God’s bosom, and making the family which can connect with the love of the world. Through that, they come to return to God’s bosom.
—Sun Myung Moon
You don't have to look for love ever, there is already an abundance all around you. God has given us love directly on the physical plane where no human should ever be alone, ever. If you were to look at nature itself, you should never be without love even glancing at a tree or a leaf for it itself is looking for love from humans.
This is how God created all of creation, for the love of humans. Then to look at the people all around you that you encounter everyday, you may not like any of them, but there is an wealth of love in even the most evil person waiting to be awakened.
Have your ever thought that a baby is not born knowing automatically how to love others? Just like a baby has to learn to walk, True Love must also be learned. Each person must cultivate his or her capacity to love truly.
How? What environment lets love grow and flourish? How does one practice the true way of love while on the earth. Is it performed through just being nice or acts of kindness? Is there a blueprint we can all follow that helps us lead a true life of love in which all men seek
There is one easy step for all of us to learn how to love.
In order to get love, we must give it, time and time again and forget that we had even given...then give again. This is the 'secret' which all the saints, great leaders and those who sacrificed throughout the centuries used to help change the world one footstep at a time.
Jesus was the ultimate person who exhibited true love and sacrificed his life for those in his time and generations thereafter even though those in his time did not know the quality of the person they were persecuting.
Fortunately, many sources suggest that the cultivation of true love over a lifetime may be broken down into three essential pursuits:
1. Attain individual maturity
2. Through experiencing family and close relationships
3 Contribute to the world
These three pursuits are the fertile ground to cultivate true love. They serve as direction, give purpose and are a framework for a life lived for the sake of others - a life rich in true love. One's life does not diminish when they sacrifice to love and live for others, rather they obtain a unique higher quality and gain more while giving of themselves.
God's Three Great Blessings
The Three Great Blessings are gifts granted by the Creator for the fulfillment of human life.
Reverend Moon notes their Biblical derivation from the three orders given to Adam at the beginning of the world and again to Noah, when God had hopes of beginning the world anew: “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth” (Gen. 1.28 KJV).
Just like the earth, the Blessings Adam and Eve were to receive once they had establish unity with God are to be founded forever. Billions of generations later were to acquire these gifts. These Blessings are the universal and enduring pattern for human life and are the means by which we all become true humans who can relate directly to God.
These Blessings is what separates man from the animal and other kingdoms. They endow us with the potential for a lordship of love.
The Three Great Blessings may be summarized in the following way: The first, “Be fruitful,” may be interpreted as the exhortation to achieve mature character, to become a well-integrated, Godly person capable of loving others. Just as an immature tree cannot bear fruit, so an immature person cannot bear the “fruits” of a loving spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5.22-23).
When God gave the second blessing to multiply, it meant to create a warm united marriage and family and to multiply His Godly lineage. The third blessing was to "replenish and subdue" the earth and to "have dominion over it".
This does not mean to destroy the earth as a master, but to care for the creation God labored to invested for His children. This last blessing gives you and me the responsibility to create a prosperous world where all humanity and the creation do not suffer, but flourish in a reciprocal relationship.
True love requires a good and mature character as its foundation.
Although love is often thought of merely as a warm, pleasurable, sweet feeling that arises spontaneously, it is easily seen that various loves depend upon character. Well-developed character enables love; poorly developed character disables it.
For instance, for one to be a patriot with a love for country, one is required to have the virtue of self-sacrifice when their nation calls. Love of a friend requires one to be selfless and have consideration of others.
Love of a child requires one to devote themselves and be consistent over a long period of time. Love of a brother or sister requires one to be caring, supportive, dependable and have honesty as their basic quality. These love all call for the virtues of a good character.
Romantic love is one of the most confusing loves of all. It would be rare if a woman thought her man loved her if he was always sitting on the couch watching television or playing video games. If he refused to pick her up from the train station and told her to get a cab instead, she think he did not love her.
It would be hard for an elderly couple to have stayed together for 50 years without some admiration or appreciation for each other's internal qualities. Especially to have patience and understanding of the other's fault and still love. In this day in age when beauty, youth and sexual attraction are highly rated for a couple, when these qualities fade with time, character continues to shine.
"Love flounders without the underpinnings of character strengths or virtues."
Author Don DeMarco said:
Love would be impotent if it were not for the various virtues that withstand attendant difficulties and deliver their message of love where love is needed .
"What would the world be like with a soldier who did not possess courage, a doctor without care, a teacher without patience, a parent without prudence, a spouse without fidelity, a priest without faith, a leader without determination, a magistrate without integrity and a friend without loyalty are all partners to futility, not because they lack love, but because they lack the virtue to express it."
Love and a person's character are connected. A relationship benefits more with people of mature character supplemented with a moral identity and who contribute to the world than those who are immature, selfish and are conflicted within.
The person who lacks a mature character spends many hours of dissatisfaction\ and inner struggle. The person’s relationship with him- or herself is a disharmonious and uncomfortable one, often leading to strife in relationships with others.
An immature person is mostly dissatisfied in every situation and is always in conflict with relationships with others and with themselves. They live a disharmonious life and are always uncomfortable and make other's life just as uneasy to live.
"Mature character is a prerequisite for joy and peace. Only those of mature and virtuous characters are able to enjoy and share fully the fruits of true love."
Reverend Moon calls this state of character maturity “mind and body unity.” Such integrity is the ultimate requirement for true love to flow.
Second Blessing: Multiply Love
The second blessing to multiply sometimes is only noted to have more children.
There is more than just extending the lineage through marriage and children. It means to embody one's love and on an internal level multiply to others the love that one has cultivated in their life. To one's horizon of love unselfishly. A world based on the culture of heart is heaven on earth.
The way to spread one's mature love is through marriage. Marriage provides one to have a primary person in which to share the fruits of their love, one who is different emotionally, physically and spiritually yet can be their counterpart in love.
Reverend Moon claims that love cannot be complete without a member of the opposite sex. He says:
"You men here are wonderful, proud people, yet . . . in reality your love cannot be seen or proven until you meet a woman. A woman is the one who will awaken your love. You can insist that you have love and try to prove it, but no one will see that love until the day it is sparked by a woman."
When a couple decides to marry, this pure love will inspire the couple to have children and care for them expanding their parameters of love to embrace yet more 'others'. When one establishes loving relationships between their family members, they are growing closer to God through living for the sake of others beginning with their family.
As Jack Kornfield, a student and teacher of Buddhism said:
“The sacrifices of a family are like those of any demanding monastery, offering exactly the same training in renunciation, patience, steadiness, and generosity.”
A good family life is the first place where one cultivates the capacity for warmth, care and commitment. Every human thrives on the joy which is inherent in loving relationships of every kind. The warm concern of a mother's love, the friendship of siblings and the sexual intimacy shared between a couple in marriage.
To learn how to love others in a true way, they must first learn through the loving interaction of family members first.
This is labeled the four realms of heart within the four aspects of the family: child's realm of heart for the parents, sibling's realm, spouses realm and the parents' realm of heart for the children.
These four realms of heart is the basis which affect a person's future relationships with others outside the context of the family. This is how one multiplies the level of the first love found in within the family to the others in society.
The Third Blessing: Prosperous World
The desires to make a contribution to society and to appreciate and care for the natural world are outgrowths of humankind’s endowment of the Third Great Blessing to make a prosperous world.
Using Biblical language, the third blessing is to have dominion and authority over another. In the true sense, this blessing is to exercise a caring leadership over the creation which is yet another way to give love to others.
Nature is the 'other' to be loved in this blessing so that future generations will benefit from the earth's precious resources.
The author of the Divine Principle and speeches which this blog is based upon, urges people to think of future generations in their everyday use of water, disposables, and money. Conservation, he says, is a way of loving others who are not yet born
In return of humanity nurturing the earth, it nurtures us.
"Martin Luther King once said that due to the inventions, innovations, sacrifices, and genius of people the world over, we are indebted to many:
Whether we realize it or not, each of us is eternally ‘in the red. We are everlasting debtors to known and unknown men and women . . . When we arise in the morning, we go into the bathroom where we reach for a sponge which is provided for us by a Pacific islander.
We reach for soap that is created for us by a Frenchman. The towel is provided by a Turk. Then at the table we drink coffee which is provided for us by a South American, or tea by a Chinese, or cocoa by a West African. Before we leave for our jobs we are beholden to more than half the world.
Feeling grateful and responsible to the world makes us consider the best use of precious resources, ways to more equally distribute wealth, food, and health care, and ways in which to bring our unique gifts to bear on the world’s problems.
These are God’s concerns, for, as Jesus said, when we do not feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and imprisoned, we are ignoring him.
The third key purpose brings us closer to a kingdom that includes all that lives and which returns the gifts and talents human beings have been endowed with to benefit the world as a whole."
Return for Tomorrow's Post: What is True Love?
This text was rewritten and derived from the Textbook: True Love, Chapter "Love and Life's Purposes".
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