God’s Will and the Ocean: Episode 100

God’s Will and the Ocean
Excerpts from Published Speeches, page 329-333
1974-1983

Exposing Human Nature

I know how to train the hopeless people: take them and kick them into the ocean for three months. As long as they survive there . . . initially they look miserable, throwing up, looking pale like a green apple, and from every hole in their body there's some kind of mucus coming out.

But without hesitation, I say, "Kick 'em in." One by one people come out. Seasick people don't need a hospital, you just leave them on the land for a while. There they get their appetite back, and restore themselves—this is the best hospital. When their health is restored we kick them into the ocean again and repeat the same cycle. Then, after coming out again—almost dead, let them recuperate, and then for the third time, kick them out again.

This three time repetition will make everyone who is hopeless into a champion. To make hopeless people hopeful again, that’s the true challenge for Ocean Church and it is just as true for the nation.

Also, those healthy people who have an aptitude for the ocean are ready to go. Tyler just completed his Ph.D., but he never dreamed that he would be assigned to Ocean Church, yet I kicked him into the ocean. I'm sure he thought he'd make a good professor at the Unification Theological Seminary, or he could write a book, or go to other universities and teach. I'm sure he thought about those things. Tyler Hendricks is like a real gentleman-type. He's very suave, very cordial. But once someone goes to the ocean . . . there is no bathroom, not even on the New Hope.

This summer I gave a boat to the sisters and a boat to the brothers, working side by side. When bathroom time comes, what do you do? You've got to do something! You have to get yourself relieved! Whether there are sisters around, or brothers, it doesn't make any difference. Then you need guts. You have to attend to your relieving mission. The men face such situations and deal with it naturally without any panic. They have to have guts to deal with it. When a sister goes to the ocean, there's not such a thing as always being polite and looking nice; she's got to be like a man and survive and deal with the ocean. She's got to expose her hip sometimes. But she doesn't even mind; she just thinks, "Well, my hip is somehow exposed, but I know all the brothers will close their eyes, so I don't even have to shield myself too much."

She needs that kind of guts, and when the man is doing his "business" he knows that all the sisters will close their eyes. No problem. That's the way it goes, and if anybody doesn't close their eyes, they will suffer the consequences.

Ocean training occurs at a crude, raw level of experience; therefore it will show the basic human nature. It exposes everything: you cannot hide on the ocean, so when you go out, you have to expose yourself. You can learn about yourself, about others and how to harmonize with others.

Another point: when you live on the land, you don't worry about record breaking or setting new records, but anyone who goes on the ocean always thinks about setting a record and breaking the record. These people are always goal-oriented.

In this life, it's so complicated, so sophisticated, it's virtually impossible to try to stand up or find a place to make a stand. But when you go to the ocean you have a chance. Everybody is at the starting point. You go down to the zero point and start from there to rise up and win all over again. When you men and women go out to the ocean, try to be the champion, set a new record. That kind of goal-oriented life, I like very much.

Leaders' Conference
August 26,1983

Christianity, Judaism, and all great religions had some connection to the mountains. Moses went to the mountains to pray for forty days, Jesus prayed and fasted on the mountain, and Buddha spent six years in the mountains searching spiritually. The Unification Church has experienced those sorts of things, but we don't stop there. We move on and create "Ocean Church" for the first time in history.

Why did Father Create it?

When you look at the globe, two-thirds of the surface is water. So where, do you think, would there be the greater quantity of living things, in the ocean or on the land? In the water. The population of the earth is estimated as four billion people, but how many hundreds of billions of living things are there in the sea! One more difference between the sea and the land is that all the oceans connect, so that you can go from one ocean into another. Land masses are also connected, but the oceans are all moving into each other as one harmonious whole. The ocean is living and moving accordingly; it's not dead. Because the waters covering this planet earth are alive, we can see that the planet is alive.

So far the ocean has been used for transportation—but people haven’t begun digging in the ocean to find its hidden resources. In recent years, some nations have claimed a 200-mile limit as "territorial waters.” More and more, the competition for ocean resources is sharply dividing the nations. Will the 200-mile limit still have meaning if there are no more fish to catch?

When people begin to discover resources in the oceans, maybe they'll begin to claim 300 miles, or even 1,000 miles as their nation's territory, and then the question will arise, "Who is the true master of the ocean? Who will be the true host?"

Suppose all of a sudden a gigantic land mass emerged—an island in the middle of the ocean. Who could claim that land? Volcanic eruptions can happen anywhere. Nature follows nature's laws.

While God is looking over His creation saying, "I created the ocean; who shall be the host?" What is He searching for? He is looking for men of vision and courage. Actually God is looking for a group of people who are organized and committed to meeting that challenge of the ocean. If such a committed group of ocean-loving people can be found, God will give the blessing to them. Those people finally become candidates for lordship over the ocean. They must be thinking with the Creator's mind. As such courageous people from around the world come together and unite in one common goal, one ideal, that vision must transcend all national and racial boundaries. Once such an international group is set up, it will be very difficult for any single nation to challenge it, for it will truly have a global perspective.

What will Ocean Church do in the future? What is its purpose? It is to teach how to love the ocean, to utilize it under the concept of the Creator's ideal, and have dominion over it according to the Principle of Creation.

The dividing line between ocean and land is the coastline, so the coast represents the link to both worlds. Eventually the coastline will become most important. Coastline property will become most valuable of all.

Ocean Beauty

The ocean encompasses an incredible variety of moods. The calm sea is like a beautiful woman, and the beach sand is like silk—dazzling beauty and peace. But that is not all the ocean presents to you—a little breeze and the water starts to dance—just a little bit. No matter what kind of a ballerina or dancer you may find, you can never compare her/him to the dancing of the ocean! The dancer is on a small, limited stage, but the ocean dances without limit. There is no end to its stage.

Sea birds fly around, coming and going, landing and taking off, all with different shapes, but all with harmony. Seagulls come, they sing and present beautiful harmonious motion. Sometimes this beautiful scene is changed dramatically by the sudden volcanic explosion of a huge whale jumping out of the water. The splashing water shines, reflecting the light—just incredible beauty. So much variety and change!

When the ocean gets mad it definitely shows its dignity and power as if it's saying, "Anyone who comes at me—I will swallow you." Indeed, the ocean can swallow anything riding on it.

Normally, a high-speed boat runs beautifully on calm water just like on a silky highway, but once those waters get mad, splashing with high waves, that boat becomes helpless. When the waves go up, the boat answers, "Yes sir, yes sir!" When the waves suddenly drop down the boat can only obey because there, nature is the most powerful and the ocean says, "You listen to me. Here I am!" For that reason, men and women who love the sea cannot be boastful, cannot be arrogant. They must know how to humble themselves to the overpowering strength of nature.

On the land you see green. Sometimes you see butterflies or birds flying around, but everything is stationary. In the ocean, however, the varieties of fish are moving in all kinds of ways and from one place to another, demonstrating their own beauty. So is there greater beauty and incredible mystery on land or in the ocean? [Ocean] When you put yourself in God's position and ask, "Why did God make the ocean?" we might say, "It's because God would be bored with the land in just a few days, but the ocean is never boring. The sea and the ocean represent the future vision, the future dream." Therefore, anyone linked to a futuristic vision must be interested in the ocean. In this way, he is bound to become a visionary person.