Book
Three - True LoveBook
Three - True Love
PDF File
Chapter One
- What Is True Love?
Section 1. Love Is the Source of Peace and
Happiness
The more love we have the happier we become. Love is such that once it is in our hand; we never want to let it go. The source of life cannot be governed by human will. Only true love can influence our motivation, our course, or the end of our life. Human beings were born of love, so they must live for love and even die for love at the end of their lives. (298-298, 1999.1.17)
What would be the color of love? Do you think it would be inky-black at night, white in the daytime and yellow in the evening? What do you think the color of love might be? The power to achieve peace, unity and equality for all can be found in the central color of love. However, if you carelessly venture into love's most holy place you will be judged by fire. (Blessed Family - 344)
When you find someone to love, your face becomes radiant. What brings that about? Not guns or threats, only love. Then what kind of love is that? That love is true love, the love that is the owner of the universe, the center of the universe, and the original fountain of the universe. (95-39, 1977.9.11)
Love is the cardinal point of happiness, the invisible order, and the peace that serves the common good. It is the common asset of all humanity and the symbol of God's will and power. (Blessed Family - 850)
Love holds supreme value. Once you have true love, even God will follow you, the world will follow you, everyone will follow you. Once you stand in love's place of honor, all creation will follow you. (217-193, 1991.5.27)
True love is the kind of love that makes you and another feel good even if you stay together forever. It is the kind of love that makes you feel good, even though you just stay together, live together, watch together, talk together, feel things together and listen together. (127-9, 1983.5.1)
Love is liked and welcomed by all people. For this reason, everyone desires to be born, to live, and to die surrounded by love, Such a person is indeed a happy person. (193-136)
If we think of love as small, it is very small; and if we think of love as large, it is very large. A slight wink from a loved one would make you feel as if heaven and earth were turning upside down. A smile from the one you love would make you feel as if all of heaven and earth were within your heart. If you think that love is perceptive, it becomes perceptive; if you think it small, it is small; if you think it big, it is big; if you think you can see it, you can; and if you think you cannot see it, you cannot see it. Love alone can break down the barriers. People in love are completely possessed by it and each word they venture to speak will be based on the love that claims them. (51-161, 1971.11.21)
The power of love is greater and mightier than the power of an atomic bomb. An atomic bomb can only bring death to people, but love has the power to save people from death and give them new life. Atomic bombs are not creators; they bring judgment and destruction. The power that can unite the world into one is not the brute force of arms, but true love. (Blessed Family - 850)
Each nation has its border, its cultural background, and its customs. The only weapon that can transcend these is true love. (205-250, 1990.9.9)
As history unfolds and love is perfected, political, economic and cultural problems -- all conflicts and disputes -- will be fully resolved. The complex problems faced by humankind in the world today can be fundamentally solved only through the perfection of true love. (Blessed Family - 380)
We must seek for true love, but where can you go to encounter it? True love is unchanging and eternal, whether it is day or night. However, true love is not something that exists merely for oneself. (Blessed Family - 380)
It cannot belong to just one person; it belongs to everyone, and is shared by the universe. True love connects to the family, the society, the nation, the world and the universe. (294-63, 1998.6.11)
If true love were perfected, our responsive God would have no regrets even if He were completely immersed in it. God will rejoice over anything and everything that happens, as long as He is surrounded by true love. If people could live in a world of true love, they would all live happily, without regret, throughout their lives. Moreover, there would be no war, discontentment or suffering in that world. (Blessed Family - 380)
Even all things of creation will shower blessings upon those who devote their lives for the purpose of love. Flowers will want to bloom in their gardens, and even birds will want to build their nests in the backyard and sing their songs. This is because those people know the value of all things of creation and truly love them. (Blessed Family - 1062)
Even God yearns for love. Because love is so expansive, even God is engulfed in love. That is how it should be. It is only logical. What God is wishing for more than anything else is love. That is why love is greater than He is. (132-113, 1984.5.27)
Love, which is the center of all vitality, does not change. Love occupies the center of ideal circumstances, and is in unity with God. Therefore, as long as God exists, there is love. (157-226, 1967.4.10)
You can find money, knowledge and power in the midst of love. The power of love is eternal. Those who know real love do not have to learn anything in the spirit world. (202-86, 1990.5.6)
What is true love? At the intersection of vertical and horizontal, true love forms a ninety-degree angle and must fit in anywhere it goes. It should fit in Eastern homes and in Western homes alike. True love can fit in anywhere and everywhere, regardless of whether there are differences in racial, cultural and religious backgrounds. (180-86, 1988.8.7)
The universe contracts and expands. In other words, it breathes in and out. It is not political power that controls the contraction and the expansion of the universe. Neither is it knowledge or money. It is the giving of love. (121-103, 1982.10.24)
When you look at the world with eyes filled with love, you would say of a bird flying past you, "Why is that bird chirping? Oh, he must be missing his beloved." Lines of poetry and prose would naturally spring to mind. The history of our everyday lives is harmonized with nature and reproduced in the symphony of love. That is why a breath of love, a caress of love, a song of love and a whisper of love are all pleasing. (112-257, 1981.4.19)
The most evil of forces dissolves in the presence of true love. Though one just looks at or passes by true love that is enough. (Blessed Family - 380)
Love is certainly the element that forms the essential part of a person. It is at work before that person is given life, and it is the source of life itself. (177-313, 1988.5.22)
A life lived for love is a productive and fruitful one, and a life lived without knowing love leads to exhaustion and destruction. God, humankind, and even the universe desire to live for the sake of love. This is the original way of life. (Blessed Family - 1062)
True love is absolute, unchanging and eternal. (God's Will - 219)
There can be no development or revolution when it comes to love. Love in its original form is perfect, unchanging, eternal and absolute. (Blessed Family - 351)
The love attained in a natural setting and in the most natural atmosphere is real love. (Blessed Family - 353)
Once someone opens his or her eyes to love, the body and mind of that person will want to form multi-dimensional relationships within the universe. That person will thus come to understand the order of nature from the leaves falling in the autumn wind. He will smile to himself, wishing even to become a flower blossom in order to appreciate the beauty of a flower blooming in a spring garden. (Blessed Family - 376)
The fastest action in the world is the action of love. If two people located at opposite ends of the earth were to fall in love with each other, their love would pull them together, overcoming the distance between them. Love has such power. (112-204, 1981.4.12)
A person who has received grace and is receiving love from God looks beautiful. (33-86, 1970.8.9)
When we reach the state in which we can feel the love of God, we can relate with and transcend everything. We can have everything when we are centered on the emotions of original love. Even the organs of our bodies were created for just one purpose, love. The eyes were formed to seek for love, the nose to smell love, and the ears to listen to the sounds of love. Of all the words we hear, the words that we never tire of, that we always like to hear, are the words, "I love you." Love is the only topic that all beings enjoy. That kind of love is the true love that the entire universe welcomes. (298-298, 1999.1.17)
The attributes of love do not lead us to love only things that are good. It is only logical to define true love as that which loves the very lowest thing more than something high. (33-89, 1970.8.9)
Love is such that even God is bound by its authority. This means that even God is weak before love. The all-powerful God cannot prevent a smile from spreading across His face when He sniffs the scent of the love of humankind. Even God likes to hear love stories. (298-298, 1999.1.17)
What is the most holy thing in the world? It is true love. True love starts from God. What God truly wants is the path of true love. You must understand that if you do not follow the path of true love you cannot become close to God. Through love, God desires to see, hear, eat, and touch. (Blessed Family - 380)
Happiness will begin in the world when people can live based on love. The things people want to attain, such as perfection and the realization of their ideals, cannot be achieved without love. That is why everything in the universe exists on the basis of love. Everything in creation began through the original love of God. (137-207, 1986.1.3)
In this world, when we give things away, they are gone. Yet, in the case of love, the more we give, the more we receive in return. That is why we delight in love. No matter how much love you give, it will continually fill you, so you can always be happy and joyful. You may like money, but once you give it out, it is gone for good; and however much you may like power, once you use it, it runs out. But in the case of love, the more you give, the more unlimited a supply you will have. (121-105, 1982.10.24)
What is true love? It is something that even grandmothers and grandfathers can never relinquish, even in death. Once you get hold of true love, you delight in it so much that you cannot live without it. It is the same for all people: men and women, young and old. (171-67, 1987.12.6)
After tasting love, would a grandfather ever say, "Oh, I am tired of the taste of the love I knew in the past! It is different from the aroma in our civilization today. I don't like it! I would rather smell something other than the scent of love!"? Bread or rice stimulates every cell in your body to say, "Ah that tastes very good!" That is why love forms the nucleus, the core of all things. Love is like the essence of everything. When you treat anything and anyone with that kind of love, a path will open up along which you can freely go anywhere. (139-197, 1986.1.31)
True love is the type of love that lasts forever: true love in the spring, summer, autumn and winter; true love when you are in your teens, adulthood and old age; and true love even when you go to the eternal spirit world. This is unchanging love. (194-303, 1989.10.30)
Who is the owner of love? It is not man or woman. It is God Himself. God and human beings can become one only by centering on love; only through love. This is because love is absolutely essential to God and human beings. (279-246, 1996.9.15)
Wherever there is the harmony of love, circular motion takes place. When human beings and God become one through love, and this love is brought to fruition, God can come down and human beings can go up, and they will meet midway. God then becomes the center of the sphere and spherical motion occurs. The central point is where harmony in love is established and the place where life first stirs. It is the starting point of equality and sharing together. This is because the power of love is there. The power that acts on and embraces everything in the universe is love. (Blessed Family - 344)
Love is something you can never feel by yourself. The same can be said of happiness. Even the concept of peace cannot be applied to just one nation; it describes the relationship formed between one country and another. Only when you can love based on a relationship made with someone on an equal footing can you feel true happiness. It is the same for freedom. You cannot create true freedom just by yourself. The freedom that you acquire within love, together with love, is true freedom. In the presence of true love, even if someone wields absolute authority over others, even with a whip in his hand, that will not hold people back; instead, it will bring them a richer joy and happiness. This is because love is something given to others for their benefit, through which someone sacrifices himself to save others. (Blessed Family - 342)
Love is the pillar that stands at the center where the mind and body automatically unite into one. The individual, family and tribe, as well as the nation, the world, the universe and God are all situated at the central point, at that one pillar. That center point does not move. That is why the place of true love is the eternal place of settlement. (230-135, 1992.5.1)
Jesus once said, "I am the way and the truth and the life: no one comes to the Father, but by me." However, he left one thing out, the most important thing of all; love. He should have said "I am the way and the truth and the life and the love..." but he left out "love." These words should be inserted into the Bible. When Christians hear me saying such things, they will exclaim, "How blasphemous!" But if you ask God about this, He will reply, "Of course!" From this we can see that God really likes love, but He likes true love the best of all. (149-15, 1986.11.1)
Section 2. Love Is Boundless Giving
Love requires one hundred percent devotion. When God was creating the universe, He invested Himself one hundred percent through His love. That is why true love begins with living for the sake of others. (189-202, 1989.4.6)
God is not a dictator. God gave everything for human beings. The reason God is close to us is because He wants to live for us. That is why we want to follow Him eternally. To live for the sake of others is the natural law, and so to maintain our state of existence in the world we must live that way. Only through living for the sake of others can the connection be made between East and West, and between past ages and the present. (187-89, 1989.1.6)
Giving and giving again for the sake of others puts you in the same position as God giving of Himself at the time of the creation. By putting everything you have into something, you are creating a second self, and it is the same as God investing everything He had at the time of the creation. The history of re-creation is the course of restoration through indemnity. Indemnity is offered through the history of re-creation, and so only when one invests everything one has, can recreation take place. (82-239, 1976.1.31)
The logic of eternal life operates solely through investing oneself again and again. You will never come to ruin if you live for the sake of others. From giving small things, you will move on to giving bigger things. Then where does this lead? It comes back to you. (204-106, 1990.7.1)
Love does not satisfy us even after we have given it; instead, when you give you want to give more and you feel ashamed when you are unable to. Those who feel ashamed even after giving are truly the owners of love. In love, the more we give, the more we receive in return. The more we carry that out, the more the power of what is given is exceeded by the power that comes back. In that way, you will never perish; rather, you will prosper. There is no way to be prosperous without love. (38-326, 1971.1.8)
Love can never be exhausted. The more it is set in motion, the greater it gets. According to the laws of mechanics, something in constant motion becomes exhausted in time. In the case of true love, however, the more it is in motion, rather than being used up, the greater it becomes. (219-18, 1991.8.25)
The essence of love is such that when you live for the sake of others, your love becomes greater, but when you want people to live for you, your love diminishes little by little. (129-264, 1983.11.13)
What is true love? It is giving, and then forgetting about it; it is giving and giving and then giving some more. (240-298, 1992.12.13)
Even though you may give and give and give, the world of love lasts forever. (121-173, 1982.10.24)
The word "love" is truly mighty. There is a Korean saying that "One well-spoken word can clear away a large debt." What that means is that with just one word you can indemnify something. Even if you have a debt of billions of dollars, one word of love can more than indemnify the debt. (227-253, 1992.2.14)
There is no other than the house of true love that has the authority to govern this universe of infinite magnitude. Love comes from living for the sake of others. Even God, the great almighty Creator, has to bow His head to love. (162-287, 1987.4.17)
Love is something that even God cannot fulfill alone. Love can only be attained on the basis of a relationship with another. Where does love begin? It does not begin from oneself; it grows and develops through having a partner. (Blessed Family - 342)
Where is the root of true love kept? Even though God is all-knowing and all-powerful, the root of love is not kept within Him. Although the omniscient and omnipotent God is the central figure of true love, He does not want to keep the root of love within Himself. God wants love to take root in the person who is to be the object of love. (177-269, 1988.5.20)
The more love you give, the more love you have. It never ends. You will have the reserves to give out on a larger scale. However, everything else comes to an end; money, knowledge and authority all come to an end. Everything that has to do with human circumstances and sentiment in the world comes to an end. Yet eternal true love never comes to an end, no matter how much you continue to give. Love is amazing in that it continues into eternity. (121-243, 1982.10.27)
Love is something you cannot fulfill if you are centered on yourself. Love does not begin from oneself; it begins and is later fulfilled through one's partner in love. Therefore love cannot be fulfilled without a counterpart. (145-215, 1986.5.11)
You cannot attain love by yourself. Even the greatest person in the world cannot achieve love if he is alone. This is because love is formed only in the relationship between a subject partner and an object partner. Accordingly, even the omniscient and omnipotent God cannot feel any stimulation or impetus if He attempts to attain love for His own sake. That is why we need a partner. (219-14, 1991.8.25)
The core of the universe is human beings, and the core of human beings is life. The root of life is love, and the root of love is God, but this love cannot be realized by someone all alone. You need a relationship with a partner to realize love. As God is the origin of love, the only beings qualified to be partners in that love are human beings. (48-205, 1971.9.19)
The word "love," and even the word "hope," cannot be used in reference to someone who is alone. Even life cannot come from being on one's own; life can only come through the bonds of relationship. (69-59, 1973.9.10)
Now, let me ask you a question. The two things that last for eternity are life and love. Then which comes first, life or love? Which is it? For God, love did not exist before He did; love came to exist after God existed. That is why, for God, life comes first and love comes second, but for human beings love comes first and life comes second. (105-75, 1979.9.23)
What kind of beings did God create us to be? We were created to be the object partners of God's love, to have His absolute and unique value. He created man and woman to enter with Him into a partnership of love, thereby endowing them with greater value than that of even the whole universe. Human beings are born from love and raised with love, and they live in love until they die in love. But it is not as if they just disappear. Since the subject of love, God, is eternal, unchanging and unique, when we stand in front of such a God, as the object partner of His love, we have eternal life. (142-143, 1986.3.8)
God's purpose in creating Adam and Eve was to feel joy. This was not the joy of looking at them, or speaking with them, or touching them, but a joy based on love. He created us for the attainment of joy. (114-I I, 1981.5.19)
God is the Absolute Being, but He needs another being to be His partner in love. That partner is none other than a human being. Once human beings, who are His partners in love, appear in front of God with perfected love, He can then become the God of happiness, and the God who has found His ideal of joy. (145-267, 1986.5.15)
God had only one dream, which is to realize the ideal of love. However, God cannot accomplish this dream on His own. Neither love, nor happiness, nor joy can be achieved by one entity. They can never be realized without partnership. (Blessed Family - 302)
Where does love come from? It manifests from your partner. If your partner is ugly and you dislike him or her, you want to withdraw your love. And if the partner is beautiful and good, the dynamics of love are set off that much quicker. In other words, the workings of love are determined by the qualities of those in partnership, such as their words, beauty, fragrance, and flavor. (Blessed Family - 342)
Where does love come from? It does not come from us, but from our partner. Since it comes from our partner, we should bow to and live for that person. That is why the law of nature instructs us to, "Live for the sake of others." Since something so precious and valuable is coming to us, to receive it we should practice the philosophy of living for the sake of others. This means we must revere and live for our partner. (143-277, 1986. 3. 20)
It is not without meaning that I am vibrant and active in many fields; I do so because I have a purpose. That purpose is none other than to realize the world of love. Human beings exist with the aim of realizing and attaining love. Since the purpose of human life lies in the realization of true love, the value of human existence is also decided by this true love. How wonderful this is! (Blessed Family - 1062)
All people hope that their partner in love will have thousands of times the value, or infinitely more value, than they have. In the same way, God wishes for human beings, His partners in love, to be beings of infinite value. When someone is perfected, they achieve a divine nature, thus becoming as flawless as the Heavenly Father and attaining the same value. (277-196, 1996.4.16)
What is true love? It is a love that moves you to want to stay with your partner for a thousand years, and that makes you want to love that person forever. With such a love, there can be no hell and Satan cannot get at you. (Blessed Family - 380)
If God is seeking an absolute partner in love, whom will He place in that position? It is none other than human beings. It follows that a partner in love who has become one with the eternal love of the Creator must also live forever. An important issue for religion is how to establish a logical understanding of eternal life based on relationships of love. Eternal life does not lie in a man or a woman. It does not lie in God. You must clearly understand that eternal life is in the love of God. (218-210, 1991.7.29)
If one has no subject partner in love, you feel empty and alone. But if there is a subject partner of love, then everything feels full. Only when something is filled to the brim with love can everything else be filled up as well. You can then give out love infinitely and truly. The reason you exchange love with others is in order to achieve an ideal and to multiply that ideal. The world of love transcends distance. Love is so fast that even light cannot follow it. Love is the fastest thing in the world. It is also the brightest and the most perfect. Love is the only thing that fills things up completely. (95-39, 1977.9.11)
Who is closer to the center: someone who is willing to sacrifice love to sustain life, or someone who is willing to sacrifice life for the sake of love? Who is closer to the truth? One who sacrifices his life to attain love is close to the center and close to what is true. This is because the one willing to sacrifice love for life is self-centered, whereas the one willing to sacrifice life for love is not. (174-15, 1988.2.23)
As I wandered through the five oceans and the six continents, I preached earnestly about the path of love. I have sought to shine the light of love on all people, who, living without love, are like a desert. If the path people are ultimately to follow will lead them to that other world of love, the most important thing for humanity must be the "love beacon." Only that beacon of love can lead humanity to the original homeland. (Blessed Family - 404)
Once you become one with God, circular motion manifests in all kinds of forms and figures. That is why the older sibling must love the younger, following the example of their parents in loving them. In such a family that is united into loving oneness, the love within the family blossoms. Then that love becomes the love within a society, and then the love within a nation. In this way, it later becomes the love of the whole world. (28-168, 1970.1.11)
Lost in the rapture of love, God created man to live forever. Therefore, aging is not the enemy. People are born from love, they live with love, and finally they are harvested as the fruits of love. When you die, you are harvested as a fruit of love. We have lived receiving the love of our parents and our children and after having experienced love as a couple, we have loved our children as their parents. Therefore the love of God and everything we have sown in the inner world of love is to be brought to fruition over the course of our lives. When we pass on to the next world we reap the fruits of our lives and take them with us. (83-198, 1976.2.8)
God maintains life on the foundation of true love; His omniscience and omnipotence should be based on true love. Only then can He stand as the ideal subject partner for humankind, a subject partner who has transcended history. If He seeks to assume the position of the subject partner with only the power of life, then all things of creation will not want to unite together. Even microscopic animals and plants wish for a master of love to tend them and take care of them. They like to feel the touch of loving hands. You should not say, "I'm stronger than anyone else, so you have to do as I say!" Only when love is involved is life set in motion. The root of life begins in love. The basis for God's continued existence is not life, but love. (173-84, 1988.2.7)
It is nice just to think about love, to see it and to taste it. That is how love is. (Tongil Segye 1980.2 - 10)
Love is the coming together of East and West, of North and South. It is the coming together of heaven and earth. Love therefore assumes the form of a sphere. (225-46, 1992.1.1)
True love is the love that is at the center, connecting the vertical and the horizontal. (195-242, 1989.12.1)
Can you imagine how enraptured a person's lips would look, smiling as they give themselves over in true love? Just think of how beautiful the five human senses appear when they are enraptured in true love and how beautiful is the harmony of the five senses as they move toward God. God cannot experience joy through beauty all by Himself. He can only experience beauty when He has someone to relate to. That is why God created humankind. God desires to travel the world of the human heart, with all its inner beauty, more than He desired to create heaven and earth. (Blessed Family - 380)
Even God breathes. He breathes true love. As God also keeps in rhythm with the universe, the universe continues forever, centering on true love. Therefore, only when you reach this level can you enter the realm of God's breath and live forever. (201-191, 1990.4.1)
The universe is round and so is the sun. What do all round-shaped things center upon? They cannot become rounded by themselves. They can only become rounded on the basis of a relationship with something else. The world that is one existing entity, a substantial entity that integrates such relationships, continues on the basis of this realm of circular relationship. Considering this, what is the original source that can form such a circular relationship? The original source of this harmony is the motion of love. (164-78, 1987.4.26)
Love is like a nerve. When one of our hairs is pulled, our whole body moves toward the pulling force. In the same way, when you pull on love, the universe is pulled towards the pulling force. When you move love the whole universe moves in accordance with it. (89-90, 1976.3.2)
People must live life enraptured with something. One who is enraptured by something is truly happy. Artists are enraptured by art. People of a literary bent are enraptured by the books they write, or by the great masterpieces they have read. Such people are happy people. That is why people should live enraptured with the multi-dimensional and ideal love of God and follow only Him. (59-316, 1972.7.30)
What is the most precious thing sought after by man and woman? It is love. Love is something that people like forever, and God does too. Love is what the whole universe likes most of all, and forever. (179-33, 1988.7.3)
Although it is invisible, love is the most precious treasure on earth. That is because it is unchanging in nature. Gold is precious because of its unchanging color, a diamond is precious because of its unchanging hardness, and a pearl is precious because of the unchanging harmony of its colors. However, these precious treasures do not have life in them. True love, on the other hand, is a treasure that has life, and is therefore more precious than all of them. (201-142, 1990.3.30)
Everyone likes love. Ultimately, through love we come to love more and more. (60-80, 1972.8.6)
Love flows into the hearts of individuals, into the heart of a family, into the heart of a people. It flows everywhere. And wherever it flows, everyone welcomes it. There is no way to block love. Everyone wants something higher, don't they? God created people to relate with one another through the power of love.
The one who has been living and breathing along with the universe, connected through the ties of love, does not need any formalities when he arrives at the palace of God. He can open the gates to the palace at will and go to the inner sanctuary where God is residing, and call out, "Heavenly Father!" Then God will answer, "Oh, my child, you are here!" (164-47, 1968.8.11)
What is the only problem of the human world? It is love; whether it burns brightly. In order for the light of love to be bright, that light has to burn both internally and externally. With what should it burn? It should burn with the desire to love. In light of this, you can realize that our life, during which we deal with the ordinary affairs of the world, is just a stopping point on our journey. (194-55, 1989.10.15)
Where is God? We say He is omnipresent. This means He is not in one specific place. He is wherever love is. You need to know this. Based on love, He is omnipresent. We too can be omnipresent when love is our central focus. That is a privilege we can enjoy when we possess love. (149-23, 1986.11.1)
The word equality is meaningless without love. Genuine equality is possible when people live for the sake of others centering on love. (140-142, 1986.2.9)
Through love, a man and a woman can be on equal footing and a mother can be on equal footing with her son even if he is the nation's president. All things that possess love can have equal status. We must realize this. (129-49, 1983.10.1)
Humankind stands at the center of all things of creation. What then, is at the center of human beings? It is true love. God's love forms one vertical line. In order to set up the center of heaven and earth, there also need to be lines of love from both man and woman; the woman's goes to the man and the man's goes to the woman. In this way, these lines of love create a circle that rotates. When a man and a woman appear with true love it is perfected love with a negative charge. When perfected and true negatively charged love is formed the positively charged vertical love of God is automatically present. That is how the principles of the universe work. (120-210, 1982.10.16)
It is only possible to form a reciprocal relationship with the universe when you have love. Without love, such reciprocity can never take place. The reason love is said to be gentle and humble is that with those qualities it can be abundantly and fully put in motion without resistance. When something is gentle, humble and sacrificial, it can relate with anyone. It can go anywhere without resistance. In essence then, this is not really sacrifice. The key to working without resistance is living for the sake of others, sacrificing for others and serving others. Why must we sacrifice for and serve others? We must do so in order to perfect the respiratory organs for our second life. (122-329, 1982.12.1)
All beings that reproduce come together in twos to multiply. It is love that brings about harmony in reproduction. This is true of the multiplication of all living things in the natural world. Even in the case of water, there is female water and male water and fish do well in areas where these waters mix. Many fish live where cold water and warm water mix. That is ideal. There must be harmony. (177-271, 1988.5.20)
The birds living in the north fly south to raise their young, and the birds living in the south fly north to raise theirs; this migrating back and forth follows a rhythm. Since they were born there, the birds return to the place of their birth to have their young. Fish living in cold water lay their eggs in warm water and fish living in warm water can only lay their eggs in cold water. A harmonious unity of yin and yang must be established. That is why they migrate. (132-74, 1984.5.20)
Love cannot be achieved without a relationship with a partner. Even the absolute God has no way to experience love by Himself. Love cannot be realized without finding a partner; thus the creation was an effort to place an absolutely qualified partner in front of the absolute Creator. We human beings are that masterpiece of creation, fashioned so that even God could find the love He also needs. (140-282, 1986.2.14)
When you are intoxicated in the love of God you would not become bored even if you were to stare at a grain of sand for a thousand years. (83-198, 1976.2.8)
When we think to ourselves that we were born in the universe of love we become infinitely happy. (298-300, 1999.1.17)
True love is not something that can be forced; it is willingly expressed. When loving someone, do not just have the intention to receive because ideal love can be realized only through the action of giving and receiving. (66-123, 1973.4.18)
If love were something that could be pictured by anyone, touched by anyone, and whose form could be known by anyone, you would lose interest in such a love in less than one day. However, that is not how love is. Love is something that even if it is not there, it feels as if it is, and even when it is, it feels as if it is not. Love operates like a mysterious mirage in all shapes and forms, which are good when you think they are bad and bad when you think they are good. (175-197, 1988.4.17)
True love perfects the ideal of unity in the universe. However great a masterpiece is, if you don't find the flavor of true love in it, you will spit it out. It is the same even with the true love between husband and wife. (112-165, 1981.4.12)
Human beings like love the best because love is the subject that unites everything and makes it our own. People can never fathom how good love is. (18-328, 1967.8.13)
Just as parents love their children, the more you love, the more your joy increases. Love brings things into oneness. If there is a person who is one with God through His love, no one will be able to separate him from God. What wonderful love this is! (18-329, 1967.8.13)
Bees concentrate so intently on getting the nectar in the flowers. Their heads are thrust into the flowers and their abdomens stick up in the air. You cannot pull them out even with a pair of tweezers. They do not come out even if you pull so hard that their abdomen comes off. Why would they if the nectar in the flowers tastes so good? Then if nectar tastes so good, how much better is the taste of love? Which is better, the taste of love or the taste of honey? (137-57, 1985.12.18)
Without love, unity cannot be attained. Words alone are not enough to unite two different people into one. Then what is needed to unite them? If they are united around material things and the material things disappear, they will simply separate. Suppose a third person introduces them and they unite by some means or another. If that third person disappears, they will separate. Then what is necessary for two people to be joined together as one, eternally? There must be love. (51-74, 1971.11.1)
Love alone has the power to unite the five senses. You may not know what that love is, but it makes the smell of an old man, which is unpleasant to most people, seem sweet and pleasant to his wife. Even if the face and hands of the old man are all skin and bones, his wife will like that face and those hands. It is precisely love that makes it so. (148-318, 1986.10.26)
When the wind of love blows, the whole world seems beautiful. Everyone becomes a poet or a romantic when he or she falls deeply in love. (145-317,1986.10.26)
The taste of love is similar to that of the Schizandra berry. The Schizandra berry has a sour and bitter taste, but is really a blend of five tastes. I do not know much else about the Schizandra berry, but I know its unique taste. It tastes strange at first, but after you swallow it you want to eat more. (173-87, 1988.2.7)
A flowing love that embraces the spring and has still more to give in reserve, a love that melts the snow and thaws the ice in a cold winter -- infinite love, immeasurable in height or width -- should form a bond with us and never leave us. It should take its place in the core of our being. Without love, we cannot find anything of value in the world. But when we can vividly feel and sense such a love inside us, that love can more than compete with the universe. Someone with absolute love in the center of his heart, meaning love that is the same from the beginning to the end, can compete with the universe even though he is merely one individual. (33-75, 1970.8.9)
Even when we look at a tuft of grass, we must be able to do so from the standpoint of God, and when we look at a flower, we must do so while relating to and embodying the heart of God. Even when we look at insects, birds or other kinds of animals, we must be able to experience the connection between our inner feelings and the heart of God. (6-340, 1959.6.28)
Those who live with the love of God inside their hearts are sons or daughters of God. These are the central figures of the whole universe who can govern heaven and earth. Love is the essential element enabling people to attain this position. (9-173, 1960.5.8)
Our minds can be infinitely enlarged through heart, rather than through knowledge. A heart of love is so big that it can more than embrace the universe, so once we develop this original and mighty domain, even God will want to come and take naps there. Since we cannot embrace God through our knowledge, we must know how great a heart of love is. (Blessed Family - 1053)
Love transcends all national borders, for God's love knows no boundaries. It is transcendent of the five different races of humankind, drawing no distinction among the black, white and yellow races. That is why the love of God is great. When love begins to flow regardless of the environment in which it is flowing, the environment adapts to this flow and develops. God will be pleased only when we adopt the perspective that can make this happen. That is why we must walk the path of love. (164-93, 1987.4.26)
Section 4. The Rights of Equality, Mutual Participation, and Inheritance
How can you rise to the position of becoming the absolute God's object partner? Can you do it by making effort? By using force? None of these methods will work. However, if you form a bond of love with God, you can immediately ascend to an equal footing with Him. (69-75, 1973.10.20)
When you have command over the nucleus of love, you can control God. If the wife of a very special husband happens to be plain in appearance, she will still be able to control her husband through their bond of love. It does not matter if he is a wonderful person with a doctoral degree, he will have no choice but to be under her command. Such is the power of love. (137-61, 1985.12.18)
If you wish to be on an equal footing with God, to have the right to a position equal to God's, you must possess the love of God. (145-269, 1986.5.15)
In love, there is the right of equal participation. What that means is that if the father is in a higher position, the son, though he is in a lower position, can immediately rise to the father's position. Because of the amazing truth that the right of equal participation is inherent in love, love is eternal even though you may be separated from your loved ones. (143-277, 1986.3.20)
The person who has embodied true love attains the ability and the right to immediately possess everything God desires to see in the original, ideal world. Such a qualification, however, must be attained on earth. By loving your fellow countrymen, loving the people of the world, and loving all things of creation, you can feel the true love of God. (112-204, 1981.4.12)
Only the person who possesses the love of God can have the privilege of inheriting the authority of heaven and earth, which were created by God. (149-272, 1986.11.27)
When you form the loving connection with God, you are then given certain special rights: the right of governance, the right of equal status, and the right of inheritance. (143-277, 1986.3.20)
In the domain of love, those with the best character are given the ability to exercise the same capability as God. (126-142, 1983.4.12)
The love of God and the love of human beings are essentially the same. Love is something that strives for unity. Why do men and women yearn for each other? It is because a man can possess God only through a woman, and a woman likewise through a man. Love is mutual affection. (Blessed Family - 334)
Which is more precious, life or love? People cannot exchange their most holy place even for their life. Though a man or a woman may have life, that life is not connected to the most holy place; however, since love is connected to the most holy place, love is more precious than life. (132-112)
Who becomes the owner? It is the person who serves others the most. The person who serves others the most can govern and take command. Also, it is natural law that an inheritance will come to the person who lives for the sake of others. In love can be found the right of mutual participation, which means that both can freely participate in each other's lives any place, day or night. Do you need permission to go into your sons' and daughters' rooms? Do children need permission to enter their parents' room? Of course not. If, within yourself, you have the mechanism with which to love God, you can be with Him wherever He goes. (170-199, 1987.11.15)
What is the difference between true love and authority? In true love, you give love and then forget that you have given it. What is the line between good and evil? Evil is where something is given with the intention of receiving all the benefit for oneself, and goodness is where, even though you give, you forget that you have done so. Even in a household, those who serve others more stand on the good side, and the one who lives for others most becomes the master of that family in the end. Let us say there are ten friends. Which would be the best among them? The one who cares for all the others. Then the ten friends would make the one who was taking care of them the central figure and serve him. This is how the universe is inherited. (141-252, 1986.2.26)
What should a person leave behind him to be remembered for eternity? The first thing is a legacy of love, and the second is a legacy of true life. You must leave behind your love and your life. Love did not exist before God did; love is there because God exists. That is why, for God, life is first and love is second, but for human beings, love is first and life is second. (105-75, 1979.9.23)
When you ask the whole universe, from the smallest elements to human beings, "What is it that the person who possesses you has to have?" all of them would answer that they would like to belong to a person who has love. This means that all things of creation are seeking an owner of love. (132-158, 1984.5.31)
God wants to bestow all of His authority on human beings. To do so, God and human beings must become one based on love. God's ideal of creation is the ideal of oneness. That ideal of oneness based on love is the purpose of creation. (39-340, 1971.1.16)
A human being is the body of God, who is assuming physical form. Since we are the physical body of God, we are the external God. God wishes to bestow such a privilege on us. (39-340, 1971.1.16)
Why are we instructed to do good works? When you carry out an act of goodness, you must sacrifice to do that, and sacrifice means investing yourself. Then why is it good to invest yourself? By investing yourself, you can reach the point of connecting with the source of heavenly fortune, with cause and effect, with the essence of power, and with the mainstream. You can then be supplied with infinite power. Since good people are supplied with this infinite power, everything they do will turn out well. (164-323, 1987.5.18)
Section 5. Perfection Is Attained through Love
God created the world with the purpose to realize his ideal of absolute love through the oneness of Himself and human beings. He created human beings as His highest and very best object partners of love. Accordingly, of all the forms of creation, only human beings are His object partners uniquely embodying His image. Human beings were born as visible beings in front of the invisible God. When human beings are perfected they become God's temples, meaning that they are the corporeal beings into whom God can freely and comfortably dwell at any time. God's ideal of true love is realized and fulfilled through human beings in the form of the vertical parent-child relationship. (277-198, 1996.4.18)
What do human beings live for? If you answer, "They live for love," that is a wonderful answer! Life, as originally intended at the time of the Creation, is for us to be born as the fruit of love, to live with love, and in the end to return to the bosom of our God of eternal love. (39-340, 1971.1.16)
Human beings are born to bear the fruit of love on earth. The purpose for which we live on earth is to bear the fruit of love that God desires to see. That is why life on earth is brief. It is just one season, a short time. (130-158, 1984.1.8)
As we are born from love ands matured through love, we cannot live separated from the realm of love. (Blessed Family - 1062)
Since we are born of love, it follows that we must walk the path of love, and ultimately die for love. The purpose of life is to find love that is welcomed not by the microcosm but rather, by the great universe; it is to be born, to live, and to die surrounded by the universal love that is recognized by God, the angelic world, all things of creation, and our parents. (83-164, 1976.2.8)
The mind and body of a person unite when he stands in the same position as the nucleus of the love of God, and he reaches maturity when he enters the realm of God's love united in mind and body. Only then can he start on the path to individual perfection as a person in the original mold, untainted by the Fall. (Blessed Family - 313)
God is the king and owner of true love. Since God is the king of true love, and the bridegroom, it is an absolute principle that He needs His partner, the queen. Then you may ask who can be the absolute God's partner in true love? The answer is true people. It was Adam and Eve who were to become one with God's love. (275-53, 1995.10.31)
The path trod by a man or a woman exists because of love, and for love. Our path is the path of love. We are following this path in order to acquire love, defend love, and establish an environment of love. (Blessed Family - 1062)
Even if a person sets his goals well, if he cannot establish the loving authority through which he can manage that goal, he must pursue a new goal. The purpose of this goal cannot be greater than love. (29-130, 1970.2.26)
Adam must become one with God, and what joins them together is love. A human being is the two-dimensional representative of the existing world, and God is the three-dimensional representative. Between them is the bond known as love that joins them together for eternity. (35-156, 1970.10.13)
Think of even a poor country man who works all day, weeding the fields and farming the land. If the passion of love is kindled such that it fills up his body and mind, the five senses of the body and the five senses of the mind will completely unite into one, and he will experience unsurpassed joy. In the same way, if you have inside yourselves the place of complete settlement, in which the love of God can reside, you will become one in heart with God, so that just like the swing of a pendulum, if God's heart beats once, your heart will beat once too, and your body will be turning around together with God. Once you begin to revolve, you will continue to turn. The more you turn, the more momentum you will gain, and the action of centrifugal force will demand that you love your family, love your society, love your nation, and love the world. (Blessed Family - 376)
From whom does the love that embraces and forgives everything originate? Love does not start from human beings. It starts from God, who is the Subject of love. God created human beings with love, so He desires to receive love from them. Love is perfected as God returns to humankind that love He has received. (Blessed Family - 380)
Love is absolute. Even God, who has absolute knowledge, absolute capability and absolute authority, is absolutely obedient in front of absolute love. (206-24, 1990.10.3)
True love must start from a certain point, turn through 360 degrees and return to the starting point. Only then is it true love. It cannot be true love until it reaches that point. (178-309, 1988.6.14)
The purpose of life is to occupy the love of God. If you do not occupy the love of God, even if you think you have achieved all your hopes, you have not achieved anything. Although you may be very happy, that happiness cannot become eternal happiness. (38-326, 1971.1.8)
And so when you love you can attain immortality. It is God's love that stimulates the reciprocal action that continues forever. (38-273, 1971.1.8)
The most sacred thing on this earth is true love. True love begins from God. Since God exists, there is no other way for things to be. What God truly desires is the path of true love, and you cannot dwell in His presence unless you walk this path. Through love, God wants to see, hear, eat and touch. Similarly, if human beings receive the kiss of love from God, they will feel a joy so great that it will seem to burst inside them. This is what God truly desires. Owning diamonds and jewels will not bring Him joy. (Blessed Family - 380)
It is not without meaning that I am vibrant and active in many fields. I do so because I have a purpose and that purpose is none other than to realize the world of love. Human beings exist with the aim of realizing and attaining love. Since the purpose of human life lies in the realization of true love, the value of human existence is also decided by this true love. How wonderful this is! What kind of person can harmonize with the essence of God's love? A self-centered person has no value at all. Only the person who is willing to invest, with the sincerest devotion, everything he has in his life for others -- only this kind of person can live continuously in the realm of God's love. This is how it has been with the great people and saints of history. (46-36, 1971.7.18)
The love of God is love for the sake of others, love that seeks to live for others. When there is such a love -- true love -- things automatically rotate. How did the universe begin? It began from the point of rotation. All existing things, by their intrinsic nature, have to rotate. Then what can keep on rotating forever? The love that is willing to give eternally, that is, eternal love, will keep rotating forever. Since the giving and receiving forces become one and want to give and give, they have no choice but to expand. (128-291, 1983.9.11)
Since God, the origin of true love, is the parent, humankind is situated as His sons and daughters. From the children's viewpoint, their parents are the best examples of love. The relationship between parents and children is a vertical, perpendicular one, whereas the relationship between husband and wife is a horizontal, equal one. Therefore when the parent-child relationship and the husband-wife relationship meet at a right angle, and to this formation is added the relationship between siblings -- a "front to back" relationship -- the resulting configuration of loving relationships together form a sphere. Thus, all existing things created through love are spherical in form. The entire universe is in the form of a sphere. (34-215, 1970.9.13)
Just as human beings wish to see God, God also wishes to see true human beings. But no matter which of two He says He wants to see first, the other one will certainly complain. And so God has no choice but to put love first. If He puts love before everything else, He can see the man and the woman together at the same time, touch them at the same time, and share with them at the same time. People fight to possess the precious things of the world, but there is no fighting in love, because in order to possess it, two must unite into one through living for the sake of each other. Everyone likes love and it is only love that can fully satisfy our desires. Therefore, it is possible to carry out God's providence of salvation based on this principle. (Tongil Segye 1986.9-17)
We must find true love. Then where can you find it? True love lasts forever, and remains unchanged, day or night. Something that exists for oneself alone cannot be true love. True love cannot belong to just one individual. True love belongs to all, and is jointly owned by the whole universe. True love connects the family, the society, the nation, the world, and the universe. (Blessed Family - 380)
Where is the root of true love kept? Even though God is all-knowing and all-powerful, the root of love is not kept within Himself. Although the all knowing and all-powerful God is the central figure of true love, He does not want to keep the root of love within Himself. God wants to plant that root in the person who is to be the object partner of His love. (177-269, 1988.5.20)
Where did love begin? It began from God. God created this world because He needed His ideal partner in love, and so even the Creation of heaven and earth had its origin in love. (213-79, 1991.1.14)
The fountainhead of the power of the mind and heart is love. So, when the explosive force generated by the give and take action of the mind is connected to God, that force can be multiplied hundreds or even thousands of times. It can realize the hopes of the people of the world. At the same time, it can even establish the Kingdom of God as our own, in which we can live together eternally. The key is love. (18-328, 1967.8.13)
When human beings attain oneness with God, their hearts and emotions are enraptured in infinite joy and happiness. God and human beings ultimately become one through love. Human beings also become one with the world through love, and the realization of the ideal world, fulfilling God's purpose at the time of Creation, is begun from there. (35-156, 1970.10.13)
When human beings reach the divine spirit stage, they can realize that universal principles are contained in the smallest grain of sand, and the harmony of the limitless universe is contained in a single atom. The fact that all existing things are the result of complex forces cannot be denied. From molecules to atoms, and from atoms to elementary particles, nothing exists without reason. Everything in existence has consciousness and purpose. Therefore all existing things have passed through the loving hands of God, and so exist in a relationship of heart with God. Joy can be felt when a certain purpose is achieved. Since the consciousness of God's purpose is inherent in all things, God feels joy from their creation. (9-166, 1960.5.8)
How strong must your love be for you to advance to the realm of God's love? The false love found among humanity today is below that of the archangel. The love in the fallen world is a love that has been invaded by Satan. The people born and living in that realm are making a commotion over whether, due to issues of love, they can continue living or not. Such love is like a whirlpool, with neither order nor direction. Only dirty things collect in a whirlpool. Yet once human beings form a relationship with the love of God, they naturally follow the direction of that love even though they are not taught to. (130-23, 1983.12.11)
God's ideal begins from a new love centered on God -- in other words, from the place where love that is in accord with the laws of creation exists. (19-314, 1968.3.17)
Why do people like love? It is because you have no choice but to like it. The rope that binds a mother and the father together into one is love. Steel chains rust over time and eventually break, but the rope of love lasts forever. Moreover, parents and children cannot be bound together with food or money. They can only be bound together with love. (18-328, 1967.8.13)
The perfection of humankind cannot be achieved through knowledge, authority, or money; it can only be achieved through love. That love is not the secularized love of this world, but original love, and through that love everything is perfected. (God's Will - 697)