2. The Connected Body

The connected body, just like the individual truth body, is one of the being images of existing beings. As all existing beings take after the Original Image, they must have some images corresponding to it. One of these images is the individual truth body and the other is the "Connected Body."

Directly speaking, the connected body refers to a being with dual purposes, namely the existing being, which simultaneously has both purposes for the whole and for the individual. Every being has these two purposes. The purpose for the whole (called the Sung Sang purpose) means the purpose by which the individual contributes to the preservation and development of the whole. The purpose for the individual (called the Hyung Sang purpose) means the purpose for the multiplication and development of self as well as for self-preservation and self-strengthening.

A certain purpose in life is given to every man, such as contributing to one's state or society in one or more realms such as tax-payment, military service, business, administration, education, industry, and science. A family member must contribute to his family, a teacher to education, and a workman to the enterprise to which he belongs, and so on. These examples show the purpose for the whole. Few people recognize this kind of contribution as the purpose for the whole given to every man by the Original Being. Most men regard it as their duty. Men who are able to perform this duty willingly, do so because they feel the purpose for the whole unconsciously. Because, in terms of the Principle, this performance of duty and the consequent fulfillment of purpose are determined and projected by the mind, because the largest whole is God, and because the whole in the created world represents God to an individual, the purpose for the whole may be called the "Sung Sang Purpose." This is also true for all the other things besides man. Though animals and plants may seem to struggle against one another for existence, in reality they do not. They all contribute to the whole. Were a part of the earth's plant life destroyed, the human race would find difficulty in living due to a lack of oxygen; and if all animals disappeared the result would be the same, because due to the shortage of C02 and fertilizer, plants would have difficulty maintaining themselves. If the mineral kingdom disintegrated there would be a crisis in the preservation of the biological world, for every living thing has to ingest mineral matter.

What about the individual purpose? No individual exists without the purpose of preserving and maintaining his existence. Every being without exception has the purpose of self-preservation, development, multiplication, and benefit. Food, clothing, housing, the fine arts, academic life, religious faith, and so on, all exist for self-preservation, joy, multiplication, growth, and development. Thus for a man to be for himself means to be for physical life or one's own sake. An individual man is the object of God, the whole, and in a position of Hyung Sang to God. Consequently the purpose for the individual may be called the "Hyung Sang Purpose." This sort of purpose is recognized in animals, plants and minerals as a matter of course. We can easily understand that animals and plants have this purpose for the individual because it seems as if they live only for self-preservation and self-existence. And even though it is not so obvious whether minerals have a purpose for the individual they should and do have this purpose. This issue will be dealt with in detail later.

The purposes mentioned above were applied only to existing beings on the earth, but all the existing beings in the cosmos, from atoms to heavenly bodies are the same. For example, the nine planets, centering on the sun, rotate on their own axes for their own purposes, and revolve around the sun for the purpose of the whole. If one of the planets suspended its revolution, the whole aspect of the solar system would change. Therefore, it is true that even planets and fixed stars have both the purposes for the individual and for the whole. An electron revolves around a proton due to its purpose for existence as a particle and also for the atomic structure as a whole, similar to the relationship of the planets to the sun. An element unites with another and forms a molecule also because of both the purposes for the individual and the whole. The purposes for the individual and the whole are not independent but interdependent, intercausative, and they exist in an inner and outer relationship. As the purpose to serve the whole may also indirectly be a purpose to better the individual too, likewise, the purpose for the individual to become better indirectly presupposes an intention to serve the whole more effectively through the individual's betterment. The greatest purpose for the whole, for nature, is the purpose of serving man, namely bringing him pleasure and joy. Not only the sunlight but also the stars twinkling in the night sky, and the elementary particles of the microscopic world all exist to serve human life. Some may be skeptical of how stars and elementary particles serve human beings, but according to the Unification Principle, even these things have dual purposes and their supreme purpose is to bring pleasure to God, through giving joy to man.

The universe is the object in which man's character and form are manifested in substance. Therefore, man, whose center is fixed upon God, would feel immense joy when he objectively feels his own character and form through all things as his substantial objects. (Ibid., p. 45)

God created the universe so as to feel joy and peace by feeling objectively, His subjective Sung Sang, through the creation. (The Explanation of the Divine Principles, p. 50)

God's purpose in creating the universe was to feel happiness when He saw the purpose of goodness fulfilled in the Heavenly Kingdom.... (Divine Principle, p. 41)

Because man was created as the center of the universe, the supreme subject and dominator of all things, the supreme purpose (purpose for the whole) of all creation is to serve man. As mentioned above, man is a microcosm, a composite substance of the whole of nature. Though man was created last of the created world, in the world of the Original Image the idea of man was set up first, and then the ideas of the whole universe were set up taking after the various features of man. All this means that the ultimate purpose for the whole of all things, including heavenly bodies, was to be for man. Thus man freely dominates all of nature. The moon which previously contributed to man only through light has now also begun to contribute material to him since man has reached her. Now man has begun to explore Mars and Venus. According to the teacher of the Unification Principle, a spirit man can easily reach stars which are at a distance of several hundred thousand or several million light years away. The motivating force behind astronomical research is to make space serviceable to human life.

All things are of service to man in one of various forms: for instance as raw materials for products; as experimental objects; as objects with artistic beauty such as landscapes, colors and sounds; as inspirations to find truth (many philosophers including the Apostle Paul perceived truth through observing nature); as stimulants to the artistic feelings of man (birds, flowers, trees and the moon were often the themes of poems); and as means of comparison (metaphors) of the characteristics of man (we sometimes express certain characteristics of man with expressions such as "steady as a rock", "strong as an ox", "delicate as a flower", "iron will", "happy as a lark", "hungry as a bear", and the like).

Thus each thing's ultimate purpose for the whole is to be of service to human life in some way. What is mentioned above is concisely expressed in the Divine Principle as follows:

Man was thus created to be the center of the whole creation, and so the point where God and man become one united body is where we find the center of the macrocosm.

Let us discuss man's being the center of the macrocosm from a different aspect. We call the two worlds, the visible and invisible, the "macrocosm," with man being the substantial center of this total macrocosm. (Ibid., p. 38)

Consequently, the purpose of the universe's existence centered on man is to return joy to God, the Creator. Every being has a dual purpose. As already explained, every existence has both character and form; accordingly, its purpose is two-fold. One purpose pertains to internal character and the other to external form. The relationship between the two is exactly the same as that between character and form in any individual being. The purpose pertaining to the internal character is for the whole, while the purpose pertaining to the external form is for the individual. In other words, the former and the latter relate to each other as cause and effect, internal and external, and subject and object. Therefore, there cannot be any purpose of the individual apart from the purpose of the whole, nor any purpose of the whole that does not include the purpose of the individual. All the creatures in the entire universe form a vast complex linked together by these dual purposes. (Ibid., pp. 41-42)

I have touched on the connected body from the viewpoint of purpose. Now let me explain it in relation to the Original Image.

The individual truth body mentioned before is a concept which deals with the aspect of the existing being that reflects the Inner Quadruple Base of the Original Image. The connected body on the other hand is a concept which deals with the aspect of the existing being that reflects the Outer Quadruple Base of the Original Image. Before, I explained that an individual truth body performs the give-and-take action not only between the subject and object parts within itself through forming the Inner Quadruple Base, but also performs the give-and-take action outwardly with other individual truth bodies in a subject and object relationship, through forming the Outer Quadruple Base. This means that an individual truth body also simultaneously plays the part of a connected body. The Outer Quadruple Base of the Original Image is one of absolute dimensions formed through the absolute give-and-take action between the Sung Sang and Hyung Sang. As the Quadruple Base of the Original Image is in the world of the Original Being outside of time and space, its Inner and Outer Quadruples can not but be formed in a unique, absolute dimension.

But as the universe is the four-dimensional world of space with time, the Quadruple Base should be formed within the passage of time and in the three dimensions of space. Accordingly, the Quadruple Bases under the influence of time and space are formed in the various dimensions of the upper and lower sides, right and left, front and back, and before and after. For example, a person will have his parents, elder brothers and sisters, and superiors above; younger brothers and sisters, sons and daughters and inferiors below; teachers, leaders, and seniors in front; disciples and juniors in back; friends and neighbors to the right; opponents to the left; and within the passage of time, he performs the give-and-take action with new persons and new environments incessantly. Thus, the formation of Quadruple Bases occurs in various dimensions in the created world. There is not one of the countless individual beings composing the universe which does not form these kinds of multidimensional Quadruple Bases. This means that every creature is connected with others through its upper and lower sides, in the past and in the future, directly and indirectly, etc. For example, man is directly connected with food, clothing and housing; with his environment or surroundings (family centering on parents; minerals, plants and animals through foods; mountains, lands and climate through dwellings, etc.); and with social life (getting in touch with members of the community, contacting foreigners, and the like); and indirectly connected with the planets of the solar system (through gravitation, the rotation and revolution of the earth, and the sunlight); and with stars (through the cosmic rays and utilization of the constellations).

If any one of these connections were cut off man would be influenced greatly. It is well known that cosmic rays exercise an important influence on the living things on earth. Thus to say every existing being takes after the Original Image means that each being in nature has paired (relative) elements inwardly (in itself) and has give-and-take actions in various dimensions outwardly (with others). The former state is called an individual truth body and the latter, a connected body. In other words, every existing being is an individual truth body for self and a connected body for others. That is, an individual truth body is the image for self of an existing being; whereas the connected body is its image for others. Because existing beings have these two aspects, the dual purpose comes into existence. The purpose for the individual is for the maintenance of the self, that is to say, self-existence; and the purpose for the whole is for the maintenance of the whole, that is to say, the purpose to make the whole more perfect. This is the reason for calling the existing being with dual purposes a connected body. Therefore, there is no solitary being in the universe; all are connected to each other. The entire universe is a vast organic body composed of connected bodies with dual purposes. Consequently, when we consider this in relation to the Original Image, we can see that an existing being is composed of the Inner and Outer Quadruples. Dealing with self it is called an individual truth body, and dealing with others it is called a connected body.

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