Find Happiness in a Life Lived for Others
Children are born from the flesh and blood of their parents. Without parents, there would be no children. Yet, people in this world shout out for individualism as though they came into this world on their own. Only a person who receives no help whatsoever from anyone at all would have the right to speak of individualism. There is nothing in this world that comes into being for its own sake alone. All created beings are created for one another. I exist for you, and you exist for me.
There is no one so foolish as the selfish person who lives only for his or her own sake. It may appear that a selfish life benefits the individual, but ultimately it is a life of self-destruction. The individual must live for the family, the family for the people, the people for the world, and the world for God.
All the schools I founded have three mottos. The first is "Live a life that casts no shadows, as if you were under the sun at high noon." A life without shadows is a life with a clear conscience. When we finish our life here on earth and go to the spirit world, our entire life will unfold before us, as though )| were being played back on videotape. Whether we go to Heaven or to Hell is determined by how we live. So we need to live spotlessly clean lives, casting not even the smallest shadow.
The second motto is 'Live with sweat for earth, tears for humanity, and blood for Heaven." There are no lies in the blood, sweat and tears that people shed. There is only truth. There is no meaning however in the blood, sweat and tears that a person sheds for his own sake. This great investment must be shed for the sake of others.
The final motto is "One Family under God!" There is only one God, and all human beings are brothers and sisters. Differences of language, race and culture only account for 0.1 percent. As human beings we are 99.9 percent the same.
There are fourteen island countries in the South Pacific. When I visited the Marshall Islands, I asked the President this question: "This is a beautiful land, but it must be difficult to lead a country, mustn't it?"
The President sighed and replied: "Our population is just sixty thousand, and the land is just two meters above sea level on average. So a wave just one meter high can flood much of the country. Our most serious problem, though, is education. Children of rich families go to America or Europe to be educated and do not return. Children of poor families have no schools from which to receive a good education, so even the brightest child cannot be trained properly for leadership. The concern for an island country such as ours is that we are unable to raise up leaders who will lead us in the future."
After hearing the lament of the President of the Marshall Islands, I quickly established the "High School of the Pacific" in Kona, Hawaii for the sake of the children of island countries. This school provides secondary education to children selected from various countries in the Pacific, and assists them with college entrance when necessary. We provide roundtrip airfare to Hawaii, tuition, board, and even computers so that they can receive the best education. We attach just one condition for providing this education to the island country children: once they complete their education, they must return to their countries and work in the service of their nation and people.
Living for the sake of others requires sacrifices on the part of the individual from time to time. Some years ago, one of our church missionaries was touring South America when the area he was in was hit by a major earthquake. The wife of the missionary came running to me with a face as white as a sheet.
"What should I do?" she asked with tears in her eyes. "I'm so worried, I don't know what to do."
How do you think I responded? Instead of patting her on the shoulder and comforting her, I shouted at her. "Are you worried about your husband," I said. "Or are you worried how many lives he may be able to save in that disaster area?"
It was natural for her to be concerned for her husband's safety. As the wife of a missionary, however, her concerns should have been of a higher order. Rather than pray for the safety of her husband, she should have been praying that her husband could save as many lives as possible.
Nothing in this world exists for its own sake. That is not how God created the world. Man exists for the sake of woman, and woman exists for the sake of man. Nature exists for the sake of humanity, and humanity exists for the sake of nature. All created beings in this world exist for the sake of their counterparts, with which they interact. So it is an axiom of Heaven that every being lives for the sake of its partner.
Happiness is possible only in the context of a relationship with a partner. Imagine that some fellow who has lived his life as a vocalist goes to an uninhabited island and sings as loudly as possible. If there is no one there to hear him, he will not be happy. To come to a realization that we exist for the sake of a particular partner is a great accomplishment that changes our life. When we realize that our life is not ours alone but is meant also to be for the sake of another, we understand we must follow a path quite different from the one we have been on.
Happiness comes from living for the sake of others. Just as singing a song for yourself will not make you happy, there is no joy in that which you do for yourself. Even the smallest and most trivial thing can bring you happiness when you do it for someone other than yourself. We can find happiness only when we live our lives for the sake of others.