Restoration From the Origin and Rebirth (Part 3)

"This is the third in a series of excerpts from the speech given at Belvedere on September 20, 1992. The translator was Sang Kil Han"

Let's talk about orthodox Christianity--criticize it a little. Christians believe that Adam and Eve fell and they will say that they do. But if you ask them, "Do you know what the fall was about?" they will answer, "I don't know." Then ask, "Do you know if Adam and Eve were chased out of the Garden of Eden before giving birth to their first child or after?" Then ask, "Do you believe in the fall?" They will answer, "Oh, yes, I do believe in the fall."

What is your answer? Were Adam and Eve chased out of the Garden before or after the birth of their child? Yes, before. That is absolutely true. All Christians understand that. Before. Okay, but after being chased out, did they give birth to children or not? Yes, they gave birth to children. Having children one after another, does that mean they were living a married life or a life of celibacy? Yes, it is clear to everyone who reads the Bible that Adam and Eve lived a married life after leaving the Garden. No Christians can deny that point.

Let's say a child was born approximately one year later. Then did God go after Adam and Eve and give His blessing over their marriage or not? Absolutely not. God did not bless their marriage. Then upon whom was their marriage ceremony centered? (Satan.) Who? I don't know. Yes, you are correct. It was Satan. It was not God. So there is no way of denying that Satan's love, Satan's life, and Satan's blood lineage. Therefore, Adam and Eve were connected by Satan, not God. That is the correct answer. Isn't it, or not? Yes or no? Absolutely yes? Yes.

So we know that Satan's love started Satan's life and Satan's lineage and it extends all the way to the present. But this was not the way mankind was destined to go. Mankind was clearly created to begin with God's love and God's life and God's lineage. So we see those two opposing directions. If mankind had not fallen, if Adam and Eve had married with God's blessing, then God's love, life and lineage would have come about and mankind would live forever. They would not die spiritually. They would never be dead like people today. They would have passed into eternal life without having to be saved.

From whom did each of you receive the seed of life? Was it from God or was it from Satan? Unmistakably it was from Satan. After the fall, every human being inherited Satan's life seed from the beginning. No one can deny that. But man's original mind has a different expectation. Human beings wanted God's original love, God's original life, and God's original lineage. Even though mankind has the bad lineage, each person covets deep in his mind God's love and lineage. From this we can clearly see that man has two different aspects. Within each individual, two opposing elements are struggling. The body represents everything that has to do with Satan. The mind represents everything man has coveted and yearned for from God. So these two aspects within each individual are fighting.

We talk a lot of about world peace, but this point is exactly where world peace originates and nowhere else. The origin of world peace is the unity of the mind and body of each individual centered on God. Without that, there cannot be true world peace. Upon that foundation, we find freedom. There we find happiness. There we find hope. Otherwise there is no way. People in the past have struggled solely on the horizontal level to achieve world peace, but they can never achieve true freedom or happiness or hope, neither will they find peace. Unless we come into a united mind and body, there will be no peace, no happiness, and therefore no prosperity.

The Unification Church is not just a haphazard activity. This is the greatest activity with the greatest meaning: Unification. What communism did not realize, nor do the liberal people here in America realize is a very important point about freedom. Unless there is a foundation of unification, freedom is impossible. Because they never understood that, they still struggle between mind and body. I remind you that no teacher, no saint throughout history, including Jesus Christ, has ever taught mankind to unite their mind and body and why they are disunited. Reverend Moon is the first person who has brought this teaching. The body has already become the performing stage, the arena of Satan. Evil can do whatever it wants through the body of men and women. Meanwhile, God can have hope and can only do things in a limited way through the mind of individuals. But if mankind had not fallen, these two elements would never have been separated and there would never have been the need to worry about uniting mind and body.

Someone may ask, "Where is Satan? I want to see Satan." Nobody was willing to admit, "Satan is in me. Satan is in my body." The overall purpose of all religion is to raise the spirit above the body. That means the mind becomes stronger than the body and is able to subjugate and subdue the flesh, the body. This is what all religions have in common.

We have identified where Satan's working ground is. We are trying to subdue and control that, and eventually try to chase Satan entirely away through uniting our mind and body, centered on the mind, not the body.

All right, when individuals get together and get married, suppose they fight with one another. Is that an aspect of Satan or of God? Is that Satan's attribute or God's attribute? Were husband and wife supposed to struggle and fight from the very origin of mankind? No, never. So if a family is composed of four members, we can see struggling and fighting in four ways, or eight ways, including each person's mind and body. There is more division than unity. That's why Satan is saying, "Look, it doesn't work. No matter what you teach, it doesn't work. Give me one example of where your teaching is working."

However, God's ideal is still there. Now here is the secret of all secrets which Father taught so many times, but people usually didn't get: If you want unity between yourself and another, you be the sacrifice; you be more humble. Don't try to win over him, just say, "Yes, yes, you are the winner. You are the more righteous one." That is the only way. In other words, live for the sake of the other. If everybody did that, then everybody would be a winner. Very soon, people would recognize that this way of relationship works and it is the only way that works. Therefore, more and more people would follow.

Which position in the world is America now wanting? America wants to stand on top of the world, or does America want the world to stand above it? First or second? (First.) Is that right or wrong? (Wrong.) Why is that wrong? It is wrong because of one foremost principle which I have been teaching you: the individual exists for the sake of the family. That means he can sacrifice himself, if necessary, for the sake of the family. Furthermore, the family exists for the sake of society. The society for the nation, the nation for the world, the world for the cosmos, the cosmos for God. All these are the consistent steps and the direction in which they must serve. Why have I emphasized this so much? We are valuable, aren't we? Each individual is very valuable and he or she always wants to be at the top of everyone else, correct?

This is undeniable. But is there only one such a person in each family? No, each person in each family is like that, right? So there are four in each family of two parents and two children who want to be the most important of all the family members. That means you alone have the value of one unit, while the three other members of your family have the value of three. Which should you uphold: your own value of one unit, or the value of the others, which is equal to three? It is clear which is more valuable--the larger value. Always the larger value is more important than the smaller.

Suppose you say, "Well, I want all the others to obey me so that I can stay on top. I want those who represent the value of three to come below me, who represents the value of one." But that is very difficult to maintain. Do you have the guarantee, can you be absolutely sure that if you stood on top of everybody that everybody would be happy? No. They would not be happy. They would turn against you.

Because you are righteous and intelligent, you listen to my teaching because you recognize it is important to follow this principle. So you follow and you serve for the sake of the other three or four people in your family. After that, the others will recognize, "Good things have happened because he/she is sacrificing for our sake." They will appreciate you. In that case, whether you seek it or not, you will become the center of those three or four others. Automatically. Does this formula work or not? This is a very simple formula, but nobody has known it before. Nobody believed it was possible to fulfill.

Suppose you have 20 friends within your circle of friendship and you were always asserting your position: "I am a member of the Unification Church and I know more than you do. Therefore, you have to all follow me and learn from me." Do you think they will do that? No, they will never follow such a person. They will go off in twenty different directions. But if you subdue your own ego, becoming sort of inconspicuous, but try to listen to them, until they have no idea what they are doing. Then you show them. This is the way.

What happens is that one friend will bring another friend, saying, "I have this wonderful friend I want you to meet," and your circle of friends will increase because of you. The steady center causes the circle to increase. That's the secret of peace and how you become the center. Everybody wants to become the center, but how can you become the center? That's the question which nobody has known the answer to. Is it by putting yourself above the others? No. Even in the schools--maybe not in American schools but certainly in Korean schools and Japanese schools--the teachers always say, "Serve other people. Be nice to other people." This is taught the children from the very first day they go to school. Most people can't explain why this is; only a few people understand why.

So individual, family, clan--when it comes to clan, there may be hundreds of families, correct? And each family has one unit of value. Same principle applies here. Who would be the central family of your clan? It would be the family who serves the most, who thinks of others the most, who prays for the others, peacemaking, loving every one. The race of many, many clans...

Can you see this simple, basic form or type? By the same token, there are hundreds of countries in the world and America is only one of those countries. If America wants to stand up on top of all the rest of the countries, asserting itself and so forth, do you think they will listen? America may try and try to make this work, but it will never work. Why should they do something that doesn't work? The whole mistaken way grew out of one small mistaken idea. America thinks that the wealth they have been blessed with is theirs to keep. But that is not so. Reverend Moon says that and so do many other people. The wealth and abundance which God has given to America was for the sake of the whole world, not just for America alone.

America has said, "Only America can make peace in the world." Do you think that will work? Would all the rest of the world's nations be glad to be under the dominion of America? Now we see George Bush and other presidential candidates talking about formulas for peace in the world, promising this and that. But none of those formulas will work. The only way for America to prosper is to understand this basic notion: America should serve the rest of the countries of the world.