As a Peace-Loving Global Citizen
Sun Myung Moon
Forward
(Page ix)
Already spring rain fell all last night,
ending a winter drought.
It was so nice to have had the rain
that I spent all this morning
walking about in the garden.
The ground had that fragrant aroma
of moist earth I had missed all through the winter,
and the weeping willow and cherry trees
were showing signs of new spring buds.
I felt I could hear the popping sounds of new life
sprouting here and there around the garden.
Before I knew it, my wife,
who had followed me out,
was picking young mugwort shoots
that had managed to poke their heads up
through the dry lawn.
(Mugwort is a medicinal shrub
with a wide range of healing properties.)
The night's rain had turned the whole world
into a fragrant spring garden.
No matter how much commotion
there may be in the world,
when the calendar turns to March,
spring is on its way.
The older I become, the more it means to me
that in nature spring follows winter
and brings with it flowers in full bloom.
Who am I that God in each season,
allows the flowers to bloom
and the snow to fall,
so I might know the joy of being alive?
Love wells up
from within the deepest recesses of my heart,
and I am overcome with emotion.
I am moved to tears
to think that everything of real value
has been given to me freely.
(Page x)
In my life
I have circled the globe many times over
in my efforts to bring about a world of peace,
and yet it is here in the garden in spring
that I am able to taste real peace.
Peace too was given to us by God,
but we lost it somewhere
and now we spend our lives
looking for it in all the wrong places.
To bring a world
of peace,
I have spent my life
going to the most lowly and secluded places.
I met mothers in Africa
who could only watch helplessly
as their children died of hunger,
and I met fathers in South America
who lived by rivers full of fish
but could not support their families by fishing.
At first, all I did was simply share my food,
but they granted me their love in return.
Intoxicated with the power of love I went on
to plant seeds and cultivate forests.
Together we caught fish to feed hungry children,
and the trees were used to build schools.
I was happy fishing all through the night,
even as mosquitos bit me all over.
I was happy
even when I was sinking knee deep into mud,
because I could see the shadows of despair
disappear from the faces of my neighbors.
Seeking the shortest path to a world of peace,
I devoted myself to inspiring change
in the political process
and to changing people's ways of thinking.
I met then President Mikhael Gorbachev
of the Soviet Union
as part of my effort to bring reconciliation
between communism and democracy,
and I met then President Kim Il Sung
of North Korea
for a serious discussion
on how to bring peace to the Korean peninsula.
I went to the
United States
that was in moral decline
and played the role of a fireman
responding to a call
in an effort to reawaken its Puritan spirit.
I dedicated myself
to resolving various conflicts in the world.
In my work for peace among Muslims and Jews,
I was not deterred by rampant terror.
As a result of my efforts,
thousands have gathered
for rallies and peace marches,
with Jews, Muslims, and Christians
all joining together.
Sadly, however, the conflict continues.
I see hope, though,
that an age of peace is about to be
inaugurated in my native land of Korea.
The Korean peninsula has been trained through
endless suffering and the tragedy of division,
and I can feel in every cell of my body
that a powerful energy has been stored here
and is ready to burst out.
In the same way that no one can stop
a new season of spring from coming,
no human power can stop heavenly fortune
from coming to the Korean peninsula
and spreading throughout the world.
People need to prepare themselves
so that they may rise with the tide
of heavenly fortune
when it arrives.
I am a
controversial person. The mere mention
of my name causes trouble in the world.
I never sought money or fame
but have spent my life speaking only of peace.
The world, though, has associated
many different phrases with my name,
rejected me, and thrown stones at me.
Many are not interested
in knowing what I say or what I do.
They only oppose me.
I have been unjustly imprisoned
six times in my life
by imperial Japan, in Kim Il Sung's North Korea,
by South Korea's Syngman Rhee government,
and even in the United States
and at times I was beaten so hard
that the flesh was torn from my body.
Today, though, not even the slightest wound
remains in my heart.
Old wounds disappear easily in the presence
of true love.
True love is a heart that gives and gives
and wants to continue giving.
True love is a love
that forgets it already gave love
and gives love again.
I have lived my entire life intoxicated
in such love.
I wanted nothing aside from love,
and I threw my entire being into the effort
to share love with my impoverished neighbors.
At times, the path of love was so difficult
that my knees buckled under me
but even then I felt happy in my heart,
dedicated to loving humanity.
Even now,
I am filled with love
that I have not been able to give.
It is with a prayer
that this love will become a river of peace
saturating the drought-stricken land
and flowing to the ends of the earth
that I now place this book before the world.
Recently, a growing number of people
have been seeking to know more about me.
For the sake of those who are curious,
I have looked back on my life
and recorded my candid recollections
in this book.
As for the stories
that could not be included in this volume,
I hope there will be other opportunities
for me to convey them.
I send boundless
love
to all those who have put their faith in me,
remained by my side,
and lived their lives with me,
especially to my wife, Hak Ja Han Moon
to whom I am deeply grateful
for struggling with me
to scale the most difficult peaks.
Finally, I would like to express
my heartfelt gratitude to Eun Ju Park,
president of Gimm Young Publishers Inc.,
who poured out much sincerity and dedication
in the process of bringing this book to publication,
and to everyone in the publishing company
who labored in editing the words I spoke
so that the often complex content
could be easily understood by readers.
Sun Myung
Moon
Cheongpyeong, South Korea
March 1, 2009