Book Fourteen - A Life Of True Filial Piety
Chapter Two - True Loyalty and Filial Piety
Section 3. True Loyalty and Filial Piety Is Being Obedient and Loving Others

Filial sons and daughters must fulfill their filial duty while their parents are alive. Loyalty also must be fulfilled when the king is alive. It is no use at all trying to fulfill your filial duty after your parents have died. Loyalty is of no use at all when the king is dead. People who try to do this are deceitful. Rather than making a big memorial service for your parents after they die, it is much better to say even one good thing to comfort them while they are alive. It is much more beautiful to become a partner in their sadness and try to comfort their hearts while they are alive, rather than setting up a service with thousands of kinds of food for them after they die. It is much more precious to fulfill your filial duty before your parents die, rather than just cherish their memory. (51-223, 1971.11.28)

Filial children must always unite with their parents' heart and direction. People going the way of filial piety are not those who behave in a way far different from their parents. If the parents go east, then the children should go east. If the parents go west, then they should go west. If the parents have given a certain direction, but suddenly make an about-face, then the filial child must follow them. There should be no dissent from this. If you follow your parents when they leave home, and each time they order you to turn back and go home, you should turn to go back but then do an about-face and follow them anyway, even if this happens ten times.

If you protest, you will not be able to fulfill your filial duty. If parents behave in a strange way, their children also must behave likewise. If parents give an order, then the children must follow accordingly, even if it is means behaving strangely. Acting in a strange manner in itself is not good. You may think that your parents are doing things unknowingly, but actually they know what they are doing. Therefore, you should follow.

Why would parents behave in a strange way? Their strange behavior would serve to identify the most filial child out of all the filial children. If there were one hundred filial children and the parents acted strangely enough, the most filial of them all would eventually emerge. The filial son, who absolutely accommodates his parents' orders at the risk of his life, even though he knows his parents are being capricious, can even become the king of all filial children. (62-32, 1972.9.10)

Filial children are people who have loved their parents and brothers and sisters. The child who lives the most for others, and who loves the most, will become the heir of the family. So, you should all try to go that way. Today, the way of true love is the mainstream of all ideal action. True love is the mainstream. Everything outside of this is secondary.

That is why it is good to tell people to become filial children. Today, people say there is a generation gap between the mother's generation and the younger generation, but that is nonsense. Is there a generation gap between the love in the mother's generation and that of the young generation? Should a woman live alone? Should a man live alone? That is ridiculous.

Even though you've been together with someone for a year, you might say, "I wish you could stay for another day." These words are really precious. If the husband and wife live to be a hundred, is there a wife who says, "Oh, I wish I could live for one hour longer?" Have you become that kind of wife? Have you become that kind of husband? Have you become that kind of brother or sister?

Sometimes, families split up over a very small amount of money. If a brother says, "Brother, you are you, and I am me. I lent you a million won, so why don't you pay me back? I don't like love or anything else. Money is the most important thing!" Then he is losing all the blessing he was born with. Let us say he was born with the fortune to become a millionaire or a billionaire. If he had love, then all the blessings of the universe would have come and built a nest for him; but instead the universe will run away without pity, saying, "My! What a miser he is!" This is the reason people like filial children. (141-298, 1986.3.2)

In order to follow the path of loving the parents, there must be filial children. In order to go the way of loving the nation, there must be patriots. In order to go the way of loving the world, there must be people who are like saints. All of you have many sons and daughters, but who is the best of them all? The one who has the deepest bond of love with you is the filial child. Centering on the most devoted of filial children, parents decide the direction that they will go. (136-205, 1985.12.29)

Filial children are those who would love and embrace their parent as their own baby even if he or she became incontinent or worse. Such children will go to heaven. (116-86, 1981.12.20)

Among your sons and daughters, there is a filial child, an ordinary child and an unfilial child. There are three kinds of children. I conclude that if you want to become the most filial child, you must compete against God and not lose.

So what must you do? You must become people who, more than the saints and sages or anyone else throughout history who has come and gone, have no doubt at all about God's will.

You must say to God, "Father, even if you were to say something unbelievable to me that could separate us, I would believe it. Even if you did something unbelievable, I would believe you. Even if you changed from being a loving parent into the most evil parent who whips me, I would respect you with a heart greater than that of a filial child." God would expect this. (73-59, 1974.7.29)

A filial son cannot sleep, even if his parents are sleeping. After I slept, I led my life repenting as a sinner for having slept. Even after eating, I would feel sorry. In the end, how should we walk the path of filial piety? From this perspective, I am a crazy person. Did I take care of my parents? Did I take care of my wife, my children or my brothers and sisters? Did I take care of my relatives? Did I take care of my country? Actually, I never forgot my country. I was working for my country on a higher level... The tears I cried for Korea during the Japanese rule... they are tears that could compare with any patriot's. (62-58, 1972.9.10)

If the parents realize that they must go this way, even though they might die, then they must bring their sons and daughters to God's side. The reason why parents don't fulfill their parental duty is because they do not know what it is. If they know what it is, then they must do it, even if it means standing as a sacrificial offering. Even if it is necessary to whip their children to bring them back to God, this can be thought of as good. So, if the parents act in the right way, there is no such thing as "no salvation for their child." (15-202, 1965.10.9)