Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: Episode 182
Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: A Selection of True Parents’ Speeches
Book 4: The True Family Movement
Speech 14: True Families: Gateway to Heaven, pg 644-647
Chapter 1: The Family is the Central Model for the Kingdom of Heaven
Section 1: The central model for all beings
Section 2: A place to experience the love of the universe
True Families: Gateway to Heaven
This compilation of True Father’s words was designated as one of the eight great textbooks. True Parents gave it as an encapsulation of the teachings that all people need to apply in their daily lives.
CHAPTER ONE The Family is the Central Model for the Kingdom of Heaven
Section 1. The central model for all beings
Each of us exists in a world of space and position. We need those who are higher and lower, those to the right and left, and those in front of us and behind us. Our position is determined in this way. Whether we properly engage in relationships with those higher and lower, to the right and left, and in front and at back will determine the various roles we fulfill in life.
The same formula applies whether we are dealing with relationships of higher and lower, right and left, or front and back, or with issues within our family, nation and world. According to this same pattern of higher and lower, right and left, and front and back with the individual at the center, a family consist of the relationships of parents and children, husband and wife, and brothers and sisters.
The same also applies within a nation. With the leader of the nation at the center, all families embrace the civilizations of East and West and of North and South, and then embrace all the people of the world as their brothers and sisters. This will substantiate a family model on the world level.
This model applies to everyone. Each of you stands at the center of your model, your family, which then expands to the nation, world, heaven and earth, and finally to God. Everyone has the desire to be the center of the universe, and everyone has the potential to fulfill that desire. In this way the concept of the family can be compared to the core of the universe. If we think of heaven as the parents, then earth represents the children. When considering East and West, East symbolizes the man and West the woman. So when a woman marries, she goes to wherever her husband is located. This can be compared to the way the West comes to have the same position as the East when it reflects the light from the sun.
The same is true with sibling relationships. When the oldest sibling begins a task, the younger siblings start to help. People need to be in a parent-child relationship, a conjugal relationship and a sibling relationship. In other words, these three relationships must meet at one point. There must be just one central point. There cannot be different central points for higher and lower, right and left, and front and back.
If the central points are different, the relationships of higher and lower, right and left, and front and back will be off balance. Higher and lower, right and left, front and back, and the common central point add up to the number seven. To form the number seven in this way means to be a family that is one in perfect true love with God at the center, a family in which all these elements form a complete spherical shape bringing harmony and unity. From this perspective, it makes sense that we often use the phrase “lucky seven.”
As long as true love never changes, this central core will rotate forever without changing and the true family ideal will be realized. Also, because everything is connected to the core, each of the seven positions, starting with the core, will possess equal value. If the grandfather wants something, the grandchild will not be against it, and the son and daughter will want it as well.
Three generations will share a desire for the same thing. The grandfather and grandmother, husband and wife, and sons and daughters all will align with the center. In terms of such love, we say that parents and children are one in their relationship and are of one body, that husbands and wives are one in their relationship and are of one body, and that siblings are one in their relationship and are of one body. They are one body. How can we say that these relationships make us one body? It is in terms of the true love of God, the center of love. With true love at the center, parents and children become one, husband and wife become one, and brothers and sisters all become one. In this way, all come to have equal value.
Section 2. A place to experience the love of the universe
What is the universe? Everything in the created world is designed as a study aid to help God’s beloved sons and daughters discover and understand the ideal of love. This is why everything exists in reciprocal relationships. Even minerals interact in relationships of subject and object partners.
The same is true with atoms. Protons and electrons also interact in relationships of subject and object partners. Without such interaction, they cannot continue to exist. Without motion, there is no permanence or continued existence. The universe is a world created in a way in which its central point can be reached only through human beings.
What did I say about the universe? It is an expansion of the family. If you look at a family that has realized the ideal of love fully, it has higher, middle and lower (parents, husband and wife, and children), right and left, and front and back. This is the basic rule. So when we talk about higher and lower, we refer to the parents and children; when we talk about right and left, we refer to the husband and wife; and when we talk about front and back, we refer to the siblings.
What enables all these to become as one? It cannot be done with power, knowledge or money. What can do it, then? It is true love. This is an unmistakable truth. Otherwise the family cannot become spherical in shape.
What is the significance of higher, middle and lower in the family? They are study aids for love. We are supposed to put these into practice when we go out of the family and into the wider community.
How are we supposed to love? Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” What did he mean? It may seem unclear. He meant, when you go out into the world and meet an old man, you treat him as you would your own grandfather. Treat people as you would your own father, your own mother or your own son. This is what we ought to do when we are out in the world.
The world can be compared to an exhibition hall filled with people, with each person representing higher, middle and lower, front and back, or right and left. The world is an exposition of all the different types of human beings. If you can love everyone with such love, God will dwell with you in the midst of that love.
What is the kingdom of heaven? It is when you are able to love the people of the world as you love your own family. People who do this are citizens of the kingdom of heaven. Your grandfather and grandmother, your father and mother, your spouse, your siblings, and your children form four generations. What are these four generations? They are the family that is the study guide for you to deeply experience love, the true love of the universe, as citizens of the kingdom of heaven. The family is the foundation that serves as the study guide to help you learn.
We cannot live without learning the love of the universe. God has prepared textbooks and scriptures that teach us this way: “Love your grandfather and grandmother. Your grandfather and grandmother on earth are sent as representatives of the grandfathers and grandmothers in the spirit world. If you love them, I will credit you with having loved them all.” This is God’s pledge.
God also tells us, “When you show exceptional love for your father and mother, it is because you hold them to be guides and models to be loved as representatives of the countless number of fathers and mothers in the world, so I will credit you with having loved all fathers and mothers. Also, when you as a man love a woman, I will consider that a man representing all men in the world has loved a woman representing all women in the world.”
God then says: “Since you have loved your sons and daughters, I will credit you with having loved all sons and daughters.” The family is where we can be trained to do this.
We are trained to love the world through a process that relies on scripture. When a person who has received this training is asked, “Are you ready now to go out into the world and love the grandfathers and grandmothers of the world as you would your own?” and the person answers, “Yes,” this person is capable of saving the world.
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