The Words of Hyung Jin Moon
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The Words of Hyung Jin Moon |
Good Afternoon, brothers and sisters!
This is the first service that we have in October. I hope you have a wonderful and blessed week that is abundant with God and True Parents' love and blessing. We are always happy and honored to have you here in this sanctuary. And for those who are joining with us via internet, we are welcoming you as well.
Welcome brothers and welcome sisters!
Brothers and sisters, today I want to share with you from Cheon Seong Gyeong page 1487. Father here is talking about the original mind. He says, "When people follow their original mind, the whole universe will open up." And he says, "Once they're able to enter such a state of being, they will be able to converse with their mind." Whenever we see the value that this places on the original mind, we again can be reminded of our own intrinsic value.
Whenever we see ourselves with our own eyes... maybe during the week we saw ourselves, maybe it was not the best week, maybe we did not do our best, or maybe we did not get all those aids or we did not do our best at work etc. Maybe we had a bad week this week.
And then we can be tempted to see ourselves from that perspective. "Ohhh, I'm not really talented. I really can't do this so well. I'll never be able to succeed here. She's so much better than me." We can be tempted to fall into this kind of thinking.
Brothers and sisters, whenever we start service it's so important to begin with the right mindset. It's so important to begin with the right outlook of ourselves and of others. Particularly when True Parents are talking about the original mind we can remember that value that we have within ourselves. We can see that God has placed His cosmic value within us as human being as His partners. He has placed within us cosmic value, unique value and divine value.
Brothers and sisters, it's so important for us to remember that, to repeat these words of empowerment in our minds, because we can get so tempted, so quickly, to fall into a different type of thinking. It's so important for us to get into that victorious type of thinking, into that type of principled thinking. Whenever we see ourselves like, "We are overweight and unattractive" or, "My belly is coming out," "I am valuable in God's eyes. I can lose 5 pounds. I can also lose the thoughts that weigh me down more. I can also regain my confidence in myself. I can see myself from God's perspective and I can move forward with that kind of amazing destiny."
Brothers and sisters, we want you to capture that destiny. We want you to have it for yourselves so that you can share it with others and that is God's desire for us. Brothers and sisters, let's begin with that outlook. We want to welcome you at this service. Let's begin our service. Let's return the glory to God today.
Heavenly Father, thank You for this day that You have blessed us with, Father, for this life that You have blessed us with, Father, for this community, this worldwide Unification family that You have blessed us with.
Father, we are in Your presence, in Your awesome presence today. Father, let us open our hearts so that we may be receptive to Your presence. Father, that we may receive the things which You wish for us to receive not so that we can only use them for ourselves but, Father, that we can be a conduit, a channel, to share those blessings to those around.
Heavenly Father, today as we pray and as we extend our hearts universally to our cosmic True Parents, to our families all around the world, we know that we are being united in heart. Father, we know that as one family we are here gathered before You, bowing our heads in humility. Father we are offering our hearts in gratitude and able to be transformed in your vast and boundless love.
Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this day that you have blessed us with. We pray that You may be with each and every one of the family members here, with each one of their children, Father, that You may allow their dreams and ambitions, Father, that You have placed within them to come to fruition, Father, that You may bless the worldwide unification family, brothers and sisters in New Zealand, in Latin America, in Russia, in China, all over the world. Father, we pray that Your abundant blessing and Your abundant love may work through them to extend to this world.
Father, thank You for allowing us to have a part in Your providence, in Your work. Let us truly live up to our potential to be all that You have created us to be. Father, let us actualize all those amazing gifts, those amazing talents and the amazing love that You have placed within us and let us extend that and make this world a better place.
Father, thank you so much for this day, the confidence, the compassion. Father, the love that You pour upon us today. Father, we pray that we may truly go forth, with our hearts full of courage, facing our future and facing our destiny with pride, Father, and confidence.
Thank you so much. Please be with our families today. We pray these things in the name of Moon Hyung Jin kajong (family), a member of a blessed central family, praying in True Parents' name, in the True Family's name and in our Unification families' name, Aju!
I heard a story about Moses and Jesus playing golf with another man. It was time for Moses to tee off and so Moses hit the ball. There was a big water hazard and so the ball flew right into a pond. Moses went up to the pond, he stretched his hands forward and he prayed to God, and the waters miraculously split! He walked in and he sliced the ball. The ball went landed about a foot from the hole.
And then it was Jesus' turn. He e hit the ball, and again it went towards the water! But miraculously the ball didn't go into the water. It stayed on top of the surface! Jesus walked up to the water, walked on top of the water and hit the ball and it got at within about six inches of the hole.
Then the third guy, he hit the ball. It went up again towards the water hazard and fell towards the water and at that exact instant a trout jumped up and swallowed the ball. And at that exact moment an eagle swooped down and caught the trout. And then it flew up and as he was flying right over the hole, a lighting bolt struck the eagle which dropped the trout, which dropped the ball into the hole, for a hole in one!
And then Moses said to Jesus, "You know what? I really hate playing golf with your Daddy."
Brothers and sisters, today I'd like to talk to you about the Power of Consistency. In order to live the blessed life, it's so important to be able to learn how to harness the power of consistency. And too many people live their lives without applying this power and wonder why they got stuck at a certain level in their lives. It's important, of course, to enjoy lives and have a variety in our lives but when it comes down to the God given mission and work that God has given to us, consistency is one of the most vital elements. Consistency builds our character. Over time it attracts whatever we are being consistent at. And consistency, once again, is really one of the keys of living the blessed life.
See, whether we realize it or not, we are being consistent at something. And too many people are consistent in a negative way in their minds, always doubting their God given potential, always putting themselves down, putting down their talents, putting down their abilities, saying that they have no dreams and nothing worthwhile to think about.
We may be consistent in this matter or we may be consistent in comparing with others or, even though we may not know it, we may be jealous of other people. The key here is not to be consistent in these negative ways but to be consistent in improving and moving our lives in a positive trend. Of course, in our lives we will always have ups and downs, we will always have obstacles to overcome and to pass over, but even though we have those ups and downs in life, it's important to move the trend of our life in a constantly upward trajectory.
Constantly improving ourselves, being more mature, learning and improving ourselves, this is one of the keys to really being able to actualize a blessed life. "But I get really bored really quick. I start one thing and I get too good at it or I just get bored of it and I need to move on." But it's natural to get bored of whatever we do. Every one who works or begins a job or a profession, everybody who is in that kind of role, at some point questions whether or not this is really the right job for them. But those who keep moving and succeeding in those professions, in those environments, in those families, etc., those who keep at it, who keep consistent at it, they keep finding ways to improve and to make the work exciting.
Someone might say, "But it's very hard for me to focus. I really can't focus my attention." And that's natural, too. But focus can be built and it can be learned. It's a skill. It is something that we can develop in our own practice. "But I don't get recognized in my family. I don't get promoted in my work. So why should I continue, why should I continue to be consistent there?"
Whether or not we get recognition or whether or not we get promoted quickly, the people around us really need to see people who are consistent, reliable, people that they can trust. That's when we start being able to receive blessing for ourselves. It is so important to show that consistency, that reliability, whether at the work place, in the family or in any other environment that we may be in. It is always so important to be able to use the power of consistency.
If one person said to another, "I will give you one cent for every negative thought that I have", did you know that per day that person would have to pay the other person $400.00? 400.00 dollars per day! One cent per negative thought, and I would have to pay 400.00 dollars a day, and over the year I would have to pay $146,000.00 to that person.
Do you know that research shows that we think an average of 42 thoughts per minute? And over the course of a day, that's about 60,000 thousand thoughts. But something is very striking here. It's not the fact that we think all these thoughts or that even 95% of them are unconscious. The real key here is that the majority of them, over 40,000 thoughts, whether conscious or unconscious, are negative!
It's so important that in our lives we are able to be aware of our thought-life, of our thinking patterns, of our conversations in our mind. "But how can that be? How can I think 40,000 thoughts per day? I don't need this, there's no way that I put in so much energy." But it's kind of like this: It's like a radio playing in our minds. We may not actually be singing that song, putting in the energy to sing that song, but the thing is, we can hear it, we can hear that song playing in the back of our minds.
Everyday, over and over, minute after minute, 40,000 plus times per day, the normal people hear things like, "I am ugly" or, "I am fat" or, "I'm not talented" or, "He's better than me. She's got a better personality than me. My jobs stinks compared to her's. Or my husband is so poor compared to her husband" or, "I hate her because she's from this family or that family. I hate him. He makes more than me" or, "Why do all bad things happen me?"These kinds of sounds are ringing in the hearts of so many people.
What's happening? 40,000 types of these kinds of thoughts are striking and replaying over and over in our minds. What would that create? Literally a brain washing process, a process that will lead us towards defeat, towards not being able to actualize our potential, not being able to believe in ourselves, not being able to have the self-esteem or confidence that we need to move into the VIP life.
It's so important that we learn to train our thoughts, to be aware of our thoughts. Why is that? An old sage said, "Your thoughts lead to your words. Your words lead to your action. Your actions lead to your habits. Your habits lead to your character. Your character leads to your life and your life leads to your destiny."
Its' so important that we start out with the right thoughts because those are the things that affect everything down the line that creates our destiny. It's so important that in our mind we have consistently positive thoughts, at least that we are making effort to do so, that we are making the effort to try to think more positive, more victoriously, more powerfully, more courageously and more illuminatingly, so to speak, "I am talented. I am attractive. I am strong. God has given me purpose. I am courageous. I am confident, I am compassionate. God has given me His love. I am illuminated. I am intelligent. I am consistently maturing. God has given me a destiny to fulfill."
We need to have these kinds of victorious thoughts playing in the back of our minds. But at first it's very hard. At first it's hard to shift the balance of 40,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day. It's so hard to be able to shift that into thinking more victoriously in our lives. But that's where the effort comes in. That's where the five-percent effort comes in. And when we start changing the patterns of our thoughts, when we start changing those patterns, those that impact our actions, those that impact our character, those that impact the people that we choose to have around us, those that impact the people that are attracted to us, those that impacts our lives, our destiny.
In order to have others want to help us, we've got to be acknowledged, etc., we need to show that we are reliable and consistent. Of course, from our thoughts into our words, into our actions, when we make a promise we keep it. When we make a promise with that child that we'll be there on Tuesday, will be there on Tuesday. Having that reliability, that consistency, that trust ability. Showing consistency at work, or in our families, is like planting our roots.
When we see a tree, any tree, we see only what's above the ground. But the root system is more vast than what we see beyond the surface, one and a half to two times more vast. And too many people in their lives stop right before they're about to reap an amazing harvest from their tree. As they're digging in their roots, as they're putting in their works, as they are being consistent, too many people start moving into different things, right at the time when they are about to reap an amazing blessing.
It's so important that in our lives, in our work life, in our family life, we have that kind of consistency, to make sure that when we look at our life plans, we are not changing jobs every year, to make sure when we look at our family patterns, that we are not changing our promises every second. It's so important that we have consistency in our life, in our work, in our family, wherever we may go, to build the reliability and trust ability that will help us to live the blessed life.
The longer we work at something the better we become at it, naturally. For me the seven years of meditation and spiritual discipline that I do was one of the first times in my life that I proved to myself that I could be consistent. Before that I was always changing my interest. I went from skating to roller blading to Tae Kwon Do, the Jit Kun Do, the DJJ, whatever, to football. So many changes, always, so many changes. I get bored so quick. I learned one thing and then it was no fun anymore, this kind of pattern.
But when Young Jin hyung passed away, I realized, I looked back at my life pattern, and I realized, "Wait a minute! This shows tremendous inconsistency. It shows lack of focus. I don't have any focus in my life." And so when I started to begin training my mind, training my thoughts, doing my meditation practice, etc., I really had to fight everyday, to get up, to do the practice, to become more aware of my thoughts, more aware of my mental habits.
And everyday, at first it was excruciatingly difficult. It got easier, it became delightful and it became very easy. In year three or four it was literally like walking through the valley of the shadow of death. It was getting so difficult in the third of fourth year, it was getting so difficult. But after I overcame those two very difficult years trying to train and keep spiritual discipline, about eight years later, today, waking up 2:30 am, doing the morning practice, is such a natural part of my existence. I can't literally see myself not doing this.
And because of this and because of this kind of discipline that I have in my life, I have been able to prove to myself that I can be consistent. And I believe that it is setting a different tone in the Unification tradition for ministry.
One lady told me that she heard about a Christian minister who was saying to his congregation in the Morning Prayer, "Those Unificationists get up at 2:30 in the morning! We have to get up at least by 6:00 am to pray to Jesus." They were imploring the crowd. Let's give it up for Unification brothers and sisters. Let's give it up. (Clapping)
This same principle I see in my work, too, all the time. When I first started ministry in the small Mapo church, so many people came to me at that time, "Hyung Jin Nim, you can't just stay in Mapo church. You are not supposed to be a minister at a tiny church. You're supposed to be moving around. Why not do the national tour? Why don't you go to Kyenggido, Cheonan, Pusan. You've got to be traveling all around the country to be giving your sermons, giving your speeches."
But I made a deliberate decision not to do that. I made a deliberate decision and said, "No, I cannot do that." I said, "I cannot just go around saying that a change needs to happen, speaking about a service style that is more conducive to the age of liberation, speaking about not to focus on living a life that is free from sin but living a life that is victorious, that is blessed." I said, "I can't just go around and talk about it. I'm not going to do that. I need to stay in one place. I need to do ministry in one place. I need to really do what ministers do. I have got to visit families. I have got to learn about the people that I'm trying to serve, etc."
And I decided not to take those recommendations, not to take the recommendation to go really big, to go everywhere, trying to spread the message. Instead of talking about it, let's create results. Let's try to create that new culture. Let's try to create that new service environment. Let's try to create a space where people can come and learn in different ways in their lives.
And now as we see the development of Headquarter Church, we have now over 4,000 plus registered members here. And we can now, of course, see the benefits of a larger church, a stronger community. If I would have started ministry, just talking about the need to build a better community, just talking about the many benefits of a larger congregation, a larger church community, if I would just have said, "We're stronger. We can share our talents and our networks together," if I just would have said that, nobody would have believed me. I can go around and do national tours everyday, and nobody would understand unless they saw what was happening.
And so I believe I made the right decision to say, "No, I'm going to try to be consistent. I'm not going to skip a single service. I'm going to meet families every week. I'm going to be consistent in one place and create a certain environment."
When I became the International President, again the same pattern happened. More people came to me this time, people from other continents, "You've got to do International tours, not only national ones. Don't go only to Kyengggido, come to Russia, come visit this nation" and everywhere I'm being implored. But again I said, "I can't do that. Our church is still weak in learning, in being confident in witnessing, it's still weak in creating small groups. We are still just beginning the process here. I can't just go around and talk about this. We've got to create the right pattern, create the models so that people can see those results, have confidence in those results and be able to implement them in their countries."
This principle of consistency is one of the most important things that I've learned while doing spiritual practice. I learned consistency and commitment. Everyday, day in and day out, no breaks, no days off in terms of spiritual training. That kind of consistency has helped me greatly in making, I believe, the right decisions in doing ministry and looking over the international scene, so to speak.
Of course, there are many things that personally I have to learn, and I will learn. And I'm improving, I'm maturing, everyday. I know that I'm becoming better and better each day. But I do believe that having the power of consistency and learning how to use that in your own life, in your work, in your family environment, is one of the most important keys.
In the Buddhist tradition, I remember hearing about this wonderful story about a magical bird. This bird flies around a mountain. It flies around a humongous mountain, ten times larger then the Himalayas, so to speak. And this bird wears down the mountain slowly by gently brushing its wings across the top of the mountain. In that tradition it says that the time that it takes for that bird to gently brush the mountain and wear that mountain down completely is called one Kalpa or one era of time.
In the Zen tradition, Buddhi Dharma cut off his eye lids and meditated in a cave for 9 years. The power of that consistency, that spiritual training, is said to have seared his image on the wall of that cave forever as the testimony to his accomplishment. You see, in the end natural subjugation works on this key principle of consistency. It works on consistently loving the enemy, consistently living for the others, consistently having a public mindset, consistently living to serve the public, etc. The process of natural subjugation works on this very principle.
We do this not by waiting around, doing nothing until our enemies strikes us and says, "I love you, I love you, I'm practicing true love." No! We don't do that. That's sadomasochism, that's not living for the sake of others. When we use natural subjugation, we work extremely hard, we work tirelessly, we work consistently, improving ourselves, maturing, consistently maturing, improving, etc.
Buddhi Dharma, with his consistent effort and practice, he seared his accomplishment on to an immovable stone. And sometimes the obstacles in our lives are also like stones. They may seem immovable as well. But see, with consistent hard work and goodness we will be able to, in the end, over time, sear the seemingly immovable opposition, those people that are against us, those people that may criticize us, those people who may not understand the dreams and ambitions that God has given to you. And you will be able to overcome those seemingly immovable oppositions and leave an imprint of enlightenment and goodness.
By investing everything and relentlessly working for the common good and for Cheon Il Guk, not for our own egos as leaders, then, when our enemies do strike us, we have earned the moral ground for them to be accused, not by us. We will not go out and accuse them, but by the many people we have helped, they will in the end see themselves and have to judge themselves.
It is so important that we understand the power of this consistency. When we look at providential history, we can see that God has been the most consistent in the whole course of time. He has never given up on his belief that His children in the end will live up to their potential.
As we know, in providential history God was hoping and wishing for the providential figures to be victorious. Although that did not work out and there were so many failures, God has never given up on humanity. True Parents have embody this consistency, God's consistency. Father is still doing Hoon Dok Hae at 5:00 am, everyday, although he is 90 years old.
No one can accuse Father for not having consistency in his love for God. Nobody can accuse them. 90 years old, a whole lifetime of constantly serving God. (Applause)
True Parents said that because of the consistent love of God and True Parents even Satan the Archangel cannot accuse them. Satan will judge himself as it is said in the book of revelation. There it says that the words of Christ or the words of goodness will be the judge, not Christ himself, but the words that we receive. And if we don't receive them we will have to judge ourselves, our own actions.
When we understand this principle of consistency, when we understand how important it is in our lives, to live the truly blessed life, then we can start learning to analyze our habits, to see the patterns in our lives.
So what can we learn today? The power of consistency is one of the keys to living our blessed life. It builds strength, and it gets stronger over time. The more we are consistent at something, the stronger it becomes, whether we are consistent at thinking negatively or blaming others or whether we are thinking positively of ourselves and trying to encourage others. Whatever we focus on we will get better and stronger at.
Consistency can wear down criticism, it can wear down nay sayers, and it can wear down your obstacles, the Archangels that are against you, just like that magical bird that can wear down a mountain by simply brushing it with unending consistency.
Remember, whether or not we realize it in our lives, one of the keys is to understand about our minds, is to understand that we are always, consistently, thinking. It is so important to learn how to consistently train our thoughts, so that we learn to not think of how terrible we are, to not think how inadequate or how unattractive or how unable we are, but to learn to change those focuses, to change the attention in our minds, to start seeing ourselves in the way God sees us.
And that means to see ourselves with victory, to see ourselves with illumination, to see ourselves making peace, to see ourselves confident, secure, to see ourselves getting stronger each day, more courageous each day, more compassionate each day, more blessed each day, more being a bigger blessing each day.
When we start seeing ourselves in that way, when we start thinking of ourselves in that way, when we start speaking that way, then we will start acting that way, we will start creating habits that way, we are going to build character in that way, we will live a life in that way and we will live a destiny that is in line with that.
Brothers and sisters, if we can do that, I do believe we will have more victory, more illumination and more peace and we will live that blessed life that True Parents have blessed us to live, being a greater blessing to others. Let's give it up. Let's give it up for our True Parents! (Applause) Holding the big Buddhi Darma! (Applause)
Heavenly Father, thank You for this day that You have blessed us with. Father, we are here in Your presence. Let us receive Your strength. Father, let us receive Your endurance. Let us receive Your never ending hope for one another, for humanity, for ourselves.
Father, let us always know that we can constantly improve, mature and grow. Father, we can always become better than we are today and, Father, let us know that when we look forward one month, one year from now, in the year 2009, we will be more victorious, more illuminated, more filled with peace, more blessed in our life. And Father one year from now, we will also be a greater blessing to the community, a greater blessing to our friends and family, a greater blessing to this world and our community worldwide.
Father, let us see ourselves with this kind of eyes. Let us envision ourselves with this kind of mindset. We pray that You may flood our thoughts with thoughts of Your life, of Your love, Father, thoughts of Your empowering victory. Father, let us always be aware of the thoughts that we have in our hearts. Let us always train our thoughts, discipline our minds, Father, so that we may truly live up to our potential that You have asked us to live up to.
Father, thank You so much for this day and we pray that today we may implement in our lives the power of consistency, Father, the power of learning to try everyday to be our best and to live that blessed life that You have blessed us to live.
Thank you so much. Father, we pray these things with a humble gratitude and everlasting joy. In our names we pray as Central Blessed Families, Aju!