Peaceful Families; Peaceful World Workshop-May 27 to May 29
Peace Kingdom Center, Harpers Ferry , WV
May 27- Abstinence-Centered Curriculum Training
May 28- Unification Principle Study
May 29- Strengthening Families and Communities Forum
Cheon Seong Gyeong 2006
Through establishing a nation of God, we are to establish on earth the peaceful Kingdom of Heaven that places good above all else, that eliminates evil and judges the ringleader Satan, who, until now, has been the enemy of Heaven. Please understand that this has been the desire of our ancestors, who contributed enormously to the course of the providence, as well as the desire of God and Jesus. (155-321, 1965.11.1)
Cheon Seong Gyeong 1470
God is the first Cause of the universe and the Creator of everything under the sun. He is also our beloved Father. He made all the things of creation in order to fulfill His unique will. His purpose lies in the manifestation of love. Though He may be the Origin of true love and omnipotent, He cannot feel the joy of love by Himself. He needs an object for His love, and desires to receive voluntary love in return. The culmination of all the creation, created to be in the highest position, is man and woman. Consequently, we have a purpose in our life. That purpose requires our becoming mature and realizing a relationship of eternal true love with Him. This is the fundamental principle through which harmony can be achieved between Him and us. (166-131, 1987.6.1)
Meditation
5. Visualizations and Visions
Fog, smoke, sun, fire, wind,
Fireflies, lightning, a crystal, a moon—
These are the preliminary appearances,
Which produce the manifestation of Brahman
in yoga.
Svetasvatara Upanishad 2.11 (Hinduism)
Buddha then replied to Vaidehi, “You and all other beings besides ought to make it their only aim, with concentrated thought, to get a perception of the Western Quarter. You will ask how that perception is to be formed. I will explain it now. All beings, if not blind from birth, are uniformly possessed of sight, and they all see the setting sun. You should sit down properly, looking in the western direction, and prepare your thought for a close meditation on the sun; cause your mind to be firmly fixed on it so as to have an unwavering perception by the exclusive application of your thought, and gaze upon it when it is about to set and looks like a suspended drum. “After you have thus seen the sun, let that image remain clear and fixed, whether your eyes be shut or open—such is the perception of the sun, which is the First Meditation.
“Next you should form the perception of water; gaze on the water clear and pure, and let [this image] also remain clear and fixed; never allow your thought to be scattered or lost.
“When you have thus seen the water you should form the perception of ice. As you see the ice shining and transparent, you should imagine the appearance of lapis lazuli.
“After that has been done, you will see the ground consisting of lapis lazuli, transparent and shining both within and without. Beneath this ground of lapis lazuli there will be seen a golden banner with the seven jewels, diamonds and the rest, supporting the ground. It extends to the eight points of the compass, and thus the eight corners [of the ground] are perfectly filled up. Every side of the eight quarters consists of a hundred jewels, every jewel has a thousand rays, and every ray has eighty-four thousand colors which, when reflected in the ground of lapis lazuli, look like one hundred thousand million suns, and it is difficult to see them all one by one… Lodged high up in the open sky these rays form a tower of rays, whose stories and galleries are ten millions in number and built of a hundred jewels. Both sides of the tower have each ten thousand million flowery banners furnished and decked with innumerable musical instruments. Eight kinds of cool breezes proceed from the brilliant rays. When those musical instruments are played, they emit the sounds ‘suffering,’ ‘non-existence,’ ‘impermanence,’ and ‘non-self’—such is the perception of the water, which is the Second Meditation…
“Make the images as clear as possible, so that they may never be scattered or lost, whether your eyes be shut or open. Except only during the time of your sleep, you should always keep this in your mind. One who has reached this stage of perception is said to have dimly seen the Land of Highest Happiness (Sukhavati).
“One who has obtained samadhi is able to see the Land clearly and distinctly: this state is too much to be explained fully—such is the perception of the Land, and it is the Third Meditation.”
Meditation on Buddha Amitayus 9-11 (Buddhism)
Before I could go on my vision quest, I had to purify myself in the oinikaga tipi, the inipi, the sweat lodge… With the buffalo-horn ladle, Good Lance poured ice-cold water over the red-glowing stones. There was a tremendous hiss as we were instantly enveloped in a cloud of searing white steam… Good Lance prayed. He used ancient words, “This steam is the holy breath of the universe. Hokshila, boy, you are in your mother’s womb again. You are going to be reborn.” They all sang two songs, very ancient songs, going way back to the days when we Sioux roamed the prairie. Suddenly I felt wise with the wisdom of generations. These men, my relatives, sang loud and vigorously… The little hut was shaken as if in the grip of a giant hand. It was trembling as a leaf trembles in the wind. Beneath us the earth seemed to move. “Grandfather is here,” said Good Lance. “The spirits are here; the Eagle’s wisdom is here.” We believed it; we knew it. The pipe was passed… Four times we smoked. After the last time, Good Lance told me, “Hokshila, you have been purified; you are no longer a child; you are ready now and made strong to go up there and cry for a dream.”…
Our vision pit was an L-shaped hole dug into the ground, first straight down and then a short horizontal passage deep under the roots of the trees. You sit at the end of that passage and do your fasting, anywhere from one to four days… in my case, it was decided that I should stay there alone without food or water for two days and two nights…
The first hours were the hardest. It was pitch dark and deathly still. I sat there without moving. My arms and legs went asleep. I could neither hear nor see nor feel. I became almost disembodied, a thing with a heart and wild thoughts but no flesh or bones. Would I ever be able to see and hear again?… I don’t know how long I sat there. All sense of time had left me long ago. I didn’t know whether it was day or night, had not even a way to find out. I prayed and prayed, tears streaming down my cheeks. I wanted water but kept praying. Toward evening of the second day—and this time is only a wild guess—I saw wheels before my eyes forming up into one fiery hoop and then separating again into bright, manycolored circles, dancing before my eyes and again contracting into one big circle, a circle with a mouth and two eyes.
Suddenly, I heard a voice. It seemed to come from within the bundle that was me, a voice from the dark. It was hard to tell exactly where it came from. It was not a human voice; it sounded like a bird speaking like a man. My hackles rose… “Remember the hoop,” said the voice, “this night we will teach you.” And I heard many feet walking around in my small vision pit. Suddenly I was out of my hole, in another world, standing in front of a sweat bath on a prairie covered with wildflowers, covered with herds of elk and buffalo.
I saw a man coming toward me; he seemed to have no feet; he just floated toward me out of a mist, holding two rattles in his hand. He said, “Boy, whatever you tell your people, do not exaggerate; always do what your vision tells you. Never pretend.” The man was wearing an old-fashioned buckskin outfit decorated with quillwork. I stretched out my hands to touch him, when suddenly I was back inside my star quilt, clutching my medicine bundle of stones and tobacco ties. I still heard the voice, “Remember the hoop; remember the pipe; be its spokesman.” I was no longer afraid; whoever was talking to me meant no harm.
Suddenly before me stretched a coalblack cloud with lightning coming out of it. The cloud spread and spread; it grew wings; it became an eagle. The eagle talked to me: “I give you a power, not to use for yourself, but for your people. It does not belong to you; it belongs to the common folks.” I saw a rider on a gray horse coming toward me, he held in his one hand a hoop made of sage. He held it high… and again everything dissolved into blackness. Again out of the mist came a strange creature floating up, covered with hair, pale, formless. He wanted to take my medicine away from me, but I wrestled with him, defended it. He did not get my medicine. He, too, disappeared.
Suddenly somebody shook me by the shoulder. “Wake up, boy.” My father and my uncle had come for me. The two days and two nights were over.
Leonard Crow Dog, Sioux Vision Quest (Native American Religions)