Good morning. [Good morning] Do you like to fight? [No.] Why do we fight? [To win, to dream] To dream? Wow, that’s cosmic! There’s a lot of fighting going on, right?
It’s sad and I’m sure that in your own ways, I don’t know you individually, but I’m sure that you have to struggle and you have to fight. So, for life in general, dealing with people is necessary because you can’t live alone. If you want to live alone, go live in a mountain and become a “hunter and gatherer.” [Laughter] You’re more than that, so you fight.
That’s one way to avoid fighting, just cut off all the world, and just find some land, if there is a piece of land left over, where you can actually live that caveman-like life. You can do that.
Okay, having said that, why do we fight? What do we normally fight for? Let’s talk about physical things. Let’s talk about possessions. What do you in physical things, within the limitations of physical things and possessions, the concept of possession, what do we fight for? [Something better, home, truth]
We’re just talking about physical stuff here. I mean literally possession stuff. [Control] Authority, control, power, money, fame, they’re just purely physical stuff.
What do you fight for on the next level, on an intellectual level? We fight an imbalance called what’s fair, what’s righteous and all that stuff, all that goody-goody stuff. And what about the spirit?
Okay, before we get to the spirit, let’s just talk, let’s dwell on this stuff for a little while. When you break down the physical self, what are you actually trying to possess? Because it’s about possession, what do you what to possess beyond the generalities that I said earlier about power and money? What does that give you? Why do you think that people pursue that stuff? Because they want comfort; they want pleasure; they want control. They want stuff like that.
They need to feel that kind of adoration. Adoration is very physical. You know what I’m saying? Why do you want to be adored? Why do you want people to like you? It’s a physical thing. Unless you have a reason for it. If you do have a reason for it, that is of the divine, it doesn’t matter. Adoration doesn’t become that physical in that temporal sense. It really doesn’t matter. And you get fixated on that stuff.
How do you think any kind of addiction begins, whether you’re addicted to whatever stuff here or there, sex, drugs, whatever. How do you think it begins? It’s because you’re fixated on that stuff. That’s it. All those things are very physical. The thing is that physical and spiritual have some kind of reflective quality, a reflection quality.
Physical stuff is very individual. Spiritual stuff, all those things, you can feel it with God. What you see when you look at yourself in the mirror is you, your reflection in opposite, however you should see God in it, not just you.
Stuff in the middle, that’s the problem maker. That’s why we fight, because we don’t know how to control that reality. We don’t even know how to see that reality in the order, in propriety, as God wants us to be. That’s the difficult path, very difficult.
[Hyo-Jin-nim becomes very emotional with tears from this point to the end of the talk.]
You will struggle to the end of your days. Anybody who tells you other wise … I won’t see it. My children won’t see it. My grandchildren won’t see it. My great-grandchildren won’t see it. It will take at least ten more generations. But you do certain things because you believe that you can do something about what you don’t like, what you want to change because you think it’s wrong. It’s going to take time.
If anybody tells you otherwise, let them do it. Give them everything you’ve got. Let them have everything that you have because it won’t happen. I swear to God it won’t happen. But we believe in something right? We can make it right. Nobody’s perfect right? At best we have representation, the best we can have right? Hallelujah! [Laughter]
We need to move on, trying to better ourselves in making that understanding real. Think about it. You know God has a right to love everybody right? You want things to change? Change is love. What the heck is love? God just loves me? Just you? No. Everybody, right? You have to allow that to happen. You have to create that kind of environment. That’s what’s important.
And I said what you fight about on the physical was possessions and intellectual was imbalance. Spiritual is arrogance. You can’t be arrogant. You can’t just say that “Oh, your love is mine, all mine!” You can’t do that stuff.
If you truly love somebody, you want to love everything that you have in front of you, right? Do you select your kids “I just want to love this kid and kill the other ones?” You can’t do that. It’s wrong. I don’t think that anybody teaches that to be true love.
It has got to order more and more, deeper, broader and broader, higher and higher, in all sorts of ways in three dimensions and beyond. If we can achieve it, let’s just think what we can do in physical terms. That’s what we need to focus on. That’s the kind of church that we need to be. Otherwise just …
I want to live up to my expectation that this name puts me under, this slavery. I’ll do it. I’ll do it. As long as you … If you’re here, I’ll be here. No problem. Stuff happens … every day. It’s not that bad. You always have to move on and hopefully you can make progress, Quality! Quantity! Speed! That’s all you can do … and you’ll die. [Laughter] Isn’t that the absolute truth? Anyway … We’ll try right? Let’s not fight, okay? Loving is difficult enough, I don’t want to fight, okay? Take care.