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Cheon Seong Gyeong 331
God’s love is stronger than the sun. When the sun rises in the morning, the buds of plants turn towards the sun. Likewise, God’s love is the source of life, the source of our original mind, and the core source of ideal elements. That is the way it is. (99-230, 1978.9.25)
Cheon Seong Gyeong 1279
The mass holy wedding is held to find and establish the new family of God. In other words, the ceremony is held so that you can learn to love God more than anyone else in the world. (Blessed Family – 563)
Preparation and Making a New Beginning
For any venture to succeed it must begin well. The oriental proverb, “Well begun is half done,” describes the theme of the passages in this section. A good beginning means, first of all, internal preparation. We should purify our heart, steel ourselves with firm resolution, and be clear about our philosophy and methods of proper action. Then we should take the measure of the task and gather sufficient resources to surmount the obstacles in our path. This is practical advice, but it applies especially to the spiritual aspirant. Those who regard life lightly and frivolously are liable to fall into straits worse than when they started. Father Moon teaches that to become a person of significance, someone who makes a difference in the world, we need to prepare well. Without fixing our purpose, our life becomes ordinary and of no consequence, and without setting our determination and preparing a foundation of self-discipline, we are liable to be defeated by the challenges that await us. He provides the example of his own life, describing the preparations he made to take on the entire corrupt world-system.
1. Prepare Yourself for Life’s Challenges
The superior man does not embark upon any affair until he has carefully planned the start.
I Ching 6: Conflict (Confucianism)
Success is the result of foresight and resolution; foresight depends upon deep thinking and planning to keep your secrets to yourself.
Nahjul Balagha, Saying 46 (Shiite Islam)
Check the edge of the axe before splitting wood.
Njak Proverb (African Traditional Religions)
The superior man gathers his weapons together in order to provide against the unforeseen.
I Ching 45: Gathering Together (Confucianism)
For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, “This man began to build, and was not able to finish.” Or what king, going to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and take counsel whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?
Luke 14.28-31
Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil… that you may be able to withstand the evil day.
Ephesians 6.10, 13
He who wants to expand the field of happiness, let him lay the foundation of it on the bottom of his heart.
Tract of the Quiet Way (Taoism)
Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Well, I do not run aimlessly, I do not box as one beating the air; but I pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
1 Corinthians 9.24-27
A ship, which is not well prepared, in the ocean
goes to destruction, together with its goods and merchants.
But when a ship is well prepared, and well joined together,
then it does not break up, and all the goods get to the other shore.
Just so a bodhisattva, exalted in faith, but deficient in wisdom, swiftly comes to a failure in enlightenment.
But when he is well joined to wisdom, the foremost perfection,
he experiences, unharmed and uninjured, the enlightenment of the Jinas.
Verses on the Perfection of Wisdom which is the Storehouse of Precious Virtues 14.7-8 (Buddhism)