The Way to World Peace
Reverend Sun Myung Moon
This address was given on August 28, 1991 at the founding of
the Federation for World Peace, Seoul, Korea.
Since the Fall of Man, there has been a constant war going on within
each of us. It is an inevitable consequence of the Fall of Man that
there is continuous struggle and conflict going on within ourselves
between mind and body, and between the desire for good and the desire
for evil.
Originally mind and body were to be one. The human mind represents
God's mind. The human body is to be a container to accommodate the
mind, or a dwelling place for the mind. Separation came between these
two when the Fall of Man occurred.
The Fall of Man resulted in the body coming under the domain of Satan
or selfishness. Thus, tragically, the human body has become the
servant of Satan.
On the other hand, the human conscience is the agent of God in the
individual person. One's conscience does not exist for the benefit of
oneself. The conscience is planted by God for the sake of
righteousness. Yet the body rebels against this conscience. The body
only seeks after comforts and tends to act selfishly, going after
carnal desires. The conscience in turn is trying to chastise the body
and direct it toward the mind. This is why there is always inevitable
conflict and struggle within one's self.
This is the reason why the traditional religions of the world
unanimously teach the principle of chastisement of the body through
fasting, prayer, and other disciplines -- doing things the body does
not want to do. Religion is the training ground where the desire of
the body is suppressed, thus bringing the body to the will of the
mind. For this reason religion has been the instrument of God to bring
men back into the original ideal.
However, no one is capable of dominating his body without uniting with
God within himself. The only power that enables the mind to have
dominion over the body is that generated by the unity of the mind with
God's truth and love. Mind is subject and body is object. God's love
and truth have the power to bring them together into one harmonious
person. This is what religion defines as a man of perfection or a holy
man.
God-centered men and women in perfection are called men and women of
goodness. These good men and women may receive God's blessing of
marriage and be united into a couple of husband and wife. This will be
the beginning of one ideal family of men on the face of the earth.
This model family is what God wanted to have as a building block of
the society, nation and world.
The Family is the Foundation of Peace
There is an old saying in the Orient that "once peace is dwelling in
the family, everything goes right." A happy and harmonious family is a
family of peace and the foundation of the heavenly kingdom.
The dynamic of the family is true love. You must love God first, then
love your husband or wife and your children with truly pure and
sacrificial love. This is the manifestation of true love. God created
love as the supreme force in the universe. He has created nothing
greater in this universe. True love is supreme.
True love, of course, originates from God. God has invested
everything, every ounce of His energy, for the creation of all things
and mankind. Love is the only thing that when invested fully, returns
fully; When you invest true love, no attrition occurs. It will
multiply and prosper. Investing 100 percent of true love will yield or
return 120 percent. One might think that those who practice true love
would become poor and miserable, yet the end result is to the
contrary. By practicing true love you will acquire prosperity and
eternal life.
This kind of family of true love becomes the foundation for creating a
society, nation and world. That society, nation and world shall be
true love centered, and shall become ideal and peaceful. There you
will find understanding instead of misunderstanding. You will find
unity instead of division. You will find unselfishness instead of
selfishness. This is the society, nation and world where sacrifices
and good service become the dominant virtues. The realization of the
ideal of God is the way to achieve the ideal of true peace in the
world.
The Ideal of True Parents for True World Peace
When the Bible says that God sought to create human beings in "His own
image," this means that the invisible God wanted to manifest Himself
into a visible form. In other words, men and women would have become
the personifications of God.
If the first man and woman had realized the ideal of God, they would
have become the first visible form of God and created the first family
of man. Then God-centered children and grandchildren would have formed
an ideal society, nation and world. In this case the invisible God
would become the vertical True Parents of man centering upon true
love, and the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, would have become the
horizontal True Parents of mankind centering upon that same true love.
Centered upon these True Parents of man, humanity would have become
one family eternally fulfilling true brotherhood.
However, the fall of Adam and Eve meant that humanity lost True
Parents. That day we became orphans. Brothers turned into enemies. As
a result, nations came to develop antagonistic relationships rather
than friendly ones. Accusations abound on every level.
In the final fulfillment of human history, therefore, God's work of
restoration is the restoration of True Parents first, liberating
humanity from its orphan status. Today this is the central
dispensational work of God -- to bestow True Parents upon mankind, to
create the original family of man centering on God and true love.
Ladies and gentlemen, today's creation of the Federation for World
Peace must be different from that of the League of Nations and the
United Nations. Most important is that we must found this organization
upon the true ideal and philosophy of lasting peace as well as the
ideal of True Parents. In the final analysis, peace in God and with
God is the newest level of awakening. This is therefore a refreshing
new beginning toward the attainment of peace. The exclusion of God
from human efforts for peace is the core reason for their failure.
Therefore we shall make God the center of this movement and the
dynamics of this movement will be true love.
Historical Gathering
For men and women who are fervently longing for world peace, today's
gathering is an historic gathering. There are many presidents and
former presidents here today, as well as prominent religious leaders
and leaders from every walk of life. This is truly a rare and
extraordinary assembly. Furthermore, there are leaders from the East
bloc and the West bloc. Until recently, those leaders were mired in
the Cold War and locked in a chilling confrontation. In this
auditorium, however, there is no East or West. Everyone is gathered
together in one spirit of cooperation and reconciliation.
On November 9, 1989 the Berlin Wall finally came tumbling down. Ever
since that event we have been living in a different world. The world
is moving quickly toward reformation, change, mutual understanding and
friendship. Everyone today feels acutely that the mood of the world is
opening up to the blossoming opportunity of peace.
If you agree that the principles I have expounded are the fundamental
criteria for peace, then true peace is reachable and achievable. The
industrialized North must reach out to help liberate the South from
pervasive impoverishment. The developed nations must reach out with a
helping hand toward the developing countries and the new democracies.
Each nation's attitude must be changed from a selfish one to an
unselfish one. That in itself is a revolution. Nations can do this
when leaders see from the position of parents. The most unselfish and
sacrificial love of all is the love of parents. From that perspective
one can see that all nations are brother and sister nations. Then a
fresh new vision emerges and new opportunities will open up in front
of us.
It has already been announced that in September North Korea and South
Korea together will become member nations of the United Nations. This
is another significant positive development toward the achievement of
world peace. Then the number of member nations of the UN will reach
163. What should be the priority of those 163 countries in the days to
come?
The time of colonialism is over, where the powerful nations exploited
the weakest ones. The law of the jungle and Herbert Spencer's
"survival of the fittest" do not apply in our world. The age of the
superpower arms race that drove the world and humanity into fear and
uncertainty has also passed; humanity ought to be liberated from the
devastating threat of nuclear arms. What time is it in God's
timetable? This is the time that the Holy Scriptures refer to as that
of "beating our swords into plowshares."
This is the time for developing mutual trust based on a high moral
standard. It is a time when all the member nations of the United
Nations in a relationship of mutual respect and love, should jointly
declare one final war against our common enemies -- the scourges of
hunger, ignorance, disease and crime.
This is in God's plan. From this time on, the definition of "my
country" will expand. Although everyone has their home country where
their family lives, in a larger sense, the world now becomes "my
country" because it is where God, my Father, and my brothers and
sisters -- all the people of the world -- live.
From this point of view, advanced nations should seek to share high
technology with the developing nations and new democracies. To do
otherwise would be a moral crime. Things which are good and beneficial
must be shared among all nations. When a new discovery is made, it
should benefit all nations. If something is good for humanity and the
world, we must fulfill it, transcendent of national boundaries. For a
long time, I have been fighting for equal opportunity in the use of
high technology by all developing nations.
A Century of Peace
Ladies and gentlemen, your coming to this place is not an accident.
Nothing happens by accident. I feel you are ordained to be here. You
are chosen by God as champions of peace.
Within our lifetime we shall commemorate the year 2000. That year will
be history's new turning point. A new era is unfolding. With the
cooperation of God and man together the twenty-first century will be a
century of peace. In order to make that happen we shall work
tirelessly together for the next nine years. If we do, we shall be
able to eliminate all obstacles which might hinder the attainment of
peace.
The twenty-first century shall be a righteous century. In the twenty-
first century, wealth will not be the dominating factor. Instead, the
human spirit and human soul shall be dominant. The twenty-first
century shall be the era of unity between God and man. It shall be the
era where a new awakening will come to every man -- a realization that
he shall benefit himself more when he genuinely lives for the sake of
others. In the twenty-first century, selfishness will decline. Life,
honor, and glory based on unselfishness shall be triumphant. These are
the characteristics of the coming twenty-first century.
The era for peace is approaching. Even the opportunity for the Kingdom
of Heaven on earth is closer. The twenty first century shall be a
hopeful and glorious century. To make this happen, the Federation for
World Peace will provide the ideal and philosophy to educate the
world's population. The Federation will assist spiritually, mentally
and financially in the development of needy nations. The Federation
will set a high moral standard and take a dynamic role in building a
world of peace.
Ladies and gentlemen, you are the apostles of peace. A bright new hope
as well as an exciting new future is awaiting us. Today we should
fervently feel the desire to fulfill the great mission that is being
bestowed upon us.
In order to achieve this sacred duty and the historic responsibility
of building lasting peace, we should dedicate our lives. our fortunes
and our sacred honor with total commitment. The very first item on our
agenda shall be to invite God into our individual hearts, and those of
our family, society, nation and world. When God is with us, who shall
be against us?
Respected friends, my beloved brothers and sisters, we are called to
this sacred mission -- the building of world peace. Our noble march
shall begin today toward that glorious future. Let us build a true
world of peace together with God.
Thank you very much.
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