Cheon Seong Gyeong: Episode 296
Cheon Seong Gyeong Book 10: The Philosophy of Peace
Chapter 1: What is Peace?
Section 1: The Concept of Peace, 01-12
CHAPTER 1 What Is Peace?
Section 1. The Concept of Peace
(1) What is the most critical issue in the world now? World wars begin and end. Wars between nations end when the fighting stops, but the war between the mind and body is unceasing. The standard of peace can be found where we succeed in conquering the body by following the desires of the mind. The foundation for peace develops where the mother and father, husband and wife, parents and children, and the whole extended family become eternally one. For world peace to be realized, this foundation must go beyond individuals, clans, peoples, and races to the ends of the earth. To achieve this, we need a revolution to re-create human beings.
The true meaning of peace
(2) The realization of peace means that the subject and object partners are united. The first syllable, pyeong (平), of the Korean word for peace, Pyeonghwa (平和), means horizontal in English, and the second syllable, hwa (和), means harmony. This signifies that the central being and its counterpart are not in conflict, but move toward each other and come into harmony.
(3) Humanity has desired peace since the beginning of history, but wars have continued without ceasing. Unfortunately, strong nations and powerful people have misused the word peace. Even while they spoke of peace, in practice, they tormented people in ways that were the opposite of peace. The communists in particular would use peace as one of their favorite catchwords even as they habitually provoked others. In this way, the word peace has been used many times to camouflage injustice. As conditions in the world change, people become entangled in interests that conflict with those of others, making it impossible to establish true peace. In this world, there is no absolute standard by which worldly interests can be fairly evaluated. True peace can be established only on the basis of true love, and true love relationships can be experienced only when people understand the God-centered absolute values that bind human beings together. True peace is not dependent on knowledge, wealth, social position, political power or any other external condition.
(4) Throughout the long course of history to this day, the world has employed every possible method to realize peace and harmony. Yet, this has not been an issue that the political, economic, or military power of any single nation has been able to resolve completely. There needs to be a fundamental truth, in other words, a philosophy of peace, which can be recognized not only by those in the family, who are closest to the issue, but also by those in the clan, people, nation, and world, and even in the realm that transcends this world.
(5) Peace refers to an even state where there are no wrinkles. It means everything has been harmonized, so it is smooth. When everything is completely harmonized, the result is a spherical shape. If you take clay and keep rolling it, it becomes rounded and, in the end, a perfect sphere is made. It has no wrinkles, every bit of it is completely smooth, and it takes on an absolutely spherical form.
(6) God is an absolute being and, also, is unique. Do you think this unique being set the standard of perfection for Himself alone? If He had, it would be a big problem! Someone who is in a void, alone, cannot use the words joy and happiness. Happiness arises from a mutual relationship. A mother is happy when she and her children are one. The very nature of the word peace, which means harmonizing into an even state, includes the idea of a counterpart, or other. The words peace and happiness refer not to someone who is alone, but to someone who is in a relationship.
(7) Peace has to do with relationships. An even state can be realized only when two people harmonize with each other. An individual alone cannot realize it. Two people can be happy when they are on an equal footing that pleases them both. When we speak of freedom, we realize there is no freedom without love. Love itself is boundless freedom. If you rule with love, you can be proud of being absolute about it.
(8) Peace refers to harmonizing in an even state. You cannot bring about peace alone. When people are harmonized with all the people in their lives—whether the relationships are up and down, right and left, or otherwise, and when nothing is crooked—joy ensues and everything is amicable. This is the only road to peace.
Peace and love
(9) If He is alone, God feels lonely, just as we do. So it is theoretically correct to say that even God likes absolute, true love. He wants a love greater than Himself, an absolute love greater than an absolute being. If what God needs is a greater and more absolute love, then even God must be absolutely obedient to it. What is the root of the universe's existence? Since the root and the origin of the universe is not an absolute being, but rather is absolute love, which itself can bind an absolute being, we can conclude that heaven and earth can indeed form a world of peace. When we realize that everything in the universe came into existence because of love, then we will automatically deduce that it was love that brought forth peace and ideals.
(10) Given that God is the source of life, on what foundation would He desire to live and continue to exist? He would want to exist on the foundation of peace. The foundation of peace is not something established by life. What can establish it? It is something by which subject and object partners acknowledge their common value, transcending high and low and the orderly stages of their development. It is true love alone. God maintains life on the foundation of true love. His omniscience and omnipotence are based on true love. Only in this way can He stand as the ideal subject partner who has transcended history. If He seeks to assume the position of the subject partner with only the power of life, then creation will not want to unite with Him. Even microscopic organisms, animals, and plants wish for a master of love to care for and tend to them.
(11) We can say that people resemble God in their creativity based on their remarkable scientific achievements. However, in the area of love, they do not resemble God at all, so sadness, suffering, and misfortune continue. Since love is found together with harmony, there can be no love in the absence of harmony, and neither can there be peace or happiness without harmony. In the realm of disharmony, all sorts of miserable things develop. So both God and human beings desire that people establish an ideal lifestyle and world that takes after God. The ideal person desired by God and by our original mind is both creative and good. He or she is a person who practices love that revolves around God. Also, the ideal world desired by both God and humanity is a united world of great harmony, where creative activities to improve the environment are abundant and where the love between individuals and nations is full to overflowing. When the time comes for a new type of person such as this to finally live in a new, unified world, all sadness, ordeals, and fighting that the human race has been enduring for so many ages will finally disappear.
(12) Centering on what should we be managing this world? This is a subject of discussion among todays historians and intellectuals, but I tell you, the first necessity is to have a person with the capability to guide the world. What kind of guidance would such a person offer? There are plenty of people who have the ability to guide based on their power over the economy. There is no shortage of people capable of leading based on politics. But it is neither a lack of money nor a poor political system that keeps us from succeeding. The problem is that there is no system of love enabling people to connect to God and to God's ideal. When we struggle through to find the truth that sustains a proper system of original love, and grow it to a global scale, then peace—the starting point where our original mind can rest—will arise.
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