Belvedere -- International Training Center
Translator -- Sang Kil Han
The topic of Father's sermon this morning is na eui shinang saenghwal -- My Life of Faith. The life of faith began as the result of the Fall. We know that centering upon the four major religions there are numerous religions all following a certain direction of faith. The religious life's characteristic denotes life at the world-wide level as well as at the individual level. However, there is only one life of true faith. The object of that life is absolute God Himself. The life of faith is to lead life in such a way as God desires us to do and to be. It does not begin from oneself, but rather from God. It is not a matter of what an individual wants but what God wants. It is simple enough if everyone goes in one direction. However, confusion arises when the people in the world inject themselves into this understanding of the way to go.
Within the individual life we face many problems. The problems always arise from human relationships. As science progresses and makes one discovery of nature after another, then mankind can progress through following the scientffic formula, whereas it is difficult to find the formula for the life of faith, the religious life. Naturally the question arises as to what the unit and formula is for the individual life of faith. We always discover that this unit and formula is the family. The family is the unit and formula of life itself. The unit is that one couple and their relationship to their children and their children's relationship to them. That unit forms a family which becomes the formula for our life. Everything else is the mere expansion of this family.
[Father draws on the board.] We are all familiar with these eight stages of individual, family, race, clan, nation, world, cosmos and God. It is important that we always understand that it intersects at a ninety degree angle. That which is fit to settle down permanently is the family. Only the family is able to do this. The family in relation to God vertically creates the father-son relationship. The other is the horizontal relationship of husband and wife. Brothers' and sisters' relationships are like front and back. Up and down, right and left, and front and back. These relationships of father and son, husband and wife and children, or, up and down, east and west, front and back, all comprise the family. This forms a global shape and becomes a formula.
This being brothers and sisters and this the children, [indicating to the board] these four are all represented. This being the smallest family, the race, clan and nation all have these within them. They are merely extensions of this unit. Just as we have these four elements within the family, they also exist within the country. In America we have a person in the position of parents, couples, brothers, and children. This being the formula, it can be found wherever you go in the world without exception. Since this is forming a global shape it cannot be divided into a smaller scale or different shape. [Father is drawing on the board.] Here is the vertical relationship [indicating to the diagram]. Centering upon this relationship the globe is automatically formed. It is like the seed of a tree. This relationship is always present as the design of the family life. Therefore wherever you may go, you cannot help but form this. Just as the seed of a tree can always grow into a tree, so can the human family.
Here are the upper and lower hemispheres, and right and left hemispheres [indicating to the board]. Such is the system of the family. When they all gather together it forms a sphere. As we can see here, there are six divided spheres, and counting the center makes seven [indicating to the board]. This position is occupied by True Love. The sphere can move in any direction possible. No matter how you move and where you go, when the ball comes to stand still it is always upright. It is the formula. No matter which part of the surface you choose, it intersects with the vertical line at a ninety degree angle. Therefore this is ideal. There are no differences, no prejudice, no different ways of being treated. All are equal. Always this surface is hard in order to protect everything inside. As can be observed in the seed of a tree, we see the bran [indicating to Father's drawing]. Centering on this line [indicating to the drawing] these different parts embrace the part that will later form the root of the tree, the trunk of the tree, and will eventually grow to be the leaves of the tree. All are situated likewise, around the seed.
The trees prosper when they grow because all of these elements are present: the root, trunk, strong branches and leaves. This can be applied to the human family also and extends into the spiritual world where the family will gather together and live. When we refer to son we immediately think about parents. The beginning of the concept of son is parents. Is that correct? Whenever we think of wife, the pre-supposition is husband. When we refer to younger brother, then elder brother is in mind and vice versa. We may refer to right, but left is equally important. They are included within each other. This concept is impor- tant. The right side exists for the left side, not for its own sake. This is the very beginning of existence. You did not begin for yourself. You began for somebody else other than yourself. In the case of a man, he came into existence for a woman. And everyone came into existence for the sake of parents. The East exists for the sake of the West and vice versa. The lower part exists for the upper part. Let us assume that a plus entity came into being. Then immediately one asks for what does this plus exist. Naturally it exists for its object which is minus. If there is no minus then there is no reason for the plus to exist. Plus only exists for the sake of minus.
What then is the significance of family? What are we to do centering upon family? Without the family, there is no connection vertically above. In the Unification Church we have already formulated this in the description of Cain and Abel relationship. When we observe that every small element, without exception, contains common elements, then we know that this is the formula. Wherever we place the family it fits into this formula. My religious life, or my life of faith means I always have my subject in mind. Do you follow? We belong in either the subject or object category. Whichever I might be, I'll be living for the sake of the other. Each family desires to be the center of the whole cosmos. In order to climb to a high place we need a ladder and we need to climb step by step. [Father draws on the board.] Like so, the family, clan, race and nation. When you ascend, when your family goes up, it needs a ninety degree angle. You cannot climb up with one step. The restorational history of God is the same. It follows the ladder, step by step.
The family does not change, but it ascends to a higher place. Our family does not just rise up automatically, but as we rise up so we have to expand our realm horizontally like so [indicating to the board]. As we go up we have to expand the territory of our realm so that it becomes bigger. The universe is formed in this way. The universe always has a core and surroundings in much the same way as our bones and flesh. Always there is the core and the surrounding part to that. Always the center or core is in subject position and the surrounding part is the object position. As we go up as a family unit, we have to expand. A tree will bear fruit and this fruit is the result of eight stages of development within the tree. A big tree is like a universe in and of itself.
Our philosophy of life should be that the individual always must sacrifice for the sake of the family. This means that all individuals live for the sake of the family. When that family becomes intact then the family lives for the sake of the clan, and the clan lives for the sake of the nation. This direction is only one in human life. That direction is ninety degrees. Two families can never live differently; there is only one direction. The ninety degree angle is not something that changes, but it remains eternally. It is not only vertical but horizontal also. Just as the tree has only one way in which to grow, so it is with the family. We therefore come to conclude that what comprises the universe, small or large, is always subject and object.
In order for subject and object to exist and develop, they need to work for the sake of one another. This will not work if one demands that the other exist and work only for them. The role of the subject is to invest. The object's role is to be invested into, but also to reciprocate with a grateful heart. Even if your subject gives you something personally, you must not consider that it is for yourself alone. Rather you must consider that it belongs to all and so be ready to return it to the subject with a grateful heart. As the subject continues to invest and give, through returning gratitude the object will stimulate the subject to give more. This sense of love grows more and everybody is stimulated to do more for the sake of the other.
Within the religious life we find that the subject and object relationship is for the purpose of interacting vigorously one with the other. Why? The purpose is to reach up to a higher place and finally reach God again from where all mankind fell down. As we go up, we also expand horizontally. Anyone who is in the subject position must invest. When Father speaks and invests in you as members of the Unffication Church, if you in turn miss this opportunity and cannot grow, then maybe you will remain as a leaf. You might never grow into a trunk or big branch. The leaves become fertilizer every year. Unlike a branch and trunk which remain, leaves are only annual. The trunk must be large and strong before you can expect to rise higher vertically. Also, the branches must become horizontally larger year by year so that they may form a more prosperous domain for the tree.
We breathe every minute and yet we rarely notice that our heart is beating continuously. These functions never rest, but are continuous and sure. We human beings for the sake of goodness, like a heart, must beat every day regularly without ceasing. If you only inhale or only exhale you will die. Air is also plus and minus. Some air is dense and some is sparse as it moves from one place to another. Like the rhythm of a wave, so the air moves even though we may not see it. Storms are very necessary in order to change and recharge the air that has begun to stagnate. It has a cleansing action. In the Unification Church we also have ups and downs. This is the rhythm of life. When we face a big persecution we are down, but when this passes again then we are up. There was an individual persecution time, a family persecution time, a racial persecution time and even a world persecution time. When that ends, then the spiritual world will persecute us. That is the last persecution and then level ground will be formed. Then we find stability.
We have many concepts to deal with, but they are so important for our life. True Parents and the Completed Testament Era is here. However, although we experience this here, still many people remain unaware. Even though our families and Father's family are the same because they consist of the same formula, there is a difference in stages. If Father's stage is up here while ours is down here [indicating to the board], then we are not the same stage. Father's family did not rise up instantly, just as Father has already explained to us. And they have to continually do more work and we must realize this. Where is my family going? What am I doing? What am I living for? We must always refer to and think about these eight stages. We are ascending up when we try harder and harder and we need to have our sense of direction correctly and firmly set.
What are the chances of meeting Father in our lifetime? When we meet Father that is where everything flows down to me: the life, words, everything. It is such a precious opportunity. Historically how long mankind had to wait just to arrive at the time when we could meet Father. If we waste that opportunity it means we are unaware what we are living for. It is so precious an opportunity that you cannot think of missing it because you miss that much of life. We have a long way to go. Why is Father so necessary? We have a destiny to go up here [indicating to the board] but we cannot go by ourselves. We have to cling onto historical Father and never let him go. That is the only hope for us to reach from here to here [indicating to the board]. It is like a fly that happens to stray into an airplane in Narita airport, Japan, and a few hours later finds itself in New York. There is absolutely no way that a Japanese fly would be able to fly over to New York from Japan. There is absolutely no chance. And so it is with heaven. What chance do you really think that we all have to reach to heaven as we are historically? Do you understand?
We all have a desire to do something and make it our own. Father has already given us the formula of living for the sake of others. Why? It appears that he is losing all the time. The reason Father does this is because automatically he will find himself in the center. This is the law. If we make it a habit to live for the sake of others we will never go sideways but will always find ourselves right at the center. We have an ideal formula that whatever belongs to me belongs to the family. Whatever belongs to the family belongs to the clan. Whatever the clan has belongs to the nation and so forth. Then whatever the nation has belongs to God and whatever God has belongs to me. God is a big plus and we are a small minus. Communism believes that whatever belongs to everyone else also belongs to me. This cuts off all of the different stages. That was their belief.
Whatever belongs to God, belongs to me. That completes the circle. Ever since Father came to America he has invested whatever he owned into America. People, property, money, all the skills and whatever he had, Father invested into America. For the sake of the world, Father invested. Now through the Washington Times we clearly see that the world now responds to Father and feels that they need him. We Unificationists are always wondering where we are going and why we are suffering, but we should not be this way. If we are going to reach to here [indicating to the diagram] then no wonder that we suffer the way that we do. Maybe we should suffer even more. The one who follows continuously can never become the center or the master. However, the one who leads and takes initiative will find himself in the center position.
In the past America was always playing the central role. However, today it seems that America will never be able to digest the East and it seems likely that the Orient may well digest America. Unless America follows this formula and advances up the ladder to reach God, it will plummet down. If a nation is high level and loses track of the ladder the only way is to crash down. The Unification Church is the only entity that has a clear ladder and is taught clearly about this by Father. Is there anyone here who is confident to say that if they pass to the spirit world today that they can be in the same place as Father there? It is not likely because of what Father went through in order to reach to that ladder. The world at that level is obviously very different from the world where we are. Father has already told us that we need to go through many stages. Without going through all of these stages we cannot go to the same spiritual world as Father.
No matter what position, you can always make this angle the same [indicating to the board]. Do you understand? (Yes.) The title of Father's sermon today is My Life of Faith, but there is nothing that is mine in my life. Would you desire a limited kind of 'my' or a farsighted, limitless 'my'? (The big one.) The purpose of 'my' should be here [indicating to the board]. Therefore is my life of faith centered upon this limited 'my' or this big 'my'? On which one is your religious life centered? In reality we begin here [indicating to the board] because we are an individual. As we have a family we expand to here, but then we have to come back to where I started. This is the course. It starts from here [Father draws on the board], then goes around and returns back to the center where we began and forms a circle. Do you understand? (Yes, Father.)
Those who are present this morning to listen to Father, do you belong to this category here [indicating to the board] or is your aspiration here? This is like a grammar school level, whereas this one is like a Ph.D. course. All too often you are in the elementary grammar school, but it is such a fantastic school that you think you are going through a Ph.D. course. But nobody recognizes that. Even God will deny that. All things will reject you. If we continually think in this arrogant way then all things will come against us and we will drop away. My religious life, or my life of faith is lived for the sake of others not for myself. God is not making me live this way, but rather by my own volition I decide to go this way. Then this becomes a legitimate condition. I will choose my religious life in order to liberate God and we will find ourselves liberated. God has to be happy before He is able to liberate me or I am able to liberate myself. When God is unhappy we cannot liberate ourselves, neither can God liberate me. The 'my' in my religious life is not mine but exists for the sake of God. God is subject and we are object. We must live for the sake of God as He is already living for the sake of us. We give everything back to God with a grateful heart because eventually it all belongs to me. It cannot belong to anybody else except me.
The Unification Church perspective concerning this way of life must be crystal clear. We live for the sake of God. If we follow in Father's wake we will go to heaven. Even if we follow somebody else, who is going in the same direction, then we will go to heaven also. That means there is only one correct way of life, not two. Do you understand? Also we must always continually remind ourselves what position we are in this eight stages. Where are we? Are you confident as to where you are and where you will be going? When Father reaches up here he wants to go even further and begin something even more gigantic. But where are we? We have followed Father well until a certain point, but then we say we can go no further. How can we say such a thing? Father has always insisted that America must do better than any other country because it is destined to go higher. Once Father invests so much into America then it must live up to Father's expectations. Otherwise what will happen? It will completely fall down. Do you understand? (Yes.)
For whom are you leading your religious life? (For God.) We have a good contrast with the Christians who proclaim to believe in God in order to be saved by Him. It is not 'I' who will be saved, but rather God wishes for the whole world to be saved, not only the Christians. If we are going to be a rightful partner and object then we must follow God's ideal. The whole world is our goal, never the Unification Church. Until now, Father can point out that we have been focusing literally upon 'my' religious life and this is wrong. If some feel that it is cold and therefore don't want to come to Belvedere to listen to Father, God will certainly not be happy with us. When God comes here and sees only a few faces, naturally His heart is sad. Every higher level than myself would be sad because of my absence. Do you understand? (Yes.)
We see that Father's life has been so public and so open, and at the age of eighty he still works as hard as in his twenties and thirties. This is the way that we pass to the spirit world: not in bed, but doing the work. There are other continents to which Father did not give so much attention. Father has invested everything into America, but now Father has to go to South America and Africa because these countries have not been visited by Father for long periods of time. Father will go around the world and will eventually come to rest in Korea. Therefore are we all going to follow in Father's wake? (Yes.) We have to make a big circle. Do you understand? How wonderful if our aspiration is for the liberation of the universe and the liberation of God, rather than any lesser purpose. How wonderful it is! Christians are declining sharply because they do not know God's Will. It doesn't take a genius or a holy man to understand God. If you were God would you be happy with the way America is? Of course not. Neither is God. Times are changing now and the Christian world cannot adapt itself. It is a sorrowful thing. Yet, here we are.
Do you think that God can do wonders and liberate Christians? (No.) Then which living being can? Who must love, teach and liberate? It is our mission, but in order to accomplish it we need this philosophy clearly in our minds. We are the only group of people who have God's ideal in mind. This is what Father teaches us and that is what the Unification Church is. Father is the only living being who is thinking in this way. If we live as Father has taught us then the whole universe will follow us and heavenly fortune will follow us also. John 3:16 states, "God so loved the world." The world, not some Christian denomination and not even a nation. But scripture says, "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him will gain eternal life." That is a world concept, not a national one. America is not the world itself. Is that clear? (Yes.)
We have to pull like we are an engine. However, we don't like to pull something. We always want the easy life. If we choose only the easy life we will go through a thousand times more pain in the spiritual world. The whole world, including America, is here [indicating to the board] and its goal is to reach to this high plateau. Can one engine pull a big train such as that? Can your family bring everybody up here? There is a big gap between what we believe we can do and what we actually do. Father has been leading this way of life. You will see that as time goes by, Father will become more and more famous around the world. What is your guess? (Yes.) We must understand that the money our movement is investing in America, if this were to be invested some place else, that whole continent would literally move. Do you think that Father has that sense of comparison? We must understand that Father is working for the sake of the world without ceasing. Do you follow? (Yes.)
Those among you who are Blessed couples, please raise your hands. Almost all of you are. Is your tribal messiah work going well? Do you think that the occupants of the spiritual world are awaiting the appearance of the tribal messiah in their own tribes? When you arrive in the spirit world what will you say to your ancestors? No matter how hard we may think that this way of life is, we have no other alternative. We must go this way. Are you going to lead a religious life that is narrow, or a religious life of universal scale? (Universal.) We have to actively save the people and love God. What are you doing? God is looking down at hell. We must understand where we stand today. If this is the only way of life and Father has been going this way, do you think that the people of the world would follow this way at any cost or not? (Yes.) Are we going to follow Father's way of life at any cost? (Yes, we are.)
There is no other way for us to get close to God in reality, other than to follow this already built road. We have to get to this point [indicating to the board] no matter what. Are we really trying very hard to elevate one step after another? Is that truly what my religious life is all about? Are we consciously trying to do this? If we decide to stop here at this point [indicating to the board] then all the rest will be left to be accomplished in the spiritual world. And we have learned from Father that it is infinitely more difficult to accomplish things in the spiritual realm. In this world we are surrounded by air. In the spiritual world there is no air or indemnity law. What is air to earth, to spirit is love. Unless we practice love in our physical body we will not be able to breathe in the spiritual world. It takes tens of millions of years to reach from here to here [indicating to the board] in the spirit world. Later on we cannot claim that we did not really understand what Father has been teaching us. We will be without excuse. This is not some conceptual teaching. In reality Father is inheriting to us a way of life.
This is the first day and the first week of December. One more month and we will meet 1995 which is the fiftieth year since the liberation of Korea. It is exactly half of a century. History is about to enter into a yet different realm. When the clock strikes midnight the whole atmosphere changes but we cannot detect that. That is the official beginning. Even though we may not be so sure, still the dawn surely will come. We must be ready for the dawn; otherwise, we will have nothing to do with it. We must be perpetually awake and alert. What is Father's topic this morning? (My Life of Faith.) In the place of God we work for the sake of the world. That is what Father urges us to do. You have to understand this well and we must live this way for the rest of our lives. If we are unable to do this we should cry in desperation and repentance. At least we could gain God's sympathy. Be sure that when you shed tears God will accompany you. He will protect you every time when you give your heart. Even if you did not make a tangible result, if you always live with this kind of heart then surely you will go near to God.
Father sees so many faithful Japanese faces here. You should get ahead of people right next to Father, and you should not follow the crowd which happens to be Americans. Do you understand? We should be the leader not the follower. Do not become Americanized, but rather become like God and True Parents. Everybody becomes Americanized but Father does not. Which is the way of prosperity, the American way or True Parents way? (True Parents way.) You know clearly the correct answer, but your activity does not reflect your answer. Those of you who pledge to live up to the standard which Father has commended to us, please raise your hands. God bless you.
