Category: Eight Great Textbooks

The Absolute Being is the Ultimate Goal

Cheon Seong Gyeong 259

Which do you think is easier to
accept: my referring to God as the Par-
ent, or your referring to me as the Parent?
You do not know how much I have suf-
fered. You do not know how many walls
there have been and how complicated it
has been. Until now, myriads of people
have struggled on that path and all have
fallen into the pit. When you joined the
Unification Church and began to under-
stand me from the perspective of theory,
it must have been easy for you to say, “Ah,
he is the True Parent.” Then, which do
you think is greater, the joy I felt when I
realized that God is the True Parent or the
joy you felt when you realized it? I could
utter the word “Father” only after having
gone through life-threatening suffering,
but you were taught everything without
suffering. This is why you can say, “Okay,
I have come to know the True Parents; so
what?” Who would rejoice more? Which
do you think should be greater, the joy I
felt when I met God in the parent-child
relationship or the joy you feel when you
meet me? Although my encounter came
only after suffering, your encounter took
place without suffering, so you should be
more joyful. If I had paid hundreds of
billions of dollars, wouldn’t you be you
happy that you paid nothing? What have
you paid? When you come and listen to
the Principle you can understand every-
thing. So, when you hear “True Parents,”
you merely say “So that’s how it is!” and
understand everything. (116-121, 1981.12.27)

Cheong Seong Gyeong 706

God knows that the way of the Prin-
ciple cannot be walked without loving
one’s enemies. Would God let humanity
perish in the judgment of the Last Days?
No. He is the Parent of humankind. The
so-called judgment by fire spoken of in
Christianity today is not a literal one. (31-
165, 1970.5.24)

Let Us Fathom the Heart of Heaven

Sun Myung Moon
September 13, 1959

Matthew 10:24-39

The title of the sermon I am about to give is “Let Us Fathom the Heart of Heaven.” I will speak briefly upon this topic.

The most lonely person in the world is someone who has no one who recognizes or understands him. There is nothing more lonely and sad than to have no one who understands you. You may think that you fully understand yourself, but if you examine yourself objectively, you probably must admit that you do not.

We all have minds. Our mind is driving us toward a certain direction and toward a greater truth every minute of the day, transcendent of time and space. It is probably difficult to explain why this internal action has not taken root in us, although we sense that it has continued throughout history.

You may want to ask others to understand you and believe in you. You probably cannot deny that all your thoughts and convictions have been for the sake of connecting to a certain reality. If you then ask others to believe in you and trust you, you should ask whether or not you have first gained control over yourself and secured a position that is connected to the great purpose of Heaven. The answer is probably no.

Given this, how can we determine our own value today? We cannot accomplish a great purpose unless we first have the desire to become the subject partner who can move all things. We must examine ourselves as we put this desire into action and criticize ourselves with cold objectivity. If there is a God who seeks to fulfill the purpose of Heaven, then we cannot come before Him proudly without having done these things. Based on our own rational reasoning, we cannot deny that we cannot have pride in front of Heaven.

Who are our faith, desires and ideals for? Although they may seem to be for our own selves, in truth they do not have any relationship with us. Because human beings are in such a sad situation, although we may possess ideals and desires in our hearts, they clash with the sad reality of ourselves. We know through our reading of the Bible that this is why prophets and saints in the past advocated that we seek to embody ideals in our lives and be in harmony with them. They struggled bitterly to realize this goal, yet they could not accomplish it. We are awaiting the day this goal can be reached.

Everything in the universe, including human beings, was created to be in reciprocal relationships. If there is Heaven, then there is also earth. If there is a mind, then there is also a body. When we ponder things from this worldview, we find that if there is a movement of the heart, there must also be some subject partner who can move the mind. Whether you call this absolute being God, the Creator, or a deity is not important. At the very least, no one can deny that such a being must exist. If there is an absolute being, that absolute being has to have some connection to our minds in our daily lives as history flows. This is why human beings are capable of wishing for truer and better things.

Before we criticize or make a judgment based upon some reality, we first have to make some reciprocal condition based upon which to make the comparison. To make a logical argument, we need some basis of assumption first.

For this reason, in order to understand ourselves and explain ourselves fully, we need some reciprocal condition upon which to criticize and judge. This is the absolute being who is the object of worship in our faith. When we enter into a relationship with Him and compare ourselves and evaluate ourselves based on Him, we can understand where we stand. Thus, if we have minds, we have first to feel that there is some absolute being or some subject partner who governs our minds and moves us.

The absolute being is the ultimate goal which religions and philosophies should reach. The countless sages and saints sought longingly for the absolute being with whom they could build an eternal relationship of heart and with whom they could live, on whom they could base all their thoughts, worldviews and ideologies. Such are the numerous people who seek religion. That is what they are looking for.

Undertake the Adventure of Conquering Yourself

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2473

Family Pledge number four states:
“Our family… pledges to build the
universal family encompassing heav-
en and earth, which is God’s ideal of
creation, and perfect the world of free-
dom, peace, unity and happiness, by
centering on true love”! It is from here
that happiness arises. Happiness, free-
dom and the ideal are realized in the
family of the ideal of creation desired
by God. (260-305, 1994.5.19)

Richard: Happiness cannot be achieved without realizing God’s ideal of the family.

Cheong Seong Gyeong 1242

You must understand how impor-
tant 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 eter-
nal world and the corporeal world meet
horizontally. (Blessed Family – 544)

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
July 19, 1959

John 10: 1-18

Then what is the adventure of adventures? It is to cry for the miserable people in Heavenly Father’s stead, with a deep, desperate heart. Although you may have received a complicated and difficult mission, and even if your heart desires peace, you have to be determined to fulfill the responsibility and go forth toward the standard God desires, in spite of death or universal opposition.

The world’s affairs were pioneered through adventures. But no one took on the adventure of the world of God’s heart. Thus, if God says to live a certain way, then live that way. If Jesus said to do this, then just do that. To find out if it is true or a lie, you have to charge through with it until the end.

There is no greater adventure than the adventure regarding the issues of your own heart. Please become the explorers of the world of the heart, and understand that there is nothing more joyous or renewing than to make a relationship with Heavenly Father through those adventures.

Prayer

How much did Jesus sympathize with the miserable fishermen when he walked the beaches of Galilee for thirty years? How much did he sympathize with the pitiful villages? How concerned was he when he saw the state of the Jewish churches and the religious bodies? We realize how miserable Jesus was as he was chased out of the temple in Jerusalem, wandering around from village to village, and later on searching the seaside to find just one disciple who was true in heart.

As we tried to see what was the adventure of adventures, we realized that the greatest adventure is not to an object or something in front of you. It is to conquer yourself and completely dominate yourself and bring yourself into submission.

Jesus knew that the day you go into the world of the heart and conquer yourself is the day all of the cosmos will find you. Because he knew that, he gratefully trod the path of isolation and of being nailed to the cross. Jesus was grateful even as he was sneered at. He even comforted the people. Although his body, dripping with blood, was in pain and his heart was indignant, he saw that the Father’s heart was vested in those people as He worked through the providence. Therefore, he was filled with the heart to elevate the Father and deny himself. We now see the heart of Jesus. He prayed that Heavenly Father might bless the people, that he might somehow accidentally obviate the four thousand years of the building of a relationship with mankind and ruin that foundation.

Although humanity has been struggling to explore and conquer the things of this visible world in spite of numerous risks, humanity is not undertaking the adventure of conquering the self, with the internal heart at stake. Please allow us to realize that the course of this adventure is more rough, dangerous, great and fearful than any precipitous mountain of this world; it is greater than traversing any great ocean, and going any place where wild beasts dwell.

Many people who were walking the path of the Way failed when the element of the self came in. We realize that Jesus was able to possess the glory of resurrection when he gave himself up. He became the historic master who was victorious over himself.

We have to lose this world, lose the self, and lose the history of sorrowful regret. Please allow us to fight with our bodies and minds. Please allow us to fight on while holding on to God’s heart of the six thousand years. Allow us to realize that it is the historic desire of mankind, the desire of the age, and the request of the future that we be the victors who can rightfully wish blessing upon all creation, representing Heavenly Father. Please help us to realize that it is not God or Jesus, but I, myself, who must become such a being. I, myself, am the true center of God and Jesus, this land, and all the existing world. Let us realize that to find this truth has to start from oneself.

Jesus lived thirty years in this world. He lost himself, and once again lived to experience the joy of the resurrection. Please allow us to feel the joy of finding ourselves again after being lost. If we cannot experience the joy of being reborn after death, the coming garden of blessing does not have anything to do with us. Please allow us to bury and throw away the self that goes along with this world and to live again with Heavenly Father.

We have to carry on a revolution today. We have to find the new world. We need an adventurous and investigative character. Father, we realize that those who think about themselves cannot be included in this number. Those who are clinging to the conditions of the environment will not be able to pioneer that environment. Those who are caught up in the thoughts and ideals of this life cannot partake in the ideology of this new world to fulfill their role as world leaders God can be pleased with.

Please allow us to have the heart that is in tune with the heart of the ideal, from the individual, to the family, up to the cosmos. Let us be grateful wherever we are sent, grateful no matter what kind of offering we may become. Let us be heavenly princes of adventure who can go forth ready to face any risk.

I sincerely pray that we can be the sons and daughters whom God can trust and that we can be responsible for everything. I pray all these things in the loving name of the Lord. Amen. 

Seek Out and Do the Things that Other Cannot Do

Cheon Seong Gyeong 195

Through individuals and families,
God prepared a realm into which a peo-
ple who could advance with the Messi-
ah when he came to earth. This was the
people of Israel who lived with the con-
cept of being the chosen people.
However, the people of Israel have not
yet arrived in that realm. It was as if they
were held back behind a line. The hope
of the chosen people was to go over this
line. If they failed to cross over, it would
be a great disaster. They had to cross this
line and yet, as hard as they tried, it was
impossible to cross over on their own.
That is why God promised the people of
Israel that He would send them the Mes-
siah, the Savior. This was the Messiah for
whom God had prepared for thousands
of years in order to transcend this line
on the national level. He promised to
send the Messiah.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1466

Let us say you live up to eighty years
of age. If you subtract the hours you
spend sleeping, you are left with about
fifty years of life. Would you say you
are alive when you are asleep? When
you are asleep, you are as good as dead,
because you are inanimate. Sleeping
is the same as being dead the whole
time. The number of hours you labor
each day to make a living is about half
of the twenty-four hours in a day. Now
deduct the time you spend eating. From
whatever time is left subtract the time
spent visiting, going to friends’ parties,
attending the sixtieth birthday celebra-
tions of village elders, attending funer-
als and wakes, and being bedridden.
In short, if you were to exclude all the
days you lose for whatever reasons that
might arise, you cannot claim to have
actually lived very much. Would it even
be half of your entire lifetime? When I
calculated this recently, it came out as
roughly seven years. Even so, of those
seven years, how many days could
you claim to have truly lived? (49-336,
1971.10.24)

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
July 19, 1959

John 10: 1-18

When you only feel happiness and satisfaction on the level of your own family, that family, the nation, and its system will all break down. Isn’t that so? We have experienced it during the Japanese occupation. Humanity in today’s age of the providence of restoration has to be an explorer.

Prayers from your heart and lawful prayers will be fulfilled. You have to look carefully at how your prayers are fulfilled. People who pray in this age have said the same prayers over and over for years, but their prayers are not answered. You have to pray with a true heart of love and promise. Pray and wait with a desperate heart, not forgetting your prayer even after thirty or forty years. It will be fulfilled. You don’t need many prayers.

In this age, you have to seek out and do the things that others cannot do. If you try, you will be able to do them. It is not like science books where everything is in the books. In Revelation, John pioneered the spiritual world which others could not. He looked at a world at the height of his exploration which no one else could feel. Yet there is no guidance for the course. This is the problem.

You have to once again calm yourself and aim for the truth. As there is life, and there is someone who will cry with the heart in which life dwells, you have to deny all that you have believed. What you believed in up to now is insufficient. You need something which will allow you to deny the heart you have been feeling, and deny the ideal you have been longing for.

While there certainly is a weapon, you cannot find it with an everyday attitude. Even if you are a well-to- do person who is proud of yourself, you have to give up such a position to go back to the very end of the line, in the lowest place, so as to attain the victory. Such was the path that God has pursued.

Although Jesus appeared in this world with the authority of life and resurrection to take over all the sovereignty of Heaven and earth, he had to walk the opposite path in order to fulfill this in the fallen world. When Jesus saw that his life was soon to fade away, he was not concerned for his body. He was concerned for his spirit. When he was looking at the people, he was not concerned about their physical misery. He felt pity for their souls. It is the opposite way. Do you want to be God’s sons and daughters? Do you want to go to Heaven? Try to go to Heaven. Those who think they can go to Heaven by believing in Jesus will not go. It cannot be done without a cost.

Why is it that we believe in Jesus? It is in order to create Heaven. What did Jesus tell us? He said our body is a temple. Is it a temple? Jesus desired for the individual to be a temple, the environment to be a temple, and the whole creation to be a temple. God wants to dwell within us, in our family, in our society, and even in all of creation.

What was Jesus like when he was in this world? Although he was supposed to sit on the throne of Heaven, he became a friend of sinners. It is said that he ate and drank with sinners. Jesus said he came to save the sinners, not the faithful. How frustrated he must have been to do that.

The assignment of Christianity is to take care of many things that are painful to deal with. The question is how people will have the heart that says, “Father, please allow us to have the dignified heart that Jesus had when he died on the cross that we may overcome the pain of death and wish blessings upon the miserable people.” Jesus came to this world and became a pioneer of the heart. We need people who will go forward with a desperate heart, who can dominate the fear of death.

What is the reason that the churches are separating? The problem is that preachers seek the authority of their position while the people seek their own authority for the sake of personal glorification. Jesus left behind the virtue of service. This path is the closest path to us, yet it is the most difficult path of adventure for humankind. People who conquer a mountain may be secular explorers, but they are not the explorers of the world of spirit. God wants an adventurer who can win over pain in the heart. Isn’t that so?

The Original Embodiment Will Establish the Original Family

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 ideolo-
gy. It has only been able to gather togeth-
er the city mayors or the county officials,
and maybe one or two other people from
the local neighborhoods. The main tar-
get for ideological education has not
been the leaders of tong and ban. There-
fore, 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)
The first problem is breaking through
to the leaders of the tong and ban. The
next problem is to breakthrough at the
township level, and even the village lev-
el. When we do that we will be perfectly
organized. (165-19, 1987.5.19)

Richard: Tong is a small neighborhood area of around 100 homes more or less, while ban is an even smaller area of about 12 homes. These are (were) administrative divisions in Korea.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Administrative_divisions_of_South_Korea . Rev. Moon uses them to refer to the work of physically working door to door in a neighborhood to restore God-centered families. As today is my 44th spiritual birthday, when I made the decision to join the Unification Movement in 1975, it is the perfect and providential message for my family today. Yes, today is the anniversary of my Moon landing, ha-ha!

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1356

The 777 Couples that I blessed in
1970 signify total perfection symbol-
ized by the number twenty-one – the
sum of their three sevens – as well as
the three stages of the growing period.
Rather than trying to break these stages
up, I sought to put them together all at
once and did so in one place. There, ten
nations participated in the Blessing, rep-
resenting the world in order to restore
the number ten. Thus, I could organize a
new global tribe by blessing those fami-
lies. Thereby, a transracial standard was
set for the creation of that tribe. (54-295,
1972.3.26)

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
July 19, 1959

John 10: 1-18

After the six thousand years of struggle that God has gone through, there is a framework that can usher mankind in toward the realm of one ideology in this age of the last days of history. Yet what are we to do now? Mankind is not in a position to invite God to intervene in our affairs. We have neither the substance nor the content.

This is what I want to shout out to this present age. Where is the historic individual God seeks? Where is the family God is seeking to replace Noah’s family? Where is the race to replace the race which suffered in Egypt, the race God embraced and loved? Where are the people who want to be loved in the bosom of the begotten son, who came as the king of all kings? The standard where all can walk hand in hand and share heart to heart and sing together is lost. There is probably no greater sadness than this.

God will still search. What is it that God will search for? God is a God of truth and He possesses the contents of truth. Therefore, He will search for the embodiment of truth, the true family, the true society, the true nation, and the true world. He will search for the world where Heaven and earth move in unity of heart though true authority. Isn’t that so?

His work is already initiated. He will cut away everything false from an individual, a family, a race, a world. In other words, He will break down the lineage of any race, any national tradition or any ideology of humanity in order to establish the one world of the heart. Looking at things from this perspective, what kind of world is God looking for? He is looking for a world of truth, where there are true parents.

Due to the Fall, mankind has the parents of a fallen lineage. We do not possess the original parents whom God can love eternally. Therefore, no matter how great you might say you are, you are descendants of fallen parents. There is nothing to be proud of. Then where are parents whom God can bless, whom all the created world can sing for? They have disappeared. They disappeared at the beginning of history, not during its course. Who will liberate such sorrow?

What kind of people are the original parents? They can communicate back and forth with the eternal, everlasting God in a relationship of parent and child. Yet such true parents, who can live as the children, attending God as their parent, have disappeared. Therefore, humanity has to search for true parents.

This land in which we live is not the land we have dreamed about. This environment in which we live has nothing to do with God’s ideal. It is the same thing for the Unification Church. Having the name of the Unification Church is not important. We have to possess the heart of unification. The door sign is not important. The contents are important. As you all have a conscience that searches for truth, you have to establish a motto that seeks for truth. You have to think about what contents God wants.

The day when God can be present within true parents, true couples, true children, true loyal subjects, true people, the true creation, the true sovereignty, and the true cosmos and can agree that everything is true will be the final day for the fallen world. As you wait for the coming of the Lord of the Second Coming, do you think there will be a destruction of the world with great changes and that we will rise up into the air at that time? Do not even think of such nonsense and fantasy. I used to think like that in the past. We have to fight against people who think like that.

What is such a moment like when it arrives? It is the moment when a complex web of inexplicable situations gets untangled; when the history of misfortune is indemnified; and everything from the individual, the family, the society, the race, the nation, and the world unites. It is the moment when the individual is established so that things that were carried down vertically get carried out horizontally. Thus, it is the moment when the original embodiment will establish the original family, the original society, the nation, and the world. It is the goal of humanity, who has sought truth, to find the self who can live in the original world.

Moses was the Leader of the Adventure

Cheon Seong Gyeong 339

When a man and a woman come to
stand in the position representing God
centering on love, they become connect-
ed to everything in the universe. When
this happens, everything God possesses
becomes theirs. The reason true love is
great is that through true love you can
become God’s object partner and God
can also become you. The Bible says
that God and Jesus dwell within you.
It is from here that we can say that the
father is in his son, the grandson is in
his grandfather, and the grandfather is
in his grandson. The grandfather and
grandmother should make a relation-
ship of heart with their grandchildren.
Only then, will the vertical line of love
start. Also, the grandchildren must
become one with their grandfather and
grandmother. Since the grandfather and
grandmother are in the position of God,
they should be attended like God. Oth-
erwise, the axis of love will not be deter-
mined. The horizontal line will arise
after this is established. Human perfec-
tion starts with creating a vertical rela-
tionship with God. (298-308, 1999.1.17)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1512

He created Adam and Eve as the hor-
izontal basis of reproduction and foun-
dation of love. Since they stand on the
horizontal plane, they revolve from East
to West. A 180-degree plane stretches out
infinitely. Consequently, reproduction
can take place in all directions. Repro-
duction is necessary in order to create
those who can be born and grow on this
vast horizontal plane before passing to
the spirit world as the eternal citizens
of heaven. Reproduction takes place on
earth. This is because reproduction is
possible only through the physical bod-
ies of men and women. Babies cannot be
born in the spirit world. (213-265, 1991.1.21)

Richard: And furthermore, you don’t just want to have babies any old way, but to join God’s lineage through Blessed marriage:
http://visionroot.org/resources/marriage/
View the Holy Communion of Marriage Power

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
July 19, 1959

John 10: 1-18

Noah punished himself in order to establish the standard of the family. He punished his body for 120 years to conquer it. He was in a harsh environment of criticism, sneering, and all sorts of unimaginable difficulty. Can’t we imagine that?

In spite of it all, he said, “Let’s persevere. God has promised me and is leading me, so would I ever turn away from the heartistic standard that God has established?” He conquered all difficulty by punishing himself.

Had Noah’s family given up all worldly conditions and hoped to found a race, then God’s will would have been accomplished during that time. God’s will would have been fulfilled if Noah’s family had denied all personal family matters in search of a race, holding onto the standard of Noah’s heart.

But Noah’s family broke away, unable to fulfill the will centering on the family. But the providence to fulfill the will still continued. Heavenly law was at work. You cannot just keep holding onto an individual when the individual fails. Just because the family failed and the family cannot be established does not mean that heavenly law stops going forward. Although an individual may fail, heavenly law still moves on.

Although an individual failed, God still had to work the providence to establish the family since the moment of the family was coming. He had to work to establish both the individual and the family. Even though that family failed, the providential time table did not slow down. The providence has been widening from restoring the society to the level of restoring a race.

Having lost the individual Noah and his family, God established Abraham after four hundred years. Abraham had to set more severe conditions than those through which Noah went. But having lost even Abraham, God established Moses after four hundred years. Now it was the age of the nation, so He drove the Israelites into Egypt and trained them hard. To train them hard is to strike them. It is a strategy to bring unity. It was the plan to make them into one.

God told the Israelites, “The land in which you are living is the land of the enemy. The palace of the Pharaoh is the palace of the enemy. The people of Egypt are all your enemies.” Because the homeland for the Israelites would be possible only when they could all unite, God drove the Israelites forth, looking only at the moment when they would enter the blessed land. God raised Moses as the leader of the adventure. He represented the nation since the providential time entailed a nation. Moses, the leader of the adventure, was the greatest explorer and the greatest of spies going into the uncharted land of Canaan.

For Moses to kick away the interference of the Pharaoh’s palace and lead the Israelites into the land of Canaan was not an easy path. It was the course of the unknown. Yet despite any difficulty that lay in front of him, Moses was determined. His heart was unchanged. He said, “Get in my way if you want to, but my heart of trying to find the land of Canaan that God has promised since the time of my ancestors will never change.”