Sun Myung Moon
February 15, 2002
Address at the World Culture and Sports Festival 2002 and the Inter-religious and International Federation for World Peace Assembly
Hilton Millennium Seoul, Seoul, Korea
Photo date and location unknown
Respected chairman, current and former heads of state, and honored guests:
I would like to thank you for participating in the World Culture and Sports Festival 2002, in this second year of the new millennium of hope, and making this event such a great success.
God's ideal of creation and the basis of peace
Humanity is living in an age when change is taking place at a faster pace than ever before. The world is feeling the need for dialogue among religions, harmony among the races, and understanding across cultures. I believe that is why the theme of the World Culture and Sports Festival 2002 is "Toward a World of a Culture of Peace of a New Dimension." As the founder of this conference, I would like to take this opportunity to share a part of the philosophy of peace that I have believed, practiced, and taught throughout my life.
Respected guests, what do you think is the fundamental root of peace, the peace humankind earnestly hopes for and continually demands? Where do we need to go, and what do we need to do in order to achieve peace? What is the obstacle that blocks humanity's path to peace? Is there any hope that we can bring about peace in this confused world where individualism and selfishness are rampant?
In order to know the fundamental root of peace, we have to examine God's ideal of creation. We cannot bring about peace without knowing God and the spirit world. The creation of heaven and earth is nothing other than the manifestation of God's true love. Human beings were created to be the masters of that world. They were to establish God's ideal of creation, that is, the kingdom of heaven on earth, and then go to the spirit world and establish the kingdom of heaven of eternal peace. Unless we establish the kingdom of heaven on earth, which is a world of peace, we cannot expect to live in such a world in the spirit world. What we call "the kingdom of heaven" is a place where the creation and humankind live for each other and where all human beings live for one another in harmonious unity.
However, with the Fall committed by our first ancestors, God's ideal of creation was cruelly destroyed, and it still has not been realized. Human beings fell into such ignorance that we did not know even that the relationship between God and humanity was that of Parent and child. Please look at the contemporary world, which has come about as a result of the human Fall. Deception and divorce decimate families, which otherwise would be overflowing with melodies of happiness and peace. Children, who ought to be cherishing their dreams for the future and cultivating their limitless potential under the warm security of their parents' love, instead are running into the streets out of a sense of failure and disappointment, becoming slaves to alcohol and drugs, and even throwing their bodies away in free sex. This is the absurd reality that we are witnessing. What do we see when we look at the leaders of today's nations, who ought to be responsible for their citizens and guide their nations in the direction of goodness? The real interest of many is in the preservation of their own power, not the future of their nation or the happiness of their citizens. Between nations also, isn't today's reality one of disharmony and struggle, where there ought to be understanding and peace? Instead, war is rampant. The path to the peace for humankind is blocked.
That is why we have no choice except to look to God, who has been carrying out His providence of salvation, by which He is establishing the ideal of true love and peace that He originally planned. God's providence of salvation is a providence to recover the original condition. That is, it is a providence of restoration. For the purpose of the providence of restoration, throughout the course of history God established religions, traditions and cultures in each age, as a way to expand the realm of goodness.
The fulfillment of the providence of restoration
Early in my life, I received Heaven's call for the sake of humankind's salvation. Ever since that time, my life has been a struggle to overcome persecution and suffering until arriving at the point on January 13, 2001, when I could offer to Heaven the Enthronement Ceremony for God's Kingship. Through this, I liberated God's heart and returned the kingship to God, who had been waiting for this moment for thousands of years ever since the Fall.
On the foundation of this event, the world has entered an age in which the spirit world and physical world can unite and communicate freely with each other. The spirit world is breathing in harmony with people in the physical world. Jesus' twelve disciples, and even the founders of the four great religions, have sent messages testifying to me as the True Parent of humankind and as the Messiah. Thus, the barriers that had divided the two worlds have been completely torn down. I declare before you that we are approaching the age when no one will want to live except by following the way of Heaven.
All people now need to establish true families in which they attend God as their Father. He is the "first generation," and these families who stand in the position of perfected Adam and Eve and become husband and wife will establish the realm of the second generation. The children whom they then procreate will bring to fruition the realm of the third generation. By following this path we can create a world free from sin, a world filled with true freedom, peace, and happiness, in which God's direct lineage will thrive on the earth generation after generation for all eternity. Then people will know God and the spirit world with certainty and clearly see the path to bring about peace.
What does peace mean? In human relations, peace means that the subject partner and the object partner become one with each other horizontally. It refers to a state of being level, of complete balance, where there is not even the slightest disturbance. In Chinese characters, the word for peace consists of two characters, one meaning flat, or horizontal, and another meaning harmony, or reconciliation.
God is the origin of true love
Thus, peace is not a solitary place that just one person can form. No one, no matter how hard they may try, can be happy by him or herself. True peace comes only when there is harmony in the relationships of above and below, right and left, and front and back, when there is no leaning to one side or the other. The world of peace is a world in which three-dimensional axes are established in the vertical, front-to-back, and horizontal directions, and where all things are in complete resonance with each other. When the seven colors of the rainbow are combined, they form the color white, which symbolizes harmony and peace. In the same way, peace is a pure white color within which all conditions and circumstances are fused in harmony. When all directions form complete harmony at a single point, then the two-dimensional plane is automatically transcended, the third dimension is taken on and an eternal nature is acquired. This is how the permanent peace of humanity can be established.
Peace does not exist in isolation. It has its root in true love. In the same way that freedom and happiness have their roots in true love, so also true peace cannot be accomplished unless we first bring about true love.
What kind of love is true love? It is love that gives and then forgets that it has given, that is, it is love that gives unconditionally. It is sacrificial love. In the same way that parents attach no conditions to the love by which they give birth, bring up, and provide for a child, all true love is love that gives unconditionally. It is love that even forgives an enemy and then gives to that person. It is a love that gives, and then keeps on giving. Because it gives without condition, true love does not even remember that it has already given. It is a love of unlimited giving. This was the love that God bestowed on human beings at the time He created us. That is why the origin of true love resides in God. When peace is established on the basis of this true love, it will become true peace and will bring with it freedom and happiness.
True peace is achieved where the mind and body are united
What, then, are the conditions that we must have in order to accomplish true peace? First, consider the relationship between your mind and body. The principle of Heaven is for the physical body, in the position of the object partner, to follow the direction of the mind, in the position of the subject partner, one hundred percent of the time.
No matter the time, place, or circumstance, the body has to stand before the mind as an absolute object partner, and move or rest in oneness with the mind. This is the way of heavenly law. The person whose mind and body have become completely harmonized in this way is a perfected human being. It is just such true individuals that God has earnestly desired since the beginning. Such true people are able to attend God as their substantial Father, and share with God all their emotions.
Yet, we do not need to examine our lives very deeply at all to feel how distant we are from fulfilling the ideal of such true human beings. When we assess our condition, we feel great embarrassment to hear ourselves referred to as the sons or daughters of God. There are many times when our mind is in the right place, yet our body does not follow, or when we allow ourselves to become slaves to our physical body even though it goes against our conscience, eventually compelling us to commit unintended wrongdoing.
No matter what it takes, we need to unite our mind and body, become the substantiation of true love, and then pull ourselves up to the stage of perfection. Each of us must become a true person who can call out to God, "My Father!" without the slightest sense of unworthiness or the smallest shadow. If we do that, we will become eternally luminous beings, who send out the light of the truth and love of our Father in Heaven. When we have completed our lives on earth, we will live eternally in the spirit world as the sons and daughters of Heaven, God's direct children.
Second, as members of a community such as a society or a nation, we have to practice living for the sake of others. This means we must respect each person's human rights. Under no circumstance may we commit the mistake of violating the human rights of another. People of all races are born with equal value. As far as race is concerned, God is colorblind. Racial discrimination, religious struggle, and selfish nationalism give rise to situations resulting in the violation of human rights. The age when people could be ruled by force has passed. The twenty-first century is an age when people live together, transcending race, nation, and religion. This means that the age of ruling through true love has begun.
The way to realize a world of peace
Respected world leaders, Jesus also said, "For the Son of Man also came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Matt. 20:28) Jesus made clear that the path to bringing about a world of peace lies in living for the sake of others, which is the heavenly way.
I have stated that the root of peace is true love. For this reason, we are all called to believe in God, who is the Author and Lord of true love, and follow the correct path of the heavenly law. Heavenly fortune will be with the person who does this, and such a person will be able to accomplish anything. I sincerely ask that each one of you accomplish the perfection of your character by forging the unity of your mind and body and through living for the sake of others, thereby securing a foundation for peace within your mind.
When we forgive even our enemies and live for their sake, we will be able to build a culture of peace on every level, from the individual to the world. This is the reason that last year I declared to all of heaven and earth the beginning of Cheon Il Guk, the Nation of Cosmic Peace and Unity. Cheon Il Guk signifies a world in which two live as one. On the lowest level, an individual's mind and body become one to form a perfected person. On a higher level, a husband and wife become one, and parents and children become one, so that the family is united across three generations. Then human beings can build a world where all people are under God as brothers and sisters and share in each other's emotions.
I have already commissioned more than ten thousand ambassadors for peace across the world so that Cheon Il Guk may settle in the world. In this context, I declared at the United Nations that all fighting over national borders must end. I also called for the United Nations to create a body of renowned spiritual leaders from around the world with final decision-making authority that transcends nation, race, and religion, to lead the way in building a world of peace.
The family is God's most precious gift
Third, we have to establish families where the flowers of true love blossom in full glory. Building a family takes more than one person. When a man and a woman who are completely mature in true love enter into a husband-wife relationship and bear and raise children, this family becomes a true family. Peace will automatically be with this family and it will overflow with happiness. The children need to maintain their virginity until they and their parents unite with another family in mutually agreed upon marriage. After marriage, they need to maintain fidelity to their spouse in the same way their parents did. This will extend this true family to the second generation. If the true lineage composed of true families extends to the third generation, then God will settle in this family, and the kingdom of heaven on earth, which has been humanity's long-held, earnest desire, will be accomplished.
Such true families will expand to constitute the kingdom of heaven on earth and in heaven. It will be a world of interdependence, mutual prosperity, universally shared values, and mutual love. It will be a world of peace in which we are all brothers and sisters to each other, live together, prosper together, and establish a righteous world where we all live for the sake of others.
This is the reason that the family is so important. The family is the most precious gift that God has given to humankind. The family is the basic unit for peace and happiness throughout the world and the basic unit for building the kingdom of heaven on earth. Even if a particular individual reaches perfection, this will end in just one generation unless he or she forms a family and has children through whom he or she can create a lineage.
Seen from the perspective of God's purpose of creation, the acceptance of homosexuality, which is multiplying like mushrooms all over the world, can only be described as a phenomenon that harbors the seeds of humanity's destruction. I hope that you will never forget this fact because, as leaders, it is your responsibility to enlighten humanity; you are responsible for the world. If you believe the truth given by Heaven and receive it, then what have you to fear? Please stand in the forefront of the effort to rid the world of such ailments as free sex and homosexuality, which work to destroy Heaven's true lineage and threaten world peace and humanity's very existence. I ask you to take on the role of pioneers working to spread the culture of peace in this world that is otherwise bound up in struggle and hatred.
We can play a leading role in restoring the environment
Fourth, as leaders of societies and nations, we must forbid all behavior involving the misappropriation or embezzlement of public funds under any circumstances. We must refrain from making personal use of public property or public funds. We also need to change the behaviors that destroy the environment, for it makes our lives possible and gives us enjoyment. Embezzling public funds and passing these on to one's child is an act more horrible than feeding the child poison.
The environmental destruction that I refer to here does not include just the destruction of the natural environment and the resulting pollution and exhaustion of resources. It also includes the destruction of the social environment that makes it possible for us to live and thrive together. Before God created human beings, He created the environment, and His desire is that we be stewards of the environment in accordance with His love and will, and by living in harmony with the environment to experience great joy in our lives. Let us become true persons who feel grateful to Heaven every time we see even a single blade of grass or a single cloud in the sky. Then we will naturally place ourselves in the forefront of the effort to eradicate pollution.
We have to establish the world of God's original ideal, and live for the realization of that ideal with humble hearts. Let us live with a heart of gratitude toward our parents who gave us birth and also toward everyone around us. We need to be always grateful for the fact that we are alive.
I hope that during the period of this conference you will have forthright discussions and share studies that contribute to the advancement of the peace of humanity.
Thank you.