Cheon Seong Gyeong 567
As what kind of existence did God create human beings? He created them as the objects of His love who could possess His absolute and unique value. This is an amazing fact. How much value does a person’s life have these days? It’s only worth a few pennies. Originally, people were not meant to be such worthless beings. Their value was so precious that life could not be exchanged even for the entire universe.
The backbone of everything in the literary world today is love. People are born from, live in, and die in love. However, they do not just disappear. Since God, the subject being, is eternal, unchanging and unique, human beings, when they come to stand in the position of an object of love in front of Him, can also live eternally. The theory of eternal life originated from this point; it did not begin from life. (142-143, 1986.3.8)
Cheon Seong Gyeong 1200
At the time of Jesus’ crucifixion, the thief to the right of Jesus and the thief to his left fought, but in front of me, they became united. This division had to be restored through indemnity. This became a historical indemnity condition. Then, where would these people go? When the Lord says, “You should both go to the Kingdom of Heaven on earth,” and they reply, “Yes!” then it’s finished. Well, has that happened, or not? Jesus passed away while the thieves on his right and left were fighting, and accusing each other. However, from the Principle viewpoint, both of them ought to have made peace and welcomed Jesus, so that they could be resurrected and make a fresh start on a new level. Is this in accordance with the Principle or not? (135-68, 1985.8.22)
FAMILY
The Basic Form of Life
Filial Piety
FILIAL PIETY IS THE AGE-OLD MORAL PRINCIPLE that children show respect and honor to their parents. It is the parents’ due, for they have sacrificed and labored for their children’s sake, giving them birth, feeding them and providing them with a good start in life. Therefore, filial children do not regard it as an imposition to care for their parents in their old age. Ideally this is not regarded as a matter of duty, but as the spontaneous and natural prompting of a grateful heart.
Among Father Moon’s extensive teachings about filial piety are these: Filial should be encouraged as an enduring tradition that links the generations in an unbroken chain of lineage. Filial piety is perfected in a mature unselfish mind of the adult child who sympathizes with his parents’ difficulties and sufferings and recognizes them to be more serious then his or her own small problems. Most importantly, filial piety is a doorway to a deeper relationship with God, our divine Parent.
Filial Piety as the Root of Virtue
- Filial Piety as the Root of Virtue
Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gives you.
Exodus 20.12
There are three partners in man, God, father, and mother. When a man honors his father and mother, God says, “I regard it as though I had dwelt among them and they had honored me.”
Talmud, Kiddushin 30b (Judaism)
Do not neglect the sacrificial works due to the gods and the fathers! Let your mother be to you like unto a god! Let your father be to you like unto a god! Let your teacher be to you like unto a god!
Taittiriyaka Upanishad 1.11.2 (Hinduism)
Thy Lord has decreed… that you be kind to parents. Whether one or both of them attain old age in your lifetime, do not say to them a word of contempt, nor repel them, but address them in terms of honor. And, out of kindness, lower to them the wing of humility, and say, “My Lord! Bestow on them Thy mercy even as they cherished me in childhood.”
Qur’an 17.23
The superior man works upon the trunk. When that is firmly set up, the Way grows. And surely proper behavior towards parents and elder brothers is the trunk of Goodness? Analects 1.2 (Confucianism)
Those who wish to be born in [the Pure Land] of Buddha… should act filially towards their parents and support them, and should serve and respect their teachers and elders.
Meditation on Buddha Amitayus 27 (Buddhism)
This do I ask, O Lord; reveal to me the truth.
Who fashioned piety in addition to dominion?
Who made a son respectful and attentive to his father?
Avesta, Yasna 44.7 (Zoroastrianism)
Now filial piety is the root of all virtue, and the stem out of which grows all moral teaching… Our bodies—to every hair and bit of skin—are received by us from our parents, and we must not presume to injure or wound them: this is the beginning of filial piety. When we have established our character by the practice of the filial course, so as to make our name famous in future ages, and thereby glorify our parents: this is the end of filial piety. It commences with the service of parents; it proceeds to the service of the ruler; it is completed by the establishment of [good] character.
Classic on Filial Piety 1 (Confucianism)
If your parents take care of you up to the time you cut your teeth, you take care of them when they lose theirs.
Akan Proverb (African Traditional Religions)