When Families Break Down, Society Cannot but be in Turmoil

Peaceful families create a peaceful world.
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Cheon Seong Gyeong 1209

In order to receive the Messiah, there must be the foundation of faith and the foundation of substance. After the foundation of substance is completed, the foundation for the Messiah is inevitably required. If so, who would stand on the foundation for the Messiah after the foundation of substance is established? We were born as the descendants of fallen human beings, inheriting Satan’s lineage, and we are still not able to transcend that lineage. In order to transcend that lineage, we must change our lineage, but we cannot do that on our own. Therefore, we need the Messiah. (47-12, 1971.8.19)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1570

How is it that I was able to proclaim the True Parents? The democratic and communist worlds represent the brothers Abel and Cain. Though these two worlds are like two sons, they are fighting with each other. Since I now stand in a position from which I can make peace between these two hostile sons and be welcomed by both, I could finally come to Korea with the special authority of the Parent and proclaim Mother and myself as the True Parents to the whole nation. (204-187, 1990.7.8)

Chapter 20

Society

Family as the Cornerstone of Society

SOCIETY IS AN ORGANISM WITH FAMILIES as its cells. Let these building-blocks be healthy, and society will be healthy. On the other hand, when families break down, society cannot but be in turmoil. The prevalence of family breakdown in our time is a worrying trend, boding no good for a nation’s future.
Nevertheless, it would be a mistake to construe “family values” as family-centered. The attitude that “my home is my castle” would only be another form of selfishness. The lessons learned in the family “school of love” (See Chapter 19: The Basic Form of Life) are meant to be applied at every level of social organization. Thus, Confucian ethics regards the norm of filial piety as the basis for the ethic of public service: serving parents at home is training to serve the nation. Likewise, the ways of love for siblings, parents, and children are to be extended to caring for one’s neighbors who are our peers, our parents’ age, and our children’s age. In this way, loving relationships in the individual family extend to encompass the universal family of humankind.

Continue reading “When Families Break Down, Society Cannot but be in Turmoil”

Grandparents Embody the Living History of the Past

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Cheon Seong Gyeong 583

    In today’s world, there are many people who commit suicide by taking sleeping pills or in other ways. Do more women commit suicide or more men? More women. Why? Women tend to have a one-track mind.
    However ugly a man might be, he is able to approach a problem from different perspectives. Women see only one way out of a problem, but men avoid death by finding viable alternatives. As such, they have a lower suicide rate than women. (222-69, 1991.10.28)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1143

Everyone wants to become God’s son or daughter. This is the original principle of creation and we were supposed to become like that, but human beings who should have been born into such a lineage were dragged away by the enemy and inherited the blood of Satan, the enemy of God’s love. We should have been born with God’s blood running in our veins, but our present reality is unbearable. (191-244, 1989.6.25)

FAMILY

THE BASIC FORM OF LIFE

The Love of Grandparents

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

As children, you are destined to inherit the fortune of your grandparents and parents. Why do you need grandparents? They represent the past—they embody the living history of the past. Parents represent the present age and children represent the future. Thus, the family connects the past, present and future, as well as East, West, North and South. Grandparents, parents, children and God—the center of them all is true love. Think about whether it is this way in your family. By loving and respecting your grandfather and grandmother, you inherit everything from the past and learn from the past. From your father and mother you learn about the present. By loving and cherishing your children, you learn about the future… The three-generation family is like the entire universe. It is like a textbook to learn how to love the universe. Hence, if there isn’t a grandmother or a grandfather in your family, you may feel insecure. (162:140, April 5, 1987)

[In a traditional family] the grandfather and grandmother, the bride’s mother-in-law, father-inlaw, and sister-in-law, and the grandchildren should all live together. What is the center? God. Centering on God, three generations are settled—formation, growth and completion. Hence, children need to know how to love not just their father and mother, but also their grandfather and grandmother. They should honor their grandfather and grandmother with a higher status than their father and mother. Loving them is the way for the children to love God. (128:18, May 29, 1983)

Grandparents represent God in heaven; their position is like Heaven. As the elders in the family, our grandparents bring Heaven to us. That is why you need to attend them as the representatives of God. Think of them as representatives of the King of Heaven and serve them as you would serve God. This teaching is one of the traditions of the ideal family. (251:219, October 17, 1993)

If the husband and wife fight, the grandfather and grandmother will say, “Now, now. Don’t do that!” When the children fight or the grandchildren fight, they say, “Now, now. Don’t do that!” In this way, with love, they play the role of a servant. They live for the sake of the other members of the family, telling each of them, “You are in a high position. You are wonderful.” Grandparents play the role of the servant of love to the greatest extent… The greatest, most amazing and most powerful person in the universe is the person who walks the way of the servant of love. (135:121-22, October 4, 1985)

It is wonderful when a daughter-in-law loves her grandmother and grandfather so much that she always buys better things for them than for her husband. She may be good-looking, and the old grandfather and grandmother may be all wrinkled, yet whenever she goes shopping she looks to buy something for them, something finer than what she buys for her husband, and she does it with a more joyful heart. What a wonderful scene! If she does that, then the grandfather and grandmother will give her everything they had hidden away—everything having to do with love.
    Who is the oldest being in the world? It is God. Therefore, you learn from loving your grandfather how to love God and live for His sake. When you learn this tradition, you can receive all the treasures of love stored in Grandfather God’s secret warehouse. It is wonderful! (107:329, June 8, 1980)

It is true that many grandchildren and daughters-in-law hate to see the cane their grandfather carries about.28 Perhaps they wish the grandfather an early death? Rather, good grandchildren and daughters-in-law who have loving hearts would think, “Oh God, when the cane disappears someday, I will be drenched in tears.” (184:270, January 1, 1989)

If the people of a nation hold the elderly in contempt, eventually that nation will lose its national character. A person who doesn’t like old people is selling out the character and tradition of his nation. (21:120, November 17, 1968)

Grandparents Grace a Family with Wisdom and Love

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Cheon Seong Gyeong 327

The path trod by a man or a woman exists because of love, and for love. Our path is the path of love. We are following this path in order to acquire love, defend love, and establish an environment of love. (Blessed Family – 1062)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1517

What is true love? It is about giving more than one has and not expect- ing anything in return. What is patriotism? It is about sacrificing one’s life for the nation without expecting anything in return. A true husband is someone who is ready to give his life for the sake of his wife, time and again. True husbands, true wives, true children, true siblings, true parents, and a true family follow that path. Families in which the grandparents, parents, husband and wife, and children are all ready to do this will automatically have God dwell with them even if they tell Him not to. Why? Because they would resemble Him. (210-32, 1990.11.30)

FAMILY

THE BASIC FORM OF LIFE

The Love of Grandparents

GRANDPARENTS GRACE A FAMILY WITH WISDOM, experience, and delightful love for their grandchildren. In traditional cultures where three generations live under one roof, children honor their grandparents and care for them in their infirmity as a part of daily life, learning lessons of love and respect in the process. Grandparents are moral anchors. There are too many cases where parents are corrupted by drugs or crime and rendered unfit to care for their children; then the grandparents step in to the breach to take over the parenting role. Father Moon decries the loss of the three-generation family in urbanized, industrialized society as contributing to selfishness and a coarsening of morality. In many traditions, the honor given parents and grandparents is linked to the honor given the ancestors and the gods in one vertical chain of devotion. In this light, Father Moon speaks of grandparents as representa- tives of God in the home. Honoring them is a way of honoring God, the greatest Grandparent of all.

You shall rise up before the hoary head, and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.
    Leviticus 19.32

The feeling of grandparents for their grandchildren can be expressed this way: “Our children are dear to us; but when we have grandchildren, they seem to be dearer than our children were.” You might say that the grandmother falls all over herself to try to show her appreciation for her grandchild. It goes right back to those wishes that were made for them when they were little girls: the wish that they would live to become grandmothers someday. So when the time comes and they reach grandmotherhood, they do extra little duties to show their appreciation.
    Henry Old Coyote (Native American Religion)

Do not neglect the sacrificial works due to the gods and the fathers! Let your mother be to you like unto a god! Let your father be to you like unto a god! Let your teacher be to you like unto a god! Let your guest be to you like unto a god!
    Taittiriya Upanishad 1.11.2 (Hinduism)

Father and mother
Are gods of the family;
Even so, honor them as gods with
Heartfelt service,
All of you of human birth.
    Norinaga Motoori, One Hundred Poems on the Jeweled Spear (Shinto)

O son, help your father in his old age, and do not grieve him as long as he lives; even if his mind fails, be considerate with him; in all your strength do not despise him. For a kindness to a father will not be forgotten, and against your sins it will be credited to you.
    Ecclesiasticus 3.12-14 (Christianity)

My father sent for me; I saw he was dying. I buried him in that beautiful valley of winding waters. I love that land more than all the rest of the world. A man who would not love his father’s grave is worse than a wild animal.       
    Nez Perce Tradition (Native American Religions)

World Peace Starts From Your Own Family

Happy True Foundation Day for the Unified Nation of Heaven and Earth! See the special reading below.

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The True Foundation Day For The Nation Of The Unified World

October 3, 1995

Selected excerpts:

What is the topic Father is speaking on today? [Father writes on the board.] Is there any non-Korean who is able to read what Father has written? Repeat after me, Gaechunjul. Gae means opening, like opening a flood gate. Chun means Heaven, Jul means occasion, season or event. When we open the gate, are we talking about opening it 360 degrees, 180 degrees or just 90 degrees? What is it? (360.) What is the point which can give you the room for 360 degree opening. From zero point coming back to zero point. Is it knowledge and money? They are all related to a one way concept. Then what is it? When it comes to the concept of love, even making love, you begin from zero point. Then when it is over you return to zero point. It is like conquering the top of the man’s head and coming back again to the bottom.

As we age, do we have to go up higher and higher or lower and lower? Higher up to God. Every day bigger. When you make love, if you become smaller in terms of the scale, can you conquer God? (No.) Father is referring to the practice of love centered upon your individual self here [indicating to the board]. You create love as an individual and expand your love to the family level, tribal level and all the way up to God. It takes eight different stages. If we look from the vertical view [Father is drawing on the board] this expansion is flattened and will look like this [indicating to the board]. From the individual to God makes this shape. Don’t you want to become the representative axis here? You embrace one another as husband and wife and you also embrace your children. Father concludes that through embracing and hugging as husband and wife you are learning how to embrace your children. Would you be opposed to that? (No.) When you have a lovely baby do you want to embrace your lovely child only once a day, or each hour, or every minute possible? Any minute possible. Don’t you feel that you want to keep your mouth on your lovely baby twenty four hours a day. This is a mother’s heart.

Continue reading “World Peace Starts From Your Own Family”

Teach Your Children to be People Who Know God

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Cheon Seong Gyeong 2256

What constitutes a wonderful and good husband or wife? The quality of seeing the spouse as absolute in the place of God and in the place of the True Parents. Such a husband and such a wife together constitute the true couple. Children who are born into the family where God is seen as absolute, parents are seen as absolute, and the conjugal relationship is seen as absolute, must themselves be seen as absolute. This is what is referred to in the Unification Church as the ideal of the four-position foundation. (147-231, 1986.9.28)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1044

What is the main idea of the Unification Church? It is to live for the sake of others. God exists for the sake of His objects of love. When we live for others in the same way, we can live for the sake of the world, even if the entire race opposes us. Knowing this, the Unification Church carries on. (77-302, 1975.4.25)

FAMILY

THE BASIC FORM OF LIFE

Parental Love

3. Educating Children in Their Parents’ Tradition

Bequeath to your children a good tradition that they will continue to follow throughout their lives. (71:19, March 24, 1974)

Parents usually tell their children, “You should become this or that kind of person, and you should do this or that kind of work.” But it is far better to tell them, “You should be a person who knows God.” (11:308, March 5, 1962) Continue reading “Teach Your Children to be People Who Know God”