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Join us for the Urban Life Training Chapter Workshop, online or in-person on July 3rd 2020. Learn materials that teach about the physical, intellectual, emotional and long term benefits of sexual abstinence before marriage. Learn about setting up a Chapter of Urban Life Training to teach this material to middle and high school youth: https://www.urbanlifetraining.org/index.php/109-training/351-urban-life-training-chapter-workshop .
Cheon Seong Gyeong 487
Many people oppose Rev. Moon, the
man who goes to America to educate and
train American young people, even stay-
ing up all night and sometimes dancing,
singing, and having fun with them? I do
this in order to expand the realm of sup-
port that is connected to me.
Because the expansion of the uni-
versal realm of support starts with me,
I push forward without fear, even if I am
opposed and have to go to prison.
Cheong Seong Gyeong 963
If your grandparents, mother and
father, couple, and children, become one
based on true love, and inherit God’s
true love that lives for others, then even
God would be absolutely obedient to
that. In the world that strives to live for
others – a world that moves according
to the love that submits to the tradition
of living for others – the basis for peace
would surely emerge even if it resisted
being formed. (210-354, 1990.12.27)
World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon
Chapter 2
Cause and Effect
The maxim that a person reaps what he has sown, belief in divine retribution, and the doctrine of karma, are diverse expressions of a common idea: that the world is governed by justice. Religions give various teachings regarding the specific manner in which justice is meted out, e.g. through one’s fate in this life, by reincarnation, or in the afterlife. Yet all agree that one way or another, justice will be served. It is inherent in the nature of the universe, as designed by a benevolent Creator, that good deeds be rewarded and evil deeds punished. This is the principle of cause and effect.
The principle of cause and effect bears the same ambiguous relationship to Ultimate Reality as divine law generally. In the eastern religions the principle of justice is inherent in the fabric of the cosmos and is therefore subordinate to the ultimate goal of liberation. Karma and the wheel of samsara display the operation of cause and effect, yet these are part of the hellishness of human existence and have nothing to do with the ultimate goal of Nirvana and Enlightenment, where the cycle of rebirth is broken. On the other hand, the monotheistic religions portray God as the divine Judge who visits punishments upon the guilty to maintain justice. Nevertheless, it is not the Heavenly Father’s purpose to act as a judge against His children; rather with love and truth He guides them on the path to salvation. Therefore, as Father Moon does, we can ascribe God’s judgments to the operation of His creation, a cosmos that is designed to administer justice through the operation of cosmic law.
The passages in this chapter describe two aspects of cause and effect. First is the aspect of justice: people reap what they sow. Father Moon draws instances of this principle not only in the lives of individuals, but also from the history of nations and races, who collectively have committed sins that must bear requital. Even World Scripture II V8 013107.ind85 85 2/1/2007 3:13:51 PM 86 World Scripture and the Teachings of Sun Myung Moon though this world seems to tolerate injustice and permit wrongs to go unpunished, scriptures assert that the ultimate individual recompense is in the afterlife, where he or she is destined either for heaven or hell. Here Father Moon’s teachings give a deeper explanation for why sinners are destined for hell, not by the decree of any angelic judge but by the conditions they made for themselves during earthly life.
Second, there are passages on cause and effect as a universal principle that operates in the growth and completion of all beings. We learn that the effect is not separate from the cause; rather, they are closely tied together. The core Buddhist doctrine of Dependent Origination expresses the negative of this idea, as ignorance develops through a causal chain to the whole human condition of suffering (dhukka). A Taoist text puts it positively, that cause and effect form a circuit, the movement of Heaven. Father Moon teaches that God is immanent in the world, working everywhere as the cause and revealing Himself in human beings as the effect. Ultimately, God and humans, cause and effect, are to be united as the Alpha and the Omega—through love.
1. We Reap the Consequences of Our Actions
Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for
whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.
Galatians 6.7
Whatever affliction may visit you is for what
your own hands have earned.
Qur’an 42.30
All who take the sword will perish by the
sword.
Matthew 26.52
Suffering is the offspring of violence—realize
this and be ever vigilant.
Acarangasutra 3.13 (Jainism)
Ashes fly back in the face of him who throws
them.
Yoruba Proverb (African Traditional Religions)
They sow the wind, and they will reap the
whirlwind.
Hosea 8.7
An ignorant man committing evil deeds does
not realize the consequences.
The imprudent man is consumed by his own
deeds, like one burnt by fire.
Dhammapada 136 (Buddhism)
Unto God belongs the sequel of all things.
Qur’an 31.22
God is not hornless;
He is horned:
He exacts punishment for every deed.
Ovambo Proverb (African Traditional Religions)
Unrighteousness, practiced in this world, does
not at once produce its fruit; but, like a cow,
advancing slowly, it cuts off the roots of him
who committed it.
Laws of Manu 4.172 (Hinduism)
There are no special doors for calamity and hap-
piness [in men’s lot]; they come as men them-
selves call them. Their recompenses follow good
and evil as the shadow follows the substance.
Treatise on Response and Retribution 1 (Taoism)
Not in the sky, nor in mid-ocean, nor in a moun-
tain cave, is found that place on earth where
abiding one may escape from the consequences
of one’s evil deed.
Dhammapada 127 (Buddhism)
The net of Heaven is cast wide. Though the
mesh is not fine, yet nothing ever slips through.
Tao Te Ching 73 (Taoism)
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to
the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is
mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
Romans 12.19
Let not their conduct grieve you, who run eas-
ily to disbelief, for lo! they injure God not at all.
It is God’s will to assign them no portion in the
hereafter, and theirs will be an awful doom.
And let not those who disbelieve imagine
that the rein We give them bodes good for their
souls. We only give them rein that they may
grow in sinfulness. And theirs will be a shameful
doom.
Qur’an 3.176, 178
Everything is given on pledge, and a net is
spread for all the living; the shop is open; and
the dealer gives credit; and the ledger lies open;
and the hand writes; and whosoever wishes to
borrow may come and borrow; but the collec-
tors regularly make their daily round, and exact
payment from man whether he be content or
not; and they have that whereon they can rely
in their demand; and the judgment is a judg-
ment of truth; and everything is prepared for
the feast.
Mishnah, Avot 3.20 (Judaism)
Further, as Heaven and Earth are the greatest
of things, it is natural, from the point of view
of universal principles, that they have spiritual
power. Having spiritual power it is proper that
they reward good and punish evil. Nevertheless
their expanse is great and their net is wide-
meshed. There is not necessarily an immediate
response as soon as this net is set in operation.
Pao-p’u Tzu 21 (Taoism)
Holy, then, did I recognize Thee, O Wise Lord.
I perceived Thee foremost at the birth of life,
When Thou didst endow acts and words with
retribution:
Bad unto bad, good blessing unto holy,
Through Thy wisdom, at the final goal of life!
Avesta, Yasna 43.5 (Zoroastrianism)
According as one acts, according as one con-
ducts himself, so does he become. The doer of
good becomes good. The doer of evil becomes
evil. One becomes virtuous by virtuous action,
bad by bad action.
But people say, “A person is made [not of
acts, but] of desires only.” [I say,] as his desire,
such is his resolve; as is his resolve, such the
action he performs; what action he performs,
that he procures for himself. On this point there
is this verse,
Where one’s mind is attached—the inner
self
goes thereto with action, being attached to
it alone.
Obtaining the end of his action,
whatever he does in this world,
he comes again from that world
to this world of action. 22
So the mind that desires.
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4.4.5-6 (Hinduism)