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Everyone looks forward to reaching the ideal world, a world of peace and happiness. Let us examine the world in which we live at this time. Is it a happy world or not? Is it a peaceful world or a world of struggle? Is this a good world or an evil one? Furthermore, is this world governed by a true master or not? We can see in this world a mixture of both goodness and evil; it fluctuates between them. There is an ongoing struggle between opposing elements such as happiness and unhappiness, peace and war, the ideal and the most secular.
Under these circumstances, evil is trying to control the entire world. At the same time, the forces of goodness are trying to resist evil and gain dominion over the world as well. This is the general setting of the world in which we live.
Let us talk about the kind of ideal we are looking for. The ideal world is a balanced world in which give and take actions create a circular motion. No matter where you might be in that ideal world, you would have no restrictions but would be able to turn and move in any direction.
Is there a balance between the Eastern world and the Western world at this time? No, there isn't. Right now, the Western world is like an isolated unit; within that unit there are many different nations struggling among themselves. They certainly do not enjoy balance and harmony. What about the United States-is it a totally balanced, harmonious country? Not at all. An example is the conflict between the black and white races within this country; there is virtually no balance between them.
In order to balance two elements, there must be some central theme that they can harmonize around; some element must bring them together. Two lines coming from opposite directions must be joined together by some common point; they do not just automatically meet.
Why is it necessary and desirable to bring unity and harmony between two elements? Using the example of two lines, if they were to meet without achieving harmony, it would be in the form of a collision. All things naturally want to be enhanced and made greater, not diminished, by their meeting.
There is a purpose for every movement; energy must be motivated first by that purpose. When you get up early in the morning to come to Belvedere, you have a specific purpose in mind. You do not come here in order to be hurt or to be made smaller. The birds start to work very early in the morning: they sing and make a lot of noise as they fly from one tree to another. Do they do all this in order to diminish themselves? Certainly not; they are trying to gain something. Throughout our lives, we move around constantly. Do we do this for the purpose of self destruction? No. we always move or act for the purpose of gaining or accomplishing something.
What is it that you are seeking to gain? Is it something material? If a person lived his life continuously gaining only material things, he would be completely weighed down and overburdened by the time he was old. There must be something which people seek to gain which never becomes too much, too big a burden, something which you can always desire more of the next day. Could money, clothing or shoes, for example, fit this description? In order for you to truly benefit by the thing you are acquiring, it must not be too big or require too much storage space. It must always be there and accessible, as well as continuously stimulating and exciting. That is a difficult requirement!
In order to meet all these criteria, should your goal be a visible one or an invisible one? Should it be very heavy or very light? It must be something which is invisible and so light it can never be a burden to you. Furthermore, the more one gains of it, the greater must be his joy. What is such a thing? Where do you look for it? It is true love, without any question. Is that love inside of you? Can you take it out and show it to someone? Is that love activated when you are all by yourself? No, love demands an object in order to be activated.
Love is the ultimate value in the universe; to activate it, we need to have a circuit between subject and object. The universe itself was created by the use of such a circuit. People in the secular world talk a great deal about achieving happiness, peace and an ideal world but they have not been able to give a clear definition of what they are talking about. In order to understand happiness, we must talk about the ideal subject and ideal object, centering upon God. Should we center it upon money, since America has so much of that? Or should political power be our center? What about knowledge?
There is no alternative to love as the center of the ideal. Isn't it amazing that nobody here wants to protest against such a statement? Ideal movement involves the infinite give and take of ideal subject and object centered upon true love, with no limits and total happiness.
What, then, is the definition of the ideal? First of all there must be a circuit between subject and object, with love at the center. Then there must be give and take. From this point on, whenever you talk about the ideal world you will immediately think of true love, true subject and object, and true give and take. The problem is that in the secular world all these elements can be found-subject and object, love, give and take-but none of them is true in the sight of God.
What is the difference between true love and false love? We say that self-centered love is false love and is therefore bad. Why is it bad? In order to call something "true" it must contain four characteristics. It must be unique, eternal, unchanging, and absolute. You can measure self-centered love against those four criteria. Certainly it is not unique; it is not eternal; it is not unchanging; and it is not absolute.
When someone desires true love, he desires unique and eternal love. No one wants to have changeable love and everyone wants absolute love, not mediocre love. Why must love be like this in order to satisfy us? To obtain a relationship with the absolute, ultimate plus Being, you must share the same qualities. That ultimate plus Being has those four qualities. Each person is seeking to become an absolute minus to the ultimate plus in a vertical, give and take relationship.
When there is this level of give and take on the vertical level, it will create a circling motion on a giant scale. We are creating a giant globe within which to maneuver without any limitations. You can do anything you want freely, without any opposition or resistance. A black person and a white person can move together freely in total joy within that globe. That kind of harmony is created because of the presence of absolute love. In order to obtain absolute love, it is necessary to have an absolute subject and an absolute object. Once you are securely within that framework, you will not contain any contradictions.
This is the central ideology of the universe. Doesn't it make you feel good just to talk about the ideal world? Does anyone worry about losing his ideals of democracy within the ideal world? The current political systems, such as democracy and communism, are merely canes by which people are helped to walk toward the ideal world. When you finally meet with your beloved at the point of the ideal, would you hold up your walking cane and say, "This is my ideal, my ultimate?" No, you would throw that cane away and embrace your lover because you wouldn't need it any more.
What is the ideal world of Adam? Whenever we speak of Adam, don't forget that we are already including Eve. When you speak of an absolute subject, you automatically include the absolute object. Within the ideal world of Adam, there must first of all be a man and a woman. Also, God as the ultimate subject is the center and subject of love.
Your love does not originate with you; it comes from somewhere else. When a baby is born, he doesn't have any awareness of love; he certainly doesn't have the ability to love others right away. There is a giant love line coming from somewhere else; wherever we are. we must hang on to that love line. When you are above that line, you are in the plus position; when you are below it, you are a minus. It is almost like a big electric wire to which is attached all kinds of bulbs; you are like one of those bulbs hanging from the wire.
One major source of energy-one absolute subject- engenders the love for everyone, like a "love power plant." From that origin springs the plus and minus charges which multiply the circuit. The love current causes a response everywhere it goes; wherever there is a plus and minus, sparks are created.
You might ask, "What do all the simple things of nature know about love?" However, everything within the universe exists within the plus and minus, subject and object relationship. When you go to a city like New York or Las Vegas you can see the huge, colorful neon lights that shine all the time; it is staggering to think of the power that can create such spectacles. Of course, such magic is created through the power of electricity. Depending upon the type of bulb, electricity shines in red, blue or yellow. The bulb is the object to electricity, which is the subject.
Look at the earth, which is composed of dark soil. When a flower springs from that brown soil, it may be red, yellow, pink or a multitude of colors. Why are flowers all so different, since they all come from the same soil? Likewise there is tremendous variety among the trees and grasses, the animals and of course people. Depending upon the shape and form of the subject and object relationship, the resulting give and take creates the myriad of beautiful existence's.
Every creature on earth, including man and woman, has its own unique pride. Even the most homely woman has her own unique self and her own unique form of beauty. No matter how unattractive a woman might be, she has a special skill; she can win the hearts of men. She should think "When I sing or laugh, I can melt those men!" Everyone is like a different flower and everyone is unique.
We have the terminology of "individual truth body" within the Unification Church. Those words signify that everyone is an individual unit with his own unique character. Each of you is an individual truth body. Each individual truth body harmonizes with every other, with love at the center. The concept of the ideal immediately includes the relationship of subject and object, centered upon true love.
If you know that you are not a very handsome man, that does not have to be a problem. Look at yourself like a multicolored neon sign with red, yellow, and all the colors harmonized within you. You should think, "I am not handsome but I am an integral and unique ingredient of the masterpiece of creation." Look at yourself and say, "I am MOST important because I am unique, eternal, unchanging and absolute!"
There is endless variety in the plant and animal worlds. Yet, some people support the notion of "white supremacy." They think, "Why did God make such a mistake in creating black people? I want a world in which there are only whites, not black and yellow people'" Why do they end there? Why don't they try to bring about a world in which all the cows and the birds are white? What about the grasses and leaves, the fruits and vegetables? What kind of world would that be?
The singing of all the different varieties of birds each morning does not clash; their songs all combine to produce a harmonious, beautiful sound. The reality of subject and object is everywhere in creation; love is the central theme. When the male and female birds sing in the morning, they are not singing to themselves but to each other. We cannot deny this absolute truth.
When we discuss philosophy, ideology and truth, we are talking about big ideas, but actually these big ideas can always be boiled down to simple truth. Truth is basically simple. What is philosophy? Philosophy is a pursuit of the perfection of man. What is the purpose of religion? It is the same-the perfection of man's love. The ultimate purpose of a democracy is the same, too. Likewise, the communists seek the perfection of man, although their methods are wrong. Everything seeks for perfection in man.
Everything within creation seeks to be included within the central theme of true love. People ask big questions such as, "What is the purpose of life? What is a true man or woman?" However, all these big questions have one simple answer.
The universe is in constant motion and the goal of all that motion is true love. A turning motion occurs through the relationship between two opposite energies- one is pulling and the other is pushing. One is centrifugal and the other is centripetal. The result of all this pulling and pushing, both vertically and horizontally, is a circling motion.
Within the universe there are two kinds of forces needed to create motion; one is action and the other is reaction. Some people think that "reaction" implies something bad; they think action is the only desirable thing. But I want you to understand that there is no protection without reaction. Within your body you have the power to push forward and the power to resist. With the interaction of these two, you can keep your body in good shape; you need the balance of both forces. Thus you must not think that reaction is automatically bad.
What about good and evil, which are two opposing forces. Am I saying that evil is somehow good? No, I am saying that evil is a reaction but it is a destructive reaction. It does not create anything.
Two plus powers naturally repel each other; likewise two minus powers. Two beauty queens don't desire the company of one another; they certainly don't have any need for each other. A beautiful woman will prefer the company of even the ugliest man, rather than another woman, no matter how beautiful she might be. In other words, a beautiful minus will prefer a plus rather the any other minus.
Before two beautiful women get married, they can be very good friends. They may call each other all the time and go everywhere together; they can share all their experiences. However, when one woman finds a man he will not desire the same degree of closeness with her girlfriend. Is that necessarily bad? That woman will not want to hurt her friend, but her heart is telling her that she doesn't want to share her time with anyone as much a her husband. This is simply human nature.
Universal law automatically protects the unity a plus and minus; that unity should not be invaded or broken that. is the ultimate goal of the universe. Therefore, it is within the universal principle for one minus to reject another. This type of conflict actually leads to a grease harmony. Thus the woman in our example may feel neglected, but she should not have resentment. She should say "This is a good thing; I can see the beauty within your love relationship."
Let me give you another example. When you are sick with the flu, you feel pain and aching all through your body. Is it the disease itself which makes the boat ache? Actually, it is the protective law of the universe the is creating the pain. As long as your body is enjoying the harmony of plus and minus forces, you are protected. But as soon as you lose that harmony, the universal force will reprimand you in order to warn you that you are of balance. Certain unhealthy elements need to be removed from your body so that harmony can be restored. Thus he pain you are feeling is the result of the universal law pushing you toward harmony again. As your body gradually returns to a balance between plus and minus, you feel better and better until finally all the pain goes away.
The breaking of the natural give and take action of health is like the breaking of a circuit. Medical treatment given in order to restore that circuitry again. If nothing happens to reestablish the plus and minus harmony, the person will eventually die.
The existence of a giant plus field occurs when man, mall pluses have congregated. How do these pluses come together? When I was in college, I majored in electrical engineering and I studied the principle behind the growth of plus charges. Once a plus charge finds a minus, the, create a unit which repels all other charges. Thus the we, which plus charges can gather is that they attract each before they encounter any minus charges. The same is true with the minus charges. As the plus and minus fields increase, they become bigger and bigger and finally they meet in a gigantic clash, known as thunder and lightning.
The actions of both uniting and repelling are necessary. Thus, we should not consider "reaction" as something negative; it is part of the universal law which protects the universe. An example of this is when parents restrict their teenage sons and daughters from staying out late or going to certain movies. Those parents might be saying "no" to their children a lot. Is this a destructive thing, since it is a negative reaction to the children? No, it is a constructive reaction for the protection of those children. Until that teenager is fully mature, he needs those protective forces around him.
However, young people today often disregard any social restrictions and do absolutely anything they feel like doing. They engage in almost animalistic love affairs, having relationships with anyone. Such young people are searching for only sensual pleasures and nothing else. This kind of purely instinctual living can only bring them to destruction. They are not obeying universal law so they will meet tragedy if they do not change.
The adolescent years are extremely sensitive ones the smallest things cause tremendous emotional reactions in teenagers. Their reasoning is often obscured and their feelings are often strong and uncontrollable. At such a time, more protection is needed and therefore discipline is necessary during this growth period.
There are numerous destructive forces of evil in the world which seek to penetrate the protective forces of the universe. Thus we are talking about a central ideology upon which we must create the spiritual tradition. What are the characteristics of such an ideology? It must be absolute, as well as absolutely unique, absolutely eternal, and absolutely unchanging. God is our universal subject, the universal Plus. Standing in the object position to God is man, the universal minus. All of life results from the give and take between plus and minus. Constant give and take creates an ever expanding circling motion. This motion is the global circling of love, which is the goal and purpose of life.
Depending upon the person, his global motion can be all different sizes and at different levels. The stars in the night sky are all different sizes and configurations; likewise, the "love circles" within the human world are all different. The entire universe has give and take with the absolute center. Likewise, the smallest cell in your body engages in give and take with that absolute center.
When cells are healthy, their give and take is healthy and the multiplication of cells is constant. But when sickness occurs, the cells do not have the power to recreate so much. Human life does contain struggle and conflict without a doubt, but the purpose of that struggle is for the protection of the larger balance. Anything which invades the ideal unit will be struggled against and repelled.
The laws of any country exist for the protection of that entire society; they are there to prevent the destruction of that society. National and social laws arise from an understanding of the universal law, which protects the universe. Because the universe has its protective laws, the nation does too. Once we understand this, we can appreciate the importance of obedience to the law.
According to this principle, smaller existence are sacrificed for the greater purpose. Why is it all right for people to eat vegetables, as well as animals in the form of meat? They are forms of life, so isn't it a crime to eat them? No, they are lower forms of the creation which are made to serve the greater purpose by contributing to the higher forms of creation. They leap in this way from the lower to the higher forms of life. As far as the vegetable is concerned, when it goes from being a simple plant to a part of the human body, it is a greater accomplishment. From being simple plant cells they can be transformed into human cells; thus they have advanced themselves. And by becoming part of human cells, they are moving toward a relationship with God and His love.
Without understanding this principle, many different secular theories have come about. Darwin's theory of evolution says that higher life forms prey upon and consume the lower forms, in a sort of destructive and negative sense. But when the universal law is understood, one can see that this phenomenon occurs in order to protect the overall harmony; all of these things happen for the purpose of the greater advancement of life.
Communism sees the existence of struggle throughout human history but interprets it with evil results. Communists do not recognize the existence of the vertical relationship between God as subject and man as object. They concentrate only upon the horizontal realm and look at everything as a struggle. Communism denies the most important truth of the vertical subject / object relationship and thus it is a false and evil ideology. It has destructive results because it disregards the universal law of protection.
It is most important that you inherit the spiritual tradition. The first requirement is that you recognize and claim your own absolute uniqueness. Nobody wants to be anything other than absolutely unique. Likewise, each individual desires to be unchanging, as well as eternal. Most people believe only in what they can see, which is this life on earth; thus they do not recognize that they have eternal life. They seek to find value only within this short span of life. Those of you here recognize the existence of eternity; thus you are members of the "eternal class."
The fourth requirement for fulfilling the spiritual tradition is achieving the quality of absoluteness. No matter how average a person you may be, there is always something within you that is totally unique. Something within you never changes. Likewise, you have an eternal life; and finally you are capable of an absolute quality. Everybody has that dignity and that pride.
Why is it that every person possesses these qualities? As objective beings, we could not have such internal, spiritual qualities without some subject. That subject must also have the same qualities. We call that subject God. God is our subject of uniqueness, unchangeability, eternity, and absoluteness. Those are God's central characteristics.
God put people in the position of object and wanted to form a give and take relationship with us. In order for people to have the capacity to appreciate God, He put within every heart the same spiritual qualities which He possesses. We can know God because of this. You can recognize that God is unchanging, unique, eternal, and absolute.
How great is that ideal! As the center of the universe and the absolute subject, God needs love too. Therefore, God needs people. He desires to experience true love in relationship with men and women. You must recognize that you are the object of the love of God. Who is God's object? Say to yourself, "I am!" How does that make you feel? Not just good, but uniquely, eternally, unchanging, and absolutely good! When you respond to God, it can only be with those spiritual qualities. Nothing in the material realm, including diamonds, money, power or knowledge can compare. Since God's love and goodness is unique, eternal, unchanging and absolute, only those with the same qualities can respond to that love and goodness.
What is it that God considers good? On the sixth day of creation, God created Adam and Eve and He said, "It is VERY good." Did He say that because Adam had a handsome face or Eve was a beautiful woman? No, God said "It is very good," because through men and women He had the potential for the fulfillment of His love. He could finally see the possibility of that love being realized.
Does God need a lot of flashy diamonds? How about lots of power? God has everything-except a love relationship. We can answer the profound question of why God created the universe with a simple statement: God created the universe in order to fulfill His love. Love can only be fulfilled through a subject / object relationship and therefore God created this universe. Can you imagine God being happy and jolly all alone, without creating anything? As soon as God had the humblest of objects with which to relate, He could begin to be fulfilled. Each of you has the potential for a constant communication of love with God.
When you encounter God in the morning, you can ask Him. "Where are you going?" He will not say. "I'm going off to a picnic." Rather, He will tell you, "I am pursuing absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal love." These are the goals of God. If you asked God, "Why do you work so hard for the restoration of this world?" He will answer, "No matter how hard the road may be, I continue because I must restore mankind in order to fulfill my love."
Suppose God were to confront you in the morning and ask, "Where are you going?" Could you tell Him, "I'm going out to play and goof off"? What would you answer God? If you said, "Home Church," that would be good. The purpose of Home Church is the fulfillment of that love which is unique, eternal, unchanging and absolute. You must do Home Church because you must fulfill that kind of love in your life.
If you asked me, "Where are you going, Reverend Moon?" do you think I would answer that I'm going out to make a lot of money in business activities, as some have accused me of doing? No, Reverend Moon came to America for the pursuit of love on a universal level-love which is unique, eternal, unchanging and absolute. Our next goal is Moscow; we "Must Go" to Moscow. Why do we have this goal? Is it to make the Unification Church or Reverend Moon famous? No, we are going that way for the same goal, in order to obtain a greater amount of unique, unchanging, eternal and absolute love.
I like the terminology of 'docking" used in the Apollo space project. We are going into orbit for the purpose of docking with God. For two things to dock, they must have certain parallel components; they must be able to fit together. God has certain aspects and Reverend Moon has certain aspects; if they are not parallel, there can be no docking. Their parallel characteristics must be unique love, unchanging love, eternal love and absolute love.
When that docking occurs, the sound would be greater than the loudest thunder. It would be such a gigantic sound, it would wake up the entire spirit world and the whole universe. All the billions of people in spirit world would be shocked by that sound and then they would rejoice to hear it. They would start to sing and dance in ecstasy. Would people only seek out those of their own race to dance with? No, everybody would be oblivious to race and color-they would be colorblind- and mankind would dance together as a jubilant unit. God would see this and say, "Well, my work has been done. Ha Ha Ha!"
This is not just a daydream or empty thoughts; this is a reality. Don't you want to inherit such a spiritual tradition ? Those of you who say, "Father, I am going to inherit that spiritual tradition without fail!," raise your hands please. Once you receive that spiritual tradition, you receive a crown; you become a representative of God
It is wonderful to even think that you were born to fulfill this spiritual tradition-unique, unchanging, eternal and absolute love. You must make up your mind that this is your way of life; thus you will have no room for second thoughts or wishy-washiness. You women must think, "I am different from ordinary women; I am God's woman." Don't have second thoughts about it.
Are you in that absolute position now? You are on your way. Now that you are about to receive the Blessing, everybody is excited. That's fine, but what about this tradition? Have you inherited it? Are you living it? If I gave you the Blessing regardless of your qualifications, would I be doing the right thing? Certainly not. What shall we do, then? This is a very serious matter. Your marriage is not the problem; the problem is whether or not you are inheriting this tradition.
God has been longing for a relationship with mankind for so many thousands of years and now He is just about to come down to reach you. You are men and women who are supposed to be living for God, but how much is your heart truly longing for God and His love? How hard are you trying to live up to His expectations? Marriage is nothing other than the manifestation of the ideal of God. It is the connection between the horizontal reality and the vertical inheritance from God.
God's ideal is to consummate the Heavenly four positions of God, man, woman, and children. Why did God divide mankind into two poles of male and female? He wanted to make a substantial world of depth and width so He created the world with global dimensions. What is it that brings men and women together into oneness? As men have give and take with God and women have give and take with God, they can have give and take with each other and unite in the center with God. At that central point of love, men and women become harmonized into one. There everything is a manifestation of love; your eyeballs look at each other with love, you talk with love, hear with love, touch with love. Absolute, unique, unchanging, and eternal love is manifested in every aspect of your relationship.
Every part of you is longing to be touched by that absolute, eternal, unique and unchanging love. When the hands of a loving husband touch his wife's hair, the hair is drawn to him like a magnet. Love is a magnet which draws everything to it. The whole body, particularly the lips and mouth, were supposed to function under those circumstances, to talk about true love and exchange the ideals of true love.
Love travels freely among the four positions; from the center it goes around God, down around Adam and Eve, and around the children. It has no limitations. The ideal family is the base of all human unity. How do you like that? There is great significance to the Heavenly four positions; it is the fulfillment of God's ideal of creation. When you look at this from the ideal point of view, how far away are you from it? How much impurity do you have, compared to this absolute ideal?
Your life must have total depth so that even when you laugh, it rises up from the bottom of your feet and travels through your whole body, finally to be uttered by your mouth. When you are such people, you can hold hands together as husband and wife and God will rest upon your shoulders, embracing you in unity. Out of that unity, your children will be created. Are you confident that you can achieve that ideal? You know the truth and the truth will make you free.
When you eat your food, you should think, "I eat for the purpose of consummating love-unique, absolute, unchanging, and eternal love." The food will say, "Mansei!" before jumping into your mouth. Those who eat with that kind of attitude will never have stomach problems or indigestion because everything they eat will cooperate with their body. But if you do not have that attitude food will have a protest demonstration against you when it gets into your stomach!
Look at the universe from this point of view. Look at the trees, the flowers, birds, the ocean and everything from the point of view of the love of God. When you go on a picnic, you can lean against a giant tree and say, "You have been waiting for me, haven't you?" The tree will giggle, "Hee tree! I have been waiting for you to lean against me for so long! I love you!" That tree has been wanting to receive unique, absolute, unchanging and eternal love from you. As a representative of that love, you will be loved and appreciated by all the things of nature, including the mountains and the ocean.
Do everything with this in mind. Walk, talk, and think with the ideal in mind. When you live this way, you will never get bored. When you are with your beloved spouse, you can talk for an entire night without sleeping even one minute and you won't mind. You can talk your love talk all night and find yourselves leaning against each other in the morning, asleep. That is the kind of beautiful couple God wants to see.
Without the beginning point of the ideal couple, we can't even talk about any higher form of ideal, such as society, nation or world. What is the way of life of the ideal couple? What is your way of life? Whatever we do becomes the manual by which our posterity will live; we set the example. Thus we must live this ideal love, beginning with the husband and wife and then expand it to the largest level. We must cover the entire world with this love. The way to do this is for the smaller level to be cover for the larger purpose. Thus the family must be sacrificed and serve the sake of the tribe; the tribe must serve the nation; the nation must serve the world.
Why is this true? Look at one of the giant trees on the lawn outside. For that tree to be healthy, every part of it must exist in connection with the whole. Even the small leaves have a vital connection with the rest of the tree. There must be freely flowing give and take between the roots, trunk, the big branches, the smaller branches, and finally the leaves. If the leaves ever stopped their relationship with the rest of the tree, they would die; ultimately the whole tree would die, as well. You too must link yourself with the trunk and the roots; in that way, your little branch will grow and prosper.
The United States of America is like a big branch on the tree of the world. Your family is like a cluster of leaves on the big branch. You can't say, "I don't need the trunk! All I need are the other leaves around me," because you would die. Whether you like it or not, you must communicate with the trunk to receive your nourishment. Likewise, the US cannot say, "We don't need the trunk or the roots on the world tree. We are a big enough branch to survive alone." The American nation is a branch which has to serve the roots and the trunk, otherwise it is not fulfilling its true purpose.
The leaves should serve the little branches and the little branches should serve the needs of the major branch; the major branch should serve the trunk. When the tiniest leaf is contributing itself and is connected with the root in that way, it can say, "This tree is completely me, from here all the way down to the root! Look at me-I may look small, but I'm mighty!"
This is the reason we must serve a larger purpose than ourselves. Always be a minus for the greater plus; in this way your own prosperity is assured. Do you think I am speaking the truth? The tradition for your lifestyle, then, is to live as a representative of the whole. Everyone has the desire to be a representative of the largest value and to be a champion for something great.
You are not just an isolated husband and wife but you are husband and wife who can make your brothers and sisters, your parents, your tribe, your nation and the whole world proud. But you cannot be exemplary by staying in your own home. Your parents can be proud of you when they can say, "My son and daughter are representatives of the whole world."
That is why our name is the Unification Church; our lifestyle is for the sake of unification. I gather you here every Sunday and the first day of the month in order to nurture and teach you how to live for something greater than yourself. Once you are married. will you say "Why doesn't Father leave us alone and let us enjoy our lives?"
Why should I interfere in your lives-why do I bother? It is because when you are isolated, you are like a dried up leaf on a branch. The only way to grow is to expand yourself. Thus you must leave the confines of your family and serve for the sake of the tribe. In that way, your territory expands and the love between husband and wife becomes greater too. Husband and wife will be respected by the entire tribe.
Furthermore, the individual as a small minus should go to the level of the nation and serve that purpose. By relating on that level, you can return to your family and you will be the representative of the national level. You will carry with you greater glory and love.
I spend very little time with my own children at East Garden. Virtually all my time is spent with church elders and visitors. Sometimes the children, without understanding my heart, have felt very lonely and asked me, "Daddy, why don't you spend time with us?" But I always tell them, "If I give more love to the 36 couples than I give to you, their love and my love will combine into one and return to you that much greater. Therefore, I am not neglecting you but loving you that much more."
An example of this is when Ye Jin was married and she and her husband were presented to the church membership here at Belvedere. Everybody was jubilant and expressed tremendous praise and love. Why do you love them? It is because you love me, isn't that true? I have practiced the formula which I have been explaining today and the results have been great.
When you go beyond yourself to serve a greater purpose, you receive the greater benefit. Even if you lose your life, you will receive that benefit in some other way. Perhaps your children and descendants will receive that benefit. This is a rule. Perhaps the Americans living today will not recognize or appreciate the love I have for them but it doesn't matter because my love will be acknowledged and returned by Americans in the future. They will understand and appreciate my descendants. That is certain.
This is why the Bible teaches us to love our neighbor as ourselves. You must love your neighbor, love your spouse, love everyone you meet. In this way you will convert every place you go into Heaven. You will not see anyone as your enemy. You will enjoy life 24 hours and day and every one of the twelve gates of Heaven will be opened to you when you go to spirit world. This is our way of life.
I have spoken of achieving a spiritual tradition and a lifestyle of unity. In order to achieve these, you must have one basic philosophy-that is, to live for the sake of others. Make up your mind that you were born to serve others and that you will live your life that way. Ideal love is fulfilled only when you serve for the sake of others If everyone is saying, "Others must serve and respect me," nothing good will happen. The proper attitude for husband and wife is one of support, saying, 'I serve you and you serve me; we push each other." That is the way turning movement occurs. To push each other requires that you spend energy for that other person; it requires an outgoing motion.
By serving others you are fulfilling the purpose of your existence. You are fulfilling the spiritual tradition, the proper love and life tradition. We practice this way of life from the individual level to the family, tribe, national, world, universe and all the way up to the very heart of God. As you are turning, constantly expanding your energies for the larger and larger purpose, you will find yourself going all the way up to the bosom of God, being held and embraced by Him. Then with God's presence, you can turn in the other direction and go back to the original point where you started. You will complete a circle in that way.
You started out by doing everything for the sake of others, from the smallest level to the universal; then when you have returned to your original point, everything in the universe will be existing for you! At that point, you are a person of deity, a Christ-like person. Because of your oneness with God, anywhere you go you will live the way God does. God is the invisible Deity but you will be His visible form. That is what we call the perfection or completion stage; the journey toward restoration ends there. By your achieving this, the ideal world of Adam will come about and the central ideology will be fulfilled.
Are your minds clear about this now? What have we spoken of today? First of all, we speak of inheriting the spiritual tradition composed of love. The four major elements of that love are: unique, unchanging, eternal, and absolute. By receiving and living that vertical tradition we will bring about unification on the horizontal level. That is what we call the tradition of life or the unity of life.
In order to fulfill these things, we must recognize our purpose of existence and live our lives in service for' the sake of others. When you live your entire life for the sake of others, ultimately the entire universe will serve you and live for you.
Look at me; I am a good example of this. I was born in a very humble area of northern Korea. I took on the way of life of serving others, beginning with the people in my village. Then I worked for the sake of larger and larger levels, from the national level, to the Asian level, to the worldwide level, and have gone all the way to the universal level. The more I give for the sake of the largest levels, the more I am recognized by the world. I know that ultimately the world will love and appreciate me because of this principle of which I have spoken today.
There are no exceptions to this principle and you should not have complaint. If you say, "This way is too difficult, Father; I have an easier solution," then I say, "Show it to me." The truth is, nobody has an alternative to this way because there simply is no other way to go. Do you feel that you must adopt this philosophy and way of life?
What if somebody tells you, "That is the wrong way; don't do it."? There are so-called deprogrammers whose job is to break your faith; will you let them do that? It is better to lose your physical life than your spiritual life. If you go to the spirit world with your heart and faith intact, you will be elevated to the highest level and will be happy there. But when your spirit and faith are broken, you really have nothing of eternal value.
It is not death or imprisonment that we fear; it is only losing the tradition of God that we must fear. Therefore, be bold and strong. Those of you who want to live in Adam's ideal world according to this tradition, please raise your hands. God bless you.