Cheon Seong Gyeong 1514
At the time of Creation, God created man and woman with the sexual organs as their emblem. As result, that which controls the sexual organs is connected to all structural elements of the human body. For this reason, a man and woman unite as one in the act of making love and give birth to a child. What would happen during childbirth? Whom would the baby take after? The baby becomes attached to the mother’s nervous system so its own develops in a similar way. Can branches grow if there are no roots? The logic in this cannot be denied.
When a man and a woman become excited during love-making, it is a principle that the mind and body unite into one. That is logical. Then through which organ can love, life and lineage can be connected continually through the generations? It is the sexual organs. What comes first, love or life? In this question lies the problem. Similar to the problems of the world today, which are caused by materialistic philosophy, and the questioning of whether it is the mind or the body that comes first, we also need to ask ourselves: What is more precious, love or life? This is the problem. What comes first? The order of importance must be determined. The answer is that love comes first.
When God first established the ideal of creation, He did not do so centering upon Himself. Instead, it was centered upon love, and that is why He created the world of reciprocal relationships. This is logically correct. (193-145, 1989.10.3)
Cheon Seong Gyeong 1212
From the Principle you know about the foundation of faith and the foundation of substance. Even if you have established the foundation of substance, that substance is not to be offered to God. It serves as a foundation for the Messiah, that is, a substance that can welcome the Messiah. (43-187, 1971.4.30)
Sacrificial Love
2. Enduring Life’s Hardships and Sorrows to Help People in Need
The believer who participates in human life, exposing himself to its torments and suffering, is worth more than the one who distances himself from its suffering.
Hadith of Ibn Majah (Islam)
One who stays in the shade does not know the sun’s heat.
Igala Proverb (African Traditional Religions)
A man should share in the distress of the community, for so we find that Moses, our teacher, shared in the distress of the community.
Talmud, Taanit 11a (Judaism)
And as he sat at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples
“Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.”
Matthew 9.10-12
Matthew 9.10-12
If I have to be reborn I should wish to be born as an ‘untouchable’, so that I may share their sorrows, sufferings and the affronts leveled at them, in order that I may free myself and them from that miserable condition.
Mohandas K. Gandhi (Hinduism)
It is not always physical bravery that counts. One must have the courage to face life as it is, to go through sorrows and always sacrifice oneself for the sake of others.
Kipsigis Saying (African Traditional Religions)
We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves; let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to edify him. For Christ did not please himself; but, as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached thee fell on me.”
Romans 15.1-3
Those who are morally well adjusted look after those who are not; those who are talented look after those who are not. That is why people are glad to have good fathers and elder brothers. If those who are morally well adjusted and talented abandon those who are not, then scarcely an inch will separate the good from the depraved.
Mencius IV.B.7 (Confucianism)
A bodhisattva resolves, “I take upon myself the burden of all suffering; I am resolved to do so; I will endure it. I do not turn or run away, do not tremble, am not terrified, nor afraid, do not turn back or despond.
“And why? At all costs I must bear the burdens of all beings. In that, I do not follow my own inclinations. I have made the vow to save all beings. All beings I must set free. The whole world of living beings I must rescue from the terrors of birth, of old age, of sickness, of death and rebirth, of all kinds of moral offense, of all states of woe… My endeavors do not merely aim at my own deliverance. For with the help of the boat of the thought of all-knowledge, I must rescue all these beings from the stream of Samsara, which is so difficult to cross… I myself must grapple with the whole mass of suffering of all beings. To the limit of my endurance I will experience in all the states of woe, found in any world system, all the abodes of suffering…
“And why? Because it is surely better that I alone should be in pain than that all these beings should fall into the states of woe. Therefore I must give myself away as a pawn through which the whole world is redeemed from the terrors of hells, of animal birth, of the world of Death, and with this my own body I must experience, for the sake of all beings, the whole mass of painful feelings. And on behalf of all beings I give surety for all beings, and in doing so I speak truthfully, am trustworthy, do not go back on my word. I must not abandon all beings.”
Sikshasamuccaya 280-81, Vajradhvaja Sutra (Buddhism)
“I should be a hostel for all sentient beings, to let them escape from all painful things. I should be a protector for all sentient beings, to let them all be liberated from all afflictions. I should be a refuge for all sentient beings, to free them from all fears…
“I should accept all sufferings for the sake of sentient beings, and enable them to escape from the abyss of immeasurable woes of birth and death. I should accept all suffering for the sake of all sentient beings in all worlds, in all states of misery, forever and ever, and still always cultivate foundations of goodness for the sake of all beings. Why? I would rather take all this suffering on myself than to allow sentient beings to fall into hell. I should be a hostage to those perilous places—hells, animal realms, the nether world—as a ransom to rescue all sentient beings in states of woe and enable them to gain liberation. “I vow to protect all sentient beings and never abandon them. What I say is sincerely true, without falsehood. Why? Because I have set my mind on enlightenment in order to liberate all sentient beings; I do not seek the unexcelled Way for my own sake.”
Garland Sutra 23 (Buddhism)