Filial Attendance: The Way of Filial Piety of Holy Sons and Daughters of God - Elio Roman

Chapter 5 - The Father and Son (Parent and Child) Vertical Relationship

Chapter Summary and Introduction

The Parent and child relationship is the fundamental relationship of love between God, the Original Subject Partner, and filial sons and daughters who as His object partners live in attendance to Him. The Parent and child relationship is a vertical relationship. The Parent and child relationship is an "above and below" relationship between the subject partner and the object partner. Love flows vertically from God above to His children below, and His children return love to God vertically and is called filial attendance.

Vertical traditions are necessary because of the direction of the flow of the love, life, lineage, ideals and the inheritance from God. Without vertical relationships God's love cannot flow to mankind. God's love for His children is called parental love. The love expressed from the children for God, the Vertical True Parents is called filial attendance. In the same way, patriots living for the sake of their sovereign can be said to express vertical attendance or loyalty to the sovereign of the nation. Attendance is the way of the object partner living for the sake of the subject partner primarily in a vertical subject/object relationship.

Individual perfection is achieved when we establish an absolute vertical relationship of love with God. The prerequisite for establishing the Parent and child relationship is absolute sexual morality. Individual perfection is realized on the foundation of absolute sexual morality. This is because through mind and body unity we stand as an object partners to God, which opens the way for God's love, life, lineage, ideals, inheritance and ownership to flow down vertically to us. Through mind and body unity we come to embody the love of God. Mind and body unity is a prerequisite condition for the establishment of the Parent and child vertical relationship of love. When the mind which is in the subject position and the body which is in the object position unite and become one, an individual can stand as an object partner before God. The transcendent God can now manifest His immanence vertically through His object partners. Had Adam and Eve, as male and female representatives of God's masculine and feminine characteristics, had absolute faith in God and absolute obedience to God's commandment they would have become perfect objects of God's vertical love and would have established a model and central family of the universe. Their relative love in God's indirect dominion would have embodied the absolute love of God. Adam and Eve would have come to stand in the direct dominion of God.

God, our Father and Creator, has given everything from His heart of love for the creation of the cosmos and for the creation of perfect objects, His sons and daughters of filial piety. True Parents likewise have sacrificed everything God has requested in order to restore God's sons and daughters and to bring the vertical God to dwell on earth and settle the original homeland.

Traditional filial piety asserts that one must live a life of filial attendance to their parents, because of the debt of gratitude we owe to our parents due to having been created from their bodies. While this is true, traditional filial piety does not point out that the origin of filial piety is the love of God. Thus in traditional filial piety the burden in the parent and child relationship falls on the children. The children must live a life attending their parents, their in-laws, and the sovereign, whether they are worthy of the love and respect of the children and the citizens. The complete view of filial piety and filial attendance in the Completed Testament Age taught by Rev. Sun Myung Moon is that it is the vertical subject partner who initiates the relationship of love by engaging the object partner with true love. The object partner then responds with love which is called filial attendance.

There had never been True Parents on earth until this age. Traditional filial piety was not established on God's vertical tradition of true love from True Parents. This has resulted in the abuse of the heart of filial piety. Filial piety has been centered on authority, power or duty and not founded on true love. Historically, leadership has been centered on response to authority and power. However, unless filial piety is centered on the heart of true love of true parents, then true filial piety can never emerge. False parents can never bring about the true heart of filial piety from their children. Likewise false rulers can never bring about true attendance (loyalty) from their followers.

The former president of South Korea, Kim Dae Jung, in an address given to Confucian leaders, said,

"In the past, the idea of loyalty and filial piety was a one-way relationship that demanded that subjects be loyal to the king even when he was not worthy of loyalty, and that children be dutiful to their parents even when they were not worthy of respect. Such one-sided standards, however, cannot be the basis for ethics in a democratic society based on the dignity of the individual and on a social contract. The old idea of loyalty and filial piety should be replaced today with the idea that the government, the people, parents and children must all fill their proper roles. Only when the principle of mutuality is accepted can the idea of loyalty and filial piety be viable and be regarded today as a virtue."¹

It is this principle of mutuality through which the heart of filial attendance is developed.

This quotation describes the principle of the vertical relationship of love in the Father and son (Parent and child) relationship. It is a relationship of mutuality between the subject partners and object partner. It is a mutual relationship of parental love and filial attendance. This is the relationship of the original ideal of creation.

In the Completed Testament Age, with the emergence of True Parents, the way of Parental love establishes the vertical love of True Parents who themselves embody the vertical love of God. True Parents' ideology states that the origin of filial piety is God's heart (Shimjung). It is through the true love of God, who is the invisible vertical True Parents, and is embodied in the horizontal True Parents, that the Parent and child relationship of love is established. It is the true love of God and True Parents who realize the laws of love that establishes the basis of all true vertical relationships and vertical traditions.

The Words of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

God is our Father. God the Father is the vertical father. (225-19, 1992.1.1)

In order to become God's son, I must enter a vertical position. (Tribal Messiah -- 80, 1990.2.4)

God's ideal of true love is realized and fulfilled through human beings in the form of the vertical parent-child relationship. (277-198, 1996.4.18)

Human perfection starts with creating a vertical relationship with God. (298-308, 1999.1.17)

In the Completed Testament Age, True Parents sacrifice in order to bring the vertical God to earth. This is the final task. In relation to humankind, God is the vertical Father who is centered on true love. True Parents are the horizontal parents who are horizontally aligned at a ninety degree angle with the vertical Father, based on true love. Therefore, on the basis of this vertical and horizontal love, God's love and life finally burst forth. With the blossoming harmony of God and humankind, new blood ties will expand based on the love of True Parents. In this way, the seed of life that began in God's love and based on the original Principle standard will appear on earth. This is unprecedented in human history. (208-339, 1990.11.21)

True love is vertical in a parent-child relationship. (259-42, 1994.3.27)

How is the realm of God's heart inherited? Human beings in the original mold, untainted by the Fall, should have fulfilled their portion of responsibility by uniting from the left and right centered on the core of God's vertical love. This point of unity becomes the source and root of the lineage from which true sons and daughters are born. The realm of God's heart could have suddenly appeared and been implanted and the foundation of God's lineage would have been established from there. This is a serious matter. (173-302, 1988.2.21)

Above all one has to practice filial piety toward the vertical heavenly Parents. One has to practice patriotism toward the vertical heavenly Parents. One has to practice loyalty toward the vertical heavenly Parents. One has to do one's best more than a Saint's toward the vertical heavenly Parents. For this essential purpose we are born. To meet such a person God created man. There is such purpose there. (Students -- 42)

It is natural and principled for you to love God in the same way that He loves you. So when you long for God as the vertical center of your life, and when you are loved as His son or daughter, then a tradition of love can begin. You cannot make a start toward individual perfection unless you establish this tradition. The family is composed of individuals, so first of all you must be loved by God as an individual. But not only that, you should welcome God as your Parent, and return with filial piety the love that you received from Him. You have not even reached the starting point of individual perfection until the reciprocal love of parent and child is established on the vertical position.

You speak about it often, but what is individual perfection? It is to establish the absolute vertical parent and child relationship through faith. You as a child will also come to love God in the same way as God loves you. God and child are inseparable since love is established in such a reciprocal relationship. (God's Will -- 231, 1974.5.10)

A child of filial piety lives on even when his household perishes. This is why there are epitaphs of children of filial piety, epitaphs of patriots, and epitaphs of saints. Divine sons and daughters are different from saints. Divine sons and daughters are people who know how to observe not only national laws in the human world but also the laws of the heavenly royal palace. Thus, that which can connect straight to the path of children of filial piety, the path of patriots, and the path of saints is the path of divine sons and daughters. This path is substantial and has a big circumference, but the flow of its core is vertical. (175-213, 1988.4.17)

God, as the Father, and humankind, as His children, were to form a vertical axis, and this was the purpose for the creation of human beings. If this axis had been connected perfectly, that is, if a relationship that united humankind and God as one through true love had been established, that relationship would have been an absolutely inseparable one, which no force in the universe could break apart. How could anyone who has been bound to the original love of God, and who has tasted that love, ever be separated from it? (Messages of Peace 2 -- 37, March 2006)

You should form families that God will miss and yearn to return to after He has been away. You should raise families to which He can come freely as a parent visiting His children. This is what it means to live in service to God. To such a family, God becomes the subject of our conscience, acting vertically. Following that vertical subject, your mind stands in the position of the vertical subject of yourself, and brings your mind and body into unity. (Messages of Peace 2 -- 40, March 2006)

Do you know the significance of January 13, 2001? It was the day of the Coronation Ceremony for God's Kingship. For countless years Heaven had been waiting for that event in eager anticipation. It was the greatest and most exalted celebration humanity had ever witnessed. On that day, Reverend Moon, who had received the anointing as the True Parent of all humankind and traveled a path of indescribable suffering and pain until he gained the final victory, offered his entire foundation to Heaven.

For tens of thousands of years, God had endured an existence full of lamentation and grief, even as He conducted His providence with a parental heart. When that coronation ceremony was offered to Him, it marked the moment of His long awaited liberation and inner freedom. On that providential day, we declared to all heaven and earth that we would attend God as the vertical True Parent and Great King of Heaven and Earth, that we would unfurl and raise high the banner of Cheon Il Guk, and that the new sovereignty of Heaven had begun. (Messages of Peace 5 -- 72, 2006.6.13)

Citizens of the kingdom of heaven, this is a precious and blessed day of victory and glory. Now, as the King of Peace in Heaven and Earth, I will declare, on this thirteenth day of June in the sixth year of Cheon Il Guk, the fundamental duties and mission that every citizen of Cheon Il Guk should understand and live by as they walk the way of Heaven. First, as God is the vertical True Parent and you are true children of God, you will establish the realm of three generations in your family, perfect the Four Great Realms of Heart, and attend God on the vertical axis for eternity. (Messages of Peace 5 -- 74, 2006.6.13)

Please become true princes and princesses who live in attendance to God as your vertical True Parent, for He is the Peace King of the multitudes. Let us build the everlasting peace kingdom by attending the King of Peace in Heaven and on Earth and fulfill the way of a true, devoted child, a patriot, a saint, and a member of the family of God's sons and daughters. (Messages of Peace 5 -- 78, 2006.6.13)

God is the vertical subject over your conscience, and your conscience is the vertical subject over your body. Thus, unity with God brings your mind and body into harmony. Family members who have established that vertical axis can perfect the four realms of love and heart: parental love, conjugal love, children's love, and siblings' love. (Messages of Peace 7 -- 93, 2006.8.31)

Children who are brought up by true parents through a true and good family education easily progress into their school education. This is the next stage. School provides an institutionalized education, but even within that framework teachers have the responsibility -- with the heart of true parents -- to guide and educate them to become true children. By this I mean that horizontal, academic education must be carried out on the foundation of vertical, character education. Therefore a teacher must first possess the heart of a true parent. (Messages of Peace 15 -- 230, 2007.7.4)

The father-son relationship represents the vertical side. So that is why love between the father and son never changes… That is why parents can never abandon their children and children never abandon parents. (145-275)

You might think of the husband and wife relationship as a destiny, but the father-son relationship is not a destiny. It is an unchangeable fate. You must understand this. It is difficult to explain the difference. Destiny can be changed. It changes. Fate does not. If you were born as sons and daughters of a particular father, it never changes.

If so, which of these two relationships is more vertical and which is more horizontal? The father-son relationship is vertical and the husband and wife relationships horizontal, since it cannot be changed. That is why people who claim that the husband and wife relationship is primary are a horizontal flock and those claiming that the father-son relationship is primary are a vertical flock. (169-59)

Where is God's love found? Does it exist between brothers who love each other? No. Also, God's love is not created centered on love between a man and a woman. God's love is found in the love between a father and a son. The flesh and blood must be connected. In order to create a tradition that lasts for eternity, flesh and blood must be connected. That is, a vertical relationship must be formed.

It is the vertical relationship that receives God's love, so it cannot be any other than the love between a father and son. This love has no distance. In this vertical relationship there must be one center. There can only be one center. The center is in the best position. If there were two centers, in this world, there would be a fight. (28-169)

As for the child, the joy of being with the parents must be a joy that represents the world; and as for the parents, the joy of being together with their child must fulfill a desire that represents the world. When we think about the father-son relationship, it must be the foundation of the universe. We can see that the root of joy sprouts from here and if there is sorrow here, there cannot be a more sorrowful position.

Even if they loose everything in the external world, there is still on position where parents can be happy, with their children. Isn't that the most important thing? The parents' desire is to show off their relationship with their children to the whole world.

So, if this is the case in the relationships of humankind, as we can imagine it even through the relationships of fallen man, isn't it the same with the relationship of heaven and earth, God and man? We know that, as there are moral principles among men, there exists also a moral principle of heaven. If there is a deep heart among men, there must be a deep heart of heaven. As heaven is above and earth is below, and as parents are above and children below, they are in "above and below" relationships. (62-18)

You must first of all stand face to face with God and inherit His vertical love. Since God is the God of dual characteristics, He created man because He cannot receive stimulation by being alone. Joy is produced only through reciprocal relationships; therefore, stimulation from outside of God's being is necessary. He needs the stimulating sphere of His objects. And one can receive love from God, who is the highest being, only when he stands in the position to reciprocate. If he does so, he can become a substantiation of God's internal character. When God feels sorrow, man must also feel sorrow. In this way, man and God will be inseparable. These are unchangeable facts, no matter how much you may doubt them. You have been created to be inseparable from God. Therefore, the perfection of the individual means the establishment of the absolute vertical relationship between you and God. (God's Will -- 234-235, 1974.5.10)

Although there is a strict order in the above and below relationship of parents and children, when you see it centering upon love, it is not difficult even if the vertical order changes to a horizontal order. Isn't it so? The basic rules are that the father should order his son, but when the son calls, "Father, please come here," he cannot but go. Even if a two year-old daughter calls, "Daddy, come here," he has to go. Even if this position is a crossing point where the vertical standards change horizontally, there would be no contradiction or collision. We can praise this precious standard as this standard of happiness is made only by love. (49-54)

Unchanging love does not originate from the horizontal conjugal relationship, but is surely related to the origin of a vertical flow. Who would such a vertical subject be? He is known as God. Vertical love is not the kind of love that a husband and wife can enjoy as they please. In the case of vertical love, it is impossible to say that you will love, when you want to, and not, when you don't want to. It cannot be severed. It cannot be severed by man who is in the horizontal position. Thus, the love parents have toward their children never changes.

In today's democratic society caught in the floodtide of individualism, children say that they have changed according to the new trends of the age. They want to disassociate from conventional norms, yet even though they argue about the old ways and new ways, their parents' heart does not lead them to say, "You go your way, and I will go mine." Parental love is not like that. Even animals are the same. In loving their young, they transcend their lives. (48-154, 1971.9.12)

There must appear believers whose faith will remain unaffected even if Satan, who caused Adam and Eve to fall, opposes you, and Jesus, the Holy Spirit and God claim not to know you. This is the last remaining mission. Yet the 2.4 billion people of humanity and the Christians who believe in Jesus do not clearly understand this. Moreover, even if you become this kind of faithful believer, that is not the end. You have to form a family, a society, a nation and a world that all have this same kind of faith. If you do not cultivate this kind of faith, then you will have no vertical relationship with the will of God. (Sermons 1-188, 1956.11.25)

Then what God desires to do is to substantiate His form in this last stage of the Last Days. He is trying to show Himself again as a perfect man who is completely restored heartistically and vertically. This man we know as the Messiah. In the Completed Testament Age, God manifests Himself to all people in the form of the True Parents, who come in the place of the perfected Adam and perfected Eve. (God's Will -- 235, 1974.5.10)

People are God's antennas. They are the antennas focused on Him. The day God's vertical love makes contact with His antennas in the world; we will enter the realm that will engulf more than the world and the entire universe. The antenna is like the device that causes thunder to strike and lightning to flash in the physical and spirit worlds. (134-197, 1985.7.20)

From God's perspective, there is God, and then Adam comes. The mind of Adam contains God, and this mind is called the "spirit mind."

What is the spirit mind? God, who is the vertical subject, dwells in the mind of horizontal Adam, and this mind is a mind to attend God. This is called spirit mind. (50-19)

Children have a vertical relationship with their parents. Through their experience of love with the parents, children learn how to love others. After they are united with the parents on the vertical level, they know the way to unite on the horizontal level. The vertical relationship is the subjective one and the horizontal relationship is in the objective sphere. God created the objective beings, Adam and Eve, in order to develop vertical love on the horizontal level. If Eve had not been created, man would have stayed only in the vertical relationship to God and in the same position as the angelic world. (God's Will -- 115, 1972.9.11)

Then, where will the first ancestors and God, the father who is like the mind, becomes one? Where? They must become one through true love, at the core, the center of the sphere of love. Men and women seek each other centering on the vertical. (177-337, 1988.5.22)

You are all working as Unification Church leaders because until now you are following Father, the bridge to God's fortune. That is why members respect you. First of all, you have to maintain the vertical relationship, always. You have the position to control the vertical and horizontal relationship. Above you is the headquarters' leadership, horizontally you represent parents position. The parents' heart is like that for children who do not come home; without hesitation you will go 1,000 miles searching for them. If parents show a sacrificial example and teach tradition, the children will go the correct way. First show a good example. This is the way to witness.

With this vertical relationship there is no multiplication. But if you unite with the same level leader, there is multiplication. This is the Principle of Creation. (Leader Pt. I -- 180-181)

In this world, the united center would be the incarnate True Parents, who resemble and inherit all the attributes of the spiritual absolute True Parent, absolute True Teacher, and absolute True Owner, God. In the Kingdom of Heaven of true love, the vertical axis is created by the incarnate True Parents who are one with God. Centering on this axis, all instances of upper and lower, left and right, front and back, and internal and external occurring among created entities are in harmony. Thus, all creation dwells in freedom, peace, unification and happiness. (Public Venue -- 2002.12.27)

This is the hell on earth in which we have been living. In this hell, we cannot properly form cooperative horizontal relationships with one another because our vertical relationships with God have been severed. We perform deeds harmful to others because we cannot feel the pain and suffering of our neighbors as our own. Once people have accustomed themselves to living in hell on earth, when they end their physical life, they naturally enter hell in the spirit world. We have not built the Kingdom of God, but instead established the sovereignty of Satan. For this reason, Satan is called the "ruler of this world" and the "god of this world." (Exposition -- 82)

If human beings had not fallen, we would have formed one global family, which may be likened to a body whose members are all interlinked with each other with God as their head. Then all would have shared a common language; there never would have risen a profusion of tongues unintelligible to one another. The reason various languages arose and prevented free communication between peoples is that, once their vertical relationship with God was severed at the Fall, all horizontal relationships between people were also cut off. Humanity then splintered, dispersed to different geographical locations, and formed isolated communities. (Exposition -- 410)

God's overall ideal of absolute True Love is realized and perfected through humankind in a vertical parent-child relationship. (World Peace -- 48, 1996.4.16)

What is the meaning of individual perfection for us today? It has to do with our faith in the form of a vertical parent-child relationship. As God loves us, we also must love God. Because love is realized through a relationship with a counterpart, there can be no separation between God and ourselves as children of God…The perfection of an individual starts from the point where he or she makes a vertical relationship with God. (Blessing Pt. I -- 20-21)

The vertical true love relationship between God and man is the origin of ideal true love in human relationships. The perfection of that love is thus attained in the ideal family of the Four Great Realms of the Heart. (Public Venue -- 1994.5.1)

It may be important to live in affluence and to do something in life; however, before anything else, you need to fulfill your duties of filial piety and loyalty to the vertical Heavenly Parent and surpass living saints in your devotion to Him. Such is the original purpose for humankind's birth. He created us in order to meet such people. Such is our underlying purpose. (58-231, 1972.6.11)

The course of human life is that of a wanderer. Considering this, what is it that we need? We need to experience what true love is. Due to the Fall, humanity could not receive the perfected parental love. So, based on true parental, true sibling, true conjugal, and true filial love, you need to form a family vertically related to God. You must create a horizontal environment, by extending your family into numerous families in all directions. Then these families become true families that can connect the vertical with the horizontal, and thereby expand to the realms of tribe, people, nation and world. That world connected through love will be God's Kingdom! (139-212, 1986.1.31)

The stages of loyal patriots, saints, and holy children follow. They constitute a total of four stages. The center of these four is the vertical. They are centered on the vertical and the central point of all four circles is one, not two. The center of love is only one. That is why children who are devoted to their parents will not go to hell. People who are loyal to their nation will not go to hell. Even if they do not believe in the Messiah, everything will naturally be solved when they pass on. That is why saints will not go to hell. I am saying that people who are not filial toward their parents cannot become loyal patriots. What happens with someone who wants to be filial, but has no parents? They would say, "I really want to be a devoted child, but I don't have parents. What should I do?" They have a serious problem. They can plead, "Heavenly Father, please give me parents!" but of course that cannot happen, because the laws of the universe do not work that way. Their parents may have died, or something else might have happened.

Even though you may wish to become a devoted child, if you cannot, then what should you do? You must become a loyal patriot or saint. The position of a saint is higher than that of a devoted child or loyal patriot. (197-44, 1990.1.7)

If filial sons have already existed in the history of your hometown, you have to supersede them all as the great king of filial sons. If there have been loyal subjects, then you should surpass them as the great king of loyal subjects. Yet, however much one may become a filial child or loyal subject, without having a horizontal relationship with True Parents, it would serve no purpose. It is only when the True Parent becomes the horizontal Father on the horizontal level that the vertical Father appears. When the absolute minus appears, then the absolute plus comes looking for it. (177-347, 1988.5.22)

God is a harmonious union of dual characteristics. At the same time, He is a masculine being. Since it is man who relates with God's fatherly love, a vertical relationship is formed. Women do not form a vertical relationship. Instead, they form a horizontal relationship in partnership with the vertical. Observing the attributes of God's character, man relates vertically in a relationship of "above and below." Woman relates horizontally in a relationship of "left and right."

Which comes first, the vertical or the horizontal? Because the vertical comes first, all the principles of nature pursue and seek the path to draw close to that place. This is why the son comes before the daughter in relation to God's love. Only then will everything be arranged in order. (177-324, 1988.5.2)

The perfection of the love between man and woman is the perfection of the universe. The day that this love is broken is the day all order in the universe is destroyed and the world of vertical relationships is completely ruined. (Blessed Family -- 545, Korean Edition)

Everything is in two camps and these camps are in conflict with each other. They have become factions that are divided front and back, and are fighting instead of being vertically aligned as upper and lower. The upper and the lower houses ought to be vertically aligned, yet they are fighting. So we need to establish this vertical relationship. (202-270, 1990.5.25)

A person should establish responsibility through one's own self-control and self-determination within the life-committing vertical relationship with God. (277-200, 1996.4.16)

The term "true parents" means a man and woman who are, spiritually, completely mature. It refers to a man and a woman who have established a vertical relationship with God and a horizontal relationship with each other, at ninety degrees. (131-174, 1984.5.1)

God's intention was far greater than achieving a vertical relationship of love between Himself and human beings. He also sought to bring the horizontal relationship of love between Adam and Eve to fruition through the perfection of their vertical love with Him.

The moment of fulfillment of the ideal of God's love is established when God, as the internal parent, achieves complete oneness with Adam and Eve as the external parents. God, the incorporeal parent, becomes the eternal parent in the corporeal world by taking on the form of Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve can then become the True Parents and the true ancestors of all humankind. (135-10, 1985.8.20)

When man and woman form a relationship and become one horizontally, their love can make a vertical relationship of love with God, the subject partner. This is extremely important. (Blessed Family -- 356, Korean Edition)

Why are people sad when their loved ones pass away? When that happens, they feel it immediately due to the operation of the superhuman force that fills this universe. The more this force enters them, the more they feel the universal force centering on the vertical relationship with God. Yet when their loved ones pass away, that force leaves them, and they immediately feel the result of its departure. This is a tragic fact. People have to be perfect products but this situation makes them weaker. Human life pursues perfection, but when people come to have an element of failure that is the opposite of it, the universal force will drive out the conditions for it, and this appears as pain. You will all need to understand this clearly. (30-85, 1970.3.17)

God's ideal for His Kingdom on earth can be established for the first time in the place where heaven is established on the family level. This must become a four-position foundation.

In the Unification Principle, the perfection of the ideal of creation is the perfection of the four position foundation. Why is that so? The four-position foundation is established when the world of vertical relationships and horizontal relationships are created through three stages centering on God, Adam and Eve.

The horizontal world can unfold only through Adam and Eve's sons and daughters. When this happens, the vertical world is naturally formed. Considering the body, the children are the horizontal basis of the body, and the spirit world is the horizontal basis of the mind. As God is able to be present there for the first time, the Kingdom of Heaven is manifested on the earth. (96-28, 1978.1.1)

If the man is the subject, the woman automatically becomes his object partner, and this forms a vertical relationship with God. Therefore, marriage is not just for the man alone or the woman alone; it is to comply with the laws of nature. (Blessed Family -- 358, Korean Edition)

If you consider your family, you have your own sons and daughters and your parents, which means there are three generations in a family. There are hundreds and thousands of families that can inherit the ideal of the God-centered family on a similar horizontal level, centering on your own vertical relationship with God. Once they are connected, they can form God's nation. Without doing anything else, a nation can come into existence. The world is not as complicated or as difficult as you might think. (240-27, 1992.12.11)

Are the words, "Take after True Father," a blessing or a curse? These words imply that I will hand over to you all the blessings which I have prepared. After True Father has climbed over a big hill, then based on his achievement you should follow suit. You will also experience the same vertical relationship with God. (199-188, 1990.2.16)

There is only one vertical relationship. We should understand that the perpendicular position is the only way to inherit the lineage that connects human history centering on the original true love between heaven and earth. Why is the perpendicular position necessary? Once we move into it, our shadow disappears. Don't shadows disappear at noon? At present, God and humanity are not in the perpendicular relationship centering on ideal love.

So what is the way in this universe that will connect human beings and God through the shortest vertical distance by way of true love? It is the parent-child relationship. There is no distance shorter than that along the perpendicular. If it is off by even a little, it is not the perpendicular. The shortest distance is the perpendicular. Based on it, the mother and father are connected by the shortest distance, east and west. Next, siblings are connected by the shortest distance, front and rear. These form 90-degree angles. In terms of faces, there are twenty-four. As the omniscient and omnipotent God has such ideal conceptual ability, He resides at the center of a sphere at the center of the universe formed around a series of 90-degree angles at the intersection of the vertical and horizontal, the intersection of front-rear, left and right. Centering on what does God exist? On true love. If you were to ask Him that, He would say, that is all there is. (198-298, 1990.2.5)

Humankind stands at the center of all things of creation. What then, is at the center of human beings? It is true love. God's love forms one vertical line. (120-210, 1982.10.16)

The realm of the portion of responsibility is where we unite based on God's love. When you are linked with the vertical love of God and are heading toward perfection, the realms of indirect and direct dominion are connected. Satan is not there. If the realms of indirect and direct dominion are connected, the realms of heart are also connected, so Satan cannot be present. The problem is that the Fall took place before this occurred. (172-198, 1988.1.21)

When the perfect love of God is manifested, Satan cannot appear. That is the fulfillment of the portion of responsibility. While fulfilling their portion of responsibility, the love of God and Adam and Eve meet in the realms of both indirect and direct dominion. There the vertical love of God and the horizontal love of Adam and Eve are connected. (173-286, 1988.2.21)

What kind of God does the Unification Church speak about? We say that He is the vertical Parent of true love. Then, who are Adam and Eve? The vertical Parent is one. The word "vertical" implies that He is only one. The relationship of love between God and human beings is a vertical one. That vertical love is the center. Then, who are Adam and Eve? In relation to this vertical standard they represent the position of horizontal parents. (189-113, 1989.2.5)

Why do people get married? It is not for a man and woman to find their own love. Instead, it is in order for them to fulfill their objective positions and form a circular movement centering on the nucleus that is the vertical love of God. This is the ideal. God's ideal of creation is fulfilled centering on such a love, and only through the union of a mature man and woman can love be perfected and connected to life. The connection cannot be made through life. It is made through love. Centering on the vertical love of the Father and the horizontal love of husband and wife, the seed of the original love can finally be connected. (173-288, 1988.2.21)

Who are true parents? If Adam and Eve had not fallen, God would have bestowed His vertical love on them, and Adam and Eve would have become the body of God. They would have represented the body of God. God would have been like the bones, and Adam and Eve like the flesh. God can have a mind and body through Adam and Eve. He would have become the internal parent in the internal position, and Adam and Eve would have become the external parents in the external position. The internal and external parents must become one through love; at that place, we come to have external parents and attend the internal parents in heart. With the union of love between God and Adam and Eve, then true parents -- the perfected man and woman -- would emerge. There can be no perfected human beings if there is no union through love. (184-71, 1988.11.13)

If God were the owner of the vertical love only, the children conceived by Him would maintain just a single vertical line. He would not be able to have them expand horizontally. On account of this, He is not the one who would give birth to His children. Instead, He would have them born through true parents. The couple standing in the position of the parents of horizontal true love is the True Parents. They possess the horizontal love at a right angle to the vertical love of God, the True Parent.

That is why the love of both parents is necessary. On the one side stands the Parent who is the Creator, and on the other side stand the physical True Parents, the object partners of God, who were created in pursuit of the ideal. That is why God is in the position of the spiritual Parent and the True Parents are in the position of the physical Parents. In this way, human beings were supposed to be born connected to both the vertical love and horizontal love. (182-258, 1988.10.23)

The citizens of God's Kingdom are not born in the spirit world. For what purpose did God create physical beings? It was to multiply the citizens of heaven. Without physical bodies, reproduction cannot take place. Vertical love reaches only one point. It is only when this love revolves based on the horizontal foundation that a sphere covering 360 degrees can come into existence. There is plenty of space to live within that sphere. This is how God's children can be born on earth. (218-130, 1991.7.14)

Due to the Fall, the male and female organs became evil things because they became the original palace that opened the gates to the evil wave of death, the laws of death, the hell of destruction, and the wicked objects that violated the laws of heaven. This was the secret hidden in history until now. Had they not fallen, the male and female sexual organs would have become the origin of love and the original palace of love, life and lineage. As such, they should have been united with God's vertical love and the horizontal love of true parents. (197-175, 1990.1.13)

The Creator is the vertical Father who is centered on vertical true love. Had they not fallen, the original human ancestors, Adam and Eve, would have been the perfected horizontal and physical parents, standing in the position where they could become fully one with God at a 90-degree angle. The Creator is the Parent of heart centered on true love, and Adam and Eve are the horizontal physical parents.

If the Heavenly Parent and earthly parents had united and become one, and then had sons and daughters, no one born on earth would need a religion. Everyone would naturally go straight to God's kingdom. Heaven and humankind would be united. All of humankind's complicated problems arose because of the Fall. Without the Fall, our mind and body would not have become separated. (210-139, 1990.12.17)

What is the reason our mind and body have failed to become one? What kind of person is God the Father? He is the vertical pendulum of love that forms the fundamental core of the universe. When this pendulum tries to come down to earth, God alone cannot make it happen. Even with God, in bringing down love, there needs to be a force from the horizontal line that can pull this standard of love down…

Through what place does God come? Vertical love must be established. In order for that vertical love to have vertical value, the horizontal foundation must be laid.

This is also the case with men and women. When they are immature, they know nothing; but when they grow up, women try to possess the world and so do men. What happens when they try to possess the world this way? They should not go this way. Where should they meet? They should meet when they have grown up, when they are mature. To do this, they must advance to the point where they can claim the world as their own.

They say they will conquer the world, but they cannot conquer it with their own strength. They cannot do it without love. It is because the power of love exists that men and women have the ideal and dream to conquer the world. You want to make the whole world yours, don't you? Furthermore, if there is heaven, if the invisible world exists, you even want to make this invisible, infinite world yours. Why is this so? Because you have a vertical desire and a horizontal desire. Your horizontal desire seeks to make the entire earth, the horizontal world, your own; and your vertical desire seeks to make the universe your own. Your body is limited. It cannot go beyond the limits of the earth, but the vertical world can grow bigger without any limit.

In view of this, the father who can represent the mind is God and the father who can represent the body is the first ancestor of unfallen true love.

The Unification Church is now speaking of True Parents after having uncovered these facts that remained hidden throughout the ages. In accordance with the original view of the ideal of creation, the horizontal seat of the True Parents is the seat of God's son and daughter. In other words, it is the seat of Adam and Eve. Then, what about God? If those who are like the body are Adam and Eve, the one who is in the seat of the father, who is like the vertical mind, is God.

How do God, who is like the mind, and a person, who is like the body, become one? Not through power, knowledge or political might, but through love.

We as individuals were born to resemble the original model where our mind-like character and body-like character can be one. When we seek to find the fundamental core, there should be the body-like father and the mind-like father. There, the seat of the mind-like father is God's seat, and that of the body-like father is for the first ancestors of humankind. Then, where will the first ancestors and God, the father who is like the mind, becomes one? Where? They must become one through true love, at the core, the center of the sphere of love. Men and women seek each other centering on the vertical. (177-337, 1988.5.22)

Then, why are parents and children needed? Even though God possesses love, He needs a partner to share His love. We as children also need a partner to share our love. This partner relationship between parents and children is like the relationship of heaven and earth. It is a vertical relationship. (222-309, 1991.11.6)

Those who want to become the true sons and daughters of God have to establish the vertical unity of parents and children. You cannot reach perfection in the position of adopted son. You have to achieve the position of true son in unity with God. (God's Will -- 86, 1972.5.7)

The perfection of an individual starts from the point where he or she makes a vertical relationship with God. (Blessing Pt. 1 -- 20)

God is the vertical Father of true love. He is the Father centered on true love. (249-31, 1993.10.7)

1 Kim, Dae Jung. Loyalty, Filial Piety in Changing Times, Unification News for June 1999 (accessed 2007.4.29) http://www.tparents.org/UNews/unws9906/Kim_conscience.htm