Can We Build World Peace?

God is the high pressure air and when we become humble as low pressure air of the nation, you are the best patriots.  Everybody will pay respect to you, including the president.  How do you become the lowest pressure air; go live for others; serve others to create low pressure air.


Reverend Sun Myung Moon


We know the core beliefs of communism and democracy.

What is Unificationism? It is the harmony of everything through the power of love.


My children know the universal truth and they pray according to it. You, too, know what to pray for. Then God will heed your prayer. Otherwise, your prayers are just mumbling and bumbling-beating around the bush, in God's opinion. People say many things about me, but one thing is absolutely true, I am the one religious leader who will make you suffer the most! 


You may protest to Father's instructions, but this is why he pushes us out to suffer for the cause.

If you are able to work harder than everyone else, with a loving heart of suffering for the sake of the family, even your parents will come and bow down to you and thank you from the bottom of their heart.

Through living that way, you become the child of God.

When you are truly one with God, living with Him, you attain God's position in your family.  As members that understand Unification Thought, you shoulder the worst problems of the United States with a loving heart, then the entire country will eventually bow down to you.

This is heavenly law.

You become the patriots of patriots when you live this way.  But in order to become that standard, you must suffer for the sake of the nation, with a loving heart more than anyone else in history.

There are quite a number of patriots in every country, but only a few saints. 

The realm of the saint is different from that of the patriot: he works for the universe and for God.

There are three levels of spiritual advancement: children of filial piety, or good members of the family; patriots; and saints or holy people.  How high is Father's ambition for the members?

He isn't just teaching merely how to be children of filial piety, but how to be saints.


I am ambitiously seeking to take on the worst problems of the universe, asking to bear the universal burden. Is that good? People have had high ambitions and have tried to establish Utopian ideals, but no one has been able to accomplish them.


Why haven't we been able to bring about a better world of peace?

Father sought out to understand the greatest problems in the world.

God's worst headaches are the expansion of communism, the rapid decline in religion and the degradation of the youth and collapse of morals in the nation.  These are the major problems of the world that have to be tackled.

God has been working day in and day out through people of faith to solve these problems.  Father volunteered telling God not to worry that he was going to take away His heavy burden and solve the problems for Him.  He came up with a source and method with the quality of hope to unify the world and establish a true Utopia.


This was the motivation behind the International Conferences for the Unity of the Sciences. God's original plan was for people to be perfected within approximately 20 years. I am thinking that if I lead these scientists and eminent scholars for 20 years, they will have reached a pretty good level. Every year they give their unflagging attention to absolute values. When they could find no answer to a certain question, they decided to ask me about it!


Father had many accusations and criticisms thrown at him, but he continued on moving forward able to digest anything that came to hinder his mission.  We are engaged in a war against communism, confronting face to face.

He is opposed by many established churches in the Catholic and Christian communities, but he just tells them that they are not able to digest him and they need him if there is any hope for the future of the world to become the ideal world God envisioned in the beginning of creation.

Father was not only able to digest opposition along the way, but he created a logical explanation for all these phenomena without any hazy areas.


I can be calm even in the midst of suffering. If I am sentenced to prison and have to face hardships, I am filled with peace even as I enter jail. I can sleep well, eat well, and even digest sand if necessary. There is never a cause for worry once you know universal truth. I am absolutely confident of my destination, the heavenly world, and I want to take as many people along as I can. I can invite you to accompany me without any doubts, since I know our goal and destination.



To the degree that I am a perfect minus to God, I am a perfect plus to you. Whenever you create the perfect minus position, I will be with you.

The Unification Church is grounded in the truth of this principle. We see throughout history that any new truth that emerged and outshone the current truth that the other one would fade away.

Unless there is a greater truth that emerges higher than the Divine Principle, there is no way anyone can push us back or put us on the defensive.

We should be the ones resolved to suffer more than anybody else.  The principle does not change whether you have a Ph.D or are a famous actor or actress.

I am setting a new tradition, and those who give themselves to the best of their abilities for the sake of others with a loving heart shall form the mainstream.

It does not matter if one does not like this way or not, it is truth.

You are pushed out to live for the sake of others because the results will be glorious.

Great blessings await you at the end of your course.

Then you will be grateful.

Is this just to win you with cunning and sugarcoated promises?  This is the absolute truth.

So many people have wanted me to disappear, to be taken to heaven or hell-or wherever! Many people have actually prayed for my life to be taken away, so why does God keep me here on earth? Regardless of what the entire world might think or pray for, God needs me and the members of the Unification Church.

You should have no fear going this way, as God has the power to protect you.  So, you should move forward with a bold and strong heart.  You are a living being and should have the powerful life force that can move the whole universe.

Once you are fortified with this ideology, no challenge is big to you.  When Father first came to the US, do you think that he was overwhelmed?

Once you become the perfect object to God, you then can act independently.  In that case, you might say, "Father, I don't need your help or the church.  I will take responsibility for this country."

You can pledge that you will become perfected then reach out to bring along the rest of the church because that is your goal and destiny.

Opposition is a test to see whether you can do these things on your own.  If you cannot overcome opposition, you have nothing to be truly proud of.

But because you have learned to withstand and overcome opposition, this is proof that you can accomplish great things on your own.  This is beautiful and dynamic.

During the heaviest of battles, Father never was afraid. He never prayed to God that he was perishing and help him.

He told God to let him do the work and sit back and enjoy the show and take delight in the accomplishment to come.  This is the way he teaches us to be.

You shall become people of dynamic boldness and strength. 

We shouldn't lose motivation, become discouraged over our chose of spouse or lose our energy. With such thinking, you will not go far.

Those who pledge, "Yes, Father I will follow your principle, become a dynamo and perfect myself on my own, helping to create the nation, world which God desires,' raise your hands, please.

Let us Pray.



Return for Tomorrow's Post: Prisoner of God's Love



This Post was rewritten and derived from the speech The Realm of Existence

Utopia is Possible

I have investigated during my entire life the best way to accomplish the ideal, and there is one unfailing formula: that of sacrifice, suffering and receiving persecution for the sake of goodness, and serving others with true love.


Reverend Sun Myung Moon



What do you believe is the ideal world?

The ideal world is a world or Utopia is where you can go anywhere in the universe freely, without any blocks or barriers.  This is including national and racial boundaries.

There is no person so contented with himself that can resist a person who brings true love to him.

Whether they are white, black or yellow, or atheists or communists, all people are attracted to the person who is genuinely trying to sacrifice himself for their sake.

Thus, total freedom comes to such a person.

These are satanic characteristics: jealousy, arrogance, self-promotion, and sacrifice of the whole purpose just for one's sake.

The "I" viewpoint is the center of the satanic mentality. 

This viewpoint, however, will never bring a person total happiness.  Such a person finds himself alone and rejected by everyone, including his own spouse and family.

Clearly, then you can see that God's way is superior to Satan's way.

Even the most selfish person wants to see a kind of Utopia, but the road to that ideal is only brought about through a  life of service and sacrifice for the sake of others.  The true ideal will never be achieved in a dreamy, unrealistic way.

The principle of service and sacrifice will never change.  The past, present and the future are within its realm.

Not just this world, but the spirit world is also guided by this principle.  Therefore, you cannot just work diligently in your home church area with an attitude that you just wait to earn your certificate to go to Heaven.

The purpose of Home Church is to send the people there to Heaven first.

In that way, you go to Heaven yourself.  Only having an attitude of true love can enable you to do this.   You should desire to pass along the blessings you have received along this pathway.

You then are able to achieve victory through the heart of sacrifice and service and true love.  This is the Principle.

Few know the fact that we must first be welcomed on earth before we are welcomed in the spirit world.  Therefore, the statement, whatever is loosed on earth is loosed in heaven.  We must do the work of restoration here on earth.

To do this work in spirit world takes thousands of years.


If you went to spirit world right now, you would know that what I am saying is absolutely true. People can serve God in many ways; perhaps a great architect might dedicate a beautiful building to God.  But when you dedicate yourself to working in your home church area, that is the offering God is most eager to accept at this time. 


The greatest pain God suffered was when He lost Adam and Eve through the fall.  Therefore, God's greatest joy comes when you offer your Home Church of witnessing constantly to 360 homes in your area back to Him.

Through your work of home church, you are restoring yourself back to the position of Adam and Eve before the Fall.

It may seem small to you when you are witnessing, but it has the greatest meaning of all to God.

From this time forward, true family trees of goodness will begin. 

By restoring your family back to the original position, your name will be at the top of the family tree and from that point, your new family history will begin.  To bring the ideal in a tangible way has never been presented before in history.

You, certainly, must have a plan before you go for the goal based upon valid reasoning and the confidence to carry it out.

Now that you have a strong and clear understanding of how restoration works, you will encounter stronger opposition from the people wherever you go.

This opposition will be short-lived and  you will be able to accomplish the same level of restoration as the Messiah did in a much shorter time.

We must head forward toward that goal of restoration; it is truly all that matters.  Of course tending to your family matters and your children are important, but the most significance is home church work in God's dispensation.

You must do this work of Home Church to receive the free pass to Heaven.  If if you do home church all of your life and you were not able to marry, once you go into spirit world, you would be would be able to go to Heaven.


I want to teach you all the things you need to know to get to Heaven; I don't want you to blame me later. No one can force you to do home church. God would like to take you to Heaven regardless of what you do, but Satan will not let you go without some condition.


Therefore, let us all move forward together in unity to the total completion of God's ideal world.

Since you recognize the Messiah in this age and are connected to him, you are related to him.  Even though we all look different - some of us are blond, some have dark hair and others black hair - every part of you is related to the Messiah.

Now, that you understand the importance of Home Church, please raise your hand if you are determined to do it.  God Bless you.




Return for Tomorrow's Post:  Even Evil People Want to Possess Good

This speech was rewritten and given by Reverend Sun Myung Moon based upon the Completed Testament caled the Divine Principle which reveals the truth of the Bible from God's point of view.

How to Weaken the Body's Harmful Desires

Religious text refer to the body as the flesh and show that it is the cause for the chaos in the world we experience today.  We will continue from yesterday's post which delved more into mind and body unity based on self-control. W society that is self-governed by such individuals are closer to the ideal society in which God originally created.  A Utopia.

One must reinforce the mind's strength through methods such as prayer, study, respect for parents and other well-known measures.  It is a challenge to set up the right order between the mind and body so that both can function in the best way.

For example, one who is trying to control their appetite and their unhealthy passion does not have to lead to anti-physical or otherworldly excess.

Weakening the Power of the Body

The first method is to weaken the influence of the body's wants and desires.  One has to make a conscious decision to disregard the body's preoccupation with being comfortable or wanting control over our better thoughts.


1. Deprivations

One basic means is through fasting and other deprivations. These stunts the usual control of the body and material environment over the spiritual and moral desires to make it easier for the mind to assert itself.

Meditation, prayer and reflection come more clearly and readily.

“The first week of Ramadan is really hard,” reports a university student. “I am just tired and really hungry by nightfall. But after that, I start feeling light and really good, and don’t miss eating. I am more in touch with myself, more aware of other people, more sensitive to God’s blessings in my life.”

When one experiences this deep joy and liberation it shows the motivation for the extreme practices of some religions and medieval ascetics in order to control the body's temptations and individuals in a society.

A secondary effect of fasting help to control self-centered impulses like complaint, anger, impatience or jealousy and suppress the body's reliance on physical distractions.

Our spiritual strength arises when we overcome physical desires that cause physical discomforts.  There are other ways besides fasting to weaken the body.  Reducing the hours the body needs to sleep by rising early for morning devotions is a common way.

Introducing the body to discomfort on purpose such as cold showers or hard physical labor is another way.  The main idea is to combat any unproductive habit as the simplest way to stay in charge of one's mind and body.

“I quit smoking two years ago,” declares a restaurant manager, “and now I watch out for something getting a hold of me even in a small way. Like I stopped watching the news for a few weeks one time, and I skip my morning coffee once in a while, just to show myself I can live without it.”

Practicing chastity and celibacy is a strong way to keep the strong hold of the body in balance.


2. Obedience and Self-denial

Another way to weaken the body is through a life lived in service and submission to a higher authority.  This authority can be a moral or spiritual principle, God or country or anything else an individual holds in great regard.  In order to do so, this involves self-denial, overcoming the need for self-assertion and rebellious behavior and eliminate immature attitudes like ego and pride.

The military is the obvious example of training in obedience. 

In order for one to be part of the armed forces, an individual must learn to subdue their own selfish tendencies, respond to orders and become part of an effective unit or group.  Team sports is another example of such training.  Team players must deny their personal glory and give their best for the sake of the whole which is the team.


3. Living Simply

When one makes their lifestyle simple, it is compared to avoiding idolizing materials.  One has to choose to put their focus on the spiritual and rational approach when it comes to property.

When we turn on the media, we see the push for us to consume more and acquire more in order to foster a self-indulgent way of life where the importance is on comfort and amusement.  Living a simplistic life resists this and helps to maintain a proper balance of mind and body instead of our well being depending solely on the material.



Adopting a certain austerity in possessions means the preference of substance over style and remembering the difference between needs and desires.



Living simple avoids the traps of debt that is very oppressive and is a burden that saps the peace of mind and constrains one's ability to give freely.

Like the Israelites in the wilderness who were instructed to take only of the manna and quail that they needed for the day, simplicity means resisting the temptation to hoard and trusting in tomorrow’s provision.

“Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you shall wear,” Jesus declared. “Is not life more important than food, and the body more than clothes?”

Matthew 6.25


This is a reminder how Heavenly Father takes care and keeps a connection with those that keep His words and makes the strength of the spirit over the body or flesh a priority.

“Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness,” and material needs will be taken care of as well

Matthew 6.33


A simple life relies on bringing happiness from the treasures of the heart instead of from pleasures of the body.  Also, having faith that true wealth is in love and spiritual growth and not in having an abundance of things.  Such a life recognizes that God is the real source of material prosperity and security.


Strengthening the Power of the Mind


1. Determining and realizing goals
2. True love as motivation
3. Acting on faith
4. Service
5. Connection with God


When the body is subdued, we need at the same time to strengthen the mind through toughening the moral will.  We build this will through the daily habit like a muscle through choices of doing the right thing despite having fear, distress or being tired.

To do so, an individual needs to strengthen their moral fiber through adversity.  The individual needs challenges whether it is given or self-sought to develop inner strength of will.

1. Determining and realizing goals

The basic way to strengthen will and build self-discipline through making a determination to oneself and God and then achieve them.  This can be exampled through talking to a troubled relatives just as you were about to delve into an enjoyable book.  Also, when one changes careers in order to be a greater service to humanity.  Trying to stay healthy for the children and spouse.

Even more challenging is to set goals that rely mainly on spiritual power, fueled by prayer, study of spiritual truth and acts of love. 

“Twelve years ago when I first came to Mountainview High,” recalls a physics teacher in a rural school in the American Midwest, “I swore that I would bring the white and Native American students and faculty together in a tangible way.  I prayed about it every day, stuck my neck out more than a few times, got misunderstood a lot and once almost lost my job. But now in the faculty there are cross-cultural friendships developing and this year the president of the student council is a Native American boy.”

In order to reverse the negative history of betrayal between God and humanity, we need to make promises to God and fulfill them.  This is significant.  It also helps to build self-respect and faith in oneself.  This is probably the most powerful way to attract divine support.  A person that fulfills their promises and actually carry out their responsibilities is noticed not only by other people, but also and especially by Heaven.


2. True Love as Motivation

Having motivation empowers the will to go beyond any discomfort we may experience in order to achieve our goals.  This motivation depends on having meaningful purposes that will make such sacrifices worthwhile.

The strongest motivation is true love; “love is the key to unification of mind and body,” states Reverend Moon. This power of love is familiar to parents.

Dick Hoyt, 62, has raced in every Boston Marathon for over 20 years pushing his paralyzed adult son, Rick, in a wheelchair. In 1999 they became the first team ever to finish the Ironman Triathlon World Championship. It began when teenage Rick asked his father to push him in a local race.  When they finished, the boy excitedly declared, “It was as if I wasn't handicapped.”

This motivated his father to challenge his every physical limitation in order to give his son that experience over and over ever since then.

The power of love is behind the heroic sacrifices of religious and national lore. 

An example of this will is the first Pilgrim settlers to North America.  They starved to death instead of eating the grain that was intended for planting once their reached their destination out of love and hope for the next generation with dreams to build a community where they could worship freely.

Out of love for God and the Savior, St. Peter desired to face a painful execution by being crucified upside down.  This can be through legendary proportions or just small everyday acts of unselfishness, true love as the strongest means of subduing the body.


Act on Faith

A person can have tremendous powers of self-control when they are able to visualize a better future despite any obstacles that stands before them.

Debi Faris is a woman who knows what it is like to heed the call of her heart and conscience in faith. A wife and mother of three teenagers, she heard of an abandoned baby found dead in her town of Calimesa, California, and arranged to give the child a proper funeral and burial.

One child led to three and her middle-class family committed to the costs, ultimately $27,000, despite other pressing expenses. “I remember praying, ‘I don’t think I can do this, God. I don’t think I have the courage,’” she recalls. “I stayed quiet for a while until I sensed that what we were doing was right. It was an act of love, and at that moment I made a commitment to offer it to any child who needed it.”

She has since organized the funds and volunteers to found a cemetery for abandoned babies, the Garden of Angels, and is fighting for legislation to help prevent such tragedies.

Those who believe in one's own gifts or that it is inevitable that truth and goodness will finally triumph have a strong advantage that helps them achieve the strongest resources to unite mind and body.  As well as those who have built the power of faith and hope and are "sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see".

Hebrews 11:1


4. Service 

This includes the physical service to others: massaging the back of an elderly person, preparing salad for the homeless, picking a bag full of trash in the neighborhood all are helpful practices for strengthening the moral will because it requires humility.

“We made a point of just showing up ready to do whatever work was needed, no fanfare,” recalls a man of his group of comrades from a service club.

“The staff at the rehab center were surprised to see middle-aged men willing to just set up the party, serve the boys soda and food and take down and mop up afterwards. And it didn't do this CEO big shot any harm either to do grunt work for a bunch of not-too-grateful teenagers. I think I learned a few things.”


Connection With God

All of these methods are used to empower the moral will and is the greatest prescription for mind and body unity by connecting to the divine Source.

“The first step is for your mind to become one with God,” says Reverend Moon, “and then your body will become one with your mind.”

Here are more resources of strengthening the mind and access the Heavenly Parent:

Prayer, worship, scripture study, supporting the local community, putting faith into action, fulfilling determinations and promises, practicing submission and offering service.

“Live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature,” promises St. Paul.

Galatians 5.16


Like a soldier, the stronger the bond of the mind and God, the more ready the mind can conquer the body. The brave Corrie Ten Boom, a elderly watchmaker, was sent to a concentration camp because she rescued Jews during the Holocaust.

Corrie began to lecture after the war about God's love, forgiveness and healing of the wounds of war.  After one of these lectures, a former S.S. guard, who had been at one her concentration camps, was waiting in the back of the room.

Immediately, she began to have flashbacks of her and her sister who had been forced to walk naked in front of men guards on the way to the showers.  She remembered being ill, cold, old, hungry and in pain and how she was being mocked sexually by these guards.

She remembered that her sister had been tortured by pain of humiliation in front of the same guard she sees now.  Her sister later died at that camp.  The former guard came up to Corrie acknowledging her pledge of God's forgiveness in her life.  He held out his hands reaching out for hers asking for her forgiveness.

Forgiveness was part of her life now and not only a part of her lectures.  Was it easy for her even now?

“I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity,” Corrie said.

Yet, she could never forget all the religious teachings she has had and was teaching about forgiving people who have hurt you in the past.  So, being the woman of faith, she took in a breath and prayed for the strength to do what God wanted and she eventually took his hands into hers.

She matched her deeds to her highest ideals and words that she was illuminating to the crowds when she finally could take action to forgive the most horrid part of her life with this guard as a representative.

Then, “As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened.  From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me.”

This spark of love made Corrie cry out that he was her brother and she assured him that she had completely forgave him.

Her ability to take actions on truths and promises that she had spoken had unleashed the flow of true love and liberated both persecutor and the persecuted.  When a person is able to love even when it is the most difficult requires us to assert the mind over the demands of the body to protect itself and its ego.

Through such efforts to reduce this pull of the flesh while at the same time enhancing our moral and spiritual strength, the mind and body can be brought into unity!

Thus the heart is liberated to give of itself freely and unselfishly, and will be able to reap the richest rewards in return.


Return for Tomorrow's Post: Control Fleshly Desire Gain the Universe

This text was taken from and rewritten from the textbook: True Love Chapter, Mind and Body Unity

The True Meaning of Peace

What is the origin of the universe?  I suppose it depends to whom you pose this question.  To atheist it would be just chance and to the religious, God with several different names or looks.

If God is a God of love and it is said that He created the world for love, why do humans who are the highest entity still look for, search and hope for love and peace?  We have said that there was an origin to this disconnection, where must we begin if we are to finally settle this road of the fall and return it to the time of peace once enjoyed in the Garden of Eden?


God, the origin of peace

Humanity since the beginning has never ceased in its quest for true love, true peace, true happiness and the true ideal that is everlasting and unchanging to this day.  The reality is finding the ideal love, happiness and peace in which we reach in this hostile world that has been lost.   In this search, we have walked blindly through an alley and have been smashing our heads against the wall looking for what was meant to be from the beginning.

We have fallen into a miserable, suffering condition in which the hope of fulfilling these ideals is lost.  If God is living, then being an eternal, unchanging and absolute being, he must be at the center of all of these ideals.  He transcends the constant varying ideals in which we center on ourselves.  He is the King and source of love, peace, happiness and the ideal.

Man has been trying all through history to create the ideal conditions we are looking for.  To this day true love, happiness and peace must be found at its source.  Man must come to a position where they reach the same standard as God with the same place of hope, sharing life's sweetness and bitterness.  Without God, man cannot ever have hope to bring about a world of peace

Man is the object partner of God's love, ideal, peace and happiness.  He then gains eternal life when he learns that by standing where he can serve God as his subject partner, as his Father in Heaven.  This is the most logical conclusion to begin speaking about bringing about an ideal world.

Man who thinks that there is no afterlife, just learn that if he is an eternal partner of God and His child who will live eternally.

We all understand that God is the subject partner and we are the object partner.  We can take it a step further and will see a problem.  We need to know exactly where the source of true love is.  Without knowing the source we cannot realize God's love, ideal, peace and happiness.  Where would God place the source of true love, peace, happiness and ideal centering on Himself?

When we truly think about the fact that God does not stand alone as an subject partner, but needs man in order to love as an object, then he must place the source of happiness, love and peace in Himself as the subject partner where He exist for His object partner man.

Adam and Eve are the incarnation of God.  God dwells directly in their hearts.

Thus, the internal and external masters meet and generate all the world's happiness, becoming the standard of universal peace and the absolute standard of happiness in complete union.

Is there a way to untangle this great chaos that was started in the earthly world or must we as humans abandon hope and just wait every day to be a day of despair?  Definitely not.  There is one basic solution to this problem based on the premise - absolute God exists.

The current world we are living is not the world that God planned to substantiate on earth.  He intended a world of peace without disorder.

If you remember the 1999 movie "The Matrix" when one of the Agents was explaining after they had captured Morpheus in the office building deprogramming his mind, the Agent told him about the first Matrix.

He said that they had developed the Matrix to be a world of peace, but none of the crops accepted this world and they lost mostly all of them.  In other words, he said thereafter that we humans could not have peace and we like filth and chaos.  Absolutely profound revelation when we compare this scene to what happened in the Garden of Eden. The Garden of Eden was full of peace and God's direct love was bestowed upon Adam and Eve everyday, yet they still went toward the archangel who told them untruths and to do opposite of God.

The world that God had intended to substantiate on earth was a true Utopia abounding in freedom, peace and happiness. Cherishing the ideal of Utopia in His heart, God searched for earthly man with frustration.

The way that man comes up with solutions for the current world problems are not viable or everlasting.  Because man was not fully aware of God's purpose of creation or even His existence, the world was thrown into utter confusion.  Throughout the thousands of years of history, religion has had its major problems and corruption, but without it man would not have a way to learn about God's existence.  God gave religion to man as a way to teach of Him and to return His children to His bosom.

Man searched for this Utopia they had once enjoyed freely in the Garden of Eden.  Instead, they roamed through darkness racked in agony amid great chaos.  God's ideal, which He sought with much frustration to achieve, and man's longing search for the Utopia are the same.  This Heaven on Earth will be realized once man and God's ideal meet.  This meeting has not taken place in any form and leaves man groaning in anguish ever since. What kind of a being is God's He is a God of Love.

Saint Paul asked, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" Even Christ is nobody without God's love, so we cherish God's love more than anything.

God's love is the source of life, happiness and peace. You will know this if you have some spiritual experiences.

When man dreams of peace based solely on his own ideas, no matter what solution they come up with creatively it will not offer any hope.  The dream of a future full of peace, unity or oneness that goes beyond the present day of utter confusion is only an illusion unless there is a stronger power.  Without God, peace is impossible.

If the omniscient and omnipresent God has been laboring for thousands of years to guide us, why can't He lead us toward a world where His purpose of goodness can be fulfilled.  Are we moving away from the ideal toward destruction and despair?

This is a serious problem.  If we were to analyze the world's situation, we may surmise that there is no God.  Is it possible for a world of peace or some utopia in the future if we conclude that God does not exist?  Philosophers and thinkers have sought this perfect world throughout the course of history.

Since these types of people have not been able to bring about a solution, we cannot think that manpower alone will solve humanity's problems in the future.

Through historical experience, man concludes that it is impossible to attain this end, yet his original nature does not yield easily.

Regardless of race and tradition, we can see that the ultimate goal in life is but one way.

Whether Eastern or Western, people have sought after the eternal true love, peace, happiness and the ideal even in the midst of the state of sin, mistrust and confusion.  Humankind has pursued all different ways to achieve happiness which the original mind desires by following the desire to pursue goodness.

If man alone has not been able to relinquishment the fallen history, then they must be able to rely on an even stronger power that is higher than man.  Man is a unique being which knows its own limitations. Man is incapable of determining his own destiny, going beyond himself so he naturally must look for a greater subject partner, God who knows how to make this path feasible.

If God still yearns for true love, peace, happiness and his true ideal, then that goal is possible through Him alone.  Man must fully bring to reality what God has shown him in order to fulfill the ideal requisites man has sought throughout history by calling on God.

"If it is something people just desire, the transcendental force and the propensity for relationship with which God has operated from behind our lives, can pervade everything."SMM

Without realizing it himself, man today is looking for a world of peace and happiness while pursuing freedom. This is the evidence that he is still not standing on the fundamental foundation of freedom, peace and happiness.

There is only one path in life for an individual, family, society, nation and world.  Every road we all must follow points toward a world of peace full of love and happiness.  This ideal must be established through mutual relationships.

Even the almighty God can not accomplish this by Himself.  This is not blasphemous to say.  Do you realize that if God had the ability to get rid of sin and usher in heaven on Earth, He would have done that back in the Garden of Eden the moment after the fall occurred?

If God lives as the absolute and almighty being, then all things which He created including man must be free if God is free.  If God is in a peaceful place, then man must be in the same place He is.

We can deduce the fact that if there is no freedom, happiness and peace in the human world, God, its Creator, can neither be free nor happy, but must be in a miserable position. 

This is known as the fall of man in today's religious world. The fall is comparable to falling off the original foundation, from a position where perfection can be reached to an imperfect position.

Once humans grow and mature through the foundation of their parents' love and give birth to children through conjugal spousal love, the family was to establish a foundation for perfect happiness.  Yet, we know our lives have not resulted in such a life full of perfect peace and freedom.  This is completed by the Second Advent who brings the Completed Testament and as humanity follows these words of God to bring about the world of peace longed throughout history.


Return for Tomorrow's Post: A World of Peace

This post was rewritten and derived from the Textbook: Sun Myung Moon's Philosophy of Peace, Chapter, What is Peace?

Ways to Grow the Heart

How the Heart Grows

"It has been said above that the heart is like a garden, requiring cultivation. Cultivating the heart opens a person to God and His influence. The metaphor of the Garden of Eden comes to mind."

We may have heard of the Utopian type of society or a paradise.  When people yearn for a return to Eden, or a lost paradise, we may say that they are yearning for a return to a state of heart.  Eden is described to be a place of heart, of purity and wonder where God dwells with humankind in oneness and love.  This is the place all humans will dwell with one another in peace and joy, this is humanity's and God's wish for the future.  How do we go about accessing this type of realm of heart within and begin to live in the garden of heart with God?


Each body part was designed specifically by God with a purpose.  The heart was designed to grow naturally through the living for the sake of the other or other-centeredness, through experiencing love in the family.  In order to cultivate the heart and love, family relationships are paramount. 

Within family life, people will experience four "realms of heart"" as children, as brothers and sisters or friends, as a spouse and as a parent.  These provide the natural environment and challenges for the heart to grow.In the beginning, God's ideal was after His first children individually grew into maturity and become perfect, that they would become one through a direct blessing of God through holy matrimony and they would become absolute parents having God's same heart and qualities. 

Yet, we know somewhere this did not happen and the family became distorted burying the heart under layers of self-concern or self-interest.   Through the fall of Adam and Eve, man lost three kinds of love: True parental love, true marital love and true love of Children. 

Also, through the fall we were deprived of ideal families.  Man was degraded from the original quality that was God's expectation.
 

Religion is literally a “re-binding” of the severed ties with God, and its practices are to restore the love relationships that should occur naturally through and in families centered upon God.

Let it be said that the family is such an indestructible vessel of love that social scientists have thrown  up their hands trying to find replacements for an institution that seems now almost inherently dysfunctional.
 

The power of the family to raise viable human beings has been diminished but not destroyed by the effects of the fall. The place where people learn the most about love in life - the place where their hearts’ urges are most nurtured and well-satisfied is still and will always be the family.

Is an orphan raised in an orphanage able to practice the three types of love the same way as a child born into a home where both parents and siblings reside?

God remains deeply sewn into the fabric of the family. Flawed as it may be by the distortion and misdirection of love, the family remains God’s indispensable instrument for schooling people in what it means to be human—what it means to live according to the loving dictates of the heart.

If this is true, then we can see why anyone who wants to destroy God's ideal would first attack the foundation of the family through the three great realms of heart through separation of parents and children.

Besides the family, there are other means of accessing and cultivating the heart. We will cover a few of the major ones: Prayer and faith, loving others, following good mentors, service and suffering.

Ways to Cultivate the Heart

1. Prayer

2. Faith

3. Loving others

4. Loving family environment

5. Service

6. Suffering

1. Prayer

Prayer is a direct encounter with the greatest Heart of all, that of the Creator. The abstract “He and I” becomes an intimate “You and I” experience. Prayer is like pure oxygen for the heart. The source of the impulse to relatedness, God can renew our stores of care and concern that others need and deserve from us.

Meeting with Him enlarges and refreshes our perspective towards other people and the meaning of the tasks awaiting us. It clears the surroundings of the heart to bring others more clearly into focus. Receiving God’s guidance, inspiration, or admonishment strengthens and enlarges what is original and true, while that which is false and petty melts away.

If we imagine the inner heart as being a muscle like its physical counterpart, then the divine encounter in prayer is as if God’s great Heart enters one’s own and forces the walls to expand outward.

Our vision, scope of concern, and capacity for caring expand. When prayer ends, the heart tends to revert to its prior state, but it is never quite as small. Like a muscle, it is now a bit larger, stronger, more pliant and more readily stretched to contain God’s love in the future. If prayer is frequent and accompanied by action, this effect occurs over and over until it becomes big enough for the divine

Heart to become a permanent resident.

Of the many kinds of prayer, the most valuable from the standpoint of heart development is that which focuses on the needs of others, for this is the prayer of true love. “He who prays for his fellowman, while he himself has the same need, will be answered first,” states the Talmud (Baba Kamma 92a).

 Another valuable prayer is one of offering something back to God. Thus, many religions emphasize praising God in prayer. The prayer of gratitude for a beautiful sunset, a rain-washed morning with an upcoming sun, children’s laughter, birdsong—such a prayer goes like an arrow into the heart of God and brings forth an almost electric response.

Reverend Moon has counseled that the way to feel closer to God is to practice offering thanks for all circumstances. There are many kinds of other worthy offerings in prayer. Seeking to please and comfort the Creator—the way an elder child seeks to comfort a weary parent—may be particularly precious. “Let me help you with your burden, your cross”—what could be more touching for a parent to hear? About his ordeal in a North Korean prison camp, a punishment for preaching about God in a

Communist regime, Reverend Moon relates:I never complained [in prayer]. I was never angry at my situation.  I never even asked His help, but was always busy comforting Him and telling Him not to worry about me.  The Father . . . already knew my suffering. How could I tell

Him about my suffering and cause His heart to grieve still more? I could only tell Him that I would never be defeated by my suffering.

2. Faith

 

It is faith that supplies much of the courage that allows us to “take heart” and continue trying, giving, and loving. Without faith, we “lose heart”; the heart closes down and hides itself. Faith represents belief in what is not yet apparent. In the words of St. Paul, faith is “being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11.1). It is seeing the sun behind the impenetrable clouds and hearing the sweet birdsong of spring beyond the howling winds of winter. It means trusting in one’s own and others’ potential for goodness, the capacity to change for the better, and to grow in goodness.

It entails confidence in heaven’s support and protection for worthy endeavors against all practical odds. It involves belief in the power of true love, just as such love “always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” (1 Corinthians 13.7).

The practice of faith fortifies the heart’s ability to lead with its unique sensibilities. This means practicing trust in one’s intuition taking a measure of risk to pursue an inner prompting. Sometimes it entails believing in people when there are good reasons not to.

Blaise Pascal said, “The heart has reasons that reason knows not of.”

Taking the risk toward loving others in the faith that they, like oneself, have a heart that yearns for connection is almost always affirmed by the response of the other.

 

3. Loving Others

A most basic mode of cultivating the heart is to have warm relationships with a wide range of people. This is commonplace in traditional cultures, where extended family and village life bring the individual into constant contact with all age ranges and personalities. Between siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles and grandparents, every age from infant to the very elderly is represented, and there is little opportunity to restrict oneself only to peers. Because one also cannot readily escape those with challenging personalities, people learn how to get along and through time may learn to appreciate the value of types of people they don’t have a natural affinity for.

Expanding one’s parameters of love is always a heart-growing experience. Approaching neighbors for a conversation is sometimes a real challenge to the heart. It has been said in modern times, “we can put a man on the moon but can’t walk across the street to greet a neighbor.” Talking one-on-one with respect and ease to a person from another race, another culture, another background, is an exercise in heart-stretching.

Sometimes the institution of marriage is a place where a person is called upon to love in places and ways he or she never thought possible before. Often, people find day-to-day life with another person to be very different from what they imagined when they first wed. Learning to love someone of the opposite sex, who is very different in physical, emotional, and mental make-up, is a heart stretching opportunity. As mentioned earlier, all the relationships in the family are opportunities to gain new ground in different “realms of the heart” (See Chapters 14-18).

The greatest expansion of the heart is to love someone who has acted like an enemy. Indeed, sometimes people we initially dislike and have conflict with wind up being our best friends as the excitement of the heart’s expansion overwhelms us.

One woman had such an experience with a neighbor:

 

Her children had been rude to my children numerous times when we were new in the neighborhood, and she herself was unfriendly. For a long time, we never waved to one another or greeted one another. Finally, I decided to love her in spite of it all. When I raised my leaden arm to greet her, it was hard, but when she smiled back, it was like electricity. I got a jolt of joy far exceeding anything I felt when I greeted my other neighbors. All I wanted to do was greet her again and again and again. I loved her!

 

4. Loving Family Environment

 

Hearts are also cultivated through imitating noble examples. Parents, teachers and other elders and superiors play the most meaningful roles in this.

 Adolescents for example look to their parents and grandparents for values far more than to pop stars,

 politicians, sports figures or religious leaders.

 

The teaching and example of parents and other authorities are a potent force shaping conscience (see Chapter 5), but their influence is of a slightly different kind regarding the heart.

Research points to the fact that young people pick up the moral feelings of their parents more than their words. For example, when young Jessica heard her father talk about respecting the national flag

5. Service

Service is a powerful instrument for conditioning the heart. Religion has prescribed it as a vehicle for spiritual growth for the millennial, and it is being newly discovered in schools as character building. Its impact has several dimensions. It fosters empathy, through contact with another who is in need and experiencing a common humanity.

It cultivates a sense of personal value and meaning. Some experience themselves tangibly as instruments of divine love and assistance in the lives of the ones being helped. It counteracts false pride, when in the course of service a person finds herself doing what she had considered menial or lowly work. It also has a magical power to bring participants into oneness of heart, as they see each other being used for goodness in this way.

Those serving perceive how others may suffer more than themselves and this engenders gratitude. They notice how others suffer apparently unfairly, and this provokes a healthy soul-searching to make meaning of this and decide how to respond to this larger issue. They witness how some may bear their sufferings nobly, and this brings admiration and humility. It is a rare person engaged in service who does not affirm the statement, “I received more than I gave.” What one receives is a life-giving, heart-stretching experience.

6. Suffering

Suffering is another way to develop the heart. Everyone experiences suffering in life. What people do with their suffering determines how it affects their hearts. Suffering can either embitter a person, making him or her resentful and angry for years on end, or it can refine the character into one of shining beauty, revealing and strengthening the heart.  Suffering can be a great teacher—perhaps the greatest teacher—but only if the person is able to make meaning out of suffering.

The twentieth century witnessed a crisis of meaning that shook the world to its foundations. One of Reverend Moon’s greatest

contributions and greatest strengths is that of a meaning-maker. Born during a famine, undergoing Japanese occupation of his country and being arrested and tortured as a resistance fighter, he then experienced a communist takeover of his native land and was imprisoned and tortured by the communists for talking about God in public.

The Korean War claimed most of his relatives, and he fled South as a refugee, only to be so poor as to have to live in a house made out of U.S. army ration boxes. “As I look back,” he said, “I am reminded that my life has never been easy. My life has been intertwined with the suffering history of our people and the numerous difficulties that our people have undergone in the midst of the great powers.”

Yet he found meaning in all this suffering. Korea, he felt, had a special message about God’s suffering heart to give to the world. If his and his country’s suffering could be offered to God, it could pay the price for a rebirth of religion.

The great religious leaders all suffered, and their hearts were anointed by God because of their sufferings. Making meaning out of suffering—offering it to God and using it to identify with His sorrows and the sorrows of humanity—plunges through the layers of distortion and selfishness encasing the heart and brings forth its fountains of true love.

These are but a few examples of how the heart grows. Growing the garden of the heart may require a lifetime of investment, but no goal could be more worthwhile. Growing the heart enables a person to practice true love, which is the fulcrum of a fulfilling life. Because of its centrality to human existence, educating the heart in true love should be a prime concern.

However, trying to develop the heart without the guidance of the conscience may easily lead down the road of following the emotions rather than the heart. The heart needs the conscience and also the will—the taking of responsibility through action—to pump life into its growth. While the heart is ascendant, it cannot be developed properly without the aids of the conscience and the will.

Return For Tommorrow's Post: How Your Heart Can Mirror the Creator's Part 1


From the Textbook: Foundations of Character Education