The Way for Young People

by Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Chapter 1. The Life Course of Man

Section 1. Problems in Life

1. What Is Life?

1) Until now problems in life have been like a maze

Throughout history, philosophy has struggled to solve the problems in life. Many philosophers have agonized over such problems as what are true human values, how does one perfect oneself, and how does one achieve a level of completeness that can be victorious and proud before the entire universe? However, their efforts have resulted in all varieties of opinions. Now all the opinions and "isms" by which men have formed systems of thought have been experimented with and all have proven to be failures. (141-125)

Why do men wish not to die, even if they are living a mediocre life? What is at the bottom of all this? I am sure that you have many questions. However, your questions can not be answered by men's philosophies in books. Philosophy has, in effect, been building a road to God. What is religion then? A life of religion begins when you live together with other people in acceptance of God. (186-12)

People commonly ponder the meaning of life, asking, "What is life?" Likewise, it is important to us to establish our views on life, our country, the world, the universe, and God. What are they like? It is important for us to establish order in our views and to connect the different dimensions. This is the most important problem. (75-324)

Unification Church members are different from other people. Being centered on the will of God, we are certain about life after death, our future. Indeed, we are experiencing it.

Up to now, many men on earth and numerous saints and sages throughout history have devoted their lives to the questions of where we come from and where we are going, all in vain. (33-7)

Life Bereft of Motivation and Purpose

It is a common saying that men come and go. This applies even to the greatest men and has been so since time immemorial. The movement of history and the morals of Heaven continue to apply to us even at this moment, and you must be aware of it. We shall come and go ourselves.

We know very well the reality that we come to this world, struggle, and eventually go somehow. If that is so, what are we here for and where do we go from here? This is the very issue that numerous philosophers or religious men have tried to resolve and failed to. Human history is tainted with the grief of such continuing failure.

We live in a time of tension. You cannot deny that we are walking the inevitable path of life. We are born into the world of our parents-a world we never knew. As we get older and weaker, we are destined to die. It is sad but true that we cannot keep our youth forever and avoid aging. Even great men cannot escape from this. Thinking of this, you must have felt the urge to throw your arms in the air in frustration and displeasure at least a couple of times in your life.

Why was I brought into this world? Why do I have to live on? Where am I headed? You should never allow yourself to think that you were born by your own will. We are ignorant of the motivation and purpose of our being. In other words, we were born, live, and die in spite of our wishes. Then what is there to be proud of? We have no control over our birth, our possessions or our death; thus any attempt to show off is tragic. Once born, we are destined to live and then die.

What is the purpose of such a process? You need to think about this once again. The motivation does not come from oneself; therefore, the purpose must not be only for oneself. Who would not wish to be happy and live in glory? Anyone would, but "I" am not in control. It is "I" who wants to be proud and free. It is also "I" who determines the crossroad of God's heart.

We are always asking for something bigger, a better life and higher worth, even though we have nothing to do with our being in this world. Since this is so, is it for myself or for some purpose relative to myself? You must know the answer. I dare you raise your hand and say that it is for myself. When you were born of your parents' flesh and blood, did you really want it yourself? Although my parents gave birth to me, I am a living body other than my parents and my fate is not in my parents' hands.

Then who has power over me? When you figure out who the man of power is, that will be the day you can be joyful. Unfortunately, these days people are struggling to overcome this standard. Let's not forget that we are such people.

Hence, we pursue something bigger in our mind. We also want to realize a connection to a bigger and more amazing world of life, pushing the power of death throughout life. Furthermore, God's heart of love is making us closer to the eternal world of Heart by going beyond the human world of heart. You may not be able to explain and verify this; however, you are often being led by such feelings. The clearer your conscience, the more you feel that something is urging you to desert this world of contradiction. (7-178)

Our life is passing regardless. Moving without an objective is such a terrible thing. In the desert, traveling straight means you can go a long way. Unless you move your feet exactly straight, you are bound to wind up making a circle in the long run.

Try rowing a boat on a sea or lake. To go from one point to another, you need to have a triangular frame of mind instead of a straight line. Rowing puts you on a meandering path. Drawing from the rowing experience, "I" am alive and going somewhere; however, I am not sure of the direction. That is why we have to operate on three points between the starting point and the point of destination. This way you are guaranteed a path close to a straight line. This argument is valid. (89-164)

3) Regaining the Self that Was Lost

The mind is in agreement with the law of nature in that it wants to move toward goodness infinitely. It is like magnet pointing North and South. The law of nature never misses goodness by losing the direction. There is no such phenomenon. The human mind tends to move toward a certain objective. The mind that moves toward life, moves through God's heart, identifies the truth, and yearns to harmonize with the whole is the grounds on which God can give instructions for escape. I want you to know this for certain. You must regain yourself. Once you have set the standard of mind, you ought to analyze yourselves in order to look into what shape you are in and your situation. Somehow, you may feel displeasure and a weight of fear at the continuous urging of your mind. Therefore, you realize you are in the wrong place. In this way, you ought to know what shape and situation you are in.

If you somehow managed to see the spirit world, you could see numerous saints from thousands of years ago screaming before us. These days numerous spirit men are running past you, trying to educate you by saying, "Let's go together. The enemy is coming." Unfortunately, you are in such sorry shape that your ears are deaf to such a sound, your eyes are blind, and your body cannot sense their presences. Nothing is more deplorable than this. The misery of this is no longer personal. It is an unforgivable sin in the view of God, who is trying to connect the value of being to the entire world of ideology. (7-182)

4) If There Is a God, Then There Must Be an Instruction Guide

No man is good. We are born only to find out that we are not of the breed of goodness but of evil. We are born only to find out that we can neither stand before the ideology of re-creation nor talk about values. You cannot deny that you are unworthy, unprepared, incomplete and lacking. In Christianity, such a man is defined as a fallen man.

The original mind of man does not wish for a life of enjoyment in the fallen world. We have been avoiding this path for 6,000 years; however, we have not yet established the standard such that we avoid this route one hundred percent.

Today, the so-called course of life means heading for a certain objective while pursuing the good and avoiding evil. Our course of life should be the course of avoiding the evil environment with the objective of eliminating evil and upholding goodness every day and even after death. That is why you tremble with fear inside.

In contrast to the feeling you get when you move toward the original home of the mind, you feel fear that something is seizing you when you stand on the side of evil. Remember, that is because of our avoidance of the original mind when faced with the history of sin, the power of death, and the power of darkness. We are in the course of escape. How will God lead mankind to escape from evil? If there is a God, an instruction guide must exist. (7-180)

2. Men Are Not the Cause of Things

Everyone on earth wants blessing. Everyone wants their path blessed by some absolute power and wants to follow it. This desire is shared by individuals, organizations, nations, and the world. Men are not the cause of nature. Things do not derive from men. (188-250)

Who are we? Who is God? He is the Creator. Who is the creator? According to the world of religion, God is our Father, and we are the children of God. However, it is not clear what kind of Father He is. Is He a rented father? Is He the father of our neighbor? Our stepfather? What kind of father is He? If He is not our real parents, is He our parents-in-law? Is the word "Father" right? As long as this fundamental question is not resolved, waiting for a better environment is not a solution. It won't be resolved for tens of millions of years.

It is a problem between man and God. Man and God! When you ask if it is true that God is our Father, do you feel that God is your Father? The bodies of my father and mother certainly existed before I did. On the premise that I exist because of my mother and father before me, my mother and father existed first, I exist next. This is the correct formula. It is foolish to assert that I exist without taking my mother and father into account.

Why? We human beings are not the first cause of things. We are the second result. Because of this, we have to mention the existence of a mother and father before our own existence. Having this point of view, we must ultimately resolve the problem of God, the origin of the universe, first and fundamentally. Tracing back beyond your parents and ancestors, you will come to God, won't you? If you follow this logic, you have to define God before asserting yourself. The Unification Church teaches simply that God exists; He is our Father, and it teaches what our Father is like. (188-190)

Since men are the result, aim at the starting point of the origin. Of course, it shouldn't be done blindly. Because God has character, a man of character has an original intellect, emotion, and will, the substantive operation of the conscience. Therefore, the motivation should both exceed the substance of the cause and be absolute. Once getting off to a false start, its direction cannot be corrected. (172-32)

3. Only One Straight Distance

Consider the future of a boat without a compass. As you know, a boat moves by the turn of an engine operating the screw. What about the sailor? Does he need only to hold the handle? What will happen? The same is true for our life. Is it all right that we manage to live a directionless life, getting up in the morning, eating meals, going back and forth between home and work like the turning of a screw? What will happen when you arrive at port-the final destination? Will you be able to disembark at the final destination? There is no more critical moment than this.

Once I had a chat with an old man on the road. I asked him, "Where are you going?" and he replied "Where else? To my son's house." I said "Is that right?" and asked, "What do you there?" He said, "I am offered meals and sometimes chicken, which I really enjoy." I asked again, "What do you do after eating?" He said, "Nothing much after that." Is this the way you want spend your life? Even when you enter in your family account book, you balance the revenue and expenditure accurately. You keep the balance thoroughly. Then how about your life? Have you ever balanced your entire life? Is it in the red or in the black? If it is in the red, you ought to mourn bitterly. On their deathbeds, men ought to be able to die singing joyfully. Any attempt to live when death confronts you is a proof that your life has been in the red. We must live a life in the black balance in the world of the heart, centering on absoluteness.

However, this is not the case, and thus we need religion to mend the situation. That religion should possess a driving force that is explosive, having sudden impact, not gradual. Can you understand this? Wouldn't it be nice to have such a religion? Up to now, the history of Christianity is about 2,000 years long and that of Buddhism is over 2,000 years long, but no man lived for 2,000 years. Gradually, we have come up with religions of historic meaning. That is why we wish to build the nation of the original home and the bridge to enter it.

When you go to In Jae, in Kangwon province, many roads which seem to take less than five minutes turn out to be more than fifty miles. As you walk, saying, "Why am I walking a distance not even negotiable by car?" your legs begin to kill you. A similar day will come as you go on your path in life. When the day comes, will you want to go back or keep going straight? Here we need a helicopter or a rocket. Something must be different. We will need to execute an emergency plan. We need a religion which can do this on this earth. (19-289)

What did you come here for, so early this morning? Why are you sitting here? What for? Are you sitting here because you are hungry? Are you sitting here in the cold because you feel hot? Are you sitting here because you are cold? What are you sitting here for? You don't know the true direction; whether to ascend or descend, to go this way or that. There are many churches and many religions. There are many true look-alikes. Only one is real, whereas many are fake.

When you look at a human being closely, the eyes, ears, nose, mouth and arms are paralyzed. All are paralyzed. Show me the way which will consolidate me into one unit, unifying my eyes, ears, and my every sensory organ into one all tied together with my nervous system. Show me the way in which we can live feeling ecstasy and joy. Show me the shining way which will satisfy not only me in my personal life course, but which will also satisfy my family, tribe, country, world, God's territory, and all the way up to God.

The way that we are searching for will take mankind to the world of happiness, the world where all the human race becomes one. The way must the light that can lead us to one destination, going beyond rank. Show me the way that aims for and directs us toward such light. We need it, don't we? Then what on earth is this light? What kind of light is it? (95-181)

There is only one short path to the top of the world. Not two, but one. Without going through it, you cannot arrive at the one world. If you launch a satellite of prosperity toward fallen mankind in order to destroy the evil base, the satellite should not travel at will. The satellite will destroy the target even after tens of millions of years, because it will travel an orbit in the same manner always, once it is programmed in the computer. Two different ways do not exist.

4. Why Do You Live?

1) What Do You Live For?

The question is for whom and for what I should live. When you think of this question, you have to reflect, asking yourself, "What am I living for?" What have you lived for up to now? Have you lived for the earth or heaven? In history up to now, no one can say for certain that he has lived a life of completely fulfilling the will of the Creator.

Why is this? It is the Fall of man. Because of the Fall of man, men were forced to leave the original ideal garden in which they could live in virtue, an environment in which they could live for the whole. Fallen men living on this earth are faced with the situation that in their mind, they want to live in virtue and for the whole, but their bodies do not function accordingly. We live faced with this situation.

Although men in nature were meant to live in an ideal world, they, who should be noble, are in an unspeakably terrible place, barely managing to go on-all because of the Fall.

However, you feel that you want to live better. No one can deny that you want to live better life, feeling bigger, wider, higher and longer lasting value. Although our mind wants such a life, we don't have the substance to back up and to drive such a life; we have no such ideology. You may say that you live. However, can you say in confidence, "Heaven and earth and God, please cooperate"? You are not capable of that yet.

I myself am ignorant of the contents of life in the origin of Creation and incapable of talking confidently before some spirit men in heaven, the Creation on earth, and God, the Creator. However, some spirit men in heaven, the earth, and God are working for you even at this hour. In spite of such work, men have walked the course of history wandering about, struggling and longing for that world, not knowing whether heaven and earth and God exist or not.

The time has come for the students here to think once as of today "What do I live for?" If God were to ask you, "What do you intend to live for?" how would you answer? Taking it one step further, if God were to ask you what you are really living for, you could in no way say that it is for yourself. For whom does a nation exist? You ought to know that a nation does not exist only for its own sake. Why? Nations, peoples, and the world are within the dominion of the great purpose of the universe. Therefore, it must be the case that no being is meant to exist for its own sake alone. (8-42)

2) Whom do you live for?

If you say, "I live for myself, who else?" then you fail. Can there be a family for a man who is living for himself? There cannot be a family of hope. Can there be a nation? A nation cannot be built upon that foundation. Can there be a world? There cannot be a world.

The pledge of heaven and earth is a deterrent, saying, "Go away, you villains of individualism! Can a family enter where individualism has priority? Can an ideal nation enter there? Is it possible to enter into a place as narrow as the tip of a gimlet?" No matter how hard you may try to enter, you won't be able to. (57-66)

3) You Live because of Love

How do you live your life? It is simple to explain where men come from, why they are born, and how they have to live. Men are headed for the destination of love by finding the path of love, since they are born because of and as the result of love. This way we can revolve forever according to the law of circulation in the universe. Because love is an eternal concept, you come to this center looking for love, which is possible by love alone. (125-65) Therefore, you need to know that. Love is the purpose of movement and existence for everything. You must always carry an iron rule that you move and exist in search of love. The reason the plus and minus ends of a magnet join together is to become one in love. People meet other people with the intention of becoming one. What is the purpose of becoming one? It is not because of money, greed, children, etc. You must know that nothing makes sense without the love of God.

What do I live for in the course of my lifetime? Do I live for myself? You live because of the love of God. Because of this you move around and live. How wonderful it is! Those who live this way will never fall to ruin. The difficulties, tears or miseries you encounter in pursuit of the love of God will no longer be recognized as such. Do you know this principle? Once you know that this is the purpose of being, you can utilize this knowledge to move everything in the world. That is the Principle of Creation. If we have this many people and they are of such a mind, could these people move America or not? Time is the only problem. In this way, America is bound to move. She is bound to move. (67-159)

What do we live for? Let's live for absolute true love! Everything is included in this. Therefore, the handkerchief in my pocket is for love, and working and sweating are all for true love. I am talking, eating and playing all for true love. (107-205)