Book Ten - The Way In The Completed Testament Age
Chapter One - A Perspective on Human Life
Section 1. What Is Human Life?

1.1. Problems in life have been like a maze

Why were we born, why should we live, and where should we go? You should not think that you were the cause of your birth. People are born into this world yet do not know the origin and purpose of their birth; they are ignorant of the motivation and purpose of their existence.

Neither our birth nor our life nor our death stems from our own intentions. Then, what do we have to be proud about? We have no control over our birth, we are merely custodians in this life, and we cannot avoid the path of death. Thus, any attempt at self-praise and holding self-indulgent pride is pitiful. Once born, we are destined to live, and destined to die and pass away to the next world. (7-178, 1959.9.6)

Up to this present day, philosophy has historically labored to solve the problems of human life. Many philosophers arose and took great pains to come up with all kinds of theories with regard to true human value and perfection, and to succeed on their own in order to be proud before the whole universe. However, today we see that all ideologies and assertions that led to the establishment of new ideological systems were tested in practice by human society and found to be failures; they all fell by the wayside. (141-125, 1986.2.20)

Why do people live haphazardly, hating to die, yet harbor many questions in their minds, such as, "Why am I living? What is the origin of my life?" The answers to these questions cannot be found in books written by philosophers because the purpose of philosophy lies in seeking and paving the way toward God. Then what is religion? Religious life begins from learning about God in order to live together with Him. (186-12, 1989.1.24)

What is the purpose of this life? You should reflect on this question once more. Since we are not the cause, it follows that the purpose does not lie with us alone. No one would object to the idea of being happy in life. No one would reject a dazzling life. Yet none of us is free to live as we please. Still, each of us wishes to feel pride in ourselves, live freely with respect to our own will, and be remembered accordingly. These conflicting elements can all be found within our hearts. (7-178, 1959.9.6)

Let us say you live up to eighty years of age. If you subtract the hours you spend sleeping, you are left with about fifty years of life. Would you say you are alive when you are asleep? When you are asleep, you are as good as dead, because you are inanimate. Sleeping is the same as being dead the whole time. The number of hours you labor each day to make a living is about half of the twenty-four hours in a day. Now deduct the time you spend eating. From whatever time is left subtract the time spent visiting, going to friends' parties, attending the sixtieth birthday celebrations of village elders, attending funerals and wakes, and being bedridden. In short, if you were to exclude all the days you lose for whatever reasons that might arise, you cannot claim to have actually lived very much. Would it even be half of your entire lifetime? When I calculated this recently, it came out as roughly seven years. Even so, of those seven years, how many days could you claim to have truly lived? (49-336, 1971.10.24)

Life passes by very quickly. After attaining maturity and coming to know the affairs of the world, doing things here and there, you will find yourselves crossing the forty-year mark, and soon after that, the fifty-year mark. A decade will fly by in the twinkling of an eye, and in what will seem like only seconds, you will be sixty years old. Then very soon you will be seventy, but only for a minute before you age again. When you think about it, the saying, "Life is but a fleeting dream," has never sounded so true. (188-38, 1989.2.16)

A person's fortune stretches and shrinks like an elastic rubber band. If someone who is born with fortune valued at 100 spends 120 in the course of his life, his descendants will perish. If he spends only 80, he can bequeath the remaining 20 as a blessing to his descendants. (78-332, 1975.6.10)

You can change your fortune, but not your inherited destiny. Can you change your homeland? Can you change your parents? However strong a nation's sovereignty and customs might be, it can never change the fact that you were born as the son or daughter of your parents. As can be seen, the path of restoration is also a destined path. (172-55, 1988.1.7)

When you make a wrong start, you end up in a totally unexpected place. Hence, when a ship sets out into the great ocean, it should chart its course and follow the compass from the moment it first sets sail from port. Then, what is the port of departure for human life? People do not know. Where can we find the direction and guiding compass to reach our destination in the world beyond? People have not been able to find this, so they have been wandering about back and forth. However much they try, they are not able to overcome their human limitations. (172-28, 1988.1.3)

1.2. What is our destiny?

Where will we go after this life? People must resolve this important issue. Religions and philosophies arose historically to do this. You therefore cannot deny that all of you too are caught up and driven by this destiny.

That being always the case, where are our minds and bodies trying to go? Where are our hearts, wishes, hopes, and ideals trying to go? Toward what do our lives incline? Even if we cannot answer these questions, we are still destined to eventually pass away. When we die, our bodies will be buried in the ground. So then, will our minds, lives, hearts, ideals, and even hopes be buried together the day our bodies are buried? Do they disappear? Unless you have sound contents, solutions, and a purposeful perspective, you will inevitably become unhappy people. (8-194, 1959.12.20)

In order for cicadas to become adults, they must first hatch from eggs and then pass through the maggot or larval stage. While in that stage, they live either underwater or underground, but that is not the final stage of their life cycle. Their ultimate destiny is to fly in the air. Before they can do so, however, they need to make preparations while they are underground or underwater and these preparations are indispensable.

For them to pass on from the larval to the adult stage, they need to make thorough preparations to fly while still in the previous stage. To pass from the former to the latter, they need to first shed their shell, the final barrier before their state of maturity, and molt into adult insects. While living in water as nymphs, they need to be broad and flat, to float easily; on the other hand, when they have become adults and must fly in the air, retaining such a shape would not work. Thus, they need to undergo a complete metamorphosis to adapt accordingly. (120-222, 1982.10.17)

For what reason are we born? What should be the focus of our life, and for what purpose do we pass on? These questions can never be answered without God. Without Him, we cannot find our true purpose in life. Those who lack purpose can neither reap the fruit of their work nor have their value recognized.

A building is constructed according to an architect's blueprint. Without reference to that original blueprint, it cannot become what was originally intended in the design. (21-100, 1968.11.17)

The arrival of autumn foretells the coming of winter. Only those with vitality can pass through the course of winter. Things without vitality cannot but retreat from it. Thus, they need to be infused with new life before the coming of winter. We need a new principle and thought based on a new love, and a new outlook on life, the world, and the universe. Without these, we cannot survive through winter. The course is arduous, but once you acquire the vitality to pass through winter, spring will draw nearer with each passing day. The mild spring days will soon arrive. This is the path trodden by the Unification Church. (35-68, 1970.10.3)