Reverend Sun Myung Moon
July 8, 1984
Belvedere
Translator - Sang Kil Han
All people have an original nature which connects us with the rest of the creation and the whole universe. It transcends the past, present and future. Our original nature is not limited to history but instead goes beyond it. It goes beyond the broadest realm of the universe. That is why our minds direct us to strive for something greater than history, to become bigger than even the universe.
These statements about the original nature were true at any time in the past and they will be true in the future, just as they are true now. All value is determined in relationship with the original nature of man. The person who is in conformity with the original nature can be said to be a good person, while the person who violates that original nature is not good. The questions of good and evil and what is a true person and a false person are determined according to the original nature.
What is the source of that original nature of people? We could trace it back through our parents, who came from their parents and so on, all the way back to the first ancestors of man. Likewise, it will be passed on to all the succeeding generations. Any one generation can last at the most for 100 years or so. During his life span, every person will participate in that original nature and then go to spirit world, passing it on to his descendants.
We can see that before each person came to be, that original nature of man was here. Even after each person's life ends, that original human nature continues to exist here on earth. So where does that quality come from?
We can ask the age-old question, which comes first, existence or consciousness? Materialists claim that existence and matter existed prior to consciousness. But when you examine it, can matter contain all the essence of consciousness? We say that consciousness is greater than anything material. In other words, consciousness is the subject of matter.
We can take a seed for an example. A seed is comprised of two parts enclosed within one hull; this is true for every seed, without exception. Also there is a tiny little embryo nestled between the two parts. At the earliest stage of human existence, the point of conception, an embryo is created through the love of the father and mother. It represents both the plus and the minus. Whatever the form of life, all the qualities of the future existence of each new being are contained within that embryo, including a tree, a flower, or a human being.
That tiny, one-celled bit of matter contains all these invisible characteristics; nothing is left out. We can only imagine how small is that amount of material, yet it contains a staggering amount of potential.
How is it possible that such a tiny amount of material could contain so many characteristics? All the qualities necessary for that embryo to develop into a completed human being are condensed within that tiny embryo. It contains the qualities from both the father and the mother.
Can we say that we existed before we were actually born? That something was there and was deployed into the form we took? Which comes first, consciousness or existence? According to how we answer that question, our beliefs and lifestyle will be largely determined.
It is more reasonable to conclude that the original nature and its qualities were there before the individual came into being; and as the individual grew, those qualities were developed. No matter how small the embryo, all that information is still there. The nucleus of the plus and the nucleus of the minus are contained within that embryo. From there it starts to expand and grow. This is comparable to the way the physical body grows. We eat and feed our body with nutrients to enable it to grow.
The small, one-celled embryo contains the blueprint of what a person will become one day. It is not an accident how a person develops physically. Thus we cannot even think in terms of a person just happening to develop certain qualities as he grows; they were there in the beginning, regardless of what happens afterwards. That means the original quality of man is his consciousness; it was there before his existence was. Thus we can never claim that the physical body is the subject over the mind.
Let us focus upon one aspect of man, his eyes. The eyes you were born with were contained within that original blueprint. The eyes of all beings, whether it is man, animal, birds, or insects, have a common quality to them. Thus they must have a certain common ancestor.
When your eye came into being, do you think it had its own opinion about how it would look and function? Can the eyes think and plan for themselves? Can the eyes decide that they will be comprised of three parts-the white, the colored part and the black in the middle? Can they think, "Well, I will have to rotate and I must have eyelashes above me for protection. And I must be able to lubricate myself so I won't dry out."? Do you think eyes themselves have thought like that?
Of course, the eye itself cannot think in such a manner. But on the other hand, we can see that all these things have been part of the eye's development. Thus it is logical to assume that there was some plan, of which the eye would become a part, and that plan determined how the eye would be. Thus it is reasonable to think that there was an original plan or a blueprint and that according to that blueprint, the eye took its shape.
We explain the eye in this manner for the sake of analysis, but we cannot separate clearly the material and spiritual parts of the eye. When we speak of an eye, we are including both the material and the non-material qualities. It is not difficult to believe that wherever there is a spirit or consciousness, material will follow and not the other way around.
Human beings, in the course of their efforts to understand their existence, have separated the qualities of spirit and material, yet neither exists alone. They must both be blended and understood as a combined whole. We cannot understand and analyze them separately. Unless mankind becomes aware of this and comprehends life as an integrated whole, we cannot think of any sort of ideal society or happiness.
The eye itself never even thought about coming into being or what sort of existence it would have. However, there was a consciousness guiding that eye to exist. Who determined that the eye would be movable? There was a purpose for the eye and that was for seeing light. The source of light is the sun. Thus, although the eye itself was not aware of it, its purpose existed even before it did. The material eye, of course, could not think and know about this purpose and the plan for its existence. Could the material eye realize, as it was coming into being as a part of a man or an animal, that the sun was there?
However, since we know that the eye has not only its material aspect but also its spiritual one, we can say that the eye pretty much knew what to expect after it came into being. Did the spiritual part of the eye know before it took a material form what was its purpose and function, or only afterwards? Yes, it knew before.
This may seem to be a small point, but actually it is an important part of the Principle. We can confidently say that the consciousness level came first before the material took shape. Thus we know that the contentions of materialists are completely groundless as well as illogical and they contribute to the confusion of people, rather than teaching them the truth. For the sake of analysis, it may be permissible to divide the spiritual side from the material, but when considering a real being, one cannot separate the two.
The eye's spiritual aspect knew that there would be a sun. The material eye did not know it, but the consciousness which existed earlier knew that the sun would be there. The eye also knew that there would be dust particles; the material eye did not know this, but its consciousness which existed before knew. So the eye came to be protected by the eyelash. The eyelash came into being at the same time as the eye.
Can you imagine where the eyelashes came from? They are hairs which grow right out of the flesh of the eye, with a totally different color and fiber. Can you say, "Well, material just took shape on its own and formed an eyelash."? That would be unreasonable. The spiritual eye knew very well that there would be air and within that air would be dust and other particles floating around.
Also the eye has its own little sprayer for moisture. For those tear ducts to exist, it took the skill of an artisan- they are so tiny and they must be positioned at just the right place. The consciousness that preceded the eye's existence knew that evaporation would dry it out, so it would have to be resupplied constantly with moisture. Something knew this. Why does the eye blink continuously? It is for the purpose of spreading around the moisture. Have you ever tried not to blink and to keep your eyes open for ten or twenty minutes? You can't do it, can you?
When we point out all these things to a communist or materialist and then ask him if indeed material came before consciousness, he will be baffled. How about you? If someone asks you sincerely whether consciousness or material came first, how do you answer? We cannot deny that such a small part of a person, namely the eye, came into being with knowledge on a universal level. It knew not only what the eye was supposed to do but also everything it would need to relate with the rest of the world. The eye already knew it was a part of that world.
Many people today, without understanding this reasoning, have come to believe that all things-including eyes-came into being as the result of simple power or force. Someone exerted force and the eye, for example, came into being. But that is too broad-what sort of a power was it? Why, when, and how did it happen? They cannot answer that. They say that the universe is run by power, but they cannot describe precisely the nature of that power.
All beings are dominated by a clear law; nothing exists beyond that law or without it. We can measure and understand that law precisely. Scientists experience this all the time. In the study of physics or chemistry, they set up a hypothesis and they test it, trying to disprove it. If they cannot disprove it, they accept it as a theory and eventually it becomes a scientific law.
Where does power come from? Does power or force exist prior to action, or is action first? This has been an age-old question. A force tends to act upon something; thus force and action seem to be hand-in-hand. Yet, which existed first, force or action? You can see Reverend Moon here, and certainly I have a certain power. Also I am doing many things and making many actions. Based upon those actions, then I have a certain force which you can observe.
Consider electricity. Does that force exist first, or does it only come into existence when there is electrical activity? Is it because of action that electricity comes into being? Or was-the electricity there and then when the proper action occurred, power was brought forth? That is the point we are pondering. As we know, electricity is composed of plus and minus charges. Without the combination of these two, there can be no force. So action is an indispensable pan of the force.
Does an action occur accidentally or haphazardly? Then what must come before that action takes place? We can see clearly and simply that there must be a subject and object relationship before any action is possible. Only through this action is force possible. So the classic question about the source of the power of the universe can be answered. Is that power the result of action? Yes, it is very much the result of action, but for the action to be possible, there must be a subject and object relationship. There must be a subject and object relationship within the universe that engages in action, in order to produce power or force. We must be clear about this point.
We can follow this logic backwards. Let us consider the power of the universe. Where does it come from? It comes about as a result of action. Is any action possible without any law or purpose? No, before action can occur, there must be subject and object in relationship. Thus we can know the chain of events-what happens first, second, and what is the root or origin.
Furthermore we can understand that consciousness and matter were blended in order to form the universe. It wasn't just matter alone nor was it just spiritual quality alone-they were both necessary. That was God's creation. He integrated the spiritual and the material and then deployed them according to His plan. All the aspects of His plan came into being upon that foundation.
Thus we are back to our original question: Which came first, consciousness or material? We can clearly say that it was consciousness. Consciousness and matter were the beginning of the universe, and man is no exception to this.
The most sophisticated computer can put out a tremendous amount of information and do many important things, but in order for it to do that, someone had to program it. Without the necessary data, no computer can function. A computer cannot produce anything which it is not programmed to produce. It only puts out, in effect, what is already there. Even if we could build a computer as large as the World Trade Center with the capacity to deal with information about the entire world, it would not be as great as the human brain. Yet the human brain is quite small and it is limitless.
As a matter of fact, as we said earlier, an enormous amount of information can be transmitted by just one human cell. There is a mysterious quality to the brain, but it does contain a very concrete subject/object relationship.
Within the human sperm and egg is contained all the information about the baby that is to come. What causes the sperm and egg to join with each other? Someone might say, "Due to the infusion of force." But that is not the reason. Certainly it is not knowledge, either.
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 just 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.
When there is a big plus, it naturally takes a big minus as its object. The plus charge is on one end of a magnet and the minus charge is on the other end. That means there must be some shared qualities between the plus and minus, otherwise they could not coexist on the same piece of metal. Even though the plus charge is very strong, it still has a small amount of minus charge. Because of this fact, the plus and minus ends can stay together on the same magnet. The same is true of the minus. Although it is predominantly minus, it still contains some small amount of plus charge.
The larger the subject, the larger the object it will take. We can say that evolution must have occurred, but only according to this law. Most scientists fail completely to understand the process of evolution, thinking that it "just happened." However, we know that there is always a reason for things to develop and come together. The overall reason is the power of love and through the relationship of subject and object.
The whole world is composed of only a hundred or so chemical elements. These elements exist as the result of plus and minus interaction. When we try to make these elements combine in certain ways, they will not do so unless the proper subject and object, plus and minus, relationship is brought about. Then they react immediately.
The chemist in the laboratory may try to force two elements to combine and he may use all sons of means, such as heat and pressure. However, unless they form the right subject and object relationship, they will not combine. When any two elements come together according to the universal law, the scientist doesn't have to do anything-they merge automatically.
From this we can draw an iron-clad rule. Even though evolution did take place, it could only happen when proper subject and object relationships were formed. When those relationships were missing, evolution could never occur.
We can see that the whole universe is in a state of readiness for the subject and object relationship. All things try to come together through the power of love. The whole universe is dominated by the principle of love. Why is this the case? It is only through this principle that smaller beings can become pan of larger beings.
We can observe that the law of the material world involves a certain entropy. In other words, output is always smaller than input. That is a law of energy. When a certain amount of energy is expended to produce a certain effect, there will be a loss or consumption of energy. Nothing is added. However, there is a different law guiding love. That is the only instance in which the output is greater than the input. Thus when two beings join together through love, they become greater than just the sum of their parts. Added power is generated.
This is a clear law. It can even be applied to business. Suppose there is a businessman who has to decide whether to drive from here to Manhattan. If he can derive a profit, even a small one, from going there, then he will go. But if he will not, then he won't go. Even the smallest amount of profit makes the difference. That provides him with the incentive and the power to go to Manhattan every day. He knows that his property is expanding through that activity, and thus he will never quit doing that activity.
Love operates like this, too. The more love you give out and engage in, the more you will have. It grows and grows. This is the way the universe is joined-through the law of love.
There is a huge plus within the universe and every other entity in the universe seeks to be joined with that greatest plus. The only way for that to happen is for each small minus entity to make unity with a somewhat larger plus entity and thereby become bigger. That huge plus is complex, not simple. Likewise the many smaller entities become more complex and reflect that plus as they interact with love.
A human being tries to go beyond himself and reach out to the highest ideal, precisely because of this law. No matter how small a person may be, he still wants to be bigger than the universe. That is because his ultimate subject is that huge, universal subject.
In addition to our religious understanding, we can look materially at this world and it still conforms to this law of the universe. The law of love guides the material world as well.
When we dearly love our spouse and our family and then together we love our country, our family will immediately grow as big as our country. In other words, when the family as object takes the country as subject, then it takes on the value of that subject. When the country goes beyond itself and loves the world, the country will realize the intensity of worldwide love. Eventually everyone can be joined with the whole universe and God, through original love.
The original nature is common to all people, even to a bad person. Every human being has an original nature which he wants to discover and develop.
If this were the original world, then the man of original nature would be accepted automatically. But since the world has deviated, it has to be corrected. That means we must put in great amounts of power to do recreation. Indemnity is the power by which we neutralize the opposition.
It takes more effort to repair an old, broken-down building than it does to put up a new one. The extra effort to repair all the old things is what we can call indemnity. The indemnity power is needed to repair and restore the deviated self. Thus the need for indemnity can be explained logically. There have been times when our American members have asked, "Why can't we do the restoration in a joyful way? Why do we need indemnity?"
You can welcome indemnity if you understand the purpose it serves. Because of our indemnity, all things can be recreated and brought back to their original nature. It is only after the original man emerges that it becomes possible to walk the original way of God's will. Are you original people? No, you were born as the result of the human fall. Thus, in order to be recreated, you must also pay indemnity.
Jesus was the original man, yet he too paid indemnity. Why must the original man pay indemnity? It is because nobody else even knew about indemnity or was capable of paying it. Why do I push you through the indemnity course? Indemnity is not something which you can be forced through by somebody standing over you. Once you understand the need for indemnity, you must go through it voluntarily, according to your own will. We must even volunteer to go to prison if it will be a good condition of indemnity. If you don't want to go but are forced to go, the indemnity loses its effect. Is that clear?
Therefore even though a member might be quite young, he may be asked to go fundraising. If the way of the multitude is an evil way, then we must go against the multitude in order to go the good way.
When the flowers bloom in spring, the butterflies come to drink the nectar. Why do the leaves of a tree multiply and become green? Why do the branches grow? That is the way nature can stimulate us to improve our actions of love. Does love multiply in isolation? No, love requires give and take. A tree must relate with its environment in order to grow. The members of the plant kingdom relate with each other through love and in that way they grow and multiply.
Why should a tree want to grow bigger and bigger? What is wrong with a small tree? It is because the bigger the tree, the more leaves and then seeds it can produce. Thus the next generation will be more numerous. Trees and plants are like our textbooks for love. Some trees require six or seven years to blossom. None of them blooms after just one year.
In the mineral world, veins of gold and silver are not found in little isolated patches but in large areas that stretch for long distances. Likewise the insects do not dwell in isolation. There is one form of fly that incubates for several months and then hatches to live for only one day. On that one day of life it mates and then dies. This is like the salmon, which lives for several years and then makes its way back to the place where it was born. Then it mates and lays its eggs and then it dies.
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. -exists 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!
Upon first learning about the four-position foundation in the Divine Principle it sounds like a good concept' but when you really understand it, you realize that the four position foundation is more than that. It is necessary in order to become a happy person. Thus, you too are capable of becoming a happy person, isn't that correct? The reason I matched and blessed you couples in marriage was so that each of you could become happy people, having perfected children who could, in turn, become happy people. You can eventually become perfected parents.
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.
I could continue for days talking about this point within the Principle of Creation, since there is so much to discuss.
Will any of you ever become a communist? How about a materialist? Or are you going to remain Unificationists? Now you know how you will lead your life. The law for our lives is extremely simple: the individual lives for the sake of the family; the family lives for the sake of the clan; the clan lives for the nation; the nation for the world; and the world for God.
Within any certain area, there must be a center. Originally, mankind was supposed to be one happy family but we know that society is divided on every level. Now there is the communist world opposing the democratic world and each feels it is superior to the other.
We must belong to something which is bigger than ourselves. By the individual aligning himself with the family, the family with the clan, and so forth, and everything having the same universal center, then the universe itself takes on a perfectly spherical shape. When you achieve this alignment, then you and your family are one; you and your country are one. The same is true for the universe.
When the universe has taken its perfectly spherical shape, only half of it will be visible; the other half of the sphere will be invisible, which is the spirit world.
No matter how much good you may do, no one will tell you to stop. You can always do more and more good. All people are destined to reach the top of the universe. Your destiny is to be as large as the universe in your goodness.
If man had never fallen, Adam and Eve would have loved in the original way and they would have created a family, society and world with the proper universal center. God would have been in the midst of that world. Man is meant to be the master or the center of both the visible and the invisible worlds.
We must work hard to nullify opposition and then input more effort to advance in the direction of goodness. This is why our lives are harder than they were originally supposed to be.
The world is divided between the free world and the communist world-the God-accepting world and the God denying world. If they ever clash, then the world will be shattered. That is why Unificationism is working to mediate every level of conflict in the world, ultimately to work up to the level of these two conflicting world powers.
Individualism is extremely harmful to universal harmony, but that is the common way of thinking in America today. At best, people have expanded themselves to the family level but hardly anyone goes beyond that level to the country, and certainly not to the world and the universe. We must go against this way of thinking and re-direct ourselves in the original way of God.
Each individual is destined to be as big as the universe, but how can he do that? It is only by denying oneself and giving to others on higher and higher levels.
Now we know what is the original way of God's will. We must first be able to understand that it is God's will for the individual to become as big as God Himself. Once we know this, we can go the way of God's will through the law of love and reconstruct the original world. Centering upon love, we must recreate the world. Without love, we cannot recreate anything.
Nothing has any value without love-whether it is democracy, communism, or whatever. Human history has progressed to this point in which two world powers are on the verge of violent confrontation. We must be the mediators that prevent that conflict. Thus Unificationism will become recognized more and more. The communist theory is inadequate and so is the democratic way. Now the new ideal will emerge, which we call Godism. That is the historical transition point where we are now.
This is our goal and the purpose of our way of life. Unless we achieve the God-centered world here, we cannot achieve it in spirit world. All these different steps from individual to family, family to clan, and so forth, are only achievable through the practice of love. No other quality or power can allow us to do it.
The very nature of love leaves no place for the individual alone. It is within the nature of love to sacrifice the self for others. Because this is the law, it is only through self-sacrifice that we can achieve our goal of a unified world centered on love. Then we will become one with God-that includes every individual, family, clan, nation, and the world. and all the way to the universe-everything will become one with God.
By exercising the law of love horizontally, we expand vertically toward God. Wherever there is a perfect minus, a perfect plus will come into being. And God will dwell there.
Through love, God creates and recreates. When we live for the sake of others, we become wider and bigger- we expand. But when we live just for ourselves, we shrink. Living for the sake of others and centering upon love is the way of God's will for us. Unless we live by this law, we can never reach the great destiny that God wills for us. Can you understand?
Why must we go the suffering way of life? Why must we pay indemnity? This is the reason-unless we do that, we cannot neutralize the opposition against goodness, that power which pushes the world in the deviated direction. That must be straightened out and turned around in the right direction. But without the Messiah and his teaching and guidance, nobody on earth will be able to do this. I have been teaching you the formula and law by which you must redirect your life.
Therefore, we cannot be subjugated by the fear of death. We must face death itself squarely and rise above it. Many people have been talking about the upcoming prison term, but I haven't been thinking about it so much. I know that the war has already been won by God and it is only a matter of time and how hard we work before it becomes completely apparent. That is why I don't give so much thought to whether I do or do not go to prison. The important thing is whether or not we are going according to the original way of life.
Even when death itself is hovering over us, we cannot stop our way of life. We must keep going, striving to climb higher and higher. Satan does not have this understanding or this confidence. He is full of confusion. Thus, when we advance courageously, he will be exposed as weaker than he appears.
(Father speaks in Korean to the blessed children who have completed their 21-day training.)
Col. Han: The workshop the children will be over in two days, so Father is summarizing things for them. He is saying that the law will be observed rigidly from now on; up till now, we have been rather lax but from now on, we cannot afford to make any mistakes. The laws are very rigid in the future world. Now Father is stressing the importance of the blessed couples.
Father Continues
This law is not something I made up. It is something which I tested, investigated and determined without a doubt to be the law of the universe. You have learned the law, so now you have to practice it.
Those of you who lived a lawless and unprincipled way in the past-are you going to live according to this way that I have been explaining this morning? If you say yes, please raise your hands. God bless you.