The Public Way and the Private Way

You all know that our lives have an historic quality. When we say historic, we are including the past, present and future. For example, I am speaking now in the present, I have spoken in the past, and I will continue to speak in the future. In this relationship our lives are connecting three points.


Reverend Sun Myung Moon


Some people place importance on the past, some put emphasis on the present and others think seriously about the future.  American people are proud of their nation's past, but they are also proud of the present and expect to be proud in the future.

This is the American view that their past is big, the present is bigger, and they expect for the future to be much bigger.  It is natural for everyone to hope for this. The third possibility is that the past, present and future would all be big.

When we say 'the public way', we are speaking about the larger aspect.  The private way is the smaller way.

What is the meaning of 'big' or 'small'?  Where is the line drawn between the two?

When we evaluate someone, we say he is a big or small man.  If we say he is a big man, we imagine that his future ahead is bright.  If we say he is a small man, we do not think that his future is so big.

The culture that we live in was created by our ancestors.  They have always thought of the future more than their present time.  They worked to make this huge civilization that we enjoy come into being.

There was a time where majority of America lived on the country side.  They had once dreams of easy access to other areas and quicker routes to necessary stores and faster cars and better ways to travel around the world.  All the luxuries we enjoy today were through their hard work and sacrifices.

We cannot deny this.

When we look back and see that religion had more to do with advancing civilization than any other material things did.  From the religious perspective, when one lives for a definite purpose, he is guaranteed that his future will be big and stable.

It is in man's original true nature to want many friends, not just one or two if he wants to expand the scope of his activities.  Aren't you that way or do you live in a closed off private manner?

In China, there is hardly any private ownership, but the country is packed full of a billion people.

Everyone wants to become wide, or big.  Therefore, in the past, people dreamed of a bigger future, and now we want our future to be even bigger.

How would God think about this?  Which of the three possibilities would He choose?

He would choose the third one.  If God thinks and lives in a public way, so why hasn't humans who are made in His image live in that way?

God had high hopes to expand when He created Adam and Eve.

Would He begin creation with the thought that it would have a good beginning, but it was natural for it to narrow down to destruction?

Eve came into being for Adam, therefore as a couple, children came into being.  After their family was established, there came a race, clan, nation and so on.

We have the invisible and visible world.  Man is the intermediary situated between the two.

When a thought comes into being in the visible world, then it will also be realized in the invisible world, not just as a thought, but will come into reality.

When something big is actualized on earth, then the invisible world will expand in reality in a corresponding area.

God must have had an grand expectation for how the wonderful the world would be.

Humanity has the possibility to become greater than the way we are living now, but mankind has been neglecting God, thus man has narrowed down his future.

Mankind's thinking has become narrower and narrower, therefore, the future which we can project is also narrow.

As a result, there are now two realms: one is the world of life, and the other is the world of death; one is the world of God, the second is the world of Satan.

The public way of life is lived for God and the for the sake of the future.

We have a way where we cherish the past, for God exists in the past as well as the present and future.

In other words, it is the public way to cherish God and the future of mankind. 

If one lives with that image, then he is living the public way.

How would God view this?

When God was guiding Adam and Eve, would He have told them to love Him and neglect thoughts about the future?  God must have told them to love each other and their children as much as they loved Him.

If God said for us to love only Him and no one else, then He is in fact denying the past and the future, too.

Before the Fall when God was close to Adam and Eve, He would have asked Adam if he loved Him. Adam would say, "yes,".  God would then tell him to love Eve more than he loved God.

This means that God has a certain plan for the future, and was using Eve as an example to teach Adam
 about the future.

Let us go forward laying a foundation for the next year, more than for today.

Then next year, we will try harder for the sake of the next year after that.  While standing in the present, we have two directions.  If we retreat to the past, then we head toward hell; but if we go forward, then we will go to heaven.

Hell is where there is no movement, no room for growth; we were born to constantly move forward.

Because of the fall, the Kingdom of Heaven is yet to come in the future.  Kingdom of Heaven existed in the past, but is not here in the present, but it is in the future.

We work and live for the sake of God and mankind, and if we retreat, which direction would we be heading?

The only place that would await such a person is hell.

If we continue to advance, however, then a big future is in store for us.

Just because our present time is difficult, should we retreat, or should we crawl forward inch by inch?
We can think that God has been teaching man to love others more than they have loved Him if He wants to insure a big future for man.


If as the leader of Unification Church I say that you must love all others more than you love me, then I am speaking as a public-minded teacher. If I said that you must love me more than others, then I would be leading everyone in the direction of hell. In that case I would be self-centered and retreating toward hell. 


What is the difference between Heaven and hell besides the obvious?

Hell has no future with no possibility to better the situation and heaven has a broad future ahead.  The deeper we go into heaven, the broader and brighter our future becomes.

The public-minded way wants a bigger future than the present, while the private way does not think about the future, but only about the present and the past.

The Fall began from a self-centered position.  Man thought only about himself in those moments instead of God or the future.

Whoever is centered on himself and wants everything done for himself is going in the direction of hell. 

If you are able to love others more than yourself, you are already headed toward heaven.

When you think of yourself, you can only think of the present and the past, but when you think of others, you are in the objective realm, which is the future.

If you are alone, then it is all right to love yourself, but once someone else comes into the picture, then you should love that person more.  When Eve came into being, Adam was supposed to love her more than he loved himself.

Then, when they had a family, they were to love the family more than they loved each other.

Once that family expanded to the clan level, they were to love the clan more than the family. Thus, we can see that when the nation was born, it would have been cherished more than the clan.  For the sake of the world, even countries would be willing to forget themselves.

This is the process where world peace would have been established from the very beginning.

Why do electrons circulate around protons?

They do so in order to create the world.  If the proton was to instruct the electron that it should not go faster or be bigger, then the world would never have come into existence.

Each one should be willing to let others become bigger and better, and even encourage that expansion, for then the small entities will eventually form a big world.

We know that the individual should exist for the family, the family should exist for the sake of the clan, and the clan will live for the nation and so forth.  No one wants to carry this out because it is so difficult.

If we were to love each other so much, then we would be connected to everyone by love, and thus become bigger.  If one thinks more of his family than he thinks of himself, then he pours himself out for his family.  Wouldn't the neighbors join in loving that family as well?

Everyone would want to participate in loving such a family, and in that way, they will come into unity.  But if everyone is self-centered, can unity come about?

If each person was to live in such a way, then they would be scattered.

Everyone wishes that they were to live in a loving family.

That way they can come into unity.  No one wants to grow up in a household full of conflict and confusion.  If everyone in a family is centered only on their own life, then unity would not be possible.
Then, we can conclude that the smaller one should be willing to sacrifice himself for the sake of the bigger one.  That's the public way of life.

Think of a situation of a cow eating grass.  From the viewpoint of the grass, is this the public way or the private way?

What about from the cow's point of view?

When the cow has the definite purpose in eating the grass, he knows that it will one day become service to a bigger being, humanity, then it is going in the public way.  If a man is confident, then by eating the cow, he also can be of greater service for the whole, then he is acting in the public way.

When we think of it, the act of eating is a private action in and of itself.  But if it was to be connected to a bigger purpose, then that becomes the public way.

We may not think this is natural to think of ourselves last, but in the public way, everything becomes an extension of oneself.

One will never become as huge as the universe, but if we connect with other for the purpose of the future, then indeed we become as big as the universe.

Think of each blade of grass.  By itself, it can never become more than a few inches high, but when it is eaten by bigger and bigger things, then everything can be connected to God.

Each cell in the grass, becomes a cell which God loves directly because it is in the cell of a being whom God can love.  Those cells in the blade of grass would want nothing but the love of God.

There is nothing better than God's love in this world. 

Would a woman want something else than her husband's undivided love?

Would she want money more than love?

Jesus said that if there are those who want to live they will die, and those who are ready to die, will live.  He also said that whoever wants to become high will become low, and whoever wants to become low will become high.

This would not have much meaning without love.

This naturally happens centered around love.  With love, it is possible to jump up to higher and higher levels.  A president may fall in love with a humble country girl, but she would be lifted to the status wife of the president if they were to marry.  Everyone in that country would treat her as an equal to the president.

There is confusion about this point in America.

We observe individualism in America.

Living in this way, is there any way to be connected to the future?  We have to say that America has a way to be connected to the future.  We must look for some way to become connected to heaven.

We can predict that if America continues to live in this selfish way, that it will soon perish.

Why is this necessary to point out?

Because we are in an emergency situation.  You want to do better work than ever before and you want to stay in the public way or else you will become tired and exhausted.

If we are to sacrifice, we have to transplant part of ourselves.

Cancer cells grow very quickly, but our positive ones will spread even more quickly than the cancer cells.  The reason why we don't expand as quickly is because there are individuals who are not sure about which way they want to go and they don't want to sacrifice themselves or their physical desires.

If you don't have a clear understanding of why you should just jump into more difficult situations, then you shy away.


I never thought that I would become bigger and bigger, but only said, "I must do my mission and live up to the expectation of the world and God." I was too busy to think of anything else except following the Principle, and one day I found that a bigger and bigger realm had been created for me. 


Father just continued moving forward in the principle way, not thinking about being acclaimed or recognized in a grandiose way.

It does no good to think about receiving that kind of recognition, it is too grand.

If a president of a country was to visit God for advice, God would tell him that he needs to love the world more than he loved his own country.  God would not tell him that his country was more important than the world.

If there is an important mission that you should do according to the Principle, then you should not hesitate about doing it.  You should not worry about what others think of you, or even what God or spirit world thinks.

As you go forward, do it, then you will realize that at some point that people have come to recognize you even though being recognized is not your goal.

Once that standard is established here, then it is automatically done in the invisible world.  Then the spirit world will expand.

To witness to your home church area of 360 homes, you are living in the public way.

When things become difficult, you find reasons for not going to  your home church.  How can one be too busy for this kind of mission?  No matter how difficult it is, you must at least think that what you are eating and drinking is for the sake of the people in your home church.

You must think that those in your area are a part of you and that you cannot cut off that connection.

If you are literally, just too busy to go to your home church, then you can sleep there.  If you cannot do the work, then you should take a look at the work and determine that you must do it.

If you are unable to go to your area for one day, then you should at least take a look at your home church.  Spiritually, there are many people really waiting seriously for you.  You are unable to feel that because you do not sense things spiritually.

You must see that even though those in your home church area may seem successful and happy, they are imprisoned by a wire fence and they and their ancestors are crying out for you to free them.  You cannot hear their cry or see that they are in prison with no way out.

You have been learning the prophetic truth of the Completed Testament.  Armed with this knowledge, you are able to hear them cry and you can liberate them.

If you are unable to do that, then you have to pray about that to God and explain the situation to Him.

Now, after learning this you think all that is necessary is to pray for your home church.  But if you pray once, then you have to go there and take a look at your area.

Imagine that your spouse or your fiancee was in your home church area.  Then would you go enthusiastically?

You may find out that as you are headed to your home church area, that your body turns toward his area!  Do you think that your fiancee is more important than those in your home church providence?

You shouldn't waste time writing letters or holding hands for one year.  The principle says that we should love our home church area more than we love our fiances later.


That's precisely the way I went. My own family broke up because I practically ignored them in order to live first for the sake of the dispensation. If I had done that for myself, then it would have been a crime, but because I did it for the sake of the country and the world, it was right. 

You should never be confused about what is the public and private way.

If you were going forward for the sake of the world, yet your wife decided she will not go with you, should you remain with her or should you go out into the world.

Would many foundations have been built if Father stopped because of a spouse?

We are called upon to sacrifice by everyone and everything around us, even by God.  If this is the public way, we know that there is one thing we must do no matter what happens to us.


I did not come here for my own sake. In fact, I sacrificed myself. I did it for the sake of the world, for God, and to make this country live.  How nice it would have been if I didn't have to fight against Congressman Fraser, Capitol Hill, and the government. I did not fight the easy way either. If I had lost, then the Unification Church would have been taken over by Satan, but I was willing to take that risk. Prison and death were waiting if I had failed.


There was missionary that was martyred while working in Africa.  When Father heard the report, he had surmised that he had done his mission completely, and that he would become the permanent ancestor for that country.

If he had died doing the work for the world, then he would have become the ancestor of the world.

The world surrounds the country and it is protected by the world.  Heaven surrounds the world.

If the fall had not taken place and man had not disconnected from God, then all of these things would have taken place automatically.

After the fall, we are trying to create a bigger and bigger environment.

If we had stayed connected in heaven's realm creating Heaven on Earth, then we would have been protected by heaven 24 hours a day.  We wouldn't even experience a small risk.

But because our connection was severed, the world is a different place from the ideal world which God envisioned.

We are living in the time where we have to cross over the border into the country where we have nothing to do with evil.

Those who have passed into the spirit world are still heavily influenced by their past experiences of life they lived in the fallen world on earth.

Each spirit man wants to cross over his own boundaries and become bigger and better, but he has to cross over that borderline from the fallen world into heaven.

This is the path that should be taken, but no one in the past has taken the position to see the right direction clearly.  Therefore, there is a lot of confusion in the spirit world where people do not know how to get out and go where they are supposed to be.

There was never meant to be a divide between the spirit world and the physical world.  The spirit world is unable to come to work on earth freely.

It has been difficult for those in the spirit world to get together and break through the barriers they have created while living on earth.

This is why the Bible states that what is loosed on earth is loosed in heaven.

Many people who walk this path are having many spiritual experiences and visions.  What you are experiencing is happening only once in history. It is not an accident, but with that great privilege comes responsibility.

We are given a clear direction, for the first time in history about how to pioneer the way from the fallen, individual level, to the family all the way to the world level.

Heaven is realized in spirit world to the extent it is accomplished on earth first.

The church exists for the liberation of the world, thus Americans must sacrifice their desires for the sake of the world.

This is the way of the teaching.

If we are able to sacrifice for the sake of the world, the nation's ideal will be idealized.  If Americans are able to turn away from their selfish way of life and to follow the correct path, then the rest of the world will follow.

In other words, we will be able to save the country by loving the world.  The quality of love which you give your family and nation is the same, except that one is wider.

You have one hair on your head, but we are all connected through one life force.  The individual is connected to the universe through the force, by heaven.

Through love, all of the world is one.

Life is possible through the individual, but love is for the world.  Therefore, you can do your best in your life for the sake of love and the world.  This becomes justice and justice is loving the world.  Have a clear idea of this.

This concept is not vague.

Of course we must eat in order to sustain life, and to love others is also a truth.

Truth is eternal and love is truth.  Even in the future, everyone will have to go this path of love.




Return for Tomorrow's Post: World Champion of Public Way

This Post was rewritten and derived from the speech The Public Way and Private Way