The Ocean Church Foundation

Sun Myung Moon
June 10, 1983
Gloucester, MA

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Today, I want to speak to you directly, but it is difficult because I speak one language, you speak many different languages from each other, and all of you speak a different language from me. When you learn Korean, you can pronounce anything. You hear how the Korean members can speak English very well. What upsets me is that the translation process only leaves you with half of the meaning. Many things get mixed up this way. In the future I only want to speak in Korean and not have to translate into English or Japanese. For this purpose, please learn Korean so that you can hear me directly whenever I speak

Work Hard for a Solid Foundation

Are you working harder than before? You shouted out "Yes" so loudly it must be true. However, think about this. Some members of Unification Church (you are also members; you put all your effort into the Ocean Church project), are working in some of the communist countries and they are risking their lives. No matter how hard you are working, compared to them, your life is still an exciting and happy life. It is something to reflect upon.

Our movement has so many other projects going on simultaneously, all over the world. Yet, I am taking precious time every day to be with you and give you guidance. I am working even harder than you are, so your position is one of sympathy towards me. To give you just one example: Do you know how much the Washington Times is costing? We have already invested several million dollars. At the same time, the providence in South America has already begun. However, I cannot think about only the things our movement is doing right now. I must also think about the future.

One thing I know is that the era of catching fish on the open sea will end soon. So, the era of fish farming will begin. Sooner or later, mankind will be looking for how to gain access to the ocean. The land will run out of room and resources for man. If you really make the effort to be successful, you will be supported on your way. Already, in Gloucester and in many other fishing ports, so much support has been given. Yet, I see that Ocean Church doesn't have the foundation to be trusted. Although we should have already begun to invest in and build tackle stores, there is no foundation for that to happen. These stores were to have been just the beginning point. I am concerned about you for this reason.

I want to go fishing with you all the time, but there is not enough time to do that. I am concerned about everything going on in this nation and in the world. Now I am worried about IOWC, so there just isn't enough time. I expect you to make even more effort than you have ever done before. Have you done the things I've already instructed you about? Does the Coast Guard of your city like you? Do they have a concept that Moonies are doing bad things or good things? There is a universal law. The easy way will never win. The hard working way will never fail. What is the easy way? That is the losing side. Alternatively, you have the hard working way. No matter how difficult the task, he who pursues this way will be successful. That's the truth.

So, what do you think? Some of you older and more experienced members, do you need a bigger boat? How big? Yes, you need to go beyond the training level of the Good Go. If you take the project and make it a success, then you can ask for and receive support. It's not a problem. However, you have to make up your mind that you will do it. Then, it is really no problem. It's no problem to build a 120 foot boat; we are already making the foundation for it to happen. We have to think about making that kind of large boat with fiberglass. Do you want that kind of boat? Okay then, make your own personal foundation first.

Those who are over thirty-five, raise your hands. Only a few of you raised your hands. You are all so young! You can still go to the army at your age. When you are as young as you are, you have to go through many experiences that will be part of your life. Do you mind? Sometimes you are working long hours, getting up early, going to bed very late. Well, you have to learn how to support yourself and your family. This is your training time. You never know what I am preparing for, what I might be doing next. I have already met many important people in my life. So many people are against me. They pray, "please God, help me in my effort against Reverend Moon." They have very strange concepts of me and because their prayer isn't based on really knowing me, God cannot answer them. God cannot answer prayers that are not based on truth. How about you? Are you a brave man or not? I faced all my enemies. How about you? Look at this brother. You are too small. How can you overcome those tough fishermen who might try to stop you from working on the ocean? If you are too small, it will be difficult for you. You will have to work twice as hard as the big men, you will have to have twice the spirit in order to succeed.

Can you do what I have instructed you to do this time? Do you feel your mission is to become a good person in front of the mayors of your towns? Unless you can establish good relationships with them you will never succeed. This is my absolute instruction to you. Those who are the chief of police and the mayor are already successful people in their city. You have to make a good foundation with them by earning, their support. You have to go through them and with their assistance, make something successful happen. You have to come to the point of being able to call up the mayor at his office anytime. Unless you build that kind of relationship, you cannot become a public person for that city. I too have gone this course. I have tried to deal with Nixon, Ford, Carter and Reagan. I spoke out strongly about Carter and clearly told him what was wrong with America. Wrong is wrong, bad is bad. You have to tell them clearly. I have tried to meet with every important person in society. Even if they didn't respond, I tried to meet with them. Some of them would never see me. Inside they feel some kind of fear, but I'm not out to get them. However, they sense that I will tell them the truth. Then, how about you? Why don't you see the small time mayor in your town? He isn't as big as the President.

Really, it's nothing. Just walk in. You have to make some kind of relationship. Go in there and make some tea. Have an afternoon visit. Make the atmosphere delightful. You can do that. It's more difficult for me. I don't know the customs that well. In that sense, I am very much a stranger here in America, but you are familiar. You just go in there and make friends.

I started the science conference years ago. At first it didn't seem like much. It took lots of thought, money and manpower to make that project go. In the beginning we had almost nothing. If you have a strong conviction and know within yourself that what you are doing is a righteous thing, nothing will stop you. You will meet difficult problems and you will overcome them, and you will just keep right on going. That's the way of life. No matter where I go, no matter what kind of clothing I wear, no matter how humble I look, I feel comfortable. Many times I have gone to the grocery store wearing my fishing clothes and people have come up to me asking, "Do you know when Reverend Moon is coming back here to fish?" That is a wonderful experience for me. No one even really knows what I look like. I prefer not to be known and seen like that. I can be natural then.

Sometimes I go to the department store and I am not even wearing shoes, just some house slippers. The sales girls who are working don't even notice I am there. I go to the department stores in particular when the sales are on. I want to buy the expensive shoes for less than twenty dollars. I am wearing shoes that are made out of snake skin which are supposed to be more than 100 dollars. I will let you guess how much I paid for them. People don't think of me wearing sales items. I have a big, old Lincoln car, but I don't mind going straight to McDonald's with it. It's a long car. No other cars in the parking lot are like that. Such cars are usually in the high class Chinese restaurants, but for me, this kind of meal is normal. I enjoy treating the members to high class places, but I don't like to eat at those places myself. McDonald's is the usual place for me. If I explained precisely and clearly where we are going to be in just ten years you wouldn't work so hard, so I'm not going to tell you. What is precious is that I am teaching you how to do it yourself. I don't want you to miss out in getting due credit for the result. So then, will you work hard and make your own success? How many times have you prayed to God with fear in your heart? I pray like that all the time. I am serious to the point of my life. What do you feel when you go out to sea in a boat? What do you think about, what do you pray about? These are precious moments for your life.

We have to know the difference between farming on the land and going out to sea. Especially on the sea, you have to depend on God and the spiritual world to guide you. Farmers also depend on such things because they have to sense when is the right time to plant and harvest. They have to know a great deal about the weather, but on the ocean you have to be even more spiritual and religious. You are completely dependent upon nature.

I love to have that kind of experience with nature and God. That is why I go to sea. Even Mother sometimes doesn't understand why I go so much to the ocean. Sometimes I am so tired. However, I understand the heart of God. Without help from spiritual world, you cannot do anything on the ocean. I know this point very well.

Do you think that God is helping you? What do you think? Is God helping me? If there is a difference, why is it so? If you understand why there is a difference, you are on the way. The ocean even misses me and I too miss the ocean. The spiritual world assists me and God comes very close to me. There is a deep bond of love that is there. I make an appointment to go out on the sea and I am anxious to get there because Heavenly Father is waiting there with intense longing for me.

I push you so hard and it seems to be cold hearted and severe. Maybe you feel God should stop helping me because I am so harsh with you. It looks harsh to you. When you look at things as they come to you, from the front side, it looks like persecution and hardship. However, as you look back you can see that actually God was caring for you, giving you direction and guidance for your life. An ordinary person cannot receive the kind of blessing that God and I want to give to you. Do you understand this point? Love is a discipline. It is not an easy thing to do. You cannot just love some people and not others. You have to develop three things: a high spiritual antenna, a keen sense and mind for analyzing, and many experiences in life. Those three elements are necessary. You have to think of these things clearly right now. You are young and should fulfill what you are doing with your whole heart.

Specific Instructions for Ocean Church

When you go back, are you going to work even harder? I sometimes feel your words are cheap. Today, you say you will do it, but when you come back again next time, you might say, "Oh, we're sorry because we didn't really fulfill it." So, do your best. Please do your absolute best. You have studied my previous instructions, but I want to give you more specific instructions today. Please write them down:

A: Self training and management

1: Train yourself

Before you train others, train yourself first. If you think you are already well trained and disciplined, you have already made a big mistake.

2: Practice

Practice what you learn immediately. Fishing must be learned through experience.

3: Management of boats

Take care of your boat with a sincere heart and prayer. You have to make sure that you clean the boat and manage the boat. Learning comes through practice and training yourself. This is all under self-discipline. This summer you are going to stay and sleep on the boat. That is also part of the training. The boat is the place for your training. You have to learn how to love your boat, how to really cherish it. Then it will provide for you everlasting memories for which you will always have a special fondness.

4: The boat is your objective purpose.

The boat is your life. You have to take care of it with just as much love as you would give your wife. Each day, before going out, you have to make a checklist of what is needed. You have to check each thing in order. By doing this, you must make sure that everything is in good, perfect working order. You cannot have the boat break down. You have to maintain a constant check list and go over it every day. Make sure you have the proper oil and gas, everything. If you do not properly maintain your boat, you may die. It is absolutely that serious. You will be out on the water and something may break down. This should never happen. Do you understand clearly?

B: Raising up members

1: Witness to others (and create yourself)

When you are witnessing to others you are also creating yourself. As you educate others, you are also educating yourself. Therefore, in order for you to reach your own perfection, you must raise others up along the way. If you bring 100 people and educate all of them, you become the person who can manage 100 people. You will grow and create yourself by that same amount. Membership is the foundation. From there you can raise funds for your programs and develop your programs. Without membership, you cannot do much of anything.

2: Teach the future plan clearly

Make this your motto, "Let us prosper together, you and I." You have to clearly teach the vision for the future and share it with your members.

3: Move towards the great promise of the fishing industry

I have already explained the tremendous potential and future of the fishing industry in America. You have to develop it at all costs.

4: Create the local support group

Create the five member group for each boat and form a committee organization that will guide the ocean related interests of your coastal city.

C: Obtain the support of the local leaders

1: Create the sponsorship to restore your city

Find at least one good civic leader who will sponsor your committee and support it. Unless you create that kind of sponsorship you cannot give away the boats and let them be used for the public purpose. The restoration of such people, your mayor and local leaders, is very important for the restoration of your coastal cities.

2: Redevelop the coastal city itself

3: Educate those who follow

4: Bring Unification to your city

Prevent divisions in your city. Unite those who care about the future of your city. Especially prevent the use of your city as a port for illegal smuggling.

5: Education and Fishing business

One supports the other. Ocean Church members, you have to eat don't you? Your programs cannot be successful without economic support of some kind. You have to create that support.

D: Ocean related concerns

1: Import and Export

Study the relationships involved in import and export. You don't know much about this area, but it is very important.

2: Process factory Study about process factories and the fish processing industry.

3: Other related industries

Learn about ocean related industries and equipment, such as net making, tackle and fishing gear in general.

4: Research Institute

Ocean Church should develop a research institute. You have to use the boats, take them out and accomplish something with them. That is your foundation. Unless you follow this direction, you cannot fulfill my idea for your future. You really have to study the different ways of fishing, such as long lining. Check into the kinds of baskets you have to use. Study the lines and hooks. You have to check and study and learn everything. Then improve the system.

Although I made the course for UTS graduates to go first to CARP, Ocean Church and then state leadership, those graduates who have special desire and ability can settle down in Ocean Church. This is how serious I am for the success of Ocean Church. I want the kind of member who is deeply interested in the ocean.

These are my specific instructions. I am serious about all these things and want you also to be serious with me. Use the boats for which you have been given responsibility. Go to sea. This is the only way you will make your foundation. I have given you my direct instructions, but you have to think about, find out and create ways to catch fish. You have to learn about long lining, gill netting, and all different kinds of fishing. You have to practice and find out.

If you are in Ocean Church, that must be your focus. If you come to Ocean Church, that is your primary concern and mission. Don't go the complicated way in life. If you have more than one mission, you have to put them in order of priority. Move quickly between two or more projects. Make sure, though, that you accomplish your major goal. I want to establish a clear tradition for the graduates of the Ph.D. program. When they finish their studies, they should come and experience Ocean Church.

They can go to the local cities and meet the Mayor and civic leaders with the members. I am concerned that Ocean Church not only be a fishing project, but a religious movement as well. The Ph.D. graduates have studied theology and can explain our ideas in a clear and precise manner. However, in order to become a true Ph.D. in the spiritual sense, you have to go through many, many experiences. So, think of yourself as going through my own special school. This is my intensive course for the spiritual Ph.D..

I have a special Ph.D. program for you. For everyone. You have to pass that program before you are qualified to be a church leader. You may have a Ph.D., but that is just external knowledge. You have to also learn internal knowledge. You at least have to pass through the ocean going experience. This course doesn't just apply to you, but to anyone who wants to teach, lecture, or guide others in the spiritual life.

There are many graduate students in other church departments and they have important roles, but if necessary, I would take them out of their positions and put them in a boat. We should witness to the professors in those areas and let them take on the responsibility.

I am sending many Ph.D. students to work in New ERA while they are still studying, but the first one to graduate from the doctorate course is our example today. It's important to understand the core point. He should go to the local cities and witness with the members to the leaders of that city. Now, it should be clear that I want to make Tyler into a great person. He isn't such a tough kind of man, so he needs to go to the ocean. From now on he has to learn everything that the members already know.

However, he is worried because he also has to teach at UTS and he has responsibilities with New ERA. Why should he worry? Don't worry! It's simple. You know you have to go fishing this summer, so just go out. Don't be so complicated. Only ride on the boat, only catch the fish. That's all! Ocean Church is not so difficult. I myself have many responsibilities, so I understand how this brother feels, and I know how you feel when you receive so many detailed instructions. However, please use your time on the ocean. It is necessary. Otherwise, why would I do it myself? I am making a point to all these departments, such as New ERA and ICUS. I am making a point to the Ph.D. graduates. The point is to focus on the present task and work really hard.

I have many different and difficult situations to deal with right now. So, I'm worried about all these problems. I know your situation very well. The question is, how quickly can each of you be developed into real leaders. That's a real problem. Ocean Church, you have to encourage and advertise about the summer program. Then, many people will want to come for the summer program. The summer program is a core training program. If the Ocean Church members, if your own manpower cannot do it, then I will organize the sisters, woman power. At this same time, I am preparing and thinking about a boat run by computerized electronics. It isn't any problem. Physical power is not important. Dedication is important. You can make up for power in many ways. So, if you cannot accomplish, I will find other members who will.

Some of the most famous fishermen in the world are Koreans. The Japanese are very good too, but they don't take many chances. Koreans love adventure. What ordinary people would never try, Koreans gladly do. Thus, the Korean fisherman has earned respect throughout the world today. Many fishermen are trained in Korea. They come from all over the world to be trained by Korean fishermen. Do you think you can do it? I am serious when I ask you this. I am not only asking about this summer. I am asking about your whole life. Can you do this with your whole heart? Can you do it? Will you do it? Your answer encourages me. Let us go forward. Let us pray. 

Parents, Children And The World Centered Upon Oneself

Reverend Sun Myung Moon
June 5, 1983
Belvedere
Translator - Bo Hi Pak

There are many people living on the face of the earth and many kinds of relationships among them. What are those relationships? There are many nations, but there is no true unity among them. There are many people within each nation, but they have not united. You don't see total unity within your family, and even within yourself there is not total oneness. This is the present reality that we face. No matter where we look, we see that unity is lacking.

Oneness is a difficult goal to achieve. Distrust, disobedience and disharmony surround us. There is both good and evil in our fluctuating, volatile environment. However, it is undeniable that each person is pursuing something higher than merely staying alive. There is a drive in men's hearts to pursue their original minds and reach some ideal state. What is that ultimate destination toward which we all strive?

Let us look at ourselves first. Within each individual there is a battle going on between his mind and his body. Where in this universe can we find something solid and reliable? We depend upon certain things, such as our family and nation, our friends and loved ones, but ultimately we find a certain inability to trust. The self cannot completely rely even on its mind and body. The nation and world are far away from the self; even parents, husband and wife are far away from the self. The basic problem of one's life can only be solved within oneself. The solution to world harmony and unity must be sought within the self first. That is the closest place for one to start.

The goal of the world is to move from the present situation of disharmony to a world of harmony and unity. Likewise, the goal of each nation is also harmony and unity. Every different level in the universe is seeking after that point of harmony, which can be found within the individual. Therefore, each individual is ultimately the key to the harmony and unity of the universe. Without this key, any discussion about unity is just wishful thinking and empty talk. Any hope we have of achieving harmony and unity always comes back to the self. If this goal is not achievable on the individual level, then we can never talk about any great ideal or noble dreams because the self is the ground floor to those larger ideals. In other words, the individual is the key to all the rest of the world's peace and harmony; everything else is an expansion of the individual.

In order to measure things we must have an established scale. Furthermore there must be some original standard by which we create the scale. Thus as individuals, we need some original scale. No matter how proud a person may be of himself, if he does not conform to the true model, he is not within the true standard. One centimeter contains ten millimeters; the millimeter is the beginning point of measurement so there must be an absolute scale for the millimeter. This scale has universal meaning and applies everywhere. Is there such a standard for mankind? In order to achieve unity and harmony there must be a base scale by which men and women can measure themselves to achieve the model.

Is it easy to control and discipline yourself? Your mind usually wants to go in a direction different from your body. There is an Oriental saying that a mountain remains forever but the human mind changes from morning to night. If the human mind fluctuates so much, where can we find a point of unity? There can be no single stationary position if everyone is moving around constantly.

Let us consider the holy men of history, such as Jesus, or Buddha or Confucius. What kind of personalities did they have? These people had a certain stability of mind and body when ordinary people were always divided. But even a saint is never absolutely immobile or stationary. People may think that Jesus was a rock who never moved, but Jesus was a human being. As a man, was he totally indifferent to the attraction between men and women? There is always the force of electricity pulling plus and minus toward each other. Do you think Jesus felt some sensation when he looked at a woman? Jesus' feet were firmly anchored but I'm sure his body was turning toward that attraction! However, he was never affected so much that he moved his feet from their right foundation. When an ordinary person feels temptation he usually just jumps into it, but the saints are different. Although a saint may be pulled around somewhat, his feet never budge.

However holy a person may be, he is always bound by his human character and vulnerability. All the saints, including Jesus, began with certain principles. During their own period of instability they learned to deal with temptation and reasoned out their standards, until finally they had rock-like foundations within themselves. A saint recognizes himself as a human being but he shapes his human character inside the palace of the universe.

It is only within that most holy and precious palace that a man and woman should meet in love. The American way is very practical and easy, but can a man and woman meet there according to the original standard? Every day there are millions of people kissing enthusiastically but what is a true kiss? Do you think we need the model of a true kiss? Saints are the people who give the world the model of loving and kissing and the rest of the world should measure themselves against their standard. But people of the fallen world never even think about such a standard. We must come to the conclusion, however, that in order to achieve the ideal world which all people dream of, there must be some standard or scale to go by.

No individual is capable of achieving such a standard all alone. Therefore God, who is the creator and the first cause, must be able to send such a standard to the earth. This is His responsibility. It has been God's plan to send an absolute standard to mankind, thus throughout history people have shared the expectation of a Messiah-figure. This model man must come from God and raise up a model woman and together they can show to the world a model love. When you think of it in this fashion, the concept of a Messiah becomes easy to relate to.

Even if a man and woman think they have ideal love, they are still acting according to their own thinking and standards. Will that fit into God's standard of model love? God's desire is for every man and woman on earth to love each other according to His original pattern of true love. That pattern would become the central love of the universe. Certainly every man and woman desire to achieve true love, and God's desire is the same for them so there must be one central love which is the scale or model for all people.

There can be no true love between people alone; God must also play a role in it. Can you women declare that you have a true woman's love? Can any Of you men declare you have a true man's love? Whether you live a religious way of life or not, if you are living with true love then you have already achieved the highest goal of any religion. If any two people with such love join together centered upon God then that couple is a consummated couple. Such a man and woman can go anywhere in the universe without limitation.

Although people speak of becoming holy, noble and so forth, everything good comes down to the achievement of true love. Once that happens all the problems of the world are solved. It is a rather dramatic declaration to say that the only thing we need is for men and women to achieve true love. Can this be more important than worship and religion? Ask God whether this is correct. He would reply that He is ecstatic over such a declaration and that no greater sermon could be given to you.

A noble man and woman are necessary for the sake of making a noble couple. We need a noble couple in order to achieve God's noble love. What good is God's love to you? When you achieve God's love you become the center of God's universe. Every line must go through the center, so everything in the universe would be connected to the person connected with God.

Should money have the central role in the universe? Authority? Knowledge? The most tragic thing we witness in the world today is the sight of people selling love to acquire money, power or knowledge. Could you buy the love of God if you owned the whole universe ? Would you like to buy the love of God if it were for sale ? The essential point here is that what people are pursuing is actually the love of God. and they would go all out to obtain it. The true teaching must emphasize not the trappings of religion but the love of God; thus the ultimate pursuit of men is the love of God.

Why do we seek religion, then? It is because religion is the only avenue we have to find the love of God. You did not join the Unification Church to pursue religion per se, but to reach the love of God. What kind of unification are we talking about here? We are pursuing unity of men and women centered upon and grafted into the love of God. We are talking about the unification of love, and that is the highest possible religion we can pursue. With such a goal there is nothing we cannot sacrifice to get there. Whatever difficulty we encounter. we will not be stopped.

Men and women seek each other for the same purpose -they are seeking the love of God. Let us logically organize our thinking; our goal in life is not a family, or even a nation or world. Our goal is to go beyond those and reach the love of God. Has your mind been firmly fixed on that goal or were you unsure? Have you been unwavering in that goal? Are you such men and women of perfection?

Unity of mind and body is always the fundamental necessity, and only the power of love can achieve it. When you understand that true love is your goal and you focus everything in pursuit of it, then at that point mind and body are working together. In the teenage years the mind and body are looking for one thing-love. When you have a love nose, it picks up the mysterious smell of love. Love has a special taste in your mouth, and love ears want to hear the fascinating sound of love all the time. When you have a love hand, you want to touch love forever. Love power alone lasts for eternity.

A teenager in love is dreamy-eyed; he or she wants to interpret everything about the loved one in a good way. Everything in love is tasty and turns into joy. Love can digest any ugliness or tastelessness. Love is brave and mysterious and wonderful. All the adjectives in the dictionary cannot describe love. Men and women are always shooting bullets of love at one another. With love bullets not only the bullets but also the rifle is moving into the heart of the target! Have you ever seen such a gun?

Love has a wonderful power, and first love in particular. Your first impression when you open your eyes of love can never be erased. In that sense your first love should be your most sacred and holy experience. The person who can achieve true love as his first love can truly understand heaven. It is most important that young people fit their first love into God's model love.

The Unification Church has the goal of conforming to the model love of God. and in that spirit our marriages become absolutely important. The sacrificial love of international marriage crystallizes this attitude toward love. While we are pursuing that goal the world thinks we are crazy people. It is only model love that will continue eternally.

Evaluate yourself in this light and see how imperfect you are. Your mind and body are always trying to deceive each other, so before asking God for salvation you have to clean up yourself. You must bring your mind and body together. Should you achieve that unity centered upon your mind or your body? Even though your mind may fluctuate, the mind must become subject over the body. It is the only way you can become an ideal man or woman. Only an ideal man or woman can be a bridge to reach out to God.

Thus you can say that for this purpose you can give up anything. Does it sound reasonable? Would you follow this road only because I say so, or is your original mind already telling you this is the way to go?

We must understand why the mind and body are separated in the first place. We were not born out of our own will; our lives were simply given to us. We may ask God, "Why couldn't you ensure that mind and body would become one when we came to the world?" Since Almighty God is creator, how could this separation come about? It is clear that some accident occurred before men could reach their goal.

Why do men and women have to wait and discipline themselves instead of just jumping into love whenever they feel like it? We know that the creation is bounded by a certain period of growth. Therefore a child's love cannot be consummated as soon as he is born; he must grow into the fullest realization of love.

Some accident occurred during the period of growth, an accident of love. We have an explanation of the whole process of that accident of love. We know that love is the supreme power, and therefore the consequences of the accident have been so grave. God gave the man and woman a commandment during their growth period, specifying that they should not do certain things. Was it a commandment for eternity, or only for a certain period of time? If the commandment applied for eternity then the purpose of creation would have been nullified, but that was not the case.

In unlocking the problems of the universe, I realized that the greatest discovery was the truth about the fall of man. If the forbidden fruit was a literal apple or pear which God placed right in the middle of the Garden of Eden. then God's plan must have been imperfect. This was not the case. Rather, I have brought a revolutionary declaration to the world that the forbidden "fruit" was a symbol of love between man and woman. From love can spring either good or evil fruit, therefore the tree was described as one of the knowledge of good and evil.

Love is the judgment point for mankind. What is the love that God can relate with? God wanted Adam and Eve to grow into the full sensation of love-for Adam to discover all of a sudden that Eve was not just a sister but a woman; and for Eve to discover that Adam was not just a brother but a man. In the sensation of love, Adam and Eve's mind and body could work together and experience the electricity of touching each other.

Once Adam and Eve realized the explosion of their love, the entire universe would have been like one beautiful, fragrant flower garden. They would feel everything echoing their love. When that electrifying sensation came to God then He would be pulled to them and His entire creation would have been activated with love. God was supposed to be the matchmaker. bringing Adam and Eve together in the explosion of love.

In the ensuing explosion of love all three of them would be consumed! The important thing is that there be no foreign element there, that men and women be pure when they consummate their first love. Then they become the core of the universe. This core would be so powerful that everything else would be pulled into it, and even God would be a prisoner. Children would be multiplied from that core and it would continue to grow and grow. From a family the core would grow into a tribe, then a nation and a world. How wonderful a world it is, when the universe echoes the love of the core. That is the Kingdom of Heaven on earth-that is the true world.

At this time in history Reverend Moon is declaring to the world that the fall of man was an accident of love. This is the greatest declaration because it hits the core of evil. It is also a most logical and correct diagnosis, making possible the correct prescription for treatment. Analyzing an event from 6,000 years ago was not easy so it had to be done step by step. The love core was not achieved, and the opposite, evil result came into being, bringing division and perverted love. This resulted in not only denial of God, but denial of parents, of men and women. Human civilization has sunk below that of animals. In this world there has been no ideal because no individual has had the correct diagnosis and could not find the proper prescription to achieve a cure.

People have lived in great confusion and many even think that God is dead. Thus they think it is futile to think about life after death or any ideal human society. This world is like a jungle, where all sense of direction disappears. The only way to see the problem clearly is to step out of the confusion and look at it from the position of God. Many past saints sought answers but still got lost in the labyrinth, unable to find the answers. This world needs a declaration from a higher level, where the true perspective can be found.

Original love is far greater than worldly love. In this world, one man has stood up and said, "Love me more than you love anyone in the world." Anyone who could make such a statement must be the most extraordinary man in history. What that man is actually saying is that you must remove yourself from this world and find God's viewpoint in order to make a new beginning. If you tell God that you want to make a new start from the original point and make a new world? then He will say, "Welcome. my child! I have been waiting for you. I need that kind of solution for this world." If God did not respond in that way, then God would be responsible for the problems. God will have to respond to such a person.

Of all the saints and holy people' only one man made that declaration. Jesus knew God as a personal God of heart, and he represented that love to the world, saying, "Love me more than anyone or anything else." Jesus' position was absolutely extraordinary. God welcomed Jesus' entry into the world, but Satan held him back.

There is a certain logic to Satan's ways. He claimed, "What Jesus says is correct, but I am originally your creation, too, and I deserve your love. You cannot completely deny me because I occupy a certain position in the universe too. Regardless of right or wrong, I loved this world first so I have a certain right to claim it. Anyone who wants to take this world away from me must first love me more than my love for this world." Satan will also point out that all the children of the world are born in his lineage, so that anyone who wants to take the world back must create a new lineage.

Why was Jesus' family tree described in detail in the Bible? It is important to reveal God's effort to create an unstained lineage out of which Jesus could be born. The struggle of Esau and Jacob. and the special situation of Joseph's mother are all significant. The Bible records some things which seem to be irregular, but it was necessary so that the satanic lineage could be liquidated, allowing a new ancestor to emerge.

It is nearly impossible to sort out all this mixed-up history. Only in the Unification Church can you find an explanation of all these tangled events, as well as a solution. You are most fortunate to be able to inherit such truth, which penetrates to the core of the world's problems.

In order to consummate our love we must deny the world and love God and the True Parents more than anything. Even though you want to do this, Satan will be trying to hold you back, so you have to know how to separate from him. The Abels who are going to pioneer a new history must set the standard of loving the fallen archangel with selflessness; otherwise he will not release you.

This world needs a Messiah who will briny it life; he must come to eliminate all fallen situations. Judaism began the task of preparing the world to receive the Messiah; in fact the central teaching of Judaism is the coming of the Messiah. God carved out a chosen people within the world, where the Messiah was supposed to come. When the chosen people of Israel united completely with the Messiah. that core was supposed to move into another part of the world-Rome. The Israelites were expected to digest Rome with God's love. Jesus' role as the Messiah was to embrace and digest the chosen people with love.

The Messiah came as a man. According to the Bible, Eve was made out of Adam's rib, meaning after the pattern of Adam. Thus the Messiah was supposed to pick out one woman from the fallen women and recreate her as the original Eve. Until such a day, no woman is truly eligible to be married. That is why the Bible says that all women are in the position of waiting to be a bride.

The Messiah and his bride are to be united as a God-centered couple. Where was that supposed to happen? Among the chosen nation. Did that occur in Israel? It was the chief priests who persecuted Jesus the most, instead of helping him to unite with his bride.

The crucifixion prevented God from accomplishing these things, so now everything must be re-enacted on the foundation of Christianity. The central expectation of Christianity has been the coming of the Messiah. As a Christian nation, America's power after World War II was so great as to affect the whole world. That was a unique historical time but the opportunity was lost because Americans did not realize God was giving them the chance to block the development of communism. The years after World War II should have seen the end of the satanic era and the manifestation of the Messiah in the Orient.

The relationship of Rome and Israel has been reenacted in the twentieth century between America and Korea. Two thousand years ago Rome was outside the sphere of the chosen people, but America's position today is within the sphere of the chosen people of Christianity. If the Unification Church had been accepted by the chosen people, the communist world could have been conquered long ago. But like Moses in the past, the Unification Church was rejected by the chosen people-Christianity. It had to go through the wilderness for forty years and then return to Christianity, which is Canaan. This is precisely the history of the Unification Church.

From that wilderness, we have come to the United States because this is where the victory must finally be won. Even though Satan has claimed so much territory in this country, we must turn it around. We must restore this nation by love. Even though other Christians have treated us as their enemies, we must love them more than anyone ever has. Eventually that love will win out.

Now we are in the thirty-seventh year, with three more to go. The world situation is becoming so desperate that people are starting to realize that only the Unification Church has any answers. At first they persecuted us, but now people can see that we have a vision and devotion and they are beginning to rediscover us. Furthermore. the Unification Church has a complete understanding and world view that even the communist world knows it cannot surpass. The free world, looking for answers, has rejected communism; they are looking at the Unification Church now.

American young people have tried all kinds of things like free sex, drugs, the hippie culture, even homosexuality and so on, looking for true joy but they have not been able to find what they were searching for. Now this one funny group called Moonies is emerging, made of people who don't use drugs or practice free sex, who don't have many luxuries; but they have a clear goal and are working hard. They see Western men marrying Oriental women and vice versa; they are not confused or depressed, but are happy.

In American society where people pick their own spouses, half of the marriages end in divorce. The Moonies, on the other hand, may have husbands or wives who don't even speak the same language, but they have happy marriages. When people compare modern youth with the couples of the Unification Church, they see a tremendous difference. You are not pursuing fun for yourselves primarily but are living a sacrificial life for the sake of other people-helping your elders and trying to create harmonious societies in your Home Church areas.

They are looking at you and thinking, "Such strange people." Then it hits them that, according to the standards of the world, the strangest person is God; therefore you strange people must be God's people. It is only a matter of time before Americans realize that they have to turn to the Unification Church for answers. Young people will come in an avalanche to support Reverend Moon, and apologize that their parents opposed him. People will quote the Divine Principle and protest that Reverend Moon is responsible to lead them into Canaan; they will point out that even though one generation of Israelites failed God in the wilderness, He still took the second generation into Canaan.

I will have to surrender to such protests, but before that situation occurs, let us go in advance and help everyone to come in. If we wait until the avalanche occurs of its own accord, people will accuse the Moonies of not doing enough and being weak; they will kick you out and help Reverend Moon themselves. We cannot stand still as a small handful of people; everyone must grow himself and develop God's nation and world, and then late-comers will not have any foundation to accuse. You have to deserve the blessing that I saved to give only to you. In the future, even if you really want to do the fund raising and witnessing that you avoid doing now, people who come later will do these things in your place.

Dr. Durst reported to me that in his recent travels around the country. the media and officials seemed to have changed and are much more receptive to learning about our movement. However, those people have not actually changed: the difference is that, while they used to be wearing blinders when looking at us, they are now looking more clearly. They have thrown away those blinders and can see who is espousing good and who is evil, and all of a sudden it seems that the Moonies are looking very good.

Fish always look for clean water to live in. The world is a very muddy place now and people of good conscience are looking for cleaner water to live in. They will see that the only clean environment is within the Unification Church. Therefore, it is inevitable that the conscientious, thoughtful young people of America will come to our doors in an avalanche. You can grab any good-looking, successful man on the street and confront him, "Do you have true confidence about your future with your family and your world?" No one has true reason to have such confidence. Only the Moonies have that confidence in themselves, their families, their nation, the future.

I never give directions to you blindly; I always pay great attention to timing, and our offensive has begun. The spiritual weapons we are using are not weak; they are powerful. This is a most exciting time.

A great dawn is coming to the world. The most precious opportunity God gave to the world was the period from 1945-1948. In 1948 Korea regained its independence; it was God's plan that the Unification Church also achieve independence in that year. In 1948 Israel became independent as well. Providentially, America's awakening should also have been complete in that year so that dispensational events could have moved like a forest fire all over the world. Since the True Parents have appeared, every people and every nation has the right to be brothers and sisters.

Unprecedented things happened after World War 11; the victorious nations became almost like servants to the conquered nations. History has never seen such a thing as the way the United States helped to rebuild Germany and Japan. Today they are leading nations, surpassing even the nations that defeated them in World War 11.

America has become more self-centered and has been declining; their European allies have been doing the same. If Japan and Germany turn toward self-serving ways, they too will start to decline. All the powerful nations are destined to decline because of this principle, but there is one group of people that is rising up. Moonies are rising up because our ideology stresses unselfishness. Our goal is not even just one united world on earth. but one united universe of earth and spirit world. This is why the spirit world is working so hard to assist us.

We have become a tower of strength within the Christian world, pushing communism out of the planet. The tree world never liked Reverend Moon in the past, but God is smart-communism is becoming so strong that the free world is desperate to find an answer and will have to accept me. Because their survival is clearly at stake. they have to follow the Divine Principle. This may have seemed like a dream, but it is actually happening now.

The Unification Church has not only the hope but the power to digest both the communist and Christian worlds. That is why we are most fearful to the world. For the first time in 6,000 years Satan is trembling, so God must be feeling good, jumping up and down with joy! If Satan tries to sabotage us, God will say, "No sir! This is my property."

The first generation may oppose me, but the second generation will be on God's side. Even children of the communist leaders will eventually rebel against their parents and support me. One thing I know is God, and He and the Moonies will make it!

Human history was mixed up by a man and woman; therefore, the new history will be consummated by men and women. This is the alpha and omega-men and women. TM, TW, and TG-true men, true women and true God. So far, God has not been able to take His true position. True men, true women and true God will consummate their love within the family; this is Unification idealism.

Every individual needs the original condition, which was God, the archangel, Adam, Eve, and the world of all things. All these elements existed for the purpose of love. The individual man needs Eve. In the case of women, you need Adam. Would you give your life in looking for a man or woman, or would you just expect to receive one? You are the citizens of a nation and part of the world. The problem is that all these elements are linked by Satan-centered love.

Why do we need at least three spiritual children? Finding them is the equivalent of restoring the three archangels. Actually a family of eight members began the fallen world-Adam, Eve, three sons, and three daughters. You must restore that number through your spiritual children. Three spiritual children represent three sons, and you must elevate them from fallen love to God's love.

Also you must set a condition to restore all things, which were lost to Satan. Fund raising fulfills that condition. Until we bring the creation from satanic domination to God's side we cannot restore ourselves, since God made the creation before He made Adam and Eve. Because Satan is reluctant to release what he has, it is only by fighting him, in other words by confronting persecution and rejection, that we can bring all things to their true owner. Ownership is determined by love. Satan enslaved all things instead of loving them, so when we love all things we have a right to claim them. Our love must be more intense than Satan's.

We are claiming to Satan that we love mankind, more than him. We are not bringing every single thing back to God's world, but a representative seed. A condition is a seed. To restore yourselves you need the foundation of all things. If you love all things from the position of original man and woman, then you are elevating yourselves to the position of original Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve failed to love their original archangel; they fell instead. The original love action should have been initiated by Adam and Eve, not the archangel. Since the archangel became Satan and claimed Adam and Eve and their posterity, all their descendants are arch angelic children. In that sense when we restore spiritual children we are restoring the archangel.

You must spend three and a half years restoring all things, and three and a half years restoring spiritual children; that is your seven-year course. Unless we set these conditions of loving all things and loving the archangel, we cannot love God. This is the original formula. If you resist fund raising, you are resisting the foundation upon which your own body can be re-created. Unless you find your three spiritual children, you are not in a position to say you have loved the archangel. Because you are trying to restore yourself to the original state of man before the fall, you must do all these things.

The ideal is for you to restore a spiritual family of eight members in place of the fallen family of Adam and Eve. Under those circumstances you can be elevated to God's realm. At this point you are not yet outside the physical realm of Satan; even though you have your family, you must grow into a tribe and nation. You don't know about those areas, so you need the Messiah to guide you to the end. That course is what we call the three seven-year courses.

In 1976 virtually every element in the world was opposing our movement. That situation could only be overcome by love and desire for their salvation, not revenge. We created the movie Inchon centered on General MacArthur to help revive the spirit of patriotism in America. Likewise, The Washington Times was created to help in America's salvation. In these ways we loved the enemies that were persecuting us. Japan was an enemy to Korea and to America. America was an enemy to Germany. We are bringing these enemy nations together centering on love. They are uniting and loving even the greatest enemy of the world, which is communism.

Reverend Moon has penetrated this world, and all his followers should be able to go beyond this secular world, but it cannot be done without sufficient conditions being set. We cannot go all by ourselves. Before leaving this world we have to bring members of our Cain family with us. Cain is the twin elder brother. He was born before you were so you should let him receive the benefit first. Without Cain you cannot be born.

If your three spiritual children truly support and love you, then you finally have the foundation to be born as true Adam and true Eve. Since the fall could be initiated because of disunity between Adam, Eve and the archangel, your archangels must be united in loving Adam and Eve. There is a certain indemnity price to be paid before Reverend Moon can lead people out of this fallen world. I came out of the fallen world, but had to return and become the center of that world. Our central headquarters rests upon the foundation of the 360-home Home Church providence.

Once you overcome the fallen state, you must return to the fallen world and become master of it through the Home Church system. When you are successful in four directions in your Home Church, God will regard it as a complete success that can be expanded onto a worldwide basis. In my era I did it in the midst of persecution but the time is changing and you will do it in the midst of welcome. After these three years are over, the atmosphere of the world will totally change. Therefore in these three years we must concretely set the Home Church providence.

Even though we are doing much mobile work, Home Church must not be ignored. This is just a special task force mobilization; Home Church is our land of settlement.

Mobile teams are to hasten the providence by proclaiming the successful foundation of the Unification Church, but ultimately we must gain the victory in the Home Church providence. I spent sixty years coming to this period, but you are going to do it in seven years or less. My goal is to consummate the Home Church providence by 1988. When public opinion changes and Americans feel that they need Reverend Moon's guidance for this country. every problem will be solved.

Three spiritual children are essential for several reasons. First of all, you must set a condition to restore the archangel and of loving the creation. In that way, you can restore your position as original Adam and Eve. Furthermore, you set a condition of loving the Cain world, including the Old Testament, New Testament and Completed Testament eras. The Old Testament era is that of the tribe: the New Testament era is that of the nation; and our era, the Completed Testament era, is the era of the world.

Moses brought 600,000 Israelites from Egypt to Canaan; and Jesus was to bring the chosen people from the nation of Israel to the world, which was Rome. The Unification Church today must bring the world to the universe and spirit world.

God was called the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. That also signifies the first Adam, second Adam, and third Adam. All these are restored by gaining three spiritual children. Without them you cannot consummate your family, even though you receive the blessing. For that reason Jesus needed three primary disciples. I chose three disciples and blessed them first-Young Whi Kim' Won Pil Kim, and the late Mr. Eu. Those three were expanded into twelve, covering all directions. Jesus also needed a foundation of twelve which would protect the central home.

It would have been ideal for Jesus to have twelve families surrounding his own central family. This particular process is the same, whether for Jesus or for you or me. We have to enter the Kingdom of Heaven together with those on the Cain side. Out of the Cain world we pick representatives to consummate the condition, allowing God to grant us Heavenly rights.

This is the restoration process, starting with the parents, children, tribe' society, nation, world and cosmos -seven stages. This format was horizontally expressed in the chosen nation of Israel. The Messiah was to come to that center, so he would have total freedom within the Jewish cultural sphere. If this foundation had been presented to Jesus, within seven years the providence of God would have been consummated. When God's nation was completely established like a rock, then Rome would have crumbled all by itself. Since this was not done at the time of Jesus, the world level was added on to the foundation necessary for the Lord of the Second Advent.

The Messiah has been awaited by the Christian world all this time, and he was meant to have complete freedom of movement in and out of this world. In that case only seven years would have been needed-1945 plus seven makes 1952. By 1952 all the dispensation should have been consummated. However, the Messiah was not accepted by the Christian world, so he moved out of that world and created his own circle. Centering on Reverend Moon, seven layers were created without relying on Christendom. The Unification Church independently created them without the assistance of Judaism or Christianity. We can prevail because the Unification Church is the consummation of Judaism and the consummation of the Christian culture. It is the consummation of America; we have the capability to defeat Satan.

Having consummated the Heavenly world, now I will spend the next three years to save the Christian world. Since I have created an Abel world, I will embrace the Cain world with love. When the Abel world becomes one with Christianity. the next goal will be Moscow. Any sovereignty that unites with this dispensation will be saved and prosper. and together we can liberate the communist world.

The fall of man can be condensed into one sentence: human beings lost their parents. Therefore, the history of man has been a search for parents. The day people meet their True Parents is their greatest day because, until then, everyone is like an orphan living in an orphanage. You have no place to make a true home. It is only with parental love that the problems of the world can be solved.

People must receive love from their parents; then centered upon that love, men and women can love each other and get blessed in marriage. When they give birth to children, they are creating their own Heavenly four positions. You are the center-of the parents, children, and all things. That means you are going to play the prime role, even if the True Parents are here-it is you who initiates the unity between the True Parents and yourself. Therefore, you are your best friend and also your own worst enemy. The biggest problem is that your mind and body have never truly united-your body is always separating from your mind. But upon the foundation of unity between your mind and body then you seek true parents, true children, all things.

True love is the factor by which to bring mind and body together. True love must bring men and women together to have children. True love is the ultimate value. Therefore we feel that, more than our spouses or children or anyone, God comes first. You must practice that attitude in your daily life-your children may not need it, but you do. "God first" is the absolute credo of our movement.

The conclusion of the Divine Principle is that you must make up your own mind to love True Parents more than your own self, spouse, or children.

You need the kind of spiritual children who will be the three archangels to love you and help support your children. Your three spiritual children are not a part of the Heavenly lineage, so they need to unite with your own children in order to be saved themselves. They must love your children more than they love themselves. Your children will petition you, "My dear parents, please love your spiritual children the way you love us!"

The True Parents' family is an example of this rule. The earliest blessed couples, the 36 couples, loved True Parents' children more than they loved themselves, their own children and spouses. Because of that, my own children petitioned me. "Please promote those people to the highest place in Heaven. They are wonderful people." That kind of petition had to come from my own children.

This is the tradition we are building. Once our church has crystallized this tradition, no power under the sun can ever take it away. That tradition must go to every level. For example, your own children must plead with you for the sake of your spiritual children. By the same token, when you love the True Parents' children, they will petition on your behalf. No matter how many families exist, it won't be any different. All will want to follow this central tradition and achieve the same goal.

Therefore, the Unification families are always moving toward the center-not the east, west, north or south- because the center is where life lies. Regardless of how many people-4 billion. 400 billion-it doesn't change the tradition. All families will want to align themselves with that center. That will create incredible order and discipline. You will receive the Church blessing; then you will receive the national blessing and the world blessing. I have always said that each person must go through three blessings in order to totally enjoy freedom. Even when you receive total freedom, you will not lose your connection with the center. Just like a compass, you will be constantly aligned with the center.

Ultimately, the True Father is the center with which all children and posterity are centered. But until you have received all three blessings, the entire True Family is the center. Once all those blessings are spread throughout all levels, then the True Father will be the eternal center for all people. There will always be a physical representative of the True Father here on earth-from one generation to another, there will be that axis on which the earth will turn. Therefore, all of you here on earth and all the people in the generations to come will be centered upon the same center.

When we look at the whole picture, the problem is always the self, the individual. Your children will not require spiritual children, but for you it is essential. That is because you came out of the satanic world and then received the blessing in the Heavenly world. Do you follow? This is an absolute. Without having spiritual children, it is not right to want to go on with your family life. Is all of this clear to you?

Those who have received the blessing are always in the most crucial position. According to the standard of loving True Parents' children the most, even the 36 couples have not fulfilled-they have not consummated their mission. My children are in the position to be educated by those couples-the way Adam and Eve should have been educated by the archangel. The 3 primary blessed couples, and also the entire 36 couple blessing, were supposed to take that position to the True Children. The archangel was supposed to educate Adam and Eve in wisdom.

The children can take the position of parents only when they understand the love of parents. The parents' position is a loving position. My own children are also bound by this truth. They must look at the True Parents as more than just "Daddy and Mommy." They must listen to the 36 couples. I have always lived totally by principle and for that reason there have been complaints from some of my children-but there is no reason for that. This is the tradition of Principle.

Right now, you are the problem and you are the solution. We certainly must consider that we have our own family members-spouse, parents, children, etc.-but the most important person is the archangel or spiritual children. The blessed couples' children cannot marry unblessed children. Especially if blessed couples abandon their blessing and go away and marry somebody else - that is the worst kind of thing. When that happens, re-indemnity has to be established, which is not an easy path, and you will have to continue that path even when you go to spirit world.

When you receive the blessing and then reject it, that is doing something worse than what Satan did. That means someone came into the direct dominion and control of God, then fell again. You may not realize it deeply, but an incredible Heavenly principle is working here.

Setting the right tradition is so important. The blessed life is one in which you spend your earthly time inheriting and living the God-centered, True Parent-centered tradition and then entering into Heaven. There are three countries which must be centered upon the True Father-an Adam nation, Eve nation, archangel nation, as well as a Cain and an Abel nation. How can God harvest these nations in these last days? Do you understand now that spiritual children are absolutely necessary?

So far, you have received the Unification Church blessing-not yet the national blessing. That will come in the future, when your deeds will be evaluated by your children, your spouse, your parents, and your brethren. Your surroundings will evaluate you. If you don't pass that evaluation, you will not be able to participate in the national blessing. Then you will have a special dispensational period to pay the indemnity to be restored. That will go beyond the wilderness period of 40 years.

This wilderness period is the most painful period, full of uncertainty and hostility in the world. There are all kinds of dangers around us, including both physical and spiritual attack. But by the time you are elevated to the national and the worldwide blessing, each one of you will have become a tribe. Your tribe will prepare a report on you that will enable you to pass the worldwide level of blessing, and then you will be able to register as an eternal citizen of the Heavenly Kingdom. Do you follow? Until you come to that level of registration as a citizen in the Kingdom of Heaven for eternity, you must unite with the whole family of the True Parents.

The family of the True Parents will hold a meeting and will discuss and decide if you are eligible to become a citizen. Who will be eligible? The ones who are more loving, giving and sacrificial-those are the criteria. After that time of registration is done, True Father will appoint his successor. That successor must be known to all the Unification Church, all the blessed couples, the True Parents' family, and they must unanimously accept him. Once that successor is determined, the law or constitution of the Heavenly Kingdom shall be laid down to guide all activities. The law will guide Heavenly citizens here on earth and will guide them straight into the Kingdom of Heaven in Heaven. Is that clear?

I want you to understand the seriousness of being a blessed couple. If you have not realized this before, you must know how important it is for you to uphold your responsibility. You are in the most crucial position-you are the problem and you are also the solution. When I am not here, you will automatically seek guidance from my children. You have your own consensus of who among my children are the most Abel-like. Even though you may not have direct contact with them, you should know their names, their character, their behavior, and so forth, so that you can learn how to harmonize with them.

Those children born as blessed children should not feel they are privileged. They have a difficult and challenging path ahead of them. It is most important that they unite with their parents. Here in America there is a tendency for blessed children to mingle with children of the secular world - but that is very disheartening and also very dangerous.

Thus each person is the key to success or failure. Your mind and body must become one, centered upon true love, and you must come totally over to God's side. Today is a special sermon in which I am teaching you the most important standard-unless you keep up with this standard, you will not be able to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. You are not going to go along this road being pushed by somebody else-you must voluntarily perfect yourself. You should not wait for someone to come along and push you out to go on the mobile teams; you should volunteer, even before you hear the word from me. Husbands and wives should push each other to go out.

We are just like the Israelites moving through the wilderness or troops on the march. When people have babies, they must send them to the division that takes care of babies so that they can get back to the front lines where they are needed. If someone in a battle is trying to wander around. clutching her baby to her breast, they will both be killed in the fierce fighting. It is good to love your husband or wife, but in the time of war, God and mission must be first and foremost in your mind.

Before the Unification Church, we must love the Unification nation. We are building that nation now. You are the ones who will determine the success or failure of this venture. Whenever I look at Mother, I always ask myself, "Am I loving her with a united mind and body?" Mother has the same attitude.

We are going into the land of Canaan and the journey is not easy. We must pass through the wilderness to get there. We are passing through the worst situations now- you don't know what will happen. The only person who really knows what is going to happen is True Father; Mother is holding on tight to me and going wherever I go. Of course, Mother is busy caring for the children and thus she has different duties than I do. The best situation would be for all the children, as well as Mother, to be looking toward me for direction and eager to dash out to fulfill it. I am telling my own children that they are not the ones to control our actions. Therefore, Mother and I should be the focal point of your attentions as well.

Night and day, whether I am sleeping in a bed or not, there is only one thing on my mind: God's world here on the earth. You are going to be citizens of that world; therefore, you are responsible to become worthy of it. If you fail to become a citizen of that Kingdom when you go to spirit world, you shall have to wait a millennium or perhaps even millions of years.

I cannot always remain here and speak to you at Belvedere because I cannot stay in one place forever. Unless the entire country of America will welcome me, I must go away and go to the country which knows it needs Reverend Moon and welcomes me on the national level. It doesn't matter how large or small the country. There are many nations more prepared than the U.S. to receive the True Parents.

However, I still have hope for this country. That is the reason I am pushing everyone for the next three years to give every ounce of energy and heart for the sake of consummating the mission in this country. We want America to be in the position to receive the blessing-to be in the position to accept God, welcome Him, and ask for His guidance. That is the purpose of these three years.

In the meantime, while I am concentrating so strongly on the United States, I want you to understand that the rest of the world is suffering. I could leave this country easily. I could have a much easier time working with some other country which is eager to welcome me. But that is not what the rest of the world needs. The world needs such a country as the U.S. to become a God-centered nation. Therefore, even though it is very difficult, I will go this road. Korea and the U.S. are linked together. If anything happened to damage that link, I would return immediately to Korea.

I am asking each one of you today to assume the role and responsibility which I have been carrying. Anybody who has such a desire and participates in his mission in that way will have God with him. That is the rule of Heaven. When you are completely united with the True Father in your heart, God is with you.

You should be doubly strong as blessed couples because husband and wife should both be thinking how to inherit my spirit. Then even greater miracles can happen. Centering upon your blessed family, you are going to move toward the national foundation. Your family shall become an offering for that purpose.

Would you do this and follow my direction? God's blessing be with you. Thank you.

Erecting the Spiritual Foundation

Sun Myung Moon
June 1, 1983

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Following the Leaders' meeting June 1, 1983, Father gathered state leaders and IOWC leaders for a one-day conference June 2. During the day, Father brought out his notebook and shared the Eight Points of guidance for the New Dispensation 1983-1985. Below we present the Second Point, which addresses the topic of spiritual leadership.

Our leaders cannot succeed without spiritual help. In order to receive help from the spiritual world, you must suffer more than the Pilgrim Fathers who came to this shore suffering. Surpass and go beyond their level of suffering, then they will be mobilized.

A. Chain Prayer Vigil

From within each region, each state will organize a prayer vigil and each team also will have their vigil. According the Bible and through the gospels of Jesus you know that so many miracles occurred through the power of prayer.

B. Every Day a Good Deed to One Cain-Type Person

Each member should select himself a person and then serve him. Each of you should consider yourself an Abel so select someone to be your Cain. Nobody wants to be recognized as Cain, so that means that everybody must behave like Abel. Compete with each other from a spirit of service and be filled with bubbling enthusiasm. Then you can tell him that he has this one defect, so that's why you treat him like a Cain. This will really uplift the serving spirit and bring down heavenly power, don't you think?

Through the day in everything you do, volunteer to take the lesser place, rather than the better one. And if you practice this for 3 years you will truly be changed.

C. Leaders Must Set the Tradition and Meet Civic Leaders

The leaders must set the tradition of being the example for others. You state and center leaders aren't just standing there finger-pointing at the members telling them what they should do. You must always be in the position of saying, "Follow me." Willingly, joyfully you must set the example before you ask them to follow. When they see you they will say, "Let me go first, I will do it, and I will do more." This kind of spirit will be created in lecturing, fundraising and in every field where you go first.

Meet civic and political leaders like mayors, police chiefs, governors, saying that you are capable of helping the state, that you can provide people for manpower. Sometimes you can propose projects; sometimes let them propose projects State leaders have been very deficient in meeting people. You just don't like to do it; you are too timid. Timidity prevents you from meeting people.

Already foundations have been laid, but you have to climb up, and reach to higher foundations all the way. The Regional Director will tell you that your mission is to meet that official, or that leader, and then you will go by all means.

Unless you meet leaders at the top, they may get a bad impression from the mobile team -- they'll get a bad report which they'll read and have the wrong impression. So before this happens you must be the one that they meet, and you can give them a positive image. The mobile teams will be travelling around to new places so you can meet with media people and have an interview with them.

D. Nurture and Train the Spiritual Leadership

You don't have too many spiritual experiences, but the Korean leaders do -- so as much as you can, get spiritual leadership from them. If you have some spiritual experiences such as some extraordinary vision or dream, report to the Korean leaders and let them interpret it for you. They can give you incredible insight. To become a spiritual leader you must know how to become a good conductor. When you look at those spiritually-open persons, maybe you look at them as if they were mentally ill patients? No! Many times you can appreciate spiritual phenomena and use it for the good of the movement.

Sometimes people say funny things -- so don't push that person aside and say that he's crazy -- sometimes this is spiritual phenomena -- so you must ask advice from the leaders and ask why those phenomena occur, and how you can interpret those things. Maybe sometimes your lips start moving like speaking in tongues -- in that case you become like a microphone. Spirit world is using your mouth as their organ and instrument.

You must know how to analyze these situations and how to deal with them. One of the phenomena which occur with spiritually inclined people is that they can go for periods of time with no eating and no sleeping. Then you have to feed them or get them to work hard physically, then they will be able to sleep. Or you have to change their atmosphere. You should be able to lead and handle these situations -- don't jump to sending them to a psychiatrist or mental hospital. When you have received that training then you can control the situation.

When hundreds of members really pray hard together, all kinds of things occur. Sometimes a grandmother will begin dancing like a ballerina -- in this case a ballerina spirit has come through her. You can get great instruction out of this kind of person, even a professional ballerina could come to learn some techniques.

In every state you need at least 3 spiritual people, so that you can accept and learn the spiritual changes through them. That's the ideal. Always think about the strong and weak rhythms, and the optimum: three points. Sometimes you receive strong messages, sometimes weak ones. When such a message comes, you might have to go to a public square and shout it out. Other times you have to control it, and reflect upon the message, and adjust it. For example one person is in a trance and one spirit man comes to him, and then in a split second a second comes but you don't notice this difference -- yet the spirits' messages are totally different and then you feel confused. Then you think that person is crazy; from minute to minute he's saying completely different things.

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E. You Need Greater Spiritual Assistance than Your Own Actual Accomplishment

In the religious community, unless your spiritual reliance is greater you will never succeed. It is for that reason that religious leaders are never boastful or prideful of their own accomplishment. Once you boast about your accomplishment, all spiritual assistance will cease. Instead, make yourself grateful to God, realizing that you are totally inadequate, but feeling, "God, how great You are, and it's You who have provided the way for good success."

Your acknowledgement should be that credit belongs to the spirit world -- not you. When you are walking you're never walking alone but with support.

Always keep yourself focused on the goal so that the cyclic plus and minus energies can come, and your conductibility can be so perfect that the spirit world can immediately act.

For that reason those Ph.D.'s in religion and theology become the obstacles for their religious practice. Those persons insist that they studied it all, and are trying to judge things by their own knowledge. Persons with a great amount of erudite knowledge will probably never have opportunity to be spiritually attuned. But a grandmother in the countryside, totally uneducated, who totally gives the credit to God and the spirit world -- by doing so, great things can happen.

Let's say the intellectual person who has already done something great, already attributes that success to himself, "I have a Ph.D. and I can do this much." He takes the credit to himself and spirit world is cut off. So the Bible says,

"Unless you are like a child you will not be admitted into the kingdom of heaven."

"Like a child" means naive in a way. So when you go out preaching or lecturing all of a sudden fantastic words come from your mouth, then you should confess that you could never even think of such a thing, but that God gave it to you. Thank God. This is a very important religious practice if you are to be a spiritual leader.

F. Be accessible to the Spirit world

Spirit men are seeking someone who has a rapport established with them so they can come down and have give and take. In a sense, they're always looking for an ideal mate here on earth so in order to get spiritual assistance quickly, you must make yourself accessible to spirit persons. They're looking for the ideal type, so make an art of the ability to relate to the widest variety of people; then you are continually making yourself available. They are always ready to come.

If your character is genuinely beautiful, and very easy to attune to and you deal with other persons harmoniously, as soon as you can please 1,000 persons -- that means you are able to receive 1000 persons approaching you from spirit world -- do you follow?

The Bible says the one who makes harmony is the Son of God. Then the entire spirit world comes down to help him. When you serve ten persons in a family they will come and want to talk and share with you. Why did Jesus have 12 disciples? Twelve different personality types for him to serve and by doing so, he is serving and perfecting all mankind. The 12 are 12 different types of men, so different types of spirit world could open up. So the virtues of Christianity are to endure, to have patience and to love. That means to have harmony with everybody, then spirit world can come down near to you.

G. Parental Heart, Through Training and Education

All the newcomers will need training and education but you will conduct it with parental heart. Think of it this way: the person I gave my first love to -- that longing kind of first love -- for him or her, there is nothing I cannot spare. In order to win a spiritual child you must go beyond that feeling toward your first love. What was the fall of man? The fall of man was that first love act. Even though it was an illicit act, still there was incredible power of love involved. In order to restore that we must go beyond it.

You must deny your own family, your own parents and children and give all your love to heaven. Jesus spoke in this spirit, but no one understands why he spoke that way. It's not just thinking and concept; you have to live it. Practice this kind of restorational love.

Learning Through Experience

Sun Myung Moon
June 1983

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The following speech was given by Father to the 120 day trainees at East Garden. It was reconstructed from personal notes. Father spoke in a very intimate and personal way, fall of love and concern for everyone.

You can never understand anything through thinking or studying but only through your own experience. Once you are persecuted and suffer, then you can really understand what Father must have gone through. To study the Principle is sometimes not so easy but the real difficulty starts when you witness to one person. Only then can you understand how complicated it is for God to bring all mankind back to the original state.

Think of your own struggles to finally accept the Principle and True Parents. How much effort God and True Parents put into you! How much more difficult, then, it is for you to witness to another person, since you are somewhat better than most other people.

In order to win 10 people you have to make an effort commensurate with 10 people. This is the Principle. And think of how much effort heaven has to put proportionally into this evil world in order to change it into a good one.

In order to reach that goal it's not possible to proceed in a normal way. Here comes the concept of absolute obedience. It's all right to understand things before doing them, but how much time do we have for that? However if you obey 100 percent it'll be the fastest way. God then can set His foot on your head and, if you don't move, He has a stable ground to stand upon.

Let's look at the Christians. They have a very deep faith but they believe blindly. We, however, have received many explanations and answers. But where do we go from there? Once we understand the Principle we have to return to even a deeper faith than the Christians, which is not blind. This is the only way to achieve a better world than they have. In other words, though you have now learned about the Principle, it's not enough. God and spirit world will not help you unless you have absolute faith in it.

Spiritual and physical training

For the last few months your schedule consisted of virtually 24 hours of studying and fundraising daily. What would you do if, in addition to that tough schedule, somebody beat you up a hundred times? You probably would run away, wouldn't you? Mas Oyama karate is very famous for its special training, because in the very first lesson, the teacher beats you. The first time you feel very worried about where he hits you, but once you get used to it, you forget where you were beaten the day before.

Now think what the communists are doing. They beat you, and even more than that, they threaten you with a gun. Let's not kid ourselves, so far we never had the right kind of training to win over them.

Someday, though, Father will train you as guerrilla forces. This is unusual for a religious movement. Because of our religiousness, the communists are very afraid of Father. They know he will do everything to overcome communism, because it is the enemy of God. The communists' attention is focused now on the Third World, but Father is snatching away from them one country after another.

How can we influence more South American and African people? We have to send white people to their countries and let them suffer more than any white or black people had before. Throughout history, Europeans made Africans suffer, but now it's the other way around. Once Europeans begin to die happily in an African nation, everything will become very harmonious, and they will win completely the hearts of the Africans.

Democracy of love

Unification Church members are the ones who eat up all that's bad and transform it into nutrition. You already have eaten up a lot of things, like dating, individualism, free sex and democracy, haven't you? Eating up is equivalent to digesting.

Democracy in which freedom is the supreme value is worth nothing compared with democracy where love is the highest value. At first sight, the latter doesn't seem compatible with democracy, but it is actually much better. So-called freedom is often a very destructive thing, for example someone's "free" attitude that, "I don't need my father and mother. I don't need my wife. She disagrees with me all the time anyway. I don't need sons and daughters.," etc.

This kind of attitude leads inexorably to emptiness and loneliness. Hope is lost. Such a person easily becomes a nihilist and finally may commit suicide, for there is no longer anything for him to do.

Is there room for individualism in a democracy of love? Well, no individual can make love by himself. Love goes beyond everything, it brings everything together. We surely don't deny democracy but we do promote a democracy of love. Moonies have every reason to be proud, for our thinking is higher than the ordinary. We are free, but in a limited sense. Our liberating element is love, with which you can do everything.

Connecting extremes

Look at the Japanese. They are short, have dark hair and small noses, but their husbands are tall, blue-eyed and have light hair. They are like two different poles. Imagine the South and the North Poles -- in between there is everything. A magnetic force attracts them to each other. In our case the poles are "love poles." Unification Church members are always reaching out to the extremes, for example, a black person reaching out to a white person, loving each other to the utmost.

In the future, people will be reaching out in just this way to the most difficult places, but Unification Church members already will have settled there. That will also be the day when the most handsome man will many the ugliest woman. This relationship will be much deeper than one between two handsome people. The woman will do very much for her husband, so grateful that her husband married her in spite of her ugliness. How much love he must have! she will think.

Only such a strategy of uniting opposites through love will make one world. Or is there any other way to unite the world?

For the sake of love

When you have a crippled child of your own, your parental mind naturally aches much more for the crippled child than for the normal one. God's mind is just like that. If you love brothers and sisters whom nobody loves, then you resemble God and 'True Parents. That's the most beautiful thing on earth!

Look at the world. People are literally dying. You first must give them a shot to bring them back to life before you can give them love. That injection is called Divine Principle, or even 120 days training.

If you think about how much authority and dignity you will gain in heaven, then you cannot truly love. Father has given up his authority and dignity and just loved people. He has gone through all kinds of trials, as the time in prison where he was left with no dignity whatsoever. In this situation, Father always thought about how to save the people.

When you really come to know who Father is, you will cherish him. If you live in the same way as Father, people will come to feel toward you as you feel toward him now. It will continue for all eternity.

Father's conclusion is very simple: die and you shall live! But when you die you are not really dead. At least 10 people -- especially your children -- will pick up your work and bring it to a conclusion.

Our final goal is to liberate the communist world. In the future, we'll be sent out as spies -- heavenly spies armed with true love and with the purpose of saving a particular country. Usually "spy" is a bad word, because a spy tries to get information to destroy a country. But we are different.

Man as a top level partner of love

God cannot love all by Himself. He needs a man as a co-creator of true love, as a "top level partner of love" (Americans would like the expression). What higher purpose of existence can there be? You literally become God. God is invisible but you are visible. You become God through your love. You can say that I am the outside God [God of Day] and He is the inside God [God of night]. God must have another God to create something together in love. This is a rather unusual concept of God compared with the traditional ones.

What will it be like when you get to spirit world? In the spirit world, God maintains a certain state. When we reach the same state, we become a part of God Himself. God is a duality of male and female. Man and woman must therefore become very harmonious in order to come close to God and resemble Him. If we become similar to Him, we feel everything that God feels: joy, sadness, etc. We thus become a cell of God's body. So husband and wife must always understand each other, create each other. God is like a huge man in spirit and each cell is like an individual man and woman.

Since God is our origin, we expand ourselves here on earth and then go back to the origin again. It is as if somebody drops a seed on earth, which grows, multiplies and bears fruit and then returns to its origin. The more this is achieved, the more God grows and grows.

Couples today tend to be badly matched, with few principles in their relationships, creating a weak foundation on which to start married life. But in the Unification Church, our goal is to become completely one as husband and wife. This is a must, the minimum we have to achieve to prepare for the spirit world.

Loving the enemy

Jesus said, Love your enemy. The enemy turned out to be a servant or Cain, the elder brother and archangel. Unless we love, nothing has value, because man was originally meant to be a being of love. Cain will be subjugated only when you give him original love. Unless you love your elder brothers, you will not be able to reach your goal.

Centering on Father, there are the Adam, Eve, Cain and Abel countries. These countries must dedicate themselves to Father before the original world can be reconstituted. At the beginning of human history, a seed (the Fall) was sown which must be restored. Everyone became each other's enemy. For example, Korea and Japan, Japan and America and America and Germany were enemies of each other.

That's why Father sent representatives of these countries to the foreign missions. Some took three years or eight years to unite. Father so far never specifically told the missionaries to unite before they went out. This was an indemnity condition. But now Father is telling you. If these four countries love each other, the communists automatically will crumble and cease to exist. When man fulfills his responsibility, this will happen, otherwise not. In this way, man becomes a co- creator with God.

Never lonely

Even though we are physically far away from True Parents we should feel happy because Father is always there. Please think that no matter how difficult the path may be, Father is going the exact same road. Can you complain? To whom? Only to yourself, that you haven't loved enough.

If you are like that, God will always look after you. Father knows this absolutely, because he experienced so many times that God became his friend when he was lonely. Go the road you must go. Don't feel lonely.

Many people have wondered why God didn't do anything about the evil of this world if He is so powerful and almighty. But now we know that God cannot do anything unless man makes himself available to Him. With this solution, we can explain the age-old question why God left the world uncorrected. If someone knowing that secret makes himself an object to God, God certainly will help him.

Do you rather want to be longing for the kingdom of heaven or work hard and make this world into a kingdom of heaven? Where do you want to go first, to heaven or hell? Actually there is no such thing as hell anyway. Each individual creates hell in himself. You already have eaten up a lot. Father already ate you up. You are already a new person. In the same way, you should eat the worst person and make him the best person.

How wonderful you are! That should be enough. 

Original World And Present World

Reverend Sun Myung Moon
May 29, 1983
Belvedere
Translator - Bo Hi Pak

Are there any volunteers to translate the title this morning? It is: original world and world of reality. Therefore, the topic of today's message is the original world and the real, or present, world.

Everyone living on the face of the earth-past, present and future-realizes that his earthly life cannot be prolonged indefinitely. Although billions of people are alive at present, each individual represents all humanity. So in speaking of America, you are included as a representative or a part of America. Also, when you refer to the world, you put yourself in the center of that world; you think of it as yours. The individual, the nation and the world are actually not separated from each other. All levels are infinitely interrelated.

Each of you dreams of the ideal world; but as you do so, you realize that your dreams are a long way from the reality of the present situation. There is a big gap separating reality from the ideal; they are not so interrelated.

You cannot relate to the entire United States, even though you are a part of it and it is your nation. Furthermore, the American people cannot relate freely with the rest of the world; they are still far removed from the world panorama. You call this your nation, yet there are many factors and situations beyond your reach, outside of your control. You would like to be in a position to direct this country, to guide the national situation; everyone has such an ambition. However, we are not yet capable of doing that. Therefore, we still long for an ideal state and cherish the dream of a future ideal country. We never cease striving for that goal.

We want the freedom to relate to an ideal state and ideal world and ideal spiritual world. That is our hope and dream. I as an individual should be able to relate to everyone everywhere, without any restriction or obstacle. I should be able to encompass the whole country and connect to all of it, as well as the whole earth and all of spirit world.

An ideal state needs some central point-some central figure or focus. What kind of central figure would make our dream a reality? What kind of power would the central figure need? Only God meets the requirements. God is totally free; God is the total, perfect ideal. Therefore, He is the central figure we need.

What kind of character should God have? Does He need to be a tall, muscular man-a heavyweight champion? No. The God we are seeking is the ideal God, a God of total freedom and total power, able to relate to anyone anywhere, without restriction or limit.

In an ideal state, then, good and evil will not have to be defined, because there will be no room for evil or even for thinking of evil. God transcends the definition of good and evil. Such an ideal state must be totally pure, leaving no room for evil. Everything will be totally and permanently good. Its citizens will dwell in goodness, and each person will be thoroughly good. Men will be good, women will be good, and they can connect to that ultimate goodness with absolute freedom.

When God created all things, He said they were good. When He created Adam and Eve, He pronounced them very good, although Adam and Eve never did fulfill all the meaning of "very good" Which attracts God more: something good, or something very good? Very good, of course. Only after the creation of a man and a woman did God call His handiwork very good. He must have been wide awake and totally thrilled that day. He must have shouted with jubilation, loud enough for the whole universe to hear: "It is very good!"

What inspired such a response? Did God say, "very good!" when He looked at Adam's face? Or was it Eve that excited Him so much? No, it was the unity and harmony of Adam and Eve that God called supreme goodness. The content of harmony and unity is love. So the history of supreme goodness began when love entered the picture. Adam alone was not yet very good. Eve by herself did not meet the standard. But when God brought the two together and the current of love sparked between them, then He pronounced it very good.

If you ask God where He would like to dwell-in a good state or a very good state-what do you think He would answer? What would your answer be? Of course, you want to live in a very good state. The central theme of a very good state is love. Love is like a rope, a force which binds men and women together forever. Furthermore, even though people are eternally linked by such a rope, and even though it may look like bondage or slavery, it still fills people with infinite joy. That is love. So love is the supreme goodness, not just goodness.

Let us imagine two kinds of love scenes. In the first, a man and a woman are deeply in love, gazing at each other, holding one another in close embrace, not even knowing how to separate themselves. The second scene is like the first, except that someone else enters the picture. God joins the man and the woman, and the three together unite and rejoice in love. The center of goodness is two beings in love. But the center of supreme goodness is God.

The ideal is for a man and a woman of goodness to unite with God in supreme goodness and become totally one. Once you achieve that, you are totally free for the first time in your life because you can relate to everyone and everything. Whatever the circumstances, you can reach out to others. Once you attain that supreme goodness, you can travel throughout your nation and knock on the door of any home in any town, and you will be welcomed. People of all races will receive you because such supreme goodness cannot be dejected. Then you are totally free.

Would Satan approve of such a state? Of course God will, but even Satan cannot completely deny it, because he still has wisdom and recognizes what is true. He might say, "Well, it is logical and I realize that it is the truth, but I don't agree" That "1" is always Satan because it represents selfishness. Satan does not want any part of God's ideal; he never wants to see it fulfilled.

Let's go back to God's reason for creating the universe and mankind. His purpose was and is to achieve that state of supreme goodness. He wants to be able to call His creation "very good" Once you achieve supreme goodness, a happy state is possible.

Those critical four letters, V E R Y, set the ideal apart from the present situation. The ideal is not mere goodness. The present standard of goodness and love between men and women needs to be linked to the ideal love, the central, supremely good love. When that happens, you can call it an ideal state.

You must be able to logically explain what you mean by an ideal state. To speak about the ideal without knowing what it is all about is not scientific or logical. If you cannot explain the ideal condition, you will be blocked from moving forward. The ideal state is the state of supreme goodness. That is not too difficult to understand. Truth is always simple!

What then is the ideal world? It is the dwelling place of ideal people. The ideal world is the supremely good world, formed by good people; it is where loving men and women live in happiness, centered upon the core love of God. Just loving men and women is not the ideal; it is not even a supremely good state. Loving men and women need to be centered upon the core, universal love of God in order to create the ideal.

The motion of love is sometimes outward, sometimes inward; but in essence, it draws people closer. When a man and a woman tell each other, "I love you,' they are bound together. I wrote M and W on the blackboard, representing men and women. These two English letters look very similar. Turn the M upside down and it becomes a W. The subject points upward, and the object downward; the two positions are symmetrical. So MW and WM are harmonious. In that respect, the British people who created the English language were quite smart!

When a man and a woman come together, where do they touch first? Probably the nose! Actually, the heart is the center of our being, so people should meet heart to heart. The heart of the man is meant to join with the heart of the woman. It is not easy for the heart of a man to match that of a woman. Women have their own minds and men have theirs. Women may turn to the right, while men turn to the left, for instance.

To feel joy, you need to connect with an object. If you could get something to bind you to your object, would you want it? A man can have a miracle rope that hooks a woman and pulls her everywhere with him, without causing her to feel pain, unhappiness or resentment. A woman can also have such a rope that hooks a man and pulls him around without complaint. Would you that kind of rope? Absolutely yes! What is this miracle rope? It is the rope of love.

How much would you offer for that love rope? What price tag does it carry? You would be determined to get it even if you had to give yourself and all your possessions. Once you obtain such a precious rope, you cannot release it. To keep from letting go, you wrap it around yourself until you are completely bound by it! If your eyes are blindfolded by that rope, will they protest? If you are muzzled and fettered by it, will you feel pain or happiness? No, only great joy.

The rope of love is powerful enough to make someone heading in one direction wake up and turn completely around. Men and women touched by the rope of love become totally intoxicated. Its impact has electrifying power. As men and women draw nearer to each other, their positions no longer matter; the rope binds them together into one central position. How much energy does their fusion generate? The greatest imaginable power under the sun.

It is not always easy to link up with an object. If you want to catch a baseball, how do you do it? You could run toward the ball or retreat from it. If you charge into the ball to catch it, it would cause a lot of pain to your hands. To crash into a ball is a very awkward way of catching it. Suppose that instead of a ball it happens to be a woman coming toward you. How would you catch her? Would you crash into her or move around and gracefully reach for her?

When American soldiers returned from Vietnam after a long absence from their wives and children, their family reunions at the airport were the most touchingly beautiful scenes. When husband and wife ran towards each other, they did not crash headlong, but embraced and whirled round and round in their joy and harmony.

When lovers meet, they do not smash each other but revolve around each other. To revolve around each other means that each one fully accepts the other. Husband and wife should be interdependent and willing to be controlled by their spouse. People in love can open themselves totally to each other, without fear or resistance.

Normally, the woman is smaller and has to jump up to meet the man. So the man becomes the axis in the couple's revolution, and the woman hangs onto him. The man is the subject, taking the initiative. When a woman meets her lover, normally she wants to be enveloped in his arms or wrap her arms around his neck and be lifted up from the ground. Since God made women a little smaller than men, they are always waiting to be raised up. You have been trained to be lifted up by wearing high heels! In many cases, you American women want to play the subject role, but even you cannot disagree with me on this point.

On a two-lane American highway people drive in the right lane. The left lane is for cars coming from the opposite direction. But you women are like drivers who want to use the left lane. What happens when you change lanes? A crash. Women who move into the opposite lane cause many head-on collisions in American families today.

Who can train these tough, stubborn, impossible American women? Only Reverend Moon. You might be grumbling inside and rebelling against what I am explaining, but it is true. You should be humble enough to acknowledge the truth and determine to live by it.

Will you American women try to control your husband or will you let him control you? That is a hateful question for American women. All I am trying to do is stimulate you to achieve the supreme goodness. It is not so difficult to reach goodness, but unless you follow the Principle, you can never attain the supreme goodness.

Men are plus and women minus. This is the original and official formula. Can you protest against it? Your ancestors who created the alphabet and designed the letters M and W must have known what I was going to preach this morning!

Well, we have not yet covered the introduction, and one hour has already passed. We have just analyzed men and women. Shall we quit now? How much tuition did you pay to study this valuable material?

If I quit now, you might protest, "Father, you taught us the Principle. It says that in order to become very good, one needs an object. In the Unification Church, you are the subject, and without us as objects, you cannot achieve supreme goodness. You need us, Father" That is a good argument. I will surrender to it!

Once everything comes together in the right position and combination, following the right formula, supreme goodness will abound. From north, south, east and west, men and women will head for the center, and God will come down as they approach. Like an electric circuit, men being the plus and women the minus, they link up and make sparks fly! A spark is like an explosion; when you explode, you are no longer just men and women. That is the very moment God has been waiting for. When that moment comes, God will pull the man and woman to His bosom and revolve around with them! Then the ideal state will begin to function.

In what part of His children would God make his home? How about the eyeballs, the nose, the ears, or the mouth? None of these will satisfy Him. He will focus on the center of supreme goodness, the totally pure love of men and women joined together, and make His dwelling there.

The center of love is like pure gold, which has I 00 percent conductivity. Electrical current always flows towards something it can consume, generating explosions and sparks when it reaches the core. Electromagnetic current operates throughout the universe, controlling the function of the heavenly bodies. The truth of electricity is also the truth of the universe. Electrical current flows in a circuit; gravity draws everything towards the center. Why? Something comparable to pure gold is at the center of the universe. Universal prime force directs all motion towards the center, maintaining order in the universe.

Without gravity, the universe would fall apart. Likewise, in the world of heart, pure-gold love pulls everything to the center. The pure gold of God's love is the magnetic force, the center of gravity in the world of love. It affects any moving object. People's lives take various courses, but they always return to that pulling power. When you make contact with the golden core of God's love, will He cry out in pain, or laugh with joy and happiness? God is like us; He feels joy when touched by external stimulation.

Logically speaking, what can make God explode with joyful laughter? When He sees loving men and women coming together centering upon Him and exploding in love, He feels joy and wants to revolve with them.

Centered upon the love of God, the husband and wife turn in various directions and angles, but they always maintain the same center. The motion of love is not only circling but also spherical. As a metal cube turns over and over, it becomes rounder, because its edges wear down. Men are generally taller and heavier than women. Because God wanted that circling, spherical motion, He designed some differences between the sexes and also created a variety of men and women. He created Adam and Eve and pronounced them very good because He saw the possibility that His love could be ignited through the union, and that through them true joy could be fulfilled.

I want you to understand the central message this morning. Men and women may love each other horizontally, but unless their love is centered upon God, it will never ignite the universe or bring God true joy.

Once the central position is fixed, it cannot be changed. Society has been straying from this principle; men deny women and women deny men. Under such circumstances, the ideal can never come about. In God's sight, the gay movement in America, for example, and the various perverted forms of love are the worst offenses. They are crimes in His eyes. God is permitting the punishment of these movements by the spread of a new disease, which attacks gay people especially. It threatens their lives because they violate the laws of God and oppose His original love. God cannot let such activities prosper, so He uses natural law to curtail them.

When young people get married, the first thing they often do is reject their parents. Women in particular do not want to live in their husband's home. "Why are these old folks here?" they protest. "Why do I have to serve an old woman and an old man who mean nothing to me?" People who feel that way have no anchor for their lives; they will lose the land of settlement.

Senior citizens homes in America are like half-way houses next to a cemetery. Their residents are biologically alive, but in the sense of love, they are dead. Our church tradition is not to send our aged parents to a senior citizens home, but to give them the central position in our homes. Let them have the master bedroom.

Do you want a complicated family or a simple one? You are going to form simple families, but when I say that, I do not mean just husband and wife. I mean grandparents, parents, nephews and nieces, brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, all living harmoniously in one home. Three generations under one roof is the most ideal sort of family. You, your parents and your grandparents represent the stages of formation, growth and completion. Above you are your parents, and above them your grandparents. The heart of even the most elderly grandparents is always reaching out to little children. When you learn how to love grandparents, you will find God above them. If you are unable to love your grandparents, you should not even talk about loving God.

When this tradition governs your home, God will feel welcome to come and dwell there. Why do we need our spouse? Why do we need our parents and children? Because our unity with them is the prerequisite for welcoming God into our home. God's presence should be the core of love in your home. When you fulfill the three levels or stages of love, with God at the center, you can reach out in all directions, forming a complete sphere.

Your parents, your spouse and your children open the way for you to move freely in all directions. When you raise up and honor your parents, your spouse and your children, you transcend all limitations.

This kind of message is absolutely necessary in America. When ABC, NBC and CBS broadcast it to the 240 million Americans, will people respond, "Oh, Reverend Moon, we don't need you; go home"? When 240 million people reply, "Aboji, manse),' that will be the final chapter of the American dispensation! They may not say that very quickly, but at least they should welcome me and say, "Reverend Moon, we need you. Stay here forever"

Today's theme is the original, ideal world. The Unification movement's task is to bring mankind to that goal. We know the present reality, the focal point of the ideal world, and the way to reach it. What an incredible discovery for this confused and chaotic world! The Unification Church becomes a light to the world.

There are many antique lovers and collectors in this country. But what is the oldest antique of all? God. However, He is no ancient relic in a glass case, but a living God.

Antique collectors might display their treasures in their living room and come in once a day to admire them. But the oldest antique, God, is someone with whom you can share your life. Antiques can be quite costly, so how much would you expect to pay for the oldest antique? What could you offer in exchange for it? The entire United States of America? The whole earth? Its value would be astronomical.

When we do obtain God, where can we store Him? There are a lot of robbers around who would plot a way to steal something so marvelous and valuable. People want to use any possible means to fulfill their desires. When God looks at people who want so desperately to obtain life's greatest treasure, would He hate them? He would probably smile upon them.

Realizing that He is too precious to be visible, God made Himself invisible. That way He can be available to everyone who makes the condition to attract Him. So not only is God invisible, but He is universally available to dwell with us.

Many successful businessmen will save up their money so they can pass their work on to their children and take a tour of the world. They journey around here and there, enjoying life. Where does such an urge come from? God. When God is fulfilled and has achieved all His goals, He will want to travel around, visiting the homes of one child after another, enjoying a happy, productive, tourist's life!

When God promises to visit your home, He gives you the proper key to let Him in. Only a very special key will admit God into your home. It is the love key. With that key, you can unlock doors in all directions and move around without limitation. Use that key to open the door when God comes knocking.

Where can you store God's love so that no one can steal Him from you? You can keep God in your invisible mind, where no one can even see inside. Anything visible or tangible is always exposed to danger. If someone had a precious jewel he desperately wanted to safeguard, he could even hide it under his skin; if he was really desperate, he might cut into one of his leg muscles and bury it there. Still, someone who knows what he did might take his leg in order to get the treasure! Of course, God does not want His protector crippled, so He devised the most sacred and secure hiding place of all, the mind.

When God enters your life, He will zoom to the center of your mind, into your most sacred place. The center of your mind is the ideal place to conceal God. Those of you who want to possess this living, eternal antique, raise your hands. I know you well. You are greedy! All right, let's do it. Let's obtain the key of love and use it to open the door for God, the oldest antique. He will fly into our hearts and dwell there forever.

The world is nothing more than an extension of your family into the community, the nation, and the globe. Love your parents the way you love God; then you can go anywhere. Love your spouse the way you love God; then eternity is within your grasp. Love your children the way you love God; then they can go anywhere. A child who is loved that way can be accepted by not only his parents and grandparents, but all people everywhere.

If you practice this kind of love, all of life is harmonious and united. Everything works out well. Even if there were no God, this would be the only method to bring the world together. But God truly does exist. He is the final, ultimate reality.

If God had not thought of this strategy before, as He listened to my sermon this morning, He would decide to carry it out! He would have to admit, "You are absolutely correct. I have waited for six thousand years, and now I will do it"

If at least a glimpse of this message had appeared in the New Testament, the work of restoring Christianity would have been infinitely easier!

I have a priceless secret. How would you propose to obtain it? Even if you offer an infinite amount, I will not sell it. But if you go out and suffer for the sake of love, demonstrating your sincerity, putting forth your maximum effort, I will make a deal with you. I will not sell it for money, but I will give it in exchange for love. Do you truly love me?

The most paradoxical of Jesus' teachings, even though it expresses eternal truth, has been hard for people to understand: "He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it" Jesus also said, "He who loves father or mother, son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me"

How could Jesus make such incredible, outrageous statements? He could not reveal all the meaning behind his words, but today I am doing so. Jesus had grounds for making such statements because he also wanted to give people his priceless treasure. No money could ever buy it; only love could obtain it. Because of love, Jesus could make such a statement.

Two thousand years later, Jesus' era is being repeated. Our century is like the first century. I am making extraordinary statements with confidence and power. When I state that unless you love me more than anything under the sun you are not worthy of me, I also have good reasons for doing so. I have something priceless to give you in return, something which money cannot buy. Will you accept my terms?

I am asking for your absolute love. Your duty can be summed up simply: to become a true son or a true daughter. Once you become a true child, you are completely, one hundred percent united with True Parents. The way to become a true son or daughter is quite simple: to completely live your life for the love of True Parents. That is a simple but formidable statement. Can you take up the challenge?

Some critics might call me a dictator of love. That does not matter, as long as we reach the goal of supreme goodness. That is all we need. In order to attain that, there is nothing we cannot sacrifice. So shall we accept it?

Among the blessed couples, some women originally told me they did not want to be matched or get married, but I matched them anyway! Now that they have a husband and children, they are coming and apologizing to me: "Father, I am sorry I gave you such a hard time at the matching. I didn't know it could be so good! Father, thank you" I get letters like that every day.

Are Moonies happy or unhappy people? What makes you happy? Chinese food? You don't possess too many material things, so what is the source of your happiness? True love. That is an invisible value and therefore it goes everywhere. It meets no resistance; it permeates everything. Would you want to stop it or resist it? When such a treasure approaches you open yourself totally to it. Love works miracles. Love causes things to happen; it makes everything beautiful and marvelous.

In the face of a little child, you behold the image of God. A tiny, beautiful, charming God is playing there in front of you. When I go to Mother, she says, "My husband, God, is approaching me" When you look at your grandparents, they seem so wonderful because they are the closest to God of all your family; they have greater rapport with Him since they are the closest in age!

As you get older, your hair becomes gray and finally white. That white represents purity in the process of becoming closer to God. God's hair is also white! Whether your skin is black, yellow or white, your hair whitens with age. That indicates you are changing into the likeness of God. Why did God create tall mountains capped with white snow? They represent God's position. When you ascend to the highest places on earth, nature becomes pure and white. The highest peaks symbolize God.

High and low, broad and narrow, all things come together making creation harmonious. True love is the catalyst. True love makes things harmonize and unify.

The family sphere has a center and three axes: upper and lower, right and left, and front and rear. These are the positions of God, parents and children, husband and wife, and brothers and sisters. All these sectors become united through love. Could military power force them to unite? Could knowledge teach them how? Could money buy it? Only true love. This is the eternal and absolute truth. So your family is actually your textbook of love.

The love you experience in your family can be expanded to your community. Even the universe is nothing more than the extension of your family. Jesus said we should love our neighbors as ourselves. That may sound vague, but the pattern is clear: treat older persons as your own grandparents and younger people as your own children. Each segment of humanity is represented in your family sphere. Therefore, you can relate to anyone using your own family as a model.

My rule is to love grandparents as you love God, and then to love all people as you love your grandparents. There is no higher attitude than that. I regard young people and children as miniature images of God. Each person is a model or exhibit of God.

Actually, when we live this way, we are making models and samples here on earth for the ultimate exhibition of God's ideal in the spirit world. The spirit world is centered upon the family, so people enter the spirit world not as individuals, but as a family unit. The perfect family needs to be consummated here on earth first, and then brought to the spirit world for eternal display. A family in the spirit world needs the same components as an earthly family: parents, husband and wife and children; but you can form it only on earth, not in the spirit world. Once you create the perfect family here on earth, when you enter the spirit world, you will receive the warmest welcome wherever you go. Anything faked or counterfeit here on earth is not acceptable in the spirit world; only the honest truth will do.

The wife who truly loves her husband and the husband who truly loves his wife will go to heaven. Children who truly love their parents and parents who truly love their children are entitled to heaven. Who should be the head of the family? Grandparents are the ultimate authority. Although the family members are harmonized by love, there is still a certain order of command: grandparents, parents and children.

Parents should take their children to the grandparents and bow down together, asking for the grandfather's blessing. When your grandparents receive such homage, they can bless you. The blessing signifies delegation of authority to the children. In the Bible, Jacob and Esau went to their father Isaac to receive his blessing. The grandparents, in God's position, must delegate authority by giving their blessing. Those family traditions that revere grandparents are very important in the religious world, because when you come to your grandparents with homage and respect and love, they become channels for God's blessing.

The true, ultimate grandparent is God. He is waiting for all the religions to come together, as brothers and sisters in front of Him, and say, "Grandfather, Your children are united; we are no longer fighting. We have become good brothers and sisters; now we deserve Your blessing" God yearns for the time when He can bless all His children. I am working to bring all the religions before God and have them bow down to Him in unity and ask for His blessing.

Furthermore, I am uniting all the races-black, white and yellow-harmonizing them and bringing them together in love, making them brothers and sisters. Eventually, we will bring all mankind together before God and proclaim: "We are here, God. Please accept us. All mankind is now united-black, white and yellow-bowing down to You as true brothers and sisters" God has been waiting throughout history for that one moment and my effort is directed toward that one moment. God will reply, "I have been waiting for a long, long time. How precious it is! I will now bestow my blessing"

The world in which we live is still far from that goal. Who shall make such a world? No matter how thoroughly you investigate, you will find only one answer: Reverend Moon and the Unification Church. All the Moonies are chosen and commissioned for this task.

When you look at yourselves, you still find some barriers between your mind and body. What distinguishes the original world from the present world is its lack of barriers. In the original world you would be free to communicate and travel anywhere, but the present world is compartmentalized, fragmented and barricaded.

The first barrier is that which separates the mind and body. When God created men and women, He pronounced them very good. He never envisioned a division between a person's mind and body, so that division within you is Satan's work, Satan's castle.

There is also a barrier between husband and wife; it is often like a high wall, particularly here in America. There are also barriers between parents and children, and between people of the various races. There are all kinds of division under the sun. God's world is all chopped up by barriers.

What shall we do? What force can demolish the obstructions? All the barriers are described in detail in the Principle, which explains their origin and the method for eradicating them. To make a long story short, the divisions come from selfishness. When you focus on yourself and elevate yourself more and more, those divisions become stronger and more complex.

The remedy we need to spread throughout the world is an unselfish, sacrificial and serving way of life. We must become humble and meek in order to break down barriers. Wherever we go, we should humble ourselves and sacrificially serve our fellow man. Humility is our weapon.

Satan is at the center of all the obstructions. He has an arrogant, selfish personality and cannot humble himself. To demolish Satan's walls, we must become the opposite of their architect, Satan; that is why we must become humble, sacrificial and unselfish.

Please understand this clearly. To remove the satanic nature, which is arrogance and selfishness, we need to become meek, humble and unselfish, denying the satanic world. Satanic nature is always the opposite of the heavenly nature. It is self-centered, arrogant and self-serving.

Religious doctrine, therefore, is basically the denial of the Satan-centered self, family, society, nation and world. Therefore, persecution is a blessing, in a way, because when the satanic world mobilizes to attack you, it causes you to become humble and deny that fallen world. How could you welcome it? Persecution automatically directs you down the road of denial, which is your route to God. In the sense that he reinforces the course of denial that a godly person must take, Satan ultimately serves the very purpose he denies. He assists you by giving you persecution. That is why persecution, tears, pain and suffering always accompany the birth of true religious movements, heading them in the right direction, the heavenly direction.

Although Satan and his world persecute you, if you stand firm and become victorious, you will inherit all their possessions. Satan will have to relinquish his power to you. So, although Satan's position is the antithesis of God's, history will ultimately record that even Satan helped God reach His objective.

Satan will even give you your certificate to enter Heaven. If you go the sacrificial way, he will eventually urge God to accept you. "In spite of all my power,' he will confess, "I cannot deal with this person; he is impossible" When you get that endorsement from Satan, Jesus will countersign your certificate.

When Satan admits the futility of trying to cope with you, God will step in and lay claim to you. God and Satan are like oil and water; they do not mix. Satan is completely self centered and always tries to promote selfishness. When you become truly God-centered and no longer attempt to foster your self-interests, Satan's arsenal of weapons has no effect on you. He surrenders!

Religious teachings have urged people to serve the world and to be humble and sacrificial. They know in general that all these are good virtues, but they do not know precisely why. We do. I am teaching you why. This is our inevitable course because it is the only way we can separate from Satan and become totally acceptable to God.

Religion teaches people to love their enemy. Who is the ultimate enemy? It is Satan. Eventually, even Satan must be liberated and saved. Even though he has played the enemy role, still he helps people to come to God, and in the end God will forgive him. So please love your enemy.

Ultimately, even Satan's rank will change. In essence, he is the fallen archangel. The archangel's rank must be restored; he must return to his original position. Mankind is supposed to love the archangel, according to God's original principle. We must leave the record of loving the enemy before we get to the spirit world.

Satan as an archangel should never have sunk to his present position. God's true sons and daughters are those who have perfected themselves and have been restored to an unfallen position. We must be able to practice loving our enemy, Satan, here on earth, which means loving the original, unfallen position of archangel.

Knowing all this, Satan and Cain are holding you around the neck, reminding you that you cannot get to Heaven- "that nice place upstairs"-until you love them. When you totally love them, you demolish the barriers of the present world. When you model your family after the original standard of God, Satan can no longer put any obstacles in your way. When you enter the eternal world, he will greet you and say, "Go to the Heaven you deserve"

Of your two aspects, your external body is on the satanic side, and your internal mind is on God's side. One or the other has to be denied. Ironically, people in this world cherish and exalt their bodies over their minds. The Unification Church way of life is basically a pattern of self-denial. It is particularly painful for women. You have numerous charms and attractions, and you want to put on polish, makeup, jewels and such things to enhance them. As you look at each part of you, remind yourself, "I have got to deny this finger, these eyes, this mouth, these ears, this neck, etc."

The best course of self-denial is fundraising, because there people will scorn you, mistreat you and even spit at you. That is the best training ground for self-denial. Pay no heed to people's accusations; just persevere towards the goal.

Moonies in good standing are disciplined to self-denial. For instance, we often deny sleep and rest. The body longs to stretch out and enjoy long hours of rest, but we learn to overcome those urges. Who told you that you need eight hours of sleep? Where in the Constitution is it written that you need a set amount of sleep? Decide on a small amount of sleep and make it your rule.

Working people go to the office at 9:00 and leave for home at 5:00. In contrast, we may work 20 hours and allow only four for resting, eating and caring for our body- considering even these few hours a luxury!

Many people also make money their objective, striving for material goals. But we say, "I have a mission to fulfill God's will. I am laboring to secure true love. That, not money, is my goal"

You should not need someone to look after you, check on you or inspect you. You should not need supervision, because you are your own master. Your mind is almost a tyrannical supervisor!

People earn money and store it in their bank account. In contrast, we make money but our pockets are always empty! We say, "I don't spend money for myself; I invest it for the sake of the world and humanity. To help others, I need to maintain my body; therefore, I eat. This body must function properly in order to serve mankind"

Men and women who live this way will be welcomed throughout the world. Mankind must pay tribute to them, because without them, heaven on earth can never be a reality. So please gain mastery over your body. Get Satan to sign you over to God. When I receive his certification, I will sign it too. That is the kind of man and woman I want to unite as husband and wife.

There is a major barrier dividing the world of men from the world of women. When I bring a couple together in heavenly Blessing, the greatest of all walls is torn down. To break down the heaviest barriers, I normally match a person from one extreme to his or her opposite. If there is a likelihood that the man and woman would fall in love on their own, I do not want to match them, because they would be tempted to cling together and not want to do anything else; they would forget the rest of the world! But when extremes are joined-an ugly man and a beautiful woman, for instance-they have to make much more effort to create a unity, and they are more likely to pay attention to the will of God above that of their spouse.

World restoration is such an awesome task that you should not want to be matched to an easy love. If you are on the opposite end of the spectrum from your spouse and love comes only with difficulty, you can become one only after you make much effort. That is the kind of effort needed to unite the world.

Which is more difficult to unite: an ugly woman and a handsome man, or the free world and the communist world? To unite two worlds is a much greater challenge than to unite two individuals. However, in order to harmonize opposing worlds, you need some training. The best training is to make harmony with someone completely opposite from you. The struggles and trials involved in uniting opposite men and women are training for world unity.

What is the ideal challenge for a couple to confront? For the best-looking man to love the worst-looking woman. What kind of couple do you think God prefers to look at? A handsome man and a beautiful woman? Suppose God wanted to visit a harmonious couple and could choose from three combinations: a handsome man and a beautiful woman; an ugly man and an ugly woman; and a handsome man and an ugly woman. Would God be drawn to the easiest, most natural unity or to the most difficult one? Ugly men and women living together is normal and there is nothing special about handsome men and beautiful women living together. God would be attracted to the couple who overcame the greatest challenges to physical unity.

In pursuing the ideal state, I have become a genius at matching handsome men to ugly women and beautiful women to ugly men. When you recognize the purpose behind this, you have no grounds whatsoever for complaint.

At a matching, the most ideal Moonie would say, "Father, I close my eyes and open my arms. Bring me anyone" You men could say, "I just open my arms, Father. All I need is any kind of creature called a woman" You women could say you need only a man. That is the wisest attitude in the Unification Church.

When someone says he cannot accept his match, who is making such a judgment? It is your eyes. You could pull out your eyes and solve the problem! Like a blind man, you could rely on your sense of touch. The man could feel a woman's bosom and recognize his partner as a woman and say, "This is good enough!" And vice versa.

The two eyes often don't want to accept things; they often complain and cause problems. The fall occurred because the eyes saw something else they thought they wanted. Therefore, if your eyes want something, do the opposite; then you will not be too mistaken.

Women's eyes in particular are so sensitive. Your eyes often make comparisons and try to create a squabble. The essence of a woman is what is important. Without true women, no ideal can come true; God's master plan cannot be realized. Women are essential for the fulfillment of God's work.

Our goal is the ideal world, but our starting point is the present, fallen world. I know precisely how to reach the goal, and I have made my life a model for you to follow. I have never sought an easy life, but always challenged difficulties, gaining mastery over my body, breaking through all obstacles and overcoming all persecution.

Man recreates woman and woman recreates man. In that way, ugliness can be transformed into beauty. Whoever wants to start on the highest level will run into trouble sooner or later and decline. But if you start from the lowest possible level, you will not make a mistake. Please accept your match in faith and gratitude. However ugly or handsome your mate may appear makes no difference. God will bless your unity with great children.

Don't misunderstand. I do not match people only on the basis of the life of self-denial in the midst of this present world because our goal is the original, ideal world. This present world will never satisfy us, so we are like gypsies on a journey. Since this world is governed by Satan and Cain-like elements, we cannot transcend it without denying ourselves. Thus the indemnity course is an absolute necessity.

Home church is a microcosm of the entire world. When you are rejected in your home church and then gain victory, you go through all the indemnity process in one stroke. You find fulfillment in rejection, because that is how you overcome Cain and reach the heavenly world. As a family, you are moving toward that original world. The family is the formula of the Kingdom of Heaven. It is both the foundation and the building block of Heaven.

True Parents are representatives of your parents. They are real parents, not just symbolic or conceptual parents, so you must unite with them.

God represents the grandparents. He is the ultimate authority; when He gives an order, the parents must obey. The parents' goal is to bring up their children in God's way of life, so that all together may enter Heaven. Like the True Parents, you must also walk the road of restoration. You have to fulfill your five percent portion of responsibility through home church.

More than your spouse and children, you should love your parents and God. That is the criterion for entering Heaven. Such families can expand into societies, nations and world. That is the Unification Church goal; that is the ideal state we are pursuing The core of the Unification Church is the family. If you follow what I have outlined here, you will inevitably end up in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Those who say, "Father, please trust me. I will enter that Kingdom of Heaven,' raise your hands. God bless you. Thank you.

Original Root And Self

Reverend Sun Myung Moon
May 22, 1983
Belvedere
Translator - Sang Kil Han

How have you felt while I was away? Do you think America needs me? You said that you missed me and have been feeling lonely while I was gone. If you felt that way about me, is there Someone greater that you miss even more, that you just cannot get along without? Even if you don't know for sure, certainly you want to have that Someone, don't you?

When we say we like someone, does that mean we always liked him, or that we have come to like him through a certain process? It is a process. A lot of rumors and slanderous things have been said about Reverend Moon, so my name does not necessarily bring good images to people's minds. Unless people have some means of knowing me, they can't like me. The vehicle which helps people develop love for me is the Principle. When people hear the Principle, their hearts can open to me even without seeing me. Also, the Unification Church is a vehicle to bring people closer to me.

You may feel that it was the Principle and the Church that brought you closer to me and inspired you to love me. When I go to the spirit world after my lifetime on earth, I have to leave behind some bond, some relationship, some deep love which people can cherish. If your love for me is very intense, you will extend that same love toward the other members of my family-my wife, my children.

What makes such feelings of closeness, unselfishness and love possible? Is it me? Is it the work of the Unification Church or the Principle? It is actually none of these, but rather some universal force at work. The main current of the universe draws us together and maintains that closeness. It cannot be something which everyone hates, but rather something beloved by people in the past, the present and the future. Everyone likes that main current. When God sees it, He rejoices. Our ancestors are glad to see us experiencing this, and the generations of people to come will admire this main current in the same way we do.

If you trace that main current way back, where do you think it originated? Whether you use the term God, happiness, or blessing does not matter. We can call the wellspring of that current God, for shoe, but what is He actually like? Deep down inside, is He angry, or does He have a deep heart expressed with a smiling face? Is He very self-disciplined? Does He impose His opinions on others? What kinds of feelings does He project in this main current? If He were to speak, what would He say? What words would He choose to express His thoughts and feelings?

Suppose you were present at the beginning of the world- how would you have felt? What would have been the first words you uttered? You would have had eyes, but without a mirror you could not have seen yourself very well. Certainly you must have had a nose, ears and lips which you could feel protruding. To the extent that you could see yourself, you must have wondered why you were the way you were, why your hands and toes were like this, and so forth.

One thing you must have felt was hunger and thirst. As you explored the earth, you would have found many kinds of strange and wonderful things. Of course, the plant and animal kingdoms developed before people appeared, so you would have found grass, birds and many animals. You would have been completely lonely without plants and animals. As you looked at nature, you would see that they were all in pairs. Bees, birds and butterflies were all in pairs- wherever they were, they seemed so happy in pairs. But you looked around and you didn't see any creation of your kind.

Small children do not realize what they will be like when they grow up, or what it means to be a man or a woman. Still, they can tell the difference between bodily features. The boy has something the girl doesn't have. Later, girls develop a big bosom, and a boy doesn't. During childhood, however, they don't need each other as intensely as they will later on. If you had been the first man or woman, after growing to a certain age, your happiness and wonder would develop into a kind of loneliness and yearning for something which was missing. Don't you think you would have felt that way?

As you grew, you would notice that the mature deer lived in pairs, and that the little ones were accompanied by their parents. Chickens, pheasants, and everything around you lived as families. You would see father, mother and offspring, but you were all alone. So you would have experienced a sense of loneliness. You would see parents and children and wish you had the same. Wouldn't you have felt that? If we imagine ourselves in God's position, that's what we would have felt.

Actually, we are not the origin but we are definitely a result. Someone else was the origin. You have already said that God was the origin, but since you haven't seen Him, do you think He more closely resembles human beings or the animal kingdom? Since He is almighty, He must be very strong. Would you say He is like a man? "Man" can mean male or female. Would He look more like a man or a woman? If you say man, women would disagree with your answer! This debate could go on for millions of years and still be unresolved. At least God would more closely resemble human beings than animals, yet not exactly a man or a woman. He is a combination of both natures in one being. Therefore, God is unique and not like any one of us.

There are two kinds of people-men and women. Women tend to go around a circle in one direction, and men in another. So when they meet, they cannot go on further, and only revolve around and around each other. Women head toward men, and men toward women. They meet and embrace, and revolve round and round, Jumping up and down in their Joy.

God is a plus and He needs someone in the minus position. When that is established, everything works out. Mankind is in the minus position to God. When a man and a woman are together, they reflect the image of God. The reason for man and woman uniting is to be able to resemble God and return to Him.

Many long years ago, as the first woman observed God she could see male features she didn't possess, so she would say, "God, why don't You give me the parts which I lack and You have?" Certainly, the woman wondered why she didn't have what God did. The same was true for the man. He had every masculine feature, but still he lacked the feminine features which God had. Both man and woman must have asked God to supplement them. When they found something in God which they lacked, first they would wish for it, and then they would ask God for it.

Suppose we didn't have a mouth, but God did. Don't you think you would ask God for a mouth? If He loved you and you loved Him, wouldn't you have said, "Father, can You give it to me?" How could you smile without a mouth? Or, how would you look if you smiled? It would be a very ugly sight, because that part of your face would have to expand and then shrink! If you didn't have a nose, but God did and everyone thought it was attractive, you would certainly have asked God for one. It is the same with ears. If God had something good which you lacked, you would plead with God to give it to you.

God is all-powerful and He created everything on earth. Don't you think you would have asked God to give you a part of everything? On the invisible side, God has high ideals, peace, and original love. Wouldn't you have asked God to share those with you? If God has a lot, you want a lot. If He doesn't have a lot, you still want a lot! Well, God is smart and He knew that the people He created would want things and be greedy.

We can conclude that it would not be very good for either God or man to be completely satisfied by themselves. We should resemble God, but in what way? The only way we resemble God is through love. People today partly follow Principle, for when a man and a woman become close, they want to love each other to the highest degree. But by themselves, they are limited. God has male and female features but are they temporary and changeable, or are they eternal?

Why is God in the plus position? In Principle terminology, God is in the subject position, not the object position. Why not, if they are the same? Women might object to God being in the subject position and ask why He couldn't be in the object position at times and put man or woman in the subject position. As human beings, when we look at God we put Him in the subject position; it is we, not God, who place Him in the subject position. Also, when a man in the subject position and a woman in the object position form a perfect image of God, they place themselves in the object position to God. So, you see, it is people who put God in this position.

When plus and minus meet, sparks of love fly in all directions. Those sparks can be seen from a great distance Their light is so brilliant that it attracts people and fills them with a desire to be a part of it. Wherever goodness and love exist, they attract all people and all things. Where ever the sparks go, all things will want to follow. Men and women desire a perfect union because when they achieve it, they can have everything, like God. All good things are included in that union.

Will a man send a woman away if he knows that? No, he would beg and plead with her and do anything to keep her. If the only way a woman can keep a man is to cook for him, she is bound to do it. Even if it is painful to her and she makes a mess, still if it is the only way to hold her husband, she will do it! Every day you have to work on ways to hook your husband or your wife. I'm not talking about painful hooks, but even if they were, he or she wouldn't mind; they will enjoy it! Hook him or her in the eyes, the ears, the mouth, and everywhere! Use a double hook. Make sure there is no chance for escape.

What kind of hook do you need? Will knowledge or power bring a husband or wife close to you? No, you need a love hook. Once he is hooked, a man is so happy and feels he has everything! Would God be joyful in similar circumstances? If His object-mankind-were hooked through the ears and everywhere, never separated from Him for even a moment, God would be happy. God longs for that kind of faithful, loving object and will feel great joy in the relationship, just as you do with your loving husband or wife.

Once man and woman are perfectly united, they seek God as their subject since they are then His perfect objects. God is an absolute being, so once we are united we can never be separated from Him. God can only be happy when He finds such a perfect man and woman in perfect union, placing themselves in the object position to Him. Can God be happy now? Have people already achieved the full relationship with Him? Have you achieved that connection with Him? You have to say no, since you know clearly that you haven't. Thus, it is obvious that God is a lonely God. For whom is He lonely? For man and woman-for one man and one woman. What is the meaning and purpose of blessed couples? What are you supposed to achieve? Actually, we have been blessed in order to eliminate God's loneliness. When this condition is met, all other problems in the universe will disappear.

In the beginning of my speech, I asked if you felt lonely while I was away and many of you said yes. How many of you genuinely, honestly felt that? Why? Why would your mind be drawn to me like that? Why did you miss me? We don't always dwell in the original realm of heart, but since that was the position we were supposed to have, we long for it and miss it. When a man and a woman join and create a perfect union, they feel they should have a certain position towards me. This is the main current which connects us.

In the indirect dominion, people live according to the Principle; but as children near the line of perfection, the point of maturity, boys and girls think of nothing else than trying to meet each other. Not only your eyes, nose, mouth, arms and body, but also your minds must meet in a perfect way in order to become one and inseparable. This is what gives love the quality of unifying all things. When true love moves, all people will follow it, whatever the cost. Whether they live or die is of secondary importance; the main thing is to follow love and be connected with it. Once we are linked with this true love, even if we wish to get away, it pulls us and jerks us back. That is the kind of power it exerts. In such a position, nothing really bothers you; you feel no sense of shame or embarrassment because there are no unprincipled feelings.

Two middle-aged Korean men of high social position have been in 120-day training. Recently they went out and fundraised with buckets of flowers. To their surprise, they never felt any embarrassment. They wondered why. Once people are in the realm of true love, they care about nothing else. That is what we call happiness. When someone truly loves another, he does not think about himself. True love is eternal and exerts tremendous control. Why does it have so much power? Precisely because it resembles God.

Without understanding this, some beautiful woman might come and complain to me, "Father, I think I am so beautiful, but the husband you selected for me isn't very handsome. Why?" Such a person takes one quality and blows it out of proportion. She forgets that a good match needs to consider all 360 degrees, and she sees only one degree that doesn't seem to fit. However, the full scope of 360 degrees is more important than the one single degree.

If you consider only one, two, three, or four aspects, you may say your match could never work. But take all the other angles and start from there. Anyway, first you have to get together. If you do your best and can only achieve a limited unity, God will have to fill in the rest! You may complain that you have some abnormal difficulties, but God knows whether you have a good match or a bad match. Since He knows, don't you think He will figure out a solution? You may not be able to, but He will.

So within this eternal, real Principle, what right do we have for complaint in the Unification Church? None. Whoever complains in the Unification Church should be clobbered! Those who agree to that, raise your hands. Thank you for being such good students! If you put it this way, there is nothing wrong with America except this point.

If you live this way as man and woman, you will eventually meet God. Who were the first to meet God? One man and one woman. Two people approach God at the same time. Then whom will God smile on first, the man or the woman or both at the same time?

When God asks you where you come from, He means you as a couple, not you as a man or woman. If He greets the woman or the man first, the other will wonder why. But once He greets you, He will ask one of you the first question, since both cannot speak at the same time. If God asks the man the first question, the woman might wonder why He asked him first. But then she would think, "Oh, well, I love him so much, I don't mind" If she didn't love him, it would bother her but because of love, it doesn't.

We have to understand that we live for someone else. Do we live first and love afterwards, or do we love so that we can live for the other? Centering on love, we are meant to serve others. If your wife serves you out of love, she will not mind but if you force her to serve you without love, she will definitely resent it. Love operates when we serve another willingly. When a couple in a subject-object relationship practice this way of true love wherever they go and whatever they do, things turn out smoothly; they have a free pass everywhere and they meet no resistance.

We should serve others in the spirit of God's love-husband to wife, wife to husband. We should even serve strangers with that spirit. When we do that, all the universe-even God-will welcome us; others will try to follow that pattern. God Himself will come down to meet you. But if you try to serve others out of greed, or for some personal purpose, Satan will come and confront you. Do you understand? That is what separates heaven from hell. That is the dividing point.

Here in the Unification Church, each individual is running a marathon centering on true love. You go and serve others to the end of the world and then return to start your family life. Those whom you served will welcome you and your family back. That is the legitimate start of the family which can lead right to heaven. This is a simple but important point. It is a rule or yardstick by which you should constantly measure yourself. How do you know whether you are on the right track? Get out the measuring stick and see if you comply with it. When love between a man and woman is established and fixed, when love between brothers and sisters is fixed, you have created the habit of love. Once you are accustomed to living that way, you will be unable to live without love.

You like cheese and butter, don't you? Cheese is very smelly, but once your mouth becomes used to the taste of cheese, you find it hard to live without it. Your eyes have become conditioned to looking at things which are not righteous or virtuous, and once you are accustomed to them, you like them. Your ears also have become used to hearing certain things, and you want to keep listening to them. You are prisoners of such habits! How do you hope to be free from them? How can you eradicate them? You have to erase some things from your deep memory so that better memories can move in. But this is difficult and almost impossible to accomplish by ordinary means.

Did you form the habit of loving others from early life? If not, you are not living in the original way; therefore you are bound for hell. If someone tells you that, you cannot deny it. First we have to un-condition ourselves, cut off certain relationships, change our habits of speaking, seeing, etc. Unless you can change how your senses react, there is no way to go to heaven. You have to reconnect yourself to the original pattern. Those of you who want to go to heaven, raise your hands. Even if I were to tell you not to try to go to heaven, still you would raise your hands! You are determined to get there, whether I encourage you or not-is that what you are saying?

Are you really going to go to heaven, no matter what it involves? You say yes in such a loud voice, but it is so difficult to do-it is almost beyond us. Suppose, for example, that as a condition for reaching heaven you had to go to a surgeon who would cut off your nose and reposition it on your face upside-down, and then you had to walk in the rain all day long. It would be so difficult that you would come back and say, "Father, I will do anything as long as I have my nose. I don't mind loving others, serving others, giving up cheese, jumping on one foot for the rest of my life, or whatever! I'll do anything without complaining"

Many of you are so hopelessly Americanized! Although you dislike changing, you know you must try. Can you say, "Father, show me how to get away from all these habits. I won't complain anymore about how difficult or embarrassing it may be. I want to know the fastest way to un-condition myself. I will do it, no matter what!" This is the kind of attitude you need.

For the sake of God and mankind, for the sake of our original position, what we need to do is unwind ourselves from the habits of the past. What is the best way to cut them off? It is to go through difficult positions-the more difficult the better! We must deny everything and focus on the things which tie us with original love in order to acquire new habits. Our way of life is to deny our family, our society, and our environment, just as Jesus said, and to focus on the one original love. This is what the Unification Church is most faithful in practicing.

You see, there is no way around it; there is no easier course. This is the only road to heaven. We have to return to the original state in which Adam, Eve and God would have formed a perfect trinity and union of love. They would have formed the perfect heaven which would have expanded throughout the earth and continued into the spirit world. That was the original ideal. With that attitude of true love for all things, all mankind, the spirit world and God, Adam and Eve would have fulfilled the original position.

Instead, our world is upside-down and we have to surmount many difficulties along the way. Even though we are tempted, we should pay no heed and continue along the one, original way. Then as a family we continue this course. We have to go against the tide of the present world; we have to go against that tide to reach the original point. This is what we are here for.

More and more, I notice you singing the holy songs in their original Korean and trying to read my words in the original language. Why do you do that? If God used language to speak to Adam and Eve, what language would He have used? When He spoke with original love it was in the original language. That original language would have extended throughout the earth, and heavenly tradition would have been communicated through that language. When True Parents appear where none had been before, the language that True Parents happen to use becomes the language through which God's original love and original tradition find expression. So we call that language the original language.

How close would you feel to me if you could listen to my sermon directly, without going through an interpreter? Think how clear the meaning would be! In the future, if you want to listen directly to my words or study the transcripts, would you study the translated version or the original Korean text?

Everyone has his own opinion. You may claim the American way is best, and that my way is an example of the Korean way but if that were true, the Korean people would have agreed with me all along. Considering how the Korean people have opposed me, it is obvious that my way is different from the Korean way. Are mass weddings of hundreds or thousands of couples the Korean way? What about white people marrying black people, or people from enemy countries getting married? Is that the African, German, or Korean way? Such things are the heavenly way- nothing else.

I can easily imagine how difficult this way of life is for Americans. Americanism is, in a word, individualism. People want to do as they wish and not follow advice from someone else. They have become conditioned to free sex. Even though someone's advice may be right, most people feel that no one is entitled to tell them anything. All these are aspects of Americanism.

For instance, an American may smile with his eyes while his heart is filled with anger; you might call it diplomatic smiling. Let's compare how a typical Oriental laughs with how a Westerner laughs. The typical Westerner will have a stylish, refined laugh. The Oriental often has a bland expression, but on the occasions when he does laugh it tends to be more genuine. Americans may laugh frequently but their laughter is more theatrical and often for the purpose of showing off. They laugh even when they feel the opposite inside, so when their mouths laugh, their eyes may be cruel.

It is difficult to deal with Americans, but if you were me, would you accommodate yourself to them? Would you meet them halfway? No. I have done lots of pounding; I have called you lots of names; I have denounced many of the things you do. Do you mind terribly, or can you say, "Father, it's all right; we want to overcome. We don't mind you doing that to us; in fact, we love you all the more for it"? But why do I criticize you? Why would I tell you that you are good for nothing? It is only in order to bring you close to the original way. In order for you to find the way to heaven, we have to become one. The destiny of all &lien people is to reconnect with the origin. There is no alternative. There is no more direct method, no other way to handle the problem. You may be thinking there must be some easier way, but if there were, I would have taken it since I am a pretty smart person. But all my life I have searched for it, and there is no other way. So it's best for you just to accept what I am telling you.

Remember that God wants to give us the best He has; He wants to give us what we most need and what will make us the happiest. He would not be happy withholding anything from us. That is also the way I feel. I know what you most desire and at the same time, I know what is best for you. I am as eager to give as you are to receive. As a result, the Unification Church has undertaken certain activities which are ideal for connecting you to the root. At every opportunity I try to convince you that you must endure suffering and hardship. Your mind always follows mine. If my concern goes to Korea, you share that concern. If my thoughts are in America, your concern is here, too.

You want to learn the Principle, apply it, transform yourselves by it, and get one step closer to God and True Parents. Hearing this sermon is like attending a university lecture, but just studying it is not enough. While you study, you may understand the lesson but afterwards you may forget. When exam time comes, you need to put down in words what you have learned; you try hard not to fail. Likewise, I am teaching you and I put you through tests. If you pass the test, you can confidently apply this understanding wherever you may go in the world.

Go out to the world and win over Satan and Cain then return home and start a real family which will connect to the True Family. Eventually your family will be a true family. That is the course you must take. You cannot jump up to the true family in one miraculous step; you must follow this path of first un-conditioning and then reconditioning yourself. Why do we do all these seemingly complicated things? It is in order to link up with the mainstream and become one with the original being. If we don't accomplish it here on earth, we will still have to do it, but it will be more difficult. Do you understand?

Please resolve that, with or without me, you will go through this course. Whether I am close by or far away, you should continue to persevere. What if I were not available to meet with you and advise and tutor you? Can you imagine what would happen? You simply would not do it. Therefore, you should be grateful to me for pounding on you, scolding you, and pushing you. It's very difficult to accomplish everything by yourself, so you need somebody else to push you to do it.

This lifetime is such a precious period. I won't live here forever. Time is passing on. You are living at the same time as I and in the same physical environment. I am guiding you directly and as long as I am here on earth, I will be after you constantly! When I have finished on earth, I will go to the spirit world. You too will go there, but what kind of spirit world will you be in? You may call out to me in spirit world, but there may be a tremendous gap between us. On earth, you can surmount that difference by resembling me, but once we get to the spirit world, you can no longer be with me. Thus you need to pass the examination. If you flunk, you will have to start from scratch.

Please take this opportunity to reunite with me after so many days, weeks and months of separation. As you look at me this morning can you say, "I understand that I must return to the original self. To do so I will completely cut off all my past habits. I know that it is very difficult and that only through enduring many hardships, as Father has done, can I accomplish it. But I will take this opportunity to pledge once more to make the change"

Those who will make this pledge, please raise your hands. Thank you.

The Essence of Religious Life

Sun Myung Moon
May 13, 1983
Excerpt
God's Will and the World
Three Spiritual Children as a Foundation for a Family

SunMyungMoon-830513a.jpg

One thing I am most concerned about you today is that your commitment to a religious life may fade. This is very fearful. You have a tendency to fade away from religious life when your life is inundated with having to deal with ever increasing loads of practical matters. I worry very much about that. Properly speaking, when you are meeting with me like today, it should follow the proper order -- it should begin with prayer and singing holy songs. But, under a different circumstance, we started without them. So when you conduct a conference, you should not just start (without preparing the spiritual environment first).

You need always to follow the proper liturgical order of our church. Do you follow? If you focus only on external activities, your religious thought and attitude will fades away. If your commitment to religious life declines, then you will be completely disconnected from the assistance of the spirit world, and eventually, you will have no relationship with the spirit world. It is essential for you to seek spiritual assistance whenever you gather together. This is the Principle of Creation. The relationship between the spirit world and the physical world is like the relationship between parents and children. You must know this clearly.

This is true of me, also. Living such a hectic life like mine, I always go to a quiet place in order to maintain my religious life. In this way, it is necessary to train yourself to return to the course of the original mind at some time during a 24-hour day. For example, when I am fishing, if I catch a big fish, I immediately offer it first to God as a Heavenly sacrifice, saying to the fish, "You are great fish. You must be the first fish to be caught by Rev. Moon in the history of all fishes." I think in such a way and conduct a special ceremony for it. In another instance, when I caught a boar in the mountain, I conducted such a condition. This is the essence of the religious life.

We are fighting against Satan now. If you are in a fighting environment in the frontline, you must maintain your religious life by checking always the original motivation in your heart. This exercise is always necessary. You must think how to return to your original mind every single day, as this is what I do, constantly. Without making such efforts, you may develop bad habits (that underestimate and fade from religious life). This is a grave mistake. You must find a time to pray by yourself and maintain your religious life, correcting your motivation back to your original mind.

The Essence of Religious Life

Sun Myung Moon
May 13, 1983
Unofficial Translation

Excerpt from Japanese language God's Will and the World - Three Spiritual Children as a Foundation for a Family

One thing I am most concerned about you today is that your commitment to a religious life may fade. This is very fearful. You have a tendency to fade away from religious life when your life is inundated with having to deal with ever increasing loads of practical matters. I worry very much about that. Properly speaking, when you are meeting with me like today, it should follow the proper order -- it should begin with prayer and singing holy songs. But, under a different circumstance, we started without them.

So when you conduct a conference, you should not just start (without preparing the spiritual environment first). You need always to follow the proper liturgical order of our church. Do you follow? If you focus only on external activities, your religious thought and attitude will fades away. If your commitment to religious life declines, then you will be completely disconnected from the assistance of the spirit world, and eventually, you will have no relationship with the spirit world. It is essential for you to seek spiritual assistance whenever you gather together. This is the Principle of Creation. The relationship between the spirit world and the physical world is like the relationship between parents and children. You must know this clearly.

This is true of me, also. Living such a hectic life like mine, I always go to a quiet place in order to maintain my religious life. In this way, it is necessary to train yourself to return to the course of the original mind at some time during a 24-hour day. For example, when I am fishing, if I catch a big fish, I immediately offer it first to God as a Heavenly sacrifice, saying to the fish, "You are great fish. You must be the first fish to be caught by Rev. Moon in the history of all fishes." I think in such a way and conduct a special ceremony for it.

Another instance, when I caught a boar in the mountain, I conducted such a condition. This is the essence of the religious life. We are fighting against Satan now. If you are in a fighting environment in the frontline, you must maintain your religious life by checking always the original motivation in your heart. This exercise is always necessary. You must think how to return to your original mind every single day, as this is what I do, constantly. Without making such efforts, you may develop bad habits (that underestimate and fade from religious life). This is a grave mistake. You must find a time to pray by yourself and maintain your religious life, correcting your motivation back to your original mind.