Sun Myung Moon’s Life In His Own Words
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Sun Myung Moon’s Life In His Own Words |
The
banner across a street in Busan reads, "Unification Church Grand
Revival." It took place at our local church November 21-27,
1971, during a witnessing drive by blessed wives that Father had sent
out for three years beginning in 1970.
In 1971 Father is buying land, both in Korea's capital city and in the countryside. He has a grand vision for future development.
I'm going to hold a new registration ceremony for my family in front of God. Because Grandmother Seung Do Ji and other grandmothers who receive revelations have said that this is a joyful day and that we should spend this day dancing, we have made costumes and made preparations to show our joy. Up to this point, I have been unable to register my family's name in front of God. If we want to register our family, we must be a family that can win over Cain-type families.
Through my mobilization order,' even though I took away the person you love the most, the person who is the foundation of your heart, your wife, the fact that no one among you opposed me or demonstrated against me is especially wonderful. The fact that centering on the Parents' family, you and I went out to the front line and made a family foundation that enabled us to meet and become one has enabled the condition for a foundation of victory to be established. Through this, for the first time, the condition for True Parents' family to be dedicated to God has been established.
We celebrate January 3 because we have been told, from the spirit world, that it is the actual day of Jesus' birth. I want you to remember the day we began to celebrate this. So, now we have a Cain Christmas and an Abel Christmas. [Laughter] This year we have to connect the Cain and Abel Christmases.
1971 is the second year of the three-year period. Because Jesus came to earth as the second son in the growth period, the second year of the growth period is very important. The most fundamental reason that Jesus died was that he was unable to find a bride. So, if we want to find a bride for Jesus, who can become his perfect object partner, Christianity and the Unification Church have to be joined centering on the spirit and flesh. For that to be achieved, we must arrange for Jesus to meet his counterpart.
We must relieve Jesus of his bitter pain. In order to dissolve his pain, Christianity has to establish an actual person, a representative, like the Holy Spirit on earth, and connect her to him.... You have to understand that today is the day of an important, new, historic beginning. What is the source of Jesus' bitter pain? It developed because, centering on the restoration of the race and the nation, he couldn't restore the family foundation of at least 120 people and thereby stand in the position of Lord.
True
Parents depart for the third world tour, December 5, 1971. At back is
Ye Jin nim and at right is then church president Rev. Young Whi Kim.
The Unification Church's time has come, so we must build a headquarters. I have done everything that it was my duty to do. To establish the condition of fulfilling your responsibility, you should prepare a house for me. Before you do that, I must prepare the great foundation that God has planned.
So, at the beginning of this year, I bought land in four areas including on Yoido in Chung Pyung, and for churches. Because we need to establish an economic foundation to restore the four- position foundation, I am gathering all our resources in order to continue this work. We are beginning this project in order to establish the foundation we need in the future for the nation and for the world. We have already finished over half of this beginning stage.
When I consider the headquarters, I should buy a house. Yet, following my conscience dictates that I cannot buy a home first. We must build Heaven's temple first in principle; that temple must be a hundred or a thousand times bigger than a house, and I should only build a house after I have made that commitment.
Japanese
members visiting Korea pass out care packages (here, beef-flavored
instant noodle soup) to Korean soldiers.
I have prepared land in Yoido for our church. Originally, I wanted to purchase an additional ten thousand pyeong; but I was unable to.... Even so, I should buy another three thousand. That's all that remains for sale. After that, we will build a church. Of course, what I want is to create a global headquarters. Maybe you've thought of that, but this must certainly become our global headquarters. I have a leadership role while I am on earth, which includes a financial role. If I only buy a few pyeong and build a headquarters on it, that would be shameful. Ten, twenty, fifty years from now many people will come from around the world to that historic, grand building, so many that overcrowding will be a problem. That is what I am thinking.
Unification Church members have to buy the land. Each person should buy one pyeong of land. They must do some kind of business activity or even sell their blood if necessary.
The devoted heart that prepares this money for the land in Yoido will remain for eternity. We have to enable people to understand that the world headquarters is very important.
The Cheongpa-dong headquarters is not a global one.... A global headquarters must be built in a new place. Because it has this significance, I have purchased land on Yoido. I have bought land because we must have somewhere to make a new beginning. Our global headquarters should be there. The land is 360 meters long and 162 meters wide. We have to erect our building there, and when we do it, we will not just build a little house.
Yoido will become the center of Seoul in the future. With God's help what I had forecast has turned out to be exactly right. A national square will be made in the future, won't it? The fact that the National Assembly was built in the corner of Yoido is telling to us to buy the rest. When we bought the land in Yoido, I gathered hundreds of millions of won over a period of several months and paid each installment in cash. We didn't pay the third installment of nearly 600 million won grudgingly, but joyfully. We bought about 15,000 pyeong but somehow managed to raise the money.
Freedom
Leadership Foundation members (left to right) Jim Cowin and Hal
McKenzie visit Korea, September 25, 1971, to discuss the expansion of
VOC work in the United States.
I gave a little financial support this time in the building of the churches. That is because you all were in the position of having offered your family as a sacrifice. What are we trying to do by offering our families as a sacrifice? We are trying to make the tribal standard. That is the church. The church in the future will become the base with which to connect to other churches. This is why I am giving a certain amount to help the churches in the countryside.
The reason I secured places for you throughout Korea is to uphold our dignity in society. This is not on the basis of it being helpful to you. I am telling you to make the foundation to succeed in building churches that are bigger than the large established churches even if you have to sell the skin off your back. I am not doing this just to help all of you. You must have the right way of thinking.
This year we gave Divine Principle lectures to more than a thousand ministers of other churches. They were deeply moved and made comments such as, Oh, we didn't know what kind of a man Rev. Moon is.
In the past, they got together to try to drive me out without knowing anything. When they look back now on what they did back then, they are afraid to even recall their past. The fact is that things have changed. The world has changed.
When we told the clergymen to come to the Open Divine Principle Presentation, their superiors sent them official memos telling them not to go. Even though those in high places told them not to go, those on the bottom slipped out one after another. Their bosses sent out official notices once, twice, or three times, and when that didn't work, they decided to turn a blind eye to it. No matter how many official notices they sent out, it wouldn't have mattered. The clergymen came to us and received assistance from us.
Many of them stayed overnight, and they were thunderstruck. When they reflected on themselves, they realized that it was as if they were nothing. They were in trouble, and they bowed their heads in shame. When they first came to one of our churches, their eyes were wide open in amazement, but when they left, their heads were bowed; they had met their match.
We have to continue this work even if it means going into debt. In order for Jacob to subjugate Esau, he offered all the wealth he had worked very hard for for twenty-one years. We should use everything and everyone we have now to work for Korea's sake on the basis of our work with other churches.
The
second public presentation of Divine Principle, February 15-17, 1971
From the beginning of 1970, we started inviting ministers from other churches to Divine Principle meetings and professors to attend Divine Principle seminars at Academy House because I believe this is the time to break through in all directions and connect with the nation's situation.
We are spending a lot of money to have famous university professors research the Divine Principle so that they can offer criticism of it and comment on it in relation to their own fields. We want to make books about lectures quickly. Those who read books that have a renowned professor's stamp of approval wouldn't be able to speak against them. Therefore, we need to hurry to make this type of book. Centering on the extraordinary Unification Principle, we should publish a book within this year, and have it translated into Japanese and English and position it to influence even the leaders in nations across the world.?
When a book written by a professor is translated into several languages, it will be a source of pride to the professor who wrote it.
Father
(at right, wielding a pickaxe) breaks the ground for the Chung Pyung
training center, June 17, 1971. A tent is visible in the background.
For land to be a good place, it has to be next to a lake or water. But the east coast is too far from Seoul. There are a few cities concentrated on the west coast but the tides are extreme. When the tides go out, it becomes a tideland, a quagmire, which is not suitable. The only large body of water that is close enough to Seoul is Chung Pyung Lake. After looking around at a place that took more than thirty minutes to get to from the beginning of Chung Pyung Lake, I ended up choosing Songsan Village. It is such a beautiful area. I have managed to secure the most beautiful place in the Chung Pyung area.
The first time I came here and saw this land, I felt that it was a very good place. So, I established myself here and began praying. I have spent my life dedicating myself with complete sincerity, and I began to create a path in prayer. It seems like only yesterday that I went up to the top of a mountain there by myself and prayed.
At that time, the group of tents we had erected became well known. It was thought that people with health problems were coming there to cultivate their minds, or that it was people from Seoul who had nothing else to do but pass the time. It wasn't that. At that time, I was checking out the whole district. Do you think I spent my time fishing? Because we have to acquire the land without spawning rumors, I had already dispatched people here three years ago.
It took me about nine months to buy the land, because I had to buy it from more than a hundred landowners. It took an average of three days to make one contract. No one in the world could achieve such a feat. Do you think they sold those plots easily? When they heard that the Unification Church was buying the land, the landowners said that they would not sell their land for anything less than several times its actual worth.
First
church leaders meeting in Chung Pyung, August 12-18, 1971,
immediately after the training center was completed. The church
leaders are standing (with Father and Mother seated) on the stairs
down to the boat dock, which are still there today.
The position of assistant district leader was done away with and through this structural reorganization, about thirty people went to the countryside. I called those who had been district leaders to come and start digging the ground in Chung Pyung.
The people staying in Chung Pyung prepared the ground, digging for many days, but they still only slept for four or five hours a night. What I am saying is that the course of the Unification Church is one of pioneering. I ordered them to start preparing the ground from the beginning of July, so they started from July 2.
The rainy season had begun and this was a problem. Even though the weather was bad, we proceeded with building, according to plan. Even though it was raining cats and dogs yesterday we had to go out to buy some building materials. To buy the materials I had no choice but to go by boat, and I got thoroughly soaked by the rain. The rain was absolutely pouring down.
Yesterday, I asked those who had gotten hurt to step forward, and eight out of twenty-six had. A third of the men were injured. I looked at their faces and I saw that none of them was gravely wounded. They had nicked themselves with a pickaxe, or their foot was swollen because it had been pricked with a nail. Yet, they were claiming to be injured and limping around. So I told them that here we needed to have people who were genuinely injured, actually bleeding. "This is a place where indemnity needs to be paid."
Even when the workers were laying stones to make the floor-heating system, I had to coach them. Yesterday, we called some people to dig up well, and they asked me where they should dig. "You've dug wells for decades," I said. "How have you managed until now if you don't know such things?"
Some thought the building would take two months to build, but we completed it in eight days.
When we were tiling the roof with slate, the contractors were supposed to come three days before they did. But the person who was supposed to keep in contact with them had gone somewhere, and the roofing tiles hadn't been put up by the last day. We were in serious trouble. Our church leaders were scheduled to come [for a meeting] on the twelfth. If we weren't finished by then, everything would be ruined. Though the slate seller said he could not give me any tiles unless I paid him, I begged and persuaded him to help me. Then I had to rent a motorboat to deliver the tiles. We finally got them on site at around 2:30 AM. It was too late for the motorboat owner to go back, so he slept on his boat that night.
When he woke up the next morning, he saw that all the slate had been laid down on the roof overnight. He thought they had been laid temporarily to keep the rain off the roof. He looked closer, though, and saw that the slate had been perfectly put down in a few hours overnight. That's why people called the training center a ghost house.[Laughter]
The building we erected in Chung Pyung covers ninety- three pyeong [307 m2]. The hall itself is about seventy pyeong [230 m2]; about two hundred people can sleep in it. We actually finished on July 10, but it took an extra two days to paint. So it took ten days to finish the whole thing but we actually built it in eight days. We held a meeting there on the twelfth and we finished painting on the twelfth. We managed to hold the public opening without any difficulties.
When you look at it closely, you see that it has been colored to fit the landscape. It's a flattish building, and it looks like a religious trainee prostrating himself as an act of atonement. [Laughter]
True
Parents at Chung Pyung in May 1971. Father is holding
eleven-month-old Kook Jin nim. The man holding a camera is the then
Korean church president Young Whi Kim.
Every opportunity I get, I visit Chung Pyung. Not that someone is waiting there for me. No one is. I go there because I miss the place where I endured hardships on the path I pioneered, and also because I miss the fields and mountains, the sound of the wind blowing, and the Birdsong. I go there because I miss the feeling of being in contact with the heart- moving world of Heaven through the flowing providence of nature.
Everyone, you miss spring, don't you? When you live through summer and autumn, you come to miss spring. That yearning is something that no one can take away from you until you die. I miss the hours I spent on building a connection to Heaven when I was in difficulty or when I was in meditation while enduring hunger.
Sometimes, when I feel the wind on my skin, it brings perceptions of the past back to the living environment of the present. Whereas in the past, they were motives that propelled me to move forward, in the present they become motives for me to live everyday life, and Chung Pyung is the place where that takes place. This is why I like it.
When I am in Chung Pyung, I don't actually do anything. Some people may say that I have no reason to go there, but do you think so? It's not like that at all. When I go there, I pave the course I need to follow, in my own way. It's a serious task. When you are fighting in a war, carrying a sword becomes a way of life; I need to do that, too. I'm not pursuing my own happiness there.
Not once in my life have I ever thought about how to live in comfort. I never think about how to put nice clothes on my children. I only think about what I should do for the nation and the world.
I didn't send you out and then just say "This is great!" and live a comfortable life. In order not to become indebted to you, I traveled to every part of the country this year from January 1 until the end of July.
When I went to those areas and met the women who were witnessing there, they shed a flood of tears when they saw me. Even some of the ladies I used to see every day at the Headquarters Church and who never used to greet me shed tears because they were so happy to see me. When we see this, we can realize that working for God enables you to meet someone with more joy than you could exchange for gold.
Even though I was the cause of their suffering, they begged me not to go. After this kind of thing, even if I fail, or we all fail, this country will prosper. The tears that have woven the tradition of the Unification Church will cause this race to cry and will melt the hearts of all of humankind.
The husbands must become one with their wives, who are on the front line, and make prayer conditions for them. Be it night or day, in your dreams or even when you're talking in your sleep, you must have the kind of mind that prays to God beseeching Him that your wife can become a victorious daughter who is able to receive God's love. You have to have this kind of mind for these three years. It is a time of suffering on the family level that you have to pass through with your wife.
Summer
workshop on self-improvement for district leaders from around Korea
Tradition needs to be rightly established. If we fail to do that, we will perish. Isn't tradition established in connection to a nation's patriotic philosophy? In that light, this is the only time in which we can establish an ideological tradition. That you have ushered in this era with your wives is truly amazing. It is even more difficult than achieving global unity.
The unification of the world begins right here. Therefore, you can be happier than any other people of any other era. That's the position we're in, and for this reason both sadness and joy can be found here.
Therefore, you should clearly know that it is your mission as Unification Church members, and especially as the leaders of local churches, to have the subjective character by which you can absorb both sadness and joy.
Didn't I say that we should shed sweat for earth, tears for humanity, and blood for heaven, in the body of a servant and with the heart of a parent? That is what we must do. When the last day comes, you should be able to say, Even if my body crumbles,
I have no regrets about having worked for the providence. Even if my hands and feet were cut off and used in whichever way possible, if it is for the providence, I have no regrets.
The day before yesterday I held a Blessing Ceremony for married couples. An eighty-eight-year-old grandfather was among them but I still blessed him. I asked him, do you want to get married? He was so embarrassed that he just smiled, unable to speak. He was just like a child. [Laughter]
The grandmother was also embarrassed and she just bit her lips. [Laughter] Even though they were embarrassed, they knew they had to receive the blessing. Old and young alike are extremely serious in that kind of situation. Think about it. If you marry an old person, all you are going to do is take care of him or her. Nevertheless, you do that, run errands for and serve your spouse. If the person loves you, is it good or bad? Even though your spouse interferes in everything you do, the one thing that makes this all right is love. Those of you here who are unmarried, don't listen when I say such things. [Laughter]
In facing the path we have to take, how can we leave behind a national ideological tradition? That road to restore a nation is a road of hardships, a road on which bloody tears will be shed. The historic, time-honored philosophy of our ancestors is the starting point.... It can be discovered within my lifetime. Six thousand years of history has passed. It was sad history. The story of my life is also sad, but you should create a joyful history centered on me. Until now, I have told you only to work hard; I never told you to eat well and live in comfort, did I? However, the day will come when you can eat well, rest and live in comfort.
The day before yesterday, I selected 142 middle school and high school students as the sixteenth group of Seunghwa students. I called them together and said, all those who want to go out to the front line, raise your hands. I asked each one of them, Will you go or not? I separated out those who didn't want to go and am educating those who said that they would go. We have to make a beginning. That's why they are being educated in Chung Pyung now. They are doing four hours of farm labor every day, as part of the official course.