The Way for a True Child

by Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Section 2. Pray As You Study

1) You Must Study To Become a Leader

You must study. But, why study? Study makes things easier. Why should you go to a good school? Because good schools have good professors who can influence the country. Good schools have a long tradition with many graduates placed in various institutions of society. Students at good schools can make connections with these graduates through their professors and find their way into different levels of society and make connections in their own fields. That's why you need to study. But having a degree does not mean that you retain your knowledge. True knowledge is obtained by ones self, not through schooling. You need to absorb your environment and master the specialized terminology of your field so that you can move forward to a higher level of knowledge. You need the ability to even locate reference texts. True learning is done outside school, as experience is the best teacher. Your college degree is not everything. Someone with only a high school diploma but with 3, 4, or 5 years of practical experience may be way ahead of you. But college education makes your on-the-job learning much easier and your promotion much faster. The purpose of scholarship is to make things easier. Knowledge brings about solutions, being able to extend a short line into a large circle. That's the purpose of study, and that's why you must study.

2) Make a Determined Effort

Hyo Jin tells me that he has a tough time with the Korean language at school, after so many years abroad, and is falling behind in his study. But he should not worry. If you make a determined effort in the next 10 or 20 years, you can overcome any deficit. So, there is no need to despair. Once you decide to make the 10 or 20 year commitment, you will get closer to becoming a potential world leader as you get closer to the end of your committed time. You must make your commitment now. Now is the time to determine your future. You will become a world leader if you carry out your determined effort for the next 50 or 60 years as your total commitment, day and night, hungry or tired.

We are told that the actual use of our brainpower is limited to only one-seventh of its total capacity, even for college graduates and scholars. That shows how large is our potential. I want you to remember that.

"I am too old to study" is just an excuse in view of the great unused potential. If you concentrate on something for 50, 60, 70, 80 years of your life, your brain capacity will respond and expand, eventually to encompass the whole world as your stage. Do you understand this?

That's why I want you to pledge, "We will be sons and daughters of the good God, of the good world, and courageous warriors for the Unification Church." Who is going to make this pledge? You cannot say, "I will do that next year," as the world stage now waits with wide open doors for you to make your effort in the next 30, 40, 50 years until you reach 80. Do you understand this? The world waits with a wide open door.

You of the Unification Church are specialty blessed. For you, only the sky is the limit as to what you can accomplish. The world stage waits with an open door. Make your pledge, saying "even if a beautiful or handsome devil lures me into sin, I'll defeat it in my next 40 years' struggle, 60 years' struggle." With this commitment you will be on your way to become a world leader. Do you understand this? You will become a figure such as history has not yet seen. Rev. Moon is that kind of person. I am the kind of person who doesn't like to lose out to others. If I have made a determination, I will just do it. If I make a decision to do something, I do not like to be defeated by others. Why be defeated? Why be a loser if you are born as a man? Is it because you have a poor memory or poor health that you are defeated? You cannot say much if you are defeated through a lack of effort; of course you will lose. If you need to make effort in order to be successful, please invest that effort. If you need an idea you should develop an idea, and if you need time, invest time. Why be defeated? It is a strange thing to accept defeat. That is how I am as a person. If I determine to do something, then, in silence, I'll put in a desperate effort until the last. Do you know what I mean?

Because of this kind of life style, ordinary people in the world have spread bad rumors about Reverend Moon, but I have been used to this way of life for some 30 or 40 years. The world recognizes me as Reverend Moon through this. For example, when I visit England, America says "Reverend Moon is in England" and if I visit Korea they say, "Reverend Moon is in South Korea." I hear of many such reports through the US embassy. So why am I doing this? Because I know what kind of world would be realized if I go this way.

How can this foundation be established? I resolved myself even from childhood to move forward in life even if I faced difficulties. If it is necessary for me to deny my family or even if I am betrayed by my son, or persecuted by my parents, by the nation, the world, or even if I am kicked by God, still I will go that way. Because of this, Rev. Moon has been spotlighted as a famous figure on the world stage. Do you understand? Is this bad or good? (Good) So from this point of view, this is a precious time of your life.

3) When You Are Enraptured You Can Develop

Recognize the preciousness of the present moment and keep going until the completion of what you have determined. If you are studying at the Arts Middle and High school and playing piano, please persevere to the end. Those who can play the piano please raise your hands. Good. And next, violin? Cello? Wind instruments? There must be many. You should make a sound filled with mystery which does not change even if played one hundred or one thousand times. Those playing the instruments should themselves be intoxicated in the sound of music. Even if you are in deep sleep, or falling asleep, if you then hear the sound of the instrument, "ping," you should wake up immediately. Those who have the capacity to develop are those who are enraptured by their music. You cannot keep going if you are just pretending, or just because you don't want to be bettered by someone else. You are meant to be intoxicated by what you do.

(To one individual) I heard you play the piano very well ... Finding who has a talent for music means finding those who can be more naturally intoxicated when they play the piano. Enraptured by the piano. The person who can become enraptured is someone who will definitely succeed. They can if they reach that level. Those who cannot will fall away. Someone with a hobby in the sphere of the arts should therefore know how to become enraptured. I am also enraptured when I am talking. But playing the violin and the piano are the fastest ways to become so. If you can become intoxicated in 30 minutes through what you are doing, I may take only one second to do so. I am very quick to feel things. You should know how to catch me. Do you know how to become sensitive quickly? It needs to be done many times. It needs much practice. Famous sculptors of the world who crafted excellent masterpieces are people enraptured by their work. They do not work from a sense of duty. They worked and forgot about time from sunrise in the morning to sunset in the evening. It has to be a masterpiece. The process is like this even for myself.

Everyone is enraptured by my words and spiritual guidance. They never know if it is morning or night. If they are enraptured in my words, a true world and true ideal existence naturally appears. This is a principle of nature. In this case, they feel around them the mysterious cooperation of the spirit world. When they enter this realm, if they play something such as the violin they will not be doing it alone. The entire spirit world is watching and listening. If they reach this level, almost everyone will be successful. (100-102)

4) Focus on Studying the Subjects that Match Your Abilities

When you study now, you will know yourself well. That is, you will ask yourself what is the best and most interesting subject to study. What is the most interesting? When you suddenly awaken in the middle of the night, ask yourself what is the most interesting. Is music interesting, or there is something else? There is this original nature in you. Your taste buds are also like that. Some people like to eat fish while others do not. Some people like certain kinds of vegetables, others like kimchi. Everyone is different, aren't they? If you have a certain nature that likes a certain kind of food, even if you did not eat it for one or two days you would not suddenly come to dislike that food. If you like something, you would normally continue to like it for the rest of your life. Did you know that? We display the same kind of nature when we study. We like to study the subjects that we enjoy the most. So what kind of subject will you study? You have to think deeply about it. As you are in your adolescence, I suppose you all like pop music. It may sound good, but you cannot say that you will always like a particular song. We have to consider the value of things -- what we mean when we say something is good. Centering on the standard of what is good in childhood, youth, adulthood, old age, past, present and the future, you can determine what is valuable and what is a fitting and interesting subject for you. Then you should focus your concentration on studying that subject.

How should we study? Studying is for the purpose of pursuing the goals you have set. If you like science, then you should study about science. You cannot study all the subjects with the same intensity. After you have specialized in science then you can widen your knowledge horizontally as needed. You can broaden your horizons. In the world today, you certainly need. to have a vocational subject. Whatever subject you choose, you will then study centered upon that subject. If it is science, you have to know about the history of science. You have to know the history of scientific development and about the scientists who made it possible. Next, you need to know what level modern scientists are at. You need to know where you stand in relation to them. With science advancing from the past through the present, are you standing in the position to advance or fall back? If you are falling back, stop doing so: you must be in the position to go forward. It can be concluded that if you want to be in a position to advance, you must study harder than those in the past, and in the present day. You must study hard. If you compare with how people have done things in the past and in the present, you might say that someone scored 80 but you got 75. If we look centering on modern scientists, someone scored 100 while you scored 60 -- we compare in this way. To reach 100 from 60, you must get 40 more, and it takes effort to accomplish this. Through that way, you must go up to the highest position. Do you follow? That is something substantial. Do you understand? You have to make that kind of effort. If you go the way of the spearhead of the world, making such efforts in each field, you will be in the position of leading the best people from each of those fields.

So you must quickly decide what to focus on. After deciding, you must make a comparison with all the great people of the past, present and future. When you make effort to move everything beyond their level, these people will stand behind you. You must therefore become the best people from each sphere, becoming those who can lead all people. (100-118)

5) Method of Study, Prayer, and Spiritual Efforts

It is good that you are making prayer and spiritual conditions. Yesterday, True Mother said that she had seen one of the children sitting still and praying, and it even looked scary. Why is it good to pray? When your mind if focused, your observation becomes quick. When I listen to a lecture, I already know what will be on the test because I can perceive the teacher's intention. This is like having a high antenna, with which you can pick up even the smallest sound. Isn't it so? Hence, those who make spiritual conditions are connected with the future world. So all the prophecies and revelations come from those who make spiritual conditions.

When you make spiritual conditions for your study with a motivation to make the future preparation to serve God and mankind, all the good spirits and those who have specialties in your area of study will come and help you in your examination. So when you enter a mysterious state through a spiritual condition, try to write something; then you can produce a beautiful writing. This also happens with painting. Rather than your drawing alone by yourself, you can make a spiritual condition and ask a great painter's spirit to come and help you; then your work will generate great admiration from people. So great scientists or artists inevitably have spiritual connection; it is because they have made spiritual efforts. Do you understand? So please study hard.

6) Attitude of Studying

Don't study just mechanically but with an attitude that you are in a competition, as if you are standing on a starting line in a sport contest. You will be running with the sound of the gun. Always keep in mind that you are in competition with all the students in the world. So my words of guidance are like the starter's gun; if you pay the same attention to them as you would to the starter's gun at the starting line, you will get ahead of others even by one step. Many times, victory is decided with a second's edge or by a difference of one step, right?

No matter how many steps and how many hours of running the competition involves, what determines the winner is the final step and final second. So in order to achieve victory, you have to invest tens of thousands of hours and steps. The one who makes such investment with joy rather than sorrow will receive the award. Even after the award, if he felt forced to do it, he will retreat from that point; but if he did it with joy, he will start running again after the award. Are you also like this?

When you graduate from high school, do you feel that you are forced to go to college, saying, "Alas, I don't want to study again." Even though you may go to college, if you have this kind of attitude, you will end up drifting away. You go to college because there you can learn what you desire to learn and you can do what you desire to do. If you can find deeper and deeper contents of study there, you will be able to get ahead of other students. For this, you should take it as a fun hobby. Even in making a spiritual condition, having fun is necessary.

7) Finishing the Work Quickly

I think Unification members should finish college before twenty. When can you finish the doctorate? I am considering a computerized study method. I am trying to find ways everyone can finish their study instantly. I could build something like a prison. I could lock you in and keep you there until you pass certain exams. What is prison? It is a room in hell. You start with the worst place and make your way up to the best hotel.

How many hours do you study a day? How many hours do you spend in school? In Little Angels Art School, how many hours a day do high school seniors study in school? (Seven hours) Then, how many days a week do you go to school? (Six days) Then, you study forty-two hours a week, right? Then how many hours a year? (2,184 hours) If you divide these hours by twenty-four hours, you get ninety, so ninety-one days. If you multiply this by four years, you get 364 days. This is only one year. This applies to university -- in order to graduate the four-year program, you have to study just one year. This calculation, however, supposes that you study 24 hours a day.

But if we become more realistic and say that you study 12 hours a day, then you can finish the four-year course in two years. So would you like to do this or not? If you support it, this means you can start from tomorrow. So is it better to graduate soon this way or not? Or wouldn't it be better to finish it within a year rather than in two, three, or four years? Right? I like doing thing quickly. How about you? (We like doing it quickly) So whom do you resemble? (Father) You resemble me, right? Then whom do I resemble? (God) God likes doing things as quickly as possible. You should go on without resting, until you lose your hair and become bald.

When you lose hair while working for God's cause, it is OK. But if this happened while working for your own mouth and children, you will flunk. I look down on universities. I can graduate in one year. So don't show off just because you have a university degree. Is schoolwork a problem or not? (No problem) Is it a problem to get a perfect grade? Think about it. Do you want to win or lose to the children of the satanic world? (Win) You should win by all means. So you must all study.

I may bring some good students to America. I want to bring children of Blessed families to the best schools in America. If your parents cannot do it, I will do it. There will be no room for excuses. Even through this way, you have to receive doctorates quickly and become great people. You will have to suffer much if you want to finish the difficult course in one year.

There are some hoodlums here, who love to play around, huh? Do you know the story of the grasshopper and the ant? Do you want to be a grasshopper or an ant? (Ant) Oh, how hard they must have worked to become so black, and to become so thin in the waist? Ants work hard until their waist become so thin. They carry back and forth stuffs that are ten times bigger than they without hesitation. When a grasshopper dies, they drag it along and put it in a refrigerator. There are many people who boast of themselves like grasshoppers. But I will be an ant cooking and eating them. (112-225)

8) How to Decide the Major Field

When you are struggling among many options and desires, you first pray about it. Trees have a main trunk. All that live, grow through the main trunk, that is, the center. It does not mean that the side branches are all wrong. They all have their own merits as they accompany the main trunk as the center. The way a tree grows is similar to the way you should grow.

Normally people have more than one talent. The world is created through the principle of the four-position foundation, and since man is the center of the universe, he has the characters and talents that can harmonize with the four directions of east, west, south, and north. Among them, there is one that is like the main trunk. You know it, especially if you pray about it. When you are scribbling, for instance, you unconsciously write something you like. Have you not had such an experience? Also, if you like one great historical figure, it means that you like his thoughts. These things can help you discern your main talent clearly. Do you have such an experience or not?

The Divine Principle, however, is something everybody has to study. As long as we have the restorational course to follow, we should know about the church and learn all that the church teaches. We do outside things in addition to this. So you should know all this. I know it already, and I knew it when I was young. I had to study something that was not a part of my main pursuit, but I did it to be able to be well rounded. I knew what I had to do and who I had to become. If you don't know it, you should pray who you should become.

You may count on my instruction whenever I come, but how can I see you and instruct you every day? Aren't there so many people who need my instruction? When the morning sun rises, I rejoice, as father and mother do. Some people like morning, some like afternoon, some like evening, and some like night. So you should find such things yourself. Please pray.

9) Father's Career Guidance for the Blessed Children

There are many fields. You should go according to your own talents. Also, the environment should help you. Just because you are poor, you should not think about money all the time; if you do, money will run beside you. When you operate a business, you will run into bankruptcy. You should be someone money can follow when you are doing business. If money is to follow you, you should look in a certain way. You don't know this, right?

You will be good at mechanics or electric engineering. You have that talent. You want to do politics, but you should not go around doing political activities. (I want to study political theory) But don't you study politics to be able to do politics? Isn't it so? You should not be a politician and speak a lot. (120-311)

10) Purpose of Studying

What kind of path do you want to take? You should take the path of loving God absolutely. If you love God absolutely, then can you simply throw away studying? Why do you study? Isn't love all that we need? Isn't there even a song that goes, "Would college make a man? Although he cannot even recognize the letter "A," he is good enough if he has love?" Then why do you study? Have you ever thought about this? You should know this. If you have God's love, you can be saved as an individual without having anything else.

But you must also reach out to the multitude. Without an ability to teach the right way to the people, you will go in only one direction. In other words, although you may be qualified as a child Of God, you cannot make the fallen people God's children. Do you understand this? You study because through this you can create many children of God like you. If I become the best scientist in the world, I can teach how to become God's child through science. So instead of being God's child alone, I should be able to make all the people God's children who work in my specialized field.

Then who would receive God's praise, the child who has made no influence in the world or the child who created many other children of God? Of course, God prefers a child who comes back to him after creating many like-minded children of God to the child who comes back to God alone. So in going the way of love, we should work for results of both sides, and this is what God and I desire. So, you have to study in order to perfect this way. This is why the ethics of how to treat mother and grandfather and the question of daily living become important.

We have to have the knowledge to be able to find the best method. So our Unification members should sacrifice everything for God and make the best efforts, thereby acquiring the highest ability in their fields of endeavor and creating many like-minded people. When you think you are studying in order to make humanity happy, is it wonderful or not? (Wonderful) (100-158)

11) God's Task and Our Mission

Do you want to create one God's child or many? (Many) This greed in you can be higher than even God's greed, and God will still be happy. If you say to God, "What have you done for the past six-thousand years? You have not created even one child of yours among the countless human beings. So why don't you give it up? I will create them by my own hands, then God will smile at you and say, "Yes, yes," rather than getting upset at you. This kind of greed can be greater than the earth and higher than God's head. Even someone with a dull mind can have this kind of greed. This is not a bad greed.

Are you Koreans or Japanese? (Koreans) Do you want to raise up only Koreans as God's children and exclude Japanese because they are enemies? (No) How about blacks? I told you that we should raise up as God's children everyone in the world including those in the hell, right? This is God's work. His work is to raise up everyone in the world as His children. So when you work in God's place, He will try to give you everything. If you raise all the people in the world as such, then you will be the greatest child of God or the head child. Among children there is the head child, right? So do you want to be the number one son or daughter? What kind of son and daughter do you want to become? (Number one son, number one daughter) So you are very greedy, right?

Everyone wants to become number one, and this is good. Please become number one. There is no reason why Koreans cannot be the first; white people do not have to be the first all the time. Even blacks can be the first. You can try because you are, all equal as God's children. Do you want to try or not? (We will) Do you think I myself have studied or not? (You studied) When I was studying, I did it like a thunder, finishing up in a short moment what others do in years. My hometown is in North Korea, a very traditional farming village eight km away from Jung Ju. Do you know kerosene lamps? What is a kerosene lamp? It seems as if it was only a few days ago when I studied under a kerosene lamp. When I studied until two or three a. m., my mother and father would tell me, "Please sleep. You should not weaken your health." My closest friends were the insects that cried in summer nights. Night in the countryside is very quiet, and the sound of insects under the moonlight is very mysterious. It seems as if only a few days had passed since the time I was walking around the mountains there. This means that our life is short.

So what do you want to do then? In creating God's children, you need knowledge and ability. God wants you to be His child along with others and not just alone, so we need knowledge and ability. Since knowledge leads to ability, we end up with the conclusion that we must study. So do you think you should study or not? (We should study) Should you pray or not? (Should pray) You should pray. (100-159)

12) In Order to be Successful in Life

While studying hard, you should also pray hard. So at school you should train yourself through love, but not for yourself. In order to follow this path, you should be able to forgive your enemies. You should pave the path of knowledge and understand everything. You should be able to discriminate between front, back, right, left, above, and below. What is the fall? Eve fell because she did not have discrimination. You should have the knowledge that can provide you with a sense of discrimination with respect to affairs of the nation and world. In order to have such knowledge, you should follow the normal course from the elementary school, through secondary schools, college, and doctorate. You should try to shorten this period, making yourself and others God's children. If you make utmost efforts with Heaven for the sake of this, even risking your own life, everything will lead to good results. So you will try like this, OK?

Now, you want to love God, and yet God is quite far away; so you love your brothers and sisters and parents in place of God. Do you understand? Then you will be a model for your brothers and sisters, and be recognized by your parents. So in lieu of loving God, you can love your parents and head of the country, and you can qualify as a patriot. Then by loving saints such as Jesus with God's love, you qualify as a saint. These steps are connected in an orderly way. If you study with these things in mind, you can make it a part of your study. Do you understand this?

If you can already love God, you can jump towards the final goal, but now you are focused on your studies and you need to take more gradual steps by being examples for friends, family, country, and the world with God's loving heart and as God's children. You should be able to do the same for all, for foreigners, Koreans, and blacks. I would like to train your heart to be able to relate to and love black people. Do you understand? And you can study at the same time. There are sayings, "Get two with one hand" and "Get two birds with one stone," right? Now is a good time to get this kind of results. So do not waste time in such a precious time, and stop talking about boys and girls. Study hard until the path of your determination is walked to the end so you can love God best as His children. In the process of studying, you can serve your parents very much, connect with your friends with brothers' heart, and serve the country, nation, and world. So this is an opportunity of getting two birds with one stone, so please do not miss it and study hard. I request this of you. Do you understand or not? (We understand) When you know this for sure, do you have to believe God or not? (We have to) How much do you have to believe? More than one hundred per cent. Should you love God or not? (We should) More than your parents, the president, or anyone else. This has to be the case with all the people and not just you alone. This is why you should study with all your energy. With hope and a joyful heart, you should study earnestly while following the ways of filial children, patriots, and saints.

So if you can become God's children and also raise up others as such, you will be the greatest victor in the short human life. Then you can be greater than Jesus, Confucius, and Buddha. So with this understanding, please study hard. (100-162)

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