ORDER NUMBER
81-02-15
REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON
SPEAKS ON
THE TWO WORLDS
OF GOOD AND EVIL
February 15, 1981
Belvedere International Training Center
Tarrytown, New York
Translator - Bo Hi Pak
Copyright © 1981 by Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity
If I said that you were all very evil, you would be upset and
hurt. On the other hand, if I said that you were all good people, you
would feel happy. The problem lies in knowing what is a genuine
definition and boundary of good and evil in the world. Everything can
be divided into good and evil; for example. there can be good eyes and
bad eyes, good mouths and bad mouths, good hands and bad hands. There
are good homes and bad homes, good policies and bad policies, good food
and bad food. There are good countries and bad countries, good men and
bad men, good ideology and bad ideology.
We conclude that if you want to become a good man then you have to
deal with nothing but goodness: you have to have good eyes and ears,
good food and good thinking. If you deal with evil or bad things in any
way. the consequences will be evil. If you have a big, beautiful,
seemingly perfect apple, but it has a small rotten spot somewhere. it
will still be classified as a bad apple. One rotten spot spoils the
whole thing, so that the apple cannot be totally good. Anything that is
not good is bad. Then what is the definition of good? Goodness is liked
and aspired to by everyone.
Many people who drink a lot will ask, "what's wrong with
liquor'?" But the general consensus is that hard drinking is not
good. Eating food in the right amount serves a good purpose, but
overeating will hurt you. From what standpoint can you evaluate which
members of a family are good'? Again, we have to come up with a
principle defining the boundary between good and evil.
Where do good and evil begin? There are two schools of thought in
our world today, one which says that men are fundamentally good. and
the other which says that men are basically evil. What, then, is the
origin of goodness'? First, goodness is something perfect. In the human
body, all the organs and limbs have to be perfect. Suppose you are
perfect physically, except that you have a minor deficiency in the
brain. Compare that to a man who has a perfect brain, but whose body is
abnormal; which is perfect? In order to be perfect, your brain, limbs
and appearance must all be complete.
Perfection must come both internally and externally; also, your
relationships with the surroundings must be harmonious. The
complementary relationships of internal and external, self and
surroundings, must all be perfect. When we speak of a world of
goodness, we envision that in such a world everything else also starts
to turn at various angles and speeds, but they are all harmonized in
working for a common purpose. That is perfection. The electric power
that runs the motor will bring all the machinery into harmony.
What is the basis for differentiating between the world of good and
world of evil? Does it begin with two different people or with the
division of one person into two parts? There are men and there are
women, but each person also has an internal part and an external part.
A central characteristic of evil is that it is changeable in
quality. An evil person is always changing, and will betray you,
stabbing you in the back. Even though you trusted him, he will betray
you. An evil man has two tongues, speaking of something, in a
favorable way one time, and another time saying the opposite, depending
on which will benefit him.
It is a delicate question to say whether it is man or woman who is
more likely to have a changeable character. What is the greater
possibility? In evaluating all the circumstances, I have to say that
women are more susceptible to being changeable in nature. Women
usually never miss out when good times or good things are being
pursued. Men may be content to wear one decent suit day in and day out,
all year long, but women always want to wear a new fashion. Just about
all the men here are wearing the same style clothing, but the women are
wearing all kinds of blouses and dresses, in all kinds of colors and
shapes. The men's world is just one dull color. but the women's world
is like a flower garden.
It can be said that the men's world is like the soil and the
women's world is something growing above the soil. Thus, women are more
susceptible to the changing world of evil; that's the way things were
made. When we see all these things, and then read in Genesis that the
fall was initiated by a woman, it is a convincing idea. Women paint
their nails, and on the street you see nails of all different colors. I
know that if fashion dictated that a women have ten nails of ten
different colors, it would catch on like wildfire, overnight. Women pay
attention to those things.
Men, however, are not so wise that they avoid following women. In
our world today do women follow men, or do men follow women? It is
feminine nature to want to be colorful, in a way sending out an
invitation by attracting attention. A flower is colorful and has
fragrance so that it can attract insects. The nature of men and women
comes out very distinctly when they go to a department store. A man
will just stop by to pick out a tie, but a women wants to shop around
in many places before she buys one specific item, and in the process
looks at many different departments. She is looking for strategic
weapons to make herself more colorful, to send out better signals.
The function of a flower is to attract the attention of insects.
Men are always replying to the signals that women send out, and men are
always duplicating the changing nature of women by responding to those
signals. This nature is apparent in the Bible, which says that the
first woman committed sin, and then tempted Adam. He, in turn, just
took the apple and ate. Do women usually do that to men, or do men
usually do it to women'? Eve sent out artificial smiles and messages;
that is most obvious. You may be wondering why I always give the women
a hard time, but think about this and then say whether it was a man or
woman who sent out the false signal first. It was a woman.
When we observe a nation and say it is very colorful, what we mean
is that its women are colorful. Men would say that a house only needs
painting every few years, but women would like to see it a different
color for every season! When you first enter Germany, your impression
is that it is a sober, dark country, with little that is colorful. Even
the women wear dark, uncolorful clothes. When you come to America,
however, the feeling is entirely different. America is always running
after a new fad. and women are always at the head of the line.
I am not saying that the women's world is bad, while the man's
world is good. Within the world of women there are both good and evil.
Some women are always on the lookout for something new, exciting and
fun, while the other group might be trying to preserve tradition. Which
side would be closer to good or evil? Certainly tradition has a more
unchanging quality, so it represents the good side. There are all kinds
of national traditions, but which should be in the center?
Again, there are two worlds in tradition, one good and the other
evil. What tradition should a person pursue? Do you want to preserve
internal things, or follow external things? Without question, you want
to pursue an internal tradition. We commonly speak of a "man of
conscience." Men of conscience have life, and also love. Tradition
should be based on the qualities of conscience, life and love. Is life
or love to be preferred? Each person preserves his own life, but you
cannot perfect love within yourself alone. You need a circuit, so in
order to perfect love you must associate. Do you think the power of
love could unite society and the world, or would it have to be the
power of love? It must be love, but love should be added to life
because love needs energy.
Where should the root of life be, then? Your life is the fruit of
the love of your mother and father, coming vertically down to you.
Thus, the energy of your life should be directed toward love, becoming
a seedbed of love. Your parents' love is consummated in your life, so
your life is spent searching after that origin. Also, you must
associate with people in the society to consummate your love. You are
pursuing the tradition in which your parents' love created your life,
so your life is directed toward fulfilling love which will bear fruit.
It is not the energy of life which will make society ideal. Only
the power of love can allow man's ideal to blossom. Love is the common
goal of every person. Everyone loves love. Do you need food more than
love? You eat food to preserve your life, needing the power of life in
order to give energy to your love. From food you get energy for life,
and it will be directed toward the blossoming of love.
Not only man, but also all things of creation are pursuing love.
What would be the ideal for men of conscience? Men of conscience always
value tradition highly. Where do they base that tradition? They thrust
the power of their lives into culminating and perfecting themselves in
love. If that tradition is erected, it should continue for eternity
with everyone recognizing the value of it. Do you think God would spend
much time pondering whether it should be approved, or would He give His
approval right away? Without question, God will always give His stamp
of approval to the tradition that bears the fruit of love.
What is an example of the unchanging quality of love? A good man is
one who upholds the unchanging quality of the tradition of love. The
tradition of love can be utilized on the individual level, family
level, on earth, in spirit world-everywhere. It is valued universally.
A man of love is accepted as a good man on every level, including
spirit world.
What kind of person is God? Certainly He is a God of conscience.
Have you seen God's conscience? We say that God has a conscience
because we are men of conscience. We are only resultant beings, so
certainly God, the Creator, must also be a God of conscience. We feel
that the energy of life will blossom and bum into love, and our
ambition is to fulfill love. If we think so, then our first cause, God,
must think so, too. Do you think you can meet every criterion of the
universe with love? You need love.
How much money do you think should be paid for love? I understand
that there is a 517 carat diamond in the British Crown. Would you swap
love for it? If the most expensive diamond in the world told you to
come to it, you should reply, "You are only my ornament. You come
to me instead." The power of life and love is priceless. When your
eye is shining in the power of love, that eye is priceless. If you have
eyes of love. all visible things of creation will want to be perceived
by your eyes, saying, "Look at me first!"
If you have the power of love, all sounds will want to be heard by
you, competing with each other to enter your ears. All smells and
fragrances of the world will compete to enter your nose. If you have
the power of love, all food will want to be chewed by your mouth. Even
though the food will be crushed by your teeth, it still wants to be
connected to the power of love through you. Food would rather enter
the mouth that represents the power of love than continue as it is. All
the fish in the oceans would rather leave the water to enter the mouth
that represents love.
Everything wants to be a prisoner of love. The ultimate
satisfaction of everything in creation is to be caught by true love.
Mankind is part of the creation of God, so we too find ultimate
satisfaction in becoming a prisoner of God's love. We want to enter the
mouth and ears and eyes of God. We want to be tools of God by becoming
prisoners of His hands. Why is that the ultimate satisfaction'? There
is nothing greater than God's love, and by becoming His prisoner you
are becoming part of His love.
What is the tradition of value that will last for eternity? That
tradition must be based on love. Do you think God needs law? The
primary purpose of law is to protect. Do you think the Kingdom of
Heaven should have a constitution? It will be based on the life power
of love. The most fundamental center of value is the life power of
love, so all heavenly law is designed to protect that tradition
forever.
The fundamental unchanging characteristics come from God, and He
values the life power of love. Thus, these are the foundation of the
creation. The whole universe is designed to promote or perpetuate these
qualities. Love is never self-centered. but is always for others. The
purpose of God's creation was selfish in a sense, for God wanted to
have joy. but essentially God's sweat and labor went into making His
object perfect and comfortable. God needed an object. because the law
says that love is for others. God needed some "other" on
which He could exercise the power of His love. Even God needs an object
to fulfill love, and man was created in that position.
The whole universe was built to give joy to man. Do you have a
deep, poignant realization that God created this whole universe as a
gift to you? He created it for you because He wants you to be a subject
of love, with the creation as your object.
Suppose you have created some objects which you enjoy, but someone
else passes by and is so charmed and intrigued by what you have made
that he wants it. When you see how that person feels, you feel the
impulse to give it to him so that he can keep loving it. If someone
loves your creation more than you do, you want to give it to him. That
means God takes after you!
This analogy applies perfectly to this universe. If you see a cute
little mouse that God made, or a soft kitten or puppy, God would say.
"Please take it home with you and enjoy it." All creation is
here to be your object and give you stimulation of love. Everything is
a masterpiece of God's, and when He sees that you love what He made
more than He does, He will love you for that as well. God can't help
but love you in that case.
When you are loving the things God made, He will be following
behind you. Don't you think He will want to hug you then? When you feel
something behind you and you turn around. God will be there to embrace
you tighter and tighter. When He squeezes you so that you plunge into
His heart of love, you will feel deeper and deeper joy. When you get a
heavy dose of God's love, you will be completely intoxicated, and when
you come out you will stagger around! Then God will say, "You see
how powerful my love is?" When God sees His son stretched out in
heavenly joy, He will say, "Amen! This is just what I
wanted," and He also will be stretched out in joy. He will feel
perfectly satisfied to see His child enjoying His love. The more there
is intoxication in the love of God, the more perfection will increase.
This universe should be the world of people drunk in God's love. Then
even if people are kicking around or Lying in the streets, it won't
make any difference. That is the ultimate state which God, man, and all
things of creation have been looking forward to.
Now we dig down to the very origin of good and evil. Anything
contrary to this principle is evil. Once we know what God is really
looking for, we know the definition of the worst Satan; that is any
power or person which is designed to destroy the life power of love.
Even though good and evil are not clearly defined in today's world,
people generally know that the family and nation are good, for they are
the stage where love can blossom. In the family the virtue is filial
piety; in the nation the virtue is patriotism, for instance. On the
world level, the life of a holy man is a good thing to achieve. Even if
people don't know specifically what is good and evil, they still have a
general idea.
Your life came into being through your parents' love, but your life
doesn't know whether it has love, so while you are growing you must
listen to your parents. It is through them that you will learn what
love is. When you are fond of your father and mother, ultimately your
love will go up higher, returning to God. the origin. A frequent
question is whether the chicken or egg came first; actually they are
the same thing, for everything returns. The seed goes back to the
fruit, which goes back to flowers, and returns ultimately to its
origin.
Why should you love your parents'? Because they are a rung on your
ladder to God. You are a center of the circle of love which begins with
God and continues through your parents. Together you are one team. As
the center you will learn the pattern of love, and then create your own
circle by finding Your mate and having children of your own.
Love brings unity. Why do you love your brothers? Because by loving
them you are bringing God into your circle. It is in the family that
you experience, practice and perfect love; it is your workshop of
love. When you coordinate your family unit with others, you are
creating a society, which is an even greater workshop of love. This
principle works just the same in the nation. Thus, love in the family
expands, becoming a nation, world, cosmos, and finally becoming one
with God.
A heavenly man is living this virtue and tradition, in the life
power of love on the individual level, to the family level, society,
nation and world. There are no boundaries or resistance to hinder you
in running this way to the love of God. When you have this heavenly
quality within you, you can make yourself at home wherever you go, for
your God is the God of every nation. It is the life power of love which
will thrust you all the way to the top.
You already have life power within you, but to spur you on further,
love must strike a spark within you. Love power is like the electricity
which turns the motor. When it starts to turn in the power of love, all
kinds of love and beauty are created in our universe, through the
harmony of many things turning in many directions.
This is a hypothesis, which you have not seen in action, but
hearing it makes you feel good, doesn't it? Still you want to try it
because you have heard nothing better. If you knew it was a proven
truth, would you bet your life on it?
There are many national Church leaders here this morning, and they
may tell their members that everything should be done through the
national leader. But the real question is whether those leaders are
becoming powerful in love. If you are powerful without love, you are
only a tyrant. But if a person of love is on top, he can dig all the
way down to the absolute bottom. That person has total freedom and
nothing will stop him, so he can go all the way up and down with
absolute liberty. Even if he goes all the way down to the bottom of
hell, everyone there will love him. He can go all the way up to the
throne of God, and he will be perfectly acceptable there.
Perhaps a leader will tell his members that they should report
everything only to him, so that he can tell me the good things, but
keep the bad things from me. Maybe he thinks he can do anything he
wants and the members should obey him. Energy and power are fine, but
if they are exercised without love, you create nothing but hell. You
should be listening to God and listening to me. Maybe the national
leaders think they are infallible and their power is sacred, but that
is no good. They should be totally obedient to higher authority, and
only then can they have the authority to guide their members. The
Divine Principle and God are trying to lead the Unification Church to a
certain goal, but even within the Church there are influences trying to
lead people in the other direction. A national leader should be like a
sacrificial parent who works harder and suffers more than the
children. If you become a personification of the love of God then even
though you go down, people will lift you up high and the universe will
lift you up.
Always shed tears of love. There are two kinds of tears- tears of
sadness shed in tragedy, and tears of love and joy. If you are really
crying out in the joy of love, so loud that you even wake up the world,
that is good. Sometime it is love to hit or bite a person. If, when you
are centered on love, you become controversial, it will be a dramatic,
heroic thing, not an evil thing.
We have been talking about tradition here. In many ways people
today follow only external traditions whose internal meanings have been
almost forgotten, so young people aren't very attracted to them. Young
people couldn't care less in many cases. If they heard about the
tradition of love and conscience this morning, however, they would want
to follow it. In religious history there has always been emphasis on
service and sacrifice; they are the methods of living the tradition of
love. In addition, we have certain external traditions, such as fund
raising and witnessing.
Do you just like the internal traditions but not the external
ones'? How can you prove that you have the internal traditions, but not
the external ones? How can you prove that you have the internal
tradition if you don't have a diploma to show'? To become a Ph.D. you
have to start in elementary school and get good grades all along the
way. Once you get your Ph.D. will anyone want to see your elementary
school certificate? No, they will take it for granted. In the same way,
in the Unification Church you must be certified. You need a fund
raising certificate, which testifies that you have loved all things of
creation. Your witnessing certificate testifies that you have loved
people.
You must be a PhD in loving men and all things, and with that
certificate you are eligible to have your mate. No one would want to
marry you until then! Does any woman want to marry a man who has no
certificate or qualification? It is in the home that you actually
practice love of all things and of people. If you don't already have
experience in that area then you don't know how to build a real
family.
When you fund raise, you work with unselfish dedication for
others. When you create your family. you will do things for your
family, your clan, society and nation. Fund raising is basic training
for this, for that same spirit is extended in loving your society,
nation and world. Then that tradition will be built into society. MFT
is the best place to practice this. so all members must go fund
raising. You don't love all things for your own sake, but for others.
This is the beautiful tradition you must learn.
In fund raising you bring money from the secular world. Here in the
Church we spend the money to save people in the fallen world; thus, the
money is actually going back to those who gave it, creating a circle
which will get bigger and bigger. The money you earn goes back to the
nation, to the world, to the universe, and to God. Each time the
material will serve a greater purpose.
In witnessing, you are loving people instead of material. The
countryman who opposes you is still better for you than the foreigner
who welcomes you. There are many obstacles to working in other
countries. Even if your own people oppose you, at least here you have
complete freedom, and you speak the same language and can talk to
them. You have the same customs and background, so you can be grateful
to be working with your own countrymen. Eventually, however. our
mission will expand to include other countries. In the witnessing
process you are seasoned by experiencing love difficulties. Then when
you become a family man, you automatically know how to overcome family
difficulties and you won't give up. Compared to what you experienced,
your family will look like heaven!
You will have only one savings account with your spouse, not one
for the wife and another for the husband. It is a good tradition when
the father can ask his children to contribute their own savings to help
in a family emergency, but it cannot happen if the husband and wife
have separate accounts and can't touch each other's money. If parents
fight, can they show their children how to love each other? When the
parents are in love and are totally united, the children won't know
what someone is talking about if he asks whether their parents fight.
In fund raising and witnessing you are getting the basic training
you will need to build your home later. Maybe our white brothers are
having a new experience here in sharing rooms with their black
brothers. But through having that experience it seems natural later on
if they have black wives. Once you find mutual respect among white and
black, finding harmony between white and white seems more than
natural. When you live in harmony with great extremes, it is easy to
find harmony between things that are similar. I keep encouraging you to
think about marrying someone of another race, so you are adjusted in
your thinking by the time blessing comes and you can accept anything
gratefully.
In every facet of life there are two contrasting worlds, but only
one power can harmonize them both-the power of love. With that power
you can willingly sacrifice yourself for your fellow man. You might
think you will lose everything by living this principle, but the
universal law is such that when you live this principle, the power of
love will replenish everything.
In living this principle, instead of always losing energy because
there is so much opposition, I am richly rewarded by young people who
love me. When foolish people come against me, wise people will support
me. When rich people oppose me, poor people will unite with me, and so
on. If white people hate me, ethnic groups will love me. I am always
amply rewarded.
What do you like about me? You like the life power of love. When
you hear me, you feel some power coming to you, and you want to be
grafted to me. We have come now to understand a real definition of good
and evil. My ultimate declaration is that wherever the life power of
love works, the power of God's love is always dwelling. When you go
away from the power of that love, it is as though a vacuum is created
which Satan will come to fill.
The Cain-and-Abel principle in restoration is based on this
understanding of good and evil. Abel brought an offering to God, where
the life power of love was contained. Abel's road is to link up with
the power of God's love. Being the subject of the Abel world, my effort
is to bring all good things to the altar of God through the life power
of love, making a genuine offering that can be accepted by God.
On every level, Abel is continually offering to God both material
and people. These two things should be connected to the life power of
love, for otherwise they cannot be accepted by God. When you truly
represent the life power of love, you cannot be self-centered, but are
always living for others. If you are truly balancing the whole, you are
naturally in the center. In every facet of our lives we are dealing
with the world of material and the world of people; our way of dealing
with them is in the life power of love, whether in religion, culture,
economics, education, and so forth.
My activities are not just religious; this is why people say I am
an industrialist, a scholar, a movie maker. I deal with every facet of
life in this same principle of love. Even if I go fishing, it is never
to enjoy myself. I am never apart from my fundamental mission. That is
why even tuna are attracted to me!
The leaders are the first group of people who should practice
loving the members more than they love their own families, so in this
120 day training they can practice this principle by loving each
other. There are all kinds of members in this workshop, so I told the
workshop director to mix up all types of people in the teams. I may
make it a rule that they change rooms every day. If they know they
will only be living in their room for one day, maybe they won't care so
much about keeping it clean as if they knew they would be there 120
days. I want to find out. Do you leaders think you need training, or
are you already perfected?
When this workshop was announced, I heard about all kinds of
reactions. Some of the leaders thought their Church family would fall
apart without them, but I think that without them their Church family
may have a chance to survive!
I am always living most naturally in two worlds, both high and low,
moving back and forth between them. When Col. Pak was in South America
last summer, he met and was entertained by presidents of seven
nations. He was given a great deal of honor because he was my aide,
and told me that he felt at that time how great I was. But when he came
to report to me in Morning Garden, he couldn't find me in the house.
Finally he found me at the bottom of the back yard, working with
several members to fix a rope for fishing. In my life I have embraced
both extremes of high and low. God's will is to bring these two
extremes into harmony, and only God's power can do this. A true Moonie
is the personification of the life power of love, so we can bring the
two worlds together.
Those who can say, "I really know who I am. I will be living
the life power of love to bring the two worlds together," raise
your hands. Thank you.