Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: Episode 290
Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: A Selection of True Parents’ Speeches
Book 7: The World of the Culture of Heart
Speech 11: The Root of Peace Is in True Love, pg 1066-1069
The Root of Peace Is in True Love
February 15, 2002
Hilton Millennium Seoul, Seoul, Korea
Address at the World Culture and Sports Festival 2002 and the Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace Assembly
Respected chairman, current and former heads of state, and honored guests: I would like to thank you for participating in the World Culture and Sports Festival 2002, in this second year of the new millennium of hope, and making this event such a great success.
God’s ideal of creation and the basis of peace
Humanity is living in an age when change is taking place at a faster pace than ever before. The world is feeling the need for dialogue among religions, harmony among the races, and understanding across cultures. I believe that is why the theme of the World Culture and Sports Festival 2002 is “Toward a World of a Culture of Peace of a New Dimension.” As the founder of this conference, I would like to take this opportunity to share a part of the philosophy of peace that I have believed, practiced, and taught throughout my life.
Respected guests, what do you think is the fundamental root of peace, the peace humankind earnestly hopes for and continually demands? Where do we need to go, and what do we need to do in order to achieve peace? What is the obstacle that blocks humanity’s path to peace? Is there any hope that we can bring about peace in this confused world where individualism and selfishness are rampant?
In order to know the fundamental root of peace, we have to examine God’s ideal of creation. We cannot bring about peace without knowing God and the spirit world. The creation of heaven and earth is nothing other than the manifestation of God’s true love. Human beings were created to be the masters of that world. They were to establish God’s ideal of creation, that is, the kingdom of heaven on earth, and then go to the spirit world and establish the kingdom of heaven of eternal peace. Unless we establish the kingdom of heaven on earth, which is a world of peace, we cannot expect to live in such a world in the spirit world. What we call “the kingdom of heaven” is a place where the creation and humankind live for each other and where all human beings live for one another in harmonious unity.
However, with the Fall committed by our first ancestors, God’s ideal of creation was cruelly destroyed, and it still has not been realized. Human beings fell into such ignorance that we did not know even that the relationship between God and humanity was that of Parent and child. Please look at the contemporary world, which has come about as a result of the human Fall. Deception and divorce decimate families, which otherwise would be overflowing with melodies of happiness and peace. Children, who ought to be cherishing their dreams for the future and cultivating their limitless potential under the warm security of their parents’ love, instead are running into the streets out of a sense of failure and disappointment, becoming slaves to alcohol and drugs, and even throwing their bodies away in free sex.Th is is the absurd reality that we are witnessing. What do we see when we look at the leaders of today’s nations, who ought to be responsible for their citizens and guide their nations in the direction of goodness? The real interest of many is in the preservation of their own power, not the future of their nation or the happiness of their citizens. Between nations also, isn’t today’s reality one of disharmony and struggle, where there ought to be understanding and peace? Instead, war is rampant. The path to the peace for humankind is blocked.
That is why we have no choice except to look to God, who has been carrying out His providence of salvation, by which He is establishing the ideal of true love and peace that He originally planned. God’s providence of salvation is a providence to recover the original condition. That is, it is a providence of restoration. For the purpose of the providence of restoration, throughout the course of history God established religions, traditions and cultures in each age, as a way to expand the realm of goodness.
The fulfillment of the providence of restoration
Early in my life, I received Heaven’s call for the sake of humankind’s salvation. Ever since that time, my life has been a struggle to overcome persecution and suffering until arriving at the point on January 13, 2001, when I could offer to Heaven the Enthronement Ceremony for God’s Kingship. Through this, I liberated God’s heart and returned the kingship to God, who had been waiting for this moment for thousands of years ever since the Fall.
On the foundation of this event, the world has entered an age in which the spirit world and physical world can unite and communicate freely with each other. The spirit world is breathing in harmony with people in the physical world. Jesus’ twelve disciples, and even the founders of the four great religions, have sent messages testifying to me as the True Parent of humankind and as the Messiah. Thus, the barriers that had divided the two worlds have been completely torn down. I declare before you that we are approaching the age when no one will want to live except by following the way of Heaven.
All people now need to establish true families in which they attend God as their Father. He is the “first generation,” and these families who stand in the position of perfected Adam and Eve and become husband and wife will establish the realm of the second generation. The children whom they then procreate will bring to fruition the realm of the third generation. By following this path we can create a world free from sin, a world filled with true freedom, peace, and happiness, in which God’s direct lineage will thrive on the earth generation after generation for all eternity. Then people will know God and the spirit world with certainty and clearly see the path to bring about peace.
What does peace mean? In human relations, peace means that the subject partner and the object partner become one with each other horizontally. It refers to a state of being level, of complete balance, where there is not even the slightest disturbance. In Chinese characters, the word for peace consists of two characters, one meaning flat, or horizontal, and another meaning harmony, or reconciliation.
God is the origin of true love
Thus, peace is not a solitary place that just one person can form. No one, no matter how hard they may try, can be happy by him or herself. True peace comes only when there is harmony in the relationships of above and below, right and left, and front and back, when there is no leaning to one side or the other. The world of peace is a world in which three-dimensional axes are established in the vertical, front-to-back, and horizontal directions, and where all things are in complete resonance with each other. When the seven colors of the rainbow are combined, they form the color white, which symbolizes harmony and peace. In the same way, peace is a pure white color within which all conditions and circumstances are fused in harmony. When all directions form complete harmony at a single point, then the two-dimensional plane is automatically transcended, the third dimension is taken on and an eternal nature is acquired. This is how the permanent peace of humanity can be established.
Peace does not exist in isolation. It has its root in true love. In the same way that freedom and happiness have their roots in true love, so also true peace cannot be accomplished unless we first bring about true love.
What kind of love is true love? It is love that gives and then forgets that it has given, that is, it is love that gives unconditionally. It is sacrificial love. In the same way that parents attach no conditions to the love by which they give birth, bring up, and provide for a child, all true love is love that gives unconditionally. It is love that even forgives an enemy and then gives to that person. It is a love that gives, and then keeps on giving. Because it gives without condition, true love does not even remember that it has already given. It is a love of unlimited giving. This was the love that God bestowed on human beings at the time He created us. That is why the origin of true love resides in God. When peace is established on the basis of this true love, it will become true peace and will bring with it freedom and happiness.
FFWPU, USA