Sun Myung Moon
July 29, 1974
International Leadership Seminar
Barrytown, New York
There is no youth that does not have hope. And what is that hope or ambition? Some people might say, "It is my ambition to succeed in the subject I am majoring in." But when we get really serious and ask, "ls that really your ambition?", then not so many people are very confident. By the time someone has achieved that ambition, then he must start all over again. This is most probable. By the time he has achieved as a professor, and teaches ever) day on the blackboard, he will suddenly realize this is not the ambition that he has been seeking.
It is very safe to assume that no matter how a person has achieved his ambition, there are very few people who can feel, "I have achieved it, and I am really happy and contented." Once he has achieved in a certain area, he would like to go beyond that. In other words, the people do not want to stay at reality, but they would like to go beyond that reality. Then what really is youth's hope or ambition?
It is a fact that no matter how hard we try, at least in the past, we have never been able to say, or heard anybody say, after reaching the goal of his own ambition, "I am happy, for I have accomplished it." No matter how big a man he will become in the world, he still has to achieve something more, look for something farther.
Then what does youth really want? Is it not the ambition of youth to become invariable, eternally constant and the center of the world? No matter how accomplished he is, unless he is accomplished in a personal way, as a human being, he will be unhappy.
Hope starts within us
Then how can we be secure with our own sense of happiness, once we are established? This is one of the gravest goals that we have to consider. Regardless of his country, any youth you may pick out and speak to still has the ambition to go beyond his own national boundary. But even though he may stand on that level, there is no true ideal. The ideal begins to exist only starting from one's self. The conclusion is that the basic hope and ambition of youth must start from a certain central point within ourselves, from which we can go cowards the world.
What is the true sense of our perfection, and what is the center of our hope? If such a person existed, with his center well founded, then he would have been happy in the past, happy now, and happy in the future. Such a person, when the world looks at him would be the most dependable and most beautiful person. Everyone would like to devote himself to such a person. Such an ideal person must be accepted consistently throughout history. Then how can such a person come into existence?
The image of ideal youth should be the one who can represent the world, including every country, and the one who can represent the three ages of the past, present, and future. If such a youth existed on earth, he would be the treasure of the world. As you all know, precious treasures do not go away in a short time. Inevitably and invariably they have an eternal quality. Such a youth reflects the total. We must all covet such an image of youth.
Then we must think about mankind itself. When we look at a man, we see two in him, an external man and internal man. And in him we see two aspects, the man that has to do the ideal, and the man that is a physical being. Then what is the ideal? The ideal represents everybody; it excludes nobody. The ideal does not display itself momentarily, but for eternity.
Chinese concept of the ideal
The "ideal," in Chinese characters, is comprised of a left side ("king") and a right side ("village"); in other words, "king's village." One side symbolizes the whole, and the other side represents the center. When the whole focuses on one center, then that is ideal. A single man will never achieve that; only with the entirety surrounding the original center will the ideal exist.
Each Chinese character has a deeper meaning, representing one thought. The elements of the ideal are again the tree on the left side, and eye on the right side -- "the eye of the tree." So the eye of the tree also symbolizes the whole. And then you simply put "mind." So when all those get together, that becomes one concept. Then it is not very difficult to understand that when people started using these characters, they unknowingly included all the elements of happiness and the ideal in the concept of the ideal. And on this basis alone, developing our own environment for this one purpose, the ideal can come to exist.
So to make it short, the ideal can never be achieved by one person. Only when there is a perfect object, upon which we can work and be worked, can the ideal exist. There is no ideal with only one man. When a reciprocal relationship is established, there the ideal begins to exist. Then what is the ideal youth? The ideal youth can never be alone in himself, but he has to be equipped with both sides, so he can represent everything.
Every individual is different from another. Some people have special points in outer things, and some in inner things. Some people are very weak, and some are very strong. Some people are noble, and some are lowly. The ideal person will be someone who can embrace both ends and stand at the center.
What is the ideal youth? The ideal youth is the one who encompasses everything and stands strong as the center. He is concerned nor only about himself, but also his own village, family or country. He is interested not only in the present, but also the past, the future, and the world.
We have to center around God
We speak not only about individuals and mankind, but when a person tries to achieve some relationship with God, then he will be an ideal youth. If God exists, what would God be like? You may have already had in your image that God is someone who is the center of the whole. Then in God we can represent the present, past, and future. And also, from no matter what direction -- East, West, South, and North -- we have to center around God. Then God must be an entity which is the center of the whole universe.
Then what kind of a relationship should be between God and mankind? Man, by nature, takes after God. In other words, man likes to become God, or like God. But if he in himself becomes an entity of God, then he no longer has the subject -- object relationship. To be ideal, we must have the lateral relationship as well as the vertical relationship. So we have both characters within ourselves, to have a complete, perfect relationship outwardly and also inwardly. There are some persons who would like to live centered around their body, whereas some people would like to live centered around their mind and spirit.
We know by experience and by learning from the past that when we center around outer things, they pass away, and we are easily invaded because of the vulnerability of the inside. So it is imperative that man has something absolutely necessary: internal strength.
Only after we find some identity and harmony between our spirit and body can we begin to see such a thing as the ideal. And this very point is when we see God. Centered around God, we would like to live with our conscience and our body in a harmonious relationship. When this harmony is achieved within an individual, that individual in perfect harmony would like to achieve harmony with God. That's man's desire. As you already know, when you have a strong conscience, you become a strong man.
This leads us to another inevitable conclusion: when we become completely harmonious within ourselves, when our spirit is dominant and our flesh is subjugated in a reciprocal position, then we are likely to become as strong as God Himself. So we can safely conclude, in an oversimplified manner, that man can only become ideal, or start seeing the ideal, when his mind and his body can achieve perfect harmony.
Heaven is unity
You cannot say "It is good," when you are alone. Goodness is something you like. Its Chinese character means simply man and woman, that's all. When subject and object become completely one, such as when man and woman become completely one, then that's good. This is not only an Oriental ideal, but also an ideal that has been held by the Western world.
The Bible says that God created man and it wasn't good enough, so He made woman, and that was good enough. We can never deny that it takes a reciprocal position to become ideal or good. In other words, the ideal comes only when true man and true woman unite. That's the ideal. And it is also a very logical, reasoning that before that goodness comes, an individual must have complete harmony between his mind and conscience, when they really become one, that will be the element of future happiness.
Then what is heaven like? Heaven is nothing but two separate things achieving one unity. That's heaven. The standard Chinse character is written as "two men." There is no character for heaven except that. That's very revealing, isn't it? Why did mankind start using that character a long time ago? Because man's ideal, by its own nature, is directly connected with the ideal. The symbol of the ideal is achieved only through the symbol of the unity of the two. So this very simple process is already expressed in one character. We can never deny, beyond any cultural sphere, that it takes two to achieve the ideal.
We by nature think we are precious. What makes man think himself so precious? We feel this simply because we have a long way to go to achieve that built -- in desire for the ideal. We can say the objective of our ideal is to achieve this unity between our mind or conscience and our body. It is not the person whose conscience goes in one way and body another who is ideal, but the person in whom these two will eternally head in one direction -- such is the image of the ideal.
Our body, for example, always thinks centered around itself, and the conscience always thinks in terms of the whole. And when these become one, then such a perfect person will embrace both sides. Let us examine ourselves. Have our body and our conscience become completely one? If we call our body the plane, then we can consider our spirit an added dimension. Where is that exact crossing point? That is the point where we can find our ideal. When such a person becomes one, then he can represent all directions; that is God, and then we resemble God. Also, the body has a time element; our spirit is unlimited by time. So when the limited part and the limitless part become one, there the ideal exists.
Since mankind has not yet become like that, some people say that God simply does not exist. But if God exists, and if He is that way, then our mind and body must function like God's. Otherwise, God must have two opposite directions. What I am trying to say is that God is not that way, although it appears to us that He is like that; that's where we are wrong.
So that's where we must recognize the fall of mankind. There we find the need of educating ourselves and also mankind. We can't say, "God is wrong." So God must be right, and we must be wrong here. To make this great repair in human history and make it perfect is the task of religion.
Conscience existed first
Then what is the more valuable thing? The more precious and valuable thing is something that existed before "I" or "this" began to exist. Considering our conscience and our body, which came to exist first?
We can never deny that man was not, in himself, a motive. Man was born by some other motive. And when you ask, "Which is first: the cause or the effect?" we must say, "The cause is first." Then how can man communicate with the cause? The only avenue is the conscience, and nothing but the conscience.
We acknowledge that everybody cherishes more the person who loves him spiritually, whose love stems from the deeper sphere of his mind. When two people love you at the same time, you· will almost always choose the one whose love stems from the mind, rather than the flesh.
Why do you consider the conscience more to be cherished than the flesh? Because it existed earlier. Then what is the earliest being that existed in the world? That is God. So God is of absolute value. We can recognize the importance of a person born by God, but only in a secondary place. He can never be in the first place, because the first place is already occupied by God. Then how can the cause (God) and the effect (man) be connected? That element must be of the utmost eternity, and represent the whole. That element within ourselves is the conscience, or mind. So what connects us to God is first the conscience. So therefore, the man of conscience is always cherished as more valuable than the man of flesh, because the conscience existed before the flesh.
Why subjugate your body?
People have been separated into these two different positions or areas, and religion has tried to bring them together. So the first proclamation of all religions is to become one with God, centered around conscience. And the second command of all religions is, once you become one with God, centered around your conscience, then subjugate your body. Do as your mind wills; don't do as your flesh wills. And that is the oversimplified content of all religion.
Religion commands that you deny everything that has to do with the body. Why? Because man, who was originally created to become one centered around the spirit, denied it, and Satan has come to occupy our body. He would like to do everything through our bodies. Our body does not think about others; it thinks about its own preservation. There is no ideal in this way of life. This kind of man works against the ideal, destroying the ideal, but he can never help any ideal. So we find the perfect religion in the perfect denial of the body. Therefore, God always commanded mankind, "Sacrifice your body."
God has been teaching everything in the reverse way; for example, "Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted." (Matt. 23:12) Only after we understand this we can understand the passage in the Bible: "Whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it." (Luke 17:33)
Then the development of religion can be expected only when there is a perfect denial of our body. Any religious sect which centers around itself and tries to interpret and develop its own way will never become the center of the religions of the world, simply because this goes against the will and nature of God. But any religion, no matter how small, that denies itself and wills what God wills, must inevitably flourish with God. Such a religion will prosper and encompass the whole world. The basis and background of all culture has been religion. And God has been trying, through religion, to make persons perfect as individuals. Here we must accept the fact that God exists, seeing all the things that God has been achieving for us.
Happiness that God and man share
What happens when we let ourselves be occupied by conscience? We will become a person who can praise the eternal value and his own value. We will feel such value when both the cause and effect become one harmonious whole. At that point, we will feel our body exhilarate. Just imagine, at that perfect stage, what keen happiness we will feel! A person at such a stage of perfection will feel exhilaration and happiness even beyond his five senses. It is something of the other dimension. It can be very safe to say that no one among this large crowd has previously experienced such an exhilaration and happiness.
Most people don't even know whether or not God exists, much less what the source of their conscience is. When you find out there is such a thing as conscience, and that it is valuable and godly, then you will feel valuable. When you find out that you have elevated yourself in God's level of conscience, then what keen happiness you will feel! Imagine that there is some realm of happiness which you can only imagine and hope to get near. If God exists, there must be some level where God and man can feel happiness and exhilaration together. If man once finds out such a thing exists, then he will sacrifice everything for that purpose. Don't you want that? If you have once gotten that, you will never exchange it for anything in the world or everything in the world.
Then you will find God not as something external to you, but one who has always been with you; you have only magnified Him to His greatness. So in that position, God's everything will become your everything. And also God's life will be your life. And the almighty power of God will naturally become our almighty power. This is the position where we can really feel the entire love of God.
God cannot achieve His love and ideals Alone
If in that position we can feel completely the love of God, how happy we would be! If it hadn't been for the fall, our flesh would have been in the reciprocal position to Him. Happiness, if it was once achieved as it was intended to be, would have been eternal -- lasting throughout eternity, not just our momentary life. Man should have been in such a position that when God is happy, he would be just as happy in such a reciprocal position to Him, where He Himself can feel that happiness through man.
God can never be happy alone. When God has love, He cannot love all by Himself. When God has an ideal, He can never feel that ideal or achieve that ideal alone. The endless ideals, endless happiness, and endless everything which God has can never be achieved without mankind. When we suddenly realize that that's the high and eternal value with which man was created by God, how happy can we be! If a man can experience one such day of happiness, and completely become one with God, he will never trade this life for a thousand years of life centered around the flesh. Don' t you think so?
Throughout the long history, God has been looking for this perfect, ultimate ideal. We must learn that although God has longed for this for many, many thousands of years, up until now He has never found such a level of perfection within us. We should have been completely one, a harmonious one, in the very beginning. We didn't make that, so we have been separate, struggling, suffering, and tortured. This is the history of mankind. Can anyone deny that. We are not in that position now? Once he finds out that this is the true meaning, then no one will say, "I won't go." Everybody will go forward. A person will then only worry about how he can get there.
Religion is all -- important
Can he get there by using his own brain, mind, and ability, or something else at his command? No. There is no way except to train ourselves to become closer and closer to God's way of acting and thinking. In a word, it is absolutely impossible for a man to attain that goal without going through the path that religion teaches. Then can we conclude that religion is necessary among mankind? How necessary? It is all -- important.
When we set our course in this direction, if something comes out against it, deny it. If one's own parents oppose him, religion has taught him to oppose them. He must overcome, even if his entire family or entire country goes against him. Everything you cherish as being most valuable, you have to deny it, go beyond it.
God has been doing this all throughout history. God can do that only because of His love. God is trying to give you something which is beyond all of these; regardless of all the sacrifices you make. Therefore, He asks this of you.
When we find God's ideal, His endless giving to us, and His concern, then this shall be the starting point of our ideal. We can receive God's life, God's love, and God's ideal. All of these we can receive. This is the hope of the youth.
Youth craves the highest ideal
Therefore, youth looks for and craves for the ideal. Does it want the lower ideal or the higher ideal? Higher. How far up? To penetrate through God. We must love God, and go higher, to the extent that we can go over anything that is valuable to us at this moment. Therefore, man has had a craving for high ideals ever since his realization of himself, and even now is trying desperately to reach them. And actually, you are caught in that net.
So the ideal must be high, so high that it will go through heaven. It must be the ideal that can be able to liberate everything. It must be able to liberate not only mankind, but also God. If that is the ideal, isn't that high enough? If God cannot achieve this, if He does not see this achieved within mankind, He Himself cannot be liberated. This is why God is fettered now.
When we see somebody doing something wrong, against his conscience, then we go and demand of him, "Do you have a conscience?" At that moment he will realize himself that he is faced with the principle of eternal things. That's something that has to do with God.
Conscience has its own cause, and that cause is God. That entity must be the ideal entity of an eternal, limitless, and unchanging nature. Our conscience is heading for that very point. When there is a perfect flower, then everybody wants to make it his. Every man has a sense of comparison. Then what would he like to compare himself to? Not to another man, because we don't want something that changes. We want something which is limitless, boundless, and eternal, something which never changes. The ideal is this high.
Standing on the highest position of the ideal itself, when you call for God, He will come right over. Just imagine, when our spirit is in that position, then· our flesh is automatically controlled by it. When our conscience laughs, then our body also laughs with it. If our conscience can be able to smile eternally, our body will be able to smile eternally also. Have you ever met such a person?
So the Bible says, "God in me, and me in God." Jesus pointed out, "I am in the Father and the Father in me." (John 14: 10) By nature we have every element that can be connected with God. Only by religion could you deny your body and go very confidently where your spirit commands you.
Live for God and the world
We have witnessed in a 400 year period, people who became the prey of lions, and who have been crucified, and who have gone through tortures, but were still happily holding this one ideal. They were more confident and happy than ever when they went through this path in Rome. That is possible. Once you have experienced this perpetually, then you will want nothing but this to take you straight to your objective. In this position alone, man has endless and limitless value.
So youth has the highest ideal and ambition. Many, many people act for their individual happiness. But imagine, no matter how hard you try, can you liberate yourself? No. That is a very miserable situation.
Some people live for the sake of their family. We might say, "That's slightly better than if he lives for himself." And some people will even live a little higher than that, in order to try to liberate their own clan. Some people dedicate their lives for the sake of their country. The average youth can go as high up as to sacrifice for the sake of his country. If one has stepped beyond this, living for the sake of the liberation of the world, then such a person has been called a sage and saint. But imagine, even after that, if the world is liberated but God is not liberated, then we cannot call such a world the ideal.
There are two types of men -- some men live materially, and some men live according to their conscience. We can see clearly these two differing ideals, one materialism and the other spiritualism. It is sad that in the democratic world, which is supposed to be a good world, we don't know what constitutes the conscience, and especially where the conscience is heading. On the other hand, materialism or Communism will, never liberate the spirit. Communism, once it flourishes to a certain degree, will never be able to go beyond that.
Then in this viewpoint, what is more valuable, Communism or a God -- centered theory? The God -- centered theory. Conscience must have existed before material did. So we come to the rational conclusion that even the Communists one day must recognize God.
The body is stronger than the mind most of the time, but we can never deny the precedence and strength of the mind. In your very presence here, your mind commanded your body to come; your conscience said, "Reverend Moon is here; we are going to go and listen to him." Your flesh never said, "Conscience, let's attend the lecture." Oneness must come somewhere: where can we find this unity?
Communism and the Free World can never become one as they are, because they are in the world of result. Just as our conscience is perpetually fighting against our body, so also will the Communists and Free World struggle until the end. As long as they keep on fighting, there is no ideal. Even though man tries to find some solution within the world, he is not going to find it. Man is sick. When you heal that sick man, the cure will not be a permanent one, unless you locate the cause of the ailment; then you eliminate the pain.
Individual solution to world problem
The solution to the world problem is an individual solution. When an individual himself finds what made him wrong, and what can repair him, then he can repair the world. We must emphasize this point, it is not the world that we are concerned with; we must be concerned first with ourselves -- that's the beginning of the entire thing. No matter how peaceful and happy the world may become in the future, unless man can become happy, that world has nothing to do with him. It is not a feasible idea that an imperfect man can make something perfect. It's never possible; you might as well not try it.
First, we must become ideal men before we hope that somebody else becomes ideal. An ideal man should speak on behalf of the past and the present; the same person will have achieved something for the future. If there is some man who is able to do all this, he can first be called an ideal man. Unless this one man approves something, there is no such thing as the ideal. We must have some movement, some current culture which will look very seriously for this direction.
No matter how dear and precious and valuable past human culture may have been, it cannot be compared with what is to come. Throw it away, discard it, and you will find new things; at this point we will be on the eternal course God set for us. If any youth desire that, God will immediately know; He will guide them on the path through which they may attain the goal. That is the first ideal -- that's the highest ideal that youth can have.
If there is a youth of this nature and determination, who lives this kind of life, then he will be the treasure of the past history, and he will be the treasure of the present time, and he shall be the treasure of the eternity to come.