Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: Episode 146
Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: A Selection of True Parents’ Speeches
Book 4: The True Family Movement
Speech 1: The True Family and I, pg 514-517
The individual, family and world that God desires
There are basic questions that need to be resolved on a worldwide level.
These include: what came first, matter or spirit? Which is correct, the materialist theory or the idealist theory? Which comes first, reality or concept? Is the theory of evolution accurate or is the theory of creation correct?
Let us work toward the answers by way of an example. When we observe the animal kingdom, we discover that in an embryo, the eyes are one of the earliest parts to develop. If we were talking only of matter, would those eyes know of the existence of the sun prior to the animal’s birth? If they were pure matter, the eyes would not be aware. However something or someone possessed the awareness that the eyes were going to see sunlight. Someone knew.
Not only that; the face, being purely matter, would have no awareness that the atmosphere existed, and yet eyelids form in the womb, to assure that the dust in the air will not damage the eyes. The eyes, being purely matter, would not know that steam and other forms of heat would dry the eyes and damage them. Someone knew, however, and arranged for the eyelids to blink, to lubricate and protect the eyes. The original matter itself was not aware, yet there was someone who knew everything before it happened, before we were born.
We can conclude that a simple example such as that of the eye resolves the great debates over whether thought precedes existence, spirit precedes matter, and concept precedes reality. We can resolve the debates of spirit versus matter, of creationism versus evolutionary theory.
Given this, we have no way to deny that God created everything. We, therefore, would do well to strive to return to the original world of creation, by coming to know the kind of individual, the kind of family, and the kind of world that God desires to see.
The body became the base of operations for hell and the conscience the base of operation for heaven. We did not know that within ourselves is contained the division of two worlds. From this perspective, each of us has to ask if our body leads our mind or our mind leads our body. In reality, throughout history the body has been completely unrestricted as it leads the mind. If the conscience were stronger we would have automatically returned to God; long ago the world would have been with God.
The fact that the physical body leads the conscience shows us that the problem stems from the moment of the Fall, when the force of false love, which tied the first ancestors to Satan, was stronger than the force of the conscience. God, who knows very well our situation, cannot abandon fallen humanity. So God surely established a strategy to weaken the body-centered force that dominates our conscience.
The purpose of religion
The world cultural spheres were formed according to the different human circumstances and antecedents. To this day, religious people have not known that the purpose of religion is to prevent the body from continuing to lead the mind. Had there been no Fall, religion would not have been necessary.
Something went very wrong and religion became necessary to correct it. What does God intend to do through religion? God intends to discipline the body. You will not be saved just because you believe in religion, or go to heaven just because you believe in Christianity. However, it is the children who are centered on God’s love who can go to heaven. Adam’s family was to have had the love of God at its center. It was to have had a blood relationship with God. The kingdom of heaven is the place where such families dwell. We need to dominate the body in order to strengthen the power of the conscience. A liberated conscience then will lead our body, and we will return to the bosom of God’s love as original beings free from sin.
Therefore, if we ask what religion is supposed to do, the answer is that it needs to motivate our body to do everything it hates to do. What does the body hate most? To serve others! To sacrifice for others! Furthermore, religion asks us to be an offering. The offering is destined to shed blood and be capable of sacrificing its life. Therefore, the Bible tells us that a person who is willing to lose his or her life shall find it, and a person who wishes to find his or her life shall lose it. What this paradox teaches is that if we live according to the flesh, we are going to go to hell. If we gain victory over our flesh and liberate our conscience, we will go to heaven. If we subjugate our body’s wishes and put our conscience in a totally subjective position, we will liberate the unlimited and infinite hope of the conscience.
In the course of history, there have been numerous religions and religious leaders. Yet those who believed in those religions and in those leaders were not able to attain total control over the body and could not deny themselves completely. They could not liberate the conscience and place it in a position to relate with God on the original basis. We sinful people did not become true olive trees. Instead we remained wild olive trees with our roots in a false love. Human beings were to have had roots in God’s true love yet we established roots in Satan’s love. How are we going to resolve the problem of being wild olive trees instead of true ones? This remains an inevitable and crucial task.
If you study yourself, you will notice that your conscience knows everything about you. The conscience is closer to you than your own parents are. It desires to possess true love, to be embraced eternally in God’s bosom. When we marry, we separate from our earthly parents, not from our con- science, with which we are born. The conscience loves us and its mission is to transform us into eternal sons and daughters of God.
The desire of the conscience is to occupy the absolute center
The conscience does not need a teacher. Have you ever heard of a Minister of Education in some country announcing a plan to educate the conscience? If we had gone the original way of the conscience, we would have known clearly the course to follow in life. It would have taught us and guided us to return to God’s bosom. Because your conscience knows everything about your life, when you go to the spirit world you will discover that there is a “computer” there that fully recorded everything you did on earth. This is to fulfill the mission of the conscience to convert us into unblemished, true sons and daughters of God.
Is there anyone here who is convinced that he or she will never die? We will all go to the spirit world someday. When you enter the spirit world, you will immediately be known by your name. Your entire life will be known, as well as that of your ancestors, because the spirit world transcends time and space.
We must not bring anything into that world that stains our conscience. For that reason, you need to understand that the conscience is above all other teachers.
Today we have gathered distinguished personalities. Among them are some professors. Honestly, there has never been a professor who possessed a teaching superior to that of the conscience. It fulfills the same role that a compass fulfills for a ship’s captain.
To the many distinguished people gathered here this evening, I would like to ask, “When you married, did you want to have a spouse inferior to you?” The answer is no. And if I asked you whether you wanted a spouse ten times better than you or one hundred times better than you, no doubt you would reply that, if it were possible, you would prefer that he or she be one thousand, ten thousand, one million times better than you. This is because the ambition of the conscience is to experience the maximum amount of love. It wishes to possess the absolute being. The same was true for our ancestors and the same will be true for our descendants. Even God would respond in the same way.
Is it possible for all of our desires to be fulfilled? A senator will want to be president of his or her country, and later an important person on the world level. He or she will want to be an important person in world affairs. Ultimately, he or she will want to achieve the highest position in the world.
That is the measure of ambition of the conscience. From the beginning of history until now, people’s general thinking is that the ambition of the conscience cannot be completely satisfied. However, Rev. Moon, the person who is standing here, arrived at the conclusion that it is possible to satisfy it.
How big is the conscience? How can the conscience be measured? Do you think that the day will come when the conscience will possess God? Do you think that if something bigger than God exists that the conscience would desire to possess it? If something exists that is larger than God, then the conscience wants to occupy that larger thing.
Then what is it that the conscience’s ambition is seeking? If there existed something that had the maximum value in the cosmos, the conscience would desire to possess that as well.
FFWPU, USA