The Words of In Jin Moon from 2011
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The Words of In Jin Moon from 2011 |
1) In Jin Nim began by greeting everyone, "Happy Year of the Rabbit!"
2) She is happy to be back after celebrating with True Parents in Korea the 44th God's Day, the 28th victory of love, and our True Parents (True Parents) birthday. She also congratulated the 1800 blessed couples -- 36 years of blessed life.
3) It was a wonderful opportunity to come together and spend time with our True Parents. They were in great spirits. Our True Father gave precious words, he poured out his heart to those who came and he enjoyed the singing and dancing which nowadays are a part of the service. It was a festive atmosphere and at the same time a profound one.
4) It was a good opportunity to meditate on what we would like to accomplish this year. Our True Father gave us a beautiful motto for this year, translation is something like -- "Eok Mansei for Cheon Il Guk, when the True Parents of heavenly emotion and the children of earthly harmony can become one and settle (or becomes substantiated) in the cosmos. This motto is a continuation on the theme of oneness, and the importance of unity -- in the time to come.
5) Our movement has gone through lots of different things and we are smack in the middle of transitioning from the first generation to the second and third generation -- and there are lots of different changes that took place last year. We had great victories, great joys and celebration, as well as heartbreaks and obstacles that we have had to overcome as a movement. But to come together at the start of the new lunar year and again to reconfirm our commitment to the work that we need to do together as a family, as a worldwide family. So, to take a moment to appreciate each other -- for helping us walk on this road of discovery as a movement, in realizing our potential and appreciating the great sacrifices and achievements that have been made, but also anticipating all the great things that we would like to see accomplished, especially now that we are poised at the turn of the new millennium and we can look forward towards working to establish a world of peace and harmony.
6) When In Jin Nim's family got together and True Father shared words with the True Family -- True Father was talking about many of the experiences that he had when he was much younger -- and at the same time communicating to the family how important it is to continue on in the spirit of unity and being absolutely united with our True Parents -- and that we can go forward seeing ourselves as one body with our True Parents as the two hemispheres of the brain coming together in this beautiful dance of true love so that we can share the breaking news of our True Parents with the rest of the world.
7) In Jin Nim was thinking this morning that this is Valentines Day weekend. This is the weekend when people celebrate love, when they share and express the feelings that they have for someone special in their lives -- and she thought, "How appropriate, because our True Parents came to this world to share with us what the profundity of love is all about."
8) When we are so busy living in this modern day when everything is fast -- and here we are smack in the middle of New York City -- everything is moving so fast. There are schedules and deadlines, and sometimes even In Jin Nim forgets to take some time for herself -- to realize what an incredible thing it is that she is partaking in this thing called life, that she is alive and breathing in air each and every day. She has an opportunity every day to experience what love is all about, and not just experience but substantiate this wonderful thing called an ideal family and in so doing experience what the meaning of a parental heart is.
9) This is probably one of the most incredibly profound things in our lives. When we were young and thought about Valentine's Day -- and we went to school, elementary school, In Jin Nim remembers being asked to bring a shoebox with her to school because she would be receiving chocolates and paper flowers and notes and some would even bring roses. Everyone would be so excited. "Who is going to give me a Valentine's Day card today?" She remembered being so filled with excitement and anticipation. It was a special moment where you got that chocolate or that card and someone wanted to express what you meant to them.
10) But when we think about Valentine's Day and the feelings of love and passion and romance, at all these lovely things -- we tend to think that that is what married life is like. But the wonderful thing about our True Parents is that they come to teach us about the real meaning of what true love is all about. Not just showing us the lovely display of affection that we are so tickled pink with -- such as when our True Father leans over and gives True Mother a kiss. We all giggle like children, because it is so beautiful to see.
11) But we know that when we look at a man like our True Father, and True Mother, and we know that they've been married a very long time, we know that they had to go through the joys and the tears, great victories and glorious moments in their relationship as well as trials and tribulations.
12) And In Jin Nim always found it interesting when she went to the park with her nanny. The nanny would tell her -- let's see how the young couples spend their time in the park. Perhaps In Jin Nim was a bit weird, but she was always attracted more to the old couples, the grandma's and grandpa's. When she would see a grandma and grandpa sitting on a park bench or walking together through the park, or sharing a cup of coffee -- In Jin Nim would wonder how they met. She wondered what they had been through, she wondered when they laughed and when they cried. She wondered what made them happy, what made them sad. But she was always so curious because she knew each person had a story to tell, and each couple had a story to tell.
13) Whenever she had the chance, she would go up to them and ask them how long they had been married, how did they meet and how did you come to love each other and get married. These are the stories that fascinated In Jin Nim endlessly. So she would always be going after the old folks.
14) When In Jin Nim started the Youth Concerts for World Peace, trying to promote the importance of art in children's education -- one of the outreach programs that she encouraged the Japanese movement to do is to have these beautiful young children go and bring their beautiful voices and performances into the nursing homes where old people were waiting to die -- to encourage these elderly people to share their stories so that the children could learn something from the old people, not just looking at them as someone waiting to die -- but as people who lived their lives, who have incredible stories to share with the younger generation -- words of wisdom and guidance.
15) But also the older people would look at these youngsters wanting to share with them their artistry, their beautiful voices -- and feel a bit of hope, that here are a group of youngsters coming and visiting their nursing home wanting to share their love and learn and spend a little time with them, learning about the older folks -- at the same time provide an endless source of energy for those people who were waiting to die so that they can look forward to the future through the eyes of these beautiful children.
16) When these children started to visit these old folks homes and started hearing their stories and began to share their music -- a beautiful thing took place. These children experienced something that was so profoundly moving to them. They realized that they have yet to experience marriage and having children of their own and becoming old and mature, but by hearing their stories they realized that life has its ups and it has its downs, that marriage has its ups and downs, that life is really an opportunity to grow.
17) Many times in our fast-moving world of the modern day, where an understanding of love tends to be quite superficial and heavily commercialized -- so that the young people want fast cars, fast foods, and fast love -- I we are inundated with get rich quick schemes and lose weight quick schemes. It is interesting how, even now, as the fast food advertising hits our kids -- there is a slow movement growing that wants to return to the organic foods, to the meditative or slow way, appreciating the simpler things, getting back to the roots, to the core.
18) And this is not only taking place in terms of health food and organic stores, but it is also taking place -- in that many of the young people of today are not satisfied with a superficial understanding of love or highly commercialized idea of what love is all about. They want to get back to something that is deep, that is rich, that is moving, that is incredibly profound.
19) This is where our True Parents come into play. We realize that, for the first time in history we have a man and a woman who can stand in the position of the perfected Adam and Eve. And you know the history of mankind has not been too beautiful or too kind to people, to men and woman, because we did not fully understand where our dignity and worth comes from. And when we understand ourselves in the context of religious history -- then we are all bunches of no good, worthless people, sinners. But with the advent of our True Parents we have the opportunity to shake off the shackles of sin, to re-graft ourselves into the heavenly lineage of God and experience true love, true life, and actually grafting on to God's heavenly lineage by having ideal families of our own.
20) The great thing about True Parents, is that unlike many religions of the world in which the masculine is prominently displayed -- in the form of our True Parents we have masculinity and femininity. We have a man and a woman who can stand in the position of a couple. We not only have the power and the majesty of God, but we also have the care and the compassion of God. We not only have the force and strength of God, but we have the beauty and perseverance of endurance -- and in this way we can understand our world in a more complete or holistic way.
21) As a student of religion, every time In Jin Nim thinks and reflects about how incredible it is for us to have this concept of True Parents and to understand our Heavenly Parent up in heaven as that masculine and feminine together -- It is an incredibly exciting thing. Because through this concept, the women of the world, who have been relegated for so long throughout the history of religion -- can, in a way, reclaim their worth, their own dignity.
22) It was fascinating for In Jin Nim when our world chairman, Dr Hyung Jin Moon gave a profound speech at the UPF assembly. He spoke about the beauty of the Fibonacci principle -- and how the Fibonacci numbers, the Fibonacci spiral, is a testament to the existence of God.
23) And he talked about the profundity of our church symbol -- how our church symbol incorporates the masculine and the feminine. The masculine symbolized by the square and the feminine symbolized by the circle. When In Jin Nim saw our church symbol she was realizing what True Father means when he talks about the Pacific Rim Era, a time when a woman will come into the true worth and dignity of her being and together with a wonderful, heavenly man -- do incredible things in service to others and to promote love and peace and harmony.
24) When you look at our church symbol the square sits inside the circle. In Jin Nim often jokes with her sisters at the WFWP -- "They say that God created ideal men and he put them at the four corners of the earth, but of course we realize that the earth is round."
25) When you look at the church symbol you see there is our ideal man in the form of a square with very pointy four corners. But the way In Jin Nim understands it is that the square sits inside of a circle, and the only dynamic shape in our church symbol is the circle -- in that it is pointing, it has two arrows showing that this is moving in a circular motion.
26) Here is our lovely man, rectangular with four corners, but wonderfully ensconced in this wonderfully circular motion that is forever moving, forever dynamic. If the square and the circle can work together, then from the core of our church symbol will come these four rays of light -- incredible light reaching the four ends of the earth.
27) When our True Father was creating the symbol of our church, which really did come from God, in a way, God, through the symbol was foretelling our time when Father would declare the Pacific Rim Era, a time when a woman together with their brothers, fathers, and sons will reclaim her dignity and be the dynamic one.
28) Father is pushing all of the women forward -- and if you really understand religious history, yes, women have been relegated as second-class citizens, but it was the women who were the backbone of the church, they drove the church into their homes, into the mindset of their children.
29) This is the time when men and women working together are going to be doing incredible things. But in particular, this is the time when the feminine spirit of compassion, of patience, and perseverance will be the qualities that surround our beautiful men -- our beautiful husbands and sons, so that working together we can encourage each other towards a harmonious existence, and not just simply coexisting or tolerating, but truly loving.
30) When our True Father teaches us about true love -- he always uses the word true. In Jin Nim jokes that the word true love to the Asian ear sounds like "through" (true) "rub" (love). It's through rubbing up against the people that we care about that we grow, that our sharpness becomes more round. It's truly by going through these experiences, of sometimes incredible joy, but incredible difficulties, trials and tribulations, and great victories -- but all the while rubbing up against our parents, against our spouse and our children -- that molds us into these incredibly deep, rich, and profound human beings worthy of being called the sons and daughters of God.
31) In In Jin Nim's own life of having raised five kids, ranging in ages from 14 to 24, all five of them are at different levels of maturity, going through many different things. Sometimes it's wonderful being a mom, but sometimes it's incredibly difficult. And, she often thought to herself why is it that the most painful experiences that one goes through is in truly rubbing up against people that we care about? It is painful because we love them and we care about them and we wish them well.
32) When we think about love and what I want for my kids, In Jin Nim is very much thinking -- regardless of how difficult motherhood might be, it is a wonderful opportunity to understand that parental heart of God -- how He and She looks at her as her parent. By experiencing these relationships with her children -- In Jin Nim came to deeply understand God in a more rich and profound way.
33) When you look at the Bible, I Cor 13:4-7, it says love is patient, love is kind. It says that love is not boastful, is not arrogant or rude. It is not resentful. It does not rejoice in the wrongdoings of others, but it wants to rejoice in the truth. And, love bears all things, believes all things, it hopes all things, and it endures all things.
34) The Bible has taught us that love is very much like the heart of a parent. When we have children of our own we are not looking at them as something that we can take from. When we look at a child that first comes into this world, our prayers are -- what can we give, what can we do as parents to make them beautiful people. We are not thinking about what they are going to do for us. We are thinking, what we can do for them.
35) When we think -- "that is the kind of love we should have throughout our lives," then we realize that even when we think about marriage or blessing, we realize that the heartistic attitude should be, "what can I give to the other person, not what can I take." If we could have a parental heart of God exercised in our daily life -- that is the approach we would find ourselves in.
36) For those of us preparing to go to the blessing, and we just saw the beautiful blessing of Shin Hwa and Alexander, we are praying and hoping that each spouse is coming into that union wanting to give of each other and not wanting to take.
37) In a beautiful marriage relationship, and we are thinking about getting blessed ourselves, we should not be thinking about -- what is that man going to do for me. Is he going to be educated enough to make enough money to make me secure? Is he going to be loving enough to take care of me? Is he going to be kind enough to help me do my chores? But the better way to prepare for the blessing is -- "what can I do to better our relationship?"
38) Instead of wanting somebody prepackaged, we should be wanting -- "how can we grow together?" Instead of wanting an ideal husband, served to us on a silver platter, we should be thinking about how do I deal with different issues and things that come up in a marriage -- so that we can grow, and go through rubbing up against each other, become that wonderful loving husband and wife.
39) If we approach anything in this way, thinking about what I can give, how wonderful it would be if someone in their teenage years thought to themselves "what can I give to my parents or do for them? Is there garbage that needs to be taken out? Is there a shopping list I can take care? Does my mom have a special event coming up and perhaps I could take care of my younger brothers and sisters. What can I give to my parents?" Perhaps I have had a tough day at school, I have lots of homework, and I come home and want to scream. But what if we stop ourselves and ask ourselves when we enter into this holy place, this house that my parents prepared for me, what can I give to my parents, instead of thinking it's my house, it's my room, my parents are annoying and bothersome and I want to tune them out with earphones. Instead of feeling entitled to the house and only thinking of ways to perhaps get a car out of the parents -- what if we thought, maybe I could work a little bit more and help pay for the utilities, or help my parents take care of the things that they need to do -- with my effort. Then the house, that family, will be a vastly different family, because each child and parent and sibling will not be thinking what can I take, what can I rob my parents of.
40) Let's say my parents happen to be billionaires. They own many different organizations or companies -- instead of these siblings fighting and thinking of ways to weasel a company or an asset out of the parents -- how wonderful would it be if the children actually started thinking about what they could do to help their father and mother so that, with the incredible assets that heavenly fortune blessed our family with, I can inspire my parents to somehow serve the world and make the world a better place. It's the same family, same assets, same organization, but depending on the way that we decide to approach our lives, depending on the way we decide to approach the loved ones -- whether we approach them in a giving way or taking away, vastly changes the landscape of what kind of family we are looking at.
41) The wonderful thing about the Bible is that it tells us that love is patient. When you're a patient person -- there is an implicit understanding that you are patient through some kind of a hardship, that you are patient with the trials and tribulations of something that is going on in your life. When you are a patient person, that means you have the integrity of character and the qualities necessary to persevere and endure, to go the distance for the sake of love.
42) The Bible says love is patient, love is kind. Love is kind meaning that we are compassionate people. If we really want to exercise true love we are kind, compassionate people. Even if you come home from a rotten day at school you are not going to scream at your parents, at how annoying they are. We are going to say, "Mom and dad, how was your day? I didn't have such a great day but thank God, because of you I have a house to come home to." How incredible would that be? So, just in the way that we approach each other, it can change the environment that we deem to be our reality.
43) The Bible goes on to say, after it basically defines love as patient and kind -- then it gives us a litany of what love is not. Love is not arrogant, love is not rude. But to In Jin Nim the word arrogant sticks out over and above others -- perhaps because of the Asian approach to the English language. Listen to the word arrogance. It sounds like three words put together -- "air" "row" "gaunt". It sounds like someone who is preoccupied being arrogant, boastful, and rude. It is almost as if they are rowing on air, on something that is not substantial, something they cannot stand on. And when people are so engulfed in their own arrogance and pride they forget to realize that we are all created to be divine sons and daughters of God. And without recognizing this divinity within, that we are the children of God -- then we are no different from these empty shells, wiry gaunt people. We become almost like these leaves that dance in the wind. We are so busy rowing on air -- the more we do so, the more arrogant we become. We are nothing more than a gaunt human being, because we're not letting true love flow, God flow through our veins.
44) When we are thinking about being arrogant -- thinking about me, myself, and I, and we all find ourselves doing this at one time or another in our lives -- when we are so engulfed in ourselves then we fail to be the kind of people that we were put on earth to be. We were put on earth to exercise or substantiate the philosophy of living for the sake of others -- to raise each other up, to inspire, nurture, and empower each other.
45) Because if we truly understand the meaning of true love -- the natural expression that would arise out of a heart that is infused with true love would be a heart that wants the best for others. That is the parental heart. When we look at a baby we are looking at this child wanting the best for the child.
46) This doesn't mean give that child whatever they want. Sometimes what is best for the child is strictness, discipline, teaching them the importance of perseverance and endurance so that they can accomplish great things. But it also means being genuine, wanting the best for somebody. Like, as a mother, when In Jin Nim thinks about her children she wants the best for them. What she wants them to be is genuine people. And even if her brutal honesty might cause them to cry, because they need to think about what they are doing, then out of her love she will be brutally honest -- because she would want them to be genuine and real people.
47) The interesting thing about our world is that people many times use words for many different reasons. But sometimes words become interference that prevent human beings from being genuine with each other -- words of flattery and complement, because you want to be looked upon with favoritism. Or sometimes words that you say to one another simply because you want the other person to feel better.
48) But the Bible also says that it is important to not just share the words. In 1 John 3:16 -- 18, it says that love has to be shown in truth and in action. If we are struggling in our family with somebody who is suffering from addiction, we have to be brutally honest with that person to really be able to say out of love, "you need to have your life put back on track. And as difficult as it may be for you, you need help."
49) When somebody is suffering, and sometimes husband and wives think, "this person has an addiction problem," maybe this person has an addiction to wealth or greed, maybe they are addicted to greed so much that it is all they think about -- well, out of the goodness of our hearts we have to have the courage to tell them, "look, you are being just plain greedy. You are not a loving person. You are only thinking about yourself and you need help." And as painful as that honesty might be, if we truly love that person and want the best for that person we are going to have the courage to say the things that might hurt them, that might make them resent us, that might make them say horrible things about us -- but because we love them, we will.
50) Love is not just making people feel good. If we truly love somebody we are going to help them become genuine people. We are going to help them become real people. And if our teenagers are in the throes of addiction or difficulty, as much as they might complain about you and me to their friends, about how controlling and domineering, and all sorts of things -- we as the parent are going to have the courage to take that into our hand and say, "even if you do not understand me I'm going to do, as your father and mother, and ask you to seek help."
51) In a way those parents, who are not busy trying to be the friend of their son and daughter but maintaining the parental position, and wanting the best for the child, are willing to go through years of them not understanding, not appreciating, not valuing us, because we want to do right by them. We want the best for them.
52) The Bible goes on, it says that love is not arrogant, and love is not resentful -- in other words filled with jealousy. It does not rejoice in someone's wrongdoing.
53) In Jin Nim finds it very interesting because Madonna said, "it never ceases to amaze me at how much people want to see you fail." We have in our modern day -- an almost love-hate relationship with our celebrities, with anyone public. And In Jin Nim is sure, even within our movement, with our first and second generation -- and now that the younger leadership is coming to the forefront -- she is sure that sometimes the older ones or the ones that have gone before -- maybe some of you are cheering them on "thank God the young troops have arrived!" but others are thinking, "Why are they here? Why should I pass the baton? I'm doing a fantastic job, they could not do better." Some of us may feel threatened by the youth and by their excitement, by the change.
54) But the Bible says love is not resentful. Love is not filled with jealousy. Jealousy is a very, very dangerous emotion. With the Asian ear it sounds like "gel" and "lousy." That's what it sounds like. So when we are busy being resentful and not liking someone, just because -- it is almost like we put ourselves into this lousy gel of a mess. It is like throwing ourselves into a bowl of pudding -- except this gel happens to be lousy. And as long as we're standing in it we feel and look lousy. We cannot smile because we don't like where we are at. But at the same time, because we are standing in this gel -- we are not happy for others that seemingly enjoy success.
55) But if we really understand what love is all about, and if we understand that the concept or understanding of true love is that experience of the parental heart -- then every parent, regardless of what kind of pudding or gel we are standing in -- if you bring a child into this world, we want our children to be better than us.
56) It is so incredibly interesting -- and it happens to be a universal occurrence, when you go up to a person and you say, "wow, you're beautiful!" They smile. If you say they are not attractive they will frown, a fist may even come your way.
57) It doesn't matter who you approach, it could be an African parent, Asian parent, an American parent, an Eskimo parent, a parent in the Amazon jungle -- it does not matter where they are from, but if you go up to them and say, "Your child is more beautiful than you." Invariably the majority of the people will smile because they are happy for the success and prosperity of the other. This is the parental heart. This is the parental heart that is so different from a jealous or resentful heart, or a heart that is overcome with this emotional petrification of negativity.
58) If we really understand that true love is like a parental heart, then we realize that one of the qualities of that love is being able to be happy for other people. So, when your child is better than you, you will be happy, extremely excited.
59) For In Jin Nim and for her family there is nothing more exciting than watching the Winter Olympic Games -- and then watching the parents, the proud parents sitting on the sidelines, cheering their child on. Yes, there is an element of living vicariously through the child, but most of the parents are truly and genuinely excited and happy that their child can do what they could not do -- that their child has a chance to, not bring honor to their family only, but to bring honor to their country as well.
60) When we have a parental heart toward others we want others to do well. Instead of thinking, "why is that person successful? Why are they more prosperous than me?" and wanting to tear them down -- if we have a parental heart we want to keep on uplifting. As long as the other people do well -- and if we all can have that kind of a heart, sooner or later that power of true love is going to uplift us all.
61) This is the new year, and we have lots of work to do. But we also have lots of ongoing issues that we are dealing with as a movement -- as you move from one transition to the other -- generational transition issues, family issues, movement issues.
62) But the incredible thing about our True Parents is that through this beautiful process of the blessing, the holy matrimony, each and every one of us has this opportunity to experience what the parental heart is all about. That is why our Father says over and over again, until you have children of your own you cannot fully understand what it means to be unselfish.
63) When you can think about the others, more than yourself, when you look at the others and you think of giving, not taking -- when you look at the others and you think about wanting the best for them, and when you look at the others and you genuinely are so happy that they are more successful, and more prosperous, and more accomplished than you -- then you realize, that is exactly how God, our Heavenly Parent, feels for us, his children.
64) We are put on this earth to love and be loved, to move and be moved, to inspire and be inspired, but also to empower others with their understanding of what true love is all about.
65) In Jin Nim expressed her hope that we can come together on this beautiful Valentine's Day weekend -- and how wonderful it would be if instead of thinking about caring a shoebox so that we can get chocolates and hearts, how wonderful it would be if we asked God, our Heavenly Parent, to be our Valentine. And how beautiful it would be if we asked True Parents to be our Valentine. Perhaps, give a flower offering to God and our True Parents and to the people that we care about.
66) And how wonderful would it be to remember the original Valentine -- that came out of a little priest who lived some time in 200 A.D. under Emperor Claudius. There was a little priest called Valentine who was not too happy about the Emperor Claudius -- who wanted to amass huge armies, who thought that the way to get more people into his armies was to ban marriage. This priest was very unhappy about that. He thought that marriage was sacred, and regardless -- if he was caught and thrown into jail and put to death because he was marrying people, because it was against the law, he continued to do so. And while he was in captivity he developed a relationship with the daughter of a prison guard who came to visit him, because she was so inspired by his desire to continue to marry couples. Finally when he passed away on February 14, 269 A.D. he left a note to the daughter of the prison guard signed, your Valentine. That is how the tradition started
67) How fitting is it, that in this tradition of wanting to bless all these couples because he believed in the sanctity of the blessing -- well, that is exactly what our True Parents came to do. They came to graft all of humanity into God's lineage through the blessing. How else does black and white become family, does Protestant and Muslim become family, does yellow and black become family? We become family through marriage. We become family, by grafting onto a family.
68) And so, if we can graft onto this heavenly lineage that our True Parents bring to share with the world -- the barriers, the differences, the hatred will all fall apart and people will come to realize this parental heart of God, this heart of wanting the best for others, of wanting to give not take, of wanting to love not kill, of wanting to uplift not to abuse. And people will be inspired and wanting to be happy for others. And in so doing this is how we will establish a world of peace.
69) "Brothers and sisters, on this Valentine's Day please make God your Valentine. Please take this opportunity to let the people who are dear and real in your life, express to them how much you care and how much you love them -- and I wish the same for all of you and I know our True Parents do too. Thank you and God Bless!"