The Words of Hyo Jin Moon
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The Words of Hyo Jin Moon |
Today I would like to share something that I personally uphold and try to manifest in my life. That is: How can I bring joy and happiness to my parents? If there is anything that everyone in the world shares in common, it is the desire for a place where we can live together harmoniously. We want a place that provides joy and happiness for everyone. But this ideal is not easy to attain. Throughout history, various people have tried to fulfill the great ideal of bringing happiness and joy to mankind.
For mankind to experience happiness, there first has to be a common goal that everyone shares. Then everyone must invest all of themselves to reach this goal. So if mankind wants to attain happiness, we must share a common understanding of what happiness means and what the goal of happiness is. Then we have to pursue the goal which we set for ourselves.
It's very easy to gather in special interest groups and experience harmony for a limited time. But we are here for something beyond an individual special interest. The basis of the Principle is that you must sacrifice yourself. There must be self-inducement on your part to bring joy and happiness to mankind, and ultimately to Heavenly Father.
Because we have active imaginations and a physical body, it is very difficult for us not to be aware of our desires and needs. So when some ideal is telling you to transcend your individual desires for a greater goal, it demands a lot from us. However, frankly speaking, many people share the idea that there must be some kind of self-sacrifice in order to achieve harmony. This is easily said but very difficult in practice.
The same is true of my situation. I'd rather be chasing deer than attending school. But my responsibility is to finish my education. For me to fulfill this responsibility, I must eliminate all other thoughts. I must sacrifice and bury any other desires.
We all know this. If each of us is striving to attain a world of harmony, then something must be sacrificed. That sacrifice is our lives. Everyone in this room, without exception, has to sacrifice for the sake of this goal. To meet that sacrifice, we must understand the significant meaning of "offering".
When God created Adam and Eve, He gave them everything: "You can have dominion over creation. Everything that you see and touch and feel is yours. But you must refrain from taking the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil." The reason that God created is that He wanted a place where there was only love. He wanted to manifest love. God is omnipotent, therefore He could have created anything you could possibly imagine. But God wanted a place of love, so He gave Adam and Eve the commandment. There had to be a clear separation of good and evil. God knew about the possibility of evil and its consequences. But He had to take the risk if He was to realize a place where love exists.
The creation came from within God and its purpose was for love. The only way that God can ultimately have dominion over the creation is through man. This makes man different from all other creation. In a sense, man is like God in that man has the potential to have dominion over the creation and, ultimately, full dominion if he were to maintain this progress. Our mind is infinite, so if we have the desire to understand the creation, we will eventually realize and comprehend the essence of creation. We have that potential and the power to understand the very essence of God, since God made creation in His image.
Just as God brought the reason for the creation from within Himself, man must have the same foundation within himself if he is to become the recipient and embodiment of God. Therefore, there has to be a possibility where man will choose, through his own accord, the direction which God has chosen. God's ideal came from this infinite possibility. The same must be true for man.
Here on earth, we can do incredibly horrible things or we can choose to do what is right through our own responsibility. Man is standing in a vulnerable position:
If he walks one way, he will disobey God, whereas, if he walks another way, he's obeying God. If man comes up with a reason that ultimately coincides with God's direction, then man is actually manifesting the ideals of God by following the direction that God has offered him. God's direction is to attain the ideals of love, therefore if man becomes one with the ideals of God, he will go forward with God. But man's progress depends on his own effort and motivation.
We will not act without a reason. Many times you would act rebelliously: "I don't want to follow any reason"! That in itself is a reason. When his reason coincides with God, then man will become one with God and will embody God. Then God will have literal physical dominion through man. Man will be an extension of God just as we are an extension of our parents. No one can think that we came from nowhere, but all know that we are extensions of our parents.
So what is an offering and what does it have to do with this? When God told Abraham to make an offering, why did he fail? God told him to offer three animals but he forgot to cut the dove. The reason he failed was because Abraham did not offer himself completely to God. There were some of his own thoughts in his mind which prevented him from cutting the dove.
Hyo
Jin Nim meets a new member.
When you are standing on the altar in front of God, you must realize that, "As a son, I am part of my Father. Whatever I do, good or bad, will affect my Father. There is no way I can separate from Him." There has to be that absolute union or love cannot be eternal. If you are an extension of parental love and decide to separate yourself from your parent, then that love ceases to exist.
The reason that eternal love can exist in the physical world is because we can multiply. As long as I have my children, and my children are a part of me, then they will have children who understand and accept this tradition. Then my love, my possession, my value, my ideal, will live on forever. If this world is to become an eternal place of love, separation cannot exist. There must be a complete intactness. The way we can attain this is through love.
Through the possibility of this potential, we are left with the responsibility to choose right or wrong. Many people may ask you, "Who are you to tell me what is right or wrong?" In a way, they have that right because they have been abused and manipulated by many self-serving people. It is very difficult to trust others these days with the existence of so much corruption, wrongdoing and selfishness.
Through the Divine Principle, we can understand the necessity of sacrifice and the value of offering. It means that you must commit yourself. You must realize who you are and that you are an extension of your Father, an extension of His love. You're not separate from it, but one with it. You must make a choice to live your life in a way that will ultimately bring unity.
In a sense, the life of Adam and Eve was an offering. If they could have sacrificed all of their personal thoughts and united with God's ideal, the ideals of God would have been manifested. In other words, they should have offered themselves completely, doing away with individual desire to become one with God's ideal.
So their very life was the greatest offering. They should have realized that they must become one with God's ideal through their own effort and that they must ultimately do away with anything that may distract them in order to purify the path toward unity with God.
Therefore make your offering an absolutely pure offering. Concentrate your focus toward God, your Father. The reason the creation was made was that God wanted to manifest His love. The way that love continues to exist is through reciprocal action. Joy comes through such reciprocal give and take.
You must have some kind of object to experience joy. For example, you can play a guitar and please your ears, but you cannot go into the depth of your feelings. In order to share the deep emotional content that lies within, you must have some object who can understand what you desire. That's the whole point of love.
A
rallying call is sounded.
Why did God create for the sake of love and why is He willing to endure all of these hardships? If He has the power to create, why didn't He just erase them and start all over? You must realize that God is an absolute God and absolutely with to manifest love. In order to do that, He must have mankind and the creation, which were created for that specific purpose God is a perfect God so whatever He wills must be realized. If it isn't, the existence of Satan is validated.
You must understand that if God made the creation out of love, then everything within the creation must fulfill that criteria. If it goes unfulfilled, that would mean there is some impurity existing within the love of the Creator. Since God created out of love, then every element within the creation must bring forth it's ideal presence and ideal potential to become the ideal element that God intended. Of course, God hates the actions of Satan, but He is also willing to restore Satan. This is also the reason why you must be persistent in loving people.
If we want to bring the people of the world into the Principle, the best way is for us to practice it. We know what Principle and Father are teaching us. Father has sacrificed every step of the way. I realized this more when I started speaking every Sunday at Belvedere. No matter how short my speech may be it is really difficult. Personally, it is torment! So I'm very sensitive in that manner now and I know also Father is very sensitive. I understand how hard it is to go that path.
Every moment of Father's life, he has to speak and give guidance. He always has to think about the future, not just for one goal but everything that must be accomplished. Father gave me life. It doesn't matter how great you may be, your physical life was given by your parents, and your spiritual life was given by God. Thus, you have received something that is valuable and priceless.
I could be happy just hunting for the rest of my life -- I'm a very simple person. Ask anyone who knows me. But the reason I'm standing here, being applauded by you, is because I know the responsibility that my particular position holds. So it is my duty to live up to the position. The fall occurred because Satan looked toward Adam and Eve, desiring their position. He then deviated from his position and caused the fall.
All positions are important. In order for God's ideal to be realized, mankind must become God's ideal object so we must all fulfill our ideal positions.
That's why we're fighting Satan who wants to hold onto his false position. As long as Satan is opposed to God's ideal, His ideal will not be manifested. So we have the responsibility to be strong and bold. That's what Father tells us.
The only way you can realize God's ideal is to make your life a sacrifice. Your life is an offering. Believe in the commitment you have made to God so that offering can stand as pure as the moment you conceived it. That is your responsibility. The only reason you could fail is if your commitment becomes contaminated by some other ideas. Don't let that happen. This is a war and you have to fight Satan all the time.
This is a rather short talk. I guess I'm still in shock because Father said he wants to make me a professional Divine Principle lecturer. I don't know what to say except that I'm trying to find it in my heart to be grateful for whatever direction Father gives me. Your mind must subjugate your body. It's very easy to let your body subjugate your mind. You can see this all around such as through drug abuse, fashion, and so on. It's important for you to apply what you know through the Principle to your life. It's very difficult to think like that, but if you do, then everything is simple. Once you can do that, you just cut right through your opposition.
That's the only way we can march to our goal and attain it. This is the right attitude that we must all share. I sincerely hope everyone can renew their commitment during this short period of time. Please keep it with you, living it for the rest of your life. If you can do this, I can respect you with my arms raised. I am grateful to Heavenly Father and True Parents for giving me the Principle that is making your lives change. That is what means everything to me and it should to you also. Thank you for inviting me here and now I would like to sing some songs for you.
Brothers
and sisters meditate at one of Camp Sunrise's lakes.
True Parents have declared that the spirit world is now ready to support us in reaching out to the second generation, primarily eighteen to twenty-year olds. Because True Parents have made a worldwide foundation with the first generation through their many projects, now is the time for the second generation to join our movement.
Our True Parents have already cast the net by allowing Hyo Jin Nim to take on the worldwide CARP leadership; by inaugurating campus ministry into the mainstream of the providence, by encouraging all UTS graduates to become campus ministers, and by inspiring CARP to reach out to 100 campuses. At the same time True Parents are seriously emphasizing the quality of manpower rather than the quantity, so the potential value of one university student is much greater than ever before.
Many of the youth of today are seeking a new trend of idealism as the college curriculum becomes more commercialized and as society becomes more entrenched in the mire of godless "isms." From a sociological viewpoint, young people in the 1950s were more conservative and materialistic. In the 1960s, they became liberal and idealistic. According to an opinion poll in the '60s, about 80% of the youth said that they were going to school to seek a more meaningful way of life. Now about 80% of the youth say that their college degree is simply a ticket to the job market.
In the 1960s, everyone wanted to find an ideal way of life. This was the best opportunity for CARP and Unification campus ministry to be established on the colleges and universities, but dispensational setbacks prevented the establishment of a foundation at that time. Consequently, the young people were unable to find true ideals and many took the alternate route of becoming hippies and living in communes.
In the 1970s, we saw the "me" generation on the campuses. In the 1980s, young people have once again become more conservative. Just as the worldwide providence has made a full circle with True Parents' completion of a 43- year indemnity course, the campus providence has also made a full circle. More than half the young people on campuses used to be liberal; but now there is a strong conservative trend on U.S. campuses. As the wave of global terrorism grows and the collapse of communist systems becomes more apparent, the power and influence of the liberal leftists has weakened on campus.
A trend will emerge in the 1990s with a new wave of idealism sweeping the campuses. Already signs of this trend are surfacing through the fresh spirit of volunteerism, righteousness and frontierism among young people. And this time, the foundation has been made through CARP and the campus ministry. We are established on campuses in all 50 states, ready to provide the students with an Abel view of life that will quench their thirst for a new vision and ethical activism.
The worldview of Godism and Headwing go beyond liberalism and conservatism.
Through this philosophy, we can embrace the liberal, idealistic young people as well as the more conservative ones, breaking down the barriers between them. Soon an atmosphere will permeate the universities in which young people will understand what true liberalism and true conservatism are. They will realize that we can change peoples' hearts, change society, and change the world for God's purpose.
On September 8-11, 1989, East Coast CARP held an historic workshop at the beautiful site of Camp Sunrise in New York. The theme of the workshop was: "Victory for Campus Tribal Messiah- ship." Seventy-four of the 350 participants were new members who had joined within the previous six months. Although the number of new members to join in those six months was an unprecedented event in the history of U.S. CARP, we must still repent before God and True Parents that the number is not much greater. Yet hundreds of young university students were exposed to the philosophy of Unificationism.
In Northern California, one reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle attended our two-day seminar as a "potential recruitee," incognito. After the horror stories she had heard, she admitted to expecting something more sinister. When the workshop finished, she revealed her identity as Shann Nix, San- Francisco Chronicle staff writer, and shortly afterwards, she wrote a very objective article.
She believes and wrote that the appeal of Rev. Moon to today's youth is that he "offers his disciples the most intoxicating of sensations -- unconditional, non-sexual love. He gives them the family they always wanted, the moral structure they need, the sense of belonging they never had. It gives them "privileged" information about the big questions in life: the existence of God, the meaning of sin, the purpose of life."
During the workshop, she asked another guest, Richard, what he thought about everything. He replied: "It's the most logical, coherent religious system I've ever heard. It just makes so much sense." Neither Ms. Nix nor Richard have joined, but Richard, like so many others, continues to come to the workshop in order to receive more advanced lectures on Divine Principle.
It has been CARP's past experience that once a guest left the workshop, it was rare to ever see them again. But recently, guests often return to our workshops in order to continue their studies of Divine Principle. Even though a great percentage of the guests failed to join at this particular time, undoubtedly many of them had their ideas and lives reshaped to some extent, and can certainly influence their friends and families.
However, the best and brightest of our workshop guests responded to God's call and humanity's cry. They are young, beautiful, intelligent, enthusiastic, hopeful, eager and energetic. Although most of them are students, witnessing was not restricted to the college campuses. They were also met on the streets, on the beach, in the library, in the neighborhood, in Bible study groups, in coffee shops: virtually everywhere.
Brothers and sisters, these young people are not only accessible to CARP, they are accessible to anyone who reaches out to genuinely love them and guide them. As America's moral-free formula leads to greater confusion, decadence and corruption, young people everywhere are struggling to find a more meaningful way of life.
The grand highlight of the workshop was when our beloved Hyo Jin Hyung Nim came to speak to us and to welcome our new brothers and sisters. Although Hyo Jin Nim's speech was only an hour long, it was a profoundly insightful message about the significance of offering and our attitude towards the Principle. As he spoke, there was an undercurrent of expressions and feelings unmasking the weight of his immense responsibility and the indomitable force of filial love which propels him forward to fulfill his position and mission as True Parents' eldest son.
Hyo
Jin Nim performs three songs for the workshop.
After his speech, Hyo Jin Nim passionately sang three songs including one from his new album that was recently released. As the new members were being introduced to Hyo Jin Nim, he asked that each person shake his hand. Hyo Jin Nim's face revealed such love and pride as he personally welcomed each new child with the look of tender concern in his eyes. The new members were glowing with gladness as they bowed in deep appreciation for the special acknowledgement from Hyo Jin Moon.
There was electrifying excitement in the atmosphere, but the significance of the moment was captured by the young and faithful hearts of the new members. After shaking hands with Hyo Jin Nim, one member exclaimed: "Now I'm a part of history!" Finally, Hyo Jin Nim took one picture with all of us, as well as a separate picture of himself with the new members.
Because our result wasn't a 1-1-1 victory, we were both humbled and filled with tremendous joy to offer these children to God and True Family. This joy was further amplified when we could see how grateful and genuinely touched True Family was by the expansion of our global family. Hyo Jin Nim explained that "man is the extension of God just like you are an extension of your parents." His actions toward the new CARP "extensions" of True Parents made this concept a concrete reality.
As Hyo Jin Nim walked to the car, he radiated love as he shook hands with dozens of brothers and sisters. As he was driving away, members raced along the side of his car just to feel his touch.
As remarkable as this second day of the workshop was with Hyo Jin Nim, the remainder of the workshop was not anti-climactic. The tears, joy, celebration and enlightening education continued as we received dynamic addresses from Dr. Seuk, Mrs. Eu, Rev. Park, Mr. Kamiyama, President Baughman and Dr. Durst. The lineup of the Washington Redskins and the Chicago Bears combined is dismal compared to this lineup of heavenly stars. Their penetrating guidance managed to inspire most of us old CARP veterans into a new cycle of reflection, repentance and recommitment.
The colorful testimonies of the young members also held our attention. We were surprised by their maturity, perception and understanding. It was evident to us that the quality of these brothers and sisters was the real fruit of our True Parents' foundation of indemnity in America. One new brother, for example, is a descendant of William Bradford, who arrived on the Mayflower and was the first governor of the Pilgrim settlers.
It was equally moving to hear the bittersweet testimonies of their spiritual parents. Their spiritual children shed tears listening to the stories of how much pain and joy was endured by their spiritual parents to restore each one of them. It's a story which never grows old because it mirrors the tears, sweat and blood which we all must place on the altar each day.
A workshop just wouldn't be complete without Sunday Night Live! We enjoyed an evening filled with sizzling entertainment which left no one sitting in their seats. This creative magic lasted for several hours as members would exuberantly break out into song and dance, intoxicated with the joy and love of God.
True Father has said that he cannot influence the world without restoring the second generation. Through Divine Principle, we know that when the providential focus shifts to the second generation, it is the pinnacle of True Parents' mission and culmination of God's providence of restoration. On Sept. 1, 1989, our True Parents declared the completion of the indemnity age vertically and horizontally, and declared this to be the Age of Heavenly Parentism.
True Father explained that the era of persecution is over and the age of welcoming is here. It is a time to celebrate because a new generation is joining in this era when the world will welcome our True Parents, allowing True Parents' true love, true life and true blood lineage to prevail. Through the authority given to us as tribal messiahs, True Parents are declaring that this is the time for parents to be liberated and the children to take over. This new era is when the second generation will come under True Parents by each one of us claiming our messiahship and casting our nets!