The Words of In Jin Moon from 2010
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The Words of In Jin Moon from 2010 |
Good morning, brothers and sisters. How is everyone this Sunday? I am delighted to see all of you.
I am so happy to hear that our True Parents will be coming to America once again. As a wonderful family representing America, how shall we receive our True Parents? With love and a great heart of attendance and devotion, right?
I was able to talk to my parents and tell them of all the wonderful things taking place here and the progress the Second Generation is making. Our True Parents are delighted to see these changes. I think they can feel your heart and excitement. So I truly want to thank you for your inspired devotion and continued attendance to our True Parents.
This morning when I got up I thought about what I could share on this beautiful Sunday morning to prepare our hearts to spend the precious minutes we have with our True Parents in the fullest way. I was meditating on the word sincerity, which comes from the Latin sinceres, meaning "pure." When we meditate on the word pure, we think of something that's unadulterated, something that is not corrupted and not deceitful. Webster's dictionary defines sincerity for us as truthfulness, as something honest and genuine.
When we understand ourselves to be the children of our Heavenly Parent, we think about how we can go about living a life as an eternal son and daughter. What should an eternal son and daughter be like when we apply the principles in our lives? How should it look?
I very much feel that when we are attempting to live our lives as eternal, special, precious, prepared sons and daughters of God, the way we show our gratitude and heart of attendance is through sincerity. Many times my father has talked about the importance of being connected to God. In my sharing and sermons -- or "hermons" -- with my brothers and sisters, I like to talk about the example of a light bulb. In this beautiful hall we have many light bulbs that illuminate this gathering. The way you get this overwhelming, overpowering light is having it connected to a light source.
Human beings are like light bulbs. If we are connected to the divine source of energy -- or the divine source of true love -- we can illuminate beauty, love, and the power of God. But if we are not connected to God and to this power source, then we live empty lives, in darkness.
If we are like light bulbs, wanting to express the divinity within us by allowing the power of true love to flow through our bodies so we can be the source of a beautiful light unto the world, what is sincerity in this context? If God is the source of energy through which we can emit our own divine light into the world, the application of sincerity in our lives is almost like the cord connecting the light bulb to the power source. It's the cord that is pure, truthful, honest, and genuine. It's the cord that is unadulterated and allows the natural and free flow of God's energy through our bodies so we can truly live as divine and inspired beings.
Shintoism teaches in the words of Takatomi Senge that sincerity is the singular virtue that binds the divine and humanity. It's this sincerity or genuineness, this truthfulness or honesty that binds man to the divine. It's the willingness to be true to oneself that allows humankind to be connected to the divine source and allows him and herself to emit this beautiful light within.
When we refer back to the Good Book and look at Scripture, Titus 1:15, it says,
"To those who are pure, all things are pure. But to those who are corrupted and are not believers, nothing is pure."
This scripture reminds us of the importance of seeing good in other people. When we want to live our lives practicing sincerity, the scripture reminds us, one of the first things we need to do is to see the good in other people.
When you've had children -- and I have my ongoing saga with motherhood -- you've learned that kids are so pure and innocent that to them the whole world is wondrous. Everybody is a good person, and everybody is full of love because children have yet to experience the pain or difficulty and obstacles in life. They are bright-eyed, full of innocence and wonder.
I think this scripture is reminding us that, just like children, we need to maintain this sense of purity and goodness, wanting to see the good in others. As children grow up and become "corrupted" in experiencing the not-so-wonderful things, as well as wonderful things, they become tainted -- they become sarcastic, thinking negative thoughts and looking at people negatively.
When I was a high school student a long, long time ago, I experienced that the people who tended to make fun the most of other people at school were the most insecure people. Because they wanted to mask their own insecurity, they had to inflict pain on other people, just to make themselves feel less insecure. Because they felt somehow corrupted and unhappy, they could no longer have goodwill for others. This desire to tear somebody down just because you are unhappy, to say negative things about other people and not be able to see the good in them because you are miserable, and to poke fun and make the other person miserable just continues. These insecure people are not able to be honest about why they feel and do what they are doing.
People like Mother Teresa and Mahatma Gandhi, who want to see men and women of the world as children of God, who want to see the good, to see everyone's divinity -- such people see the divinity because they are pure in their own hearts, because they have made themselves pure through patience, diligence, and a consistent life of faith. Because they are pure, they see all things as pure. They believe that people can be pure; they see the divine in each and every one of us.
When you contemplate the beautiful hearts of people like Mother Teresa, who gave up a middle-class home to live with the untouchables of India, to feed and clothe them, to take care of them, you realize she was seeing the golden nugget, the purity, the divinity that each man, woman, and child has. Regardless of how dirty the slums of India might be, of how tattered the clothing of these people might be, regardless of whether or not these people were considered untouchables, Mother Theresa saw only the good -- what was genuine and honest in those people. She realized they were children of God, and it was her honor to take care of them and to see the good in them.
When I read about people like Mother Teresa and Mahatma Gandhi, it makes me realize that our modern-day world is so fragmented and that people are becoming so cold as to be almost mechanical in their functions. There's so little chance to savor and relish times with each other. When our society is so cold and people are miserable and isolated, what this world needs is people who can see again the good in others, pure-hearted people who can see the purity in others.
Regardless of how ugly our world might be, we must not look at others as corrupted human beings, seeing only the impure or ugly things. We have to transcend our own existence, our own situations, to want to live that life of sincerity first by seeing the beauty and good in other people.
Shintoism goes on in the divine injunction, saying that sincerity, or matoko, means the mind of kami, or the mind of God. When we contemplate this thought, my mind goes back to a speech my father gave in November 1978, when he talked about the importance of speaking with our mind, our innermost self. When I hear my father talk about the importance of speaking with the mind, it makes me think of what Shintoism teaches -- that sincerity is the mind of kami.
We have to think and speak with our mind as if we are speaking like God: with the parental heart of God; with the heart that empowers, not takes away; with a power that inspires, not enervates; and with a heart that nurtures, not destroys. If we are to live as sincere men and women, wanting to be truthful, honest, and genuine with each other -- and Shintoism urges one to think of sincerity as the mind of kami -- then we need to even go beyond seeing the good in others. If we really approach each other through the mind of God and we speak through the mind of God, we need to consider how he would speak to his children. Would God be sitting on a high throne, pointing out all the things we're doing wrong? Would God be sitting on a throne as a parent and be gossiping about his children? Would God be sitting on a throne, only pointing out how we fall short?
If we are to truly live our lives and speak with the mind of God, our innermost self, as my father, Rev. Sun Myung Moon has taught, we will heed his words as he goes on to say that if we are sympathetic to others, then we can live with and become one with God, and the truth of the universe will be revealed to us.
What does he mean when he says, "If we can be sympathetic to others"? You can show sympathy in many different ways. One of the most effective ways is by listening. Another way might be giving an embrace. But sometimes the most effective way of showing your sympathy for somebody is to speak a kind word or two.
My father is urging us that if we want to live a life of sincerity and we want to speak with the mind of God, we will articulate or speak about what is good in others. One of the most difficult things about working at Headquarters is that we have a lot of departments and different types of people. Whenever you get a group of people together, it's a cause for celebration, a cause for an inspired state of being. But many times it's an invitation to gossip, to tear people down, or to say negative things about other people.
If we really want to live a life as eternal sons and daughters of God, if we want to practice sincerity in our lives, then we need to think about gossiping. When the senior pastor of Saddleback Church welcomes new members to the church, he gives a brief introductory talk welcoming everyone, inviting them to become members. But one of the first things he requires of everyone who wants to become part of his community, a part of his family, is that he asks everyone please to not gossip.
Why does a senior pastor like Rick Warren make that a requirement? Because gossiping is not constructive. It does not empower, it does not inspire, and it does not nurture. No parents in their right mind would sit back and gossip about their children. No loving parents would want to tear their children apart. No loving brothers and sisters would want to tear each other apart.
Just as Rick Warren of the Saddleback Church in California has decided it is a requirement of membership that we should not gossip, shouldn't we as a movement do better? If we are here to really celebrate this breaking news of our True Parents, shouldn't we be articulating things that are empowering, positive, and uplifting, so that through our words we can inspire each other and ignite the excitement that our True Parents are here with us?
Why is it so exciting that our True Parents are here with us? For the first time we have a man and a woman sharing the breaking news with us, showing us that we belong to the same Parent and should not be fighting each other to the point of killing each other, as we have so sadly witnessed on 9/11. We have to overcome our differences. We have to overcome the barriers that divide us by concentrating on the fact that we belong to one common Parent and that we are all brothers and sisters, regardless of where we come from or whatever our economic status, race, and religious background might be.
We are all children of God. We can lift ourselves up by articulating goodness and positivity, and by celebrating here at Lovin' Life all that makes human beings beautiful as children in the eyes of God.
When I think about speaking with the mind of God, with our innermost self, I sense all of us being invited to have the heart that a wise old mother would have after having gone through the years of childbirth and raising children. One of the most difficult things I've ever had to do, and still continue to do, is to be a mother. We wish all the great things for our children. We want them to be happy, to experience success, love, and everything that's beautiful. We want them to be great human beings.
A mother gazing upon her children really wants to say to them, "You may experience moments of doubt when you feel desperate, but I will be here with you every step of the way. I will be here cheering you on, telling you that you can become great. I will be the one telling you that you are awesome; I will be articulating what God wants to say to you, that you are an awesome and precious creation of our Heavenly Parent."
When we think about the reading from Taoism that I shared earlier, it's really an invitation for us to embody this truth within us. Not only should we see good in others, not only should we speak good of others. One of the first things newborns learn to do is to gaze upon their world. A little further on, children learn to speak and they start expressing themselves. But the ultimate goal of every human being is to embody this truth within ourselves.
Taoism teaches that truth means purity and sincerity to the highest degree. And it is only with purity and sincerity that we have the capacity or ability to truly move others. If we realize that we are eternal sons and daughters with divine power as a rich reservoir of true love that we can tap into in order to become conduits of the universal energy of God, which allows us to embody his essence and become divine, then we can become a truth body ourselves.
It's almost like gazing upon True Father, who is such a complete man in that he is truth personified. This is a man with purity of spirit and utmost sincerity living a heart of attendance, devotion, and love in service to his Heavenly Parent. Ever since he was anointed by Jesus Christ to fulfill Jesus' mission at the tender age of 16, this man has never wavered, despite going through the trials, tribulations, and difficulties of six imprisonments and even surviving the Hungnam concentration camp in North Korea for almost three years. This man has never, ever wavered. The purity of his spirit directed to his mission in service to God and humanity, despite being maligned, persecuted, and hated, is so great that this man never gave up.
There is something ultimately beautiful in that. There's a sense of nobility in two people who personify two truth bodies, a man and woman who are so pure and sincere with their convictions and commitments that just by being true to him and herself, they can move multitudes to want to be great like him and like her, like our True Father and True Mother.
When our Father and Mother successfully established the position of True Parents, standing as the perfected Adam and Eve, perfected as two truth bodies personified, being pure and sincere in their utmost convictions and their devotion to our Heavenly Parent, they were not declaring themselves and sharing with the world that they are True Parents just to lord it over us. In fact, just like the True Parents that they are, they, with the heart of a parent, are inviting all of us to become great true parents ourselves, to become wonderful men and women who can come together in holy matrimony through this wonderful Blessing and have a chance to raise a beautiful, inspired family, what we call the ideal family.
I'd be the first one to say when we strive toward the goal of accomplishing an ideal family; it's not always a walk in the park. An ideal family means we're going to have to deal with a lot of things that come from being in a family. Sometimes nothing is more painful than the relationships in the family because those relationships mean so much to us. Nothing is more painful than the disunity that you might feel with a sibling because you care for and love that sibling of yours. Nothing is more painful than to feel you don't have a wonderful relationship with your father and mother because they mean so much to you.
But if we can concentrate on changing ourselves to become truth bodies, like light bulbs, practicing sincerity so the core connecting us to the divine is unadulterated and free from corrupt, dirty ways of thinking, and if we can be pure in our hearts, then we are inviting an incredible sense of gratitude into our lives.
When we live our lives embodying the truth within us, it's an invitation to live a life practicing a heart of attendance. When I talk about the heart of attendance, what I mean is to exercise the heart of love and devotion by thinking about the other person before ourselves. In thinking about the other person, instead of trying to change the other person, we actually decide to change ourselves. And when we decide to change ourselves, we realize that things naturally fall into place.
When you start exercising sincerity by looking inward and thinking about how you can be a good person, you then can realize that you have started looking at other people with pure thoughts. You're looking at other people's purity because you want to be pure and you're working on the purity of your thoughts. You want to see the good in other people because you want to see the good in yourself. You want to see the divinity in other people because you want to tap into that divinity yourself.
I don't know anybody in this world who likes to stand in front of a mirror and disparage themselves. Please point me to a person who likes to start the day looking in the mirror, saying how awful you are. Can you imagine saying to yourself in the morning as you're looking in the mirror, "You are so awful. You are worthless. Why can't you ever do anything right?" If we start our life out that way, we're not going to have a good day. If we start our life out that way, we're not going to appreciate the profound relationships that we have right before our eyes.
In Islam there is a saying, "Every man, woman, and child should live every day, every hour, every minute as if gazing into the face of God." Islam teaches that we may not actually see the very face of the divine, or God, but God certainly sees us.
If we are living and gazing into God's eyes, God's face, in our daily lives, then it invites us to see the good in others, to speak well of others, and to embody the truth, to become that pure and sincere human being that we all are.
We need to take away the armor of the world that we have become accustomed to. As the years go on, we put on more and more layers until we have totally insulated ourselves from our emotions, from our ability to empathize with another person. We need to put this professional armor away, put away the armor that protects us because we are so afraid of another person seeing the real us, because we don't feel like we're good enough or we don't feel worthy enough.
Let's have the courage to put away the layers. Let's live every day looking into the face of God and realizing there's nothing to hide because although God sees everything -- our fears and our insecurities -- and God sees and feels our apprehensions and shortcomings, God in return gives us consistent empowerment, nurturing, and love. It is in tapping into this divine source of energy and love that we can become great ourselves.
On days when we feel naked, homeless, and hungry, it might be a good time to check whether we are truly plugged in to the rich divine source of true love, or God. Perhaps we are feeling naked, homeless, and hungry because we haven't connected ourselves to this power source; we forgot to turn our light on.
When we are feeling worthless, it's important to realize that each life is a gift. The fact that we're living and that we're breathing in 20,000 liters of air every day is a miracle. We are living and breathing miracles, and we are here not to live meaningless lives, like dust in the wind. We are here with a purpose: to be loved and to love. We are here to move and be moved by each other.
As Taoism teaches, if we are not plugged in to the truth of who we really are in the essence of our divine being, our purity and sincerity, then we will not be able to move others; we will not be able to move and be moved by the people in our lives. We will not be able to love and be loved by people in our lives. So we need to be grateful for each other. We need to be grateful that we have this incredible opportunity to do something right, an opportunity to make the world right with God.
At the turn of this millennium, we have a responsibility to raise up a new Generation of Peace, a generation of young people who are going to see themselves as eternal sons and daughters belonging to one God, who are going to recognize that the value or meaning of their lives is not in living a selfish existence to satisfy whatever hunger they might feel but actually in living for the sake of others -- not because they seek individual salvation, but just because they want to be good people.
We need to raise up a generation of young people that sees more than what the Millennials, or the "show me the money" generation, sees. We need to raise a generation that practices compassion, is kind to each other, truly loves each other, and embraces beyond barriers, boundaries, and divisions to live and substantiate One Family Under God -- all while being compassionate human beings working on themselves to be internally and externally excellent.
If we can do that, brothers and sisters, if we can raise up an inspired generation calling themselves, claiming themselves, and owning for themselves the name Generation Peace, then the world will be in good hands. Then the world will be in the hands of young, inspired men and women who understand that right now in our modern age we have the capacity to destroy ourselves and our world, but we also have the capacity to love and to create. We have the capacity to think, and beyond that not just imagining how to substantiate a world of peace, but first and foremost understanding ourselves as belonging to one family of God.
Brothers and sisters, I hope that on this beautiful Sunday morning you can think about the word sincerity and realize that we all are such beautiful masterpieces of God. Nobody can really compare themselves to your own special nature. God doesn't look at you and compare you to somebody else. God looks at you and loves you just the way you are. And what God wants is to see all his children achieve and substantiate their personal destinies, just the way we as parents want that for our children. This is exactly what our Heavenly Father wants when he gazes into our eyes.
Brothers and sisters, please go on living as if you are gazing into the face of God. Always remember that no matter where you are, God is always there, God is always watching, and God is always praying and loving you every step of the way.
God bless, and thank you.
1: Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to further the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth which accords with godliness,
2: in hope of eternal life which God, who never lies, promised ages ago
3: and at the proper time manifested in his word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by command of God our Savior;
4: To Titus, my true child in a common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.
5: This is why I left you in Crete, that you might amend what was defective, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you,
6: if any man is blameless, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of being profligate or insubordinate.
7: For a bishop, as God's steward, must be blameless; he must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain,
8: but hospitable, a lover of goodness, master of himself, upright, holy, and self-controlled;
9: he must hold firm to the sure word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to confute those who contradict it.
10: For there are many insubordinate men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially the circumcision party;
11: they must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for base gain what they have no right to teach.
12: One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, "Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons."
13: This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith,
14: instead of giving heed to Jewish myths or to commands of men who reject the truth.
15: To the pure all things are pure, but to the corrupt and unbelieving nothing is pure; their very minds and consciences are corrupted.
16: They profess to know God, but they deny him by their deeds; they are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good deed.
1: But as for you, teach what befits sound doctrine.
2: Bid the older men be temperate, serious, sensible, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness.
3: Bid the older women likewise to be reverent in behavior, not to be slanderers or slaves to drink; they are to teach what is good,
4: and so train the young women to love their husbands and children,
5: to be sensible, chaste, domestic, kind, and submissive to their husbands, that the word of God may not be discredited.
6: Likewise urge the younger men to control themselves.
7: Show yourself in all respects a model of good deeds, and in your teaching show integrity, gravity,
8: and sound speech that cannot be censured, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say of us.
9: Bid slaves to be submissive to their masters and to give satisfaction in every respect; they are not to be refractory,
10: nor to pilfer, but to show entire and true fidelity, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.
11: For the grace of God has appeared for the salvation of all men,
12: training us to renounce irreligion and worldly passions, and to live sober, upright, and godly lives in this world,
13: awaiting our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,
14: who gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity and to purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.
15: Declare these things; exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you.
The Completion Period For the Dispensation (November 12, 1978)
Mainstream Of the Dispensation Of God [Part 1] (November 19, 1978)
Mainstream Of the Dispensation Of God [Part 2] (November 19, 1978)
How To Gain Spiritual Help (November 27, 1978)
How To Gain Spiritual Help (Unofficial Notes November 27, 1978)