Let Us Repay Our Debts

Sun Myung Moon
March 10, 1975
Excerpt
Barrytown Training Center

Photo date and location unknown

My topic today is going to be "Let us repay our debts." Let us study closely whether or not you have debts. Before your birth, you inhabited your mother's womb for at least nine months. For three to four months, your mother felt like vomiting whatever she ate. She was physically feeble, so she may have needed more help and more love from her husband. The baby in the mother's womb was making the mother suffer, and through the mother, he mobilized even the father. Even if she is experienced, just before childbirth a mother is scared, because labor is frightening. At the moment of childbirth, she could die. When she's in labor, you just cannot imagine how agonized she is. She has no one to rely on, no one whom she can really trust or lean on. You did that. Every one of you when you were in your mother's womb caused that. So, you are greatly indebted to your mother, to your parents.

You are the one who caused her such pain, but right after your birth your mother felt overjoyed to see you and loved you immediately. If it were in other matters you would hate and feel like kicking the person who caused you such trouble and pain. If every three years you were given the same pain as your mother experienced when she gave birth to you, practically everyone would be faithful to his mother.

Have you ever stopped to think that you caused such pain to your mother? No, instead you feel free to say anything against her, act any way against her, and you think that you are born for the sake of yourself. In your everyday life, suppose you are hungry and almost starved to death, so you visit a friend of yours and he feeds you; you are immensely thankful to him. When you are in a difficult situation, if you are helped by one of your relatives or friends, you are grateful. But have you ever thought of the pain you caused your mother and have you been grateful to her? Compared to the gratitude you feel towards your friends what you should be feeling towards your parents must be many, many times more.

Before being born into this world, there was a period of time when your eyes had to be formed, your ears, your nose, your mouth. Every cell of yours was being formed in your mother's womb. So every morning when you look at yourselves in the mirror, why don't you remind yourselves of how your eyes were formed, your nose came into being, your mouth and ears. When you closely examine your face, you will find that your eyes resemble your mother's, your ears resemble your father's, your nose resembles your father's again, and maybe your mouth resembles your mother's mouth. They are a copy of either your father or mother. How can you misuse them? To you, your face is precious; if that is true, why don't you talk highly of your mother and father? Why don't you feel that they are precious to you. Your whole body, every cell of yours, belongs to them and resembles your parents. If you love yourselves, why don't you love your parents?

Seen from this point of view, we are greatly indebted to our parents. But have you ever seen a parent who would ask you to repay that debt? There is no way possible for us to repay the debts we have towards our parents. What does the mother do after childbirth? She has to change the diapers; if a rash appears, she has to medicate it. If you are sick, your mother stays by your bedside, just caring for you and nursing you. If you were at the brink of death, she would pray that she might die in place of you. That's parental love. Have you ever thought of that? Your parents are a symbol of sacrifice for you. There's no comparison to parental love toward you.

Every morning your mother is anxious to get you on the way to school before you are late, and she prays for you and begs you to be a nice boy or girl, to behave yourself, be a good pupil and things like that. Every moment of her life, she cannot have an easy heart. As time goes by you grow bigger and bigger, reaching toward adulthood, but even when you are in the university, she won't cease to care. Until the time of their death, parents care for their children, not thinking of any debt owed to them. They are the greatest of all benefactors. So, in terms of love you are, have been, and are going to be indebted to your parents until your death. Suppose your parents are somewhere around 100 years old and you are 80 years old. Still, your parents think that you are their child. If you are going out driving in the car, they will still say, "Be careful driving the car." So, parental love lasts for eternity, without changing.

I say for eternity because, even though they pass away into the other world, they will keep loving you and caring for you; the greatest of all loves is parental love. Suppose there's a young mother who died leaving a young baby. Do you think the mother would have an easy heart and say, "Well, I'm glad I'm relieved from the pain, here in spirit world?" Or would she love the baby and care for her all the more? Her love, in the spirit world, toward the bereaved child is more than that she felt on Earth. In that case, the baby must know that she's being cared for by her mother to a larger and higher degree.

There's no way possible for us to repay the debt to our parents. So, in a word, you are all indebted to your parents. You are going to be indebted to them all through eternity. So you must be filial children to them. If you love your parents one-tenth of their love towards you, then you are 90 percent indebted to them. What about your teachers? If there's any teacher who loved you so much that he cannot forget you, if you are implanted in his memory, you can never forget that teacher. So, for our birth, we are indebted to our parents, and secondly, we are indebted to the teachers who educated us. Fallen man must also be indebted to his ministers, the church itself, and church members. Your minister cannot save your soul without loving you more than your parents did, on a higher dimension.

Then you are indebted to your country. Especially Americans must be graceful to their nation because in this affluent country you have been enjoying your life while others are starving to death. The government protects you by exercising the law, and if you do not violate the law you are always protected and cared for by your government.

You must also be grateful towards the whole of mankind. America could not have been blessed with affluence like this without other nations. By means of imports and exports you earn money, and use it for the benefit of your people. The American population itself is composed of people from all over the world. Here we have black people, white people, and yellow people living as citizens of the United States. You think you have built your own culture, your own civilization, but your forefathers brought things from other countries. Even at this very moment, businessmen are drawing money and materials from other countries for the benefit of this nation. So you are indebted to the whole of mankind.

Then you are indebted to your ancestors. Think of your forefathers who founded this nation. How much blood and tears and sweat have they shed? But for their struggle and labor, could you enjoy life in the United States? Could you ever become hippies and drug-users when you think of that? If you were starving to death, you could not become a hippy. You have more than enough to eat, you are degraded spiritually, you become lax, you hate life, and you hate yourself when you become hippies. When you don't have money to buy the drug, how can you use it. Your forefathers worked so hard to make an environment for you to enjoy; are you repaying your ancestors that way? Being great debtors like this, how can you repay all the debts? If you lead a meaningless life, just drifting like a fallen leaf, you will die without repaying your debts. You will remain a debtor in the spiritual world. You would not be well received by God.

There's a way open here. Jesus said, whatever was done to his little ones in that way you repay him. Your ancestors and all the rest living in spirit world as creditors would want you to repay your debts to the whole of mankind and to your own descendants. Starting from your own family, if you repay your debts by loving your brothers and sisters, by loving your parents and relatives, friends and neighbors, you reach other people. For instance, a river or a stream always flows downward. The size of the river doesn't matter, big or small they flow downward. We too must flow down, filling other people's hearts.

Up to the present, you were never aware of being a debtor or of how to repay the debt. Think of God and how He worked. His providence of restoration, even after we became debtors, transgressors. We named many to whom we are indebted. But more than your ancestors, more than anyone else, we are indebted to God every moment of our lives. What would God want you to do to repay Him? God's only wish would be for you to repay the debt towards other people, His own children. Your parents' wish is for you to love your brothers and sisters more than you would your own parents. The same thing is true with God. God as the parent would want you to love your brothers and sisters more than you love Him.

In God's sight all of mankind are brothers and sisters. So He would want you to love all mankind. Your parents would want you to love your offspring. More ideal is that you love the whole of mankind as you would your own descendants, doing things for later generations of mankind. What God wants you to get is not knowledge, position, or wealth, but love to give to other people. You know that you can love your children naturally as you would your own self, and with that same kind of love you must love other people. That's the only thing God would want you to do.

Your parents would want you to be successful in your life so that everyone around you would praise you and admire you, then they can be proud of their children. They would want you to love your brothers and sisters as you would yourselves, to take care of them and help them to be equally successful. So you can see divine love in your parents' love towards you. If you are sons and daughters of filial piety, would you not want to carry out what your parents want you to do? So, you want to be able to love your brothers and sisters, your parents, relatives, friends, and neighbors as you would your own self, and you want to be successful in worldly careers without using evil tactics or things like that, but instead using goodness and heart. In choosing your maces, you want to have your spouse like that, too.

Let's go back to the mainstream of thought. We are aware that we are all great debtors. Now you have learned how to repay the debt. Repay means pay back. But your creditors wouldn't want you to pay back the money to them, but to pay it to your descendants and people around you. In God's love everything good and valuable flows down, like water flows downward, filling up any hollow places and when it is on level ground it covers the whole space. That's the only possible way for us to repay. It works two ways: on the horizontal level towards all mankind, and vertically, to your descendants. You must always be thinking how to repay the debt, what to leave for mankind and what to leave for your descendants. An artist would want to leave a masterpiece of his handiwork. Your leaving something means you transmit your love to other people. If you want to repay your debt at the soonest possible time, you must choose the place.

Which is the best place for yon to repay the debt, at your home, your relatives, your neighbor, your church, or what? When you do it through your church, it means you are doing it through God. Let me tell you why the church is the best place for you to repay your debt. If you pay by means of the church, God will be delighted in that. Up to the present point in human history, the church has played the major role in building up culture and civilization. If not for Christianity, do you think America as it is today could have been built? Without Christianity, fifty states could have meant fifty nations. Religion and the love of God enabled them to be harmonized into Oneness, with one purpose. Let me prove that. In the Unification Church, we are one with each other, be it black, white, or yellow. Here it is possible because we have the same purpose, the same goal. First we have to deny ourselves in order to be mingled together into ultimate oneness. There's nothing like white or yellow or black in God's sight. Through religion, people talk more highly of the purpose of the state than the purpose of smaller communities, the purpose of the whole country than the purpose of any one state and ultimately, the purpose of God.

God-abiding churches alone can do the job of bringing oneness to all people. So, before loving the United States you must love your church; before loving your parents, you must love your church. This is because churches have been playing the role of amalgamating or distributing love towards other people on the horizontal level. More than schools, the church has educated you in that field. This is the arena of the practice of love. Seen from this viewpoint, we choose the church as the place where we can pay our debts in the soonest possible time.

How many nationalities do we have here, in terms of your ancestors? You are people from all over the world, from many nationalities. Then it means if you are strongly united into one, it is the symbol of all mankind being able to unite into one. Suppose here we have members of 120 nationalities, and one from each nationality came to you, asking for something, for instance one would ask you for your finger to be cut off for him. Would you do that? If so, then you would be cut into 120 pieces. That means sacrificing yourself. So or total love and dedication, you must sacrifice yourself. That's our conclusion. You must give away your whole being. Again, we feel the depth of the truth when we read of Jesus saying, "Anyone who wants to lose his life will gain it, and he who is prepared to gain his life will lose it." If you are ready to sacrifice yourself for the sake of other people, you can save your own life and you can save others' lives.

Since we are such great debtors that we have no way to pay back all our debts, why don't we be ready to sacrifice ourselves; it is better to sacrifice our lives than to remain debtors. In a word, I tell you to love others as God would love them, but that doesn't reach you in the concrete sense. God showed His love towards mankind through your parents. So, you want to follow the example of your parents in loving others. Your parents have loved you more than they would their own selves. You must love your brothers and sisters and all mankind as you would your own self. That will solve the whole problem. Then you will repay all your debts and still leave something behind. The purpose of our life is to pay back all debts and then leave something behind in terms of transmitting our love to others. Our conclusion is the motto we are always chanting, "Let us strive forward with Father's heart, in the shoes of a servant, shedding tears for mankind, sweat for Earth and blood for Heaven." In that way alone, we will repay our debt and leave something behind. If you live your life in that way, you are entitled to the Heavenly Kingdom.

God would be anxious to educate you in that way, and your own parents are anxious to educate you in that way. However much they may study other tactics, there's no other way possible than this, and no better way. Every moment you are loved by your parents, friends, teachers and relatives. That very moment you must think of transmitting the love to others, with interest added so that you can love others all the more. If you are a debtor you cannot lift your face; you are not free in your thinking and acting, you are humiliated. American young people look so liberated, so free in doing things. It is because they don't realize that they are debtors. Only after having repaid your debt can you feel free to think of things, say things, and act out things in whatever way you wish, and that will meet God's standard. While you are debtors, if you act arrogantly, people will point to you, call you names, revile you. The western world has the mistaken idea that we are not debtors in the least.

You become hippies and you hate people. In that sense you are being used by satanic power. Satan is undermining this country through you. With the knowledge that you are debtors, you cannot sit still without paying the debt. If you really know that you are a debtor can you lead an easy life, or enjoy life without paying for it? No, you must be agonized and uneasy every moment. If you find yourself able to repay the debt, that would ease your heart a little bit. So, as a debtor, there's no other way possible to be happy than by repaying the debt. As I said before, the best place for you to repay the debt is the church. You are now here in the Unification Church for that purpose. Our method of repaying our debt is to make the whole of mankind into one family.

There's no boundary of families, clans, tribes or nations in our movement. The whole world is one. All people will want to belong to us.

Human Relationships

Sun Myung Moon
March 9, 1975
Excerpt
Tarrytown, New York

Photo date and location unknown

Like it or not, in your life you must have relationships with other people around you. We are used to centering upon ourselves. Suppose there are two people, and each one of them thinks of himself or her elf first. Then in their relationship with each other, they won't communicate well, but will be at crosspurposes.

We find that whenever we meet other people, we cannot whole-sidedly associate with them. At first when two people meet with each other, they defend themselves. They are cautious toward each other. But then they will open their minds a little bit, and then a little bit more, and then become associated with each other, and finally become one. The same thing applies between man and woman, man and man, woman and woman, adults and children, and the aged and the middle-aged. So it is that human relationships are always very difficult. If God were involved what kind of relationship would He have with man? Would He at first be wary of man, and then approach him, gradually forming trust? Or would He open His mind and heart and approach man wholeheartedly? Would He open the whole of His heart to man? Why? Because God is omniscient, He knows everything concerning man; so He's not cautious, He's not uneasy when He sees a man, because He is not in the position to have to defend Himself before man.

But if the opponent is Satan, what would God's attitude be? This is the question, "What would God's attitude be towards man, towards nature, and towards Satan?" If God keeps Himself in the position where He can approach man only at cross-purposes then can Satan accuse Him? When He's open-hearted, Satan always can come to Him accusing Him. But God will not accept it. Even though the accusation is not acceptable, all through 6000 years of providential history God has had to listen to the accusation at least, and try to correct the situation.

Up to the present moment, all through human history God has been accused of His children being evil and things like that. How could He have endured that? If that is true, would Satan have praised Him more, or accused Him more? If Satan didn't exist would men have praised God more, or accused Him more by complaining and all sorts of things like that? You as individuals have been complaining against God very often I think, saying "If God is good, He cannot have created the world like this, and let evil exist." Well, there have been many people accusing God, and complaining about Him -- some in the extreme. But has there ever been a man who could praise God in the extreme, in the ultimate sense? If that is true, would God want to meet either Satan or man? Would He feel like meeting men, or be rather afraid of meeting them?

If He's reluctant to meet men and fearful of meeting them, then if we as men feel like complaining to Him, instead of praising Him, what would He feel like? In what manner should He want us to approach Him? Furthermore, when God hears us asking Him, "Oh, bless us! And forgive our sins and bless us, and help us!" -- What would He feel? Would He feel happy? Would He be sad and hurt? Well, if you are faced with such things from your opponent, or from someone who has sinned against you, how would you feel? Is "sad" the only feeling? You are also angry; you want to kick at him, and just chase him away. You kick at him and chase him away, but he comes again and again, and asks and begs for forgiveness and blessedness. What will happen in that situation? You -- and God -- would even feel like killing him! If he comes to you every day, begging for the same things, what would you feel like? When you think of that, is God a sad God and a pitiful God, or a glorious God as the established Christians would believe? They must know this fact.

Well, God is in such a sad position, but still was it God who tried hard to approach man, or man who tried hard to approach God? It was not man, but God who was so anxious to approach man. God has without doubt been approaching us every minute, enhancing His relationship with man. He does this in the hope that man might be so elevated as to reach Him, and be restored and united with Him. He is visualizing the world of goodness. God Himself knows He's omniscient and almighty, so He cannot remain still when His children are fallen in agony, and in the dungeon of life. That's why He is exercising His power to restore men. The almighty and absolute God created man to be His children. Their position of children is eternal and He is anxious to get them back. With the heart of a parent -- however agonized His heart may be, and however rebellious His children may be -- He has to recover them, and restore them. He's complaining against Satan for His own children who have been so rebellious. He is feeling the responsibility for them. He's desperate in trying to recover them.

Man is the result of His creation. So, instead of placing the responsibility on the shoulders of men, He feels like shouldering the responsibility Himself. Satan is the fallen entity, and men are in the category of the fallen world. But for them, there's no way to approach God and be restored completely on their own.

God takes the whole responsibility. Those who complain against someone are doing that because they're not happy in their present situations. The word "accusation" is applied when one is unhappy; isn't that true? When one is unhappy he wants to clear away the resentment by way of complaint or accusation. At times, you, too, complain, don't you? When you complain it is a kind of accusation to clear away your resentment towards each other. You complain against each other among brothers and sisters, but if you do so vertically towards your parents, it means you are accusing them.

God has to think of how to handle these men of the fall, and then of Satan when they complain and accuse. First of all, He wanted to take the responsibility on Himself. If God complains back and accuses men there will be no end to accusations and complaining. If He's angry at men of the fall and Satan, He would feel like eradicating them. Do you think God has even once thought of exterminating men, annihilating all His Creation? At any moment? It is possible that He thought of that. But, the next moment, He would deny that and just tell Himself again and again that He had to save these men. When you plan something, wouldn't you think of that in this same way? Wouldn't you plan all the way through, until you've put it into action? What you have been thinking in your minds will not violate the law. In a nation, where there's law, what you have been thinking would not be a violation. You cannot be punished for your thoughts. It is natural for God to have thought of that again and again, but then resolved in His heart again, to save man.

If God had exterminated men and Satan from the face of the Earth, what would have happened? God would be placed under more difficulty, because He could not hope for anything coming from the world He created.

We can well imagine that He's going to be the most miserable God, with all His creation exterminated. So it offered more hope for God to re-create man or restore man instead of annihilating him or nullifying him. God thought that He could not but save those men and restore them. And once He decided and determined to do that, His desire became eternal. His hope and His determination was to re-create man. It will take more energy -- so many times more than when He created man, and maybe it would take years and years, or almost for eternity, but He would not cease to do this. Once He's determined, He's in the position to be unable to give it up. No doubt, God has been struggling hard to recover man, because He wants to be determined Himself. God is anxious to liberate you from the world of satanic accusation. It is the only hope for God, and who else will do that? Nobody, right? It is not within our power to save ourselves. This is why God Himself must take the responsibility.

He has determined to take the responsibility of making or re-making man to be good. Once He was determined, He would work for that until He recovered the last man on Earth, even though it took Him eternity. When He's so anxious to recover man, and He's approaching you, would He not want to save the man who would just cling to Him for forgiveness and blessing from Him first? Would He not want to save that kind of person first?

First of all, God takes the responsibility Himself. That is the thought or conclusion God reached after the human fall. This is because man was the result of His creation, and He was compelled to take the responsibility to recover them. The sentiment of sympathy welled up in His mind, in His heart. Can you imagine it? When He decided to save man, it was not out of duty or out of law, but out of sympathy. Without compassion for man, you cannot save him; you cannot even feel like saving him. So, the first thing was that He decided to take the responsibility Himself, and then the sentiment of sympathy welled up in His heart. It was with His heart that He wanted to save man, not out of law or duty. With a compassionate heart He could forgive men. Do you follow me? Firstly, He took the responsibility Himself because He thought that everything happening in the human world was His responsibility. Take the example of your parents. You are rebellious against them, but they feel that they have to take the responsibility themselves, because you are the product of their love. Therefore they have the sentiment of sympathy.

With God, when you beg for forgiveness, His heart will be open, and He will feel like forgiving you. When God is taking the responsibility to Himself if you come to Him begging for forgiveness, will He not accept it? When you leave everything to God He will feel like forgiving you; furthermore, if you beg Him to forgive and bless you, He will feel like giving every blessing to you after forgiving you. If you ask God to defend you against the attack coming from your enemy, well, God will do that in order to help you in your difficult situation. You being in the fallen world, if God is there -- the God of sympathy, the God of forgiveness -- then how grateful you must be. However ugly we are as sinners, and however rebellious we have been towards God, if and when we know that there is the' God of responsibility, the God of sympathy and the God of forgiveness there as our Father, we must be very grateful, we must praise Him, and we must glorify Him. We can do this in the hope and in the thought of His being our Father always, prepared to forgive us. That is how God is a Being of goodness and subjectivity.

God is taking responsibility for the person for whom He cannot take the responsibility. God is ready to sympathize with you when you don't deserve His sympathy. God is ready to forgive you when you don't deserve that. So, you cannot but be grateful to Him. That is what makes God, God. God must love you. Do you understand? History will prove that we can know that God has been a God of responsibility, forgiving men all through human history. If God was indignant at the human fall, and instead of forgiving man had annihilated or nullified him then there could be no single man remaining on Earth.

If there's anyone here who is so confident as to think that your ancestors could have remained on earth because they have sinned less hold up your hand. None of you is so confident. Thus we can state that God is the source of goodness, always ready to forgive others. This is our discovery this morning. If there be anyone on this earth who will take responsibility for others and is sympathetic with them, and is read to forgive them while he or she is not really in the position to be able to do that, then we can we say that that person is in the position of sister or brother to God or even His twin! When we study and examine the passed-away saints and sages in human history, has there ever been such a man who had been like this? However closely we study great persons of the past, even George Washington, we cannot find those qualities in the ultimate sense. He may have taken responsibility for his people, but is what I said true or not? What about Abraham Lincoln? What about Buddha?

What about Confucius? Jesus? When Jesus was crucified on the cross, he took full responsibility for fallen man and he was in the position where he can say that he was fully responsible. When he was nailed down by the Roman soldiers, he thought he had to take the responsibility, because they were ignorant of who he was and that's why he was being killed by them; he was sympathetic with them and he was ready to forgive them.

That's why he prayed for them, before God. From this point, we can recognize him as being qualified. All through human history we cannot find any one such as Jesus Christ who is qualified enough for that position. That's why God could even identify with Jesus; he resembled God so much that God could call him brother, friend or anything. Finally, He called him, His son. That's why God would want to have fallen men gather together, centering around the personage of Jesus Christ; through him mankind could be saved. That's why we can call Jesus the saint of all the saints. There's no doubt that all men of the earth can respect Jesus and worship him, because he's the only such man.

God is God because He has both Qualities -- the ability to take responsibility for those who sinned against Him, and the ability to be sympathetic with them, ready to forgive them. If you have the same quality as God has, you are in the position of God toward other people, and there's no problem at all. You will become responsible and mighty and powerful, and you can exercise God's power over other people. What kind of people would God be looking for?

Those -- I think -- who can take the responsibility on themselves for others. Even though you are not as qualified enough to take the responsibility or other people, if you really seek forgiveness in deep repentance, and if you are ready to take the responsibility for others after you are save then would God not forgive you.

Are you like that? However heavy sinners you may have been, it is not too late. At this very moment, if you are ready to take responsibility for other people God will forgive you, and use you. This is our wish. If you are ready to take the responsibility for others, in place of God, then you can say towards your brothers and sisters, "It is not that you are bad, but it is because I am bad that you commit mistakes."

God has been investing the whole of His being in re-creating man, just as He did at the time of the creation of man. This time, if you're feeling sympathetic towards your rebellious friends or brothers or sisters and you cannot give up, but as God has been doing, you persevere to the end until that person comes back to you, then you are acting in place of God. If your friend or even your spouse commits any mistakes, you must feel like forgiving him, saying to yourself that "It is my responsibility to have let her or him do that." Every sin, every mistake of theirs is nothing if you take the responsibility for that. On the other hand, those who sinned or committed mistakes must be frank in confessing their sins and mistakes. From this viewpoint, you must criticize and analyze yourselves. Are you like that?

This is the great thing, and this is the knack of how to become a God-like man. This is the messianic ideology while it is also a Godly ideology. With these three qualifications, you can reign over the world. You must be like that in human relationships, in your attitude towards others. The greatest of all the disciplines must be those three.

Once long ago, I discovered those theories, and then I determined to be qualified in those areas and work in place of God. If this man Reverend Moon would go on doing the job like this, his name will be recorded in human history: and never, never be forgotten. It is not impossible for you. You are in the same position. If you are triumphant with those qualifications, everything in the world can belong to you. If you female members can find any such man, well, you would want to take him before all others. If any parents have such children, they must be the happiest in the whole world. If a king or the president of a country has such a man among his people, then he must be the happiest king, the happiest person. If I can find any one like that in my group, then I must be the happiest religious leader in the whole world and the most successful. If I can make you into that kind of person, and if the whole world will be made like that, God will be the happiest one in the whole universe.

When you think of underdeveloped nations like those on the African continent or places like that, and if you in your inmost self are determined to save the people of those nations, then you are working in place of God. If you are ever sent to those nations, you must be ready to take responsibility for the people there, not for the good points they have, but for the bad points they have. That's the way it is with God. God has been responsible for the evil side of people, ready to forgive them, be sympathetic with them, and remake them into good persons. If you take on the same responsibility and feel the same sympathy and forgiveness and if you want to help the people come to a better situation, then you are working for God more than anyone else.

I want you to become persons taking responsibility for the rest of mankind. I want you to take responsibility for other people for what they have evil or bad, and struggle hard to remake them into better ones. You are doing and you are going to do unusual things. That is the shortest cut to reach God, because you are going to do what God has been doing and is still doing. He's taking responsibility for the people for what they have bad, not good. So, if as a leader, you want to take responsibility for the people for what they have good, you are against God; or you are going farther and farther from God. But if you are ready to take responsibility for the people for what they have evil or bad, then you are coming closer and closer to God. That's why I am saying that this is the shortest cut to reach God.

This theory justifies what Jesus said, when he said, "Those who are ready to lose their lives will gain them, and those who are ready to gain their lives will lose them." In other places, he said, "If you are ready to lose your life for your friends, there's no greater love." If you think of things in terms of yourself, then, centering on yourself with arrogance and pride, looking down on others, you are going farther and farther away from God. You must be humble, you must be ready to sacrifice yourself, and you must do things for the good of others. If you teach other people the same things, that you must be ready to forgive others, and take responsibility for others and be sympathetic to others, then you must practice it or 'it would not convince them or move their hearts. We want to resemble God, and God would want to have us be like Him, to take responsibility for others.

It is God's law, and this is why God has been practicing it all through human history. If in your human relationships you exercise these qualities in relation to an individual, he will belong to you and obey you; he will come to his knees before you. If you act that way before a family, the whole family will either belong to you or surrender to you. If you put that into practice for a nation, the whole nation will come to its knees before you, and belong to you because this is God's law. If you do the same with the whole world, the whole world will be yours. And then ultimately, God will belong to you. He will nod at you, and smile at you. If you really understand this, and feel that you must have this qualification, can you ever complain on the way? If you really want to be persons like this, then when I want that kind of person at the earliest possible date, would you be glad, or not? (Glad!) If I really want you to become that in the soonest possible future, would I not test you? Would I not put you under trials, so that I can discipline you? In that way alone I can really know you.

God thinks, when an accusation comes from Satan, that this is the way. He lets Satan do that because, in that way, He can discipline His people. If you understand things in terms of this, there's nothing you cannot understand or comprehend. From this viewpoint, and with this philosophy, God has been working all through human history to recreate rebellious men. He just wept and cried all through the way with His grievous heart. The more accusation coming from Satan, the easier God can discern His people from others. If you take the initiative to cause evil things, and cause others to commit the same mistakes, you are easily going to fall prey to others and you have to surrender to those persons.

If Satan should accuse God, God will not fall prey to the accusation. God will not only be immune to the accusation, but also He will conquer the person accusing Him. Do you understand? Satan will surrender to God. When you are accused by someone when you did not sin or when severe accusation comes when you committed a small mistake and you get over that without falling prey to him, then you can occupy that person, or that person has to surrender to you. That is why we are even happier in the situation where we are persecuted by others.

When we are under persecution, we are on the verge of whether or not we are going to fall to the satanic side or the Godly side. Well, let us draw the conclusion. In human relationships, when you deal with individuals, families, and nations, if you are qualified in these matters, if you are equipped with enough qualifications, you are sure to be successful in your relationships. This will result in your being in place of the Messiah, and your identity will be like that of God.

The True Pattern of Family Life

Sun Myung Moon
March 7, 1975
Barrytown International Training Center
Translator: Won Pok Choi

Photo date and location unknown

As I see things, Americans and Europeans don't miss their brothers and sisters; also, they don't seem to miss their parents as Oriental people do. In the Oriental part of the world, when children are sent to school, they are taught to be loyal and faithful to their parents, to their brothers and sisters, and to elderly persons. But I don't see that happening here. When you are in primary school, you don't seem to learn much about filial piety. Your parents, too, don't seem to be much concerned or drowned in love towards their children.

Perhaps it is the material wealth and abundance in your life that becomes an obstacle to loving your parents and brothers and sisters. You have enough to eat, plenty to use, and you lack nothing here. So, you don't think about your parents and brothers and sisters. But in Korea or in other Asian countries, they know what starvation means. The parents, whenever they find something to eat, although they are starving themselves must save something for their children. Also, children of filial piety, whenever they find good things to eat, immediately think of their parents. They will save those things for their parents, not eat them themselves. In that way, they are emotionally connected together.

Here you take all the material abundance for granted, and you just go ahead and eat. It is understandable that you don't have to think of your parents or sisters or brothers, when you have plenty to eat and plenty to use. I think that is one of the reasons for your not minding your brothers and sisters and parents.

In Korea, for instance, when you want to buy clothing, your mother has to save some money, a penny at a time maybe, by working for other families or by sewing for other people. Penny by penny, she saves the money. Your mother would save money to buy good clothing for you just once in a year or even two or three years. When you wear that clothing, behind the clothing is a beautiful story, and you cannot but remember your mother. Also, there's a beautiful, sentimental tie between brothers and sisters. Especially the elder brothers and sisters take care of their younger brothers and sisters, and they save money for the younger ones.

But here in this country, with all the material abundance, you don't feel such a sentiment for your brothers and sisters, or for your parents. You take everything for granted. For instance, you think it's your parents' duty and responsibility to raise their children. Your parents can easily send you to primary schools and high schools, so you don't know what it is not to be educated in those institutions. But in Korea or in other poor countries, parents have to go through much difficulty to send their children to school. So, the children know the value of being educated. However, whenever I tell you things about filial piety towards your parents, I don't see that you're too deeply moved.

In Central Park, New York, I often see elderly people seated on the benches. They look well-nourished and well dressed, but they look so lonely! I don't see any grandchildren around them, or any of their own children around them. They just keep sitting there, all through the day; towards the evening they retire to their own apartments, and I imagine they are very lonely there, they probably toss about in bed all through the night. Perhaps they are used to that, and they wouldn't want their grandchildren around them. Maybe they feel their grandchildren are obstacles. Why are they living that kind of life? Are they deserted by their children?

In Korea, parents and grandparents are always welcome in the homes of their children. They can even visit them at any time, even during the night, without letting them know about their visit. Here, you have to make a phone call and let them know, or even get their permission to visit the homes of your children. On the other hand, Korean parents can visit their children's home, and if they are absent, they can go to the kitchen and just eat anything. Or they can go to their bureaus, finding anything they want to use for themselves. They can use the money they happen to see in the drawers. Later on, they can tell their children, "I have used so much money from your drawers." Yet, they are very comfortable with each other. So, we see a vast difference between the Oriental way of life and the Western way of life.

Which would you think would be appropriate to build the Heavenly Kingdom on Earth -- the way of love that is applied in the Oriental part of the world, or in the Occidental part of the world? We are going to build a huge human family under the love of God as the parent. Everybody, without doubt, would think that the Oriental way of thinking alone can be applied to building the Kingdom on Earth. If you female members are married to a man who is living with his parents and grandparents, would you like the idea of being daughter-in-law to the parents, and always having to serve them and the grandparents?

Would you prefer to live alone?

As a bride when you first belong to the family, can you just stand still and have others come to you, to love you and serve you? Can you say to your brothers-in-law, "Come and serve me," and your parents-inlaw, "Come and serve me"? Can you do that? Which way would you choose: to live with the parents-inlaw or grandparents-in-law, or to live with your husband alone? You must start living as a servant to the family, always serving your parents and brothers in the in-law family. You must pass the test of your parents-in-law, and you must be OK'd by them. You have to pass the test coming from your sisters-inlaw, brothers-in-law, uncles, aunts, nieces, and nephews. Can you pass all those tests and be welcomed by them?

There's no discrimination between those who are uneducated or who are educated, in the family tie of love. Even though you have earned a doctor's degree, it doesn't count. You cannot be proud of yourself, saying, "I'm a medical doctor, I'm such-and-such, I have such-and-such a degree, you must serve me and you must think highly of me." You cannot say that. Maybe for the first six months you will try your best and get over all of the difficulties and pass the examination. But things are more difficult from then on, and you have your own children, and with the children on your back, you have to work in the kitchen, serving the rest of the family. Also you must love the children of your in-laws; you must love your nephews and nieces more than you do your own children, and take care of them more than you would yours. If there is scarcity, and there are not too many things to eat, if you hide something for your own children, never wanting to give it to the nieces and nephews, what would happen then?

In eating, too, suppose there's a certain amount to eat, you must feed your grandparents first, your parents, your uncles and aunts, your nieces and nephews, and then it is time for you or your children. As for clothing, the same thing applies. I don't think you can even understand the situation.

Your love-ties tighten even faster when you love each other, and like to have other people eat first, and other people clothe themselves first. When things are scanty and rare, you feel that kind of thing all the more. You don't feel that at all here, but you do when you have only a small amount to eat, when one of your family members is not there yet and you have to wait until he or she comes back to share with each other the edible and nourishing things. When one of your family members is late in coming back home, all the families will sit up the whole night waiting for him and sitting on the floor. You would have the person sleep in the warmer place. I'm afraid you don't understand the situation.

If you were in the position of God as the parent, as the Father, which way would He like? It would be very simple to live as husband and wife with nobody else around. But how would God take it? If you insist on the Western way of life, your parents cannot mix you like that, living together. If the daughterin- law wouldn't like to live with her parents-in-law, what would happen? They cannot help but live separately. Then what would God do? It is a serious question. Seen by Oriental eyes, Western people are merciless or feelingless or emotionless. You do things out of duty, but not out of sentiment and heart and love.

I'm sympathetic with you, because it is more than natural that you have become like that, since you are more used to that way of living. But which of the two--the Oriental or Occidental-is closer to the way of life of God? (Oriental!) Then does it mean that Western people are farther from God? (Yes.) Also, they are more materialistic. The materialistic people of the Western world must be taught by the Oriental way of life, in order to get close to God. The spiritual way, what is it like? Because your spirituality is closer to God's, you think of other people. In feeling sentiment, you are closer to the source of love. That's what we call spiritual or mental, instead of materialistic.

Roughly divided, when we look at the world, there are two attitudes toward life. One is more spiritually inclined, and the other more materialistically oriented. However, in the Western world, people are more or less tired of the materialistic way of life, while in the Eastern world people are the other way aroundmore or less tired of the spiritual way of life. So, people in the East have the tendency to seek after Western things while the Westerners are looking for Eastern things. So, in the Orient, people are faced with the danger of losing what they used to have. And in the Occidental part of the world, people are apt to forget about the importance and value of material wealth. If we add up what is materialistic, and what is spiritual, it will be wonderful to have it as our ideology, to steer our way on the road of life.

In light of the Divine Principle, how would you define God? What is God like? Would you choose material or love? (Love!) Would you prefer life to love, or love to life? (Love!) What would love mean without your life? But life doesn't have any meaning without love. Even though you have sensations, being alive but just existing without knowing love, would you call it life? (No.) Without joy or love, life has no significance. Joy and happiness is what you want, and both of them are derived only from love. So you think more highly of love than the value of one's life.

In the fallen world, what we cannot find is love. There's material abundance; there's your life, but you are unhappy because there's no love. So, love is more important than life.

We must clarify the order of love. Without knowing this the order of society will be confused and remain in chaos. Let us make it clear, right here. God made man first. When He created man, He created him out of his love. Can American women, who are used to lady-firstism, claim that love must be through woman, and woman must be the source of love, next to God?

The source of love is of course God, and from God it flows down through man, to reach woman. That's the order of love. Then some of you could ask back, "Well, how do you know if God created man first or woman first? That's a story made by a man." Let's expound on it from this point. Man resembles the whole universe. When we say "man," that includes both male and female. Man symbolizes heaven, while woman symbolizes earth. What is the proof of that? The order of love is defined from the way you love each other, male and female. Man looks down on woman, and woman looks up at man, isn't that true? That's the way God created man: man above, woman below.

Heaven is above because heaven resembles God more than the earth does. Let me ask you women members, would you want to be held by a man, or to hold a man? If I'm not wrong, women like to be held by a man. By being held, you will be lifted up, becoming higher and higher. When a woman wants to be carried by a man on his back, it means in that case that man plays the role of a ladder, and you step on the rungs of the ladder to become higher and higher. That means the man is in the central position. The structure of your body also tells which is which. Men are broader on their shoulders-the higher part-but women have their lower part broader. Since man is in the subjective position, it is woman who always misses the male.

The order of love, the history of love is that love comes from God through man, to reach a woman. The history of love is the history of creation or re-creation. Out of love God created man, and out of your love, you create or re-create. You imitate the creation of man by giving birth to your own children. When you look at your own children, you feel that God really created man through love. When you resemble God in loving each other, there is constant, incessant creation coming about. Isn't that true?

In America, love between the same sexes -- homosexuality -- is prevailing. It is a most unnatural love. At the time of creation, did Adam have any other man to love? Did Eve have any other woman to love? It is in the Principle that woman must love a man, and man must love a woman. Homosexuality is unnatural, against God's law of creation.

Men have the tendency to want to resemble God, and if you resemble God, you want to live His way. We have not yet solved whether or not you would want to have a boy baby or a girl baby. What makes you want to have a boy as your firstborn? At the time of creation, God created a male being first, that's why. I don't understand American women. They don't mind if they have a girl or a boy. I have just come out of the hospital today with a boy baby. In the hospital we saw many fathers who were so happy that they had girls! This is what I thought: in America, parents are more or less ill-treated by their sons when the sons get married, so they are apt to go to their daughters to live in their old age. That's not the law of creation. The law of creation says that when you die, you'd rather die with your sons protecting you.

Once you are married, it is natural for a woman to follow her husband. A Miss Kim, when married to a Mr. Park, would instantly become Mrs. Park. Why aren't you hurt? Because you don't Jose anything. You are gaining their family's heritage, what your husband has will be yours. His authority, power, everything will be yours. Suppose there's an uneducated, lowly girl married to the president of the country. Then she instantly becomes the president's wife. In that case, you don't get hurt.

In the Oriental countries, parents would like to have the firstborn be a son, without exception. Even from that standpoint, the way of thinking of the Oriental people is better and closer to God. That is because it's logical.

When you have children, you are in the position of parents, which means you are in the position of God to the children, to His children. So you must, in raising your children, be like God, caring for your children ·and loving them as God would. In the ultimate sense, you must raise your sons and daughters to be like God, to be as perfect as God Himself. What would a man who resembles God be like? Well, God is not only the symbol of power, authority, and things like that, but God is, before anything, the source of love.

So, you must raise your children to be the source of love to others. If your children become perfect as Heavenly Father is perfect, what will they know to do? They will transmit the parents' love toward their children.

There are three kinds of love: parental love, conjugal love, and children's love. There are no other kinds of love. As the central point, you must be able to love your parents above, love your spouse on the horizontal level, and love your children below you. Also, you must love mankind as though they were your brothers and sisters. Since the source of all three kinds of love is God, you can reach God through any type of love: parental love, conjugal love, or children's love.

Why should all three kinds of love be united into one? Because by having three stages, we must be able to build the four-position foundation. We have three levels of love, but to connect those things, we will need four positions.

When you are united like that, there is a continuous source of love flowing down. In that case, you miss your loved ones. The source of your love is your home. Isn't that true? What do you miss all the time when you are away from home? Home, nation, or world? (Home!) Why do you miss home? Because that is the fundamental core of the whole universe, the fundamental unit of the whole universe. And at the core there is God. Because of that, you miss your home. God's love flows down through the base of four positions, through the members of the home.

The source of love coming from God will be multiplied through parents first. If you separate yourself from your parents, it means you are cutting yourself off from God. Once you are married, can you be separated from each other? It means you separate East from West. You separate male from female, while they are created to become one. Can you separate plus elements and minus elements in an electric current? Being the parents, can you separate yourselves from your children? Separated, you will become satanic.

United, you will become divine. Those three levels must exist together, so if you separate from your parents, your spouses and your children, that's a satanic act. Evil history started when Adam and Eve separated from each other. What is evil, and what is sin, and what is the enemy of mankind? Separation, rather than unity. Unity and harmony are good. Disharmony and rupture are evil.

From this law of creation, when we see that in American society, the parents are apt to be separated from their children, would God leave it alone? Would American homes be prosperous this way? That's why, in American homes, the parents are unhappy and every member of the family is unhappy. It serves you right, when you are unhappy, because you have entertained that kind of idea. You deserve unhappiness. You deserve to have misery. The source of happiness is the family, and the family must have three levels of love: parental love, conjugal love, and children's love. All the children must be able to love their parents, and the parents between themselves must have conjugal love, and the children again have love toward their grandchildren. Only with those three levels of love existing in the family will you have real happiness. That being the Principle, that being the fundamental base of love, only by our living that kind of love in our families are we entitled to Heaven after we die.

You have the privilege to go to your parents in love. With love, you are entitled to reach your parents and your grandparents without reservation. That, in return, signifies that you are qualified to reach God and divine love.

You are entitled to go even to the king because in the family, your parents are· in the position of king and queen. Adam, at first, was in the position of the king to future mankind. God is the King of the whole universe. So with the love of the parents, you can reach your parents freely.

Likewise, you can reach God freely in the divine love endowed at the time of creation. God is above us, being the source. He is on the vertical line, and as we expand to the three levels of love we can easily reach God. Inside of God, the one who is most qualified to contact the president of the country is the one who loves the country most. If we have love towards our family, we can freely reach Him and occupy His home.

This comes from the base of four positions. Our having been able to find the theory of the four-position base enables us to solve any other problem existing in the whole world. This is the core of all theories. If you are asked the question, "Why do I live?" -- you can answer that you are living for the sake of your brothers and sisters on the horizontal level; you are living for the sake of your parents, in vertical love; you are living for your spouse and for your parents. This is the only way to reach God, in love. That is the purpose of lite.

Without our being able to do that, we cannot love any other human being. We cannot even love our nation. To have that expanded to a larger scope is to love the nation and mankind. If you can love others as you would your own brothers and sisters, other parents as you would your own parents, other grandparents as you would your own grandparents, then you can love God. Home life is the only place where you can be educated in that kind of love. Heavenly Kingdom is the place where love abounds in such a way that you would love everybody else like you would your own family members.

Why do you cry when you lose your children? Why do you cry when you lose your parents? Why do you cry when you lose your brothers and sisters? It is because the home base is the foundation of divine love, and if you lose one of your family members, you lose the opportunity to love that person. So the lost love would chase you out. You don't have a complete love. You lose the qualification to love with a wholesided love.

That's why you are being chased out; that makes you cry, makes you sad. Every member of your family can be likened to one of your cells. When you are pinched, you feel hurt. You don't frown, you cry. Then why would you want to get married, and want to have children? That is because you want to pass the exam and be a person created by love. If you pass the principles of love, you can have the earthly Kingdom of God, and the spiritual Kingdom of God. And you can even possess God. God will belong to you.

It is natural for any human being to want to marry. If a woman loves her husband more than she would her own self, she has the qualification to have God and participate in God's love. And if a man loves his wife more than he would his own self, he has the qualification to love God, possess God, and participate in God's love. If you are the same with your brothers and sisters, and with your parents, you have the qualification to belong to God and to possess God. This is why Jesus said, if you love your brothers and sisters more than you do your own self, there can be no greater love than this. The greater love must be God's love. If you don't put it into practice while you know the truth of it, you will be cut off from the love of God. The power of the universe will drive you out. Then you don't belong to the universe anymore, or to the category of divine love anymore. That's why you become sad. If you are harmonized and unite with that power of love, you'll become happy, and you will all smile and laugh.

For parents, grandparents and children to be separated is not the way it should be. By being in accordance with God's law in love, we can enter the Kingdom of God. By now, you must have a clear picture of what it is to have a solid foundation of four positions. The four position base is the foundation where love is solidified by being united into one in harmony under God's love. What is the ideal of creation? The ideal of creation is to establish the foundation for four positions in divine love.

Up to the present moment, there has been n" such thing as true parents in your own physical homes, nor true children in your own physical homes. This makes it impossible for God to play the role of the true God. God is a God of grief, a God of sorrow. You have been burdening Him. You have not been liberated in the love of God. There are national boundaries separating people from people, and race from race, and there are ruptures and disunity even in the home. In the Principle, we must be able to unite home life on that four position foundation, to reach God in divine love, and from there, as a core unit, we must start all over again, to organize tribe, nation, and world.

Without having true parents among us, we cannot give birth to true children, and everything starts from there. That's why God must send the Messiah to human society. It is to make it possible for mankind to build the true home, in order for God to become the true God, exercising His power. When can God become the real God?

It is only when man has true parents in human society, and through them the true world can be built, where divine love abides. To the immediate children of true parents, we the false children, must be engrafted, to make the whole human family. That's why fallen men need the Messiah as the Savior.

On Approaching God

Sun Myung Moon
March 3, 1975
Excerpt
Barrytown International Training Center

Photo date and location unknown

Before we can begin to understand the will of God we have to understand God's nature. The vague ideas about God that existing Christian churches now put out are simply not convincing enough. We have to know God more specifically. Christian churches believe that God is absolute and unconditional love. Is this true? Let us imagine: if God's love is unconditional then why will the Christian churches alone be saved and no other religions?

God has said that only those people who believe in Christ will be saved. Why did He say that? Whenever we think about this we have to think about the mainstream and also the force which goes somewhat against the mainstream. Among existing political systems, when there is a main party or government party there is also an opposition party. Surely He can have unconditional love towards those people who are on God's side. But what about those who are not on God's side? The situation is different. God has those who are closest to Him, some who are further away, and He has servants yet more distant. He cannot treat them all the same. For example, when He gives His heart, when He gives love, He gives the most love to those closest to Him, and less according to the distance from Him.

With your children, the degree of love or the quality of love -- whatever you might call it -- is different for each one. When you get married can you love your spouse out of duty? From the very beginning you consider whether you like that person. Or, you think that someday you will come to like him or her. Imagine those people who don't know you, don't care about you, and don't think about you; there's nothing you can do to become closer to them. How can you love those people? We all understand that God is not a vague concept, but He is like a person. He is a personal God, and as a person, there are some who are close to Him, and some who are very close.

Our problem is how to become close to God. There are two ways to come to be liked by God. Some people are liked without any effort on their part. Others like to help God's work very much. Then God can like them and love them. Likewise, while God exists in many different religions, He has certain preferences. Those people that He can like easily He will like under any circumstances. God will also like those people who try their very best to fulfill His will. So a religion is either one that God can love easily, or it is one that can do much to fulfill God's will. It has to be either one or the other. There are Christianity, Buddhism, and other major religions and minor religions. Every one of them must be liked by God. If there is a religion that God cannot like, then it has to be abolished. As soon as a new group appears on Earth, the second best group has to diminish. Unification Church is an entirely new group which is trying its best to become one that God can like. If it succeeds it will win God's favor.

Why did God create man in the Garden of Eden? God created Adam and Eve so that He could love them. Also, He created man so that He could entrust some of His tasks and works to man. Has He realized His desire? No. Since Adam and Eve fell, the rest of mankind automatically fell, too. Now He is re-creating fallen man. Re-creation is saving those people who have fallen. So our mission becomes very clear: we must become re-created men and also we must instill God's desire to save fallen man in ourselves. In order to meet these two vital qualifications, we must learn about the heart of God. The heart of God has been introduced here for the first time in man's history. Along with coming to know the "heart of God" in the Unification Church, we are the group which is very anxious to help fulfill the will of God. This is very easy to say, and it is even quite logical. Everyone wants to do these things. Then why can't we do them?

Because man fell, Satan came to exist, and sin too. Another way of explaining this is, if you do away with sin and if you do away with relations with Satan, then you automatically become close to God. What is the number one wish of fallen man? It is to cut his relations with sin and Satan. So we have to know how to disconnect from Satan and do away with sin. Then -- as the second step--we can come closer to God. As soon as you can understand God's heart, then, in doing His will or doing His work, you don't have to try, you automatically become like Him. Doing away with our connection to Satan and to sin is the purpose of all religions. But religions don't know that. We say "Satan," but we hardly know about Satan.

What is Satan? What is sin? Those things are not only very simple matters, but also very complicated ones. There is local sin or what you might call contemporary sin. Then you have historical sin. And also you have the sin of the future. The conclusion is very obvious, but also unavoidable: Do away with our historical sin. We also have to do away with contemporary sin, the sin of this age. We have no hope of completely doing away with sin of the future.

Some people, with a lesser faith, say, "God is omnipotent. Why doesn't He do it Himself?" There's a very good reason why He cannot do that. That's because man caused the fall. Man brought Satan in, not God. God will not do and cannot do what man has to do. God intended an ideal world. But man did not do as God willed.

This is why we have sin. For example, if the son commits a murder, and the father goes to the court and says, "Because this is my son, and I'm the father, I'll be responsible for my son's murder," can it be accepted? No. If the son was the one who committed the murder, then he has to compensate for it. The son has to do it, but he cannot because he's ignorant. So God is here, and the son is here, and Satan is here but no one can do anything because no one knows. Does everybody know that there is Satan? Those people who do not, will they know God really exists?

They don't know God, they don't know Satan. Where do they begin? This is a historical problem. No one in history has known God as He is. Not a single soul on Earth knew God. Likewise, no one has known for sure if Satan exists, and that these two great powers have been struggling and fighting a fierce battle. No one knew that Satan and God were each struggling to have one individual on their side. No one knew about ideal families. They hardly knew anything. This is the crux of the problem. Those people who do not know much about God, and who know very little about Satan, how can they do God's work?

God exists and He created men and angels, even Lucifer. Therefore, He has to find a way to teach them about Himself. We have just begun to understand the most elemental things. You will have an even harder time to understand how much God has worked and suffered to make one perfect individual on Earth, just one in all these millions of years, and long before that, to make even a sacred man, what we call a "prophet" or a comparatively perfect man. It is not too hard for us to understand that He had so much trouble in sending even one; ordinary prophet and then a man who can give some truth, so we can also understand that God has worked His way step by step, finding a better man and a better man still, on and on. It stands to reason that among religions God has gone through the same step-by-step process. The very primitive religions are like a primary school-then there's grammar school, and then high school, college, etc. The proximity to God of religions is increasing. What degree will the Unification Church have fulfilled? Yes, post-graduate school, but the main thing is that we have to be qualified for that Ph.D.

How can we know that God exists? The main problem of existing society centers around this problem. Those people who really know that God exists (and this doesn't mean those who believe God exists) have solved the most difficult problem of all. You not only understand that He exists, but also you should feel it, this is the main thing. You have to feel by heart, and also by acting you have to know. You won't know until you become one with God and become one with His work, that God really exists. To those who experience things, not many words are necessary. The way in which the Unification Church is different and excels is the fact that you can experience God. Then if someone comes to you and cuts your throat, it really doesn't matter; that cannot alter your knowing. As soon as you experience God, then martyrdom isn't menacing to you in any way.

If there's anything to fear, it is God. The most fearful thing for us is the possibility that we may lose God. Nothing else matters. So long as God is with us we can pierce right through the heart of the enemy, Satan.

To those who have that confidence and that determination, everything is possible. I hesitate to say this, but can I trust you as I can trust my God? You have to trust God, that's the safest thing. So we must understand that even if we promise God, "I would like to be responsible, and I shall be responsible," if God cannot trust a person, then God cannot say "Yes." If there is any small thing-or one large thing-you want, have all the Unification Church get together and say "Forget about God's will just one moment, and let's do this: because this is what everybody wants." If you did that, Father wouldn't budge. He will not go along with you if you forget about His will. He will kick you out and start all over again.

If there is only one way open to fulfill the will of God, and if it means doing some impossible thing, we would have no other choice but to do it. The Unification Church started in a very serious and severe situation; we knew only d.at God exists, and that the God we know is the historical God. The God that is with us now is the same God that will be with us in the future. We have to know what God is now, the God that exists in this country, in this era. We also have to know God's overall plan to a certain extent. Before we know that, we cannot really progress successfully.

To know about God, we have to know His history. In order to understand God we have to understand what kind of life He has led so far. Then we have to study what He is doing now. Where can we find that material? Can you go to the best and biggest library in the world to find that out? Can you find it even in the Bible? We have to find out whether God was a happy God, whether God has been consistently sad, or if God is a contented God. We have to find out the true feelings and deeds of God. If God is an unhappy and sad God, but a group of Christians is saying, "God is an almighty and happy God," how would you feel toward them? You'd be very indignant. We have to understand why God has been unhappy. We have to go a little deeper. We have to find out when God became very unhappy. Did His sadness start a long time ago, or recently? If He's a sad God now, does that mean He used to be happy? If so, then what made this happy God into an unhappy God? To know that is the crux of the problem. This is what you are studying -- the history of restoration.

All this time, throughout the Old Testament Age, God has been a frustrated and very sad God. This was also true in the New Testament Age. Now, at the fulfillment of the New Testament Age, God is still working. You have to be able to imagine and understand the situation of Adam and Eve when the fall took place. You must experience the same sadness God experienced from the fall and also the joy that comes after you have overcome that fall. Then we can compare the sad stage that God once felt, and the happy stage in which we have passed that test. In Noah's family, and at the time of Abraham, we must feel the same thing. We must be able to feel the situation of Jacob and Esau, of Moses. Knowing is not enough. You must experience the same sadness if you want to become a friend to God, and then certainly God will come close to you. Once we understand that, we also understand the enemy Satan, and we become so furious that we are going to fight no matter what the cost is. When we practice that, God will really be a consoled and happy God.

It is important to understand the historically true God. But now, what God wants are people who meet today's need, who are in such a position that Father can like them now, today. We have to qualify for the present day, not the past. To understand the past is good, because that will make our present will stronger, but we have to meet the present need and also extend that to the future. In the future God will encompass all the globe, and He is going to save every one of His children.

We have to know inside and out every detail of God's will. Just imagine, when we see each other, how much each one has changed from the old style of life to the new style, after knowing God. That's what is needed in this country and in the whole world. God will need every one of these new reborn persons. I want you to believe one thing: If I am making you suffer, it is so that you and God can become closer. We have to be very grateful, no matter what the difficulty is, because God wants it this way. One of my many experiences in prison, when life was hardest, Father was right beside me; he embraced me, slept with me all throughout the night, and to remember this is the greatest treasure of all. I know that same God who did that to me will do it to you. If you expect the worst, win over it, and go, only good results will be waiting for you. Now you know what God is like.

Morning, noon, and night -- 24 hours a day-Satan is working. So we have to determine in our minds that we are going to work 24 hours and more each day. Then that can serve as a condition God can work through for God to cooperate with you. We cannot liquidate Satan until we commit ourselves more than Satan. The less sleep you have, the less ashamed you feel. You can really shorten your sleep time. While we are fighting wars, can we sleep in the daytime? That's the kind of war we are fighting. Do your very best to fight fiercely against evil and Satan. Have nothing to do with sin! If you remember that, then without your knowing it, you are gradually emerging into the heart of God. As soon as you chase out Satan, chase out evil, chase out sins, then so much of God will move into you, and gradually occupy all of you.

Keep in your minds a few more things that may be helpful. Jesus died, but he left a spiritual foundation, so Christianity has widened and widened. Why was that so? Because Christians were persecuted. They persevered, they tolerated injustices. Perseverance is the main thing of all. We can learn this lesson in great detail from the life of Jesus. When Jesus was about to be crucified, he knew that he was to have been the king of all kings. But, still he prayed very deeply, "Let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt.'' He yielded his wishes to the wish of God. And he persevered. If Jesus had protested to God, "You promised me that I would be king, and now you forsake me," if he had spoken one word of complaint toward God, then everything would have been broken, and there would have been no spiritual foundation. When Jesus prayed as he did, God really felt pity for him, and He commended Jesus for his perseverance. Even after he died, Satan tried to mutilate him. That, God did not forgive. After that, all the opposition was completely turned the other way around by God. Those who were persecuted, were given the blessing. Imagine God's feelings-it's very hard for Him to persevere when He sees His representatives treated very badly. But God persevered, because by persevering He can be an omnipotent God.

Even Satan, looking and watching, sees Father persevere, falls to Him and says, "You really are God." Perseverance can be the secret way to repel or even to prevent hardship from coming. When it becomes apparent that you're going to fail, but you persevere, then there is a way for you to win! God has been using this tactic, and we ought to adopt it and make it part of ourselves.

Jesus did two things on the cross. The first was to persevere. And the second was that he prayed for his enemy. He felt towards even those who opposed him, "You need me. You don't know now that you need me, but in the future you will know that you need me.'' This also shows very eloquently that God did not create man for Himself. Just imagine: Satan tried to expel someone who was going to love him. When he killed him, then he could no longer remain in that place, and had to leave. We often see this in society. When an unjust, bad man comes around to try to overrun the town and do a lot of bad things, there are people who won't stand idly by and just watch. They stand up and try to expel this bad person. Also imagine that one good man is persecuted very much by this bad man, but he won't say anything. He won't fight, rather he perseveres. Later the people gradually understand that he was right, then everybody will come to his side. So Satan and sin will no longer be able to remain where they are. They will have to withdraw, to retreat. Even to those people who try to kill me, when I love them, when I pray for them, I am showing them the heart of God.

Parents are like that; no matter how bad their sons and daughters are, they still pray for them. God has been persevering, not only one time, but several thousand times. He will keep on persevering. We have to learn that, and follow that pattern. Throughout history, we have witnessed that righteous men are persecuted, but all of them came to be praised later. The more you persevere, the more you go through difficulty, later you will realize that you are going deeper and deeper into God's heart.

Watch if this is true. When you go hungry for a certain number of days, then God will come to you and feed you. Reverend Moon has had numerous experiences of being fed. For hours and days he did without food and would be nearly exhausted. He would go up a very steep hill and come down; when he came to a certain place, without his expecting it; there would be a man waiting with a fully prepared supper for him. Then he asked, "How come? How did you know?" The man said, "In last night's dream, a sister appeared to me and said, 'Tomorrow there will be a passer-by coming, so you ought to prepare for him." He not only ate enough himself but there was even enough food to give out to those around him. But if you cannot go over that hill, and if you stop short of that hill, then you wouldn't have met that feast. There may come a time when God will be really serious and say, "If you had persevered a little bit longer, I was going to give you a lot of blessings. You could not persevere, so you're losing 1000 years of preparation."

Always expect to meet God at the most difficult place where no one has ever been. You want to meet God there. Expect that position and march forward.

It's all up here in our minds how close we are to God. What is precious is not property or rare jewels. The tears that you can share with God are what's precious. Look at ourselves: God has more able people than us, yet if God selected me to this position, just pity God for a few moments. Then we cannot meet God without tears. Whenever there is such a heart and feeling, God will be with you. This is mistake-proof. When we become like that, God is always there. If God doesn't come there, then God doesn't exist. We might as well forget about God. Let that be a very basic element of your life.

The course of spiritual experience

Sun Myung Moon
February 2, 1975

Although we may be in a position to worship God who is the center of our faith, our position is unclear. Then where should we start looking for that position?

Although our subject partner is established, we cannot feel it. We cannot conclusively distinguish such a spiritual thing as clearly as we perceive things with our five physical senses. When we consider from where we should begin approaching this problem, we understand that we cannot start by looking into the subject partner. We could not possibly start by looking into God Himself. We should, to that end, begin looking into ourselves first. Each individual has a mind and body. Although we have both mind and body we cannot, however, begin to seek within ourselves for this position centering on our body. Only by centering on the mind should the examination be carried out.

When we observe fallen people today, whether a thousand or even ten thousand, do we see that their minds are the same? Although the root may be the same, the minds differ depending on the nature of their environments. Not all are the same. Why? Our faces are different, our habits are different, and the emotions we feel are different. In the same way, our horizontal line and the perpendicular line with which we can form an angle is different. We must have the angle set correctly.

Then how should this be done? With heaven as the subject partner, we should stand as the object partner before that subject. God, the subject partner, has surely given humankind the foundation to respond to Him as His object partner. Therefore, contained within that foundation of the horizontal mind there must be a standard for the mind to be perpendicularly oriented in a direction toward the vertical. That direction surely exists.

When you look at a horizontal line, it looks like a plane but when it stands perpendicular, the standard for that perpendicular line will be different. How do you adjust to the zero point? If you go this way, there will surely be a counteraction. Therefore, you have to adjust to that zero point. In a power plant there are many different types of meters. Each meter has something similar to the zero point from which direction, power and quantity are measured. There has to be such a zero point standard.

What kind of standard is that? It is something that exists and yet does not, or something that does not exist and yet does. There is such a place. Those who practice Zen meditation use the term ecstasy to refer to a state of mind similar to that. You should be able to approach a spiritual level of that kind. Once you reach that standard, you will find something that would surely enable your horizontal standard to respond.

There is a gate in your mind and it is called the mind's gate. It does not open in just one direction. Since your mind rotates, the gate moves as well. Without going through such a gate, you as a minus cannot establish a relationship with the plus. Everyone has that kind of mind's gate. When you pray, you get a different feeling depending on the time of your prayer. Prayer at one o'clock is different from prayer at three o'clock. You will understand this when you experience it. If you pray in a deep and mysterious state, you will know that your prayer will be different depending on when you pray. It will feel different. What you feel in the morning, at noon, in the early evening, and at night are all different.

Likewise, the level of our feeling within our state of mind differs in the same way our physical senses respond differently to the changes of the four seasons. That is how it is in the realm of our mind. So you should know the best time to pray. That time will be when the degree of your response to God is greatest. As you continue to delve into that sphere, you will find the gate. When the gate of God and the gate of your mind become perfectly one and revolve around a certain standard, you will find the path to fully experience what God is feeling.

What should you do to reach this state? You need to cultivate your mind.

Some religions have expanded in step with God's providence and others in step with Satan. Since these religions are all mixed up, it is extremely difficult to differentiate the good and bad. The same is true within the realm of our mind. There are good minds and at the same time evil minds. Your mind may think, "Yes, I am good," but that thought itself is not good. Our minds were formed as a result of the Fall. Consequently, there are some whose minds are influenced by evil and the evil realm of Satan, and others by goodness. There are all types of minds.

Then what is of utmost importance? The way you set the gate to your mind is the most important matter in your life of faith. Therefore, in your life of faith, always be alert to those times when the gate of your mind opens and how to tune it to the gate of God's mind. Always be prepared for this. You always need to have a mind-set in your daily life of seeking and adjusting your mind to God at any given time.

Therefore, be constantly aware of the depth of your mind and try to open the gate to your mind. Then try to adjust it to the place where the gate of heaven is located. This is the most precious thing to do in your life of faith. As you gradually come to stand in that object position, what happens? You will experience a new three-dimensional feeling that you never felt before. You will somehow come to experience that unknown feeling.

In the past, you may have experienced only a wintry sensation, but you will start experiencing the sensations of not only autumn but also summer and spring as well. Why? The universe is rotating and so is our mind. Just as the rotation of the planet causes the four seasons, the realm of mind-in-motion naturally allows us to feel the changing degrees of sensitivity.

There are four seasons in a year. A day, however, is a year in miniature. There are also four seasons in a day. The morning corresponds to spring, the noon to summer, the early evening to fall, and the night to winter. In this way, there are four forms of seasons in a day. There are also four seasons in the morning which corresponds to spring. You can have springtime, summery, autumnal and wintry feelings even during just the morning. Just as large units are divided into sub-units on a large scale, small units are also divided into sub-units on a smaller scale.

Our mind is like that. In other words, the feelings your mind experiences are not always fixed. According to the seasons, it would be good to know that you correspond to spring, but you are unaware that you correspond to winter. You should, therefore, know how to discern what the present time corresponds to by having a variety of experiences and through an abundant life of prayer.

Once you are in such a state, what kinds of phenomena happen? In Korean there is the word ahmshi (a hint). By an example you can understand its meaning: a person casually walking along happens to see a bird fly off from the wall of a beautiful house; even after the bird has flown away, the observation of the event implicitly teaches a lesson. Such phenomena will occur. Such phenomena will start taking place in your actual daily life. The number of these suggestive conditions will increase. You will derive insight into something as you happen to overhear someone talking. Such experiences will increase gradually.

Once past that stage, what kinds of phenomena take place? You will start receiving revelations in your dreams, but I am not talking about the ones during deep sleep. Saint Paul experienced the third heaven while half awake. Do not let such phenomena pass you by inadvertently. Compile and analyze the data scientifically to find out what they are trying to connect you to. The result will surely come out. You will gradually experience that the revelations you had in your dream – which you can hardly forget – will turn out true 100 percent in reality. You will have such experiences.

People or things you connect with in the half-awake stage of your dream are going to appear in reality. You may think you experienced having sung a song with someone in a dream, but in reality you were not dreaming, you were actually singing that song with someone at your side. Such phenomena will happen. What this means is that your mind has entered a realm in which it resonates with the spirit realm like a tuning fork. You should regard such things as very precious.

Then, what will happen next? As God exists, where will He appear? God will appear not in the air but through your mind. Why have not you been able to experience that? Because your mind is not yet firmly established in its own existence and because you have become people who are being dragged around by your body. Once your mind is firmly established within its existence and forms a higher dimension of character whereby you can declare it to be another subject entity, the situation will surely be different.

When you reach a higher level through prayer, you will start talking with your mind. A state of resonance will occur. It will be on a higher level, and you will physically hear what you are saying in your mind. You will advance to that kind of state. During the first stage a hint or suggestion in your daily life will be given. Therefore, believers must collect the vast amount of such facts.

When coming into contact with people, do not treat them offhandedly. Always wonder if they can teach you something. Always be hungry in heart. Have a seeking heart that expects to receive something from those people. After all, what is the self? You are always either a subject or an object partner in a relationship. It means you are in a fixed position either as a subject or an object partner. Therefore, when a being appears who can become your subject or object partner, you will know it immediately. If you have people to witness to, you will easily know what kind of people they are. Your mind would go to them out of joy, by way of thought waves. Every mind has its own wavelength. A butcher smells of meat and a dealer in fabrics smells of cloth. Just as your body has its own smell, your mind has its own unique smell. A form of sensing the smell of the mind will take place.

Our body has something similar to the sense of touch that makes contact with everything. Your mind emits something like invisible electronic waves to look for its own object. Therefore, believers must think that everything is in a reciprocal relationship with them. Why is that necessary? Because we have lost all kinds of relationships due to the Fall. The Fall severed our ties with nature, with the original human being, and with God. In order to reconnect the world of the severed relationships you must always endeavor to get yourself connected. Those relationships can be pioneered only when you take such action. Without such an attitude, you will never succeed in pioneering in a relationship.

All of you must have the heart that is seeking something. After praying in the morning you should be able to sense that something good will happen that day. Do not think that something good will happen on its own course, but actively start looking for whatever it is. This type of attitude is what you should have in leading a life of faith. Therefore, feelings, experiences and putting them into action will bring life to you. All this occurs during the half-awake state.

If your spiritual level goes higher, what will happen? You will start receiving revelations and directions. You have to analyze revelations. Directions are given directly to you by someone, but it is different with revelations – which is why they lead to problems. You must always interpret revelations. Some revelations come verbally and others visually. You could have a vision of a couple of deer drinking water from a spring and then glancing at a mountain in the distance on a nice spring day. Such a vision symbolizes boundless hope and happiness. All such phenomena will take place.

Such things are not accidental. Heaven is doing this to help you to cultivate the field of your mind. Why does it have to be so? The field of your mind is not flat, like a sheet of glass – it is uneven. It is in the form of a flat surface but the shape itself is uneven. So when a heavenly ray hits the uneven plane of your mind, it will be reflected towards a direction opposite to the incoming ray just like the refraction of light. Visions, therefore, are all different. God works in such a way to enlighten each part of your mind.

After the stage of revelations, you enter the stage where you have experiences such as those found in the Book of Revelation. In this stage you enter the spirit world and have various experiences all day long; you get connected to a far-off world. You can reach the limits of a state where you feel God in your daily life. Unless your faith is based on such experiences, you cannot apply the resultant realm of God's great will to the field or sphere of your daily life. Therefore, believers without such experiences cannot be trusted. Faith based on such experiences is important. For this reason, you must make an effort to enlighten yourselves.

While our members are praying, spiritual phenomena are taking place. Such things called spiritual phenomena do exist. The spiritual forces enter our bodies like electric power. You would know if you had these experiences; you will experience a force stronger than your normal awareness entering your body, as if you were in contact with high pressure. When you experience supernatural and superhuman emotions, your body will certainly reject them, since your body carries the fallen nature. Your body will surely come to repel this divine nature from God.

Therefore, if some kind of godly nature flows strongly into fallen humankind, fallen people cannot be purified in a natural way. When this power flows in, it does not come in at once but enters in an alternating plus and minus manner in the way sound waves are transmitted with alternating amplifications and attenuations. This power comes in sometimes strongly and sometimes weakly, all the while cultivating us. You will have vibrations, lose your consciousness, and the phenomenon in which spiritual forces act strongly takes place. This is manifested as spiritual phenomena.

What will happen next if you continue having such experiences? Your physical body and your physical fallen nature will become purified, and through this you will naturally come to accept these works 100 percent. When that happens, even without such phenomena you can enter a state higher than the spiritual phenomena and then receive all that heaven teaches while not being overwhelmed at all. You have to go through these courses to reach that level of purification, as well as the phases of receiving revelations and directions.

Once you reach the level of such experiences, your mind will give you directions. You will be struck dumb when you try to talk to someone, or you will scold someone in spite of yourself. You will experience such incomprehensible phenomena from time to time. Therefore you have to be able to control them. If you mishandle the situation, people may treat you like a crazy person.

It is absolutely necessary to go through such a course of experiencing these things. If you enter the position of having had experienced through the trials of life, by feeling and experiencing that which entered your mind, you will become stronger. You will not be affected by anyone's comments. Understand that both spiritual experiences and their realization are of the utmost importance in your lives of faith.

What should we do to enter that state? Generally, there are two types of people. The first type consists of so-called intellectuals, who search for truth. They only accept things that stand to reason and reject anything contrary to it. The other type consists of people who grasp things by feeling rather than reason. In the Unification Church they are called the intellectual and the spiritual people respectively. Whereas intellectual people look for external understanding first and then try to apply it to the internal world, spiritual people look for internal feelings first and then try to apply them to the external world. We may call the former the incoming type, and the latter the outgoing type. These are the two types of people.

Since that is the case, intellectuals generally do not like prayer. When they think about it, it looks like superstition, it cannot be trusted, and it makes them feel that their own existence is going to be denied. Those are the intellectuals – they seek to find truth by forming theories. Spiritual people, on the other hand, are born being fond of calling on the name, God. They just like God for no particular reason and do not require any explanation. They do not mind skipping meals as long as they can call God, Father. Such people exist.

Generally speaking, in spiritual movements, which type of people do you think are successful in creating a revolutionary movement? Intellectuals cannot do it. Those who have accomplished great things in the realm of faith were not intellectuals but were mostly simple and uneducated – they were spiritual people.

They live true to their feelings and do not care about the world. They do exactly what God tells them. There will arise occasions in which what they are doing turns out to be exactly the right thing to do in that situation. As a result, they turn out to become great figures in history. Saint Paul was originally an intellectual, but since he was struck by spiritual lightning from heaven on the road to Damascus, he changed his mind and went on by faith instead of his head. He felt that by searching internally one found an explosive path rather than by searching externally, which led him to deny everything that was external and to start respecting things that were internal. Through this, he became a standard-bearer of the new Christian revolution.

Such being the case, those emphasizing reason cannot play a role as great leaders of the religious world of the spirit. There are two types of people. You should know which group you belong to. Spiritual people in general are usually not great at reasoning, though they are great spiritually. They may start out strongly, but they become weak later on. Then, since they are not consistent from beginning to end, they do not last forever – they surely drop out at a certain point. On the other hand, those who are good at reasoning and truth but poor spiritually can also never last long. Therefore you have to make an effort to coordinate these two aspects in your daily life.

It is said that you must worship in prayer and in truth – in spirit and in truth. This means that you have to create a balance and enter a state of harmony. People should mediate between the spiritual and physical worlds. You should stand in the center of the spiritual world and be the people who can mediate standing at the center of the world of truth. Otherwise you cannot attain the perfected position.

Prayer: Please make us into the vessels You desire

Sun Myung Moon
February 1, 1975

Photo date and location unknown

Beloved Father! Together with all the things of creation that You made, we hope to offer before You, who oversees heaven and earth, praise of Your glory and majesty. Father! We know well that while passing through the eventful course of history, You have come through a history of re-creation that was extremely full of suffering in order to restore the mistake of our original ancestors. We realize how much misery and suffering filled the historical indemnity You paid in order to have each of us individually return to Your original position by passing over the path of the servant of servants, the path of the servant, the path of the adopted son, the path of the child, and even the relationship of true parents.

As people who deserve punishment because we sinned, we have walked a miserable course of sorrow filled suffering, and though You had nothing to do with it, You took responsibility for everything, taking the lead and overcoming all sorts of difficulties. We offer our sincere gratitude in view of the mighty accomplishments You attained while carrying out the work of re-creation.

Father! We have come to understand that there is not a single person who has not been touched by You, and we know that there is no country whatsoever that has not been led through Your hope. And furthermore, we know well that going beyond national borders, You are guiding all people to the present point in order to lead them into the original world of Your ideal.

When we think that in the world that must remain in the end, there will be only You and Your beloved sons and daughters and the heavenly forces of angels, we see that in this world the power of Satan and the people of Satan are far too great. We know that we Unification Church members are in a position where we cannot ask You to resolve this. We realize the fact that our Unification Church has the extremely precious responsibility to uphold the name of the True Parents and the name of the True Children and praise that family, and achieve on earth and in the spirit world the original state of the angelic world that is able to attend that family. When we think about this, we also remember that we are in the position where we have to inherit the great task of sons and daughters and, at the same time, inherit the great task of becoming parents, and then inherit Your original ideal of creation.

Therefore, we have to become children who are solely born of Your flesh and blood, and who are embraced in Your bosom, and who are loved as Your sons and daughters. Now that we are in a position where we can be embraced by You once again, we have to think about the fact that we need to go forward to the position of the heart of love, which is not inferior to the love You gave to Adam and Eve when You created them and raised them with hope. How can we possibly go forward to that standard of heart as descendants of the Fall. The only thing we can do is think about the wonderful fact that, the more we stand in the position of having made efforts in our yearning for the original attitude we should have, the worthier we will be when we appear before Your toiling heart, especially since You have overcome a path of suffering for our very selves. At such times, we can imagine, however little, Your heart, as our Father who is endeavoring to establish us before His original heart.

Father! Your young children, who have become hardened, must pass through Your touch and become the material for re-creation in Your presence. We have already understood that we must become like clay, surrendering ourselves to You to be molded as You wish, just like the time You first created us by mixing soil and water. We are not in a position to have our own opinions. Since we have understood that the only kind of mind we can have is one that admires absolute faith and adores Your absolute love and a mind that seeks to become a faithful servant of Your absolute will, O Father, please accept us and take dominion over us.

Make us into the vessels You want. It is not up to us to demand that You make us into pottery or into valuable vessels or into earthenware, so we sincerely hope and pray that You will shape us so that we can become whatever objects You need. The Bible says that those who are not like children cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. We know that children are those whose lives depend on their parents. We know that a child relies on their parents for their livelihood. A child appears before You as an object partner who represents the whole, but that child does not know it. Similarly, people who live on the earth today are in a position where they do not know You. In this regard, we cannot but think that we stand in a position of ignorance even greater than that of a child.

When we look upon such a group of people, we see that the requisites of their original nature through which they can be connected to You are all defiled, and that they have become isolated beings who are in a most difficult position to communicate with the heart of Heaven. And You, Father, have the responsibility to move them with Your loving heart and thaw them, to disentangle any knots there may be, and to soften them if they have become hardened, thus guiding them to a position where they can know You. Taking this into consideration, we realize we didn't know the fact that the mistake committed in a day, the mistake of the Fall, has brought about this bottomless pit of sorrows that cannot be resolved even after passing through such a path of suffering.

As for the original position that You demanded, our limbs went on a path of opposition, and our eyes that see did the same, and our ears that hear did the same, and our mouth that talks did the same. When we realize that we have been such people, we cannot but sincerely hope that, for thousands of times, You will allow us to look in the direction You are looking in and listen to Your words, and that You will bless us to speak with a mouth through which we can whisper to You. In spite of the fact that we should follow You with our own limbs, wearing ragged clothes if need be, or crawling on our stomachs if there is no other way, we have instead become disloyal and unfilial people who are self-pitying and cannot be forgiven because we thrash and say we cannot go even when Heaven is guiding us. Since we know this, Father, please expand Your heart of mercy and Your heart of love.

The eternal ideal has been bequeathed because there still remains the originally created connection that cannot be forsaken, and since we know that the ideal desired by You cannot be forsaken as well, we cannot help but raise both our arms toward Heaven and clamor for You to save us. So, Father, we earnestly hope and pray that You will bear with us. Please hold on to our feeble hands and guide us to the originally intended world that You desire. We did not know until now that You have had to overcome hardships, whipped and scorned all the way, so please allow us to understand Your suffering, the suffering our Parent is going through. Allow us to feel it, allow us to be awakened to it, even if only in our hearts.

Please let there be many people who understand how much Heaven has had to endeavor for them, repent of such a history, struggle to take responsibility for this age and walk the suffering path of the cross instead. Since we know that all such people are members of the Unification Church, and there is no one else, and we are gathered here, Father, please look after us. You have already spread out members of the Unification Church, not only in Korea but also across the world, and we sincerely hope and pray that Your loving touch will be extended to wherever they are, as they give all their devotion and all their loyalty and all their adoration to You.

We have set the third seven year course, and it has already been a month since we declared it after passing through the second seven year course that You permitted by Your Will. When we look back on this morning of the first day of February, we see that the past month has been a busy one, and we hope that You will allow a bright victory to unfold in the land of Korea through that month, that You will allow a bright victory to unfold in Asia, and that You will let it ring out before all peoples. Not only that, but we also sincerely hope and pray, Father, that You will permit a history of joy, which has long been yearned for by the innumerable spirits in the spirit world, and through which they can be liberated, to be established as quickly as possible.

On February 8, we plan to hold a wedding ceremony of virtuous men and women from all over the world before You, Father. That historical and global day is approaching, and yet there are groups of people who oppose us with all kinds of words and actions and who are trying to block that path and destroy it However, this son of Yours has taken responsibility for this path and is guiding others with the knowledge that everything will be concluded as You see fit, so please take charge of this period of eight days and let that day be glorified. I, Your son, earnestly hope and pray that that day will be a day on which Your glory and prestige can be praised by all peoples and all nations.

Thank You for being with us during the forty or so days of my stay in Korea. Don't let anything that we do cloud Your glory in any way. We earnestly hope and pray that our work will become a foundation of victory on earth, where songs of welcome arise and sounds of joy arise on the path of Your personal coming and going that is escorted by heaven and earth and welcomed by all.

Father, when that event is concluded, the International One World Crusade, which is currently in Japan, will visit the land of Korea, and we have a huge amount of preparations to make before they come. We need to build up our international reputation, and think by ourselves how we can fulfill our mission as the homeland and the hometown and what we should bequeath to them. We have to examine ourselves. We, Your children in Korea, should show ourselves as having nothing to be ashamed of before Heaven, thereby becoming a focal point of confidence and popularity as the clan of Heaven recognized in all parts of the world, and be aware of the danger of becoming a focal point of criticism instead. Since many people do not know this, we sincerely hope and pray that You will admonish them and educate them.

We have nothing and we possess nothing, but help us show that we love Heaven as we offer devotions to Heaven, and that, even if we are dressed in rags, Heaven is embedded deep in ourselves and deep in our hearts. We know that this alone is the responsibility of Your children living in Your homeland today and the mission they should fulfill. We have nothing else to show except this, and when we think about it, we sincerely and earnestly hope and pray that You will allow us to become a group of people who are upright and tenacious, hardened through perseverance by which we can overcome paths of severe suffering in our lives, knowing the preciousness of our internal value.

On this morning, please bestow blessings on Your children spread out across the world, and we request again and again that You will be with the young ones in East Garden and the youths of America who represent the world and who are getting ready to come here. Please protect them and guide them and personally lead them on every part of their course of visit so that they can experience the beauty of victory. Father, we hope that we can live this one month together in Your name. In Japan, our members are preparing for the rally that will be held on February 13, so please be with them. We earnestly ask that You will lead us, guarded by angels and the innumerable heavenly forces of the spirit world, so that we can raise high the new banner of unification in the world and adapt our minds and bodies to the new echoes of Heaven. We have humbly prayed all these things in the name of the True Parents. Aju!

Prayer: Please Allow Us to Become Substantiations of Your Hope

Sun Myung Moon
January 19, 1975

Photo date and location unknown

Father! We know well that from the time that Jesus Christ came to the earth, shed his blood and established the path of the cross until now, in this historical period of nearly 2,000 years, humankind has gone along the path of historical indemnity paying the price of so much blood.

We who know how very frustrated your heart must have been since you could not just cast them away, oh, Father, we must realize ourselves that we must become extremely humble, and that on this path that our unification movement is going we will face the new spring day which can embrace and overcome the grief of Cain and Abel, and from now on we must embrace humankind and return to heaven with them centered on the people and centered on the world.

Whatever our attitude may be, we must reflect on ourselves internally and externally. We earnestly hope and desire that you will bless us to be able to become true children who can add to the stimulation of hope in your heart, and who can be dashing and bold and have no flaws as heroes building your kingdom, and that at the same time that we receive your blessing we can receive your love, and we will not be found lacking for you to put us forward proudly before all people.

Father! We earnestly hope that you will keep all of our lives. We earnestly ask that your compassion and love will always penetrate deep in our hearts. We have prayed all these things in the name of our True Parents. Amen.

A World of Living for the Sake of Others

Sun Myung Moon
January 16, 1975
Korean Day of Hope Banquet
Chosun Hotel, Seoul, Korea

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.