One day when True Father was sitting in at Hannam-dong house. As he was sitting a couple of leaders came in to report something to True Father with a lot of hesitation. They said "True Father, Well, there was a fire and the Pavilion you paid for, for decades has been burned down." There was pin-drop silence. Everybody in the room waited for True Father's reaction.

Will he be so angry? How did they let Satan invades the Pavilion sanctuary? Will he be mad like that? Or will he scold them how about reckless they were? Will he punish the person who was in charge of the Pavilion? Without a word True Father looked around and tilted his body a little bit and then he let out his thunder "boom".

So after hearing the holy guests "thunder" (laugh from audience) everybody in the room laughed so hard. Then True Father said, "Come on, Come down people. Things happen in life. Don’t take everything too seriously. As long as nobody got hurt from the incident, it is ok."

Brothers and Sisters let us learn also how to laugh. Let us also learn let go of things and circumstances that are holding us back. Let us also move forward with joy, laughter and courage. Brothers and Sisters we love you so much and we believe in you.. AJU!!!

I heard an interesting story about a blessed couple and there was, you know, a brother there he got matched to a sister of Jewish Heritage. So one day they decided that they had to go and see their parents-in-law. So the young man took his wife to see his parents-in-law. So the father came to him and said "Young man, how will you provide for my daughter? How will you put a roof over head like the one she is accustomed too?"

And the young man said, "Well, God will provide." And the Father-in-law asked him, "Then how will you buy her a diamond ring like she deserves?" And the young man said, "Well, God will provide." At that his father-in-law left him and went back to his living room. There was the mother. So she asked her husband, "So how did it go with the new son-in-law?" And the father-in-law said, "Well, he has no job, he has no money, but the good news is, he thinks I'm God." (Laugh from the audience)

Today I would like to talk you about Not Losing Our Joy and Our Laughter.

You know if we are really to live the blessed life that True Parents have blessed us to live, it is so important that we don't lose our joy and our laughter. That's always just an important thing in our lives. You know, life is full of inconveniences, aggravating people, negative circumstances, negative environments that can really take away that power in our life. But if we are really going to live a life of blessing then it is important to always hold on to our joy and our laughter.

You know, I heard in doing this kind sermon, this kind of service -- I often hear critical voices which are good sometimes, which are nice sometimes, which are not nice sometimes. Many times we get asked, "Why we are presenting such a service? Why aren't there jokes? Why isn't there any laughter? Why is there such an environment?

Why are the members reminded that they are not precious. They should be reminded that they are sinners; unworthy before True Parents. And in my heart whenever I hear such things, I'm at peace because I know, in my heart I keep the joy and laughter and I say "I know what, these criticisms will not take away my joy, and it will not prevent me from doing what we do at our service."

Of course, if Father asks me to stop doing services then that's another story but until that day we will continue to make the best services and the most positive environments we can, for our families and our children. You know, when True Parents look at us, I really am encouraged because it is for me, the real message of True Parents. The real message is that they love us, and that True Parents are proud of us.

It is a message that Father wished to create a real home, a real church, a home of happiness of joy and laughter. It is not so much that because there are no more tears in our movement and that's why our movement can’t grow. I don't believe this because the joy and laughter has been long lost in our movement. So let us remember who we are. Let's remember that we are precious.

That True Parents teach us that we will be mighty filial sons and daughter in this land. They tell us that we will be blessed wherever we will go. And let us hold on to such things, such words of faith in our hearts and let them fill us with joy and at hard times, sometimes, laughter so that we can overcome our obstacles more readily.

You know a little bit of science, laughter is a part of human behavior and helps humans clarify intentions, and you may know that the study of laughter is actually, there is an actual study of laughter, which is called Gelotology and what you will notice that physiologists say that with deep heart felt laughter it appears that ‘serum cortisol’, which is a hormone that secreted when we're under stress is decreased. That means, that when we laugh, when we able to laugh even thought we're under stress, our stress is decreased the serum cortisol in our blood is decreased.

More interesting, more science facts, that when we laugh natural killer cells which destroy tumors and viruses increase along with gamma Interferon, that's a disease by a protein. Those guys are living in you, there very well. We want them to be healed at the service T-cells are important to our immune systems. B-cells are good for curing disease by adding anti-bodies.

All the things are increased when were able to laugh at circumstances that usually stress us. Very interesting to know that in other religious traditions there are actually systems and technology that implement and utilize laughter as a form of practice. You may not know it, but for example in the Hindu Tradition, there is something known as laughter Yoga. In Buddhist Tradition, there is something known as Buddhist force laughter practice, even laughter practice, even smile, a sauna or postures.

You may have seen statues of the Buddha. He's doing a nice little smile, that’s called as half smile, it’s actually a meditative posture. So in these traditions, religious traditions have always seen that laughter, that joy, that happiness, that smiles are very important for our being. In the Biblical tradition, we see that when Abraham was 100 years old, God said that his descendants would be as many as the stars in the sky.

He promised Abraham and his wife Sarah, Sarah was at age of 90 years old and he said, "You will have a son. I will give you a child." This was, in normal ways of thinking, absolutely impossible. Sarah was no way, that she was way beyond child bearer years. There was no way that this would be possible at 90 years old.

But when God gave them Isaac at the age of 100, and Sarah a 90; In Genesis 21:6, Sarah says "God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me." Notice that here, in biblical tradition children are associated with laughter. And as our associate pastor who always says, "What is the purpose of life? It is joy." When ever he says he is glowing with laughter. So we know that he has that child like spirit.

Laughter also in this passage is contagious that everyone who hears of it shall also laugh. And the most important passage that I love in scripture is that God has brought me laughter, that God brings us laughter. God brings us laughter and joy. In this particular episode, Sarah was able to look at the situation. She was able to laugh to herself and all the people around who heard of her giving birth to Isaac, that precious son, all them also could laugh of joy.

You know young kids also spontaneous. We have a lot of young blessed children here today with us at service. And really, even in my own family, our youngest boy, he is really still young boy right now. He's just past one and a half years old. My youngest boy he laughs so happily when he sees me.

I mean his whole face glows, his eyes become up side down smiles, his smile become a huge glow and especially when I come back home, he was ready waiting there at the door. And as soon as I walk in he's scream with his radiant smile on his face and he says "Appa!" and I really feel I’m in heaven at that moment. I really believe that because of that, I feel that God does bring laughter through our children.

You know when I was young; I was such a prankster, if my brother Kook Jin Nim was here he can tell you, he could really testify to that, I was such a prankster. I was annoying, I was used to stand in front of the TV for no reason and bothered my brothers and stand next to them. You know, and do some bothering stuff.

And when I was at times, running for my life when they were chasing me I would say, they will ask me "Why are you so annoying?" and I said "I'm just trying to actualize True Parents’ teachings.(laugh from audience) I'm just trying to bring you joy and laughter, that’s all I’m trying to do." And of course, you know I would have to say that, while they're behind me and running at me, but it is so important that in our lives that we could continue to learn to laugh, in our lives, with our children, in our homes; even when we have circumstances that look impossible.

You know, I may have this circumstance. I can't just overcome this disease or I can't overcome this particular circumstance that is really weighing me down and I know I should be down. I know I should be giving up, but I'm going to have smile on my face. I'm going to have joy in my heart. I may have laughter in my spirit.

But so many people forget to laugh, continue to laugh with their kids as they grow up. Maybe they say "It's not my personality" or maybe "I can't really laugh on purpose" but it is important to know that we don’t have to be bellowing with laughter all the time. We don't have to be always, you know, laughing with huge sound. But in order to create an environment, where joy, where laughter is allowed, where we can relax.

You know scientist say that when we laugh, we're able to reduce the stress hormones and also the fight or flight mechanism in our body. So when we're able to create an environment where joy, where laughter is allowed to happen. And we know that that fight or flight mechanism that environment is much more conducive to nurturing our children. As children become more complex, doing simple things like tickling them or chasing them around and trying to catch them, won’t often get the same response. Just as with the other days with my boys, 10 years old, 8 years old, and we were looking through a whole bunch of religious jokes.

You know, the ones that we do every service, and they really enjoyed that, they love going through the little jokes going to them and me explaining them. Sometimes they don't get it and sometimes they do. And my children really love it when we make fun of ourselves in front of them. So, one of the things that they really enjoy is when we tell them about or past experiences which are very embarrassing. Maybe that one time when we're eating ice cream in front of people and it fell in our face, or something like that, and the kids really love that.

But the deeper principle is that when they learn how to laugh when the parents teach them, that the parents can laugh at themselves. We also teach the children, that it’s healthy to learn to laugh at yourself at times, to have the confidence and ability to know that you can be, you can put your guard down and let other people come into our sphere and environment and create a good place for people to thrive. Of course, for people who are negative or kids who are rebellious and maybe even are deliberately set on harming or saying hurtful things to you. Make sure you take a right approach. Let's keep our cool, let’s keep our positive attitude.

Let's not give up on them. Let's remember that with one touch, God can change the situation instantly. We have just to really keep continuing along, doing our best, keeping dominion of our mind and body and over our own selves.

Of course it is important not to laugh inappropriately, there are times when laughter is not conducive in the best environment, to people who are negative or people who are trying to intermediate you, if there is such people in your life, and then many times they can give you the wrong reactions or give you the opposite reaction. Laughter can, at times, insight anger.

So it’s important to keep that inside of you, allow that to come into our heart and approach with positivity, rather than negativity. You know, there is a very interesting meditative tradition which is scrambling meditation. And I would like to share this with you today because I’m sure that each and every one of us can actually use this in our lives today.

And this is particularly useful when we're dealing with somebody in our past, or some experience in our past that creates a great deal emotional negativity in our minds. When we think about that person, we may become stressed, we may really get angry and feel anxiety, and we may really feel their negativity on us.

But when we are playing them in our minds, when we are playing those images in our mind they really take the energy life out of us. So it’s very important to learn how to work and have dominion over those mind states, over our mind life. It's very important to learn to have dominion over mind and body. I'd like to show this simple practice to you.

Let simply close our eyes right now. Let's think of a person or experience that has been negative towards us. You can visualize that person very vividly. Maybe he or she is screaming, it could be a child, it could be a boss, it could be a sibling, co-workers, it could be a teacher who did not believe in you, it could be any person. But feel that negativity. You can see them screaming at you. But right now is, from now in that visualization, we will take control of that visualization. Now let’s turn that image into a cartoon, almost like a cartoon; where you now have the power to rewind, and replay.

So let's now see them screaming us, and let’s rewind it and we see those words go back into their mouth in reverse action, going backwards and we play it again. And let's go rewind again, and let's replay again. Let's see them move back and fourth in almost like we’re watching a video. Now is the part where we going to add the special effects.

Now you will see maybe their ears grow big like Mickey Mouse. Their nose may grow long like Pinocchio. Maybe they grow a tail, a monkey's tail. But you will see that you have control over this visualization, this memory. As what I like to do now is see those sorts of ridiculous sound effects and ridiculous special effects happening and then let us rewind that. So you can see the ears back in, you can see the nose back in, you can see the monkey's tail back in and then replay it again. See the ears grow big again. See the nose grow big again.

See the monkey's tail grow big and repeat that. Try to repeat it about five times. Just rewind and replay. You are in control of the mind life. You're in control of this memory life. You're control of this memory. So replay it and rewind it just getting it. Just replay it and rewind it. See those special effecting occurring. See you controlling your mind state.

Let’s do that couple of times, and now let's open our eyes. You are now in control of that memory, what you have to realize is that, that memory is an emotion memory. It is tied to you with emotions. When you are able to control that memory, and really make a funny scene, kind of a joyful scene, a funny laughter scene…

You would be able to control that emotional feeling that you have in that memory. Whenever that memory is trying to steal that joy, our laughter, just in our mind, just what we did. Use the dominion of your mind. Just see those things happening, put in new sound effects, put in these special effects.

You can do those things and you will start changing the way those memories, those emotional feelings, feel with that kind of person. We know that we can live with freedom from such negativity. We can live with freedom from negative people from those negative circumstances, from the environments as long as we take dominion of our mind.

You know in the Buddhist Tradition, when ever I go to Chinatown. Whenever I go to a place where they sell Chinese items, you may have all seen them too; you will see a small little very, very fat Buddha. They're very fat. They're very round. They're very fat and smiling and these guys are known as the Happy Buddha or the Laughing Buddha.

But its interesting to know that this is actually the figure of Maitreya. In Buddhism that is the second coming of the messiah. Ok, so, in the Divine Principle we see that True Parents, or the Christian tradition, is in the messianic role. And in Buddhism tradition fills the role of Maitreya. And it’s very interesting that this Buddha is always laughing. He always smiling and it is through this joy that he connects to all beings, he fosters realization, generosity and contentment, and brings heaven to earth.

And you know, when I think of that, I am really reminded that, that is my image of Father. Of course Father is not that big (laugh from audience), but Father, well when I think of Father I don't think of Father who is bleeding and full of sweat and tears, of course that is part of his history, that is part of the major obstacles -- those he had overcome. But when I view Father, when I recall Father in my memory, I see him just glowing with laughter.

I see him smiling with Mother I see them holding hands; I see pictures that inspire me that remind me that True Parents love me. Remind me that True Parents love us; that they are proud of us. That they are happy for us, and they wish for us to be happy. It's very important to know that whatever we focus on we will become greater. We will see more things than we have in our lives. It's important that when we view True Parents, even when we view God for that matter that we understand that in this age of liberation and complete release, God is no longer suffering.

He is no longer the God of blood, sweat and tears. But He is now a God that can be joyful, that can be happy, that can smile like this very corpulent fellow. But let us remember if we can learn anything today, just like Sarah that God brings laughter into our lives. That it is a blessing into our lives. If we receive such things as blessings, we will be able to share laughter in our life. Let's remember that scientific laughter is good for our stress and, it is healthy. And remember let's not laugh inappropriately at people.

We don't have to be spiteful. We don't have to harm others in order to feel good. But whenever we feel affected by negative memories, negative people, negative words that are cursing our lives; negative words which affecting our minds; let us use the scrambling practice. Use that practice in your mind to regain dominion, to regain freedom from that memory from that experience.

Let’s choose to see Father and God as not the God that has continued to suffer, that continued to be full of blood, sweat and tears, but now a God that is liberated, a God that can rejoice. That can be happy with His children. That can create a true home where we can be free. Let us keep joy and laughter in our hearts, in our homes, and in our church.

Brothers and Sisters can you receive this message today?

Yes (reply from audience)

Thank you so much!!!

"True Parents I have repented for my wrong doings. Make me your palace of your peace, of your love and of your lineage."