1. Life Is Short

Human life is limited. Though you may live a long time, you cannot live much longer than one hundred years. (172-28)

Let us say you lived for about eighty years. If you take out the sleeping time, then it is reduced by half to forty. Is sleeping living? Sleeping is like being dead. Isn't it so? Sleeping is dying. For this reason, out of the twenty-four hours, you live and struggle only for half of it. Then what if we take out one hour for eating time? Furthermore, if we take out the time for parties, celebrations, funerals and so on, then will you really live for even half your life? I calculated last time, and I found that we only spend seven years in real living. Out of these seven years, how many days can be counted as a day of true living? Is there even one such day? (49-336)

However we suffer, it does not last longer than eighty or hundred years, thirty-six thousand days. The thirty-six thousand days go by very quickly. Can't you endure for such a short time? God has been enduring for hundreds of millions of years. However miserable the human world may be, God is not swayed. Although He has millions of stories within His heart, He does not show any agitation. (124-59)

Life runs quickly. By the time you mature and understand how the world is, you are already forty or fifty, and the next ten years go by in an instant. Then quickly you will become sixty and seventy. The expression that life is one great dream of spring beauty feels so real. (139-153)

Life is not something that is around all the time. It exists for us only once. It will disappear in a moment, as fast as one clap of the hands. (139-153)

Our life is very short, isnt it? But this one generation goes up and down the measure of eternity. It can be extended infinitely. On the other hand, when it is bent, a new heaven and earth starts from there. It goes up and down like a weighing balance. It is like that. (46-155)

You don't know when your life will go away. When will you do it? Even if you do it right now, this is not enough, because time is still running away, and you don't know when your time will be finished.

(104-290)

2. The Most ImportantTime in Life

In our life, the time before marriage is the formation stage; the time after marriage is the growth stage, and the time when you have a family is the completion stage. These are the fundamentals. (125-160)

In one day, morning is like spring, day is like summer, evening is like autumn, and night is like winter. Likewise, human beings have stages of childhood, youth, middle age, and old age. The spring time of life is puberty. Summer is the thirties, and Autumn is the forties. Then begins the winter period of life, and when the winter solstice comes, life ends. This applies to all principles of the four seasons and the day. (33-40)

Considering an individual life, there are periods of youth, middle age, and old age. When is the most precious time for you as a human being? For some, their destiny is decided in you, for some, the whole problem of life is resolved in middle age; and for others, old age is such a time.

There is the prime time for everyone, whether it is youth, middle age, or old age. When we understand the prime period and estimate its time, we can see that it comes at one point of time. For instance, a mountain has its highest peak, where the whole mountain range culminates. When we see the watershed in the mountain, it works like a line that divides the inside and outside. There is such a point in our life. When is this time? We human beings do not know it. (36-217)

When is the hopeful time in our life? It is childhood, then adolescence, the twenties and thirties. Comparing people to flowers, youth is the most glorious time, when flowers blossom and fragrances spread. When we become forty, fifty and sixty, the flowers start withering away. They go down on the way to death. What hope is there when death approaches? (137-217)

The most important time of life is the time of birth, marriage, and death. Then how should we be born? We should be born well. In our church terms, babies should be born through a shimjung connection. Next is the time of marriage. We are married in order to live together and complete the four position foundation. This public law of the universe must be established on earth for God's will and humankind's will to be realized. The family is the unit that conforms to the direction of the cosmic law. (24-230)

3. Human Life and Time

Among all things that exist on earth, there is nothing that exists without a purpose. All beings have a purpose, and they move towards it through time. It may take one day, one year, a few years, or a whole lifetime. For instance, a country moves toward the purpose of goodness through thousands of years of history. All beings are running toward their purpose of life.

Considering human beings, there are the times of childhood, youth, middle age, and old age. These ages all differ from one another, and there are different missions and responsibilities for each period. When you fail to complete the mission of childhood, you cannot enter youth with confidence. If you fail to complete the mission of youth, you cannot enter middle age with confidence. If you do not complete the mission of middle age, then you cannot confidently enter old age. Thus, we can see that in human life the carrying out of your responsibility in one stage determines whether you can realize your purpose in the next age. (24-211)

We often hear that even a hero cannot realize his ambition if the time is not ripe. We know well from history that when a capable person appears on a prepared foundation of time, this person and time can combine and create a new history. That is why time is a concern.

When you get up in the morning, you eat breakfast and start work. When it comes to lunch time, you must eat lunch. Then you start the afternoon work. When it comes to dinner, we eat dinner and enter into night. This way, on the basis of regularity, we live through a changing environment.

In an individual life, there are the periods of childhood, youth, middle age, and old age. Life proceeds and ends through these steps. One life is not always the same. When you enter these ages in the wrong way, you may even wish that you had not been born. But if you enter these periods in the right way and live meaningfully, then your life can be remembered as a most precious life. For this reason, success and failure start with how wisely we enter the time. We can see this clearly in our daily life. (57-287)

4. The Merits of Our Ancestors and Fortune

When you see a Unification Church member go witnessing, as soon as he goes out, people follow him around eagerly, although he has nothing to give. He only has an elementary school education, and his character is also quite shallow. However, when he sheds tears, the whole town does the same, and when he gets up early in the morning, the whole town does too. This is because he had good sacrificial ancestors who did not see the light during their lifetime and through him they found a chance to see the light. No harm comes to this person, wherever he goes. On the contrary, there is an opposite type. He may be handsome in appearance, but he suffers wherever he goes. It is because his ancestors lived affluently, and now indemnity requires that the opposite road be taken. It takes time to come out of it and start his way up. For this reason, there is suffering and evil in this period. If he fails to overcome this and takes off, he can never go beyond this level. Any Unification member who complains that witnessing is difficult, however long he has followed the Church, cannot transcend fate and become a victor. You should know this. Therefore, we can see that history and human destiny are fair.

Some people live happily, screaming with joy. This is too small. If you see from here, you will say, "Ah, I am happy." The angle is this, this, and that. If you pass this, then you are happier by this much.

There are people of the opposite type, however. They go in the opposite way. How unhappy must they be? What comes later is higher. This is to indemnify the historical relationship.

This sine curve applies to the individual, the family, the clan, the nation, and the world. When one is on the decline, the other is on the rise. This sine curve is the judgment. Mankind prepared the foundation for six thousand years in the satanic world, and then goes into the world of the heavenly kingdom.

Who is the wise person? The wise person is the one who follows the beat, no matter how difficult it is. Religion has been doing this. Let us take the fortune that comes every thousand years. We are going to start from here and the fortune of the thousand years receive in this period. (59-143)

5. Destiny and Lot

When you consider the term oon myung (destiny), oon means life, and myung means to move. The terms means "moving life." Myung also means going toward one standard. Destiny means that the path cannot be avoided. In Korea, there is a common expression. It goes, "Born with a wrong fortune." For a frog, it is better to live in the water than on the land. It is born this way, and should live and die this way. It has no other way of living.

A cicada has a larval stage. Although a cicada lives in a puddle or hole in the ground, this is not the way it is supposed to live in the future; it is supposed to fly in the sky. Whether it is digging under the ground or swimming in the water, it has to make a certain preparation for flying. The wings must be prepared. This is an absolutely necessary condition. To become a full insect, the preparation should be made from the larval stage. It should go through a period of taking off the shell and organizing itself. When it is in the water, its shape has to be wide so that it can comfortably float above the water, but this is not good enough for flying. Everything has to be restructured in order for the cicada to adapt to the flying stage. This is its destiny. A fish has a destiny that it can never leave the water alive. (120-236)

What is the origin of human happiness and unhappiness and good and bad fortune? Can human beings change and create their fortunes and build their own foundation of happiness? Of course, efforts may lead to some relative foundation, but can individual fortune be directly connected to the fortunes of the country, the group, the world, and heaven? From this point of view, there must be destiny. (78-263)

You can make a new start when you make one turn. The universe turns around. Considering that history repeats itself and unfolds in the pattern of historical identity, the destined time is coming. When this time comes and you receive it well, you can put 365 days in line, and your individual fortune will follow the heavenly fortune towards a happy life. Then where should this life of good fortune proceed? Fortunes of the country and of the individual differ. Why were Vietnam, Laos, and Khmer taken over by communists? This is a bad fortune. Your individual fortune has to follow the beats. (78-275)

If somebody enjoys 120 of his fortune when he only has 100, then his descendants will suffer the consequences. Human destiny tightens like an elastic band. When someone only lives 80, however, he can bequeath the remaining 20 as a blessing to his descendants. (78-333)

Lot can change, but destiny cannot. Can you change the fact that you were born as a Korean? Can you change your parents? No matter how strong a country's government may be, it can never change someone's parents. The way of restoration is a way of destiny; eventually, it has to be resolved. (172-55)