Filial Attendance: The Way of Filial Piety of Holy Sons and Daughters of God - Elio Roman
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Filial Attendance: The Way of Filial Piety of Holy Sons and Daughters of God - Elio Roman |
Respect is one of the forms of attendance expressed by sons and daughters of filial piety. Respect attendance is of utmost importance. Respect attendance is absolutely necessary in order to establish the heavenly social ethical order of the Shim Jung Culture (Culture of Love). Respect attendance involves the internal attitude of mind and heart, and external actions expressed by the object partner to the subject partner. The higher forms of respect are found in vertical relationships. These can extend from respect, to reverence, to worship. Other forms of respect are found in horizontal subject and object relationships. In the family these include husband and wife relationships and elder/younger sibling relationships.
To respect the subject partners is to attend them according to their due, as per the laws of creation which include the laws of love. One of the rights of the subject partner is that he/she be respected. One of the duties of the object partner is that he/she displays respect to the subject partner. Respect is due because it is our duty, or from our heart of gratitude based on the absolute laws and absolute standard from God's original design. Thus in respect attendance, filial sons and daughters of God are to maintain an attitude of respect toward the subject partner and display appropriate behavior. Generally the attitude of respect is greater the more we esteem and value the subject partner.
Mature human beings should not attend God causally. Similarly in public situations True Parents are in their positions as King and Queen. In close and intimate settings they are in their function as true parents.
Some of the types of respect attendance include deference, honor, homage, reverence and worship. To honor God and True Parents is to display merited respect and recognition, often publicly. To pay homage to God and True Parents involves praising them, much as the angels praised God during the creation. To revere and worship God are higher forms of respect with a higher degree of love. We should display respect to all subject figures and elders in the establishment of the social order of the Shim Jung Culture, the culture of true love.
An important quality of respect is deference. Deference basically means to have the disposition to submit or courteously yield to the opinion, wishes, preference, judgment or will of the subject partner. We humble ourselves and yield to the subject partner, thus putting aside our egocentric and egoistic nature in favor of the concerns of the subject partner. Deference and yielding involves obedience to the subject partner. It also involves deferring our point of view. We must yield to the subject partner's point of view. Deference is at its highest when it is combined with the polite attitude and actions that often accompany respect and reverence. (cf. Ch.34 -- Deference Attendance)
In the original ideal of creation and in the realm of the Kingdom of God, the object partners naturally, due to their divine nature, and their implicit and explicit education experience character development and acquire respect attendance. Citizens of Cheon Il Guk must display respect to all its seniors, leaders and authority figures.
The higher forms of respect are expressed because the object partner has esteem for and values the subject partner. It is the priority of the subject partner to establish a foundation of loving the object partner in order for the object partner to respond with the heart of attendance. We learn respect and its higher forms as we restore the eight vertical stages. We learn respect as a servant of servants, as a servant, as an adopted child, as an illegitimate child, as a true child, as a parent, and as a king.
Traditional forms of filial piety have placed the burden of responsibility of respect attendance on the object partners. This has often resulted in the abuse and harsh treatment of the object partner by the subject partner. Such forms of traditional filial piety thus are more like a master/servant relationship. This is because true parents have never existed in the history of mankind. True subject partner and object partner relationships begin by the subject partner loving, caring for, and living for the sake of the object partner.
Love itself contains the quality of respect. True Parents would never be abusive of mistreat their sons and daughters. It is from the love of the subject partner that the object partner learns to respond with true respect attendance. True Parents' ideology maintains that true filial piety is centered on true love and respect itself needs to be centered on true love. This means that the ability to respect was first to be acquired by Adam and Eve growing in maturity and establishing the Parent and child relationship.
Adam and Eve would have then established horizontal subject partner/object partner relationship as husband and wife with respect towards each other. Their children by observing the love and respect Adam and Eve had toward each other horizontally and vertically toward God would have quite naturally learned vertical and horizontal forms of respect attendance. Their children would have learned to display respect attendance vertically towards God and their parents, and would have learned horizontal respect attendance between elder and younger siblings. The parents should not behave toward the children in a humiliating way when scolding them. The elder brother should also not be harsh with his younger brothers and sisters. The elder brother learns to display care and concern for the younger brother and thus the younger brother learns to respond with respect to the elder brother.
In traditional filial piety as established by Confucius, the responsibility to respect falls primarily on the object partner. In True Parents' ideology it is from the loving hearts of the parents that the attitudes of filial piety, including respect, develop.
A deeper form of respect is reverence. The more esteem and love the object partner has for the subject partner, the more reverent his/her attendance will be. A yet deeper form of respect attendance centered on true love is worship.
Filial piety establishes the ethics and social order in the cosmos. Filial attendance exhibited through respect and reverence begins centered on true love. The pillars of the cosmos are sons and daughters of filial piety in attendance of God. Filial attendance completes the Parent and child relationship. This is the foundation of the cosmos and of the Shim Jung Culture and the foundation of respect attendance.
Had Adam and Eve not fallen, the highest form of respect and reverence, called worship, would have been dedicated to God who is the vertical True Parents, and to True Parents who are the horizontal True Parents of mankind. Adam and Eve would have become our horizontal true parents. The children of Adam and Eve would then have inherited the traditions of respect attendance Future generations would have revered, respected, and even worshiped Adam and Eve as their original ancestors. There would have been a hierarchy of respect, reverence and worship beginning with God, the vertical True Parents, as the top and the highest, followed by Adam and Eve as the horizontal True Parents (now the restored and victorious True Parents) who are the original true ancestors of mankind. This is then followed by reverence and respect for the True Parents' children and their descendents, saints, one's ancestors, grandparents and parents.
The social ethical order in the family would have become the model of the social ethical order in society. A seniority system, or elder-younger system, would have been established where the seniors and elders of the heavenly society would receive respect from the younger members of society. Respect would have come to be expressed in above/below, superior/subordinate, and all subject/object positions in society. The vertical system and the horizontal system of respect attendance needs to be practiced in order to establish the ideal culture and world of love.
Today, in many cultures and especially in oriental cultures, respect attendance is more easily learned through the honorific structure of their language. This is one of the reasons why True Parents stress that we should learn the Koran language. In the west there is not the same honorific structure of their language as it is in the orient. Therefore honorific titles should be stressed in western cultures (i.e. such as Mr., Mrs., Reverend, Dr., Professor, etc.).
Ethics are formed on the basis of the emotions of love, aren't they? In the relationships between family members, the idea of morality, order, the social system and so forth are based upon deep emotional factors. People express their respect to the one who can show the deep emotion of a long-lasting or consistent love. You should know that. The motivation for the establishment of ethics lies in the emotion of love. Ethics begin from the point of parents loving their children. True human relationships are established when children love their parents. (64-124, 1972.10.29)
What is the original destiny of humankind? It is to enjoy perfected love and extol the values of praise and respect within the realm of God's absolute love. (44-194, 1971.5.7)
We adore God's kingdom because it is a place where love dwells. It is the place where love remains eternally, not temporarily, and continues to exist transcending time and space. It is also the place where one can be respected and revered, and have one's value acknowledged one hundred percent. In short, it is a place of eternal happiness. That is why human beings yearn and long for God's kingdom. (25-284, 1969.10.5)
A world must come in which people respect God, making Him the first priority. In other words, the world of hope which our hearts hunger for beyond the realm of death must appear on earth. This is the very time for the kingdom of peace which we have longed for and what we Unification Church members call the era of heaven on earth. We must go out to the world to resurrect the realm of death (20-181, 1968.6.9)
Everyone needs and loves parents. Everyone wants to see them and be with them. But why? For what reason? It is the age difference that leads to the relationship of superior and subordinate in an orderly manner. Therefore, people should show deference, respect and dutifulness to their parents. Based on all matters of ethics and morality in social life, we should each stand in the position of a subject partner or object partner within a relationship of superior–subordinate. To become a filial son you should display obedience and humility, and long to meet the parents. This is the relationship of parent and child. (112-251, 1981.4.19)
Among your sons and daughters, there is a filial child, an ordinary child and an unfilial child. There are three kinds of children. I conclude that if you want to become the most filial child, you must compete against God and not lose.
So what must you do? You must become people who, more than the saints and sages or anyone else throughout history who has come and gone, have no doubt at all about God's will. You must say to God, "Father, even if you were to say something unbelievable to me that could separate us, I would believe it. Even if you did something unbelievable, I would believe you. Even if you changed from being a loving parent into the most evil parent who whips me, I would respect you with a heart greater than that of a filial child." God would expect this. (73-59, 1974.7.29)
Worshiping is more than bowing with respect. It is more than obedience. (304-270, 1999.11.9)
You must revere God more than your husband or wife. This is necessary for you, but it will be different when the age of your sons and daughters comes. You should love True Parents much more than you love your husband. The Principle says that after this, you can love your husband and your sons and daughters. (Blessing Pt. 1 -- 78)
It is right that we should love God as God loves us. This is the law of the Principle. If you respect and attend God as the vertical center, you will be able to receive His love as His sons and daughters. Therefore, unless we establish a tradition of loving each other, we will not create the starting point for our individual perfection. (Blessing Pt. 1 -- 20)
Beloved Father, please allow us to know that the tear stains of the Father, who toiled to raise us in front of this nation without our knowing, are spread all over. Father, we have been disloyal children who could not make ties with Heaven, having been drawn into the realm of death, sorrow and lamentation. Yet we pray and wish that You will let this be the hour when we can attend You by allowing us to save our own original characters in awe and reverence in sight of the grace You have bestowed. (Sermons 6 -- 44-45, 1959.3.29)
It can be said assuredly that the absolute value perspective is established only through religions, which revere God. In other words, it can be validly claimed that no solution to today's confusion is possible through those thoughts and philosophies which are not founded on God. It follows logically that only through God-centered religion is it possible that mankind can be saved from confusion. In history, we have such examples as Confucianism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. Each one, in its own time and place, dissolved social insecurity and confusion and, on the foundation of peace and security, brought forth a flourishing of culture. This was true of the role of Confucian culture in the Han Dynasty of China, of the role of Christian culture in Medieval Europe, and that of Islamic culture in the Saracen civilization of the Middle East. (Science -- 100, 1982.11.26)
We are to be equipped with the hyung sang of such victorious sons and daughters. Therefore, please guide the sons and daughters who are gathered here and lay prostrate before You to reveal everything before the glory of the Father. Let them reveal themselves before the Sung Sang of the Father. With a sense of awe and reverence, let them be able to reflect upon their inadequacies in the past and let them repent in this hour.
Father, if our hearts truly desire to revere the Father's love and resemble the Father's character, then today the Father's sorrow should be our own. The Father's brokenhearted attitude should be our own. Therefore, beloved Father, please unfold the works to make us become such people. (Sermons 3 -- 80, 1957.10.15)
You should first endeavor to become a filial son or daughter centering on the parents in the family, and then you can go on to become a patriot in relation to the nation. Following on from this, you should become a saint in relation to the world. A saint is a person who loves the world.
A divine son is God's son. Therefore, he loves God, the palace laws of the heavenly kingdom, and the people who live in the palace. Since such people live centering on God's love, they respect the life of love and the lineage of love. The ideal land that human beings seek for should be a place where they respect these things and are able to live anywhere on this earth as if it were their hometown. When people who live like this enter the spirit world, they will go directly before God without any reserve. (209-16, 1990.11.24)
What is man's original fate? It is to enjoy, praise, and respect in the realm of God's absolute love and in the relationship with the Creator of all things in heaven and earth in a perfected harmony of love. Man was created to be in complete harmony with heavenly and earthly destiny in this relationship. That's why man has an incorporeal mind and corporal body. (44-194)
Father, you have been fighting against the enemy alone, without laying the responsibility upon us, because You know that Satan is blocking our way and sweeping the world with the power of death. Since we know that the greater our reverence for You, the greater Your desire to forgive our sins and defects, please come to us through this heart. Father, we eagerly hope and desire this. (Sermons 6 -- 96, 1959.4.19)
Our minds and bodies must be united by means of the invisible God and by means of true love, and we must honor and respect our heart and conscience just as we honor and respect God Himself. (World Peace -- 184, 1994.3.27)
Philosophy has not honored God. (138-142, 1986.1.21)
Even when you visit your own hometown, you need to continuously make effort in order to attend True Parents in glory and honor. You must cultivate yourself to become the kind of person who can live a life in which you will experience a yearning heart for True Parents (Unification Pt. 2 -- 266)
After persevering on to eliminate all the sorrowful results of the fall and become victorious children who can guide all nations with love, you should worship God and True Parents in your bedroom; then the registration process will automatically come to an end. From that moment on, the Kingdom of Heaven will continue on forever. (Tribal Messiah -- 186, 1988.5.22)
What is the hope we should harbor? We should have the sincere hope to be able to truly attend the True Parents who are coming to earth on behalf of God. In attending them, we should not desire to attend them when the victorious foundation is already laid and all people have come to admire and respect them; rather, we should desire to attend True Parents as they pass through history's sorrowful course. Our ancestors are deeply pained that they were unable to attend the True Parents who have walked through the sorrowful course of history.
All humankind harbors the hope of being able to sincerely attend True Parents. Thus, you must become true sons and daughters of filial piety who attend them from a miserable situation rather than trying to attend them from a glorious position. To be such true sons and daughters of filial piety, even in difficulty, despair and misery that makes one cry out, we should be able to say, "Dear God, dear God who is guiding me, True Parents are walking the path of the cross of suffering that is more severe than that of Jesus. As someone who attends True Parents, I therefore accept any kind of heavy cross as a matter of course. I praise that, so please, God, do not worry on account of me." (137-116, 1985.12.24)
What about the words True Parents that are spoken in the Unification Church? Although your current situation may be miserable, you should know that the term True Parents taught about in the Unification Church today is a most honored term. Its value is greater than the songs of praise of hundreds of millions of ancestors or of being in a glorious place of earthly victory and the liberation of all people. (138-105, 1986.1.19)
They will have no doubt that if they honor the photograph as if they were honoring True Parents, their family will be protected. If you explain it, they will have no doubts. I have heard that there have been people who bought pictures even without such an explanation. When asked why they wanted to buy the pictures, they said, "My heart keeps telling me to do it. I feel this picture will expel all my bad fortune and bring good things." So they bought large pictures. Such a time has come. Young people are now carrying my pictures. (212-108, 1991.1.2)
You should first be grateful for this amazing grace with which you can live together with True Parents and act by honoring True Parents' commands. (43-144, 1971.4.29)
God's providence must have a focus. Through that focus, God's ideal can be established. That is the very point at which we meet true parents, who were sacrificed. Therefore, that focus is the center of everything. Try to think how important it is. All the saints fought to gain this point as their foundation. God thinks it is significant, as do all the spirit persons in the spirit world. Therefore, all people on this earth will recognize that it is important.
This foundation will be starting point for the future. From here, the past history will be completed, the present history will be preserved, and the future world will begin. If you can understand this point, this position, you can conquer everything as an individual. Are you such a person?
Then, how great is the value of this position? How wonderful is it? How much do you love it, admire it, respect it and revere it? This position should be the apex of all history. No matter how great the great people of history may be, they bear no comparison with it. If you come to see it, you will undoubtedly be so moved.
The content which can solve the problem of becoming substantial true parents in Heaven and on Earth accomplishes many things. It clarifies Heaven and Earth, liberates all historical entanglements and pulls out the nails which were pounded into God's heart. (Public Venue, 1998.4.1-16)
Everyone! Do you want to go to spirit world soon, or not? (Laughter) Try to answer it. (We want to go there.) Does everyone want to go there? (Yes.) Then will you look for me at the museum there, or not? (We'll look for you.) When you see me there, will you say, "Oh, I know him." Will you pay me respect? (We will.)
If you try to touch me, I will try to avoid you. Since I am standing in a public position, I will try to avoid your touch. If you touch me, it will be a big problem. Therefore, you have to look at me from a distance. Is that true or false? (True.)
You are wrong. This world is the priority and the spirit world is secondary. You live your life on earth and then go there. Which seems more valuable: to pay respect to me in the spirit world or in the physical world? (In the physical world.) No, in the spirit world! (In the physical world!) Your voices are weaker than mine. Spirit world! (Physical world!) You are right. (applause) (205-252)
Now, the Reverend Moon's fame has reached the four comers of the earth. I heard that many people put the Reverend Moon's picture on the wall of their room and pay respect to it. Do you put Reverend Moon's picture on the wall of your room, Dr. Se Won Yoon? Do you make a bow to it everyday? Do you kiss it everyday? You should kiss it passionately. It is not impolite for you to do so. When you kiss the picture, you are doing so on behalf of your father, your mother, and your ancestors. Then they have the right to participate in the same place as you are. If you want to establish such a connection through kissing the picture, God will not blame you. Don't you think so, Dr. Yoon? (Yes I do.) (171-239)
Now, you will not receive persecution on the path you are walking. I have prepared everything for you. I have blocked everything for you. I have torn down everything for you. So how much should you honor me? I am announcing to you that unless your descendants leave a family tradition of honoring me hundreds of times more than you have during the age of persecution, it will be difficult for them to get registered at the registrar's office. If you do not lay a foundation upon which your sons and daughters can serve me several times better than you have, they will fall away. They will be pushed out. (184-243, 1989.1.1)
Just as humankind has hoped historically for the manifestation of the Second Coming, spiritual children have to hope for the birth of blessed children through their spiritual parent. That is, spiritual children must expect nothing greater than the birth of blessed children through their spiritual parent. Moreover, they have to respect the blessed child from the time the child is in the womb. Just as the archangel was to think highly of Adam and Eve, and was supposed to talk with and support them, spiritual children have to love and value the child more than their lives from the time the spiritual parents conceive. They have to wait with the highest hope for the day that the baby is born. And when the baby is born, they have to offer all of their property, or else the road to restore the right of ownership of the archangelic standard will never come to exist. (Blessing Pt. 2 -- 53)
As the family of eight members is reorganized, the world will be divided into two: the world of fallen families and the world of restored families.
After that, what should these spiritual children anticipate? They should long for the coming of the baby of their spiritual parents, as if they were waiting for the Lord of the Second Coming. Do you understand? These spiritual children should not be worried about anything. The only thing they should long for is that their spiritual parents will bear and deliver a child. They should respect and revere the true child even while it is still in the mother's womb. Archangels were created to respect, inform and support Adam and Eve. From the time the child is conceived, spiritual children should love and revere it more than their own life, longing for the day of its birth with the highest standard and greatest hope of their lives.
In addition, after the birth, unless the spiritual children dedicate all their resources to the child and serve the child, archangel-level ownership cannot be restored. Why did three wise men from the East visit Jesus at his birth? As the minimum condition for Jesus to be connected with the standard of the world, men of high spirit came and offered gifts to him. These wise men were the ones who had longed for the Savior even before Jesus was conceived. Once they found out about his birth, they sacrificed everything and traveled any distance so that they could attend him. Thus, the appearance of the three wise men from the East is in accordance with the Principle. (God's Will -- 628, 1983.5.13)
Why should posterity revere the saints? It is because all the stories of the struggle for goodness are concentrated in their hearts. In order to achieve a purpose of goodness, we should make efforts through their foundations. Otherwise, we cannot connect with the path leading to the purpose. Although they are fallen descendants, many people cherish the saints and seek to follow in their footsteps, for the human heart is connected to the heavenly heart. This is a natural pursuit of original value. (17-268)
No saint has been welcomed in his historical age. Only a hundred or thousand years after their death, when his bones have changed into ashes, does he become an historic object of reverence. That has been the path of the saints so far. (127-33)
We revere four great religious men -- Jesus Christ, Confucius, Buddha, and Mohammed. Those are the ones who lived for God. They did not live for themselves, or for just their own nations, but for the whole world. Therefore, they were persecuted by their own people and nations. Those four saints are the founders of the major religions. These are the historical facts; they cannot be changed. But now, the people of this modern world even deny religion, saying that religion has nothing to do with the world. Religions are the symbols of morality and discipline, but the world today tends to reject them. Without religion, however, this world can never restore itself. (New Hope -- 65, 1974.10.8)
We must be curious about the objectives and motives of these providential figures. All of these great men started their life of faith centered not on themselves, but on God. Why do we have to respect and honor them, and give them credit for their contribution? Simply because they received instruction from God, not from themselves. Also, we should know what kind of life they lived for God in that age. We find that they had a conflict-their life of faith versus the life of reality. We find that they were not of one will when they faced a conflict. Also, we find that they solved the problem when they centered on God, and not on themselves. Also, we know that because of this conflict between God's side and the world's side, they multiplied their persecution and suffering. That is why they are great people!
Always we find that their life in this world was lonely because they suffered many, many things and. were persecuted by this world. When they had nobody to convey their thoughts and feelings to, they could go only to God and talk to Him. Also, when we look at their lives in the world, their material lives-they were so narrowed down, received so few material things; naturally, they turned their hearts and lives toward God. When we think of how they were living in this world, their scope of consciousness was so narrowed down that they had to recognize everything centered on God. That was their life. (New Hope -- 2, 1973.3.18)
The outlook of a saint can go beyond level of the patriot. Saints must live based on a love that embraces the whole universe. They must love the entire universe. Therefore, the path of saints surpasses the path of patriots. The path of divine sons and daughters surpasses the path of saints and is the highest position of all. They respect the rules of the heavenly kingdom on earth and in heaven and maintain the balance between the internal and external, the vertical and horizontal relationships. (246-188, 1993.4.16)
You should first endeavor to become a filial son or daughter centering on the parents in the family, and then you can go on to become a patriot in relation to the nation. Following on from this, you should become a saint in relation to the world. A saint is a person who loves the world.
A divine son is God's son. Therefore, he loves God, the palace laws of the heavenly kingdom, and the people who live in the palace. Since such people live centering on God's love, they respect the life of love and the lineage of love. The ideal land that human beings seek for should be a place where they respect these things and are able to live anywhere on this earth as if it were their hometown. When people who live like this enter the spirit world, they will go directly before God without any reserve. (209-16, 1990.11.24)
Now Cain has been subjugated and elder sonship restored with regard to the three generations -- grandparents, parents, and elder brother; hence, a grand child will be served as an ancestor at the levels of elder sonship, parentship, and kingship. As this great upheaval and 180 degree's turn occurs, in which child is served as parent and younger brother is served as elder brother, the hell also turns around to the heavenly direction. You should know this.
So you should go to hometown and make the 160 families. From your hometown, bring them to speeches and have them sign the membership form. When the eldest descendant, who is the root of the lineage, recommends it, then all other descendants should follow. So gather all the 160 families and hold a party, where you can proclaim Unification Church. They should pledge to absolutely follow the royal children's command and inaugurate them at the ancestors' grave. You should say, "Through the True Parents, we have become ancestors to inherit new lineage and a tribe of liberation and blessing. Our tribe will be eternally unchanging descendants of God." Then, you will be eternally separated from Satan.
So Unification Church allows ancestor worship. Do you understand? [Yes] Does Christianity allow ancestors service? [No] Unification Church has to establish this tradition. This is not a secular tradition. This brings about a royal land where we can eternally serve heavenly ancestors, clan, and tribal messiahs in the mainstream of providence. It will be a land where we can serve the king and sing songs of peace eternally. Do you understand it? You and your tribe can go to the kingdom of heaven only after having lived in such a country. (220-222)
Give education in front of sons and daughters: "You. You can't do this in front of Reverend Moon." When you attend the picture of the True Parents with more respect than your parents, your ancestors come down and attend the True Parents as their ancestors. Do you understand? It becomes the altar to which ancestors can attend in the house. This is the way to receive the good fortune of the heavenly world. At three o'clock in the morning, you may be sleeping. But they chase out Satan and all evil spirits around the house. (219-90)
Is it all right for the Unification Church to offer ancestral rites? It is liberating for us! From now on, you will be allowed to perform ancestral rites. Formerly, God did not want us to hold ancestral rites. Korean laws on honoring ancestors are the heavenly law. Koreans are a unique race in the world. Only Korea is practicing this way. (240-94, 1992.12.11)
If your grandparents are deceased, you should visit their graves. When you visit their graves, you should pay your respects to them as if God were buried in that grave. On that day, you should repent for not attending your grandparents during your lifetime. (220-349, 1991.10.20)
It is not wrong to worship your ancestors and perform services in their memory. In the future, there will be a time when we revere our parents more than those who belong to Confucianism. Do you understand what I am saying? (226-277, 1992.2.9)
The Unification Church allows the honoring of ancestors. Did Christianity allow you to perform a memorial service for the repose of your ancestors? The Unification Church should carry on and establish this tradition. This is not a secular tradition. This becomes the royal domain for eternally serving the traditional blood relatives in the realm of tribal messiahs who are succeeding in the genealogical generations by serving the heavenly Parent, the heavenly kingdom and the heavenly ancestors. It will be a nation where we can attend the king and sing praises for the eternal reign of peace. Do you understand? You, your mother, father, family and tribe can go directly to heaven only after having lived in such a nation. (220-221, 1991.10.19)
In terms of your family, it can be said that your grandparents are ambassadors plenipotentiary sent by Heaven. Therefore, we should honor and attend our grandparents as we would honor and attend God. The parents who attend God are the king and queen of a realm that embraces all six billion people, all humanity, as one family. The children who are responsible for the future should maintain the traditions of Heaven, offer their filial piety and loyalty to their parents, the king and queen, and inherit the royal authority.
These are essential components of the philosophy of the true family. The fulfillment of God's original ideal stems from this all-embracing perfection of the heavenly three-generational realm on the horizontal plane within a single family. This original family becomes the model for the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and in heaven, the realm that is rooted in God's purpose of creation. (Public Venue, 2005.4.13)
Our ultimate purpose is to find and establish the nation that seeks after the will of God and whose citizens all serve God as the center. What would that nation be? It would be the kingdom of the peaceful, ideal world. It would be a nation that resembles the form of a true family with three generations living together in harmony, trusting, respecting and supporting one another and becoming one in love. In short, it is the nation that humanity has desired throughout the ages, the utopia where God is sovereign. (Messages of Peace 9 -- 136, 2006.10.22)
The universe is the expansion of the grandparents, parents, couple and children to the North, South, East and West. The family is an ideal paradigm that unifies all love, so it is like a textbook. You have to enlarge all concepts of love to the world that apply to the family. To the world's elders, who are about the same age as your grandparents, you have to show respect as you would your real grandparents, regardless of race. To people who are about the same age as your parents, you must extend your love as you would to your own parents at home. That type of person can possess and inherit the territory of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and in heaven. Just as a couple mutually loves each other; you must equalize the heart of loving all men and women, and equalize the love for your children worldwide. The person who can appropriately apply the educational method through which his or her family is as a textbook to the entire world becomes a prince or princess of the love of God, the center of the world. (209-232, 1990.11.29)
You should respect your own flesh and blood. You should respect your parents and grandparents as the owners of your house who represent heavenly right of kingship. But they are despised because they are old, aren't they? Is this what we call the generation gap? Who invented this? Satan invented this word. (225-300, 1992.1.26)
If you go to the West, you will see that grandmothers and grandfathers are pitiful. You do not know how much they long for Oriental customs. They are saying, "Oh, Oriental thought reveres grandparents like God, and sons still go to consult their aged parents even when they are in their seventies and eighties. So how wonderful it must be!" Thus, those who do not know how to love their grandparents cannot love God. Who is the oldest grandfather? He is God. Since God is older than all grandfathers and younger than all babies, without loving people as a whole, you cannot love Him. So if you say God is old, He is the oldest person, and if you say God is a youth of the future, He is a youth more than anyone else. As we want to love Him, we have to love all the people in between, and since people of the past in the spirit world also want to find hope and live within that realm, we must love them as well. It is only logical that we will then be able to go the way of following and loving God. (70-152, 1974.2.9)
Only when you can respect parental love and conjugal love can you be qualified to enter heaven. You have to love your parents more than you love your spouse, and you have to love your grandparents more than you love your parents. This is the core teaching of heaven and the ideal motto. (Blessed Family -- 952, Korean Edition)
The reason a child of filial piety is precious is that he respects and serves his parents with unchanging love, whether in childhood, as an adult, or in old age. We call such a person a child of filial piety. (168-161, 1987.9.20)
Your children should consider you greater than any king or queen in the world, and you should show your children how intimate you are with each other. Blessed families should set up such a tradition. You should implant into your children's bone marrow the tradition that they revere you more than anyone else in the world. (Blessing Pt. 2 -- 301)
Our parents are in the king's position representing the whole family. My father is the king of my family and my mother is the queen of my family. Therefore, you must absolutely respect and obey your parents above anything else in the world. This is not my word. This is not something I made up. This is the Principle. Is that right? (Yes) I am not speaking words I borrowed from somewhere. I am speaking the content of the Principle. (True Parents -- 203)
The ideal family is the model for living together in peace. The ideal family is the nest where we live and learn to become one. There we have the foundation of love and respect between parents and children, shared trust and love between husband and wife, and mutual support among siblings. (Messages of Peace 1 -- 22, 2005.9.12)
The family sets the pattern for living together in harmony. The family wherein parents and children love and respect each other, husband and wife are grounded in mutual trust and love, and brothers and sisters trust and rely on each other, and all live together as one, is the model ideal family. This means that you need to establish a true family wherein the stem of true love emerges from the root of true love and bears the fruit of true love. Such families contain the living root of history and the roots of the kingdom of heaven. In such families, the kingdom of heaven on earth takes root. They are the soil in which God's everlasting kingship is firmly planted. (Messages of Peace 2 -- March, 2006)
Why are you valuable? You are valuable because you inherited the tradition of love. Love is precious, and you are valuable because you stand at the core of the universe in a position to inherit the tradition of the core of all the ideal forces in this universe. You are valuable because you were born through and connected to that love, and because you can bear the fruit that expands from that love. Do you know why you have to respect your parents, and why you have to be devoted to your parents? Your roots should be deep. I am talking about the vertical roots. (166-217, 1987.6.7)
To whom do you belong? You belong both to your parents and your child. To whom do the parents belong? They belong to both the child and to God simultaneously. Therefore, first you belong to God, and then you belong to your child. After that, you belong to yourself. When you reach that stage, you will be perfect.
That is why the moral principle of showing respect to parents still remains in human life. The phrase "respect for your parents and love for your child" is derived from this principle. A person without parents is an orphan. Only after you have the experience of receiving parental love and of loving your children can you distinguish your position in the four horizontal directions and up and down. (18-209, 1967.6.8)
A true family is one where the husband loves and lives for his wife as he would his mother, where the wife loves and lives for her husband as she would her father, and where the husband and wife love each other as they would their own brother and sister. Furthermore, the world in which the husband loves his wife as he would God and the wife loves and respects her husband as she would God, is the Kingdom of Heaven where ideal families dwell. Such a tradition must be established here on earth. (Blessed Family -- 920, Korean Edition)
In Korea everything can be found, even things that cannot be found in the families of other nations in the world. Korean folk songs are universal, with universal contents which transcend history. "Moon, Oh Moon, you bright Moon, Moon loved by the poet Lee Tae-baek! Oh Moon, on you grows a laurel tree. I want to chop it down with a jade ax, and trim the branches with a gold ax to build a thatched cottage, to bring my parents to come and live with me forever." How splendid this is! To live for thousands and tens of thousands of years together! Which parents are being referred to here? There is no other nation in the world whose folk songs praise and pay respect to parents, who are yearned for in such dreams as this. (286-103, 1997.8.9)
Through serving in the family and respecting your parents, you become children of filial piety. In the same way, when you attend and live for the king of your nation, you become patriots, and if you live for all humankind, you become saints. So you should realize how much the dimension of a holy child differs from yours. In order for you to change, you must make revolutionary changes in yourselves and ascend through numerous levels. (293-211, 1998.5.26)
The love between husband and wife should be as pure as that of innocent teenagers and greater than that between any brother and sister. From such a place, they must pass through the process of respecting and serving each other. Once they have done so, God will come to them automatically. (129-23, 1983.10.4)
The love that parents give their children does not change even if heaven and earth change and historical ages change. By becoming a parent and loving your children, you will understand and deeply experience how God has been loving human beings. By becoming a parent and loving your children, you will feel and realize how much your parents have loved you. This is why we revere our aged parents even more and fulfill the duties of filial piety with love. (126-245, 1983.4.24)
You should know that when you bring many true sons and daughters of the heavenly kingdom, they are to your advantage towards earning you honor and determining your rank in the heavenly world. (202-38, 1990.5.1)
Why do we respect parents' love? It is because they sacrifice without expecting anything. They do not want any return from it. They are satisfied with loving, and happy just with that. They are happy just with giving. Receiving everything does not always make you happy. One who gives has more blessing than one who receives. Why is he blessed? It is because he can represent God's side. (46-35, 1971.7.18)
Sincere love is a heavenly law, and thus it is realized naturally before it is taught. Parents' love does not become bigger or smaller according to whether the child's face is cute or ugly, nor is there a child who changes his love and respect for his parents according to whether they are good looking or bad looking. Are there children who say, "You have an ugly face, so you are not my mother"? There would be no parents who say, "Although I gave birth to you, you are not my child because you have an ugly face." If there were such parents or children, we would not be able to call them human beings. (Blessed Family -- 1060, Korean Edition)
In order to educate their children, parents should first put their words into practice. They should set the example of being loyal to God's will. This way, they should create an atmosphere in which, whatever they say, their children can revere them without ever talking back. Otherwise, their children would not follow them. (31-268, 1970.6.4)
The true family is the place where a husband loves his wife as his mother, and where a wife sacrifices for her husband and loves him as her older brother. And the Kingdom of Heaven is the world where a husband loves his wife as God and a wife loves and respects her husband as God. Such a tradition should be established on this earth (Blessing Pt. 2 -- 204)
A true family is a place where the husband loves and serves his wife as he would his mother, the wife serves and loves her husband as she would her father, and they love each other as brother and sister. The Kingdom of Heaven, where ideal families live, is a place where a husband and wife each love and respect each other as they would God Himself. Such a tradition should be established on this earth. (Blessed Family -- 924, Korean Edition)
How should children love each other? What should be their standard of love? They should love each other the same as their father loves their mother. People learn love from their parents. Children should be able to say, "Our parents are the best parents in the world; they exist in place of God." When children, after looking at the unchanging mind and love of their parents, say things such as, "Let's become one as our parents are one," an ideal family can come into being.
When children reach adolescence, they are to look for the object who can be one in heart with them. This can be accomplished through marriage. A man and a woman are to respect each other sincerely and are to endeavor to establish a heartistic standard, so that finally a family where parents and children are one with God in heart and love can be established. (Blessing Pt. 2 -- 201)
Originally, husband and wife should speak to each other in the most respectful, honorific way. In aristocratic or noble families, husbands and wives do not speak rough language to each other. Korea is a nation with such a tradition, and this corresponds to heavenly law. In fact, heavenly law is even more stringent than that. The tradition within Korean aristocracy did not include or connect to God. It included the concept of "nation', but even so, it was not connected to the law of heaven and earth. For this reason, Korea and Korean people have to learn from the Unification Church. Otherwise, they have no way to enter the realm of the royal family. (253-323, 1994.1.30)
The love between husband and wife should be as pure as that of innocent teenagers and greater than that between any brother and sister. From such a place, they must pass through the process of respecting and serving each other. Once they have done so, God will come to them automatically. (129-23, 1983.10.4)
When children grow up and reach young adulthood, they go looking for a partner with whom their mind and heart can be one. This is realized through marriage, where a man and woman totally respect each other and strive to establish the standard of love and heart. You should have a family in which the mother and father can unite with God's heart and love, and then the children can take after their parents and also unite with God's heart and love. (Blessed Family -- 913, Korean Edition)
In getting married, you should not think that you will be a husband to a beauty. Rather, you should think that you will be someone who can wed an ugly woman and still live better than anyone else. This way, you should be a husband who can be revered by any beautiful woman in the world. If you have this kind of viewpoint, you should have no trouble relating to any kind of woman. (26-332, 1969.10.3)
What is the original palace, the sexual organ, with which a man and woman make love? It is the royal palace of love, the royal palace of life, and the royal palace of lineage. Your grandfather and grandmother live revering this place; your mother and father also live revering it; your couple also lives revering it; and your sons and daughters to come in the future will also live revering it; is this not so? Is there a woman or a man who live not regarding it? Then why has it turned into something bad? The sexual organ is said to be a vulgar word. Why is it vulgar? It is a holy word. We should consider it a holy word. It is because of this that eternal love is connected and from this that eternal life and eternal lineage appear. It is the most precious thing. (210-101, 1990.12.1)
You can become qualified to enter the Kingdom of Heaven when you respect conjugal love and parental love. Grandparents hand down love to parents, who hand down love to husband and wife, who hand down love to children.
If you deny any one of these, the Kingdom of Heaven cannot be established. You should love your parents more than you love your spouse, and you should love your grandparents more than you love your parents. This is the essence of Heaven and the ideal motto. (Blessed Family -- 946, Korean Edition)
You should attend and love the sexual organs more than you do God, for only then would He rejoice. Where on earth would you hear such words? If religious people heard them, they would jump and fall down in shock, but this is the plain truth. Only when you attend the love organs more than you do God can the foundation on which God can settle be laid. It is more precious than life, and you cannot exchange it for the world, the universe, and even God. Only when you worship, love, and recognize the value of your spouse's sexual organ more than you do all God's creation put together, will God come to reside in your homes. (325-211, 2000.7.1)
Love's eternal nature makes it the most precious of all. In receiving your husband, did you feel like a queen receiving her king, and that you were entering the place of love revered by the whole world? With the heart of a queen receiving her king? You must give birth to your children with that perception of their value. From the day of each child's conception, you should feel that you are carrying a prince or princess in your womb. When delivering your baby, think that you are giving birth to a member of the royal family of hope, dawning like the sun, an heir who will inherit the whole universe. Have you ever thought of such things? (218-358, 1991.8.22)
If you share a beautiful love with your partner and live happily, material things and honor will follow. (Blessed Family -- 372, Korean Edition)
Since the husband represents all men, he is a representative of the father and a representative of the elder brother at the same time as he is the husband; and since the wife represents all women, she is a representative of the mother and a representative of the elder sister at the same time as she is the wife. Thus, they cannot but love and respect each other. (9-83, 1960.4.16)
It will be a beautiful sight, where a younger brother attends and reveres his older brother as he would his father and the older brother looks after his younger brother with a loving heart. The older brother represents "front" and the younger brother represents "back." The older brother represents the father, while the younger brother represents the mother. The perfection of the realm of heart between siblings is the foundation for all people to live for the sake of others through love and service. (Public Venue, 2004.3.23)
A good person is one whom the whole can recognize as being good. Suppose I think I am the best in my family. My parents might think I am good, but if my little sister thinks I am terrible then something is lacking. Who determines whether you are the best in your family? It is the consensus of family opinion that decides. How can you be admired by all your family? When you serve them unselfishly and make them important to you, then they will respect you. (God's Will -- 496, 1979.9.30)
Parental love should be fair. Part of being parents entails connecting and bringing together their firstborn son or daughter with their younger sibling, so that the elder children can love their younger siblings in their parents' stead, and the younger children can respect their elder siblings. The parents should act as intermediaries connecting them together. If they cannot do so, the family will fall apart and disputes will arise among siblings. Hence, parents should educate their children. (295 -167, 1998.8.28)
When you perform ancestral rites, you have the firstborn son of the eldest son stand at the head even before his uncle, cousin, third-cousin, and even his great-uncle. In reverence to the ancestors in traditional Korean culture, the firstborn son is at the front. Thus, we can see that it is a race that attaches importance to the right of the eldest son. (197-340, 1990.1.20)
In regard to the firstborn son of the eldest son, even the grandfather comes under his command when that son performs the ancestral rites. The grandfather has to show his respect. The fact that Koreans place value in the lineage of the firstborn son, and also in their genealogy and lineage, holds record-breaking historical value in God's providence of restoration, which can never be forgotten from the deepest root of His mind. (290-9, 1998.2.2)
Parents should be able to respect their children; they are not to scold their children in a humiliating manner. (Blessing -- 597)
Being parents who are dealing with a true, genuine, filial son or daughter is more difficult than dealing with the ruler of a nation. You must be careful about every word you say and everything you do. What does that mean? In your families, you must show how you would attend the nation's ruler. Once parents attend their children in this way, their children cannot relate with them in a rash manner.
Those children whose parents treat them with cautious respect tend to be careful in attending their parents and do not say even one word without thought. They will think things over several times before speaking. (285-16, 1997.4.19)
The firstborn son of the eldest son must drive his roots deep. No one can uproot it. The grandfather cannot do so, nor can the uncle. That is why when you perform ancestral rites, you first have the eldest son stand at the head even before his uncle, cousin, third-cousin and even his great-uncle. Did you know that? The eldest son is set at the front, thus, we can see that the Korean race was one which attached great importance to the first son's position by virtue of its traditional cultural background that reveres its ancestors. Did the lowly people live with the nobility? Did they carelessly mingle with each other? No. It was said that the nobility would not even light a fire made with husks of rice, even if they were to freeze to death. That is amazing. (197-340, 1990.1.20)
You should love and respect the elderly more than you do the young people. It would be alright just to meet young people, but you should especially love and have sympathy for older people who cannot work and who are weak and need care. But I cannot see such a trend in society today. (25-289, 1969.10.5)
A good person should know how to love children, young people, and the elderly (72-100, 1974.5.26)
You need to comply with the laws of the Kingdom of God and learn to respect the laws of the palace of the Kingdom of God. (210-370, 1990.12.27)
You must be respected when you go into the royal palace, respected when you go to the nation, respected when you go into the earthly palace, and respected when you go to the earthly nation. I have to walk such a course. The goal of my course is to gain victory by earning respect through the natural surrender of others. (280-35, 1996.10.13)
Today, people do not pay enough attention to each other. In horizontal relationships, it is rare that people pay respect to each other centering on the horizontal connection. Regardless of sex or age, everyone has the attitude that dealing with people is annoying. If you view people as a nuisance, then you can never walk the heavenly way. (25-291, 1969.10.5)
There is an original rule that whenever you assert yourself, God is absent, and whenever you respect others, God is with you. The fact that we walk with two feet itself reflects a thinking that is in accordance with this original rule and the principle. (CSG -- 388)
There are many who respect the word "family" and yet ignore the essential nature of the family. (127-202, 1983.5.8)
The term "a glorious true family" refers to a family that can be happy on earth and in the spirit world. A family that can live directly with God, the central Being of the next world, will be a true family in glory. You must become families that like each other more and more for eternity. If you do not like each other, you should work together to actualize an ideal world of love. As ideal subject and object partners, you need to create an environment in which each partner feels grateful to, lives for, and respects the other because they have received each other as partners of love. (294-312, 1998.8.9)
Love cannot be fulfilled alone. Where does it arise? It does not come from the self, but from one's object partner. That being the case, you need to bow to and live for the sake of your object. This is where the heavenly law dictating, "Live for the sake of others" emerges. A very precious thing is coming to you, and in order to receive it, you need to respect and live for the sake of the giver. Only when you practice altruism can you receive love. (143-277, 1986.3.20)
Who is to be the owner in your home? One who lives one's entire life for the sake of the whole family will be the central figure representing God and the parents. One who has a hundred friends and lives for their sake during one's life-time will earn the respect of those hundred people and will be their center. So an owner who eternally lives for the sake of others in the eternal world will be the eternal owner. (205-258, 1990.9.9)
The bigger your heart of love is when you enter the spirit world, the more people will line up to be with you. Such a person will be respected in the spirit world. If myriads of people were to flock around him, wishing that they could live with him, he would become exceedingly wealthy with extensive domains. What sort of person would be wealthy in the next world? The one who invests for the sake of love is a wealthy person.
Witnessing is the way to collect blessings of love. With love, we as owners recover the property of heaven stolen by thieves from the satanic world. We go to them with a heart of loving their mother and father more than they do, and bring in all the blessings related to love. Even if you are mistreated, you won't perish. Myriads of saints and all the things of creation will follow you and you will thereby become wealthy naturally. (205-347, 1990.10.2)
Even if each of you had a hundred children, heaven is so vast that you could never overproduce. That world can accommodate any number of people. Do not practice birth control. Once you go to the spirit world, the question will be how many citizens of heaven you created and led there. Understand that leading many true sons and daughters to the Kingdom of Heaven establishes your rights and interests, as well as the level at which you will be honored in the heavenly world. (202-38, 1990.5.1)
You should respect Korean more than the language of any other nation in the world. It is because of their language that Koreans are smart. There is no sound that cannot be pronounced in the Korean language. (130-272, 1984.2.5)
If a person becomes president, you should respect and attend him. (211-211, 1990.12.30)
You must be respected when you go into the royal palace, respected when you go to the nation, respected when you go into the earthly palace, and respected when you go to the earthly nation. I have to walk such a course. The goal of my course is to gain victory by earning respect through the natural surrender of others. (280-35, 1996.10.13)