Speeches of Hyo Jin Moon 2006-2008
Delivered Sunday at Belvedere Estate in Tarrytown, New York
Hyo Jin Moon Speaks on Awe, Page 141

Some episodes may contain explicit language. Listener discretion is advised.

 

Awe

September 10,2006

Good morning

Please sit down.

Do you feel awe when you see Parents? (Yes.)

When do you feel awe? Some young people are in awe if they are face-to-face with movie stars or something, a rich man, Bill Gates or somebody. Let's say even if you walk into a palace. Let's say it's your own palace and you walk into it for the first time and you're awed by the magnitude, everything to the extreme, great dining halls, great gathering halls, everything great-great, grand-grand, magnificent, and you're awed by it because of that presence and that ambiance, everything grand. But let's say you live in it. How long do you think that awe will last?

Let's look at the opposite side. Let's say that you go to prison. You're awed by that uncertainty, that fear. But let's say that you have to live there and you have to survive in that opposite environment of living in a palace, by living in a hell hole for however long that you're sentenced. And what you have to face initially is that awe, that awe of uncertainty and then you transcend that. Eventually what happens is just plain life. From that moment what's important to you is life itself. So for instance, say we believe in religion, in your case you believe in True Parents. You know sometimes I feel awed by it. Even though they're my folks I don't know them as deeply as they know themselves.

So, in that sense, I am awed by them. Of course, through more interaction, if we could actually live together like ordinary folks, then I'm sure through normal life we would get to appreciate each other in life and understand the basic human experiences that we all go through in an ordinary setting.

But in some kind of extraordinary situation the awe can really get you. If you get addicted to that kind of stuff it can really mess you up whether you're living in a palace or living in a jail somewhere in a hell hole, or wherever you might be.

So, in essence, in order for us to understand what's important in life you have to remember life is more than, "Boy, I'm just trying to have fun." Of course that's important to young people because they want to experience life to the fullest. It is part of human maturation that you go through many extreme experiences so that you can understand your potential range. A lot of young people take risks while they're young and some people never grow out of it. That's a problem.

Of course, there's the obvious process of trying to discover yourself through experimentation. Because you have to, and you will, because in the end that's what stays with you till your dying day. That's what you take with you to the grave. But beyond that, the experiences that actually mold you and give you some kind of enlightenment as to how you should live and how you should control your lives comes from living with other people, because you don't want to live alone.

Many times you take extreme experiences not just to understand your boundaries, but you take other extreme measures to understand how to live as a human being in a gregarious setting. That social experience sometimes makes you push yourself a bit. Why? Because you need to understand your boundaries, your limitations and you do take chances at times. Some people mess up and break the law. There are obviously consequences to every individual action.

Even when we think about True Parents—Parents to me do not just symbolize parents and the ancestry of humankind and restoration. They also embody or symbolize law, right? The American government has three branches: executive, legislative and judicial. My view of True Parents as the incarnation of law embodies pretty much that aspect of it.

So, when you talk about Parents as that kind of symbolic figure, that is what a King is. And the reason that you don't trust kings is that historically kings have abused their powers. But that's what True Parents represent, technically, theoretically, and in every aspect. It doesn't matter what kind of historical tribe you come from, what kind of heritage or background you have, you pretty much follow that route. Many times you don't trust those kinds of circumstances because of historical experience. Then eventually we don't trust at all.

With True Parents, however, when they talk about individual responsibility, to me that is the way to be free from judgment. If you're individually responsible then you're free from judgment from God, from history, and from posterity. That's freedom. We're not talking about freedom in the sense that there is no law, no boundaries. That obviously would be nihilism, anarchy.

Responsibility is in freedom. That's what equalizes things. And even if you fail, in God, everybody has the opportunity to be God's child, to feel God's love. Why? Because even if you fail your responsibility, there is a course you can take. You suffer the consequences and pay indemnity. With restoration through indemnity everything can be restored.

That is the greatest freedom, in a sense. We all can achieve that in the end. Sometime, when you are in the middle of going through paying the consequences, it becomes very difficult, but you just have to live through it. It's not somebody else, it's you. You have to live through that stuff, and that's nasty. Sometimes it's painful, sometimes it's hopeless, helpless, powerless, and it's bad.

Your whole perspective on life changes sometimes when you're going through some kind of serious situation and paying those dues. It's bad, nasty, but it will end some time, it won't go on forever. That's about it.That's what you have to walk through. You try to tough it out and try to reason with yourself, "There is a purpose for this and I accept it. I know this will end one day. It will not last forever."

In that sense when we're awed by things in life, whether it is positive or negative, it has to do with life itself. We have to understand the basic premise of life and see the value in it. We need to appreciate that value of the plus or minus experiences we might have. If you can try to understand the essence of why they exist, and how they affect you and why they should be relevant to you and you accept it, you have taken one step closer to understanding and mastering your life. Ultimately, you can help other people, if you can help yourself.

Yesterday, some second-generation came and I showed them some videos because they were wondering about Archbishop Milingo working on the issue of married priests. Actually, these are productions from a company that I created several years back, and since last year, we have been working on this kind of partial format stuff. I was going to report to you when we had over 100 interviews, but now we have a little over 20 interviews on these kinds of topics in that same spirit. They're inspiring and I want to use them.

You also can access them at http://definingmoment.tv because they will benefit you.

My plan is to create shows like these. The host is Bret Moss. He's been around for a long time. If we have more of these we can put them together and make an internet broadcasting company. It's a cheaper version of cable TV, but you have to start somewhere. It can be done, it can be done.

The reason that we want to pursue this is because it's for the purpose of immunization, detoxification, and straight-forward education. A lot of people to this day still have a kind of negative notion about the Unification Church "Moonies" that they still hold on to. Something that was influenced by broadcasters in the beginning of our ministry in the early 70s.

We still hold that stigma, and that is something that we need to detoxify. We need to provide our people with information. People aren't out there just to be our enemies. We can bridge the gap through this kind of understanding, and build on the similarities that we have with others to create a positive outcome. We can grow into something more constructive. Because it is doable when you do things in a practical way.

You can always attack. There are times when you have to attack. Most likely you defend yourself first. We should always try to educate people and if it works, that's great isn't it? That's the way it should be. I think it can be done that way. Because it is just about detoxifying people's hearts and strengthening people's minds, by sharing and educating about what is right and wrong.

There are some crazy people that we may have to fight, but in general, in essence, living in a civil world, I think we can do it through education. Basically, that's the first step we can take on the 21st century platform. The fastest way we can achieve this is through the field of multimedia. That's why I've always pushed this kind of work.

We have several other production companies because we have to be self-sufficient. Some things are non profit, just for education, others produce income. You can't do anything without money. The more money we have the better will be the quality. This is low budget, but the content is okay. We try the best we can and we'll do other stuff to support the growing community that we have.

The executive producer of Defining Moment TV is in the back. Please raise your hand. These projects will give us more tools to communicate better. This is our strength. You need to network. The more networking you have even in your personal things the more you will improve your personal life. I don't know how precisely, because I don't know your exact talents or what you do for a living, but I am sure it can help you in many, many ways. Of course I'm not asking you to be a self-centered fool.

See. I'm getting better with the language, huh? (Laughter.)

Check out DefiningMoment.tv, and help yourself with it. I'm sure that it will be helpful to you. And we are going to produce more and more content and add it to the site. The more the better.

Anyway we're trying.

Take care of yourself.

See you next week.