The Words of Sun Myung Moon from 1989
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The Words of Sun Myung Moon from 1989 |
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Parents lead a Mansei cheer in Korea on Foundation Day for the Nation
of the Unified World October 3, 1989.
My topic today is "God and I." When we look at the planet earth, we realize what a wonderful position it has in this great universe. Here alone are all the right conditions for us to exist -- water, air, soil, and so on. Is there another place in the universe where mankind can live? We are now in an era where mankind can explore the huge universe. The time when humanity's potential can be fully realized is approaching. Mankind is going to discover the most profound secrets of the universe in this age.
Those who have knowledge of the spiritual world are aware that the only possible place in the whole universe where man can be born is on earth. Only this place has all the conditions necessary for us to live.
All life is centered on the purpose of receiving a savior. Why does the earth need a savior? Throughout the history of mankind and creation, everything has been longing for the Messiah to come. What kind of liberation do we need for him to accomplish? All creation is waiting for the liberation of love. That is the most important thing.
If you ask people what is most important, they may feel it is their life. But where does life come from? Life comes from the relationship between parents and children. If we continue the chain of life upward, we eventually reach God. This means we finally come to the relationship "God and I." No one can exist as a sole entity. It is essential to human nature to have someone to lean on and communicate with -- someone to be the object of give and take. Man lives in relationship with woman. Emotionally and physically we all need someone to act as our support. Woman, man, parents and children all need that. It is the same with all existence. Everything needs an object to relate to. If you look at the seed of a plant, it has two halves. If it only has one half it is incomplete; it needs to exist with the other half.
One thing we see when we study the world is that movements are most perfect when they are round. When we examine perpendicular, centrifugal or centripetal forces we can see that circular movement is the most stable.
Everything wants to achieve a round, circular shape. In human society the most basic kind of pairing aspect is that between parents and children. National leaders and countrymen, the world and its people are examples of this parent- child relationship. If you look at the thousands of years of human history, one element that has never changed is the family. People have always been members of a family: first as infants, then as brothers or sisters, then husband or wife, then parents and finally as grandparents.
In the ideal world, grandparents would be in the position of God. Through their experience, they have acquired an overall picture of life. A child has no idea what life is, while grandparents have already experienced many things. They can teach what is true and right and what is the ideal way. Through this kind of ideal family structure, the ideal family tradition will be established and passed on. Tradition must be received through a vertical position. We receive life through our parents and grandparents. In order for a person to be born, what does he need? He needs parents: a man and a woman who are united by love. Love must be there first before life can be created. You can see how different men and women are. There is only one force that can make them unite: love! Love has a tremendous power that can bring everything into balance, even the most different elements.
What is the heart of a mother who is pregnant with her first baby? What a powerful experience it is when she feels the seed of new life growing inside of her! In the beginning of the pregnancy, a woman has morning sickness because her whole system is changing. As her belly is getting bigger with the growing baby, she is entering a new dimension of life. Through her a new life is being born which raises her own existence to a new level. It is difficult to describe the joy that is felt. When a baby is born into a family, that moment is very central to the life of family. When the first cry is heard, everyone is focused on asking about its health and whether it's a boy or girl. Everyone is so curious and interested in the little baby. Why is it so important in Eastern tradition to have a son? They are eager to have a son because the man carries the seed of life.
Every powerful force in the world needs the aspect of harmony or it cannot be effective. Strength will only destroy if it does not have the ability to harmonize. Only through harmony comes new creation. For example: Huge turbines have a central part where large amounts of energy are created. The pieces for this part of such a machine are made of soft metal, not hard steel. The strongest force always has the aspect of softness and harmonizing, not just straightforward strength.
It is interesting to see how beings have different aspects and stages. A man starts as a child and grows stronger. Then as he gets older, his hair becomes white and falls out; it is as if he was going to the peak of a mountain where there is always snow and no trees. A mountain always has one side in the sun and the other in the shade. Our human life is like that, too. The rays of the sun shine first on one side of the mountain and then go over the top to brighten up the other side. The different aspects of any one object describe a round shape.
Everything exists for the benefit of love. For example: Our two legs are symbolic of two partners in love. Man and woman discover each other and move together like two feet. They like each other, feel close, and unite to become two legs of one body. Husband and wife are walking up the steps of love. All of creation exemplifies these male and female aspects moving together. Even the earth has a North and South Pole, plus and minus.
So in all that exists you see these horizontal and vertical aspects. Basically the shape created through the interaction of these aspects is round. What is the force that can make this round shape? It must be the force that holds things together, giving them circular motion; it must have the power to expand things while holding them together at the same time. The movement of expansion or shrinking of a sphere always occurs simultaneously along perfectly straight and perpendicular axes.
Look at the shape of the human body. When artists paint a female nude, the round shapes are emphasized. When the naked male body is drawn, the muscles are emphasized, with the blood vessels protruding. This is because man's central function is to continue the blood lineage, so the protruding blood vessels are a sign of male beauty.
The ideal world is one where all things come into a circular shape centered on the relationships of their different aspects. Human families arrange themselves in a circular arrangement centered on love. In the family, the grandfather is passing on the tradition of love to children and grandchildren. He is teaching them about love. Their relationship becomes the 100% vertical axis for this family sphere.
All unification describes a round shape. If Korea unites, will it become long or wide? The ideal shape is to become round. Why is there now no unification in the world? It is because there is no horizontal and vertical love; this absence creates a lack of balance. In the world today, the vertical relationships are separated; parents and children are divided by a generation gap. There is also separation on the horizontal level. In order for the world to achieve the ideal spherical shape, there needs to be a force that can eliminate divisions on the vertical and horizontal axes, by uniting generations and uniting East and West. That power is the power of true love. Those who learn this kind of love have learned the greatest lesson in the world. If someone has graduated from Seoul University and earned degrees from 100 other universities as well, that is not as precious as what you can learn through this kind of love. A person who has acquired this kind of love can unite all things, restore kingship to the world and become the King of Kings.
Everything in existence, from the huge universe to a tiny cell, has an orderly organization centered on an axis. All movement, then, has an order. Love is the axis around which life can become orderly.
In a sphere there is a vertical and horizontal axis. In order to become perfect, the vertical axis must be absolutely vertical. The horizontal axis can be adjusted or may turn 360 degrees, but the vertical axis can only be in one place. So, in the family the vertical is stable and the horizontal can be adjusted. The relationship between parents and children and God and parents must be unchanging. God determines the vertical position in the universe. God is in one lace unable to move, until He can expand into the horizontal position. Once the vertical is 100 percent established, then the horizontal can move as it wills.
Where is God? In the East or the West? Everyone looks upward when they think of God. This shows that God is in the vertical. He is giving vertical love to man in a straight line. Love is really the shortest connection between two extremes. If husband and wife long for each other, then see each other at a distance, do they make a curved approach to each other? No, they go the straightest possible way.
The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. What the West needs most is the sunshine from the East. That is the reason the West is now turning toward the East. Everything exists in this relationship of two aspects, such as East and West male and female. They turn toward each other in a circular motion, centered on love.
Wherever you are in the world, love makes you feel good. Look at God -- what does He have to be proud of? Sending good people to heaven and bad people to hell? To be proud of that would be crazy. God can be proud because He is the author of love. Love is not determined by external characteristics such as money, power or good looks. If a grandfather is ugly, he is still loved by his grandchildren. People are always longing for love. Even if they have only one meal a day, their greatest desire is for love.
When a new daughter-in-law comes into the family, does the family love her or not? They love her because they can experience love in a new way. I love to see my own daughters- in-law. Where Mother is round and a little fat, they are thin and small. It is fascinating to see the new kind of love that comes into the family with a new bride. God mad, love so that it can never be boring. Can you show me love? I think if you show your love to someone it starts with a smile, and becomes an embrace. Children come every day and embrace their parents.
What if God had a chance to find a bag of love? God would run around looking for it, even if He would lose His dignity. What does God live for? Ask a pastor of an established church this question and he might be shocked. What do people like? Money, power or ability?
President Chun Du Hwan had a lot of money, but what good is it to him now? His life in the Paekdam Temple is a living death. Why is he in such an unhappy situation? Because he was only concerned with money. If Chun Du Hwan had ruled with love, the people would have wanted him to continue to rule.
If I have a pocketful of love, when I give it out, people will be willing and want to give their money in exchange for this love. So, what kind of prince do you want to be: a prince of love or a prince of money? Even God cannot but smile if the prince of love is in front of Him. What do we sacrifice and pay indemnity for? For the Principle? No, for love!
What kind of savior does the world want and need? What needs to be liberated? We need the liberation of love! When God created man and woman, where did He start? He started with the genital organs. That is logical because this is the place where love, life and the blood lineage are concentrated. Therefore, are they precious or dirty? God thinks of them as precious. Just think of where He put the genitals on the body. It's the wisest choice and the best place for them. If God had put them in the palm of the hand, they could easily be hurt.
Why did God create Adam and Eve? So that vertical love could come to them and through their relationship, vertical love could be expanded horizontally creating a round shape. The one axis from which all creation can be harmonized is the central vertical axis of love. The person who lives for love or gives his life for love, is the one who comes closest to God. If someone becomes a master of true love, all other elements such as power or money come by themselves. The most central part of all knowledge is rooted in true love. Without the connection to this love, you have nothing. If you are connected to that true love, then you have the basis of all knowledge. Actually, the physical and spiritual worlds are completely connected and are organized in the same way. The axis is always love. For example, sometimes people suddenly die in a car accident so in the spiritual world they do not realize they have died. They don't know what is happening until their ancestors who are on a high spiritual level come and explain.
If someone goes into the spiritual world alone without a partner, say someone who has never married, it is difficult for that person. The spiritual world is organized according to a hierarchy of love. For example, parents- in-law of a woman are in a higher position than her own parents.
The love of parents for their children is the most absolute because it is the most vertical love. In comparison, the love of a couple is very changeable. Similar to having different weather every day, husband and wife go through many changes. Because it is a horizontal love there are 360 degrees of space available in which to move around. The relationship between husband and wife can change; they can even divorce. But parents' love for their children is unchangeable.
Why do we like God? Because of love. Even if God is far away and turns His back to us, our love can make Him turn around. Everything in the physical universe is oriented toward the sun, craving its light and warmth. Likewise in the spiritual world everything is oriented toward love; everything is trying to receive as much love as possible.
As I was doing my mission, I was persecuted from the physical and even the spiritual world. People were always criticizing me. Not many people have understood what I have been doing.
Some Christians do not like ancestor worship in Korea. They don't know that in the spirit world love in the family -- love towards elders, love of children to parents, love of wife to husband -- is what counts.
Our life on earth is a training ground for love. We are training in the different kinds of love we need to master. Who is the trainer of love? For the parents, the children are the trainers who teach them to love. The trainer for God was Adam and Eve. The vertical love wants to expand itself into the horizontal. Parents want children to love each other more than they love their parents. The more children love their brothers and sisters, the happier the parents are. Vertical love is satisfied when the horizontal love expands.
The horizontal love has to focus on the vertical love. When man and woman meet each other they have to meet at the center for vertical love to come down. When they come from east and west to meet at the very center, there is an explosion of love -- like plus and minus meeting producing sparks of electricity. When parents have a child they want that child to have brothers and sisters so that they e can be horizontal expansion.
Love is easy at a low level, just as in climbing a mountain you start on a gentle slope and the terrain gets steeper and requires greater effort as you approach the top. Love is something that has to include both high and low places. Without its strong root, a tree cannot be stable enough for leaves to crown the top. We have to look at the low end and the high end of love.
When you work hard your sweat is sad if you wipe it off too fast. The smell of your sweaty body after working hard is good. Man and woman's smell is very interesting. When people love each other, even the smell of the other is like perfume.
Let's come to a conclusion. What kind of God do we want and what kind of person do we want to become? We want a God of love and we want to become a person of love. Love is centered on the family, which is the training ground of love. Love makes us forget even the greatest suffering and pain. If your body is tired and in pain after a long day of work and later at home your wife wipes the sweat off your back with a wet towel, then all the hardship of the day is forgotten.
Who can go to the Kingdom of Heaven? Only a person who has realized love! This person has received the perfect training of love through relationships with a spouse, children and parents; he is in the position to be closest to God. We become parents through this training. Parents love their children more than their spouse because parental love is vertical love. If we come to love our parents more than our children, we can establish the perfect vertical line, for they represent God. To a person who has the strongest love for Heaven and loves his children more than his spouse, then every direction of the universe is open. So, the love that we have to learn is that of parents who love their children more than each other and who love their parents more than their children.
God is longing for mankind to be organized like a family. He is longing for a world where all races can live together as one family. Can you see how attractive other races are? International couples can show the beauty of racial harmony.
The relationship that we want with God is when God becomes "my God" and I become God's. In a family one member is not separate from the other. Through love a husband becomes "my husband" and a wife becomes "my wife," a daughter-in-law becomes "my daughter," a strange man becomes "my father-in-law." In the same way, God and I can become one through love. In the Unification Church we teach the God of love, while other Christian churches stress the God of omnipotence and omniscience. Which do you like better?
Who is the greater thief: one who steals a bag full of money or a bag full of love? Do you think I have a lot of money? All the money in the Unification Church cannot make me happy. Many think I am rich, but it is not my money. If one takes an- other's money, when the thief goes to the spiritual world he will be punished. All I have is love. The money in the Unification Church is used for the purpose of love. Still, when people come to Hannam-dong they usually want money -- not many come to receive just love.
Who is your trainer so that you can become the owners of love? For the husband, it is his wife; for parents, it is your child. Your spouse and children teach you how to embrace the world and be the sovereign over the universe. That is how precious you are to each other. If you say, "My husband is the most precious thing in the world," God will not feel offended. As a parent, He will love it if you love each other more than you love Him. Your partner and children can open the Kingdom of Heaven for you. In the spiritual world the only force by which you can move is the force of love. The more love you have, the more freedom of movement you can have. If you are one who has achieved the vertical and horizontal axes, then in spiritual world there are no limits. What will you do about the relationship between God and yourself? You can make God your God; in other words, you can own God.
The place where love can be connected and new' life can be created is the most precious place. If love is vertical, then life is horizontal and expanding. The unification of love and blood lineage takes place in procreation. Children resemble parents because all elements of parents have been united and given to the children. God is our vertical parent, whom we receive in our heart. Our parents are our horizontal parents whom we receive through our body.
If the relationships between husband, wife and children are correct, then all the relationships in the world can be right and the world order can become correct. If you establish this kind of tradition, then God and the universe become yours. The ideal is for your parents to be kings in relationship to you. Your ideal is for your vertical parents, God, and your horizontal parents to be kings. You can create the Kingdom of God by realizing the love of God within yourself and within your family. In the family the parents are king and queen and the children are the people. Tribe, nation, world, and king are all centered within the family.
In the Unification Church we have the True Parents and that means we have with us the true King and Queen of the world.
Let us pray.