Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: Episode 36
Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: A Selection of True Parents’ Speeches
Book 1: The Principles of True Peace
Speech 10: The Nation and World of Peace Sought by God and Humanity, Pg 130-132
The Nation and World of Peace Sought by God and Humanity
October 29, 2001
Hotel Riviera Yuseong, Daejeon, Korea
Korea Rally for the Nation of Cosmic Peace and Unity
Respected leaders, ladies and gentlemen: At this transitional point in human history, we have gathered as leaders from around the world who are concerned about the unification of Korea and world peace. The tragedies that took place in New York, Washington D.C., and Pennsylvania on September 11 truly shocked the entire world. Along with our concerns over peace and safety, we have come to reflect upon fundamental and serious questions of modern civilization and the future of humanity.
The Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace and the World Association of Non-Governmental Organizations held a timely and significant conference in New York on October 19-22. These two organizations, both of which I founded, brought together more than four hundred participants from one hundred and one countries. The participants included current and former heads of state, top leaders of major religions including Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Confucianism, and representatives of academia and non-governmental organizations. The participants debated seriously on how to find peaceful solutions to today's crises.
Our homeland, the Korean peninsula, remains a divided country and a trouble spot that, along with the Middle East, attracts the world's attention. In my opening address at the New York conference, I communicated my vision for lasting and fundamental peace. Again I would like to share my view with you leaders assembled here today. The title of my address is "The Nation and World of Peace Sought by God and Humanity."
Throughout history, people have continuously aspired to a world of peace, but we have never realized that dream. Consider the end of the Cold War, which concluded a time of fierce political and military conflicts and struggles. Many people expected that the long-awaited era of peace and stability would arrive, supported by our highly developed science and technology.
Nonetheless, we came to realize that the seed of conflict, hatred and selfish desire embedded deeply within each of us is still alive and is creating ever more serious disasters in new shapes and forms. Violence against innocent people is certainly an inhumane criminal act, and it must be stopped. However, what can eradicate our inner conflicts and struggles and resolve fundamental human problems at their root? Where was the seed of hatred, conflict, and struggle sown, and how did it come to be rooted so deeply within us?
That seed was planted in the family of our first ancestors, Adam and Eve. The conflicts and struggles that resulted have continued from generation to generation until the present time.
Then how can we resolve those conflicts and realize peace on earth? Historically, people have attempted to overcome conflicts and pursue peace through economic, political, diplomatic, and military means. However, such methods obviously do not provide fundamental solutions, as we are still struggling with many unresolved problems.
There is only one fundamental way to resolve these issues. It is clear and simple. We must restore the family that our first ancestors lost; that is, the ideal family with God at its center, the family that has achieved perfection in true love, both vertically and horizontally.
God exists as the Original Being of true love and the invisible True Parent of humankind. Nonetheless, love cannot exist alone. It exists in relationships, and it bears fruit only through relationships. That is why God created us, as His children, through whom He would seek to realize true love.
God's first blessing to human beings, to "be fruitful" (Gen. 1:28), called God's children to become the object partners of His true love by becoming true persons. When we love someone, we want our object partner to be better than ourselves. Thus God, as our loving Parent, wants His children to be better than He is. That is why God repeatedly invests Himself in human beings, His object partners of love; He forgets about what He has already given while constantly desiring to give infinitely more and more love. This is so because love has its origin in the desire to live eternally for the sake of others.
God then bestowed the second Blessing, to "multiply" (Gen. 1:28). Our first ancestors were to have grown to maturity as the children of God. After reaching maturity and becoming one in heart with God, they were to be blessed as true husband and wife. Then they were to become substantial True Parents to their children, inheriting and passing on true love, true life, and true lineage from God.
God's ideal of creation was to perfect true love both vertically and horizontally, beginning in the first family of our common ancestors. Since God's love is absolute, unique, unchanging, and eternal, that family also was to have been the absolute, unique, unchanging, and eternal family, centered on true love. Human beings were to be the substantial embodiments of love, totally united with God in heart and obtaining perfect freedom, happiness, and the realization of all ideals. Then they would have become the lords of true love whom all beings in the universe would have loved and welcomed. This was God's third blessing (Gen. 1:28). This is the blessing to create a living environment in which we experience joy and happiness, having dominion over all of creation. This includes the care and preservation of the world's ecological balance as true stewards of the creation.
Tragically, our first ancestors could not inherit the three blessings of God and establish the family of true love. That means they did not become true individuals, true spouses, true parents, and true lords centered on true love. Because they disobeyed God, He expelled them from the garden of Eden. As fallen people, they became false spouses to each other with false love that had nothing to do with God's blessings. They gave birth to children, and those children multiplied to populate the world of today.
Since the Fall occurred at the very beginning of human history, people have not been born on the foundation of true love in attendance to God. Instead, we have lived in a state of conflict, struggling between our minds and bodies. This conflict manifested in the tragedy of hatred and murder between two brothers, Cain and Abel, in the first family. This was the miserable reality in that family once it departed from God.
A family built on human relationships alone cannot become a family of the original ideal of creation. An ideal family must connect to God vertically and have a true person as its axis. Only under the true love of true parents, and among siblings who have and share a common axis, can a family enjoy relationships of ultimate harmony and peace. True love is experienced within an ideal family that bears good fruit. The family is the original and best school of love. Neither power nor knowledge can create true love.
FFWPU, USA