46. Hyo Jin Moon's Memorial Service (March 22 2008)

Hyung Jin Moon
March 22 2008
Headquarters' Church, Seoul
Transcribed by: Beatrice Clyburn
Edited by: Bruno Klotz

Yeon Ah Ni's Welcome Remarks

As you all heard, on March 20th 2008, there was Hyo Jin Nim's Seung Hwa ceremony. We would like to pay respect to the Seung Hwa of the eldest son of True Parents. So today we would like to do a memorial service for Hyo Jin Nim.

Hyung Jin Nim's Welcome Message:

Good afternoon brothers and sisters. We are very grateful and delighted to have you all here. As my wife just said, we'd like to dedicate this service to our eldest brother Hyo Jin Hyung. And I'd like to share with you something from the Cheon Seong Gyong, where Father talks about prayer; it's on page 1034. Father says, "Even when I spent almost three years in Hungnam Prison in the midst of great hardship, I never forgot to pray for the members each day before bedtime. I continuously prayed even for those who fell away. And a person who fell away appeared spiritually in front of me and spoke mournfully with tears; he sadly confessed that due to the weakness of the flesh he had to leave me and said farewell. In such a miserable circumstance I cannot help feeling pity for him. Even though that person left in such a way, I had to continue to pray for him."

I really want to encourage you all, brothers and sisters, in this time. It's always a time of rebirth and adjustment when we lose our loved one, and I know many of you personally knew Hyo Jin Hyung. And those joining us from overseas via internet, I know many of brothers and sisters from around the world have been sending us a lot of condolences. We are so very grateful for the Blessed Family community who are just sending in their sympathy and empathy, their empathetic words, their encouraging words. We're so very grateful; our whole family is very grateful for that.

And just in that same way as Father said that prayer for people who have left us, the practice of prayer and constantly remembering those who have gone before us is such an important practice. So today we would like to dedicate this service to Hyo Jin Hyung. We want to honor his memory. We'd like to share with you as family some of his songs and some of his stories. We'd like to share from our hearts as well and just remember the very good elements, the many good things that he taught us all.

So, brothers and sisters thank you so much for coming here; we're really very grateful. Once again let's remember the power of prayer, the importance of remembering each other and praying for each other, remembering those who have left before us. Thank you all for coming, and let's take this service to honor our eldest brother Hyo Jin Hyung today.

Brothers and sisters, please join us in prayer:

Dear most beloved Heavenly Father, our most beloved True Parents,

We thank You for gathering us today in this holy sanctuary where our True Father had cried so many of his sermons, his words of tears. Father, we are so grateful that we may be gathered here as a family, Father, to honor You and to bring joy to You. We are earnestly respectful of each other. We truly, Father, feel each other's presence here today. Our eldest brother Hyo Jin Hyung in spirit world, we know that you are with us today. We pray that you may take a seat and enjoy this time that we may share in reflection and that we may share in opening our hearts to each other.

Father please be with us in this place today. Allow us to truly commune with each other, Father, to leave this place with memories that can truly give us joy and lasting peace in our lives. Father, we pray that we may become greater blessings to this world, and whenever any one of us leaves early to the spiritual world, Father, we pray that we may reflect on the value of our existence, the most preciousness of our lives. Father, let us today feel that value, feel Your love flowing through us, and let us be here together as brothers and sisters.

We will be here to honor Hyo Jin Hyung, his memory, and hopefully leave this place, Father, with a new rebirth in our hearts, a new heart, a new page that will be turned in the histories of our lives. And Father, we pray that You may guide us today, be with us today, lead us today.

We thank you and pray these things in the name of Moon Hyung Jin, a member of a blessed central family. Aju!

Hyung Jin Nim's Introduction of Yeon Ah Ni's message:

Brothers and sisters, I want to just briefly introduce our beloved sister Choi Yeon Ah Ni. She's been with Hyo Jin Hyung and her beautiful children, and she's been really such a sign and a testimony of courage. She's really, for the last few days, been our pillar of strength; she has been the one encouraging us throughout these couple of days. She's been in America with Hyo Jin Hyung and they've been ministering in Belvedere church, and I'd like to have this time to allow her to share her heart on this day. She's really been guiding us the last couple of days. She has really shown us tremendous courage and strength, and she has such a depth of heart that we've been continually beginning to understand and realize for ourselves. So I'd like to take this time to invite Yeon Ah Ni to the stage and share a couple of words.

Yeon Ah Ni's Message:

Hello everyone! Thank you for coming today. Really I appreciate your love for us, especially for Hyo Jin Nim and also for True Parents and True Family. I have been in America for at least nine years but at that time I spoke Korean. So actually I'm not sure about my English but I'll do my best, and if I can't express my heart in English I will get help from a brother.

Do you believe I'm the one who lost my beloved husband? If you see my face, yes or no? Do you believe it? Can you believe it? Yeah, I look happy, right? I look happy. Actually I am happy, really. Especially the day of the Ascension Ceremony, that time I really felt lots of love for Hyo Jin Nim and also for True Family from all of the church members, brothers and sisters, and also from True Parents, and also from all the great True Children. So I know I'm not alone and I'm with all of you. That's why I can come here and I want to share something, just a small thing, about this time; and actually I want to encourage all of us, including myself.

First I want start to read Hyo Jin Nim's last speech in America in New York. From the year 2006 he gave speeches -- short speeches of maybe 10 to 20 minutes -- every Sunday whenever he was in America. I want to share the message first, and after that, if I can speak something to you, at that time, I will say more. The message is in the service flyers, so if you want to read it with me you can do that. (She starts reading).

Commitment

Good morning.

Is everybody here committed to something?

When you think about commitment, what does it mean to you?

Why do you want to commit to something?

You want to commit to something because it defines you.

Any kind of commitment that you make will define you, and you will be judged.

That is why you commit to something; Because you know that life is about learning something and life is short, very short.

How about what makes you good, what makes you right?

Even business. I will be away for about two weeks. Okay?

If people give you money you have responsibility, you have commitment.

You have to make them profit.

Otherwise you will not get another opportunity.

So even just dealing with money, you are committed.

That is what it is.

Now think about yourself. What are you thinking?

What terms of thinking are you committed to? What are you reaching out to understand?

Even if you do understand something, achieving it is very difficult. Now, take that to the next level, spirituality.

How are you going to answer that question?

You have to have spirit, mind and body together to be perfect.

That is basic stuff!

And that is what you have to do, basically.

So, where do you stand?

Don't look at the person next to you. Answer that to yourself. You ask that question to yourself and you answer it to yourself.

That is where you stand.

And how do you get better?

By following the basics, doing the basics and doing what is right. There is no other way.

Do you feel big sometimes? Yes, but who cares if it is not real?

It is about you.

Do you think we are living in this world just to think about "me"?

That is not the lesson we are learning here.

It is not about "me". It is about "us".

That is why it hurts.

Because we are "I" to start from, we have to understand "we."

What is family anyway?

Man and woman come together and make family. What is that?

Is it "I" or is it "we?"

And then, you will die. No matter how great you think you are, you will die.

Anything that makes you arrogant, keep it to yourself.

Keep it to yourself!

If you love your children, if you have children, if you have a family, that is what you do to be a good parent. Everybody does that.

Try to be good. Keep it to yourself.

You don't want to be arrogant. Keep it to yourself.

We need commitment because it defines you, and in judgment, you'd better know what that is.

Thank you.

I'm sorry for speaking in Korean because of my English. I think it's better to use Korean. It's better to express myself deeply. Today many young people have come, more than I expected. When Hyo Jin Nim delivered his words in Belvedere, from the beginning of the year 2006, a lot of elder church members came. And this speech which you have heard, it was a speech which he gave in 2008, March 9th, and many young people came. And Hyo Jin Nim was very happy to see them. That is because our hope lies within the young people. So therefore that was one of the reasons which helped me to accept and overcome the fact that Hyo Jin Nim after his Seung Hwa has gone back to the heavens. Because there's hope, and there is a tomorrow and there is a future. I don't look back into the past. I look into the future and tomorrow.

For the past several days I've been up on stage and I have delivered my words. And during that period a lot of my brothers and sisters, and also relatives and also church members have gathered around, have inspired me, encouraged me and comforted me. We have shared a lot together. The first day was a very difficult day for me when I recalled about Hyo Jin Nim. It was not easy to overcome this.

There were many physical difficulties and physical pain, but I do not want to explain why specifically he had pain. The reason why he had physical pain is because he worked hard for the providence and the will and his conviction, and Hyo Jin Nim was really very strict on his physical body. I thought it was a kind of abuse of his physical body. He was that strict and just kept working, and he mentioned about himself that he's workaholic. And I think that this word "workaholic" expresses everything about him. In considering how hard he worked, I can understand that it was possible for him to go back to the heavens at such a young age.

It was about 9 o'clock in the morning when he went back to the heavens. I remember that he suffered the whole night before that morning; but he comforted me, saying, "I am OK, don't worry, I will be OK." And I told Hyo Jin Nim, "If you do not feel well, maybe you can take it easy, maybe you should go to the hospital and check how you are." But Hyo Jin Nim said, "No".

Spiritually, physically and in his mind, he has always been a very, very sensitive person, just as True Parents and all the True Children as well. And I think that Hyo Jin Nim knew what kind of condition he was in. He knew what his condition was, but he comforted me, saying, "I am OK, do not worry", so therefore I was not prepared heartistically. But I feel very grateful now.

Even if I would have known ahead of time, there would have been nothing I could have done for him. Once he is convinced, he sticks to his commitment, and even probably True Parents cannot stop him once he is committed. And perhaps if I had really worried in that last night and felt pain in my heart myself, I believe that Hyo Jin Nim would have felt more pain, and would have been more worried about me.

The day after Hyo Jin Nim went back to the heavens, that day felt very long. It felt like several days. Whenever I am alone, quite alone by myself, I always remember and recall those last hours, last moments, I spent with Hyo Jin Nim. Those last hours cannot be referred to as happy moments. I try to recall those moments of joy and happiness with Hyo Jin Nim but during those hours, I was not able to.

We came to Korea one week before he went back to the heavens, and we spent this one week in Korea. But that one week that we stayed in Korea, meant a lot to us; it had tremendous meaning. It's the nature of people that whenever they feel development, they feel satisfied, and they feel fulfilled. And that one week which we spent together in Korea, was the time in which we were able to make the most development together and most fulfillment.

During that period I was really able to feel how much we truly and sincerely loved each other. And also we were able to feel that we had made our best effort in order to live for the sake of each other.

There are some people who live a happy life, begin happy but end up in unhappiness, becoming enemies or divorcing, and there are some times when they try to avoid each other, and hurt each other. But Hyo Jin Nim and I we loved each other so much. We made our best effort in order to live for each other, so we have no hatred, no negativity against each other and I really miss those moments.

So in that sense, I really spent the most happy and joyful times with Hyo Jin Nim. So in that sense I cannot be sad, I do not feel sad. So I believe that all of you understand why I am able to stand up here on stage with a smile on my face. I am a really happy, happy woman.

During that day when I was facing the most difficulties, True Father came to me and he was with me. True Father and True Mother comforted me and also explained the providential meaning. First I did not know, but later on, gradually, I got to understand that True Parents, and also True Children and the True Family sort of knew about Hyo Jin Nim. I think, "What if Hyo Jin Nim decided to stay in this physical world and not go to the spiritual world; what would the consequence be?" I think that if Hyo Jin Nim would have decided to do so, he would have never been able to forgive himself. Hyo Jin Nim really knew the path which he had to take, and he really has inspired us, given us hope, even me and my children. And we are really, really proud of him. He will be our pride.

And I really want to show my utmost gratitude to True Parents for showing me and giving me hope. And I really want to express my utmost gratitude to True Children who have stayed by Hyo Jin Nim's side and understood him the most. And through this, after Hyo Jin Nim had Seung Hwa and has gone back to the Heavens, I was really able to see and feel how True Children love each other so much, and I was really able to feel that we are all one family. And there is nothing which we are afraid of and that can stop us. All we have to do is march forward. God and True Parents have indicated and shown us the way and all we have to do is just follow, and march forward on the paved road, not separately, not individually.

We have to unify all of our hearts as one and march forward as one. And when we make that march, your nationality, your race, your gender, your age, your social status, nothing is important; it does not matter.

It really is a beautiful sight to see everybody here today. I see many colors in this room, so it's very beautiful. If there was only one color in this room, it would be a very boring sight. Because there is variety, that's why there is more joy and happiness. That's why God has created us in this way.

And what I want to say today is, "Do not look back! Do not turn back!" If I keep on thinking about Hyo Jin Nim, probably I will never be able to get over the pain if I do look back. But if I look into the future, into tomorrow, I can get unlimited strength. All of us, we all have our limitations, however, on the way, when we are facing difficulties we can help each other, and the reason why we can keep on going is because God and True Parents are always in our hearts, because there is a love which embraces us all. So that's why there is hope for us.

Of course, looking back into the past, reflecting about yourself and knowing about yourself is important; from that perspective it is important to know yourself in the past in order to seek your direction in the future. Each and every step we take we have to look upon the details. And if we are able to do so, we will be able to see exactly and most quickly our ultimate destination, where we have to do. If you really knew where you are going, you wouldn't be looking at someone else, in the wrong direction, and there would be no need to waste your time. These wrong directions and these kinds of factors are something which we have to erase from within our lives, if it is not one with God. So it is better for us to understand the clear direction and walk in that direction together, and later in the spiritual world we will be there altogether.

True Father has given us specific missions, and we know we need to go this way, and we understand that if we do not accomplish, fulfill or complete these missions, we cannot go on to the next step. And if we go in the right direction, live our life with our utmost effort, with our best effort, I believe later on there will be no regret. And also we will be able to go to the spiritual world with a happy heart, and also those people who love us so much will be able to march forward with a joyful heart.

Brothers and sisters, therefore please do not be sad! If you want to cry, you may cry, but do not trap yourself in that grief or sadness. After tears, open your eyes to see the next step to go into the future. Hyo Jin Nim has always encouraged our bothers and sisters and church members, saying this, "We clearly know the way which we have to go, we clearly know our ideal and we already know that this ideal is absolute, eternal, unique and unchanging."

So if we look from a social perspective, when we try to compete with the society, we stand at an advantage; that is because the truth is with us. And we understand that with the truth we will clear and correct all of those mistakes in this world. When the people in society cannot fix up society and they are encountering difficulties, we know the truth, therefore we can help and support them. The path which we have to take is a path to live for the sake of this world, this society and also supporting them and living with them. It is not about receiving something from them; it's about giving them 100% what we got.

From an external point of view this society has developed in many ways. We do get some benefit from it, but that is not everything and that is not the end. That is just the basics. Those are all aspects dealing with the physical needs that we have when we live during this physical life. But people in society do not know the spiritual world. They do not know God. Therefore we are the ones who have to help them, and bring them along with us. And each and everyone of us has 5% responsibility, so we have to give our best in order to improve our capability, in order to help these people. If we do, they will recognize us, and they will follow us. They will follow us, even if we would say, "Do not follow us!"

But if we all take different ways, our individual ways, it will be very difficult. That's why open your heart, unite, and unify all of our hearts. And if we want to be unified, there needs to be a center. And the center is God and True Parents, and from our position we are attending that center. We can do it! There is nothing that we cannot do! Even the people in society (can do it), but we have more than the people in society; we can do this. So therefore, everybody please feel hope. Have hope, look forward, march forward! Make your best effort marching forward and when you go to the spiritual world; that is a good life...

Thank you very much. (Long applause, standing ovation).

Hyung Jin Nim:

Thank you, Yeon Ah Ni for those very powerful words. Brothers and sisters, I'd like to share with you just briefly. Yesterday and in the events from the last couple of days we've seen some very miraculous moments. We've really had some amazing moments for our family. I'd just like to share some of these pictures with you. We have a whole series of things that happened. I'd like to explain some of these very interesting things.

Initially we weren't scheduled to carry Hyo Jin Hyung's body to his grave, but we just felt inspired. We all got together and we said, "We want to do that for him; we want to be the last people that help him go to the spiritual world." So we all gathered as a family, all of us, from Ye Jin all the way down to Jeung Jin. We were in one bus, and we decided, "We want to go and take him to his grave. We're going to be the ones who carry our brother home."

So we went, and we told Mother, "Mother, we are going to carry him in." She was absolutely happy about that. And so here is one of the pictures where we carried him up to his final resting place. Let's just go through this quickly.

Actually we went into his resting site. We put his flag down, the Unification flag on top of his casket. We were at times a little disturbed because we wanted to clean the casket off nicely and things like that, and at times, it was not being prepared in that manner, so we just went down. We went down and we really brushed the casket cleanly. We went down and cleaned this casket, and wiped away the dust with brushes

This is one of the scenes. Here is Yeon Ah Ni and her kids looking over Hyo Jin Hyung, leaning over, consoling and embracing her children. As we see here; this is our brother Kwon Jin Hyung, and he is massive! He's got biceps the size of my waist. He was down there, and he was bringing these huge pieces of wood, and going down there, and all of us we were so inspired. All of us were preparing our brother's final resting place.

And it was one of the most miraculous moments in our lives. We've never done that together; we've never come together like that. There are moments in our own lives where we're immature; we're in the growth process as well, as a family, but... This time we really came to the conclusion that when Young Jin Hyung passed, the brother that's right above me, when he passed, we all soul-searched. All of us went inside ourselves, and really tried to find meaning in our lives.

This time when Hyo Jin Hyung passed, he really brought us together; really he brought us, as more mature people, together, and we found that unity, we found that connection. And it was one of the most miraculous moments that I can ever testify to in my family; it's really one of the most inspiring moments I've ever had with our family, and I think every single one of us there felt that exact same thing.

Let's go through these; it was so beautiful. Our brothers and sisters were so gently moving the dirt and the dust away; and here is really one of the most miraculous moments of the day. We were all there praying, and all of a sudden we looked down and the kids were writing something right near his grave site, and they were picking up little rocks without anybody telling them to do so. They were just inspired. They just started picking up rocks and they started writing, "Appa" and "Saranghae," that is: "We love you daddy!" The kids started writing this on the ground.

And if we were only paying attention to the etiquette and the ritual, then we would have said, "Children, stop fooling around", but it was such a beautiful moment because they were inspired and really I felt the children led us that day. They really set the tone for what it was we were supposed to center on that day. And here you can see the children; it was actually Hyo Jin Hyung's first son with Yeon Ah Ni, Shin Chul. He started writing, "Appa, Saranghae".

So we were up on the top of the mound, and we decided," We want to put this on his casket; let's leave this with him forever." So we went down there, and here we are on top of the boards and we brought the children down, all the children, we brought them down, and they started writing, "Appa we love you! Daddy we love you!" And even the baby, the baby came, Shin Soon, she came down and she was like, "I want to put the exclamation mark on the end." So we had the baby girl, she is only like 3 years old, 4 years old, and she wants to put the exclamation mark. You can see her big exclamation mark on the end over there.

Let's pass through this quickly. Here we are; here is Shin Soon, here is the family; we are just gathering around over Hyo Jin Hyung. Here are some of our cousins, Shin Ah and Shin Ye. Hyo Hyung's daughter drew a beautiful heart with stone, through which they wanted to express artistically their real affection for him. We were so inspired because they were so creative. When we let the kids participate, when we didn't just let them observe the ritual but we let them participate in it, when they were free to participate, they really guided everything. And they really showed us incredible creativity.

Here they started giving us roses; the kids went out and got roses, and they gave it to mom, they gave it, and then they passed them down, and everybody then decided, "We're going to put flowers on his grave" and so a whole bunch of flowers came, and we put them into the form of a beautiful heart, a read heart. Can you see it? We put the roses in a heart, and Yeon Ah Ni's heart is right in the middle, and all the kids, they were helping us.

As they brought more flowers, the heart grew bigger and bigger, and it was just one of the most amazing moments that we can ever recall. I've witnessed a couple of these Seung Hwa ceremonies, but we never witnessed something where everybody in our family was participating, where we were not just observing the ritual but where we were actually actively participating and guiding it. And we really felt God's spirit that day. We felt True Parents there with us. We felt Hyo Jin Hyung was there smiling; we felt he was so happy that last day.

Here is Yeon Ah Ni and she is putting down her final sand in the ground; all the children putting down the sand in the ground, even the little children here putting the sand in the ground. This was a really dramatic moment. Kook Jin Hyung, he was so inspired that day, he just got up and he said, "Brothers and sisters, this is true love, this is true love, please don't forget

In our family we really have not been many times given the opportunity to show that we can be unified, we can be mature, we can work together. But I think that's changing; I really saw this with Kook Jin Hyung there and his leadership. Sun Jin Ah was there; she was guiding, she was in Hyo Jin Hyung's site, putting down the flag. Kwon Jin Nim... all our other brothers and sisters were there.

It was really one of the most amazing moments that we can ever testify to. It was really one of the most amazing moments that I've ever had with our family, and I think everybody would say the same as well.

Here is Sun Jin Ah placing down the sand, Yeon Ah, Jeong, our sisters, placing down the sand. And at the end it was amazing, because usually when we do "Og Mansei", we always do it separately; but we just felt inspired, "We're going to hold hands in 'Og mansei'." If you look closer you can see us, we are all holding hands from Ye Jin Ah down to Jeong, and all our brothers and sisters around, everyone is holding hands and doing "Og Mansei."

It was one of the most amazing ceremonies that we've ever had. It really was -- I feel -- a whole new level, a whole new beginning, a rebirth in our own family. I can really testify to that. It was such a precious gift, a miraculous gift that Hyo Jin Hyung left us with. If anything that we gained from that day, we gained the confidence that we are mature, that we can continue to grow together, and that we can do great things in unity.

This was the ceremony after the three days' service that we had after Hyo Jin Hyung's passing. We gathered again at the site, when it was all prepared, and this is the day when again we participated in sending our brother home. And let's just move through this quickly. Here are the children up in the front, praying, here is the family, here is baby Shin Soon. This is Yeon Ah Ni offering the traditional offering after one passes. This is Kook Jin Hyung. For the first time during the Seung Hwa ceremonies, again we were not spectators. We really stood up and said, "No, we're going to speak this time. We're going to have a voice, and we're going to speak on behalf of our brothers and sisters" and we did that.

Here is Kook Jin Hyung sharing his voice; Kook Jin Hyung and Sun Jin Ah shared some amazing words with us, really reminding us of the important lessons that Hyo Jin Hyung left us with and the miraculous moments that he gave us that day. It was such an amazing day! It was really one of the most amazing couple of days.

Yeon Ah Ni shared some words with us; she shared her personal stories with Hyo Jin Hyung. She shared once again, as she shared with us today, how it's so important to move forward, to see our lives with hope, and to always know that spiritual world is with us. And so it was just a remarkable day. I don't know how this happened, but I had the honor of praying that day, and giving the benediction, and it was just an amazing ceremony. Here the family is now putting roses down for Hyo Jin Hyung's final passing.

Again after the rose ceremony there was the distribution of food and everybody shared in communion, eating, breaking bread and communing together. We had brothers and sisters from HQ's church come out there; we were so happy to see the brothers and sisters that came out there, and we just had a time of sharing, a time of feast, a time of unity.

And I really believe it was a real testament to the truth of True Parents' words, when they speak that we can practice true love, that we can practice unity, we can practice harmony. I believe, that day we were not only believers, we were practitioners, and that, I believe, is one of the most important things in our lives as Unificationists, not only to be believers but also to be practitioners. I believe that's the next step, and that's the step that will bring our vision and our ideals into reality.

I'd like to share just a couple more of these with you. We were just so grateful for all the brothers and sisters that were there, for all the family members that came out. It was just one of the most amazing gifts that we've ever received, so we want to offer our thanks to you, brothers and sisters, for offering your prayers, and your devotion and your love, and support.

We could never do it without your condolences and your support. We received so many emails from brothers and sisters around the world just offering their condolences, their support, their love, and we are so thankful for each one of those brothers and sisters and each one of you, and we really want to offer our thanks and praise.

Hyung Jin Nim's Ending Prayer

Dear most beloved Heavenly Father,

Thank You for this day that You have given to us. Father, we have gathered here, in this place, in this sanctuary, Father, to come united as one family. Father, we are so thankful to be given this opportunity to be able to live, to be able to breathe, to be able to be here in the presence of each other. Father, thank You for this time that You have blessed upon us, and we pray that we may move forward with more victory, Father, that we may move forward with more illumination, with more light that we may shed unto this world, that we may cultivate more peace in our hearts, and to be able to spread that peace to the world, becoming greater blessings to this world. Father, we know that You have blessed us to live the blessed life, and we know that it doesn't just stop with us here, but extends beyond us, Father, when we help others attain and live a blessed life as well. Father thank You for this day that You've blessed us with.

Hyo Jin Hyung, thank you for this time that you've given us. Thank you for the miracles that you have afforded us. We really stand before you in thanksgiving and praise. Thank you for this day.

Once more we thank You for all the brothers and sisters that are here, for all the brothers and sisters around the world who have sent in their condolences, and their prayers. Father we are so blessed to be living together at this time. We are truly, truly thankful from beyond the depth of our hearts, and we offer this in our name, Aju!

45. Prayer At The Entombment Of Hyo Jin Moon (March 21, 2008)

Hyung Jin Moon
March 21, 2008

Our loving Heavenly Father! Our loving Cosmic Parent and the Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind who endowed us with true lineage and life! Father, who has endowed us with courage! Our precious eldest brother, Hyo-jin hyung-nim, we offer our gratitude to you.

Heavenly Father! Gathering on this precious occasion, we kneel in Your presence. We lower our heads. We place our hands upon our hearts, and on this precious day we understand that True Parents' love, the memories of our eldest brother and Your glorious ways are with us.

Heavenly Father, once more we deeply feel within our hearts how precious each day of life is and how precious it is to be able to breathe the same air as True Parents in this age.

Heavenly Father! Hyo-jin hyung-nim, our eternal eldest brother, who loves us dearly, is here with us. He healed our hearts and gave us courage in the darkest times. Bringing light to this dark world, he will guide us to the thresh-hold.

Heavenly Father! We are the eternal younger brothers and sisters of our precious Hyo-jin nim. Gathering here, we praise our Heavenly Father with one heart. We think about our True Parents and we feel, deeply within our hearts, our elder brother, "the lord who will open the gates to loyalty and filial piety in the garden that opens the way to the deep, wide and lofty realms of heaven."'

Heavenly Father! From three days ago, yesterday and the day before yesterday, we have attended our precious Hyo-jin hyung-nim here at this precious, holy Wonjeon. We came here carrying our elder brother's body. Heavenly Father! Digging into this ground, we have sent our brother into the realm of Your love.

Hyo-jin hyung-nim! Do not be anxious about us! Do not feel worried about us! Thank you hyung-nim! Elder brother! You have always told us how we need to become one family and how we need to be devoted to our parents. We, your eternal younger brothers and sisters, are now awakened to the greatness of our mission.

Our eldest brother! Yesterday and the day before, we learned something from your precious children. Hyo-jin hyung-nim! When we were praying for you, your children, our nephews and nieces, picked up small stones one by one to form letters on the ground, "Daddy, we love you!" How much we repented when we saw this!

We were only following protocol, holding a memorial, but did not realize you were actually here right with us. However, our precious nephews and nieces guided us that day. Those small stones deeply carved an eternal message in our heart and bones.

Truly with the heart of a child during our physical lives, in attendance of True Parents, once more have we have been born again through these words, "Daddy, we love you!" -- words that overcome all limitations freely under the True God and the realm of love.

Heavenly Father! Hyo-jin hyung-nim had told us, "How you live is important, but how you die is more important." Please allow us and guide us, Father, to continue each moment with our elder brother. Please permit us, and guide us, to become newly reborn people.

Heavenly Father! We should not take each other for granted. We are awakened, newly feeling how grateful we need to be in True Parents' presence. We will grow better every day so that True Parents can truly feel proud within their hearts whenever they think about us, their children. Following Hyo-jin hyung-nim's will, we will become Father's shining legacy to the world.

Heavenly Father! Please be with all our brothers and sisters in the realm of True Parents love, with all True Parents' children. When we leave this place, please allow the glory in our hearts to beam as Your light, Father. We know that You are giving us Your love, Heavenly Father. Even though we do not amount to much as sons and daughters in terms of our qualification to receive Your love, we know that You have unceasingly loved us.

In front of our eldest brother, we have no achievements, yet he always thought about us, loved us, trusted us and encouraged us. We will remember him within our hearts forever.

Heavenly Father, we are so grateful. True Parents, we thank you. Hyo-jin hyung-nim, thank you. For the first time in the Unification Family's history, we have gathered as one family and lived for the sake of each other. Thinking of each other for the first time, we are offering up this glorious day to You.

Heavenly Father! Please continue to have faith in us. Please continue to guide us. Heavenly Father! Please guide us eternally. Please allow True Parents' love, glory and true lineage to spread to all corners of the earth, and please guide this process.

We truly are grateful to You today, Father. All our members here have attended True Parents with their sacrifice and sincere devotion. I sincerely, sincerely thank all those people who have guided us and loved our elder brother.

In keeping with the words, "The path of a great man will gradually brighten and become a light!" we will bring amazing accomplishments and glory to True Parents. As we are newly born from this point, and as we depart from this site, please guide us so that we deeply sink the root of the true will of our Heavenly Father in the earth as we establish a new brotherhood and a new family. We thank You for this truly precious day. We thank all our precious brothers and sisters.

Hyo-jin hyung-nim! Please do not worry. Our eldest brother! We will do well. Big elder brother! Please have faith in us. Today we are attending you with a happy heart; we are attending God without holding anything back. Please spend your time happily with Heung-jin hyung-nim and Young-jin hyung-nim and with your beloved Shin-gil in the spirit world, and please rest comfortably.

We are sure that miraculous work will be done in the spirit world from now on. Heavenly Father! Please pour out Your love on Hyo-jin hyung-nim. We earnestly pray that our True Parents' eternal love and glory will fill the earth.

Heavenly Father! We truly thank You from our hearts once again for granting this Third-Day Service. Hyo-jin hyung-nim, thank you again. Our eldest brother who has taught us and loved us, our eternal eldest brother, please guide us forward.

Gathering as one family today, giving glory to True Parents, offering a full bow from our hearts united as one, I report this in the name of Hyung-jin Moon's family. Aju. 

44. From Emotion to Action (March 15 2008)

Hyung Jin Moon
March 15 2008
Headquarters, Chungpadong, Seoul, Korea
Transcribed by: Beatrice Clyburn
Edited by: Bruno Klotz

Hyung Jin Nim's Welcoming Message:

Brothers and sisters, I'd like to share this with you from Cheon Seong Gyeong, page 1250: "Of all the blessings in the world, the most precious blessing is the love of God. The second most precious blessing is inheriting God's power of creation. Just as God created Adam and Eve, you were given the power to create through the children that you have."

I really want to draw attention to that because today I want us to recognize how precious our children are. It's so important that we understand the power of this blessing and that we really see our children with those kinds of divine eyes, that we see them as the real blessings that they are.

When we call them -- I encourage you, even when we are a little upset with the kids -- call them, "O blessings, come over here!" Always call them "Blessings" not "Little rascals get over here!" Always make sure you say, "Blessing, come here child." Let's see them with God's eyes. Let's remember that we are receiving God's love.

Our pastor's wife Genn Toffey has just come back from America. Welcome back! (Applause) All right, good to see you

Let's always remember that we are precious. Let's always see ourselves with God's eyes; let's see ourselves with divine value, cosmic value. Let's see ourselves as unique, one of a kind, no one like us.

It's so important that we fill ourselves with these types of visions, that we create our self-identity along such teachings that we hear. It's very important that we don't go through the day and give ourselves a hard time, being very critical. Of course all of us have things to change and improve but it's more important -- the majority of the time -- to fill ourselves with God-filled words, faith-filled words, knowing that we are powerful, that we have the power of creation, knowing that we have the love of God, knowing that we can get through any obstacle that is in our path, knowing that we have the courage and the strength, the wisdom, to make the right decisions etc...

If we can start seeing ourselves that way, then we'll be able to move through life with more victory, more illumination, and more peace.

Brothers and sisters, I want to invite you all today. Thank you for coming. We really welcome you today on this beautiful glorious spring. I know it's warm outside, but let's keep it warm and beautiful on the inside as well. Let's have a great service. Thank you so much!

Yeon Ah Nim's Message:

Once I asked my husband about my frustration. I asked him, "Yobo, sometimes I don't feel like myself. I don't know. Sometimes I feel like I have to live up to some super-human expectations, since we've started our ministry. Especially I feel this pressure, when I raise my children, that I have to raise them to be a certain person who never cries and never has bad days, and speaks divine words at the age of three (Laughter), something like that."

So when I said that, my husband told me something that made me really think again. He said, "Yobo, let's not raise our children well because we want to get a reward or a trophy from somebody else, but raise them well because it is worth doing. As long as we stick to this principle we will be OK and they will be OK, too."

Brothers and sisters let us keep our direction moving upwards. We will have bad days and good days, but let's give ourselves and our children permission to be human. Let us keep our trend moving up. Brothers and sisters we love you so much and we believe in you. Aju!

Hyung Jin Nim's Interesting Story:

As we always begin, I'd like to begin with something a little interesting. I heard a very interesting story; you may like that. It is a story about a nice elderly woman. She used to sit on her porch and whenever anybody passed by -- she was a very faith-filled woman -- she would say, "God be praised! God be praised!" like that.

And next door, she had a nice neighbor; he was an atheist and he was passing by one day and the old grandma, she said," God be praised! God be praised!" and the atheist said," There's no God, stop screaming that!"

One day he was coming on back from work, and he saw her on her porch, but she was quiet in prayer, she was talking in prayer. So in passing by, he heard her pray; and she was praying, "Heavenly Father, please give me some help! I have a party that's coming up and I need to have enough food and good recipes for the occasion, so please bless me with that."

The atheist heard that and he said, "You know what, I'm going to play a little joke on that woman." He went to the grocery store, bought a whole bunch of groceries. Then the next morning, he placed them out, laid them out in front of the porch. The lady came out the next morning. She saw these miraculous groceries in front of her porch. She said, "Oh my God! May God be praised!"

At that instant the atheist jumped out from the bushes and he said, "I bought it lady. It wasn't God. I'm the one who bought it." She waited for just a moment and she said, "May God be praised! Not only did He buy me groceries but He made the devil pay for them too!"

Hyung Jin Nim's Message

I'd like to talk to you today about "From Emotion to Action" Many times in our lives, when we are living the blessed life, it's important to allow ourselves, as my wife said in the opening, in her comments, she said, "We have to sometimes give ourselves the permission to be human, give ourselves the permission to be made in God's image."

We have to realize that human beings have very strong emotions. Sometimes we feel anger; sometimes we feel other things in the emotional realm. And it's important to realize that it's OK to have feelings. It's OK to have emotions; even sometimes it's OK to have what we usually think of as negative emotions.

The key to living the blessed life is to make sure that our actions are moving in the right direction. Our emotions can influence our actions, but it's very important that we don't start condemning ourselves for sometimes getting a little upset or having a little less patience than we should have etc.; but we continue to grow, continue to improve our actions as we move along.

People say that there are two types of people that cannot feel strong emotions. The first type of person that cannot feel strong emotions are what they call psychopaths. The second ones are dead people. (Laughter)

So we have to realize that it's very important to learn how to feel emotions. It's important to acknowledge that we can at times have strong emotions. When we look theologically, we see that God also has great emotions. Father taught us about a personal and emotional God, a God that we are truly made in the image of. And even God gets angry. We've seen His holy anger. We heard about it in the Principle.

When Adam and Eve lied to Him, when they didn't answer Him when He called, He felt betrayed; He felt very displeased. He was even angry at that time. He saw His ideal crumbling before Him. Even with Noah and the flood, we already know the story about how God was very angry with humanity. He was very disappointed. And particularly, when He saw Christ on the cross, when Jesus was not able to create unity with the people of his time, then we see also God had tremendous pain.

For 6,000 years…

(Missing text due to a technical problem)

... Let's take a look at this. That's God's tear; you see there His tear! That's from "The Passion." We have to realize that God also has the ability to feel emotions. He also feels intense pain at times. For 6,000 years, He has felt resentment, a sort of unfulfilled emptiness in His heart that we usually translate as resentment. It's "han" in Korean.

In the beginning -- when we look at the whole situation of the fall -- we see that Lucifer who was created by God -- he was an angel, and he also felt very strong emotions -- he felt jealous of Adam, for example. He felt very powerful emotions. The real key here is to realize that he started acting on those emotions. He started believing that they were his identity. He started being controlled by these emotions.

Now we have to be very clear that the emotions were not the fall itself; they were contributing factors to the fall but they were not the fall itself. So it's very important that we understand that our emotions are not the act of the fall itself or wrong actions, but they may cause us to create such things in our lives. So it is important to learn how to work with our emotions, to allow ourselves to have those emotions, to learn how to work with them, so they don't start to influence our actions in the wrong ways.

Let's have a look at this slide, next: When we look at it, there're probably about six ways of behaving when we have for example different types of emotions. Let's say we have a negative emotion, and that negative emotion can, number one, lead to a positive action. For example: when Martin Luther King felt the real injustice of slavery or the inequalities of racism -- the racism of his country, then his anger, that holy anger, turned into positive action. He turned it into an action that was making a call for social justice.

Gandhi in India felt the same thing where he felt the intense anger of the inequities of the caste system and he began to mobilize a movement to fight against that, to change that. That would be where a negative emotion like anger turns into a positive action, OK?

There's another type of action that a negative emotion can lead to and that is no action. A negative emotion can lead to no action and that would be the yellow light that we see; the yellow light would be no action. So although we feel that, we don't necessarily act on it, we just keep in the phase of non-action.

And the third would be that a negative emotion leads to a negative action, right? And of course, that would be considered one of the not so good ways of using a negative emotion where a negative emotion leads to a negative action. I am angry at somebody, so I am going to verbally attack them. I am angry at somebody so I'm going to hit them, etc. -- like this. This is where a negative emotion would lead to a negative action.

In the next slide, we'll see how a positive emotion can of course lead to a positive action, right? I feel joy so I want to give other people joy. That's a very good thing, but we can also see how a green light turns into a yellow light, from positive emotion to no action. We feel joy but we keep it to ourselves. It doesn't lead to any particular type of action. The third of course is where a positive emotion leads to a negative action. I may feel joy, and so, because I am the only one who wants to feel joy, I'm going to try to steal everybody else's joy, so I'm the only one who can feel it. That would be a positive emotion leading to a negative action.

So we can see that there are different ways to behave after we feel the initial emotions. And I would say it's very important to keep our action life, to keep our blessed life moving with greens, and sometimes yellows, but let's keep them away from the reds. It's very important that we are able to feel those emotions -- that we're able to work with those emotions and guide them towards the green lights into positive actions; or sometimes no action is better than negative action. It's important that we learn how to work with these emotions so that we can start moving into the right direction, to keep progressing. We can use the green and the yellow lights to keep moving forward in our blessed lives.

Now let's remember one thing that we can see from this: Negative emotions are not always evil.

If you have a negative emotion, it's important not to start condemning yourself, and start saying, "How evil I am! I am getting angry. How my fallen natures are coming out." It's important not to do this kind of thing but to learn how to channel that, to start learning that if we use even powerful emotions like anger, powerful emotions like frustration, in the right way, we can change them into positive actions, or at the very least that we can keep them to ourselves, keep them in the non action phase.

I gave some example where Martin Luther King used his holy anger to fight against discrimination. Here is Martin Luther King's negative emotion leading to a positive action; we have Gandhi, the same example, negative emotion leading to a positive action, and True Father as well. When True Father was fighting against communism... a lot of you were very active at the time, where communism was really sinning against God, not allowing religion in their lands -- and so Father initiated the VOC movement, Victory over Communism movement, to really bring justice to God. He used that holy anger, that feeling of injustice, and worked on it to make social change, to bring about a better land, not to allow communism to thrive and put its' roots down.

We can see that it's very important in our lives to start to learn how to practice with our emotions, to start learning how to train with our emotions. I was speaking to a mother, who felt very guilty. She was very guilty in herself, because she kept on being very angry at her children. She was not necessarily screaming at them, or yelling at them, but she was angry sometimes. It's important to allow yourself, as a mother, to sometimes to feel angry; sometimes kids do things that make us angry as parents, you know! But it's important not to start condemning yourself, "I am such a bad parent! Satan is invading me, he is destroying my life. I am very evil!"

It's not good to do that. It's important to allow ourselves to feel the power of that emotion, but to change that emotion into good action. So, I feel angry at my children; so I am going to use that to give me a positive impetus or a positive drive to treat them better or to speak with them with a kinder voice.

I was speaking to a father. He was very judgmental of himself. He was talking about when he had his first child. He was feeling jealous of that child. Here he was, he used to spend time with his wife. They could go on dates and spend time together and he is the apple of her eye, but as soon as the baby comes in the picture, then the mom has to take care of  the baby and he sees his wife hold and kiss the baby all the time, and he's saying, "Hey, what about me?"

So I heard the husband talk about that and feeling judged, "Maybe I am a bad father, maybe I'm selfish because I'm feeling jealous of my child because I feel a little envious. Maybe I'm not a good father." And I told him, "You know what, it's important to allow yourself to be human. All fathers feel that. At some point in our lives, as fathers we feel, 'I wish I could get a little more attention from my wife'".

Dads, I see you laughing, so you can't hide it from me, but it's so important that we allow ourselves to feel that. OK we have those emotions -- that's fine, but let us not act on those emotions, let's not take them to try to separate our child from the mother. Let us not do those kinds of things, but let us acknowledge that we are human; let us allow ourselves to feel those emotions. Let us not start condemning ourselves.

It's very important that when these negative emotions come up, when anger, these powerful emotions, like a little bit of envious feelings with the kids come up, it's important to learn how to work with them. It's important to learn how to use them, how to work with them. It's important that when they come up, not to necessarily converse with them

You'll see in this next picture that when a negative emotion comes up, it's really saying to you, "Oh, you really are not a good daddy. How can you be jealous of your child, it is only 2 months old. How can you be so jealous? How old are you? You are over 30 years old, you are 40 years old, and you are only thinking about yourself?" Don't get into dialogue with that thing. Don't start saying, "I know I'm so terrible. I really am kind of selfish. Yes, you are selfish, you should really be repenting more. Oh I know. I can't get out of it, it's just overpowering me".

You see, we don't want to get into dialogue with that. Once we start creating a common base and start giving and receiving with this particular type of emotion then we allow it to start overcoming us, and we start allowing it to overpower us.

Here, take a look at this picture: it's kind of like this, when these negative emotions come up, they're going to be trying to tempt us into getting into a common base with them. They're going to be trying to say, "Come, come, make a common base with me so I can have give and take with you." They're going to want to do that with us.

It's very important that when we have these negative emotions, we allow ourselves to have them. We don't deny that they're there; we allow ourselves to have them but not necessarily start having give and take with them. It's important to sometimes just watch it come, watch it trying to tempt you saying, "Talk to me, you know you are a bad parent, talk to me, you know, you're neglecting your spouse, talk to me, you are neglecting your children." When it says those kinds of things, just watch it; just watch it, and don't have give and take with it. Let it just use up its energy.

What you'll find is that that emotion will become weaker. As you do not create a common base with it, you will not allow it to move into give and receive action with you. As it cannot be moved into give and receive action with you, that emotion has absolutely no power over you. So it's important to allow yourself, not to start to condemn yourself as soon as you have it, but to see it, to keep yourself distant, to put it in a little box, in a nice little box like that.

Don't let it come and talk to you, don't let it come and try to tempt you to talk to it and to converse with it, and remind you how bad you are. But just you can watch it; you can see it getting weaker and weaker. And as you do that it will gently pass; it will gently move

It's almost like being a doctor, who's watching a patient, not necessarily having give and take with that patient but observing the patient, watching, seeing what symptoms there are, what are the things that that patient is doing. In the same way as those emotions come, we don't have to deny them, we don't have to condemn ourselves for having them, but we don't have to necessarily create a common base with them. It's so important that when it tries to connect with us; that we start to separate ourselves, that we don't let these emotions overpower us.

And really, when we think about it from a Principle perspective, this was really the problem of the fall. The problem with Lucifer was not that he felt emotion; the problem was not that he had a powerful emotion, because any elder son or elder child may feel envious of their younger siblings. The point was not that. The point was that he started to dialogue with that in his mind. He started to say, "Yes, wait a minute, that's right. God loves them more than me. He does not love me as much" and he started to get into conversation with that. That allowed the emotion get stronger, that allowed the common base with that emotion to get stronger, and the give and receive to get stronger. And that is the problem that led to the fall.

It's so important that when we analyze this in our lives; that we learn to not judge ourselves so heavily for having the emotion. The emotion itself is not the problem; it's the emotion that we start giving and receiving with, that influences our actions; that is the problem. So it's important, at times, we have good days, we have bad days, as human beings. It's important to let ourselves have the permission to do so, to have the good days, to have the bad days as well, to feel the ups and downs of life but to not necessarily be controlled by these ups and downs.

In my own life, during Hoon Dok Hae, I remember one time -- Shin Ju is our fourth child and he travels with True Parents a lot -- I remember one time it was before breakfast, and he came out and Parents were giving him candies. Father gave him one candy, OK, he was happy, very delighted, and a couple of seconds later, it was another candy, and a couple of seconds later, another candy and if he started complaining a little bit, OK there another candy, more candy. And they also bought him a shirt, very cute. It says, "Grandma's rules: Number 1: Give the grandchildren praise, number 2: Give them candy, number 3: Send them home" (Laughter).

I remember that one time, Parents were giving my baby boy a lot of candies, and I am sitting here watching and saying, "This is terrible for his health, this is not good for his health; he has not even had breakfast yet. The child has eaten maybe 20 servings of candy; he is not going to be healthy." And personally I felt angry. I would be lying if denied it. I felt angry; I felt very frustrated seeing my little boy digest 20 pieces of candy before breakfast.

And at times I could hear myself say, "You know, why are Parents doing this? Do they really care about the boy's health? Do they know how bad that candy is for him? Before breakfast? That's terrible! How could they do that?" So I hear myself saying these kinds of things. But it is important, because at that time I didn't start judging myself. I didn't think, "Oh my God, you are getting angry at the True Parents of heaven and earth. You are condemned to hell for ever." (Laughter) No, I allowed myself to be human. I said, "OK I can feel his emotion, I have the permission to be human. I can feel this emotion, I can feel this anger," but I didn't act on it. I didn't start yelling at them, and start cursing at them, saying, "What are you doing?" I let myself feel that emotion, and I separated from it; I didn't have give and take with it.

And what I noticed is that... and it's the same in meditation practice as well, but you'll notice that emotions fade. If you do not create common bases with them, emotions fade, they always fade. So as I became calmer, as I became more centered, then I went to Father, and said, "You know, Father, maybe it's better to give him vitamins instead of the candies before breakfast," a more skillful way of approaching that situation, without the anger. (Laughter)

There is no need for the anger to come out with my actions, even though I gave myself permission to feel that internally. There is no need for them to start coming out and ruining my relationships. So when I did -- it was very interesting -- Father said, "That's a good idea!" Now before breakfast Shin Ju is eating 4 to 5 vitamins. I am happy, Parents are happy. You see it all worked out. (Applause) Occasionally there is a little candy, but I feel that on the majority of the side, it rather came out quite well.

What am I saying? I am saying, "It's important in your lives to not over condemn yourself." When you have emotion, it's OK. We are human beings, we have emotions. God has emotions. We are made in His image. It's OK to feel emotions. It's very important actually to feel emotions in our lives. If we don't feel emotions -- psychologists diagnose people who cannot feel strong emotions, intense emotions, as psychopaths -- so it's very important to be able to feel emotions. It's important to give yourself the permission to feel emotions.

But it's important then that we take responsibility for our actions, to be accountable for our actions then. Because allowing ourselves to have the emotions is very freeing, but it would be misleading to think, "Oh, you know, during the sermon he said that I can feel emotions, I can feel whatever I want, I can do whatever I want; it's fine." It's really not what I am saying. I am saying that the emotion is OK to feel, to have, but it's important that we start being responsible and accountable for the actions, and that's where we have the control. We may not have the control over what kind of emotion we have but we have the control over what kind of action that becomes, and really this is the key to living a blessed life, I believe, in this realm.

So what can we learn today? Human beings have strong emotions, brothers and sisters. God has emotions. You all have emotions, I have emotions. It's OK to feel these emotions; it's normal to have emotions. In fact, it's even psychologically healthy to have strong emotions, OK? To feel them it's totally OK.

But let's remember the six ways of acting on those emotions. Remember that green light, yellow light, red light? We want to stay away from red lights. Even though it may be a negative emotion or a positive emotion, we want to stay away from turning them into negative actions. But in our blessed life, if we have these strong emotions, even joy, even anger, whatever they may be, let us use them to move to the green lights, to the yellow lights, to positive actions. Even at times, if you can't do it into a positive action, then no action is better than a negative action.

Let's be like a doctor, and let's put that negative emotion into a separate space. Put it into a nice little box as you saw; don't get into dialogue with it. When it starts trying to condemn you, trying to say, "You are bad, you are this and that, you are so selfish; look at you, Satan is invading your mind, you are only thinking of yourself." When it starts doing that, don't listen to that, OK? Put it in this little place, and allow it to waste its energy. Don't create a common base. Let's move forward like that. If we do that we will not be denying that it's there. We'll be allowing ourselves to have that emotion, but we will not be doing the self condemnation that is so devastating for our lives. So we'll be moving from the emotion having more control and creating stronger actions in our lives.

If we do that, if we create the right common bases, create common bases that move into positive actions, create common bases with emotions that move into positive good will, good actions, good change for social environment, even for ourselves, we will be having more Victory, more Illumination, and more Peace in our lives, and we'll live that blessed life that True Parents have blessed us to live.

Brothers and sisters can you accept this message today? Thank you so much!

Hyung Jin Nim's Prayer

Before we end, we always like to include all the brothers and sisters around the world. We're going to ask you all to join us in a very brief prayer.

"Heavenly Parents, we are offering this day to You today, and Father, we are thanking you for the ability to have heartistic realms, and emotional realm, and intellectual realm, and a realm of will that you have given all of us. Father, we ask that you may allow us to feel the greatness and depth of each one of those realms and allow us to become responsible for our actions, accountable for our actions. Thank you for this day. We are praying that you may allow us to become the palaces of your love, your peace and your lineage. Father we are repenting for any wrongs that we may have done and Father we pray that You will come into our hearts and always be sitting in our hearts of glory. Father, thank you for this day; we pray these things in the name of Hyung Jin Kajong (family), a member of a blessed central family. Aju!

Brothers and sisters, if we always keep True Parents in our hearts, if we attend them in our hearts, on the throne of glory that we place there, I do believe that we'll have more Victory, more Illumination, and more Peace then we can imagine.

43. The Power of One (March 8. 2008)

Hyung Jin Moon
March 8. 2008
Headquarter Church, Chungpadong, Seoul, Korea
Transcribed by: Beatrice Clyburn
Edited by: Bruno Klotz

Hyung Jin Nim's Welcome Message:

Brothers and sisters I want to share this quote with you from Cheon Seong Gyeong, page 1245, "Even if God Himself changed, I would restore Him, and go on together with Him. If God is not absolute, I will make Him absolute. Once you have these thoughts in your mind, God Himself -- the Almighty God of creation -- will be absolutely obedient to you". Father goes on to say, "I am telling you that you have to think, 'The color emanating from me is like the bright color of gold, like the luster of diamonds; it is resolute and unchanging' "

That is what we are talking about brothers and sisters. When see ourselves, we have to see ourselves shimmering with gold like the luster of diamonds. That's how precious we are; this is what God intended for us. We're supposed to go forth with that kind of confidence, knowing that we have that kind of amazing value.

It's so important that every time we start service, we start seeing ourselves from the right viewpoint, seeing ourselves with those eyes, with the bright color of gold, the luster of diamonds, seeing ourselves, our spirit bodies, with that kind of value.

Every time we start service, we always want to thank you for making the time to come out here. We know that God is acknowledging every person that comes out. We know that your week is going to go better because you take the time to really honor God in this sanctuary. We believe that and we know that as we start viewing ourselves with the eyes of God, then our viewpoints begin to change; our perspectives can start to change. We can start seeing that we will make a difference and just like today's sermon, "The Power of One", we have immense, immense power; and in that same way, let us be a blessing to those around us, let us be a truly great blessing to this world.

Brothers and sisters, thank you so much for coming out here. Welcome!

Yeon Ah Nim's Message:

We were in Japan last week and we were on the way back from members' house visit and we called True Parents in the car while they were in America. True Parents told my husband, "Please try to take care of your health and try to keep balance in your work" and True Father told him, "Hyung Jin, my son, in the beginning of my ministry, at times, as I remember, I was physically and spiritually so exhausted, so I know how you must feel" and he said, "Hyung Jin, always remember this, we really love you; we are always there for you and you are doing a good job, Hyung Jin."

We noticed that one of the people on our team was really crying. So we asked her, "Are you OK?" and she said how inspired she was by the fact that my husband was talking with True Parents. That's when I once again realized how precious True Father's love is, and once again I realized how precious True Father's existence is. Brothers and sisters let us also be strength to each other. Let us each be the one who can give strength to many people.

Brothers and sisters, we love you so much, and we believe in you. Aju!

Hyung Jin Nim's Interesting Story:

Before we start I always like to share something a little interesting! I found a very interesting one, the story of little Lisa. She was at Sunday school. She heard about the story of Jonah, where Jonah was swallowed up by the whale, and Lisa got very excited about the story, very interesting, very fun. So on Monday she went to school and she started telling her teacher about Jonah and the whale. She was explaining how Jonah was swallowed up by the whale, how he was in the whale's tummy, and everything like that.

And the teacher said," Well, little Lisa, you know what, it's actually scientifically impossible for a whale to swallow a human being because although the whale's mouth is quite large, the throat is actually quite small, so scientifically it's impossible. The whale can't swallow Jonah." And little Lisa said, "No but the whale did swallow Jonah" and the teacher said, "No it's impossible, he can't do that". And so little Lisa said, "Well when I go to heaven I'm going to ask Jonah" and the teacher said, "Well, what if Jonah is in hell, Lisa?" and Lisa said, "Well then you ask him!"

Hyung Jin Nim's Message

Today I'd like to talk to you about the power of One. In order to live the blessed life, we need to understand the phenomenal power that we have. So many times we underestimate our ability to evoke change, our ability to have an impact on this world. And a blessed life is so powerful; even one blessed life is so powerful that it can change the world.

Some may say, "It's impossible! How can I change the world? I am only one person. The world is so vast, 6.5 billion people. How can one ever change the world?" Well that's because many people do not understand the power of a simple exponential function. Those things work in human relationships; human networks are exponential functions. They are networks that grow and have tremendous impact. Let's look at this.

Thomas Carlyle said that the history of the world is but a biography of great men -- and women, we must add. But when we look at the contents of history, notice how all of it flows around individual characters; notice how it flows through your history text, through the important generals or the important kings, or the important figures in science, innovation or religious thoughts etc... Notice how it flows with very important people right at its core. It's so important that we understand that history is essentially written and comprised mostly, primarily, of figures, stories of great people.

And it's very interesting. I remember sitting in my American history class in high school in New York, and we were reading the texts. We were reading post World War II religious movements and revivals that were happening in America; and here I am sitting in my classroom with the American history textbook, reading with all the kids there, not members, and there it is: There's my daddy in the history book!! (Applause). I remember seeing that. I said, "Wait a minute, that's my daddy!" I looked at the glossary, he's also there. It's very interesting that one person, starting from a shabby old hut in North Korea, in a field, can have moved so many lives, can have made such an impact in this world!

And it's so important that, when we look at ourselves, that we understand that we have that kind of power, that kind of value. When we look at the lives of True Parents, look at the impact that they have made. When I pass an elderly Korean man, or an Asian man, on the street -- maybe he is in his '80s or '90s - I often say to myself, "That actually could be True Father, that man in the park practicing Tai Chi or playing chess, or somebody who is walking in the park like this elderly gentleman here. Literally that could have been Father. If Father didn't reach out, if he didn't accept God's calling, he would not be the person he is today."

And not only that, most of us would not be here. If you think about it, as second generation, it's extremely improbable that any one of us would have been born, had it not been for True Parents. It's very improbable that the many couples that were matched from different parts of the world would actually have a chance in this lifetime to come together and have children, have us. So when I looked at my own life, I said to myself, "My God, if anything would have changed in history, if Father had not accepted his call, I would not be here. You would not be here; this sanctuary would probably be an office building, maybe a restaurant, maybe a storage room."

But it's so important that we look at the value that can be created, the impact that can be made from one individual. When we look at our own family members -- I've seen so many young blessed children going to school abroad, maybe to Japan, or Korea or to the States and because we have a worldwide network, they've stayed in churches, they've been able to spend time there, being in the community, work on their projects, on their schooling. But we wouldn't have any of that, had it not been for Father who just decided to accept God's calling.

But people may say that we have so many problems in our organization. Yes, but we must realize that all organizations always have problems. The very nature of organizations is that they have problems, but good organizations are able to continue to improve and minimize the impact of those problems. We may not really know how to have strong community building but we also must objectively see that we're in the process of building that, and although we might not be accepted by the outside yet, we must realize that we are still a very young religion; we're just over 50 years old!

The other religions that are new have been around for 300-400 years, over 150 years. They have been around a lot longer than us. We are still very young as a tradition and let's remember that, objectively speaking, there is no major religious tradition that has ever succeeded this much during the time of the founder. Mohammed couldn't do it, Jesus, the Buddha, their foundation wasn't this large. So we have a very amazing case in our midst. We've studied this in the world religions' class that I took at Harvard.

But let me give you one example of the power of an exponential function. I'm going to play a little game with you. Let's say that for the next 30 days I will give you every day $1,000. You like that? Every day I'll give you $1,000. How does that so sound? Does that sound good? That will leave you with a total after 30 days of $30,000. Does this sound good? Very good!

There's only one catch, you have to do something for me and that is: on the first day, you have to give me 1 penny, on the second day, you have to give me double that, 2 pennies; on the third day you have to give me double that, 4 pennies, on the fourth day, double that, 8 pennies, and then just we'll continue that for 30 days. Is there anybody who wants to do this, to play this game? Oh please, no takers? There, $30,000, big, big, big, right? Are you sure?

Let's see: after 30 days, if somebody took that deal with me, I would owe them $30,000. I would have to pay every day $1,000; but on the 29th day you would owe me $5,368,709.12 and on the 30th day you would owe me double that, over $10 million. That's the power of an exponential function! Remember, it only started from one penny, one penny! 30 days, you owe me over $10 million! That's what I'm talking about, when I talk about the power of an exponential function, the power of One.

In 2003 there was a movie called, "Pay it forward". It was about a young boy, his name was Trevor, and he was a student, and he decided that when he did something good for somebody, he would say, "Don't pay me back, pay it forward. To the next three people that you meet, do an act of kindness, for the next three people, and then tell them to pay it forward. Tell them, each one of those three people, to do an act of kindness for three other people."

Do you see this process? Yes, let's see this briefly and I highly recommend for you to see this if you haven't. There is a young boy drawing the diagram, one person does something kind for three people. Those three people each do something kind for three others, those 9 people each do something kind for three others etc, etc, etc... Did you know that just within 20 repetitions of this cycle, just 20 times, the whole world is impacted? The entire world is touched; the entire world has somebody doing an act of kindness for them. That's the power of an exponential function! That's how powerful one person can be.

When we look at the biblical tradition, we see Jesus, we see the 12 disciples. He touched all those disciples. He made such an impact in their lives. He guided them. He filled them with hope, with faith in their lives, with a promise that they can keep in their hearts, and when we look at them from a religious studies' perspective, we will see that 2008 years later, how many Christians are there around the world?

Approximately 1.9 billion Christians around the world, people who believe and accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior, right? 1.9 billion people who are Christians in this world. We did this calculation with some of our math professors over here, and we found out that the average growth rate would be 0.95% per year. That basically means that in the span of Christianity, every year out of 100 Christians they have to make one Christian, one Christian, just one Christian every year per 100.

Somebody might say," But we are nowhere near Christianity, we are so tiny, we are so small. They have 1.9 billion people; we have maybe 500 people that can fit in this room." We have a little more than that. When we had the big event in Korea here, we had maybe 15,000 people come out. When the sanctuary is usually full, it's about 500 people. Let's say we start with 500 Unificationists and now turn the tables around, give us 2008 years. Guess what you'll find. If we grow at the same rate as Christianity, after 2008 years, we will have over 87,996,854,820 members! That's a lot! That's a little more than 1,9 billion, isn't it? See, that's the power of an exponential function. That's the power of the power of the power of One.

When we look at our power, we must be very cautious, because our power is awesome. It's very strong, it's very great and the question is," What kind of impact are we making on the people around us?" The power is like a double-edged sword. If used for good, it can provide life, it can provide enrichment, it can provide encouragement, and it can provide empowerment for those three people that we touch. If on the other hand, we negatively influence just three people, and those people each negatively influence just three more people, then that cycle, over 20 cycles, when we just repeat 20 times, the whole world is affected negatively by our negative actions. Do you see what I mean?

Do you see this process? Yes, let's see this briefly and I highly recommend for you to see this if you haven't. There is a young boy drawing the diagram, one person does something kind for three people. Those three people each do something kind for three others; those nine people each do something kind for three others etc, etc, etc... Did you know that just within 20 repetitions of this cycle, just 20 times, the whole world is impacted. The entire world is touched; the entire world has somebody doing an act of kindness for them. That's the power of an exponential function! That's how powerful one person can be.

The power of One is so great! It is like a two-edged sword. So it's important that in our lives, although we are not perfect, just moving towards perfection, we are perfecting ourselves constantly, and working on ourselves; that's' normal, that's great. At the same time, we must be clear that we must minimize the potential damage that we could do to others, but not focus on that. I'm not saying that we should focus on that, but we should really try to focus on the goodness that we are doing, to actively focus on the goodness.

Let's look at this one. This is called the Pygmalion effect. Maybe some of you have heard about it. This is a very important effect for our lives. This Pygmalion effect is very simple. Because we have so much power, basically if you are a teacher, if you are a parent, the thoughts that you have about your children, about the kids that you are teaching, can affect their realities, can affect their destiny.

This is the Pygmalion effect. It's not only for teachers; by the way, for anybody who is viewing themselves, for viewing others, it has a powerful impact. Let's look at it. It says, "Our beliefs", that means how I view myself, for example. If I view myself negatively, if I view myself as a bad person, a negative person, an angry person, then that will influence my actions, and then my actions will be negative, they will be angry and that will impact others' beliefs about me. Other people will start believing that I am angry, that I am negative and that will again cause other people to react negatively and angrily towards me, which will then reinforce my negative and angry concept about myself. Do you see how that cycle works? It's a constant cycle.

That's why whenever we come to service we always want to start getting into the cycle because whether or not we know it, this cycle is always working, but either we are working with it in a good way or we are using it unconsciously in a negative way. We want to be aware of this cycle when we are living a blessed life. It's so important that we start filling ourselves with the right perspective about ourselves, filling ourselves on our beliefs about ourselves with the viewpoint that begins with God.

You know there's a teacher named Jane Elliott. She did a study where she said... basically it was something like this: Researchers have found that people with blue eyes -- Who has blue eyes and green eyes here? Can you raise your hands? Oh beautiful! I don't know how many Koreans will have it tomorrow (at the Korean Service). I don't know how many hands I'll get tomorrow - but researchers have found out that people with blue eyes are intellectually superior to people with brown eyes. Isn't that interesting? Very interesting! Yes, interesting. Yes researchers have shown that people with blue eyes are intellectually superior to people with brown eyes. Does that make you feel good? (Laughter)

So Jane Elliott is this teacher on the first day, she shares this research with her students. She shares it, and there's the blue-eyed lady on the left (on the screen), you can see her; on her right there's the blond-haired woman with blue eyes, and on her left there's an African American brother with brown eyes. So she shared that the research shows that blue-eyed people are intellectually superior to brown-eyed people. And then they take a test, they take a spelling test, and guess what happens. The blue-eyed people score very highly, and the brown-eyed people don't score so high, and that reinforces the research, right?

But there's a little twist to this because the next day, she comes to the same class, the same kids and says, "Oh, you know, I screwed up the information. Actually the brown-eyed people are intellectually superior and the blue-eyed people are intellectually inferior" and then they took the test. What happens? The brown-eyed kids, who just the other day scored very low, all of a sudden scored high, and the blue-eyed kids who thought they were intellectually superior, they scored very high on Monday, but on Tuesday they scored terribly. What does that show? This shows that how we view, what labels we place on the people that we are raising, or even ourselves, that shapes our destiny. That shapes whether or not we can have success, victory, whether or not we can be good in relationships etc.

It's so important that we use this Pygmalion effect to our advantage because whether you realize it or not, you are using it. The question is, "How are you using it?" Are you using it to shape your life for success, for victory, for illumination, for peace; are you using it for that or are you not thinking about this process?

Then the process will most likely turn into a negative cycle. So it's very important to learn that we are using the cycle and to learn how to start changing the way we view ourselves, changing the way we view our children, changing the way we view our students, changing the way we view our parents, to start using the cycle to our advantage. That is really where we see that the power of One is so important, is so powerful. So really, as we are blessed people, it's so important that we focus on the strengths of our children, we focus on the strengths that God has given us, we focus on the strengths of our brothers and sisters.

In Korea there's a word called "chansori"; have you heard of that? (Yes) It's basically like nagging. What is nagging? When you look at nagging, what is it? It's basically focusing on a negative element, and continually harassing the other person about it, right? That's basically what nagging is, right? So if you think about it: You don't like this about another person, you keep on giving them a little poke about that or indirectly say some negative comment about that. So, that would be nagging. Or maybe very verbally, saying," This looks terrible, you are terrible!" We don't want to do this, but people do it.

It is so important that we get away from this habit of "chansori". It is focusing on the negative. People focus 80% on weaknesses, weaknesses about themselves; and when they look at others; they also focus 80% on weaknesses. When they look at their children, they focus on what their kids are doing wrong, what they need to improve. This is what people focus on 80% of the time.

The outside world may do that, but we as blessed people, we must do the opposite. We must not focus on the negative aspect, our weaknesses. Everybody has weaknesses. Whenever we focus on something, we magnify it, we draw it out, and we make it stronger. So we have to focus on our strengths. We must focus 80%, not on our weaknesses, but focus 80% on our strengths. We must not do "chansori", but maybe "changsori", that means focusing on your strengths. I hope in Korean they understand it tomorrow. Not "chansori", but "changsori", focusing on the strengths.

Even it's so tempting when you're raising kids, when you're raising students -- they may insult you at times, they may really test your patience, they may totally harm you and cause you a scar in your heart -- but it's always important, even in those tests, even in those times of challenge, that we continue even more so, to see the strengths, the greatness within them, to see the strengths also within us. It's so important.

Remember that Pygmalion effect, it has a huge impact in how we succeed, how we are victorious in our lives. And now it's natural to focus on weaknesses. Everybody does it; everybody has a tendency to see what's wrong with the situation, but that's what's natural. We have to be more than natural. We have to see ourselves with God's eyes, which are supernatural, right? We have to start seeing with our supernatural eyes; then we can start seeing that we have tremendous strengths.

When God created you, He didn't say," Oh man! This one was terrible! I really messed up on this one!" He didn't do that. When He made you He was proud of His creation. When He made you, He saw that this is good. He said it was good. And in the same way, when we acknowledge our strengths, when we start to focus and draw out our strengths in ourselves, in our children, what are we doing then? We are praising our Creator.

If I saw a Picasso and said, "It's terrible!" and I focus on the weaknesses, "The lines are terrible, the colors are just ridiculous!" then I would be criticizing that creator. In the same way if I looked at the painting and I said," It's beautiful! I like how the creator did this with that, I like how this was created"; then I focus on the strengths; then I'm praising that creator.

In the same way, when we learn to see the strengths in ourselves, in our children, what are we doing? We're learning to praise our Creator, we are learning to give credit back, and that -- in the end -- is a double win because God is satisfied, and also we can be more fulfilled in our own lives with people around us.

So, is there anything that we can learn today? Yes, there is: let's remember that many people think they can't change the world. Many people think it's impossible; mathematically it can't be done. I'm here to tell you that is not true. If you do the math, it's very simple. It's called an exponential function. You can change the world. One person can change this world, one person. People do. Remember history. It's but a biography of great people; that's all what history is.

In the same way, if it is true that we are going to be blessed, if it is true that we are going to make an impact in our lives, in history, then let us start viewing ourselves with those eyes. Let us start seeing, "Yes, I can make a difference, maybe not the whole world at once, but I can change three people, I can influence positively three people, I can help them so they can influence positively three people and just 20 repetitions of that cycle, and the whole world will be changed.

Let's remember that we have tremendous power. Remember the power of an exponential function. Everybody here thought $30,000 was big after 30 days, right? But what did you owe me after 30 days? I was the way bigger winner, right, so let's remember the power of the exponential function. Small at first, it looks like nothing at first; but it makes a huge, huge impact as it continues to exponentially grow.

And when we see True Father' life, we see that it is valuable. True Father did bring us together. He did set up the stage for us to be born, for me, for your blessed children; we would not be here, it's almost impossible. The majority of us would not be here, had it not been for the blessing of True Parents.

And remember; let's not be victim of the Pygmalion effect. We saw that cycle. That cycle can become our lives. Whether or not we know, we are using it. The key is not to spiral negatively with that cycle down, the key is to use that cycle to push yourself positively up, constantly.

The first place where that begins is how you're starting to label things, how are you labeling the children, how are we labeling ourselves. Are we calling ourselves a failure? Are we saying we're terrible? Are we saying we can't do anything right? Are we saying that people never like us? If that's what we're saying, then the actions will follow. It will have bad results. In the same way, use the Pygmalion effect. Let us use it for our advantage to truly bring blessing into this world, to start making an impact.

And remember: We may think the other traditions are large. We may feel very small and we are; we are still very young. We're only 50 years old, but remember that small little thing: We thought Christianity was big, 1.9 billion people. Give us 2008 years and we'll be over 88 billion people.

So in the same way, let us start seeing that we have power in our lives. We are not victims. We have a lot of power in our lives. The power begins very small with one penny -- remember that example -- but then it goes very large if it continues. That's the key to using your power and that is the power that God has put in you, the power of One.

If we learn how to use this in our lives, then very small things, like sharing with three people an act of kindness and asking them to also do an act of kindness to three persons, if we simply did that, the world would be a different place. If we do that, brothers and sisters, I do believe that more and more we'll have victory, we'll have more illumination, we'll have more peace when we live that blessed life that True Parents have blessed us to live. Can you receive this today? ("Yes")

Thank you so much.

42. The Secret of the Common Base (March 1, 2008)

Hyung Jin Moon
March 1, 2008
Headquarter Church, Chungpadong, Seoul
Transcribed by: Cathy Quebral
Edited by: Susan Herrman

Hyung Jin Nim's Welcome Message

I'd like to share with you a passage from page 1242 of the Cheon Song Gyeong and it says, "The Blessed Families, the nations stem from you. That is why blessed members should think about the universe during every waking moment. You have received the Blessing so that you can share blessings with others." I really want to get our minds wrapped around that today.

Really, when we live the blessed life, when we are able to move in that upward blessed trend, then really, one of the keys is being able to become a greater blessing to this world, to become a greater blessing to those around us and those who are in our spheres of influence or relationships, really becoming an empowering source, a real blessing for those people around us.

One of the things that was lost during the Fall, (is) really to take our own stance as people who are blessed, who are blessings to this world. Really, each day, we pray that we may rise higher in all these elements, all these dimensions: in wisdom, strength, and in patience and ability to overcome obstacles. We pray that everyday our blessings may shine brighter and brighter, that people around us may become empowered and that they may become strengthened. And really from the power of one -- each one of you -- the whole network, an exponential network can grow. And really the world can start to become brighter. People's lives can become changed.

It doesn't start with everybody at once; it starts with just ourselves and the people around us and what kind of blessing we are to them. We want to encourage you to have that viewpoint today. Great to have you all here today -- welcome brothers and sisters.

When we start looking at ourselves from God's perspective and viewing ourselves with that true nature, we start seeing ourselves with great value and cosmic value, unique value. Then we also know and can realize how much of a contribution that can be towards others. And really, that is one of the keys to be able to build ourselves up and -- at the same time -- to let that strengthening self, that blessed self -- that is becoming more blessed and victorious -- allowing others and inspiring others to do the same. We really want to encourage you, brothers and sisters, that every time you come to service, we see ourselves with the correct viewpoint, that we see ourselves with the eyes of God and we really take dominion over that position.

Yeon Ah Nim's Message:

Once every month we go to Japan and spend a little time with our Japanese membership. This time in Japan, we met Sun Jin Nim's family. Actually, they just came back from Hawaii where True Parents are now. One day True Father slept about an hour because of jet lag; and he had to wake up for Hoon Dok Hae. It was five minutes before Hoon Dok Hae, but True Father was really tired.

But as soon as he walked out the door, he made his back straight and stood strong and faced our members. He never had permission to be "human" in front of members, because he knew that in order to carry this movement, he has to be a firm leader. But sometimes we get to see a glimpse of his humanity when he does his special move dance, or when he sings beautiful songs with True Mother. I think that's really inspiring to see.

I think it is important to realize that we are human, too. So, it is okay sometimes to feel weak or tired. Even though we have ups and downs in our lives, the important thing is that we keep moving in an upward direction, I believe. Brothers and sisters, thank you so much for coming this evening. Thank you so much. We love you so much and we believe in you. AJU!!!

Hyung Jin Nim's Interesting Story:

I heard about something interesting. It was a story about a very avid golf lover and he had the opportunity to have an audience with the Pope. So one day, during the audience day, he went up and met the Pope and shook his hand and said, "Your holiness, I have a question that I need to ask you." The Pope said, "Please, what is your question." And he said, "I love golf so much. I'm wondering whether in heaven there are golf courses or not." The Pope said, "Well, actually I don't know the answer to that. But I'll ask God and I'll come back to you. Let's meet again tomorrow."

And so he waited a day. He was so anxious; he was really (wondering), "What's the answer going to be?" And so, the next day, he had the audience with the Pope. The Pope came to him and said, "I have a little bit of good news and a little bit of bad news. (Laughter) The good news is: In Heaven, there are beautiful golf courses. They are forever eternally green, manicured perfectly, and you can play all you want. The bad news is: You're teeing off tomorrow."

Hyung Jin Nim's Main Sermon:

Today, I'd like to talk to you about what I call "The Secret of the Common Base." When we look at the Principle, in Chapter one, section 2:2, we see the Chapter on Give and Take Action and Universal Prime Energy. And here, we see the quote, "Through the agency of universal prime energy, the subject and object elements of every entity form a common base and enter into give and receive interaction. This interaction, in turn, generates all the forces the entity needs for existence, multiplication and action."

In our lives, it is so important to learn how to create common bases. Notice the pattern here in the system: it is first a common base that needs to be formed in order for "give and take" to occur. In our lives, it is important that we foster these common bases in our relationships that will generate all the forces that are necessary to allow that relationship to exist, to multiply in a positive trend and to act in a constant positive motion. This, of course, does not mean that there will not be ups and downs in our relationships, in these ideal relationships and bonds that we are creating.

But if we have ups and downs and we're staying on the same level, that's not what we are talking about in the blessed life. We're talking about that despite the ups and downs that we may have, the general trajectory of the trend is going upward. So, even though we have ups and downs, it's sort of like this (he gestures upward) -- as opposed to something down or something that remains flat. The blessed life we're talking about is constantly being able to move in an upward trend -- of course there are ups and downs -- but to continue to strengthen in our relationships so that they move, they exist, multiply and act in a positive trend.

Let's take a look at this. In the (book) "Unity of North and South", page 415, Father asks the question, "What do we need before power can exist? You need a reciprocal foundation. There needs to be a base of common purpose so that subject and object, plus and minus, can engage in give-and-take action. Therefore, the phenomenon of power or action can be generated only within the domain of the common purpose of power." And if our relationships are truly to be powerful, truly to be divinely inspired, then it is so important that we create the strong common bases that the Principle teaches us to do.

Too many people focus on the give-and-take action and try to substantiate there, without taking the first step of first understanding the common base. When we look at this basic model, we see that in order for "give and take" to occur, there has to be a common base. And I would simply describe it like this: "The common base we can see in two different ways: a vertical common base and a sort of horizontal common base." And when we are talking about it in our own relationships, practically speaking, how is it that we start substantiating common bases?

Well, our vertical common base would be, "What is it that we have in common? What do those subjects and objects have in common together that connects them to a higher purpose?" Of course, that would be God in our Principle model, God's purpose. And when we look at the ideal of creation, it really is to bring joy, to be that entity that is bringing joy to others, that is filled with joy and returns it to God.

So, when we are creating our relationships, when we want to create strong subject and object relationships -- this is between spouses, parents and children -- it is so important to begin with our vertical common base. That would be, "What is our purpose? What is it that we are doing together? Is it simply a social group that we are moving together? Or is there a higher calling? Is there a higher purpose? Is there something that is beyond the daily activities of our lives? Is there something that is greater than that?" And that spiritual purpose, that divine purpose, is what we should also incorporate into our relationships.

One of the things -- if we simply put it -- is that in a vertical common base, between husband and wife, to start creating and really get into the exercise of discussing what it is we are doing together. "Are we simply out to enjoy our relationship together?" Studies show that people only seeking self-satisfaction or life-satisfaction are less off in the long run than people who also search for self-happiness but also include others in that picture as well, who also help others to achieve happiness or life-satisfaction, etc.

So, in our relationships we can see that there's a vertical common base that needs to be formed in order for that relationship to have a purpose. And I would say in the horizontal realm a common base also needs to be formed. It is so essential that in our relationships the horizontal realm is not taken for granted. Father says here, in another quotation, that the vertical alone is not enough, that the horizontal must also be able to be substantiated. And so, how do we practically begin to substantiate that horizontal common base? I would say, through very simple things like: Practicing gratitude to each other; practicing openness, receptivity to one another.

In that give-and-take relationship that we see in the model of the Principle, the subject and object gives and takes, receives together. So, in the giving, we can give gratitude, and in the receiving, we can be open to what the other person is teaching us. We can always be open to learning, to improving, our lives.

Practically speaking, when we talk about the vertical or horizontal common base, it is so important that we get this down on paper even. Most corporations do it -- all corporations do it. All entities that exist in groups, that are really running at its optimum level in this modern world -- they write down their purpose. They write down their statement of purpose.

And even in our own lives it's very important to get together with the people that we love, the people who are included in our subject and object relationship. It is very important to get together and really start writing down, delineating clearly, a purpose that includes both, the vertical and horizontal common bases that we've been talking about. It could be something just as simple as, "The purpose of our marriage is to have joy," just like the purpose of creation is to have joy - God also wanted joy. It could be, "To give joy to God and True Parents and to others." It could be, "To be thankful for each other and to be open and willing to constantly grow." It could be as simple as that. But something that defines, something that gives us a means through which we can reframe our own relationship.

Once we have a mission, our give and receive can flow better -- it can be directed more clearly. It is not something where people are guessing or trying to guess what the relationship is about. "What exactly is the purpose for it?" One spouse may feel it's for happiness; the other spouse may feel it's for being an inspiration to others. Well, we have to be able to solidify those into a common purpose and a mission that we can both agree on and both move forward on.

Studies obviously show that couples, particularly couples who engage in such a simple thing as talking about a purpose, "What is our purpose?" -- I'm not talking about only something like "increasing your finances." That is definitely a purpose, or other things like, "Moving ahead in your professional careers." -- But also, adding the other dimension, the spiritual dimension: "What are our lives supposed to mean for this world? What kind of legacy will we leave for our children?" Those things also must be included in order for our purpose to be full and to be God-given.

When God first asked True Parents to join Him in His purpose, True Father was at first hesitant. We know the story; he actually rejected God three times. He said, "I can't do it. Why ask me? I can't do this role." But True Father was asked; he finally did agree and when he met True Mother, they had a very common purpose -- a very simply stated purpose. They were to be the True Parents of humankind.

It is a very simple purpose. But I've seen -- personally -- that because they have a common purpose, a common identity and a common direction, it has always been their source of strength. Whenever as human beings they go through ups and downs, they are able to always return to their responsibility, to their purpose -- attending their children or trying to be compassionate towards the world, etc.

Every obstacle becomes an opportunity to grow, every challenge becomes a catalyst for more give and receive and insight into God's heart. And really when we are talking about the horizontal give-and-take action, when we look at that, we see in the Principle model, that this thing is moving; it's not staying still like this picture. It is constantly in motion, it cannot remain still. If it remains still, it becomes stagnant. It becomes just like water. It becomes stagnant and it becomes unhealthy. It must constantly be moving, and that circle, in the middle, should be rotating. Everything should be in motion.

And it is the same thing when we are talking about that horizontal common base in our relationships. I believe that one of the keys to having a great relationship with our spouse is learning the practice of gratitude

A study has been shown: they had four different types of groups. One group was to think optimistically three times a day. One group was to think to build up their self-esteem three times a day, that is, to say positive things towards themselves three times a day. One group was to say negative things about their day: "I hated the rain." "I hated this and that." "I hate that person." They were supposed to say negative things. And one group was supposed to just write three things that they are grateful for -- and that was the exercise.

Now, usually we may believe that optimistic thinking, self-esteem building, will create the most positive trend in satisfaction in life. What the study showed is that those do create levels of increase at times, but can, many times, lead to either a simple flat line or even sometimes a negative trend. Maybe the relationship is not that good, or maybe they're eating something and it is not really that great, but they are saying in their minds, "I'm going to think optimistically and I'm going to believe that this tastes fantastic." But maybe it doesn't, right? So, it actually builds up frustration.

And, of course, they found that the people who think pessimistically, three times per day, whether it be, "I hate the rain" or "Why am I like this?" or, "I'm inadequate;" these kinds of things, of course, as you can expect, their general satisfaction with their lives goes down very fast.

But it's very interesting that the people who did this study were very surprised to find that the people who kept a simple gratitude journal - three things that they remembered throughout the day that they felt grateful for -- they exhibited the highest sustained levels of happiness and life satisfaction that were sustainable, that were continual.

And let's remember that gratitude is not indebtedness. It is not because you are indebted to somebody that you're grateful. I am talking about something simpler -- something simpler, like the fact that I can breathe. What we're doing is: we are focusing on an external circumstance that we internally feel thankful for or warm towards. So my wife speaks to me in a very nice voice, even though she is upset. So I'm grateful for that. Okay? (Laughter) Things like that -- you see what I mean?

Various things -- it can also be thoughts, internal and external feelings -- but most of the time, what they were focusing on were external circumstances, "I am thankful that I have legs to walk." "I am thankful that I have a table to eat on," external circumstances, not necessarily objects, but external circumstances that they could express a feeling of thanks for. And they found that this simple practice of remaining thankful for the things that we have, beats optimistic thinking, it beat self-esteem; and, of course, it beats pessimistic thinking.

In our horizontal common base, I believe one of the most powerful tools is that of "giving gratitude." And it doesn't have to be always verbal. You can also many times keep it in your heart -- remind yourself of the greatness of your spouse. Focus on the things that bring you joy, that bring you thankfulness.

On the receiving aspect, I do believe that it is important that we remain receptive; that we remain open to learn and to grow. That is one of the things that hold couples back -- they're not receptive to the other's continued growth. But if we truly are to give and to receive, then it is important to be able to give gratitude, and at the same time, to receive the things that we need to learn to become better, to become more whole.

Let's not think of our spouse's differences as things that create division, but let us think of them as things that actually make us more whole, that complete us -- things that will allow us to expand our perspective.

I was speaking to a man who was complaining about his wife a little bit. He was saying to me, "You know what? My wife, I don't know. I come back home. I work hard all day. I come back home. She has dinner ready. Then she has to tell me, "Your son did this today. What are you going to do about that, huh? Your mother told me this, your mother was yelling at me today, you know, and the Tae Kwon Do teacher said this and your sister called me on the phone and she told me this and that." And the man was going insane. He literally said, "Honey, I don't know what to do. I don't know what my boy said. I can't control my mother. I don't know the Tae Kwon Do teacher (HJN laughing)." He was literally going out of his mind.

Because I have good relationships with my sisters I have learned one thing -- and I know it is a generalization, and I don't like to make generalizations - but one thing that I have learned that has helped me in my own marriage is that when your wife is sharing her "situations" with you. Men, you don't need to solve every single one of them. One of the things that men try to do - because we are so used to problem solving, because our jobs or work relationships or even our other relationships with men are used to solving issues.

If somebody shares an issue with me then as a man, I'm going to try to help him solve that problem -- but one of the things that I realized -- and it really gives me peace in my heart -- is that when my wife wants to share with me, I just listen. No need to solve the problems. No need to say, "Well, you know I'm going to set that Tae Kwon Do teacher straight tomorrow. I'm going to tell my mom not to do that. I'm going to tell my sister... I'm going to set her straight on the phone tonight." No, she doesn't need you to do that -- you don't need to do that. But, all you need to do is simply be there to listen, to be there to be able to understand and empathize. No problem solving necessary.

Of course, there are times when problem solving is necessary. If your wife really needs that, it is important for her to tell you, "Honey, I need a problem solving. I need this problem solved, okay?" But aside from those things, what I realized is that many, many times we get into the habit of trying to solve our sister's, our wife's, our mother's, and our daughter's problems when they just want to share with us.

It's very interesting because there are some psychologists that say that women actually use speech to build relationships and that men use speech or language to communicate fact. So, there are two very different modes of communication. One is to communicate fact -- the other is to build relationships. "Oh, how was that event yesterday, Honey?" The young daughter will say, "Oh, it was fantastic. I can't believe what that other girl was wearing -- she was wearing that kind of thing -- I don't know how she got away with that. Mom, it was so fantastic. You know that other guy, he was with… and I can't believe it." And she'll go on and they'll have a great time for an hour.

And then, the same event, the mother will ask the son, "How was it, son?" "Good." "How was it, son?" "Yeah, it was okay." Communicating fact -- not necessarily building relationship -- communicating fact.

It is very interesting because studies have shown that women use twenty thousand communication signs per day. That is: speech; that is: gestures; that is: facial postures -- many different things that they use to communicate and build relationships. On the opposite side of that, men only use seven thousand communication signs per day on average. So, the issue here is that you have to use up seven thousand for men and twenty thousand for women per day.

So men, you have to understand: If your wife has been at home, and maybe she has not talked to her sister today, so when she comes home, maybe she has used ten thousand communication signs. When you come home, she needs to now share with you ten thousand more. Be understanding of that, be empathetic of that. It is very important that we are able to open our hearts to be receptive to the giving and receiving because we learn, we improve as brothers, we improve as fathers, and we improve as sons when we learn how to do that.

And that is the power of these relationships that Father taught us. He has always taught us of the three great kingships, the four great realms of heart. When we improve in any one of these we improve in all of them. When we improve as husbands listening to our wives, we can improve as sons listening to our mothers, we can improve as fathers listening to our daughters when they need help, when they need somebody to listen.

So it is important to be able to incorporate this into our lives, to be able to really give thanks, and also to receive, to be receptive on these horizontal relationships.

With our children, let's make sure that we are connecting them to God's purpose. Let's make sure that they know that they, too, have a right to feel joy in their lives, that God wishes for them to be happy in their lives, but not only stop there, but to be able to expand that sphere of happiness, that sphere of blessing, that we talk about all the time, to be able to extend it continually, continually to so many around them and in their lives.

If you have created a spousal mission statement, if you created a common sense of purpose together then it is important to include your kids in that. Show them what you've made. You show the statement that you've written. Let them comment on it. Let them participate in making a family mission statement. Let them participate in that activity. Help them understand, let us help them understand that horizontal giving and receiving, the giving of gratitude and the receiving, the receptiveness, that we need to be able to learn from our relationships, to grow in our relationships.

One of the things that we like to do with our kids is: Everyday they have to do a couple of things to be able to play video games. They love this D and D game; they play with their uncle. D and D is like knights and war -- this kind of thing. And so, they are very eager to play it. So, we have a couple of things that they have to accomplish prior to playing the game. They can play it for an hour per day, if they've done their things. So they come home. We ask them. They say "I want to play game now." And then, now they're ready. "Mommy, I want to play a game." "Okay, let's first see the list. Did you guys finish homework?" "Yes, I finished." "Did you clean your desk?" "Yes, I finished." "Did you clean your room?" "Yes, I did that."

And now, there are two exercises that I really believe are the real key. The other things are the things they have to do, things they have to do for school or put their effort in -- being tidy for others, in their environment, etc. -- those are the things that we have to do, but the two other practices, I believe, are exactly what we are talking about today: Creating a common base in our purpose, creating a common base in our vertical purpose and in our horizontal purpose.

The vertical purpose exercise that we have them do is, "What was your act of kindness for today?" They have to do one act of kindness per day for somebody. They have to be a blessing to somebody. They have to be able to give joy in some small way -- it doesn't have to be huge -- to any person that they have come across in that path.

The next exercise would be the horizontal: "What can you be thankful for in your relationships today?" Those two exercises we do with them everyday before they're ready to play games. And so, yesterday, for example, one of my boys said, "I helped my auntie carry the supermarket bags." Okay, that was the vertical that was giving another person joy. That was being able to help them -- okay?! -- An act of kindness. "And so, what were you grateful for that day?" And he said to me, "I'm grateful for the fact that I have hands to carry the shopping bags." And that's great, that's fantastic, because we can start there, we can always start there. Any place, to begin with a sense of thankfulness for anything is the right step.

It's a great exercise we've been doing with our kids. It is such an excellent way to tie them to a spiritual purpose -- to tie them beyond their responsibilities, their mundane school responsibilities and to tie them to a greater purpose -- a greater purpose that is actively oriented to changing people in their lives, helping people in their lives. Small ways -- that's fine -- small things are excellent.

You all know the saying, " Super Bowls are won in the details." Right? The small details are really what make life worth living. And it's in this small way, as well, that they remember what it is that they were grateful for in their relationships that day. It could be something as simple as: Having hands to help your auntie bringing supermarket bags home.

So what can we learn today? Really, the principle perspective teaches us a great insight. It says that in order to substantiate powerful relationships, we need to first have common bases. Without the common base we cannot give and receive. We cannot interact. We cannot create the forces necessary for existence, multiplication and action.

In our relationships, it is important that we substantiate that common base, that we form that common base. That common base consists of vertical common bases: "Let's find purpose with each other. Let's find meaning with each other, what we're doing together -- we're not just floating around. We have a purpose together. We have something that is beyond ourselves -- something that is great and leaves a legacy in this world."

And also in our horizontal common base, let's give thanks to each other -- let's be in the habit of being in thanksgiving. Everybody loves "turkey time;" well, we have got to have "turkey time" everyday, in our hearts at least -- where we're being thankful for people who are with us, around us. And also in the same way, that we are receiving, we're learning to be receptive to those people around us, so we can learn, we can grow, we can continue to get wiser, stronger, and have more victory, illumination and peace.

If we learn to use this simple secret of the common base, I believe that we will have more victory, more illumination and more peace in our relationships and we will live that blessed life that True Parents have blessed us to live.

Brothers and sisters, can you receive this today? Thank you so much!

Before we end we always like to give everybody, particularly in other nations, the chance to reconnect, to become children of True Parents once again.

Let's join in a brief prayer:

True Parents, thank You for this day that You have blessed us with. Please come into our midst, into each one of our families here who are gathering with us; and let us become the palace of Your joy, of Your love, of Your peace and of Your lineage. We thank You. We know that You are always with us, and at this moment, we want to confess and repent for anything that we have done wrong. We pray that we may continue to grow and be blessings to those around us -- that we also may live that truly blessed life that You have blessed us to live. Thank You, and we pray these things in our name. Aju!

Brothers and sisters, if we pray this simple prayer, I do believe that True Parents are in our lives. And if we keep them enthroned in the heart of glory that we have, that glory-full heart that we have, we will find for ourselves more victory, more illumination and more peace than we can ever imagine.

Thank you so much

41. The Meaning of Family Pledge (March 2008)

Hyung Jin Moon
March 2008

The Meaning Of Family Pledge No. 1

Family Pledge No.1
As the Owner of Cheon Il Guk, Our family pledges to seek our original homeland and establish the original ideal of creation, the Kingdom of God on Earth and in Heaven, by centering on true love.

True love is connected to God eternally. Because God is an eternal being, when we connect to true love, we can automatically become eternal beings. Cheon Il Guk is the nation in which two people become one. You should be able to fulfill the way of true children of filial piety in front of God, of patriots in the nation, of saints in the world, and of divine sons and daughters in heaven and earth with an attitude of one heart, one body, one mindset, and one harmony based on mind and body unity.

All of you can determine with a pure mind of filial piety, "We will live attending True Parents eternally." Otherwise, you cannot become citizens of Cheon Il Guk. It does not matter that there are certain difficult or unhappy circumstances in this world. You must go beyond them. You can be the person who is to inherit Cheon Il Guk only when you determine to become God's representative in the position of a pioneering prince. Your clans must attend God as tribal messiahs. So the family is the starting base that can attend and live together with God. You have to know that the family is the starting base of the Kingdom of God on Earth and in Heaven.

The Meaning Of Family Pledge No. 2

Family Pledge No. 2
As the Owner of Cheon Il Guk, Our Family pledges to represent and become central to heaven and earth by attending God and True Parents; we pledge to perfect the dutiful family way of filial sons and daughters in our family, patriots in our nation, saints in the world, and divine sons and daughters in heaven and earth, by centering on true love.

Families that have centered themselves on True Parents can enter into the realm of God's direct lineage, centering on God's love. Blessed families are the historical fruit of True Parents in this world. Each blessed family represents all six billion people living on earth. Blessed families are restored families. If you go home, your family home is your palace. It is the palace of your tribe, the palace of your nation, the palace of the world, the palace of heaven and earth. Your family is the seed and the fruit of the unified world.

The Meaning Of Family Pledge No. 3

Family Pledge No. 3
As the Owner of Cheon Il Guk, Our family pledges to perfect the Four Great Realms of Heart, the Three Great Kingships, and the Realm of the Royal Family, by centering on true love.

The perfection of the Four Great Realms of Heart is the path we have to go to perfect ourselves as human beings. The Four Great Realms of Heart are the realm of the child's heart, the realm of the brother and sister's heart, the realm of the husband and wife's heart, the realm of the parent's heart. The Four Great Realms of Heart should be perfected within the realm of God's vertical heart so that we can liberate God from His sorrow. Our family is the foundation for realizing and actualizing the four great realms of heart. Therefore, we should live a life of love within our own family.

Families that have completed and perfected the Four Great Realms of Heart and Three great kingships are ideal families. God holds the kingship over heaven, and the parents hold the kingship over the earth. The sons and daughters are the kings and queens who inherit this. The place where all these Three Great Kingships are bound together and bear fruit is our own ideal family.

Only after realizing the Four Great Realms of Heart and the Three Great Kingships, can we enter the realm of the royal family, or the royal clan. All of you should now become part of the royal family centering on true love. Unless you pass through all these gates, you cannot meet God in the original world.

The Meaning Of Family Pledge No. 4

Family Pledge No. 4
As the Owner of Cheon Il Guk, Our family pledges to build the universal family encompassing Heaven and Earth, which is God's ideal of creation, and perfect the world of freedom, peace, unity and happiness, by centering on true love.

God's ideal of Creation is "One Family under God." All the ideals of creation would have been realized if a perfected Adam and perfected Eve, perfected children, and a family based on the four-position foundation, had been linked to God's love. At the conclusion of the history of restoration, a true family based on true parents and true love will be established as the hope of humankind and at the same time the hope of God. This true family will be the starting point of the peace and happiness of humankind.

In the ideal society and nation, people are conscious of being the sons and daughters of the one God and become brothers and sisters under the True Parents. In the ideal society and nation, Blessed Families, who have restored their lineage, rights of ownership and hearts, realize a world of freedom, peace and unity based on the True Parents' language and culture. They will come to lead lives of interdependence, mutual prosperity and universally shared values within the culture of God's heart.

The Meaning Of Family Pledge No. 5

Family Pledge No. 5
As the Owner of Cheon Il Guk, Our family pledges to strive everyday to advance the unification of the spirit world and the physical world as subject and object partners, by centering on true love.

Adam's family is the core of all reciprocal subject and object partners in the physical world created by God, while God is the core of the subject and object partners in the spirit world. Mind is in the subject position and body is in the object position. Likewise, the spirit world is in the subject position and the physical world is in the object position. And God and True love can link the spirit world and physical world. We should strive every day to advance God's will. If we strop, death awaits us. So we must advance forward God's will every day even one step.

The Meaning Of Family Pledge No. 6

Family Pledge No. 6
As the Owner of Cheon Il Guk, Our family pledges to embody God and True Parents; we will perfect a family that moves heavenly fortune and conveys Heaven's blessing to our community, by centering on true love.

It is not just I (Rev. Moon) but also you who should be True Parent. You are all seeds taking after me as the large tree. You resemble the root. Just as individuals have fortune, so do families, nations, and the world; in the same token, all of heaven and earth have heavenly fortune. The fortunes of the nation and the world are determined in accordance with the direction and progress of heavenly fortune, which encompasses and exists for the sake of the whole.

Just as heavenly fortune follows the True Parents around when they move, you should unite completely with them and become families that move heavenly fortune and convey Heaven's blessing to your community. You should create families like yours around you. You are pledging to be such a central family.

The Meaning Of Family Pledge No. 7

Family Pledge No. 7
As the Owner of Cheon Il Guk, Our family pledges to perfect a world based on the culture of heart, which is rooted in the original lineage, through living for the sake of others, by centering on true love.

If we inherit the original lineage centered on God, the original culture of heart arises. Culture is linked through history. The culture of heart should be a network of the family, society, nation and world. Be a person who lives for the sake of others. This is the basis of the generation and formation of the cosmos. God exists for the sake of others. The ones who live for the sake of others, centering on true love, are welcomed, day or night, wherever they go in the cosmos.

The coming future world is the world of the new culture of heart and the culture of love based on the true family, where God, human beings, and all things live in harmony. It is the world of interdependence, mutual prosperity, and universally shared values in which people live for the sake of others in true love and live together in harmony and cooperation.

The Meaning Of Family Pledge No. 8

Family Pledge No. 8
As the Owner of the Cheon Il Guk, Our family pledges, as we enter the Completed Testament age, to achieve the ideal oneness of God and humankind in love through absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience, thereby perfecting the realm of liberation and the realm of being completely free in the of the Kingdom of God on Earth and in Heaven, by centering on True Love.

What promise is being fulfilled in the Completed Testament Age? It is the promise that God made to human beings at the time of creation. It means that God is giving the Blessing to humankind. God created with absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience and aspired toward the ideal unified world of absolute love. Thus we should also inevitably practice absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience in order to earn the right to be partners with God.

God's purpose of creation, human beings are the only object partners who wear the substantial body of God. They are born as the visible body before the invisible God. When human beings reach perfection, they become God's temples. Now we have reached in the realm of liberation even in the spirit world. The springtime of Kingdom of Heaven and Earth is approaching. The spring, that can resurrect new lives, is coming to earth. So a peaceful era will come to earth.

40. Peace in Motion (February 23, 2008)

Hyung Jin Moon
February 23, 2008
Headquarters Church
Chungpadong, Seoul, Korea
Transcribe by: Maryannie Hapeman
Edited by: Bruno Klotz

Hyung Jin Nim's Welcome Message:

Bothers and Sisters, it is a wonderful Saturday. I want to share this with you in Cheon Song Gyong, Book 8, pages 12-16. Father said, "Let the satanic world persecute me as much as it wants. Let it strike me. I will capture them all. With what? With the power of love. God's creative power. If I do so, God will be with me. In such a position God acts with me".

Brothers and Sisters, I believe that we are acting in that way, that even though there may be voices against us, or even opposed to us, we know we are doing good things. We are going to be a blessing to this world. And it's so important that when we look ourselves, we see ourselves as appealing in this very important mission and task, that we look at ourselves from the viewpoint of God, seeing ourselves in His image, seeing ourselves with that kind of value, divine value, cosmic value, unique value, always remembering the internal value, and meaning that we have.

We believe that our family members will continue to be the greatest blessings to this world. We believe that every one of you, everyone of one of us, has within our hearts a champion inside, a greatness inside. Never forget that it's so important, whatever we may hear, to always return back and meditate on that reality.

Brothers and Sisters, let's always remember, and see ourselves in that light, as we are now gathered here before True Parents and before God on this wonderful Saturday. We really want to welcome you. Let us really have a great celebration today.

Yeon Ah Nim's Message:

A couple of days ago, one of the ministers told me that many members have expressed their struggles in teaching True Family Values. Particularly, one sister came up to him and said that, she doesn't feel that its right for her to teach True Family values, especially when her family is falling apart. She even said, she felt ashamed when she saw the level of family building programs in other churches. So she said to him seriously, "I went there to witness, but I was almost witnessed to".

I feel that having faith as an Unificationist is like running a marathon. When running a marathon it is essential to pace yourself. If you try to sprint from the start, you won't be able to last for the long course of the marathon that is called blessed family life.

It is important to do providential work, but I believe that it is also important to build a family, having an ideal family in each one of our homes. I saw too many families that assume that everything will be okay, including kids, as long as we do providential work. But we saw that this is not true.

We believe that now is the era for us to actualize this important teaching. The important and core teaching of our tradition, we all know is having an ideal family. This is our core teaching. As Unificationists, it's essential to have an ideal family. Let's not forget this. Let's remember this. I believe we can all do this. Brothers and Sisters, we love you so much and we believe in you. AJU!!!

Interesting Story:

I heard a story about a little boy named Joey, and he was walking home from Sunday school, having a big candy bar. He was eating it. He's so happy, and really enjoying eating his candy bar. And his mom came and said, "Hey Joey, where did you get that candy bar? I thought I gave you money for a donation." And so, Joey said, "Well, Mom, yeah, I used the dollar that you gave me." And she said, "Honey, that was actually for the Sunday Service. And Joey said, "I know, but the minister got me in for free".

Main Sermon by Hyung Jin Nim:

I would like to share with you a brief quote from "The minister's path" from one of True Father's Hoon Dok Hae readings. It says, "We only live for just 70 or 80 years; just once. Our life is just a moment, a breath, even when you think that your life's effort seems unending. When are we going to start living a true life? Life is just one day at a time. There is no true life that is not linked day to day. No one can attain victory without living a life of abundant worth, and desiring abundant victory." True Father says that in his Hoon Dok Hae reading.

Today I would like to talk with you about having peace while we are in motion. It's so important that, when we are living the blessed life and are really fulfilling the goals that we are setting up, that we are also able to keep our peace. These two things should not be mutually exclusive. Many people get into the habit of thinking that I have to choose either or. So maybe I have to choose between faith or family, working hard or having fun, success or doing what I really want to do. But the blessed life answers to us: "No, we have to choose both."

It's a very important thing that we are able to choose both, family and faith, that we're able to choose both, working hard and also enjoying time with our family members, enjoying the fun times -- that we are learning to have success, and at the same time matching that with things that we really have a calling to do. When we have peace while we're fulfilling those goals and moving on, it actually helps us to become effective in fulfilling our goals.

And let's remember True Father's quotation, "Life is really, really short." If we think about it, every year 15,768,000 seconds pass. Every time we live one year longer, 15,768,000 seconds have passed by. Life is too short, brothers and sisters. In our life, it is important that we are able to accomplish the things that God has created us to do. And it is not only for ourselves that we do such things; because in the end we have cosmic value, and in the end, our work, our contribution, if it is matching with God's calling, will have cosmic significance.

It is so important that we learn how to work with the goals that we are creating, as we are moving in our blessed life. It is so important to not get totally bogged down with too much clutter in our minds, particularly when we have goals in our mind and we are constantly trying to wrestle with them and constantly trying to organize them in our mind. We can really lose a lot of time. We become frustrated. Our life can lose its sense of purpose, and we can feel that life is not worth living at that point.

So it's important in our life, to start getting our goals, getting our purposes, out of our minds, and on to an external source, an external system, outside of our mind. This can be in a laptop computer. It can be in your diary. The point is to get them out of your mind, so that your mind can have peace, and then to start listing them on what I call the "Goals Page". Father always, every year, has a little diary book, and that thing is full, every year. He has a new one every year. He is writing all His goals down in that book.

It is a very important exercise that I would love to share with you. I encourage you all to write your goals down on a goal page. Put them all down. They can be big or small. They can be from contributing to world peace all the way to "next week I want to get an A on that test." It can be any size, but the point is to start putting them down on an external system that is outside of your mind.

The reason why, once again, is so that your mind can be at rest while you're moving along and fulfilling your goals. And it's so important that when we do that, we are learning to do both those things together, that we're not choosing to either have peace of mind or work hard, but we are learning how to work hard and have peace in mind at the same time.

Whenever I have to get up to write sermons... We have two services on Sunday. Right from Monday I'm already getting stressed out for the next week. What will be my next sermon topic? I don't know what I'm going to write, and I have to go to a meditation prayer, and try to really find it.

But sometimes I just can't come up with what I'm going to talk about. I'm just not inspired. Sometimes I just feel totally overwhelmed. There are too many thoughts in my mind; too many competing ideas; too many competing goals in my mind. And so what I'll do, I will just start putting them on an external system outside of my mind. Taking them out of my mind, but not losing them; putting them down on paper, or putting them on a computer, and so I may come back and work with them.

Many people get into the habit of thinking that I have to choose either or. So maybe I have to choose between faith and family, working hard and having fun, success and doing what I really want to do. But the blessed life answers to us: "No, we have to choose both."

When I'm able to do that, I can take a break and say, "I can now take a break," and do not need to think about it all during that break. Just completely I can go on to my meditation. I can walk the dogs. I can do something completely other than sermon preparation, and just focus on practicing a peaceful mind set. And then once the break is done and I have enjoyed that break, then I'm able to be refreshed by that. I can go back and start again on my idea page, can start again, working on the ideas that I have put down.

This is really important. Also in the Biblical Tradition we see that this practice is done. We see that any builder, who builds a great piece of architecture or building, must put his plan on paper. And in the same way, we can see this when David was asked to build the temple.

David was so victorious; he had conquered tens and thousands. He had been so victorious in conquering the lands and the different nations; but at the same time, he had shed so much blood in doing so. So he was not permitted to build the temple. And so the task was given to his son, who later became King Solomon, to build a temple for the Ark of the Covenant.

It is very interesting. If we look at this portion of the Biblical tradition, in Chronicles, we will see that there is this huge list, the list David had written. He had written every detail, what kind of articles would be in the temple, what kind of rooms would be in the temple, what kind of cherubim would be over the Ark of the Covenant. He was writing his plan down. He was getting these things out of his mind and on to an external source. In Chronicles 1:28-29, it says "All this I have in writing from the hand of the Lord upon me, and He gave me understanding and all the details of the plan."

And just like I stated earlier, True Father also is in this habit. He also is always trying to write down his goals.

So what's on your mind today? Do you have something on your mind that you know you have to get done? Maybe you have been putting it off. Maybe I need to get on to that. I need to call that person today. I need to call my school teacher. If you have something on your mind, then let's start getting into the habit of preparing.

And there are two ways we have to take dominion over ourselves when we start trying to accomplish our goals. And those are with the mind and with the body. The first is the mind action step, and that would be to remember what it is that we are trying to do, what goal we have to accomplish. It could be something as simple as "I need to call my child's Tae Kwon Do teacher." In my case that happens quite frequently, so that would be one of the goals that I could place in my mind. And then it's important that, as you are trying to move forward in your goals, to create your physical action step.

And what that is, is to think about the next physical action you must take to accomplish that goal… the next physical action. So I would say, I need to call my Tae Kwon Do teacher, and I will have to pick up the phone and call that number. The reason why writing this down is good, is because it helps you take initiative; and it helps us to not hesitate or procrastinate, or wait. Remember, procrastination, especially if we have promises to keep… remember, those things, if they are resulting in broken promises can also result in bad reputations; and they also can result in regrets. So it's very important, when we are living that blessed life, to really be on top of these very small things.

And I'd like to suggest two different ways of working with your goals. There are two real practical ways that, as I found out, really helped me in my life. Many times when we are working with our goals, we will try to take the big ones first… we really want to take the large goals first, "I want to contribute to world peace," but many times that can be less effective. Many times it's better to start from the bottom up, to start with something very small. So get the small things out of the way first; start working with that bottom-up-method, where you're working to fulfill your smaller responsibilities first, and then working your way to the top.

But if you are looking at your goals page, and something is calling out to you, then maybe God is really pulling you towards a particular goal that He wants you to do. And maybe it is something very vast, like live for the sake of others. Then it's important to make that big goal small. You can make the big goal small (like live for the sake of others), make it small by saying, "I want to speak nicely to my children. I don't want to call them 'you rascal' anymore, I want to call them 'you blessing.' I want to remind my wife that she's special. I need to pray for that person who needs prayer. I need to visit that person who is in the hospital now."

See? When we are able to make our big goals smaller, then it's much easier to start actualizing and moving on the processes of fulfilling them. This week was the anniversary of my mother-in-law's passing day -- she passed away a few years ago - and we gathered for prayer. The kids were there, my wife was putting them to sleep, but then she said, "Let's get up, and let's pray." And our daughter just wouldn't get up.

She was lying down, and she had her blankets already, and she was not getting up, it was not happening. So all of my boys started using all kinds of methods to get her up; they tried to convince her, they tried to be nice to her, speak kindly to her, but nothing worked. She just continued to say, "I'm not getting up."

Then at that point one of the boys got up, and he ran towards Mom, and he sat on her lap. "Yeah! My Mom, I'm sitting on my Mom's lap!!" And then our daughter immediately got up, ran over, pushed him out of the way, and sat on Mom's lap. And then my boy looked at Mom, and they looked at each other, and gave each other a high five, and said, "It worked!"

You see, so what am I saying? In life, when we are fulfilling our goals, small or big, it's important to be flexible with our methods. And in the same way, when we are learning to fulfill these things in our lives, (maybe) a goal that God is asking you to do, or maybe you have to do (something) for your family, or for your work place, maybe for your church, it's important to know that the methods may change, depending on the person or depending on whom we are working with. The purpose of course can remain; but it's important to remain flexible with those methods.

I know some mothers, who, when they get really aggravated with their kids, and they are on the verge of screaming or saying something that they don't want to say, they get out of the room and take a time out for themselves. That's very important. That's effective. Some of the mothers will use another method; when they are right on the verge of yelling at their kids, they start singing a song of praise in the middle of the room, and start inspiring everybody… sometimes driving the kids a little crazy.

But this week, when my wife and I were getting a little bit aggravated with our kids.... they were being kids, normal kids... and she started reading their list of positive adjectives from A to Z. They were screaming at each other, and so we had them write from A to Z why they are so great not too scream. And they did that. "I am Awesome, I am too awesome to scream at my brother. I am too bold to scream at my brother. I am too courageous, etc., etc."

And so my wife began to read this list to them; and that started reminding them about who they really are; how awesome they actually are. And then she went on to read her list to them, and the kids were listening to that, and they said, "Mommy, I don't know about that; are you sure you're awesome?" Because she was saying, "I'm an awesome Mom, I'm a bold Mom, I'm a courageous Mom, I'm a disciplined Mom;" and the kids were saying, "Are you sure about that?" And she said, "Yes, I am, child," and she kept on reading.

In our tradition, it's so important that we learn how to do BOTH things well; to do church well, to do family well. These are not mutually exclusive.

In the 1970s a scholar from Britain studied our tradition. He actually lived in a church center; and he observed that we were a "celibate movement". At that time none of us had received the blessing, as you recall; and in his view we were basically like celibate monastics, like priests and nuns and monks, living in communities. So he basically called our tradition a celibate clergy, a celibate tradition.

But when we look at our own sociology today, when we look at our own tradition today, in 2008, we are not monastics anymore. We are blessed; most of us have children, the majority of Unificationists now have children. We now have families. At the time when we were celibates, or monastics, then we could choose 100% faith, because we didn't have families yet. But at this point in our reality, we have both.

It's so important that we learn how to choose, not either or, but both, to choose both these things. so that we do both things well.

Father always teaches us that we have two eyes to see, we have two ears to hear, Father teaches us that we have two lips to speak well. We have two nostrils, two hands to work, two feet to walk well with.

Our faith is the same way. We are the Family Federation for World Peace, and it's important that we learn to have family peace, as well as create world peace. God is asking us, True Parents are asking us to do that.

In the age of indemnity we had to sacrifice everything; but on the foundation of that enormous sacrifice, now at this age, in the Liberation and Complete Release Age, we can now take care of our families. We can now start living God's blessed life, and still be worthy in His eyes.

When I see True Parents, they also always strive to balance their activities. So many people think that they truly just threw their family away; and I am always trying to tell people, "That's not the case." They wrote letters to us, they called us, trying to encourage us. It's not easy to be the head of a world wide religion; it's not easy to build that from scratch. And so, as very, very super busy parents, they really went out of their way to make the personal connections. They tried everything they could do in that circumstance.

And when I see that, that inspires me to always reflect and say, "As a Unificationist it's not appropriate to exclude our family life from church life. In fact, they are the same thing. Coming back home and creating a healthy environment, where our children can have positive benefits, where they can grow in strength and in faith, where they can have confidence in themselves, where they can learn these very wonderful traits; that is church building. And in the same way, with these things, I believe, we must not choose one or the other.

So what's important? What can we learn today? Well, let's have peace in our motion. While we are achieving our goals, let us also learn to have peace. These things are not mutually exclusive. As we are fulfilling our goals as a movement, let us not forget the peace within our family; let us not exclude that from our family.

But practically speaking, what can we do? We can learn how to clear our mind, we can learn how to put our goals outside of our mind, put them on to an external source where we can work with them, where God can lead us to choose from them. And like David, let's get those plans outside, let's get them written out, drawn out, so that we can start seeing them come to life. And let us, in our minds, and in our bodies, start learning how to make action steps towards those goals.

Life is too short. Remember, every year, 15,768,000 seconds are passing by. It's important to start working on our goals, whatever age we are. It's important to start actualizing the things and the dreams that God has put into us.

We can use both those ways. We can use the bottom-up-method or making the big goals small. The point is, to continue to work to fulfill those goals. The goals are not necessarily our own goals; many times they are placed within us to do great things for others. And so, let's be flexible as we are achieving those goals, be flexible with our methods as we go along our path, but keep those goals in front of us. When we do that, we're going to be able to meet those goals; we're going to be able to see more victory in our lives, more illumination and more peace.

As a church, let us not choose either or; but let's choose both. We can choose to have a strong family and strong faith. We can choose to have success and live the passionate life that God has put into us. We can choose to work hard, but also enjoy peaceful times with our family and friends, enjoy good times together. These things are not mutually exclusive. The blessed life includes them all.

So I believe, that if we are able to do that with our small goals first, then next with our purposes, then I believe that we will continue to rise to more victories, more illumination, and more peace.

Brothers and sisters, can you receive this message today? Thank you so much.

We always want to give all of our brothers and sisters and those who are joining us from all around the world, a chance to reclaim our position, to re-center ourselves as True Parents' children.

Please join us in prayer:

Parents, we thank you for allowing us to come into your presence. Please enter into our hearts. We repent for those things that we have done wrong, and we pray that you may make us the palace of your peace, of your love, and of your lineage. We will always keep you enthroned in our hearts. Thanking you for these things, we pray in our names, Aju.

Brothers and sisters, if we always keep True Parents enthroned in our hearts with glory, they will bring us to more victories, more illumination and more peace than we could ever possibly imagine.

39. Living with Perspective (February 9, 2008)

Hyung Jin Moon
February 9, 2008
Headquarter Church, Chungpadong, Seoul, Korea
Transcription by: Annie Hapeman

Hyung Jin Nim's Welcome Message:

Brothers and sisters, let's always remember, before we start our service, to see ourselves from God's viewpoint. As we recall from the fall we know that Lucifer saw Adam and Eve with the wrong eyes. He saw them with his own eyes. He couldn't understand their value.

And so it's important, when we look at ourselves, that we realize that we are children of True Parents, that we have that tremendous value, that we have unique value, cosmic value, and divine value. And it's so important to look at ourselves this way because that's the highest perspective. That's God's perspective.

So I always want to encourage you, every time we start our service, that's the way we should start, knowing who we are, knowing whose we are, knowing that we are precious, that we are filled with value. Father said that the blessed families are those whom the sages have waited for all throughout the ages, the families that are the providential fruit of God's sweat, His tears and of His wish.

Let us remember that we are that kind of precious families, all of you. We're all engrafted into the original lineage. True Parents are flowing through us. They always love us; they believe in us.

It's so important that we see ourselves with that kind of right perspective. I want to encourage you that whenever you go out and see each other please see each other with those eyes with that beautiful vision for each other. When we can do this we can really start creating that ideal kingdom before our eyes.

Brothers and sisters, welcome. We have a lot of guests from the States. Brothers and sisters from the United States, welcome to all. It's such an international gathering. We want to send welcome out to all our brothers and sisters throughout the world. And thank you all for coming. Welcome!!

Yeon Ah Nim's Message:

A couple of days ago, was a big Korean National Holiday. We went to the Peace Palace and had breakfast with True Parents. While we were eating, True Father really praised my husband and me, our couple, for our effort in church building. And I was really delighted to know that True Father is really happy about our ministry.

So after that meal, I told my husband, "Oh Appa that was really nice. True Father really praised us. You also must feel really good, right!?" And I asked him with a big smile and my husband said, "Well yah, I feel good. Yes, I do. But I also know that words are just words so I don't want to get attached to it, because words can come and go. So instead of getting attached to the praise I'll continue to do my best to serve our congregation and look forward to what I can do for our people."

That was his response. At that moment I realized that I am always going up and down on the emotional roller coaster. When people praise me, I go up and feel good. And when people criticize us, oh, I get low. So this is the way that I was riding that emotional roller coaster. And also I saw many people getting way up high when True Father praised them. And when True Father corrected them they would have total depression.

They are on roller coasters as well, just like me. Brothers and sisters let us always keep the right perspective whether it's praise or blame. The most important thing is that we do our best regardless. That's what I believe. Brothers and sisters, we love you so much and we believe in you. Aju!!

Interesting story by Hyung Jin Nim:

I heard a story about Joey. When Joey was in his class he asked his Rabbi, Mr. Goldblat: "Mr. Goldblat, is it true that the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea?" And Mr. Goldblat said "Yes, that is right, Joey." And Joey asked, "Mr. Goldblat, is it true that the children of Israel built the holy temple in Jerusalem?" And he said "Yes, that is right, Joey". And he said "Is it true, Mr. Goldblat, that the children of Israel fought the Egyptians, they fought the Romans, as God directed them?" And Mr. Goldblat said, "Yes, that is right, Joey; and so what is your question?" And Joey said, "Well, I'm just wondering, where were all the adults? (Laughter) How could they have the children do such dangerous things?"

Main Sermon by Hyung Jin Nim:

As we are living the blessed life as blessed families, it is so important in our lives to live with perspective. And if we are to truly live that blessed life, then it is very important for us to sort of step back and always gain perspective in our lives. In our lives as Blessed Families, we will have victorious moments. Hopefully we will have always more and more of those. But we will also have moments where we will somewhat feel defeated.

In both those moments, it is important to learn how to move forward. With certain victories we can actually get caught up in the victory and in the celebration and forget to move on and forget to start preparing for the next victory.

In our moments of defeat, it is important to learn what we can from those experiences and then continue to move forward, to learn what God is teaching you through those experiences and press on forward. We realize that many of our brothers and sisters around the world are in hard times right now. But it is so important that we really practice faith and love and obedience.

When we start looking into our future we may be dealing with a sickness. A lot of our family members around the world are dealing with sickness. We always get requests for prayer for sicknesses. But let us always remember, if we are dealing with a sickness, to look into the future with faith and to see yourself getting better -- to see yourselves getting whole and filled with light.

It is so important to create that visualization in your mind, to visualize, to practice visualization all the time, to visualize in our minds and in our hearts, and then to speak over that vision words of love and encouragement, to nurture that vision, to nurture that visual picture in your mind. It is so important to see yourself getting whole.

Start praising the fact that you are getting better, to start feeding your visual picture with love and encouragement. And then the next step of course would be to obey that practice, to obey that vision, to do everything that is possible to take the right steps in your life to start getting better. Start taking your medicine more regularly; start exercising, start doing such very simple things that will help you work towards victory.

Some people in our blessed families, many of them, some elderly members, are dealing with cancer. We get prayer requests all the time for them, for those families. It's so important that we always remember that whenever we have a difficulty, particularly in an ailment, that we always keep our mind stress free. It is so important to keep our mind clear during those times of tribulation. Because we have to know that these things are not absolute; they're not eternal; they are not unchanging. This is God: God is absolute; He is eternal; He is unchanging; He is forever.

But these ailments, they come, and they can go, as long as we keep the right hope and the right perspective. Even, practically speaking, researchers tell us that even 64% of people who are sick with a really debilitating disease like cancer, can expect to live beyond 5 years. So it's not the right habit to say, when we hear from the doctor a bad report, to say in our minds, "Okay, I'm going to pass tomorrow."

We want to get out of that. It is so important to remember: "Wait a minute, God is in control. God is going to guide me; He is going to give me strength. My family is here; we're going to make it through this."

It is important that in our lives we practice that faith, that love, and that obedience. When God is trying to say, "You're going to get through this obstacle; I'm going to make you stronger through this," it's important that we practice faith, the love and the obedience to that.

Even when we look at the world religions - we know that True Parents come in the position to unite all the world religions, and we see that even in the Chinese tradition -- I love this statement from the I Ching (the Book of Changes) that says that the only thing that does not change is change itself.

Everything else is constantly changing, just like the seasons. In the Biblical tradition we can see in Second Corinthians 4:18: "What is seen is temporary; it is only for a time, and what is unseen," Paul says, "that is eternal." In other words, what we are dealing with right now has a certain time frame. If we are able to work through it, if we are able to keep our attitude up and make sure that we are pressing through it, then God is going to help us, to lift us up to another level with that experience.

And when True Parents teach us, they teach us that God is absolute. They say that He is unchanging, that He is eternal and forever. And conversely, when we reverse that into our own situation, our own situations are changeable. Our own situations are not absolute. Our own situations are not eternal. So if we are dealing with a certain circumstance or a problem that is really weighing us down, let us start seeing it with those eyes. "You (the problem) will not be eternal, you will not be unchanging, you will change, and you are not absolute."

It is so important that we start dialoguing in our minds. This is known as mental dialogue, in our hearts and in our minds. Whenever we are facing obstacles, it is so important that we start conversing with that obstacle, saying to that obstacle, "You are not absolute. You are not going to defeat me; I am going to overcome you." It is so important to have courage in our own hearts and in our own minds when we are moving forward.

And let us always remember that victory can also somehow spoil us. When we get very victorious and succeed a lot, there is a tendency for people to become complacent. So it is always important, when we have victories, to celebrate them, to give glory back to God, but also then to move forward to the next victory. This was the same issue with Joshua and Caleb.

We know the old story from the book of Numbers, where the 12 spies were sent to Jericho to spy on the Promised Land. As you recall, only Joshua and Caleb came back with a faithful report. From the Principle perspective, Moses was setting the foundation for the Messiah on the national level, and here it was based on Joshua's and Caleb's faithful reports that they could enter the Promised Land.

Remember when Moses struck the rock twice? God forbade him to enter into the Promised Land. But when Joshua and Caleb entered into the Promised Land with the younger Israelites, what happened? They became complacent. They thought that their final victory was entering into Canaan.

They thought that was going to be their crowning moment, their biggest victory; they thought that God was planning only that victory for them. They didn't realize that, as they entered into Canaan, that they had to build a sovereign nation, that they had to build a foundation for the Messiah to come. And because they didn't do that, they fell faithless, and because they did that, the providence had to continue to move on.

So let us remember, even in our own lives, when we are dealing with moments when we are victorious, when we are entering into our own promised land, let us remember that God is preparing for us, that God requires us, that He is asking us to keep up, that He is asking us, "Don't stop there; that is not all I intended for you. Even though I've given you the greatest Promised Land, the greatest victory I intend for you something even greater; I intend for you a greater foundation."

So it is important to know in our hearts that just getting in, just having that one crowning victory is not enough. We have to know that, as we move forward, God is going to continue to give us smaller victories, larger victories, and to continue to guide our steps.

Athletes and CEOs know that when they reach the top they have to be continually at their best. They have to be constantly working on their physical health and their mental strength; and they have to work on their endurance, etc.

It is the same in our own lives. When we do get successful in our careers, successful in our marriage, successful with our children, successful at school or at work, it is so important that we continue to realize that this one promotion is not the end of it all. You may have reached the Promised Land with this promotion, but let us remember that God wants you to build more. He wants you to sustain. He wants you to build a foundation for you as a national messiah, as a family messiah.

In the same way it is tempting to say in our hearts, "I reached the top, and now I can fail." It is so tempting for us, when we do become victorious, to start getting worried, overly worried and almost become paralyzed, to start thinking in self-fulfilling prophecies, to start thinking, "Oh, my goodness, what if it doesn't work out, what if it doesn't happen as I intended?"

I heard about a young woman who read in the articles that researchers have shown that after you get married, about 3 years after marriage, that certain love chemicals start to fade. And so this young woman was really getting depressed. She was filled with anxiety. She was saying, "It's my third year now, and what if my husband doesn't love me; and what if our marriage collapses, and what if it starts going downhill? And I'm getting older and I'm getting wrinkles, etc."

This is not the way to live our lives, brother and sisters. You have to know that God is planning great things for us. He is moving us step by step. True Parents have always shown us that in their lives. They have never stopped; they have always aimed for higher things.

In the same way, in our lives we have to know that even in our marriages the best time is not only the first 3 years, or the first 5 years, or whatever, it just gets better and better. If we can understand and accept that change is not always in the wrong direction, that many times change can be in the right direction, depending on our perspective, then we will see, that change in our relationships, in our careers, is for good.

We can see change as learning moments, developing moments, times when we are going to higher levels, to more maturity, more respect, etc. Let's remember that in our lives, whatever our mind focuses on, we will find more of. If you see this picture, this is a picture that we prepared for you, a beautiful mother with her child. And then, what happens? The focus happens. Let us do the focus, my friends, closer please, and what happens?

So many women see one wrinkle, focus on that one wrinkle, and then start noticing a whole bunch of other wrinkles around the eyes, and a whole bunch of wrinkles all over the face. And what happens? You start finding more of what you're seeing, of what you are focusing on.

In the same way in our own lives, when we start focusing on the things that are going wrong in our lives -- just like those wrinkles -- guess what? You're going to start seeing everything wrong about your kids, you're going to start seeing everything wrong about your spouse; you're going to start noticing everything wrong about your work place, or about your boss.

In the opposite framework, let us start focusing on the good things, the great things about our children, the potential inside. When they do something great, let us focus on that and make a big deal of great things, of small great things! Mother Theresa said, "In this world we can do no great things; but we can do small things with great love."

In the same way, let us focus on those very small moments with our children, the moments that you have with your spouse as Blessed Families. See those moments, focus on those beautiful moments and see them expand. Search and find more of those moments.

Whenever we are faced with an obstacle, let us learn from it and overcome it, but not dwell on it. Remember, the old saying goes, "You will dwell in what you dwell on." And if we dwell on a wrinkle, we will dwell in the fact that we are consumed by finding wrinkles. In the same way, if we dwell on the fact that our life has inconveniences, which naturally happen in life, then we will start dwelling in the fact that we have so many inconveniences.

When my brother Young Jin passed, about 8 years ago, I remember, I was so angry. He passed away, and I was just blaming everybody. I was blaming the church, blaming my parents, blaming the members. It was everyone else's fault. I was in such a bad state. I was very bitter, I was very resentful. I did not like the whole environment.

But at some point after he passed, after weeks went on like that -- I was in my room and constantly focusing on those kinds of things -- I realized, "You know what? No one is making me be bitter and angry; no one is forcing me to start blaming everyone else. No one is making me upset or angry." And the more important thing was that my brother does not want me to live like this.

He doesn't want me to waste my life like this, constantly blaming other people, for other things, or constantly blaming the environment. In fact, Young Jin came to me in a dream, and he said, not verbally, but he told me in his heart, that he wanted me to move on. He wanted me to get on with my life.

That was the first time in my life when I started to have a real sort of relationship with him, when he was in the spirit world. He came and visited me all the time in my dreams. I remember, for the first time in my life, I began to take seriously praying and meditation, and the spiritual path. I really honestly believed before then -- I grew up in a very religious home, in a very religious community -- but I believed that only uneducated people followed religion. When I was very young, I thought that it's all hokey pokey.

But after that point, I started gaining a new perspective. I said, "Wait a minute; it's not that simple." As I experienced life and death, as I experienced the passing of my brother, my own existence came into question. It was not all certain. And as I moved to Harvard Divinity School, I found these incredibly smart people. They were incredibly smart. They could speak 20 languages; they had master degrees in business; and here they were in the Divinity School studying religion. Here they were searching for their purpose in life. Here they were, searching in religion for meaning and answers.

And here was I, saying, "Wait a minute; I thought only uneducated people study religion and I'm surrounded by this group of people." They were very bright, very brilliant, and they were studying religion. I remember that moment, when I realized, "My God, it's not that simple." And I started re-examining our community, and I noticed that almost all the first generation that were entering into our movement were inspired by the Principle, so many of them were extremely educated people.

They were so successful in their lives; but there was something lacking in the spiritual realm. In the same way, I started finding myself drawn to that, and I started practicing, in my own way, in my own self. As you may recall, I had a shaven head, and I prayed all the time and things like that.

I remember, one time, when we just had our daughter and just a couple of months after she was born... she was so tiny. She had to be taken to the hospital, because they thought that she had tuberculosis. I remember seeing her lying there on that little hospital bed, with the wires all tied around her tiny little body. I could see my little baby girl. The nurse was asking us to pound on her chest with a pad to loosen the debris, so that she could cough it out.

I remember pounding on her chest with that pad, this tiny little baby; trying to save her life, trying to save this tiny precious being's existence. And I can remember myself just breaking down. I started breaking down. I could not stop crying for her. I could not stop praying for her. I kept on crying; and I kept on praying to God, "Please, God, bring her through this. She is so small, and she hasn't done anything wrong. Please bring her through this."

Now this was very interesting for someone who didn't pray a lot; but all of a sudden, when I found my baby girl really suffering in the hospital, I found myself praying. I found myself asking God, "Please bring her through this." And God did. He brought her through it. She's healthy; she's whole. She gives us so much joy.

But it's so important in our lives to remember the great victories, when God did pull us through our past circumstances. It's so important. When we focus on the obstacles in front of us, many times we forget that God brought us through many tribulations. He brought us through many victories. He saved our children many times. And it's so important in our own lives, that we remember those moments, that we mark those moments in our heart, and recall the moments when God saved us, our children, and our families.

In the Buddhist tradition there is a story of the woman named Kissagakami. She was a woman who married into a very rich Brahman family, a very rich, high cast family. She married into that family, and her dreams were all coming true. She was so happy. Her whole future was set. Her whole family became rich; she was so elated with all that was happening. On top of that, she also had a beautiful young boy, who would then be the inheritor of her husband's wealthy kingdom.

All her dreams were coming to pass. She could see all the things lining up; all her victories were coming to pass; all the stars were lining up.

But one day, when the child was two years old; the child had an accident, and the child passed away. So she ran and held this child searching after every medicinal doctor around the area. She went to this doctor, and to that doctor. She asked, "Please revive my son. Can you revive my child?" The doctors said "No, we can't do that." And she heard that there was an enlightened being in the forest. And she thought, "Maybe I should go see him. Maybe he can resurrect my child."

She went to this being and asked him. It was the Buddha, and she asked him, "Buddha, please heal my child; please heal my baby." And he said, "I will. I will do that. I have the power to do that. But let me first ask you to do something. First get me a mustard seed from a family who has not experienced death or suffering." And she went around, and said "That's easy. I'll going to find that quickly, and I'll going to be able to quickly resurrect my child."

And she went to this family, and she went to that home. She asked them, "Please, can you give me a mustard seed. You had nobody whom you lost from your house, right? Give me a mustard seed from your house. I take it back and revive my son."

But then each house that she went to, all the families had lost somebody, each family they went to. One family lost an uncle, another family lost their children, another family lost their siblings in a fire; and so she went back to the sage, and she said, "I cannot find a house that did not have death or suffering."

And from that moment she was enlightened. She realized, that, although she felt she was suffering, that her situation was very hard -- when she looked around, when she noticed that all the other families, too, were dealing with death, with life and death, that they were dealing with suffering -- then she re-evaluated her frame of mind.

She began to see her experience in a different light, in a different perspective. The story goes on to say that she became a great sage within that tradition, that she was able to overcome the suffering and become a great saint in that tradition.

In our own lives, it's so important, because when we start dwelling on the enormity of our problems, sometimes we lose perspective, because we get emotionally caught up in the events. And it's natural to be sucked up in that emotion and to sometimes feel how powerful that is. But it's not good to get overwhelmed by the obstacles and the circumstances.

I was sent a beautiful set of pictures, and I'd like to share this with you. Whenever we start focusing on how huge our obstacle seems, let us remember this picture. See this picture! There is the Earth that is lined up with some of our planets: That's Venus to the right of the Earth, that's Mars, that's Mercury, that's Pluto. But watch this. Let's compare the Earth to the size of some of our other larger planets in our Solar System.

In this next slide you will see that the earth is now down there, compared to Jupiter and Neptune. Do you see it? Now remember: On earth we're that tiny little dot in the nation of Korea, in Seoul, and now look at the earth as compared to Jupiter and Saturn, and let's continue this further. We will see in this next slide the sun compared to our earth, you will see that our earth is quite tiny compared to our sun, that's our solar system's sun. You can feel the heat from it whenever you go outside, you can feel our sun.

But let's then compare our sun to another sun in the galaxy, and there's our sun at the bottom; and you can notice Alturas, which is another sun in another galaxy. And now let's compare Alturas, which is quite large, to another sun in another galaxy, and we can compare that to Anteras, which is the big thing over there, and look at Alturas, that small little thing, and look at our little sun way down there.

It gives you a little bit of perspective in our lives. So many times in our lives, we get to see our problems as so big, and we forget the enormity of the cosmos that we live in. We forget who created this entire cosmos, all these amazing galaxies, these huge stars that are billions of light years away. We forget that that is the exact same creator that is helping us through our day to day issues.

And let us always remember that in our life the perspective is our mental outlook over time. It's how we see ourselves, our lives, in the process of time. And it is important to keep the right perspective in our lives. When we see ourselves over-dwelling on things that seem very big, let's remember how small we are in that cosmos.

Remember, this is just a small bit of the cosmos, compared to what's out there. Let us always remember how huge, how great, how awesome God is. When we do that, we can recall the times when He brought us through, when He allowed us to get through obstacles.

In my situation, that would be when He saved my little girl with that lung issue. It would be when my boy ran out in front of a car, in the middle of traffic, and almost got run over by a car. And God caused that car to move out of the way. It would be another time when I had kidney problems, and I was urinating blood; and God pulled me through it.

Those moments I mark in my mind. Whenever I want to start complaining about my situation, about how hard it is, any obstacle I am facing -- whether it be in a relationship, whether it be in a situation, whether it be at work, anything that is bothering me -- I will start remembering what God did for me. I will start recalling how God lifted me out of such situations. It's important to do that in our own lives.

And let's remember to practice the faith and love and obedience, the vision that God gives us, that vision that True Parents teach us, that Blessed Families, that True Parent, we will be victorious, we will be historical victors of this age; we will not fail at this time. As the Hoon Dok Hae messages say, if we don't do it, then even God will not be able to do it.

So it's important that we know, that we have the confidence in ourselves to know that we will be able to do that. Let's have faith in that vision that God has put in us; have faith in ourselves; let us love that vision, speak words of encouragement over that vision and act in obedience, so that we can act and improve every single day. So, what can we learn today? It is so important to have the right perspective. All top athletes, all organizations know that with victories or defeats, you have to keep moving forward. You can't get stuck in either victory or defeat.

And remember, like Joshua and Caleb, let us not believe that getting into the promised land is all that we need to do. Let us remember that when you have a great victory -- let's say, you get into that college that you were trying to get into, let's say you got that job that you were trying to get, let's say you got to work with that person that you wanted to work with -- then let's remember that we are just getting into the promised land.

Just like Joshua and Caleb, we have to continue to build, to have victory, to let God guide us, and to build that foundation. Let us remember, like Kissagakami, that suffering is pervasive. Everyone experiences life and death. For me that was such a freeing notion when I realized that I am not the only one suffering from the loss of a brother.

There are so many families that lost their brothers. So many people have lost their parents. So many people have lost their children; and here I am, complaining that I have lost my brother, and using that as an excuse to live in defeat.

Instead of that, let's change that around. Let's start saying "We are going to use that as a turning point in our lives and move forward; and God is going to guide our steps." Let's remember that if and when we do feel overwhelmed with our problems, we'll send you the email with all these beautiful planets and all the stars; and let's keep it in perspective.

You are, we are precious. True Parents tell us that we are more precious than all of that, all of that cosmos. So if God won't even leave that cosmos alone, He will not leave us alone in our lives. Let us know that He will be guiding our steps, He will be pulling us through this victory, and He will be lifting us up.

So let's remember to see with faith, let's speak over our lives, speak over our children with love, with encouragement, and let's obey that vision that God has put into you. Let's act in obedience to that vision and let's continue to improve, and continue to advance, continue to bring more glory and more victory to Him.

As we always like to say at the end of our service, let's continue every week. We encourage you to have just a little more victory, just a little more illumination, just a little more peace. We don't need to do it all at once; we can do it one step at a time. We can have just a little bit here, just a little bit there. We can start improving in our lives, just in small portions; and when we do that, we will start having larger victories. God will start preparing larger illuminations and fill us with more peace.

Brothers and sisters, can you accept this message today? Yes!

Thank you so much.

We always like to give our last time to include all the brothers and sisters around the world, and also those who may be watching with us today.

Let us say a brief prayer:

True Parents, we are repenting for our wrong actions that we have done in the past; we pray that Father, you may fill us, that you may come into our midst; Father, that you may create our family as the palace of your peace, of your love, and of your lineage. Let us pray this simple prayer in the name of... Aju.

Brothers and sisters, if you pray this very simple prayer, we believe that you are now spiritually connected to True Parents, your family as well, your ancestors, your descendants. We believe that with all our heart, and we know that you are coming back home to your homeland and True Parents' home.

Let us always keep them enthroned in our hearts. If we can do that, then we will rise up to more victory, more illumination, and more peace than we can absolutely imagine.