Richard Urban | Daily Inspiration

The Essense of Love Is to Live for the Sake of Others

The recordings of the Dividing Line; Ending the Culture that Causes Sexual Abuse workshop are now available.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 375

People who live for the sake of the common purpose of humankind will unite centering on their love for humankind. Likewise, if the people have a love for their homeland, they will unite based on patriotic ideas. As their patriotic feeling grows stronger, the citizens will unite through their patriotism to establish a nation. If you know that you are not in a position to work on the patriotic movement by yourself, you must build relationships horizontally and gather people of like mind together. (29-131, 1970.2.26)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1381

Human beings were driven out from God’s presence because the Fall constituted an act of wrongful marriage. Thus, the 360,000 Couples Blessing is the act of proclaiming the realm of liberation for all humankind in the name of the True Parents with their all-immanence, all-transcendence, supreme authority, and omnipotence. These couples represent the perfected realms of Adam, Noah, and Jacob. You must understand that only the number 360,000 is appropriate for this Blessing, since this is a number that represents on the horizontal level the perfection of the realms of Adam, Jesus, and Christ at his Second Advent. So the accomplishment of 360,000 couples should not be a problem.
We have entered the era in which I can bless 3.6 million couples and 36 million couples. What comes after this is the 360 million Couple Blessing, is it not? Once I have accomplished all this, God’s Kingdom on earth would be right before our very eyes. (269-55, 1995.4.7)

Living for Others

1. Helping Others and Caring for Others Is the Fundamental Ethic of Human Life

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

The essence of love is to live for the sake of others instead of waiting for others to serve you. This is different from what passes for love in the secular world. Therefore, religion teaches to live for the sake of others—to be obedient, to serve and to sacrifice. (46:42, July 18, 1971)

Altruism—investing oneself for others, for the nation and for the world, living a life of sacrifice and service to others—may be considered by today’s society to be a most foolish philosophy of life. As you come to understand the deepest truths, however, you will understand that altruism is the secret to living in eternal happiness and the way most beneficial to human beings. (198:163, February 1, 1990)

All Men Are Responsible for One Another

Cheon Seong Gyeong 198

The Bible says: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” (Rev. 22:13) Due to the Fall, God could not fulfill His purpose at the time of creation. He will complete it as in the Book of Revelation. Then, as what kind of person did Jesus come? Adam fell, so Jesus came as a perfected Adam who could be united with God’s love without falling. This is why First Corinthians 15:45 teaches that “The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam, became a life-giving spirit.” The Bible designates Jesus as the second Adam. Since the family planned by God cannot be found if the God-given true positions of the son, husband and wife, and parents are not established, they must appear on earth.
There are many religions on earth, but among them, only Christianity has the concept of following God’s four basic requirements: to become God’s child, to become one body with God, to meet as bride and bridegroom in accordance with God’s will, and to form a new family. Since Jesus came with this thinking, Christianity, centering on Jesus, inevitably became a global religion. (54-108, 1972.03.20)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 186

Human beings must prepare a holy ground that can be praised for all eternity in the world, even if they have to go through endless suffering. If that happens, the results of their endeavors will appear. Therefore, the issue is about who will be the first to begin making that effort. Should it begin from the father or from the mother? When the father stands up, does he go around the mother’s side, or does the mother go around the father? The mother goes around the father. As a nation, Japan must preserve the holy ground and extol its name. That is why the Japanese national messiahs are taking responsibility for the management of the Pantanal. (304-110, 1999.9.10)

Living for Others

The spiritual life that begins with faith and devotion to God finds its completion in deeds of loving-kindness and service to others: “We love, because he first loved us.” (1 John 4.19) Living for the sake of others is love’s fundamental ethic.
Living for others is a natural expression of a loving heart that flows spontaneously from a person’s inner being. This is because human beings take after God, who from the moment of creation has continually been living for the sake of his creatures. Nevertheless, due to the fall, human nature became corrupted. Misunderstanding love as a matter of personal pleasure disconnected from the divine source, our minds, attitudes and habits became self-centered. Hence many people find it quite an effort to serve others without the expectation of some sort of payback. We have created a society of takers, not givers, leading inevitably to inequality, resentment and crime.
Passages from all the world’s faiths recommend service and living to benefit others as the supreme way of life in this world. Jesus identifies service as the most authentic way of leadership, and exemplified it in his own life as one who came “not to be served, but to serve.” Moreover, some texts, notably the Bhagavad-Gita and the Tao Te Ching, identify it as the fundamental principle by which God creates and sustains the universe. Every selfless act in the service of others is an act born of God. Father Moon has much to say on this topic, affirming the life of living for the sake of others as the lifestyle of the Kingdom.

1. Helping Others and Caring for Others Is the Fundamental Ethic of Human Life

Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
Galatians 6.2

Rendering help to another is the function of all human beings.
Tattvarthasutra 5.21 (Jainism)

True Freedom in Love Requires Human Responsibility

The recordings of the Dividing Line; Ending the Culture that Causes Sexual Abuse workshop are now available.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1847

There are many vast lakes in the world. In Alaska alone there are three million lakes more than twenty thousand pyung in area. If fish could be raised within such an area of twenty thousand pyung, it would support two hundred or even three hundred households. So, how many could be fed if there are three million lakes? If each lake is twenty thousand pyung, six hundred million people can be supported. Two times three is six – so six hundred million. That is why if we can make fish farms in lakes in Africa, it would provide a food supply for 650 million people. Then the food shortage would be relieved. Fish is much better for your health than beef or any other meat from land animals. Fish is easily digested and absorbed. Therefore, a time will come when people will not eat meat or beef, even if they are told to do so. (271-39, 1995.8.15)

Richard: A very important issue is solving the problem of hunger (starvation) throughout the world. This topic is close to Rev. Moon’s heart, and it should be something that we are working toward solving.

8500 children die every day from malnutrition worldwide. 165 million children experience stunting (below normal height for age) from malnutrition each year, which contributes to one half of these deaths. These deaths are entirely preventable.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1188

As viewed from God’s original ideal of creation, the eldest son should come from God’s side and, of course, the second son should also come from God’s side. Due to the Fall, the position of the first son was taken by Satan, and the position of the second son went to God. This has to be made right. Thus, when we consider the story of Esau and Jacob in the Bible, Jacob united with his mother and received her help. He gave Esau the pottage of lentils and bread in exchange for the birthright of the first-born son. Until today, we could not understand why Bible history is the way it is. With the appearance of the Unification Church, its meaning was clarified for the first time. (134-304, 1985.8.16)

True Love

4. True Love Begins from Faith and Character

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

People seek love with each other—horizontal love, while God’s love is vertical love. If love is to be perfect, the horizontal and the vertical lines must be connected. (238:140, November 22, 1992)

He Who Does Not Love Does Not Know God

The recordings of the Dividing Line; Ending the Culture that Causes Sexual Abuse workshop are now available.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1861

The larger fish in the Pantanal swallow the smaller ones. The small fish have excrements, urine, internal organs and filth, but the larger fish just swallows that altogether. It swallows the head, tail, and all the smelly parts. Isn’t a person who can swallow things as a whole a prince of the world of the liberated realm? That is how I see it. (295-220, 1998.8.28)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1215

The way of restoration through indemnity is the way we must inevitably go. We must be separated from Satan. Without separation from Satan, there is no fulfillment of your portion of responsibility. And without fulfilling your portion of responsibility, there is no way you can enter the Kingdom of Heaven. God’s law drove Adam and Eve out, but are you better than Adam and Eve? Answer me. Are you any better than them, or not? If you are inferior to them, then throwing you away is not a big deal. If people just put on airs and come in and out of the church that does not make them Unification Church members. You should have a clear understanding of the Principle. (148-156, 1986.10.8)

True Love

4. True Love Begins from Faith and Character

What is meant by saying that the regulation of the family depends on the cultivation of the personal life is this: Men are partial toward those for whom they have affection and whom they love, partial toward those whom they despise and dislike, partial toward those whom they fear and revere, partial toward those whom they pity and for whom they have compassion, and partial toward those whom they do not respect. Therefore there are few people in the world who know what is bad in those whom they love and what is good in those whom they dislike. Hence it is said, People do not know the faults of their sons and do not know [are not satisfied with] the bigness of their seedlings. This is what is meant by saying that if the personal life is not cultivated, one cannot regulate his family.
Great Learning 8 (Confucianism)

A Man Is Born for the Sake of a Woman, and a Woman is Born for the Sake of a Man

The recordings of the Dividing Line; Ending the Culture that Causes Sexual Abuse workshop are now available.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1676

How old is the planet earth in this solar system? It has been revolving for billions of years, and yet has it ever been off-course by the merest trifle? It is right on course day after day. In the same way, all creation follows its rhythm. Would the building of nests be the same for American sparrows and Korean sparrows, or would they be different? Answer me: same or different? They would be the same. In terms of evolutionary theory, the nest building of sparrows should develop with time, shouldn’t it? If so, then how is it that they have been building their nests in the same way for thousands and tens of thousands of years? How do they know about building their nests? The swallows build their nests in their own way, as do the sparrows and the orioles. In the latter case, they build their nests on trees. (179-246, 1988.8.12)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1503

Heaven must be established from the family. Since Jesus couldn’t form a family, he could not enter heaven, but instead is in paradise. Paradise is like the waiting room you have to pass through before entering heaven. Hell came into existence because of the Fall. God did not create it from the beginning. (21-199, 1968.11.20)

True Love

3. Love’s Circular Motion

Love works in a circle, for the beloved moves the lover by stamping a likeness, and the lover then goes out to hold the beloved in reality. Who first was the beginning now becomes the end of motion.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica4 (Christianity)