United with God in True Love, You Can Have Dominion Over All God’s Creation

2 Samuel 9

David called in Ziba, Saul’s chief servant, and told him, “Since Mephibosheth is Saul’s grandson, I’ve given him back everything that belonged to your master Saul and his family. 10 You and your fifteen sons and twenty servants will work for Mephibosheth. You will farm his land and bring in his crops, so that Saul’s family and servants will have food. But Mephibosheth will always eat with me at my table.”

Micah 4

He will settle arguments
between distant
    and powerful nations.
They will pound their swords
and their spears
    into rakes and shovels;
they will never again make war
    or attack one another.
Everyone will find rest
beneath their own fig trees
    or grape vines,
and they will live in peace.
This is a solemn promise
    of the Lord All-Powerful.

Richard: Today we receive two messages of kindness, peace and reconciliation. We all need this message. Note that this does not mean that we accept evil and call it good. Rather, God addresses our attitude toward how we feel and act toward our neighbors and fellow man. For instance, contrast the peaceful protest of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. with the bile and acrimony of Antifa, the Black Lives Matter Movement and the impeachment proceedings of President Donald J. Trump.

Spiritual Union

1. Becoming One with God

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

God is huge, but a human being is a microcosm of the cosmos. By penetrating into God, we can experience God within us. When we experience this, we can say, with Jesus, “I am in the Father, and the Father in me.” (John 14.10) Although God is infinitely large, He can do His work only when human beings fully dwell within Him. (31:210, May 31, 1970)

When your mind and body are united as one, you will be in your eternal dwelling place, the center where God abides. Then you can possess even God. This state arises when true love is restored; it is the supreme goal of human beings who had lost everything as the result of the Fall. (294:98-99, June 14, 1998)

The path of religion is to stop living as animalistic human beings and become humane human beings. Eventually we are to become divine human beings. We are to participate in the divine realm. We are to become people with a divine nature who practice divine love and rejoice ever more in eternal happiness. (117:37, January 31, 1982)

Love is the central point, the rope that binds God and human beings together eternally. When embodied human beings attain oneness with God, their heart is immersed in a state of profound awareness and their emotions thrill with boundless happiness. Through love, God and human beings become one. Through love, human beings and the world become one. Here is the starting point for the realization of the ideal world that fulfills God’s purpose of creation. (35:356, October 13, 1970)

When you are united with God in true love, you can have dominion over all God’s creation, both physical and spiritual. When you live completely for others, you are reaching the very essence of God. Then, God’s will becomes your will, and God’s feelings naturally come into your heart. Living this way, you become a resonant vessel of God’s heart and love. You and God will always resonate together, like two tuning forks. (201:206, April 9, 1990)

As existent beings in front of Thee,
we entrust to Thee our whole selves:
We shall be Thy branches and leaves.
When Thou art sorrowful, we shall also be sorrowful;
when Thou art happy, we shall also be happy;
when Thou dost hurry to work, we shall also hurry to work.
Permit us to become Thy sons and daughters who stand beside Thee,
as Thou dost deal with every aspect of our world. (42:59, February 21, 1971)

Abide In Me, and I In You

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2288

We need to know that human liberation is God’s liberation. The liberation of your families, clans and nations consoles God who sorrowed over the loss of His family, clan and nation. In my life, I will recover the lost cosmos and dissolve God’s anguish. I have no wishes or thoughts for myself, except to practice absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. If asked to die, I will head straight for death. Even at the risk of my life I will not turn back.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 702

After that, all kings will stand in the realm of Abel. You do not know this since you are on earth, but in the spirit world, unity is achieved instantly. Thus, with all kings centering on Korea, 120 nations can be completely united. Since those who can become Abel before that king – those who believed in Judaism or Christianity and died, all established those kingships in preparation to serve the Messiah, and all Abel peoples within the sphere of religion who in turn revere him – will become completely united.

Spiritual Union

Spiritual union is the final goal of the religious mystic. the experience of this unity is profound; it can hardly be described in words. a person in this state is united with God and united with all existence, all distinctions dissolve between subject and object, knower and known.
Mystical union is less common in conventional religion, particularly in the Abrahamic faiths whose uncompromising monotheism requires an absolute distinction between the infinite God and even the most saintly of his creatures. yet the scriptures of Judaism and Christianity speak of a beatific vision, an encounter with God’s presence that transforms the viewer. in Islam, traditions attributed to Muhammad himself undergird the unitive experiences of Sufi mystics.
Father Moon affirms all these varieties of unitive experiences. by learning to live in love, he teaches, we can draw close to God’s mind and heart, share God’s experiences, and move as appendages of God’s body. We dwell in God, God dwells in us, and we experience mystic oneness with all his creations.

1. Becoming One with God

Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me?  
    John 14.10

Heaven and earth contain me not, but the heart of my faithful servant contains me.
    Hadith of Suhrawardi (Islam)
 
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
    John 15.4-5
 
As rivers flow into the sea and in so doing lose name and form, so even the wise man, freed from name and form, attains the Supreme Being, the Self-luminous, the Infinite. He who knows Brahman becomes Brahman.
    Mundaka Upanishad 3.2.8-9 (Hinduism)
 
Meditate upon Him and transcend physical consciousness. Thus will you reach union with the Lord of the universe. Thus will you become identified with Him who is One without a second. In Him all your desires will find fulfillment.
 
    The truth is that you are always united with the Lord. But you must know this.
    Svetasvatara Upanishad 1.11-12 (Hinduism)
 
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into His likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
 
    2 Corinthians 3.18
 
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)
 
Every Buddha Tathagata is one whose body is the Principle of Nature (Dharmadhatu-kaya), so that he may enter into the mind of any being. Consequently, when you have perceived Buddha, it is indeed that mind of yours that possesses those thirty-two signs of perfection and eighty minor marks of excellence [which you see in Buddha]. In fine, it is your mind that becomes Buddha, nay, it is your mind that is indeed Buddha.
    Meditation on Buddha Amitayus 17 (Buddhism)
 
In spontaneous joy is rising the mystic melody;
In the holy Word my heart feels joy and perpetually disports.
In the cave of spontaneous realization is it in trance,
Stationed on a splendid high cushion.

After wandering to my home [true self] have I returned,
And all of my desires have obtained.
Devotees of God! completely fulfilled is my self,
As the Master has granted a vision of the Supreme Being,
Realized by mystic illumination.
Himself is He King, Himself the multitude;
Himself the supremely liberated, Himself of joys the Relisher;
With Him seated on the throne of eternal justice,
Ended is all wailing and crying.

As I have seen, such vision of Him have I conveyed—
Only those who are initiated into this mystery have its joy.
As light is merged into Divine Light, has joy come:
Nanak, servant of God, has beheld the sole, all-pervading Supreme Being.
    Adi Granth, Majh, M.5, p. 97 (Sikhism)
 
 
 
 
 

Nirvana Is a State Without Self

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2106

We inherit in the name of heaven and by heaven’s command. We do not inherit democratically. This would lead to ruin. Seats in the national assembly and the ruling party are not decided by the power and influence of political parties alone. The tradition of the country should be established. It works based on commands, so we should be able to receive commands. This is the way society should be. (178-38, 1988.5.27)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 742

If you possess true love, you can join God’s party anytime. You will see thousands of ancestors and spirits because of being able to transcend time and space. Only those who have the heart of true love can manage and transcend all this. The only way to obtain the privilege of receiving the rights of inheritance from God is through love. If people of true love were to push past me, I would be very happy and would not react against them. Everyone would welcome them. Since the other world is like that, you must be trained here.

Emptiness–Nirvana

Emptiness, Nirvana–the ultimate state of inner peace in Buddhism—is a state without self, without passions, without desires. it is a state beyond thought, beyond words, beyond any intellectual attempt to grasp what it is. yet paradoxically, in this emptiness there is fullness, fearlessness and enlightenment. it is a marvelous, mystical state, almost impossible to describe.
Father Moon calls the state of emptiness the ‘zero point.’ he explains its mystical feeling as a resonant connection with God, who also dwells in emptiness when he creates the world. Father Moon also teaches an active way of self-emptying in the service of others. self-giving, living for others, giving even when it is difficult to give: these practices can lead to the zero point just as surely as meditation.

“All states are without self.” When one sees this in wisdom, then he becomes dispassionate towards the painful. This is the path to purity.
Dhammapada 279

The Man of the Way wins no fame,
The highest virtue wins no gain,
The Great Man has no self.
    Chuang Tzu 17 (Taoism)

Where egoism exists, Thou art not experienced,
Where Thou art, is not egoism.
    Adi Granth, Maru-ki-Var, M.1, p. 1092 (Sikhism)

Torah abides only with him who regards himself as nothing.
    Talmud, Sota 21b (Judaism)
 
The Plain of High Heaven is not a specific place localized here or there, but refers rather to a pure state without any anomaly or excess. In terms of the human body, it is a state within the human breast without thought, contemplation, or passions.
    Masamichi Imbe, Secret Oral Tradition of the Book of        the Divine Age(Shinto)
 
This is Peace, this is the excellent, namely the calm of all the impulses, the casting out of all ‘basis,’ the extinction of craving, dispassion, stopping, Nirvana.
    Anguttara Nikaya 5.322 (Buddhism)
 
When a man is free from all sense pleasures and depends on nothingness he is free in the supreme freedom from perception. He will stay there and not return again.
 
It is like a flame struck by a sudden gust of wind. In a flash it has gone out and nothing more can be known about it. It is the same with a wise man freed from mental existence: in a flash he has gone out and nothing more can be known about him.
 
When a person has gone out, then there is nothing by which you can measure him. That by which he can be talked about is no longer there for him; you cannot say that he does not exist. When all ways of being, all phenomena are removed, then all ways of description have also been removed.
    Sutta Nipata 1072-76 (Buddhism)
 
For him who has completed the journey, for him who is sorrowless, for him who from everything is wholly free, for him who has destroyed all ties, the fever of passion exists not.
 
He whose senses are subdued, like steeds well-trained by a charioteer, he whose pride is destroyed and is free from the corruptions—such a steadfast one even the gods hold dear.
 
Like the earth, a balanced and well-disciplined person resents not… He is like a pool, unsullied by mud; to such a balanced one, life’s wanderings do not arise.
 
Calm is his mind, calm is his speech, calm is his action, who, rightly knowing, is wholly freed [from defilements], perfectly peaceful and equipoised.
 
The man who is not credulous but truly understands the Uncreated (Nibbana), who has cut off the links, who has put an end to occasion [of good and evil], who has eschewed all desires, he indeed is a supreme man.
    Dhammapada 90, 94-97 (Buddhism)
 
Here, O Shariputra, form is emptiness, and the very emptiness is form; emptiness does not differ from form, form does not differ from emptiness; whatever is form, that is emptiness, whatever is emptiness, that is form. The same is true of feelings, perceptions, impulses, consciousness.
 
    Here, O Shariputra, all dharmas are marked with emptiness; they are not produced or stopped, not defiled or immaculate, not deficient or complete.Therefore, O Shariputra, in emptiness there is no form, nor feeling, nor perception, nor impulse, nor consciousness…
    There is no suffering, no origination, no stopping, no path. There is no cognition, no attainment, and no non-attainment.
    Therefore, O Shariputra, it is because of his indifference to any kind of personal attainment that a bodhisattva, through having relied on the perfection of wisdom, dwells without thought-coverings. In the absence of thought coverings he has not been made to tremble, he has overcome what can upset, and in the end he attains to Nirvana.
    Heart Sutra (Buddhism)
 
Nan-po Tzu-k’uei said to the woman Nü Yü, “You are old, and yet your complexion is like that of a child. How is this?”
    Nü Yü replied, “I have learned Tao.”
    “Could I get Tao by studying it?” asked the other.
    “I fear not,” said Nü Yü. “You are not the sort of person. There was Pu-liang Yi. He had the qualifications of a sage… so I began teaching him. In three days, all distinctions of high and low, good and bad, had ceased to exist. Seven days more, and the external world had ceased to be. In nine more days, he became unconscious of his own existence. He first became ethereal, next possessed of perfect wisdom, then without past and present, and finally was able to enter where life and death are no more—where killing does not take away life, nor does giving birth add to it. In that state, there is nothing he does not welcome, nothing he does not send off, nothing he does not destroy, nothing he does not construct. This is to be at Peace in Strife. He who can be at peace in strife is on the way to perfection.”
    Chuang Tzu 6 (Taoism)
 
The Perfect Way is only difficult for those who pick and choose;
Do not like, do not dislike; all will then be clear.
Make a hairbreadth difference, and Heaven and Earth are set apart;
If you want the truth to stand clear before you,
never be for or against.
The struggle between ‘for’ and ‘against’ is the mind’s worst disease;
While the deep meaning is misunderstood, it is useless to meditate on Rest.
It [the Original Mind] is blank and featureless as space…
At the ultimate point, beyond which you cango no further,
You get to where there are no rules, no standards,
To where thought can accept Impartiality,
To where effect of action ceases,
Doubt is washed away, belief has no obstacle.
Nothing is left over, nothing remembered;
Space is bright, but self-illumined; no power of
mind is exerted.
Nor indeed could mere thought bring us to such a place.
Nor could sense or feeling comprehend it.
It is the Truly-so, the Transcendent Sphere,
where there is neither He nor I.
For swift converse with this sphere use the concept ‘Not Two’;
In the ‘Not Two’ are no separate things, yet all things are included.
The wise throughout the Ten Quarters have had access to this Primal Truth;
For it is not a thing with extension in Time or Space;
A moment and an aeon for it are one.
Whether we see it or fail to see it, it is manifest always and everywhere.
The very small is as the very large when boundaries are forgotten;
The very large is as the very small when its outlines are not seen.
Being is an aspect of Non-being; Non-being is an aspect of Being.
In climes of thought where it is not so the mind does ill to dwell.
The One is none other than the All, the All none other than the One.
Take your stand on this, and the rest will follow of its own accord;
To trust in the Heart is the Not Two, the Not
Two is to trust in the Heart.
I have spoken, but in vain; for what can words tell
Of things that have no yesterday, tomorrow, or today? 22
    Seng Ts’an, On Trust in the Heart (Buddhism)
 
 

 

The Creation Waits With Eager Longing for the Revealing of the Sons of God

Cheon Seong Gyeong 478

God exists in the dual characteristics of plus and minus. When this is manifested as a plus, it is Adam, and when it is manifested as a minus, it is Eve. (32-238, 1970.7.19)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 788

This universe grew in size from a small point in this way: through partners coming into existence, unceasing motion occurred and the universe came into existence. The universe has been engaged in endless motion by the power of inertia that transpires in the dimension of space.

Liberation

2. Universal Liberation

And [Jesus] came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up; and he went to the synagogue, as his custom was, on the sabbath day. And he stood up to read; and there was given to him the book of the prophet Isaiah. He opened the book and found the place where it was written,

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me to preach
good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind.
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.

And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Luke 4.16-21

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. Romans 8.19-23

The holy sparks that fell when God built and destroyed worlds, man shall raise and purify upward from stone to plant, from plant to animal, from animal to speaking being, purify the holy sparks that are imprisoned in the world of shells (kelippot) That is the basic meaning of the service of each one in Israel.
It is known that each spark that dwells in a stone or plant or another creature has a complete figure with the full number of limbs and sinews and, when it dwells in the stone or plant, it is in prison, cannot stretch out its hands and feet and cannot speak, but its head lies on its knees. And who with the good strength of his spirit is able to raise the holy spark from stone to plant, from plant to animal, from animal to speaking being, he leads it into freedom, and no setting free of captives is greater than this. It is as when a king’s son is rescued from captivity and brought to his father.
All that a man owns, his servant, his animals, his tools, all conceal sparks that belong to the roots of his soul and wish to be raised by him to their origin.
All things of this world that belong to him desire with all their might to draw near him in order that the sparks of holiness that are in them should be raised by him.
Man eats them, man drinks them, man uses them; these are the sparks that dwell in the things. Therefore, one should have mercy on his tools and all his possessions for the sake of the sparks that are in them; one should have mercy on the holy sparks.
Take care that all you do for God’s sake be itself service of God. Thus eating: do not say that the intention of eating shall be that you gain strength for the service of God. That is also a good intention, for course; but the true perfection only exists where the deed itself happens to heaven, that is where the holy sparks are raised.
In all that is in this world dwell holy sparks, no thing is empty of them. In the actions of men also, indeed even in the sins that a man does, dwell holy sparks of the glory of God. And what is it that the sparks await that dwell in the sins? It is the turning [repentance]. In the hour where you turn on account of sins, you raise to the higher world the sparks that were in it.
Israel Baal Shem Tov (Judaism)

The Interminable Struggle Between Mind and Body Will Completely Disappear

Hebrews 8

What I mean is that we have a high priest who sits at the right side of God’s great throne in heaven. He also serves as the priest in the most holy place inside the real tent there in heaven. This tent of worship was set up by the Lord, not by humans.

Since all priests must offer gifts and sacrifices, Christ also needed to have something to offer. If he were here on earth, he would not be a priest at all, because here the Law appoints other priests to offer sacrifices. But the tent where they serve is just a copy and a shadow of the real one in heaven. Before Moses made the tent, he was told, “Be sure to make it exactly like the pattern you were shown on the mountain!” Now Christ has been appointed to serve as a priest in a much better way, and he has given us much assurance of a better agreement.

Psalm 21

He asked to live a long time,
    and you promised him life
    that never ends.

The king is highly honored.
You have let him win victories
    that have made him famous.
You have given him blessings
    that will last forever,
    and you have made him glad
    by being so near to him.
Lord Most High,
    the king trusts you,
    and your kindness
    keeps him from defeat.

Enlightenment

1. The State of Inner Freedom

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

According to the perspective of religion, humanity does not dwell in a liberated state. People today do not live in the realm of God’s freedom; rather they are constrained within the fallen world under Satan’s control. In other words, the world is in bondage. Christians in the established churches and we Unification Church members have the same understanding: we are in bondage.

This bondage is manifest as the persistent struggle between our mind and body. If human beings were made from the beginning with their minds and bodies in conflict, it would be absolutely impossible for them to perfect their character or attain liberation. In fact however, humans were created with harmonious internal elements, by which they could have attained the ideal state of liberation. They only fell into bondage during the course of their growth, when as a result of the Fall they were driven into a state of disorder, where we remain to this day. Therefore, it is entirely possible to be liberated from bondage and attain the ideal state. (85:227, March 3, 1976)

What does it feel like to experience the being of God? The interminable struggle between your mind and the body, which formerly plagued your self-centered life when you put yourself as number one in everything you did, will completely disappear. Instead, you will live the life that God wants you to live: living for the sake of others and giving yourself for the whole. Then, true love will continue forever, and God’s joy will be displayed in the spirit world. You will experience such satisfaction and happiness as you have never felt before, because it will be connected to the whole. Thus, you will discover yourself in the state of liberation. (329:301-02, August 11, 2000)

The body has a limit, but the mind is infinite. The world of the mind is beyond form, beyond any philosophy or viewpoint. Still greater than the mind is the world of the heart. It has no restrictions. The world of the mind has certain restraints, conditioned by its relationships. Yet nothing can restrain the world of the heart. What could ever restrain a parent’s love for his or her children? Even a barrier as daunting as a huge mountain cannot block the way. (7:246, September 20, 1959)

It is written in the Bible, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” (2 Cor. 3.17) The Father is a Spirit of freedom, liberation and unification. How, then, can the spirit of freedom, which transcends any trials, be instilled in your hearts? How can you find the point of liberation where you overcome all the walls of suffering? When will you experience that peaceful moment of total unification, which is your ultimate hope?
     In thinking about these important questions, consider that God is not free. Since God is not free, liberated and unified, the freedom people pursue today is not true freedom. The liberation people are proclaiming is not complete liberation, and the unification people are promoting is not complete unification…
     God created us. Therefore, the complete freedom, liberation and unification that we desire can be realized only when God is free and becomes the master of liberation and unification. God’s freedom, liberation and unification are the standards for humanity’s freedom, liberation and unification; that is only logical. (4:314-15, October 12, 1958)