Tag: human responsibility

God Wants Us to Resemble Him

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The Family Rooted in Absolute Sexual Ethics-Part 4 with Stephen Downward

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1854

The Unification Church made the Jardim Declaration. I have announced the second forty-year course. We are restoring Eden, which means that we have returned to Eden. We must go back to Eden and establish a standard of equilibrium for God’s absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience. That is why, in Jardim, I proclaimed the standard of absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience. By doing so, I can take care of the entire world and all of creation before the Fall, which were created on the foundation of absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience, and have access to it within the same sphere. That is why I am educating people in Jardim.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 440

When you stand in the world of space, you need top and bottom, left and right, and front and back. Only then is the status of your position stable. Your shape will vary depending on the position in which you stand: top and bottom, left and right, front and back. When dealing with matters that concern the relationships of top and bottom, left and right, front and back, and also problems in the family, nation and world, there is only one solution. Just as there has to be top and bottom, left and right, and front and back with the individual at the center, there also have to be parents and children, husband and wife, and brothers and sisters.

Richard: We will be hosting family education programs at the new Peace Kingdom Family Education Center in Harpers Ferry WV.

Individual Responsibility

2. Responsibility Is God’s Gift and Provision to Human Beings

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”
    Genesis 2.15-17
 
For of course, no one would dare to believe or declare that it was beyond God’s power to prevent the fall of either angel or man. But, in fact, God preferred not to use His own power, but to leave success or failure to the creature’s choice.
    Saint Augustine, City of God 14.27 (Christianity)
 
Rabbi Akiba said: Beloved is man, for he was created in the image of God. But it was by a special love that it was made known to him that he was created in the image of God; as it is taught, “For in the image of God made He man.” (Gen. 9.6)8
    Mishnah, Avot 3.18 (Judaism)
 
Everything is in the hand of Heaven except the fear of Heaven.
    Talmud, Berakot 33b (Judaism)
 
Satan… came before me, saying, “Behold, here am I; send me, I will be Thy son, and I will redeem all mankind, that not one soul shall be lost. Surely I will do it; therefore give me my honor.”But my Beloved Son, who was my Beloved and Chosen from the beginning, said to me, “Father, Thy will be done, and the glory be Thine forever.”Therefore, because that Satan rebelled against me, and sought to destroy the agency of man, which I, the Lord God, had given him… I caused that he should be cast down; and he became Satan, yea, even the devil, the father of all lies, to deceive and to blind men, and to lead them captive at his will, even as many as would not hearken unto my voice.
    Pearl of Great Price, Moses 4.1-4 (Latter-day Saints)
 
Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon
 
To bring about the perfection of humankind in true love, God required that human beings accomplish a condition of responsibility in order to reach unity with Him. For this purpose, God gave the Commandment to the first ancestors. God knew that they were in the growth period, as yet imperfect, so He established the Commandment as the condition for His children to inherit the most precious thing—true love. (277:197, April 16, 1996)
 
God gave human beings a portion of responsibility as the condition based on which He could love them more than any other being in creation. God’s intention in giving this condition was to make them worthy to be the lords of creation by having them take after His creative nature. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Predestination 4)
 
Because human beings have a portion of responsibility, they have supreme value, greater than any other creation. If Adam and Eve fulfilled their portion of responsibility, then there would be no such thing as bitterness in human life.10 Had they fulfilled their portion of responsibility, then the human world, the angelic world, and the entire creation would have received God’s governance with rejoicing and glory. That is the Principle. (63:320, October 22, 1972)
 
Why did God establish a portion of responsibility in our lives? As the omniscient and omnipotent Creator, God wanted to bequeath His omniscient and omnipotent creativity to us. As the Subject Partner of eternal and unchanging love, God wanted to establish us in a position where we could resemble Him as the Subject Partner of love. For these reasons, God gave us a portion of responsibility.
 
Hence, the human portion of responsibility is a condition for God’s blessing. It is like the key to a treasure-chest which, when opened, gives us possession of everything. Yet it was this portion of responsibility that became an issue in bringing about the Human Fall. (20:210, June 9, 1968)
 
If God were to interfere with human actions during their growing period, it would be tantamount to ignoring the human portion of responsibility. In that case, God would be disregarding His own Principle of Creation… [For this reason,] God did not intervene in the acts that led the human beings to fall. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Fall 6.1

 
 
 

Be Self-Sufficient, So You Can Help Others

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The Family Rooted in Absolute Sexual Ethics-Part 3 with Scott Ferch

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1700

My Rhema:

Fundamentally, this universe was created in the pair system in order to create consonance. This consonance or harmony takes place centering on love. When you think of it this way, did God establish love for the sake of man and woman, or did He establish man and woman for the sake of love? Which came first? Did God design love to be the way it is because men and women are the way they are or did God design men and women to be the way they are because love is the way it is? In light of this, the most precious thing is that which can-not be seen. (226-81, 1992.2.2)

Stacey’s Rheama:

What belongs to woman is not for her own use. It is for man. Is there anyone who can deny this? That being so, nobody owns anything. It is not shameful to be women with nothing for your-selves but your names, for as such you can harmonize anywhere. You can harmonize with grandmothers, mothers, grandfathers, aunts and uncles. As the centrality of being women is not great, it leaves plenty of room for women to gradually expand their realm of reciprocity. This is connected to the formulated foundation based on the principles of the creation of the universe, and so it becomes definite. (255-144, 1994.3.10)

Richard: We are in different locations this morning. We both opened (in different books) to the exact same page about love!

Individual Responsibility

1. Each Person Is Responsible for His or Her Own Self

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

In the life of faith, you absolutely cannot remain a bystander. You think you can follow me, Reverend Moon, but you cannot lead your life of faith through me; you must find it in yourself. Regardless of what others do, you have to keep on the path of faith by your own will. (153:136, November 15, 1963)

Even in the midst of the wilderness, you can build your dwelling. You must build it by yourself. No one can help you. Therefore, be self-sufficient, so you can help others. No matter how hard things may be, add something good to your daily life. Invest step by step. God also has been investing Himself and forgetting what He had invested: that is His tradition. (248:133, August 1, 1993)

You know what to do. You know better than I what needs to be done. This course is yours, not mine. (36:31, November 8, 1970)

Unless you develop yourself and arrive at maturity—the realm of God’s direct dominion—you will not understand what love is. (137:100, December 24, 1985)

All things reach perfection after passing through the growing period (the realm of indirect dominion) by virtue of the autonomy and governance given by God’s Principle. Human beings, however, are created in such a way that their growth requires the fulfillment of their own portion of responsibility, in addition to the guidance provided by the Principle. They must exercise this responsibility in order to pass successfully through the growing period and reach perfection. We can deduce from God’s commandment to Adam and Eve (Gen. 2.17) that the first human ancestors were responsible to believe in the Word of God and not eat of the fruit. Whether or not they disobeyed God and fell depended not on God, but on them. Hence, whether or not human beings attain perfection does not depend only on God’s power of creation; it also requires the fulfillment of human responsibility. In His capacity as the Creator, God created human beings in such a manner that they can pass through the growing period (the realm of indirect dominion) and attain perfection only when they have completed their own portion of responsibility. Because God Himself created human beings in this way, He does not interfere with human responsibility.
    God endowed human beings with a portion of responsibility for the following reason. By fulfilling their given portion of responsibility—with which even God does not interfere—human beings are meant to inherit the creative nature of God and participate in God’s great work of creation. God intends human beings to earn ownership and become worthy to rule over the creation as creators in their own right (Gen. 1.28), just as God governs over them as their Creator. This is the principal difference between human beings and the rest of creation. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Creation 5.2.2) 

The path of life is not a way I go at another’s urging,
nor because someone leads me;
I realize I can only walk this path if I cope with it by myself.
It is a principle of nature:
I feed myself when I am hungry
and drink for myself when I am thirsty. (42:90, February 28, 1971)

Endure Over and Over While Being Persecuted

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#57-The Family Rooted in Absolute Sexual Ethics-Part 2 with Andrew Derricutt

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1919

We are now in the era of the Pacific civilization. At the same time, this leads to the space age. All the waters of the world merge with the waters of the Pacific Ocean. The rivers and the waters from the Atlantic Ocean and even water from the Mediterranean Sea all join with the Pacific. There is a flow of water called the Black Current that is about four to five thousand miles long. As it circulates it influences all five of the great oceans of the world.

For this reason, when the era of the Pacific civilization draws near, every-body must become one. Then we can explore outer space. Unless people become one, they would even fight over the ownership of the sun, with everyone claiming that right. They would ask who the master of the starry realm is and they would all claim to be the one. They are bound to fight among each other. Our sun is about 1.3 million times larger than the earth. How could human beings, who don’t even amount to a tiny speck, claim to own this vast entity? The universe would roar with laughter. A unified world is bound to appear in the era of the Pacific civilization. That is why everything must be overhauled. Democracy in America does not work, and neither does communism. That is why the head-wing ideology, known as Godism, must appear in this age. (207-46, 1990.10.28)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1191

Instead of beating His enemy to death God must set the condition of having loved him. In the same way the person standing in the position of Adam has to set up a condition of having loved the enemy Satan. If you endure over and over again while being persecuted, and prevail over all the tears, blood and sweat, until the enemy naturally surrenders to you, and return embracing God’s love, then you can receive the blessing. That is when Satan will let you go. You must receive this public approval; “You can now become a child qualified to go to the heavenly kingdom.” Who must sign this approval? Satan must. After Satan signs this, you will sign it, and then True Parents must sign it. You can only stand before God only after getting this signature from True Parents. That is the heavenly kingdom. (141-202, 1986.2.22)

Individual Responsibility

Responsibility is central to what it means to be human. Other creatures have life, consciousness, and even intelligence, but only human beings are responsible to choose their manner of life and hence their destiny. individual responsibility implies an attitude of self-criticism. We should not blame others for our own difficulties, but rather look for the cause within ourselves.
All the religions of the world emphasize, in one way or another, individual responsibility in matters of faith and practice, although the definition and limits differ. Buddhism and other non-theistic traditions regard the journey on the path to liberation as entirely the responsibility of the individual. each individual is “a lamp unto himself ”; each works out his own salvation alone and by himself. There is explicit rejection of reliance upon a savior from without, as both Buddha and Muhammad rejected characterizations of themselves as saviors.
On the other hand, in the monotheistic faiths, the context of individual responsibility is prevenient grace. As a person works out his own salvation, at the same time God is at work within. Salvation is a gift, yet it is our responsibility to receive it and not reject it. Father Moon characterizes this joint responsibility in numerical terms: 95 percent is God’s responsibility and 5 percent is the human portion. In this view, responsibility ennobles human beings. It means that each of us has a role to play in our own perfection, and even an indispensable-able role in completing God’s work of creation. This responsibility contains the gift of freedom. Several passages explore this teaching in light of the human Fall and divine forbearance in not intervening to prevent it.
Many religions hold that an individual’s destiny is at least partly determined by factors beyond his or her control: God’s predestination, past karma, or the burden of inherited sin. Nevertheless, several texts reject the notion that such conditions impinge in any way on one’s individual responsibility. Arguing against fatalism, they maintain that with every situation comes the opportunity to improve our lot by the exercise of responsibility. Father Moon goes one step further: he teaches that inasmuch as our individual selves are the results of many generations, fulfilling our responsibility benefits not only ourselves but countless ancestors as well.

1. Each Person Is Responsible for His or Her Own Self

O ye who believe! You have charge over your own souls.
    Qur’an 5.105
 
If I am not for myself, who is for me? And when I am for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?
    Mishnah, Avot 1.14 (Judaism)
 
By self do you censure yourself. By self do you examine yourself. Self-guarded and mindful, O bhikkhu, you will live happily.
    Self, indeed, is the protector of self. Self, indeed, is one’s refuge. Control, therefore, your own self as a merchant controls a noble steed.
    Dhammapada 379-80 (Buddhism)
 
Whoever works righteousness benefits his own soul; whoever works evil, it is against his own soul: Your Lord is never unjust to His servants.
    Qur’an 41.46
 
Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
    Philippians 2.12
 
You must be lamps unto yourselves. Rely on yourselves, and do not rely on external help. Hold firm to the truth as a lamp and a refuge, and do not look for refuge to anything besides yourselves. A brother becomes his own lamp and refuge by continually looking on his body, feelings, perceptions, moods, and ideas in such a manner that he conquers the cravings and depressions of ordinary men and is always strenuous, self-possessed, and collected in mind. Whoever among my disciples does this, either now or when I am dead, if he is anxious to learn, will reach the summit.
    Digha Nikaya 2.99-100 (Buddhism)
 
The lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. Not with our fathers did the lord make this covenant, but with us, who are all of us here alive this day.
    Deuteronomy 5.2-3
 
Oneself, indeed, is one’s savior, for what other savior could there be? With oneself well controlled one obtains a savior difficult to find.
    Dhammapada 160 (Buddhism)
 
“Please, Man of Shakya,” said Dhotaka, “free me from confusion!” “It is not in my practice to free anyone from confusion,” said the Buddha. 
 
“When you have understood the most valuable teachings, then you yourself will cross the ocean.”
    Sutta Nipata 1063-64 (Buddhism)
 
Not by traveling to the end of the world can one accomplish the end of ill. It is in this fathom-long carcass, friend, with its impressions and its ideas that, I declare, lies the world, and the cause of the world, and the cessation of the world, and the course of action that leads to the cessation of the world.
    Samyutta Nikaya 1.62 (Buddhism)
 
[God to Adam]: “Adam, We give you no fixed place to live, no form that is peculiar to you, nor any function that is yours alone. According to your desires and judgment, you will have and possess whatever place to live, whatever form, and whatever functions you yourself choose. All other things have a limited and fixed nature… To you is granted the power of degrading yourself into the lower forms of life, the beasts, and to you is granted the power, contained in your intellect and judgment, to be reborn into the higher forms, the divine.”
    Pico della Mirandola6 (Humanism)
 
Man’s main task in life is to give birth to himself, to become what he potentially is. The most important product of his effort is his own personality.
    Erich Fromm(Humanism)
 
 
 

Book 12 • The Pacific Rim Providence1920are bound to fight among each other. Our sun is about 1.3 million times larg-er than the earth. How could human beings, who don’t even amount to a tiny speck, claim to own this vast entity? The universe would roar with laughter. A unified world is bound to appear in the era of the Pacific civilization. That is why everything must be overhauled. Democracy in America does not work, and neither does communism. That is why the head-wing ideology, known as Godism, must appear in this age. (207-46, 1990.10.28)

Oh How They Cling and Wrangle

Movie Review-Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer – VisionRoot

Cheon Seong Gyeong 267

Furthermore, you should know that you have inherited the responsibility that True Parents are to carry out on earth. Why do the Blessed Families have to inherit this? If the Blessed Families are going through the course to restore a people, True Parents should be going through a course to restore the world. In other words, they should be going one step ahead. Yet without establishing the victorious standard of having restored a people, True Parents cannot walk the course of worldwide restoration. That is why you must inherit the responsibility to restore a people to ensure that True Parents can walk the worldwide course. Until your death and until the sorrow of this people is removed, you must shoulder the responsibility to restore a people. (13-293, 1964.4.12)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1123

“Portion of responsibility” is a term that is not used much in ordinary society. However, especially in the Unification Church, it is a term that is more important than any other. Within our church, if you do not know these two terms – “portion of responsibility” and “restoration through indemnity” – you will not be able to understand the content of our historical course or resolve the mistakes and unknown facts of history. That is how important these words are. (169-45, 1987.10.25)

One Truth, Many Paths

2. Beneath the Differences Are Universal Elements

A number of disciples went to the Buddha and said, “Sir, there are living here in Savatthi many wandering hermits and scholars who indulge in constant dispute, some saying that the world is infinite and eternal and others that it is finite and not eternal, some saying that the soul dies with the body and others that it lives on forever, and so forth. What, Sir, would you say concerning them?”
    The Buddha answered, “Once upon a time there was a certain raja who called to his servant and said, ‘Come, good fellow, go and gather together in one place all the men of Savatthi who were born blind… and show them an elephant.’ ‘Very good, sire,’ replied the servant, and he did as he was told. He said to the blind men assembled there, ‘Here is an elephant,’ and to one man he presented the head of the elephant, to another its ears, to another a tusk, to another the trunk, the foot, back, tail, and tuft of the tail, saying to each one that that was the elephant.
    “When the blind men had felt the elephant, the raja went to each of them and said to each, ‘Well, blind man, have you seen the elephant? Tell me, what sort of thing is an elephant?’“
    Thereupon the men who were presented with the head answered, ‘Sire, an elephant is like a pot.’ And the men who had observed the ear replied, ‘An elephant is like a winnowing basket.’ Those who had been presented with a tusk said it was a ploughshare. Those who knew only the trunk said it was a plough; others said the body was a granary; the foot, a pillar; the back, a mortar; the tail, a pestle, the tuft of the tail, a brush.“
    Then they began to quarrel, shouting, ‘Yes it is!’ ‘No, it is not!’ ‘An elephant is not that!’ ‘Yes, it’s like that!’ and so on, till they came to blows over the matter. The raja was delighted with the scene.“
    Just so are these preachers and scholars holding various views blind and unseeing… In their ignorance they are by nature quarrelsome, wrangling, and disputatious, each maintaining reality is thus and thus.”
    Then the Exalted One rendered this meaning by uttering this verse of uplift:

O how they cling and wrangle, some who
claim
For preacher and monk the honored name!
For, quarreling, each to his view they cling.
Such folk see only one side of a thing. 5
    Udana 68-69: Parable of the Blind Men and the Elephant (Buddhism)

Some Hindus had brought an elephant for exhibition and placed it in a dark house. Crowds of people were going into that dark place to see the beast. Finding that ocular inspection was impossible, each visitor felt it with his palm in the darkness. 
    The palm of one fell on the trunk. “This creature is like a waterspout,” he said. The hand of another lighted on the elephant’s ear. To him the beast was evidently like a fan. Another rubbed against its leg. “I found the elephant’s shape is like a pillar,” he said. Another laid his hand on its back. “Certainly this elephant is like a throne,” he said.
    The sensual eye is just like the palm of the hand. The palm has not the means of covering the whole of the beast.
    The eye of the Sea is one thing and the foam another. Let the foam go, and gaze with the eye of the Sea. Day and night foam-flecks are flung from the sea: How amazing! You behold the foam but not the Sea. We are like boats dashing together; our eyes are darkened, yet we are in clear water.
    Jalalu’l-Din Rumi, Masnavi3.1259-1272 (Islam)
 
A man among the Muslims and a man among the Jews reviled one another. The Muslim said, “By Him who chose Muhammad above the universe,” and the Jew said, “By Him who chose Moses above the universe.” Thereupon the Muslim raised his hand and struck the Jew on his face, and the Jew went to the Prophet and told him what had happened between him and the Muslim. The Prophet summoned the Muslim and asked him about that, and when he informed him the Prophet said, “Do not make me superior to Moses, for mankind will swoon on the day of resurrection and I shall swoon along with them. I shall be the first to recover and see Moses seizing the side of the Throne; and I shall not know whether he was among those who had swooned and had recovered before me, or whether he was among those of whom God had made an exception… Do not make distinctions between the Prophets.”
    Hadith of Bukhari and Muslim (Islam)
 
Some call on the Lord, “Rama,” some cry, “Khuda,”
Some bow to Him as Gosain, some as Allah;
He is called the Ground of Grounds and also the Bountiful,
The Compassionate One and Gracious.
Hindus bathe in holy waters for His sake;
Muslims make the pilgrimage to Mecca.
The Hindus perform puja; others bow their heads in namaz.
There are those who read the Vedas and others—Christians, Jews, Muslims—Who read the Semitic scriptures.
Some wear blue, some white robes,
Some call themselves Muslims, others Hindus.
Some aspire to bahishat [Muslim heaven], some to swarga [Hindu heaven].
Says Nanak, Whoever realizes the will of the Lord, He will find out the Lord’s secrets!
    Adi Granth, Ramkali, M.5, p. 885 (Sikhism)
 
Of whatsoever teachings, Gotamid, you can assure yourself thus, “These doctrines conduce to passions, not to dispassion; to bondage, not to detachment; to increase of worldly gains, not to decrease of them; to covetousness, not to frugality; to discontent, not contentment; to company, not solitude; to sluggishness, not energy; to delight in evil, not delight in good”—of such teachings you may with certainty affirm, Gotamid, “This is not the Norm. This is not the Discipline. This is not the Master’s Message.”
 
But of whatsoever teachings you can assure yourself thus, “These doctrines conduce to dispassion, not to passions… to delight in good, not delight in evil”—of such teachings you may with certainty affirm, “This is the Norm. This is the Discipline. This is the Master’s Message.”
    Vinaya Pitaka 2.10 (Buddhism)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Love Between a Man and a Woman Is the Microcosm of the Solar System

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Cheon Seong Gyeong 1112

God loves all people and desires that
the whole universe submit to His love.
In giving human beings authority, He
desires that the entire universe follow
them and bow down before them. With
this great love and highest authority in
mind, God gave human beings their
portion of responsibility. (20-209, 1968.6.9)

Why did God give human beings a
portion of responsibility? As He is omni-
scient and omnipotent, He endowed
humanity with those same qualities of
creativity. Moreover, as He is also the
Subject of eternal and unchanging love,
He could not help but vest in human
beings a portion of responsibility so as
to allow them to rise to a position repre-
senting that Subject of love, God Himself.
This became the prerequisite for God’s
blessings,comparable to a key that can
lead us into the dominion of love over
everything, He had no course other than
to bequeath this key to us. However, we
must understand that problems arose
over the fulfillment of human responsi-
bility and that human beings fell. (20-209,
1968.6.9)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2179

People of filial piety will think of
their parents first when something good
happens in their lives. In the fallen world
people think of their spouse first when
they see something good. However,
unless you buy something precious for
your parents first, you cannot buy some-
thing for your spouse.

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Chapter 4

God’s Creation and Human Creativity

Microcosm and Macrocosm

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

A human being is a small universe, the microcosm of the great universe of God’s creation. God, the Source of the great universe, is also the source of our energy. As small individual universes, each of us stands in the presence of the great universe and receives its energy into our heart. Thus, we are connected to a source of unending power, and as its counterpart we are endowed with cosmic value. (121:193, October 27, 1982)

As human beings are a microcosm of the universe, the body represents the earth while the mind and spirit represent heaven. (8:78, November 8, 1959)

Up and down, front and rear, right and left: everything is related to me. Furthermore, these relation-ships are not temporary, but are linked to the entire course of my life. I stem from a line of ancestors stretching back to the beginning of time, and I am linked to descendants a thousand generations into the future. We have to think that we stand on the altar of all these connections. If one day I am shattered into pieces, all those heavenly relationships will also be shattered into pieces. All relationships in the family, the tribe and the world will likewise be shattered. Such is the significance of being a microcosm, representing heaven and earth.9 (8:10-11, October 25, 1959)

Look at our hands. Each finger has three knuckles [symbolizing the three stages of growth]. Each arm has three sections: upper arm, forearm and hand. The whole body is composed of three parts: head, torso and legs. Make a fist like an infant does, with the thumb inside. The thumb symbolizes God, the center of the universe. The four fingers symbolize the four compass directions and four seasons. The twelve knuckles, three on each of the four fingers, symbolize the twelve months.
To strongly make a point, you make a fist and shake it in the air. It is like shaking the whole universe. To strike something with your fist means that you are striking it as a representative of the universe.
From this, we can see that human beings are the counterparts of the Lord who created the universe.
These are just a few of the reasons each human being is a microcosm. Although a human body is very small, it contains everything in the universe. The circulatory system is like the trunk of a tree; the heart is like its root and lungs are like leaves. Our body is indeed a microcosm, representing all things of the universe. (54:96, March 20, 1972)

We are born to resonate with the beat of the universe in all its rotations and revolutions. Ocean waves strike the shore, and my heart beats in time. The wind sighs serenely, and my heart feels serene. A flower releases a pleasing fragrance; it stirs a fragrance in my heart and I feel enraptured. (104:123, April 22, 1979)

You are the planet Earth in miniature, a universe in miniature. Your body is composed of all the Earth’s elements. Who, then, created you? The universe loaned you all the elements that make up your body. The universe gave you birth and made you; hence you should regard the universe as your first parent.

It is amazing! You contain all the elements of the universe. Furthermore, you are mobile, a universe that can move about, whereas the cosmic universe is stationary. Because you move and act, you can govern the universe. (105:106-07, September 30, 1979)

If you could see the entire spirit world, it would look like a gigantic Person. As this huge person unites with God, its Subject Partner, then the spirit world and physical world will intermingle with each other. Then, when God runs, the earth will also run. When God laughs, the earth will also laugh.
Each of us can become a center of the universe. What does this mean? Consider the tiny cells in your finger. Each one of those cells communicates with your entire body. Although your body is huge in comparison to those cells, their functioning is vital for the body; in that sense they are equal to the whole body. Do you understand? I am talking about what it means to the center of the universe. Each of us relates to the universal body as one cell, yet we can be qualified to be its center.
Blood circulates throughout your whole body, from the head down to the soles of your feet. When that blood that went to the feet comes to the head, can the head say, “Don’t come near me”? In the same way, as we circulate through the entire universe, there cannot be any discrimination between black, white and yellow people. The parts of the body are variously colored. Are brown eyes prejudiced against black hair? Do white nails say to yellow skin, “You are of a different kind”?10Just so, if you could go to the spirit world, you would see that all people constitute the body of one Person. Saints and holy men may perform the role of the eyes or the ears, but even though they have important roles, they are still only components of that one macrocosmic Person.
Hell in the spirit world is like an infected wound in the body. Do you think God wants hell to exist for eternity? If you had a wound, what would you do? You would draw out the pus and clean it up. In the same way God wants to clean up and eliminate hell. (91:280, February 27, 1977)

When heaven and earth are in harmony, there is mutual affection among all subject and object part-ners throughout the cosmos. All are linked to the human family, which is the nucleus of cosmos.
Men are larger and stronger, but women have love. The sun is large, but it cannot neglect the earth. There is mutual give and take everywhere, from which arises joy and all the perfections of heaven and earth. Thus we can see the larger significance of love between a man and a woman: it is a microcosm of the solar system and an encapsulation of the animal and plant kingdoms. It is the epitome of the pair system by which all things exist. The animal, plant and mineral kingdoms are all based on the pair system. God set up all male-female pairs to be represented by this one nucleus—human conjugal love. What, then, would happen if this center were in conflict?

You would like to be the center of the cosmos, right? Do animals have this desire? Does the solar system? No; it is evident that humans are the only beings who have this aspiration. (216:157, March 10, 1991)