To The Los Angeles Family

Good morning! I know you have been waiting and waiting for me on the West Coast, unhappy because I was so far away. If you have studied the Divine Principle, you should know what time period we are in according to the providence of God. In your own life, too, there are many transitional periods.

You pass through the period of childhood into the period of youth, and then to adulthood and old age, but you can't pinpoint the exact transitional point. In daily life, too, one starts from morning, goes through the day and comes to the evening. But one can't exactly pinpoint where the transitional point is.

Everything begins and ends without your knowing whether or not you are missing what is important and valuable. You may think, "If there is a God, why doesn't He let us know?" -- We want to know every minute of our life what is going to happen to us. But if you know that, you would go crazy because so many things happen to you. And most people are somewhat afraid of their fate. If you could predict what was coming, you would always be thinking of what was coming at each moment and worry about it.

But there's one thing new you should grasp. You must know where life begins, what goal it is headed toward, and where it ends up. Many philosophers and great thinkers have dwelled on the meaning of life, but there has not been a single one who has really clarified it. When you are asked, "Where are you from?", you must think of your parents, and the parents of your parents, and their parents and so on until finally you come to the very source of life.

You think of your forefathers thousands of generations back, and then you think, "Those people ought to have been born of someone too, so, what is the first source of life?" Without an answer to that question, you are always vague and uneasy. Small children are told again and again that they came from their mother's womb, a concept which they vaguely understand, but they don't remember it. It is true that we come from our mother's womb.

Then what caused us to be born out of our mother's womb? We were not born spontaneously, in nature. In the world of God, we know that every result is due to a cause, we can continue by saying that the very source of life must have reason or cause. There is a cause to life. If God is that source of life, we can imagine that He must be anxious to tell us that human beings are born from Him.

Though He may not be a physical entity, He's anxious to tell man how he was born. When the channel is open, to those who are spiritually attuned, God is always telling the truth. There have been many prophets and saints who were told by God the position of mankind in the history of God's providence, so they knew that there was a source of life which could be defined as God.

Though not fully clarified, man has been philosophizing about the source of life. Prophets have been teaching people in vague terms that there is a divine source of life, and philosophers, as well as scientists, began to teach about the source of life in their own ways. But the source was still not clear. In telling us about the secret and mystery of life, do you think philosophers are closer to the truth, or is what prophets teach us closer to the truth?

We cannot deny that the prophets almost unveiled the truth though their answer was not quite clear. The purpose of life and the direction of life were not well explained by the philosophers, but by the prophets and other spiritual leaders, namely the founders of religions. In the history of mankind, there have been many cultural spheres -- for instance, Mohammedanism, Confucianism, Christianity, Buddhism, and Hinduism -- and we know that these cultures were founded by deeply religious men.

Can you solve the mystery and problems of life in terms of science? Has man been able to do that through economics? No. No known power or authority can solve this problem. You are now living in a country with material abundance which is the leading nation of the whole world, yet you have lost your direction, and no authority, no power, no position, no wealth, no knowledge can lead you to the goal.

All young people -- not to mention old people -- have fallen into despair. As you well know, many think that America is doomed to perish. Why is it so? Why do you think America has a dark prospect? It's because they're headed nowhere, they don't know the goal. They have tried every possible way and yet they have not been able to discover a true way of life.

If it were a case of life starting at one point and progressing to another point, one could see clearly. But the course of life is like the tide: it comes in as a full tide, and then ebbs away. It will go up to the shore with a surge of water, but then it ebbs away, it falls back, and between low and high tide, it vacillates all the time, without quite reaching the shore or the heart of the sea. Can you pinpoint the start of the tide and its endpoint?

No one knows. Life is something like that. But we sense spiritually that there's something wrong and that we must get out of our present position. It's not the way it should be. So, you must either make a great leap, or retreat to the original position and start all over again.

We say we want to make a big leap, but we don't have a direction, so how can we do that? When we make a leap, who knows, we could fall down in the middle of our course. When we want to retreat, maybe we will retreat into darkness, into Communism, evil, or wars. Something like that could happen, so it's very dangerous without knowing the direction.

Thus, we are at a loss as to what to do. What shall we do? Shall we just stay where we are, with folded hands? You don't want to perish away, having done nothing. What made you join our movement? You thought, "Maybe this movement will lead me somewhere at least, somewhere in the direction of my spiritual desire."

There is that kind of trend in this movement. Then however hard you may struggle, can you reach the goal all by yourself? (No!) Since you don't know what life is all about, the most important thing is to find -- if not find, sense that there is -- God. By doing that, your goal is set, and you are on your way.

If you find a great leader, would you not leave everything concerning your life to him and wouldn't you want him to lead you everywhere? If he has to cut you into two and sew the pieces up again to make you whole -- on the spiritual level, of course -- would you not have him do it? In that case, you are, going to be re-created.

So, you want to become clay, to be remodeled by his hands. You must come to the position that you are lifeless. You may want to open your eyes wide and look at yourself, see what's happening to you, but that's not the wise way. Close your eyes, leave everything in his hands, and hope to be re-created.

Were you like that before the movement? I know about the Los Angeles smog. Los Angeles is a low-lying, hollow place, and all people are struggling hard for their livelihood; there's not much in the way of spiritual vitality in this city. What were you doing before the movement?

Since joining the movement, you have been looking forward to seeing Master, and now, looking at him, you think, "Oh! He's an Oriental man, a man of average height. I don't see much difference in him from an ordinary man." You are looking at me, staring at me, and analyzing me.

I think you are different from what you were just a few minutes ago, because you have been given the wisdom of how to be re-created. Become nothing, leave everything in the Leader's hand, and you can be re-created. If there are two ways, which way would you prefer? Would you want him to draw you back to the original position, or drag you ahead? (Ahead!) Why? It is because when you want to go back to the original position, things become constricted and you may be on your own.

But as you head for the goal, there are going to be many people joining, and many people will be your brothers and sisters, participating in the same cause. Knowing this, which way would you choose, again? (Ahead!) But if you don't start all over again, you don't know the importance of the cause of life. The best way is to do both. If possible, would you do that? (Yes!) Well, you are greedy.

You must know that there are two kinds of people in the world. You have been dreaming of your bright future planning what you will become in the future, "I will become this, and I will get more money, I will get power, become powerful, with more knowledge, and things like that." This is all for your own benefit. You have been going the self-centered way; you left God and you came to deny God, because in going your former self-centered way you could not possibly find God.

On the other hand, there are people who have questions concerning the source of life, and unless that problem is solved, one wouldn't feel like living. Finally a person can either discover God intimately or only vaguely grasp what the source of life is. Though you cannot exactly grasp what it is, in your course of life you have concentrated on securing a livelihood.

You have been groping in darkness in search of the ultimate cause and the light of truth. Without your being conscious of it, you have been going both ways. If you continue on the worldly path of life, you get nowhere, because there are multitudes of people going in their own directions. But if you narrow your view in search for God and for the very origin of life, then you are safe in treading on your way in life.

In the common worldly way of life, you change every day. You are marching forward, headed for somewhere, but there's no guarantee that that way of life will bring you to the goal set by God. If you are really wise, you want to go back to the beginning to grasp the source of life, to go the narrow way, and start all over again, and then go into the mainstream of life to safely reach the goal, all that time being connected to the source.

That is a very wise way, the necessary way, and the only possible way. Who can teach you that kind of way? Scientists? Philosophers and great thinkers, or spiritual leaders and religious leaders? (Religious leaders!) There are many religious leaders and spiritual leaders, but not all have been able to communicate with God; we must locate those who have been communicating with the very source of life.

God has been sending such people. We must join them and go to the very source of life. There are vast numbers of religions in the world. But you must be able to find out which one is in the mainstream, or closest to God. You want to know the purpose of life, but who has set the purpose of life? Has man done that, or has God fixed it? Yes, men can not establish that point. The most valuable thing, the most saving kind of thing is that you should return to God. Let us return to God.

All the rational intellects in the end come to realize that we need God. But what is life like, once we have God? What is the Unification Church? The Unification Church is the place where you are taught how to return to God. Our motto is, "Return to God on the absolute basis." Some people think of God in their minds and spirit, but their eyes are looking at something else, their ears are hearing some other sounds, their limbs are tending to go towards other objects. They're using their five senses for many different things, while in their minds they are thinking of God.

When your mind is somewhere else, and your body is here, and you are so greedy as to take something from this movement, you are far from God's way. When you dedicate yourself to God, you must dedicate not only your physical body, but your spirit and all your senses as well as your belongings. Everything must belong to God first. Would you want to return to God bit by bit? Or immediately and absolutely return to God? (Absolutely!) Your mind and reason tells you to do that, of course. So if someone teaches you in the real way and honest way, you will know what to do.

You want to meet God, don't you? Would you cling to God, once, you have found Him, so that even if your fingers are severed apart you will not let Him go? Are you now just touching God, and letting go if you are in a difficult position? At the time of Creation, what would your eyes have been created to see first? Is there any such entity as God?

Do you think that your eyes were created to see your lovers and sweethearts first? (No!) What do you think your eyes would want to see first? (God!) Father left his newborn baby at home. When he was first born, he had his eyes wide open, but they didn't know how to focus on people. They see spiritual things first, and then gradually they grasp things and human faces, then they move their eyes about as the things are moving.

The first human beings you ever saw were your mother and father. Then who are the parents to your father and mother, and so on. You search until you come to the conclusion that your eyes saw God first. What do you think Adam and Eve saw first? Adam was the first human being ever created; would he have looked at himself? (No!)

Without doubt, he saw God first. What comes next? What is the value of seeing God? You feel happy. God being the source of happiness, you feel happy to see Him, you don't get tired of seeing Him. God created man to be happy and joyful, so we must feel happy and joyful to see God, and God will never get tired of seeing his children in perfection. We have always missed God, we have not grown tired of seeing Him.

When your baby is in your arms, you try to make him or her laugh or smile, and he or she smiles back. After drinking milk to the fill, the baby smiles in happiness, and the mother smiles, too, back and forth -- a reciprocal base is made. As the author and creator of life, God takes great joy in seeing man -- in perfection, of course -- and we are happy to see God, and that is the way it should be. God being eternal, unique and unchangeable, this joy and happiness must be unique, everlasting and unchangeable, too.

This is what human beings have lost. If we had possessed all those things from the beginning, no one could put asunder the bond between God and man. But we lost God. If you are orphans, are you happy or miserable? (Miserable!) Why? (No parents!) Oh, you can go without your parents. Why are you unhappy? (No love!)

Parental love is the first love you ever experience, so you lost your first love. What number position does marital love occupy? Second. Was the first love dearer, or the second? (The first!) Then why don't American children have filial piety towards their parents? Is that the true way? Right way? No. We must eradicate all our old habits and build a new tradition.

Did the author of life, God, when He created man set up the law of how to connect yourself to others in divine love? Was the law of love already existing or as time passes, will the method and laws be set up? They already were existing. When the pine tree is there, was that a pine tree at that spot upon its birth? Or, as it grew bigger and bigger did it come to be a pine tree? Which is right? (The first one.)

Communists say everything comes into being as it grows -- something like that. The law comes to exist as they grow in order to develop. If there is the author of life, God, He is the cause of life, and He already planned the purpose of life and the result. Without the blueprint, how can anyone create anything?

God, when He created man, had the blueprint ready for man, and we know that there was in the beginning a set purpose. The Communists say everything is born out of nature. It just happened to be there. Well, that's no logic at all. Without your building the house, can a house be there?

You know your father and mother love each other, and you are born out of their love, but their loving act -- according to the Communist version -- is one of struggle to produce something. That's no logic at all. I'm going to draw an example. The ultimate problem is: which comes first -- spirit or matter? (Spirit.) Why don't you ask the Communists? What would their answer be? (Matter.) How do you know which is true? Have you analyzed it?

I will give you an example, and my explanation will force you to say "yes." You have your eyes. It may sound simple, but let's explore the cause of your eyes. Where did your eyes come from? You may have to say they came from your parents, and where did the eyes of your parents come from? If you go back to the very first ancestors of mankind where did their eyes come from? That's the question.

The Communists might say, they came out of earth, out of nothing. In Christianity, a God-recognizing ideology, they will say they came from God. But how do you know that? Let us pose a question to the eyes when they were first created at the time of Creation. Would the eyes answer you, "I'm born out of nothing" or "On my own accord"? Could the eyes create the eyes? (No.)

Closely examine the function of your eyes. When the eyes were created do you think the eyes knew that there was going to be a sun to look at? To examine the function of your eyes, no doubt the eyes -- well, not the eyes itself maybe, but the cause of the eyes -- knew that there was going to be the sun for the eyes to look at. But in the womb of your mother, did your eyes know that there was going to be the light? (No.)

Why do your eyes twinkle? The eyes or the function of the eyes seems to have known that water was evaporating from the face of the Earth, and you want to keep your eyes damp, otherwise with your eyes dried up, you eyes cannot function. Did the eyes themselves know this fact? (No.) The eyes seem to have known -- if not the eyes, the author of the eyes, maybe -- seems to have known that there was going to be dust all over the Earth so your eyes blink with the eyelashes.

But did the eyelashes know that there was going to be dust all over the face of the Earth? (No.) But they were made to function like that. Then who was it that knew? There certainly was someone more than the scientist, more than nature, someone very logical, very scientific, so that the eyes and everything when they were created were made to function like that. How many eye doctors do you think there are on the Earth? With all those doctors put together, they cannot make it clear what was the source.

Was it the eyes who made themselves in such a way that no scientist can ever determine the truth? When it comes to this point, you are compelled to think that there must have been a blueprint for the creation of your eyes and every cell of yours. Can you deny the fact? (No!) How can you think that matter comes first?

Look at and study your own face. You have a protruding forehead with eyebrows. Why are they created like that? They seem to have known that on the Earth there would be rains coming, and rain cannot go directly into your eyes. You have two lines here, and you sweat, and the sweat cannot go directly into your mouth.

Can you imagine what would have happened if you had an upturned nose? Raindrops would come in. When we come to think of this, can you still say that matter comes first? (No.) Does matter come first, or spirit? (Spirit!) If you have been thinking that matter is first, you have been caught.

Well, do you believe in Communism or in God? (God!) Every morning from now on, when you look at yourself in the mirror you must study the mystery of your whole being. If your eyes had only the holes, what would have happened? All those things are made so delicate to function in perfection.

Let's come back to the mainstream or the question. What is the Unification Church? We say, "We must return to God, let us return to God." In the Unification Church we advocate that we must become one with God, united into oneness with God. Your eyes will be His eyes. Your eyes will double and become one. Then you will be His counterpart, and not just two, but one.

Your eyes will see what He would have you see. You will eat, smell, hear and do things as He would have you do. Heart and mind, everything is united. The ultimate thing is that we come to heart-to-heart confrontation and that's the most ideal form of religion. It is a wonderful thing for you to experience this kind of movement. After our having become one with or united with God, there's a way open, we are going to be led by God, and we cannot miss the goal.

Led by God, we will go straight on the way, and we cannot miss the mainstream. Then we are sure to attain the goal. That's why in the Unification Church we claim that we have to return to God. That means we have to restore ourselves back to God. We use the terminology "restoration." What will happen after the restoration, after bringing our church back to the original position? From then on, we are going to start with our ideal life.

Again, our mission in the Unification Church is first to return to God, to be restored to our original position and be united with God, with the whole of mankind. We will bring men back to God and have them be united with God, and from then on, an ideal world can be learned by us. That is the mission of the Unification Church.

You are in the prime of youth, and before it's too late you must decide where to go. To do that you must have a clear notion of your goal: To return to God, be united with Him, and bring all other human beings back into God's bosom, have them be united into one with God, and begin the ideal life in the Kingdom of God on Earth. Then you will be able to connect this world with the Spirit World, and with your knowledge of both worlds, you cannot miss the true way of life. What you are going to do is live in the Kingdom of God on Earth.

Well, you like me, you love me, you miss me, but what do I have different from you? I have one nose, I have everything just the same as you. What do I have different? Naked, all men are just the same. Then what makes you love me, miss me?

We have been groping in darkness in search of some light, realizing that we were somehow missing something in human life. But if you've found in this man the leadership for going back to God, and becoming one with Him -- to gain the whole world and live an ideal life -- would this man be so different from you?

Reverend Moon has been a person of riddles and puzzles to the world. He's always teaching people, and in teaching he talks about mysterious things, and it seems different from what other people teach you. In the audience, if you are intoxicated by his speech, you just forget about even using the bathroom.

You want to have me here forever, don't you? (Yes!) That is possible. If your movement in Los Angeles is the most flourishing one, I'm forced to be here. God and Reverend Moon, both like the best place to live in when the people there have the best place. By that he means if you have more membership than any other center in the whole world, he cannot but be affected by your energy. If you are confident, go ahead and do that, while we wait and see. Shall we pray now?

(Mrs. Choi prays.)

Just one word to the newcomers; When I next see you, I want you to become really strong members, and I want to know that you will have brought many other members into the movement. By the way, Los Angeles sounds like "lost angels." Can you restore that?