Cham Bumo Gyeong: Episode 256

Cham Bumo Gyeong
Book 9: Activities in the Media, Education and the Arts for the Culture of Heart
Chapter 3: World Media Conferences and Media Outlets
Section 2: Educational Institutions, Korea
Section 2: Educational Institutions, Paragraph 10

Section 2. Educational Institutions 

Korea

On April 3, 1972, True Parents established the base from which they eventually would establish universities, when they opened the Unification Theological Seminary at the Central Training Center at Sutaek-ri, in Gyeonggi Province. In December 1985, the establishment of Seonghwa Theological Seminary, a four-year college, was approved by the government and the seminary opened with 40 students in March 1986. In October 1989, the government approved the restructuring of the seminary to become Seonghwa University, and on March 1, 1994, the school was renamed Sun Moon University and was relocated to the city of Cheonan. True Parents established the university's founding philosophy as "Love Heaven, Love People, Love Your Country," and expressed its spirit in a message in Chinese calligraphy, "The Sun Moon Educational Institution, The Dawn of Heaven and Earth." On October 19, 1998, the university opened its Department of Pure Love. The main focus of the department is to train young people who can become the driving force of the providence and serve as international leaders. On January 28, 2004, the Korean government approved the establishment of Cheongshim Graduate School of Theology. At the dedication ceremony True Parents composed the message in Chinese calligraphy, "Eternal Prosperity and Overflowing Fortune through Offering Virtuous Deeds and Learning to Heaven."

1  Korean dignitaries visited Japan and were quite impressed by the members of CARP and the Unification Church. Some time ago, those people opposed us when we wanted to establish a theological seminary. However, after visiting Japan this time, they were impressed and promised our leaders that they would help us so that the theological seminary could be built quickly. We secured their support and returned. In the future, we will build a four-year theological college. After that, we will add philosophy, social services and agriculture departments. Later, we will expand it into a comprehensive university by establishing a college of liberal arts and sciences and a college of engineering. We need to build a university.

2  In the future, you must carry out activities with university students and youth organizations. Until now, our pivotal organizations have not done this. That is why we are suffering great losses when it comes to raising our second generation. I want to establish a university and train the second generation, but the government has been blocking us until now. They have made various excuses and opposed us, but now that time has passed. We will build the best university in Korea. In the future it will not be easy to gain admission to this school. Great scholars respected worldwide will come there to teach.

3  I instructed that Seonghwa Theological Seminary students should not go to sleep before midnight. I told them that lectures would be given in English starting from the second year. I emphasized this saying, "Listen! If you do not learn English, you will fail." You need to know English. You must be able to speak at least three languages. I am still studying English, a foreign language. You, too, must study.

4  Sun Moon University is a gathering place for the academic world. So, when intellectuals from around the world look at us, we should not be seen as second-rate. That is why I felt the responsibility to provide a broad curriculum. We must educate the students thoroughly. In the future, we will invest a large amount of resources to establish universities with this kind of standard. If we invested those same resources into the church, how much would we expand? I understand this trade-off very well. In any case, churches develop over a long period of time. In my opinion, in terms of internal qualities, it is more stable to develop over a long period of time rather than to grow rapidly. But society is rapidly changing, and the challenge for educators is how to establish a standard of knowledge that unites the whole. Successfully establishing a standard that does not fall behind in a rapidly changing society will be the driving force for a university to develop in the future.

5  When I told people in the 1950s, "At the end of this century, daily life will move into a one-day world," no one believed me. I told them that the age is coming when the world will become integrated; when we can travel anywhere within one day, when computer systems will be built, phones will allow us to communicate from anywhere, and meetings can be held even if you are far away from each other. The Unification Church has risen to that standard, and heaven is connecting the rapidly developing world to us as our partner. For that reason, Sun Moon University cannot stand still. From now on, we must march through the 21st century and establish a foundation where we can consolidate 2,000 years, 3,000 years and 5,000 years of history. If you want to make these kinds of preparations, your thoughts and direction need to become one.

6  If you go to a shipyard, you will see that even tiny bits of iron have a use. All these things are divided into component parts, delivered and then assembled. It is as if you were making a human body, and you would create the hands, feet, eyes and nose separately and then bring them together to be assembled. That is the difficult part. If you make even a single millimeter mistake while welding, you have to discard the entire thing. From now on, the world will become like this.

This is also true for Sun Moon University. We must make a plan based on traditions. The schools administration needs to prepare a plan and implement it. This is the way to develop. You need to be outstanding in the area for which you are currently responsible. You need to become a role model both in your teaching and in your lifestyle. You should also secure a foundation where you can receive the recognition of the other professors. You should not be reckless. From the ideological standard, you need a basis of values. There must be roots for a tree to grow. If you are not armed with ideology, nothing can be accomplished. Our central root needs to go straight down.

7  The founding philosophy of Sun Moon University is "Love Heaven, Love People, Love Your Country." This is precisely the same motivation that I had when I established this university—loving God, which is the attitude of loving heaven. The meaning of God contained in "loving heaven" is not a God limited to the doctrines of any particular religion or denomination. It refers to God, the living Origin, the wellspring of true love, the incorporeal True Parent of humankind, the way of heaven and the root source of all teachings. I came to know the living God early in my life, and since then I have never forgotten even for a moment the desire of God. I have devoted my entire life for the sake of realizing a peaceful world, which is God's ideal of true love.

Nurturing talented people who have the vision to lead the future is a crucial element in realizing this long-cherished desire. The talented people who will lead the approaching age of globalization and great human family must first love heaven, and then love people, their nation, the world and all creation. This is because a person cannot aspire to become the three subject partners—true parent, true teacher and true owner—unless that person succeeds in loving as God loves. Universities are educational institutions that raise experts by helping them develop creativity. However, our priority is to raise wholesome leaders with the attributes and character of the three subjects. This is done through character education, which is connected to God, who is the source of universal truth.

8  At Sun Moon University, the professors and leaders who are models of practicing and experiencing love that follows heavenly law must educate and train all the students to develop the character required of true parents, true teachers, and true owners. Knowledge, power and material abundance alone will not realize the freedom, peace, unity and happiness for which people have prayed without ceasing. Human morality and spiritual development are the prerequisites. As the newly arrived 21st century will be the very century that completes the providence, humanity will have to live in close contact with the spirit world. World scholars will come to Sun Moon University in droves, where they will research the spirit world, my life and my achievements. Sun Moon University will become a center for research on the spirit world. Moreover, this university is intended to go beyond developing human intellect and expertise, to perfecting human character by developing the spirit. That is to say, it is the world's first university established to cultivate leaders who are truly mature, both morally and spiritually.

9  You must have the conviction that Sun Moon University will be a forum for debate and joint research that international scholars and world leaders will find stimulating. The university will realize this ideal. In the future, the world's most gifted and accomplished young people will be drawn like a magnet to Sun Moon University. This university is not for Koreans alone. It is a providential university that embraces the hopes of not only all people on earth but in the spirit world as well. It is a global cradle for international education in which the world's young people come to understand that Korea is the providential fatherland and share in the vision of giving true love in order to actualize world peace.

The students studying here are being equipped with the knowledge to become world citizens and, beyond that, citizens of Cheon Il Guk. They will then become the chosen people and they should cultivate outstanding character in order to become leaders of the future world. You professors and staff should make this university into one that cultivates a character of true love in the students through expert knowledge and skills as well as wisdom, morality and spirituality.

10  Sun Moon University is a place of study that was prepared for the pure and noble younger generation that the school's founder, who is following God and the will of heaven, longed to see. Sun Moon University must become the world's cradle of pure love education. It must be entrusted by the nation and the world to provide discipline, practice and moral education, making a connection to a bright future. We need to raise young people to become people who serve their communities and share whatever they have with their neighbors through a heart of true love. It must become a school of harmony that teaches the ideal that people of five colors are all brothers and sisters of the human family by initiating international, interracial and interreligious education. My hope is that this school can be established as a professional training center of diverse knowledge and skills that can cultivate a healthy and beautiful world. I pray that Sun Moon University will enlighten the world's young people about true love and practical knowledge on peace, thereby developing day by day into an educational institution where students will carry out research and serve humanity.