Chapter 11 - The Textbook of Love

Chapter 11
The Textbook of Love
February 5, 1984

The topic this morning is the textbook or the Bible of love. Jesus said, "The Kingdom of God is within you." According to that statement, where does the Kingdom of God have to begin? It must begin within each person. All believers today, including ourselves, are longing to dwell in the Kingdom of Heaven. We must think, "Within me is the Kingdom of Heaven and, because of me, that Kingdom is possible."

Love is the fundamental core of the Kingdom of Heaven and we are going to enjoy the essence of love in that Kingdom. What do we mean by the essence of love? The essence of love is not for just an individual but it is for the sake of the whole. For this reason, that essence is enjoyed and appreciated by everybody.

Who is the center of that essence of love? Human beings cannot be the center because we are created, or resultant, beings. Therefore, there must be a causal existence and this being must be the cause of the universe, the cause of the entire creation, including humanity. That first cause is indeed God.

It is important to realize that when people speak of God, they often think of an entity which has nothing to do with themselves or their lives, but that is not the case. God is someone who is already entwined within you, and you are within Him. Let's consider magnetism. The two poles of north and south are automatically related. We could say that they are entwined; they cannot be separated.

Human nature is such that we always desire a fuller relationship of love; we always want to go deeper and deeper into love. It is important to know how we can be harmonized with the essence of love in the universe. First of all, we must think of God as our subject. Each person is always in the position of object to God. What is the subject/object relationship centered upon? It is centered on love. Thus the essential relationship between God and man is that of the subject and object of love. The parent/child relationship is the essential, universal relationship.

You enjoy saying, "God is my Father," because it sounds good. But I want to know, is God really your Father? A father touches and embraces his child when it is growing up; he takes the child to the ice cream shop. Has God ever taken you to an ice cream shop? Actually, God is the closest being to you. He is the center and the essence of love and you are the fruit of that love, so there is an intimate closeness between you and God.

Each morning when you first wake up, you stand in front of the basin to wash your face and look at yourself in the mirror. Have you ever thought at that time, "I am not just seeing my physical appearance but also my spiritual self."? There is a connection between your physical senses which perceive your physical appearance and your spiritual senses which perceive your spiritual appearance.

A woman might look into the mirror and say, "I have a pretty face and I know I can attract any man I want because of that." But have you ever thought about attracting God with the beauty of your spiritual face? Just as a man pursues a beautiful woman, have you ever thought that God finds you irresistible, too? Have you ever imagined God coming to you, saying, "You are my lovely daughter. I want you to be with me"?

When you women know that your husband loves everything about you, including your skin, your fingers, your eyelashes, your lips, your hair color, everything, doesn't this make you happy? It is a great comfort to know that you have a husband who loves you from top to bottom. But the question is whether that love is only a physical love or whether your husband loves you spiritually as well. Which of the two is the cause, the mind or the body? Do you think love should start from the cause or from the effect? Love comes from the invisible, spiritual God; this is where everything starts. For that reason unless you begin from that cause, there is nothing permanent in your relationship. Nothing will remain but your body. You must grasp that cause and be centered on it.

Let's say that God as the cause is a big plus and you are a small minus. If some kind of action is taking place in the minus, will the cause stand still or will it respond to that action? Whenever the object does something, it will immediately trigger a response by the subject. Action always evokes a reaction. Love must begin from the mind, but whose mind, God's or yours? No, it is not from God's mind but from your mind. Your mind arises out of God's mind, so some urge of love must initiate from your mind.

What kind of mind are we talking about? Unless you have a mind that exists for the sake of the whole, the love of God will not respond to you because God's love is for the sake of the whole. If you have a closed, selfish mind there is no way that the love which exists for the sake of the whole will respond to you.

Loving the Whole

When Jesus said, "The Kingdom of Heaven is within you," it was the mind that he was speaking about. The Kingdom of Heaven must begin within a mind which exists for the sake of the whole. Such a mind is so broad that the entire universe can be embraced by it; the whole Kingdom, including all of mankind, can come within that mind. In that case, who should be the center of your mind -- the nation, the world, or God? Yes, it should be God. If your mind is embracing everything, that means you are trying to capture or embrace the mind of God.

Have you ever measured the size of a mind? How many inches or centimeters does it contain? The size of the mind is not measurable; nevertheless, it can be so gigantic that it can embrace everything in the universe. Let me give an analogy: let's say there is a rich man with billions of dollars. His mind tells him, "You have enough money, so why don't you do some philanthropic work? Give some to charity." It happens that he loves Unification Church members, so he distributes billions of dollars among Unification Church members. After that, his mind would not say, "OK, you did enough charity." Instead, it would say, "Now why don't you distribute something to all 240 million Americans? Be like Santa Claus and give money to everyone in the country."

So after he did that and gave money to everyone in the country, his mind would say, "Bravo, well done," but it would not say, "That's enough." It would continue to urge him on, "Go on -- there are four billion people out there, so take care of them too." Even if he did give gifts to each of the four billion people in the world, his mind would still not be satisfied. It would say, "What about the spiritual world? There are 200 billion there!"

Even after he gave something to the population of the entire spiritual world, his mind still wouldn't be satisfied; it would continue to push him forward. When would the mind be satisfied? The mind will only be satisfied when it knows that the ultimate universal center which is God has been embraced. From the lowest extreme to the highest extreme, the whole universe and cosmos have to be taken care of.

Only after the mind can see that the universal center is fully satisfied will it say, "You have done it. Everybody in the cosmos is happy." But suppose that man was so rich that even after all that charity, he had money left over. Then the mind would say, "Don't keep it to yourself. Put it in the treasure store of God." When he does that, the mind will say, "Bravo, you have truly done it."

So if that man gives up everything, is he in a tragic position? He may be empty as far as money is concerned, but he will receive enough love to intoxicate him! He will be drowning in the love of God. The mind is a tricky thing; it cannot be satisfied easily. It always seeks to go another step. When the mind has exhausted every possibility to do more, from that point on love starts to flow from the universal center, which is God.

The mind is the greediest thing under the sun, in a way. No matter how much you accumulate, the mind never says, "That's enough." Even if you have more gold, diamonds and money than you can handle, the mind is not filled up. What can fill the mind? The mind cannot be filled by anything material; only true love can ultimately satisfy the mind. With true love, the mind is totally satisfied and filled up.

True love exists for the sake of the whole. When your mind is filled with true love, everything is within your mind: the nations, the world, all of creation, even God. God comes and dwells within you. Would you like such true love?

Filling the Mind of God

Imagine a very beautiful woman who wants to adorn herself with jewels to appear even more beautiful. She decides to wear not just one diamond ring but ten, one for every finger. If she has diamonds sparkling all over her body, do you think that will make her abso- lutely happy? Suppose that woman thought she was the only one to wear so many diamonds, but suddenly another woman comes along wearing just as many diamonds. Suddenly, even though she is covered with diamonds, she is unhappy because she is jealous. Her mind is craving for more, as if she had nothing. Her satisfaction level falls back to zero.

Or in another example, suppose that beautiful woman is all dressed up in her diamonds and gorgeous clothes, expecting to be noticed and admired by the men around her. Instead, all the men are passing her by and virtually ignoring her, while women are coming to her, saying, "You look absolutely beautiful!" Do you think she will be satisfied in such a case? When she was dressing herself, she was anticipating the attention she would receive from men; she didn't want to get a lot of compliments from women! So for that woman, are men more precious than diamonds or are diamonds more precious than men?

No matter how many diamonds you possess, what a woman ultimately needs is a man. Isn't that true? Why do you need a clumsy man? What does he have? His pockets are probably empty; he doesn't have any diamonds to give you. What is so good about men? Men possess something called love and that is the most precious thing to a woman. Where does the love of a man come from? The source of his love is ultimately God. When will the love of God visit you? The love of God, true love, comes to you when you have a mind that exists for the sake of the whole.

We can apply everything we have said so far about women to men. We can say that men are craving the love that comes only from women. Therefore a woman's love is the ultimate thing that will satisfy a man's mind. Nothing else can fill the big, gigantic mind of a man except the love of a woman. The man's mind can only be filled when woman's love, embracing the whole universe, comes to visit. No matter how greedy the mind of that man, it will be filled by such love.

Who is the king of greediness, in this sense? It is God. But even the mind of God will be filled when true love comes to visit. What does man have that can fill the mind of God? There is no aspect of tiny little human beings that can satisfy the mind of God except for true love. At the moment when the true love of man and the true love of woman, both embracing the entire universe, come together, they jump into the heart of God. At that moment their true love explodes and fills the mind and heart of God. Does that sound good?

When you hear these explanations, you can understand what Jesus was saying when he said, "The Kingdom of God is within you." Jesus gave a description of the relationship between himself and God and mankind which seems tricky, in a way. He said, "You are within me and I am within you and God is within me and I am in God." It sounds confusing, but in fact it is not. How can we understand that passage of the Bible? You have to understand the relationship between love and the mind. When there is a mind that embraces the whole, there is always room for the love of God within it and vice versa. In that case, every mind is filled: God's mind, Jesus' mind, and your mind. Not only God's mind but also man's mind is gigantic. God created only one item that can fill your gigantic mind -- true love.

When a woman with the mind of true love and a man with the mind of true love exchange their love, is God dwelling within them? God has true love and men and women become instruments to channel that love. That is why men and women were created. In that respect, men and women can say about themselves, "What a wonderful creature God has created." Doesn't that make you feel good?

To what extent does God embrace the universe? Does He say, "I only embrace the people I like"? or, "I embrace only during the day. I don't like the night time"? Is that the description of God's attitude? Does God say, "I don't like all four seasons. I only embrace in the spring time"? God loves not only during spring but also in summer, autumn and winter. Furthermore, God embraces not only all good things but also the bad things.

What about you? Do you also embrace good and bad together? When you have the spark of true love, it melts and purifies all evil things. Jesus told us to love our enemies. He forgave the Roman soldiers who hung him on the cross, but would you do the same? If you were treated so evilly by someone, could you forgive him? This is the secret. When evil is forgiven and embraced, it is eventually melted and purified.

When you embrace your enemy, the spark of the love of God will melt away evil. Even Satan cannot help but surrender in front of the true love of God. When you are giving the true love of God, the smallest woman should feel, "My love can melt even the biggest man." That is the kind of confidence you should have. That is the way I live my life. I want to embrace the entire world and every kind of person, even the most disagreeable ones.

Once a person tastes true love, he cannot go away from it. An analogy is the honey bee: when it is sucking honey from a flower, you cannot pull it away. Even though its tail comes off, the bee will not release the honey. The same thing happens when people find true love. Certainly, true love has an even stronger power than the power of honey for the bee. True love has the power that enables people to sacrifice their lives. It goes beyond the power of death. That is why in God's world death has no power.

The greediness of human beings has caused problems throughout history. Why did God give man the quality of desire, ambition, or greed? He wanted to fill the greedy heart of people with true love. No man-made object nor anything material can fulfill the desire of human beings. The communists try to explain the world through the concept of dialectical materialism but that does not fill up the heart of man.

Let's say that world-famous scholars came together and created a seminar, asking the question, "How can human beings find ultimate satisfaction?" They might suggest all different things, such as wealth, freedom, power and so forth, but they won't be able to agree with each other. Finally, Reverend Moon comes along and presents his solution. Those scholars would have to agree.

When God sees this, He will say, "I have been waiting for this moment when someone finally got the right answer to that question. I want to give Reverend Moon a certificate as well as a big prize because he deserves it." Do you think that everybody will resent God's blessing on Reverend Moon, or will they say, "Yes, he deserves it"?

Love Embraces Everything

The real truth is simple but it is not easy to find. Because you have been following Reverend Moon's tradition and way of thinking, you are different from the rest of the world. That is why you can be proud to be a Unification Church member.

The men and women who possess a mind of true love have to be tested on the street. All kinds of people will pass you by -- white people, yellow people, black people -- and they will point their fingers at you. Sometimes they even shove you and say, "Look at that Moonie." How would you respond? If you respond in the normal, secular way, you will not survive. You will become completely frustrated.

Perhaps when you go out fund raising, someone will come up to you and say, "Hey, Moonie, you follow that yellow man, don't you? You are brainwashed! Get out of here!" How would you feel? Can you embrace the whole universe and very specifically that man? Can you say, "I want to meet thousands more men like that" and feel that you have not yet begun to fight?

Let's look at two different people. One embraces and accepts only those people who are good, positive and respectful to him, while the other embraces people full of negativity and hatred. When God looks at those two people, which will He pay more attention to? Yes, it is the second one because God knows that the second person is more like Him.

Think of how much ridicule and negativity God receives. The worst things have been said about God. People say, "God is dead, God is helpless, God is too old." Communism rises up and claims that there is no God. God has been thoroughly ridiculed and persecuted by mankind; you have no idea of the extent of it. What you experience is nothing in comparison to what God has received, yet God is still embracing and calling out to the most satanic people.

Many people accuse God, saying, "Look, God! Look at how evil that person is and how unworthy he is of Your love!" Yet, God replies, "Is that so? Well, I will still embrace him." That is the nature of our God, our Father. We have to ask ourselves a question: how much do we resemble God, our Father? How about you? Don't you have something to repent about? You have no idea of the suffering God has endured.

Reverend Moon is one man who has been embracing everyone, including good people and evil people, trying to melt all their qualities with the true love of God. No one has thought in that fashion, let alone lived his entire life that way. Without a doubt, all mankind shall come under this one tradition. The True Father and Mother have committed their lives for the sake of their mission, for embracing the enemy world.

As a Moonie, how do you feel when you hear these things? How much have you done so far? Perhaps you have done the best you could, without understanding the depth of these things, so your first deed should be to repent. You know you have not even come near to the standard of God, but you know that standard now; you have heard the truth and you must make effort to achieve that goal.

There are many people around me, many people following me, including all the leaders. Among them, who is thinking of how to embrace the whole world? Who is trying to take responsibility for the bad things and melt them? There are many who are analyzing and accusing others. I know which of you are trying to embrace from the viewpoint of God and who is accusing others from the viewpoint of Satan.

What do you think? Is my observation correct or not? Is it correct only in the New York area or is it universally correct? Whenever two people are quarreling, I can immediately see who is wrong and who is right. Jesus demonstrated that spirit in the court of the governor, Pontius Pilate. He did not speak; he was silent. He did not want to make excuses. He was absolutely silent because in that way he was able to embrace the court. Jesus lived that way of life and history protected him.

Why We Need Training

Today Reverend Moon is controversial, not only in one country but throughout the entire world. More and more, communism is looking at Reverend Moon as their mortal enemy. Communists are forming all kinds of plots to try to eliminate me. But you must understand that no matter what happens to me, even if they are successful in physically eliminating me, that will not stop the march of the love of God. That love will prevail. The world will eventually be enlightened and united by the teaching of Reverend Moon, whether he is physically alive or not.

We are truly on the threshold of the most gigantic and glorious task in history. When you embrace the universe, you embrace yourself. What kind of self? The true self. When a person achieves that, his mind and his body are entirely harmonious and united. In that case, you will never put the desires of your body before the desires of your mind. Your mind will be the master of your body. When your mind is filled with true love, your body will be obedient to your mind. That was God's original ideal. The original God-given mind has the tendency to embrace the universe, not just to search after selfish gain.

However, Satan always uses man's body as the stage for his activities. Thus your God-embracing mind should control your body before Satan can control it. That is why we need training. The mind knows that the body is always susceptible to satanic enticements. There are all kinds of temptations coming to you and the body is always trying to look in that direction, but the mind is saying, "You rascal, look at me. Don't look at the world, look at me." The mind is always trying to turn the attention of the body towards it.

Because that is man's original nature but Satan is always trying to use man's body as his stage, there is always a battle going on between body and mind. That is the basic struggle within human beings. The body wants comfort and sensual pleasures. Unification Church members must know that unless you have a straight mind such as I have described, centered upon God, it doesn't matter how beautifully you dress yourself or make your body healthy. That body will become the prey of Satan and a sacrifice to him, like Satan's altar.

You must change your body. Your mind must be able to control the actions of the five senses, the five organs: the eyes, ears, smell, taste, and sexual desires. Don't search for your universal enemy anywhere else: it is right here within you. The self can become the stage for Satan and therefore your worst enemy is within you. That enemy is worse than the Soviet Union, worse than any criminal in the world.

Your body can be susceptible to becoming Satan's instrument. You want to embrace your good self, not your evil self. You don't want to become a partner of evil but rather a partner of goodness. First you must become the kind of man or woman whose mind and body are united, centered upon God, and then you can embrace a person of the opposite sex with the same qualifications. That is all right; that is principled. When a God-centered man and a God-centered woman come together and together they embrace the nation, the world and the universe, that is good. Otherwise, it is not good.

Vindicate Your Blessing

Please raise your hands if you are blessed members. Compare these criteria I have given with your own married life and relationship. Sometimes I push you couples out for the sake of a greater mission. You may feel, "We are blessed now and I want to live with my wife. She should be with me all the time." But I am saying, "You should separate now and go out for the sake of the nation, the world, and the universe." When that happens, you should realize that I am pushing you and God is pushing you for the sake of your greater self.

You were only thinking about the embrace between a man and a woman but you have never thought about a man and woman together embracing the nation, world and universe. Is that heaven? Can you make it into heaven? A man and woman may be separated physically but they are going out to embrace bigger things such as the world, humanity and the universe. After having accomplished that, when they meet again, they will embrace each other with the universe at the center. They will be a truly fulfilled couple.

Compare two couples, one just busy embracing each other and the other dedicating themselves, giving their youth and their lives for the sake of the nation, the world, and the universe. Which one is more meaningful and more valuable?

Without any question, I love you. You are precious and I absolutely wish you well. I gave the Blessing to you because I care for you and love you. But sometimes the consequences of that Blessing make my face red; I feel ashamed in front of the world and mankind. I feel that something was not good about it. Therefore, when you go out to the mobilization, go beyond my expectations. Go out to suffer for the sake of humanity. In that way you will be doing the greatest thing and you will comfort me. Then my heart will be touched and I will want to give out more blessing. I will pray for God to remember your sacrifice and bless you much more. Whatever you generate, whatever your action, you receive the reaction.

I have heard that some blessed couples are trying to have three children as quickly as possible because then they will not have to be mobilized. But if you think that way, I will change my thinking, too. I will say, "Until you have ten children, you should go out." If you go out on the mobilization leaving ten children behind, that means you will be embracing ten times, even a hundred times, your ten children. This is more important for the benefit of your children; more blessing will come to them because you are working, instead of focusing on them.

Sometimes I feel sorry for you. You are unlucky men and women for having met me, aren't you? If you had not met me, you wouldn't be seated on this hard floor right now. You would not have been pushed out to work and be separated from your spouse. You would not have had all this chastisement. You could be doing anything you wanted if you hadn't met Reverend Moon. You could go out and date as much as you wanted, and go dancing as much as you desired.

Instead, here you are, having met Reverend Moon. What a tragic life -- you can't even go on dates. You have some old girlfriend and you can't meet with her or hold her hand. In the secular world you can just come together with anyone you desire, without even bothering with the formalities of marriage, if you choose. You can live with some woman or man as you desire.

But you say, "After ten years in this movement, I am still waiting to be matched! I don't even know what kind of girl is coming to me!" The fact is that I know very well how you feel. I know exactly how things go out there but still I must enforce the Principle. That is my agony, also. Do you think I should be lenient and say, "All right, you have suffered enough so now you can go out and do whatever you want"? What do you want me to do? Do you want me to continue to enforce the Principle of God, without compromising even one iota? If you say yes, you are very smart.

Embrace Your Destiny

To comfort yourself, just say, "This is my destiny. Nothing else matters because I was born for this." Think of this: a dog has a dog's destiny; he will always be a dog and nothing else. A cat has a cat's destiny; he cannot become a tiger or anything else. By the same token, a Moonie has a Moonie's destiny. Thank God we are Moonies!

I have had to think in the same way. I was born for this destiny so I just cleared my mind and refused to think about anything else. I said, "This is my God-given destiny and I am living it out." My life has been full of amazing things. Even when I was very young, whenever I walked into a village, dramatic things started to happen.

I knew that a legal battle would be coming to me once I moved to the United States. It has been a part of my destiny wherever I have gone - - North Korea, South Korea, Japan, and now the U.S. So my attitude was to embrace that destiny. I am only interested in what kind of blessings will come after the fulfillment of that destiny.

Many people sneaked away from the Unification Church in the past, seeing no hope here. In Korea, Japan, and the U.S., people thought that they were wise and left the church, thinking they would live their lives more fully. But what happened? They thought that Reverend Moon would be ruined but he has not been ruined. They thought their lives would become better but instead they became more and more difficult. So after ten, twenty or even thirty years, people have come back and said, "Please remember me. I was a member thirty years ago!"

These people see that God is indeed on Reverend Moon's side. If God is on Reverend Moon's side, anybody who tries to follow Reverend Moon will be on God's side, too. They will flourish and many blessings will come to them; they will be seen as good men and women in the sight of God. This is Reverend Moon's thinking: that anybody on Reverend Moon's side is on the side of God. Anybody going the other way is going against God. In the meantime, I am not standing still. I am moving forward and embracing the world, step by step.

Do you think that what I am saying is true? How do you know it is true? I know that it is true through my own experience. My own relatives, my brothers and sisters, did not believe in me; my own mother doubted me. My aunts and uncles thought I was in deep trouble; the Korean nation thought I was in deep trouble. But many years later, these people have come to realize that Reverend Moon represents the only hope for them and their survival.

This is happening in the U.S. as well. In the past, many Americans thought that Reverend Moon was a thorn in their side, an obstacle that should be eliminated. But now that I have been here for twelve years, those same people are recognizing that there is no other way to counter communism than by following Reverend Moon's guidance. They are seeing that Reverend Moon is offering them hope, not only for themselves but for the nation and the world.

Unchanging True Love

We are speaking of the textbook of love. What is a textbook? A textbook is a guide; anybody who follows the same guide or formula will achieve the same results. With the textbook of love, you will first of all embrace your family. What are the components of your family? First there are the grandparents and then the parents. Then there are the children, which is your position, and then the grandchildren.

The question to ask is: do these four levels of couples belong to God? Are they God-centered or not? The family is the center of the universe; it is the building block and when you duplicate the building block, you build the world. Unification Church members should know that. What are the elements of the universe? First, God is there, then spirit world, the physical world and all the creation. Those elements are all within your family. The universe has all these elements and your family also has all these elements.

Whether in the present, past or future, human character is the same. The human mind remains the same; it is the same container. The important question is what substance fills up that container? With what do both God and human beings want to fill up that container? With true love. That desire is the same, whether you are on the grandparents' level, the parents' level, your level or the grand- children's level.

For you members of the Unification Church, where is the Kingdom of God? The Kingdom of God is within your family. That Kingdom is desired by the grandparents, the parents, yourselves, and your children.

If your own physical parents are divorced or separated, raise your hands, please. Among those who raised your hands, if you think this situation brought you great happiness, please raise your hands again. Those who feel it was unfortunate, please raise your hands. No matter where you are from, you all arrived at the same conclusion about this question. Do you think that in a thousand years, people will change and they will say, "Yes, I am glad that my mom and dad divorced? No, that age will never come.

Just by observing nature, you can find unchanging truth. When you see a family of wild ducks swimming in a pond, it is natural to see both parents with the babies; you don't normally see a single duck parent trying to take care of a brood of babies. The mother duck swims in front, and the proud, good-looking father duck is behind, protecting them. Does this look good or bad? Will this phenomenon change when technology becomes more advanced? No, it will not.

The smallest bird knows how to feed and protect its young. In fact, the smallest birds are the more alert because they are more vulnerable. They know that all kinds of predators will to try to get their babies. On the other hand, the eagle is quite confident as it watches its babies. It knows that nobody is going to come and attack its young. If necessary, the eagle can fight off any predators.

The baby eagles are perfectly trusting under the protection and care of the mother and father eagle. The baby will accept anything the parent does for it, even taking a snake for food if the parent gives it to him. It doesn't resist and say, "Oh no, Mommy, I don't want to eat a snake!" It just opens its mouth and eats. But the supreme creation of God, human beings, are not that way. So many children are mistrustful of their parents' judgment. This is what is called the generation gap.

What about the conduct of parents? There are cases of parents wanting to go out to a party and not having a baby sitter, so they just tie their child into the bed, saying, "You stay here until I come back. Don't move." That is a terrible thing for a parent to do. The degradation of human moral character has fallen far below the insects, the birds or the animals. Because of the degradation of the family, the world has become what it is.

Our Textbook of Love

The family is the microcosm of the universe. God gave us this microcosm as our textbook of love, the school in which people can be trained to relate with the rest of the world. Who should be the master or the subject of the family? It should be whoever knows the most and serves the most. Who knows more, experiences more, and has more power to control? It is the grandparents. Why is this correct? The grandparents are in the position to have more experience and they certainly know more. Thus the grandfather is like the king of that family.

At some point the grandparents know they are getting old and so they say, "My children, you should take over. I dedicate everything to you." Then the parents will say, "If that is your wish, we will take that responsibility." Eventually the parents will say, "Now, my child, you are ready to take over the responsibility of this family." Then you will come up into the responsible position. That is the way responsibility is delegated. That becomes the tradition: the grandparents delegate the responsibility to the parents, then the parents give it to you, and you to your children. As each generation of grandparents goes to spirit world, the responsibility moves along.

The family is the microcosm of the universe and the textbook of love for universal relationships. However, because the world is fallen, there have been no totally God-centered grandparents, parents, children or grandchildren. For that reason, God wants to remake or restore this textbook of love from the very beginning. He wants to make one true model and that is the reason religions were begun. The ultimate purpose of religion has been to recapture the ideal family.

The Focal Point

Finally one religious movement has come, declaring clearly to the world that the family is the building block of the Kingdom of Heaven. Perfection must come to the family and the family must be God- centered. Furthermore, it is teaching the concept of True Parents. This is the teaching of the Unification Church. The Unification Church has brought forth a new concept of the family and, through that family, a new concept of the world, the universe, and all of humanity. The mission of the Unification Church is to create that model, the textbook of love, and to expand it to the universal level. In that way, we can remake society. That is the goal.

What is the purpose of the Blessing you have received? It is to create that new family tradition as the textbook of love for the world. This is the first time in human history that the terminology of True Parents has been used. Without True Parents, how can we expect to have true grandparents? Without True Parents, there is no way we can have true husband and wife or true children. Thus the focal point of this historical event must be the True Parents. From that point on, all things start to happen.

This is the first time ever that True Parents have appeared on the face of the earth. Who is the central figure on the True Parents' family level? Once True Parents become true grandparents, who will be the central figure then? According to the tradition, the grandfather must be the center, so when he is promoted to the grandparents' position, he remains the central figure.

In order to spread this textbook centered upon True Parents throughout the world, the Blessing has taken place all over the world -- from the 36 couples to the 6,000 couples and later on to 60,000 and even 600,000 couples. When 600,000 couples are blessed, who will be their center? As long as True Parents are living here on earth, they will become the True Grandparents, True Great Grandparents, and so forth. Thus they will still be the central figures. When they go to spirit world, they will ascend to the top of the restored clan, society and world, just as it was supposed to be at the beginning.

Live Like the True Parents

As blessed couples, you are inheriting that tradition. You must receive it and uphold it, clean and pure. In order to inherit that tradition, you must become like the True Parents. You must live like them and embrace heaven and earth, the entire world and humanity. Then you can say, "Yes, Father, we inherited that tradition."

Now I am pushing you couples out to the world so you can live like the True Parents. In this way you can embrace the world and humanity and thus you will be entitled to receive that tradition as your inheritance. If you do not do that, you will not become the central figures of your family. Unless you have inherited that central tradition, you will not be able to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

Will you inherit that tradition as a Japanese, a Korean, or as an American or a Black? Before the fall of man, were there such distinctions? There was supposed to be one race, one tribe -- the True Parents' tribe. In that tribe, there was supposed to be one universal language -- the True Parents' language.

This is like a grafting process. The blessed couples have to be grafted to the mother tree to learn the mother tree's language. When you get married, if your spouse is from another nationality, you have to learn that new language. By the same token, in the heavenly world you have to learn the eternal spiritual mother tongue. How can you be entitled to inherit the heavenly tradition if you don't even know the customs, the culture or speak the mother tongue? Therefore, those who do not speak the mother tongue have no power and no privilege to receive the inheritance. It is clearly stated in the Divine Principle.

Therefore I gave everybody some time, almost too much time, until 1990, to learn and speak the mother tongue. In that year I will issue the inheritance. I will open a heavenly family registration and the heavenly families will be recorded. That record will be like a birth certificate into the Heavenly Kingdom. It will remain there for all time.

When you study the mother tongue, you will understand the difficulty Oriental people encounter when they try to learn English. Although I am over 60 years old, I have been studying English. You must taste that effort in reverse. You will have no excuse; you cannot tell me that you are too old to learn a new language since you are all younger than I am! Keep practicing; have a small textbook of the Korean language and study the letters and the words every day.

The True Parents happened to be born in Korea and to speak the Korean language. If you don't want to learn Korean, go ahead and find some English-speaking True Parents. Unfortunately, there are none. God anointed only one set of True Parents, so you have no choice. Perhaps you want to find Chinese or Japanese True Parents? Go ahead, ask Mr. Kuboki if he wants to be the True Parent!

The remarkable words "True Parents" will unify language around the world. You will not regret it because the Korean language is the most advanced, descriptive and beautiful language ever known to humanity. Korean people have to be smart because of their language; they have to keep up with it. Korean has so much variety in its sounds. Therefore Korean people can learn any other language. This is different from Japanese, which has very limited sounds. I am not saying all this just because I am Korean. It is based on the Principle.

When I speak to you, you have to depend upon a translator. When I listen to the translation, I can tell that at least 30% of the meaning is lost. You should be able to hear my words directly, receiving 100% of what I am saying. When you are able to read the Korean language, you will read the Korean textbook of my sermons and you can compare them with the translations. Then you will see marked differences. It is virtually impossible to perfectly translate the original. In the future, scholars will not bother with any translations; they will go right to the original language.

The Perfection of Your Love

No one is able to go around the world and love everyone, so God has given us a microcosm of the world in our families. By loving your grandparents, God will say, "You receive credit for loving all the old people of the world." When you love your parents, God will say, "You receive credit for loving all the parents of the world." When you love your spouse, God will say, "You receive credit for loving all the men and women of the world." When you love your children, God will say, "You receive credit for loving all the children of the world."

Your family is your textbook of love; practice your love while you are in this school and you will be well trained to go out into society. If you are asked, "Can you love old people, parents, and children?" you can say, "Yes." Then you have accomplished everything.

Someone might say, "I can love only white grandparents, not black ones. And I can only love cultured grandparents, not primitive ones, like Africans." But that is not good enough for God's standards. You must love the people of the world as much as you did the people of your own family, regardless of their race, culture, age, or whatever. When you husbands and wives go out and serve other couples in the world, that is the greatest demonstration of what you have accomplished within your family.

Some men think, "That other woman is much prettier than my own wife." Or a woman thinks, "I like that man much better than my husband. My husband is humble and uneducated. I wish I could live with that other man." That is simply failure, total failure. Instead, you should live as a couple, loving even the least attractive woman or man, giving to them and encouraging them, nurturing them so that they can love more. With that kind of mind, you can embrace the universe. That is the mind with which you must practice love within your family and accomplish the perfection of your love. When you go out into society, you have to give even more than when you were in the "school" of your family. This is why we can sacrifice the family for the sake of the world.

Grandparents should not say to their grandchildren who are trying to go out and love the world, "Don't love anyone more than you love us." Such grandparents are destined for hell. The grandparents should say, "Practice your love in this family and then when you go out into the world, love others more than us." Those grandparents are destined for heaven. When husband and wife have the same attitude, loving the world more than each other, then they are truly exhibiting a God-centered attitude. That is the world of utopia, the Kingdom of Heaven.

This is the path I have been walking. I want you to inherit this principle and these traditions so that you can live for the sake of humanity. If you do that, your children will inherit the best possible thing from you. You blessed couples know that your children are precious, but God demands that you love other children even more. It should be your standard to sacrifice your children for the sake of other children, for the rest of the world.

A New Tradition

Unification Church members are destined to go to all six continents. When I first came to America, I knew that America would not easily welcome me, but would oppose and persecute me. But my duty is always to love this nation, unconditionally. You will never know how many tears I have shed behind the scenes for the sake of this country. You Americans are indebted to me, but don't try to pay me back directly. I am asking you to pay it back to the world, plus interest. Parental love isn't like an investment waiting for a return. Parental love is given to the children so that they will go out and love the rest of the world. Parental love is unconditional.

I am asking you to love the future generations. Even when I am no longer here, you must carry on the tradition and teach your own children the same tradition that I taught you. Your children in turn will teach the same tradition to the entire world. This tradition will go on, and this is my only ambition.

God is thinking in the same fashion. God loves this world so much but He does not want you to repay all the love He has given you. God wants you to carry that love into the future, to spread that tradition around the world for the sake of coming generations. Thus this tradition will go on, beyond this country, beyond culture, without ceasing.

Within the ideal family, four generations are living together. Sadly, one seldom finds such a family here in America. Therefore a new tradition is being erected, centering on Reverend Moon. You are the blessed couples, so I am elevated to the level of grandparent. Will I have to telephone and ask before I come to visit you in your home?

If you have only one bedroom, will you give the bedroom to your parents and sleep in the bathroom, if necessary? No problem? That should be so normal, you wouldn't even have to think about it.

Since True Parents cannot visit every home, you should have the Parents picture in a special place. Even your simple daily deeds can be done with a special heart. When you have some little snack, like a cookie, you should think, "I wish I could give this to my loved ones, my parents, my grandparents, my children. Since they are not here, I will appreciate this cookie for them." If there are a lot of hungry people around you, you should empty yourself out and feed them, even if you end up with only a glass of water. That is the right kind of spirit.

My own family had this kind of tradition. They never let anybody leave our home with an empty stomach. Our home used to be like a beggars' gathering place; all the poorest people of the vicinity knew they would be well treated, so they came to our home. Not one was mistreated. My mother served our grandparents and she also served the passing beggars. She would feed them whenever they came by. This was a heavy physical ordeal for my mother. On one occasion, she did not feed a beggar, so my father took his own meal and gave it to him. So my mother had to feed the beggars, otherwise my father would be hungry.

This is the policy at East Garden. Nobody who comes there should go away with an empty stomach. Nowadays, East Garden is like a crossroads; people come there every day from all over the world. Everybody is fed and Mother and I take many people out to buy them clothes. This is the way I live and this is the way of living that God is longing to see. Since I do not see so many such people, I am training you to become like that. As Moonies, will you follow my tradition?

Today we have spoken about the textbook of love. Those who want to follow the example of True Parents, learning from them as your textbook of love, raise your hands. God bless you. Let us pray.

Chapter 10 - Before and After the Blessing

Chapter 10
Before and After the Blessing
June 27, 1982

Would anyone like to volunteer to translate the title of today's speech? It is "Before and After the Blessing." The Blessing is before us now.

People generally keep wanting something more. God is like that, too. He created Adam, and when Adam looked lonely God wanted to create something additional for him. Therefore God created Eve. Some people might think that women are just a fringe benefit, but I don't mean that.

If you have one piece of fruit and decide you want another, you will probably choose something different the second time. If your first fruit was yellow, then you will want a red one, or perhaps a dark blue one.

When you walk down the street you want to carry something in your hand or have something in your pocket. You want to decorate yourself with rings, necklaces, earrings and such. It is a fundamental human desire to look beautiful and ornament oneself. You want shoes that are not just functional but decorative. Women wear makeup for the same basic reason. All of this is good.

A tree has many branches; if you ask why it needs so many branches and why it cannot be content with just one trunk, it would reply that you don't know anything about trees! If you ask the tree why it can't be satisfied with just one leaf, it would tell you that if a bug came and ate its single leaf, it would have none left.

Everyone wants some sense of security. In order to be on the safe side, you need more than one of something. If one item is damaged you want to be able to turn to others. The same applies to children.

Do you want only one child or more than one? Somebody here has 13! Actually, human nature is such that you don't even want to stop at 13. What about 40 or 120? You might have a problem taking care of them and feeding all those mouths, but T have confidence that I can take care of 13.

When somebody has many possessions, it means he has more to worry about, doesn't it? What kind of houses do beggars like to call on: rich ones or poor? Are there lots of beggars? What is the next step up from being a beggar? (Fund raising!) So I must be the king of beggars! Fine; there is nothing wrong with being a beggar. What matters is your purpose. Are you doing it just to save yourself, or to save your country, or to save the world and its people? Fund raising activity may appear to be the same as begging, but because of the purpose behind it, it can be your source of pride.

Some people have big ambitions. They may resort to violence, even killing other people, saying that this is the way to save the nation. However, instead of using violence to save our country, we fund raise.

To Liberate God

The Unification Church tradition of fund raising is a proud tradition. Actually, I did not initiate the practice of fund raising and I gain nothing from it except perhaps criticism. But as you confront hardship and tribulation, if you can focus every moment on the noble cause -- your mission of saving your nation -- you become great. The value of an activity is determined by its motivation. The same action may have temporary and trivial value or attain eternal noble value, according to its motivation.

Furthermore, we receive criticism, accusation, and curses but that is not necessarily bad. It depends on what we are criticized for. I am extremely controversial; I have been criticized in every way. But everything I do is for the salvation of the nation and world and for the liberation of God Himself. This is the most sacred and noble purpose.

There are two motivations for seeking freedom: one type of person wants liberation just for himself, while the other wants to liberate God from His grief. Which type do you belong to? When you think about it, to liberate even your spouse and children is already quite a challenge and a burden, so how extraordinarily difficult it must be to liberate God!

Whoever is devoted to liberating God from His grief and bondage should be able to reach out to all God's children. Such a person must not focus on helping only white people and disregard black and yellow people.

No matter how many times I may have said that I want to liberate God, God says, "All right. Before you consider liberating me, please take care of the problems of the world first. Then come and tell me that you want to liberate me." This is why I have sought out the most difficult problems of the world and taken them upon my shoulders.

The first and biggest problem is the loss of the order and discipline of love and the lack of a guiding philosophy of life. Love has become thoroughly degraded in America today. People have no guiding principle of how to express their love. To enable everyone to experience true, lawful love, we need to restore its discipline and order. Also, since people lack a superior philosophy of life, they live from day to day, with no central, guiding principle.

The second worst problem in the world today is communism. Behind communism are the forces of Satan which must be driven out. So we have to reestablish the order of love and restore the eternal, unchanging ideology, the central theme of human life. These are difficult tasks. Can the Unification Church and Reverend Moon solve these problems? Yes, indeed! We are going to do it.

The Order of Love

The first task facing Reverend Moon and the Unification Church is restoring the central ideology which will reestablish the order and discipline of love. That will enable people to return to the true, lawful love. Our second task is to chase out Satan. God is saying, "All right, Reverend Moon, do it!" And I reply, "Yes, Sir, I'm doing it."

What about you? Are you restoring the order and discipline of love? You need the Blessing in order to do that. The Blessing is the pinnacle in your course of restoring love.

The concepts and ideals that I have been teaching explain what the world should be like, what the nation should be like, how society should function, and how individuals should live. My central, organizing theme is the ideal pattern for individuals, societies, nations, the world, and even the Kingdom of Heaven. Each has a clear- cut formula to follow.

We are presently trying to banish Satan from this world. Day in and day out, we are waging a "knock out Satan" campaign by restoring the order of love and ideology. Satan is always trying to promote illicit and abnormal love. Things are abnormal when they just float around, following no principle, confusing front and back, right and left What is abnormal love? It is evident when a man goes with one woman one night and another woman the next night; or when people have sexual relations with their own relatives; or homosexuality. These are examples of abnormal, illicit love.

Do you women desire an abnormal type of love or a normal one? Is the kind of life you are living abnormal or normal? Your thinking may be focused on normal love, but Satan will keep following you until you are fully practicing the normal way of love. Only then will he lose hope and give up.

Satan is always right behind anyone who lives for a selfish purpose, but as soon as we start living for the sake of others, Satan will retreat. That is the dividing line. Do you understand? Satan cannot claim anyone who is living for the sake of others or for the benefit of the whole. I am living for the sake of all the people of the world. Therefore, eventually the entire world will welcome me and Satan will have to go away.

I have been talking about the two principal needs of mankind: lib- eration from illicit love and liberation from the bondage of false ideology. When mankind is liberated, Satan will leave. Satan's presence has kept even God in bondage because He has been unable to end Satan's power over man. As soon as Satan leaves, God will stand up and slowly walk out to greet us. "Finally I'm free!" He will say. "I have no more worries in the world! Who did it? Reverend Moon did. He liberated me!"

Liberation

Until now, you didn't fully comprehend what I meant by the liberation of God and mankind. You didn't know the definition of liberation. By establishing the central ideology that restores the discipline of love and expels Satan, you are liberating mankind and liberating God. Now that I have explained it so simply and clearly, you understand, don't you? Is the task easy or difficult?

When every person receives this ideology and puts it into practice, there will be no room for Satan. God will be welcomed everywhere. That is how liberation will take place. So to liberate mankind means to liberate God. The two liberations are simultaneous; they are not separate events. One solution will suffice.

Therefore, why do you go out to witness? It is to accomplish this very task. You witness for the liberation of mankind and the liberation of God. Who in history has taken up this incredible task? Only we -- Reverend Moon and the Unification Church -- are bringing both the liberation of mankind and the liberation of God. What an important and illustrious position you have!

Digest Everything Through Love

The world is embroiled in an ideological war. There is a conflict between the God-accepting ideology and the God-denying ideology, between democracy and communism. What is the ideology of Reverend Moon and the Unification Church? It is Unificationism. We are bringing everything into harmony and unity. The role of our ideology is to digest everything; it is a "melting pot" ideology.

I have a healthy stomach: I can take in everything and digest it. I can eat hot pepper sauce and Korean kimchee, and at the same time I can eat cheese and bread. It makes no difference; everything can be digested into one stomach. Such a stomach is ideal, isn't it? You must be able to digest everything to be an ideal person. What kind of person are you?

At the matching, many Westerners asked for Oriental spouses. This sort of thing flabbergasts the outside world. They cannot imagine what is going on. But from the heavenly point of view, such a phenomenon is wonderful. The newspapers labeled it "Matrimoonie."

Regardless of what others may say, we are happy people, aren't we? Aren't you proud to live this way of life? The term "Moonie" refers only to the formation stage. "Sunnie" is the growth stage. Perfection stage people will be called "Kingies." In the perfection stage, you will become a messiah. The world has no way of understanding the full implication of being a messiah. But you know exactly what the word means as well as the process involved. Through fulfilling the responsibility of a messiah in your home church area, you become a tribal messiah.

At the beginning of my speech, I said that all people want to enhance themselves; we all want to add something of value to ourselves. My topic today is "Before and After the Blessing," but I digressed and spoke about God's liberation, so I already added something, didn't I? Would you protest and tell me to stick to the subject? Would you rather have me stay within the conventional 15-minute sermon length? Actually, I can give 15-minute sermons. Yesterday I spoke at the Unification Theological Seminary graduation and delivered a sermon in English -- and it was only eight minutes long. Would you prefer an eight-minute sermon this morning?

Have you ever thought about why I give such long sermons? I have a dramatic answer: because I hate to leave you. I enjoy every minute Of my time with you. I study each of you, looking at your features, observing your reactions, inspecting your eyes, nose and mouth. I think about what kind of person would be your ideal mate. That is why the matchings go so fast: I have already done my homework!

I'm not talking this way just to be charming. I mean it. A godly person should be fond of other people. Godly people should love and enjoy their fellow men. Whether you go east or west, north or south, whether it is day or night, it makes no difference. You must enjoy people. That is why people feel so drawn to me. If Africans were told not to come here, they would feel very sorrowful. They would try the front door, back door and side door and find some way of entering. Why? Because they would be attracted to the person who loves and cares most deeply for Africa. That is the result of my ideology. I want to meet everybody and establish bonds with them. I want to love all Americans; I love America more than the Americans do.

Young people are most sensitive to the magnetic power of love. Even before I came to the United States, I knew that young people would be attracted to me, and my prediction was absolutely correct. You are young people, aren't you? Actually, what I am saying is simply that young people have purer minds than older people. Young people are more attracted to true love.

Where else could you go on Sunday to hear a minister preaching on a topic like "Before and After the Blessing"?

Yearning for People

Have you also been longing for other people? Have you been missing others, yearning to care for them? Throughout my entire life, my job has been to love people and pray for them. I find that my prayers are answered; my prayers become reality. Whenever I meet someone, I enjoy being with him or her; I can entertain, care for and love that person. When people are in love, there are no strange feelings between them. It makes no difference what habits they may have. It makes no difference whether they eat kimchee and kocheejang, or cheese and butter. There are no barriers between lovers. Their union is the beautiful culmination of love. Nothing else is more important.

A perfect plus is like a dynamo; it always creates a perfect minus. It happens automatically, without effort. Wherever a perfect plus is found, a perfect minus appears. If you are a perfect plus, you can sit in the middle of a village doing nothing, and the villagers will come to you automatically.

People are always drawn to me. Do you feel the same way about me? If I touch your hand, do you feel bad or good? How do you men feel? How do you women feel? Many members think that if they could only shake hands with me once, their heaven would be guaranteed. But they haven't had the chance yet. My handshake is very expensive! I seldom shake anybody's hand, but still people follow

Love Opens Every Door

Imagine someone who has just met a woman for whom he feels a tremendous attraction. Perhaps the two have just recently fallen in love. But then that man meets the Unification Church and he completely forsakes his lover. Then he begins to yearn day and night, even weeping with longing to meet Reverend Moon. Only love can explain this. Only God's love can work this kind of magic. Love opens every door, including the door to the Kingdom of Heaven.

Such a person may come to where I am staying and I may yell at him, "Get out of here! Why are you sticking around?" But actually, if he loves me so much, I am already living with him in spirit. I will always remain with him. At night, such a person doesn't have to worry about walking down a dark road, because I will take his hand and lead him. He could even close his eyes while walking down an alley, and I could tell him to step down and he would automatically do it. If I told him to step up, turn left or turn right, he would do so without even opening his eyes. That is how love works.

Physically, I have only one body; I am physically limited. Spiritually, however, I can be a million persons; such a thing is possible spiritually. I am known as a mysterious person, someone with mystical qualities, but actually it is not unusual. Many, many times throughout the years and decades of my life, I have shed tears out of longing for God. When I cried out for God, missing Him, aching for Him, the entire spirit world would open up to me.

You should long for me just as much as I long for God. Actually, people in the Unification Church who don't long for me, who don't miss me, who have no tearful desire for me are not really members of the Unification Church. When you do reach that level of longing, you can immediately achieve unity, and the entire spirit world will open up to you.

Bo Hi Pak comes to East Garden almost every morning at 7:00 to have breakfast with me. Sometimes he doesn't show up because he has another commitment out of town. Then I long for him. You might think that if I saw someone day in and day out I would become sick and tired of looking at his face again. But I don't feel that way. When his usual time of arrival comes around, I miss him and long for him.

You may imagine that the elder leaders who visit East Garden have a wonderful time there. But actually, they don't, and I will tell you why. When I call the leaders to East Garden for "special workshops" it is not at all easy for them. I keep talking on and on, for hours and hours, sometimes until midnight and beyond. This may continue day in and day out. In their minds they ask me, "Father, why can't you let us go?" But of course, they won't say it. And they think, "Father, you are not a young person either. You need some rest, and so do we. Please let us go." All of them think like this inside. But I just hold them there and keep talking to them and pounding on them. Of course, all the elder leaders want to go to East Garden. But once they arrive, there is no time for sleep, and they don't want to just walk out. After two days like that, they are completely exhausted.

Lawful, Public Love

My concept is that we should be people of deep longings; we should enjoy every minute we spend with someone. When we care about others, we have no dull moments. Meeting others is the proper job for people of God. That is what my life is all about. I am an expert at meeting others.

Someone who comes to meet me at East Garden for the first time may plan to stay only half an hour, but he discovers it isn't so easy to leave. I never tell anyone not to go, but people just don't want to get up and leave. This is a result of the power of love that draws people to me.

People are supposed to long for and miss one another. If love depended on appearances, an ugly person would have a burdensome life. Therefore, God, who is the king of wisdom and justice, designed us to be lovers. When you are in love, nothing matters; ugliness is no concern; you can accept everything.

However, there is one important principle in matters of love. It should be a lawful, public love; that means unselfish love. True love is definitely public love. Through true love you can gain everything, even the spirit world. Since you cannot go alone to the spirit world, you need to go with your beloved. Therefore, a truly loving person can open up the spirit world.

Those of you who are engaged, raise your hands. Your engagement is unique. Many of you were engaged to a stranger. But even so, when you first looked at that stranger, you didn't hate him or her, did you? After looking at the stranger, you didn't want to go anywhere else. That is the spirit I live by at East Garden. I cherish everyone who comes to sit with me, considering each as my beloved.

The Secret of Home Church

When you meet people in your home church work, cherish them, too. Then no one will have to tell you to go and do home church. In the morning you will jump out of bed like a bullet and run to your home church because your beloved awaits you. Perhaps you are supposed to go to the dining room in the morning, but your feet take you to your home church instead. When your beloved is waiting, you forget eating, sleeping, and everything else. Don't you like it when your feet head in the direction of your beloved? That is the way your original mind directs you.

This morning I am giving you another secret: how to do home church. When you consider the people in your home church as your beloved, cherishing them above your own fiance, spouse, or children, you cannot help going there. And while you are with them, the spirit world will open up and communicate with you. This is the secret of doing home church.

You women, when you are married and your husband rises in the morning and says he must go to home church, will you complain and say, "You don't love me anymore! Why do you go away so early in the morning?"

This morning Mother couldn't join us because she is recuperating (from the birth of Jeung Jin Nim). I know that she definitely needs a time of rest and some special care. But in my true heart, I still wanted her to be here. So I told her that even though she was not capable of being here physically this morning, she would be here in heart, spiritually. The husband should try to charm his wife and win her heart, so that she will go everywhere with him and not want to be separated even momentarily. This is such a great feeling. There is nothing more valuable.

Dr. Durst is here today. As the national leader, he should long for and miss all the state leaders. He should meet with them, help them, and truly love them even if he collapses in the process. If such a love relationship is created between any national leader and the state leaders, the church in that land will boom and all of spirit world will open up.

When I came to pioneer the work in the United States in 1973, 1 knew no day or night. Every moment of the day was so precious to me. I always wanted to see one more person, visit one more center. I drove from one place to another, one meeting to the next. If you follow the same principle, your results will be greatly multiplied.

The Power of Love

Everything is deeply interesting to me. I am a lover of the ocean because it is another of God's creations. That is why I go out to sea. When various national leaders, world leaders, Korean elders and itinerant workers come to East Garden, I keep waiting for them to ask me to take them out to sea. But so far none of them have done so!

Here is a photo of me standing beside a giant tuna I caught recently. This tuna weighs over 1,000 pounds. How could I become a champion tuna fisherman so quickly? I know how to attract tuna: I do it by love. Every minute of the day when I am on the ocean I stay alert; I never nap. When people go fishing they usually become tired. Even the pilot of the boat sometimes sleeps, but I never lie down even for a minute on a boat. My eyes stay wide open because my interest is so intense. Even if a hundred boats are fishing for tuna, I know that no one loves the tuna more intensely than I do. Therefore, I know that the tuna will come. In Gloucester people say that I even brainwash tuna! Actually, it is not brainwashing, but love washing -- or maybe Moon washing.

During the matching the other night, 250 Japanese sisters came to the United States after a long plane ride. When they arrived at the World Mission Center, they set their bags down and came to see me with tears streaming down their faces. When I matched them, they accepted without question. All 250 were matched very quickly. The amazing thing is that, although 90 percent of them had never met me before, as soon as they saw me, tears of longing and joy burst from them. You saw it, didn't you?

Does that mean I am some kind of a magician or hypnotist? No. Something else was behind it; there is a definite reason why I affect so many people and move their hearts. It is the very thing I always talk about. The secret is to become a dynamo of love, become a lover. I look at people and even the whole world as my beloved. From the material point of view there is nothing special about me; but I am the richest person under the sun because I have that power to attract people. The secret is nothing other than love.

You lay a cumulative foundation when you love people. When enough has been built up, the blossom opens up. Love is not destructive; it only builds and blossoms. When each of you creates your own love foundation, bearing such a blossom of love, then God will become one with you. Flowers attract butterflies, and the butterflies drawn to your flower of love are none other than God and His angels. It may sound like something incredible and miraculous, but it can happen.

To make a long story short, you won't enter the Kingdom of Heaven unless you love people, miss them and yearn for them. Before I came to America, my major study was how to love American people. I had many plans, I did much homework, and I have precisely fulfilled all my pledges. There are many things you do not know, but one thing is for sure: after you met me, you became new men and women. You have changed. What power made that happen? The power of love.

Fund Raising Through Love

When you go out and work hard, you do it out of love for me. When you fund raise, for example, you think, "I really want to do my utmost for Father." That is your motivation. Then whoever gives you a donation receives the benefit of that love.

I have met some Koreans here in the United States who are well known in their community. One of them said, "Many Unification Church members have stopped me on the street or knocked at my door asking me to donate for some fund raising item, and I always do. I never refuse them." I wondered how much they were contributing, but I didn't ask. They reported their donation to me as though they had done something very important and were some kind of hero. Love is at work when people feel such an urge to help your fund raising.

I want you to understand that you are in a position to disseminate this pure love. This love will affect other people and benefit them. When you get donations, every penny is spent for the sake of mankind, for the sake of the world, and for the sake of God. How wonderful that is! Both you and the people who give will benefit. When your position is one of true love, you want to keep giving until the very end.

I would like to borrow as much money as possible in order to be able to give. For the sake of love, I want to be the most indebted person under the sun. When I live by such a philosophy, even the seemingly insurmountable obstacles can somehow be completely overcome. As I meet each large obstacle, I can jump over it. When I make plans, the difficulties ahead seem to be overwhelming but solutions come from totally unexpected places. Spirit world moves in entirely new ways. If money is needed, money comes; if people are needed, people come; the more money we commit to a certain project, the more resources come our way. When I act, spirit world mobilizes masses of people.

Therefore, fund raising is a sacred responsibility. When you fund raise, you are giving love both ways: love for True Parents and love for people. You knock on people's doors not to gain money from them but because you love each person.

In a way, God, too, is a fund raiser. When you knock on doors, you are rejected 90 percent of the time. Likewise when God tries to pour out His love to you, you reject Him 99 percent of the time. So when you experience rejection while fund raising, you can be in a position to comfort God. When you have tearful experiences, you move God's heart and comfort Him. Then universal love begins to blossom in your heart. The blossom of love is the most sacred and noble kind of flower.

Without question, I am a superb fund raiser. I never do things just for myself; when I see a need and set the goal for meeting that need, I fund raise very boldly. You must be bold for the sake of the nation and the world. I can tell people, "You don't have to give me anything. Just loan me the money. You can trust me because you know my motivation is correct. Therefore, I ask that you please lend me a large amount of money, not just a small amount."

I had one experience when I was studying in Tokyo during my younger days that illustrates this. I needed to return to Seoul, Korea, which involved a long trip by train and boat and was rather expensive. I didn't have a wallet or any money that day, but at the Tokyo train station I met a very noble-looking woman, a total stranger, and began telling her who I was, where I was going, and how much money I needed, which was quite a bit. Then I asked if she would have enough faith in me to lend me the money. I was so sincere that the noble woman trusted me enough to lend me the money without asking for a receipt. After I completed the trip, I sent her back twice the amount of money she lent me. She was flabbergasted. She paid me a visit to return the money, saying, "You are such a good, honest man. I do not want this much money from you. Please take it back."

People can sense a person of genuine character; purity and genuineness are always communicated. That is the beauty of life. Fund raising is the best way to understand this kind of realm.

When I was a university student in Tokyo, I would ride the electric tram car on rainy days. When I boarded, I looked for the elderly people and stood next to them. Normally, young people wouldn't like to stand close to shabby-looking old people, but I would. I wanted to stand near them in case they needed any help. I would look at some bedraggled old man and think, "Suppose this gentleman was my father. What would I do if my father was this wet? Could I run away and abandon him?" It is normal to feel repelled by smelly old women or men, but when I thought of myself as their son, everything about them became attractive, and I felt very affectionate toward them. Old people have a loving heart for their children, and on such occasions I wanted to reciprocate that love. So I would talk very warmly to an old woman, even though she was a total stranger. What beauty there is in such an intimate conversation!

Sometimes I would wear dirty, ragged working clothes and a smelly jacket on the tram car. I would try to sit next to the most attractive woman on board, someone wearing eye makeup, lipstick and manicured nails. Ten times out of ten, such women would move away. I was hoping to find someone who would ask herself, "What if this were my husband and he was working so hard for me? If he was suffering for my sake, what would I do?" Then, while these thoughts were going through her mind, we could have started speaking and she could have become the first person to hear the Principle and the first person to join the Unification Church.

A Foundation of Sincerity

I am able to do my mission now because I put myself in many different positions. I want you to understand that the Unification Church was born upon this foundation of sincerity and a genuine, loving heart. Whoever tries to use this foundation and exploit it for his own benefit is a robber, the worst kind of thief.

I want you to become the same kind of person I am and inherit this tradition. That is why I am asking you to go out and endure tribulation.

Still we have not come to today's topic of "Before and After the Blessing," but what I have been talking about is something you find very precious, isn't it? You don't think it's a strange subject; you love to hear these things.

I started out by saying that everyone wants to add something to what they have, so I keep adding on to my speech. You have already been given a great sermon, so you don't need anything more today. You can go out and preach this same message to others.

Have you had the experience of missing me and longing for me? Have you been able to love someone unselfishly? Those experiences will be your assets when you get to the spirit world. Such experiences are the only things you can take from this world to the spirit world.

You have met someone whom you can love. What an incredible blessing that is for you. Think of all that lies behind this marriage. But this love should not be just a horizontal bond between you and your beloved; you must link it to the vertical dimension. It isn't easy to add vertical love to horizontal love, is it? The horizontal axis links the husband and wife. However, unless a vertical line extends from your family upward, there is no way that the vertical realm can reach down.

The vertical line above you is your nation. You should feel patriotic. Do you pay taxes because you have to, or because you love your country and want to pay them? Those who pay taxes because they can't escape it are in the majority. However, in the original way of serving our country, we should pay taxes because we love our nation more than our family.

When you and your spouse deeply love your country, this creates a reward for the future generations. The intensity of your love for your country will benefit your descendants; your children will receive the reward. Your blessings will multiply and your circle will expand. This is how you will become an ideal family and form an ideal nation.

Once you create the full circle of love, you can dwell at the core where you receive special protection. Also, once the core is established, true love can expand. When you and your spouse achieve the unity of true love for each other, when you devote yourself to loving your country, you will become the core. As you expand your territory of love to your country, you will be protected by it.

It is an Oriental custom always to use both hands when you serve your elders. Also, Orientals have the custom of bowing. To bow means to empty yourself and to convey the attitude, "I am nothing; you are everything." When you bow, you acknowledge your elder as the perfect plus, and you empty yourself totally to that person, becoming a perfect minus. Whenever the plus is perfected, the minus is automatically perfected as well; and the interaction between plus and minus creates energy.

The Ideal Couple

I want you to understand that whenever a man and a woman have give and take of love, a vertical element is always present. You cannot disregard it. God is the vertical element. He created Adam and Eve so He could meet them horizontally. Their love and blessing was to have borne fruit in their children, who would also be objects of God. This is how the heavenly four positions were to come about. When four directions are established, a circle can be formed. Circular movement is the only permanent movement.

What holds a man and woman together? Men and women have interlocking shapes, to keep them from missing each other or sliding apart once they meet. The man has the additional role of anchor, so that when a couple is bolted together, they won't slip and lose their footing. This way, a couple can be anchored and bolted together with true love. There is a space-age glue so strong that something mended with it may break anywhere else, but never at that joint. Likewise, a man and a woman bonded together in complete, true love might get hurt someplace else, but nothing will ever be able to separate their union. True love is the super glue which holds husband and wife together. Do you understand? Don't just laugh. This is an operation of natural law; tell me whether you understand.

I could push, toss, knock down, or kick such a couple bonded by true love and they would never come apart. They will always stick together. I envision such a couple coming out of this Blessing. Are you going to be such a couple?

I would like to take such a blessed couple to a mountain peak and try rolling them off, as a demonstration that nothing could separate them. I think many couples would be reluctant to be put to such a test. They would say, "Father, don't kill me; keep me on level ground, or just gentle hills." But I'm looking for a couple who would protest against an easy course and say, "That is nothing, take us to a bigger hill. Take us to the highest peak!"

What kind of couple would you like to become: one which stays on the plains and gentle hills, or one which challenges the highest peaks? Let's see the hands of those who would challenge the highest mountains. Accidents could happen when you roll down the slopes; you could break your wrist, your leg, or your jaw. Would such a mishap weaken you? Not at all. You would be willing to tackle greater and greater challenges, so that by the time you reached the bottom you would become genuine gold.

At the start of the plunge, you and your spouse are two beings with two purposes; but as you roll down, you get closer together. The two of you get mixed together, compressed, and finally totally one. When your spouse laughs, you would laugh, too, because you would share the same emotions. God will notice such a couple and say, "Hmm, this is a model couple, an ideal couple." God has a museum in spirit world dedicated to the best of everything. He wouldn't choose a single man or woman for the prize display; He wants an exemplary couple. God will pick the most united couple to display in His museum.

A totally united couple is completely one; nothing can break them up. Even if someone drills a hole through them, the dust from the drilling won't leave; it will return and stick to them! You can apply pressure to them until they are flattened out, but when the pressure is removed, they will become round again. Nothing under the sun can alter their unity.

Would you rather be a mediocre couple, or a completed, perfected couple? Therefore, will you be the kind of couple that chooses the easy way? Can you become an ideal couple if you say, "Today I want to stay home. I don't care about home church. Why should I go out today?" Can you attain perfection as a couple if your focus is only on having fun and a good time; if you long only to see beautiful sights, smell nice things, eat good food and listen to good music; if you can relate only to good feelings?

If your husband is lazy and sleeps too late, you women should kick him and say, "What are you doing here? What about home church? Why don't you go out?" Will your husband complain and threaten to divorce you for repeating such things? The ideal husband would say, "Well, my beloved wife, you are absolutely right. Now give me my home church clothes."

When you know you are sending your husband or wife out to suffer, your eyes fill with tears; but if you still push your spouse toward the ultimate goal, you are on the road to becoming an ideal couple. Do you follow me? An ideal parent is not always the one who pats the children and gives them candy. Rather, it is the parent who sternly sends them out and encourages them to do the right things. Knowing that the children will suffer, the ideal parent turns around and sheds quiet tears. Do you think I am telling you the truth? This is the challenge of the Blessing. This is the way to become an ideal.

One Common Trunk Line

After being a single person so long, it is wonderful to get married because something is added to you. However, in order to sustain that added stature, you need a strong root and a broad foundation. Your roots are your parents and relatives. Anyone who tries to flee his parents by getting married is making a mistake. Once you are married, you cannot think of yourself as an individual but as part of the larger root system. Furthermore, once you are married, you have not only one family to worry about, but two. You have in-laws now -- brothers, sisters, mother-in-law, father-in-law, as well as many other new relatives. You should be able to plant yourself firmly upon this new root and foundation.

If you women try to be clever and take advantage of your husband's relatives for your own benefit, you will be kicked out of the house. Here I am referring basically to women; if you act that way, your husband will eventually throw you out.

Marriage is like a grafting process. The root of the man and the root of the woman are grafted together and become one. Your two roots join into one common trunk line, which branches out and produces blossoms, bearing the fruit of both families. A couple is not just one family but represents two families. Your parents and relatives will see your blossoms and rejoice; your in-laws as well will look on and feel joy. Marriage is not just the meeting of husband and wife, not just the union of one individual to another, but the joining of two families. Two roots come together and become one trunk; a new trunk, new branches, new leaves are produced, and then the blossoms, flowers and fruits come.

Would you like to have a broad and embracing kind of tree, or would you rather ignore your in-laws and focus just on your spouse and yourself? Those who disregard the roots and focus only on their marriage relationship may try to justify themselves by claiming: "We are like Adam and Eve. We are the only ones that count. We just want to concentrate on ourselves. Life is simpler and more convenient that way; we don't have any burdens. Why should we bother with the roots and branches?" Is that the right attitude? Unfortunately, however, this is the trend in America today.

One danger in focussing just on your spouse is that your relationship may easily break up. The wife may meet a man who is more handsome than her husband, someone who tells her how beautiful and attractive she is and how her husband is not treating her right. If she has no anchor or foundation, her heart can be affected. Or the husband may meet a pretty woman who flatters him telling him how handsome he is. Perhaps his wife never told him that, and when another woman says it, his heart starts to quiver. He thinks, "You know, my wife is like a stump; she is unattractive and ugly. She's a good housekeeper but not adequate as a wife." Then the marriage breaks up.

Your marriage needs to be anchored to its roots and secured to its branches. Then when you consider all the foundation upon which you are standing and your commitment to the future, you cannot take your marriage lightly. You should tell yourself, "I am marrying for the sake of my spouse, my parents, and my future children." You are the present. The present could not exist without a past, which is your parents. A future is coming, which will be your children. The past, present and future must be linked in your Blessing.

Parents Bestow the Blessing

Who bestows the Blessing? Who makes your Blessing complete? In the past, ministers of a church officiated at marriage ceremonies. But ministers are in the archangel position, so the archangel, in effect, officiates at such a marriage. In the Unification Church ceremony, however, the parents perform the marriage. By officiating, we are saying, "Go ahead and inherit our tradition, our love, and our discipline and pass this tradition on to the future." By blessing you we are saying, "You are now husband and wife; live like your Father and Mother." This is what Unification Church marriage is all about.

Actually, when we give you our Blessing, we are telling you to do more than we have done. You should love each other more than we do. Why do parents want their children to have greater love? That is how families prosper. When the roots and trunk are strong, when more branches reach out, and when flowers and fruit are produced in abundance, this is prosperity. When you love your parents, you strengthen your own roots and increase the blessing your children will inherit. As you become parents yourselves, you are better able to love your parents, and you receive greater protection from them. Don't you want your children to be prosperous? Don't you want to be protected for the rest of your life? The secret is to love your parents; the more you love your parents, the more you are protected and the greater the blessing you can pass on to your children. So you must serve and love your parents even more than your spouse.

Since you became Moonies and have adopted this attitude, you women have become a different kind of woman, haven't you? You are not ordinary American wives, but very special people. You want to become a trunk, with your parents as the roots and your children as the branches. You may have a good, strong trunk, but can you ever say, "I don't care about the root"? A strong trunk can develop only on the foundation of a strong root. Then vigorous branches can grow from that strong trunk. The parents are the foundation of the tree; therefore, by loving your parents you are strengthening the trunk and the whole tree. You will secure future branches, leaves and flowers.

I explained that if you are to become a giant tree, you must have strong roots. The basic root comes from loving God, who is the first parent of mankind. When you make God your root, you have an invincible, gigantic foundation, and you can become an enormous trunk, producing stupendous branches. When you grasp God as your root, your root spreads to all six continents: Europe, Africa, North and South America, Asia and Australia.

What kind of trunk would you like to become? An all encompassing trunk, right? The formation level is the family trunk, the growth level is the national trunk, and the perfection level is the worldwide trunk. You are American families, so you should be grafted onto the American national root. When you have a strong family foundation connected to the national root, your branches and leaves will produce many blossoms; your children are your prosperity.

Engrafting to the Worldwide Root

But further down the line from the American root is an even greater foundation: the worldwide root. When you are anchored upon the worldwide root, will your trunk be an American trunk or a worldwide trunk? It will be worldwide. Then when your trunk is worldwide, your branches, leaves, flowers and fruit also will be worldwide.

In the Unification Church we have a tradition of international marriages. Why do we take pride in our international weddings? It is because we want to form a worldwide trunk, a many-hued trunk, composed of living colors. Then from this one trunk, all kinds of multi-colored branches will spring forth: white, black, yellow, and red. When such a tree bears fruit, its fruit will seem delicious to every kind of taste bud. Whether one is white, black, or yellow it will make no difference; the fruit will be savory to all. Such fruit is suited to every taste, and everyone considers it delicious.

Since such a foundation has not been formed, however, grafting is necessary. Grafting is like welding, or like mending broken bones. A shoot grafted onto a new root must be bound with tape for three years. Whether the plant likes it or not makes no difference. The grafting will work because the two parts are bound together; they have no choice.

While you are struggling with the binding of black, white and yellow, you will notice things changing. When you look down, you will discover yourself sinking worldwide roots, and when you look up, you will see worldwide branches beginning. Soon you will become a grandparent and will be able to travel by plane throughout the world to visit your children. One day you will visit your white grandchildren, the next day your black grandchildren, and the following day your yellow grandchildren.

Why should you try to live this way? Once you are elevated to the spirit world, you will meet the supervisor and owner of all the trees and orchards -- God. God is ultimately picking everybody and arranging them in His basket. God visits all His grandchildren in turn, black, white and yellow. That is how God lives and works in the spirit world, so if you live that way here on earth, you can go wherever God goes in spirit world. You will be able to follow God everywhere; nothing will be off-limits to you. So your motivation for this way of life is to become like God.

This is the spirit upon which your Blessing is founded. Do you think I am telling you the truth or not? After you are married, suppose some night a visitor unexpectedly comes knocking at your door and it happens to be me! Would you call me an intruder and run to find your gun? Perhaps you would grumble to yourself, "Why does Father have to come at midnight? He should have come in broad daylight." Would you say that?

I understand that when American parents want to visit their children, they have to call in advance and make an appointment. So if you find me at the door, would you say, "Oh, Father, why didn't you call first?" Or would you jump up -- no matter how you are dressed-and say, "Father, how wonderful to see you here"? How many of you would say, "Father, do anything you want. Please come to our house"?

There are about 4 billion people in the world. If they were all matched, there would be 2 billion couples. If I spent one hour in every home, I would need 2 billion hours to make the rounds! Would that be physically possible? So you must have good luck to get me to visit your house. It would be like hitting a jackpot, an incredibly rare opportunity. I would like to do that, however. I would like to visit as many homes as possible.

If I arrived at lunchtime, would you protest, "Father, you didn't call me in advance so I could prepare lunch for you. I'm sorry, we have only water"? Or would you quickly prepare something and say, "Even though we do not have the very best, this is what we can offer you. Please stay for lunch"?

This means that you should be prepared at all times. Suppose you spent seven years -- or a thousand years -- getting ready for my visit, longing for and missing me. Then even if I didn't notice your home, God would tell me, "Reverend Moon, go visit their house. I demand it!" Don't you think I would say yes to Him? If you have the spirit of yearning for one visit from me, missing and anxiously expecting me, what else could be more important? Is there anything more precious?

It is a happy family who lives in anticipation of the heavenly visit. Each day you clean the house thinking that today might be the day, the day God will visit you. Each meal you cook you tell yourself, "Today might be the day!" Day after day is spent in anticipation and love. You rise early in the morning to prepare the meal and make preparations for the visit. If God were to ignore the home of such a couple and not bless it, there would be no such thing as a Blessing and no such being as God.

I, too, have always lived in anticipation of a heavenly visit. There was a time in my life when I would sleep curled up like a shrimp, feeling unworthy of sleeping comfortably, because I expected a visit from God at any moment of the day. I was always ready to spring up to welcome God.

My parents had the tradition of feeding everybody that came to our house. They would offer them whatever money they needed. All kinds of visitors and travelers received food and money for their expenses. At my home, more food than what our family needed was always prepared in case someone came to the door. That is the kind of tradition I grew up in.

You may suppose that my family received many blessings on account of me. But actually, because of me, incredible suffering was brought upon the household. Every single one of my family was exterminated by the North Korean communists, because Kim Il Sung knew me as the arch-enemy of worldwide communism. All these sacrifices were paid in order to establish the foundation upon which you can blossom right here in America today. I am not trying to obtain comfort or riches, either for myself or for my family. That has never been my goal. They have all become sacrifices.

No country has undergone so much political upheaval as Korea. In order to give the blessing to the world, the Unification Church itself has to suffer as well.

International Blessing

Considering all this, if you want to become a trunk and reach out to serve the branches, you must become sacrificial. In this respect, a good-looking spouse is not necessarily the best one. The kind of spouse you should hope for is someone truly loyal, steadfast, down-to- earth, and sincere. That is the best kind of husband or wife because they can provide the utmost sacrificial service for the well being of their children. Handsome or beautiful people usually become arrogant and boastful and think, "How can such a good looking person as I stay home and serve a 90-year-old grandmother? Let somebody else do it. I should go out and show myself off."

A beautiful woman is often reluctant to nurse her children because she is worried about ruining her beautiful figure. There are two kinds of beauty to consider. One is the external beauty of face and body. A woman who focuses on external beauty spends much time putting on makeup; she tells her child not to come to her breast and disfigure it by nursing. That is one kind of beauty. The other kind of beauty says to her baby, "Well, my love, it doesn't matter how I look," and she smiles at her nursing child out of the joy of becoming a mother. Which is the true beauty?

How dramatic it is when a woman with snow-white skin nurses a very black baby! Don't you think that God would like to witness such a scene? Which would God find most dramatic: a white mother nursing a white baby, a white mother feeding a yellow baby, or a white mother nursing a black baby? From an artistic standpoint, a white mother nursing a black child is the most dramatic scene.

Which time of day do you like best: morning, noon, or evening? Noon is like white people, evening yellow people, and morning black people. Evening is the close of the day and heralds the darkness; darkness ends in the morning when a new day begins. The morning light is very sharp and luminous. The light is conquering all the darkness. In the daytime, everything is clear, because it is already broad daylight. In the evening, as the sun sinks in the west, yellow and orange tones are dominant.

Just as morning is followed by noon and then evening, one dominant civilization or culture is followed by another. In the United States, for example, black people are becoming more and more prominent. Why? It is because white people have become rather lazy. The white people have already seen high noon; they have already experienced the best so they have become sluggish and negligent. They want to have fun; they have no true motivation. But black people have suffered so much under the darkness of oppression that they have more ambition. They want true respect and freedom. Most boxing champions, for example, are black; the same is true in basketball. In all fields of sports, more and more outstanding athletes are black. More than 50 percent of American football champions are blacks.

There are 25 million black people here in the United States, out of a population of 240 million. The ratio of blacks to the population in general is one in nine. Black people have been developing healthy bodies and excelling at sports; next they will move to intellectual achievements. When you black people are educated and guided spiritually, physically and intellectually, you can become super citizens, the number-one Americans. You can lead America. Why not? You can rise early in the morning, for instance, and clean your neighborhoods so that the black communities become known as the cleanest communities in the whole United States. Wouldn't you like that?

Then white women will say, "I don't want to marry a white man because they are all lazy. I want a black man to be the father of my children." Still the time is not ripe. I had hoped for even more interracial marriages in this last matching.

Look at the Japanese brothers and sisters. They are standing in the forefront of our movement now as the most diligent and hard working members. Therefore, I am sending them out in leadership roles all over the world. Am I doing the right thing in this case?

The Blessing itself is special, of course, but you must be concerned about what happens before and after the Blessing. This is very, very important. More than your husband or wife, you must serve your parents. God has made incredible sacrifices to come this far. You have achieved your position upon His foundation. If you strengthen your root and sacrificially serve both the root and branches, you will become strong and steadfast people. After your life here on earth, descendants will come and bow down at your tomb, paying you tribute and respect because of the beautiful tradition you have left behind. This is the kind of tradition you should establish in your marriage.

I think about my life this way as well. There will be a tomb for me someday. Visitors will come from all six continents to line up at my tomb; people of every color of skin will bring flowers and incense to pay respect to me. That is the kind of tradition I want to leave behind.

In your home and in your nation, you should follow my example. Then God, the angels, and all of spirit world will come to visit your tomb and pay respects to you. Cemeteries will become holy places. People generally don't enjoy spending time in cemeteries, but when you become an ancestor of love, that will change.

Therefore, please live in love, serve in love, and set the tradition of love. Then you will leave behind the fruit of love and become the ancestor of love. Once you have planted this tradition and disseminated this love throughout the world, when you are lifted up to the spirit world, you will encounter no barriers and will be welcomed everywhere.

In conclusion, set up the tradition of true love based on the family, not on the individual. That is the practice you should establish. The greatest treasure you can give to the nation and the world is true love. The tradition of love is the core of life.

As husband and wife, you should unite and establish a vertical line centered on your nation. When you unite as subject and object centered upon the country, you become the vertical subject capable of spreading your blessing to the world. You will become the core, and the world will be your fence, embracing and protecting you.

When you expand this to the scale of heaven and earth, you will be a victor of love. With such love, you will be welcomed everywhere you go. The bearer of true love is welcome even at the White House. The essence of your mission is to create this tradition of love and expand it to your posterity.

I am sure you haven't talked with your fiance about all the practical aspects of your future life, but you should have already established the principle that both of you follow my teachings 100 percent. If you have, you are ready to inherit my tradition of love, practice it, enlarge it, and hand it down to your descendants. Those who are resolved to carry this out in your family, raise your hands as a pledge. Thank you. Please do well, and serve your parents and brothers and sisters.

 

Chapter 9 - Original Eden, Centering on True Love

Chapter 9
Original Eden, Centering on True Love
May 27, 1984

When we hear of the Garden of Eden, we think about the ideal place we read about in the Bible, where God, Adam and Eve and the angels were dwelling. However, we have a different understanding than that of most traditional Christians about the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Rather than being a literal fruit, we know that it represents love.

We know that the will of God is to fulfill His ideal of creation. That ideal requires the accomplishment of the heavenly four position foundation. What is that four position foundation? It is the relationship of God, Adam, Eve and their children. What is the center of that four position foundation? That center is neither God, Adam, Eve nor the children. Love is the center and it connects everyone.

Who is the first one to experience love? We know that God should be the starting point of that love -- love does not start with Adam and Eve nor with their children. Any action always takes a specific direction. If God is situated at a certain point, in which direction would He give His love? He would direct His love right at the center.

Love needs someone with whom to interact. Consider your eyes: both eyes move around to focus on something. There are three points involved -- each eye and the point upon which they focus. The eyes must focus precisely in order to see clearly; otherwise, we would see things in a blurry way. God, like the eyes, must have a focal point toward which to direct His love. His attitude is not, "I am the Center; you must come to me." He always seeks to find the right focus; He is the one acting and moving.

Love Must Always be Pursued

There is nothing that God cannot do. Yet, can we say that God has no need for anything? If God had no need for anything more than what He already has, then He would be in a static position; there would be no action necessary. Nothing in the universe exists in a static position; everything is in a state of motion.

Almighty God has everything within the universe -- certainly all wealth, power and knowledge is within His domain. Yet, He does not exist in a static situation. Thus He must be moving, just as is every- thing else in the universe; He must be moving toward something, seeking for something. That something must be love.

God could use His wealth to propagate this love; certainly He could use power to make this love more exciting; certainly He could use knowledge to make this love more bright. Let us put this question to God: "God, do you need power? Do you need knowledge? Do you need money?" He would answer, "Well, not so much." But if we asked Him, "Do you need love?" He would say, "Yes!" in a very emphatic way. Love is really the only thing that God wants.

God could instantaneously gather to Himself plenty of power, knowledge, and money; but He has to work for and develop the satis- faction of His love. Love that we expect to experience in the future brings us hope. We can always look forward to more love in the future. We can never use up all of our love in the present. When we experience love in the present, we always want to improve, advance and increase it.

We can see that love is something for which God has been seeking eternally and will continue to move toward for eternity. Love is never a static thing; it must always be pursued. Which do you like better -- something which starts out small and gets larger and larger for eternity, or something which starts out big and then gets smaller and smaller for eternity? Naturally, you would prefer the first. That is the way God feels, too, about love.

The Rhythm of True Love

We want everything else in our environment and the universe to follow the motion of love, moving in the same direction and rhythm. We don't want things to go against that love. Centering on true love, everything should breathe in and out together in harmony.

All things are meant to act and react according to the rhythm of true love. In the relationship between man and woman, the man is in the subject position and the woman is in the object position. Even though some women think they are not in that position, nature knows better; nature doesn't follow anyone's opinions. For a woman to say, "I don't need a man as my subject," is the same as her saying, "I don't need to breathe air or eat food."

What is the deepest motivation behind human activity? Is it the desire for lots of money, status or knowledge? No, it is the desire for true love. Men and women will open up everything within themselves for the sake of true love. When two people are in love, the woman doesn't protest if the man embraces her from any position-he can come up and hug her from behind, or jump on her and knock her down -- she is never offended by the affectionate expression of his love. Can you imagine a woman saying, "If you want to show me affection, you can only do it when we are sitting down, facing each other. It's not fair if you come up behind me"? No, a woman wouldn't set those kinds of conditions on her lover.

Only love can motivate a stately, dignified person to move around in a vigorous, lively way. God Himself would never trade true love for anything else in the universe. However, there are people who marry for the sake of money, social status or some other superficial reason. The person who would do such a thing is not a genuine person.

Why should a person put love above all other values? It is because the ancestor of human beings -- God -- does that and we naturally take after Him. The instinct to cherish love above everything else is given to us by our Father, our Creator, who is our Cause and our original Ancestor. Every child resembles his parents; thus we resemble God.

Women are created to exist for the purpose of love; therefore women exist for men. The opposite is true -- men exist for women and for love, not for any other reason such as money, power or knowledge. Isn't this true? Do you agree, or do you have a better idea?

All things that exist move according to a certain rhythm. This is not only true for human beings, but also for animals, insects, and even down into the mineral kingdom. The mineral realm moves, too. Although a stone may be stationary, its molecules and atoms maintain A certain motion The action and reaction of a subject and object relationship exist within all forms of life.

The result of the constant give and take between subject and object is growth and expansion on every level of existence. Everything develops according to stages. When we look at the development of the creation from a certain perspective, it appears that Darwin's theory of evolution is correct. However, the evolutionary theory doesn't explain that the smaller levels of existence always strive to have give and take with larger levels. In this way, the smaller beings elevate their value. Within the relationship of love, smaller beings want to take the object position to a larger being; with their give and take, the object can be elevated to the same level of value as the larger subject being. This occurs on all levels of existence; this is the nature of love.

Love Gives Even Small Things Value

Thus smaller beings can have hope for their growth and development in the future, because of their give and take with larger and larger subjects. This is the only way for a smaller being to become greater in value -- within the relationship of love.

Thus a woman feels that she is the greatest, most valuable being and possesses everything of value when she has love. When her beloved wants her to do something very humble, she will not protest. Thus love can make us larger and smaller. Love has that omnipotence.

If love could only make us larger, then God, who possesses more love than anyone, could never go down into the small and humble places of the world. But because of His love, God can make Himself very small and can go anywhere He wants. You wouldn't mind what your beloved did to you, even if he put his fingers into your nose, isn't that right? Or you women might climb up onto your husband's shoulders and ride around -- he wouldn't mind it at all, would he?

Have you ever observed a child poke a finger into his nose and then the next moment put that finger into his mouth? In love, people can do even that sort of thing to each other. You like everything about your beloved. Thus love has a mysterious, wondrous power. Do you think I am exaggerating, or is this the truth?

Which is the case -- does God go into love or does love go into God? Which would God prefer -- would He like to be included within love, or would He like for love to be included within Him? Which is contained within the other? God wants to be contained within love. Why is this? Every being wants to look forward to becoming larger and larger. Even God wants to look toward the future in order to become larger. Thus God should be able to be contained within love. Do you understand? Since God also wants to have hope for the future, He wants to be able to go in and out of love and not the other way around.

All the beautiful things of the universe manifest themselves for the sake of love. The insects chirp in the nighttime and the birds sing during the day for the sake of love. These sounds are all a part of the universal orchestra of love. Human beings are in the position to be the kings and queens of all other beings and thus they are supposed to move in harmony and rhythm with love. Observing all this motion and sound centering on true love, God is drawn to contribute His rhythms of love, too.

Why do we think the way we do? It is because God created us to think in a certain way. Adam and Eve were created to stroll together hand in hand through all the things of nature, sharing in the harmony and beauty. God would have been so happy and excited to see such a scene.

Now you have some idea of what the universe is all about. You can feel within yourself that this must have been the original ideal for human beings; you know that this is not just a fantasy. This is simply the way God originally planned the world to be. The things I have been telling you clearly connect with all the experiences you have had in life; the things you have already observed tell you that what I am saying is true. Now you can see the universe in a clear and cohesive manner.

The Laws of Existence Never Change

Love will never diminish or fade; it is the one thing that will expand and grow forever. Nothing else in the world has that power. Look at the activities of the animals and insects -- what they are doing today is the very same thing that their forebears were doing thousands, even millions, of years ago. Unlike human culture, these creatures maintain the same "traditions" without change. In some ways perhaps they improve, but they do not change in the way that human societies do. The law of the universe is very rigid. Rules for the subject and object relationship are not open to change. Those beings which are not suited for each other will simply not be able to form a subject/object relationship. There is no room for interference in this law. Thus the theory of evolution, which claims that accidents caused the development of the universe, is completely off-base.

When we can see the universe in light of the original purpose, Darwin's theory doesn't make sense. How could the rigid laws of existence be abruptly broken here and there, allowing some smaller being to jump to a higher level? Pushing Darwin's theory to its logical conclusions would mean that even an insect could become a direct object to man -- in other words, become the spouse of a human being. But the universal law dictates that a human being must marry another human being. Can a man marry a monkey? What sort of a child would be produced? The rigid laws of existence have not changed for billions of years.

According to these laws, we can look at the way men and women relate and determine whether they are behaving in the original way or not. In American society there is a dreadful misunderstanding of the meaning of freedom. A man might take one woman as a lover one night and then, the next night, he might take another. The woman might do the very same thing. Is this the original way for which they were created? How can you say "no" so confidently?

We can look at the original arrangement -- there was only one man and one woman, Adam and Eve. They didn't have a choice; there was absolutely only one of each. The American way is definitely not the original way. The Unification Church is unique in that we are trying to conform with the absolute standard of love. Each man and woman is blessed in marriage to one spouse and for eternity that cannot change.

God continually moves toward His focal point of love; likewise, man and woman move in the same direction. That line between man and woman is a straight, horizontal line; it is not a crooked one. As a person grows up, he becomes taller and larger but the direction of his growth is always the same. His nose continues to grow in one direction; every part of him does the same. There are not two directions of growth.

You might ask why you can't go in many directions, why you must just go in one direction. If you don't follow one direction strictly, you can never meet with a true woman or a true man. That means you will not meet with true love. True love exists only at the point where God, man and woman come together. If you are wobbling you will not get to that point.

God contains the duality of masculine and feminine, which we could represent as an oval coming down in a vertical direction. Men and women are the representatives of the same duality and could be represented as an oval stretching in the horizontal direction. When these two ovals connect, they create a tremendous spark. That point of connection can only be at the point of true love.

When there is a perfect minus, it will always attract a perfect plus. This is the law of nature. Regardless of whether the minus wants it, it will happen. Therefore, whenever a perfected woman and man are moving toward each other, they will form a perfect minus to God when they unite. They don't have to worry about how God will come to them; it will just happen. When this takes place, the whole universe will reverberate with thunder. Everything is accomplished.

Every cell of a man comes to a common focal point when he is engaging in love. The same is true for a woman. In their moment of physical union, the man and woman can form a new organism, a new life. The essence of their love is given to that new life, the embryo. Every cell in the bodies of the father and mother are alert and focused on giving that new life. No part of their bodies is asleep or distracted. The experience of love, with its intensity, can overcome everything, including sleepiness, hunger, even death. 100% of the cells are going in one direction toward their one focal point, which is love and new life.

Why do men and women want to come together, above all other desires? It is because only in that way can we bring God down with us. What more could we want after that? Why do people cherish wedding ceremonies so much? That is the time when God is supposed to come down to join with the man and woman, according to the original ideal.

The Original Ideal of God's Child

In the ideal situation, a man and woman will feel that nothing in the universe is as valuable as each other. They feel that they want to stay with each other for the rest of eternity. Why is that? It is because one's spouse represents God Himself. Through this kind of original love, new life is meant to begin. The baby born of such love is like the original baby meant to be born in the Garden of Eden. This is the standard. The baby is the child of Adam and Eve and at the same time, it is God's child too. This is the original ideal of children.

However, what is the reality of human society? The way in which children are born is entirely different. Fallen man and woman are actually moving in a different direction, not on the perfect horizontal line toward one another. They come together and create new life anyway, but they are more in the presence of Satan than God when they unite physically. Thus the child that they produce is contrary to the original standard.

There is no external sign to distinguish the original child from the fallen child, but inside of them is the difference between Heaven and earth. They cannot be the same. Billions of human beings have been born, but mankind has not yet achieved this original ideal.

It is important to understand what the original ideal for love is, because only if we can see where we are supposed to be can we hope to get there. If you never knew what the ideal is, you could never begin to achieve it. But once that ignorance is dispelled, you can move toward the ideal.

This ideal is so important because it is the only way we can connect ourselves to God. This is not an abstract thing; it is real. If you don't take this point seriously, you will never find the true, deep meaning of religion. You will never understand why the Messiah is so essential. You will think, "The Messiah is a great teacher. He is like one of us." But you will fail to realize your need to reconnect to God through the Messiah; you must realize that this is a life and death situation.

Unless you know about the ideal and where you are in relation to it, you cannot truly appreciate the value-of the True Parents for your own life. If you do not feel the depth of your separation from the ideal, then you will not feel deeply enough your need to become one with the True Parents. Once you feel that, then you can appreciate the value of religion for your life and the necessity of True Parents for your life.

The Bridegroom and the Bride

Only one religion has taught the idea of the Messiah as the bridegroom and his followers as the bride -- that is Christianity. This is because Jesus wanted to restore that point of true love. By becoming the true bridegroom and teaching others the position of true bride, Jesus could teach about true love. Only when true love is consummated can the direction of the fallen world be reversed. With the advent of the true bridegroom and the true bride, there is a connection between the fallen world and God's world.

What was the responsibility of those in the bride's position, the Israelites and all those who were supposed to follow Jesus? Whenever the perfect bride is prepared, the perfect bridegroom will inevitably come. Thus if the Israelites had been prepared properly in the position of bride, then the Messiah would come on that national level of preparedness. We can see clearly that the Jewish faith was the preparation for that. They were following the Ten Commandments in order to become the perfect bride for their bridegroom, the Messiah, on the national level.

In the Old Testament days, their direction was very clear and simple. Their were told: simply forget about everything else, don't pay attention to how you will be living in the future, just stay within the commandments. Prepare yourselves for that special moment when the groom will come to rescue you.

Thus, the Israelites had a rigid, single direction in their religion. They had one simple goal to prepare for, nothing else to concentrate on. That was how they were being educated by God. That bridegroom is the only person who brings true love to the fallen world. No matter how prepared the people were, they would not have been connected to true love without the true bridegroom.

If the people had realized these things, they would have wanted to obey their true bridegroom in every way. If the bride knows how impossible it is to meet with God on her own, she will welcome the bridegroom and will never bicker or make any demands upon him. Instead, the bride will be completely obedient and happy to be coming back to God. The only thought the people would have had would have been how to unite themselves completely with their groom. Then the bridegroom would have educated the people through various means and then would have told them, "Now you are worthy to take the position of true bride."

When the true bridegroom first arrived, the people, in the position of bride, could not possibly understand him and follow his ways without substantial teaching and training from him. He would have educated them with a deep heart and brought them up to the level where they could be worthy to take the bride's position. This would have to be done on the national level so that God could eventually reach out to the rest of the world.

The people should have listened to Jesus and followed his teachings with a completely humble and open mind. They should have been desperate to listen to him. But whenever people say to God, "I will go only so far. I insist on protecting this much of myself," then their education stops. God cannot continue to fill you when your self- centered thinking is predominant. Satan will move in to such a mind and will claim that person. God cannot stop that from happening because the responsibility rests with the individual. Many Americans think, "God, you are not fair. I must maintain my own ways and you have no right to tell me what to do." But that cannot be.

Every country, large or small, has its border line. Some bordering nations are very different from each other. Within any country there are certain laws and in some countries a person will even be put to death if he breaks those laws. Whenever a person goes into a different country, he must learn about the laws there first. Within the country of the true bridegroom -- the Heavenly world -- the law is very rigid.

When the bridegroom comes into the bride's country, can the bride say, "Now I want to do just what I feel like doing. Let's forget about this rigid standard"? No, the rigid law must still be observed. The bridegroom has the authority to guide the people, even though he comes into their territory and they have been following their own ways for a long time. For example, if the bridegroom comes into Washington, D.C., the people who have been living in Washington for many years must still concede to the one who comes to connect them with God.

Connect to God Through the Messiah

Satan will constantly want you to say, "This is too much. We have complied with Heavenly law pretty well so far, so why doesn't the Messiah yield a little bit now?" But God will say, "No, you must continue to persevere. You cannot compromise with the standard of true law." These are the different tendencies of Satan and God. The people in the position of bride to the true bridegroom cannot stop following the laws of the bridegroom's country. The bride must remain completely obedient to those laws. Once the bride herself becomes one with those laws, she can then go out and teach them to the rest of her fallen nation, finally to return to the bridegroom.

Why is this so? God's true love is transmitted from only one person -- the Messiah. In order to connect that true love to a bride, this process must take place: the bride must move in the proper direction in order to connect with the bridegroom, just as the bridegroom is coming from a certain direction to connect with her. Once their unity is achieved, the bride must then go out into her fallen country to bring about unity among the churches and within the nation and to bring them all back to the bridegroom.

Every child originates from the seed of his father; the mother is like the earth in which the seed must be planted. Likewise, the restoration involves a completely reversed path. Therefore, people seeking restoration must follow the directions of the Messiah completely.

There is another way to say this. When you were living in the realm of the fallen world, you loved many people, such as your parents, your brothers and sisters, friends and so forth. Now that you are seeking union with God's true love, you must give a greater love to the Messiah than any love you ever gave to anyone in your secular life. If your love is any less, then it will not be enough to connect you to God. Jesus taught this, saying, "Whoever loves his wife, parents or brethren more than me is not worthy of me."

Jesus said forthrightly that one's own family is one's enemy. How in the world could such an attitude be justified according to secular values? Jesus knew that unless people could go beyond that secular love they could not become one with God. We can imagine how much the worldly powers were upset by words like this from Jesus. By the same token, many people have been upset by the teachings of the Unification Church, particularly the parents of people who have joined. But they do not understand the nature of the historical transition that is taking place. In Jesus' time, people did not recognize him as the Messiah; in fact, he was just a humble carpenter from Joseph's house in the eyes of most people. How could they imagine that Jesus was the Messiah, especially without knowing what he was saying and teaching?

What would the people of that time have said about what went on in Jesus' church? We can imagine such talk as, "That young woman was once a perfect wife, faithful to her husband, but once that young carpenter from Nazareth came here, she started following him and became like a crazy person. She goes to visit his church early each morning and doesn't even come home some nights. What is she doing there?" That is how the secular world must have viewed Jesus' church. But Jesus didn't have any other choice in order to teach the fallen people; he had to instruct them in such an intense manner in order to save them.

There is only one way for the fallen world, whether an individual, a church or a nation, to reconnect with God, and that is through the Messiah. He is like the origin; he is like the seed. Even though people are already born and grown, they all have to trace back to the same father and be born again.

The only way to do that is to love the Messiah intensely. This is precisely the law that was in effect when Jesus came as the Messiah. The Divine Principle and the restoration do not compromise. Two thousand years have passed and now is the time of the Second Advent. Through the Unification Church, the same pattern and situation has reappeared. Many women have visited the church and have become members. In the past, people observed that some woman was a very faithful, chaste wife and mother, a good daughter to her husband's parents. But then she joined the church of this bachelor preacher in the neighborhood and she hardly ever came home! That woman felt that she never wanted to leave the church, even when it got late at night, because she wanted to listen to what the teacher was saying. Day in and day out, year in and year out, she continued to stay and listen.

This applies not only to women. Women were more religious in general, that's true, but there were men as well. Men gave up their families and went to the church, just like Jesus predicted and told them to do -- drop everything. "If you love your own family more than me, you are not worthy of me." These men and women precisely carried that out, in spite of their difficulties. They were going through the reversal of their birth. Father first and then Mother, and then being born again.

In the Unification Church I held a rebirth ceremony after the birth of our first child. I established a condition and held a ceremony in which all the grown-up church members shared the same meal that Mother took after she gave birth to her true child. And the second, third, fourth and fifth children came, and so on, and I elevated the standard even higher -- from the individual to the nation, expanding the realm of indemnity. Also, I gave blessings to couples at various times, connecting each level to this true love. Do you understand?

After accomplishing all that and on that foundation, I came to America. I accomplished all the necessary spiritual conditions in Korea and then came over here to reconnect with the established Christian churches.

The unity of Christianity around the world was only possible when I had established enough conditions of embracing the established churches. That is why I spent so much effort and money for the established Christian churches before I paid attention to Unification Church members.

The Il Jeung Movement

By Heung Jin Nim's ascension into the spiritual world, the borderlines between people there could be abolished. There is a big movement of unity, doing away with even Hell's borderline, so that all of Hell, as well as Heaven, will become one big sphere of God's direct dominion. This huge task was accomplished and we see so much development. I have been doing the same things here on earth as Heung Jin Nim has done in spirit world. By establishing the Day of the Love of God, I declared to the world that there is no longer a division between Hell and Heaven on earth. No matter where I am, even in prison, still it is part of the planet earth and the whole earth has been declared to be under the direct dominion of God.

On the Day of the Love of God we started a new one heart-and-love movement. On this day, members pledged to be desperate to become one in heart and love with the Parents. We are doing that day in and day out by intense prayer. This is the Il Jeung movement, which means we are all moving in the direction of the bridegroom. Now the bride is ready. The bride and bridegroom are on the verge of becoming one with each other. For that ultimate accomplishment we established the Il Jeung movement. Pray for this to be victorious.

Inheriting this Solemn Position

Only love can make this possible. Now is the most crucial time of transition, which can be compared only with the time when Jesus went to his crucifixion. After he was crucified, he spent three days in Hell, and after that the resurrection took place. But I am doing all of this, while I am alive. You must realize now that the very day you are living in is the result of long, long years of preparation, of condition after condition. That includes the blessing of the 36 couples, the 72 couples, and so on down to the 8,000 couples; now we are on the verge of reconnecting everything through this one-heart- and-love movement.

We have come through this step-by-step process, according to the law of restoration, moving toward the ideal that God intended for this world. By going the reverse way I established the necessary conditions, through the 36, the 72, the 120, the 430 couples, then the 777, the 1800, and finally the 8,000 couples. Step-by-step I have moved forward with these conditions, and we are now being born again on the world foundation. We are now on the verge of this great transition.

You haven't worked this out; I have worked it out. But you are inheriting this most solemn position. You must know that I did not just set up this Day of the Love of God by whim, but that there was a long, painstaking, agonizing history behind it. You don't know everything about that, but you know that an unswerving foundation exists. You are standing on that foundation. So all you have to do is just be absolutely confident.

We are creating this whole new tree of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. Your families are the branches of this tree, rising out of the one central trunk. The branches are not individuals but families. It is the family that is at the center of the Kingdom of Heaven. The family branches out from the trunk.

I Urge You to Come into Unity

It would have been ideal if the 36 couples and the 72 couples had done everything perfectly. Of course, later blessed couples' mission would have been easier. We can see that the recently blessed couples do not understand the meaning of their own families so deeply. One reason for this is that the earlier couples did not show them a perfect example. They have not been educated properly. But what we have to understand, nevertheless, is that we are on the verge of becoming perfect. We are going to be like that, so we have to realize where we belong.

No matter which blessing you belong to -- whether you are one of the 8,000 couples or one of the 1800, 430 or 36 couples, whatever-you must maintain your position and regard everybody else as constituents of the whole tree. If we love God and the Unification Church, we have to achieve this unity. Before now, there have been all sorts of misdeeds and failures in carrying out missions, no matter which blessing someone was in. How did they fail? They failed by not attaining unity. In this trying time, I am urging all of you to come into unity. When things are comfortable and slack, your minds tend to be lax; you feel no urge to become one. But now is a good time for you to unite, honoring the tradition of the Unification Church.

All of you have the determination that you would go to jail and serve a sentence three times longer than mine -- I know that. You must mobilize that kind of determination to the fullest extent and direct it into the complete unity of the Unification Church, knowing where you belong and adhering to that position. Everyone has his avenue, his road clear. We must achieve complete unity above everything else. Certainly, self-centered thinking has absolutely no place in us now. Through this one-heart-and-love movement, you will all connect eventually to the True Parents, as families within the Unification Church. When we do that, what happens? God, without condition, can come and live with us. And God can make Hell null and void -- there will be no such a thing as Hell. Therefore, there will be no place where Satan can reign.

This is precisely why I established last Sunday as the Day of the Love of God. Center on the True Parents completely and there will be no condition or place left for Satan to claim as his. The point where Adam and Eve fell was at the top of the growth stage. To go from that point to the third stage of perfection has taken me forty years. In these forty years, all the conditions necessary have taken place. Now I am standing on the top of the stage of perfection. Although all the Unification Church members and families are scattered around the world, their focal point is the same. They are very much connected with true love, through the True Parents. All is connected. We are making sure that this is so, each and every one of our families, so that God can reside with us and accept that as a good enough condition for the abolition of the demarcation line between Hell and Heaven.

In other words, the borderline between the Unification Church and the secular world -- all the rest of the world -- is abolished now. Centering on who? Centering on the Parents. We must realize this is where we are now. The blessed couples failed to attain unity by themselves. They were supposed to attain it and do their missions, but they didn't. I am bearing my cross now for the failure of all the blessed couples of the different levels. When that is accomplished, from then on the world will be connected. Through this one-heart-and- love movement, we will all make up what was failed in the past.

The Complete Unity of our Movement

It is clear what all the Unification Church members and their families must do. They must, through this one-heart-and-love movement, pray that the entire Unification Church become intact, in one piece and completely united. When that happens, then God will make sure that there is no borderline between Hell and Heaven. Therefore, the whole world will come into the direct dominion of God. Once this happens, the attitude of the people of the United States will become favorable towards our movement. We won't even have to try so hard. When spring comes, everyone automatically revives. In the same way, when this is done, all the minds of the churchgoers and the minds of the U.S. citizens will move towards God's point of view and away from secular powers or political parties or things like that. Their minds will follow God's mind, more than anything else. This will surely take place. Do you understand?

We must have the utmost confidence. There is no reason why any other power can overcome us -- none! The greatest power of all is the power of God. All of the fallen world as well as all the religions of the world are destined to return to the original condition -- the original Eden centered on God. That is what is being accomplished now. Satan knows very well that he must observe and comply with the original law, once this original state is restored. It is up to us. You cannot have confidence unless you understand, but now you understand and you can have absolute confidence and no power can overcome you. Everything will be accomplished, provided we become united.

No matter what, you must be united for the biggest goal and be obedient to the True Parents. No matter how incredible it may seem, if you have the utmost confidence, we will have victory. This is why I always urge you to become strong and brave. Nothing should intimidate you. Everything follows certain numbers in the spirit world -- you may have heard that. The number 6 represents the satanic number, and three times 6 is the number of perfection, or 18. In other words, that is the apex of what Satan can achieve; he cannot go any higher than that. That's when he stops and that's when God starts going up. This is that day. We have been the underdogs until today. Knowing this principle and knowing that this principle will work, I know that if I go to prison it will not really be a prison. It is just another backyard on the planet Earth. So if I go to prison, I will bring the gospel and love to that prison. I do not feel that from that time on, I will be behind bars and in Hell. Not at all.

The Indemnity is Complete

You will see that the tide has shifted. Until now, the Abel side had to pay all the indemnity to restore the world. That has come to its culminating point. In other words, the cup is full; you cannot pour in any more. The indemnity is done. You may not understand everything, but you can have absolute confidence. You must realize that this is a very unique time, in which all the failures of man's responsibility to receive the Messiah, starting with established Christianity, the 36 couples, and all the rest of the blessed couples within the Unification Church and the nation, everybody that ever failed to receive the Messiah are indemnified. Already that indemnity is complete. We are now in a new territory. Wherever you walk this morning and from now on, there is no such thing as Hell, except in your mind. Before today, this was not so. Therefore, we must have absolute confidence.

If we really march forward in complete unity during the next three and a half years, centering on the True Parents, the world will absolutely change, both spiritually and physically. That's roughly 1988. That is forty-three years since 1945, the end of World War II, and the year that Korea was liberated from Japanese domain. This is a new exodus to the world level. The Israelites' exodus was on the national level, but this is on the world level. At that time, they spent 430 years as slaves in Egypt. Likewise, there have been 43 years since the liberation of Korea and the end of World War II. This is the significance of the remaining three and a half years. And this is a totally unique time. This is the moment we have been waiting for. Until now, it was more or less the preparation for this one time.

We have experienced that there is no distinction between nations and races, no German, no American, no white, no black, no yellow. We have gone over these differences. We are completely one -- we are one family sharing flesh and blood. In other words, this is the first time in the history of mankind anywhere that people have gotten together in complete unity, centering on this amazing true love. Spiritually, we are much farther ahead than you even realize. Physically, too, by 1988 the situation of society will be completely different from what we can imagine now. It will be much more toward God's direction. At that time, not only America but also many countries around the world will recognize the meaning and value of our work and they will offer support for our activities in their countries. By 1988, we will have our own fatherland.

Satan Has no Power

Have confidence and remain centered on true love. There is no enemy within true love, not even Satan. I have never regarded anyone as my enemy. I grasp hold of my so-called enemy in my left hand and I never let go until that enemy loves me. Do you understand? Satan is not in the position to dominate mankind. You must understand what you are. You are the entity which was reborn through the True Parents. By the rebirth of the 36 couples, you were reborn again. By this process, including the 72 couples, the 120, the 430, 777, 1800, and so on, as each new family was born again, each of you was a step nearer to your own rebirth. Now you have been born again, but where? You are born on the top of all this foundation; it is not the same as if you were born ten or twenty years ago, when this foundation wasn't there. There is nothing which can dominate you anymore. Satan has no condition, no power and no right to claim anything. That is where we are standing now.

Please raise your hands if you have your one-heart-and-love candle that was passed out on the Day of the Love of Heaven. This candle is not given to everyone, but only to those who are blessed. Not everyone who is blessed has it, either, but only those who have made the determination to become one with their spouses and want to keep their family intact. That is the four position foundation -- God, True Parents and the couple, looking forward to the birth of your true child. The ones who are ready to do that and could pledge that received those candles. Those who are not so confident, not so determined that this family you have is the absolutely intact family which you are going to cherish for the rest of eternity, you are not worthy of these candles and should not receive them. The moment you receive the candle and understand the meaning of it, and pray under the light of that candle, you have only one direction, one heartistic love that goes in that direction.

You must have only one heart and one direction. Your direction is towards the parents, who are directed towards God. There is no room for deviation or compromise, because the restoration of the world is much too important. In the past, you may have had different ideas. You may have been confused in a little or a big way, but not after this moment. What can cause you to be confused or discouraged? Everything is clear now and you must start living now, only looking back to repent for what you have done wrong. This is a new position

Like Jesus said to the weeping, sorrowful disciples, do not feel sorry for me but feel sorry for your own offspring. That was a strong statement of judgment. God has done so much for mankind, so much for each individual, each family; it's up to you to make full use of that and bring yourselves completely out of Satan's domain. I am not worried about myself. I have done what I can for you; there is not really much more that I can do for you. Once you make your strong determination, everything will be solved. Why? True love, God and True Parents will control everything. Satan is not a part of that world. If Satan is not there, then nothing is there to come against God's will. Everything will bow down to the true love center, including Satan. The only thing left for him will be to bow down to the original ruler of the world.

Ask God to Join Our Pledge

Centering on the Day of the Love of Heaven -- which was last Sunday -- have absolute confidence and nothing will stand in your way. I asked all the members that day if they were determined to go forward with absolute obedience and confidence and they said yes. If I asked you again this morning, I know you would pledge again with a clear mind, nothing ambiguous or bothering you. I would like to add something to what you have already pledged. It is to ask God to please come and share in this pledge and watch over all of us in this assembly here. Also I want to ask God fervently to confirm that this is His word being spoken now. Do you join in that pledge? Those who pledge, please raise your hands, and God will share in and become one with us here while we pledge. I will pray about these things. Please join in my prayer.

(Following the prayer Father continued:) Have the utmost confidence and everything will be solved rather easily. Have pride that you now belong to the original state of the God-created world, not the fallen world. Everything will come within God's original four position foundation, nothing will remain outside of it. You must see the world in exactly the same way as unfallen Adam and Eve would have. This is why I have been teaching you about the original world. From this time on, you should not complain. When Heung Jin Nim went to spirit world, I did not cry. Was that because I was lacking in heart? In that time of despair, I quickly moved to the Unification Ceremony, which Satan did not expect. No matter what difficult times came, so much the better, and the more I stepped forward and did not retreat. Nothing set me back.

When a secular family or individual is confronted with these kinds of things, it is like a death blow for them. But not for me. I know the Principle of the dispensation. No matter how difficult or impossible something is, it all depends on which direction you give it. The ascension of Heung Jin Nim was directed toward the achievement of God's goal. Thus it was indeed a leap forward.

I know that this coming time will be similar to when I went into Hung Nam prison. I found disciples within the prison, a church within the prison. Likewise, if I find myself in prison in the United States, there will be many people there who will support me. Thus in a literal way Hell on earth is gradually transforming into Heaven on earth. There is no need for me to suffer anymore or to go to prison, even. Satan no longer has any right or reason to demand the condition, not at this stage. We are clearly beyond that boundary and on another level.

World events will move in such a way that neither the free world nor the communist world will have the ability to solve the problems they raise. Only Reverend Moon, and his vision and ideal, can solve those problems.

I know that will be true. I know that you all feel like going with me into prison, isn't that true? Therefore, what can you do when you are determined to go to prison? You can do anything and everything. You should have such determination on this Sunday morning. With that pledge we will march forward from this time on. We will defend our dignity as the true sons and daughters of the Heavenly lineage. God be with all of you.

Chapter 8 - True Love

Chapter 8
True Love

When you plant bean seeds, beans will grow. When you plant carnations, carnations will grow. No one can deny this principle. If you sow hatred, hatred will result. When you sow love, then the fruit of love will indeed come. The important thing is the size of that love.

Ideal Nation of God 2-21-80

You know that the most painful thing in the universe is not physical pain, but the pain resulting from the sickness of love. If there are many irregular situations in a country, it is destined to perish and a new nation will appear in its place. That is the situation we find in this country. Americans want happiness, but they must know that it begins with orderliness; only harmony with the universal tradition will heal sickness and pain and add prosperity and happiness.

Happiness must be based on love, which is nothing else but having the subject and object knowingly situated correctly in every area.

If in your teen years you start on this orderly and harmonious level, then you will continue to go up as you mature, never sinking down. If you begin a business on these principles then it will prosper and be admired by others. How happy will the family be whose husband and wife cherish this, each wanting to be the best husband or wife in the world. Such a wife would want to enter into her husband's cells and stay there for the rest of her life. The man would feel the same way.

When such a wife goes to spirit world she is no longer simply a woman, for by becoming one with her husband she has inherited the qualities of a man as well, so she can go anywhere in the spirit world. And it is the same for the man.

Our Tradition 6-15-80

What is your destination and goal? My destination is the Love Pole -- like the North or South Pole -- the summit of love. Don't look for me anywhere else because I won't be there. Don't say you looked in heaven but I wasn't there. I will be at the Pole of Love, relating in love with God and everyone in the world. When God is at the North Pole, I want to be at the South Pole of love. Once both poles are occupied, a sphere is formed through the relationship. What more can you want?

God has been working on this dispensation for 6,000 years and during this time there have been many impossible barriers blocking Him. Only the fact that He has been driven crazily and blindly toward the goal of love kept God from chopping off the heads of everyone in the dispensation!

The World of Good and Evil and My Indemnity 9-28-80

Now TL (true love) is a code word in the Unification Church. History will record that at Belvedere, October 12, 1980, at 7:05 a.m. I created the word "TL" and you can say you participated.

If a bee is sucking the nectar from a flower, you can try to pull him away; but instead of letting go, his body will tear in half; he will never stop sucking the nectar. You people are like honeybees. People outside our Church are pulling at you, but you never let go. The honey of the Unification Church is true love, and once you taste it you cannot let go. The world knows that I must have something to offer because they cannot separate you from me.

Let Us Set the Record 10-12-80

Your body wants to experience love. Your five senses want to be intoxicated with love. Once you get a taste of love, you long for it to continue for eternity without stopping. It is human nature to want to be intoxicated. That is why people drink, smoke, inject heroin and pursue all kinds of drugs. Such endeavors intoxicate people momentarily and artificially. If God were to sample such drugs, would He say, "This tastes so much better than love! Please put some on my breakfast table tomorrow." Would God become a drug addict? Would He find the taste of whiskey delightful?

What do you think God wants served for His meals? Love. He's a love addict. If you served God nothing but love for breakfast, lunch and dinner, would He eventually turn it down? No. He wants to receive that love and return it to you, making a complete circle. One circuit won't satisfy Him; He will want to continue for eternity.

The Blessing From the Viewpoint of the Dispensation of History 1-18-81

Where there is love, nothing is impossible. Certainly God who is the person without any impossibility, would want to dwell in love. When men and women are united in love and they find there is a place of greater love, they want to get there together. When you meet your fiancée and you establish a loving relationship, how would you like to move toward greater love? Do you want the fastest form of transportation, or would you like to travel slowly in a carriage? You want to get there the fastest way. What is the fastest way? The jet plane of love.

Where would you like to land? You said you want to land in the heart of God. Do you need permission to land? Planes cannot land without some control tower on the ground to guide them to the landing strip. There is a correct way to land on the landing strip of love. What kind of welcoming party will there be? Amazingly enough, when you land on the correct landing strip, there will be a welcoming party from many thousands of years of history, including Abraham and Noah. They won't seem like strangers, but will come right up to you. What power could make that happen? Again, only the power of love.

In love there is no distance of time, even if there is a difference of thousands of years. In love, time and space are completely disregarded. You think Germans and French are far apart, but when you are united as a blessed couple and come in for a landing in your love jet and see people from many thousands of years who have come to greet you, then you know the distance between German and French is nothing. Even if one of those people is 6,000 years old, there is no foreign feeling between you. You can instantly become one and understand him completely.

Love is a really strange thing. Even if you are from different nations, when you come together in a marriage relationship, you don't feel bad at all. One thing is for sure: You are marrying a person of the opposite sex and no explanation is needed! You want to touch him or her tenderly and there is no distance. The power of love can unite strangers. The power of love can shorten the distance of time.

Who Is God and Who Am I 1-25-81

Your life is the fruit of the love of your mother and father, coming vertically down to you. Thus, the energy of your life should be directed toward love, becoming a seed-bed of love.

The Two Worlds of Good and Evil 2-15-81

The love which everyone can see is not the most valuable. The love which God will slip into your back pocket when you are not looking is the best.

Prayer 3-19-81

This law of love is the most rigid one and we cannot be indifferent to it. Love is the thing we take most seriously.

Our Identity 4-1-81

Once you obtain true love, God will come without formality to you, even in His pajamas, wanting to dwell with you.

Core Love and Indemnity 10-22-813

Our ultimate goal is Canaan. While we are marching toward Canaan, our supreme duty is to follow orders, but once we enter Canaan we don't live by commands but by love. This is that time. We are arriving now, and we must live in a God-like way.

Historical Children's Day 1981 10-28-81

When a man and a woman can be pulled together, both living in harmony for the sake of others, then the entire universe will be influenced by them. Their center is a noble dream of love. That is the epitome of beauty, which other men and women would look at with admiration and longing. Heaven and earth would respond in the same way.

The focal point of the universe is harmonizing, noble love. When you move with such a heart, the whole universe is turned by you and you feel joy.

Noble Dream 12-1-81

It is important for all people to find some unchanging principle or foundation for their life -- something that is continuous for the past, present and future. What should be the goals for our struggles in life? Do you have your own concept of life and struggle, as well as a goal? What is it? You say it is true love, but that is very easy to say. Can you just say, "I want true love," and expect it to come and be with you automatically? No, that is not the way it works.

Since true love doesn't come that easily, how will you get it? There is a very simple answer: If true love doesn't come to you, you have to go and get it! Is it easy to find true love? How very, very difficult it is! Let's give a realistic analogy. Pulling out one of your eyes would be extremely painful. Is the difficult path to true love more or less painful than this? Is finding true love more difficult than chopping off one of your arms or legs? You may lose two eyes or an arm and a leg, but do you still need true love? You say yes, and that is a very serious yes.

In human history, has there been anyone who has sought true love and won the victory? You say Father, but how do you know I am not a swindler? Let's suppose there is a great scholar and winner of the Nobel Prize, someone respected throughout the world. We could ask him, "Do you have true love? Have you won it?" Would he shout, without hesitation, "Yes, I have"? Wouldn't he more likely say, "Let me think about it"? If even the greatest of scholars cannot get to true love, then who can? When you seriously pose the question of true love, you might conclude, "Well, it is difficult but there may be one or two people who have won true love in their lives. Certainly not many more than that." When you realize that you are not one of those, you can become very serious, can't you?

Think for a moment about God, the absolute being. Let's pose a question to Him: "Are You really in the position of the King of true love?" What would He reply -- "Yes," or "Well, let me think about it"? Let me ask you a question: do you think love can be initiated through only one person, or do you need someone else to consummate love? Even God needs someone else. Since God is absolute, it is logical that His someone else should also be absolute.

We realize that God wants to consummate true love; thus we must understand what true love is. When you think of true love, you can think of it as the "house" in which God wants to dwell. We might ask God, "Where would You like to live?" Would He say, "Since I am the King of Kings, I just want to live alone in a big palace and sit on a golden throne"? What about you? If I asked you the same question, you might reply, "Father, I just want to be someplace where I can sleep. I'm so sleepy!" Do you think God would say that, since He too is so tired?

Do you think God would like to have a good time and play sometimes? Maybe He would tell you, "I want to live in a place where I can play games and have fun all the time." Or maybe God would say, "I just want to dwell in my mind for eternity; all I want to do is think." Or might He say, "All I want is to work, since I am the God of creation." No? Then where would He say He would like to dwell?

God will say, "I want to live with a smile, to be happy," just as this white-haired, noble-looking gentleman here might say. What do you think makes a person with a Ph.D. happy? Will receiving his degree make him smile for the rest of his life? Maybe he will smile for a day or so, but then he will get bored.

No matter how great and wonderful and dignified God is, He desires to live His life with a smile. Thus it is important to know what element allows Him to continue smiling. Is it looking at His hands? Is it looking at His own eyes? Maybe He has a big mirror in Heaven -- do you suppose He smiles all the time to see Himself? God's body may have beautiful features, such as long lovely fingernails. Maybe He gives Himself a manicure every morning, or maybe He grooms His feet. Does God want to spend all His time in front of His mirror? No? Then what makes God smile? Since love is the only thing which enables someone to continue smiling forever, automatically we come to the conclusion that God needs a good object, such as a wife or children with whom to have the give and take of love.

Let's say a man is very handsome, manly, and also he is well educated, with a Ph.D. from Harvard. He has everything a man needs to be respectable. Does that make him smile for the rest of this life? No, he might even be very solemn, but as soon as a beautiful woman comes around, his whole demeanor will change. He will light up and start to smile.

Imagine a small, delicate-looking woman sitting somewhere very quietly and solemnly, and her husband, a big tough man with strength like a tiger comes up to her. Other men may fear him, but this small woman will smile as soon as he comes near. She will light up and her eyes will start to sparkle, almost as if electricity was flowing into her. Isn't that true? What makes a woman react like that?

You were all very sleepy a few minutes ago, but as soon as I started talking about love and men and women, everybody woke up! Love must have a pull stronger than the power of sleep. If God is looking for true love, He definitely needs a true object who can respond to Him so that He can create a circuit of give and take. Where can He find that perfect object?

I am sure you have concluded that God must find His perfect object in human beings.

Unification members today can cherish this one very important confidence: "I am the unique object to God. Without me, God will feel lonely and cannot consummate His love." This wonderful statement is the key point of my teaching today. Just think of it: you can be the unique object to God! No matter what, if even the entire planet disappeared, you would still be God's unchanging, unique object. How wonderful! Without an eternal object, there can be no foundation for the existence of true love.

Anyone can speak easily of true love, but to fulfill it in reality you must have the right foundation. We have four bridges to cross, all of which are heading for the goal of true love: the unique bridge, the unchanging bridge, the absolute bridge, and the eternal bridge. After crossing these four bridges you will meet with true love on the other side. Beyond these bridges is the only place where true love dwells. The people who are making an effort every day to go across these four bridges are the ones in whom true love can dwell, and through whom true love can be communicated.

Many people think, "Life is too short to spend it suffering. Enjoy yourself now!" This is the prevalent philosophy today. But the Unification Church goal is not focused on this world. We are looking at the eternal world and learning to live according to eternal principles while we are here on earth. We know that only with true love can we obtain a victorious life here on earth and forever after. Such accomplishments will never change or diminish. In other words, our life's goal must be to perfect ourselves and become unique, unchanging, absolute, and eternal. This is the goal of the Unification Church. Why do we want true love so much? It is because true love will fulfill God and ourselves; the consummation of everything good can come out of true love. Only true love can completely fill the universe -- not God's power, total knowledge or anything else can do that. Only true love can make everything sound and solid. Inside the realm of true love, there can be no resistance or limits. As soon as you touch true love, you become one with it.

Which is bigger -- God or true love? True love is actually bigger than God because, even though God is almighty, He only has an up and down relationship on the vertical line. In order to consummate His love, He needs an object with whom to have horizontal give and take. Thus He requires the horizontal line in order to create the circular motion of love. By Himself, as a vertical being, He could not create that circle. That is why we say that true love is even greater than God. Once you have true love in your hands, you have absolutely everything else in the universe.

You have to be very hungry for true love. You must keep on digesting true love -- on the family, societal, national and worldwide levels, all the way up to spirit world and God's level. Still you should continue because you have such a hunger and thirst for true love. This is why the Bible teaches, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied." It is very important to have that urgent hunger and thirst for the righteousness of true love. If you thirst for true love but there is nobody to give it to you, then you must make yourself the perfect object to God. Create within yourself that circuit of give and take with true love. This is what our movement is all about.

Victory and Peace 1-10-82

The Unification Church is the church of vibration, the vibration of true love. You did not come here for the sole purpose of singing "Happy Birthday" to True Parents. I don't want you to come for that. I want you to become somebody. Become a Moonie of true love vibration. From today, as a birthday gift take back with you the vibration of true love. You are starting to vibrate today for the sake of the world. Those who want to become true vibrations of love, raise your hands. Where will you give your love vibrations? Home church. Thank you.

The Vibration of True Love 1-30-82

The human body is composed of many different kinds of cells. Also the different races of man can be represented in the cells of one body. An example would be the cells in the whites of the eyes, representing white people. The dark cells on the sole of the foot might represent the black people. All are making up the one body, simply in a different location. Who could say that the cells of the whites of the eyes are superior to the cells on the bottom of the foot? All human cells are equally valuable, working for the same purpose and serving a joint will. How about husband and wife? From the universal point of view, husband and wife are like two cells which are next to each other and have close give and take -- virtually one cell.

From this universal point of view all human beings are equal. We have a common nature which belongs to that one universal nucleus consciousness. Among all the billions of human "cells" there must be a certain harmonizing factor which brings people together peacefully. This is the power of love. The power of love is like a thread between every cell making smoothness and harmony. In a way, love is like glue, binding and cementing together all the cells of humanity. This is why love is universal and love is good. The action of love is ultimate. Therefore, without love everything would fall apart. The action of love unites subject and object and mind and body.

Without love the interaction between subject and object is very clumsy. However, with the power of love we can experience total freedom of action, and freedom of movement between east and west, north and south. In a way, love is a shocking intoxication which can make everybody drunk. That is why love is good. There is a drunkenness which comes from drugs or alcohol, but this is merely an artificial and momentary intoxication.

Because of the power of love differing individuals are pulled together, particularly men and women. Men love women and women love men. Without the action of love no one can remain dulled; it is like connecting to an electric circuit. One becomes totally electrified through love. Love must go to the nucleus because when the nucleus is activated the whole self becomes excited. Love penetrates to the nucleus-center and the entire objective body is activated. True man is the center of true love; thus, when true love activates the nucleus of a man all his actions will be true. Love will "turn you on" and true love will turn you on truly.

If man is to pursue the action of true love, he must recognize the nucleus first. Love must go through the nucleus turning on every cell. Therefore, in order to fulfill and consummate love, we first have to recognize the existence of the nucleus, the center.

In terms of consciousness and existence indeed it is within the consciousness that the internal character, the nucleus, is created. This must be recognized. When we are pursuing ideals and love, we must first give recognition to the existence of the nucleus -- both the individual nucleus and the universal nucleus. Thus the consciousness comes first; will, ideal and thought come before existence.

Thought or consciousness comes before everything. The ideal thought is centered upon true love. The fulfillment of true love is the purpose of that ideal thought. The Unification Church has truly penetrated to the depths of this universal truth. That is a miracle; that is a joy!

Where does our existence come from? God's ideal is the universal subject; the center of that ideal is true love. The fulfillment of the ideal of love is the purpose of creation. Therefore, everything was designed by God under this plan for the purpose of the fulfillment of love. That is the way men and women are designed and that is why we were created.

Why are men attracted to women? That's the step to reach the ideal of love. Why are women attracted to men? It is an inevitable step in the search for the ideal of love. The people who marry and divorce freely are behaving like animals and have no way to connect with the eternal nature of the love of God. Everything God has created is based upon the eternal quality of love. Some people go after carnal knowledge or physical love, love "just for fun," using their bodies for the consumption of love. This is terrible. Such catastrophic love should be removed from mankind.

Do you want momentary love or eternal love? You want eternal love because the central nucleus of love is eternal; you can connect to that nucleus through eternal love. Therefore, only love can remain throughout eternity. Your body will not remain; it comes and it will go, but your love endures. This is why some of the greatest master pieces of literature throughout history have been portraits of love.

God and Us 2-1-82

When can real true love be found? Do you have it in the center of your minds now? Through whom will it become reality? It will come through your partner. The love comes from God, but your counterpart is required in order for God's love to rest in you. America has become so great and sophisticated that there is almost nothing it cannot do; women even expect love through another woman, and men through another man! American men think they don't need women in order to receive God's love! Men and women are meant to be complementary, with one indented and the other protruding. Can two positive elements be drawn to each other, or would they repel each other? When the central shaft of a machine turns around, everything that is attached to it will also turn. What kind of axis does a man or woman need? Some women would turn around for diamonds! Actually, true love is the best axis. We become certain that each person needs a spouse. Some men and women think they will be happier living alone. Are they really convinced of that, or do they believe that it is impossible to find a faithful spouse? If someone close to the ideal comes near them, however, they feel something unique and new. A person who doesn't want to get married must have had a bitter experience, or been close to someone else who had a bad experience with marriage.

A woman who has truly loved a man has already loved God; a man who has truly loved a woman has already loved God. Suddenly they are aware that God is around them. Even though God is omnipotent, He cannot go just anywhere and find love. He must follow the Principle of Creation and find love with that man and woman also. In order to reach woman, God has to go through man; to reach a man, He has to go through a woman. If you truly love your spouse then God will automatically come to you. Harmonizing true love will spark there between you, for it takes two to emit that spark. God's mind and body will both be overwhelmed by that spark of love. It is simple to conclude that God wants to reside in the family where a man and woman truly love each other. All men must truly resolve to change their attitude, so that they look at women with God's eyes, with God's senses. The same is true for women.

The utmost truth can be strongest and have dominion over everything. The truth has a certain limitation, however. It can know and rejoice, but it can never lead you into the highest joy. Only when your love becomes true love on the foundation of absolute truth will nothing bother you. Would you like to live where truth is, or where true love is?

If there is one axis at the center of each conscience, where will it lead? We cannot deny that conscience is leading us to one objective -- to the unity of an ideal man and woman in true love. Isn't this reasonable? Certainly this is a common point that all mankind can share.

Declaration of the Ceremony of Unity Between Spirit World and Physical World 3-28-82

People should be aware that in our life on earth we receive perpetual nourishment from the universe; without that, we could not survive.

To go to the next stage of life in the spiritual world is the same kind of transition as emerging from our mother's womb into this world. The only difference is the duration of that stage. This life on earth, during which we breathe air and eat food, lasts perhaps a hundred years. Our physical parents' protection extends 50 or 60 years. But once we are born again into the other world, we will live with our eternal Parent for millions and billions of years.

Dwelling in the eternal love of that world, we will become the very incarnations of love. There the invisible, but still very real, umbilical cord will be attached not to our belly but to our head, and we will keep growing and improving, becoming the image of God Himself. We will become the incarnations of love to become subjects of love, like our own invisible Parent.

There we will be freer than ever before, enjoying the greatest conceivable liberty. Nothing will limit or fetter us. In that world we won't have to walk with our head up and our feet down; we could reverse it and still move freely in any position. We can walk any way we wish and it will be perfectly normal. Whatever we want to do, we

Poetry dealing with themes of love is the most beautiful. The most enduring literature deals with love. The greatest science is also done out of love. When political affairs are conducted out of love, certainly that is marvelous to behold. In a tournament of love, no competitor will ever feel resentment because the winner always raises the degree of love. Any country will welcome an increase in its number of loving citizens. And the president of a country should run the government by love.

Suppose you had a handkerchief steeped with the greatest love. It may have cost just a few cents, but you would never exchange it for a million dollars, would you? If you misuse it, the handkerchief would feel sorrowful; but if your heart is filled with love, the handkerchief won't mind if you are too busy to wash or clean and press it. Whatever truly loving eyes behold will always reflect that love.

Even God wants to rest in the embrace of love. He wants to lean on the arms of love, just as everyone else. I feel I am such a small part of the entire universe, but God really wants to come and rest on me. In such a position, I want to offer everything to God because I am so awed by the opportunity to protect and comfort Him. No matter how great God is, He wants to make Himself small enough to be completely embraced in the arms of a loving person. He, too, wants to feel protected. That is the pure love of God. Knowing that, I will do anything to fulfill it. Can you imagine any greater value for human beings?

True love transcends everything. It goes beyond all visible barriers. Where true love exists, nothing else matters.

Our entire purpose is to elevate the value of true love. Something may not be wrong, and we want very much to do it, but we will hold back because if we can overcome it, our level of love will be greater. Do you understand? In front of True Parents, yes is the only proper answer.

Once you choose love, it should last forever and ever. That is the value of love. All human value rests on that.

The world is not an isolated realm; it is part of the continuous universe. You are trying to isolate it, and I am teaching you that it is a continuous one. What makes this world perpetual? What sustains its physical existence and causes it to endure? It is the consistent flow of love; the love that parents feel toward their children, and vice versa; the love of teachers for their students, investing themselves to make sure that they learn, the love a president has for his country, its cities and people; the love saints feel for mankind, present and future; the love God feels for the human race and all things. In all these, the pattern of love is consistent; love alone endures.

Suppose a husband and wife are both perfectionists and they give birth to a child with a deformity. Can they end its existence and say, "Well, we can try again"? Is that true love? No, of course not. By the same token, once a person chooses to marry another, he or she should try to make up for any shortcomings and compensate for whatever faults may show up in their spouse. That is the proper course here, and such love will endure in the spirit world, where love is more visibly dominant than it is here. Such a person is a true husband or wife. True love means that when it is easy to love, you love, and when it is difficult, you still love. This distinguishes true love from false love.

Have you seen true love? Where? Suppose a parent is carrying a bag with a very yummy and tasty treat for his child. Wherever he goes, he carries it in his pocket and won't let go of it -- even in the bath room. Now suppose the bathroom isn't one of the toilets here, but like those in the less-developed countries; just a bucket and natural smells -- nothing artificial! If he stays long enough among those natural smells, some of them will be absorbed through the bag. Later, the father gives the bag to his child and says, "This is the most delicious thing I have ever eaten; have some."

If the child is an American, he will probably refuse to taste it. He will protest. "Oh, Father, why do you think this is the best thing in the world?" But the true child will really appreciate it because he knows his father will bring him nothing but the best. There may be finer things, but in his mind there cannot be better than what his father brings him, so he will eat it. How about that!

In the Presence of God 4-11-82

When a man comes near a woman all his cells wake up and become fully activated. When man and woman touch there is an explosion. That is why our church has a rule that men and women shouldn't get too close, don't shake hands very much, and certainly don't kiss each other. Why? Because such actions can make sparks fly prematurely. Scars caused by premature love have no cure. This is why God gave mankind one strict rule in the beginning: you are absolutely free to do anything except touch the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This was a warning not to misuse love, to wait until the correct time for its expression.

Love fully activates every cell, and without wasting a moment the cells harmonize and seek a higher level. Once your cells are energized by love they want to take off. The power of love is much like the thrust of an Apollo rocket, lifting you off the ground and propelling you into the orbit of God's love. You are meant to find eternal harmony in love with God, but God's love doesn't just stand still. As soon as your love takes off God's love starts to come down toward you, and you meet each other in the middle. So God's love and human love are meant to come together and create a spark, making a dramatic crash. That spark does not cause eternal destruction; it results in a new, harmonized creation. The fusion of human and divine love generates something new.

Once such a love core is created, the entire universe is meant to sing along in its harmony and rhythm. Your every action is meant to harmonize with the universal core. Every hair, every cell in your body is meant to dance together with the universal core. Once you reach that plateau, you will discover the original ideal world, the absolute and true ideal world. Thus we can conclude that God created the universe, including human beings and all things, in order to consummate love.

God and My Home 4-26-82

What is the difference between true and false love? We say that self- centered love is false love and is therefore bad. Why is it bad? In order to call something "true" it most contain four characteristics. It must be unique, eternal, unchanging and absolute. You can measure self-centered love against those four criteria. Certainly it is not unique; it is not eternal; it is not unchanging; and it is not absolute.

When someone desires true love, he desires unique and eternal love. No one wants to have changeable love and everyone wants absolute love, not mediocre love. Why must love be like this in order to satisfy us? To obtain a relationship with the absolute, ultimate plus Being, you must share the same qualities. That ultimate plus Being has those four qualities. Each person is seeking to become an absolute minus to the ultimate plus in a vertical, give and take relationship.

Everything within creation seeks to be included within the central theme of true love. People ask big questions such as, "What is the purpose of life? What is a true man or woman?" However, all these big questions have one simple answer.

The universe is in constant motion and the goal of all that motion is true love.

We can answer the profound question of why God created the universe with a simple statement: God created the universe in order to fulfill His love. Love can only be fulfilled through a subject/object relationship and therefore God created this universe. Can you imagine God being happy and jolly all alone, without creating anything? As soon as God had the humblest of objects with which to relate, He could begin to be fulfilled. Each of you has the potential for constant communication of love with God.

God's position is to consummate the Heavenly four positions of God, man, woman, and children. Why did God divide mankind into two poles of male and female? He wanted to make a substantial world of depth and width so He created the world with global dimensions. What is it that brings men and women together into oneness? As men have give and take with God and women have give and take with God, they can have give and take with each other and unite in the center with God. At that central point of love, men and women become harmonized into one. There everything is a manifestation of love, you talk with love, hear with love, touch with love. Absolute, unique, unchanging, and eternal love is manifested in every aspect of your relationship.

Every part of you is longing to be touched by that absolute, eternal, unique and unchanging love.

The Ideal World of Adam 6-1-82

Love is the true ancestor of creation and the force behind each generation. During my years of searching for the truth, the first question I asked God was about the essential nature of the universe. The answer was rather simple -- the beginning point of the universe is love and the end result is the parent and child relationship. God created mankind and the universe in order to create a world of love through which He could dwell in that parent/child relationship. This is the central truth and essence of the universe.

Look at yourself from that viewpoint. You came into the world as a child, the fruit of the love of your parents, and you must fulfill yourself as a parent. That pattern of love is eternal -- throughout the past, during the present and into the future it will continue.

Why do we say that one man must love only one woman? Some people have different love partners every day and feel they are justified in doing so, but we do not agree. True love requires total devotion, total love and total giving to only one mate.

Blessed Family 6-20-82

For lovers, even something as little as a handkerchief means a great deal. Suppose a man leaving to fight in a war gives a handkerchief to his wife. If the man was killed in action, that handkerchief becomes a memento treasured by his wife for a lifetime. That handkerchief might have cost less than a dollar, but when it is transformed into a symbol of love, its value is priceless.

Who is the king of love in this world today? You know the answer. God is the King of love. The King of love wanted to express His love to His sons and daughters. In order to do that, as a gift to His children, He created all things. Think about it in this way: God is the one great King of love in this universe.

Actually everybody has a treasure, a special safe within them. I have a special safe, just like each of you. You need to dig out that value, that treasure place, and polish it, enhance it, cherish it, and live forever in love. That is the beauty of marriage. Value is something that always needs to be connected. The value of a man needs to be connected with the value of a woman. Mankind's value needs to be connected with the value of nature.

The man is like a positive electrical pole and the woman like a negative electrical pole. When they approach, sparks fly and everything is connected and fulfilled. Don't you like that kind of love? Electricity doesn't stop to evaluate things; when plus and minus come near, sparks automatically fly. All electricity needs is conductivitity, the wire. The Unification Church has always been known as a gathering place of unusual people. We don't need anything other than love. We are the love race. Explosive men and women approach each other and melt everything around them, burning up every foreign object and leaving only the pure essence. Have you ever listened to the sound doves make when they are in love? They coo all night long. Do doves adore each other because of how they look? Does the female say she likes her mate because he looks so handsome? No, not at all. Love is precious in itself We are going to become crazy for love itself!

The Day of All Things 6-21-82

With true love the things which laws require seem natural. True love inspires a sacrificial attitude in a person. It is natural to think, "I will ignore my own needs in order to make that person happy," when you are living with true love. Where love is present, even the laws are humbled. The law is incorporated within true love so law itself wants to be ruled by true love.

With true love you can go unhindered to every level of the universe because you will not be in conflict with anything good. So long as one is living under this principle he does not need any other guidelines for his life. It is very simple. Once you are living sacrificially for the sake of others before yourself, evil will automatically be chased out of your life.

In Search of Our Home 7-11-82

Why do we regard God as the most important of all beings? Because He is subject, even though He is invisible. When you practice the two kinds of love, you are doing all right -- love for the invisible Father and love for the visible Father. Visible love, which exists in the horizontal realm, is love in the dimension of time, while God's love is in the realm of eternity. We can expand horizontal love without limit. but there is only one point where that expansion can begin: at the perpendicular, 90-degree point. That is the mediation point where the love of our invisible Father and our visible parents can begin.

Once you know this, you can use the opportunity to grab that love and hide it in the most secret place in your heart. From that point, you are free to initiate universal action. Everything is free. Then you can expand the circle as much or as little as you want; you are totally free. How can you do that? Since the vertical line has no limit, it can accommodate your direction. God's true love will want to follow you. The supply of true love is only limited by the size of your love. When your love is fused with God's invisible and True Parent's visible love, the Intensity of your love will determine its scope.

When lovers come together, they hold each other tightly and they actually seem to get smaller; they almost want to crush each other. It is the same between you and God and True Parents. In the intensity of your love, you will all be compressed into a small ball, like a marble. That is good because the smaller the ball, the faster it can turn. When God comes closer and closer inside that ball, the speed intensifies, going faster and faster.

When you run fast, you breathe hard. The faster you move, the faster you breathe. God wants to experience suffocating, breathtaking love inside that tiny marble ball. How wonderful that is! All you need is one, invisible little thing called true love. With that ID card you have a free pass to go see kings and queens, or even thieves and murderers and melt their hearts. Don't you feel good just thinking about it?

From God's point of view, the most handsome man and beautiful woman are those who can draw the straightest line of love and thus be the best conveyer belt. The question is whether that line is imitation or genuine. If that line is drawn with 24-karat gold wire, the purest kind, its conductivity is 100 percent. Would you prefer a thick line that was only gold-plated on the outside, or a thin line of pure gold? You have seen men who come from rich families and look handsome, but who are really only gold-plated. Wouldn't you women prefer a poor husband of genuine gold?

Outside our church we see many beauty queens -- Hollywood stars, models and cover girls. But many Unification Church women look like ghosts! Do you want a wife with the gold on the outside or the inside? You men are looking for the genuine qualities of heart. You won't find it in those movie stars or cover girls. What changes more quickly -- the outside or the inside of a woman? What about men? Do you find men and women with unchangeable qualities in the Unification Church?

Can you find such people in the secular world? Why not? It is because they don't have True Parents.

You are your spouse's bridge to the love of God. You are the extension of God's love. The husband is the extension of my image, and the wife the extension of Mother's image. That is how you are to unite all mankind, making a complete circle of love. When two circles come together, truly a new home is born which is an educating ground for the love of Father and Mother and God. The women represent the post of Mother's love, and men represent the post of Father's love; together the represent God's love. You should be absolutely clear that you are making a heavenly home where love can come, where a true husband and wife can be born.

Your smile should be a universal one which can correspond with history. Love goes beyond time. In describing this world of true love, English is inadequate. There are no words to describe the manifestations of true love. You must feel to the bone how precious one man is, one woman is. The love organs of man and woman are the final terminals of the love of True Parents and the love of God.

It is almost like you are fishing for each other with true love as your bait. Men are hooking women and women are hooking men. Even if blood is coming out of your mouth because of the hook, you still feel good. Build this role of husband and wife from now on. Do not be excited by the sensation of physical love, but first by the spiritual contents of love. Then the physical side will follow, subject and object, and be sanctified.

New Family Given by God 9-5-82

Anything less than true love in the home is going to produce something less than the ideal, but most families do not understand the basic, true philosophy of true love. Some Americans protest to me, "Oh, you don't understand anything about America. We are a highly advanced and first-class culture. You have no right to talk about us!" However, by the rule of true love many things can be understood. Do you think true love affects the President of the United States? Is he immune to it because he is so great? Even God himself will never say, "I don't care about true love because I have omnipotence and I don't need it." The almighty God is completely vulnerable to true love. When He is approached with true love, He is helpless to resist.

What is the central force moving God's providence along? Certainly the central theme of the providence has been true love. With true love alone can God fulfill His own ideals and purpose. True love alone can harmonize everything, activate all things, unite and move everything in the universe. How wonderful that is! True love is so powerful and wonderful that once you have the hope of acquiring it for yourself nothing else really matters to you. The taste of true love gives you the power and determination to pursue it further.

The purpose of the Unification Church is to train each of you and graduate you with a "license of true love." Regardless of where your license is printed, the important thing is who signs it. The PhD. candidate can never receive his degree until the professor in charge signs for him. You want to receive the signature of God and True Parents on your true love license. Reverend Moon is like the professor in charge of the members of the Unification Church. The subject of learning is true love; I push you out into situations in society that will train you and season you as true love champions. You do not sit in classrooms but learn through activities. The purpose of all those activities is to enable me to sign your true love certificate.

As an ambitious candidate for your certificate of true love, how will you respond to my pushing you and giving you more and more burdens? Will you accept it willingly or will you complain against it?

True love can overcome anything, so nothing is more important than finding and dwelling in true love! I always sacrifice sleep for the sake of true love. Sometimes I can get up early and speak to members and at midnight I am still sitting in the same chair, haven spoken all day. However, I never get bored with such activities because every minute of the day is so exciting when true love is present.

I have the absolute conviction that anybody who lives his life in total intoxication from true love, forgetting everything else, must receive protection and support from the entire universe. That is what the Unification Church is all about.

The Harvest Season for God's Providence 9-19-82

What is true love? What is the difference between true love and any other kind? The most simple criterion of true love is that it is a giving love more than a receiving love. Parents want to give to their children, out of their heart of love. Should the children just continue to receive from their parents? Women always just want to receive love from everyone, isn't that true? Women always wait to receive more and more love, but at a certain point you start to give that love back. What time is that? It is when you become mothers. It is the mother who expresses most love in the beginning toward the children, rather than the father. The mother gives her love more intensely to her children because it the woman who has been receiving so much love throughout her life.

Husband and wife have dominion over each other out of love, not in any other way. Therefore, the most important criterion is this; more than you love your husbands, you women should love God. The same is true for men; God must come first. When you are united horizontally as husband and wife, you can go upward to the vertical level.

Only through your spouse and the love of your children can you return to your origin, God. Universal truth is based on this. The heaviest center is God; the center of God is true love. When you reach that core center of God and become united with Him, you become a part of Him. You become like Him and become an original magnet, pulling everything toward you.

Your five senses represent the most holy, sacred love. When you touch your lover with your hand, it is like God touching him or her. That is wonderful and holy. Why shouldn't we refer to each other as, "My holy spouse"? Anything Godly is holy, so our husbands and wives should be regarded as holy, too. The saintly couple is such a couple. What is a saint? The saint is the one who concentrates on returning true love to God, his origin. A saintly man and woman make a saintly couple.

When men and women are truly in love, they occupy each other. The man is completely occupied by the woman and vice versa. By the same token, we could say the same thing about God. When you have a true love relationship with God, He will be occupied by you. You will find your resting place right in the center of God.

Where can you find the love of God? You have that longing feeling for the love of your husband or wife which you cannot forget at any time; such a feeling of longing describes God's love. For this reason, you are precious and unique in this universe; you have total dignity and authority to represent God.

The Secret of Total Success 12-19-82

The clothes you are wearing are not yours; your own physical body is not even yours. Your husband or wife is not yours. There is only one way these things can become yours -- by connecting them and yourself with the love of God. When you are totally a part of the love of God and can relate the love of your husband and children with that vertical love, everything will become yours.

Unless you fulfill this process while you are living here on earth, there will be no bridge between you, the physical world and the spirit world. Everything in the Unification Church is done in the name of God. Even our marriages are done in the name of God; they are not for our own sake, but for God's sake. I want you to understand clearly that you claim all things in order to come closer to God; you want to have something to offer to God. You want to get the marriage blessing because you can possess more of the love of God that way. You want to have children so that you can consummate the love of God. Everything is connected with the love of God.

God's Day 1-1-83

The question is, who will become truly God-centered? The center is true love. The person who is God-centered is a person of true love, and the church standing on that center is a true-love church. The world standing on that center is a true-love world.

In America is there much love or little love? What is the direction of true love? Unless we have a clear idea about true love, we cannot define what a true person is. A true person is one with true heart and love. The most important point is that true love lies eternally in the center, which is God. Eternally we will be drawn towards God's love. Everything will be permeated with that love, and we will become more and more a part of it.

If your own life is focused in this direction, you will be a true person, and this will be a true church. Since we love God so much, when He commands us, we obey Him absolutely. We live according to God's direct love, so it is only natural to follow His direction. When we receive a command from true love, there is no room for argument.

Even a woman with a fierce, forbidding appearance will be melted by true love and never stray from it even one inch. Are you like that? If I didn't know these things, how could I match you for the Blessing?

Do you love your spouse now? Maybe you don't love each other now, but you should embrace your spouse and cling to each other for three years, and then see what happens. You think too much! Just be faithful. When a beautiful baby is born, the solution is automatic.

What is true love? It is God's love. How can you be a true man or woman? Quite simply, you must love the central Being, God, eternally and unchangingly. Why would that be good enough? Love is unchanging and eternal. When we are unchanging ourselves, then we will find true love. If we stay on the course, we will inevitably meet love.

You are going the true love way, aren't you? Have you determined to go this way without deviation? Someone will have to test how serious you are. Don't you want that? In school you have to take an exam to find out whether you really know that material or not. An unchangeable person has to be tested in many ways.

God Himself has been in the position to be tested. Everyone -- even Satan -- is testing whether God's love is unchangeable. If God cannot tolerate something and stops loving, then He is not unchangeable, is He? I had to contemplate why God permitted certain impossible situations, and I realized that in order for God to be truly unchangeable, He has to endure all kinds of intolerable situations.

Satan and God are completely opposite. If God is eternal then Satan is temporary; if God is unchanging, Satan is always changing; if God is unique, Satan is not. There is a clear contrast between the characteristics of God and Satan. Whom do we resemble most closely? Are you changeable? You are unchangeable in the sense that you always want to be with God instead of Satan. In everyday life people tend to separate when they don't like each other; that is a satanic characteristic, while the desire to make unity is part of the heavenly nature.

Do you believe in the Unification Church absolutely, or case by case? You believe absolutely because God is absolute. Can Satan appear in front of God and claim he is absolute just like God? Satan has to confess that he is always changing. There is no doubt that we truly want to enter God's realm and remain eternally and unchangingly with Him.

God is unchanging, eternal and absolute, but can He alone have these qualities? This is a very important point. For God alone to be that way has no meaning. He needs an object who shares these characteristics. Without such an object, eternal unity has no meaning.

Even though everyone around Him is changing, God cannot alter His own character. In this evil world people accuse and blame God, but He cannot respond to that because He is eternal and unchanging. All people are meant to make the journey to true love. Even evil people want to be eternal and unchanging. Is this a desire to be fulfilled in isolation, or does it imply the longing for a counterpart? When you are by yourself, what difference does it make if you are changing or unchanging? When we say we want to be unchanging, we automatically have God in mind. If a subject and object are unchanging together, it can have profound meaning.

What is the good about being united eternally? What can join these two into one? Great power? Vast knowledge? No. Only love. We like love because love can occupy anything; it can enter you anywhere, at any time. Isn't that what Jesus indicated when he said, "I am in you and you in me . . . I am in my Father and my Father in me"? He never clarified what he meant but we know now that this can happen through true love. No matter how cold a woman's heart may be, there is still one corner where her husband can dwell. Love can make oneness.

We may wonder why God doesn't do something during such impossible times as these. Then we see that He is waiting for someone to respond to His love in an eternal and unchanging manner. God will be very interested in such a person, if he proves worthy, then God will start working.

Do you Moonies love me? In what way? Absolutely and uniquely? I must possess true love, or else you wouldn't feel that way. To form a true couple, there must be a true man and a true woman. Then a true church and true country become the extensions of them.

I speak every Sunday morning and you regularly come to listen to me. Do we need this to establish the absolute pattern of life or just to spend time together? Recently most people went out fund raising, so there were only a handful of people here on Sunday. Reverend Kwak suggested that I let someone else give the sermon, but I refused because speaking on Sunday is my principle. Whether this day is cold and raining or lovely, whether one person comes or a thousand, whether I slept the night before or not -- it doesn't matter. What matters is that I be here for the sermon. I have to express love to you and you to me.

Love doesn't develop automatically. You married couples have to express love to each other, you have to make your husband like you, and vice versa. You can never go to heaven by yourself; if your wife goes ahead, she has to wait for you.

If you are treading this way, it doesn't matter how insignificant you may appear to be because you have passed the absolute test; you will continue to grow and grow. Like God, when you are opposed by others, you have to tolerate them with love. People will begin to feel sorry for you when you have been opposed three or four times. That is my standard in educating you; no matter what others may do to you, persevere and they will feel badly about it and stop. When each one of us becomes like that, this church will be a true church.

We want to make a true ideal country based on this foundation. Once we create a true country, in no time at all it will cover the rest of the world. Then everyone on every level will be a part of the realm of true love. This world is full of change and instability. Even though we are just a handful of people, we are most precious if we are unchanging. I want to love you because you are like jewels among all this falseness.

True Man, True Church, True Country 1-9-83

The Unification Church asserts that all people in the universe must come into unity. How can all the round minds become one? Like a string of pearls, they can be strung together with the thread of true love running through their centers. Everyone must open his deepest, hidden mind and welcome the thread of love. Once the Principle enters a person, it dwells in the center of his mind. Each pearl will be unique, but the Principle will penetrate the very center of everyone's mind.

In the Chinese character for heaven, two symbols for man are combined, one above the other. This indicates true love. Love is not just for yourself but for the whole. The center should always be able to lead; so if you are the center of true love, you should be able to lead others. Did you come to hear my sermon today in order to gain knowledge? No? Why? Perhaps to gain power -- hoping my sermon would recharge you? Actually, energy is just a by-product. How about money? Remember how we didn't have a carpet here several years ago -- only a cold concrete floor? When you feel that this is the warmest, coziest place and are perfectly satisfied to sit on the floor, I will introduce chairs! If the person sitting next to you complains about being uncomfortable on the floor, just remind him that he is in the training course for true love!

Universality 1-16-83

The transition from individual to couple is only one step in a long process. The individual must live for the sake of the family, the family for the society, the society for the nation, and the nation for the world. That principle never changes. Why do husband and wife come together? Why should we keep advancing from individual to family, and family to society, nation and world? Because God's love is needed everywhere. God's love is omnipresent and there is nothing it cannot penetrate.

The entire world and universe should be eternally filled with God's love. Each individual is a carrier of that love, sprinkling it at higher and higher levels. This is your eternal destiny. If you cannot fulfill it here on earth, then you must continue after death. At the age of 20, most secular men and women think that love between husband and wife is all that matters. Their perception of God's universal love stops right there. Love has never been sanctified or truly fulfilled on a universal scale because people held onto it for themselves. That is not God's way. That is not why God created you.

The Way God is Pursuing 1-23-83

There are three levels of a true person: foundation, growth and completion. What is the completion or perfection of a true person? A true person is defined as one who has absolute true love. But what is absolute true love? A perfected, true person loves his enemy, for instance. What kind of enemy -- one who steals your clothes? One who curses you? The worst kind of enemy is the robber of love, one who infiltrates and invalidates love, one who commits an adulterous sin against you. In other words, your enemy is one who steals your love or your lover. This is the worst form of enemy because such a person destroys you completely. A perfected true person is defined as one who can forgive even the enemy who has destroyed his love.

We are talking about true people, but there is also the true God. What is the definition of the true God? Again, the same definition applies to both people and God. God has an enemy who stole His love. Satan made himself God's worst enemy by stealing God's love. That was the worst crime against God. If someone abducts the one you truly love, he destroys you completely because he takes away your entire universe. Now we know that the perfected true person and the perfected true God are the ones who can forgive their worst enemy who stole their love. If you asked God what kind of person He would like to live with, He would reply that He wants to live with the kind of perfected person who has the capacity to forgive the very enemy of love.

With Whom Shall I Live? 2-6-83

But external things do not make people happy. The well-to-do couple may become miserably unhappy, while the couple with nothing may live like sweet honey because love is the power which brings them together, not their social condition or the size of their bank account. The intensity of unconditional love between husband and wife is more valuable than anything you can think of -- more than beauty, education or social standing. The most important thing is the purity and intensity of their love.

The Original World and the Enemy World 3-1-83

When plus and minus meet, sparks of love fly in all directions. Those sparks can be seen from a great distance. Their light is so brilliant that it attracts people and fills them with a desire to be a part of it. Wherever goodness and love exist, they attract all people and all things. Wherever the sparks go, all things will want to follow. Men and women desire a perfect union because when they achieve it, they can have everything, like God. All good things are included in that union.

Will a man send a women away if he knows that? No, he would beg and plead with her and do anything to keep her. If the only way a woman can keep her man is to cook for him, she is bound to do it. Even if it is painful to her and she makes a mess, still if it is the only way to hold her husband, she will do it! Every day you have to work on ways to hook your husband or your wife. I'm not talking about painful hooks, but even if they were, he or she wouldn't mind; they will enjoy it! Hook him or her in the eyes, the ears, the mouth and everywhere! Use a double hook. Make sure there is no chance for escape.

What kind of hook do you need? Will knowledge or power bring a husband or wife close to you? No, you need a love hook.

Here in the Unification Church, each individual is running a marathon centering on true love. You go and serve others to the end of the world and then return to start your family life. Those whom you served will welcome you and your family back. That is the legitimate start of the family which can lead right to heaven. This is a simple but important point. It is a rule or yardstick by which you should constantly measure yourself. How do you know whether you are on the right track? Get out the measuring stick and see if you comply with it. When love between a man and woman is established and fixed, you have created the habit of love. Once you are accustomed to living that way, you will be unable to live without love.

Original Root and Self 5-22-83

We understand that God created all things in order to perfect His love. When perfected human beings achieve perfected love, they can fulfill their subject/object relationship with God. Today, many theologians conceive of God as beyond the realm of human beings; they say that God, the Creator, is totally "other" -- distinct from His created beings, people. Therefore, they don't understand the need for a genuine relationship between God and mankind. But we realize how wrong they are.

When is a person perfected? When he has developed rippling muscles like those of Mr. Universe? When he has achieved vast knowledge and learning? But if such a person is alone, he is not admired or considered a happy person. If a woman beautiful enough to be Miss Universe is all alone, without any man to love, others do not envy her happiness. Only when an admirable man and an admirable woman come together in love is their perfection fulfilled.

We know this holds true for human beings, but what about God? Would He stand alone and say, "I am perfected; I need nothing more"? No. God as the true subject needs a true object. Love springs from God; God is truly the source of our love. But suppose a man says to God, "I want Your love for myself; I don't want to share it with anyone else, even this woman." On the other hand, suppose the woman tells God that she doesn't want to yield any of His love to that man or she expects God to love her first and the man second. When each finds out what the other is up to, they will certainly fight!

God might feel some sympathy towards such a man and woman, since after all they are fighting over the greatest and most desirable of all treasures, love. So God has to decide which of them will receive love first! Both the man and the woman are like ripe fruit, red with desire for God's love. The color red is the best color to express passion. Even God is red with love. Once the three start to love each other, neither the man or the woman will object to what another receives, because as they reach out to each other, God comes into their midst! Their competition for love is solved, because as they embrace with God in the middle, both have equal access to God.

When the man is mature and red with the ripeness of his love, he will plead for God to come to him. At that point he thinks about God first and the woman second. The woman as well asks for God first -- not because she doesn't like the man but because God takes precedence over any other person. God looks at such a man and woman with intense care. They are about to be drawn to one another in love, but their desire is to invite God in first, because without Him they cannot have a genuine relationship. Of course, God recognizes and endorses such an attitude. Once God approves of them, will He leave them alone, or will He zero in on them? The ideal position for both the man and the woman is that of equilibrium; when husband and wife are balanced, God comes to both at the same time, so they no longer need to compete to receive God's love first.

What power can create that perfect balance between a man and a woman, and between the couple and God? True love, of course. The man's true love, joined with the woman's true love, plus God's true love creates a triple true love! Such monumental power is capable of stimulating God's mind and body, the man's mind and body, and the woman's mind and body. When so much excitement is stirred up, it erupts! Now you understand that when God created man and woman and pronounced them "very good," He was thinking about love.

Where does love come from? From above, or from the man and woman? Certainly it comes from above. Therefore, the vertical position of love needs to be established first. In America, people write horizontally, from left to right. In the Orient, people write vertically, from top to bottom. The horizontal traditions of the West and the vertical traditions of the East must become interwoven. Horizontal love is human love, and vertical love is God's love. Therefore, you need the Blessing.

Once perfectly balanced love is established, the satanic world will crumble because it is not lawful in God's sight -- and we won't even to do anything! No world which tries to exclude God will ever survive. Therefore, you should be proud of being matched and blessed by True Parents according to God's natural law.

The Day of All Things 1983 6-11-83

We are born and then we must go through a period of growth to reach maturity along the horizontal line. The growth period is essential according to the original formula of God's creation. This is very logical. God created the growth period because the ultimate goal of creation is to form global love and bring everything into that center. God has to come down to meet human beings at the center; human beings have to grow into that center. All the environment has to be ready, ripened for that center. Therefore, the period of growth is essential.

It resembles an explosion. God comes down as men and women are growing toward that central point of love. Once vertical and horizontal meet, the clash of love is like an explosion which creates a vacuum. Everything is expelled and then the vacuum pulls everything in. Everybody is pulled together, united into one, and can live there happily forever. This is the beauty of love. Once they are united like this, no one is separated or exposed.

Once they become one, the woman's heart is in the heart of the man; the man's heart is in the heart of the woman. The hearts of the man and woman are in the heart of God. So there is no way you can retreat. You are trying to get deeper and deeper into the heart of God, closer and closer together. What happens then? If every component is trying to push inward toward the center, does it create something flat or round? It has to be round.

Day of Heavenly Victory 10-4-83

When we analyze love, we see that it can be fulfilled only when there is a relationship between two parties. There must be a subject and an object. If this is the principle by which God created the world and human beings, then all expression in creation must be the expression of His love and the desire to fulfill His love. The creation must be a symbolic manifestation of God's desire for love. To put it more simply, God created the world as His object, with Himself as subject.

All forms of creation are made in such a way as to stimulate the love of God. This is why we read in Genesis that God said, "It is good," after each day of creation. Was He saying that because He was so impressed with the value of gold and diamonds? No, it was because God was building the fulfillment of His ideal of love day by day. Each day of the creation brought Him nearer to that fulfillment. That's why He was pleased and said each day, "It is good."

Don't you think God was very happy, smiling from ear to ear, as He observed His unfolding creation? On the final day, God created man and woman and said, "Behold, it is very good." He was very happy to be able to say "very good." It was not money, knowledge or power that made God say "very good," but it was the possibility of the fulfillment of His love.

It was man and woman who were the object of God's love. That means you! Have you ever really felt that God was looking at you or touching your face and hair, saying, "It is very good"? Have you ever thought that you were God's very good object?

Multitudes of theologians have come and gone, but none has ever thought in this manner about God's purpose of creation. Many theologians have described God as a God of power and might, who created the universe in order to demonstrate His power. That is like some big muscle man showing off for others -- many people have actually thought that was the reason for God's creation.

But when God tells us that He created for the fulfillment of His love, everyone in the world is involved, because we are all the objects of His love. Everybody is involved in the love affair with God. Love makes everybody smile, regardless of the age of the person, whether it is a man or woman, a boy or a girl. Love can melt everyone. Why did God create this world? The goal and purpose was not so much for wisdom, or for power, or for dignity or anything else. He did it for love. Do you like this conclusion?

The way to own the whole universe is to become the center of love. The men and women who fulfill the love of God, having give and take with their subject of love -- God -- and enjoying the total union of love with Him, will inherit all of His creation. Whenever someone is fulfilling love, the entire universe comes under that person and will follow him. Even God feels the desire to be united with such a person.

Suppose you are completely united with God, the subject of love. Then what will you have? You will have everything. You will be fulfilled completely. Once a person achieves that relationship with God, then God's joy will be limitless. He will feel like erupting in an eternal laughter of happiness.

The desire of human beings to possess the entire universe is not a wrong one. It is given to us by God. The problem is that people simply do not understand how to achieve it in the right way. The only way to achieve that ambition is by uniting with the love of God, fulfilling one's own love. The universe is nothing but the manifestation of the love of God; thus it automatically becomes one with you, once you are one with God.

Love is something that does not need to be explained. You don't have to say, "I love you and this is why and how..." Once you fulfill your love, it can be felt automatically. It is like magnetic power, only stronger and much more powerful than any magnet. Everybody likes that love magnet -- whether they are black, white, yellow, young or old. Love sparks with every person and it is beautiful to behold.

This is the true privilege and dignity of human beings, the privilege and dignity lost at the time of the fall. Some people have sought to restore the rights and dignity of man through the use of force, for example people like Hitler or the communist dictators. They have tried to restore people at gunpoint, but that will never work. Such people are totally mistaken. There is no way the world will follow the power of brute force. The world will follow nothing other than the source of love. You must become a magnet of love and then the world will be attracted. Only in that way can one gain dominion of the world.

Every sense is stimulated in the search for love -- the heart palpitates and the whole body is ready to shoot like a guided missile to the object of love. The target for the female missiles of love is boys; the boy's target is girls. They are eager to experience the clash of a head-on collision.

The amazing thing is that, although they have a head-on collision, they are not shattered into a thousand pieces. Instead they come together in perfect unity and head upward toward heaven. They are like missiles moving horizontally that collide and then become one, moving vertically. Only the power of love can do such a thing. They become a vertical missile with two parts one composed of the woman and the other the man. This two-part missile never wants to separate, either. This is the ideal husband and wife.

Why did God make a world which requires that men and women marry? It is because He wanted to expand the horizon of love beyond the individual on the horizontal level to the couple on the vertical level. Each man represents the entire masculine world; each woman represents the entire feminine world. When they come together, they represent the universe and the total image of God.

Marriage is not just the unity of one man and one woman but of the male character and the female character. In other words, by loving your spouse, you are loving the realm of masculinity or femininity. Thus the woman seeks to understand the man and the man seeks to understand the woman. The unity between the male and female world takes place in marriage. Each couple represents the harmony of the entire universe. That kind of couple is what God has been longing to see here on earth.

It is beautiful to see a young man and woman get married and then grow old together. Eventually the wife can say, "My darling, in the process of living with you and loving you, I have earned these gray hairs." And the man can only say, "Thank you, my dear. My hair, too, has turned gray after all these years of sharing love." Each can say, "This elderly skin of mine has changed in the process of giving my energy in loving you." Such a loving elderly couple is beautiful to behold. They can look forward to an even greater fulfillment of their love in the spiritual world. They will be rejuvenated into the state of permanent youth when they are elevated into the next world.

As people live in this world and unite with each other horizontally, they practice becoming the objects to God's love. Then the day of departure from this world comes which we call death, but it is not really death. Rather, it is the point of transformation and elevation into the permanent world. That is where the love of God is complete; There you become grafted into the vertical love of God.

You will not only have give and take between husband and wife; you will also have give and take with the origin of love -- God. God will never come into you until husband and wife are completely united together. It doesn't matter what sort of external form your relationship takes but only whether you are completely melted into one. Only then do you totally represent the image of God so that His love can flow into you.

The Divine Principle teaches about the dual essentialities of God. When a man and woman representing the dual essentialities unite totally in love, they totally represent the dual image of God. How wonderful and dramatic that is! When you are totally united in love, even though you grow old, you will be elevated into the realm of the love of God and that vertical love will come into you, and you will be rejuvenated to the point of teenagers again! That is the point of vertical youth.

Your married life is a horizontal love life and you will grow older, but then you will be transformed into youths again, vertical teenagers. Without doing this, you cannot become a master of this world because there is no way you can connect with God as your true subject.

This is a beautiful truth. You are born as the princes and princesses of love. You must become kings and queens of love and create the kingdom of love. That is God's ideal and that is the true purpose for your being born. Human dignity and value is that great. We were born for the perfection of love. Do you follow?

Therefore, nothing should become an obstacle in our pursuit of this love, not even death. We were conceived in love, born in love, and we grow up in order to fulfill that love. Ultimately we are transformed into the ultimate love relationship with God. That is the purpose of life. When you get older you can think that the time for the ultimate maturity of love is near and it can be an exciting thing. Old age need not be gloomy at all but rather a time of looking forward to a new rejuvenation of life with God. How exciting that is!

There cannot be perfection of love for a single man or woman. It is only as a man and woman together, centered upon God, that you can look forward to perfection.

God has been harboring His ideal of love which has not been fulfilled so far. The Unification Church is the only hope of God for the fulfillment of His ideal. We are in the process of doing that. Without going through this process, that ideal cannot be fulfilled. No matter how difficult it becomes, you must clench your teeth and go forward.

I want you to understand, therefore, that the Unification Church is the historically highest religion, and the way you are living is the highest historically career. My teaching is always directed toward achieving this goal -- that every one of you can fulfill this historically highest career and achieve God's ideal of love. Do you understand?

That is our goal and path. Sometimes you get tired and you feel weak. That is the point of your showdown and that is where many people crumble. You have to go down below that point and rebound; that is how you reach true love. From that most desperately suffering point, if you still love God and yearn for the True Parents, you will rebound. God is not at the highest places; He is at the lowest places; He is at the lowest places in the bottom of hell. Thus you must go down there, too. The deeper into suffering you descend, the greater the amount of universal love you will find and be embraced by.

The Historically Highest Career 11-1-83

Suppose we ask a saintly woman, "Is there something of more value than even yourself?" she would reply, "A saintly man." Likewise, the saintly man would consider the saintly woman as having greater value than himself. Do you think that is a silly question or a correct one? Is a women's appearance the factor that gives her more value to a man than himself? What makes the saintly man value the saintly woman so much? That woman has the love within herself which the man needs. It is the quality of her love for him that makes the saintly man value her. The reverse is true as well.

Man's ability to respond to the true love of God was killed due to the fall. People cannot even recognize God's true love, much less vibrate with it. The whole purpose of salvation is to restore that ability of human beings to vibrate with the love of God. Once the spiritual body of man can receive the vibration of God's love, his whole self will resound with it. His entire physical body will respond to God's stimuli. That would be the total satisfaction of love. Nothing could be more desired by anyone.

Man is totally satisfied by the touch of true love from his subject, God. This is everything that people have searched for -- the essence of true love. Yet no one has known before how to define true love and what was the source of it.

God created Adam and Eve in the same way as the other forms of life -- from embryos. Only after a child grows can he truly become one with the rest of the universe; until then, he is incomplete. As Adam and Eve reached puberty, life began to take on a new meaning. Just like teenagers today, they felt the newness of romantic, poetic yearnings. They began to think about exploring the entire world and searching for adventure. They began to think about love as well.

A loving woman can confidently feel that no matter how big and tall her husband may be, she is big enough to embrace him and encompass him with her love. In fact a true woman will feel that God Himself can come and be engulfed within her bosom. She will feel that large with her love.

A man and woman truly in love will feel like engulfing each other, penetrating each other totally. God feels the same desire. Just as Adam and Eve would have yearned to touch each other in the most sensitive places, so too does God want to participate in their love and touch them. Just as Adam and Eve were intoxicated with their love, so would God be. God would embrace Adam and Eve and look forward to more and greater love in the future. He would embrace them with the strongest power of true love. Nothing could ever separate them at that point.

The Purpose of Life, Coming and Going 1-8-84

The most important element is not life itself; it is love. When love is pure and strong and altruistic within a society; that society will prosper no matter what. But when people do not practice love for humanity, for country and one's fellow man, that society will eventually fall. Unfortunately, the United States is following that historical pattern. Red danger lights are blinking all over America today. This is the reality.

What is God doing about this? God must be working for restoration, trying to create a turning point to pull this nation from its current situation and move it toward His ideal. The fundamental problem is man's relationship with Satan, so unless we can solve this, there can be no permanent solution to any of the other problems of society. T he basic relationship between people and Satan resides within the illicit love relationship -- self-centered love. Such immoral love always divides people and separates them from any ideal.

The love of God is exactly the opposite; it is pure, it creates unity, and it uplifts people and allows them to go beyond selfishness. Love is the key element over which Satan and God have been battling. So far, it has appeared that God has been losing the battle. Satan has become very arrogant, saying, "Even you, God, haven't got the power to stop my love. It will take over the whole world so why don't you surrender?"

The Necessity for the Day of Victory of Love 1-15-84

Although you can say that God exists, perhaps you feel, "So He does, but what does He have to do with me? And what do I have to do with Him?" The relationship may seem distant to you. You might think about God's qualities, such as His omnipotence and His omnipresence. Those are qualities which people often think of first when they think about God. But just knowing these things does not make us feel closer to God. In fact, some people think, "I don't particularly like the fact that I have no privacy before God and that He has power over my life!"

There is one quality of God, however, which automatically draws us closer to Him and that is His true love. Don't you feel good when you think that God loves you?

Many times young people think, "My parents are the ones who always tell me what to do and what not to do." Especially in America, the relationship between parents and children is often strained. However, we have to realize how important our parents are to us, particularly their love. Even though as children we were spanked and disciplined, we feel grateful as adults for their care and concern for us. Children want to tag along with their parents, even though they may have just been spanked and are crying. They feel they cannot live without their parents.

This is a very serious question indeed. How do we distinguish between false love and true love? We can observe whether someone is motivated for himself or for the sake of something larger. False love is self- centered whereas true love is public. This is the reason God has always taught mankind to give love and live for the sake of other people.

This has been God's endeavor since His dispensation of restoration began -- to teach mankind true love. Do you understand? True love is more than just one's thoughts or one's feelings. True love is living for and even saving others. That is the only way true love can be found. In that endeavor, God Himself can be found. You will never find God in any other place; but whenever a person is working for the sake of others, God will be working there, too. God works through such a selfless individual, family or country.

With that yardstick, it's very simple to distinguish between false love and true love. If you are evaluating two people, you can judge which one thinks more about others and which one thinks more about himself. That is the criterion. God will always raise up those who are on the side of true love, bringing them higher and higher, while those who are on the side of false love will diminish below God's domain.

This is why the Unification Church is great. We follow the age-old rule of absolute dedication. This rule never changes in history; it will continue to work for the rest of time. I know that. Have you really come to appreciate this? For whom is love forever? We must be able to say, "My true love is for God and mankind and my True Parents. This is my own true love."

When we master that love, God will become our closest friend. We can climb on top of God; we can ride on His back; we can become truly one with Him. God is vertical and we are horizontal, but then we change positions, and one becomes vertical and the other becomes horizontal. So long as we maintain ninety degrees, that's all that is necessary. Then we can move around and around.

This is where happiness is; it is nowhere else. The person who has this quality of relationship with God is the happiest on earth. The king of happiness is the one who is living with the love of God. At that point, he couldn't care less about worldly knowledge, power and authority or money. The only thing that matters is the omnipotent love of God. Truly the only knowledge we need is knowledge about love.

How do we have dominion over the world? We have dominion by love. In true love a person never minds being controlled by the beloved; he only wants more and more of that sort of domination. Within your marriage relationships, do you women want your husband to love you in a relaxed, weak way? No, you want him to love you with his fullest power.

God is streaming into the very cells of your body. How can you not feel close to Him, knowing that He will be with you 24 hours a day, just as long as you work publicly? We must know that God is not a concept; He is not anything less than love itself. All He wants is to make us the perfect objects to Him as the perfect subject.

Thus each person must be proud and recognize his or her privileged position. Imperfect as you may be, God Himself wants you as His loving object. That is indeed our privilege and our authority and that is the value of every human being.

Love Forever 1-22-84

Love is everywhere, even within the mineral kingdom. When you look from the spiritual point of view, even the rocks sing, the trees talk and the flowers dance. The universe is craving for love, therefore our way of life must be nothing other than that -- singing and craving for love. The universe is like God's museum of love. Every facet of the universe teaches us how love should be expressed. Mankind completes that museum; man is the crowning piece within that museum.

The entire universe is waiting for the consummation of love. The minerals, the plants, and the animal kingdom are waiting for the consummation of love. The master who consummates the love of the universe is man. Human beings must bind together into oneness with God. That is the role of people in this universe. At the moment of the consummation of the love of human beings, God consummates His love as well.

The insects exist in pairs and they make noises of love. Those noises are made for the sake of their mate. The birds sing love songs to their mates every morning: and likewise all the animals make sounds of love. How about human beings? If there are no partners in love, there is no art, music, or dancing. You have nothing to dance about.

All things are craving a mediator to convey their love to a higher level of accomplishment. This is even true of fish. Therefore, people can relate to all the different aspects of creation, including the fish, the birds, plants, animals and minerals. This is because man is their ultimate mediator or bridge to God.

However, the channel of love for the universe has been shattered; man has never become the bridge for their love. For that reason it is very logical to say that the Creation is groaning in travail and grief -- no true love has been conveyed between them and their Creator. Look at the tiny insects; even between them, there is the communication of love. Lower animals are sacrificed and eaten by the higher animals -- for example, cows are eaten by human beings. But cows are glad of this because in that way they become part of the human body and the human body relates in love to God, which is the ultimate purpose of the universe.

Love goes beyond physical death and thus all the creatures of nature are willing to sacrifice themselves to become part of a higher love. The only reason why humans have the right to eat all the different forms of nature is that we are the higher beings who are capable of relating the love of God to the rest of the universe. For that reason, human beings should also be able to sacrifice themselves for the sake of love. Furthermore a person without love has no real right to eat the creation. Such a person is not-a true mediator. The universe knows what entitles someone to eat. It is not because someone can pay for the groceries, but only because someone is sensing the love of God.

The universe is "auditing" your love. They can see whether you are a person of love or not. They know whether someone is a thief, having consumed the universe without ever relaying God's love back to them. What is the difference between animals, for example the birds, and human beings? Birds only know how to love one another, but human beings know how to harmonize with and love all the forms of creation. Therefore, human beings are the ultimate mediators between God and creation. That is the difference. That is the special dignity and privilege of human beings.

What is the love of the True Parents? It is the love that links together all the generations of love of the entire creation. The whole creation is harmonized through the True Parents. True Parents' love here on earth is like a formula or tradition; anybody who follows that formula or tradition is bound to succeed. Not only will you succeed here on earth, but you will also succeed in spirit world, which is the eternal and most important world. This kind of love will be welcomed anywhere, anytime, because this is the love of God.

Generation Record of the True Parents' Love 4-22-84

In the utopian ideal, do you think the love within the family would always be changing? No, it would be an unchanging love. What is the purpose for God's working so hard trying to build the utopian world? What kind of treasure can God gain from that utopia? He wants unchanging, true love. True love requires the love of God and the love of the True Parents coming together to create one central love, which will continue unchanged for eternity. God is the center and the True Parents are the representatives of that love.

Thus without God there can be no true love. Furthermore, without the True Parents there can be no true love. Even though some people believe in God, if they don't know True Parents, they can't find true love. True love requires the recognition of both God and the True Parents because true love flows through them.

The realm of true love can come in a realistic way when there are three generations united -- the grandparents united with the parents and children. This is the formula for the Heavenly four position foundation. Each unit of this formula must combine -- men must combine with women as units of true love, creating the ideal couple. Do you want true love? Where can you get it? Only by going through the True Parents and God. True love has a good taste, doesn't it? That same sweetness is enjoyed by God, too. When a true man and true woman are in love, that is the very sweetness God has wanted to taste all this time.

You are heading toward the ideal of heaven or utopia, and that goal can only be reached through the path of a true family. Through the Divine Principle, you learned that God originally created mankind in two parts. How can they be combined into one? The only way that God's original ideal of unity can be achieved is through true love, once Adam and Eve are matured. With that unity, God's true love, the original plus love, could combine with man's love, the minus love. God's plus love would be coming down and man's minus love would be going up.

With the coming together of God's true plus love with man's true minus love, everything would be accomplished -- the utopia would be achieved. Do you understand clearly how true love can come to you?

The coming of the True Parents is the greatest news for the fallen world because only through True Parents can the world taste, for the first time, true love.

The Thirtieth Anniversary of the Unification Church 5-1-84

Between man and women, there would be no concept of aloneness. No matter how great a man is, he would know there is nothing without a woman. Likewise, no matter how beautiful a woman is, she would realize that she is nothing without a man.

When your television antenna is very high, you receive more signals than a lower one. What is the highest love antenna in the creation? Is it the tall trees? No, the highest and most sensitive antenna in God's creation is given to men and women. Do you agree with this? The love antennae of human beings are invisible; they reach all the way up to God through the realm of thought and feeling.

I want you to know that love is the most holy and supreme impulse. If you can lay down your life for the sake of your spouse, you are the greatest lover. Likewise, those parents who give their lives for their children have the highest love.

The Day of the Love of God 5-20-84

Many people are frightened by thunderstorms and hate them. But you should appreciate the fact that God is displaying a dramatic aspect of His love through the thunder and lightning. It is like the explosion of a man and woman coming together in love.

True Way of Life 7-1-84

It is by the power of love that the sperm and egg join together. We can observe this phenomenon to examine how God merged the spiritual essence into the material essence. When God created the universe, including mankind, it was not knowledge or power that He used to do His work. It was love itself which He used. Love transcends everything else. Love is like the power of an electrical generating station. We can ask another very important question and that is: Why does man exist? Some materialists try to say that there is no specific or understandable reason for man's existence, that we just came into being. However, we know that nothing comes into being by accident. There was a plan in the beginning that later came to be translated into the actual being. The concept of love was there before any object of love came into being. That object of love for God was a couple, a man and woman.

Man is a privileged being to be able to engage in lovemaking over and over again, for his whole life and on into spirit world. All of nature, trees, the minerals, etc. exist as the textbook for the inspiration of human beings. When men and women, as the representatives of the whole universe, engage in love, the rest of the universe can rejoice with them. What makes a happy person? All of mankind feels a yearning for happiness, but unless we know what it is, how can we attain it? Happiness is the state in which you can give to an unlimited degree and you can receive to an unlimited degree. When you can give and receive unlimited love, then you are a happy person. In other words, the happy person represents the original universe. Do you understand? We can describe happy people in another way. They are those who have the original marriage relationship, those who have original, perfect parents, and those who have original children. In other words, those who have the original four position foundation are the happy people. This is because they represent the universe. That is a wonderful happiness!

In order for someone to become perfect, he cannot exist just for his own sake. In order to grow, a person must learn to love others more than himself, even sacrificing himself for their sake. The logic of love is that once a person denies himself he becomes greater. When you deny yourself, then something else greater fills in that space. This can be understood also by observing the way a low pressure area is filled up by a higher pressure area. This is symbolic of what happens when we sacrifice ourselves and get filled up by a greater amount of love. By this process, each individual unites with a bigger and bigger plus. Everyone, including the True Children, lives according to this law. It is the law of the universe, something that no one can breach without suffering the consequences. You will become smaller and smaller if you break that law. Thus one's spouse is a very important person in the fulfillment of this law.

Original Way of God's Will 7-8-84

The restoration of love is the central task of the Unification Church because that is where mankind went wrong.

Parents' Day 4-7-85

What is the one thing that the Supreme Being would like to own? What one thing is the finest, the best, the ultimate thing for God? God longs to have true love. When you talk about true love, it always denotes two parties. No one can dwell in love all by himself; you cannot just speak the world "love" over and over again and experience it. Likewise, for God to engender love, He must have an object.

What kind of love has God been yearning for? Mt. McKinley is the highest mountain in the United States. Has God been yearning for that tall mountain as the object of His love? Do you think God has been thinking about a beautiful bird as an object because it can sing and fly so well? No, He has been yearning for true men and true women. What is the definition of a true man? Is he special because he has an eye on top of his nose? Does a true man have two extra shoulders so that he can have four arms instead of two? That would certainly be a powerful man, wouldn't it? No, rather than all these things, we know that a true man is the man whom God loves and in order to be loved by God, he must resemble God. He must be that ideal object for God.

Whether you are a man or a woman, you must resemble God Himself. When we speak of humanity, we speak of both men and women. What do you think -- is God more like a man or more like a woman? God bears a resemblance to both men and women. So there are two objects of God: men and women. Are the two objects the same or different? Do they have the same or different features?

Are these two different beings, men and women, always trying to pull away from each other, or do they always try to come together from their opposite positions? What do you think? Are they supposed to come together or go away from each other? When are they supposed to be perfectly united -- when they are just crawling babies? When they are little children playing on the playground? No, it is only when their minds and bodies are perfectly united that they are supposed to come together as men and women.

Thus when men and women reach a certain age, they start to experience feelings of love. They want to know and understand love and they want to be together. Why do men and women want to be united? The reason is very important and simple. As an individual, a man or a woman cannot be a total object to God. Men represent one half of God and women represent the other half. So in order to reflect the total image of God, men and women have to come together.

Just as we have two eyes that can focus properly only together, when men and women come together in unity, their focus will also converge properly. Men and women are supposed to come together in that kind of unity, which we call love unity. Then God can come in; the dwelling of God is with them. When men and women come together in such a manner, God will embrace them and say, "Indeed, you are my image, my perfect image. I take delight and joy in you."

Then to whom does love belong? Love belongs to God, to man and woman. Love is the uniting factor of all three. When men and women are horizontally united in love they can be vertically united with God. That is the fair way. Otherwise, if God just came down to men, the women would complain; or if He just came down to the women, the men would complain. God doesn't want to be unfair, so it is only when men and women are rejoicing together in love that God can come down and dwell with them.

Love is eternal and permanent; it must have a storehouse. Men and women are meant to be that storehouse; love is meant to be held by them. So love does not really exist within just a man or just a woman, but rather between them; both must possess it together. That is the whole purpose of the differences between men and women, according to the original ideal.

I knew why I was in prison. It was the most important barrier which God wanted me to penetrate. Throughout history, many martyrs and saints died for the sake of their religion, for the sake of God's love. True love is greater than life itself. Therefore, for the sake of the tradition of true love, you have to go forward and make sacrifices, even if you might lose your life. The absolute standard is this: if you have to die for the sake of true love, you must choose that route. That is my uncompromising principle. Do you understand?

One thing is certain: in the entire history of humanity, no one has persevered more or suffered more for the sake of true love than I have. I have truly lived an uncompromising way of life for this purpose. I am ready even now to give up my life. Ultimately the world is destined to come under the domain of true love. True love and the power of the universe have protected me throughout my life and that is the reason I have come this far. Now I am ready to guide the world to join in true love.

You must be proud that you are participating in the Unification movement, which is going after only the absolute standard. There is no halfway standard, but everything is absolute -- absolute words, absolute love, absolute actions. This is the way you are committed to go, so you must be very proud of this.

We are on a treasure hunt looking through a labyrinth for the passage to true love. This is the romantic life of the Unification Church. More than anything else, the most important undertaking is going through the labyrinth and finding true love. Each step is precious, so vital. Even if it took one thousand years to take one more step, still you cannot avoid this path. You must go and find the way to true love. I am the forerunner along this way and you are following. Do you think you can go your own way or the way that you like in order to find the treasure?

Do you think it is necessary to make a great amount of noise or put on a great show for other people? What do you think? No, you don't need any cheerleaders around you. This is a path which you have to go all by yourself. It is an internal path which is very lonely at times. But knowing that you are moving toward the greatest treasure, you can have the greatest satisfaction going this way.

Western members sometimes speak too much, while Eastern members many times are too silent. But Unificationists must become the balanced point. We know the East and we know the West, so we must balance between them. Know the advantages of both worlds and strive for the best of both of them.

In the world today, particularly in America, love has become a "fun" thing, and people go hopping around from one bed to another. One night, one person, another night, another person. Many young people think that this is the way they can fulfill their happiness. What do you think? Is that God's definition of a human being? Such a person doesn't really deserve to be a part of humanity.

The world has gone far away from God's basic principle of love; people have let themselves fall below the animalistic realm of love. But the Unification Church has reestablished the moral principle of human love. If this were merely a theory, still we would have to accept it because of its logic; however, knowing that it is truth, how glad we are to accept it and live by it.

The love of God is absolute. In order to engender such love, God needs an absolute man and an absolute woman. He needs to bring them together in love into absolute unity. This is the total principle of original love. This is the nucleus of unity. To obtain this nucleus we need these three components -- God, man and woman. How absolute they are in unity.

What are the most important and precious words we can think of? A scholar might say, "The most important words are my scholarly works, my dissertation on economic theory." Many people believe that economics are most basic and therefore most important to everyone. Let's say that you wanted to become a university student, but you wanted to pursue a special major. If there were something like the Department of True Love Studies, wouldn't you apply? Is there any university with a department of true love?

However, you Moonies are enrolled in a university with a Department of True Love. You experience many ups and downs and some people get tired and flunk out, but those who succeed in the True Love Department are called the Moonies. You are attending True Love University, right? True Love University and the True Love Department offer probably the most difficult courses you can ever imagine, but then they are the most worthwhile. Even if you lost an arm and a leg, you would still want to pursue these studies, wouldn't you? Even if you were nothing more than a stump of a person, you would still want to graduate from the True Love Department. Today you are listening to the college president who has come to preach to you on the true love theory. Do you like it or not?

We are talking about an absolute standard in which there is no room for compromise or discussion. The true love principle is uncompromising. The opinions of different scholars and experts simply do not have any bearing on the absolute true love principle. Those who want to receive their diploma from True Love University, raise your hands, please.

I have always been seeking for one thing: true love. The way of true love must be established for the individual, the family, society, nation and world. True love is meant to be practiced within the framework of the family. Through the family, all other important levels of love can be achieved, such as the love of one's neighbor, altruism for one's country and the world, as well as saintly love. We have talked about all kinds of love, but family true love is connected to every one of them.

This tree I am drawing here represents true love. It has many branches, some of which go all across the world. But all those branches are connected to the same tree and have the same roots; therefore their quality is the same. The energy flowing from the roots goes to every leaf and every branch in the tree and vice versa; they have give and take that way. True love has many, many flowers, many branches, many leaves. All people were supposed to be born into this true love family tree but were not. That is the great tragedy of all tragedies.

Springing from the true love root, a branch goes toward the west, where it becomes white people; when it goes to the east, it becomes yellow people; to the south, it becomes black people; to the north, it becomes Eskimos. The human family is supposed to be connected to the same, universal root. All people were supposed to be attached to the one most important institution which God created; the family. That is the essential building block.

The elements of true love -- love between husband and wife, parents and children, brothers and sisters -- were supposed to be exactly the same, regardless of where those families were located, or whether they were white families, black families, yellow or Eskimo families. True love is the common denominator that brings all people together into that family unity. True love is the common denominator for east, west, north and south.

Therefore the true measure of your happiness is whether you are close to the central standard of true love. Happiness or unhappiness cannot be determined by how much money you have, but only by the purity with which you exercise true love. If a third party is trying to invade a marriage, those spouses cannot be happy people. When the purity between a husband and wife is preserved, love is preserved and that is the happy couple. This is how happiness can be measured. This standard applies equally, whether you are black, yellow or white.

"Absolute" in love means only one. Therefore, a couple cannot be involved with other people. In the Unification Church, the marriage principle is absolute. Once you are blessed, that goes on for eternity. Your couple shall be preserved as a true family coming out of this root. I know it is not easy in many cases, but no matter how difficult it may be, would you like to pursue my teaching and way of life? Or would you like to be a butterfly, flitting from one love to another? You are following this way because that is how you can be connected to God and possess God's absolute love. Once we possess the love of God, we possess everything in the universe. With true love, we can even control God. How much happiness that can bring!

Reverend Moon is a smart man; if there were some easy or convenient way, I would have found it and gone that route a long time ago, but there is no such thing. Therefore, I have been investing my entire life to live and propagate this way of love. In that case, do you think Mother is a happy woman? What about me, am I happy? Why are we happy people? It is because we are united centered upon God's love, which is absolute.

The Way of the Children 11-12-85

The motion of love joins together with the vertical line coming down and a gigantic circular movement is begun. In other words, the love of God along the vertical line is always circling. At the same time, men and women are also making circular motion in their love. This is another element of universal principle -- there is no straight line or movement in God's creation; it is always a circling movement. Everything comes to a certain point and then returns, then comes back, and so forth.

When you are living with this 100 percent commitment of true love, you don't have to worry or have ulcers. You can always have serenity and peace of mind, knowing that as you stay in the center, everything always comes back to you. You are the winner. This is the ideal realm of the heart of man-shim-jung -- Heartle. When there is 100 percent commitment, there is 100 percent freedom. The tiny little child can climb all over his grandfather; he has that kind of total freedom. The big, muscular husband can lay his head on his wife's lap. That is what we call the romantic, dramatic life of men and women, where you enjoy true freedom within true love.

The Day of All Things 6-7-86

A couple may find the going very difficult and wonder if they can continue; but the next day they find they can rise and go on. Of course they can do it! They were the only ones who worried that they couldn't.

Everything must move around; without movement, no unity can take place. What is up goes down and what is down rises; the front goes to the back and the back becomes the front; left and right will constantly change position. As long as you stand still, you can never make progress. You must have motion.

What makes motion? Only love. Love moves people. What does God actually need: man and woman, or love? Which does he long for most? God created man and woman -- not just one being but two -- as His objects of true love. Within Himself, God contains both plus and minus natures. Once man and woman achieve unity, they revolve and become like God Himself; they become the perfect image of God. Once they completely unite as a couple, the next stage is to achieve vertical oneness with God. When this happens, where will God dwell: above them, between them, or in their center? He will be right at their center.

The Glory of the Victor 8-31-86

The unity between men and women is very difficult to achieve; it is a virtually impossible task, but that is the ideal.

A universal design and will caused men and women to be made the way we are; we didn't decide how we should be built. That universal will made us this way for the purpose of harmony.

Even a man's skin is designed to be masculine, which means a rough texture and lots of hair, even a beard on the face. But women are meant to have soft skin, tender like the snow. Thus two extremes are brought together.

The amazing truth is that all the features you women possess are not for your own satisfaction or liking, but for the enjoyment of somebody else, namely a man. The same is true for men. In other words, women are created for men's liking and men are created for women's liking. That is why we say you are not born for yourself or exist for yourself.

The ideal means unity and harmony between extremes, from one end to the other. Once you achieve unity, you do not stand still but begin a circling motion. The question is, what sort of circling motion will you make? Do you want to just circle around in a small area or will you circle around a greater thing and a bigger purpose?

Does love exist for the purpose of giving, or just for receiving? The essence of loving is giving. What about here in America? When you women get married, do you say, "I am marrying because I want to give love"? Or do they feel, "I want to receive love"? What do you think? That was a very pragmatic American answer -- "both". However, which one should come first?

What happens when you only want to receive love? If the woman says, "You love me," and the man says, "No, I want to receive it. You give love to me," there can be no give and take, no intercourse. Therefore you both stand idle, with no unity. If you cannot unite, you cannot move upward. The ideal requires that you make a circular motion; the horizontal and vertical lines must come together and create the global, circular motion.

What is the worst sin of you women? It is that you always want to receive love. That is the sin of sins because it is so destructive of humanity and the rest of the universe. But when you are determined to give and serve others, then you not only unite but you also make a circling motion. You create the rhythm of up and down. Therefore, what is most wrong in our world today is that people just want to receive love.

Someone might say, "Nobody ever taught me that before. I certainly didn't learn that in college. Reverend Moon, you have created something brand new." This may be new to you, but it is universal law. No one can deny even one iota of this.

You women, please be honest to me and I promise to forgive you: have you been thinking of ways to receive more and more love, or have you thought about how to give more love? This is the revolution which I have proclaimed -- the revolution toward selfless love. That is what the Unification Church revolution is all about.

Men naturally pursue women, but for what purpose -- to receive love or to give love? That is the most important question. It is a serious problem that American people have not understood how universal law works. You men should never think, "I'm so glad I'm getting married because now my life will be easier. I will have someone to cook breakfast for me and wash my laundry, someone to serve me." But all of a sudden, that is not what happens and you start to complain, "Hey, what's happening here?" Your first concept was wrong; you are not supposed to get married in order to make your life easier. You should think that your life will get tougher, but you should be willing to do it in order to give love.

Love is always developing. Once you begin your love relationship, it must always expand. Your horizons must become larger and greater, expanding to the society, nation and world. Why are men and women so essential to each other? It is because you can develop your love to the world level through that most basic unit, the "building block" for love -- that relationship between a man and a woman.

Road Toward the Ideal 9-7-86

Dominion over the creation cannot come through vertical love alone. Vertical love must be translated into horizontal love, like the spreading of a wing which encompasses all of creation under itself.

Ideal Home Church 12-21-86

What is powerful enough to liberate man and God from the agony of this strange, distorted state? We have come to see that only God's love and God's life can do something about this. Because of the love that we have with Satan, even though we are alive, we are actually dead. Even though we have life, we are lifeless. Only God's love and life can help us.

Man has to go through a transition to allow God's life to flow into him. For God's life to be transmitted to that person, he has to move from the old, satanic place into the new or original place where the flow of love and flow of life can be experienced with God.

Liberation of the Spirit World and Physical World and the Unification of the World 2-22-87

Even though some woman may be respected by everyone, unless she can be proud of her husband, then she cannot be such a happy woman. Upon what basis can a woman be really proud of her husband? Where does she get the power to be proud? An elderly man can't say, "Well, since I am the grandfather, that's enough reason for me to be proud." He cannot take pride in himself all alone; other people have to be able to join in his pride. When the grandfather and grandmother are proud of their love, then we say that is valid. It is only love that two people can be proud of.

Suppose God said you could choose between several things. You could have great wealth to enjoy for the rest of your life; or you could have all the influence and power you could desire; or you could partake of the greatest store of knowledge so that millions of audiences would want to listen to you. You could have any of these, or you could enjoy the true love of a dear spouse, although you would have to live very poorly. If you could choose between these four options, which would you take? Why would you take the last one? You have to have a valid reason.

This is an important question. Why would you choose number four? It is because you know you can connect to God when you have that love. You will never be able to connect with God through money, power, or knowledge. Once we connect with love, we can connect to God and all the rest of mankind. We can connect to the past, present and future. With this love, we can connect to everything good. Love is almighty. Mansei to love!

Our Pride 3-22-87

The greatest of all statements made by Jesus Christ was, "Love your enemy." The power of that statement can conquer the world.

We Shall Live In the Original Homeland 7-1-87

We all have a physical father and mother, don't we? What is the difference between the physical father and the True Father? All things want lo turn away from a father of the fallen lineage, but everything in the universe welcomes and loves the True Father. In the Unification Church, you consider Reverend Moon your True Father. What is the actual difference between worldly fathers and the True Father? One has true love and the other does not, so it is a big difference. The true child, true family, true society, true nation, true world, and a true lineage which are eternally unchanging are connected by love all the way up to God Himself.

The Blessed Family is Very Precious 4-5-87

Do you understand clearly the concept of true love? True love is defined as love that is both vertical and horizontal and whose expression is welcome everywhere. True love is not merely the horizontal love of the contemporary age; it also means love towards our ancestors and descendants. Only with such a vertical and horizontal love can we create a sphere, which is our home sweet home, the perfect love which fulfills all directions. In other words, true love is the base upon which we can both give and receive vertical and horizontal love.

Centering upon an individual, true love can expand to the worldwide level. True love is the one love which is applicable in every situation and brings happiness to all. True love is not just for men or women, not just horizontal or vertical, not just for Orientals or Westerners. It is the one love which can apply to everyone, whether they are from the west or east, man or woman, young or old. True love binds the realms of east and west and makes them whole.

What is too low to be raised by true love? What is too high is lowered a bit by true love, to suit the occasion. What is indented is filled a bit by true love, to suit the occasion. What protrudes is absorbed a bit by true love. Such things true love does automatically.

I talk about love almost every chance I get. Is it because I have nothing else to talk about? Actually I wear myself out speaking about true love to you. I speak and speak and get excited about it -- even if no one responds!

The atmosphere of the spirit world is that of love, and those unable to love will suffocate and go to hell. In the spirit world, God is at the very center, and everyone tries very hard to get as close as possible to Him.

The Way to Grow 8-30-87

There are three major purposes of true love: When you possess true love, you are automatically entitled to receive the inheritance; True love gives you the right of participation. You are not an observer or bystander but an agent which initiates action; Thirdly, true love brings you to the same level of heart with God.

The power of love can do these three most desirable things.

If Adam and Eve had attained true love and were lying together in bed, would God observe two happy faces or sad, desperate faces? Every part of Adam and Eve would be filled with the joy of love. Therefore, every expression represents joy and happiness. Have you women thought, "I am the happiest woman in the world because I am lying next to my husband in the fulfillment of true love." Do you men feel the same way when you lie beside your wife? If husband and wife are so fulfilled and joyful in love, do you think God will want to be somewhere else, or right there with you?

You must understand what hell is. Hell is the place where vertical true love and horizontal true love cannot be found anywhere. There is no trace of it. There is no order or discipline, and everyone bumps and clashes against each other. Cruelty and violence rule. Do you understand this? You don't want to go to that place, do you? The most hellish place on earth is where no trace of vertical and horizontal true love can be found.

In the end, people who misuse their love curse themselves. Women say, "Why was I ever born? I despise the fact that I am a woman." The same is true of men. People in hell hate their bodily parts by which they engaged in illicit love. They condemn their own bodies throughout eternity. Our sexual organs were meant to be used for the consummation of true love, so when they are misused in illicit love, they become the object of hate and detestation. Once the sexual areas of a person's body are misused, including a woman's bosom and hips, they become objects of eternal condemnation in the spirit world.

When I was in prison in Korea, I observed men who were awaiting execution. Every day they grieved and repented, hanging their heads, saying, "If I had taken that one step differently and gone the other direction, I would not be in this position. One misstep brought me to this end." They could not get away because the deed was done. This is a good analogy with the misuse of true love. Once true love is mis- used, a person will face eternal condemnation and he will live with eternal grief.

Wake Up, America 6-12-88

When all the world turns white the impression of the greatness of nature is so acute. Snow is like the unity of heaven and earth, the marriage of plus and minus. When you see marriage you are moved to tears of happiness, of sadness and love. Those of you who are married know what I mean.

What does the Unification Church mean? It is the unification between true man and true woman. What is true man and true woman? They are persons who resemble God, man who resembles God and woman who resembles God who become sons and daughters of God.

There's some sweat on my face. When it runs down my nose I sometimes want to drink it. Sweat has a nice taste. It's nice and salty. When you have true love you can love your sweat and even the unpleasant smells of your own body. Those who run away from their own smells, raise your hand. (No response). You must appreciate the aroma of your own body. (Audience in hysterics). If you are centered on the vertical love of God, will you curse God for having created all these bodily functions or would you rather praise God?

Our Church and Korea as Seen from the Providence of God 2-12-89

Chapter 7 - International Marriage

Chapter 7
International Marriage

How valuable will be the first black and white couple who were matched and blessed by me? Have you ever stopped to think how significant that matching is to the entire universe? No matter how ugly your husband may be, he represents all men of the past, present and future. There will be no one else like him who lived at the same time as the True Parents. Perhaps he will be honored by the grandest statue in the world.

Christmas in View of the Will of God 12-25-80

God alone has the power to bring together two people who don't even speak the same language. You accepted that challenge because you have infinite faith in God, and in True Parents as the instrument of God. You also play a role as the instrument of God. The catalyst to bring men and women together for eternity from different backgrounds and cultures is certainly the power of God.

You rejoice over the matching, not because your fiancee is the best person under the sun, but because the person who made it so -- God -- is the best personality in heaven and earth.

Why do I do these things? Not for myself or the sake of the Church, but for the sake of God. There is no doubt that I do not gain any profit by matching you to a foreigner with a different character and language. It is a totally unselfish deed done only for God, for you, and for the sake of mankind. Through your foreign fiancee you are closely united with me and the Unification Church and you are remembered by God. How wonderful that is!

Be thankful. Digest everything so there is nothing stuck in your stomach. Nothing is harder than international marriage, and if you can unite two extremes in marriage you can digest anything.

Who Is God and Who Am I 1-25-81

Unity of the four nations is our next challenge. The easiest way would be to bring people of all four nations within your bosom to receive your milk, uniting them in one family. If your brother-in-law is German, your uncle Japanese, your sister-in-law Korean, and you are American, then you have four nations in one family.

Core Love and Indemnity 10-22-81

There are all kinds of blessed couples. Certainly God takes the greatest joy in observing those couples in which the most extreme contrasts are harmonized. Within the black and white couples, their harmony is symbolic of harmony between midnight and noontime; thus the 24-hour daily cycle is harmonized. If your ideal is to marry someone just like yourself, you are not thinking the way God does. If you resist making harmony between extremes, you are in line with satanic thinking. When the Unification Church is living up to this ideal of harmony, there can be hope for unity of the whole world.

The Present Situation, Centering Upon the Will of God. 5-23-82

Suppose you were an Oriental woman married to a white husband with some black ancestors. You would be a mixture of everything in your family! You might have one white, one yellow, and one black child! That would be a beautiful, multi-colored family. In the recent Korean matching, I matched many Japanese women to black African men; this caused tremendous commotion in Japan. The parents are complaining against me but I am telling them, "What is the problem? As these men and women come together in love, mankind will be brought closer together in love; furthermore, God takes great delight in this. Therefore, I have no shame about it."

The majority of the couples in the recent blessing on October 14 came from Japan. This marriage caused a tremendous, earthshaking response in Japan. Most people took it very favorably, saying, "What a sacred way of marrying! What a beautiful way to start the race of God!" Many parents were very pleased to see that their children had gone to take part in that blessing; but then, their daughters came back with a black husband. However, they had already applauded the value of the blessing, so they couldn't take it back!

Home Church is Our Land of Settlement 1-1-83

This morning you had pledge service at 5:00. You said, "I am proud of the one sovereignty, proud of the one people, proud of the one land, proud of the one language and culture centered upon God." As you said it, did you immediately say, "That's impossible"? Or did you pledge it because you know it is possible?

Has it ever been possible in any culture for a black and a white person to get married, with a yellow person in the center, bringing them together? Such a thing has been beyond people's imagination in the past. No national president has ever sat down and thought about the day when a white man and a black woman would get married, even without sharing the same language and needing an Oriental to interpret for them! Such a culture was never even thought about. But in the Unification world, that is an everyday occurrence as normal as eating breakfast.

Without your realizing it, such a new culture is being constructed. Think of the international marriages. When a British and a French person are matched, or when a French and a German person are matched, they may not be so happy with each other, but they do get married! Blacks and whites marry, Orientals and Occidentals marry. As this happens, national, cultural and racial barriers are transcended.

Unification families are multi-colored. When a German marries an Englishman, where does their family belong? When an American marries a Japanese, does their family belong to Japan, or to America? Neither. The only place they belong is in the Unification movement. They belong to a universal nation. Therefore, when the Unification movement eventually stands up and manifests this culture, don't you think that nations and sovereignties will follow this ideology?

You have a very special position in relation to me. America has always taken pride in being a melting pot; whoever comes here becomes absorbed in the American culture. It is a process you call Americanization. But 10 or 12 years after coming to America, instead of becoming Americanized, I have made Americans "Moonized." Furthermore, these Moonized Americans are flying off to the Orient, to Africa, to Latin America; they get married and go away from America. Is this bad news for America?

Our Position From Now On 11-6-83

This is the final chapter of fallen human history -- the West must bring its material wealth to the Orient and pour it out there, while the Orient must bring its spiritual heritage to the West.

That is the ultimate dispensational role of the Unification Church. Our responsibility is to be like glue -- bringing things together. There is a type of glue nowadays that is so strong that once things are glued together, they are bonded and cannot be separated. We have to make such oneness between different cultures and ways of life. The quickest way to bond together two different ways of life is through our international marriages -- bringing East and West together in one home. The Japanese women who married Western men, please raise your hands and let me see. Who gave you your Western husbands? Did I force you, or did you want that?

These marriages represent two extremes coming together. That is the most beautiful and dramatic thing in the universe. No matter what other people may say, the most important thing is that you love happily, in an exciting and rewarding way. Furthermore, when you have children you can be most proud of them because they are the fruit of the unity of Fast and West. Be proud of the fact that those children are the closest to God's heart and a joy to Heaven. Think, "I may be further away, but my children are close to God. God really loves my children." How wonderful!

Road Toward the Ideal 9-7-86

How should an individual conduct his life? I have been teaching you many things, but there is one simple conclusion: each person has to change. To what degree must we change? White people must come to love black and Oriental people more than their own spouse, or else they cannot find a way to heaven. That kind of thinking is not part of the satanic lineage. If you have such a goal, you did not generate it yourself: it came from Heaven. Heaven gave it to you.

Liberation of the Spirit World and Physical World and Unification of the World 2-22-87

I am an Asian and you are Westerners. Different races and cultures have often been antagonistic, but for some reason you always like to be around me. Why do you feel good being near me? People of all races like Reverend Moon. Why is that? You like the ideal man, right? Germany is a nation which has been particularly hostile toward me. I went to a restaurant in Germany where I observed a very old, ugly woman eating a meal at a nearby table. My imagination started working. In my mind's eye, I saw her eating a big bowl of Korean noodles. Do you know how people eat Korean noodles? You can't eat just one bite at a time. You suck on the noodles and half goes in your mouth and half comes back into the bowl again. You keep on sucking on the noodles until the bowl is empty. I imagined that this ugly old woman was eating such noodles and that I went over and started eating out of the same bowl with her. Whatever came of her mouth and back into the bowl, I ate. I asked myself, "Could I do such a thing?" Then I told myself, "Absolutely, I could and I would." If I really did such a thing, that woman would have felt permanently attached to me. I know that I would have made her want to be near me.

When I first came to the United States and observed the people with their pale skin, blue eyes and blond hair, it was, in a word, strange. Everything was unfamiliar to me. The way people responded to me was even more strange. My only real experience with people had been with Orientals. I asked myself, "Am I ever going to be able to love these people as much as I love the Koreans? Will I love them like my own family, my own father and mother?" I really challenged and pushed myself to appreciate these unfamiliar white Westerners.

Thank You For Protecting Us 11-22-87

Father is now matching Koreans and Japanese. Japan cannot complain and say that Reverend Moon is making Japanese members give up their traditions and adopt Korean ways because we are living in a time of freedom when people can marry whom they want. The nations cannot complain any more when I do this. The time is coming when national governments will send congratulatory telegrams. The time will come when Father matches 20,000 or 30,000 couples at a time.

In Korea men in some parts of the countryside have difficulty finding brides. There was a story in the newspapers of a man who committed suicide because he could not find a bride. There were 500 young men in the village who couldn't find brides. There is an easy solution. In Japan there are 800 Japanese sisters awaiting matching. If the young Koreans want to solve their problem, they should join the Unification Church and get the blessing!

Nobody can really oppose Father's matching people as he wants because he is disconnecting them from the Satanic line and connecting them to the bloodline of True Parents. Nobody can oppose that. Father is one man in history who has fought with Satan on all levels and been victorious. There is no one in America who can now oppose Father.

The Tribal Messiah 2-5-89

In the Unification Church will an oriental husband and a western wife, representing the plus and minus poles, become one if they are both individually united in mind and body? Father is matching people beyond racial and national boundaries. He is not creating a Korean or any other race but a new love race. (In English:) Satan hates the love race.

Our Church and Korea as Seen from the Providence of God 2-19-89

Chapter 6 - The Blessing

Chapter 6
The Blessing

You know something of the first seven-year course after 1960, but not its full background.

Behind this course was the history of God's family and the history of a God-centered tribe. In order for you to understand this history, you should receive the Blessing. I cannot reveal this background unless you receive and inherit the victorious standard of the Blessing. When you know that course completely, you will feel how bitter the history of restoration has been. Therefore, we have to realize how precious the Blessing is.

If we desire the Blessing, we should concentrate first on how to live solely for God's will. When Jesus prayed in Gethsemane, he prayed that not his own will but God's will be done. He did not choose the path of the cross because of his own will. Unless, like Jesus, you are confident of being able to overcome the problems of life and death, you cannot welcome or walk the path of restoration. Are you confident enough to dedicate your life for God's will? If you take this course, you should know you cannot go alone; you must be able to relate to all people, and be able to console those who are going to follow you on this path.

Restoration and Blessing 2-2-69

When men and women take marriage vows, they are pledging themselves to one purpose and goal -- pure unity of love.

True Parent's Mission 4-20-80

It's no secret that our members don't marry for today: actually, today is the most painful time. We marry for the future and for our descendants; though it is not easy, our better judgment tells us to do it anyway. Imagine that the most handsome man in the world decides to marry the ugliest woman in the world, feeling that for the sake of the future she will be the most ideal mate for him. Would people be happy or uneasy at seeing that scene? Would the person who supported the idea be happy at their success, or the person who did not support it?

That husband and wife might seem to be an unbalanced couple, but the husband who pursues that future goal is the highest, and therefore the central one. Will history have to record this event for the education of other people, or should it write disapprovingly of this couple? Today is always brief, but the future is everlasting.

The Victorious Day 6-29-80

Once the media starts to report correctly about the Unification Church, people will have a chance to find out the truth -- that our young people will be matched with better mates than they could choose ourselves, their wedding expenses will be less, and they will never separate. The sons and daughters-in-law from the Unification Church are wonderful, and the husbands and wives cherish each other. When people know this then they will really be interested in the Church.

Our Duty, Our Mission 10-5-80

One of the most important characteristics of the Unification Church is that we link the word "blessing" with marriage. The Chinese word for blessing is composed of two characters. The left portion of both characters signifies clothing.

The right portion of the top character means elder brother. Analyzing it in detail, the upper part of the right portion is a square which represents the mouth. In our way of life, the mouth is always a problem; it always needs to be fed. The lower two strokes represent Cain and Abel. The stroke going straight down signifies Cain, and the other which heads down and then rises signifies Abel.

The right portion of the lower character contains a horizontal line, a square, and a square enclosing a cross. The horizontal line means "one," which signifies God. The Korean word for God, "Hananim," means "Mister One." As we said, the square signifies a mouth, which represents a person. The square enclosing a cross represents a field which produces crops, representing all things of creation. So the lower character means God, mankind and all things of creation -- all enveloped by the same clothes. Thus the Chinese character for "blessing" means to put on, or wear, God, mankind and all things of creation.

On God's Day I gave a sermon about heart, or mind. I concluded that our mind should be like clothing enveloping God; God should occupy the center of our mind. Then our body is the clothing for our mind. The next level of dual characteristics is man and woman; the woman becomes the clothing for the man. Children become the clothing surrounding the parents. The relatives or clan become the clothing for the family.

It's your Blessing that matters now. We are talking about your well being. Our way of life is 180 degrees opposite from the conventional way. We are so strict and even puritanical, in a way, because by living this way we are creating a revolution. We are turning the wheel of history around in a completely opposite direction. We are breaking past concepts which have become habits, embedded even in our cells!

Many men and women are now engaged and will participate in the Blessing. I want you to understand that this is a vertical act based on universal law -- not just a horizontal relationship God and spirit world are involved in your engagement. Whatever I do, I automatically bring God and the spirit world into it. All my actions have vertical meaning. Horizontally, I am in the position of parents but vertically I am in the position of God and the archangel.

Our motivation is different. We are not acting from self-centered love but from unselfish, true love. If you deny this principle, you repeat the fall. If you accept it and live up to it, the world will change direction and be transformed. This is the position of the Unification Church. Our mission and responsibility are great. Upon our shoulders rest God's dispensation and all of human history. We are the ones to realign human history in accordance with God's dispensation.

The Blessing From the Viewpoint of the Dispensation of History 1-18-81

Marriage itself is for the sake of God and His providence, because spirit world centers around the family foundation. It is much better for an individual to be part of a couple in fulfilling the ideal. That is why you need marriage; it is not just for your own happiness.

Noble Dream 12-1-81

Adam and Eve were to marry primarily for the sake of God, not for themselves.

This should be the motivation for your marriage as well. Whenever you think, "I don't want to marry my fiancee," you should remember these points. Adam and Eve were completely at the mercy of God; they had no choice of a mate. In the true tradition, therefore, parents should decide whom their children ought to marry. You are marrying for the sake of your parents, in a way. Until you marry, you live in your parents' home and have no real claims of your own. From the Principle point of view, do you think that what I am saying is correct or not?

Even after Eve fell, if Adam had been stronger and had not fallen, God could have restored Eve much more easily. The great tragedy was that they defiled each other. According to the same principle, women who fall away from the truth today must not defile their fiance. If you men cut off from such a woman, God will provide you with a better bride. God selected Mother for me; I didn't do it myself. If either fiancee commits sin and becomes defiled, there is still room for restoration as long as the other remains pure.

Fallen love is the trap which Satan has been employing for 6,000 biblical years. In a split second, you can make the gravest mistake. You are like sticks of dynamite; but for a couple's love to explode in beautiful joy, the fuses of two dynamite sticks must not be lit until the right moment. Otherwise, their explosion will shatter them. For the consummation of your love to be constructive, the order must come from God, through the True Parents, and then on to you. If it happens at the wrong time, the love will be directed by Satan. Your love should focus outward for the sake of God and True Parents, and not inward on yourselves.

You will meet some day, after each of you has been cleansed as an individual. On that promised day when you come together as husband and wife, you will become one body and one family, with the approval and blessing of God and True Parents. After that you can live happily together. If you touch your fiancee in an intimate way while you are engaged, you are defiling her. Even though she is your fiancee, you are not authorized to take her love in that way. You must first cleanse your past.

When you walk down the aisle at your wedding, you must have no thoughts of the girls you dated in the past; you must never criticize your heavenly bride according to the standards of the fallen world, wishing she were prettier, or taller, or whatever. You must regard your wife as God's gift to you; your blessed spouse is the best one possible for you, much better than a king or queen. You are a son of God marrying a daughter of God; you are marrying a princess! There is no greater position in the world than that.

Don't defile your mind and think about your past fallen sexual experiences. You should consider your previous loves your worst enemies. You must cut off from that past; you must become clean men and women when you enter the Blessing. Cut off all the strings attaching you to the satanic world and free yourself; then you can cross over into the heavenly realm.

Once you enter the family-level dispensation, a higher standard of accomplishment is required. When you receive the Blessing and start your family, it is as if you given an automobile for driving along the highway to the Heavenly Kingdom. You must be able to drive the car; if the car starts to break down, you will be in trouble. When you no longer live as just an individual but as a family, your problems will be magnified.

Restoration through indemnity is your medicine. Even though the medicine tastes bitter, you must swallow it in order to be cured. You certainly don't enjoy the taste of the medicine, but you realize it is you only means to be healed.

You must realize that behind you lies a long history of ancestral sin. To liquidate that history as an individual requires a great amount of indemnity. If you are a fine, handsome man, a good way to do it would be to marry and love an unattractive woman. By doing so you can completely liberate your sinful ancestry.

I resolved to accept as my bride an elderly, very fat woman if God so desired. Since my attitude was to accept absolutely anyone God chose, God gave me a beautiful, young woman -- Mother -- as my bride. No one can accuse that match, either, because it was not of my own initiative; it was completely from God and the spirit world. That is the law of indemnity.

True Parents and Our Responsibility 12-27-81

When you meet your fiancee, if you have the time or energy to kiss her, you should be thinking more about your nation, your world and God. Your fiancee can wait. He or she is a good person and will not be corrupted, but this nation is crumbling, society is crumbling.

You have to become the spiritual fire fighters and doctors who can save this nation, Is what we are doing right or wrong? Perhaps I will hold the next engagement ten years from now! Why? I want you to devote your youth totally to the salvation of the nation. Think about it: is my teaching wrong? You are engaged, but in the meantime, you are fighting for the salvation of this nation. You are sacrificing your- selves during this time, but God will preside at your marriage. You can have no better wedding than this.

Everyone is Headed Somewhere 3-7-82

Even if your husband or wife cannot make it, that does not give you the right to give up. Think, "You may abandon me, but I will not abandon you or this path." There is no such thing as abandonment in God's world. Our way of life requires us to be patient and persevere. If you are abandoned, that is not your responsibility. Think, "Because God exists, I have hope. I will return to Him one way or another." That is the meaning of the Blessing given on July 1, 1982.

Where is God then? In spirit world God is still invisible, but you can feel His presence perfectly. Just as your conscience guides you now, God is present in your heart, guiding you in spirit world. By then you will truly feel the value of having followed the True Parents here on earth. You will be victorious in heaven and earth and feel deeply grateful to God and True Parents. That precious thing can only be achieved through the foundation of the family. In order to achieve such a family I gave you the Blessing.

Have I given you too much tough material this morning? Did my sermon interfere with plans you had for your future family life, perhaps a cozy apartment with no interruptions and lots of love and joy? I preached the wrong sermon for that! I'm sorry, but I have to do it. Do you thank me or hate me for these words today? Within this principle of true love you have total freedom of conscience and you can truly be happy. For eternity you will not be able to praise each other enough. Was this Blessing given to you freely or was it earned by you? It is given by heaven, as God's gift. Why does God give it to you? He wants to see true love consummated within you and your home.

Some of you behaved very dishonorably in the past, with no moral standards. You are grateful to True Parents for teaching the right path. From now on, however, you cannot make a mistake because you know the truth. You shall become righteous husbands and wives. Religious people of the past made tremendous sacrifices to bring you into this position to consummate true love. They were like the fertilizer for your victory because they helped create the atmosphere for today. God has been suffering for 6,000 biblical years, persevering in incredible agony to see this one true couple, the True Parents. I am looking for American couples who can be visited any time by God and True Parents.

You are trying to create a precious treasure for God's museum. That task begins with your holy wedding. You sisters want to become true daughters, wives and mothers, don't you? Who will acknowledge your accomplishment and sign your certificate. What is the criteria we will use to decide? It all centers on whether you have true love. The center of true love is God, True Parents and your husband, and you must serve these three. Never think that you possess true love by yourself.

Only through true love can you have any relationship with God and True Parents. You brothers wan- to become true sons, husbands and fathers, don't you? Who shall sign your certificate? Your wife, God, and True Parents. It is not enough for your wife to say that you love her. True Parents and God must also recognize your true love. Thereafter, anywhere you go on earth or in heaven, you will be welcomed. Once you reach that level, no matter how poor you are, you will never starve, and your children will never desert or betray you. That is the center of the force of the entire universe, and it will protect you according to natural law. You will never be destroyed.

If you live in the world with a selfish point of view, you will not go anywhere. When you reach out to hold your wife's hand, you should first ask whether your hand has received the love of God and True Parents. If your conscience says no, you have no right to hold your wife's hand. If your eye does not deserve the love of True Parents and God, it is a thief's eye. When you embrace your wife, do you have that pure, unselfish love which represents heaven and earth?

Marriage within the Unification Church has an extraordinary meaning. A man represents the plus part of the universe; a woman represents the minus part of the universe. When God brings them together in harmony, the fulfillment of his joy can come about. The mass weddings of the Unification Church are guided by this particular philosophy and purpose.

New Family Given by God 9-5-82

You must understand clearly why you are marrying in the first place. It is not primarily for your own gratification, but for the sake of the vertical line between the parents and the children.

The Present Situation, Centering Upon the Will of God 5-23-82

There will be over 2,000 couples blessed on July 1. Have you ever considered that once I go to spirit world, you will be the ones to give blessing to your home church people? They will say to you, "Since Rev. and Mrs. Moon are not here, will you bless us on behalf of them?"

The day of the blessing will be July 1, the first day of the seventh month. Seven plus one equals eight, which signifies a new start. Which ones of you are determined to spend your honeymoons in your home church area? Do you think Mother and I enjoyed a honeymoon? I still don't know what the word means. When you inherit my mission fully, I might consider taking a honeymoon for the first time.

When I left Korea, I left the mission there in the hands of the elder members. Will you send me off on my honeymoon, saying, "We want to go with you!" When I come back and see that your home church work is successful, I will buy a jumbo jet and take all of you to the places I visited.

Blessed Family 6-20-82

In ten more days, a historic event will take place in New York. This is an occasion of world-wide importance. You will be participants in this incredible event. Do you think it will happen again and again? Suppose I bless you in July 1 and then die on July 2. Then what would happen? Don't you see the uniqueness of this opportunity? You must grab it by any means possible, even if only by a stick or a pole! Participation in this historical event is in itself the greatest of honors.

Just being admitted into Harvard is already a great honor, whether you attend for four years, six years or whatever. If you really think of the value of the Blessing, it transcends imagination. Even if your fiance were like the Elephant Man or the ugliest, most disabled woman, to walk down the aisle and be sprinkled with water by the True Parents is an historical marriage.

You may have traveled the world looking for a loving woman, without being able to find one. Suppose you are given a document by the King of love, certifying that you are a master of love and that you have loved all of creation and even the spirit world. Still, you would need to find someone of the opposite sex with whom to relate. Without consummating that kind of relationship, nothing is really fulfilled.

Your attitude should be, "July 1 is the day on which God will finally give me the person through whom I can consummate my love." You will be participating in an incredible, unique and holy opportunity. You should be able to declare, "Now I have found the person whom I can love for the rest of my life and throughout eternity. Therefore, I am going to devote every ounce of my energy in loving my mate."

July 1 should be your day of declaration and new beginning. On that day, tell the world and the universe that you will love your mate more than anybody you ever loved in your life. Then when you will walk through Madison Square Garden to the notes of the Wedding March you will not look at your fiance and think, "I wish his (or her) face were a little bit better." How could you imagine such a thing? Your spouse is better than anything in nature; your spouse surpasses the birds and the trees. On that day, your love must be unconditional. Everything you see in him or her should be beautiful to your eyes. That is how you should begin as a couple.

On July 1, you should meet that ideal standard and join with your ideal mate. As we celebrate this Day of All Things in anticipation of this historical Blessing, all nature can be deeply inspired and rejoice with us. Those who want to pledge to consummate the true standard of Adam and Eve's love on July 1, to become the flag bearers of heaven and liberate the grief of all things, enabling them to rejoice under their true masters -- raise your hands!

The Day of All Things 6-21-82

Now that you are joined in marriage as husband and wife and are resolved to form an ideal family, complete with children, you must work for three and a half years to fulfill the three steps of love -- parental, fraternal and conjugal. Will you welcome this course? How can you say yes with such confidence? There is a very obvious reason for answering yes, which I will describe to you.

In the beginning many husbands are not very considerate of their wife because marriage is a new kind of relationship. If that is your situation, you need to become like a mother to your husband. If you cannot do that -- perhaps, because your mother did not show the example -- at least try to be a good elder sister. Wives usually don't consider their mate "my dear husband" in the beginning. More often than not, you begin by considering him a good brother or a good father, and after a long time he will begin to be a good husband.

The other day I explained how conjugal love is the third important type of love. How fantastic it is when you wives can regard your husband as your real father and he can regard you as his real mother! In the next stage, you will regard him as a good elder brother and he will regard you as a good elder or younger sister. Afterwards, you will become true husband and wife.

Look at couples in America today. When one gets angry with the other, he or she goes out and gives affection to someone else. The husband comes home, kisses his wife and the next moment they are fighting each other; the following day they are still arguing. That cannot be. If you ever want to kiss, you must not make war on each other!

In the early days of your marriage, you women should serve your husband as if he were your own father -- not as a husband or as an equal, but as a father. Then he will treat you like a revered mother. Later, as an elder sister your position is to take care of him as if he were your younger brother. Finally, in the third stage, you can say you are ready to be a wife and consider him your husband. This is part of the tradition you should practice.

It would be nice if there were a partition here so I could tell you women something in secret: when you baby a man, he melts and becomes like a child. It doesn't make any difference how old the man is -- he may be a grandfather 70 or 80 years old -- if you treat him like a baby he is happy! That is how men are. Who do men resemble? God. So even God is like that. God is like the King of babies! You have to know how to treat a baby. For American women, the best analogy for this kind of tender care is to treat your husband "like your fine china," but of course it encompasses more than that.

Our Fatherland 7-4-82

How typical are Unification Church marriages? Our marriages are very different in background from worldly marriages. We have God above us, caring for our lives in the minutest detail; then you have True Parents who even make the suggestion of your mates for you. Among such circumstances you are married. The simple but most serious fact of our marriages will be the path for the world to be restored. Hell originated from the wrong marriage in which God was excluded and Satan was embraced. The position of husband and wife were the first to exist under Satan's dominion; next the children, or brothers and sisters; the parental position was filled third by Satan.

At the last days most secular parents are finding themselves without power to direct their children's marriages in any way. This is the historical fruit of the fall. However we are going in a different way. As the Unification Church brings God's right order closer and closer to completion the secular world drifts farther and farther out of control. Within our marriages we follow heavenly tradition with seriousness, passing it on to all succeeding generations. In the secular world there is virtually no tradition to be inherited by the couples, therefore no tradition to be passed on to their children. This is the way the world falls further and further down into Hell. God cannot be there, so it is Hell. In our marriages we follow God and the True Parents and the original tradition of Heaven which God always intended to pass on to His children.

Now that I have given the blessing to the 2,000 couples they will be playing a very significant role in establishing the tradition of the future. Between the men and the women of those couples, I must depend upon you women for this to be successful. Hope for the world has been launched. If this prototype for the future succeeds, the entire Western world can have substantial hope. If you fail, however, so much will be washed down the drain.

I know that you may be too young to understand the historical significance of the words I am saying but in the future you will understand. If you do not practice the way of life I have been teaching you, history will judge you: "That blessed couple did not live the way Rev. Moon taught them. Shame on them." Do you understand?

In Search of Our Home 7-11-82

Recently 6,000 couples were blessed in Korea. For whom were those couples married? It was for the sake of God. That means every aspect of their marriage must be for the sake of God, not just the ceremony. Will you say, "I will dedicate my spouse and marriage to you, God, after we have had some time together?" That is not true dedication. Out of the 6,000 couples, how many do you imagine are truly willing to be entirely dedicated to God? That is a serious matter, too.

Certainly God is worthy of having the entire universe dedicated to Him, not only 6,000 couples.

Standing in the Presence of God 11-7-82

Why is marriage necessary? Is it because you need to receive love from someone? No, you marry because you want to form that unit which is responsible to God. Now you have the answer as to why men and women marry.- Why is it good to have children? The ultimate destiny of mankind is to return to God, so having children is a necessary aspect of that. Each of you is looking forward to having a spouse, but that spouse is actually the intermediate instrument for returning to God.

The plainest truth is that when the plus and minus of man and woman unite together, they create a bigger minus in front of their cause, God, who is the biggest plus. In that way plus and minus interact. That is the only way mankind can be sustained.

Your love is intense for your husband or wife. You must come to realize that you love God even more that. Then God will tell you that you passed the test.

The first cause divided Himself up -- God is divided into masculine and feminine -- so in order to return to God, the two divided parts should come together as one unit. There is no other way. Men and women move toward each other and this is entirely natural. Unless you unite with your ideal mate here on earth you shall have no way to moved vertically toward God.

The Secret of Total Success 12-19-82

Why, then do we have to get married? It is because God exists in dual essentialities and men and women must reflect those essentialities. Therefore, men and women must come together and unite in total resemblance of God's image. That is why marriage is one essential factor in your total growth; without it, you would be crippled.

Marriage is for the purpose of blending men and women into Godlike figures, to put people into the image of God so that when they are elevated into spirit world they can enjoy a relationship with God together. We come to the clear conclusion that God created all things and human beings for the purpose of consummating His love. Where can that love be consummated? It can be done while we are here on earth, in the relationship between husband and wife, in the family. Therefore, marriage is the most important event in human

Let This Be A Good Year 1-2-83

If you consider getting a divorce, you should feel shocked and faint. In the future, the word "divorce" will be erased from the dictionary. God will never compromise one inch on this. If you discuss the possibility of divorce without feeling stunned, then you know how far from God you are. This is an absolute criterion. We have to live according to that standard before we can say we have gained absolute love.

True Man, True Church, True Country 1-9-83

What is the meaning and purpose of blessed couples? What are you supposed to achieve? Actually, we have been blessed in order to eliminate God's loneliness. When this condition is met, all other problems in the universe will disappear.

Original Root and Self 5-22-83

Another way of thinking about your mission of saving the world is through your Blessing. Why were you women born? Some of you might reply that you don't know. Others might reply, "I was born to save God and mankind from the position of a woman." When you look in the mirror, if you think you are rather pretty you might ask why you were born that way. You can answer, "It is so I can do a better job of saving God and mankind." To accomplish your mission even faster, you can think, "I was born for the mission of wiping out racial discrimination. Since I am a beautiful white woman, maybe I will marry the homeliest black man." How wonderful such a woman is!

Mission and Prayer 6-12-83

You must be able to say, "I have one set of True Parents, one True Family, one group of brothers and sisters, one spouse." Anyone who has received the blessing should never look at another person as more desirable than his own spouse. No man should think, "I wish I could marry that woman instead." You must understand the true value of the blessing. The True Parents assigned your wife or husband to you; that is a treasure greater than a chunk of gold the size of the planet earth. Unless you have a true family and blessed children, you can have no connection with the True Parents when you enter spirit world. Certainly your blessed spouse is far more precious than that chunk of gold because gold cannot give you eternal life.

Parents' Day 1984 4-1-84

Within the Unification Church we have the tradition of the Blessing. Do you know what the blessing is about? Young men and women come out of the world, from the wild olive trees of the world. True Parents are stripping the branches from all the wild olive trees and grafting them to the true olive trees. You are those branches and that is the Blessing. While you are being cut away from the wild olive trees, you will naturally feel the pain of that severance. Everybody will complain and say, "Oh no! I don't want to go through this!" Your parents will oppose you, you will not like what you are going through. However, without going through that process, there can be no new grafting and no new growth.

Even after you are grafted into the new tree, you may not feel much joy. You still feel the pain from the process of grafting. Many think, "Boy, that's my husband or wife? Is that the ideal?" and your wounds have not been healed yet. But then after three years of married life, you will see all the new growth that is resulting from your union and you will find a great amount of satisfaction and joy. It takes at least three years together for your wounds to heal and for you to become new men and women.

The job of the Messiah is to do the grafting of all the men and women in the world. That is the most important job of the Messiah -- changing the roots and lineage of mankind.

Thirtieth Anniversary of the Unification Church 5-1-84

There is a certain principle of love by which mankind can be grafted together and this is what we call the Divine Principle. Since Satan was the one who first planted love -- satanic love -- the only way is can be restored is by planting true, heavenly love. Therefore the Unification Church has mass, holy weddings. These holy weddings are symbolic of the grafting process, by which you separate yourselves from the satanic world and graft yourselves into the family of the True Parents.

One Year Anniversary of the Seung Hwa Ceremony of Heung Jin Nim 1-1-85

I want you to understand that although human history is represented in the Bible as 6,000 years, scientifically it is closer to many millions of years. All of this time, God has been seeking after His one day of fulfillment, that day of true marriage between men and women. That is the historical, critical importance of the blessing.

True Parents' Birthday 2-25-85

You blessed couples, raise your hands, please. You received the Blessing even without realizing what a valuable gift it was. You are the custodians of the greatest treasure of all. You must not misplace it. I want you to understand that the four major holidays of the Unification Church represent the most important aspects of our way of life, so any violation of love includes the violation of the meaning of those days. Don't ever imagine that God's Blessing to you is cheap. In order for you to receive that Blessing, God labored for tens of thousands of years and made multitudes of sacrifices. Therefore, you must preserve that Blessing or you will receive heavenly punishment. Do you follow?

Now you know what God's Day means. In order for the True Parents to be installed and for True Mother to be chosen, Father had to overcome incredible dispensational tasks. Only upon that foundation could the True Mother be installed. There were many occasions where even one misstep would have meant falling down into failure. Thus I have been deadly serious about the Blessing and the dispensational will. But then if you, the recipients of that Blessing, take it very lightly as if it were some cheap commodity, I cannot forgive that.

God's Day 1-1-87

What is the significance of the Blessing in the Unification Church? It is the means of cutting off the satanic lineage and transforming it into the heavenly lineage. There is no way to sever that lineage with out going through the Blessing process. In a profound sense, you and your spouse need each other's help in order to be linked with the heavenly lineage, so you become mutual benefactors through the Blessing.

Through the Blessing your lineage is changed. Do you have the power to do it by yourself? Through whom is your lineage changed? Yes, it is through the True Parents. Your lineage has to be altered before you can become true men and women. Through the Blessing, you are all headed back to the original blueprint. You are leaving the satanic realm and returning to the original realm. Fallen men become original men; fallen women become original women; your children can stand in the original position of children. Even Satan will be restored from the position of adversary to that of the original archangel, or servant. The entire spirit world is coming down to assist the Unification Church because it is in the archangel's position. You merely have to initiate the work, and the spirit world will finish it. Do you follow?

Through the Blessing, are you automatically elevated into the Kingdom of Heaven? To think so is a misconception. The Blessing opens the door to the Kingdom of Heaven, but you have to put on the robe and enter. That process still remains. Will anyone give you the robe? No, you have to make your own robe. I will not give you one; the church will not give you one. You have to accomplish your five percent responsibility. If you do not fulfill here on earth, you will be burdened with it in eternity. No matter what difficulties you may encounter, you have to resolve these eternal issues here on earth. Nothing is more important. This is more essential than eating, more vital than your daily life, more important than visiting your wife or children, more crucial than anything.

God's and Our Decision 2-1-87

Once you are married in the Unification Church, you should cherish each other. If the woman starts going in the wrong direction, then the man must stop her, even at the cost of his life, whatever sacrifice it takes. He must not be indifferent, saying, "Well, I don't care. Father might match me to someone else." That kind of thinking has no place. Once this original connection is broken, the damage cannot easily be restored. There is great damage to the mind and spirit, psychological as well as bodily, which cannot so easily be made up. That union, or Blessing, is so important.

When a woman is walking to her wedding, she should feel, "Now I have my man." Also she has to say, "From this point on, I am living for him, not for myself. I will do everything that my husband needs of me." She should not think, "I will ask my husband to do many things for me." She should ask herself, "What are my husband's needs? How can I fulfill my basic mission as a woman?" Women really have to think that way, and the same is true of men. A man must put his spouse foremost in his thinking, not himself.

In the Unification Church we have initiated mass weddings, in accordance with God's dispensation at this time. God is making history in such a way. Someone might ask, "Why shouldn't an individual woman find a husband that she likes? Why shouldn't a man find his own spouse?" If they do, in accordance with the pattern of the rest of the world, those spouses can connect only horizontally. In the dispensational view the vertical connection is eternal and therefore more important than the horizontal, which is temporal. That is why the parents must be a part of the choosing of the mate. This doesn't mean that parents should arbitrarily choose partners for their children but rather the parents should intervene, representing heaven, in order to ensure the harmony of the vertical and the horizontal relationship. This is the meaning of the Blessing.

Marriages in this world have occurred without vertical connection. Now that the True Parents have come to the earth, it is their mission to restore the marriage relationship. By matching and establishing a harmonious vertical relationship, the Parents will restore the horizontal relationship that was intended by God. That is what my mission is all about.

Our Pride 3-22-87

For you to join the Unification Church and work for three and a half years, then to be called to be matched and blessed by Father is, in a way, unspeakably easy. It is almost too cheap. Do you think you have worked enough to deserve that Blessing after three and a half years in the Church? Absolutely not. No one comes even near to deserving that Blessing from the True Parents. In order to find the formula for giving out the Blessing to humanity, God had to suffer unspeakably and the True Parents suffered to an incredible degree. Now can you come here and try to take that accomplishment freely, thinking you deserve it?

Parents Day and Our Path 3-29-87

One good example of the work I have accomplished is your Blessing. Each of you came from different places, nationalities and cultures and each person was stubborn and adamantly self-righteous. But you came to the conviction that you could leave to Reverend Moon the most central decision of your life -- the choice of your eternal spouse. That alone is the greatest, most eloquent testimony to how far you have come -- you became truly selfless and God centered.

We Shall Live In the Original Homeland 7-1-87

I gave all of you the Blessing. That means I bound two of you together so that nobody and nothing can separate you again. You are bound in a strong bond of love. I have been teaching you to sacrifice for the children and for the future. Is that a right or wrong teaching? We know that it is right, but do we really feel and act like it is right? We should. Are you at the knowing level, the feeling level, or the acting level? You should be at the level of action.

Haven't I told you over and over again that alone, individually, we can never go into heaven? There is no such a thing as an individual heaven. Only after fulfilling the four position foundation can we go into heaven.

Precious Existence 7-19-87

When you deal with a lot of people in various situations, you may develop your ability to discern types of people when you first meet. But without experience you can't have a clear ideal of what they are really like. When the time comes for you to marry, do you want to pick your own spouse or do you want me to match you? You want me to suggest your fiancee because you know that I have greater knowledge and ability to evaluate people.

Isolation and Liberation 3-20-88

Adam and Eve fell on the individual level and through that the foundation for the national Adam and Eve was lost. Through the blessing of 2,500 Korean-Japanese couples, however, Father has married Adam and Eve on the national level.

Our Church and Korea as Seen from the Providence of God 2-19-89

Many of you have been blessed, and there are also those who are the candidates to be blessed. Why do you want to have the Blessing? The Blessing entitles you to receive and consummate true love, which is the purpose of life.

When men and women unite in true love, God becomes a super plus, and men and women together are a super minus. Then they unite and become one. Marriage is bringing the divided universe into one by the power of love. It is a horizontal oneness which becomes a total object to God.

Let us say that true love is hiding behind the bush and God is looking for it, searching desperately. When God finds that true love, He will say, "True love, you give me a pain in the neck!" God would lose His dignity for true love.

We marry so that the entire universe becomes one with us. Today we are living in a world of false love. This worldly love has nothing to do with true love. In the Unification Church we use the word true: True Parents, True Children, true husband, true wife. Those are the entities united by the true love glue.

True Parents and the Realm of Liberation 4-6-89

Chapter 5 - The Matching

Chapter 5
The Matching

True Parents is not a title given only to Mother and myself You all will have to inherit that lineage because you will have children. My power lies in my authority to bequeath this to thousands of families. Will you engaged couples be worthy of that title? Are you confident of becoming worthy? It's not a simple thing. You have to build a foundation, which you don't have yet. It took me almost all my life to build my foundation, but now you are about to create it.

Those who are matched, raise your hands. Think that with your own hands you will make your foundation as an individual, and then when the blessing day comes you can really cherish your own spouse. During that time you will make yourself a perfect man with the love of God, and then as a real man you can really embrace and squeeze your fiancée. If you are saturated with love and power, your spouse will be also. When both of you generate billions of volts, the spark between you will be so tremendous that the entire world will wake up. You will soon encounter that great historical event, so you should prepare for that day. When that happens then God's dispensation will come to a successful end, and your work and career will have a successful end.

Where would you engaged couples go to have your children? Where would you go to dance on a happier day in the future? Wouldn't you be happier returning to the home of your own parents? If you wear the glasses of the Principle then you know you should go to your own home church to celebrate. You cannot be proud of your family all alone, but only in your home church area. After that what would you become in your home church? Not only the true parents of the home church area, but true parents for your own clan.

When you have your own clan, what will you teach them? You must have material and tradition to teach them. That is what you will set in your home church. You will make a textbook or manual of love for your clan in your home church. Even though you leave this earth for the spirit world, you will have written down everything you did. Some crystals are big and others small, but they are all the same in structure and clarity -- everything except size. This is the relationship between your family and my family.

This is the first Sunday in April, and it is almost like the first day of spring. Spring is the time when everything lives again. Like the spring season in nature, I want you to have life welling up in you again. I want you to start a new life from now on. You may have an old idea of home church, but throw it away like winter clothing and have a bright, new home church idea, knowing the relationship of yourself, God and the dispensation.

The Dispensation of Restoration and Myself 4-6-80

Why do I assume the heavy responsibility of matching everyone? I get no money or fee like any other professional. All the criticism comes to me, while all the happy couples feel that they are lucky and are not grateful enough to the True Parents. Why should I volunteer? When I am matching people I can see their futures and what kind of life they will lead. Some people will have tragedy in their life, and in order to prevent such tragedy I must match them with certain types of people. I am not just looking at people horizontally, but vertically.

I have a philosophy of balance in matching -- a harsh person needs to be balanced with someone softer. A weak, soft person needs someone strong. In machines, both hard and soft metals are needed to complement each other. People look only at the surface appearance in evaluating people, but a pretty woman and a handsome man together may lose everything and leave nothing behind. In matching people I try to make a permanent base. I match from the viewpoint of central true love. Sometimes my methods look strange, or labyrinthine, and you can't see the light at the end of the tunnel. But if the end result will be true love, I will go that way.

Liquidation and Blessing 5-18-80

I often hear about your concern for your fiancées, and after a while I cannot help laughing. When people ask when the wedding will take place I laugh again. Do you understand what I am trying to say? You are talking about marriage, but how far along are you in preparation? First you must investigate the tradition which you and your spouse come from, and whether you are charged with ambition to strike forward for true love.

Our Tradition 6-15-80

What matters is the origin of the seed; you do not change once you are born from a certain seed. If the ugliest man comes from a good seed, even though he looks less desirable, he is better than the handsome man from a bad seed. You should be able to say, "God, all that matters is that my spouse is someone You can love, even though he or she is the ugliest person in the world." If God knows you really feel that way, He will not give you an ugly person.

Home Church and Myself 12-14-80

Billions of marriages will take place in the-future, but only a few people will be blessed directly by the True Parents. When the last such couple is alive on earth, will they be valuable or worthless? They will be more valuable than any couple brought together by a king or queen. Do you feel that? Such thinking is realistic, not just dreaming.

Christmas in View of the Will of God 12-25-80

When men and women meet, they are like two perfected mechanisms docking in outer space. The docking is so smooth that there is no destruction at all; there is complete and total unity. This is what your engagement is all about; heavenly docking. This is a new terminology now. When you shake hands with your fiancée, you are docking. As the two hands are united, all five senses are united, and sparks leap from one to the other forming a circuit.

At the Matching the other day, there were two kinds of situations. A black brother said, "Father, I want to marry a beautiful white woman." I asked him why he didn't say, "Father, I will feel truly happy and blessed even if you give me a monkey." If his attitude is like that, my heart will see that he more than deserves the best woman. But he began by saying he wanted the most beautiful, highly-educated, white woman. Then I wondered, "Are you seeking your own benefit? Are you trying to make your fortune in the Unification Church?"

The Blessing From the Viewpoint of the Dispensation of History 1-18-81

Those who do not speak the same language as their fiancées need an interpreter. Can you communicate with sign language? Or love language? Have you ever thought about marrying someone who can't speak at all? Marrying a foreigner with whom you cannot communicate is like marrying a dumb person, and in a way that person is far distant from you. Everything starts with language and communication.

This union with your fiancée is a God-given destiny and you are bound by it.

Who are going to be the most dramatic husbands and wives? Two Americans? Two Europeans? Or two people who don't speak the same language? One couple might say, "We are the perfect couple. We grew up together, we speak the same language, and we ate lunch together all the time in high school. Now we are married and we completely understand each other. That is why we should win this championship." But the next couple might say, "When we met each other we couldn't even greet each other; when I say 'good night,' she said 'good morning'." This couple really started at an impossible level. Which couple is the winner?

Today you must feel that you are applying for the championship. When you say "good morning" to your fiancée, and she replies, "What did you say?" I want you to understand that you have the most dramatic, historical beginning. We do things that others cannot do. Once you become men and women who meet God's expectation, there can be nothing under the sun you cannot do. How would God feel when He looks at such couples? Would He feel dark and depressed, or ecstatic with joy and pride? Would God pay more attention to those couples?

Who Is God and Who Am I 1-25-81

A Western-centered person would say, "Since I have blue eyes, I want a wife with blue eyes, too." But the world-centered person would say, "Since I have blue eyes, I need a wife with brown eyes -- in fact, a wife who is black." Blue eyes are like daylight and black eyes nighttime. Together they represent a complete day. People develop this sort of attitude within the Unification Church. Members ask for a spouse of a different race or color in order to become world-level people. Their relatives back home sense that something momentous is happening within their family.

I Am the Center of the Whole 3-8-81

Marriage is very important in spirit world. If you say that you followed my recommendation in deciding whom to marry because you didn't know what the will of God was, you will have met an important qualification.

Life Experience in the Realm of Heart 3-15-81

You members who were finally engaged will wait three years before you can live together. Of course you want to call each other and hold hands, but you have to control your urges. Probably every day you ask yourself why you have to do that. The reason is that you want to

have God hold your hand first, before you hold your fiancée's hand. How secure you will be if God, who is the biggest being, then True Parents and finally your fiancée are all holding your hands. If you are attached to God and True Parents then you don't even need to hold your fiancée's hand; He is already holding all of you. If your fiancée cannot betray God or True Parents, then certainly he cannot betray you. That is as secure as you can get. When you understand this, you will think I am very smart for making this rule.

Do you want an exciting love, or a lukewarm relationship? As long as it is exciting, what more could you want? We know that the law is designed to create perfect husbands and wives, and without it there would be no hope of having such people. How wonderful it is to say to your fiancée, "If you have the time to call me then you have more time for working harder. During these three years please pour everything you have into your mission." How much more fantastic it is to encourage each other in this way.

Our Identity 4-1-81

When I meet people, I never ask if they can help me. Instead I always check how I can help them. I am determined to help you; I can help you in the most fundamental thing -- your life. Do you believe that? I can help you with true love. Why should I worry about your blessing? I could easily tell you to find love on your own, but I am concerned with your life and love; that is the most supreme help I could give. If some people are having difficulty with their fiancées, they may think that I misjudged in choosing their mate. But you see only the horizontal element; I see the entire vertical element of your family tree and your ancestors. You don't know that person yet, so you haven't experienced the true value of your fiancée.

A poplar should marry a poplar, and a pine should marry a pine. If you put a poplar and pine together, however, you have disaster. A pine tree is green for all four seasons, while a poplar should shed its leaves in the fall. Can a poplar go against nature and insist on keeping its leaves all year? In the same way, I see your vertical nature. I may not give you a handsome husband, or a person with whom life is easy, but I give you the gift of true love.

Historical Children's Day 10-28-81

You have the aspiration to live in the Kingdom of Heaven; every one of you is wanting to live in that Kingdom. Some people have complained, "My fiancée is not the perfect match for me. We have so many problems; I want to break my engagement." But think about the Kingdom of Heaven and how to get there. The way to Heaven is the way of patience and endurance; you must be able to love unconditionally and sacrificially. God is trying to teach each person through his fiancée a realm that he could never learn in any other way. You should think, "My fiancée is a gift from God to teach me how to go to Heaven." God is trying to bring every sinner back into the position of His own true child. This is a seemingly impossible job, if you think of it. Can you say, "My fiancée is not handsome enough for me. And he's too short; he's Japanese." Please raise your hand if you are a perfect person. Then how can you complain against your fiancée?

Wanting to Live in the Kingdom of Heaven 12-20-81

Some of you may be thinking, "Father, why did you give me such a person as my fiancée? Couldn't you have picked someone better for me?" If you think your fiancée is difficult for you to love, you will become the king or queen of love if you learn to love such a person. This is literally true. Do you think God feels you should have a different fiancée and will change you around? No. Each of you has an endless realm of love to connect with if you make a success out of your relationship. Certainly God wants to fill you with everything you need. Every bridegroom should think that his bride is more precious than royalty and cherish her as his queen, and vice versa. For thousands of years the potential of the Blessing has been coming toward you; how terrible it would be if you, knowingly or unknowingly, stopped it. Not only your ancestors but also all the things of creation will accuse you if you prevent their blessings from materializing.

Total Completion of the Ideal 2-28-82

Those of you who are engaged may answer that you are going toward your fiancée. But is your fiancée going forward or backward? Is he or she moving with confidence? Is he or she about to go up, or down? You may say that you never thought about the question and frankly don't care. You may suppose that when you are with your fiancée you will be satisfied. But what good does it do for two uncertain people to meet? If one confused person joins another, what will result? They will become even more puzzled.

Two confused people will collide with one another. Your eyes will clash, your ears, mouths and minds will clash. You might reason that since everyone else lives that way, you should, too. Perhaps you think that you have no other choice. But what about your family? Once you are living together, children will be born to you -- that's virtually automatic! But will your baby be able to see straight, hear straight, think straight? Perhaps your baby's eyes will be crossed or only able to look in a certain direction. If you truly realize the position you are standing in, you feel some awe or dread. Once you are aware of it, you cannot just casually enjoy life.

Some Moonies are engaged for five years before they marry. Many of you think it is wonderful, but other people call it crazy. What do you think? Is this truly wonderful? You say yes, but not very convincingly. Something is holding you back. But when you analyze it further, it really is wonderful. Why? Because this is the only way the universe can have hope. This is the proper way for you to go. It is not just these few years that matter, but hundreds of thousands of generations to come will learn solid lessons from the patterns we establish right now. So think about how wonderful this is. You are laughing now and proclaiming with confidence how wonderful it is; but when you are not so sure, it is like clouds being drawn across a clear blue sky.

Perhaps you say you wish you could wait for five more years, so you could do something more meaningful for the world and for history. Would you choose to wait ten years rather than five? When you think how wonderful it is, are you ready to wait that long? Some of you laugh, but I would like to find out why you laugh. Is it because you think it is wonderful or for some other reason?

Do I take pleasure in making Americans suffer? Out of all the pain and frustration you go through, I hope to see a new America reborn. I want to see a new standard of marriage in America. Waiting five years is not easy, but we have to conquer it. I have been observing young American men and women for many years now, and I am not at all satisfied. For some odd reason, people think they have the freedom and right to get divorced. But I know that the universe does not work that way. Once you choose love, it should last forever and ever. That is the value of love. All human value rests on that.

Whether people are watching you or not, you should continue your course.

Actually, love develops better when you do things without people being aware. Sometimes you see a man and woman embracing and kissing in the street and wonder what kind of special privilege from the court of the universe they think they have. I told you not to kiss or even hold hands while you are engaged because it could lead to something more. But if you are truly grounded in Principle, it is hypothetically possible for you to kiss without it being bad, but until the proper time, don't do it.

In the Presence of God 4-11-82

When you men look at your fiancée, do you naturally desire to touch her face or her body? The body is designed to be touched. Certainly a person's face is important, but the most important thing for a woman is that her spouse has a man's body and vice-versa.

The innocent, pure baby loves his mother regardless of how she looks. Even if his mother is a hunchback with only one eye, the baby wants to be with his mommy. In the same way, men and women should love each other unconditionally; don't try to evaluate each other. The same way you loved your parents as a child -- purely and uncritically -- you should love your spouse. Are you confident you can do it?

When you give your first love it is always unconditional. Men and women are designed to experience the beauty and purity of first love and live together forever in that love. With that first love, there is no such thing as a racial or cultural barrier. Teenagers have minds of openness and sensitivity to all the joys, tragedies and beauties of life. They normally feel everything so deeply. Even when they see autumn leaves falling, they feel touched by that.

Unfortunately here in America there are not many who have preserved their first love. Most of you already have some kind of past, so what can we do? Realizing the preciousness of that first love and knowing that you have lost it for whatever reason, you should be more humble, repentant, and fervent than before. In order to compensate, be more sacrificial in loving your spouse, ready to accept him or her unconditionally. When you are humble and open to each other, you can compensate for the loss of your first love.

If your conscience was really alive, you could not say to me, "I don't have a good fiancée; he is not the kind I wanted." Your original mind should be saying, "Father, because I am so impure, I don't really deserve any person as my spouse. But since I have received this spouse as a gift from God, I will serve him/her for the rest of my life. I want to deserve this great blessing with all my heart and soul." Those who do not have the privilege of giving your first to your spouse must be repentful and at the same time most appreciative to God and willing to compensate. In this way you can restore your love and reach the same degree of Heaven.

Do you think I came here just to be a matchmaker? It is not a mandatory requirement from God that I match you couples, but everyone in the church wants it. I have become a victim of my own word, since I said that the individual must sacrifice himself for the larger good! It is incredible work but I must do it. Why is it so tough? When you get a good match you tend to think, "Because I am superior I received a good match." On the other hand, those who feel they didn't receive such a great spouse always want to blame me.

Any good things become your credit but the difficulties become my fault. Is that true? Perhaps I should tell Dr. Durst to match the couples? If I did that, everybody would complain!

I will give you my matching secret: I do not match you primarily as husband and wife but I see through you to your beautiful children of the future. Is that against the Principle or according to Principle? No matter what, the Principle persists here in America.

Blessed Family 6-20-82

To make a long story short, let's say your fiancée turned out to be a large, broad woman, and you immediately thought of her as undesirable. But suppose she (or he) has an incredibly warm and wide heart of pure love. Then what would you say? On the other hand, many women with beautiful faces possess only a flat, shallow love. Through my research I have learned that the love of an ugly woman is very round and possesses great depth and nobility. It's easy to stand on flat love, while spherical love is harder to balance on, but which kind of love would you prefer in your mate? Certainly, spherical love is better. So if you think your fiancée is more attractive than you, you are most likely getting flat love. But if he or she is uglier than you, you are most likely getting spherical love. This rule of thumb applies to both men and women. When you learn to love a fiancée whom you previously disliked intensely, you will give birth to the greatest of children.

No matter how ugly your fiancée may be, still he or she is the supreme form of creation and therefore more special than anything else in nature. He or she is the crowning glory of God's masterpiece of creation. You may call upon the things of creation to sing a song for you and they would be unable to comply, but your fiancée should. So unless you are able to love nature, you cannot love other people.

What is the secret of my being able to match hundreds of couples from around the world? Simply having a loving heart. Love is everything; love has knowledge and power; love can penetrate and understand everything; love endows one with a vision of the future. Because I can match with such a heart I am the world's greatest matchmaker. Aren't you glad of that? I have two different reputations. Some people say that I am an excellent matchmaker and others call me a bad one. Those who call me a bad matchmaker simply don't know the facts. After you have lived together for three years, you will discover why I matched you and your spouse, and you will come back and report to me!

Some of you have already concluded that you cannot accept your match, even though you have never lived together or even gotten to know each other. You have even asked me for new matches, but I have said that is ridiculous, since you don't even know each other. Sometimes I have counseled engaged couples who have come to see me at East Garden. "Did you know that your fiancée had this or that characteristic?" I ask them. Both have been completely surprised, because they haven't gotten to know each other at all. They knew far less about each other than I knew about them.

I am an expert on human beings, in a way, because I have dealt with so many different people throughout my life. Many people have betrayed me, and many have been completely loyal; some have exploited me. All kinds of people have come and gone, and I have studied and researched every one of them. My mind is very analytical, and I never let any experience pass by without observing it closely and learning from it. I have considered millions of situations and human variables. So I have millions of mental "index cards" that I can pull out and refer to when I match people. I can see that someone with one kind of nature will need a spouse with a particular characteristic. That is how I match couples.

The Day of All Things 6-21-82

Marriage is a journey that men and women begin together. Where will it end? Can you imagine living for 10,000 years? Compared to eternity, that is just the beginning. Some people realize that. Others think, "Boy, one month is eternity! I can't even stand to look at my wife." Marriage is like exploring a gold mine. In one month or one year you can barely find one seam of gold. There may be all kinds of foreign elements in it, so unless you dig deeper down, you won't know what's there. That is the adventure of married life.

There are two different kinds of appearance. A Broadway stage can look like a golden palace, but there is nothing behind the facade. On the other hand, a simple mountain may look plain, but when you dig into it you discover limitless resources inside. I always ask whether genuineness can be more frequently found in an attractive person or a homely one. You greedy guys always think you can be genuine and handsome too! Actually, there are always exceptions, so you can be the exception! But generally the unchanging qualities are more often found in the homelier-looking people.

We see women wearing elaborate cosmetics, false eyelashes, high heels and beautiful dresses. They may change their costume three times a day in order to parade down Fifth Avenue. Is that the ideal for a woman? What about a man with flowing hair and mustache, wearing a fancy breast pocket handkerchief going into a bar to find girls? Is that ideal? Then consider a man who smells bad, even from a distance, and who only has two teeth; perhaps he is almost blind, too. Could someone like that be genuine 24 karat gold? You have to focus your concept of an ideal man and woman.

I want you to understand that your husband or wife is not your personal property. You come out of the fallen world, yet your mate comes as a gift from heaven, through True Parents. You must be able to read the label that comes on your spouse. That label tells you where the item comes from. "Made in Heaven." That gift is given to you in order that you might consummate true love. It is impossible for love to be consummated by one person alone.

This is the Principle. Husbands and wives, look at each other as representatives of God and True Parents. Your duty is to love one another, and by doing so you are loving True Parents and your Heavenly Father. By loving his wife, the husband is loving True Mother. The wife is loving True Father by loving her husband. As you love each other, you are loving God and True Parents. Your journey is to eternity, and the achievement of true love is our goal.

New Family Given by God 9-5-82

In some cases I matched a very sensitive woman to a dull, insensitive man. If she can love that man, her love lungs will really develop. When a sensitive woman can make a dense man become sensitive, she becomes a master genius! Actually, the all-knowing God created only 95 percent of our being, and He asks us to created the remaining 5 percent. So a woman can go to God and say, "You gave me 95 percent of a husband, so I will create the remaining 5 percent, making him a whole being." The ideal woman resolves to create her husband.

Original Race from One Lineage 72-1-82

Husband and wife should look at this world like they were looking at the Garden of Eden, in which there is only one man and one woman. What if Adam had happened to be crippled? Would Eve have complained to God, "Oh, no, I want another man!"? Eve didn't have that kind of choice. If Adam had been running around and had fallen down on a bush, he might have become blinded in on eye. Would Eve have said, "God, I don't want a one-eyed husband!"? Consider yourselves as Adam and Eve for whom there only one possible mate; it is your destiny.

You men should look at your wives and think, "She is the only woman in the entire universe; she is the only Eve." You may have been thinking about how ugly your husband or wife was, but when you start to look at your spouse from the proper angle you will see universal beauty in him or her. You should look at each other with universal eyeglasses and then your husband will look like a heavenly movie star. With universal eyeglasses, nothing looks ugly in God's creation.

The Secret of Total Success 12-19-82

When the birds come and sing in front of you, don't consider it a chance or common occurrence. Look at it this way: that bird is the result of thousands of years of cycles of breeding and now it has the opportunity to sing for you. When you meet your spouse, it was no coincidence either. For him or her to become your spouse, masculine and feminine energy went through thousands of millions of years of training. They traveled a long way for love and their fruits will endure for millions and millions of years to come.

Myself, Part II 3-6-83

Some beautiful woman might come and complain to me, "Father, I think I am so beautiful, but the husband you selected for me isn't very handsome. Why?" Such a person takes one quality and blows it out of proportion. She forgets that a good match needs to consider all 360 degrees, and she sees only one degree that doesn't seem to fit. However, the full scope of 360 degrees is more important than one single degree.

If you consider only one, two, three or four aspects, you could say that your match could never work. But take all the other angles and start from there. Anyway, first you have to get together. If you do your best and can achieve only a limited unity, God will have to fill in the rest! You may complain that you have some abnormal difficulties, but God knows whether you have a good match or a bad match. Since He knows, don't you think He will figure out a solution? You may not be able to, but He will.

Original Root and Self 5-22-83

There is a major barrier dividing the world of men from the world of women. When I bring a couple together in heavenly Blessing, the greatest of all walls is torn down. To break down the heaviest barriers, I normally match a person from one extreme to his or her opposite. If there is a likelihood that the man and woman would fall in love on their own, I do not want to match them, because they would be tempted to cling together and not want to do anything else; they would forget the rest of the world! But when extremes are joined -- an ugly man and a beautiful woman, for instance -- they have to make much more effort to create a unity, and they are more likely to pay attention to the will of God above that of their spouse.

World restoration is such an awesome task that you should not want to be matched to an easy love. if you are on the opposite end of the spectrum from your spouse and love comes only with difficulty, you can become one only after you make much effort. That is the kind of effort needed to unite the world.

Which is more difficult to unite: an ugly woman and a handsome man, or the free world and the communist world? To unite two worlds is a much greater challenge than to unite two individuals. However, in order to harmonize opposing worlds, you need some training. The best training is to make harmony with someone completely opposite from you. The struggles and trials involved in uniting opposite men and women are training for world unity.

What is the ideal challenge for a couple to confront? For the best looking man to love the worst-looking woman. What kind of couple do you think God prefers to look at? A handsome man and a beautiful woman? Suppose God wanted to visit a harmonious couple and could choose from three combinations: a handsome man and a beautiful woman; an ugly man and an ugly woman; and a handsome man and an ugly woman. Would God be drawn to the easiest, most natural unity or to the most difficult one? Ugly men and women living together is normal and there is nothing special about handsome men and beautiful women living together. God would be attracted to the couple who overcame the greatest challenges to physical unity.

In pursuing the ideal state, I have become a genius at matching handsome men to ugly women and beautiful women to ugly men. When you recognize the purpose behind this, you have no grounds whatsoever for complaint.

At a matching, the most ideal Moonie would say, "Father, I close my eyes and open my arms. Bring me anyone." You men could say, "I just open my arms, Father. All I need is any kind of creature called a woman." You women could say you need any kind of man. This is the wisest attitude in the Unification Church. When someone says he cannot accept his match, who is making such a judgment? It is your eyes. You could pull out your eyes and solve the problem! Like a blind man, you could rely on your sense of touch. The man could feel a woman's bosom and recognize his partner as a woman and say, "This is good enough!" And vice versa.

The two eyes often don't want to accept things; they often complain and cause problems. The fall occurred because the eyes saw something else they thought they wanted. Therefore, if your eyes want something, do the opposite; then you will not be mistaken.

Women's eyes in particular are so sensitive. Your eyes often make comparisons and try to create a squabble. The essence of a woman is what is important. Without true women, no ideal can come true; God's master plan cannot be realized. Women are essential for the fulfillment of God's work.

Our goal is the ideal world, but our starting point is the present, fallen world. I know precisely how to reach the goal, and I have made my life a model for you to follow. I have never sought an easy life, but always challenged difficulties, gaining mastery over my body, breaking through all obstacles and overcoming all persecution.

Man recreates woman and woman recreates man. In that way, ugliness can be transformed into beauty. Whoever wants to start on the highest level will run into trouble sooner or later and decline. But if you start from the lowest possible level, you will not make a mistake. Please accept your match in faith and gratitude. However ugly or handsome your mate may appear makes no difference. God will bless your unity with great children.

Among the blessed couples, some women originally told me they did not want to be matched or get married, but I matched them anyway! Now that they have a husband and children, they are coming and apologizing to me; "Father, I am sorry I gave you such a hard time at the matching. I didn't know it could be so good! Father, thank you." I get letters like that every day.

Original World and Present World 5-29-83

I feel so proud and grateful when hundreds and thousands of Unification Church members come and bow down, asking me to choose their mate. I know that when people say this, they are thinking not of themselves but of their mission. When a beautiful woman comes to me for matching I know that she probably dreams of marrying a handsome man. However, I may see that for her mission, another type of person is perfect for her and I will match her to him. Although she may be a little disappointed at first, it will only be temporary because she will be much better off eternally with this type of husband. Because I know I am not making a mistake, I can match people with a completely clear conscience. I realize that you may not be happy at the time, but what matters ultimately is what is best for you.

If you marry centered upon the mission, one day you will be the center of your nation. Marriages based on personal attraction will quickly fade in a few years. Marriages based upon mission will become monuments in the historical annals of marriage. This is what I am pushing for.

When people hear about my idea of marriage, they may think it is cruel and should be stopped. But as time passes, they will recognize that the greatest concepts of marriage came from me. Do you agree that my view of marriage is fantastic, or do you think it is a bad idea and has caused suffering for many Americans? The loudest answers came from Hispanic and black people. What about white people?

I realize that our way is difficult now. I don't deny it. But it is so much more valuable than the conventional way, and as the years go by its value will increase. In contrast, the world's way of marriage seems good now but its value will gradually diminish.

Mission and Prayer 6-12-83

In order for a man and a woman to get completely close to each other, they must first be close to God and the True Parents. The person who understands God and the True Parents can then be one with another person. Until such time, you must restore the ability to truly love each other with the brotherly and sisterly heart.

Before a man and woman become husband and wife, the principle requires that they become brother and sister in the true sense, with true brotherly and sisterly love.

That is our pattern. You get matched as an engaged couple and then you relate like brother and sister, going your separate ways. YOU should remind each other, "We must listen to our parents first Of all." After you have become one on that level, you can reach the level of true parents yourself. That is the path of reaching the heart of true love. Thus you are preparing yourselves to become true parents, by first becoming true brothers and sisters, then true couples. Unless you go through these stages, you cannot give birth to true children. Can you reach that level? If you do not, your children will accuse you.

Day of Heavenly Victory 10-4-83

When you are about to get engaged or married, for example, some people think, "Father, match me with the most wonderful person." But who are you centering on in that case? Yourself. Instead you should think, "Father, do your will. Give me the worst person; let me take care of that person and serve him. I will love the ugliest person more than I would love the most handsome or beautiful person." If anyone is thinking in that fashion, there is no room for Satan to come near him.

The History of Struggle of Good and Evil and Oneself 3-11-84

I am a mysterious person -- even though I haven't gone to all the 120 missions around the world, I can close my eyes and pray and know what is going on in specific countries in Africa, South America, Europe and so forth. This is due to my spiritual perception, my special vision. For that reason, I can handle the important matter of your lives, and that is your marriages.

You look at other people from a purely external viewpoint when you are at the matching, but I can see the whole person. When I look at a person's hands and feet, I can see a lot. A truly handsome man must look good from the back as well as the front. I can see something significant in the way a person walks. I rely upon my intuition that enables me to see everything about each man and woman, like special "X-ray eyes."

You believe that I have that ability, don't you, and you have confidence that I am a champion at matching people? Is it easy to get the autograph of a champion or a celebrity? No, it isn't. You know, I could start a big business pretty soon! My reputation as an excellent matchmaker will grow and grow, and then everybody will want to come to me and ask me to pick their spouse for them, whether they are a member of the Unification Church or not.

There is a pragmatic way of thinking among some Unification Church members who are not yet married and are awaiting their matching. They think, "When I see the suffering of the state leaders and the missionaries and so on, I don't want to be married to one of them. I would rather be the spouse of someone in business, someone who brings home a salary!" However, that is a most external and materialistic way of evaluating someone. The real question is, who is the one who is really living for the sake of others? What is more valuable to you, in the ultimate sense?

My thinking is very different from that pragmatic way. I think you young women, particularly the children of blessed couples, ought to be married to the front-line Church leaders. Some of the male blessed children have been thinking about studying business or something that can enable them to make money. But if you are thinking in that way, I can tell you that you will be assigned to the exactly opposite mission from what you have studied.

According to that principle, I want to ask you a question. Suppose the most beautiful woman was matched to a very ugly man. That is the most ideal way because that is the most serving way. Isn't that true? When that beautiful woman loves her ugly husband as a representative of the universe, you can know that God gives birth to the greatest men and women through that lineage. Such men and women will lead the world.

One example of this principle is Ye Jin's husband, Jin Whi. When I gave the blessing to the 36 couples, Jin Whi's father at that time was a very important Church leader, having been in the Church for several years and having taught the Divine Principle every day. He was a great lecturer. But Jin Whi's mother was very young in the church -- probably only several months. So when I brought them together and introduced them, Mr. Hong thought to himself, "She isn't such a good match. After all, I am a three-year member and she is just like a green onion. What does she know about the church?" Mr. Hong wasn't so happy.

Then I told him, "If you follow my advice, something good will happen within your family." And they obeyed. They had children and what happened? Not just one but two of their children were joined with the family of the True Parents. That is something that a person would not even imagine happening, so my prediction was correct.

Many times in the past I matched people totally contrary to their tastes. They said, "Father, what are you doing to me? How can I live with that person?" They felt they would grieve to death but they grudgingly obeyed my direction. And what happened? Now they all recognize the wisdom of my choice and they all say, "Thank you, Father. We couldn't be better matched. We couldn't have better children." Several couples were like that in the 36 couples.

You may think you can judge who would be a good husband or wife, but that is only according to your own criterion. What guarantee can you have that your own wishes are going to succeed? However, I can give you a guarantee. In many cases, I matched people knowing that they would have great children. I knew that God's reward would come to that family, perhaps not immediately; perhaps it would be three generations in the future. But the president of the United States, or some great leader will come out of them. However, because of their own disliking, many have departed from their matches and destroyed them. What will happen? You will eventually learn when you go to spirit world what a mistake you made. You will have intense regret at that time.

True Way of Life 7-1-84

Many people in the secular world fear me. They think, "Look at those bright young men and women who are following Reverend Moon. He is even matching them in marriage; I can't believe anyone but a fool would allow that. But they are not fools and they are accepting Reverend Moon's matchings, living together and having children and prospering. This is incredible!"

God's Day 1-1-87

Let's say an Englishman and a German woman were matched by Father. They do nothing but fight at home -- the Englishman is arrogant, the German woman is stubborn and they quarrel all the time. But now they have a weapon in their quarrels. The wife can say, "True Parents' family is not this kind of family. How can you depart so far from Father's model?" The husband, no matter how arrogant he may be, has no defense against that. He will have to say, "That's right! I'm sorry! We must follow the True Parents' model."

Suppose a husband got angry instead and said, "What are you talking about -- True Parents' model? I don't care about that! You're a German and I'm British, so you go to your country and I'll go to mine!" The first couple will be accepted into heaven, while the standard of the second couple would take them to a very low place in hell. The model on the family level is the True Parents' family. If you couples quarrel, you must come to the point when you say, "We have deviated from the True Parents' model. Let us push ourselves into their mold."

The Model, and Those Who are Recognized in Providential History 3-15-87

Those of you who were matched yesterday, do you feel you deserve that honor? There is only one thing we must accomplish, one thing we should have in our minds: to achieve human responsibility and enter the realm of the direct dominion of God. In other words, achieve true union with God and become the bearer of God's true love. You have no other or more important goal in life than this because in a way, you will be qualified to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

You must become men and women who are united as one couple to give seed to God's true lineage and posterity. If you accomplish that, you can do nothing more precious.

Parents' Day and Our Path 3-29-87

Your own spouse is so precious that even if someone offered you the wealth of the world, in exchange, that could not compare. With such a precious spouse, could you have any other woman? Could you even get near to someone else? Your own wife may not be so beautiful in the worldly sense -- maybe she even limps and is homely while some other beautiful woman is beckoning to you. But can you follow her? No, because we know that true love is far more precious than anything. Nothing is more important.

The Blessed Family is Very Precious 4-5-87

Don't ever look at a particularly handsome man or beautiful woman and say, "Oh, that's the kind of spouse I like." Forget it, because that quality is not precious. From this perspective, there are two different types of persons: the man and woman who are very attractive but who show off everything externally. They have nothing left on the inside. Or there is the less attractive man or woman who takes everything in. He or she may not look so exciting on the outside, but inside there are stored treasures you can't even imagine.

Who is usually more talkative, the beautiful woman or the not so beautiful one? And who is usually not so responsible in her way of life? Who is more changeable? It is the beautiful woman. The lesson here is that we must really be able to find the good points in the less attractive woman. One may be beautiful but she doesn't have anything else, so it's a trade-off. God never gives two precious gifts to the same person.

Precious Existence 7-19-87

The other day I was at the Seattle Airport, waiting for a plane to Alaska. Since I had some time to spare, I looked around at the people. I saw so many couples, and if it had been up to me, I would never have matched any of them! Actually, I was mystified by them all. I looked at couples who seemed rather happy to be together and wondered how they could even like each other! In theory, they couldn't, but in reality they didn't appear to mind -- and even seemed to cherish each other. I realized that this is the power of first love at work. The sad thing is that as first love passes, the couple's attraction for each other will gradually diminish. We, on the other hand, are going up and up, in my observation, and our next generation will attain a high, ideal love.

The Way to Grow 8-30-87

Why do you think I am paying so much indemnity just to match men and women together to become Unification couples? All of the problems of the sins committed by men and women have to be solved. Such a huge amount of complicated problems has to be solved.

To create the unity of husband and wife is only possible through God's love. To establish that tradition of God's love requires tremendous indemnity.

The Tribal Messiah 2-5-89

Chapter 4 - Tradition of the Blessed Family

Chapter 4
Tradition of the Blessed Family

After finding the people whom He was seeking, God undertook the restoration of all things. The establishment of the Holy Grounds means the blessing of all things. Thus 120 Holy Grounds were established in 40 nations throughout the world in 1965. This was the turning point of our fortune.

Restoration and Blessing 2-2-69

In 1960 the Holy Wedding was conducted and Mother was installed. Thus in 1960 my victory was declared on the individual level. Then I initiated my public ministry and started the three seven-year courses. Then the dispensation moved to the family level, with renewed persecution and attack. The first seven years were a period of trial in which negative power tried to destroy the family, concentrating mostly on Mother. Women were despising her and trying to destroy her in her mission. In those days many members received revelations and knew my position. Since Mother was my bride, the realm of women was jealous. But Mother used my tactic and never made excuses or accused anyone, no matter how unjust people were toward her. In the meantime I silently laid the family foundation, and then by giving the Blessing, I laid the foundation for the tribe.

First, the 36 couples were blessed. What is their role? Twelve couples each represent Adam's family, Noah's family and Jacob's family. There were 10 generations from Adam to Noah, but Ham and Japeth were also dispensational figures, signifying a total of 12 generations. Dispensationally speaking, Abraham's generation was extended through Isaac and Jacob, again totaling 12 generations. Jacob had 12 tribes, so this period included a total of 36 generations.

The 12 tribes were intended to indemnify all dispensational history up to that point which had ended in failure. Jacob could make restitution, so God gave him 12 children through which to restore horizontally the providential history. Thus, the 36 couples constitute the new forefathers of mankind, representing the entire historical background of God's dispensation.

The history from Adam to Jacob had to be restored on the tribal level, and the history from Moses to Jesus followed the same pattern. Moses was equivalent to Noah on the tribal level. In Noah's time God judged the world by the flood. In the same way, Moses came on the tribal level and exercised the power of judgment, paralleling Jacob's course.

Jesus' role was that of the second Adam. There were 12 tribes of Israel, and Jesus had 12 disciples who increased to 70 and later to 120, restoring those numbers from history on the national level. The 120 disciples represented 120 nations, or all people. However, because of the crucifixion, that ideal was not entirely fulfilled. The dispensation was prolonged for another 2,000 years. Jesus' work was completed only spiritually, and there remained no physical central nation for God to work through. Therefore, the Second Advent was necessary, as promised by God. The Lord must come physically as well as spiritually as the third Adam.

When the Messiah comes a second time, he is in a position to restore horizontally all of the history preceding him, meaning the Old Testament and New Testament eras, as well as his own Completed Testament era. In order to restore those three levels, three groups of 12 families were selected. The most important pillar in erecting God's Kingdom was the blessing of the 36 couples, and erecting that pillar was most difficult. As history developed, the spirit world was divided into three different levels. By uniting the 36 couples under one father, the boundaries between the Old Testament era, the New Testament era and the Completed Testament era can be broken up and they can all become one. All would be combined through restitution here on earth.

The Unification Church has the role of restoring all of history. God has given me the authority to conduct that restoration, so I am responsible for Adam's realm, Noah's realm and Jacob's realm. Therefore, 36 couples were selected for the Blessing. By doing so, the tribe of the third Israel was created, surrounding the True Parents. This was the cornerstone of the third Israel. In this case, even though the people undertaking the dispensation might be individuals, a family or a tribe, it all had worldwide meaning and impact.

My topic today is "Territory of Goodness." How is that territory expanded? Certainly it started with the individual, and grew into a family and tribe, nation and world, but how was it done? Through the Blessing. How do we build the Kingdom of Heaven on earth? The family is the building block, and the 36 couples were the first brick laid here on earth. Next I blessed 72 couples, who represented the tribe; 124 couples represented the national level. That foundation of Blessing was finished in July 1963.

If Jesus could have fulfilled these Blessings after taking a bride himself, he could have built the Kingdom at that time. I received much persecution because of the Blessing, and had to organize heavenly families under tremendous opposition. Parents accused me of taking their children and marrying them off in my own way. From God's standpoint, I was claiming children back for God. But the world didn't see it that way!

In the Garden of Eden man fell through deceit and falsehood. In restoration, people are resurrected to the heavenly realm through the word of God. After 124 couples, 430 couples were blessed, representing the universal level. This was done in the 4300th year of Korean history. The Hebrews suffered in Egypt for 430 years, then made a new beginning. So with the Blessing of 430 couples, God marked a new beginning. The 4300 years included every conceivable element of both good and evil men. Actually 434 couples were blessed. The four extra couples represented people who had suffered in prison, thus opening the door for resurrection of those in hell.

That Blessing opened the door for all nations and races to enter heaven, since they represented all aspects of the human race. After they were blessed in 1968, I made a worldwide tour and blessed 43 couples in other nations. Thus the two Blessings are in positions of subject and object.

In 1970, 777 couples were blessed, signifying the formation, growth and perfection. That Blessing included various nationalities, and through it the heavenly territory was expanded. I personally indemnified the individual and family levels, and in 1970 after seven years of Blessing had been conducted, a new dispensation of tribal - level indemnity began. In 1971, I initiated a crusade in which families demonstrated sacrificial love for the nation, leaving their families for three years to go work on the national level. Even though they had God-given families, they made them a sacrifice for restoration of the nation. In 1970, 1971, and 1972 the blessed couples in Korea suffered the most, willingly taking up tribulation and absorbing what seemed to be many tragedies.

On the foundation of their taking up the cross so gallantly, I could begin the worldwide mission. In the second seven-year course the tribe gave itself in a sacrificial way for the national foundation, and in the third seven-year course from 1974 on, the tribes of the Unification Church united to give themselves for world restoration.

This is why families here in America are sacrificing their families for the mission. When I told the families to go to the front line, there was much grumbling about separation, but you must remember our ultimate mission is to restore the world. Representing the tribe and nation, we must give ourselves in a sacrificial way. Once we set this tradition, the world's people will want to volunteer to do what we did.

We can set a tradition of sacrifice that can be handed down from generation to generation, and then you will be liberated from Satan's accusation that you did nothing worthwhile to serve the world. That is the most important qualification to win the victory. When Satan knows there is no more room for accusation, he has to leave us alone. Then we can create the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.

1976 saw the culminating victory of heaven on earth. During that year Moonies were in the headlines everywhere. l went on the offensive on April 30, 1973, for three and a half years. On that day America granted me permanent residency here, and in the next three and a half years I consummated the worldwide level of restoration. When the battle was won in 1976, it meant that restoration of all past history was consummated. On September 18, 1976, the historic victory of Washington Monument was won and then on October 4, 1976 I declared the Day of Victory of Heaven. On February 23, 1977, I declared Year One of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.

The spirit world has been compartmentalized over the ages, but the victory of heaven meant that there would be no more barriers. After unity was made between Great Britain and America as subject and object, I entered Korea in 1978 and conducted a special ceremony to demolish all the boundaries in spirit world. For this purpose I conducted a special ceremony on November 2, 1978, in Korea. Until February 23, 1977, liberation was given only to the religious realms in spirit world. The rest of the spirit world has always been divided into the many family trees and nationalities. On the foundation of religious unity in spirit world, I could lift all the boundaries between tribes and nations on November 2, 1978. By liberating my tribe and linking the entire world to it, one tribe in heaven was formed.

Now the entire non-religious world can unite, meaning there is no more separation in spirit world. The entire spirit world is descending to work on earth as a unified force.

Territory of Goodness 10-14-79

Because Christianity failed to accept me in 1945, I went on with the arduous task of winning our own foundation after fourteen long years of struggle. At that time I erected the foundation upon which Mother and I could be installed as the first True Parents in the history of mankind. In other words, by then I had established a bulwark strong enough that the opposition of all Christianity could not break it down; no matter what, our movement would have enough strength to sustain itself and still go on.

Even though Mother was installed as True Mother, we could not live as a happy family right away. A three-year period of purification and separation was necessary, a period which was very important prior to moving on to the next stage of the dispensation. In order to go into the second seven-year course, all conceivable indemnity must be paid on a family level. This first seven-year course was the period of erecting the foundation upon Mother's installation, and the period in which Mother was to be perfected as the True Mother. It was the period of growth for Mother herself.

As you know, the human fall came in the perfection level of the growth stage. Therefore, the seven-year course Mother and I went through together was the period to cross through the growth stage to perfection stage, the period in which I would restore and install Parents' Day, Children's Day, and Day of All Things. The most important condition Mother and I made during the seven-year course was that no matter what difficulties or obstacles and hardships came upon us, we would not complain. We would not even feel discouraged inside, or anguished or rebellious in any way.

As you can see, it was God's method to utilize Satan to give Father and Mother the worst kind of test and tribulation. This is the way I had to be hardened and proven to be the True Parent. For Mother too, Satan created incredible instances in the first seven years, one after another, in which Mother could easily have given up and said, "Father, you are too great a husband and I simply cannot follow you. I'm not worthy of you, so let me pack up and go." She could very well have done that many times during those seven years.

To make things worse, I was not a comforting husband. I started out as the worst kind of cruel husband. That was the standard I set at the beginning because that's the way I also tested Mother, even harder than Satan. Knowing that Satan was going to test her, I tested her myself first. That was my purpose. Even though I tested her worse than Satan, still some hint of purpose behind could be understood by her. That made it easier to bear Satan's tests. In this way we became closer and closer for three and a half years, then another three and a half years.

After those seven years, our victorious foundation proved in front of God and in front Satan that I was an invincible husband and that Mother was an invincible wife. No matter how difficult Satan's standard was, God was justified in saying that we had passed the test. The many other blessed couples who came knew that the True Parents had set the true standard, and they followed that standard by uniting with them and serving them without a word of complaint. By doing so, they could obtain the same degree of perfection.

During the seven-year period I had blessed many couples, and they could easily have exclaimed to me, particularly the women, "I just don't understand you. What kind of husband are you? How can you treat your wife like that?" But these blessed couples who passed the test knew one thing: no matter how many things I did that they didn't understand, they were at least sure that I was absolutely God- centered, and whatever I did was for God. The 36 couples, 72, 120, and 430 couples were blessed within that seven-year period, and they knew one way or another what a difficult path Mother and I trod. Since they knew what kind of difficulties we had to overcome, they could not complain.

After that seven-year dispensation the time finally came to set up God's Day. Only after the seven-year course was completely secured did I declare God's Day. From the original point of view God's Day should have actually come first, then Parents' Day and Children's Day and Day of All Things. But because of restoration, all other conditions had to be ready before God's Day could be set up. That was finally done on January 1, 1968. Since God's Day was declared victoriously in 1968, everything is restored and celebration begins with God's Day. The first seven-year course was the time in which the True Parents were concretely established and upon which God's Day, Parents' Day, Children's Day and Day of All Things could be restored to God.

The second seven-year course is the one in which the blessed couples had to take a major role. Their responsibilities were to teach the government and nation how to treat the families of the nation. At the same time, as the families of the nation, they are teaching other families how to serve the nation. This second seven-year course was the period of the total mobilization of the blessed couples. All the blessed couples in Korea and some blessed couples abroad were mobilized to take up the torch for the second seven-year course, and in 1970 I ordered every blessed couple to leave their family. The wives took up the front-line role and I sent them out. Why? Because the women had to experience what True Mother experienced before them. They had to go the same route to learn that particular tribulation.

All the blessed mothers in those days were given their marching orders and nothing would stop them. They decided to give up their children and leave them with someone else to be cared for. In this country you have many welfare organizations, but in Korea there is no such thing. So they wrote short letters and left their children with their un- welcoming relatives, knowing that they would be criticized. Their letters said, "I am not abandoning my child. I love him, and I will come back in three years. Will you please take care of him until I come back?"

You can imagine what the parents, in-laws and the public would say. They bitterly criticized those women and criticized me and our movement. People said, "Reverend Moon put those couples together and now he's separating them. He never even thought of their children. What kind of cruel man is he?" There was no direction from which criticism didn't come. But during those seven years the one group of people who adamantly refused to complain against me was the Unification Church husbands and wives. They looked like victims but they welcomed the mission, and even the children sometimes said, "Mommy and Daddy, go ahead and don't worry about me." How could Unification Church couples be so strong? Because there was a living example in front of them, Mother and I, who had gone through much more tribulation. Compared to that suffering, the blessed couples knew that their own suffering was small.

The major members of the Unification Church knew that incredible opposition would come to them, but they knew that the most accusation and criticism would go to me. They felt protective of me, wanting to shield me and not let my name be tarnished. That's why the Unification Church core foundation has become tight and strong. Therefore, the love of God is coming to my family and will be connected to the blessed couples. That inseparable bond between True Parents and true blessed couples was made under overwhelming and adverse conditions.

The first six months were the worst period. Throughout the entire nation there was criticism and negative publicity. People knew all about our movement and how our young couples were leaving their own children and going to the front line. As time went on, people knew they were missionaries of the Unification Church and then they asked, "Aren't you the women who left their families behind? Why did you do that?" "Yes, we love our children and we love our husbands, but we love this nation, the people of the world and God more. We want to demonstrate by the most painful experience of leaving these children behind that we want to save this nation. We love this nation and people more than we love our own children."

After one year these people who were negative began to weep together with our people, praying together with them and coming to help. Even without knowing the contents of the Divine Principle they wanted to be with them and be supportive. After two years passed public opinion was unanimous that if all the Korean people loved their country as much as Unification members, then indeed the nation would be saved. Furthermore, no matter how great the communist threat would become, it could be stopped. That was the conviction of the people.

What about the children who were left behind? During the first two years the people thought they were a burden to everyone. Villagers would talk about the Moonie children and say, "Their mother and father are crazy." Two years later what happened? Everyone wanted to come help, wanting to take care of the children for a couple of days to do something for that young couple before they came back. They volunteered to serve those children in some way. Even the Korean government looked at what you people were doing in every corner of the countryside.

The Christians who were traditionally very negative toward our movement thought they had a golden opportunity to criticize the Unification Church and call me all kinds of names, but two years later the villagers and common people stood up and said to those critics, "Are you true Christians? We found God in the Unification Church members. They stood up and fought for us. What kind of Christians are you?"

In other words, during these three years of tribulation unity was made with the people, and even unity between the government and the people was enhanced by our heroic actions. By doing so a condition was established; by our members' leaving their children for three years, all other people recognized their sacrificial work and came to value and respect our movement. Then they wanted to do something to help the children who were left behind. Thus, through the children a link was made between our members and other churches and the common people. That formed a coalition for God's blessing to flow not only to the Unification Church but through us to all the people, even to negative Christians and people who criticized us.

Home Church is the Base of the Kingdom of Heaven 1-1-80

Tradition is not important for our sake, but for our children and grandchildren. It is also very important for society, and for Unification Church members to come. Without that they will have much difficulty. We are in the middle of establishing that tradition. I made sure we would do it, so can you say it is hard? If you complain, imagine what kind of enemy you will be to the future! This is a very fortunate place, but if you don't conduct yourself correctly, it is a very fearful place. Do you believe that? Can you continue establishing the tradition in the years to come?

The more you know, the more humble you must become. Likewise, if you work hard you should feel you need to do even more. Just like a stalk of wheat bows down as the ripening grains get heavy, walking humbly is the normal thing for man.

The Dispensation of Restoration and Myself 4-6-80

We have the tradition that married couples separate to work hard, and everyone upholds that tradition. You cannot find that anywhere else in the world.

True Parent's Mission 4-20-80

Three hundred and sixty homes represent 360 degrees or all directions. One year of twelve months is a complete cycle of seasons, or 360 days according to the lunar calendar. Three hundred and sixty contains both the numbers twelve and three. The 36 couples represent the entire history of mankind. So all meaning is included in 360 homes.

Home Church and Myself 72-74-80

Parents' Day was established because, for the first time in history, True Parents fulfilled the conditions for proclaiming to the world; "We have reached the original state of man and women, we are the parents of mankind." On that foundation, many children have now proclaimed, "I have chosen to follow these True Parents; I do not wish to return to the world in which love is more false than true." History needed a Parents' Day and a Children's Day to clear the record and set the proper standard.

Because of Children's Day, children now have the opportunity to liberate themselves from evil, become rooted in true love and belong to True Parents. Children's Day gives you the opportunity to announce, "I stand here determined to restore myself to the original state of a child. I will love my True Parents more than anyone in history ever loved their physical parents. No matter what may come against me -- even death -- I will not be separated from this true love embodied in God and True Parents." Children's Day is a day of proclamation on the part of children. Without making such a declaration, you cannot return to the realm of true children. Do you understand?

True Parents and true children have come together, but what about true things of creation? Satan still possesses the things of the world. Ever since mankind fell and created false parents and children, all things have suffered under the control of a false owner. Thus we need a day through which all things can escape their previous ownership and find their way back to their true ownership.

All things actually long to return to their true owner. Therefore, through fund raising, we can restore them. We devote our whole heart and love to restoring all things to their rightful ownership, enabling them to enter the realm of true love. All things need their day of proclamation, similar to the day of True Parents and true children. That day was proclaimed three years after the establishment of Parents' Day and Children's Day. It happened exactly 21 years ago. So today is the 21st proclamation of the Day of All Things.

If you ask True Parents what they most fervently desire, they will say, "To restore our children and return to the original state of God's love." If you ask true children the same thing, they will answer, "As children, our only wish is to be connected with the True Parents, to live with them, and to return to the domain of God's love." True children would not expect to go directly to God without parents. Without True Parents, it is impossible to become perfect objects to God and live happily ever after with Him as your subject. Do children need parents, or can they manage without them? Parents are absolutely necessary.

The Day of All Things 6-11-83

February 1st, 1985, at 3:00 a.m., I called Mother at East Garden from Danbury and said, "Pray for the liberation of hell and the creation of a highway from hell to heaven." That particular historical prayer of True Parents -- Mother in East Garden and Father at Danbury -- laid the historical foundation to liberate the hellish world. The highway has now been laid. Because of this, all the good ancestors in spirit world can now go down to the bottom of hell in spirit world and on earth to evangelize. Before this prayer, they were blocked and could not come down here on earth.

Reflection of 1986 12-28-86

When God's true love is consummated, we call that the fulfillment of the heavenly four position foundation. This is an absolutely clear sequence. The heavenly four positions are the love of God, love between husband and wife, and then the love of children and parents. Thus the Unification Church celebrates four major holidays each year: Parents' Day, Children's Day, Day of All Things, and God's Day. We are headed toward the perfection of people, all things, and the perfection of the joy of God.

The heavenly four positions are the love of God, love between husband and wife, and then love of parents and children. Thus the Unification Church celebrates four major holidays each year: Parents' Day, Children's Day, Day of All Things and God's Day.

God's Day 1-1-87

After a man comes as the standard-bearer, there must also be a woman as the standard-bearer. Who shall be that woman? She absolutely conforms to the model which the man established. True Mother herself does not actually create the mold for the family, tribe, or nation. Mother's way of fulfilling is by absolutely following the True Father's tradition, fitting perfectly into that tradition and becoming the model woman standard-bearer.

Even if Mother's leg was too long, it must be cut so that she could fit into the mold. She has to fit into that mold somehow. You might think, "What a dictator Reverend Moon is!" But that is wrong because I cut my own leg, my own arm, my own eyes and ears, figuratively speaking, to fit into the mold which God made.

You might say, "Father is going this way but my physical parents are going another way, so I can ease up on my standard." But, if necessary, you must absolutely isolate yourself to focus on the primary job of fitting into the God-made mold for perfection. It is an absolute standard.

Even your hometown and your physical parents and relatives are not part of the same clan as the True Parents. When you come back from visiting them, you sprinkle Holy Salt on yourself and say, "I'm coming back to Reverend Moon's Unification Church model now. I am not stained by the world's secular traditions." You are establishing the standard of the individual living for the sake of the family, the family for the sake of the tribe, the tribe for the sake of the nation, the nation for the world. If you cannot accomplish it in this world, you must accomplish it anyway in the spirit world. This is your destiny, a mandate from God.

In an international marriage, if one spouse speaks English and the other speaks German, what language would the children speak? The children may say, "I've got to learn the language of my mother, which is German, and the language of my father, which is English." Then if the son marries a Japanese, the children will speak Japanese and English. If there are 100 grandchildren, they will speak multitudes of different languages. How impossible it would be for that family! You need one language that is spoken in all families.

If you have several children and one marries a Korean, one a Japanese, one a Chinese, Brazilian, Hispanic, German, or African, they would all have to speak through interpreters. Where would you find all those interpreters? A world library would have to contain books from hundreds of different countries -- the same book would have to be printed in 100 different languages! Therefore, for the sake of the future, the simplest solution would be to unify the languages, setting up one language as the mother tongue.

Many Americans are thinking, "A language revolution like that is impossible." Everyone who thinks a language revolution is impossible, raise your hands please. Only self-centered, individualistic people would say it is "impossible." The arrogant will perish in the future. Today, you should resolve to learn the True Parents' mother tongue. Why? For the sake of the unification of humanity, for the future. Think, "In order to give great blessing to our children, I have to learn the mother tongue of Korean."

The Model, and Those Who are Recognized in Providential History 3-15-87

We have tradition. That tradition is consistent. It doesn't go one way under one circumstance and then change and go in another direction another time. It is consistent with one direct line. The result will always meet with the cause. They will form one great big circle. Thus our tradition is following our system of thought. We are actually carrying out that thought within our tradition. We are not satisfied with just thinking about it, but we also must do it.

Our Pride 3-22-87

As church members, we should each do at least one seven-day fast. This time is a good opportunity for that. Today would be a good time to start. Seven days of fasting actually represent forty days of fasting from the providential viewpoint. If we repeat that condition for three years, then that is a total of 120 days. That will be a very precious condition, so don't take it lightly.

This three-year transition time -- this year and next year and the year after -- will be very significant. For those who have never fasted for seven days since joining the church, today is the best time to begin, followed by forty days of special activity. If you do that for three years, it will serve you well for your individual indemnity.

Eighty-four is the basic number we should restore. This represents the three main disciples, the 12 apostles, and the 72 disciples of Jesus. We have to re-indemnify Jesus' course. In Jesus' time, the 12 and the 72 disciples should have united to help Jesus, so he wouldn't have to go the way of the cross. Jesus needed to make that kind of foundation in order to go to the Roman Empire and move to the world level. Jesus didn't have those people to help him, so he had to go to the cross. Now, it is our time to indemnify what occurred in Jesus' time. After that, we will be standing in the third Adam's position. Do you follow?

From there you can receive the Blessing. Jesus could not receive the Blessing for over 2,000 years. Receiving the Blessing means standing upon Jesus' foundation. You can do that. That is the Principle view point. Do you know what I mean? Therefore, we need 84 spiritual children. If you work for seven years, gaining twelve each year, that would come to one member per month. Then for the first time, after Jesus' position is restored, the third Adam's position will be completely re-indemnified.

The home church came into being to accomplish this in the easiest way. We must re-indemnify the number 84 through home church. That's what I have been doing through blessing the 3 couples and the 36 couples, the 120, the 430, and on to the 777 to re-indemnify and renew that foundation. Likewise, we have to do that much, each of us. When we accomplish that, we become the messiah not only on the individual and family levels, but also on the clan level. We at least have to become the messiah of the clan level by accomplishing that number of 84.

I have been working all this time to pay the indemnity for the world- level foundation, but you only have to establish the clan level. We must connect and re-indemnify the clan level, the national level, and the world level. Unless you complete the clan level, you cannot connect with my world foundation. Do you understand? You need a personal foundation. After you indemnify, you will be standing in the third Adam's position, so you can receive the Blessing. This is the Principle. There's always a standard, a very rigid rule. I've never emphasized this so much before. Up to the very end of the world, we must continue this. My own clan and family will go to a certain place in Heaven and you cannot follow unless you have connected with the world level foundation. You are not at that kind of level now. From now on, you have to make that foundation.

You must restore what occurred at Jesus' time, making a foundation there. Upon that you can connect with my world-level foundation. Otherwise, there is no way.

You know me well. I am the founder of the Unification Church and you received the Blessing through me. But you can't necessarily follow me in spirit world. All the gates are open in spirit world, but you are not making the right preparation. You cannot move. First of all, you must make a foundation of indemnity. That is the problem. You must make your foundation at the clan level, which represents Jesus' time. Because of the failure at that time, restoration history extended Z,000 years. You have to make more than Jesus' foundation. After that, you can receive the Blessing.

This is the spiritual rule, not my rule. I followed this rule also. You must integrate with my foundation by making your own personal foundation. l am the father; you are the children. Children can automatically inherit their parents' property. But you don't have the foundation. Some of your ancestors don't want to indemnify. After the foundation, I am your ancestor. You will then receive the proper indemnification.

Centering on this, we are making this home church system -- the 360 homes. Home church is Cain, the external level. Then you can restore your clan -- the Abel internal level -- easily. Do you know what I mean? Automatically, Cain and Abel can unite. That is what home church is.

Indemnity requires a conditional time period and also a sacrificial offering. You as the central figure in the condition must work for a certain period of time and then an offering to God can be made. Therefore, you must work harder in order to restore Cain's place. Satan will not release his claim on the members -- only after a sacrifice. After that, Satan will release you. So you members of the Unification Church absolutely need indemnity. I knew the importance of indemnity, so I have taken on indemnity all my lifetime. My situation is world-wide; your situation is the clan foundation. If I didn't make the world foundation, then you wouldn't be able to make the clan level foundation. I came to pay the indemnity to make that foundation.

That's True Parents' property. If you want to inherit my property, you have to make your foundation. Otherwise, you cannot connect with the world level foundation of mine. We need 12 disciples plus 72. Together, these make 84. We must indemnify the failure at Jesus' time and take it back from Satan's world. Upon that, you can stand on the world foundation level and then you can receive the Blessing. Otherwise, the Blessing doesn't appear. So we need home church.

Home church means the restoration of the Cain level. Upon that, the family level can stand. If you don't stand on that, True Parents' victory doesn't mean anything to you. It's that important.

Precious Existence 7-19-87

You need to develop a consciousness of tradition. For instance, the first time you enter a room each day, you should smile at the family members, but in a distinct order. First you smile at your father, expressing love and respect; then you smile at your mother, and finally at your wife. You don't smile at your wife and talk to her first, ignoring your father and mother until later. Americans do not even think of such things, do you? You think, "Just you and me. We don't need our parents. We don't need children until we have planned for them." But such attitudes have no place. God cannot dwell in such families.

The Way to Grow 8-30-87

The third event which took place was the Blessing of 6,516 couples on October 30, 1988. The most amazing characteristic of that Blessing was the international matching between Koreans and Japanese. Korea and Japan were enemy nations for a very long time, and the emotional wounds have never been healed. By this mixing up, the two countries can become one. The emotional strains and hurts are being removed.

This Blessing was a huge event. The entire nation of Korea was watching. Likewise, the Japanese government couldn't believe what was happening. By the time they figured it out, it was all over. Koreans and Japanese were matched in 99.9 percent of the couples. They could not speak to one another, for the most part; they could just use sign language. The only way for them to stay together in the crowd was lo hold hands. In fallen history there was never such an event. Only in God's history could such a thing be possible. Another amazing point is that everyone joyfully and faithfully accepted their match -- 100 percent. That was a great miracle and victory in Korea.

The fall of man brought individual separation and enmity and ultimately enemy nations. This Blessing brought two enemy nations together into one through the couples. They are going beyond their own countries. No longer do they even think of themselves as part of Korea or Japan. The Heavenly Kingdom is the only nation they belong to. Satan has no more business with them. They have a higher foundation of true love, and since Satan can never follow the true love way, he has to say goodbye!

Children's Day 9-11-88

Today my topic is the tribal messiah. You know how difficult it is to be the tribal messiah. Do you think you can go the way of true love without a leader, a guide? The course you have to follow is for your body and mind to become one, your couple to become one, your family to become one. Then you can unite your tribe.

The providence of the tribal messiah could only be established after Father had sacrificed the family and tribe for the nation and world. Three years ago, after Father had paid indemnity for 40 years, the Moon clan asked Father to be their leader. Since Father became the head of the Moon clan, the tribal messiah providence could start. That is the basis for you to become tribal messiahs. Now is the time for you to go back to your home area to your relatives and family members who have sacrificed for the sake of the world. You must ask them with tears for forgiveness for not having loved them during this time and in that way restore them.

Father has blessed 21,000 couples worldwide. They represent the foundation that Jesus could not establish. Jesus himself could not receive the blessing and establish the family foundation. But now the Unification Church members have already received the blessing and have children. Only by becoming parents can the messiah actually be the root of mankind. Only then can the providence of God multiply. Now the Unification Church has multiplied to 21,000 blessed couples.

In Korean politics there are regional factions, like the Kyongsang province faction centered on Kim Yong-sam, but in the Unification Church there are no factions. The Unification Church blessed families represent all mankind. If at the time of Jesus the six prepared couples of his family had united, he would not have had to go his public course. He would have married and, based on the unity of his own physical family, the Jewish nation could have united with him. Now the unity of the family of Jesus, including the family of John the Baptist, is represented worldwide by the 21,000 blessed families.

The Tribal Messiah 2-5-89

All of us have so many childhood memories. We long to go home. In the spirit world we will need a museum exhibiting the places we loved. It's a beautiful experience to return to a place you loved long ago and find It the same, to find a tree as you remembered it.

We have to preserve the things that remind us of our past. In the Unification Church, too, we must do the same. Would it be better for you if we preserve the original church building or tear it down and build a new one? Which would give you more pleasure? You would be happy to find things as they were when the movement began. Would you like to go to my hometown? But I won't let you go. If you still want to go, then I'll let you. You have to have such a strong desire. Why don't we have a church museum? We have to make a museum that shows the history of the church from the beginning.

Hometown 2-12-89

Are you connected with my lineage? You can say yes because of the Holy Wine Ceremony. You are the branches connected with the trunk. The most beautiful part of the blessing from True Parents is receiving the Holy Wine, which will change your blood lineage from the satanic side to the True Parents' lineage. Your children will become children of God, in His direct blood lineage. This blessing shall entitle you to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

However, you have a job. Since your family is an Abel family, that means you need a Cain family surrounding you. You must serve and witness to them. When you have united your Abel and Cain families, then the father and mother can be connected to them. True Parents are coming to your family now and you are one with them. Now all you have to do is restore your tribe, or Cain families. That is why I announced that you are to become tribal messiahs. The homecoming has begun. Jesus wanted an Abel family, and the Lord of the Second Advent wants restoration of Cain families. Both shall be accomplished by you so that you can become one with True Parents. This is such an incredible opportunity.

Each blessed family is standing in the Abel position and must save the Cain families, which means our relatives. Father has pioneered the victorious path and now you can be connected. This will create a unified world. True Parents are the global messiah. If you unite with this condition, you shall become tribal messiahs, and even eventually national messiahs.

The End of the World and Our Age 3-19-89

As the universal Messiah, I have the power to anoint you as tribal messiahs. Therefore, you must inherit my messiahship. How can you do that? All you have to do is rectify the situations of the first and the second Adam by setting indemnity conditions. The failure of the first Adam is that he could not receive the second blessing. You were blessed, so your position is greater than Adam's. I am like the trunk of a big tree. Each one of us must become a part of the tree by grafting ourselves into it. If you are grafted into the tree, then you already paid the indemnity for the failure of the first Adam. Jesus also did not receive the Blessing. By uniting with the third Adam level, you can become a national messiah.

You are walking the path now as the family level and tribal level messiah. I am working up from the national messiahship to the worldwide messiahship. You are following my footsteps; Satan can have no accusation toward you. All you have to do is graft into this third Adam's root. All of humanity will have one root.

God's lineage will go on, bequeathing the tradition from one gen- eration to the next. The condition is that you must love True Parents more than anybody else under the sun. Otherwise you cannot become one with True Parents. When you go to your hometown or your home church in the tribal messiah's role, there will be no more persecution, because I paid the debt. Follow my footsteps; gather the harvest.

Where is my hometown? North Korea is my ultimate hometown; it is your hometown, too. Now is the time for reorganization. The first, second, and third Adam are all consummated in True Parents. Therefore, I need to have 12 restored disciples, and then 72, 120, and 430 disciples. When you accomplish your homecoming, an organization of 12 tribes shall be made. You will eventually belong to a certain tribe of heaven. Your race, color, and nationality has no meaning. What has meaning is how much you can receive the support of spiritual world and truly create your own spiritual tribe.

Ultimately all of us will create the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. That is our home on earth. The Kingdom of Heaven in spiritual world is our home for eternity. How can we return to those homes, on earth and in heaven? First, through True Parents; second, through citizenship; and third through homecoming. These are the three most important things for you to acquire.

True Parents and the Realm of Liberation 4-6-89