Here are my notes from Hyo-Jin-nim's speech Sunday 24 September 2006. My ability to convey what was actually said is limited. These, at most, convey some sense of what Hyo-Jin-nim said and are not a verbatim record.

Joe Kinney

Rev. Andrew Compton is the MC. All welcome Hyo-Jin-nim and Yeon-Ah-nim and offer a bow.

(Hyo-Jin-nim bows to the audience as he approaches the stage)

Please be seated.

Good morning. (Audience responds, good morning.)

Let's talk about Dream. (Laughing)

I'm not talking about fantasies or night mares but about dream.

I guess that everybody knows about Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech.

So when you talk about dream, you're talking about a vision, and when you talk about a vision, obviously you're talking about something greater than your self beyond your personal individual desires or reality, something grander than that. Hopefully if you believe in God it has some kind of religious tone to it.

It is a kind of mission statement. When you talk about a dream, ultimately it becomes a mission statement. I believe. I dream about something. We like to talk in general about, everybody whether you believe in God or not, world peace. We don't want people killing each other. We want harmony. We want peace, prosperity. So that is basically what it is in the end when you talk about a dream; something beyond your self, something greater that involves a higher power.

How one interprets what is a higher power obviously can vary. Communism had its own ideology that lasted about seventy years, and pretty much conquered the world -- almost conquered the world but they failed. It lived about the average life span of an individual human being and disappeared. Nobody will believe it again.

It's something like that. A dream is something grander because its vision oriented. And when you think about a vision obviously it's beyond what you are immediately pursuing and need. So how do you go about achieving something that you immediately need and can achieve?

What ever the circumstances might be, if you make a mission statement, obviously you have to prove it. You're committed. You're basically telling everybody that this is what I am. And you're forcing something to other people, a third party, expectation. That's what you're doing. What you're dream becomes in the end, just for your sanity's sake, your survival's sake; it becomes a need-to-do responsibility; because otherwise you will fail.

When you fail; when you say all those big things and you fail, it's miserable. You're asking for it. That's why we have to think about what we make that kind of mission statement.

Why do we do it; for what reason are we doing it? Are we doing it for ourselves or are we truly pushed because of some kind of circumstances you genuinely feel that you have to do that. And if you fail with that honesty therefore you have some dignity in it.

Even if you fail, start over. If you don't you're in trouble. Why? The definition of arrogance is ... Keeping your word is very difficult. Being humble is keeping your word. Avoiding arrogance is trying to be humble. What being humble is is keeping your word.

And it's very difficult. You can be a humble guy and try to keep your word and miserably fail. But in the end, the good people, who observe a higher power, can forgive you. If you don't have that, it is very difficult.

It is easy when you look at this world to self promote and you think "I'll become a star." Becoming a star has nothing to do with becoming something that is relevant in changing the world. Especially in relationship to God, most likely it has a negative connotation. It's all about megalomania stuff.

Most stars you see, they put on a front. They're different but it's difficult to find the definition to describe those kinds of people. They definitely have a certain kind of mental state, whether you describe it as a disorder or not that's relative, especially people who are in it. Obvious they do have a sense of self grandeur and power and money and whatever.

What does that have to do with a vision? What does that have to do with a dream that we seek?

There are examples our there all over the place. The problem is that it (these stars and the multi-media) comes into our sanctuary. Our individual home is, in a way, our individual Garden of Eden. Do you know that? You as a parent who have children, you're basically going through the process of building the kingdom of heaven on earth starting with your family. As the story goes, the person who had that kind of understanding to give proper guidance to Adam and Eve, because of his corruption things were tainted and the fall occurred.

Do you think that you're absolutely in control of your Garden of Eden? You're not! You have so much corruption coming in whether you like it or not. Unless you make you're house a prison, literally, you can't stop it. You can't stop those influences. It's corrupt. It's decadent. And sometimes it's outright criminal. Just because it's available and just because you can do it, not everything is good for your Garden of Eden.

The problem is that you can't control it. You might make your house into a prison, but the children have to walk out to go to school Pretty much they spend at least sixty percent of the time out of the prison, even if you built it into a prison. How are you going to control that? I can only control the Garden of Eden but not the other stuff.

You have to start from somewhere, the individual level and the individual family situation. From that multiplying and through connecting you build the ideal Kingdom. Now put aside the connection for a while. Can you protect your own Garden of Eden? And if all sorts of stuff is coming in that can contaminate it and corrupt it, then what are you doing to replace it. Do you have something to replenish? Do you have a system do you have a means by which to replenish that kind of corrupt influence?

(I believe that in the next several paragraphs Hyo-Jin-nim is referring to our thirst for knowledge and the influence of bad types of multi media and information and the need to have good multimedia and information to counteract it.)

You can't stop the mind, or the hunger of the belly or the mind or the spirit. Its wants to grow and it's going to take it one way or the other. When you're thirsty in the desert you're going to drink piss water. If you're adrift on the sea and you've got no water, you are going to start drinking seawater and kill yourself. It's that stuff. It's the nature of survival. So you have to deal with the basic element of what it is. It makes us who we are.

We cannot avoid what we are as a human being, physical human being, intellectual human being, spiritual human being. You can't just emphasize one. You have to align that stuff in the proper way and that's the difficulty. And you have to keep it coming.

Wouldn't you like to know how people think in politics and religion and business and what makes them tick? With any age group, young people, middle aged people, old people, the more stats you have the better chance you have in dealing with the physical world right? Wouldn't you like to have that kind of information? Wouldn't you like to know how your children think? You might think that you know how your children think, but what about their peers?

It's not just your children who are living on this planet. There are hundreds of millions of fifteen year olds and fourteen year olds, thirteen year olds. Wouldn't you like to know the answer to the basic question of how they think? Wouldn't that give you a better understanding as to how you go about literally dealing with your children? It's better to take the guesswork out of dealing with the problem.

If we can do that we will be a better organization. That is the kind of empowering attribute that can change, not just the world, but you, your family and make a difference in your family. That's the kind of stuff that can stick; the kind of stuff that can take root and from that you can build. So you don't have to fight when you these crazy kinds of examples of people who just because they have something well political ambition, maybe oil-rich people like Venezuela or Iraq pursuing their own agenda and having some kind of hoopla in the moment but in the end because they are pursuing something personal it's not going to make anything better. It has to be fundamental. If you really want to change; if you really want to really make a change that matters in building an ideal world you have to include everyone. Everyone to what degree; by knowing what they're dealing with in life, what kind of people they're dealing with, what kind of world that they're dealing with. The more information that you have the better.

I know that you're not going to go and betray somebody; you're not going to back-stab somebody, if that information is given. You are not going to use it for your selfish abuse, your gain, your greed. That's important.

That gives you the power, if we have to survive on our own, to survive because we understand how the world works, how people think, every aspect of life. The more you have it, the more detail you have, the better for you. Then it can really build the strong root. Screw the flower. The strong root is what is important. The flower will blossom one day. The whole point is to be the best, to be the (knight in) shining armor stuff, right; to be the vanguard of humanity.

We're competing with every other religion in the world. I know that in the end we don't need religion. What is your dream? The people that precede you should try to give you as much information as possible.

Go ahead and learn your skill. Learn something; learn your skill; find your calling. I don't know what your calling is. Wouldn't it be great if we were in a certain position where we could take care of all those things and reward those who actually sacrificed for something because every thing is managed properly? Even if it doesn't I still believe that's right. If you do (sacrifice) so too then I will try to do what ever I can in my little power.. Let me just put it this way: I will be there for you.

With Father every time it's always an emergency. The reason is that He has to love you right? And He has to love a certain tradition. We all have to have that. It can be done right and it can be done wrong.

If you go into the game of criticizing; I can do that really better than you. (Laughing) I went out of my way not to do that for a long time. I made my self not to speak and taught myself how to shut up. I'm just picking it (public speaking) up again.

To be honest with you, I'm feeling something. I started this (Speaking at Belvedere on Sunday mornings) on a condition. Something changed in me. I said that I felt that I need to do this, but it's a little more because time has past and I see certain faces and when you have that kind of human relationship and human interaction, things do change.

That's personal and I don't want to get into that. This is something that is mine; you try because you have that kind of stuff. You don't always find hope at the top of the mountain. You don't always get inspired by the biggest things that you see. Sometimes that can be big and that can be invisible.

It's up to you. What are your dreams? There is a way to make that dream come true. You can do it. You always have to know where you stand before you die. When you die everybody knows that you're going to be judged by God and history and posterity, if you believe in the spirit world. Before you die the greatest judge is the judgment that you give to your self. I want to be proud. I want to have no regrets. I did every thing that I could, the best that I could. Regardless I did it the best that I could.

OK?

Dream the dream. I hope that we can meet each other ion the end.

Alright; take care of your self.

We'll see you next week.