Sun Myung Moon
July 29, 1974
International Leadership Seminar
Barrytown, New York
Once you have become an ideal self, then what would be your second desire or ambition? We don't even have to say that. Of course, the second desire of ours would be to find some good · mate. Mankind is man and woman; we call them mankind. We don't call all men "mankind." Our second desire is for true man and woman to become one. More precious than your own self is finding someone who can be your mate, your better half. No matter how perfect one may be, he can't be perfect alone; only when he finds someone as an opposite, someone in whom he can find his perfection, will he become perfect.
More precious than your own self is finding someone who can be your mate, your better half. No matter how perfect one may be, he can't be perfect alone; only when he finds someone as an opposite, someone in whom he can find his perfection, will he become perfect.
No matter how shabby she may be, there is no girl who would not want her better half to be someone far better than herself. The same thing can be said for a man. He wants to become perfect, but he would like his spouse to be a little more perfect. Then he would like to be happy, and feel happiness with her. So the ideal is to live in love, be intoxicated in love, fulfill all our higher ideals, and spread them around.
Then the question arises, is there such a man and woman? If we look all over the world and we cannot find even sporadically such ideal youth then how will we feel? God also will be immensely sad, and so will be all mankind past and future.
No matter what perfection an individual may achieve, this is not the end of the ideal; rather, it is the beginning of the ideal where he and his spouse will become one. There the ideal will begin. We can never deny that this is the desire of all mankind, and this is the desire of everyone.
This is a proclamation that we have made upon heaven and earth. We proclaimed this representing all history. This proclamation has been made to prepare the tradition for the future. No matter how high a wave may come in the future, we must be able to go through and over it. This is what all mankind wants, and this is what even God wants of us.
So far, God has had one objective, which is to make one perfect man and one perfect woman and one perfect youth. Since this cannot be achieved among fallen man, some man must be sent directly from God; this is the concept of the Messiah in all religions. That Messiah is one youth.
In Revelation, at the end of the Bible, it shows us clearly that the end of God's ideal is this perfect man and perfect woman; when they rejoice, embracing in holy matrimony, this is interchangeable for the entire universe. Once God has achieved this high ideal as a standard, then there will be more such individuals and families coming into existence; this is what God has been working for. So this is the highest ideal of God and the highest ideal of mankind. This is the deepest desire of God and also the deepest desire of mankind. Only around this one center can mankind and God eternally be happy and one.
Unchanging love
We want someone as a being opposite to us to be worthy of our eternal and unchanging love. Why? Because true love is of an eternal nature. I presume that you want only one perfect spouse, because such love will be absolute, and there will be only one. And then he or she will want his or her spouse to have absolute authority, because love is almighty. So therefore, since this is God, and we are born from God, we have come to have this very high ideal resembling God.
So what would you like to be? Would you like to be a child that is loved by God? And beyond that, would we like to mature ourselves so we can make God happy in turn? This should be not only our desire and ambition, but this must be God's desire.
The perfect family can only exist centered around perfect individuals. Then immediately you may think that if the most beautiful girl in the world can be your spouse, then you can be happy. But here it is different. This is the way all mankind has been thinking. Then who is the most beautiful man or the most beautiful woman in the world? The most beautiful man or the most beautiful woman in the world is the one who would like, with his good eyes, to see the good world. The most beautiful man or woman will be the one who wants more than anything else by far to hear with his ears something good, and nothing but good. And the most beautiful man or woman will be the one who with his nose not only smells cosmetics or other things, but who would also like to smell the goodness of the world. Who is the man who has the most beautiful mouth? It will be such a man who will not speak with his mouth about himself, but about the world. The man that is willing and ready to stand against the world and speak on behalf of God for the entire human history and mankind, such is the man who has the most beautiful mouth; therefore he is the most beautiful man.
No matter how well proportioned one may be, still if he is disliked by many, he will not be a good man. Everyone will like him or like her because of his character or her character; he will be a good good man, or she will be a beautiful woman. Do you understand that?
Unity of opposites
Actually even more ideal is a man who is one hundred years old and about to go to spirit world with a very little baby; when they become happy and play, then such a world will be the ideal world.
That leads us to say that when the most beautiful man or woman and the most ugly man or woman become one, and when they will never for anything in the world leave each other, then that will be the most ideal combination. And such people are the most ideal people.
I've been going to the Atlantic Ocean for some fishing. About a week ago there was a storm, but I ventured into it. The waves were tossing very high, and then I thought, the wind blows from one direction, but why doesn't it make one great wave? Because it obeys the principle of the universe, everything is in contrast: high and low, high and low, fast and slow.... From all these variations comes the ideal.
For a high mountain there should be a deep abyss. And in the deepest valley is stored everything that comes from high above. In the highest place there is nothing beyond, but there one can look down on the lower place, and make something of it. That's the ideal. So therefore, the action of give and take is in the whole universe. The highest will balance with the lowest, and that's the way the symmetry is. When this is all achieved without consciousness, when everything is achieved automatically, there is automatically the ideal.
If someone has much money and someone else doesn't have much money, and if the one who has a lot of money keeps it all to himself, he will be unhappy, himself and others. When he learns to give this all to the ones who don't have much, then he will be worthy of being the center of that money.
If you go deeper and deeper into the earth, it becomes warmer and warmer. Then appears the phenomenon of deterioration or corrosion. Because things become too hot, they evaporate and go up. So here, the high will reward the low. As we all know, water flows to the lowest point from above. But it again goes in the air as vapor. So we easily find out that the lowest thing has some means of dominating the highest, for instance, becoming a cloud and dominating the high mountain.
In this world, if here is an advanced country, there is a backward country. If there is a rich country, there is a country which is not so rich. Where there is the Occident, there is the Orient. And when these establish a perfect harmony, as opposites or a pair, then the ideal will start to exist. And the Unification Church is responsible for teaching this to the entire world.
Rhythm comprises music, and that's also the way the wind blows. The wind doesn't blow in just one gust. So when the wind is analyzed in this way, we discover a wave. When the wind blows steadily from one direction still the branches of a tree toss their heads to and fro. So also when we breathe we inhale and we exhale. Sometimes we bat our eyelashes, and that's variety. Where is harmonious variety? That is the problem. There is no man who can claim, "Since I have a mathematical nature, I don't approve of that." No matter how philosophical or mathematical he may be, everything goes by this rhythm; he can't deny that.
Harmony of East and West
Western people sleep with their stomach down. Many people sleep in this way. They are symbolizing, without their knowledge, looking down at the earth. Almost all Orientals sleep with their back down. That means they are looking up to heaven, and it symbolizes the spiritual civilization. Especially at the termination of the age, people act according to the symbolic meanings. At this moment, the Western people may feel diminished a little bit, but we can't help it, that's a fact; how can you alter the fact? The Western civilization will serve the world in terms of material, by material. But that's not all. The Orient will be in the leading position of the world with its spiritual nature.
The East contributes to the West. God his one high ideal. Since two elements form happiness, He has provided man with a spiritual nature, and in contrast, a material nature. By harmoniously balancing high and low these, He has expected happiness. It's very interesting that when an American summons people, he motions with his palm up. Actually, he is symbolizing, "Heaven, come this way, come my way." And when Oriental people summon people, they motion with their palms down. That means they, being in heaven's position, call "Earth, come." That is very symbolic.
In the West, the flute, for instance, is played to the left. In the East it is played to the right. It symbolizes the external or horizontal development. Material profit is made by Western enterprising nature. Western civilization analyzes everything to its least part. But the Oriental way of thinking aims at the crux or heart of the problem, to grasp it as a whole.
When Western people are happy, they express it all throughout their members. They show it completely, they have nothing to hide. But there is such a thing as Oriental ambiguity. When he is happy, sometimes he looks happy and sometimes unhappy. He rarely shows the root and the top.
All throughout history, it has been an Oriental virtue to discard everything material, so that men become whole in a spiritual manner.
Orientals are poor. They are not poor because they are bad, but because they are destined to be poor by God. Therefore, God has prepared the Western civilization reciprocally for the Oriental civilization. We must be very sure of one thing, that at the end of a merely material civilization, nothing but misery will remain. Whereas at the end of a spiritual civilization, hope pops up. Hope is what we get after being poor all this time. When we ask, "Where are you going,
Westerners," Westerners must answer, "We are heading to the East to learn," which is as it is supposed to be. And when Orientals are asked, "Where would you like to go?" they would like to come to the West, where they may experience some of the things that they had never experienced until now.
We can safely predict, and everybody can easily understand, that we are just about at the brink, at the end, of material civilization. From here, we can expect something very drastic.
The only way for the survival for Western people is to try to find some path which is valuable, through which they can consider the Oriental way of thinking very valuable. In other words, we must subjugate ourselves to Oriental thought and go into it and learn from it, because one learns only after he humbles himself. Expanding your ideal
Then what is the youth's ideal, after perfecting himself and after meeting the perfect mate? Such a man and wife and such a family will want to have everybody in the world as their friend. The world will be a happy multitude which will be happy just looking at all their brothers and sisters in the entire world; when they become friends, it will be such a beautiful sight. Those are the multitudes who will make their credo to love God more than their own nation. It will be those people who can love their God-centered brothers and sisters more than anything else they have in the world. Wouldn't that be the highest ideal that youth can put its aim to? The person who extends his love through and beyond his own mate, to the brothers and sisters of the entire world, will be the successful person, the only successful person. He must be centered around God, because without God we don't exist.
If you concentrate man to a seed, what is the seed? Before the child was the parents, so the parents are your origin or seed, you might say. So let us say it is origin, because the seed is an origin, and from the origin you are born. Then what is the origin of your own parent? Parent, parent, parent, parent, parent... Then it goes back to the ultimate cause, and that is God.
The only hope and purpose of every living being's life is to resemble its own source. Let us examine a seed. A seed is always split into two and is surrounded by one pouch. And if you take a smaller portion, then it is in a different sac, but it is still divided into two. No matter how small a seed you may take as an example, everything is split in that way. Then who does it? It resembles the ultimate cause. What is the ultimate cause? God. So God has a dual capacity, or dual essentiality as one necessary character. Everything else does also, because it takes after the principle.
To take another example, even an individual has two elements: the body or flesh and the conscience. That's the plus entity and minus entity. When they go against each other they perish. When you take the example of the seed, do the two elements within the seed fight each other? They never fight. If they did there would be no plant. What about the king of all the animals, mankind? As an individual, are you one? Are you perfected? If not, you have no life. In other words, you haven't become a seed yet. A perfected man or woman must become one. When man and woman become one, then they are happy. Why are a man and woman happy together? Because in that way, they resemble, and come closer to God; that's why they are happy.
Each individual has to have a root, and he has to have a trunk, and then he must have leaves. So the three will comprise a tree. Who is your root? Your parents. You have to make a perfect trunk out of yourself.
All seeds contain all the elements of a plant. So when you plant a seed, a root comes. It comes from something, because there is something in it. The trunk comes because a trunk was already there, and it has leaves. The leaves come because there already have been leaves.
When you look at a tree, it resembles a closed circle. Why? Because God is like that. God is round, so it becomes round. The base is round, the trunk is round, the branches are round. Round things rotate faster. They run easier anywhere. It is like a ball, which, if you kick it, will go very easily everywhere. So that's why you need something round and complete in your character. That's why everybody resembles this round shape.
Everything is in three steps. Even the finger has three steps or joints, and the arm has a hand and upper and lower arms, it's all three. Also the head and body and trunk... because that's the principle of God. So we see these three steps: root, trunk, and leaves. When you live in conformity with these three elements, the world can be yours, and God will not protest.
A void extreme individualism
Then let us ask these American people, "Are you precious individually or in a collective sense?" Collective. Is your value temporary or eternal? Eternal. Is it absolute value or something that can be diminished? Absolute. Everybody is very ambitious, as if he was a thief trying to rob everything from God. But God doesn't mind: as long as you are living within principle, He doesn't mind.
One of the extreme forms of individuality in which we live now is, "I don't need anybody. I am selfsufficient. I don't need any parent." Individualism is wrong; it does not fit the principle of existence. In other words, it doesn't resemble the seed. So we must correct it. If we say the family is one unit, then the root of that family is the parents. Americans feel, "I don't need anybody. I need myself." Further, some people say, "I don't need a wife." Or if they need a wife, they can go anywhere and money will take care of it. Will that work for God or not? It cannot.
The trunk has two functions. One is the sipping the water up, and the other bringing the water down. From the date of birth to the date of death, we have one trunk. That has duality, too, man and wife. Would you like to become that trunk? Can you change a new trunk every day? You might as well go to spirit world or die early if you are going to be variable, changing every day. When the trunk is changing minute by minute or hour by hour, or day by day, how can branches and leaves come out from it? They will automatically die. We must bear historical fruit. We must bear the fruit which resembles the original entity.
Youth is like a tree root. Even the root is formed in a round shape. That's the period of youth. In that period youth prosper and grow big. In order for a trunk to become a perfect trunk, it must have a perfect root, from which it must get all the nutrients. We must make sure that we exist now for the past, and that we shall exist for the future. And that's the sole purpose of our existing now. So the one who changes every so often and the one who disappoints others will never bear fruit.
The period of youth, of course, is the most brilliant period of man's life. He works harder, wishes the highest ambition, expects the best in the world, and. then works hardest. When a perfect man and perfect woman become complete, then a flower will bloom one day. When there is a flower, there are all good scents and fragrances and honey. That's the beginning of love, and that's the period of youth.
When man and woman come together, they will have that fruit, and from that something that resembles them will appear. That's what we call a child. These are the same three steps: parents, ourselves, and children. All throughout the world leaves and branches of one trunk will prosper. Then don't you need leaves? Doesn't a tree need leaves? Yes. So for you a child is absolute necessity.
When you have all three elements with you, then you can say that you are a man. So any man must have these three. Some are selfish, keeping all of these for themselves. When you confess, "I am doing all of this to please my parents," then God will be happy and you will be happy. Everybody will be happy to see such a one. Everybody will be grateful for him. No one will do anything for himself, but would rather do it for his spouse. Western or Eastern, black or white, yellow or black, everyone is saying in unison, "Yes."
When the parent does everything that he can and works so hard simply for the sake of his children, then everybody will look up to him and say "Beautiful." We must remember that this is the path or procedure that we have to take in order for us to bear good fruit. The root exists for the trunk and for the leaves. The trunk exists for the root and the leaves. The leaves exist solely for the trunk and the roots. There the ideal exists. Have you ever done something very good for your own parents? Have you ever stopped to think that since your parents existed earlier than you did, that they are more precious than you? Those people should be called good who value the roots more than themselves. We call such a man who loves his children more than himself a good man. We must realize that this is the long existing and deepest principle of the truth of goodness.
Become an unchanging standard
Once you become the one complete self with all these, then would you like to become someone who changes easily, or who does not change eternally? Among these three, the root changes least. In other words, the leaves change more easily than the trunk and the trunk changes more easily than the root, but the root changes the least.
When you grow as a tree, would you like to grow straight up, or would you want to grow curved? Straight. Do you want to go high, or low? High. In other words, you are looking for the ideal, ambition, and hope. Would you like to become large or small? Large. Would you like the reality to be an individual one, or a worldwide one? Worldwide. You are not different from any tree. A tree would be the same. These brilliant and full-grown trees will be the center of all plants and animals and creation. When the time comes, there are flowers and fruits.
Do you get married because of your spouse's sake, or for your children's sake? Children's. But now, everybody gets married for himself or herself. The only reason why you have to give everything to your child is so that your fruit will be fruitful in that way. The reality of the ideal is accomplished when these joys become real and all these principles are in one accord.
So far we have not realized that the reason we are living is for the future, so that we will see a better future than our present life. We had not realized this yet. Throughout history we have wanted to get married, but we didn't know why we did it. We wanted to get married and have children, but we don't know why we wanted children. Now we know. It has always been because of God, in order to resemble God. He wishes to see the world a perfect world where mankind can live, as in our example of a tree.
Have you ever heard that such an individual existed, that such a family or nation existed? We are going to have it now. All the branches are from East, West, North, and South. The directions of civilization in the East and West are completely different. Although the directions are different, they are all absolutely necessary for the center. Even the very tip of the tree is in a way like a branch. It all depends on which angle you look at it, but it's the same thing. So everything, according to its angle, is different. Some grow in a horizontal way and some vertically; according to the angle a branch has, its value is different.
Alignment with the center
What is the most valuable thing? The most valuable thing is the one that resembles its center in angle. So this is why we wish to become similar to the center one. The branch that extends to the East and the branch that extends to the West have two different or opposing directions. But since there is one trunk and one center line, these are all harmonious, although their direction is different.
We have things of every direction and every shape, so what God now needs is one center, centered on which everything can direct its own way. Then God will have something to judge values by. He is going to make that criterion. In the family it is the same way, and in the larger group it is the same way -- God needs some criteria by which He can compare and judge the value of others.
The reason why He is urging you to become the most perfect individual in the world, the most perfect family and nation in the world, is so that you can serve as a trunk, as one center line. Once that value or criterion is established, then God can judge values in comparison to that. So with these we have come to have a new ideal for the family today. Then how far does the ideal of a family extend? To the world. Then we have to be the center of the nation which represents the world. Then centered around that, we have to establish a criterion by which different things can go in different directions. We should not forget that heaven is trying to nurture us to become a member of the country which is to serve this purpose. So such will be the ideal, things will start from the small and become ever higher and ever larger. Still, they resemble one principal entity.
Let us repeat our conclusion once more. We must achieve our perfection, which will never be less than any historical achievement. We will become the men and women who never appeared before in history. We shall bear and raise children which all the world and mankind would like to have. This is the purpose of creating and obtaining the ideal society and the ideal world under God.
No bigger ideal
God works twenty-four hours a day for the world, so we must resemble God. We must take after God and His effort. So we must think all the time, twenty-four hours a day, about the world. When we establish ourselves on this ideal of God, then it will be ours. And that's the most beautiful ideal that one youth can have.
Now we know that our path and purpose in life is to raise good children and resemble God, as has been explained, in three stages. We shall never err in our direction. We shall go unchanging towards this one direction. So our members love their brothers and sisters more than anything else, and they will love their parents better than anything else. Such will be our attitude. So we must live for others. This is the one pattern that we must establish for our followers to copy. In return the world will be ours, and the world will love us. There are many, many seemingly big things, but nothing is bigger than this, believe me. This is most fundamental.
I hope that you resemble God, do everything for God, and understand God. I wish you all happiness, and all security, and all closeness to God in the future.