Tag: The Blessing

Obedience to God’s Will Is Necessary

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2156

The result of this Fall is that humankind became ignorant of such basic issues as the facts relating to God, life, and the universe. Throughout my life, I have spoken in public more than ten thousand times, and presented a true view of the world, of life, and of history based on the principles of ‘Godism.’ This content in its entirety has been translated into twelve different languages and published in a series of some three hundred volumes. It was not brought to light as a result of some kind of comprehensive literary research or academic study, but is comprised of the fundamental and essential answers I found while freely traversing both the visible and the invisible worlds.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1380

The topic of our conversation moved on to the wedding of the 30,000 Couples and I asked, “Elder Brother Il-sung, would you be willing to open the thirty-eighth parallel if I were to bring the 30,000 Couples to North Korea?” He answered, “Of course, of course! Wow, that is splendid!” He actually invited me to bring the 30,000 Couples to North Korea. So I replied, “But there aren’t any hotels here.” He then told me, “The Songdo Beach Resort is very famous worldwide and hundreds of thousands of people can be accommodated in the pine fields there. So if you brought one tent for every ten people, you wouldn’t have any problem.” What he said was true. He said we should bring our own food as well and that he would open the port of Wonsan for us, so that we could bring all we needed by boat. (239-42, 1992.11.23)

Richard: It was not North Korea that blocked this plan, but South Korea. That is a huge historical failure on the part of South Korea.

Obedience and Submission

OBEDIENCE IS NECESSARY AS LONG AS secular goals and worldly lifestyles continue to deviate from God’s will and God’s standards of conduct. Ever since God commanded Adam not to eat the fruit in the Garden of Eden, God has repeatedly set forth commandments that conflict with self-centered and humanistic desires. Therefore, relating with God requires submitting to God’s will and denying self-will. This is an especially prominent theme in Islam, whose name, islam, means “submission.”
Obedience requires sacrifice. When Jesus prayed, “Not my will, but Thy will be done,” he was practicing the way of obedience even to the point of giving his life. Obedience is not about doing God’s will when it is convenient or agreeable to our one’s way of thinking. As Abraham found out when God ordered him to sacrifice his son, obedience can require doing something inconceivably difficult.
Nevertheless, the hardships of obedience and submission are ultimately for our good. God lays out commands to guide humankind on the path of growing to perfection; don’t all parents require their children to follow rules so that they might grow up to be mature and well-adjusted adults? God had that loving purpose in mind when He gave the commandment to Adam and Eve, and that same loving purpose lies within His commandments to us today.

  1. Obedience to God’s Will and God’s Commandments

Whosoever submits his will to God, while doing good, his wage is with his Lord, and no fear shall be upon them, neither shall they sorrow.
    Qur’an 2.112

And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I [Moses] command you this day for your good?
    Deuteronomy 10.12-13 Continue reading “Obedience to God’s Will Is Necessary”

Many Want to Avoid the Thorny Path that Lies Along the Way

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2156

Today I would like to gratefully take this opportunity and talk about a fundamental solution to the problem of the unification of the Korean peninsula – the unification that is our nation’s most cherished desire as well as the last matter of the Cold War that awaits settlement. I would like to entitle this talk “The Course of Life for the Princes and Princesses of God.”

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1383

    What will happen once we have conducted this ceremony? Families in the world today are breaking down, and resolving this issue remains a problem. With the world struggling to solve this problem of family breakdown, the Unification Church will bring together 360,000 young couples to form new families to live in an ideal manner, and this will lead all disordered families in the world to automatically take great interest in them. This will become a global issue.
    Once I bless these 360,000 couples and rumors spread worldwide that it was the best thing that happened to the world, and as a result 36,000 couples from each nation were brought to participate in the Blessing, how many couples would that add up to? There are some countries that want to send 50,000 couples. Think about it. (269-300, 1995.5.1).5.1)

Beyond Ritual

WHEN RITUAL IS OVERLY RELIED UPON, it may imbue an aura of sanctity not matched by deeds or wisdom. Ritual is no substitute for authentic piety, love of one’s neighbor and personal realization of God. Nearly every religion has its own internal critique of ritualism. Even when the founder of one religion is apparently criticizing the ritualism of another religion, the passage was originally a prophetic word to his own people.
Father Moon concurs in these critiques, and adds two more: First, ritual can create a barrier between different denominations and faiths, which runs contrary to the will of God for religious unity. In this time of coming together, the barriers of ritual should be transcended. Second, acts of pious devotion to God and Jesus do not often grant the inner knowledge to know their heart and will. For example, many Christians revere the cross as the sign of salvation, when for Jesus it was the accursed instrument of his death and the source of millennia of grief and frustration that he could not have lived to complete his mission to build God’s Kingdom on earth.
Chief among the religious rituals in ancient times was animal sacrifice, yet, with a few exceptions, animal sacrifice is rare in religion today. Religions have come to regard acts of devotion, study, and charity the essence of the ancient ritual sacrifices that are required by scripture but no longer practiced. Thus, the Talmud regards charity to one’s neighbor as the equivalent of sacrificing a lamb as a sin offering. In a similar vein, the Buddha criticizes animal sacrifice as creating evil karma by killing life, and instead teaches a spiritual meaning of sacrifice as fulfilled in honoring parents, caring for family, and giving charity to monks.

  1. Better than Ritual Is a Loving Heart and Righteous Deeds

With what shall I come before the Lord?
and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of
rams,
with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my first-born for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
He has showed you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
    Micah 6.6-8

Even three times a day to offer
Three hundred cooking pots of food
Does not match a portion of the merit
Acquired in one instant of love.
    Nagarjuna, Precious Garland 283 (Buddhism) Continue reading “Many Want to Avoid the Thorny Path that Lies Along the Way”

The Search for Truth Requires Free Thinking

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2007

We need to create an impetus for one unified language. You read the record of everything True Parents have accomplished, but to read this in translation is a disgrace. It will become your shame in the spirit world. When you go to the spirit world, you might have to pay indemnity for thousands or tens of thousands of years. That is how great a problem this is. Even if the homeland has been restored, people who cannot go over this hill will have no path upon which they can return to their hometown. They will have no certificate of residence that enables them to dwell in their homeland as registered citizens. This is a serious problem. (303-157, 1999.8.17)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1387

    If the True Parents had not come to the earth to teach people the fundamentals, those people will have problems when they pass on to the spirit world. Through this teaching being conveyed to every village and town in the world, the spiritual and physical worlds can be completely united. Thus, the 360,000 Couples Blessing held this year was truly great. At the end of the forty-year course, we were able to achieve, along with the liberation of women through the appearance of the True Mother, the 30,000 Couples Blessing. The reason the number of couples was set at 30,000 was in order to establish a new foundation of the Blessing in the world, based on the True Mother standing on the global level and involving Cain and Abel. That ceremony was the formation stage, and so this latter ceremony, the 360,000 Couples Blessing, can be said to be the growth stage. Through it, God is keeping the world in pace with His providence by focusing everyone’s attention on the problems of the family.
    At the moment, the whole world has become like hell. However much nations may take pride in being advanced, they must bow their heads in shame over the problems of the family. Families have completely broken down to the point that no one can tackle their problems. The situation is so serious that no economic, military, or political power can deal with it. (272-179, 1995.10.5)

The Search for Knowledge

3. Comprehend the Truth Not Merely on the Authority of a Teacher,
but from One’s Own Extensive Study and Research

Do not be misled by reports, or tradition, or hearsay. Be not led by the authority of religious texts, nor by mere logic or inference, nor by considering appearances, nor by the delight in speculative opinions, nor by seeming possibilities, nor by the idea: “This is our teacher.” But when you know for yourselves that certain things are unwholesome and wrong, and bad, then give them up… And when you know for yourselves that certain things are wholesome and good, then accept them and follow them.
    Anguttara Nikaya 1.190-91 (Buddhism)

Continue reading “The Search for Truth Requires Free Thinking”

Do Not Think that the Offering Belongs to You; Rather Think that it Belongs to Heaven

#102-Overcoming Mass Formation Psychosis with the Truth

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2142

I have established many different peace movements as well as international organizations as a means of achieving the vision of ‘One World Under One God’ in order to accomplish His will. The International Blessing Ceremony that you have witnessed is God’s strategy to fundamentally resolve the racial, religious, and national conflicts which have resulted from the Fall. Five colors of skin coming together in harmony as true brothers and sisters and true husbands and wives is the actualization of the holy ideal of establishing ‘One World Under One God.’

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1687

From the position of an amoeba, several thousand steps extend upward according to the laws of love; how then can the amoeba pass through all the gates of love to the level of love of man and woman? It cannot. The problem in evolutionary theory is the question of where energy is derived extraneously. Extending the range of species is made possible only after crossing over the hills of love, so did it pass through the gates or go over them and become a monkey? The next question is this: there are males and females for everything and even in the case of minerals and chemical elements there exist plus and minus; so was evolutionary theory there before the relational concept of plus and minus? The answer is: no, it came after the concept. Then the subject-object relationship in this universe must be acknowledged. Nothing can exceed its limits. (263-273, 1994.10.15)

Charity

2. The Manner of Giving Charity

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

When you meet a poor person and give him alms out of sympathy, never say, “Hey, you are a young fellow who can work. What’s the matter with you?” I suggest you say to him, “Though it is but a small token, if you revere it highly you will receive many blessings in the future.”29 You can say this to everyone to whom you give alms. (127:89, May 5, 1983)

When you offer your substance to build the Kingdom of Heaven, do not think that you are offering what belongs to you; think that your offering already belongs to Heaven.
    Likewise, when you give to others, do not think that you are giving to them out of your own pocket. Give with the mind that it comes from the treasury of Heaven.
The person receiving it will know your mind; thus he will recognize that he is actually receiving from God. Then God will take note and return it to you ten times over. (102:119-20, November 27, 1978)

Continue reading “Do Not Think that the Offering Belongs to You; Rather Think that it Belongs to Heaven”

We Can Experience that Everyone Is Our Brother or Sister

What is the Most Important Problem Facing Society?

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1899

The last fish that I caught was fifteen pounds and thirty inches. It was the biggest among all the salmon we have caught until now. We hung it up, displaying it as the finale. It was so strong that we should have scooped it up using a net. Yet, it was hard to see the fish, due to the faint light of the setting sun. But the fish was brave. It could have escaped from the net, since two-thirds of its body was inside, with its head hanging out-side. If you do something wrong at this moment, the net can be torn. (205-322, 1990.10.1)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1241

The literal meaning of the word “blessing” is “praying for blessings.” If you break down the word chookbok(blessing), chook means to pray or wish for something. When you are praying for blessings, what is it that is most precious? It is none other than the blessing of love. The Unification Church uses the word blessing with this meaning. The blessing of love is the greatest, because the fundamental origin of life begins with man and woman coming together in a holy wedding. It represents the most precious commitment of the universe. When praying for blessing, the best blessing you can ask for is the blessing of love, and so the Unification Church refers to marriage as the Blessing.

Richard: Learn more about the Blessing.

Universal Love

True love is universal. It has no Limits. When we are immersed in the love of God, we can experience that everyone is our brother or sister. Here is a major distinction between absolute, true love and the relative love of fallen people: true love is impartial and universal, while fallen love is partial to kith and kin, to friends and compatriots. In the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., “an individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”
Yet is love for humanity enough? Not if we mean only a general sentiment that can be satisfied by acts of charity and political efforts to benefit the downtrodden. The real stage of love is actual relationships. How can we love strangers and people of faraway nations with the same intensity and concreteness as we love members of our own family? Here scripture speaks of extending to strangers the way we treat members of our own family. Father Moon is very clear on this score. To demonstrate universal love that transcends race, he recommends that we give one of our children in marriage to someone of another race. By digesting every difficulty in relating to our in-laws, we become people whose love truly goes beyond the racial barrier.

1. A Heart to Love All People

May good befall all,
May there be peace for all,
May all be fit for perfection, and
May all experience that which is auspicious.
Om, May all be happy.
May all be healthy.
May we all experience what is good and let no
one suffer.
Om, Peace, Peace, Peace!
    The Universal Prayer (Hinduism)

He lets his mind pervade one quarter of the world with thoughts of love, and so the second, and so the third, and so the fourth. And thus the whole wide world, above, below, around, and everywhere, does he continue to pervade with the heart of love, far-reaching, exalted, beyond measure. Just as a mighty trumpeter makes himself heard—and that without difficulty—in all the four directions; even so of all things that have the shape of life there is not one that he passes by or leaves aside, but regards them all with mind set free, and deep-felt love. Verily this is the way to a state of union with Brahma.
    Digha Nikaya 13.76-77, Tevigga Sutta (Buddhism)
 
A man once asked the Prophet what was the best thing in Islam. He replied, “It is to feed the hungry and to give the greeting of peace both to those one knows and to those one does not know.”
    Hadith of Bukhari (Islam)
 
Of the adage, Only a good man knows how to like people, knows how to dislike them, Confucius said, “He whose heart is in the smallest degree set upon Goodness will dislike no one.”
    Analects 4.3-4 (Confucianism)
 
The sage has no fixed [personal] ideas.
He regards the people’s ideas as his own.
I treat those who are good with goodness,
And I also treat those who are not good with goodness.
Thus goodness is attained.
I am honest with those who are honest,
And I am also honest with those who are dishonest.
Thus honesty is attained.
    Tao Te Ching 49 (Taoism)