Second International Training Session
Master Speaks
Translated by Mrs. Won Pok Choi
This morning my subject is "Our Situation" Where do we stand? We know there is a God. We know that God created all things. We know that out of all His creation, human beings are His masterpiece. God, having created everything , is the center point of the whole universe; man is the core or center of all the creation. What makes us dominators of all the creation? We really don't know. There are some things about man that are different from any other animals or creatures. But we don't exactly know what the difference is. Perhaps human conscience and human desire are the two things we have that are different from other animals. But even human conscience differs from one individual to another. We find that there are many standards of conscience. According to one standard, this man is right and that man is wrong. But according to another standard, the contrary is true. We don't know exactly where to set the standard for human conscience. So we cannot rely on the conscience itself. We need an object to operate with the conscience, so we can expose the workings of the conscience.
With the object operating with the conscience, we come to see the value of truth and beauty. Then what must be the ultimate standard of our human conscience? We name, sometimes, intellect, emotion and volition. But these do not give us correct or obvious guidelines either. When you speak of truth, beauty and goodness, those are not necessarily common to each other. So we must qualify them and say "true intellect", "true emotion", and "true volition". The truest one must be a unique and just one.
To make a thing true, where do we have to put our stress? Since man left his true position, we cannot rely on the things that man made. Since man left his position and his conscience is not situated at the right point, we cannot rely on what we think is true. We must seek after someone or some reality which will define the truth-and we must rely on that. Truth and all other virtues must be set on an absolute point, so that they will never change; they must be unique and eternal. From then on, we will have truth, true beauty, and true goodness-true everything. Starting from that point, we can develop a view of life. If there be any existence or reality which can set the standard of truth, true beauty, and true goodness, it must itself have intellect, emotion and volition. That reality would not be static, and it would have existed before our birth. He is a thinker and He plans and manipulates human beings. What must be the nature of one truth, beauty and goodness that this being would put as the standard before us?
This being must be related to us and we must be related to Him in order for us to have a connection, and in order for Him to work through us into future generations. He must have intellect, emotion and volition. We have these things because He has them. Through those things, which we have in common, He will work with us human beings. He will plant in us His intellect, His emotion and His volition. How can we know that? Those will come through the conscience, not through the body.
When we analyze our conscience we find that there are three elements: intellect, emotion and volition. These do not stay still, but they search for truth, beauty and goodness. Human conscience is marching forward and advancing toward a goal which has been set up by someone behind us. Looking at human volition, we find that our conscience is forcing us to go and reach for the goal. We are on the way to reaching the goal, but we have not as yet attained the goal. In marching forward, we find that our conscience is telling us to act in a certain way. That voice in our conscience is from someone else, not from ourselves. That being knows our environment, our tendency to act in a set pattern, and He is guiding us, knowing all these things. Sometimes we find that there is a difference between this voice and our own desire. So, which do we rely on? This is the problem. Shall we rely on that voice or on our conscience? However, we know that ultimately our conscience tends to follow that voice.
When we analyze human beings, we can roughly divide them into male and female, which relate to each other as subject and object. We find that those two sexes also have things in common. Both are headed for the same goal. However high a goal you have before you, if your spouse is inclined another way, there is conflict and disharmony. For your mutual well-being, it is necessary to set a common goal before you. When we study what the truth is-what intellect, emotion and volition are, we find that the goal must be the same for those three. Man, being the masterpiece of all the creation and the core of all the creation, must study himself first. After having studied man, the next thing of higher dimension we must study is God. We know that man has intellect, emotion and volition, but what is their source? When did those things begin to operate? There must have been something in the subjective position to them. That subjective being also must have intellect, emotion and volition.
Anyway, we have to have a subject and an object. Without the subject operating with the object, no action can take place. The more we know our subject or our object, the better we understand their relationship. In proportion to the degree of their closeness, there arises emotion or love between them. Only where there is emotion, will volition arise to the fullest. Volition and goodness cannot come about with yourself alone. You need someone who can appreciate your volition, someone whom you can work for. Your intellect or knowledge also is something which can come about only when you want to cultivate this for someone or through someone. When you say you are happy, it means you are not happy all by yourself, but you are happy because you influence someone.
In other words, you must have someone as your object to work with or to share your love and happiness with. In sadness you find the same. When you are sad, if someone you love dearly appears, all your sadness changes into happiness. Then we know too well that happiness or anything of virtue comes from the subject, with ourselves as object-or from the object, with ourselves as subject. When you have your lover, you are happy; when you have your good friends, you are happy. Happiness comes from outside yourself. Then where does it come from? You are taught that kind of thing from your teacher, from the prophets, or from the saints. But all those people have that from another source. Ultimately the things of virtue come from heaven-from God. In other words, things of virtue do not come from anyone on the same level as you, but from above, from God. Coming from heaven, those things will be conveyed to us through an agent, or a mediator, as the central personage to reach out to all the people of the world. Finally, we can say that only by knowing God, knowing the absolute and ultimate Being, can we know ourselves. The degree to which we are associated with or united with Him will determine how much knowledge we have of human beings-which is the core of science and knowledge.
When we study man, we cannot deny that there is both male and female, and that those two have a tendency to unite into one. Throughout human history there have been persons sent by God, through whom God has worked. I am here at the present moment, situated at this level. Through these people, the standard of goodness has been set. I am the fruit of that. I am situated here as the male, as opposed to the female being. Through the teachings of those people you have another leading person here, a central figure in human society, sent by God. If you become one with him, you can become perfect. We must set the standard of our conscience on him. God is teaching us the law through that man. Any individual male or female is the fruit of his or her ancestry-but in God's sight, any man or woman of conscience will inherit the law of God if he or she becomes one with the man sent at this moment, the central figure.
The male is the right side of the human being; the female is the left side of the human being. God's purpose in creating man is realized only when those two are united in perfect oneness. There we realize the value of God's creating man. This is the horizontal line; if we draw a vertical line, this will make 90 degrees. We say that there is a 90-degree difference here, but which line should come first, the vertical line or the horizontal line? The vertical line coming from God is always the standard. If you have that goal you can draw the horizontal line with a 90-degree angle. If the 90-degree angle is drawn on both sides, then it's natural for 90 degrees to occur here. Then goodness will be multiplied from you to the following generations. Those people also have 90 degrees on both sides.
In another diagram, the core is you. If we draw a horizontal line and a vertical line, the core is at the junction and everything outward is yours. This male and female, when they meet each other, or when they are united into one, multiply their children to the family, tribal, national, and worldwide levels. They want to multiply goodness to reach the whole world. When they have attained goodness on the family level-which is upward-on that base, they can attain goodness on the next level and the next. Higher up, they come closer to God and they can have God. In an individual human being, too, there are two parts: mind and body. If they are on a level line and united with each other, they become one with God at the junction on the vertical line.
But when and where does it start? However hard we may try to reach God, if God is not willing to reach us, we cannot do it. It comes from God. Everything coming from God can be set on the central point. With 90 degrees on both sides, the vertical line from God will play the role of the axis. For any existing thing or environment of a group, there is only one core, one axis, one central point. All others surround this point, tending to unite with it. Then what is the central point and central axis coming on the vertical line? God, we can safely say, is the central point. Godly love is the center of everything.
We can have peace of mind when our mind and body come into conformity with each other, when they are united into perfect oneness. Our fleshly side, our body, must obey what our minds commands. We know that there is love, and love alone can make either our mind or our body happy. And even within our minds, the outer part is actually the "mind", while the inner core is our conscience. Our conscience and our mind must be one. In our conscience, God must abide and our conscience must be one with God. Like every other pair of things, mind and body also must become one. They must come closer to reach the point where they meet. At one point here they can multiply things of virtue upward to reach God. When your mind is in agony, you don't want to move your body; and when your body is in agony, you don't want to move your mind. When those two are put together in peaceful oneness, you can multiply peace or anything else of virtue.
We can see that when we are situated at the central point, the vertical line comes from God. So long as the vertical line has 90 degrees on both sides, we have a level horizontal line. With this drawn on both sides of ourselves, we are solid, peaceful, stable and feel good. In order for us to be able to do that, we must have 90 degrees on every side. The wholesome action of give and take thus takes place, virtue multiples, and volition emerges. With those four powers-mind, body, conscience and God-put together in you, the next power is coming to accelerate you and to multiply goodness, to perform actions of truth, beauty and goodness. If you are in that position, if you are situated there, nothing can stop you from doing good things. You are entirely one with God; so whatever you think, say or do is in accordance with God's will. So you cannot be conscience stricken. If you are down here, reaching to God up here, that is the point where the top of the triangle forms-the meeting point of three lines. You are happy, solid, and stable. These points form the foundation of four positions. But this can come about only after those two come together in oneness.
This is very important. When male and female are put together in harmonious oneness connected with God, solidly situated on the vertical line, drawn from the vertical line, when these two are at this point, a good family is formed, creating the foundation of four positions on the family level. That kind of good family is perfect in God's sight. Another family, in the object position, would become one with that family, in the subject position. The many families would multiply to form the clan and then the nation. In the same way, subject and object nations put together would form a wholesome world of goodness. This diagram shows male and female essentialities. Only by putting those two together here can God be here. When God is a perfect being of plus and minus put together, He is everywhere. But when He is put in the core of man, He can think that He is above them.
When we draw the diagram on the horizontal base, He is at the core. When we draw the line on the vertical base, He is above. He is in the core of the thing and is at the top, where three points meet. When He is facing every direction, He is situated at the point where the three lines come together. He is situated where the one vertical line and lines from two horizontal positions come together from three directions. Vertically and horizontally together, He is both the core and the top of the foundation of four positions.
With man, another triangle can be drawn. Our mind and body, being plus and minus, must come together to meet here. God, also, has intellect, emotion and volition. That means plus point, minus point and central point. At the central point is emotion; at the plus, intellect; at the minus, volition. Man, too, has intellect, which pushes him to do things with volition, and with those two working, emotion will be aroused. God has intellect, emotion and volition; and He is guiding man to act in a similar manner. If man's emotion comes into accordance with God's will, then man's knowledge and God's knowledge become one. Man becomes one with God. When these three are put together, they tend to develop or multiply, and reach out to broader levels of existence.
We have been saying intellect, emotion and volition. Which comes first? Which is the central point? Emotion is the central point. Emotion is something aroused by the force of love-love of things and of human beings. We can safely say that God created man out of His love. So our knowledge also must become love of knowledge and other things of virtue. In literature and the arts, you can well see how any novel or movie shows the act of human love.
Volition is something aroused by ideology. Volition is headed for the ideal goal of mankind. But ultimately, both intellect and volition come from emotion, which is aroused by love. In human relationships, there must be love of friends, parents and everything. But the core of things is the love between the opposite sexes-love between husband and wife. In that case, if they are united into perfect oneness with God, their love never changes-is unique and eternal. Love between man and woman is on the horizontal level. But without the vertical level, the horizontal level can never exist. So we can say that love comes from above, drawing a vertical line to reach us. We can thus logically conclude that there must be love coming from God in order for men and women to love each other. That's what makes love so beautiful, so true and so good. When you are with your sweetheart, you want to talk all day long-throughout eternity. You never tire of each other or of your conversation. That desire to continue for eternity is unique, and is something very good. If that relationship is broadened to the next level, to the next scope, and your family is in perfect harmony in the love of God-your relatives, your clan, your nation and the whole world will be like that, and that will be the Kingdom of God on earth.
So you must know this. The center of man's ultimate hope is love. That love can come about only when your mind and body are one, the opposite sexes are one, families in the subject and object position are one, and so on. When love is situated on the central point, that love is perfect. When people in the subject and object positions, in any unit of society, come together, they create only a horizontal line, not two lines. Even if they come on parallel lines, they are still not one with each other. There must be one line drawn on the horizontal plane and one on the vertical. One line must come from God to create the central point. If the vertical line is an absolute line coming from God, the horizontal line must be from subject to object. No other vertical line is possible. Once man and wife are united into one in Godly matrimony, there is no divorce possible. So God recognized matrimony, the first love in God, as most important, and it will never change. There is no other love possible besides the love joined by God. If you stray from God and fall into animalistic love, that's another matter entirely. But if you want love recognized by God, there is only one love possible.
Centered on yourself, your mind and body must meet at one point. Through that point comes the vertical line from God. In your own being, there is a central point of love from God, a line drawn on the horizontal, and one on the vertical level. With those things done, and you at the core, you want to advance straight forward and reach the goal that God has set for you. Your individuality is perfected on that level-when your mind and body are in oneness; and through that point on the horizontal, the vertical line from God comes through, and your mind and body meet there. At that crossing point, from the central point where God is abiding, He wants you to march forward to goodness. Broadening your scope, not only your mind and body tend to become one, but male and female, in the subject and object positions, tend to become one and unite with God on the vertical level. Then a broader foundation of four positions is drawn. With those two put together, all things can be unified.
