Section 1. School And Teacher
1. What Is The School?
A church exists for the purpose of God, and a school for the future generations. God's will always rests on the future generations. Through the sacrifice of an individual person He seeks for great happiness of the descendants. He knows that a great nation and world for the future generation will come, through the sacrifice of this generation. God has put his heart and soul into the work of teaching people to be able to fulfill their duties. (96-33)
2. Reason To Go To School
You all go to school. When you begin school, there must be a reason for you to start from the elementary school. As a primary school pupil, through your interaction on a daily basis, you finally come to finish the process and graduate the elementary level. It means you have accomplished your first objective on which you can add your second objective, through the interaction with the new world of the middle school, high school, and college and so on. (66-242)
You students go to school. Why? You go to school for the sake of the nation and the world. You should have this attitude. You should be somebody having special thoughts. (117-95)
When a baby sucks his mother's milk, he is happy and comes to recognize his mother's face as well, thinking, "Oh, I like this person best. She is the right person giving milk." In this case, if they are true parents, feeding is not enough. They should train and exercise their child under the perfect discipline. As the child grows up they try to make him strong enough to overcome the world with the strength gained through intensified training and then they can be called true parents.
It means that we send our children to a primary school, middle school, high school, and university to train them to win the world. We don't want to let the world win our children, but want to have our children gain a victory over the world. (95-87)
3. Education And Goodness
You have a morality class among the subjects in school, don't you? What do you call this class? [The right life] Right life? In the class your teachers teach you not to pay a rascal with a wicked act, but to be patient. When you see a man doing a wrong and you have no confidence in your own ability to do something against him, keep away from such company. To set apart yourself from evildoing is to separate yourself. (30-308)
Although in Korea today there are many universities, middle and high schools, and some institutes, they don't know the definition of good and evil. They say the population of Korea is sixty million. They only know the word "good and evil," but they don't know the standard from which they can say good and evil. What is the prime standard? They don't know it. This is a great problem. If something is a little different from yours, you say it is wrong. "I am in this way, but he is in that way. So he is a bad guy." As you say like this, you tend to say wrong for everything. When you say "that bad guy," what is the standard on which you are able to say like that? You don't have the standard. When you use a changing standard, you will be on the brink of collapse. judging by the present situation of our society, we have no prime standard. In every measuring instrument like a dial scale, the standard is never changed.
As it is never changed, it can be the unit. What in the world has this never changing unit? It is the question we should answer. (136-110)
No matter how we human beings continue to live, born in the world, we should live our own lives. While living our lives, we follow many ways of life. It is easy to do a sinful deed which will corrupt us very easily. But it is hard to keep on doing good, which will not let us fall into a trap. The easy thing to do is an evil thing. For this reason we have lots of sanctions and laws against doing easy things.
When you are asked, "Which way do you want to follow, the right way, or the wrong way?" you answer, "I will follow the right way!" Everyone of you have said that from childhood. From the days of a baby to the days of the primary school, middle school, high school, and university, the more education you have taken, the more you have been taught to go to the right way. But the higher you climb a tree, the more difficult it is to keep yourself in balance. You should know that we live in such a world. (98-232)
We know that there have been two ways in history. Wherever a good man is, there must be an antagonist. When you are doing good things, you must face opposition as well. Historically, our society has not been on the side of goodness, but hostile to goodness. Because of that, it is not easy to practice goodness, but easy to commit evil. You should remember that you are in such a social situation where it is more difficult to do one good thing than ten wicked acts. Thus, evil established its foothold from the historical backdrop and dominated the actual state of beings today, and wants to subjugate the future of the world we are seeking for. If you assumed a wait-and-see attitude and escaped from this social trend, the new world we are looking for could not be realized. Therefore we cannot make ourselves good individuals. Without good individuals it is impossible to form a good family. Without a good family it is beyond the range of possibilities to build a good nation or world. (54-12)
4. Courses Of The School
For a primary school boy, the primary course is a sort of binding rope. Isn't it? Curriculum is a binding power-rope for the students. When you go to a university, the subjects on a school curriculum are like handcuffs to put on you. You have to remove your bonds, don't you? (126-42)
If you want to get something done, you have to pass through the period of number seven. You go to primary school for 6 years. How about middle school? [six] Who in the world made it six years? Without going through number 6 you cannot pass over one period.
Number 6 is double number 3. Three objectives means to separate three stages of formation, growth, and perfection. The ideal number is number 7. When it connects to the number 6, it becomes the center which is called the completion number. Don't you understand? (181-90)
Can any primary school boy say, "I don't need to go to school"? Is he able to do that? Refusing to go to primary school, he cannot have the foundation for middle school. Right? [Yes] Without finishing a middle school he can't go to high school. Why on earth can't he go there? Why isn't it possible if he can do whatever he wants to? Is it because he lacks power, or because he is not handsome? Is it because he has no money, or because he is not dressed up? [No] Even though he dislikes school he has to go through that course of study.
Starting from the kindergarten, we must go through the primary, junior and senior high school courses before entering a college and getting a doctorate degree. As you go on to the top process you cannot say you don't need the lower process any more. Why do you still need what you learned in primary school? In the primary school you studied the basic subjects. You still need all of them. You may say so because you were so naturally digesting them in the present situation that you forgot even the fact you already learned them. As long as you recognize that you studied them you cannot say you don't need them any more.
What did you study in kindergarten? You go to kindergarten to prepare for the primary school, which means to make the study in primary school easier. Why do you go to elementary school? Not having difficulty in the middle school is the reason of your going there.
Why do you go to the middle school? In order not to have trouble in the high school. How about high school and university? In order not to have trouble in the courses of the master and doctor degree. Am I right? [Yes] Look. To study in the primary school is more difficult than in kindergarten, high school more than middle school, and the courses of the masters degree are more difficult than those of high school. After bachelors, the doctor course is more difficult.
When you set out in the world it is more difficult. Everything goes on like this. More and more it becomes difficult. More and more. Listen. Are you now learning from Reverend Moon of Tongil Church or not? [laughter] They don't teach you this even at the university. This lecture, you know, listen attentively to it. It is basic education. Do you feel it? [Yes] I cannot tell you how great. . . When you go out into the world, you can have such a critical eye that whatever great figures say means nothing to you. So Moonies are said to be "smart guys."
You have something with you. It is an established reputation. Look. When you go to a middle school, you would like to dress up as you did in the primary and elementary school but since entering high school and university you don't have time enough to have a haircut or a shave. You are in the depths of misery. You are often obliged to view the past as the "good old days" of the kindergarten and primary school.
5. Good Teacher
When you go to a primary school the teacher, in the beginning, controls all such things as sitting in the room, speaking, and every conduct. All of his statements are "do nots." In so doing, no matter what you may become after a university or doctor course, you can be a person of large caliber. Wherever you go and settle down you can be a master there. You prepare it from the primary school. Therefore, all of their teachings contain "don'ts." You like to run about, jump over the fence, and kick the door as you want at rapid speed. But you are always told "don't." So is our Kwon Jin. Mother gave him advice: "You must stay here. Don't get into mischief outside." He is, however, trying to rush out into the street early in the morning whenever his mom and dad aren't around him. So there must always be "don'ts" for him.
You should know this. Therefore, making this instructional material. . . . God never uses good and sweet baits in fishing. He always puts restrictions on us with various "Don'ts." You are apt to become dirty every moment wherever you go in the fallen world. Therefore He cannot let you do as you wish, but asks you "Do only this in this way." This is all He can do: "Jump high. jump high" to let your neck be hooked by Him. (136-209)
Which teacher do you like in your school? One says, "Hey, guys. You don't like to study on this beautiful day. Why don't you go out and play in the field of flowers?" And the other says, "You rascals, Spring day? By no means. Study! Study!" Which teacher is better? [the latter] (131-117)
In your school, which is the good teacher, the teacher who strictly teaches you, with a piece of chalk, making his eyes glare, or the teacher who takes it idly and easily in his teaching? Who is the good teacher? [the strict teacher] You know it. Therefore, in your school, the strict teacher is a good teacher. Do you understand? If you obey him and digest his teaching even if he uses abusive language, you can take your share in that class. Through the sharing in that class you can become a direct disciple of the teacher. That is the principle. Is it or not? [Yes, it is] That is the principle. (161-37, 125-82)
Teacher should give the students deep love. And the students absolutely obey the teacher who is giving them deep love. Are the students of today the ones who make the grade, or flunkers? [flunkers] They are terrible flunkers. They cannot be pardoned. . . . God loves us, therefore, let the universe be all obedience! (164-50)
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Section 2. Student's Duty
1. Student's Responsibility
In the school there are the principal, teachers, and students, where the subject and object relationship is set between them. Therefore, any student opposing a teacher should be kicked out. If a student goes to school with another plan rather than study, he should be kicked out. (11-19)
Everyone should have his own position. In the family, a son must wait upon his parents, sister, or mother and father; each of them should have his own position. Everyone has his own position in which each of them forms a connection and establishes a relationship with each other, where he or she tries to do his or her duty fully. For example, a student who goes to school as a son of any parents has his own position and responsibility both as a student and as a son. If he did not have that position, he would be in a miserable condition.
Without such a position and responsibility coming out of those relationships, he would be a lonely person. The position being clear, centering on it and having helpful surroundings to get what he wants to get through systematically, the front and behind, right and left, above and below relationships, he could make his mark in the world in future. But no matter what position was set with all conditions fulfilled, when the surroundings were not helpful to harmonize with his direction, he would have trouble in making his way. It is the same in the path of our life, in our family, and in the society as well. (41-130)
Young students today go to school carrying bags with them. But some of them have no idea why they go to school. "I am going into the society." And then where are you going? "For the country, I am going to carry heavy responsibility." And then? "Into the world, for I want to lead them." And then? Here, they don't know where to go more.
They lost their way before Heaven. Everyone in the world is in such a miserable situation. (5-178)
For a man to succeed in his life, he should set up a purpose. You should have a real goal of life. If you wonder from your purpose, you will waste your time. It is to fool away your time. When you go in your study, a major field in your course of study is very important in carrying out your original idea through elementary school, junior and senior high school, and the courses for the master and doctor in the university.
Judging from the foregoing, at the time when you are placed, for example, in your primary school days, if you make every effort, you will achieve the chance for the days of the middle school. It takes about 18, or 19 years to take the master's course, and 20 or 21 years for the doctor's course. The school years are fixed, but you can shorten it if you make desperate efforts to do so.
Who can shorten the school years to 18 or 10 years? It is up to me whether to shorten it or not. The limitation of time does not control me. "I" should become a capable person to control time.
It takes a certain time to accomplish a definite object. There is a proper time period during which you should input a certain quantity of labor. Even though you have invested a certain quantity of labor in a certain time, you still need to do something more. That is to devote yourself to it. It can make a vast difference to a common thing through investing the unified oneness of your mind and body. What is the source of the driving power for you to devote yourself and to make desperate efforts? Do you have to turn to others for help, or should you establish your subjecthood by your own efforts? Which is more effective? When you have the driving power in yourself you can go your own way in case you could not find any helper from outside.
What do you need the most to get the driving power in yourself? What becomes the core of the motivation? You may easily imagine that there must be a foundation on which you can have the way to establish your subjecthood through the heart. From where does the higher heart give me such an explosive driving force? It comes out of the reciprocal relationship between parents and children, my lover and I. From where do you receive that explosive stimulation? You receive it from love, which is different from place to place. It is influenced by its environment, such as a satisfactory or unsatisfactory surrounding.
Why do you go to elementary school, middle and high school, and the university? [because of the duty] You should recognize that you are determined to go through the undertaking. According to whether you could accomplish it or not... to bring a solution with great value in a heavy responsibility you go to school. (98-234)
2. Student Days Are A Preparatory Period
Students are the core of all society, the concentration of all social elements. All the social systems are connected to the students through the school. Through the fields of learning they can connect any social fields such as politics or economics etc. In short, a school is a training camp of the society where the core of all social systems works in a reciprocal relationship with the students.
Between the society and school there is a relationship of an equation of the first degree. No matter how high a grade you got in school, you must try to do best in the society too. There is no room for a free passenger. You must grow up as much as you did in school. If you grew up as much as this, you must set an objective condition as much as that in the world.
No matter how high a grade you made in school, you cannot succeed in the society as long as you spare yourself. However fine job you obtained after school, you might fall behind others as long as you spare yourself for ten or twenty years. Therefore, you should keep trying more than you did in school. (180-130)
You are all youth. But whether you will win success or not will be decided in a crucial moment. Watch the moment. (91-29)
When you start your study in the school, the teacher is your teacher and you are his students. But after one year, some failing students might be among you. And then the teacher says, "I love you, but there is no other way. You must stay back in the class while the others go to a higher class. I must follow them. But you cannot follow me." You must accept what the teacher says. Your complaint that your teacher and students cannot do anything for you doesn't make sense. (123-204)
What traces will the students leave in their school days? And what are you going to leave in this frontline? It must always be borne in mind to do something meaningful in every circumstance. Understand? [Yes!] What shall I leave in the relationship with others? Make sure to think about it. (96-331)
3. Type Of Student
1) True Student
Do you think there is a true man in the world? It's a question. A miserable man cannot be a true man, can he? You like gold, don't you? Do you want pure gold, or alloyed gold mixed with another metal? [Pure gold] If anyone would call some mixed gold pure gold, you would hate him. The pure gold must be 100 percent in the degree of purity.
When you add pure gold to pure gold, it is still pure gold. But the gold mixed with a little of another metal and the pure gold will become alloyed gold. Therefore no matter how much pure gold you add to the pure gold, it is still pure gold. But in case you add even a little artificial gold to the pure gold, it is needless to say that all the gold, even the original gold, would become alloyed gold. When you think of it, are you sure to find a true man? Raise your hand if you think you are.
You there are students. When you say "he is a true student," the word "true" has only a general meaning. You should know this. The "true man" you commonly mention means a man a little better than usual men. When a boy may look a little better than the others among the students in a village, you commonly say that he is a "true student." Therefore, the word "true" you say every day doesn't have any absolute meaning. (41-171)
When you say any student is the "most true student" among all the other students, you mean it only in that school. The school has its past and future as well. Then can you say the true student represents those of its past? Furthermore, can he be the utmost true student among all the students of the various schools, or of the uncountable students in the future? Nobody can be confident enough to answer them. When you say, "We officially recognize that this man is the true man not only in the village but also throughout Korea," can he really represent the past, present, and future together? It's a question. (40-306)
When you say a "true student," what else does he have to forget to be the "true student"? In case you went to the library with about ten friends, he should be such a student who plunges into the study with a dreadful zest forgetting even that he is studying, whether it is night or day, or eating lunch. Such a student who forgets everything except his study can become a "true student." Wherever you go you should live on true love.
Even being beaten and kicked by your elder brother, you could forget it. If you were beaten here at this corner, you should, even though you were not recovered from being beaten, be able to follow him there to that corner, saying, "Where are you going, brother? Let me go with you." Such a person could be a true brother. (174-281)
2) Good Student
Let me talk about students in the school. The student who is willing to follow the principal and teachers as well is a good student. But the student who fails to follow is a bad one. So it is in the family. The child who follows his mother and father's idea is a good child, but the one who doesn't is a bad one. The employee who does as the president of the company thinks, is a good employee, and who doesn't do so, is a bad employee. Am I right or not? [Yes] Among the Moonies in the Unification Church, some caboodle who follow Reverend Moon's idea are good Moonies, and some opposite caboodle are bad Moonies. Am I right? [Yes] Then which part do you belong to? [Good Moonies]
Why good Moonies? Same thought as my thought? [Same act] You got it. Do you have better ideas than I? [No] But I do want it. Do you agree with me? [Yes] Logically, can the man who is doing as God thinks be a good man, or bad man? What can he be? [A good man] (104-206)
What is the good boy? You can be a good boy when you can digest a bad boy and have a standard to teach him. A good boy cannot be influenced by the bad boy but he, instead, can influence the bad boy. You should know it. The good boy cannot be a bad boy; if he could, he should be the bad boy. A bad boy is the one who is coming and going between the two worlds. (116-195)
When you think of yourself, are you a good man or a bad man! Let me ask you once again. [good man] Haven't you really loved and liked your mother and father? Then you must be a bad man. Have you ever really liked your brothers and sisters! Have you done so? [Yes] Anyone who hasn't done so is a bad man. How much did you like your friend! How much did you like your teacher? How much have you liked saints in the world! How much have you liked God, whom you should like the most? When you think about these questions, whether you are a good man or a bad man, how about you! Good man or bad man? [good man]. Are you now a good man? (laughter) You should always think about it. (76-275)
I told the junior and senior high school students this story at Soo Taekri yesterday. I asked them, if they had put their parents to trouble, to repay their kindness. If your parents' love seed were big, you should be brought to fruition adding even more. Therefore, you should be dutiful to your parents. You should respect your teacher and render devoted service to your country. You should not be a burden to your parents. (68-171)
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Section 3. Friend Relationship
1. Friend Of Friends: Parents
If man had not fallen, the friend of friends would have been his parents. Your parent is the king friend of friends. And the king teacher of teachers are your parents. Do you understand? The origin of all plans are parents. The origin of all lives are parents, and the center of all social movements are the parents. The parents, however, have not been the true parents but the false parents. They have been turned upside down.
2. Friendship
So is it between friends. When you visit a friend who is unfriendly and inaccessible, you cannot feel at ease. You would feel awkward. You can feel at ease only in the case that you have strong emotional ties between friends so that you can interfere in your friend's matter freely, and your friend can step into your personal life as well. In order to form such strong ties with your friends you should be tied to them by emotional affection. And then all external matters would be solved. The crucial point is to have strong affectionate ties. (33-133)
We often hear people ask, between friends, whether something interests you. What do they mean with the words? It means that they ask you whether that thing is something your heart or your mind would be pleased by. You should know that, in the word "pleasure," there must be a certain internal connection of the heart. (91-10)
When you need a friend, you want a friend who can shed tears. Yet you would not want such an indecent man who does nothing but weep all day, but want a friend who can shed tears, while on the other hand has lots of laughter as well. It is not good to make a wry face at all times. Even in a deep grief-stricken situation you should be able to find an overflowing joy. Who can be qualified for the blessing of happiness? Anyone who is crying sorrowfully for another who is overwhelmed with grief is the one being blessed. It is you at the place where you want to stay forever that the blessing would call on. Make sense? (36-109)
3. Forming A Friendship
When you ask yourself who you really want to keep acquainted with, you will know that you don't want to keep company with a small fry. (153-25)
Nobody wants to retreat. Nobody wants to keep company with a retreating person. Everyone wants to be a friend of the man going forward. How about you? Are you now going forward, or retreating? We, more than anything else, should check it. (32-19)
If you want to be a best friend of anyone, you first of all should understand his agony and suffering, and comfort him in his misfortune. Only by doing so could a friend be moved by you. If you have relationship with him through heart and zeal, he will be moved by you, and you by him. (7-306)
If a man makes a sacrifice of his happiness to his ten friends, he will be asked to be their representative when they want to have a central figure. And they will not only choose him as their representative but they will also ask him to be the leader to teach them as their teacher. This is the way it goes. (49-198)
4. Desirable Friends
How do you know about good friends? It depends on how thoughtful and how many times they think of you. The more thoughtful and more times they think of you, the better friends they are.
Who should be the best friend in your classroom? If there is one student who is very considerate of others and always tries to help them, but there is another student who wants them to be considerate of himself, the latter would be kicked out while the former would become the master. (177-288)
Let's say there is a man who has ten friends. When this person is willing to live for them in the spirit of self-sacrificing, they would also want to live for him. Moreover, they would want to bring him to their relatives to introduce him proudly. And yet if he would try to make them to live only for him, not only he himself but also all of them should go down. The former is the way for goodness while the latter is the way for evil. (54-29)
When you talk about a true friend, what is the meaning of "true friend"? Let's say you have ten friends. Who can become the most true friend among them?
A plain truth is that the friend who would like to live for others in the spirit of self sacrificing should be the best true friend. He doesn't want to live for his own interest but gives priority to the other's interest. He who is willing to live his life for others from his youthful days to later years must be the true friend of friends. (72-145)
Who is the true friend? He is the man who welcomes you gladly and receives you warmly in the opposite direction of the common people's mind today. If there is a good thing before you, a common person would say it is his, but, on the contrary, to be the true friend, he might as well say to his friend, "This is yours." Everything is the opposite. If there is some tasty food on the table, a common person would say "I will eat this." But in this case anyone who can say, "Take this delicious food," can be the true friend. a common person would say, "This sad thing is yours, and that joy is mine," but the one who can say, "This sad thing is mine, and that joy is yours" is the true friend. (156-82)
If a friend were to be the best friend of yours, the relationship between you and him should never be broken. He must be better than anything else, including your wife, in the world. You cannot throw him away. Even though you were at the risk of your life you could not break off relations with him. It is not because of sympathy but because you are connected from the bottom of your heart which is the source of goodness. Any karma connected to the goodness in your original mind cannot be broken off forever. (42-218)
Who is the happy person? He would be the man who has a friend who would be sad about his mishap. Who is the happy person? He is the man having a friend or children who are willing to take any pains for him at the risk of their lives while he feels pain. He is the happy person. How about you? Do you all have such a friend? You should make a comparative study about people. When you meet any person, you can tell what he is like in the type of your friends, and which type he belongs to among 100 persons you know. Choose several types among them and try them out whether he is a gentle person or a conceited person, or a impatient person, or an irresolute person. (54-177)
For example, when you say, "He is a good friend," the good friend whom I call a good friend can be said to be a good friend only if he would be able to tell you so. But under such a circumstance that "well, he is a tough egg," he cannot be a good friend of you. Therefore, to find out a good friend you must pass the critical point. You should improve your lot. What do you have to do to improve your lot? You should break into sweat. You should not spare yourself. You should pay the price in proper portion to improve your lot. So you need your sweat and tears. (33-317)
When you commonly say "a bad man," what do you mean by that? We call the man who gives the first consideration to only himself and worry about his own interest a bad man. When such man goes into the society he would be branded as a bad man, so also in his family and among his friends. We humans are not destined to think of ourselves only. Most valuable things are not coming out from a self-centered attitude. Even though you have one thousand friends, you cannot make a boast of it. No matter how many friends you have you might soon be left alone unless you can restrain the impulse to assert yourself only. It would however be of no use to perform a sacrificial rite to let them stay with you. All of them would leave if they encountered this insult, "you guy, do this" three more times. You should know that to assert yourself only is the first step to lead to self destruction. (36-181)
When you are going to make friends, it becomes an issue to know whether they would be promising friends or hopeless friends. If you have a relationship with hopeless friends, the more you would have valueless results with you. Therefore, you must build relations with better friends in order to prepare for your future. (32-14)
When you are confronted with any problem or an accident in leading your religious life, you must always check whether it says welcome to you or strikes terror into your heart on the basis of the standard of your mind. When someone comes to you and talks about some problem, awaiting solution, through your religious life you always have to analyze and judge it to see whether your original mind harmonizes with it at the first place where you hear it. (40-68)
Through our lifetime, or from the cradle to the grave, a single word might hold sway over your destiny. Were it not for the single word, you would not be confronted with such a disaster. But in many cases because of a single word people are ruined for their lives. The same may be said of hearing. Being once misinformed, many might be ruined for life. The same may be said for behavior. Because of attending a meeting once, you might make a failure of your life. And in making friends with someone, keeping a bad company might make a failure of your life. There are no end of such cases. Therefore, men of good sense from ancient times teach you to be careful in your speaking, hearing, behaving, and making friends. You should know it is the same teaching applied across the ages and countries of the world.
For a man it is not easy to be considerate of others when he is placed at a disadvantageous position. You are all the same. Don't you agree with me? [Yes]. In such conditions to avoid his own suffering he might make a cat's paw of his friends, or take advantage of the situation, or he might talk and behave in a different way. Such conditions are waiting for you.
Considered in this light, who on earth can you believe in? And who else would you depend on? It is absolutely not easy to follow the right way under such circumstances as I mentioned above. Even though you believe in him as your good friend, you might easily be treaded on and taken advantage of by him as circumstances might require. You are forced to walk through the world like that. Therefore, considering, who you would make good friendships with, or who you have good relationships with is the most difficult question. (91-29)
If you have a friend whom you don't want to meet again, he is only a rash friend of yours. His future looks gray. If you have a friend who, even along in a way of ordeal and difficulty, always gives you something stimulating, something impulsive, or something to make you awake, you should be always willing to follow him even through the thorny path. (42-194)
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Section 4. Study
1. Reasons To Study
1) What Is It to Study?
To study in school is to take in all the knowledge of your teachers and make it yours.
2) The Reason for Study
What is the meaning of accomplishing the will of God? It means to become one internally and externally, vertically and horizontally in all directions. This is accomplishing God's will. Having such will, God couldn't let Adam and Eve create there own rules as they were after they had been created. He laid down the ground rules. Did He say to them, "You, grow up, quickly!," or not? [He did] So, He told them "not to eat." Adam should learn many things after being born. Adam and Eve should have studied a lot of things. To be qualified to have control over all things Adam and Eve should know their own characters and special qualities, and their likes and dislikes. Without knowing those things they couldn't be qualified to be the dominators. (134-121)
You must know you study not for your own well-being but for becoming friends of the people in a miserable condition and for teaching the unlearned, and for liberating them from their shackles and bonds. (33-289)
Anyone who says, "I am going to be an able man," must study. Why does he have to study? Because he knows the value of that field. (63-214)
What do you study for? Anyone who studies for the sake of studying is a failure. Your study must be for the world, and your eating meals must be for the world as well. (63-214, 33-209)
Your study is not for your family or for the Unification Church, but for the world and God. And you have to study harder to save the world and God. (130-321)
3) Future Assured Through Study
For a man who studies, the future is assured. (98-293)
A man who didn't study and played hooky in his youth will go through hardships when he becomes old. Anyone who didn't play away his time, but instead put his blood and tears into his study. The man who goes along with the stream of the nature is happy. (98-55)
Well, listen. Why do you study? You go to school for today, don't you? [For future] It's for the present, now. [For future] Yes, you got it, for the future. Are you living for the future? [Yes] I don't know at all. [laughter] If your parent hits you and yells, "Go to school, little rascal," you, being hit should go to school shedding tears. How miserable it is for you. But if you could go to school even with tears in your eyes, there would be hope for you. There is hope, I mean. It would be better than not going, crying out, "no, I won't."
What does it mean? It means which would you like to choose? Are you going to live for present, or for the future? There are those who live for the present and those who live for the future. Which one do you want to be! [those for the future] Why? What for? [more valuable] Which is more valuable? Why is it valuable?
Those who live for the present will not have any way to go to as soon as the day is up. They might take a detour or take a wrong turn. On the contrary, those who live for the future, even with tears in their eyes, will advance on the way. They can continue to go tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow. In short, the man who lives for today, the day being finished, should retreat, or leave the road. Leaving the road, they should go down, for they cannot advance. But the man who lives for the future, however painful it is, even walking with shaky steps, can advance. Therefore, it is more valuable. That is because what is valuable is to have depth, height, and width. The man who lives for today will come to an end here. He is valueless. He doesn't have depth, height, or width either. He has to retreat, or go back to zero. He becomes less than zero.
When you tell the students to study, they say, "I don't care to study. I'm OK without studying," and play away their time. It would be fun for the time being. They contract a bad habit, and spoil their life failing into evil ways. (17-319)
2. The Goal Of Studying
1) The Purpose of Study
There live many people in the world; what do they live for? What is the purpose of their study? I am sorry to say that they don't study for self-perfection, but study only for the pursuit of knowledge as a means to expand their material wealth condition in their daily lives. The same may be said of power. Acquisition of wealth, they think, is a means to form their free sphere of the economical foundation. (126-225)
You say, "I study to be a great man," but it doesn't mean you are a great man even though you are a Ph.D. You cannot realize the idea you have studied for, until you establish the subjecthood of the ideal subject position in a reciprocal relationship. Therefore, you give yourself to studies for your reciprocal object. That a farmer sows seeds is also for the reciprocal object to harvest in autumn. This is the goal of the phenomenal world, or actual world. (109-121)
What do you study for? The man who studies for the sake of studying is a failure. The man who makes money for the sake of money is a failure. And then the man who has power for the sake of power is also a failure. How beautiful do you imagine they might be if they substituted "love" for their purpose? Then even God would say, "Yes, this is the knowledge I need. This is the money I need, the power I need." Understand? Don't you understand what I mean? How about you? [Yes, we do.] (129-285)
2) You Study Not for Yourself
To attain distinction on the foundation of your desires can be yours forever. But the success on the wrong foundation by hook or by crook must be snatched by Satan. I mean God will let it fall apart. (76-270)
It is the same for your study. You would say, "I will become a Ph.D. through this study, and I will live in luxury." But it will be in vain. You should think about it seriously. You should take members' children and support them to get doctorates rather than make your own children do for the world mission.
I sent money to the enemies' children and made them study without letting them know. I am such a man as to have fed starving enemies. (130-315)
Judging from the families in the world, they live only for their own children and family. Even though they study they have no idea whom they are studying for. They say they study for rising in the world and for becoming someone to dominate the world. They study for themselves, their family, their people, their countries. Anything more than that they have no idea about. (65-34)
When you accomplished your own goal in your study, you might be very pleased. The value of the accomplished goal must be applied and can be utilized throughout the world, but you have to recognize that the value is limited in an extremely narrow sphere. As a matter of fact, you all know you are pursuing the value beyond the limited sphere. (50-11)
3) The Goal of Study
There are big differences between saying, "I study for myself and my family" and saying, "I study for the country and the world." Well, what do you generally study for? You study for yourself and your family only. You must study for the country or for the world.
What is the ideal attitude of your study, then? It surely is ideal to study for oneself. But it is more ideal to study for the family than for yourself, for the country than for the family, for the world than for the country, and for the universe than for the world. It goes like that. (118-214)
Born as a woman, you grow up, study, and get married just as others, but you must be different from those in the world. It is enough for them to study, but the member of the Unification Church has to fill a dual purpose with study and path-finding for restoration at the same time. (43-252)
So then, for whom do you study and graduate from the university? There might be some who say, "Exactly, for the wife I will meet and for the beautiful children we will have." But when you say, "for the country and for the world I study," you will be sustained. The countries do need such a person. The world does need the man. Right or wrong? [Right] How about God? [So does He.] Make sure to understand this.
3. Study Hard
1) No One Likes to Study
Does anyone of you like to study? [Yes] You like to study? I don't think so. To study is bad. To stay is good. Let me see. You can freely. . . When you send your children to the primary school or the elementary school, do they say, "Sure, I will, Mom," or "Oh God, I don't care to go." Which have you seen? Which have seen more? When we think of the students going to the kindergarten, they know about only the kindergarten itself. If they were asked to go the kindergarten after they had known about primary, middle and high school, and university or the doctor courses they should go on to in the future they, I think, couldn't go. They couldn't. Do you think they could go? In the middle of class they would run away. Don't you think so?
In the same way, in your case, you come here to the primary school for restoration. You are the same as coming to a primary school for restorational providence. As you know nothing, you only follow. "Let's go! Let's go!" as I lead, "Let's go!" If you knew all about. . . . By good luck, you don't know anything. This is true. (laughter) Do you any how want to know? [Yes!] (laughter) You are going this way with nothing.
Let's say a family was climbing a path up a big mountain, and there a pack of tigers always came out. The father and mother knew it, but the baby on his mother's back didn't know anything about the danger and felt at rest. If the baby knew that a pack of the tigers would come out on the uphill path, what would have become of him? Think of what would happen to him. If he knew he would be the first victim in case of being attacked, would he want to go there? Therefore, to know nothing often makes you have good luck. Concentration on what you are doing makes you pass through it easily. (97-119)
If a child in a kindergarten knew all the educational system from kindergarten to primary school, middle and high school, and the university he should go to, he would say, "Oh, God. I can't." If he came to know what a difficult thing it is to go to the university and to get through the courses for his doctorship, he would not want to go to kindergarten. No kid, I think, would want to. (97-98)
When you are asked, "Which do you like, to study in the class, or to go on a school excursion?," you prefer to go on a school excursion than to stay in class. But you should know it is not easy to go on a school excursion. You should digest strange things outside of the school. In case you cannot, you might be a dropout or a straggler. (115-99)
It is hard to study, isn't it? But can't you do that? Why not? The reason you study is to apply yourself to the social system. The society doesn't apply to me. In the same way Tongil [Unification] Church doesn't come to you and receive you warmly, but you have apply to it. (139-79)
Is there anyone who likes to study in school? Who on earth likes to study? But why do you have to do it? You cannot spare yourself from doing it. You have to study even at the cost of yourself, or you might become a straggler. (137-157)
2) The Meaning of Study
There are no parents who teach their children a wrong. There is no bad parent. Even a bad teacher gives his students good lessons. Those who say, "yes, yes" may be doing well in their class. Is it true? [Yes] (17-314)
If you repeatedly say, to your son going to school, or to the son who is studying, "Study hard. Study hard. Study hard," he might get to feel very disgusted with his meddler. But, in case that he goes into the society as a failure because he didn't study hard, he would say, "I should have listened to my parents. . ." He could not slander his parents.
While you enjoy your comfortable rest, you are losing everything. Your are letting things get stolen. It is the same as while others were studying in the class you played hooky and met an accident. And what would become of you? You would be a repeater, a failure. (91-313)
No matter how intensely you may exercise control over him, if it is from your desire to make him brighter and better, it can be your condition to make efforts for him. For example, even though you have made your child be silent and interfered with everything day and night, and made him study by flicking a whip at him when he had bad conduct, it was not for the parents yourselves but for your child's future, waiting patiently and sacrificing yourselves, your child would think it a moment of great pleasure and the source of blessing when he reflect on his early days.
When he is successful in his life, would he say. "Well, my mother and father were dictators," or "well, they took great pains for me"? [the latter] You got it? [Yes]
What is bad? Where is evil and good divided? When the behavior seems to be the same but the content is different, it is extremely different. When you flicked a whip at someone, who did you do it for? When you hit him for his sake, for his future, and for his blessing, it can be good, but you did it for you, saying, "Do this for me," it becomes evil.
Therefore, you must know the standard of good and evil clearly in this viewpoint. Without knowing the standard of good and evil, you should be so confused that you cannot know which is God's responsibility and which part is your responsibility. Understand? [Yes] (87-123)
For a student in school the teacher's urging, "study hard, study hard," is the teacher's daily instruction. Why does the teacher always do so? He means through the instruction to inherit all the profound gift of knowledge 100 percent whole to you. It means "Do your best, and snatch all treasures from this school," but they set a condition for the student to hold. They would be pleased, being stolen, to see the student do his best with his whole heart more than anyone else. In the case that he did not do his best and invest his whole heart and became a cunning or cheating person, he would be kicked out.
Therefore, those who could inherit will not always get praised by his master. Do you understand? [Yes]. The teacher always says to the students, "Study hard. Be students of good moral character. Be different from another students. Don't take the road all students take, but take a different road." He drives you into a thoroughly opposite way, or a lonely way. Why! To inherit the most precious thing to the students. Are you pleased for all that, or aren't you? [Yes, we are.] You are happy? [Yes] (101-170)
4. How To Study
1) Study Attitude
There are different meanings of the word "way;' for the businessman, the way of the business; for the scholar, the way of learning. Everyone lives with a "way" of his own way. The word "way" we mention does not mean the way of the world but means the way of God. (186-53)
When you study something, you should do your best with your whole heart. When you read even a page of a book, you should read it with whole your heart thinking God. But it is never an easy thing to do. (26-145)
Teacher studies with such a state of mind. Why do you feel tired when you study? You feel tiredness because you study only for yourself. Why don't you have a mind that a critical situation involving life and death depends on this page, or this sentence, and that if you add a word you can make people live, on the contrary, if you leave out a word you will lose them. And then, you should try to add a word with your whole heart in a serious mind. There might be no room for tiredness. Who on earth says you are muddle-headed? Listen! can you forget any serious situation that occurred? Have you ever heard the sound of a beating heart? If you are serious it can be heard. Can you forget any determination you made in such a serious condition? That you are slow-witted is a matter of degree.
Your memory doesn't work well because your mind is scattered. In a case where you were in front of the jaws of death, suppose a bright idea strike you. Can't you memorize that bright idea? When you study a page of a book you should bury yourself in your study centering on the page.
In other words, you should do your best at the risk of your life. When I began to think seriously about something in the Bible, I used to devote myself to find the answer for one year, two years, or three years. The questions should be brought up by all means by me. The road you take for yourself drives you to despair.
The road for the country and the world always lead you to hope. Why? The nation and the world are coming to life again. If you live your life working with this thought you will remain long in history though all things don't turn out favorably for you now. (35-38)
2) Endless Stimulation for the Object
We want to enjoy the pleasures of daily life. Though we want to be pleased, we cannot be pleased by ourselves. It is matter of course that one cannot be pleased by oneself. One can be pleased through man, or material, or any literature, etc. Even in the middle of a happy life the gladness itself cannot be continued unless the object can be developed more and more as time goes on. In other words, to be pleased one absolutely needs objective stimulation.
When you set up a purpose, there must be time and process for the purpose to be realized. The question is how to tide over the process. It is very important to receive the objective stimulation centering on the purpose in your life circumstance.
You can sustain the purpose in your determination for the time being, but without the continual objective stimulation for the purpose, you might be in the situation of falling down, retreating, or despair which can be the primary factor for failure. Therefore, you should have good stimulation, or ideal stimulation in your daily life and practical life. It is absolutely necessary to receive good stimulation in the circumstances where you might meet with various obstacles. When you have set a purpose to accomplish through your study, the matter of your success and failure will depend on how you feel stimulation centering on the motivation of the purpose. No matter how strong your determination to accomplish a certain purpose, without such stimulating factor in your desire, you may give it up halfway or leave it half done. (66-37)
3) Try More Than Others
Anyone who wants to be successful should digest the present condition. In the same way you should study hard centering on the present condition. It doesn't mean to welcome the present condition to study hard. You cannot go the way of success and happiness without taking a position of denial to the present situation.
Everyone in your class cannot become the best at the same time. Never. There are failing students too. If you failed in school, you are worse than those who do not know failure because he doesn't go to school. If any negative obstacles stand in your way, you must overcome them. In that case you have to try as many times as you endeavor. To win public recognition and to ensure your future position, you have to go as many times the way of ordeal as you need to. If you did not have such results in the present situation, you have to give a satisfactory analysis of the reasons.
When you go to school, you have to be the best to represent all the school. It is not easy to be the best. If you would pride yourself on the fact that you were bright and clear saying, "I'm bright and clear you might once become the best, but you will be the second to those who devote themselves to study.
Then, how do you endeavor? You should spend a great effort more than anyone else to break fresh new pathways. You should endure hardships longer than anyone else. Through the process of your life the foundation for the glory of victory can be established. You can understand this from you own experiences.
Then who will meet the bright future? It is not the man who enjoys the present fun and gets into step with the present pleasure, but the man who can tolerate and endure the present ordeal to set up the future value in the sphere of the present situation and pay a high price with his life to become the heir to the future. (45-31)
Many people want to learn more these days, so they study. They devote all their energies to a certain field of study to be distinguished scholars through the world. What do they try to get? They try to digest the concepts and contents left by many people through the history in the major field of his study and to make use of them by all means in a short time. (28-261)
You have to win the victory. What do you have to win the victory for? You have to fight with so strong a will, that you will win twice while others win once, and that you will sleep half an hour while others sleep one hour, and that you will eat half a meal while others a whole meal. Here is the secret of the victory. It depends on how many hours you can spare for it and how much labor you can put in, and how much capital you can invest. Like a student preparing for an entrance examination for university, you have to fight with time, determination, and endeavor.
The failures must be those who ate more than others, or who slept longer than others. In other words, they must be those who spent their lives more comfortably than others even in one thing. (19-143)
You must make it a hobby to devote yourself to your study all night long. (67-225)
4) Concentrate Your Energies on Your Study
"Those who want to die will live, and those who want to live will die." It is a good teaching centering on the principles of the universe. We cannot ignore the truth of this teaching. Anyone who wants to succeed should devote himself to his motivation. Such a person can succeed quickly, can't he? Can he, or can't he?
If a man wants to realize his object through the higher civil service examination, he should spare no pains and put his heart and soul into his motivation. And the time for him to succeed to pass the examination will come near. Even though you pray for it to go away, rather it will come near. It is a natural principle. (61-269)
If you are sleepy at a desk, you should say with tears in your voice, "Where are your manners, my hands and eyes? Don't you know God is waiting for me?" In the case that you are overpowered with drowsiness, you should bury yourself in your work, pinching yourself to drive the sleep away, shedding tears and praying until dawn that you can be connected to the Heaven's blessing. In short, a ladder from Heaven is set for you. (130-312)
Therefore, I will make you study until you become all skin and bone. I mean you having a straight back shall be crooked. (184-315)
When you study, are you going to bury yourself in your study, or study with an abstracted air? Are you going to be an honor graduate who has had no sleep, or a failed student who has slept? [honor graduate without sleeping] Fortunately, you want it. (97-71)
As you know about education, when you want to finish the course of the primary school, your effort must be merged with your teacher. It is the same case in the middle school, high school, and the university.
To complete your purpose 100 percent is extremely difficult. Then, what is the attitude of the man who can fulfill his purpose? What attitude should you hold? To do so you should think about only one thing, not many different things. To study you should concentrate your whole attention upon your purpose and make every possible effort. If you say, "After breakfast, I will play away my time. This afternoon, I will meet my friend," you would be wasting your time. (104-95)
When you say, " He is good at his studies," what does he have to do to be good at his studies? He may of course have a clear head and make utmost efforts, but he should be a student who always thinks about his studies and thinks his studying is the priority of his life.
Such a student may be good at his studies. He doesn't have any different things such as wanton thoughts in his mind. Consequently the teacher's contents are recorded clearly in his head. When he studies a foreign language, he should first think which nation's language he is studying, and should go into the sphere of life and took and feel all things in the situations. And then he should associate the language he is studying with the facts he found to come into a perfect understanding. Such a student could be good at his studies. (161-130)
5. Abilities and Marks
1) Abilities that You Need for Study
You need the inner abilities to love God. How can you foster the real abilities? Are they gotten casually? You can get them only in the situation for you to be at the head of the world and overcome the ordeal. (35-150)
Cultivate your abilities. The day will come soon for me to drive you into the actual battle. I (Teacher) am also devoting myself to study. (14-96)
To pass an examination you should study the night away. To submit a thesis you should take great pains night and day for months, or years. (111-121)
You should advance a theory and put it into practice. And you should have the abilities to teach it. And then what? Endeavor. You should become a man who has the actual results. After that you should make love the core of your activity. What is the next? You should become a man for God to control. It is very important. (118-125)
2) Examination and Marks
Every student has a wish to keep the best record in his school. It is the student's desire to exceed the historical foundation of the school and to be a record breaker from the past to the present. Centering on this new record the new historical tradition of the school can be established and developed.
Centering on the standard of the best marks recorded, the higher it goes up, the higher fame the school establishes and develops. If any record which a student established ten years ago still cannot be broken by the marks of any student, that school is said to be an undeveloping school. As long as the school is in the position to run back over the past, it cannot stand in the position to go forward for the new record in the future. On the contrary, if today is better than yesterday, and tomorrow will become better and better than today, the school will be eternally developing. (41-13)
The student with brains doesn't have a day to feel relieved. With good marks in the exams he still feels uneasy about his future.
Getting 98 marks on an exam, he would say, "Oh, no! It isn't 100 marks" in anxiety. In this case, if he says, "I missed 2 marks, I will try much harder," he will become the best. On the contrary, if he says, "Yes! It's good enough with 98 marks. I am satisfied with 98 marks," he is going backward.
Let me talk about school. Who is the better, the man who studied very hard passing through the complicated processes, or the man who thinks it is so complicated that he wants to be at the tail end? Which is easier? Zero is a hole, isn't it? It is easy to go out anywhere through the hole. Which is easier, to try to make a hole on a cliff, or to go out through a way of escape? Which is easier?
To talk about the number "100," 1 think the beating stick 'T' is to keep watching the bottom man "0" in front of it. This hole "0" cannot keep close to another "0" as it wishes even in case of being beaten. It must keep a certain space between them. They are in good order. But, is it good? Anyone who's seeking easy things will meet despair. On the contrary the man who does not seek to avoid hardships will meet hope. You have to know it is the nature of the cosmos. Do you understand? (96-190)
Do you want 100 marks or 120 marks, adding 20? All of you want to get 120 marks, don't you? I received as much as 105 marks when I was in school. (laughing) How did I get 105 marks? My homeroom teacher then was struck by me. Do you have to be put on trial for getting 105 marks? It means you can have those marks if you don't have to be. I wonder what marks your love can have. (33-281)