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#108-Strengthening Families & Communities Forum-April Gallart
Cheon Seong Gyeong 2143
All things are seeking such owners. We should feel ashamed of not having yet realized this degree of love. The universe is filled with all beings existing as pairs at their level, but ultimately, they follow the principle of being absorbed into higher levels of love. Thus, minerals want to be absorbed by plants, plants by animals, and finally all of creation by human beings. Through this process they ultimately reach the position where they can experience the essence of true love, which is the love that is nearest to God, the origin of love, who created everything with an intrinsic nature to provide value to a higher level.
Cheon Seong Gyeong 1178
Through the principle of indemnity, we must liberate God from all of the sorrowful circumstances, pain, and suffering that He endured throughout history. This is how we understand what un-filial children we have been and how much suffering we have caused God by our misdeeds. This is how we become true filial children who can attend their Parent with the filial piety that outdoes our past lack of filial piety. Thus, in serving God, we must understand the toils of our Parent who sacrificed everything and made such effort through history. Step by step, gradually, we have come into the age where we can clear away past mistakes. So we must attend God, and at least from today, take upon ourselves the hardships of God, so that He can be completely liberated. (144-274, 1986.4.25)
Chapter 18
Humility and Self-Denial
Humility
AN ATTITUDE OF HUMILITY IS ESSENTIAL ON THE PATH to God. Any self-conceit, whether nurtured by superior intelligence, wealth, high status, or the praise of others, is an obstacle blocking our way. Genuine humility requires a constant willingness to deny oneself, to be critical of oneself, to endure hardship without complaint, and to be open to Heaven’s guidance even when it differs from one’s preconceived concepts.
Humility requires sincerity and honesty; thus some passages liken the humble person to a little child, whose natural spontaneity and acceptance of life is the antithesis of the often-complicated personality of the adult with its many masks, hidden resentments, and prejudices. Other scriptures teach us to cultivate humility by meditating on the insignificance and transience of the human being, who is nothing but a puff of wind, a bag of excrement, food for worms.
Here, too, is the paradoxical wisdom that the humble and self-effacing person ultimately prospers and wins more respect from others than the person who is arrogant and powerful. We have the example of Jesus, who took the path of humility to triumph over the Devil’s most deadly attack. Father Moon explains this in terms of the principle that humility, being in accord with the original way of life in Eden, aligns us with God and His creative power, while arrogance places us in Satan’s camp—ultimately a losing cause. In another passage, he alludes to the natural cycle of rise and fall, where arrogance places us at the peak of the cycle where the only way forward is to decline, while humility places us at the bottom where all roads lead upward.
- Blessed Are the Meek
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Matthew 5.5
Successful indeed are the believers
who are humble in their prayers,
and who shun vain conversation,
and who are payers of the poor-due,
and who guard their modesty.
Qur’an 23.1-5
If you desire to obtain help, put away pride. Even a hair of pride shuts you off, as if by a great cloud.
Oracle of Kasuga (Shinto) Continue reading “Blessed are the Meek, for They Shall Inherit the Earth”
