Washington, DC
Master Speaks
Probable Translator: Won Bok Choi
(Reconstructed from notes and partial transcriptions.)
Was the world created according to a unified motive? This is a great problem. If the cause is not derived from a unified source, then the earth would not be unified. If this world were created from a unified source, then all individuals, families, tribes, and nations would have been unified. We find that this world is not unified, that nations are not unified, and tribes and families are not unified. And even this world is divided into two worlds. In nations there are different polarities, in homes there are divisions among members, and in the individual, mind and body are divided. This is the real state of the world; we cannot deny its division. The question is: why is the world divided?
What are the causes which made the whole world, nations, families, and individuals divided? So for us, it is most important to investigate the causes of division on the individual, family, national, and world levels. God is absolute. If all individuals and the whole world were made one with this eternal cause, then how could, such a divided world exist? We have to deduce that this absolute God was not involved in forming this divided world. If God is not the cause, then what could have been?
The cause of this evil world is not good. It must be evil. This is the important question: how did the evil one intervene to form such an evil world? So if the world is to be unified, someone must destroy all the problems which were caused by this evil. That is the mission of religion. Whoever is looking for the ideal world must investigate the evil cause and destroy the evil. To find the root of the evil cause is most important. If we can't find it, we can't destroy this evil cause to restore the whole world. By finding the evil cause in ourselves we can solve all the problems. The important thing is to find one individual who has become one with God -- having a body and mind which do not struggle with each other -- and who is centered on God. Is there anyone who has made his mind and body one? [By seeing your laughter, he thinks there is no one who has reached such a state.] Therefore, the most important thing is not all the complicated problems of the world but to find the self that is not divided and does not struggle. So if God exists, He must show us the way to restore our original state. He must give a strong lesson to teach us to become the ideal individual. And God also must seek and find an individual who cannot be destroyed by anyone or anything in this world, who can't be beat by anything, and can be eternally unified with God. God must seek such a man.
Therefore through the course of history, God designed His providence to take out one such man from among evil people. Man is living in his home with his family. Also he is living in the material world and in his nation. For God to restore His nation, His family, His individuals, and His material world, He cannot literally take these things back. He cannot just take these things from evil without any condition. The evil possessor would try to retain all these things. Therefore, the ways of good and evil must not be equal; they must be different. So if one goes this way, the other one must go that way. If the one goes to the right, the other one goes to the left. All people want to have a unified world, but this cannot be obtained simply. Evil wants to go ahead and good wants to go backward. You are in the central position in the struggle between good and evil. Which is more serious: the fall of a nation or the fall of an individual? For man, the most important thing would be the perishment of himself. We have a tendency not to sacrifice ourselves for others. And everyone has a mind to make all things center on himself. Everybody thinks this, but we have to admit that it cannot be realized. So to reach the world which our mind wants and desires, we have to surpass the obstacles which stand in our way.
If we make one world by fighting other nations, would we have a peaceful or happy world? We cannot have such a world by conquering others. Because God knows this, He goes the opposite way. In that case, who will be the first one to lead the way? If we go that way, the leader will be God. (Points in one direction.) And if we go this way (points the opposite way) the leader will be Satan. If God tried to go ahead in that case, He would destroy all the people who are one with Satan. But that won't do, so He has to go backward.
In this world, there are two kinds of people. Evil wants to make one world by beating others. But God does not. God chooses the different way. Evil does not come from God-centered motives, or from other-centered motives, it comes from self interest. That is the starting point of evil. Therefore by letting man fall, evil made man deny God, and let Adam and Eve determine destruction. Such results have been brought by the fall caused by Satan. The fall started when he planned everything for his own self -- that initiated evil desire. So through the history of fallen man, he has tried to sacrifice others for its own interest. The history of evil has been a struggle in which the stronger has always sacrificed the, weaker. This struggle has taken place among individuals, and has elevated to the family, tribal, and national levels. Now it has reached the international level. Now history is at the stage when the two, worlds, which tried to overcome by sacrificing the other are tired. The Democratic world wants to make our world but has almost given up. The Communist world wants to dominate the whole world, but it has also come to this position. Therefore, this world cannot now be unified by either the Democratic world or the Communist world. How this world will be unified is a very serious question.
And all people want to have a peaceful, happy world, but we are in despair; we cannot find the way to one ideal world. Before the people is a big obstacle -- where, will the world go? There are two ways to surpassing an obstacle: by jumping or going around it. How will we jump the obstacle? We cannot jump the obstacle if we put our nation's interest in the first place. We can achieve the ideal world with the thought that for the interest of the, whole world, we are willing to sacrifice our own nation. With such thoughts we can continue, and go over the obstacle. The reason for the fight between Soviet Russia and China is that Russia wanted to make the Communist world center around its nation, while Red China wanted to make it center on China's people. The US was a leading country in the Democratic world, but: she could not fulfill her role when she thought of her own interests more than those of other nations. If Soviet Russia had tried to support the world, then Russia and the rest of the Communist world would be united. And if the US sacrificed herself to share the prosperity of the Democratic world, then she would not have declined. So through history, we see that unless there are those who want to sacrifice themselves for the sake of the whole world, the ideal world cannot be reached. Can we find such a nation in the, world? The US and Russia are ready to throw away the whole world to save themselves. There must be one nation who can sacrifice her country and her people for the establishment of the ideal world -- when we find such a nation, we can have hope for one ideal world. That nation does not exist for her own benefit, but for the interests of the whole world.
So God went a different course. He has been teaching religious people. First He must find one individual on His side -- completely one with Him -- who cannot be broken away from Him. And this man must go to the position where he can make one unified world. Therefore the most important intention of God is to find someone to become one with Him. And his teachings must be to sacrifice himself for the whole world. The two teachings are to love God, and to sacrifice oneself for the world. To love God, man had to go further around go back because man is in the position which is derived from the evil cause. Therefore, as he is, he cannot go to God; therefore, he must turn around and go back. To love God, man must leave the world, his family, material things, and even himself. Then when he really loves God, God must love him. Then man, as the one who receives God's love, must sacrifice himself for the world. That is most important; that is the core of God's providence.
To receive God's love, we have to turn around to save this world; we have to sacrifice ourselves. Therefore we must obey the commandment to love the Lord God with all our heart, all our mind, and all our spirit. With all our love, we must love God. This is the first commandment. We cannot love God in our world, in our nations, in our family, or in ourselves. All these things are brought about by the motive of evil, so God cannot exist in them. Then the Bible teaches us to love our neighbor as ourselves. Does that mean that you love your neighbor more than yourself or less than yourself? And who is your neighbor? It does not mean your brothers and sisters, but it means all other people in all other nations. To love your neighbor, you cannot put yourself before him. Therefore, to go the way of love, you have to sacrifice yourself. Without sacrifice we cannot perform God's love. To love our neighbor as we receive God's love, we have to sacrifice ourselves. Without this, we cannot love him as God loves us.
And when we think about the words of God to love Him with all our hearts, all our minds, all our spirits and everything we have, we might think God is like a dictator. But all these commandments are not for Himself. When we love Him with all our hearts and all we have, He will love us just as we love Him. That was God's intention and His first commandment to us. Therefore the word "love" is not relative. When we love Him, He loves back. The command which asks for us to love Him with all our beings means to love Him with our life by sacrificing our life. For God to love others, He must sacrifice the one whom He loves the most. Because of such teachings, we call God, Love. Because God sacrificed those whom He loved most for the world, God is the greatest love. And the ideal nation which loves others is entirely different from those of Satan. Satan always gets others to protect his own. He always makes others sacrifice to protect his own position, but God makes His own ones sacrifice for others.
There must be one individual who is the model, the pattern of one who is perfectly one with God. We say there are many sacred men, but there cannot be more than one who is completely one with God. And that man is the Messiah. And when the Messiah comes, he does not come for his own sake and he does not come to save a particular nation; he comes to save the whole world. To send the Messiah, God made all the preparations by sacrificing men, family, tribes, and nations. And that was the Israeli people. If Jesus had pioneered the way to sacrifice nation and church to save the whole world, then he would not have been crucified on the cross. The reason why Jesus was crucified was that the nation and the church did not receive him and did not become one with him. He had no foundation to sacrifice the nation and church for the whole world. That led to his death.
But the people thought differently. They thought that when the Messiah came, they would be the ruling nation of all other nations, having the privilege of leading all other nations. They did not think of sacrificing themselves. Therefore Jesus prayed for a way to sacrifice the nation and people for the whole world. Then Jesus would not have been killed and he would have established God's nation on this earth. Then Israel would have been the first nation to sacrifice itself for the whole world. By killing Jesus, Israel perished, and Jesus had to find a new way to sacrifice instead. He had to sacrifice his followers for the sake of the world. Therefore Christianity prospered when it had the spirit of sacrifice. When it lost this spirit, it declined. The present churches are trying to establish one world centering on their own nation, their own religion, and their own Christianity, but that way is not open. But a new spiritual movement willing to sacrifice itself for the whole world would grow and prosper.
Can we find such a nation on this earth? There is no such nation sacrificing itself. Therefore religion must sacrifice itself for a nation, and that nation must sacrifice itself for the sake of the world. And the world must sacrifice itself for the sake of God. That way God's idea of one world can be reached. If this religion is in America, then it must sacrifice all that it has to save America. That religion should not fight to multiply its churches but should work to save the nation, sacrificing its own churches. If it works with such spirit, then that nation will come to that religion and eventually unite with it. And when this religion unites with its nation, they must go forward to save the whole world, sacrificing themselves. Therefore, without sacrifice, God's will cannot be realized.
We have to sacrifice our bodies for the sake of our spirits. And when our body and spirit become one, then we must sacrifice for our family. And this is not just for one day, but for our whole life. No one likes to sacrifice himself; however, in sacrifice our value is not lost. The result of sacrifice is not destruction. Absolutely not. Even if we lose our life by sacrificing, then our sacrifice at least will live on in history, and someone will admire us.
All the sacred men were not welcomed by those in their time. In their lifetimes, they were considered failures. But they never failed, because of their sacrifice. Afterwards they were praised as famous historical figures. As a young man, Jesus had nothing. His people rejected him. His church, his family, and even his disciples left him as the savior of the nation. He had nothing to give. He had nothing, and he left nothing. However, he died not for himself, but for the whole world -- for other people. That's the reason why his teachings have multiplied to present day Christianity. Confucius and Buddha went the same course. When a man sacrifices himself for others, all people will come before him later on and bow to him. And when the people come and bow before him, they select him as their central figure. If a son dedicated himself and sacrificed himself for his family, the family, including his father, will ask him to be the center of the family. Let's say a man served his friends with his life. Then they would come to him and wouldn't want to leave him. If this man wanted to leave, then his friends would come and grasp him and ask him not to leave. Finally they would ask him to become their leader. There cannot be a good friend without sacrifice, without serving. And the good friend, father, mother, or son cannot be obtained without sacrifice. A bad friend wants to take everything away from his friends. That's why we call him a bad friend. But if he serves his friend, the friend will come. And not only him, but he will bring all his friends. And if he does the same thing through his life, such news would spread all over the country and all people will come to him. The way to destruction is to overcome others, and the way to prosperity is to serve others. That is the dividing point between God and Satan.
Egocentric works will fail and public spirited ones will live. If we go the way of public men, we can gain the individual, family, tribe, nation, and the whole world without fighting. If we think only of ourselves, to gain our family and nation, we have to fight; and even after we gain them, they will not last long. Therefore we cannot but conclude that the teaching of sacrifice is God's. The Communists say: "Mine is mine and yours is mine." We must think: "Mine is yours, yours is the nation's, the nation's is God's, and God's is mine." Love makes two things one. If I love God, God's love is my love. For example, if people love and respect the President, they will also love his wife, although she may be uneducated.
If the United States would serve the world, the world would not allow her to be destroyed. Christianity is not following this course, so a new movement must come. The Unification Church has these views-the individual sacrifices for the nation, and the nation for the world. We must have programs, not to save ourselves, but the 200 million people of America. When America is saved, she must serve the world. To save America, we will be sacrificed. If you die with this thought, you will not go to hell. God is saving His children by sacrificing His most beloved ones. We are called to restore God's nation -- we cannot have national consciousness. Democracy and Communism are declining because they could not transcend national desires. Our international weddings are to break these barriers. Through the struggle of Adam's three sons, the world became evil, so through the last days, three nations must struggle and unite. The nation sacrificing the most will be the leading one.
Questions
Answer to a question about love:
I've noticed many divorces in the U.S. Maybe 80%. How can this be love? Love is eternal. Love is eternal and unique; love cannot be changed. Don't you want the eternal, unchangeable one? Eternal love. Unique love. Unchanging love. Those adjectives are fit for the word love. So the word for which we can use "eternal", "unique", or "unchanging" is love. Love is the equilibrium of life. And people admire love the most because their love is life. Would a husband like to see his wife with other men? No one will say "yes." I see that some couples are switching wives. That cannot be love. The ideal world is the world of love. Just as we breathe air, in spirit world we breathe love. So we have to be trained on this earth to live such an eternal life. We must be prepared. Then when we go to spirit world, we can have a free life. Just as we cannot live without air, spirit world cannot live without love.
Answer to a question about the existence of God:
Now I am going to explain that God exists. If we did not exist, we would not have to think whether God exists or not. Think of Adam and Eve. They had ears, eyes, nose, mouth. Think about your eyes. They did not come into existence automatically. What if they were without pupils? How could they adjust their focus? Did your eyelids know that there would be dust in the air? What are eyebrows for? They stop the rain and protect the eyes. What if we had no cheekbones? Our face would be hollow. If your nose were horizontal, how could you wash your face? This is just the mystery of our body. There must be one who knew about all these things. Who is that? The one who knew all these things, that is God.
