I Do No Understand My Own Actions

The Richard Urban Show
#80-Peace on Earth to Everyone Who Pleases God

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

Sample letters to Congressman about opposing election fraud on January 6th, 2021.

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)
 
 

Eve Inherited from the Archangel all the Proclivities Incidental to His Transgression

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

Cheon Seong Gyeong 258

There is a term cherished in our Unification Church. Some of you might be hearing it for the first time; it is the term “True Parents.” We say, Our True Par-ents! Did Jesus have True Parents? We have something that Jesus did not. Did Jesus have True Parents? Are not parents responsible when they do not protect their children? Parents ought to protect their children. They must be a protective barrier against Satan and say to their children, “Be happy in our embrace.” Did Jesus have that experience? For his entire life Jesus grew up and was treated as a stepson. This is why the Bible does not contain the words true parents. It does not contain the words true parents or true brothers and sisters. These words are a part of our Unification Church terminology. They are not something I invented. They are words discovered to be part of the heavenly Principle. We use the words true parents and true children. We should understand how true children should act. True chil-dren should be able to offer their lives and everything they have for the sake of God’s Son and should be grateful even if they themselves end up in hell. Without going through such a process, nothing can be accomplished. In this way, you can return to the Father through having the heart of true children. (76-73, 1975.1.26)

Cheon Seon Gyeong 1188

As viewed from God’s original ide-al of creation, the eldest son should come from God’s side and, of course, the second son should also come from God’s side. Due to the Fall, the position of the first son was taken by Satan, and the position of the second son went to God. This has to be made right. Thus, when we consider the story of Esau and Jacob in the Bible, Jacob united with his mother and received her help. He gave Esau the pottage of lentils and bread in exchange for the birthright of the first-born son. Until today, we could not understand why Bible history is the way it is. With the appearance of the Unification Church, its meaning was clarified for the first time. (134-304, 1985.8.16)

Selfish Desires and Fallen Nature

2. Degraded and Fallen Nature

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

When God’s one son and daughter, who should have been the true ancestors of humankind, committed sin, they were expelled from His Kingdom. From that moment, all men and women lost their potential to become God’s temples. Instead, they became dens of Satan, headquarters of selfishness. (219:117, August 28, 1991)

Human beings were degraded by the Fall to a status lower than the things of creation, as it is writ-ten, “the heart is deceitful above all things.” (Jer. 17.9) (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Restoration 1.2.1)

Have you heard that when an ocean-going ship is about to be wrecked, the rats on board the ship try to escape along the mooring ropes to the land, seeking safety? Even lowly creatures are aware of their destiny in terms of life and death, but what about human beings, who are the masters of all creation? Having fallen, they became as dull as a baby squid. (215:53, February 6, 1991)

Our mind and body can become completely one through the power of God’s love, but we have never really experienced that oneness because of the division between them that resulted from the Fall of the human ancestors. If not for the Fall, our mind and body would have completely united based on God’s intrinsic love. In the world of love centered around that intrinsic love, there would be no need for moral education. God would suffice as a teacher. People would know love without being taught.
    When the mind and body become one, we understand everything. There would be no need for education about how human beings should live. There would be no need for instruction in ethics and the rules of morality. Do the animals need to be taught moral lessons? They know how to protect themselves and group themselves among members of their own species. Why are human beings, the lords of creation, so ignorant in this regard? It is because of the Fall that we fight and struggle. (162:223, April 12, 1987)

We have fallen nature. What are the four aspects of fallen nature? They are arrogance, jealousy, anger and lying. We should remove all of them. (150:126, September 4, 1960)

Eve inherited from the Archangel all the proclivities incidental to his transgression against God when he bound her in blood ties through their sexual relationship. Adam in turn acquired the same inclinations when Eve, assuming the role of the Archangel, bound him in blood ties through their sexual relationship. These proclivities have become the root cause of the fallen inclinations in all people. They are the primary characteristics of our fallen nature.
    The fundamental motivation which engendered these primary characteristics of the fallen nature lay in the envy the Archangel felt toward Adam, the beloved of God. How can there be anything such as envy and jealousy in an archangel, whom God created for a good purpose? The Archangel was endowed with desire and intellect as a part of his original nature. Because the Archangel possessed an intellect, he could compare and discern that God’s love for human beings was greater than the love God gave to him. Because he also possessed desires, he had a natural yearning for God to love him more. This desire of the heart was naturally conducive to envy and jealousy. Envy is an inevitable byproduct of the original nature, like the shadow cast by an object in the light.
    After human beings reach perfection, however, they will never be induced to fall because of incidental envy. They will know deep inside that the temporary gratification they might feel by attaining the object of their desire is not worth the agony of self-destruction that would ensue. Hence, they would never commit such crimes…
    The primary characteristics of the fallen nature can be divided broadly into four types: The first is failing to take God’s standpoint. A principal cause of the Archangel’s fall was his failure to love Adam with the same heart and perspective as God; instead, he felt jealous of Adam. This led him to tempt Eve. An example of this characteristic of the fallen nature is when a courtier feels jealous of the king’s favorite instead of sincerely respecting him as one whom the king loves.
    The second is leaving one’s proper position. Seeking more of God’s love, Lucifer desired to enjoy the same position of love in the human world. This unrighteous desire caused him to leave his position and fall. People are induced by unrighteous desires to step beyond the bounds of what is right and overreach themselves because of this primary characteristic of the fallen nature.
    The third is reversing dominion. The angel, who was supposed to come under the dominion of human beings, instead dominated Eve. Then Eve, who was supposed to come under the dominion of Adam, dominated him instead…
    The fourth is multiplying the criminal act. After her fall, had Eve not repeated her sin by seducing Adam, Adam would have remained whole. The restoration of Eve alone would have been relatively easy. However, Eve spread her sin to others by inducing Adam to fall. The proclivity of evil people to entangle others in an expanding web of crime stems from this primary characteristic of the fallen nature. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Fall 4.6)

We now know the characteristics of fallen nature: The Fall began, first with self-centered owner-ship; next, speaking lies; next, an immoral relationship; next, taking all things from God; and finally, in the second generation, murder. All dictators throughout history lied, violated love, stole others’ possessions, and murdered good people. Considering this, we should not follow the same pattern of historical error. We wish to inherit a heavenly tradition of love by overcoming these transgressions within ourselves. (121:257-58, October 27, 1982)

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

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

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

5 Finally, Sanballat sent an official to me with an unsealed letter, 6 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! 7 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.

8 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)