Book Four - True Family
Chapter Eight - True Parental Love
Section 5. Parents' Love for Their Children Is Absolute

In my childhood, I would often look at bird nests. Once I climbed a tree to look into a nest, and the mother bird started pecking at me. She was desperate and willing to die to protect her nest, and not only once. When I brushed her aside, she flew away, and then came back. Seeing this, we cannot deny the powerful instinct of animals to transcend their own lives to protect their offspring. It is similar with human beings. You should be able to invest your life for the sake of love. That is the way of a true person. What kind of people are truly good? They are those who establish love as their root, and try to protect their loved ones even at the cost of their own lives. This is where goodness is initiated and where the rationale for reciprocal goodness is established. This is something that never changes. (186.15. 1989.1.14)

When 1 was in Danbury prison, I witnessed an interesting thing. A slope was being bulldozed into a tennis court. However, when the rainy season came, work had to stop for a few weeks until the weather cleared up. During the delay, a water bird built a nest only three meters away from the path the inmates used for their exercise. The water bird was not easily noticeable as her colors allowed her to blend into the background. Therefore, while she was guarding her eggs, no one realized she was there, even through they repeatedly walked right by her.

When the water bird curled up, she looked just like a round black stone from the side, but when her eggs hatched and the baby birds started feeding, they were pretty noisy and gave away their location. Several of the inmates tried to mess around with the water bird, but she proved very capable of protecting her young. When she returned with food, she never landed close to her nest, but chose different locations, then slowly crept over to her chicks.

Every day she approached from a different direction in order to protect her young. This is how she protected them. As her chicks grew larger, she would make lots of noise and peck any inmates who came too close. She was clearly warning them to stay away. Who taught the water bird to be like this? It is the power of the universe. All things of creation are on a level plane, centering on God's love as the axis. They may have different positions on that plane, but their level of love and care is the same. (136-10. 1985.12.20)

When a honeybee tastes nectar while visiting flowers, it attaches itself with its legs and sucks with its abdomen sticking out. I know bees very well. If you pull one with tweezers while it is sucking nectar, it will not let go, even if its abdomen is torn off. True love is like this. You can even cast away your life. True love is not based on calculated gain. Being able to forsake and disregard one's own life is the path of true love. Parents walk that path. Consider the case of parents, who love their children: if a child is in mortal danger, parents will willingly die in place of their child. Parental heart willingly goes the way of death for the sake of love. This is true love. (144.209.1996.4.24)

Suppose a man becomes extremely wealthy through his own hard work, sweat, and tears, such that he could boast of his achievement throughout the world. If his child is then faced with a life-and-death situation, material things will no longer matter to him, and he will sacrifice all his wealth and even his own life to save his child. (34-160, 1970.9.6)