Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: Episode 142
Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: A Selection of True Parents’ Speeches
Book 3: The Mission of Religion in Achieving God’s Ideal
Speech 16: The Path of Life for All Humankind, pg 496-499
Our three parents are this earth, our natural parents and our Heavenly Parent
Each person comes into the world through three sets of parents. The first parent is the material world. Elements from the world of matter combine to form each person as the center of the material world and as a complex material being. Thus, it can be said that these physical elements themselves are the ancestors who gave us birth. At the same time, the material world is an extension of us. The universe is created so that matter can settle only in the ideal of love. It is only in the ideal of love that all cells can live in tranquility. However, this is ruined whenever a person becomes angry.
Our second set of parents is our natural parents. By giving birth to us, our parents gave us a particular form, and to this extent they are the masters of our lives. However, no matter how hard they may try, our parents cannot be the masters of our love. The master of love is God. In this context, God exists so that love can expand into the entire universe and be made eternal. Because God is the subject partner of love, God becomes the Parent centering on love. God is our third Parent, so we have three sets of parents.
Human life can be divided into three periods: life in the womb of about ten months, a physical life of about a hundred years, and life in the spirit world that lasts tens of thousands of years into eternity. If we look at our own face, we also see three stages: the mouth, the nose and the eyes. These reflect the three periods of our lives. The mouth symbolizes the period in the womb, which is a world of material. The nose symbolizes the period on earth, which is the world of humanity. The eyes symbolize the period in heaven, which is the spirit world.
To the fetus, the aquatic world of its mother’s womb is a world of total freedom. Interestingly, although it is constrained within the confines of the womb, the fetus feels completely free. In the womb, it can’t stretch its legs, and it relies on an umbilical cord to breathe and receive nutrients for survival. Its nose and mouth are both useless in that world. Nevertheless, to the fetus, the world in the womb is one of complete freedom.
At the time of birth, do you think the fetus would say, “I am going into the world to eat delicious rice, sweet honey and lots of cake with this mouth?” No. The opposite is the case. It would say, “Oh no! I don’t want to leave!” However, even if the fetus doesn’t want to leave its mother’s womb, when the time comes it has no choice. As the amniotic fluid flows out, the fetus follows soon thereafter. This is what happens in a normal birth. As soon as the baby is born, it begins to cry. At the same time, it starts to breathe through its nose and becomes linked to the second world, the world of air.
As the baby leaves the womb to enter the world of air, the umbilical cord is discarded along with the amniotic sac and everything it needed in the world of the womb. With the destruction of these things, the baby is born into the bosom of its new mother, the planet Earth. Once born, the baby begins to eat with its mouth and breathe through its nose. The food we eat on earth nourishes our physical body, but it does not contain the essential element of life. This life element is nothing other than love. Thus, while we are in this world, we also need to breathe the air of love. We need to inhale this air of love from our mother and father.
A newborn baby automatically searches for its mother’s breast, following the vibrations of her love. Whether she is beautiful or ugly does not matter to the baby. The only thing that matters is that she is its mother. It is a sacred scene manifested in limitless variety. We are born in love and we grow by receiving love. Each of us is the substantial fruit of our parents’ love. The nature of our parents’ love is made visible in us. Parents love their children because their children are the fruit of their love. Boundless love can multiply from this fruit. In this way, we are linked to the love of the individual, family, tribe, nation, world, universe, and ultimately to the essential love of God.
I am the fruit of my parents’ love
Once we are born, our parents take responsibility to see that we become good human beings during our life on earth. Our parents act on behalf of the world, the nation and the family to teach and provide for us. We receive material things and education from our parents so that we may become complete as individuals. Based on this, we then become linked to a horizontal foundation of love, which is marriage.
Parents take responsibility for us until we marry. After marriage, we inherit the love shared by our mother and father. When we marry and start rearing our own children, we begin to understand how much our parents loved us, and thus come to inherit parental love. In this way, the individual becomes capable of receiving and giving love completely. This is how each of us matures as a complete man or woman.
We are born and mature in the vertical love of our parents, and later we engage in horizontal love. This is the only way we can find the integrated realm of love. Heaven and earth together form a spherical world, covering all the dimensions of top and bottom, left and right, and front and back. When the vertical and horizontal love relationships are linked, they interact, revolve, integrate and finally emerge as a single center of harmony. Once the vertical love of heaven and earth is firmly established as the axis internally and externally, the need for horizontal love arises. This takes place during adolescence.
During adolescence, even the sight of an autumn leaf blowing along the ground can seem inspiring. Girls who used to be so reserved when they were younger suddenly start doing things to their hair, putting on makeup and trying on all sorts of clothes and accessories. Their interests expand as well. These are horizontal phenomena of love.
So we are travelers on the path of life. The most important thing on this path is to experience and embody vertical and horizontal love. We need to build a family centering on the love of true parents, true husbands and wives, true brothers and sisters, and true sons and daughters. Next, we need to expand ourselves horizontally, multiplying into families in all directions. When these families, linking the horizontal and vertical, manifest themselves as true families connected to the levels of tribe, society, nation and world, then this world, interlinked by true love, will be the kingdom of heaven.
When a husband and wife love each other, their relationship symbolizes the planting of God. Parents represent God’s original position and husband and wife each embodies different aspects of God. Also, each child is like a small God. Since God is the original entity of true love, when the various members of the family link themselves to true love, they become one body with God. Parents are the living embodiment of God and the children represent God as well. Thus, three generations stand in the position of God, centering on true love.
This is why all members of the family—parents, husbands and wives, and children—need true love. A family formed on true love in this way is the foundation for the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven will be established when we create the foundation of true love. This is the formula.
The family is the center of the entire physical universe. People today do not realize that their family represents their country, world and universe. They do not know that their family is the center. Breaking apart a family is an act of aggression against the country, world and universe. Because a perfect family is the foundation for a perfect universe, a person who loves the universe as he or she loves the family can travel freely everywhere. God, as the Parent of the entire universe, is in the central position of love.
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