Loyyd
7ce6a3c9d2
All checks were successful
Publish static bundles / publish (push) Successful in 3m16s
1385 lines
466 KiB
HTML
1385 lines
466 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE html>
|
||
<html lang="en-US">
|
||
<head>
|
||
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, user-scalable=no, initial-scale=1.0, minimum-scale=1.0, maximum-scale=1.0">
|
||
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
|
||
<title>Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982 – Page 3 – FFWPU Ireland</title>
|
||
<meta name='robots' content='max-image-preview:large' />
|
||
<link rel='stylesheet' id="content-blocks-css" href='/css/block-library.css?ver=6.6.5' type='text/css' media='all' />
|
||
<link rel='stylesheet' id='pdfprnt_frontend-css' href='/assets/vendor/pdf/css/frontend.css?ver=2.4.0' type='text/css' media='all' />
|
||
<link rel='stylesheet' id='parabola-fonts-css' href='/assets/theme/parabola/fonts/fontfaces.css?ver=2.4.1' type='text/css' media='all' />
|
||
<link rel='stylesheet' id='parabola-style-css' href='/assets/theme/parabola/style.css?ver=2.4.1' type='text/css' media='all' />
|
||
<link rel='stylesheet' id='familyfedie-theme-css' href='/css/theme.css' type='text/css' media='all' />
|
||
<link rel='stylesheet' id='familyfedie-site-css' href='/css/site.css?ver=20260715-1' type='text/css' media='all' />
|
||
<link rel='stylesheet' id='parabola-mobile-css' href='/assets/theme/parabola/styles/style-mobile.css?ver=2.4.1' type='text/css' media='all' />
|
||
<meta http-equiv="Content-Security-Policy" content="default-src 'self'; base-uri 'self'; object-src 'none'; img-src 'self' data: https:; font-src 'self' data:; style-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline'; script-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline' https://static.cloudflareinsights.com; connect-src 'self' https:; frame-src https://www.youtube.com https://www.youtube-nocookie.com https://player.vimeo.com; form-action 'self' mailto: https:; upgrade-insecure-requests" />
|
||
<meta name="referrer" content="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" />
|
||
</head>
|
||
<body class="archive paged category category-speeches-of-rev-sun-myung-moon-1982 category-49 custom-background paged-3 category-paged-3 tribe-no-js metaslider-plugin parabola-image-three caption-light meta-light parabola_triagles parabola-menu-left">
|
||
|
||
<button id="toTop" type="button" aria-label="Back to top"></button>
|
||
<div id="wrapper" class="hfeed">
|
||
|
||
|
||
<div id="header-full">
|
||
|
||
<header id="header">
|
||
|
||
|
||
<div id="masthead">
|
||
|
||
<div id="branding" role="banner" >
|
||
|
||
<picture class="site-banner">
|
||
<source type="image/avif" srcset="/assets/uploads/2013/10/BannerFamilyFed_23_10c1-481.avif 481w, /assets/uploads/2013/10/BannerFamilyFed_23_10c1-768.avif 768w, /assets/uploads/2013/10/BannerFamilyFed_23_10c1-1050.avif 1050w" sizes="(max-width: 1050px) 100vw, 1050px" />
|
||
<source type="image/webp" srcset="/assets/uploads/2013/10/BannerFamilyFed_23_10c1-481.webp 481w, /assets/uploads/2013/10/BannerFamilyFed_23_10c1-768.webp 768w, /assets/uploads/2013/10/BannerFamilyFed_23_10c1-1050.webp 1050w" sizes="(max-width: 1050px) 100vw, 1050px" />
|
||
<img id="bg_image" alt="Family Federation for World Peace and Unification Ireland" src="/assets/uploads/2013/10/BannerFamilyFed_23_10c1.jpg" width="1050" height="120" fetchpriority="high" />
|
||
</picture><div id="header-container">
|
||
<a href="/index.html" id="linky"></a></div> <div style="clear:both;"></div>
|
||
|
||
</div><!-- #branding -->
|
||
<a id="nav-toggle"><span> </span></a>
|
||
|
||
<nav id="access" class="jssafe" role="navigation">
|
||
|
||
<div class="skip-link screen-reader-text"><a href="#content" title="Skip to content">Skip to content</a></div>
|
||
<div class="menu"><ul id="prime_nav" class="menu"><li class="menu-item menu-item-1"><a href="/index.html"><span>Home</span></a></li>
|
||
<li class="menu-item menu-item-has-children menu-item-2"><a href="/about.html"><span>About Us</span></a>
|
||
<ul class="sub-menu">
|
||
<li class="menu-item menu-item-2-1"><a href="/the-founders.html"><span>The Founders</span></a></li>
|
||
<li class="menu-item menu-item-2-2"><a href="/about-us-organizations.html"><span>Organizations</span></a></li>
|
||
</ul></li>
|
||
<li class="menu-item menu-item-3"><a href="/videos.html"><span>Videos</span></a></li>
|
||
<li class="menu-item menu-item-has-children menu-item-4"><a href="/events.html"><span>Events</span></a>
|
||
<ul class="sub-menu">
|
||
<li class="menu-item menu-item-4-1"><a href="/services.html"><span>Sunday Services</span></a></li>
|
||
</ul></li>
|
||
<li class="menu-item current-menu-item current_page_item menu-item-5"><a href="/speeches/" aria-current="page"><span>Speeches</span></a></li>
|
||
<li class="menu-item menu-item-6"><a href="/contact.html"><span>Contact</span></a></li></ul></div>
|
||
</nav><!-- #access -->
|
||
|
||
</div><!-- #masthead -->
|
||
|
||
<div style="clear:both;height:1px;width:1px;"> </div>
|
||
|
||
</header><!-- #header -->
|
||
</div><!-- #header-full -->
|
||
<div id="main">
|
||
<div id="forbottom" >
|
||
|
||
<div style="clear:both;"> </div>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<section id="container" class="two-columns-right">
|
||
<div id="content" role="main">
|
||
|
||
|
||
<header class="page-header">
|
||
<h1 class="page-title">Category: <span>Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982</span></h1> </header>
|
||
|
||
<div class="content-masonry">
|
||
|
||
|
||
<article id="post-1617" class="post-1617 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-speeches-of-rev-sun-myung-moon-1982">
|
||
<header class="entry-header">
|
||
<h2 class="entry-title">
|
||
<a href="/blog/2018/06/22/victory-of-god.html" title="Permalink to VICTORY OF GOD" rel="bookmark">VICTORY OF GOD</a>
|
||
</h2>
|
||
<div class="entry-meta">
|
||
<span class="author vcard" >By <a class="url fn n" rel="author" href="#" title="View all posts by Fami1yfed">Fami1yfed</a></span> <span><time class="onDate date published" datetime="2018-06-22T06:11:32+01:00"> <a href="/blog/2018/06/22/victory-of-god.html" rel="bookmark">June 22, 2018</a> </time></span><time class="updated" datetime="2018-06-22T06:11:32+01:00">June 22, 2018</time> <span class="bl_categ"> <a href="/speeches/categories/rev-sun-myung-moon-1982.html" rel="tag">Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982</a> </span> </div><!-- .entry-meta -->
|
||
|
||
|
||
</header><!-- .entry-header -->
|
||
|
||
|
||
<div class="entry-content">
|
||
<p><center></p>
|
||
<h2>REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
|
||
<p></center><center></p>
|
||
<h3>May 9, 1982<br />
|
||
Belvedere, America<br />
|
||
Translator – Bo Hi Pak</h3>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<p>At an arboretum, you see millions of different plants; each has its own characteristics, its own shape and form</p>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<p>The heavenly four positions must be united in three generations. In your case, it is your grand</p>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
</div><!-- .entry-content -->
|
||
|
||
<footer class="entry-meta">
|
||
</footer><!-- #entry-meta -->
|
||
|
||
</article><!-- #post-1617 -->
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
<article id="post-1615" class="post-1615 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-speeches-of-rev-sun-myung-moon-1982">
|
||
<header class="entry-header">
|
||
<h2 class="entry-title">
|
||
<a href="/blog/2018/06/22/the-road-of-the-saint-and-the-righteous-man.html" title="Permalink to THE ROAD OF THE SAINT AND THE RIGHTEOUS MAN" rel="bookmark">THE ROAD OF THE SAINT AND THE RIGHTEOUS MAN</a>
|
||
</h2>
|
||
<div class="entry-meta">
|
||
<span class="author vcard" >By <a class="url fn n" rel="author" href="#" title="View all posts by Fami1yfed">Fami1yfed</a></span> <span><time class="onDate date published" datetime="2018-06-22T06:11:04+01:00"> <a href="/blog/2018/06/22/the-road-of-the-saint-and-the-righteous-man.html" rel="bookmark">June 22, 2018</a> </time></span><time class="updated" datetime="2018-06-22T06:11:04+01:00">June 22, 2018</time> <span class="bl_categ"> <a href="/speeches/categories/rev-sun-myung-moon-1982.html" rel="tag">Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982</a> </span> </div><!-- .entry-meta -->
|
||
|
||
|
||
</header><!-- .entry-header -->
|
||
|
||
|
||
<div class="entry-content">
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
</div><!-- .entry-content -->
|
||
|
||
<footer class="entry-meta">
|
||
</footer><!-- #entry-meta -->
|
||
|
||
</article><!-- #post-1615 -->
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
<article id="post-1613" class="post-1613 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-speeches-of-rev-sun-myung-moon-1982">
|
||
<header class="entry-header">
|
||
<h2 class="entry-title">
|
||
<a href="/blog/2018/06/22/let-us-protect-ourselves.html" title="Permalink to LET US PROTECT OURSELVES" rel="bookmark">LET US PROTECT OURSELVES</a>
|
||
</h2>
|
||
<div class="entry-meta">
|
||
<span class="author vcard" >By <a class="url fn n" rel="author" href="#" title="View all posts by Fami1yfed">Fami1yfed</a></span> <span><time class="onDate date published" datetime="2018-06-22T06:10:23+01:00"> <a href="/blog/2018/06/22/let-us-protect-ourselves.html" rel="bookmark">June 22, 2018</a> </time></span><time class="updated" datetime="2018-06-22T06:10:23+01:00">June 22, 2018</time> <span class="bl_categ"> <a href="/speeches/categories/rev-sun-myung-moon-1982.html" rel="tag">Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982</a> </span> </div><!-- .entry-meta -->
|
||
|
||
|
||
</header><!-- .entry-header -->
|
||
|
||
|
||
<div class="entry-content">
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
</div><!-- .entry-content -->
|
||
|
||
<footer class="entry-meta">
|
||
</footer><!-- #entry-meta -->
|
||
|
||
</article><!-- #post-1613 -->
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
<article id="post-1611" class="post-1611 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-speeches-of-rev-sun-myung-moon-1982">
|
||
<header class="entry-header">
|
||
<h2 class="entry-title">
|
||
<a href="/blog/2018/06/22/god-and-my-home.html" title="Permalink to GOD AND MY HOME" rel="bookmark">GOD AND MY HOME</a>
|
||
</h2>
|
||
<div class="entry-meta">
|
||
<span class="author vcard" >By <a class="url fn n" rel="author" href="#" title="View all posts by Fami1yfed">Fami1yfed</a></span> <span><time class="onDate date published" datetime="2018-06-22T06:09:46+01:00"> <a href="/blog/2018/06/22/god-and-my-home.html" rel="bookmark">June 22, 2018</a> </time></span><time class="updated" datetime="2018-06-22T06:09:46+01:00">June 22, 2018</time> <span class="bl_categ"> <a href="/speeches/categories/rev-sun-myung-moon-1982.html" rel="tag">Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982</a> </span> </div><!-- .entry-meta -->
|
||
|
||
|
||
</header><!-- .entry-header -->
|
||
|
||
|
||
<div class="entry-content">
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
</div><!-- .entry-content -->
|
||
|
||
<footer class="entry-meta">
|
||
</footer><!-- #entry-meta -->
|
||
|
||
</article><!-- #post-1611 -->
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
<article id="post-1609" class="post-1609 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-speeches-of-rev-sun-myung-moon-1982">
|
||
<header class="entry-header">
|
||
<h2 class="entry-title">
|
||
<a href="/blog/2018/06/22/in-the-presence-of-god.html" title="Permalink to IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD" rel="bookmark">IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD</a>
|
||
</h2>
|
||
<div class="entry-meta">
|
||
<span class="author vcard" >By <a class="url fn n" rel="author" href="#" title="View all posts by Fami1yfed">Fami1yfed</a></span> <span><time class="onDate date published" datetime="2018-06-22T06:08:43+01:00"> <a href="/blog/2018/06/22/in-the-presence-of-god.html" rel="bookmark">June 22, 2018</a> </time></span><time class="updated" datetime="2018-06-22T06:08:43+01:00">June 22, 2018</time> <span class="bl_categ"> <a href="/speeches/categories/rev-sun-myung-moon-1982.html" rel="tag">Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982</a> </span> </div><!-- .entry-meta -->
|
||
|
||
|
||
</header><!-- .entry-header -->
|
||
|
||
|
||
<div class="entry-content">
|
||
<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>
|
||
</div><!-- .entry-content -->
|
||
|
||
<footer class="entry-meta">
|
||
</footer><!-- #entry-meta -->
|
||
|
||
</article><!-- #post-1609 -->
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
<article id="post-1607" class="post-1607 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-speeches-of-rev-sun-myung-moon-1982">
|
||
<header class="entry-header">
|
||
<h2 class="entry-title">
|
||
<a href="/blog/2018/06/22/public-life.html" title="Permalink to PUBLIC LIFE" rel="bookmark">PUBLIC LIFE</a>
|
||
</h2>
|
||
<div class="entry-meta">
|
||
<span class="author vcard" >By <a class="url fn n" rel="author" href="#" title="View all posts by Fami1yfed">Fami1yfed</a></span> <span><time class="onDate date published" datetime="2018-06-22T06:07:53+01:00"> <a href="/blog/2018/06/22/public-life.html" rel="bookmark">June 22, 2018</a> </time></span><time class="updated" datetime="2018-06-22T06:07:53+01:00">June 22, 2018</time> <span class="bl_categ"> <a href="/speeches/categories/rev-sun-myung-moon-1982.html" rel="tag">Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982</a> </span> </div><!-- .entry-meta -->
|
||
|
||
|
||
</header><!-- .entry-header -->
|
||
|
||
|
||
<div class="entry-content">
|
||
<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>
|
||
</div><!-- .entry-content -->
|
||
|
||
<footer class="entry-meta">
|
||
</footer><!-- #entry-meta -->
|
||
|
||
</article><!-- #post-1607 -->
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
<article id="post-1605" class="post-1605 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-speeches-of-rev-sun-myung-moon-1982">
|
||
<header class="entry-header">
|
||
<h2 class="entry-title">
|
||
<a href="/blog/2018/06/22/true-parents-day.html" title="Permalink to TRUE PARENTS’ DAY" rel="bookmark">TRUE PARENTS’ DAY</a>
|
||
</h2>
|
||
<div class="entry-meta">
|
||
<span class="author vcard" >By <a class="url fn n" rel="author" href="#" title="View all posts by Fami1yfed">Fami1yfed</a></span> <span><time class="onDate date published" datetime="2018-06-22T06:07:23+01:00"> <a href="/blog/2018/06/22/true-parents-day.html" rel="bookmark">June 22, 2018</a> </time></span><time class="updated" datetime="2018-06-22T06:07:23+01:00">June 22, 2018</time> <span class="bl_categ"> <a href="/speeches/categories/rev-sun-myung-moon-1982.html" rel="tag">Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982</a> </span> </div><!-- .entry-meta -->
|
||
|
||
|
||
</header><!-- .entry-header -->
|
||
|
||
|
||
<div class="entry-content">
|
||
<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>
|
||
</div><!-- .entry-content -->
|
||
|
||
<footer class="entry-meta">
|
||
</footer><!-- #entry-meta -->
|
||
|
||
</article><!-- #post-1605 -->
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
<article id="post-1603" class="post-1603 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-speeches-of-rev-sun-myung-moon-1982">
|
||
<header class="entry-header">
|
||
<h2 class="entry-title">
|
||
<a href="/blog/2018/06/22/everyone-is-heading-somewhere.html" title="Permalink to EVERYONE IS HEADING SOMEWHERE" rel="bookmark">EVERYONE IS HEADING SOMEWHERE</a>
|
||
</h2>
|
||
<div class="entry-meta">
|
||
<span class="author vcard" >By <a class="url fn n" rel="author" href="#" title="View all posts by Fami1yfed">Fami1yfed</a></span> <span><time class="onDate date published" datetime="2018-06-22T06:06:33+01:00"> <a href="/blog/2018/06/22/everyone-is-heading-somewhere.html" rel="bookmark">June 22, 2018</a> </time></span><time class="updated" datetime="2018-06-22T06:06:33+01:00">June 22, 2018</time> <span class="bl_categ"> <a href="/speeches/categories/rev-sun-myung-moon-1982.html" rel="tag">Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982</a> </span> </div><!-- .entry-meta -->
|
||
|
||
|
||
</header><!-- .entry-header -->
|
||
|
||
|
||
<div class="entry-content">
|
||
<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>
|
||
</div><!-- .entry-content -->
|
||
|
||
<footer class="entry-meta">
|
||
</footer><!-- #entry-meta -->
|
||
|
||
</article><!-- #post-1603 -->
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
<article id="post-1601" class="post-1601 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-speeches-of-rev-sun-myung-moon-1982">
|
||
<header class="entry-header">
|
||
<h2 class="entry-title">
|
||
<a href="/blog/2018/06/22/the-victorious-person-and-the-defeated-person.html" title="Permalink to THE VICTORIOUS PERSON AND THE DEFEATED PERSON" rel="bookmark">THE VICTORIOUS PERSON AND THE DEFEATED PERSON</a>
|
||
</h2>
|
||
<div class="entry-meta">
|
||
<span class="author vcard" >By <a class="url fn n" rel="author" href="#" title="View all posts by Fami1yfed">Fami1yfed</a></span> <span><time class="onDate date published" datetime="2018-06-22T06:05:49+01:00"> <a href="/blog/2018/06/22/the-victorious-person-and-the-defeated-person.html" rel="bookmark">June 22, 2018</a> </time></span><time class="updated" datetime="2018-06-22T06:05:49+01:00">June 22, 2018</time> <span class="bl_categ"> <a href="/speeches/categories/rev-sun-myung-moon-1982.html" rel="tag">Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982</a> </span> </div><!-- .entry-meta -->
|
||
|
||
|
||
</header><!-- .entry-header -->
|
||
|
||
|
||
<div class="entry-content">
|
||
<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>
|
||
</div><!-- .entry-content -->
|
||
|
||
<footer class="entry-meta">
|
||
</footer><!-- #entry-meta -->
|
||
|
||
</article><!-- #post-1601 -->
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
<article id="post-1599" class="post-1599 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-speeches-of-rev-sun-myung-moon-1982">
|
||
<header class="entry-header">
|
||
<h2 class="entry-title">
|
||
<a href="/blog/2018/06/22/total-completion-of-the-ideal.html" title="Permalink to TOTAL COMPLETION OF THE IDEAL" rel="bookmark">TOTAL COMPLETION OF THE IDEAL</a>
|
||
</h2>
|
||
<div class="entry-meta">
|
||
<span class="author vcard" >By <a class="url fn n" rel="author" href="#" title="View all posts by Fami1yfed">Fami1yfed</a></span> <span><time class="onDate date published" datetime="2018-06-22T06:05:14+01:00"> <a href="/blog/2018/06/22/total-completion-of-the-ideal.html" rel="bookmark">June 22, 2018</a> </time></span><time class="updated" datetime="2018-06-22T06:05:14+01:00">June 22, 2018</time> <span class="bl_categ"> <a href="/speeches/categories/rev-sun-myung-moon-1982.html" rel="tag">Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1982</a> </span> </div><!-- .entry-meta -->
|
||
|
||
|
||
</header><!-- .entry-header -->
|
||
|
||
|
||
<div class="entry-content">
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
<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>
|
||
</div><!-- .entry-content -->
|
||
|
||
<footer class="entry-meta">
|
||
</footer><!-- #entry-meta -->
|
||
|
||
</article><!-- #post-1599 -->
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
</div> <!--content-masonry-->
|
||
|
||
<div class='pagination_container'><nav class='pagination'><a href='/speeches/categories/rev-sun-myung-moon-1982.html' class='inactive' >1</a><a href='/speeches/categories/rev-sun-myung-moon-1982-page-2.html' class='inactive' >2</a><span class='current'>3</span><a href='/speeches/categories/rev-sun-myung-moon-1982-page-4.html' class='inactive' >4</a></nav></div>
|
||
|
||
|
||
</div><!-- #content -->
|
||
<div id="secondary" class="widget-area sidey" role="complementary">
|
||
|
||
<ul class="xoxo">
|
||
<li id="nav_menu-2" class="widget-container widget_nav_menu"><div class="menu-menu-3-side-bar-menu-container"><ul id="menu-menu-3-side-bar-menu" class="menu"><li id="menu-item-84" class="menu-item menu-item-type-post_type menu-item-object-page menu-item-84"><a href="/the-founders.html">The Founders</a></li>
|
||
<li id="menu-item-87" class="menu-item menu-item-type-post_type menu-item-object-page menu-item-87"><a href="/services.html">Sunday Services</a></li>
|
||
<li id="menu-item-85" class="menu-item menu-item-type-post_type menu-item-object-page menu-item-85"><a href="/contact.html">Contact</a></li>
|
||
<li id="menu-item-2566" class="menu-item menu-item-type-post_type menu-item-object-page menu-item-2566"><a href="/speeches/index.html">Speeches</a></li>
|
||
</ul></div></li> </ul>
|
||
|
||
|
||
</div>
|
||
</section><!-- #primary -->
|
||
|
||
<div style="clear:both;"></div>
|
||
</div> <!-- #forbottom -->
|
||
</div><!-- #main -->
|
||
|
||
|
||
<footer id="footer" role="contentinfo">
|
||
<div id="colophon">
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
</div><!-- #colophon -->
|
||
|
||
<div id="footer2">
|
||
<div id="footer2-inner">
|
||
<div id="site-copyright"><b>Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU) Ireland</b>
|
||
<br>Charity no. CHY 6071 All Rights Reserved 2013</b> <br>
|
||
<a href="/speeches/" target="_blank">Speeches</a></div> <div style="text-align:center;padding:5px 0 2px;text-transform:uppercase;font-size:12px;margin:1em auto 0;">
|
||
Family Federation for World Peace and Unification Ireland
|
||
</div><!-- #site-info -->
|
||
</div>
|
||
</div><!-- #footer2 -->
|
||
|
||
</footer><!-- #footer -->
|
||
|
||
</div><!-- #wrapper -->
|
||
<script defer src="/js/site-20260715.js"></script>
|
||
</body>
|
||
</html>
|