Speeches of Hyo Jin Moon 2006-2008
Delivered Sunday at Belvedere Estate in Tarrytown, New York
Hyo Jin Moon Speaks on Inspiration, Page 232

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

Inspiration

December 17, 2006

Good morning.

The year is almost at its end. How are you doing?

People say that there are patterns in everything. Life is about learning patterns. There is a pattern in the universe starting with the physical universe and obviously there is one dealing with our lives.

Through religion we try to understand the kind of relationships and patterns that bring us closer to God, because that is our search, that is our path. Anytime you take—take the path of religious faith, it becomes a commitment that lasts a lifetime. It takes a lifetime to understand how things work. When you talk about patterns, you start by defining formulas and then learning the intricacies. We want to see if there is more to be learned based on a cursory observation of the depth of the formula. It's a commitment that pretty much will last everybody's lifetime. I don't know if there is a guarantee that we will understand all of it.

Why? Because I don't think you can know the faces of your grandchildren when you don't have them yet, that kind of stuff.

You know that there are a lot of treasure hunters out there. They know that the diamond is somewhere underneath the ground or they go for a sunken ship treasure and they know that is somewhere under the vast ocean. History is full of people trying to find civilization's riches. You know that there have been a lot of tragedies along the way in pursuit of these so-called treasures. A lot of people are hell-bent on achieving that end. Even just pursuing that kind of surface stuff takes commitment. It will pretty much take the lifetime of somebody.

Let me just share with you about some people that I know. They are people who live a very simple life. They just love reading books. They spend every free time that they have in libraries. They just go read books, every free moment in a library and they come to a point after decades that their local library is not big enough because they read everything in it. I don't even know if he was interested in some particular topic or if he just read it all. So, he has to go to a bigger library.

I also know a certain type of people that just love to tinker. They love to tinker with stuff, anything. Some guys just like to play with computers, because now there are so many kinds of software that they can just tinker away all day long, because within each kind of software they give you so many kinds of possibilities to play with, whatever that represents. They just sit there all day long, every free time that they get. Sometimes they even forget to eat, it seems so important. “Okay, forget even about sleeping.” They are just playing with that thing, tinkering and tinkering forever. That's how they live their lives. They find some kind of inspiration in it.

So, when you think about the stuff in life, for instance let's focus on inspiration today, we have to ask, is there some kind of pattern? Is there a formula through which inspiration is achieved? I think so. When you look at those kinds of people, simply put, they're geeks. They're just a bunch of geeks, but they inspire themselves. Through what kind of pattern, it's a kind of formation pattern, or growth pattern. I don't know if you can say that it is completion in the way that we see it because it has to be seen by all. It has to be universal. Maybe on an individual level it might be. 

Inspiration also comes in the form of stages. You have to ask yourself, "Why are you inspired?" In what way are you trying to inspire yourself? Are you inspiring yourself? Because you would be inspired if you did those kinds of things. On a form-stage level, just read the books if you like reading books. That's your escapism, but it's not just escapism—it's about self-inspiration.

You do that to yourself. You're telling yourself, "I need that, that's how I'm going to get through this life. That's the kind of fix that I need." You have to ask yourself, "So, in what stage are you? Formation? Growth? Perfection?" When you look at everything that inspires us, it has to do with the basic fundamental things in question, with God and mankind.

We get inspired when big clues come together, right? That's the fundamental question that we need to resolve when you talk about providence, when you talk about God's dispensation. When you say that based on my religious discipline, God is a suffering God, then you have to understand that that is important to you. When that is important to you, when that happens, when extremes come together where it has been in conflict for eons, you see somehow that a resolution is coming, and you see the possibility of resolution, that gives you inspiration.

Obvious things—when you see a child sacrificing himself or herself for the sake of their parents or visa-versa. Or you see the passing of the guard, the passing of authority or whatever. You see it happening in fluid motion without any controversy, without any conflict between generational differences or arrogance, you get inspired. It's that basic fundamental relationship that makes us who we are, and makes us able to create an ideal family centered on God.

When that happens you're inspired. When you see the basic recognition of things happening and coming together, that inspires you. Those things inspire you.

Yes, they can start from even yourself, inspiration just by the possibility of formation, growth, and perfection of self-love on an individual level but, as it grows, it matures into something greater in being the level of inspiration obviously much greater, powerful. So, if you want to inspire the world, okay, you just have to accept that formula.

Where do you start? How do you inspire the world? People of the world, especially in the big cities, are jaded and arrogant. They like big things. Unless you can somehow break them down, getting there is very difficult. You have to start from self and make every step of the way yours and you have to somehow connect it to God. Otherwise you don't have proof in the eyes of people who are critical against you. That's the difficulty.

So, if you want to change the world, there is only one way, the old fashioned way, you have to struggle—you have to suffer. (Hyo Jin nim laughs.) It's important to do more, and you have to do it not just for yourself. You have to do it for the sake of maturity, and responding to the demand and effort it takes to deal with greater value, and the greater self. When you can put that forth, when you can make that sacrifice—yes, we can move a greater world.

How far can you go? It's up to you. I don't know. I don't know about me. How far can I push? How far am I willing to push? Oh, just be straight forward—how far can I push? I don't know. I just have to keep on trying I guess. I cannot say what it is—the funny thing is, until I'm dead—and I can't say it. You'll say it. Somebody else will say it, probably my children, my posterity.

The funny thing is that the greatest and most important thing you can think is the thing that will be measured by somebody else other than you. That's the lesson. That's the lesson in life when you try to believe in God. Always something like that. You think you're in control, but you're not because even when you think, "Let's make today a good day," even that's not as simple as it sounds. I know that we deserve a chance every day. We need to see goodness in you, and new goodness from you and me. But is that as simple as you say? I don't think so.

Yes, we deserve a lot of things that are good, but it doesn't happen automatically. Somebody has to try. Somebody has to lead the way. If that is you, you can't expect one person to do everything all the time. That's why we need family. That's why we need the greater family, right? Otherwise it will be a lonely place. Otherwise, why did God create mankind and give Himself such misery? Even goodness is not appreciated when you have it alone. It doesn't have a concept that allows real happiness when alone.

So, an inspiration, a belief, everything in life has a formula­-inspiration too. You must value the fundamentals and try to work that into your life starting from self. I don't think that's selfish. You've got to start somewhere and it's the individual, that's where we start. We all start from there. 

You can't say that's evil. You can't put that kind of brand on that. Why? Because you can't even do that to yourself in good conscience. Guess what? Somebody else will judge you, because that's the judgment that matters the most. That's the judgment that will stick in the end, that will define you.

We could go on seriously like this. I know that there is a pattern in everything in life and we can find it. We can find it together and help each other. That's what makes things better for all of us. Right? I think that's more important than just you being happy all the time. I don't like that type of people. 

Take care. 

See you next week.