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.