I'm very happy to be here. And don't worry, H [husband]; as I told you, I am here with you day by day. And as you go through changes, it's important for you to see that those are your changes, your ups and downs, both of you. Don't think of Me as far or near according to how you feel. This is the meaning of faith, that no matter how many different emotions you go through, you always have a "knowing" that I am here with you. And it is that relationship that will sustain you in your deepest self and allow you to grow through all those ups and downs and all of those experiences on the emotional level.

Yes, you wanted to speak, I know, about this matter of being and identity. And I want to call this talk Being And Identity. So we'll begin, and I want to be clear and concise. So H, focus on Me now and let your mind be free.

I am the ground; I am the root of your very being. I made your being as the key to communication with Me. It is what you might call the very heart of your spirit, and it is one word that mankind has given this heart of the spirit, in other words "being." The key in growing the being of a person is relationship early on with Me. In other words, from the birth time through childhood, up through youth, all the way to maturity, this is how the relationship with Me is nourished. And so the central reality of that nourishment is through the family. I'm speaking now originally. And I want you to know that it was Adam and Eve who were to really nourish those babies that they brought forth, had they not fallen, not only with the milk of their mother, or with the sunlight, or with the air, or with the exercise that the little bodies grew by, but truly with the Heavenly Love that I would express through true parents at that time. And in that way, that spiritual heart or core or that being of each of the children would be fully nourished, just as the bodies are by mother's milk. You "know" how rich I made mother's milk, right? Well, also in the true and ideal parents there is a channel through which the milk of heaven can flow. In other words, the love from Me through the parents to the child in which the being of the child can grow toward maturity. And as the child grows through the family experience of love and learns not only to be an object to the love of the parents, but then to a brother or sister and to experience the love of caring in brother­sister relationship and then big brother or big sister to a younger one. And finally, ultimately, to become parents themselves and to, themselves, be able to communicate My love to their own children and repeat that cycle. This would be a never­ending growth in the individual, and in the family, and in the society forever expanding. And that is the way I would come to walk on the earth - through this communication. It's like the sand in an hourglass. If we think of the top of the hourglass as heaven and the bottom as earth, then that channel is like the sand dropping through from heaven to earth. And that all­important channel is the parents. But if we clog that channel, stop it, then even though the position of parents is there, there is no nourishment coming to the children. So, unfortunately, with the Fall this loss of the awareness of this heavenly channel of love occurred, and that stoppage occurred. That stoppage took place. Perhaps not in the absolute sense, because parents still love children, even in the fallen world, and there are those who follow the religious way. But compared to what I truly wanted in the beginning, it is so minor; it is so small in terms of its measure.

Now, what about the identity? In the original sense, the identity of the child was to flow out of its inner being. In other words, as it grows the identity is more the horizontal reality. The growth of that inner self, that inner being of truth and love, goodness in the heart of the child, is more the vertical. Do you understand? So, its relationship with its parents, its brothers and sisters, its position within the family, is a horizontal reality and comes out of that inner being originally. And so you have a subject­object relationship between the inner being and the outer identity.

Now, after the fall there was no true family. And as you know, I initiated religious institutions down through history, religious movements centered on this or that individual, or this or that group finally, to begin to re­educate people as to Who I am and what is the true way of life, the proper way for growth spiritually, and then how to make a good family, a good country, good nation, good world. Of course, in all the faiths, the true and ideal family was not established until now, but still these were steps toward that goal. But herein lies a problem. In many of the western religions particularly (in your own Judeo­Christian religion, H, and W [wife], you know a lot about the Judeo­Christian history through your study of the Principle), you have, especially with institutional religions, the loss of that tradition of passing on that heavenly love to the spiritual children, the children of the faith, the new converts. There is the awareness that they need to be loved, they need to be cared for; but honestly, all of those people who were taking the role of leadership in the churches, even the Pope himself, were fallen people. And so in many cases you have very ambitious individuals, studying hard in the Bible and in the different scriptures, take a position of leadership. And particularly, if we look back at the old Catholic church, you have big­level church government. Therefore, many hierarchies and an increasingly institutional sense of identity. But if truly that channel to Me gets clogged by people getting too ambitious for position, and misusing their power toward those under them, then everything becomes like an empty shell. It's like a family without love. You have the positions, and it looks like a family if you see a photo of it on the mantle; but if you live with that family, you become very deeply aware after even a few hours, that something is "wrong" here. And if you live in that kind of church and relate with that kind of church, you know very well where there is love truly flowing from Me and when there is simply just hierarchy.

Again, I want to say that the role of being and the development of being in the individual is in the subjective capacity because it's most closely related to My heart, and position is in the objective capacity. The being is vertical (and I'm using Divine Principle language here) and the position is the horizontal.

Now, here is a fine point that relates in particular to the Unification movement: Many times we say that Cain­Abel relationship is a vertical relationship. If it is only positional, and if that true quality of nourishment from that leadership person to the one who follows, that true nourishment and that true concern and love for the being and the true self of that follower, if that's missing then this is not a vertical relationship. It's horizontal; it's external and hierarchical.

And I want to make a very clear division here between hierarchical relationship and true vertical relationship. True vertical relationship is in the heart. It's the quality of a relationship. It's not the position of Cain and Abel. Where the members have gotten caught by position and hierarchy and who has to follow who and all the external . . . this is clearly just horizontal, and it becomes very empty. And it even become a "tragic" relationship many times. And so this vertical has to be really truly divided from the idea of hierarchy because, as I said, the relationship of the lowest member on up to the national president of the Unification church, if there is not truly the awareness of the "quality" of those relationships and allowing My love to "come" and putting Me first, then this is just horizontal relationship, hierarchical, and empty. And anyone who comes into that church who has any spiritual awareness at all can feel something here is cold. Something here is empty.

Another point here that is so important, and I want to make this very strong and clear: "Being." I made being to be a growing force in your life. From the day of your birth to the day of your death, the growth and development of that being was intended to occur. It's a living force within you. Please understand that. It's as real as your stomach or your lungs, that inner being. And, actually, beyond death, eternally that being is meant to develop and develop and develop until it completely coincides with Me. The identity that "comes" from that growing being also is to grow and to develop and become just a part of that being in that subject­object relationship. I have made this clear already. But if we cut that true love between parent and child or subject and object or Abel and Cain, whichever of the relationships we've talked about, then, again, the identity becomes the key thing.

So in that church or in that movement where we see the lack of that quality of heart, then, in the same sense, you see people hanging on very tightly to their identity, their position, their external authority. Now "that" identity is not growing and developing because the inner being of the people is not being nourished - neither the followers nor the leaders. And so that identity becomes almost hardened like cement. And the church itself cannot grow in this way. It becomes many insecure people hanging on to an external reality which can change in a moment. And, therefore, there is a lot of inflexibility, an inability to grow; and even fanaticism can take over many times.

A fanaticism is something that covers up tremendous insecurity. Fanatics can never laugh at themselves Fanatics can never truly open themselves up for true reflection, because they're too insecure to look within. Therefore, they hang on to all the doctrines and laws to the position, the power. Because that's all they have. That's all they're really sure about.

The one who would really know the value of true inner being and the growth of that being and who is experiencing that, and then, as a result, the growth of their true identity and their unique identity as an individual, this person is not a bit insecure. They know who they are. We've heard that saying before, and this is very true. And, therefore, this kind of church that's full of these kinds of people can bring the kingdom, because this church is not holding on to it's own hierarchical focus. The people are free to grow beyond their church, toward the world, toward the kingdom, and toward the eternal destiny.

It is the church that has lost this tradition of heart and of love and that will not practice this, where we find a church that wants to stay eternally as it is. And, therefore, no kingdom - only this empty church. Today in the world we see many, many empty churches (speaking of the western world particularly) that are holding on to, yes, words of truth from the Bible, to their traditions, their ceremonies, their rituals, their hierarchy. But, again, until they can get in touch with that channel of My love, and let each worshiper, each individual, start to develop that growth of their own inner self and being, to come to know truly who they are and let their identity flow out of that, I tell you those churches don't want to move! I can't work in them! I can't take them beyond themselves! And what you have is insecurity, arrogance, self­righteousness, judgment toward other denominations (let alone the outside world), an "us and them" attitude, and lack of vision. Where there is no vision the people perish. And particularly in the church!

And so I don't want this to happen in the Unification movement, and that is why you truly need this education. I want this to be known by My people. It takes their courage! It takes their courage or else they, like many churches in the past, will be drawn into the same trap of external identity, hierarchy, power, authority, but without that inner river of life, that living love that I want to express. And this becomes terribly tragic in the day of the True Parents, because they represent the earthly reality of this True Parenthood, this nourishment of the being of each person.

[H has sneezed] It's funny, I never sneeze where I am. Even the experience of a sneeze through one of My children is a unique experience. [laughter]

So, do you understand what I mean? The Unification Church will not grow beyond itself if it is trapped with this hierarchy. And it must be very aware of the difference between the old traditional oriental way and the way that I want to express through the reality of True Parents. This is so important to be understood. Otherwise, you are recreating something that's old and can only be destroyed, and then I have to begin again until I can take you beyond yourselves through this nourishment of your being. What I am doing with you right now, H and W, is to spoon feed that nourishment to you. Right now there's nobody who can do that. That's why I'm coming day after day. I want you to know these things. I'm not just interested in filling your head with new concepts or ideas or doctrine! Please understand. I'm here to offer everything to you so that you can start to know truly our relationship, who you are with regard to Me, with regard to the True Parents, with regard to those around you day by day, so that you can begin to live that way of life. You must go beyond H. You must go beyond W and recognize who you are universally as well as uniquely. And then as you take those steps, you'll never go back. You can never go back because you want to go toward that light, and that light becomes very bright as you take each step.

So, again, I want to say that identity without the development of your true being inside becomes empty identity, and insecure, and rigid, and killing - killing to you and to those you contact. Particularly in religious organizations, this has to be watched out for. Please understand!

This "cannot" occur in the Unification movement! It must not occur in the Unification movement! It is already, I'm sorry to say, trying to harden like a rock, and I want to "blast" it out! To blast it out! Otherwise, I have no vehicle on earth to walk through. I am the "One" Who is trying to do this work. It is not that I'm sitting somewhere just watching you like television. I am the One Who is trying to blast through this.

This is what I wanted to say to you tonight. Please try to reflect deeply on these words and recognize that there is much more than what could be expressed. Try to think where this comes from and, consequently, your own relationship with that source day by day. I wanted to put this in Divine Principle terms so that it becomes very clear, not only to you but to others who have studied the Principle. So I want to end tonight and I'll ask W to pray.

Download entire book in ZIP format
Table of Contents
Copyright Information