Category: Numbers

Where Is Our Zero Point Located?

Numbers 9

15-16 As soon as the sacred tent was set up, a thick cloud appeared and covered it. The cloud was there each day, and during the night, a fire could be seen in it. 17-19 The Lord used this cloud to tell the Israelites when to move their camp and where to set it up again. As long as the cloud covered the tent, the Israelites did not break camp. But when the cloud moved, they followed it, and wherever it stopped, they camped and stayed there, 20-22 whether it was only one night, a few days, a month, or even a year. As long as the cloud remained over the tent, the Israelites stayed where they were. But when the cloud moved, so did the Israelites. 23 They obeyed the Lord’s commands and went wherever he directed Moses.

Nehemiah 9

6 Our stubborn ancestors
    refused to obey—
they forgot about the miracles
    you had worked for them,
and they were determined
to return to Egypt
    and become slaves again.
17 But, our God, you are merciful
    and quick to forgive;
you are loving, kind,
    and very patient.
So you never turned away
    from them—
18 not even when they made
    an idol shaped like a calf
and insulted you by claiming,
“This is the god who rescued us
    from Egypt.”

19 Because of your great mercy,
you never abandoned them
    in the desert.
And you always guided them
with a cloud by day
    and a fire at night.

Richard: Both readings refer to the cloud that guided and “covered” the Israelites. The modern day cloud is the Word of God brought by Rev. Sun Myung Moon in the eight sacred textbooks. By daily study of the Word and through our conscience, God will continually guide us.

Emptiness–Nirvana

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

While seeking for absolute love, you should not have consciousness of self. (279:146, August 4, 1996)
 
If we could totally subjugate our body, if our actions were always in conformity with our will, then we would not need religion. Jesus came in order to correct the disunity between the mind and the body. This is also the purpose of the Buddha’s teaching that we should return to the state of nothingness—the zero point. If the mind and body are united, you do not feel [any distinction]. Why should we return to a state of emptiness? It is so we may experience Being. In a state of emptiness, the zero point, there emerges a counterpart with whom you can be in total harmony. Hence, at the zero point you can experience Being one hundred percent. (256:212, March 13, 1994)
 
God dwells in the ‘king zero point.’ Since God has such a nature, to meet Him you must become even lower than zero. Then you must guard that king zero point. The king zero point is like the mind, and as the flesh surrounds the mind, you should surround and protect the zero point. Have you reached the state where you can guard the zero point? Can you go even lower than the zero point? This is what Buddhist meditation is about—to search the God-like mind for the deepest point. (230:134, May 1, 1992)
 
The [self-centered] ego has nothing to do with the ideal of creation. Therefore, we should completely deny ourselves. In order to find the true self, we should place ourselves at the zero point. That is the only place where we can be totally united in mind and body.
    When God created us, He was in a state of total mind-body unity. He was in a state of total self-giving, with absolute love and absolute faith. God had no space to think of His own benefit or situation. Herein lies the origin of love: it is a state of one hundred percent giving and living for the sake of others. Where do you think you can find your true self? You find it by practicing a life of true love, always living for the sake of others.
    If you dwell at the zero point—denying yourself while living for the sake of your family, all humankind throughout the world, and God—you will find your true self without doubt. It is our inevitable destiny to do so as we walk the path of restoration, which leads to salvation. (356:301-02, October 21, 2001)
 
Although we yearn for God and seek to love Him as the Subject of our faith, our experiences of Him are vague and indistinct. We still wonder, “Where can we find God?” Although He is definitely present, we cannot perceive Him with the certainty that we perceive things with our five physical senses. How, then, can we see God? We do not begin by looking at God, but rather by looking into ourselves.
    When we look into ourselves, we find that we exist as mind and body. We should not focus on the body, but look into our mind.
    Among a thousand fallen people, their fundamental nature may be the same, but each one has a different mind, a different personality each with different qualities.
    When drawing a circle, you first draw a horizontal line and then a vertical line. From the point where they intersect, you draw the circle around it, starting from one degree, two degrees, and finally covering all 360 degrees. The horizontal line and the vertical line determine a 90-degree angle. How, then, do we make our mind a perfect circle? Depending on their personalities, each person draws their horizontal line in a different place. Just as our faces are different from one another, our inborn natures are different.
    When drawing our circle through 360 degrees, we begin from zero degrees and trace it based on that standard. However, if the baseline of our minds is not properly fixed, we will not have the proper standard for measuring the degrees of the circle. Indeed, the baselines of people’s minds are not the same. Why? As people’s faces, interests and feelings differ, they each draw their horizontal and vertical lines in a different way.
    How, then, can you form a circle covering all 360 degrees? You should find the zero point. Where is your zero point? Everyone has one. It is within yourself, within the core of your heart—there you will find it. When you draw a horizontal line from the zero point, you can properly fix the vertical line perpendicular to it.
    We are to stand as object partners before God, our Subject Partner. Surely He has endowed human beings with a base to respond to Him as object partners. Therefore, upon the base of the horizontal mind, we should find the vertical direction, the true perpendicular. Surely there must be one.
    You see the horizon in two dimensions, but if you try and estimate the perpendicular your measure could easily be off the mark. How can you find the accurate measure? If your horizontal is too high you must lower it; if it is too low you must raise it, to fix it at the zero point.
    In an electrical power plant there are many meters, and each one is calibrated to a zero point. That neutral point must be set properly in order to adjust the positive and negative voltages and to measure the power levels. We, too, must accurately calibrate our zero point.
    Where is our zero point located? It is a position that exists but seemingly does not exist. People who practice Zen meditation say that they attain the state of ‘no-self.’ That is what I am talking about. We should reach that spiritual standard, the zero point state. Once we attain it, our horizontal standard will become responsive to all things. (76:125)
 
 
 

It Breaks God’s Heart to Observe Human Misery

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Numbers 9

9 The Lord then told Moses 10 to say to the community of Israel:

If any of you or your descendants touch a dead body and become unfit to worship me, or if you are away on a long journey, you may still celebrate Passover. 11 But it must be done in the second month, in the evening of the fourteenth day. Eat the Passover lamb with thin bread and bitter herbs, 12 and don’t leave any of it until morning or break any of the animal’s bones. Be sure to follow these regulations.

13 But if any of you refuse to celebrate Passover when you are not away on a journey, you will no longer belong to my people. You will be punished because you did not offer sacrifices to me at the proper time.

Richard: God gives his Word, and we must follow it. God speaks through our conscience informed by God’s Word.

2 Samuel 21

13-14 David had their bones taken to the land of Benjamin and buried in a side room in Saul’s family burial place. Then he gave orders for the bones of the men who had been hanged to be buried there. It was done, and God answered prayers to bless the land.

14 Anyone, including foreigners who live among you, can celebrate Passover, if they follow all the regulations.

Richard: Those responsible for crimes were brought to justice, and then God could bless the land.

God’s Grief

1. God’s Grief over the Human Fall and Humankind’s Sinful Condition

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

God’s heart was torn asunder and broken with indescribable grief and tears the moment Adam and Eve fell. (7:292, October 11, 1959)

Love is endless. Had God not established the principle of love, He would be alone. Dwelling by Himself, He would be unable to experience joy, anger, sorrow or happiness. 
    Although God’s love is absolute, once God lost His partners of love, He unexpectedly found Himself in an absolutely miserable and grim situation, such as no one in history has ever experienced. No one can comfort Him over this, ever. (204:101, July 1, 1990)

If Adam and Eve had not fallen, God their Creator would have been their eternal Lord. But due to the Fall, Satan became their lord. The Fall made this outcome unavoidable. Suppose a girl of noble birth, raised within the walls of her house, is raped by a gangster; to whom does she belong? She belongs to him. The same principle applies.
    Adam was to have been the king of heaven and Eve his queen. To restore these original positions requires following the principle of creation. From the beginning of creation God laid down the law of eternal love to be fulfilled by Adam and Eve, so it has to be observed. Were God to disregard this law, it would be tantamount to destroying the law of Heaven.
    God set up this heavenly law. If He were to negate it, that would be tantamount to negating humankind and to negating Himself as the absolute Creator. That is why God had no alternative but to bring order through a course of re-creation. Who has known its long and painful history? (207:272, November 11, 1990)

How grieved was God that His enemy deprived Him of His throne! Unable to become the glorious God, He became the long-suffering and sorrowful God. Although He is rightfully the King of His kingdom and the King of the universe, God has been mistreated as if He were dead. His enemy robbed Him of His ideal and violated His beloved children. The planet Earth has fully become His enemy’s plaything. (105:199, October 21, 1979)

Why is God’s heart full of grief? It is because of Satan. It is because human beings planted Satan’s blood and flesh through partaking of his false love. It is because they sowed the Devil’s seeds, which propagated as the Devil’s families. God wished to rejoice, singing, “May my families live with true love for ten thousand years under Heaven’s dominion!” However, with the appearance of the Devil’s fami-lies multiplying throughout the world, God’s dreams were shattered. (214:282, February 3, 1991)

Can you imagine how much it breaks God’s heart to observe human misery every hour of every day? What happened to God’s dignity when His sons and daughters, whom He intended to glorify as princes and princesses, became cripples, fell into a pit filled with dung and were stuck upside-down in hell? What became of the dignity of the omniscient and omnipotent God, of the absolute God? Can He show His face? (218:240, August 19, 1991)

As long as human beings live in despair, God also lives in despair. As long as Satan shackles human beings on earth, the world of darkness under his dominion will remain also in the spirit world. (2:246, June 9, 1957)

I Do No Understand My Own Actions

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Numbers 10

On the twentieth day of the second month[a] of that same year, the cloud over the sacred tent moved on. 12 So the Israelites broke camp and left the Sinai Desert. And some time later, the cloud stopped in the Paran Desert.[b]13 This was the first time the Lord had told Moses to command the people of Israel to move on.

Psalm 80

17 But help the one who sits
    at your right side,
    the one you raised
    to be your own.
18 Then we will never turn away.
    Put new life into us,
    and we will worship you.

19 Lord God All-Powerful,
make us strong again!
    Smile on us and save us.

The War Within

The human condition is beset by inner conflict between two opposing inclinations, one good and the other evil. as long as people are plagued by this inner contradiction, they can neither realize their divine self nor achieve a state of wholeness. paradoxically, people immersed in worldly life may not always recognize the war within themselves—except in the glimmerings of a guilty conscience. on the other hand, those who strive to lead a conscientious or religious life are directly confronted by this problem. 
    Father Moon teaches that this inner contradiction is a direct result of the human Fall. it cannot be that God created human beings with such a contradiction, he maintains, or God would not be a God of goodness and humans would have no hope to reach perfection. no, this inner contradiction is evidence of a distortion in human nature, caused by the human Fall. the war between mind and body will never end until the problem of the Fall is solved.

I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. So then it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me.
    So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
    Romans 7.15-24
 
I know what is good
but I am not inclined to do it;
I know also what is bad,
but I do not refrain from doing it;
I just do as I am prompted to do
by some divine spirit
standing in my heart. 21
    Mahabharata (Hinduism)
 
Rabbi Isaac said, “Man’s evil inclination renews itself daily against him, as it is said, imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil every day.’ [Genesis 6.5].” And Rabbi Simeon ben Levi said, “Man’s evil inclination gathers strength against him daily and seeks to slay him… and were not the Holy One, blessed be He, to help him, he could not prevail against it.”
    Talmud, Kiddushin 30b (Judaism)
 
By the fetters of envy and selfishness are all bound—gods, men, demons… so that although they wish, “Would that we might live in friendship, without hatred, injury, enmity or malignity,” they still live in enmity, hating, injur-ing, hostile, malign.
    Digha Nikaya 2.276 (Buddhism)
 
All vices are like chains thrown around the neck.
    Adi Granth, Sorath, M.1 p. 595 (Sikhism)
 
Whatever harm a foe may do to a foe, or a hater to a hater, an ill-directed mind can do one far greater harm.
    Dhammapada 42 (Buddhism)
 
Surely God wrongs not men anything, but men wrong themselves.
    Qur’an 10.44
 
The spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak.
    Matthew 26.41
 
Man should discover his own reality
and not thwart himself.
For he has the self as his only friend,
or as his only enemy.
A person has the self as a friend
when he has conquered himself,
But if he rejects his own reality,
the self will war against him.
    Bhagavad-Gita 6.5-6 (Hinduism)
 
The Prophet declared, “We have returned from the lesser holy war (al jihad al-asghar) to the greater holy war (al jihad al-akbar).” They asked, “O Prophet of God, which is the greater war?” He replied, “Struggle against the lower self.”
    Hadith (Islam)
 
What is the life of virtue save one unending war with evil inclinations, and not with solicitations of other people alone, but with evil inclinations that arise within ourselves and are our very own… And when we seek final rest in the supreme good, what do we seek save an end to this conflict between flesh and spirit, freedom from this propensity to evil against which the spirit is at war? Yet, will as we may, such liberty cannot be had in mortal life.
    Saint Augustine, City of God 19.4 (Christianity)
 
 

In Order to Go Over Even One Stage, A Price Called an Indemnity Condition Must Be Paid

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Numbers 10

17 The sacred tent had been taken down, and the Gershonites and the Merarites carried it, marching behind the Judah camp.

1 Chronicles 6

74-75 The Gershonites received four towns from the tribe of Asher: Mashal, Abdon, Hukok, and Rehob, including the pastureland around them. 76 Finally, the Gershonites received three towns from the tribe of Naphtali: Kedesh in Galilee, Hammon, and Kiriathaim, including the pastureland around them.

Richard: The Gershonites are Levites, who assist the priests in caring for the Tabernacle that contains the Word, the tablets with the Ten Commandments. This is interesting, as Stacey and I are caring for land and caring for the Word of the Completed Testament, including this Daily Inspiration ministry.

Reincarnation

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Nature has its causes, its directives, and it moves in cycles seeking for results. In the course of its cycles, complex directives are gathered together and mature as completed things. The universe rotates. History likewise moves in cycles, even as it progresses. The four seasons revolve—spring, summer, fall and winter. From this perspective, how can the theory of evolution be correct when it calls only for linear progress? Why shouldn’t the process be cyclical?
 
     Recognition that the world is continually revolving may have led to the belief of reincarnation. It provides some reason for the belief that human beings are transformed into animals, insects or plants [and then rise again as humans] as the universe makes its revolutions. (94:11-12, June 19, 1977)
 
Regardless of time and place, religious people as well as all the other people live in circumstances where they are intertwined with the spirit world according to its karma. This is an indubitable fact of human life. People in every age, whether or not they believe in a religion, witness the fact through dreams and other mysterious experiences. (131:167, May 1, 1984)
 
Why should we return to earth? Because our relationships were bound on earth; therefore, they should be loosed on earth. Religions such as Buddhism call such phenomena reincarnation. However, an ascended saint like Buddha or Confucius can appear in spirit at any moment. Therefore, it cannot be that the actual Buddha returns as another person. Phenomena that can be mistaken for reincarnation take place when a person who has not completed his responsibility in a certain field descends through returning resurrection to fulfill it by utilizing another individual. (91:276-77, February 27, 1977)
 
The Buddhist theory of reincarnation does not see the whole picture; it recognizes only one aspect of returning resurrection. Spirits in the spirit world want to benefit through returning to earthly people.
    But for the Human Fall, humans would be creatures of great value, having dominion over the angelic world and the universe. Instead, because of the Fall they plummeted down, even several levels below zero. It remains for them to return to the original position, but it cannot be done all at once. They should go through many stages, step by step…
 
 
    In order to go over even one stage, a price, called an indemnity condition, must be paid. Suppose a person cooperated in God’s providence to reach a certain point. Yet he or she cannot automatically rise to a next stage. There may be an indemnity period, requiring a principled number such as 7 years, 40 years, 70 years, or even several centuries. Since that person cannot be elevated any further until the indemnity period has matured, he or she passes on to the spirit world. That person, now a spirit, would then want an earthly person, let’s call him A, to complete laying the foundation. Then if that person also dies before fulfilling it, he would work through another person, B, whom he had chosen. Thus the same spirit cooperates with both person A and person B.
    For example, suppose the spirit is Saint Paul. For Saint Paul to be elevated to a higher level, he has to return to someone of his choosing on earth, person A. However, if person A dies without fulfilling his mission, he will have to return again to a person B and cooperate with him. If this person B finally completes his mission on earth, then the spirit, Saint Paul, can resurrect to a higher level.         There must be an indemnity period based on principled numbers. This period cannot be completed in a short time. Thus, if even person B, the second person chosen for the mission, does not complete it, the spirit will have to return through returning resurrection to assist yet a third person, person C. Some people might regard person C as the reincarnation of Saint Paul. At the same time, if person B had left some writings or special works, people might claim that he was the reincarnation of Saint Paul…
    In such a way, the spirit of Saint Paul might come down and work with a number of different people throughout the world. Some people, seeing the phenomenon superficially, call it reincarnation. But if they could grasp the whole picture they would not regard it so. (54:277-79, March 26, 1972)

The Kingdom of Heaven Is an Extension of Family Life

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Numbers 34

16 The Lord said to Moses, 17 “Eleazar the priest and Joshua son of Nun will divide the land for the Israelites. 18 One leader from each tribe will help them, 19-28 and here is the list of their names:

Caleb son of Jephunneh
    from Judah,
Shemuel son of Ammihud
    from Simeon,
Elidad son of Chislon
    from Benjamin,
Bukki son of Jogli
    from Dan,
Hanniel son of Ephod
    from Manasseh,
Kemuel son of Shiphtan
    from Ephraim,
Elizaphan son of Parnach
    from Zebulun,
Paltiel son of Azzan
    from Issachar,
Ahihud son of Shelomi
    from Asher,
and Pedahel son of Ammihud
    from Naphtali.”

29 These are the men the Lord commanded to help Eleazar and Joshua divide the land for the Israelites.

Jeremiah 25

4 The Lord has sent prophets to you time after time, but you refused to listen. 5 They told you that the Lord had said:

Change your ways! If you stop doing evil, I will let you stay forever in this land that I gave your ancestors. 6 I don’t want to harm you. So don’t make me angry by worshiping idols and other gods.

Heaven

2. Fellowship with the Saints and Our Ancestors

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

The Kingdom of Heaven is an extension of family life. (Way of God’s Will 1.8)
 
The Chinese character “heaven” (天) is written by combining two characters: the character 二means “two,” and 人 means “person.” In other words, heaven consists of two people. All beings in heaven live in mutual relationships with corresponding entities. (92:309, April 24, 1977)
 
In heaven you do not age, since you are in the supreme state, your mind intoxicated with love. My mother should be old by now, but when I glimpse her [in the spirit world] she looks beautiful, as she did in the prime of her life. (201:103, March 11, 1990)
 
What is heaven like? It is a realm centered on love. There you enjoy being loved. You enjoy receiv-ing love endlessly and never tire of it…
    Captivated by love, the sleepers awaken, the deaf hear and the dumb speak. There are no barriers to communicating with anyone, and you can continue speaking endlessly for tens of millions of years. All your cells and all your senses are activated one hundred percent. (102:160-61, December 17, 1978)
 
In the afterlife it is no problem to travel hundreds of millions of miles in an instant. The power of love is the speediest. If you call someone whom you are yearning to see with true love, that person will immediately appear before your eyes. It doesn’t matter that your beloved is a hundred million light-years away. As long as you have love, you can see that person any time. A mother at one end of the universe and a son is at the other end can meet each other in an instant. If you long to meet a person who lived tens of millions of years ago, he or she will appear immediately. Past and future do not exist in heaven. Only the present exists. A thousand years ago is as the present. Such is the spirit world, transcending time and space. (194:133-34, October 17, 1989)
 
What is the best way to greet God, returning joy and glory to Him? In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve would have greeted God best by loving each other in God’s presence. Likewise, in the spirit world, a couple stands before God wearing their wedding garments; then they embrace and make love, and in that moment they become one with God. That is the best way to greet God. (314:25, December 30, 1999)
 
The Kingdom of Heaven is a world of relations. Therefore, our entire family should be included. So should all members of our clan and all the people of our nation. (18:331, August 13, 1967)
 
If only parents were to enter heaven without their children accompanying them, it would not be heaven. In the Kingdom of Heaven, parents enjoy the love and support of their entire family. They live together and relate with each other with God as the center.
     Thus, we cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven by ourselves. Parents and children enter heaven together. Suppose you were in heaven while your mother was in hell and screaming for help, “My child, please save me!” Would you say, “Heaven is wonderful, but Mother, you deserve to be in hell and suffer in pain”? Heaven is not such a place.
 
     According to God’s purpose of creation, all family members, parents and children, should dwell together in heaven. Not only your immediate family, but also your clan and your entire nation should enter there. Everyone in the world should dwell together there. (15:265, October 17, 1965)
 
In the spirit world you do not need formal introductions. On meeting someone, you immediately know who he or she is. That person may have lived a thousand years ago or even many millions of years ago, yet still you will recognize him or her. People believe that biblical history is 6000 years, but that number is only symbolic. When you know the spirit world, you will understand the actual length of human history. It could stretch back millions or tens of millions of years.
     You can call for an ancestor from a certain era, and he or she will appear in front of you. You recognize that person at a glance, without speaking a word. You instantly grasp all the essentials, including the manner of respect you should use when addressing him.19 Hence, you do not need formal introductions like on earth. Everyone automatically observes the hierarchical order.
     What can keep the order? By living with love. Love determines position. Therefore, unless you become a child of God, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. (208:142-43, November 17, 1990)