True Adam is the True Parent. The True Parents will pass down their language to the True Children. That is the Principle. The True Parent did not come down as Rev. Moon. He came from heaven sent by God. Hence, it can be presumed that those who do not know God cannot recognize the True Parents. (129-20, 1983.10.4)
Cheon Seong Gyeong 1193
You must bear in mind that only those who carry out the restoration of the right of the eldest son, the right of parents and the right of king are relatives. Then, the world will be united naturally even without me. I have now blessed more than 24,000 couples. The number 24 is 3 multiplied by 8. I have restored the number eight centering on the three ages of formation, growth and completion. In this way I completed the establishment of the rights of tribal messiahs on the world level. Now, even if I am not here, if you work day and night following God’s will to save your country, this world will come to one place. Furthermore, in the whole of history, there has been no other cultural foundation which included global academic, political and cultural organizations possessing a philosophical content greater than that of Rev. Moon. From whatever perspective we look at this, everything is now concluded. (206-272, 1990.10.14)
Good and Evil
1. Goodness Is Selfless and Altruistic, while Evil Is to Gratify Selfish Desires
Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon
How do the directions of good and evil differ? Good always centers on God, the Absolute Being, or puts itself in the other person’s shoes. Evil centers on the self, or puts itself in the subject position. What is good? It is to advance the purpose of the whole by sacrificing yourself. What is evil? It is to pull everything toward you. Thus, good and evil have different directions.
Your body wants to do everything it desires, while your mind tries to restrain you from acting to satisfy the body. Thus they also have different directions, one good and the other evil. (16:137, January 2, 1966)
For human beings, the most important thing is to be able to discern between good and evil. Yet until now, the standard for determining good and evil has been unclear. Evil is to present conditions that enable Satan to accuse human beings. What is sin? It is something that provides grounds for Satan to accuse. Christians more than anyone must know clearly what sin is, especially the root of sins.
Evil began at the Human Fall, when not only Satan but also Eve thought, “I will be the subject partner. I will be the center.” God’s Principle of Creation is to live for the sake of others, while the attitude of living for one’s own sake is Satan’s nature. You must know clearly the origin of good and evil.
An evil person tells others to live for his sake. God and Jesus work to subdue this kind of spirit, which is why they teach us not to be arrogant, to sacrifice for others and to serve others. (69:85, October 20, 1973)
How do we determine if someone is good or evil? It is whether he or she lives for a public purpose or for an individual purpose. That is the norm of human ethics.
A good person sacrifices him or herself for the sake of others while an evil person exploits others for his or her own benefit. This is my way of teaching about good and evil. (102:234, January 1, 1979)
There are two basic types of people in the world: those who think and act altruistically for the sake of the greater good, and those who think and act to benefit themselves.
Most people do not like to think about the world and act for its benefit. They prefer to think about themselves and act out of their self-centered thinking.
The altruistic person admires the saints who were dedicated to the welfare of the world, patriots who lived for their nation, and righteous leaders of the current era, taking them as role models for his own life. The self-centered person could care less about saints, patriots or today’s leaders. He acts only to benefit himself.
Which type of person are you? Which type of person would you like as a friend?… You know the altruistic way is correct and a self-centered life is wrong, but what is your reality? You answer that you are altruistic, but your self-concept does not match your reality. The fact is, you are walking a self-centered path. You know the truth, but your reality does not match it. (117:214-15, March 7, 1982)
By the criterion of goodness, we can classify all people in the world into three groups: first, people who oppose goodness; second, people who know goodness but don’t actively pursue it to make it their own (they end up living in the buffer zone between heaven and hell); and third, people who want to take responsibility for accomplishing goodness. It is people of this third group whom God needs to accomplish His will. (Way of God’s Will 2.2)
What makes someone a good person? Someone who just takes a bite out of what he receives is an evil person, while someone who adds to what he receives and passes it on to others is a good person. This is why every parent wants their children to grow up to be better than themselves. (315:211, February 2, 2000)
Does the president of the United States think centering on himself or centering on the United States? Does he act for his next election or for the future of the nation? These matters determine good and evil.
To go one step further, if the president focuses only on the benefit of the United States, then he will only be a respected president within the United States. However, if he centers on the world and the benefit of the world, then the world will admire him as an American president who has worldwide influence. Otherwise, although he serves his nation’s best interests, his actions will cause friction in the rest of the world.
All human beings are subject to this law and will be judged accordingly. What will ensnare you in the judgment? The main thing is the self-centered thinking. You will be judged for focusing on yourself. How can you confidently say that you will not be caught by this universal law? You will be liberated from the law when you become the type of person about whom people say, “He does not live for himself. He lives for the welfare of the world.” (93:302, June 12, 1977)
You should be able to look at nature with a mind similar to that of God’s. Such should be your mindset. If there is a flood or streaks of lightning, you should not say things like, “Oh, how I hate that!” God is thinking, “Ha ha, heaven and earth are kissing and mak-ing love!” He tells those who say they do not like it, “Ha ha, you good-for-nothing rascals!” (133-28, 1984.7.1)
Cheon Seong Gyeong 1744
Great is the love of the first night of marriage. That is first love. This is the moment a woman offers her body, which she has safeguarded all her life, to her man. This is also the case for the man. On that night, a man offers his chaste body one hundred percent to his wom-an. The lives they led before marriage were all in preparation for that night. (250-97, 1993.10.12)
Good and Evil
HOW CAN ONE DISTINGUISH GOOD FROM EVIL? Are there universal indicators behind, within, or consequent upon an action by which one can determine whether it was a good or an evil act? What is the difference between a good person and an evil person? Good and evil may be distinguished outwardly or inwardly. Some passages distinguish good and evil by their root in the self: good deeds are motivated by the conscience while evil deeds satisfy the body’s desires. Other passages distinguish good and evil by the mind’s purpose and intention. Discerning good and evil may be difficult, however, if we cannot fathom the mind’s intention and there is no clear outward indication to go by. The end of an affair may take time to develop. Here there are passages calling for patience until the matter bears fruit, at which time good and evil will be evident. Father Moon discusses these ways of distinguishing good and evil, but he mainly fixes on an objective standard: goodness is altruistic and seeks to benefit others, while evil is self-centered.
1. Goodness Is Selfless and Altruistic, while Evil Is to Gratify Selfish Desires
Every selfless act, Arjuna, is born from the eternal, infinite Godhead. God is present in every act of service. All life turns on this law, O Arjuna. Whoever violates it, indulging his senses for his own pleasure and ignoring the needs of others, has wasted his life.
Bhagavad-Gita 3.16 (Hinduism)
Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or the darkness of destructive selfishness. This is the judgment. Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, “What are you doing for others?”
Martin Luther King, Jr. (Christianity)
There are among them some who wrong their own souls; some who follow a middle course; and some who are, by Allah’s leave, foremost in good deeds. That is the highest Grace.
Qur’an 35.32
Whosoever seeks, by whatever means, merely the happiness of cyclic existence for personal ends, he is to be understood as a mean person.
Whosoever reverses deeds done from base motives and turns back the happiness of worldly pleasures for the sake of his own liberation, that person is called middling.
Whosoever wishes to eliminate completely the sufferings of others through his own sufferings, that is the excellent person.
Bodhipathapradipa (Buddhism)
Four characters of men: He who says, “What is mine is mine and what is yours is yours”—that is the average type: some say it is the character of Sodom. He who says, “What is mine is yours and what is yours is mine” is undisciplined. He who says, “What is mine is yours and what is yours is yours” is a saint. He who says, “What is yours is mine and what is mine is mine” is wicked. Mishnah, Avot 5.13 (Judaism)
If you, Rahula, are desirous of doing a deed with the body, you should reflect on that deed of your body, thus: “That deed that I am desirous of doing with the body is a deed of my body that might conduce to the harm of self and that might conduce to the harm of others and that might conduce to the harm of both; this deed of body is unskilled, its yield is anguish, its result is anguish.” If you, Rahula, reflecting thus, should find it so, a deed of body like this, Rahula, is certainly not to be done by you.
Majjhima Nikaya 1.415 (Buddhism)
If, for my own sake, I cause harm to others, I shall be tormented in hellish realms; But if for the sake of others I cause harm to myself, I shall acquire all that is magnificent. By holding myself in high esteem I shall find myself in unpleasant realms, ugly and stupid; But should this [attitude] be shifted to others I shall acquire honors in a joyful realm. If I employ others for my own purposes I myself shall experience servitude, But if I use myself for the sake of others I shall experience only lordliness. Shantideva, Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life 8.126-128 (Buddhism)
The gods and the demons, both having the Creator as their origin, were rivals of each other. So the demons, swollen with pride, said, “In what, pray, should we place the oblation?” And they proceeded to place the oblation in their own mouths. The gods then proceeded to place their oblations each in the mouth of one of his fellows. And the Creator gave Himself over to them.
Satapatha Brahmana 5.1.1.1-2 (Hinduism)
It is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong.
It is not God who gives birth to children but the True Parents, and the couple standing in the position of the parents of horizontal true love is the Unification Church’s True Parents. They are the parents with horizontal love standing at a right angle before God, the True Parent with vertical love. Hence, the love of both sets of parents is necessary. On one hand is the Parent, the Creator, and on the other hand are the physical parents created as the objects of God in pursuit of the ideal. With God in the position of the spiritual Parent and the True Parents in the position of the physical parents, human beings were supposed to be born at the center of both vertical and horizontal loves to allow for the fulfillment of this essential aspect of humanity
Cheon Seon Gyeong 446
Parents should be the head of the family and teachers should be the head of the educational institutions which represent society. Parents raise you by giving you milk thereby assisting your physical development as well as helping you emotionally. Then what is school for? It trains you for your future life in society. If the family is the training ground of the emotions, then school is the experimental training ground of society. But society is not where training ends. Where does it end? It ends with the nation. The nation has a president. Why is it that people miss the president and want to be near him? When they have experienced everything, from the family to the society, they go on to the next lev-el. The president is the fruit of the third stage after the formation and growth stages. A seed divides, sends roots down and a shoot up, and then, through circulatory action, growth begins. After such division comes a synthesis when flowers and fruit are produced
Decision
Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon
“I” am the crossing point of good and evil. (109:268, November 2, 1980)
We live in a world where good and evil confront each other. Good and evil each pulls our divided mind and body. Evil pulls us toward evil, and good pulls us toward good. Human beings stand midway between these two opposing forces; they become good or evil depending on which way they travel from the center line. You are wandering back and forth across this line. (36:55, November 15, 1970)
If the first human ancestors had not fallen but had reached perfection and become one in heart with God, then they would have lived relating only with God. However, due to their Fall, they joined in a kinship of blood with Satan, which compelled them to deal with him as well… they found themselves in the midway position—a position between God and Satan where they were relating with both. As a consequence, all their descendants are also in the midway position…
How does God separate Satan from fallen people who stand in the midway position? Satan relates with them on the basis of his connection with them through lineage. Therefore, until people make a condition through which God can claim them as His own, there is no way God can restore them to the heavenly side. On the other hand, Satan acknowledges that God is the Creator of human beings. Unless Satan finds some condition through which he can attack a fallen person, he also cannot arbitrarily claim him for his side. Therefore, a fallen person will go to God’s side if he makes good conditions and to Satan’s side if he makes evil conditions. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Restoration 1.1)
How do we cross over the dividing line between good and evil? Good abides where we live for others and evil abides where we live centered on ourselves. If we look within, our [original] mind always tries to lead us towards good thought and a good direction. It says, “Serve others. Have an affectionate heart for others. Sacrifice for others. Live for others.” Such is the path of goodness. (65:14, November 13, 1972)
If you act as your body desires, you are connected to hell. On the other hand, if you act as your mind wishes, you are connected to the Kingdom of Heaven. You alone are the dividing line between the Kingdom of Heaven and hell. (214:283, February 3, 1991)
Do you know what spiritual food is? Even when you are hungry, if you have to choose between spiritual food and physical food, you should feel that spiritual food is tastier than physical food. Then you can survive and stand on the side of God. Living your life based on spiritual power should be much more appetizing than the taste of life lived with physical power. (131:211, May 4, 1984)
Looking back at my youth, I remember how serious I was. I was at the point of deciding what to do with the rest of my life. At that crossroad, I knew that I should not let humanistic concerns determine my decision. Instead I concluded that I had to make my decision in accordance with God’s Will. (211:134, December 30, 1990)
If I had not taken this path, surely I would be a powerful and respected man in some secular field. I would be recognized for my intelligence. I have the ability; I could have risen to leadership in my nation. Yet, instead, I chose a life filled with tears and sorrows. Ever since I came to know God, I have shed tears for Him.
Do you think I am not capable of avoiding persecution? Yet I endure and tolerate the persecution because I know God’s situation—He has gone through far greater tribulations than mine. Do you think that when I was a young man I did not have any personal dreams and ambitions? I certainly had great ambition and dreams. But once I decided to go this way I cut them off, and ever since I have never nursed any personal ambition. That is how I could become who I am today. (God’s Will and the World, May 1, 1977)
When you go to the spirit world, you arrive at the Kingdom of Heaven centering on God. This kingdom is our original homeland. Is not God our original Father? Adam and Eve are God’s incarnations. Since they are horizontal parents with God as the vertical Parent, when people discard their horizontal bodies and vertically return to their hometowns, they live attending God, the eternal king. Who is the king? Had Adam and Eve not fallen, they would have become monarchs of love who, by perfecting themselves as God’s incarnations would fulfill their portions of responsibility, connecting the realms of direct and indirect dominion on earth through God’s love. Then God would live in the hearts of Adam and Eve, and the spirits of Adam and Eve would become God’s body. They would become one body. Together, they would share and breathe divine and human love eternally.
Cheon Seong Gyeong 1137
Fallen people became false beings; therefore they need to receive grafts. From the standpoint of lineage, your ancestor is someone other than God. Why could you become only His adopted children? It is because you have a different father and mother. Hence, it is logical to conclude that the Fall has to do with lineage. What is the Fall? It means inheriting the wrong lineage. It is correct to say that human beings fell due to false love. That is why the assertion made by the Unification Church that human beings fell due to love, cannot be denied. It is written in the Bible that Adam and Eve fell by eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and fell, isn’t it? Do you know what that fruit was? Was it a fruit at all? Was it a fruit that can be blown down by the wind and roll on the ground? It was not. Satan entered minds of Adam and Eve and became one with them, so they inherited Satan’s lineage. Why can God, who has so much love, not forgive Satan? Jesus said that everybody, even murderers and robbers can be forgiven, once they believe in him. Then why can Satan not be forgiven? It is because he defiled the lineage of humankind. What does that mean? From God’s point of view, Satan is the adulterer, the one who violated His love. (156-226, 1966.5.25
Decision
THE MORAL LIFE IS A PURPOSEFUL LIFE; it requires a Decision. People do not become good automatically; those who just drift through life are liable to drown in its evil currents. At every turn we encounter two paths, the better and the worse, and it is our responsibility to choose between them. The scriptures describe it as a decision between life and death, between the narrow gate and the broad road, or between two masters. Father Moon teaches that each person stands in the midway position, pulled in two directions by the opposing powers of good and evil. It is a contest between God, who speaks to us through the conscience, and Satan, who prompts us to satisfy our self-centered desires. Under these difficult circumstances, it is up to each of us to choose our path and keep to it.
Man always stands at the crossroads of good and evil. Precepts 18 (Perfect Liberty Kyodan)
Both the good and the pleasant present themselves to a man. The calm soul examines them well and discriminates. Yea, he prefers the good to the pleasant; but the fool chooses the pleasant out of greed and avarice. Katha Upanishad 1.2.2 (Hinduism)
Surely, the path that leads to worldly gain is one, and the path that leads to Nibbana is another; understanding this, the bhikkhu, the disciple of the Buddha, should not rejoice in worldly favors, but cultivate detachment. Dhammapada 75 (Buddhism)
No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Matthew 6.24
God puts forth a parable: A man belonging to many partners at variance with each other, and a man belonging entirely to one master: are those two equal in comparison? Qur’an 39.29
Behold, I [Moses] set before you this day a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the lord your God, which I command you this day, and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods. Deuteronomy 11.26-28
Hear with your ears that which is the sovereign good; With a clear mind look upon the two sides Between which each man must choose for himself, Watchful beforehand that the great test may be accomplished in our favor.
Now at the beginning the twin spirits have declared their nature, The better and the evil, In thought and word and deed. And between the two The wise ones choose well, not so the foolish. Avesta, Yasna 30.2-3 (Zoroastrianism)
Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. Matthew 7.13-14
Evil and good are not equal, even though the abundance of evil may amaze you; so heed God, you men of wits, so that you may prosper! Qur’an 5.100
Have We not given him two eyes, and a tongue and two lips, and pointed out to him the two conspicuous ways? Yet he does not attempt the uphill path. What will make you understand what the uphill path is? It is to free a slave, or to feed in a time of hunger an orphan near of kin or a poor man lying in the dust. Then he is of those who believe, who exhort one another to patience, and exhort one another to mercy.
Qur’an 90.8-17
If by giving up a lesser happiness one may behold a greater one, let the wise man give up the lesser happiness in consideration of the greater happiness.
Dhammapada 290 (Buddhism)
The kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up; then in his joy he goes and sells all he has and buys that field.
The kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great price, went and sold all he had and bought it.
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1 John 4
7 My dear friends, we must love each other. Love comes from God, and when we love each other, it shows that we have been given new life. We are now God’s children, and we know him. 8 God is love, and anyone who doesn’t love others has never known him.
2 Kings 5
5 Naaman was the commander of the Syrian army. The Lord had helped him and his troops defeat their enemies, so the king of Syria respected Naaman very much. Naaman was a brave soldier, but he had leprosy.
The Devil and His Activities
4. Human Beings Must Choose between God and the Devil
Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon
God is supremely selfless and supremely public minded; whereas Satan is absolutely self-centered and only out for himself. (88:209, September 18, 1976)
God has no capacity to be corrupted—He is eternal, unchanging, and unique. Therefore, regardless of his power, Satan can never bring God under his control, because God is true, and Satan cannot digest a true being.
Then, why does God, who aspires to be lord of all creation, not bring Satan under His control? It is because Satan does not have God’s unchanging nature—quite the opposite. God is unchanging while Satan is always changing to suit himself. God is unique and Satan is not; God is eternal while Satan is temporal. This, in essence, is their dividing line.
Why, then, are human beings the objects of both God’s desire and Satan’s desire? People stand between God and Satan. They have qualities that can relate to both God’s world and Satan’s world.
Is someone who changes from moment to moment more on God’s side or Satan’s side? Is someone who is constantly creating divisions and fights in the home more susceptible to God or to Satan? What about the person who is immersed in his daily affairs and does not think about the whole, or the world, or history, or eternity, or any kind of long-term vision? What about a father who neglects his wife and children, who only goes off to the local bar and drinks every night, seeking his own pleasure? Certainly, Satan will claim such people. (124:243-44, February 20, 1983)
We are living in a fallen realm. That is why we need to live a life of faith. Remember this, and always be aware that Satan governs this fallen world. This is not merely a concept; it is reality. (161:218, February 15, 1987)
The Bible exhorts us to pray ceaselessly. The Devil can attack us and even work through us twenty-four hours a day. Although God is with us, He stays in a vertical relationship with only the mind as His base; how effectively, then, can He work with us? Satan can come at us from any direction, from 360 degrees; hence we are bound to be overwhelmed. (200:227, February 25, 1990)
Evil activity in the spirit world had been increasing gradually ever since the Human Fall. But the situation changed drastically in the 1980s, when hosts of evil spirits descended to the earth and greatly increased their activities there.
Why did this happen? In former times, when the central figures of the Providence did not know the identity of Satan, the root of sin, or the nature of the Original Sin, Satan felt at ease and could take his time creating his self-centered world. However, when the True Parents came into the world the situation began to change. The True Parents revealed the identity of Satan, the root of sin, and that the Original Sin was fornication. They figured out all Satan’s traits and all his tricks, facts that not even God had revealed to humanity. Then the True Parents began making conditions so that Satan could no longer stand on his feet on the earth. As they achieved victory after victory in the Providence of Restoration, Satan was taken aback; then he began to get nervous. In response, Satan mobilized evil spirits in the spirit world to work with evil spirits in the bodies of people on the earth, by stimulating their resentment and their desire to take revenge on the descendants of the people who had caused them pain.
In particular, Satan watched closely for opportunities to invade Blessed families. Whenever he found any bad conditions, he put evil spirits into them. He wanted to block them from advancing and turn them from a God-centered life. God expected that Blessed families would make unity of heart with God and True Parents by living with absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. Satan cannot invade such families. But when Blessed families acted in unprincipled ways, they made conditions for Satan to invade them. Most of them expected that the victory of True Parents would protect them; they didn’t look deeply at themselves to check whether they had anything for which Satan could accuse them. They didn’t reflect on whether they still had any fallen nature. Therefore, at least from now on, we must work hard to purify ourselves from evil and sin and be reborn as original, true children. (Heung Jin Moon, Message from the Spirit World, January 1, 2001)
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