Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: Episode 126
Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: A Selection of True Parents’ Speeches
Book 3: The Mission of Religion in Achieving God’s Ideal
Speech 9: The Fundamental Truth, pg 437-441
The standard of peace and the way to love in all religions
What is the mind? It is the internal “I” that has been inherited through the love and lineage of the vertical God. The internal “I” is the vertical “I.”
Then what is the body? If “I” had not fallen, the “I” who would have inherited the fundamental, originally created ideal would have stood at right angles to the love of God. If I am born inheriting the love, life and lineage of the unfallen True Parents, I would become a person of both the body and the mind. The one would have been the character centered on the internal God of the mind, and the other would have been the character centered on the external parents of the body. At that place, the two would have formed a compound, united realm of a man and a woman centered on love, life and lineage. Since in this way the mind resembles God, the mind is said to be the internal “I.”
When I desperately prayed to ask what the secret of the universe is, the answer that came was simple. It is the parent-child relationship. If that parent-child relationship is literally the relationship between parents and their child, it can also be found in the fallen world, a world where parents sometimes sell their children and children kill their parents. Then what kind of a thing would be this parent-child relationship that is the secret of the universe? In terms of the sanctity of love, it would be the same as the ideal relationship between husband and wife.
What is the Human Fall? It was the stealing of that which is most precious to God. This act was committed by the devil. He stole and defiled God’s precious love, life, and lineage. This is why, throughout the historical eras, what God hated most was the lustful act of the Fall. Why did Rome come to ruin? It was not destroyed by outside forces invading. It was because of the promiscuous culture within. The devil sowed evil through lust. If populations across the world sail by the winds of obscenity, the iron rod will strike them.
When a religious denomination falls into such a state, it falters and decays, and when a nation falls into such a state, it also falters and decays. And when history thus goes wrong, its direction becomes perilous. Who brings this about? It is actually not people who make this happen. Nor is it the nation. Such a thing comes about because God dislikes sexual promiscuity.
That is why I am saying we need to find a true religion. What all religions are trying to find is the true God. The God who has carried out salvation until now is not the ideal God. He is not the God who can educate and guide moral leaders.
If you were to ask God what He would like to live with, He would say He wishes to live centered on love. What love would this be? It would be the love that is completely one, with mind and body at a perfect right angle. What would be the focus of God’s mind? It is true love. Then what is true love? It is the love that sacrifices completely and that invests 100 percent and then forgets having done so. Otherwise, do you think God could have observed the wrongdoings of humanity throughout the historical ages until now and endured that? If He had been like the people in the world, He would justifiably have killed us all.
Only one aspect of true love remains in the fallen world. The only vertical standard left is parents loving their children in place of God. This is why the providence of salvation is possible.
Where is happiness? It is in your mind. Then, what would God Himself desire to live for? He desires to live for true love. He desires to live together with men and women of true love. Parents desire to embrace all their children in their bosom. Similarly, God desires to live on this earth, holding on to His sons and daughters of true love.
The purpose of God’s salvation of humankind
Buddhist priests have raised a clamor, saying Rev. Moon claims he is higher than Buddha, Jesus, Confucius or anyone else for that matter. However, has there ever been anyone among the religious founders who has worked as much as I have in a lifetime? Despite opposition, I laid foundations in dozens, even hundreds, of nations. If you think about this one lifetime of mine, you will see there is no one who has worked as much as I have.
If I had done so with human energy alone, I would have been long dead by now. That would have happened if I had worked at all to satisfy my own greed. The course of the Unification Church, which is a path of goodness, is one that is centered on the ideal through love. It is not love merely on the individual or family level. The Unification Church’s view of love is “perpendicular.” This perpendicular view of love changes the philosophical view. It is a horizontal love that has a perpendicular perspective. Because I know about this, I can transcend peoples and races.
The members of the Unification Church, regardless of their nationality or race, are happy when I advise them to marry someone of another race or nation. Why is this so? It is because they understand that doing this is an act of reclaiming the brothers and sisters they lost thousands of years ago. The members come to realize that other members are their own brothers and sisters. And so the members sympathize with each other, asking how much they have suffered because of the color of their skin, and cling to each other and weep. Their meeting starts out with such weeping, and they cannot forget this experience. What would make them act like this? It is true love. This is what the Unification Church is like. I am an intelligent person. I have met and held discussions with the most prominent people in the world and won them over. This is why religious leaders of the world respect me.
An illogical doctrine is useless in the twenty-first century. In other words, a religion contrary to logic and not beneficial in real life is useless. The members of the Unification Church may seem naïve, but in reality they do not take things at face value; they look deeper. They have serious discussions about God and also God’s heart.
Since God’s goal is the salvation of the world, God endeavors to find His people even if it means sacrificing the family. God tries to save the world even at the risk of sacrificing the nation. God tries to liberate all spirits of all generations who have gone to the spirit world, even at the risk of sacrificing this earthly world. And after that, God Himself needs to be liberated.
I have willingly shouldered the cross because I know this to be true. This man standing before you has undergone myriads of hardships for forty years, saying to himself, “In the religious world, the person who knows this truth will bear the cross.” When you see my passion and vigor, you will see that they are more than enough to stop all heaven and earth. From the moment I learned about the Will of God, I have continually advocated that we need to save the world, even if it means having to sacrifice the Unification Church and all religions. This is why I have invested huge sums of money, which amount to hundreds of times more than the budget of the Unification Church, to carry out the interdenominational movement. Thus on the world stage, I have made a religious foundation and have been investing vast amounts of resources in it. The Unification Church members support and carry out this work by following my model of carrying the cross.
I invest for the world. This is because I know that if I invest in the same way God does, the spring days of revival will come and the ideal world as originally intended by God will dawn. Such a world is a place where we can dance with joy centering on the jubilant ideal of love. To carry out this work, someone has to bear the cross for humanity, be it in the east, in the west, at home or anywhere else. Otherwise, we cannot purify the filthy water in the drainage ditch. The members of the Unification Church are people who live with faith in this truth.
I set before you the paths to prosperity or destruction; where you go is determined by whether you live for the sake of others or not. When you consider input and output of energy in the realm of natural science, you see that input is always greater than output. However, in the world of true love output is always greater than input. Because of love, you can rescue a world that is in decline. Only when you inherit the tradition of true love, which is based on living and sacrificing for the sake of others and on a heart of unconditional love and service, can this world’s decline be brought under control. This is the rule of Heaven.
The path of living for the sake of others as well as the path of love of the dutiful child is the path of the love of the patriot and the path of the love of the saint. The love of the saint is love for humanity. Saints know how to love heaven and earth and how to uphold the laws of the heavenly palace. They are able to serve God with all their heart. This is the vertical position you must hold on to.
Without learning about the way of the saint and the way of God’s love, we cannot find the standard of peace for all religions. Isn’t this the goal of the Association of Religions in Korea?
With these words, I would like to conclude my address. Thank you.
FFWPU, USA