Speeches of Hyo Jin Moon 2006-2008
Delivered Sunday at Belvedere Estate in Tarrytown, New York
Hyo Jin Moon Speaks on How Deep is Your Love? Page 13

Some episodes may contain explicit language. Reader's discretion is advised.

How Deep Is Your Love?

January 22, 2006

How are you doing? (Good.) Good, nice to see you again.

Before I start, some people on the ground/underground told me that some people have problem with my colorful words. My advice to you is—stay home! Having said that, I'll  try to make the choice of my words as dull as possible. Can't guarantee anything, but I'll try. Today, I came back from spending some time in Hawaii. It's kind of a new start for me, and I'm volunteering to do this, and it's important for me. And that's why I might as well start with something general. Let's start with something big. Let's think about love. “How Deep Is Your Love?"

I guess if you talk to people in general and observe how they use the language, the word love, they use it in a very secular way. On a surface level, they do use the word love a lot. "I love chocolate," "I love Gucci," "I love money," "I love to have more power," I would love to have that position or this position," "I would love to spend just one night with that famous person." Love gets used a lot. In a way, secularly speaking, love is almost like a literary supplement to highlight or heighten the value or description of your needs. And that's pretty much what the word love has come down to. That's how people use the word love in their lives. And just think about it. That is the definition and description which people in general in society constantly share with one another.

But what is the true meaning of love? Does the meaning of love end with the definition and value that we at this point in time are comfortable with or accept? Or does it have something of a greater meaning? I guess that is why people seek religion. Because something inside tells them, maybe it's the inner voice. We have to understand in the individual self. We all understand through the Principle teaching that there is a spirit, mind, and body. You have a physical body, you have intellect, and there is the spirit itself. Even in self, there are these three stages. We understand that because of Father's teaching. But in the external world and in the secular world, the understanding of even the simplest thing that we pursue, that we hold value, because of what we understand, what we believe—what others believe is pretty foreign for us. We understand why they want those things, why they love those things because at one time or the other you loved those things too. But you want something more. That's why you seek something greater. That's why you try to understand God. And it's a lifelong process. It's never ending.

How do you understand the depth of love? You know, because when you look at God's way of love, many times you have to accept a lot of things that you don't want to accept. You don't want a definition or a value of love to be something with suffering, pain, and misery. You have to be sadistic to like that kind of stuff. If you are a prize fighter, maybe you can teach and train yourself to love pain because that's how you make a living. But beyond that, it's very difficult to accept. Because in many cases, in the life of pursuing God's course, or God's ways, or learning about God's definition of things in life, it is opposite of what people consider love to be in a secular world. I like chocolate, too, but if you like chocolate too much, you are going to get fat. Yeah, money is good, sure. You can buy a mansion, you can buy not just one, buy 10 of them. Have it strewn all around the world, take time out and go to those places, juice up, try to conquer the world again and be the richest man on earth. All those things, you like to talk about it, and you like to think about it at times. Sure!

There are many ways to go about if you just don't think about those things. Maybe it's because I have learned about those things, almost even to the point of brainwashing ever since I was born. Maybe I can't, or it's very difficult for me to part from what I leamed, just cut away from it. Because I don't want to go down in history as such and such and such. Because that is ingrained into me. There are ways to go about pursuing that kind of stuff but if I do, I'm going to go down in history because of my lineage, what I belong to, something that I can't ever change. I mean, just because you change my children's name from Moon to Hong, that does not mean they will forever be Hongs. People can do that. Crazy people do those kinds of stuff. Without my permission, they can burn my son's body and deprive me of my last right to see my son. They can do those kinds of stuff. And what happens after that? I think about the consequences. No matter how, at times, how difficult it is for me to accept certain things, I have to think about those things because I believe in it. How I came to accept that, that's not the problem. The situation is that I believe in it. That's the problem. Because I accept that I have to deal with that issue. Because I believe in the consequences. That's why I have to make and interpret things based on that direction. And that's why it's very difficult for me to try to go the opposite direction. I struggle with it. I wish, in a way, sometimes when you think about giving excuses and stuff you can rationalize things. Yes, I could do those kinds of stuff, too, but why? What am I doing it to? Who am I doing it to? Why? For what reason? It's just better to go, "Hey, get off," and not talk about it at all. But that's not important. That's not important.

Anyway, I'm here because I want to be here, not because it's my duty. So, no matter what, I'm going to make the best of it. I know what duty feels like. Pretty much I was there for a long time every Sunday for eight years. But this is not something of that nature. This is something different. I feel that I have something to share, and I'm going to do my best to do so.

So having said that, how do you go about trying to understand God's love? First of all, I have to understand my parental love. If you want to go up, everybody has somebody above, right? Even the messiah has a father. So, immediately, that's where I would start. Let's say, that's your first starting point. Of course in life, you have bosses and stuff and other subject and object relationships, but let's just be intimate. The best way you can start in general is that we all have a parental relationship with our own self. So that's the fundamental, that's primeval subject and object relationship that we can start with.

In order to understand your father, you have to understand yourself first. You have to understand, 'Where is my limit?' and 'Where do I belong?'in this relationship. Many people I see in the secular world, of course, they like certain positions, and they will do anything to attain it. But many times, just getting it is not the end of the story, it's only half of the story. Then you have to fulfill. You have to understand the responsibility, be accountable to the position, the demands of the position that you have just acquired with any and all means necessary. So even just having the position is not the end of the story. That's just the beginning. So just start with yourself. Don't think about any other position that you would like to achieve or attain. Think about yourself. I'm Father's son. Okay, what am I? Who am I? What is my limitation? How should I define myself? When you talk about definition of yourself, you have to understand the limits of your responsibility. And what is that? What is the main nature of my responsibility, what is the merit of my responsibility? What is the expectation? When you talk about merit, you have to connect it to your expectation of the position. Otherwise, there is no meaning. So, when you talk about expectations, how do you go about trying to understand the meaning of that stuff if you don't begin to try to understand who your subject in a relationship is? I mean, who is your subject? Because that is the basic starting point of the relationship you are trying to achieve. That is the beginning of understanding everything greater, ultimately God. If Father is too far from me, then I'm going to start with my mother or something. You know what I'm saying? I have an older sister. If my older sister can be a guide, an indicator for me to understand or familiarize myself with the basic go-about or direction as to how I should approach understanding my mother, then maybe that's where I should start from.