encounter conflicts and struggles. We must live our lives practicing this credo. My own life has been dedicated to this standard. When I came to America, I loved it more than I loved Korea; more than I love this country, I love the universe. This is the will of God.</p>
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<p>One fact is true, and you can tell this to others with confidence: the True Parents have brought you into a relationship with God. Through your relationship with us, you have come to know the love of God. The fall of man made it impossible for the original parents to link their children and descendants to the love of God. A blockage was created along the vertical line. It is important that you love and respect your physical parents. However, you need the True Parents because you need to be linked with the absolute love of God. Who are the True Parents? Simply speaking, they are the man and woman who have the ability and authority to link everybody to the love of God.</p>
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<p>You have all received much criticism; people say you have abandoned your physical parents and have been “brainwashed” by Reverend Moon. This is not true. What you are doing is very simple and clear-you are going where the love of God resides. Is it more righteous to follow where God’s love leads or to pursue only secular love? The universal principle dictates that man must find the love of God. No matter how much your physical parents love you, they cannot escape from the grasp of sin; in other words, they are incapable of totally linking you with the love of God.</p>
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<p>Therefore, seeking after the True Parents and striving to link yourself to the love of God is the ultimate social responsibility. No matter what secular society may say about you, what you are doing is eternally just and proper in the eyes of the universe.</p>
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<p>The Unification Church today is trying to fulfill the ideal of creation. Although you are striving after this ideal under tremendous opposition now, once you go to spirit world you will inherit eternal love and freedom. You will have absolutely no regrets for living your life this way. People were born to live with relationships of eternal love, not just temporal love. Right here on the earth we are learning to live by this eternal law of the spirit world. When everyone lives by this principle we will live in the Kingdom of Heaven on earth as well as in spirit world for eternity. The two realms will operate exactly parallel, under the same universal laws.</p>
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<p>This earthly world moves upward and re-creates itself in the spirit world. When someone has lived by the Principle, he experiences no barriers to his life in spirit world. If a person believes himself to be righteous on the earth but has not actually been living by the Principle, he will encounter innumerable problems and barriers to his happiness once he gets to spirit world. A person’s secular knowledge, power or wealth has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on his freedom and happiness once he goes to spirit world.</p>
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<p>The Unification Church is teaching the ideal of the heavenly four-position foundation. The creation of this God-centered, loving family is the most crucial and extraordinary achievement of the Unification Church. This achievement will prevail forever, both here on the earth and in heaven. Therefore, no matter how difficult it may be, we must walk this path of principle. Students in school must make a passing grade, regardless of how difficult the course work may be. You cannot tell your teacher, “I know everything, so don’t test me. Please just give me a 100% grade.” The teacher will never allow such a thing. Likewise, you cannot say to me, “Father, I have been a church member for a long time, so please don’t give me any tests now.”</p>
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<p>Some people evaluate their fiancés according to their own partial viewpoint of that person. If your fiancé is shorter than you prefer or seems different from your ideal, you might want to reject that person. However, consider Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. There was only one man for Eve and only one woman for Adam. Even if Adam happened to be ugly and crippled, Eve would not have been in the position to reject him. Certainly God pre-arranged their matching! You must understand clearly why you are marrying in the first place. It is not primarily for your own gratification, but for the sake of the vertical line between the parents and the children.</p>
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<p>Once you have given birth to children, they would never reject you if you became crippled; they have no right to do such a thing. Also, parents cannot “send back” a child if he is damaged in some way. Nothing can sever the relationship between parents and children; it is eternal and unchangeable.</p>
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<p>Anyone who claims, “I don’t want my fiancé,” is not really standing in the position of child to God. It is only because of God that love occurs between men and women. When you deny that vertical line and ignore the fact that God is the reason for your marriage, you are denying your linkage with God.</p>
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<p>Within a home, God’s love comes down in a vertical line through the parents, then to the son. When the son takes a wife, she comes to join that family and make it whole. The daughter-in-law or son-in-law should not cause division between parents and children but harmony and wholeness. When a man and woman are blessed in marriage by the True Parents, they are not in a position to divide themselves from the True Parents. That will never produce good results.</p>
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<p>Why do we say this is an evil world? Is it because there is not enough money, or national power, or relationships? No, the world is evil because it has no true love. God is going after men in order to implant in them the seed of true love. He wants to see the individual of true love, the family of true love, the society of true love, the nation and world of true love. Each of you, as well, desires to see this ideal come about on the largest level. The desire for a universe of true love is a natural part of each person. God, as the infinite plus, is the power which is pushing the universe into the position of infinite minus. Once the vertical love of God meets the horizontal reality of the universe in a perfect 90° angle, the result will be a perfect spherical movement of true love on the universal level. No matter how huge such a universal sphere of love is, each individual will be able to navigate freely within it and feel at home anywhere. The love of the universe will be your love as well. In the spirit world, you will be able to enjoy total freedom of movement-vertically, horizontally, diagonally, any direction.</p>
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<p>In order to move up the ladder of development from individual of true love to family of true love and so on, extra effort must be exerted at each stage. You must make greater and greater effort to become a larger and larger minus before God. As a larger and larger low pressure area comes to exist, a high pressure atmosphere will be pulled in from all four directions.</p>
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<p>In order to pursue this kind of life, we must be able to move around freely from place to place. That means you cannot be held down by all kinds of baggage and belongings, but rather have simple, easy-to-move belongings. We are living in the age of the new Exodus and every day we are moving closer and closer to Canaan. Moses, as the leader of the Israelites in the wilderness, was confronted every day with all kinds of complaints. “Moses, it’s too hot! We need water! My husband is sick, what can I do? My family is in terrible shape!” They all wanted to blame Moses instead of considering that those problems, such as disease, were happening because of their own course of indemnity.</p>
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<p>At this time, Dr. Durst is traveling around the country and appearing on every possible radio and television show, speaking the truth about our movement. He has met some ex-members of our church whose attitudes have amazed me. In the past, most of the people who left always blamed the church and me in order to justify themselves, but now they are not doing that as much. They are saying, “I left the church, but I still love Reverend Moon. It was just too difficult for me to follow their standards.” Other ex-members have the excuse that their particular leader in the church was impossible. What about you? Are you men and women of complaint, following a zigzag course, or are you moving straight and steadily toward the goal? You must realize that this is still our time of exodus through the wilderness. During this time the best husband and wife will have the attitude, “I am not worthy of my spouse. I want to serve him/her better in order that we can both achieve our goals. I want to overcome all my shortcomings for that purpose.” However, there is another kind of couple who thinks, “I am a great person. If my spouse is not worthy of me, I will just kick him or her out.” Of these two types of couples, which is the more beautiful? Certainly the first.</p>
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<p>You never know what will happen in your life in the future. Although some of you women may not think your future husbands are very appealing, some day each of you will realize how much your husband is your savior. And vice-versa. There are always more common, average people in any group than brilliant ones. Moses’ flock was also composed of many more common, grass-roots type of people than brilliant ones. When I look at our members, I feel very cautious about those men and women who think they are very special and good-looking. Such kinds of people are not very likely to endure the most difficult, suffering aspects of our church life. On the other hand, those people who are humble are more earnest in seeking my guidance for everything, including the choice of their mates. These people are most likely to stay and endure all the way to our ultimate goal.</p>
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<p>Before you complain against your fiancé you must meditate and search very deeply within the Principle. Once you give up the Principle and your relationship with God, you can only encounter one difficulty after another; and you will have no defense against them. If you have an unhealthy, self-centered mind, any children you might give birth to will not bring glory to God or to you. It is an amazing fact that no matter how hard you try to deny the Divine Principle you simply cannot disprove it. Even though you don’t want to think about it, you can never really dismiss the Divine Principle.</p>
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||||
<p>If you are a very attractive, capable young person, put yourself in God’s place. Consider the fact that God has to work with this entire world which is filled with many more degraded human beings than superior ones. There are far more ugly, ignorant, low people than any other kind. You should seek to become a friend and savior to such people of the world.</p>
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<p>If there is a marriage between a handsome man and a beautiful woman, their relationship may tend to be more intense on the horizontal plane than the vertical. But if a handsome man marries a less attractive woman, it is a foundation for a vertical connection, since one is higher and one lower. When that handsome man goes down to a lower level, he must deny himself. In so doing, he creates a greater width and depth for himself and his relationship with his wife. He must sacrifice for the sake of greater love.</p>
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<p>There are all kinds of blessed couples. Certainly God takes the greatest joy in observing those couples in which the most extreme contrasts are harmonized. Within the black and white couples, their harmony is symbolic of harmony between midnight and noontime; thus the 24-hour daily cycle is harmonized. If your ideal is to marry someone just like yourself, you are not thinking the way God does. If you resist making harmony between extremes, you are in line with satanic thinking. When the Unification Church is living up to this ideal of harmony, there can be hope for unity of the whole world.</p>
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||||
<p>Although some of you might think you want a good-looking spouse, once you have been married for a short time you will realize how unimportant are a person’s looks. The only thing which can sustain a good marriage is the internal quality of you and your spouse. You cannot see those internal qualities at this time. Also, you should realize that a handsome husband or beautiful wife has a certain liability. After all, you have to worry whether someone else might not try to take him or her away from you. But if your spouse looks like an Idaho potato, you don’t have to worry about such a thing!</p>
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||||
<p>When an ugly man is married to a beautiful woman, he will think, “She is much better than I deserve. God has given me a wonderful gift in her.” That man will love and serve his wife throughout their life. Any woman should be grateful to have a husband who can appreciate her like that. The children who are born to such a couple will inherit a wonderful tradition from their parents. A beautiful family will be created which will be blessed abundantly by God. Too often, people evaluate the beauty of others only according to the beauty of the face, but the face is only one portion of the body. You should consider the beauty of the entire person.</p>
|
||||
<p>The value of the letters of the alphabet is in what they can communicate. Each letter is a symbol and no matter how perfectly formed each letter may be, that is not as important as the meaning behind it. When a great artist is painting a person’s face, he pays tremendous attention to the background for the portrait. That background is crucial for the enhancement of the face. Considering a couple as a portrait within a frame, if the wife is very beautiful the husband should be her rough, less-beautiful background. He can bring out the beauty of his wife. If the face in the foreground is very ugly, then the background should be bright and attractive; this achieves harmony. Therefore, one ugly spouse and one beautiful one is a lovely, artistic combination.</p>
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||||
<p>When someone takes a nap in the middle of the day, he seeks a place of shade, not some bright, sunny area. Thus shade deserves appreciation as well as sunshine. People naturally want to work in the daylight, but they want to find their peace and rest in the shade.</p>
|
||||
<p>Reverend Moon has come to bring harmony and unity between the cultures of East and West. This is also a dramatic combination. At this time, more and more Western people in the secular world are seeking their mates from the Eastern culture. This is a good thing, basically, but such unions are not easy. In order for them to succeed, they need to be founded upon true understanding. When a person marries someone from an opposite culture, his viewpoint will begin to change. He will begin to like what he used to dislike and vice-versa.</p>
|
||||
<p>Our conclusion, then, is that the establishment of the heavenly four-position foundation is the completion of the ideal of creation. It is ideal to see two extreme poles combine into harmonious oneness. The family is the fundamental base of that ideal. People look at you as crazy people. Everyone else in America chooses his own mate according to his own tastes, and the two of them decide the date of their marriage. If they want to divorce, they do so whenever they choose. But you in the Unification Church are living within a different kind of culture. Here you wait for the date of your wedding to be set by the True Parents. This in itself is a miracle. I know that every day you wonder when the date will be set. Why are you so eager? Because you want to live in accordance with the Principle and fulfill the ideal of creation.</p>
|
||||
<p>The longer you have to wait between your engagement and your marriage, the more upheavals and emotional turmoil you have to go through. I’m sure that during this long waiting period, you have called each other at times, saying, “Hello, my darling, how are you?” Yet, during your conversation, some disagreement arises and you argue over the telephone. Finally, you hang up in anger, thinking, “I’ll never call you again, you so-and-so!” Then a day passes and no call comes; another day passes; and a third day goes by without a call. Finally, you are very worried and you find yourself on the phone again, saying, “Hello, darling, how are you?” These are the kinds of convolutions you have probably all endured. This is part of the upward progress of a relationship.</p>
|
||||
<p>Above all else, you should be proud of each other for doing the work of God. You should be asking each other, “How did you do today in fund raising?” or “How many people did you meet in your home church area today?” You should share with each other, advise each other, and experience the joys and difficulties together of living the Principle. Between the two of you, have a competition over who will bring the most spiritual children before the day of the heavenly wedding. If you both work very hard, you can gain many spiritual children and they can all come to your wedding ceremony, showing praise and love to you as their spiritual parent. That is a great asset you can bring to your marriage. With spiritual children all around the world, you could even take a global honeymoon and have it arranged by them! You must work with this kind of bubbling enthusiasm.</p>
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||||
<p>As an individual, you must become the individual messiah. When you look at yourself, can you truly trust yourself? The individual messiah must be of unchanging quality. Can you inspire another person’s trust in you as well? You must be confident that you will not change or betray the things you believe or the people who believe in you, not only now but also in the future.</p>
|
||||
<p>If you cannot even trust yourself, how can you expect to be trusted by a spouse or an entire family? If you are not worthy to be trusted, you are not worthy of marriage. The messiah is a person who comes down to the bottom levels of society; he can trust himself completely and others can trust him. He trusts other people, as well. From that individual level, the messiah can expand to all the higher levels.</p>
|
||||
<p>What is your foundation? It is a very serious question. When you cannot be absolutely sure of what you would do in the future, how can you hope to deserve the trust of other people? You have said that you trust and believe in me, but if you cannot really trust yourself, how can I trust your statements of faith? 1, too, have to be able to trust myself before I can tell God, “I trust You.” I started my mission with an absolute determination to continue on this path forever; nothing was able to divert me. You must become men and women who cannot be stopped by anything, even death.</p>
|
||||
<p>I have been loving and trusting America. No matter what happens, even though America has treated me badly, I cannot change my loving attitude toward America. I want you to understand that the beginning point of fulfilling the role of messiah is achieving that unchanging quality; only in that way can a person trust himself. Once you have come to believe in yourself, your surroundings will believe in you. Can you trust your own eyes, your ears, the judgment of your mind? Our marriage in the Unification Church is the fulfillment of the messianic ideal. How can you marry until you can say that you can trust yourself? If a couple marries without that kind of standard, how can they be trusted? This is basic and fundamental.</p>
|
||||
<p>You must make a solid foundation at the individual level before you can move up to the family-level of messiah, then clan, society, nation, world and cosmos level. Without that fundamental basis being solid, the rest of the levels cannot be stable. Many of you have been thinking of your long-time membership in the church and how you deserve to a have higher position and status. However, rather than thinking of your position, you should be striving to become a trustworthy person. You must become the kind of individual who can be trusted by your spouse, your children, your tribe, nation, universe and cosmos.</p>
|
||||
<p>Who will evaluate whether your faith is good enough? You can evaluate yourself according to the light of the Principle; you know how much you are worthy of trust. What is the standard to determine whether you are trustworthy? First of all, determine whether you are walking on the road of truth. Second, you must walk with love. Once your mind is sincerely seeking the way of truth and love, you pass the test.</p>
|
||||
<p>The individual must be standing upon the foundation of absolute truth and love and then move up to all the higher levels. All the levels are linked together. At each step, you are taking responsibility for achieving messiahship on every level. Ultimately you will enter into the spirit world upon that foundation. God is God on every level. His truth and love are unchanging and absolute; His standards never change. What kind of messiah are you? Before one can reach the level of worldwide messiah, he must complete all the levels supporting it. We talk about the cosmic level of messiah, which includes not only the physical universe but also the spiritual universe. For yourself, it may not be possible to think in terms of cosmic level messiah, but you should be thinking in terms of individual, family and tribal level messiah in a practical way.</p>
|
||||
<p>Within an individual, once the mind and body are harmonized, truth can dwell within. Once truth can dwell within an individual, the love of God can dwell there as well. When the father and mother within a family are united in true subject-object oneness, truth comes to dwell on that level, and then the love of God as well. When there is unity between the parents and the children. trust and God’s love will be there. The children can trust the parents and the parents can trust the children for eternity. This can happen only because trust and God’s love are dwelling within that relationship.</p>
|
||||
<p>On the clan level, when the central family imparts good influence to the others, the clan level of messiah is fulfilled. When there is a central clan which is the subject of goodness within a society or nation, the national level of messiah is fulfilled. The same thing must happen on the level of world and cosmos.</p>
|
||||
<p>Do we have our own nation within the Unification Church? We have achieved the clan level, but not yet the national level. At this time, we are in the process of elevating our level of messiah to the level of the nation. This is the role of home church. We are making the base of the tribal messiahship within America. All over the nation, there are clusters of tribes fulfilling this role. We are doing this in every nation of the world, so eventually one nation will emerge totally successful in the home church dispensation. At that point, the national level of messiah will be born. By the same manner, we will move on to the worldwide level. We are working on many levels at the same time-individual, family, tribal-with the goal of moving up to the national level in one country where the messiah can be accepted.</p>
|
||||
<p>The situation in Korea is very shaky at this time. The economic and political scene is in great turmoil. At the same time that the Unification Church is undergoing massive tribulation, the nation of Korea is suffering as well. The only solution to the problems of Korea is the Principle, although they do not realize it at this time.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why do we do home church? By doing it, we can inherit the blessing from God; it is our common destiny. We must achieve the level of messiah on every level all the way up to the cosmic. We must build a bridge from one stage to another. As representatives of the United States, you need the messiah. The whole world needs the messiah.</p>
|
||||
<p>Consider a big tree; Jesus is like the root, all of Christianity is like the trunk and all the Christians of the world are the different branches and leaves. All are part of one tree, growing up from one root. If one of the branches is cut off and is allowed to root elsewhere, the same tree can be duplicated. This is what the Unification Church is doing.</p>
|
||||
<p>Our topic today deals with the present situation, centering upon the dispensation of God. The present situation of the Unification Church is that of enduring persecution. We are enduring so much persecution at this time because we do not yet have a national-level foundation. If we had achieved a national or worldwide foundation, certainly America would not be in a position to persecute us. Where will we find our nation’ We must give our entire energy to restoring one nation. We must find one nation where we can truly fulfill the ideal of God. Whenever I am mistreated. I look forward to the attainment of that ultimate goal.</p>
|
||||
<p>All the State Leaders are here this morning. If each of you fulfills the role of messiah to your state, there will be no reason for me to suffer persecution from this state. You must muster your strength and move forward toward the victory. Once you become the kind of individual who can trust himself absolutely, the rest of the world will rally around you. Therefore, the victory must begin inside each one of you. Then the world which has had no one to trust will be able to trust you. Through the work of the Unification Church, we are all working to become messiahs for the world.</p>
|
||||
<p>Whenever two or more people get together, there is always a central figure through whom harmony can be created. When two or more persons live together, each person’s good points and bad points are known to all the rest. The person who works the hardest and gives the most will become the central figure; this is heavenly law. We are here to fulfill the messianic ideology. The earth and all of mankind are in need of such an ideology.</p>
|
||||
<p>The world is roughly divided between the democratic and the communistic realms. Those who can bring harmony between these two opposing camps will have the position of messiah. The two camps are deeply divided and each is fighting for its own self-centered reasons. We must mediate in this world and bring harmony, out of a totally unselfish motivation. In that way we are a third party of goodness. The more time passes, the stronger we become and the greater our impact on both worlds.</p>
|
||||
<p>The messiah is in the parental position. Parents can only be secure in their position when the two children, Cain and Abel, are harmonized with each other. Abel must be the one to take initiative to create that harmony, out of his sacrificial service to Cain. Therefore, the Unification Church must take the initiative to serve the entire world. We are in a position like judges, pointing out the goodness and short comings of both the democratic and communistic realms. By bringing a God-centered point of view, we can create harmony between the two realms.</p>
|
||||
<p>Each of you must be well educated in the doctrines and ethics of Christianity. Likewise, you must understand communist ideology and know where each is right and wrong. Our ultimate goal is unification of the two camps; we are teaching Unificationism. From the providential point of view, the one thing truly needed by the world at this time is Unificationism. The world is in chaos; without a central truth, the world cannot be saved. We are bringing not only central truth, but also central love; both are necessary factors of the messianic ideology.</p>
|
||||
<p>In conclusion, let me emphasize that we cannot be defeated today by our present situation. We must overcome these recent difficulties and go forward in order to teach these two key factors to the world-central truth and central love. We must expand the realm under which these can prosper. This is what God wants, what Reverend Moon wants and it is also what mankind wants; it is our duty and responsibility to accomplish this. Let us make a new beginning today. With the great power of love and truth in our hands, we have nothing to fear and no reason to hesitate. Those who want to do this, please raise your hands.</p>
|
||||
<p>During the next 53 days, you know what your goal is and you know how to achieve it. Do your very best to fulfill that goal. Everything which seems to be an obstacle at this time will be melted away; your path will be clear. I’m sure you are praying for me and this legal situation; that is good. But more importantly, you must go out to the world and bring in more spiritual children so that we can strengthen our foundation. We will show to the world that the Unification Church is not dead, but is alive and strong and running forward today for that new horizon, the world of God.</p>
|
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<p>Let us pray.</p>
|
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---
|
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title: "THE ROAD OF GOD'S WILL"
|
||||
type: "speech"
|
||||
published: "2018-06-22T06:12:42+01:00"
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updated: "2018-06-22T06:12:42+01:00"
|
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source: "/blog/2018/06/22/the-road-of-gods-will.html"
|
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speechYear: "1982"
|
||||
categories:
|
||||
- "Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982"
|
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tags: []
|
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---
|
||||
|
||||
<p><center></p>
|
||||
<h2>REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
|
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<p></center><center></p>
|
||||
<h3>May 30, 1982<br />
|
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Belvedere<br />
|
||||
Translator – Bo Hi Pak</h3>
|
||||
<p></center>My topic this morning is the providential road, or the road of God’s will. What is the difference between these two phrases? In English, God’s win is a subjective term and providence an objective term. Let’s compare the Chinese characters for the two concepts. The character for will has three components: standing, proclamation, and heart or mind. So when we write “will” we mean proclaiming the word of our mind or heart. Will involves making a stand.</p>
|
||||
<p>Part of the Chinese character for providence has a hand on one side and three ears on the other, this represents the people who are able to hear the word. The character also has the components of king and village; thus providence means the village king or the central figure who presides over the word of God. In Oriental languages words have two types of meanings, one internal and the other external.</p>
|
||||
<p>When we take the road of God’s will we fulfill a providential mission or a providential purpose. God’s original providential will was perfection, but since the human fall another providential will came into being, that of restoration or salvation. Salvation means restoration, bringing us to the perfection of God’s will. The road of God’s will is therefore subjective and we are not quite on that road yet. Instead, we are on the providential path, heading towards the will of God.</p>
|
||||
<p>The providential road can be divided into four major ages or segments, according to the dominant authority or power: first, material authority; second, human authority; third, God’s authority; and fourth, love authority.</p>
|
||||
<p>The providential path begins with the age of material authority. This age can be described as one of making material offerings to God. However, an offering was not originally required in the true road of God’s will. It became necessary only after the human fall-to enable us to embark on the providential road.</p>
|
||||
<p>In terms of content, the age of material authority is one of offering. The age of human authority is one of sacrificial service. The age of God’s authority is one of forgiveness. And finally, the age of love authority is one of fulfillment of the ideal.</p>
|
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<p>In terms of level of truth, the age of material authority can also be described as the Old Testament era, the age of human authority as the New Testament era, the age of God’s authority as the Completed Testament era, and the age of love authority as the perfection era. Thus the entire history of restoration can be -summarized in these four categories.</p>
|
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<p>In the first three eras, people are required to pay indemnity. Do you like indemnity? Since you don’t, why should we go this way of indemnity? Because without it we cannot follow the road of God’s will, we cannot attain the realm of God’s will. The Unification Church, has been passing through the segments of the Old Testament era and New Testament era. Upon the victorious foundation of both those eras comes the Completed Testament era. Unless you pass through the Completed Testament era you cannot enter the ideal world or the age of the ideal; you cannot experience the kingdom of God on earth or in heaven.</p>
|
||||
<p>Our calling is to proclaim the fundamental truth that this is the road of restoration and the road of re-creation. We have to follow the road of re-creation in order to reach the ultimate fulfillment of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. Religious people today fall far short of understanding this basic fundamental truth about God’s road. For example, even devout, religious people have no idea about the age of material authority, which requires offerings on the individual level, family level, tribal level, national level and world-wide level.</p>
|
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<p>The Old Testament era required a great many offerings and established many rules governing offerings. By sacrificing doves, a lamb or a heifer, people could be forgiven of a certain segment of their sin, such as individual sin, family sin, tribal sin, and so forth. But because they did not know the entire spectrum of the providential course, they could hardly fulfill the entire will of God during that era. Those who are victorious in the era of material authority, however, can gain the foundation to enter the New Testament era, which is the era of human dignity and human rights.</p>
|
||||
<p>In order to stand proudly in the sight of God, people should win dominion over the world and offer all the world’s material goods on God’s altar. Without reaching that level no one is truly eligible to stand in God’s sight. In other words, everybody has to go through such a process. However, since nobody even knew, let alone understood, the way to God, God must send someone in the role of a high priest to guide the people in that direction. There should be someone representing heaven and earth to lead mankind. Such an individual makes an offering to God, representing all of history, past, present and future. On behalf of mankind throughout the ages, such a priest makes one universal offering.</p>
|
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<p>God promised to send the Messiah to the chosen people of Israel in order to fulfill this need. Such a chosen person comes as a representative of heaven on earth, to lead people along the heavenly path and make an offering for the sake of the universe. The chosen nation of Israel represented the entire world, and one central person, the Messiah, exemplified that chosen nation. However, a problem arose 2,000 years ago when the chosen people of Israel did not recognize that the Messiah came not just for their sake but out of love for the entire world; they were ignorant of the Messiah’s worldwide purpose.</p>
|
||||
<p>They also misunderstood the role of the chosen people, assuming that the chosen people should be admired and respected by the entire world. They did not know that the chosen people existed in order to save the world and that it was their responsibility to take care of the world. It is fine to take pride in being the chosen people, but if they do not understand their role in saving the world they will be isolated. Those of you who come from Jewish ancestry, please raise your hands. You can understand this point very clearly.</p>
|
||||
<p>First of all, the Messiah came to Israel in order to unite with Judaism and the Jewish nation. The Jewish faith was prepared as his internal foundation and the Jewish nation his external foundation. The internal aspect is the God-centered people, and the external is the God-centered nation, which is material. The offering must be made on the base of the nation of Israel. In other words, God’s altar must be erected on the national foundation, and the offering must be made on that base. Then, when God accepts the offering, world salvation can begin.</p>
|
||||
<p>This was the scenario: the nation of Israel was to be the external foundation and the Jewish faith the internal foundation. At the center should have been the Messiah. When those three elements were completely united, their offering for the sake of the world would have brought them into unity with the Roman Empire. Then the territory of Israel and the faith of Judaism would have been linked with the territory of the Roman Empire. The Messiah could have become the Messiah of the Roman Empire, which at that time represented the world.</p>
|
||||
<p>The age of offering started on the individual level and then expanded to the family, tribe and nation. On the national level, the people were supposed to meet the Messiah and form a national level messianic offering; then they could have reached out to accomplish world salvation. That is how the providential scheme was designed.</p>
|
||||
<p>The era of sacrificial offerings called for shedding blood, but the next age is that of human dignity. When you become a God-centered person through giving sacrificial service, you receive glory and service. The Bible even records that Jesus said, “The Son of man came not to be served but to serve.” (Matt. 20:28) Is sacrificial service good? Is it easy to do? It is inevitable, almost like a test at school. No one likes tests, but at exam time students work hard, burning the midnight oil in order to prepare for the exam the following day. Even though they dislike it, people go through it because there is no choice. In a similar way, you have to go through sacrificial service. It is not easy.</p>
|
||||
<p>That is why you need a good example, and Jesus came to show a good example of how to live in the age of human authority. Sacrificial service only begins on the individual level. Many people consider individual sacrifice good enough and wonder why they should have to sacrifice on the family or tribal levels as well.</p>
|
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<p>Nowadays there is a lot of excitement and jubilation, especially in the New York area and especially among candidates for a matching. I feel like saying, “You rascals! You are thinking about your own Blessing, but what about the world’s Blessing? Have you ever thought about it?” Until we reach the point where I can bless the world, I am still like a forerunner. I shall continue the way of sacrificial service, willing to pay whatever indemnity is needed.</p>
|
||||
<p>Well, do you think that is a good idea? If you say yes, this means that even after your Blessing you will continue together as a couple along the road of sacrificial service until the ultimate fulfillment is accomplished. In three or five years you will no longer be just two people; you will have become a family, with perhaps three or more children. What will you do then? Still your mission will he ahead of you; world salvation will still be far away. So you have to continue doing sacrificial service. Can you just quit and enjoy your life?</p>
|
||||
<p>We must never imagine that we are going to live comfortably-not until we fulfill world salvation. That is the destiny we were born to fulfill. You are matched and blessed for that purpose. That is how I constantly think.</p>
|
||||
<p>Do you suppose that if your family lives a sacrificial, serving life it can achieve world salvation? You are only on a family level now and the world level is still so many levels beyond you. Who will go through all these levels? You will just have to move step by step, from one level to the next. You will ultimately have to transcend even the level of national salvation.</p>
|
||||
<p>What will you do if your nation opposes you instead of being receptive? Will you quit and follow your own way? To abandon your mission of national salvation is to block your way to the world level. Should you give up in the face of opposition? No matter what the response may be, don’t let anything stand in your way until you achieve the goal of national salvation and move on to the world level.</p>
|
||||
<p>Even though you perfect this era of human authority through sacrificial service, you will not automatically enter the era of God’s authority. You still need someone to guide you and raise you onto a new plateau. This is the Messiah. In order to lead mankind from the period of human authority to the period of God’s authority, the Second Advent of the Messiah was necessary.</p>
|
||||
<p>So far, religions have been working on a national level, each one creating its own foundation and awaiting the Second Coming. When they join the Messiah, he will be their pioneer or pathfinder and lead them into the new era; then all religions will be able to pass through that door and enter a new era.</p>
|
||||
<p>You might wonder why you need a Messiah when you would prefer to go directly to God without a mediator. You would rather negotiate the way yourself However, the history of restoration centers on True Parents, and without that center you can never rise higher. Unless a center is created here on earth you cannot even imagine the possibility of a Kingdom of Heaven on earth. Furthermore, without a Kingdom of Heaven on earth there can be no Kingdom of Heaven in heaven.</p>
|
||||
<p>To progress from the material age to the human age you need the Messiah, and from the human age to God’s age you again need the Messiah. I said that God’s age is the age of forgiveness, but what is forgiveness? During the era of Gods authority no one can stand in His sight without going through the process of forgiveness. God is forgiving, but we need to know how much He forgives and upon what criteria. Furthermore, we need to know how to complete or consummate the era of God’s authority and enter the ideal age, or the era of perfection.</p>
|
||||
<p>First, how can we enter the age of God’s authority? Certainly we need a Messiah, but what should he do to you? What is the process of reversal through which the Messiah leads you? There is only one way you can enter God’s authority and that is by forgiving and loving your enemy. What does that mean? Can you love Satan as much as you love God? What level of love is God talking about, and what is the limit?</p>
|
||||
<p>Let’s look at the standard of love established by God. How much did God love His own enemy? God loves His enemy so much that He sacrificed His own son in order to save His enemy. If you can pour out such unlimited, unconditional love for your enemy then Satan will give up and say, “I could never do that. I could never be in the position to receive such love.” At that point Satan will surrender and retreat. Satan knows the way of the Principle. He has a certain conscience and he realizes that he cannot be loved to the same degree as God; he knows he does not deserve that kind of love.</p>
|
||||
<p>This is the love that Jesus Christ demonstrated on the cross. Even wounded and dying, Jesus forgot about himself and loved his enemies and asked forgiveness for them. Under such circumstances, however vicious the enemy may be, as long as even one ounce of conscience remains in his heart he cannot help but bow down and surrender. “I do not deserve such treatment,” he will confess. “I cannot afford such treatment.”</p>
|
||||
<p>By practicing this you can completely separate yourself from your enemy-and you will discover that you have no enemy. When you reach that level of perfection of love, you can enter a new era, the age of ideal love.</p>
|
||||
<p>Compare this with current Christian practices. Many Christians do not forgive; they cannot even tolerate those who are different. They cannot accept the Unification Church, for example, and they seek vengeance on every enemy while still clinging to their cubbyhole in heaven.</p>
|
||||
<p>What is the qualification to belong to God? God’s people possess a certificate given by Satan stating, “God, this person loves me (Satan) as much as he loves You- -or even more. So please love him unconditionally, more than anybody. This person truly deserves Your love.” That is what Satan’s recommendation reads. Then God will embrace such a person as His child and Satan will be able to bow down without jealousy and say, “Amen, Father.”</p>
|
||||
<p>Somehow you have to liquidate Satan. But how? Can you succeed by material or military might? Only by love can you conquer Satan. This is the standard. I have explained the qualifications of a godly person. However, the message this morning is not my own word. It is not my thinking or philosophy but a universal principle. This is the road of restoration and the principle of restoration.</p>
|
||||
<p>Where are you? To which level do you belong? Is somebody who has not reached this level eligible for the Blessing? You all answer no, but still you are jubilant about the news of the coming Blessing. Why? You have a job to do before the Blessing. This is the road you should walk. My mission, and that of the Unification Church, is to lead you to do God’s will.</p>
|
||||
<p>I don’t really have to bear all the burden. If I were living just for myself the burden would be light. But that would mean abandoning this principle, and I will not do that. The world’s material and then the world’s people must be brought to God. What should I do next? Carry all the world’s material and people across the boundary to the next age.</p>
|
||||
<p>The mission of the Messiah also expands from one level to the next, from individual Messiah to family-level Messiah, tribal, national, and worldwide Messiah. What is special about you Moonies sitting here this morning? What kind of group are you? The Unification Church is the Messiah’s Easter egg basket! You are indeed living on the world-wide level, in the age of the world. You can choose to become an individual messiah, a family messiah, a tribal messiah or a national messiah. I am working on the universal level, encompassing all other levels. What level of a messiah are you?</p>
|
||||
<p>How do you define a messiah? A messiah is a man or woman who loves their enemy and gains recognition from him. Have you been given that recognition? This Unification movement is the messianic movement; we are here to love the enemy and win his recognition.</p>
|
||||
<p>The Unification Church and its members have to go this path. When you join, you start off fund raising in order to make a material offering to God. The satanic world contains abundant material wealth but its people don’t care about God. The people of this world live for a selfish purpose and believe that everything exists for themselves.</p>
|
||||
<p>Other churches ask their members to offer God one tenth of their earnings-a tithe-in order to be considered a good Christian, but in the Unification Church we tithe not just ten percent but one hundred percent.</p>
|
||||
<p>For three years you tithe one hundred percent. During this time you receive all kinds of persecution: you get kicked, spit at and treated miserably. Material things can be restored only by love, messianic love, which you must demonstrate by loving your enemy. You receive miserable treatment from the satanic world, but instead of retreating you plunge forward and overcome all obstacles through love. People may try to do all kinds of things to you, but instead of retreating keep on loving them until they surrender. In the meantime, you are winning material things from the satanic world to use for God’s purpose.</p>
|
||||
<p>If you can truly give unselfish love to the satanic world and its people, material things will automatically follow you. In other words, you will never starve to death by living this way; you will always be under Gods protection. According to this principle, after you forge ahead into the satanic world as a messiah and win material things, you will move on to the next stage.</p>
|
||||
<p>At the time of Jesus, for example, many people were trying to come to God by superficial means. One of the early Christians, Ananias, tried to he to the Holy Spirit. In the early church people sold their possessions and gave the money to the apostles. Ananias sold a piece of property and he gave only a portion of the money to the apostles, saying it was all he had received. Then Peter asked him, “Is that all you have?” According to the Bible, Ananias dropped dead on the spot because of his lie. The Acts of the Apostles records this occasion of instant justice.</p>
|
||||
<p>The same rule applies today, When you fundraise and make a lot of money, it does not belong to you but to God, and you need permission to use it. Instead of taking fundraising money for yourself, your desire should be to add at least a little bit to the total. If you gained a hundred dollars through fundraising, instead of offering just that much to God, you could contribute even a penny of your own resources. Rather than keeping ten or twenty percent for yourself, the desire to add something of your own is the true spirit of offering.</p>
|
||||
<p>This should be your attitude as you work each day. This kind of spirit should guide your fundraising and your witnessing as well. Those of you who can say, “Father, I am living up to that standard. I have surely perfected and consummated it,” please raise your hands.</p>
|
||||
<p>The best strategy for this particular era would be to go into debt, borrowing as much money as you can for the sake of God. You should be willing to go heavily into debt not for your own sake but for the sake of God.-This is God’s perspective and mine as well.</p>
|
||||
<p>When the Japanese leaders come to make a report, they tell about incredible achievements in the area of material restoration. That is wonderful, but even then it is still good to borrow money. The Japanese leaders have experienced that my goals never get accomplished; instead of getting smaller, the task keeps growing and expanding to an incredible degree.</p>
|
||||
<p>The Japanese leaders come here jubilantly, filled with many things to report. But when the time comes to leave they all feel a tremendous burden because I never praise them. If I were to praise them, Satan would accuse them because they have not yet separated themselves from him. If I were to praise them, Satan would be jealous and complain that they don’t quite deserve such praise, and I don’t want Satan’s accusation. Therefore, rather than praise the Japanese, I chastise them. Then they are in a position to receive Satan’s sympathy rather than jealousy. Why am I doing such cruel things to the Japanese members? Because that is how the Japanese nation and the Japanese people as a whole will get the blessing.</p>
|
||||
<p>Since 1978, the Japanese have been obedient to me, and that is why the nation of Japan has received such blessing. That nation’s prosperity has been booming ever since 1978. Not just in our movement but on a global level Japan is becoming the focus of the world. The Western world in general is paying more attention to Japan as it is gaining in prominence and strength. Western men and women are looking for Japanese mates. The blue-eyed culture finds the experience of looking at another pair of blue eyes flat; you need to look at either black or brown eyes! In such diversity you discover a greater depth of appreciation.</p>
|
||||
<p>The long-awaited era of the ideal is approaching. I am sure that you members of the Unification Church will welcome it, but what about all the other people? Are such attitudes unique to us or are they part of a general trend?</p>
|
||||
<p>Please understand that fundraising is a necessity. Even if you die you should resolve to fulfill that qualification. Your goal is to reach the ideal world and experience the age of the ideal, and fundraising is the starting point. If you fail at the first level you cannot progress to the next.</p>
|
||||
<p>After three years of fundraising duty, you work to restore people, which is witnessing. How do you witness? The era of human authority begins with sacrificial service, but whom do you serve? If you are going to be a servant, you may desire to serve someone noble, but that is something even Satan could do; he could serve people on a higher level. Where should you start? There are different kinds of servants: to serve a king is a desirable position, but nobody who has a choice wants to serve a beggar. Where would you like to start? Servant of servant is a good phrase, but it sounds too respectable! The best expression for this sacrificial role is a servant of beggars. So do you want to start as a king’s servant or as a beggar’s servant?</p>
|
||||
<p>Jesus must have sounded almost crazy when he taught his disciples to go witnessing without even a penny in their pocket. In other words, he was telling them to go out on the streets like beggars. Why? This is the core spirit of traditional Christianity. This is the most dramatic way to give sacrificial service or embark on the road of sacrificial service. You have to start at the worst level and serve beggars. A servant’s position is much higher than that of a beggar. Actually, you start the providential course at a position even lower than a beggar. As a beggar’s servant, you will be persecuted even by beggars.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why do we do things this way? Why don’t we act a little more wisely? Why does God permit such persecution to continue? It is to enable you to eventually achieve the level of human authority, which is automatically yours when you pass the criterion of sacrificial service.</p>
|
||||
<p>You start this course at rock bottom with nothing below you, and even there you are persecuted. Then you advance to the level of a servant; there you will be persecuted by servants and win them over. In this way, you rise step by step from the worst position. Later the whole nation and even the entire world will oppose you and do incredible things to you in an attempt to humiliate and subjugate you.</p>
|
||||
<p>However, choose your tactics; don’t stand up and fight people face to face. Instead of dealing with them on their level, you should rise above them. No matter how people may treat you, if you consider them as children and you have the heart of their parent, you can always forgive them.</p>
|
||||
<p>You can find at least one basis for forgiving your opponents: they are ignorant of who you are. As soon as you teach them, they will change. This is always our hope. Thus we have no right to hate people or feel animosity towards them.</p>
|
||||
<p>In order to be able to exercise Godly authority, you must experience rejection. By being rejected on the national level, the continental level and the world-wide level, you will gain influence. Do you understand?</p>
|
||||
<p>Even when Satan inspires people to do anything and everything against you, if you can love them in spite of their actions, Satan will eventually crumble and surrender before you. This is the heavenly tactic. The ultimate condition you can set is not only to withstand the enemy’s persecution but also to love the enemy even more than you love God! This is the incredible, supreme criterion of authority. Faced with such a condition, Satan will automatically separate himself from you forever; bombarded with such love, the evil Satan will cease to exist. Then you can pass over to a new level, the level of God’s authority.</p>
|
||||
<p>Where am I situated now along this providential road? If the free world and Christianity with its 2,000-year history had both accepted True Parents, that would have secured the foundation. However, from the outset I encountered opposition and had to begin from the very rock bottom. I have trod every step of this course, just as every human being has to do. My course reached its culmination in 1976, the year I surmounted the hill of opposition. During the period from 1976 until 1983-84 persecution is waning; the opposition peaked in 1976 and entered a seven-year period of decline. These seven years have been filled with all kinds of legal disputes and difficulties. This is why 1982 is the year of the court battle.</p>
|
||||
<p>Last week was an incredible week. I’m sure you heard about it. Two thousand years ago Jesus was interrogated about his beliefs in the court of Pontius Pilate. At one point Pilate asked, “Are you the king of the Jews?” and Jesus answered, ‘You have said it.” During this past week, I was dragged into the courtroom under judicial “gun point” and all kinds of fundamental questions were asked me, including whether I am the Messiah. What is the difference between the situation 2,000 years ago and the one today? The day after Jesus was questioned he was crucified. However, God has worked for 2,000 years to establish the foundation of democracy grounded on religious freedom. Therefore, even after my recent interrogation I am able to come to Belvedere this morning and give this sermon to you.</p>
|
||||
<p>As I sat in that hostile courtroom last week, there were many different attitudes which I could have chosen to adopt. On the one hand I could have been thinking, “God, I wish You would bring down fire and brimstone on this judge’s head! And I don’t like those lawyers at all; kick them out!” I might have thought in such a fashion, but I certainly did not. On the contrary, I practiced the Principle in that extremely hostile judicial environment and I had compassion on my enemies and forgave them. Inside, I was thinking, “God, please forgive them because they don’t know what they are doing. Eventually, the time will come when they will understand who I am.”</p>
|
||||
<p>During the tax trial the prosecutor, Mr. Flumenbaum, was incredibly vicious toward me. It’s natural to have an urge to knock down such a person. Imagine Mother’s feelings during all this; she was suffering so much for my sake, and here was Mr. Flumenbaum behaving in such a hateful way, not knowing me at all. Mother couldn’t restrain her feelings and kept protesting to me. However, I always comforted her and said, “Mother, I understand how you feel, but please forgive him. Forgive that naughty boy!”</p>
|
||||
<p>As we forgive such people the world will change and reach a new level. As a result of this event, the entire world will view me from a different angle; hostility has already begun to subside. Observing me in the courtroom last week many journalists, including a reporter from The New York Times, concluded that I was being mistreated. They realized that such a thing shouldn’t have happened here in the United States.</p>
|
||||
<p>The Principle remains the same from the age of material to the age of mankind, age of God, and age of love. This Principle shows how we have to move forward.</p>
|
||||
<p>As you know, Mike Warder was a member of our church and I still think of him as my son. He was the one who played the role of Judas in this latest court case. From a secular point of view he could be regarded as my worst enemy, someone whom I should hate. However, that is not at all how I think. Since I knew exactly how both God and Satan felt during that trial I have always felt compassion, never animosity, for Mike Warder.</p>
|
||||
<p>When someone has compassion for his enemy, justice is always served, one way or another. God and universal law will see to that. Only someone who truly and completely loves his enemy has the right to take the offensive for the sake of justice and righteousness. Our justice is executed by the spirit world; we do not have to carry it out.</p>
|
||||
<p>Do you consider the road of faith easy or difficult? It is impossibly difficult, and every inch of progress you gain is -incredibly precious. Nobody wants to go back to the beginning point because that would mean losing what they have invested. That is why I am moving forward. Even if the entire United States came against me today, I would not be pessimistic about the outcome. I am looking forward to the future; I am anticipating our rally in Moscow. The only way to advance is to follow the straight and righteous road, without taking any shortcuts or trying to play any dirty tricks. The time has now come to seize the initiative and go on the offensive.</p>
|
||||
<p>History is filled with many religious people and many prophets and saints. None of them, however, knew the entirety of God’s providence. Today we understand the whole spectrum. This is the road we must cover. If you were an individual trying to make this journey by yourself, it might take you a million years to accomplish it. Therefore, you need someone to pioneer the road and lay down a path. I have fulfilled that position. I have been pruning the trees, plowing the ground and clearing the road, laying the highway so each of you can follow it and reach the goal in the shortest possible time.</p>
|
||||
<p>Look at the modem world and try to find any national level religion comparable to that of Israel 2,000 years ago. There must be one central religion for the modem-day dispensation. Although no bounds have been established for the one central nation, we do have one central religion. The chosen nation and Rome, which represents the world, have to be linked. Two thousand years ago God’s direction centered upon the chosen nation of Israel. Judaism as the internal center and the nation of Israel as the external center should have united and reached out to the Roman Empire.</p>
|
||||
<p>Today, 2,000 years later, we need a new global foundation, one central world-wide religion in the position of Judaism. What is that? It is the Unification Church, which is not composed of just one race or people; we are a collection of people from around the world. All races of people form the base for the launching of the Messiah.</p>
|
||||
<p>The Unification Church is currently engaged in a fight with the U.S. government, which is playing the role of a modem-day Roman Empire. Communism is combating the free world throughout the globe. This court battle in the United States is not just a clash between the federal government and the Unification Church. Involved in this conflict are all kinds of anti-religious and antichurch elements, and communism is playing a very important role in bringing them together. The entire world is crowding around to witness the central battle being waged in this courthouse. Therefore, this is the best time to expand our territory to the world-wide level.</p>
|
||||
<p>Simultaneous with this court battle, we are engaged in gigantic projects elsewhere. For example, we inaugurated The Washington Times, which is something the whole world can recognize. Likewise, the movie Inchon was presented at the Cannes Film Festival; this is another way of letting the world know about the work of Reverend Moon. Also, our movement is moving forward in total mobilization; last week we began a 53-day period of mobilization, with the goal of increasing our membership three-fold. Also, the news has suddenly spread of an imminent Blessing. Everybody is becoming dizzy in the midst of all these happenings.</p>
|
||||
<p>Today is truly a time of confusion and chaos on the world-wide level. For instance, England is waging a war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands and the United States is caught in the middle. Even Christian leaders have been suffering from confusion. Billy Graham, for example, has been preaching in the wrong places to the wrong people and giving the wrong kind of message. Reverend Moon is involved in a court battle. People are reeling from all these headlines in the newspaper. Do you feel dizzy too? What can we do?</p>
|
||||
<p>Is your marriage your key concern at this time, or does Gods will take priority? Will you reply, “God’s will, but only after my marriage”? Does the will of God truly come first for you? Your mind must be clear. Once you organize your thoughts you can be free from confusion.</p>
|
||||
<p>The solution to our problem is very simple: if each of you can get three spiritual children you can have them help you with the work instead of doing it all by yourself. Thus you can complete four weeks’ battle in one week; your battle-strength will increase four-fold. Did you ever think of that? I asked each of you to write letters every night to your relatives, friends, and so forth. Have you forgotten to do that?</p>
|
||||
<p>When you go out now, you can witness in a new way. Tell people, “If you listen to me and can come to a one-week workshop, I will give you a special ticket to attend the Blessing. You can be an eyewitness to the ‘greatest show on earth’!”</p>
|
||||
<p>Is it better for each of you to linger a long time at each level and gradually progress upward, or to rise through all the levels at one stroke? Who is going to show you how to do that? Is it easy to pass through all the levels at once? No, you need a leader to set the example. Therefore, I am co i g to you as a leader. I have laid the highway and built a bridge to enable you to overcome all the obstacles. Since I have covered every step of the territory no one can accuse me. I can point you in the right direction and tell you, “This is the way you should go,” and you can run along the highway.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you encounter people who mistreat you and persecute you without mercy, you may feel strong resentment towards them. But you should think, “Father has encountered this kind of person over and over in his fife, and he was able to love them even more than he loves God. Therefore, I can endure anything.” I have experienced this kind of opposition and been able to forgive and love my opponents, not only on the individual level but also on the family, tribal, national and world-wide levels.</p>
|
||||
<p>Satan attacked my own family and sought to destroy them. The Unification Church can be regarded as my tribe, and there is a tribal enemy in the world who is doing its absolute best to destroy the Unification Church. You are being subjected to kidnapers, deprogrammers and all kinds of people who would assassinate your character. I have never felt any urge to take revenge on our enemies or hurt them; I always feel like forgiving them because they don’t understand. On the national level, my own country, Korea, has been in the position of trying to kill me, and today the United States is also in that position.</p>
|
||||
<p>Whoever inherits my tradition has no room for complaints. You must realize that the reason you should inherit such a tradition is because of the goal ahead of us: the age of perfection of love, the age of building the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. We are heading towards our ultimate goal, the building of that kingdom. By inheriting True Parents’ tradition and emulating our way of life, you will be able to inherit that Kingdom of Heaven on earth. That is how you must accomplish it.</p>
|
||||
<p>When newcomers join us, we need to lead them along this great highway. We should help them follow the same path so they can succeed in reaching the same Kingdom of Heaven. Our goal is to make the Kingdom of Heaven prosperous and very crowded!</p>
|
||||
<p>We are an extraordinarily different sort of people: we are devoted to loving our enemy, no matter what they try to do to us. We feel close to the United States, even though it is trying to destroy us. I have great hopes of leading this nation into the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, where we can all rejoice together.</p>
|
||||
<p>The Jewish people were dispersed throughout the world, but now in these last days they have reassembled and established their own nation. It is an even greater accomplishment that, while the Unification Church has been subjected to intense persecution, people of all different races and nationalities have joined together to embrace the world, working to erect the Kingdom of Heaven on earth so that all people can rejoice together in unity.</p>
|
||||
<p>Therefore, you have no right to complain. Even if you are suffering, you have no one to blame. Tell yourself, “Before I die, I must fulfill the one criterion of heaven: loving my enemy. I must accomplish that.”</p>
|
||||
<p>When I was young I was subjected to terrible tortures from the Japanese imperial government. I was thrown into jail and treated horribly; my suffering was intense. Then liberation came in 1945. For most Koreans the end of the war became the time for revenge, but not for me. I felt a deep heart of love towards our former enemies who were packing up and retreating from Korea. As they returned to Japan I even bid them a tearful farewell. For this reason Japan is permanently indebted to me. That is why the Japanese movement is booming; they are contributing more than any other nation, yet they still feel unworthy.</p>
|
||||
<p>Righteous suffering in a righteous sacrifice will never be in vain but will be rewarded abundantly. Even today, after all the mistreatment I have received from the U.S. government and news media, I still love America just as much as I did the day I first arrived. Even though I was forced into this court battle I do not hate or despise the American judicial system. When the time comes for me to bid farewell to America, I will still love it as much as ever. Ultimately the American people will feel eternally indebted to me. Eventually, generation after generation of their descendants will bow down to me in apology. Don’t you think that will happen?</p>
|
||||
<p>I have not done anything to wrong the United States. Everything I have done here is for the purpose of helping it, building it up, and giving it hope. No one else is acting with such patriotic zeal for the sake of the United States. Although some government officials have been casting mistaken accusations against me, I want them to know that Reverend Moon is not their enemy. I am their best friend.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why have I walked this path? It is the road of God’s will. God is the beginning point, the origin of the providential road. A tremendous gap has long separated God from the rest of the world, and the providential road has been completely blocked by obstructions. Somebody had to open the pathway and lay the bridge. Who did it? You and I are pioneering the construction of that bridge and closing that gap. When we accomplish the task, we will be able to invite God into every corner of the earth. The Unification Church, headed by Reverend Moon, will accomplish this. This providence is called the home church mission. As the home church crusade grows bigger and bigger, it will expand to the tribe, nation and ultimately the world. This world will become God’s own world.</p>
|
||||
<p>I have walked this path on the universal level. Since no one else can tread the exact path I have gone, I have given you the territory of home church-a world of your own in which you can walk my path. Actually, this home church crusade is the microcosm of the entire providence. Your task is to cut off a little branch from the providential tree and engraft it to your home church. Everything that occurred on the universal level, everything that I have tasted in my path, will happen to you in your home church work. You can experience the microcosm of the macrocosm. Whatever I have done you will do too, even if only in a symbolic way.</p>
|
||||
<p>The most crucial aspect of this grafting process is that the engrafted branch must come from the original seed. As long as that is true, no matter what people say, your branch will prosper when it is planted. It will not die.</p>
|
||||
<p>In a microcosmic way, you will pass through the material age, the human age, God’s age, and the age of love in your home church territory. From there, you will launch yourself into the Kingdom of Heaven-both on earth and in heaven. Such activities are taking place in the spirit world as well as the physical world. It is crucial for you to realize that unless you fulfill this dispensation here on earth you will experience great regret when you go to the spirit world. This is your destiny. No one can deny it. Without it you cannot survive for eternity. The only difference between your path and mine is the scope; you must duplicate my work in your home church.</p>
|
||||
<p>Now do you realize how necessary home church is? Can you tell me why? Instead of doing home church, would you rather go back and repeat the entire dispensational course? Is this dispensational path something which only rich people can succeed in? No the road is the same for everyone; each person is treated fairly. I want you to travel this road with pride and tremendous dedication. You should feel highly fortunate to be able to inherit such great achievements in exchange for such a small price. When you realize this, you should be filled with gratitude and commit yourself fully to the task.</p>
|
||||
<p>It is absolutely necessary for you to experience this, because through it you can feel God’s heart and my heart. As you are persecuted and even struck by your enemies, you will become the victor. First you will be hit, and then you will gain something. That has always been my path. In this process you will come to know the heart of God and True Parents. As a result you will become real men and women. This is your most crucial calling, and this will determine your eternal state.</p>
|
||||
<p>Truth is unchanging, eternal and absolute; the key quality of truth is its absoluteness. In order to become true men and women you must work in home church and proclaim the truth. There can be no compromise or deviation from this standard. By practicing the truth, which is eternal, unchanging, absolute and unique, you will experience God, who is the origin of eternity, immutability, absoluteness and uniqueness. Practicing the truth will unite you with God.</p>
|
||||
<p>You cannot call your course finished until you have loved your enemy and subjugated even Satan with your love. At that point you will be totally united with God, but until then you cannot say you have completed the task Do you understand?</p>
|
||||
<p>You need have no doubts about how I will conduct myself during this court battle because this is my guiding principle. I am always smiling because I do not consider the prosecutors my enemies. Of course, this occasion is an incredibly serious showdown between God and Satan, but the showdown will be resolved not through the judicial process but through the love which I manifest.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you have fulfilled God’s will, you can proclaim to heaven and earth, “Amen! All has been accomplished.” Then you can shout “Mansei!” forever. God bless you.</p>
|
||||
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,138 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
title: "THE ROAD OF THE SAINT AND THE RIGHTEOUS MAN"
|
||||
type: "speech"
|
||||
published: "2018-06-22T06:11:04+01:00"
|
||||
updated: "2018-06-22T06:11:04+01:00"
|
||||
source: "/blog/2018/06/22/the-road-of-the-saint-and-the-righteous-man.html"
|
||||
speechYear: "1982"
|
||||
categories:
|
||||
- "Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982"
|
||||
tags: []
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
<p><center></p>
|
||||
<h2>REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
|
||||
<p></center><center></p>
|
||||
<h3>May 2, 1982<br />
|
||||
Belvedere<br />
|
||||
Translator – Bo Hi Pak</h3>
|
||||
<p></center>There are two major categories of people. men and women. If one part were missing, there would be no more mankind. This division holds true in the realm of children, the realm of young people, and the realm of old people.</p>
|
||||
<p>We must consider what destiny we were born to fulfill. When you look at the innocent face of a newborn child, do you see any evil there? No. All babies, without exception, am like precious jewels. You want to cuddle and hug them. That means they were born for goodness. Without doubt, human existence started off pure and innocent.</p>
|
||||
<p>As babies grow, they should become fine, virtuous children, adolescents, young people, mature adults, and finally senior citizens. But on each of these levels there is a division between good people and evil people. Why do innocent babies head for one of these two camps? As people grow, all kinds of influences affect us and change our lives. Eventually we end up in one camp or the other. No one can escape this destiny.</p>
|
||||
<p>Above us, the eternal Parent- God-is watching from the beginning to the end, of our life, never forsaking us. God is omniscient so He always knows our situation. He can see the spirit world, so when He looks at us spiritually, what do you think He finds? The eternal Parent of goodness recognizes that we were born good and expects us to grow up and become better and better through all eternity But instead of this, our Parent has seen mankind going down the road of the fall, descending further and further into degradation.</p>
|
||||
<p>What is the definition of a good person? A good person is one who turns away from evil and builds up goodness. If you are good, you automatically gravitate toward the central position and there you become a model or prototype for others to follow. If someone is in that central position, he will not isolate himself from the rest of the world. Instead, he will become deeply involved in the world, embracing it and taking dominion over it, trying to guide it toward goodness. The role of the center is to become a standard that others will want to emulate and follow.</p>
|
||||
<p>Let’s look at honey bees. The colony includes a queen bee, the worker bees, and the male bees. The worker bees start working very early in the morning. They rise before dawn and go out visiting flowers to collect pollen and nectar. They have a special tank for nectar, a “honey stomach,” which they fill up, and when they return home at the end of the day, they empty it.</p>
|
||||
<p>The worker bees come back and see the male bees lounging around lazily and the queen bee doing nothing but eating the honey they brought in. Suppose they thought, “Why should I work so hard for these guys? I refuse to give them my honey.” What do you think would happen then? It would be disastrous for the worker bees not to regurgitate their honey because their bodies would swell up-they would be in big trouble! However, if you ask the worker bees whether they would rather take the queen bee’s position, do you think they would want to switch? They would all run away!</p>
|
||||
<p>There has to be some channel of command so everybody can have a vision of their job and be faithful to it. The world of the honey bees is highly organized, with the queen bee at the center. The other bees surround the queen and protect her. A colony of bees is like a sphere; when the queen bee flies out, hundreds and thousands of bees follow her. When the queen halts, the other bees stop and remain with her. They don’t make judgments or ask, “Why should we stay here?”</p>
|
||||
<p>Worker bees don’t simply wander around. They unite with the queen and form one large swarm. Some bee inside the swarm might complain that the rest are pressuring him. The queen bee might also say that! But actually, she would not really complain. She faces her destiny and faithfully executes her role of queen bee.</p>
|
||||
<p>Is the queen bee small or large? Which is larger: male or female? The queen bee is dominant and she is much bigger than the others. This means that a leader or governor should be bigger, even in size! If the leader is too small, he might be crushed! Why is the queen bee so powerful? Why did God make bees like that? Because God wanted to create a balanced world. In other parts of creation, males are leaders so in the bee world, the female is the center. It’s a balanced world, so women cannot complain!</p>
|
||||
<p>Why have I spend so much time describing the bee world? Because it provides an example of a central figure who physically occupies the center while everybody else surrounds it, trying to follow its pattern.</p>
|
||||
<p>If everyone is in a stationary position, it is easy to determine the center. But what if everything is in motion and heading toward a certain goal? Where should the center be located then? As long as there is movement, the leader should be at the forefront.</p>
|
||||
<p>Let’s talk about ourselves, assembled here early on Sunday morning at Belvedere. Is the Unification Church a movement of action? Then how should the central person function: should he stay in the middle or come to the front? The central person should be in front of the others, leading them forward. Should the leader run on ahead by himself and forget the group? No, he shouldn’t.</p>
|
||||
<p>Take Canadian geese as another example. They are such a grand sight as they fly in formation swiftly through the air. We can see how orderly they fly, each one spaced a. certain distance from the other, beating their wings in</p>
|
||||
<p>rhythm. None of them moves its wings prematurely or randomly. The leader is out in front, making special honking sounds. Each honk is a code: “Now we am turning left;” “Now we are turning right;” “Now listen.” The leader is always signaling the followers and telling them what is ahead and all the gem respond, “Yes sir, I win follow.”</p>
|
||||
<p>Who directs the movement of the Canadian geese? It is the leader. The ocean is vast so the birds cannot fly at random. They need a goal and direction. They don’t all have to worry about where they are going. They need only to follow the leader who decides their course. Think about how much knowledge the leader must acquire. He has to know the geographical area thoroughly. An airline pilot has a much easier job, doesn’t be? Since he’s assisted by instruments and a computer. But do geese have a compass? They must search out the directions in their own brain. Those birds are much more clever than we me!</p>
|
||||
<p>The leader must be out in front. Should he say, “Today the weather is bad and the ocean waves are too high so why don’t you all go out while I stay home?” Is that being a good leader? No. Speaking of geese, if they run into a hurricane while flying across the ocean, the leader needs to have great strength and honk even louder so no one will miss the directions.</p>
|
||||
<p>How about President Reagan? His “honeymoon” is already over and a storm is coming; a hurricane is brewing. His critics are pressing in from all directions. Should Reagan say, “Oh, boy, why is them so much opposition to me? I just want to retreat. The Washington Post and The New York Times are making me miserable.” Should he try to hide from his opposition? His best tactic would be to run far in the forefront, so fast that The Washington Post and New York Times couldn’t keep up with him! If he gives the right direction, the American people will follow him. The last thing a follower wants to see is hesitation in his leader. Indecision is the worst quality in a leader.</p>
|
||||
<p>The Unification Church is no exception to this. I give you the direction and tell you what to do. Are the leaders of the Unification Church willing to run out in front? Do you want to go first in order to see things first, so you will get the goodies first and be treated like a VIP? Would you like to reach the destination first and be the first to rest? Do you want to be the leader so you can wear the best clothes or because you expect a diamond ring to be your reward?</p>
|
||||
<p>The true leader has a bold and fearless mind; he heads directly toward obstacles and breaks them down for those following him. In fearful and painful situations, even in the face of death, the leader continues to lead, to shatter all barriers and break through them. In difficult times, the true leader does not think of his own situation. He concentrates on the greatness of the goal and the promise of the future. With a perspective of the future, the true leader knows that his actions will benefit the public purpose and the purpose of God. That is what motivates a true leader.</p>
|
||||
<p>An unselfish leader whose focus remains fixed on the goal is a superior and righteous person. A righteous person is defined as one who devotes his entire life for the well-being of others. He acts righteously wherever he goes. Among his family, he lives for the family; when he is with his friends, he lives for their sake; he goes to serve the nation and lives for its sake.</p>
|
||||
<p>So far, history has produced many righteous people, but their greatness or virtue has reached only to the national level. Great patriots have given their life for their country, but few people have lived for the sake of the world and the universe. It is the rare person who transcends the boundaries of his nation and lives for the sake of mankind and the world.</p>
|
||||
<p>Someone who lives for the sake of the greatest whole is called a saint. A saint is defined as one who devotes his life to God and His will and dominion. This means living for the sake of the highest level. A saint belongs to the realm of religion because no other profession links its work all the way up to God. Is Jesus in this category of a saint? How about Buddha and Confucius? The only way for people to transcend themselves and connect with God is through religious philosophy and conviction.</p>
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||||
<p>Since the goals and standards of saints are so far above the earthly standard, the world often misunderstands diem. Because they act according to the standard of heaven and not earth, saints arc generally rejected on earth. Their standard and goal is God’s kingdom. The law and order of that world are far higher than this world. Those who live according to the heavenly law and principle while on earth arc at the leadership level. If you reflect on this, you will realize it is the most logical conclusion.</p>
|
||||
<p>There should be some means of evaluating the quality of true religious leaders. We can assume that they exercise revolutionary leadership in order to guide people toward higher, more far-reaching goals because the purpose of religion has not yet been fulfilled here on earth. People haven’t even been aware of the real purpose of religion.</p>
|
||||
<p>There are all varieties of religion-almost like in a department store. One type we might call the sparrow religion. A sparrow is a small, talkative bird. Its vision is limited since it is so small. Sparrows sit huddled together and chatter among themselves: “Don’t go there, and certainly don’t go over there! You might die. Don’t do that or you will go to hell; stay right here.” This is the nature of the sparrow religion.</p>
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||||
<p>Another distinct kind of religion is the dove religion. Doves are very chunky birds, heavily built and a little stuffy They we quite charming, but since they are so chunky, they can’t By a very long distance. Quakers, for instance, are like doves.</p>
|
||||
<p>Let’s consider the cram religion. Cranes have long wings and a very shin body, so they don’t have to beat their wings so rapidly. Cranes move almost like airplanes through the air and their horizons are almost limitless.</p>
|
||||
<p>The sparrow might look at the crane and say, “You are crazy. You don’t have to soar so high, you know. Why do you fly so high and go so far? You don’t need to visit more than one house; going to see the neighbors is far enough! You can eat together and talk a little and then return. That is good enough.”</p>
|
||||
<p>The sparrow religion is busy all day long looking for something to eat: some worm to snatch, some insect to devour Every day they are busy Meanwhile, the crane religion soars up to the highest possible goal . The primary concern of the crane is to head toward the goal, not what it will eat next.</p>
|
||||
<p>What kind of religion is the Unification Church? We are the crane religion. Since we fly so high and travel such long distances, we have no time to rest. Too bad you joined the crane religion! We don’t give you any time to rest. You must fly even at night. You have to continue on and on!</p>
|
||||
<p>Since we fly so high, sunrise comes very quickly and sunset comes very late. We stay up long hours and work very hard. Since we in the crane religion get up so early and By even at night, should we complain? No. Should we gripe because the night is so short? Why not? Because we have a goal, a destination.</p>
|
||||
<p>If winter snowstorms hit us while we are in the air, we will all die. We must cross a certain distance now, during the summertime. That is why we push ourselves to fly unceasingly, even at night. We can’t give up; we can’t drop down, even if tears fill our eyes. Some people quit whatever they are doing when they cry, but even with tears we must fly.</p>
|
||||
<p>In Oriental philosophy, the crane is a noble, sacred bird. By the way, Mother’s name, Han, means crane. So the crane is a symbol for Mother.</p>
|
||||
<p>There are other great birds, too, such as the American eagle. An eagle is a powerful bird and looks very fierce. Why is the eagle considered ruthless rather than noble? The eagle is a greedy, ferocious, and almost warmongering bird. It surely has the greatest fighting spirit, but that very nature keeps it from representing a great and noble religion. That is why I picked the crane, a symbol of peace and purity.</p>
|
||||
<p>A crane can travel very long distances. It flies so high and reaches upward toward a high, noble, and purpose. Resting on the ground, the crane stands on its slender legs and lifts its head in the air. Even there it keeps looking toward the far-distant goal. It always stands on one foot-a symbol of independence. Its attitude is, “No matter what, even if nobody helps me, I shall go on by myself.” Because the crane has such an independent spirit, I really like it. Those who fly like the crane toward the most lofty goals are saints on earth.</p>
|
||||
<p>The Chinese character for saint has three parts, representing ears, mouth, and king. The combination of these three elements signifies a saint. If you link these meanings, a saint is the “king of the mouth” and “king of the ears.” As the king of the ears, he can hear every bit of information in the world but remain aloof from it. He will not be swayed by what he hears. He can comprehend and digest everything. Even though he hears everything, however, he doesn’t simply repeat it. He digests it and speaks only the truth. The truth that he speaks becomes the definitive, principled law of the land.</p>
|
||||
<p>Even a single word uttered by a saint can become the law of the land. Think about what it means to be able to speak even one word and have it become a decree. This isn’t just yakety-yakking! This is one reason why women don’t usually make great rulers. Women have good ears and hear everything, but then you just shoot it right out again, like a machine gun! The real greatness of a king lies in the ability to hear a great many things but speak little. A king is a man of few words, because he takes time to digest everything. One element of goodness is patience.</p>
|
||||
<p>When earthly rulers are elevated to the spirit world, can they boast of the position they had on earth? One person may say, I was President of the United States.” Another might say, I was the Secretary of State.” Still another might say, I was the Queen of England.” They assume that in spirit world as well they will be at the top of society. But others point their fingers at these former leaders and say, “He doesn’t know anything about this world.”</p>
|
||||
<p>On the other hand, consider a wise, saintly king on earth, one who listened to all information but remained a man of few words. When he did speak, it was with authority. After he died and went up to spirit world, he didn’t boast or try to show off. Such a person would be accepted and welcomed by everybody in spirit world. Since he didn’t speak very much, keeping many secrets within himself, he would be a person of depth, and others would have a hard time figuring him out.</p>
|
||||
<p>Take wrestling as another example of this idea. A large audience gathers to watch two champions compete. The wrestler who comes out jubilantly, seeking the praise of the audience, will usually be defeated while the one who enters the ring without revealing much about himself or his tactics usually wins.</p>
|
||||
<p>The Chinese character for saint has such an incredible meaning. A saint is the king of ears and mouth, one who hears all information and digests it. In comparison, the spelling of a phonetic language like English has no meaning. You write K I N G, but the K by itself doesn’t mean anything; ING doesn’t mean anything. Oriental characters have profound meaning even before you read them.</p>
|
||||
<p>The Western mind is very analytical. Your analysis is good, but you also need a synthesizing perspective. You should combine things in order to find the one greater purpose. For that, you need to rely on the Oriental mind. This is the difference in cultural backgrounds between the East and West.</p>
|
||||
<p>The Chinese character for person has two strokes, one vertical and the other horizontal. Man is the only creature that God created who stands on two feet. A human being is a vertical creature, but there is also a horizontal line. God hasn’t forgotten people’s horizontal aspect. Now you can see the deep meaning behind Oriental languages.</p>
|
||||
<p>The top portion of the character for righteousness signifies a lamb. The lower portion means “I.” Together they mean, “I am the sacrificial lamb.” The lamb exists for a higher purpose than itself. It exists for others and is always ready to sacrifice itself for the benefit of others. This is the internal meaning of lamb.</p>
|
||||
<p>I already taught you the definition of a righteous person: it is one who lives for his own sake, right? No? Why did you come and sit in this room this morning? The action of sitting in this room is the same for each of you, but your purposes differ. Some of you may reply: “I came to hear a good message from Father. I want to be spiritually elevated and reach individual perfection quickly.” That may be the goal of some of you. Others may answer: “I want to listen to Father. I want to work harder and focus on a high direction; I want to serve this country and mankind better.”</p>
|
||||
<p>These are two different directions and two different purposes. Which prompted you to come? After listening to me now, those who came with the first motivation have converted to the second. You prove that by your laughter!</p>
|
||||
<p>One position is internal, the other external. Which position do you want? Suppose two women are walking along the sidewalk, one talking and the other listening. Which is the internal position and which is the external position? The listening one is the internal, or inner, one.</p>
|
||||
<p>The American approach seeks to make life light and humorous. Everywhere you go, you start out with a joke. Even Dr. Durst wants to entertain people so he shoots out jokes! But there is another kind of person who speaks without joking and the audience listens thoughtfully to him. Of these two styles, which is internal and which is external? Why?</p>
|
||||
<p>As long as you stay inside, you are guaranteed security and safety. But when you take the outside position, you are leaving the center of gravity. The farther out you go, the more you expose yourself and the more danger you face. There is no question about that. In some cultures parents always tell their children not to go outside. “Stay inside,” they say. Why do the parents teach their children like that? It is in order to guarantee their safety.</p>
|
||||
<p>Oriental philosophy is directed toward “nothingness” or “void.” Western philosophy is basically oriented toward benefits, looking for profit. Look at your facial features. Your eyes are big, searching for profits. You are tall, too, so you look toward the far distance. Oriental people don’t have to look for the goal, so they are shorter. They don’t look for profits, so their eyes get smaller and sharper and their noses get flatter. In this respect, Oriental represents the internal and Occidental represents the external.</p>
|
||||
<p>One of Satan’s goals is to permanently separate the internal from the external. God’s purpose is to link the internal and external in a harmonious relationship. The external is not necessarily bad or evil; it is merely different from the internal. God wants to harmonize the two roles and bring them together. God’s goal is to combine East and West. From this standpoint, we can see a great blending of East and West into harmony. Such a movement indicates that God’s day of fulfillment is truly near.</p>
|
||||
<p>I declared 1978 to be the dividing line of the new era. From that point on, people’s attention has been more and more directed toward the Orient. Look at Japan. Whoever thought that small island country could become a world giant? But by 1978, it had. When Western people look at Japan, they realize that it is aggressively seeking greater productivity. Japanese people are striving to be superior in every way, reaching out in all four directions as well as vertically.</p>
|
||||
<p>Western culture, on the other hand, is based on specialization and division of labor. People pursue only one direction. Western nations are almost raising their hands in surrender to Japan. People are going to Japan to try to learn new methods of management. The auto industry has practically surrendered to Japanese methods of management. The Japanese have also taken the lead in television and other electronic technology.</p>
|
||||
<p>The Oriental mind seeks harmony with all four directions and with the vertical dimension as well. In the United States, you have been digging for so long in one direction, working for one goal, but in these sophisticated modem days, that approach no longer works.</p>
|
||||
<p>The Western world is interested in climbing higher and higher, gaining mom and more, but people don’t want to go down. Look at your economy today You climbed up so desperately but you did not prepare at all for going down. You can go up only so far and no higher. When you reach the limit you are shattered. In contrast, the Oriental, holistic way of thinking seeks growth but expects to make circular turns, going in cycles like the seasons, rising and falling, spiraling upward as they advance. Such a rhythm allows one to reach higher levels.</p>
|
||||
<p>Western culture is sort of ruthless and dry, with little depth. Western society is severe, based on law. So many lawsuits have been filed here, even between husband and wife. God’s goal is to achieve harmony and the Orient has been more in tune with that goal. Therefore, I have come from the Orient and am trying to harmonize East and West. My message is centered on God. For a long, long time, God has been seeking this goal and our movement is working to accomplish it.</p>
|
||||
<p>What do your parents object to? They shout out that they don’t want Reverend Moon. Actually, what they are opposing is the harmony between us. That means they are opposing harmony between East and West. When I match Orientals and Westerners, they become the most beautiful symbols of harmony. But your parents say, “No! We are white people. We will not have a small Korean or Japanese daughter-in-law.” Your eagerness to be blessed with an Oriental spouse indicates that there already are drastic cultural differences between you and your parents! That is why they say you are enslaved by me and that’s why they call you crazy. The established world is telling you such things because they are in culture shock. I have come here to harmonize and they are opposing that harmony.</p>
|
||||
<p>In 1978 a new era of harmony began. Since the end of World War 11 in 1945, God has been preparing for this era. U.S. troops have been stationed in Korea and people from the United States have been coming to the Orient more and more, striving to become one with those cultures. On the other hand, however, the United States has been running away from responsibilities in the East. It tends to run away from Japan, Korea, and especially Southeast Asia. Heavenly Father told me, “Go to the United States and bring them back.”</p>
|
||||
<p>I came to this country and have been laying the foundation for ten years. That foundation is you. Enough of a base has already been laid; my job has been done. This work will continue even after I am no longer here, without question. The time has come, and I am now packing my luggage.</p>
|
||||
<p>I came and exploded an incredible bomb of controversy in this country. The seeds of the word have been sowed and now scholars have started digging into this word. They are sampling it and finding that it tastes good. Owe they touch it, they begin to apply it. When they realize that following their one specialized direction too far has brought them to a road block, they will begin to Study Reverend Moon. Then all four directions will open up. They will like this new dimension, this new era. American scholars have begun to realize this.</p>
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||||
<p>What I am saying is that I don’t have to stay here any more. The job has been done. The Sun Myung Moon Institute has been founded already. The target of its study is Reverend Moon.</p>
|
||||
<p>Having come this far, we Unification members are beginning to realize that we are the vanguard of human history, the pioneers of the new era. We are running at the forefront of God’s dispensational history. Maybe you joined the Unification Church only a few months or a few years ago and you don’t think you have changed much. “I look in the mirror and my face is just the same,” you say. Maybe you think I am only telling you these things to make you feel good.</p>
|
||||
<p>But you have changed, whether or not your face looks different, and that is why outside people are trying to attack me. What they say does not stop the providence, however. I will keep devoting my efforts to the original goal, no matter what people may say. Even if I have to fight in the courthouse, they cannot stop my progress. By whatever standard people apply, I am measured as a success in this country.</p>
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||||
<p>The United States may reject me now and is tying to say I am evil. Moonies reply, “Reverend Moon is good. We support him. We are united with him-” Our group is growing. As long as they cannot stop the growth, we will keep on growing, right? The time will come when we will fill the entire United States, the whole world, and even the universe! The Unification Church has the capacity to embrace all religions, not only Christianity but Buddhism and Islam as well. Not only that, but we have an ideological alternative to communism. We know how to overcome it. Therefore, we have the greatest depth and breadth.</p>
|
||||
<p>When the U.S. State Department looks at us from their narrow-minded viewpoint of foreign policy, they consider us a threat. When they see somebody doing things better than they, they say, “They are growing too big. We will distract them!” That is what the government persecution is all about. They are trying to turn our attention somewhere else-what we call in Korean “turning your head around.” But no matter what, a magnetic power will pull people back in the right direction! We are in the midst of that battle now.</p>
|
||||
<p>I started talking about the road of the saint and the righteous man, and digressed into talking about East and West. Let’s go back to the saint now.</p>
|
||||
<p>People say that Moonies are a kind of monster. Well, I say the description is correct, but the question is, what kind of monster! Traditionally, people have had different standards for defining a righteous person. The concept in the United States is not necessarily the same concept of a righteous person in Germany. Throughout history, there have been fights even among righteous people, from one country to another. But from the point of view of sainthood, such righteous people who fight each other are adversaries. They don’t contribute anything to the overall, worldwide purpose.</p>
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||||
<p>God, the king of wisdom, is watching from above. He is always thinking, “How can I solve this problem of contradiction? We need a universal definition of righteousness which can apply to people in Germany, Japan, Korea, the United States, or whatever country. There should be a universal standard that all religions, all societies, and all cultures can adopt.” God thinks there should be one criterion that can apply to all. Unless we have some common criterion, righteous people will continue fighting among themselves. Right now, they are fighting on all five levels: individual, family, societal, national, and worldwide levels.</p>
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||||
<p>The definition of a righteous person must include the duty to overcome such divisions. Throughout history, people have commonly assumed that struggle is justified and that only by struggle can one obtain a position of power or virtue. However, that definition must be eliminated because it is not true. The theory of dialectical materialism states that struggle will produce a new culture, but that is absolutely wrong. True righteousness and struggle are not compatible.</p>
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||||
<p>German righteousness should be the same as Japanese righteousness; Japanese righteousness should correspond to American righteousness. And the standard of righteousness should hold true for one religion as well as all others. One criterion, one universal standard should apply. Therefore, we need a new ideology or new religion. Otherwise, the ideal of unity and harmony can never be realized.</p>
|
||||
<p>Righteous people may start out from different positions, but they will declare to the world: “I was born for universal prosperity and well-being, not just for one locality. I was born as a child of God.” That is the focal point. Then when you look around you and see Germans, you can call them your brothers. Japan is part of the world, so Japanese people are part of your family. Americans are also children of God, so they are your relatives. Whether you go to Africa, Latin America, or anywhere, it is the same. You can embrace all mankind as true brothers and sisters because you all are God’s children.</p>
|
||||
<p>Has religion been doing that? For that matter, do we ourselves pass this standard of judgment? Do we fit this description? The way of life which the Unification Church is creating does produce this result. Countries which were enemies are now coming together. The fastest way to accomplish this is for enemies to become true brothers.</p>
|
||||
<p>Korea and Japan, were historical enemies, so I might look at Japanese people as my enemy. Instead, I love them as God’s children and am pulling them to America with me to save this country. Since Japan and the United States were once at war, my efforts are bringing three enemy countries together. No political or economic power could produce this kind of unity and harmony, but only the power of the new universal religion. Why do we do it? It is not because of the President of the United States, not because of the Prime Minister of Japan. We do this because of the absolute God.</p>
|
||||
<p>For the first time in history, such an ideology has become the reality here on earth. We are bringing all mankind together under the one parenthood of God. This is Reverend Moon’s movement. For the first time in history, unity at an extraordinary level has become a reality. This is the Unification Church.</p>
|
||||
<p>In the Unification Church you can become certified as a righteous person in your family, in society, and in the nation. This certificate, entities you to a free pass in the spirit world. No other certificate you can receive would guarantee your passage in the spirit world.</p>
|
||||
<p>Suppose a man lived his entire fife for the sake of his country and assumed that by doing so he has earned the rank of righteous man. But when he goes to the spirit world, all kinds of people will shout out and tell him to go to hell. Why? It is because he did not transcend national barriers or boundaries. A patriot of Great Britain could be an enemy of France, Germany, and Spain.- Someone may think he has accomplished the greatest good for the United States, but after becoming a Reverend-Moon-style patriot, he will be welcomed by all nations everywhere.</p>
|
||||
<p>Until now, there was a gap between the individual and family levels. No bridge had been laid between them. There were also gaps between societies, nations, and between the national and worldwide levels. One central highway or bridge was needed to connect them all.</p>
|
||||
<p>If you follow this key formula here on earth, when you arrive in the spirit world, you will be able to open the doors there and everything will open wide before you. No matter how many good deeds conventional patriots may have done, their key doesn’t fit every door in the spirit world. Do you follow me? Regardless of what country you come from, once you fulfill the criterion of universal righteousness in the Unification Church, your key of righteousness will fit into any society here on earth and in the spirit world. If this is but, nothing less will satisfy you, will it?</p>
|
||||
<p>Let’s analyze whether or not this is true. First of all, are we centered on God? Yes. Are we controlled only by the love of God and do we live only in his dominion? Yes. This is our way of life, isn’t it? Nobody in the universe can escape this principle. Everybody should abide by it. Do you follow me? If our life is centered on God, we will never be rejected.</p>
|
||||
<p>We make relationships as individuals now here on earth, but our goal is far beyond in God’s kingdom. In other words, God is the center of our relationships. When we marry and come together as husband and wife, the purpose of our unity is to achieve God’s goal. We do many different things, but all our actions have the same purpose Our way is very clear. we begin as righteous individuals, become righteous family members, righteous members of society, righteous citizens of the nation, righteous inhabitants of the world, righteous people of the universe, and righteous people of the cosmos. One principle governs this righteousness. The criterion never changes.</p>
|
||||
<p>What method will we use? The most dramatic aspect of our course is that we do not go this road passively, but take the worst burdens upon our shoulders. We go this way with a sacrificial and serving mind. When you adopt this method, everybody will have to admire you, whether they are Americans, Japanese, or Germans. As soon as they do that, national barriers dissolve and you will have no enemies anywhere.</p>
|
||||
<p>In order to close the gaps between each level of righteousness, we have to pay a price, which we call indemnity. Would you rather do this or something else? If something else knocks on your door and beckons to you, will you change your mind?</p>
|
||||
<p>Should your ultimate goal be righteousness or should you go beyond to sainthood? You start out wanting to become a patriot, a righteous citizen of your country. But you are different from other patriotic people because you are acting for the sake of God and the world, so you keep aiming for the next highest level. What is your ultimate goal? It is God’s heart. We are living a dramatic life, no question about it.</p>
|
||||
<p>It is like we are building a huge tank and working to fill it up by constructing a pipeline which extends everywhere. We can be accepted everywhere because all Unification conduits share their contents, so all the world’s resources can travel through that pipeline to Africa and Asia. The wealth of the united states will go through it to other countries of the world. If the American people don’t complain even when the U.S. tank becomes empty, they will demonstrate true righteousness!</p>
|
||||
<p>1 created an extra big tank in Japan and asked die members to fill it and they are fulfilling this mission. The pipeline is moving resources to other parts of the world, including the United States, South America, Europe and Korea. Our motto is: “We are sacrificial servants.” Japanese people are feeding the entire world now. If they see a boom coming to South America, they rejoice over it. Soon those people will return to offer homage and gratitude to me and to Japan. So it is not just individuals, but even nations who are changing.</p>
|
||||
<p>What about you? Maybe you are planning to work until you receive the Blessing and then retire the day after. Some blessed members are saying, I already have two children, but I’m not allowed to retire yet. I’m still being sent out on a mission. What shall I do?”</p>
|
||||
<p>You don’t want to stop at the family level, do you? You want to become righteous people on the worldwide level even if you might drop dead along the way to that goal. If such a thing happened, you wouldn’t have to worry because God would grant a special dispensation and declare that you fulfilled all levels and indemnified everything. That’s the quickest way to reach the goal!</p>
|
||||
<p>I have completed all levels and have already walked the course. Only after doing so am I asking you to follow me. Take the court trial for example. I didn’t have to come back to face this. Since I am not a U.S. citizen, I could have remained in Korea. But I returned voluntarily because I thought: “I want to pay more indemnity; let me suffer the court trial.” If you intentionally pay indemnity, there is more benefit.</p>
|
||||
<p>Mothers should give their blessing to the children who are following my way, devoting their life for this cause. These mothers shouldn’t feel sad and ask why such a tragic thing should happen to their child. Instead they should applaud: “You did it, my child! You fulfilled God’s will. Bravo! I’m proud of you. You are the spearhead, and I will follow you.” Once you know the core truth of my teaching you realize why Jesus said that whoever loses his life will find it.</p>
|
||||
<p>I assigned the Japanese a “mission impossible.” I asked them to sell 700 Tong 11 lathes in Japan. That’s almost like selling ice to Eskimos-virtually impossible. The Japanese already have better machines of this type. The annual market for these machines in Japan is 2,010, and already 100 manufacturers are working to supply these 2,010 machines.</p>
|
||||
<p>The pragmatic American way of thinking would be to say: “Oh, Father, we won’t make it.” But they reported: “Father, we knew it was virtually impossible to sell these lathes to Japanese machine shops, so we decided to sell them to everybody-even to customers in bars and showgirls in dance halls!” In other words, they were telling me, “We will do it, no matter what!” Like the Americans say, “By hook or by crook!”</p>
|
||||
<p>I am very smart, as you realize. I knew that if I called upon you Americans to do such a mission, you would all run away, so I gave it to the Japanese. They never run away!</p>
|
||||
<p>We have been living by Jesus’ words in the Bible: “He who loses his life for my sake will find it.” We am willing to die and we are sacrificing ourselves throughout the world. But when we look up, we realize that our time to die never came. In the meantime, the rest of the world is coming into unity! The next time we look up, we will see the space shuttle Columbia II waiting with an empty seat for us in first class. Columbia II will lift off into space with you as a VIP guest. It will travel out beyond the moon and go all the way to God’s land, reaching His throne in the spirit world.</p>
|
||||
<p>There God will come to meet us and say: “You are My child, My dear child.” However, He will add, “You must go back now; you have come here prematurely.” So you will return to America and head out for Africa to demonstrate your love for the world. When you go to Africa, God will ask you to exceed the level of what you have done in the United States. Then you will reply, “I shall do everything for the sake of Africa; I shall do more than I did for America.”</p>
|
||||
<p>When your African mission is over, you can ride on Columbia III. That spaceship will be decorated with diamonds, and you will sit there like a king or queen. The rocket will lift off and take you to God’s kingdom and to the eternal glorious life as a child of God. Wouldn’t you like that? Every day I dream about these things. So you can imagine there are no easy days for me.</p>
|
||||
<p>Is the Unification Church going the road of righteousness or the road of sainthood? We are pursuing sainthood, so you really are bold, aren’t you?</p>
|
||||
<p>A saint aims to become a child of God. But even a saint has not quite fulfilled the role of son and daughter of God. That is why I am telling you to go beyond the level of a saint and become a king of saints. By listening to me, obeying me, and following my teaching, do you think you can achieve that goal? The true love of God starts from the position of saint.</p>
|
||||
<p>Do you feel good this morning? Shall we go this route, or not? Are you now in the, position of a righteous person? Your righteousness is centered on God, not just the nation, right? What level are you at: family, tribal, national, or worldwide?</p>
|
||||
<p>To be husband and wife in the Unification Church is tough because sometimes you have to kick each other along the road! If the husband doesn’t want to go, the wife should pull him. If the wife holds back, the husband pulls her! Because of your wife, or your husband, you are launched for the family level to the trial level. If your spouse lifts you one step higher, then you should be grateful to him or her.</p>
|
||||
<p>You men have masculine dignity and you tell your wife: “You woman, follow me. I am the conductor; I am the leader.” The woman may protest, “No, no.” But she should say, “Yes, wherever you go I will follow.” How dramatic!</p>
|
||||
<p>In one kind of couple, the husband and wife are very friendly and affectionate to each other but they may also be selfish-minded, wanting to retreat from responsibilities. “Oh no, not in this direction; not in that direction,” they say. They hide form one mission after another. It is possible that some couples are like this. What kind of couple would you like to become?</p>
|
||||
<p>Now you know the definition of a righteous person and the definition of a saint. On a lower level there are average people and finally at the bottom there is human trash. Thus you can choose among these four categories, in descending order: saint, righteous person, average person, and human trash. Which alternative do you vote for?</p>
|
||||
<p>The higher you goal, the heavier will be your tribulation or workload. You people in the Unification Church like my foundation but you don’t want to be like me! All the bad boys and girls in the Unification Church have created burdens for me. If some member doesn’t do well, the burden falls on my shoulders and the blame is laid on me. I have been accused of every fault, but have I made any excuses for it? No.</p>
|
||||
<p>Good credit, however, never comes to me; it stays with you. If you produce some good result, people say, “The white American people did very well.” They want to keep all the good things and load up all the bad things on my shoulders. Society may honor some outstanding white man or woman because my teaching was motivating them, but they don’t want to give any credit to me. They just say, “You are a white man, and an American; indeed you are great.”</p>
|
||||
<p>When you hear people accusing me and blaming me for all kinds of incredible things, what do you think? Do you fell righteous anger and indignation on my behalf, or do you think: “Well, there must be some reason for people to say that. There must be some grounds to it”? Those who didn’t answer one way or another, your lack of response implies something.</p>
|
||||
<p>Many Americans have thought: “Reverend Moon took a lot of money out of America, using Mr. Kamiyama as his surrogate. They sucked the money out and shipped it somewhere else.” Even some American leaders thought this. This has been the viewpoint of the U.S. government, the FBI and the CIA. They have accused me of draining wealth out of America. Finally they brought me into court and completely investigated the evidence. They accuse me of conspiracy and say, “American boys and girls are becoming robots. Moon has strings attached to each member, and the Unification Church is like a gigantic puppet slim. 99</p>
|
||||
<p>However, if the collection of more taxes is the goal, there is little more than $10,000 in taxes in question. In order to investigate a $10,000 tax evasion, they spent $2 million! Does that make sense? This has become the most expensive tax investigation ever undertaken by the U.S. government. So tax money was not the goal but merely a facade.</p>
|
||||
<p>If I were a white man and someone offered the government $1 million to investigate me-or even $2 or $3 million-would they do it? No, they would not. The government is doing this only because I come from the Orient and am not a U.S. citizen and because I have been so successful.</p>
|
||||
<p>I could really explode in wrath. Look at the courtroom. When you look on the defense side, there are two Orientals: Mr. Kamiyama and me. There are two Orientals as defendants and two other Orientals as interpreters, since, the court proceedings were interpreted for me and Mr. Kamiyama. How ironic it is for the whole white society and the American government, to try to knock down two Orientals! If we had murdered someone it would have been a different story, but the government has just been fabricating charges.</p>
|
||||
<p>If it were merely for my own sake, I wouldn’t be able to stand it. You know my temper! I would never tolerate it. However, I decided to endure it for the sake of America and for your future. I did not want to see judgment come upon you. Because you follow me, I decided -to forgive diem. I do it because of you. In this case, you are the condition of indemnity. “All right, prosecution, government, Justice Department,” I say, “we forgive you.” So you are the hope of America, the hope of this nation, the hope of this government. I forgive them so you can be fire and so you can prosper.</p>
|
||||
<p>The United States will repent in the future. Americans will come to apologize for this. Out of repentance for this court trial, millions and millions of young people will join and follow my teachings and they will work to promote the well-being of the world.</p>
|
||||
<p>Today’s message is almost my plea to you to become saints and righteous people because you are the hope of this nation, the hope of this world, and the hope of God. Even if I depart from the United States, my ideology, my tradition and my spirit will remain in this country and continue to prosper. I look at this as my most precious</p>
|
||||
<p>gift to you and to the young people of America. If you live up to this, my goal and dream will be fulfilled. On the other hand, if you fail to follow my tradition, all of this would have been in vain. If that ever happens, the destiny of white people would be very dismal.</p>
|
||||
<p>When Jesus came, the chosen people did not accept him. You know the consequences and the incredible suffering that has been going on for 2,000 years. The United States is now in the position to accept or reject me. If total rejection takes place at this time, you know what would happen consequences. It wouldn’t even compare to the case of Jesus. I feel, therefore, the heart of Jesus on the Mount of Calvary as he was hanging on the cross. He asked forgiveness for those enemies who were conducting murderous action against him. Jesus forgave them. I am doing the same thing today for America</p>
|
||||
<p>Of course, in these 2,000 years one thing has changed: no court will ever terminate my life. Two thousand years ago, if Jesus could have entered Rome, confronted the Roman Senate and declared the victory there, 400 years of persecution, bloodshed and martyrdom would not have been necessary. Only because Jesus couldn’t fulfill that in his lifetime did such incredible bloodshed follow.</p>
|
||||
<p>By the same token, I came to America, the Rome of the 20th century, from Korea, which is like the chosen nation of Israel. I have confronted the American authorities and declared the victory. This will prevent incredible in the future. The history of the Unification Church will not be one of bloodshed; our missionaries will not become martyrs</p>
|
||||
<p>Therefore, let us muster every ounce of our energy and every drop of our sweat and blood to march forward and gain certification as righteous people and saints. This is my plea to you today. This is what I am asking you to become. You are my hope and God’s hope.</p>
|
||||
<p>When the United States comes against me, when the communists, the entire world and even Satan himself comes against me, that will signify the end and the pinnacle of persecution will be scaled. Judaism and Christianity have attacked me, but nothing has been able to prevail against me. I have been victorious in every battle I have fought. ‘Me benefit of all these victories comes to the Unification Church and becomes your asset and your foundation. With this qualification, no matter how many difficulties you might experience or how disheartened you might be, if you take courage and follow my tradition and way of life, you will win the total victory. Amen! Can you make this resolution?</p>
|
||||
<p>Those who will say, “Because I have seen Father’s example, I can overcome even ten times the persecution he has received and win the victory as a righteous person and saint,” raise your hands, please. God bless you.</p>
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content/speeches/1982/the-secret-of-total-success.md
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---
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title: "THE SECRET OF TOTAL SUCCESS"
|
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type: "speech"
|
||||
published: "2018-06-23T14:38:39+01:00"
|
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updated: "2018-06-23T14:38:39+01:00"
|
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source: "/blog/2018/06/23/the-secret-of-total-success.html"
|
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speechYear: "1982"
|
||||
categories:
|
||||
- "Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982"
|
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tags: []
|
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---
|
||||
|
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<h2 align="CENTER">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
|
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<h3 align="CENTER">December 19, 1982<br />
|
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Belvedere<br />
|
||||
Translator – Bo Hi Pak</h3>
|
||||
<p>This is the time of Christmas; so are you thinking of your hometowns and missing them? If you say no, you are not being honest. Why does everyone naturally think about their homes at Christmas time? It is human nature to return in our memories to our past whenever something special happens, whether happy or sad. We think back to our homes because that is where our parents were, our brothers and sisters, and all our relatives. We grew up in that place. Our physical bodies, as well as our spirit and soul, were brought up in our hometowns, so we always return there in our memories.</p>
|
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<p>Whenever you look at old pictures of your family, you can clearly see the family resemblances among the parents, brothers and sisters. All the memories of your youth are contained within your hometown-from childhood, through adolescence and on to young adulthood.</p>
|
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<p>As a baby you were taken care of by your parents, who changed your diapers, bathed you, and so on. Later they went through all your growing pains with you. I know many of you remember being spanked sometimes by your parents. You gave them problems at times and were bad boys and girls. All these experiences form your memories. Perhaps you fought with your brothers and sisters, hitting them and so on. All such bad things actually become part of the pleasant memories of the past in your mind.</p>
|
||||
<p>In your hometown you could feel comfortable asking a friend for some extra-special favor and everyone would think it was perfectly normal. Sometimes you might have insisted strongly on something from your relatives or neighbors and it was considered normal. When you started a fight with your brother and hit him first, perhaps you were the one to cry first so you got the most sympathy!</p>
|
||||
<p>The hometown can be characterized by warmth and love; once you leave it and go out into the larger society, you discover that warmth is lacking. Society is very impersonal and cold. If you make some mistake or do something wrong, you receive punishment without fail; there is no forgiveness. If you borrow money, you have to pay it back-with interest. You cannot expect sympathy or an easy time from people in the larger society. Your hometown is the place where you feel embraced by the people and everything there.</p>
|
||||
<p>Once you are grown up, you reach the time to get married. If you had to choose between getting married and going back to your hometown, which would you choose? Certainly anyone would prefer to have an ideal mate, rather than just going back home. Why is that? Nowadays in this secular society, men and women can be happily married one day and the next day have a quarrel and start thinking about divorce. Since you abandon your hometown in order to get married, you expect the marriage to be better. In what way should the marriage be better?</p>
|
||||
<p>In the Orient whenever men and women get divorced they always go back to their parents’ home. That is true here sometimes, too. It is a natural thing for people that when they leave their homes, they go to live with their ideal mates. The realm of give and take between marriage partners, then, is supposed to be better than that in your hometown.</p>
|
||||
<p>A child can behave badly and get a spanking from his parents; then, within a short time, he has completely forgotten the incident. That is a precious quality of a child. The younger the child, the greater the ability to forget. This is one of the qualities which Jesus was referring to when he said in the Bible, “Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” There is no cynicism or sarcasm in a little child; he responds genuinely and simply. When you are kind to a child, he is happy and kind in response. When you are angry with him, he will run away from you. He is absolutely honest in his response.</p>
|
||||
<p>The husband and wife relationship is supposed to be better than any in childhood. That means although husband and wife fight sometimes, you should be able to put it behind you. No matter how much you love someone, if you have an attitude of holding grudges you can never have total success in that relationship.</p>
|
||||
<p>What is the definition of a good husband and good wife? It is important to have a clear definition of those terms. How can the good student in school be determined? By his performance on tests. It doesn’t matter how handsome his face is, how tall he is or how much he weighs. The good student is determined by the tests. In the same sense, the good husband and good wife are determined by tests and how well they do. The husband gives the tests to the wife and she has to pass them; and vice-versa.</p>
|
||||
<p>Would you like to be tested every day or just once in a while? Does anyone actually enjoy taking tests? No one likes taking tests, but they are a necessity which we must go through. Which is the better test-the difficult test or the easy one? What is the standard of good and bad membership in the Unification Church? How do we define those things? Again, it is by passing different tests. In our church there are many different kinds of tests; fundraising is one, witnessing another, fasting is another, and receiving the three indemnity blows is another. When you see that a new, more difficult kind of test is coming to you, is that a good or a bad sign?</p>
|
||||
<p>God is looking at His children and telling them, “I want you to be the very best child.” What is the standard by which God determines who are the better children? How can He decide? What kind of test would God devise? God created all things in the world-diamonds, gold, etc. He doesn’t lack anything, such as wealth, wisdom or power. What would be the criterion by which God would determine which of His children has the highest possible standard? When a teacher makes a test, he wants to check to see whether the students have learned the most vital, basic information. Thus God will make His tests to find out if His most important subject has been understood by His children. What is that subject? It is true love.</p>
|
||||
<p>What is true love? What is the difference between true love and any other kind? The most simple criterion of true love is that it is a giving love more than a receiving love. Parents want to give to their children, out of their heart of love. Should the children just continue to receive from their parents? Women always want to just receive love from everyone, isn’t that true? Women always wait to receive more and more love, but at a certain point you start to give that love back. What time is that? It is when you become mothers. It is the mother who expresses the most love in the beginning toward the children, rather than the father. The mother gives her love more intensely to her children because it is the woman who has been receiving so much love throughout her life.</p>
|
||||
<p>There is a basic law of nature illustrated in the way we breathe. When you inhale to your fullest capacity, can you continue to drink in more and more air? Certainly not. You must exhale after you have inhaled. Breathing out is just as important as breathing in. Likewise, when you receive, you must also give. When you eat food, you must also eliminate waste products.</p>
|
||||
<p>God loves and enjoys true love, the kind of love which gives to others. Who initiated that love-man or God? It was God, because He was the parent and as the parent, He is the cause of love. The causal being initiates the resultant being. The cause must take that initiative so the result can become a reality. Who gave you your hair and your eyeballs? It was the first cause. We are all results of that cause. Thus you can never say, “I am all by myself, alone and unique in the whole universe.” The resultant being can never take the causal position; the resultant being is in the passive position. Thus, the resultant being must search after his cause and seek interaction with that cause.</p>
|
||||
<p>How should we return to our origin, our cause? Since that cause initiated giving love, we can return to that cause by returning or reciprocating that love. Commonly in our world today, people think of themselves from an independent and selfish point of view. Yet no one is just “myself,’ but is the result of a cause. You are always connected with that cause. Therefore, people must find unity with that cause. Since we received the most precious gift from that cause, in order to return we must take an equally precious gift to the cause.</p>
|
||||
<p>You received life from your cause: therefore, when you return you should return with the most brilliant life. You received love; therefore, when you go back you should bring your most brilliant love. You must realize that your life is precious because that first cause of your life is most precious. It is your duty, therefore, to cherish your life. You want to be worthy of receiving love from that first cause; that love is precious and noble, so you naturally want to be equally precious and noble in order to return love of equal importance to Him.</p>
|
||||
<p>The primary problem of the world is lack of awareness that man is a resultant being; he is an objective being rather than a subjective one. Have you ever thought that you were a resultant, objective being accountable to someone else, or do you normally think, “I am free and independent; don’t bother me!”? The latter is the most general way of thinking in the world.</p>
|
||||
<p>There is nothing wrong with wanting to be independent, since you have your own direction and goal to return to that first cause. As long as that is the motivation of your desire for independence, it is justifiable. It is all right to seek to be left alone in order to go back to your cause.</p>
|
||||
<p>What do women need? Women need men. Do you women agree? How much do you need men? That relationship is on the horizontal level, with man in the plus position and woman in the minus position. American women don’t think that way, but it is true. Why can’t the woman claim the plus position? You are born to fulfill the minus position. Men are created as pluses. In the Oriental philosophy, men represent the heavens and women represent the earth.</p>
|
||||
<p>All people are resultant beings with a vertical journey to pursue-our unity with our origin. Then we have another journey-the horizontal one toward our horizontal cause. Evil originated in the lower place, which is earth. You women have the tendency to receive love all the time, but when you are called upon to give love, you protest, saying, “No, that is not my duty. Let somebody else do it.” Even the East Garden children have that tendency. Whenever I look into the drawers of the girls, everything is well organized and well stocked; everything that could be needed is there and accounted for. When I open up the boys’ drawers, they are messy and disorganized. They don’t even particularly care what they have; if somebody wants to borrow something from them, they just tell them to go ahead and help themselves.</p>
|
||||
<p>The girls accumulate many things and keep them organized. When the time comes for marriage, they pack everything up and take it away! If they present their possessions to their husbands without any reservation, that is totally okay. This is because the earth was supposed to present all things in offering to Heaven, to God. Thus women are supposed to make that kind of offering through their husbands.</p>
|
||||
<p>The beauty of universal law is that when you make an offering to God, you are not losing anything. The more you present to God, the more you increase yourself. It is a mutual prospering for both you and God. God’s mind is one of ideal love; He is an infinite reservoir of that love. The more God consumes, the greater amount He returns. Whoever gives to God will always be replenished by God. What can be lost? The more someone gives to God, the greater will be his return. This leads us to the clear understanding of why we, as resultant beings, need a relationship with the original, causal being. That is the only way we can grow to maturity and prosperity.</p>
|
||||
<p>Leaves on the very top of a tree cannot grow unless they have an interaction with the lowest part of the root, which is their origin and cause. Likewise when men have give and take of true love with God, their cause, they grow and prosper without end.</p>
|
||||
<p>You love God, don’t you? How much do you love God? Do you love Him more than you love yourself? He is more than you, greater than you and the owner of yourself; therefore, it is good to love Him more than yourself. He is the owner of true love, so we naturally like and love Him.</p>
|
||||
<p>If you assert yourself in an aggressive, stubborn way for the sake of returning to that first cause, your deeds can be justified. According to the same principle, you women should pack up everything you own and give it, along with your own heart and body, to your husband. There is no way in which you will diminish when you do such a thing, according to the principle of true love. You will prosper together and grow together.</p>
|
||||
<p>Husband and wife have dominion over each other out of love, not in any other way. Therefore, the most important criterion is this: more than you love your husbands, you women should love God. The same is true for men; God must come first. When you are united horizontally as husband and wife, you can go upward to the vertical level.</p>
|
||||
<p>The first cause divided himself up-God is divided into masculine and feminine-so in order to return to God, the two divided parts should come together as one unit. There is no other way. Men and women move toward each other and this is entirely natural. Unless you unite with your ideal mate here on earth you shall have no way to move vertically toward God.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why is marriage necessary? Is it because you need to receive love from someone? No, you marry because you want to form that unit which is responsible to God. Now you have the answer as to why men and women marry. Why is it good to have children? The ultimate destiny of mankind is to return to God, so having children is a necessary aspect of that. Each of you is looking forward to having a spouse, but that spouse is actually the intermediate instrument for returning to God.</p>
|
||||
<p>When the vertical and horizontal interact, their motion creates circular movement. In such motion, the heaviest elements settle in the center and the lightest elements go to the outside. The cause of causes is the heaviest element, God, who forms the center. What is the center of God? It is true love. Thus, the center of centers is true love.</p>
|
||||
<p>In the center of the universe is the universal plus, surrounded by smaller minuses. Among those minuses, there are also small pluses which unite with them to create larger and larger entities. These united plus and minus entities resemble the original cause. All together these entities are a “super-minus,” surrounding the “super-plus” in the center.</p>
|
||||
<p>In yourself there is mind and body. Which is more important? It is the true mind, which is in the center of your being. Anybody who has nothing to do with true love will eventually be rejected by the universe. God didn’t want anyone to be rejected by the universe; therefore, in order to sustain life here on earth, men and women must come together. That’s why marriage is God’s institution.</p>
|
||||
<p>The plainest truth is that when the plus and minus of man and woman unite together, they create a bigger minus in front of their cause, God, who is the biggest plus. In that way plus and minus interact. That is the only way mankind can be sustained. Why do we need children? Children are necessary because through them, people can experience truly unconditional, sacrificial love toward them. That experience is actually training for people which allows them to understand God better and allows them to return love to Him. We receive parental love from God, so by understanding the intensity of that love we can be motivated to return it to Him.</p>
|
||||
<p>The criterion for loving is within your family. You must love God, the ultimate subject, more than your husband or wife, more than your children; when you do that you are doing what is right. God is the first cause and must be loved above all. When the love of God comes to you, it includes all the different aspects of love-men and women, parents and children; everything is included within that love. Your love is intense for your husband or wife. You must come to realize that you love God even more than that. Then God will tell you that you passed the test.</p>
|
||||
<p>Only through your spouse and the love of your children can you return to your origin, God. Universal truth is based on this. The heaviest center is God; the center of God is true love. When you reach that core center of God and become united with Him, you become a part of Him. You become like Him and become an original magnet. pulling everything toward you. From that position you can push and pull and every action you do is one of harmony and goodness. When you have been away from your lover for a long time and you suddenly meet up with him or her again, what do you do? You come together and feel like squeezing each other to death. You should think of God like your lover, so you feel like squeezing Him, too. God loves that and He will tell you that you have passed His test.</p>
|
||||
<p>God loves you-every part and function of you, including your eyes, nose, ears, everything. Husband and wife should focus more and more love toward each other, not seeking for themselves. The more intense your love, the closer you are getting to the center and by that you can interact faster and faster. The closer two objects are to the center of a circle, the closer they come together and the faster they can have give and take. Now we know why men and women must get together in marriage and have children; our central goal and purpose is to return and unite totally with our central, original cause, God.</p>
|
||||
<p>If Adam and Eve had completed their love and traveled this route, they would never have fallen. The same is true of you. Some of you think, “Why did Father have to match me to such a person? Everybody else got good husbands, but not me! Mine is ugly and not so good.” But that is your universal test, the hardest test God could give you. Since that is the ultimate test, if you pass it, you will jump into the center of God immediately.</p>
|
||||
<p>Your five senses represent the most holy, sacred love. When you touch your lover with your hand, it is like God touching him or her. That is wonderful and holy. Why shouldn’t we refer to each other as, “My holy spouse”? Anything godly is holy, so our husbands and wives should be regarded as holy, too. The saintly couple is such a couple. What is a saint? The saint is the one who concentrates on returning true love to God, his origin. A saintly man and woman make a saintly couple. When such a husband and wife get together, isn’t that better than returning to your home town?</p>
|
||||
<p>The Christmas season has come and I have been thinking about what I could give to you. This morning I am opening my “true love” package for you, my gift to you.</p>
|
||||
<p>When husband and wife conceive a child, they are brightened up by ecstatic joy and happiness. God created women deliberately to be greedy for love, always seeking to receive from others so that when the time comes, He can demand that you give that love forth to your children. When you become pregnant, you women often become very sick and weak, losing your appetites and energy. It is almost like a sickness, and pregnancy lasts for nine months. However the pregnant woman is happy anyway, even though she can hardly walk with her huge stomach. Once she comes near to her term, she is so full she can hardly sleep; her breathing becomes difficult and so on. Even though she knows it is because of the child that she is so uncomfortable, no mother will curse and blame the child. She just thinks of that child with total love and devotion! She can hardly wait to see him. That is the love of the mother.</p>
|
||||
<p>The child is really a “bloodsucker,” in a way. The mother’s blood nourishes the baby when he is in the womb and then when he nurses, she continues to nourish him. Childbirth is normally a very painful experience for the mother, but she immediately forgets the pain when she sees her baby and wants to nurse him at her breast. The woman who was so greedy for love becomes totally giving and unselfish toward her child. God is fair. He knew that He was demanding a lot from women, so He allowed women to be a little greedy when they are young. For that reason, also, He created women last-you are the “latest model,” very delicate and sophisticated instruments. You are the latest minus for the ultimate plus, God.</p>
|
||||
<p>The essentiality of God is based upon true love. This is why He can require of the world that we love Him. Loving Him is like loving yourself because it is the only way you can prosper and continue for eternity. God requires us to love Him so that we can receive love, too. Once we understand this fact, we can have bubbling enthusiasm.</p>
|
||||
<p>The ultimate reason for love is to return to God and become one with Him; there is no other reason. This earth and universe surround us like a second “womb,” and we are preparing here for another, ultimate birth. When you were in your mother’s womb you received all the ingredients you needed through the umbilical cord. By the same token you are growing through the channels of the universe-water, food, air-which are supplied to you. In order to meet your requirements, the universe is continually serving you with tremendous sacrifice to itself.</p>
|
||||
<p>The natural principle of survival of the fittest serves the purpose of returning to God. The lower forms of creation are actually honored and privileged to serve the higher forms so that they can return to God. Food, water and so forth are all created by God to serve the higher beings and aid them in their search for the love of God. By serving the higher being they are serving a higher cause. When you eat an animal as food, that animal is serving a higher purpose by becoming a sacrifice to you. That animal becomes a part of the cells in the higher being, you. It actually becomes part of a higher cause in that way. By doing so the goal of that animal has been fulfilled.</p>
|
||||
<p>That principle should work the same in the human world. For the sake of a higher cause you say to God, “Yes, Father, I can give my very life as a sacrifice for your purpose.” That is a natural tendency. All creations of God have the same goal and purpose: to journey toward their ultimate center, which is the true love of God. Once they reach that goal, they are reaching a relationship with the entire universe.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you eat you become indebted to that food because that vegetable or animal has sacrificed itself for you. You must fulfill their purpose by elevating them to a relationship with the highest being. You are like an ambassador for the entire universe; all of creation needs you to gain a relationship with God. You should look at the birds, the running water, the animals and so on with such a viewpoint.</p>
|
||||
<p>You should look at the universe as a gigantic museum and. all the things of creation as exhibits in it. At the Louvre museum in France, many people can observe the painting <i>Mona Lisa; </i>it is considered to be of priceless value. However compared with God’s museum, the <i>Mona Lisa </i>is nothing; the things in God’s museum are not only beautiful, they can also multiply themselves forever. No matter how wise a person you may be, you could never duplicate even one small thing which God has created.</p>
|
||||
<p>If you asked a blade of grass, “How old are you?” he would answer, “I am older than you. I was there in the Garden of Eden, long before you men were.” Ask that grass, “Who created you?” and he would answer, “The King of Art, Science, and Wisdom-God Almighty- created me.” Even the tiniest ant was created by God. What about the rattlesnake-would he bite God if he could? Even the snake has the ability to love. The male and female snakes certainly have give and take of love; they don’t bite each other!</p>
|
||||
<p>Knowing all these truths, the universe appears to you in an entirely different perspective. You can say, “All this is God’s creation and I am, too. Since I am a representative of God, I should appreciate all these things.” When you see everything as God’s creation, then there is nothing which is not lovable. You can love the mountains, the grasses, flowers, pebbles, animals. Everything is a lovable artistic work of God.</p>
|
||||
<p>Since you are a representative of the true love of God, everything in the universe will seek to be close to you. The flower will say, “Please take me and hold me. Put me in your house where I can be appreciated by you and your family.”</p>
|
||||
<p>Always remember that God is the cause and we are the result. As resultant beings, our journey in life is to go back to that cause. Your first home was in your family, which is the wellspring of true love for your life. For Unification Church members, Christmas time is a time when you like to gather at Belvedere and hear a sermon. Even better, you would like to go to East Garden and be with Father and Mother and the true family. Since school is recessed now, the children went with Mother yesterday for a short trip; I was supposed to join them but I decided that I would rather stay here with you children at Belvedere this Sunday.</p>
|
||||
<p>The mysterious secret of total success is to become men and women able to communicate true love with all things. By give and take between the vertical cause and the horizontal effect, you shall achieve everything in total success.</p>
|
||||
<p>Don’t ever forget this teaching today. Use your five senses with this point of view. Every action of your body, every day, should be done with the purpose of returning to the first cause. You can only return to that first cause with true love. Once you undertake this journey of true love, the universe will cooperate and help you. Nothing will hamper you, even national boundaries, cultural and racial differences.</p>
|
||||
<p>We are engaged in a marathon race toward the goal of our cause of true love. We must make a relationship with everything in the universe and steer ourselves continually toward that goal. For this reason, the Unification Church is interested in every field and every aspect of life; we go everywhere geographically-east, west, Africa, South America, Asia; we do fishing, laboring, agriculture, mining, aviation. There is no area in which we are not interested. That is because this universe is our home, our “mother’s womb” which we want to use to prepare for our future life.</p>
|
||||
<p>When men and women are truly in love, they occupy each other. The man is completely occupied by the woman and vice-versa. By the same token, we could say the same thing about God. When you have a true love relationship with God, He will be occupied by you. You will find your resting place right in the center of God.</p>
|
||||
<p>Where can you find the love of God? You have that longing feeling for the love of your husband or wife which you cannot forget at any time; such a feeling of longing describes God’s love. For this reason, you are precious and unique in this universe; you have total dignity and authority to represent God.</p>
|
||||
<p>Men and women must go through the center of their lives, which is God. Every person starts from different angles and different beginning points, but you are all aiming to get to that central point, your ultimate destination. Everybody wants to be Number One; that is, we want to get to that central position.</p>
|
||||
<p>Mother and I have 13 children now, so do you think God will say, “That’s enough. I am happy with that.”? The numbers of cells in one human body equals about 400 trillion. Therefore, 4 billion members of mankind must be too small a number for God.</p>
|
||||
<p>Children always want to receive the love of their parents. Therefore, all the people in the world are reaching for that central point of the universe, God. When a person directs his love toward his parents, he exhibits filial piety. When he directs love toward his country, he is a loyal patriot. When he directs his love toward God. he becomes a saint. The love is the same. For each of you to become a pious son, a patriot and saint is within your realm; in fact, it is your goal. You should become even more; you should gain the title of son and daughter of God. What more could you want?</p>
|
||||
<p>When I speak to you, do you divide my words into two parts-that which you want to hear and that which you don’t want to hear? Or do you listen to everything equally? Sometimes I test you. God certainly has tested me. Many times God has called to me, “Reverend Moon, are you truly my son?” I answer, “Yes, Sir.” He replies, “Then l want to test you to see if you really are.” Do you think I said to Him, “No, Father, don’t test me!” NO, I told God to go ahead and give me the toughest possible tests.</p>
|
||||
<p>I could foresee the types of tests I would have to meet, so I solved problems before they arose. Then I could tell God, “I already finished that test a long time ago.” Finally God said, “I have no more tests for you.” Then I said to Him, “Father, let me test You this time!”</p>
|
||||
<p>The Moonies are persecuted now and scorned by the world, but we are truly a great people, with great dynamism and honor. Who understands these basic truths now? The distinguished Harvard University professors don’t know it, the president of the U.S. doesn’t understand it. Only you small handful of humble people have been able to understand it. How grateful we must be!</p>
|
||||
<p>The mother’s womb is not a glamorous or beautiful place, but that is where life is conceived and grows. It is like a factory; factories are not clean and lovely places. That most holy place, the womb, has a lowly appearance. By the same token, Belvedere appears very humble, but this is the holy place where new life is being vegetated and nurtured. This former garage is the place where God is teaching His wonderful message.</p>
|
||||
<p>Husband and wife should look at this world like they were looking at the Garden of Eden, in which there is only one man and one woman. What if Adam had happened to be crippled? Would Eve have complained to God, “Oh, no, I want another man!”? Eve didn’t have that kind of choice. If Adam had been running around and had fallen down on a bush, he might have become blinded in one eye. Would Eve have said, “God, I don’t want a one-eyed husband!”? Consider yourselves as Adam and Eve for whom there is only one possible mate; it is your destiny.</p>
|
||||
<p>You men should look at your wives and think, “She is the only woman in the entire universe; she is the only Eve.” You may have been thinking about how ugly your husband or wife was, but when you start to look at your spouse from the proper angle you will see universal beauty in him or her. You should look at each other with universal eyeglasses and then your husband will look like a Heavenly Rock Hudson. With universal eyeglasses, nothing looks ugly in God’s creation.</p>
|
||||
<p>In the eyes of the secular world, life in the Unification Church may look miserable but looking with eyeglasses of universal true love, our life appears beautiful, sacred, holy and prosperous. Now that 1983 is coming, prepare for the new year with the determination to wear those universal true love eyeglasses. Look at the entire world with those eyeglasses; proudly proclaim yourself as a child of the True Parents and march forward to win the ultimate victory.</p>
|
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<p>God bless you.</p>
|
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---
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title: "THE VIBRATION OF TRUE LOVE"
|
||||
type: "speech"
|
||||
published: "2018-06-22T06:02:20+01:00"
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updated: "2018-06-22T06:02:20+01:00"
|
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source: "/blog/2018/06/22/the-vibration-of-true-love.html"
|
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speechYear: "1982"
|
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categories:
|
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- "Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982"
|
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tags: []
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---
|
||||
|
||||
<h2 align="CENTER">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
|
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<h3 align="CENTER">January 30, 1982<br />
|
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World Mission Center<br />
|
||||
Translator – Bo Hi Pak</h3>
|
||||
<p>As I look at you, your faces are so beautiful. Many times when I look at the beauty of men and women I wonder whether there was any way that Heavenly Father could have created us better than we are. What would make a man more handsome or a woman more beautiful? I have imagined making the two eyes totally round, the nose square, the ears upside down, and wondered whether that would make a person more beautiful. But every time I come to the conclusion that no one can improve upon the way God made men and women.</p>
|
||||
<p>Truly each one of you is a masterpiece of God’s creation. Some men and women may wonder why they couldn’t be prettier or more handsome. But don’t think that way; you are God’s masterpiece. No matter what, God worked very hard to make you just as you are. Even if someone condemns himself as ugly, when you look at that person you can find some special characteristic that nobody else has.</p>
|
||||
<p>Basically, Heavenly Father has only four items to work with: eyes, nose, mouth and ears-and furthermore, He always has to put them in the same area. But still in that limited realm, God created an infinite variety of faces! God uses only four items to create the human face but no two of them are identical; each is unique. So there is an incredible mysterious beauty among the four billion people out there. Each face is different, although it has the same four components. I cannot think of any better miracle. Suppose you were given the task of taking eyes, nose, mouth and ears and combining them to come up with four billion different faces. Could you do it?</p>
|
||||
<p>When I consider those four billion faces, the mystery is so great that I am filled with a feeling of awe. There is no way to avoid feeling gratitude and awe, surprise and shock at this fact. I always feel that it is our duty to live with confidence and pride in being a masterpiece of God’s creation.</p>
|
||||
<p>Have you ever thought about a world that was filled with only women, lacking men-a “no-man’s land”? No matter how beautiful and well-dressed a woman might be, if there are no men around she has no flavor or joy in living. I am very sure of one thing: if there were no men around, no matter how much people might pressure you to put on make up, you wouldn’t do it; there would be no incentive.</p>
|
||||
<p>When we think about it, it would be the greatest calamity if the world were filled with only women and no men. Or imagine another situation: suppose there were two billion women in the world and only one man. There would definitely be war after war among the women, all fighting over that one man. There would be nothing but struggles, battles, and conspiracies all focused on the one goal to occupy that one man. Women, you don’t like war, do you? But if there were only one man, would you just sit still or engage in some kind of war? What would be the natural thing to do? On the other hand, suppose it were an all-men’s world with only one woman. It would be the same situation.</p>
|
||||
<p>It is a miracle and our good fortune that God distributed men and women evenly in the world. There are enough men for the women and enough women for the men. Suppose there was an entire country populated only by men and another populated only by women. Eastern philosophy is generally centered on men so everyone there looks forward to having a baby boy. Everyone wants a son, but suppose God answered all their wishes and gave them nothing but sons. What would happen? You Americans, would you want a son first or do you feel it doesn’t matter? American women said sons, American men said sons, and Eastern culture says sons. But if God answered all those prayers, what would happen? Wise men do not pray that kind of prayer, knowing that it is useless. People give birth, but God controls the balance; around the world, the population of men and women is about the same. This is another great miracle.</p>
|
||||
<p>It is the greatest of all miracles that we are alive today. Life is mysterious and the mysterious element is beyond man’s control; somebody else must be controlling it. Those who possess high goals and high ideals look for some mystic or mysterious element. People want and look for miracles. But we are eyewitnesses to the greatest miracle of all: the four billion people living on this earth. We look at ourselves and life today as mysterious, as a miracle. When you look at one person, look at him or her as the source of wonder, God’s creation, a miracle of which you are an eyewitness.</p>
|
||||
<p>Every one of you has a broadcasting station in your brain. You emit waves all the time, but the colors of waves vary from one person to another. The variety of these waves makes for harmony; they don’t repel each other but rather create a universal harmony. The vibrations you impart are not narrow. In other words, there are no white vibrations which look for only white persons. These vibrations go around the whole world and try to embrace the world and everything that God created. That vibration will go to the Oriental people and embrace the Orient, then go after black people and embrace them. This vibration creates a sense of harmony and unity.</p>
|
||||
<p>However, in history man has been blocking and chopping off this harmonious vibration. This has been the greatest of all human crimes. Religions have been very narrow-minded also. Christianity sees a limited road from which one may not deviate. Religious people accuse each other of being heretics and much more. Nationalism is another example. There is a Japanese way of life, a German way of life and a Korean way of life without flexibility. People are boxing themselves in, blocking themselves off from infinite possibility.</p>
|
||||
<p>What kind of history does God want? He wants a history of limitless possibility in which all vibrations go out, encircle the world and embrace everybody. That is the way God created His history, but it is man who has blocked history. We must discover where in the world we can find people of true freedom, of true vibrations.</p>
|
||||
<p>Suppose you cut off the spiritual dimension and considered vibrations within the physical world only. Would these vibrations be limitless? The answer is certainly no. In the world today, where can we find people and an organization which vibrates not just in the physical world but also in the spirit world, in the vertical universe? Let us ask another frequently-asked question. What is the Unification Church and who are the Moonies? What is Reverend Moon trying to accomplish? Today we are gathered together for what is called True Parent’s birthday. Here in this room we have an Oriental man and woman surrounded by Western people. We must find and define the meaning of this day. An Oriental man has won the hearts of people of the West and they joyfully come together for a celebration out of their own desire, not out of duty. It is amazing that Reverend Moon could come to America and somehow convince these bright and beautiful-looking young people to follow this way of life. Deprogrammers try to pull them away, but it doesn’t work because the tie that joins us is love.</p>
|
||||
<p>I am sure you will agree that this is an extraordinary event. Another way of describing this scene is that an Oriental man gave out a vibration that encompasses the Western world, the Western mind and Western people. This is a religious phenomenon, but the amazing thing is that it is a very unusual religious phenomenon. Even in the field of religion this has not often occurred.</p>
|
||||
<p>Everybody has heard about major newspapers collapsing, for example the <i>Washington Star </i>and the <i>Philadelphia Bulletin. </i>Every day we hear that the <i>Daily News, </i>the greatest tabloid paper in New York City, is dying. Then people hear that Reverend Moon is trying to create a new newspaper in the face of all these newspaper failures. Those companies which are collapsing are strictly business-minded enterprises, concerned about the destiny of the company and the fortunes of one or a few individuals. They have no way to link their purpose to the nation or to the world. Therefore, no ,matter how big a company it may be, it can only grow within the realm of individual enterprise, individual wealth and company success. Their business philosophy is that when their enterprise or their fortunes are damaged, they fold.</p>
|
||||
<p>The starting point is different with me. We are not beginning a new newspaper for any person’s or any organization’s glory. We are doing this for the purpose of God, the purpose of the nation and the purpose of the world. Therefore, hard work and sacrifice can be made in order to achieve the higher goal.</p>
|
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<p>Today we see Western civilization based on materialism. It has now hit a stone wall. Western civilization has filed bankruptcy. A new philosophy, a new civilization has to begin and carry on. That is where we are. We must realize that people are facing all kinds of bankruptcy-moral bankruptcy, business bankruptcy, family bankruptcy. But the Unification Church has a new goal and a new motivation. We know that the world needs help and true salvation is needed. No matter what, we are going to move forward, overcome the difficulties and obstacles and bring salvation to the rest of the world. That is our standard. We are imparting the vibration to encompass this nation and other nations around the world in order to bring about a positive change. We must be confident and proud of our position and our standard.</p>
|
||||
<p>We have been talking about a new beginning, based upon a different motivation. What is the true motivation, goal and purpose of Reverend Moon? What is the image of True Parents? True Parents are the core vibration through which all the vibrations of the universe can be harmonized. All creation, all people and nations and the spirit world as well need this essential core through which they can have give and take with the universe.</p>
|
||||
<p>An important consideration is what kind of vibration people impart. Are we talking about a money – gathering vibration? If money was the goal of vibration, poor people and nations would not deal with it. They would think it had nothing to do with them. The wealthy nations might like it, but all the underdeveloped nations would not want to have anything to do with such a vibration.</p>
|
||||
<p>What about the power-craving vibration? That might be good for the ruling class, but for the people who are oppressed, suffering and disregarded, such a vibration of power would be hard to relate with.</p>
|
||||
<p>Others might say that the ultimate vibration must be one of knowledge. Knowledge is the ultimate quest, they believe. People with high IQs might approve, but there are many more people who are not geniuses than those who are. Most of the world would respond, “The heck with it; go away.”</p>
|
||||
<p>Vibrations centering on money, power, or knowledge always lead to an imbalance. One side will be high, while another will be low. So the vibration of True Parents must be centered on true love. Many people think Reverend Moon is a swindler, gathering young people and brainwashing them. They think I am sitting behind a big desk pushing buttons, moving around thousands of robots. People are saying this and are trying to convince the rest of the world about this.</p>
|
||||
<p>Since Reverend Moon has appeared a new chapter in the human experience has started. Parents have started kidnapping their own children. This could be either the most terrible incident in human history or the most joyful and incredible event. There is no middle ground for such a situation. And the amazing thing is that while the parents are trying to persuade their children to listen to them the children, even after 35 days of captivity, are singing and happy and something fills their hearts. If I were to tell you, “Go to your parents and stay with them,” you might make a show of leaving but would return to the Unification Church and sneak in the back door!</p>
|
||||
<p>The real judge of all this is the spirit world. As they look at your deeds, do they think it is right or wrong for you to stay with Reverend Moon and commit yourself to the Unification Church? Is the spirit world on the side of the deprogrammers or the Moonies? Is your answer an objective one? That means I can be mighty proud of you. No one has seen any man come from the Eastern part of the world to the West and have this kind of impact. This is probably the first and the last time that this will happen in America and the West.</p>
|
||||
<p>True conscience is vibrating in the world of professors and eminent scholars. As far as intellectual ideals are concerned, they have the highest. In the religious world, theologians are the top thinkers without question. Those who hold power are in the ruling class, but even above them is the ruling class of the mind. In other words, the intellectuals are the governing class of the rulers because they govern their minds. That is the way society is. The amazing thing is that while the ruling class is trying to get rid of Reverend Moon, the people on the highest intellectual level are welcoming him with respect. This is the academic world.</p>
|
||||
<p>Reverend Moon has been the first to bring together the scholars of the East and West and give them a new horizon, uniting the academic minds. No one else has done that. The time has come when scholars are ready to write about Reverend Moon’s philosophy and movement. In the world today a miracle is happening: the scholars discover new hope, a new way of life, and a new philosophy that will give hope to the future world. Those people are ready to use their pens to testify to millions of people. They are bringing the attention of the world to a certain focus: Reverend Moon and his way of life, his philosophy and his movement.</p>
|
||||
<p>In America there are evangelical meetings, individuals witnessing, home church, and so forth. Lecture teams of our members are giving comprehensive three-day workshops on the philosophy of Reverend Moon around the world. They call it <i>Unificationism. </i>After the three days, many people wrote their impressions of the training explaining, “I was a communist, but listening to Unificationism, I now have a new hope, a new ideology by which to live.”</p>
|
||||
<p>I spent several months in Germany. Scholars heard rumors of my visit to Germany. They wanted to see me so much, but I wanted to hide myself, wear humble-looking clothes, and go around looking like a laborer. I was living very unassumingly, just leading a humble, average way of live. But while I was doing this the impact of Reverend Moon was spreading all over the world, expanding faster and faster every day.</p>
|
||||
<p>Many scholars who study my ideology testify that I have an intriguing, magnetic power, which pulls them to attend scholars’ meetings sponsored by Reverend Moon even if they try to stay away. A similar thing happens to Unification members if they try to forget me and the Unification Church.</p>
|
||||
<p>In the business world as well, I am a puzzle. Some newspapers say, “Reverend Moon is more than a religious leader; he is an industrialist.” They look at me and try to analyze me from the business or enterprise point of view, but they still cannot figure me out.</p>
|
||||
<p>Also, Rev. Moon has become a puzzle in the cultural world. After the Tenth ICUS in Seoul, Korea, renowned scholars were impressed by visiting the Little Angels School. I am now receiving letters from them saying, “Rev. Moon, I have come to understand your vision by observing your cultural activities.”</p>
|
||||
<p>A world-renowned ballerina came to Little Angels School and was totally impressed. She asked if she could organize an Asian ballet school at the Little Angels School.</p>
|
||||
<p>This morning’s talk almost sounds like an advertisement. But I feel that by a heart-to-heart talk with you people whom I love so much I can help you to understand what we are accomplishing and what we are fulfilling.</p>
|
||||
<p>Before we talk about the True Parents let’s talk about God. The most important qualification of God is that He is the common Parent of all mankind. When we speak of mankind, we are speaking of millions of different variations, types and levels of people. Being the Father for all man kind, black, white, yellow, easterners, southerners, men, women, this is not easy. Think about the women’s world: both Eastern and Western, women like to talk a lot. God, as their common Father, has to listen to all their chattering. He decided that His best response to all the talking was simply silence. If He tried to answer back all the conversations, He would have worn out His lips a long time ago!</p>
|
||||
<p>There are all kinds of people in the world-rich, poor, well-educated, ignorant, tall, short, sick people, suffering people. God must be the Father to all of them. All individuals, whether joyful or suffering, are trying to find some communication with their common parent, God. The Parent has to try to answer each individual and to meet his needs so that all can be satisfied.</p>
|
||||
<p>You are looking at me and wondering what kind of life I have experienced. Do you think I went through my youth like you? Certainly you know I wasn’t born 62 years old! What do you think I was doing when I was 17? Even before I was given my life’s mission, I always had the heart that I wanted to be a friend to the suffering people in my village. When I was a boy, there was a rich, arrogant boy who always received a hard time from me. But those who were unfortunate and suffering were always my friends. If I heard that some household had no money to buy groceries, I considered it an emergency and I did everything possible to obtain some food for those people. Until I had done that I could not sleep. I wanted to be more than a friend; I wanted to be someone who could serve and help others. Between the ages of 20 and 30 which is considered the prime of youth, people normally want to dress well, and have pleasant experiences in life. But I lived in exactly the opposite way. I never wore a new suit; I always bought surplus clothing at thrift shops.</p>
|
||||
<p>My hair never looked neat and attractive. I was always busy doing my mission. In those days I spoke very little, even though I knew that I had many valuable things to say. I determined to be silent and look very unassuming.</p>
|
||||
<p>During the prime time of my youth I spent every day experiencing the most desperate, suffering situations in human life: labor camps, miners work, begging, dock workers, farmers, coal miners. I looked at every aspect of human life, even the world of prostitutes. I learned why women become prostitutes and why men go to prostitutes. I studied all the miseries of human life.</p>
|
||||
<p>When I was a student in Tokyo, I rode on the railway looking for the places where the most miserable people were living. Even on rainy days I would get off the train and go and sit on the bench beside unfortunate-looking people and make friends with them. I always thought to myself, “What if this roan were my elder brother or my father and he was suffering on my account, what could I do for him?”</p>
|
||||
<p>I observed the students at my university. They were always laughing, talking, and behaving very boisterously. I compared myself with them and thought, “Your laughter is meaningless; it has no weight. But through my silence and meditation, as I seek the solutions to life’s problems, mankind will find new hope in the future.” I knew that the silly gaiety of my fellow students would pass away like a puff of smoke, but the sorrow and sadness I was sharing with the miserable people of society would bring a new future for the world.</p>
|
||||
<p>I want you to understand that to earn the title of True Parents is a very difficult task. The position of True Parents exists for the sake of mankind. To be qualified to be in this position one must be able to satisfy all the needs of mankind. The first qualification of the True Parents is to taste the suffering of humanity. This is how I spent my entire youth, going to the places of poverty and misery, visiting the homes of miners and laborers. Also, I acquainted myself with middle-class people and upper-class people.</p>
|
||||
<p>In a way, I was a miserable person. I was totally alone; no one understood me or what I was trying to accomplish. Even my parents and brothers and sisters didn’t understand me. Of course, Mother is always with me now, supporting me constantly, but even Mother doesn’t know everything I envision for the future.</p>
|
||||
<p>Throughout my life, I have been a pioneer charting a path that never existed before, one which no one had even thought to go before. In order to go that way I had to fight every day a lonely battle in tears and sweat. That path was full of difficulties by itself, but on top of that there was persecution and discrimination. In my village, even though I had never committed a crime, people began to wonder about me and I could not move about freely or live my life freely. Ordinarily, a person becomes a folk hero when he excels at all his activities and does deeds of kindness for other people. But my scale of thinking was far greater than just my village. I was thinking of the nation and the world. Because of that, I was completely misunderstood. People would laugh at me, point their fingers at me. They had no idea what my true motivation was.</p>
|
||||
<p>My mother was the only one who was close to understanding me; of course, even she didn’t understand everything. Sometimes I would reveal certain things to her. Most of the time, I would go to the tombs of my forefathers and speak to them, revealing my heart there. I could reveal my secrets there, knowing that all my ancestors in the spirit world were in a better position to understand what I was doing.</p>
|
||||
<p>Once I undertook my life’s mission, I encountered opposition on every level. My village opposed me, the society opposed me, and the nation opposed me. The most severe opposition came from established Christianity. Ministers and elders of the churches were pointing their fingers at me, accusing me of being a heretic, telling their parishioners, “Don’t even go near Rev. Moon; he has a demon!” My relatives were mistreated simply because they were related to me. If I went to a village inn or to a restaurant, I was not welcome. I did nothing wrong and I committed no crime. All I was doing was pursuing the highest possible goal, which they could not understand. But I continued to lay the foundation step-by-step, in spite of all the opposition.</p>
|
||||
<p>Under such circumstances, winning a true friend and creating a small organization was not easy. But the entire spirit world was always on my side. In the early days of the Unification Church nobody bore witness to anybody else. Members came to the Church through contact and guidance from the spirit world. If you have visited Korea, you have probably met our elder grandmothers in the Church. None of them came because someone invited them; they received revelations from spirit world directly and came on their own initiative to look for me.</p>
|
||||
<p>My entire life can be described by one phrase: it has been a life in the shadows. Always I have been misunderstood and persecuted. I was the first Moonie and all of you are the contemporary Moonies. When I look at you I envy you very much; you are so free. Compared to the way I lived in my early days, you are literally living in the kingdom of Heaven. If I were in your position I could accomplish so much because you are in the optimum position to do great things. But when I see you with no determination and up and down in your spirit, it pains my heart.</p>
|
||||
<p>Here in America your position is actually easier than mine. Yet most of you are thinking of all the things you want to receive from me. Very few are really telling me, “Father, please rest. Let me take over your burdens.” Why do I still bear this kind of burden, since I could say that my job is now done? I carry this responsibility still because I am in the position of True Parent and my responsibility is to be the common parent to all. Even if some champion did come forward saying, “Father, I will outdo you,” I feel that I cannot let that happen. As far as doing my mission of fulfilling the will of God, I will not fall behind any man under the sun. In order to do my mission, I have poured every ounce of energy into it from the beginning until the present. With such a serious attitude I have persevered through the first three 7-year courses and was able to consummate this victoriously and announce the home church crusade. Now we are moving into the second three 7-year courses.</p>
|
||||
<p>My own base has been established and from that I can launch a spiritual offensive against the evil world. I have been attacked so many times from so many different directions. However, we are now going to take the offensive; but the offensive position is not one of revenge. We are going forward to bring salvation and this is the big difference. Our enemies’ goals are simple: they want to destroy the Unification movement. But our goals are different; we want to save the world, including our enemies.</p>
|
||||
<p>We have a Moonie heritage and we must be proud of that heritage. You should be proudly proclaiming your membership in the Unification church. We must be proud of the philosophy and the way of life which we are leading as Moonies. Maybe some of you still feel shame and fear when you think of the world knowing you as a Moonie. But if someone on the street is openly scornful of you as a Moonie. you should grab his necktie and speak right in his face: “What are you saying? What do you know about the Moonies?”</p>
|
||||
<p>For a long time I have not spoken out plainly, but inside my heart I have harbored an iron-willed determination: “One day, I must vindicate the good name of God, the good name of the Unification Church and the True Parents.” This has been my internal determination burning in my heart for my whole life. Wherever I go, I go with pride. Even when I went to prison, I became like a father to the other men there. When I went to the ocean, I went in the position of great strength in order to be a father to all the sea-going people. For seven years I went out to sea and no one else could tolerate the schedule-not the crew, not the guests. Some guests came and could not endure even one day. They would have to take a nap. Every morning, I would wake up the captain so that we could leave at 3:00 a.m. Many times the captain would fall asleep at the wheel as he drove the boat and I would have to take over. In the entire seven years, I only had to lie down in the cabin one time, because of a headache.</p>
|
||||
<p>I persevered through the experience, hanging on, because I always knew I was in the subject position, the position of True Parent and I had to set the tradition for seamen, not only in the present, but for all the future as well.</p>
|
||||
<p>For three years I poured all my energy and heart into the Unification Theological Seminary. I drove to Barry town every day or every other day for three years. Many times I would return at night but early the next morning I felt that I had to go back to Barrytown. I was pouring my heart and soul into it in such a way.</p>
|
||||
<p>There are many different conditions of Unification Church members. There are some who say, “I am a Moonie, but I don’t want to go to MFT.” Others say, “I’m a Moonie, but I don’t want to do home church.” But I tell you, the conditional Moonie will not succeed.</p>
|
||||
<p>Rev. Moon is the first ancestor of the Moonies, setting the tradition. God has His own tradition. I came to America declaring, “I am here to assume the responsibility of the worst problem.” Since communism is God’s worst problem today, I told God I wanted to take over that battle here in America. Also, I told God I wanted to take over the job of revitalizing religion in America, especially Christianity. Another terrible problem in America is the degradation of the young people. Therefore I asked God to let me restore the morality of the youth.</p>
|
||||
<p>I feel that my responsibility is to bring nothing short of resurrection to these three major headaches of God. Thousands of graves are being dug each year to bury all the drug addicts in this country. I am putting enormous energy into solving this terrible tragedy; every bit of money, time and energy I can use to solve this problem, I do.</p>
|
||||
<p>But because I have been pursuing this goal and you have been following me, I am persecuted and condemned and so are each of you. This must not continue. My key words to the world have been, “Wait and see.” Do you want to wait and see too, or are you fighting Moonies, declaring war against all evils and iniquities? You should have the strong enthusiasm to vindicate God, to carry out the heavenly will. I am seeing so many good examples being set in the Orient. Can I expect you here in America to do the same? The hope of America lies in you people right here in this room and all those in the country who are working for this Principle. You will surely inherit my tradition and multiply it by thousands in order to give new life to America.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you see people who are suffering, who are on the streets, who are sick, please look at them and think of me and compare yourself to my record of accomplishment. My entire life was spent suffering for the sake of God and humanity. The hardest kind of labor I experienced was digging tunnels for mining, but I mastered the work.</p>
|
||||
<p>You must be unconditional in your commitment. It is a simple fact that in order to move forward in our movement we need money. You must be able to make money with your own effort. Nobody will give it to you. With my own hands I created the foundation for this movement. Economic problems will always be with you, but without solving economic problems you cannot fulfill God’s dispensation.</p>
|
||||
<p>If someone abandoned me on a desert island, I would know how to survive, even if there was nothing to eat but grass or the bark of trees or insects. I could devise a fishing pole out of simple materials and catch fish. I have absolute confidence that wherever I go, I can and will survive.</p>
|
||||
<p>My strategy is to teach all of you how to overcome difficulties and out of those difficulties to learn how to prosper. There are two major areas of endeavor: first, the economic activities and second, human relationships. You get trained head-on in these two major areas. When I look at a man for the first time, I can tell what kind of a person he is. My major field of study has been human beings. According to a person’s expressions and behavior I can see precisely what kind of person I am dealing with.</p>
|
||||
<p>As Moonies, you have to be capable in these two areas. You must be successful in economic activities and you must be able to relate well with people. You must win people for God and lead the people. The third skill we must master is control over the spirit world. In order to do that you have to understand the way the spirit world works.</p>
|
||||
<p>I have set the goal of a new tradition for America even though that new tradition may not be acceptable to contemporary Americans. I may be persecuted in the present day, but the time will come when America will respect and follow this tradition.</p>
|
||||
<p>We are getting closer to our goal, particularly with our <i>Washington Times </i>project. The people of Washington, in spite of having the reputation for skepticism and cynicism, are certain that if Rev. Moon said he would do something, he will do it. Some people are trembling and fearful to hear that Reverend Moon’s newspaper is coming to town. But others are happy and hopeful to see me coming.</p>
|
||||
<p>For ten years, since I first arrived in the U. S., we have accomplished this much under incredible persecution. Imagine what we can accomplish in the next ten years. The sky is the limit!</p>
|
||||
<p>When you look at the suffering people of our society, remember that my heart longs to be a father to those people. I’m sure you are persecuted, but remember that I have been persecuted a thousand times more. I have been hit, thrown in jail, tortured and almost killed. There have been violent attacks against me throughout my life. Do you lose your strength when someone comes against you and persecutes you? Suppose I had weakened during those early days of persecution in Korea. Suppose I had said, “I can’t do any more, God. Please leave me alone; ask someone in America to help you.” If I had said that there would be no world-wide movement today and you would never have heard the words “True Parents.”</p>
|
||||
<p>We are fighting all levels of iniquities. Our key words are “bold and strong.” What about each of you; are you a kitten or a baby tiger? It is true that each of you is in the position of spiritual baby, but the important thing is what kind of baby you are. If you are a baby tiger then we have hope because you will grow up to become a tiger who can climb the mountains and roar down to the villages. As a baby tiger, you must follow the mother and father tiger. The baby tiger has to work very hard to learn how to be a big tiger. On the other hand a little kitten just cries and can’t even get himself off the top of a chair. Kittens love to take naps lying on pillows in the sunny spot of the house. Ask yourself, are you a kitten or a baby tiger? As a baby tiger, you know that you have to be able to go up to the top of the mountain and survive even if you are thrown down into the valley.</p>
|
||||
<p>Where does the tiger sleep? Is it on a comfortable and warm sofa or on top of a mountain, in the limbs of a tree, or on a rock? The tiger must live on the snow-covered mountain; that is his environment. But the kitten’s environment is in the comfortable living room. Have you been seeking the comfortable life of a kitten? If so, you should repent and change. At midnight, the tiger must climb up the mountain to get to his bed. His path is cold and lonely; the sharp wind cuts through his ears, but he walks his lonely way with dignity and authority. Can you tell me, “Father, in order to preserve my dignity and authority I must have a king-sized bed with an electric blanket and a nice pillow?” That is not dignity. It’s too bad I cannot sleep on the top of a mountain; if I did that the world would think it too strange. What I really want is to continue my tradition. I seldom sleep in the bed I now have and often fall asleep in a chair.</p>
|
||||
<p>Today’s sermon is about vibrations. The words I am speaking right now are vibrating all over the world and the spirit world. The entire spirit world is connected with our way of life. Your vibration is communicated over the entire world and you can communicate with all of creation. What a wonderful way of life! Even when you are fund raising, as you prepare your product, you can know that each item vibrates your love to the world giving your message of love to others. How dramatic that is!</p>
|
||||
<p>The people of the secular world are pursuing their own aims. But here we are living and working for the sake of the world and the entire spirit world. You must think, “I am not just an average individual. I am a somebody whose actions echo throughout the world. and the entire world and the spirit world respond. God Himself is smiling upon me.” When you throw a stone into a pond, the waves spread out from the point of impact all the way across the pond. Reverend Moon and the Unification Church are throwing stones into ever-bigger ponds, lakes, and finally the ocean. We have been making waves from the smallest to the cosmic level. That stone is the word of God of which I have been speaking. The time has come that whenever I say anything, even the communists debate among themselves as to what the true meaning is.</p>
|
||||
<p>How blessed we all are. Look at us within this room: lots of laughter and beautiful, shining faces with the happy give and take of joy, inspiration, excitement and enthusiasm. Compare this room with the outside world. I’m sure that many of you only got a small amount of sleep last night and came here very early in the morning. On your fund raising teams you experience the worst of the severe winter weather and many of you have suffered from the cold. But even in those kinds of circumstances I’m sure you felt joy and determination. To eat well, dress well and have great social status are not necessarily the standards for happiness.</p>
|
||||
<p>This celebration is because of Mother’s and my birthdays. Some might think that we would be sitting around, receiving many gifts and enjoying the day in leisure. On the contrary, every celebration that comes brings me more work than ever. This past God’s Day I spoke at midnight and by the end of that day I had given six long sermons for a total of eighteen hours. My legs were like poles stuck in the ground; they felt like they wouldn’t move. But still I kept talking and walking and moving around. Many people think of me with pity, thinking that my life is miserable but I don’t think I am miserable. I am a happy person because each deed I do vibrates with love. I can send out waves of love that will vibrate throughout the world.</p>
|
||||
<p>The Unification Church is the church of vibration, the vibration of true love. You did not come here for the sole purpose of singing “Happy Birthday” to True Parents. I don’t want you to come for that. I want you to become somebody. Become a Moonie of true love vibration. From today, as a birthday gift take back with you the vibration of true love. You are starting to vibrate today for the sake of the world. Those who want to become true vibrations of love, raise your hands. Where will you give your love vibrations? Home church. Thank You.</p>
|
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|
|
@ -0,0 +1,107 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
title: "THE VICTORIOUS PERSON AND THE DEFEATED PERSON"
|
||||
type: "speech"
|
||||
published: "2018-06-22T06:05:49+01:00"
|
||||
updated: "2018-06-22T06:05:49+01:00"
|
||||
source: "/blog/2018/06/22/the-victorious-person-and-the-defeated-person.html"
|
||||
speechYear: "1982"
|
||||
categories:
|
||||
- "Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982"
|
||||
tags: []
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
<p><center></p>
|
||||
<h2>REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
|
||||
<p></center><center></p>
|
||||
<h3>March 1, 1982<br />
|
||||
Translator: Sang Kil Han<br />
|
||||
Belvedere</h3>
|
||||
<p></center>We met yesterday and today we are meeting again. Aren’t you getting tired of this?</p>
|
||||
<p>We must always remember that daily life is a continuous struggle. There are many kinds of struggles and therefore we have to determine what kind we are going through at any particular time. Many people struggle daily in order to make a living and receive a salary. But some people are more worthy of receiving their salary than others because they do better work. Likewise those who do inferior work can be criticized. Then there are people who work for themselves and do not receive a salary from someone else. In this case, the quality of their own work determines whether they are successful or not. Thus, according to the work they do, they are also subject to judgment or criticism.</p>
|
||||
<p>Let us look at America from this perspective. There are Americans who better their country and are liked and respected by other citizens, while there are people who do not contribute to the country in any way. This kind of difference can be found in every group. Even among Unification Church members, we see this variety. There are people whom others look up to and want to emulate, and there are people who are not so well-respected.</p>
|
||||
<p>An individual can criticize himself most effectively because he knows himself better than anyone else. He knows where his strengths and weaknesses lie and he knows how he needs to change. Within an individual, every element knows whether it is being used for something good or something bad. Your eyes know if you are looking at good or bad things. Likewise, your ears can discriminate between good and bad.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you hear these words, you might feel inspired because you recognize them as true. Someone else might think, “That is just a broad generalization. I am not inspired.” Would you prefer to be on the good side, exhibiting only good qualities, or would you be content to remain on the bad side? Everyone, of course, would say he wants to have all good qualities.</p>
|
||||
<p>On the national level, some nations are criticized by all the other nations because they damage the rest of the world. Each nation can judge and criticize other nations. We can see that God must be evaluating the nations of the world according to how they are performing for the total benefit of the world. He must have a definite idea about each country.</p>
|
||||
<p>God certainly desires goodness. If there were also an evil god, even he would want something good. We might think, “An evil god should want evil things,” but even an evil being desires good things. Perhaps if that evil god could not get good things, he would go and plunder good things from others.</p>
|
||||
<p>The good God does not want bad things; He just wants to stay with goodness. He wants to have good things all the time and cherish them eternally. But the evil god will try to snatch them away from the good God the first chance he gets.</p>
|
||||
<p>In all levels of life them is struggle between good and evil. Let me ask you, are you a good person or a bad one? You said good in a rather half-hearted way; you must not have much confidence! But you are right to answer “good” in a half-hearted way because if you were totally good to begin with, you wouldn’t have had to go through struggle. If someone has good things and is a completely good person, why should he have to struggle?</p>
|
||||
<p>When there is a good thing, both bad people and good people want it. What is the best thing in the world? You say “true love,” but even before true love exists, a person must exist. If there were many good people, then there wouldn’t be so much struggle in the pursuit of true love.</p>
|
||||
<p>Here the main question is whether human history started out in an evil or a good way, whether man was good in nature but gradually became evil after he was born, or the other way around. Was man created to be evil and then to gradually improve himself? If people were born to be evil, then we couldn’t even have hope to improve ourselves, so we can rule that out.</p>
|
||||
<p>When I ask you the straightforward question, “Are you a good person or an evil one?”, you answer that you are good, but you also qualify your answer with a lot of laughter. Is there a possibility that you will become really good? Yes? Then we can confidently say that we were not born in a hopelessly bad condition; in fact, we were born relatively good. Since we were born good, we can have a lot of hope to become better.</p>
|
||||
<p>Although someone is born with a good nature, if he is surrounded by a bad situation, he will have to struggle hard to come back to a good state. This is simply logical. So we can easily conclude that man’s nature was created good, but he happened to be born into a bad situation. This is a simply natural analysis, but when we look at the Principle, we learn that this is true-that human beings were created for goodness but were corrupted and fell into a bad situation.</p>
|
||||
<p>Then what element influenced human beings to become evil and to have to struggle to go towards goodness? That is the question. You say, “self-centeredness.” What is that, exactly? Surely, self-centeredness is putting yourself ahead of God and everybody else. When that sort of thinking began, what happened? Simply speaking, people took the path of false, self-centered love. We can see clearly that these two elements – self-centeredness and false love-put human beings on the wrong path in history.</p>
|
||||
<p>When mankind fell, it was as if he received injections one was self-centeredness and the other was false love.</p>
|
||||
<p>Those things began to circulate in the human body. Have they been cleansed yet? No, evil has gone on and or. without changing and has been renewed with each new individual. If we get food poisoning, we need an antidote. Therefore, because we were poisoned by self-centeredness and false love, we also need an antidote. What is that antidote? You say, “true love,” so easily, but where is it?</p>
|
||||
<p>Let each person think about himself. Has the poison of self-centeredness and false love been eliminated from your system, or is it still circulating within you? It is still there and you can feel it easily. When are we going to completely eliminate that poison? Can you just do nothing and expect it to go away automatically in time?</p>
|
||||
<p>There am different types and stages of awareness. Sonic people don’t even know they are doing evil. Others know when they are doing bad things and want to become good, so they have to struggle to become good. People who want to be very, very good must go through tremendous struggles.</p>
|
||||
<p>What is false love? To whom does love rightly belong? Love itself is a common possession; it is owned by everyone at the same time but there should be a master or subject of love. Who is that? It is God. ‘Men to fulfill love ‘ s purpose, there must be a man and a woman who practice and appreciate love. The first two people coming into contact with love for the first am would have thought, “I’d like to have that.” That’s very natural; there was nothing bad about that. People are born to appreciate good things.</p>
|
||||
<p>What is the difference between a bad person and a good one? Both wish to have good things. We can see that love belongs to everybody; everyone was meant to experience it at the proper time. But there is a right order to things; first things must come first, second things second, and so forth. First, God was supposed to have love; then original man and woman were to have it; then it certainly was to be passed along to the angels. ‘Mat would have been the right order for true love, not false love. Thus it is the orderliness, the right order, that made the difference in love. By not adhering to the law of right order, false love came into being and the distinction between true love and false love came to exist.</p>
|
||||
<p>Let us take as an example several brothers and sisters with the same parents. They are born in a certain order, one after the other. There must be a first child, a second child, a third and so forth even though the difference in their ages could be as little as one year. If it became necessary, the first-born could take responsibility for the second-born, and the second could do the same for the third and so forth.</p>
|
||||
<p>Suppose the elder brother said to the younger one, “Do this,” and he replies, “OK, but I must do something else first.” That would be die proper way for him to reply, rather than to shout, “No, I Won’t do it,” without giving any sip of obedience or explanation. Violating the rules of conduct in regard to order is wrong. Do you Americans feel, “Why should the cider brother have more authority than the younger one?” It happens that in America this concept is strange, but what about in God’s eyes?</p>
|
||||
<p>Even in America, it’s natural to give deference to an elder. Let’s suppose, for example, there are five brothers lined up in order of age, with the eldest first and the next one second and so forth. In America, would they line up at random? What if the parents are included in the line would the children go before them? No, the parents would be first and then the children. Even in America, that would seem logical.</p>
|
||||
<p>Also, the parents give direction to the children and they are expected to obey. The child is not supposed to say, I don’t have to listen to my parents.” That is not acceptable. The parents might give a wrong direction to the child, but he should say, I would do that, but if I do it now, it would create a bad situation. Can you please reconsider?” Then the mother or father would think about it and say, “I guess you are right, so you don’t have to do that.” In such a way, their differences can be resolved properly.</p>
|
||||
<p>The parent shouldn’t cling to his “authority” in such a case and stubbornly demand that the child do what he says. If he did that, the child would rightly be forced to rebel against his parent’s unreasonableness. The parents must yield to the children if the children are in the right.</p>
|
||||
<p>When parents ask their son to do something that he is sure will turn out badly, then he should not blindly follow their instructions. He should explain his thoughts to his mother or father so that the course of action he ultimately follows will bring forth good results.</p>
|
||||
<p>This may seem to be too simple an analysis. You might wonder how this relates to human history and mankind’s problems. But actually it describes the basic element of human history and the beginning point of mankind’s problems.</p>
|
||||
<p>Looking at the world today, we might ask whether it is communism that is wrong or the American system. To decide which is right we have to discover the criteria by which we can judge right and wrong.</p>
|
||||
<p>Throughout history, mankind has been reaching out and trying to move toward goodness and has made a certain amount of progress. Which country is trying to preserve and promote that human advancement and which country is trying to destroy it? In other words, who is protecting the orderliness of the creation and who is destroying it? We have to find the correct standard in order to judge the right and wrong nations.</p>
|
||||
<p>According to that standard,, it is the United States that is right. Why? As you know, there is a right order to creation. The spiritual maim was the first to be created and then the physical realm was created. Thus in the United States, die spiritual values were given first priority and material ones were second. But in the communist countries, materialism is the first priority and spiritual things are not even acknowledged.</p>
|
||||
<p>Marxism itself is a very new phenomenon; it certainly hasn’t been around for thousands and thousands of years. It is a new way of thinking that tries to confuse the right order of creation. What communism is really trying to do is separate die spiritual realm from the physical realm once and for all. This is exactly what Satan wants – to separate people from their eternal, spiritual lives. But that blatantly violates God’s order of creation. That is one clear reason why communism must be condemned and why it is on the satanic side. Therefore, the United States has done the right thing by opposing communism. The founding spirit of America was a very good one because it was based upon the priority of God and spiritual values. We must really accent this and be proud of it.</p>
|
||||
<p>Suppose Americans wanted to reaffirm these founding principles but to say, They are just for white people, not blacks and Orientals and other minorities.” Anyone who asserted this would be a bad citizen. Such a bad American should be expelled from the country So how can we discern who is a good American or a bad one? Understanding the order of creation, we can use it as a tool to positively identify good and evil people.</p>
|
||||
<p>White people might say, “Prejudice is wrong; we have nothing against. blacks and other minorities. However, some black people are doing certain things which are damaging others.” If that is a reasonable statement, then black people have to listen. If a person refuses to admit that he was wrong, and ignores the argument while clamoring for his “rights” and to be treated equally, then he is wrong. We can ask the black people here whether this is fair or not.</p>
|
||||
<p>Let me ask you again this question: according to the Unification Church standard, am you a good person or an evil person? One criterion is whether or not you have been fulfilling your mission, regardless of whether or not someone was watching you. Another criterion is whether you have been obedient to your central figures and have done your best to fulfill what was needed.</p>
|
||||
<p>However, if you am given a direction by your central figure which you are sure will bring some harm to the Unification Church, then you should speak out and say,</p>
|
||||
<p>I understand why you am giving me this direction, but if. I did that it would not produce a good result for the following reason.” The one who gave you that direction should listen and change his thinking according to the value of your explanation. That is the right order. But if that central figure clings stubbornly to his own idea, then he is being a bad Unification Church member, not just according to the Unification Church, but according to God as well. Isn’t that true?</p>
|
||||
<p>This applies to every facet -of life, including a man leading his family. This principle also applies in a business. If the president of a company asks a manager to do something but the manager just balks without giving a good reason, he will be in trouble. We can apply this principle everywhere and it works.</p>
|
||||
<p>As we said, self-centeredness is the beginning point of evil. Why is it so bad? Taking care of oneself is no bad-, without that, you could not even maintain your proper position within the whole. Certainly we must care about ourselves. As long as caring about oneself is in its proper position, it is not wrong. But to violate the right order of things and focus upon oneself excessively, not caring about other people or the whole purpose, is certainly evil. Everybody would consider that to be bad.</p>
|
||||
<p>Whatever brings destruction to orderliness is what we term evil. When you really understand this, you can understand the difference between God and Satan. There is one massive difference which separates them, and dim one thing is the change of order which Satan brought about. Satan put himself above God and that is grossly wrong.</p>
|
||||
<p>Satan has promoted himself above everyone and everything else. The effect is the destruction of order on all levels-in the family, clan, society and nation. All Satan cares about is himself and he has no regard for the problems he causes. By observing in the actions of irresponsible people in this country and the rest of the world, we can see how Satan works.</p>
|
||||
<p>Let’s ask a simple question: Is there a consciousness of tight order within the average American family? Is there an orderliness of love? No, there is not. This is one critical flaw, one fatal problem that overrides other things in the nation, which otherwise may be very good.</p>
|
||||
<p>It’s interesting to study how laws originate. Let’s consider some examples. When a person drinks an alcoholic beverage, it produces a nice, relaxed feeling within him, so why is it a bad thing to do? Especially in young people, alcohol immobilizes reason and spurs them to do things on impulse that can cause much destruction. Certainly more negative behavior takes place than positive. A young person might see some television hero beating up ten men at once and think that he can do just the same. In his right mind, he wouldn’t dare such a thing, but after a few drinks, he might try it.</p>
|
||||
<p>In spite of all this, such a young man, say 16 or 17 years old, will grow up within this society with all its confusing values, and will gradually accumulate enough experience to know what sorts of things to avoid, even when he is drinking. So an older person having a few drinks will be better able to discern dangers because of the things he has learned in life.</p>
|
||||
<p>A better analogy is a knife. Certainly a parent would not hesitate to give a Swiss Army knife to a teenager because he could use it properly. But would he give it to a three-year-old? That shiny knife would certainly be appealing to a little three-year-old. He might try cutting different things, like a radish or a piece of paper and he would be thrilled to see how it works. So he would try to cut everything, such as his mother’s finger. Of course, that is not the kind of thing to give to a three-year-old. That is understood by everyone.</p>
|
||||
<p>The same principle applies in teaching young people about love and sex. You might tell them, “Don’t even be alone with someone of the opposite sex.” Some young men and women are perfectly able to take care of themselves and won’t do anything wrong. But the urge for love is so overwhelming that once they get involved with it, they will be unable to focus on their school work and other things. Some teenagers filch money from their mothers’ purse in order to buy things for their girlfriend or boyfriend because the need to please the loved one is so strong.</p>
|
||||
<p>Laws have come into being because the rules of society have to be spelled out. If someone does certain things, he has to be put in jail. Laws can be misused, it is true, but it is better to have them than not to have them at all.</p>
|
||||
<p>We have to clearly understand how to be good Unification Church members. We are supposed to have more discriminating standards for everything. Some people ask, “Why are there so many ‘don’ts’ in the Unification Church? What is wrong with having a few beers or wine once in a while? I don’t lose my principles when I drink.” When a person is slouching in a chair, someone else might remind him, “That is not good heavenly manner.” Or perhaps he doesn’t bow down to elders when they come in the room, as many Americans do not. He might ask, “Why must there be so many rules, so many fetters to my behavior?”</p>
|
||||
<p>If a room is crowded and everyone has only a little space to move in and someone stretches his legs to occupy twice as much space as others, then we say, ‘That is not right.” Why is that? It is because he is violating the order of the whole. Isn’t this a clear example? Everyone has a minimum of space here at Belvedere, but someone might say, “I am accustomed to sitting in a chair, so I am just going to make myself as comfortable as possible, no matter how much I crowd the people around me.” Is that good or bad? It is a small thing and perhaps not greatly immoral, but looking at how it affects the benefit of the whole, we say it is bad.</p>
|
||||
<p>These very simple principles are applicable to our conduct on every level. As you know, I never dress up except on formal occasions. One time I went out to a restaurant wearing a casual shirt and no tie. The maitre d’ told me I could not go inside because I wasn’t dressed properly and I was very angry at him. My first thought was, “Which is more important-man’s dignity or a necktie?” But then I calmed myself down and thought, “Although I feel comfortable and dignified without a necktie, if I go in and eat, then others would want to do the same. Eventually, the place would go down in its class. So I shouldn’t impair the high-class standard they are trying to maintain here. If they let me in without a tie, others already seated might feel they were discriminated against.” At the same time, I didn’t want to go home and get a tie, so the best solution was for me not to go to that restaurant. Therefore nobody was hurt.</p>
|
||||
<p>Thus goodness and evil are decided in a simple way. In every case, if you think about the well-being of the whole, you will be able to do the right thing.</p>
|
||||
<p>The topic today is “The Victorious Person and the Defeated Person.” What is the difference? The message is simple: the victorious person is one who always adheres to a rule of conduct respecting the orderliness of the whole. Such a person will always become a victor.</p>
|
||||
<p>Another person might be overwhelmed in some situation and violate the rules of order. Although he might appear to be a victor in such a situation, eventually he will have to face the same test again and do it the right way. Look at wrestlers in the ring. Perhaps one of them will use some illegal maneuver which the referee doesn’t see and which allows him to win the match. But later, other people who saw it will complain and eventually the decision can be reversed. Even though he may have won the match at first, because he violated the law, he will be the loser in the end.</p>
|
||||
<p>We can observe this everywhere. So we, who base our beliefs on orderliness according to God’s original ideal, must determine to be more serious than anyone about these things. We must say, “I will pay more attention than ever before to orderliness. I might be confronted with some situation which I will not be able to do properly in the future, so I must be more diligent.”</p>
|
||||
<p>Suppose a meeting is being held at 8 o’clock, but someone arrives at 8:15, thinking nothing of it. That is wrong. What if someone arrives only one second after 8 o’clock? He should still think that is wrong. Some people will have come at 6 o’clock, some at 7, and some at 7:59. What is the difference between them? According to the viewpoint of orderliness, they are the same, since they all arrived on time.</p>
|
||||
<p>Maybe from the point of view of using time well, the person who arrives at 7:59 should be commended. The person who arrived at 6 o’clock might be judged according to what he did during those two hours’ waiting time. Maybe he could have done some part-time work and earned ten dollars! Just because he came at 6, he can’t claim to be a better person than the others. It is a matter of Principle which is not always so clear.</p>
|
||||
<p>What do you call the teacher of a martial arts lesson? The san-sae. Who is the san-sae of the Unification Church? In martial arts, the san-sae will sometimes hit you for no reason. Do you say, “Well, you will hear from my lawyer about that!” No, we know that the san-sae is doing things according to the right order in martial arts. Therefore, someone who wants to abide by normal social conventions within a martial arts class is wrong. What kind of person is victorious within the Unification Church? Who is the “manager” of the Unification Church?</p>
|
||||
<p>Orderliness is one of the rules which influence human history the most. Nothing within the natural world goes against orderliness. Can you imagine the moon complaining about having to go around the earth all the time and saying it wanted to go around the sun for a change? If it did that, it would be destroyed, burned up. Likewise, if the earth said to the sun, “Now you revolve around me,” the balance of the whole solar system would be destroyed. Do you understand?</p>
|
||||
<p>Imagine if I was determined to force the rest of the world to conform to the standards of orderliness, especially pertaining to drinking. Suppose I went into liquor stores and bars and started breaking all the bottles and kicking the windows in and so forth. Would that be the right thing for me to do? No, because the principle of orderliness dictates non-violence. The rest of the country approves of drinking and them are many people who patronize those establishments. That doesn’t mean I should join the crowd and drink. All I have to do is stay away from those places.</p>
|
||||
<p>By the same token, the Unification Church is not going to raid the disco places and throw people out. We just stay away from them. That is our strict standard, but we don’t try to destroy them. Keeping orderliness is acceptable to everyone.</p>
|
||||
<p>When we, as members of the Unification Church, have a clear understanding of this, we will have a new ability to judge every situation. Sometimes it is very hard to know what to do and we wonder, “Should I do this or should I do that? Which is better?” We will always make the fight decision when we consider this law of orderliness. Our lives can be simpler and we can eliminate a lot of frustration if we understand this one point.</p>
|
||||
<p>Whenever I go into new circumstances, such as on a visit to someone’s home, one thing I never do is drastically disagree with the people there. Even though there may be something which I know needs to be changed and which I know I could correct, I never say, “That is wrong and you have to change it!” Instead, I will mildly say, “Don’t you think it would be good if you did this and that?” People can always accept that. I never do such things as here at Belvedere-hitting, you on the head. Why do I do that to you people here in the first row? It is because you want that-you hope for that and therefore you sit in the first row.</p>
|
||||
<p>If you don’t understand these things I have been discussing, then you will always have a hard time understanding justice or what is the better action to take. That is only judged according to this scale. You have some idea of how to dress yourself. Suppose you are going out with five of your friends and they all wear neckties, while you are dressed casually. Would you try to push the others to change their clothing to conform with yours? I would never do such a thing. If I join a group in which most of the men are wearing neckties, then I will excuse myself and go put on a necktie. That doesn’t change my value or damage my dignity.</p>
|
||||
<p>Suppose someone is a heavy tobacco user but he is in a group in which no one else is smoking. Even though he will be uncomfortable, he should refrain from smoking as long as he is in their company. It is the common duty of all of us to assist in maintaining the orderliness of any society, provided it is a moral one, so we should be trained in that way.</p>
|
||||
<p>How should we conduct ourselves to be always successful and never a failure? I look at a person who is successful and I ask, “How did he win? Was it in the proper way, by maintaining right order?” If so, I am very happy to recognize his success but if he is seen by everybody as having gained success through expedient and underhanded means, then I do not recognize that. We have to judge ourselves whenever we succeed as to whether our principles were consistent with those of a true victor. Why is that? Success must always come through right orderliness. The universe will not allow us to succeed for long unless we conform to that law. Now we know the way to succeed all the time.</p>
|
||||
<p>Someone might ask, “Reverend Moon, what kind of person are you? You confuse me. You came to America and you disapproved of many things here. You spoke against the Carter administration and now you are criticizing the young people here. You just don’t make sense to the American mentality.” How would I answer that? It is no secret that our movement is strictly based upon God’s principles; we are a religious movement. Every position I have taken has been as a leader of a religious organization which was initiated by God. I have never said anything for the purpose of pleasing other people, including Americans.</p>
|
||||
<p>God certainly would not do things solely for the purpose of satisfying public opinion. He is above everyone, looking down at America, and He is in the best position to give advice and direction from that vantage point. If you are inside a situation, your viewpoint is limited. This country was born out of the human desire to seek God. It has no reason to try to disregard God’s will now. The United States must be in accord with God’s direction. Drugs, drinking, disco dancing, free sex-these are not the instruments of God. They do not help humanity.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why don’t we direct the excess energy of young people for the sake of mankind and God? That is all Reverend Moon is saying. Since we have no way of influencing others so directly, we set up our own framework within the Unification Church. The young members, under my direction, have all been chased out to do intense fundraising. That isn’t done for the sake of Reverend Moon but for the sake of America and the world-a very special motivation.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why did you follow Reverend Moon? It is because I have never refrained from saying what God wanted me to say. I have been working from the very beginning to teach you about the orderliness of nature and the universe. Unification Church members, who are fairly intelligent, can see this point clearly that the way people are behaving in America is mostly against God’s ‘will. I have just said that children must listen to their parents, yet when the parents say, “Don’t go to the Unification Church,” you know they are wrong. What principle do we go by in order to determine what is right or wrong? We must always consider what will maintain the right order of the universe and then we will always come out the victors.</p>
|
||||
<p>Today, in the worldly sense, is Reverend Moon a success or a failure? Of course, I am viewed as a failure because virtually everybody else in the world looks down on me. But in truth, I am successful. What is your estimate- am I going in the wrong direction, or the right one? Looking at your parents, for example, we can say that they look like victors-they have a steady income, they are respected and not persecuted by their communities. But eventually they may end up on the defeated side, while all the Unification Church will end up successful. Now we may appear as outcasts and losers, but we will become the true victors in the future. That is as certain as the daylight.</p>
|
||||
<p>Unification Church members are constantly faced-with sensitive and confusing situations in their daily life, but the Principle always prevails. We have to understand people in all kinds of situations or else we can’t reach out to them. Don’t you think God knows all about disco dancing? To know about such things is never bad. It really doesn’t bother my conscience to go to any place. I even visited the homes of prostitutes when I was younger in order to understand their society and why they did what they did. At that time, I thought, “Mere is no assurance that even after the Unification Church becomes prosperous, some of the members won’t end up in this situation, even among the blessed couples.”</p>
|
||||
<p>What if I decided to educate you about drinking, so I called you all together and invited you to drink from a big keg of beer? Would that be so wrong? If you can understand the problems of drinkers by doing that and thus help them, it is not wrong. Certainly, however, I am not saying you should go out and visit all the dreadful places of the world just to see how they operate. There is too much risk involved in that.</p>
|
||||
<p>I have been strict in requiring that our church members be clean cut. Long hair, such as hippies wear, is not bad in itself, but right behind the well-meaning hippies stand evil elements, even communists and gangsters. It doesn’t make so much difference to God how long a person’s hair is, but in this world a person with long hair is easily mistaken for a hippie. In order to maintain our spiritual distance from the standards of this world, we have to keep ourselves clean cut and different in appearance. Nowadays I haven’t said much about people’s hair. Many men have grown beards, but that is OK. It makes you look tough! I never ignore your circumstances.</p>
|
||||
<p>Look at some of the established Christian churches and how they try to teach their people. They say, “Don’t drink. Period.” If you ask them why, they can’t really explain clearly. If a bunch of construction workers were having a party, they might get into a brawl. A conventional Christian minister passing by such a brawl would be likely to say, “Poor souls. I pray for their salvation,” and then go away. But if I came upon such a scene, I would take off my shirt and wade right into the fight and intervene to stop it.</p>
|
||||
<p>I have always tried to mediate and judge who was right and who was wrong. That is the true role of a minister. Who else should do it-not the construction foreman or anybody else. Ibis sort of toughness is necessary. If I were to attend a wrestling match somewhere, I would probably join right in, if I were just doing what I enjoy. I would join in with many sorts of games and sports, becoming not only the friend of the players but even a leader among them! Therefore, one of the first things I set up in our Unification Theological Seminary was a karate gymnasium. Where else in the world do you see such a thing at a seminary?</p>
|
||||
<p>I asked the students at the seminary if they wanted to have a karate gymnasium and explained to them why it would be good, and they all agreed. Certainly, we did not create that karate gymnasium in order to become a threat to anybody, but only in order to protect ourselves and to be able to preserve the orderliness of society and the world. There are a lot of evil people who do not understand any language other than strength.</p>
|
||||
<p>Even many of our members were baffled when I first introduced the VOC program, wondering why religious people should take an aggressive stance against communism. But I explained that nobody else was taking a positive approach to ending Communism — not the American government, not the FBI or the CIA, certainly not the students. Somebody had to, so we did.</p>
|
||||
<p>What is wrong with aggressively stopping Satan? If God said it was wrong, then we would not do it, but God has said that we are right and furthermore no one else can do it. We can’t hold back out of fear. Thus we have launched a lot of demonstrations on college campuses, but we have never physically hit people first. Compared to what we do, the established Christian churches are in a muddle. They haven’t been able to tackle social problems or even to understand the true nature of them.</p>
|
||||
<p>Would God, looking down at me, be proud to see such a son? Or would He say, “Oh, he is an embarrassment to Heaven!” I am determined to stand in front of the United States court at this time even though I could evade it, because it will help this country. You may be too young now to appreciate the rule I am discussing today, but the more experience you accumulate, the more you will realize its truth.</p>
|
||||
<p>Some of you will be embarking upon careers in the world of art and dance in the future. That world is far from the clear-cut, strict society of the Unification Church which you are accustomed to. You have to be able to discern with sensitivity and subtlety what is good and bad in those areas.</p>
|
||||
<p>We must pursue love, but only in its legitimate and orderly form. We are all born for the purpose of love, but engaging in the improper order of love is wrong. First, we must give our love to our parents and God-they must be our masters. Orderliness is indicated by whether God and my parents approve of me. The most important area is love. If someone is about to get married, he is about to initiate a love relationship for eternity with someone else. Can he say, “I don’t care what anybody else thinks, including God, my parents, and my brothers and sisters. I will be the one to decide.” That cannot be a harmonious way. No matter how strongly you feel you have found a good mate, if God withholds His blessing, can it possibly last?</p>
|
||||
<p>Many people believe that the ideal way is to say, “Since I love this person, I know my parents will love him/her, too, and so will my brothers and sisters. I will go and tell them.” Most Americans go through this pattern, choosing the person they want and presenting him or her to their families, demanding their approval. But that is the wrong order. I didn’t come into being first and then my parents later, and then God. First, it was God, then my parents, and then me, in that order. So in making an important decision about getting married, it should be done according to the right order. Is that right or wrong?</p>
|
||||
<p>One of our engaged members was telling his fiancée, “I really need you now. If you love me, disregard the Parents, the members, and come to me.” That girl came to me and said, “Father, he may drop out if I don’t go. What should I do?” How do you suppose I answered that? I didn’t establish the order of relationship, God did. I don’t really have the authority to go beyond God and say, “Go ahead and help him. I don’t know what the results will be, but go ahead and try.” I can’t say such a thing. So I said, “No, he must win over himself.” Did I do the right or the wrong thing?</p>
|
||||
<p>Preserving and restoring right order must be our main concern. Our lives themselves are secondary to the maintenance of this principle. We must establish order because it is more important than our individual lives. We would do better to lose our life than to live with a confused standard and later have to pay the consequences.</p>
|
||||
<p>Dr. Durst, no doubt, has many members who come to him for counseling and ask him, “What should I do?” How can Dr. Durst answer them? He would like to be on each person’s side; certainly he is extremely concerned about each person. However, he must think first about this standard of proper order. Even though he might like to say “Yes” to someone whom he cares about, if his answer violates this principle, he cannot do it.</p>
|
||||
<p>What are you-normal Americans or special Americans? You are special in that no other Americans are following God so wholeheartedly and consistently. Would you prefer to be ordinary Americans? When it comes to the Blessing, you think, “I have been waiting so long, so when am I going to get my Blessing?” But would you like a special way of Blessing or a more-than-special way? The ordinary way is to get married right after your engagement. The special way is to wait two years. It is even more special to wait three years! I am not just playing with words here but truly, in God’s tradition, this is the most wonderful way to go.</p>
|
||||
<p>Would you say, “Now I know this valuable principle which applies to all situations, and since Father said it, I will never forget it. Amen!”? If so, you will be perpetual, eternal victors. Like a long-range shot that reaches the goal in a soccer game, we will be the victors in the end. When you are really confident, you should feel, I don’t have to rely on Father to go to Heaven. As long as I master all the principles he has taught me, how can I go anywhere other than Heaven?”</p>
|
||||
<p>Haven’t you ever felt, “Father, please stop talking to me now. You have already told me everything I need to know, so let me go out and put into practice what you have said. Once I encounter something that you haven’t taught me about, I will come back and you can tell me more”?</p>
|
||||
<p>Every single decision I have made in my life was done according to the principle of proper order. I have come up through many levels to this successful realm and so should you. That is why I have been teaching you to apply this rule in your own life.</p>
|
||||
<p>Let us pray.</p>
|
||||
104
content/speeches/1982/total-completion-of-the-ideal.md
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|
@ -0,0 +1,104 @@
|
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---
|
||||
title: "TOTAL COMPLETION OF THE IDEAL"
|
||||
type: "speech"
|
||||
published: "2018-06-22T06:05:14+01:00"
|
||||
updated: "2018-06-22T06:05:14+01:00"
|
||||
source: "/blog/2018/06/22/total-completion-of-the-ideal.html"
|
||||
speechYear: "1982"
|
||||
categories:
|
||||
- "Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982"
|
||||
tags: []
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
<h2 align="CENTER">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
|
||||
<h3 align="CENTER">February 28, 1982<br />
|
||||
Belvedere<br />
|
||||
Translator – Sang Kil Han</h3>
|
||||
<p>We know that people in the Unification Church have ideals, but what about everyone else in the world? They. too, have ideals. Americans, Germans and people of all nations have ideals. People in the past had ideals, as well as people in the present: people in the future, too. will have ideals.</p>
|
||||
<p>What about the animal kingdom? Can they appreciate such things as morality and justice? No. animals have only their immediate desires corresponding to their environments and circumstances. Instinct is the guiding force of the animal world, like the mole who knows only how to dig holes and eat insects. Moles live underground and have very small eyes; they never even think about the possibility of having larger ones and living in the light so they could enjoy the world more. Humans, however, have the ability to imagine and do such things as swim underwater and fly through the sky, even though we were all born on the land. People have been able to invent such things as the automobile and airplane in order to travel faster than our natural legs can carry us.</p>
|
||||
<p>Without exception, people want to enjoy the best of experiences and the best of life. What do we mean by “best”? In terms of our bodies, “best” simply means normal and functioning properly. Therefore, the ideal cannot be anything less than the best. In fact, in order to achieve an ideal you often have to go beyond your normal capacities. For instance, a short person who wants to see something far away will have to stretch himself or boost himself up in order to do so.</p>
|
||||
<p>Today is a time of confusion. People have many different opinions about what is right; some try to follow a purely sensual way of self-fulfillment, while others don’t know what path to take in their lives. Sadly enough, there is a widespread attitude among American young people that older people and traditions have no value. Students disregard the position of their teachers and see no reason to respect them or even listen to them. This basic attitude disregards others and seeks only self-gratification for the present moment. Satan is the one who is promoting such attitudes and those who live self-centeredly find their lives more and more blocked and frustrated. However, God is always encouraging actions that enable people to move freely in the universe. People of goodness and righteousness are always happy for their actions to stand out, while those who do “shady” things literally try to hide themselves in the shadows.</p>
|
||||
<p>Satan’s only criterion for goodness is his own benefit, while God’s criterion is the benefit of all. This strong line of division between the realms of evil and goodness means that there is much conflict between them. If a person from one side tries to enter into the domain of the other, he will not be comfortable and will be pushed to conform to the standards of that realm. We can see in this world how the communistic and democratic systems relate to one another. Neither approves of the other and they cannot just live peacefully, side-by-side; there is always hostility between them.</p>
|
||||
<p>People are very complex beings, having dimensions of both mind and body. No one can see his own mind or even say precisely where it is located within him, yet no one will deny that he has a mind! Your mind and your body have different dimensions and substances, but they form the components of yourself. The individual exists at the point of intersection between the mind and the body. On a graph we can draw a horizontal line to represent the body and a vertical line intersecting it, representing the mind. Depending upon the angle at which the mind-line intersects the body line, the shape of the individual is determined. The ideal shape representing an individual is that of a perfect circle, drawn around the two lines intersecting at right angles. However, some minds could be represented as intersecting at a 45 degree angle; so the circle we would draw would be far from perfect. Therefore, the proper location for the mind is that 90 degree angle of intersection with the body; it produces perfect balance and harmony, as well as a circular shape.</p>
|
||||
<p>Communism asserts that the mind and spirit of man are simply by-products of the actions of his body. That is like representing the two lines of mind and body running parallel to each other. If you tried to encircle such lines, the result would be a long, narrow shape, far from a perfect circle. Such a distorted shape typifies the communistic way of thinking; it is far from harmonious and balanced.</p>
|
||||
<p>The universe seeks for circular motion and circular shape in everything. The cells of the human body are basically circular in shape; the motion of the planets in the solar system is basically circular; and even the shape of the universe itself is said to be rounded. On a graph, there can be no circular shape without the balanced intersection of two equal lines. Thus, a circular shape must exist on the basis of a central point.</p>
|
||||
<p>How does all this relate to the life of an individual? When a baby is born, he is not aware that he has something called a mind and a body. As his mind develops, it will either grow in the ideal vertical direction or it will be misdirected. If all aspects of that person are to be balanced’ his mind’s path of growth must be perfectly vertical. In order for a child to grow along the perfect vertical path, he must depend upon the guidance and direction of his parents. His body will automatically achieve its perfection and maturity within twenty years or so. but his mind is capable of being deflected from its proper path</p>
|
||||
<p>A child needs the direction of both his father and his mother in order to become a completed, mature individual. However, it is very common these days in American society that people marry, have children, divorce and then remarry; sometimes they do this several times. There are many homes where children are being raised by step-parents, but it is not easy or even natural for a child to accept the discipline he receives from a step-parent. Many people carry resentments throughout their lives for the way they were treated by their step-parents while they were growing up. No one can deny that American families are in a generally sad situation; so those who praise American society today must also praise the mixed-up family life that so many children experience!</p>
|
||||
<p>It is normal and necessary for a loving father and mother to discipline their child. They have the responsibility to direct his vertical growth; so if they see him going off the track, they must set him straight. Most children will complain against their parents’ discipline, but without it. they would have no way of achieving a healthy, vertical line of growth. There may be many answers to the question of why parents should guide and discipline their children, but this is the simplest one. The parents are responsible for their child’s successfully achieving his proper connection between mind and body. Even the worst criminals sense this and will strive to make their children good, happy people. It is human nature to seek the ideal for our children.</p>
|
||||
<p>If the fall of man had never happened, mankind would never have needed a Messiah or True Parents. All natural parents would have been perfected parents of perfect love. Unfortunately, all natural parents have been born of the sinful lineage of fallen Adam and Eve, so mankind is full of sin; no one has known true love. We cannot blame parents for being unable to give their children perfect love, since no one has yet received it. The True Parents must accomplish what all earthly parents have been unable to do, that is, to guide children along the proper vertical path of growth.</p>
|
||||
<p>The very root and beginning point of evil was the misdirected desire to possess something for oneself. Eve and her love belonged to God, Adam and the entire universe, but the archangel wanted Eve’s love for his own gratification and comfort. Because the fall took place through that desire to possess for oneself, this is the very point where restoration must begin. People must learn to change the selfish desire for possession and turn it toward the proper direction.</p>
|
||||
<p>Therefore, the “I” viewpoint which centers all desire upon oneself is each person’s arch-enemy. Within you is the very source of evil: the struggles you face begin at the “I” viewpoint which Satan manipulates. How can one eliminate that selfish “I”? Only by learning to love God and the world more than anything. You must be able to say that all you want to possess or be possessed by is the love of God</p>
|
||||
<p>When you go out fundraising you are receiving the best, most practical way of training in redirecting your sense of possession. You are giving everything you earn each day to be used for God and His purposes; you don’t even keep a penny for yourself. Fundraising under persecution trams you even more quickly. From this viewpoint, is the suffering you endure basically good or bad?</p>
|
||||
<p>Is it true that True Parents are absolutely necessary because of the fall of man? Since people need to be completely re-educated, the ideal would be to begin life all over again in the mother’s womb. Christianity has traditionally taught the importance of being born again, but how is this accomplished? For birth as well as rebirth. a person must have both a mother and a father. Those parents must be totally united. supporting each other, and giving perfected love to the child. There has always been love in the world but since the fall of man it has never been totally centered on God. The love of the True Parents must come, therefore, a love which is pure and stems from God alone.</p>
|
||||
<p>The purpose of the True Parents is to re-educate all people to become sons and daughters of God who are worthy of standing before Him without shame. A true parent would never come to America or any other country and exploit it for his own sake; he would only want to sacrifice himself for the people there. The sons and daughters of God must rise above distinctions of nationality and culture and learn to love the entire world, since God loves the entire world.</p>
|
||||
<p>In the Unification Church, we cannot condemn or accuse anyone for his own or his race’s transgressions. When a white person in the Unification Church feels true repentance for the exploitative actions of the white race, he will want to give himself for the sake of people in Africa and South America. The parents of such a person might not understand why he would want to go to Africa and they might try to stop him. They would shout “No!” very loudly, but he would shout “Yes!” even louder and continue on his path. The more he shouts “Yes” to those who oppose him, the sound of “No” will become weaker and weaker, because his confidence will overwhelm them. Ultimately the parents of such a righteous person will surrender to his determination, especially when they realize what a great thing he has been doing.</p>
|
||||
<p>When the 36 couples were blessed in Korea in 1960. their parents were outraged that a stranger had chosen their children’s mates without consulting them at all. This was something totally alien to the morality and culture of Korea and the parents tried in every conceivable way to stop the wedding. Now, however, without one exception all those parents have come to express their gratitude to me because they see that their sons and daughters-in-law are the best ones possible. Twenty years ago, they had all kinds of protests against their children’s mates: they thought they weren’t educated enough or had nothing to offer. Was I right or wrong to do what I did? It was the right thing to do, but the world certainly didn’t agree with me at the time. After twenty long years of experience. those parents learned that I was right.</p>
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<p>Have I been doing the right thing to send American young people out to do fund raising Through fund raising experiences, you can liquidate the root of the original sin, the desire for possession centered upon oneself. Once you understand that, you can feel great joy and commitment in your work. Certainly you must ask yourself why you are doing what you do; when you are persecuted, you must think sometimes, “If I am doing a good thing, why are people treating me so badly?” But once you are able to re-examine your reasons and continue, you discover how close you are to the heart of God and how meaningful your work really is. Some people have continued this way for years; they know they are restoring the world by dedicating their energy and the material offerings they can raise. What a noble and good thing it is for a person to work for those reasons!</p>
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<p>Those people who contribute to our fundraisers are making a connection for themselves with God’s providence. Later they will be able to dedicate their lives totally to God because a fundraiser gave them the chance to start building a bridge back to God. This is the reason why the activity of fundraising is far more significant than simply the dollars and cents you receive. Because of the dedicated activity of our members, the Unification Church has come to the point where it is today in the world. The opposition against our movement is gradually changing and ultimately we will be able to see the world turn back to Heaven’s side.</p>
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<p>American members cannot complain about having to do fundraising; the fact is that other countries must help support our movement’s expenses in this country. It is clear that your ultimate purpose in fundraising is far greater than the money you earn. Through your fund raising experiences, you can learn to look at things with eyes that the world and even God can share.</p>
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<p>We are talking about very basic points in the Divine Principle. God’s ideal was for the four-position foundation to be established on the earth, but has that ideal ever been accomplished in the past? This is the first time in history that the possibility has existed for the ideal to be achieved. We are teaching things that are unprecedented and without parallel. Do you really feel the value of what you are learning? When night time has passed, day time begins. Just so, as soon as the time of persecution against the Unification Church has passed. the time of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth will begin. Surely people everywhere could appreciate the message you are hearing today, if only they had the chance to hear it.</p>
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<p>Many Americans believe that the modern times are better than the “old days” but the truth is that the old days were far purer and better. Unless the values of the past are restored to American culture, this present time will lead to nothing but destruction. We cannot just make such statements to the American people, however, and expect them to accept them. We must be able to explain clearly why what we say is true. We must do it quickly, too, because the time is short; unless we can do this, America cannot be saved.</p>
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<p>Recently there was a premiere showing of Inchon, which was attended by many prominent people. Before the movie began. our lawyer stood up and announced, “This movie has been sponsored by Reverend Moon and his thought is the basis of it. If anyone here is opposed to that fact, I want to ask him to leave right now.” Not one person left; they all stayed and watched the movie. There have been many changes in public opinion taking place without you even realizing it. Righteous Americans have joined the staff of the Washington Times, even taking a cut in salary, because they felt inspired to join the new conservative movement.</p>
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<p>How much do you feel responsible for following my words? I have been speaking for several years about home church, using all kinds of analogies and explanations, but how many days during the past week did you go to your home church area? Home church has more meaning and value to your life than anything else; if you don’t live up to this responsibility now, you will be judged severely later. Throughout history, religious people have made tremendous sacrifices; millions have been martyred for their belief in God. Because of the cumulative merit of all that sacrifice, home church is now possible.</p>
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<p>In our movement, we have not yet gone beyond the four-position foundation on the family level. We have blessed families, but compared with our ultimate goal, this accomplishment is really very small. Unless we accomplish the four-position foundation on all the larger levels of clan, society, nation and world, your level of freedom in spirit world will not be complete. At best, the ideal will dwell on the community level in spirit world. As we expand on the horizontal level, the corresponding areas in the vertical plane also expand. At this time, there are many borders and boundaries between areas in spirit world, much as it is here on the earth. People have been joining the Unification Church on a one-to-one basis, so far; but at this rate, how can we expand to the world-level? You must understand that your responsibility is to make the four-position foundation on the family level and then expand it all the way to the highest levels. One very practical reason for doing home church is for the sake of your clan. Once your home church people understand God and God’s will, they can welcome and educate your clan; they can be better teachers than you. This will eliminate the division of Cain and Abel within your clan.</p>
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<p>As soon as we have expanded home church all over the world, spirit world will automatically achieve the same thing. Your responsibility as Abel is to stand on the center point, guiding others and living the heavenly. vertical standard yourself. When you can do that. you inherit the position of true parent. Standing at that position. you can rest assured that you are receiving God’s love, Father’s love. Mother’s love, and the love of brothers and sisters. If someone performed a “spiritual analysis” of your cells, they would see that every one of your cells reflects one of those kinds of love. They would not be able to find “you” alone in your cells. Once you have achieved such unity and selflessness, you can confidently claim to be “I”; but that “I” is different from the “l” before, because it is reflecting the love of God, parents. and brothers and sisters.</p>
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<p>Have you ever thought about becoming a person who carries within his very cells all these different elements of love? People automatically like such a person when they see him. When a person is centered upon himself, however, it is difficult for anyone to like him; it is especially difficult for God to be pleased with him. But when you are full of the love of others, God will love everything about you-your eyes, ears, nose, and everything that belongs to you. Your parents will love you more than you love yourself and will want to share everything they have with you. How wonderful this is!</p>
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<p>Whenever anyone comes to visit me, I try to show love to that person and treat him better than anyone has ever treated him in the past. This is the attitude I want to teach you; whenever you take any position, you should take it with the most loving heart. If you become the president of some organization, be the most loving president that group ever had.</p>
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<p>Some of you may be thinking. “Father, why did you give me such a person as my fiancé? Couldn’t you have picked someone better for me?’ If you think your fiancé is difficult for you to love, you will become the king or queen of love if you learn to love such a person. This is literally true. Do you think God feels you should have a different fiancé and will change you around? No. Each of you has an endless realm of love to connect with if you make a success out of your relationship. Certainly God wants to fill you with everything you need. Every bridegroom should think that his bride is more precious than royalty and cherish her as his queen, and vice-versa. For thousands of years the potential of the Blessing has been coming toward you; how terrible it would be if you, knowingly or unknowingly, stopped it. Not only your ancestors but also all the things of creation will accuse you if you prevent their blessings from materializing.</p>
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<p>Sometimes within the Unification Church a member works very hard and sets a great example for the first three years or so, but later his zeal diminishes and eventually he completely loses power. On the other hand, there is the member who doesn’t attract much attention at first but gradually builds up his accomplishments. What kind of a member would you want to be? Certainly you want to go up, not down; but if you are not following my direction, for example in doing home church, are you going up or down? You may be capable of saying yes and giving pledges but how much have you actually carried out? Maybe the American youths have not lived up to all their promises, but I feel that the African youths will be different. You must realize that I will not be staying in America forever. When the will of God directs me to another country, I will go without any lingering thoughts.</p>
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<p>If the time comes when white people fail to meet the time limit for God’s dispensation, black people will rise up and become the leaders of the world. American members must realize that I am helping you so much now because you are at the center of the providence; there is no other reason. You must do everything you can so you will not miss your opportunity; otherwise. when you go to spirit world you will be accused by your ancestors and all the white people there. At that time, no one will criticize Reverend Moon for not teaching you the truth. More understanding has been revealed to the people of America in my public speeches than at any other time by any other religion. The consequences of missing this opportunity will be much more serious than you think!</p>
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<p>This morning I am dressed in a suit and tie because of Sunday Service; normally, however, I prefer to wear less expensive clothing. I have trained myself to conserve water which is so plentiful here in America, because I know how little clean water is available in other parts of the world, especially Africa. If you consistently try to look at things from God’s viewpoint, these things are very basic ways of living. This is the reason why our African members don’t accuse me or believe the negative rumors about me. even though they have suffered so much deprivation in their lives. Although at this time I am living in comfortable surroundings, I never feel proud of those things. I always think, “I will see to it that everyone in the world has this kind of an environment.” If I did not have this kind of attitude, the African people would be the first to sense it and accuse me.</p>
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<p>Each of you must live according to the true vertical standard and continuously widen your sphere of influence. You can’t say. “Let the world take care of itself; I am satisfied as long as my family is restored.” You need to be moving from the East to the West, securing both ends of the earth for the ideal. Unless the ideal can expand in all four directions, there can be no balanced, central point.</p>
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<p>In the future. perhaps Western university students will want to travel to the East for their schooling. and vice-versa. If they really desire to learn from the different culture, they can’t just have a few experiences for the purpose of reference when they go back to their native culture. Only by taking the new culture seriously and trying to learn from it can the students truly expand themselves. Perhaps it will happen naturally that many inter-cultural marriages will occur.</p>
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<p>From now on, blessed families will pride themselves on bringing their sons and daughters-in-law from the most remote parts of the world because in this way cultures of the world can be linked. In such families the highest vertical love of God as well as the deepest horizontal love between people can dwell. Thoughtful, conscientious people everywhere could agree with this, not just Unification Church members.</p>
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<p>Many American members complain against their Korean leaders, thinking that only Western leaders are good; but Americans should be the first to reach out and learn from people of other cultures. Once America does this, the rest of the world will follow such a pattern. We cannot just form our families and become comfortable with our way of life. If your area of influence on earth is small. your freedom in spirit world will be small. as well. Do you Americans feel you don’t want to be pushed? Do you want to pass your responsibility to African or South American people?</p>
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<p>In Korea today, people from all professions have come to respect me, while in America I am still treated as an outcast. Since I fought a legal battle in the Orient, I feel that it is right to face a similar battle here in the West. I will never be exhausted; even though every kind of person may oppose me, I must carry out what is necessary.</p>
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<p>In this room there are many blonde haired, light-skinned people; but is that the only coloring that is valuable for mankind? Certainly not. Within the body of a single individual there are all different colors and materials. The different species of geese, such as the Canadian and Alaskan. don’t fight with each other about their color or nationality. If a goose laid an egg that happened to be colored, would she refuse to hatch it? Geese are not aware of their colors. However, the person who is conscious of his own or other people’s coloring is always running into barriers and obstacles in his life.</p>
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<p>Resentment continues to grow against Americans in many parts of the world; the slogan “Yankee go home” is very common in certain parts of South America. Soon, however, people in Africa and South America will begin shouting “Moonie come here!” You may not enjoy the persecution you are receiving at this time for being a Moonie, but you must recognize your true value. Someday you will be valued and sought after by the whole world.</p>
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<p>I have traveled from East to West; from here I will go South to Latin America and Africa. After that, I will go North to Russia. The earth is divided into North and South poles, but human civilization is divided between East and West. The North-South pole of the earth is the horizontal line and the East-West axis is the vertical line. When human civilization achieves vertical unity and harmony between East and West, Heaven on earth will be achieved. The strongest possible effort to prevent this vertical unity from occurring is the current court trial; so once we break through this. there will be nothing that can stop the progress of Heaven. Americans have been opposed to Reverend Moon without actually knowing anything about Reverend Moon. Soon, however, the time will come when Americans will quickly change their minds.</p>
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<p>Do you want to go from the West pole to the East pole, and vice-versa? The person who refuses to budge from his own position will become stagnant and will eventually decline. The individual level of influence of the Messiah must be widened to all the higher levels, to the clan, nation and the world. If you cannot literally be the Messiah on the highest levels, at least you can connect yourself with the real Messiah and follow him. There is an agreement between God and Satan that if Reverend Moon is able to fulfill the world-level of Messiah, Satan will accept it. Otherwise, Satan will say it is not enough.</p>
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<p>The world-level of opposition against our movement came in 1976. At that time. everybody was actively opposing Reverend Moon. Why? Because we have moved to the world level; once that level of worldwide opposition is overcome. all the world will be able to accept the truth about us.</p>
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<p>Any conscientious, seeking person who hears the teaching of the Unification Church has to admit the greatness of its ideology. Each of you recognizes this, but sometimes you say, ” I wish it weren’t so difficult. If it were easier, I’m sure I would be more motivated.” However, if the element of real hardship were eliminated, there could be no true restoration accomplished. The normal course for a champion is to go through many hardships. If you wanted to become the world champion boxer, would you expect to do it without fighting” Certainly you couldn’t win if you stepped in the ring and. with the first blow from your opponent, you ran out. The normal course for a champion boxer its to get beaten, to bleed, and to have many scars: just when things look the worst for him, he is able to stand up and knock out his opponent. This is the way the champion must go. Since there is so much difficulty in the Unification Church, you can know that this is a real challenge. At the time of difficulty, serious people stay and weak, uncommitted people fall away. Once you begin this endeavor if you keep running all the way to the goal, no matter what happens, you are assured of being a true winner and champion.</p>
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<p>Are there any among you who are hungry for the central position and would like to take over my job? Even though I am willing to give it away, no one is willing or able to take over my position. Actually, in the world of love there is no replacement possible. Do you think God was elected by popular vote? What about the Messiah or the True Parents? Certain positions were created long before any political processes were conceived. Likewise, you cannot choose your parents and brothers and sisters. Some things in human society cannot be changed.</p>
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<p>Through the election process, it is possible that a communist could be elected president of this country. If that ever happened, Satan would win tremendous influence over the earth. God has been fighting Satan’s influence throughout history and human history is now at the culmination point. The job of the Messiah is to achieve and protect the vertical position of love. Military power will never stop the spread of communism; the battle must be won within communities and families. Only through home church can you defeat the influence of communism. If you have a good foundation in your area, you will know immediately if anyone comes into your community trying to preach communism. You will be able to prevent such unwholesome influences from invading your area.</p>
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<p>New York is in a pivotal position for the world; if it turns toward goodness, the world will follow. If it turns toward evil, so will the whole world. We began devoting our movement’s energies and resources to New York; ten years ago, when many people were deserting the city and giving up on it. We went against the tide at that time. Also, you have gone very much against the fashion of young people by cutting your hair and looking clean-cut. While many young people freely kiss and express their love in public Unification Church fiancés don’t even hold hands with each other! I have been pushing you continuously to humble and deny yourselves in order to reverse the ways of the secular world. In secular society, people often live together for a while before they become husband and wife. In the Unification Church’ however. we get married and wait for a time before we live as husband and wife!</p>
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<p>By going this way, you are learning to go beyond your physical appetites in order to achieve a greater goal. Although we continue to deny ourselves and appear to be the lowest people in the world’ we are actually becoming greater and greater people. Those who continually indulge their appetites will discover that they have not gone up but down in value. Likewise, those without strength and dedication cannot persevere in our movement.</p>
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<p>When I speak to you, my desire is to speak the words you can learn from the most. Often people comment that Unification Church members are good at speaking; probably this is because you have listened to so many sermons! You are capable of speaking with renowned scholars and heads of state with confidence because you know that the knowledge you have gained from your understanding of Divine Principle is superior. Some of you are dozing during this sermon; some of you may be thinking of other things while you listen; but when you have to defend your beliefs, you become very animated and eloquent.</p>
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<p>Certainly perfected Adam would be able to walk freely into the Heavenly Palace where God resides without making an appointment. Wouldn’t you like to be able to do that? If you have a close relationship with someone, appointments are not necessary to see each other. The servant of someone will not enjoy such a close relationship with him, while his children will be able to move freely within the house and see him whenever they desire. Since you are the children of God. should you need permission in order to visit places within His created world? The boundaries and barriers we experience in the world are a result of the fall.</p>
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<p>Everyone desires the kind of world which is open to everyone. free of boundaries. What if it were possible to buy a pass enabling you to travel freely anywhere in the world and spirit world; wouldn’t you be willing to give everything you have, and more, to obtain such freedom? Do you think God has the ability to issue you a pass that will be honored anywhere in His creation? Satan has certain claims and can make certain demands; he would tell God, “You cannot just give fallen men such permission; they must earn it. If another man leads them in making the right conditions. I will accept it; but You. God, cannot do it for them.”</p>
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<p>The indemnity condition for mankind to enjoy free passage throughout God’s creation is home church. Therefore. the family of perfected Adam, True Parents’ family, is necessary as a base for restoration. Through the True Parents. all of mankind can inherit the right to travel freely. since whatever the parents own, the children will inherit. Satan knows this law better than anybody else. Therefore. you are doing home church not because each of you is highly capable but because you are the children of the True Parents. When you go to home church, you are telling the people the good news-that they can be proud of the True Parents. proud of their heavenly family and proud to be related to God. In this way, you inherit the position and heart of true parents and free yourself from any accusation of Satan. Only you can do it; God cannot do it for you.</p>
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<p>This is why I push you out to do home church. I want you to get that free pass, that Heavenly I. D. card, which will allow you total freedom. Since I have passed on to you this inheritance, you must share it with your home church members; otherwise it will go nowhere. Any way you look at it, home church is a necessity.</p>
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<p>All the power of Satan and his forces has come against me in my life. Just as in the story of Job in the Bible, Satan told God, “It was only because you blessed him that he was able to achieve anything. I demand to test him by taking everything away from him; then I will see if he is so strong.” Satan made that demand several times and God had to push me into many suffering situations. You. too, must go through similar trials; but the opposition you encounter is only a small portion of what I have experienced. You will think that God is not anywhere near you and you will feel that He cannot help you at all, but as soon as you persevere and go beyond that situation, God can pour out blessings abundantly upon you.</p>
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<p>Whenever you go into a situation, remember that God has made preparations for you; you are not entering haphazardly. But since God has done all the preparation. He has to let you take over; then it is up to you to tackle the situation and make it a success. This is exactly the way I have gone through my sixty years of life and the six levels of indemnity, which correspond to the six thousand biblical years of human history. True Parents have gone beyond all satanic blame and have received the ID. card of total freedom. Without this inheritance, how could you be qualified to become a messiah on any level? In order to receive your ID. card, the archangel must sign it as well as perfected Adam. Once you receive those signatures, you can travel freely either in Adam’s world or the world of the angels. including Satan’s realm, and receive no accusation.</p>
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<p>The heavenly hierarchy is God first, then Adam and Eve, then the angelic world, then all the things of Creation. As a result of the fall, this heavenly order was disrupted. Satan came to exist and man has fallen so low he doesn’t even know that the realm of spirit exists. He doesn’t know if God exists or what kind of relationship he should have with God. He certainly doesn’t know the heart of original Adam. the true parental heart. The only thing mankind can see now is the “I” viewpoint and all the visible things of the created world. Mankind is degraded and lower than the creation; because of this. no one realizes the true value and dignity of human beings.</p>
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<p>Before you learned the Divine Principle, you weren’t even aware of what you had lost or what kind of ideal to search for. Finally mankind can know what the true ideal is. Everything else, including our possessions, our nationalities. our careers. is meaningless until the basic questions of life are resolved. The only pursuit of real value is finding out how to restore the dignity of mankind and recovering that lost ideal. How wonderful it will be when all the levels of the ideal are established -from the individual, to the family, to the nation and all the way to the world level! You have the ability to achieve all these levels from one “school” and you don’t have to spend hundreds of years to achieve them.</p>
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<p>Each of you needs to gain a certificate showing you have completed all seven levels of the human ideal. Wouldn’t you like to receive just one certificate in one place? If there is anything at all that Satan hates and fears it is for God to be able to give that certification to all of mankind. However, even Satan has to bow to Principle. When True Parents discovered the way for people to free themselves from Satan’s dominion, it was as if Satan’s deepest secrets were published in a newspaper for all the world to read. This is Satan’s situation today; he feels desperate.</p>
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<p>By witnessing one by one to each other, it would take centuries to liberate the entire world; so if you were in the position of True Parents. wouldn’t you want to find a more effective way to bring all mankind back to God? The thinking of God and the True Parents must inevitably be the same. If you asked God where He most wants to dwell, He would answer, “Home Church.” Within your area, the heavenly hierarchy must be restored. The houses represent all the things of creation; the ancestors of the people there who are already in spirit world represent the archangel position; and the Adam position is filled by the people themselves. Once God is brought into relationship with all these elements, the ideal of creation will be realized. As a result of this, Satan will have to leave your area because he will have no place to call his own. Within the realm of 360 homes, everything is represented-360 days of the year, 360 degrees of the circle. Since you are in America, all races of man are contained within your areas.</p>
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<p>All the races have freedom within America, according to law. This is no coincidence, since the foundation of the country was laid by people searching for liberty, especially religious liberty. 1976 was the bicentennial year for the United States. During those 200 years, indemnity was paid for the 2000 years since Jesus. Beginning in 1976, the first 200 years of American history have to be re-indemnified during the next 20 years. President Reagan is the 40th US President. It is no coincidence that all these providential numbers. 20, 200, 2000, and 40 are coming together at this time. This is the time when we must succeed.</p>
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<p>The independent government of Korea began in 1948: that was the year I began my dispensation to indemnify Christianity. The period of wandering in the wilderness for the Unification Church is the forty years from 1948 to 1988. During this time, we have had to concentrate 100% upon accomplishing God’s will; we have even been living in “tents” or temporary dwellings. We have to fight against the “Jericho Castle” of the secular world. It is a tremendous castle with a foundation of thousands of years of history and power, but we march on with confidence; we know that God is with us.</p>
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<p>This is the 34th year since 1948; and we have six more years to go until 1988. Last Sunday, February 22. 1982, was the anniversary of the date in 1948 when I went to Hun Nam prison camp. This means that I am now beginning my 34th year in the indemnification of Jesus’ life and ministry. If Jesus had lived seven more years, he would have completed forty years. During the next seven to ten years the responsibility will rest upon the True Parents and their children, the members of the Unification Church, to achieve the fullest dispensation of victory for the salvation of the world.</p>
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<p>Things will take place in the Unification Church to re-indemnify all the failures during Jesus’ time. We will complete the uncompleted portion of Jesus’ ministry during these next seven years. During this time, Jesus himself will appear to many of his most devout followers and lead them into the fullness of the Divine Principle.</p>
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<p>This court case, which began in October with the indictment, will continue through May, which is a seven month period. I predict that around the time of Pentecost, the name and the reality of Reverend Moon will be resurrected. The world will be able to see that Reverend Moon is not a bad person, after all.</p>
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<p>Once this portion of the dispensation is completed, I will be free to claim anywhere I go as part of the domain of God. As you know, at the last Science Conference I announced the beginning of the International Highway System linking Korea, China and Japan. Later it will extend all over the world. This is symbolic of the highway that is being paved all over the world for the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.</p>
|
||||
<p>One thing you should feel from this sermon is that the time of the fulfillment of God’s dispensation is drawing very near. Now is the time when the founders of the world’s major religions, namely Jesus, Mohammed. Buddha and Confucius, themselves, can be called to work directly on this earthly plane. The foundation has now been laid for this to happen. What kind of work do you think they will be assisting in? Certainly, just as everyone else both on earth and in spirit world, they are called to do home church work and to receive that heavenly certification.</p>
|
||||
<p>Your ancestors have direct access to you and your inheritance. Therefore, when they assist you in your work they receive their heavenly certificate along with you.</p>
|
||||
<p>Last Sunday, February 22, I went to Holy Ground and prayed about these points. This is the time that all indemnity must be paid for the failures during Jesus’ time. Also the persecution of our movement by the world, both the communistic and democratic, must be indemnified. There is both a physical and spiritual indemnity to be paid; therefore, both the physical and spiritual worlds must be mobilized. This is simple logic; there is no other way.</p>
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||||
<p>Until this time, your 360-home area was under the dominion of Satan, the chief criminal of the angelic realm. He was able to divide it up according to his desire. with the help of the Cain-type people there. But you are working with the perfected Adam and you have the assistance of the good angels, as well as God Himself. When you go to your area. those good angels will work with you and chase away the evil angels. That kind of confrontation will literally take place. Until now, Satan had the greater strength and advantage over good people on earth. Even after much prayer, tears and indemnity, good people could make Satan retreat for only a short time and in a small way. Now, however, we have not only achieved equal leverage with Satan’s power, we have also achieved a dominance over him. You will see the truth of this.</p>
|
||||
<p>This is truly an amazing time. Because of your connection with True Parents and the knowledge with which you are armed, you can confront the powers of evil squarely and your odds are better than 50-50 to win. All the good angels can work side-by-side with you and support you; this has never before been the case.</p>
|
||||
<p>This time is also the turning point for the public image and reputation of the Unification Church. The time of indictment to the end of May, a period of about seven months, is a period of transition America has many strong defense tactics. but there are many things they have no way to control. There are many problems in this country, such as youth alienation, drug abuse, and family breakdown. How can this country possibly solve these fundamental problems without the help and guidance of the Unification Church? Do you really know this reality? You must go beyond just mentally understanding something; you must know and you must act. You must deeply realize the importance of doing home church. When you go out to your area. you can command the spirit world, in the name of God and True Parents, to come and help you; and your command will have effect. More and more spiritual phenomena will be occurring in our favor. Soon you will start to hear the crumbling of the walls of that Castle of Jericho.</p>
|
||||
<p>The best foundation for being able to command the spirit world, including all your ancestors. is to follow the direction and example of the True Parents. By doing the things that the parents do, the children become true children in name as well as reality. The children incorporate the tradition of their parents and then, pass it on to their own children. You should have absolute confidence to proclaim to anyone, “I am proud to be a Moonie.” You should never try to evade the issue; when someone persecutes you, demand of him some reason for his attitude.</p>
|
||||
<p>By the year 2000, the entire world will know about the Unification Church; soon enough, there will be no more opportunity to do home church. If Jesus could have lived beyond age 33, his next major effort would have been in Rome. My situation here in America has been like facing the modern-day Rome. Within the next seven years. at least, the accomplishments that should have been made by the time of Jesus’ 40th year will be achieved. I have spoken out very boldly and strongly here and by doing so, I took many risks for myself and the movement’s progress. Why have I done this? In this way, Jesus’ inability to go to Rome and fight for God’s purposes could be indemnified. These next seven years must be a successful period. Otherwise, communism would totally occupy the world and religion would be wiped out everywhere.</p>
|
||||
<p>At this time, we have a direct connection with the highest realms of spirit world. All the great people there, including the founders of the world’s major religions, are ready and eager to help in God’s work. The direction of my prayers has changed greatly since last week. From now on. I am directly appealing to those highest spiritual realms and they are coming down to participate directly with us. Accordingly, your prayer should change, too. Your prayer can be strong and short, “Heavenly Father, whatever True Parents are planning, let it be done.” And you, too, can directly ask spirit world to come and help you with your mission.</p>
|
||||
<p>You must have the attitude that you will accomplish a total victory in your home church area. Leaving nothing for others to finish later. Don’t expect True Parents to assist you; instead, have the attitude that you will invite the True Parents to come and receive joy and glory at the successful completion of your home church work. With such confidence, you can call upon the spirit world and receive their direct help. Since you are in the subject position, you must work hard and feel responsible for your area; only then will the spirit world he able to assist you.</p>
|
||||
<p>Anyone who scoffs and says that home church is not necessary is very wrong. If Americans don’t fulfill this work, I will give it to the Africans. Once you have received your home church certification and ID card, you will be able to travel freely all over the world.</p>
|
||||
<p>We are talking today about the completion of the ideal. What is the ideal? To be able to go anywhere in the universe freely. without any blocks or barriers. I have investigated during my entire life the best way to accomplish this ideal, and there is one unfailing formula: that of sacrifice, suffering and receiving persecution for the sake of goodness, and serving others with true love.</p>
|
||||
<p>No person is so contented within himself that he can resist someone who brings true love to him. Whether they are white, black, or yellow, whether they are atheists or communists, all people are eventually attracted to the person who is genuinely trying to sacrifice himself for their sake. Total freedom comes to such a person.</p>
|
||||
<p>Satanic attributes are jealousy, arrogance. self promotion, and sacrifice of the whole purpose for one’s own sake. The “I” viewpoint is the center of the satanic mentality. However, such a viewpoint will never bring a person happiness; he will find himself alone and rejected by everyone, including his own spouse and family. You can see clearly that God’s way is far superior to Satan’s way.</p>
|
||||
<p>All people, even the most selfish, would like to see a Utopia; but the road to that ideal can only be traveled by a life of service and sacrifice for the sake of others. The true ideal can never be achieved in a dreamy, unrealistic way. This simple principle of service and sacrifice will never change; the past, present and the future are within its realm. Not only this world, but also the spirit world is guided by this principle.</p>
|
||||
<p>Therefore, you cannot work diligently in your home church area with the attitude that you just want to earn your own pass to Heaven. The purpose of doing home church is to send the people there to Heaven first, and in that way to go to Heaven yourself. Only an attitude of true love can enable you to do this. You must feel the desire to pass along all the blessings you have received. With such a heart-of sacrifice service and true love-you will be able to accomplish victory in home church. This is the Principle. We must be welcomed on earth before we can expect to be welcomed in the spirit world. So far, the Unification Church and Reverend Moon have not been welcomed in this country; we must turn that tide.</p>
|
||||
<p>If you went to spirit world right now, you would know that what I am saying is absolutely true. People can serve God in many ways; perhaps a great architect might dedicate a beautiful building to God. But when you dedicate yourself to working in your home church area, that is the offering God is most eager to accept at this time. God’s greatest pain was at the moment when He lost Adam and Eve through the fall; therefore, God’s greatest joy will come when you offer back to Him your home church. By doing home church you are restoring yourself, or the position of Adam and Eve, the angelic world, and all things; and you are offering them back to God. It may seem like a small thing when you are doing home church, but it has the greatest meaning of all to God.</p>
|
||||
<p>From this time forward, true family trees of goodness will begin. Your name will be written at the top of your family tree and from that point, your new family history will begin.</p>
|
||||
<p>Never before has a plan of such magnitude been presented which can bring together the ideal and the real in a tangible, workable way. Certainly, before you go after a goal you must have a clear plan based upon valid reasoning and the confidence to carry it out. Now that you have a strong idea and a clear plan of action, you will probably encounter stronger opposition from the people wherever you go. Their opposition will be short-lived, however, and you will see that you can accomplish the same level of restoration as I did in a much shorter time.</p>
|
||||
<p>All of us must move straightforwardly toward that goal of restoration; it is truly all that matters. Of course, you have to think of your Blessing and tend to your children and families, but which is truly the most significant-the home church work or your personal life? Surely home church work is more important than anything else in God’s dispensation. if you worked diligently doing home church all you’ life. but could never receive the Blessing, you would have a wonderful life once you got to spirit world. You could call out to me and I could take you directly to the home of the True Parents and give you your free pass to Heaven. But if you came to spirit world without having done home church work, you would not be able to receive any pass or certification.</p>
|
||||
<p>I want to teach you all the things you need to know to get to Heaven; I don’t want you to blame me later. No one can force you to do home church. God would like to take you to Heaven regardless of what you do, but Satan will not let you go without some condition. Therefore, let us all go forward together toward the total completion of the ideal. Since each of you is blessed with the privilege of being the child of True Parents, you are related to them. Even though everyone looks different-some of you have fair skin and blonde hair and some of you have dark skin and black hair-every part of you is related with the True Parents. Since this is the case, whatever makes God sorrowful must make you sorrowful, and whatever brings joy to God must make you rejoice. This must be your life-in action as well as thought.</p>
|
||||
<p>Now you know how important it is to do home church. Raise your hands if you are determined to do it. God bless you.</p>
|
||||
57
content/speeches/1982/true-parents-day.md
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content/speeches/1982/true-parents-day.md
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|
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|
|||
---
|
||||
title: "TRUE PARENTS' DAY"
|
||||
type: "speech"
|
||||
published: "2018-06-22T06:07:23+01:00"
|
||||
updated: "2018-06-22T06:07:23+01:00"
|
||||
source: "/blog/2018/06/22/true-parents-day.html"
|
||||
speechYear: "1982"
|
||||
categories:
|
||||
- "Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982"
|
||||
tags: []
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
<h2 align="CENTER">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
|
||||
<h3 align="CENTER">March 25, 1982<br />
|
||||
World Mission Center<br />
|
||||
Translator – Bo Hi Pak</h3>
|
||||
<p>As you know, today is the 23rd Parents’ Day. You have experienced many new things since joining the Unification Church. and one of those is Parents’ Day. For those of you who are unmarried, Parents’ Day may seem like just another day, but for parents and grandparents this day can be very meaningful.</p>
|
||||
<p>It is not for secular reasons that we set aside such a day as Parents’ Day; it is centered upon God. Only from God’s point of view in providential history is this day significant. Celebration means to return glory. There are many parents in today’s world; many families and nations and even the world could set up their own celebration days, but for the history of God there are not many days that Heaven can celebrate.</p>
|
||||
<p>Imagine a celebration in which God and all mankind can take part. There has been virtually no day in which all of God’s children could return joy and glory to Him. There has been no such day simply because the first human ancestors brought the tragedy and sadness of the fall to the earth. The creation was made for the glory of God, to praise the name of the Creator, but that original purpose has never been fulfilled.</p>
|
||||
<p>There have been many secular celebrations where people sing and celebrate, but many of these gatherings have only pierced God’s heart, not brought Him joy. God shed more tears at seeing these celebrations and felt even more urgently the task of bringing the world back to its original state. Whenever a new baby is born to a couple that is not centered on God, God sees another soul to be restored, one more problem that has been added to His burden. When young men and women who are not centered on God get married, God sees more couples who have to be restored. The restoration of just Adam and Eve was a great problem, but now that they have become families, tribes, nations and a whole world, God’s problems have been greatly compounded.</p>
|
||||
<p>Traditionally, when a new tribe or nation is born, great celebration takes place, but from God’s point of view it is only one more problem in restoration. God sees fallen human history being multiplied in this fashion, knowing that at the end evil must be judged and restored. God cannot accept this world as it is.</p>
|
||||
<p>From God’s point of view, then, what must be the last days? The last days are the time when the things God abhors most have become the things that people love the most. When God and man have exactly opposing viewpoints, that time must be the last days.</p>
|
||||
<p>Springtime is the sowing season. Summer is the growing time, and autumn is the time of harvest. when new fruit and seeds are formed. Human history also moves through seasons. It was sown as a wrong seed, planted through illicit love. In that wrong beginning there was hatred. jealousy. conspiracy and corruption. All those things which are foreign to God were contained in that seed of human history. so the order and discipline of love were totally confused. Since the seed was sown sinfully. the fruit will also be sinful; the time when that fruit is borne is the last days. America is ahead of any other nation in bearing the fruit of that fallen love.</p>
|
||||
<p>America today is hardly an object of joy to God, but instead is a target of God’s wrath. This nation is plunging into self-destruction and tragedy. The ideal of God is the creation of one God-centered man and woman, who can unite and form the God-centered family, tribe, nation and world. America has separated from that ideal, however, and the reality today is that love relationships have no order or standard. The most precious thing-love-is the most mixed up and perverted thing. You can see mixed-up relationships every day in the lives of people around you. There is no way that such a society could have a means of meeting with God.</p>
|
||||
<p>What is grieving the creation that God made? The creation is seeking the original ideal home, wanting to live and prosper there. If you ask anyone on the street whether he has parents with perfect love, he will say no. He cannot say he has original brothers and sisters who have perfect love either. Nor does he have the original relatives of perfection, or an original world of perfect love.</p>
|
||||
<p>This is the tragic reality which is giving misery to the Heart of God every day. Mankind does not even know what condition they are in, while Satan rejoices at God’s suffering, taunting Him, “You will not succeed, even though you say you are the almighty Creator. You are a failure; I have won!”</p>
|
||||
<p>Satan has many weapons, such as drugs and free sex, to immobilize and kill young people. Whatever God likes, the devil hates. Billions of people have become Satan’s instruments, and they commit all kinds of crimes. This situation is what we call the last days. At this time we have to let people know clearly where they are. The moment for fire and brimstone is here, so in the last moment how can we save mankind?</p>
|
||||
<p>God is a God of love. not of wrath and judgment, so at this final moment He must have some solution to prevent catastrophe. God must be thinking of how to create some model or microcosm of a world with true parents, true brothers and sisters, and a true society of perfect love which the world can copy in order to be saved. God wants the whole world to see that model. The fallen world is exactly the opposite, so when that model world comes, the fallen world will want to destroy it.</p>
|
||||
<p>How can we recognize that model which shows the original path for the family, nation and world? That particular model must come in the form of a religious movement. We will reap the fruit from the same tree where God sowed the seeds of His central tradition. Therefore, the model movement of the last days must have certain traditions which have come from all the other religions, but especially Judaism and Christianity.</p>
|
||||
<p>No matter what Satan says, God wants to say that you are His honorable, great, and beloved sons and daughters. When God can say that you are honorable, He means that you have shown you are a person who will not be shaken by any temptation or suffering. When God says that you are great, He means that you give Him great hope because you have confronted the satanic world and won the battle. I want to become the first honorable and great and courageous son of God. That has always been my determination.</p>
|
||||
<p>Evil never automatically retreats: it must be defeated. Therefore you must confront evil and defeat it in order to eliminate it. The Unification Church today is truly on the final front line. The battle today is the universal showdown between heaven and earth, between good and evil, out of which the new mankind can be given birth.</p>
|
||||
<p>As soon as I initiated this movement, every religion and government came to oppose me. Every conceivable element of society came against me, plus both ideologies of democracy and communism. From Satan’s point of view, I am the ultimate evil. People of all religions and all countries are firing arrows at me. Arrows can fly silently and pierce your heart when you aren’t aware of them. I have been the target of silent arrows coming from all over the world, at all times of the day and night. Have I avoided these dirty tactics? No, I have deliberately walked where more arrows can find me.</p>
|
||||
<p>If I am totally exposed, who will defend me? The only reason I could survive is that God defended me. God mobilized the universe to protect me, and that is the only reason I am still alive. Wherever I move, God’s attention follows and the entire spirit world is attentive. God cannot afford to see this ideology of True Parents fail; it is God who declared an emergency. I want you to understand that centered upon True Parents the entire spirit world has declared an emergency.</p>
|
||||
<p>Money is not our primary goal in fund raising; getting numbers of people is not our basic goal in witnessing, either. We do home church and fund raising in order to welcome God, to prepare a place where He can dwell. Our crusade is meant to lay out a red carpet for God. There has been no place for God to dwell in this world. So far I have gathered money and people on every continent in order to welcome God.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why should we dedicate our movement to this goal? God wants us to prepare a dwelling place for Him on earth; we have to do that on every continent. What a great job we have been called to do, and how proud we are of doing it!</p>
|
||||
<p>What is the reason we keep going? Why are we treated like criminals? Why do you have to sell flowers and peanuts on the street? The future of God and mankind is resting on our shoulders. Our work may look trivial, but the purpose behind it is Divine. I want you to be proud. One misstep by us will be an incredible disappointment to the millions of people who have died for God’s sake. We can only win.</p>
|
||||
<p>I was young like you at one time. I was dynamic, and I could have enjoyed my life. Instead I chose to become a outcast, to be the leader of the Unification Church for the sake of God. I knew God’s will and His heart, and I could not take any other way but this one.</p>
|
||||
<p>Communism is rampant in the world and no one has dared to confront it; but we have fearlessly declared war on that ideology. I want you to understand that no matter how corrupted the world is, conscience still lives in people, and in time it will explode like an atomic bomb. Once they taste true love, we have hope for the true restoration of the world.</p>
|
||||
<p>You are such beautiful young people, but ever since you began following me you have encountered only one difficulty after another. Sometimes you are in anguish and don’t know what to do, and sometimes you feel you just cannot continue doing this any more. Every one of you has gone back and forth, up and down. But at the same time the entire world is trembling. How steady are you?</p>
|
||||
<p>I want to give you some instruction on this Parents’ Day. Those who feel that they love me but that this life is just too difficult for them, please stand up. You can go out the door now and come back later after everything is done. I am telling you now that I don’t want anyone here who will not be a positive element in this movement. I need the kind of people who will join me and become like rocks, who want to bring comfort and victory to God and salvation to mankind. We are well underway, and our success is very near.</p>
|
||||
<p>You should think that you will live at least until the day you can inherit the true tradition of the Heavenly Kingdom and achieve God’s ideal. Until you consummate the ideal on the family level, tribal level, national and world level, you should feel you cannot give up. Unto my death I shall continue moving forward. How about you? The most important thing about this celebration today will be if you can recommit yourselves to the goal of becoming one with the True Parents and establishing the true family, society, nation and world. That commitment has one thousand times more value than any celebration.</p>
|
||||
<p>It is the nature of young women to want to wear make-up and be beautiful. If people see you with a plain face and humble clothes they might automatically recognize that you are a Moonie. Every time you hear that accusation, from God’s point of view you are winning a medal. Your many medals will be so heavy that you cannot walk very well! Every cell of my body has been accused for being a Moonie, so each of my cells has received a gold medal.</p>
|
||||
<p>The world doesn’t understand why I have the power to attract so many young people, for I look like any, ordinary man. Even in the secular world everyone still has an original mind, which is like a magnet to pull each person to God’s side. That is the most natural attraction of true love between you and True Parents. Do you want me to chase you out so you can get gold medals, or encourage you to live an easy life? You are greedy for medals! What beautiful people you are!</p>
|
||||
<p>You must realize the true meaning of this day and of the True Parents, plus the true meaning of your life. You are here for the salvation of America. Millions of people are dying spiritually every day; if you can’t feel this while you are out in the world then you are dead inside. You need to really give yourself for the salvation of this society; that must be your dedication today. How much more should you do for the salvation of your own country than other members are doing for the communist nations, enemies of this country?</p>
|
||||
<p>Do you think America has a future if it continues on its present course? This giant country is spiritually paralyzed. You must become the blood and muscle and nervous system of this nation so that it can move again. You should want to give every drop of your blood for this nation, even if your time of joyful youth passes away. Some members are speculating about when the next Blessing will come, but what kind of Blessing do you want when this nation and world are crumbling? You will really have a blessing when you save the nation and world.</p>
|
||||
<p>The right frame of mind to have is a fervent desire to save this nation and world and God. The Blessing is not for your own sake but for your posterity. We shall fulfill that also, but today what blessing do you want when the world is dying? Revolutionize your way of thinking at this moment. Love your country as much as you love your fiancé. As much as you love the True Parents, love your nation and the world. That is the most honorable teaching. This is the core of my teaching to you. Anyone who urges you to live like that must be a true leader.</p>
|
||||
<p>Today we are celebrating True Parents’ Day. Our determination is to center upon the True Parents and to give our lives so that all mankind shall see a day of hope and can rejoice with God and True Parents. That’s how I have lived my entire life, sacrificing my family for the nation, sacrificing the nation for the world’ and the world for the cosmos.</p>
|
||||
<p>When I arrived in this country in 1971, I came with the determination to lay out a red carpet for God here. During my first visit here in 1965, I drove to every state in the nation in forty days to dedicate holy grounds. The driver took time to doze, but I loved this country so much that every second of the day was precious and I could hardly sleep at all.</p>
|
||||
<p>I knew that America is a microcosm of the entire world, so by loving this country I wanted to love the entire world. I never thought in terms of America or Korea; I only noticed who were the God-loving people. If Your mission now is difficult, how much more difficult was my mission? To reach the ideal I had to go through persecution and tribulation; that has been my path. I knew that, because I was going forward with that motivation, America would have to be turned upside down. I am showing who is the true patriot, who is loving this country and people the most.</p>
|
||||
<p>Throughout America’s history, God has been blessing this nation. That blessing should be consummated centering on God and for that job I came to America. My first mission has been to defend this nation from satanic attack by communism. From a righteous point of view, I have given more to this country than anyone.</p>
|
||||
<p>Because I know historical principles so well, I do not want to go anywhere without laying a firm foundation in America. I want to win the battle here first in order to prevent historical tragedy. I know exactly the path a man of God must walk, and that’s why I am going this way. All our four holidays are symbolic of the restoration history of God. On every level we have to vindicate God on earth.</p>
|
||||
<p>I am sending you out to bear your own fruit in home church. The worst wars in history began with tribal wars; so unless we indemnify tribal war, we cannot indemnify national war Therefore’ you are doing this in home church. By setting up your Cain-type home church and later your Abel type home church, you can bring them together; then the ideal shall become reality. This applies to black, white and yellow alike. Of Noah’s three sons, two could not fulfill me dispensation. Shem represented the yellow race, Ham the black race, and Japheth the Occidentals. Shem and Ham could not fulfill their dispensational roles at the time, so Japheth took their place. This was only because of his dispensational position, not because of his individual qualities.</p>
|
||||
<p>White people should love black people, and both should love yellow people. All races must love each other; otherwise’ racial war is inevitable, and white people would suffer the most as a result. I am determined to prevent racial war. Communism is behind the scenes pushing for global racial conflict. but we are trying to unite the races. This is why our work is going strong in South America and Africa. Who will do that unless we do it? Other Christian churches? Other religions? Many churches today are too self-centered to actively promote racial harmony. I have undertaken this most difficult job. When I first came to America, I prophesied what would happen to this nation and all of it has come true.</p>
|
||||
<p>When people accuse you for being a Moonie, you can tell them that you are giving your tears and sweat for God and mankind, and demand to know if that is a crime. I am telling you today to have patience and persevere by thinking of God and mankind. When Jesus was on earth, he trod exactly the same path; this is the tradition all of us have inherited. When you reach out to mankind in desolate places, you can have power by remembering how I endured when America persecuted me. When black people persecute you white members, you can have power to endure. When white people persecute you black members. you will be able to continue.</p>
|
||||
<p>When American members go to other countries and do exactly what I have done here, you will be persecuted and misunderstood. But you will have power to persevere by remembering that when people persecuted me I loved America to the end. You can demonstrate the same way of life. That is the true way of salvation.</p>
|
||||
<p>Today I conclude by saying that after enjoying this celebration we must recommit ourselves to the Divine call in which God delights, in which True Parents delight, and in which the nation and all mankind can delight. Are you ready to go this way? Will I get to the goal first, or will you? I want you to be the winners; that will give the greatest hope to this country. If you are more sacrificial you will win, indeed.</p>
|
||||
<p>God bless you.</p>
|
||||
124
content/speeches/1982/victory-and-peace.md
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content/speeches/1982/victory-and-peace.md
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|
|
@ -0,0 +1,124 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
title: "VICTORY AND PEACE"
|
||||
type: "speech"
|
||||
published: "2018-06-22T06:01:12+01:00"
|
||||
updated: "2018-06-22T06:01:12+01:00"
|
||||
source: "/blog/2018/06/22/victory-and-peace.html"
|
||||
speechYear: "1982"
|
||||
categories:
|
||||
- "Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982"
|
||||
tags: []
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
<h2 align="CENTER">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
|
||||
<h3 align="CENTER">January 10, 1982<br />
|
||||
Belvedere<br />
|
||||
Translator – Bo Hi Pak</h3>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">“Victory” is a commonly used word. What is the best definition of victory? Victory means that some obstacle or difficulty has been overcome or digested. Everything we do in our daily life, including walking, studying, playing sports and so forth, can produce a victory. Whenever we talk about a victory, we automatically take into consideration some opposing element. In order to overcome that opposition, you need power or strength. Consequently, victory can be obtained whenever there is enough strength to digest the opposing elements.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">What happens when we win a victory? Should we turn around from that point, or continue in the same direction? If you continue to move forward in an unbroken straight line, you will always encounter opposition from other elements; however, being able to turn can appease your opposition. An example is the game of pool-no matter how the ball is hit, it always turns and slips out of that confrontation. When you touch the ball, it turns; when you strike it from one direction, it moves away. The pool ball never confronts the opposition face to face in a head-on collision. Thus we can say that when you move in a straight line, you are going to face continuous struggle and opposition. However, when you make a circling movement you can appease and mollify the opposition.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">In order to win victory, you must go through the process of struggle, and you must have a clear purpose or goal for your struggle. We were born as human beings and we live our one life here on earth, which involves daily struggle. Then what should be the goal of that struggle? What kind of a victory do we want to win in our life? This is a very important question.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">First of all, let us analyze the world of nature for a moment. What do the things of nature want from us? Do you think they have some desire, or are they entirely numb and insensitive? They are quite alive and thus they have some desires of their own. What do the things of nature want? You answered, “God’s love,” but what is that?</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">It is important for all people to find some unchanging principle or foundation for their life-something that is continuous for the past, present, and future. What should be the goals for our struggles in life? Do you have your own concept of life and struggle, as well as a goal? What is it? You say it is true love, but that is very easy to say. Can you just say, “I want true love,” and expect it to come and be with you automatically? No, that is not the way it works.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Since true love doesn’t come that easily, how will you get it? There is a very simple answer: If true love doesn’t come to you, you have to go get it! Is it easy to find true love? How very, very difficult it is! Let’s give a realistic analogy. Pulling out one of your eyes would be extremely</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">painful. Is the difficult path to true love more or less painful than this? Is finding true love more difficult than chopping off one of your arms or legs? You may lose two eyes or an arm and leg, but do you still need true love? You say yes, and that is a very serious yes.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">In human history, has there been anyone who has sought true love and won the victory? You say Father, but how do you know I am not a swindler? Let’s suppose there is a great scholar and winner of the Nobel Prize, someone respected throughout the world. We could ask him, “Do you have true love? Have you won it?” Would he shout, without hesitation, “Yes, I have”? Wouldn’t he more likely say, “Let me think about it”? If even the greatest of scholars cannot get to true love, then who can? When YOU seriously pose the question of true love, you might conclude, “Well, it is difficult but there may be one or two people who have won true love in their lives. Certainly not many more than that.” When you realize that you are not one of those, you can become very serious, can’t you?</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Think for a moment about God, the absolute being. Let’s pose a question to Him: “Are You really in the position of the King of true love?” What would He reply “Yes,” or “Well, let me think about it”? Let me ask you a question: do you think love can be initiated through only one person, or do you need someone else to consummate love? Even God needs someone else. Since God is absolute, it is logical that His someone else should also be absolute.</span></p>
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||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Which idea makes you feel good: the idea of one God, or the idea of two Gods? You want to have only one unique God. Do you agree with this? What are the characteristics of God? He is unique, absolute, unchanging and eternal. Such a subject is looking for someone else with whom to consummate His love. Do you think He would like that someone else to be changeable every day? No, He is looking for an object who is unchanging. Since God is eternal, would He like to have just temporary love that comes and goes? No, He would like to have eternal love. By reasoning and logic, we can come to these conclusions.</span></p>
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||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">We realize that God wants to consummate true love; thus we must understand what true love is. When you think of true love, you can think of it as the “house” in which God wants to dwell. We might ask God, “Where would You like to live?” Would He say, “Since I am the King of Kings, I just want to live alone in a big palace and sit on a golden throne”? What about you? If I asked</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">you the same question, you might reply, “Father, I just want to be someplace where I can sleep. I’m so sleepy!” Do you think God would say that, since He too is so tired?</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Do you think God would like to have a good time and play sometimes? Maybe He would tell you, “I want to live in a place where I can play games and have fun all the time.” Or maybe God would say, “I just want to dwell in my mind for eternity; all I want to do is think. ” Or might He say, “All I want is to work, since I am the God of creation.” No? Then where would He say He would like to dwell?</span></p>
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||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">God will say, “I want to live with a smile, to be happy,” just as this white-haired, noble-looking gentleman here might say. What do you think makes a person with a Ph.D. happy? Will receiving his degree make him smile for the rest of his life? Maybe he will smile for a day or so, but then he will get bored.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">No matter how great and wonderful and dignified God is, He desires to live His life with a smile. Thus it is important to know what element allows Him to continue smiling. Is it looking at His hands? Is it looking at His own eyes? Maybe He has a big mirror in Heaven-do you suppose He smiles all the time to see Himself? God’s body may have beautiful features, such as long lovely fingernails. Maybe He gives Himself a manicure every morning, or maybe He grooms His feet. Does God want to spend all His time in front of His mirror? No? Then what makes God smile? Since love is the only thing which enables someone to continue smiling forever, automatically we come to the conclusion that God needs a good object, such as a wife or children with whom to have the give and take of love.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Let’s say a man is very handsome, manly, and also he is well-educated, with a Ph.D. from Harvard. He has everything a man needs to be respectable. Does that make him smile for the rest of his life? No, he might even be very solemn, but as soon as a beautiful woman comes around, his whole demeanor will change. He will light up and start to smile.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Imagine a small, delicate-looking woman sitting somewhere very quietly and solemnly, and her husband, a big tough man with strength like a tiger comes up to her. Other men may fear him, but this small woman will smile as soon as he comes near. She will light up and her eyes will start to sparkle, almost as if electricity was flowing into her. Isn’t that true? What makes a woman react like that?</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">You were all very sleepy a few minutes ago, but as soon as I started talking about love and men and women, everybody woke up! Love must have a pull stronger than the power of sleep. If God is looking for true love, He definitely needs a true object who can respond to Him so that He can create a circuit of give and take. Where can He find that perfect object?</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">I am sure you have concluded that God must find His perfect object in human beings. Isn’t that true? What about monkeys? Can they be the perfect object to God? Is there anyone here who can say, “I am a perfect object to God”? What happened? You are all hand-raising champions, but all of a sudden nobody raised his hand. I thought American men and women were very confident and would say, “Yes, I am the perfect object to God!” But not even a single one of you is saying that.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">How should God treat you if you have no confidence to become His perfect object? Are you willing to accept any sort of rough treatment from God, as long as it enables you to become His perfect object? So maybe I will hit you and give you a hard time. Is that all right? You three sisters here in the front row, will you complain if I hit you on the head? Or will you ask me to do it again?</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">The truth is that if someone hits another person in anger, he is actually defeating himself because he will feel guilty. After one strike, he feels a little lower; after two strikes, he feels even lower. After 10 strikes, he will be kneeling before you. The amazing thing is that if somebody hits you and you hit him back, a battle ensues. But if you don’t hit back even after 10 or 20 times, the person who is attacking you will become very low and small, unable to raise his face. This is the truth about human nature. In other words, if you hit someone without any justification, you will automatically have to surrender to that person eventually.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Let’s talk about God. What kind of God is He, anyway? God is constantly being attacked and reviled by the people of the world, but He never strikes back. Therefore, those people are being forced to surrender. God just doesn’t deal with such things. Thus, God must have a round mind, like that pool ball we spoke of. You hit it and it turns and moves; you hit it again and it moves and turns again. It circles around and around and eventually returns to its original place. There is no limitation or blockage.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Nowadays, even top theologians are proclaiming, “God is dead!” If God wanted to, He could strike out at those people. Imagine somebody coming up and shouting in your face, “You are dead!” What would you do? Wouldn’t you feel like punching him in the nose? Then you could say, “Does it feel like I am dead?” This feeling may be a part of human nature, but does it reflect God? When you are here at Belvedere, you give the right answers. You say no to this question, but when you go back to your centers, you might forget everything and punch somebody the next time something happens! That is the easier way for you, isn’t it?</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">God has four major characteristics: He is unique, eternal, unchanging and absolute. God always knows that He is the only subject of the universe. Therefore, in order to become the object to God, you must say, “Father, I am going to have the same substance and nature as you: unique, eternal, unchanging and absolute.” Do you think in that fashion? Do you have that confidence to become the true object to God? Can you boldly declare to God, “You cannot find anyone better than me as Your object! I am the one for You!”</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Don’t you think God yearns to see such bold and confident people? Or does God like to see someone weakly claiming, “Well, I’m not so sure.” The most important thing to learn this morning is that you must have that conviction and commitment to become the one true object for God, being like Him-unique, unchanging, eternal and absolute.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">You must confidently say, “I am God’s unique object. I am His absolute object. I am His unchanging object. I am His eternal object.” Then God wants to whisper to you, “You know, you look just like Me! Your eyes are just like Mine and so are your ears, nose and mouth! You smile just as I do!” Don’t you think it is logical that God would like to say this?</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Only declaring yourself the absolute object to God does not mean you have fulfilled true love. God, like human beings, has five senses: vision, hearing, smell, taste and touch. We have to do something to please those five senses. We want God’s ears to hear something ecstatically joyful. You must speak so that God can hear good words. Also, a good smell must emanate from His object- not a filthy smell.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">The subject and object must come from opposite positions. For example, there must be a woman, not another man, as object to a masculine subject. So when you come before God as your subject, can you behave like another subject? For God to be able to accept you, you must be in what we call the objective or feminine position.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">A man with a gruff, deep voice appreciates the balance created by the clear, light voice of a woman. When you appear before God as His object, can you shout in a rough, assertive voice, “God! I want to see You! I miss You a lot”? God will reply, “What kind of a guy are you? Get out of here!” It is much better to come before God in humility and say softly, “My dear God, I have missed You so much. My heart has been broken, yearning for You. “</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">You should come before God with a genuine smile springing from within you. Such heartistic sincerity will inspire God to take you into His heart. He will feel joy just to look at you and He will want to be completely one with you. When you love something cute and charming, you may feel so strongly that you feel like biting it. But instead you just cherish your beloved like a diamond or a jewel. The things I have spoken about today form a sort of manual describing the kinds of characteristics God wants to see. Any textbook about God should record these things.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Can you imagine reading in any textbook: “In order to be a great object to God, you must be very arrogant”? No, that wouldn’t work. The textbook would say, “Be humble, meek, and sacrificial. Serve and attend others. Imagine you are one step away from meeting with God, but suddenly an enemy comes and strikes you. Should you strike him back and spend your energy fighting him? Or should you forgive him, go around him and move forward to meet with God? Suppose someone cut off his enemy’s head and presented it proudly to God, saying, “Hey, God, look what I brought You. This is the head of my enemy! Don’t you like to see this?” Would God say, “Bravo, My boy”? Or would He be shocked and say, “What kind of son are you?” The Bible teaches precisely, “Love your enemy.” The spirit of love is exemplified by Jesus on the cross. While the Roman soldiers were piercing and ridiculing him, he could have cursed them but he didn’t. He was just one step from meeting with God. He forgave his enemies and went beyond them into the arms of God. At that crucial moment, the lesson Jesus taught was to forgive. Do YOU understand?</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">If you read the Bible superficially without understanding the importance of loving your enemy, it sounds ridiculous and impossible. But you must realize that for the greater purpose, when you are only one step away from God, you have no energy to waste on fighting, no time to</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">do anything else but go forward and meet with God. In that circumstance, the most beautiful thing is to forgive your enemy, move forward with a loving heart and be embraced by God. That is the foremost and noblest way to proceed.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">This kind of teaching never appears anywhere but in the books of religion. Look at the past 200 years of American history. There are so many struggles, defeats and victories battle after battle.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">There is also a lot of “love” being shared in America today, but is it true love? What is it? Many people are enjoying so-called “fun” love or free sex. They are pursuing a perverted way of life far from the way of true love. Such illicit love is very destructive.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Unification members today can cherish this one very important confidence: “I am the unique object to God. Without me, God will feel lonely and cannot consummate His love.” This wonderful statement is the key point of my teaching today. Just think of it: you can be the</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">unique object to God! No matter what, if even the entire planet disappeared, you would still be God’s unchanging, unique object. How wonderful! Without an eternal object,</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">there can be no foundation for the existence of true love.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Do you think that is correct? This is the acceptable, logical truth.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Anyone can speak easily of true love, but to fulfill it in reality you must have the right foundation. We have four bridges to cross, all of which are heading for the goal of true love: the unique bridge, the unchanging bridge, the absolute bridge, and the eternal bridge. After crossing these four bridges you will meet with true love on the other side.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Beyond these bridges is the only place where true love dwells. The people who are making an effort every day to go across these four bridges are the ones in whom true love can dwell, and through whom true love can be communicated. Therefore, can one man marry several women? Can a woman love and marry three or four men? Do you American women feel that you don’t have to take this truth seriously? Do you say, “So what?” “So what?” is the language of Satan. Satan loves to hide behind such words. This is very serious.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Do you Unification Church members really love me? In this context, can you say, “Yes, Father, I am worthy of you because I am crossing all four bridges. That is why I can truly say I love you”? Yes or no?</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">When you get up each morning, you busy yourself with all sorts of secular, trivial thoughts such as how to look more attractive. Have you ever just focused your thoughts on this question: “Am I really unique in the sight of God? Am I really absolute in the sight of God? Am I an unchanging and eternal person?” The problem is always you and where you are. The problem is not the Unification Church, Reverend Moon, or the leaders of the church. You have to have a face-to-face showdown with yourself. You cannot blame the rest of the world, saying, “That evil, secular and sinful world is the problem.”</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">It doesn’t matter how evil anybody else is. What matters is you-you are the key. The outside circumstances in the world should not make a difference, as long as you can say, “I am unchanging.” People may tell lies and say anything, but that doesn’t matter as long as you can say, “I am genuine. My heart is absolute. The same is true of my object.” This is what is important.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Perhaps you are thinking this morning, “Now that Hyo Jin Nim has gotten blessed, my turn must be coming. In fact, Father might announce the date today! Oh, I long for my fiancee and I know that we will consummate true love.” Have you been thinking in such a self-centered way? Such thoughts make you like a thief! Why don’t you yell at me, “No, Father, I have a right to those thoughts!” You are silent because you know what is right. Your conscience tells you where you are.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Speaking of value-let’s imagine that instead of giving you these words of truth this morning, I had held your wedding. Which would be better for your eternal life these words which are penetrating your heart and teaching you something of great importance, or a wedding? You are pretty smart. You know the answer. That means you are good material for education; you can learn.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">When you men are walking on the street and a beautiful woman walks by, your eyes automatically follow her. Even though you may be a short, tiny man, still your eyes will turn toward a beautiful woman. Isn’t that true, Mr. Sudo? But then you must take dominion over your eyes, correct yourself and say, “Eyes, look straight ahead. I am a dignified object to God, so I will not be tempted!” Temptation comes in many different ways. Let’s imagine that Miss America came to you and whispered in your ear, “Won’t you go out on a date with me?” Would you be completely intoxicated by her, or would you say, “What are you talking about? Get behind me, Satan!”</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">When you gave the right answer, did you really mean it or were your lips just saying the words? Even though you may say, “Satan, get behind me,” Satan knows when you are overwhelmed. You even have to discipline your ears, telling them, “I am the object to God, so be careful what you listen to.” Do you understand?</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">I have been speaking for an hour and a half and we have barely scratched the surface of “Victory and Peace.” What do you think is our goal, our objective for victory? Is it money? What about knowledge? Power? No, our objective is only true love. Do you really welcome that goal? Will it be an easy task or a difficult one? You know it is difficult, but you must say, “I am not going to hesitate. I am going to achieve true love.”</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Many people think, “Life is too short to spend it suffering. Enjoy yourself now!” This is the prevalent philosophy today. But the Unification Church goal is not focused on this world. We are looking at the eternal world and learning to live according to eternal principles while we are here on earth. We know that only with true love can we obtain a victorious life here on earth and forever after. Such accomplishment will never change or diminish. In other words, our life’s goal must be to perfect ourselves and become unique, unchanging, absolute, and eternal. This is the goal of the Unification Church.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Why do we want true love so much? It is because true love will fulfill God and ourselves; the consummation of everything good can come out of true love. Only true love can completely fill the universe-not God’s power, total knowledge or anything else can do that. Only true love can make everything sound and solid. Inside the realm of true love, there can be no resistance or limits. As soon as you touch true love, you become one with it.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Therefore the whole creation is seeking the consummation of true love-not worldly love. Because true love provides the only way we can perfect and fulfill ourselves, everybody loves and desires it. True love is like a stream. It flows over every log, every stone, and it is all of one piece. Where is the hole through which that stream can go? It is in the center-the point where the horizontal and vertical axis of the universe meet. In this universe, there must be one unchanging vertical line somewhere.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">What do you think? Is there more than one vertical line? Where will that vertical line penetrate within you? It comes down first to your parents, then to you. Which parent-the mother or the father-does it come through? This is very important and this is where Western and Eastern philosophy differ. Because man is the subject, love comes through him first to the object. Thus love comes through the father to the mother, then to the children. Which child will be touched by the vertical line first-the eldest or the youngest? The eldest son. Therefore, the eldest son has the privilege of receiving the inheritance. Love goes all the way down and it must descend in a straight, not crooked, path.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Westerners don’t care whether they have a son or a daughter. As long as you have children, you are happy. You feel there is no difference. However, this principle explains why Eastern philosophy holds a son to be more precious and important. You women might protest and say, “Oh, Father, you are old-fashioned. We don’t believe that sort of thing.” Yet God designed the man in the subjective role; that was the blueprint. Men are bigger in every way, with stronger legs and arms and so forth. When you are physically short, you cannot see very far. Thus the taller man is supposed to have a greater vision, to be able to see farther. You women have no choice when your husband grabs your hand and says, “Stay with me! Don’t go away!” Nature has made you that way.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">The male deer have to fight against one another to win the females. The champion is welcomed by the females, and he passes on his lineage to the herd. Many times we have seen in movies how men-never women-used to fight duels with one another. The woman had to sit there and wait to see who won, since she had to go off with the winner. Whether she liked it or not, she became the prize of the victor. Which is more true to life-two men fighting and the woman going off with the winner, or for two women to fight and a man to go off meekly with the winner?</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Do you women agree with that? Creation is designed that way; you cannot go against the creation. Between men and women, who has the tendency to be more changeable? Do you women accept that it is you? Are you going to demonstrate against me, saying that Reverend Moon doesn’t treat women right? Since God is in the position of subject, true love comes down vertically first to the father, then through him to the eldest son, then on to the grandchildren.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Let’s say you have a son. What is the best way for him to reach out to God? It is simple. The very best way for the son to become a perfect object to God is to become a perfect object to his own father-to be loyal, obedient and to imitate his father. The son should be able to say, “My father is absolute, unchanging, unique and eternal. By uniting with him, I can learn to unite with God.” In that kind of relationship, the give and take of true love is apparent, and with it you have the freedom and privilege to go anywhere you want. In spirit world, you can enter the palace of God and roam wherever you like. God’s true love comes through your father to you. That is the vertical relationship.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">The vertical line is composed of segments of different lengths. One may be very long, another very short. The circle of relationships is filled with different sizes of vertical lines, running parallel. How can we link those vertical lines? It is the horizontal lines. No matter how many vertical lines there are side by side, they can all be penetrated by one horizontal line. Therefore, all the vertical lines, such as all the father/son relationships, are linked and tied together by this horizontal line. The horizontal movement that ties together all these vertical relationships is the mother’s love. The father/son love is vertical, while the mother’s love is horizontal. The love of the father and mother together, with the love of the children, creates a complete circle.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">But that family is just a small circle that doesn’t include the society, the nation, the world or the universe. If your family’s vertical and horizontal lines are small, you must expand those lines and thus make your circle bigger. Eventually you grow outward more and more, expanding both the vertical and the horizontal lines, and your circle gets bigger and bigger. Finally it breaks through the boundaries and approaches the limitless center. Thus you can expand your territory and potential more and more while simultaneously getting closer and closer to the universal center. In the family, the father is the center; within a tribe, the chief is the center; the nation has a president. By the same token, the world and the universe should have a center.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">This principle is very important in the Unification Church. We talk about the family as the basic unit, the building block of the Kingdom of Heaven, but we, don’t end there. The same principle applies and is expanded to larger units such as the tribe, nation, world and cosmos.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Give and take of true love between the father as subject and mother as object creates a circle. When they intensify that give and take, the vertical and horizontal lines get longer and thus the circle gets larger. Since vertical love and horizontal love can only be consummated through marriage, we put great emphasis on marriage.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">When the vertical line is not really vertical but deviates several degrees, then the intersection of the horizontal line will create a distorted circle, more like an oval. It is most important that you get the vertical line correct and straight. As soon as your vertical line is secured, then you can harmonize with the rest of the universe wherever you go and you will not encounter opposition. But when you try to enter the vast circle of the universe with an imperfectly formed circle, you will always run into conflict and confrontation. You won’t find peace and harmony. On the other hand, when a true circle comes into relationship with the larger circle of the universe, it will fit perfectly; everything will be harmonious and effortless. For a family, it is most important for the father and mother to be perfectly united along the vertical line. That means they are united with God and their family will be all right. The society, nation and world follow the same dynamic. True love is the key, the center, and through it, we become part of the great circle of the universe.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">My topic today is about victory. First of all, I want you to be aware that you cannot attain victory all by yourself. You have to digest and overcome something. Do you want to digest something small or something large? The family level is something relatively small to digest, If you want to progress, you have to go to the tribe and the national levels. By digesting the national level, you win the national level victory. Then, if you can digest the level of God, you win the largest, universal level of victory. In a way, you must confront God; you must move up to Him and try to embrace Him with true love.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">What do you think? Is God very reluctant or very willing to be embraced by people with true love? Which is bigger-God or true love? True love is actually bigger than God because, even though God is almighty, He only has an up-and-down relationship on the vertical line. In order to consummate His love, He needs an object with whom to have horizontal give and take. Thus He requires the horizontal line in order to create the circular motion of love. By Himself, as a vertical being, He could not create that circle. That is why we say that true love is even greater than God. Once you have true love in your hands, you have absolutely everything else in the universe.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Today we have come to a most important understanding about God’s characteristics: He is unique, absolute, unchanging and eternal. Since we must become objects to God, we must possess His same characteristics. By doing so, we can consummate the flow of true love in a perfect circle between God and human beings. This is the way the Heavenly Kingdom shall be established!</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Will you go the road of true love? Can you do that by muttering and complaining about everything you encounter? Can you say, “I have been working so hard, yet</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">nobody has given me any recognition. Father has never even said a ‘Thank you’ to me. He has never told me I did a good job. My central figure doesn’t give me any praise, either. Why should I continue?” Instead you must go forward whether anybody praises you or not.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">As you are busy fulfilling your own goals and responsibilities, you shouldn’t care whether others recognize you or not. After all, you are accumulating your own assets and fortune, so why should you need recognition? If you go upward in that way, you will hit the boundary and automatically be turned around, making a circle. Ultimately you will have accumulated great spiritual wealth</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">for yourself.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Every movement you make involves a circling motion. There is no such thing as a perfectly straight motion . When you throw a stone, it makes an arc as it falls to the ground; it doesn’t shoot out straight and then suddenly drop down in a straight line. Do you understand now the</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">road of true love?</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Suppose you had to make a very difficult choice: either give up your spouse or your parents. Which would you give up? What would be the answer closest to the Principle? Your parents were there long before you were conceived. They represent the original line of existence, while your spouse was encountered along the horizontal line of existence. You had no relationship before you happened to meet along that horizontal line.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Today in America, many people try to focus their family life on just themselves and their spouse. This, in effect, denies the value of the parents and the in-laws and is very UN-Godly. Also some people disdain marrying anyone with a large family, not wanting to have to take care of so A many relatives. That is very wrong thinking. Look at the entire universe-basically, there is God as the Parent and all mankind as the children. So it is a universe based on the Parent/child relationship. The person who refuses to serve his parents is virtually denying God.</span></p>
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||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">With such an attitude, how can a person be eligible to enter the Kingdom of Heaven? How can he be accepted in spirit world? All the multitudes of people there are beyond death. You have to live with all those people for eternity. Can you say, “I don’t want to live with anybody”? The only place where you can truly isolate your self is in the cells of hell. Thus when you serve your</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">siblings and your parents, you are going through the best workshop for heaven. The more relatives you have to serve, the better.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Here in America there is tension between the black and white races. When you ascend to the Kingdom of Heaven, or you think there are different realms for black and white? Are there two different heavens? No, there is only one Kingdom of Heaven for everybody.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Now that you have learned these things, are you Unification Church members planning to send your parents to senior citizens’ homes, or will you bring them into your own home and take good care of them? Just as you serve God, you must serve your parents and grandparents. I will watch to see whether or not you live up to these words. When I am elderly, maybe I will come to your doorstep. How will you treat me? Will you shut the door in my face? If you shut the door to your own parents and grandparents, I’m sure you would shut the door to me, too.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">I want to go to your homes, but since I am only one person with one body, I will send my representatives our own grandparents-to visit you. Will you accept them and serve them? As you greet the True Parents with a bow of respect in the morning, you should bow to your grandparents and parents, too.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">If this kind of thinking were to spread, all the senior citizens’ homes would be vacated. Elderly Americans would welcome the Unification Church. What about the young people-do they like the Unification Church? All of you young people will someday become old. Everything takes its turn; that which is up goes down.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Now let us draw the conclusion: We want to become victorious men and women of true love. Thus all our five senses must work centered on true love. Smell, vision, hearing, taste and touch must all be governed by true love. Moonies have a spiritual “Moonie smell” which is different from the rest of the American people. Satan hates that Moonie smell more than anything! He can’t stand to be near it. Yet God is completely intoxicated with that fragrance; He just loves it. You know what that is now-it is the smell of true love.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Practice true love and carry this Moonie fragrance everywhere. When you go to Africa, practice true love; when you go to South America, practice it there. When you go to India, practice it there. Then when you go up to spirit world, it will be automatic; you won’t have to make any effort. You will encounter no boundaries or obstacles. But if you don’t master true love here on earth, you will find walls and barriers in spirit world everywhere you turn.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Now you must become a victorious person centering on true love. You have learned this truth from the sermon today, haven’t you? You want this to be true, right? This is the absolute undeniable truth, just as you want it to be. Reverend Moon knows this principle and has been living by it, practicing it and teaching it to others. Because of this, Satan doesn’t like Reverend Moon; the entire world has tried to expel me. But it won’t work; they will not succeed. Even though American people oppose me, I do not go against them. I came to America to save this nation and I will continue that mission until I die, regardless of how I am treated by America. Many people say, “Reverend Moon, get out of here.” But I will not; I will continue to do God’s will.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Anybody who follows my teaching will definitely cross the true love bridge. In that respect, I am your guide to true love. I want to urge all you “old-timers” within the Unification Church to reflect and look at yourselves. What kind of life have you been living in the Unification Church? Ask yourself: Have I really been living in an unselfish and sacrificial way? More than the family, have I been living for the sake of the society? More than the society, have I cared for the nation? More than the nation, for the world? More than the world, have I cared for the needs of heaven and earth?</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">You have to be very hungry for true love. You must keep on digesting true love-on the family, societal, national and worldwide levels, all the way up to spirit world and God’s level. Still you should continue because you have such a hunger and thirst for true love. This is why the Bible teaches, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” It is very important to have that urgent hunger and thirst for the righteousness of true love.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">If you thirst for true love but there is nobody to give it to you, then you must make yourself the perfect object to God. Create within yourself that circuit of give and take with true love. This is what our movement is all about.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">What is the title of the speech today? “Victory and Peace.” Now, let’s consider peace. The Chinese character representing peace is very symbolic. It shows God’s level and humanity’s level linked by a vertical line. This represents the originating point of peace. There is also a cross within the symbol. That Jesus was executed on a cross, rather than another way, is very meaningful since a cross is the Chinese symbol of the origin of peace. In this context, a cross should actually be composed of lines of equal length.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Jesus Christ came here to build the Kingdom of Heaven, which he knew had to be established through the family. Thus what he most needed was his own bride and then his own children to create the circle on the family level. Every necessary element can be found in that circle.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">What is true peace? When you get drunk on alcohol, you might enjoy a momentary feeling of peace, but is that true peace? Some people think that they will find internal peace through acquiring lots of knowledge. When someone is hungry, he feels that he will find peace as soon as he gets some food. All those things are all right, but they are only temporary; they do not bring lasting peace. In order to find true peace, no matter how many brothers and sisters you might have, you need to have your parents in your home as the center. Then the juncture between the vertical and the horizontal is formed where true peace can be found.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">We want to live in peace, but what kind of peace? Wherever we go here on earth and on into eternity we want to live in the peace of harmony-harmonizing peace. This world is searching for peace in the midst of so many problems, including crime, hunger, and war. People are seeking solutions through political and economic means, social programs and so forth, but they will not find the solution until they start to look for true love. In order to obtain true love, one must go through this process we discussed today.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Victorious true love is the center of peace. You cannot obtain lasting peace on the family level alone, but you must move on and digest the higher echelons, such as society and nation, and become victorious on each level. Ultimately, to find eternal peace you must reach all the way to God, becoming victorious on that level and digesting His love.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">We must bring together the spirit world and the physical world. To be peaceful as an individual, you must bring unity between your mind and your body. The vertical element is the mind. Therefore, the mind as subject should give direction to the body, and the body should obey. When that happens, will the body suffer or will it enjoy peace? It will not struggle or suffer when it is completely obedient. Mind-body unity, then, is Article One for individual peace.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">When an individual with unity between his mind and body gets married, he and his spouse together move up to the family level. When they are totally united, can they suffer and struggle? No, there is harmony and peace. Thus unity between husband and wife is Article Two.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">After that, Article Three is unity and harmony between parents and children. Similarly, the family unit must digest the tribe and continue achieving unity on each higher level. Without the human fall, all these processes would have been automatic, but now we have to struggle on each level in order to win unity.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Unless you digest these barriers while here on earth, you will again confront them in the spirit world. Knowing this, Jesus said, “Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosened in heaven.” Thus we are going around loosening things up on the worldwide level.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">To develop the peace of harmony and unity, you should go to at least three countries besides your own. You should be able to digest and harmonize with those different cultures</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">and ways of life. Of course, within the home there are the four elements of father, mother, brothers, and sisters. When we go to the worldwide level, we should be able to travel freely and communicate without obstruction back and forth.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Staying in one spot while saying to others, “Come here and follow me,” won’t work. You have to go to many different places and make a complete circle. So far, patriotism has been based on nationalistic thinking, but in the future people have to go beyond that to the world level. The ideology of the Unification Church is destined to become the ideology of the future; there is no doubt.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Unless you solve the problems and knock down the barriers while you are living here on earth, you might have to spend a millennium to break them down in the spirit world. But as a member of the Unification Church here on earth, you can accomplish these victories in even 21 months. This is why I am asking you to participate in a conditional dispensation such as home church. The concept of home church has sprung from the depths of the philosophy of the Principle.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">You know, it is very difficult to recover the damage from even one complaint. When husband and wife fight, as sometimes happens, the wife may get so upset and emotional that she will rush upstairs and pack her suitcase to leave. But once you pack up, it becomes harder to unpack; so don’t-pack up! Even if you pack, don’t go out the front door-it is very difficult to re-enter. Even though you wives might be in the worst possible situation, I can concede you the right to go as far as packing up your luggage, but don’t take it out the front door! Come into the room, look at the luggage, then go out again; come in and look at it again, then leave the room. Let your husband look at it. Bluff a little bit. But digest the situation. When you go in and out several times, your husband will change. After a few times, you can bridge the gap between you.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">The greatest virtue of a husband or wife is that of patience. The man of patience becomes the true subject. Gain the qualities of patience, sacrifice and service. Whenever you come to Belvedere, you hear basically the same thing every time: “Go out and suffer; be patient; persevere. Put yourself in the sacrificial position to serve others.” Sometimes people think, “I’m sick and tired of hearing that from Father. I just don’t want to go to Belvedere anymore because I know Father will say that again!” But I tell you, you must appreciate this teaching. It is the best thing you can hear.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Through fulfilling these words, you shall become the greatest victor, without ever having to engage in battle. The people whom you defeat will have no hostility or resentment toward you. Instead, they will be completely humble and want to follow you. Isn’t that the best method? Do you think the American people will eventually follow my way of life, or will I surrender to the American way? With this Principle, I can declare to this country, “You can do whatever you want, including putting me jail, but no matter what, you are destined to follow the Principle.” Is that true? Look at my life. I have been accused and persecuted throughout my 62 years, but what has happened? Now the Republic of Korea is starting to come behind me, as is Japan. Many young people of the United States, the fruits of this nation, are also following Reverend Moon.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">No matter what other people may say, when you come here, you feel good, although you are sitting on the floor. You might visit some plush, comfortable church with beautiful stained glass windows, thick carpeting, cushioned pews and so forth. Can you imagine some American minister reaching down like I am right now and tapping one of the ladies on the head? It would become a big scandal! The minister would probably be fired the same day. But here, I hit people on the head, pinch their cheeks and so forth, and the same people keep coming every Sunday morning and even compete to sit in front. Why is that?</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">You don’t feel any offense when I touch you because I do it with love. Maybe I hit you so hard that it stings, but it is a sweet pain. You don’t feel any resentment inside. We don’t find people saying, “Since Father hit me twice today, I want to take revenge and hit him back at least ten times!” You know that I do what I do out of love. You feel the power of that love.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Love is so powerful, it can melt even God. If someone hits you or accuses you unjustly, you can be patient because you know that if he does it three times, he will have to surrender. If he doesn’t surrender after three times, be patient up to seven times. If he doesn’t surrender by then, be patient up to twelve times. Twelve represents an entire circle-twelve months, and so forth.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Jesus Christ was a very patient man. He lived and worked with twelve difficult people-the disciples. He put up with them, over and over again, tolerating their failures. Since each disciple represented an extreme characteristic of human nature, Jesus had an incredible burden to tolerate.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">If you can take care of twelve rascally people and keep them happy, then the Kingdom of Heaven will be opened to you freely. In order to get that free pass, you need a special card of qualification.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">In the Korean folk song “Arirang,” the Arirang Hill is the twelfth hill to climb. We have been singing this song for 5,000 years. Only after gaining victory can you enjoy peace. Within that peace you find the dwelling place of true love. That is the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and in heaven. Do you want to go there? We must start here. You cannot wait until you get to spirit world because it will be too late.</span></p>
|
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<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times;">Can you say, “I understand now, Father, and I will follow this path”? Let us pledge this with both hands raised. Thank you and God bless you.</span></p>
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@ -0,0 +1,142 @@
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---
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title: "VICTORY OF GOD"
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type: "speech"
|
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published: "2018-06-22T06:11:32+01:00"
|
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updated: "2018-06-22T06:11:32+01:00"
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source: "/blog/2018/06/22/victory-of-god.html"
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speechYear: "1982"
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categories:
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- "Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982"
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tags: []
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---
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<p><center></p>
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<h2>REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
|
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<p></center><center></p>
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<h3>May 9, 1982<br />
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Belvedere, America<br />
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Translator – Bo Hi Pak</h3>
|
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<p></center>Good morning everybody. My topic this morning is “Victory of God.” When I said “victory” you applauded, even though I had not said anything yet. Victory sounds good-it tastes good to the tongue-but its contents are very difficult. Let us consider where we can apply the word ‘victory.”</p>
|
||||
<p>Imagine’ a contest of all different kinds of hands. In order to win this contest, a hand must have all its necessary components. It must be perfect in everyone’s eyes. The same is true about the eyes, the nose, and all the different organs of the body. In order to be perfect, all the essential components must be in place.</p>
|
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<p>At an arboretum, you see millions of different plants; each has its own characteristics, its own shape and form</p>
|
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<p>Suppose there were a contest or exhibit of human beings. There is actually such a thing-the Miss Universe and Miss America pageants, for example. I have always wondered why they have such contests for individuals Miss America, Mr. America-but they don’t have a “Mr. and Mrs.” contest, a Universal Couple pageant. What about a contest of families?</p>
|
||||
<p>Even more valuable would be a universal tribe contest. What about a contest of nations? All the heads of state, starting with the U.S. president, could gather together to judge the nations. Why not a world and a cosmic contest?</p>
|
||||
<p>We see that the world is full of contests and competition. This is an aspect of life. Among all the contests, which would be the most precious? What would be Gods victory? What contest is so close to the heart of God? It is the contest of true love.</p>
|
||||
<p>Are there many different kinds of true love, or only one true love? Consider pure 24K gold. Is 24K gold different in Korea from 24K gold in America? No. The standard, the criterion for pure gold is universal; it is the same everywhere. The same is true for diamonds –identical criteria and standards for diamonds apply in America or in the Cape Horn of Africa.</p>
|
||||
<p>What is the essence of the diamond? Is a diamond a diamond because it glitters so brilliantly, or because it is so hard? Hardness is the standard for diamonds. Why is the pearl considered precious? Does the pearl’s value also he in its hardness? No, the harmony of its coloring is the essence of the pearl’s value. The pearl’s colors are unchanging, so it does not lose its value over time. Its luster will not change with the seasons; and it will be the same under water or on dry land.</p>
|
||||
<p>Think of these values applied to human beings. Who will be the diamond-like man? Who is the pearl-like person? How can we judge a person’s value? You say the standard is unchanging love, yet in America today everyone is dashing one way and another, chasing ephemeral fads and fashions. Is that the way of life of the precious man, the diamond-like person? Don’t you have some urge to follow current fashions? When we say ‘urge in English, it means moving toward something without thinking, almost unconsciously.</p>
|
||||
<p>I want you to know that precious things, like the diamond, carry their own value. Others see that value and respect it and are affected by it. Who is the more precious person, one who is influenced by others or one who can influence others? Of course, there are both good and bad influences. Would the Jewel-like, pearl-like person give good or bad influence?</p>
|
||||
<p>You say “good,” but is your standard of goodness the same as Gods? There are so many varieties of goodness, so many different standards and definitions. When God says “good” it is one thing; when people say “good” it is often something else. God’s good is plus, and your good is also plus. Then which one takes the initiative? Should God’s standard take the initiative, or should ours?</p>
|
||||
<p>Because you are Moonies, you say God’s standard should be taking the initiative. But if you ask a communist, he will say, “My standard should take the initiative. There is no such thing as God.” Communists have their claim, and Moonies have their claim. Which one is true? Why is the Moonies’ claim true? Because you are Moonies? I am sure there are many answers, but the most important point is that the Moonies’ definition of good is unchanging, no matter what. Wherever a Moonie goes, he is always the same person. Do you become different at night? No. A Moonie is a Moonie at night, at dawn and during the day. That means your contents are the same, inside and out.</p>
|
||||
<p>The communists are different. They say one thing and do something else. They he for the sake of their cause, for their own purposes, and they do not feel any pain in their conscience. They would do anything to advance their cause; for them, the end justifies the means. Communists want to create some conflict which they can fight about and win over others, to beat them down and destroy them. So communism seeks to influence others, but it is a bad influence. They seek to govern the world by fear and threats. They threaten lives and they carry out those threats, resorting to violence. They are not the same inside and out. They promise the most peaceful things through propaganda, but they do the most terrible things.</p>
|
||||
<p>Their words and deeds are different because of their concept of struggle. Communist theory holds that changes for the better will always come up against a force opposing them, so by overcoming that force something greater can be created. But this theory is completely false. Do you think that by fighting, a greater thing can be created? No. Struggling reduces people. They are hurt, and ultimately they destroy themselves. You must understand that struggle decreases value, not increases it. So when communists claim that struggle creates greater value, it is baloney. The truth is that only through harmony and mutual give and take through fusion, in scientific terms can greater results come.</p>
|
||||
<p>What is the basic doctrine of education? When parents send their children to school they say, “Don’t be a problem. Don’t get into a fight with anybody.” Why? Parents know that fighting only brings harm to their child, so they want him to harmonize with others. Learning to be harmonized with others, to embrace others-that is the essence of education.</p>
|
||||
<p>The communist theory of struggle is truly destructive. It is a straight-line theory, with no way to turn and make a circle. Circular motion is the only lasting, eternal motion, and it requires give and take between the extremes of high and low. If the lower echelon and the higher echelon are fighting each other, that only brings destruction. Therefore, the communist theory of dialectical materialism will not suffice. It is not true. They came up with that theory after observing certain phenomena on the surface; it appeared to be true. But when we look deep inside to the essence of things, there is no “dialectical materialism.”</p>
|
||||
<p>Let us look at a mature tree in full flower. Would the flowers say, “I must continue to struggle, even up to the sky”? No, in order to bring new growth, the flowers must drop to the ground, become seeds again, and another cycle must begin. It is only through such circular, give and take motion that we find development and advancement.</p>
|
||||
<p>The diamond maintains its own value and gives influence to others in a good way. Let us consider the influence of the United States, one of the great nations of the world today. More and more nations are accusing the United States and turning against her. Why is that? America is being rejected by the world because it is not a true nation. It is a false nation. America has become so self-centered, it is always taking resources and pulling them into its own pockets. In the eyes of God, anyone thinking first of himself is false.</p>
|
||||
<p>What is the definition of an evil person? Is a black man bad, in the eyes of a white man? Why do you say no? The definition of a bad man is not connected with the color of his skin, but with his inner motivation. Anyone who tries to take everything for himself and to sacrifice others for himself is evil.</p>
|
||||
<p>We must understand clearly the definition of evil. A synonym for evil is greediness. Satan is the most greedy one who is trying to pull all God’s assets to himself. That is evil, and Satan is evil.</p>
|
||||
<p>Are you bad or good? Each “I” is good when he serves the sake of something else. “I” must be looking at things not for my own sake, but for the sake of others. Your ear should listen to something for the sake of the nation or world, for greater things, not just your own pleasure. If your mouth eats not just for you but to gain energy to serve the nation and world, that is good.</p>
|
||||
<p>Do American youth like this definition of goodness? Americans are said to be pragmatic. Pragmatism in itself is not evil. The question is, for whose sake are you pragmatic-for others, or just yourself? Is America’s pragmatism sacrificial or self-centered? All these are basic, fundamental aspects of good and evil.</p>
|
||||
<p>A person who lives only for his or her own sake will encounter the entire universe coming against him. The universe is looking to promote goodness. When it sees selfishness, it repels it and tries to throw it out. That is why anyone who lives a selfish life will be fearfully lonely. He has no true friends. Can such a person find peace, happiness, or tranquillity? Is that possible?</p>
|
||||
<p>Do you think there are more happy or unhappy people in the world? What about you? Why are you, happy? It is because you are living like the diamond and the pearl. Your way of life is to give good influence to others.</p>
|
||||
<p>In what way are we influencing this world? What does the vast cosmos desire? Does it want bread and butter? Does it want a great fighter, a powerful general? Would the universe find joy in a brilliant Nobel Prize winner? Well, what does the cosmos want to see? You say true love, and I cannot find any answer better than that.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you say true love, are you speaking of the kind of love you give once, and then never again? Is it the kind of love you give out, waiting for it to come back, with interest? That is pragmatic love; you give it once and wait for it to come back.</p>
|
||||
<p>Does true love give only once, or is it giving continually? If you give and keep giving, unconditionally and unselfishly, you may think you are losing everything, but a great circular motion is bringing everything back to you. You see, I am very pragmatic too. In true love, everything comes back to you, without any confrontation or deviation.</p>
|
||||
<p>There is no special way that a loving husband must touch his wife. Anywhere he touches, it feels good to her. The bottom of the foot or the top of her head-wherever he touches, it becomes a love spot. Love has no limits; therefore, there is no resistance to love. This means there is no concept of struggle in love. Harmony, welcoming and warmth are within love. There is no repulsion, coldness, or rejection. Do you agree?</p>
|
||||
<p>When parents correct their children with a loving heart, they will speak unselfishly and for the good of the children, even when they scold. Sometimes parents may be so harsh that the child becomes very angry. He may run away a few miles, and then repent. He will realize, “Oh no, they scolded me because they love me. Otherwise they wouldn’t do that.’</p>
|
||||
<p>True repentance is engendered only by the power of love. When Jesus proclaimed, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand,” it meant that true love was near, because only true love can give the power of repentance. Do you agree with me? Even if this theory is false, I would like it, because there is nothing better.</p>
|
||||
<p>Now we know that the universal, never-boxing topic for literature or music is the topic of love. Tell yourself that true love is dwelling within you, and that no power under the sun can diminish or destroy it. The color of pure gold is very rich. That rich gold color is also very calming-, it imparts a feeling of peace. The color of the sky at sunrise and sunset is a rich golden color. God is trying to influence you with these peaceful colors. He wants you to wake up with a peaceful mind and go to sleep in peace.</p>
|
||||
<p>Gold is also a soft metal. It can be molded and is not hard like the diamond. The person who has a character with the quality of gold is a peaceful person. The essential quality of the pearl is harmony.</p>
|
||||
<p>I am a spiritual leader, but I do not dress like one and wear a high collar or black robes. I am capable of harmonizing with any sort of environment. When I went to the prison labor camp, I did hard labor. When I go out to fish, I am a successful fisherman. When I go to a factory, I become one with the factory workers. In a mine, I can be a good miner. When I meet with scholars, I gain their respect. So I can harmonize with everybody.</p>
|
||||
<p>What about you young people? You love Reverend Moon, don’t you? Old people and children also love me. Young women look at Reverend Moon as an ideal type of husband and think, “Where can I find another man like that?” My character is deep, not shallow, so wherever I go, I instantly harmonize with the environment and I am friendly with it.</p>
|
||||
<p>In the Unification Church tradition, should a newly assigned leader show up at his new center saying, “I am the king, and you are the subjects. You must obey me”? No, not at all. There is a typical Moonie follower who wants to hide in an easy role, an easy position. Is that true? Some of you are saying “no”, but not so many. When I say to the Korean leaders, “Let’s go riding in the boat,* they know my standard for riding in the boat, so they would like to hide. I am deliberately testing them, watching their faces.</p>
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||||
<p>Should a harmonious person hate the sea? No, he should be welcomed even by the sea. The ocean has something to offer. When you ride around on the vast ocean, it will say, “Move on me at the fastest possible speed.” I always want to respond to that. I tell the ocean “All right, I will ride on you as fast as possible,” and the engines start to burn at that point. I have such a dialogue with the ocean.</p>
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||||
<p>Because I go to the ocean, does that mean I hate the mountains? What about you women? You love to behold the mountains, but you don’t like to climb them., do you? If you only look at the mountain, you will never become the master of it. Do you men want to climb mountains?</p>
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||||
<p>When I first came to the United States, I traveled for 40 days and nights. I crisscrossed this country from north to south, from east to west. The land was speaking to me, saying, “Come visit my state. Please walk on me.” When I was riding in the station wagon, I was feeling the land’s desire, so I had to respond to that and keep going. But the driver didn’t know about my conversation with the land. He would say, “It’s midnight, so why don’t we stop at the next Holiday Inn?’ But I said, -No, please keep going.” One a.m. came, then 2:00 a.m., and we would pass another motel. Still I pushed the driver to keep ping.</p>
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||||
<p>Why was I pushing him to drive even at 3:00 in the morning? At those hours no one else is driving, so we had the entire highway to ourselves. I really want to be the champion in demonstrating love for this land. I felt that in the 200 years of American history, no one else had done that. I wanted to set the record. I wanted to greet all 50 states because I knew each one was waiting to see me. I visited each and every one of the 50 states, and I went out to meet the people with a genuinely loving heart.</p>
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||||
<p>Even so, many people were very unkind and persecuted me. That negativity almost became like a neurosis or an obsession for some people. When they heard the word “moon” they thought “Reverend Moon.” They would go out at night and see the moon shining and think, “Oh no, that reminds me of Reverend Moon.” But I knew that nature in this country had genuinely welcomed me, even though the American people hadn’t.</p>
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<p>Why do I stay in this country? Who is loving Reverend Moon? The Jewish people, organized Christianity, the U.S. government, the Congress everyone hates me, so how can I stay here? Who loves Reverend Moon? You say you do because you are Moonies, but there are other kinds of Moonies, ex-Moonies. Some of them even came to court to testify against me. Therefore, even Moonies don’t love me. It seems that clever Moonies are rejecting Reverend Moon and leaving. Are you all dumb for staying here?</p>
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<p>The situation here in America is absolutely incredible. The authorities are trying to say that the Unification Church is not really a religion. They say, “We will not treat Reverend Moon as a religious leader or his followers as religious people.” They are trying to take away the tax exemption on our church property. Not only that, they are trying to kick me out of the country. That is what is behind this court battle.</p>
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<p>However, I feel such negativity is okay. Let them begin with this giant amount of negativity. When they learn a little more, their negativity will decrease. As they learn still more, it will become smaller and smaller, and finally disappear. Then they will become slightly positive and as they learn more, their positivity will grow and grow until it is a giant positivity. Do you think that will happen in the future, or not? That is the history of the Unification Church. In the past, there was great negativity, but eventually it comes to the crossing point, and that negativity becomes positivity.</p>
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<p>Some of you women are already thinking about the family you will have someday. You have started pulling on your fiancee, saying, “You are so busy doing home church, witnessing and fundraising. When are you going to take care of me?” Some are saying, “I don’t want my husband to be only a high school graduate. Give up your mission and go to college!” I know that this is going on now. There are members who are thinking, “Well, I have done enough for the church and I have given enough years of my life. It is time to start thinking of the future, of my family to come.”</p>
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<p>So far we have been fighting a fierce front line battle, and the victory is coming-the victory of God. But a fierce battle causes much destruction. The victors in battle must rebuild the area they gain. That is where we are now, beginning a great reconstruction. The time to rebuild is a painful period. It is the time when we will truly shed our tears, our sweat and our blood.</p>
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<p>The time will come when the American people realize what a great mistake they have made, and they will welcome you Moonies. I worry that, when that time comes, you may be totally exhausted. Mothers, please raise your hands. If I asked you to go out and work for the mission, leaving your family behind, would you like it? Would you say yes or no? When you received such a direction, would you immediately worry about your baby, who would feed him and change his diapers? Or would you think, “No matter what, I will go!”</p>
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<p>What about me? Don’t you think I received that type of mandate from God, to march forward to the enemy camp? Actually, I received the worst persecution from the members of my immediate family, especially in the case of my first marriage. At that time I had a child, too; but when I received the order from heaven to go to North Korea, I just went. Nothing could stop me. I knew that suffering and possible death were waiting for me there but I marched forward, toward the prison camp in North Korea. God was pushing me to go and I did not hesitate to say yes.</p>
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||||
<p>When I left Korea for the United States, the Korean members were very unhappy. They said, “What about us? Why are you going to the United States? Please stay here and give the orders; we will take care of everything.” The 36 couples implored me to stay in Korea. I told them that I was not going for glory, but that I was willing to endure anything and be imprisoned. Only after that could the final victory come.</p>
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||||
<p>Now my prediction has come true. That battle is at its peak. The power of the United States of America has come against me in the form of an indictment. I do not fear it; I am walking straight into this battle and meeting the challenge. When the government initiated the tax case, they thought that I would not come back to fight it. That is what they wanted; they wanted me out of the country. But they were wrong, weren’t they? I did not take the pragmatic way, I took the providential way, the spiritual way. I walked straight into their trap, knowing full well it was there.</p>
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<p>Next week is going to be the final week when the verdict will be reached. The court has decided that we are a legitimate religion; so we may raise funds legally and proselytize to increase the membership. But they still hold on to one thing: they don’t want Reverend Moon. They want to kick me out. Well, well see!</p>
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||||
<p>So far we have been engaged in hundreds of court battles in different states and cities throughout the United States. Some of the most famous lawyers are connected with the Unification Church. Whatever field you name, constitutional lawyers, litigation lawyers, tax lawyers, the beat are connected with us. These people not only come to know the legal problems of the Unification Church but they come to know our religion. In particular, they come to know Reverend Sun Myung Moon. They come to feel that America has treated me wrongly, and they want to fight for us.</p>
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<p>Many leading philosophers and theologians have come to our seminary for seminars or orientations. Great scientists and scholars from all over the world have known about Reverend Moon and his teaching for years. That is the achievement of the science conferences. This year we are organizing the Professor’s World Peace Academy in forty different nations.</p>
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||||
<p>Now we have organized the “God Conference,” inviting top scholars and theologians from all religions. These scholars come together to discuss the subject of God. It is amazing! That is the only word for it. But in order to bring this amazing thing about, I have spent so many, many hours. I have spent sleepless nights for years.</p>
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<p>I have been engaged in the court battle since March 22, but throughout that time, gigantic things have been happening. First was the creation of The Washington Times. Another is the creation of the Victory Over Communism organization among Korean residents in this country-about 600,000 people.</p>
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<p>Why are we doing all these things? Is it for the ale of Reverend Moon? Is it for the sake of America? We are doing these things for the sake of the world and the sake of God. In order to serve humanity and to serve God, I will walk any kind of stony path. At the grassroots level, you encounter a great deal of opposition in this country, but I want you to realize that there is a great deal of breakthrough at the highest possible levels. As we penetrate higher and higher, the negativity will decrease and turn into positivity. When the leaders and educated people in this country come out in support of Reverend Moon, the ephemeral public opinion will change. There is no question about that.</p>
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||||
<p>Ordinarily, when someone is involved in a court battle, their appearance and demeanor is like someone going to a funeral. But I am looking at the court battle as a harvest. There is a big job to do; the mission goes on and nothing will deter me. This will remain true even if I must go to jail. The march of the Unification Church and of God’s providence will not pause for even one second.</p>
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<p>The purpose of our fundraising is very clear-it is not for ourselves. We are making money with sweat and tears for the sake of the world. The funds earned in America are for the purpose of the whole world. In this way, we are actually doing a great favor to America. Resentment against this nation has been building throughout the world. We are working to change the viewpoint of America from selfish to unselfish. Today the attitude of the rest of the world is ‘Yankee go home.” We are going to change that to “Welcome, Yankee.” Who shall create that turning point? The Moonies will do it. Even though the U.S. is trying to throw us out the door, we are doing them a great favor. We collect dollars from them and use that money for the whole world. That is how the turning point is being created. In this way, we are making America into a place where God can dwell.</p>
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<p>Consider how much money is wasted in this country for the worst purposes. Drugs are becoming a bigger industry than automobiles. More than $40 billion dollars every year is wasted on drugs, and the cost in human life is horrendous. Who can stop this? We can. We are converted people, made anew. Without using drugs, cigarettes or alcohol we are spearheading a world-wide revolution. As the power of our movement increases’ it is bringing the solution to America’s problems. If this becomes a truly national movement, with television advertisements, schools and colleges supporting it, what will happen? In that case will America become more corrupt and be destroyed, or will it be truly resurrected?</p>
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||||
<p>America is the leader in the world, and the youth of the whole world adopt and follow what is happening here. So if this. movement of goodness turns America around, won’t the youth in the rest of the world follow? What will happen if the Moon movement becomes the newest fashion? They will want to dress the way you dress. They will look at how you live, and they will want to live just as you do. Then they will quit smoking, drinking, and using drugs. They will work hard and go fundraising and witnessing. If this becomes the worldwide fashion, will you like it?</p>
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||||
<p>People will look at the Unification marriage tradition and say, “They are engaged by matching and then they wait three years or more to prepare a spiritual foundation. That is the best tradition.’ More and more youth of the world win come to Reverend Moon to be matched. After matching, you hardly even shake hands. In the Unification tradition, kissing and calling each other sweetheart are virtually unheard of before marriage. Let’s imagine that this became the fashion of America. Do you think this country would be destroyed by that?</p>
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<p>Another great sickness of America today is the gay movement. I pity them because they do not know the Principle of Creation. They need to be taught that men must love women, not other men. Once the Principle of Creation is understood, will that inspire America, or push America in the wrong direction?</p>
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<p>Another aspect of America today is the attitude: “Lees just have fun,* and indulging in so-called “free sex.” But once you understand about the fall of man, you cannot have free sex. Even if a person goes dancing all night at the disco, if he knows the Principle he will have nothing to do with free sex. We are going to create a moral, clean America. So can everyone marry twice, and more? Is that what the Principle of Creation says? Some of you may even think, “Well, Reverend Moon finally engaged me, but my fiancee is not my ideal. Something is lacking. Maybe I should go back to the free way of life, where I can do anything I want.”</p>
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<p>Let’s make a simple decision in our minds: there is an incredible, extraordinary Moon Boom coming. Do you think that Moon Boom will destroy America and the rest of the world? Or do you think that for the first time, the world will see hope? Would God cry out at that sad and tragic condition, or wouldn’t He rejoice? What about Satan: would he rejoice too? He would be miserable.</p>
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<p>Then God could say, “All right, Satan. You see the Moon Boom out there. You have no chance for victory. Surrender now.” Even Satan will resist until the last minute, but he will have to surrender. He will know his last day has arrived. Finally he will submit and say, “Yes, my God.” After all, he is a former angel, and there will be no Satan anymore.</p>
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<p>Until World War 11, the struggle between God and Satan was over the land. Since World War II, the struggle has been over people. Now we are at the point where the struggle is between two ideologies, that which affirms God and that which denies God’s existence. The final battle to come will be the true love battle. It will be the ultimate, climactic battle, and the Unification Church and you Moonies are now engaged in that battle. Go forward without fear, without becoming tired. We will conquer the hearts of men not with money, not by power or schemes, but with true love.</p>
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<p>God and Satan have been waging a battle throughout history. What has been the focal point of that battle? True love, centering on the true definition of good and evil. True love is the ultimate weapon to defeat Satan. When Satan is hit by true love, he will be finished. But that true love must be absolutely pure. If a portion of it is tainted, then Satan can still invade. When the pure true love strikes Satan, that is the end of the battle.</p>
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<p>How long will this battle continue? Will it take thousands more years, hundreds of years? There is a providential period of seven years. If victory is not achieved in seven years, the period will be prolonged to twenty-one years. If it is still not finished, the period will be prolonged to forty years.</p>
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<p>I have been walking this path, and the three seven-year courses are over. Did I consummate those courses successfully, or did I fail? I proclaimed the second three seven-year courses. Are the second twenty-one years my path or your path? They are yours. And if you are successful, whose course will be the third twenty-one years? Your children’s.</p>
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<p>The heavenly four positions must be united in three generations. In your case, it is your grand</p>
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<p>parents, your parents and you. God is the first generation, Adam and Even the second generation, and their children the third. When their true love was not consummated, the fall of man came about. The binding force of these three generations is true love. Grandparents should recognize the importance of their children, and they in turn should recognize the importance of their children, the third generation. They must stand behind them and influence them from the back.</p>
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<p>Looking at your face, the eyes represent God’s level. The eyes are the universal watchers, seeing in every direction, moving back and forth. The eye is the only truly round shape in your body. That is why your eyes are at the top. The forehead represents the spirit world. The mouth deals with all the things of creation, such as the food we eat, so it represents the fact that man is given dominion over all creation. The nose represents Adam and Eve. When you move forward, the nose goes first. The nose has two holes, the nostrils, which are united into one at the top. The nose connects eventually to all five openings through the sinuses. The right nostril represents men and the left represents women. The nose breathes-God is breathing through men. We breathe air; but in the case of God, God is breathing love-through man.</p>
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<p>In the spirit world there is no oxygen, so the air we breathe is love. God wants to train you to breathe this atmosphere of love before you reach spirit world; for that reason, God created men and women on earth. When you have a bad cold and you can only breathe through one nostril, that is like a divorce. Then you have to breathe through your mouth. God can breathe through all things of creation, but He needs men and women to breathe properly.</p>
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<p>What about the teeth? You have 32 teeth-four times eight. Four represents all things of creation in the four directions-north, south, east and west. Eight represents a new start. That is why the digestive system deals with the entire universe. When man laughs, what begins that action-eyes, nose, mouth? First the eyes laugh. That means that God should rejoice first, and then man. When you laugh, your nose flattens out. Then you make a loud noise with your mouth; all things of the creation respond.</p>
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<p>For an Oriental baby, the nose is the last part to grow. A newborn baby’s face just has two holes-the nose grows slowly as the baby grows. Among all the creatures, man was the last to be</p>
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<p>created and to grow. The shape of the nose is very important. When I look at a person, the shape of his nose tells lots of stories about him. You white people have ancestors from the polar regions of the north. That is why you have a longer nose, with narrow holes. Air must be warmed before it can go to the lungs. Oriental people come from a semitropical area, so their nose is shorter, and the nostrils are wider. The black race comes from the hottest climates, so their nose is even shorter and the nostrils are wider, because they have to take in lots of air. This is the law of nature, so that when you accept nature’s law, you can accept the white, black and yellow race. But if you reject black people, for example, and become racist, it means you are rejecting nature.</p>
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<p>The technology of transportation has advanced to the point that this planet has become a small unit. Therefore, the time has come when all people should be united into one. By what means is this unity to be achieved? What power can do that? It is only the power of true love. Does true love mean that white people must only marry whites, and that black people must marry blacks? Would you like distance between plus and minus to be small, or to be very great? (The greatest!) You’re greedy, aren’t you? You want to encompass more territory, don’t you?</p>
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<p>Would you like to make just a vertical motion, or only a horizontal motion? Would you like to make a circling motion? So motion should not just be just East to West or black to white, but it should encompass 360 degrees. You come from the Western culture and you’ve eaten cheeseburgers all your life, so you don’t like kimchee, right? You have always sat on chairs, but are you able to sit on the floor, too?</p>
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<p>The very first American member came to visit me in Korea after he joined. He sat down on the floor and proceeded to virtually lie down. In Korea, it is inexcusable to sit like that in front of an elder. Why did he do that? He said, “I have no chair here.” Chair or no chair, if someone acts like that in front of the chief of any village in Korea, he will be thrown out. With this Belvedere training, you have a double benefit: You are listening to Reverend Moon and also learning about the Oriental way. You will be able to go to Korea or Japan and fit in just fine there. You are lucky to have the carpet here. Not long ago there was no carpet, only the concrete floor. In Korea and Japan, you sit on the stone or wooden floor, so if you are accustomed to carpet, you are not sufficiently trained yet.</p>
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<p>For many centuries, Western missionaries made terrible mistakes in Africa. They were supposed to be the messengers of the word and the love of God. But they went there saying, “You are primitive people and we are civilized. You live in your grass shack and I will live here in this nice house.* For centuries Africans have known white people through the deeds of these missionaries, and how much damage has been done? Then, suddenly, a new kind of missionary has come to Africa-the Moon missionaries. They came and lived as the Africans, together with the people so that they might all be elevated together. They became very fond of the African culture. To raise and educate people, you must become one with them. There is no other way to do it. That is the way we work. That is the natural way. The higher person goes down to the lower level, and the lower person is raised up. That is a beautiful, dramatic way of life. Meanwhile the universe is moving in the circular motion of give and take.</p>
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<p>When people feel that they have been deserted and deceived, it is because someone has acted selfishly toward them. If you live for the sake of others, there is no way that others can feel deceived by you. So our way of life is the eternal way of life. The law of the spirit world is exactly the same. I am teaching you this way so that you will be ready to obey the spiritual law in heaven. I want you to become people who habitually obey spiritual law here on earth.</p>
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<p>Life is ruled by habits, so you are getting in the habit of obeying spiritual law. Unification Church members are people who habitually live for the sake of others, wherever they go. When you are elevated to the spiritual world, you win be automatically living that law, and you will have no limitation; you will be totally free. So make good habits, good eternal spiritual habits here on earth. That is our way of life.</p>
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||||
<p>Those who welcome MFT and fundraising, raise your hands. You are lying, aren’t you? Maybe everyone thinks that relaxing, having an easy day is the best life. Those who were willing and happy to go to school every day, raise your hands. If you Claim that, I don’t think you are telling the truth. There are certain things we are not born to do but which we MUST do, by the force of will. And we make a habit of these things. An example is going to school and studying hard, creating a discipline and habit of that. In doing MFT fundraising also you make a habit of it. And along the way you learn to read people. When you are trained in fundraising, you will not starve; you’ll never be economically stranded. What about witnessing? Witnessing is nothing other than acquiring the habit of liking people. One part of you is saying, ‘I hate it,” but you go anyway. That is the habit of loving people. When you form that habit in this world, and you go off to the spirit world, you will be loved there.</p>
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||||
<p>When you go to spirit world, you will be able to see and hear things for a million miles-without limit. The spirit world is full of people, because no one dies there. There are so many people everywhere. If you are a person who does not like other people, what will you do in spirit world. You win have to confine yourself in a place of solitude, a dark place, and that is hell. But when you are disciplined to love people, you will be full of vitality. With so many people to love you will have a wonderful life, without a single dull moment. When you are elevated to that world with so much love to sprinkle over the people, what a wonderful life you will lead!</p>
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||||
<p>Perhaps you are complaining a bit now, but when you get to the next world you will say, “Reverend Moon, thank you! Your teaching trained me in the habit of loving people.” The Bible teaches us to love even our enemies. If you can love your enemies, then as a matter of course you can love everyone.</p>
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<p>The number one enemy of God on the world level is communism, and we have to solve that problem. In the meantime, every other enemy is a lesser one. If we can love everyone else-how can we not love the communists? If I ask you, “Do you want to go to the Kingdom of Heaven in heaven’, everyone’s answer will be yes. If I tell you what you have to do to go there, will you do it? What you have to do is to love the nation of your enemies. Actually it is not necessary to go to another nation. If you love your enemy, just one man, in the spirit world you will be given credit for loving an entire nation.</p>
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||||
<p>The other day a former member of the Unification Church testified against me in court. Many of our members were furious, saying, “How can he do such a thing?” But I was not angry at him. He is a pitiful person, for his mistake will follow him during his life here on earth and for all time to come in the spirit world. In the future the transcript of the trial will be used in thousands ‘of sermons, and scholars will discuss it and write dissertations about it. In those sermons and papers, he will be identified as a betrayer. What a pitiful road he is taking! He may not realize it, but his children and his tribe shall regret his actions. Therefore he is a pitiful person and I am truly sorry for him. Instead of hating him, I love him.</p>
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||||
<p>I want you to know that my words today are not ephemeral or temporary. I am deadly serious about this. This is the way of life I want you to live, here on earth and afterwards in the spirit world. Do not take this teaching lightly.</p>
|
||||
<p>Fundraising is the way you can be trained in the habit of loving the creation. Witnessing trains you in the habit of loving people. These are the two most fundamental activities of the Unification Church. Once these two ways of loving become habits for you, when you go to the spirit world, you will continue on the same road. If you walk that road and practice it, then you can say you are loving the enemy.</p>
|
||||
<p>I am walking that road, practicing these things. You may be following me now, but when you get tired, will you quit? What is your destination? Do you think that your goal and mine should be separate? Do we have two different goals? That means you have no choice but to go my way and to accept my teaching, doesn’t it? I want to help you become people who habitually follow a Godly way of life. After you are habitually living this way of life, you don’t have to make effort anymore. You just live. When your life on earth is consummated, you will enter the Kingdom of Heaven in heaven automatically.</p>
|
||||
<p>Therefore, restrain yourself from doing comfortable things. Eat less, sleep less, and go out and face more tribulation. For sixty years I have been running in the front line, taking the arrows and head winds first, but nothing can stop me. I am always pushing myself out first. Think of it one Korean man came here to America and became a nationwide controversy. It is not easy to become controversial in the eyes of 240 million people! Furthermore, even the communists are trembling because of Reverend Moon.</p>
|
||||
<p>After the completion of this court battle, I will have shown you everything I want you to see. That will not be the end of it, however. I will go on. Win you follow, even if I give you a hard time? Why is that? Your mind and heart know that this is the right direction to go. You recognize that true love lies in that direction, and the true way of life.</p>
|
||||
<p>This morning our topic is the victory of God. What is the victory of God? Can any nation say that it is God’s nation? Is there any sovereignty which belongs to God? What about God’s people? Where are they? There are people who want to become God’s people, but there are no true, perfected people of God. Therefore God has no nation, no sovereignty, no citizens, and no land which He can claim as His own. Actually the entire earth was supposed to be God’s land. Who will make that happen in reality? You will do that? It won’t be easy.</p>
|
||||
<p>Who is supposed to be God’s people? All mankind was supposed to be God’s people. Do you want to become a U.S. citizen, a French citizen, or a citizen of the Kingdom of God? There are now about 150-200 sovereignties on earth, but where is Gods sovereignty? Korea has its sovereignty, as do Germany and America. Each country has its head of state, but where is Gods sovereignty?</p>
|
||||
<p>God created this world it was to be His. So once again, the sovereignty of God must be established in reality. But now, the planet Earth is governed by Satan, who cleverly chopped up the planet into so many sovereignties. Satan’s tactic is to keep them separated permanently, not allowing them to unite. Division is always the work of Satan. He wants to divide people between black and white. He is dividing the communist world and the free world.</p>
|
||||
<p>Who shall unite this world into one? If Billy Graham says that he will make white and black into one, would anybody listen? Particularly black people would say, “Billy Graham, you are white. No matter what, your skin cannot become darker.” What if a black man says, “I am the one to bring unity. All white people, come unto me.” Would they listen? No. We need glue in the middle. Who will be the best glue in the middle? A yellow man. He can say to both the white man and the black man, “Come here and hold my hand.” Then should that hand be a weak hand or a strong one?</p>
|
||||
<p>There are roughly 650 million black people and 850 million white people in the world. In contrast, there are about 3.2 billion yellow people. How strong is that? So the Asian race must unite together first, not in order to conquer the other races but to bring about unity with them. I am a representative of the yellow race; therefore you white and black people came to me.</p>
|
||||
<p>Ultimately if you want to follow me, you must first help to make other people citizens of the Kingdom of God. When you unite people and make them citizens of the Kingdom of God, you have automatically achieved the sovereignty of God.</p>
|
||||
<p>This is why I am installing the home church providence. If we can make New York State an ideal model for the home church providence, it will have a historic impact.</p>
|
||||
<p>Where should we win, then? God wants to be victorious first over ideology. Then God would like to be victorious over effort, because if you win the battle without effort you will be accused. If we buy the victory with hard work and pay the price, then it is assured. Then God would like to be victorious over love, and finally over domain. Those are the four points: ideology, effort, love, and domain.</p>
|
||||
<p>You want to love the country, to control it and keep it under your domain. Love has discipline, a certain control and administration. You have to control love. We have to exercise dominion even over the loving husband and wife, so that they can keep that love; that is the common goal. In a family, parents and children have to help each other, to discipline themselves in the common goal.</p>
|
||||
<p>Can you find any greater ideology than that of the Unification movement. The Unification ideology is God’s ideology; there is nothing greater or more complete than that. If you follow this ideology, whether you live for one year or many will not matter. You will reach the highest level of value. Do you have that conviction? Now you have to implement this ideology, giving all your effort to it. You should determine that you want to make the most effort of anyone in human history. You should feel that you want to be foremost and do the utmost. Determine to make so much effort that no one in history can judge or accuse you. Then your ancestors will have to bow down to you and even in the future, no one will be able to surpass your efforts.</p>
|
||||
<p>You must love the world and all people. You must live love and practice love. Then you must control and administer. When God created everything, He gave the commandment to Adam and Eve not to eat of the fruit. Love cannot be without discipline and order.</p>
|
||||
<p>Do you think God ever declared His victory over these four conditions: God’s love, the earth, discipline, and ideology? No, they were all lost. That is why we are the revolutionaries for heavenly independence. How serious we must become! There were so many saints in history who lived and passed away without knowing this bare, basic truth.</p>
|
||||
<p>I have lived my entire life knowing that I cannot allow any condition to be taken by the other side. I started this way of life pledging to God that I would not let any difficulties stop me, that I would go over the family level, the tribal, national and world levels and reach His throne, in due course. That was my pledge.</p>
|
||||
<p>Now we have come to the point in America where the Unification Church will be making its settlement. We are digging in and hoisting our flag. More than any other flag, our flag represents the power and glory of God. We are revolutionaries of heaven and therefore we cannot be claimed by our families, or by one tribe or one nation. The five oceans and six continents are our stage. We do everything on this grand stage. We are creating the beat factories and machine shops. We are going to farm the oceans –that is one of our important goals. The ocean occupies two-thirds of the planet’s area and we must utilize its resources.</p>
|
||||
<p>That is how I think, for the sake of God- -God’s country, God’s nation, God’s people and God’s land. When something is happening in Africa, I do not think, “Oh, it’s only far-away Africa.” I am intensely interested in what happens there. When I hear of a problem in South America, I do not think “It’s not my problem.” It is my problem because it is God’s problem, and I immediately want to tackle it.</p>
|
||||
<p>The conflict between communism and the free world is not someone else’s problem. It is God’s problem, so I am facing squarely as my problem. What about the degradation and spiritual decline of Christianity? I will devise a way to resurrect it, because it is God’s problem. What about the corruption and decline of young people today? That, too, is my problem because it is God’s problem. I am in the forefront of the fight against communism, and I am reaching out to cleanse the young people. I want to free them from “free sex,* which has been their habitual way. That is why, even after you join our church, you can easily fall right back into that way. That’s why we don’t allow kissing or a casual attitude toward relationships.</p>
|
||||
<p>The greatest, most significant revolution in human history is taking place, greater than you know. Just as native African children might play with and discard a rough diamond because they don’t realize its value, you do not know the value of where you are now, your mission and your position. God knows that value, and so do I, but apparently you do not know it. If you do not realize this value, then you will eventually throw it away or lose it out of carelessness.</p>
|
||||
<p>Do you think that our movement can ignite a heavenly revolution, or not? What is the proof? You are the proof and the product of that revolution, right? When any evil thought comes to your mind, you automatically shy away from it as if it were a snake, because a new habit has been formed. America is dying morally and spiritually. It cannot survive the way it is going; there is no question about that. No political power can cure this disease; there must be a religious solution. The traditional religions have not been able to cure it. The Unification Church has a new method, a new solution. With pride and confidence, you can move forward to the goal.</p>
|
||||
<p>I know that if I did not return to America for this court battle, the foundation I have built up to this time would all have been lost. If I had not returned, people would say to you, “Your leader grabbed lots of money and left.” Then what would you say?</p>
|
||||
<p>I came back to face my accusers directly. People respect a fighter. Above all, you yourself must know that we are God’s righteous people, and we have nothing to be ashamed of. You must have that pride and confidence. Our adversaries are opposing us only because they do not know me. As soon as they know, their opposition will end.</p>
|
||||
<p>Knock on every door in your home church. Show them, teach them the truth. Once they learn the truth, they will not oppose you. Your battlefield is home church. Through home church God will restore His sovereignty, His people, and His land.</p>
|
||||
<p>Ideology, effort, love, and dominion are our weapons. You must become a logical person; when you speak, the logic of truth must come out. You must be capable of teaching, you must make effort and create an achievement which no one can beat; your effort, however, must be based on love and lived in the dominion of God. That is what home church is all about. Home church is making a new nation of God. You go there to serve the people, to register them, to make them citizens of that new nation. By doing this, we are making one people and one land, and automatically it will come under one sovereignty. Then we can declare the victory of God. We are marching now for the victory of God and the victory of mankind.</p>
|
||||
<p>Once the victory of God is declared, we shall all meet in a glorious banquet in heaven. At that party, arty, you can do anything you like. I may even disco dance and serve you wine! You women have been longing to wear nice cosmetics. At that celebration banquet, you can put makeup not only on your face but from head to toe. You will have a beautiful gown for the banquet and you may change every minute, if you like. You can wear rings that day, not just one but one on each joint! So you can wear twenty-eight rings in all. You can wear a necklace, earrings, bracelets, ring, arm bands, whatever you like. If it seems impossible, just wait. The spirit world will make it happen.</p>
|
||||
<p>We are already living in rhythm with the spirit world, though we are still here on earth. I am at home in nature; wherever I go I can enjoy that place as my home. I don’t need a house. I can lie down in the green grass and feel like a king. I can go to the beach and live like a king. Nature is my home. When I look at you Moonies, I feel you are very stuffy and closed. Open yourselves up! Be dramatic!</p>
|
||||
<p>We are the ones to proclaim the victory of God. By our own words and deeds, the victory of God is possible. When you walk down the street, you are not doing just a mundane thing. You can feel the entire universe echoing your movement; you are shaking the earth. When I lift my arms, the entire spirit world is watching and wanting to imitate me. So spiritual men and women lift their arms with me. How do you like that? It is exciting to live that kind of life. It is really true-it is happening. So today on this day in May let us open our hearts, open our arms and welcome and embrace the universe.</p>
|
||||
<p>There is no worldwide or universal matter which escapes my attention. That has been my way of life since -I was a young boy. I am always thinking of solutions for the world. Many people look at me as though I am crazy. I may look and sound crazy now but wait for five or ten years, and every word which I have spoken will be fulfilled.</p>
|
||||
<p>Will a person who brings the victory of God be considered a servant of God, or a, son of God? He will be known as the son of God. And if God in heaven has a sense of greatness and ambition, would He like to see a servant accomplish the victory, or His own son? I want you to know, therefore, that God’s greatest glory is to see His own children go out there to fight the battle and win the victory. What about you? Are you a servant of God or a child of God? What is the difference between me and you? I am the parent, but that is the only difference. There is no real difference.</p>
|
||||
<p>The roots, trunk and branches are basically the same-they are all parts of the same tree. Even if the trunk and roots have died but the branches are still living, you could cut those branches and stick them into the ground and they would grow roots. Are you becoming the kind of branches that can be transplanted into the ground to give new life? Even if we are planted in very dry land, we must hang on and survive and prosper. If we are planted in a small tin can, we will survive and be victorious.</p>
|
||||
<p>I am that kind of branch, giving life everywhere. Whether I go to Africa or America, I will survive. If he goes to Moscow, he will survive. if you are sure that you are branches of this big trunk called Reverend Moon, all you have to do is to go and plant yourself anywhere. Those who want to do that, raise your hands, please.</p>
|
||||
<p>Where are you going to plant yourself? Plant your branch in home church. Then a root will grow from you and you will become a strong trunk with beautiful branches. You will grow to be a strong tree which will give branches and seeds to other lands, spreading all over the world. Your branches will flower and the seeds will float on the wind and be carried to other lands. New trees will grow from them. One branch can have that kind of life and prosperity. Have you been thinking about that when you go to home church?</p>
|
||||
<p>Do you think God will appreciate the men and women who think about home church this way, or will He prefer those who think, “I am tired of home church. I want to go on a picnic. God, may I have some time off?” No, just push yourself deeper. Every time you make a visit you are pushing yourself deeper and deeper. Go for the victory of God. What a dramatic goal, the victory of God! We are pursuing that goal, and the day will come when we obtain it. The dwelling of God shall be with men and we shall rejoice together with God, and God with us.</p>
|
||||
<p>I am the happiest man, the happiest person. There are no dull moments for me, and I am always free. Do you want to live your life as I do? Do you want to be the sons and daughters who can bring liberty and victory to God? Our conclusion is that at the family level, you will become sons and daughters of filial piety. At the national level you shall become patriots. In terms of the world, you shall become saints. In heaven and earth, you shall become princes and princesses of God. You are moving, step by step, toward that ultimate goal. Do you want to become a prince or princess?</p>
|
||||
<p>This morning let us determine clearly the way of life we are going to live, and pursue it. Each of you should say, “I am going to bring the victory of God.” Our attitude should be: If there is a conflict, I will be the first to volunteer to solve it. If there is a Goliath, I will be David. So next time, I won’t even have to ask you to do home church. You will be at home church already, right? I believe you. Let us pray.</p>
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content/speeches/1982/victory-of-home-church-midnight-address.md
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---
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title: "VICTORY OF HOME CHURCH - Midnight Address"
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||||
type: "speech"
|
||||
published: "2018-06-22T05:59:29+01:00"
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updated: "2018-06-22T05:59:29+01:00"
|
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source: "/blog/2018/06/22/victory-of-home-church-midnight-address.html"
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speechYear: "1982"
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categories:
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- "Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982"
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tags: []
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---
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|
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<h2 align="CENTER">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
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<h3 align="CENTER">January 1, 1982 Midnight<br />
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World Mission Center<br />
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Translator – Bo Hi Pak</h3>
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<p>Just now we welcomed 1982 and bid farewell to 1981. This year is a new chapter in history; yet, as you know, time continues without any gaps. 1981 runs into 1982 without a break. History continues, and a good example of this is the compass. It contains 360 degrees; when the needle passes 360 degrees, it turns to zero and begins again, in a continuous circle. In a way, an entire year such as 1981 is a heavenly compass which has begun again with 1982; we are beginning a new circle. For the outset of this new year of 1982 I wish you God’s blessing on behalf of Mother and myself.</p>
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<p>Let us consider what kind of day God would want to remember and celebrate. Do you think there was such a day when God Himself started out? Does God have His own calendar which He marks? The lunar calendar has 360 days in a year, instead of the 365 days of the solar calendar. A complete circle and a complete year, according to the lunar calendar, is composed of 360 parts. The difference between the solar and the lunar calendars is this: every four years, the lunar calendar has a lunar year, which includes an extra month, making thirteen months. This is very principled, since the number 13 is important; we have to go back and restore the number 13. Every four years, there are 13 months. The numbers four and thirteen are very significant numbers in the providence of God. In Eastern philosophy, the number four is not a good number; in Western philosophy, the number thirteen is not good. Both numbers have a bad significance, according to East and West.</p>
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<p>When God looks at His created world and the universe, do you think He is conscious of days, months, or the flow of time? Do you suppose God thinks of each of the 360 days of each year, or does He just think of special days? What would make a day special to God so that He would remember it? Imagine that God has not yet created the entire universe; God’s Day has not yet come into being and He is still at the genesis of the world. According to logic, when someone wants to remember a certain time he will mark either the beginning of that time or the consummation of it. For example, God must remember the day He created the angels. I’m sure God remembers the day when He initiated the creation of all things. God is a very meticulous God; He must have a good diary. So every time He created a new thing, such as a plant, tree, or animal, He must have marked it in His diary:</p>
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<p>“I created a rabbit today,” or “I created the grass and lilies today,” and so forth. Even when God created a poisonous insect, a dirty, smelly little insect, there must have been a beginning point when God began to create it and a point when God completed it. That poisonous insect would also be entered in the diary of God. If God forgot to post the beginning and ending date of his creation, he would certainly protest to God, saying, “God, what happened? You recorded everything else except my birthday, and I am your creation, too!” Does the poisonous insect have a right to say such a thing? If God explained that He did not record the insect because He didn’t like his poison, then God would not be a truly good God. He put the poison in the insect in the first place. The insect could even proclaim that God should remember him because of his poison; he is special because of that. Either the good, noble things are worthy of remembrance, or the unpleasant things, like the insect; both are memorable.</p>
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<p>What if you were born in a certain country and that country recorded the birth of every one of its citizens, except yours? Wouldn’t you have a valid complaint against that country? Without a doubt, you could also complain against your parents if they did not record your birthday.</p>
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<p>Think for a moment about which day of all would be the most memorable to God. Certainly God would consider most memorable the day when His loving son and daughter were born. Do you think God would desire to remember sad days as much as the happy ones? Normally, no parents look forward to the death of their children; they await the birth of their children to celebrate. For the parents, the most joyful day is the day of the birth of the son or daughter; and the most sorrowful day would be the day of the death of that son or daughter.</p>
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<p>Nowadays, we have the ability to travel into outer space. The space ship is launched from planet earth and lands on the moon; but it is not an easy thing to do, since it is a great distance to travel. Suppose God was to travel from the moon to the earth; does He require a long time to get here? Our universe is incredibly vast; the speed of light is the measurement of distance in space. The speed of light is approximately 7½ circles around the earth in one second. One light year is the distance light travels in one year, which is a great distance. If God was visiting all the heavenly bodies He created and His taxi was slow, He could never get around to all of them. But don’t you think God’s speed of travel is faster than the speed of light?</p>
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<p>God, who is the Father of all mankind, has the ability to travel faster than the speed of light. But what about His children, you sons and daughters of God? We just walk; even after walking a few hundred meters we feel tired from walking such a long distance. Also, when you are only 50 meters or so away from a person speaking, you cannot hear what he is saying. Consider the capability of God’s sense of smell. If an odor was coming from a distant star, millions of light years away from here, God would detect the odor. What about your nose, though? The human nose is far inferior to that of the German Shepherd dog. Some people feel great pride in their ability to run for hours; but a dog could easily beat such champion runners. Does God feel ashamed to see His children so clumsy and inadequate? Certainly there is a tremendous gap between what God can do and what His children on earth can do.</p>
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<p>The day that God’s children were born must be the day that God remembers above all. However, the capabilities of the children are not so much; they are clumsy, from the standard of the Father. Children are supposed to honor their parent, God; so suppose that one day they brought Him a gift. Their gift was a bottle of perfume that the children thought had a wonderful smell. But according to the sensitive nose of God, that perfume was as bad-smelling as human waste. Even though the smell was terrible to God, He would rejoice over the gift because it came from His own dear son and daughter.</p>
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<p>Even though His children are clumsy and inadequate in every way to give real pleasure to God, still there must be some element that gives God the ability to rejoice unconditionally over everything that His children do. That element of joy is something noble, sacred, and not of this world. Love has that substance.</p>
|
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<p>The fact that His son and daughter are born on a certain day makes that day memorable to God. Do you think that God’s attitude toward their birthday would be superficial or shallow? Wouldn’t His attitude be excited and stimulated? The children bring displeasure from their clumsiness and smelliness; but because of His love for them, God embraces them and feels ecstatic joy from their presence.</p>
|
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<p>God, the Father, would look at the baby that was recently born. The baby would be crawling everywhere, smelling bad, sticking his fingers into his own waste, drinking a lot of milk and eating a lot of cereal. Those miserable events mark the growth of the child for the parent. As the child grows up, step by step, the intensity of the parental love grows, too. As the child gets older, he can understand and communicate with God more and more; they can share experiences. Once the child is fully grown, he can do things exactly as well as God does; he can make decisions and behave the way God does. Of course, God would feel great fulfillment.</p>
|
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<p>God is Almighty and can jump from one planet to another very easily; but the son cannot, so he might ask God to take him along with Him. God, however, would tell him that he must stay where he is for a while longer. God would want to explain this and not just ignore His son’s request to go along with Him. Men and women who have flesh here on earth cannot follow and do everything that God can, since God does not have flesh. This raises a problem, therefore, since God wants His son and daughter to reflect His image, capable of doing all the things He can do. The children have this desire, too; but there is an intrinsic difference between God and men of flesh. There must be some way that man, who is spiritual and physical, can fulfill the things which God does, who is totally spiritual. We must have some kind of body which is similar to the body of God.</p>
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<p>The day we receive new birth, becoming persons with God-like bodies capable of following God anywhere, is the day which we call “death” here on earth. Does it seem that we should welcome death, then? What is the purpose of dying? We die in order to fulfill our craving to experience all the love of God, which is limited here on earth. In a way, physical death is the discarding of our clumsy physical bodies, these “vehicles” we have used on earth. God enjoys total freedom in the universe; so when He sees His children suffering from so many things here on the earth, He can hardly be happy about it. In God’s scheme of creation, “death” is another birth for man. We can achieve liberation from the shackles of our physical bodies and enjoy the kind of freedom God enjoys; so death is really a second birth.</p>
|
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<p>The day the children were born was a day of joy and should be remembered by the parents. Why shouldn’t their day of second birth, which we call “death” now, be remembered with joy, as well, since they should be going on to the greatest freedom of all? Some of you might think my subject tonight is very deep and profound and even “weird”; you may wonder why I choose to talk about death on New Year’s Day. But I have a good reason to do so; to become men and women of true happiness here on earth, we shall be the people who have conquered the fear of death.</p>
|
||||
<p>Wouldn’t you like to own some diamonds? Consider all the stars out in our cosmos. Couldn’t God create an entire planet made up of diamonds? What about gold? Here on earth, people go crazy for an ounce of it, but out in the universe, God could have created an entire planet of gold. Our Father in heaven is truly rich-a super-billionaire.</p>
|
||||
<p>Once we are given total freedom, we can exercise dominion over the entire universe without any restrictions. Does that interest you? Everybody is interested in total freedom, total joy, total love; but in order to achieve those things, we must do something before we die. Just simply death would not bring us freedom and joy. We’ve got to obey God’s commandments while we are here on earth. Are you ready to obey God and His commandments to the letter, every iota?</p>
|
||||
<p>The first law of God has to do with the dual nature of man-one of spirit and one of flesh: mind and body. Mind is subject and body is object. The body must obey the mind; that is a law, the principle. Are you interested in doing that?</p>
|
||||
<p>Mankind is designed, according to God’s creation, to live three distinct lives. The first life is the vegetation period within the mother’s womb. When you are conceived, you begin to live a life within water. When you were in your mother’s womb, did you desire to leave, or did you want to stay inside? It is natural for the baby to want to stay inside. The door for leaving the womb is very small; so when God tells the baby he has to leave through that door, he would probably say, “Oh, no, no! I can’t do it!” In order to leave the mother’s womb, an incredible amount of disorder, pressure, and even pain has to happen to the baby. If he recognized that, the baby would not want to go through with it. Until the very moment when the mother gives birth to him, no baby willingly comes</p>
|
||||
<p>out. When the mother gives the final push, reluctantly the baby comes out into the world and starts to cry.</p>
|
||||
<p>In a way, the process of birth is equivalent to the process of death. It’s fearful and unknown. When the baby is expelled from the womb, he has an umbilical cord still attached, through which he has been receiving nourishment. Of course, that cord has to be cut. This seems to be destructive, from the baby’s point of view. Until then, he was receiving his breakfast, lunch, and dinner from that supply line. He might think, “Everything is miserable. Even my supply line has been cut off!” When God looks down at the crying baby, would God feel sorry and cry with him, or wouldn’t He smile very broadly?</p>
|
||||
<p>It is the exact sort of transition from this world to the next world. We think that this is the only life there is; we cling to our little planet. But after a certain time, God knows that we are ready to go into the next world. As a natural consummation of our life, all men and women are supposed to be elevated to the same level of freedom which our Father in heaven can enjoy. That is, the freedom of having a spirit body.</p>
|
||||
<p>The creation is designed so that parents and children can enjoy life together. The baby comes out of his mother’s womb so that he can someday talk and play with his daddy and mommy and they can become a family. By the same token, we are given another birth where we can join with our eternal Father, God, and live with Him forever in the same realm. This has been the plan from the very beginning of creation.</p>
|
||||
<p>Our life here is like being inside the womb. We need proper nutrition, we need to be healthy, and we need to live according to certain principles and rules of God. Consider the insect: first it is an egg, then a caterpillar, then a butterfly. Haven’t you ever wondered why you can’t fly, since even tiny insects can? Even the seeds of the dandelion have a little parachute that enables them to fly all over the place. Plants, birds, and insects can fly; what about us? We are supposed to be the supreme creatures of God, but we can’t fly! Each of you must have felt like protesting to God, “Why do I always have to walk everywhere? Why didn’t you make me capable of flying?” God’s answer to you is very simple: “You will fly. All you have to do is wait a little while and you will fly better than any other creature. But while you are on the earth, you must use your time wisely. You are in the workshop of life, where you have to practice my rules.”</p>
|
||||
<p>Each of you wants to know what God’s rules are, right? Someone might complain and ask if he can take his body with him to spirit world. That is like asking, “Can I drive my old, clumsy Volkswagen into spirit world?”</p>
|
||||
<p>There is an insect called a cicada that makes a noise during the summer. For a while, it is encased inside a certain shell and surrounded by liquid. As long as the cicada refuses to break out of this cocoon, he is simply rejecting his wonderful future of flying around from tree to tree. We are encased inside a shell of flesh here on this earth, destined for a wonderful future. Before now, 1982, we have lived with a certain fear of death. But from now on, we can be free of that fear and understand what death really is.</p>
|
||||
<p>I want to ask you women a question. Do you sometimes ask God why He didn’t create you more beautiful? Do you sometimes feel that you are ugly and blame it on God? Consider the inside of the mother’s womb; it is not beautiful. In fact, the ugly womb has the strength to give healthy life to its children. This is good news to ugly women. Those women who have a lot of pride in their appearance and see themselves in the mirror as beauty queens are the kind of people who always live for external values and pleasures. But those who look in the mirror and say, “I give up! I don’t want to look!” are the ones who give up on externals and look toward internal perfection; and this is ultimate victory, not defeat.</p>
|
||||
<p>When one pursues only external values in life, he tends to go away from God’s purpose; but whenever a person seeks after the internal purpose of his life, he will get closer to God. Which one would you want? The person who masters the internal way of life is capable of doing things well externally, also, since internal is subject over external. But the person who only values external things cannot ever achieve internal values. You must become a person who is welcomed by both worlds.</p>
|
||||
<p>Ideal men and women of the Unification Church are those who can move freely in both the internal world and the external world. I would like you to become masters of the art of living. The person who conquers the internal world can gain external dominion automatically. Internal effort will bring you into God’s kingdom; but external efforts alone, will bring you into a hellish place. The person who gains dominion over both the internal and external worlds can travel into hell and heaven without limitation, going through any path he wishes.</p>
|
||||
<p>I wanted to become a man of total freedom, going in and out of any door, from the internal world to the external. That desire is also God’s goal for mankind, for all His children. God can travel into hell freely, without needing any visa; He doesn’t have to present any papers when He goes through the gates of heaven, either.</p>
|
||||
<p>Would you welcome me if I came to your home? What kind of a gift would you like me to bring to you? You would naturally want a big gift; but how could I carry a big gift to every home? Rather than simply a big gift, you should prefer a gift of true value, incorruptible, something lasting. Should my gift to you be a diamond or gold? You say you want “true love,” but what does it look like? How much does it weigh? There is no weight to true love, but it is so heavy that no one can lift it. It is so deep that once it is entrenched, nothing can remove it. Suppose God is moving with His true love and He comes to a wall. Because there is a wall in the way, should true love not go in that direction? His love should penetrate that wall.</p>
|
||||
<p>You cannot see the shape of true love. If I go to the home of one of my black sons, bringing the gift of true love, the door is automatically wide open. This is true not only for black people but for everybody. The very best gift I could bring to anyone is true love; true love can go in any direction, and I can carry as much as I want. In order to receive true love from the True Parents, you should be able to go beyond any obstacle or limitation so that nothing can stop you. Once you have gained that true love, then the eternal world of spirit will be opened to you and you will be able to go anywhere in total freedom. If you continue to practice our way of life and live by this principle, then that world of freedom in spirit world will be opened up to you.</p>
|
||||
<p>All of us can look forward to the time when we have our second birth into the spirit world. There will be no more sorrow or pain there; but we must prepare ourselves here and now so that we can be qualified to inherit it. The Unification Church is the instrument of God to give men and women the passport to such a kingdom. This is where we will claim the right to freedom on earth as well as hereafter. We do this through our connection of love; and we need to experience love through the unit of the family.</p>
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<p>The ultimate goal and the most joyful day that God can remember will be the day when His sons and daughters can be born into total life; this will be God’s ultimate fulfillment. Throughout history, God has wanted to tell people this one message: we should have no fear of death, for once we go beyond it, we will receive eternity. The Unification Church was born to consummate this teaching of God and to practice it; the place where we must practice it is home church. Thus, the title of this New Year’s message is “Victory of Home Church.”</p>
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<p>Let me ask you: what degree of unity have you achieved between your mind and body? What must you center that unity upon? Power, knowledge, or money? When you focus upon power or force, you can be crushed. When the body is tempted to go towards money, it leaves the mind behind. When one has great knowledge, sometimes that person cannot act; he just sits all day and thinks. The super energy of love is the master over all the rest-power, knowledge and money. Would you sacrifice your love for the sake of any of these?</p>
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<p>Sometimes money, knowledge and power become obstacles to the fulfillment of love. When you eliminate all these obstacles, you are certainly doing the right thing. What was your motivation for joining the Unification Church? Did you come to make a lot of money? Or to become a great scholar? To become a powerful man of politics? You joined the Unification Church to fulfill love; to obtain true love. Once you obtain that true love, you can conquer and own everything else. Therefore, our goal is love, the attainment of true love; and in order to attain true love we can break through any obstacles because we have the power to penetrate them. Because of the fall of man, there are incredible obstacles ahead of us. For example, all the things of creation, the material world, become formidable obstacles before us. Also, the world of Satan is another obstacle. Satan is surrounding us, trying to attack us on every level – the family, tribal, national levels, etc. – there you find Satan’s barriers.</p>
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<p>With what can we penetrate those barriers? With money, knowledge, or power? The only thing that can do it is true love. True love makes a person welcome the dirty little baby, messing up everything in his house, because true love goes beyond everything. True love can turn even a bad smell into a heavenly fragrance; with true love, there are no bad smells. If I ask you to go to the dirtiest place under the sun, where it is smelly, you should be able to go with the power of true love and transform it into a fragrant place.</p>
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<p>In the secular world, people try to promote themselves by boasting and pride; but in the Unification Church, we teach the value of humility and meekness and we try to make ourselves small. If you don’t want to go this way, then you don’t really want to go after true love.</p>
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<p>Do we say that white people should only love other white people? Or do we teach that true love is the love that goes beyond race and enables white people to love black people even more than white people? You must be able to go into both worlds. Compare the motions of a circle and a straight line. Which motion has the greatest freedom? When you move forward in a straight line there are always obstacles in the path. But the circling motion can always find a way around any obstacle. The continuation of a circling motion, round and round, of a vehicle, for example, will invariably increase the speed of that vehicle. In the circling motion, the upper position becomes the lower position; the lower position becomes the upper position. East becomes west and west becomes east.</p>
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<p>Our ideology in the Unification Church is the highest understanding. Do you, therefore, desire to be elevated above the world and just stay there? Once you taste the highest place, you go down to taste the lowest place. I am not teaching you to keep yourselves clean and go only to the clean places in the world; instead, I push you out into the dirtiest places-the places where there are criminals, prostitutes, and the worst human corruption.</p>
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<p>Would you like to become the victors of home church? Do you, then, go to your home church area to be served by the people there? Do you only go to the clean, good places where you expect people to come and bow down to you ? There is no true Jove in that kind of situation. When a woman does the work of a man, or a man does the work of a woman, then that person learns to do something opposite from the usual and he is free to do anything. Similarly, when you mingle with men of literature, you can learn to write good poetry, like they do. You may not be the greatest artist, sculptor, or singer; but when you sing with true love, that is the best music. The painting done with true love is the best painting.</p>
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<p>From this year on, will you be different? Will you go to home church and serve the people, cleaning their bathrooms and their garages? You may think you are doing a favor for the people in your home church area, but actually they are doing you a favor. It is not they who will be perfected by the work you are doing, but you; and your certificate of qualification in the home church exam must be signed by the people in your area. For whom are you doing home church? You are not doing the home church providence for Rev. Moon or the Unification Church. You are doing it for yourself. When your body tells you, “I don’t want to go to home church,” you should kick your body. There will be no one to give you a kick except yourself.</p>
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<p>The last time I went to Korea, I began a revolution among our elder members. Even the 36 couples and the 430 couples, those who were enjoying their dignity and positions, I told them to leave their positions and go out to home church. Everyone is doing it now.</p>
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<p>If you are a beautiful woman, do you think that you only have to relate with the beautiful women in your home church area? If you are not so beautiful, do you think you only have to relate with the ugly women in your area? It should be the opposite. You waste a lot of time putting makeup on your face and giving yourselves manicures; that’s not necessary for doing home church. For the sake of the experience, putting on makeup and having a manicure is OK; but day in and day out is too much. Sometimes, just for the sake of the experience, you should try wearing pink tape on your mouth instead of lipstick. The next day, you could try red tape, then green, then blue. If you are going to waste so much time giving yourselves manicures, why not try painting your entire arm sometime, or even your entire body? When you go out to witness, are you supposed to be wearing absolutely perfect makeup? When you do that, you actually have more to indemnify. Going the opposite way is the way of indemnity; so the beautiful woman should try to make herself ugly and her indemnity will be smaller. Make your body smelly, people will wonder what that smell is. You can say, “That’s the special Moonie smell.”</p>
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<p>People will see that, although they may curse you and spit at you, they cannot upset you; they will wonder what kind of person you are. But the more you are persecuted, the more blessing will come to you eventually. Although many people thought that throwing me into jail would finish me, they were wrong; even if I go into jail, maybe that will be an excellent launching pad for a new revolution.</p>
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<p>We are, therefore, craving to become victors of home church. I want you to know that, unless we conquer the evils of this world, this world will not get better and the Kingdom of Heaven will not come on the earth. What about Hollywood; is that a sacred, holy place? Also Las Vegas? Also the streets where prostitutes work? Consider all the gangsters and the communists in the world, multiplying like a cancer. Communism is a lie and it is trying to deceive the world. Satan was a liar, deceiving man. The American media talks about the Unification Church brainwashing people and kidnapping them. Who do you think created all these accusations and innuendoes? The communists, because they want to destroy their opponents; they try to blame others for their own tactics.</p>
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<p>In order to be victorious in home church, should we then seek out the beautiful places, where everything smells sweet? Should we go to disco dances for our home church work? No, you must go to the ugly, smelly places and make them beautiful and sweet smelling. You must go to the suffering people and make them feel happy-that is your home church work. If you do this kind of work, then you don’t have to make effort to elevate yourself; the people will try to push you into a beautiful, high place, even though you resist and say you want to stay in the low place.</p>
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<p>I want you to understand that each person is walking his own unique course of indemnity. One person may be able to fulfill his road of indemnity in one year; another person, two years; another person, three years. Some people may need seven years. Why? It is not because of your lack of effort, but because of the cumulative debt that has been incurred in your entire family tree.</p>
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<p>The body simply does not want to listen to the mandates of the mind; so anything that the body wants to do, the mind should say, “No. If you want it, then I don’t want it. You say yes, I say no.” Original man was supposed to be united in mind and body, with no separation; that kind of man is called perfected man. All things of the world are meant to be enjoyed by such perfected men of the flesh. But those men whose minds and bodies are totally separated have no right to even touch the things of creation. In terms of food, there is heavenly food and hellish food. Fallen, disunited men try to take food, but the food, although you cannot hear it, is violently protesting against being eaten by such an evil person. The food knows that it is intended to support the bodies of good men, not the bodies of evil men. You must realize that your mind must subjugate your body. Your body exists in the evil domain, so every morning before you eat breakfast, you should subjugate your body by the power of your mind so that the food will not resent going into your stomach.</p>
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<p>When men and women of separated mind and body try to love each other, it is impossible. Their minds go one way and their bodies go another; that is satanic love. You can love someone else only when your mind and body are one with each other. The husband who caresses his wife should have his mind and body united; likewise, the wife should be a united person, not a person of division between mind and body. True love between husband and wife is the love of give and take between a man and woman of united mind and body. Is there anyone here who thinks he has reached that level? Knowing that you have not achieved that level yet, how can you think that you deserve the heavenly Blessing? Asking for the Blessing before you are ready is an example of a greedy mind. Those who complain, “I’m 32 years old! Why doesn’t Father bless me?” are much further away from God than those who say, “Father, I don’t deserve the Blessing yet. I want to make more effort to unite my mind and body.”</p>
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<p>The task of supporting a family is much greater than simply pursuing the love of your spouse. Only one child makes the husband and wife parents, but we desire families with many children and even the grandparents living all together-the bigger the family, the better. By loving in such a broad way and sacrificing the smaller unit, we pursue the path of restoration. We should be able to love our clan more than our family and our nation more than our clan. We must pursue the greatest goal.</p>
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<p>The world as a whole is guided by the attitude of caring for oneself first. People want to live only for themselves and their spouses making themselves happy, with no concern for anything larger. We, however, are going exactly the opposite route from this. Why do we go this way? When a person enters into spirit world, he doesn’t have relationship with only his spouse, but with everybody there. One’s ancestors are there from all past history. Jesus is there in spirit world, also, and he will judge the person who lived only for the sake of his spouse. The people who lived for the sake of loving everyone, including their enemies, at the sacrifice of their own families, would be welcomed by Jesus. The Unification Church is practicing this impossible, peculiar way of life because we are not living for this world, but by the standards of the next world. This is why we are different.</p>
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<p>Our goal is to enjoy total freedom, like the singing cicadas that jump and fly from tree to tree. Indemnity is a necessity right now, but it will not be with us for eternity. True love, however, will be our eternal blessing. True love begins from God and True Parents; so the children naturally desire to resemble the parents. You, as the true children, should resemble the True Parents. When the True Parents ask you to do something, you do it willingly and happily, not reluctantly and out of duty. When you do fund raising, you don’t try to get out of it, but you go willingly to the most difficult situations all over the United States; then you can continue in Africa. Why do we need fund raising? I spoke at length about that last Sunday. It is the equivalent of the restoration of the Old Testament era. The Old Testament era was the era of the offering; people had to make a material offering to create a foundation of faith. By witnessing and bringing in new brothers and sisters, you are restoring the New Testament era. When you go out into the world to witness, you are going to receive the same kind of persecution that Jesus received 2,000 years ago. As the son of God, he was rejected and crucified; we also must endure that kind of suffering.</p>
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<p>The Unification Church is the Completed Testament, the Perfection era, which is carried out through family love. That means you consider all people as your family. Old men are like grandfathers to you; old women are grandmothers. The way of restoration is to love other people more than your physical grandparents, because by doing so, you are expanding your family to the entire world. You can thus create the Heavenly Kingdom anywhere.</p>
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<p>The ideal world is the world where mankind is one family, where there are no boundaries between races and skin colors. When a white man goes to the home of a Korean, he is at home there. The other day, Rev. Kwak came back from Africa and shared a report with me. He said that they serve a special meal there, made of worms. In Korea, people normally don’t even like to look at worms, much less eat them. But Rev. Kwak knew that if he rejected that meal of worms because of his Korean customs, he would not be showing true love. So he closed his eyes and ate the worms.</p>
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<p>It is not an easy task to become true parents. Nor is it easy to become true children. One must be able to do incredible things in order to be a true parent to all people. There are strong hunters in parts of the world that kill an animal and then, with tubes stuck into the animal’s neck vein, suck out the blood. A true parent to those people would have to be able to do that, too. It would never do for someone in that situation who claimed to have the heart of a true parent to ask for his usual Korean kimchee and rice.</p>
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<p>I have tasted true poverty, experiencing the way people eat their meager food with their hands, even right after having gone to the bathroom. Truly poor people have no facilities to wash themselves, so when they scratch their hands, they draw a stripe in the dirt there. Do you suppose that when those people tried to serve me some of their humble food with their dirty hands, I chastised them and told them to go wash their hands? Of course not. I welcomed their offering and ate it as though it was honey.</p>
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<p>I must be the true parent to all women, as well. The last time I went to Korea, I saw the eldest grandmother in our church who has been serving our church members for many decades. She is about 90 now, and her face is completely full of wrinkles. I went to her and kissed her. I want to become the true parent to such elderly women.</p>
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<p>There is nothing you cannot do for the sake of love, for the sake of serving. When you have certain things that you simply do not like, you must think, “These are the things I must conquer and go over in order to reach true love.” God does not dwell in some high, pure place on a golden throne where no one can reach Him. He has the heart of a parent, trying to love people in the dirtiest, smelliest, most corrupt places. That is the reason why I am pushing you to go to those dirty places. With true love, you must go down to the lowest places and you will discover the shortcut to reaching God.</p>
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<p>Why should we live such a life? Because our job is to subjugate Satan, not by force, but in a way that Satan will voluntarily surrender. Who are the true saints? Not those people who are revered by the rich and comfortable people, but the ones who are revered by the miserable, suffering poor people. When such miserable people say someone is a saint, then that person is, indeed, a saint. True love can be found in the lowest places, not in the Waldorf Astoria or in the palaces of kings.</p>
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<p>You must become totally free from any accusation from Satan. No matter what you do or where you go, there must be no way for Satan to accuse you. An example is that if you received a Ph.D. from a reputable university, you could go anywhere in the world and people would recognize your degree. Anywhere you go, you have already completed all levels of schooling: elementary school, high school, university, Master’s degree. No one in the world could criticize your accomplishment.</p>
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<p>Although we have talked about many things today, we come to the one main point: home church. Why do we need home church? Because fallen parents came into being. In order to restore this position, Jesus came to the earth. He had to go through a certain process; he needed to restore the Abel family of Zechariah and the Cain family of Joseph, uniting them. Because this was left undone, we must go, in our time, to the home church mission and restore those positions. Who crucified Jesus? Fallen men, men of faithlessness. Therefore, until you have paid back that debt, you cannot be restored.</p>
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<p>There are many steps beyond just home church. After that, there is the clan church, the tribe church, the nation church, the world church. You have to pass through all these levels. Doing home church is not easy, but doing tribe church and nation church are even more difficult. No individual is capable of doing all these levels; therefore, True Parents came to this earth to do it for everybody else, for you and all your posterity.</p>
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<p>Do you think I have a battle between my mind and body? Yes, I have the same battles as you; the only difference is that my battles have been victorious. I knew the truth, so I persevered through my battles. On the road of dispensation, when a person loves himself or his own family and things more than he loves the dispensation and his God-given mission, that dispensation will stop right there. My mission has been, in the position of Abel, to win over the position of Cain; to restore the unity on all levels. As the family-Abel, I had to win over the family-Cain; and on up to all the other levels. In order to win over Cain, one cannot stay in the same place and have it happen automatically, but must go out to the world and set the right conditions. On each different level, Abel must go out and win Cain. That is why I came to the United States; I was searching for Cain on the worldwide level.</p>
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<p>Here I could be beaten and then restore it. When Abel returns, he becomes the elder brother, restoring the birthright. You must restore the elder brother’s position in order to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.</p>
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<p>I had to go through at least three different nationalities, representing formation, growth and perfection stages of Cain-Abel unity. I had to serve and win over three countries. You, too, must be united with three different nationalities. For me, those three countries were the United States, Germany and Japan. That is the reason I sent out missionaries together from those three countries. Their mandate was to unite among themselves, even though the combination was very difficult, seemingly impossible. I laid a victorious foundation for your home church by the victorious foundation of a world church. Home church is nothing but a microcosm of the world church. It is a mini-world in which you can inherit my foundation and my victory. By setting a condition on the home church level, you will win the right to do the things which even Jesus could not do 2,000 years ago; you will indemnify his position.</p>
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<p>Abel cannot return by himself; he must return with Cain and he must travel together with Cain. On the worldwide level, the Cain world is the communist world and the Abel world is the democratic world. Any organization has two parts, including the United States Congress, with the Senate and the House of Representatives. Schools, too, have two factions: the good boys and the bad boys. What exactly is a good boy? A good boy is one who has the capability of melting the evil of the bad boy. The good boy will not be influenced by the bad one, but will, instead, influence him. The good one will not go back and forth between both worlds, since that is a sign of the bad boy.</p>
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<p>If you want to become a true person, you must do the things that you say you will do. Your words and your deeds must become one. The good teacher is one who lives his own teachings, not just speaks about them. The true saint is not one who only cares for his family, but who first cares for others, even those who care the least for him, before his own family. We can define the good God as the God who sacrifices Himself for the sake of others. I, too, have lived according to this principle. I have sacrificed my immediate family, even Mother, for the sake of the Unification Church. It is very seldom that I eat a meal with my own children; I usually eat with the church leaders from all over the world. They are the ones who are sitting right next to me and Mother, eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner, our children are not there. Sometimes when I am eating a meal with the children and some of the church leaders come in, I immediately send the children to the kitchen to finish their meal and give their seats to the church members. My children, as well, must have Cain to enter the Kingdom of Heaven; they cannot enter without Cain.</p>
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<p>For True Father and True Mother, there are two types of children: true Abel-type children and true Cain-type children. The true Abel children must be able to unite with the true Cain children. I have been working for them, in their place, fulfilling their role to bring about this unity; so, for that reason, my true Abel children must be grateful to me. On the other hand, the true Cain children must unite with the true Abel children; without that, there is no place for me to stand. There are two kinds of children for Adam: direct heirs and adopted children. Unless these children are united, the world cannot be restored.</p>
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<p>This is the reason why, during 1981, which is the year of the final consummation of my 21-year-course, I have been able to give Blessing to the true Abel children. Ye Jin Nim was engaged and married, Hyo Jin Nim was engaged. The ages of the children range between 16 and 21; according to God’s original ideal, this is the period during which Adam and Eve were supposed to be married. Do you know at what age Adam and Eve fell? Around 15 or 16, while they were teenagers; so, the first woman became a mother around the age of 16. That is why we are restoring the fall on the same age level.</p>
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<p>The fall of man was initiated by Adam and Eve, but was consummated by Cain and Abel. Adam and Eve sowed the seed which was harvested by Cain and Abel. Thus, historically, restoration must begin with Cain and Abel; that is the first step on the restoration process. From the individual level, the process is elevated to the family level, the tribal level, and so forth. Abel is in the position of mind, while Cain is in the position of body. Anyone who is in the mind position must suffer more tribulation than others. How are the positions of Cain and Abel determined in the sight of God? Those who want to sacrifice more and suffer more in order to serve are Abel; those who want to suffer less and still get the greatest benefit are always Cain, from God’s point of view.</p>
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<p>Among the children, this rule works the same. Therefore, those who want to suffer more for the sake of the parents and the brothers and sisters are always in the Abel position, while those who want to do less and enjoy more are always in the Cain position. Just because someone is born first does not give him the right to order the younger brothers and sisters around. If any younger brother serves more and is more sacrificial, the elder brother should bow down to him and follow him. In the Unification Church of America, who is the Abel and who is the Cain? The same principle applies here, without any deviation. Who among you suffers the most and wants to obey me the most? Who wants to walk the sacrificial path of life? Sometimes people consider the person who wants to carry the heaviest burdens as a fool, but he is not a fool. Considering sleep as an example, between those who sleep more and those who sleep less, which ones are more likely to be Abels? Those who want to eat the best food first will not become Abels, either. Those who spend their fund-raising money on some personal item and give the leftovers to the church are certainly not in the Abel position.</p>
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<p>No one is confused about who is Abel and who is Cain. The person who comes into this meeting room several hours early to obtain a front row seat is very different from the person who comes here late and then tries to push his way up to the front. Such a person is not even a Cain, he is a Satan! You should know better than that.</p>
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<p>Comparing the two hands, the left hand is unable to do much work, while the right hand is always doing the work. The person who always seeks the best food for himself has a Cain mind, while the one who wants others to take the best has an Abel mind. There are two ways of walking, too. One person might start out and determine that he will reach his goal within 30 minutes, while another might decide to take his time and not worry how long he spends getting there. There are even two ways of eating meals. One person likes to indulge himself in the meal with a leisurely attitude, while another person will sit down and eat quickly, knowing that his time is precious.</p>
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<p>Some of you might wonder why I come here on New Year’s Eve to give you a message that lasts over three hours, when you would be content with three minutes. But which kind of teacher is Abel? The person who comes here out of a sense of duty and decides to speak on New Year’s Eve for three minutes, feeling that he has done his mission; or the one who forgets the passage of time, trying to teach even one more point? I want to be a sacrificial teacher. Lately I have been hearing many reports, every day. Leaders come, one after another, to give their reports; they come for breakfast and I listen to them. Others come in and I listen to them, too; there isn’t even time to go to the bathroom. Lunchtime comes, more reports are given, and sometimes I am still sitting at the table when dinner time comes. My hips are burning and sore by that time. But I have the attitude that even when I am receiving reports, I must bear the cross and pay indemnity.</p>
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<p>Some people feel that they cannot function unless they can sleep at least five hours each night. If they only sleep three hours, they must go and get another two hours. But I forget the time, the number of hours I slept; whether it was thirty minutes or two hours, I sleep only as long as I can afford to, and no more. Sometimes when I go to the bathroom, I fall asleep and Mother gets worried about me. Even this morning Mother came knocking on the bathroom door, asking, “Father, what are you doing in there'” I woke up and answered, “Nothing, nothing.” It is my credo that I will go the most difficult, suffering way, never seeking the easy way. Any time there are miserable duties to be done, I want to be the first to do them without any hesitation.</p>
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<p>Why do I go this way of life? Because that is the role of Abel; no one can claim greater sacrifice before me, including the 36 blessed couples. I have never forced anyone to go the sacrificial way, but the original minds of people know where they stand in relation to me. In front of true Abel, Cain must surrender and follow.</p>
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<p>God is the eternal, ultimate Abel. No matter what, nobody can outdo God, suffer more than God, or weep more tears than God. Throughout history, every man must bow down to God because God is superior to him.</p>
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<p>Cain and Abel must unite, then unite with their mother. This is true at East Garden. When the children have certain things to discuss, they always go to their mother first, before coming to me. When the children of a family are totally one with the mother, the father is automatically one with them. The same mother, Eve, gave birth to two sons, Cain and Abel. In the Unification Church, True Mother is able to embrace both the True Children and the Cain children. To which children should Mother give more love? To the Cain children. The mother would desire that Cain love Abel more than he loves her. There is no way that Cain and Abel can separate under such a mother who loves Cain the most. As long as their mother is loving them, the two sons are united.</p>
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<p>The mother’s role is to embrace her sons, Cain and Abel, holding one on her left arm and the other on her right, and to go to her husband, Adam. Next, the mother’s role is to bring the Abel-children couples and the Cain-children couples, embracing them, to the father and then to God. This is why we teach that you should have your spiritual children in order to be blessed; the bare minimum is two. With Cain and Abel completely united with their father and mother, they can approach God.</p>
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<p>In the United States, the government is in the Cain position, while Christianity is in the Abel position. Only through the unity of these two positions can this country be acceptable to God. Today. on the contrary, the United States government is dominating Christianity and this is the opposite of what should be happening. The communist world, which denies God, is in the position of the Cain world and the free world is in the position of the Abel world. The Unification Church is in the mother’s position, so we are supposed to embrace both sons: the Abel, democratic world and the Cain, communist world. By doing so, the world can accept the Messiah; it can welcome the universal parent.</p>
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<p>That has not been done very successfully, so, for that reason, we have to make the foundation from the very bottom. The very bottom is home church, then progressing to tribe church, nation church, and world church. Who has to do this? The Unification Church is committed to doing this, but I have already fulfilled those levels. Each of you must pay a certain amount of indemnity by doing home church. I have come through the entire process and I have erected such a powerful foundation that those hostile to me have a frenzied desire to kill me. But in your case, you encounter no such drastic opposition. Compared to what I have faced, your persecution is very minor; in fact, doing home church is an easy job. Do people try to kill you? You are not risking your life by doing home church. However, as I work in the United States there is a constant danger to my life. No one besides me is clearly declaring a war against communism; for that reason, the communists consider me their archenemy. I push Tiger Park to squarely confront the communists through CARP. Even though Tiger Park is leading the demonstrations, the communists don’t fear him nearly as much as they fear me, since they understand that I am the ultimate source of this war against communism.</p>
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<p>I have been doing this mission at the risk of my life, but you don’t have to risk your life in the same way. I have created a safer way for you to go. You must become a tribal messiah in your home church in order to save your own family; the tribe is the strength of the family. When your home church is protected by the tribe, nation, and all the other layers, nothing can invade your home and family. When you willingly take up the cup of persecution in your home church area, trying to win the people, no power can invade you.</p>
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<p>The home church providence started as a major crusade in 1979. At that time, our slogan was, “Completion of the Kingdom of Heaven through Home Church.” In 1980 our slogan was, “Home Church is the Base of the Kingdom of Heaven.” In 1981 we had the slogan, “Home Church is My Kingdom of Heaven.” After those three consecutive years, we have the slogan for this year: “Victory of Home Church.”</p>
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<p>If you have been working diligently in home church for the past three years, this is the year that you can finish and graduate. You can joyfully participate in the Blessing and then live in the home church. How many days are you spending in home church? If you are serious about doing home church, should you live in the New Yorker Hotel? You should be living in your home church area. It is very easy to live in the New Yorker, because you can hide behind your door; but home church is not an easy place to live. The New Yorker was purchased for the sake of the world; it is the World Mission Center, not the American Mission Center, or the New York Mission Center. Because you have not yet gone to the worldwide dispensation level, you are not really eligible to live in that house. You must go to the home church and complete the providence there; then you can live at the New Yorker.</p>
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<p>I am not the one who should buy myself a home in Korea. The parents’ home should be bought by the children, Cain and Abel. God’s house, too, is bought by the children; home church will become God’s dwelling place, God’s house. You cannot win the victory without committing yourself to fighting the battle. You have learned the tactics of victory: just go. The important thing is to go, be beaten, and then win. Satan’s method is always to attack first and ultimately to lose, while the method of Heaven is to be beaten first, but to obtain the victory in the end.</p>
|
||||
<p>In your home church area, if you can win the hearts of your five worst adversaries, the rest of the people will be won easily. Those people who welcome you are the extensions of Abel; they are already on your side. You should concentrate your efforts on the Cain-types; they are the extensions of Satan. You complain because you meet opposition in your area, but I tell you that opposition is the reason why you are in home church. If I had been afraid of opposition, I would never have dared to come to the United States. There is no question that if you are afraid of being opposed, you will be destroyed. The wrong attitude is to shy away from the negativity in your home church area</p>
|
||||
<p>From now on, everybody must go to do home church. Those of you who accomplish your work in home church will then be qualified to come and live at the New Yorker. You will be in the position of good children, coming to live in the home of your parents. But trying to stay in the New Yorker without making any serious effort in your home church is not good. The rooms are not there for everybody; you blessed families must move into your home church areas- including Rev. Kim, Mr. Pak-without exception, you must all go out to your home churches. Although some people may think this is unreasonable, you will be infinitely grateful when you see that you are heading for the Kingdom of Heaven. I’m very serious. What I am asking you to do is the bare minimum, compared to the real value of the Kingdom of Heaven.</p>
|
||||
<p>Have any of you finished your indemnity course and earned the right to dwell in the Kingdom of Heaven? If someone is trying to help you avoid your indemnity course, he should take on your indemnity, himself. Should I be sympathetic to you and try to help you get out of your indemnity? If I gave you some easy way, without your finishing your indemnity course, Satan would say, “No, no, no! You haven’t done anything; Rev. Moon has done everything for you. You’re not qualified to go to Heaven!”</p>
|
||||
<p>Home church is a far more precious gift from God than becoming heads of state or kings and queens. Once your home church people welcome you wholeheartedly, the entire spirit world will welcome you. Suppose you should drop dead in your home church area. Don’t worry, because you are not really dead; you will be resurrected into the highest place in spirit world, where everyone will glorify you. You would like to dwell in the same place in spirit world as I do, wouldn’t you? Even though I may be letting you endure suffering at this time, my ultimate plan is to take every one of you with me, arm in arm, to the Kingdom of Heaven. At that time, you will be a true victor. You can take off, non-stop, to the Kingdom of Heaven.</p>
|
||||
<p>When you declare your victory, following in the footsteps of Rev. Moon, and you ask God to accept you, God will say, “Amen!” In that case, every place is your dwelling place; everything that God and True Parents possess shall be yours, as well. There will be no separation between God, True Parents and yourself. When you go to spirit world, you will encounter the martyrs, whose suffering on earth was much greater than yours. What will qualify you to go to the Kingdom of Heaven before them? Why will you be entitled to go to a place that those people are not? Your one qualification that is superior is that you met the True Parents, you obeyed the True Parents, and you served the True Parents in your lifetime; and you did this in the realm of home church. Spirit men do not have home church, but you do. This is an incredible blessing, one which is hard to believe.</p>
|
||||
<p>I want you to understand that in order for the Providence to move this far, many, many people have suffered and died. When you enter the spirit world, you will be able to comfort all those spirit men, not by the fact that you suffered more than they did, because you didn’t, but by the fact that you served and obeyed the True Parents.</p>
|
||||
<p>In the beginning of the message tonight, I said that Adam and Eve were never supposed to have a fear of death. They were supposed to be aware of spirit world and eternity; only because of the fall of man did fear of death come into being. Today, we must be the ones who liquidate the fear of death; we shall be aware of eternity and have no fear of it.</p>
|
||||
<p>The true fulfillment of the Bible is being done by the Unification Church. Jesus said, “Whoever seeks to save his life shall lose it; but whoever seeks to lose his life for my sake will save it.” This is a dilemma and a contradiction, but we know that those who seek the highest positions shall be lowered, and those who seek the lowest places shall be elevated. Why should this contradictory statement be there in the Bible? People don’t realize it, but such a statement is in the Bible because of the principle of indemnity.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why, then, do you want to go this way? You must achieve the victory of home church. Like marathon runners, you are running, but have you considered how serious this is? Can Satan run to your home church faster than you and sit there, laughing at you when you get there? You must outrun Satan, reaching the area before him, telling him, “Satan, get behind me.”</p>
|
||||
<p>For three years, you have been listening to me expounding on home church. When you go to your area, you must chase out Satan, not by your fist, but by your love and sacrifice. Unless you do home church, you will be like an automobile entering onto the highway of the Kingdom of Heaven with an empty gasoline tank. You cannot go anywhere without gas. How can you claim the right to the Blessing until you have completed your home church work? Jesus was destined to complete his work on the home church level, and afterwards get the Blessing of marriage, but he did not get that far. In the future, I will judge you according to every principle and word which I have spoken; that will be your judgment. The world will judge you, as well. If you are a student, you must obey the school rules laid down by the principal; then you have the right to certain privileges.</p>
|
||||
<p>Starting from Dr. Durst, everybody has a home church area. Dr. Durst has been thinking that home church is good, but we need to emphasize street witnessing in order to gain new members. But if you witness to someone on the street, it has only the significance of that individual. An amazing thing is that, although we are doing the same activity, witnessing, when you do it at the home church level, it has historical and providential significance because it is connected at that point to the historical indemnity course. When you connect with one person in your home church area, that individual is representing his family, clan, nation, world and cosmos. By working with one person in home church, you connect yourself to the entire cosmos; but when you go out into the streets, you are only connecting with one individual. It is a one-to-one relationship that does not go beyond that level.</p>
|
||||
<p>It is best to start with the older persons, the grandparents; then go to the uncles and aunts. The Old Testament era is that of the grandparents, the New Testament era is that of the uncles and aunts, and the Completed Testament era is that of young people. You should start at the beginning, with the Old Testament, then the New Testament, then down to the present. Some people complain that their home church area doesn’t have any young people, only old people. You are going through an indemnity course, so the older people serve that purpose better. By loving the grandparents, then uncles and aunts first, you are going exactly the same way that I went. You should love older people more than you love your own age group, more than you love yourself; in that way, you can be victorious.</p>
|
||||
<p>Shall we do it? How do you know that my teaching is not incorrect? If you are not sure, all you have to do is go to your home church and try what I have been teaching. When spirit world and God help you, you will see that what I have said is true. Your position in the home church is that of Adam; the spirit world is in the position of archangel and they are subordinate to you. Therefore, God and the angelic world must come to help you.</p>
|
||||
<p>Everything depends upon how much you serve and set the indemnity conditions. Parallel with those conditions, your blessings will descend upon you. All your ancestors will come down to your home church area, and the ancestors of the people in the neighborhood as well. When your effort exceeds the level of effort made by anyone previously, Satan will pack up and retreat from your area. You will see that those people who were adamantly opposed to you one day will change, like a miracle, the next day. Those who continue to give you a hard time will receive instant judgment from spirit world. You will see this with your own eyes. After their chastisement from spirit world, those persons will change, too. During my lifetime, I have seen many instances of this, too many to describe. The same things will happen to you in your home church area.</p>
|
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<p>Until you have finished your home church work, you have no way to complain. You should not get tired. Knowing the Principle, I have no way to get discouraged or to slow down. I continue to march forward; even if I collapsed, I would fall forward, not backwards or to the side. I have always known that I must go over the hill and I cannot stop marching before I go beyond that hill; I cannot afford to die before I get there. Since no one can know when he will die, you must begin now to go beyond the hill. My 21-year course was actually completed in 16 years, 5 years earlier than scheduled. Why? Because I did not know when I would die.</p>
|
||||
<p>You must overcome your fear of death, becoming men and women who can live without fear, dwelling within the love of God. Unless you can live this way, life is miserable. Once you are elevated into spirit world, there is no way to return to the earth. It is your good fortune to have met me and to have heard this message; but if you do not fulfill my message, it is not good. More than anything else, home church is top priority. Push aside everything else to do home church. For whom are you going this way? Not for the sake of the Unification Church and not for the sake of God or True Parents, but for the sake of yourself, your children, and your posterity. For that reason, you must go to home church and be victorious!</p>
|
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<p>Let us pray.</p>
|
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|
|
@ -0,0 +1,73 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
title: "VICTORY OF HOME CHURCH - Morning Address"
|
||||
type: "speech"
|
||||
published: "2018-06-22T06:00:34+01:00"
|
||||
updated: "2018-06-22T06:00:34+01:00"
|
||||
source: "/blog/2018/06/22/victory-of-home-church-morning-address.html"
|
||||
speechYear: "1982"
|
||||
categories:
|
||||
- "Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982"
|
||||
tags: []
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
<h2 align="CENTER">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
|
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<h3 align="CENTER">January 1, 1982, Morning<br />
|
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World Mission Center<br />
|
||||
Translator – Bo Hi Pak</h3>
|
||||
<p>Once a year this God’s Day celebration comes and everyone gathers together. But it is an intense time and many of you must think that this is a very difficult celebration. If anyone thinks that way, I should be the first one.</p>
|
||||
<p>When we come together for any celebration, including God’s Day, we don’t just eat and rejoice; we have a job to do. I have been thinking about why you all gather here together. It isn’t just to enjoy a delicious meal, or to experience the exhilarating entertainment by Performing Arts. What else is it that makes our celebration? No doubt, many of you came for the purpose of seeing me, face to face, but by now you are probably tired of my face. I haven’t given you any comfort, only a hard time. Perhaps you are wondering, “What kind of Father is he?”</p>
|
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<p>One of the most important aspects of our celebration time is listening to the word of God. Which do you like the best: a good meal, a good program, or a good message? When you receive a good message, can you simply listen and then forget it the next day? What else is your duty? You come here, listen to the message, and then you want to act upon it. Right? Why do you feel that way? Because as children of God you have to prove yourselves superior to the adversary, Satan. We are determined to do the things which the satanic world cannot do.</p>
|
||||
<p>When difficulties arise, what is your attitude? Do you want to give up, even though Satan rejoices over your failure? Satan loves to see you living a distorted, unprincipled way; he hates to see you obeying the will of God and practicing the love of God. Therefore, the Unification Church is the adversary of Satan; he is our enemy. We will do the things that Satan hates the most and give him a hard time; that is our job. Satan whispers in your ears: “Why do you go to that weird Unification Church? Go to another church where there are plush carpets and, best of all, there are soft, cushioned chairs! It’s so uncivilized for you to sit on the floor like that!” The reason we sit on the floor is that Satan hates to sit on the floor; we are doing the thing that Satan cannot stand.</p>
|
||||
<p>If you were to sit on the floor in a stiff, unmoving posture, Satan would hate it even more. Average American people would never sit the way you do for hours and hours; only the determined people of God can stay. When we sit this way, we know that Satan hates it; but we also know that God likes it. Whenever you separate yourself from Satan, God can smile and rejoice.</p>
|
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<p>Suppose we only indulged ourselves on God’s Day, eating, laughing, and enjoying the music and entertainment. Anybody could enjoy such a celebration, even Satan. But if Satan was here enjoying our celebration would God want to come, too? Not at all. Therefore, my way of celebrating on holidays is to make it impossible for Satan to come. We can enjoy our celebration, but we must have something which Satan hates. What is that? Instead of a message of praise, you receive a tough, demanding message, one which Satan simply cannot listen to.</p>
|
||||
<p>This morning after the 8:00 a.m. Pledge Service, I gave a special message to the blessed couples, including VIPs from all over the world. I never gave them a chance to eat breakfast, and I did it on purpose. There were a lot of long faces in the audience, but no one could accuse me because my stomach was empty like everyone else’s. More than anybody else, I work harder and longer; in this way, everyone can feel inspired and feel the desire to do more for God. This is the kind of inspiration you need for a celebration.</p>
|
||||
<p>Do you want to take it easy when you see me working hard? You might wish that fewer people had come into this crowded, stuffy room; you might have room to stretch your legs a bit. But who would take joy if only a few people came to hear my message? Satan. What about God; doesn’t He want even more people to come here and listen to me for hours? Perhaps, if there were absolutely no more room in here, I would make it a rule that every husband must carry his wife on the back of his neck, the way mothers carry their little babies. Would you long for me to finish my message while you listened in such an uncomfortable position? Would your attitude please God or Satan? What if the wife weighed 250 pounds but the husband was eager to persevere and the wife was full of encouragement? That would certainly please God. In addition, if each of you was holding a child in your arms as you struggled to listen to me in that awkward position, how do you think that would make God feel? The greater your suffering for the sake of God, the more historical you become.</p>
|
||||
<p>You should realize that this way of life, although it is peculiar in the eyes of others, has a reason behind it. Even when you feel totally alone and suffering, you should never complain. Complaint is the worst tool of Satan. Some people might complain because we haven’t even served a Coke or soda today, not even a glass of water. You might start to feel that you don’t want to participate in such a celebration, since all you hear is me-talking for hours and hours, trying to push you harder. But do these kinds of experiences please God or Satan? That should be our most fundamental consideration.</p>
|
||||
<p>Not only today’s celebration, but also our entire life is determined by this same consideration. If you are consciously trying to do only the things that God likes, then you are bound to align yourself with God; God is bound to like you. You need to have a way to evaluate what is pleasing to God and what is pleasing to Satan.</p>
|
||||
<p>Today we must celebrate God’s Day in a way that God can rejoice over, not Satan. We speak of “God’s Day”; did you see God, Himself? Where is He? God is invisible; He stays within the deepest corner of your mind. You cannot see your mind, either. When you acknowledge your mind, you are actually acknowledging God. According to logic, if you can accept the existence of the invisible mind, you cannot reject the existence of God just because He is invisible.</p>
|
||||
<p>Magnetic power always pulls in a certain direction, not in various directions all at once. Your mind is generally leading you, like a magnet, in the one direction of goodness. Do you think that this mind which is always leading toward goodness sprang into being the moment you were born? Or did that mind always exist within the universe in the form of an Original Mind of the universe?</p>
|
||||
<p>Which came first, mind or body? Why do you say mind? Because the mind is subject; so before the object, the subject is already determined. But in order to be the subject and master over the body, the mind should have the right qualifications. Consider the relationship between the elementary school teacher and the students. Do you expect the students to be older than their teacher? It is logical to expect that the teacher should have been born first and have acquired more knowledge and experience than the children under him.</p>
|
||||
<p>In the same sense, the mind should have greater depth, substance, and content to be able to control the body. The mind exists earlier than the body. How much earlier? Your mind is linked to your parent’s mind; your parent’s mind is linked to your grandparent’s mind; the linkage goes all the way to the top, to that original mind. But your body is fixed in one place.</p>
|
||||
<p>Where did the original mind begin? There must be a subject of the original mind. We say God exists in the deepest corner of the mind and existed even before the mind; therefore, He is the subject of the mind. If your body begins to protest against your mind because it is always telling the body what to do, your mind must be able to demand obedience from your body. Do you have such a mind?</p>
|
||||
<p>What about schooling for the mind? Do you send your mind to elementary school, middle school, high school and university? Dr. Durst is an authentic Ph.D., so he has the highest degree possible in the academic community. But he still has a mind that directs him, a mind behind that Ph.D. which is the subject over all the knowledge he has accumulated. We don’t see his mind bowing down to him because he has a PhD In fact, his mind keeps making things difficult for him, telling him that more is expected of him, since he is a Ph.D. Isn’t that true, Dr. Durst?</p>
|
||||
<p>What qualified that mind to be so authoritative? I have a body that is big and strong, but my mind is stronger and greater. My mind tells my body to work harder, keep going; but my body wants to beg for sleep or food. However, my mind tells it, “You rascal! Keep going! Don’t stop!” I have given you enough of a message already for God’s Day-at least that is what my body is telling me. But my mind says to me, “No, you haven’t even scratched the surface yet!”</p>
|
||||
<p>The mind is very unreasonable; even when someone is doing his absolute best, the mind is never satisfied. Why is that? Your mind is greedy for one simple reason: it wants to link you to that universal mind, so that you can be loved by the ultimate source.</p>
|
||||
<p>The mind is a priceless teacher which no amount of money can buy. If you didn’t have that mind, you would never have joined the Unification Church; you wouldn’t be here today. Your body may decide to obey your mind and, if so, how far will your mind lead you? Suppose you were to achieve the Presidency of the United States. As master of the White House, would your mind let you sit back and relax? No, it would push you even further, telling you there is an even greater goal to achieve.</p>
|
||||
<p>When the body continues to follow the mind, how far will it lead? To a palace in the Kingdom of Heaven where you can meet the King of Heaven, God? When the mind leads you to God, it can approach Him with two different attitudes. Either it can request that God become its subject or that God become its object. Would you like God to be your subject or would you like to be the subject of God? Maybe to your mind, it’s enough to let God be your subject; but suppose I wanted God to be my object! If I wanted such a thing from God, would He proudly proclaim to me, “No, my son; after all, I’m God and I cannot yield that position!”?</p>
|
||||
<p>Instead of fighting between God and my mind, the best solution would be to reconcile; we would want to unite. What would be the way to negotiate, then? We could ask who existed first. My mind would have to admit to such a logical approach and have to acknowledge that God existed first. Since God existed first, my mind would have to acknowledge Him as the subject. But even at that point, there is still one thing that the mind will refuse to compromise on. The mind will say, “God, you can be my absolute subject, but on one condition: you must give me your love.” As long as love is fulfilled, it doesn’t matter who is subject and who is object.</p>
|
||||
<p>Do you or do you not believe in the existence of God? Can you accept the statement that your conscience was there before you? We come to the recognition that God exists in the deepest corner of the mind. God is whispering to the mind, telling it what to do, quietly but distinctly.</p>
|
||||
<p>Why does God bury Himself so deeply in our minds? Because, in order to go after Him, one must dig down to get to Him and it is such a deep place that no one else is there but oneself and God. You and God are there for the give and take of love; object and subject. Once a subject and object are completely united, they become welded together. Once your sharp, meticulous mind comes to the point of being welded to God, nothing can separate you. At that point, the mind feels totally complete and fulfilled. Consider the plus and minus of the electrical circuit; they long for each other intensely and when they come together, it makes a big spark. But afterwards they are a closed circuit, fulfilled and seeking no more.</p>
|
||||
<p>Everyone recognizes that he has a mind, but many people fail to realize that their mind is supposed to unite with its subject. With that unity, you will end up in heaven with God.</p>
|
||||
<p>God is in the position of pouring four billion minds full of love; we can imagine that He needs a huge supply. He is truly almighty because He never runs out of love! God’s warehouse is really a big one and it never becomes empty. Suppose a “love thief” came around every night, stealing love from God’s warehouse and then distributing it to others. Do you think God would get angry? No, God would encourage him saying, “Go ahead and take all you want my son. I have a limitless supply of love for you to distribute.”</p>
|
||||
<p>If the love thief decided he wanted to become really efficient and put a pipeline into God’s warehouse to pipe the love out, God would say, “Of course, my son, take my love out by a pipeline and give it to people everywhere so they can enjoy my love.” The only pipeline in the world that gives an unlimited supply of its product without costing any money is this pipeline of God’s love. All the other pipelines in the world, like the one between Alaska and the continental United States, have limited resources and will someday come to an end. But there is one pipeline that will never run out: the love of God.</p>
|
||||
<p>When a person seeks to acquire money, he can never be satisfied. He always wants more and more. Even if someone gained all the money in the United States, would he stop there? He would set his sights on the wealth of Japan or Germany, or some other country. But even if he gained the wealth of the entire world, it is still a finite amount. Even with all the power and knowledge to rule the world, it would come to an end eventually. But there is one resource that never comes to an end; that is the love of God.</p>
|
||||
<p>Those “love thieves” who are tapping into God’s universal supply and trying to distribute it to the world are the persecuted Moonies. The Unification Church goes out into the world giving true love unconditionally to all people. For this reason, the Unification Church will never be destroyed but will go forward, harvesting great things. In a way, I am a paradox because I have all kinds of money at my disposal, but when it comes to my personal money, I am penniless.</p>
|
||||
<p>If I said to you, “Let’s celebrate God’s Day with lots of money!” would you say “Amen!”? How about celebrating with great power or wonderful knowledge? You are telling me that you want to celebrate God’s Day with true love, even if it requires eating humble food and doing humble activities? With true love, everything is OK. The wife who knows her husband has true love for her doesn’t mind giving him absolute power over her.</p>
|
||||
<p>A person doesn’t need education to recognize true love; he knows it automatically, instinctively. Do you think this is illogical? Do you have to analyze true love? When you see a person laughing, you can see whether it is deep and genuine or not. Some women think that just because they are beautiful they have nothing more to concentrate on. If you women had a choice between a husband who was handsome but had no true love, and a man as ugly as the Elephant Man but with a heart of true love, which would you choose? If your eyes are true eyes, you want to look at a man who has true love, regardless of his external appearance.</p>
|
||||
<p>Ask your nose whether it prefers to be in a place of true love or somewhere else. False love is usually found in perfumed mansions, but true love can be found in the lowliest places, even in the bathroom. Your nose would desire to remain in the bad-smelling bathroom if true love was there, rather than in a sweet-smelling palace of false love.</p>
|
||||
<p>Your ears have the same motivation. If a noisy factory is the place of true love, your ears would prefer that to a classical music concert. Even if your body gets hit going in the direction of true love, still you would seek after it.</p>
|
||||
<p>No matter how big the pipeline leading from the warehouse of true love, true love can never be depleted. Even though my shirttail is coming out now and I may look undignified, if I have a heart of true love, do you mind? Everything about true love is OK, any time. Even if you fast for one week, when you are thinking about true love you can have incredible energy. True love is the panacea for the world.</p>
|
||||
<p>When men and women of perfected love go to spirit world, they have almighty powers. If you have perfect love and you decide you want to give a banquet in spirit world for 100 million people, serving them whatever they desire, you can do it. All you have to do is say, “Let it be done,” and it is. Suppose you want to give clothing of gold to all the people who were poor on earth; you can say, “Let it be done,” and millions of people will be wearing golden clothing. The only condition is that you have true love. If a person tried to use the same power to gain benefits for himself, he would have no power. If he tried to make all the gold clothing his possession, nothing would happen.</p>
|
||||
<p>I seldom talk about spirit world because it is such a fantastic place. If I talked about it too much, I would look like a crazy person, even to you. But you should think this way: if God is capable of supplying true love to everyone without limit, isn’t He also capable of supplying 100 million people with a delicious banquet or with coats and suits of gold? If God asked me why I wanted to have such a banquet and I said, “God, it is because I want to invite you as my guest of honor and I can dance with You,” would God accept my invitation?</p>
|
||||
<p>In spirit world there are people who are ten, even a hundred million years old. When a newcomer arrives in spirit world, God might hold a banquet for him, inviting all his ancient ancestors. How many people would God like to invite? The tables could be filled with plates of food, then cleared without anyone lifting a finger. All God would have to say is, “Let the tables be cleared.” Then, God could command a dancing hall to appear and music to be played superior to anything heard on earth, even Beethoven. Although you may never get a chance to dance and wear pretty clothes on the earth, in spirit world all those things can come to you. The heavenly music will automatically move people to dance, even if they don’t know how. It sounds like a nice place to live, doesn’t it?</p>
|
||||
<p>I don’t worry about spirit world. I worry about this world, because this is where the problems lie. You know that true love is a more valuable possession than money, power, or knowledge. Is it going to be easy to gain true love? However, the greater the difficulty in obtaining it, the greater the value it has.</p>
|
||||
<p>The shortest path to the Kingdom of Heaven is under the bottom of hell. Everybody tries to climb up to receive honor and glory; but I am teaching you to go down into the bottom of the most hellish situations, because that is the shortcut to heaven. Other Christian churches may try to go up, but that way leads nowhere. The Unification Church is going down now but it will eventually go to heaven.</p>
|
||||
<p>The most valuable hand in the world is the hand that can give true love. Once I went to Las Vegas and watched a performance of Liberace playing the piano. Every one of his fingers had a huge diamond ring. But a natural, unadorned hand is far more precious if it can give true love.</p>
|
||||
<p>In what frame of mind should we celebrate God’s Day? Should we seek a lot of rest, food and entertainment? Or should we celebrate with true love foremost in our minds? Your certainty makes me certain, too. I think I have seen true love today in your confidence and determination.</p>
|
||||
<p>Is it a good thing for a woman to give up everything else in her pursuit of true love? What about a man? Would you like to distinguish yourselves with true love? True love is the supreme victor over everything.</p>
|
||||
<p>Let’s celebrate God’s Day with true love. Even if your body aches, your legs become numb and your back hurts, you can have the will to continue. As long as you obtain true love, nothing else really matters. Even if someone sitting next to you smells bad, with true love in your heart it won’t matter. If that is the way we choose to celebrate this God’s Day, don’t you think God will want to visit us? If I am a true love man and Mother is a true love woman, don’t you think God would like that? What about you? Are you on your way?</p>
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<p>You must become individuals of true love, multiplying into true love families, tribes, nations, universe and spirit world. This will be wonderful. How can you become true love individuals? I have given you the greatest gift, home church, where you can be resurrected into the realm of true love. There is no greater goal than home church, where you can attend True Parents, bring in new brothers and sisters and create the Kingdom of Heaven on the earth. If you really work hard in home church, wherever you go in spirit world you can call out to your home church members and you will never be lonely. In fact, you won’t even have to call them; they will already have created a fanfare to welcome you.</p>
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<p>If you love the members of the Unification Church more than you love the members of your own family, the members of the Unification Church will love your family on your behalf. You will gain an incredible relationship with God in this way. In the Bible, Jesus told people to love their enemies. This is so difficult, only true love can accomplish it. The Bible also teaches that if a person wants to elevate his position, he will be humbled, but if he desires to be humbled, he will be lifted up.</p>
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<p>Are you going to be someone who desperately pursues true love? Then where would you find that true love? In home church. Even though people in your home church area may reject you and mistreat you, you have the chance to live a dramatic way of life by continuing to go there with true love. Your home church work will continue until all that negativity turns to positivity.</p>
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<p>After about three years of home church work, perhaps no one will come against you. You might begin to think that you have finished your mission, when suddenly another negative person appears. You must begin again with him and overcome all the opposition, even if it take your entire life.</p>
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<p>The mark of true love will be upon your forehead; this will be your passport to the Kingdom of Heaven. You will have gained true love in an arena of 360 degrees, so you will be able to go anywhere with your true love. At that point, you will no longer need the law for you will have transcended it. You and the law will be one. True love will give you the special privilege to go beyond the law. When you obey and practice true love, you are entitled to live in the Kingdom of Heaven.</p>
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<p>This year’s slogan is <em>Victory of Home Church</em>. With that determination and our manifestation of true love, we will go to home church and gain victory. That is the most meaningful way to celebrate God’s Day 1982.</p>
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<p>When you are in your area trying to perform a service and you drop a dish and break it, the homeowner will not be angry because you are manifesting true love. When a husband and wife love each other with true love, they might feel so strongly that they bite each other. One thing is for sure: we all want unconditional, true love. In true love, everything is “Amen!” Even if someone persecutes you, kicks you and spits at you, it doesn’t affect you if you have true love.</p>
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<p>Some of you engaged people worry, “I don’t have much feeling for my fiancé and the day of Holy Blessing is coming soon! How can I walk down the aisle with him? I don’t know if I can do it.” But when true love is there, everything is OK. Suppose there are two couples: the first is made up of two charming, talented people; the second is composed of a handsome, capable man and a woman who looks like an Idaho potato. Which one is more dramatic and closer to true love? Some brothers worry because their fiancees weigh 200 pounds; but with true love, everything is OK. Which one is closer to true love: two slim, attractive people loving each other, or two giants loving each other?</p>
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<p>True love doesn’t need education to be recognized. If an engaged couple is having troubles at this time, that is a good sign from the true love point of view. If someone rejects all problems, he is not looking for true love but for his own concept of love. Which is closer to true love: a black husband and a white wife; or white people who refuse to consider being married to a black person? Certainly the first. I have made up my mind that at the next matching I will put together the most handsome men and the ugliest-looking women and let them practice true love.</p>
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<p>Some members are saying to me, “Father, why should we take time out to come to New York for a matching? We will be happy if you just take our pictures and match them on your breakfast table at East Garden.” Some couples are matched and they have to go and look at each other for a long time, analyzing everything before they accept. But some couples accept unconditionally, without even looking at each other, saying, “Father, anyone you match me with is perfect for me.” Which one is the greatest example of true love? Where there is true love, everything is OK.</p>
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<p>Suppose I asked a representative to do the matching and the couples said, “That’s OK; if Father wants it that way, it’s OK with me.” But some might say, “I accept Father’s matching, but nobody else’s.” Which one is closer to true love? In true love, everything is OK.</p>
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<p>Tonight, when you go to your room, look at your eyes. Are they true eyes? If not, you don’t need them. Your nose, your ears, as well; if they are not helping you toward true love, you don’t need them.</p>
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<p>When I received the Blessing from God, I never expected such a beautiful woman as Mother. I expected to receive a 250 pound, short black woman. I have absolutely no complaint against God; whatever He does, I am grateful to Him.</p>
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<p>Today is God’s Day, so let us set a new tradition Beginning even from our celebration, let us do it differently. Let us do everything with true love. You might have been thinking, “I came such a long distance for this celebration, but I don’t have a place to sleep or even time to sleep; I don’t even have any food to eat! What kind of celebration is this?” However, after listening to this message today, you can feel dramatic and excited to be living with God’s true love. Amen? Amen! We shall continue with this attitude for our entire lives. Will this make our lives valuable? Will you live this way?</p>
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<p>All of you who can pledge to God that you will begin from today to win the victory in home church, raise your hands. Amen !</p>
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