BOOK 8 LIFE OF FAITH AND TRAINING
CHAPTER
1. What is a Life of Faith?
Section
1. A Life of Faith ... 793
Section 2. The Purpose and
Goal of a Life of Faith ..801
Section 3. The Path of Faith
... 810
Section 4. Stages in a Life of Faith ... 817
Section 5. Experiences and Challenges on the Path of Faith
... 823
CHAPTER
2. Training the Mind and Body
Section 1.
What is Training ... 828
Section 2. The Goal of Training
... 834
Section 3. Training in Faith ... 840
Section
4. Training the Body ... 856
Section 5. Life with the
Goal of Mind-Body Unity ... 861
CHAPTER
3. Our Life of Faith and Course to Emulate True Parents
Section
1. Our Life of Faith and the Providence of Restoration ... 868
Section 2. Our Course to Meet True Parents ... 871
Section
3. Our Course of Rebirth through True Parents ... 871
Section
4. Our Path of Growth by Following True Parents ... 880
Section 5. Our Way to Perfection through True Parents ...
884
CHAPTER
4. The Believer's Path in Relation to True Parents'
Course
Section
1. Our Life Mission ... 889
Section 2. A Life of
Accomplishment ... 896
Section 3. A Life of Caring for
Others ... 903
Section 4. A Life of Inheritance ... 906
BOOK 8 LIFE OF FAITH AND TRAINING
CHAPTER 1 What Is a Life of Faith?
Section 1. A Life of Faith
1 In leading a life of faith, you cannot be a spectator. You follow me, but you should not practice your life of faith centered on me; you have to practice it centered on yourself. So you must preserve your way of faith irrespective of what others do. A life of faith centered on Heaven is a life of gratitude and contentment in the deepest sphere of the heart, unlike any experience you may have with a person who is close to you. Our life of faith should be such that, no matter how evil the world may be, we can look at heaven and earth and say, “I am grateful; I am happy’’ If we cannot feel this way, then in this sad circumstance, we must determine ourselves anew and pray, “I am a sinner. Please grant me the courage I lack.” (153-136, 1963.11.15)
A true view of faith
2 With faith, nothing is impossible. We need faith. We need to think, “The prime subject partner is God and I am His object partner. The perfect plus creates the perfect minus. Hence I was created to reach the position of a second God, second Jesus and second True Parent, and I can attain this position.” You may wonder how I am able to undertake worldwide activities by myself, alone. It is because I have this kind of philosophy, and because I work on the national level. Thus you need to clearly promise me, “We will inherit your philosophy and live according to it!” (131-326, 1984.05.19)
3 I have brought four great truths to the world of faith. First, I clarified the relationship between God and human beings. I also gave a clear explanation about the portion of human responsibility and indemnity—things that no one in history had known about before. We did not know why human beings are as they are today. I made this point clear. I then explained why life is difficult for conscientious people, while evil people live well. No one has known about the law of indemnity or the problem of Cain and Abel. Finally I explained why, even though people seek goodness, situations often get worse, little by little. This is an issue of lineage; it is due to our blood being tainted by Satan. This question has been unresolved due to the fundamental ignorance concerning the problem of lineage. All the problems of the world are related to the issue of lineage. (161-153, 1978.01.18)
4 A life of faith until now has been a quest to find the true self. It has been a quest to rise from the position of fallen Adam and Eve and create the original sinless self. Now, what is Gods ultimate wish? First, it is for sinless individuals to form families based on His love. Then through such families whom God can love, the tribe, the nation and the world can be redeemed. This is God’s overarching Will. (5-110, 1959.01.04)
5 Heaven made limitless efforts to enable us, human beings living with our earthly human hopes, to go over the peak of death with new hope and to live with reverence for the eternal world. Therefore, people who live a life of faith should not live embracing only our earthly hopes but should live dreaming of the eternal world of hope that can conquer even death. To achieve this aim, we practice our life of faith continuously. (6-046, 1959.03.22)
6 Anyone who can experience God’s heart, so that he or she feels every shock and impulse within Heaven’s sphere of heart, is unstoppable. No matter what kind of persecution he or she faces, even walking the way of death, such a person would be relentless. This heart touches the mind and moves the body. Devout believers in this secular world today, walking step by step through their daily lives, are thus advancing toward the infinite realm, even if they don’t realize it. (6-069, 1959.03.29)
7 God does not want Christians with a life of faith that puts their denomination first. Even though I put up the signboard of the Unification Church, my concern is, “When will I be able to take it down?” Although you may be identified as Unification Church members, the question is, when will this type of identification cease in this land of Korea? Unification Church members all over the world are exerting their utmost effort to relieve God’s sorrowful heart. With devoted and loyal hearts, these members walk a path of tribulation in God’s place. Unification Church members with the highest level of resolve are ready to sacrifice themselves for this work. This is a blessed path to be on. (015-215, 1965.10.10)
8 It is with grave concern that God looks upon your notion of faith. If I were not on this earth, I wonder how many of you would remain. I bet a fight would break out. I am looking at you and wondering, how many among you are willing to die for God’s Will? You have to be serious about this. You need to reflect on the issue of how much devotion you have offered for your wife and children in your family, and how much devotion you have offered for the members of your church. (42-166, 1971.03.04)
9 A person who is unable to sow seeds of compassion will not have an enduring life of faith. The same applies to me. Even though it was because of my public position that I was late for a service, I enter with prayer. There are times when I am unable to attend Sunday service. Whenever this happens, I offer a prayer of repentance. The members put their faith in me and offer sincere devotions, seeking for blessings and solutions to life-or-death situations. So, as the person bearing the subject partner responsibility for the members, if 1 am unable to attend a Sunday service, I offer a prayer asking for forgiveness. Such prayers are necessary. (43-115, 1971.04.25)
10 We need to sacrifice and advance for the sake of the world. The time required to achieve a goal will be reduced in proportion to the sacrifice made by the person seeking to achieve that goal—the amount of sacrifice offered for the sake of the object partner. We in Korea must live for the sake of Korea, but if Korea is unwilling to live for the sake of the world, we must live for the sake of the world. By raising people or descendants who share my faith and philosophy, and by establishing a foundation whereby my philosophy can be bequeathed to posterity for tens of thousands of generations, Unification Thought will be the thought that engenders a new global culture. This is my view, and it is God’s view. (45-198, 1971.06.27)
11 You need to have zest in your life of faith. In the past, when I sent you out to the countryside to witness, I used to visit the Tongil business two or three times every day. I also visited Cheong- pyeong every other day. What was the purpose of having such a hectic schedule? I had a zest for the work. I could feel what ordinary people could not feel. In that situation, when I offered devotions going from place to place, all the cells of my soul became alive, generating spiritual power. We need this kind of experience. Thus whether it rains or snows, we need zest in our life of faith. (127-145, 1983.05.07)
12 The Lord comes to this earth to establish the kingdom of heaven on earth. What kind of place is the kingdom of heaven? It is where those people go who are qualified to attend the Lord and who successfully lead lives of attendance. The kingdom of heaven is the world where, before the entire universe, we can be eternally proud of preparing and actualizing a life of attendance. Do you know what people are doing in the kingdom of heaven? Some may think it is simply a place to play and walk around, but it is not so. Even to play and walk around, you must have made preparations and real-life conditions. However, people often pray for blessings without making any real effort. Therein lies the primary reason that divinely inspired people have difficulties as they advance. Even tremendous grace from God will not last beyond seven years. (8-307, 1960.02.14)
13 Expecting blessings unconditionally is not true faith. What then must we do to receive blessings? All humankind on earth today descended from Adam over the course of six thousand biblical years. Our hearts should reach the standard where we can tearfully embrace all the people of the world. Otherwise we cannot establish a connection with this world. This means that when you see a pitiful beggar, your heart aches unbearably; when you see a person with shabby garments, you cannot dress fashionably; when you see a hungry person, you cannot eat. Your heart cannot seek personal comfort when you are concerned about others. (8-307, 1960.02.14)
14 There are two types of religious people in the world. One type is those who hide their shortcomings and seek material comforts, blessings and the welfare of their own religious denomination or people. Religions that focus on receiving blessings will disappear. Since we came to know this, the Unification Church emphasizes personal sacrifice to help God and liberate Him. What is to be achieved through unification? It is the liberation of God. Originally the true God, in the ideal world under His dominion, would have sung songs of praise and happiness with the first human ancestors, who would have attended Him. But instead, because of God’s miserable situation, we seek to liberate Him. This is an amazing plan. That such an idea has emerged in the realm of religion is tremendously joyful news to God. (176-243, 1988.05.11)
15 A life of faith is about resolving the issue of death while on earth. You may not know much about convicts on death row but I know well, having lived with them. You have no idea how serious such convicts become when facing death. When a holiday such as Chuseok approaches, those convicts reflect on it as if it were the last Chuseok in history. When the wind blows or a typhoon hits, they observe it in the same way. They say, “This typhoon will be the last one I experience while I am on earth.” They spend their last days looking at all things with a serious heart, a new feeling and a new appreciation. Among those people who walk the path of faith, I wonder how many have such a serious attitude, and how many value their life as a divine life and face each day with new resolve. This is an important question. Because I am in this serious place, I keep going this way. (160-025, 1968.12.29)
A life of faith is a life of attending God
16 Faith means living in attendance to God, living together with God and attending Him. If we do not walk such a path, we feel uneasy. We feel physically uncomfortable and we meet obstacles in our environment. A life of faith is a life of living together with God and attending Him. The sun rises in the morning, reaches its zenith at noon and sets in the evening. This is unchanging. It will not change in tens of thousands of years. If an orbit goes awry, everything goes awry. We need to go out and find the mind of love, the path of true love. The person who inherits true life and true lineage becomes part of God’s family and always lives with God. Living with God also means living happily with nature and coming and going happily in our daily lives. (277-016, 1996.03.17)
17 In our lives of faith, there is the communal life of faith and the individual life of faith. In the communal life of faith, it is possible to receive shared grace, but it is difficult to receive personal grace. In order to receive personal grace, we must lead a life that is close to God. Accordingly, our devout prayers and constant daily efforts to come closer to God lead to greater depth of faith. (269-070, 1995.04.07)
18 In order to undertake a mission in the Unification Church, you need to renew your determination as a person of faith. Before that, it is important that the center of your faith is well grounded. You will be unable to practice a life of faith that can manage the world if you do not realize that the center of your faith is even more important than the world. You will also be unable to identify the attributes of faith. If you want to climb to the top of a mountain, you have to be ready to climb despite the conditions. Similarly, you should undertake a major action only after confirming again and again in your mind that you are going the right way. Otherwise you should not undertake such an action, and before you take the first step you have to strengthen your resolve ten thousand times. If you do this, you will be able to resolve whatever crises you face as you go forward. That is a life of faith. (27-113, 1969.11.30)
19 A life of faith is not aimless. A life of faith is like gathering the equipment required to reach a mountaintop, the summit of the highest peak. Hence when faced with an obstacle we should not make a detour around it. Instead we should proceed through the obstacle. When faced with hardships, we should determine not to give up, and be ready to face even greater difficulties. With an indomitable spirit we should strive to discover the subjective self that can digest all difficulties. (27-113, 1969.11.30)
20 People pursue lives of faith in the belief that they will prevent evil and leave a legacy of goodness. What is humanity’s greatest hope? It is to become beings of perfect goodness. It is written in the Bible, Matthew 5:48, “Be perfect, therefore, as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” As the absolute subject partner of love, God’s greatest desire is for human beings to stand as His object partners of love. Human beings too want to be beings of goodness as object partners to God. As the subject of goodness, God does not want His object partner to be suffering in under the yoke of evil, accused by Satan. There is no doubt about this. Thus as the absolute subject of goodness, God wants people to be absolute objects of goodness. Was this God’s wish from our very birth? Of course. After our birth, does God want us to live that way throughout our lives? Yes, of course. God has always wished that we would be good and will always wish this. (057-014, 1972.05.21)
21 Faith means believing in and reverently attending God. Where is the endpoint of such faith? Where is the final destination of the faith that endures all, overcomes all? It is the place where we can jump on top of God and take a ride. It is the place where, more than attending God, even if we held onto His hair and danced on Him He would say with delight, “Good, keep on dancing!” That is the endpoint of our faith; we need to rise to that level. In this sense, there is nothing you cannot believe in. If you have such a foundation, there is nothing that is beyond the grasp of faith. (44-254, 1971.05.23)
22 In the Unification Church we attend God as the object of reverence in our daily lives, and we promote harmony and unity based on God’s love. This was my motivation for founding the Unification Church. Our religion began on the best theoretical foundation. It is not a wild fantasy. From its inception, the Unification Church presented concrete substance. (083-312, 1976.02.15)
23 A life of attendance means that, even after living this way for a thousand years, you still do not think about yourself. You should not think, “I have spent decades in the Unification Church attending Reverend Moon.” I don’t like that kind of person. I myself have forgotten everything I have done in attending God so far. When you continue on, forgetting everything, a greater life of attendance awaits you. God is like that too. (301-188, 1999.04.26)
A life that finds hope through faith
24 A person of faith should pray with a public mind, for a greater cause. Then how can such work unfold horizontally? We should not merely daydream about this; we need creative ventures that can make it real. Hence as people of faith, we need to struggle endlessly with our environment and strive to realize our ideals through innovative lives. A life of faith means the way of the greatest pioneer, the way of the greatest warrior and the way of the greatest evangelist. Such achievements lead to the way of the greatest victor. This is the life of faith we must lead. (28-271, 1970.02.08)
25 We should believe in ourselves, place our hope in ourselves and love ourselves so we can say to God, “Dear God, please accept my love, please rejoice at my hope and in my faith.” When I do so, God should be able to respond, “Yes!” This is the aim of our faith, the purpose of our hope and the reason we long for love. If we achieve this, we will meet the Lord, and thereafter we will live with Him. (7-165, 1959.08.30)
26 The issue lies not in the small mistakes you make here and there but in whether you can go forward with absolute faith and obedience to God. If you do not have results, take heart and have hope. Having hope requires absolute faith and a record of striving to achieve results. Representing all men in the world, I have to overcome a path of tribulation greater than that experienced by anyone in history. I came with authority certified by the spiritual and physical worlds, but you did not. Hence if you have no accomplishments, you can get by with faith. What kind of faith should it be? It cannot be self-centered faith that is pleasing only to you. Even if you accomplish the Will with such faith, God will not like it. The more you insist on doing things your own way, the more you distance yourself from God and from me. It is not right to say, “I will do what I like and not what I dislike.” God has to like what you do. That is where the real issue lies. The same applies to me. This is why I exhort you to have faith, even though you may not practice it as you should. If you believe, you can get by. (033-100, 1970.08.09)
27 Unification Church members absolutely need to believe in my words. They need to seek hope and faith as they did in the past. In those days members may not have known the entire providence yet they moved forward, filled with hope and longing for love. So even if you are unable to reach a certain place on your path, you can still believe in my words, have faith in God’s love and advance according to my guidance. There is no other way. You need to go through this course. Even if you may be victorious on the individual and family levels and receive God’s blessing on those levels, you must keep going through the levels of the tribe, people, nation, world and cosmos. Overall, you need to go up through seven levels. You need to pass through seven stages to reach God. There are seven summits altogether. To reach God we must have absolute faith in God. Whatever God orders, we must absolutely obey. (014-256, 1965.01.01)
New life through repentance
28 Some people say they will begin their life of faith when they grow old, that they will go to heaven by having faith when they come close to death. They couldn’t be further from the truth. You cannot go to heaven that way. The time when you begin your life centered on God is important. If you begin your life of faith in your twilight years, it amounts to having spent a lifetime betraying God. In that case you have to repent proportionally to your betrayal. Those who persist in saying that when they are old they will somehow have faith and then go to heaven are foolish. (32-032, 1970.06.14)
29 Some members here have lived a life of faith knowing God’s Will for only one year, others for more than ten years or half a lifetime. The issue then is whether you have stood still, made progress or retreated. You need to clearly know where you stand and then you can go over the next hill. You may have made significant progress in the past, but if you are at a standstill today, God’s living vitality cannot be with you and you cannot maintain a loving relationship with God. You may have made tremendously positive strides in the past, moving forward with boundless value, boundless vitality and the boundless power of love, but if you are now at a standstill you are already separated from God. (32-019, 1970.06.14)
30 Repentance is absolutely necessary for fallen humanity to enter God’s realm of life and love. If one hundred points worth of sins have accumulated through our ancestors up to now, that much greater effort and repentance is needed. Hence when we speak of our life of faith, we cannot leave out repentance. We were born through countless generations of ancestors. If our ancestors were good, then as their descendants we will automatically be within reach of God’s realm of life. However, if we have evil ancestors, we will find ourselves far removed from God’s realm of life. For a person who is distant from God’s realm of life to draw near to it, a period of repentance that outweighs the evils committed by his or her ancestors is absolutely necessary. Unless this person completes this task, he or she will be unable to access a world of vitality greater than his or her own. Because of this, the path of faith requires heartfelt tears of repentance. (32-024, 1970.06.14)
Living by the Word
31 If you have been living a life of faith for ten years, you should have had some experience of struggling to unite with God’s heart in those years. If you experienced great joy while carrying out a particular mission, that should stimulate you so that one day you will completely fulfill your task. This idea should be deeply embedded in your heart, so that when you are surrounded with difficulties you can say, “When the spring comes, I will exert myself one more time for this, to the farthest reaches of heaven. Wait and see. When that time comes, I will do this.” We need such conviction. (043-105, 1971.04.25)
32 Faith is necessary to provide the motivation for action. When the Bible teaches us where to find the kingdom of heaven, it does not say merely to believe in it; rather it teaches that the kingdom of heaven lies within us. That heaven is within us does not mean that the subject partner’s position depends on the world of the object partner. I determine the kind of subject partner I will be. It is clear that human beings have the impetus that determines this. (46-071, 1971.07.25)
33 You need to apply the faith you have learned, either spiritually or through me, in your endeavors. Where you do so, there the kingdom of heaven will unfold. When we look at this centered on God, we are in the second position and our environment is in the third position. There are three stages—formation, growth and completion. Since I am in the central position, I can perfect heaven and also perfect the world. Thus in the Bible, the second position is always a problem. Whose position is the second position? When looking at God and the created universe, it is the human beings’ position. (76-157, 1975.02.02)
34 The human being is the connector among three points on a line. Therefore when human beings reach perfection, we will also witness the perfection of God and the universe. Thus in my pioneering course, what I need absolutely is spiritual experience and practice in coordinating these two worlds. If spiritual experience refers to the spirit, practice refers to the truth; if we call spiritual experience the right hand, practice is the left. When I perfectly align spiritual experience with practice, I emerge as a son of God representing the entire universe. (76-157, 1975.02.02)
35 You need to have some accomplishments. The issue is whether at least one person on a battlefield achieves noteworthy results. I am not interested in worthless practices. As representatives of God, our families and our nation, we must shed blood in the fight to obtain results worthy of respect. We cannot do this while laughing. However, when we go forward with life-or-death determination, results commensurate with our efforts will naturally emerge. Now is the time to invest our best abilities and leave a legacy of achievements. (217-080, 1991.04.16)
Section 2. The Purpose and Goal of a Life of Faith
1 It is dangerous to fall into a routine life of faith. Such a life of faith becomes a condition for Satan, who is always busy trying to find reasons to accuse us. As people walk the path of restoration, Satan does not want to yield even one person. He continually looks for any opportunity to invade people by any means or method. In this sense, strict religious precepts are beneficial. When individuals fulfill indemnity conditions, Satan can be separated from them on the individual level. However, Satan may again invade on the family level, the tribal level or the national level. If you lead a worldly life guided by habit, you will tend to get easily caught up in a conventional lifestyle that is not a true way of life. It is better for you to unceasingly practice true love and sacrifice yourself for others, for only then can you overcome Satan. Accordingly, although it may be difficult, when you practice the way of righteousness for the public good, you can experience tremendous fulfillment. We all need to lead such lives. (167-100, 1987.06.30)
Reasons for living a life of faith
2 We human beings have a conscience and a physical body. The more we are pulled by the body, the more the body dominates us and the more its desires control our life, the less powerful our center will be. If we follow the desires of the body, we will be pulled down to the point where the sphere of our conscience dwindles to zero. However, if we control the desires of the body, we can grow in our vertical faith. We have not yet grown spiritually to reach the standard of perfection before God. In order to reach that level, we need to do our utmost to offer conditions of devotion greater than any worldly love. Only when we invest greater love for God than our love for the world can we reach the completion level of the growth stage. Then by fulfilling our portion of responsibility centering on the realm of oneness, we can pass beyond the jurisdiction of the indirect dominion into God’s direct dominion, the realm of perfection. This view is based on the Principle. (271-281, 1995.08.28)
3 The purer the religion, the stricter it is toward the body. For example, among Christians, Catholic priests and nuns lead celibate lives. This means they are expected to sacrifice themselves in order to serve others more. Christians encourage each other with ideas such as, “Seek to become the cornerstone, not just a brick in the upper wall,” or “Become a pillar that holds up walls, not an ornamental facade on the gate.” The Bible’s teachings all go against the desires of the body. We cannot let our fallen mind and body do whatever they want to. This is why we do the opposite of what delights the body. It is because only then can the desires of the body be mastered. The highest and purest religion is the one that is best at leading believers away from bodily desires. (18-068, 1967.05.21)
4 The path of faith we follow does not allow us to insist on our own personal opinions or concepts. Absolute faith has no concept of “I,” “me” or “mine.” When we say our faith is absolute, it means there should be nothing that holds us back. To become one with God we will need to put aside any insistence on our own view. This means we unite completely with the desires of our subject partner, God. Complete unity means we have no shred of desire to impose ourselves. In the path of faith, if circumstances allow us to egocentrically assert ourselves, it is not the kingdom of heaven. No matter how devout our faith, if we are in the position to pursue our own hopes and desires as we please, it cannot be the kingdom of heaven. Like me, you need to think seriously about this fundamental issue. (046-082, 1971.07.25)
5 When someone faces insoluble personal problems, he or she needs to seek help from a senior, someone who is spiritually higher. The person should honestly report the situation and explain, “I do not exist for myself or live on my own; I exist for those who follow the One.” Then if that spiritually higher person instructs him or her to go left, he or she should go left; and if that senior person says to go right, he or she should go right. Whether the spiritually higher person wants the person to go up or down, that person should do as asked. If he or she can say, “I am here at the command of my leader, not for my own sake,” he or she will overcome all difficulties. That is to say, we need companions in our life of faith. People without companions are lonely people. Those who have companions can support and protect each other. They can find ways to overcome the challenges that arise in their life. Those with no companions have to resolve by themselves any problems that crop up. But this is truly a challenging task; problems assail us from every direction and we become unable to make it on our own. (42-251, 1971.03.21)
6 Because the lives of fallen human beings began from Satan, unless we deny ourselves, we cannot be linked to God’s life. Accordingly, there is no other way except to lay down our own life. At what point can there be unity between our life and God’s life? This occurs at the point we are willing to give up our fallen life—that is, where we willingly go to the end, even to the extent of sacrificing our own life. This is why the path of faith is the path of living for the Will, the path of uniting with the Will even at the risk of our life. (038-079, 1971.01.01)
7 When I hear you laugh while you’re talking in your room, I can immediately sense whether your laughter brings something positive or negative to God. I can feel it. You too need to cultivate good habits and develop your spiritual senses. Nothing in your surroundings is meaningless. Everything can be used as educational material, as a textbook for self-development. We need to have such an outlook on life. Then even when you are alone, you will not just act as you please. If you live with such an outlook on life, you will not mistreat anyone, whether an acquaintance or a stranger. You cannot treat a person casually simply because he or she is a stranger you meet for the first time. You really do not know who that person is. Therefore, in our life we need to develop our spiritual senses by relating with our environment centered on the standard of heart. People who never fail to find meaningful value, and delight in any situation or incident, are no longer practicing a faith that is merely conceptual. Such people practice real faith. Their life of faith is to live together with God. (040-285, 1971.02.07)
8 A life of faith must be fervent. Its fervor must exceed a hungry person’s craving for food or the desperate heart of a lost child looking for his or her mother. This is because a life of faith pursues the goal of faith, which is not visible to the eyes. Is God’s Will visible? God’s Will remains invisible until it is realized through human beings. In the world around us, people plan, design, budget for and then execute a project; but God’s Will is neither visible nor tangible. It is difficult to seek for the invisible world and substantiate its objectives in reality. Your eyes can see only what is visible. You cannot feel, see or hear what cannot be physically seen, felt or heard. Your five senses necessarily enable you to feel, hear and touch only what is perceptible in the physical realm. (61-143, 1972.08.28)
9 What is the path of faith? If a person can sense something from the invisible world more strongly than from the visible world, that person will never be exhausted. The external world seeks for the visible and revolves around it; but the path of faith pursues what is invisible. Therefore when you are so caught up in the external world that you lose sight of your spiritual goal and purpose, you will feel drained of energy in your life of faith. (61-143, 1972.08.28)
Regaining the parent-child relationship with God
10 What should be the goal of Unification Church members in their life of faith? Their goal should be to walk the path of the cross, in the shoes of a servant, with the heart of a parent. We are unworthy to be considered even as servants. We have the body of a murderer who killed the Father. So we must walk the path to indemnify this. Jesus was innocent, yet he walked that path. Therefore we sinners who actually killed the Father should walk this path a hundred times, even a thousand times. (13-055, 1963.10.16)
11 You desperately appealed to God with a sorrowful heart, yet you could not find Him. It is due to the Fall that you could not find God. It is due to the Fall that human beings could not establish a parent-child relationship with God or a relationship of love with Him based on the heavenly norm. Therefore, we need to understand the causes and circumstances of the Fall and clearly reveal the identity of Satan. Only then can we human beings be restored to our original position. We do not need a lip- service parent-child relationship or even one just based on a covenant. We need to recover a living parent-child relationship with God. Even if our bones and flesh melt and we have to endure excruciating pain, it is only when we invest all our heart and mind for His Will and bring victory that this can happen. (2-235, 1957.06.02)
12 Imagine the glory of God’s creations, which He made with His own hands and which were substantiated by His Word. Yet today heaven and earth do not reflect God’s glory. This is woeful and infuriating; it does not reflect God’s motivation and purpose for creating. His creation was defiled and God’s intention and purpose of creation were violated due to something unexpected—the Fall of the first human beings. The Fall became the source of suffering, grief and misfortune. It is the source of everything human beings detest. An adversary wielding a knife is not our true enemy. The Fall is the real enemy of humankind, the enemy of all things and the enemy of the Creator. What is the origin of this enemy? It originated millennia ago with the first human ancestors. Therefore, if we are to dig out the root of evil and sin, we must desperately battle this enemy, and eradicate the origin of the Fall by blasting it out of existence. Only then will the enemy be unable to relate with human beings on earth. As long as he remains, evil will still be rampant in the world. Believers ought not to battle over the results of the Fall; rather their first priority ought to be finding the Fall’s originator. We need to identify the enemy’s den and how he caused the Fall. The problem of the Fall needs to be resolved fundamentally between the three parties: God, human beings and Satan. Unless this is done, we will remain at a loss over how to resolve human suffering. (11-333, 1962.04.17)
13 Human beings should be able to call God “my Father” from the position of His true sons and daughters. This is the hope of humankind, the hope of all creation and the hope of God. Therefore, we are destined to work for the restoration of this relationship, so we may live on earth as true sons and daughters of God. As of now, our only wish is to build our relationship with God as our parent, based on true love. (3-029, 1957.09.15)
14 Amid the joys and sorrows that represent heaven and hell, I took my first steps to question and search for the origin of the universe. I discovered that its core is the parent-child relationship. Therefore the foundation of restoration is the parent-child relationship. This relationship must be completely restored. Accordingly, the history of God’s providence is of the restoration of the original relationship between the Father and His sons and daughters. (19-016, 1967.11.02)
15 In order to stand before our absolute Father as His true sons and daughters, we need to overcome the world of doubt, the world of death, the world of sin and the world of fear. Once we understand what the essence of the life of faith that Heaven expects of us is all about, we can do no less than reach that standard and, having reached it, stand before Heaven. Unless we do so, we cannot become our Father’s true sons and daughters. When you are armed with such a faith, you will be able to establish an eternal bond with God, enjoy eternal goodness and eternal life, and be eternally freed from pain. And you will be able to live eternally within the heavenly realm. This is something to remember. (3-022, 1957.09.08)
16 People separated from their parents or from their husband or wife feel sorrow. They are also unhappy if they don’t have a nation that can protect them and their families. These situations draw people together in close relationships. People sometimes feel sadness even in their ordinary relationships. If they are unable to create bonds based on an eternal worldview, wouldn’t they also feel empty? Even if people acquire everything they need and want in their life on earth, they are still bound to seek an eternal relationship with Heaven. (3-052, 1957.09.22)
17 We who follow the path of faith should aim for that which is unchanging. We must restore relationships that are unchanging. We need to realize that such bonds are made not separately from our daily lives but from within the sphere of our lives, with everything connected in oneness. We need to know this and live our lives while actively relating with God. Only through relating with God in our lives can we reclaim our true value and allow God to dwell in our heart, attaining oneness with Him. In other words, when you experience God’s substantial presence, which allows you to live in such a way, you will realize that this has unlimited value. When you create the environment in which universal values can be actualized, the value of both individuals and the whole will start to grow centering on you. (3-052, 1957.09.22)
18 Unificationists’ view of faith differs from that of any other religion. Up to this point, Christians have had a vague faith based on the Savior Jesus and the Bible. However, our life of faith is based on the word “Parent,” meaning God, and is focused on cultivating the parent- child relationship with God. Parents and children have an inseparable relationship. That is true from the moment we are born and throughout our life until we die. Therefore, we cannot live or engage in any activity apart from our parents. This is especially so for the Parents who are the center of the history of the universe. They are not just ordinary parents who come to earth for their own family members; they come having achieved the absolute bond with God. This is why, unless you are connected to God and True Parents and unite fully with them, you cannot accomplish your responsibility or fulfill your purpose. The most important thing is that the three—God, True Parents and you— must always be in total oneness. (24-131, 1969.07.20)
19 What do all people and all things of creation lament over? It is that we cannot participate as members of the heavenly family. This is the lament of the cosmos. The purpose of our life of faith is nothing less than to find God and call Him Father. God has carried out the providence of restoration for six thousand years in order to welcome the day when all people will rejoice as brothers and sisters and recognize Him as their Father. (7-265, 1959.09.27)
Spiritual maturity
20 Why did Jesus claim to be the begotten Son of God? The reason he made a statement that was so hard for the people of his day to believe was because he wanted to give them the benefits of instantly making a leap forward in faith through having believed in him. If the people had boundless faith in Jesus, their cries would have reached Heaven and their faith would have grown with great strides. The higher the level of your faith in the center of the heavenly kingdom, the greater the works the spirit world can do through you. If you possess boundless faith, then according to the quality of your character, you will be able to immediately feel the realities of the world beyond your physical senses and beyond the physical universe to a degree you cannot imagine. Unfortunately, human beings lost this amazing ability. If a believer has the ambition to ceaselessly advance toward the infinite world, he or she will have to face a cosmic battle. He or she will have to vanquish the forces that insist that human beings remain within a hemmed-in realm of faith. (3-021, 1957.09.08)
21 Human beings were originally meant to reach perfection in both spirit and flesh. As long as Jesus remains only in the position of our spiritual parent, he can give us only spiritual salvation, which is one half of salvation. Accordingly, there is a need for the returning Lord to come to earth to give us physical salvation, in the flesh. Then the returning Lord is to unite the spirits of all who believed in Jesus together with Christians on earth and offer them all before God to inaugurate the Third Israel. Just as baptism enabled believers to become citizens of the Second Israel, believers need to go through the gate of the Blessing to become citizens of the Third Israel. (19-096, 1967.12.31)
22 Wrongful love led Adam and Eve to the Fall. In order to reverse this through indemnity, human beings need to go through the gate of the Blessing and be joined as brides and grooms in God’s love. Otherwise, they cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. The responsibility to establish the Blessing was something that not even Jesus was able to fulfill. It is therefore the responsibility of the returning Lord, the Savior, to complete this task. Unless the Lord returns and takes up this task, and unless he controls the root of everything on earth, there is no way that he will be able to straighten out the entanglements on earth. The entire responsibility for giving the Blessing is his to fulfill. (19-096, 1967.12.31)
23 Because he was crucified, Jesus could not become the True Parent with a physical body. Although God’s lineage was spiritually established, the manifestation of True Parents, who have both spirit and body, could not be realized. The spiritual True Parent, Jesus, is limited to the spirit world, making only spiritual salvation possible. He did not accomplish physical salvation, namely, redemption for the sins committed in the flesh. Accordingly, Christianity has only had a spiritual father and a spiritual mother—Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Therefore, when the True Parents come, we will need to be born anew through them, conditionally or symbolically reentering the womb of the Mother. For that sake, we have been groping our way forward on this course. (055-117, 1972.04.01)
24 Between the spirit self and the physical self, the spirit self is the more important. The physical self has a lifespan of seventy to eighty years in the limited physical realm, after which it decomposes. However, the spirit self transcends time and space. When you understand the historical responsibility that human beings are meant to fulfill, you must fulfill it. No matter how much you enjoy your life while living in the flesh, your body is destined to perish. Fleshly life is inevitably going to end. (20-326, 1968.07.14)
25 John the Baptist did not attend Jesus on the family level. Therefore Jesus had to indemnify this on John's behalf. Likewise, because the Christian cultural sphere did not attend the returning Lord, I, in the position of John the Baptist, had to establish the Unification Church in place of Christianity. Hence at the time of the Second Advent, the Unification Church is similar to Judaism on the global level. The United States, which is in the position of Israel, and the free world, should have become one with the Unification Church, but they are opposing it, as is Korea. Until such unity transpires, the Unification Church has no nation and can only carry out the providence of spiritual salvation, just as God carried out the providence of spiritual salvation through Jesus in the New Testament Age. If in the Last Days, Christianity, which has the global spiritual foundation, totally unites with me, then establishing the physical foundation will be no problem at all. (246-142, 1993.04.07)
26 We first need to free ourselves from Satan’s world. We should also develop emotions different from those of worldly people. That is, we must deeply experience God’s love spiritually and hate what Satan loves. We must also sacrifice ourselves for the sake of the entire world. If, centering on me, you are victorious on the individual, family, tribal, national and global levels, we can recover the spiritual Israel and the chosen people and establish them as the Third Israel. When this happens, God can save humanity spiritually and physically through us. (052-042, 1971.12.12)
27 Which is more important: spiritual standards or physical standards? We should not place physical standards in the primary position. Though the flesh exists for the spirit and the spirit for the flesh, do not cling to ways of the secular world. You should take the more meaningful position by concentrating your spirit and flesh on the essence of life. This is the path for those who uphold the Unificationist worldview. As it is, there are many people who care more about the body—about what to eat and where to live—than about living according to a spiritual standard. Everyone is caught by the conditions they create. (20-326, 1968.07.14)
Sharing our lives with True Parents
28 What is the one foundation that can be the starting point for the realization of God’s hope and humanity’s hope? What is the one foundation that, for believers, marks the starting point of victory? The origin of God’s bitter sorrow is that human beings descended from the false parent, Satan. Therefore we must become people who can obey the True Parents, based on our sacred relationship with them. This will finally liberate the cosmos and open the gate to the heavenly kingdom. (42-291, 1971.03.27)
29 A true family consists of a true man and a true woman who become true husband and true wife and then true parents of true children. Our core purpose as a man or woman is to become a true parent and as a couple to become true parents. After becoming true parents, we have sons and daughters and establish a family. This is why in the Unification Church we say, “Let us have faith in True Parents” and “Let us believe in True Parents.” We needed to say this because we weren’t certain that what we believed was true. But once we know with certainty, we move beyond the point of mere belief or faith. Formerly we believed because we did not know with certainty; now that we do, we no longer need to simply believe. Furthermore, until now we did not know why we were born, what it really means to become a husband or wife, the significance of children and what family is all about. But now we no longer need to believe in True Parents’ family because we can know True Parents’ family. We know True Parents, so we no longer need to just believe in them. Put away the concept, “I believe in True Parents,” and instead think, “I know True Parents.” With that, we can share our lives with True Parents. We can live with them. (287-140, 1997.09.14)
30 The Messiah is the perfected True Parents who have nothing to do with the Fall. When the True Parents appear, they become the axis by which God and human beings can be linked to each other. God is the spiritual True Parent, and when Adam and Eve reach perfection they become the substantial True Parents on earth. Because of this axis, there is unity. Religions until the present did not have the standard of True Parents; hence there was no way for them to link human beings with God on earth. Therefore religions have advocated offering devotion so that believers could establish a standard upon which to build a reciprocal base with Heaven and meet the Lord in spirit. For this reason many believers have lived their lives cultivating their spirituality by making repeated conditions of devotion, gradually building their own spiritual bridges to encounter Heaven. (268-234, 1995.04.02)
31 Every single human being must follow the path to sever from the false love, false life and false lineage they were born with and to live a new life by being engrafted into true love, true life and the true lineage. Religions emerged to help us subjugate the body and forge unity between the mind and body. Therefore, as a religious believer it is important that you attain the state of mind-body unity while living on earth, become one with your spouse in true love, and give birth to sons and daughters who can go to the kingdom of heaven. How can people give birth to true sons and daughters who can enter the heavenly kingdom unless they live a life of faith? This is why religions emerged for the subjugation of the body and for the unity of the body with the mind. They are to bring people into unity with the True Parents through an engrafting process. This is how false olive trees are transformed into true olive trees that bear true sons and daughters who, after completing their earthly lives, will proceed to the eternal world, the kingdom of heaven. This is the ideal of creation. (263-283, 1994.10.15)
32 True Parents advanced from the lowest level of hell up to the height of heaven and are moving forward with true love. When we follow True Parents’ will and become one with them in heart and one with their ideal of life, there will be no distance between us and True Parents. Then what they have erected and indemnified vertically will unfold for us horizontally. The standards of the eight stages are required only until redemption is accomplished on the eight levels—that of an individual, a family, a tribe, a people, a nation, the world, the cosmos, and finally the level of God’s liberation. When all that is accomplished horizontally, individuals will be able to freely advance to the family level, our family to the level of the tribe and our tribe to the level of one people. We start from the individual level, advance to the ends of the earth, and then come back. (295-126, 1998.08.19)
Section 3. The Path of Faith
1 Because human beings are born as descendants of the fallen first human ancestors, we can neither find the path to God nor enter the heavenly nation unless we overcome the obstacle of the Fall. Furthermore, as beings encumbered with fallen nature, it is impossible to find the way to reverse the Fall on our own. In order to reverse the Fall, we cannot rely on our own power, but must rely on the power of a third party. Such is the plight of people living today. Fortunately, Heaven has not forsaken us. Throughout history Heaven has toiled, taking responsibility to guide us in reversing the conditions of the Fall. (076-091, 1975.02.01)
The path we must go in accordance with God's Will
2 When we talk about the true path of faith, “true” means there is only one path. What then, is the object of our faith? It is the absolute God. A life of faith is about seeking and finding the destination of hope desired by God, in accordance with His Will. A life of faith is not about what I want; it is not about the desire of those who lead a life of faith. Confusion has occurred within the global community of faith because people have not understood that a life of faith should be centered upon accomplishing God’s Will, not centered upon oneself. (265-312, 1994.12.01)
3 Everything depends on oneself. It is up to each of us whether we achieve perfection or fail to achieve it. It is the same regarding whether we succeed or fail in life. Our life of faith is no different. Although our faith may be constant throughout our life, our conscience urges us to strive after ever-higher goals. Reaching the highest standard is, however, no ordinary undertaking. The higher we climb, the closer to the peak we are, until ultimately we realize that everything ends in unity. It is difficult, though, to reach that point of oneness: historically, our conscience has sought the purpose of goodness, yet the perfection we desire as human beings still eludes us. (249-010, 1993.10.07)
4 In the Unification Church, your life of faith requires you to raise the standard by which you evaluate yourselves as you walk with God in your daily fives. When you go to the spirit world this higher standard will be your asset. It will also be the determining factor deciding whether in the new era you will be remembered in history as a hero or an outcast. (25-215, 1969.10.04)
5 Each one of us needs a victorious standard, a starting point from which we can accomplish our mission. This means we must establish a victorious standard from the subject partner position. Naturally, unless we establish a victorious standard, we will not be able to accomplish our purpose. Where must we establish this standard? It must be created within ourselves. (29-265, 1970.03.11)
6 When Jesus came to earth carrying God’s entire mission on His behalf, standing as the one responsible for ending a cosmic struggle, the issue for Jesus was always to focus on his relationship with God. God was to be the center of heaven and earth and Jesus the substantial center. Jesus was constantly mindful of this fact. If any gap between himself and God had opened, or a conflict over their purpose had arisen, they would not have been able to progress toward victory. (29-265, 1970.03.11)
7 Deep in his heart, Jesus carried the conviction that the Father and Son must always be united. In other words, centering on God, the victorious subject partner, Jesus was fully aware that in order to prepare a victorious foundation as a subject partner on earth, he needed to attend God in his heart. It is from this standpoint that Jesus referred to himself as the temple of God. Achieving a victorious standard means to create a foundation of unity, of becoming a temple centering on Jesus, the substantial manifestation of God on earth. In other words, to complete a victorious foundation, a standard must be established. Otherwise the completion of restoration, the accomplishment of Jesus’ mission, would be impossible. Therefore, unless we establish a standard of faith and begin, we cannot claim that we have attained a victorious foundation. This is true no matter how long we have practiced a life of faith or how difficult our course may have been. In conclusion, the most important point is to have one moment that defines the standard of victory within oneself. (29-266, 1970.03.11)
8 When you seek what is true, you need a heart that longs for what is true. When you yearn for the truth in which heaven and earth can take delight, you must realize that you have to prepare yourself to match the standard of what is true from Heaven’s perspective. The means of existence may differ between the true God, true truth and true human beings. However, from an internal point of view, all three move in the same direction. In other words, God and truth move in one direction and coexist eternally. When we look at today’s world, we lament that this world has not become a true world. Furthermore, when we look deeply within ourselves, we lament not becoming true people and deplore not finding the true God in our lives of faith, despite yearning to do so. This is the agony faced by those who lead a life of faith. (4-187, 1958.04.20)
9 No one who lives a life of faith at the risk of his or her life wants to see his or her faith simply crumble amid life’s tribulations. The more seriously we practice our faith, the greater the trials we encounter and the more we want our faith to become deeper, wider and more enduring. If God is a serious God, then when He looks at each of us, we want Him to look more seriously at us than others look at us. Furthermore, as believers we all desire to leave a legacy in this world related to the cause most dear to our hearts. (44-322, 1971.05.30)
10 As believers, we say we will become God’s children. Yet what is God's wish? God’s ultimate wish for us has nothing to do with the mundane matters of our daily lives such as eating and sleeping. These activities are common to everyone. The Bible clearly tells us, “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things... But strive first for the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” (Matt. 7:31-33) (104-097, 1979.04.15)
11 A life of faith involves overcoming the constraints of our environment, making breakthroughs every day and constantly seeking new paths. Unless we do so, we cannot enter the kingdom desired by God. Since we often lack energy and since our habits and daily lives do not meet a high standard on our path of faith, we need to uphold God as our standard and adjust our daily lives accordingly. (071-272, 1974.05.05)
The path to eliminate the fallen nature
12 Originally human life was meant to begin with living for others, with God at the center. However, due to the Fall, human life did not begin with living for others. It began with selfish thinking, living for oneself and creating self-centered relationships. Since we are striving toward the goals of eternal freedom and peace, we must shed the self-centeredness and fallen nature that put our personal desires before the greater purpose. We need to become people who transcend ourselves and live for others. (2-165, 1957.04.07)
13 Before we can be proud of ourselves, we first must admit we are fallen people. Prior to showcasing our qualities, we first must confess the nature of our sins, while admitting that we come from a sinful history and that we are imbued with fallen nature. Although this is the reality of our fallen state, we try to circumvent it in all kinds of ways. Heaven must cleanse all the guilt that stains history and resolve the resentments resulting from these festering historical crimes passing down through the lineage. (006-336, 1959.06.28)
14 Among your colleagues, teachers, students or relatives, is there anyone who likes those who make excuses? Yet people are prone to blaming another person and scapegoating others when something goes wrong. A common excuse is, “Why are you only blaming me? He also did that; my brother did the same thing.” This is wrong. A person who makes a mistake should be honest. Yet often, someone who has committed an error tries to implicate others. Such behavior is from fallen nature. In order to correct this fallen inclination within ourselves, we should be honest in our daily life. We must have even greater honesty in front of God. (45-251, 1971.07.04)
15 When perfect parts are put together for a particular purpose, a perfect object is made. For example, to build a house, the doors and all the related components should be perfect. Only then can a house be completed. When we consider this, we realize we need to pursue perfection. Therefore, Jesus said, in Matthew 5:48, “Be perfect, therefore, as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” The standard is that you too must reach the perfection of Heaven. You must without doubt pursue the values of an object partner who comes close to the Absolute. What is required is a perfected object partner who stands unashamed in front of the Absolute. In order to achieve this, we need to analyze our daily life. We must set aside our daily life and even our thinking. We must analyze our five senses and entire body. We must feel and sense everything differently from how we did before. (60-047, 1972.08.06)
16 When you assert yourself in front of fallen humankind, it can be inferred that you still have your fallen nature. From this point, you must completely break yourself down. If you cling to the shape and elements of your fallen nature, you have more to do to reach total self-abnegation. Taking oneself apart completely means total self-denial. The true, original, ideal hope of human beings cannot be attained by the self-assertive way of fallen people. This is the conclusion. This is why, as God pursues providential goals through religion, the path He upholds is not that of self-assertion but the path of absolute self-denial. Unless we set the standard starting with total self-abnegation, there are no means for fallen human beings to fulfill the Absolute Being’s principle of partnership. (60-048, 1972.08.06)
17 We must completely detach from our fallen nature. To cut free from fallen nature, we first must dissociate from our individual selves. Hence we must be victorious as individuals—and then on the levels of the family, people, nation, world and finally the cosmos. This would be the realm of complete freedom from fallen nature. When we finally discover ourselves as object partners to God, having overcome our fallen nature, we will immediately realize that God is watching over us, and come to know that, instead of simply believing in God, we are with God. (61-171, 1972.08.28)
18 When you stand in front of Heaven, you have to reveal your shortcomings and recognize that you are a sinner. You need to become a lump of clay God can shape and mold as He pleases. This process is impossible if you assert or even acknowledge yourself. Thus the biblical saying, “Those who lose their life for my sake will find it” is validated. (Matt. 10:39) There is fallen nature everywhere in the body: there is fallen nature within these eyes, in these ears, in these lips. We must completely eliminate fallen nature. If God leads us one way, we must follow; if God takes us another way, we must go; if God tells us to extend our hand, we should do it; if God commands that we retreat, we must retreat. We should be absolutely willing to do as God wishes. (069-276, 1974.01.01)
19 Changing one’s perception or understanding is a frightening and difficult task. Once acquired, a bad habit is difficult to change. This is why we have the adage, “Habits formed as a toddler continue until old age.” Although you may have been in the Unification Church for decades, you have not rooted out your secular habits. You may say the words, “Sacrifice for the providence; sacrifice,” but have you really sacrificed? If given the choice between a comfortable path and a path of trials and tribulations, can you confidently say you would go the path of sacrifice? No. This disposition toward taking the easy way out is the result of secular habits transmitted historically. Even St. Paul exclaimed, “Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (Rom. 7:24) This wretchedness is also a result of habits accumulated over a lifetime. St. Paul lamented, “Wretched man that I am!” because he saw within himself two laws at war with each other. His inner being delighted in God's law but his body followed Satan’s desires. He thus added, “Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (172-192, 1988.01.21)
20 Habits formed over a lifetime cannot be eliminated, even though you try until you die. Thus it is logical to say that habits and fallen nature that have been passed down over millions of years cannot be rooted out with efforts made over a few centuries. This is a serious issue. You speak vaguely about fallen nature, but this fallen nature was not inherited through something being eaten. Fallen nature has been inherited through flesh and bone; it has been passed down through lineage. These habits have been mixed with flesh and blood. Fallen nature has taken root and cannot be removed with human energy. It has grown into a gigantic tree gathering up all the people of the world. (183-018, 1988.10.29)
21 We need to be aware of our fallen nature and the bitter sorrow of the Fall. Think about Adam and Eve crying after being chased from Eden. Remember this, and let us cleave earnestly to our Parent, yearning to be one with Him, with the determination to go forward- even if we have to spend tens of thousands of years crossing over the peaks of death. If we are unable to achieve mind-body unity, we will have no relationship with the foundation of God’s victory, even as that foundation spreads across the earth. (254-038, 1994.02.01)
The path to find my original self
22 You cannot rejoice in who you are, since you are not your original self. You must recognize that your situation is sorrowful. Your grief, however, should not be directed toward the world. Even when you feel pain, your pain should bear no relationship to the anguish of the secular world. When you feel sadness and pain, your sadness should come from being unable to find your true self. No matter how great the anguish and suffering of the world, they do not exceed the sadness and pain people experience being unable to find their true selves. Given this situation, for whom has God been searching until now? God has been searching for each of you. This is why you need to uncover and strengthen your true selves. Otherwise you have no relationship to a true family of true individuals, a true society built upon true families, a true nation of true societies, a true world made up of such true nations, or to the cosmos that bears this ideal world that perfectly centers on the substance of oneness. The first standard for all these levels of goodness is individual perfection. (5-065, 1958.12.21)
23 By disobeying God’s Word, humankind lost God’s Word, lost His substance and lost His love. Can you imagine God’s heart as He spoke the Word, His heart as He created human beings to be His substance, and His internal heart anticipating the pride He would feel through that substance? We are the ones who lost God’s Word, failed to embody Him and failed to embody the love that could create the garden envisioned by God. Hence we must realize that we are all sinners who cannot take pride in ourselves. On the contrary, we are beings who are incapable of establishing initiatives on our own and unable to find any basis to discover the foundation for the Sabbath within our own minds. (5-176, 1959.01.18)
24 Our mind constantly redirects us along our way. It tells us, “Turn around. Return to the ancient place. Return to the deepest place in your mind.” This is why Buddhism encourages us to meditate. The reality of our life on earth is that through our original mind’s guidance we sorrowfully seek our original selves. Once we have purified ourselves and returned to the ancient place, it is excruciating to recall our past, even in dreams. God’s goal is to eliminate this kind of sorrow-filled life. We should be living in the new, ideal world, enraptured with renewed hope. (7-279, 1959.09.27)
25 In the secular world, people seek good food and wear fashionable clothes. In contrast, the basic attitude of a religious seeker should be to eat simple food by choice. This is opposite to the way of the world. When you look at religious seekers, you see that despite eating humble food, wearing shabby clothes and leading impoverished lives, their way of life and their purpose is to find the original relationship—the love that can embrace them eternally. (044-192, 1971.05.07)
26 The original place of the Will is where God dwells. Therefore that original place is sacred. When we transcend all levels of creation and measure our coordinates from all directions, we can determine exactly where we are in relation to the Absolute. However, if we are mistaken in measuring and are not aligned with the original point at 180 degrees, we cannot reach it until we realign and straighten ourselves out. Given the context of our sinful history, this is the inevitable conclusion. We need to realign ourselves with all four directions in order to find the original zero point. And in order to find that zero point, we need to clearly understand the original center. Only when we fully unite with the zero point can we reach that original center. Until we understand this, we cannot recover our position as a second, resultant being, totally united with the Will, through which we can achieve a new beginning. This is logical and no one can object to it. (127-209, 1983.05.08)
27 When God created Adam and Eve, He invested Himself wholeheartedly based on that original relationship. In the same fashion, we must transform our fallen selves and strive to return to our original position, by investing several dozen times greater effort than God did, using all His creativity through thousands of years of history. In the history of restoration, the effort to secure a foundation of goodness has run to hundreds of attempts and has taken tens of thousands of years. (475-253, 2004.11.12)
28 The human body and conscience began to fight once they were placed under the realm of Satan’s love, within the devil’s dominion, which stands opposed to the original mind. The critical issue is how to resolve this fight between our conscience and our body. Resolving the issue at the personal level, however, is not enough. Each of us must repair the global environment, which has been overtaken by satanic forces. The environment should not contradict us; it should adjust to us. It should even follow us. Unless we accomplish the correct order of dominion, we cannot move in the direction to which our original minds aspire. (143-122, 1986.03.17)
29 We must ask ourselves, “What kind of being am I?” We are divine princes and princesses with cosmic value who are meant to find the crown of glory at the end of our lives, inheriting all of creation and the entire universe. Is it acceptable that people with such value be sold for a bowl of rice, or be the puppet of a group of worthless outlaws? Absolutely not! We must find ourselves. We need to bear the responsibility for our own restoration and rebuild our original nature. We have to ask, “Where is my original self?” We are searching, full of hope as we struggle to reunite with our true selves. We must uncover our self, which is connected with the origin of history, with cosmic law, with today’s reality and with the future. (151-079, 1962.10.07)
Section 4. Stages in a Life of Faith
1 If you look at the Chinese character for shin (信), meaning belief, you will see it is a combination of the characters for person (人) and word (言). Belief therefore means a person’s word. “Word” here signifies the means of communication that connects two people. When there is an absence of relationship, not a word is spoken. But when two people speak there is immediately an underlying giving and receiving. So, to form a relationship, we need belief. Moreover, the foundation for a relationship emerges from a connection established with love. But such a relationship cannot be established arbitrarily. A connection is possible because the necessary conditions of energy are there and somehow the levels of both parties’ objectives coincide. (20-025, 1968.03.31)
The stages in establishing our faith
2 Hope always supports faith. What does faith demand? If a person has perfect faith, faith demands that he match it in value with substantial effort. Faith means standing for and believing in the person who has matched the ideal of creation, who is in accord with principled law, and who has not fallen, but has reached perfection, and then is acting accordingly. The one who is victorious in this kind of faith will realize his hope. God’s love comes naturally to the one who achieves victory in faith and hope. (14-249, 1965.01.01)
3 Since God’s formula based on principle requires absolute faith, He had no choice but to command Noah to build the ark on top of a mountain. Noah faithfully accomplished his task over 120 years. That is how the number 120 could be reclaimed. Noah invested his entire life in carrying out God’s command. After the flood, Noah’s sons realized that their father had been correct, and they respected him, saying, “We thought our father was insane. But, as he predicted, God’s judgment came to pass and only our eight family members are left. Our father’s words were true. He is a prophet and a man of God.” Nevertheless, after the flood, when Ham saw his father lying asleep naked, he felt ashamed and called his two brothers, saying, “Father is crazy. Now he’s sleeping naked.” Then they took a garment and, walking backward, covered Noah’s naked body. With this act, the brothers completely denied Noah’s God-ordained position. That they opposed him in the end is undeniable. Therefore we must practice absolute faith before God. We must devote absolute faith only to God, not to Satan. The one who dedicates absolute faith only to God will surely be blessed by God as the father of faith. God cannot help but love such a person. (054-076, 1972.03.11)
4 When we look at faith and practice, there is always a gap between the two. Faith always precedes practice, not the other way around. Only when fallen human beings have strong faith can they practice it vigorously. But God does not look at faith only. God requires faith as a bridge to a better outcome through practice. In spite of this, people neglect the practice and focus primarily on faith. This is at odds with what God desires, but this is the way people generally practice their faith. (046-070, 1971.07.25)
5 God began the creation with absolute faith. So to accomplish the providence of restoration, He also had to begin it with absolute faith. However, absolute faith must be practiced with absolute love as the center. Love is the subject partner, and faith is the object partner. This is why everyone yearns for absolute faith; this desire centers on love. The purpose of love is to give birth to the universe. Absolute faith is needed for creation. In order to create this immense universe, God has to invest His entire mind and body and continue to invest unto eternity. (403-267, 2003.01.24)
6 Absolute faith is about living for others. The absolute God lives for others. During their courtship, young men and women ask each other how much each believes in and cares for the other. In order to lay a path of living for others, the two must become one over time. Absolute faith creates an object partner. On top of that, investment is required, since unity is forged based on true love. One side must begin investing to level things out. But who should do this? A man cannot ask that a woman invest herself for his sake, just as a woman cannot demand that a man invest himself for her sake. Both parties need to invest selflessly in each other in the hope of attaining the greater goal. Practicing this is absolute faith and absolute love. (417-242, 2003.09.10)
7 Why is absolute faith needed? God Himself needs to reach the highest, ideal standard. Based on this standard, the realm of love’s object partner appears. Thus God created with absolute faith the realm of the object partner, including the animal, plant and mineral kingdoms. God also invested Himself with His absolute love. God invested Himself absolutely during the mineral era, the plant era and the animal era. After these comes the era of settlement. Unless we reach that final point where our mind and body absolutely do not fight each other, a heavenly world cannot be established. (426-276, 2003.11.27)
8 What is absolute faith? It is all about establishing the order of absolute love. It is all for love. A person who seeks absolute faith for the sake of absolute love forgets about him or herself as an individual embodiment of truth, and invests everything. And when God invests Himself completely, ignoring the internal nature and external form of His own divine character, only then can His object partner become perfect. Thereafter, God can say, “Please make me a Parent who can love His child as the Owner of love.” But it is the child who fulfills this request. Neither God nor the father and mother can do this. (461-056, 2004.07.20)
Removing the fallen nature through practice
9 God has toiled up to the present day, seeking to find what was lost. It is not because He is unable to take dominion over human beings. Similarly, God has been fighting Satan and his accusations not because He has no authority. God fights in this way in order to establish the Principle. In this great struggle, God actually permits Satan to act; then He does the great spiritual work of rearranging what Satan has done. Satan cannot accuse God for rearranging what he himself has dominated first. Thus the wisest person is the one who knows how to get even Satan to run God’s errands. Such a person will be the ultimate victor. (4-196, 1958.04.20)
10 If you wish to be victorious in battle and become victors representing the past, present and future, you need to know the reality of Satan as he dominated history, his reality as he dominates the present and his intentions for the future. It was for this purpose that Jesus, representing the Jewish people, ascended the Mount of Olives all alone to pray. Jesus devoted his entire life to fighting Satan, the obstructer of the Will of Heaven. In the process, Jesus established a standard of suffering on behalf of the past, present and future. You must follow a similar course. Similar ordeals await each of you on your path. (2-229, 1957.06.02)
11 With regard to the Unification Church, my responsibility is to proclaim all the principles of restoration and carry the overall providence without being encumbered by Satan’s accusations. I have paved this road. I have erected the signposts that people can use to find the way to please Heaven in accordance with God’s law of love. This is the blessing humankind has received. I, the leader of the Unification Church, have made it possible for people to begin to truly love for the first time in history. This is why the countless people who will learn the Divine Principle through our Unification Church members need to live out those teachings. (157-178, 1967.04.02)
12 We have fallen nature. What are the four main characteristics of fallen nature? They are arrogance, jealousy, anger and deceit. We have been fasting and performing other acts of devotion to remove this fallen nature. To succeed in this, what are we to do in the era of judgment in the course of restoration? We each need to arm ourselves with the Word and become embodiments of the Word. In order to make restoration substantial, we need to remove the primary aspects of our fallen nature. We have four aspects of fallen nature, and we need to go through persecution and hardships in order to remove them. (150-165, 1960.09.04)
13 What is the work of re-creation? It is for that which has fallen to ascend, in the opposite direction, through bursts of energy. As we are on the path to establish oneness with God’s heart, faith is required. But practice is needed even before faith. Yet we cannot act centered on ourselves. We must act from the position of loving God. We must act for the One we love. Unless we establish this properly, we will be unable to go the way of redemption. History bears witness to this. (065-184, 1972.11.19)
14 In the Old Testament Age, God endeavored to nurture a relationship with human beings by inspiring them to make offerings to Him of minerals, plants and animals, consecrated to the side of goodness. People living in that age needed to unite in heart with the sanctified offerings. Fallen human beings have the responsibility to seek true value. Beyond our imagining, God toiled to nurture a relationship of true value with fallen human beings through sanctified offerings. (10-125, 1960.09.18)
15 The Fall occurred on earth, so we must break free from it on earth. Therefore it is not a bad thing that God creates difficult situations for us. By encountering hardships wherever we go, by facing death or being unable to live well, and by living humble lives, we can swiftly remove the impurities of our Mien nature. Our bodies are dysfunctional wrecks covered in waste products that are difficult to remove, but a challenging environment is conducive to removing the pollutants of the fallen nature. Hence the more onerous the situation, the swifter will be our release from indemnity. (242-309, 1993.01.02)
16 Since this world exists as the realm of the Fall, we need to prevail over it. As long as a radio transmitter does not lie flat on the ground but remains erect, even if it must compete with other signals, this transmitter will continue to broadcast globally. Similarly, the transmitter of true love must dominate and exceed the range of the fallen nature’s transmitter. So for our transmitters of true love to dominate the realm of the Fall, we need to completely deny everything in Satan’s world. Then we can become conditional entities capable of connecting with God. Even then, however, we are not complete entities of perfect love. (273-290, 1995.10.29)
17 The Last Days represents the glorious day of resurrection when human beings on earth come to embody God’s goodness. Witnessing is the battlefield on which we, as sons and daughters of God, smash Satan. The arena of witnessing is the arena of tears, in which our ancestors bless and encourage us to fight victoriously, and in which we strive with deep hope to uplift our future descendants. In other words, witnessing is the arena we enter to be resurrected from a servant into an adopted son and from an adopted son into a direct son. God’s wish for us is that through these relationships of rebirth we achieve substantial resurrection. We need to expand the historical standard horizontally by establishing this standard of resurrection. (11-339, 1962.04.17)
18 When walking the course of the providence of restoration, Unification Church members need to progress through the levels of the servant, the adopted son and the direct son. After growing through these three stages, each member needs to love his or her spiritual children or followers in the same way parents care for their children, love them and are ready to die for them. Even as we sacrifice ourselves, to become God’s blessed children we should naturally feel gratitude for our blessings, while at the same time hoping that all of them will go to someone else. (15-302, 1965.12.07)
Becoming perfect through true love
19 What is truth? For a man, it is a woman of true love. For a woman, it is a man of true love. What is truth for parents? It is a filial son of true love. What is truth for a filial son? It is a father and mother of true love. What is the truth for human beings? It is God. What is the truth for God? It is Adam and Eve united in true love. Then all is completed. In the family there are parents and teachers. Fathers and mothers teach their children, while husbands teach their wives and wives teach their husbands. People who live this way will become true fathers and mothers, teachers and owners. Such a home becomes a base of peace. Therefore all relationships bear fruit in the family. (203-252, 1990.06.26)
20 What was the starting point for True Parents? It was true love. In the end, love becomes the critical issue. Any family, tribe, people, nation or world that advances based on true love is automatically united. History should have followed the one direction of true love. But instead history has followed a messy, zigzag course. True Parents are called to completely change this situation after going through the levels of the individual, family, tribe and nation. (213-244, 1991.01.21)
21 When the mind and body unite in true love, the mind belongs to the body and the body to the mind. When a man and a woman, each with a united mind and body, become one in true love, they can occupy God. To occupy God, they need to build a bridge. A man cannot build this bridge by himself and neither can a woman by herself. Rather, a couple must join together in true love. For a man or a woman to become perfect, each needs his or her partner. (224-029, 1991.11.21)
22 Theoretically there is no basis on which Satan can approach a family composed of true olive trees. While Satan can approach family members when they are at the top of the growth stage, he cannot when they are at the top of the completion stage. Completion of one’s portion of responsibility leads to unity in true love between the sphere of indirect dominion, based on accomplishments through the Principle, and the sphere of direct dominion. Synergy occurs between the two spheres, and there is nothing Satan can do to separate the two. This marks a new, historical point of transition. (230-341, 1992.05.10)
23 The institution in which the three great kingships are found together is the family. A family is a fortress or palace that holds the past, present and future worlds. In the family, the grandparents, representing the past, should be attended like God, with the absolute respect accorded a great king and queen. The parents are in the position of Adam; they are the present king and queen of the family and its center. The children are the kings and queens of days to come; they inherit the kingdom of the fixture. This is the concept of a royal family based on true love. Families who perfect this are destined to go to heaven. There is no other way; perfection takes place in this way. (246-085, 1993.03.23)
24 The purpose of creation was for Adam and Eve to follow the commandment of God, the owner of true love, and become perfected, true beings. Afterward, Adam and Eve were meant to become a true couple united in God’s true love. This perfection of Adam and Eve based on true love would have been the fulfillment of God’s wish that they become His extension on earth. Furthermore, their perfection as a true couple would have meant the perfection of God’s absolute ideal of love. (282-211, 1997.03.13)
Section 5. Experiences and Challenges on the Path of Faith
1 Do you have mystical experiences in your life of faith, or spiritually experience God’s presence? There are some among you who frequently see me spiritually during prayers or in dreams and receive directions from me. This should happen one hundred percent of the time. This is the strength, the pride and the treasure we have. Up to this point, no religion has gone through such an intense kind of experiential process. This is why religions are confused and have become secularized. However, the Unification Church knows that God stands at the very end. Even if the storms and floods of life rage against us and we are about to die, the amazing fact is that we have become men and women who can leave behind a legacy of hope for tomorrow. (087-191, 1976.06.02)
Experiencing God's Word
2 One does not grow tired of hearing words of truth. You need to experience this. If you go to a church that offers words of truth, such that after hearing the same content a hundred times you still wish you could hear more, you surely have encountered heaven. And when you meet a certain church leader a hundred or a thousand times yet still wish to meet him or her again, do not leave this leader. If one of your arms is amputated, grab this church leader with your other. If you meet such a leader, you certainly have encountered heaven. (010-142, 1960.09.18)
3 If you resolve to attend the Unification Church after hearing the Divine Principle, you will certainly face tests. Or, if you promise to go to a Divine Principle workshop, an accident might happen at home or incidents might occur several times to obstruct you. You must have had such experiences. This formula is certain. This happens because, when you wish to ascend from the individual level to a higher one, Satan steps on you from above. (024-268, 1969.08.24)
4 In order to share the Word with a profound standard of heart, unlike any other, you need to deeply know the Word. To connect with a one hundred percent standard of heart, you need to personally experience and realize the Word deeply like that, then share it. Through our actions, too, we must behave in such a way that we can be liked and respected. (157-047, 1967.02.01)
5 A life of faith is a real battle. We must be victorious in this battle. When a new member seeks to come to church, for instance, Satan is always busy working to impede him or her. Hence in order to overcome this impediment, the spiritual parent must be absolute. This kind of perfect plus creates a perfect minus. Therefore we must not vacillate. We must pursue our life of faith determinedly, without wavering. (198-009, 1990.01.20)
Spiritual experiences and experiences of the heart
6 Through the works of the Holy Spirit, the early Christian church could act in ways to overcome the vortex of persecution. However, these works did not expand to the world, beginning with the individual and progressing through the levels of family and tribe; they remained local. This was the case because the early church members did not clearly establish a direction that such works could have supported. They didn’t realize the fundamental purpose that underlay their spiritual experiences, what processes should have followed these works, or what final destination they should have headed toward. (61-017, 1972.08.20)
7 From the beginning, I have worked out solutions to important problems based on reference to the spirit world. I have been testing to see whether the spirit world indeed provides good solutions, due to its standard that goes beyond the nation and the world. In the spirit world, people transcend nationalities and meet according to their spiritual level. (405-135, 2003.02.11)
8 Henceforth you need to have spiritual experiences. You need to know whether your endeavors will succeed or fail. If you pray fervently, you’ll know in advance that you’ll succeed. Praying enlivens your mood and makes your body feel more nimble. You can sense it in your body; your body knows. To reach this state, you need to completely cleanse yourself of all notions of self- centeredness and selfishness. (104-116, 1979.04.15)
9 Through the spirit world, every day I guide and instruct the missionaries who are toiling all over the world. You need to realize this in your daily life. If you come in and commit to the Unification Church after listening to the Word for a week, your attitude about life changes. You come to detest your past habits. Then my teachings flow into your heart very well. You come to know what I’m going to say in advance, and cannot but become a core member of the Unification Church. (543-146, 2006.10.29)
10 A life of faith requires deep empathy. Without this profound dimension, you can’t know genuine faith. Hence you must experience empathy deeply. What does this mean? When Heaven is sorrowful, each of us needs to feel that sorrow. Deep empathy means this feeling of sorrow floods into you. If you can empathize deeply, you do not need to pray. (255-036, 1994.03.05)
11 Profound empathy is most important in our life of faith. Such empathy leads you to weep unfathomable streams of tears. Have you ever felt tears flowing from your eyes while in a state of transcendental consciousness? This is nothing like the anger and sadness you feel after someone insults you. Your heart is seized with a feeling of grief and tears pour ceaselessly from your eyes. A believer’s daily life should essentially be like this. Beyond understanding, deep pain seizes your heart. You feel so heavy- hearted you don’t know what to do. (10-202, 1960.10.02)
12 As you practice deep empathic faith throughout your life, you should walk a clearly principled course to reach the standard of an unchanging victor who can represent eternity to all creation. Unless you establish this standard, sorrowful conditions will remain unresolved on earth. If we leave behind such unresolved sorrowful conditions, it will be difficult for us to find God’s internal heart when we go to heaven. That is why, as living beings connected to Jesus in spirit and the Holy Spirit in body, we must grow to be substantial manifestations of God’s glory. Thereafter we will become substantial embodiments of faith. (1-132, 1956.06.27)
13 To this day, I have offered more devoted effort in front of God than the myriads of Christians in Korea. A person of heart makes progress. Through empathy, such a person expands the realm of heart from the individual to the family, nation and world. When someone offers acts of devotion with heart, God will hold on to this person. If God were to hold on to people who are not like that, He would not be able to carry out His operations. The greatest issue is how someone who has received the command to defend Heaven will advance with faith. One small error can impede the outcome of history and lead to historical judgment later on. This is why all our daily activities—even sleeping, eating and putting on clothes— must be done based on a life of faith. (025-318, 1969.10.12)
14 There are times when I get in a car and immediately sense that something is wrong. At that time, I change my course. I have such spiritual or even physical sensations. These physical sensations come from deep experience through my life of faith. Similarly, there will be times when you feel like holding on to something, be it a lamppost or anything else, and crying your heart out. You must never miss these occasions. If you ignore such feelings a few times, the opportunities for these wonderful experiences will grow rare. Missing these opportunities never benefits you. In fact, the energy producing such opportunities can even transform into forces that oppose and impede you. (33-262, 1970.08.16)
15 Profound empathy with God is a requisite of a life of faith. Through our profound experiences we can fathom God’s character and feel the internal bond of deep heart we have with Him. Only through spiritual experiences can we feel these things. Through our spiritual life we can experience a euphoric sense of well-being. Moreover, unless we have this kind of experience, we cannot be filled with new hope for the ideal. Despite receiving fierce persecution from the Romans, even being fed to lions, early Christians were able to persevere in their path of faith. This was not due to some abstract belief but because they had profound spiritual experiences that allowed them to transcend the hardships they faced. (076-124, 1975.02.02)
16 You have to grievously empathize with God, who has been working according to heavenly principles and demonstrating endless loyalty toward humankind in order to realize His Will. You have to compassionately empathize with the heart of God, who has sacrificed resolutely and unflinchingly to establish His Will. In addition, you have to tearfully empathize with the heart of God, who has risen above Himself time and again to recommit to the ideal of the future, with a heart that wants to give endlessly to you. (458-070, 2004.07.07)
Experiencing rebirth
17 In our lives of faith, we need to completely forget ourselves. As we offer and sacrifice ourselves, we need to recognize our own inadequacy. Even as we face death, we must reproach ourselves. We can accomplish Heaven’s ideal of resurrection only when we become people of original character who do not boast of anything before Heaven. (2-106, 1957.03.06)
18 On the path of faith, we need to surpass everyone in Satan’s world; we cannot afford to be at the same level. Compared to them, our internal heart and character must be so elevated and perfectly harmonious that it would be difficult to imagine secular people rising to that level. Based on such spiritual development, we can enter the realm of resurrection. (2-143, 1957.03.17)
19 We must embrace the realm of resurrection with tears of repentance. By shedding the tears that Adam and Eve never shed, we have to rise above their level. We should not accuse one another with hostility and say, “I sinned because of you. I would not have done it if not for you.” We should also refrain from blaming a third party for our sorrow, pretending that “Usually I am a positive and normal person.” We each need to deny ourselves and affirm those around us. Each of us must shed tears for the nation and wish for the nation to be saved ahead of us. We should also shed tears for the family and hope for its salvation. (32-099, 1970.06.28)
20 Once we have resurrected our lives, if we advance with faith knowing with certainty that there is a subject partner, God, capable of leading us toward goodness, we must take the position of object partner. We then become one with the subject partner and embrace the meeting point of the objectives of the subject and object partners. At this point we can overcome any adverse environment. Furthermore, however dire a situation we may face, the greater our awakening to the hope and purpose of the subject partner, the Absolute Being, the stronger our feeling that this realization will become a direct source of energy in our life course. (34-224, 1970.09.13)
CHAPTER 2 Training the Mind and Body
Section 1. What Is Training?
1 Training means tempering and polishing one’s character. Where do we find the standard for this tempering and polishing? There are two types of people among you: external people, who amount to little more than flesh, and internal people. Taking the Fall into account, we have external fallen people and internal fallen people. Both need training in order to gradually come to resemble the character of an original person. The character of an original person resembles a child to whom nature bows and whom God kisses and embraces in His bosom. Accordingly, the character of an original person is the standard for your training. (11-348, 1962.06.07)
Becoming an object partner of goodness
2 How much have you done for the Unification Church? Have you existed for the Unification Church or have you sought personal benefit from the church? This point, you need to know, is the line dividing good and evil. Good and evil are not unrelated; when your will deviates from God’s Will, good and evil separate. Good continues along the normal orbit while evil follows an abnormal orbit. Today, there are principles of ethics and morality as well as social ethics. However, such principles don’t come into play when we serve our own interests. These principles engage when we live for others. Therefore, as a Unification Church member, rather than thinking about yourself, you should think about the Unification Church twenty-four hours a day. Do not detach from the Unification Church, even in your dreams. (071-125, 1974.04.29)
3 Unless we become good people of God, we cannot hope to form families God desires. Furthermore, unless we become good families of God, we cannot hope for a good nation or a good world. Therefore, the biggest issue for each of us is how to find the solution within ourselves. The mind and body relationship thus becomes the dividing line. (065-016, 1972.11.13)
Indemnity through penance
4 Penance is the way to subjugate the body. This is why Jesus said, “Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.” (Matt. 10:39) This means we need to sever from what the body craves; we need to remove what the body covets. (039-053, 1971.01.09)
5 It is wise to seek the most demanding and austere religion in history. Religious life consists of the conscience occupying the body like a torturer, shouting, “You depraved body, you depraved body,” pummeling the fleshly desires into extinction, never to rise again. Our mind has to torture our body, t, (261-303, 1994.07.24)
6 Why is penance necessary in religion? Why do we need to carry the cross? Why do we need to serve and sacrifice for others? These tasks are loathsome to us, but they are how religions urge us to leave this fallen world. We have to deny everything completely. Blessing in the Unification Church comes from seeking complete self-denial. We have been denying everything from the level of the individual to the levels of the family, tribe, people, the world and even its ideology. The higher one’s level of self-denial, the more one’s value accumulates. Our value increases; this is the reason for self-abnegation. Hence, religions advocate renouncing the world and leaving one’s home. (140-117, 1986.02.08)
7 Religions walk the path of penance, rejecting bodily cravings. When you seek what your eye covets, your spiritual eye will dislike you. The spirit will completely oppose you. We have thought that human beings are naturally self-contradictory because we did not know about the human Fall. The origin of the contradiction within our conscious self is a grand discovery, greater than any other discovery in history. Nevertheless, an even more amazing thing is to understand how the Fall took place. If there is a path leading out of this confusion, we must follow that path, however arduous it may be. Fallen human beings have to follow this course of responsibility. (161-113, 1987.01.11)
8 It is restoration through indemnity, not indemnity through restoration. There cannot be indemnity through restoration. The concept that restoration could bring forth indemnity cannot exist, not even in the Garden of Eden. If it had, God would have acted as He pleased with Adam and Eve. The problem is that the Fall caused a change of lineage; the seed changed. We have to indemnify this. (427-087, 2003.12.04)
Finding the original path through denial
9 In the course of restoration, that which you love most becomes your enemy. To men, women are the enemy, and to women, men are the enemy. Likewise, children are the enemy of parents and parents are the enemy of children. Furthermore, the tribe is the entire family’s enemy and society is the tribe’s enemy. All are enemies of one another. To purify all this enmity in one fell swoop, we have to deny everything. The person cannot ascend to the heavenly kingdom if they have not experienced sorrow—sorrow as deep as when losing one’s family four-position foundation. Until now, God has prolonged the providence over thousands of generations, hoping to build the four-position foundation. Even if we perform our filial duty to God for tens of thousands of years, we cannot raise our heads. We cannot escape from the fact that we are sinners among sinners. (405-269, 2003.02.28)
10 To enter heaven, we have to deny Satan’s blood and turn back. We need purity, pure blood, so we must become filial children in a family grounded in pure love and pure lineage. However, we have not become such devoted children. Neither have we become patriots in the nation. In the family, we have to become pure children of filial piety, pure patriots, loyal saints and loyal divine sons and daughters. We have failed to become sons and daughters who represent heaven and earth with the right of inheritance, so we have to accomplish all this in one generation. (405-282, 2003.03.01)
11 Self-centered societies have gone to ruin. The Fall is about becoming self- conscious and placing oneself at the center, so we must reject self-centeredness. We have to deny ourselves and live for the greater whole; thereafter we will blossom. A plant emits fragrance only after it has received nutrients through its roots and leaves for a year and has blossomed flowers. Accordingly, God will seek us and angels will come to protect us when we become fragrant flowers in full bloom, people who live for the greater whole. This is the wish of heaven and earth. (405-323, 2003.03.02)
12 Do you have a gift that will delight God? Do you have a gift that, when given to God, will make Him say, “Wow, thank you so much!” When God visits you, can you present Him with the gift of a pure family? If you are a couple, there is no better gift for God when He visits than being united in love. What kind of couple is this? It is not a couple where the partners live for themselves; rather, it is a couple where the husband lives for the wife and the wife lives for the husband. God wishes to receive the gift of a family where the husband and wife are eternally united, where they are determined to revere the reproductive organs and to maintain that stance forever. (405-323, 2003.03.02)
13 To manifest God in substance, Adam and Eve had to reach completion and give birth to children. Unfortunately, they became Satan’s children. They became the archangel’s children. They became children unrelated to God. This is why complete denial is needed. God cannot act as He wishes, because the lineage was stained. This circumstance is like a bandit kidnapping a bride-to- be a few days before her wedding, taking her into his lair, living with her, and having her give birth to his sons and daughters, thereby forming a tribe. How miserable must the groom be as he witnesses all this! Even though we say that God is omniscient and omnipotent, He could not treat the archangel in any way He wished. If God could not kill the archangel, could He kill the children that carry the archangel’s blood? This is why God is like a prisoner behind bars. It is as if He has been incarcerated. (492-169, 2005.04.15)
14 Unless we deny ourselves, we cannot return to the position of being the original raw materials of creation. There cannot be any flaws in the original raw materials. For you to settle in the family of original and ideal love, there should not be any cracks through which Satan can enter. Water, air, and even light must not be able to penetrate. (410-235, 2003.07.05)
15 In order to stand in the position to receive love, you have to become one in the position of subject partner or object partner. When the subject partner seeks to give absolutely and the object partner seeks to receive absolutely, the two become one. When the subject partner wishes to give one hundred of something, as object partner, you need to receive all one hundred. When Heaven tries to give us one hundred of something, but we want to receive in accordance with our personal thoughts, opinions or desires, we cannot receive the one hundred that Heaven bestows. When we add our desires and wishes, we can only receive eighty, seventy, sixty or fifty. We are unable to receive one hundred. We have to tell ourselves, “If you wish to receive one hundred, empty out everything. Remove everything, deny and abandon everything.” We need to renounce everything and obey absolutely. We may think that obedience is bad, but when a person obeys absolutely, Heaven can embrace him or her completely. (61-258, 1972.09.01)
16 A good person is the person who tries to help others eternally, from birth until death. Furthermore, a good person is one who goes beyond rank, geography, race or historically established traditions to help others eternally. When this person passes away, he or she will be called good. When you endlessly give to others, you become a void, like a low- pressure area. However, since you are pushing yourself in one direction, the spirit world builds into a high-pressure zone. Therefore, when you pass away, the high spiritual pressure will wash over you and all the good deeds committed over a thousand years will burst forth and place you at the peak of a mountain that will stand for tens of thousands of years. (300-039, 1999.02.21)
The path to becoming a victor
17 Neither God nor human beings have been able to fulfill His Will, yet history moves on. It is not because of God that His Will remains unfulfilled. It is because of human beings. In other words, the failure to fulfill His Will came because of the Fall of Adam and Eve. Therefore, the process of history, as well as the course of the providence until now, has been the attempt to reverse this failure in God’s Will. To bring His Will to fruition, a person capable of realizing God’s Will is needed. God has worked through long historical eras to raise people capable of upholding His Will. There was Adam’s family, Noah’s family, Abraham’s family, Jacob’s family and so on. If and when such historical families had failed in the responsibility to establish a relationship between heaven and earth, humankind would have lost track even of the direction necessary to accomplish God’s Will. We have learned these truths through the course of the providence. (28-068, 1970.01.04)
18 When we look at the Unification Church today, we wonder, will the Unification Church accomplish God’s Will or not? There are two types of Will, one for the individual and one for the whole. If no one is capable of handling God’s Will for the individual and His will for the whole, God’s Will cannot be realized. Even if the time has come for God’s Will to be completed, if the responsible person fails to fulfill his or her responsibility, the opportunity given to realize God’s Will will be lost. The realization of God’s Will absolutely requires the appropriate person. After that, the time becomes the problem. Always, what we call time becomes the problem. In addition to the time and the person, the condition to accomplish the Will is absolutely necessary. (28-068, 1970.01.04)
19 What did Jesus Christ have to do to carry out his specific responsibility, the salvation of humankind? Jesus, even he, had to invest his entire heart and soul. Whether awake or asleep, Jesus had to invest his whole heart and everything he had in his mission. This could not be accomplished by his being ordered or coerced; he had to do it of his own volition. Only when he achieved this did hope blossom, the conditions for happiness arise, and eventually the determination of his victory or defeat appear. (29-081, 1970.02.25)
20 We need to erect a protective hedge around us, fortified by our children and our spiritual children. We should grow this hedge to serve as a protective buffer within which to share and discuss any secret freely. Even at the risk of our lives we cannot sell ourselves to Satan’s world. Therefore we have to set up a sphere of absolute safety from which God’s Will can expand. You need to understand this very well, because you are the experts who will be responsible to carry out and fulfill this mission. (29-100, 1970.02.25)
21 The one who strives for victory will not encounter a supportive environment; rather, he or she will face an environment of adversity. In this circumstance, you have to be able to handle the hostile environment with a steady and reliable heart. This heart is linked to sweat and tears that have come down to us through history. Therefore, however difficult the circumstances may be, our heart must never falter or change. We have to advance with this conviction: “No one can take away this heart burning with the desire to win.” A victory without confidence is an accidental victory. We don’t need that kind of victory; we need absolute victory gained with confidence. Such victory is not only a historical victory, but is also the victory of the ideal of creation. You need to have a victorious heart, burning with conviction. If you do not overcome ordeals, you cannot wear the crown of victory. (11-110, 1961.02.12)
22 Since we know that the Principle is irrefutable truth, once we learn it we cannot refuse to follow it or to carry it out. Each of us has to walk this path; we cannot be failures, we have to be victors. Until now I have fought alone; however, just as I have achieved victory, you also can achieve victory. As long as I am here, you need not worry. Go forward, fight to the end, and victory will be yours. I am certain of this. Know this, be confident, and charge forward with passion. (11-215, 1961.07.17)
23 A leader has to seek to feed and clothe his followers better than himself. However, in a critical situation the leader has to send them out, even if they will go the way of misery. How sorrowful do you think Moses must have been to leave his people and go off to pray for forty days? Moses knew that a hurricane would sweep through their midst. Even today, when I see members on the path of tribulation, my heart aches. However, I push them forward because the more my heart aches, the more intensely I feel the urgency of realizing the cosmic ideal. I remember what it was like in the past, to be imprisoned as a criminal. America will go to ruin if you forget that your ancestors wept and pleaded sorrowfully while gripping prison bars. We can obtain victory only by shedding blood, sweat and tears. I have shed as many tears as any filial son. I know that God is the protector of those who seek goodness. Every time you work at the risk of your life, God will open the way for you. (13-073, 1963.10.18)
24 You need only do three things to achieve victory in your life of faith. The issue is how long you persevere. Your endurance and effort will determine whether you go on for a few years or for several decades. The three things are first, to master ideology, second, to have unsurpassable loyalty and devotion and, third, to be the best at performing good deeds. If you commit to these three practices, victory is as good as won. Your perseverance, time period and effort will determine your result and, depending on your effort, you can shorten the time needed for victory from seven years to five years, or even one year. (16-078, 1965.12.26)
25 Among all victories, what victory is the greatest? Originally, God meant for human beings to start from the homeland of victory. Nonetheless, due to the Fall, they could not do so. Thus the world of victory became something for which they had to seek. What is the standard in that quest? Yes, it is the perfection of character, but while character is of course important, of greater importance is the inner core that moves character. That inner core is love, and that love is none other than God’s love. (32-219, 1970.07.19)
26 Facts take precedence over words, and achievements take precedence over excuses. Mere words and excuses don’t amount to much. When assessing achievements, facts are strict and cold. What is right will end up as right and what is wrong will end up as wrong. Victory will end up as victory and, in sorrow and misery, failure will end up as failure. This is the historical course of judgment. (058-349, 1972.07.01)
27 We cannot continue our casual carefree life. Through the unity of God, past lords, kings and our ancestors in the spirit world, we have to establish one global family. Inheriting Heaven’s lineage, we can completely renew the earth drenched with Satan’s blood. We have the responsibility to create one great family, then a nation and world of one culture—the world of Adam’s culture. The world of Adam’s culture is absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal. 1 am responsible for it. Now there is no such word as “we.” I must unite my mind and body, and then unite my family and my tribe. Afterwards, I must engraft the nation and the world, so that the field of wild olive trees is transformed into a field of true olive trees. (437-112, 2004.02.10)
28 Making ideal families is not God’s responsibility. Our human ancestors and our descendants are responsible for this. God cannot deliver an ideal family to you. The malefactor who destroyed the ideal family must do the repairs. We lost the ideal family and the global kingdom of ideal peace. This is a monumental sin among sins. God is absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal. There are no errors in what He creates. (540-252, 2006.09.27)
Section 2. The Goal of Training
1 What should we do to find our lost self? We must remember Gods heart when He lost His children. Otherwise we cannot find our original self. We need to return to where we were in order to find what we lost. Likewise, to find our lost self, we must rediscover the heart God had when He lost us. Unless we initiate this movement, we cannot find our true, original self. (5-066, 1958.12.21)
Finding my original self
2 Centered on whom are we seeking our true self? We cannot search with a self-centered focus. Unless we focus on God as we search for our true self, we cannot return to the original position. This is why so many religions seek God. The religious path allows us to understand our relationship with God and how we should lead our life. (088-064, 1976.07.18)
3 Our greatest treasure is our original self that possesses the attributes of God. Because what we lost is the greatest value, we cannot feel joy or happiness until we recover it. Accordingly, fallen people today scatter to the four winds seeking for their original self. (5-144, 1959.01.11)
4 We need to find the Absolute Being who is the origin of the absolute philosophy, the origin of goodness, the origin of life and the origin of love, yet we are still wandering around looking. As wanderers, how do our direction and angle differ from the direction and angle of absolute goodness? How can we explain that our mind tells us to go left but our body goes right? How can we explain that our mind seeks a higher ideal yet our Anew of the cosmos is actually so limited? We need to look at ourselves honestly in the mirror. When we look at ourselves we see a poor, desperate seeker. Within us are mind, body and spirit. We need to integrate mind, body and spirit to create one unified image. (5-064, 1958.12.21)
5 Unless we endeavor to re-create ourselves and work together with God, we have nothing to do with a state of peace or with God’s ideal. We need to shorten the path to that state, be aware that an ideal state of peace is ours, follow the original way created by God and completely liberate and clean up everything that Satan stained people with from the time of their infancy until they go to heaven. Then we have to inherit the heavenly kingship and enter the kingdom of heaven. (550-015, 2006.12.29)
6 Every person is indebted. We are indebted for our life and our lineage. We are indebted to the world of existence that came into being through cosmic love. So we have to free ourselves of any debt. Hence, we must embody the original heart of love with which God created the universe and rise to the point where we can free God. This means that we, human beings, have to recover and return to God everything that He lost, everything that He created through absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. (465-083, 2004.08.19)
Mastery of oneself comes first
7 We live in the era of awakening, in which we can save our lives and those of our ancestors. When we think about this, we realize that we cannot live and act freely. Let us feel substantially how strongly the creation yearns for us to realize the value of our existence within the sphere of cosmic relationships. Let us feel this not only in our mind, but also in our heart. When looking at people, we have to say, “Human beings are so pitiful, Father! Nevertheless, we are aware of Your Will, which demands that You bequeath material blessings to conscientious people, and requires that we have dominion over our body with a true heart. We are also aware that spiritual beings that are true in character must come under Your dominion.” Therefore, even if we are given mountains of gold and riches, if these treasures are not what our original mind seeks, we have to be able to reject them completely. The question is whether we can overcome the pain of such material loss. Our body has greater value than the universe; accordingly, when our mind subjugates our body, it assumes a value greater than that of the entire universe. (4-274, 1958.08.03)
8 Our heart seeks to embrace the world, heaven and earth, and eventually God. This is the heart’s purpose. This is why Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:21) He further added, “I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.” (John 14:20) To what extent are you able to include your neighbors in your ideology and your daily life? Can your ideology and your daily life embrace the nation and the world? You each have a big heart; however, you are fallen human beings unable to contain your body within your heart. Your heart wants to embrace heaven and earth, including God, and bring about His Sabbath. Nevertheless, you are struggling to conquer even your own body. (8-048, 1959.11.01)
9 Each of you has a mind; therefore, should your mind and body become the best of friends or should they be hostile to each other? If the two cannot become friends, on whose side will you stand? When the mind and body are at odds with one another, it is always the body that initiates the fight. The body provokes the peaceable mind. Whether it is the body of a man or woman, this body annoys the mind. Hence, each of us has to achieve unity of mind and body. Nonetheless, you cannot achieve this unity simply with the order, “Mind, body, the two of you must unite!” (18-318, 1967.08.13)
10 How vast is your mind? It may be invisible, but it exists. To illustrate the vastness of your mind, even if you place a hundred or a thousand worlds inside your mind, you will not be satisfied. When there are tens of thousands of diamonds as big as the earth, if you get only one, you will not be happy. This is how unimaginably vast your mind is. Our original mind knows what is good and bad, even without being taught. Has anyone ever said to his or her own mind, “Attention, mind! If such and such happens, it is bad; please guard against that.” Our mind does not receive education as to what is good or bad and yet, even when our strong body is challenged, our mind does not flinch. Instead, the mind reacts immediately, faster than an electron spins. If your thoughts are wrong, your original mind stops you immediately. How much education do you need to reach this level? If anyone could teach this, they would be very popular. Nevertheless, no person, however great an educator they may be, has ever been able to teach this. Yet do you know it or not? Even without education, your original mind knows this very well. (023-021, 1969.05.11)
11 The world is not the issue. Even if heaven and earth have achieved unity, if I am not united within myself, I cannot appear before God. If I say even one wrong word, my conscience knows. Your conscience comes before your parents. Your parents did not give you your conscience. It comes from Heaven, and since its root is God, your conscience comes before your parents. The conscience comes before teachers in the Men world and before your parents. (431-118, 2004.01.13)
12 Do you know when your mind and body began fighting? They began fighting right after the Fall; they became infected at that moment. Unless we completely cure this infection, we cannot enter heaven. The person whose mind and body are in conflict cannot enter heaven. I have struggled to fulfill this standard: “Before seeking to master the universe, attain mastery over yourself.” The further you advance and the deeper your spiritual level, the more fearsome the Satan you will have to face. (527-217, 2006.05.28)
13 You have to be mindful always that you are an entity embodying both good and evil. I struggled with this issue in my youth, when I was your age. This is why I created the motto, “Before seeking to master the universe, attain mastery over yourself?’ This is Article 1 in our life of faith. Therefore, when you are able to complete and control yourself, which means to achieve the independence that comes with controlling your body, the conflict between mind and body will disappear. (037-122, 1970.12.23)
14 I never pray to receive money. I also do not pray to become successful. What are the three great objectives? The first is, “Before seeking to master the universe, attain mastery over yourself?’ The second is, “Let us have absolute faith.” The third is, “Let us have absolute love.” These are the three great objectives. While I have carried out my mission, even if Satan was cheating me, I persevered with absolute faith until I confirmed the facts. So I am practicing the faith through which I can say, “Satan, even you could not but guide me to the right path.” (139-063, 1986.01.26)
15 The perfection of human beings, to achieve the ideal of sublime love, is only possible if we take responsibility for love. This responsibility means that we should be grateful to God for giving us the freedom to love, and should become the masters of that freedom through self-discipline and self-denial. We do not uphold our responsibility to love based on laws or public perception. Rather, we uphold it based on self-control and self-determination, grounded in a living vertical relationship with God. (282-213, 1997.03.13)
The unity of mind and body
16 There are only two ways to unite the mind and the body. The first method involves pummeling the body into submission, while the second achieves unity without chastising the body. Pummeling the body into submission is not a good method. What then should we do? Until now the mind has been like a balloon, losing to the body every time without putting up a fight. This has happened because the mind is weak. What do you think will happen if the mind’s energy level is boosted to be two or three times greater than now? The mind will have no difficulty dragging the body anywhere. The mind will firmly hold the body and pull it. The tires of a car inflate when we pump air into them. What will happen if we pump energy into the mind? We will strengthen the mind’s energy. Then if the mind and body fight, which do you suppose will win? We can thus see that there are two methods: pummeling the body into submission, or strengthening the mind. (18-328, 1967.08.13)
17 Love is the mind’s source of energy. Accordingly, if we connect to God and generate colossal energy through the action of giving and receiving, we can increase our unity a hundred or a thousand times. We also can realize humanity’s cherished hopes, live together for eternity, and take ownership of heaven. The secret to this is love. Love is the elevator leading to unity and the secret to its absolute achievement. (18-328, 1967.08.13)
18 Generally, the greater the sorrow fallen human beings feel on earth, the greater the division among people. Self-centered sorrow leads to division, which is the habit of evil people. Nonetheless, sorrow for the sake of goodness brings together what was divided. This forges oneness between the divided mind and body, to the point that they reach convergence and unity with heavenly law. (4-055, 1958.03.02)
19 We have to achieve oneness, beginning with our mind and body. This is the teaching of the Unification Church. Therefore, after joining the Unification Church, distant strangers become closer even than brothers and sisters. Furthermore, the Unification Church has a higher love that brings a strong bond of unity among brothers and sisters even from different countries, which enables them to attend Parents who are not their natural parents. This is why people view the Unification Church as the unified world that they desire. When you join the Unification Church you acquire this hope. (18-334, 1967.08.13)
20 When a man or a woman achieves unity of mind and body, what standard determines this unity? It is not the standard of one’s mind or one’s body. It must be the standard of God’s mind and body and the standard of our original ancestors. Thus, we need the original standard of God’s mind and God’s body. God created human beings centered on His invisible mind and body. Therefore, we need to advance by aligning ourselves entirely with the invisible mind and body of God. Where should you meet with God when aligning with Him? You should meet in love. Unity is to occur in love. (166-232, 1987.06.07)
21 No saint has ever claimed, “The unity of mind and body is the basis for the unity of everything.” We have the saying, “Family harmony makes all go well.” It is true that family harmony brings success, however, when we ask whether the mind and body of the father and mother are united, the answer is no. If ten people live together, their minds and bodies should be united as one. However, in Satan’s world, the minds and bodies of these ten people are at war, meaning that twenty camps are fighting one another. There can be no peace in such a group. (213-011, 1991.01.13)
22 You each need to unite your mind and body. Then you need to achieve unity as couples. When you live for the sake of each other out of love, unity will blossom. Until now, your mind has lived its entire life for the sake of your body. However, the body has not lived for the sake of the mind. Just as the mind has lived for the sake of the body, however, the body needs to live for the sake of the mind, and they must achieve unity. Centered on what should this unity take place? Unity is achieved with true love, altruistic love. We need to become people with united mind and body and unite as husband and wife centered on true love. This is how we can form new branches and grow. Each of us knows this. This is the key to the mind’s happiness. If we do so, the creation will delight us, work will not exhaust us and, even if we don’t sleep, we will not feel fatigued. (213-205, 1991.01.20)
23 What is the meaning of “unification” in the name, the Unification Church? If God has a mind and a body, then unless God’s mind and body are united, He cannot stand in the joyful place of liberation and happiness. If this is true of God, it holds true for the world. The world itself is composed of relationships between subject and object partners; the same goes for societies and families. The providence of salvation is the providence of restoration and the providence of restoration is the providence of re-creation. Nothing is possible unless it goes through the providence of re-creation. When a man and a woman get together they can form a couple. Unless subject and object partners have a common base, they cannot interact. Unity is achieved in this way. God and human beings must have interaction to achieve oneness. This means the mind interacts and the body interacts. (251-058, 1993.10.17)
24 Where do we find unification? Unification is found where sacrifices and concessions are made. If we practice this, wherever we go we will achieve unity within three years. The one who invests for the sake of harmony and sacrifices their own interests for three years, actively coming and going, will become the new owner and achieve unification. Then the world will be filled with the air of universal true love and enter the realm of liberation. (602-196, 2008.11.14)
25 What has to be done before unification? Unification has to stand on level ground. Without peace, there is no unification. Thus, it is unification through peace. Ignorant people say that peace comes through unification, but those who know recognize that it is unification through peace. Words have to accord with reason, and these words accord with reason. This is an amazing fact. It is a miracle that in daily life, people use language that accords with traditional ideas. It is quite mysterious. (571-250, 2007.08.11)
26 Harmony and unification lead to prosperity, while fighting and division lead to destruction. With division comes ruin. God created each entity to have a partner and form a pair, so division naturally leads to ruin. It destroys everything. So we need harmony and unification. Everything unites and harmonizes as individual truth bodies. Up-center-down; right- center-left; front-center-back: all these prosper because they complement one another. Evil struggles and divides, then perishes; goodness tries to harmonize, even under assault, then unifies and prospers. (506-290, 2005.09.05)
27 Peace and harmony are different. Peace can stand alone on a level plane; however, harmony requires a relationship between two. Furthermore, as for unification, without a nucleus it just wanders around. Having no center is disastrous. The reason we live and work relates to our purpose. Hence, the question of why we work and of why we live is connected to our viewpoint about our purpose. (569-169, 2007.07.24)
28 The harmony and peace that arise in the natural environment through living for others centered on the Principle belong to heaven. On the other hand, whatever coerces or commands others to serve it is going opposite the way of harmony and peace. It belongs to the world of hell. If you examine your mind and body, you can see that your original mind encourages you to live for others. This is because it knows Heaven’s principles. However, because the body stands opposed to God’s direction, and since it tells the mind to live for its sake by force, it cannot exist forever and must disappear. (526-065, 2006.05.12)
Section 3. Training in Faith
1 It is written in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son...” It is not written that God gave His only Son because He loved America or a particular denomination. God gave His Son for the sake of the world, not for the sake of the Baptist Church or the Presbyterian Church. I am teaching you this point clearly. The Unification Church exists for the sake of the world and for the sake of God, not for the sake of Rev. Moon. This is why I do not go to ruin and neither does the Unification Church; God protects the Unification Church. All perfection begins from true love. We should apply this formula to the entire world, centered on true love. It has to become so habitual that we cannot lead our daily life without practicing this formula. Wherever we may go, we have to live this way When we see elderly people, we must love them as our grandparents; when we meet people the age of our parents, we must love them as our own parents; if we meet people the age of our siblings, we must love them as we would our siblings; when we meet children, we must love them as our own children. This way of treating people should be both habit-forming and fun for us. (254-198, 1994.02.06)
With true love
2 Rivers flow into the ocean. The earthly world is similar to a river while the spirit world is similar to the ocean. Every human being goes to the spirit World. Freshwater fish die if they are suddenly thrown into salt water; they suffocate. The freshwater fish first need to acclimatize. The Unification Church trains people on earth for life in the spirit world. It is the training center of true love where members learn to live for others with love. The Unification Church is also the training center that aims to develop the substance of love, which is living for others. God lives for the sake of others; therefore, the person who has love for others is welcome wherever he or she goes. No opposition arises against such a person. (256-061, 1994.03.12)
3 It is not easy to conquer with the sovereign power of true love. It is possible only after crossing rows of defensive lines and overcoming many ordeals. You cannot do it without a foundation. Accordingly, let us look at the current situation of the Unification Church. What historical position does the Unification Church have to establish in the world in order to rule as the owner of the future? This position is not that of an individual; it is higher than that. It is possible to become owners of the future at the individual level if we surpass the individuals in this world. However, we cannot conquer true love as owners just at the individual level. Furthermore, look at the family level. We can become owners at the level of the family if we surpass other families. But this is not our aim. Our aim goes beyond the family to the tribe, from the tribe to the nation, and from the nation to the world. We have to reign as owners at the world level. When looked at this way, it is not an easy task. Unless we overcome the harshest historical course in order to prepare a basis for real victory, we cannot become owners of the future. (45-036, 1971.06.06)
4 True love is like a wrapping cloth that can contain God and the universe and still have room for more. The same is true of God. Given that God created electricity, which travels at 300 million meters per second, God must certainly be faster than electricity. So if we were to travel at this blinding speed, using so much energy, inside the wrapping cloth of true love, we would want to be confident we are wrapped well enough to prevent any accident. However large the universe may be, it is meant to revolve around true love and not to move in a linear fashion. The person who possesses true love possesses the universe, and thereby has dominion over the universe. Our life on earth is the training ground of true love. We are now living in this training ground. (133-318, 1985.01.01)
5 When you live for others with true love, you ascend. When you love yourself, you descend. Where you center yourself determines heaven and hell. When you focus your love on the body, you are Satan’s dance floor. Conversely, when you focus your love on the mind, you are God’s dance floor. The problem is that you are not entities of love centered on God’s absolute mind. If you love absolutely centered on the body, you will crash in hell and perish. (419-204, 2003.10.04)
6 If you love your enemy with true love, you will take dominion over the world of your enemy. This world will come to respect and attend you. When you give and profoundly share true love with everyone around you, more than you give and share with your children and your parents, Satan will immediately flee from you, while God will come and bless you several thousand times over. What is the secret to making Satan run away? It is living for the sake of true love, dying for true love, and loving for the sake of others. However terrible he may be, Satan will abandon all the barricades he erected and run away from the person who practices such love. When he flees, Satan will dismantle the barricades; he cannot leave them intact. Then what happens? Since the devil will have departed, all the countless people heading for hell’s realm of death will turn around 180 degrees. Then the opportunity for eternal life will unfold, enabling people to ascend into heaven. This is how God will bequeath the blessing of eternal fife. (419-198, 2003.10.03)
Following the Word
7 I have lived by God’s Word and you should do the same. You need to surpass me in reading, memorizing and practicing the Word. As you do so, you should say, “I must follow this path. This is the path True Parents want for me; I must follow it.” True Parents therefore wish that you become joyful people, so joyful that you can visit any village and everyone including the village’s ancestors will come and attend you. (592-239, 2008.06.10)
8 When your descendants carefully study the Word True Parents left, all people in all nations will approach the path that is close to the eternal kingdom of heaven. Only when your descendants respect the teachings their ancestors left behind more than they pay attention to worldly things, and look upon them as a lighthouse, not only in image but as actual substance, will they be able to move safely forward along the path of freedom, through all the dangerous reefs in the dark ocean. You cannot chart your course without looking upon the lighthouse. The words I am telling you now are that lighthouse. Until now, no one has spoken more than I have about heaven and earth. You need to be able to accept these words as divine words that blossom from the highest world of heart. (424-198, 2003.11.07)
9 In the Last Days, God will judge by heart, character and the Word, not by how much you believed. God is the center of heart. He will set up only one standard of heart throughout heaven and earth. Then there is the standard of character that is united with God's heart. And there is the standard of the Word, which represents God and is united with the center of character and heart. These are the three major stages of judgment. Among the three, judgment by the Word occurs first. In the fallen world, judgment by the Word will come first. (14-177, 1964.10.03)
10 In today’s fallen world, searching for the truth has become a trend. Furthermore, history, which develops in tandem with culture, goes out and finds the ideology that is heading toward one global culture. All trends in the world until now have emerged out of thought and doctrines; nonetheless, no thought or doctrine has succeeded in establishing a standard principle through which humanity can unite and harmonize. Instead, thought and doctrines have remained in the dark alleys of confusion. This is today’s reality. This is why we need to see the truth emerge that will move both the communist world and the free world toward unity. After this truth for which history is seeking emerges in this world, it will pass judgment on currently accepted truths. (14-178, 1964.10.03)
11 If you are filled with grace and risk your life as you walk forward, God will speak through you. This is true of the angelic world and it is true of me. Therefore, if anyone among you is so enraptured by the Word that you forget to eat and sleep and lose track of time, you will be able to do what I am doing. The effect of the Word is indeed amazing. (563-273, 2007.05.22)
Crossing the peak of indemnity
12 Because God felt so much sorrow and anguish over the Fall of Adam and Eve that He wanted to kill off human beings once and for all, we who are alive and indebted to this Father cannot live for our own well-being and personal happiness. We have to redeem this fallen world, which God would otherwise have to discard. We do so by faithfully walking the path of filial sons and daughters, patriots and saints, without straying even one step, thus crossing the peaks of indemnity. We will arrive at the original homeland, which is the kingdom of the ideal. Every one of you has to walk True Parents’ path together with them; you must follow. Our journey has covered tens of thousands of miles, and there are still tens of thousands of miles ahead of us. (596-140, 2008.08.26)
13 The course of indemnity is time- consuming. It not only consumes time but it also consumes us. Therefore, we all have a personal responsibility to pioneer this course of faith. The questions are, how much has this work consumed your time and how much has it consumed you? The answers to these questions determine whether or not you have removed the elements that require indemnity. Thus, we can see that the path of faith is the path of sacrifice; it is the path of sacrificing our entire self. Put another way, it is the path of investing everything that could make us happy. In addition to this, we also sacrifice our body. We must pay the price by sacrificing for the whole and for individuals. It is reasonable that the longer your sacrificial course and the greater your sacrifice, the more indemnity you will have cleared away in your generation. (031-155, 1970.05.24)
14 More blessings go to those in hardship than to those in comfort. Reaching the highest level involves enduring the direst hardships. This is why I send you to difficult places. But you must be able to say, “I am the only one who can do this.” If you do so, you will fulfill your responsibility. When you become the servant among servants, the adopted son among adopted sons and the son among sons, and receive from your descendants the recognition that you reached the position of eternal blessing, you will have fulfilled your responsibility. You have to walk your path as a servant, an adopted son, a son, a representative of Jesus and the Holy Spirit and, eventually, of Heavenly Father. The course until the position of son or daughter is the realm of personal indemnity, while the course as a representative of Jesus arid the Holy Spirit is the realm of indemnity for Heavenly Father. When you fulfill the Heavenly Father’s responsibility, you have completed your responsibility and become your true self, who is fully qualified to face the past, the present and the future. (11-331, 1962.04.13)
15 As God’s son, Jesus’ purpose was not simply to be a man of filial piety connected to the world and cosmos. His purpose was to make a dutiful family. The family lineage was built upon the wrong standard, so Jesus was to re-create the family at the levels of the individual, family, tribe, people, nation and world. All alone, I have carried Jesus’ cross, overcome the peaks of indemnity and crossed barriers and national frontiers. Since I achieved victory on the world level, I am causing Satan to end his war against God and am building the peaceful kingdom of heaven on earth and in heaven. (487-084, 2005.02.12)
16 We have to indemnify God’s sorrow. Since God is shedding tears for us, it is our turn to shed tears for our brothers and sisters, for the nation and for the world. If a group of people capable of fulfilling this responsibility comes forward, this group will prosper. The descendants of these people will certainly make progress. Even though we do not know what miserable historical events may take place, since we are in the Last Days, we need to know that this is the time for us to judge the two worlds and to build one world. We need to know that now is the historical time in which we should become filial sons and patriots who can comfort God. (60-099, 1972.08.06)
17 When a group of people emerges that can overcome adversity with confidence and courage and start anew, it will begin a new world. However, some groups that have a foundation do not have the courage to engage, and others that seek to engage do not have the resources to begin. We have to have something we can give to those in these circumstances, so they may begin to engage and carry out their work Advancing beyond this stage does not happen naturally; it requires numerous indemnity conditions and sacrifices. What is needed is a group of people willing to sacrifice themselves, not for personal benefit but for the benefit, victory and value of the whole. (15-079, 1965.09.29)
The principle by which we repair broken relationships
18 Adam, as the lord of creation, should have been able to harmonize all creation through his love, so he could stand before God in the midst of creation and say, “My Father, please receive all glory!” Yet due to his Fall, Adam lost that value. God longs to hear the voices of His true sons and daughters, those who are first to emerge since the creation, calling Him “Father.” Today we call God our Father, but He is not actually the Father we can call upon while we are in a position of sin and evil. Therefore we have to escape from this sinful and evil world and enter the ideal garden of goodness, the world where humanity can manifest God’s glory while living enraptured in joy. This is a world where, if human beings move, all things of creation move, and if human beings keep silent, all things keep silent, and God the Creator either moves or keeps silent along with them. This ideal garden is where God and humanity can meet in mutual relationship and become one. (3-027, 1957.09.15)
19 God wanted humanity to become one with Him. He created human beings with the vision that they would be enraptured in joy based on His amazing love. Yet through their Fall, human beings brought about deep anguish, not only for themselves but also for God. They have compounded it since then through the continuance of that sorrowful history to this day. Then what is God’s greatest hope as He guides the providence in relation to the earth today? It is to bring people born from fallen parents back to His side and say to them, “I am your eternal Father and you are my eternal sons and daughters.” To be able to welcome such a day is the historic hope of fallen humankind and the original hope of God. (3-027, 1957.09.15)
20 A peaceful world is possible when nations have good relations with each other. As long as there is even the concept of struggle, there can be no peace. Bonds are formed through relationship. This requires becoming reciprocal partners. It is destiny that we come together, but we need to build relationships to become partners. By relationships, I do not mean those that center on something bad; I mean good relationships. (427-172, 2003.12.05)
21 A relationship is not formed if it is not destined. Buddhism speaks of destiny, but in the Unification Church we speak of relationships. We are one step ahead. We can have a destiny all alone, but relationships always involve two. Because the mind and the body are destined to unite, they are engaged in a relationship. Because a man and a woman are destined to be bound as one, we can say that husband and wife are one flesh. From this perspective, we realize there has to be a center in a relationship. Even for the relationship between father and son, there should be a center that can satisfy the absolute conditions for both the father and the son. The Chinese character for center (中) encompasses all four directions. (456-117, 2004.06.27)
22 The relationship between subject partner and object partner transpires in time and space, and even though the object partner might be in a lower position, if treated with a big heart, that partner receives great glory. The bigger the heart the parents have, the more the children will resemble them. For a subject partner, there is always an object partner. (546-201, 2006.11.28)
23 If there were molds for relationships, each mold, even though the history of all human relationships is tied up in it, would contain unique personal stories and circumstances. In that case, what would each mold have to do with the mainstream? If we take the example of a tree, a leaf that came out a thousand years ago has the same essence as a leaf that is a few days old. This essence is linked to the tree’s central root, trunk and main boughs. The same goes for the branches. Even though there are branches in all directions, their essence is basically the same. (552-212, 2007.01.18)
24 The realm of resonance is the plane where two people become one. Parents are two people; a couple is made up of two people, brothers are also two, and sons and daughters as well. Everything begins with two people. Since there are two, we can speak of relationship. When we speak of a relationship between elder and younger brothers, we infer that there are at least two. We cannot use the word “relationship” when talking about one person alone. Even when we speak of political relationships, we infer that there is a nation and its citizens. When we mention the relationship between subject and object partners, we are speaking of two people. You cannot make a relationship if you are alone. (598-226, 2008.09.21)
25 We need to experience profoundly, in our heart and in daily life, the countless efforts God has made to build a parent-child relationship with us. What is our last remaining hope? On what basis can we stand in front of God, in His grace? This depends on how much we succeed in building the parent-child relationship, which is God’s ideal of creation. We discover our value based on how much we put this into practice in daily life. (3-028, 1957.09.15)
26 Birds, fish in the oceans, and all beings of creation possess their own languages of song and dance with which they can converse. Their sounds develop into songs and their steps develop into dances. We must understand that this conversing and harmonizing takes place in relationships based on love. All of creation competes to experience times of love and to intensify such moments of love. Human beings are the lords of creation. Therefore, if we can produce such lovely songs and sounds of harmony, and love each other ten or one hundred times more intensely, this world will become an environment in which God is intoxicated, and in which He can dwell. (613-264, 2009.07.09)
Section 4. Training the Mind
1 Our mind accompanies us for eternity, while our body accompanies us for a lifespan. Our mind regulates our life, while our body regulates our everyday routine. A life differs from daily routine. A life refers to an entire lifetime, while daily routine refers to each day in a life. Similarly, our mind and body are inherently different. With human beings, the mind controls life while the body controls daily routine. Thus if we do not have meals in our daily routine, our body will die. Furthermore, our mind also eats, but it refuses to do so in situations that go against the conscience. When we examine this, we can see that the mind’s outlook is far broader than the body’s. (35-091, 1970.10.04)
The mind is the parent among parents
2 If our mind is unable to harmonize with others, we need to train our mind and move it to accommodate everyone completely. Unless we do so, in the Last Days, Satan will put us on trial and accuse us by pointing out our failings, saying, “Listen, you failed to fulfill that condition, didn’t you?” (2-139, 1957.03.17)
3 The original mind is the parent among parents because it represents the God of the universe. It is also the teacher among teachers and the owner among owners. Hence, a mind that preserves its purity is the closest parent, closer than any mother in the world. A pure mind is also closer than any outstanding teacher in the world. Furthermore, the mind is better able to guide its servants in the right direction than any owner in the world. (200-297, 1990.02.26)
4 The mind and body differ. From where did you receive your original mind? You received it from God. Your mind comes from God. Your mind comes from Heaven, while your body comes from your parents. Since the body comes from the earth, it consumes what is of the earth; hence, you are indebted to the earth. This earth is made of matter. People are either male or female; we are extensions of Adam and Eve, who were created by God. When we speak of a person, we are implicitly inferring substance. What can we find within a person? We can find the earth, the person and God. We have had the phrase “heaven, earth and humankind” for eons. Heaven is the mind, the earth is the body, and humankind is the people. (26-184, 1969.10.25)
5 God, the earth and humankind are within me. The mind is in the subject position and the body is in the object position. Since the mind is the center of the body, we have a will, a worldview and an advocacy. The person in whom these three are united is called a person of integrity. A person of integrity is a conscientious person whose body moves according to the dictates of his or her mind. She is one who can control her body with her mind. This is why the mind is the center. The mind represents God and the body represents humanity. God has dominion over the mind, the mind has dominion over the body, and the body has dominion over creation. (26-184, 1969.10.25)
6 Human beings have a mind and body. The body is constituted of elements received from one’s parents and from the earth. However, there is an issue with the mind. God wishes to establish the mind and body on an unchanging foundation of heart. This is the purpose for which God created human beings and the purpose of His providence to redeem fallen human beings. However healthy and comfortable the mind may be, the reality is that the mind and the body are unable to enter the home of the heart and rest there. (8-045, 1959.11.01)
7 What is it that people have toiled until now to find? People have labored to find the divine heart that can come into the place of the human heart. We have been striving to unite our heart with this divine heart. Once our heart unites with this absolute heart, all attempts to remove this heart will fail. What we have been searching for until now is the heart that no ideology, thought or false owner can invade. If we cannot find this heart, we will not be able to avoid sorrow and sadness. (3-079, 1957.09.29)
The mind's inclination
8 The mind conforms to nature’s logic. It seeks to advance eternally toward goodness, very much like the needle of a compass pointing north. The logic of nature does not go astray; it does not evade goodness. This never happens. Similarly, a person’s mind seeks to advance toward a specific goal. The mind moves heading toward life; it moves through the heart and it discerns the truth. The mind seeks to harmonize with the whole as it strives to blend with the idea of the whole. It also forms the basis upon which Heaven can instruct one about alternative paths. (7-182, 1959.09.06)
9 We each have a mind. Our mind pushes us in a particular direction, irrespective of time and space, in search of a greater idea. However, although we have been aware of its tendency throughout history, we have been unable to explain its movement to ourselves. Everyone wants to be recognized and trusted. It is also true that we live with the idea that whatever we think and advocate comes from our mind’s movement. Now, when you demand recognition and trust, are you doing so from a position related with the divine purpose? You are not. From this perspective, what is your value? You cannot achieve the ultimate purpose unless, as a subject partner that can move all of creation, you put your mind’s aspirations into practice every day and go through a process of honest self-evaluation. God seeks to realize His divine purpose. If we cannot fulfill His Will, we cannot stand tall in front of Him, and we will be unable to raise our heads before God. (7-206, 1959.09.13)
10 Heaven is the subject partner of our life, our philosophy, our love, our mind and our body. From the moment I connect with Heaven, my body is no longer mine, my mind is no longer mine, my heart is no longer mine and my ideas are no longer mine. Only then can I stand as the temple of God and the lord of creation. Then, since my mind has become God’s mind, it can represent God’s mind. Finally, my life has the authority to move the entire universe. My heart appears as a representative of God’s heart and my philosophy is the Father’s philosophy. Only then does the purpose in which we place our hope reach its conclusion. (8-203, 1959.12.20)
11 Your original mind urges you to avoid the world’s reality, which is stimulating yet painful, and seek the ideal. Every leader needs to confront reality. However, no one knows about this mind that seeks, yearns for and urges us toward the ideal. We have to follow the dictates of this mind. Countless saints in history have followed this mind. In the future, everyone will be like that. We have to affirm this original mind; talking about anything else is useless. If we realize that we are people who should not oppose the mind that seeks the ideal, but should follow it, then even though we do not live in an ideal world, we will be able to connect with the ideal world for which we yearn and of which we dream. Today’s world is not ideal, due to the Fall. (7-263, 1959.09.27)
12 All the pain and suffering God has borne on our behalf is reflected in our mind and body. The mind works tirelessly to guide every action of the body toward the goal of goodness, while checking the environment. When the body loses the objective and direction the mind prescribes, and falls into the pit of death, the mind looks to what is good and recommends it to the body. Therefore, everything begins with me. As our mind represents Heaven, the objective sought by our mind and the objective sought by Heaven have to be in accord. (10-227, 1960.10.16)
13 If God is the center of your mind, the objective of God and the objective of your mind must be the same. Furthermore, your mind should be united with the direction on which God is focused. In order to have mind and body unity, your body should accord with the ideal standard of the earth. In the historical Last Days, the ideal world of goodness will absolutely come. Your body and your daily life should connect with the world that is in tune with the ideology of goodness. When the standard of your mind and the standard of God separate, you face difficulties. When the standard of your physical life is in conflict with the concept of the whole earth, difficulties arise. In that case, where should you begin to mend your ways? The answer lies with you, not with others. (10-227, 1960.10.16)
The path of devotion, faith and prayer
14 You have resolved even to face death in walking this new path of faith. Therefore, if you advance in the direction God’s wishes with absolute faith, your path of faith will lead you to discover divine value. Hence, you need to feel the responsibility that accompanies such faith, and become true sons and daughters who practice this faith. Unless you do so, there is no way you can stand before the Father. You will not be able to stand before the absolute Father as a true son or daughter, and a patriot. (3-022, 1957.09.08)
15 If you look from a historical perspective at how God has searched for people, you will see that He has found people through their conditions of faith. On the one hand, God has asked people to establish conditions of faith, but on the other hand He has demanded that people put their faith into action. After you create a bond of heart with God, in order to gain a foothold to erase feelings of sadness, you need to forge the path of putting faith into practice. Only in this way can you establish history-shaping connections. (6-211, 1959.05.17)
16 In order to resolve any awkward situation, you have to report about yourself honestly and truthfully. Sincerely report, “I am this kind of person” and request, “I am a wayward person but You are good; if only You would sympathize with a person like me and kindly show me the path of rectitude I need to follow, I would be grateful.” If you engage people with a prayerful heart, your environment will become natural. However, if you persist in your ways, whatever effort you make will not settle your mind. Rather than settling in that environment, you will leave. Therefore, to be able to say, “I am such and such a person and I wish to build a relationship with you,” you need to report about yourself sincerely and truthfully. This takes place through prayer. Prayers help rectify your course when you are going astray. If you reflect on your daily life, you will see that your words and actions vacillate and your feelings go up and down. Every moment, as you live and breathe, you are weighing this and that. In weighing your options, you have to be sincere. (045-247, 1971.07.04)
17 Normal people do not understand my prayers. They need to read them a hundred times to grasp them. When you hear the mysterious sounds of heaven, in order to resonate with them you need profound reverence and feeling. Therefore, you need to connect with nature, with everything. Unless you have that connection, you will not know. The Buddha said the same: “In heaven and earth, I alone am the honored one.” He could say that from his being in that state. It is like this when you overcome boundaries. (566-268, 2007.06.22)
18 You need devotional conditions and prayer. Is your position that of a resurrected person? If you are not standing in that position, are you at least ardently seeking it? Are you confident about taking responsibility for the environment in your path of faith? We have not yet accomplished this. This is why prayer is necessary. Prayer has the power to move the goalposts of life and death. It is difficult to offer the ardent prayer that is necessary. How busy would you be if you had to build a great tower stretching miles upward? Seriously, if you had to build a very wide and tall tower, wouldn’t you be incredibly busy? If you resolved to build it and projected that it would take fifty years, you would not have a second to lose. (31-317, 1970.06.07)
19 1 believe that prayer is the greatest power, because it makes possible what is impossible. In the Unification Church we emphasize prayer, but we do not teach a different method of prayer. It is just the contents of our prayers that are different. My teaching has been, “Do not pray for yourself” I teach that you should pray instead for your mission, for others, and to offer words of comfort to God. (091-117, 1977.02.03)
20 When you face a difficult problem, resolve it with prayer. Why then do we pray? Prayer enables a relationship based on God's standard of heart. When you pray about an issue with a serious heart of concern for God and the nation, God will certainly teach you what was before and what is to come. Such occurrences will take place quite frequently. (33-131, 1970.08.11)
21 More than expanding outward, we need to unite with our mind and find the path that leads deep within. This is the life of prayer today’s Christianity talks about. Prayers that seek to connect with God’s mind and profoundly experience the essence of God’s Word are more precious than prayers about setting certain objectives and achieving them. This is why we seek a quiet place when we want to pray. (29-318, 1970.03.13)
22 If you lead a life of prayer, you will feel indescribable joy. This state of joy is the state of God’s thought prior to creation. Having reached this state, if you are able to stand in the position where you can describe such joy, you will be in the state of God after He created the entire universe. This level is the position of God as He created the universe through the Word. From that state, you have to proclaim the Word. If you do so, people certainly will appear wanting to receive the Word. (29-321, 1970.03.13)
23 If you want to pray, you have to do so before beginning your daily activities. Hence, the most important time is daybreak. Dawn is the most important time. This is the time period that determines the outcome of your day. Pray at this time. In order to offer a profound prayer filled with emotions hitherto unknown and unfelt, do not center your prayers on yourself. Pray for a great objective on the level of the nation or the world. (30-123, 1970.03.21)
24 You have to lead a profound life of prayer, which means you steep your daily life in the providence. You also have to reflect constantly upon how closely you are tying your daily life to the course the church is going and the path God is walking. To do so, your heart has to yearn for church news to the extent that you just go to church or call the church at any time. God surely will dwell in the family in which He finds such a heart. Without such a heart, there is no root that can sustain what is planted; it is the same as having planted nothing. Understanding this principle, you need to reorganize your life to lay such a foundation. (31-293, 1970.06.04)
25 Prayer is more important than eating. This is why I like nature and why I treasure times of solitude. I like the tranquility of the night. You will not have the foundation to experience the richness of life unless you go the way of prayer. In that world, in that space, you can feel and experience a love that is very hard to find elsewhere. On the basis of prayer, you can strengthen yourself and advance your life of faith. I cannot always pull you along. What will you do when I am no longer around? You need to make prayer an intrinsic part of your inner life. You need to pray day and night, so yours will be living prayers. Only in this way will your desires and the subject of your prayers grow and develop as the years pass. This is why you have to be aware of the time in which you are living. Develop your inner life through prayer. (104-112, 1979.04.15)
26 Prayer is not something undertaken with a capricious mind. To pray, you have to find a deep place, a place that can represent Heaven, a place that is the center, not the sidelines. How then should you pray? In order to pray about serious and desperate problems in your life, cleanse yourself and pray in a location that is not on the borderline, and that forever has no relationship with Satan. Those who say, “No matter how fervently I pray, God never answers” are praying in a position where no answers are possible. How can God respond to a prayer you utter while on Satan’s side? (123-080, 1982.12.12)
27 The mind is round. There are doors to the mind. However, when you pray, your prayers do not always flow smoothly. As the four seasons are different, prayers are different according to your character. There are times when your mind unites with the direction of Heaven; you must not miss these moments. If you lead a life of prayer, you will immediately sense the coming of these moments; you will already know. Hence, you must prepare thoroughly for such occasions. Then, when such a time arrives, having already made various preparations, you need to open your mind’s doors as wide as possible, let the extraordinary force and love of God flow into you, and reach the stage where you can perceive this force and this love. (156-213, 1966.05.25)
28 In the Last Days, we need to offer many tearful prayers. When we pray, we need to shed not only tears but also blood. We went over the hill of tears and the hill of the cross. In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus offered a prayer drenched in blood. He shed tears as he held and embraced the Jewish nation. It is prayers such as these that vanquish Satan’s power. (10-042, 1960.06.26)
29 Pray from the bottom of your heart. When your words and actions reflect your innermost heart, they will become honorable words and actions that bring you no shame before God, Satan or anyone else. God is seeking such people. (2-050, 1957.02.17)
30 If you pray from the bottom of your heart, with religious discipline, crying out to Heaven, your prayer will be answered. However, if you offer the same feeble prayers over the decades, as many people do today, your prayers will remain unanswered. You must pray on the basis of your ability to pledge with a genuine heart of love. You need an earnest heart capable of waiting thirty or forty years after offering a prayer. If you pray with an earnest heart that will remember that prayer after thirty or forty years, your prayer will be fulfilled. There is no need to pray for it over and over again. (7-095, 1959.07.19)
31 When you pray, you should pray with tears and break out in sweat. You should pray with this conviction: “If something strikes me, even if it penetrates my body, it won’t knock me down.” Even as people persecute and oppose you, you should know that the time when God will answer your prayers is drawing near. As you follow the path of the Unification Church, your hardships will increase when you come close to that time. You need to understand this. (112-055, 1981.03.29)
32 You need to experience a life filled with new sensations that arise from complete devotion to God. When you engage in activities with your heart filled with these sensations, you will witness multiplication and, eventually, development. When a tree is sprouting new buds, each day is different. Each day is filled with life’s energy. Every time you lose this feeling, you need to pray at the risk of your life. Pray through the night and accumulate merit in order to progress. When you lead such a life, occasionally God will make it difficult for you to find the time to offer conditions. In such circumstances, however hard you try to find hope, you will not succeed. Also, there will be times when the harder you try, the deeper you will sink into a dark pit. If you find yourself in such circumstances, you need to subjugate Satan who follows you, renew your heart of attendance to God, and fight with greater vigor. (30-133, 1970.03.21)
33 The more we reflect on the course we need to complete, the more we realize that completion is not possible by personal effort alone. This is why people of faith have to pray. As an individual, if you are unable to inherit the tradition that is united completely with God’s Will, any effort you make, however great, could produce an outcome that directly contradicts God’s Will, irrespective of the loyalty you demonstrate. We have to understand the reality of our present position. (071-276, 1974.05.05)
34 Before praying for your sons and daughters, you should pray for the ancestors in heaven who have invested themselves until now. Your heart has to desire the welfare of humankind ahead of your personal welfare. Before you dance, look at all the people groaning in the pit of sorrow, and worry about them. Even when he was happy, Jesus could not show his happiness in his countenance or actions. Please relate in your heart to Jesus’ circumstances. (4-125, 1958.03.23)
35 If you pray according to your own will, it will not work. God will have nothing to do with your prayers, even if you conduct numerous vigils. We have to deny one sphere, embrace the next sphere, and advance for its sake. For example, to hold on to the nation, which is greater, we have to deny the family. Public service means living for what is greater. This is the only way we can leave a legacy. Worrying about one’s own desires or seeking to advance one’s family comes later. We have to go forward centered on the greater objective. (28-270, 1970.02.08)
36 Fallen human beings are born in the midst of apparent happiness but pass away in the midst of tears. Nonetheless, the nation will bless those who grasp and shed tears for the nation; pitiful religious groups will bless those who grasp them and weep for them, and the world will bless those who hold on to and shed tears for the world. (4-166, 1958.04.06)
The path of separation to become an offering
37 You have to be able to pledge that you will make of yourself a conditional offering before Heaven. Jesus sacrificed himself as an offering for the sake of the world, heaven and earth, and humanity. For this, he went the way of the cross. Through the cross, Jesus instantly surpassed the standard of sacrifice and devotion that the countless patriots and saints who came before him established. Therefore, in order to achieve a life of universal value, you need to be determined to pledge that you will make of yourself an offering to be presented at a certain time to Heaven, to the world, and to the individual. (2-016, 1957.01.06)
38 From the perspective of the Unification Church, God’s Will, my will and your will have to be one. This is the first priority. Then we need to determine a direction and make a conditional offering. Unless we meet these conditions, the fulfillment of the Will is absolutely impossible, even if the time is ripe. The three generations— yours, your parents’ and your grandparents’—have to unite in the position of a single offering. When you look at everything in the universe, you see that there is no way other than for these three to become one. (28-082, 1970.01.04)
39 The making of a conditional offering determines the ownership of that which is offered. Because I know all about this, I came up with this definition. How can we determine whether something or someone belongs to the side of good or the side of evil? God and Satan negotiate over the heart of love. No one has known this. Heaven can take possession of an object that belongs to Satan’s world only if we develop the way of love, set up the will to pioneer the way of love, stand in the position to find a person of love, and return to Heaven an elevated standard of love. God and human beings can unite through that object only if Heaven has taken possession of it. This is why God can claim ownership over human beings through our sacrificial offerings. (166-070, 1987.05.28)
40 God feels the pain of humanity as His own and rejoices in the happiness of each human being as His own. Therefore, one who takes the position of a sacrificial offering in front of God should maintain a heart that brings joy to both God and humanity. Then, so that God and humanity can stand in the plus position, that is, the position to benefit, we who are attuned to that purpose need to stand willingly in the minus position, becoming the sacrifice. As the sacrifice, the conditional offering, we are the support group that can resurrect everything that was lost through the Fall. (224-012, 1991.11.21)
41 The Fall was a departure from the essential, altruistic love, which began with an independent awakening of a mixed-up, self-centered love. Since the Fall began with self-centeredness, the world that recognizes self-centeredness has continued to expand as a base for Satan’s invasion. If you are willing to sacrifice personal love for the sake of God's love and altruistic love, and if you strive to separate from Satan by stamping out selfish love, you will eradicate totally the base through which Satan has infiltrated. (146-012, 1986.06.01)
Section 5. Training the Body
1 I have mentioned before that the body represents the earth. If we seek to find the place where our body can rest in comfort, we must go through the pain of rebirth. The longer this takes, the more anxious and fearful we become. However, once we get through it, we will find happiness. As the time of delivery draws near, a pregnant mother endures birth pangs that gradually increase. However, once she goes beyond that pain, she experiences tremendous joy. We need to go through a similar process. God loves human beings. After creating us, God blessed us, saying, “Your body will govern the earth and your mind will govern the heavens.” (8-021, 1959.10.25)
2 Satan is erecting walls of death, using our body as a foundation for these walls. Satan became God’s enemy, but originally he was just an archangel. God is the subject partner and the archangel is a spiritual object partner. However, since a person’s mind represents heaven and his or her body represents the earth, the object partner, Satan uses the human body as a launch pad for his activities. This is why every religion advocates castigating the flesh. The aim of religion is not to conquer a nation or advance a particular ideology; it is to conquer the body. Therefore, religions seek to reach the original standard of conscience. Peace begins when we ignore our bodily cravings, open wide the gates of the mind and ascend to the level of conscience that Adam and Eve were meant to reach had they not fallen. (10-095, 1960.07.17)
Maintaining purity
3 Men and women must both preserve their purity. They must not stain themselves before marriage. After chastity, next comes purity of lineage, of the bloodline. Every person who seeks love has to maintain sexual purity and know about the renewed lineage, the lineage of purity. This is why we speak of chastity, pure love and pure lineage. When a man and a woman preserve these three, become one through marriage, continuously live for others, do not keep a record of their good deeds, are not swayed left and right, and persevere in sacrificing while forgetting those sacrifices, they will liberate the world for tens of thousands of years, even if the four corners of the earth relocate, even if up and down reverse, and even if front and back exchange positions. They will bring everything into harmony and realize a world of peace. (439-309, 2004.02.24)
4 The course of indemnity remains before us. Even if we lose all our relatives and family members in one fell swoop, we have to sacrifice everything for the providence, preserve our purity, and follow God’s Will. Even if all of our family members and relatives oppose us, we have to follow God’s Will. Historically, Noah, Abraham and Moses followed this course. However, they did not lose. They exchanged whatever they lost for what is eternal. Nonetheless, they were unaware that by losing everything they would gain what is eternal. They had a vague idea, but they had no inkling of the specifics of what they stood to gain. (21-209, 1968.11.20)
5 You have to be able to overcome the world’s temptations, including the most debonair man or enticing woman. To achieve this, become a man or woman for whom obedience and chastity are of the highest importance. You are to raise descendants who will preserve the lineage of the Blessing for tens of thousands of years. Your task is to protect sexual purity for thousands of generations. The greater the number of such descendants you raise, the greater the number of your relatives who will become part of the royal family. (251-205, 1993.10.17)
6 Love is unique; it is only one. Love is unique and absolute. Since this is the love we desire, each husband has to engage his wife through absolute sex. It is undeniable that heaven comes to a husband through the encounter with his wife. A husband may walk a tortuous path, but unless he seeks the path of love and its righteousness, he cannot enter heaven. The person who comes to introduce heaven to the husband is the wife, and vice-versa. The day the couple splits apart is the day heaven disintegrates. It is also the day the couple’s original ideals and dreams shatter into nothingness. (139-064, 1986.01.26)
7 The past and the future are linked together through today. The past, present and future are connected. The fortunes of heaven and earth revolve continuously around the past, present and future. When God renders His final judgment, He will examine our individual life as He does in the Bible, by the Law. Accordingly, we can be completely restored as individuals only if we cultivate in ourselves absolute flawlessness, which is beyond accusation. Now is also the time we have to complete our family on the basis of having perfected ourselves. Our entire family history will be the object of judgment. This is why, at the time of judgment, our family has to be pure, leaving Satan unable to accuse. This is the only way we can redeem the family and complete the foundation for the people. When we complete the victorious foundation for the people, all peoples of Satan’s world will be judged. God will personally stand in the position of judge. Only when all the peoples throughout the world turn against Satan and lay the absolutely victorious foundation, against which Satan cannot protest, can we say that we have completed the restoration of the people. The person who leads us to these victories will become the Lord who redeems all humankind—the nation, the world, and all of heaven and earth. (13-210, 1964.03.15)
Achieving mastery over the body
8 What are the limits of the body? When the mind and body fight, over which hurdle do we most need to leap? It is the hurdle of appetite, the hurdle of food. The issue of how we deal with appetite comes with a religious life. We need to eat to live, but we cannot live to eat. After Jesus had fasted forty days in the wilderness, Satan tempted him: “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” (Matt. 4:3) Jesus gave the masterful response: “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Matt. 4:4) Jesus said that we live by the Word of God. Living by the Word means living according to truth, reason and law. Accordingly, Jesus’ response to Satan was a strong rebuke, admonishing Satan for living in opposition to God’s law. (037-124, 1970.12.23)
9 We have to conquer the twenty-four hours of the day; that is, we have to conquer time. Love has to transcend the limits of time. Next, we need to achieve dominion over our behavior. Love has to conquer behavior. Now, conquering time means conquering sleep, and conquering our behavior means conquering all desires, including the appetite for food. It also means conquering the sexual urge. Love stands above sexual desire. After that, we have to conquer our worldly desires. (171-022, 1987.12.05)
10 Jesus fasted in order to achieve dominion over his body. Examining every religion, we will see that not one of them is devoid of believers practicing penance. The higher the religion, the more it emphasizes such practices. Perfection begins with total denial of this world. The true religion advances by denying everything. It differs from the secular world’s way of thinking. True religion does not begin by affirming what is of the world. It begins by denying what is of the world. We can begin to affirm certain aspects of the world only on the foundation of denying everything and establishing a realm of dominion over the self. At that point, we are transformed into beings of value, re-created in heart, and we become good people. (039-201, 1971.01.10)
11 What has religion been teaching? It has been teaching us to save the soul and conquer the body. This is why religions exhort us to sacrifice in the service of others. Religions also teach us, as we sacrifice to serve others, to go the way of penance, to fast, to inflict pain on the body. Unless we walk this path, we cannot enter heaven. This is the Principle. (48-087, 1971.09.05)
12 Religion is about self-denial. Accordingly, we have to deny everything. Whether it is food, sleep or other things we like, we deny it all. We overcome sexual urges, appetite and sleep. Religions teach us to divest ourselves of cravings for food, sleep and other bodily attachments. Human beings are conditioned biologically to eat and sleep to stay alive. These are things we are meant to enjoy. Nonetheless, we have to subjugate them, because they have led the body on the path of death. (18-067, 1967.05.21)
13 Religion does not begin with approval or affirmation; it begins with denial. We live in an evil world, and if we support evil we become evil. We each need to begin by judging ourselves. Each of us needs to deny him or herself. Self-denial does not mean targeting the evil society. Even though we need to reform this evil society, we need to begin with self-abnegation. The mind and body are fighting each other and we need to chastise the body into submission. But what does it mean to chastise and subjugate the body? It means to do what is righteous. When asked, what sets the criteria by which we subjugate the body, we should reply that it is our conscience. Therefore, we have to deny our sexual urges, appetite for food and other instinctive bodily cravings. We thus need to pray and fast as well as offer vigils. (157-128, 1967.04.02)
14 The various religions established value systems. Why have they collapsed? It is because the religions forsook their original missions, and this resulted in constant disputes and divisions. Thus they lost their power to guide real life. The established religions do not teach clearly about life and the universe. They cannot clearly distinguish between good and evil or righteousness and unrighteousness. In particular, they cannot answer clearly regarding the nature of God and His existence. As the ability of religion to guide people faded, material possessions turned from a means to an end in life. Chasing pleasure became the norm. Sensual desires and material cravings dehumanize the world. In such tainted soil it is impossible for love, service, righteousness, holiness and other traditional values to flourish. (133-285, 1984.11.03)
15 Where is ascension to heaven or descent into hell determined? It is determined within each of us. The person who feels pangs of conscience together with stimulation coming from the five bodily senses is in hell. The person who leads a life that brings delight to the mind is in heaven. Therefore, it is wise to cast away one’s worldly ambitions and evil mind, and to observe the heavenly laws centered on the conscience. (7-238, 1959.09.20)
The path that accumulates good deeds
16 You should not be arrogant and boast of yourself. Before your personal achievements, you should list your family’s achievements. But before advertising your family’s accomplishments, you need to invest in achieving results in the tribe. Likewise, before boasting about its successes, the tribe has to invest itself for the sake of the people. But Korean members cannot be proud, even if they were to bestow the Blessing upon everyone within the entire length and breadth of the peninsula. This is to say, we have to begin with the individual and ascend eight stages up to God, centering on the world. Only when God finally recognizes your achievements can you be proud of yourselves. (579-269, 2007.11.01)
17 Follow the lead of True Parents. True Parents are the first to enter the kingdom of heaven, and they lay the foundation for others to come and reside there. On this foundation, you live in the kingdom of heaven by virtue of the accomplishments you accumulate on earth. In the spirit world, we determine the level at which we live, and our position, by a statistical evaluation of our earthly achievements. This is done scientifically, not according to what you say you believe or say you have done. (586-012, 2008.02.04)
18 Individuals, while fulfilling their duty to their family, would also like to be able to live for their people and their nation. God is also like that. However, our lot is to choose between these. Fallen human beings’ sphere of destiny is that of striving to achieve the greater good. Even God strives to pursue the fruit of goodness for the people and nation, because it is greater than the fruit of goodness for the family. Likewise, one who strives to be a person of character does not restrict him or herself to the family or the tribe. That person will strive to transcend their people and demonstrate virtue and character on the world level. We cannot deny that we each aspire to become a central person who contributes to the greater good. (28-264, 1970.02.08)
19 Those who display devotion to the world, demonstrate loyalty to God, and fulfill their responsibility to Him can stand as honorable people before the nation, before their people, before their parents, indeed before everyone. Such people feel confident when standing before a mirror. They are able to sing their own praise with a clear conscience. “I have done my very best; there is nothing more I could have done. I have gone the path of death and am unable to do any more on this earth. I have invested all my energy and devoted myself completely. If there is one thing I have not accomplished, it is that I have not guided this people, this nation and this world to be as close to God, as I am. If this failure constitutes a sin, then I am a sinner. Nevertheless, I did my very best.” Any person capable of saying this will certainly leave a historic legacy on earth. (045-252, 1971.07.04)
Section 6. Life with the Goal of Mind-Body Unity
1 We have to fix our gaze on heaven. Had human beings not fallen, had everything been right in the fundamentals, we could have lived with our gaze trained below ninety degrees. Nonetheless, due to the Fall, we have to fix our eyes on heaven. It is not suitable for people of faith to look below ninety degrees; we need to gaze at heaven. Therefore, those who stare at the ground while walking are bound to decline. Similarly, those who move with a self-centered mind will decline. We need to correct everything, beginning with our way of life, our body, our mind and our heart. Then where should we set our heart? It is not to be set inside the course of history. Instead, we should place it in the heart of Adam and Eve before the Fall. Through that heart and along with Heaven, we have to digest all the feelings we experience in our current life and in the trends of our time, and resolve everything together with Heaven. Sons and daughters who are able to do this must emerge on this earth. (10-209, 1960.10.02)
2 Love is essential for the unity of mind and body. When parents come to love their children, they willingly endure hunger, hard work, ragged garments and going places they don’t want to go. While walking the path of such love, the mind and the body take the same unifying direction. It is the only way to unity, the only means to unity. If you take this as the standard for daily life and for your entire life, you will not perish. This I guarantee. (48-191, 1971.09.12)
A life of witnessing
3 God trudged through the course of restoration and found the individual and the family, but this individual and family shunned Him. And yet God continues to walk toward the salvation of the world. In the same way, each of us also has to advance. We cannot avoid this path, even though it is perilous, filled with life-threatening dangers and wandering paths of sorrow. We must walk the same path as our Father, and seek to share in His adversity and sorrow. This is the concept of unity. When we truly come to realize the Will of our Father, no matter what hardships we face, we can overcome them. Furthermore, however challenging the circumstances may become, God is our Father and His difficulties are our difficulties. Therefore, we inherit God’s tradition and engraft into His heart and history by enduring pain when the Father is in pain. This is logical. Unification Church members have to go this way without rest. Just as Jesus prayed and bore witness, even when facing death on Calvary, we Unification Church members have to bear witness in this world shrouded in the darkness of death. Even in hell, we have to witness to the most miserable of people. (015-340, 1965.12.07)
4 A life of faith is not a side job. It is a main and primary vocation. When you meet someone, who knows what will happen to this person afterward if you do not share the Word with him or her? Do not view this person as simply another person; view this person as your parent, your brother or your sister. If you are late, try to create a condition to meet again. Excuse yourself for having been late to a meeting and having been unable to share the Word, and set up another appointment. (269-072, 1995.04.07)
5 Witnessing is not easy, because it is the activity that enables God to engraft a new life to a person. This is why you need to offer devotional conditions, even if it is for but one person. For how many people have you risked your life and offered conditions? Do not boast that there are a large number of people offering conditions for you. Those who offer devotional conditions for others will be blessed, but the recipients of others’ offerings will not be blessed. Hence, we need to be the ones who offer conditions. If the other person does not listen to us in spite of the conditions we have offered, do not feel lonely or sad. Just accept that the heavenly principle works this way. If you have this disposition, you will never feel lonely or sad. (042-174, 1971.03.04)
6 Witnessing is like giving birth. Based on my experience, it takes three times more effort to raise someone into a person as trusting as a child than it does to give birth. We must take responsibility for those people even after witnessing to them. And for someone who has gone astray to return, they have to either feel astonishingly and profoundly tearful, vexed and depressed with themselves, or an unprecedented explosion of heart. (66-215, 1973.05.07)
7 For whom are we witnessing? Yes, we are witnessing for God and for humanity, but we are really witnessing for our children and ourselves. Indeed, we are witnessing for ourselves. Therefore, we cannot hold grudges against others; rather, the target of our resentment should be ourselves. We need to do witnessing ourselves instead of ordering other people to do so. Only then will there emerge that place in which we wish to live. (66-288, 1973.05.16)
8 We have to witness like hungry people seeking food. Just as we recognize the value of food when we are hungry, witness with the same intensity to receive support from the spirit world. This is how an object partner will emerge. Witnessing has to become our main job, because the most important thing is to lead a life of faith. (142-292, 1986.03.13)
9 Adam was unable to reach perfection and marry. Therefore, True Parents must be realized in the fallen world. They have to form a family that will expand to the entire world, give birth to families and form tribes on God’s side that together will reclaim what was lost to Satan at the levels of the individual, family, tribe, people, nation and world. Therein is the importance of witnessing. What is witnessing? Human beings are born of the fallen lineage of Satan’s world. Witnessing is the process of engrafting God’s lineage onto every tree born of the false lineage, completely transforming the false olive trees. Witnessing constitutes this. Witnessing is also the fortune we take to heaven. (484-256, 2005.01.24)
10 Once we receive God’s love, we have to share it. Therefore, it is impossible not to witness. We need people as our foundation, our platform on which to attend God above. Hence, we witness. We need spiritual children who can take responsibility even for our sins. Accordingly, witnessing is not for the church, it is for one’s self. If we share the Word with God’s heart, we will succeed. (18-044, 1967.05.17)
11 If we travel around to witness, God will accompany us. What word do you get when you invert the Korean word for witnessing (전도)? You get the word challenge (도전). If you have enemies, as long as you are with God, He will defeat them and everything will be fine. Witnessing is a challenge; those who refrain from the challenge of witnessing become lethargic. Your father doesn’t like that, your grandfather doesn’t like that, your father and grandfather’s descendants do not like that, and even your wife and children do not like that. Therefore, the father needs to challenge himself as a father, just as the mother needs to challenge herself as a mother. (555-073, 2007.02.08)
12 What happens when you sow the seed of love and this seed grows? When you ascend to the spirit world, all the people to whom you witnessed will not be someone else’s descendants. They will be akin to a new branch growing on your branch and all will be united as one. A tree that has grown new shoots for several thousand years will grow new shoots this year and new shoots next year. Furthermore, you cannot be severed from this tree that is tens of thousands of years old or from its nutrients. Once you are connected to the tree, you will grow. (548-181, 2006.12.10)
13 If you feel restless with a yearning for God and go out into the street and meet someone, you will be able to establish a bond and naturally witness to that person. When you are alone and have no one to whom to relate, God will come personally and dwell with you. If you clasp your hands, light will appear. You will feel it wrapping you in a protective embrace. When this happens, the question is whether you will profoundly experience this heart with a peaceful face, with your countenance manifesting peace, filled with happiness. You should feel the exultation that transports your mind and body and completely fills your every cell. You should feel the complete embrace of Heaven’s infinite love. Also, when you dance and sing popular songs and feel the universe’s attention, you need to feel your heart cry out to God, “Father!” This is the sound and the realm of heart we need. Every person wants to experience this. If you have these experiences, your witnessing will be successful. (050-324, 1971.11.08)
14 When your heart moves you to witness and tells you, “Let’s go witness,” there are those who witness because they want to, those who go with the flow, and those who witness because they are scared or afraid for their lives. How should it be for us? Should we witness because we welcome it, because we go with the flow, because we know we’ll die if we evade it, or because we are afraid? Which one is it? All of these motives fail the test. How then should we witness? The mind and body stand in the position of subject and object partners, and you start out with joy when the environmental conditions conform to your partner’s intent. Your mind was meant to begin with happiness, not sadness. The experience of joy, rather than of sadness, was to come first. What was the Fall? The elements of sadness took primacy before happiness could blossom. We are people in search of the path of destiny leading to redemption. Therefore, we need to begin with joy and internalize God’s Will in a joyful process. (127-209, 1983.05.08)
The daily life of a blessed family
15 As blessed families, we need to bring our heart into oneness with God. We have to become one body with God, united with God’s Will. Only when we accomplish this can we become a family that goes forward representing the ideal of creation. No one can determine their value as an individual outside the context of their family. We are the embodiment of God’s heart and hope. We are the substance of God’s heart, in the position to represent His Will. (12-182, 1963.05.01)
16 Blessed families have to be role models for all humanity and for the countless churches in the world. Our families have to complete and indemnify the responsibilities that Joseph’s family was unable to fulfill. Furthermore, we must, as a religious body, overcome and fulfill through indemnity the responsibilities Joseph’s tribe, as well as Judaism, could not fulfill. Our responsibility is to resolve and overcome at once on the national level all the failures that transpired on the levels of family and tribe. (29-308, 1970.03.12)
17 What is the blessed family’s duty? Their duty is to inherit the nation, the world and eventually the love of God. Blessed families have the authority to inherit the nation and the love of God. This special authority comes from the Blessing, which bestows on blessed families the power to inherit the coming kingdom of God and His love. The Unification Church can speak about the world of heart, and the heart of history, because it brings the love of God and allows us to connect with God and His kingdom. Thus the family is the issue. (35-306, 1970.10.30)
18 Blessed families have to be patriotic, invested in the establishment of the heavenly kingdom. Whether they are asleep or awake, their entire daily life has to move according to Heaven’s command. From the viewpoint of the spirit world, blessed families on earth are similar to the heavenly kingdom’s emissaries or intelligence agents. Blessed families live in constricted environments, deprived of freedom while being persecuted by Satan’s world. Therefore, in order to expose all the wrongs Satan’s world perpetrates, blessed families have to risk everything, including their livelihood, get active, and expand their ability. (210-052, 1990.12.01)
19 1 place blessed families in the forefront. However, this is of no use if blessed families do not suffer hardships and shed tears for heaven and earth in their daily life. One who never sheds tears is a false person. In the Last Days, everything will be revealed. We have to shed tears, but not over what we can eat. We have to shed tears to fulfill our given responsibility. We are engaged in a battle against an enemy. We are officers entrusted with an executive order to capture the enemy’s base. It is ours to spend sleepless nights shedding tears due to this responsibility. (13-271, 1964.04.12)
20 Receiving the Blessing resurrects you to the level at which Adam and Eve stood before the Fall. What then should you do? You still have to go through the completion stage, and for that you need to fully understand God’s heart. To perceive His heart, you need to know the internal circumstances surrounding God’s tireless endeavors to redeem fallen human beings. Just as God offered His only Son and entrusted him with the responsibility to resurrect all humanity, blessed families are to go forward into Satan’s world while offering their children. Blessed families are to live carrying their children on their backs in the same manner that Mary and Joseph carried Jesus and escaped to Egypt. Furthermore, when they see their beloved children going hungry, the parents have to say, “We are living this way for the sake of the world; surely our loving Father will protect them.” God will certainly raise their children to a position equivalent to that of the Lord who returns to this world in the flesh. So we remain standing until the end to accomplish our responsibilities. Those who demand, “Serve me, I am from a blessed family,” will be swept away. (14-125, 1964.07.17)
21 Have blessed families based their life on God and His Will? They have not done so. They have led self-centered lives. We can create the garden of love only when our life’s motive, objective and purpose are centered on God and His Will. Then we initiate a give and receive relationship with God as our subject partner, attending Him as object partners. Within that relationship, God’s love will pour down. (27-340, 1970.01.01)
22 What kind of people should you become? As families of Heaven, you have to abide by rules and principles. Blessed families lead hard lives for the sake of their tribe. You cannot sleep when others around you go to sleep. You cannot eat when others are eating. Blessed families must raise the families within their tribe. You have to stand in the position of parents raising children. When the families you raise are in pain, you should feel even greater pain. You have to be people who cannot bear the sight of someone in your neighborhood going hungry. You should bring something to that person with the heart, “It is better that I go without food than let you starve. I cannot be one who eats when someone has nothing to eat.” (29-106, 1970.02.25)
23 Blessed families know how to embrace and love their babies, but for what purpose were those babies born? They were born because of God and because of their relationship to God. You share secrets with your precious husband or your precious wife, but you did not design your relationship. You met along a public path, following a heavenly principle. God intervened to create your meeting. Because He was involved, the more your children are in misery, the more God feels misery. For this reason, the more that this is the case, the more you should offer conditions, firm up your outlook, and go forward with integrity, following your beliefs and principles, as one in whom God can place His trust. If you do so, you certainly will overcome all obstacles. This undeniable truth is based on my experience fighting for God throughout my entire life. (67-293, 1973.07.22)
24 Blessed families, reflect on the hardships I have had to overcome for your sake, and raise descendants who can overcome hardships greater than those I have endured. This is the view of the Principle. The Israelites who followed Moses out of Egypt had to go a path of tribulation similar to the one Moses followed. Up to the moment Moses set out on his course, he was immersed in Egyptian customs. Nonetheless he had to preserve the realm of the chosen people, not surrendering the traditions that he had to uphold as an Israelite. In this way, the life Moses led until becoming their leader was one of affliction greater than that of any among the people of Israel. Therefore, as they followed Moses, the Israelites should have recognized that Moses’ hardships exceeded the difficulties they were facing. With this in mind, the Israelites should have crossed the wilderness and reached the Promised Land of Canaan within three weeks. This was the problem. If you stand in the position of a child, you have to overcome difficulties greater than those of your parents. A patriot in a nation should endeavor to sacrifice more than does the king. This is the Principle. (170-300, 1987.12.04)
25 Blessed families of the Unification Church must find their own nation. You must recover a nation. Adam and Eve lost the nation. Therefore, finding the nation became Adam and Eve’s inescapable destiny. Since God and True Parents have intervened, finding the nation is inevitable and is our destiny. We cannot realize it through money or other such means. We can do it only through our blood being shed. We have to stand before the altar of our blood. (459-235, 2004.07.13)
CHAPTER 3 Our Life of Faith and Course to Emulate True Parents
Section 1. Our Life of Faith and the Providence of Restoration
1 In this age, to receive the new Messiah, we must repeat the history of the restoration of Israel. We must become people of faith who absolutely believe God’s Word and dismiss the corrupt ideologies of this world. We need such people of faith. We are not distracted by worldly glory or fame. We have to sever our ties with that world and go forward as a separate people, for the sake of the new Messiah. In this way, we discover the historical formula course that can stand within the realm of God’s love. (053-277, 1972.03.01)
The way of the Principle of Restoration
2 You have probably heard the Divine Principle lectures several times. They include the Principle of Restoration, the formula for fallen humankind to find God. How does that formula proceed? It is not through knowledge or through mere words; it is through the heart. If we look at Adam’s family, Cain and Abel’s positions were determined by heart. What matters is who loves God more, not who receives more of God’s love. (33-095, 1970.08.09)
3 The Divine Principle is the way to become God’s sons and daughters. It also inspires us to become loyal citizens, virtuous women, devoted sons and dutiful daughters. Our original mind leads us to become an elder or younger brother or sister to Jesus, and a devoted son or daughter, man or woman loyal to God. The Unification Church Principle has never been understood before. It is a unique teaching that cannot be displaced, even in the future. Therefore we must be bold. After I debated with the founders of numerous historical religions, God acknowledged the truth of the Principle. In the near future, the Unification Church will move the world. Moving Korea will not be a problem. The Divine Principle is the fruit of the past, of the present and of the future. All people must follow it as a higher truth, a higher ideology, a higher Will, and a higher way of living and acting. (14-321, 1965.01.10)
4 People should follow the Principle. You sow seeds in spring, in summer the plants develop fully, and in autumn they bear fruit. In winter you should put things in order, carrying the essence of new seeds of life deep within your heart. Only then will you have seeds to plant again when spring returns. This means that you should become parents and raise sons and daughters who will resemble you in the future. (026-158, 1969.10.25)
5 Restoration is carried out based on the Principle of Creation. God originally established the law of eternal love centered on Adam and Eve. We have to follow that law; otherwise we undermine heavenly law. Breaking the law of eternal love negates the value of humankind, and even of God. Therefore, restoration can only be accomplished through re-creation. (207-273, 1990.11.11)
The course of separation from Satan
6 Heaven does not judge humanity out of hatred. The purpose of God’s providence is to strike Satan and separate us from him—the one who betrayed God, rules through evil, and made us as we are today. God's goal is not to snatch us and cast us into a cauldron of death. God’s goal is to eradicate Satan, who tempted humankind and threw the earth into confusion. Therefore, God keeps warning us through our original minds, saying, “Don’t go this way. Avoid this path; go out and fight. View the fallen world as your enemy.” The further we go, the more He tries to warn us, as people of conscience, to change our ways. (7-211, 1959.09.13)
7 Separation from Satan does not just happen. It can never occur while living comfortably like the people of Satan’s world. You have to do that which is difficult and disliked by the people of Satan’s world. Satan dislikes the way of the cross, the way of suffering and sacrifice. Therefore, we have to go down to the bottom. Since Satan likes to go up, we have to go down to the bottom. We have to separate from Satan by going down to the bottom. We fulfill our portion of responsibility only by completely separating from him. (148-198, 1986.10.09)
8 According to the Principle, when we enter a love relationship we are overwhelmed by love. God Himself established this Principle, so He cannot deny it. Satan distorted this law. If God had intervened by striking Satan and banishing him, He would have broken His own Principle of love, so this was not an option. All the problems of history arose from this. Therefore, the providence of salvation is to separate Adam and Eve from Satan and repair this broken situation. (22-247, 1969.05.04)
9 Sacrificial rites have often involved the shedding of blood. There have been many conflicts in the course of history. People have struggled with the power of Satan and the power of evil spirits. God has to separate good from evil. Rather than cutting people in half, God has instructed us to make sacrificial offerings. These offerings divided people between Heaven’s side and Satan’s side. Therefore when people successfully carried out a sacrificial offering they could, for the first time, go beyond the level of the fallen angel. This is why the practice of religious sacrifice emerged. (076-052, 1975.01.26)
10 We have to make Satan surrender. How can we overpower him? The only way is by embodying the Word. The Fall separated us from the Word. It resulted from our failure to embody the Word. According to the Principle of Restoration through indemnity, our character is perfected when we are one with the Word. What does it mean to perfect our character and become one with the Word? It is to stand in the position of an unfallen person. Such a person has the authority to subjugate the archangel. Unless you go to the front line and bring Satan to surrender, you have no right to enter the realm of God’s love. (60-178, 1972.08.17)
11 You need to set indemnity conditions in order to separate from Satan. Satan has taken root in your body, through your lineage. You are of Satan’s bloodline, and thus cannot go to heaven unless you are reborn. You have to be born again. The principle of being born again applies here. Because your lineage is different, you have to be engrafted to a new lineage. You have to deny your entire life and set conditions of indemnity in order to be engrafted to my foundation. (135-325, 1985.12.15)
Restoration to our original state
12 What happened to the garden of heart that existed before the Fall? What happened to the world of our destiny, to that noble position where we could rejoice and relate happily with God? We lost that. It wasn’t just that God would have loved Adam and Eve. He would have acknowledged them, saying, “You are my eternal son and daughter.” When they fell, they had not yet attained the position where God could give them dominion over all heaven and earth, where all things in the universe would follow their command, where even the archangel would obey them. Instead, they fell because the archangel dominated them. They were the son and daughter of the Master, but they fell before they had attained the full status and authority of the son and daughter. (9-135, 1960.05.01)
13 Before the Fall, God had intended to give all of heaven and earth to Adam and Eve. He intended them to inherit and substantiate His internal nature as well. Upon giving them heaven and earth, He wanted to make them lords of creation. What greater inheritance could there be? From the day that Adam and Eve fell, God took care of heaven, earth and humankind. He had been progressing toward the day that He could say, “What is Mine is yours.” God has been working toward this with the same hope, until today. He wants to say, “Even though you are you, you are Me. Your family is My family; your society is My society; your country is My country. And your world is also My world.” God has taken on all the work of heaven and earth, while searching for someone to whom He can bequeath it. (10-325, 1960.11.27)
14 By analyzing God’s providence over the course of history, we come to understand that God has been looking for the original unfallen Adam and Eve. Through the Fall humankind received the lineage of Satan, therefore we can become God’s people only by reconnecting to His lineage. Even though the descendants of Adam and Eve became evil, God sent Jesus so they could reclaim their original position by believing in him. This has been His hope. But until today, how many people have reclaimed the original position of unfallen Adam and Eve by believing in Jesus? Not one. (15-327, 1965.12.07)
15 How much do you really understand that you were born through false parents? If someone has a disease, that person must be healed. If that person is weak, we do not aim only to return him or her to that weak state, but to a state of perfect health. The same applies to fallen humankind. Since people have fallen into an evil state, we have to restore them. To save them, we have to raise them above the level at which they fell. What we call salvation is restoration. People born of false parents with original sin need rebirth through True Parents, who have gone beyond the original sin. (22-241, 1969.05.04)
16 Restoration is like returning to the original seed. The perfection of restoration is the perfection of the seed. Until now humankind could not find that true seed. Through the Fall, Satan seized the central root, the central stalk and the central shoot. These could not grow straight; instead, they were bent over. Thus no one could harvest a perfect seed. All seeds came under the love of Satan, who has invaded the world. (491-155, 2005.03.18)
17 The terms Savior, Messiah and Lord of the Second Advent relate to the level and focus of the course of salvation and restoration. No one has been able to enter heaven. Even Jesus is in paradise. All people have been born from fallen parents and fallen ancestors, and have lived in conflict and sin. But raising people to the level Adam and Eve reached before the Fall will not fulfill our entire hope. Religious people have lived in hope. The original hope of all people is to become perfect and ideal people with the true nature of the ideal of creation, and to realize the ideal world. This is the Will of God. It requires rebirth as an individual who has perfected God’s ideal of love. It requires marriage as husband and wife of true love, and then becoming true parents. (404-304, 2003.02.06)
Section 2. Our Course to Meet True Parents
1 We have to search for True Parents and then fulfill our filial duty to those parents. Adam and Eve did not fulfill their duty of filial piety to God. Originally, they were to have had children only after fulfilling that duty. Then they should have taught their children to follow that way. As a result, a tribe was to appear with a God-centered tradition of heart. In order to establish that tribe, God has worked through six thousand years of history. (15-218, 1965.10.10)
Meeting True Parents
2 We may have thought that if we could only meet God, that would be enough. Yet human beings still feel distant from Him. Simply put, because our ancestors could not become true ancestors, we could not have True Parents and we could not become true children. This being so, even if we were victorious over Satan, we could know God only from the perspective of an adopted child. To have a direct relationship with God, we have to attend the True Parents. (5-184, 1959.01.18)
3 What is our ultimate purpose? It is to return to God. It is to experience love directly with God. To do so, we have to meet the True Parent. If you were to meet the True Parent in his youth, that time should not be seen only as one person’s youth, but as a time of historical destiny. It is the time that traverses the age of the adopted child and that of the direct child. Although he is an individual like you and me, he has the unique value of being able to connect the individual to the whole; thus we can become counterparts of the Absolute Being. Therefore, when we attend the True Parents, the value of an individual who began as a servant of servants, or as a servant, or as an adopted child, rises to that of a direct child. Only by attending True Parents can we connect to them and form an eternal bond with them. (36-229, 1970.12.06)
4 In what kind of place would you want to meet the Messiah? Where would you want to meet the bridegroom Jesus? How would you prepare, and how would you want to look when you went before him? These are serious questions. Would Jesus want a bride who welcomed him with a radiant lamp of glory, saying, “You are my bridegroom.” Or would he want a miserable-looking bride weeping uncontrollably in a lonely place like Gethsemane, saying, “My ancestors could not fulfill their responsibility”? How would you answer? Before meeting the bride of glory, the Lord seeks the bride of suffering. You attain the qualification to become the bride by going through the destined way of the bride of suffering. This is the course of restoration. If a child seeks to resolve the sorrow of his or her father, the child must experience a deeper sorrow than that of the father. (14-223, 1964.12.27)
5 In the course of the providence of restoration the individual has hurdles to overcome. Until now, the six-thousand- year history has been to find the one lost Adam. It has taken six thousand years to find one perfect man. At a certain point in time, one individual overcomes all hurdles and attains perfection. Only by overcoming these obstacles can a new eternal bond with God be formed. Today is that time, that age of hope, for which humankind has been longing. Furthermore, the person who has come to the earth as one perfected man is the Savior for whom all people have been waiting. This is our understanding of the Savior, the Messiah. (31-009, 1970.04.08)
6 The True Parents come only once in all eternity. America needs them, Christians need them, Buddhists need them, each country needs them. They are the central figures who are needed by everyone, from the individual to the family, tribe, people and nation. Originally, True Parents should have taken care of all things, but because of the Fall, false parents appeared and all was lost. Therefore, True Parents will come to transform and resolve everything. If you follow True Parents first as an individual, and then as a family, tribe, people, nation, world and cosmos, you will go to heaven. Up until now you believed in the Unification Church and followed True Parents as an individual and you wanted to go to heaven, but that’s not enough. If your family believes, you follow as a family; if all at once the nation believes, you will follow with the nation, and if suddenly the whole world believes, everyone will go to heaven. (259-317, 1994.04.24)
7 Because God has gone forward selflessly, I could not go forward thinking of myself. God has been looking for a person such as me. Without finding such a person on earth, one who could pay indemnity, He could not resolve his sorrow. God’s six-thousand-year history of sorrow dwells in my family. Enemies within and without have persecuted and tried to stop me. God also walked this path. This came about because of our wrongdoing. No one has been able to understand God’s deep heart. In this environment, God struggled to find and raise up the family of His ideal. Now that the True Parents have come forth, you too have to walk the same path. You cannot go this way without resolving the past, and you cannot go this way thinking of your family. You need to know how great my internal suffering was. I should be able to forget my suffering by looking at your families. Blessed families should become a shield around the Parents’ family, and should be able to demonstrate excellence. They should be families that represent a new world. Even now, there should be people who are striving to become those families. (20-045, 1968.04.13)
8 Until now, you have prayed to your Father as if you were in the kingdom of heaven. But if your Father is in a serious and pitiful situation, you should feel that you too are in such a situation. Even though we cannot express this, in our hearts we have to share our Father’s pitiful situation. We should say, “Father, no matter what sorrow I may have, no matter what difficulty I may face, don’t worry.” We have to be able to fulfill our filial duty and comfort Him. Unless such a person appears on the earth, there is no way to solve the problems of history. Even if we stand in an extremely difficult position, we should not desire God’s sympathy. Rather, we should offer God our sympathy. Jesus appeared as the culmination of our eternal bond with God, which has endured throughout the ages of history. But because Jesus could not fulfill God’s Will, the Lord who comes again has to do so. This is the way of the Lord of the Second Advent. This is the path of the True Parents. The True Parents are the result of the hope of history. The True Parents are the historical, conditional, substantial being that God raised up to represent the whole. (31-077, 1970.04.19)
The foundation of faith
9 Through belief in True Parents, the Unification Church has entered the age when we can educate our sons and daughters directly. Therefore if you follow the path of the True Parents, unite in heart and offer devotion, you will naturally become one with them and your conscience will clearly distinguish what is good and bad. You gradually will become brighter. God is not far away. You are object partners of God’s love, sons and daughters who receive God’s love. We should always be aware that God dwells in our conscience. This means we are one body. We need to feel that God is our vertical Father. We should keep this in mind as we lead our daily lives. If you do so, all of your ancestors in heaven will be with you and the realm of the angels will be with you. Through this, representing Adam’s family, you will realize a perfect family and go directly to the kingdom of heaven. (275-163, 1995.12.04)
10 Because the True Parents are the central figures who establish the standard of faith in the foundational period, you need to follow True Parents with absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. The True Parents have explained everything up to the world level, from the ideal of creation through the Fall and restoration. These are not mere words. True Parents have gone this way and built bridges. This is why the completion of the Old Testament Age, the New Testament Age and the Completed Testament Age depends on me. Because the Fall destroyed the object partner that God created through His absolute faith, love and obedience, and because God is looking for that object partner, we cannot help but invest everything with absolute faith and love. (294-213, 1998.07.19)
11 Abraham built an altar where he prayed and earnestly pleaded for Sodom and Gomorrah; his devotion was like a hidden root. Your heart for the area where you are living and the people of that area should be on fire like Abraham’s. Never forget that you are to take over the foundation of faith that Abraham established through his course of hard work, which is like a hidden root. God promised Abraham’s family, who are our spiritual ancestors, that they would be the source of blessings. This expanded as it passed through Isaac and Jacob to Moses, forming a people. Through Jesus it expanded to the world scale. Abraham’s heart of deep faith and loyalty to Heaven created this connection to God. Do you know the hidden secret that allowed Abraham to become our spiritual ancestor? He loved God and faced Heaven alone, and he lived for the earth. Therefore he could establish the foundation for a deep and wide relationship with Heavenly Father. (1-140, 1956.07.01)
The foundation of substance
12 It is never easy to remove fallen nature. Even when trying to overcome long-term habits such as smoking or drinking, we go back and forth repeatedly. Then how can it be easy to remove our deeply rooted fallen nature, passed through our bloodline for many thousands of years? It is impossible by human effort alone. Even if you make God the center of your life, attend Him with absolute faith, and struggle throughout your whole life, it is a difficult battle. There is no point in even attempting this unless you are ready to attend God as the True Parent, with absolute love greater than the love you have for your parents and children. (442-272, 2004.03.12)
13 When God decides a course of action, He always establishes the positions of Cain and Abel. He teaches us through Cain. From this position, we ourselves have to pioneer the way of sorrow, pain and death. Since enduring and pioneering to the end is the way of restoration, even Jesus ended up being crucified on the cross. Through his resurrection the foundation of victory was laid, and the Holy Spirit descended. This was the decisive beginning from which Christianity spread to the world. (14-254, 1965.01.01)
14 When Cain and Abel spheres are united into one nation and sovereignty, God's eternal, ideal kingdom of heaven on earth is established for the first time. The Unification Church has to go forward for that purpose, leading Cain and securing a foothold for the Parents. We need to do this constantly as they go forward. We need to make Cain and Abel families and Cain and Abel tribes. When we have a base that allows us to go forward and unite Cain and Abel nations, on that foundation our Parents can go forward to the world level. (056-356, 1972.05.18)
15 Christianity is the elder brother that remains with us to the end. That being so, unless we become one with this elder brother, there is no way to avoid death. We are facing that fate. What is God’s hope? It is that the Unification Church and Christianity will join hands. This is due to the Principle. The Parents can be recognized only when Cain and Abel become one. Through Cain and Abel, the Parents can be reclaimed. Yet because of the separation and conflict between Cain and Abel, the Parents’ way forward was blocked. Only when Cain and Abel unite and form a tribe on the world level will the Parents emerge. When that unity occurs in the democratic world, the groundwork will be laid for a world-level victory. (60-303, 1972.08.18)
16 Today in the course of restoration, if you want to save Cain, you have to triple your effort. This will not work if you only give orders and do not know how to take orders. This is not the correct attitude. Abel shed his blood. It is a significant fact that he shed his blood to prepare the way for Cain to live. That is the standard for victory, and it is the way a pastor must go. As a pastor, you need to ask yourself whether you have taken an Abel-like responsibility for the members. You have to ask yourself if you have sincerely tried to raise up one person, as if it were your life’s purpose. (070-150, 1974.02.09)
17 Through the victorious foundation of Cain and Abel’s unity, the Parents can appear on the earth. Once they are here, for the first time, we can receive blessings and heaven can start anew. We go to heaven not on our own, but by attending the Parents. We can say that the Parents have already appeared in the Unification Church, but the world-level Cain-Abel indemnity conditions are not complete, and the foundation of the blessed couples is not secure. As an Abel-side family representative, you have to be victorious and receive Heaven’s blessing. The neighbors should bow down in tears and say, “Even if the world is destroyed, your family should be blessed.” You can only stand in the eldest son position if your community bows down to you and reveres your family. (100-315, 1978.10.22)
Section 3. Our Course of Rebirth through True Parents
1 Everyone on earth should be born again through the True Parents. Born again means born anew. When Nicodemus came one night to Jesus and asked him about the meaning of being born again, Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?” (John 3:10) Rebirth means to be born again, to be born anew. What is being born again? A person who was born of false parents is born again through the True Parents. When being reborn and inheriting God’s love, life and lineage, one must have absolutely no relationship to the love, life or lineage of Satan’s world. You have to completely erase them from you mind. (211-307, 1991.01.01)
2 As we do the mission of tribal messiah, we are reborn. The way to be born again opens to us. It is a return to the mother’s womb. On each level, from the family messiah to the tribal, national, world, and cosmic messiahs, we must go through the mother’s womb, the place where God, the Father and Mother are one in love, and come out dyed the color of love. After entering and going to the left, we have to turn around and come out, thus emerging from the womb of the mother of the family. Since we began in a family, when we return to that original standard, settle all things, and emerge, we have no relationship whatsoever to Satan. We have to experience the labor pains of rebirth. In this way, the families that have received the Blessing become true parents. They achieve the position of God’s direct descendants with no relationship to Satan, become true parents and make a new beginning. The family and relatives become a tribe of the same color as True Parents, and can go directly to heaven. Thus the tribe and the people are formed, and when they connect with the nation, the nation and the world can go to heaven as well. Training through the Word 3 What teaching is a true teaching? What will it contain? It will teach about the individual, the family, society, nation and world. If heaven and earth exist, it will teach about heaven and earth; if God exists, it will teach about God. There has to be a way to teach about that one path, that direct path; to instruct people how to take that path and persevere on that path. If God exists, there has to be a way to reach God. If God’s heart exists, there has to be a way to connect with His heart. (274-187, 1995.10.29)
4 You are receiving training so you can defeat and judge the enemy. In order to do that, you need to study my teaching first. Where did this teaching come from? It came from God’s heart at the time of creation and went through the course of restoration. Never forget that fact. Without this teaching you cannot manifest the substantial being; without the substantial being, you cannot express the deep heart. Therefore, when you hear this teaching, you have to listen with your body, with your mind and with your heart. (11-159, 1961.06.01)
5 As you receive training based on my teaching, you should revive the earnest heart that you had long ago when you first followed Father, started on the way of the Will, and longed for the Will. Otherwise you cannot open the door of the kingdom of heaven. You need the ability to see people with a compassionate heart, and you need to live for others. You should long to see members, and long to live with them. If you don’t rekindle this heart you will lose the key that allows you to go to heaven. (22-169, 1969.02.02)
6 You have to be able to reject the way of the world, and go the opposite way. Moreover, you have to set the world right by living a true life. You should pray for the success of each person you meet. You should share the happiness of others. Your heart should be full of hope and gratitude to Heavenly Father; your mind should behold the glory of His light, which gives rise to a heart of peace. You should live each day with a heart that can bring people together. If you do this every day for your whole life, when you go to heaven you will be able to sing of the glory of God. Therefore, if you want to sing the praises of God when you go to heaven, you should teach about His Will and fulfill it while you are on earth. (2-252, 1957.06.09)
Spiritual children
7 You have to reclaim your family. In order to do that, find three spiritual children and then, with those sons and daughters, form a four-position foundation. After forming this external, spiritual four-position foundation, your spiritual children have to support your physical sons and daughters, your direct lineage. What do these three spiritual children represent? They correspond to the three archangels in the spirit world. The three archangels attended Adam and Eve from the time they were created. After you are blessed, your spiritual children should attend your children from the time they are in the womb. Here on earth, they are restoring through indemnity the standard of cooperation that the archangels should have maintained. This should have begun before Adam was created and continued through his birth, maturation and blessing in holy matrimony. Therefore, you absolutely need spiritual children. (21-062, 1968.09.01)
8 In order to become a parent, you have to receive the Blessing. And in order to establish a family, you have to restore Cain. In order to be resurrected as an individual, you have to inspire Cain to surrender to you. Adam is in the position of the parent, but in order for God to be released from His grief, and in order for Adam himself to be redeemed, Cain must surrender. By the principle, in the course of indemnity, restoration occurs only if you restore Cain and Abel, with your spiritual children in the position of the eldest son and your children in the position of Abel. If you don’t do that, you cannot rise to the position of true parent. It is a fundamental rule that to establish the position of true parent, Cain and Abel have to be restored. Cain must surrender to Abel. (23-239, 1969.05.25)
9 Having spiritual children is the highest ideal for which thousands of generations of religious people have hoped. Even Jesus could not reach that. During his final prayer in the garden of Gethsemane, everyone rejected and opposed him. But we have built a victorious family in the realm of resurrection, a family honored by the cosmos. It is a blessed family of that value. It is your responsibility as blessed couples to convey the proper tradition to your children. This is the family responsibility. We must not burden our children with heavy indemnity. (055-105, 1972.04.29)
10 Why do we need spiritual children? We need them in order to find the three archangels, to find Adam’s three sons, and to find Cain, the elder brothers of Satan’s world. It is in order to find the Old Testament Age, the New Testament Age and the Completed Testament Age. The Old Testament Age represents the people, the New Testament Age represents the nation, and the Completed Testament Age represents the world. The Old Testament Age was the period of the redemption of Canaan by the six hundred thousand people of Israel. Jesus took the redemption of Canaan from the national to the world level, and the Unification Church is taking the redemption of Canaan from the world to the cosmic level. The redemption of Canaan is the last gate. The expression of three stages has this meaning. (128-104, 1983.06.05)
11 You eat what you want to eat, wear what you want to wear, and do what you want to do. But based upon those conditions you will be accused. You couples in the prime of life have not been able to raise young people loyal to God. You should be ashamed before God. From now on you should raise up such young people. We should be very grateful that in the Unification Church we have what we call spiritual children. Your spiritual sons and daughters save you couples in the prime of your life. It is for this reason that I tell you to keep going until your bone marrow melts. When you bring tears of hope to the eyes of the young people, on the foundation of that hope, the Messiah can come. (020-096, 1968.04.28)
Rebirth through the Blessing
12 Humanity has to understand the foundation of true love and return true love to God. Only people who have been consecrated, reborn through the True Parents’ Blessing, can appear as the true children of God. A person who has not gone through the Blessing cannot qualify as a first fruit. (399-050, 2002.12.18)
13 The Blessing ceremony engrafts people to the lineage of God and cuts them off from the lineage of Satan. It starts with the baby in the womb. The children of each blessed family must receive holy wine in a conditional rebirth ceremony. In that way they are born again. The rebirth ceremony actually is to be done in the womb. The mother in a blessed family is to do that, too, and it is the same for every woman who has not been blessed. They come to stand in the same position as Mother. Drinking the holy wine is the condition. In this way, everyone is able to inherit the perfect lineage of True Parents. (289-060, 1997.12.30)
14 We must have everyone participate in the Blessing, not excluding even one person. One needs to have the rebirth ceremony when in the womb, the resurrection ceremony after kindergarten, and then the Blessing ceremony, which is the eternal life ceremony. Having set the goal of eradicating sin from the bloodline, our responsibility is to go forward representing God, True Parents and Jesus. We have established the messiah on the levels of the tribe, the nation and the world, and the kingship on the levels of the family, tribe, nation, world and cosmos. If you cannot accomplish these things in your family, you need to unite with the world family. If you were unfilial in your family, even if you were a traitor to your family, by going forward as a loyal citizen of the world, you are freed from all this. We need to sweep away such contradictions in our environment, step by step, and create a higher level foundation to progress toward the future. This is the responsibility of the True Parents and the Heavenly Parent. (299-044, 1999.02.01)
Section 4. Our Path of Growth by Following True Parents
1 The ceremony to change the lineage is the ritual that brings together the lives of the Mother and the Father. By going through this process, you are separated from Satan’s world. You must be born again through True Parents; otherwise, it is impossible for you to receive the marriage Blessing from True Parents. You cannot be given the marriage Blessing unless you are reborn and affirm your rebirth by standing before God as a mature man or woman who has inherited His realm of heart and received the right of inheritance. (183-089, 1988.10.29)
Let us follow and emulate True Parents
2 We do not walk this path for our own sake, but because Heavenly Father went this way. We must follow His path and strive to be like Him. He has been laying the vertical foundation in history, upon which to set the standard of history horizontally. We should do the same. We have to recover the Will so that God will be able to govern the world centering on the family. Hence, with a heart of concern, a heart to take responsibility and to act, we have to indemnify in our time the mistakes our ancestors made and bring the day of victory. We must return everything to the Father and the True Parents and proclaim that it is theirs. After we return everything to the Father and True Parents, the day will come when True Parents can say to us, “This is yours,” and give everything back to us. Only then will we complete the entire providence. That will be the final day of glorious victory in heaven and on earth. With this clear understanding you must go forward, with a feeling of concern and sense of responsibility, and fight in God’s stead until you fulfill His Will. (152-196, 1963.05.10)
3 God is the perfect subject partner. He created human beings to be His object partners of absolute value, and we are to become His perfect object partners. The way to do this is by emulating True Parents, who already stand in that position. Then we can become the owners of love in true ideal families. Thereupon God, in His absolute position, can secure us as His absolute partners and be liberated. This is our responsibility. (461-167, 2004.07.21)
4 God is our Father, whose vertical love, life and lineage center on true love. Simply speaking, He is the Father of true love. He is the vertical Father. If human beings had not fallen, we would have been the partners of love to our vertical Parent. Our horizontal true love, true life and true lineage would have been united totally with God at a ninety-degree angle. Then we would have reached the position of parents in total union with God. Thus from the vertical and horizontal harmony between God’s life, love and lineage and Adam and Eve’s love, life and lineage, we would have been born in the midst of utmost joy and happiness. If that had happened, our minds would be eternally in the vertical position, like God, and our bodies would be aligned, like those of Adam and Eve, in accordance with their tradition, True Parents’ standard, in a ninety-degree relationship. We would be resonating with God. (197-176, 1990.01.13)
5 What is the conscience? It is the internal self, which originated from the God of vertical true love and resembles Him. That is why we say the conscience is upright. It is vertical. It dwells in the inner place where we inherit God’s love, life and lineage. On the other hand, the body is our external self, which we inherited from the bodies of our horizontal true parents. Within us is the internal and external harmony of original love, original life and original lineage. (197-176, 1990.01.13)
6 The human body resembles Adam and Eve, the parents of humankind, and is of their lineage. The human mind resembles the vertical Parent, and is of His lineage. Yet the two of them fight. Why do they fight? It is because something went wrong with their roots. In order for the mind and body to be in harmony, we need absolute faith in God. Before you pray, declare to Heaven, “God is my vertical Father.” Live or die, you have to arrive at the perpendicular position that is centered on God’s love. When you have secured that position, there are no shadows. There is no need for you to pursue the way of spiritual discipline. The reason we need to cultivate our spirituality is because we have shadows within us. (199-282, 1990.02.20)
7 We must resemble God. We must be God-like. Once we are in that state, since God and we are alike, the plus and the minus will unite automatically and explode in all directions. Suppose you had been born from the unified love of the vertical Parent and the horizontal parents. Your mind would have completely inherited God’s love and life, and your flesh and blood would also have been infused with that love. Also, you would have inherited the love, life and lineage of True Parents, who are the perfect, ideal partners of God. The internal God and the external God would have been united as one within you. True love unites God’s mind and body. Likewise, had we been born at the standard of oneness between the internal, vertical True Parent and the external, horizontal true parents of true love, our mind and body would have become one. They would have become one because we would have been in the realm of absolute true love. (201-048, 1990.02.28)
8 The True Parents are the Messiah. As their true children, we are to resemble the Messiah. As tribal messiahs, you should lead your life centering on me, True Father. If you do not, it will be a big problem for you. In the spirit world I will be the standard by which God will render His judgment. If I score 100, you must also score 100. It is a principle that parents want their children to be better than them, so you should do at least this much. (244-190, 1993.02.07)
9 I am not to be the only True Parent; you must become true parents as well. You all must do this. If I am a big tree, you must be like the cells of that tree. To resemble Father, who is a big tree, you must become the seeds. You have to resemble the root. (259-319, 1994.04.24)
10 Each of us as an individual has to resemble God. Thus we have to re-create ourselves. This requires that we walk a path amid a sea of suffering. We need to go through the war zones of history, where the mind and body have no time to rest. It is the path our ancestors had to take and which our descendants, who are linked to the future, will have to take. We may have thought we knew this way of resentment, born of bitter suffering, but we never really knew it. Nonetheless, now that we have come to know it, we must go this way. Human beings lost our authority as the lords of creation, by which we were to have governed the archangel. The one who comes to recover our authority and our original position is the Savior, Messiah and True Parent. The True Parents gather all families and all nations throughout the world and pave the way for us to reach that same position by conducting the Blessing ceremony, through which we all become blessed families. (284-102, 1997.04.16)
Representatives of True Parents
11 We are the representatives of True Parents. Every man is Father’s second self and every woman is Mother’s second self. In other words, since God exists as the harmonious subject partner with the dual characteristics of masculinity and femininity, men are born representing the masculinity of God and women are born representing the femininity of God. Reflecting the original duality, as individuals we are branches of True Parents’ body from the moment of our birth. Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches,” (John. 15:5) meaning that men are branches of Father’s body and women are branches of Mother’s body. Therefore as a couple, if you can become Father’s second self and Mother’s second self from God’s viewpoint, then no matter how far apart you may be, you will be one in God’s love. A person who lives understanding God’s circumstances and following God’s Will is naturally connected to God’s heart. (11-063, 1961.01.01)
12 If you take responsibility on behalf of God, who is the Creator, Father and True Owner, then wherever you go, heaven and earth will help you. Hence you should carry your burden on behalf of the Absolute Being, Father and Owner. If you go forward taking such responsibility, you will never be forsaken. Today, people are looking for those who can take responsibility for their own actions, their lives and their hearts. A society with such responsible people would be an ideal society. Hence, if you take responsibility and go forward at the risk of your life, many companions will come to you. Again I am telling you, when you go out to your mission area, you should be willing to shoulder three responsibilities: that of the Creator who gave us life, that of the Parent, and that of the Owner. If you do not, you can never become a representative of the Absolute Being, True Parent and True Owner. You will be an outcast, dwelling apart from the world. So if you cannot take that responsibility, you should at least serve and attend God with absolute faith. (11-139, 1961.04.07)
13 We have no time to rest. You have to understand how the structure of restoration will expand centered on me and on my family. You must follow that formula and go through resurrection on the levels of the individual, family, tribe, and so on, up to the world level. This will encompass the world to the summit of restoration. You have to follow this formula just as I have. If you do so, not only will you be my representative, that of True Parents and God, you will also be a representative ideal couple in the ideal world. (52-292, 1972.01.09)
14 The Unification Church calls its members family members and says they are sons and daughters who attend True Parents. But as soon as they are brought together as husbands and wives, I separate them and send them out into the world. Right after they are married, they are separated and dispatched to the four corners of the earth—east, west, north and south. If they love God more than their own spouse through all of this, they will end up heroes and heroines of true love in heart. Suppose you could not see your beloved one again on earth. Then you would be able to find your beloved in the spirit world. How amazing this is! There, your spouse will attend you. Your parents as well as your sons and daughters will attend you, giving you even greater love than you would have experienced while living on earth. If you are such a person, you will become the subject partner of true love. You will become God’s perfect representative, embodying His very ideal. (104-062, 1979.03.28)
15 To appear as True Parents’ representative, you have to become True Father’s second self or True Mother’s second self and become someone who can substantiate the Heavenly Father’s situation and heart. You have come as the substance of Heavenly Father’s hope, circumstances and heart, the heart that He has carried for six thousand years. Hence you have to make His hope your hope, His circumstances your circumstances, and His heart your heart. In relation to heaven, you need to walk the path to become a sacrificial offering on earth in front of your Father. You must take responsibility for this. (150-209, 1961.01.09)
16 What is the hope of human beings? It is to become true parents who can raise children who are free from the persecution of Satan’s world and able to go directly to the kingdom of heaven. However, that has not been fulfilled. Hence our hope is to become True Parents’ representatives and then give birth to true sons and daughters who can go directly to the kingdom of heaven. You all would like to give birth to good children, right? You probably want to give birth to the best children in the world. So far you have been unable to realize that. The question is how to make that happen. Another problem is that the archangel failed to raise Adam and Eve in a way befitting God’s son and daughter. Hence, the question is how we can educate God’s sons and daughters as people who are needed by God. Furthermore, all of you want to work hard and become a president who can represent your country, or at least his representative, or the head of a government administration office, or the CEO of a company. That is, you want to become a true owner. This is also one of the three great hopes. The first of these is to be a true parent; the next is to be a true teacher, and then a true owner. You want to be successful and become a state governor or even the president of the United States. However, you first have to become the owner of your own home. You have to stand in the position of an owner who can pass on the tradition to your family, and thus represent your ancestors and even God. (205-020, 1990.07.15)
Section 5. Our Way to Perfection through True Parents
1 God, True Parents, and each of us are absolutely necessary to the completion of restoration. The first human ancestors should have become True Parents centered on God, but they fell. Now, in order to overcome the motivation behind the Fall, the three must find a meeting point. God’s Will, True Parents’ will and our will must concur. The purpose of humankind is fulfilled when the Lord of the Second Advent comes as the Parent of humankind, reaches the standard of a perfected human being, and unites humankind with God’s purpose of creation. Then, through the unity of the parents and the children, the original garden of God’s Will is established. When the parents and children forge an eternal, unbreakable family bond in that place, they will accomplish God’s Will for the first time. (24-128, 1969.07.20)
2 If Adam and Eve had reached perfection through true love, they would have fulfilled God’s desire to have a substantial body. If they had perfected themselves as a true couple, they would have completed God’s absolute ideal of love. Furthermore, If Adam and Eve had had good children and thus become True Parents, God would have substantially settled as the eternal Parent of humankind. Moreover, the emergence of generations of descendants through that lineage would have fulfilled God’s desire to have an infinite number of citizens of the kingdom of heaven in the spirit world. (283-176, 1997.04.12)
Building relationships of heart
3 God has advanced history in two ways, one positive and the other negative, but now they have to merge. The alpha and the omega have to merge and reach a conclusion. History was meant to begin with True Parents, but humanity, as the children of false parents, lost the foundation upon which True Parents could emerge. Therefore we have to return to God by laying the groundwork for the True Parents to appear. When this happens, the garden of peace will begin. Unless we establish a relationship of heart with God, we cannot become His sons and daughters. (10-144, 1960.09.18)
4 Let us consider our value and the significance of having been able to attend the True Parents, who represent God’s six thousand years of hope and longing. How precious it is to go forward as children of True Parents. Even a single hair on your head or one of your fingers is something historic; they belong both to the current age and to the future. As the ancestors of a new age, you stand in a solemn position. (11-158, 1961.06.01)
5 You have to become completely one with God’s love and True Parents’ love. At that stage your mind and body are one through true love, and you and your spouse are united. You couples must become one with True Parents and then become one with God. This is how the realm of three generations can be realized. Three generations of couples, with the heart of true love, embody God’s love and True Parents’ love and love each other faithfully. Real love can take root for the first time in human history only when that is accomplished. We have to progress through these stages: we unite our mind and body, we love our husband or wife completely, and we become one with the perfect love of God and True Parents. (220-083, 1992.10.15)
6 You have to find your original homeland and nation, and seek the eternal kingdom of heaven on earth. Through your love, you have to recover everything that Adam lost. Therefore, you need to shed tears with a heart even greater than God’s when He created the universe. Meet your relatives and shed tears for them. Embrace the mountains and streams of your hometown and weep for them. Hope that as a consequence of your original heart, the buds of love will sprout, flowers will blossom in the garden of love, and the fruits of love will be borne. (406-309, 2003.03.12)
7 The Fall resulted in the loss of true love, true life and true lineage. Who lost them? Adam and Eve, who should have perfected them, lost all three. What does it mean to perfect them? It means Adam and Eve should have become completely one with God’s love, God’s life and God’s lineage. There is no father-son bond without a blood relationship. God’s family does not come into being. (492-074, 2005.04.06)
8 True love cannot be dissolved. It endures through all time. It remains constant eternally. Every human being seeks and desires true love. Even in hell, parents think about their sons and daughters. Even if parents in hell find out that their sons and daughters are in hell, they shed tears not because of their own suffering, but to pray for their children. (495-197, 2005.05.09)
9 The relationship of cause and effect, subject and object, is the eternal, unchangeable, absolute principle at the center of the cosmos. Observing this principle in human society, we find that the core relationships are those of parent and child, and husband and wife. The first is a vertical relationship between subject and object partners, the second is a horizontal relationship. If two people unite vertically as subject and object partners, together they become a subject partner in a relationship at a higher level. Two who unite horizontally can become an object partner in a new relationship. Through harmonious give and take, all four become one and enter a three-dimensional realm. They enter a powerful state of being through this harmonious, spherical motion, with love at its center. This is the model for the ideal family, the basic unit of human society. Through this, it is clear that love has the greatest value. (089-226, 1976.11.27)
10 In order to continue our existence on earth while attending the central ancestor of humanity, what do we need first? The parent-child relationship. Whether you are born a man or a woman, your first relationship is that of parent and child. Why is this so? It is because that is the way the universe is arranged. The parent-child relationship descends vertically; without it there would be no vertical connection at all. The vertical connection of the parent and child leads to life. The life of the father and the mother and their lineage is tied together. Parent-child relationships do not just happen. They must be linked by lineage. (191-011, 1989.06.24)
11 The word for cosmos, cheonju (天宙), is composed of two characters. The first is cheon (天), which is a combination of two (二) and people (人). Then there is ju (宙), which signifies house, and this appears also in the word for universe, wooju. Thus, cheonju, the cosmos, means a family with heaven at its center, a family sustained by heavenly fortune. The Creator, who is the vertical True Parent, connects with the family that is sustained by heavenly fortune. The vertical Creator and the horizontal family connect at a ninety- degree angle, to form a central point of resonance. The vertical True Parent and the horizontal true parents are interwoven. The relationship is of the Creator and created children, of Parent and child. As in the family, this relationship is not manifested only vertically. The horizontal and vertical relationships merge. (304-106, 1999.09.10)
Accomplishing the purpose of creation
12 What could be God’s wish? God’s wish is to find true human beings, a true man and a true woman. God cannot help but wish to find them. What is the greatest wish of a person of faith? In Unification Church terms, such a person’s greatest wish is to become perfect. A perfected person is a true person. The purpose behind God’s providence of salvation has been to encourage the emergence of a perfected person, a true person. Unfortunately, God has been unable to meet a true man and a true woman, due to the Fall. Therefore, the course of restoration is necessary. According to the Principle of Creation, the man was created first. God therefore must first find a true man. His intention in commencing the providence of salvation was to fulfill His original Will and hope after finding a true man. (68-305, 1973.08.05)
13 People of faith have been unaware of God’s Will to fulfill the ideal of creation based on His love. The accomplishment of God’s Will, the ideal of creation, entails establishing the four- position foundation. What happens when the four-position foundation is accomplished? Heaven and earth finally settle into their proper positions. Heaven is like an upper axis and the earth is like a lower axis. With God’s love at the center, they form one realm. At the point of intersection, children are born with a connection to both dimensions, which develop in harmony as they grow, progressing toward a central axis. The four-position foundation revolves around the center and forms the ideal sphere of love. (170-063, 1987.11.08)
14 Those who lead spiritual lives often find their object partners in the world of ideas, which provide them comfort. Despite being fallen, every human being has an inner connection to his or her original, eternal nature. Every person possesses elements of the ideal of creation within his or her heart. Therefore human beings have the capacity to overcome their sin, become perfect, achieve union with God, and live infinitely happy lives. The goal of our prayers is to awaken that inner nature and make it the core of our thinking. By doing this and remaining faithful to God in all that you see, hear and feel, you will be able to bow to God, offer Him glory and sing his praises. Nonetheless, although people today want to enter this state of mind, no one is making serious efforts to attain it. No one truly wants to find and cultivate his or her original nature. (2-193, 1957.05.19)
CHAPTER 4 The Believer’s Path in Relation to True Parents’ Course
Section 1. Our Life Mission
1 God is calling us to a hopeful future. Those who receive that call follow the path of destiny and not the path of fortune. The path of fortune can change, but the path of destiny cannot. Can you change who your father is or who your siblings are? No, you cannot. They are part of your destiny. God desires to reach and settle in the place that heavenly fortune has determined. History has been developing centered on the path to that place. The starting point of this secure settlement is the True Parents. God has already determined our destiny, which is to become true children with the True Parents at the center. That destiny cannot be changed. (203-186, 1990.06.24)
God's call
2 People hope with all their heart, mind and body that they might finally enter God’s direct dominion. Today God has given us not only the mission to work toward realizing this hope and purpose; He is calling us to complete it. To do so, we must restore God’s rightful dominion as Lord over us and the creation. We should also praise and thank God for blessing us with His governance. The responsibility to restore God’s rightful dominion does not rest with the creation or with the angels in heaven; it is we who must now fulfill that. (1-119, 1956.06.27)
3 God seeks after each and every one of us. Through us He desires to recover the family, the society, and to expand His domain over the world. However, the path to this goal is still obstructed. Throughout the course of providential history, Heaven came down to earth to find each one of us. Now we as individuals must return to Heaven, but our way is blocked. People have sought to realize goodness, denying worldly things and cutting themselves off from the world. They have striven to find what is original, to recover what has been lost and to bring it back to God. Yet they had to confront their own limitations and have faced an impassable threshold. You should feel God’s anguish over this history; you should empathize with Jesus’ sorrowful heart. You need to feel God's heart to your very core. During the last six thousand years, He has been going through all manner of suffering and grief to personally find you. (004-059, 1958.03.02)
4 Even though your field of work may be limited, most important is who is directing your labor. You must work with the conviction that God Himself has called you for the sake of the nation or the world. Although your environment may restrict you, you should believe that you work for the sake of the nation or the world. Even though you are only one person, you ought to work with that conviction. When you receive a work order, the results will vary depending on for whom you are working. (30-177, 1970.03.22)
5 The path of faith is not easy. Anyone can be called by God, but it is extremely difficult to follow His call. God does not walk behind us; He is always ahead of us. You cannot imagine how fast He moves. He surges so far ahead we can hardly keep pace. Therefore it is hard to come up with a long-term strategy or plan in accord with the providence of restoration. God’s providence moves by leaps and bounds. On the basis of our investment of indemnity, it advances from the individual to the family, to the tribe, and so on. It leaps ahead from stage to stage rather than advancing through a steady numerical progression. Therefore if you try to fit your work for God’s providence into an annual plan, or a plan based on any other particular time period, you will find yourself frustrated and will fall behind. Considering this, you need to advance on the path of the Will with an earnest heart. You need to constantly adjust your relationship with God, remaining a minus to His plus. You have to find your proper position in the providence and, as you move along, you must adjust to the providential time. However, knowing the proper timing and when to take a particular action is exceedingly difficult. (040-080, 1971.01.24)
6 You are called for the sake of God and the world. Therefore you should consecrate yourself and apply the knowledge you gained through your education. All of you are commissioned to speak on God’s behalf in your own communities, to convey God’s love and hope to your neighbors, and to help people work for God and humanity. Utilize your education in your endeavors to awaken the congregations in churches and temples and mobilize them to build a world of peace and freedom with God at the center. (133-273, 1984.08.13)
7 God called me to save America. When I actually arrived there, you can imagine how earnest and anxious I was. Likewise, when those of you who are here in Korea receive a direction from me, unless you are as earnest as I was when I left Seoul to save America, you can never become my partners in heart. My heart is governed by the principle of self-denial; it does not follow the principle of self-centeredness. (147-328, 1986.10.01)
8 I have progressed this far despite severe opposition. Such is the path of restoration; such is the history of restoration in the Unification Church to this day. Therefore do not lose your original spirit of loyalty, but follow me all the way, from the individual level all the way to the world level. When you fulfill all your responsibilities before God, He will give you His seal of approval. God will bless you only when He recognizes you as having accomplished your responsibility. You have to remain faithful until you are notified about that blessing. Only then will you advance and share the same realm with me. If you move forward focusing on me, determined to risk even your life on the individual level, the family level and eventually the world level, you will benefit by resembling me and standing in the same position as me. (164-116, 1987.05.05)
9 When God summons us, we have no right to choose the responsibility we are to assume. Being summoned means that if we are going east and He calls us to go west, we turn around and go west. Simply because we live in the east does not mean we should take directions from those living in the east. We need to take our directions from God, the center of all beings, who represents the standard that is everyone’s hope. The person whom God calls must take on the role of His partner and the partner of all things. If God does not call us, we can fulfill our personal responsibility by going in just one direction. However, once He calls us, He will give us missions to go in many directions, even encompassing the whole world. God called me, your teacher, to represent every individual and to connect everybody to Him, the central figure of the world. I will be able to accomplish my mission only when I am qualified to deal with every aspect of life and every direction—east, west, north and south, plus vertical and horizontal. (188-255, 1989.03.01)
10 God needs people for various stages: individual, family, tribe, people and nation. So there must be a “chosen people,” but what does that mean? It means a people called by God. They are to build the chosen nation, which means a nation called by God. When that chosen nation fulfills God’s Will, God’s chosen world will come about. Once His Will is accomplished, everyone and everything will return to God and become one. Thus, God is called the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. (188-272, 1989.03.01)
11 God is the True Parent of all parents. He is our True Parent, our Heavenly Parent, the King of true families, true nations and the true world. We need to usher in the era of everlasting peace and prosperity in which all people serve and attend Him. There is that Korean song that begins, “Moon, moon, oh bright moon, the moon with which the poet Lee Tae-baek used to play” As the words of the song suggest, our hope is that all humankind will attend the True Parents here on earth for thousands of years. Please understand that each individual’s mission and purpose in the Unification Church is to fulfill this hope. (277-090, 1996.03.31)
12 As leaders whom God has called for the sake of His Will, you must fulfill the responsibilities you are asked to shoulder. The Korean people have to fulfill their calling as Koreans, to become messiahs for the sake of the world. The Korean word so-myeong, contains the Chinese character so (召), which means to call, and myeong (命), which means to receive an order. This “call to receive an order” resembles a marching order in the army. You need to fulfill the mission you are called to with that same unhesitating spirit. (600-286, 2008.11.05)
Mission consciousness
13 You cannot imagine how difficult it was for me to climb over each hill in the course of the providence. If anyone says even one word about this, I could weep for a hundred or a thousand years, even after going to the spirit world. So many painful and sorrowful situations have pierced my heart. God wept over Adam and Eve. Yet when I go before God and say, “Here am I, Sun Myung Moon,” I would wish to see God shedding tears of joy over the return of His son. God’s heart has been filled with unfathomable pain and suffering. Therefore I cannot die until I hear God’s own voice say, “Welcome!” as He runs down a stairway of a hundred thousand steps as if He is flying, wraps His arms around me, then climbs back up the forever-long stairway to return to His throne, carrying me in His arms and announcing, “My Will has been accomplished! Aju!” Therefore I can only continue fulfilling the Will on the path of the ironclad Principle that True Parents are destined to walk. In your own path of life as well, you need to establish such a memorable standard as you prepare, during your lifetime on earth, the gift that you will offer to God. Only then can you come close to the Heavenly Parent, because you will be able to claim the right of inheritance enabling you to live with Him and be happy together. Moreover, then you can be given authority in the kingdom of heaven. Please understand this clearly, and walk the path of accepting responsibility throughout your life. (404-162, 2003.01.31)
14 You need to have a consciousness, that is, an awareness, of yourself, your environment, your nation and the world. Based on a new worldview and with your new awareness, you can clear up and overcome everything and establish Abel’s position. Once you have done that, you have to win over Cain, and together you need to attend God. By doing so, you can enter the kingdom of heaven, and you become one who is building Heaven’s family, nation and world, that is, the kingdom of heaven. Therefore your awareness is the starting point of restoration. (30-067, 1970.03.15)
15 Each of us has to recognize that we are the fruit of historical sins. The same applies to our tribe, and we can view the nations of today’s world as extensions of tribes. All ethnic peoples stem from tribes that have persisted for thousands of generations. Looking at a nation’s lines of descent, we find that they are the extensions of tribes. Each of us is a sin- fill descendant of our people and our nation. Therefore we have to take responsibility for our nation’s sins. We need to be willing to pay the price of sin that our nation—our people—is supposed to pay. Each of us ought to determine that we will pay the price for the sins of the world and for the sins of the present time. This is how Jesus felt when he came as the Messiah. Therefore each of us has to be extremely serious and reach the level of resolve such that we feel that “if I live, the world will live, and if I die, the world will die.” (68-318, 1973.08.05)
16 None of you has truly been aware of your real self. Only after you came to know the Will did you begin consciously knocking on the door of your personality. Each of you needs to know clearly that you sprang from past ages and that you are called to build the future. You may think you became aware of this on your own. However, God guided you to realize this. Also, countless saints and sages shed their blood to bring you where you are today, and they are working even now behind the scenes, hoping you will increasingly develop this consciousness. Therefore you need to feel as if you personally have negatively impacted history, as well as the present, and that you might do the same in the future as well. You should carry on your shoulders the bitter, historical sorrow of Adam and Eve that is embedded in our past. With that awareness, please understand that you must take responsibility for the present and for the future. (11-150, 1961.05.13)
17 Why has the Unification Church appeared in this world? It is to show the way of repentance. We need to show people how to repent for their sins. To do that, what do we need to know? The teaching that one can be saved through faith already exists. But people must understand that they represent the world. Men and women must have this awareness. Please understand that you are to become historical sacrificial offerings and victorious leaders of this age. Since Jesus the Messiah was nailed to the cross, you must have the determination to throw your life into your mission and offer indemnity for his death. He will then sympathize with you, thereby allowing you to participate in the glory of resurrection. That is the Principle. Otherwise no one would be able to enter the kingdom of heaven. (68-330, 1973.08.05)
18 The Fall started when Adam and Eve began to think centered on themselves. In order to reverse this through indemnity, we must not be self-centered, but must put God’s family first. From that family emerges a new, ideal world. The obstacle to accomplishing this is our bloodline. Humanity has not known about this until I thoroughly explained it, for the first time in history. This knowledge cannot be found in the realm of self- centered existence. You must turn things upside down within yourself by creating an inner revolution, so that a new kind of family can emerge, focusing on the new True Parents. That family will differ from the families that stem from the Fall, from which developed the perspective of putting oneself first. When we act based on this new family’s public mindset, we do not experience a struggle between mind and body. (440-187, 2004.03.01)
A life for the salvation of humanity
19 What is religion’s final objective? Of course we know that religious believers seek personal salvation, but we go one step further and seek the salvation of the family. In order to liberate human beings living under evil sovereignty amid sin and injustice, we must first recover the family. We must find the family that, in the true sense, can represent everyone in history, in the present age and in the future. That family has to set up the standard that all families can follow. It will be the foundation upon which all humankind can rejoice together. Without this family there can be no world peace. Even families that look good on the outside can be in shambles internally. (023-011, 1969.05.11)
20 No matter how hard typhoons may blow, no matter how many mountains of trials and tribulations loom before you, if you ride on a steed of love, no one can stop you. No one will be able to block you on your path. No force can obstruct parents’ love for their children. No means or methods can stop them. Nothing can stop a wife from loving her husband or a husband from loving his wife. That is what makes love supreme. No power can stop a patriot’s march of love for his country. His love cannot be bought or sold. The path of a holy son or daughter who clears the way for the heavenly law to save humanity, out of love, cannot be blocked. (175-205, 1988.04.17)
21 God established the Unification Church in order to halt the decay of this world. Therefore the Unification Church needs to be equipped with all the necessary tools. In this secular world people are in despair, wandering about without a purpose, facing a dreadful and dismal environment. We need to confront this reality by going the opposite way from the downward path along which humankind is hurtling. Otherwise God’s entire providence of salvation may be impeded. (266-304, 1995.01.01)
22 I am working to give life to the world, to heaven and earth. While I take responsibility for heaven and earth, all of you should save your own families and clans. I urge you to save your brothers and sisters and your own mother and father. In addition, you are responsible to subjugate the archangel. Then five generations, from your grandparents to your grandchildren, must unite and follow the True Parents, taking responsibility to recover the heavenly kingdom. Together, you all are to bring the nation and everything back to God. (407-352, 2003.05.20)
23 God’s resolute work of salvation throughout history has been to build one world of heart throughout the vast universe. You need to consider to what extent you can be useful in the process and work of salvation. For the purpose of salvation, God needs to employ all creation as His material, including all humanity and even the billions of believers in the spirit world. Yet the question is you. When you act, how will the creation respond to you? How many people out of all humanity will respond to you? How many people among the billions of believers in the spirit world will respond? When you cry out here on earth, how far into the universe do the vibrations of your heart resonate? Your value will be determined by the measure of its response. Jesus’ death resounded in heaven and throughout the entire universe. That response proved that Jesus is the Savior. He is the Savior because of his heart. (9-184, 1960.05.08)
24 It should not be your focus every day to satisfy your personal desires. Rather, you need to lead a life of faith, serving others and sacrificing yourself for a higher purpose. Thereby you should come close to the standard of Jesus’ heart. He toiled so hard, concerned only for God’s Will and for humankind. From there you have to progress to become God’s true child and comfort Him, who has been working unceasingly up to the present with a broken heart. You should feel indignant when you witness unrighteousness. With the heart of God, who wants to give more and more, you need to be willing to go to the ends of the earth to pursue His kingdom, establish it and secure His righteousness. You should also be able to comfort the heart of God, who has been toiling to save humanity in the midst of such sorrow. (3-131, 1957.10.13)
25 God has been striving endlessly to save humankind through His providence. Even though we human beings are fallen, He does not abandon us. Although we fell prey to sin and evil, who is it that rescues us, lives for us and endeavors to guide us to the land of blessing? It is not our own parents, it is not our spouse or our children, even though they love us. It is not our nation, nor is it any of the saints and sages. It is none other than God. (5-214, 1959.02.01)
26 We absolutely have to recover the original garden that has nothing to do with the Fall. Because we are fallen human beings, we need to find the original state that existed before the Fall. We lost God; therefore we must find Him. We lost the original True Parents of humankind; therefore we must find the new True Parents. We must find and occupy the garden of peace where we can live as sons and daughters with God, centered on the ideal of True Parents. Since we have to accomplish these tasks, the term “providence of salvation” presents a fresh challenge to us. (3-047, 1957.09.22)
27 God is carrying out His providence to save humankind. He cannot save the world while standing back as an idle spectator, simply observing all the pain on earth. Therefore He engages the fallen world as if all the pain that humanity experiences is His own. He deals with humanity directly in the realm of their pain, taking responsibility for it. Without God’s direct involvement, humanity cannot receive salvation. Therefore He has been fighting alongside people on the path of their sad and tragic history. (14-047, 1964.05.03)
28 We lost God, our Parent. Although we were born from our natural parents, we were born unable to receive all of the Parent’s love, which is truly genuine, profound, elevated and precious. We have not been able to live with Him as our Parent. Likewise God, in the position of the Parent, lost His children. Therefore His expectations for us were never fulfilled. He has been dealing with this situation ever since, working in the background of human affairs throughout the long span of history to help us, His children, fulfill our purpose. This is God’s providence of salvation. (22-075, 1969.01.26)
29 We need to be saved. We need to heal the wounds accumulated through our historical struggles. Only then can we find everlasting life and be embraced in the bosom of God’s love. Even though our families, the society, the nation and the world are opposing us, we have to overcome and move forward as heavenly soldiers. We have to assume Jesus’ position, holding on only to God’s Will, and advance to save all people, both from the past and in the present, who dwell in the realm of death. (4-082, 1958.03.09)
30 In this world, nothing can be accomplished without unwavering determination. We go to battle to fight for righteousness. Satan’s natural disposition is to want to be exalted, but we, on the contrary, must humble ourselves in order to fight him, both with our bodies and our love. We should be focused on a single target. If we shoot out like a cannonball but our eyes, ears and hands are looking and flailing about in different directions, we are bound to miss our target. If we want to win the battle, we cannot hold back. God is prepared to make any sacrifice, under any circumstances, to save humankind. This is Heaven’s strategy. You need to vindicate God by protecting the sacrificial altars stained with the blood of your ancestors. (017-223, 1967.01.01)
Section 2. A Life of Accomplishment
1 God has been searching for His sons and daughters and for the lost creation, struggling to recover the world of creation’s original nature. God yearns to feel eternal joy by bequeathing this great, eternal and sacred achievement to the owner of the ideal world. You need to know that, despite His sorrow, God longs to bless us all the more. Therefore you should be able to say to Him, “We are new sons and daughters in front of the Will. Please let us stand as true families and become Your glorious incarnations who, as true husbands and wives with true children, can govern all creation.” You have to fulfill the mission of serving the True Parents by becoming true children with the right to eternal glory given by God. You need to let the True Parents rest, and then, together with the True Parents, all of us should let God rest. When this happens, the absolute, good God can finally reign over us as our Father, and over the whole world as King. The kingdom of heaven will be realized on earth. (12-282, 1963.07.26)
Revealing providential secrets
2 Rebekah, standing in Eve’s position, made it possible for her two sons Esau and Jacob to unite, and therefore to resurrect her family’s position on God’s side. Jacob restored the right of the eldest son, and also restored the family that was lost in the Garden of Eden. When Jacob and Esau fought in Rebekah’s womb, Rebekah prayed to God and asked, “Why are these two fighting?” God answered dearly, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples born of you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the elder shall serve the younger.” (Gen. 25:23) This meant that the eldest son would descend and the second son would rise. At that point in history, however, the reclamation of the right of the eldest son still remained conceptual. Tamar faced a similar situation. When she was pregnant, her twins Perez and Zerah were fighting in her womb just before their birth. “While she was in labor, one put out a hand; and the midwife took and bound on his hand a crimson thread, saying, ‘This came out first.’ But just then he drew back his hand, and out came his brother; and she said, ‘What a breach you have made for yourself!’ Therefore he was named Perez.” (Gen. 38:28-29) In this case Perez, still in the womb, reversed the original birth order by which he was the second son, thereby reclaiming the lost position of the eldest son and gaining the right to become an ancestor of King David. God’s response to Rebekah’s prayer is related to the process of restoration. For more than four thousand years until the present day, this process has been a mystery. Only God and Satan knew the answer. Satan is the false parent. God’s hope is the True Parents. The True Parents are the original, true owners of the family desired by God in the Garden of Eden. Today the True Parents have unraveled the restoration mystery. God works through the second son in order to fulfill the history of restoration, and He even goes inside the womb to do so. God’s lineage cannot be established in any other way. (277-257, 1996.04.18)
3 Jesus came as the Messiah and with the name of the True Parent, but he was killed; therefore he must come again. He has now come for the second time to work toward reclaiming ownership. I came in accordance with the providential age and resolved all the essential mysteries of nature, the mysteries of God, the secret crimes hidden by Satan, and all the mysteries of history and the philosophers. All who know of this cannot deny it is true. Anyone with an education knows that no matter what your social status, if you graduated from elementary school you are an elementary school graduate, and if you graduated from middle or high school you are a middle or high school graduate. This is a positive heavenly principle. Even if heavenly sons and daughters are born with the foundation of liberation to enter heaven, they still have to go through Heavens Ph.D. course. Therefore the Unification Church needs show people how to become Heaven’s sons and daughters, and even high-ranking ministers in Heaven’s realm. This is why everyone needs to walk this path. (408-102, 2003.05.31)
4 True Parents’ words are more precious than the American Constitution. There is only one set of True Parents, and their time only comes once. It did not occur in the past, and it will not occur in the future. True Parents will have existed in substantial form only during this age. For all eternity, there will be just this one time. Therefore True Parents are openly revealing Heaven’s mysteries, these previously hidden truths. Furthermore, I have already implemented these concepts to create a new reality. Until now Satan has controlled everything, but since I have revealed the truth, all is now clear, and Satan cannot be in charge anymore. God acknowledges this fact. If we follow this teaching, our perfection is not a problem. (246-085, 1993.03.23)
5 Invisible love has the power to penetrate infinitely, and its value lies in unseen things. God’s infinite love—love for the sake of others—is the love that is characterized by investing your life in another and then forgetting what you have invested When you become an object to life itself, suddenly you are stimulated and resurrected in an explosive way. That’s why Jesus said, “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” (Matt. 16:25) You need to remain at the zero point, unattached. Act as if you are at the point of death. Throughout my life, I have been revealing the secrets of heavenly truth and applying them. So even though the world may shout, “Kill him!” I keep going forward no matter how loud they shout. No matter how difficult, receiving persecution is God’s secondary strategy to take back ownership from the oppressors. This is why I never grew tired even though I was persecuted throughout my life. I may look like an insignificant person, but I am the son whom God the owner of heaven and earth and the truth, loves more than anyone else. Receiving persecution can be used as a tactic to take back ownership from one’s enemies. (258-051, 1994.03.16)
6 All people need to perfect themselves by passing through the realm of the Principle into the realm of God’s direct dominion. The Fall occurred during this process. Humankind fell without knowing God’s love. Only God and Satan knew about this. Adam and Eve did not know. The human ancestors fell due to their ignorance. Therefore all human beings cannot help but face this hidden obstacle. Even the teachings of all the sacred scriptures have not been able to fully reveal this truth. The True Parents, who become the parents of humanity, are destined to reveal it. In order to reveal the reason and logic of heaven and earth, you must clearly know how to fundamentally turn history upside down. (272-298, 1995.10.13)
7 Why does the omniscient and omnipotent God seemingly do nothing about this miserable world? The answer is that God cannot act arbitrarily. Even though He has the power to exterminate fallen humankind at a single stroke, He does not punish or restrain them. The various world religions have not grasped that the existence of a fallen lineage caused the fallen world. Now finally, in the name of the True Parents, all the facts regarding the spirit world have been laid out in detail. The Unification Principle has revealed the motivation behind the Fall, including both God’s mysteries and Satan’s secret crimes. With this knowledge, in order to harmonize the spirit world and physical world, which historically have been divided and in conflict, we seek to resolve and reconcile the fundamental issues of the spirit world, the physical world and human life. (304-214, 1999.11.08)
Ending the long struggle between Cain and Abel
8 God wanted to use Cain and Abel to clean up the mess created by the Fall of Adam and Eve. Instead God had to bear witness to yet another failure. He had to suffer the horrible event of Cain killing Abel. Although blood was not shed during the Fall, it led to blood being spilled subsequently in human history. Human beings should have learned from this history of bloodshed and reconciled with each other. However, they were unable to do so. Moreover, they did not unite with Heaven. Therefore, for example, God was forced to strike humanity and wash everything clean with the Flood during Noah’s time. (64-210, 1972.11.12)
9 Cain and Abel clashed in Adam’s family. Due to their division, ages of conflict ensued. Cain and Abel’s enmity exacerbated the conflict between mind and body, between spouses, between father and son, between mother and daughter and between siblings. These conflicts are all connected and have expanded to tribes, peoples and nations. They in turn have caused countless divisions and a history of war. (512-258, 2005.12.26)
10 Although Cain had the right of the firstborn son, God put his younger brother Abel in that position. Since then, the tragedy of Abel’s spilled blood has expanded to the entire history of humanity, which has been a history of war. People in the position of the elder brother, people of influence, have been blocking people in the position of the younger brother who sought to follow their parents’ way and become true people. This historical Cain and Abel relationship and the problem of their lineage still need to be resolved. The mother and the sons and daughters also lost their right of ownership, as well as their hometown and their nation. These must be regained as well, and because these incidents occurred first in the family, they must be rectified first in the family. (514-203, 2006.01.10)
11 A fight among siblings cannot be settled amicably without the parents' involvement. Parents must stand up to this task. Heavenly fortune cannot manifest until the first son is liberated and the two sons are reconciled. Likewise, your mind and body must become one in order for you to be blessed. This is the Cain and Abel principle. In the relationship between men and women, the husband is plus and the wife is minus. These two represent Cain and Abel; they need to become one and should not fight. Originally the principle was that they become one. However, since they became separated they must unite again. (194-331, 1989.10.30)
12 In the same way that Cain and Abel became kingdom in Adam’s family, Catholics and Protestants have become kingdom on a global scale. To unite completely, they need to enter the realm of unfallen Adam. Jesus lost his body; therefore, he was able to become only the spiritual parent, not the substantial parent. Therefore we need the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. The new Lord must come, perfect the realm of True Parents, and then conduct the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. (303-259, 1999.09.09)
13 You know the story of Cain and Abel in Adam’s family. If Cain had fulfilled his providential role, Abel could have started on his path. Knowing this, if you look at Jesus’ life in the context of history, the age before Jesus belongs to Cain’s world, and the age after him belongs to Abel’s world. Jesus, God’s second son, became the owner of Abel’s worldwide realm. He was, in fact, the first leader to begin to construct Abel’s world. Before him, Cain’s world had prevailed. It was a world centered on the self. That world must be cleaned up and brought to surrender, and then for the first time the two brothers should be able to stand as children united to welcome the True Parents. (15-115, 1965.10.03)
14 The True Parents need to come to this world and resolve Cain and Abel’s resentment, caused by Adam and Eve. In this process the brothers need to embrace one another, be there for each other and open their hearts to the point where they would lay down their lives for one another. Then True Parents, with the heart to save all people, can bind all humanity together. That way a new foundation for a heavenly life on earth can be built. (16-189, 1966.03.22)
15 Through the Fall of Adam and Eve, humanity lost True Parents and God. Also, because Cain killed Abel, the love between brothers was lost. Therefore Men humanity was not able to face God and now needs to find God, the parents and Abel. People need to find the type of Abel whom Cain would not beat to death, the type of Abel who would win his fight with Satan. If you find such an Abel, you can become sons and daughters with the authority to judge between good and evil on God’s behalf. (16-198, 1966.03.22)
16 When God created human beings, He created Adam first. Therefore when God raises up the True Parents, He raises up Adam first. God has worked throughout history to find one Adam as a seed. He has been raising this seed to reach perfection. God has carried out His providence throughout history, through Cain and Abel in Adam’s family, through Noah’s sons, through Abraham and through Jacob and Esau. God’s providence has developed from the individual level to the family, tribe and national level, and finally culminates at the time of the Second Advent. (52-124, 1971.12.26)
17 True Parents can be raised up only on the foundation of Cain and Abel’s unity. When this principle is successfully applied on the individual level, Cain submits to Abel. Hence Abel becomes positioned as the elder brother and Cain, standing in the position of the younger brother, attends and obeys Abel even more than Abel would have attended and obeyed the original, unfallen elder brother Cain. Only then is redemption possible. (131-182, 1984.05.01)
Living to become True Parents
18 The returning Lord’s mission is to qualify to be the bridegroom, but more than anything he has to meet the criteria to become a True Parent. To do so, he and his bride have to be acknowledged as the True Parents before heaven and earth and receive God’s recognition as a true, filial son and a true, devoted daughter. The feast celebrating the emergence of the devoted son and daughter is called the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. (9-107, 1960.04.24)
19 All the past pioneers who have sought the truth will bestow on us the seal of victors when we digest the sorrow and agony of the ages. Then, before God and the True Parents, we have to stand up as true husband and wife, true children, true siblings, true people and the true nation in the true heaven and earth. Be aware that when you embrace this agonized heart and do not allow it to falter, you will remain as that nation’s loyal citizens and virtuous people, and you will assume the position of devoted sons and daughters. (7-099, 1959.07.19)
20 God, rather than Satan, should have become the owner of this world. In that case, Adam and Eve as humanity’s unfallen ancestors, as the True Parents, would have become the owners as well. Then their family, in which true sons and daughters would have dwelled, would have become the owner. The original ideal was that subsequently their tribe, their nation and their world would have become the owners. (108-021, 1980.06.13)
21 The term True Parents was unfamiliar to you. The distance between all of you and the True Parents is very great. There are many walls dividing individuals, families, tribes, peoples, nations, the world and the cosmos. The True Parents triumphed by surmounting these walls. Thus, in order for you to inherit the name of true parents, you must also surmount these walls. You can do so by first building a family bridge over the wall between individuals. Then you erect a tribal bridge over the wall between families, and go on to build bridges over the walls between tribes, peoples and nations and finally, at the world level. After you have finished building these bridges, you will be able to cross over all these walls at once and go straight to the top. These bridges will be stronger than stone and iron. (220-197, 1991.10.19)
22 Adam’s family could not enter heaven. Therefore True Parents must come and gather all the families of the world. They have to open heaven’s gates and enter with all people by perfecting Adam’s family, Adam’s tribe, people, nation, world and heaven and earth, according to the standard of the kingdom of heaven on earth and in heaven. A path must be opened so the world’s people can transcend their nations and move in the same direction. The only viable path is where all families follow the True Parents. That is how each family can be resurrected. Entering heaven will then be possible through resurrection. Adam’s kinsmen will be prepared exactly as if Adam had returned and received the Blessing. Adam, who became the false parent, will come again as the True Parent. When that happens, the cosmos will be organized with Adam and Eve as the True Parents at the center of the true tribe, people, nation and world. We cannot enter heaven before this is achieved, before the True Parents have entered first, followed by the children. Therefore we have to be engrafted as blood relatives of the True Parents, connected in a parent-child relationship to the True Parents. We need to become true children of the True Parents. That is what the blessed family is about. The present world is the way it is because the Fall occurred in Adam’s family. So the result of turning it upside down is the blessed family. (277-221, 1996.04.18)
23 What will happen in the families that become one with the True Parents and receive the Blessing? What will happen when they enter the realm of ideal oneness in a subject-object relationship with the True Parents? By following and inheriting True Parents’ entire life course, the blessed family that becomes their object partner will be able to make the transition without paying indemnity. You will be able to stand as a true object partner in the realm of the True Parents, qualified to inherit their heart on the level of the family, the tribe, the people, the nation and the world. (263-204, 1994.10.04)
24 If I had not appeared as your teacher, it would have been impossible for all of you to unite. Unity cannot come about without the True Parents. The words True Parents should not be pronounced lightly, just to hear the sound. The world needs to learn the inside story of how far I have run and how high I have climbed to become the True Parent. True Parents are proclaimed now because all the conditions for them to become the True Parents have been fulfilled based on their recognition by God and all the pioneers and prophets in the spirit world. (493-201, 2005.04.24)
Section 3. A Life of Caring for Others
1 If I am the first generation, all of you who have received the Blessing are the second generation, with the responsibility to nurture your sons and daughters. They are the third generation, whom you have the responsibility in God’s place to raise as His substantial object partners who can witness to the ideal of creation God had in mind when He created Adam and Eve. The True Parents are the substantial essence of the invisible God. You as their children are in the position of Adam and Eve. Through your blessed families, the family-level foundation will be created to reveal the children, siblings, couples and parents representing the heavenly nation in the perfected Garden of Eden. Please understand that we have a responsibility to become this type of family and move toward Heaven. (254-202, 1994.02.06)
The life of a father
2 I could have taken revenge on many people, but I have been patient and have restrained myself all this time because I know God. Even facing the worst kind of enemy, the kind one can never forgive, I bowed my head and walked in silence in order to uphold the authority of heavenly principles. I bowed my head even though I was treated contemptuously. I had no other choice but to go on in stony silence. Because in the beginning there was no church, I had to find each person one by one. That is why in the 1950s I hardly ate, barely slept and worked tirelessly. I started out by embracing each person with tears. On the personal level, I sought to alleviate each person’s pain, and on the family level, I sought to resolve our people’s deep sorrow. (74-254, 1974.12.31)
3 No matter how much fallen people might dance and enjoy themselves, they cannot silence the sounds of anguish deep within their conscience because they have lost touch with their original, infinite value. We inevitably walk a thorny path because of this situation. This kind of anguish exists within all people, men and women alike, and can be resolved only through the cooperation of all people. When 1 make this connection and go before God, everything turns out well. The whole universe belongs to me. (125-255, 1983.03.27)
4 In my life, I have worked without rest. It has been like a dream. The situation of this tangible world, the world of history, and today’s political society all prove my words correct. The Unification Church movement is a profound social phenomenon. We can be thankful to be standing here holding up the banner as we accomplish incredible things. You should feel honored and proud of that. You must have no regrets, even if you die a thousand times, over having been part of these achievements. In the name of God, as a soldier of righteousness and love, you should feel a burning passion welling up inside of you, knowing that, even if your body is destroyed in the process of opening the gates of heaven, it was all worth it. (149-180, 1986.11.21)
5 You know God because I taught you about Him. If I had not taught you, you would never have known Him. It is the Principle that an upright teacher must teach what he knows. The parents must teach the path of love, and the teacher must teach about social institutions. The families that learn these concepts then need to be accepted by other families in society. I also have to teach you how to be accepted by the families of the world. (431-151, 2004.01.14)
6 The providence of salvation was a history that unfolded through God’s Word. Therefore humanity has struggled to find the words of truth. After finding the truth, you must pass through the stage of becoming a substantial being. People have long resented that they have been unable to come into their full being. Therefore our hope is that a central figure of substance will come to the earth. This is the idea of the Lord of the Second Advent. What will you do after receiving the grace of being able to substantiate truth? You can become God’s heir only by first presenting yourself to Him in the position of a bride, then entering a relationship of husband and wife, and finally passing through the door of God’s heart. Possessing the Word and having a body are not enough to make you an heir. In order to become God’s sons and daughters you need to become substantial beings who have embodied the Word, penetrated God’s heart, and received certificates of acceptance from God, the great ruler of heaven and the entire world. (8-258, 1960.01.17)
7 Adam fell because he did not unite with God’s Word. Therefore he could not become the perfected substantial being, which is the purpose of God’s Word. He could not attain the standard of character and integrity required by God. Consequently, there was no one of perfected character who could connect to God’s perfect love. God’s Word exists for the purpose of creating a substantial being, but love cannot appear if the substantial being cannot reach perfection. We can find no path of harmony until we become perfected, substantial beings. (28-087, 1970.01.04)
8 The returning Lord of the Second Advent substantially embodies God’s Word. Thus, up to the present, I have been laying the groundwork at the world level for the sake of God’s Word. However, people’s hearts must unite with the substantial being, otherwise they cannot stand before God. Christian history has been progressing according to this formula, up to the level of perfection. The person in the subject-partner position must embody the truth as taught by Christianity, being united in substance and heart. The Unification movement is based on that truth. (35-174, 1970.10.13)
The life of a mother
9 There are times when a mother has to go out, leaving her beloved children at home. From time to time she thinks of them, sensing that something has happened to one of them. A mother knows this, but since she cannot return right away, her child must overcome that difficulty alone. Children must surmount these obstacles by themselves. Once they overcome them, they will not stumble again. They must prevail over each obstacle one by one, as a growing bamboo tree forms each joint, one by one. If they cannot do this they will fall down again. Therefore God absolutely does not make a relationship—nor does He interfere— with a child while he or she moves from the individual-level victory to the family- level victory. The child must fight and overcome these things alone until the family level is reached. (28-133, 1970.01.04)
10 A parent’s love stretches far beyond national boundaries. Say a mother’s son has gone to America, while she lives in Korea. The love of this mother is not restricted by her nation’s borders. Even though her body is in Korea, she sheds tears for her son in America. Her sweat and hard work is all for the sake of her son. This would be impossible without love. Can a mother be forced to do this? Only a heart of love can compel her. (34-254, 1970.09.13)
11 When a son calls out, “Mother,” his mother’s heart melts. She is so overwhelmed that her very bones feel soft and warm. When mother and son grasp each other’s hands, they exchange a power greater than anything in the world. Unity occurs through parents’ noble sacrifice. Their love is not a humanistic love. To enable heavenly law and to ease the bitter pain of Heaven resulting from unfulfilled desire, human beings must voluntarily go the way of the cross and embrace all humankind with the love of a parent. The solution to the problem of unification lies on that path. (48-191, 1971.09.12)
12 All men come to surrender before their mothers. No matter how powerful a world leader may be, even if he is as fierce as a tiger, when he experiences his mother’s love, he has to surrender. Everything surrenders before love. That is why a mother who raises many children naturally has a heart of goodness. (273-104, 1995.10.22)
13 A mother s loving heart knows no boundaries. A mother’s heart of love is not rigid, but round and limitless. Her heart is connected to an infinite peace. That peacefulness and roundness are even more beautiful than the mother’s face. To a son or daughter, the mother’s face is more beautiful than any other. You need to connect to your mother’s love every day, even if you do not like your mother, even if it means you will never go to the most beautiful woman in the neighborhood, or to your aunt’s place, or even to your grandmother’s home where three generations reside. (275-021, 1995.10.30)
The life of parents
14 The father must be strict, while the mother must embrace with love. If the father’s love can be described as a vertical love, then the mother’s love is a horizontal love. The children who are born within the harmony of the vertical and horizontal love will come to say, “I am so happy. I wouldn’t trade my father for anyone, not even for the president, not even for God.” This is because they have come to know both the subjective, vertical, fatherly love and the horizontal, motherly love. In this case, absolutely no one would ever want to change their vertical father and their horizontal mother. (176-248, 1988.05.11)
15 Who can harvest true love? The couple can. True love needs to be harvested and placed in Heaven’s storehouse. You are all hauling your sons and daughters with true love, as if you were a freight train. You can transport your children if the mothers become like the tracks and the fathers like the boxcars. Mothers and fathers also need to become like instruction manuals and textbooks on the path toward a world of true love. (119-288, 1982.09.13)
16 I was born because my father gave me bones and my mother gave me flesh. There is no concept of “I” in such giving. There is only love, life and lineage. Within me is my parents’ love, my parents’ life and my parents’ lineage. Therefore even if your parents want to cut you off, you cannot be severed from them. (297-164, 1998.11.19)
Section 4. A Life of Inheritance
1 You cannot become sons and daughters of God, the great ruler and owner of heaven and earth, or receive His inheritance simply by attending Him. You too will become a ruler and owner of heaven and earth when you receive the Blessing and inherit the lineage of the Parents of Heaven and Earth, who truly attend God. Then you will flourish and grow through being fruitful and multiplying. By fulfilling the positions of true owner and true parents who can rule heaven and earth, you make an internal connection with those who have attained the position of the True Parents. However, you cannot become an owner until you first become a child who fulfills the moral duties of developing the heavenly parental heart and inheriting the heavenly lineage. (12-317, 1963.08.11)
A life lived only for God's Will
2 In any family, what child would not want to live with and attend his or her mother and father? What parents would not want to fall asleep embracing their beloved child? Who would not want to invite God into such a family? I would certainly want to do that. However, that cannot happen until the Will of God is more firmly settled. Thus we have been walking a path of misery. I did not set out on that path for my sake but to establish the moral laws and traditions of the family. I did not mind that I was bloodied and bruised in taking on this responsibility, or that my face became gaunt, or that I suffered terribly and was spit on by others. My main problem was how to establish the right traditions on this earth before I died. I had to do just this one thing. It didn't matter that I would face violent storms time and time again; it didn’t matter that I might be as pitiful as a beggar; it didn’t matter that I would be imprisoned and branded a traitor. These were not my most serious problems. Up until the present, it has been my whole life’s purpose to do only one thing: to leave behind the unchanging traditions of Heaven. (24-102, 1969.07.13)
3 We are united on the road to unification. Therefore it stands to reason that we follow a common path of blood, sweat and tears. When you learn of God’s tragic situation, it should make your blood boil. Upon knowing God’s sadness, you should naturally shed tears. Even if I face disappointment after investing all my flesh and blood, I will still do anything to alleviate God’s pain. I will do anything for the sake of the Will, even if it means that thousands of my disciples have to lead a sacrificial fife. That being said, it does not mean I do not love all of you. It is because I love you that, through the Unification Church, I ask you to advance, shedding your blood, sweat and tears, first as a servant, then as an adopted child, and finally as a child of the direct lineage. To be a child of the direct lineage you have to become a person who does not mind facing death, because then you will be able to walk the path of the cross. Just as God called our ancestors to take on the mission of restoration through indemnity, the substantial True Parents today have the mission to pioneer the world indemnity course by calling upon their beloved children. Therefore this work must continue until one people in one nation is completely resurrected. (14-245, 1965.01.01)
4 The essence of the universe is that humankind is one family. Nestled in this web of love, people must discover the love that exists for the sake of the family, not just the individual. They must also find a love that exists for the sake of the tribe, the people, the nation, and the world. This is the path of love and the path of God’s Will. A patriot’s duty is to move forward, willing to ignore himself, his family and his tribe for the sake of the nation. A filial son chooses to follow his parents’ will, even if he has to put aside his own needs and those of his wife and children. The duty of a devoted son requires this. For this reason, the path of God’s Will is the path of love, the path of loving greater things first, rather than individual things. (18-022, 1967.05.14)
5 We are now close to being able to return to God’s bosom, so each of us should consider what we should do. We do not follow God's Will in order to receive blessings or obtain our own salvation. In following the Will of God, our families are needed to contribute to humankind, and our tribe is needed to contribute to the people, the nation and the world. You must be able to live like this. (32-109, 1970.06.28)
6 What is the path of Unification Church members? We need those who can stand up and fight to defend their country. But the bigger question is how can “I” stand in the place of Jesus? In the course of history, Jesus Christ, who was sent as God’s son, could not fully achieve his goal, even though he attained unity with God. Therefore each of us must once again construct and lay this foundation. God’s Will cannot advance unless we, among our first generation, prepare the foundation to connect to and substantially fulfill what Jesus could not accomplish. (038-016, 1971.01.01)
7 We ourselves must go forward as historically resurrected beings. We are not meant to just live into our seventies and eighties for our own sake. God’s providential hope is for us to live and develop according to His Will throughout the course of our eternal lives. Therefore we must live according to that Will. It is important to learn how to expand the stage of our life, through our own personalities, so we can proudly say, “My life’s purpose is to reveal God’s Will. I am living for the sake of God’s Will, and this purpose will guide my daily life, inspire my worldview and direct my entire existence.” (043-042, 1971.04.18)
8 Even in reading one page of a book, if one reads that one page in serious contemplation, thinking that the Will of God’s providence can be revealed through it, he or she will be prepared to act in accord with God’s desire. God can use that kind of person. (59-214, 1972.07.16)
9 God’s first wish is, “Please relieve my sadness.” His second is, “Please relieve my pain.” Who will grant God’s wishes? God cannot do it by Himself. Even if God wanted to relieve His own pain, He could not. Because we are the source of His pain, there is no other way but for us to alleviate it. We must determine to sacrifice ourselves a thousand times over for the sake of God’s people. God could not tell us this deep truth, but Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” (Matt. 16:24-25) Now Jesus’ paradoxical words make sense. (066-020, 1973.03.11)
10 All kinds of stories and situations may arise on your path of faith. Some of you may feel you even have to sell your own blood to afford to go witnessing. If you do not have money for travel, you may convince yourself that the distance you need to go is short, and so you decide to walk, climbing at great risk over steep mountains and fields, all the while contemplating God’s Will with an unchanging heart. My hope is that even if you collapse you will have no resentment. Please do not hold resentment, even if you fail and end up sacrificing much. How could there be no arrows flying toward you, when you are like soldiers marching forward to build Heaven, holding up the torch? How could the enemy not assail you? This might happen. However, my heart, and the heart of God, do not beat for you alone, but for all people and the world. Therefore once you accept God’s Will, walk your path with joy, even if it might be a path of death. Unification soldiers need to take this kind of path. (154-278, 1964.10.03)
11 Now you know God’s Will; therefore you cannot retreat on the road you are traveling. In order to become a patriot and a filial son or daughter of Heaven, you must march on, even before Heaven moves. Now that you know this path of restoration, you have to say, “I regret that, even though I walked the individual path of the cross, I did not know the Will. I am sorrowful that even though I walked the path of the cross for the family, tribe and, people, I did not know the Will. Now that I know, I will take on the national path of the cross.” (156-062, 1965.12.07)
12 For those who embrace God's Will, the more miserable a person’s path, the more valuable it is. My whole life has been like this. When I reflect upon what I have, I think to myself that I have nothing. I will leave behind everything for posterity when I depart this life. I am doing everything for the sake of future generations. When I pass on I want to leave behind love for the sake of the Unificationist community, and for all people and the world. I do not spend time thinking about leaving behind what I love and what my own children love. (215-044, 1991.02.06)
Living for the sake of God's glory
13 Indemnity can be paid only when you ask God what kind of condition you need to make. Furthermore, making an offering simply because God told you to is not all that a condition entails; you need to voluntarily make an additional offering. The offering God requires is to indemnify something, but the offering you make on your own initiative becomes a condition for you to receive glory. (16-319, 1966.07.31)
14 Sons and daughters of Heaven are ostracized by the world. You all live in enemy territory; you are people who have appeared as leaders in order to destroy Satan’s expansion. Therefore you will receive persecution on the family level when you approach your family, and you will receive persecution from society if you go out into society. Jesus, God and all those who died for Heaven were treated this way. Thus a historical hurdle of sorrow lies before you as well. After overcoming these obstacles, you are ready to attend Jesus. Therefore Jesus comes and finds those people who are in the same position as he was and befriends them. (007-331, 1959.10.18)
15 1 cannot ask you followers of the Unification Church to walk forward slowly. You need to move quickly and boldly. How glorious this is! With such an attitude you can receive what Heaven sends you and establish a secure foundation for victory. You must create a region and a world that God will remember forever. You need to create a world where not only you but also your descendants can say to the Father, “May You receive glory for all eternity.” The hand that does this work is not only your hand but represents millions of others. You should feel that your hand represents all humanity. You need to realize and believe that your hand will be commemorated by your descendants and that your ancestors can proudly declare it to be the hand of God. (11-330, 1962.04.13)
16 Do you think that just because God gave me one hundred commands, He only expects me to accomplish that much? Would He compliment me after I finished my assignments, saying, “Yes, yes, good.” When you do even more than expected, your value grows. When God gives you a direction, can even one of you offer your life to fulfill it? Doing your best means that when God entrusts you with one hundred commands you accomplish even more than that. When you do this, it is a truly glorious thing and God can be proud of you. If you accomplish only 100 percent of what was asked of you, well, anyone can do that. (31-322, 1970.06.07)
17 We have nothing to be proud of. After a battle, you can be proud of yourself only if you were victorious. If you are proud of yourself without achieving victories, Satan will accuse you. You need to fight in place of the invisible God, inheriting the unfinished work of the substantial True Parents, and say, “Father, may all glory be unto You.” (11-288, 1962.01.03)
18 You should keep God’s original Garden of Eden in your heart, and sing of Heaven’s life, love and glory as you go about your daily life. Furthermore, you should inspire others to live this way. In other words, you should represent God, the Creator, and take up His work of recreation. In addition, you need to be loyal to God and offer your time on earth representing all creation. You need to be able to honor the original ideal and to love not only in a favorable environment but also in a challenging one. By doing this, you will become sons and daughters who embody the ideal of creation, and you will live with God forever, in both joy and sorrow, within His realm of eternal love and glory. (2-253, 1957.06.09)
|
|