ORDER NUMBER
77-07-03
REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON
SPEAKS ON
GOOD DAY
July 3, 1977
Belvedere, New York
Translator - Bo Hi Pak
Merely hearing about a good day makes us feel good. Without exception
all men are looking forward to living good lives, but who is going to
decide what is a good day? No matter how many good things are going on
around you, unless you are feeling good yourself you do not think it
is a good day. Our conclusion is that you are the one who decides what
is a good day.
A good feeling is correspondent, needing to be reciprocated. No matter
how good you are, you don't really feel good unless the environment
responds to you. Upon waking up in the morning the surrounding
atmosphere gives you a certain feeling or mood. Something may uplift
you and then you feel good, or nature may communicate with you and you
feel happy.
The beauty of nature is not just horizontal, however, but is also
vertical. Sunshine beams down upon the earth and creates vertical
beauty. When you look at a broad river stretching away before you, you
feel absolutely expansive and want to breathe the universe. Yet all
these factors alone cannot make one really happy.
Joy cannot be stimulated only by seeing objects. Viewing the river and
the sunshine cannot fully stimulate your joy. If at the same time your
ears perceive beautiful music or sounds of nature then the visual
beauty will be greatly enhanced. If you are gazing at beautiful sights
and ' all of a sudden you hear beautiful music then your eyes are
pulled in the direction of the music, right?
Which of the two is more stimulating? Why music? Music is another
expression of visible nature, capturing the essence of human joy and
sorrow. Human passion can be conveyed by music and generate a certain
mysterious feeling of inspiration in the listener. People drive three
or four hours to get out of the city for a picnic on the 4th of July,
looking for a beautiful, natural setting. Yet even then they carry a
radio or Sony TV. Why? It is human nature not only to seek the beauty
of nature but to pursue stimulating sounds of music as well. Without
it we are not complete. Smell is another stimulus to reach one more
level of awakening.
However, even if your vision is satisfied by beauty and your ears by
beautiful music and your nose by beautiful fragrance, what happens
when all of a sudden someone appears with whom you can share your joy?
That stimulating relationship comes first; when you have someone you
really want to talk with then everything else becomes secondary.
When you have someone you can relate to with love then it is not only
your mouth which is speaking. Your entire body is involved in your
conversation. When you communicate with a passionate heart, your
entire body and soul are totally mobilized to express yourself. You
cannot just talk, but want to gesture with your arms and move around
and look at everything. That is what makes your expression more
genuine.
Your senses are for perceiving and communicating joy
Why did God give man his five senses? They are God's gift for
perceiving joy and relating ourselves to everything around us. By
looking at someone's eyes you can tell whether that person is joyful
or sorrowful. Your eyes tell everything about you. But even more
amazing is the fact that all five senses work together. There is no
such thing as your eyes laughing and your mouth crying. When your eyes
laugh then your whole face harmonizes together to express one feeling.
Often people erroneously think they laugh only with their mouths. It
is the same as if a single individual in a group would stand up and
start laughing; you would say he was a crazy person. No, your entire
body laughs, including your limbs.
Sometimes I speculate about who invented make-up. Women try to
re-create themselves by using cosmetics, but they invest the most time
and creativity in making their eyes beautiful. Your eyes are a very
critical part of your face, carrying great weight in your expression.
If your eyes look bad then your whole appearance is bad.
To draw attention to their ears women wear earrings. Nowadays even men
sometimes wear an earring, or go one step further and wear a nose
ring. The nose is also an important area. You want your nose to stand
out in a beautiful way, but with the wrong kind of make-up your entire
face looks flat. Western women with bigger noses want to make their
noses look a little smaller, while Oriental women have flat noses
which they want to make stand out a little more. After fixing their
eyes, nose, and ears women also fix their mouths.
This emphasis on make-up illustrates my point this morning. Your
senses are such an important medium of communication that you want to
improve them to carry greater weight. In addition to wearing make-up,
Western women like to decorate their necks. Unlike Oriental women,
Western women expose the upper parts of their bodies, particularly
when they go to parties. Then they need to wear necklaces with
ornaments in the center. Western women are tall and have long necks
and to balance their long necks they wear necklaces to create a focal
point of attention.
In an effort to look shorter, Western women wear short skirts. A tall
woman in a long dress looks like a crane or a stork! However, women's
behavior in the West does not suit the shorter Oriental women. If
little Oriental women were to expose the upper portion of their bodies
and wear short skirts and necklaces then they would look ridiculous.
Whether you realize it or not you make efforts to harmonize with
nature, wanting to present yourself in the best way possible. All
existence in the universe is relative to something else. You want to
wear good clothes in order to present yourselves well to other people.
If you don't care about your surroundings then you do not have to pay
any attention to how you dress and act.
We relate our love to everything in the universe
The topic is "Good Day." On which good day would I share the greatest
joy? Which day is the best day for your ears? Is this a good day
because you are hearing a good message? What is a good day? When your
eyes perceive beauty and your ears hear beautiful things then you
might say you had a good day. Every sense must be in harmony. It is a
good day when all five senses and everything in your body can rejoice
together.
Then what is the essential factor? There must be one event which can
evoke the joy of all five senses. Only one word expresses that
essential factor: love. Who in this universe will recognize the
precious value of love? Man values love the most. Have you ever heard
of art in the animal world? A literary masterpiece or a great painting
expresses love. It is as simple as that. True and profound writings
about the interactions of love in the past, present and future are
always part of great literature.
The art of expressing beauty is essential in literature. An author
doesn't just talk about "eyes," but about "eyes which sparkle like
stars." There are all kinds of expressions of character, like, "your
nose stands up like a craggy mountain," or "your nose is the symbol of
strength." The fundamental purpose for using such adjectives and
images is the expression of love. In comparing something to nature,
you are not just expressing a feeling about nature but expressing
love. You always relate the beauties of the trees, flowers, flowing
rivers and waterfalls to love.
Why do men do this? To begin with, beauty and nature were created to
stimulate our sense of love. That is one purpose of their existence. A
masterpiece of literature has as its central theme a love which
connects all of the beauty and wonder of nature--the heavenly bodies,
the beauty of rivers, mountains, trees and flowers--all of which come
together to stimulate the expression of human love. Unless a work
expresses the feelings of everlasting love then no matter how well it
is written, the reader easily loses interest. The central theme of
true art is always how to manifest the human passion of love. Poetry
is no exception; poems just use fewer words. Young people in
particular are idealistic and most sensitive to all these feelings,
being easily intoxicated by the emotions in art and literature.
Science and other areas of teaming are very monotonous and dry in
comparison.
What about religion, is it a dry subject? Religion is not a dry
subject because a religious way of life is centered upon love.
Religion has also stimulated a great quantity of art. The major
portion of art is the horizontal expression of human passion, but a
religious expression of passion describes vertical love. That is the
only difference between secular and religious art. An expression of
vertical love is not found in jumping around as in classical or folk
dancing; you don't pray by square dancing, for example. The passionate
love is the same, but the expression is different.
The religious experience engenders a deeper awakening of love which
inspires something even greater than the horizontal form of art and
literature. For this reason, a religious philosophy and life serves as
the basis for art in every culture. In European museums the
masterpieces are those which are related to religious philosophy or a
religious expression of love. The foundation of all art, whether it is
sculpture, painting or literature, is always a religious passion or
inspired divine love.
In looking at a painting of a man and woman in love, seeing that they
are in love does not give the viewer inspiration. If their
surroundings in the picture suggest an atmosphere of love and the
composition itself suggests some quality of heavenly, eternal love,
then the painting becomes profound, conveying an essential depth of
feeling in that one finite frame. That painting is realistic because
it depicts a man and a woman, but it is also profound because it is as
deep as the universe and God Himself. In viewing such a painting you
can be greatly moved by the substantial connection between human
reality and such profound depth.
It is also human nature to express the consummation of human passion
in different ways. In addition to pictures of your family you may have
a picture of some religious personage whose philosophy describes a
certain kind of love. Normally your family pictures are displayed
underneath the image of some religious personage, which shows that you
want to be embraced by some greater universal awakening or
environment. That environment is the setting in which you want to show
your love. That is vastly more meaningful than offering your love in a
setting as barren as the desert.
Yet that is not all. In addition to those pictures you decorate with
beautiful pictures of nature and with plants. In doing all this you
imprint your personality within your room and create a microcosm of
the universe there. When you go into someone's room you can quickly
know that person's personality.
Why does your mind work like that? Somehow it pleases you to do that;
some inner feeling pushes you toward surrounding yourself with greater
beauty. It is our constant effort to harmonize ourselves with the
universal existence. Even those who have no religious concept at all
and who do not know about the saints and religious leaders at least
have a secular person they respect, like a hero in history or a
national leader or even their own ancestors.
This particular human behavior is universal, whether in the past or in
the present, whether Western or Oriental. Do you agree? It expresses
your basic original nature of not wanting to be isolated, of wanting
to be with people you look up to or love, and with nature. You want to
be a part of your surroundings and you constantly look forward to both
horizontal and vertical relationships of love.
In your loving relationships you always want to be embraced by the
entire universe, having your cosmos around and within you. You just
cannot bear to be outside of it. The good day is the day you acquire
that horizontal love and vertical love harmonized together in the
universe, so that you are living in an atmosphere intoxicated with
love. The conclusion I come to is that this is the good day you are
looking for.
Everyone has to agree with this conclusion, whether the President of
the United States, an Oriental or Westerner, a high-ranking or a
humble person. Even in the spirit world everyone will agree with this
conclusion. Furthermore, if you go to God and ask Him whether that is
His conclusion, He will say, "Yes, that is my conclusion also." Why do
you applaud? Something in this message made you laugh and feel happy.
Words of truth stimulate your feelings of joy.
Each one of your features expresses
the heavenly four positions
The forehead is an expression of God's world and is wide in order to
depict the wide heavenly world. The eyebrows placed as they are
symbolically represent the boundary between heaven and the physical
world. So the features below your eyebrows are an expression of the
physical world. Your eyes symbolize a man and a woman standing
side-by-side on the same level. Wide eyes are horizontally long
instead of vertically long. Can you imagine your eyes being vertically
long? The eyes move horizontally more than vertically. When you look
up, your whole face moves up instead of just your eyes. However, when
you look from side-to-side you don't have to move your face too much;
your eyes can move instead.
Just like the eyes, men and women are supposed to move more
horizontally than vertically, covering the entire horizontal universe.
You can find three parts in your eyes, representing formation, growth
and perfection. In addition, the eyeball represents the universe,
symbolized by its roundness. Unless wheels are round they will not
move smoothly. For the same reason men and women should be round, not
square or angular.
Your ultimate goal is to become a man or woman with the same qualities
as the eye. Below the eyebrows everything exists in duality, while
above the eyebrows there is only one. Again there is a contour, with
your forehead, nose, and mouth representing formation, growth and
perfection. There are three lines in your mouth-the upper lip, the
lower lip and the line where they meet.
Have you ever thought about who sets the direction for your body? Your
nose is always forward of your body, going in front of you and guiding
the way. There is a little valley between your nose and mouth. There
are vertical and horizontal lines in your face, with the mouth and
eyes creating horizontal lines and the nose forming a vertical line.
Another analogy can be made about your face. The eyes represent God,
the nose represents mankind, and the mouth represents the entire
creation. This is very logical because you absorb the things of nature
through your mouth. The central point of the universe is Adam and Eve,
the nose, and overall the entire universe is always watched by God,
the two eyes.
God existed in the beginning, and later when men were created with
physical bodies the eyeballs developed first. Do you know that? This
is not only true with humans but also with the entire animal world.
The nose develops last. This is especially true of Orientals.
Westerners are born with bigger noses so you do not notice this too
much, but when an Oriental baby is born it usually has a very flat
nose. In Jin is a good example because she has a flat nose, but later
as she reaches the age of 20 her nose will be more prominent. This
parallels the course of creation, in which man was created last. The
nose is the last to be perfected in the human body.
Why do you have 32 teeth? 4 times 8 makes 32; the number 32 is
composed of 8 groups of 4. The teeth are the first parts of your body
to deal with nature, continuing their work every day.
When you have 32 beautiful teeth you will never get hungry because
your teeth will always be ready to deal with the universe. The
appearance of your teeth is very important, particularly for women. It
is logical that the things of nature, knowing they were created for
the purpose of men, would want to be taken care of by beautiful teeth
instead of ugly teeth. Did you know that nature appreciates beauty?
Our appearance is not just random; it corresponds with the universal
creation.
The respiratory system has four units, and the same is true of vision.
Inside the brain there is one focal point for reception of nerve
impulses from your two eyes, which explains why you see one image
instead of two. You have two ears and can hear sounds coming from all
four directions.
The overall structure of your body is also an expression of the
heavenly four positions. Your mouth and nose both have a shape which
is a modification of the four positions. On your hand the thumb
represents God and the two thumbs represent the dual essentialities. A
baby growing in its mother's womb frequently holds its thumb inside
its fist. It is symbolic of God remaining in the center of the
universe, surrounded by time, the seasons and all existence. Each
finger has three segments corresponding to the three stages of growth,
and all together your four fingers have twelve segments, paralleling
the four seasons and twelve months.
You have three essential organs-the lungs, heart and stomach. When you
look at the human face you see three major areas and by analyzing
their proportions you can analyze someone's personality and destiny.
The universe is round and the entire human body is also basically
round. Don't look at someone just from the front because he should
have beautifully round and solid features in the back also. Athletic
champions tend to have thicker bodies, meaning that they are rounder.
Perhaps you think my head is an average size, but actually it is an
extraordinary size. I can never find ready-made hats that are big
enough. My head is wide both sideways as well as front to back. The
individual is indeed a microcosm of the universe, so by knowing
universal truth one can analyze any individual. Without even one word
of conversation I can know a lot about a person.
Harmony is needed because all
of man's characteristics are essential
The differences between Oriental and Occidental people are noticeable.
Westerners have large eyes and immediately perceive anything that is
close by. On the other hand, Oriental eyes are smaller but they
illustrate a tendency to penetrate more deeply and look further away.
This difference already reveals who it is that will have greater
vision of the future and a deeper philosophy of human life; Westerners
are more pragmatic and reality-oriented than Orientals.
My eyes are narrow but long. Because physically I am very similar to
this universal structure I can perceive and penetrate many situations
and understand people from many different cultures. This is very
meaningful.
Just being a Westerner should not become your pride. A Westerner has a
longer but also narrower nose because God has a special purpose for
the white people. That particular feature of Westerners is related to
the fact that the Western culture developed primarily in the northern
areas. A longer nose is a benefit when living in a cold weather
climate because winter air has to travel a longer distance and will
warm up more before entering the lungs. In addition, the nostrils are
narrower in order that too much cold air should not enter the nostrils
at the same time. The black people have different characteristics,
with shorter, wider noses. The culture of black people developed in
the warmer regions. Hot air should move in and out of the body more
quickly than cold air, and with shorter noses the air travels a
shorter distance. The beauty of the creation stems in part from its
adaptability.
Would nature be as beautiful if each species had only one color? Would
bears be as beautiful if they were only white, or are bears of many
colors more interesting? Among human beings, those who live in the
northern areas have whiter skin, while those nearer to the tropical
zones are darker skinned. Those in the middle areas have yellow or
brown skin.
Westerners whose ancestors are from the far north often have blue
eyes, representing a longing for the blue color of clear skies and
fair weather, and for the clear blue water of the warm seas. When you
are living in an area covered by icy whiteness you grow up longing for
green areas and blue water.
People in the valleys should not scorn those on the peaks or vice
versa. Both features are needed, so harmony is the key word. There are
seven major colors of the universe and one color alone cannot fully
express beauty. The harmony of these colors brings out the fullest
beauty. White is created when every other color is reflected away and
also when the seven colors of the rainbow all blend together. White is
the color of perfection and nobility so the highest places on earth
are covered by white snow. God's beauty is harmonized beauty.
The hand expresses many things about a person. When his hand is very
thick, that person is richly blessed. Having a deep palm indicates
something similar; when you have a deeper container then things remain
in it. Each of our features has some meaning.
Oriental culture analyzes the universe by first examining basic
principles. On the other hand, Western culture examines the external
creation first, trying to then deduce basic principles. Which way is
more direct?
It can be said that the Western culture is a meat eating culture,
while Eastern peoples primarily eat vegetables and fish. The white
culture originated in the northern areas of the globe and the most
available food came from animals. Having its origins in the necessity
of killing animals, Western culture developed the practice of medicine
that emphasized treating symptoms of illness primarily by introducing
foreign substances or by surgery.
Did you know that Westerners have shorter intestines than Orientals?
The explanation is that the main food was traditionally meat, a
substance which should not remain in the body too long because harmful
substances may otherwise be produced. Paralleling this fact,
Westerners generally lack the spirit of perseverance and patience to
hang on until the last.
Among the animals, tigers and lions also have very short intestines
because their main food is meat. Animals like the cow and ox have very
long intestines because their primary food is grass. In the Bible it
is recorded that the animals which were offered as sacrifices were
vegetable-eating animals, like sheep and oxen and doves, which eat
insects. Animals like the cow, sheep and ox have infinite patience; no
matter how hot the day, they keep chewing and keep plowing.
Oriental people have longer intestines because vegetable substances
are more beneficial when they remain in the body longer. By having to
pass through a longer digestive tract food remains in the body longer.
Throughout history the people who needed greater fortitude and
patience to endure more suffering and to be a pioneering force were
the Asian peoples. The Western culture needs an alternative to its
present way of life; Western culture will decline if it continues
along one extreme.
It is also time for white people to love the darker colors and to
appreciate the hot weather as well as the cold. It is providential
that America has been entangled with Asian affairs and involved in
assisting Korea. It is not just because the American people have
merciful hearts. It would not bring good fortune to this country if
President Carter ever disengaged this nation from Korea. If America
were to retreat from Asia at this time then because of the law of
indemnity America would suffer a great deal to overcome the effects of
her failure. I have a clear responsibility from God to stop America
from abandoning her providential responsibility. Asia and America must
maintain their connection.
We are the kind of people who
breathe the universe every day
How do I know you white members love me? Simply by the fact that you
are here, in many cases against the opposition of your own parents.
Why are you doing it? I did not make you do it. The universal destiny
is pushing American young people to come to the Unification Church.
Providential destiny is not a man-made destiny; it is heaven's work
that the Unification Church is plowing forward, and anyone who is
trying to stop it by human power will be shattered. The destiny of God
shall not be affected.
If we were only engaged in selfish, human affairs we would have been
destroyed a long time ago. If an individual without a heavenly purpose
had received such accusation and slander as I have he would have
collapsed a long time ago. But I am different; the more persecution
and pressure I receive, the tighter and stronger I get. No one can
turn me back because I am not waging a man-made campaign; I am
following a universal destiny. That is why you are extraordinary, even
fearful people. No one can figure you out. Only a small portion of the
moon shows before the full moon appears, but each day more is seen.
Opposition never makes you Moonies small; it only makes you grow.
Through the month of June we have been hard-pressed, even seeming to
decrease in the eyes of the world. But from the month of June on we
are going to gradually show more and more until the full moon is seen.
The day of the full moon is a good day.
I am really enjoying talking to you
this morning. I don't know where the time flies!
When you look at a seed you think of the universe. When you look at
the stars you think of the universe. When you look at a bird flying
you think of the universe. When the butterfly flutters by you look at
the universe. When a tiny little ant is crawling on the ground you
think of the universe. We are the kind of people who breathe the
universe, who live and harmonize with the universe every day. The
universe is our stage.
In the morning you pick up 50 copies of the News World and go to a
dirty comer of New York City, yet even then you are breathing the air
of the universe, running out to embrace the universe. Even the
negative reaction of the people never deters you when you have a
universal frame of mind. The sweat you wipe off is universal sweat,
not your own. In the same way, when I speak to a congregation I do not
think I am just speaking to you but to the whole universe.
I am convinced that when I speak not only you get excited but also
nature and spirit world and even God become joyful. Even negative
people who come find themselves forgetting their criticism. I have
seen instances when people have come to listen to me, not for
spiritual inspiration, but to find fault. After one hour they totally
forget their purpose for coming and after the speech they think, "Oh,
I came for some other reason. I was brainwashed!" That is how the
stories of brainwashing got started.
Certainly they were not brainwashed; without realizing it they were
momentarily intoxicated at being absorbed into the universal harmony.
This is the kind of experience which all of humanity will eventually
enjoy. That is certainly not brainwashing. Instead it is washing all
the dust off the human spirit so that each person can experience the
universal harmony.
By itself, human love can only create a flat surface
I know very well that my critics think amazingly bad things about me.
They even think I am not human, but some kind of iron man who doesn't
need food or rest and who cannot be controlled. What they imagine is
my mysterious quality is nothing else but my being in harmony with the
universal destiny. That is what influences my surroundings. It is
there like an invisible magnetic force which can attract any metal
located in its electric field. Metal is pulled to it because there is
a certain rapport. That is exactly what happens when we are together
like this. Universal force and strength enable people to feet some
kind of affinity with me, whether they like it or not.
Your mind responds to that magnet because the power of love is
activated. One person cannot pull another human being unless that love
is practiced. I am not talking about horizontal love; this mysterious,
powerful love is vertical. Our greatest pride and treasure in the
Unification Church is that we bring the living God into the realm of
human affairs. God is not a concept to us but a living God with whom
all our lives can be connected and harmonized. Our philosophy and
theology is uncomplicated, stemming from the heavenly four positions.
This philosophy can unify up and down, front and rear and left and
right, all directions. This harmony will create one grand circle, the
ultimate expression of perfection. Everything can be absorbed within
that circle; there is nothing it cannot contain. Human power and love
can be horizontal and therefore unite left and right, front and rear.
But human love alone cannot unite up and down. Without the vertical
element, human love can only create a flat surface.
How can we add the vertical element? Which comes first, horizontal or
vertical? Why the vertical? Look at the tree as one natural expression
of universal truth. The trunk has to be correctly aligned in order for
the tree to be aligned. If the trunk dies or is cut down then no tree
remains. If you ask a tree what it resembles the tree will answer, "I
live in the image of the universe."
Trees grow into a rounded shape, particularly those trees which bear
fruit; a tree trunk and branches together create one big ball. The
vertical line is the trunk itself, growing like a solid pillar. When
that trunk is alive the whole tree is alive and reaches up to the
heavens. Even vines which spread on the ground like the sweet potato,
always turn their leaves and sprouting tips up. All nature is directed
toward the source of life. In nature that life source is the sun so
everything in nature looks at the sun.
Do you think about what takes the role of the sun in human life? Can
we say that the source of love is here on earth and that together men
and women can ultimately perfect their love here? That is not true.
Only illicit love looks down to the ground. True love is always
looking up for some greater source of love, like plants looking for
the sun's rays. Such people are proud of their love and have nothing
to hide.
Like the sun, the position of love is the universal center. Being
higher than man's love, that center is vertical not down on the
ground. That center is God. It is His vertical love which supplies the
richness and resources of life. It is important to understand whether
that life source exists beneath or above man. The higher love
represents parental love, while the lower love represents children's
love. Love always flows from upper to lower. Throughout Biblical
history there was an emphasis on having sons because having an heir
was very important. An heir ensures that there will be a channel for
vertical love to continue on for another generation and bring
prosperity.
Even though the American divorce rate is increasing, most separated
parents each want custody of their children. Because the life source
of universal love is a vertical one, parents either consciously or
intuitively want to become closer to the trunk-line of love through a
relationship with their children. If the vertical line is not straight
then you cannot expect the horizontal love to be straight. Without
vertical and horizontal lines which are at 90 degrees, the ideal of
four positions cannot exist.
Throughout history those seeking a devout life of faith have abhorred
married life. Each major religion recognizes the value of celibacy.
Marriage is the horizontal expression of basic human nature, while man
is supposed to obtain the vertical expression first. After the
perfection of vertical love man is supposed to expand that love onto
the horizontal level. This is why religious life stresses the
vertical, spiritual life, discouraging horizontal love.
The fall of man began at this very point. Adam and Eve, the ancestors
of mankind, engaged in horizontal love before obtaining the vertical
love between God and man as parent and children. That was the fall. We
have to rectify this wrong beginning. Because human history started
with illicit horizontal love, vertical love must be upheld and
horizontal love must be denied. Now you can understand why throughout
history the religious life has been one of denial, of leaving your
spouse and children and parents. In attempting to deny everything in
the human world, religious people led ascetic, isolated lives,
searching for the lost vertical love. Until recently that way of life
was stressed by religion.
Do we need religion then? Human history actually started out with a
loving relationship with God and it will be consummated by religion,
nothing else. The way of life that denies the necessity of religion,
like communism, cannot remain any longer. No matter what people may
say or try, there is no other ultimate solution to human affairs.
Religion is the only way we can solve human problems. Every culture
throughout human history had a religious origin. Those peoples and
nations in history which could not advance to a higher religious
philosophy were always destroyed. Today's America is a proud nation,
but it is the power of Christianity which made this nation's greatness
possible.
You must love the world as much as you love God
The religion which will provide a solution for world problems will be
the one which can put everyone in touch with the core universal truth
and force. The Unification Church exists just for that purpose. There
is a proud German man sitting here and he has so much pride in his own
country that he thinks the German people are a super race. Why did he
come here? Simply because he is a Moonie no one will treat him with
respect.
This proud German came to America and was given instructions to sell
the newspaper every day and to go witnessing. He was told to do
incredible things and yet he does not have to do any of them. He is
free to go back to his own country. What power could have kept him
here? All of us are here only because we know the ultimate solution
for the problems of the universe.
The Unification Church has one special, extraordinary feature, and
that is the concept of "True Parents." Never before in all of history
has that been heard of. Such a name as True Parents is logical,
however, once you really know the fundamental truth. Now you are
looking forward to becoming a true brother and sister and a true
husband and wife, but how could you do that without first installing
True Parents? You need a model or prototype, and the True Parents must
provide that standard of human behavior. Thus in the Unification
Church we have two of the most important words under the sun: True
Parents. That is why people from all over the world and with all
different colors of skin are disregarding their old surroundings and
relationships and opportunities and following this one goal.
Why is this goal so valuable? Do you need the True Parents? You say
so, but how will your parents feel when they hear such words? They
quickly feel some implication that they are false parents. For this
reason I am sympathetic with them when they want somehow to get rid of
me or kidnap their own children. Of course they want to keep you as
their children. Have you ever read about parents kidnapping their own
children before? Why don't you just go home on your own? Your parents
are waiting, ready to do anything for you.
When you come to the Unification Church you gain nothing tangible that
you can get hold of. In one way of thinking you are in miserable
shape. Yet there is something here you cannot disregard, something
formidable and mysterious yet very real. It makes your heart full of
joy and inspires you to give your total self and even then still not
feel adequate.
I have never said that you must not worry about anything else except
loving me. Instead I say that you will only deserve my attention by
totally loving the world and the universe. I am actually pushing you
out, not pulling you in. My central teaching is this: as much as you
love me you must equally love the world, mankind and the universe. If
you see something valuable in me then live the same way for the
universe.
Other people will say that you are crazy for living this way, but as
long as you are sure of yourself in loving God and mankind then you
will be totally intoxicated in this way of life and in this love. Then
you really won't care about criticism and will find fulfillment. Once
you stand on that ground, then no matter what the world says you will
have a spiritual strength and power that nothing under the sun can
resist or obstruct. When your love and faith are that real then life
truly becomes intoxicating.
Do you white people think this is true? What about you black people,
do you feel the same? Did I convince you of this? It was not 1; only
God could do that. You must realize that we are living in the most
incredible time, witnessing unprecedented events. We are being carried
along by the universal destiny. This movement is not made by man and I
am not just pushing my own ideology.
My life is only like one little seed, dropped in the ground of this
dark world and beginning to show signs of life. All of a sudden the
world is seeing signs of life, noticing little leaves appearing. Now a
tree is forming, growing both vertically and horizontally. As my
efforts have an effect on a larger scale then my influence on the
environment also grows larger.
When I say you should love the world as much as you love God I mean
that your vertical love should be practiced on the horizontal level.
In order to create the heavenly four positions you must live both the
vertical and the horizontal together. You may want to stay with me,
but when you come to me I will only kick you out and tell you to love
the world. Then as you come back from the world I will accept you.
We want to create here the total perfection of the heavenly four
positions, but to do that you must practice your vertical love in a
horizontal world. The person who says he loves the Unification Church
and the Unification ideology but does not want to live and practice it
is only a swindler. I must love the world as much as I love God;
otherwise I am not worthy to stand in the sight of God.
I know that God still loves America and the world, so regardless of
how I am mistreated I will still love America and the world. I cannot
return to God until I love the children of my fiercest enemy. Then my
responsibility will be accomplished. We have to subjugate our
opponents, not by force but by love, the natural process of the
universe. That is our ideology. This is the most profound ideology
anywhere, the perfection of religion. There is no better philosophy
than that one.
We are talking about the heart of God, not just die concept of God's
existence. Our ideology is simple. I want to love my spouse as much as
I love God. I want to love my children as much as I love God. I want
to love my neighbors as much as I love God. I want to love the world
and mankind as much as I love God. Since I know that this is the only
way of life that God can approve and the only way we can reach God, I
have been completely practicing this life. I want to leave this
tradition and conviction with you also.
The depth of your love for God is your standard for loving your
husband, your children, your neighbors, your society, your world and
even those in the dungeons of hell. That is your criteria. I want you
to make this feeling passionately real, down to the marrow of your
bones. You cannot just will this to happen one day; you must make
daily efforts and struggle to overcome the limitations of your heart.
That's what we are here for. Critical adults may think you. are all
immature and young-looking and accuse me of being some kind of
fly-by-night charlatan. That is far from the truth; what we are doing
is as permanent as a rock.
God wants restored children who can maintain heavenly dignity
No matter how much outsiders study us they cannot find the source of
the power of the Unification Church. You have your own dignity and
pride in doing even trivial, menial work and no matter how the world
persecutes or criticizes me I am not bothered at all. I have my own
pride and dignity and power source. Only God's love could bring that
power.
Even though I often dress very humbly, I feel even better than a king
on the throne of a nation. I have a deep understanding with God. You
too can think of yourself as a prince or princess of God. Our Heavenly
Father has asked you to go the way of a lowly person in order to come
to His throne ultimately. This is what you are doing now. No matter
how humble you look, you must not forget your dignity and pride as a
prince and princess of God.
That is precisely my way of thinking. I started out in a humble place
in the small nation of Korea, yet I had the dignity and pride and
awareness of being God's prince and I precisely understood the
direction I was walking. The first chapter of my mission included
stirring up a great deal of controversy in Korea. In the next chapter
I went to Japan and turned the entire nation upside down. Now in the
third chapter I have come to America and the entire nation is
agitated, wanting to get rid of me. This is not the end of it; America
is only Chapter 3. In Chapter 4 the entire communist world will say,
-We must completely eliminate him."
I want you to know that you have in your hand a special credential
from God and True Parents which says that you are the princes and
princesses of God. You are privileged people, but with that credential
you must do things which other people cannot duplicate. That is your
pride and dignity. I came from Korea with that Heavenly credential and
I have done things that other people just cannot compete with.
Because I am summoned by God I cannot degrade this credential or shame
myself; I must maintain the dignity of a prince of God even though I
may die a thousand times. If you call me Father then you are taking
positions as sons and daughters. That means you inherit that
credential from me. Can you live up to that credential? Do not bring
shame and embarrassment to that position.
Do you have the ambition to be the top notch people of the world? Why
do people who do not know anything about God still have that ambition?
God initially created man to become His sons and daughters and we have
to prove our dignity as His princes and princesses. We have to live
victoriously, becoming triumphant on every level, from the individual
level all the way to the world level. By setting the standard of
triumph and victory you will be recognized as truly being sons and
daughters of God.
Put yourself in the position of God who has lost His children and
wants to restore them. He is our almighty Father so would He want to
have children of dignity and pride or would He prefer children who are
petty and weak? Why shouldn't your marriage be arranged based on your
whims and desires? Marriage is very important to God so as princes and
princesses you should not be capricious and influenced by some
handsome man or beautiful woman who is not God-centered. A prince and
princess should only marry another prince and princess. Even though a
member may be crippled and ugly, he still shines far brighter than
anyone who is not God's restored child. The members of our Church have
that value.
I want to trust that as strong men and women nothing will deter you.
If people slap you and sneer, "Are you a prince or princess of God?
Don't be ridiculous"' could you seriously maintain your certainty? I
am in the image of God. I may not be handsome like God, but you know
that at least my heart absolutely resembles God's.
It is my pride that I have total unity with the love of God. God is my
Father and no one can sever that relationship. Even if you behead me
you will not separate me from God's love? Are you like that? You must
be dignified men and women, standing as the backbone of God's love.
You are a tower of strength, the visible form of God's love. As you
achieve this nothing can deter you.
Only by your practicing this standard can we have oneness
We will march on until we win the ultimate victory. If death stops me
then even after death my march will go on. My worst fear is not that
of death but the fear of what it would be like to lose God's love.
That is the one thing that we can never allow to happen. I want you to
know clearly the position you hold in relation to God and the True
Parents. That position is so valuable that millions of dollars of the
world's money cannot buy it.
It is possible for us to be welded together so perfectly that nothing
can separate us. Then if I push you out into a mission far away, what
you are actually doing is not becoming separated but expanding your
center of oneness, and your power will increase according to the
degree of your unity. In other words, the further away you go, the
more your power will increase. It is analogous to stretching a rubber
band. The more you stretch it the greater will be its pressure and
tendency to contract. In the same way, your desire to be close to the
central point increases. The further you go away from the center, the
stronger is the pull you feel.
You are pushing yourself forward because you feel pulled to the center
all the time. That's what you are doing now in witnessing and fund
raising. You go out because you know the significance of your mission,
but actually you want to be in the center, and in order to get back
there quickly you have to finish the mission. Then you can say,
"Father, I am here."
That is why my pushing you out is not a merciless act but a loving
act. By doing so you feel the greater attraction to the center and you
become more energetic. When you have difficulty and hardship you
think, "How much Father suffered in order to make me grow and raise me
up. In order to let our people grow I must suffer like Father." When
you compare yourself to my position you will always gain strength.
If you keep doing, thinking and acting like that you cannot help but
keep growing; you cannot stand still and grow. Your gradient of
influence and power is based on how much you are growing. Ultimately
you will become like the original center, like a sun which generates
energy rather than a moon which reflects energy. By practicing this
you can come to fully understand my situation and God's loving heart.
Only then can we have oneness and a common pride between us. There is
only one mainstream, and it is connected to this way of life. We want
to liberate God from 6,000 years of sorrow in our lifetime. You are
very ambitious if you want to do this quickly.
The center of this world is God's position. By disciplining yourself
in this way you will become a living, walking God, a true son or
daughter. With God in the center and each other at either end a new
creation will be formed and the heavenly four positions created.
The happiest day and the good day will be the day God feels delight
because of you, the day when you people and all the universe can be
harmonized in ecstatic joy and delight. Your perfection is the source
of joy for the universe. That will truly be the ultimate good day.
Jesus taught and lived this way, desiring most to have a true loving
relationship with God.
Jesus' first goal, therefore, was to become an absolutely pure,
perfected son, and his second goal was to become a true husband for
one woman to whom he could pour out his entire love, a woman who loved
God as much as he loved God. Jesus' third goal was to be like God in
loving his sons and daughters as God loves His own children. Jesus
wanted to become a father himself so he could love his own children.
Those were his three goals.
After fulfilling this position as son, husband and father, Jesus
wanted to fulfill God's desire by expanding this harmonious love to
the entire world, enabling the entire world to enjoy the same
intensity of God's love as Jesus did. As you know, Jesus was crucified
on the cross. His great misery and heartbreak was that he then could
not fulfill his goals of husband and father. Certainly he could not
spread those three loves of God throughout the universe. The
crucifixion totally blocked the fulfillment of Jesus' desire.
We must inherit Jesus' heartbreak of his unfulfilled desires and take
the responsibility to bring the good day when they can be achieved
here on earth. Then we can expand our love throughout the world and
embrace all the things of creation. The day we can make that a reality
is truly the best day.
Once we achieve all of Jesus' desires in full then no other duty will
ever be as heavy. We will rejoice over our accomplishment with dance,
music and song. We may not see the total fulfillment of it in our
lifetime yet we are not discouraged because this Principle will be
fulfilled whether you are here on earth or not. That is our pioneer's
privilege, laying the cornerstone of the Kingdom of God.
When you realize that this staggering dream could come this close to
being reality in our lifetime, how can you sleep at night? How could
you ever sit idle? It must become your hard-headed struggle to shorten
the period of accomplishment. I want to completely give my blood and
sweat for this goal in order to shorten the time. Your prayer should
be, "God, don't let this arduous task be passed on to my descendants.
Let me do it. If there is any suffering to do, let me suffer so I can
leave them the accomplished, fulfilled Kingdom of God." If you live in
that philosophy every day yet still are not able to fulfill this goal
in your lifetime, then still you will be free from the accusation of
your posterity. However, if you spend this time idly then you indeed
will be accused.
Every day we must give our absolute, maximum effort to see this good
day. I don't care which path I have to take in order to see that day.
I may work like a beggar or be maimed, but no matter what happens to
me, as long as it helps to advance this purpose I do not mind.
I am close to the age of 60 and keenly aware that each moment is
totally precious. In my heart I am constantly declaring an emergency.
Mankind is sitting idle, waiting for your helping hand. You are not
working so that I may see that day, but because God is waiting for
that day and mankind is waiting for that day.
This is the first Sunday of the month of July, 1977. You must become
builders of the good nation and the good world. If you are committed
soldiers then the good day will be realized. You must feel that if
anything hampers that goal then you could toss aside your own ego and
fate. Forget everything and become unswervingly fierce, dashing
forward to restore everything. Shall we do it? Those who will do it
raise your hands. Let us pray.
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