Sun Myung Moon
January 16, 1975
Chosun Hotel, Seoul, Korea Korean Day of Hope Banquet
Photo date and location unknown
I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to you eminent figures from all walks of life. Your coming here this evening in such great numbers has made my night of celebration a great success.
This man standing here is, as you all know, the very man who has been stirring up considerable controversy both in Korea and the United States. I am aware that many of you are attending this event wondering, “What kind of person is this Mr. Moon?”
Love, the ideal and happiness cannot be achieved alone
It is a great pleasure to be able to eat together while watching and listening to a good performance. Therefore, let us give a big round of applause to show how grateful we are to Mr. Kim Gang-seob, leader of the KBS lounge band, and his band members, for providing us with musical accompaniment during this delicious dinner so we could enjoy it all the more. In addition, I would like to thank the staff members of the Chosun Hotel, who are working hard to entertain guests at this late hour.
I have given considerable thought to what I would speak about before all of you gathered here this evening. It would be easy to say just a few courteous words and end it there. However, if I did so, I’m sure you would feel quite disappointed that Mr. Moon did not speak, since you have come to meet him. Therefore, if you will allow me, I will now take this time to share my thoughts.
We know that from early on humanity has yearned for true and unchanging love, the ideal, happiness and peace, which are eternal, true and unchanging. However, in this day and age we live in a world of distrust and chaos. Under these circumstances, we are faced with the fact that it is impossible to attain the conditions that human beings long for.
At present, humankind has made every possible effort, yet still has not achieved these basic conditions. If we as human beings cannot achieve this through our own efforts, we will have no choice except to go beyond our own capacity, to find and rely on a certain Absolute Being who is eternal, unchanging and true. If that Being also yearns for true love, a true ideal, true peace and true happiness, we must conclude that it is possible to attain these things only through that One. Based on this viewpoint, if there is such a Being, it can only be God.
God is a Being who can be the King of love, the King of the ideal and the King of peace and happiness.
Therefore, we can conclude that in order for human beings to attain the ideal conditions we pursue through God, we have no choice but to discern what God is proposing and to respond to it. This is an obvious conclusion.
When we think about love, the ideal, happiness and peace, we know that we cannot attain these things as individuals. We can do so only in a reciprocal relationship. Even though God exists as the Absolute Being, He also cannot achieve by Himself the love, ideal, happiness and peace that He desires. It is an inevitable conclusion that even God needs an object partner.
Then, if we were to ask who, among all created beings, can be the object partner of God, we can declare without argument it is none other than human beings. Until now, we have been unable to consider that humankind is the very object partner to achieve the ideal of God and realize the love of God, the happiness of God and the peace of God. What meaning would there be for God to love all alone, strive for the ideal alone or be peaceful and happy alone? The obvious conclusion is that none of this is possible without human beings as God’s object partners.
God desires an object partner that is better than He is
In light of this, I would like to ask a question of the many prominent figures present here today. When you were young and were about to choose your spouse, did you seek someone inferior to you or better than you? If I asked anyone among you this question, you would answer that you wanted someone better. Furthermore, if a handsome man and a beautiful woman married and had their first baby, and you looked at the baby’s face and saw it was quite plain, compared with the mother’s or father’s, and yet you said as you looked at the infant, “This baby is more beautiful than her mother or father,” you would see the parents smile from ear to ear with delight.
Keeping this in mind, we can ask, “Why did we turn out this way? Whom do we take after?” Human beings are in all respects resultant beings, not causal beings. Resultant beings possess certain characteristics because they are made of the same material as the causal being. We can conclude that we are a certain way because we resemble God, who is like us. If you were to ask God, “Do You wish for Your object partners to be better than You or inferior to You?” God would answer that He wishes for them to be better than Himself. This is why we also desire our sons and daughters be better than ourselves. When we look at ourselves simply as human beings, we may seem insignificant, yet when we look at ourselves based on this principle, we can see we are beings whom God originally desired to be superior to and more precious than God Himself. We have been completely unaware of this fact.
Today’s established theologies state that the Creator and the creation do not stand on equal terms. If this were true, it would be impossible to realize love, peace, happiness and the ideal as envisioned by that Creator. In this regard, humanity up to the present has been unaware of the fact that we originally were created with the right to become God’s object partners, who can be even more precious and noble than He is, and who are qualified to stand as His children. Based on this viewpoint, all of you present here this evening need to remember that we stand before God as His object partners and His children, who possess a value that is greater than God’s. Therefore if God is eternal, we cannot exist for only a short time on the physical plane and then just disappear. Even though we live in this physical world, we know there is not one person who wishes for their loved ones to exist for a short time and then just disappear. There is not one person who wishes to live apart from his or her beloved children throughout eternity. In this respect, as long as God is eternal, unique and absolute, we can logically conclude that, as His object partners, we also need to become beings possessing eternal, absolute and unique value.
Among those of you gathered here, there may be some who do not believe in religion and who do not lead lives of faith. Nonetheless, the fact that these ideal requisites resonate with you, leads to the conclusion that
God exists. If we possess the value of His object partner then, if God is eternal, it is reasonable to conclude that we will live eternally. I believe that if all of you present here this evening remember this and nothing else, I will have provided you with the starting point of a more meaningful life.
Living for the sake of others is the original ideal
If God were the King of wisdom and the center of everything, where in the relationship between the subject partner and the object partner would He place the origin of the true ideal, true happiness and true peace? God pondered whether it was better to make the object partner live for the sake of the subject partner, or vice versa. If God had made the object partner live for the sake of the subject partner or for Himself, as soon as He had done so, every person in the position of a subject partner would also have made the object partners standing before them live for their sake.
If this had taken place, the path to unity would have been blocked. They would have become divided. So where is the path that can serve as the origin of peace, through which the subject and object partners truly can become one? Not only God Himself but also true human beings accept the principle that they need to exist for the sake of others. That is why true love stems from living for the sake of others, why the true ideal stems from living for the sake of others, and why true peace and true happiness can be found only when one lives for the sake of others. Humankind has not known that this is the basic principle of the creation of the universe.
If you ask me to describe true parents, the answer would be that they are people who were born for their children, who live for their children and who would die for their children. Only then can the love of the true parents be established, and only then can they appear before true children as ideal parents. Furthermore, we can understand that only then can the parents become the center of peace and the standard of happiness before their children. On the other hand, where should the standard of true filial piety be set? It needs to be set in the position corresponding to that of true parents. Only children who feel that they were born for their parents, who live for their parents and who would give their lives for their parents can become true filial children. Only such children become ideal children before their parents, become children who can be truly loved, and become the object partners of happiness and peace. Based on this standard, if we were to propose a formula at this point, I am sure you would assume that such ideals as true love, true happiness and true peace can be found only at the place where one exists for the sake of others.
The principle of creation of the universe and the origin of happiness
Then what kind of person is a true husband? If there were a husband who felt that he was born for his wife, who lived for his wife and who was willing to die for his wife, his wife could only praise him, saying her husband was the owner of true love, a husband of the true ideal and a husband who was the subject partner of true peace and happiness. The same would be true for the wife. When applying this formula to the nation of Korea, what kind of person would be a true patriot? If you were to ask this question, you would have to say it would be someone like Admiral Lee Soon-shin, who was born for the nation, lived for the nation, and in spite of difficult circumstances gave his life without a word for the sake of the nation, for his king above him and for the people below him.
If we were to apply this principle of living for the sake of others to the world and ask who is the greatest among all the saints in the course of history, we would find the answer right away. That person, more than anyone else, could only be someone who lived for the sake of humanity. Many among those present here are not Christians, yet I tell you, the person who lived and died for the sake of humanity and who also prayed for the enemies who took his life, whom he very well could have hated, is indeed Jesus Christ. Thus he is the greatest saint in history. This is what we can conclude by applying this formula. In this way, we must always remember that the principle of the creation of the universe, and the origin of human happiness, begin from existing for the sake of others.
To give another example, if you were to ask why men were born, many among the prominent figures here tonight could easily think they were born for the sake of themselves, especially since you are in high positions here in Korea. Originally, however, men are born for the sake of women. Nobody can refute this fact.
From a proportional perspective, men have broad shoulders and women have wide hips. If you go somewhere like New York City and get on a subway car packed with people, you will see that when a man with broad shoulders and a woman with big hips sit adjacent to one another, they fit perfectly in that limited space. This just goes to show that we were born to form a reciprocal relationship in which we can live for the sake of each other. In short, men were not born for the sake of men; they were born for the sake of women. Correspondingly, women were not born for the sake of women; they were born for the sake of men.
You need to know that problems arise when we are unsure about this fact. I know well that since God, the Lord of creation of the universe, established this as a principle of creation, we cannot enter the world of goodness, truth, happiness and peace, the world of love and ideal, without following this principle.
Religion teaches us to align with the original law
You may not know that I have had many spiritual experiences through which I explored and learned about the spirit world. If you ask me about the standard of life in the original world where God dwells, that is to say, the place called the kingdom of heaven or paradise, the answer is simple. It is a place where only those who lived for the sake of God can enter, the place where only those people who knew they were born for the sake of others, who lived for the sake of others, and who were ready to die for the sake of others can enter. Since this is the structure of our ideal, original homeland, God has established many religions throughout the course of history through which He has trained human beings to help us find our way to that world.
Religious believers need to be gentle, humble and sacrificial, because that is the law of the original homeland. You need to be trained in the course of your life on earth to fit in when you go to the original homeland, as preparation for the moment of your passing to that place. The higher the level of a religion, the more it emphasizes a higher degree of sacrifice and service. Such religions have to emphasize this, because we need to live in accordance with the laws of that world. In light of this fact, we have no choice other than to admit that God carries out His providence as history progresses. Regardless of how voluminous are the scriptures that make up the Bible, they are all in accordance with this one principle: “One exists for the sake of others.”
Jesus said, “Those who find their life shall lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake shall find it.” (Matt. 10:39) We know that he spoke such paradoxical words ultimately to have us harmonize with the principle of the original world where we exist for the sake of others.
Then why did God have to establish this principle of existing for the sake of others? I will point out a few reasons. Taking our better nature into consideration, if you owe a favor to someone who truly devoted his life to you, would your original mind tell you to put fifty percent of what you owe in your pocket and pay back only fifty percent, or would it tell you to pay back more than one hundred percent? If you were to ask your original mind this question, it would give you a clear answer. It would tell you that you ought to pay back more than one hundred percent.
To put it another way, if Person B owed a debt to Person A, Person B ought to give back more than one hundred percent of what he or she owed. In that case, Person A would wish to give an even higher percentage back to Person B in return. As they pursued this giving and receiving back and forth, the value of their exchange would not decrease; rather, it gradually would increase. The concept of eternity is based upon this principle.
The concept of eternity vanishes when you live only for your own sake. If you were to consider the motion of any entity, you would see that the greater the resistance it encounters, the stronger its response has to be in order to maintain itself. The reason that God, the King of wisdom, established this law of living for the sake of others was to enable us to maintain our position eternally. We have to bear in mind that God had to establish this principle of existing for the sake of others because God Himself embodies this principle.
Not only that, to establish the foundation for eternity is to establish your foundation to develop and prosper eternally. We can advance and develop beyond our present status only when we feel stimulated, and only when we are growing beyond our present status will we be happy. Since this is the case, God had to establish the principle of existing for the sake of others.
What is another reason that God established the principle of existing for the sake of others? Let us say there were ten family members in a household. If the youngest were to live for the sake of the family more than anyone else, then the parents and brothers and sisters would place that one at the head of the family, even though he or she was the youngest. By living selflessly, in time the youngest family member would emerge naturally as the central figure of that household.
The place where ideal unity is achieved
Just as God exists as the central Being of the entire universe because He exists for the sake of others, a person who resembles God by existing for the sake of others will become the central figure in the household. This will be the case even if he or she is the youngest sibling or the smallest child. At the place where we live for the sake of others, we do not decline. Rather, the more we live for the sake of others, the closer we come to the position of the central figure. Since God is like that, He establishes the person who lives in such a way as the central figure. Furthermore, only by living in such a way can ideal and complete unity be accomplished.
I know that there are many of us who would rather die than be under another person’s dominion. You see this trait more often than not in those renowned people who belong to society’s intelligentsia. However, there is one thing you need to know. Not even in your wildest dreams have you conceived of how happy you would be under the dominion of a being who exists for the sake of others. God had to establish the principle of existing for the sake of others because He knew that by establishing such a position in the realm of ideal unity we would be grateful to be under the dominion of someone in that position for tens of thousands of years. Another reason why God established this principle is to address the fact that many people today think, “Love is my love. The ideal is my ideal.” Although many think this way, they are mistaken. Love does not begin from oneself, and the ideal does not begin from oneself. Love and the ideal, which are more precious than life, can be found only in one’s object partner. They cannot be found elsewhere. The being who can discover and receive sublime love and the ideal is the object partner. This is why in order for us to receive that love and ideal with humility, we need to stand in a position where we live abundantly for the sake of others. Otherwise we cannot receive love and the ideal. This is another reason that God established the principle of existing for the sake of others. I hope that those of you present here this evening will remember this one fact.
Throughout the world, people commonly wonder about the meaning of life. For human beings, the matter of establishing a view of life, a national perspective, a worldview, and even a view of the universe and of God poses a problem. The most serious one of all is how the system of the universe is ordered and how that multidimensional system connects together.
A new perspective on values based on existing for the sake of others
When we consider our lives based on this principle of existing for the sake of others, the most positive view of life would be one that says we exist for all humanity, for the entire world, for the nation, for the society, for the family, for the husband, for the wife and for the children. You can discover happiness within yourself by living in such a way, and so I would say there could not be a better view of life. The same is true even if you were to consider what an ideal nation would be like. We know all too well that the nations that made others serve them throughout history are reproached as bad nations. Yet, among the nations in the present world, there is not one that is carrying out unselfish policies for the sake of the world.
As you may well know, the communist world is on the verge of collapse. The year 1957 was when it reached its maximum global expansion. Why did the communist world start its decline from that point? It was because communism prioritized the Soviet Union’s self-interest and dreamed of taking over the world centered solely on the Slavic people. Communism will break down in the end because it is an ideology that serves only the interests of its own people.
We also are facing the reality of America’s decline from its position as the leading nation of democracy. Why is this so? It is because, while America could have become a democratic nation existing for the sake of the world, it unfortunately has abandoned the world and decided to pursue its own interest. Now America is on the road of retreat, and it looks as if there is no way for it to correct its course.
In light of this issue, we see that Korea too is advocating its own national interest. If our nation embraces a worldview that focuses only on this Asian nation of Korea, it will fade away with the passing of history. Look at what is happening with the communists of the Soviet Union and with America. However, if Korea embraces the worldview of existing for the sake of the world as a national belief system, even though today it is a small nation with a small population, Korea will lead the world. Even if the nation is no longer here, such a people will lead without fail in the twenty-first century, the twenty-fifth century and the thirtieth century. We can come to this conclusion based on this principle.
A true nation is one that exists for the world. Furthermore, extending from that, a true world is not one that exists only for itself. Since the world stands in the resultant position, if there is an absolute God who is its origin and motivating force, that world needs to have a belief system that is in accord with God’s view. If you follow a worldview that supports only your own interest, you cannot lead the world or solve its problems. What kind of place is our heavenly home? It has to be a home in which the wife exists one hundred percent for her husband, and the husband lives one hundred percent for his wife, and is willing to die for her. This is the home that can be called heaven.
There is a Korean saying to the effect that, “When one’s home is harmonious, all goes well.” The same is true for a nation to flourish. The sovereign who rules over a nation draws his or her value not from the exercise of sovereignty, but rather from acting on behalf of the people. Likewise, the people find value not by living only for themselves, but for the sake of the nation. The day this becomes a reality, that nation will become heaven. If we were to expand this formula and realize a world where people live for the sake of others, transcending nations and peoples, without a doubt we would have the world of love, the ideal, peace and happiness for which all people yearn. If you go out into the world upholding this principle of existing for the sake of others, you will find that there is not one place where that principle will not bring success.
What do you think was the motive that drove me to go to America and cause so much controversy in such a short period of time? It is the fact that, though I am a Korean, I love America more than the Americans do. All my efforts were for America, shedding my own sweat and blood day and night to find a way to inspire the American people to embrace a noble worldview. I have eaten for the sake of others, worked for the sake of others and lived for the sake of others. While doing this, I came to experience that if I contended with an individual, afterward I became one with that individual, and if I contended with an organization, afterward I harmonized with that organization.
How the UN General Assembly passed the Korea bill
You may not know that I had a keen awareness that the issue of Korea was causing much trouble at last year’s United Nations General Assembly session. I gathered all the information I could, including the evaluations of everyone at the Assembly, from the president of the General Assembly to his aides, ambassadors and observers, in order to understand the problem. The consensus was that the South Korean position was hopeless.
As the founder and leader of the Unification Church, I have always believed that the Unification Church exists not for itself but for the nation as well as the world. With this principle in mind, I brought together Unification Church missionaries from about thirty nations and selected thirty-four representatives from among them. I paired them with thirty-four Japanese women and called these sixty-eight members to pray for and attend the UN General Assembly meetings. They shared their faith with everyone they met in the Assembly and moved their hearts, one on one. What did I tell our members to say? It was nothing special. I did not send them because they were excellent speakers. I just told them, “You need to devote yourselves completely for their sake! When you meet them, make every effort to live for their sake. Speak with them, dine with them, counsel them with God’s heart.”
After experiencing our ministry for forty days, the hearts of these delegates were moved by our efforts. As a faith leader, I knew that the issue of the Japanese women who had been deceived into moving to North Korea to join their husbands and then denied freedom of travel, would open people’s eyes about that regime. While the general sentiment of the world toward South Korea was unfavorable, I knew that the United Nations ambassadors’ support for the Japanese wives would change international opinion on Korean issues. When I said this, however, no one believed me. The UN General Assembly brings together intellectuals from all parts of the world, and our Unification Church missionaries were not confident to open their mouths and speak with such people. However, I asked them to work from the position of truly attending with sincerity and faith. So they looked at an ambassador’s office, not as that of a stranger from a random nation, but rather as from their own. They served and selflessly helped those people, day and night, even calling taxis after one or two o’clock in the morning for them. They served in the background with love.
As you may know, we have a conference center called Belvedere in the village of Tarrytown, just north of New York City. We hosted UN ambassadors from seventy nations there. After this kind of ministry, they opened their hearts to the cause of justice for the Japanese wives. During this process, we discovered that friends of North Korea had reached out to underdeveloped nations in Africa, offering bribes for their support in the General Assembly. And so the North Koreans toasted their victory even before sending their delegation to the United Nations. Nonetheless, as a result of our having invested our service for the world, shedding tears and staying up nights for the sake of freedom and justice for God’s daughters from Japan, South Korea’s proposal was accepted by sixty-one votes to forty-two, whereas North Korea's received forty-eight votes against forty-eight. Thus we brought a victory for freedom. I am not telling you this to boast. It is only to show how unimaginable miracles can be wrought based on this principle of living for the sake of others, miracles I have experienced on many occasions throughout my life.
The reason the Unification Church is developing globally
Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to ask you, what do you think the Unification Church is? In the course of history, many theologians tried to bring together the Roman Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox Church, yet success remained only in their dreams. Moreover, many Protestants tried to unite, yet they now are divided into more than four hundred denominations. This is the actual state of affairs, so how can the Unification Church unite all religions? You may think Mr. Moon is somewhat weak in the head. However, I think the solution to division among religions is quite simple. It boils down to whether Unification Church members can love Christians more than their ministers do, and whether Unification Church members can love Christian ministers more than their own congregations do. Can we exist more for their sake than for ourselves? If this is possible, the unity we are envisioning is also possible.
The Unification Church has now passed through a history of twenty years. I know you must have heard all kinds of rumors and controversial news about the church. Yes, we have been persecuted globally; nonetheless we have achieved a global impact. How do you think we achieved such an impact? It is because we learned that when people betray us, a path is opened that leads to the world. Everyone ought to tread the path that is taken for the sake of the world. If this path is indeed the principle of heavenly law and the common formula that everyone must follow, the world will come to know this fact. When it does, the Korean people can automatically come to know this as well. Based on this principle, we continue to carry out mission work abroad, even in the face of bloody persecution.
To give an example, our missionaries pioneered Japan seventeen years ago, when the Liberal Democratic Party had just come to power. At that time, the Ehwa Women’s University incident had erupted and Mr. Moon’s reputation had fallen to the point where he was deemed contemptible. However, I actually intuited how the political situation of Japan would develop in the future, and in my own way I had an inkling of how the situation of Asia would unfold.
Therefore, while I was aware that Japan was barring missionaries, I knew that this would change soon, and that in live or ten years the Unification Church of Japan would serve the world. I decided I had no choice except to take this path, even though I might be branded an outlaw. It was in 1956. As you well know, I had just been released from Seodaemun Prison and had gone to Gabsa Monastery in South Chungcheong Province to recuperate. A young man visited me and I called him to go to Japan. I told him, “When a person sets out on the path of his choosing, he ought to do so at the cost of his life.”
On his first entry, he was arrested as soon as he set foot in Japan. So the first try was unsuccessful. I sent him a second time to try again. He was rebuffed in his second entry too, and came back. Upon my release from prison I found that the Unification Church had disbanded and its one-room house had been lost. I had to borrow money in order to send that man a third time, which I did for the sake of Korea and Asia. It seems like that happened only yesterday. That was in 1958. In Japan the Unification Church began under such circumstances. When he went to Japan for the third time, again he was detained. This was a major crisis for him. He had made me a solemn promise to succeed, yet instead of being in a position to lay the foundation for the church in Japan, he was blocked and there was no one to whom he could turn for support. So he found a way. He drank a large quantity of soy sauce and he became feverish. He was admitted to a hospital and was kept there for three days. From there he escaped and made his way to Tokyo. This is how the Unification Church began in Japan.
Now we have reached the stage at which the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan respects our voice. When a major event is taking place there, they listen to us; we have faithful members on that level. While the movement was growing, I taught the members in Japan the principle of living for the sake of others, established by heavenly law. When you uphold it, you will succeed. Because they are aware of this, the young men and women of the Unification Church in Japan have spread nationwide. They carry out activities on the premise that “the Unification Church exists for the nation. It needs to be a church that exists for Asia and, furthermore, it needs to be a church that exists for the world.” This is why they are prominent in Japan today.
My meeting with you on such a formal occasion as this and delivering these words is unprecedented in the twenty-year history of the Unification Church. While visiting all parts of North America, I was very sad. I said to myself, “You poor man, you are no better than an orphan! You are in a pitiful position, having left behind your young members who are distrusted and mistreated in your own country, while you are asking for the trust of the people of a foreign nation. However, since God called a man such as you and is working through you, God is supporting you. He knows your situation.” While saying this, I held on to God and invested all my effort, and as a result I have come to experience the beginning of a new history of creation both in name and in reality.
The realization of the kingdom of heaven
Those of you present here this evening may wonder how you can know whether someone is evil or good. How can you determine whether even a religious believer will go to heaven or hell? The answer is simple. If the person has lived more for himself or herself than for others, then the person is bound for hell. Yet if the portion of his or her life lived for others is greater even by one percent than the part lived for himself or herself, that person will travel the road that bypasses hell and leads to heaven. Again, if the percentage of his or her living selfishly is even a little higher, then he or she will sink into hell.
Distinguished leaders, up to this point we have contributed to Korea as its citizens. We have all contributed something from our respective positions. However, what was our motivation? If all of Korea’s citizens can be reenergized in their respective fields through the worldview of living for the sake of others, then no matter how dismal Korea’s current situation is, there will still be hope. If such a worldview is adopted in shaping the attitude of the Korean people in the family, in society, in the government and among the leaders of organizations, this nation will never come to ruin. I believe that this people without a doubt will influence Asia and the world.
The single formula based on this worldview, by which we can conceive the ideal social system, is simply that of a husband living for his wife, a wife living for her husband, a couple living for their children, a family living for their clan, a clan living for the society, a society living for the nation and a nation living for the world. Such a nation will never perish.
If there is a God, He desires such people. He wants everyone to be His children. Therefore His goal is to save all humanity and even the universe. Religions need to take off the fetters of nationalism, ethnocentrism and racism in order to stand before the full Will of God.
Since God’s main purpose is to save the world, we must ponder how to develop a step-by-step process to make this extent of salvation possible. The principle is actually very simple. All it takes is for the family to exist for the clan, the clan to exist for the people, the people to exist for the nation, the nation to exist for the world and the world to exist for God. Unless you are a person who exists for the world, you cannot be eligible to become a child of the omnipotent and omniscient God, who created the universe. If the world stands in the position of existing for the sake of God, God will stand in the position of existing for the sake of the world, for the sake of the nation, for the sake of the people, for the sake of the tribe and for the sake of the family.
In other words, a world that upholds the notion that what belongs to me belongs to my wife, what belongs to the couple belongs to the family, what belongs to the family belongs to the clan, and what belongs to the clan belongs to the people, what belongs to the people belongs to the nation and what belongs to the nation belongs to the world, such a world will eventually belong to God. When something belongs to God who does it also belong to? It belongs to me. Only when you have attained such a position can you hope to achieve your greatest desires.
Ladies and gentlemen, is this not true? Everyone has the desire to become the best in the world. Since we can become beings of such value, we human beings can stand in the position of glory, where what belongs to God, the center of all things in the world, also belongs to us. In this regard, the realization of heaven in the family, heaven in the nation and heaven in the world becomes possible only through living for the sake of others. Not only that, we will also connect to the world where God can be happy together with humankind. This will be the world that can be called the ideal garden, wherein everyone can dance and sing. Such a place is the heaven that religions pursue, and it is this heaven that will be realized on earth. Thus, we can conclude that such a place is the kingdom of heaven on earth.
Ladies and gentlemen, I hope that through this event you have embraced this principle of “existing for the sake of others” and that you will now embody it by practicing it in your homes and workplaces. On the day you begin living in such a manner, you will see a future more and more hopeful and joyful unfold, and you will discover yourselves boldly fulfilling central responsibilities as the pioneers of tomorrow.
I hope you will strive to become such people, and I pray that the great blessings of God will be with your families, your society and this nation. I have spoken before you this evening on the subject of existing for the sake of others. With these words, I now conclude this address.
