Sun Myung Moon
August 11, 1974
Excerpt
Belvedere, Tarrytown, N.Y.
In the world all people long for a central figure. We want the central figure to be unchanging and everlasting. Not only that, but also the central figure must be righteous and good. Such a central figure cannot be found in human society and we cannot make one. We know that the central figure must be a human being for others to follow, but since we cannot create one, from where can we expect such a person? We all know that not just any man can stand in that position: to be righteous, good, unchanging and everlasting.
Even in our imagination, we must have a figure who is like that. Without such a goal before us, we cannot go on our way towards the goal set by God. When we look at ourselves, we have our bodies and our minds. Let us closely study ourselves, trying to find if there is any quality in man to allow him to become such a perfect one.
People in general know that we have minds but they end there. Even when we look at the mind, the views of people towards the mind are different from each other. When you study the mind superficially, minds always vacillate and there seemingly is no central power manipulating the mind. Do we really know what our mind is like? If there is something good, something of higher value, the mind is always inclined to attain that goal. While our minds are seeking for things of higher value, on the other hand our fleshly side always tends to stop the mind from going towards that goal.
In human society where can we find real righteousness and happiness? As long as our mind and body go different ways, we cannot really attain that goal; we must bridge the gap between mind and body. When we have our mind and body in utter oneness, we come close to that absolute Being and we ourselves resemble Him. In the scope of a family, when you can bring the whole family into unity and harmony, you can call that family a happy one. We can draw the conclusion that we can attain happiness only when we make unity at every level, with yourself playing the role of the center.
There must be a view of personality, view of life, which can never vacillate or change. We can never dream of being able to find such a standard without our mind and body in oneness. In that unity, what we acquire must come through our mind. But sometimes -- and very likely -- we cannot trust our mind. And more than that, we are ignorant of what our mind is really like. Where there is ignorance we cannot really trust anything, and where there is no belief or trust, we cannot find clear goals.
What is the human mind is the ultimate question. Where does it originate? Does it start from ourselves or from elsewhere? If you define it to have originated in yourself, you must be able to manipulate it; but when you find you cannot manipulate your own mind you must imagine that it comes from elsewhere. It is not of human origin but of an origin far above the human level. As we find such a thing of higher dimension manipulating our minds and through our minds our bodies, then at last we can sight the goal and we find our direction.
Through what channel can we reach that goal? In human society, because of the fall, only through religions can we find such a goal and get associated with the final or ultimate Entity. If you are sure you have found something like that, you must feel that you have five senses other than the fleshly ones working in you, and you must have personal experiences. That kind of sensation must be stronger than what you feel and see and do using your five physical senses, and it must be experienced by your own self.
When in your past you have tasted good food, seen artistic things, and heard music and all those things, then you don't want to go down below that level. In the human conscience the same thing applies. You must always look up to something of higher dimension than your level. When you acquire or attain a goal a little higher than the level you are enjoying now, the next moment you want something of a still higher level.
Since all human beings without exception are struggling towards that goal, trying to associate with things of higher dimension, we must go on struggling for that goal, looking to the spiritual side. It doesn't matter what His name is, but when we call Him God, our minds are always inclined to have some relationship with Him. But we see a vast difference between the Je, el of our minds and the level of that ultimate Entity. How vast the distance must be between God and our minds!
We must be able to bridge the gap, or bring our minds closer to Him. We say we must educate ourselves, train ourselves and discipline ourselves. All those things start from our mind. But we don't know what our mind is like. And we cannot trust our mind. It always vacillates. We find it is not absolute.
In human society even our ideal, the moral standard, is always changing, hopefully for the better. It has been changing and it is changing now, and it will continue changing. Change sometimes means progress towards a goal of higher dimension, but we must always adjust ourselves to be bound for that goal, not the other way around. If we find ourselves inclining to lower the level of our conscience, we cannot even call ourselves human beings. In that case, we must try to lift ourselves up, setting ourselves on the path towards that goal.
When we find ourselves and others below the level of conscience, there's no human order. We would have to destroy this world or the past standard of life. There would be no value, no standard, and we would come down to the level of animals. In that case, all human beings would be doomed to danger, despair and darkness. There must be the standard of God's Kingdom. Where can you find God's Kingdom at all? Which of the two in us, the mind or body, will set the standard or find one? We have come to the conclusion that it cannot start from our fleshly body but from our minds. God is the ultimate entity which is never changing and eternal, and His Kingdom also is of that quality. Can our body fit that? Though our mind has the tendency to want to have that goal, even our mind is far below that level as it now is.
But can God alone erect His Kingdom? No. He can do the job only in unity with a man resembling Him or in oneness with Him. The erection of the Kingdom of God must start from one man like that, but where can we locate this man? Is the man just a man of moral value? When you say moral value it means based on our mind. Can you find such a person in the religious world? We must look for such a person not among just moral people but among religious people.
We can safely say that we can find such a person among religious people who would not set his goal on individual things but on broader things such as the family, national and worldwide level. Unless what he does on the individual level is in conformity with God's goal for all mankind, we cannot dream of finding such a person. Which is better, people who want to become happy for their own sake or those who want to sacrifice for the sake of others' happiness? In order for us to be able to play the role of the central figure we must be taught to work for other people, even sacrificing ourselves for that goal.
The central figure of the higher dimension could be found among those who are ready to sacrifice themselves for the happiness of all humankind. In which religion can we find such persons? That religion must be of worldwide level.
We have seen we have four big religions: Christianity, Buddhism, Islam and Confucianism. In which of the four religions is the relationship between man and God the closest? You say Christianity because Christianity has the father-son relationship between God and man. But more simply why is it? It is because there is an everlasting relationship centered on love and life. That is, our life is related with His life and originated from His life, so we cannot think of ourselves separately from that relationship. We have inseparable ties between our life and the will of God because there is love coming from the divine origin working in us.
In oriental philosophy we think even though couples can separate from each other, we can never be separated from our parents. It is because in our relationship with our parents there is a life stream running through lineage -- from our ancestry to us as their fruit. If we deny that, we deny our own life.
But between husband and wife, the love does not originate from the life relationship. Of course it is desirable for any husband and wife not to be separated, to go together eternally, but if either of the two relationships would be cut off, you would rather have the relationship between the husband and wife cut off, not the tie between yourselves and your parents. In other words, you can never cut off the tie between you and your parents, however hard you may try. That's something you can never cut off. Maybe the children have changed not to recognize their parents, but parental love never changes.
That is why even prodigal sons and daughters can come back to the bosom of their parents. When you come back, you are sure they will not reject you. You will find they have been waiting for you with outstretched arms.
But if there is disunity and rupture between husband and wife and their relationship is cut off, they very likely are going to become enemies instead of friends. You would just hate to look at that person you have loved. Both of you feel that way towards each other. But between sons and parents it is never like that. The children may feel that, but it is never like that with the parents.
But in the We tern world I find that you think more highly of the horizontal relationship between husband and wife, rather than the vertical one between sons and parents. This is the very reason that disunity, rupture and disharmony is prevailing in this society.
Unless you can love your parents -- and if you are in the position of the parents, your children -- you cannot love your brothers and sisters, and unless you can love your brothers and sisters, you cannot love your spouse in the real sense. You must love your brothers and sisters as your parents, and you must love your spouse as your brothers and sisters and your parents. Then alone can you create and build an ideal family, which is the fundamental unit of society.
If you cannot find the ideal in your homes, you can never find an ideal society or nation. Your family being the fundamental unit of the whole human society, how can you build the ideal society without your being able to find or build such a family?
Let us go back to the mainstream of our thought. In Christianity we find love and life relationships between man and God in the father-son relationship. We put more stress on life, love and sacrifice. That's the very core of what Christianity is.
What would God and Jesus want us to do? If Jesus was in the position of son to God, we can well imagine that Jesus was educated by God. Jesus learned to know that God was the Source or Subject of his love and life. He knew that God was existing for the sake of himself, and God was sacrificing His self for Jesus' sake.
With what ideology would God educate other people? How would Jesus educate other people? Jesus knew that all human beings on earth are brothers and sisters under God. He wanted to produce people, educate people, to find God and love God and recognize God as their life, their source, and the One who is sacrificing Himself for the sake of mankind. He tried and tried to teach people, and when the people did not absorb his education and rejected him, he continued to the end of his life, even sacrificing his own life.
He said that he was the symbol of the life and love and way. For him that was the way of the cross when people rejected him. So, in this world of the fall, where there is real love and life there must always follow sacrifice for others. The core of the teaching of Jesus towards mankind was that people must love God as their Parent and love others as their brothers and sisters; then alone we can build a real home based on divine love between husband and wife. I again emphasize that we must learn three kinds of love: first, love towards our parents; love among brothers and sisters; and then love between husband and wife. With those three loves put together, we can taste the true kinds of love, and then we can build good homes and good societies. Christianity alone is the religion where they teach that kind of love relationship, so when God seeks a man who can lead all humanity, he must find one in Christianity. That's what makes Christianity the religion of all religions, the most important religion of all.
We must look for leadership, true leadership, in the religious world, and in the religious world Christianity is the core of all religions. The reason for Christianity's being the core of all religions is that in Christianity we teach the love and life relationship with God and the way of sacrificing ourselves for the sake of others. That's why I chose Christianity. It is not because my parents had been Christians before my birth, and it is not because tradition tells me to, but I found that in Christianity that kind of core teaching exists. It was only too natural to draw the conclusion that through Christianity alone we can save the whole world, because there we are taught to have the relationship between God and man based upon divine love and life.
Then what must be God's Kingdom? Unless He finds an individual who is God-like or who resembles Him, He cannot erect a Godly family and then Godly clan, tribe, society and world. So the core of the thing is man in the tie of divine love with God, and his family around him. When God is anxious to find a nation of such standard, even though that nation may be homogeneous in worshipping God, God does not want that nation to confine itself to things of national level without having a broader sense of love towards all mankind. He would not choose that nation but He would like to have that nation love other nations and educate the whole population of the world so that through that nation and through the central leader of that nation He could erect His Kingdom. This nation must transcend national boundaries. Viewed from that standpoint, America is prepared soil for that because the American nation was formed by having people from all nations; and if you really had created unity in this nation under God's ideology, this would be the best place. Here alone God's ideal could be realized.
God blessed America because there is the possibility of making the whole world into ultimate oneness and harmony and love starting from this nation, not elsewhere. Without Christian ideology there would have been rupture md you could have created the second Europe. Like the old world, there could have been disharmony. Before your forefathers came to this continent, there had been, in Europe, disharmony, rupture and persecution of Christian people. That's what made your forefathers flee from their own countries to come to settle on this continent. And their way of life was to worship God in freedom.
If in the new world -- America -- as in the old world, there is corruption in the new Christian world it means second doom or peril. If in the midst of peril and corruption even in the Christian world, there sprouts up one group which thinks dearly of the life relationship and love relationship between man and God and would be ready to sacrifice themselves for the salvation of mankind, that's the only religion God would be using as His instrument.
Unless there comes into existence a group where a new tribe will emerge under the leadership of man, as in the case of the Jewish people of God's choice, unless this chosen people do something to change America and the world, there's no hope for the world to be changed or saved. In other words, in America we need a stronger Christian group with a strong ideology, because all other ways have proven to be a failure.
If, maybe, black people would emerge with a stronger leadership than others, you must be able to follow that leader. Despite the race, you must follow the leadership and you must realize the bitter fact that in the Communist world or in the satanic world in general their purpose is to destroy this world of religion, the world in which they believe in God. The first target for satanic power to destroy is Christianity, and their final target within Christianity is to destroy the family, which is the core of divine love.
In the world even of Christianity they have been putting more stress on the mind side and on the conscience; but, if through our mind and conscience God does not work, giving us the life and love relationship and touching our hearts and inspiring us to sacrifice ourselves for the sake of the rest of humanity, no group can work God's will. It is thrillingly important that in our church we talk about the heart of God. When we understand and feel and experience the heart of God, it is natural for us to feel the life and love relationship between God and ourselves, and this is the most wonderful thing. We learn that here, and when we put it into practice to reach out to even the last one in all humanity, we are sure to save the world.
God has been looking for this kind of religion because here we teach that we must be able to love our God as our parents first, and love other human beings as brothers and sisters under our Father, God. Love between husband and wife is emphasized next. With all those loves totalized, we will love all humanity, and that is what makes our group the most wonderful one. As it now stands, no such religion will possibly be found elsewhere than in our group -- where God can rely on people to erect His Kingdom on earth.
Where does God's kingdom come from? It comes from the divine idea. Through our conscience and mind we are a group of people which try to learn and put the ideal into practice. There are many, many, many men of conscience in the world, and at the best they have been thinking of the well-being of their own nation, if not their family. But, in our church we want to be happy after making the whole of humanity happy. By humanity, we mean all nations, all races. All are children of God, and only after having made children of God -- our brothers and sisters -- and God happy, can we be happy ourselves. This is the best ideology.
God has so prepared this nation that from here the ideal world will be erected. God, seeing the corruption in this nation, is sad but has not yet left this nation. That's why I came over to this nation of America and started working here. And our work will see no end until we restore this nation under God's will. I want you to be even stronger than ever and try your best to change this nation and stop this nation from going to destruction, and lift your people up and have them head for the eternal goal.
We must stop the corruption of Christianity in this nation. We must stop families from being broken up. We must stop the individual from being corrupted like hippies and going to pieces. If we are not able to do that, this nation will be hell.
What we are doing is character building; by character building I mean the perfection of individuality and the perfection of families, clans, nations and the world. We are the only group to do that. We are the religious group of the highest dimension as it now stands, and through us alone God can build the world of love and unity and life and harmony, which is the Godly Kingdom on earth.
Before anything else you must be able to have your mind work in unison with God's demand, and your sensation of love towards God must be more than that between brothers and sisters and within couples. By our doing that, we can build perfect individuals, and from there on we can widen the scope to build the Heavenly Kingdom on earth.
Everything starts from us. You must have confidence. The Kingdom of God will be erected by our own hands. The Kingdom is in your own mind, in your own self, in your family, clan, tribe, nation and the world. It will come about.