Book Four - True Family
Chapter Eleven - The Family Is The Eternal Foundation Of Happiness
Section 2. The Family Is the Base of Eternal Happiness

In our daily life, on what basis would you say someone is a happy person? Can people be called happy because they possess some external ability, power or authority? They cannot. Also, are people happy because they have enough money to keep them from envying others? No. Furthermore, can people become happy through acquiring global knowledge or attaining a position from which to control the world at will? It is absolutely not the case that people become truly happy with just those things. (23.11, 1969.5.11)

Even if some people think they now have enough so as not to envy anything in heaven and earth, and sing songs of joy, such external things cannot be a source of happiness. External things may be a means of finding happiness, but they cannot be happiness itself. Then what has to be determined in order to be able to feel happiness? You must have beloved parents, spouse and children. Nobody can deny this. If you lack just one of them, you will feel sorrow correspondingly, and dissatisfaction will inevitably remain in your heart. (21-140, 1968.11.17)

All people on earth generally feel that the family is a base of happiness. The family must have parents. In the world, children without parents are called orphans and treated as pitiful people. The family has parents and the conjugal bond at the same time. It is pitiful to be without parents, and also to be without a spouse. However much spouses may have loved each other, there is utter misery and dejection when one of them loses the other. Not only that, it is surely a misery when a couple cannot have children. (23-11, 1969.5.1)

The family must have parents, spouse and children. Only then will it become the foundation of happiness. God's purpose in seeking to restore humankind must also be for His own happiness. The establishment of the ideal of God's foundation of happiness cannot take place apart from human beings. That point of convergence can only be brought about through His relationship with them. In the same way that we feel happy when all the ingredients needed for our emotional well-being are present in our family, God also wants to feel happiness in such a setting. (32-197, 1970.7.15)

From where does happiness arise? What is the setting in which we can sing songs of joy? It is the family. Family happiness cannot be attained if there are emotional problems or if there is no heart or love in the family. (23-120, 1969.5.13)

If a couple has no children, there can be no happiness there. Also, if children have no parents, there is no joy for them. Where there is a man, there will have to be a woman as his partner. The same holds true for woman. In the case of husband and wife, their desire is to keep their love at a higher dimension within the subject-object relationship. Further, they must have children.

A unified family is realized only when a couple has parents above and children below. A family should be united vertically and horizontally this way. Then centering on whom are they to unite? It is impossible just with human beings. Since they alone cannot pursue a higher value, if there is an absolute Subject Partner of love, the parents will want to become one with that Subject Partner as the center. The place where parents and children attain oneness in love centering on that Subject Partner is a place of happiness and hope. Everything must be brought into oneness and unified through something more valuable and stimulating. This is not possible just with our human love, but only from the absolute Subject Partner position. (Blessed Family - 913)