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"Myself" was the title of the sermon Sunday before last and I promised to resume the topic, so today is the continuation.
When someone asks you to name the most valuable and precious thing in the world, what would you reply? You may say true love, but love always depends upon relationship. In fact, you are the most important thing in the world because without you there is no love. You are the center of true love.
What is the essence of the self? If you say heart, how does that relate to the body? Are heart and body two separate entities? The body experiences the world through its five senses, and its structure consists of head, torso and limbs.
It is important to establish the center of our being because we revolve around that center. Functional centers are easy to locate. Politically, Washington, DC is the center of the United States; most government offices receive directions from and report back to their headquarters in the nation's capital. The center of our nervous system is the brain, while our circulatory system centers on the heart.
What coordinates everything? The nervous system and the circulatory systems must be harmonious. Where one goes, the other follows; blood vessels accompany nerves and vice-versa. Their fate is bound together, you might say, because if one is not healthy, the other suffers. Our body maintains harmony between its various aspects.
How and where do the two systems connect with one another? They connect through the life of the body, but where does life start? Did your life begin with yourself, independent of any other cause, or did it begin somewhere else and then connect with you? Of course, our lives are not separate and independent; they came from our parents. Although you may like to think of yourself as an autonomous being, your life is linked to your parents and traces back through all your ancestors, all the way to God!
What kind of a being is God? He should be similar to us, so what does He look like? Does He have a brain like we do? Does He have a heart like ours? We can assume that He does but that they are not exactly the same as our physical brain and heart. We are bound to God in a subject/object relationship; therefore His heart is the subject of our heart and His brain is the subject of our brain.
Does God need a physical body? If He does, what would it be like? God, the invisible being, does take a physical being as His object. Actually when you investigate something invisible, whether it be God or some other entity, the deeper you probe the more substantial it becomes. It is invisible when you start out but eventually the image becomes stronger and more visible.
Does the same hold true for a visible being? If you probe it, does its image become stronger and stronger without limit? No, there is a boundary for the visible world as well as the invisible world. In this vast universe, for instance, if you traveled in a straight line, could you continue forever without coming to an end? Is there anything visible which actually has no end?
Let us assume that a boundary does exist and that when we reach it, we have to turn around and come back. When we reach a limit and turn around, we do so hoping to gain something greater, not something less. No matter how many times we reach a limit and turn around, as long as we find something better and bigger in the process, we are happy. Each of you, for instance, took the trouble to come here to Belvedere this morning in search of something. How wonderful if you find something even better than what you hoped for! In this sense, things which go round and round never diminish but become better and stronger with each circuit.
This process also describes truth. The three greatest values known to man are truth, life and love. Is truth an entity in itself or is it a system for explaining things? Truth is definitely symbolic. The Chinese character for truth has two parts: the left side means "king" and the right side means "village" Therefore the character indicates the king's own village or hometown. Since that does not define truth itself, the character must be symbolic.
Truth actually describes a quality of life or love; it is an explanation, not an entity in itself Truth is most closely linked to life and love, which are its points of origin. For each of us, the origin of truth is true love and true life. When true love and true life abound within ourselves, we can say that we embody truth.
Our life is connected to God as a leaf is connected to the tree. A tree has roots, trunk, branches and leaves. AU the structures are essential to the tree and each element is vital to the whole. Although the leaf has a completely different appearance from the trunk, they are still part of the same tree. A leaf may be part of a huge oak tree, located perhaps on the northern side of the tree.
The leaf identifies itself first by the type of tree it is on and then by its own position on the tree. The root has elements in common with the leaf, just as do all the various aspects of the tree; each shares the same common elements. By the same token we cannot speak of our self without including our own roots; and we cannot talk about love and life without referring to our self.
Which comes first, love or life? Does love exist for life or life for love? This is actually a crucial question. By the same token, which came first, man or woman, is an important question. There are only two sexes, male and female. When I state that men came first, you women feel upset! But if you realize that love came before either of the two and that love revolves around and is shared between them, you will feel consoled. There is no difference in the quality of love between men and women.
A man who searches the male world for his object of love will not find it until he turns to the female world. Likewise, a woman who searches the female world for her object of love will not find it until she goes to the male world. If a woman touches or caresses another woman, the one touched usually feels a bit uncomfortable.
Does a beautiful woman strive endlessly to become more beautiful or does she want her beauty to enable her to find a handsome man? For a time she might put her pursuit of beauty first, but eventually beauty will become secondary to her longing for an object. Even the ugliest man in the world, if he is the last one around, will be more desirable than greater beauty!
You women speak of yourselves and your life in terms of being women; you men speak of yourselves and your life in terms of being men. Each must still look for and find a corresponding object or subject. No matter how much one may achieve, still he or she is only a subject or an object. Men and women alike search for love; it is clear that life is not an end in itself. Life searches for love.
Whether a man or woman, you look for your object or subject. That is how you were born. You men have a special organ. Does it exist for yourself, or for a woman? Essentially it belongs to you but you might say it exists for the sake of your object, woman. And the reverse is true. The division into two sexes is centered upon love. We are born through love and our ultimate destiny is surely love. Therefore, our purpose in existing is not merely life but love. We were born into life, but the purpose of that life is for love.
The reason men came into existence is for women and vice-versa. Since this is the way people were born, nobody has to tell you about it; it is natural law. Trees do not need to be taught how to grow or animals how to move. They need no classes in sex education. Insects don't need some higher being to teach them how to mate. They are guided by instinct, by nature. By the same token, people also go in search of love without instruction from anybody. Love is our oldest mission in life.
Where do you come from? You answer God, which is true, but God is a distant origin. Your life comes from the life of your parents; your life is directly connected to the bodies of your father and mother. Your father's life and your mother's life blended into one, and a new person-male or female-came into being. Is it simply life that we are talking about? Does the father's life reach out to the mother's life to embrace? No, of course, it is the father's and mother's love that reaches out to create new life. So parents' love is the very beginning of our own being. We begin life within the womb and we grow and ultimately we find ourselves to be a man or a woman in the world.
Now where are we heading? We are going the way of truth and we are constantly experiencing life, but best of all we are heading towards love. A true person is one who is perfect, or complete. A complete person might be described as one who is fully grown and enjoys perfect health. But looking deeper into the essence of a person, a complete person is one who can pursue the ideal without any help. The goal of mature, healthy, complete people is to find his or her object through true love. Truth and life both head towards love; once they reach that, truth and life become complete.
Life evolves for the sake of love; people come from love and they constantly strive for love. Generation after generation, as love is given and returned, the sphere of goodness grows. True love is endless and eternal. A solitary man or woman has no place in the universe. The love flowing between a true man and a true woman sets everything in motion.
Initially there is a distinction between men and women but when they are in love, neither is concerned about which position they occupy, whether masculine or feminine, outer or inner. Ordinarily one might be offended if another takes his or her place, but in love, it does not matter.
Love is so powerful that you do not mind being squeezed so hard by your loved one that it hurts. Even if you have to lose your life, as long as it is for the sake of love, you can do it willingly. Suppose a man lost his finger for the love of a woman. He is then deficient, in a way. But would other people look down on him for being handicapped? On the contrary, his sacrifice would be a source of pride for him and a source of inspiration for the woman. Every time the woman sees his hand missing a finger, she will think, "He loved me so deeply that he sacrificed his own finger" Before the lack of a finger starts to bother her, she is already in ecstasy!
The purpose of our life is to complete all the dimensions of love. This holds true for both men and women. Why is love so special? No matter how far we may roam, love always gives us the strength to return. Only love has that kind of power. Without the power to return, motion would dissipate. Life extends itself, but it has no power to come back alone.
Men and women come together from opposite directions; when they make contact, each one pushes against the other. Normally you would object to being pushed, but when someone does it out of love, you no longer mind the pressure. As you push against each other, you have to hold on tightly and revolve around each other. God gave such a power to man and woman; when they find each other, they have the power to revolve.
Women have special organs which men lack and men have organs which women lack. The mind and hands of even a perfected man will go to the most important parts of his wife. Great men, saints, presidents or the most powerful people in the world are no exception. How about God Himself? You laugh, but actually this is no laughing matter. One of the most debased and devalued things in the world is this very area, because of the fall. The original world of God's creation is totally opposite from the present world.
Men and women should not love each other until God gives His permission. Only after God gives His approval should a man and woman marry. Those who follow the original way of life can directly and smoothly connect with God through the true married life. This is heaven on earth. This is, of course, expressing the theology of the Unification Church in a very simplified manner!
Now when someone asks you who you are, you can reply, "I am the result of love and my destination is love" We need a spouse and children because through them we come to resemble God. The three stages of love within the family are vital to our understanding of God. Unless we experience parental love, we cannot experience the world and the universe the way God does. In the vertical direction, we have our parents, our self and our children. In the horizontal direction, we have our spouse.
Even in modern society the strength of the parental bond is obvious. When a couple divorces, they usually fight over the children. The universal law keeps prodding people and pushing them closer to the original standard of the universe. We are naturally impelled to follow our original nature because we need to fulfill the realm of object. Then you can return to the realm of subject.
This is the meaning of the four-position foundation. When we fulfill the four-position foundation, we can go everywhere. Husband and wife revolve around each other and God; from their love, children are born. From them, another four-position foundation can begin. Our children are our investment in the future.
Thus we are offshoots of God and the universe. Our greatest treasure is not knowledge or money, but love. When we are excited by love, every thought, every heartbeat, every glance is directed towards our object. When your focus is true love, you thrust aside any distraction. It is an automatic reflex to try to eliminate whatever interferes with your love.
In electricity, a plus does not always repel another plus; it is only when that plus is focused in relationship with a minus that it will automatically repel another plus. Before that, energy builds up on both sides until finally we have the huge clash of thunder and lightning.
Once a man is married, he will not normally want to be as close to his male friends as he was when he was single. There is a natural instinct working to protect your subject/object relationship from invasion from any other subjects, or pluses. Therefore, his friends should not criticize him for that; they should recognize the law of nature at work and respect that. They should admire their friend for following the truthful and original pattern of life.
All the elements of the universe participate in creating a perfect love. An animal will ignore a predator attacking the offspring of another animal, but if its own offspring is endangered, it will protect them with its own life. That is natural law at work, repelling any invasion or interference. When you are creating the four-position foundation, you will repel any outside interference and try to safeguard the growing unity.
We can see that homosexuals and lesbians are pursuing a deviated course of love, trying to promote it as the right way. But because it goes against nature, it can destroy not only individuals but also families, society and ultimately everything. If the homosexual way of life became dominant, all mankind would be destroyed because it is totally contrary to nature. According to the law of the universe, nothing can propagate itself that way.
Men and women who practice homosexuality may feel strong sensations from that, but it has no resonance in truth; ultimately it is hollow. But when two people experience true love, it resonates throughout the universe. There is a special feeling in a room when husband and wife are there together; it creates a natural atmosphere of love. While a deviated experience may be momentarily exciting, an icy cold feeling of despair and destruction follows it. True love has a warmth and a fragrance unknown to deviated love.
Do we see homosexual activity among the animals? The fact is that animals are strictly guided by instinct; they mate only within certain time periods when they are able to conceive offspring. That is the sole purpose of their sexual activity. But human beings are different. People are supposed to be on a higher level than animals and therefore we are able to experience love at any time, regardless of the season. Human love is so precious that God wanted to set it above that of the animal kingdom. Therefore, He gave us this unique capability; He wanted us to experience original love, according to His principle.
But Satan used this precious capability and fumed it around to cause people's destruction. Love is the strongest power in the universe; it needs to remain centered upon its original purpose. But when the center of love was shifted, it created a most fearful and destructive situation. Misguided love is more powerful, symbolically speaking, than all the bombs and weapons used in World War 11. It has enormous powers of destruction. Whatever it collides with can be destroyed, including individuals, families, societies, nations and even the whole world. We know what happened between Adam and Eve and what enormous destruction that spawned.
We must live and die for the sake of true love. If you work every day until the end of your life for true love. then your whole life will have been centered upon its original purpose.
Why do the birds chirp each morning? They don't sing without a purpose; in fact, they are calling to one another in the harmony of love. Even the insects make the harmony of love. People are deeply inspired by the sounds of nature and the singing of all the creatures, but what about God? God would be deeply inspired to hear the singing of His children, men and women in true love, just as we enjoy the singing of the creation.
What is the Kingdom of Heaven? It is where people live for the sake of love and where God can be truly happy because everyone and everything on earth is living according to His original plan. If we live that original way on earth, when we go to the spirit world we can bring health to that realm with our songs of love. How happy God would be then!
When a person of true love utters a sound, would other sounds try to resonate with that sound, or would they rebel against it? They would want to harmonize. By the same token, when a husband or wife says something or does something, the spouse would want to respond in a harmonious way. It isn't natural to want to fight each other.
Imagine the beauty of a God-centered family who comes together and sings. God would want to listen to their singing over and over again and He would never get tired of them. That harmony is what the family must strive for. God made families to enjoy singing and dancing together and He is happiest of all when this music reaches into spirit world. We will carry on that happiness when we go to spirit world. Do you think God can sing and dance? Since we love to do that, God must love to do it, too. When God sings out with a loud, booming voice, all the universe would resonate in joy.
You are part of a greater whole, one cell of an immense organism; don't ever think that you are an independent entity. You cannot demand that the universe return to you what you gave to it. Billions and billions of cells make up your body; they must have a common source and must be linked by a common thread. Through the vibration of these threads, you feel the stimulation of love. This is like a musical theme running through you, even without your being aware of its origin and relationship to you.
Think of your body as housing an entire universe. Your cells make up the universe and your mind is the dwelling place of God! Therefore you have the responsibility to manage your body and its precious inhabitants. You need to consider what you eat, not just gobble up anything you can get your hands on, like a pig. It is most important that you manage your body with love.
When you administer everything well, your mind will certify that you are a good person. You will become perfectly integrated between mind and body. Such a person becomes the lord of creation. The universe, God and oneself look like separate entities, but because we are what we are, through God we can connect to and merge with the universe. God cannot do that for us; nor does the universe create heaven. People must do it on their own and gain that position of master or center of the universe. What tool must we use to do that? True love.
When we spread our arms, we welcome the whole universe. When we think, the universe thinks along the same lines. When we live according to this original way of life, we' stimulate the universe and get increased power from it.
Whenever I confront difficulties, I look at them from the perspective of love and then I can push my way through Without apparent reason, the way opens up. When parent practice this kind of love, even the most unworthy child who thinks he wants to complain against them cannot open hi. mouth. I am a very free and fair person. I can meet with anybody and feel no barrier between us. But because universal law operates on its own, people who face me often don't feel free. They often sense something separating us.
When the birds come and sing in front of you, don't consider it a chance or common occurrence. Look at it this way: that bird is the result of thousands of years of cycles of breeding and now it has the opportunity to sing for you. When you met your spouse, it was no coincidence either. For him or her to become your spouse, masculine and feminine energy went through thousands of millions of years of training. They traveled a long way for love and their fruits will endure for millions and millions of years to come.
Our task before going to heaven is to love each other the way God intended us to. If we don't achieve that, we fail God's test. God is like the seed of life and we should resemble Him. We should become like a seed of God. To create a seed, two beings need to become one. Each seed is composed of two halves, united around an embryo. You cannot separate the seed into two parts and expect it to survive and grow; by the same token, you need your spouse.
If for some reason you have divorced and remarried, you cannot undo the past. However, the second bond of love needs to be deeper, stronger and purer than the first. You must restore and surpass anything you experienced in your first marriage; then the way to return to God is reopened and you can begin anew your quest for His love. You need to go back and reorganize yourself, beginning your course anew. Otherwise, your children will accuse you for giving birth to them with a lower standard of love than your first love. Do you understand? Growing up in American society, perhaps you were part of a situation that you could not help; still you must quickly close the gap between that and the heavenly standard.
The most precious thing is love; without love we cannot even think about the Heavenly Kingdom. Our origin was the love between our parents; then we should live for the sake of love, finding our rightful spouse and becoming complete through love. This is the cycle of our life.
The standard of love extends to all facets of life, including the relationship between employer and employee. The owner or president of a company cannot exploit his employees for his own selfish and small purposes. But when a company's owner is genuinely devoted to serving the nation or even the world, then he can require hard work and even sacrifice on the part of his employees. Then when the enterprise makes money, it must be used for the sake of the nation and world. In such a situation, people can sacrifice and work very hard, not feeling shortchanged because they recognize the purpose of their work. They know that the more they work and even suffer and sacrifice, the more they will be rewarded by the law of the universe.
Our way of life is clearly different from the rest of the world's. Therefore we need some extra power to maintain our strength. If you can understand these simple points about love-where we come from and why we live and why it pays to sacrifice ourselves-then you can persevere until all of America is won. We Moonies can sacrifice ourselves without any recognition except God's; all we must cling to is this truth and this love. Knowing we are heading in the right direction gives us the utmost confidence. Love is patient and long-suffering. Enduring and persevering without giving up are all qualities of love.
We are the new breed of humanity, you might say, living for the sake of love regardless of the rest of the world's purpose. When the birds chirp in the morning, go out and sing along with them. Invite God to listen to your song and hope that the whole creation is singing along with you! Can you appreciate and see the law of the universe in action?
A woman wants to give all of herself to the object of her devotion, whether that be great or small. However, you women must know how to devote yourselves to the largest things. Some women will fight over the smallest things, such as a needle; you need to focus on great things. Then people will say that even though you may look tiny, you are the greatest woman they have ever known. All you women must win that approval and reputation. Therefore, devote yourselves to loving people, the universe and God. That will give your life the greatest meaning.
Those who understand what I have said and will truly pledge to live in this way for the rest of your lives, please raise your hands. If you sincerely practice this kind of life, there will be no fighting within the Unification Church! God bless you.