Filial Piety

One Can Never Repay Mother and Father

Strengthening Families and Communities Forum-August 28, 2022
#110-Andy Wells-Fighting Transgender Indoctrination and the Sexualization of Children

Cheon Seong Gyeon 2280

Christianity teaches about True Parents and love. It has taught about “brother” and “bridegroom” in relation to Jesus, and “parent” in relation to God. Since Christianity is completely based on the ideal of the family, it has taught us how to perfect in full measure the family idealized by God. Hence, it could rise above all other religions and unify the world.
Then who is Christ at the Second Advent? As the True Father and True Mother were lost in Eden, he is the one to come upon the earth as the True Father. He will become as one with God in heart, lineage and flesh, establish the position of True Mother, and form a family centered on this oneness. The Messiah’s family will be the first to live with and serve God. The Messiah solidifies the position of the perfected Adam. The Kingdom of Heaven will be established only after the perfected Adam and Eve marry, live on earth serving God, have sons and daughters centered upon Him, bring forth His clan and live on earth together with them, and then, finally, move on into the heavenly world together with God. (282-51, 1997.3.10)

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Now that we have ushered in the New Year 1971, what should we resolve to accomplish? As the Unification Church is the core and center of the world, we should lose no time in propagating the Lord’s teachings to the world. On the foundation of the ten nations represented by the 777 Couples, we should fulfill our responsibility of interconnecting the world of God’s love, transcending race, nationality and skin color, and completely unite around God’s will. The 777 Couples Blessing was held in order to advocate this. This was a truly historic event. (38-213, 1971.1.3)

Richard: Make a sign in for the Daily Inspiration website to study the teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the Exposition of the Divine Principle, which was presented at the Peaceful Families; Peaceful World workshop on August 27th, 2022. All of the presentations and slides are available here.

FAMILY

THE BASIC FORM OF LIFE

2. The Inseparable Bond between Parents and Children

We have enjoined on man kindness to his parents: In pain did his mother bear him, and in pain did she give him birth. The carrying of the child to his weaning is thirty months. At length, when he reaches the age of full strength and attains forty years, he says, “O my Lord! Grant me that I may be grateful for Your favor which You have bestowed upon me, and upon both my parents, and that I may work righteousness such as You may approve; and be gracious to me in my issue. Truly have I turned to You and truly do I bow to You in Islam.” Such are they from whom We shall accept the best of their deeds and pass by their ill deeds: they shall be among the Companions of the Garden: a promise of truth, which was made to them. Paradise, holding the true promise which has been given them.
Qur’an 46.15-16 Continue reading “One Can Never Repay Mother and Father”

We Should Train Our Children First to Please Heaven

#110-Andy Wells-Fighting Transgender Indoctrination and the Sexualization of Children

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It is not I who insist on the Blessing. I have done everything as instructed by God and then made this logical system indirectly. Had it been my idea, I would have told you so through my own lips. There is no way to deny it. (231-155, 1992.6.2)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 486

The husband should be able to give his life for his wife, and the wife should be able to give her life for her husband. Since such a couple will be connected to the realm of God’s love and receive direct protection, they won’t fall. (Blessed Family – 880)

FAMILY

THE BASIC FORM OF LIFE

Filial Piety

Filial Piety as the Root of Virtue

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Filial piety cannot be practiced with a self-centered attitude. (62:37, September 10, 1972)

Who is a filial child? He or she always thinks of what his or her parents want most and then acts upon it, taking the position of their object partner. The eyes of a filial child see the things his or her parents would like to see. The ears of a filial child hear the sounds his or her parents would like to hear. The heart of a filial child has feelings his or her parents would like to feel. In other words, filial children love centered on their parents’ five senses, always yearning for the realm of their parents’ heart. They only want what is good for their parents, never anything bad. And when their parents have something good, they try to make it even better. (161:132, January 18, 1987) Continue reading “We Should Train Our Children First to Please Heaven”

The Lord Has Decreed that You Be Kind to Parents

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As what kind of existence did God create human beings? He created them as the objects of His love who could possess His absolute and unique value. This is an amazing fact. How much value does a person’s life have these days? It’s only worth a few pennies. Originally, people were not meant to be such worthless beings. Their value was so precious that life could not be exchanged even for the entire universe.
The backbone of everything in the literary world today is love. People are born from, live in, and die in love. However, they do not just disappear. Since God, the subject being, is eternal, unchanging and unique, human beings, when they come to stand in the position of an object of love in front of Him, can also live eternally. The theory of eternal life originated from this point; it did not begin from life. (142-143, 1986.3.8)

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At the time of Jesus’ crucifixion, the thief to the right of Jesus and the thief to his left fought, but in front of me, they became united. This division had to be restored through indemnity. This became a historical indemnity condition. Then, where would these people go? When the Lord says, “You should both go to the Kingdom of Heaven on earth,” and they reply, “Yes!” then it’s finished. Well, has that happened, or not? Jesus passed away while the thieves on his right and left were fighting, and accusing each other. However, from the Principle viewpoint, both of them ought to have made peace and welcomed Jesus, so that they could be resurrected and make a fresh start on a new level. Is this in accordance with the Principle or not? (135-68, 1985.8.22)

FAMILY

The Basic Form of Life

Filial Piety

FILIAL PIETY IS THE AGE-OLD MORAL PRINCIPLE that children show respect and honor to their parents. It is the parents’ due, for they have sacrificed and labored for their children’s sake, giving them birth, feeding them and providing them with a good start in life. Therefore, filial children do not regard it as an imposition to care for their parents in their old age. Ideally this is not regarded as a matter of duty, but as the spontaneous and natural prompting of a grateful heart.
Among Father Moon’s extensive teachings about filial piety are these: Filial should be encouraged as an enduring tradition that links the generations in an unbroken chain of lineage. Filial piety is perfected in a mature unselfish mind of the adult child who sympathizes with his parents’ difficulties and sufferings and recognizes them to be more serious then his or her own small problems. Most importantly, filial piety is a doorway to a deeper relationship with God, our divine Parent.
Filial Piety as the Root of Virtue

Filial Piety as the Root of Virtue

Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gives you.
Exodus 20.12

There are three partners in man, God, father, and mother. When a man honors his father and mother, God says, “I regard it as though I had dwelt among them and they had honored me.”
Talmud, Kiddushin 30b (Judaism) Continue reading “The Lord Has Decreed that You Be Kind to Parents”

Shamans Are Possessed by Servant-Level Spirits

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We believe in God who wants to realize one world, a world of one purpose. Since God is Jehovah and Lord of all nations, and the center of all centers, when we face Him from afar, we want to be His loyal subjects. We were born for this duty and responsibility. Understand that as we draw near to Him, He becomes our Father to whom we owe the duty of filial piety as His sons and daughters. That is our priority. Only when you have lived like that can you say to God, “If you want to send me to hell, send me there. If you want to send me to Heaven, send me there. Do as you please.” Nobody went to hell after living like that. (154-314, 1964.10.5)

Cheong Seong Gyeong 1189

Cain represents Satan’s side. It is the position of the elder brother. Abel represents God’s side. This is the battle. Originally, God would have loved the first-born son, and then the younger son. Due to the Fall, the first son, Cain, stands on Satan’s side. He belongs to Satan’s side. In order to save him, God designated Abel. God designates Abel to restore the right of the firstborn son. This cannot be achieved by force; you have to inspire people by love. You have to achieve restoration by melting them with love. If you cannot stand in the position of having loved them, if you cannot win their heart through offering your love, then you will not be in a position to truly love your own son or daughter. As viewed from God’s ideal of creation, the first-born son was originally to be loved first rather than the second child. (140-38, 1986.2.1)

Shamanism, Polytheism and Animism

1. Worship of Nature Deities

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

God instructs all people, from the most primitive to the most advanced, by means appropriate to their level. Thus, in the primitive religions of the past, God taught people to worship the things of creation, such as rocks and trees, as substitutes for God. This was the origin of shamanism. In this way God could teach the people and guide the direction of their lives. (91:271, February 27, 1977)

Shamans are possessed by servant-level spirits, confined within the realm of the fall. Yet through their revelations they can sometimes give accurate information from the spirit world to earthly people. There are groups of people on this earth who connect with the spirit world in this way. (76:95, February 1, 1975)

The spirit world is the world of angels. Why do the angels of the spirit world want to relate to the human world as gods? You have heard about shamanism, fortunetelling, superstition and such. They are religious forms in which there is not clear discernment of good and evil. As God leads the providence through religions, Satan also prepared religious forms to guard his world.

In general, more than eighty percent of fortunetellers are women. Who do they contact? At the time of the Fall, the archangel led Eve and caused her to bring evil into the world. Likewise, during the course of restoration the same path is repeated: angels in the spirit world come down to the earth to lead and teach women, uniting with them. Hence, a shaman’s or fortuneteller’s work is to follow the direction and teachings of angels—but this time for good. (76:95, February 1, 1975)

In the development of history, we see that there was always some sort of faith. The birth of faith lay in ancient beliefs that modern people would call superstition. For example, when people saw a big tree, they revered it. When they saw a magnificent mountain, they revered it. Although most people do not recognize them, guardian deities actually exist in those places. (176:287, May 13, 1988)

People in ancient times had a close relationship with nature. Then the natural world and the spirit world were close to human beings—not distant and foreign as they are to people living in modern times. When people entered a grove of giant trees, they looked at them reverently and thought, “For thousands of years these trees have been here; through countless cycles of quickening in spring and dying in autumn they remain unchanged; their shade makes a pleasant environment for all creatures.” Observing them, they recognized that they were deficient in many aspects, and so they worshipped tall trees, great rocks and high mountains.

They saw tall persimmon trees, thick with foliage in the summer and bare in the winter. With the arrival of spring their branches sprouted with new life: first buds, then blossoms, and finally delicious and fragrant fruit. They marveled at this, and sensed that those trees were better than they.

Where is the fragrance in human existence? Do humans give off a fragrance that beautifies their surroundings, attracting birds and insects to nest in their branches? No. Compared to nature, man is humbled and recognizes his inadequacy. (November 4, 1990)

History knows that this is the age when the sun rises in the East. All people are turning in the direction of the light and lighting their own lamps. Some are doing it centering on God, but others are centering on low-level spirits. Even shamans are receiving the light based on their spiritual senses and experiences. Between shamans and non-believers, who is better? Believing in even low-level spirits is better than having no faith at all. (194:315, October 30, 1989)

God’s Gracious Love Can Be Found in the Midst of Hardships

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If the son advises and teaches his parents to love their country so that they become patriots, and makes them a mother and father whom heaven remembers, is he a filial or unfilial son?
So, rather than a son who says to his parents, “Mom, Dad, don’t go out! Just rest at home.” he should say, “Mom, Dad, what are you doing? Please, let’s try together to find even one more per-son who can be a patriot, who can work for the unification of North and South Korea, who can work to save North Korea.” Then he makes them shed tears, blood and sweat. Then what would you think if the people in the neighborhood were to praise this achievement?
Would the parents say, “You scoundrel, you really made your mother and father’s life difficult, so at first we thought you were a bad boy. Yet we became successful and are praised by everyone. My! You really are a filial son.” Do you think the parents would say this, or would they say, “You are an unfilial son”? What do you think? (209-266, 1990.11.30)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1594

Because everything which arose from the false parents comes under the number nine, the numbers one to nine are loathed by Heaven. You persevered in providential history to clear up Satan’s number, the number nine, through the practice of tithing, in the Old Testament Age.

The Refining Fire

God’s gracious love can be found in the midst of hardships and suffering. The person whose mind is fixed on God takes life’s trials and challenges as a means to purify his or her faith, correct flaws and refine character. could it be that such trials are not accidental, but actually expressions of God’s love to discipline and educate his children? (see also chapter 15: Testing.)
Moreover, God’s word presents us with the challenge to live by it. scripture therefore likens the word of God to a fire, which burns away everything that is false. Father Moon explains that the judgment that many Christians fear is actually an opportunity to purify ourselves in the truth and reach the point where we are one hundred percent united with the word of Christ. thus, the purpose of judgment is to save, not to condemn.

Judgment by Fire

I will put this third into the fire,and refine them as one refines silver,and test them as gold is tested.
Zechariah 13.9

Just as a great conflagration
Can burn up all things,
So does Buddha’s field of blessings
Burn up all fabrication.
Garland Sutra 10 (Buddhism)

As the heat of a fire reduces wood to ashes, the fire of knowledge burns to ashes all karma. Nothing in this world purifies like spiritual wisdom.
Bhagavad-Gita 4.37 (Hinduism)

Just as a fire quickly reduces decayed wood to ashes, so does an aspirant who is totally absorbed in the inner self and completely unattached to all external objects shake to the roots, attenuate, and wither away his karma-body.
Samantabadhra, Aptamimamsa 24-27 (Jainism)

Make chastity your furnace, patience your smithy,
The Master’s word your anvil, and true knowledge your hammer.
Make awe of God your bellows, and with it kindle the fire of austerity.
And in the crucible of love, melt the nectar Divine.
Only in such a mint, can man be cast into the Word.
Adi Granth, Japuji 38, M.1, p. 8 (Sikhism)

“From His right hand went forth a fiery law for them” (Deuteronomy 33.2). The words of Torah are compared to fire, for both were given from heaven, both are eternal. If a man draws near the fire, he derives benefit; if he keeps afar, he is frozen, so with the words of the Torah: if a man toils in them, they are life to him; if he separates from him, they kill him.
Sifre Deuteronomy (Judaism)

For no other foundation can any one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any one builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—each man’s work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work which any man has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
1 Corinthians 3.11-15

Is not my word like fire, says the lord, and like a hammer which breaks the rock in pieces?
Jeremiah 23.29

With fire we test the gold, and with gold We test Our servants.
Hidden Words of Bahá’u’lláh, Arabic 54 (Baha’i Faith)