The Head-Wing Thought

The human being is a being with Divine Image, resembling the Image of God. The Divine Image consists of Sungsang and Hyungsang, yang and yin, and Individual Image. Resembling this Divine Image, each one of us is to become a being of united Sungsang and Hyungsang, a being of harmonious yang and yin, and a being with individuality.

There are four kinds of Sungsang and Hyungsang in human nature. First, each human being is a substantial image integrating all things. We contain in our Sungsang and Hyungsang not only the Sungsang-Hyungsang elements of the animal kingdom, plant kingdom, and mineral kingdom, but also the Sungsang-Hyungsang elements unique to human beings, namely the spirit mind and the spirit body. Second, each person is a dual being of spirit person and physical person. Third, each human being is a being of united mind and body. And fourth, each human being is a being with a dual mind consisting of a spirit mind and a physical mind.

Now, when we consider the human being from the perspective of having lost the original human nature, the relationship between the spirit mind and the physical mind (the fourth kind of Sungsang and Hyungsang mentioned above) is especially important. Hence, let us consider this relationship in further detail. Tire function of the spirit mind is to pursue a life of truth, goodness, beauty, and love in other words, a life of values. Love is the foundation for truth, goodness, and beauty. Therefore, a life of values is a life of truth, goodness and beauty, centered on love. to be sure, a life of values includes the aspect of pursuing one's own joy by seeking spiritual values for oneself, nevertheless, a more essential aspect of a life of values is the effort to please others through realizing values. Therefore, life of values is a "for others" type of life that is, life in which one lives for family, tribe, nation, humankind, and ultimately for God. In contrast, the function of the physical mind is to pursue the life of food, clothing, shelter, and sex -- that is, material life. Material life is life centered on the individual person.

In the original order, the spirit mind and the physical mind are in the relationship of subject and object. The physical mind should obey the spirit mind. The union of the spirit mind and the physical mind constitutes the "human mind." The human mind in which tire spirit mind is subject and the physical mind is object is an "original mind." That the physical mind obeys the spirit mind means that the life of values is primary and material life is secondary. This means that the life of truth, goodness, beauty, and love is tire purpose (goal), and the life of food, clothing, shelter, and sex is the means to that goal. This is the way human beings, originally, should have lived.

In order to actualize such a relationship between the spirit mind and the physical mind, human beings should have grown in accordance with God's word. Their, they would have formed a union in give-and-receive action between the Sungsang and the Hyungsang, just as in God a union between the Original Sungsang and the Original Hyungsang, centering on Heart, is maintained.

Due to the human fall, however, human beings failed to actualize the original relationship between the spirit mind and the physical mind. As a result, the physical mind, which should have been in the object position, came to stand in the subject position; and the spirit mind, which should have been in the subject position, came to stand in the object position. Thus, the life of food, clothing, shelter, and sex became people's primary objective, whereas the life of truth, goodness, beauty, and love became a means to that end. Love for others and actions of truth, goodness, and beauty came to be carried out for such purposes as gaining wealth and obtaining position. This does not mean that there are no values in the fallen world: there are values in the fallen world, but in many cases, these values are the means for self-centered, material life. The reason is that the physical mind has become the subject, and the spirit mind has become the object.

In this way, the original relationship between the spirit mind and the physical mind has been reversed. Therefore, in order to recover the original state of human life, this relationship must be returned to its original state. That is why, throughout history, the various religions of the world have taught people how to win victory in the battle against their own selves. Confucius, for instance, spoke of the "return to the observance of the rites through overcoming the self." Jesus said, "If any man would come after me, let him ... take up his cross and follow me" (Matt. 16:24, Rsv), and "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God" (Matt. 4:4, RSV). In order to achieve victory over themselves, people have often chosen a monastic way of life, which includes asceticism, fasting and prayer.

Thus far, numerous monks, nuns, saints, and righteous people have indeed prevailed in their battles against their own selves, but having done that, they did not know what to do to cope with the sinful world. Thus, real society remained under the dominion of desires centered on the physical mind, and those monks nuns, and So forth, had to conduct their saintly lives separately from the rest of society.

Yang and yin are attributes of the Sungsang and of the Hyungsang, Let us discuss the harmony between yang and yin as the harmony between a yang entity and a yin entity. The harmony of yang and yin in humankind refers to the harmony of man and woman, or more precisely, the harmony between husband and wife.

The problem of what husband and wife should be like and what the family should be like have been important issues since ancient times. Animals, plants, and minerals all exist and multiply through the union between yang and yin. Yet, to regard the union between yang and yin in human beings simply as the union between man and woman would be equivalent to regarding the union of husband and wife simply as a biological union. In advanced nations today, men and women easily get married and easily get divorced; as a result, the sacredness and eternalness of marriage are being lost. This is not the original way for the relationship of husband and wife. No satisfactory answers have yet been given to such questions as why men and women exist or for what purpose they get married. Hence, people many times prefer not to get married at all. To these problems, Unification Thought offers clear solutions.

First, husband and wife each, originally, represents one of God's dual characteristics; accordingly, their conjugal union, signifies the manifestation of God. When husband and wife love each other centering of God and with God's love as the vertical axis, they love each other horizontally, performing a circular movement centering on that axis. When that happens, God's love dwells in that couple.

Second, husband and wife each, originally, represents one half the universe; therefore, the unity of husband and wife signifies the completion of the creation of the universe. If Adam and Eve had not fallen away from God, the creation of the universe would have been completed by the perfection of Adam and Eve because the perfection of humankind, which was to rule over the creation, was the ultimate aim of the creation of the universe. Thus, the perfection of' husband and wife signifies the completion of the creation of the universe. Since, however, no couple has ever reached perfection, the creation of the universe has not been completed yet. For that reason, God has been conducting the dispensation of re-creation. To re-create fallen human beings means to lead them to be perfected as individuals, and further to be perfected as husband-wife couples. Human beings were created to be rulers of dominion over all things, but neither man alone nor woman alone can become ruler of dominion. Only by being perfected as a couple, that is, as husband and wife, can they become rulers over creation. Only then will the creation of the universe be completed.

Third, since husband and wife each, originally, represents one half of humankind, the unity of husband and wife signifies the unity of humankind. To explain, the husband represents all the men of humankind, and the wife represents all the women of humankind. The population of the world today is approximately five billion people. Therefore, the husband and the wife, each, possess the value of representing 2.5 billion people.

Fourth, originally husband and wife, individually, are beings representing one half of the family; therefore, the union of husband and wife signifies the perfection of the family. The husband represents all the men of the family, and the wife represents all women.

From the above perspective, that husband and wife love each other signifies that they have perfected their love for all humankind through the family, and that they have become the center of the universe. The union of husband and wife is, indeed, a sacred and precious union. ²

Because of the human fall, however, Adam and Eve were not able to become husband and wife as originally intended. As a result, in fallen humankind, no husband-and-wife couple has ever been able to become united centered on God's love, and all of them have lost God. Thus, the creation of the universe has remained incomplete, humankind is divided, and discord often takes place within the family.

Today, family problems and social problems abound everywhere. The cause of all of these problems is that husband and wife do not have a proper relationship. That is why families break down, societies are in disarray, nations become disorderly, and the world is chaotic. Therefore, that husband and wife become harmoniously united is equivalent to the world becoming united. Stated differently, the union of husband and wife is the key to solving social and world problems.

In creating the universe, God envisioned the individual images of the various beings to be created. He conceived the image of each human being, each animal, and each plant. The individual image of a human being is especially distinctive; with regard to other human beings, however, the lower their class is, the less distinctive their individualities are. For instance, we can hardly distinguish the individualities of bacteria or amoebae. In contrast, the faces and characteristics of human beings are clearly distinguishable from one another. God endowed human beings with such a particularized individual image so that He might obtain, from each one of them, a unique, stimulating joy. Therefore, a human being is a being with supreme value who gives supreme joy to God through a unique individuality. This individual image in another aspect of the original human nature.

The first manifestation of people's individuality is their appearance; though there are five billion people in the world, no two individuals have exactly the same face. The second manifestation of people's individuality is their behavior, which is different from person to person. If we regard appearance as the unique characteristic feature of people's Hyungsang, then behavior can be regarded as the unique characteristic feature of their Sungsang, because behavior is a direct manifestation of the mind.

The third manifestation of people's individuality is their creative expression. That does not mean only creation through art, but any activity in which one may engage oneself to express one's creativity. This expression differs from person to person.

Hence, God feels pleased by looking at the face, behavior, and creative activity of each human being with original human nature. That God becomes pleased by looking at such human beings means that they give unique beauty to God through their appearance, behavior, and creative activity. That is the beauty of a person's individuality, which includes the beauty of appearance, the beauty of behavior, and the beauty of creative activity.

When parents look at their children, they perceive each child as beautiful and lovely. In the same way, when God looks at human beings, He feels that the appearance, behavior, and creative activity of each human being are beautiful and lovely -- and He becomes pleased.

Because of the human fall, however, people's individualities have mostly been crushed or ignored. This has been especially true in dictatorial societies.

The paramount example of this is the society under Communist rule. The reason is that Communism denigrates human individuality, regarding it as a product of the environment -- a viewpoint derived from materialism. Viewed from the perspective of Unification Thought, however, human individuality is neither something accidental nor a product of the environment; rather, it is derived from the Individual Image of God -- in other words, it is something that comes from God and, therefore, is very precious.