We Should Be Willing to Do Anything that God Wants Us to Do

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Cheon Seong Gyeong 339

Are arteries greater or veins greater? Which is greater? They are equal. Then, which is greater, God or people? They are equal. When it comes to love, if God is the artery, we human beings are like the veins, so we have the value of having the privilege to be God’s equal. “I am my own Lord throughout heaven and earth. I am omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. There is nothing that does not go through me.” What makes this happen? Love does. This is under-standable. (109-146, 1980.11.1)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 339

Since the Fall of the human ancestors, Adam and Eve, human beings have waited eagerly for the day when God could bless them. (19-23, 1967.11.14)
Richard: Find out about the Blessing: Blessing of Marriage – VisionRoot.

Forgiveness

 Soiled by sin and unworthy to enter the presence of God, or corrupted by evil deeds and hence unable to realize our true inner nature, we cry out to God for forgiveness of sins. the experience of divine forgiveness and pardon is universal, reaching to supplicants in all the world’s religions. God is always desirous to forgive sins; it is his loving will to do so as our loving parent.
    The opening passages express God’s forgiving nature; the concluding texts describe removing sins as a process of cleansing.

1. God’s Forgiveness

O My servants who have transgressed against their souls! Despair not of the mercy of God: for God forgives all sins: for He is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful.
    Qur’an 39.53
 
I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.
    Isaiah 43.25
 
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon us.
    Ephesians 1.7-8
 
Though a man be soiled with the sins of a life-time, let him but love me, rightly resolved, in utter devotion. I see no sinner, that man is holy. Holiness soon shall refashion his nature to peace eternal. O son of Kunti, of this be certain: the man who loves me shall not perish.
    Bhagavad-Gita 9.30-31 (Hinduism)
 
God the Almighty has said, “O son of Adam, so long as you call upon Me and ask of Me, I shall forgive you for what you have done, and I shall not mind. O son of Adam, were your sins to reach the clouds of the sky and were you to ask forgiveness of Me, I would forgive you. O son of Adam, were you to come to Me with sins nearly as great as the earth and were you to face Me, ascribing no partner to Me, I would bring you forgiveness nearly as great as it.”
    Forty Hadith of an-Nawawi 42 (Islam)
 
Let him utter the name, Buddha Amitayus. Let him do so serenely with his voice uninterrupted; let him be continually thinking of Buddha until he has completed ten times the thought, repeating, “Adoration to Buddha Amitayus.” On the strength of [the merit of] uttering the Buddha’s name he will, during every repetition, expiate the sins which involve him in births and deaths during eighty million kalpas.
    Meditation on Buddha Amitayus 3.30 (Buddhism)
 
Shining brightly, Agni, drive away
our sin, and shine wealth on us.
Shining bright, drive away our sin.

For good fields, for good homes, for wealth,
we made our offerings to Thee.
Shining bright, drive away our sin…

So that Agni’s conquering beams
may spread out on every side,
Shining bright, drive away our sin.

Thy face is turned on every side,
Thou pervadest everywhere.
Shining bright, drive away our sin. 
    Rig Veda 1.97.1-6 (Hinduism)
 
Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon
 
God has already forgiven us our sins. Do you think it would be possible for God to forgive us if He still thought that we were sinners? He forgives us because He looks at us with endless compassion. You should know that through forgiveness, all can be united as one. (41:333, February 18, 1972)
 
Great forgiveness is possible only when one understands the other person’s situation one hundred percent. Because God knows our situation, He forgives us. (2:220, May 26, 1957)
 
No one can criticize a parent who forgives a child who repents for his or her sin. No one can accuse that parent for not punishing the child. That is why Satan cannot accuse God for loving humankind and trying to save them. Satan cannot make accusations against a person of perfect love. On the contrary, Satan voluntarily surrenders before him. The law requiring punishment yields to Heavenly Father’s love, by which He forgives repentant sinners. (62:52, September 10, 1972)
 
We know the shame of our first human ancestors before Heaven; we know that throughout history people have lived shameful lives; we know that the world we are living in is shameful. What can we be proud of before God? Can we be proud of ourselves as individuals? No… we are not qualified to approach God. Therefore, we should be willing to do anything that God wants us to do, anything that will make Him happy, anything that will allow Him to overlook our shame, in order that we might be forgiven of our sins. (66:18, March 11, 1973)
 
 

Parents Suffer Deeply If their Child Commits a Crime.

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Revelation 12

A war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels were fighting against the dragon and its angels. But the dragon lost the battle. It and its angels were forced out of their places in heaven and were thrown down to the earth. Yes, that old snake and his angels were thrown out of heaven! That snake, who fools everyone on earth, is known as the devil and Satan. 10 Then I heard a voice from heaven shout,

“Our God has shown
his saving power,
    and his kingdom has come!
God’s own Chosen One
    has shown his authority.
Satan accused our people
in the presence of God
    day and night.
Now he has been thrown out!

11 Our people defeated Satan
    because of the blood
of the Lamb
    and the message of God.
They were willing
    to give up their lives.

12 The heavens should rejoice,
together with everyone
    who lives there.
But pity the earth
    and the sea,
because the devil
was thrown down
    to the earth.
He knows his time is short,
    and he is very angry.”

Richard: This is applicable to the time right now. Satan and his minions have been very active, but their time will be short.

2 Chronicles 19

He assigned judges to each of the fortified cities in Judah and told them:

Be careful when you make your decisions in court, because these are the Lord’s people, and he will know what you decide. So do your work in honor of him and know that he won’t allow you to be unfair to anyone or to take bribes.

Richard: This also addresses today’s situation. Many judges have been giving false rulings. They will be held accountable.

Grace

2. Grace for the Prodigal Son

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Parents suffer deeply if their child commits a crime. If he is sent to jail, the parents would not say, “You deserve it!” Instead, they would forgive their child, sympathize with him and shed tears of compassion. Such is parental love. If their child were sentenced to death, the parents—especially the mothers—would wail. They would desperately search for some way to save their child’s life, even up until the last minute at the execution site. They would gladly trade their own life for his. That is the precious unchanging love of a parent.
    If the heart of human parents moves in this way towards their children, then do you think that God, the Parent of humankind, would do any less? Never! God’s love is far greater than human love. Surely the love of God surpasses the love of any earthly parent. (91:148, February 6, 1977)
 
God has been toiling to recover humankind, even though we deserve to die thousands of times in the realm of death. Never forget that when God comes to us in the realm of death, He bring us something more precious than anything in the world. Understand that when He saves us from the realm of death, He does so with anguish and a worried heart. To claim us from the realm of death, God is willing to sacrifice everything. (6:115-16, April 12, 1959)
 
No matter what happens in the human world, God is patient because He is who He is. He sees many tragic and heart-breaking things, yet He remains calm and composed, never losing His dignity. If God were to open His mouth and express His suffering, He could pour out tragic stories for millions of years, weeping all the while. Would God weep out of self-pity? No, God weeps only for humankind, His children. (124:60, 830123)
 
God is our Parent; that is why He loves us although He is high above us. We can draw an analogy to the parents of a disabled child, whose disability is so severe that he cannot recognize their love. The parents feel miserable, yet they cannot help but love their child. Even though their child is unable to appreciate even one one-hundredth of their love, and it grieves the parents to face that, they nevertheless love their child, giving all the time. They yearn to give love one hundred times more, and when they see that their child is unable to appreciate any of it, they experience grief and frustration one hundred times more. Parents yearn to love a child who can fully unite with their love, but parents of a child who cannot relate to their love experience only pain and sorrow. Truly there is no greater heartbreak… Now, can you imagine if it were not a matter of only one child’s lifetime, but forever? That is God’s miserable and heartbreaking situation, trying to love human beings… Where is the supreme relationship between Heaven and human beings, linking their deepest hearts? No matter how high we climb and search, since God is the Parent, we humans must seek the position of God’s children. Hence in Christianity, God is called Father and we are called God’s children. What is the standard of that parent-child relationship? Is it below or above the line of the Human Fall? It cannot be below it. The standard should be above the level of the Fall. Even among fallen people today, whose love is below the line of the Fall, the parent-child relationship suffers when children are not dutiful. Imagine, then, how miserable it would be for parents who had never fallen. When we think about the difficult relationships between parents and children around us, we can fathom something of God’s situation. God surely intended to love His children with a love above the line of the Fall. How strong would that love be? Yet since no one has ever stood above the line of the Fall, nobody knows. (62:20, September 10, 1972)
 
Heavenly Father has been searching for His lost children for six thousand biblical years, while enduring suffering upon suffering. However, if the children whom He finally found were weak and pathetic, how would He feel? It is conceivable that God might lament, “It would have been better had I not found them.” Are you confident that you are not children like that? (Blessing and Ideal Family 7.4.1)
 
Allow us to feel Thy merciful touch,
the touch of our Father who seeks us,
carrying the burden of providence for 6,000 years.
Still, Thou hast not cast us aside,
although we are foolish and inadequate. (3:258-59, January 12, 1958)
 
 

Now I Have Someone to Whom I May Bequeath My Treasuries and Wealth

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Cheon Seong Gyeong 1979

As you all are aware, the Russo-Japanese War began due to the Korean peninsula. The same is true for the Sino-Japanese War. If you look into the origin of the great Asian War in modern times, you will see that it began from the incident that occurred at the Marco Polo Bridge. The cause of upheaval in Asia during modern times can be found entirely in Korea, which was the focal point of events. China also needed Korea. Korea is situated in a very interesting place, coveted by both Japan and the Soviet Union. Japan has no way to spread its political domain to the world without first connecting with the continent.
Considering this, if North Korea, backed by the Soviet Union, were to insist on joint elections between the North and the South, and if South Korea also responded by calling for the abolishment of the thirty-eighth parallel, the Soviet Union would be satisfied indeed! What does the Soviet Union need? It needs the Korean peninsula as a strong-hold on the Pacific. If the Soviet Union can occupy the Korean peninsula, then it can have Japan by the neck and will also be able to have China at gunpoint. (178-12, 1988.5.27)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1304

When you look at the world today, you see that it is going to ruin, just like the nations of two thousand years ago. Even under such circumstances, God is carrying out His providence with Korea representing Israel, and the United States representing Rome. When these two nations unite into one, the foundation upon which the whole world can be made into one can be achieved. The foundation of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth can be achieved through the absorption of the communist world by the spirit worldwide foundation of Christianity.
That is why the returning Lord is responsible for uniting the communist and democratic worlds into one. How far have we come? We have already achieved the worldwide foundation. The Unification Church has already laid down the foundation of the kingdom on the levels of the individual, family, tribe, people, nation and world. Because of this, the five races of the world have now come together as one great family. The people of the third Israel are those who can own the Kingdom of God on the earth and in the spirit world based upon the foundation of a united world. So we have now become the people of the third Israel. (92-202, 1977.4.10)

Richard: Christ returns to Korea, not the nation of Israel, as Jesus indicated in the Parable of the Vineyard (Matthew 21:33) (Original Root Substance of the Principle p. 451 (OSDP-Original Root Substance of the Principle – VisionRoot). Korea, Japan and Taiwan are closely related. It is significant that President Trump recognized democratic Taiwan as the true China by removing restrictions on contact by State Department officials with Taiwan embassies (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/chinese-state-media-blast-trump-administration-cowardly-act-sabotage-taiwan-n1253666) . China has been bullying the United States for years, saying that official contact is not allowed and until President Trump’s mandate, we accepted that. No more.

Grace

2. Grace for the Prodigal Son

There was a man who had two sons; and the younger of them said to his father, “Father, give me the share of property that falls to me.” And he divided his living between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took his journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in loose living. And when he had spent everything, a great famine arose in that country, and he began to be in want. So he went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have fed on the pods that the swine ate; and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, “How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired servants.’” And he arose and came to his father. But while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” But the father said to his servants, “Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry; for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.” And they began to make merry.
Now his elder son was in the field; and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of his servants and asked what this meant. And he said to him, “Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has received him safe and sound.” But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, “Lo, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command; yet you never gave me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your living with harlots, you killed for him the fatted calf!” And he said to him, “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.”
Luke 15.11-32: Parable of the Prodigal Son

It is like a youth who, on attaining manhood, leaves his father and runs away. For long he dwells in some other country, ten, or twenty, or fifty years. The older he grows, the more needy he becomes… From the first the father searched for his son but in vain, and meanwhile has settled in a certain city. His home becomes very rich…
At this time, the poor son, wandering through village after village, and passing through countries and cities, at last reaches the city where his father has settled. Always has the father been thinking of his son, yet, though he has been parted from him over fifty years, he has never spoken of the matter to any one, only pondering over it within himself and cherishing regret in his heart, as he reflects, “Old and worn, I own much wealth—gold, silver, and jewels, granaries and treasuries overflowing; but I have no son. Some day my end will come and my wealth will be scattered and lost, for there is no one to whom I can leave it… If I could only get back my son and commit my wealth to him, how contented and happy should I be, with never a further anxiety!”
Meanwhile the poor son, hired for wages here and there, unexpectedly arrives at his father’s house… Seeing his father possessed of such great power, he was seized with fear, regretting that he had come to this place, and secretly reflects, “This must be a king, or someone of royal rank; it is no place for me to obtain anything for hire of my labor. I had better go to some poor hamlet, where there is a place for letting out my labor, and food and clothing are easier to get. If I tarry here long, I may suffer oppression and forced service.” Reflecting thus, he hastens away.
Meanwhile the rich elder on his lion-seat has recognized his son at first sight, and with great joy in his heart has also reflected, “Now I have some one to whom I may bequeath my treasuries of wealth. Always I have been thinking of this my son, with no means of seeing him; but suddenly he himself has come and my longing is satisfied. Though worn with years, I yearn for him as of old.”
Instantly he dispatches his attendants to pursue him quickly and fetch him back. Thereupon the messengers hasten forth to seize him. The poor son, surprised and scared, loudly cries his complaint, “I have committed no offense against you; why should I be arrested?” The messengers all the more hasten to lay hold of him and compel him to go back. Thereupon the poor son, thinking within himself that though he is innocent yet he will be imprisoned, and that now he will surely die, is all the more terrified, faints away and falls prostrate on the ground. The father, seeing this from afar, sends word to the messengers, “I have no need for this man. Do not bring him by force. Sprinkle cold water on his face to restore him to consciousness and do not speak to him any further.” Wherefore? The father, knowing that his son’s disposition is inferior, knowing that his own lordly position has caused distress to his son, yet convinced that he is his son, tactfully does not say to others, “This is my son.”
A messenger says to the son, “I now set you free; go wherever you will.” The poor son is delighted, thus obtaining the unexpected. He rises from the ground and goes to a poor hamlet in search of food and clothing. Then the elder, desiring to attract his son, sets up a device. Secretly he sends two men, doleful and shabby in appearance, saying, ‘You go and visit that place and gently say to the poor man, “There is a place for you to work here…we will hire you for scavenging, and we both also will work along with you.”’ Then the two messengers go in search of the poor son and, having found him, place before him the above proposal. Thereupon the poor son, having received his wages beforehand, joins with them in removing a refuse heap.
His father, beholding the son, is struck with compassion for, and wonder at, him. Another day he sees at a distance, through a window, his son’s figure, gaunt, lean, and doleful, filthy and unclean with dirt and dust; thereupon he takes off his strings of jewels, his soft attire, and puts on a coarse, torn and dirty garment, smears his body with dust, takes a basket in his right hand, and with an appearance fear-inspiring says to the laborers, “Get on with your work, don’t be lazy.” By such a device he gets near to his son, to whom he afterwards says, “Ay, my man, you stay and work here, do not go again elsewhere; I will increase your wages; give whatever you need, bowls, utensils, rice, wheat-flour, salt, vinegar, and so on; have no hesitation; besides there is an old and worn-out servant whom you shall be given if you need him. Be at ease in your mind; I am, as it were, your father; do not be worried again. Wherefore? I am old and advanced in years, but you are young and vigorous; all the time you have been working, you have never been deceitful, lazy, angry or grumbling; I have never seen you, like the other laborers, with such vices as these. From this time forth you shall be as my own begotten son.”
Thereupon the elder gives him a new name and calls him a son. Then the poor son, though he rejoices at this happening, still thinks of himself as a humble hireling. For this reason, during twenty years he continues to be employed in scavenging. After this period, there grows mutual confidence between them, and he goes in and out and at his ease, though his abode is still in a small hut.
Then the elder becomes ill and, knowing that he will die before long, says to the poor son, “Now I possess abundance of gold, silver, and precious things, and my granaries and treasuries are full to overflowing. The quantities of these things, and the amounts which should be received and given, I want you to understand in detail. Such is my mind, and you must agree to this my wish. Wherefore? Because now I and you are of the same mind. Be increasingly careful so that there be no waste.”
The poor man accepts his instruction and commands, and becomes acquainted with all the goods… but has no idea of expecting to inherit as much as a meal, while his abode is still the original place and he is yet unable to abandon his sense of inferiority.
After a short time has again passed, the father notices that his son’s ideas have gradually been enlarged, his aspirations developed, and that he despises his previous state of mind. On seeing that his own end is approaching, he commands his son to come, and gathers together his relatives, and the kings, ministers, warriors, and citizens. When they are all assembled, he addresses them saying, “Now, gentlemen, this is my son, begotten by me. It is over fifty years since, from a certain city, he left me and ran away to endure loneliness and misery. His former name was so-and-so and my name was so-and-so. At that time in that city I sought him sorrowfully. Suddenly in this place I met and regained him. This is really my son and I am really his father. Now all the wealth which I possess belongs entirely to my son, and all my previous disbursements and receipts are known by this son.”
When the poor son heard these words of his father, great was his joy at such unexpected news, and thus he thought, “Without any mind for, or effort on my part, these treasures now come of themselves to me.
”World-honored One! The very rich elder is the Tathagata, and we are all as the Buddha’s sons. The Buddha has always declared that we are his sons. But because of the three sufferings, in the midst of births-and-deaths we have borne all kinds of torments, being deluded and ignorant and enjoying our attachment to trifles. Today the World-honored One has caused us to ponder over and remove the dirt of all diverting discussions of inferior things. In these we have hitherto been diligent to make progress and have got, as it were, a day’s pay for our effort to reach Nirvana. Obtaining this, we greatly rejoiced and were contented, saying to ourselves, “For our diligence and progress in the Buddha-law what we have received is ample”… The Buddha, knowing that our minds delighted in inferior things, by his tactfulness taught according to our capacity, but still we did not perceive that we are really Buddha’s sons… Therefore we say that though we had no mind to hope or expect it, yet now the Great Treasure of the King of the Law has of itself come to us, and such things that Buddha-sons should obtain, we have all obtained.
Lotus Sutra 4: Parable of the Prodigal Son (Buddhism)

Man Is Born to Trouble As the Sparks Fly Upward

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2 Corinthians 7

13 And we were greatly encouraged.

Although we were encouraged, we felt even better when we saw how happy Titus was, because you had shown that he had nothing to worry about. 14 We had told him how much we thought of you, and you did not disappoint us. Just as we have always told you the truth, so everything we told him about you has also proved to be true. 15 Titus loves all of you very much, especially when he remembers how you obeyed him and how you trembled with fear when you welcomed him. 16 It makes me really glad to know that I can depend on you.

Ezekiel 21

18 The Lord said:

19 Ezekiel, son of man, mark two roads for the king of Babylonia to follow when he comes with his sword. The roads will begin at the same place, but be sure to put up a signpost where the two roads separate and go in different directions. 20 Clearly mark where the two roads lead. One goes to Rabbah, the capital of Ammon, and the other goes to Jerusalem, the fortified capital of Judah. 21 When the Babylonian king stands at that signpost, he will decide which way to go by shaking his arrows, by asking his idols, and by carefully looking at the liver of a sacrificed animal.22 His right hand will pull out the arrow marked “Jerusalem.” Then he will immediately give the signal to shout the battle cry, to build dirt ramps to the top of the city walls, to break down its walls and gates with large wooden poles, and to kill the people. 23 Everyone in Jerusalem had promised to be loyal to Babylonia, and so none of them will believe that this could happen to them. But Babylonia’s king will remind them of their sinful ways and warn them of their coming captivity.

Richard: When Israel did not honor God, and the people sold out to the Babylonian ruler and thought they were safe, they were judged anyway.

Suffering

The first of the Buddha’s four noble truths is that human existence is suffering (pali dukkha). suffering is the pervasive human condition, a sort of illness generated by the self through its false attachments. Buddhist texts—echoed in other scriptures—describe it by the metaphor of a universal fire engulfing the world. in Hinduism, the human lot is to go through an endless cycle of death and rebirth, conditioned by the results of past actions. Ecclesiastes is in many ways the most Buddhist of books in the bible in its theme of the vanity of human works. Few are those who ever fulfill all their desires, yet even those who do are not satisfied, ever wanting more. akin to this is the observation in Chinese texts that even when people begin with the best of intentions, their behavior usually degenerates and ends in acrimony, betrayal, or violence.in Christianity, the doctrine of original sin conveys a similar idea: by their fallen condition people are unable to fulfill their life’s purpose. Father Moon often laments about the interminable misery of the human condition and explains how the human Fall brought this about.

  1. Sorrow Is Everywhere

The Noble Truth of Suffering (Dukkha) is this: Birth is suffering; aging is suffering; sick-ness is suffering; death is suffering; sorrow and lamentation, pain, grief, and despair are suffering; association with the unpleasant is suffering; dissociation from the pleasant is suffer-ing; not to get what one wants is suffering—in brief, the five aggregates of attachment are suffering.
    Samyutta Nikaya 56.11 (Buddhism)

Affliction does not come from the dust,
nor does trouble sprout from the ground;
but man is born to trouble
as the sparks fly upward.
    Job 5.6-7

This world, become ablaze, by touch of sense afflicted,
utters its own lament. Whatever conceit one has,
therein is instability. Becoming other,
bound to becoming, yet in becoming it rejoices.
Delight therein is fear, and what it fears is Ill.
    Udana 32 (Buddhism)

Brothers, all is burning. And what is the all that is burning? Brothers, the eye is burning, visible forms are burning, visual consciousness is burning, visual impression is burning, also whatever sensation, pleasant or painful or neither-painful-nor-pleasant, arises on account of the visual impression, that too is burning. Burning with what? Burning with the fire of lust, with the fire of hate, with the fire of delusion; I say it is burning with birth, aging, and death, with sorrows, with lamentations, with pains, with griefs, with despairs.
    The ear is burning, sounds are burning, auditory consciousness is burning… Burning with what? Burning with the fire of lust, with the fire of hate, with the fire of delusion; I say it is burning with birth, aging, and death, with sorrows, with lamentations, with pains, with
griefs, with despairs.
The nose is burning, odors are burning…
The tongue is burning, flavors are burning…
The body is burning, tangible things are burning, tactile consciousness is burning…
The mind is burning, thoughts are burning…
Burning with what? Burning with the fire of lust, with the fire of hate, with the fire of delusion; I say it is burning with birth, aging, and death, with sorrows, with lamentations, with pains, with griefs, with despairs.
    Samyutta Nikaya 35.28: The Fire Sermon (Buddhism)

Farid, I thought I alone had sorrow;
Sorrow is spread all over the whole world.
From my roof-top I saw
Every home engulfed in sorrow’s flames.
    Adi Granth, Shalok, Farid, p. 1382 (Sikhism)

What is Idolatry? It Is to Abandon God and Worship Something Else

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Cheon Seong Gyeong 163

In the past, I saw right through those people who came to the Unification Church with the motivation to use it for their own purposes; those people did all sorts of things. I knew who they were, yet I let them deceive me. Why did I do so? It is because God has been doing so to this day. When people betrayed me and turned their backs, I could have exploded in indignation and resentment saying, “Those reprobates should be struck by lightning.” Yet when I thought about the heart of God who longs for their return, I could not do that. Each time I grasped that suffering heart of God, and had the heart to forgive, a new segment, like that of a bamboo shoot, was created. Do you understand? A segment of the Unification Church was made. That is how we are making family segments, tribal segments and national segments. (197-312, 1990.1.20)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1352

Do you know how important the 430 Couples are? Originally, their Blessing should have taken place last year in 1967. Instead, it was held this year on February 22, which was the twentieth anniversary of my entry into Heungnam prison. Accordingly, there is great significance in completing twenty years of my course of restoration both spiritually and physically; you therefore stand in such a significant position in commemorating that important day with me. You should realize what an honor it is to have such a right of participation. That day is not a sad one. It is also George Washington’s birthday. Knowing this, all of you should work hard to form wonderful families of your own. (159-43, 1968.3.1)

Idolatry and Materialism

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

What is idolatry? It is to abandon God and worship something else, to revere it more than God. Today numerous people are worshipping the idol called “civilization” without being aware of it… They take as their idols material things; they become slaves of civilization. Hence, they do not know where to find the center of their life. Without seeking Heaven they make frantic efforts, yet they do not know what direction to go or what goal to aim for. They are no different than the benighted Israelites in the days of Ahab and Jezebel. (6:31, March 15, 1959)
 
The world should center on the mind, but instead it is devoted to matter… Look at the reality of education, focused as it is on the needs and values of material civilization. The precious and invisible mind is being neglected for the sake of money that is visible to the eyes. (19:287, March 10, 1968)
 
First theism appeared; it emerged as a spin-off of history. Next, humanism emerged as a spin-off of history, and then materialism. They each appeared as separate and incompatible ways of thinking. Thus separated, each in turn perished.
    Human beings consist of body, mind and spirit. Our body consists of matter, our mind consists of character, and with our spirit we are to unite with God. When we try to become one with God without considering the material world and human beings we do not succeed, because that way does not fit our nature. We need God, but we also need human beings and the material world. For this reason, theism, humanism and materialism should not be separate. We need them all. Therefore, religion in the future should be equipped in all three areas, guiding us to fulfill the whole of human life in all its aspects.
    Human beings, having a complex culture, are higher than matter. God is higher than human beings. Therefore, God should govern human beings and all things; that is in keeping with the Principle.
    In earlier times, when people placed religion at the center of their life, they tended to deny the value of human beings. As a result, humanism emerged, putting human beings at the center and denying the importance of God. More recently, humanism has declined as people value material above all else. For materialists, money is everything. Nothing is as valuable as money, not even human beings. They see everything in terms of money.
    Yet after living materialistic lives, people find that material things are not everything. They begin to reexamine the human being to discover their original nature. They are faced with the limitations of materialism and realize that they need to recover human beings… They begin asking questions,  “What is a human being? Is there something about human beings that needs to be restored? Do we need to once again consider the question of God?” We are living in a transitional period when these trends are evident. American young people, hippies and yippies, do all sorts of things, and many are in search of religion. (103:226, March 1, 1979)