"Therefore, please live in love, serve in love, and set the tradition of love. Then you will leave behind the fruit of love and become the ancestor of love. Once you have planted this tradition and disseminated this love throughout the world, when you are lifted up to the spirit world, you will encounter no barriers and will be welcomed everywhere."
This section of the speech will have little meaning if one does not first understand that we are not living in the original world which God planned. Secondly, when one lives in spirit world, they may find they can not move around barriers based upon how we lived life on earth. For instance, even though a person holds a high position in society or certain wealth, if their conscience was corrupted, once they enter the spirit world, the person themselves decides where they reside in spirit world.
A corrupted being may find themselves in heaven, but will feel immense discomfort from their sins constantly being revealed. Here on earth, wrongdoings can be covered and explained, but once we pass over, nothing is hidden - not even thought. A corrupted mind will reside in a lower realm where there are entities similar to their sins. So in that case, the tale of Dante's Inferno is quite accurate. Therefore, it is not God who judges our spirit, but each person who places barriers around themselves and reside where their spirit is most comfortable.
Dr. Reverend Sun Myung Moon gave a speech to a roomful of his congregation at the estate in New York:
Lawful, Public Love
"We should be people of deep longings; we should enjoy every minute we spend with someone. When we care about others, we have no dull moments. Meeting others is the proper job for people of God. That should be what our life is about, we should become experts at meeting others.
Someone who comes to meet me at East Garden for the first time may plan to stay only half an hour, but he discovers it isn't so easy to leave. I never tell anyone not to go, but people just don't want to get up and leave. This is a result of the power of love that draws people to me.
People are supposed to long for and miss one another. If love depended on appearances, an ugly person would have a burdensome life. Therefore, God, who is the king of wisdom and justice, designed us to be lovers. When you are in love, nothing matters; ugliness is no concern; you can accept everything.
However, there is one important principle in matters of love. It should be a lawful, public love; that means unselfish love. True love is definitely public love. Through true love you can gain everything, even the spirit world. Since you cannot go alone to the spirit world, you need to go with your beloved. Therefore, a truly loving person can open up the spirit world.
Those of you who are engaged, raise your hands. Your engagement is unique. Many of you were engaged to a stranger. But even so, when you first looked at that stranger, you didn't hate him or her, did you? After looking at the stranger, you didn't want to go anywhere else. That is the spirit I live by at East Garden. I cherish everyone who comes to sit with me, considering each as my beloved."
The Secret of Home Church When you meet people who you witness in your town which is called your home church, cherish them, too. Then no one will have to tell you to go and do home church. In the morning you will jump out of bed like a bullet and run to your home church because your beloved awaits you.
Perhaps you are supposed to go to the dining room in the morning, but your feet take you to your home church instead. When your beloved is waiting, you forget eating, sleeping, and everything else. Don't you like it when your feet head in the direction of your beloved? That is the way your original mind directs you.
Rev. Moon continues:
"This morning I am giving you another secret: how to do home church. When you consider the people in your home church as your beloved, cherishing them above your own fiancee, spouse, or children, you cannot help going there. And while you are with them, the spirit world will open up and communicate with you. This is the secret of doing home church.
You women, when you are married and your husband rises in the morning and says he must go to home church, will you complain and say, "You don't love me anymore! Why do you go away so early in the morning?"
This morning Mother couldn't join us because she is recuperating (from the birth of Jeung Jin Nim). I know that she definitely needs a time of rest and some special care. But in my true heart, I still wanted her to be here. So I told her that even though she was not capable of being here physically this morning, she would be here in heart, spiritually. The husband should try to charm his wife and win her heart, so that she will go everywhere with him and not want to be separated even momentarily. This is such a great feeling. There is nothing more valuable.
Dr. Durst is here today. As the national leader, he should long for and miss all the state leaders. He should meet with them, help them, and truly love them even if he collapses in the process. If such a love relationship is created between any national leader and the state leaders, the church in that land will boom and all of spirit world will open up.
When I came to pioneer the work in the United States in 1973, 1 knew no day or night. Every moment of the day was so precious to me. I always wanted to see one more person, visit one more center. I drove from one place to another, one meeting to the next. If you follow the same principle, your results will be greatly multiplied."
"Everything is deeply interesting to me. I am a lover of the ocean because it is another of God's creations. That is why I go out to sea. When various national leaders, world leaders, Korean elders and itinerant workers come to East Garden, I keep waiting for them to ask me to take them out to sea. But so far none of them have done so!
Here is a photo of me standing beside a giant tuna I caught recently. This tuna weighs over 1,000 pounds. How could I become a champion tuna fisherman so quickly? I know how to attract tuna: I do it by love. Every minute of the day when I am on the ocean I stay alert; I never nap. When people go fishing they usually become tired.
Even the pilot of the boat sometimes sleeps, but I never lie down even for a minute on a boat. My eyes stay wide open because my interest is so intense. Even if a hundred boats are fishing for tuna, I know that no one loves the tuna more intensely than I do. Therefore, I know that the tuna will come. In Gloucester people say that I even brainwash tuna! Actually, it is not brainwashing, but love washing -- or maybe Moon washing.
During the matching (arranged marriage) the other night, 250 Japanese sisters came to the United States after a long plane ride. When they arrived at the World Mission Center, they set their bags down and came to see me with tears streaming down their faces. When I matched them, they accepted without question. All 250 were matched very quickly. The amazing thing is that, although 90 percent of them had never met me before, as soon as they saw me, tears of longing and joy burst from them. You saw it, didn't you?
Does that mean I am some kind of a magician or hypnotist? No. Something else was behind it; there is a definite reason why I affect so many people and move their hearts. It is the very thing I always talk about. The secret is to become a dynamo of love, become a lover. I look at people and even the whole world as my beloved. From the material point of view there is nothing special about me; but I am the richest person under the sun because I have that power to attract people. The secret is nothing other than love."
When we love people, we lay an important foundation. We hear often that love hurts, or is fleeting. This is not true, love never destroys and once enough has been built up, the blossom opens up, it only builds.
When each of you creates your own love foundation, bearing such a blossom of love, then God will become one with you. Flowers attract butterflies, and the butterflies drawn to your flower of love are none other than God and His angels. It may sound like something incredible and miraculous, but it can happen.
To make a long story short, you won't enter the Kingdom of Heaven unless you love people, miss them and yearn for them. We must learn to love the unlovable.
Reverend Moon continues:
"Before I came to America, my major study was how to love American people. I had many plans, I did much homework, and I have precisely fulfilled all my pledges. There are many things you do not know, but one thing is for sure: after you met me, you became new men and women. You have changed. What power made that happen? The power of love."
Fund Raising Through Love
As a Unification member, we learn quickly the value of training through seemingly normal activity. The main two are witnessing the Divine Principle and fundraising. Fundraising has been replaced with members owning businesses , but to have those experiences are invaluable to becoming humble to the word of God, following Him in faith and learning how to love anybody.
My fundraising experiences for a duration of two years would take up many books to explain. I went from a spoiled upper middle class rich girl to a girl in unknown cities asking people in streets and inside stores for money for the cause. Become the position of a beggar and then you will be able to save such a person.
It was quite humbling to first of take 10 hours of my time for no outward return for my efforts, living for other people's sake. Through these experiences, I learned to love people I used to avoid or ignore and pray for those who cursed me...eventually.
As Americans we do not really know how selfish of a country we have become until we begin to look outside ourselves and into the eyes of our less fortunate brothers and sisters beside us. It was through these very humbling poor situations of fundraising that I learned the to trust God more to direct my life and to love just about anyone. I am not there yet, but compared to the person I was seven years ago before I joined, I have turned from the path of hate and death in which I was walking to life living fully being led by God.
"When you go out and work hard, you do it out of love for me. When you fund raise, for example, you think, "I really want to do my utmost for Father." That is your motivation. Then whoever gives you a donation receives the benefit of that love.
I have met some Koreans here in the United States who are well known in their community. One of them said, "Many Unification Church members have stopped me on the street or knocked at my door asking me to donate for some fund raising item, and I always do. I never refuse them." I wondered how much they were contributing, but I didn't ask. They reported their donation to me as though they had done something very important and were some kind of hero. Love is at work when people feel such an urge to help your fundraising.
"Wherever a perfect plus is found, a perfect minus appears. If you are a perfect plus, you can sit in the middle of a village doing nothing, and the villagers will come to you automatically."
I want you to understand that you are in a position to disseminate this pure
love. This love will affect other people and benefit them. When you get
donations, every penny is spent for the sake of mankind, for the sake of the
world, and for the sake of God. How wonderful that is! Both you and the people
who give will benefit. When your position is one of true love, you want to keep
giving until the very end. I would like to borrow as much money as possible in order to be able to give. For the sake of love, I want to be the most indebted person under the sun. When I live by such a philosophy, even the seemingly insurmountable obstacles can somehow be completely overcome. As I meet each large obstacle, I can jump over it.
When I make plans, the difficulties ahead seem to be overwhelming but solutions come from totally unexpected places. Spirit world moves in entirely new ways. If money is needed, money comes; if people are needed, people come; the more money we commit to a certain project, the more resources come our way. When I act, spirit world mobilizes masses of people.
Therefore, fund raising is a sacred responsibility. When you fundraise, you are giving love both ways: love for True Parents (Rev. Moon consider he and his wife as representatives of restored Adam and Eve, restored original parents without the fall) and love for people. You knock on people's doors not to gain money from them but because you love each person.
In a way, God, too, is a fundraiser. When you knock on doors, you are rejected 90 percent of the time. Likewise, when God tries to pour out His love to you, you reject Him 99 percent of the time. So when you experience rejection while fundraising, you can be in a position to comfort God. When you have tearful experiences, you move God's heart and comfort Him. Then universal love begins to blossom in your heart. The blossom of love is the most sacred and noble kind of flower.
Without question, I am a superb fundraiser. I never do things just for myself; when I see a need and set the goal for meeting that need, I fundraise very boldly. You must be bold for the sake of the nation and the world. I can tell people, 'You don't have to give me anything. Just loan me the money. You can trust me because you know my motivation is correct. Therefore, I ask that you please lend me a large amount of money, not just a small amount.'
I had one experience when I was studying in Tokyo during my younger days that illustrates this. I needed to return to Seoul, Korea, which involved a long trip by train and boat and was rather expensive. I didn't have a wallet or any money that day, but at the Tokyo train station I met a very noble-looking woman, a total stranger, and began telling her who I was, where I was going, and how much money I needed, which was quite a bit.
Then I asked if she would have enough faith in me to lend me the money. I was so sincere that the noble woman trusted me enough to lend me the money without asking for a receipt. After I completed the trip, I sent her back twice the amount of money she lent me. She was flabbergasted. She paid me a visit to return the money, saying, 'You are such a good, honest man. I do not want this much money from you. Please take it back.'
People can sense a person of genuine character; purity and genuineness are always communicated. That is the beauty of life. Fundraising is the best way to understand this kind of realm.
Fundraising Teaches How to Love People
When I was a university student in Tokyo, I would ride the electric tram car on rainy days. When I boarded, I looked for the elderly people and stood next to them. Normally, young people wouldn't like to stand close to shabby-looking old people, but I would. I wanted to stand near them in case they needed any help. I would look at some bedraggled old man and think, 'Suppose this gentleman was my father. What would I do if my father was this wet? Could I run away and abandon him?'
It is normal to feel repelled by smelly old women or men, but when I thought of myself as their son, everything about them became attractive, and I felt very affectionate toward them. Old people have a loving heart for their children, and on such occasions I wanted to reciprocate that love. So I would talk very warmly to an old woman, even though she was a total stranger. What beauty there is in such an intimate conversation!
Sometimes I would wear dirty, ragged working clothes and a smelly jacket on the tram car. I would try to sit next to the most attractive woman on board, someone wearing eye makeup, lipstick and manicured nails.
Ten times out of ten, such women would move away. I was hoping to find someone who would ask herself, "What if this were my husband and he was working so hard for me? If he was suffering for my sake, what would I do?" Then, while these thoughts were going through her mind, we could have started speaking and she could have become the first person to hear the Principle and the first person to join the Unification Church."
Return for Tomorrow's Post: How To Gain Spiritual Help
This text came from Textbook: Restoration of True Love, Chapter 10 Before and After the Blessing
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