Listen to Dr. Kelly Kohls, founder of the National School Boards Leadership Council, speaking at the Strengthening Families and Communities Forum:
#109-Dr. Kelly Kohls: How to Fix Boards of Education
Cheon Seong Gyeong 2345
On this day and in this place where the Cosmic Parent and the Parents of Heaven and Earth have attained oneness of mind and body, I declare and direct that everyone will strive to achieve the age of sovereignty of the one ideal, of the unified world of Cheon Il Guk based on the liberation of heaven. I pray that You will let us achieve everything in accordance with our desires. I report this in the name of the True Parents. Amen! Amen! Amen! (404-288, 2003.2.6)
Cheon Seong Gyeong 1270
The fruits that Christians have produced through their lives of faith are the fruits of the wild olive tree. In order to produce fruits of the true olive tree, they need to be cut off at the base and have the sprout of the true olive tree engrafted on to them. If the sprout cannot be engrafted, the tree should be pulled up completely and burned to ashes. If the wild olive tree is not uprooted completely, it will produce further fruits, which will then be strewn around the tree and will grow into more wild olive trees.
Special Reading: Cheong Seong Gyeong 1404-continued
We have walked the path of persecution in the process of our work until now, but through carrying out these things under Your guidance and protection, we have been able to overcome all the situations and people who have opposed us – from individuals to families, tribes, people, nations, the world, and cosmos, even up to the realm of Satan and hell. As we have inherited Your lineage through Your true love, You protected us just as parents protect their children so that the Unification Church was able to overcome during its difficult course all the hardships and persecution coming from the fallen world and was able to surmount individual, family tribal, racial, national, global, and cosmic peaks. Now we are able to hold, in the name of the True Parents, the Blessing Ceremony of 360 million Couples representing all humankind, and are graced to celebrate with heaven and earth the liberation that transcends religion, race, culture, and nationality. For this great occasion of the Blessing, we are truly, truly, truly grateful.
In the spirit world, there are Blessing groups of fifteen billion and fifty billion parents, brothers and sisters following on from a first group of twenty billion spirit people. Here on earth, the 360 million couples – in fact more than 400 million couples – who are being blessed in today’s ceremony number more than 800 million individuals. Based on an average of four family members per household, the total number of family members related to these newly Blessed Couples must be over three billion. All Blessed Couples in both the spiritual and physical worlds should strive to resolve the ongoing problems of juvenile promiscuity and family breakdown in order to save this chaotic world and straighten out the confused history of humanity.
Ascetism, Monasticism and Celibacy
4. The Problem with Asceticism—Lack of Love
If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
1 Corinthians 13.2-3
If a man should go naked…feed on potherbs, wild rice, or Nivara seeds…wear coarse hempen cloth, or carry out any other [ascetic] practices…yet the state of blissful attainment in conduct, in heart, in intellect, have not been practiced by him, realized by him, then he is far from shramanaship, far from brahminship. But from the time, O Kassapa, when a monk has cultivated the heart of love that knows no anger, that knows no ill will—from the time when, by the destruction of the deadly intoxications, he dwells in that emancipation of heart, that emancipation of mind, that is free from those intoxications, and that he, while yet in this visible world, has come to realize and know—from that time, O Kassapa, is it that the monk is called a shramana, is called a brahmin!
Digha Nikaya 1.167 (Buddhism)
Some invent harsh penances. Motivated by hypocrisy and egoism, they torture their innocent bodies and Me who dwells within. Blinded by their strength and passion, they act and think like demons.
Bhagavad-Gita 17.5-6
O brother, wither away your sensuality, passions, and egotism. There is no benefit in emaciating this gross body [through penances]. We will never praise you merely because of your withered body.
Nisitha-bhasya 3758 (Jainism)
Should one perform a million ritual acts and of these be proud,
they leave him only fatigued, and are of little avail.
One who performs innumerable austerities and for these bears pride,
shall remain caught in transmigration, moving between heaven and hell.
With all a man’s effort, should his self not turn compassionate,
How may he have access to the Divine Portal?
Adi Granth, Gauri Sukhmani 12,M.5, p. 278 (Sikhism)
There was a great seer of strict vows, foremost of those wise in the law, the learned ascetic Mandapala. He followed the path of the seers who held up their seed [in chastity], austere and master of his senses. After he had abandoned his body, he attained to the world of the ancestors. Yet he failed to find the fruit of his acts there. Finding his worlds without reward, although he had won them with his asceticism, he questioned the celestials: “Why are these worlds that I won with my austerities closed to me? Where did I fail that this should be the results of my acts?” They said, “Men are born indebted to rites, to the study of the Veda, and to offspring, doubt it not. You are an ascetic and a sacrificer, but you have no offspring; these worlds are closed to you because of this matter of offspring. A son saves his father from the hell called Put, Hermit. Therefore, O brahmin, strive for the continuity of children!”
Mahabharata 1.220 (Hinduism)
We sent Jesus son of Mary, and gave him the Gospel, and placed compassion and mercy in the hearts of those who followed him. But monasticism they invented—We ordained it not for them—only seeking God’s pleasure, and they observed it not with right observance. We give those who believe their reward, but many of them are evil-livers.
Qur’an 57.27
Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?”
Matthew 9.14-15
Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready;
it was granted her to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure—
for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
Revelation 19.7-8