God’s Will and the Ocean: Episode 12

God’s Will and the Ocean
True Father Speaks on: The Founding of Ocean Church, page 28-31
October 1, 1980, Morning Garden

Understanding Oriental Culture

Now we know this important area. Since you are seminary graduates and will be leaders in this movement, you must be serious to educate your members in this regard. You have to educate them well. So, are some of you learning Korean now? Even though I am improving my English, I will not speak English to you. Especially if I meet you in Korea, I will not speak any English. You have to speak Korean if you want to communicate with me.

It's not impossible to learn another language. I believe that every one of the members ought to go to Korea for about two years. You should go to the rock bottom of society and move up through every level from there. Then, absolutely you would learn the language. I think that there isn't any one of you who doesn't want to do that. I feel that you will be ashamed if you go to the spiritual world and cannot understand me when I am speaking. Do you think I am just saying this on a whim or is this really the way it is, especially in the spiritual world? So, by the year 2,000, which is only twenty years away, all of you should speak Korean. Up to now, there have been other things for you to do and I didn't emphasize it so much. From 1980 on we will concentrate more and more on points like this. We will even have a formal time to learn Korean. It's necessary. Don't you think so?

Some people say that the Korean language is difficult to learn, but that isn't so. It is logically composed. Your mind tends to think logically anyway. That is how you were made.The Korean language contains all the phonetic sounds. This is why, whenever Koreans learn another language, such as English, they learn it quickly and speak it very well. The Japanese can never learn English as well as the Koreans do. It is very difficult for them because Japanese is lacking in many sounds. When Koreans learn to speak Chinese and speak it well, the Chinese cannot even guess that these Koreans came from another country. It is the same when a Korean learns to speak Japanese very well. They can never guess that this person is originally Korean. The Korean language has that much spectrum of sound and pronunciation. Also, the adjectives in Korean are rich and varied, especially in religious terminology. There is much that is expressive of the internal realm, of heart and spirit. Korean is very close to the Principle in this way. Here, you might say, "slowly," but you have no way of saying, "slowly, slowly." Or you might say, "go fast," but you have no way of saying, "fast, fast." In Korean, you have words which can emphasize like this and can convey the idea that you have more clearly.

In Korea, they use a spoon and a pair of chopsticks. There is a strict rule in arranging your table in Korea, where the plate goes and the rice bowl and the tea cup. There is always a subject and object relationship for these placements. China brags about its being the oldest civilization and Japan brags about its own history, but they don't have many of the attributes that Korea has. I don't want you to look at China, Japan and Korea and think they are all the same. There is a world of difference between the cultures. I received a report about the book and the movie, "Shogun." You even pronounce it wrong. It is not "sho-gun," but rather "sho-guun." You see the "gun" and think of a gun and just say it like that, but it has no meaning when you say it like that. If you say, "sho-gun" it is like a gun show. I cannot help but relate it to that.

A shogun is a general, but a special kind of general. The shogun is the one who serves directly next to the emperor. Anyway, people are quite excited about this program. Fifty percent of the entire population watched that program. They thought they were learning about the Orient. However, I couldn't relate to it so much because there really wasn't a great deal there. You had only one or two interesting scenes, but you would need thousands of scenes before you even began to understand something about the Orient.

One interesting thing that I noticed was the ceremony of cutting your belly, which the Japanese call seppuku. For them, that is the honorable way of paying indemnity. If you did not fulfill your responsibility, you would kill yourself rather than be fired. If you really meant business, then nothing came higher than that. You saw some scenes about that in the movie. In reality, in history that was a daily thing. In order to ease the pain, there was always someone there to cut cleanly through your neck so that you would end your life quickly and not suffer in agony. Who did that? The closest one to you, not your enemy. Your best friend or next of kin would be the one to cut off your head. There was that kind of honor put into one's task. There was such a seriousness linked to their life. Their life was always at stake. There is no similar concept at all in this country. Have you ever thought of doing such a thing if you failed to fulfill your responsibility? The Japanese have that sincerity and seriousness in the history of their Samurai. The Samurai was the warrior class and of course, the warrior was at his best during times of war.

Well, Japan is not at war, but they kept something of that Samurai spirit and that is why they have developed so quickly. In the economy of the world, they have achieved great things. They don't go about things in a lazy way. They really feel that their neck is at stake in their job. They still have some feeling that if they don't make their job a success, they will have to cut their own belly. The past few weeks, while watching this show, I have said to myself over and over, "Oh, that's one thing the American people will never understand. Not for a long time to come." However, if you really place yourself in a serious situation, it is not impossible to understand. Imagine that the closest one to you would cut off your head, and that it would take such love for him to do that. The whole thing expresses that it is more important to carry out an order than it is to care for one's life. The Japanese have that kind of background and feeling.

It says in the Bible that those who are willing to die will live. So, in the light of the dispensation, the Japanese will do the best because of that heritage. Once they understand about God's will, they will apply themselves towards their responsibility with that kind of intensity. You may find many faults in the Japanese, but that one point carries the Japanese over many obstacles, and they often go way beyond other nations. Should I continue or would you like to have breakfast now? Should we have breakfast, or should we not have breakfast? Breakfast is already cooked, but you don't seem to want it. Well, the ocean is close by and we can just dump it there. The fish would be very happy about that. You don't mind that? Sometimes you mind working, but you never mind eating. However, if you love your work as much and even more than you love eating, then your success is guaranteed. You will never fail by working and when it is finally so long between meals, your stomach will direct you.