Love the Natural Environment to Learn How to Love God

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1300

If you want to become citizens of
the third Israel connected to the Uni-
fication Church, you must receive the
Blessing. In the past, at the time of
Abraham, one had to be circumcised
to become a citizen of Israel; and in the
time of Jesus, one had to be baptized.
It is the same today. In the Unification
Church, one cannot become a citizen
of the third Israel without receiving
the Blessing. However, in receiving the
Blessing one must fulfill certain condi-
tions that are neither simple nor easy. I
continuously exerted myself and devot-
ed my whole life in fulfilling the nec-
essary foundations for these Blessings.
(19-172, 1968.1.1)

Richard: Learn more about the Blessing here.

Chong Seong Gyeong 1419

When a woman is married, she basi-
cally has to move into her husband’s
house, and so it follows that her name
also has to be moved from the old fam-
ily register into that of the new family.
Then her family registration is changed.
What is our registration? It is the cer-
tificate that gives evidence of our rela-
tionship based on the origin of true love.
(178‐207, 1988.6.4)

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Chapter 4

God’s Creation and Human Creativity

Reverence for Life

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Unless you love nature and human beings, you cannot love God. (70:182, February 9, 1974)

Those who cannot love nature cannot love human beings, the owners of nature. We should love nature and other people more than ourselves. (375:20, April 13, 2002)

You love your wife, but do you love the air, sun, light, water and vegetation from which your wife is benefiting?…Unless you love nature, you cannot love yourself. If you eat the things of nature while mistreating nature, you may get sick. (385:200-01, July 11, 2002)

Nature is the closest thing to our body. We should fulfill the desire of nature, which languishes in lamentation…
If you love the natural environment of your hometown, you can know how to love your body. If you love your body, you can know how to love your own heart and mind. If you love your own heart and mind, you can know how to love God. Do so and you will not perish. (14:102, June 20, 1964)

We should love the ocean. Yet how can we, when dangers abound and so much about the ocean is unknown? By searching it out and learning its secrets, our love for the ocean will grow and grow. Likewise, there are many dangers lurking in the mountains. Yet we want to explore the mountains and brave their challenges. Then our hearts will grow deeper and wider. (391:218, August 26,
2002)

Only those who love the mountains can worship what is high. Confucius, Buddha, Jesus, and all the prophets loved the mountains… Indeed, many people treading the path of God’s providence received comfort from nature. (14:102, June 20, 1964)

New York City and the Washington D.C. metropolitan areas are truly dark, living hells. It is better to live on an island where you have to travel three miles 3 before meeting another soul, and if you walk all day, you might see ten people at most. If you live in such a place, perhaps the eye of your original
mind will open. Even in a rural area where you are with nature for 80 percent of your day and with people only 20 percent of the time, it is not easy to keep a balance.
I recommend that city dwellers spend time in the wilderness. We must resolve the problems of air and water pollution; otherwise, how can humanity survive even 300 more years?
Today we can enjoy a civilized life even in a rural area. With the Internet and the telephone, even if you were to live on top of a 7000-meter-high peak in the Rocky Mountains, you could still reach everywhere in the world. I am going to the jungles of South America. Although there are many mosquitoes, there is clear air, clean water and bright sunshine. Sometimes I go to an island in
the Pacific Ocean, where the air is good and the water is clear. I go where the environment is good and there is no pollution, so I can converse with nature. When I am with nature, I am close to God.
(339:164, December 10, 2000)

A Man is Ethical Only When Life Is Sacred

Hebrews 2

14 We are people of flesh and blood. That is why Jesus became one of us. He died to destroy the devil, who had power over death. 15 But he also died to rescue all of us who live each day in fear of dying. 16 Jesus clearly did not come to help angels, but he did come to help Abraham’s descendants. 17 He had to be one of us, so that he could serve God as our merciful and faithful high priest and sacrifice himself for the forgiveness of our sins. 18 And now that Jesus has suffered and was tempted, he can help anyone else who is tempted.

2 Kings 5

2 One day while the Syrian troops were raiding Israel, they captured a girl, and she became a servant of Naaman’s wife. 3 Some time later the girl said, “If your husband Naaman would go to the prophet in Samaria, he would be cured of his leprosy.”

4 When Naaman told the king what the girl had said, 5 the king replied, “Go ahead! I will give you a letter to take to the king of Israel.”

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Chapter 4

God’s Creation and Human Creativity

Reverence for Life

Passages in this section prescribe the ethic proper to reverence for life. Taoist and Buddhist texts remark on the artificiality of the human world and call us to return to the innocence and purity of nature. Living in nature is purifying and conducive to the spiritual life, in contrast to the dark and dirty environment of the city. for anyone who spends time in nature, reverence for the natural world and respect for all its creatures is not something forced, but flows naturally from a loving heart. Then there is the doctrine of ahimsa, non-violence towards all living beings, which arose on the Indian subcontinent. Vegetarianism is often motivated by this ethic. Moreover, among nature’s creatures, none gives more completely and without complaint than the cow, which is rightly revered by Hindus and many native peoples.
Father Moon’s teachings touch on many of these points, but especially emphasize love of nature, which he regards as the starting point for environmental ethics. However, he offers an interesting dissent from vegetari-
anism, based upon the concept that creatures of lower order seek to come closer to God’s love through being eaten and absorbed by creatures of higher order. Ideally they would strive to be nourishment for humans, who stand at the summit of creation because they embody God’s love. Nevertheless, people who do not practice true love are unworthy to consume their food.

  1. Care and Reverence for All Living Things

As a mother with her own life guards the life of
her own child, let all-embracing thoughts for all
that lives be thine.
Khuddaka Patha, Metta Sutta (Buddhism)

The mode of living that is founded upon total
harmlessness towards all creatures, or upon a
minimum of such harm, is the highest morality.
Mahabharata, Shantiparva 262.5-6 (Hinduism)

The Prophet said, “There is neither harm nor
cause for harm in Islam.”
Majma’ al-Zawa’d 4.6536 (Islam)

One should not injure, subjugate, enslave, tor-
ture, or kill any animal, living being, organism,
or sentient being. This doctrine of nonviolence
is immaculate, immutable, and eternal. Just as
suffering is painful to you, in the same way it is
painful, disquieting, and terrifying to all animals,
living beings, organisms, and sentient beings.
Acarangasutra 4.25-26 (Jainism)

A certain priest had been killed by the bite of a
snake, and when they announced the matter to
the Blessed One, he said, “Surely now, O priests,
that priest never suffused the four royal families
of snakes with his friendliness. For if that priest
had suffused the four royal families of the snakes
with his friendliness, that priest would not have
been killed by the bite of a snake…
Creatures without feet have my love,
And likewise those that have two feet,
And those that have four feet I love,
And those, too, that have many feet.
Vinaya Pitaka, Cullavagga 5.6 (Buddhism)

The moral person accepts as being good: to pre-
serve life, to promote life, to raise to its high-
est value life which is capable of development;
and as being evil: to destroy life, to injure life,
to repress life which is capable of development.
This is the absolute fundamental principle of
the moral.
A man is ethical only when life, as such, is
sacred… that of plants and animals as well as that
of his fellow man, and when he devotes himself
helpfully to all life that is in need of help.
Albert Schweitzer

Rear them, but do not lay claim to them;
Control them, but never lean upon them,
Be their steward, but do not manage them.
This is called the Mysterious Power.
Tao Te Ching 51 (Taoism)

A horse or a cow has four feet: that is Nature.
Put a halter around the horse’s head or put a rope
through the cow’s nose: that is man. Therefore
it is said, “Do not let man destroy Nature. Do
not let cleverness destroy destiny [the natural
order].”
Chuang Tzu 17 (Taoism)

In the land of Yamato there are many
mountains;
ascending to the heaven of Mount Kagu,
I gaze down on the country, and see
smoke rising here and there over the land,
sea gulls floating here and there over the sea.
A fine country is this,
the island of dragonflies, this
province of Yamato. 1
Man’yoshu I (Shinto)

On the eastern side of this Himalaya, the king
of mountains, are green-flowing streams, hav-
ing their source in slight and gentle mountain
slopes; blue, white, and the hundred-leafed, the
white lily and the tree of paradise, in a region
overrun and beautified with all manner of trees
and flowing shrubs and creepers, resounding
with the cries of swans, ducks, and geese, inhab-
ited by troops of monks and ascetics. 2
Jataka (Buddhism)

Come back, O Tigers, to the woods again,
and let it not be leveled with the plain.
For without you, the axe will lay it low.
You, without it, forever homeless go.
Khuddaka Patha (Buddhism)


t

God Made the Universe for Me

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Cheong Seong Gyeong 1132

If we read the Bible, it tells us that
Adam and Eve fell by eating of the fruit
of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, but then what does it mean that
they covered their sexual parts? If the
Christian churches had a mind to inter-
pret the Bible a little more intellectu-
ally, they would immediately be able to
understand the origin of the Fall. Why
were Adam and Eve ashamed of their
sexual parts? Why did they cover them?
They should have covered their mouths
and hands. There is nothing wrong with
sexual organs. However, since people fell
through them, these parts of the human
body became a palace of shame where
heavenly love was violated. A spring of
true love should have welled forth from
there, but a fountain of false, devil-
ish love gushed out instead. That place
therefore became the stronghold of
worst kind of love. (202-199, 1990.5.24)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1239

1.1. What is the Blessing?
1.1.1. The meaning of the Blessing

The Blessing signifies the True Par-
ents and true children coming together
to fulfill the purpose of creation.

God exists with dual characteris-
tics. These dual characteristics are posi-
tive and negative, the former represent-
ed by the man, Adam, and the latter by
the woman, Eve. The children are thus
a combination of the two of them. In
this way, according to God’s ideal, the
first, second and third generations are
formed. Out of the three generations,
it was the generation of Adam and Eve,
the second generation, where the prob-
lem occurred.
Adam and Eve did not become
one in God’s love. If they had, they
would have formed a love relationship
in which God could dwell. They also
would have established the standard
of love through which God could have
naturally formed a relationship with
Adam and Eve’s children. This would
have been the Blessing. (32-239, 1970.7.19)

The Blessing Ceremony of the Unifi-
cation Church is not simply a wedding
through which a man and a woman come
together and form a family. Until now,
all weddings were solely for the sake of
the people getting married. But our wed-
ding ceremony is significant and neces-
sary to set a condition to indemnify the
past and return joy to God. Therefore,
we conduct our ceremonies in a sacred
and splendid manner. Divine Principle
clearly explains to us that our wedding
ceremony alleviates God’s bitter grief
that was caused by the Fall of Adam and
Eve. It goes beyond the standard of hus-
band and wife, which Jesus was unable
to attain. (22-212, 1969.2.4)

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Chapter 4

God’s Creation and Human Creativity

The Sanctity of Nature

3. Mother Earth and Her Children

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

When we were created, the universe lent us its elements to constitute our bodies. This means the universe gave birth to us. It is our first parent. Our fathers and mothers are our second parents, the parents who brought us into the world. God, who gave each of us a spirit, is our third parent. Thus, human beings have three sets of parents. (106:84, December 9, 1979)

People in ancient times had a close relationship with nature. Then the natural world and the spirit world were close to human beings—not distant and foreign as they are to people living in modern times. When people entered a grove of giant trees, they looked at them reverently and thought, “For thousands of years these trees have been here; through countless cycles of quickening in spring and dying in autumn they remain unchanged; their shade makes a pleasant environment for all creatures.” Observing them, they recognized that they were deficient in many aspects, and so they
worshipped tall trees, great rocks and high mountains.

They saw tall persimmon trees, thick with foliage in the summer and bare in the winter. With the arrival of spring their branches sprouted with new life: first buds, then blossoms, and finally delicious and fragrant fruit. They marveled at this, and sensed that those trees were better than they.
Where is the fragrance in human existence? Do humans give off a fragrance that beautifies their surroundings, attracting birds and insects to nest in their branches? No, compared to nature, man is humbled and recognizes his inadequacy. (November 4, 1990)

When we look at the creation, we feel a religious emotion welling up from deep in our hearts and naturally bow down before it. Gazing up at the constellations of the night sky or exploring nature around us, we experience awesome and mysterious feelings surging up from deep in our hearts. This state is the starting point of religion. While gazing at living things and the phenomena of nature, we
can sing songs that arise from the precious world of the heart within.
Playing nature’s music, displaying nature’s art and reciting nature’s poetry, all living things resonate in our hearts. Then we can relate with God, who rules the heavenly bodies. Experience the feeling that you are intimately connected to everything; then you can enter a state of the heart to rightly appreciate them. You enter a mystical state in which you can feel everything in its reality.
God created human beings to connect with all His creation, which He had made inseparably interrelated with Himself. Externally we appear to be extremely small and insignificant, but when we behold nature from this understanding, we can feel a human being’s true dignity and value. (5:344-45, March 8, 1959)

I once asked God, “For whom didst Thou create this universe?” God replied, “Sun Myung Moon, I created it for you.” As God is my God, so the universe is my universe. These are not only words; I feel it to my bones.
In springtime, I behold the beauty of the universe in the beautiful flowers and fragrances, and in the butterflies and bees flying about. These creatures show us God’s love and God’s precious value; they display the harmony of His angels. I feel connected to everything. A bird chirps; it is asking me to feed it. It wants me to help it find a mate.
I am very sensitive to the world of nature. When butterflies are fluttering together in pairs, or when a male and female bird sing together for joy, I see it as a lesson that men and women should live together with even greater beauty… and happiness than these.
When the birds and flowers stimulate me with their joy and love, I would in turn stimulate God in heaven with my songs of joy and love. I may be penniless and my clothes may be rags, yet I never feel poor. I think, “The sky is my blanket, the flowing brook is my water faucet, and the plants
growing nearby are my food.” When you feel that the house of God is your house, how can you feel poor?
When I see a small stream, I feel behind it the dignity of the great ocean. When I see a blade of grass, I think its beauty is greater than the greatest masterpieces in the world’s museums. A painting may cost millions of dollars, but it is merely man-made. It cannot compare with this small creation of God. Once I caught a bird and kissed it, saying, “You are more precious than anything in the world.”
(106:137, December 23, 1979)

Be Praised My Lord with All Your Creatures

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Luke 7

6 So Jesus went with them.

When Jesus wasn’t far from the house, the officer sent some friends to tell him, “Lord, don’t go to any trouble for me! I am not good enough for you to come into my house. 7 And I am certainly not worthy to come to you. Just say the word, and my servant will get well. 8 I have officers who give orders to me, and I have soldiers who take orders from me. I can say to one of them, ‘Go!’ and he goes. I can say to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes. I can say to my servant, ‘Do this!’ and he will do it.”

9 When Jesus heard this, he was so surprised that he turned and said to the crowd following him, “In all of Israel I’ve never found anyone with this much faith!”

10 The officer’s friends returned and found the servant well.

Proverbs 29

29 If you keep being stubborn
    after many warnings,
    you will suddenly discover
    you have gone too far.

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Chapter 4

God’s Creation and Human Creativity

The Sanctity of Nature

3. Mother Earth and Her Children

And God said, “Let the earth bring forth vegeta-
tion, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing
fruit in which is their seed, each according to its
kind, upon the earth.” And it was so. The earth
brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed,
and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their
seed, each according to its kind. And God saw
that it was good.
Genesis 1.11-12

Perhaps if we are lucky,
Our earth mother
Will wrap herself in a fourfold robe of white meal,
Full of frost flowers;
A floor of ice will spread over the world,
The forests because of the cold will lean to one
side,
Their arms will break beneath the weight of snow.
When the days are thus,
The flesh of our earth mother will crack with
cold.
Then in the spring when she is replete with
living waters,
Our mothers,
All different kinds of corn,
In their earth mother we shall lay to rest.
With their earth mother’s living waters
They will be made into new beings;
Into their sun father’s daylight
They will come out standing;
Yonder to all directions
They will stretch out their hands calling for rain.
Then with their fresh waters
The rain makers will pass us on our roads.
Clasping their young ones [the ears of corn] in
their arms,
They will rear their children.
Gathering them into our houses,
Following these toward whom our thoughts bend,
With our thoughts following them,
Thus we shall always live.
      Zuni Song (Native American Religions)

Set me, O Earth, amidst thy center and thy navel,
and vitalizing forces that emanate from thy body.
Purify us from all sides.
Earth is my Mother; her son am I;
and Heaven my Father: may he fill us with
plenty…
Whatever I dig from thee, Earth,
may that have quick growth again.
O purifier, may we not injure thy vitals or thy
heart…
As a horse scatters dust, so did Earth, since she
was born,
scatter the people who dwelt on the land,
and she joyously sped on, the world’s
protectress,
supporter of forest trees and plants.
What I [Earth] speak, I speak with sweetness;
what I look at endears itself to me;
and I am fiery and impetuous: others who fly at
me with wrath
I smite down.
Peaceful, sweet-smelling, gracious, filled with
milk,
and bearing nectar in her breast,
may Earth give with the milk her blessings to
me. Who brings the day, and you give light to us
through him.
How handsome he is, how radiant, with great
splendor!
Of you, Most High, he bears the likeness.
Thou art the vessel, the Mother of the people,
the fulfiller of wishes, far-extending.
Whatever is wanting in thee is filled
by Prajapati, first-born of Eternal Order [the
first god]. Be praised, my Lord, for Sister Moon and the
Stars.
In heaven you have formed them, bright, and
precious, and beautiful.
May those born of thee, O Earth,
be, for our welfare, free from sickness and
waste.
Wakeful through a long life, we shall become
bearers of tribute for thee.
Earth, my Mother! set me securely with bliss
in full accord with Heaven. Wise One,
uphold me in grace and splendor.
Atharva Veda 12.1 (Hinduism)

Most High, omnipotent, good Lord,
All praise, glory, honor, and blessing are yours.
To you alone, Most High, do they belong,
And no one is worthy to pronounce your name.

Be praised, my Lord, with all your creatures,
Especially Sir Brother Sun,
Who brings the day, and you give light to us
through him.
How handsome he is, how radiant, with great
splendor!
Of you, Most High, he bears the likeness.

Be praised, my Lord, for Sister Moon and the
Stars.
In heaven you have formed them, bright, and
precious, and beautiful.

Be praised, my Lord, for Brother Wind,
And for Air, for Cloud, and Clear, and all
weather.
By which you give your creatures nourishment.

Be praised, my Lord, for Sister Water,
She is very useful, and humble, and precious,
and pure.

Be praised, my Lord, for Brother Fire,
By whom you light up the night.
How handsome he is, how happy, how powerful
and strong!

Be praised, my Lord, for our Sister, Mother
Earth.
Who nourishes and governs us,
And produces various fruits with many-colored
flowers and herbs.
St. Francis of Assisi, Canticle of the Sun (Christianity)

God Gave All Creatures the Sensibility to Love through Their Five Senses

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Cheong Seong Gyeong 1206

Where is the righteous path in life?
From where did human beings origi-
nate? They were born from love; then
what path should they follow in life?
It is that of love. For what should they
die? The logical conclusion is love. What
kind of love is that? It is that which can
be welcomed by the macrocosm, not just
the microcosm. The purpose of life can
be perceived as originating in the heart
of the macrocosm and approved by God,
the angelic world, all creation, all peo-
ple, and our parents. That purpose is to
live in the universe, to love in it, and to
die in it. (83-164, 1976.2.8)

Cheong Seong Gyeong 1470

The way of restoration is the way by
which people return to their original
state, and therefore one cannot go this
way without setting indemnity condi-
tions. Indemnity conditions must be
set by a man, not by God. If a person is
sick, he must take medication in order to
recover, even if the medicine tastes bitter
and he does not like it. Good medicine
tastes bitter. Something bitter becomes a
truly good medicine. Setting indemnity
conditions is difficult, like taking bitter
medicine. However, unless indemnity
conditions are set, restoration can never
be accomplished. The way of salvation is
the way of indemnification and restora-
tion. Indemnity means going the route
opposite to that of the Fall. It means
going the reverse way. (92-254, 1977.4.18)

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Chapter 4

God’s Creation and Human Creativity

The Sanctity of Nature

2. Alive with Consciousness, Endowed with Purpose

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Human beings themselves are a part of nature. Perfect nature is sacred. (90:24, December 10, 1976)

When a stamen of a flower kisses its pistil, it exclaims, “Ah, it feels so good!” Do you think it feels such a sensation or not? The sensation of male and female for each other is the best sensation, composed of all five senses linked together.
Insects may be invisibly small, yet they have eyes, ears, noses, mouths and hands, don’t they? Look carefully at the lawn; so many insects are there! With their ears they hear; with their mouths they taste; with their reproductive organs they copulate and produce offspring—in this they are like humans, only the class is different.
When insects reproduce and produce offspring so tiny you cannot see them, will the parents kill them, or protect and love them? [They protect them.] When they make love, do they do it with great pleasure? Or do they say, “I dislike it”? Which? In this they are just like humans!
There is no denying that God gave all creatures the sensibility to love through their five senses. With respect to love, God created male and female to have equal value. Love is the common denominator, equalizing the low-level world of insects with the high-level human world. Whether men and women, or male and female creatures, all share this God-given common denominator.
(217:306, June 13, 1991)

The human body, though consisting of matter, fully responds physiologically to the emotion, intellect and will of the human mind. This demonstrates that matter has within itself elements that resonate with emotion, intellect and will—elements which constitute the internal nature of matter. This is the reason all things in the universe respond to human emotion, intellect and will, albeit to different degrees. We become intoxicated with the beauty of the natural world and experience the
rapture of mystical union. We experience this because we are the center of the internal natures of all things in the natural world. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Creation 2.3.3)

God created every species of animal and insect to be preserved, that none becomes extinct. The food chain is balanced. While larger creatures eat smaller creatures, the larger ones do not reproduce as often. Many beasts of prey bear offspring only once every two years. For lions and tigers it is two years and eight months, almost three years. In contrast, rabbits bring forth their young every three months. By having many offspring, they provide food for the larger beasts as well as continue their own species.
Adam and Eve create on behalf of God, and all things were created for the growth and perfection of Adam and Eve. They may sacrifice their lives, but they are assisting in the perfection of Adam and Eve’s bodies. For this reason, people are permitted to eat anything, whether plant or animal.
Greek philosophy looks at the world as a constant struggle, every creature an enemy to one another. On the contrary, they are not enemies. Such ideas arose only as a result of the Human Fall. The Marxist dialectic as described in Das Kapital states that development comes about through struggle, but that is not true.
Even the vilest germs disappear when faced with their natural enemies. Do you understand what I mean by natural enemy? A tiger is the natural enemy of a dog. When a dog sees a tiger, it freezes and trembles and crawls back into its dwelling to hide. Natural enemies balance each other; thus nature takes care of every circumstance that comes along. (May 10, 2003)