Category: Cheon Seong Gyeong

Oh How They Cling and Wrangle

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Cheon Seong Gyeong 267

Furthermore, you should know that you have inherited the responsibility that True Parents are to carry out on earth. Why do the Blessed Families have to inherit this? If the Blessed Families are going through the course to restore a people, True Parents should be going through a course to restore the world. In other words, they should be going one step ahead. Yet without establishing the victorious standard of having restored a people, True Parents cannot walk the course of worldwide restoration. That is why you must inherit the responsibility to restore a people to ensure that True Parents can walk the worldwide course. Until your death and until the sorrow of this people is removed, you must shoulder the responsibility to restore a people. (13-293, 1964.4.12)

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“Portion of responsibility” is a term that is not used much in ordinary society. However, especially in the Unification Church, it is a term that is more important than any other. Within our church, if you do not know these two terms – “portion of responsibility” and “restoration through indemnity” – you will not be able to understand the content of our historical course or resolve the mistakes and unknown facts of history. That is how important these words are. (169-45, 1987.10.25)

One Truth, Many Paths

2. Beneath the Differences Are Universal Elements

A number of disciples went to the Buddha and said, “Sir, there are living here in Savatthi many wandering hermits and scholars who indulge in constant dispute, some saying that the world is infinite and eternal and others that it is finite and not eternal, some saying that the soul dies with the body and others that it lives on forever, and so forth. What, Sir, would you say concerning them?”
    The Buddha answered, “Once upon a time there was a certain raja who called to his servant and said, ‘Come, good fellow, go and gather together in one place all the men of Savatthi who were born blind… and show them an elephant.’ ‘Very good, sire,’ replied the servant, and he did as he was told. He said to the blind men assembled there, ‘Here is an elephant,’ and to one man he presented the head of the elephant, to another its ears, to another a tusk, to another the trunk, the foot, back, tail, and tuft of the tail, saying to each one that that was the elephant.
    “When the blind men had felt the elephant, the raja went to each of them and said to each, ‘Well, blind man, have you seen the elephant? Tell me, what sort of thing is an elephant?’“
    Thereupon the men who were presented with the head answered, ‘Sire, an elephant is like a pot.’ And the men who had observed the ear replied, ‘An elephant is like a winnowing basket.’ Those who had been presented with a tusk said it was a ploughshare. Those who knew only the trunk said it was a plough; others said the body was a granary; the foot, a pillar; the back, a mortar; the tail, a pestle, the tuft of the tail, a brush.“
    Then they began to quarrel, shouting, ‘Yes it is!’ ‘No, it is not!’ ‘An elephant is not that!’ ‘Yes, it’s like that!’ and so on, till they came to blows over the matter. The raja was delighted with the scene.“
    Just so are these preachers and scholars holding various views blind and unseeing… In their ignorance they are by nature quarrelsome, wrangling, and disputatious, each maintaining reality is thus and thus.”
    Then the Exalted One rendered this meaning by uttering this verse of uplift:

O how they cling and wrangle, some who
claim
For preacher and monk the honored name!
For, quarreling, each to his view they cling.
Such folk see only one side of a thing. 5
    Udana 68-69: Parable of the Blind Men and the Elephant (Buddhism)

Some Hindus had brought an elephant for exhibition and placed it in a dark house. Crowds of people were going into that dark place to see the beast. Finding that ocular inspection was impossible, each visitor felt it with his palm in the darkness. 
    The palm of one fell on the trunk. “This creature is like a waterspout,” he said. The hand of another lighted on the elephant’s ear. To him the beast was evidently like a fan. Another rubbed against its leg. “I found the elephant’s shape is like a pillar,” he said. Another laid his hand on its back. “Certainly this elephant is like a throne,” he said.
    The sensual eye is just like the palm of the hand. The palm has not the means of covering the whole of the beast.
    The eye of the Sea is one thing and the foam another. Let the foam go, and gaze with the eye of the Sea. Day and night foam-flecks are flung from the sea: How amazing! You behold the foam but not the Sea. We are like boats dashing together; our eyes are darkened, yet we are in clear water.
    Jalalu’l-Din Rumi, Masnavi3.1259-1272 (Islam)
 
A man among the Muslims and a man among the Jews reviled one another. The Muslim said, “By Him who chose Muhammad above the universe,” and the Jew said, “By Him who chose Moses above the universe.” Thereupon the Muslim raised his hand and struck the Jew on his face, and the Jew went to the Prophet and told him what had happened between him and the Muslim. The Prophet summoned the Muslim and asked him about that, and when he informed him the Prophet said, “Do not make me superior to Moses, for mankind will swoon on the day of resurrection and I shall swoon along with them. I shall be the first to recover and see Moses seizing the side of the Throne; and I shall not know whether he was among those who had swooned and had recovered before me, or whether he was among those of whom God had made an exception… Do not make distinctions between the Prophets.”
    Hadith of Bukhari and Muslim (Islam)
 
Some call on the Lord, “Rama,” some cry, “Khuda,”
Some bow to Him as Gosain, some as Allah;
He is called the Ground of Grounds and also the Bountiful,
The Compassionate One and Gracious.
Hindus bathe in holy waters for His sake;
Muslims make the pilgrimage to Mecca.
The Hindus perform puja; others bow their heads in namaz.
There are those who read the Vedas and others—Christians, Jews, Muslims—Who read the Semitic scriptures.
Some wear blue, some white robes,
Some call themselves Muslims, others Hindus.
Some aspire to bahishat [Muslim heaven], some to swarga [Hindu heaven].
Says Nanak, Whoever realizes the will of the Lord, He will find out the Lord’s secrets!
    Adi Granth, Ramkali, M.5, p. 885 (Sikhism)
 
Of whatsoever teachings, Gotamid, you can assure yourself thus, “These doctrines conduce to passions, not to dispassion; to bondage, not to detachment; to increase of worldly gains, not to decrease of them; to covetousness, not to frugality; to discontent, not contentment; to company, not solitude; to sluggishness, not energy; to delight in evil, not delight in good”—of such teachings you may with certainty affirm, Gotamid, “This is not the Norm. This is not the Discipline. This is not the Master’s Message.”
 
But of whatsoever teachings you can assure yourself thus, “These doctrines conduce to dispassion, not to passions… to delight in good, not delight in evil”—of such teachings you may with certainty affirm, “This is the Norm. This is the Discipline. This is the Master’s Message.”
    Vinaya Pitaka 2.10 (Buddhism)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

We Are Cautioned to Be Humble Before the Higher Wisdom of God

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Cheon Seong Gyeong 2069

The family is the formation stage, the tong and ban (local community and neighborhood) are the tribal growth stage, and then the nation is the completion stage. These three points must be connected in the family. If you don’t connect these points in the family, then they can’t be connected at the tribal lev-el. They can’t be connected to the nation, and they can’t be connected to the world. (218-184, 1991.7.28)

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If a head of state learned the Principle, what would happen? It would be only a short time before he saved the nation. Now we are entering the era of restoring the kingship. In the future, it will not be necessary for all of the citizens of a country to believe. If the president of a country fixes its constitution so that it is based on the Principle, the restoration of that nation becomes possible at once. (198-242, 1990.2.3)

One Truth, Many Paths

Passages from diverse scriptures affirm that religions that do not share the faith of that scripture nevertheless contain elements of truth. they affirm that all genuine religions worship the same God. Thus, the Qur’an affirms that Jews and Christians are people of the book who worship the same God as the God of Muhammad. The Sikh scriptures affirm that there is one God for Muslims and Hindus. A Shinto text affirms that the chief Shinto deity is essentially the same as the Buddha.
Further, scriptures affirm that each religion is a path to the same supreme Goal. Here we have the famous images of many rivers flowing into the same ocean or a mountain with many paths leading up to the same summit. the religions of the world begin by addressing the needs, customs and circumstances of diverse cultures, but as they elevate humanity they draw closer together as their paths converge to the one. In this regard, Father Moon affirms that God inspired each of the great religious founders with a message appropriate to the culture and times in which he lived. He honors them as humanity’s true guides, who sent to the earth within the providence of God to help humanity progress towards the ultimate goal.
Certainly, every religion considers its way the best and highest path. the bible says that Jesus is “the way, the truth and the life,” and that “nobody comes to the Father but by me.” the Qur’an states that it is the only accurate witness to the previous revelations—the torch and the Gospel having suffered corruptions and interpolations. Nevertheless, we are cautioned to be humble before the higher wisdom of God. as the parable of the blind Man and the elephant teaches, each way may touch the truth without seeing its entirety. Father Moon likewise sees religions at different levels, due to their appearance at different ages in the course of humanity’s spiritual development. yet the differences among religions should not obscure the core truth they hold in com-mon. hence, religious people can overlook their differences and find common ground.

  1. . All Religions Worship the Same God and Serve His Great Will
The Hindus and the Muslims have but one and the same God;
What can a mullah or a sheikh do?
    Adi Granth, Bhairo, p. 1158 (Sikhism)
 
For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering; for my name is great among the nations, says the lord of hosts.
    Malachi 1.11
 
Those who worship other gods with faith and devotion also worship Me, Arjuna, even if they do not observe the usual forms. I am the object of all worship, its enjoyer and Lord.
    Bhagavad-Gita 9.23-24 (Hinduism)
 
Lo! We did reveal the Torah, wherein is guidance and a light, by which the prophets who submit-ted to God judged the Jews, as did the rabbis and the doctors of the law, because they were required to guard God’s Book, and to which they were witnesses. So fear not mankind, but fear Me. And barter not My revelations for a little gain. Whoso judges not by that which God has sent down—such are disbelievers…
    And We caused Jesus, son of Mary, to follow in their footsteps, confirming the Torah before him, and We bestowed on him the Gospel, wherein is guidance and a light, confirming that which was revealed before it in the Torah—a guidance and an admonition for those who ward off evil. Let the People of the Gospel judge by that which God has revealed therein. Whosoever judges not by that which God has revealed—such are those who live in evil.
 
    And unto thee We revealed the Scripture with the truth, confirming whatever Scripture was before it, and a watcher over it. So judge between them by that which God has revealed, and follow not their desires apart from the truth which has come unto thee.
    For each We have appointed a divine law and a traced-out way. Had God so willed, He could have made you all one community. But He willed it otherwise in order to test you by that which He has given you. So vie one with another in doing good works! Unto God you will all return, and He will then inform you of that wherein you differ.
    Qur’an 5.44-48
 
This is the land of the gods. The people should revere them. In my essence I [Amaterasu] am the Buddha Vairocana. Let my people understand this and take refuge in the Law of the Buddhas.
    Revelation of Amaterasu to Emperor Shomu (Shinto)
 
There can be no doubt that whatever the peoples of the world, of whatever race or religion, derive their inspiration from one heavenly Source, and are the subjects of one God. The difference between the ordinances under which they abide should be attributed to the varying requirements and exigencies of the age in which they were revealed. All of them, except for a few which are the out-comes of human perversity, were ordained of God, and are a reflection of His Will and Purpose.
    Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh 111 (Baha’i Faith)
 
As the different streams
having their sources in different places
all mingle their waters in the sea,
so, O Lord, the different paths that men take,
through various tendencies,
various though they appear,
crooked or straight, all lead to Thee.
    Sanskrit hymn (Hinduism)
 
In whatever way and path humans worship Me, in that same path do I meet and fulfill their aspirations and grace them. It is always My Path that humans follow in all their different paths and journeys, on all sides.
    Bhagavad-Gita 4.11 (Hinduism)
 
Those who believe in the Qur’an, those who follow the Jewish scriptures, and the Sabeans and the Christians—any who believe in God and the Last Day, and work righteousness—on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve.
    Qur’an 5.69
 
There are righteous men among the Gentiles who have a share in the world to come.
    Tosefta Sanhedrin 13.2 (Judaism)
 
And Peter opened his mouth and said, “Truly I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation any one who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.”
   Acts 10.34-35
 
And nearest to them in love to the believers you will find those who say, “We are Christians,” because among them are men devoted to learn-ing and men who have renounced the world, and they are not arrogant. And when they lis-ten to the revelation received by the Apostle, you will see their eyes overflowing with tears, for they recognize the truth. They pray, “Our Lord! We believe; write us down among the witnesses.”
    Qur’an 5.82-83
 
Other religions found everywhere try to counter the restlessness of the human heart, each in its own manner, by proposing “ways,” comprising teachings, rules of life and sacred rites. The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. She looks with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men.
    Vatican II, Nostra Aetate (Christianity)
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

Fallen Human Beings Are Exiles


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Cheon Seong Gyeong 231

God’s love is the love of a vertical parent, and True Parents’ love is the love of horizontal parents. Since you are the people that have inherited these, your minds are the fruit of the tradition that has received the love of the vertical God and parents. Likewise your bodies are the fruit of the tradition that have received the love of horizontal True Parents. In order for these fruits to form the horizontal basis of a family and form a sphere with a vertical center you need to be a husband or a wife and have children. So it is a sin not to bear children. You should not be a childless person. Is there flesh without bone? No, because it would have nowhere to attach itself. (184-309, 1989.1.1)

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Even if a person reached the standard of perfection, his lineage is still not completely clean. Since humankind inherited Satan’s lineage, our lineage is not pure yet. In order to purify it, humankind certainly needs the Messiah. There-fore, the foundation of faith, the foundation of substance, and the foundation for the Messiah are absolutely necessary for fallen people. The ultimate question is how to create the foundation for the Messiah and change the lineage through the Messiah. (55-135, 1972.5.7)

The Purpose of Religion

2. Religions Cultivate Good Character

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

The word “religion” in Chinese characters is 宗敎 (chongkyo in Korean). It means a floor-like teaching, in other words, the foundational teaching for human beings. (92:309, April 24, 1977)
 
The church is the place where you cultivate your character and become a person of integrity. Due to the Fall we came to be in need of the church. The family and society are not sufficient to nurture a mature character; it doesn’t happen automatically. Nor does school: even if you attend a good college and then go on to earn a doctor’s degree, it will not restore your character. That is where the church has a role. (25:126, September 30, 1969)
 
Through religions, God has been teaching people how to strengthen a God-centered spirit and reverse the body’s control over the mind; these further our character development. This is the reason why religions recommend that we fast, sacrifice and serve, be meek and humble, and so on. It is to weaken the power of the body and to have the body submit to the spirit. It normally takes three to five years for a person leading a life of faith to free him or herself from a body-centered, habitual lifestyle and establish a spirit-centered lifestyle. (201:208-09, April 9, 1990)
 
Each religion that has appeared on this earth emerged from the deep will of God’s providence to teach the nature of love. (Way of Unification 1.1.4.1)
 
Heaven is our original homeland, where we are meant to go. We fallen human beings are exiles from our original homeland, and hence our destiny is to return there. We cannot, however, enter heaven by ourselves, so through the course of history God has to set up paths to enable us to return. This is why God created the various religions: to be training grounds for heaven, illuminating paths for every people, culture and tradition. Religions are meant to train and polish people to be qualified to enter the region of the original homeland. To cope with humankind’s many different cultures, God set up paths in many directions, yet with each path related to the one standard. In this way, God is leading these various paths toward one unified religious world.
    What do all religions teach to guide people to the original homeland? They promote the path of living for the sake of others. The higher the religion, the more strongly it emphasizes the importance of living for others. For example, religions teach us to be humble. Why? Because to live for others, we should be able to lift other people above ourselves. Religions also teach us to sacrifice and serve. Why? Through these ways, religions train people to fit the rules of the Kingdom of Heaven. (78:117, May 6, 1975)
 
 
 

God, the Parent of Humankind, Cannot Remain Aloof

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Since human beings begin in love and mature through love, they cannot live separated from the standard of love. (Blessed Family -1062)

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The True Parent, as the perfected Adam, must restore the standard of the first parents, which Adam failed to meet. He must also perfect the standard of the parent that Jesus, who came as the second Adam, failed to achieve. The reason I have no choice but to establish a tradition of suffering in this era of the Second Advent is because Jesus established the spiritual foundation but failed to establish both spiritual and physical foundations on the world level. (55-173, 1972.5.7)

The Purpose of Religion

1. Religions Provide the Way of Salvation

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Why throughout history have people needed to improve themselves through morals, ethics, and religion? Why should we observe them? It is because we sense something is wrong with us, and we desire to return to our original standing before God. (205:8, July 15, 1990)

However hard the original mind may struggle to attain goodness, we can hardly find any examples of true goodness in this world under the sovereignty of evil. Human beings have thus been compelled to seek the source of goodness in the world transcendent of time and space. This necessity has given birth to religion. Through religion, fallen people mired in ignorance have sought to meet God by ceaselessly striving toward the good. Even though the individuals, peoples and nations that championed a certain religion may have perished, religion itself survives. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Eschatology 2.3)

God, the Parent of humankind, cannot remain aloof when He sees His sons and daughters in their fallen state. They are like broken radios, so God created repair shops to fix them. These repair shops are religions. Seeing the many traces of these repair shops down through history, we cannot deny the existence of God. (54:102, March 20, 1972)

If God used His almighty power, He could easily save all humanity. Then He wouldn’t need religion. But why does God need religion? God wants the enemy to surrender willingly. When that happens, God can become the center and heal all beings. That is God’s strategy. (207:21, October 21, 1990)

Religion does not have humankind as its primary object. Rather, religious teachings establish God, the Parent, as foremost. A life of following God’s will is a course to establish and mature in a relationship with God. Therefore, holy men and women invariably support the will of Heaven and declare the heart of Heaven.
A true religion should teach people about God. A true religion should not have some vague ideas about God; a true religion should be able to give a clear picture of God so that people can understand Him. A religion that compromises with the world cannot be called a higher order religion. That kind of religion will ultimately decline.
A true religion should teach people the path to know God clearly, to become one with God, and finally, to reestablish the world that God originally intended at the creation. After all, the purpose of religion is to seek for the ideal world: a world without sin, a world where all people enjoy the original relationship with God. (February 6, 2003)

We know that the main problem here is not which denomination,
which religion or which group we belong to.
The viewpoint of truth—the entirety of truth—
is to have an inward heart that Thou canst recognize,
and to go forth with an earnest heart that can experience Thy heart.
O Father, grant us to know Thy heart! (4:236, May 18, 1958)

God’s Goal Is to Save Everyone

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In marriage relationships throughout the world, power comes when the husband earns and brings home money. The wife is naturally strengthened upon seeing the money he brings home, and the husband naturally gains strength seeing his wife so empowered. But if they are unable to earn money they become agitated, and their relationship may even break. A true husband and wife, how-ever, should create oneness in love with God at the center. (Blessed Family – 880)

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In the Bible it says, “What is bound on earth is bound in heaven. What is released on earth will be released in heaven.” This logic can be understood through understanding the unity of the dual structure. Human beings today should know how valuable their physical lifetime truly is. The conclusion is that the period of their life on earth is the only time when they can liberate God, revive this universe, and unite all heaven and earth. God and creation combined together could not equal the value of the physical world. Why is this so? God and this universe combined, without human beings in the flesh, cannot be perfected. Thus, they have to understand how important the human body is, while they are alive on earth. How great this is! (91-191, 1977.2.13)

Universal Salvation

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

The sinful world brings humankind sorrow and causes God to grieve. (Gen. 6.6) Would God abandon this world in its present misery? God intended to create a world of goodness and experience from it the utmost joy; yet due to the Human Fall, the world came to be filled with sin and sorrow. If this sinful world were to continue forever in its present state, then God would be an impotent and ineffectual God who failed in His creation. Therefore, God will save this sinful world, by all means…
The Human Fall was undoubtedly the result of human mistakes. Nevertheless, God also assumes some responsibility for the outcome because it was He who created human beings. Therefore, God has felt compelled to conduct the providence to correct this tragic outcome and to restore human beings to their true, original state. Furthermore, God created us to live eternally. This is because God, the eternal subject partner, wanted to share eternal joy with human beings as His object partners. Having endowed human beings with an eternal nature, God could not, by the laws of the Principle, simply annihilate them just because they fell. If He were to do that, He would be violating His own Principle of Creation. The only choice left to God is to save fallen people and restore them to the original, pure state in which He initially created them. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Eschatology 2.1)

The purpose of the providence of salvation, and of religion, is to save the entire world. Since God created humankind as His beloved children, He cannot just beat and kill them and leave them in hell. Therefore the goal of the providence of salvation is to save everyone, not leaving even a single person in the satanic world. God wants to take back every kind of human being. (80:283, November 2, 1975)

God is a God of love. When God looks down from His throne and sees spirits in hell crying out to Him in their misery, “Please, God, save me!” what would He say? Would He say, “You deserve a lot worse”? Or does He have mercy on them? Surely, God will do everything possible to liberate hell. (98:116, May 7, 1978)

Imagine you have a son who committed murder and was sentenced to death. As he is going to his execution, would you say, “You deserve to die. Good-bye. At last we are rid of you!” Would any parent think like that? On the contrary, you would rather want to die in his place.
Imagine now you have many children, and they are dying tragically one after another. Do you think any parent could just watch them die without doing everything possible to rescue them? Loving parents would be desperate to save their children. They would keep on trying, even though it may take an eternity.
This gives you some sense of God’s misery. As He watches His children entering hell and eternal death, God is infinitely sorrowful and anxiously tries to liberate them to eternal life. Only by so doing can He fulfill His responsibility as our Heavenly Father. Therefore, it is logical to conclude that in the end God will liberate every soul in hell. (62:51, September 10, 1972)

To believe, as some do, that all humanity will receive judgment and only 144,000 Christians will be saved at the Rapture is an unusually self-centered way of thinking. (245:97, February 28, 1993)

The Unification Church’s viewpoint of salvation is not for a husband to go to heaven while his wife goes to hell. Both have to go to the Kingdom of Heaven together. It is not for us to enjoy heaven while our father and mother languish in hell. We should dwell in the Kingdom of Heaven with our sons and daughters and parents together. (34:359, September 20, 1970)

God’s providence of salvation is to bring [evil] to voluntary surrender. If God could have used force as He pleased, why has the providence taken thousands of years? He could have finished everything in short time—a few weeks. However, since God does not use force, instead He endures a heart-breaking situation. (394:16, October 6, 2002)

Even fallen parents cannot feel joyful when one of their children is unhappy. How much more so for God, our Heavenly Parent? It is written, “The Lord… is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (2 Pet. 3.9) Accordingly, hell cannot remain forever. No trace of hell will remain in the ideal world, which is the fulfillment of God’s deepest desire. In the Last Days, when the time is ripe, evil spirits will descend to evil people on earth of the same spiritual level and assist them to accomplish God’s Will. Indeed, even the demons testified that Jesus was the Son of God. (Matt. 8.29).(Exposition of the Divine Principle, Resurrection 3.3.3)