Unification Sermons and Talks

by Reverends You

True Parents and True Family

Rev. Dong-Ok You
Dallas, TX

Rev. You is the Regional Director of Region 8. This is excerpted from a sermon he gave at the Dallas Church on March 5, 1995.

It's evening time, so I want to say, "Good evening, brothers and sisters. Daytime and evening time have very different atmospheres. Evening time is quiet. It's a good time for us to reflect about ourselves. I think we can make plans for our future, our lives, more than day time. We don't know exactly what we believe. But God created day and night.

My position is that of reverend. Usually our church members call me "reverend." If I think about my position as a job. My position is Texas Regional director, region 8. Our church name is Unification Church. We have 11 regions in America. My region is region 8. In Region 8, there are 4 states--Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, and our church members live in each state.

Before, I couldn't visit each home. Finally, last year, when we had a leaders' meeting in New Orleans, LA., I suggested that leaders make a schedule for me to visit each church member to make a new spiritual foundation, to meet them, and to eat a meal together--I like food! And to sleep in their homes, to spend time with them, and with their ancestors.

Today is March 6. I started this schedule from January 8, from North Texas. I spent about 48 or 50 days traveling. Originally I planned to finish before March, so I made this banner. But I couldn't finish before March. This is the last event for me. Tomorrow I will go back to Dallas.

Today I brought a special motto, as a service to you, in my position as reverend. The motto is "True Parents and True Family." Whenever I meet a family, I try to explain this motto.

When you listen to my speech, please listen to the spiritual language behind it. I want to speak to you using the language of the heart; I want to speak to you heart to heart.

All people, all human beings, men and women, young and old, everyone wants to experience absolute happiness. Not temporary happiness, not one hour of happiness, one week of happiness. Everyone wants to gain, feel, establish absolute happiness. We don't know human history exactly, but human beings have tried to establish absolute happiness through many ways, especially through their jobs.

People think, "Oh, you have a good job!" If we don't' have a job, it's very difficult to gain happiness. If we don't' have a job, we can't make money. Especially in America, if we don't have money, we can't buy anything. We can't buy coffee, and we can't use a car. We can't be happy. So, until now, human beings have tried to establish happiness, especially through their jobs. Right now they are trying to establish happiness. So, we could gain happiness, feel happiness, through money. We can be happy.

But we can't keep this kind of happiness forever. This kind of happiness is not absolute. It is temporary, short-term happiness.

For example, Sakiko, could you bring me some water? Now I'm very thirsty. In reality, I am thirsty! So I asked Sakiko to bring me some water. So, now I need water because I am thirsty. And then, after getting some water, I feel so excited, because I can quench my thirst. I can feel happiness. But how can I keep the feeling of this kind of happiness?

Ah, this water is very good! But I can keep this happiness for one hour, two hours, one day, two days. This is temporary, not absolute, happiness. We don't like temporary happiness. We need happiness that will remain after 10 years, 100 years, forever. We need this kind of happiness. But even so, we can't gain absolute happiness. Why not?

Because we have two kinds of selves. We have our spiritual selves and physical selves. So, we need two kinds of food. Until now human beings have been trying to make money in order to buy something. Through buying we can gain happiness. But through money we can't buy spiritual food.

I want to show you some money. Here is $1.00. Everyone needs money, especially in America. Through our jobs, we can earn money. This is real money, true money. Through money, we can buy many kinds of food-- ice cream, steak. If I don't eat food, I can't feel happiness, even temporary happiness. Through money, we can gain happiness, because we can buy physical food.

But through this kind of money, we can't buy spiritual food. Even though this is true money, not false money, and even if we have a lot of this money, we can only buy external food--ice cream, steak. Even with a lot of money, we can't buy spiritual food. We need another kind of money, a different kind. This is physical money, external money, for our physical self. But we absolutely need spiritual money as well.

In fact there is no literal spiritual money, but I will try to explain about spiritual reality using something familiar and common sense. If I talk about money and physical food, I can explain to you about spiritual food, and how to gain spiritual food. So, what is spiritual money? This is physical money. What spiritual element corresponds to physical money? Through what can we experience many kinds of delicious spiritual food? I think love is spiritual money. It corresponds to money, because through love we can gain spiritual happiness, spiritual food, spiritual enjoyment.

What kind of love is true spiritual money? This is true physical money. This is not money, it's false money. Because this is true physical money, we can buy things with this money. This is false money, so we can't use it to buy things. We need spiritual money as well. What kind of spiritual money? We need true spiritual money, because only through true spiritual money can we buy absolute happiness. We can buy delicious spiritual food. True love is true spiritual money.

I think America is the food kingdom. Americans enjoy so many kinds of food. People ask me, "Reverend Yu, do you like Mexican food?" You have Mexican restaurants, Korean and Japanese restaurants, so many kinds of food! We are eating kimchee. I like seafood. So America must be the food kingdom. People eat all kinds of food and choose their favorite kind. In this way they can feel happy.

Lobster is delicious. But what if you only ate lobster at every meal? No! We need salad, coffee, and many kinds of food. We also have spiritual senses. What about spiritual food? We need many kinds of spiritual food, 100, 1,000 kinds. How can we buy many kinds of spiritual food? We can understand easily if we think about it. How can we buy many kinds of physical food? WE need a lot of money to do that. If we have a lot of spiritual money, we can buy many kinds of spiritual food and enjoy them. If we have a lot of true love, we can enjoy many kinds of delicious spiritual food.

Where is there a lot of true love? True spiritual money? There is a lot of true spiritual money in the bank, spiritual bank. There is a lot of money in Texas. We rare saving money in the bank. In the same way, we have spiritual bank accounts. Please try to understand religious realities by thinking about something which is pretty common sense, like banking. My main message is about the way for us to experience absolute happiness. I'll try to explain.

In the spiritual bank, there is a lot of spiritual money. What is the spiritual bank? True family is the spiritual bank. Why? There is a lot of true love there. Not one kind, not ten kinds, but many shades of true love there. Why? Because there are four positions there. I will explain.

In every family there are four positions. There are parents, husband and wife, children, and brothers and sisters. Because there are four positions, there are four kinds of love. There are parents' love, husband and wife (conjugal) love, children's (filial) love, and brothers' and sisters' (sibling) love.

If we have a true family, then there are four kinds of true love. There are true parents' love, true husband and wife (conjugal) love, true children's (filial) love, and true brothers' and sisters' (sibling) love. These are the four basic or fundamental kinds of love. Through the four fundamental kinds of love, we can create 100 or 1,000 kinds of true love. Through four kinds of love we can make a lot of spiritual money. Through the four basic kinds of true love, we can experience many kinds of true love, and make our lives very beautiful. In this way, we can establish absolute happiness.

Still, this may be a little hard to understand. Let me explain using another analogy. There are three primary colors--red, blue, and yellow. Through these colors, how many other colors can we make? Ten? One hundred? Ten thousand? We don't know? No! We can make an infinite numbers of colors by mixing the three primary colors, and using the many shades of color, we can make beautiful images. Through beautiful images, we can feel happiness.

Picture this room if there were only one color. What if everything were red? Or yellow? Can we feel happiness? Now, think about this room. Think of how many shades of color are in this room alone. So, we have three primary colors, which enable us to create an infinite variety of shades. Similarly, through the four basic kinds of love, we can create many different shades of true love. Through many colors of love, we can make the picture of our lives very very beautiful. We can feel happiness.

Absolutely we need true family, because we have spiritual selves and physical selves. Through just coffee, just water, we cannot experience absolute happiness. Through just ice cream, we can't experience absolute happiness. We need absolute happiness, not temporary happiness. Through just study, through just sitting in the prayer position, also we can't gain happiness. Absolutely we need another kind of spiritual, internal food. Absolutely, we need true family, not false family. Through true family, we can experience absolute happiness. This is true.

So, now we understand. But you may ask now, "How can we make a true family?" This is very important question. Through true parents. Through true parents, we can establish a true family. You may say, "OK, but Rev. Yu, I am a parent, and you are a parent. How can we become a true parents?" This is a very good question. Through establishing a true husband and wife relationship, we can become true parents.

You may ask, "Then, how can we make a true husband-wife relationship? We both believe in God, but still it's very difficult to make a true husband-wife relationship. Why is that so difficult? How can we make a true husband-wife relationship?"

Through your true self. Through my being a true individual, we can establish a true husband and wife relationship. Through a true husband and wife relationship, we can become true parents. Through being true parents, we can establish a true family. Through our true family, we can gain absolute happiness.

What is the main key, to create a true family and absolute happiness? I am the main key. What kind of myself? True self is the main key to make a true family and absolute happiness. True self.

But, I am not my true self. There are many false things in my heart and mind. Please think about ourselves. Am I my true self? Because I am a reverend, do you think I am the true Reverent Yu? No. I have many kinds of struggle.

Already I have explained my thoughts to you be talking about a key. Here is my true car key. It's very small, compared to my car. Because this is my true car key, I can start my car. There are many big trucks, especially in America. Even though the trucks are big, we drive them through using something very small--their keys. So, this is my true car key.

Please think about this universe as a car. God created the whole universe. For whom? For human beings. He created during 6 days. During 5 days, He created all things, and on the last day, God created human beings. For His son-and-daughters-to-be, God created all things. In some ways, all things are similar to a car.

So, finally God created human beings. As what? As the key. God asked them, "Please become a true key, true sons and daughters." Why? Through their being a true key, they would have been able to start and control the huge car, the huge universe. So God asked one thing. "Please keep the Principle, please follow My Word."

But they couldn't become a true key, their true selves. They became a false key. With this kind of key, I can't start my car. Now human beings are false people. I am not a true key, not my true self. I am my false self, so I cannot gain absolute happiness. I cannot maintain a proper husband and wife relationship, I cannot become a true parent, I cannot create a true family or a true society. I cannot control my car, because I don't have a true key, because I am not my true self. This is a very fundamental point. It is the Principle. Principle is within us, not over there. I must become my true self.

So, how can I become my true self? You may say, "Reverend Yu, I want to become my true self."

Within the Principle we can find two kinds of key s very easily. I lost my true car key. I only have a false key. I want to make my true car key. What kind of things do I need? First, I need information. What make and model is my car, etc.? Then, with this information, and with our effort, we can try to make a new key.

In the same way, I am not my true self, I am not a true key. We need information to become our true selves. What information? We need the Principle. All human beings need the Principle. What do we mean by Principle? We need to know the answers to questions like, "Who am I? Where am I from? Who is God?" These are very important things. We need this information! Who am I? Through the Principle, we can try to recreate ourselves, to make ourselves true. We can try to hit ourselves.

The message of the Principle is that we need the indemnity course. WE need tears, sweat, to make ourselves true. Can we just pray, "Oh Heavenly Father, make me a true person, make my family a true family . . ." No. I must check my car, and find out what kind of car it is, and through effort, I can try to make a true key. This is a course of heart.

There are many kinds of religions. They must explain to human beings the Principle. But religions still have not been able to make true families, true human beings. Even so, I must try to find the Principle, and I must still try to become a true person. If I can't become a true person, I can't become truly happy.

We need two kinds of food, spiritual and physical. We cannot live just through coffee, ice cream, steak and salad. We need spiritual food. What is the main problem of this nation and world? The main problems are spiritual. They are problems having to do with love.

We are Unification Church members. What is the main Principle, main information which we need to recreate ourselves? We have one guest here. Maybe you cannot understand very well. But we are family and friends here. We want to make true family. Through what? Through information, through the Principle. We have the Principle, and we can use it to recreate ourselves and to make a true family.

If I just hit my false car key, trying to make a true car key, can I make it? Can I do it, just through my hard work? No. On the foundation of Principle, on the foundation of information, of truth, our work will bear fruit. This is very important.

Please think about my deeper meaning. I cannot explain everything, because my English is limited.

I would like to say something for Unification Church members. This part of my speech takes two or three years to understand, so please excuse me for a moment while I address our members. We believe in God and spiritual world, so we believe that we have many ancestors. Every nation has its flag as its symbol. America has the American flag, and Japan has the Japanese flag. The Unification Church flag is God's symbol. If you have this flag in front of your house, your house will become an embassy. Then your ancestors will be able to come to your home easily to help you. This is not my direction. When I visit each family, I try to give a Unification Church flag to them. At this time I want to give to each family a flag.

My point is that our goal is to make a true family. The Unification Church goal is very clear. It is to make God's kingdom on the earth. How can we make God's Kingdom? Though true family. Through true family, we can establish God's kingdom on the earth, and we can establish absolute happiness. The Unification Church flag is external. Hang the Unification Church flag outside of your house, not inside. This is external. Inside your home, check the relationships between husband and wife and between parents and children, and try to become true individuals, true husband and true wife, true parents, true children, and true brothers and sisters.

And one more point is very important. Through this kind of condition and activity within the family, we can try to make a good tradition in our family, for our family and for our descendants. In a short time we cannot make God's kingdom on the earth. WE need a good tradition. The main elements of good tradition include hanging the Unification Church flag, and having pledge and morning service. We have our own traditions, so please keep them together with your children. Whenever you have pledge service, have it together with your children, because this is the family. Then this family will become a home church.

This is home church. Already we have been given the position of Tribal Messiah. John is Reverend John; he is a home church leader, home church reverend. I am the Region 8 reverend. There are center church leaders, and home church leaders, but they are both church leaders. All home church leaders should think, "I am a reverend." Then they can keep their lives more holy.

Center church leaders are in the Cain position. Home church leaders are in the Abel position. Home church is a very important church ,a very basic church. Small parts are very important. We have a lot of churches in our region, even though we have few church buildings. For example, John has church members. John has two children, and so they are is church members. Our goal is to establish true families, so that we can gain true happiness. Always we must remember that we must become our true selves, we must become true keys. This is a very basic point, and it is a most important point. Let us pray.

 

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