Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: Episode 02
Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: A Selection of True Parents’ Speeches
Book 1: The Principles of True Peace
Speech 1: The Ideal World for God and Humankind, pg 19-21
The Ideal World for God and Humankind
February 4, 1972, Lincoln Center, New York, USA
Seven-city speaking tour in the United States
Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to express my gratitude for your attendance this evening. For a long time, I have yearned to meet with the people of America, and I am truly delighted and thankful for having been given this opportunity. The topic I would like to discuss with you today is “The Ideal World, or the United World, for God and Humankind.”
Where does the pursuit of the ideal world begin?
In their hearts, all people long for an ideal world, a world of oneness. However, at this point, it seems like an impossible dream. This can only be a source of sadness for humanity.
If there is a God, He too, undoubtedly, is longing for such an ideal world, the world of oneness. Without a doubt, both God and humankind yearn for this ideal world of oneness. If there is a God, He must bring about such a world without fail, and if you are a person who believes in God’s ability, you will think that this task must be accomplished above all else.
Although all human beings yearn for a united world, we must acknowledge that it is not simple to bring this about. The democratic world and the communist world, from their own positions and in their own ways, both are thinking about uniting the world. Then, could the communist world submit to the democratic world and become one with it? Or could the democratic world submit to the communist world and unite with it? This is an extremely difficult problem.
Before we start our search for a way to realize unity and an ideal world on the global level, we first need to ask if there is a nation that is itself united. Only through such a nation can we bring about a united world.
Before there can be a united world, there must be a united nation, and before there can be a united nation, there must be a united tribe. Before there can be a united tribe, we need a united family, and before a united family, there must be a united individual. This is where the problem lies.
Human beings are the origin of good and evil
Where is unity first achieved? Since this world is a resultant world, we can conclude that unity must begin with the causal beings. Where are those individuals? It cannot be denied that we human beings are torn between two purposes that lead us in contrary directions. Our minds desire to go toward goodness, whereas our bodies lead us the opposite way. The two are fighting with each other. There are two different individuals, a man, and a woman, who come together in union to form a family. Because they each possess an internal self and an external self, when the two meet as a couple, they, in fact, come together as four beings, each acting in different ways. In the same way, whether it is a clan, a tribe, a people, a nation, or the world, everything is divided. Nevertheless, we can be grateful that they are not divided into hundreds or thousands of directions; they are divided in two ways. This is what is fascinating.
If there were a God, He surely would not allow people to continue like this. He would have no choice except to work in the background of history, even without their knowing it. And if there were a Satan who had driven human beings to evil, that Satan would keep trying to pull them in the direction opposite to that of God.
Nonetheless, even if Satan opposes the absolute God, he does not have the right to rise up and oppose the principles that God set up with absolute authority. God governs what is good, and Satan governs what is evil. The resulting fight between God and Satan starts within us as individuals. We need to understand that this is the reason that human beings can be the origin of evil and the origin of goodness. In short, a person can be the starting point of goodness and, at the same time, the starting point of evil.
Ladies and gentlemen! Going up symbolizes something good, and going down signifies something bad. When you are complimented for some reason, you wish to boast loudly of it. In contrast, when you are criticized for doing wrong, you shrink into yourself. When you do something good, you advertise it and call for others to follow your example. When you do something bad, you hide it for fear of it being known. No one goes about boldly advertising having done something bad, like stealing. Rather, such a person goes his or her way in secret.
You need to understand that people have two parts, one desiring to go up and the other desiring to go down. The part that desires to go up is the conscience. There is no person, even one of great power or fame, who does not suffer pangs of conscience when doing something evil. We need to understand clearly that the human conscience is the guardian of God, whereas the body is the guardian of Satan, and that the conscience is the origin of heaven, whereas the body is the origin of hell.
This leads us to realize the fundamental difference between the essence of good and the essence of evil. Goodness seeks to benefit the whole, whereas evil seeks only its own benefit. Good people live more for the sake of their family than for themselves, more for the sake of their village than their family, more for the sake of their nation than their village, and more for the sake of the world than their nation.
Until now, history has unfolded as a struggle between the perspective of living for one’s own sake and the perspective of living for the sake of others. God’s absolute demand is that we completely uproot and destroy the basis of evil in our bodies. In contrast, Satan’s evil demand is that we mercilessly destroy the conscience and anything associated with it. History continues to unfold through this conflict.
God’s side is centered on the conscience, while the side of evil is centered on the body and on material things. They oppose each other, and we can conclude that this is why humanity is divided between the realm of materialism and the realm of spirituality. If there were no God, we would not have such a resultant world. Evil manifests as jealousy, disunity, and conflict that lead to self-destruction. From this viewpoint, where can unity and the ideal be realized? In the end, they start from the most fundamental level, from “me,” the individual. Thus God needs to teach us about the united world, the ideal world for which He yearns.
FFWPU, USA