Belvedere
Translator - Sang Kil Han
The topic this morning is "The Way to Grow." In the Orient, we write vertically, while the West writes horizontally. Each Oriental letter is separate and independent. The Western way is to write in a continuous line.
To determine how big a house is, we need to know its dimensions-its length, width and height. The greater these dimensions the more space the house occupies. There are various types of houses, but the parts of each house are connected.
Do people generally like something short or long? It depends on what kind of thing, of course, but in general people like long things. People prefer large spaces to small ones and large objects to small ones.
Do you tend to prefer someone who is tall over someone who is short? How tall would you want someone to be? As tall as possible? When you call someone a big person, you don't necessarily mean he is big in terms of height. You mean, rather, that he or she has a large capacity to accommodate others. A great person isn't necessarily big in stature; a small person can be great, too. Whey do we like great people? It is because we find love and many good things in a big or great person; small people don't have much inside, and if you try to look around inside they get irritated.
Our topic today is growth. How tall or big do we want to grow? To look at it another way, do you prefer to give or to receive? How much can you stuff inside a big person? A lot. The majority of people like to receive because that desire is related to the tendency to grow and expand. People want to receive from others something that they can incorporate into themselves and fill in their gaps.
Students go to school to learn. How much they grow is determined by the amount they are able to store internally. However, if you only receive, what will happen? It's not good to keep wanting to receive even after you are filled up, because that is when you have to turn around and give. Take a simple example: if you keep pouring water into a tall glass after it is filled to the brim, the water spills over. That overflow means it is time to give out; if J you don't give, the water gets wasted.
How can you tell when the time has come to give rather than to receive? In terms of physical growth, young people want to continue receiving until they reach maturity. That is why they want to eat a lot, and so forth. However, when the time for receiving is over, it is time to give. This is true physically, at least, and it applies to men and women alike.
When you share, how do you do it? There is no such thing as "just giving." You need to find the right object who will receive what you are offering. Someone standing in the east should offer something to the person standing in the west; someone in the north should give to someone in the south. If someone from the east gives to someone in the south, it is certainly good, but the giver is not reaching out toward the most distant point. To give from the east to the south involves a relatively small scope of giving; the interchange doesn't form a sphere but rather an oval.
When people grow up, they have to find the right object for giving, and their giving should be in a direct line, not vacillating. One person may be willing to give but the other is not enthusiastic about receiving. There may be people who can receive during the daytime but not at night. Such restrictions are not good. You should be ready to receive at any time, and your spouse should be willing to give at any time. The giver and the receiver should be available at all times, 24 hours a day. The one who is to give and the one who is to receive should both keep in mind the larger goal; otherwise, they will diminish rather than expand. The larger our aspiration in giving and receiving, the more we can continue to grow. The higher goal prepares us for eternal give and take, in which we can grow continuously, without limits.
Each person, for example, has a dual structure: internal and external, or spiritual and physical. The body loves material, secular, horizontal things, while the mind leaps up to the heights. Doesn't your mind always long for something higher and rounder? Where should mind and body meet or intersect? Varying degrees of connection between mind and body are possible: they could touch at just one point, partially overlap, or be completely congruent. Actually, mind and body don't want to be partially connected; they want to be perfectly joined.
If you want to connect with something, what part of it do you want to be linked with? Using the analogy of a sphere, if you ask east and west, north and south, they would all answer that they want to connect right at the center. What lies at the center that has such a magnetic appeal? True love. The center links all the components; everything passes through the center. Thus, if you stand at the center, you meet everyone. The center is where four directions converge. When all directions meet in perfect balance and symmetry, movement begins. This is how motion originates.
People want to grow symmetrically; after expanding horizontally, they want to enlarge vertically. Through the process of growth things round out; protruding sections tend to be pushed in and indented parts tend to fill out, eventually forming a sphere. Thus whether we are grow ing horizontally or vertically, our tendency is to form a sphere. This process applies to subject and object, for both cooperate to form a sphere. This process applies to all beings, both small and large, because all aspects of existence grow vertically and horizontally according to the same basic pattern.
Of any two elements, the one that is vertical is called the subject and the one that is horizontal is called the object. Before they can begin motion they must meet at the center. In nature all things have a center. God created this immense universe with a center-mankind-embodying the vertical and the horizontal dimensions. Regardless of size or shape, all existence follows a similar pattern: as soon as something comes into being, there is a subject and object relationship. As things expand, they interact vertically and horizontally and pass through certain points.
This development is not disorderly, for it follows a certain pattern, creating subject and object relationships. Without such relationships there is no motion and without motion there is no life. Thus all living things participate in such relationships and form such spheres. Although there are all sorts of things in nature, each one goes through this orderly process and maintains the balance. Everything exists in subject/object pairs; once the subject and object form a relationship, the new being itself becomes either a subject or an object and then searches for another subject/object relationship. Such expanding subject/object relationships enable things to grow and expand; without them things diminish.
Everything in the environment exists in the pair system. Whether a given thing is a subject or object doesn't matter; it connects with the center and enters into a subject/object relationship with man. What connects all these relationships? What is the common denominator? It is love. Because love permeates all these relationships, all subjects and objects want to give and receive.
For instance, when we go out into the fresh morning air, we hear the birds chirping. Why do they sing? Does one male bird call another male, or one female call another female? No, their chirping is a signal to the opposite sex; they are seeking a subject/object relationship.
Are only birds like that? Look at smaller beings, such as insects. The cicadas sing and sing without stopping. They pause for a moment, but then they start up right again. (Father makes a loud buzzing noise, imitating a cicada.) You may have noticed how the sound continues fairly rhythmically with occasional sudden rises in pitch. The cicada with the rising pitch is searching for something with a falling pitch.
In late summer and autumn evenings you can hear the songs of frogs and all kinds of insects. Have you ever noticed how harmonious all that noise is? You may think there is no order to their sounds, but not so. It always has an order. One insect sings a certain way, and then, as if to harmonize with it, other insects pitch in with their own type of vibrations. Once in a while, everything seems to stand still for a second, and then another little voice enters to fill the gap.
Do you think the insects sing standing still? Those noisemakers are always in motion, going up and down, round and round. Even those who stay in one place will have one foot off the ground in some kind of movement. Dancing is movement to music, and the movements in nature's symphony are like a dance. The singing of the insects is pleasing to our ear, and we all want to listen to it, don't we? Nature sings to delight mankind.
Suppose a beautiful woman is standing before us and singing a very nice song. If it becomes clear that she is singing in order to appeal to another woman, or that she is praising her own beauty, proportions, eye-makeup, etc., then you wouldn't want to hear her again. But if her theme is men's muscles and big shoulders, her singing is so pleasing you would want to listen to it forever! How pleasant it is to hear a woman walking naturally-even if she is stomping along-but for her to sneak around like a cat is unnatural and unappealing.
When you inhale and exhale, with what are you breathing? Life is the center of breathing, but what is the center of life itself? Love. We all have life, life that came from the love our parents shared. Life doesn't come from life, but from love. The action of love results in another life, which is also in motion. Life arises from the motion of love.
Let's think about singing in each of the four seasons. Is the song of summer, autumn, winter or spring more appealing? Why did you all answer spring? Because springtime is the growing season of all living things. It is appropriate and natural to sing in praise of growth and love. In spring, living things are free from the long, cold winter. When they emerge, their first pursuit is their subject or object. Thus their singing is very appropriate. Nature's atmosphere is one of singing, growth, and seeking one's complement. The male's song is directed toward its object, the female; and the female's song is directed toward its object, the male. Where could you find some thing closer to the ideal?
Is it more ideal for women to talk with other women, or with men? Women talking with men is more ideal, isn't it? Such conversation reflects the ideal of true love. To be ideal, a person or an environment needs to contain all elements. A house that is home to a man and a woman who are free to do anything and who complement, support, enhance, serve, and love each other abounds with the ideal.
What is your ideal "home sweet home"? Is it an elegant house inhabited by a beautiful, solitary, doll-like, self-sufficient woman? Is it home sweet home if only a man lives there? I don't think so. In fact, home sweet home is where man, woman, children and grandparents can all find complete satisfaction. If only women lived in that house, they would at least want to be related as mother and daughters or elder and younger sisters. When women gather in twos or threes, the companions they prefer are their mother and sisters. Isn't that true? Men also want to be with their father and brothers.
From the time he is very small, a boy runs into the house and asks, "Where's father? Where's my brother?" A boy will never run into the house and call out, "Mother, Mother, let's go hunting." In fact, when the boy begs to go fishing, his mother will probably say, "No, no," so he will try to escape her and run toward his father! A daughter misses her mother, and a son misses his father.
Once you have found your husband or wife, you can locate everyone else you want. Then your home becomes a sweet home. Your home is sweet not only for parents and children but also for grandparents, who can live there happily because everything they cherish is there. Everyone in such a home is happy, because they can find whatever they want.
For a woman to become a sweet woman, she needs not only a good, loving husband and daughters, but also good sisters and a good mother. Likewise, a man needs a good wife and sons, older and younger brothers, and father. This is why in the Unification Church we have the ideal of 12 objects-three objects for each position of the four-position foundation, all the combinations of men and women fulfilling the triple objective purpose. A woman needs bonds with her parents, husband and children, and a man needs bonds with his parents, wife and children. All these relationships should meet at the one central point of love. The core of love is where the vertical line intersects these relationships; the love from above is the most important love, and all people long to connect with it.
Have you stopped to wonder why the number seven is the number of perfection? It is the sum of the three key relationships both men and women need to establish, connecting through the center. All family bonds, whether vertical or horizontal, can connect with that love. If you were alone in the world of harmony, and everyone else were linked with the ideal and living in an ideal environment, you would be miserable. Totally surrounded by objects seeking their proper subject and subjects seeking their proper object, what emptiness and yearning a solitary being would feel!
This immense universe is like a big orchestra. Music is usually perceived as being horizontal, but it needs the addition of the vertical dimension. In a tree, the vertical dimension extends from the smallest root to the tip of the young branches. The visible part of a tree encompasses the trunk, limbs, branches, and young shoots, all forming a sphere. The invisible part of the tree is the root system, which is also spherical in shape. There is a complementarity between the visible and invisible parts of the tree that maintains the life of the tree. If a tree had no root system, the wind would topple it.
Using this analogy of a tree, we can envision a vertical orchestra ranging from the tiny new roots to the tiny new shoots. Like the tree, the universal orchestra must link earth and heaven; such a connection between lower and higher realms is expressed through literature, poetry and the whole range of arts.
Contemporary American dance and popular music is very horizontal. People are attracted to those husky, horizontal voices. Tenor and bass tones are horizontal, while soprano and alto are vertical. Yet, no matter how good a soprano may be, only when a bass singer harmonizes with her is it pleasant to listen to; the soprano voice alone is not so appealing.
Symmetry is needed in all aspects of civilization. In dancing, for instance, the disco style always reaches down, while ballet always reaches upward, towards heaven. The attraction disco holds for contemporary young people is like a rebirth of a tribal era. It has nothing to do with heaven. Young people tend to shy away from tradition and the classics, but those who reject the classics are certain to perish because they have no root.
In politics, the conservative viewpoint is more vertical, while the liberals are more horizontal. More focus needs to be placed on the vertical relationship. Being more temporal, the horizontal should receive less emphasis than the vertical. Given this definition of conservatism and liberalism, which would you prefer, and why? You would prefer conservatism because it stresses tradition and connects past and future. Fashion is short-lived, isn't it? The very word fashion implies a short duration. In a similar way, what is considered liberal changes from time to time. In which direction are American young people headed today? Which do you think will endure? The liberal side lasts for only one season. If it is autumn, liberals work only for the autumn, not concerned about any other season. If it is spring, liberals care merely for spring. But if you are going to like any season, the only thing that makes sense is to love all four seasons.
What is the predominant philosophy of democracy? It is conservatism, while materialism or communism promotes the liberal philosophy. The conservative, vertical side emphasizes the spiritual nature, while the liberal side does not value the spiritual nature and stresses the material world. This is an oversimplification, but it is still true. If we were to make a choice between the two, we would prefer conservatism.
Here am I in the United States, where liberals are trying to chase out the conservatives. Liberals are often beneficial in promoting a materialistic or communist culture. I say, "We don't need that." God is of a spiritual nature, so God is not with them. We use the term "spiritualism" to mean that which is opposed to materialism. It is obvious why materialism is closely connected with Satan and spiritualism with God; spiritualism is of God because God is spirit, and materialism is of Satan.
Mind and body confront each other. If one's mind and body are at war, where does the person stand? This struggle has existed throughout fallen civilization. The conflict between mind and body on the individual level is reflected on the worldwide level as well, manifested in the battle between spiritualism and materialism. The seed planted in early history is now bearing fruit in current phenomena. If the two sides continue to fight, what will happen? In the end, both will perish. The mind needs the body, and the body needs the mind. How to end this war is the question. How to make harmony between mind and body is the task before us.
Communism claims that conflict can be resolved with weapons. Do you think that is possible? Do you think the mind can forever be subdued by a strong body? No, the mind would rather die than be subjugated like that. Communism has been advocating solving problems by subjugation and force, but that is ultimately impossible because it is obvious that the mind will never be subdued by the body. We face the same question. How do we propose to solve the problem? Through love. Power is no solution; love is needed to harmonize people and nations.
Through love, halves come into wholeness and form one ideal sphere. Only by becoming spherical can all cells in an organism function normally. There is no other solution to all the historical problems of the world except love. Look around the universe; look at nature. Even insects attract each other through love.
Our theme this morning is the mechanism and focus of growth and that is true love. Why do we want to grow centering on true love? True love has the wonderful property of occupying the center of things; even if it loses that position and stands elsewhere, true love remains unchanging.
Do you understand clearly the concept of true love? True love is defined as love that is both vertical and horizontal and whose expression is welcome everywhere. True love is not merely the horizontal love of the contemporary age; it also means love towards our ancestors and descendants. Only with such vertical and horizontal love can we create a sphere, which is our home sweet home, the perfect love which fulfills all directions. In other words, true love is the base upon which we can both give and receive vertical and horizontal love.
Centering on an individual, true love can expand to the worldwide level. True love is the one love which is applicable in every situation and brings happiness to all. True love is not just for men or women, not just horizontal or vertical, not just for Orientals or Westerners. It is the one love which can apply to everyone, whether they are from the west or the east, man or woman, young or old. True love binds the realms of east and west and makes them whole. True love can never connect merely on the horizontal axis because for love to become eternal it must link with the vertical axis.
A contestant in an athletic event aspires to world championship, right? A bride-to-be wants the best husband in the world, right? Even those who are not so great themselves want the best spouse. Everyone aspires to be the best. What is the driving force behind that desire? What quality enables you to fulfill that desire? What can make your ideal come true? The power of true love.
One's first love is truly valuable. In the eyes of first love, one's object or subject is mystifyingly beautiful. A woman may think she has an ugly nose-in her mind, a nose so ugly that she would keep it always under cover if she could. But in first love, her beloved says, "No, put your hands down. I want to see that nose. It is the most beautiful nose I have ever seen." And he means it! To her husband, that nose is the best possible nose for her. Other people may not be so crazy about it, but that is how first love perceives it. A small woman who always longed to be tall may try to look taller when she gets married. But a husband of true love would say, "I wish she were even smaller so I could put her in my pocket!"
What is too low is raised by true love. What is too high is lowered a bit by true love, to suit the occasion. What is indented is filled in a bit by true love. What protrudes is absorbed a bit by true love. Such things true love does automatically.
The other day I was at the Seattle airport, waiting for a plane to Alaska. Since I had some time to spare, I looked around at the people. I saw so many couples, and if it had been up to me, I would never have matched any of them! Actually, I was mystified by them all. I looked at couples who seemed rather happy to be together and wondered how they could even like each other! In theory, they couldn't, but in reality they didn't appear to mind-and even seemed to cherish each other. I realized that this was the power of first love at work. The sad thing is that as first love passes, the couple's attraction for each other will gradually diminish. We, on the other hand, are going up and up, in my observation, and our next generation will attain a high, ideal love.
Once a woman fails at first love, love does not return so strongly. Eventually some women become very bitter. That is why many women outside the church have such a jaded attitude about love. There is an American actress who is very famous not for her beauty but for her hobby of marrying men for their money and then divorcing them. AFTER each divorce she deposits more money in the bank. This sounds like a very radical judgment, but it is making her one with Satan, because that is the nature of his love.
Are you living with your first husband? Is it your first love, or is it a fallen love? Love that is routine and given in installments has no depth. Which do you think is more deep-rooted and secure, your first love, or the subsequent loves? First love. Serial love can never form the root of lasting love.
People have described a syndrome of tiredness after some years of marriage. Such boredom has no place in our thinking, but it is a common observation, and it indicates that love is rotting at the root.
Is the American environment favorable for nurturing such an ideal, or is it a damaging, oppressive, killing atmosphere? We are facing a complicated atmosphere, one that never helps us grow in love. Still, in this hostile environment we have to grow. In such a miserable environment, can anyone stand up and say, "I am happy; in fact, I am the happiest being, and I expect my happiness to endure"? Can any persons or group in this country be truly happy?
Can you find a truly happy man apart from a woman? Can you find a truly happy woman apart from a man? Some women might think they are happy no matter what I say, but a woman without a man doesn't know the meaning of happiness. No man can say he is happy without a woman, and no woman can say she is happy without a man. I am not making this up. It just happens to be true!
Well, maybe we can explain the reason. Before woman came into being there was man, and before man there was the ideal. Woman was created to fulfill that ideal. Before God created Adam and Eve, He had an ideal for the creation. Does a newborn girl know there is going to be a man for her? No one enters the world with the plan of finding his or her spouse; each person just comes into being.
It was the same with our first ancestors. After Adam and Eve grew up, they knew everything. But like us, they knew nothing when they first came into being. From this we can deduce very logically that the ideal must have existed before our birth; somebody must have created the ideal. The one who created the ideal was God. We cannot consider it ideal when two women love each other; the real meaning of the ideal is harmony and love between man and woman.
An ideal is never expressed on only one plane. It always includes both vertical and horizontal dimensions and encompasses all the various directions in between. We have two eyes, and these two eyes have an ideal focal point where they meet and produce one image, not two.
An ideal is never alone; it always includes both subject and object. The ideal is empowered by true love. The energy of true love can permeate everything; any need can be filled by the power of ideal love. This ideal can transfigure even the most eccentric hermit who had rejected everything and everyone. A woman may be so picky that she spurns every suitor and people predict that she will spend the rest of her life alone. But when the ideal enters her life like a magic wand, it changes her and sets her to dreaming of her ideal love.
How do you define an ideal place? I define it as one you would like to visit a hundred times more, even after you have been there a hundred times already. You can visit your dream place over and over without tiring of it. That is an ideal place; that is the dwelling of love. Your ideal teacher is the one you would like to continue studying under. It is not the subject matter that draws you to the ideal teacher, but his or her love.
True love is so magnetic that we want to visit it again and again; we never tire of it. You may get kicked by the one who loves you, but you keep returning because you simply cannot do without that person. In our terms, that is a love kick. You may be kicked, out of true love, but you will bounce right back. A husband might be so helplessly in love with his wife that his excited pinches give her bruises! Would the wife be happy and proud of that mark of love, or would she promptly hire a lawyer?
A woman who has never had such an experience has failed in her love life. Because of love, something offensive that needs to be changed doesn't bother you so much. Even your spouse's nagging can be an expression of love. In love, everything is agreeable. What is truly horrible is indifference.
I talk about true love almost every chance I get. Is it because I have nothing else to talk about? Actually, I wear myself out speaking about true love to you. I speak and speak and get excited about it-even if no one responds!
Regardless of what I say or do, the spirit world is on my mind. You don't know what it is like there, but when you get there you will have to adapt to it. Therefore, I am trying to teach you and train you now, so you will be able to fit in perfectly and thrive. My criteria are similar to the criteria of spirit world. On earth, people die without air to breathe. The atmosphere of the spirit world is that of love, and those unable to love will suffocate and go to hell. In the spirit world, God is at the very center, and everyone tries very hard to get as close as possible to Him. Becoming closer to God is all people in the spirit world care about and strive for.
To become one in love is to become like God and enable God to dwell in us. Then God is like our mind and we are like His body. At that point we are inseparable from God and one with Him. The ideal state of re-creation is for our spirit self to be in complete resonance with God's love. This is what we must grow to attain.
Here on earth we breathe with our lungs, but actually each cell of our body needs oxygen. When we go to the ideal spirit world, our whole body breathes; that rhythmic breathing of love is a unique motion, a novel experience. Since God has vertical love He can intersect with us and help us wherever we may be. When you are connected to Him each of you will feel that you are God. Each of you can feel that God is not external to you, but that you are one with God. Just as no one can claim to be happy apart from someone of the opposite sex, in the spirit world no one can claim to be happy without God dwelling within. Doesn't this stand to reason?
As members of this fallen generation, can you accomplish any of this without training? In fact, you need major repairs; you must undergo extensive training. This is why I have been educating you.
When you are one with God, you don't need a Ph.D. to find out whether God exists: God will be within you. What other experience do you need for proof? Can you see your own mind? If you are not really thinking about it you can be unaware of having a mind, but try doing something that goes against your conscience and you will hear a strong warning, "No, not that. Don't go that way." When you hear that warning, you will know you have a mind. In the spirit world, all of you will know that God lives within you.
In the fallen world people talk about love out of ignorance. At best their experience of love is restricted to a small, local expression.
Men and women have opposite characteristics and personalities. They are 180 degrees different. You realize that, don't you? Men and women are as unlike as the north and south poles. When man and woman stand side by side, man is in the easterly position, because that is where the sun rises and begins to shine, and the woman is in the west. Actually, you can look very carefully without finding a true way to harmonize these two extremes. Nothing seems to work. The man will say, "You must come to me," and the woman will retaliate, "No, you must come to me." Is there an automatic power that impels a man or woman to go to the other? Do you find a power within you urging you to go to your spouse? What is the only power that can make one go to the other? True love.
In the English language, people speak of getting married. In Korean, the mother tongue, the expression is, "I am going to my husband's home." The bride never says, "He is coming to my home to get married,"' because the bride goes to her husband's house. The groom says, "My wife is coming to my house," meaning he is getting married. The languages and cultures of Korea and the United States are so different.
What power makes a woman go to her husband's house, or vice versa? At puberty that power unfolds within people without their making any effort. This is the process of growth. Each person starts as a newborn baby, boys growing according to the masculine way and girls growing according to the feminine way. As they grow they take separate courses and then head back toward the center. No woman seeks another woman; some magnetic power draws a man and woman together. It is the love magnet. When people look at someone of the opposite sex they think, "I want to catch their heart with love and receive their love." They look all around and work very hard because of this strange power pulling at them. This strange, strong power is true love.
God's characteristics, like that of a man and a woman, want to combine in true love. True love wants to join in the core of vertical love. A woman's love combined with a man's love attracts the vertical element, and that vertical element automatically includes horizontal love.
Love has dual characteristics, like God. This concept of love resembles a seed, which has an embryo and two cotyledons. When a mature man and woman meet, they want to form a seed, a core of life descending vertically from above. A seed is divided into two parts, centering on the axis of God's love. Where they cross represents three stages: past, present and future. The vertical dimension corresponds to God's love, and the horizontal dimension corresponds to human love. When they combine, God's love and human love form a perfect sphere, reaching out in all 360 degrees.
Even if husband and wife hate each other, which they shouldn't, still they love their children. Even though the parents get a divorce, each wants the children. Why? It is because of vertical love. Separation may occur along the horizontal line, but never along the vertical line. Parents and children are eternally one. That bond can never be broken.
Here is an example of the Oriental way of doing things. National and world affairs are considered very important, and an Oriental man is not allowed to consult with his wife, or any woman, about them. He can consult his son about such things, however, because the father/son relationship has a vertical dimension. When the man turns, his son turns on the same axis. In contrast, women revolve along the perimeter; they are more apt to change their minds, and they are less consistent. Apparently, embedded in women's original nature is a greater possibility for change. If a woman turns around too fast, however, she may spin right off! A man may revolve like a top and never spin off because he turns right at the axis. Therefore, according to Oriental thought' in a traditional household the man can bring up important matters with his son, but not with his wife or any of the women in his household.
Neither Western nor Eastern women understand how it works, but the difference is that the Korean woman accepts and obeys if the man says, "Let us be alone." Even though she does not understand clearly why she has to go away while her son is allowed to be present, she obeys. Because she has heard a lot about this tradition, the Korean woman will obey and go out while the father and son discuss serious matters. If this happened here in the United States, the woman would immediately retaliate, "What do you mean? You are discriminating against me." She would feel that if her husband has a problem he should certainly let her know.
Once you talk to a woman, however, there are no secrets. Is the United States a more feminine or more masculine country? It is more feminine because all its secrets leak out. The original nature and God's intention is for man to maintain the vertical axis. I cannot help it. This is not just my saying, but it is the principle of the universe. The vertical axis is one and not two. Man and woman cannot both be the center.
God has hold of the upper end of the axis and Adam holds the other, defining a sphere. That is how God designed the center of the universe. According to the Principle, God has dual nature and He is the masculine subject. Why is God not the feminine subject? Because there cannot be two axes at the center. God is the upper axis holder and Adam is the lower axis holder. There is only one point, and that point can never be held by two persons.
The final decision in a household is up to the man, even though the woman may discuss it with him. The man may consider her opinion, but he makes the final decision. Even though he may go through the mother to disclose the decision, the father makes the decision. The mother may implement the decision, but the decision is the father's. The mother cannot directly pass on the inheritance to the sons or daughters, because the father is the axis.
In the United States people do not care about the natu ral order of things. They are at best confused. They do not know who should make the decisions or why. I am emphasizing this because there are blessed couples here. We have our own blessed families, and this is the heavenly law. The man must manage national affairs, and the woman can manage the home.
If a man and woman divide and each occupies a position, where should the woman be? The man's organ is positioned to give and the woman's to receive. Even in the act of love, we should keep that position, the man up and the woman down. Otherwise, she cannot receive. This is the principled view; it is physical law and natural law. This biological law governs all the cosmos, without exception.
The number four multiplied by itself makes 16. One four represents the four position foundation, and the other pole represents the other four. Sixteen is the minimum age of maturity, when people really come to have an interest in the opposite sex. Anything before that is premature and false. Love is not to take place in just any position, but all have to come to the center point. Is it good or bad for young Americans to date freely, changing partners all the time? It is bad. Until they are 16 years of age, men and women should be kept as far away from each other as possible, so they can grow unhampered to maturity. Then they can turn around and face each other for the first time.
Young people should not hold hands. If they do, spiritual electricity is discharged and all kinds of serious problems result. Young people should kiss only after they become engaged and get married. That should be the first kiss. At that time, a high charge will come. Even a little bit of touching generates an electrical charge. If you are holding hands and kissing all the time, where does the electricity discharge? Where is it stored? You need to wait until you become an incarnation of love. When electrical energy comes together and discharges, it produces lightning which can even destroy stones. If you use and abuse the energy, in time it will produce no sparks; no electricity will be left.
A young Korean woman typically remains hidden behind the hedges or walls of her house. She rarely goes out. After age 16, she begins looking around or over the hedge. When a certain right candidate passes by, she blushes. By that, we know she is a maiden. The bride enters the bridal chamber by herself. She does not know whether she is walking or floating; she does not know what to expect. She has great hope, but she is so overwhelmed and excited she cannot think. Each cell in her body is thinking for her. When the bridegroom starts taking off her clothes, which is the custom, she freezes like a statue. Which is more exciting? The Oriental way.
In Korea it is a great disgrace for a young girl to be seen with a man. That is the end of her marriage prospects, for no one will take her as a bride afterwards. I am trying to point out here that the whole Korean custom is closer to the way of Principle.
Oriental history is much, much longer than American history. Korean history goes back 5,000 years-less than China, but longer than Japan, which claims only 2,600 years. All this history carries a rigid discipline and tradition. I was born out of that culture in these historic last days. My country has all that tradition stored up. Americans think variation is normal and they can change in a relatively short time span, from year to year or even day to day. Orientals do not change so much because of their long tradition.
You need to develop a consciousness of tradition. For instance, the first time you enter a room each day, you should smile at your family members, but in a distinct order. First you smile at your father, expressing love and respect; then you smile at your mother; and finally at your wife. You don't smile at your wife and talk to her first, ignoring your father and mother until later. Americans do not even think of such things, do you? You think, "Just you and me. We don't need our parents. We don't need children until we have planned for them." But such attitudes have no place. God cannot dwell in such families.
Ask any American grandparents whether they would like to live with their sons and daughters. I asked one old couple this question, and they shed tears. Their original minds were awakened and they answered, "Yes, we want to, but we can't. They won't accept us." I responded, "In the East, it is not like that. Aren't you courageous enough to insist on changing that?" The old couple said, "We wish we were in the Orient." What about you? If you treat old folks the way Americans do now, as if they were just like everyone else, how will you feel 30 or 40 years from now, when you become grandparents? Will your feelings be different from this grandfather and grandmother, or will you feel exactly the same? You will feel exactly the same. There will be no revolutionary change in desires. These are not my words; this is the Principle and law of the universe.
Our task is to determine the best way to grow. What is the fastest, most efficient, most desirable way to grow? God holds certain views about the individual, the family, society and the world. Each individual also has concepts about these levels. The ideal is happiness, right? Where can we find individual happiness? We would like to connect horizontal and vertical relationships and have hope for the future. Happiness means having your spouse by your side and your children growing up, heading towards a good future. Then, for the first time, you can say you are happy.
Without some guarantee of the future, you cannot be content. Without some vision of a future, you cannot be happy. Once you get married you want to have children, for without children you are not connected to the future and cannot experience full joy. People become depressed when there is no opportunity to develop. Only with expanding opportunities, expectations and vision can a person be happy.
When an individual feels joy he must work for the happiness of his family. He wants his parents, children, and brothers and sisters to all share that happiness. This is the great realm of happiness. In order to achieve this, however, the individual has to make sacrifices. Instead of asserting himself he has to step back.
Why is sacrifice good? The more you sacrifice, the more your happiness expands, both horizontally and vertically. Then you know you have won. You need to invest yourselves and entrust all you have for the sake of the greatest happiness in the widest realm. Your sacrifice is the second expansion of yourself. When you become the sacrifice and deny yourself, you are actually expanding in an indirect way. This holds true even for God. He gives continually to an incredible degree, in an ever-expanding, God-centered sphere, and then suddenly the tide changes and God starts receiving. When everyone is filled, all that God gave out flows back to Him. Unless you give everything away, you can never reach perfection.
God invested everything He had into creation. Lacking form or body. God continued to give, investing and sacrificing Himself for the sake of creation. This established an objective realm surrounding God, who is the realm of the subject. Finally, for the first time, because of that visible object, God Himself could take on the shape of a visible subject. Without a visible object, life has little excitement; therefore God created all things. Only by positively giving Himself away could God have this objective domain.
In an ideal family, if the man sacrifices a hundred percent for the sake of his wife, and vice versa, that family will surely reach perfection. If you continue to love and trust even though you are repeatedly betrayed, one day you will be filled to the brim and start to overflow. You will find even the weakest person coming back to you f in repentance and standing as an object to you. In married life, husband and wife alternate in the positions of subject and object. When the husband goes up so far he can't go any further and the wife goes down till she can't descend any further, their positions reverse, like two people on a see-saw. This is harmony.
The one with the greatest longing to love and invest himself is the one who sacrifices the most. It is not a sacrifice if you act expecting to receive something in return. According to the Principle, if you give you are bound to receive. However, a sacrifice does not expect to receive; a sacrifice continues giving because the other person needs it. A subject gives all he can give, and even more; when the object is filled up, the object doesn't return what he received directly, but rather indirectly.
That is how I live, even here in the United States, where I am opposed. I try to think about why people oppose me; but even if I don't understand their reasons I continue to give and continue to love. Once a certain level gets filled up, I begin to see things returning to me; things start turning around and finally come to rest in the center. This is where the ideal of love is realized; here two beings become completely one. Do you follow?
What is the center of an individual? Does the mind invest itself in the body first, or does the body invest itself in the mind first? The mind always seeks to fill the body; once the mind has done so, the body starts turning around. Actually, people hardly ever fill the body enough to make it start moving. The body is willing to sacrifice and continue sacrificing, because that is how it can be filled. You have heard me say that those who sacrifice themselves will be in the central position, but you must clearly know that the more you give the closer you come to the center. The one who gives the most will be right at the center.
There are many members of the Unification Church here. Who is the center of this group? This group or clan has a center, and he is called Reverend Moon. What is my distinguishing quality? The one who sacrifices the most will become the center, and this is how I have been living. I want to give more and more. I want to sacrifice more and more. Hour after hour, I want to give in every way. Who else among you will be the center? Who really thinks about America and loves it? Who is willing to sacrifice for the sake of this group? Such a person will eventually be the center.
Whoever loves and gives everything he possesses to America will naturally be its center. What if he goes beyond that and wants to do the same for the rest of the world? Then he will become the center not only of America but the world as well. The formula is that the most sacrificial person becomes the center. It is not done by exercising authority. This formula applies not only in the spiritual world, but in the physical world as well.
Sons and daughters of filial piety are those who want to give more to their parents than their brothers and sisters do. Patriots are those who work more for their country and love it more. Saints are those who willingly serve and sacrifice more for the sake of the world. Such people may not be recognized and honored in their own time. but in the future they will be. This is the kind of effort needed here in the United States. Each of you should enter the race to see who can become the center.
The right-to occupy the center on each level is inherited by following this formula. The one who is willing to sacrifice more will ultimately receive the inheritance and become the center of the world. Is there any individual who can keep sacrificing himself and his family for the sake of the world? Is there such a group? It is the Unification Church movement. When we continue to do this, nothing will be able to resist this influence. Unity will start to happen.
Here in the United States, we should be ready to take on the most difficult tasks. We should not seek the easiest spot. There is no place for that attitude. You should resolve to take responsibility for the most difficult department, or the most difficult mission. For instance, communism is a most serious, problem and you should want to be responsible for it. Confronting the moral problems of the young people and restoring the declining Christian churches are very difficult challenges. Without the Unification Church there is no hope for America. Nothing will change automatically; something has to be done, in fulfillment of man's portion of responsibility.
There are many ministers going to Korea now. We worked so hard for this goal, and now they are participating. The Unification Church is gradually and naturally being ushered into the center. Obviously, every American wants to be in the center, but they do not know how to achieve it. More and more, people will ask to be in the central position; they will ask to do more work.
As I said, to be happy individually, we need a spouse. To be happy as a church or as a nation, we need a bright future to believe in and the potential to grow. Think back on your other experiences. You have listened to people talk about many things, but have you ever heard anyone so focused on the future and with such high aspirations? It is not only our desire, but actually our task to liberate God. Have you heard any teacher or group profess this aim before'? To liberate God, we must abide by the Principle. Then we will prosper and fill everyone up; then we will expand and have a brighter future. This is not an imaginary future; it is highly attainable. We have a vision. Let us all join and sacrifice ourselves to save the greater whole. When we accomplish that, we will realize our objective.
God's ideal is not to make the United States a perfect country but to make a perfect world. Nothing short of that can fulfill God's ideal. In this room are people of all five colors of skin, all races and all backgrounds. Yet we are unquestionably brothers and sisters working for a common goal. We are not here for just one country. but for the world. We are encouraging one another to sacrifice and continually invest ourselves for the world.
The most persecuted person in all Korea is Reverend Moon. In Japan, everyone has come against me, and I am the most persecuted individual there. It is the same in other countries too, including the United States. Even under such persecution, I do not retaliate with antagonism but I return love. I always saturate my opponents with love. I keep investing everything, and someday Korea will overflow. The more people oppose me, the better it is because persecution speeds up the payment of indemnity. Do you understand? The level of persecution has reached the brim. I do not really feel that I need to invest more in America, for people want to follow in the wake of my thoughts. This country is a big container that needs to be filled up; the more nearly filled it becomes, the closer it moves toward the center.
In the history of humanity, who has made more sacrifices? Are there two people on earth who fit this category, or just one? There is only one. The center is one; the axis is one. There can never be a dual axis. Even though all people have rebelled against God, eventually they will turn around and say, "God' please accept me; please forgive me and take me back." Likewise, when all those who have sinned against the one individual on the axis are filled to the brim with love, they will say, "I don't oppose you; please take me in." Eventually that center will be the core of the universe. How does it work out so beautifully? Because this is universal law and an unfailing formula.
Two hundred centers of the Unification Church are here-you leaders and elite members who are undergoing forty days' training! Afterwards, I intend to pour all of you out into this country. When you are poured out into America, will you do your mission on an individual basis, or will you work representing God? For how many years would you like to flow throughout America? How many years are you ready to invest in this? Two hundred years? Two thousand years? If you say two hundred and I say two thousand years, who is greater? Who should stand in the center? Anyone willing to be poured down into this country for twenty thousand years will be the center! You know the right answers.
If you continue to pour yourselves out unconditionally, you are guaranteed to become the center. Is there any race or nation on the face of the earth that has sacrificed as a unit for the sake of the entire world? No, not even the Jews managed that. They sacrificed a great deal and were exemplary, but they did it for their own nation. They never went beyond their own national boundary. Instead of trying to sacrifice for the sake of the rest of the world and for God, the Jewish nation became tightly organized and tried to make everyone else-including God-fit their conditions. It would be better to develop the economy according to God's position and do it for the sake of the entire world; then the Jewish nation would be included in that whole.
You should come to realize, proudly but humbly, that none other than the Unification Church is working for the sake of the whole world. When you pour yourself out for the whole world, everything will come back to you, and the overflow will surround and encompass you.
I am an Oriental man who came to the United States planning to educate the American people and guide them to restore their country. I have actually done this. I poured all my love into this country and the world, and after 40 years I am seeing everything beginning to overflow and return to me. Now, with one more push, everything will be filled up. Until now, you 200 individual leaders have been doing things your own way, acting in whatever way you thought best. This is not good; it is too inefficient. I wanted you to assemble here and go through 40 days' training. When you are united you will be thrust out again. There is no question that within a few months you will fill up and overflow.
If you 200 leaders will make a resolution to heaven and mankind to pour yourselves out 24 hours a day for 40,000 years, your power will be invincible. That resolution would create enough energy to go around the world a hundred times and restore it a hundred times over. How would you feel if such a thing happened? Fantastic.
This is the way to grow. In following such a course, you will not be heading off in some direction by yourself, but you will be developing toward the center. However, you cannot reach that center point without me. I want to make this truth clear to you.
The standard has been a bit confused. State leaders want to receive more Japanese members so they can send them out fundraising, but they are just using the members as instruments so they can maintain their own office. I don't want things to be that way. You need to show members the right example and serve them. You should not ask members to serve you. You should set the proper tradition: the central person is the one who sacrifices the most. The central point does not want to be occupied by a selfish person. You leaders have been using your members and taking too many privileges. If you stand in the Abel position, my instructions are that you have to work harder. Do you leaders understand this?
Since you have been chosen for a certain position or perhaps are highly educated Ph.D.'s, you think you should be the leaders in the United States. Yes, I want you to be leaders, but you must do it by serving the members. You may be one among hundreds of thousands of people with doctorate degrees, but you should resolve to be the most sacrificial one. Most people with Ph.D.'s are not willing to sacrifice, but if you are, you will become the center.
Years ago, when I first set foot at Kennedy Airport, I ) thought about this land's history. I recalled the Native Americans and the many immigrants who came here. I recalled the many people who have loved this country and sacrificed for its sake. I wanted to love it more than any other person. I vowed to invest more energy, to sacrifice more for this country than any patriot ever did, including any of its original inhabitants, the Indians. I resolved to pour myself out until the whole country overflows. I made that pledge before heaven and earth, and for the past fifteen years I have been carrying it out.
I thought about the War of Independence and placed myself in the position of General Washington. George Washington's situation was sometimes desperate, but I resolved to place myself in the same kind of situation and do better than he did. I keenly felt that if I did not do so, I could not restore this country.
People in all walks of life need education, whether they are in the military, politics, arts, news media, or business. American industry needs education and good examples, so I decided to teach God's principle in that setting. I set the standard to restore fishing in this nation and develop it into a major industry, working harder than any fisherman or boat captain ever did in America. People felt threatened by such actions, not knowing my intentions, but I couldn't stop what I was doing just for them. Instead I continued, without giving any explanation. Now people are tagging along behind me. Now the fishermen say, "Reverend Moon is our helper, even our savior.
In the beginning, however, they called me a heretic because I do things in an unorthodox fashion. People advised me to do things another way, saying that my way would never work, but I knew the heavenly way. It was painful; but burying painful losses, I continued to invest more. Now do all you leaders know what I have been doing and why?
The future President of the United States should not be decided by popularity. The criterion for selecting a President should be the person's intensity of love for this ountry and his degree of sacrifice for it. Those of you with doctorate degrees should go forth and challenge that standard. Nothing less will do. That is the way to go. Now you know how big you can grow, if you want to. What purpose does your doctorate degree have? Now that you know it is not only for the United States, but for the whole world, I want to see you live that way.
You leaders, this is not the time to be a leaf; you need to become a branch to my trunk and root. The true branch of a true tree supplies energy to the leaves; it doesn't take energy away from them. Now you understand clearly your purpose and goal for growth. You grow, of course, but toward what goal? To become the very center, or the focal point. Once you attain that position, no one can remove you from it. That is the position I want you to occupy. Then you will become a master because God will be abiding with you. God will dwell in you, and you will become one with Him.
Do you want to keep me here in the United States with you, or do you want me to go away? Am I plundering this country, taking everything unto myself? What would you say if I told you to give everything to me, since it belongs to me? Would you complain that I am not being consistent? If you want me to be the center of this country, I refuse; that means you will have to be its center. If you don't want that position, your offspring will be duty-bound to take that position. If you are sacrificing more than the others, you will be the center.
Now you know a lot about the way to grow. If you as individuals expand this way, your growth will not be limited to just one direction but will be in all four directions and extend beyond all boundaries. You will become the center and expand from there to the family, clan, nation and world. Growing step by step, you can anticipate a great future. Your destiny is to keep developing and expanding. In all human history, only one group has had that determination.
After we liberate God, what will we do? Take God's "love bag" and make it our own. That is synonymous with standing in the center. A patriot is the one who finds himself at the center of a whole country and receives its love. Don't you want such a position? As long as you are in such a position, there will be no one telling you always to stand upright, because if you are happy, you can lie down, crawl like a crab, or stand upside down and maintain your dignity. You can sleep all day if you wish and it will be okay. You can do anything you want to, and as long as you are happy everybody is happy. That will be our resting place, but not until we reach it will we take it easy.
Now you know the way to grow: each level must sacrifice to expand to the next highest level. The individual must sacrifice for the family level, the family must sacrifice for the societal level, and so on. We need to keep pushing up to the next level of growth. This is exactly what I have been doing, without your realizing it. I keep insisting that you sacrifice more and do more-to the point of offending people. Why do I do that? Because I want to make sure that everyone reaches the center point. Whether or not you realize what you are doing doesn't matter; what matters is that you get there.
Now you know the way to grow. Once the United States responds, it will endure. When this country's future is assured, do you expect me to tell you, "Now that you have suffered so much, why don't you couples take a year off, go on a trip and get some rest"? I will say, "Now that you have gained this victory, there is a bigger victory awaiting you. Go to Africa and the other countries of the world and restore them. Work without resting, day and night, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Continue for a long, long time." Mansei!
Will you protest such instructions and say, "This is our country; this is our culture; this is our resting place"? You must persevere on the difficult course. How difficult has it been? How hard have you been working? People who speak English sound like sparrows or swallows to me. (Father speaks imitating the sound of birds:) "Don't make us go that way; we don't need your kind of help. Go help Korea with its political and economic situation. It's an undeveloped country; go help it. Why do you come to this big nation of the United States? We have everything here."
Seven thousand ministers are going to Korea to be educated, and they are being touched with the fire of the Holy Ghost there. You need that kind of power. With such power you can reach every church in America.
Do you think we spend American money in Korea? Do you supply the money? No. I hope American Moonies don't have such a concept. Negative Americans are being absorbed one by one. We will continue working without rest. Immigrants to this country speak of being Americanized. Those who join our church and work for five years can testify that they have changed a great deal during those five years. I am showing American young people how to live. They realize that I am a nice guy and they are becoming "Moonized." The CIA thought that the Moonizing phenomenon was not good for the United States, but then they began to realize that I am educating people against communism and drug abuse, and working to solve this country's social problems-even though it is not my homeland.
I don't like to speak English. You have to learn Korean. I can't express how difficult it has been for me to learn English, but I did it. I have had to practice saying words twenty times or more, memorizing and more memorizing. I have had to work hard so I can know what you are talking about. Sometimes you say, "Father, Father ..." and scold me. It is so tedious for me to have to study like this.
My own children speak English, and it's a problem! They are going to American schools and don't know Korean very well. They call me "Father" and not "Aboji." The first time they called me "Father" it seemed so funny.
How can you really understand me when I have to use an interpreter? It is such an unusual situation. I need to understand what the children are talking about when they speak English, so I have had to study hard. My lifestyle at East Garden is such that I can study English only after midnight. Sometimes I stay up studying until 2:00, 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning. Many times I have fallen asleep right in the chair. Sometimes Mother complains, "Every single night I have to sleep alone." This miserable situation affects our family!
I am studying, so you should study too. You don't like Korean. Americans and Westerners in general don't like Koreans and other Orientals. So far, white people have controlled Asia and were proud of it. However, if you don't study Korean you will encounter big problems after ten years, because my books will no longer be translated. My original words are in Korean, so should they be interpreted? No. More of the meaning comes through the original language. You will have to read my books in the original Korean, or you won't be able to understand them. It is not enough for someone just to explain the meaning to you. This time is not far away.
Western professors who speak a variety of languages have come to Korea, visiting the cities and traveling throughout the countryside. Teams were formed of three professors each: one Japanese, one Korean, and one Westerner. After a time they concluded that they needed to learn Korean. These professors have also been visiting Japan. Japanese universities respect our position as do many high-level people there. The same thing will happen in the future in the United States. Americans will feel the need to read Reverend Moon's thought in the original language. Already many scholars want to learn Korean, and more will begin to think that way.
You Moonies protest that Korean is difficult to learn. But if you don't study this difficult language, your position will be occupied by others in the future and you will be relegated to a lower position. Compare Japan with the West. The Japanese are working harder, and you can see the result. By working harder and being more sacrificial. day by day the Japanese are taking over America's position. I have given you the formula; if you follow this principle you can produce results.
Now you know the way to grow and what you have to do in order to become bigger and reach the center. I see you 200 leaders here. Your heads are already so big, filled with so many complicated things. Take this opportunity to clear your mind. Are you Americans telling yourselves, "Reverend Moon does things the Oriental way; we like to analyze things first"? You want to analyze everything I say and carry out only what suits you. And if something doesn't suit you, you don't do it, right? That is how you have been living so far. I can tell it just by looking at you. Is that how you are going to react now?
Those who will say, "Yes, Father, I will sacrifice in every detail, just as you explained this morning," raise your hands. If you really mean it, you won't need me as you did in the past. lf you really mean what you say, I can be assured that you will produce results. So you won't mind if I am not always here, right? You should be able to say, "No problem, Father. We are already in the center."
In conclusion, God doesn't need to do the work; we will do it in His place. You should be resolved to do this. Americans like to hear how wonderful they are; they like to be told they are number one. These are American characteristics, aren't they? If you mean what you say, you will truly be wonderful people; you will truly be number one. You Americans can do it, can't you? You can apply this principle without my help.
People can analyze and study me, but they remain mystified by my abilities. Behind the scenes I accomplish many things, but it is all through the principle of sacrifice and love.
We are building heaven on earth. I am a smart guy. If someone on Satan's side is too smart it creates a problem, but it's a joyful thing when someone on God's side is smart. If you want to build such a foundation, just take my hand and follow me. Then you will automatically inherit the foundation I have made.
The key is to work very, very, very hard. Those are simple words. To work hard means to be sacrificial. To sacrifice means to give everything. In the process, you will be re-created. God's purpose is re-creation. Your task is to follow absolutely. Since you are smart people, you already know that.
Let us pray.
