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<h1 class="page-title">Category: <span>Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1981</span></h1> </header>
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<article id="post-1562" class="post-1562 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-speeches-of-rev-sun-myung-moon-1981">
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<a href="/blog/2018/06/20/our-identity.html" title="Permalink to OUR IDENTITY" rel="bookmark">OUR IDENTITY</a>
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&nbsp; <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="2018-06-20T15:22:13+01:00"> <a href="/blog/2018/06/20/our-identity.html" rel="bookmark">June 20, 2018</a> </time></span><time class="updated" datetime="2018-06-20T15:22:13+01:00">June 20, 2018</time> <span class="bl_categ"> <a href="/speeches/categories/rev-sun-myung-moon-1981.html" rel="tag">Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1981</a> </span> </div><!-- .entry-meta -->
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<h2 align="CENTER">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
<h3 align="CENTER">April 1, 1981<br />
Belvedere<br />
Translator &#8211; Sang Kil Han</h3>
<h4 align="CENTER">Copyright © 1981 by Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity</h4>
<p>When we speak of someone&#8217;s &#8220;true self,&#8221; we think in terms of whether he is good or bad. A country also has a personality, and we think also whether the &#8220;true self&#8221; of that country is good or bad, meaning whether the people of that country are good or bad.</p>
<p>On every level, from the individual to the spirit world, this true self ought to be identified. What is the central element by which we make that judgment? In evaluating America, for instance, we look at the past, present and future. We judge the present generation of a country by looking at its laws. Laws change according to the needs of the time. It is not unusual that sometimes laws contradict the tradition that a country has been following. Another major element to consider is the moral life of a country. These are the categories we look at in looking at a country-its past, present and future, and the moral life and laws in effect at that time.</p>
<p>A religious body is one step ahead in this area. Unification Church, for instance, has one element beyond all that, which is heart. Heart seems to surpass, or be higher than, a legal code or moral standard. As members of Unification Church, we think of &#8220;our true selves.&#8221; As an individual, you think of &#8220;I&#8221;, and as Unification Church we think &#8220;we.&#8221; In that sense, the topic today is <em>Our Identity</em>, or <em>Our True Self</em>.</p>
<p>I mentioned history as one category to consider; who makes the history of Unification Church? You may think it is as simple as any other history, but actually it has been compiled in complex terms. It is true that much of it has been made by Reverend Moon, but it is also true that it has been made by you members, and also that God has played a large role in it. But it is only correct to say that it was made by all three together. Before God can say, &#8220;I made the history of Unification Church,&#8221; He has to think of who carried it out, and how; He has to think of what I did and what you did.</p>
<p>Before you members can say that you made our Church history, you have to think of how God started and how I pioneered the way, and then how you went in a certain direction. All three did not happen at the same time, for there must be a sequence or order. How is that order decided? The logical sequence starts with God, then Reverend Moon, and then yourselves. Of these three, God happens to be invisible; because we cannot see what He did, we have to look at what I did. Those deeds then become the center in thinking of Unification Church history.</p>
<p>If these three are going forward in a synchronized way, then when I lift my right foot, should you lift your left foot? If God is striding along, can I take two steps to His one? No, though it is difficult, I must keep pace with Him. If we must turn, everyone has to turn at the same time; we all have to go in the same direction.</p>
<p>Why do we have to be concerned with what the central figure is doing? So that we can act in unity, instead of being separated. What is good about unity? When we attain unity, &#8220;our thing&#8221; becomes &#8220;my thing;&#8221; it doesn&#8217;t belong to the group, but to every individual as well. This is why we go along with the whole; if we all have unity and follow the same steps then everything that exists in the Church no longer belongs only to the whole but also belongs to each individual.</p>
<p>If you unite with historical tradition, then all things that have occurred in history will belong to you. A clear example is Jewish life. Jews cherish tradition, and as a result, the events of Jewish history and things the Jewish nation have done become meaningful to individual Jews. Though you may not be sure of this, it is likely, isn&#8217;t it?</p>
<p>This process works the same in the legal and moral areas. Look at yourself and see if this works all the time. As long as you live within the law, you have the privileges of American citizenship. Then you can say that what goes on in America is yours as well as the nation&#8217;s. If you live according to the moral standard of society, then all the virtues of that society belong to you also. Unification Church life is very challenging and difficult, but you carry on in order that you belong to the Church. When I instruct you to do something, you try to do so, although it may be difficult. You do it because you are focused on the future.</p>
<p>When you think of your past, you have to think whether you have gone along with what I have done, and with what everyone else has done. Can you give yourself a passing grade? Each one of you should be your own judge because you know yourself best. You don&#8217;t need someone else to judge for you. The encouraging thing is that you have a conscience; people from the secular world who don&#8217;t know me would think they have passed, but none of you thinks you have passed. At least in that way you are better than they are.</p>
<p>Of all the elements I mentioned, the most important is heart. Is our heart in line with the heart of the whole? What is the true self of Unification Church? It is nice if we can say Unification Church is the best. If it is really the best then thinking deeply of that should inspire you to dance, even if you are being tortured.</p>
<p>Some people would say I think Unification Church is best simply because I am the founder and leader. But we don&#8217;t consider my opinion; we check what God thinks. If God thinks it is the best, and you and I agree with that, then we can really say it is the best. If you feel that God is the best, and Reverend Moon is best, but that you are not yet the best, then the Unification Church has not yet become the best. In order for you to become the best, you must try to go along with God and Reverend Moon and make yourself the best. You may think this applies to such enthusiastic, nationalistic kinds of people as the Germans and Japanese, but not to intelligent, neutral Americans, right? Does this apply to Americans?</p>
<p>Are you like other Americans, who feel they can do and say anything they want to, any time? Americans feel it is a virtue to say whatever they are thinking, not to hold anything in. Before taking action, Americans will stop and evaluate two different goals, to see whether it is worth their while trying to reach one of them. The best thing, however, would be to reach one goal first, and then look for a better one. If your mind is divided by thinking how to reach two different goals, you will never reach either one.</p>
<p>Sometimes an elementary school child who does well in his subjects will think he is ready for college material. But first he has to finish junior high and high school. He may not be satisfied with his grammar school uniform and will want to have accessories which only older students wear. Even though something may be good, however, if it doesn&#8217;t fit into the whole, people will laugh when they see it.</p>
<p>You want to keep circumstances from invading the person you love, meaning that you don&#8217;t want anyone to do something bad to him or her. This is why we need order; without order you cannot control that. Many people today think freedom has no order, but actually you cannot have freedom without order. Freedom is not possible without law.</p>
<p>Maybe you don&#8217;t care about what your parents say, or about going to school, or about restrictions. but when you think this way then there is no such thing as freedom for you. Is God a God of freedom or restriction? If God has established order and law but He does not enforce or abide by it, He is no longer free. He must keep within the laws He created, and then they belong to Him. After God has kept the law Himself, He can pass judgment and give sentence. If He does not keep the law Himself, then He has nothing to go by in judging.</p>
<p>If there is a law then it must be kept by all members, and then correct judgment for action can be arrived at. Is there some reason why you should do all the things that are required in Unification Church? Yes, so that you can make it all your own possession, not just vaguely &#8220;ours.&#8221; By doing the things that are required, your actions protect you.</p>
<p>When you do what is required, the other Unification Church members will protect you, and the whole universe will protect you. If you do it better than others, everyone will come to respect you. The laws and order that you observe will protect you; that is why you stay within their perimeter. Always think that by doing these things you will be protected and cherished by everyone and by the universe.</p>
<p>Why do you have to observe heavenly law in Unification Church? By doing so, everything that comes under heavenly law will protect and respect you. Then that law belongs to you. If you are living under the law, but someone who is ignorant of it comes to accuse you, everyone else around will accuse that person instead, defending you. When he is attacked that way, that person can understand that he was wrong.</p>
<p>This applies to the rest of Unification Church. When you see that people wrongly accuse me, immediately you stand up to protect and defend me. Then you even admire me for the persecution I go through. You feel that the person being persecuted is better than the one doing the persecuting. Now you know the amazing fact that the activities you have been carrying out will bring you under God&#8217;s protection. As long as you live within the boundaries of the law, you will be admired wherever you go. This is not true just for a few years, but for every generation. If you have lived under the same law as people in spirit world, they will welcome you, and you will welcome them.</p>
<p>The most important of all laws is the law of love and heart. Don&#8217;t you imagine that there is a law that governs something as big as love? There must be some content and form which it should have. You don&#8217;t usually kiss someone&#8217;s foot, for instance. Anything can be symbolic, of course, but the usual form is to kiss someone&#8217;s mouth. When Orientals kiss, they do so straight on, but Westerners have such high noses that they have to tilt their heads to kiss each other, and their mouths make an X. The disgusting thing in the West is that the people have no rule of love.</p>
<p>When you violate the rule of a nation, you go to jail. If this is really a free country, why does it have so many prisons, and why are they always full? If you run down the street stark naked, you probably won&#8217;t be put in jail. There is much homosexuality here, and anyone can become a prostitute.</p>
<p>Should there be jails in society? Can John Hinckley get away with shooting President Reagan by saying that he felt like doing it? Can he insist that he shouldn&#8217;t be arrested? Jails are built to accommodate people who do not go along with the laws of a nation. Even a school has a room for punishment, and a family has a punishing spot.</p>
<p>The person who thinks he can be free to disregard Unification Church regulations cannot be a good Church member. Do you think I would prefer to be opposed or approved of? If I want to be approved of then why don&#8217;t I change my ways? Though I am persecuted, I am doing things of more value than the person who is persecuting me. I may not be smart, but I do know that I am doing things of more value than other people. Big nations like Russia and America may change their policies, but I never change what I am doing.</p>
<p>When good and evil collide, one of them must give way, and that should be the evil one. Though the present age may not recognize and protect the true one, history will protect and admire it. Jesus was adamant about staying within God&#8217;s law, and historically that law has protected him and brought him admiration. Is it true that those fighting in Jesus&#8217; name always win?</p>
<p>The most important laws are those governing heart and love. When we are confronted by a choice between secular law or the law of love, the wise person will choose the law of love. Because history repeats itself, we are confronted today by the same situation that Adam&#8217;s family faced.</p>
<p>Here in New York we wear heavy clothes in winter, but in Florida we change into lightweight clothes. The person who would bring a heavy winter coat to Florida is funny. Your friends who don&#8217;t know that may think you are odd if you don&#8217;t wear a heavy coat to the airport, but you just turn on the heater in the car and leave your coat behind, knowing it will only be a burden when you get to Florida. The person who thinks only of the present is foolish, not the person who considers the future.</p>
<p>You members who were finally engaged will wait three years before you can live together. Of course you want to call each other and hold hands, but you have to control your urges. Probably every day you ask yourself why you have to do that. The reason is that you want to have God hold your hand first, before you hold your fiancée&#8217;s hand. How secure you will be if God, who is the biggest being, then True Parents and finally your fiancé are all holding your hands. If you are attached to God and True Parents then you don&#8217;t even have to hold your fiancé&#8217;s hand; he is already holding all of you. If your fiancé cannot betray God or True Parents, then certainly he cannot betray you. That is as secure as you can get. When you understand this, you will think I am very smart for making this rule.</p>
<p>When you abide by this law, you can be proud of it because this law is yours. Later you will proudly tell your children to do the same thing, because it is your law and you followed it. When you want to hold your fiancé&#8217;s hand, but you don&#8217;t do so because I have said you shouldn&#8217;t, is it bad for you, or a reason for gratitude?</p>
<p>In the history of marriage was there ever a father who forbade his son or daughter to hold hands, or to call his or her fiancé? Will that be recorded in history or not? If that is recorded, then other people will follow it also. Does that tradition come horizontally, or vertically? From lower to higher, or from higher to lower? Are you higher or lower? Of course those married earlier are above, and those married later are below. Thus, the tradition comes down from True Parents. This is the most secure way to safeguard marriage. By following this, you are guaranteed protection by the Unification Church members and by the whole universe.</p>
<p>Recently one couple had a child and requested me to name him. The father had disunited in some matter in the past, and I was going to refuse his request. But it happened that another couple was also requesting a name for their baby that day, a couple who was working hard. Their paper was handed to me together with the request from the first couple. I thought that here were Cain and Abel requests together, and since they were &#8220;united,&#8221; how could I refuse one of them? This is one example of how you need your contemporaries, or friends.</p>
<p>I know very well what you like and don&#8217;t like. You are longing to hold hands with your fiancé, but you won&#8217;t do it. That&#8217;s the beauty of the whole. You won&#8217;t call him or her, and that&#8217;s a big thing also. Now you go crazy just thinking about that person, but when the time comes that you can hold him or her in your arms, what a sensation it will be! Would you rather have that kind of spouse, or have someone whose coming and going doesn&#8217;t excite you as much?</p>
<p>If your love was so intense and you were so excited that you bit off your fiancé&#8217;s nose, would that be a crime? Is there any law instructing a judge on how to sentence someone for such a crime? He would have to refer the case to the Senate to enact a new law, and the case would have to wait for legislation. Such a case would become the cherished symbol of real love. A picture of a spouse biting off his wife&#8217;s nose would be put in books, and hung in people&#8217;s homes everywhere. But biting off someone&#8217;s nose doesn&#8217;t fit the pattern of love, and I will accuse anyone who does that.</p>
<p>Do you want an exciting love, or a lukewarm relationship? As long as it is exciting, what more could you want? We know that the law is designed to create perfect husbands and wives, and without it there would be no hope of having such people. How wonderful it is to say to your fiancé, &#8220;If you have the time to call me then you have more room for working harder. During these three years please pour everything you have into your mission.&#8221; How much more fantastic it is to encourage each other this way.</p>
<p>Is it good or bad for me to tell you not to hold hands with your fiancé? Recently one elder sister told me about a brother who was just matched, and was so excited about his wife-to-be that he would even get up in the middle of a meal to go call her. She is in training, and he waits in the hall for her to get out of lectures. Why does he do such things? If they go wrong during these three years then they will both be shattered. If they kiss and then cannot control themselves, what happens? Why risk that?</p>
<p>This law of love is the most rigid one and we cannot be indifferent to it. Love is the thing we take most seriously. If you think people should do whatever they want, you will have only mediocre love.</p>
<p>That is the historical perspective, but today the law is the element which judges all of our actions. Why do we have to do things like seven day&#8217;s fasting? We can depend on others all the time, or we can let others depend on us. I want you to be independent people who help others. The person who serves others is always welcomed. You can be either way, but I want you to be the one who is welcomed by others. If you fund raise, witness and do a seven-day fast, then you will become the person who can be of service to others. That is the person who will survive and be the center of his community. If he takes a job, he will become the center of the company. Whatever he does, he will be the center, and then eventually become the center of the world. In that way God&#8217;s will can be fulfilled in the world.</p>
<p>I never thought that I would get rich by coming to America. South American leaders have seen that I am doing something to help America, not vice versa. They reason that if I come to South America then I would bring the same resources to their countries that I brought here. If because of their appreciation it is more effective for me to work in South America. then we should judge it better to go there. That would be the only logical conclusion.</p>
<p>Each country and community has laws, but we also have to be concerned about the laws of the Unification Church. Do you like the basic things we do-morning prayer service, witnessing, fund raising, and so forth? We don&#8217;t do these things because we like them, but because we must do them. Without doing them, what we do will remain in only one place and not be connected with the past or the future. Although we may have done good things in the past, if we don&#8217;t live these traditions then our deeds will not be connected to history. The only way to connect our time with history is by doing all the required things, even though we don&#8217;t like them.</p>
<p>Each person must come to feel that historical tradition is his own, not just the tradition of history. The Unification Church will not just be local, or the product of a limited time, but will be an historical and worldwide Unification Church. But each member must feel it is his Unification Church. Though Reverend Moon and God are both there, still it must be your Unification Church. Then you can be connected. That&#8217;s a wise and good thing to do.</p>
<p>Concerning morality today, we see it is commonplace for families to break up. The only way to change this trend is to establish a strong tradition. Though people don&#8217;t know what is right, when they see you do what is right they can understand, and then copy what you do. In a moral life there are no loose standards. You must know not only the correct tradition, but know why it is correct. There is a strong law governing the conduct of love which must not be violated. The law of love is not Oriental or Western, but is beyond race and nationality. The race problem is an unpleasant one, but we are determined to digest it. How do we prove we have done that? One way is through international marriage. Again, we do that with history in mind, not just today. When we carry out the law of love, it becomes part of our identity, and is what we are.</p>
<p>There are two ways to exist-one is the true way, and the other is the false way. We choose this way because True Parents are here and God&#8217;s idea is here; we don&#8217;t choose this way because it is easy. It may not be recognized and approved of today, but we know that historically we are right and people will approve of it in the future. Thus, we cannot compromise. No matter how much persecution we receive today, it cannot last indefinitely and we know we will win.</p>
<p>Whether people approve or disapprove, we will continue on this side. We will work for it and die for it if necessary. We are reborn on this side, will live here, and will die here. &#8220;Our true self&#8221; is &#8220;my true self.&#8221; &#8220;Our identity&#8221; becomes &#8220;my identity.&#8221; We live this way so that what used to be &#8220;ours&#8221; will become &#8220;mine.&#8221; If you can say that this is yours, then the whole will protect you, the law by which you live will protect you. We have to be courageous and confident to remain on the right side; there is nothing to be unsure of. You should be sure that your confidence is absolute, that if an army tried to stop you that you would not change.</p>
<p>I will probably be fishing in Gloucester again this summer, living in fisherman&#8217;s clothes instead of suits. Even if you are wearing smelly fisherman&#8217;s clothes, the righteous side is still the same, and it is always going up; you cannot come down lower than where you are now. Though we may find ourselves in the beggar&#8217;s position, we will never go down, but will go up. I live here in order to leave that right tradition. When young people in the future learn about my experience in jail, it will set their minds on fire. I never minded having to endure prison life, knowing that it would leave a strong tradition for the future.</p>
<p>Even at this moment I am still carrying this out, teaching everyone about this. I have no regret about spending so much time doing so. Many people have lived in the world, and many religious teachers have taught on earth, but you have met me now. We know that historically there will not be another time like this, and that there has never been a time like this before. If this time is wasted away, will you have a second chance in the future? This is the most precious time not just for you, but for history. If you don&#8217;t carry this out properly then I scold you, and you check on each other to see that you carry it out. But you are fortunate in that; if no one cared about what you did then you would be unfortunate.</p>
<p>Maybe you think it would be better to do this when the world will welcome it and things will be easier. But that will be the time when you can no longer do what you do today.</p>
<p>What you are doing now is finding what &#8220;our true identity&#8221; is and by living it you make it your own, connecting it firmly with history. Then everything can be left for future generations to follow, for the whole world and spirit world. God has done it, I have done it, and you also must leave this identity behind you. How fantastic and meaningful a life that is. You can find no better thing to do.</p>
<p>Today is the beginning of April. I won&#8217;t be in America much this month. So far you have been immature and had small thinking, but if today you can say clearly that you know what our identity is, that you are confident in what God and True Parents have established and can live to leave it for the future, raise your hands.</p>
<p>Let us pray.</p>
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<a href="/blog/2018/06/20/prayer.html" title="Permalink to PRAYER" rel="bookmark">PRAYER</a>
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&nbsp; <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="2018-06-20T15:11:11+01:00"> <a href="/blog/2018/06/20/prayer.html" rel="bookmark">June 20, 2018</a> </time></span><time class="updated" datetime="2018-06-20T15:11:11+01:00">June 20, 2018</time> <span class="bl_categ"> <a href="/speeches/categories/rev-sun-myung-moon-1981.html" rel="tag">Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1981</a> </span> </div><!-- .entry-meta -->
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<h2 align="CENTER">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
<h3 align="CENTER">March 29, 1981<br />
Belvedere, New York<br />
Translator &#8211; Sang Kil Han</h3>
<h4 align="CENTER">Copyright © 1981 by Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity</h4>
<p>Have you ever stopped very long to think about prayer? Prayer is necessary, especially in religious life.</p>
<p>What is so-called blessing and happiness? If we are alone, then we don&#8217;t need blessing and happiness so much. It must be realized that we must have a proper object before these can have meaning to us. When we are happy we feel good all over, and a happy individual may start dancing around. But always the object plays an essential role in that singing and dancing. If there is no one around you, you wouldn&#8217;t continue doing that for very long.</p>
<p>There can be many kinds of objects. A person may be overjoyed at the sight of money, for instance. A scholar may rejoice over knowledge that he has access to. Someone who rises to a great power may be happy. These are different objects, but what is the most precious one of all? A person is more valuable as an object than some material thing. There are many kinds of people, and many kinds of activities. Families are essentially similar, for example, but the individuals in them are very different. The character of various countries is different.</p>
<p>We know that what a man says and what he does should not be contradictory. It is not acceptable for him to say one thing and do another. What kind of person will consistently do what he says? The five senses are all different, but when you think, all five senses concentrate on one point. The most desirable person is one whose senses are concentrated on one thing, who talks and acts accordingly. Both hands must move in one direction when you act. The eyes and ears must also be tuned to that direction.</p>
<p>In one lifetime we have a past, present and future. Our words and actions in each of these should all be consistent. In order to ensure doing that, we must have some standard, but what should it be? In pursuing that standard we must always maintain the correct subject and object relationship. If we are subject, we must be a good subject. When we are object to a greater self, we must form the correct relationship.</p>
<p>The desire of all men is to be an object to a greater subject, even to the highest subject there is. If the highest subject is God then we want to be object to God. Then precisely how and where would we become connected to Him? We can be a good object when He plays or speaks, when He works or rests. What does this greater subject value most? Does He value an object most when He is resting, or working, or what?</p>
<p>Inevitably we come to the conclusion that the thing God values most about Himself is love. Of course, God loves His hands, and all things that are part of Himself, but He is looking for something that will be a true object. When we know that God cannot be happy unless He has an object which can return love, then who is this object? Certainly it must be a person, but there are many kinds of people, so which kind is best? Everything will start from a man who is capable of true love.</p>
<p>God&#8217;s love begins with Himself and with children capable of true love. True children will also love other children, brothers and sisters. Does true love stop with loving just brothers and sisters? No, children will constantly seek the love and comfort of their parents. After loving brothers and sisters and parents, where would they go? They would certainly go to God, and after visiting Him they would embrace their relatives, their clan, and then eventually their nation, extending the activities of love farther and farther.</p>
<p>If we are one with our parents and with God, then everywhere we go we would be welcomed and be in harmony with our environment. Why? Because that is precisely what everyone wants, to be true children, to have parents, and to go to the highest subject, God. There is nothing more that mankind wants. That means that the path of love is the same for all men, and no one seeks a different way. This is not true just for today&#8217;s people. As long as a person is born as a human being, this is basically what he wants.</p>
<p>Do you love yourself? It is not enough to say yes offhandedly. Let us investigate what it means to love oneself. Suppose someone asks why you are so great that you can truly love yourself. If you reply, &#8220;I have eyes,&#8221; the retort will come back, &#8220;But everyone else has eyes too.&#8221; We see much difference in how people love the same thing, with some loving it intensely, and others loving it casually. Perhaps when you are asked if you love yourself, the best answer you can manage is &#8220;Sometimes.&#8221;</p>
<p>If an object can only love himself sometimes, then is he the object which all subjects will want a relationship with? If one cannot love himself, how can we expect others to love him? There are different ways of loving oneself, however. You may be proud of your good looks, but if you look at yourself extensively in the mirror every day, you will soon get tired of seeing your face. When you think about it, loving yourself doesn&#8217;t mean directly appreciating yourself, but finding your value through some object. By loving the object, you will feel love toward yourself. This is more real.</p>
<p>It is not meaningful to say, &#8220;I love myself because of what I am.&#8221; It is more meaningful to say &#8220;I love myself, whom my children love so much, and whom my husband loves so much.&#8221; Or you can say you love the self whom your parents love, and whom God loves so much. Rather than just loving yourself, you can love the self whom the whole world loves. You can think that you will become the biggest subject by loving the world in return. Therefore, you must love yourself the most, in order to be the best object.</p>
<p>Is it more powerful to love yourself for your own sake, or because you are in a position to be a good subject and object in love relationships? Will God say that you are too arrogant? In this context God will indeed support you in loving yourself. Then your loved ones will center on you even more, respecting you for becoming so strong in love. How can you prove whether you are righteous and good? If you are a subject in propagating love, then you can say you are good and great. Then the whole universe will applaud you, wanting you to continue being that way.</p>
<p>Since Unification Church members love me, I feel I can love myself very much. Even God cannot just say He is happy. Because there are children who love God, He is justified in loving Himself. The approval of the universe will echo everywhere, applauding God for having pride in Himself because we love Him.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s not good enough to love your eyes if you don&#8217;t know why. If your family and colleagues really like your eyes, however, then you can really feel pride in them. It&#8217;s not good enough to like a certain suit if you don&#8217;t know why. If you say that you like it because it does the best job in covering the person whom your family and God love so much, then that is valid pride. It doesn&#8217;t have to be an expensive, stylish suit for you to love it. Even if it is ragged and patched you can be proud of it. Such a suit will inspire sympathy from your loved ones, and it will be a source of more pride for you than new clothes.</p>
<p>If you are working hard in a miserable situation, as long as people know you are doing it to help others and yourself then they will be sympathetic and respect you. Then such a person does not necessarily become unhappy. Without love, things wouldn&#8217;t necessarily work this way, but there is nothing which love cannot make beautiful.</p>
<p>You have heard of the word &#8220;endurance,&#8221; and you don&#8217;t necessarily like it. But once you really know that the deepest love is found in that word, then you will all come to like it. Though a husband may not love his wife very much, if she feels that one day she will win his heart and continues to love him, her endurance is most beautiful. How many American women will discover their husband&#8217;s love through endurance? Are there many children who will experience their parent&#8217;s love after enduring many years? Are there many such parents who have experienced that? There can be many unpleasant experiences in living together, but if something happens in the name of love, it cannot be unpleasant. Love will cover up everything, and occupy all things.</p>
<p>Have you ever felt the deep happiness that comes after going over pain and hardship, and then receiving the real love of parents and children? That will be the greatest love of all. Do you love Unification Church? How much? Do you just feel love from day to day? Is your love so strong that it can bring the members into action like a locomotive pulling a train?</p>
<p>Do you love America only when it is doing well, or even when things are not going well? Very few people could continue loving America if it meant going through great pain. Most people say, &#8220;Oh yes, I love America, &#8221; but they are thinking only of prosperous times and agreeable situations. Anybody can say they love America. It is very rich and advanced technologically, and no one starves here. But America has problems too. There are drug addicts here who are practically vegetables. Families are scattered and broken, and people have tears in their hearts. When you are given the task of mending those heartbreaks, can you say you love America?</p>
<p>If a person cares about his country so much that he will continue through painful situations and keep loving it, then his love for that nation will not be forgotten. That is what we can call real love. We see that it is not a simple question to ask whether a person loves America.</p>
<p>What is the true love which penetrates and reaches deeply? Sacrifice is part of the meaning of true love. Sacrifice is always accompanied by endurance, for sacrifice is not finished quickly. Does that sound right? But who likes endurance and sacrifice? If a person doesn&#8217;t know what sacrifice and endurance will bring him then he won&#8217;t like them, but if he knows that through them he can reach true love and reach God, he will be willing to accept them. When your parents are old, you can&#8217;t really say they are beautiful. But when their hands are hard and wrinkled because they had to work hard to provide for you, you feel their hands are the most beautiful of any hands.</p>
<p>True love has the distinct quality of going through sacrifice and endurance. When I see a leader confronting intense difficulty, inside I tell him to persevere. I don&#8217;t mind seeing him in difficulty because I know that true love is ahead of him. This goes for all the members, so I will push them incessantly. Am I cruel when I do that? Such a person is fearful, but he is doing the right thing.</p>
<p>By Oriental standards I am very handsome, but all my life people have called me names, which is an unpleasant experience. But when I die, those who persecuted me the most will bow down with the most sincerity. I not only talked about this ideal of true love but acted on it, and even more, I pulled thousands of people along to that destination. No one else has ever done that in all history.</p>
<p>When you first joined Unification Church you were elated, but over the years your elation faded as you faced hardship. You may feel you have sacrificed your precious young years and now you have nothing. Perhaps you feel like blaming someone. It doesn&#8217;t look like I will stop making you work hard any time soon, so maybe you want to pack up and sneak out!</p>
<p>After you work hard in America, I will bring you to South America, where you will work even harder. I will send you to Africa, and even to prison. Then you will confront and digest the Mafia. Knowing that all this still lies ahead, you see that at this point you haven&#8217;t even graduated from elementary school. Do you think I can have a peaceful life? I have the job of making you unwilling people ready and willing to undertake such a life. In the beginning this life is exciting, but when you work on higher and higher levels the situations become more difficult. There should come an end to that, though, when you make a breakthrough in suffering. When you get very close to your target, the bullseye doesn&#8217;t stand out very clearly. At the moment when your arrow pierces the bullseye, it cannot see anything. When you cannot see anything of your objective, rest assured that you are penetrating through at that moment.</p>
<p>God is not just waiting for men to reach Him, but is working hard on His end also. The focal point will be where God&#8217;s work meets man&#8217;s work. Do you have to win over the satanic world? To win you must have a weapon, so what weapon do you need? Without sacrifice and endurance you cannot win. That is the definite formula for winning. Now at least you are sure it is possible to win. If you have a faster way to win without sacrifice and endurance, please show it to me.</p>
<p>Since God knew that sacrifice and endurance were the inevitable course for fallen man, He gave religion to mankind in order to teach endurance to every generation. When we say that God is love, you should know that it is connected to endurance and sacrifice for the sake of that love. Parent&#8217;s love is connected with endurance and sacrifice. This is what you want in your parents too. You know that sacrifice is painful to your parents, but you don&#8217;t mind, and even demand that they go through sacrifice. Somehow you know that there is true love waiting beyond that. Fiancées and wives will expect that of their husbands, in order for them to obtain true love. Isn&#8217;t that what you feel?</p>
<p>There is no way you can superficially say that sacrifice is desirable. Since we know the deeper meaning that true love will come later, we don&#8217;t mind. If a person says he loves his family, but he avoids sacrifice when it comes, then we have to conclude that his love was not deep.</p>
<p>The wives of the national leaders are here going through training with their husbands. Perhaps they feel that they are old now and don&#8217;t even own anything after working hard for many years. If one of them says, &#8220;My husband, you are a man of faith so you can go, but I simply can&#8217;t any more,&#8221; then her love has been a false love, not a true love. That false love will end there, lacking the power to continue toward true love. Is that true?</p>
<p>The West has great manufacturing know-how, but now the Japanese are shortening that lead, and Western industrialists are investigating what makes the Japanese so effective. To their dismay, they found that Japanese work for their wives and children, not themselves, that they don&#8217;t complain about overtime and long hours and they don&#8217;t strike. Here in America, workers always complain about pay and don&#8217;t hesitate to strike. Also, the Japanese love their country so much that they are willing to sacrifice their family life for their nation.</p>
<p>If that standard is what makes the Japanese so effective, then the Unification Church will absolutely reach the highest level in the shortest time. There is a genuine motive in the Unification Church to care about the world more than about our various countries. Until we reach that goal we won&#8217;t complain, but take hardship as an inevitable thing. To whom would God give His good fortune? To those whose central concern is the well-being of the world. God would give everything He had and all His love to them. Do you really feel deeply that this is true, or do you just know this is true?</p>
<p>My topic today is prayer. When you sacrifice and endure then no more prayer is necessary, for when you are living that life you are already in contact with God. God has to love the one who suffers and endures the most. The prize should be given to such a person. Can anyone be opposed to that? Even prisoners would agree with that.</p>
<p>Do you think I am a good husband to Mother, or not? I am the best in the sense that I push her more than any husband would push his wife. There is nothing individual about our life together at all, for it is lived completely for the whole. I insist on that. I want to hear her encourage me to do more, even when I am exhausted. If she does that then you will come to cherish her and she will come to possess everything.</p>
<p>Prayer is about asking for the power and the lively mind to keep going, even if we have to fast and kneel down. When we don&#8217;t have the confidence and motive to continue pursuing the goal, then we have to pray to ask for that motive. If we don&#8217;t have enough power to do what we must do, then we pray to ask God for the power to hang on to His course and will, even at the cost of our lives. Prayer is a promise and proclamation to God that you are going this way, and asking for the power to complete it. Certainly God will listen to that prayer, and urge you to go ahead.</p>
<p>After God sees that you will persevere until you accomplish what you promise, He will think you are trustworthy in His will. If you pray but don&#8217;t act, however, you and God will become farther and farther apart. When you pray about something and act headlong to do it, trusting that God will help you do that, it will be achieved. Your prayer is not made in meditation, but with sweat, with all your energy. Pray with the utmost confidence that you will go through any barrier. Once you have that determination, persecution will only make you more solid. If your situation becomes even worse after you pray, you must be assured that the day is getting nearer when God will answer your prayer.</p>
<p>In the beginning you didn&#8217;t think Unification Church life was that difficult, but as it gets more difficult you can think that the day when God can achieve His promise is getting nearer. In the movies and on television there are many scenes of death and desperation. You can feel connected to those situations, feeling that you are in such situations in the dispensation. You always have to assimilate your situation. If you can have the feeling that those scenes in the movies are realistically connected to us, then that is the only way you can be justified in going to see a movie when others are all out fund raising.</p>
<p>When you pray with an intense feeling of doing the will of God, that can be thought of as physically working. This is an entirely different world from the existing world. You can do great big things if you really know that God is working behind you. When a man has to achieve a great task, he can certainly use some extra power, and so we ask for it in prayer. When we establish a subject-object relationship in prayer, doing something for ourselves is actually doing something for the sake of the world. You can ask God to be with you in pursuing something for God and mankind because you feel more strongly about it doing the work, loving God and mankind and therefore loving yourself. We are doing anticommunist work out of love for the world, not retaliation, and so in prayer we say that God must help us.</p>
<p>Sometimes we need stimulation from the situation in order to maintain subject position in love. We are grateful when we have a nice meal, but don&#8217;t complain when we have poor food. When we have poor food, then we will receive the sympathy of others. Wherever we are, even in prison, we have the determination that we will not change. As long as we are unchanging, God will certainly stay with us.</p>
<p>When we pray for the world, whatever benefit comes to the world also comes back to us. Ultimately, then, we are doing everything for ourselves as well as for the world and God. This has to be realistic to you, for otherwise the ideal and love we have is not really completely your own. You can say you have love, but unless it is real in everyday life, you don&#8217;t truly have it.</p>
<p>When a person binds himself to subjectivity in the ideal of love, he will go later to the best spirit world. Only if you are living for the greater cause can you say you love yourself. Otherwise it will be a false love. If you look at yourself in the mirror and cannot say that you can go any further, then you are no longer a true person. If a person is false, then everything he has done will ultimately be false also. If you feel that you haven&#8217;t suffered enough in order to graduate from suffering, then talk to yourself. Unless you feel confident all the time, when you get hungry you should blame your own hunger. Then you have to refuse yourself a good meal unless you are firm in your conviction. Unless we really feel that way all the time, we cannot seek to have good food and a good situation. The person who is not in that position but who still seeks pleasant things is then an enemy to the whole.</p>
<p>Each one knows more about himself than anyone else, and knows what level he is on. When you know where you really are, you are ashamed of other people even bringing up your name for praise. But if you always want your name to be mentioned and be praised, something is wrong. As a man, you know whether you are worthy of any woman, and are fearful of being proposed to. Common sense tells us that when everyone is going to receive good things, we should stay back. A person who loves himself without knowing a good reason why is deceiving himself. One should not love himself without knowing why.</p>
<p>Since all of us know that we are not in a position to be loved, if someone says they will love us then we should be apprehensive, knowing we are not worthy of receiving that love. With that realization we have to seek a world contrary to the present world. If God prayed, He would pray for love of the world. God&#8217;s love, then, will be only preliminary love, not real love. God will save the most precious love for last. I feel that God will give the love of the lesser things first, and then the closer He comes to the center, the more concentrated His love will become. When a person feels he really loves himself, that is the point he and God will become one. Then even though he may not want it, God will come and embrace him.</p>
<p>The prayer we are interested in is the prayer to realize meaningful love. When you accomplish what you pledged you would do, then you come back and pledge something which is even more difficult. If you continue this way, then you will see development in yourself. When you fail to achieve what you promise then you repent and concentrate on doing better.</p>
<p>When you eat, talk to your food and tell it that it must supply you with good energy to fulfill what you pledged in prayer. How righteous it is to have that kind of attitude toward your food and clothing. How righteous it is for all nature to support you in your course. If you ask nature whether it wants you to be an active person who is successful in love, it will unanimously answer yes. The creation isn&#8217;t concerned with you until you become a true subject of love. But when you want to become a true subject, then it will support you. How realistic this feeling is! To ensure that, we pray often.</p>
<p>If you turned on the television in the middle of the night to get stimulation to continue toward love, even if you disturbed me I would not be upset. Even if a neighbor is disturbed, all the spirit world would support you, knowing what your reason is. If you have to make lots of noise in the middle of the night to get stimulation to carry out the will of God, all the neighbors will have to go along with it.</p>
<p>Once you become the subject of love, all those who persecute you will bow down. If for love you spend all the money you have accumulated in your life and it is gone overnight, you won&#8217;t regret it. If it was spent for any other purpose, however, it would be a source of regret. When I look back on my life, I know that all I did was for the sake of true love. Then all of a sudden I am confident and feel liberated.</p>
<p>When I am joyful, God and all mankind will be joyful with me. When I am sad, everything will be sad also. You have felt that Belvedere feels empty when I am not here. You feel that way because I am pursuing love. That feeling of love resonates in you and spreads. I have not changed, but Americans are changing. Like the changing climate, more and more Americans are coming to like me. The warm weather of the cosmic spring is coming. When the warm weather comes, no one has to tell you to take off your winter clothing. People thought Moonies were the coldest people, who never thought about their own families, but in time they have discovered that Moonies are actually warm.</p>
<p>We pray so that we will fulfill this love. To sustain our effort we need extra stimulation, or someone to remind us and give us a boost. In addition to asking for extra support, there is also a prayer of reporting. When we pray to ask, we are praying to let God know we are determined, while the prayer of reporting is in essence a prayer expressing gratitude. You are thanking God for His support in helping you accomplish your goal. Both kinds of prayer are necessary in daily life. On every level this kind of prayer is necessary.</p>
<p>What will Unification Church pray for? We ask God to love our home church area. You pray to God, telling Him what you are going to do in your area, asking for His support, and then that night you report and tell Him what happened.</p>
<p>Perhaps you are an editor on the newspaper and hardly have time to do home church. But you regularly eat and go to the bathroom. Are those things any more indispensable than home church? You can always shorten the time of going to the bathroom or eating. Save a few minutes by not chatting with people. All that time added up might save an hour, and then you can go to home church. If you don&#8217;t go to home church, it means you have not established yourself as a subject of love. Then how can you love your spouse or children? If you reverse the correct sequence, it will never work.</p>
<p>Dr. Durst came to see me yesterday and I was happy to see him, but I didn&#8217;t show it. If instead of visiting me he had attended family members or taken care of some problem, that would be love. If I am not in New York then he should do my part as well as his own. But if he leaves New York and comes to visit me, who will take care of you? If he feels that he must go to the central person to be consoled, everyone else will feel the same way, and the world will become vacant. If by criticizing him I can compensate for the vacancy, I will do it. With different thinking, how different the world would become.</p>
<p>Day or night, rain or shine, we keep going, desperate to find the way to love ourselves, by doing things which will enable others to love us. By living this way and not caring what other people think, you will have no regret, for love will come to visit this way.</p>
<p>This is the way all men should go, for there is no alternative or better way. All men have to go this way, whether they know it or not, but here in Unification Church the Principle helps us carry out this way of life. Without a bridge it would be too difficult to cross from this world to a better one, but Principle is that bridge. It is our ladder to reach the high place where God is. We cross the long bridge and climb the high ladder, and eventually we can go anywhere, even to heaven. That bridge and that ladder are love. Suppose we get exhausted in climbing the ladder. Then we have to hang on and pray, saying, &#8220;I must go up. Please give me power to go up. &#8221; If you experience the right prayer, God will give you that power.</p>
<p>There is a whole new mystic world in prayer. We pray in order to fulfill love, to tread the way in which we can love ourselves eventually. We work in order to love ourselves, and we have to persevere and sacrifice so that we can love ourselves. If you are persecuted but you fight against it, your bag of love will be ruptured, so instead you persevere.</p>
<p>In light of all this, persevering becomes rather easy. When you go through a day of impossible work, you will find that God embraces you while you are resting, and you might even see your body glowing with light. That is the mystical way of life through prayer. Though it is difficult to endure persecution, live in a prayer life of talking to God and being intoxicated in His love. You need the situation where you can experience God&#8217;s love dwelling in you. How much God can love you when you are thankful to Him.</p>
<p>When difficulty arises, don&#8217;t toss and turn by yourself, but pray to God right away. You can say, &#8220;I must go the way of love, and if I come to an obstacle, please push me forward. I don&#8217;t care about myself, but please deliver me to the other side. This is what you want, what mankind wants and what I want. Please, this once give me power and then I will go on my own power. &#8221;</p>
<p>Perhaps you couldn&#8217;t sleep and you woke up early in the morning and began praying. When you finish talking to God and are ready to go out and work, it might be only 5 a.m., so you wait a few more hours until the sun rises. How beautiful a sight it is when you are waiting for the sun to rise, when you can dash out and do the work you promised to God. You don&#8217;t even have to have breakfast or say hello to anyone.</p>
<p>We will do that from early morning to late at night, not wasting a minute. If there is no visible result that day, you can tell God that you will still continue tomorrow. Then the next day you will try harder and pray harder, and then eventually the result will certainly come. If you retreat, however, result can never come. If you really do not have the knack of prayer, you can never advance. Through the mystic world of prayer you can achieve great things.</p>
<p>Prayer is as necessary as your daily meals. You need food to keep healthy, and you need prayer to stay spiritually healthy. We pray in order to become the subjects of love. All that matters in spirit world is love, and we want to be the true owners of love. Your prayers have been vague so far. Do you have a better idea now how to pray?</p>
<p>Parents want their children to be able to go farther ahead of them, so wherever I go I stay at the rear and let everyone else go ahead. Many Unification Church leaders think they should be the highest. They should be the highest in working, but in receiving rewards and enjoyment they should feel they must be last. Our rule is that when work is needed we work the hardest, but we are the last to receive awards. If we live like that then we can accomplish our work.</p>
<p>This applies to the blessing also. I never asked for a beautiful wife. I was prepared to receive the ugliest wife in the world, but it happens that Mother is very beautiful, and I am grateful. That&#8217;s the nature of love. Love has a tendency to hide, not to show off. If someone has a precious gift to give, he does so secretly, not in public. Yesterday I saw a man holding a woman very close in a bus and kissing her, and I wondered how long their love would last. There is shallow love and deep love. Anyone can have shallow love, but not everyone knows deep love. The person who is indifferent to the deep love from God will never come close to deep love.</p>
<p>It is reasonable that we have to go through suffering and sacrifice in order to come to deep love. When I am very serious about something, Mother cannot just casually come to me. In deep love it is not unusual that a couple not speak for even one hour. Just looking externally, people might wonder if they love each other. The love which everyone can see is not the most valuable. The love which God will slip into your back pocket when you are not looking is the best.</p>
<p>I can testify about this. Sometimes Mother asks, &#8220;You love me, don&#8217;t you?&#8221; and I say yes. If she says, &#8220;How much,&#8221; I reply, &#8220;My love is as big as you.&#8221; In replying that way I am saying that my love is the biggest possible, since I could never say I loved her more than I loved God. There is a proper manner of modesty between husband and wife in the godly world, and we must uphold that law. Can we tell our parents to wait until we finish kissing before they speak to us? I suspect Americans would tell their parents to wait, but instead we must have modesty and orderliness. There is a courtesy as a man and woman to maintain. You must always be aware of it and act within that scope.</p>
<p>I never taught you to love me instead of others. Always I taught you to love God first, and to love the members more than you love me. As long as I do that, I can never be wrong. Then even though the world opposes me, I will not perish. If anyone tries to cut off such a person, the universe will never leave the attacker alone for very long, for his act would threaten the order of the universe. I don&#8217;t have to deal with my enemies because they will be taken care of by the universe.</p>
<p>In the path of love one has to be audacious and brave. We can be confident that there is no shame at all in this path. That is why we can be powerful. We cannot continue this way of life unless we pursue love. To continue on this path we must pray, so you must remember to lead a prayerful life.</p>
<p>The springtime of the second three seven-year courses is about to begin, and it should be a growing time for us. It is appropriate that you prepare for this season with prayer, to ready yourselves for the upcoming glorious time. Those who promise they will do that, raise your hands.</p>
<p>Let us pray.</p>
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<a href="/blog/2018/06/20/life-of-experience-in-the-realm-of-heart.html" title="Permalink to LIFE OF EXPERIENCE IN THE REALM OF HEART" rel="bookmark">LIFE OF EXPERIENCE IN THE REALM OF HEART</a>
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&nbsp; <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="2018-06-20T14:47:10+01:00"> <a href="/blog/2018/06/20/life-of-experience-in-the-realm-of-heart.html" rel="bookmark">June 20, 2018</a> </time></span><time class="updated" datetime="2018-06-20T14:47:10+01:00">June 20, 2018</time> <span class="bl_categ"> <a href="/speeches/categories/rev-sun-myung-moon-1981.html" rel="tag">Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1981</a> </span> </div><!-- .entry-meta -->
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<h2 align="CENTER">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
<h3 align="CENTER">March 15, 1981<br />
Belvedere<br />
Translator &#8211; Sang Kil Han</h3>
<h4 align="CENTER">Copyright © 1981 by Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity</h4>
<p>The literal translation of the topic this morning means <em>&#8220;experience in the realm of heart and blood.&#8221;</em> The closest one can get in meaning to this in English is &#8220;experience,&#8221; but that word does not convey the meaning of elation or deep sorrow. Perhaps the closest translation, then. would be &#8220;religious experience&#8221; for &#8220;experience of heart and blood.&#8221; This means a life of experience directly connected with tears and sorrow.</p>
<p>How wonderful it would be if we all had one language! Language plays a very important role in connecting the inner world with the outer world. What is the origin of the words we speak? When we trace our ancestry back, we eventually come to God. Why is language necessary? Language is necessary to improve our general situation. There must be some focal point or purpose for speaking, so what word would the words themselves like most? Literature students analyze the words and contents of literary works, and prefer certain writers, but what would the real center of the words be? We can narrow it down to words that have to do with the mind, in making it happy and fulfilled.</p>
<p>What is it that can excite the mind? We find that nothing else but love is adequate to stimulate it. Especially in the Orient, we say that words and deeds must be one; then when words are spoken, they can really excite the mind. The conclusion is that if we speak words that have to do with love, our actions must also center around love.</p>
<p>What does the self like most? If a person takes joy in acting according to love, then we can say he is a person who represents the past, present and future. Then he can move freely everywhere, whether on earth or in spirit world. Where would our five senses like to be? If the center of action is love, our five senses would like to be there.</p>
<p>Who is a fortunate person, and who do we call unfortunate? One common criterion is whether someone has money and doesn&#8217;t have to work very hard. Another criterion might be whether he has knowledge, or political power. But happiness must have some focal point; most confidently we can say that the focal point is love. This is true not just for people of the 20th century; everyone has come to the same conclusion about this.</p>
<p>If God created man to be this way, what would God be like? Exactly the same. We know it must be true that unless God finds love then He can never be happy. After we consider every angle, we cannot avoid reaching this conclusion. Though God is omnipotent and almighty, without love He cannot be truly happy. Who must come into being for that to happen? That&#8217;s where His object, or &#8220;I&#8221; comes in.</p>
<p>When we think of God, we think of spirit world and eternity, of not needing air to breathe and food to eat. There is a nose on your face specifically for you to breathe with. Would God need a nose to do that? If God doesn&#8217;t need to eat or breathe, imagine God without ears or a nose, and so forth. Then we couldn&#8217;t speak about God by likening Him to beautiful things which we experience, by saying His eyes are as blue as a lake, for instance or as soft as a doves. Could you come to like a God who didn&#8217;t have five senses?</p>
<p>We don&#8217;t think God is great in the same way that we might think someone else is great; when we say God is greater than we are, we mean He is greater in love. Again, the standard of measurement is love. What is the realm of heart? It is the realm into which everything fits. in which everything is included. Shim jung means mind and love, or heart, so wherever our mind is moved, that is the realm of heart.</p>
<p>Does it just take a lot of force and concentration to generate electricity? What does it take? A battery or generator is needed. If you have difficulty understanding the realm of heart, think this way. The circuit is already wired up. and all that is needed is for the switch to be turned so the current can flow.</p>
<p>The realm of heart is where the electricity of God&#8217;s love can flow freely and excite everything. [if you stick your fingers into an electrical outlet, you certainly will feel something! The experience of feeling God&#8217;s electricity in the realm of heart is like such a shock. Do you think it is painful, or ecstatic and joyful? God&#8217;s electricity can flow anywhere. A strange characteristic of electricity is that if there is a plus somewhere then a minus will appear, as though out of nowhere, and become an object to it. The two don&#8217;t have to be brought together; if a plus is there, a minus is already there. Then what is God? He is an absolute plus for love. Man is a negative terminal in the electricity of love.</p>
<p>The earth is a good conductor of electricity. If you connect a terminal to the ground, electricity will very quickly travel out from it. God is a subject of love and like electricity travels through all the earth, His love travels through all mankind. If you raise your radio antenna high, it picks up more radio waves. Man also wants to raise his antenna higher to gather the electricity of God&#8217;s love. Each of you has an antenna, with some of them very high, and others so short that they catch a minimum of electricity. Some radios don&#8217;t work very well, while others are sensitive. When you have sensitive receivers in the world of love, do you feel good or bad? You feel great because you can pick up all kinds of electricity.</p>
<p>Imagine a radio which can generate its own power, as well as receive signals. If you are such a radio of love, where plus and minus have a reciprocal relationship, then immediately all parts of the realm of heart will be connected. Then you can go anywhere; then there is nothing you don&#8217;t know because you only have to think and then you know everything. This is why God is called omnipotent and almighty. He can-do everything because He is already connected to all creation. Because man can catch all kinds of waves from Him, God can go everywhere through man.</p>
<p>In love, you come to have the feeling that if you are elated, then the whole universe is elated as well. Wouldn&#8217;t that power be strong enough to draw God&#8217;s attention? How wonderful it is! This is why we need heart. Shim jung really refers to the focus and center of heart, the direct contact point with God Himself.</p>
<p>A piece of iron is cold and has no power, but if a magnet is nearby then the iron will be drawn to it. When man is alone, he is like the iron, but when God&#8217;s heart is nearby, he is very different. A man might be so dull that people wonder why he is living, but if a beautiful woman comes nearby, something really agitates him! The same happens to the woman; she is ready to come into contact. Certainly we need the magnet and electricity of love. Does anyone think he can live without it?</p>
<p>Does the plus part of electricity flow into the minus part, or vice versa? The minus goes to the plus. In the same way, we are meant to live and love for the sake of others-in other words, we are meant to give everything for the plus. Then that circuit of love is completed, and everything you give will come back around again. In that case what you are getting is electricity of love from God Himself. If you empty yourself completely, then something else will fill you, such as God&#8217;s love. If this doesn&#8217;t happen then all the balance and harmony of the universe will be broken down. The recent dramatic developments in electronics and communications are just a shadow of what God&#8217;s world is really like.</p>
<p>If we know the air is filled with radio waves we cannot see, then we can understand how in God&#8217;s world the air is filled completely with the electricity of love. Once a circuit is complete, electricity can do many things; if today&#8217;s electronic communication is just a shadow of what God&#8217;s world is like, then we know that nothing is impossible in God&#8217;s love. Then it is also clear that a spirit world must exist.</p>
<p>If we experience God&#8217;s love for a time while we still have a physical body, then in spirit world we will continue in the same intensity of experience. The spirit world is full of the electricity of love. You know that at the flip of a switch all the buildings in New York could be lighted instantly. Heaven comes on earth when all the lights are lit to their brightest, and heaven in spirit world is where all the lights are love, and they are all fully lit.</p>
<p>If your subject of love moves, you don&#8217;t have to reason or think-you automatically move with it. The air of spirit world is love, and so in spirit world you cannot help wanting to love everyone, wanting to have banquets to invite everyone to. Such a thing can happen instantly, at just the thought of it. What do you eat in spirit world? The food of love. In love, the more you look, the more you want to look. The more you listen, the more you want to listen. You would never tire of it. Dullness and tiredness have no place there. How could you be tired when there is so much excitement? If you are full of happiness, could you sleep if you were told to?</p>
<p>You would want to give much love to others, and thus to present yourself in a beautiful way, so you would want to have big jewels. God has everything. It&#8217;s not that we need to own these things; when we complete the circuit of love, God gives us what He has. Some people say I am a dreamer, but if I have logic and reason to back up what I say, I am actually a realist. If there is a possibility that I am right, then this is worth trying. With this expectation, we will try and see what happens. There is no question that you are already hooked by my thought!</p>
<p>The truth is that spirit world is full of the electricity of God&#8217;s love. Though people on earth don&#8217;t understand that, still their focus is love; somehow they want to have love. That is because, even without knowing it, they want to be in unison with the eternal world. Their actions still come under that dominion.</p>
<p>Sometimes you see me in dreams and visions, don&#8217;t you? When you turn your radio to a certain frequency, you pick up a signal. If you are on the same frequency as God&#8217;s love then naturally you pick up a sharp sound or image, just like on television. The simplest way to make that happen is to forget yourself, to become like a pure metal in which the electricity can flow without resistance. Gold is an excellent conductor because it allows electricity to pass without any resistance, so no power is lost. Gold is purified by being melted in such extreme heat that all impurities are burned away. We make ourselves into pure gold by being put in the hot furnace to burn out our impurities.</p>
<p>When a person is continuously doing hard work, he doesn&#8217;t think about himself any longer. You have reached your objective once you reach a certain point, but you don&#8217;t know ahead of time where that point is. Thus, many people try, but then decide that they have tried hard enough and can&#8217;t make it. A person can become famous in the world by working for his own selfish goals, but in a religious life we have more difficulty. Difficulty is only meaningful until you reach a certain point, however; once you go beyond that point, everything is much easier and you don&#8217;t have to try so hard. We can compare it to gravity: the farther away from earth you go, the less you weigh; once you are completely beyond earth&#8217;s gravity, you are weightless. Once we are beyond gravity, we can go anywhere, even to where God is.</p>
<p>It makes sense that the fantastic era of space and electronics is developing so extensively now. According to Principle, the Cain-side imitation always comes first, and now that the Abel side age is developing, these technical advances are to be expected. I am the one who started talking about love in terms of outer space and electronics, so I feel I am also the ancestor of these external developments.</p>
<p>My topic is experience of heart, mind and blood. How do we experience things deeply? We must be pure and without resistance, always developing a loving mind. The solution is to be loving, and also trying to open your mind to receive love. Unhappiness is not being able to give and receive love, even though you want to. Happiness is being able to receive love when you want to, and being able to give love when you will. This is how man was originally made and he wouldn&#8217;t have had to be taught it, but because of the fall man has had to reason this out. You find yourselves having to hear sermons to understand it.</p>
<p>Man is a broken radio with defective circuits. It is as though your eyes were defective and you saw things upside-down. We are trying to make things right-side up, trying to return to the original way so we can reach farther and farther for love, broadening our scope. No one wants to change. It is uncomfortable to assimilate new experiences, but if the price of love is being forced to change then we are willing to try. As a person reams more and more about the value of love, he will do anything to get it. Love is that great.</p>
<p>You might have wondered who brought this most demanding religion into being, and why you don&#8217;t just have the freedom to disco and be natural in enjoying yourselves. If I had been interested in disco dancing instead of religious life, then I would have become an expert. But ultimately this path of religion is tastier and more enjoyable. Maybe you wonder why you are sitting here, why you are following an Oriental. You must cross a bridge to reach the world of love. and since I happen to have that bridge, it doesn&#8217;t matter whether I am white, black, or yellow.</p>
<p>You want to cross that bridge to get to the eternal world of God&#8217;s heart. You have to start by crossing this bridge to reach the side of the heavenly individual, then the family, and so forth. Would you rather cross many bridges, or connect them all and cross over just one bridge? If God&#8217;s purpose is to bring all mankind into salvation, wouldn&#8217;t He want to have just one bridge? If you were entrusted with that responsibility, wouldn&#8217;t you do the same? Home church is that bridge. Crossing the bridge of home church would be regarded as achievement enough for anyone to pass into the heavenly world. Don&#8217;t you feel like crossing it successfully?</p>
<p>There are sentries in the spirit world who will challenge you when you arrive to enter heaven. If your passport says that you lived for yourself, you will be sent back. If it says you are a Unification Church member who actually joined for your own sake, to advance yourself, then the sentry will say you can&#8217;t cross over. If you cry for your sake more than for others, if you hear and look at things for yourself, then it is reflected on your passport and you won&#8217;t qualify.</p>
<p>For whom did you marry? You may not know how to marry for the sake of mankind, so that&#8217;s why you ask me to match you; you know that even if you have a difficult match, you can say you are living for the sake of the world. When you leave everything to me, you can clearly say that you did not marry for yourself.</p>
<p>What is the most important thing you can do in your lifetime? Marriage is very important in spirit world. If you say that you followed my recommendation in deciding whom to marry because you didn&#8217;t know what the will of God was, you will have met an important qualification.</p>
<p>No one will say you were dumb for not knowing God&#8217;s will yourself, and thus having to follow Reverend Moon. You have thought about whether this path is the right way; certainly I might have been wrong, even if you liked me personally. Perhaps it was the teaching about true family and about bringing God into yourself that you heard here for the first time, and that&#8217;s why you followed. Then you decided it would be better to marry someone Reverend Moon recommended, instead of the particular kind of person you had in mind. If the sentry in spirit world tries to turn you away, you can be angry and insist that you know you haven&#8217;t been doing these things for your own sake. One thing you can confidently say is that you haven&#8217;t lived for yourself, but for the sake of the world.</p>
<p>Maybe when you first went fund raising you were so embarrassed that you spoke to the people with your eyes closed, but after awhile you could open your eyes and found it wasn&#8217;t difficult. If you live this difficult life for your own sake, you might as well stop now. But since it is for the sake of others, you keep on going. When you speak up this way, the guard will let you cross the bridge. Then you can cross back and forth freely whenever you want, and your life will be a prototype for all mankind. You should do just as I have done, following my example. In that light, the most unloving thing would be for me to leave you alone, not telling you what was good or bad.</p>
<p>People who observe you carefully may think they could do your work even better. Cain is usually in the inferior position to Abel, but if he wants to do better than Abel, it isn&#8217;t necessary that he know everything in order to do so. Why should we go this way instead of the way most people do? Crossing many bridges would take many years, or even a whole lifetime, but crossing one bridge is much shorter. Unless I can create a shorter bridge which enables people to cross over everything at once, there is no real significance to my being here in this world. Have you cried harder for your home church people than for people you are already connected with? If you cry more for them than for your own family and relatives, then you have crossed the bridge in one step.</p>
<p>In home church you are trying to restore everything. This means that there you will find people to raise and restore as parents, as husband or wife, as children, and so forth. Because of the fall you lost everything, but in home church you find everything to restore, including your tribe, country, and world. Everything was lost, so if you don&#8217;t restore it, you have nothing.</p>
<p>There must be some procedure by which you can show you did it all by yourself. There must be something to show at the gate which testifies that you are qualified to enter the eternal world, proving that you have perfected your family, clan, society, nation, world and universe. It would not be feasible for each person to come for my signature when they finish each level; I want to sign just once for each person, and even for the whole Church. I set the pattern, so whoever follows it will routinely receive my signature.</p>
<p>Where do we experience the realm of heart I have been talking about this morning? Man was created as God&#8217;s image and object, and all things are created as man&#8217;s image and object. Therefore, we have to feel that nature, no matter how desolate looking is better than any man-made clothing or possessions. Recently in the West, people have begun to prefer natural materials instead of synthetics. Something of God&#8217;s original creation is better than the best man-made watch.</p>
<p>You can talk to your food as you prepare it, telling it that by becoming part of you it will be in a better place than it could ever be by remaining where it was. All things want to be elevated closer to God&#8217;s love, and if you can do that by eating them, they will be glad for you to do so. The water you drink will evaporate as sweat which God will recognize.</p>
<p>You should love other people more than you love any things. Sometimes you see people who cherish their dogs more than other people, but the worst man should be loved more than any creature. How can there be an excuse for spending money freely on a pet, while not giving anything for the sake of mankind? Such a person would be accused in spirit world, for such an act is against the nature of things.</p>
<p>All mankind are a part of God, just like your hair is part of you. Because your hair is part of you, you love it. Surely you love people more than you love your own hair! We live with the thought that through us people will live a bit closer to God, that we can bring them closer to Him. Once we create the arteries and veins of love, God&#8217;s love will flow everywhere. God is like the nerves that follow where the blood vessels go. Once the blood flows smoothly and strongly a person gains strength and never gets sick.</p>
<p>In the family we learn how to love. In a family there are parents, husband and wife, and also children, forming three loves. Those three loves together are the same as God&#8217;s love. This is the reason we say the family is the foundation of heaven. The simple conclusion is that we should be able to love people of all colors of skin as we do our own brothers and sisters. Would you hate all people of some race so much that if they went to heaven then you would decide not to go? What would you do if the person you hated most was in front of you in the line to go to heaven? Would you refuse to go to heaven because he would be there?</p>
<p>Because the true family was lost, there has been no training ground to teach everyone about heaven. This is why you are trained in the Unification Church. The result of the fall is that man is separated from God, from Adam and Eve, from children. and even couples are separated among themselves. They are almost enemies to each other. It is in this meaning that Jesus taught that a person&#8217;s family was that person&#8217;s own enemy. If we fought our enemies and did away with them. we would be completely alone, so instead Jesus had to teach us to love our enemies. The idea of love is most important. Since everything is like an enemy, what would you have if you did not love them? Thus, loving your enemy is the starting point for finding love. You must be able to love an enemy even before you can love all things.</p>
<p>The girl you are going to love is the daughter of your enemy. Because of the fall, Adam and Eve brought forth children of their enemy. We must equal or surpass the level of love in the outside world; this is essential if we are to bring better families into being. Naturally this is difficult, and because it has been impossible until now, religions have always encouraged celibacy. That cannot continue eternally, however, for then God&#8217;s will for creation could not be fulfilled. Until the Second Advent comes, it makes more sense to remain single.</p>
<p>The Savior comes as the parent who is in harmony with all lost things, and as a center of love. The Savior comes with a family in which people are not enemies, but are harmonious in the original way. Centering around his love, he can forgive all enemies, thus saving them. To a person seriously following the Messiah, the Messiah is like God Himself, and like Adam, who was the first ancestor and center of God&#8217;s creation. Even though he is a man, people will even regard the Messiah as Eve herself because she was a first ancestor.</p>
<p>Though a couple loves each other and their children very much, when the Messiah comes they will love him more than they love each other. To connect with him, one must love the Messiah more than anyone else. If the husband gets in the way of the wife loving the Messiah, she must decide between the two. Even then it is better to connect with the Messiah. If a man desperately loves his own country, when the Messiah comes that man must still love the Messiah more. Even if a man would give his life for his race, when he hears that the Messiah has come. that man must love him more than his own people.</p>
<p>The coming of the Messiah is the greatest thing to happen since the creation of the world. He brings the revolutionary movement of true love for the first time on earth, and it is such a priceless opportunity that it is worth giving up everything in order to have it. In the last days there must be a religion strong enough to teach this clearly.</p>
<p>I have spent my whole life setting the example and carrying this out. For this purpose I gave up my family, my children, and even my country. I was accused of being too extreme and taking everything away for love, but for love of whom? For God.</p>
<p>Because of the fall, God lost mankind and all things at one stroke. Restoration of all that will come through one man, at one time. The experience of the realm of heart and love begins with reversing the pattern of worldly love. Loving the Messiah more than anyone else is a painful experience. If you love the central figure of restoration more than anyone you used to love, you will be surprised to find that your love for your other loved ones is even stronger than before.</p>
<p>This principle is true even after you are married and have children. Even after a couple is blessed and has children, I may ask the husband to go work in Africa and leave his family behind. Instead of begging to go along, the family will send him off with encouragement. When you were single, perhaps you didn&#8217;t have much problem in this area, but now that you are matched, you might want your fiancé to persuade his central figure to let him finish his college education, for instance. Is that principled or not? I look at people with only this principle in mind.</p>
<p>The pattern in this world of hell on earth may look the same, but it springs from a different lineage. The one element that drastically changes everything is this element of love. Giving up everything to love God does not mean you will not love anything else; only after loving God first can you love others as well. When you work according to Principle in home church. the people there will treat you just like you treat me. If you have loved me very much, your home church members will feel the same toward you.</p>
<p>Restoring that tie of love with your home church people is greater than any other achievement or success in life. This principle you are following here applies also to spirit world, and is the broadest heavenly law. When you tour your home church area, you can think that you are doing the same thing God did when He inspected His creation before Adam and Eve fell. In that realm of love Satan has no place. He simply cannot exist there. Only if you live according to satanic law can Satan be there. Four generations-God, True Parents, you and your children be connected, four elements in three orderly stages. Home church is absolutely necessary in order for you to be there. Loving your home church area is the beginning experience of the realm of heart for you. Through that you will ultimately be connected to God and the whole universe, and serve as a bridge to the universe.</p>
<p>Regard yourself as the bridge of God&#8217;s love to your home church, as the parents to that area, as the brothers and sisters loving that area. Then you are truly experiencing the realm of heart. After you correctly understand the realm of heart, you must broaden and stretch yourself to experience that realm. By loving me, you have already started experiencing the realm of heart: now all you have to do is extend that love to your area and your family. In the beginning you may not know what it will lead to. but as you experience more and more. your heart will be enriched.</p>
<p>In the beginning your home church people won&#8217;t understand much. but if you continue working with them then a bond of deep love will grow, and if you are away for a while then they will welcome your return with tears. Love is what home church is all about. In love you must embrace everything, not just one race, or one family. Without an object you cannot experience love, so you must create your object; that is your home church area.</p>
<p>If I were away for months or years, do you think you would miss me? Do you think I would miss you? I am the same way. As much as you love your home church, my love will be there to that degree, and God will love you that much or more. God can love you more because your object of love will have broadened, and so God&#8217;s love for you can also broaden. God&#8217;s love for you can become greater to the extent that your experience of the realm of heart becomes greater.</p>
<p>How do you go about improving your heart? You are widened as you live more and more for the sake of others. Then God can come closer to you. When people cry and are grateful to you, you feel that same gratitude to God and me. The world then comes close to you very quickly. For you, the realm of heart is your home church area. Love is not one-sided; your people must love you and you must love them. Then you will realize my love and God&#8217;s love.</p>
<p>When I teach you to live and die for the sake of the world, I know that when you do it you will experience God&#8217;s broader realm of heart; it is a must if you are to be connected to God and His love. Once you do that here, it is yours forever and ever. Home church is the microcosm of God&#8217;s creation, a small universe. The individual and family are there, and when you rejoice together. the universe and God will take part in your rejoicing. If you are sorrowful, God and the universe will be sorrowful with you.</p>
<p>Can you create even a small thing like an ant? But you can sew clothes, right? Sometimes you kill an ant without thinking, but how wonderful it is to think that the ant is even more beautiful than your expensive clothes. That ant can teach you love toward all things. God created such a delicate creature as an ant to teach you that kind of delicate love.</p>
<p>A cat has certain characteristics, such as scratching at something that threatens her, and certainly there is that kind of element in love also. God wanted to accent that aspect of love through the cat. You will see much jealousy and even hatred in your home church area, but that is just an expression of love in a wrong direction. It is love, albeit deviated love, so once it is re-directed in the correct way, it will be equally as strong. How good it will be when it is turned around 180 degrees.</p>
<p>So far you have not known how to handle what happens in your home church, but in the great big mind of God there is nothing you cannot solve. When you find a reason for things, you will not be disturbed by them. Your home church is like a flower garden which no one has cared for, so you can think that God has made that garden for you, and that it wants to be loved by you. This is not make-believe.</p>
<p>Each person wanted to be loved by God in the original garden of Eden, but because mankind went away from God, no one has received such love. But you come in the original state, knowing how people long for love, and feeling you will love them in the original way God intended. God will not tell you that 24 hours is too long to pray; He wants to be there even longer, so He will welcome even more intense and fervent feeling. You shouldn&#8217;t discourage your home church people from staying with you late into the night just because you are tired. You should want to hear more and more. A parent wants to listen to the smallest thing his child desires.</p>
<p>The universe is filled with the electricity of God&#8217;s love. That circuit is already there, so when you feel that love toward your home church, you are repairing the circuit. When you see one small flower, it represents the entire plant kingdom, and through it you can experience heart toward all plants. If you love a pet, it represents loving all animals. Sometimes you will even treat a skunk as royalty among animals.</p>
<p>If a bird chirps in your area, you can realize that he came out to welcome you, and that God feels the same way toward you. If you go to bed very tired but there is a noisy party going on next door, think that people are making all that noise in preparation for welcoming you. If you have a loving mind, you automatically come to interpret things that way.</p>
<p>If you had to make a relationship with everything in creation, having to meet each one of them, it would be impossible. When I set foot in America I felt that I came in order to love this nation more than anyone ever loved it, and that my love for it would be greater than any opposition to me that Satan could stir up. All you need to do is extend that kind of love to your area. Your area is a greenhouse and you are growing everything there first. Other areas can wait.</p>
<p>You should feel that God has been preparing this area for many years for you, that nothing is there accidentally or haphazardly, and that this is the most significant activity in all history. Think of how far history had to come so that finally this area would be waiting for you there, to be connected to True Parents and God. If you think that way then you will have a completely new outlook.</p>
<p>If people blame you for anything, it will be for coming late to them. Keep this kind of thinking, planning how you can thaw out their frozen minds and make them warm and lively people. How good it is if you do that in the name of love! Though you may not own much, and you are continually persecuted because the people are ignorant, how precious that experience will be. Now you are authorized to do in the name of love what no one ever could do, and by doing so you can deepen your heart. How worthwhile an experience that is. You can be proud of it. That is my source of pride, too.</p>
<p>That is the only foundation I have, in spite of the fact that I am famous. All of that does not outweigh the love which I feel for you and you feel for me. That love alone is here to stay eternally, and is the only thing which matters in spirit world. Home church is a perfect area of training for you to experience this. Because the people will not respond right away, you will certainly suffer, but your depth of experience in love will become more profound as you are opposed by many types of people.</p>
<p>Would you like to give this a try? Even though tears will always accompany this kind of experience? It will be a source of regret if you fail to experience this while you are still on earth. The things of love which you touch and hear and see in spirit world will bring pain to you instead of pleasure if you don&#8217;t experience this on earth.</p>
<p>God and True Parents will be right beside you if you persevere in creating this experience. Would you do that? God bless you.</p>
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<a href="/blog/2018/06/20/i-am-the-center-of-the-whole.html" title="Permalink to I AM THE CENTER OF THE WHOLE" rel="bookmark">I AM THE CENTER OF THE WHOLE</a>
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&nbsp; <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="2018-06-20T14:46:40+01:00"> <a href="/blog/2018/06/20/i-am-the-center-of-the-whole.html" rel="bookmark">June 20, 2018</a> </time></span><time class="updated" datetime="2018-06-20T14:46:40+01:00">June 20, 2018</time> <span class="bl_categ"> <a href="/speeches/categories/rev-sun-myung-moon-1981.html" rel="tag">Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1981</a> </span> </div><!-- .entry-meta -->
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<h2 align="CENTER">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
<h3 align="CENTER">March 8, 1981<br />
Belvedere<br />
Translator &#8211; Sang Kil Han</h3>
<h4 align="CENTER">Copyright © 1981 by Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity</h4>
<p>To speak of the whole is to include everything. Thus &#8220;the whole&#8221; pertains not only to America, but it encompasses the world and beyond that the entire universe, the vast realm of creation. Since creation is the realm of result, there must be a realm of cause-the world in which God dwells.</p>
<p>This world we are living in is the world of result, but what did it result from? The human fall. Thus it is far removed from the original world. This fallen world is certainly not the world in which we long to live; it is the culmination of thousands of generations of alien ancestors. Looking back upon history, we find that our ancestry is not what we would have desired.</p>
<p>This is not the world which God planned, but rather the fallen world. Each generation has multiplied the results of the fall; thousands upon thousands of fallen generations have brought the world to its present state. Each segment of history was terrible. When you think deeply about fallen history, can&#8217;t you feel how shockingly horrible it has been?</p>
<p>Think of mankind&#8217;s sinful history as a person who fell overboard into deep water and tries desperately to reach the shore. The current is very swift and, not knowing how to swim, mankind has been floundering and thrashing about, screaming for help, praying for someone to come to the rescue. A person in such desperate circumstances doesn&#8217;t even notice whether the water is clean or dirty, or in which direction the current is flowing. A drowning person doesn&#8217;t feel free to complain that his mother didn&#8217;t love him enough, or that his girlfriend wasn&#8217;t nice enough to him. Under desperate circumstance, such thoughts are out of the question.</p>
<p>What does a drowning person focus on? He only cares about how to get out of the water and save his life. He doesn&#8217;t worry about food or clothing; none of that matters now. All he desires is for someone to snatch him out of the river, regardless of how they do it. His rescuer might grab him by the hands, feet, hair or nose and he wouldn&#8217;t mind; even if his foot were snagged by a fishhook, it would be okay as long as he got pulled out. If he is saved, he won&#8217;t complain about his foot being mutilated. He thinks of nothing except being saved. In such a situation, one experiences the strength of the will to survive.</p>
<p>You could create such an experience any time. You might, for instance, run water into the bathtub and lie face down in it for about 40 seconds, and see what happens. You would probably start out filled with different thoughts and aspirations but 40 seconds later, all you would want is air!</p>
<p>Most people take everything for granted, doing things the same way those in the past have done. They live habitually, doing basic things without question, with little excitement or desperation. But is that the true way of life?</p>
<p>When a person floundering in a rushing river manages to grab onto a passing log, that log makes a huge difference in his life. Or suppose a boat passes by and he is able to climb aboard. Once he is aboard, the only thing separating him from the water is a mere half-inch of wood forming the bottom of the boat. The difference between where he was before and where he is now is a mere half-inch. He is only a half-inch away from death!</p>
<p>That torrent of water represents hell, and that half-inch above the water is heaven. This analogy is no exaggeration. At one time you were fighting for your life but now, a half-inch above the water, you can look down and even enjoy the scene. You can row your boat and sing a song. Hell knows no songs or laughter; it is a desperate world where people think only of getting out. But heaven is a world in which you can enjoy many things.</p>
<p>We can imagine what it would feel like to be caught in a raging torrent. Being sinful is like being in that water, but do people know that they are in dangerous water? Which is more difficult: to struggle for survival in rushing water, or to fight to escape the fallen world and return to the original world? Is the condition of fallen people any less desperate than that of a drowning person? It is actually more critical.</p>
<p>If God&#8217;s own child fell into the water and was drowning, wouldn&#8217;t God be desperate to reach down and pick him up? But when Adam fell, did God rescue him or leave him where he was? Actually, God chased Adam out of the garden; so Adam&#8217;s situation was more serious than someone falling into a river. God even seemed unsympathetic as He drove Adam away. The struggle to return to God is immeasurably more difficult than falling into a river and struggling to reach the shore. Deep within you, you must feel the truth of this statement. Mankind has truly fallen and must sooner or later get out of the water and be saved. You must face that fact. This is no flight of fancy.</p>
<p>Can you respond, &#8220;Well, Father, you may think like that, but I don&#8217;t have to&#8221;? Can you presume that it applies only to Koreans but not other nationalities? This truth affects all races and peoples. No matter who you are-rich or poor, great or humble, man or woman-you share the common fate of all humanity. As long as you are an offspring of alien ancestry, what I am saying holds true.</p>
<p>There could be two kinds of people struggling in the water: those who can swim and those who cannot. Someone might say he doesn&#8217;t intend to learn how to swim until he happens to fall into the water-and then he will quickly learn. That sounds good, but does it work? A beginning swimmer, dressed only in swimming trunks, might paddle awkwardly in the chilly water, and someone looking on might say, &#8220;I don&#8217;t want to go through that!&#8221; The observer will be all right as long as he stays on land; but if he ever falls into the water, he will have no alternative but to try to swim. The one who has already learned how to swim will be much better prepared for an emergency. Even struggling in turbulent rapids, he will know the best way to reach land; if he cannot get to the shore right away, he will be able to breathe and stay afloat.</p>
<p>Can someone swim without making any motion? Good swimmers use all parts of their body-arms, legs, hands and even the head. Especially if you fall into rapids, you know that you have to move every part of you in order to get out. A non-swimmer in deep water will flail his arms and thrash about, but it doesn&#8217;t get him anywhere; it doesn&#8217;t help him. Which is more reasonable: to put off learning to swim until you find yourself in deep water, or to resolve to learn now, in case you might someday fall overboard? Rather than waiting until you are in desperate straits, you should learn in advance how to swim and practice the proper movements.</p>
<p>As you are learning, would you practice only in warm water? You never know if you will fall into warm or cold water. If you practice swimming in the cold ocean water, for instance, you will be prepared to survive in any kind of water. Swimmers usually train in cold water. If you are going to learn to swim, learn the standard by which swimming ability is evaluated, and then keep working until you reach it.</p>
<p>In Oriental thought, the world is compared to a bitter sea, not a sweet one, and the human situation is like being dropped into the ocean and having to swim to the shore. Ask the average person whether he is desperately seeking to save himself, or whether his condition is generally happy and needs no improvement. Some people are trying to save themselves, but a lot of Americans, for instance, appear to be contented with life; they go dancing, they dine out, and so forth. They are comparable to a group of people on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, relaxing on top of a sand dune. The waves are not hitting them yet, but the more they dance, the more the sand beneath them erodes. That is a description of some Americans today.</p>
<p>Suppose a storm arises. In the ocean, surrounded by nothing but water, where would you go? The people on the sand dune might have a nice large island, but the storm of communism could completely smash their island. Then what awaits the inhabitants?</p>
<p>In the news these days there is much talk about El Salvador and whether America will help it. What does the United States have to do with that tiny country? The Reagan administration is disturbed because the communists are there. Are you Americans confident about the future of your country? No, you cannot feel very reassured.</p>
<p>All mankind is in the water, but one group is trying desperately to get out of the water, by one means or another, and the other group is not even conscious of their situation. Perhaps they are drinking the water and thinking nothing of it. The ones trying to learn to swim are the religious people. There are different styles of swimming: you can float relatively motionless on the water&#8217;s surface, or you can paddle with lots of motion. Buddhism is like the first style and Christianity is like the second. The Buddhists gaze up at the blue sky of heaven as they are swimming; they cannot see to either side of them. Some people can swim in an almost vertical position in the water; others consider it strange, but still it is swimming. Is it better to stick to one style of swimming, or to learn various strokes? It isn&#8217;t easy to learn many strokes, so some people prefer to concentrate on only one.</p>
<p>In addition to a variety of styles, there is a variety of places where people can swim. Some swim in a small pool, others in a pond or lake, and still others in the ocean. There is no rule forbidding someone who learned to swim in a pool from swimming in the ocean, or vice versa.</p>
<p>Unification Church members learn to use a variety of swimming styles; also you learn how to swim rapidly. Some of you are thrown into African waters teeming with alligators; there you will swim quickly! If you are dropped into the Arctic Ocean, you will also want to swim rapidly to the shore. You are learning to adapt to different waters and survive under any circumstance.</p>
<p>So is the Unification Church a good place to be? Certainly we can say it is a good place. We want a place that is good not only for ordinary life but also during emergencies. Likewise we want a place that is good not just for emergencies but also for daily life. Is the Unification Church good for both? Now you tell me it is good, but ordinarily you complain about it: you don&#8217;t like fundraising and witnessing, you would rather not go out in the rain to witness. You don&#8217;t like it, but at the same time you know it is good! People who observe you from outside the church may understand that you feel it is necessary to do the things you do, but they feel that they don&#8217;t have to do them. &#8220;Maybe Reverend Moon and the Moonies need those activities,&#8221; they might say, &#8220;but I don&#8217;t&#8221; They are like the people who don&#8217;t care to learn how to swim.</p>
<p>But suppose a huge storm comes, with high winds and heavy flooding. We know that our chance of survival will be much better than those who are unprepared. If the Unification Church is providing the only survival training for the future, then we can clearly call it a wonderful place. Do you like this &#8220;wonderful&#8221; way? I don&#8217;t! This wonderful way is very difficult, but we can see how necessary it is.</p>
<p>Once we master the art of swimming, we can be absolutely confident. Nothing can threaten us then, not even the biggest storms with the most enormous waves and severe floods. Because we are expert swimmers, we know we will survive. In other words, if you pass the complete course of the Unification Church, you can survive in any situation you might meet anywhere in the world our topic today is,<em>&#8220;I Am the Center of the Whole.&#8221;</em> The question is whether you are the center of the whole in a good sense, or a bad sense. For someone floundering in deep water, swimming is a good thing; that is what makes good sense. In addition to wanting to be the center of the whole in a good sense, you should want to be the center on a large scale. If you can swim very well, you will be the center of the whole in a very good way.</p>
<p>I started swimming from my home country and continued all the way across the Pacific Ocean. On the way over, I encountered people of every different race blocking my way, like various creatures of the sea. America is like a whale, Japan like a shark. You have to learn how to survive in deep water. Can you survive? The largest sea monster is communism. You have to fight against the monster and win over it.</p>
<p>Can you do these things without knowing how to swim? No, you must learn to swim. You cannot just ignore the danger of communism. Communism is like a storm and you must be prepared for its arrival. You have to know everything about communism: its history, its tactics, its strategy.</p>
<p>Where is the dirtiest, most foul-smelling kind of water? It is in places where free sex is practiced. Alcohol and drug abuse are dreadful, but sexual promiscuity is the worst pollution. The waters of the world&#8217;s religions, including the Unification Church, are like spring water, clear and pure. Although we are still struggling, at least the water is clean and not toxic.</p>
<p>In this fallen world, the members of the Unification Church are linked to heaven with an invisible rope. If you start to head in the wrong direction, that rope will yank you back toward the right path. If you think about the value of that kind of protection, you don&#8217;t mind the Unification Church so much, do you? If a hungry whale comes along and tries to swallow you, the heavenly winch can hoist you up and set you down in a different place. Isn&#8217;t that great? So what kind of place is the Unification Church? One which protects you from the whales and sharks.</p>
<p>Why would heaven do that for you? Heaven takes extra care of you because you are a special kind of seed. Without that precious seed, mankind will not be able to continue in the future. Wanting to preserve you, heaven goes out of its way to help you. With such protection, you can take many risks and have many different adventures. Ordinary people would predict that if you continue doing such things you would soon die. But rather than dying, you prosper. Heaven intervenes on your behalf. Do you understand that? Even though all other people may pass away, God knows that the special seed must be preserved.</p>
<p>All you have to do is tie that rope around your waist and make a little hook in it. You may think that is too much trouble and wonder why you have to do it. You don&#8217;t need to understand the reason. Just make the hook, and then heaven can drop its rope and pull you up whenever you need it. Even though it may be difficult, our responsibility is to do what we are told and secure the rope around us, with the little hook for heaven. The rest is up to heaven.</p>
<p>Since you do not understand the purpose of this hook, you don&#8217;t want to go through the difficulties to create it, but I keep urging you to do so. &#8220;What for?&#8221; you cry, but I chase you out to try harder. Finally you do what you are told, and that is very good.</p>
<p>The other day I heard a report about someone who had left the Unification Church after being a member for three years. He told one of our members that because of the training he had received in the church, he had no problems supporting himself and making money; he was better equipped in whatever he did. He said that after three years of training, he finds that nothing is impossible. We could say that he learned something about how to swim!</p>
<p>Is it easy or difficult to learn how to swim? It is extremely difficult, but we have to keep practicing and pursuing the perfection of this activity. As for any worthwhile goal, you must be persistent and never give up. Keep trying with all your might. Even though it may take a long time-perhaps even the rest of your life-you should make up your mind that you will continue to perfect it.</p>
<p>Before training you, I trained myself. My training was much more difficult than what you are experiencing. If I had not undergone such intense training, I would have run away from the Unification Church faster than anyone. You Unification Church members want to be like me someday, don&#8217;t you? That is good. However, in order to resemble me, you have to do exactly what I tell you to do. &#8220;No. Not that!&#8221; you object. &#8220;I want to be like you, but I don&#8217;t want to do all the things you tell me. I want to resemble you automatically, by magic&#8221;</p>
<p>One of the national leaders told me, &#8220;I am 42 years old, and I am a leader. Now you are asking me to go back to the beginning lessons again?&#8221; He thought he had already finished basic training, but I could see that he needed much more. He was still a beginner. Until we die, we must keep on training ourselves.</p>
<p>There are two kinds of seas in life: the bitter one and the sweet one. The sweet sea stands for heaven and the bitter sea for hell. We have to move from the bitter sea to the sweet. To do that, we have to swim against a strong current and overcome sharks and alligators. As you know, Satan waits for you at the point where you try to enter the heavenly sea, at the cross over point. You have to be able to get past him. If you are not properly prepared when you arrive at the junction, you will become frightened and lose confidence. Then Satan will surely stop you.</p>
<p>Knowing that you have received excellent preparation, you Unification Church members can be very confident. Moreover, you have that special belt so if you cannot reach the heavenly side by yourself, somebody else can hook you with a rope and haul you over. I know that you need preparation. Satan himself is waiting at the very gate of heaven hoping to stop you, so you should be well prepared for that confrontation. That is one point where you have to fight and win.</p>
<p>With training and preparation, you will become the champion for all time. To be a permanent champion, you need help from spirit world. That means you must do everything a person possibly can-and more. Then spirit world will be able to help you. Your responsibility is to be well prepared. Runners train for months, even years, in order to compete in a marathon. To gain the victory in a two-hour race, they have to train for thousands upon thousands of hours. We must train just as seriously.</p>
<p>Marathon champions train for many years while you are seeking to become the princes and princesses of heaven; so can you train for just a few years and quit, complaining that the course is too hard? Someone who wants to gain such a distinction without making the necessary efforts has a thief&#8217;s mentality. To obtain a Ph.D. from a fine school, say Harvard University, you have to go through some 20 years of schooling, including elementary and high school. How tedious that is! Which should be more difficult: getting a Ph.D. from Harvard, or becoming a heavenly prince or princess? How many hundreds of years should you invest in order to achieve your heavenly goal? A lifetime, and even more.</p>
<p>The Unification Church is good, you say, but you don&#8217;t like the indemnity course. You think everything would be fine if only you didn&#8217;t have to go through indemnity. But you should realize that indemnity is what makes it possible for you to complete your training for heaven. Because you know how to pay indemnity, you can hope to reach the sweet sea of heaven in less than thousands of years. Only indemnity makes that possible. If you could not pay indemnity, you could not even do home church. Because of indemnity, you can come here and listen to me directly, face-to-face. Without indemnity, that would not be possible.</p>
<p>Try to connect the parts of your body with indemnity. &#8220;This is my indemnity nose,&#8217; you can say; or &#8220;this is my indemnity mouth&#8221; Since your mouth is an indemnity mouth, it must like what other mouths don&#8217;t. Since your feet are indemnity feet, they will take a different direction from other people&#8217;s feet. Americans usually like to sleep on their stomachs, so you could sleep the opposite way for indemnity.</p>
<p>You may have considered indemnity something to be avoided, but once you understand its true meaning you can feel attracted to it. To take the indemnity route to the 40th floor of the World Mission Center, would you ride the elevator or walk all the way up? To take the indemnity route from Belvedere to the World Mission Center, would you ride in an automobile or run the whole way?</p>
<p>No one has to tell you each time which is the indemnity course; you know it. Will you devote your lifetime to a normal way or to the indemnity way? Do you like the indemnity way? You have changed your opinion about indemnity this morning! The only standard I strive towards is to be the champion of the indemnity course. When you come to a hill, you can say, &#8220;To climb this is good training&#8221; You can look at everything that way.</p>
<p>The best people in the Unification Church are often the ones most criticized. Likewise, the best work in the church is often considered undesirable because it is all indemnity. Those who have never despised the word indemnity, please raise your hands. The rest of you should apologize to the word &#8220;indemnity&#8221;! Will you do that today? If indemnity accepts your apology, it will become your foundation and your foothold. You have to understand clearly all the things that we are doing.</p>
<p>God loves the Unification Church and has great hope for it; mankind, too, will love the Unification Church; heaven and earth both cherish the Unification Church. The essence of what they esteem is indemnity. Because we know about indemnity and because we are putting it into practice, heaven and mankind will absolutely love the Unification Church. So you first have to become familiar with the term indemnity and learn to love it.</p>
<p>When you say, &#8220;Reverend Moon,&#8217; for instance, you are saying my name. The name is not the person himself, but represents the person. Likewise, the term &#8220;indemnity&#8221; is not indemnity itself, but just the label. But if you don&#8217;t like the name Reverend Moon, that means you don&#8217;t like the person either. If you don&#8217;t feel love for the term indemnity, you do not love indemnity itself. A person who dislikes a name usually dislikes anything attached to the entity it represents. People persecute you when they hear you are a Moonie, for example, because they don&#8217;t like Reverend Moon.</p>
<p>Our topic today is <em>&#8220;I Am the Center of the Whole.&#8221;</em> What is the center of America, or American people? Is it their vices? The person who most hates the vices of America and most desperately tries to stop evil and bring people to the side of goodness is the center of America. Likewise, the central person is the one who suffers the most. If you want to be the center of America, you should suffer the most for the sake of this country. Along the way, you will face all sorts of trials, perhaps even risking your life. The greatest of all sacrifices is that of one&#8217;s own life. He who offers his very life for the sake of this country has paid the greatest indemnity, because there is nothing more he can give; he has more scars than anyone. Thus, the center of this country will be the person who loves it at the risk of his life.</p>
<p>Within a family, whoever works the hardest and does the most difficult tasks will be the center of that family, even if he isn&#8217;t one of the parents. The father may have a lot of money, but if one of the children works the hardest and gives the most, he will be that family&#8217;s center. Can you disagree with that?</p>
<p>Do you white people agree with me and you black people disagree? No? Can black people become the center of America? Of course, they can. In general, who has suffered more-black Americans or white Americans? Then why aren&#8217;t the blacks the center now? Although they suffered, their suffering was not for the sake of America but for their own survival. So far, black Americans have not been able to tell white Americans, &#8220;I suffered and sacrificed for the sake of this country. Now I will serve you and teach you how to follow my path&#8221; No black person has gone to serve a white family with such a viewpoint. When a white family lives in a way that is detrimental to the country, there has never been a black person who came and told them to change for their own sake, as well as for the sake of the country. If black people had been able to do that, they would have been the center of America by now.</p>
<p>Black members of the Unification Church should resolve to use their membership not just for their own salvation but for the sake of America and even the whole world. If they serve the world more than white, Oriental, or Hispanic people, they will soon become the center of the entire world. The principle behind this is unchanging; God will see that it is carried out. If black people work so earnestly for the sake of the world but are still rebuffed by white people, God Himself will intervene and place them in the central position.</p>
<p>Which is more precious-you or the Unification Church? Think about it. Did you assemble and create the Unification Church, or was it already in existence when you joined it? To put it another way, should the Unification Church follow you, or should you follow it? Does God need the Unification Church, or does the church need God? This may seem a simple question and you laugh, but it is critical. The national church leaders have worked very hard for a long time. They must have wondered, &#8220;Am I leading the Unification Church, or should I be led by it?&#8221; How would you answer such a question? What about those of you who are national leaders? Does the national church lead you, or do you lead it?</p>
<p>Today&#8217;s topic is <em>&#8220;I Am the Center of the Whole,&#8221;</em> not <em>&#8220;We Are the Center of the Whole&#8221;</em> Which do you prefer- for the church to lead you or for you to lead the church? The individual leads the church, but who is the true leader? The one who suffers the most. Is it correct to say that? Can you leave out indemnity and still be a true leader? No, you must embody indemnity. At what stage is the Unification Church working-national or worldwide? You can answer with the right words, but do you actually feel that our stage is the world? When you are ready to go to bed, have you ever considered the people on the other side of the world who are just getting up and make a resolution not to be outdone by them?</p>
<p>The southern hemisphere basks in the warmth of summer while the northern hemisphere is shivering in its winter. The eastern hemisphere is bathed by daylight when the west is cloaked in darkness. We are surrounded by opposites. Can you say, &#8220;I like only the daytime, not the night&#8221;? If there were no night, how could we sleep peacefully? We need darkness to sleep. Do you understand?</p>
<p>Americans like cheeseburgers and hamburgers, while Koreans like kimchee and kochee chang with rice. You should be able to appreciate all kinds of food, not just that of one culture. There is nothing wrong with liking hamburgers but you should also learn to enjoy kimchee and kochee chang. Whatever you happen to be served-whether Eastern or Western food-you should be able to enjoy it.</p>
<p>A Western-centered person would say, &#8220;Since I have blue eyes, I want a wife with blue eyes, too&#8221; But the world-centered person would say, &#8220;Since I have blue eyes, I need a wife with brown eyes-in fact, a wife who is black&#8221; Blue eyes are like daylight and black eyes nighttime. Together they represent a complete day. People develop this sort of attitude within the Unification Church. Members ask for a spouse of a different race in order to become world-level people. Their relatives back home sense that something momentous is happening within their family.</p>
<p>Unification Church members are different. We work not merely for the sake of the country but for the whole world. Through such work you are becoming better people. In economic matters, we do not think in terms of a particular country, but of the world economy. For us there are no barriers of nationality. Ordinarily Japanese people, for instance, would not be willing to work in Africa for the sake of the world but Japanese professors will go to Africa to do difficult work there. In the future, the world will be preferred over any one country. That is the logical result of living the universal way.</p>
<p>I can visit and work anywhere because my efforts are for the sake of the world. What about you? Do you suppose I want you to remain in your own country or to travel all over the world and work in many places? You want me to be able to work anywhere in the world, don&#8217;t you? Where do you think I will go next?</p>
<p>I assemble members from around the world and ask them to work in different countries-not for the benefit of just that nation, but for the world. When our movement bought a factory, it wasn&#8217;t bought for the sake of the Unification Church but so our church members could work there for the sake of the world, suffering there and earning money for the world. If that money were used for my benefit or for some individual purpose, you could certainly complain but as long as the money is used for the sake of the world, you will not complain.</p>
<p>We are a unique species of people! If you are asked, &#8220;Which is your country?&#8221; you could say, &#8220;My country is the Heavenly Kingdom&#8221; Has a heavenly country actually been established on this earth yet? No, it hasn&#8217;t. Therefore, we are fighting for the independence of the Heavenly Kingdom-a kind of independence army. We should master all kinds of trades and activities so we will be able to do anything. If the enemy attacks us, we must be able to defend ourselves. When there are not enough men to comprise an army, what about women? Would you be willing to continue as a soldier in the independence army for your whole life?</p>
<p>I am the general of the independence army of heaven. That was my attitude in my struggle against the Carter Administration. Whatever country I visit, the leader of that country pays attention to me. When I spent three months in England, I waged a battle with the English government. In Japan I did the same thing. If the free world will accept and welcome me, together we can fight against international communism.</p>
<p>I received a report recently from a person who attended a high-level communist meeting. They discussed the Unification Church and they listed seven ways in which we pose a serious threat to them. The communists feel that they have to protect themselves against the Unification Church. I know communism better than anyone-the strategies they adopt, the way they fight, and so forth. When I talk to you, you learn these things from me. Would you like to be the true heroes of America? Suppose I asked you women to form a women&#8217;s army, the strongest one in the world; would you do it?</p>
<p>Suppose millions of people were to assemble to hear me speak. Should I talk for two or three hours? No, I would give a lightning-fast speech, for jut a minute or two. I would speak better than General MacArthur!</p>
<p>This army must stay invincible; therefore, you must train in every way. If you are not well-trained, you will get shot. The communist guerrilla forces in El Salvador are comprised of people from around the world: Asians, Cubans, black people, etc. Why can&#8217;t the entire free world assemble an army to resist them? Why isn&#8217;t Mr. Reagan appealing to the world and calling for volunteers to defend freedom in El Salvador? Why is he just trying to help El Salvador through the United States? Who in America wants to oppose communism? Only us. Are you confident enough to participate in an army against the communists?</p>
<p>We are the heavenly army yet we are a religious group, not a secular army. However, when the communists attack religious people and try to destroy the churches, should the believers just sit tight, pray to God. and die?</p>
<p>What about US congressmen and senators? Many of them seem to feel that church people should just sit back and let themselves be destroyed. But the Unification Church is different-we do not listen to such advice from anyone. When the communists actually launch a physical attack, we must be able to resist them. Is that wrong thinking? I am a religious leader, but if the time comes when religion is threatened and attacked, I will reach out to awaken leaders and people in all other fields. If they all fail, I will meet the challenge in their place. If the US Department of State or Department of Defense fails to act, then Americans themselves must rise up and accomplish their mission. Only in that way can America survive.</p>
<p>This should be the normal American way of thinking and religious people should be no exception. Is it wrong to think like that? In reality, we must be willing to fight for the sake of the world.</p>
<p>Wherever you go, you must be independent and confident. Even in an enemy country, you should be able to adapt and do well. Well-prepared people do not need to worry about what they may encounter. So you must understand that my thinking extends further into the future than yours, preparing for that eventuality. If you are not getting ready, it is unfortunate. Do you understand?</p>
<p>If we are an army, we will be the strongest one in the world, because in whatever we do, we should strive to excel. If you ever become a government official, you should be the most competent and most enthusiastic. If you are needed as an automobile driver, you should be the best driver; you should be capable of driving for 24 hours without tiring. Someday you may need to reach a certain place by a certain time and if you don&#8217;t make it, the world itself will be in jeopardy. You would have to be the kind of driver who can stay alert and reach the destination.</p>
<p>Perhaps in a very hot climate where people want just to sit around and sip cold drinks, we must go out and dig foxholes. Someday in a tropical zone we may need to fight against an enemy and dig trenches for protection. Once I went to hunt in the coldest part of Korea, taking many church members along, because I asked myself, &#8220;What if we face such a situation in the future?&#8221; If you have felt, &#8220;As religious people, we have to be soft,&#8217; you had better change your thinking quickly. We are the independence force.</p>
<p>God has no country He can call His own. If there were such a country, with the same sovereignty as America, who would go against Reverend Moon and the Unification Church? Since God has never had His own country, religions have been persecuted and good people pushed around. Now, at the finale of fallen history, we are organizing a strong and powerful independence army. You must understand this point.</p>
<p>God&#8217;s people have had to live like gypsies, moving from place to place with nowhere permanent to settle. Dr. Durst is a scholar but he must become a brand-new kind of scholar: one who can encompass and serve the entire world. The same applies to other national leaders. You should not limit yourselves by thinking you are simply a religious leader, because you are a different kind of religious leader. Now is not the time to settle down, either. Now is the time to man the front line, not to set up your own cozy home.</p>
<p>When General MacArthur retired at the age of 73, he said, &#8220;Old soldiers never die!&#8221; That is the kind of soldier&#8217;s spirit we need. Am I an old soldier or a young one? Most people think I look young, but I can show you my white hair.</p>
<p>Should you be weaker or stronger than 1? If someone wanted to evaluate the Unification Church, all he would have to examine is you young people. When you church members are filled with hope, they can say that the Unification Church has great prospects for the future. If they cannot see hope in you, they will conclude that the church will not amount to anything.</p>
<p>We must become the strongest soldiers and army ever formed. Therefore, I will have to train you. You will have to be better than George Washington&#8217;s troops who were fighting for the independence of America 200 years ago. There have been no other soldiers with a mission like yours. Our heavenly country must never be destroyed; therefore, we must be strong enough to preserve ourselves. That is why I have to train you under the most difficult circumstances, under conditions so impossible that everybody will criticize us. A general has to do that because when he gets old and retires somebody has to be able to follow in his steps. The general needs to be strong in order to ensure the survival of the country.</p>
<p>George Washington&#8217;s forces were predominantly white men but the heavenly independence force includes all colors of skin. It remains to be seen which of the five colors will produce the bravest soldiers.</p>
<p>It might be assumed that white soldiers need such things as cheese, pickles and Cokes and will work only eight hours a day. Perhaps they need eight hours of sleep before they can rise and fight again. But we are different; we are ready to fight at any time, 24 hours a day. We must be always advancing, never retreating. I want to see you women become generals, too, capable of supporting yourselves without depending upon anybody else. You must be able to confront anyone, including police chief, and negotiate with them, protesting against wrongs. Every one of you women should have that kind of spirit. I want to see a five-star woman general and salute her.</p>
<p>American people must change quickly. If you don&#8217;t change now, the communists will soon be able to overcome this so-called free country. Do you understand?</p>
<p>Many wars have been fought in history but this one will be the most complicated and unique one. Therefore, I resolved to train the members in the most difficult and unique way. If a regular army requires three years to attain a high standard, we must accomplish it in three months. That is how I think. In whose name will you train? Not in my name, but in the name of God and all humanity.</p>
<p>Is it bad to think that way? I can imagine that in the future people will say, &#8220;In Reverend Moon&#8217;s March 8 speech he said all kinds of things about training for the army. He certainly seems like a dictator. I told you so,&#8221; I am expecting such talk, but I must say what needs to be said. Even though I know that such remarks will probably stir up more controversy and make me more unpopular, how can I not say them when it is for the sake of God and humanity? However, I am also optimistic that those who hear about this speech will say, &#8220;Oh, Reverend Moon has said that kind of things so many times-so what?&#8221; It doesn&#8217;t matter what people are saying; while they are talking, we will prepare.</p>
<p>When we are fully trained, God will be able to trust us absolutely. Looking down at the world, God sees that although there are millions of Christians, His providence remains in jeopardy, and the communist forces are determined to destroy religion itself Would God want to see this enemy stopped by fighting? Would He rather have the American army or some Christian army fight them? Because this is a heavenly war, not a secular war, God prefers that religious people fight communism. If the religious people remain seated quietly, doing nothing, the communists will keep building their strength until one day they will attack us. Knowing that, how can you remain gentle and silent? You should certainly train harder than the communists do.</p>
<p>We are front-line soldiers in the fight against communism and the world knows that. This is why the communists consider the Unification Church and Reverend Moon such a serious threat. They are looking ahead when they recognize that danger. Meanwhile, the free world also calls me a threat but they do so out of short-sightedness and ignorance. If they knew why the communists oppose me, they would immediately realize that I am their best friend. The communists, quite simply, want to destroy the free world.</p>
<p>Why do I make you suffer so much, sometimes to the point of being ridiculous? There must be some reason. Men and women need a far-reaching way of thinking. You need to realize that you must build your own heavenly country here on earth and become its citizens before you go to the spirit world to rest. We need our country. Even if you must go without food or sleep, you can tolerate it when you consider the importance of our work. Something of far greater value awaits us.</p>
<p>The divisions between North and South Korea and between East and West Germany are symbolic of the world situation. A few years ago I predicted that when American morale slackened, the communists would attack in Central America, Mexico and even Canada, using guerrilla warfare-just as they did in Southeast Asia. When the American army withdrew from Vietnam, Americans thought, &#8220;Let the Vietnamese handle their situation now and we will take care of ourselves. We will be comfortable from now on&#8221; But things did not turn out that way. The Vietnamese could not take care of their situation. Now through El Salvador, the communists have come to the very doorstep of this country, using the same tactics. This time America must not retreat.</p>
<p>To achieve the goal, we need to connect with the Latin American countries, too. The United States should make friends within this region. North America and South America need to be united in order to contain the communist regimes in Central America, sandwiched between the two.</p>
<p>Many South American leaders have asked people from the Unification movement to come and teach their people anti-communism. In Uruguay we will help start a newspaper to guide people away from communism. Uruguay is an important country in South America, with a role similar to that of Switzerland in Europe. What do I have to do with this country? If I did not reach out in this way and train you to be strong soldiers, we could not accomplish our heavenly task.</p>
<p>The Soviets will soon make a big push to influence Western Europe. Therefore our movement has secured a big machine company in West Germany. West Germany&#8217;s situation is serious; East Germany wants control of the West German machine companies and heavy industry. Who else will protect West German industry? We are compelled to buy such a strategically-located company.</p>
<p>Even though I had been thinking about this for a long time, I could not speak of it publicly. Instigated by the communists, the world has been calling me a dictator and a militarist. But now the worst storm is over. The picture will become clearer and clearer as I explain what I am doing. Do you understand?</p>
<p>We are the independence force. In the course of leading a guerrilla group, the leader often gets arrested. This is why I have frequently been incarcerated in several countries. This will continue until we have our own heavenly country. Our life is constantly threatened because we lack the security of our own country. Under such circumstances, we have had to suffer so much, but finally we will become the actual center of the entire world. This is how I look at our situation.</p>
<p>As much as possible, we will accomplish our task through shedding our tears, sweat and blood-not by arms. Therefore, we must suffer. To shoot somebody is a simple method of dealing with him. How much more difficult it is to shed tears, sweat and blood for others! But that is our challenge.</p>
<p>As I look at each face here I feel a momentary happiness; but I immediately wonder, &#8220;When will he run away? How long will she stay? If the enemy were firing shells and bullets at us, would he or she remain and continue marching forward?&#8221;</p>
<p>How to guide the country in a rightful manner is the focus of much of my thoughts. The real question is not how to combat America&#8217;s evils, but how to educate this nation. This is my immediate task. Whenever a war is fought and won, the victors must educate the conquered. By the same token, if we can educate our opponent now and do it well, we can avoid a war.</p>
<p>You are being trained according to the highest standard of history. Thus the world considers this church formidable and fearful. I welcome such a reaction. We are strong, but we are also intelligent. This is our source of pride and our hope for success. Such a strong army will continue to prosper and will develop in every area. As long as our goal remains unaccomplished, our activities must continue.</p>
<p>Where would you like to get married, raise children, and live a happy life: as citizens of the heavenly home country, or as nomads in different lands? The United States offers the best setting for accomplishing our goal; it is the prepared nation in that respect. Many American citizens are descendants of Abel-type people who were chased out of Europe for their religious beliefs. How nice for you to be centrally trained here in America!</p>
<p>Those of you from other countries will always be welcomed back when you return home. You will become the Abel figures in your home countries, with the responsibility to love the Cains there. When Cain comes to understand and love Abel in your homeland, won&#8217;t that become a heavenly country?</p>
<p>Every nation is represented here in the United States. Blacks and whites live side by side, whether they like it or not. This is a melting pot arranged by God. The true natives of America are the Indians. The name &#8220;Indian&#8221; signifies Oriental. The American Indians are cousins of Asian Orientals, so I came like a cousin to this country; but the white people have opposed me. If my American cousins stand against me, they will come to regret it. In the past, the whites destroyed many Indians, and they may be forced to shed their own blood in recompense. If you really think about it, the whites plundered this nation and killed the people of Oriental ancestry. Even now, a good many Indians feel that way.</p>
<p>I came to this country to make peace and resolve the racial problems once and for all. In the course of my work, I have been persecuted by the government. If that is not rectified, the United States will fall prey to communism. Any administration who persecutes me is making a big mistake. If Richard Nixon bad listened to my words and followed my advice, America would not have gone through all this recent turmoil. I also wrote an encouraging letter to President Reagan and told him, &#8220;Be strong and bold. Then God will be with you. If you do not, you will encounter extreme difficulties in accomplishing your work&#8221;</p>
<p>The communists have never lowered their goals or abandoned their strategies. Soon you will see demonstrations against Mr. Reagan and his new administration worldwide and even in this country. They will all be encouraged by communists.</p>
<p>Just a few days ago, <i>The News World </i>began a serious barrage against <i>The New York Times.</i> You may have thought we used rather strong language in accusing <i>The New York Times</i> of actually helping communism, but that is really their weakness. Those on their staff and their board of directors who are sympathetic to communism will be very sensitive to our attack. <i>The New York Times</i> has enjoyed the giant&#8217;s position for a long time. Nobody dared to speak out against them-or if they did, it made no difference.</p>
<p>Although I am a religious leader, I am also a spiritual warrior. You are following a fighter, so you will never see the day when we shall all live in a comfortable, easygoing way. Why don&#8217;t you just pack up and leave? You answer &#8220;No,&#8217; but that can also be spelled &#8220;know&#8221; Do you know the truth? Does that mean you are here to stay-forever?</p>
<p>Why do you think I pound on the heads of brothers here on the front row? I am always thinking about how to avoid a physical war, how to go over the hill and accomplish God&#8217;s will and build His country.</p>
<p>For many days now I have been very serious, and all of spirit world has been focused on my concerns. The spirit world is going out of their way to help our fundraising members who have the same standard of seriousness. Spirit world can work on somebody with large financial assets and motivate him to make a substantial donation. Suppose people formed a committee to stop Reverend Moon, but could they take me to court for what spirit world does to motivate people to make donations?</p>
<p>Nobody becomes the center of the whole by having money. Only through paying indemnity, through caring for others and living with more indemnity will we become the center of the whole. Do you understand? The more one suffers for the sake of God, the closer he will be to the center of God&#8217;s world. The hardest worker in the company will become its center.</p>
<p>Then are you working and suffering now for your sake, or for the sake of America? As long as you are truly working for America, and as long as Americans survive in this land, you can continue to work without complaint, even though it may take longer than you anticipated. There are many areas in which you can help people.</p>
<p>If our suffering is for the sake of the world, can we protest that it is too much? As long as work remains to be done, you cannot say it is too much and then quit. The only valid complaint is that 24 hours are not enough time to do everything you need to accomplish in a day. You do not achieve restoration by indemnity if you work out of duty or because somebody forces you. Only through joyful and willing efforts can you establish an indemnity condition. If I were standing behind you, pushing you on, it wouldn&#8217;t fulfill the condition. At some point, you need to become autonomous and work on your own; then you are paying true indemnity.</p>
<p>If you want to be the world&#8217;s best husband, you must be willing to love the world&#8217;s ugliest woman and be the best husband to her. That is the best short-cut to becoming a superior husband. If you have a demanding wife who gives you difficulties and makes you work hard, she will eventually acknowledge that you are the best husband in the world because of all the things you did for her. If your wife isn&#8217;t so demanding, it will take an indefinite time for you to become the world&#8217;s best husband. So the quickest way to that goal is to marry the world&#8217;s worst wife and make her the world&#8217;s best wife!</p>
<p>The same principle applies to other relationships. Why love people who abuse and persecute you? When you treat the worst person with love and help him to become the best person, you become a world champion. That is the shortest path to becoming a success in life. Whoever perseveres through the most difficult trials with a willing and grateful heart, happy to do something for the ultimate goal, will be the truly successful person.</p>
<p>Members enter the Unification Church on their own free will, yet their parents often accuse me of forcing their children to join. I love and care about those persecuting parents and want to help them become our members&#8217; best supporters. That will be the shortest cut to my becoming the champion religious leader. Do you think this is true, according to the Principle?</p>
<p>God thinks this way, too. He wants to be able to certify you as the greatest champions of the world in the shortest possible time. He wants to do it in 10 years, not prolong the process for 20, 40, or 60 years. This is why He pushes you through such intense suffering.</p>
<p>I promised God to accomplish the task within the next 20 years. I asked Him to give me every difficulty that I ought to encounter. &#8220;Dump it all on me!&#8221; I asked Him. I never complained that the load was too heavy or asked Him to spread it out over 30 years.</p>
<p>Without bothering to research the facts, the American news media and the American public immediately pounced on me. They did so because the spirit world pushed them to. Thus God could award me my diploma as fast as possible. Any evil person or activity that the world attacks usually diminishes, but when I was pounced upon, I just grew bigger and bigger! That is also the work of God and that is exactly the method I want to use on you.</p>
<p>God has a smart strategy! By making you suffer, He raises you up to be great people. Also, you can go through this path but Satan never can. Satan wants to persecute you but he can&#8217;t accept persecution himself. Everyone may oppose me but if there is no fault within me, my persecutors will be the losers in the end. Eventually, the world will be able to see the truth clearly. Rich and poor alike will admit their error and want to repay me for having persecuted me. If Mr. Rockefeller felt that way, I would tell him to use his money for the sake of the world. What would he reply? Even he would say yes.</p>
<p>These are not just words; the spirit world has been working very actively. Whoever treats you unjustly and persecutes you now will weep and repent later.</p>
<p>Through indemnity you can bring the whole world under God. For whom was the world created? For human beings, for men and women. Who is the center of womanhood? She who suffers the most for the sake of the whole. Each of you wants to become an outstanding woman, don&#8217;t you? Nobody wants to be mediocre; you naturally want to excel. But to want to be the best without making any changes or investing much effort is to have the mind of a thief. To become a superior woman, you need to work harder, serve more, and be kinder than others; that way you will work out more indemnity. Is that easy? No. In fact, you have to pass through much indemnity in order to qualify as the best woman. Do you understand?</p>
<p>To desire to excel is good, but then you must do what is necessary to achieve that desire. The formula for becoming the best woman is to do something no other woman can do. Once you do that, you can hope to become the best. It is impossible to attain that distinction without going through such a course. Furthermore, you will have to embody the men&#8217;s standard for a superior woman, not just the women&#8217;s standard. The men&#8217;s standard may be more difficult but when you accomplish it, all men will testify that you are the best woman. So men, not other women, are the judges of the most outstanding woman.</p>
<p>To become the best person requires accomplishing all the most difficult tasks. To desire the best position without fulfilling that requirement is wrong. Of all the multitudes in spirit world, do you think most people suffered a lot on earth or had a relatively easy life? The majority suffered. To become the center of the whole includes becoming the center of the spirit world. How can you become the center of the people in spirit world if you have endured less than they have? Do you think suffering on earth will continue? How will you be able to console the people who arrive in the spirit world in the future if you haven&#8217;t endured as much as they have? Unless you suffer and overcome, you cannot teach them about happiness.</p>
<p>God has suffered far more than any human being; otherwise, He would not be qualified to teach suffering people. Parents can educate their children and the children listen because parents have endured more. The teacher who has experienced and suffered a lot is a better-qualified instructor. If a student has endured more suffering than the teacher, the teacher does not know how to guide him. Do you understand?</p>
<p>The world of creation exists for human beings, and it is pleading with us to be used for a good purpose. Even the fallen world will say, &#8220;Please apply the law of indemnity and use me through it&#8221; Indemnity is necessary everywhere. We must understand clearly what we are living for. The direction in which we are headed is the path of greater indemnity for the sake of the world. This is the path that leads directly to the center of the whole. This is our daily direction. Wherever we go-whether a family, a company, a nation or the world-we must show the example. Our task is to overcome the indemnity on all those levels. Do you understand?</p>
<p>Eventually all the barriers that separate people and all the causes of persecution will crumble. But every time we demolish a wall in order to reach the center, we must suffer. Eventually people will no longer persecute you because they will realize that the law is on your side. Satan understands this and is smart; he will stop opposing you when he sees it is futile. After completing that indemnity, you will go to the center and be able to settle down permanently. If you do not make it all the way to the world level, you will be like a swimmer approaching the shore but unable to climb completely out of the water. You will not reach the connecting point with the spirit world and you will be unable to go to Heaven.</p>
<p>The Unification Church is like a speedboat which will shoot us through the water straight towards our destination. We need a fast boat because we have to go from one end of the world to the other; the whole world is our arena. We need a powerful engine in our relatively small boat because we have to be able to cut through the swiftest currents without being swamped.</p>
<p>Each of you as well needs a powerful internal engine. Eventually, you will become perfectly strong and swift but until then, you have to pay indemnity. Wherever you go you need confidence that you can survive. To endure alone, huddled in a corner is not enough; you should be a happy survivor, surrounded by other people. When you are joyful, heaven and earth are joyful because you are the center of the whole. That is the way I live each day.</p>
<p>We may be going through storms and blizzards now, but they will not last forever. We will surely see a bright and beautiful day. Until that day comes, I am resolved to do my work and not worry. Only he who has endured the fiercest storms can truly appreciate the peaceful sunshine. Those who have enjoyed fair weather all their lives cannot deeply appreciate a beautiful day. For them, one day is the same as another.</p>
<p>When you go to the spirit world and settle there, you will be able to feel true happiness. Because you suffered so much in the past, you will appreciate the value of everything. That is the kind of person I want to train you to be.</p>
<p>Wherever I go, I try to become one with the people. If I am among fishermen, I want to become a good fisherman; when I go to a factory, I want to become a skilled worker. I don&#8217;t consider myself above the workers just because I am a leader. You need to experience all areas of life.</p>
<p>If you put on nice clothes, you may act like a president or king but if the people are unhappy, you cannot be at Peace. When everybody is contented, you can put on royal robes and rejoice as well. Our task is to make others happy. We are devoting ourselves to this goal.</p>
<p>It is for the world that we are paying indemnity, not just for our own benefit. Whatever has bothered you and whatever you hated doing you took as indemnity, didn&#8217;t you? But once you deeply understand the truth of indemnity, you realize how precious it is. Regardless of how much you may suffer, indemnity will demand &#8220;More, more!&#8221; It will even kick you and push to you greater heights. Why does the law of indemnity operate like that, and why do I encourage you to live this way? It is so that one day you can become the center of the whole. This is my sole motivation.</p>
<p>Would you like to be the center of whole? Your answer is clear. God knows it well. I know it well. Thank you very much. God bless you.</p>
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<a href="/blog/2018/06/20/our-standard.html" title="Permalink to OUR STANDARD" rel="bookmark">OUR STANDARD</a>
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&nbsp; <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="2018-06-20T14:45:11+01:00"> <a href="/blog/2018/06/20/our-standard.html" rel="bookmark">June 20, 2018</a> </time></span><time class="updated" datetime="2018-06-20T14:45:11+01:00">June 20, 2018</time> <span class="bl_categ"> <a href="/speeches/categories/rev-sun-myung-moon-1981.html" rel="tag">Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1981</a> </span> </div><!-- .entry-meta -->
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<h2 align="CENTER">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
<h3 align="CENTER">March 1, 1981<br />
Belvedere<br />
Translator &#8211; Bo Hi Pak</h3>
<h4 align="CENTER">Copyright © 1981 by Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity</h4>
<p>When we narrow down &#8220;our standard,&#8221; it becomes &#8220;my standard.&#8221; When we broaden it, it becomes the &#8220;world standard.&#8221; Where do we find our standard-the present, the past, or the future? What should be the central factor in setting up this standard? Money, knowledge or power? Or a person? But there are all kinds of people.</p>
<p>We may say the standard should be based on the mind, but the mind also varies, sometimes being beautiful and other times ugly. Should the standard be based on a school record, or on religion, or on God? In thinking about all this, we have to determine what has value for our lives. In Korean the word for treasure means literally &#8220;material treasure.&#8221; In talking about value we often are referring to material value; usually a treasure is based on material value.</p>
<p>How can we determine a standard of value? First of all, something of value should last a long time, being eternal, unique, and unchanging. Gold, for instance, has unique character, and is not easily changed. These are the qualities of value for material things. Why do people talk about material treasure, but not about a person as a treasure? A person&#8217;s labor is often sold for $3.50 an hour. How cheap a man is!</p>
<p>If we ask why treasure is spoken of as &#8220;treasure material&#8221; but not as &#8220;treasure people&#8221; then we have arrived at a great question. Why haven&#8217;t people been regarded as treasure? Which does the world like better? People may kill other people to obtain material treasure or territory. This is a real problem today. How many of you think you are less valuable than gold?</p>
<p>A pearl has a harmonized color which is beautiful. Gold and pearls are very soft, while diamonds are very hard. Would you exchange your loved one for gold? Would you give up your loved one&#8217;s little finger for an equal amount of diamonds? Doesn&#8217;t it sound like a good deal? If you were offered a diamond as big as your wife or husband, would you trade? Does that mean that men and women are more valuable than gems?</p>
<p>What do you women have that makes you more valuable than diamonds? Is it your sparkling eyes and soft skin? Or are you precious because women eat less than men and cost less to feed? Do you have these three qualities of value? Men and women change; maybe you would be valuable when you were young and lovely, but what about when you are old? Why do you tend to like a warm, embracing person more than one who is aloof and distant? When the weather is warm, people relax, but when the air is cold you automatically try to protect yourself. Warm weather makes people more expansive and relaxed.</p>
<p>Do your favorite things change or not? People are changeable, and particularly women! Changeable women are less liked than more stable women, right? Is that true for men also? The three qualities of value apply to people as well as to material things, so we can say that a changeable person has no everlasting value or uniqueness. We know that man has the two aspects of mind and body; which changes more? More specifically, does your conscience change more than your physical desires? People who advocate the theory of evolution say that there is not much difference between the basic makeup of men and animals. What they are saying is that the desires of the mind are illusory, and therefore, that there is no such thing as an absolute standard of conscience. In other words, they feel we are only made of material, and that there is no such thing as a permanent ideal. If we are only animals then we are no better than any animal, and there is no room for a permanent standard. Therefore, no permanent quality of value can exist.</p>
<p>If man is really descended from monkeys then man is also only an animal. Do monkeys have moral standards or ethics? There is no such thing as keeping one&#8217;s purity in the monkey world. But man, who seems to be more advanced culturally seems to be becoming more like the monkeys today because men and women all have sex casually with each other.</p>
<p>Moralists today seem to be losing the debate with the evolutionists because they cannot show how men are really different from animals. In order to distinguish men from animals, we would have to create even an imaginary God who could be the embodiment of some absolute standard; otherwise we would have no way to win this battle. God has been neglected by mankind throughout history, but now we have reached a deadlock; without an absolute standard mankind cannot survive.</p>
<p>Power prevails in the animal world, with stronger animals attacking weaker ones. Is that natural in the human world? Do we naturally need some power to protect ourselves? Certainly human conduct needs some moral standards, and to determine those standards we need a fountain; should that be formed by the body or the conscience? The moral quality has to be pursuing some intangible value, such as justice and honesty. The mind works by combining intelligence, heart and will power. Human value must be based on conscience, which should have everlasting qualities, being eternal, unchanging and unique. At the same time, everyone should like and agree on the value of the conscience. The conscience should be needed morning and night, every moment of our lives. That&#8217;s the kind of standard we have to come up with.</p>
<p>The quality that defines a &#8220;treasure person&#8221; comes from his conscience and mind, which should be unchanging, eternal and unique. In the Orient, when a person is bad we say he has a bad mind; we never say his body is bad. When you value a person, you value his mind, not his appearance, saying his state of mind or thinking is good. In criminal law, the most important factor is what motivated someone to commit a crime, and motive is intangible. Motivation comes from the mind, and the body reacts to that.</p>
<p>When I asked you whether the mind or body was more changeable, you couldn&#8217;t answer. Is the conscience pursuing good or evil things? The answer will be the same 1,000 years from now. If I ask people from 10,000 years ago, their answer will be the same. That means the conscience has an unchanging quality, and thus we say that the conscience must be the base of value. Now we can say that man&#8217;s unique value comes from his conscience.</p>
<p>Why is it that we appreciate the three qualities of value in material things? There must be some corresponding intangible aspect of man which also includes those qualities. We appreciate certain things because we have those qualities within ourselves; that reciprocal relationship is the key for determining value. We can see this same principle in the relationship between God and man.</p>
<p>We are not the universal subject, so we cherish these qualities of value because there is a first cause who initiated this; we are merely in a corresponding position. Evolution tries to deny the power of conscience by saying it is only the product of material. Evolutionists don&#8217;t accept the idea of a first cause, or God. They say conscience is merely animal instinct which evolved a little higher. Do you feel good to hear that you are merely descendants of monkeys?</p>
<p>Evolutionists have no solutions for human problems today. To distinguish ourselves from the animal world we need to have God; if there is no real God then we must make an imaginary one. Otherwise, there is no solution. For the last ten years I have been spending an incredible amount of money inviting the world&#8217;s leading scholars to come and think about absolute value, but they don&#8217;t even want to think about it. Everyone wants to deny there is absolute value, saying there is only relative value; they keep saying they are tired of hearing about absolute value. They are asking me to change the subject of the conference, but I have refused.</p>
<p>I know that, no matter how great these academics are, they cannot find absolute value because it can&#8217;t be observed in a laboratory or test tube. They are trying to determine things through their physical senses, and they will not recognize anything that doesn&#8217;t come that way. But the physical senses cannot perceive spiritual reality, or anything beyond the material world, like God. There is no way you can reach conclusions about value and conscience through the analytic method. You have to employ one more sense to perceive the complete reality of the universe.</p>
<p>Today&#8217;s scientific world is confused about what is reality. Thinkers say we have to conquer reality in order to advance, but here is the confusion-what is reality? Religiously and philosophically there is confusion, and we have to clarify this confusion by setting the standard. We need philosophy and religion, but what do &#8220;I&#8221; need most of all? An active conscience. To determine true reality, we have to restore our consciences to be true ones. Have people in history every lived with true consciences? The common desire of all men has always been to live with true conscience, but how can this be realized?</p>
<p>One important quality in a moral code is filial piety. We value this, but what is it, and why should we exercise it? Filial piety is loyalty to the unchanging value of the family. The son of filial piety pursues the principle of serving his parents and brothers and sisters even if they do not reciprocate. Conscience dictates that this is the right thing to do. But if you do not recognize the value of conscience, you will not recognize the value of filial piety; you have to have some starting point. Conscience values your parents&#8217; welfare more than your own.</p>
<p>On a large scale, a patriot follows the dictates of his conscience by serving his country and caring about its welfare. Again, the common ground is that the conscience dictates the benefit of something higher than yourself. The conscience does not care only for the self first, but pursues something of higher value.</p>
<p>What is a saint, or holy man? He follows the same principle, but obeys his conscience in acting for the sake of mankind, and he recognizes the subject of all-God. In history holy men have always been religious leaders.</p>
<p>Today, materialistic communists say that awareness, or consciousness, is merely a by-product of the material world. So where can they find a moral code? No place. Communism is destructive because that philosophy is based on materialism, and recognizes consciousness only as a by-product. There is no room for a &#8220;treasure person&#8221; in communism. Because communists don&#8217;t recognize the spiritual element, life is expendable in their political system, and they freely sacrifice people&#8217;s lives to attain material. There is no everlasting moral standard in the communist world.</p>
<p>Which is first-consciousness or existence? How do we determine that consciousness came first? An eye is material, of course, whether in man or some animal. Would the first eye know that it would encounter dust, or sunlight? Whoever designed the eye must have had an understanding of all these phenomena. Without knowing there would be light, how could the eye have been designed as it is? If anyone tries to say that the eye came about at random, you can show him his mistake. Is it a random event that the eye has tear ducts to keep the eye clean and moist? It is logical that long before the eye came into being a universal consciousness realized the circumstances and designed the eye accordingly. So we can say that consciousness came first.</p>
<p>In school, many of my acquaintances were communists and we discussed dialectical materialism, so I gave them this example and challenged them to answer me. If the eye came first and created the sun and dust and temperature, then their thinking might be correct, but otherwise their theory must die out. Finally those communists just gave up in confusion, and one of the honest ones admitted that there must be a universal consciousness.</p>
<p>I don&#8217;t deny the process of evolution in development, but I am saying that there is a creative process going on behind it. In the theory of evolution there are sudden occurrences called mutations, in which something new comes from its parent body. But we have to say that there must have been some energy or willpower that authorized that occurrence. Could evolution itself create a new awareness and make a new design? Absolutely not.</p>
<p>There must be something outside evolution that can supply creative energy. It is true that development occurred between the lowest and the highest stages, but it did not happen automatically. Each stage was the result of a design and input of additional energy. Evolutionists don&#8217;t want to recognize that. When they recognize that creative energy was put in, then they have to acknowledge a universal consciousness that provided the know-how. When you talk about man&#8217;s conscience then you have to recognize a universal truth that ties into it. Thus, you have to recognize God.</p>
<p>Does conscience also evolve? Communists want to say so. Unless you recognize the unchanging quality of conscience within yourself, it is contradictory to look for unchanging and unique characteristics within gold, gems and pearls. Unless you have that quality in yourself, you have no reason to seek it elsewhere. You appreciate precious things because you have in yourself the qualities of those things. You cannot compare two things unless you have the capacity to appreciate both.</p>
<p>A constitution is the base of all laws of a nation and it is used as a yardstick for determining what is good and evil. When you make a judgment, you are doing so based on a standard which is within yourself. If you are a person without principles and then you say that something is good or bad, your judgment has no value. Random judgments are based on self-centeredness: a true judgment can only come from a basic law or principle within yourself. It is the mind which has unchanging qualities, while the body always changes. The mind should have a permanent foundation.</p>
<p>The body will follow the direction dictated by your five senses, and they are always changing direction. If your eyes see a lovely flower, your body will walk over to it, for instance. But your mind is not bound by the five senses; it can refuse to obey, and give other directions to your body instead. The mind is trying to bring the body to the place where all the senses can be contented. If the mind favored only the eyes then the other four senses would complain; the mind thinks of all five senses.</p>
<p>The mind decides how to respond to the desires of each sense, but the mind can only make these decisions based on some principle. Actually we can thank God that we have a conscience as a command post for the body. Before now you only felt it bothered you and limited your activities, but after listening to me this morning you can thank your conscience.</p>
<p>The American way of life is pragmatic, so Americans look for comfortable and convenient things in life. To people who want to go to the disco or enjoy sex, the conscience seems to be an obstacle. When your body eats, it wants delicious food, and prefers to have delicious pleasures always. Why does the conscience put the brake on what the body desires? Habits and customs are hard to change, no matter how logical it is to I change them. Addiction to drugs and alcohol, which poison the body, are hard to cure, but how can you cure the sex addiction? Have you ever thought about that?</p>
<p>We have to base our lives on a firm foundation of principle; if we don&#8217;t have that then we have to create one. Without standards or principles, we will see only destruction around us. If no principles bind parents and children or husband and wife, the family will fall apart. The mind wants a principled life, but the body pursues all kinds of addictions. The friction caused by that contradiction is a terrible burden. People feel sorry for a mentally ill person, but once a person&#8217;s mind or conscience becomes sick, it is even harder to restore. Religion deals with that world.</p>
<p>A grasshopper doesn&#8217;t plan for the winter, but enjoys the warm weather and thinks he has a sweet life. Spring and summer always come to an end, however. The important point is that we must arrive at a standard of law and principle which is followed by everyone in our homes, society, nation and world. Such a standard should be based in your conscience. That standard should be acceptable to everyone and still be unchanging, eternal and unique. We conclude that the conscience provides such a standard.</p>
<p>Everyone likes material treasure, but would material things like just anyone? If treasure could speak, it would say that it likes anyone who has a higher standard than it does. You feel this is true because you yourself are like that. You like something that is higher and nobler than yourself. So also do material things.</p>
<p>A diamond likes someone who is harder, and shines more brightly than it does. Gold with its deep color represents peace, and wants to be loved by someone more deeply golden and peace loving than itself. A pearl will respect and love someone with a more harmonious color than itself. Would a diamond like some unworthy person who just grabbed it, or would it prefer to be possessed by someone with a moral ethic? A diamond has a preference, and would like to resist the thief who reaches out to snatch it. If a diamond has consciousness then this should be the case. That&#8217;s how we would react.</p>
<p>One person never thinks about whether he is worthy to possess the diamond, while the better person considers whether he is really entitled to it. If you have this nature, then even the diamond would have that inclination. This is elementary, but necessary education. America&#8217;s problem is that it doesn&#8217;t really know the power and existence of the world of conscience.</p>
<p>How large is the conscience? There are four billion people in the world today, so there are four billion different kinds of conscience. If we include people in the spirit world then there are billions more. Is there room for still more? It is difficult to conceive how there could be no time or space, so I&#8217;ll give you an example.</p>
<p>If one day you do the work of ten, will your conscience say the next day, &#8220;Just do the work of nine&#8221;? There is no such conscience. Instead, it will tell you to do even more work next time. If you give ten people ten dollars, will your conscience permit you to give nine people ten dollars the next day and keep ten for yourself? No; it will tell you to give money to eleven people instead. The conscience is never fully satisfied.</p>
<p>Even if you contained the whole planet earth in your conscience, it would still want to reach out farther and possess the whole galaxy. Even if it had the whole universe, it would still want to have God. Your journey wouldn&#8217;t end until you owned the heart of God and had His love. That&#8217;s how the conscience works. Trying to set a standard for this extraordinary kind of conscience is not easy. Who made the conscience so big? God did if He had nothing to put into it then He would run away. He is responsible, after all.</p>
<p>What does God have that can fill the conscience? God knows you like diamonds. If God is almighty then would He be satisfied to make a lot of diamonds to fill everyone&#8217;s conscience bag? Why not? God can make diamonds and gold, but there is something that God cannot control at will: that is true love, which is activated only in a reciprocal relationship with an object. Without an object, love cannot be activated.</p>
<p>If you have love, can you show it to me? Man&#8217;s love is activated only when he finds a partner; when you are sitting by yourself your love is not activated. God has been sitting all by</p>
<p>Himself, so can He enjoy His love, slapping His side and laughing? God has been lonely just like you would be. If He has even a small piece of chalk and can laugh with enjoyment at it, then it would make a little better sense. No matter how much potential love God has, by Himself God cannot feel its excitement. Always an object is needed to activate love through give and take. Is this true for women? With a man to relate to, the give and take vibration can begin; how about woman-to woman?</p>
<p>Even God needs an ideal object. Why did God create the whole universe? For the perfection of His object. God is gigantic, and He needs an equivalent object who can stand side-by-side with Him, so He created man with a conscience as big as God&#8217;s conscience. When man completely fills his conscience and he starts to laugh, then God can respond, and the whole universe will laugh together with them. That is God&#8217;s design.</p>
<p>Nothing else except love can fill that conscience, however. Love alone can excite God. In love God is an enormous plus and man is an enormous minus, and when they join a giant spark will flash. How much power would that generate? The entire universe will be jolted by the shock. God and men and women will all be totally intoxicated and melted by the power of that love. All the creation will be affected, from the one-celled amoeba to insects to the galaxies.</p>
<p>You might say, &#8220;We are here on earth and God is far away. How can we make a spark with God?&#8221; Is there any distance when we speak of electricity? God&#8217;s electricity travels faster than electricity that we know on earth. When God is totally happy and intoxicated in love then all mankind can respond that they too are happy, and then the entire creation will echo around the world, &#8220;We too are happy.&#8221;</p>
<p>I like the word &#8220;too.&#8221; The cross bar on the &#8220;t&#8221; represents the horizontal absolute; the vertical line represents you-you are a pillar of love. The &#8220;oo&#8221; means everything is OK. Americans say OK; the O means perfection, and K comes from &#8220;keep.&#8221; So OK means that you keep perfection, that everything is going well. You didn&#8217;t know I had a definition for this!</p>
<p>Conscience is OK, but it is centered on what? Life? That is good. On knowledge? That is nice too. On power? But these are not the central things. What is it that everyone likes and can participate in? One substance alone has that universal character-love. When the cornerstone of existence is conscience that is based on true love, or true love that is based on conscience, then everything will be in the right place. That is the standard. Would that be only a temporal standard? No, it would be eternal, unique and unchanging.</p>
<p>The essentiality of love is always the same, but the components are different from person to person, depending on where love appears. Each individual is a truth body with unique characteristics, but they all share a common essentiality in God. Thus, each individual contains unique love with a common essentiality, like the cells in a body. Each person is a cell of love. Each individual&#8217;s love has uniqueness which cannot be duplicated by anyone else, yet also it is unchanging and eternal.</p>
<p>If you have true universal love within you then you have become a standard man or woman of the universe. We come to the conclusion that we need the standard of conscience which is true love. With that alone can we digest the world and bring it into our consciences. We can even bring God in with invisible true love. As long as you have that true love, you can turn in any direction. That world of true love also transcends time and space.</p>
<p>With that standard of true love all five senses will cooperate instead of repelling each other, for they do so out of happiness, not duty. All five senses should function in the intoxication of love. Even if you use all kinds of uncomplimentary adjectives in describing someone, as long as you speak from love there is no disharmony between you. At any time of day, whether you are young or old, you welcome that love. What quality can create such a permanent interest and intoxication? Only true love.</p>
<p>This is not a daydream, but something real. I searched in all directions and in all philosophies, but I couldn&#8217;t find the answer there, so I had to find it on my own. I knew very well what path I had started on, so it didn&#8217;t matter how America or the government criticized me. I know myself better than our critics do, and I just go where I am destined to go. For that reason I can be bold and strong. Unless we have the standard of true love and conscience, we have no way to reach the true ideal world; we could not even glimpse that world without it. If there were no real, true love, we would have to make something up to take its place.</p>
<p>The Principle explains about the dual of God, how the subject and object create a circuit, and how the energy of that give and take can bring the perfection of creation. Everything has dual aspects of mind and body, and in order to be persons of conscience and true love, we must first unite mind and body. There are only two directions to go in-the heavenly way or the secular way. That means each person is in between heaven and earth. The mind is in the center, with the physical world on one side and the heavenly world on the other, so the mind is a buffer between the visible and invisible worlds.</p>
<p>Conscience and spirit are two different things, but conscience sometimes looks like spirit, and vice versa. The foremost part of conscience is spirit, but they are a continuation of each other. When you follow your conscience deeper and deeper, you inevitably make a deeper spiritual connection. When God visits, He will land in the foremost position of your conscience. Therefore, the only place to search for God is deep in your conscience.</p>
<p>Today many people seem to be psychic and have supernatural powers, but they don&#8217;t know the basic truth. In observing these phenomena, most people overlook the reasons behind them. Those who study psychic phenomena today don&#8217;t know why it happens. When you go all the way in pursuing the standard of conscience, you will connect with spirit world. Whenever you make some turn in spirit world, God is always in the position of axis.</p>
<p>Love is the central factor around which the whole thing will turn. Not only the spirit world but also the physical world is meant to turn centered on love. The body should be centered on love and harmonized with all things of creation. Love is the central factor which can harmonize all creation. Thus, when man becomes a being of love he is the supreme creation of God. Without that love man is no different from an animal or plant.</p>
<p>The center of the two worlds is the same love and same God, making a gigantic turn together. They are centered upon true love and upon you. Man can ask for nothing more; there is nothing greater or higher. At that point man is totally fulfilled; then your conscience is totally filled and you feel complete satisfaction and happiness. Then you can maneuver as a unique, everlasting and unchanging entity in the universe, on your eternal journey. Amen!</p>
<p>With this as a standard you have a goal to accomplish, and when you reach that universal goal you will shout out &#8220;Amen!&#8221; I am introducing you to the taste of true love, so even if the entire world comes against us, nothing can stop you once you taste that love. If people are even willing to die for their secular love affairs, how much more would people be willing to give everything for heavenly love? When someone pinches you, you say, &#8220;Ouch,&#8221; but when heavenly love hooks you, you say &#8220;Ouch love! &#8221; When you are traveling with the love of God, you can be accepted anywhere, even in Hell.</p>
<p>We are front-line soldiers in the war to restore true love to the world. There are all kinds of commotion when the world sees these flag bearers marching forward, and people accuse me of taking their children or their husbands or wives. People around the world have accused me of being a love thief.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our standard&#8221; is true love and conscience. &#8220;My standard&#8221; is also true love and conscience. In order to make it the &#8220;world standard&#8221; we have to give to the world by serving all mankind-eating, fund raising, witnessing, marrying and having children-everything for the sake of the world. We want to reach the nation and world quickly in order to achieve the standard of God.</p>
<p>In centering upon this standard, everything-whether family, nation, world or universe-is consummated by following the one goal. This is the beauty of it. This is truly a supreme ideology. Can you find any other preacher teaching this love? I am not just speaking about it, but living it, and you too can become</p>
<p>deeper and deeper. When your spiritual state nears mine, then I will appear in your dreams and give revelations. It is the law of love that when you pursue this goal, God will definitely intervene in your life. This is our permanent, supreme standard. It has been victorious in the past, will conquer the present, and will be victorious in the future. It will bring permanent: eternal happiness. That is the goal. Have you lived that way?</p>
<p>Totally empty yourself and be filled with this new command. When you listen to the voice of your mind, tears of joy and liberation will overflow. At that moment you will feel that universal love has touched you. Just as you like to touch beautiful flowers or butterflies, when you become lovable the universal love will want to touch you. When you are united with that love, you can give it to all things.</p>
<p>When I teach you here at Belvedere, I am always thinking that I speak to you so that you can reach the same goal. My fervent desire in teaching you is for you to become intoxicated in that deep love also. When I am away you feel that Belvedere is empty, but when I walk in, the room feels full. Why is that? It is because I am a messenger of this love. Your privilege is to come and be ignited. It is completely possible. You want to be sons and daughters of the True Parents, becoming children of true filial piety, then true patriots, and then true saints.</p>
<p>I view the family as formation stage, the nation as growth stage, and the world as perfection stage. In order to be accepted by the heavenly world it is not good enough to be only a child of filial piety or a patriot. You must be a saint, a child of God. Religious leaders have taught various moral codes, but they have not dwelt on love. But I am teaching sainthood based on love, and teaching a way to achieve it. This is the first such group in the world.</p>
<p>We are known, therefore, as the love race. In that race all five colors of skin are assembled. We live together and feel as close to other races as we do to our own race. Your brothers and sisters are like your clothes. When you are with black people, you can feel you are wearing a tuxedo. When you are with white people you can feel you have white clothes, and with yellow people as though you wear spring flowers.</p>
<p>In order for a white object to stand out, it must be placed against a dark background, so we can say that its brilliance and value comes from the background. If whites don&#8217;t like black people, then they shouldn&#8217;t wear black clothes. In our world we transcend these race problems and we want to marry interracially to create greater beauty. We want to live with that standard forever. Whoever wants to live that standard, raise your hand.</p>
<p>God bless you.</p>
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<a href="/blog/2018/06/20/the-two-worlds-of-good-and-evil.html" title="Permalink to THE TWO WORLDS OF GOOD AND EVIL" rel="bookmark">THE TWO WORLDS OF GOOD AND EVIL</a>
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&nbsp; <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="2018-06-20T14:44:38+01:00"> <a href="/blog/2018/06/20/the-two-worlds-of-good-and-evil.html" rel="bookmark">June 20, 2018</a> </time></span><time class="updated" datetime="2018-06-20T14:44:38+01:00">June 20, 2018</time> <span class="bl_categ"> <a href="/speeches/categories/rev-sun-myung-moon-1981.html" rel="tag">Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1981</a> </span> </div><!-- .entry-meta -->
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<h2 align="CENTER">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
<h3 align="CENTER">February 15, 1981<br />
Belvedere International Training Center<br />
Tarrytown, New York<br />
Translator &#8211; Bo Hi Pak</h3>
<h4 align="CENTER">Copyright © 1981 by Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity</h4>
<p>If I said that you were all very evil, you would be upset and hurt. On the other hand, if I said that you were all good people, you would feel happy. The problem lies in knowing what is a genuine definition and boundary of good and evil in the world. Everything can be divided into good and evil; for example. there can be good eyes and bad eyes, good mouths and bad mouths, good hands and bad hands. There are good homes and bad homes, good policies and bad policies, good food and bad food. There are good countries and bad countries, good men and bad men, good ideology and bad ideology.</p>
<p>We conclude that if you want to become a good man then you have to deal with nothing but goodness: you have to have good eyes and ears, good food and good thinking. If you deal with evil or bad things in any way. the consequences will be evil. If you have a big, beautiful, seemingly perfect apple, but it has a small rotten spot somewhere. it will still be classified as a bad apple. One rotten spot spoils the whole thing, so that the apple cannot be totally good. Anything that is not good is bad. Then what is the definition of good? Goodness is liked and aspired to by everyone.</p>
<p>Many people who drink a lot will ask, &#8220;what&#8217;s wrong with liquor&#8217;?&#8221; But the general consensus is that hard drinking is not good. Eating food in the right amount serves a good purpose, but overeating will hurt you. From what standpoint can you evaluate which members of a family are good&#8217;? Again, we have to come up with a principle defining the boundary between good and evil.</p>
<p>Where do good and evil begin? There are two schools of thought in our world today, one which says that men are fundamentally good. and the other which says that men are basically evil. What, then, is the origin of goodness&#8217;? First, goodness is something perfect. In the human body, all the organs and limbs have to be perfect. Suppose you are perfect physically, except that you have a minor deficiency in the brain. Compare that to a man who has a perfect brain, but whose body is abnormal; which is perfect? In order to be perfect, your brain, limbs and appearance must all be complete.</p>
<p>Perfection must come both internally and externally; also, your relationships with the surroundings must be harmonious. The complementary relationships of internal and external, self and surroundings, must all be perfect. When we speak of a world of goodness, we envision that in such a world everything else also starts to turn at various angles and speeds, but they are all harmonized in working for a common purpose. That is perfection. The electric power that runs the motor will bring all the machinery into harmony.</p>
<p>What is the basis for differentiating between the world of good and world of evil? Does it begin with two different people or with the division of one person into two parts? There are men and there are women, but each person also has an internal part and an external part.</p>
<p>A central characteristic of evil is that it is changeable in quality. An evil person is always changing, and will betray you, stabbing you in the back. Even though you trusted him, he will betray you. An evil man has two tongues, speaking of something, in a favorable way one time, and another time saying the opposite, depending on which will benefit him.</p>
<p>It is a delicate question to say whether it is man or woman who is more likely to have a changeable character. What is the greater possibility? In evaluating all the circumstances, I have to say that women are more susceptible to being changeable in nature. Women usually never miss out when good times or good things are being pursued. Men may be content to wear one decent suit day in and day out, all year long, but women always want to wear a new fashion. Just about all the men here are wearing the same style clothing, but the women are wearing all kinds of blouses and dresses, in all kinds of colors and shapes. The men&#8217;s world is just one dull color. but the women&#8217;s world is like a flower garden.</p>
<p>It can be said that the men&#8217;s world is like the soil and the women&#8217;s world is something growing above the soil. Thus, women are more susceptible to the changing world of evil; that&#8217;s the way things were made. When we see all these things, and then read in Genesis that the fall was initiated by a woman, it is a convincing idea. Women paint their nails, and on the street you see nails of all different colors. I know that if fashion dictated that a women have ten nails of ten different colors, it would catch on like wildfire, overnight. Women pay attention to those things.</p>
<p>Men, however, are not so wise that they avoid following women. In our world today do women follow men, or do men follow women? It is feminine nature to want to be colorful, in a way sending out an invitation by attracting attention. A flower is colorful and has fragrance so that it can attract insects. The nature of men and women comes out very distinctly when they go to a department store. A man will just stop by to pick out a tie, but a women wants to shop around in many places before she buys one specific item, and in the process looks at many different departments. She is looking for strategic weapons to make herself more colorful, to send out better signals.</p>
<p>The function of a flower is to attract the attention of insects. Men are always replying to the signals that women send out, and men are always duplicating the changing nature of women by responding to those signals. This nature is apparent in the Bible, which says that the first woman committed sin, and then tempted Adam. He, in turn, just took the apple and ate. Do women usually do that to men, or do men usually do it to women&#8217;? Eve sent out artificial smiles and messages; that is most obvious. You may be wondering why I always give the women a hard time, but think about this and then say whether it was a man or woman who sent out the false signal first. It was a woman.</p>
<p>When we observe a nation and say it is very colorful, what we mean is that its women are colorful. Men would say that a house only needs painting every few years, but women would like to see it a different color for every season! When you first enter Germany, your impression is that it is a sober, dark country, with little that is colorful. Even the women wear dark, uncolorful clothes. When you come to America, however, the feeling is entirely different. America is always running after a new fad. and women are always at the head of the line.</p>
<p>I am not saying that the women&#8217;s world is bad, while the man&#8217;s world is good. Within the world of women there are both good and evil. Some women are always on the lookout for something new, exciting and fun, while the other group might be trying to preserve tradition. Which side would be closer to good or evil? Certainly tradition has a more unchanging quality, so it represents the good side. There are all kinds of national traditions, but which should be in the center?</p>
<p>Again, there are two worlds in tradition, one good and the other evil. What tradition should a person pursue? Do you want to preserve internal things, or follow external things? Without question, you want to pursue an internal tradition. We commonly speak of a &#8220;man of conscience.&#8221; Men of conscience have life, and also love. Tradition should be based on the qualities of conscience, life and love. Is life or love to be preferred? Each person preserves his own life, but you cannot perfect love within yourself alone. You need a circuit, so in order to perfect love you must associate. Do you think the power of love could unite society and the world, or would it have to be the power of love? It must be love, but love should be added to life because love needs energy.</p>
<p>Where should the root of life be, then? Your life is the fruit of the love of your mother and father, coming vertically down to you. Thus, the energy of your life should be directed toward love, becoming a seedbed of love. Your parents&#8217; love is consummated in your life, so your life is spent searching after that origin. Also, you must associate with people in the society to consummate your love. You are pursuing the tradition in which your parents&#8217; love created your life, so your life is directed toward fulfilling love which will bear fruit.</p>
<p>It is not the energy of life which will make society ideal. Only the power of love can allow man&#8217;s ideal to blossom. Love is the common goal of every person. Everyone loves love. Do you need food more than love? You eat food to preserve your life, needing the power of life in order to give energy to your love. From food you get energy for life, and it will be directed toward the blossoming of love.</p>
<p>Not only man, but also all things of creation are pursuing love. What would be the ideal for men of conscience? Men of conscience always value tradition highly. Where do they base that tradition? They thrust the power of their lives into culminating and perfecting themselves in love. If that tradition is erected, it should continue for eternity with everyone recognizing the value of it. Do you think God would spend much time pondering whether it should be approved, or would He give His approval right away? Without question, God will always give His stamp of approval to the tradition that bears the fruit of love.</p>
<p>What is an example of the unchanging quality of love? A good man is one who upholds the unchanging quality of the tradition of love. The tradition of love can be utilized on the individual level, family level, on earth, in spirit world-everywhere. It is valued universally. A man of love is accepted as a good man on every level, including spirit world.</p>
<p>What kind of person is God? Certainly He is a God of conscience. Have you seen God&#8217;s conscience? We say that God has a conscience because we are men of conscience. We are only resultant beings, so certainly God, the Creator, must also be a God of conscience. We feel that the energy of life will blossom and bum into love, and our ambition is to fulfill love. If we think so, then our first cause, God, must think so, too. Do you think you can meet every criterion of the universe with love? You need love.</p>
<p>How much money do you think should be paid for love? I understand that there is a 517 carat diamond in the British Crown. Would you swap love for it? If the most expensive diamond in the world told you to come to it, you should reply, &#8220;You are only my ornament. You come to me instead.&#8221; The power of life and love is priceless. When your eye is shining in the power of love, that eye is priceless. If you have eyes of love. all visible things of creation will want to be perceived by your eyes, saying, &#8220;Look at me first!&#8221;</p>
<p>If you have the power of love, all sounds will want to be heard by you, competing with each other to enter your ears. All smells and fragrances of the world will compete to enter your nose. If you have the power of love, all food will want to be chewed by your mouth. Even though the food will be crushed by your teeth, it still wants to be connected to the power of love through you. Food would rather enter the mouth that represents the power of love than continue as it is. All the fish in the oceans would rather leave the water to enter the mouth that represents love.</p>
<p>Everything wants to be a prisoner of love. The ultimate satisfaction of everything in creation is to be caught by true love. Mankind is part of the creation of God, so we too find ultimate satisfaction in becoming a prisoner of God&#8217;s love. We want to enter the mouth and ears and eyes of God. We want to be tools of God by becoming prisoners of His hands. Why is that the ultimate satisfaction&#8217;? There is nothing greater than God&#8217;s love, and by becoming His prisoner you are becoming part of His love.</p>
<p>What is the tradition of value that will last for eternity? That tradition must be based on love. Do you think God needs law? The primary purpose of law is to protect. Do you think the Kingdom of Heaven should have a constitution? It will be based on the life power of love. The most fundamental center of value is the life power of love, so all heavenly law is designed to protect that tradition forever.</p>
<p>The fundamental unchanging characteristics come from God, and He values the life power of love. Thus, these are the foundation of the creation. The whole universe is designed to promote or perpetuate these qualities. Love is never self-centered. but is always for others. The purpose of God&#8217;s creation was selfish in a sense, for God wanted to have joy. but essentially God&#8217;s sweat and labor went into making His object perfect and comfortable. God needed an object. because the law says that love is for others. God needed some &#8220;other&#8221; on which He could exercise the power of His love. Even God needs an object to fulfill love, and man was created in that position.</p>
<p>The whole universe was built to give joy to man. Do you have a deep, poignant realization that God created this whole universe as a gift to you? He created it for you because He wants you to be a subject of love, with the creation as your object.</p>
<p>Suppose you have created some objects which you enjoy, but someone else passes by and is so charmed and intrigued by what you have made that he wants it. When you see how that person feels, you feel the impulse to give it to him so that he can keep loving it. If someone loves your creation more than you do, you want to give it to him. That means God takes after you!</p>
<p>This analogy applies perfectly to this universe. If you see a cute little mouse that God made, or a soft kitten or puppy, God would say. &#8220;Please take it home with you and enjoy it.&#8221; All creation is here to be your object and give you stimulation of love. Everything is a masterpiece of God&#8217;s, and when He sees that you love what He made more than He does, He will love you for that as well. God can&#8217;t help but love you in that case.</p>
<p>When you are loving the things God made, He will be following behind you. Don&#8217;t you think He will want to hug you then? When you feel something behind you and you turn around. God will be there to embrace you tighter and tighter. When He squeezes you so that you plunge into His heart of love, you will feel deeper and deeper joy. When you get a heavy dose of God&#8217;s love, you will be completely intoxicated, and when you come out you will stagger around! Then God will say, &#8220;You see how powerful my love is?&#8221; When God sees His son stretched out in heavenly joy, He will say, &#8220;Amen! This is just what I wanted,&#8221; and He also will be stretched out in joy. He will feel perfectly satisfied to see His child enjoying His love. The more there is intoxication in the love of God, the more perfection will increase. This universe should be the world of people drunk in God&#8217;s love. Then even if people are kicking around or Lying in the streets, it won&#8217;t make any difference. That is the ultimate state which God, man, and all things of creation have been looking forward to.</p>
<p>Now we dig down to the very origin of good and evil. Anything contrary to this principle is evil. Once we know what God is really looking for, we know the definition of the worst Satan; that is any power or person which is designed to destroy the life power of love. Even though good and evil are not clearly defined in today&#8217;s world, people generally know that the family and nation are good, for they are the stage where love can blossom. In the family the virtue is filial piety; in the nation the virtue is patriotism, for instance. On the world level, the life of a holy man is a good thing to achieve. Even if people don&#8217;t know specifically what is good and evil, they still have a general idea.</p>
<p>Your life came into being through your parents&#8217; love, but your life doesn&#8217;t know whether it has love, so while you are growing you must listen to your parents. It is through them that you will learn what love is. When you are fond of your father and mother, ultimately your love will go up higher, returning to God. the origin. A frequent question is whether the chicken or egg came first; actually they are the same thing, for everything returns. The seed goes back to the fruit, which goes back to flowers, and returns ultimately to its origin.</p>
<p>Why should you love your parents&#8217;? Because they are a rung on your ladder to God. You are a center of the circle of love which begins with God and continues through your parents. Together you are one team. As the center you will learn the pattern of love, and then create your own circle by finding Your mate and having children of your own.</p>
<p>Love brings unity. Why do you love your brothers? Because by loving them you are bringing God into your circle. It is in the family that you experience, practice and perfect love; it is your workshop of love. When you coordinate your family unit with others, you are creating a society, which is an even greater workshop of love. This principle works just the same in the nation. Thus, love in the family expands, becoming a nation, world, cosmos, and finally becoming one with God.</p>
<p>A heavenly man is living this virtue and tradition, in the life power of love on the individual level, to the family level, society, nation and world. There are no boundaries or resistance to hinder you in running this way to the love of God. When you have this heavenly quality within you, you can make yourself at home wherever you go, for your God is the God of every nation. It is the life power of love which will thrust you all the way to the top.</p>
<p>You already have life power within you, but to spur you on further, love must strike a spark within you. Love power is like the electricity which turns the motor. When it starts to turn in the power of love, all kinds of love and beauty are created in our universe, through the harmony of many things turning in many directions.</p>
<p>This is a hypothesis, which you have not seen in action, but hearing it makes you feel good, doesn&#8217;t it? Still you want to try it because you have heard nothing better. If you knew it was a proven truth, would you bet your life on it?</p>
<p>There are many national Church leaders here this morning, and they may tell their members that everything should be done through the national leader. But the real question is whether those leaders are becoming powerful in love. If you are powerful without love, you are only a tyrant. But if a person of love is on top, he can dig all the way down to the absolute bottom. That person has total freedom and nothing will stop him, so he can go all the way up and down with absolute liberty. Even if he goes all the way down to the bottom of hell, everyone there will love him. He can go all the way up to the throne of God, and he will be perfectly acceptable there.</p>
<p>Perhaps a leader will tell his members that they should report everything only to him, so that he can tell me the good things, but keep the bad things from me. Maybe he thinks he can do anything he wants and the members should obey him. Energy and power are fine, but if they are exercised without love, you create nothing but hell. You should be listening to God and listening to me. Maybe the national leaders think they are infallible and their power is sacred, but that is no good. They should be totally obedient to higher authority, and only then can they have the authority to guide their members. The Divine Principle and God are trying to lead the Unification Church to a certain goal, but even within the Church there are influences trying to lead people in the other direction. A national leader should be like a sacrificial parent who works harder and suffers more than the children. If you become a personification of the love of God then even though you go down, people will lift you up high and the universe will lift you up.</p>
<p>Always shed tears of love. There are two kinds of tears- tears of sadness shed in tragedy, and tears of love and joy. If you are really crying out in the joy of love, so loud that you even wake up the world, that is good. Sometime it is love to hit or bite a person. If, when you are centered on love, you become controversial, it will be a dramatic, heroic thing, not an evil thing.</p>
<p>We have been talking about tradition here. In many ways people today follow only external traditions whose internal meanings have been almost forgotten, so young people aren&#8217;t very attracted to them. Young people couldn&#8217;t care less in many cases. If they heard about the tradition of love and conscience this morning, however, they would want to follow it. In religious history there has always been emphasis on service and sacrifice; they are the methods of living the tradition of love. In addition, we have certain external traditions, such as fund raising and witnessing.</p>
<p>Do you just like the internal traditions but not the external ones&#8217;? How can you prove that you have the internal traditions, but not the external ones? How can you prove that you have the internal tradition if you don&#8217;t have a diploma to show&#8217;? To become a Ph.D. you have to start in elementary school and get good grades all along the way. Once you get your Ph.D. will anyone want to see your elementary school certificate? No, they will take it for granted. In the same way, in the Unification Church you must be certified. You need a fund raising certificate, which testifies that you have loved all things of creation. Your witnessing certificate testifies that you have loved people.</p>
<p>You must be a PhD in loving men and all things, and with that certificate you are eligible to have your mate. No one would want to marry you until then! Does any woman want to marry a man who has no certificate or qualification? It is in the home that you actually practice love of all things and of people. If you don&#8217;t already have experience in that area then you don&#8217;t know how to build a real family.</p>
<p>When you fund raise, you work with unselfish dedication for others. When you create your family. you will do things for your family, your clan, society and nation. Fund raising is basic training for this, for that same spirit is extended in loving your society, nation and world. Then that tradition will be built into society. MFT is the best place to practice this. so all members must go fund raising. You don&#8217;t love all things for your own sake, but for others. This is the beautiful tradition you must learn.</p>
<p>In fund raising you bring money from the secular world. Here in the Church we spend the money to save people in the fallen world; thus, the money is actually going back to those who gave it, creating a circle which will get bigger and bigger. The money you earn goes back to the nation, to the world, to the universe, and to God. Each time the material will serve a greater purpose.</p>
<p>In witnessing, you are loving people instead of material. The countryman who opposes you is still better for you than the foreigner who welcomes you. There are many obstacles to working in other countries. Even if your own people oppose you, at least here you have complete freedom, and you speak the same language and can talk to them. You have the same customs and background, so you can be grateful to be working with your own countrymen. Eventually, however. our mission will expand to include other countries. In the witnessing process you are seasoned by experiencing love difficulties. Then when you become a family man, you automatically know how to overcome family difficulties and you won&#8217;t give up. Compared to what you experienced, your family will look like heaven!</p>
<p>You will have only one savings account with your spouse, not one for the wife and another for the husband. It is a good tradition when the father can ask his children to contribute their own savings to help in a family emergency, but it cannot happen if the husband and wife have separate accounts and can&#8217;t touch each other&#8217;s money. If parents fight, can they show their children how to love each other? When the parents are in love and are totally united, the children won&#8217;t know what someone is talking about if he asks whether their parents fight.</p>
<p>In fund raising and witnessing you are getting the basic training you will need to build your home later. Maybe our white brothers are having a new experience here in sharing rooms with their black brothers. But through having that experience it seems natural later on if they have black wives. Once you find mutual respect among white and black, finding harmony between white and white seems more than natural. When you live in harmony with great extremes, it is easy to find harmony between things that are similar. I keep encouraging you to think about marrying someone of another race, so you are adjusted in your thinking by the time blessing comes and you can accept anything gratefully.</p>
<p>In every facet of life there are two contrasting worlds, but only one power can harmonize them both-the power of love. With that power you can willingly sacrifice yourself for your fellow man. You might think you will lose everything by living this principle, but the universal law is such that when you live this principle, the power of love will replenish everything.</p>
<p>In living this principle, instead of always losing energy because there is so much opposition, I am richly rewarded by young people who love me. When foolish people come against me, wise people will support me. When rich people oppose me, poor people will unite with me, and so on. If white people hate me, ethnic groups will love me. I am always amply rewarded.</p>
<p>What do you like about me? You like the life power of love. When you hear me, you feel some power coming to you, and you want to be grafted to me. We have come now to understand a real definition of good and evil. My ultimate declaration is that wherever the life power of love works, the power of God&#8217;s love is always dwelling. When you go away from the power of that love, it is as though a vacuum is created which Satan will come to fill.</p>
<p>The Cain-and-Abel principle in restoration is based on this understanding of good and evil. Abel brought an offering to God, where the life power of love was contained. Abel&#8217;s road is to link up with the power of God&#8217;s love. Being the subject of the Abel world, my effort is to bring all good things to the altar of God through the life power of love, making a genuine offering that can be accepted by God.</p>
<p>On every level, Abel is continually offering to God both material and people. These two things should be connected to the life power of love, for otherwise they cannot be accepted by God. When you truly represent the life power of love, you cannot be self-centered, but are always living for others. If you are truly balancing the whole, you are naturally in the center. In every facet of our lives we are dealing with the world of material and the world of people; our way of dealing with them is in the life power of love, whether in religion, culture, economics, education, and so forth.</p>
<p>My activities are not just religious; this is why people say I am an industrialist, a scholar, a movie maker. I deal with every facet of life in this same principle of love. Even if I go fishing, it is never to enjoy myself. I am never apart from my fundamental mission. That is why even tuna are attracted to me!</p>
<p>The leaders are the first group of people who should practice loving the members more than they love their own families, so in this 120 day training they can practice this principle by loving each other. There are all kinds of members in this workshop, so I told the workshop director to mix up all types of people in the teams. I may make it a rule that they change rooms every day. If they know they will only be living in their room for one day, maybe they won&#8217;t care so much about keeping it clean as if they knew they would be there 120 days. I want to find out. Do you leaders think you need training, or are you already perfected?</p>
<p>When this workshop was announced, I heard about all kinds of reactions. Some of the leaders thought their Church family would fall apart without them, but I think that without them their Church family may have a chance to survive!</p>
<p>I am always living most naturally in two worlds, both high and low, moving back and forth between them. When Col. Pak was in South America last summer, he met and was entertained by presidents of seven nations. He was given a great deal of honor because he was my aide, and told me that he felt at that time how great I was. But when he came to report to me in Morning Garden, he couldn&#8217;t find me in the house. Finally he found me at the bottom of the back yard, working with several members to fix a rope for fishing. In my life I have embraced both extremes of high and low. God&#8217;s will is to bring these two extremes into harmony, and only God&#8217;s power can do this. A true Moonie is the personification of the life power of love, so we can bring the two worlds together.</p>
<p>Those who can say, &#8220;I really know who I am. I will be living the life power of love to bring the two worlds together,&#8221; raise your hands. Thank you.</p>
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&nbsp; <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="2018-06-20T14:44:05+01:00"> <a href="/blog/2018/06/20/history-of-the-providence-through-restoration-by-indemnity.html" rel="bookmark">June 20, 2018</a> </time></span><time class="updated" datetime="2018-06-20T14:44:05+01:00">June 20, 2018</time> <span class="bl_categ"> <a href="/speeches/categories/rev-sun-myung-moon-1981.html" rel="tag">Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1981</a> </span> </div><!-- .entry-meta -->
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<h2 align="CENTER">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
<h3 align="CENTER">February 10, 1981<br />
World Mission Center<br />
Translator &#8211; Bo Hi Pak</h3>
<h4 align="CENTER">Copyright © 1981 by Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity</h4>
<p>The words in the title of my sermon this morning are household words to us, but no one else can understand this language! Today we are talking about history in terms of salvation. Very few people know the real meaning of salvation, which has been hidden in the heart of God. The reason that only God knows is that man fell before he learned the truth, before he had a chance to know about this. Throughout history, God&#8217;s most elementary job has been to educate people and liberate them from their ignorance.</p>
<p>Even if we know the truth, however, we still cannot have salvation without fulfilling certain conditions. Ever since the fall of man, the reality here on earth has been completely contrary to God&#8217;s own wishes. Therefore, without paying the debts of history, man cannot come out of that position.</p>
<p>We can take an example; a person who commits a crime and is sent to prison cannot come out again until he has made restitution for his crime. Until he clears away his past misdeeds, he will not be freed. This kind of indemnification used so frequently in society must also be done to rectify the crimes mankind has committed in the past.</p>
<p>What is the true meaning of indemnity? The problem is human capability; there is no way for anyone to be capable of paying all mankind&#8217;s debts. That is the reality. Thus, there must be a special law to give salvation to people, for without a special dispensation there is no way anyone could be saved. God is asking for all of us to pay a certain amount, to be applied toward the total we owe. By meeting that condition, the entire amount can be indemnified. That is the basic principle. For example, God may specify a length of time-one year, ten years, or whatever-by which all the debts of the past can be indemnified.</p>
<p>God is always setting up little conditions so that everyone can have a chance to receive salvation. It is very good for us. However, there is a struggle between God and Satan. Satan is insisting that God can&#8217;t do that, so some compromise must be made. Satan&#8217;s goal is to force man to pay a great deal of indemnity. His ulterior motive in doing that is to give man so great a burden that he can never finish it all, thus ensuring he will remain enslaved to Satan. On the other hand, God is trying to make man&#8217;s burden as light as possible so that everyone can complete every requirement.</p>
<p>God&#8217;s argument is this: &#8220;Satan, when man was originally created you couldn&#8217;t even put one finger on him.&#8221; Then Satan will reply, &#8220;God, I already knew that. However, you made a rule that once someone is governed by love, that relationship can go on for eternity. I won man by love, even though it was illicit love, so our relationship has to be eternal.&#8221; But God will argue back, &#8220;Satan, I created mankind and they are my children. You took them away by an illicit relationship.&#8221; God is speaking out of truth, but Satan is also basing his argument on principle.</p>
<p>God and Satan had to compromise, and the decision was finally made that whomever man loved most would win him. Thus, in order to come to the side of God, man must make a condition to separate himself from Satan and come back to God by his own will. This is important-it is not by force but by his own will that man can return to the side of God. Satan agreed that God could have man only when man loved God more than he loved anything else.</p>
<p>Then they argued about the length of time. God said, &#8220;Let&#8217;s give them a one year condition.&#8221; Satan insisted it had to be ten years. Finally they compromised by agreeing not to talk about time, but only about which side man loved most. The standard of love alone would determine everything. Then Satan said, &#8220;God, you don&#8217;t mind giving man a hard time. I can give as much as ten years hardship condensed into one year. &#8221; Then God gave him the go ahead.</p>
<p>Ever since that treaty was made between God and Satan, any man who attempts to return to God has to overcome Satan&#8217;s tests, trial and tribulation. This is why anyone living a truly religious life has had to face the desperate bottom of human existence, the place where a person could even die. This is why Satan was successful in defeating many good people; because they could not withstand such hardship, they surrendered to Satan. For a person to be victorious, he must go through several stages to reach the final goal. No one can jump from the lowest place to the top in one jump. Everyone has to go by certain steps.</p>
<p>We begin our journey as a servant of servants. Then we are promoted to servant; then promoted to adopted son; then become true son, and finally become ruler of the universe. On every level certain conditions must be set. You must pay certain indemnity as a servant of servants in order to escape and go to the next level. Actually, according to Principle, God cannot directly deal with the position of servant of servants because the archangel was the servant of God. Furthermore, the servant is the angel, so when you start out as servant of servant, Satan can treat you any way he wishes; you can&#8217;t have any will of your own. The servant of servant position was passed down unfulfilled from Adam and Eve, to Cain and Abel, to Noah and finally to Abraham. In Abraham&#8217;s time, history finally advanced from the level of servant of servant to the servant level.</p>
<p>Abraham&#8217;s dispensation lasted three generations: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Jacob wrestled with the angel all night at the ford of Jabbok, and ultimately Jacob prevailed over him. By setting that condition, man was promoted; by Jacob&#8217;s being victorious over the angel, man came out of the servant of servant position up to the servant position. Thus, the history of Israel as the chosen people began with Jacob.</p>
<p>What is the rank of the chosen people? The nation of Israel was in the servant position, not quite yet in the son&#8217;s position. In the ideal world God wants to dwell with His own son and His own grandchildren, not with His servant. To come up to another stage, the chosen people had to wrestle with the satanic nation and prevail over it. That process began when Jacob&#8217;s descendants entered Egypt, where for 400 years they struggled against the foreign power. After 430 years, they came out of Egypt. They were coming back to create a heavenly nation in the land of Canaan as preparation for the coming of the Messiah.</p>
<p>For what mission does the Messiah come? The Messiah comes to confer the title of son of God to all people, starting with Israel. To gain that title, those in the servant&#8217;s position must go through the position of adopted son. That nation is also meant to move to the worldwide level. In this case, Israel was a colony of the Roman Empire. First it had to liberate itself from the bonds of its master, which was the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire was very powerful, and it was virtually impossible for a small nation like Israel to free itself and conquer Rome. Therefore, it was part of the dispensation that God had been weakening the Roman Empire and making it possible for Israel to conquer it.</p>
<p>During that time God had also picked His champions. John the Baptist was a great man who traveled around his own country, spiritually arousing the people. What was the Divine Principle role of John the Baptist? He was like a bridge between the roles of servant and son, so John the Baptist was in the role of adopted son. Everyone else was still in the servant&#8217;s position. By uniting with John the Baptist, everyone could instantly elevate themselves into the adopted son&#8217;s position, in preparation for becoming sons of God. By uniting horizontally with John the Baptist, they could be elevated one step higher. The ultimate mission of John the Baptist was to win the people&#8217;s hearts and take them to unite with the Messiah.</p>
<p>In that period 2,000 years ago, three different roles were being lived; first, the Jews in position of servant; second, John the Baptist as adopted son; and third, the son of God, the Messiah. There was a distinct vertical chain of command which God intended. The son of God should take command, and John the Baptist must unconditionally obey and listen to him. At the same time, all the people in the servant&#8217;s position must also unconditionally obey John the Baptist because he was one level higher. Together the Messiah, John the Baptist and the people of Israel were to struggle against the Roman Empire, just like Jacob wrestled against the angel at the ford of Jabbok.</p>
<p>If that movement had been successful, then with Jesus Christ as the commander-in-chief there shouldn&#8217;t have been any division between Abraham&#8217;s children, such as there is now between the Arabs and Jews. After all, the Arab nations are descended from Abraham&#8217;s son, Ishmael. In those days, God&#8217;s intention was to unite all Arab people and the Jewish nation. The Roman Empire was their common enemy, so when Israel stood up to fight Rome, all her neighbors, who were also under Roman oppression, were supposed to unite with Israel against their common enemy. Together they could have won a most spectacular, dazzling victory.</p>
<p>But history did not take that route. No one united with the Messiah. John the Baptist went his own way and the people of Israel also went their own way, and the son of God was lonely. They were all divided, never united. Jesus came as the Messiah to win the people, starting particularly with John the Baptist. When everyone betrayed him instead, Satan scoffed, &#8220;Jesus, you have no one around you. You are no longer the Messiah. You really failed.&#8221; Satan accused him directly. Satan said, &#8220;Even you, Jesus, should listen to me. I will control you.&#8221; Satan became that powerful and arrogant.</p>
<p>John the Baptist was not completely opposed to Jesus initially. At the Jordan River he testified about who Jesus was, telling the people to look at the Lamb of God who had come to bear the sins of the world. If John had failed completely, without making any testimony for Jesus, then Jesus would have had absolutely no ground to stand on. But in the sight of God a small condition was made when John witnessed once to the people about who Jesus was. Then even if Jesus was crucified, on that small foundation Jesus could be resurrected, restoring all the nation at least up to the adopted son&#8217;s level. Even after the crucifixion Jesus had the power to do so.</p>
<p>It was tragic, but the reality is that after the crucifixion of Jesus, the history of Christianity was the history of the adopted son. After his physical death, Jesus was resurrected spiritually and has been leading the way to spiritual salvation, opening the way for all men to reach the adopted son&#8217;s level. Without the living Christ as the commander-in-chief, the chosen people could not easily conquer the Roman Empire. Instead, Jesus&#8217; disciples suffered for 400 years, and only then finally conquered Rome. Their suffering and tribulation was enormous. You have no idea how much suffering they went through.</p>
<p>When you go to Rome and visit the catacombs, the underground cemeteries, you can see how first century Christians lived. In order to preserve their lives they had to go down to the cemeteries to meet secretly, surrounded by dead bodies. But through their perseverance and sacrifice, they finally prevailed and restored the Roman Empire. That began the history of Catholicism.</p>
<p>Again, no matter what they did or how much they suffered, they could not achieve any more than spiritual salvation or the level of adopted sons. Jesus Christ never gave anyone else the title of son of God. He was only in the role of the spiritual Son. Physically speaking, there is no foundation even for the servant or adopted son, for Jesus had won only a spiritual victory. Christianity then received the task of preparation for the coming of the Second Messiah. Because Jesus&#8217; job was left unfinished, the Second Coming became mandatory. The Christian world was to physically create the realm of adopted son, upon which the new Christ could come and prosper.</p>
<p>For 2,000 years, therefore, the work of Christianity has been done only in spirit. However, we can really fight against Satan because our rank is already that of adopted son, which is higher than a servant. Even an adopted son has a right to receive inheritance. The servant, however, is always controlled by the master.</p>
<p>The spirit of Christianity made the foundation for modern-day civilization. Today the United States is the center of world Christianity, and its role is to complete the final chapter of God&#8217;s providence for the coming of the Messiah by making the spiritual foundation upon which the physical kingdom can come. That is the ultimate destiny of Christianity. The modern dispensation will duplicate the providential pattern of 2,000 will duplicate the providential pattern of 2,000 years ago; what we need is a physical John the Baptist, and a Messiah living on earth.</p>
<p>By uniting with Jesus Christ, Christianity could be elevated one step higher to the position of adopted son, but all other religions remained in their same position. In our day, the various religions hold different positions in the providence, such as servant of servant, servant, adopted son, true son, and finally the religion of parents. The religion of adopted son is Christianity. Buddhism, Islam, and Confucianism, all fit into different levels. God&#8217;s desire is to have all mankind come together and receive the one Messiah. The Messiah is not coming to one particular religion; He is coming for all men and all mankind. That was God&#8217;s desire. This is why in the end there must be a movement for the unification of all religions.</p>
<p>At the same time, the ultimate satanic ideology will come into being. That is none other than communism, which is the common enemy of all religions. The satanic side has one religion, which is communism. On God&#8217;s side, there are many kinds of religions, however, so when the Messiah comes, he will bring the religion of true sonship and the religion of true parents. The Messiah&#8217;s job is to raise all religions to the level of the religion of the parent. There is no more beyond that.</p>
<p>According to logic, everything that happened 2,000 years ago on the spiritual level will now be duplicated physically on the world level. There should be a modern-day Roman Empire, for instance. Israel as the chosen nation was a part of the Roman Empire, so there must be one small nation today which is connected to the modern-day Roman Empire; that small nation will play the major role by bringing a new ideology and religion to the world. Also, that small nation will have to go through incredible tribulation, being completely overrun by satanic forces and gradually conquering them.</p>
<p>The United Sates is the central Christian nation, but America is not the physical foundation of national sovereignty on the heavenly side that Israel was. For the United States to have such sovereignty, it must liberate the country which parallels Israel of 2,000 years ago, and find the new truth.</p>
<p>From 1910 on, Korea was ruled by Japan. Imperial Japan brutally dominated Korea. Japan was seeking world domination, and was responsible for starting the Pacific war. From the dispensational point of view, however, World War II was fought in order to liberate Korea. Before Korea was annexed by Japan in 1910, a great many American Christian missionaries had gone to Korea. They planted the spirit of independence and made a deep connection between Korea and America. The imperial Government of Japan hated that very much and wanted to cut that connection. That is another aspect of why World War II began in the Pacific.</p>
<p>Japan was very ambitious and sought to dominate all of Asia, invading Manchuria, then all eastern China, Southeast Asia, and the Philippines. The nation most troublesome to Japan was Korea because Korea was always trying to be independent, and Korean Christians maintained their links with the United States.</p>
<p>At that time Japan felt that no nation could stop the Japanese expansion, so the Japanese military government concluded that it could cut off Korean agitation by severing its ties to America; therefore, Japan attacked America. No history books in America or Japan record it this way. That is the truth. The Japanese totally surprised America with the attack on Pearl Harbor. Historians have speculated about why they made such a blunder, but now you know.</p>
<p>American Christianity played a great role in planting a strong political ideology among the Korean people. Nowadays there is much criticism of me by American people and media, who think I am playing politics. But who started the politics first? Your missionaries in Korea. Actually, in history, Christianity has often been used as a political tool. The United States and Great Britain have to admit that. The Third World doesn&#8217;t trust Christianity because they feel that missionaries are coming as the agents of some imperialistic American or British government. They do not open their hearts to Christianity because that religion was used so many times to justify colonialism. Satan used that tactic first, but this is also God&#8217;s tactic, so it is not necessarily bad. When you become the prey of Satan&#8217;s infiltration, your destiny would be hell; but if God uses the same tactic then you benefit by it, so it is actually a good deal. The people who are jittery about American Christianity don&#8217;t know this particular truth. Even if the American missionaries were somewhat political, the people would ultimately receive some benefit.</p>
<p>When the allied powers defeated Japan in World War II, Korea was liberated in 1945. Korea is comparable to Israel of 2,000 years ago. By Korea&#8217;s becoming one with the United States, American Christianity will for the first time have a physical foundation. That&#8217;s why I left Korea to come to the United States. President Reagan is the fourth American President I have dealt with; at the same time, Reagan happens to be the fortieth President. This is not a coincidence. Four presidents represent four generations, so this will indemnify the 4,000 year history of the chosen nation. Even the American hostages came out of Iran after 444 days. Everything happened in multiples of four.</p>
<p>The hostages were symbolic in dispensational history, and through their suffering of 444 days, indemnity was paid for America&#8217;s dividing Korea at the end of World War II, and for her standing by while the free world became weak and communism expanded. To indemnify the failures of America as a Christian nation, 52 Americans suffered as hostages.</p>
<p>President Reagan is God&#8217;s chosen president, so I supported him all the way. Within eighteen hours after Reagan became President, he declared that the first head of state to visit the Reagan White House would be the President of Korea. This was very surprising to many people; after all, with all the many powerful nations in the world, why pick little Korea? This meeting of the presidents was like a declaration that Korea and America have a common destiny. This is also a big bonus for Japan. President Reagan will undoubtedly tell Japan that after having an easy time in the last two decades it must now participate in the defense of the free world, and in particular of Korea. Thus, Korea and Japan will also be linked in one destiny.</p>
<p>When the three nations come together, what is actually happening in the dispensation? First, we&#8217;ll see the emergence of the physical adopted son nation, Eve&#8217;s nation, and then the physical son nation and father nation. All the dispensational components will come into place on the physical level. Who is going to make this unity? Korea? Japan? America must do it because America is the archangel country, and archangel is supposed to be the heavenly servant and messenger. The archangel was the rascal who caused the division between God and man, and between Adam and Eve. Therefore, in restoration, the archangel must play a major role in bringing them together into unity. That&#8217;s why America will play this role between nations.</p>
<p>By the end of the Carter administration, the free world was so divided and demoralized that there was little hope. The communist world and the Christian world were also declining. America had become helpless, like a sick elephant. During that period, the American government, Korean government, Japanese government, as well as Judaism, Christianity and all the religions of the world, and especially communism-all came against me.</p>
<p>The most dramatic symbol of that world opposition was our battle with the Fraser committee in Congress. Whether they liked it or not, many liberals were utilized as agents for communist strategy. But ever since we won that battle, all the liberals are being turned out of office. It was a dramatic turnaround. You know what happened on November 4. Almost from the very day President Carter was inaugurated, I had to speak out against him. This time, however, the picture is different.</p>
<p>It is truly a historical victory that I pronounced at the end of my 21 year course. During my three seven-year courses I had sole responsibility, but now, upon this victorious foundation, I can announce three seven-year courses that will be walked primarily by you. Your job is very easy compared to mine because I have built a big highway; all you have to do is follow my example. I fought on the worldwide level, facing the American government and facing communism. All you have to fight for is victory in your home church. That is your world. I have been accused and persecuted, but your day will be different. Later on you will not be persecuted any more. You will be welcomed by the people.</p>
<p>All these years I have been thinking of one thing: how can I make providential history perfect and complete? I began in the servant of servant position. Before I could inherit the Christian heritage, or the adopted son position, I went down to the servant of servant position and worked upward, paying all the debts. My battle is twofold. First, I had to go through an incredible spiritual battle, and then the physical struggle. In both struggles I prevailed.</p>
<p>I received my mission when I was still young. From the age of twenty to thirty I paid indemnity and developed the Principle. This parallels the period of Jesus growing up, the adopted son&#8217;s period. At the age of 25, I began working for the unification of Korean Christianity. In those days there were quite a few John the Baptists who bore testimony to me, but just like the John the Baptist of 2,000 years ago, they all disappeared.</p>
<p>Because all these people left, I had to do everything myself. I laid the foundation for the new church, which is our church, then upon the spiritual victory moved forward to erect the physical foundation. By the time I reached the age of forty, I was completely victorious and invincible. From that point on I could give blessing to the world. I went through many critical, difficult points, many times coming near to the same point at which Jesus was crucified on the cross.</p>
<p>In 1960 I declared the three seven-year courses, determining that in 21 years I would indemnify the entire 6,000 year history of restoration. That was also equivalent to the indemnification of America&#8217;s 200 year history. Together my 21 years and America&#8217;s 200 years were to indemnify the entire 6,000 year old history of God.</p>
<p>If President Nixon had been a man of bolder faith and had listened better to me, America would not have declined this far. America&#8217;s dispensational history was supposed to be complete by 1976, but had to be prolonged another four years, to be complete by 1980. For many years I predicted all this, preaching like a voice in the wilderness to awaken the nation. Finally, America has awakened. Now America has a government chosen by God, and it must turn around to be bold and strong, and march forward to stop the expansion of communism. That is what the Reagan administration is doing.</p>
<p>What God wants is for America to stop the expansion of communism. Only the United States has the power to do that. If the United States fulfills that part of its responsibility, we will finish the rest of the job. For the first time the United States has wakened up and is turning around to stop communism, so internally this is our day. When we march forward together in the next four years, we will win an incredible concluding victory in America and all over the world. There will also be many people coming into the Unification Church. There will be so many people that you won&#8217;t know what to do with them all.</p>
<p>By the year 2,000, the work of God here on earth shall be complete. In that year, I will celebrate my eightieth birthday. As you know, Moses started his mission at the age of eighty and marched toward the land of Canaan, the Symbolic Kingdom of Heaven on earth. When I reach the age of eighty, I will indeed start the glorious march toward the physical kingdom of heaven on earth. You can believe what I am saying today because 21 years ago when I announced the three seven-year courses I said that in 21 years we would have the worldwide foundation. Now we have members from 127 countries, people of all colors worshipping together in living color. When I announced one incredible thing after another, the Korean members thought I was crazy. Today I am telling you about the year 2,000; can you believe it now? Today you say you can believe it because things are entirely different today compared to 21 years ago.</p>
<p>The era of individuals welcoming me is over, and the time has come that nation after nation will welcome me. Presidents of nations will ask me to come to their countries. The United States may not welcome me until very late, but many other nations around the world will say, &#8220;Reverend Moon, please come. &#8221; At that point the American government and people will realize how precious it was to have me in this country. Now the time of preaching to groups of people is over. The time has come for us to preach to the nation. The Yankee Stadium, Washington Monument and Madison Square Garden crusades were all done by our organization, but the time will come in the near future that each government will prepare such a stadium rally. They will prepare a microphone, speakers and singers, and say, &#8220;Reverend Moon, can you come and speak to us? &#8221; Furthermore, this is the era of satellites, so my talks will televised to many countries.</p>
<p>Will you go to your home church with that kind of excitement, or would you do it out of duty? Would you like to do your home church work before such national rallies are held, or after? Unless you do it now, other people will come and take over your home church. The president and government officials will want to do home church, and they will kick you out of your area.</p>
<p>I tell you this absolutely clearly: you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven without going through home church. Jesus said, &#8220;I am the way, the truth, the life, and no one comes to the Father but through me.&#8221; But I am saying, &#8220;I am the way, the truth, the life and love, and no one comes to the Father without coming through home church. &#8221; The book of Revelation says that at the end there will be 144,000 people gathered together, and they will be lifted up into the Kingdom of Heaven. But what the revelation is saying is that in the end we need 144,000 home churches around the world, through which we will be lifted into the Kingdom of Heaven.</p>
<p>So far, history has been the history of indemnity, and everything we did was to pay the debts. Therefore, for every step you take there is opposition. When you go to the home, there is home opposition. When you go to the level of society, there is social opposition. When you go into the nation, there is national opposition, worldwide opposition and cosmic opposition, all simply because we have been walking through the era of indemnity. We are repaying the debt by receiving opposition. But now all that is past. The incredible persecution of the past 21 years is over. From now on, everything you do will build up. You shall not receive the same persecution I received.</p>
<p>Whether the Reagan administration accepts you or not doesn&#8217;t make any difference. Here in this congregation I see the future President of the United States, future Senators, Congressmen and Governors. To create such a foundation of victory for the sake of God, I have made my life one of sacrifice, like a lamb on the altar offered in the name of mankind. I had no such thing as a personal, private life, or a youth of enjoyment and travel. Everything was completely given up for the sake of God. It has been almost as though I were a criminal who had sinned against God. For the sake of mankind I took the burden of history, paying for the sin of the world. I thought that I was the most deeply indebted person, and until I paid off the debt that I would have nothing for myself. Now it is paid in full.</p>
<p>Considering the pressure and burden of the mission, it is a miracle that I have survived this far. I could have died many times over, but if I had died, there would be no more kingdom, no more hope and no victory. But today we are celebrating the great victory that I survived under those adverse conditions. Many times I used my own life like a bomb, throwing it into the enemy camp. Only because God protected me could I survive. If I had fought with only my own strength, I would have been dead a long time ago.</p>
<p>Now your job is a small one: 360 homes. You don&#8217;t have to go through the tribulation I went through. All you have to do is conquer your home church by love in seven years. Then you will be entitled to a victory equivalent to what I have won. Complete and consummate your mission within your lifetimes. Don&#8217;t drag it down to other generations.</p>
<p>I want to warn you that the second stage is always the most difficult. You are in the second 21 year course. Abel, the second son, died, and Abraham&#8217;s second son, Isaac, was almost killed. Adam was the first stage, and Noah the second stage. Of Noah&#8217;s three children, the second son, Ham, made the mistake. Jesus was the second Adam, and he was crucified on the cross. That&#8217;s why I warn you that it is not going to be easy, but it can be done. It is relatively easy for you because you have removed yourself from where Satan can accuse you individually. Until just recently you had to wander all around to find just one person. Now you don&#8217;t have to do that because you know where to go.</p>
<p>For over sixty years I have gone this path. You can do it in six years. In the Unification Church, home church is your lifeline. This is where life or death is made, where victory or failure is going to be made. I&#8217;m sure from time to time you will have lots of difficulties and sometimes you will become despondent, but all these things will blow over.</p>
<p>For the first time I can pay some attention to my own children. I never paid attention to them before now. The True Parents&#8217; children are the representatives of all mankind, and when they suffer and are unhappy, it means that mankind is unhappy. To preserve their well-being, I had to assist the well-being of mankind. It is your turn to liberate me. Will you give me liberation? So far, when I traveled it was always for the mission, and I would always take leaders around with me, so I neglected my own children. Now I will take my own children and embrace them. When you finish your home church dispensation, you can do the same with your children.</p>
<p>Right now you suffer and you have an abnormal situation. Some blessed couples are sending their children to their parents, or to the nursery, but they will not be shamed. Outside people will accuse you by saying that you don&#8217;t even take care of your own children. Never mind. The time will come when your home church people will embrace your children and want to take care of them. That is beautiful.</p>
<p>Why have my wife and children come last? We must love the Cain world first. Love your enemy first and then love your own family. By doing so you are completely free from Satan&#8217;s accusation. Not only can Satan not accuse you any more, but Satan will have to obey you. You can command him, &#8220;Satan, you know what I have done. Can you duplicate it?&#8221; Satan will have to reply, &#8220;No, sir.&#8221;</p>
<p>Always look at God&#8217;s own history. God always sacrificed His closest one in order to save the enemy. Jesus Christ was the only begotten Son of God, yet God sacrificed him in order to save God&#8217;s own enemy. You have your own home church where you will love the people first. Liberate them before you do anything for your own children. When you liberate your home church and then come back to take care of your own children, everyone will embrace you.</p>
<p>Are you ready to liberate me from all by burdens? Instead of liberating me, all the leaders are always bringing me more decisions to make. They still rely on me for more help in finances and inspiration, but that day is over. You should be independent and go ahead like a locomotive. I don&#8217;t even have one home of my own to dwell in. You may think I have East Garden, but that&#8217;s the Church&#8217;s property. Do you want me to have a home of my own? The time has come for me to look after my own children.</p>
<p>Now is the time for you to do home church with all your heart and soul. In the meantime, the true children must have their well-being taken care of for the sake of mankind, for their suffering will reflect the suffering of the nation and the world. When Ye Jin is over twenty and gets married and has children, if she is still going through suffering then it is not good for the sake of this nation, or you, or the world. This is because your children&#8217;s path will follow the pattern of the true children&#8217;s course. We have to completely smooth it out and lay the highway so that they can go forward easily. It is actually for your sake that I am now going home to take care of the true children. That is for the sake of the future. While I am doing that, you become front line soldiers. Use your bodies as bullets or bombs, as I did long ago.</p>
<p>The time has changed, and it is exciting because your chance has arrived. Would you accept that challenge? Would you complain? When I go away, don&#8217;t ask where I am. If I take a vacation, will you mind, griping, &#8220;While we are working so hard Father is having a good time somewhere in the Caribbean or Europe? &#8221;</p>
<p>I would like to have a resort in 21 different places around the world, and stay about fifteen days in each. It is very important that after the age of sixty I live with glory, comfort and love. If I continue to suffer until I die, all those in spirit world who lived well here on earth will have no place. Even if I choose to drink some wine or liquor, not just from a glass but from a gallon can, Satan has nothing to say. Even if I go to Las Vegas and bet millions of dollars, there shall be no accusation because God has given me total freedom. Satan knows there is no way he can corrupt me.</p>
<p>Eventually that is the level you are going to reach. That is what we call perfection. When you do home church in seven years and really give yourself, the time will come that your home church people will say, &#8220;You are father and mother to home church. We will liberate you and take up your mission. You don&#8217;t need to come here because we shall work harder than you do. Don&#8217;t worry about us.&#8221; That should happen now here. You should say to me, &#8220;Father, don&#8217;t come. We don&#8217;t need you. Go to a big resort and stay with your children and have a wonderful, peaceful, glorious time. We shall take over the battle.&#8221; Would you do that? Then eventually you will be treated just like that by your home church. Now the time is here for the first time for me to go around the world.</p>
<p>Now I have totally consummated my mission here in America, particularly after the victory of Ronald Reagan. Now that his administration is starting off in the right way, I have truly finished all the restoration history here in America by paying all the indemnity.</p>
<p>The Moscow rally is next, but actually the United States government together with the free world will prepare it. I will just be the principal guest speaker at the Moscow rally. That rally must be sponsored by America and cosponsored by the free world.</p>
<p>Look at the world, where everything is crumbling and decaying. Only our movement is rising up every day. Initially our opponents were strong and full of energy, like barking dogs. Lately they have become weaker. You are the heavenly dogs. You started out barking very quietly, but now you are getting louder and louder.</p>
<p>Now the history of restoration by indemnity is over. The time will even come when your prayer is not necessary. Once the dwelling of God is with men, whom would you pray to? You will just talk to God directly. Once the foundation is established, the pattern of tradition will do all the work-the tradition of serving parents with filial piety, and obedience to the heavenly government. Citizens would automatically be elevated to the Kingdom of Heaven. That is the dream world, the utopia man has sought for so long. That day is at hand.</p>
<p>Amazingly, the most glorious chapter of human history has been written by the Moonies, who have been so misunderstood and mistreated. Those Moonies played the leading role in consummating human history here on earth. That is incredible in itself.</p>
<p>From your standpoint, I am like a shining sun, but the rest of the world thinks I am the worst kind of devil or monster. When the showdown is made, which observation is true-your observation or theirs? The lies and falsehood will eventually disappear, like the darkness disappears when sunrise comes. If we are living the truth, this will prevail throughout the world.</p>
<p>Once the home church system is completely established, we really don&#8217;t need any formal organization. The Divine Principle will be taught in the school system. We won&#8217;t need Church leaders any more. This is not bad news at all. We have a most glorious life, and with this goal we shall march forward until the last day of final victory.</p>
<p>This year&#8217;s slogan is &#8220;Home Church is My Kingdom of Heaven.&#8221; You are not doing home church as any favor for me. It is your kingdom of heaven. I don&#8217;t want it to take you 21 years to finish; everything should be over in the first seven years.</p>
<p>God keeps asking me to take a vacation, but I keep asking to take it later. When you go to your home church and get pushed down and pushed out, without any vacation, would you complain? There you will receive a certificate of tribal messiahship. After the completion of your home church crusade, you have the right to be blessed. Jesus Christ did not have the home church providence, and he could not have a heavenly wedding. Even though you may be blessed now, until you have completed the home church dispensation you cannot really have a home yet. Make a home church first.</p>
<p>I am completely comfortable and confident that here I have done my responsibility well. Now I can leave America. I had to study English a great deal, and I am tired of doing that. You have a great advantage over me because you have young minds, but at my age learning a language is a great burden. You must learn Korean, however. In home church one of your important duties will be to teach Korean, at least a few words.</p>
<p>When you are ready to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, there is one test you must pass-the Korean language. That&#8217;s true. Some of you are so clever that you know you need a good teacher, so you volunteered to have a Korean fiancée. Between the husband and wife, there should be at least one good Korean speaker, so that no translator will be needed when I speak. Particularly the heavenly ceremonies will all be conducted by Koreans, so if you don&#8217;t know Korean, you&#8217;ll be lost.</p>
<p>In the Children&#8217;s Pledge, number five says we are proud of one sovereignty and one people. If we are one sovereignty, one people and one nation, there has to be one language. How can we have half a dozen different languages? In one land there is only one language. We are proud of the one language, one culture, of being children of the one True Parent, of being laborers who are going to bring the one world of the heart. We pledge and swear three times to fulfill our responsibility with our lives. We repeat it three times, formation, growth, perfection. Every Sunday morning you say you are proud of one language and culture, but are you living it? All the leaders have not fulfilled their responsibility. Even before I spoke to you this way, you should have done this. When you come to Korea, there will be no interpreters.</p>
<p>From now on, be like pool balls for seven years; when you hit a ball with the stick, it dashes straight toward the goal without deviation. There&#8217;s no taking a moment to think about it. For the next seven years we will dash toward the goal. In heavenly pool the ball has a different route: when you strike a ball in heavenly pool, the ball will go first to 360 homes, round and round. Then it will ultimately go to the final goal: the Kingdom of Heaven. It starts out from hell, and goes to the Kingdom of Heaven.</p>
<p>Would you be a ball which hits several homes and gets tired, and doesn&#8217;t want to go any more? Do you want to go to 360 homes? Raise your hands if you want to go. God bless you.</p>
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<a href="/blog/2018/06/20/the-realm-of-existence.html" title="Permalink to THE REALM OF EXISTENCE" rel="bookmark">THE REALM OF EXISTENCE</a>
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&nbsp; <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="2018-06-20T14:43:12+01:00"> <a href="/blog/2018/06/20/the-realm-of-existence.html" rel="bookmark">June 20, 2018</a> </time></span><time class="updated" datetime="2018-06-20T14:43:12+01:00">June 20, 2018</time> <span class="bl_categ"> <a href="/speeches/categories/rev-sun-myung-moon-1981.html" rel="tag">Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1981</a> </span> </div><!-- .entry-meta -->
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<h2 align="CENTER">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
<h3 align="CENTER">February 8, 1981<br />
Belvedere<br />
Translator &#8211; Bo Hi Pak</h3>
<h4 align="CENTER">Copyright © 1981 by Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity</h4>
<p>Yesterday, happy news came (the birth of Yeon Jin). The baby had some initial difficulty breathing because fluid had apparently entered her lungs, but she has recovered and there is no problem now. Mother is resting well, too, and the child is really beautiful. Mother had to undergo some surgery herself and there were some minor complications, but it was nothing serious. Just before coming here, I got a call from the hospital and the report is that Mother and the baby are both well and dandy!</p>
<p>The topic of my message this morning is the realm of existence. The balance in human life is so delicate that it can be thought of as hanging on the thread of a spider&#8217;s web. Think of something simple like inhaling and exhaling. Can you imagine inhaling ten times without exhaling? Even to inhale three consecutive times is not easy. Try it. Inhaling and exhaling are one simple example of the beautiful balance that characterizes all of existence. Balance and harmony exists on a very thin line.</p>
<p>In addition to the respiratory system, our body also has a nervous system and a cardiovascular system. All these maintain a tight, narrow balancing act. For example, if you block one nostril you soon feel difficulty in breathing. Your mouth can&#8217;t function if you open one side and not the other. If you close one eye and look through the other one, your vision is incomplete and your face isn&#8217;t symmetrical. From all these examples, we can conclude that we need pairs, or complementary aspects, in our life.</p>
<p>Where does human life come from? It begins from a harmonized base or foundation. Common logic concludes that everything has its origin in harmony. Since we come from harmony and balance, there must be some element that generates this equilibrium. When you study the Principle, you learn that God exists in dual essentialities and that it is possible to determine the subject and object elements within God. This is one of the truly great discoveries in human history.</p>
<p>Everything in life participates in subjective or objective roles; subject and object are needed to form a pair or circuit. God as the fundamental subject of the universe created all things in an objective role to Him. Within any subject a minus or object exists as well; in other words, the subject also contains dual elements. A creation brings forth the object which, like the subject, contains dual elements. In general, though, there are two major categories of plus, or subject, and minus, or abject. These two are supposed to form a circuit of give and take, interacting in a complementary manner.</p>
<p>The cosmos is nothing but the expansion of this one basic truth of the relationship between God and His creation. The universe itself is divided into small entities of subject and object and trillions of them. But the relationship is always subject or plus, and object or minus, and each of these always contains complementary elements.</p>
<p>More than 100 elements have been identified through chemistry. An element is a fundamental substance that consists of atoms of only one kind and cannot be broken down into simpler particles by ordinary or physical means. Each element is characterized by the number of plus and minus particles that it contains. These ions are distinctly plus or minus, not halfway between. The plus-minus relationship becomes marvelously complex and sophisticated and is manifested in all the beautiful aspects of the universe. The variations in the universe come from the different combinations and angles of plus and minus.</p>
<p>One particular person might have a very large plus element and a small minus element. There are always variations, but the basic principle remains the same. Each being encompasses 360 degrees and includes various pluses and minuses, while its composition is unique.</p>
<p>When you draw a line through the middle of a circle, you form two complementary halves, but if you do not go through the exact center, the two sides will not match. When a straight line passes through the center of the circle, balance is created.</p>
<p>Each atom can be broken down into protons, electrons and neutrons. Two kinds of electrical charges-plus and minus-exist within that minute atom, even though it is so small. The atom can be compared to a heavenly body: there is always a center with elements revolving around it. No matter how small the atom, there will be an electron revolving around the nucleus, just like a miniature solar system. The elements of existence can be contracted into a tiny atom or expanded to the solar system and on to the universe. The microcosm and the macrocosm reflect one another.</p>
<p>Scientists today say that the universe arises from energy. But what is energy and how does it exist? Energy itself can operate only within the bounds of universal law. Which is the first cause: energy or action? This is almost like the question of which came first, the chicken or the egg.</p>
<p>I already stated that energy is no exception to the law of existence. Neither energy nor action can be permanent or solid without the fundamental elements of plus and minus. In other words, energy and action are like the effect, or the shadow; the complementary elements of plus and minus are prerequisites to both of them. Therefore, the origin of the universe cannot be either energy or action, but rather the complementary relationship of plus and minus. Within God there is plus and minus and that relationship is found everywhere. When plus and minus create a circuit, the action of give and take immediately arises. Action creates energy, just as the flow of water through a power plant produces energy.</p>
<p>The amount of energy you can exert depends on the size of your object. An extraordinary object calls forth extraordinary energy. For example, when I pick up a piece of chalk, do I have to use the same energy as if I were lifting a rock? No. So you see that to relate to a small object, you need to exert only a small amount of energy, while to move a large object requires greater energy.</p>
<p>The most logical, universal truth is that existence begins with plus and minus, which form a reciprocal relationship of subject and object producing give and take action. Through such action, energy is generated. Scientists talk about energy because it is a phenomenon that they can study. The two elements prior to energy are deeper and may not be recognizable by the scientific method. Plus and minus are invisible and often impossible to investigate in laboratory test tubes. Energy has a prerequisite, but scientists don&#8217;t usually think that far. They are content to say that the universe comes from &#8220;energy&#8221; However, energy can produce no action without the two elements of plus and minus, or subject and object.</p>
<p>Do you have love? Where is it? Can you show it to me? You can&#8217;t see the power of love and you cannot show it. However, as soon as you have an object of love, you can feel a certain power moving within you; you feel love growing. Have you experienced that? Likewise, people may not know whether God exists. He is invisible, hiding somewhere, but as soon as we become an object to Him, we can feel His power moving within us. This is a very scientific method, even though scientists may not recognize it! All action in the universe springs from the dual natures of subject and object; apart from them, no action can take place and no energy can be generated.</p>
<p>We have our ambitions and hopes which must have a direction or goal as their subject. Our aspirations and goals must work together as hand in glove, as plus and minus. People naturally want to fulfill their aspirations and reach their goals because we long to resemble God. When we unite subject and object, we become a perfect object to God and can have give and take with Him. This is our ultimate goal.</p>
<p>The aspiration and goal of all the elements was the creation of the universe. Just as human beings have aspirations and hopes, all things of creation do, too, although on a different level. Without this, they cannot connect to God. All things of creation ultimately aspire to resemble God.</p>
<p>The greatest question in the scientific world today is whether the phenomena in the universe are the result of evolution or whether they were created by someone&#8217;s will. People want to know whether life originated from some purpose or whether it evolved through random mutations. If evolution is true, who determined its direction? Evolution heads towards a higher state of development. Does each element determine its own goal? Does each being know where it is going to advance next? Evolution needs the input of new energy to develop into a higher state. How does the process of evolution obtain its energy?</p>
<p>Today&#8217;s science is totally deadlocked in this area. Even if the level of development is different, all things-grass, rocks, trees, etc. aspire in some way to be like God, who exists in dual essentialities. All the things of creation focus on one center and are concentrated into one microcosm-human beings. All the elements of the entire universe were assembled and compacted into one little shape: a human being. Each smaller plus and minus combines into bigger elements, forming higher and greater existences. The basic qualification for being absorbed or harmonized by a higher being is absolute internal harmony and balance between plus and minus. A harmonized plus and minus resembles God, who is perfect harmony.</p>
<p>The Principle states that wherever a perfect plus exists, it will automatically attract a perfect minus. When a greater plus appears, the smaller minus become a greater minus in order to be worthy of complementing the greater plus. The minus grows in stature to create balance. Suppose the minus is not large enough to balance a very large plus; it will assemble another small minus, and with it will grow in stature!</p>
<p>The theory of evolution is merely an external observation of the internal process of creation. Evolution analyzes the phenomena, but internally there is always a will and a goal at work; through give and take action a new and higher being is created. All the elements of the universe revolve around God.</p>
<p>In our body, an individual blood cell does not remain in one organ but circulates all over, from toe to brain. Blood is a harmonizer, traveling throughout the body and blending with all its elements. The nerves also bring cells and organs into harmony.</p>
<p>Spiritual growth can be compared to the educational process. We start out in life as a small being and want to become a higher and larger being since we want to resemble God, the highest being of all. Children go through elementary school but they are not satisfied with that. They want to continue through high school and perhaps go on to college and graduate school. When someone finally obtains a Ph.D., can he turn around and belittle his kindergarten or elementary school experience, or call high school a waste of time? Not at all. Looking back at all his experiences at the earlier levels, he realizes that they formed the foundation for his Ph.D. work and they are harmonious with it. From balance comes harmony, cooperation and advancement.</p>
<p>Communism claims that development takes place through confrontation and struggle, but that is a lie. It is impossible for higher beings to develop through confrontation and struggle. Only balance, harmony and cooperation can make it happen.</p>
<p>With this principle, we can evaluate the errors in the theory of evolution; also we can show that the ideology of communism is based on falsehood. When someone lectures on the Principle, he repeatedly stresses that God exists in dual essentialities. It sounds very simple and may seem easy to think of, but in order to reach that conclusion I had to dig down and search the four corners of the universe.</p>
<p>One of the greatest historical questions has been answered this morning: is our world today the result of evolution or creation? Creation is actually the most logical answer.</p>
<p>All things have a direction and goal; when they aspire towards it and take action, the energy arises which enables them to reach that goal. Thus it is logical to conclude that the entire universe is heading in a certain direction and that there is a will which determines that direction. Somebody set the goal, so movement has direction and all existence has a goal.</p>
<p>Communists talk about a utopia and the inevitable goal of an ideal world according to their &#8220;law&#8221; of dialectical materialism, but that is pure fabrication. They say that the ideal world can only be achieved through confrontation and struggle, but that is simply a lie. No such goal can be reached through violence and conflict. The Unification Church has a clear explanation: history has been the struggle between good and evil, not between plus and minus, not between the two complementary elements of male and female. History is filled with confrontations between good and evil. How can we determine that? By looking into our own hearts!</p>
<p>There are two types of processes operating within all things: action and reaction. When you consider only the reaction processes, everything appears to be a struggle. When there is action, a parallel reaction automatically appears. The Principle explains this as origin, division and union action. But the authors of communism, looking at the same phenomenon, came to a quite different conclusion. They saw it as a polarization-opposing elements continually at war with each other; and out of that conflict, they said, a new element or new creation comes into being. That is the view of existence according to dialectical materialism.</p>
<p>It is true that there are active and reactive elements, but there are two very different ways of explaining them-either communist theory or the Principle. There is a repelling energy in the universe. God is complete harmony between plus and minus, so He is a perfect being. If some foreign element tries to invade and break up the balance, this perfect element repels it and says, &#8220;You are not needed here. Get away&#8221; In your own experience, you repel a threat even unconsciously. If an insect flies toward your eye, your hand automatically comes up to stop it. If some person moved toward you in a threatening manner, you would crouch down, making yourself smaller, ready to burst into action. You want to repel any external invasions and defend yourself against foreign elements.</p>
<p>Why does the human body shrink before it expands or strikes out? It is because the universe is like that. God must have built some reactive or repelling energy into the system. Once perfect harmony is achieved, you want to maintain it for eternity. Everything aims for eternal existence; therefore, you have the built in power to repel any threat. You have your own defense department within you! Likewise, all of creation seeks to protect itself for the sake of preserving harmony. This is the beauty of the universe!</p>
<p>You might be thinking, &#8220;I am listening to what Father is saying but I am not convinced. How can it work?&#8221; The Principle teaches that when our plus and minus aspects come together in complete harmony, God will dwell within us. That is because a completely harmonized being reflects God&#8217;s own characteristics; that is how God can make His dwelling with us.</p>
<p>When your cells function perfectly, blood automatically flows toward them and the nervous system serves them. A perfectly functioning cell automatically sends an invitation to the circulatory and nervous systems and the life force flows into it. How can you deny it? It is scientific truth. By the same token, when the plus and minus elements completely harmonize, God comes to dwell there.</p>
<p>Thus both a harmonizing or comforting force and a repelling force exist. The first brings everything into oneness- like glue. The second rebuffs any threats to that perfect harmony. It springs into action and says, &#8220;Get out of here!&#8221; A certain rapport is established between plus and minus, but a foreign element that is not a perfect plus or minus is unwelcome. You enjoy talking with a loving person with whom you have complete rapport; but to someone you dislike or perhaps even hate, you say, &#8220;Get out of here!&#8221; You don&#8217;t want him around. The universe operates in two ways: by harmonizing and by repelling, and for both activities it needs energy.</p>
<p>Without being able to observe the whole picture, you only see things piecemeal and notice only the small elements and the repelling action. You can see a lot of struggle and wonder how such things can develop into something greater. But when you observe the whole, you find not only the repelling force but also the more important dimension: the harmonizing and unifying force. Whenever you seek after a greater object or subject, the uniting force becomes greater than the repelling force and it draws you forward.</p>
<p>If you know something about elementary electricity, you realize that two circuits are required in an electrical current: a plus circuit and a minus circuit. Do plus and minus attract or repel each other? They attract. However, two pluses and two minuses repel each other. When plus and minus unite, they resemble God, but plus and plus together do not.</p>
<p>During a summer thunderstorm, great masses of plus energy collide with great masses of minus energy in the air. When they come together, they produce Joyful sparks and an incredible sound. But if plus repels plus and minus repels minus, how can they amass into such a huge plus and such a huge minus? I was studying electrical engineering, and I was going to write my dissertation on this topic. However, I changed my studies to religion and never wrote the dissertation, but I still have a theory about this question. Engineers and physicists do not deal with philosophical questions; they usually just study the phenomena.</p>
<p>I worked out a beautiful theory to show why plus and plus do not always repel but also unite under certain circumstances. If no minus element is present, plus and plus may join, but as soon as a plus spots a minus-a potential &#8220;mate&#8221;-he exclaims, &#8220;Oh-ho! This is what I have been hunting for a long time!&#8221; Then he rejects the plus and goes to the minus.</p>
<p>Another good example can be taken from human experience. Before finding their mate, boys are best friends with each other; plus and plus are united in this case. But when one meets the woman who becomes his fiancee, he doesn&#8217;t want other men around anymore. Once a plus discovers a minus, it is drawn to it as object; that is because their unity will make them more like the image of God. No matter how closely plus and plus are united, it doesn&#8217;t reflect the image of God. Therefore, when plus and minus unite and then repel others, they are actually giving them a loving push away, an encouragement to go and find their own mate and create their own eternal harmony! That repelling action is a stimulant for others to become the harmonized image of God.</p>
<p>One plus unites with another plus, forming higher and higher pluses, and one minus unites with another minus, forming higher and higher minuses. Ultimately the super plus and super minus will meet, creating the ultimate universal, eternal beauty. One magnetic pole is mankind, the supreme creation, and the other magnetic pole is the universe, the rest of creation. When mankind and the universe unite and energy flows between them, they give birth to incredible beauty and the ideal world.</p>
<p>However, this is not the end of our journey. We continue our quest until we reach our ultimate, invisible subject, God. He is the final destination. When we reach God, we find complete, ultimate harmony, with God as the plus and mankind as the minus.</p>
<p>Once men and women join in perfect harmony, should we preserve it for eternity or break it up? If any foreign element tries to invade it, the repelling force pushes it away and tells it to go out and find its own mate.</p>
<p>When you are sick and in pain, it means that somewhere in your body the normal harmony or balance is broken. Something invaded and upset it, causing a reaction to eliminate the disruptive element. That is why you feel pain. The universal repelling force operates in your body to drive away the foreign invasion and sickness, and the struggle between the two produces the sensation of pain. When somebody hits you, you feel pain from that invasion. That pain motivates you to do something to protect yourself.</p>
<p>If something destructive is not painful, you might keep on laughing and in the meantime be destroyed. Pain is an alarm signal, an emergency warning system. The newborn baby feels pain whenever any critical balance is broken. He or she is sensitive to any abnormal situation. I thought a lot about the laws of existence last night!</p>
<p>We have concluded that we are the result of the act of creation, not evolution. We are the fruit of beautiful harmony. Communism claims to have the ultimate truth, but it looks at the world in little bits and lacks the whole perspective. To produce complete harmony, the universe is composed of pluses and minuses, and their intricate interactions form all the beauty of the universe. There is always give and take between them. A big plus includes lots of smaller pluses and minuses; a big minus includes lots of pluses and minuses as well. Each time plus and minus unite, something greater is created.</p>
<p>We have been talking about all these levels of duality, but you, too, are a dual existence. Within you there is the internal and external, mind and body, right? If there is no harmony between the internal, spirit body and the external, physical body, you feel the pain of conscience. To create perfect harmony you need God, who brings you the power of life. When God dwells with you, you never lack energy. As the dwelling of God, you become a powerhouse, able to continue day and night without running out of energy.</p>
<p>When you fund raise, if there is a battle between your mind and body, you feel fatigued and powerless. But once your mind and body are united, God can dwell in you and you feel abundant energy and vitality. In that case, an individual is like a factory with all the machines running- all the organs are doing their best-and you don&#8217;t have to worry about them going on strike!</p>
<p>Some members wonder what is wrong with drinking a little alcohol, smoking or taking drugs. Liquor, for example, will only play an invading role and upset your balance, making you commit some mistake. Of course, after you achieve perfect harmony between plus and minus, liquor, cigarettes and marijuana could not distract you. But while you are in the process of growing, you tend to look in all directions and many foreign elements try to woo you. When you pay attention to them, you will be drawn into their sphere.</p>
<p>Take another example: although there is no line between you and me, you feel some pulling power from me, don&#8217;t you? I may try to chase you away, but you come right back, just like a rubber band! You may think about me day and night, and you feel good because of the invisible link pulling on you. That is the power of life. All living things orient themselves toward the power of life; plants, for example, grow toward the sunlight.</p>
<p>My position is not that of an appointee; you cannot appoint a replacement for me. Someone can represent me, but not substitute for me. Can you replace your fiancé or spouse and swap them for someone else? Certainly not.</p>
<p>It is not enough to do well as an individual; you need a family. The family and its members-brothers and sisters, parents and children-are essential, because by uniting with them you enlarge yourself. In a way, your family is your larger self, and your society and nation are still larger selves. Even the world can be your larger self! Each person wants to become a greater and better being. Without this principle, the standards of value in society cannot be determined.</p>
<p>The greatest of all contributions that I have made to the world is the system of home church. Home church is the base or stage for becoming a larger self, for transforming the individual into the greater world self.</p>
<p>According to the Principle, a perfect plus automatically brings forth a perfect minus. God is the perfect plus of the universe. If I make myself a perfect minus, then perfect harmony will result. If any negative force threatens that combination, universal power will shatter it. If this is not true, then the entire universal law that I have been preaching throughout my life is false. God is the perfect plus, and everything and everyone else-myself, the United States, the whole world, the spirit world-should be in the position of perfect minus. I am taking the role of perfect minus to God so if the United States tries to harm or destroy me, the universal force will make it stop. That is the philosophical conclusion and truth must operate. I have seen proof of this statement.</p>
<p>Representative Donald Fraser, with the overwhelming power of the US Congress behind him, came against me and our movement. I gave Bo Hi Pak instructions to go out fearlessly and fight. Knowing this truth, I took the position of a perfect minus and Bo Hi Pak was united with me. No power under the sun, not even the universal power, can shatter such a relationship. Anything that tries to break the harmony between God and me will be repelled by universal power. History proves this. Who was defeated in the battle with Congressman Fraser? Who was defeated in the battle with the Carter administration? Was I defeated? I ran a beautiful test of this theory-like a laboratory experiment- with Fraser and Carter and I proved that it works.</p>
<p>The same principle is behind my announcement of a rally in Moscow. Everybody said, &#8220;A Moscow rally? How could we?&#8221; But if this principle is true, the Moscow rally will become a reality when you unite with me and the absolute minus. Yes or no? This is a logical theory and I am not acting blindly. There is logic and philosophy behind my actions. By following this principle, we will ultimately bring the universe and the world into unity. That is our ultimate goal.</p>
<p>When I talk about winning over the world, I don&#8217;t mean with any sort of physical means. I mean winning over people with love, enveloping them with love. I am constantly urging you to become bigger people and take on greater challenges. You only win people by loving them, by giving greater and deeper service to them. By loving and serving the world, you create a total vacuum, or a perfect minus. High pressure air is drawn to a vacuum, so when you make yourself a perfect vacuum, God will move in. No power under the sun can stop Him.</p>
<p>Please become like perfect, low pressure air. God is the world&#8217;s ultimate high pressure air, but there has been no corresponding low pressure air. If you become the lowest of all air pressures-a vacuum-you are a perfect minus, and God&#8217;s high pressure air will flow into you and fill you. That is natural law and principle. I send you out to suffer and endure hardships-perhaps even unto death-not because I hate you, but so that you can become a perfect minus to God.</p>
<p>Opposing elements look for their perfect mate for the achievement of perfect harmony. The universal repelling power never works to destroy someone, but guides them into their complete harmony. Universal power is not a destructive power. That is why we should love our enemy. By loving the worst opposing force, you are actually guiding it into greater harmony.</p>
<p>If you make yourself perfect low pressure air, or a perfect minus, then you become a person of all seasons and all regions. No door will be closed to you; wherever you go, you will harmonize and be accepted. If I walked in on you in your home, would you tell me to get out? Or would you say, &#8220;Welcome, Father, this is your room. Come right in&#8221; This is an example of how you can become a perfect minus, if I come in as a perfect plus.</p>
<p>In the family, the father and mother are the plus. The children must love them, obey them and harmonize with them. That is the universal law. Because Americans violate that law so much, they have many problems in their homes. The secret to winning the others in your family is to become the lowest pressure air and draw everybody else in. Then all the members of the family-parents, brothers, sisters, and children-can embrace one another. You can become the master of the house when you give more love than anybody else.</p>
<p>The same principle applies to the nation. When you become the lowest pressure air of the nation, you are the best of all patriots. Everybody will pay respect to you, including the president. To create the lowest pressure air, go and live for others; serve others.</p>
<p>Today I have been talking about the universe and its central principle. We know the core of both communism and democracy. What is Unificationism? Unificationism means the harmony of everything through the power of love.</p>
<p>Today we are celebrating the birth of a brand new heavenly baby, Yeon Jin. I know she will be very smart and grow up fast, giving you lots of competition. Are you ready to compete with her? That is the best frame of mind for celebrating her birth.</p>
<p>My children know the universal truth and they pray according to it. You, too, know what to pray for. Then God will heed your prayer. Otherwise, your prayers are just mumbling and bumbling-beating around the bush, in God&#8217;s opinion.</p>
<p>People say many things about me, but one thing is absolutely true. I am the one religious leader who will make you suffer the most! You may protest, &#8220;No, Father, we don&#8217;t like it,&#8217; but it is a good thing. I will explain why. Take your home as an example. If you work harder than everyone else, with a loving heart suffering for the sake of your family, even your parents will come and bow down to you and thank you from the bottom of their heart. By living that way, you become the child of God. Being one with God, you attain God&#8217;s position in your family.</p>
<p>When Unification Church members shoulder the worst problems of the United States with a loving heart, the entire country will eventually bow down to you. That is heavenly law. You can become the patriot of patriots. In order to do that, however, you have to suffer for the sake of the nation with a loving heart, more than any other person in history.</p>
<p>There are quite a number of patriots in every country, but only a few saints. The saint&#8217;s scope is different from that of the patriot: he works for the universe and for God. We could describe three levels of spiritual advancement: children of filial piety, or good members of their family; patriots; and saints, or holy people. How high is my ambition for you? I don&#8217;t want you to become mere children of filial piety. I am pushing you to become saints.</p>
<p>I am ambitiously seeking to take on the worst problems of the universe, asking to bear the universal burden. Is that good? People have had high ambitions and have tried to establish utopian ideals, but no one has been able to accomplish them. I have sought to understand the greatest problems in the world. God&#8217;s worst headaches are the expansion of communism; the rapid decline of religion; the degradation of youth; and the collapse of morality. These are the major problems of the world. God has been working day in and day out to solve these problems, so I volunteered, &#8220;Heavenly Father, let me take up those burdens and solve them for You. Let me come up with a unifying source of hope and a method for establishing a utopia&#8221;</p>
<p>This was the motivation behind the International Conferences for the Unity of the Sciences. God&#8217;s original plan was for people to be perfected within approximately 20 years. I am thinking that if I lead these scientists and eminent scholars for 20 years, they will have reached a pretty good level. Every year they give their unflagging attention to absolute values. When they could find no answer to a certain question, they decided to ask me about it!</p>
<p>All kinds of criticisms and accusations have been hurled against me but they don&#8217;t bother me. I just persevere and move forward, completely digesting them. I am engaged in a tug of war against communism, confronting it face to face. I tell it, &#8220;I will digest you. You can never digest me&#8221; I am also throwing a challenge to Christianity, saying, &#8220;You need me to revive yourselves, but you cannot digest me&#8221;</p>
<p>The adjective most frequently used to describe me is &#8220;controversial&#8221;-&#8220;the controversial Reverend Moon&#8221; All right, I am controversial. At least it proves one thing: people pay attention to me. I have become one with God, so when the rest of the world comes against me, the universal power repels them. That clash becomes the controversy. I have a completely logical explanation for all these phenomena. No area is hazy.</p>
<p>I can be calm even in the midst of suffering. If I am sentenced to prison and have to face hardships, I am filled with peace even as I enter jail. I can sleep well, eat well, and even digest sand if necessary. There is never a cause for worry once you know universal truth. I am absolutely confident of my destination, the heavenly world, and I want to take as many people along as I can. I can invite you to accompany me without any doubts, since I know our goal and destination.</p>
<p>To the degree that I am a perfect minus to God, I am a perfect plus to you. Whenever you create the perfect minus position, I will be with you. Whether you are in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East or Asia, whether you are behind the Iron Curtain or the Bamboo Curtain-it makes no difference. I will appear to you there. When you are a perfect minus, I will be with you. Therefore, no one can stop the march of the Unification Church.</p>
<p>The Unification Church is grounded in the truth of this principle. Unless some greater truth emerges, there is no way anyone can push the Unification Church back or put us on the defensive. It will be those who are resolved to suffer more than anybody else, those who try to duplicate my way of life. It doesn&#8217;t matter whether you have a Ph.D. or Master&#8217;s Degree and are a great scholar-this principle shall not change. I am setting a new tradition, and those who give themselves to the best of their abilities and suffer for the sake of others with a loving heart shall form the mainstream.</p>
<p>I know this is true, so whether you like it or not makes no difference. I will send you out, knowing that the final result will be glorious. At the end of your course, great blessings await you. You will be grateful to me then. That is why I have no reservations about pushing you now. Do you think I am telling you the truth, or am I trying to win you with cunning and sugarcoated promises? This is absolute truth.</p>
<p>This is why God is protecting me. If it were not the truth, I would have been summoned to the spirit world a long time ago. So many people have wanted me to disappear, to be taken to heaven or hell-or wherever! Many people have actually prayed for my life to be taken away, so why does God keep me here on earth? Regardless of what the entire world might think or pray for, God needs me and the members of the Unification Church.</p>
<p>God has the power to protect you, so you should go forward with a bold and strong heart. Are you a living being? Do you manifest the life force? You should have the powerful life force that can move the whole universe!</p>
<p>When you are fortified with this ideology, no challenge is too big for you. When I first landed here in the United States, do you think I was totally overwhelmed? When you become a perfect object to God, you too can act independently. In that case, you might say, &#8220;Father, I don&#8217;t need the help of you or the church. Let me take responsibility for this country&#8221;</p>
<p>You might also say, &#8220;I shall become perfected because that is my goal and destiny. I will perfect myself and then reach out to bring along the rest of the church&#8221;</p>
<p>When you encounter opposition, it is a test to see whether you can do these things on your own. Without overcoming opposition, you have nothing you can be truly proud of. Because you have learned to withstand and overcome opposition, that is proof that you have accomplished things on your own. That proof is beautiful and dynamic.</p>
<p>During the battles with Congressman Fraser, I was never afraid. I never prayed, &#8220;God, I am perishing! Come and help me!&#8221; I simply said, &#8220;Father, let me do this. Just sit back and enjoy the show and take delight in the accomplishment&#8221; This is the way I want to teach to be; you shall become people of dynamic boldness and strength. Don&#8217;t say, &#8220;I have no motivation because my central figure never recognizes my work&#8221;; or, &#8220;I am discouraged because my fiancé is so ordinary; I don&#8217;t have the energy to continue&#8221; If I ever had such thinking, I would not have gone far at all.</p>
<p>Those who pledge, &#8220;Yes, Father, I can follow your principle on my own. I will become a dynamo and perfect myself, helping to create the nation and world which God desires,&#8217; raise your hands, please. Let us pray.</p>
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<a href="/blog/2018/06/20/things-that-are-important-to-you.html" title="Permalink to THINGS THAT ARE IMPORTANT TO YOU" rel="bookmark">THINGS THAT ARE IMPORTANT TO YOU</a>
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&nbsp; <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="2018-06-20T14:42:41+01:00"> <a href="/blog/2018/06/20/things-that-are-important-to-you.html" rel="bookmark">June 20, 2018</a> </time></span><time class="updated" datetime="2018-06-20T14:42:41+01:00">June 20, 2018</time> <span class="bl_categ"> <a href="/speeches/categories/rev-sun-myung-moon-1981.html" rel="tag">Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1981</a> </span> </div><!-- .entry-meta -->
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<h2 align="CENTER">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
<h3 align="CENTER">February 1, 1981<br />
Belvedere<br />
Translator &#8211; Bo Hi Pak</h3>
<h4 align="CENTER">Copyright © 1981 by Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity</h4>
<p>There are many European brothers and sisters here who came for the matching. I&#8217;m sure you have found many things about this country that are different from Europe. Now you must decide whether those things are good or bad. Maybe you have found that life here is much more difficult than in Great Britain, or in European life generally. Perhaps you have become nostalgic and you think the simple and easy way of life in Great Britain is best. No? Do you like complicated things?</p>
<p>If you say that a school is good, usually it has an intense and demanding curriculum. Religious life can be compared to going to school. Do you want to join a very simple, easy-going religion? Members of other churches go to church Sunday morning and sit on cushioned seats. All they have to do is write out their contribution card and tithe weekly, and that&#8217;s it. But here you have to raise funds. Some of you have been kidnapped by deprogrammers. There are incredible differences.</p>
<p>A healthy person can digest difficult things that a sick person cannot handle. By the same token, when you have a healthy mind, you can digest anything: democracy, communism, any philosophy.</p>
<p>What ism is the Unification Church in? Godism. Also Unificationism, which is concerned with uniting things. Do you think that making things united is easy? You have five senses, plus your limbs, and the beauty of each component comes from its harmony with the whole. The eyes don&#8217;t say, &#8220;I don&#8217;t want to belong to that community. I want to be all by myself.&#8221;</p>
<p>In the Unification Church we have five different colors of skin coming from all different parts of the world. Our goal is to unite them into one family of man. Furthermore, Unification Church life is complex. It involves not only the Sunday morning service, but all kinds of things, including boat building and catching fish. There are even more fantastic things coming in the future. Later we will go deep into the mountains in the mines, digging miles into the earth for minerals.</p>
<p>What is my goal when I push you into these incredible experiences? I want to make you into people who cannot be defeated, people who are so capable that no one else can keep up with you. Once you totally digest many ways of living, with their hardship and incredible experiences, then you will be great teachers whom people ask for advice.</p>
<p>Ultimately, our question boils down to one central point: Is there a God? There are two contrasting &#8220;blocs&#8221; in our world today. One is the democratic world, or the free world, and the other is the communist world. The basic differences between them are rather simple. People in the free world assert that everything starts from the invisible world of the mind, or God, while communists insist that matter is the essence of everything. This is the fundamental ideological difference between them. However, in the free world today many people are not aware of the existence of the mind, or spirit, since it cannot be seen. When they get up on a cold morning, they feel they need warm clothing, not spirit. If they need an overcoat, they think about mink or sable. Are high quality, expensive things easy or difficult to come by?</p>
<p>If there is a God in the universe, how important He must be. If God were only useful for supplying daily meals and necessities, what kind of a God would He be? If God were dwelling on top of a mountain, would He be found on the lowest or the highest mountain? Not only would He be on the highest mountain, but on the peak of the highest mountain. If there were one tree on the top of the mountain, God would be in the top of that tree.</p>
<p>Is it easy to discover God? If God has hidden Himself in the earth, would He be just beneath the surface, or in the depths of the planet? If He dwelt in the desert, He would look for the largest desert, like the Sahara. That&#8217;s the way we reason. Suppose God is in the midst of the Sahara. Even though many people die along the way in search of Him, other people will never stop searching until they find Him. God is that precious. If the most important and precious thing is God, and He is hidden in the middle of the Sahara desert, would you like to go there? Even at the risk of your lives? That is human nature. That is the way man is created. If God is at the highest point of the mountain, people will not stop climbing up until they reach that pinnacle.</p>
<p>If God were hidden in a cave hundreds of miles beneath the earth, then men will dig and dig and will not give up until they reach Him. That&#8217;s the way man&#8217;s spiritual nature is inclined. Why is that? In the process of reaching that highest, deepest or widest point, we are overcoming everything in between. We become conquerors when we finally get ourselves to the top. Thinking men always feel they want to conquer something which ordinary people do not reach. It is man&#8217;s spiritual nature to strive to reach the utmost.</p>
<p>Should God place Himself in a place which is easy or difficult to reach? God should be at the pinnacle, in a position where people can ultimately reach Him only through an extraordinary way.</p>
<p>In what kind of place are we? I really want to give people the most precious thing under the sun. Then should I devise a way of life which is easy to live? Or should it be a path full of overwhelming experiences?</p>
<p>Everyone wants to get a Lincoln, if possible, instead of a Ford or Chevrolet. The most beautiful car is the easiest thing to create in the factory, right? No, the most expensive car requires the most care to make. The auto makers invest extra effort and give it all kinds of tests. The people who ride in the car don&#8217;t think about how difficult it was to build; they simply enjoy the car. If the person who created that automobile wants a ride in it, the owner would exclaim, &#8220;You don&#8217;t belong here&#8221; But if the car breaks down, who is going to be needed? The owner is helpless and has to go to a greasy mechanic. Both the well-dressed rich man who bought the car and the oily mechanic are connected to that one automobile.</p>
<p>What does this analogy mean for Unification Church? Do you want to be the passenger who rides in the expensive car, or do you want to be the dirty, oily laborer who made the car? Anybody can dress up in a nice suit and sit in a nice car, but not everyone can create a car. Dumb Reverend Moon took the difficult road instead of the easy one, becoming the dirty mechanic. The mechanic who had the ability to create the expensive car has nothing to worry about. If the car breaks down, he can fix it. Even if there isn&#8217;t a car, he can create one. He has confidence in himself.</p>
<p>Many of you are Americans, and Americans are proud of the Empire State Building, the World Trade Center, and so forth. But who built them? Dirty, sweaty black men built them. Who designed them? For example, the Trade Center towers in the Wall Street area were designed by Japanese. Americans are proud of these things, but can they build such things on their own? Even if your ancestors were great, working hard to build the things America is proud of, what about you? Many descendants just want to go disco dancing and have a good time. In that case, what can they be proud of?</p>
<p>Young people today are going after fun with no purpose in life. No matter how great their past may have been, these young people will decline. The children of the nation which could build the Empire State Building and the Trade Centers should be able to do something even greater and bigger. Then that nation and people will have prosperity. In the name of Unification Church we will be the people who will be purposeful and prosper. We shall be the remnant.</p>
<p>I was born deep in the mountain country of Korea in a little house. I talked about mankind, the universe, and salvation of the nation. My parents thought I must be crazy. They said, &#8220;You are the son of humble peasants. Think about how to take care of the fields, how to raise the animals.&#8221; People around there couldn&#8217;t comprehend the things that the little boy was talking about, so they said I was a crazy child, and when I became a little older, they said I was a crazy young man, then a crazy adult.</p>
<p>That crazy boy grew up to be a crazy man, then came to the United States, and is still talking about crazy things. I act like a crazy person. People look at me and say that something must be wrong with my brain. Recently I have been saying that America cannot afford to have Jimmy Carter as President for another four years. Attacking Carter was almost like hitting a stone wall with my own fist. Who would get hurt? Even if my hand got hurt, I wouldn&#8217;t stop. But finally the stone wall gave in.</p>
<p>From the average person&#8217;s point of view, my ideas are a little crazy. You are the followers of that crazy man. Amazing, though you aren&#8217;t bothered by being called crazy men and women. You became so crazy that you gave up drugs, gave up discos, and you stopped any promiscuous behavior. You are liberated from that.</p>
<p>We are looking at the entire world and are trying to do something about its problem. If I tell you to gather on the East coast, you hop into vans and drive all day and night, and in three days you are all here. If one driver&#8217;s eyes keep closing, someone else will open his eyes and drive.</p>
<p>Do you think I am so dumb that I don&#8217;t know anything about these realities? You MFT members, for example, go out into the streets every day and people yell at you and spit at you. Sometimes you are even shot at. The best attitude is to go to MFT as a researcher who is studying the people who hate Moonies. I am also researching all the MFT members. I push you out, and in the meantime I study what kind of person you are. The material MFT members get to study is the extraordinary treatment they receive. Some are kicked, some are stabbed, and some are hit. I want to see these records. What makes the men and women who can withstand this remain committed to their purpose?</p>
<p>People do not like to suffer, even for themselves, but here my MFT people are suffering for the sake of others. Not a single benefit comes to them, but they are doing it for the sake of others and for the sake of the world. This is either extremely bad or extremely good; it cannot be in between. Certainly I don&#8217;t enjoy tribulation. I would much rather go to an easy church. But I discovered that an easy path was not going to bring the solution. An extraordinary route had to be found, and I found it. Once I found that route, I asked you to go all the way and not give up. Do it until it is finished. What you are doing now is becoming dirty, oily car-makers. You have started to build an automobile, so don&#8217;t stop in the middle; go all the way.</p>
<p>Your MFT record will remain. People will recognize your deeds and your certificate will come. Later, a signature will be placed on that certificate, acknowledging you as a master in your field of MFT, for instance, and then you become a teacher. When you complete a most beautiful car and then you drive it, nobody will say anything critical to you.</p>
<p>Would you rather build a 1981 Lincoln Continental, or buy one from a dealer? If you build one, when you drive it you are not just driving a car. You are demonstrating what you are and you can be proud of yourself. But if you only talk about your idea and never carry it out, no one will trust your word. You may buy a car and be proud of it, but people will say that you are just being snobbish, that you really have no right to be proud. But when you make it and drive it, then you can be proud of your accomplishment and no one will say anything.</p>
<p>The basic difference between you and me is that you would prefer to buy a car from the dealer while I would rather build the car myself. The Unification Church is like that car. I can be proud of it and no one can say I am taking too much credit. However, I am still working on this car because I haven&#8217;t gotten the certificate yet from the US government, for example. But eventually the certificate will be processed and the signature will be put on, and then I will proudly testify and proclaim it to the people. Then they will say they are ready to hear me.</p>
<p>My ambition is to make each one of you my coworkers in the factory. Are you the auto buyer, or a coworker? That means you want to get down to work, don&#8217;t you? Doing this hard work means being disciplined, pushed and taught. As the foreman of the factory, I will not compliment you too much. I will always discipline and criticize you instead. This is the only way I can make you into topnotch workers. I want to push you so hard that no one is able to compete with me. I want all customers to agree that the best automobile comes from the Moon factory. Would you like that reputation?</p>
<p>The same principle is being applied to boat making. I told our people to make the best boat under the sun, but to make it the cheapest. The only way they can do that is by sacrificially giving themselves. But through this process the most beautiful boat is created, and no one else has a boat that can compete.</p>
<p>With the same spirit we make a society, a nation. If we Moonies make the best kind of nation for the cheapest price, there won&#8217;t be room for communism to creep in.</p>
<p>It has been reported to me that there is a great deal of communist activity on college campuses. When our CARP teams stage counter demonstrations, all the communists usually retreat. You applaud when you hear this because you are excited. CARP pushed the communists to take cover so you feel good, but you don&#8217;t want to exert the discipline that would give you the power to do that. You have to accept the discipline that will make you powerful enough to drive communism back. If with bare hands we can gather the resources to lay the foundation that can save the world, then if we have enough tools and money could we do it easily? If we are that kind of people, the world has no way to compete with me. What we can accomplish is so far above their own standards that they cannot even imagine how to compete with us.</p>
<p>In the fishing industry, for example, I am working on such a scale that no competitor can outdo me. Once I proclaim something, it will echo through the entire country and the entire world. People cannot help but listen. I operate on a simple principle and I have a plan.</p>
<p>Don&#8217;t look for the easy way out in the Unification Church. Before you are thirty, I will push you down to the dungeon. In that hell you will have to persevere and survive. The rest of the world is looking for the easiest direction, looking for another way to have a good time, but we don&#8217;t care that those things exist. By following my discipline you can all become saints by the time you are thirty. After that, go ahead and have a good time. You can even grow your hair until it reaches your toes. You can braid it into a rope and connect yourselves together and have a big parade, but only after you reach that saintly plateau.</p>
<p>After you become men of God, you shall enjoy true liberation. But the amazing thing is that no matter how much you enjoy the liberation, you will always be within the Principle. That is what perfection is.</p>
<p>Today&#8217;s topic is Things That Are Important to You. The most precious and important thing is God. Which comes first-spirit or matter? How do you know that matter doesn&#8217;t come first? In the morning the first thing you think about is your breakfast, right? You can&#8217;t show spirit to someone, but the communists can show matter.</p>
<p>How can you prove that the invisible world of the mind exists? Take the eye as an example. Could the eye know ahead of time that it would need moisture to keep it clean and wet enough to function? There is a pipeline beautifully placed near each eye to provide that moisture. Did the eye know it would need eyelashes to help keep dust away? Or eyebrows to divert sweat and rain from running into it? When a baby is born, its eyes are ready for any weather or dust in the air, as though the eye had known ahead of time.</p>
<p>Why does hair come out of the forehead and not out of the cheek? Why do eyelashes grow in only a very specific place? Do you think the eye itself is conscious of such a need? Of course not. Even after the baby is born, it knows nothing about the atmosphere. Do you think the eye knew anything inside its mother&#8217;s womb? Not at all. The designer of the eye knew about sunshine and dust and rain. My point is that someone figured all this out in advance, knowing what kind of atmosphere the eye would have to cope with. With that in mind, he also planned for hair, eyebrows, ears and so forth.</p>
<p>What if you didn&#8217;t have hair? Imagine being bald and going to visit the hot tropics with its fierce, hot sun. Some universal mind figured out all of these things in advance. That spirit had to exist before the material world could come about.</p>
<p>This is a very good analogy to use when you argue with communists, who deny the existence of mind or spirit. Just grab them and say, &#8220;Your eyes didn&#8217;t know what they would need before you were born. Did you know? You couldn&#8217;t talk to your mother even when you were two years old.&#8221; Even after many hundreds of years, the best eye doctors still say they don&#8217;t know all the secrets of the eye.</p>
<p>It is completely illogical to say that matter comes first. The spirit is invisible, yet it comes first, and it is the master and subject. We come to the conclusion that all the intricate beauty of the universe was designed by a universal consciousness which is spirit, and out of that spirit all of the visible world was created. You are the effect, therefore, so you have to know your cause. We are talking here about a vertical subject. You are living here in material reality, as men and women with horizontal relationships, but when you are connected to this vertical power, the vertical and horizontal turn around together. Then there is permanent existence. In physics, mechanical principles work the same way. In a motor there have to be four poles; one pair of plus and minus is not enough.</p>
<p>The visible universe has a spirit, like the visible body has a spirit. If some subject designed men like you, is that spirit superior to you? That universal spirit has give and take with all things in the universe. That central being who designed all things is what we call God. People cannot deny the divine knowledge, emotion and will in the universe; we call it God.</p>
<p>If God exists in our universe, what is most important for Him? True love? Where does true love come from? First, there must be life, for without life nothing can happen. You must exist before you can do something. For God, the most important thing is life, but He wants to exist not just temporarily but eternally. Therefore, temporal life is not enough. After life we can talk about true love, the culminating point. Love is not a stationary subject, but is only generated out of a complimentary relationship. Nothing can be perfect independently; it has to have the subject and object together to make a pair, creating a circuit which will generate love. The beauty of the universe is the pair system.</p>
<p>You men and women each have life, and God is the same. Without life nothing can begin. But in order to fulfill love, what you need is the pair system. Love cannot be activated outside of the pair system. Each individual also exists in the pair system of what we call dual essentialities. This too is needed to create a circuit for give and take of love. Think about your hand. How about taking one arm and linking it to your other one to make one longer arm and hand? Wouldn&#8217;t that be more utilitarian? But that wouldn&#8217;t pass the examination of love. Even teeth are part of the pair system, with an upper row and lower row. They are always snapping at each other, but they have to be that way within the Principle. Love can only be activated within a complimentary, reciprocal circuit.</p>
<p>The fingers on one hand each represent a season: spring, summer, autumn, winter. Since each finger has three segments, the total of twelve represents twelve months. The thumbs have two segments, so they represent duality. You have two types of nervous system, plus two types of blood vessels.</p>
<p>Before a baby is born, its hands make little fists, with the thumbs inside. The thumb is the number one finger, representing God. The center, or subject, should be inside. In the Unification Church who is the thumb? I should be in the center, and you are surrounding me. All these relationships derive from the pair system, in order to fulfill love.</p>
<p>Do insects have a pair system too? What about the grass and flowers? Everything exists in pairs and they all like love. There is no exception, because God&#8217;s goal is to fulfill love. God needs eternal life and eternal love. In order to fulfill eternal love, God is looking for His eternal object, so He can live in an eternal pair. Who can be God&#8217;s permanent object? Only perfect man-A-man. We have two Amens: the Unification Amen is A MAN, but when you pray with others you say Amen.</p>
<p>Eternal life is our goal. Why do we have to live for eternity? We are going to live forever because God is forever. God gave permanent life, for God is pursuing permanent love through the subject-object circuit system. Therefore, we are the objects of God. As much as God is eternal, we shall be eternal. As Moonies, you can be sure you are living for eternity. Many people are having fun today. But from today on, you should have the complete conviction that you will live forever.</p>
<p>So, upon this foundation, our next concern will be ideals. Do you think God has ideals? If you love someone, you want to be proud of him or her. You want to give him a gift, and you want to tell people about him. You want to demonstrate your every capability and be recognized by your lover, don&#8217;t you? In the same way, when God loves someone, He wants to show off to that person what He has done. &#8220;Look at the universe I created,&#8221; He might say. &#8220;Not just the oceans and the mountains, this little planet Earth, but the stars and all the galaxies. Would you like to have one? I&#8217;ll give it to you.&#8221; Then His children should feel, &#8220;Wow! Daddy, you did it, didn&#8217;t you? You are really number one.&#8221; Then they would embrace and become one.</p>
<p>If God had nothing to show His own children, if they only sat together in a lonely room in the empty sky, looking at each other, that would be no fun. There would be nothing to see. You can&#8217;t even kiss for 24 hours. But they would kiss and then go back to enjoy the world and do some ideal thing, then come back and kiss some more We need an ideal, something to aspire to. God has an ideal. To fulfill that ideal we have a vast universe to travel in.</p>
<p>With this clumsy body you can&#8217;t even travel to one planet, yet God has created millions of planets. In order to travel around God&#8217;s world, you have to travel faster than the light, faster than electricity. Unless you have that kind of speed, you cannot travel throughout the universe. You can travel as fast as your thoughts come. If you think about the moon, you have already traveled to get there. That&#8217;s why God can control the universe. With the power of love, He can travel even faster. Do you agree? Therefore, even God needs an ideal.</p>
<p>We need the four seasons and the changing weather, the great beauty of the universe to praise God for. Some people say they don&#8217;t like spring, or they like only autumn. Some people say they hate the winter, or the summer. To be in the image of God, you will go through all these seasons. You may like winter, but also you have to go through spring, summer and autumn. Does God like only comedy and not serious drama? Do you think He has a sense of humor? Does He joke with His loved ones? Does He like riding a seesaw, playing hide and seek? If God hides, it means He will disappear momentarily, and then briefly you become sad. But temporary sadness is not bad at all because it gives you additional stimulation when your loved one returns Love is never boring.</p>
<p>Over the course of history all peoples will be treated fairly. Those who had a tragic history will receive glory at some time. Strong nations conquered and controlled small countries, but at another time the smaller nations and oppressed people will conquer the great nations.</p>
<p>That is why I do not come from a big country. I came from the small country of Korea to bring to America the ideology which can conquer. So far in the materialistic, scientific world, America has led the way. But the small country of Korea has a new spiritual ideology that will control the world. It is only fair. History is turning around. These events are not separate from universal principle. Most of the problems of America today begin with the fact that American society is very wealthy. American homes have so much to enjoy that they don&#8217;t appreciate it. There is no true spiritual love between family members. Therefore, some change must come.</p>
<p>Even the planet earth is breathing. It expands and contracts. The amount of change is very small compared to the size of the planet, but still the earth is swelling and shrinking. Do your body cells breathe also?</p>
<p>Modern-day scientists are trying to prove that without love a human being can be created in a test tube. But in every cell there is life. Do you want to remain forever as you are now on this clumsy earth, or do you want to become the central element of love and live forever without any limitation? Does that mean you want to go to the spirit world very quickly? If God said, &#8220;Come on. I want to show you my world and my universe, &#8221; do you think you could keep up with God&#8217;s speed with your clumsy body? Even with the Concorde it would be impossible. Our true body is our spirit body, and our real world is spirit world. This is not fantasy.</p>
<p>God is spirit, and God created man in spirit and body, with the body only necessary to help the spirit become perfected, following Him around and looking over the universe, enjoying eternal life. That&#8217;s the way God designed it. You may ask why God made this clumsy body in the first place. It was because God is the ultimate spirit, like the north pole. His creation is a manifestation of spirit through material, the south pole. That&#8217;s man. In other words, man in the visible image of God. The central line along which God can look down to the other extreme is the line of love. God dwells in the center. There, life, love and the ideal are all concentrated upon this line. This is the axis which turns.</p>
<p>You want to live forever, don&#8217;t you? You want to have love, don&#8217;t you? You want to have ideals also. All of these things which you crave are concentrated upon this point. Whether you are yellow, white or black doesn&#8217;t make any difference; this is the universal center for everyone.</p>
<p>God will be proud of His creation when man also rejoices over it. When you look at the grass, you know that God made these beautiful, intricate green leaves for you. When you hear the birds singing, you can say, &#8220;God created them for me. Thank you God.&#8221; Unless you have this fundamental understanding, you won&#8217;t have gratitude. When you know that God made everything in the pair system, that God Himself is the subject looking for His object, and all of the universe is the object to man, then you know that all things are created for you. You know also that the central spirit behind it all is love.</p>
<p>Who is God and what is God? God is He who created life as a foundation, who is searching after perfection in love and who has a great ideal. You are the object of God, so therefore you pursue the same thing God is pursuing. So, first of all, I must be an eternal being. Once you have eternal life, then what? You fulfill love. Since God&#8217;s ideal is the fulfillment of love, you want to make that circuit of love with God. Since love is sacrificial and unselfish, you want to give everything to God and God wants to give everything to you. In that respect, you want to own the entire world, don&#8217;t you? In the spirit of love you can actually do that. God wants to love men, but He cannot love men who are without love. Man must have the capability of reciprocating in love, and then God can freely exchange love with him. Thus, the blessing comes only after men and women learn the value of love and experience that love. From this point of view, we know that the fall of man meant that man became numb to love, totally unable to understand love.</p>
<p>Christians always talk about being saved so that they can have their little niche in heaven. Most of them don&#8217;t care about the world or about loving people. They don&#8217;t want to waste their energy on the world. But heaven is not a place. Heaven is love. Unless you perfect your love, and unless you possess God&#8217;s ideal and practice it on earth, don&#8217;t talk about heaven. Our salvation means to become a visible image of God from the other extreme of the material world.</p>
<p>If your mind is yearning to go somewhere, then you don&#8217;t just lie down and sleep. God&#8217;s yearning is to perfect His visible image in man. In this case we are not the subject; we are only the object. Do you want to live by your will and ideal? By your own motivation and ideal? In America there is too much individualism and people don&#8217;t care or worry about other people. They only care about their own position, honor and happiness. That means they cannot be harmonized with the universe. In that kind of selfish motivation, the more you move the more distant you become from the universe. You are apart and separate from the universe instead of harmonizing with it.</p>
<p>Every day I am working to cut out all the old ideas and give you clean new ideas. But the old ideas tend to creep back in again! Think about yourself-how many times do you have to keep cleaning out the old ideas? You want me to do things the American way. If the American method would build the Kingdom of Heaven at once, I would be happy to do that. I am a logical person. I look at the truth, and if there is a better and faster way to achieve it, I would take it. Your problem is that you never really threw out the old ideas, but keep carrying them around. But I devised a new way to get rid of them: I will Be you a very narrow gate and a crooked road, and as you go along your luggage will get worn out and you will throw it away. I will push you faster and faster, and soon you will lose your old ideas.</p>
<p>Tell me honestly, those who feel you have to keep washing out all the old ideas, raise your hands. I will push you out the narrow gate to be hardened and disciplined. In a way, I thank the deprogrammers for giving you such a good workshop to find out how tough you are.</p>
<p>When the Europeans come to America, they always have big bundles of ideas with them. German luggage is extra big! Great Britain&#8217;s pride is pretty large. Do you I will have to leave them alone, or will I cut them away? I could do that, but Satan would accuse. The best way would be for you to leave the luggage behind on your own. Make a pledge among yourselves to get rid of these packages.</p>
<p>When you go door to door, either in home church or on MFT, think of it as visiting one planet. Some planets will give you the cold treatment, and some people will spit at you. When you get very cold treatment, think that this house is a winter season house. When you receive a hot welcome, think that it is a summertime house. That is the way you can rehearse everything in your life. You should be able to round out your character to love all seasons, all weather and all kinds of atmosphere. That is your goal while you are here on earth. By digesting with love everything happening here on earth, you become successful in your life.</p>
<p>Satan naturally has to surrender in the competition of love; Satan has no defense when you practice intense love. Love is your best offense and best defense. You can make it wider and wider because it has no limit. That is the original concept of the creation of God. For the first time in the history of man, the original concept of creation is being followed. We are the first to do that.</p>
<p>Because of the fall, man lost the knowledge of love, and has remained in the darkness of self-centeredness. We have to liberate mankind from selfishness. Wherever you go, your center should be the crossroads where life, love and ideal are concentrated. With it, there is nothing you cannot win. Without it, there is nothing you can win. Therefore, you must always defend these three key points. That has been God&#8217;s strategy all this time.</p>
<p>Is it right to refuse to visit a home because you know the people are atheists? You should embrace them and be sacrificial toward them. God always sacrifices Abel for the sake of restoring Cain. For this reason I am pushing you out strongly. You are Abel so you must demonstrate sacrificial love to save the Cain world. The more you practice this greater love, the wider your horizon becomes. I have lived this principle all my life. I always forgave the people who mistreated me, and sacrificially loved them. Eventually they were conquered by love, and my own horizons became wider.</p>
<p>Do you think I am very tough, or vulnerable and easy to break? I will never break. You also should have that kind of toughness, so that nothing can stop your life power. Unless you demonstrate that power of life, love and ideal, God will not find any rapport with you. God is eternal and He is tough. When you resemble me in this way, God will know He can trust you and deal with you.</p>
<p>When I issue a direction, how do you answer? Pushing you out and making you hard does not benefit me; it only brings criticism to me. I don&#8217;t need your fund raising because I do not spend American money for my purpose. I can take care of myself. It is not for my own benefit that I push you.</p>
<p>If someone is trying to take life power away from you, would you just give it up? When your former girlfriends want you to come back, will you say, &#8220;To heck with my eternal life. I would rather have fun&#8221;? Don&#8217;t cheapen your life. You cannot swap the value of your life for even the whole universe. Your life is connected to God and is there for eternity. Your life should be full of give and take with God. Do you want to give it up because of one girl nagging you? Can you sell your life cheaply? Even if 240 million Americans come against you, still you cannot sell it. Even if the entire earth came after you, still you cannot sell it, because it is more precious than the entire cosmos, equal to God.</p>
<p>Ungodly love brought the fall of man, and brought death and misery. In restoration, we have found true life, eternal life. To restore the original love lost in the garden of Eden, you should not hesitate to do anything. It is your pride that you are persecuted, condemned, and spit at for the sake of restoration of true love. You are doing things as important as God is doing; God created original love, and now you are restoring it into wholeness. How great that sacred job is. Until God and the world are united in rejoicing over God&#8217;s one principle, I shall not relax one minute. No matter what, you must defend the central point where life, love and ideal all come into the center.</p>
<p>The Unification Church is pursuing that kind of eternal life and that kind of God-centered love and ideal. The world is our stage. Unless we are victorious on earth, we shall never prevail eternally. We have not won that ultimate victory yet.</p>
<p>Instead of running many races, you can think about how to be victorious all at once, how to condense everything into one race. You want to participate in that kind of game, don&#8217;t you? That&#8217;s why you become a champion for all seasons, in all areas. I have a good brain and I am always thinking about what the one game is in which I can win everything. God wants to see His son</p>
<p>win that kind of certificate. That one game where you can win the championship is home church. That is where you can run with your life, love, and ideal. No matter what the people say about you, it doesn&#8217;t make any difference. Go ahead and run in all directions with this principle. If other people sleep five hours, you will sleep four hours. If they sleep four hours, then you sleep three hours. If they sleep one hour, you won&#8217;t sleep at all. You have to have strong life power.</p>
<p>Unification Church leaders come to East Garden from all over the world. I play ping, pony or pool with them for hours, or sit and talk with them all day and night. They cannot compete with me, and they say I have an iron body. Actually I am not a superman with an iron body. What I have is an iron spirit. Your mind jumps around all over, but my mind is like a rock that stays firmly in its place, period. When I set a goal and start marching toward it, nothing under the sun can move me away from it. No matter what hits me, I shall not shatter. I will not slow down at all. That is the kind of teacher and leader you have.</p>
<p>Since people persecute you, how can you forget what you represent? It doesn&#8217;t make any difference whether you go to Africa, South America or Asia. Wherever you go you are standing on the Principle. God has given you the stage, your home church where you can practice this. Season your life with life power, love power and ideal power in your home church. To get a degree from home church, you have to work day and night. If you want to become a Ph.D. you have to write a dissertation. Sometimes people devote many years to preparing one Ph.D. dissertation. This cannot be done in your way, but must be done in God&#8217;s way.</p>
<p>You want to meet these three criteria of life, love and ideal. When you think you have passed, I will examine what you did. When I sign for you, then God will examine it and add the final signature. Unless your certificate is completed in that way, it will not be accepted anywhere. Go ahead and create the power of life, love and ideal so that your cup completely overflows.</p>
<p>What is important to us? Life, love and ideal. If you say it is easy to do, I know you are faking. I know that it is not easy because I have been suffering all my life. What I had to obtain was so important that there was nothing I could not endure. I have already graduated, and now the next seven years are your course. I have become the school principal and now I can put my signature upon your certificate. From the bottom of your heart, do you believe this is the most important thing to practice? Would you do it even if your nose was cut off, your eyes blinded, and your ears cut off? The Bible says that if your arm or leg hinders you, cut it off. The Bible uses very severe language in matters of sin because sin is detrimental and because there is no way out.</p>
<p>Those who pledge that today is a new day for them to begin to practice what I have taught this morning, raise your hands and show me.</p>
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<a href="/blog/2018/06/20/who-is-god-and-who-am-i.html" title="Permalink to WHO IS GOD AND WHO AM I?" rel="bookmark">WHO IS GOD AND WHO AM I?</a>
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&nbsp; <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="2018-06-20T14:41:57+01:00"> <a href="/blog/2018/06/20/who-is-god-and-who-am-i.html" rel="bookmark">June 20, 2018</a> </time></span><time class="updated" datetime="2018-06-20T14:41:57+01:00">June 20, 2018</time> <span class="bl_categ"> <a href="/speeches/categories/rev-sun-myung-moon-1981.html" rel="tag">Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1981</a> </span> </div><!-- .entry-meta -->
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<h2 align="CENTER">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
<h3 align="CENTER">January 25, 1981<br />
Belvedere<br />
Translator &#8211; Bo Hi Pak</h3>
<h4 align="CENTER">Copyright © 1981 by Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity</h4>
<p>Those of you who are from Europe and were recently matched, raise your hands. Those who do not speak the same language as their fiancees need an interpreter. Can you communicate with sign language? Or love language? Have you ever thought about marrying someone who can&#8217;t speak at all? Marrying a foreigner with whom you cannot communicate is like marrying a dumb person, and in a way that person is far distant from you. Everything starts with language and communication. When you have communication, then you can understand each other&#8217;s personality, character, culture, background, everything. Without it you have nothing. At least one thing is sure, however; even though you don&#8217;t have the same language to communicate with, you are married to the opposite sex. There are many people with whom you can communicate, but what happens in the Unification Church? You are engaged to a person who doesn&#8217;t even speak the same language! What kind of a church is that?</p>
<p>When you are young, you see movies and famous movie stars, and you think that some day you will marry a man or woman like that. Insignificant, unknown people have this kind of dream, even if they don&#8217;t have any qualification to expect that. That is human nature and desire. Now you are destined to live with one man or woman whom you will serve and love for your entire life. You will be closer to that person than anybody around you, closer than your parents, closer than your own brothers and sisters, and closer than any of your friends.</p>
<p>Who made it so? How do you know God or True Parents did that? We come to a natural conclusion: God alone has the power to bring together two people who don&#8217;t even speak the same language. You accepted that challenge because you have infinite faith in God, and in True Parents as the instrument of God. You also play a role as the instrument of God. The catalyst to bring men and women together for eternity from different backgrounds and cultures is certainly the power of God.</p>
<p>You rejoice over the matching, not because your fiancé is the best person under the sun, but because the person who made it so-God-is the best personality in heaven and earth. True? If we move God out of this event, then we have nothing. Furthermore, if we pull Reverend Moon out of the scene, again nothing remains. When you pull the Unification Church out, as well, nothing will remain.</p>
<p>Why do I do these things? Not for myself or the sake of the Church, but for the sake of God. There is no doubt that I do not gain any profit by matching you to a foreigner with a different character and language. It is a totally unselfish deed done only for God, for you, and for the sake of mankind. Through your foreign fiancé you are closely united with me and the Unification Church and you are remembered by God. How wonderful that is! The same moment that your fiancé disappears, God will disappear, and the Church and I will disappear from your life; therefore, this union with your fiancé is a God-given destiny and you are bound by it.</p>
<p>Suppose you must labor to make a day&#8217;s wages. Would you like to work by yourself or at least have a stranger as your companion? It doesn&#8217;t make a difference whether you are rich and famous; when you are left in that kind of situation, you want to have a companion. During the day&#8217;s work that companion is the closest to you, and when lunchtime comes you want to sit with him or her and eat together. It doesn&#8217;t matter whether that person is good-looking or very poor-looking. The Unification Church is like that working site. We each want someone to sit down together with. Now you happen to have a companion from a foreign nation, maybe even a nation which used to be an enemy country, such as France and Germany or Japan and America, but this person is the only companion you can rely on.</p>
<p>Our work is so different and unique that we need unique kinds of companions. Of all the job descriptions in the world, ours is the most difficult. This job is so difficult that it is much better for you to start in an adverse situation. Instead of one American meeting another, you start out as strangers with different languages and backgrounds. It is hard enough for two strangers to unite into one, but while you are doing it, you can also overcome the difficult task ahead of you. No one can accomplish that kind of mission except us. That&#8217;s our pride.</p>
<p>We are gathering world champions; since we are champions, this kind of adversity is nothing. A few bruises and cuts will never hurt you because you know you can overcome them. Within your own lifetime you can bring together two extremes. When you can do that, there is nothing you cannot do.</p>
<p>Who are going to be the most dramatic husband and wife? Two Americans? Two Japanese? Two Europeans? Or two people who don&#8217;t speak the same language? One couple might say, &#8220;We are the perfect couple. We grew up together, we speak the same language, and we ate lunch together all the time in high school. Now we are married and we completely understand each other. That is why we should win this championship.&#8221; But the next couple might say, &#8220;When we met each other we couldn&#8217;t even greet each other; when I said &#8216;good night,&#8217; she said &#8216;good morning.&#8217; &#8221; This couple really started at an impossible level. Which couple is the winner?</p>
<p>Today you must feel that you are applying for the championship. When you say &#8220;good morning&#8221; to your fiancee, and she replies, &#8220;What did you say?,&#8221; I want you to understand that you have the most dramatic, historical beginning. We do things others cannot do. Once you become men and women who meet God&#8217;s expectation, there will be nothing under the sun you cannot do. How would God feel as He looks at such couples? Would He feel dark and depressed, or ecstatic with joy and pride? Would God pay more attention to those couples?</p>
<p>What kind of gift can God give? Children. Men and women with infinite faith, who thankfully accept God&#8217;s challenge and God&#8217;s given destiny will have a great gift coming in the form of children. Children will be given to that couple who are far superior than any others within their own society or nation.</p>
<p>What are the characteristics of good children? Good children bring good fortune, blessing from heaven and good happenings to that home. When you look at your foreign fiancee, you can say, &#8220;You are my champion, and God&#8217;s champion.&#8221; God is indeed sympathetic and concerned with those couples.</p>
<p>Let&#8217;s talk about God now. Do you see God? Do you see air? Can you see your mind? How do you know that air exists? Where is your mind-on your fingertips? How about answering this way: men&#8217;s minds want to make a home within women&#8217;s minds, and women&#8217;s minds want to dwell in men&#8217;s minds. Why are they drawn to each other, and want to exchange their dwelling place? Because there is another reality-that is love. Love brings the two minds together, and because of that love a man&#8217;s mind wants to dwell in a woman&#8217;s mind, and vice versa.</p>
<p>Do you miss your home town? Even if you were born in a very miserable country cabin, would you miss that log cabin? Your parents may be simple rural people and your brothers and sisters may look like Idaho potatoes, but still you want to go back there, don&#8217;t you? Why? You have an indestructible line of heart and emotion connected to your home.</p>
<p>Americans love to hear American folk songs and visit historical places that make them nostalgic. Those things make you feel something wonderful. Your home is the birthplace of your heart. Therefore, it is human nature to want to write a poem about your childhood and your home town. The American hostages are coming home now from Iran and there is lots of news about them all over America. The American excitement is different from the sympathy or excitement of Germany, France or Britain because the Americans have a connection of heart. For the same reason you have an attachment to your home town, your parents, and particularly to one focal point: your husband or wife. If you possess that essence of love, then everything wants to connect to it.</p>
<p>Where there is love, nothing is impossible. Certainly God, who is the person without any impossibility, would want to dwell in love. When men and women are united in love and they find there is a place of greater love, they want to get there together. When you meet your fiancee and you establish a loving relationship, how would you like to move toward greater love? Do you want the fastest form of transportation, or would you like to travel slowly in a carriage? You want to get there the fastest way. What is the fastest way? The jet plane of love.</p>
<p>Where would you like to land? You said you want to land in the heart of God. Do you need permission to land? Planes cannot land without some control tower on the ground to guide them to the landing strip. There is a correct way to land on the landing strip of love. What kind of welcoming party will be there? Amazingly enough, when you land on the correct landing strip, there will be a welcoming party of people from many thousands of years of history, including Abraham and Noah. They won&#8217;t seem like strangers, but will come right up to you. What power could make that happen? Again, only the power of love.</p>
<p>In love there is no distance of time, even if there is a difference of thousands of years. In love, time and space are completely disregarded. You think Germans and French are far apart, but when you are united as a blessed couple and come in for a landing in your love jet and see people from many thousands of years who have come to greet you, then you know that the distance between the French and Germans is nothing. Even if one of those people is 6,000 years old, there is no foreign feeling between you. You can instantly become one and understand him completely.</p>
<p>Love is really a strange thing. Even if you are from different nations, when you come together in a marriage relationship, you don&#8217;t feel bad at all. One thing is for sure: You are marrying a person of the opposite sex and no explanation is needed! You want to touch him or her tenderly and there is no distance. The power of love can unite strangers. The power of love can shorten the distance of time.</p>
<p>How old do you think God is? God is really an old gentleman. I say He&#8217;s millions and millions of years old. I&#8217;m sure His beard has grown all the way down to His feet, and if God keeps growing taller, there&#8217;s no telling how tall He will be. But still you don&#8217;t have a strange feeling toward Him. What power can do that? How can you instantly become friends with someone from one million years or ten thousand years ago? By law or knowledge? Nothing else but love.</p>
<p>God wants to dwell where there is love. What is true love? There are incredible things going on in the Unification Church. Many of you are white people with blonde hair and blue eyes, but instead of loving only members of your own race, you love a man from the Orient, Reverend Moon. What power makes you want to stick with me? There is a power of love here that has never existed before. There is something bringing the East and West together. Does God want to dwell only where white people come together, or where Oriental people come together? Instead, God wants to dwell here, where the East and West meet and all colors of skin come and rejoice together.</p>
<p>I am a yellow man from the Orient. You are white, brown, black and red, but it doesn&#8217;t make any difference. We want to come together to be happy and joyful. That means you have a different kind of love that ordinary Westerners do not have. God is pulled by the power of love, and is attracted to the place where the power of love is higher and nobler. Where will God find a landing strip? Absolutely, the Unification Church is God&#8217;s landing strip because a higher love is attracting Him here.</p>
<p>In America there is still racial tension between white and black. When white and black people start loving and trusting each other, don&#8217;t you think that will make a landing strip for God? It&#8217;s amazing, but here in Unification Church whites want to marry blacks, and blacks want to marry whites and make an eternal life together. Have you ever thought about whether white wood or black wood can burn faster? It&#8217;s scientific truth that black absorbs light, while white reflects light. When speaking of the fire of love, would it be more strongly attracted to white men or to black men?</p>
<p>God gave a fair chance to everybody regarding love. If for some reason a couple is being persecuted by their village, that harassment will actually drive them closer together. The power of their love would be most intense under those circumstances. In that couple there is a fire of love burning more brightly than in any other couple. That is very true with Mother and me. You know I have been persecuted by America. At home I will say to Mother, &#8220;You are my ally. You understand me.&#8221; Mother will say, &#8220;Father, you are my hero, no matter what the people say.&#8221; Although she is only one individual, with Mother&#8217;s words I am comforted. There is nothing that compares to the way Mother supports me. &#8220;Besides,&#8221; Mother will say, &#8220;It&#8217;s nice in a way that the rest of the world is persecuting you, because it drives you home faster!&#8221;</p>
<p>Mother and I can really enjoy persecution. Our children understand us, and the cohesive harmony in our home is very strong. The children have a strong conviction that, no matter what the world says about their parents, they are the most wonderful champions of God. Sometimes they feel they cannot suppress their anger at the world, but in the meantime, they feel intense love toward their parents. There&#8217;s nothing bad about getting persecuted.</p>
<p>When you look at world affairs from the standpoint of love, there is nothing you cannot be grateful for. Because I have been persecuted so much, God blessed my family more and more. The evidence of this is that over the years the children who are born to us are even more brilliant and more outstanding. When I look at them I thank God. When God has big gifts to hand out, you must make your shopping bags bigger so He can give the biggest gift to you. What are those gifts? God wants to give many gifts to Mother and me, so we will have more and more children. God wants to give us more than forty children, but since the human body has certain limitations, God will condense the gift into a few most brilliant children.</p>
<p>This is why we do not condone birth control. God wants to give blessings, but if all of a sudden you stop having children then you are blocking God&#8217;s way of giving you blessings. If we did that, when we got to spirit world God would say, &#8220;My son and daughter, I had more gifts to give you while you were on earth, but you blocked the way. Why did you do that?&#8221; Probably Westerners can&#8217;t understand this. Many Americans think they don&#8217;t want to have children because they want to have fun in their lives. That way of thinking is very selfish. Which way of thinking do you think will prosper?</p>
<p>Westerners have always been proud that they are ahead of everybody, but now auto makers have to turn to the East to learn techniques. When you compare a Western made television and a Sony, the Japanese set has more brilliant color. Many consumers are buying Japanese products. Do you think it is because Americans want the Japanese to have superior technology? God is shifting the emphasis from one place to another. The day of the Asians is coming, and now they shall be understood and respected by the world. But Asian people have serious shortcomings. They are too nationalistic and they always cling together with their own people. That&#8217;s not God&#8217;s way. This is why I had to come out of Asia to shatter the barrier of nationalism.</p>
<p>I come to promote universals, or Godism, and the love race. What I am doing in the West is something that neither Western nor Eastern culture can produce. No existing culture can bring a heightened unity between East and West. Am I doing this with some technology? Some Machiavellian diplomacy? I am doing it with a special kind of love.</p>
<p>God is a universal person who really enjoys love. He wants to dwell in love, to work in love, to dance and sing in love. God is a fighting God too, but only in order to secure love for Himself and for everyone. We understand God and know His traits and what He likes. Where can true love dwell? There has to be a principled way, a way of law and order. Love dwells where principle dictates. What is the principle of love between men and women? When you meet in love do you want to beat around the bush and go round and round, or do you want to meet face to face? Do you want that person to have all kinds of stains, or to be a pure person? Do you want that person to bring lots of friends, or to come by himself?</p>
<p>Does the eye like love? How about the nose? The ears? Mouth? Hands? Everything thinks about the goal of love. Do you want to go straight to love, or wander around? When you come into love, there is total concentration, total focus. The mouth, ears, hands and mind all focus on one sharp point and go through the center. That is the force of love.</p>
<p>If love is concentrated into one dot and that dot moves around, any miracle under the sun can happen wherever it touches. When the love dot is visiting homes, do you think people will say, &#8220;Don&#8217;t come into my home&#8221;? Or will they open the door and give love the red carpet treatment? Do you think the cells of your body will open or close up to love? Basically the Oriental woman is shy, yet when love comes in, she opens herself up. The total concentration of genuine, pure love has never blossomed yet in history, but when that concentration of love is created and the blossoming flowers open, that is the most joyful event.</p>
<p>If you told your hand that it could not participate in this feast, the hand would protest loudly. All your senses would insist on participating in that love. When a young man and woman become teenagers and feel the surge of their first love, their whole bodies are concentrated on it, day and night. But that should not be the high point of their love experience. The intensity of their love should become greater over time. Have you ever experienced such total concentration of love?</p>
<p>How can we get 100 percent concentration of God&#8217;s love? God really wants to come down and touch every bit of you. When you have love, then God wants to come and touch you. Then everything sparkles with love. So far no one has ever totally concentrated all their five senses into that genuine love, so we are going to make a new history. All five senses are there to be intoxicated in love, so that you become a total chunk of love. If God sees delicious love, He swallows the whole thing without peeling it. God is very hygiene minded, yet whenever there is love, God doesn&#8217;t stop to wipe anything clean: He just swallows it.</p>
<p>When are the five senses united through love? If you are intoxicated in true love, then with that true love you love your husband or wife, your children. neighbors, and nation. That is the ultimate perfection of man.</p>
<p>Where is that love? The fallen world has destroyed the heavenly order and discipline of love. They don&#8217;t like the heavenly principle and resist its restrictions. Freedom in this country is often misused, so love has become perverted. Freedom can only blossom as true freedom through the discipline of heavenly principle. Perhaps men and .women go to a dancing place for an evening. It might be all right for the husband to dance with one of those girls when his wife is there, since then nothing is hidden. But if a man is deceiving his wife, leaving her at home and doing something unlawful with another woman, that is totally wrong. In love, there must be strict discipline, a strict principle to follow.</p>
<p>After the presidential inauguration there were several inaugural balls. Many men and women were dancing and socializing, and I wondered how many of them were thinking that, in many cases, such events help to split up families. Celebrating in dance is beautiful. I have nothing against it, but it should come under the Principle. Otherwise, such things can be destructive to homes and society. It is beautiful for a husband and wife to go out together and rejoice in dancing and love. If the wife introduces another woman to her husband, and then he dances with her, fine. It is not initiated by the husband. Sometimes you might introduce another friend to your husband or wife and say, &#8220;Why don&#8217;t you dance?&#8221; That is beautiful. But in many cases, the man totally disregards his wife and looks around for some other sexy woman. That is not principled.</p>
<p>God is a God of Principle and He dwells in love. Love blossoms through the Principle. When men and women marry in the Principle, that is the most beautiful foundation upon which true love can blossom. Also, that love must be public minded and unselfish. Why? Because no one really possesses love. Love is activated only when there is an object, so without an object there is no love. Love needs an object in all four directions. That object will complete a circuit that can channel love to you. To receive love, you have to activate it by giving love. When you love and serve someone or something, that love will return to you.</p>
<p>Selfish love says, &#8220;You must love me. I&#8217;m here to receive love.&#8221; Satan always works in selfish love, and that kind of love always drags you down like an anchor. In most cases, American women marry because they want their man to love them; they are ready to receive love. That is wrong. You should change your mind now and think, &#8220;I want to get married because I want an object to give my fervent love to.&#8221; No matter how big and strong a man is, he will be melted by love. Your love can melt him. American women are often good at speaking about their love, but not good at showing it. Love is action and deed. The ideal woman acts out her love and then gives praise with her mouth. That&#8217;s the way it is supposed to be.</p>
<p>Any love that is not public minded is destructive love. Which should be more important to the couple, their savings account or their love? In some homes there are two savings accounts, one for the husband and one for the wife. When they borrow from each other they even write a receipt! If the son asks for some money, he writes a receipt and pays it back with interest. Is love cheaper than money and a piece of paper? When you are truly in love, a husband and wife are one body. Your whole body can become sacrificial, so a bank account is nothing. When the husband needs money, the wife&#8217;s money is her husband&#8217;s. The husband&#8217;s money is her money.</p>
<p>God&#8217;s love dwells in the public place, in the public minded person. In the Unification Church we promote the public minded action and love. Public minded fund raising is a public deed which you do for the sake of America and mankind. You are not doing it for me or for yourself. We want to set the tradition that we have lived our entire lives for the public purpose. What reward would you get by doing it? You would receive the love of God, which is public love.</p>
<p>Most people think they would lose everything by living public mindedly, but actually there is no better deal than this one because you gain everything by doing it. I have been practicing this and everyone thinks I am a loser; but I am not at all. By practicing it, I have become more and more prosperous. There are many people who are well-educated, well-to-do, good-looking, and who come from good families. In worldly appearance they are far better than I am, but when they become Moonies they want to live by my standard. Once you go out to the world and practice this public minded love, you get a taste of real love. If you want to prove this to yourself, leave the Unification Church and compare what you get in the world with the life of the Moonies. Then you will really know what an exciting and rewarding life you have been living here.</p>
<p>I have a pretty sharp mind. Do you think I have not thought of this point? By living with public minded love you gain everything, including the love of God. I will be practicing this the rest of my life. When money comes to me, I don&#8217;t think about putting it into my children&#8217;s bank account. I want to spend it for the public purpose. I even want to borrow as much money as possible in my lifetime to spend for the public purpose. If you know my attitude, then when I tell you to raise funds, no one will complain. Instead, everyone will respond, &#8220;You can depend on us.&#8221;</p>
<p>Such a way of life is just and righteous for the past, present and the future. When you live this Principle you feel good. You cannot explain it but you know your conscience is clear, and you can sleep well at night.</p>
<p>Look at our manner of worshipping here on a concrete floor. In New York there are many churches with plush carpets and cushioned chairs, organ music, and Ph.D. pastors with robes who deliver short sermons. Why did you come here and sit on the floor? The difference is that this is a public minded place. We pursue public minded love because that is where God comes to dwell. To attract God to us, we have to live a public minded life.</p>
<p>Last year some eminent professors came to see me at East Garden. One of them was a former Harvard professor, who said proudly to me, &#8220;Father, I am the first professor to become a Moonie. What can I do, Father?&#8221; I answered him, &#8220;I&#8217;ll tell you what you can do: Go out to the world, be persecuted and cursed, and give your life for the world.&#8221; This is the Principle. The professor might have expected me to compliment him, but not so. The heavenly decoration is to go out and receive persecution, be condemned, and die for the sake of the world. That principle is the same for you, for the professor, for the President of the United States. If the President came to me and asked me that question, I would give him the same answer. The tombs of people who die for the sake of God and mankind will never be dry; for generations people will come with flowers and shed tears there.</p>
<p>Without any hesitation I will let you go and suffer. God loves the world, and He has many problems today in the world. Go to Him and say, &#8220;God, let me have the worst problem. I will solve it for you.&#8221; Now God&#8217;s greatest headache is communism. Another headache is the decline of the Christian spirit. Go out to the world and revive Christianity. You are the true. revived Christians.</p>
<p>Another great headache for God is moral decline, particularly among young people. So go out to the world; tell God you want to take that headache away by restoring the young people. Americans are individualistic and have become selfish. Become an example by serving the world, suffering for the sake of others. Because you do it, people will say you are brainwashed. So what? You can reply, &#8220;We are resurrected; we are the new breed of people who hate injustice.&#8221;</p>
<p>No one wants to suffer; that&#8217;s human nature. But I am asking you to go down into suffering. Do you think my task is easy? It is far more difficult for me than for the person who gets my instruction. Many people think that the Principle is wonderful, but they want me to do things the American way. I don&#8217;t reject that idea, but if I followed the American way, then I would become a part of declining America and God would say goodbye to me. Then I would have nothing to work with.</p>
<p>The third principle we must practice is sacrifice. Why? Again, the love of God dwells with you when you sacrifice. Sacrifice with love; give yourself to others with love; then you shall win everything there is. From a human standpoint, Jesus Christ was miserably defeated. He was crucified and ridiculed by the Roman soldiers, yet that same Jesus conquered the world because he sacrificed with love. There are many people who have died more miserable deaths than Jesus, but that didn&#8217;t bring salvation to anyone because they died for their own cause, or for their own crimes. But Jesus did not have any sin, and he died for the sake of the world, with love. That is a true sacrifice, and that love conquered the world. Amazingly, when you are conquered by love, you don&#8217;t hate that conquest. When you become a prisoner of love you sing and dance.</p>
<p>The three principles I have talked about this morning are points that a noble religious teaching always emphasizes. One: You should follow the heavenly Principle. Two: You should be public minded. Three: You should be sacrificial. Why? That is where the love of God shall come to dwell. That is the only way you can attract the infinite love of God. Therefore, you don&#8217;t need someone looking over your shoulder to see if you are doing it or not. You are bound by your own will, not anyone else&#8217;s. My life was so hard many times that I wanted to quit, but I couldn&#8217;t. No one else forced me to go on, but I kept going because I had tasted the love of God. When you experience the deeper love of God, you can&#8217;t for one moment go away from it.</p>
<p>In a way I miss the vicious persecution and life in the communist prison because there I tasted the love of God the most. In the love of God, nothing is impossible. Because of that love, God could endure and be patient through thousands of years since the fall. You want to have total, overwhelming love, don&#8217;t you?</p>
<p>If you practice what I have told you this morning, you shall become a central person in your home. First, become Principle-minded. At home, respect your parents because they are your parents. That is the Principle. Be sacrificial for the sake of the household. Then your family will definitely want you in the central position. The Principle works the same in America. Whoever truly practices public mind love for the nation shall become the leader and master of that nation. The same Principle can be applied to the world.</p>
<p>Why should we practice this on earth? Why not enjoy life here and then practice it in spirit world later? That is a very clever idea! But this Principle must be practiced here on earth because this is the only classroom you have. You have to go through elementary school before you can enter high school. You cannot skip any of the material. When you go to college, you use the same formulas you learned in your elementary and high school days. No formula can change; all it can do is expand.</p>
<p>The spirit world is a higher realm that is completely Principle-oriented, public minded, and sacrificial. Unless we start to practice those things here on earth, we cannot unite with the spirit world. The spirit world and the physical world all operate on one principle. To enter into the spirit world and practice that principle on a higher level, you have to practice on earth first. Your elementary work must be done on earth so you can continue in spirit world. Unless you feel the love of God on earth, you cannot feel it in spirit world.</p>
<p>What kind of temple does God want? Each one of you should be the temple of God. When God dwells within you, does He want to look out through your eyes with His vision or your vision? In true love your eyes, nose and ears all become God&#8217;s instrument. Through them, God will perceive His way. When the mind is fully contented in the love of God, then the whole body will be contented. The mind becomes exuberant and ecstatic when it has love. When there is love, therefore, there is freedom. Without love, everything is in slavery. In America, a person takes drugs and thinks he is free. Actually, there is no freedom there. That person is creating his own hell because no love dwells in him.</p>
<p>All creation was made for God&#8217;s love. You are the temple of God when you become a public person. Look through your eyes in God&#8217;s way; have God&#8217;s hearing, God&#8217;s smelling, God&#8217;s voice, and God&#8217;s touch. When you brothers perceive a beautiful woman in God&#8217;s way, how would you think? Would you think about how you could get her to bed? You would think, &#8220;How can I advance her happiness? How can I make her better and whole?&#8221; You want to convey the public minded love of God to her so that she becomes in turn a public minded person who is another beautiful temple of God.</p>
<p>If you find there is no love of God within a person, then you want to give love to him. How noble that is. When most women look at a very handsome man, they wish they could have a date with him. But godly vision is different. When you put God inside of you, your world concept changes. You may not have wealth, but that doesn&#8217;t matter, for as long as you practice love, you are the richest person under the sun.</p>
<p>You know now that God dwells within you when you have a mind of Principle, a public mind, a sacrificial mind. This is the place where God rejoices. The moment you complain and become depressed, think that God is leaving you. You cannot afford to lose Him, so you try to improve in order that He will stay. As long as God stays within you and you think in God&#8217;s way, there is no complaint. But once God leaves, you lose everything.</p>
<p>Many tall, blonde-haired, good-looking American brothers are asking me for short, Korean or Japanese fiancees. Why? I represent the whole Oriental culture, and through me you have had a taste of heavenly love. No one can take that love away from me or you.</p>
<p>Yesterday an elderly Korean woman who has followed me ever since our Church was established came to East Garden. She used to come to the Church three times a day. She said, &#8220;Father, unless I see you three times a day, I become crazy and I cannot live.&#8221; When she came to East Garden she said, &#8220;My life is hell now because I cannot see you every day. This morning I have come to see you.&#8221; I never showed her any special favor in the past; I always treat all the members the same way. Mother was sitting next to me and the lady said, &#8220;I feel shy to say this, but I love you, Father.&#8221; Mother was the first one to smile when she said that.</p>
<p>I don&#8217;t show you any fabulous miracles, but there is something within me that touches everyone&#8217;s heart. It is the love of God. Like electricity, it is not visible but you know that the current is flowing. God is a super person, but He works exactly the same as you do.</p>
<p>You have a certain attachment to the clothes you wear, even to your eyeglasses. If your mind works that way, what about God&#8217;s? Does God feel a certain attachment to an object or a person? If God uses your body as a dwelling place, do you think He will have a certain attachment to you? Are you happy? God lets you suffer, but that is the fastest way to welcome God within you. God also enjoys the love that is public minded and sacrificial. You are going to resemble God, and when you go inside of God and God comes within your heart, you have total freedom. You have no strange feeling at all.</p>
<p>If God is dwelling within you, but you have some selfish thinking, then you feel as though you are choking. That is God saying, &#8220;You&#8217;re wrong. Change your mind.&#8221; Unless you live the public minded way, God wants to chop off the hand or limb that disobeys His principle. There is no way He can stay there otherwise. To keep God within you, to make Him happy, you have to practice the three points I have explained! You must be a principled person&#8217; you must be public minded, and you must be sacrificial. There is no national boundary in God. That&#8217;s why this love can be extended even to your enemy. Then the true unity between mankind and God will be created; true unity between the spirit world and the physical world can be created. God is that catalyst.</p>
<p>Within your heart I have planted a small seed of God&#8217;s mind. That seed must germinate and grow bigger and bigger, reaching out to your family, society, nation and your world. If you have a difficult task ahead of you, go after it. You are not asking for an easy way out, looking for a clever way. While you are tackling that difficult mission, there is no room for complaint. When you are trying to practice everything in love, how can you complain? You cannot complain against love. When you are searching after that love, you must always have a grateful heart to give glory and praise to God. Then God will be within you. If you want to be the dwelling place of God, you should be serving and praising Him all the time. If God is within you, you want to make Him happy, so you have to practice the Principle and be public minded. To truly have God within you for eternity, you must be sacrificial.</p>
<p>When you practice this, you cannot go wrong. If someone is nasty, you might want to fight back, but then you think that for the sake of God you must win him. That&#8217;s the way you change your mind. God loves love and wants to dwell in love. He doesn&#8217;t want to dwell in the Unification Church, but in me and in you. The Unification Church is not the dwelling place of God. The Church is merely an organizing system. Don&#8217;t think you are only a part of the Church; the Unification Church is for you. It is at your service. The work you do is not for me, or for the Church. It is for you. The Unification Church has merely come to assist you to go to heaven. How thankful you should be then. If the Church is here to serve you, how can you complain? Actually, God, myself and the Church are mobilized for your sake. You must know that clearly.</p>
<p>Now you know who God is and you know who you are! You are the dwelling place of God. Your eyes shall become whose eyes? When your eyes become God&#8217;s eyes and your ears become God&#8217;s ears, and so forth, God feels they are working for Him. Then when you hear something, you know immediately if it is a satanic sound or a heavenly sound.</p>
<p>The Europeans who are here for workshop may say that they want to go back to Great Britain because the job there is easier. On the contrary, they must think, &#8220;The job here is not hard enough for me. Where is it the hardest? Maybe I will go to Africa, or South America.&#8221; Maybe Mother and my children would not welcome the idea of moving to Africa, but it doesn&#8217;t matter; I will go anyway. Is this wrong?</p>
<p>Now you know that your suffering is creating a bigger shopping bag for you to hold the love of God. The fragrance of that love is so wonderful that black, white and yellow people will feel heaven in it. Your God-centered suffering creates that kind of container, and you want to give that package of love to the world. If people reject you, that package of love will pass down to your own children. You won&#8217;t lose anything. One way or another, you are the winner.</p>
<p>Be thankful. Digest everything so there is nothing stuck in your stomach. Nothing is harder than international marriage, and if you can unite two extremes in marriage you can digest anything. When you can serve a strange husband or wife, you know that you are sampling the difficulty ahead of us. While serving in your home you shall be principled, public minded and sacrificial. That way of life will grow like a snowball and cover the entire world. That world shall be the</p>
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