Sun Myung Moon
April 10, 1990
Eleventh World Media Conference
Sobin Center, Moscow, USSR
Photo date and location unknown
It is a great honor and pleasure to convene with you this historic eleventh World Media Conference in the city of Moscow, the capital of the Soviet Union. The theme of this conference is, "The Advancement of Global Communication and Cooperation," and I feel there is no place more appropriate to gather for these discussions than right here in the Soviet Union.
Furthermore, it is an added pleasure for me to open these proceedings because we are simultaneously conducting the third conference of the Summit Council for World Peace and a gathering of the Association for the Unity of Latin America. Both of these excellent organizations are also committed to the quest for world peace.
For me to come to Moscow is an emotional experience. I would like to express my appreciation to the Soviet government, especially the officials of Novosti Press Agency. You have welcomed us to your great capital in a most hospitable manner. My wife and I, and our entire family, are moved by your kindness. I am sure that all of the guests in this room, who have come from every corner of the world, including former heads of state and government, will join with me in expressing deep gratitude to our hosts in this country. Would you join with me in giving them a round of applause?
I was recently asked by members of the Soviet media regarding my views on the importance of a spiritual renaissance as a precondition to social, economic and political progress. I would like to take this opportunity to elaborate on some of those views. I believe that such a spiritual renaissance is vitally important. To achieve it, we need to deepen our understanding of the human condition. This calls for some reflection on philosophical and religious topics. It may not directly concern either communications or media, but for me it is the fundamental understanding necessary to secure true peace in our world. Furthermore, it is the essence of what I have discovered through my lifelong search, and the core of my teaching.
God's original ideal
When we observe our universe, we recognize that every being exists through the union of paired elements. This is true on all levels, beginning even with the mineral realm. Molecules are produced from the harmonious interactions of positively charged atomic nuclei and negatively charged electrons. In the case of flowering plants, existence and reproduction require the union of male and female reproductive cells produced within the stamen and pistil.
The pair system is even more obvious on the level of animals. Fish, birds, mammals and other types of animals exist as male and female. Finally, human beings, the supreme creations of God, are either men or women. The first man, Adam, and the first woman, Eve, were the original ancestors of humankind. What is the purpose of the pair system? Why did God create in this way? The Creator divided all things into male and female so that they might unite through their give-and-receive relationship of love. Through the action of love, each species multiplies and extends its lineage.
Human ambition is limitless and infinite. Then what is the true goal of this infinite desire of a human being? For woman, it is man. For man, it is woman. Man and woman can find true love only through each other. In history, differing views of life, the universe and God have presented unresolved problems. The solution to these problems can be found when a true man and a true woman unite with God in true love, creating absolute oneness. This is the source of absolute values. Man exists for the sake of woman. Woman exists for the sake of man. Each is to be the other's object of love.
God is a being of absolute love. He wanted to create human beings as His object partners of love, to whom He could pour out His love. In so doing, He would naturally look forward to the return of that love from men and women. In this way, God would feel infinite joy. In order to become perfect objects of the love of God, Adam and Eve needed to be united in love first. Therefore, before Adam and Eve could stand as a mature human couple resembling God and receiving and returning His love, they needed to go through a period of growth and reach maturity.
The principle of true love is not one of being served; it is to serve others. When God Himself initially created His objects of love, He invested every ounce of His energy -- 100 percent of His being. This established the pattern of true love. In other words, God established the tradition of true love in the form of total investment. At that point, true love became the center of the universe, and even almighty God chooses to be obedient to it.
When God created, He totally spent Himself, creating a vacuum within Himself. In the earth's atmosphere, when a low-pressure area is formed, air at higher pressure is automatically attracted to it. Whenever someone serves others to the absolute degree, energy rushes in to fill that person up. Therefore, all the love that God has given to create His perfect object partners ultimately has to be returned to Him by men and women.
Only love transcends all barriers. When you are united with God in true love, you have dominion over all of God's creation, both physical and spiritual. When you live completely for others, you are reaching the very essence of God's own being. God's vibrations become your vibrations. God's feelings are naturally transmitted to you. Living this way, you become a body in resonance with God's heart and love. Just as two tuning forks can resonate together, you and God can always be in mutual resonance.
That is the ultimate, original state of the human being. When you achieve that state, the love of God becomes your love, the life of God becomes your life, and the lineage of God becomes your lineage. The world that God created becomes your world. We are to share the love of God with all things in heaven and earth. We are to be citizens of the kingdom of heaven, with the heart of parents.
Our separation from God
The law of cause and effect is clearly evident in history. Whatever you have sown, you will surely reap. Adam and Eve, the first human ancestors, abused love as they engaged in immoral sexual relationships while they were still growing. This was the human Fall. God wanted them to grow in purity until He blessed them in heavenly matrimony, to become the foundation of God's true love, true life and true lineage. All people, having descended from this perfected and blessed Adam and Eve, would have naturally become the sons and daughters of God, enjoying the love of the Creator and living in the kingdom of heaven on earth and in the spirit world.
However, while Adam and Eve were still teenagers, before they had matured and received God's Blessing of marriage, the archangel tempted Eve and engaged in fornication with her. In this way, the archangel became Satan. By engaging in premature sexual relations with fallen Eve, Adam also fell. This is how the beginning of human history was sown. Today, we are reaping the consequences. Immorality is rampant. Teenagers in particular are the victims of widespread sexual degradation. Modern society in advanced nations is virtually the same as Sodom and Gomorrah of biblical times. God abhors this immoral behavior. We need to fear the wrath of God. His punishment is imminent.
The struggle between good and evil
God is at the center of goodness. Satan is at the center of evil. The history of humanity has been the history of struggle between good and evil -- between God and Satan -- working through men and women. But the respective strategies used by God and Satan have been diametrically opposite each other. Satan, being arrogant and greedy, always attacks the side of goodness. God's camp is always hit and suffers, but this gives God the opportunity to bring justice. The side of good is vindicated and occupies new territory. Satan's side has to withdraw and decline.
For example, in World War I, the belligerent nations were ultimately defeated. The same was true in World War II, where the Axis powers, after initially attacking, were finally defeated by the Allies. Every exploiting power will ultimately decline, while whoever suffers persecution for the sake of goodness will ultimately be raised up by God.
My own life exemplifies this. I have been struggling for the sake of goodness and the cause of God, but the opposition has been relentless. Years ago, I was tortured and beaten, and I have been imprisoned numerous times. One would think that my movement would die out and be forgotten, but the opposite has occurred. I have built a worldwide foundation and have continuously advanced and prospered.
Conscience: teacher and parent
Within every person there is a most precious and lifelong teacher. That teacher, however, has been mistreated, trampled upon and abused. That teacher is the human conscience. Your conscience always speaks out for your own benefit, trying to connect you to true love. Like a parent, your conscience urges you to be a good, unselfish individual, and guides you to do the Will of God. But within each person there is also a rebel that always goes against the conscience. That rebel is the physical body.
The body has trampled on and abused the conscience miserably. When you become aware of this, can you take the side of your body, which has been the enemy of your conscience, and which has greatly damaged your life and personality?
Your conscience must be your constant internal teacher and parent, leading you to complete unity with the ultimate Parent of humankind, God. The conscience, then, is the agent of God within you and may even be called a second God. Do you think you need to be sympathetic toward and protective of your body, the enemy of your conscience? Or do you think you need to restrain and discipline your body in order to vindicate your conscience? Your body pursues only carnal desires. When it is hungry, it steals and satisfies itself. It always seeks comfort and wants to take advantage of others. The body has its own realm. To conquer the realm of the body is an awesome responsibility that every person needs to undertake.
When this is achieved, the mind as the vertical self and the body as the horizontal self are completely harmonized into oneness, and a person reaches perfection, united in love with God for eternity.
The role of religion
God is the source of true love, true life and true lineage. Since we humans originate from this source, we too must experience true love, true life and true lineage. However, because of the Fall, tragically, we never achieved the position of being God's children. Instead, men and women have received love, life and lineage from Satan.
Due to the Fall, love today is basically self-centered. That self-centered love does not originate from the mind but is centered on the body. The body is where Satan's activities are conducted. The body is Satan's dancing place, his mooring post. The mind represents God's position, or the plus position. The body, which ought to assume the object or minus position, tries to make itself another plus; continuously teasing or fooling the mind. In our lives, it is crucial to correct this relationship.
Therefore, God established religion to rehabilitate fallen people. Through religion, God is teaching people how to strengthen their God-centered mind and reverse the body's dominion over their life and personality. That is why religion often demands fasting, sacrificial service and a meek and humble attitude. These are methods of reducing the body's power and causing the body to submit to the mind. Normally, in religious life, it takes about three to five years to change from the habit of a body-centered life and create a new, spirit-centered way of life.
Furthermore, as the Bible says, you must pray without ceasing. This is vitally important because Satan controls the environment of the fallen world. Satan tempts and distracts fallen people from all directions twenty-four hours a day, while God is able to work from only one direction, the vertical direction of the mind.
The restoration of God's ideal
In the eyes of God, the fallen world is a world of spiritual death. His Will is the restoration of that world of death into a world of life. Restoration is another way of saying salvation. When the original, ideal state has been lost, it needs to be restored. When a healthy person becomes sick, a physician has to come and bring the person back to original health. By the same token, the original, ideal condition intended by God was lost. Therefore, the work of God has been to restore this fallen world to the original, sinless state.
To accomplish that task, God sends the Messiah. However, before the Messiah comes, God prepares a chosen group of people to be ready to receive the Messiah. That is what the Bible calls an orchard of wild olive trees.
The orchard of wild olive trees represents a certain sphere in the fallen realm that God can still direct and control. After it has been prepared, the Messiah comes. The Messiah then cuts down all the wild olive trees in God's orchard and grafts into them the true branch of life. In this way, all the wild olive trees become true olive trees. In other words, human beings are returned to their original state.
The religious people of today are these wild olive trees in God's orchard. Even the most devout religious person must still seek the Messiah because he has not yet received the true lineage of God. The Messiah comes as the True Parents of humankind, restoring the positions of Adam and Eve. Therefore, to be connected to God's true lineage, each person needs to unite with the True Parents and become a recipient of true love. By so doing, each person can become a true son or daughter of God. In this way, the Messiah brings salvation to humankind.
The Messiah, in the position of True Parents, must root out the trees that have grown from false seeds, subjugate Satan and connect humankind into oneness with God in true love, making all people true sons and daughters of God. In this way, the kingdom of heaven on earth can be created, where men and women will finally be able to enjoy true freedom.
What is the way of unification? Let us consider the first human family. First of all, there is God. Second, there are the human beings, Adam and Eve. Adam is masculine and Eve is feminine. They compete with each other to be the first to secure God's love. If they are selfishly motivated, there will be no unity. However, if they are unselfishly motivated, Adam will say, "I want to reach God first solely for you, Eve." The woman will be overjoyed. She, in turn, will say, "I want to reach God only for your sake, Adam." Then the husband will be fully satisfied. There is no struggle; there is unity even in their competition.
That is not simply a way for a husband and wife to be happily united; it is more than that. It is the very key to the unification of all people.
God-centered worldview
Throughout history, God has been working through the human conscience. In spite of God's efforts, however, every attempt made thus far to restore people to the original starting point -- the heart of God -- has failed. It still remains for someone to liberate humankind from this Satanic environment and lead a successful search for truth and true love. That is the mission of the Unification movement.
Godism is a God-centered worldview, the essence of which is the ideal of true love. Godism has two distinct missions: to bring unity between God and human beings, and to bring unity between mind and body.
Since I have discovered the solution to these two fundamental problems -- the unity of mind and body, and the unity of people and God -- I have to proclaim this truth as clearly and effectively as possible, without hesitation.
If you follow this teaching, I assure you that you can definitely conquer your body's carnal desires. Your body can become 100 percent united with your mind. You will then be eligible to become the true object partner of God and establish a true love partnership with God.
Whenever two people are bound together by true love, they are entitled to three important rights: first, the right of inheritance; second, the right of dwelling together; third, the right of participation. Take, for example, the relationship between husband and wife. The husband might be the president of a great nation, while his wife might be a woman of very humble origin and little education. If they truly love each other, however, they are equals. They own all things in common, live together and participate on an equal level.
In the same way, when a man and a woman are connected to God through true love, they will also enjoy the rights of inheritance, participation and living together eternally with God. When you reach this depth of heart, you will constantly experience the presence of God, and God will truly dwell among people.
True Parents
True love always travels the shortest distance at the fastest speed. Therefore, true love coming from God to earth travels the shortest distance, forming a vertical line. The love between man and woman also travels the shortest distance, forming a horizontal line. When the vertical true love meets with the horizontal true love, the crossing point absolutely has to be at a ninety-degree angle. There is no other way these lines of love can intersect.
Who is God? God is the vertical True Parents, with true love at the central position. Being our vertical Parents, God is intimately close to each of us. When we welcome the perfected human ancestors -- perfected Adam and Eve -- as True Parents, we create a ninety-degree crossing point between the vertical true love of God and the horizontal true love of True Parents. We thus have two sets of True Parents. From them we receive true love, true life and true lineage. This creates one world that completely resonates with true love.
The Soviet Union
Ladies and gentlemen, I am very grateful to have the opportunity to share with you these reflections on the nature of God and humanity. I am also very happy to be here in the Soviet Union. My heart truly goes out to the people of the Soviet Union. Many of you have gone through unbearable suffering, and that saddens me. I love your country and your people very much. I clearly envision a moral and economic renaissance for the Soviet Union that will dramatically affect the entire world. I will do all I can to encourage and support that renaissance.
You are undertaking a new Soviet revolution, but this must be a revolution without blood or bullets -- a revolution of the heart and soul.
I have been speaking about the importance of the family. But I want to tell you that in the depths of my heart, I feel that the Soviet people are a part of my family. I assure you that my wife and children feel the same. Also, I assure you that members of the Unification movement worldwide will do their utmost to work together with you for the future prosperity and wellbeing of all humanity.
I believe the Soviet Union will play a key role in God's plan to build a world of true and lasting peace. This vast union of nations, which stretches from the Far East, bordering my country of Korea, to the very heart of Europe -- the birthplace of western civilization -- has a natural destiny to be a bridge between Europe and Asia. We have to regard ourselves as being members of one global family living in one global house.
May God bless the Soviet Union and all its people. Thank you for coming and participating in this historic conference.
Thank you very much.