Perseverance Prevails Even Against Heaven.

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Cheon Seong Gyeong 1980

Communism must collapse. The democratic world should also collapse. The democratic world is based on humanism, whereas the communist world is based on materialism. Both have driven God away. The Vatican in Rome tried to bring about the unification of the world, centering on theism, and establish an ideal kingship. Due to its mistakes, however, the providence has come back here and they must be overcome through indemnity.
    Indemnity had to be paid in Britain, centering on the continent, and the mistakes of the Vatican in Rome on the Italian peninsula must be brought to Asia and restored there. Consequently, a peninsula in Asia, like that of Italy, should be restored. That is the Korean peninsula. (188-315, 1989.3.1)

Richard:  Humanism can have different meanings.  Here Rev. Moon is clearly referring to secular humanism.  Here is a helpful quote from the New World Encyclopedia:

Secular humanism, in its neglect of God the source of human values, risks an impoverishment of meaning. Yet, humanism is an inevitable reaction to theism when it is authoritarian and dogmatic. For human beings created in the image of God, the values of humanism express human beings’ God-given nature. Hence, while secular humanism is antithetical to theism, religious humanism and theism are complementary. As the American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr said, a “new synthesis” of Renaissance and Reformation is called for.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1973:

Britain is the Eve nation, America is the Abel nation, and France is the archangel nation. The mother should embrace the son, searching for these nations. Since what was lost has been found in this way, following this pattern, the father should be recovered. We are searching for the Adam nation because the Adam nation is the nation of the coming Lord, and that is the Korean peninsula.
    Why the Korean peninsula? It is like the Italian peninsula. That which was lost centering on the Vatican must be restored through indemnity. That which was lost in the west centering on the Italian peninsula must be found in the east. For this reason, the Korean peninsula becomes a global concern. The Korean peninsula is the borderline between death and life. The North and South were divided between communism and democracy, with Kim Il-sung in the north and Sun Myung Moon in the south. This is the reality. In the north, don’t they call Kim Il-sung, “Father”? Don’t people in the south call me “Father” or “the True Parent”? Who will liberate this situation? The president cannot solve the problem. Thus, it rests in my hands. (201-52, 1990.2.28

Perseverence and Patience

To accomplish anything truly worthwhile requires perseverance and patience. Patience is not merely to wait for fate to intervene; rather it means to continue on one’s path until the goal is achieved. Once the resolution is made and the task is begun, it should not be abandoned, for the result is often not decided until the very end. Perseverance requires long-suffering endurance of opposition, setbacks and delays, while maintaining steadfastly to one’s original commitment. It requires forbearance, resisting the temptation to change course or take a shortcut that would violate one’s principles. The scriptures express the virtue of perseverance through various metaphors: digging a well, boring to the pith of a tree, and water slowly but inexorably carving a hole in solid rock.
In this light, Father Moon speaks of God’s forbearance as he has endured millennia of evils and sorrows, putting up with his fallen children’s sins and rebellions out of love and hope for their ultimate liberation. Therefore, by demonstrating perseverance and patience, we take after God’s perseverance and patience on our way to becoming God’s sons and daughters. For the story of Job’s patience in the midst of suffering, see chapter 15: Testing.

1. Perseverance, Endurance and Forbearance
 
Though he be ever so tired by repeated failure, let him begin his operations again and again; for fortune greatly favors the man who perseveres in his undertakings.
    Laws of Manu 9.300 (Hinduism)
 
Perseverance prevails even against Heaven.
    Talmud, Sanhedrin 105a (Judaism)
 
Prosperity forsakes those who always dream of fate and favors those who persevere. One should therefore always be active and alert.
    Matsya Purana 221.2 (Hinduism)
 
Once when the Master was standing by a stream, he said, “Could one but go on and on like this, never ceasing day or night!”
    Analects 9.16 (Confucianism)
 
If fishermen, hunters, and farmers,
Thinking merely of their own livelihood,
Endure the sufferings of heat and cold,
Why am I not patient for the sake of the
world’s joy?
    Shantideva, Guide to the Bodhisattva’sWay of Life 4.40 (Buddhism)
 
In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider; God made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him.
    Ecclesiastes 7.14
 
You who believe, seek help through patience and prayer; God stands alongside the patient! We will test you with a bit of fear and hunger, and a shortage of wealth and souls and produce. Proclaim such to patient people who say, whenever disaster strikes them, “We are God’s, and are returning to Him!” Such will be granted their prayers by their Lord as well as mercy. Those are guided!
    Qur’an 2.153-57
 
Nanak, for man it is idle to ask for pleasure when suffering comes;
Pleasure and suffering are like robes which man must wear as they come.
Where arguing is of no avail, it is best to be contented.
    Adi Granth, Var Majh, M.1, p. 149 (Sikhism)
 
Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields to stern resolve. He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind. Leonardo Da Vinci, Notebooks (Humanism)
 
One should preserve, without the slightest diminution, the faith which one had at the time of renunciation. One should not be swept away by the eddies of a mercurial mind.
    Acarangasutra 1.36-37 (Jainism)
 
Rabbi Akiba, illiterate at forty, saw one day a stone’s perforation where water fell from a spring, and having heard people say, “Waters wear stones,” he thought, “If soft water can bore through a rock, surely ironclad Torah should, by sheer persistence, penetrate a tender mind”; and he turned to study.
    Talmud, Avot de Rabbi Nathan 6 (Judaism)
 
It matters not what you learn; but when you once learn a thing, you must never give it up until you have mastered it. It matters not what you inquire into, but when you inquire into a thing, you must never give it up until you have thoroughly understood it. It matters not what you try to think out, but when you once try to think out a thing you must never give it up until you have got what you want. It matters not what you try to sift out, but when you once try to sift out a thing, you must never give it up until you have sifted it out clearly and distinctly. It matters not what you try to carry out, but when you once try to carry out a thing you must never give it up until you have done it thoroughly and well. If another man succeed by one effort, you will use a hundred efforts. If another man succeed by ten efforts, you will use a thousand efforts. Let a man really proceed in this manner, and though dull, he will surely become intelligent; though weak, he will surely become strong.
    Doctrine of the Mean 20 (Confucianism)
 
The Lord waits to be gracious to you;
therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
blessed are all those who wait for him.
    Isaiah 30.18
 
 

Do Not Say “I Cannot Make It This Year, But I Will Do It Next Year”

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Cheon Seong Gyeong 2067

We need the nation, and we need the world. There is no clear way to find these. When we look at this fact, you professors must also establish the ideal of the sphere of love, centering on the vertical love and connecting with the horizontal realm of love at 90 degrees. There’s no way to escape such a pursuit of the original universal history. That means you must listen to what I say. If you don’t, you won’t be on the right track. If you are on the right track, where will you be heading? You will go to the family. That’s why, when we say tong ban break-through activities, we’re talking about returning to the family and realigning yourself to the right track. Because all of you are the sons and daughters of Rev. Moon, I have unconditionally given you everything that I’ve prepared on the world level, from the realm of heart, the realm of participation and inheritance, to the realm of equal rank. Therefore, you must return to your hometowns and lay down your roots. If you just lay down your roots and stand up vertically aligned, then, through me, you will rise to the glorious position of victory in which you can inherit the worldwide domain and participate with me. This is logical. True Parents are absolute. That’s why all religions have come to the conclusion that the messiah absolutely must come. (176-124, 1988.5.3)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1212

The great contribution I made lies in the fact that I clarified the relationship between God and human beings centered on love, and clarified the portion of responsibility and the course of indemnity, as well as the problem of Cain and Abel, and the issue of the lineage. Unless Cain and Abel unite, the Messiah cannot come. Only when Cain and Abel become one is the foundation of substance formed, and only then can the Messiah come. Only when people are united with the Messiah can the restoration of the lineage take place. This is the gist of the Principle. You must understand such a program fully and pray accordingly. That is the way you should be thinking. (161-149, 1987.1.18)

Preparation and Making a Good Beginning

2. Taking the First Step

A big tree was once a small seed; a nine-story building started with a basket of earth; a journey of a thousand miles begins with a first step.
    Tao Te Ching 64
 
The way of the superior man may be compared to traveling to a distant place: one must start from the nearest stage. It may also be likened to ascending a height: one must begin with the lowest step.
    Doctrine of the Mean 15
 
Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon
 
After receiving the command of God which foretold that He would judge the earth after 120 years, Noah did not wait around, thinking, “So what if a year has passed; there are still 119 years left.” God commands only once; it is up to each individual to commit to its great purpose. (19:237)
 
To achieve victory for the year, set your goals on New Year’s Day. Then equip yourself with a fighting spirit and a driving power to pursue your goals and overcome the challenges for 365 days or more. If you do not do this, you are bound to be defeated before the year is over. If you live one year like this, and then continue in this manner, it will eventually add up to 10 years, then 20 years, 30 years—and this becomes the path of a victorious life. (31:30, April 12, 1970)
 
Eternity does not start when we die. It begins at the moment we come to know God’s will. Once we know it, if there is a gap of even one moment, eternity will be stopped.
 
    Therefore, in pursuit of our life of faith, if we think, “I cannot make it this year, but I will do it next year” or “I cannot go in my adolescence, but I will go in my 20s,” or “I cannot do it in my 20s, but surely I will in my 30s” or “I cannot in my 30s but I will in my 40s” or “I cannot in my 40s but I will in my 50s”… If we lived our whole life like this, we would never have lived even one day in accordance with God’s Will. A person who lives like that cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven when he dies. (37:219, December 27, 1970)
 
 
 

Too Many People Lack Any Sense of Responsibility

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The Family Rooted in Absolute Sexual Ethics-Part 9 with Yun-a Johnson

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1430

Every object in the world came to belong to Satan through the fallen parents. In order for all families to restore this situation centering on the True Parents, in the future they should have nothing in their possession. Nothing in this world should belong to them. Their own bodies do not belong to them, their sons and daughters do not belong to them, and their husbands do not belong to them. Everything must be regarded as the possession of unfallen Adam. Nothing should belong to Eve. She should not have anything established as belonging to her.
    The era of the right of ownership is coming, where objects can belong to her only after they have been determined as belonging to Adam, restored to God and acknowledged as His, and then returned to Adam to be finally handed back to her as her permanent possession.
    Such phenomena can take place only after you have entered the Kingdom of God and have been registered. Only then can you be restored to the position of unfallen owners in the Garden of Eden and hold possession of all things of the world. In such a manner, you can enter the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. (165-284, 1987.5.27)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1187

Based on this ceremony, I declared “The ideology centered on the Heavenly Father” on September 1, 1989. Until the Ceremony of the Settlement of the Eight Stages was completed, it was still the age of the restoration of the right of the eldest son. Restoring the right of the eldest son! Finally, the right of the eldest son has been completely restored. Now, that the right of the eldest son has been completely restored to God’s side, we ascend and stand in the highest global realm, where Satan cannot oppose us. The time has now come when, if we push forward strongly and boldly, America, the communist world, Korea and Japan will all yield. That is why we should be strong and bold. (193-204, 1989.10.4)

Richard:  We all have to realize that we are living in a blessed era, where God’s Kingdom is being substantially established.  It is our collective responsibility to make this happen, based on the extant foundation created by the the work of Rev. Sun Myung Moon and those working with him.

 

Preparation and Making a Good Beginning

1. Prepare Yourself for Life’s Challenges

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung

To overcome a crisis you must have deep faith, plans made in detail, and the conviction to carry them out. (Way of God’s Will 3.4)
 
Too many people today lack any sense of responsibility. They do not set goals or plan what they will do each day, they do not plan out the year, nor do they have a plan for their life. They just live moment by moment, doing whatever they please and grasping at whatever benefit comes their way. What will be the end result? Someday they will hit a stone wall and be shattered into pieces. (105:11, July 8, 1979)
 
 
You should have a definite sense of what kind of work you will do by the time you reach your twenties. You should be able to say with certainty, “This is what I will do,” and fight to achieve it throughout your lifetime. That is the only way you can become an historic person, a person who contributes something to the world. If you only try to accommodate to circumstances and simply go with the
flow, you will be carried away by the current and disappear.

After determining exactly what you will do, you will need a heart bold enough to continue fighting for your goal no matter what difficulties may arise. Instead of saying you don’t like this or that, you must have the guts to digest whatever comes. (120:229, October 20, 1982)

Even if Heaven has prepared everything, it will not work unless we have prepared a corresponding foundation in our minds and bodies. (7:287, October 11, 1959)

Each morning when you go out into the fallen world, prepare your eyes, nose, ears, and every cell, even your mind, like armament ready for battle. (122:266, November 21, 1982)
 
To live is to compete. We cannot develop without competition. Losing a competition makes us miserable, but it can spur us to strive for the capability we need in order to win. To gain that capability, we need time to prepare and train…
    A student studies to prepare. Especially adolescents should prepare, while carrying big dreams… By preparing intellectually, you can conquer the mental world. Then you are ready to act and utilize your well-honed capabilities to win in the competition. (Blessing and Ideal Family 7.5.5)
 
All of you want to be successful. How do you gain success? You have to prepare well. You should prepare, with enough material that you are able to digest the existing world, for upon it you are to erect your own new foundation. Your new foundation should exceed the old foundation; otherwise, you will not succeed in establishing it. This is a lesson of history. It is true in the path of our individual lives and in the life of our nation.
    Look at the Unification Church: We face difficulties and persecution, yet in the midst of it all we are preparing for the future. Today I am fighting alone against America, a superpower with a population of 240 million that is feared the world over. Yet none of its leaders know of my work; none of them help me; none is my friend. In this situation, I cannot fight blindly. I prepare myself. I must prepare thoroughly and completely.
    What preparation do I need? First, I must prepare mentally, to have an indomitable spirit that will never be defeated. Second, I must make more effort than anyone else in history to contribute to America’s well being. Third, I must make concrete preparations for specific actions.
    I must have a thoroughgoing and complete teaching, and then I need to strive. I cannot sit and rest with only a teaching. Having equipped myself with the truth, I must make limitless effort. Moreover, my effort cannot be self-centered. To generate the subjectivity required to surpass the existing system will require unending struggle. The guardians of the old order are not about to welcome a new system. Every new movement in history is tested in the crucible of conflict, where it either flourishes or perishes.
    I try to find a way to overcome every difficulty. I proceed regardless of the price I must pay. It is an effort not to be absorbed by others, but to absorb them. Furthermore, I need a consistent praxis. As a religious leader, my method cannot involve violence. I work quietly. If others work eight hours a day, then I work twenty-four hours…

I cannot afford to lose! I must prepare myself, even with blood and tears. In the midst of tears, I must prepare! Though I am starving, I must prepare! Though I weep bitter tears, I must move forward! Though I may have to sleep on the streets, I must move forward! I do not believe that Heaven’s victory is possible without making such a commitment. (133:217-226, July 19, 1984)
 
 
 
 

A Ship Which Is Not Prepared Goes to Destruction

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State Legislators Do Your Job

Cheon Seong Gyeong 331

God’s love is stronger than the sun. When the sun rises in the morning, the buds of plants turn towards the sun. Likewise, God’s love is the source of life, the source of our original mind, and the core source of ideal elements. That is the way it is. (99-230, 1978.9.25)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1279

The mass holy wedding is held to find and establish the new family of God. In other words, the ceremony is held so that you can learn to love God more than anyone else in the world. (Blessed Family – 563)

Preparation and Making a New Beginning

For any venture to succeed it must begin well. The oriental proverb, “Well begun is half done,” describes the theme of the passages in this section. A good beginning means, first of all, internal preparation. We should purify our heart, steel ourselves with firm resolution, and be clear about our philosophy and methods of proper action. Then we should take the measure of the task and gather sufficient resources to surmount the obstacles in our path. This is practical advice, but it applies especially to the spiritual aspirant. Those who regard life lightly and frivolously are liable to fall into straits worse than when they started. Father Moon teaches that to become a person of significance, someone who makes a difference in the world, we need to prepare well. Without fixing our purpose, our life becomes ordinary and of no consequence, and without setting our determination and preparing a foundation of self-discipline, we are liable to be defeated by the challenges that await us. He provides the example of his own life, describing the preparations he made to take on the entire corrupt world-system.

1. Prepare Yourself for Life’s Challenges

The superior man does not embark upon any affair until he has carefully planned the start.
    I Ching 6: Conflict (Confucianism)

Success is the result of foresight and resolution; foresight depends upon deep thinking and planning to keep your secrets to yourself.
    Nahjul Balagha, Saying 46 (Shiite Islam)

Check the edge of the axe before splitting wood.
    Njak Proverb (African Traditional Religions)

The superior man gathers his weapons together in order to provide against the unforeseen.
    I Ching 45: Gathering Together (Confucianism)

For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, “This man began to build, and was not able to finish.” Or what king, going to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and take counsel whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?
    Luke 14.28-31

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil… that you may be able to withstand the evil day.
    Ephesians 6.10, 13

He who wants to expand the field of happiness, let him lay the foundation of it on the bottom of his heart.
    Tract of the Quiet Way (Taoism)

Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Well, I do not run aimlessly, I do not box as one beating the air; but I pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
    1 Corinthians 9.24-27

A ship, which is not well prepared, in the ocean
goes to destruction, together with its goods and merchants.
But when a ship is well prepared, and well joined together,
then it does not break up, and all the goods get to the other shore.
Just so a bodhisattva, exalted in faith, but deficient in wisdom, swiftly comes to a failure in enlightenment.
But when he is well joined to wisdom, the foremost perfection,
he experiences, unharmed and uninjured, the enlightenment of the Jinas.
     Verses on the Perfection of Wisdom which is the Storehouse of Precious Virtues 14.7-8 (Buddhism)

The Self Is Your Greatest Enemy

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The Family Rooted in Absolute Sexual Ethics Part 8- with Leila Johnson

Cheon Seong Gyeong 894

What is the greatest obstacle to entering heaven? The self is your greatest enemy. The reason hell and the satanic world were created was because of the awareness of the self. The archangel thought centered on himself. He thought about himself intensely. What is a traitor? You call a person who puts himself before his nation and sovereign, a traitor! Rising up from the paths of a traitor is the summit based on the self. It is the road that leads to hell. For human beings it is the path that leads to ruin. This foundation called the self, and centered on the self, leads to death. (122-20, 1982.10.31)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 662

As heaven is the world of living for others, we must go forth making that notion our first consideration. Those who have the idea of being served will be destroyed.

Synergy of Grace and Effort

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

You must participate in God’s great creative undertaking… Although God provides 95 percent of the ideal form necessary to reach perfection, human beings must still complete the remaining 5 percent by their own responsibility. God alone cannot bring about human perfection; each person has the responsibility to make a contribution in perfecting him or herself. (115:66, November 4, 1981)
 
The spirit grows through give and take action between two types of nourishment: life elements of a yang type that come from God and vitality elements of a yin type that come from the physical self. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Creation 6.3.2)
 
As long as you complain and lament over your situation while just sitting in your chair, you will not make progress. God will not help you. God wants you to make new efforts each day. (327:48, July 24, 2000)
 
God creates to the level of 95 percent and then human beings should add their efforts in accordance with God’s basic rules for creation in order to establish a value standard of 100 percent. In this way, God wants to give human beings the value of having participated in the completion of His Will. (130:19, December 11, 1983)
 
The proportion of five percent is used to indicate that the human portion of responsibility is extremely small when compared to God’s portion of responsibility. Yet for human beings, this five percent is equivalent to one hundred percent of our effort…
    We should recognize how minuscule the human portion of responsibility is in comparison to God’s toil and grace, which is His portion of responsibility. On the other hand, when we consider the fact that over and over again central figures in the providence could not cope with their responsibility, we can appreciate how extremely difficult it was for them to fulfill even this comparatively small portion. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Predestination 2)
 
No matter how great the saving grace of the cross of Christ, the salvation knocking at our door will be for naught unless we fortify our faith, which is our portion of responsibility. It was God’s responsibility to grant the benefit of resurrection through the crucifixion of Jesus, but to believe or not to believe is strictly one’s own portion of responsibility. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Creation 5.2.2)
 
We are endowed with the nature to empathize with God. We should develop that nature; then when God rejoices we also will rejoice, and when God is sorrowful we also will be sorrowful. Unless you become a person who can intimately experience God’s deep inner heart, you are in no position to become one with God and live in harmony with God, regardless of how much God loves you. (39:8-9, January 9, 1971)
 
God has borne all the responsibility for His sons and daughters on the road of restoration. But now surely the time has come when we should take on that responsibility. God has borne all that responsibility to help us, but now, by taking on Satan’s attack, we can stand up as God’s sons and daughters. (31:50, April 12, 1970)