The 3^rd Blessing

 

 

The 3rd Blessing Video

 

 

 We're going to be talking about the Third Blessing and 'Growing'.

HAVE DOMINION

GOD

ALL PEOPLE AND CREATION

CHEON IL GUK

Having dominion ... What does that mean? Well, God said, 'Be fruitful, multiply and have dominion.' As we know, traditionally, we always explain this by saying that all of mankind needs to realize this by the first blessing and the second blessing and become like God as individuals and families, and a whole world full of Godly, mature, perfected people as adults. And with that love we love creation, we love nature, we love the whole universe and we love it with God's love as if its our own body and our own being. And the harmony between nature and humanity then becomes everything... What else is there? We call that Cheon Il Guk.

So, the third blessing is very important. Of course, being angelic people, we tend to be more external. And so, we've developed a lot of expertise in the third blessing realm but not necessarily internally with our hearts. We have a lot of skills but we're not always loving nature and the world around us the way we should.

MASTER WHAT?

So, the question is, 'What are we to master or have dominion over?' Usually, when I ask that question, people start by saying, 'Well, myself.' That's good. That's true. We should have dominion over myself. That's kind of the first blessing, though, mind and body unity and all that ... but, we should have dominion over myself, that is true.

Another thing, what should we have dominion over? I mean, the practical every day things in our life. For example, we need to have dominion over time. We have twenty four hours a day.

I was at a leader's meeting one time where Father was giving directions; and of course, Father gave so many directions. And one leader had the nerve, the guts to say, 'Father, I don't have time.' And Father just kindly replied and said, 'Well, you know, I have the same twenty-four hour day that you have.' So, it's how we use that time. We can accomplish a lot more with our twenty four hours than we might think. We need to manage it well.

And also, another problem with time is that, you know, everybody's late sometimes. If you read Father's autobiography, you know that there was a time when He was late to church; and, He felt so bad about it. And He realized that, you know, you're offering on Sunday at church is the time that you get there before church starts, and you prepare for the service. That's your offering and you can't possibly be late. It's just not an offering then.

But we all can be late sometimes. There's been an occasion or two when Father was late for the Hoon Dok Hae; and, He had a reason of course. And that's just perfectly fine. But, there are some people you might know some people as I do who are always late all the time. They are always late. You can bet on it. You can count on it ... twenty or thirty minutes late to a meeting that's supposed to be an hour, all the time.

So, what does that say. I mean, that says something if you're always late. It means your time and your life are more important than those other people that you're going to see; and, it's very self-centered. You know, we have to help people realize that. It's very selfish to always be late like that and be rude and disrespectful to people. It's not allowed.

And, what else do we need to have dominion over. Well, we have to have dominion over money, right? We need money to live. So, we have to learn how to make money in an honorable way. We need to learn how to manage money, how to make it go further and bring more joy. And we need to know how to give money, and donate and offer tithe. We have to have dominion over money. It's very important in our every daily life.

How about we have to have dominion over our diet, not too much junk food? Dae Mo Nim said that a little junk food is good. It keeps your immune system going. But, some people eat junk food all the time. But, our diet, our health. We have to have dominion over our body, over our health and what we eat. We have to eat healthy food.

How about we have to have dominion over our environment and that's kind of what the third blessing really is, our environment, nature or whatever, take care of things, our house, make it clean. And if we want to have God with us we have to have a heavenly environment.

And my wife mentioned something to me one time that I can never forget. You know, we were talking about something; and, she brought to mind that we need to have dominion over our circumstances.

And I said, 'What's that?' And she explained, for example, let's say you're a big shot in a big company and you're having a board meeting ... (Well, today, maybe people have their reports on their tablets or something, but some years ago, or even now, people bring their reports on paper.)

So, your job is to bring the reports and you walk into the meeting and you say, 'Well, hi everybody, sorry I don't have the reports. The copy machine broke down.' And my wife explained that you can't have such a lame, lousy excuse. I mean, so what the copy machine broke down. You have to have the reports. You have to go down the hall and find another copy machine. you have to go down the street and find a copy shop and have them make the copies for you. You can't walk in and say, 'Well, we're out of toner, we're out of ink. The copy machine doesn't work. It's just irresponsible. We can't be this kind of people.

So, there are a lot of things we have dominion over, right? probably many more you can think of. And traditionally, you know we always kind of explain that this third blessing is about being good stewards of nature. We should learn how to take care of and grow gardens, how to grow potatoes and how to grow plants and this kind of stuff like that. And I always thought, 'That's nice.'

But actually, one move kind of awakened me to a realization, that for a true person, for a perfected son or daughter of God, dominion is a lot more than that. It's a lot more than that; and so, I want to show you a movie clip that kind of expresses what I'm talking about.

Okay, let's try this ... (clip from the movie 'The Matrix,' in which Neo has a turning point in which he saw how he could dominate the matrix, spurred by the woman he was in love with to get up from what was not really death)

So, the point of that video clip is to show that once Neo understood the matrix and he saw what was going on, He realized (how he could dominate it) He saw the code. He saw the Principle (that it operated with) He saw these people standing in front of him with guns. They're not really people. They're digital images; and the room, everything around him is a digital production.

He realized, 'Hey, game over, game over. This is not happening. These bullets are not going to hit me; and, I'm in charge of the game now. I'm making the rules and I'm changing the rules.

And I realized how much a true man, a true woman, (a true man) like Father was doing that. I mean, we broke the rules. We made sins. Father said to us, 'You can't be forgiven under the Principle. There's no way in the Principle that you can be forgiven; but, I had to make a way. I have to create a way.'

Because he has the Love of God, the Heart of God, the Personality of God, then He had the Authority of God; and, God is happy to allow Father to make rules and change rules. He's in charge. The whole game is changed now because we have True Parents. The whole game is changed.

You know, for example, many other things too, I mean: liberating God's Heart ...Who can do that? That's not just somebody being a good steward; removing original sin ... Nobody could do that before. Father is making rules and changing the rules; eternal marriage ... There was no such thing; ancestor liberation... We couldn't do that before; spirit world/physical world blessings ... You couldn't bless people, one spouse is in the physical world one spouse is in the spirit world; changing the landscape of the spirit world, removing the barriers between the different cultural, religious groups in the spirit world, breaking down barriers ... He's changing the rules. He's making the rules and changing rules; and opening the gates of hell in 1984.

So, I realized that a true person is way beyond just being a good steward.

And another thing here (as we see in this picture) is that we need some quiet time. Not only Father said this, but other ministers, spiritual leaders ... Pastor Rick Warren in California ... He's got 130,000 people in his church. He wrote, 'Purpose Driven Life,' you know, very famous, great John the Baptist. He's the best of any Christian that I've ever seen.

But the point is that they all say the same thing, 'We need quiet time.' Pastor Rick Warren says we need twenty minutes a day of quiet time. Why? Because you need to listen. God might want to speak to you. If I was giving a class on prayer, one of my main points is about listening. I always tell people that one of the most important things about prayer is to shut up and listen.

Of course, we need to report. That's our responsibility. It's very important, critical ... If Adam and Eve had gone to God about Lucifer, God could have intervened and done something; but, God will not intervene in our life if we don't ask and give God permission. He refuses. So, we do need to report. But, sometimes God has something to say to us. Don't you think? Don't you want to hear that?

But, if we always have ear buds in our ears like the college kids do here 24/7 and always filling every empty moment with noise, with some kind of music or some kind of something; then, how can God speak to us. It's impossible.

I was on a mission. I was witnessing in New York City many years ago on a team in a center. We had teams and I had a partner. I've been a very healthy person all my life. I never had a family doctor... Thank God and thank my ancestors that I've had a pretty healthy life, stable; but that morning I was so sick. It was just amazing how sick I was. And I told my partner, 'You better go out; because I just, I have to stay here and recuperate. I have to get over this. You go out yourself with somebody else.'

So, I went upstairs and I crawled into the sleeping bag in the walk-in closet in the brother's room. And I laid there and after about twenty minutes, this loud voice boomed out from somewhere. I mean it must have been an ancestor or an angel or somebody God was speaking through to me. And it said to me, 'I don't need you to be a lone ranger any more. I need you to be a big brother/father to the others.' And it was so shocking to me.

You know, I heard it and I knew it was true; and but, I just wasn't that kind of person. I knew I was the lone ranger. I'm the Noah type; and, if God told me to build a boat and no one wants to help me, then fine, I'll build it myself. And I always prided myself in that. But actually, here's God saying, 'I don't need that anymore. I need a brother. I need a father figure.'

And I knew it was true. It wasn't my imagination; because, I never thought that way, never, ever. But I knew it was true. And I've been trying ever since to live up to that message from God. And then, after about twenty more minutes of laying there, my sickness went away, boom, gone. I was fine.

So, the point of the story is that God had to make me sick, knock me down, so He could talk to me; because, I was too busy doing the mission to hear what He had to say to me. So, we don't need to make it so hard for God to speak to us. We need to have some quiet time in our life so God can speak to us. Get alone. Find a quiet place. Turn the phone off and get away from everything for a little while every day. Let God speak to you. It's very important.

And of course, every thought that goes thorugh your mind you can't consider to be the word of God; like, 'Go kill you central figure.' No you have to judge everything according to the Principle. Make sure it's principled and that you can trust it. But, we do need to put our antennas up and listen if God has something to say to us.

So, that's all I feel we need to really say about the third blessing. Let's talk more now about growing?

We need to grow right? We have of course three stages of growth. We have the formation stage of growth. We have the growth stage of growth and we have the completion stage of growth. And the top is, of course, perfection.

So, what do these things mean, anyway? formation stage of growth? Well, we have to have some practical definition in our minds. Otherwise, we're not even in the game, not really living this stuff. We need to put some feet to this.

So, formation stage, what does it mean? my little baby granddaughter two years old ... I think it means something like self-centered, conditional love, something like that. It doesn't mean selfish in a sinful sense. It just means that, as a new baby, child, infant, they're naturally just soaking up everything like a sponge, God's love, God's heart from mom and dad and their environment. And that's the way they need to be. It's natural. It's correct. It's principled. There's nothing wrong with it.

Father said that even God was self-centered in a sense, before He created; because, there was no one else to have give and take with, right? It doesn't mean selfish and evil. It just means just by Himself (Air's note: God's dual essentialities of masculine and feminine loving the other , wanting to give the other essentiality of God's own nature more than that half for the other's sake ... something like that )

So, a child starts this way and of course, their love is conditional. If you hurt that child, it's going to be affected. It's not just going to bounce back and love you anyway.

I mean, mother's know that even the baby in the womb is affected by her spirit and her attitude and her thinking, right? That's why at Cheong Pyeong they're always rubbing their tummy and they're praying for the baby. And even before you conceive that baby will be affected by your spirituality, even the man's spirituality. Even before the woman conceives, the father and mother's spirituality will affect the child; and, after the baby is born also, of course; I mean, you can't treat the child with hostility and unloved. The child will be scarred, affected by that. So, it doesn't have unconditional love yet,right? Sure.

So, what is the growth stage, then? The child grows more and becomes a social being and has friends, siblings and playmates and buddies and interacts and shares that love that it knows; but, the love is still conditional. It's not unconditional. It's still conditional. If you abuse it. You bully it, you hurt it, you accuse them and condemn them and hurt them, they're going to suffer. They are not going to be able to love you back no matter what you do.

So, their love is very conditional; but, they're social beings now. So, they grow in that conditional kind of love; and, then there comes a time in their life when they're more and more mature. And when they're ready they enter into a union as a man and wife, as a Blessed couple. Then, they're starting to experience unconditional love, loving unconditionally, hopefully each other to start with, or other things before that ... Their mind and body are totally united in love toward whatever it is, to whoever it is, maybe their parents, family, brothers and sisters, their new spouse and of course, when the new baby comes along, they learn that kind of unconditional love and it grows and grows. And it's supposed to grow, right? and expand out.

So, the question becomes, 'What' the difference between unconditional love and perfection? My Italian grandfather was a very loving man. I really admired him and I thought he was about as good as it gets. He lived for his family. He always thought about his children and his grandchildren, and he lived for them. I'm sure you know many people like that in your country, right? And that's all he lived for. And he worked two jobs in the depression and he walked ten miles to work through the snow and all that kind of stuff for his family.

But of course, thought, when he was quite old and before he died, I realized something about him, and it's no big surprise. It's no big disappointment or anything. It's just the way things are; but, I realized that he didn't feel that way toward other people, like people across the street or people next door, I mean people of other colors or people of other nationalities or cultures. No, he didn't have that kind of feeling for them, just for his family. And it's good; I mean, God Bless him. That's about what you get, right?

So, what's the difference between my Italian grandfather and Jesus or True Parents? What's the difference? Well, it seems to me that the difference is that Jesus and True Parents are perfected people. They have the kind of unconditional love, willing to give Their Life for anybody, even the people who hated them, the people that killed or tried to kill Them. It doesn't matter how unprincipled or bad they were, even Lucifer, They loved them.

So, my definition of perfection I guess is universal, unconditional love, when you love anybody and everybody that way, not just your family, but the people across the street, the people on the other side of the world, the people who don't agree with you, whoever.

And while we're growing this kind of love, we go through a period of discipline, discipline, self discipline. It's the root of discipleship, as the disciples of Jesus, disciples of True Parents. Discipline means you know what's right and you make a conscious effort to follow it. We need to do that for a time while we're growing up. That's very important and necessary to live that kind of disciplined life.

But most religious people think that that is the ultimate human form of life, is to have ultimate discipline, to be perfectly disciplined, to know your scriptures, memorize your Koran, memorize all your Bible verses and be perfectly disciplined. They think that's as good as it gets, that's the best you can have; and, maybe when they go to heaven it will be even better than that, but they don't know.

Well, then here we are with the Principle. Father explained, actually that that is not the goal, that its not the ultimate, that is not as good as it gets; because, when we have universal, unconditional love, actually, we don't need laws, rules and commandments any more to follow. We can just follow our hearts, and our heart will always lead us in the direction of true love, so that we'll always be doing something that's Principled, and we don't need moral laws, rules and commandments to tell us what is the right thing to do. I mean we can just follow what our heart guides us to do 'freely.' I mean, people all want freedom, right? But they don't really have freedom until they have universal, unconditional true love of God; because, they're always doing unprincipled things and getting hurt. That freedom is leading them down the road to destruction.

So, perfect discipline is not the goal. Freedom, total freedom in the true love of God is the goal; and, that is achievable for human beings. Maybe not in your own lifetime; but, your grandchildren, but your great grandchildren definitely should get there, if you are raising them properly.

It's a process. We're in process. We have'nt even seen real human beings yet, from God's point of view. We have'nt. Father said that in the third and fourth generation of Blessed children we'll see a lot of geniuses. That means we're in a process of cleaning up and perfecting. It's going to take some time. We have thousands of generations of fallen ancestors affecting us. So we can't expect it to be too quick. It's a process. We're in process

Dae Mo Nim said that eighty percent of our personality is our ancestors and spirit people around us. So, we have a lot of work to do. We can't expect it to be quick; but, it's coming. And we will see perfect human beings on earth. Wow! ...

Another thing about growing is that we have two purposes. We have a purpose of the whole and a purpose of the self. And a good example is this little bumble bee. He's taking care of himself. He's eating. He goes around, he's concerned about his own well being, his own life. He doesn't want to die. He's nourishing himself. He wants to eat and he wants to be comfortable; but, while he's living his life for the self, he's also living for the whole purpose. Because, as he goes around, he's bringing pollen from this plant over to another plant and pollinating the plants. And he's serving a great purpose, public purpose.

And also he makes honey, not only for himself and his own bee hive, but other people can eat that honey and animals; and, they can benefit from that. It can be very medicinal. Royal honey is very beneficial for anybody. It includes all the elements of the plants that the bee was visiting; and, it can be very powerful medicine for people.

And when the bumble bee dies, it might be caught by a bird and eaten and then the nutrients will go into the soil and feed the plants and it serves the purpose of the whole. So every living creature is like that; and, people too need to live that kind of life and realize that we too have a purpose of the self, our own well being and comfort, but we also have a purpose of the whole (as well as a purpose of the self). And we need to harmonize those. That's the same as mind/body unity, right?

So, here's a saying. I just summarized our position on this. It's a very beautiful thing, I think.

"Ideally, there should not be any purpose of the whole that does not recognize and contribute to the purpose of the self, and there should not be any purpose of the self that does not recognize and contribute to the purpose of the whole."

It's quite beautiful, actually. It's really a beautiful thing. I'm sure you can inspire many young people with that.

And Father also said that children should have three pets. And that doesn't mean three turtles, but three kinds of creatures. And to learn and experience God's love from nature, different kind of love. I mean, God made these bundles of love for us, you know, this cute little puppy. Some dogs are so cute; and, rabbits, cats, and different kinds of things. They're so cute, right? We think they're cute. Did this dog sit in front of a mirror making itself cute for us. No. God knew what we'd think was cute, so He made this dog cute for us so we would think, 'Oh, how cute.' It's just a bundle of love from God for us.

And so, we can learn love from the creatures, better than the fallen people have, right? Adam and even Adam and Eve were to learn love from nature and experience and see God's Hand in the flowers and the birds and the insects and the trees and the fish; and, they would realize, 'Wow, so much love is there. And it would just affect them.

You know, this picture is particularly meaningful to me because ... You know the eyes are supposed to be the windows to the soul, right. When I look into the eyes of this little puppy, they just look so empty. He just looks, really, like there's nothing in there much ... He's really ... I mean, God bless him. He's a cute dog; but, when I look in her eyes, the girl holding him ... Wow, her eyes are just sparkling like diamonds. You just feel like the whole universe is in there. Whouh! ... and it is. So anyway, I just can't help but compare the eyes of this little pooch to the eyes of this daughter of God here. It's a big difference, a big difference.

There's a native American story ... Indians ... They knew the Principle too somewhat. Somebody, anybody can have some of the truth ... and there's a story about a Cherokee grandfather. And he was taking care of his little grandson one day. And the little grandson was playing around with the grandpa one day and the grandpa said to the little grandson, 'You know son, there's a war going on in every human being, every person, there's a war. And the war is between two wolves. And he said one wolf is kind, generous, caring, loving, sensitive and the other wolf is mean and nasty and selfish and rude and cruel, hurtful.' And then the little boy went away and he went around and he played with his toys for a while. And he came back and he said, 'Grandpa! Which wolf wins?' And the Cherokee grandpa said, 'The one you feed.' I thought that was a good story ... the one you feed ...

HOW WILL YOU KNOW WHEN YOU HAVE ARRIVED AT OR ACHIEVED PERFECTION?

So, the question becomes, 'How will you know when you have become perfect? How many of you in your room there in the Phillipines are perfect? Anybody there perfect? Probably no hands went up. How will you know you're not perfect. I mean, we have to have some idea of knowing when we get there; otherwise, you won't know when you get there. How do you know you're not there? How will you know whether you've reached perfection or not. We'd better have a criteria; otherwise, we're not even in the game. So, how will you know?

Well, like we were saying, 'When you love every human being, every single person with the love of God, like your own child, that you would give your life willingly for them like Jesus and True Parents, then you made it. You know, universal unconditional love, when there is no human being in the world that you don't have that love for, if there's one person that you just can't love, if there's one person you can't love that way, maybe they're your spouse, maybe they're the mean bully at school, then you're not quite there yet. That's okay. We're all working on it. We're getting there; but, when you love everybody with God's love, I think that's the understanding of perfection. You've reached, you've gotten there.

Father said: 'In order to become God's child, you need to take after His heart. His heart is embedded in the world. Therefore you must love every single person in the world."
CSG 1st ed., p 1507. 1969.9.7

And here's another quote from Father:

"If you can love every person who is your grandfather's age as your own grandparent, you will surely enter heaven. If you can love every person who is your parents' age as your own, there will be no boundaries for you in the spirit world. If you can consider all the young people in the world as your own children, you will be able to visit any place in heaven. Even though there are twelve pearl gates leading up to heaven, you will be able to pass through all of them. The family is the teaching material through which you can relate to the whole Kingdom of Heaven. In other words, it is the textbook.
(Blessed Family - 924)

WHY GO TO COLLEGE?

So, let me ask you something. Maybe there's somebody there in your high school or in your community of faith who is going to college. Well, the question is, 'Why go to college?' And when I ask a room full of members of students, then they always answer to me, 'Well, I'm going to college so I can get a good job, to make more money.' Okay, well that nice. That's a good reason, a very practical reason. Well, to be honest, to be really transparent and honest about it, I've been around and gone to college and to the campuses many, many times. I can see what's going on. I know that there are many other reasons why people are going to college.

There are people who go to college to find a spouse, find a husband or find a wife. There are people who go to college to get out of the house and get away from mom and dad, so they have their own life and their own bedroom and can smoke pot and do drugs and have sex affairs and boyfriends and girlfriends, (they think), 'I can do what I want because mom and dad's not there breathing down my neck.' You know, don't tell me. I know that. I went to college. I know about it. I understand. There's a lot of reasons why people go to college. Some people go there because they just don't have anything better to do. They're killing time. They can't find a good job so they might as well go to school. There's a lot of reasons to go to college.

How about going to college to become God's son or daughter? Can you imagine? I mean, remember that we talked about it the second day, about how, if you develop yourself, your creative abilites, your logic and reason and rationality, mathematical and harmony and balance and relational skills. You're becoming more like God. What is somebody said, 'I'm here at college to make myself more like God?' Wow! I mean, what a powerful motivation. What a powerful purpose.

I mean, I can't see anybody, I can't perceive that kind of motivation in anybody at college; and, I think we should strongly encourage any young person in our movement who's going to college to read at least two little books. And I have these books. One is written by one of our PHD brothers named 'Jonathan Wells.' And he ... I know him; and, He shook up the whole humanist, aetheistic world with this book. They were so upset and mad at him. I mean, he's not the only one to write this stuff. But, he investigated Darwinism and how its taught and everything; and, he exposes in this book ... You can find it on Amazon for a penny or cheap, get it, I really encourage you to do that ... and he exposed the fact that virtually all of the examples that Darwin used and the people use in the public school textbooks to explain and defend Darwinism were faked!

You know, they took a moth that looks like a tree, but that moth that looks like a tree, but that really has nothing to do with that tree and they glued it on the tree, to make it look like (what they say), 'Oh look how it blends into the natural landscape. And now, when you see the public school textbooks they have a footnote at the bottom of the page that says, 'This picture was faked. This example was faked.' It was because of his book. He really made them mad; because, they really don't want to let go of Darwinism. They don't want to believe in God. It's very uncomfortable for them. They're holding onto it with white knuckles. They really don't want to let go.

So, the point is that, when you go to college at least in America, that's all you're going to hear is Darwinism. 'Oh, it's survival of the fittest. It's random, accidental mutations. This religious concept, intelligent design, oh it's just foolishness and stupid.' And you know, if we don't equip our young people and arm them with the truth, I mean, they're going to go to the college as so many have done and they're going to sit there and listen to this PHD Dr. guy and they're going to think, 'Oh, he's so smart. He knows the truth. My church is stupid. I'd better leave.' But if we equip them with the facts and the truth, the scientific truth, (I mean, Jonathan Wells is not the only one saying this), then they can sit there and they can say, 'Excuse me Mr. Professor, you know, you're talking about 19th century science. We have plenty of science today that shows that this cannot explain many things. What wrong with you? Aren't you up with it?'

And if the professor flunks you and fails you and give you an 'F,' fine. Take the class again from somebody else. I mean, somebody has to stand up to these people. They just keep getting away with this. And the same thing for communism, marxism ... We have the expert, professional Bill Leigh and Tom Ward, years ago in the 1980's. They research marxism. Father gave them the mission; and, they gave these stunning presentations to thousands of ministers and social leaders and politicians. And it was highly respected, totally researched; and, they knew exactly what they were talking about. They're not the only ones saying these things; but, they exposed the fallacies of Marxist theory.

And if you just read ten pages out of this little CAUSA world view book that they published, you'll understand what's wrong with Marxism; but, when you go to the college campus, you're just going to get this wind in your face, in the philosophy department about how great Marx is, 'Oh,' and the political science department, 'He's such a great philosopher. We've never really given his ideas a chance. We should try it.' And with all this stuff, they're just indoctrinating people with Marxism; and again, also our members sit there and they think, 'Oh, this Dr. PHD guy, he's so smart, he really knows. Our church people are stupid. They say it's evil.' But it's because we didn't explain to them.

And later in our webinar, we're going to talk about this; and, I'm going to take a few minutes and explain to you what's wrong with Marxism. It's ... So, we need to help our young people so that when they go to the class in college they sit there and they can say, 'Excuse me Mr. Professor but I think you're out to lunch. Come on, what about this? What about that? What about that? Somebody has to speak up to these people. We can't just let them get away with this. And we're the ones who have to speak up; and, people will come to our defense. You watch.

Anyway, I think it's not too much to ask some of our young people to read a little bit of the CAUSA book and this other book ... also he has some newer books and equip themselves to go to college. We can't let them fool us like that and brainwashing people like that.

We have two paths we need to go in our life. You know, Adam and Eve before the Fall, they only had one path to go, and that was perfecting their heart their love, their character. They just had one thing to do. But now, we have two huge jobs to do. We have to do that (as Adam and Eve before the Fall); but we also have to live a whole nother kind of life, which is completely different, which is cleaning out our fallen nature, restoring our fallen nature, not only our own but that of our ancestors.

We have to walk the path of restoration, right? So, we have to walk the path of developing our true love; and, we have to walk the path of restoring our fallen nature. We have two completely different lives that we have to lead at the same time. And I have to say, unfortunately, many of my older brothers and sisters, my age, have gotten lazy or arrogant or something and just given up. They thought, 'Well, you know, I used to do conditions and stuff like that when I was some young member. I was on MFT or some fundraising team, you know; but, I'm a big boy now. I'm good. I don't need to do that kind of stuff, fasting and praying and doing conditions. You know, I'm 60 years old.' You know, this is really a killer.

I can tell, I can see what people are doing in their life by just looking at their face. They're dry, they're tired, they're empty. I don't see any shine. God has left them. Why? Because they're not swimming in the river. They're just floating down the river and making a bad condition by thinking they're fine. There's an old ancient proverb that says, 'If you think you're fine, you're not.'

And so, we can be fooled by the dark side into this mistake to think we're fine and we don't need to exercise our spiritual life. We need to exercise it. It's like riding a Unicycle. I used to ride a unicycle to school every day when I was in eighth grade, a couple miles up and down hills. It's a lot of work riding a unicycle with one wheel because you can't coast. See, a lot of our members, these older members are coasting on their life of faith that they did when they were younger. But, on a unicycle you can't coast. You have to peddle. There's only one wheel. You have to work on it all the time. You can't coast. We have to realize that.

BE SELF REFLECTIVE

So, Father's very practical. He's not just a preacher, some kind of pastor up there talking the truth and sitting in a chair giving wisdom like some sage. He said to us that we have to grow, so we have to be self-reflective. He said, 'You know yourself better than anybody else. Get out a piece of paper and write down the four things that you need to work on in your spiritual life. Your weak points. Things you need to develop. Write them down.' And then He said, 'Work on one of them for three months. Pick one of them to work on for three months. Then pick another one.' He said that, by the end of the three months, and then by the end of the year, you'll be able to say, 'Wow, I'm getting some place here, making a little progress. And do it again the next year, same points or some other ones. And that's practical goal setting.

WORK ON ONE AREA EVERY THREE MONTHS

When you make a goal, you have give and take with that goal, it creates energy. If you don't have a goal, you're going to get there and that's nowhere. You have to have a goal, and then it's a process, step by step. How am I going to get there. If you don't have a goal, that's where you'll get, nowhere.

PART II
WHY ANGELS DIDN'T GROW TO HAVE PERFECTED HEARTS OF TRUE LOVE

Okay, I promised you yesterday that we're going to talk about our cousins, the angels. This is an entirely different ... Yesterday we talked about how the angels were limited in their ability to grow even though they were around for billions of years and had billions of years to grow and yet, even Lucifer, who was a leader most trusted by God, but, he couldn't reach perfection. Yet, human beings are supposed to reach perfection before they have children. It's just an unbelievable difference. It's a big difference.

And as we said yesterday, one big factor is that they (the angels) don't have any direct experience with the school of love. They don't have children, they don't have spouses, they don't have brothers and sisters, they don't have nephews, cousins, aunts, nieces and nephews. They don't have the direct experience of a family. They're just individual truth ... they're individual task-oriented creatures. They're happy that way. Cows don't want to be horses. They're happy that way. And they love God and God loves them. And their His servants. And they do what He asks them to do; and, He loves them for it. And they love God.

They (the angels) don't have the horizontal. It's just very vertical, right? That's one thing. But today is a completely different topic. There's a more fundamental reason why angels could not reach perfection, even after billions of years.

So, my question is, 'What is the purpose of the physical universe?' In other words, Dae Mo Nim said that God went to the angels one day and said, 'We're going to create the physical universe.' And the angels said, 'What for? We don't need that. We have everything.' But, God saw something greater. The point is that in the spirit world they have mountains and trees and bushes and rivers and animals. And that's where they're supposed to live forever, not here. So, it's a wonderful, gorgeous place. But, there must be something really different about the spirit world and the physical world; because you can't somehow perfect yourself there. And yet here it seems to be really easy. I mean, twenty or twenty-five years is nothing in your physical lifetime. It's just a breath.

Father said that when you go to the spirit world your whole life will flash before your eyes, and it will be like a moment in time, just like a breath, nothing. And twenty-five years before the fall for Adam and Eve to reach perfection before they have children, is nothing. So, there must be something awefully different about the physical world compared to the spirit world. What is it? Why did God invest billions of years, a tremendous amount of energy to create the physical universe so that we could live in it for seventy or eighty years. I mean, what in the world? God invested billions of years of effort to create this physical universe so that we could live in it for a moment, a moment in time, just a flash. Seventy or eighty years is nothing compared to billions of years. And we're supposed to be able to reach perfection in a heartbeat. I mean, what is so special about the physical universe? Why did God invest billions of years creating it?

What's the difference between the spiritual world and the physical world? That's the question. And it's a very important question. So, here's how we can think about it. Let's say one of you, the brother sitting in the back of the room leaning against the wall by the door, that he's actually not a human being; but, he's an angel. He's an angel in disguise. And he's actually there on a mission. And, all of a sudden, there's a terrible disaster in Taiwan. And there's an earthquake and a tsunami or whatever; and, God wants to help those people. So, God has a new mission for that angel; and, He calls that angel in the back of the room and says, 'Hey, I need you to go Taiwan and help out.'

So, how long does it take for that angel to get to Taiwan? Right, he gets there in just a snap, boom, it's a thought, right? He doesn't have to go fundraising to buy some new clothes or go online to a good website and get a plane ticket. He doesn't have to pack and go to the airport and stand on line and go through security and sit on the plane for ten hours and get there. He doesn't have to do any of that, right? He's an angel. That's how the spirit world works, right? just boom. You're there because you want to be there. You've seen the movie, 'What Dreams May Come,' right? That's how it works. That's the spirit world.

So, the point is that angels who live in the spiritual world for billions of years, there's something different there. They don't have to experience of waiting, like we do. No angel has the experience of waiting for a stop light or waiting for a meal because it's not lunchtime yet, or waiting for somebody to show up or having enough time to do something, or having enough resources to do something or having enough people to help do something. They don't have the experience of waiting, like we do.

See, in the spirit world time and space are like water. It's different from here. It's different. But, in the physical world, in the physical universe, time and space are slowed way down. It's not like water. It's like honey. If you have a glass of water and a glass of honey and you pour them out, the water just 'whoot' (falls) but the honey is very slow. So, God made an environment for us where time and space are slowed way down; and, we have to wait for a lot of things.

A mother carries a baby in her womb for nine months. She has to wait. So, what's the point of waiting. Why should we have to wait? Well, if we don't have an environment where we have to wait like that in time and space, then there's no way to develop the virtues that are the foundation for love in our life, the virtues. For example, patience. How can you have (the virtue of) patience if you never experienced waiting for anything?

Lucifer obviously was not patient. I mean, he was going to have his own spouse in seven human generations. That's no time at all, seven generations of a hundred and fifty years. But, he couldn't wait. He didn't see it that way. He wasn't mature enough for that, you know, can't wait. So, we learned to wait in our life, right?

What's the first thing you have to teach a child, when you have a child one or two years old? What do you have to teach them? You have to teach them deferred gratification, right? deferred gratification. If they go to the store with you, they're crying and throwing a fit, 'I want that toy.' And the parent has to say, 'Well, I know you want that toy; but, you can't have that toy today, maybe next week. We don't have money to get that toy today.' They have to wait. It's a very important, critically important and vital lesson to teach children. If you don't teach them deferred gratification, they're going to be a horrible person when they grow up, right?

Patience, not only patience but humility, respect, tolerance ... I was taking a philosophy class at the college nearby. I went there on the first day of the class. I went there before anybody else. I was sitting there waiting for people to show up; and, all of a sudden, this one student walked in, very tall young man. And he had black waxed hair and tattoos and chains with a dark leather outfit down to the floor. He looked like Darth Vader or something. And I was like, 'Wow!' almost scared, I thought, 'Wow. What kind of person is this?' As the class went on week after week, sometimes he would talk to the professor. And the professor would talk to him; and, I realized, 'Wow, he's pretty smart.

And one time he sat in the desk next to mine. We had a little chit chat, you know, 'How you doing today?' and I realized that he's a regular guy. I mean, we could be friends. But in the spirit world, see, I wouldn't have that opportunity; because in the spirit world you're not stuck in time and space as you are here. You know, I got to know this guy because I was stuck. He's in my class, or (could be a situation where) he's my brother's sister or he's my next door neighbor. You're stuck.

But Father said that in the spirit world, if you don't want to see a Black person in the spirit you'll never see them; because you don't want to. It's like in 'What Dreams May Come' (the movie), remember that story? So, it's a whole different environment. You're not stuck in time and space. How can you learn patience? How can you learn respect? How can you learn tolerance? How can you learn deferred gratification? You can't learn these kinds of virtues that are necessary in order to develop true love. You can't.

So, that's why people who die and go to the spirit world before they reach perfection have to come back here and associate themselves (returning resurrection right?) with people here so they can learn these lessons. And we'll be talking about that tomorrow.

So, there's a whole big difference between the spirit world and here. God made time and space way slowed down. So, what is the point of my teaching this and spending all this time on this? The point is this: Life is supposed to be frustrating. It's designed that way. It has nothing to do with sin or fallen nature or anything like that. It's supposed to be frustrating in a natural way.

A mother has to carry the baby for nine months in her womb. That's frustrating. You have to climb the stairs to get upstairs to your bedroom. You have to wait for the bus. You have to wait on other people. If your tire goes flat on your car or your bicycle, you have to fix it. Your computer has a problem or a virus and it slows down, you have to deal with it. You don't have any of these problems in the spirit world, unless you make them yourself in your own mind. It's not that kind of a world. But there are lessons to learn here from that; so, next time you have a flat tire on your bicycle or your car, don't curse.

And Father said something to us very strongly many times, Father said, 'Never, never complain. Stop complaining. Nothing to complain about.' And Dae Mo Nim told us that the reason that spirit world cannot work with us more than it does already and do as much as we would like it to do is because we complain too much. People think that the American sport is baseball; but, it's not. It's complaining. We complain about everything. We have to stop; because, it just kills our spiritual life. We'll talk more about that later when we talk about history. But, there's no reason to complain. We're supposed to learn virtue from the challenges that we face every day in our life; but instead, we complain. Very bad.

Father said, "The spirit world is in a different dimension from this limited earthly world. We cannot move freely within mundane confines, but as the spirit world is a higher-dimensional place, you can do anything there; you can leap across time. If you want somehting based on love, you can have it all, anytime, anywhere."
CSG, original, p. 554

'Wow!' ... So, this brings up a great big concern of mine; and, you need to think about this. We have a real big problem staring us in the face; and, people are waking up to it, like Elan Musk is waking up to it. He has a team of people, Elan Musk; and, he makes this 'FaceX' and the Tesla cars and all that wonderful, incredible, Godly stuff and he's concerned about technology taking over (This is another topic: I'm not really talking about that.) But he's working ... (and I think there is a second-gen brother working with this team or in some way connected ...I'm not sure; but, I heard that) he's working to create this neural implant for your neck, where the computer can interact with your brain. And some day the computer will be implanted into your body or whatever, to augment and make you, your brain, more powerful; and, you can think a thousand times faster and do multi tasking and all kind of stuff ...

I mean, wow, Star Trek is coming, it really is. But the point is ... You know, I saw a movie years ago where they were talking about Star Trek technology and what could be feasible, what could be done. And they were talking about this replicator. You know, a replicator it's a hole in the wall and a box; and, you walk up to it and you say, 'I want some hot Early Grey tea or Green tea or whatever you want, a hotdog, and Whoosh! It just creates it out of the atoms right there. It just creates it right in front of you, a steaming hot cup of hot chocolate, whatever you wanted. And they explained that this is coming. They're working on it. In twenty years they'll have it. So, you can create money. A block of gold. You can create a diamond ring. You can create lunch. You can create whatever you want.

So, the point is that replicator device with your neural implant in your neck, you just think about it, you just think, 'Mmnnn, I'd like to have some macaroni and cheese right now.' You just think about it and the replicator will create it right in front of you. Wow! And you won't have to talk to each other any more; because, you can just communicate via your neural implants, your wifi, whatever is going on. You won't have to work any more. We'll genetically engineer ourselves so that we don't have to wash our face. Men won't have to shave anymore. If you want some new clothes, you just think about it and this replicator will make you a new dress. I mean, life will become care free. You won't have to wait for anything anymore.

See, this is a big problem; because, we have the ability very soon to completely undermine the purpose of our physical life, where life will become so care free that we won't have the time and space restrictions that we were supposed to live by. So, that bothered me so much I could hardly sleep; but, after some months, I realized, 'Well, human beings ... You can't stop this technology. God is giving it to us; but, I guess the time will come when we're going to have to make a conscientious decision to tell their children, 'No, you're not going to play in the holadeck today, in the virtual reality deck today, you're going to play with the kids next door. We're going to go to the beach. We're going to get our feet dirty in the sand and the water and we're going to get a sun burn today. How about that? Wow! You're going to have to orchestrate and manage the lives of your children to help them grow to learn the lessons of life, so they can perfect their life. I guess that's what's going to have to happen.

But, it's worse than this; because, when we're hooked up to our neural implant with our computer chip and we're multi-taking and all, then the geniuses are going to say, 'Hey, I've got an app; and, we're going to curcumvent all of this fallen nature stuff. How about that? We're going to neutralize our prejudices and our selfish attitudes and our hateful, hurtful bullying ... We're going to nuke all that fallen nature stuff with our app. Our app is going to neutralize all that stuff; and, you're going to say, 'Wow, what a great day. It's a new day. What a wonderful world this technology is, right?

BUT, WHERE IS THAT NEURAL IMPLANT CHIP GOING TO BE WHEN YOU DIE? It's going to be laying in your coffin. And when you go to the spirit world, you won't have learned anything. This is a real problem. This is a real, real, real big problem.

So my point is, you people, the people who know the Principle, the purpose of life ... (that kind of people) who are living a Principled life have to be leading the way here into the future. You have to be leading technology. You cannot let this technology be led by the fallen world who doesn't know why we're even here and who doesn't believe in God and the spirit world ... doesn't have a clue. They're just making life easier and easier every day. They're going to make life ... They're going to ruin this whole thing. You have to lead the way, so that technology will enhance the purpose of life and help us to achieve what we need to achieve in our life and not undermine our ... It's already hard enough; but, we're going to make it impossible.

I want to show you a little video clip here. I want to introduce you to Atlas, just so you know how things are going here. I want to introduce you to Atlas. He's cutting edge technology here. So, let's meet Atlas now ... (movie shows the robot getting pushed by a stick and falling on the ground, he (the robot 'Atlas') gets himself up, he walks through a door, he goes into another room, he's jumping on smaller and bigger blocks all by himself, then jumped on a much higher block, then did an about face and tumble saulted landing on his feet on the ground.) That's not digital cartooning there. That's, that's Atlas, and that was years ago. So, he's going to be changing your grandchildren's diapers some day, driving you wherever you need to go and teaching homework to your kids. And that's all fine. I have no problem with any of this. What I have a problem with is that somebody who knows what we're here for needs to be leading the way with this stuff.

CONSCIENCE VS. ORIGINAL MIND

So, there's another big issue that we want to cover before concluding here today. And that's about conscience and the original mind. In the Principle the original mind is explained as that part of the original mind that God put there in our mind. It's like our bios in our computer. You can't corrupt it. You can't delete it. You can't alter it. It's like the GPS in a computer. It guides you. It's like a compass that points always to God. Father said that without the original mind restoration would be impossible; and, He said that if man were left on his own without the fallen nature that the original mind/conscience would automatically lead you to God. Wow! It's really important.

But, it also explains in the Divine Principle that the conscience is not the same as the original mind; but, there was a time when Father was giving the Peace Messages that Father was using the word conscience. And it seemed like He was talking about the original mind and it seemed to make a lot of confusion with some of you. So, I want to help you sort that out and get a mature understanding of this, so that you can understand what Father was saying. And I'll explain it clearly here.

Father said, for example, in Cheong Seong Gyeong:

"The teacher closest you you is none other than your own original mind. More precious than even the closest of friends is your original mind, even more precious than your own mother or father. You need to consult your original mind. god dwells there. You should learn to listen to what your original mind tells you."
(CSG - 1st ed. p. 1479)

"Your original mind is better than I am. It is your eternal master."
CSG - 1st ed. p. 1479.

but He also said (This was during the Peace Messages): "Our conscience acts as a true parent, true teacher and true owner on behalf of God, guiding our life and educating us from the moment of birth. Our conscience functions as a guide, keeping watch over our every action at every moment."
CSG - 2nd ed. p. 1404-5, no. 9

Also: "Your conscience knows everything about you before your teacher or pastor knows. It knows before your parents know. It knows them even better than God knows. So, place your conscience in God's position over your life and go the way of absolute obedience, of high noon settlement whereby your life cast no shadows. then it is certain that your mind and body will resonate and perfect a harmonious unity."
CSG 2nd ed. p. 1397. no. 15

"The conscience needs no education about right and wrong. We have to give it absolute honor and obedience, just as we would honor and obey God."
PHG - p. 91

But, the point is that the prisons are full of people who have done every kind of horrible crime, raped and killed and dismembered people; and, their consciences aren't bothering them at all. Father said the streets are full of animals with human faces who have mistreated women for generations. Our conscience, people's conscience is not bothering them when they do bad, wrong things. So, how can we understand and make sense of this? Well, Father also said:

"Your conscience always speaks out for your own benefit, trying to connect you to true love. Like a parent, your conscience urges you to be a good, unselfish individual, and guides you to do the will of God ... Your conscience, then, is the agent of God within you and may even be called a second God."
PHG - p. 822-3

"God bequeathed to us the conscience with the original function to guide and watch over our lives. However, the conscience, which should be clear as crystal, has been clouded due to the fall. Amid all manner of sin and spiritual sckness, it now is unable to fulfill its original function fully."
CSG - 2nd ed. p. 1405, no. 10

"There is no way for fallen people to restore original function of the conscience by their own power. This is because they have not established a direct vertical relationship with God."
CSG-2nd ed. p. 1405, no. 11

So, how to make sense of this. I'll make it clear. First of all, if you go back the the black Divine Principle Book, it gives a very good explanation of this kind of stuff. The explanation in the Exposition (Expostion of the Divine Principle) Book is a little less clear; but, it's still there. It's a little less clear. But, here's what it is:

THE ORIGINAL MIND VS. THE CONSCIENCE

THE ORIGINAL MIND

HAS GIVE AND TAKE

WITH YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE TRUTH
(or your understanding of right and wrong)

THAT GENERATES CONSCIENCE

Your understanding of what is right and wrong, good and evil, your understanding of that is what the original mind has give and take with. And that give and take with what you think is right and wrong, good and evil, generates what we call 'Conscience.'

So, therefore, if people think, 'Well, you know, your rich and I'm poor; so, I have every right to take what you have and keep it for myself because I just have to have it, and I'm just going to kill you if I have to to get it.' If you think that's right, then your conscience doesn't bother you.

And if you think that you should just rape that woman over there because you need it and she's just a 'thing;' then, your conscience doesn't bother you. And so, your original mind knows better; but, you understanding of right and wrong ... (can be distorted like that as a basis of what the conscience has give and take with). So, when Father was saying that your original mind knows everything and can lead you directly to God, that's when your conscience has (give and take with) a Principled understanding in you. When you have a principled understanding of truth, when you have a principled understanding of right and wrong, good and evil, then that is in harmony with your original mind; and, your conscience will be you correctly, just like your original mind. There will be no difference.

So, what Father was saying is that the original mind can lead you to God when your conscience (is having give and take with) is with a Principled understanding. But when your understanding of right and wrong, good and evil is unprincipled, then there's a conflict there; and, your conscience is all messed up.

So, Mrs. Eu ... (Remember I told you that you should buy this gold-colored book. It's called, 'A Testimony to Gods Word In Regard to The Divine Principle' by Giljesa Eu. She's Mr. Eu's wife, President Eu, who wrote the Divine Principle Book (transcribed from Father). He had polio or something; and, he sat in the corner of the room and was writing the Divine Principle. He went to the spirit world. Anyway, this book is gold. It is not just colored gold. It's really full of amazing stuff. You need to buy it and read it if you can get it.

Anyway, she (Mrs. Eu) asked Father about this. She was that close to Father. She had access to Him. And she said, (Here, I'll just read it), 'Father spoke putting conscience in the highest position, (saying) conscience comes before God, teachers and even before parents (So, she knew He was talking about original mind) So, she said, 'I think the conscience spoken of here is different from the conscience explained in the Principle. In the Principle, is'nt conscience explained as being susceptible to human policies and thoughts?' She's asking Father this question.

So, Father quickly caught on and said, 'Yes, will the people of the world understand what original mind and spirit mind and spirit mind are? So, we have to call them 'conscience.' In other words, Father knew what He was talking about, of course. He knew He was talking about the original mind. But, He said that this is our own terminology. Nobody uses (the term) 'original mind.' It's only in Divine Principle. So, we have to call it conscience because people understand (the term) conscience. People have some idea about what conscience is; so, we use that word to speak about it publicly. So, that clears it up, right. Father is using the word 'conscience,' but He is talking about the original mind. He knows that people won't understand what origial mind is.

And I suspect it's the same kind of thing for mind/body unity. I mean, He's clearly ... He told us that He's not talking about the flesh vs the brain or the mind. He's not talking about that. It's very clear. But, He's using that terminology because that's the terminology that people have been using for thousands of years, 'mind/body unity.' But, as Unification Thought says, it's all going on up here (points to head). It's not about a war going on between my arm and my mind. It's not. That's not what it is. He knows that. It's how you have to talk about it.

So, in conclusion here, people think that Jesus was born perfect. Well, he wasn't born perfect. He was born pure and sinless; but, he had to grow to perfection. And we'll talk about that when we talk about his life. But, here's what St. Paul says in Hebrews 5: 7-9 :

"Jesus grew to be who he was by his challenges and sufferings." Hebrews 5: 7-9

Wow. That's exactly what we're talking about, right? And the thing is:

EVEN GOD IS GROWING WITH US!

This is the big point. Because every one of us is unique, a unique expression of God, then when you experience having grandchildren of your own, God is going to experience that through you in your way, through your eyes and through your heart, in a unique way like He never experienced it through anybody else. And so, He's growing with you as you experience things He never experienced (quite in the same way).

When Adam and Eve had grandchildren, that was supposed to be His first experience ever; because, angels don't have grandchildren, first expereince ever with having human, divine grandchildren. And of course, He could experience that through the True Family. Of course, they have their issues right now; and, they're straitening that out right now. And they will straighten it out over a long period of time.

But, you know, God couldn't experience human relationships and life through our eyes and ears, except through us; and, in your own unique way. I mean, when you smell a rose, that's unique to you. You can describe it that smell and how it looks to you; but, it's not the same as how it looks and smells to me. Everybody is different and God is thriving on that, growing with us. So, if we sit on the couch and waste our lives just playing games all the time, not doing anything to grow our spirit to resemble and resonate with God, our heart, mind and spirit and personality, ultimately, we're just really denying God the opportunity to grow Himself, not just for us. So, we're really, actually, handicapping God in His own development.

Wow, how important we are. How could people commit suicide if they realized how important their life is. They're important to God, priceless, irreplaceable. There's nobody like you and never will be. Wow!