No Work of Art Can Compare With the Human Body

In 2020 in West Virginia we elect the Governor, one US Senator, the Commissioner of Agriculture and three of five Supreme Court of Appeals Justices. We will also elect School Board members, delegates, state senators, sheriffs and more. Especially in light of the many intrusions on constitutional rights now taking place, it will be important to choose wisely on June 9th, 2020 in the primary election and in November. Remember that the Supreme Court of Appeals, School Board members and Magistrates are chosen in the June election only. View the candidate interviews so that you can make informed choices.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2228

I shouldered the nation. On that
path, you are meritorious subjects. For
that reason, you have to understand that
we are treading the path in order to pave
the way of the filial child, the virtuous
woman, and the loyal subject. This is the
mission of the tribal messiah. The posi-
tion of the filial son is in relation to his
family, the virtuous woman’s position
is in relation to her couple, and the loy-
al subject or patriot’s position is that of
the parents representing the country. By
becoming loyal subjects, patriots, you
will represent the position of parents by
being connected with the nation. (220-153,
1991.10.16)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1569

We have now conquered the summit
of this world of death and entered the era
when we can come into contact with the
heavenly realm. We are aware that a new
era centered exclusively on the heavenly
spirit world can only begin in the provi-
dential time when the spirit world can
communicate on an equal basis with
the physical world. This requires a foun-
dation of unity of all the tribes of the
Unification Church members. Please,
Heavenly Father, be with Heung-jin in
his endeavors and devotion in bringing
together good men and women, kings
and patriots representing the sovereign-
ties of the 120 nations, educating them
to fulfill their duties of loyalty and filial
piety to you. In this way, heavenly law in
the spiritual and physical worlds can be
established. Amen! (196-257, 1990.1.2)

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Part 1
God and Creation

Chapter 1
God

The Creator

2. The Creation of Human Beings

Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. Genesis 2.7

We created man of an extraction of clay, then We set him, a drop, in a receptacle secure,
then We created of the drop a clot
then We created of the clot a tissue
then We created of the tissue bones
then We garmented the bones in flesh;
thereafter We produced him as another creature. So blessed be God, the fairest of creators!
Qur’an 23.14

Creating the universe himself, He has remained unattached.
The compassionate Lord too has made the holy center [the human being]. Combining air, water, and fire, He created the citadel of the body.
The Creator fashioned the Nine Abodes [of sensation];
In the Tenth is lodged the Lord, unknowable, limitless.

The illimitable Lord in His unattributed state of void assumed might;
He, the infinite One, remaining detached:
Displaying His power, He himself from the void created inanimate things. From the unattributed void were created air and water.

Raising creation, He dwells as monarch in the citadel of the body.
Lord! In the fire and water [of the body] exists Thy light;
In Thy state of void was lodged the power of creation.
Adi Granth, Maru Sohale, M.1, p. 1037 (Sikhism)

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

God first made the soil and then used it to create human beings. God created the universe by this principle, forming the internal on the basis of the external. From existing beings, God seeks to create greater beings. Creation is thus a process from things of lesser value to things of greater value. Likewise, in the creation of humans, God created first the body and then the spirit. (152:319-20, August 18, 1963)

Investing all His heart and mind, God formed the human body out of dust as the dwelling-place of the eternal spirit, where it is to live and grow. No work of art, however beautiful, can compare with the human body. God did not create it thoughtlessly, saying, “Hey, get up!” Rather, God invested all of His heart and mind into forming it. Then He completed the human being by breathing a living spirit into it. (8:80, November 8, 1959)

God’s purpose in creating human beings was to rejoice with them… However, they cannot become the object partners who inspire God with joy unless they understand His Will and make effort to live accordingly. Hence, human beings are endowed with emotional sensitivity to the heart of God, intuition and reason to comprehend His Will, and the requisite abilities to practice it. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Eschatology 1.1)

What if God had placed our eyes on our feet, or our mouth on the back of the head? God gave much thought to the human body’s design. The mouth is where it is on the face so the two eyes can watch what we put into it and the hands can best function to feed it. Suppose your eyes were in the back of your head; your mouth might bite your finger and they wouldn’t see it happening, and you would lose a finger! You have to admit that God is truly the master scientist!
Everyone has little valleys on either side of their mouths, so that when they perspire the sweat doesn’t run into their mouths. If the mouth were set deeper into the face then you would constantly have to blow away your sweat, but you don’t have to because God prepared better contours for your face. What a mess it would be on a rainy day if your nose were set upside down!

Think about it: everything about you is well made, from the hair inside your nose to your teeth. Everything has its role in the order of the body… Is God’s thinking random or confused? No, the universe follows His order and logic. (104:207-08, May 6, 1979)

Let Us Make Man In Our Image, After Our Likeness

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2137

Prior to the Fall, Adam and Eve could
relate to God freely and directly, but no
longer after it. Likewise, due to the Fall,
Cain and Abel, the children of Adam
and Eve, inherited not God’s lineage,
but Satan’s instead; hence, Jesus’ words
according to John 3:3, “… unless one is
born anew, he cannot see the Kingdom
of God.”
People need to realize that they have
inherited a false life through a false lin-
eage, which originated in a false love
relationship. They should be ashamed of
the fact that they have come to occupy
the position of the enemy of love, life,
and lineage. God feels unspeakable pain
and sorrow when He sees free sex and
homosexuality that are so prevalent in
our world today. Yet He takes the posi-
tion of loving His enemy’s children more
than His own. His providence of salva-
tion is to recover all His lost children by
continuously investing Himself without
expecting any return. For Him to revive
a fallen person, He must invest a life
force stronger than false life. How mis-
erable He must have been at the sight of
Eve being pregnant with the baby con-
ceived through the Fall! Such children
have multiplied to the point that now
there are six billion fallen human beings
in the world.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1093

A long time ago, when the families
of loyal subjects received something
good, they first offered it to the king
of the nation. That was the rule of the
life of loyalty in Korea. From that per-
spective, Korean courtesy reflects some-
thing central to heaven that cannot be
found in any other nation. Confucians
follow the teachings of Confucius, and
there is quite a lot of traditional conduct
prescribed in Confucian teachings that
is close to heavenly law. You should ask
your descendants to perform a sacrifi-
cial rite for you in the future. So far, the
regulations of life and the procedure for
holding a funeral have not been estab-
lished centering upon the Principle, but
once the standard is established in the
future, you should follow it.

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Part 1
God and Creation

Chapter 1
God

The Creator

1. In the Beginning

In the beginning God created the heavens and
the earth. The earth was without form and void,
and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and
the Spirit of God was moving over the face of
the waters.
And God said, “Let there be light”; and there
was light. And God saw that the light was good;
and God separated the light from the darkness.
God called the light Day, and the darkness he
called Night. And there was evening and there
was morning, one day.
And God said, “Let there be a firmament in
the midst of the waters, and let it separate the
waters from the waters.” And God made the
firmament and separated the waters which were
under the firmament from the waters which were
above the firmament. And it was so. And God
called the firmament Heaven. And there was
evening and there was morning, a second day.
And God said, “Let the waters under the
heavens be gathered together into one place,
and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. God
called the dry land Earth, and the waters that
were gathered together he called Seas. And
God saw that it was good. And God said, “Let
the earth put forth vegetation, plants yielding
seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is
their seed, each according to its kind, upon
the earth.” And it was so. The earth brought
forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according
to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in
which is their seed, each according to its kind.
And God saw that it was good. And there was
evening and there was morning, a third day.
And God said, “Let there be lights in the
firmament of the heavens to separate the day
from the night; and let them be for signs and
for seasons and for days and years, and let them
be lights in the firmament of the heavens to
give light upon the earth.” And it was so. And
God made the two great lights, the greater light
to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the
night; he made the stars also. And God set
them in the firmament of the heavens to give
light upon the earth, to rule over the day and
over the night, and to separate the light from
the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
And there was evening and there was morning,
a fourth day.
And God said, “Let the waters bring forth
swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above
the earth across the firmament of the heavens.”
So God created the great sea monsters and
every living creature that moves, with which
the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and
every winged bird according to its kind. And
God saw that it was good. And God blessed
them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill
the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on
the earth.” And there was evening and there
was morning, a fifth day.
And God said, “Let the earth bring forth
living creatures according to their kinds, cattle
and creeping things and beasts of the earth
according to their kinds.” And it was so. And
God made the beasts of the earth according to
their kinds, and the cattle according to their
kinds, and everything that creeps upon the
ground according to its kind. And God saw that
it was good.
Then God said, “Let us make man in our
image, after our likeness; and let them have
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the
birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over
all the earth, and over every creeping thing
that creeps upon the earth.” So God created
man in his own image, in the image of God he
created him; male and female he created them.
And God blessed them, and God said to them,
“Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and
subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of
the sea and over the birds of the air and over
every living thing that moves upon the earth.”
And God said, “Behold, I have given you every
plant yielding seed which is upon the face of all
earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you
shall have them for food. And to every beast of
the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to
everything that creeps on the earth, everything
that has the breath of life, I have given every
green plant for food.” And it was so. And God
saw everything that he had made, and behold, it
was very good. And there was evening and there
was morning, a sixth day.
Thus the heavens and the earth were
finished, and all the host of them. And on the
seventh day God finished his work which he had
done, and he rested on the seventh day from all
his work which he had done. So God blessed the
seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God
rested from all his work which he had done in
creation.
Genesis 1.1-2.3

God it is who created the heavens and the
earth,
and that which is between them, in six days.
Then He mounted the throne.
You have not, beside Him, a protecting friend
or mediator.
Will you not then remember?
He directs the ordinance from the heaven to
the earth;
then it ascends to Him in a Day, whose measure is a thousand years of your reckoning.
Such is the Knower of the invisible and the visible, the Mighty, the Merciful,
who made all things good which He created.30
Qur’an 32.4-7

Tao gave them birth;
The power of Tao reared them,
Shaped them according to their kinds,
Perfected them, giving to each its strength.
Therefore of the ten thousand things there is
not one that does not worship Tao and do homage to its power. Yet no mandate ever went forth
that accorded to Tao the right to be worshiped,
nor to its power the right to receive homage. It
was always and of itself so.31
Tao Te Ching 51 (Taoism)

As the web issues out of the spider
And is withdrawn, as plants sprout from the
earth,
As hair grows from the body, even so,
The sages say, this universe springs from
The deathless Self, the source of life.
The deathless Self meditated upon
Himself and projected the universe
As evolutionary energy.
From this energy developed life, mind,
The elements, and the world of karma,
Which is enchained by cause and effect.
The deathless Self sees all, knows all. From him
Springs Brahma, who embodies the process
Of evolution into name and form
By which the One appears to be many.
Mundaka Upanishad 1.1.7-9 (Hinduism)

The Holy One went about creating worlds and
destroying them until He created heaven and
earth, of which He said, “These please Me.”32
Genesis Rabbah 9.2 (Judaism)

How Much Have You Empathized With God’s Situation?

Watch or Listen to the podcast of the Richard Urban Show from May 7, 2020: Moral Posturing Does Not Improve Our Healthhttps://www.visionroot.org/2020/05/08/is-governor-justice-moral-posturing/ .

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2007

Do you know where the providence
has come to at the present time? The
first goal is to have the basis on which
we can bring about the restoration of the
homeland in heaven’s nation and liber-
ate God’s Kingdom on earth. This must
be done even if you have to sacrifice time
with your family and relatives. Even if
you end up as a refugee, this must be
accomplished. (300-309, 1999.4.11)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1059

You should offer all your devotion in
witnessing to your parents. There is no
greater happiness than receiving heav-
en’s blessings with them, in the presence
of God’s will, and creating a protective
fence as a Blessed Family. (16-329, 1966.7.31)

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Part 1
God and Creation

Chapter 1
God

Divine Love and Compassion

3. God’s Loving Heart toward Humanity

When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. The more I called them, the more they went from me; they kept sacrificing to the Baals, and burning incense to idols. Yet it was I that taught Ephraim to walk, I took him up in my arms; but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of compassion, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them.
Hosea 11.1-4

In the perilous round of mortality, In continuous, unending misery, Firmly tied to the passions As a yak is to its tail; Smothered by greed and infatuation, Blinded and seeing nothing; Seeking not the Buddha, the Mighty, And the Truth that ends suffering, But deeply sunk in heresy, By suffering seeking riddance of suffering; For the sake of all these creatures, My heart is stirred with great pity.
Lotus Sutra 2 (Buddhism)

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

How hard is it to educate just one child? Children share their parents’ flesh and blood. Their hearts are linked to their mother, so when mother cries they cry too. Their hearts are naturally connected to their father, so they respond to his cares and sorrows. Even so, it is still extremely hard to teach and raise them, is it not?
Then consider the magnitude of God’s task. Today’s human beings are not God’s children. Although God cries out in bitterness, they act as if they do not hear anything. Although God weeps with grief and sorrow, they just ignore it. This is because human beings stem from Satan’s flesh and blood. They may sense God’s grief, yet all they do is praise Him. They may notice that other people are perishing, yet still they laugh and make merry.
Think how difficult it is for God, who has to train workers and raise leaders from among such people. Without a heart of utmost compassion, God would not have even a foothold to develop His providential work. Yet it is God’s heart to consider every single detail—from one to one hundred to one thousand to even ten thousand—in arranging things for you. (42:257, March 21, 1971)

God elected Cain and Abel, Noah, and many other families as He pursued the providence of restoration. At every dispensation God led of this providential history, His heart was fretful beyond description. Nevertheless, controlling His feelings, God endured with great patience.
Who on this earth today feels the fretful heart of our patient God? Who would hug God and weep with Him? Anyone who knows God’s heart like this and shed tears would understand: God rejoiced at the time of the creation of all things in heaven and earth, but due to the Human Fall God now grieves; His sorrow encompasses all in heaven and earth. (4:239, May 18, 1958)

[Until the coming of Jesus], what had been God’s heart toward humanity? He did not have the attitude to live for His own sake. Although we fallen human beings deserved to suffer and die, God poured out all of His heart and strength to save us. Persevering through the four thousand years of Old Testament history, He fought every step of the way to separate humanity from Satan. You should understand the nature of God who loved us, persevered for us and fought for us with an unchanging heart…
During Jesus’ life of 33 years, he did not try to distinguish himself before the people, but in silence he sought to experience the heart of God… At difficult moments Jesus might have felt the urge to seek his own welfare, but because he was ever immersed in God’s heart, he could not even think of doing it. Jesus knew that God had persevered for four thousand years for the purpose of finding one man—Jesus himself. Knowing that, Jesus spent thirty years preparing himself, so that he could emerge as the man of substance who could liberate God from that history.
God never made excuses for His situation or complained about His suffering, not to anyone. Because Jesus was trying to understand everything about the heart of God, when he was lonely he too persevered and never made any excuses. You should follow the example of his life. (1:78, May 27, 1956)
Even though human beings sinned, God does not accuse us, saying, “Hey, you! Why did you sin?” He knows the situation of sinners. He cares about humanity more than for Himself. He comes in sorrow to sorrowful people, in suffering to suffering people, and in sympathy with those who feel victimized and angry.
How much have you empathized with God’s situation? God comes into our sphere of life in this way. Not only that—he comes to us with His heart: “Although you betrayed Me, I am your Father. With a father’s heart I have been searching for you for six thousand years.” (9:231, May 29, 1960)

Father! We have been like pitiful orphans,
knocked about this way and that,
ignorant of our purpose, our direction, and our historical situation,
unable to grasp the center of life, pushed here and there—
still Thou didst hold on to us.
Yet we did not know that Thou wast there,
sorrowful when we were sad,
not averse to toiling day and night to seek us out,
even as we were ensnared and groaning in the realm of death. (5:337, March 8, 1959)

God Needs Object Partners

Watch or Listen to the podcast of the Richard Urban Show from May 7, 2020: Moral Posturing Does Not Improve Our Healthhttps://www.visionroot.org/2020/05/08/is-governor-justice-moral-posturing/ .

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2138

We were originally to grow up so that
men and women would meet each oth-
er to become kings and queens, and, as
heavenly princes and princesses, inherit
everything in God’s Kingdom. For this,
we must start at the bottom of hell and
work our way up through the eight-stage
indemnity process until God’s Kingdom
is established, which is possible only
through the Blessing of the True Par-
ents, who come as the Messiah.
Therefore, blessed couples should
become ‘plus’ couples who take the ini-
tiative in serving the world. To be com-
pletely reborn, we should practice abso-
lute faith, absolute love, and absolute
obedience centering on God. I have per-
sonally practiced this throughout my
life.
When creating the universe, God did
so with absolute faith. He went on to cre-
ate us to be the absolute partners of His
love. Absolute obedience means invest-
ing ourselves completely to the extent of
total self-denial. Furthermore, we for-
get about the investment we made and
reinvest; such a process continues until
reaching the zero point without any con-
cept of self. If our love were rejected, we
would continue to love even more; even
if we have already invested, we should
continue to invest everything that we
have, until we can make our enemy sur-
render voluntarily. God walked such a
path, and the Parents of heaven and earth
have also walked such a path. The person
who invests love continuously without
expecting a direct return becomes a cen-
tral being, the one who inherits every-
thing, and the child of greatest piety. In
a family with ten members including the
grandparents, the one most exemplify-
ing altruism will be its center. The same
principle applies with respect to patriots
in the nation. The more we invest with-
out expecting a direct return, the higher
we can rise as loyal citizens, saints, and
God’s holy sons and daughters.

Richard: What did God have faith in? Himself? Hardly. He has faith in us, created as His images, that we will (eventually, and hopefully sooner than later) fulfill His original ideal of creation. Doing Home Church work definitely involves having obedience (to your conscience) and pushing your own self/ego down. And what is real love. Giving and investing without expecting a direct return.

Cheong Seong Gyeong 1617

Between you and me, who is supe-
rior? In what respect? Why would one
be superior to another when all of us
are of the same mind? The only differ-
ence between us is to what extent we
put into action what our mind tells us
to do; otherwise we are no different at
all. Our minds are all the same. The
basis of the person and of the mind
is the same; the only difference lies
in the degree to which we follow the
instructions of our minds, how much
we convert our thoughts into action,
and how much we cultivate our envi-
ronment. (222-303, 1991.11.6)

Richard: Again, Home Church is all about cultivating your environment: https://inspiration.visionroot.org/2020/01/21/only-through-home-church-can-you-return-home/ .

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Part 1
God and Creation

Chapter 1
God

Divine Love and Compassion

1. Love: The Essence of God

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

God knows everything. Omniscient and omnipotent, He is the Supreme King of knowledge and power. Omnipresent, He exists everywhere. What does God need? Diamonds? He can make them any time. Gold or jewels? No. What God needs is love. Dwelling all by Himself, would God say, “I have love and it’s great” and laugh? No, there is something that God needs. God is a personal God; then He should have a mouth, shouldn’t He? He also should have anose, eyes, ears, hands and feet, a mind—and a heart. Surely, God must have them, because He isa personal God. (142:30)

God is the Original Being of love, and out of love He created human beings. A solitary being cannot love. Therefore, there is one thing that even God absolutely needs: a partner whom He can love. He can only love in a relationship with a counterpart. God, the Original Being of love and heart, created the universe with love as His motivation. In doing so, He created human beings in His image as His substantial object partners, as it is recorded in Genesis 1:27, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” God is our eternal, formless and internal Parent, and [he created] Adam and Eve to be perfected as our visible and external parents. (135:10-11, August 20, 1985)

If what God needs is love, then He needs object partners with whom He can relate and share love. What sort of beings could these be? Animals? God would love beings that resemble Him. If God’s partners are indeed human beings, then we are led to the conclusion that God has a human-like personality. God, who is in complete harmony within Himself, must also have attributes that can harmonize one hundred percent with the innate faculties of the human mind and body. Hence, God must have intellect, emotion and will. (162:271, April 17, 1987)\

Love cannot be completed without a partner. Even God absolutely needs a counterpart in order to attain the most precious love; that is why He created. God seeks out a partner, so that He can experience absolute love through relating with another. In this sense, God exists for human beings and human beings exist for God. True love begins when we live for the sake of another. What is the origin of human beings? God’s love. We were born for love. Love is the origin. Life is not the most precious thing. Our life derived from God’s idea of love; therefore, love precedes life. Love is the root of life. We are born from love, grow up in love, and meet a partner for love—that should be our life. If God is the first generation, then human beings are the second generation. God always loves us, His sons and daughters, but do we experience God’s love? Human beings need to experience that love if we are to become God’s perfect partners. (143:310, March 21, 1986) 

He Who Abides in Love Abides in God

Watch or Listen to the podcast of the Richard Urban Show from May 7, 2020: Moral Posturing Does Not Improve Our Health: https://www.visionroot.org/2020/05/08/is-governor-justice-moral-posturing/ .

Cheon Seong Gyeong 487

Many people oppose Rev. Moon, the
man who goes to America to educate and
train American young people, even stay-
ing up all night and sometimes dancing,
singing, and having fun with them? I do
this in order to expand the realm of sup-
port that is connected to me.
Because the expansion of the uni-
versal realm of support starts with me,
I push forward without fear, even if I am
opposed and have to go to prison.
No matter how much you sing joy-
fully and say this and that, do you like to
live alone? When one partner of a mar-
ried couple dies, the other grieves and
weeps. Do you think a person can pre-
pare his own path? Why do we say that
a person is miserable if he is without a
spouse? It is because he cannot experi-
ence the occasion in which heaven and
earth can rejoice.
He has deviated from the regulation
of the law of heaven and earth. Clearly,
only through universal law does the for-
tune of heaven and earth turn, and are
the requirements of happiness and its
motivation determined.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1310

After the blessing of the internation-
al holy grounds, I performed the Bless-
ing of the 430 Couples. This number
corresponds to the 430 years of captiv-
ity of the Israelites in Egypt, and also
the 4,300 years of Korean history. This
Blessing signifies the beginning of a
new history. Moreover, the 430 Couples
also represent all families in the world.
Afterwards, while I was carrying out my
second world tour, I blessed 43 couples
in the United States, Europe and Japan.
I could then connect those 43 couples to
the 430 Couples on the world level. By
doing this, I was able to connect the vic-
torious foundation I had established in
Korea to the world, including the West-
ern world.
By accomplishing all this, all the
families in the world, not just the mem-
bers of the Unification Church, could
now stand in a position to receive heav-
enly fortune right then and there. That is
why the gates of heaven are now open to
all families on earth. (52-131, 1971.12.26)

Richard: Wow! This is great news. The gates of heaven are open to all families on earth, not just Unification Movement families. See this presentation about the Holy Marriage Blessing: https://www.visionroot.org/resources/blessing-of-marriage-ceremony/ .

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Part 1
God and Creation

Chapter 1
God

Divine Love and Compassion

Of all God’s attributes, love is the most attractive and compelling. Most people who believe in God do so because of the mysterious moments when they felt His love, comfort and grace. It moved their hearts to faith, even amidst the mind’s doubts. Because of the Creator’s love, the creation is a benevolent place that upholds and protects life. Indeed, the good creation is an expression of that love. Love is the essence of God; it is even more than that. As Father Moon teaches, love is the very motivation behind God’s creation; it is the “why” of God. Love is also the reason God has pursued the history of salvation through many tortuous paths. Love teaches God to be patient and forgiving with us ignorant creatures who long ago lost our way and became inured to the gracious melodies of the Spirit. Despite our deafness and blindness, God never ceases to embrace us and lead us forward.

1. Love: The Essence of God

God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
1 John 4.16

My mercy embraces all things.
Qur’an 7.156

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

The Great Compassionate Heart is the essence of Buddhahood.
Gandavyuha Sutra (Buddhism)

Lord! You are the uninvoked savior, motiveless compassionate being, a well-wisher even when unprayed, a friend even when unrelated.
Vitaragastava 13.1 (Jainism)

Bright but hidden, the Self dwells in the heart. Everything that moves, breathes, opens, and closes lives in the Self. He is the source of love and may be known through love but not through thought. He is the goal of life. Attain this goal!
Mundaka Upanishad 2.2.1 (Hinduism)

Love is the firstborn, loftier than the gods, the Fathers and men. You, O Love, are the eldest of all, altogether mighty. To you we pay homage! Greater than the breadth of earth and heaven, or of waters and Fire, You, O Love, are the eldest of all, altogether mighty. To you we pay homage!… In many a form of goodness, O Love, you show your face. Grant that these forms may penetrate within our hearts. Send elsewhere all malice!
Atharva Veda 9.2.19-20, 25 (Hinduism)

O good man! Compassion acts as parent to all beings. The parent is compassion. Know that compassion is the Tathagata. O good man! Compassion is the Buddha Nature of all beings. Such a Buddha Nature is long overshadowed by illusion. That is why beings cannot see. The Buddha Nature is Compassion. Compassion is the Tathagata.
Mahaparinirvana Sutra 259 (Buddhism)

The Bull of Dharma is born of compassion;26 Content of mind holds creation together. Whoever understands this is enlightened; How great is the load under which this Bull stands!
Japuji 16, M.1, p. 3 (Sikhism)

O Son of Man! Veiled in My immemorial being and in the ancient eternity of My essence, I knew My love for thee; therefore I created thee, have engraved on thee Mine image, and revealed to thee My beauty.
Hidden Words of Bahá’u’lláh, Arabic 3 (Baha’i Faith)