Category: Cheon Seong Gyeong

Does Give Come First or Take?

Book Review: Standing Up to Goliath: Battling State and National Teachers’ Unions for the Heart and Soul of Our Kids and Country by Rebecca Friedrichs

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2008

The goal of our faith is to become citizens of God’s country. If you do not become citizens of God’s country, then there will be no way for you as sons and daughters to freely receive the admiration and love of that nation’s people or of all things of creation. A person without a country is always attacked. He stands in a miserable position. He may often feel hopeless after suffering an affront. That is why the question is, where can we find the country of God’s desire? Which is the nation that can become God’s foothold? That is the issue. (55-79, 1972.4.23)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1513

What is the starting point? It is the right of the true parents, true king and true firstborn son. These are the foundations which Adam and Eve should have built and stood upon. These three make up the principal palace of God. At that place would be His palace and His love. When human beings and the Creator are connected as one, the foundation of true love would be laid. The starting point of this union is the center of God. It is the original foundation for the perfected family of Adam and the palace where God can dwell forever. (218-189, 1991.7.28)

Giving and Receiving

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

True love begins from investing and forgetting. (225:15, January 1, 1992)
 
Is the essence of [ordinary] human love the same as the original essence God’s love? Out of human love, people seek to receive; but when we embody God’s original love, we seek to give. (130:118, January 1, 1984)
 
Goodness is the driving force that advances life. Therefore, we must give. What shall we give? We should give life. More than your life, you should give your love—the one love that is of God—parental love. That is why our motto is, “Go forth with the heart of the parent, in the shoes of a servant, shedding sweat for earth, tears for humanity, and blood for heaven.” Do this, and you will not perish. Absolutely, you will not perish. (34:246, September 13, 1970)

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It Is More Blessed to Give than to Receive

Book Review: Standing Up to Goliath: Battling State and National Teachers’ Unions for the Heart and Soul of Our Kids and Country by Rebecca Friedrichs

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2044

Until now, each administrative authority in the Republic of Korea has never had the experience of carrying out its political or educational directives centered on tong and ban. It has never carried out education on a national level. It has been unable to advocate its ideology. It has only been able to gather together the city mayors or the county officials, and maybe one or two other people from the local neighborhoods. The main target for ideological education has not been the leaders of tong and ban. Therefore, there are no roots. It means that no roots were put down here. That’s the point; there are no roots. It’s just like a floating weed. (165-224, 1987.5.27)

Richard: This is the very same Rheama that I got on July 20th, 2019, and again on Dec. 31st, 2019. July 20th was when Stacey and I determined to initiate Home Church in our West Virginia neighborhood. Butt who are the leaders of the tong and ban. A tong, in Korea, is about 100 homes. A ban is about a dozen homes. So these are small groups of neighbors who collaborate together. Yet this is lacking in our neighborhood (and in most neighborhoods). We need to solve this issue. Those who hear the voice of God need to step up and work to know, love and serve their neighbors, as well as well as help them learn what God’s Will is for their lives.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1474

God created humankind for the sake of love. Why were human beings created? They were created because of love. The reason human beings are different from other forms of creation is that they were created as God’s sons and daughters. They were created as object partners who can receive love directly from Him. Such is the privilege of humankind. (132-245, 1984.6.20)

Giving and Receiving

The wisdom of giving is the topic of passages in this section. When we give to one another freely and without conditions, sharing our blessings with others and bearing each other’s burdens, the giving multiplies. We receive far more than we gave. even when there is no immediate prospect of return, heaven keeps accounts of giving, and in the end blessing will return to the giver, multiplied manyfold. We must give first; to expect to receive without having given is to violate the universal law. (see chapter 2: Duality) conversely, giving with strings attached—in order to receive, to curry favor or to make a name for oneself—is condemnable.
Father Moon’s extensive teachings about giving provide a philosophical basis for this universal moral wisdom. Giving is rooted in the nature of the creator, who invested himself utterly to create all things in heaven and earth. he goes on to explain several reasons for giving’s paradoxical power to yield increase the more it is spent: first, because in giving we pattern our lives after the creator; second, through the concept of give-and-take action as seen in the cycles of the natural world; and third, in the investment of parents in their children, with its joyful yield over the years—growth, prosperity and grandchildren. To encourage us to give without any conditions, he counsels us to “give and give and forget what you have given.”

1. The Way of Giving and Its Rewards
It is more blessed to give than to receive.
    Acts 20.35
 
You will not attain piety until you expend of what you love; and whatever thing you expend, God knows of it.
    Qur’an 3.92
 
He who gives liberally goes straight to the gods;on the high ridge of heaven he stands exalted.
    Rig Veda 1.125.5 (Hinduism)

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Faith apart from Works is Dead

Book Review: Standing Up to Goliath: Battling State and National Teachers’ Unions for the Heart and Soul of Our Kids and Country by Rebecca Friedrichs

Cheon Seong Gyeong 269

Then, where is it that I live? I do not stand only in the teacher’s position or only in the owner’s position. Even the president of a university returns home as a parent in the evening and even the president of Korea returns to the Blue House. Even the one who commands the royal courtiers must go home to sleep and there he becomes a father, a parent.
    When we see these things, we realize that parents are the center. The school is based on parents and the position of owner is based on parents. Everyone may go out, but they will eventually return to their parents. The place where you can live without having to return is the place where your parents are. That is how it works with all things involving true love. The saying that the king, the teacher and the parents are equal has its basis there. I am now conveying a true teaching to you. This is why I am the best of all teachers.
    Among rulers there has been none who ruled with love. This is why your mind and body desire to live forever resonating with me and the way I am going. Those who really love the Unification Church and those in the Unification Church who have the heart to love God, love humankind and love the fundamental essence of human beings, are unable to leave me. This is because I have the heart of a parent, the heart of a teacher and the heart of an owner. Through me, you can become parents, you can become owners and you can become teachers. (215-78, 1991.2.6)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1242

You must understand how important the Blessing is from a providential point of view. God’s Blessing is received where the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and the Kingdom of Heaven in the spirit world meet. It is the place where the eternal world and the corporeal world meet horizontally. (Blessed Family – 544)

Good Deeds

Good deeds are a manifestation of a healthy spiritual life. Good deeds promote friendship and harmony in our dealings with people. Good deeds create merit for heaven and improve our relationship with God. While religions often emphasize faith as the key to salvation, all genuine faith is manifested outwardly in transformed behavior. Father Moon recommends unflagging efforts to do good deeds, whether they are appreciated or not, both to fulfill love in our hearts and as spiritual training to love more profoundly.

Many garlands can be made from a heap of flowers. Many good deeds should be done by one born a mortal.
    Dhammapada 53 (Buddhism)

Be mindful of your duty [to God], and do good works; and again, be mindful of your duty, and believe; and once again: be mindful of your duty, and do right. God loves the doers of good.
    Qur’an 5.93

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Parents’ Loving Heart towards their Children is an Eternal Standard

Happy Birthday, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr!

Book Review: Standing Up to Goliath: Battling State and National Teachers’ Unions for the Heart and Soul of Our Kids and Country by Rebecca Friedrichs

Cheon Seon Gyeong 2063

We should do Tong-ban breakthrough activities, do you understand? In your village, if you think about the people according to each clan, and you have one hundred homes, how many ban(home neighborhoods) does that make? Only by going down to the ban will you move a Mr. Lee of the Lee clan, or a Mr. Pak of the Pak clan. In this way you can move everyone in the area. Since it was in the family that the seeds were sown incorrectly which led to its ruin, it is in the family that you must harvest the results and make a heavenly family that can prosper. Your destiny rests in fulfilling this. Let’s bring this matter to a closing point. (210-291, 1990.12.25

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1189

As God carried out the dispensation for restoration, His grief lay in the fact that the firstborn son was on Satan’s side. That is why human history is diseased. What kind of disease does it suffer from? It has a love related disease. The first son was born after humankind went astray due to the disease of love. If we are not aware of this fact, we won’t reach the time when we are able to ascend to the individual position where we can again achieve harmony, even if we spend billions of years in search of the principled standard. (136-126, 1985.12.22)

Richard: We have to understand The Fall of Man and we have to receive the Blessing.

A Good Heart

2. A Loving Heart and Its Roots in God’s Heart

Gentleness and goodness are the roots of humanity.
    Book of Ritual 38.18 (Confucianism)

To love is to know Me,
My innermost nature,
the truth that I am.
    Bhagavad-Gita 18.55 (Hinduism)

All men have this heart that, when they see another man suffer, they suffer, too… Take an example: a man looks out and sees a child about to fall into a well. No matter who the man is, his heart will flip, flop, and he will feel the child’s predicament; and not because he expects to get something out of it from the child’s parents, or because he wants praise from his neighbors, associates, or friends, or because he is afraid of a bad name, or anything like that.
    Mencius II.A.6 (Confucianism)

The Dwelling of the Tathagata is the great compassionate heart within all the living. The Robe of the Tathagata is the gentle and forbearing heart.
    Lotus Sutra 10 (Buddhism)

As a mother protects her only child at the risk of her own life, let him cultivate a boundless heart towards all beings.
    Khuddaka Patha, Metta Sutta (Buddhism)

Allah is kind and loves whoever is kind;
Allah is clean and loves whoever is clean;
Allah is generous and loves whoever is generous.
    Hadith of Muslim 913.2 (Islam)

What sort of religion can it be without compassion?
You need to show compassion to all living beings.
Compassion is the root of all religious faiths.
    Basavanna, Vacana 247 (Hinduism)

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Because God is love, let us center our lives on heart (shimjung), the essence of love. We advance on the path by developing a character that springs from the heart. (84:123, February 22, 1976)
 
In the heart of love, everything becomes one. It is all-inclusive, not discriminating. Being all-inclusive, it is also embracing. Inclusiveness is the inner core that manifests outwardly as tolerance. Inner and outer engage in circular motion; thus tolerance promotes inclusiveness and inclusiveness pro-motes tolerance.
    Beyond that, love is mutually responsive. “Mutually responsive” means the grandfather is not always absolute. Nor are the grandchildren always absolute. At times, the grandfather may become a grandchild, and the grandchild may become the grandfather. This is what is meant by “mutually responsive.” Therefore, anywhere that loving hearts and a loving atmosphere prevail, there is no opposition; everyone welcomes it. Neither knowledge nor power can create such a tolerant and embracing environment; only love can do it.
    When a hungry child is embraced in its mother’s bosom, it can forget its hunger and go to sleep. What else could be as precious as love? Diamonds? Suppose your wife or child was ill and on the verge of dying. Would you refuse to take a diamond out of your jewelry box and sell it to cover the medical costs? Would that be love? Genuine love has the power to move anything. (139:196-97, January 31, 1986)
 
Due to the human fall, nothing about the human realm of heart entitles us to stand before God except for one condition that remains unchanged: parents’ loving heart for their children. Children’s love toward their parents cannot be the standard, because in the beginning we betrayed God from the position of children. Hence we lost the emotional basis to relate to God as His children. On the other hand, God loved Adam and Eve even at the moment of their Fall. That original nature remains in our hearts. It remains the basis for parents to act according to their original mind in loving their children. Therefore, among people living in the fallen realm, only parents’ love toward their children remains as an original, prelapsarian standard of love. It shall remain as an eternal standard. (23:206, May 25, 1969)
 
If parents have a child with a handicap or birth defect, they are heart-broken yet make special efforts to take care of that child. The love of even worldly parents unmistakably reflects God’s heart. That is why restoration is possible when you are filial toward your parents. (99:127-28, September 10, 1978)
 
Right now what we need most is the glow of love. God’s love is like the guide rope of a net. That love should set its anchor in me. Where should we set the center of our character? Not in the truth, but rather in the heart (shimjung). (33:68, August 8, 1970)
 
 

Make a Habit of Liking People

Cheon Seong Gyeong 395

An ideal family is where the parents, children, husband and wife, and brothers and sisters all desire to unite through true love. In this situation, they are all eternally on an equal footing; from there, the Kingdom of Heaven on earth begins and the Kingdom of Heaven in heaven is automatically established. (Hero of the Future – 172)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 874

    The sun rotates on its axis just like the earth. The sun, whose mass is 1.3. million times greater than the earth, is constantly moving. There are vast galaxies in the universe whose mass is 200 billion times greater than the solar system. These galaxies are called microcosms. There are countless nebulae like these galaxies in the universe. Considered together we call this the macrocosm. We should broaden our minds and look at the world of this vast and boundless universe.
    God, who created this enormous universe whose radius spans hundreds of millions of light years, has moved this great universe along for millions and billions of years in accordance with an unchanging law. God is moving all these celestial bodies with a power that goes far beyond our imagination and senses.
    The more we think about God, who created this universe, the more naturally we come to bow our heads before His grandeur and greatness. We should broaden our minds to consider the fact that the Creator of this great universe is our Father, who looks after us, our God who protects us, and the great living Master. (5-342, 1959.3.8)

Richard:  Yes!  God is our loving Father.  When we seek first the Kingdom, it may seem that we are losing, but, God in His love cares for us so much.  That  means that we are winning!

A Good Heart

Loving kindness and compassion spring naturally from a good heart. Hence, cultivating a good heart ought to be a priority in life. A number of passages praise a loving heart as superior to faith, knowledge, dedication to the truth, and all other virtues.
A loving heart is rooted in God—what Father Moon call’s God’s heart (Korean: shimjung). Shimjung is God’s irrepressible impulse to love—the very motivation for his creation. (see chapter 1: Divine Love and Compassion) in human terms, it is closest to the heart of a mother, who cannot help but love her child. A good heart is impartial and all embracing, able to digest evil and unpleasant people as well as kind and virtuous people. Therefore, it is indispensable to reconciling opponents and resolving conflicts

1. Loving-Kindness
 
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
    Ephesians 4.32
 
May I look on all beings with the eye of friend!
May we look on one another with the eye of friend!
    Yajur Veda 36.18 (Hinduism)
 
 
He who can find no room for others lacks fellow feeling, and to him who lacks fellow feeling, all men are strangers.
 
    Chuang Tzu 23 (Taoism)
 
Treat people in such a way and live amongst them in such a manner that if you die they will weep over you; alive they crave for your company.
    Nahjul Balagha, Saying 9 (Shiite Islam)
 
Gentle character it is which enables the rope of life to stay unbroken in one’s hand.
    Yoruba Proverb (African Traditional Religions)
 
Monks, whatsoever grounds there be for good works undertaken with a view to [favorable] rebirth, all of them are not worth one-sixteenth part of that goodwill which is the heart’s release; goodwill alone, which is the heart’s release, shines and burns and flashes forth in surpassing them.
    Itivuttaka 19 (Buddhism)
 

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