I am very happy to see all of you again after being away for 70 days. When you are separated from someone, you long for them the most if you share a common purpose or goal. Then you both yearn to see each other and look forward to the day of reunion. I am Korean and you are Americans and we come from the opposite ends of the world. There must be a providential purpose linking the two extremes of East and West; otherwise you would not miss me and I would not miss you and we would not look forward to meeting each other again.

To the ordinary person it may seem as if the vast ocean is one stationary body of water. Actually the ocean is continually in motion, with cold currents and warm currents running their separate courses and colliding at certain points. All kinds of movement can be found in the ocean. The tides come in and go out twice a day and tidal flows all over the globe are linked together. Beneath the ocean's surface there is a great variety of fish, which are influenced by the currents and the tidal waters. Often many fish gather where the warm and cold currents collide creating certain areas famous for fishing such as the Georges Bank off the coast near Boston. Different types of fish live in fresh or salt water, but at spawning time certain species go to an estuary, where the fresh and salt water flow together, to lay their eggs.

It is very intriguing and even mystical to see how the places and times of meeting and coming together are very important in all forms of life. For instance, the ancient cultures such as developed in Greece and Rome without exception began to grow at places where land and water meet. No early human civilization could prosper apart from a river or the sea.

When the distance between two parts is extreme, there is always greater joy, emotion and drama involved in their reunion than if they had not experienced such extreme separation. I came from a land on the other side of the globe, a land that many Americans think of as being a remote country. In their minds they still envision Korea as being ravaged by war. It is as if the U.S. were on the pinnacle of a mountain while Korea was in the depths of a valley. That is why many people cannot understand how a man from Korea can attract such attention in a nation which stands at the pinnacle of modern-day culture.

In the vast ocean a tremendous variety of things happen when the warm and cold currents meet. When the five races gather together we are like five kinds of ocean current flowing into the same area, and extraordinary things can happen as a result. It is not my will or your will but some providential will that makes this so. There must be a universal power that pushes two extremes to unite for a greater purpose.

Exciting music is not made with just one or two tones, but with tones that range from high to low and with a variety of instruments. That blending of extremes makes exciting music. At the same time, one instrument alone cannot create excitement. In order to make the drums exciting the drummer has to combine many motions and gestures as well as rhythms. The violin combines different extremes, using thin strings to create very feminine, beautiful sounds. The beauty of the violin is that even though it has only a few strings, it is possible to produce extreme variation in sound.

The union of people from East and West can be compared to playing the violin: Westerners are like the low notes of a violin while Asians are like the high notes. Americans walk with a long, swinging stride, but the Japanese walk lightly, taking small steps. More excitement is created when the two extremes unite to make one harmonized picture. We do not use the word harmony to describe primarily the unity of similar things. The most moving, beautiful harmony is created when extremes come together. The value of harmony lies in this unity and diversity.

What color flowers do you like? Everyone has a different preference. If everyone liked only the color yellow, then everything in the entire world would soon be yellow, with yellow clothes and even yellow lipstick. The result would be a mad, mad world of yellow! The blending together of all kinds of colors can be interpreted and understood in many different ways; it is a universal mystery. When you can see your feelings reflected in different ways, you never tire of such beauty. Would everyone without exception like to have blue eyes? How about having a blue tongue or blue skin and teeth? Why did God give blue eyes to some people? The people who have white skin, high noses and blond hair need some contrast, and so God gave them blue eyes, like two little ponds. Because American noses are so high their eyes are very deep; you have to peer in several miles to see their eyes! If they had black eyes at the bottom of such deep wells they would look fearful, almost evil in a way. Having lighter color eyes creates beauty and harmony in a much more dramatic wave.

Imagine a person laughing whose teeth were all black. He would look like a monster! When you examine the creation you know that God is really an artist, and that no better harmony could have been created. Everything is interestingly blended, with people having precisely the features which would harmonize with a certain color face.

Light is always created at the boundary where two things meet in harmony. Why should people from one culture follow someone from an extremely different culture? Why have you Americans come to the Unification Church, which was founded by a man from Asia? You are here to unite the universal beauty of the two extremes of East and West together into one harmonized culture. When two great cultures meet to form harmony, turmoil is inevitable at first. When a flowing stream hits the rocks in its path, disturbances are created. It goes through many convolutions, splashing over rocks and churning at the bottom of a waterfall, but that does not alter its destiny. All streams eventually join the main stream which flows to the oceans.

There is tremendous variety and purity of creation in the mountains, and the water from mountain streams is also very healthy. Mountain water absorbs essences from the variety of creation found there, but rivers which run through the plains and flat lands, like the Mississippi or Nile, have no clean taste or special characteristics. Every pebble on the bottom of a mountain creek, every weed and every leaf, play an important part in harmonizing the entire environment. When looked at from this viewpoint everything becomes more beautiful. The running streams that start in the depths of the mountains will never make you sick, no matter how much you drink. Mountain animals drink the pure water and breathe clean air all the time, and so they are strong and healthy.

Everything that I am speaking of comes down to one simple word: harmony. The ideal world is not a world of uniformity and regimentation, but a world of harmony in which each person plays a distinctive role. It is not one species alone that creates the grandeur of the mountains. They are made beautiful in part by the infinite variety of the trees, some gigantic, some crooked, and of all different shades and hues.

Here we are, products of the things that have happened to our ancestry. Here we are assembled -- white people, yellow people, and black -- but when we look back into the past, to the beginning of human history, we all started from one ancestry. Dividing into many streams, we have discriminated amongst ourselves. If we continue to be divided like this, when will the time come for us to be united again? There are so many historical events. We have been divided and sometimes united again by wars and by the ebb and flow of different cultural spheres.

When we think of religions, all religions have done great works. The religions have been transcending national boundaries and races because of their doctrines. Many peoples have been united through religion. In the Christian world there have been so many different denominations, literally hundreds, but as a whole they have been bringing the world back to God.

There have been so many religions in the world, and each has its strengths and weaknesses. Thus, Buddhism teaches the need for mercy toward all living things, but it has not reached the core truth about God. Christianity has emphasized love, but without truly knowing love's essence, and without much sensitivity to nature. Nature is much more pure than humanity because it has preserved its original God-given nature, while human beings have distorted their original nature. Even people who live in great houses want to vacation at the beach, or go camping in the mountains. Their original form is looking for some comparable companion, and nature comes closest.

In the past God depended heavily upon many religions, but today's religions are in disarray, lacking discipline and direction. God's first problem is how to bring all religions into one unity so that they will serve the original purpose of religion and the practical work with which God has been concerned. Methodists may pray for Methodism to prosper, but that is only one of the 400 Christian denominations. Likewise for Presbyterians. God really feels the urge to jab them and say, "Stop that! Before you pray to me, make unity among all your fellow Christians. Then get together and pray to me. If you cannot unite the world, then at least you can unite with each other."

Christian denominations today, often promote their faith by proclaiming that their denomination alone can guarantee the Kingdom of Heaven. In God's sight this is a very unnecessary conflict. That blind, boastful attitude will bring nothing but their own decline and they will never see the sunlight. If there is truly a God of justice He would never let such churches prosper. He would be utterly disgusted.

However, imagine what could happen if Christians were crazy to gather all the denominations together and pray to relieve God's burden, asking God for the power and ability to reach out to the People. Then of course God would consider their prayer and do everything possible to answer it. God is waiting for the people on earth who will bring all these different denominations into one.

God never wanted division among people. He would like to see all humankind living together as one country. Americans might tell God to come live with them because after 200 years they have a very comfortable country for Him to live in; they might encourage Him to disregard other, struggling nations. Would God accept their invitation, or would He feel revolted by such thinking?

God would really be moved if people appeared on earth who would encourage Him to overlook the racial barriers separating people and the religious and cultural differences that humankind has fought over, and would demonstrate to Him that they were coming together to form one country centering on Him. America was right to adopt the motto "One nation under God," but it would have been better to teach "One world under God." America hasn't gotten that far yet. God's problem now is how to bring all nations into oneness.

God has nurtured civilizations and cultures, educating the generations in His way of thinking and living. It's not that religions are exclusive of each other, but that they are on different levels of development, such as the grade levels in a school system. Primitive religions are on a kindergarten level while others are at the grammar school level, and others the middle school or high school level. Some religions can be equated with the university standard. All religions are different in their degree of understanding of God. There are different subjects within a university and there are also different kinds of colleges. In religion as well we have to distinguish the different areas. For these reasons it makes absolutely no sense for one religion to fight with another religion. It shows they don't understand God or His work through religion.

True love can transcend national boundaries or racial boundaries, and discrimination between religious sects. In this unity, we are all brothers and sisters. In the sight of God, there is no such thing as Orientals, Whites, and Blacks. Just think of the different colors -- they are only our complexions. Because of the weather, because of geography, because of the situation from all your ancestral lines, we have different complexions. The climate caused that, but we are different only on the surface. Underneath, we come from the same God.

You cannot change the original form of things, because there is deep reasoning behind it. God had a reason for making things a certain way. So don't be proud of being handsome or ashamed of being ugly -- there is no such thing as beautiful or ugly in God's sight. God always balances a person's features; if you have a wonderful face, you will have some deficiency elsewhere. A person who doesn't have beautiful features will have some other lovely aspect to balance that.

If you look in a garden, you see that the most gorgeous flowers don't last very long. A rose is beautiful and it lasts a long time, but has low-quality fragrance; noble, serene women don't wear such fragrance. The fantastic looking flowers attract the insects all at once, and then fade. Beautiful women with strong attraction will not live a long time. Those with a beautiful face often have poor physical health in some way.

Since God is always thinking about balance, there is no one-sidedness in the world of His creation. Western eyelashes should be long to protect the eyes adequately. The Oriental eye is not as deep-set, and doesn't need such long eyelashes. Some Oriental women, thinking their short eyelashes are unseemly, wear artificial eyelashes, but to my thinking that is stupid and ugly looking. Also, instead of giving White people black or very dark eyes, He gave them blue or lighter-colored eyes, and the contrast between the iris and white of the eye is not as strong. But in Black and Oriental people who have very dark or black irises, the contrast is vivid and attractive.

In Black people, who have dark complexions, the whites of the eyes stand out beautifully; whereas in White people the contrast is not as strong. In laughter, when the pink tongue shows in between white teeth, the contrast is most vivid and sensational in Black people. For similar reasons, Black people have thicker lips. God gave balance by emphasizing certain characteristics in the different races, but the total result is equality.

In most cases today this civilization is trying to destroy or downplay certain original qualities in people, instead of trying to enhance them. But the time will come when White people will be crazy about Blacks. White women in particular will prefer the dramatic appearance of Black men.

In Western civilization, who has shed more sweat in building nations? Black people. White people are standing on top of it, but Blacks have shed more tears and sweat for it. Life germinates in fertile soil; it is not coincidence, then, that Black people are passionate and have an explosive sense of love. Also, they tend to trust people; since they represent the valley, they tend to embrace everything that washes down.

The White culture, coming from the top of the mountain, has held a dominant position of power, but everything eventually washes down to the valley. Whites represent a colder society, and White people are not as trusting. In movies you see White settlers moving west, and if their animals are sick or cannot go on the Whites kill them and move on. The Oriental nature could not do that; nor would Black people. Whites have a tradition of dueling for love, in which one man dies and the woman goes with the winner. Love cannot come through destruction of life; life must be nurtured to give love.

Have you Black members carried some kind of hidden grudge against White people? Black people can have two thoughts: one, that some day they will get revenge for injustice done them, or two, that they want to win the respect of White people by serving them and becoming one with them in love. For hundreds of years black people have been oppressed and enslaved, but can you forgive and forget that, and tell God you want to serve others regardless'? Do you think you are superior or inferior to Whites? You are not different: you have two eyes and a nose and two ears, just like White people. The two races are just a different shade of color, one happening to be darker than the other.

A high mountaintop is always white and covered with snow, but in the valley the soil is always dark and fertile. Do animals always live on the top of the snow-capped mountain, or do they live in the fertile valleys instead? Black is a rich color; it has great depth, absorbing all the light. It is a very attractive and charming color. On the other hand, white is easily stained and hard to keep clean. It would be simple to cover the world with black, but much more difficult to make everything white.

Are there any schoolrooms where the teacher writes in black chalk on a white board? It would be crazy to use a white board. It would be impossible if you Blacks were trying to be white, to succeed even after a millennium, no matter who you prayed to. Instead of trying to be something else, take what you have and be proud of it. Whites, be proud. Blacks, be proud. Orientals, be proud. The precious metals of the earth don't lie on the surface, but deep within the dark earth, and you also have your dignity as Black men and women. Be proud of what you are. If your hope is that the entire world can be embraced in your arms, then you have the right idea.

White and Black people live together here in America, but have they created perfect harmony in this land? Who is responsible for the lack of harmony, White, or Blacks?

Be honest and frank. I agree with your answer than basically White people have been responsible. Even though God meant for harmony to exist when He put two extremes together, there is little harmony among the races here in America. The White people must take primary responsibility for the lack of harmony in this country.

At high noon the sun is bright, but even at that moment the sun is moving towards the opposite extreme of midnight. In living you must be willing to go through the darkness of midnight to arrive at the high noon of the next day. Western culture is primarily a White culture, and in general white people think of themselves as superior to Black and yellow people. Westerners think of their culture as being self-sufficient, but that is comparable to refusing to go through midnight; the sun cannot always remain at high noon. The West is now at evening time; it will never see broad daylight again unless there is unity. When Westerners can be broadened by absorbing elements from other cultures, a new day will dawn and there will be the glorious prosperity of another high noon.

The Greek and Roman empires thought they could stay on the pinnacle forever. They had no intuition that they would be destroyed, but now their civilizations are gone. Today the Western culture is enjoying its ascendancy, but this civilization will also terminate unless it seeks the valley. If white people keep on entertaining the idea of discrimination against black people, they will see a day of humiliation in their future because Black power and Yellow power will rise against them. In number, white people are only a third or less of the world population. Under the threat of communism, can anyone still entertain discrimination between the races?

If you have hated black people in the past, you should invite the ugliest, fattest Black man or grandmother to go out for lunch at a Chinese restaurant. Then over lunch you can say, "I have a confession to make. I have hated Black people, but now I want to love them." You can tell her how you felt in the past, but when you joined the Unification Church and met Rev. Moon you worked to train yourself as a champion of goodness. Now you repent, and as a sign of apology you sincerely brought her out to dinner. When you beg her with tears to eat the dinner you buy, you will have indemnified your hate in the past.

If someone has hated White people in the past then he also has to repent. Whatever you have bound in the past, you have to unbind now and indemnify it. If a man has been a playboy in the past and made many women sorrowful, he has to find some situation where he can apologize to one woman representing all of them. If a woman has married several times, then she has to apologize to a man in the same way. Everything you have done which was unprincipled you should indemnify.

In the Unification Church we are encouraging international marriages. Some people call me evil because of that, because I encourage an American boy to wed an Oriental girl. I can imagine the historical beauty of a white woman breast-feeding a black baby. That moment in history is beautiful.

People may not be able to understand me now, but after my death, even after centuries, people will understand that all the races, all the colors, must be mingled together. In God's sight all are brothers and sisters.

Past history can be called a tropical culture. The cultures in India and Egypt all developed in hot weather. Twentieth century civilization can be compared to a climate of moderate weather. The past, as the summer, is now moving into an autumn culture in the 20th century. As the end of autumn weather brings winter, the culture of the West will be overtaken by the cold culture of the communist world.

When the winter comes, the leaves are blown away and no flowers blossom, yet even though the world looks gloomy, the plants still contain life within which will burst forth when the spring comes. During the cold weather the blossom of true love is waiting for its time, the coming of the cosmic spring. That is the ultimate culture to come for all humanity. No matter how severe the winter, once spring comes the winter has to give way. Today's Western culture is equivalent to the autumn season, and no matter how much you may want to delay winter's arrival, its coming is inevitable. Even now winter is knocking at the door, and in order to be a fruitful seed, the Unification Church needs a shell of discipline and training that will enable it to survive under any circumstances. In summertime people go to cool places on their vacation, and in wintertime they go to warm places like Miami Beach, trying to escape the cold weather. But Unification Church members do the opposite: we meet the seasons head on and conquer them. That is our way of life. Your living that way is a manifestation of formidable spiritual power. The degree to which the American people say you are brainwashed is a measure of your conviction.

You know you will go through winter but you must also envision spring's coming. Your job is to make your self a solid seed so that when the spring comes God will cast you on very fertile ground and you will be fruitful.

Are you ready to be tested by the cold weather of communism? Could you withstand torture by people who want you to recant your faith? We have the hope that after the cold weather of communism passes a new world will be born and spring will come. That is the day our hope will be realized. The winter is never permanent. By gathering together people from all races and cultures we are trying to exchange each other's indestructible elements in order to arm ourselves to overcome any circumstance.

History is advancing toward one spring culture of the Kingdom of God on earth. That is the ultimate goal of human history. You are supposed to be the seed that will grow in that springtime, but where does a seed come from? God is the ultimate origin or root from which each seed grows. You are the seeds of God, created through the process of love, and two gigantic loves are essential for your life and must be harmonized within you -- love of humanity and the love of God.

Spring is characterized by flowers blooming in color and fragrance. Blossoms should not be limited just to one race, but should be multi-colored, and that is what we are. That is why I have characterized the Unification Church as the love race. We are like gardeners cultivating a colorful garden, where the bees and butterflies come to enjoy the flowers, flitting from one to another. These are the people of the spirit world, and even God is coming. Would they discriminate about which color flower they go to? No, they enjoy the brilliance of them all.

The ideal civilization is the spring civilization. Throughout history man has thought that the ideal society with perfect love between humankind and God, and within humankind, was only a dream. But the Messiah will make the dream a reality. The Unification Church is born for that purpose and we can attain that goal. The greatest contribution we can make to the world is to knit all of humanity together with the love of God. Throughout history there has always been conflict between North and South, East and West, not just between nations but within families and on every level of society. Historically, unity has proved to be an impossible task, but I am striving for that today.

Americans think you are just foolish young people, but wider acceptance of our movement will come when people see its fruit. The quickest way to unite humanity into one family is by intermarriage of the different races. The movement that can elevate such marriages will inevitably bring harmony and unity to the world, without war or conflict. In the future more and more Americans will seek international marriages uniting the different nations and races; these will bring honor, not shame.

To accomplish this gigantic historical task, you need to discover the extraordinary power of love, love that does not become the circumstantial victim of society. Supreme love transcends every national, racial and cultural barrier. People have always talked about love, but human love alone will never accomplish the task of universal unity. Therefore, the Unification Church rallies around one love, the love and heart of God. We are the first group in history to talk about the heart of God.

If it is really true that we know the heart of God, then we are like the sun rising in the morning, whose brightness will brighten the entire world. All humanity will be linked to the heart of God, which will spread all over the world and constantly pulse through the action of give and take, unable to stay in just one place. Once you harness the power of the heart of God, you will have the energy of a lightning bolt, lighting up all of America. You will feel, "I am the harmonizer of heavenly culture and earthly culture. I am the focal point of love. I am a messenger of the love of God, having the infinite energy that will bring springtime to this nation."

Let us pray.