The Words of Hyung Jin Moon
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The Words of Hyung Jin Moon |
Deborah: What does Two Rivers mean?
Hyung Jin Nim: Two rivers, essentially we are trying to represent True Parents; that they are the two streams that give us life, love, and lineage. We feel personally, in my own space, that it is very unique to have a religious icon not just as a man that represents God, but a man and a woman, and that in our theology we understand God to be not just masculine but also feminine. Also as mother; this is very important, the two rivers essentially just represent those two sides. Through True Parents blessings, through our lives, we can extend those blessings to others. It's kinda generally what we're trying to interpret through a more symbolic form, more artistic form -- two rivers.''
Deborah: What is your message to the British youth?
Hyung Jin Nim: Well personally I've never been to Britain, so I don't know the situation exactly, but I know that in the many churches we have worldwide there are many similar circumstances. We feel it's very important at this stage that we are investing in building communities, you know because as of now, we have been sprinting, really sprinting. We have succeeded tremendously compared to other religions in their infancy, so we have been really sprinting and doing a lot of public activity, but we haven't yet been able to really start nurturing and building communities. So its like we've been out there fighting the wars and battles and now its time to go home, and there needs to be some healing community building, we need to put down our weapons and become farmers and merchants; become people that build the nation so to speak.
So that's a big transition, and in that transition we hope that in our own churches and communities we are able to foster a more empowering environment; where in which people who come can see a new vision for their lives, and have hope in their futures and really know that they are not alone on this path, that we are walking together as a community as brothers and sisters. And you know, as I said in sermons in service many times, there are times when we feel alone in life as individuals, but it's important to know that we are never really alone in our lives, we may be lonely at times but truly to understand we are not alone, we are walking with each other; I think that brotherhood is so important. So we really hope that as we focus on our church growth and development, that we can help the church communities succeed.
We're still learning in the process, we're still improving every day, but we're hoping that the churches around the world can really start building that network; that can really spread and give a lot of encouragement to not only our own tradition, but to people who are also interested in tradition, or who want to experience another tradition.''
Deborah: Do have you any tips on Meditation; how does it work for you, and what are the benefits?
Hyung jin nim: ''One of the real keys in meditation practice is to not try too hard, not just to struggle with it, but just to specially in practice let our humanity out. So many times when we're dealing with the emotional state, when we are dealing with a sense of depression or even when we are angry in the moment, but many times we try to suppress that anger, but the result of that will be an emotion that has not been able to be expressed and so over time it can sorta build up within a person. Of course its not healthy, to express anger, to yell or curse at people, y'know that's never healthy, but to deal with it in a way that can change the nature of that emotion is the real power of training your mind.
So, one of the keys of course is not to try so hard; a lot of people get into stomach busts because really they're trying to achieve some type of supernatural state. Or even just to focus intently, real focus, real experience of the constant gifts that we are receiving in the present, you know we talked of that today; the present, the real experience of that is not to try and grasp it, but really just allowing it to come into your life, and in that change in your mindset, meditation can have a great impact on your life. Because it is the difference of 'oh I'm in a relationship and I don't feel I've been treated well, so I'm gonna try and change my wife', but through the practice of meditation you let go of that desire. You understand that there are things that you can control but also things you can't, and to learn how to accept the present moment, to accept the people and the gifts that they have around you, is a very important principle in life - especially in relationships.
And so one thing about meditation practice is that if it really doesn't work out, you really have to give yourself a break, and just say 'y'know what, I'm not gonna try so hard and enjoy, I'm just gonna try to enjoy', and then you'll see very quickly, you'll be caught up in the amazingness of that moment, and there's a real gift there; I really do believe there's a real gift in the simple blessings that we're given. So the meditative tradition is to remind us of that, to give us a tool to implement that in our lives, to find who we are; meditation gives you permission to be what God created you to be. When we start seeing our emotional states, and understand that in meditation training we allow emotions to come, develop and go. Allowing yourself to have acceptance of different emotions is I think very important, and then one can become more healthy in their action steps. As I said many times we can feel anger but expressing it on somebody, cursing, that is not appropriate use of my emotion. Meditative tradition trains us to create more gap between emotion and reaction, so in that way we can have more control over our actions, and lead a better life''
Deborah: How do you manage public mission and your family?
Hyung Jin nim: ''Well we just saw Kung-fu Panda, which is great for the kids (Hyung-jin nim and Yeon-ah nim have four boys and one girl), we rarely go to the movies unless it's something like Kung-fu, which y'know I just have to see! Our schedule is rather different as you know, the weekends are real tough for us, and during the week we have a lot of meetings and things like that. So we try to always make time for the kids, and we have days for the children every week, we have for example our first boy Shin-Pal (9), his day is Tuesday night and then we'll go out with him, to a place he chooses, so as he likes ra-myun we'll go eat ra-myun with him! Next week is Shin-won's day so we'll spend one on one time, try to y'know encourage him, listen to what issues he has, if he's going through something he can share, things like that.
You see, we don't separate our spiritual practice with family practice, it's one; it's all one. So we see this as a central practice for our own family, we try this with the kids every week as we can build one on one relationships. It is very important; research shows that children remember their one on one time with their parents, not necessarily as a whole, so this time is very critical. I can say it's a real joy for us, it's a challenges for us too, because as they grow we have to keep finding ways to make it new for them. So that's tough, but it's a great challenge, and you know we are up there!
We are victorious! (High fives Yeonah nim) So that's one practice we do with the kids, other things like before they go to sleep, Omma always reads to them a bedtime story, always, everyday. So Omma reads to them at night, and in the mornings after coming back from morning training I go with each of the kids taking in turns on the bicycle around our home, it takes only five or so minutes each but they love it! As our schedule is, sometimes we get home late, but we must make time, as parents we don't try to find times for the kids, we make time, when you become parents you will see that if you try to find time you'll never find it, you just have to make it.''