Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: Episode 110
Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: A Selection of True Parents’ Speeches
Book 3: The Mission of Religion in Achieving God’s Ideal
Speech 3: Today’s Intellectuals and Religion, pg 380-383
Today’s Intellectuals and Religion
May 16, 1981
Lotte Hotel, Seoul, Korea
Invitational seminar for prominent members of society
Distinguished guests, ladies, and gentlemen of Korea:
I feel deeply honored that we could convene this meeting of intellectuals today. We are meeting on the theme, “Today’s Intellectuals and Religion,” so I would like to present my views on this topic.
All people seek higher values, and I’m sure you are interested in what the Unification Church teaches in this regard. Every organization has its affirmations, and every nation has affirmations on which it bases its national policies. According to its affirmations, an organization’s administration or institutions move toward its goal. Therefore, the Unification Church also has its own affirmations.
As everyone knows, human desire is insatiable. Each individual has desires for him or herself, the family has desires for itself, and the society, the nation, and the world all have their own desires. Seen in this light, it goes without saying that human beings are searching for something of a higher dimension or of greater value. In this universe, or when seen from a religious point of view, if there is a new, previously unseen world, the question is what place of settlement am I progressing toward. Until the present day, philosophy and all religions that deal with questions of life have treated this issue as one of the greatest importance. Where is life headed? Every human being has his or her own individual desires and values. Those desires aim for the highest purpose and the greatest value.
In pursuing your professional field, you guide yourself according to the standard set by the leading scholars in the world in that field. In the same way, if a great Being who is the subject partner of our goals exists in the universe, then everything needs to move according to the standard set by that Being. This is why in the human world, even for those who do not adopt a religious point of view, questions about saints and God appear. Seen in this light, we can conclude that the place of settlement of all our human desires is God.
What does God need?
If you were to find God, wouldn’t you want to ask Him what He needs? As God, what does He desire? If God were to desire something, then from the moment we discover God, we would be able to help advance only toward what God desires.
What do you think God needs? He does not need the material things or money that we in the human world pursue today. He does not need knowledge, which is what you distinguished scholars here today seek. God is omniscient, so He does not need to acquire knowledge. He does not need more power either. If God does have a desire, then it is vital that we human beings, who stand in the mirror-image position to God, entertain the same desire. If we add all these things together, what conclusion do we reach? The only conclusion we can come to is that God needs love.
Why would God, an omniscient and omnipotent Being, need love? It is because love cannot arise of its own accord; it absolutely needs a reciprocal-partner relationship in order to be realized. Can love come spontaneously from within itself? No matter how much of an urge to love you have within yourself, love cannot generate spontaneously from itself. There has to be an object partner. Love must be fulfilled through an object partner.
What was the purpose of God’s creating? Did He form the world in an arbitrary fashion? Did He have a one-sided purpose? Simply stated, He created the world because He wanted to feel joy and take pleasure in His creation. What would make God feel joy and take pleasure? He didn’t create all things in the universe to feel joy through money or any of the other things humans crave. He created the universe in order to feel joy through love. The creation of all things in the universe is to realize this very purpose.
What is the highest hope of creation? Where is the highest point of settlement? If we say God created all things to feel joy through love, then the created world can’t escape from relationships rooted in love. All creation is involved in relational give-and-receive action as the way to receive God’s love.
What comes first, energy or action?
Many scientists in the world today have concluded that the universe came about through energy. They believe the formation of the universe was based on the existence of energy. Do you think this is so? Before there is energy, there must be something else. Energy has a prerequisite. A process of action takes place, which generates energy. Our heart is the driving force of our energy, and when it stops, so does our life. You probably get around in a car, so you know that when the engine fails, the power to go forward ceases. So does energy or action come first? Action is first. Seen in this light, if there is no action, energy cannot exist.
When we look at the structure of every cell in our body, all components combine to create the realm of action that maintains the force of life. I’m saying that no matter how strong certain energy is, it cannot simply generate itself from within itself. There must be an action before energy can arise. However, even this action cannot arise by itself. First, in order to establish the conditions necessary for this action to come about, there absolutely needs to be a relationship of subject partner and object partner. We need to understand this point clearly.
So what was the origin of the universe? It did not originate with energy. First, there had to be a subject partner-object partner relationship, then energy was generated from the interaction of the subject and object partners. From this point, the direction the energy takes differs. If the action is of a certain nature, the energy will go in one direction; if it is of a different nature, it will go in another direction; although if there is a comprehensive action, the energy will go in a single direction.
The question is, what is the action that can harmonize all these directions? For example, if our arm is performing one action, our heart is performing another, and our blood vessels and nervous system are performing others, what is it that can guide this energy to unite all these actions so they can go in one direction? All this has been a matter of great interest in recent times, and it can only be a matter of great concern for intellectuals today.
There must be a great purpose to which the central action connects and with which the center is in harmony. There is a central action behind energy that possesses a nature such that the more you come into contact with it, the more you rub against it, the more joy you feel. When you ask what this is, the answer is true love. True love harmonizes all actions. If we say God seeks love to feel joy, it is because joy stands in the same position as our own primary desire. Because God created all things to exist for others, all these things have true love as their subject partner and can only help keep time with the rhythm of love.
That is why, in a village, if there is a healthy family that’s full of love, then the village dogs will be attracted to that house. They will want to linger there, and the sparrows will want to come and sit on the fence and tarry there.
The house where the sparrows come and chirp out their song is usually the home of the central and most generous family in that village. What I’m saying is that even puppies and tiny insects align themselves with this rhythm of ideal love. They exist in a give-and-receive action relationship that is aligned with the direction of the great action of the universe. We human beings ourselves are like this as well. Then what do we have to do to follow the path of love? The action of love cannot escape from the realm of subject and object partners.
FFWPU, USA