Belvedere
Translator - Sang Kil Han
When one says "I", he is not thinking of himself as a solitary individual. Each person comprehends himself within a certain background and set of circumstances. When I think of myself I think of my family, parents and surroundings. Each of you is aware of being a citizen of America. A man of deeper thought thinks of himself as part of the world. If he is truly religious then he will feel connected to God who created everything around him.
In various circumstances there is some good, some bad, some happy and unhappy, all put together. A person may assess himself as good, or as bad but trying to improve, and as generally happy or unhappy. When each of us thinks of "I'' we think in connection with all these surrounding conditions. That "I" exists now but when did it begin'? You might think, "Well, I am thirty, so I started to exist thirty years ago." In addition, you think that you have been and always are increasing in age.
You also realize that you didn't just abruptly start from nothing, but received certain things from your parents. You didn't begin to exist with yourself but with your parents. Your course of thought traces back to your parents, their parents and so on through your ancestry. If you have a good imagination you might trace it back to the beginning of energy, which has been passed down through your ancestors. If you pull yourself in a certain direction at this point you are not pulling yourself alone, but all your lineage as well. If I pull one thin hair on your head, the rest of your body had better follow along if it doesn't want to feel any pain. When you dance about the floor the whole lineage that is connected with you is also moving around.
No one wants to be isolated, but desires instead to be proud of representing everything that is connected to him. Would you choose to be isolated and independent, or to represent many more people than just yourself? Everyone wants the second choice. Why should you feel like that? Why do we tend to think of ourselves as the center of everything surrounding us? Is it because we want mastery and control? Whatever the reason, the fact remains that an individual will try to protect himself from invasion. Also, you want your eyes to be the best of all eyes, your nose and even your hair to be the best. You want to protect even external things which change, like your clothes. Where does this quality come from?
Everyone wants to advance, whether he is of low or high capacity. We can state that the action of "consciousness" demands that uplifting of the individual. Why does each person want to make himself better? Where does that action of conscientiousness come from? It is derived from a cause and effect relationship. No action is initiated without purpose; all actions have some purpose. The bird sings and the bee hums, the butterfly flies, the wind blows-all of these have their purpose. When your eyelid blinks it certainly has a purpose, doesn't it? Your breathing has a purpose. When you smile it is not for yourself, but for some reason. No action takes place without purpose.
Scientists maintain that the universe is made up of energy. Energy exists everywhere, as well as force or power. Is force or energy first? Does the Divine Principle teach that force comes into being by give and take action, or does give and take exist after the force exists? We should examine our thought carefully to see if we are not taking the answer for granted. Seen from different angles, both viewpoints seem entirely correct, so it is important to know which is the correct answer. What is your opinion?
Action certainly must come from a definite source. The subject and object precede action. If we pursue this a little further, we can say that if God is omnipresent then He must have both subject and object qualities. God's dual characteristics are not just conceptual or abstract; they are very real and important to our lives. Ever since the universe and individual entities came into being, subject and object were the beginning of the existence of self. All things in the universe are made up of these two different qualities or parts, and each is involved in give and take action.
The force, or the result, is the consequence of the subject and object having give and take action. Let us take the simple example of parents having give and take of love; their child will be the result. The child is like the force which results from give and take action. What causes that? God is the cause, and that process follows the pattern of God's creative process. The force has within itself the possibility of give and take action because it is the result of give and take. When we think of force we immediately comprehend two qualities of subject and object, cause and result.
When you think of your existence you think of the power within yourself, but prior to that you realize the give and take action within yourself. Therefore, you are the subject body of force. You are very powerful. In you are a mind and body which form a subject-object relationship, and when they have give and take you can't help but feel the resulting power within yourself. When you draw a line down your front, dividing you in half, the two parts look alike externally. Why is that? Because the cause has that quality, the result has to be that way. That's a very logical reason.
When scientists examine the development of life forms, they conclude that energy randomly evolved into higher and more complex beings, and this is how man came to exist. This theory is not logical when we really examine it. It is more reasonable that subject and object together would form a self, which in turn would become a subject, and take an object. Together they would form some higher life form or bigger self as subject and take an object, and so on, forming greater and greater entities.
In our social life we want to broaden our sphere of influence, increasing our areas of activity. When you become a subject on one level you want to find an object on that level, and then when you are united you find that together you become a subject on another level. Scientists explain the formation of new species through random mutation, saying it happens by chance. We can immediately see that is false logic, but they have not come up with some better theory so they stick with this one. It does not stand to reason to say that a small thing could just suddenly become big. Even a non-scholar would find the subject-object explanation more reasonable.
How could a bigger self come to exist? Where does the original force come from that can cause a smaller cell to grow bigger, that can enable a small group of cells to become bigger and enable each step to develop? Certainly no give and take happens without purpose; a force is the result of give and take, but there must be some purpose preceding that give and take. Nothing happens without purpose. A chemistry professor trying to mix a plus element and a minus element of different quality will never get a reaction. But if he prepares a compatible subject and object and merely brings them close together then give and take will automatically happen. This explanation based on give and take describes science more adequately than theories of probability or random occurrence.
In the beginning I pointed out that each person wants to become greater and greater in his life, and gets angry if he cannot do so. Does that happen at random too, or is it inevitable? We know now that it has to happen like that because the conscience is at work. Everything comes into the realm of subject and object, and is a collection of subject-object relationships. This means that "I" exists within a broad universe, and lives only within that broad purpose. Therefore, one's conscience always directs him to become bigger and greater. We have to be aware of the purpose for that.
This is explained through the four position foundation. In order to have circular action there must be plus-minus, plus-minus, not plus-minus, minus-plus. Can you name one thing which does not move or turn? When anything stubbornly refuses to move, it ceases to exist. Each cell is vigorously active, and the collection of these cells which is you is even more active. The whole universe is full of vitality. You can easily accept that, can't you?
Our conclusion is that this big universe moves with a certain purpose, not haphazardly. Even one of the billions of tiny cells in your body has plus and minus and is an inseparable part of the universe, and so it wants to become as great as the whole universe. Even a tiny cell will rebel if the larger organism no longer wants to become greater. This is why each man has hope for greater happiness in the future; if a person is restricted to living in one situation for the rest of his life he loses his will to live.
What existed before force existed? The action of subject and object. And where does action come from? Action derives from a subject and object, and the whole thing takes place because of the whole purpose.
There are dual purposes here: one is to maintain oneself, and the other to become part of the larger self, which is the universe. A man's purpose for taking an object is to preserve and perfect himself, and then become one with a woman, and their purpose is to have children. Then they stand in the same position as their ancestors.
Let us look at the example of our eyes. The eye has the purpose of self-existence, but also of serving the whole body. The ear has to operate automatically, but it also helps the whole. Because of this purpose, everything from particles to the largest creation has a right to exist. How could the universe be interrelated? It is because all individuals have dual objectives: one is to protect the self and the other to make sure the self combines with another self to make a bigger self. The theory of evolution understands individual purpose of self-preservation, although it does not grasp the ultimate purpose of the whole.
Conscientious scholars today have no answer for the question of how the universe is perpetuated and what its purpose is. Their conclusion is that it has no purpose, but just goes on and on and will perish at one point. But we know this is not true; something may seem to perish, but as it passes away something else will be formed. This happens because everything has a purpose. The same principle applies to every aspect of the universe. Individuals gather to meet individual needs, but also for the purpose of forming a greater being. If someone wants to have great character, he must be available as an object to the whole universe as his subject. He must be worthy of it.
Today white people tend to stay together, ignoring other races. But their purpose is not only to be with whites but to embrace all other colors as well. Individual purpose must always follow the purpose of the whole. Conscientious people wonder why big fish eat little fish, why some animals are carnivores, why the powerful eat the weak, and see this as a chaotic situation. According to the principle that the smaller things exist for the larger purpose, the lion is justified in eating the rabbit. This is the key to the whole problem. The small purpose exists for the purpose of the greater existence, which is ultimately the whole universe.
Americans don't know that they exist for the purpose and betterment of the whole. Who says so? God says so. More objectively, the universe says so. Unification Church members are the most consistent people in all history because they know the individual should exist for the family, the family for the tribe, the tribe for the nation, and the nation for the world. We not only think that but live that way. Why do we do that? In a sense it is for a selfish reason, because by going on to bigger and bigger levels we make our selves available to become big individuals.
Young people now do what I call the kisco dance; "co" means "nose" and "kis", means "kiss", so "nose-kissing dance". For whom do they dance-America, the world, or themselves? It contributes nothing to the whole and limits them to the individual purpose, so it stops their development. It is even worse than a lion eating a rabbit-it is a sin. For the betterment of the whole we want to get rid of whatever harms the whole, but we know that the kids won't listen if we just say outright, " You shouldn't do that for all the following reasons."
If I gave you some money and free time would you go disco dancing? If it were for your betterment and the world's betterment then you would disco 24 hours a day, right? Russia is visibly closing in on the free world, and if disco dancing would halt their advance we should disco 24 hours a day. No one today, from the lowest to the highest level, knows what man is, or who the individual self is. All their confusion arises from ignorance. First we must teach them, then show how to live, and then we can restore order in the world.
This principle explains all phenomena from the past, and we have to apply it consistently all the time. You cannot learn this in school because the teachers don't know it. I am the first teacher of this knowledge. This is the beginning of a new culture. By knowing this you can comprehend Divine Principle even better, and know why there are three stages, subject and object, how give and take occurs, and why there is a purpose. Now the Divine Principle is no longer conceptual, but something you can put into action in every circumstance. Now you will never forget because the Divine Principle is you.
When you think of force what do you think of? Action. And when you think of action you immediately think of plus and minus, subject and object. When you feel powerful you can know that some give and take action is happening, so your mind and body must be in harmony. You must be smarter than to think it begins with you, and remember that God, your Father, gave it to you and you resemble Him. You then remember that He has the whole universe under Him, and your self is a small part of that universe; you are a small minus to the universe, which is the biggest possible Plus.
God is a big plus and you are a small minus, but this small minus has the purpose of becoming as great as the plus. This is why you want to become great. This is perfectly logical, and something that stands to reason is reality itself. Each of us has an urge to become great, but until now you didn't know why God and the universe also wanted you to become great. They want to pull you up like a big winch.
If you go to the top of a mountain you can actually catch up with God better. In other words, if you have a broader, deeper thought, God can love you and encourage you to go higher and higher. What is God's thought? His thought is to become powerful according to Principle and to realize the ideal world. Will He do that by force'? Is God going to make the world great because He has all knowledge'? Could the strongest man on earth make the ideal world? Harvard professors are proud of their knowledge, but could they do it? What is the essence that can make the ideal world? True love.
The other day I paraphrased love as being "long, long very much." You think you know English, but you didn't know love was long, long very much. Love should last long and long and very much more long. How does God want to make the ideal world'? If you ask God where He wants to be at any given time, He will say He wants to be at the center of the universe. If you ask which center of the universe He wants to be at-whether of knowledge or power-He will say He wants to be at the long, long very much center. Is this stretching the truth too far?
When I asked why you wanted to become greater and greater, you didn't have an answer. Now you know that you want to be great so that based on love you can become the companion of the center of the universe and be worthy of being His object. Though we know we are very small, we want to be objects to the great universal subject in love. If God wants to be at the center, where would you want to be'? At the center of the love in the universe. When I seriously ask you where we are going, you have to have some answer. We are going to the objective of love on the universal level. Since God is going there also, we are bound to meet Him. Even though you become very knowledgeable, it will eventually pass. Power cannot last eternally either. But if you are pursuing love and find it, it will last long, long very much.
We have to have some life perspective, some awareness of our purpose. When we have that in ourselves then we can go there. With this life perspective you can know why the world has to be peaceful and how that can happen through love, and then your entire plan and idea can come to one focal point. Only a handful of people on the face of the earth know that they should be living with their purpose and direction taking them toward love. If that prevails in the world then the earth can become peaceful.
Now when I ask you who you are, you are in a position to answer for the first time, "I am the one who is supposed to go toward the purpose of love on the universal level." We know that all things exist for man because man has love. The animals and plants willingly sacrifice for man because he is reaching for the objective of love with God. You like steaks, don't you'? Do you eat a steak for your own enjoyment, or do you think that the steak will help you get nearer the love of God'? If it was for love then the meat would be glad to be eaten and say, "Eat me quickly!" That meat also craves love. A stick of celery wants to continue its own life, but when you eat it you can say, ' I assure you that through me you will come closer to God's love."
If a person is perfect in this respect, all things will want to tag along and be eaten by him. Money will want to be earned by him. Today men chase money but the money runs away. If you become a person of original purpose, however, then money will follow you. If another person follows after money, the money will be scared, thinking, "A tiger is after me!" That person will end up in hell. Would you rather follow money or love?
No one is dozing off this morning: everyone seems to love love. Is it good or evil to sacrifice your own life for the sake of the world? These pragmatic Americans call something evil with one side of their mouths and then call it good with the other side, twisting it around for their convenience.
Throughout history God has seemed to be unjust because it was good people who were sacrificed all the time, but being sacrificed is the best way actually. What kind of person makes a good President? If a tyrannical, pushy man is the one who works best for the sake of the world and is the most effective in educating Americans and the world, then is it good if he is President? Or does a tyrannical person have no place? It is good if he is doing God's job. Is Mr. Carter very dynamic? The first thing a politician thinks of is how he is going to get reelected next term, and he makes compromises with justice and righteousness to get along. It should certainly be wrong if a President thinks more about his reelection than about what is right for America.
No matter what the situation is, my purpose is consistent. I work for the sake of God and humanity and never compromise. I keep telling Americans the truth. Americans don't like to hear bad things all the time, but if they have to hear bad things over and over in order to finally change, then the purpose of giving that advice is served.
The Unification Church is not fighting for the Unification Church; we are sacrificing Unification Church for the sake of the world and God. That is what I have done all my life. That doesn't look very workable to pragmatic people, but actually it is the most effective way. A self-centered person doesn't understand that self-sacrifice is the best way of life simply because God and the universe always protect a person who is working for their cause. An explanation must be consistent, from head to tail, no matter how big or small the situation.
Would you prefer a leader who buys you candy all the time, or one who makes you into a person who is worthy to be object to this great Subject'? Do you think it would be easy to convert a person away from evil and make him into someone who is worthy of being that object? It is even harder to do in America because here there is an adverse atmosphere of self-centeredness. I have to pluck someone out of that environment before I can teach him. It is a little less difficult with an Oriental because that culture is more oriented toward the whole, which is God's way of thinking. Here the culture is not group-centered but individual-centered. You have to realize that you can't take individualism for granted.
Even unambitious people are excited and inspired when they join the Unification Church and realize what God's idea is, but the difficulty of everyday life is also fantastic. It doesn't make sense that you can have only things that are fantastically happy, and not those which are fantastically difficult. Any worthy man in the past has led such a life.
You know this is the most fantastic life possible, but you wait three years to be blessed and have no dating in the meantime. Then you wait three more years after getting married, and even after you are together you do the hard work of witnessing. The women worry also about whether they will be too old to have children by the time they get married. On top of that there are many Orientals in charge of your activities, pints you go fund raising and you receive no recognition. All put together, you are in a quandary deciding whether this is fantastically miserable or fantastically wonderful. But even when you are full of tears you know this is the best way. Even if you have to risk you life a dozen times a day, this is still the best because it is the way of love.
I am no dumber than anyone else; I knew this principle before you did and have gone this way my whole life without compromise. There is no in-between way for either you or me. I thought that probably no one else on earth would have courage or wisdom to do this, and that I would probably be going all by myself, but then I looked back after a time and found hundreds of followers straggling after me, trying to go to the same place. And there were many white people among them who were determined to give their lives! Then there were other white people who weren't happy with me and tried to persecute me. The important question is which side God and the universe will be on.
Now you know better who you are. Confucius said that whoever knows himself will be a success, and wise men have always accepted this. Should we let any circumstance divert us once we know who we are? Once you know, you should be able to laugh off the scorn of even millions of people. This is 1980. This is the year to take off and fly and go into orbit. You should be confident that you are master of the universal thought which has been hidden all these thousands of years. There is nothing vague about this.
Now I can give you a little more explanation which will make it easier to follow. Why do I train you on earth instead of later in spirit world? Why do you have to struggle on earth in order to learn? Of course, you have to reserve yourselves, but you must love your family more than yourself because it is a bigger cause. Even though it is painfully difficult and you may not be able to carry it out on earth, you will be given credit for doing your best. Then when you get to spirit world the path will be open to accomplish it successfully there. When the family has to be sacrificed for the world and you try your best, even if you are not completely successful on earth, a crude road to finish it will be open in spirit world. If you don't even try on earth, however, there is no road for you in spirit world later.
You are in hell when you find yourself with no avenues open at all; then you are living in complete isolation and are unable to go where you have to go. You can see ultimate happiness around you and it looks within reach, but in reality it is too far away to seize. If you can't get along with a certain person on earth, that relationship will carry on into spirit world and be hell. You will know you could experience happiness with that person, but because you didn't make it happen on earth you can't do it in spirit world. The most important reason why I work so hard pushing you and trying to inspire you to go the difficult road is that I know about spirit world; if you can unite and follow then there will be at least a small road open for you in spirit world.
If you are successful in loving people of all races, all spirit world will applaud you and welcome you. Wherever you go in spirit world, spirit men will tag along. Our life here is short but we can accomplish and settle much in order to claim happiness in spirit world. Your status in spirit world is eternal. This is one of the reasons why we suffer willingly. The purpose of a business is to gain profit by investing some money. If we invest very much pain then we profit a hundred times more. In the lottery one dollar can win thousands. but here there isn't even any risk and still we are guaranteed to win.
One step after another we lengthen the sections of the bridge of love. We are building it inch by inch, and though there are miles to go, we keep going. No matter what opportunities there are for you in life, you would rather follow me, right? Why? I don't give you money or time or power. You say it is for love, but have you seen that love with your eyes? I am like a parent nagging you to study after school, and pushing you to study again even when you have finished. You get frustrated, I know, but still I tell you to keep studying. That's love.
You may be comfortable if you don't do it now, but for the sake of the big purpose you sacrifice a little time. That is goodness. It can be good to spank a child if it is intended to secure his eternal well-being. It is correct logically. True love is worth anything.
Now you know about the individual, so let us think when we would like to be in that position. Ten years or a hundred years from now? Now sounds pretty close to "no". And "no" sounds close to "know". Do you know or not?
Can you go this path alone? Who do you need? Would you rather have a yoke on your neck to be sure you go the correct way? Should I allow you to do whatever you want? Now we are secure and comfortable because we know the objective, but the problem is half solved. But now you have to accomplish the goal and you think you need someone to push you because you can't do it alone. You feel you can be a champion if only you had a trainer. A trainer is someone who gets after you and nags you all the time. At some point you get so aggravated that either you confront your trainer and give up, or you become the champion. At some point you want to do away with the trainer and rebel. That is the reality.
Don't appoint only one trainer, because you will have tree time when he is away, which is no good. Appoint a dozen trainers, one Chinese, one Korean, one Japanese, one American, one German, and so forth. Then wherever you go you will bump into a trainer and he will chase after you. Perhaps you could tolerate one person kicking you, but what about twelve people kicking you at one time? But when you determine to survive, you will be a champion when they get tired of kicking you.
This is no ordinary life to be lived at whim. It is most serious, not only for our generation but for all history. All Unification Church members know they each have a spirit man which lives eternally in spirit world. You have never been to spirit world, so you are persuaded through logic that it is so. Because you start at the lowest part of life there is no place to go but up. The thousands of people outside the Church who study us can't figure us out because they don't know about the spirit world. Sometimes I look ordinary, sometimes deceptive, sometimes great. Even many intelligent people all have different opinions about me. They can only conclude they don't understand me.
Am I going my way by accident? No one in the world has any idea what the world will be like even next week, but we know how the past was and what direction history will take. Our path is basically a religious life, and who is the most strict, most serious of trainers? That's Reverend Moon. This is a training ground and that's why you sit on a cold concrete floor for hours and hours; you are here to be trained, not just to enjoy a sermon. You do that for years and years, and people wonder if you do that because you are scared.
Our training is conducted in the most painful way. We have no such thing as comfortable training. Why? Because we want to shorten our period of training. You have just begun to know a few things, and you have to meet the challenge and go over it. You only have a few years to do that so I am pushing you to speed up. Even at this moment I am pressuring you. Throughout the seventies you had some complaint, wanting to know why life had to be so difficult, why the hardship couldn't be spread out. But starting at this moment you should give up complaint. Starting this year you should look for the difficult jobs to do.
The members usually feel that fund raising is our most difficult activity. If the fiancé of an MFT member writes to say there is an opening in his office and why doesn't the MFT member come to do that easier job, the fiancé is actually Satan, blocking the other person's training. What he is actually saying is, "Become a third rate champion." What he should say instead is, "MFT is too easy, so go to Cambodia to fund raise." Is this illogical? We have to develop according to the principle and reason for all these things.
If someone asks you for proof of how much I love humanity, you can tell them that I have matched thousands of couples of all races in the best possible way. That's proof of having loved mankind. And even afterward I continued to train them and to care about them as I would my own children, planning how they will support and educate their families in the future. I have no preferences or prejudices; I have loved black people as much as white people and yellow people. When I go to spirit world I will visit hell where black people are and no one there will oppose me; I will go to the area where white people
are, and no one will accuse me because they will know they are the ones who did not listen. In heaven white people will want me to stay at their house and sleep in their own bedrooms.
There are twelve pearl gates to heaven, and I can pass through many of them. Why twelve? Because that represents 120, and also represents 360 degrees, encompassing every angle. Also it symbolizes 12 different types of personalities. How can you pass through the gates? Only when you tag along with me! There are guards there who will challenge you and ask, "Who are you?" Then you will say, "Reverend Moon happens to be my father." They won't be satisfied with that, however. When they ask for proof you can say, "Don't you know the Divine Principle? The Divine Principle says so." If he still doubts you, you can say, "Don't you think I look like Reverend Moon? I did the same things he did so I should look like him by now." If the guard thinks you look like me then he will let you in.
You said you wanted to start the strictest training now, but actually it will last for the rest of your life and you have no idea how long your life will be. If you have hated black people in the past, you should fund raise in the most difficult possible place, where you can only earn a few dollars, and then invite the ugliest, fattest black man or grandmother to go out for lunch at a Chinese restaurant. Then over lunch you can say, "I have a confession to make. I have hated black people, but now I want to love them." You can tell her how you felt in the past, but when you joined the Unification Church and met Reverend Moon you worked to train yourself as a champion of goodness. Now you repent, and as a sign of apology you sincerely brought her out to dinner. When you beg her with tears to eat the dinner you buy, you will have indemnified your hate in the past.
If someone has hated white people in the past then he also has to repent. Whatever you have bound in the past, you have to unbind now and indemnify it. If a man has been a playboy in the past and made many women sorrowful, he has to find some situation where he can apologize to one woman representing all of them. If a woman has married several times then she has to apologize to a man in the same way. Everything you have done which was unprincipled you have to indemnify. That is your main task in 1980, to repent and then forget about the past. Don't let it drag you down, but pray to heaven to help you do away with it. Then look for the difficult thing and tackle it. That will be your best and fastest training.
If you are trying to find some loved ones, more value is added if you go a difficult way. It is not as valuable if you find one in an easy way, and you cannot feel as much value even if you try. But if you go through difficulty you feel the value even if you try not to.
We all say we love and follow God, but when you say it and I say it there is an entirely different quality in our words, even though we say the same thing. The main difference is that I have gone through tremendous suffering, while you have not. Never forget that how we go the path of true love is the real question. Whether you get a passing grade or flunk the course is determined by what difficulties you have persevered through. Are you going to be a failure or success'?
Now when you say "myself" you don't think in isolation, but in the context of parents, grandparents and God, all flowing like a big river. When you say "I", their image immediately appears in front of your eyes. You have to feel that the perfection of the world comes through yourself. When the four position foundation is formed, a central point is needed, which is God. The center of the family is love. In three dimensions the four position foundation has six points, with one in front and one in the rear, plus one in the middle, which is the seventh. Thus, the number seven is the number of perfection, but that is formed only after adding the one point of love.
A straight line denotes one, and when it is cut in half it actually has three in it. Thus, the tour position foundation has the number twelve in it at the same time. The number twelve represents the entire spirit world; for instance, the twelve pearl gates referred to in the Bible. Jacob had twelve sons, Moses led the twelve tribes, Jesus had twelve disciples. The number twelve was necessary to fulfill the important requirements of the universe, so at crucial points they had to satisfy the number twelve. We know that Jesus was the ideal man, and as such he had to be able to get along with twelve different types of people. These twelve actually represented people of 120 nations of the world, meaning in fact all elements of humanity. This included even the Judas type of person.
The twelve types are the spring, summer, autumn and winter natures. We need winter-type people just as we need the season of winter. If the world had begun in an ideal way then the spring-type culture would have been established, but because of man's fall a summer culture was started instead. Mankind did not see the blossoming of Adam and Eve; man started his evolution from summer instead of spring, with the ancient civilizations in their warm climates. Now in the twentieth century we have entered the autumn culture, when everything ripens. Now the winter-type civilization, centering on Russia, is trying to invade this culture, even though it knows that it is destined to go through the springtime eventually.
All the autumn leaves have dropped off the trees and are withering now, and only the civilization which has life in it can remain. The winter civilization actually has no place either, and eventually has to be drawn into the God-centered spring civilization. We call that spring culture the centrally harmonized civilization or roundly harmonized civilization. All the summer, autumn, and winter civilizations will oppose us as we try to go to the spring civilization which is true life, but we will drag them with us. That's the course of history and the dispensation so it has to move forward.
No matter how stony the communists may boast they are, when the cosmic spring comes, the ice has to melt. That cosmic spring centers on the warmth of love. When love visits, everyone opens the door of their mind. There is no area love cannot pass through. Just as Jesus followed a pattern, so we must do likewise. Each individual must condition himself to pass over a certain type of peak. In Western culture thirteen is an unlucky number, but actually it is a good number and we must cross over it. Americans are not ignorant people, but they don't know this all important fact. If you are not successful with thirteen then when winter comes you will die of the cold.
Americans are confronted by communism now and can't wriggle out of it. They are afraid of communism, wringing their hands and wondering what to do, but not the Moonies. You have been taught that you have to go over the winter to enter the spring so you will just swallow communism and digest it. America needs a leader who has intelligence enough to know this and to lead the nation in the right direction so it can conquer communism.
Once America survives it can conquer the number thirteen and stand right beside Jesus. We are bearing the cross of mankind, just as Jesus did. Now the Moonies are doing it in place of today's Christians. The letter b is like the number thirteen; everything that starts with b is connected with 13. That's the quality you have to have to survive: be a believer who is brave, bold and bright.
America is facing collapse from every angle, and the only thing holding it together is the Unification Church. It is incredible but true. The most profound reason we fund raise is so that somewhere along the line we can get the signatures of twelve different people, representing 120 countries. This is exactly what America eyes nation composed of 120 different nationalities of people. When a person gives you a donation he is actually loving you and doing the same work you are. Therefore, God will give him some blessing. Then America, where the money will be spent, will also be blessed. All things will benefit from our fund raising. We do home church in order to find the twelve different types of people. Eventually you have to get their signature of approval. For the time being take my word for this and act on it, and later see whether you can find any evidence to the contrary.
Of course home church is difficult. If you go knock on the door of the most unpleasant person you know he will yell at you. You may not want to see his face but you knock anyway and he yells at you. If you go back three times I can guarantee that his voice will become lower. After four or five times he will want to know why you come and wonder what kind of person you are.
The moment he smiles at you will be the moment the walls crumble and the twelve gates open for you. If you seriously work for that goal then when the 360 homes welcome you your cosmic spring is really at hand. You can know that one day your home church members will be waiting outside for you to ask you for lunch. Some day the worst person will be waiting to ask you for dinner and to sleep in his house. That will surely come to pass.
That's our objective, and until that day comes you will keep knocking on their doors. We talk about hope and faith, and what higher hope is there than to look forward to the day when they welcome you? When you go around and around knocking all the walls down, you will eventually arrive at the central point you should occupy. Then you will be a successful number thirteen. At that moment you will have finished historical indemnity centering on yourself. You will have achieved something no one ever dreamed of achieving and will occupy the central position with God's approval. That's when your rocket of love will take off to the center of the love of God.
I know that many of you, especially the women, study yourselves in front of the mirror and wish that maybe your nose or mouth or ears were different. But I am telling you that they make almost no difference. Forget it. If you are running as fast as you can then you are beautiful; no manicure or makeup will make you beautiful. You don't have to have position or a degree. If you don't have anything it is still fine.
How fast are you going to go-like an airplane, a rocket, a bullet? Will you really run in the 1980s? In the 1970s your mind and body, your eyes and ears, were all going in different directions. But in the 1980s are you going to assemble everything in one direction? Our only focal point is love. Your eyes will focus on love, your ears hear nothing but love, your mouth speak about nothing but love. If they go in single file, which should go first? Your mind, then your body-eyes, ears, nose, limbs and so forth.
If you fly as fast as you said you would then your arrow cannot be pulled out of God's heart. Do you think God will want to pull it out because it's painful? No, God will push it in deeper. You are just thinking about God's heart now, but one day you will be living in it. When that happens, whenever you want to do something God will want to do it too. That's the sole objective we will strive for in the 1980s. We will not look back or to one side, but just go for the goal. Will you do that this year?
Amen.
