Delusion Is a Sort of Demonic Force

A very happy Christmas to you and your family!
The Richard Urban Show
#80-Peace on Earth to Everyone Who Pleases God

Petition Congress Rally-January 6th, 2021, Washington DC

Contact your Senator and Representative

John 19

38 Joseph from Arimathea was one of Jesus’ disciples. He had kept it secret though, because he was afraid of the Jewish leaders. But now he asked Pilate to let him have Jesus’ body. Pilate gave him permission, and Joseph took it down from the cross.

Isaiah 51

13 I spread out the heavens
and laid foundations
    for the earth.
But you have forgotten me,
    your Lord and Creator.
All day long you were afraid
of those who were angry
    and hoped to abuse you.
Where are they now?

Richard: Speak the truth. Do not be afraid.

Selfish Desires and Fallen Nature

2. Degraded and Fallen Nature

Human nature is analogous to water: originally, it is pure. If we fill a clear vessel then the water will be clear, but if we fill a dirty vessel then the water will be sullied. Its original purity is always there, but once it becomes dirty or turbid it is very difficult to regain its purity.
    Chu Hsi (Confucianism)

God made man upright, but they have sought out many devices.
    Ecclesiastes 7.29

Delusion is a sort of demonic force. People’s original mind is pure but it becomes perverted due to delusion and other karmas.
    Kundakunda, Pancastikaya 38 (Jainism)

I enquired what iniquity was, and found it to be not a substance, but the perversion of the will, turned aside from Thee, O God, the Supreme, toward these lower things, and casting out its bowels and puffed up outwardly.
    Saint Augustine, Confessions 7.16 (Christianity)

Satan said, “I will take of Thy servants a portion marked off; I will mislead them, and I will create in them false desires; I will order them… to deface the fair nature created by God.” Whoever, forsaking God, takes Satan for a friend, has of a surety suffered a loss that is manifest. Satan makes them promises, and creates in them false desires; but Satan’s promises are nothing but deception.
    Qur’an 4.118-20

Your mind, having become diseased and bewildered because of the false sense-conceptions accumulated since beginningless time, has developed many desires, attachments and habits. From these there have arisen, incident to the ever-changing processes of life, arbitrary conceptions concerning self and no-self and as to what is true and what is not true. These arbitrary conceptions have not developed in a normal way from your pure Mind Essence, but in an abnormal way because of the prior false conceptions that had their origin in the sense organs, like the sight of blossoms in the air that come to diseased minds. They falsely appear to have had their origin in the enlightening and Essential Mind but, in truth, they have arisen because of diseased conditions.
    Surangama Sutra (Buddhism)

Slight is the difference between man and the brutes. The common man loses this distinguishing feature, while the gentleman retains it.
    Mencius IV.B.19 (Confucianism)

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately corrupt; who can understand it?
    Jeremiah 17.9

And recite to them the tiding of him to whom We gave Our signs, but he cast them off, and Satan followed after him, and he became one of the perverts. And had we willed, We would have raised him up, but he inclined towards the earth and followed his lust. So the likeness of him is as the likeness of a dog; if you attack it it lolls its tongue out, or if you leave it it lolls its tongue out. That is that people’s likeness who cried lies to Our signs…
    They have hearts, but understand not with them; they have eyes, but perceive not with them; they have ears, but they hear not with them. They are like cattle; nay, rather they are further astray. Those—they are the heedless.
    Qur’an 7.175-179

That man in whom there never kindles
One spark of the love of God,
Know, Nanak, that his earthly vesture
Is no better than that of a swine or dog!
    Adi Granth, Slok, M.9, p. 1428 (Sikhism)

Most men, and men of the most vulgar type, seem (not without some ground) to identify the good, or happiness, with pleasure; which is the reason why they love the life of enjoyment. For there are, we may say, three prominent types of life—that just mentioned, the political, and thirdly the contemplative life. Now the mass of mankind are evidently quite slavish in their tastes, preferring a life suitable to beasts.
    Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 1.5 (Hellenism)

Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth,
for the Lord has spoken:
“Sons I have reared and brought up,
but they have rebelled against me.
The ox knows its owner,
and the ass its master’s crib;
but Israel does not know,
my people does not understand.”
Isaiah 1.2-3

What is the Greatest Danger in Our Life?

Petition Congress Rally-January 6th, 2021, Washington DC

Contact your Senator and Representative

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Cheon Seong Gyeong 963

    To this day, no one has been registered into the heavenly kingdom. The kingdom did not have a nation. It did not have a family or nation. When you go to the spirit world, your parents, and – if there are ten people in your family – all ten of your family members would be separated. However, from now on it will not be that way. You should know that originally, if human beings had not fallen, heaven would be the place where you enter with your mother, father and clan.
    If your grandparents, mother and father, couple, and children, become one based on true love, and inherit God’s true love that lives for others, then even God would be absolutely obedient to that. In the world that strives to live for others – a world that moves according to the love that submits to the tradition of living for others – the basis for peace would surely emerge even if it resisted being formed. (210-354, 1990.12.27)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 241

It is truly significant to receive the Blessing. Those who receive the Blessing should be able to think of themselves as God’s representatives and conduct themselves as such. They should think, “If I do not move, then heaven and earth do not move.” God can establish a living ideology for the sake of humankind only when this position is reached. (13-14, 1963.10.1

Selfish Desires and Fallen Nature

1. Selfish Desires and Passions

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

What is the greatest danger in our life? It is getting pulled off the right track. Think: what can pull you off the track? There are two aspects of vulnerability, external and internal. Externally, the number one temptation is probably money, followed by knowledge, and then power. Any of these can pull you off the track.

    Will you succumb to the temptation of money? Under what conditions does money tempt you? This has to do with the internal aspect—your greed and ambition. I am speaking of self-centered greed and ambition. Ambition is not necessarily bad, but when it is self-centered, it is bad. (90:9, December 5, 1976)

People feel joy when their desires are fulfilled. The word “desire,” however, is often not understood in its original sense, because in the present circumstances our desires tend to pursue evil rather than good. Desires which result in injustice do not emanate from a person’s original mind…
    Has anyone realized the joy in which the original mind delights by pursuing evil desires? Whenever such desires are sated, we feel unrest in our conscience and agony in our heart. Would a parent ever instruct his child to be evil? Would a teacher deliberately instill unrighteousness in his students? The impulse of the original mind, which everyone possesses, is to abhor evil and exalt goodness. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Introduction)

Human beings are God’s substantial object partners. Therefore, God wants to rejoice through us. However, if we are defective partners, always expressing our fallen nature as jealousy, envy and arro-gance, how can God feel happiness through us? (Way of God’s Will 2.2)

The human condition has been such that love of the flesh—which is external—betrays God’s love, and betrays the ideal and eternal origin of life based in the mind—which is internal. Therefore, to establish unity between mind and body, we have to eradicate this external love—satanic love—and in its place inherit internal love—God’s original love. (20:179, June 9, 1968)

Selfish Desire Is Found in the Senses, Mind and Intellect

Must listen! Fireside chat with Lin Wood about the current situation: Lin Wood Drops Some HUGE News | Breaking News (thrivetimeshow.com)

The Richard Urban Show:
#79-Foundation Day Is Now
What is behind the current crisis in our country? Why is Christianity disintegrating? What can be done?
#78-Is Mob Rule Taking Over the United States?
Threats of violence or death are playing a major role in the dynamics of the coverage of election fraud. Many Republican elected officials are complicit or silent. At the same time, there is a mainstream media blackout of factual information. None the less, we the people, and President Trump, will prevail.

Open Letter to President Trump

Mark 12

12 The leaders knew that Jesus was really talking about them, and they wanted to arrest him. But because they were afraid of the crowd, they let him alone and left.

Richard: We should all rally on January 6th (and there is also a prayer rally on January 5th) to support President Trump. StopTheSteal.US

Nehemiah 6

Finally, Sanballat sent an official to me with an unsealed letter, which said:

A rumor is going around among the nations that you and the other Jews are rebuilding the wall and planning to rebel, because you want to be their king. And Geshem[a] says it’s true! You even have prophets in Jerusalem, claiming you are now the king of Judah. You know the Persian king will hear about this, so let’s get together and talk it over.

I sent a message back to Sanballat, saying, “None of this is true! You are making it all up.”

Richard: Be careful of those who instigate rumors to sow fear and discord.

Selfish Desires and Fallen Nature

Passion, greed, covetousness, hatred, lust: these emotions dominate the soul, causing blindness and leading to destruction. every major religion recognizes that suffering and evil are caused by excessive desires or desires directed toward a selfish purpose. Buddhism has summed up this principle in the second of the Four noble truths and denotes these desires by the term “craving.” craving is a fetter: poisoning the heart, deluding the mind, and binding us to evil courses of action.
    While all religions view selfish desire as baneful and the cause of much suffering, they differ in explaining these selfish desires in relation to human psychology. Buddhism and Jainism reject desire of all kinds, even the grasping for existence itself, as harmful and a source of bondage. in the monotheistic religions: Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and in some texts from Sikhism and Hinduism, the passions of the flesh—which are evil—are distinguished from the healthy ambition for goodness and the passion for God. Chinese religion condemns only excessive desire and selfish desire: Desires themselves may be good if they are in harmony with the Tao. this is also Father Moon’s teaching: God created desire that people might aspire for goodness, but it was perverted into self-centered grasping as a result of the human Fall.
    Father Moon teaches that selfish desires are manifestations of ‘fallen nature,’ satanic qualities and attitudes that were implanted into Adam and eve at their fall. various scriptures testify to the fact that humans have corrupted their original nature and deviated from their true calling. instead, we have sunk to the level of beasts, or even lower. beset with inner contradiction, we allow arrogance, violence, greed, and lust to dominate our lives.

1. Selfish Desires and Passions

The Noble Truth of the Origin of suffering is this: It is craving that leads back to birth, bound up with passionate greed. It finds fresh delight now here and now there, namely, craving for sense pleasures, craving for existence and becoming, and craving for non-existence.
Samyutta Nikaya 56.11 (Buddhism)

Lust, hatred, and delusion
ruin the man of wicked heart.
They are begotten in himself
like the lush growth of pith in the stem.
Itivuttaka 45 (Buddhism)

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one; but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin; and sin when it is full-grown brings forth death.
James 1.13-15

What causes wars, and what causes fighting among you? Is it not your passions that are at war in your members? You desire and do not have; so you kill. And you covet and cannot obtain; so you fight and wage war. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
James 4.1-3

No more deadly curse than sensual pleasure has been inflicted on mankind by nature, to gratify which our wanton appetites are roused beyond all prudence or restraint. It is a fruitful source of treasons, revolutions, secret communications with the enemy. In fact, there is no crime, no evil deed, to which the appetite for sensual plea-sures does not impel us.
Cicero, De Senectute 12 (Hellenism)

Arjuna: What is the force that binds us to self-ish deeds, O Krishna? What power moves us, even against our will, as if forcing us?

Krishna: It is selfish desire and anger, arising from the state of being known as passion; these are the appetites and evils which threaten a person in this life.

Just as a fire is covered by smoke and a mirror is obscured by dust, just as an embryo is enveloped deep within the womb, knowledge is hidden by selfish desire—hidden, Arjuna, by this unquenchable fire for self-satisfaction, the inveterate enemy of the wise.

Selfish desire is found in the senses, mind, and intellect, misleading them and burying wisdom in delusion.
Bhagavad-Gita 3.36-40 (Hinduism)

Confucius said, “I have never seen anyone whose desire to build up his moral power was as strong as sexual desire.”
Analects 9.17

They say that woman is an enticement.
No, No, she is not so.
They say that money is an enticement.
No, No, it is not so.
They say that landed property is an enticement.
No, No, it is not so.
The real enticement is the insatiable appetite
of the mind,
O Lord Guheswara!
Allama Prabhu, Vacana 91 (Hinduism)

Five are the robbers lodged in this body—Lust, wrath, avarice, attachment, and egoism.
Adi Granth, Sorath, M.3, p. 600 (Sikhism)

Blinded are beings by their sense desires
spread over them like a net;
covered are they by cloak of craving;
by their heedless ways caught
as a fish in the mouth of a funnel-net.
Decrepitude and death they journey to,
just as a sucking calf goes to its mother.
Udana 75-76 (Buddhism)

God Will Raise Up Black People for a Great Mission

Must listen! Fireside chat with Lin Wood about the current situation: Lin Wood Drops Some HUGE News | Breaking News (thrivetimeshow.com)

The Richard Urban Show:
#79-Foundation Day Is Now
What is behind the current crisis in our country? Why is Christianity disintegrating? What can be done?
#78-Is Mob Rule Taking Over the United States?
Threats of violence or death are playing a major role in the dynamics of the coverage of election fraud. Many Republican elected officials are complicit or silent. At the same time, there is a mainstream media blackout of factual information. None the less, we the people, and President Trump, will prevail.

Open Letter to President Trump

Cheon Seong Gyeong 81

If there is one subject partner in this universe who can fill every per-son’s heart, what kind of subject partner would that be? The one absolute cen-ter. We need an absolute being who will completely fill any heart with love. This subject partner has to be an infinite and absolute being. How much love do you think God – who has to fill the hearts of the bil-lions of people today – has? It has to be unconditional. This is why we need the expressions omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence. They are the words God needs. (116-240, 1982.1.1)

Cheong Seong Gyeong 1207

The way of restoration requires you to cut your way through in the direction opposite to that of the Fall. Walking the way of indemnity is a basic rule for fallen people. Unless you surmount this path, you cannot restore your original status. Therefore, you must clean up yourselves. You must possess a sound theoretical system explaining how to restore the individual, family, tribe, ethnic people, nation, and world. (God’s Will – 354)

Collective and Historical Sin

Individuals are also inextricably bound to the collectives to which they belong: nation, race, tribe and religion. Whether guilty or blameless in their personal lives, individuals prosper or suffer with the for-tunes of these collectives. the evils descend on the community—war, famine, epidemic diseases and rampant drug use—bring hardships to everyone in the community. Father Moon terms this collective sin. people are responsible to recognize collective sin and atone for it. they can atone by first making efforts to understand the grievances of those populations that have been oppressed and mistreated by their nation. they can then work to resolve them through sacrifice and love.

Even those who are pious and innocent suffer for the misdeeds of others through their con-tact, as fish in a snake-infested lake.
    Ramayana, Aranya Kanda 38 (Hinduism)
 
When God causes punishment to descend on a people, those righteous ones among them will be smitten by the punishment, but afterwards they will be resurrected according to their deeds.
    Hadith of Bukhari and Muslim (Islam)
 
All of you are pledges for the other: all of you, aye the world, exist through the merit of a single righteous man among you, and if but one man sins, the whole generation suffers.
    Tanhuma (Judaism)
 
Justice is turned back,
and righteousness stands afar off;
for truth has fallen in the public squares,
and uprightness cannot enter.
Truth is lacking,
and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.
    Isaiah 59.14-15

I am full of the wrath of the Lord ;
I am weary of holding it in.
“Pour it out upon the children in the street,
and upon the gatherings of young men, also;
both husband and wife shall be taken,
the old folk and the very aged.
Their houses shall be turned over to others,
their fields and wives together;
for I will stretch out my hand
against the inhabitants of the land,” says the Lord .
“For from the least to the greatest of them,
every one is greedy for unjust gain;
and from prophet to priest,
every one deals falsely.
They have healed the wound of my people lightly,
saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
when there is no peace.
Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?
No, they were not at all ashamed;
they did not know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;
at the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown,” says the Lord .
Jeremiah 6.11-15
 
Fondly do we hope—fervently do we pray—that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid with another drawn by the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, “The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”
    Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address
 

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Sin—it is intertwined like a gigantic steel net, woven through this person and that person, this organization and that organization, this society and that society, this nation and that nation. (1:167, July 11, 1956)
 
What should America do to indemnify all her historical sin? Americans massacred the Indians and enslaved Black people. Since the Indians are of the Oriental race, one way for America to indemnify her sin is to live for the sake of Oriental people. (101:336, November 12, 1978)
 
In sports these days, more and more blacks are the prominent world champions. Every year more blacks are emerging at the top, replacing whites. If blacks are equipped with God’s teaching, then, coupled with their sense of physical power, I think they have a glorious future surpassing that of white people.
    Hence, the more that the whites oppose black people, the more they will lose God’s blessings and the more blacks shall receive them. God does not lose in the end.
 
When Jesus stumbled while carrying his cross to Calvary, a black person, Simon of Cyrene, took up Jesus’ burden. That act was very significant; when the Last Days come, God will raise up black people for a great mission. Yet, they should be equipped with Heaven’s teaching.
    (91:219, February 20, 1977)
 
Richard:  Heaven’s teaching means the Original Root Substance of the Principle  and the Eight Sacred Textbooks.
 

 
 
 

We Are Burdened with Sins Inherited from Our Ancestors

The Richard Urban Show:
#79-Foundation Day Is Now
#78-Is Mob Rule Taking Over the United States?

Open Letter to President Trump

1 Corinthians 16

Aquila and Priscilla, together with the church that meets in their house, send greetings in the name of the Lord.

Lamentations 2

The Lord had decided
to tear down the walls of Zion
    stone by stone.
So he started destroying
    and did not stop
until walls and fortresses
    mourned and trembled.

Inherited Sin and Karma

2. Breaking the Chain of Demerit

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

For thousands of years our ancestors have been building up walls of sorrows, and as the days go by these walls are not getting lower; rather, through his many deceptions Satan has been raising the walls higher.
    Today all the people of the world have the responsibility to take down the walls of grudges and resentments their ancestors built up; we take this on as our responsibility. (1:305, December 23, 1956)
 
Original sin, personal sin, collective sin, and hereditary sin inherited from our ancestral line—we should cleanse all sin before we pass on to the spirit world. It doesn’t matter that you have become a follower of the Lord; an indemnity course remains for each individual. None of you has the same course. Some suffer a great deal; some even die on the way; while others have an easier time. Why? Everyone’s indemnity course differs. Although we may practice the same standard of faith, our paths are not the same because the amount of indemnity to be paid varies. (251:131, October 17, 1993)
 
We are burdened with sins inherited from our ancestors even though we personally did not commit them, and we are also responsible for collective sins that were committed by the nation or people we belong to. In a word, being a fallen person means being the result of six thousand years of fallen human history—a mixture of good and evil. We inherit good and evil characteristics from our ancestors, but since they lived in the world where there was more evil than good, we mostly inherit evil. It is no surprise that we end up adding to that evil, trapped in a vicious cycle.
    There is a story behind every sin, and someone was its cause. Maybe an ancestor of yours, while living on earth, gave much difficulty and pain to someone, and that person died carrying resentment. Now this resentful spirit comes down to you, a descendant of that ancestor, to get revenge. He could have gone to any of a number of descendants, but he alights on you. He influences you, driving you to the edge, until you commit the sin.
    Resentful spirits can also afflict you with sickness and pain. All modern diseases have spiritual causes connected to the sins of ancestors. By looking at the sicknesses and difficulties of descendants, we can infer about the life of their ancestors. If the ancestors stole from others or misused public things or money, their descendants may suffer from stomach problems. If they committed sins of lust and fornication, their descendants may suffer from genital diseases, or be unable to bear children, or  have difficulty being faithful, or get divorced. Ancestors who did not see things about others correctly and hurt them, or who misjudged others based on bad rumors and violated their hearts, will have descendants born blind, mute or deaf. In other words, according to the way the pain was given—to a certain part of the body—the descendants suffer with the same kind of troubles. The heavier the ancestors’ sins, the more difficult it is to heal the resulting sickness; it may even be incurable.
    If people on the earth do not clear up these sins through paying the required indemnity, the suffering is passed down to their children. Later, when those people come to the spirit world and watch their children suffer they regret that they did not clear things up for them. They lament, “If only I had borne my suffering on earth, my children would not need to suffer now.” Therefore, unless you clear up all the sins passed down from your ancestors, as well as your personal sins, your children cannot escape from sickness and pain. (Heung Jin Moon, Message from the Spirit World, January 1, 2002)
 
Your ancestors committed a great many sins. On top of it, how much more sin did you commit? If you truly knew the weight of it all, you would despair. Surely you should do your best to indemnify those sins [and leave a clean slate] for your descendants. If you cannot cleanse them completely, you should be willing to devote your life as a sacrificial offering. For example, you might marry an ugly woman and determine to make your life together with her better than the most handsome couple in the world. (116:150, December 27, 1981)
 
The altars of sorrow continuing for six thousand years or more are due to the mistakes of our ancestors,
but we fear we might leave that sorrow to our descendants by once again not fulfilling our responsibility today.
Today we learned that we are responsible to stop the history of misfortune in this generation and to dissolve the grief in Heaven’s heart unto joy. (8:262-63, February 7, 1960)