Four Worlds of Heart in Family

All the evidence from the previous posts show that there is something important for human development in the very structure of the family.

Reverend Sun Myung Moon summarizes that roles in the family create a certain 'realm of heart'. This heart fostered between the relationships between mother-father, parents-children, siblings, and God and family becomes a school for love.

People learn about love through being sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, mothers and fathers.

“The family teaches by its form,” as educator Gabriel Moran explains it.

Each realm of heart reflects an aspect of God's love.

God is the Parent of all parents. He has the absolute love that surpasses the love of even model parents. With that love He can embrace all the parents of the world. In fact, God created man from His parental love.

Without that love from God, we die.

God is always ready to give the type of love that is best suited for the person who is seeking a relationship with Him.

If we are ready for parental love from God, He is prepared to give it. If we want brotherly love, conjugal love, or the love of a friend from Him, He is ready with these.

It is so amazing and wonderful that God who is a God of love protects us in every possible relationship

When we fulfill each realm of heart (children's realm, siblings realm conjugal realm, and the parent's realm) we grow to resemble God's many-faceted love.

Each type of love that is exhibited in the family forms a world of experiences and responsibilities that becomes a matrix for the growth of heart.

Lessons in Loving Others

The family works to school people to have other-centered love through providing crucial relationships to learn from. Each realm of heart involves relating to significant others or partners in love.

In the child's ream of heart, the parents become their most significant other. The sibling's realms of heart, their brothers/sisters and peers are increasingly significant. Within the spouse's realms of heart, one has a relationship with the opposite sex who are emotionally and physically committed for the rest of one's life.

Children are the significant other in the parent's realm of heart.

True love begins with the infant responding to a parent in the child’s realm of love.

A baby is not alone in the universe. He or she is compelled to bond with others by all the forces within.

Many theorists conclude that a baby's attachment to their parent is a necessary building block of relating to others with empathy for the rest of their life.

The quality of the interactions between a parent and child is an essential love relationship that gives each a lifelong perspective on others.

When brothers and sisters interact with their siblings, this realm of heart offers a new territory where the growing child must accommodate others. He or she now shares the parents' universe with their sibilings.

One learns they must not hurt their sibling but must wait their turn and share.

In turn, the relationship of brother and sister in the family can offer joy of companionship and expand each child's love into new dimensions.

When a child must cooperate with their playmates or children at school, issues of fair play, justice, and honesty come to the foreground as he or she learns that there are yet others who need respect and accommodations.

Through experiencing the sibling's realm of heart, a child begins to relate to the world of their peers. The repertoire they obtain through these relationship expand dramatically, as well as their heart for others in society as they mature.

Maturity brings the world of the opposite sex into sharp focus.

A newlywed couple often feel that they are the only two people in the world.

This is how rich the world or realm they occupy together. It is an exclusive, intensely exciting, deeply affecting circle of relationships in which each will learn to love someone who is truly their 'other'. 

They will experience a different emotion and mental make-up than with others they encounter.

When one becomes a parent, he or she enters a realm of relationship with a child that opens up a whole new world of loving and caring.

The parent's realm of love is perhaps the most transformative relationship that resembles the heart and love of God the most closely.

With their children, parents have a dependent 'other' who needs and demands more than anyone else has demanded in a lifetime. They must be attendant to their growth. As a parent, rewards and blessings are enormous as well as anxieties and emotional taxes.

The heart grows here earnestly through other-centered love.

Grandparent's love is an extension of the parent's realm of heart. This love has its own special gifts to bestow and receive from the grandparents.

When we grow and understand the inner workings of the family through experiencing these four realms of heart, we grow to appreciate the brilliantly designed vehicle of emotional, moral and spiritual growth.

The impact of your family does not stop within its own relationships either. The lessons one learns from their interactions in the family is profound and far-reaching. It extrapolates into a person's orientation toward the rest of the world.

Ethicist James Q. Wilson said, “The family is a continuing locus of reciprocal obligations that constitute an unending school for moral instruction . . . . We learn to cope with the people of this world because we learn to cope with the members of our family.”

Photos courtesy of : freedigitalphotos.net 

Return for Tomorrow’s Post:

This post was rewritten and derived from the religious textbook “Educating for True Love” written by a team of writers to explain Reverend Sun Myung Moon's philosophy.

Center on Higher Purpose for Unity

The previous two posts spoke about finding unity through working toward a greater purpose. It is not easy to live our lives for a purpose that is beyond ourselves.

Even though it seems that it would be naturally perfect for members of a family to favor their family over other, employees to put the company ahead of themselves, citizens work for the needs of the community and countries put the whole of humanity ahead of themselves, unfortunately, we are beings who are not governed by the impulses of our original godly heart.

We witness harmony in nature, but seldom see it within human life. Even though we are God's greatest creation, people are self-destructive.

When an individual is abused by the collective, this aggravates the fear. 

Unfortunately, unlike nature, people needs constant reminders and incentives in order to maintain the right priorities. On the other hand, the impulse to give to the greater good is also strong.

There is a natural fear to give too much and thus being used, this is counterbalanced by the fear of being useless. It is horrible when one feels they are not needed for beauty, goodness and truth in the world.

Being of service to others, being allied with an important end is a fundamental need.

A person feels their value is derived in general not only from personal integrity and the affection of loved ones, but also from having an 'objective worth', a value that comes from benefiting the public good.

Eleanor Roosevelt commented about citizenship:

“When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.”

Many have come to realize this truth from experience through combating sadness or stagnation. Therefore, they actively reach out to help someone else instead of wallow in their own world.

Such people know that as long as they pursue happiness or personal growth it will elude them; only when they give to service to a greater goal do these blessings find them.

The heart and conscience pushes each of us to give our time, energy and heart for a worthy purpose. They push us to be like the wax of the candle that gives itself to sustain the light and warmth of the flame.

Humanity has too often denied God's concerns and welfare of the whole for its own petty interests.

To reverse this wrong direction, sometimes the heart and conscience call people to deny themselves to an extraordinarily degree.

Who can explain the course which Mohandas Gandhi gave of himself? Such a sacrifice of sacrifice of self confounds worldly thinking.

There is clearly a deep joy that rewards those who have killed their smaller selves in order to become a part of a greater endeavor.

Relationship as Higher Purpose

The most basic shared projects is the relationship itself.

Members of the family, teammates and business partners often wisely sacrifice for the sake of their alliance, for the 'we-ness”.

This 'we-ness' has a vitality that depends on how much the participants favor the interest of the relationship over their own personal interests to reach their personal goals and meet the individual needs through the relationship instead of around or in spite of it. Any sports team that is good, understands this.

“In order to have a winner, the team must have a feeling of unity,” says legendary University of Alabama Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant. “Every player must put the team first—ahead of personal glory.”

People who have been married for a while know this too. They make many sacrifices for the marriage. When a couple makes love within a caring marriage, this is a metaphor for such an idea.

Each partner seeks to satisfy the other and ultimately come to surrender to their higher union.

Rather than lose anything in this surrender, each person gains deep joy and a meaningful connection through it.

In families that are resilient, researcher and counselor Ross Campbell fond that there is an overarching moral or spiritual purpose that binds the members together.

It is a paradox that centering on something higher than the family also strengthens the bonds within the family itself.

A family finds they have a rapport with one another when they give their time and energy to others through altruism such as helping out the neighbors, hosts guests or volunteering for the community.

Such families build 'social capital' as Robert D. Putnam, Harvard University, states is the connection with and good will of neighbors which enhances the family's well-being and helps, supports, and gives strengthen when they are in need of it.

Daniel and Lai-Cheng's family is bound through a patriotic purpose. They are oftentimes hundreds of miles apart. Daniel is in the British Royal Air Force which calls him to leave for about nine months out of the year. Even though Lai-Cheng struggles like all military wives to care for her three young children on a budget and alone, she shares her husband's commitment to her country just as if she was in the service.

She is proud of the example Daniel is setting for the children, to live for something beyond themselves.

She understands that in order for her husband to be happy, he has to have the kind of work he loves.

When he is home, he cares for his children and gives his wife a break from her strenous routine. When he is away, they stay in regular contact.

Lai-Cheng remarks, “I think it works because even though we are often apart and do different things, I know we

are both willing to do whatever it takes to achieve what we want: a family that cares for each other and serves our country.”

Family has become its own island for many, a haven set apart from the wider world. This position impoverishes both home and community and places impossible demands on the nuclear family to meet all the members' needs.

Also, the Western viewpoint of romantic love is too thin for a foundation of lasting love and care for children.

There is a constant questions of “Am I happy? Is this meeting my needs?” This strains the bond and places the cart before the horse.

When the relationship itself and the public purpose is ideally honored first, this nourishes and fortifies the participants' attachment to one another.

Return for Tomorrow's Post: 

This post was rewritten and derived from the religious textbook "Educating for True Love" written by a team of writers to explain Reverend Sun Myung Moon's philosophy.

We Are Brothers, Sisters Without Parents

Throughout history, mankind has exerted all kinds of efforts to bring about world peace through war, religion, philosophy and political powers to no avail.

People had no way to truly and eternally unite.

This is because they were all brothers and sisters who were like orphans who have lost their parents to teach the true way of how one should be.

Humankind lost their parents when the first parents of humankind followed the wrong direction and could not pass down God's true path for living to their descendants on to us.

There was no way to unite our own minds and bodies centered on God without any trace of sin.  Therefore, there was not a path to unite with one another.

If parents had truly followed God and had sinless children, everything in history would have developed through the unconditional love of the original parents.

The first brothers and sister, Cain and Abel, would have united centered on their parents' love, but this could not be achieved.

Adam and Eve were unable to show their family the true love of God through example.

Everyone needs True Parents no matter what position they hold.

The reason God established the nation of Israel and the Jewish faith was in order to build a sturdy foundation of protection to receive the Messiah.

When the Jewish people could not follow Jesus to the end and could not follow him as God's son, God created Christianity in order to receive the Lord of the Second Advent.

The returning Lord will be called the True Parents because they will reverse the mistake of the fall of the first parents who brought sin into the bloodline.

For True Parents to appear is the hope of humankind, is the hope of history, the hope of the nations, the hope of philosophy, and the hope of the providence.

The True Parents coming to earth is what all of history has hoped for to reverse the sins of humanity and will only happen once.

You are alive to witness and breathe the same air as the True Parents.

What kind of people are the True Parents?

Do you think your parents are the same as True Parents without a trace of sin?

In terms of love, your parents have a different concept.

Your parents' love is centered on the earthly realm of living, while the love of True Parents teaches about love that is centered on the spiritual ream.

Therefore, the content is very different.

Democracy is an ideology of brotherhood.  Above that ideology is the parent-centered ideology.

Do you decide who will be your parents through an election?  You cannot.

Democracy has the basis to foster atmosphere of distrust.  Why?

Because people in politics have done all kinds of things for their own profit.  They use their money to mobilize manpower, plot against each other, slander them and so forth.

True Parents give birth to humankind through true love

You have been born with the sinful blood lineage of false parents who were chased away from Heaven with no connection to God or true parents.

In order to go in the opposite direction and cleanse this fallen lineage, you must trample that lineage again and again and pull it out again and again.

Without changing your satanic lineage at the most basic level in this way, you cannot enter the heavenly world.

In transforming the lineage, unless the condition for victory is fulfilled through binding God's love to the seed of the children of the future, God's child cannot be born in the future.  This is a logical certainty.

What kind of savior is the savior who is demanded by the fallen people?

He should be one with God's will and receive God's love and blessing in the position of unfallen parent.  He must be the savior who is able to give birth to humankind, otherwise people will not be able to disconnect to the original sin with him as the model to follow.

Even though the Messiah can change your lineage, you yourself have to attend, act and walk the bloody path in order to change it.

If you do not have such a standard, we cannot reach the path of salvation.  This is not achieved easily, but only in a situation where your life is at stake.

This change of blood lineage is possible only when you fulfill a forty-day fasting and prayer condition or experience a state of death in which you are vomiting blood - a cleansing of the sinful blood.

Why do we need True Parents?

We need to take root in the realm of the heart.

Now, there is a different root.  Through the Fall, the trunks and branches become different.  Now a new root of history has emerged.  A trunk and branches grew, and you are being engrafted to this true tree.

Therefore, in order to be recreated without traces of the fall, you should cut yourself down, reject your fallen acts and become engrafted.

You must remove everything from the satanic world down to the root.

Because history did not have the example of a perfected person, a person without the trace of the fall, there was no way for humanity to go in the right direction or see that their ways were fallen.

They needed an example of the true way to follow and that is through the coming of the True Parents.

What do we all desire?

We all want to welcome the True Parents who will establish a global nation.  Your sons and daughters would want to be born in the lineage of True Parents, not your own fallen, sinful lineage full of abuse, lies, disease problems and such.

Therefore, True Parents become the starting point of the new future.

True Parents should correct the false lineage, the root of the satanic world, reverse the false life which we live everyday, and open the true path away from the path of false love.

Once false love disappears, infidelity, divorce will disappear.

What does the paradox in the Bible mean, those who wish to die will live, and those who wish to live will die?

This is because as you walk this path of ridding yourself of the satanic blood lineage you must die, your humanistic, sinful self must die. But through this 'death', you live.

Those who cling to their fallen ways and live, ultimately die in spirit.  The world is full of people who are zombies without a soul enriched in God's love.

True Parents walked a tremendous path of suffering to lay a foundation for you and I to follow out of hell.

Complete salvation, which is no connection to satan or sin, is only possibly through True Parents.  Complete salvation is both spiritual and physical.

Jesus could only accomplish the spiritual realm of salvation, but he himself lost his own physical body to satan.

True Parents have brought salvation to our bodies as well, where we can have complete mind and body unity centered on God where Satan cannot invade.

No one can sever the relationship between True Parents and their True Children.

It is eternal and unchanging destiny.  There is only one path toward God, there is no secret method.  All of humanity from the President to the homeless man, must walk this path.

True Parents bring people of the world together who have walked this path to cleanse their fallen blood lineage and marry them together.

Therefore, they transcend racial differences, cultural differences and good people marry bad people.

True Parents deny evil love, evil life, and evil lineage, but they do not abandon Cain who disobeyed God and killed Abel, rather they bless him at the same level.

Therefore, 'bad' people as well will join in this dispensation, thereby completely expelling Satan from this earth.

The Fall occurred through the false marriage in the Garden of Eden. So, True Parents reverse this by marrying people in the proper way approved directly by God.

They sweep away the bad deeds of the false parents and abolish hell and carry out the work to bless billions of ancestors in the spirit world through the foundation of the earthly descendants which is based on true love.

Furthermore, through the foundation of such families, East and West form a connection.

We as God's adopted sons and daughters should connect to God's true son.

We must cut off the wild olive tree and engraft a bud from the true olive tree.  Then create a movement of wild olive trees becoming true olive trees.

You should first long for the Parents.

You receive salvation by attending the Parents based on their being your motivation for life, the entirety of your hope and the root of all your ideals and happiness.

You should have the conviction that you are a son or daughter who can become eternally one with True Parents.  Otherwise rebirth will not come.

You might think that you have your natural parents and you are fine?

Why do you need spiritual parents?

It is because you are fallen and you have no direct relationship or blood ties with God, thus passing on the fallen blood lineage of Satan.

What do false parents teach?

They have taught you the way to continuously deteriorate centered on yourself.

They have helped you chase away the better part, more than half of yourself.  This creates a clear line that keep you eternally bonded to the satanic world based on the false love of your parents.

There is no other way to cut this off other than attending the True Parents.

On the other hand, True Parents teach you greater and greater things on this foundation so that you can be fit for the heavenly kingdom.

They equip you with the tools so that you can keep in rhythm after you go to the eternal kingdom.  They teach you so that you will be able to breathe the air of love which is the atmosphere in the spirit world.

True Parents teach you the true way of God.

Return for Tomorrow's Post: How Can Love Destroy? This Post was rewritten and derived from the book Cheon Seon Gyeon Book Three, "True love", Chapter 2, Section 2

Love Nation, World, Humankind = World Peace

Just like God, love is not flat.  Once you are united with God in oneness, a circular motion manifests in all kinds of forms and figures. This is why the older sibling must love the younger by following the examples of their parents who love them as well. Love will blossom within a family that is united in this way. That love becomes the love within a society and then the love within a nation.  In this this expansion of heart, it will later become the love of the whole world.  This is how world peace will be established - through the family. Love of the Nation, Love of the World, and Love of Humankind When you look at the world it is composed of many nations. Nations are composed of societies.  Societies are made of of tribes. These tribes are made up of families which are two individuals coming together. Those who sacrifice their lives to live for the public purpose of humankind will come together centering on their love for humankind. Likewise, have a love for their homeland, they will unite based on patriotic ideas. As their patriotic feelings grow stronger, the citizens will unite through their patriotism in order to establish a nation. You must build relationship and gather people of like mind together once you know you have the responsibility to work on the patriotic movement.  The base where genuine love can settle down is the family. Therefore, the original family that embodies the love of the universe will expand the domain of love in the universe and be protected by the universe. We should go beyond the family level and walk the patriotic path of loving the nation.  Furthermore, we must go beyond race and nation and go toward the path of loving the world. Those who love their family are children of filial piety and virtuous wives.  Those who love their nation are patriots.  What do we call those who love the world?  We call them saints. The path of children of filial piety, patriots, saints, and divine sons and daughters How do you become a global figure? You cannot become one by just human morality or making people your central concern. If you are only concerned with human beings, then you will not be able to go beyond the national level. It is that which is of heaven that will enable you to step beyond the national level. If you do not have a philosophy that embraces heaven and earth, then you cannot go beyond the national level. If you look at the ranks of the saints, they revered God or did they not revere him?  Is there any saint that did not have God?  They all upheld God's will as their standard way of living. Thus, the saints have spoken about God tremendously, not just about humankind.  Moreover, the saints have taught not only the way of morality, but the path of the heavenly law. Children of filial piety serve and love their parents in a family.  Those who serve and love the nation are patriot. Those who love the world are saints. Then, what is it that I teach? It is to be a divine son or daughter who loves God, the world, and the universe. Which will you be? Will you be a divine son or daughter, or a dutiful son or daughter?  Love is the essence that moves reality. It cannot be omitted from daily life or from history.  Love provides the internal power which moves everything from a parent's body to our social institutions. This is why, when you are educated, you are taught to love your country. You are taught, brotherly love, parental love, conjugal love and worldwide philanthropy of your country. All of these contain love. What does this mean?  It means that we cannot connect to history without including love which is the realm of people's daily lives and the course of history. What do you have to become? You must become a patriot.  A patriot devotes one's effort to serve the people as they would serve the nation's ruler.  What is a child of filial piety?  They are those who devote all their efforts toward their parents. Those who devote themselves to their brothers and sisters as they would serve their parents are children of filial piety. Saints are people who have sacrificed themselves until now and died for the sake of all humankind. What is a divine son or daughter?  Those who reach out to the world centering on God and serve mankind as they would serve God are divine sons and daughters. Historical saints are those who have died for the sake of the people of the world.  Divine sons and daughters are loyal to God, but as they live for God they also live for the sake of all people.  Being a saint does not make you a divine son and daughter or God's child. What is next level after you become a child of filial piety, a patriot and a saint?  No matter how much you have loved the nation's ruler and its people, you have to know the laws of the heavenly royal palace to be a divine son and daughter.  You have to live in the rhythm with the palace law. A filial child's heart goes straight to his parents without changing. The same goes for the patriot whose heart goes straight to the king.  The saint, likewise, has a heart that goes straight toward God without changing. In other words, you can be a child of filial piety, a patriot and saint only when your heart goes straight without changing even in a situation where you may face death. A filial child serves and loves the parents in the family.  The one who serves and loves the country is the patriot and the one who serves and loves the world is the saint. You should be divine sons and daughters who love the world and universe.  Once you have such a broaden love, you must have as much love as God. The child of filial piety lives on even when his household perishes.  This is why there are epitaphs of children of filial piety, patriot and saints. Divine sons and daughters are people who know how to observe not only national laws, but also the laws of the heavenly royal palace. Thus, that which can connect straight to the path of children of filial piety, patriots and the path of saints is the path of the divine sons and daughters. Our life course can be condensed into the life paths walked by filial children, patriots, saints and divine sons and daughters. Would they be paths driven by the heart of wanting to be together and live together regardless of the upper and the lower, transcending front and back, left and right, and day and night, and going beyond one's own life? This is the conclusion that has emerged. No matter how outstanding a person may be, he is of no use if he has no love.   Also, happiness becomes connected based on love. The medium that connects brothers and sisters, friends, countrymen, all humankind and heaven on earth is love.  Love is like yeast. God created the universe and established its law.  What kind of being is He? He is the Being who stands as the representative caring for others more than anyone else.  This is God. Therefore, if you want to meet God, you have to live for the sake of others.  God is the king of knowledge, but he will not tell you to come to Him with knowledge. Although He is the king of capability, He would not tell you to approach Him with capability. God is the king of money, power and knowledge, He does not need these things. God would tell you that anyone can come to Him that lives for the sake of others.  God exists in front of human beings for their own sake. This is why we want to follow God forever.  If you want to maintain your own position of existence living within the natural law, you must exist for the sake of others as the universe does. Through serving others, you connect to the East and the West, and to the past and the present.  God has the same love in the past that He has now in the present. God can overcome the East and the West and overcome the past and the present, and even the future. Therefore He is able to unify them into one.  How is He able to do this? He unifies them only in love. Return for Tomorrow's Post: The Importance of the Love of Nature This Post was rewritten and derived from the religious textbook, "Cheon Seong Gyeong, "True Love", Book Three, Chapter Two, Section 8

The Love of Siblings Teaches Love of Parent

The ideal of family has changed over the last decades beginning after World War II. You can even see the change in ideals from the 'Leave to Beaver' family structure of mother cooking at home raising the children and the father as the overseer of the family. There are significant reasons why this is so.   God fought a hard battle with Satan in the second world war in order to bring about a world where He could substantially rule. Instead, after winning the battle, Satan was able to claim that foundation because there was no unity with the returning Messiah and the Christian world. In fact, he suffered greatly and was rejected by the established churches. Therefore, he had to walk his own path of 40 years of suffering to establish God's foundation on the earth. If the religious world had followed his directions given from God at that time, based on the teachings of the Divine Principle, the world of peace would have been established in that time. At that time the world of family tradition still followed the ways of God compared to the times of today where divorce, wife swapping and second/third husbands is the new trend. Now we stand on a solid foundation where God can truly come directly to do His work through the foundation of families. Why did God give us family, our brothers and sisters?   Why did He make such a unit? We need brothers and sisters so we can look at them and realize that our mother and father must have been like that when they were younger. Children can see through his brothers and sisters the process of his mother grew up. Sisters can observe elder brothers and understand how her father grew up and lived.  You should know that this is the love among siblings.  You can become one by growing up in this environment.  Should you love your brothers and sisters or not? What if parents have only one son and only one daughter? Then the son needs an elder sister and an elder brother doesn't he? The daughter needs an elder brother and an elder sister. Furthermore, they need a younger brother and young sister. Through them you come to appreciate and love who your parents are. It is unfortunate if you do not have them. What if parents have only one son and one daughter? The son needs an elder sister and an elder brother, doesn't he? Also the daughter needs an elder brother and elder sister. Furthermore, they need a younger brother and younger sister. There needs to be an elder brother, an elder sister, a younger brother, and a younger sister. It is unfortunate if you do not have them. Brotherly love is a model of love for all the people of the world. A family that has a younger sister, younger brother, elder sister and elder brother has achieved complete unity and will receive God's protection. America has moved away from the tradition of larger families and some have even forsook marriage or having children at all. The elder brother and elder sister means east and west, and the younger brother and younger sister mean north and south.  When this pattern is completed there will be three dimensions. This family becomes the origin of a clan, a people, and a nation upon expansion.  When such a principle of love takes root, the origin of peace will be established. When an elder brother loves his younger sister, and the younger sister loves her elder brother, they cannot just love one another, they must also involve their parents in that love. They can cherish their childhood experiences of growing up in the bosom of their parents. They should be a brother and sister who are connected on the basis of parent and child of oneness. Only then will they be able to ascend as they grow up. They should grow up like this all the way through elementary and middle school. However far you go in your travels around the world and throughout life, nothing will be able to replace the love of your brothers and sisters in a family who share the same blood from their birth. When you go out to society, is there anyone who is closer to you than your brother or sister? Although some people may be close, they will eventually drift away from you. Why do you need brothers and sisters? They are those who are connected to the vertical (spiritual) and horizontal (physical) plane. If Adam and Eve are horizontal, then God and Adam and Eve are vertical.  At this intersection it creates a plane. This is why both a horizontal setting and the front and back are needed. Through their unification, a sphere is formed. Therefore, when the love of brothers and sisters expand to a love for all the people of the world, then sibling love transcends family. Only when we can embrace the world and love all people with sibling love,will we join everything together in an ideal sphere of love. When this occurs, no mishap will severely shock us; all the substance of God's thought finally bear fruit. God's ideal of children unites and bears fruit there: the fruit of children's love, the fruit of siblings' love, the fruit of the love of husband and wife and the fruit of parents' love, the fruit of siblings' love, the fruit of the love of husband and wife, and the fruit of parents' love. When God's original world of creation is finally manifested on earth, upper and lower, front and rear, and left and right will be merged with Him. Through brothers and sisters, a nation arises and all humankind arises. The brother and sister relationship signifies front and back like a flat surface, but when flesh is added then a sphere is formed. So, it is brothers and sisters and the people of the nation who from this sphere. Brothers and sisters expand to become a people, and the love of brothers and sisters is connected with the love of the world. A family where there are many brothers and sisters growing up is like a model to embrace all people of the world. This family creates an ideal Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God on earth and in heaven. Hence, brothers and sisters expand in number.  When there are many siblings, two may have to share a plate at mealtime. They do not fight because there is only one plate of rice. Even if there are many siblings and they have to suffer to live in hardship, if they have such a heart of love that says, "Although I may starve, I will give this to my elder sister," or "I have to give this to my younger brother or sister," then everything will work out very well. Return for tomorrow's post: Love Nation, World, Humankind = World Peace This post was rewritten and derived from the textbook Cheon Seong Gyeong Book Three, "True Love" Chapter Two, Section 7

If Nature Protests Humanity's Behavior

We don't think much about the natural occurrences in our lives.  We don't think about our heart beating, the sun rising or the fact that nature exists outside our very home building nests, flying south and giving birth.

 What is the purpose of creation, why do any of these things exist?  They exist for one purpose.  For the love obtained from humanity and God.


So, what if you woke up one morning and trees decided to return back into the ground, all of creation went to the north pole and decided to stop living for humanity?  We would then be aware how much a gift is the creation.

There is an Alfred Hitchcock movie called "The Birds" that exercises this point very well.  I think one of the characters mentions that when you see one or two crows it does not make a big difference.  But then when you see the amount of crows that covers the rooftops, playgrounds, cars and the sky, then you start to become alarmed and have stepped into a horror movie.

What if nature decided they had enough with how humanity has treated the gifts it gives everyday and decided to go on the offensive?  Then we would realize how perfect and glorious, God's ideal for creation really is in its giving of itself to His children and in everyday functioning.

All of creation exhibits God's dual characteristics and are connected to Him through the vertical and horizontal position.

God is Spirit and the created world is material. 

The substantial world is horizontal while God and the spirit world are vertical. God's invisible dual essentialities were manifested in visible form, so everything is made in the image of God.

So, where does this place humanity?

Each man is the microcosm of the universe.

Each of us are made of every element that is seen in creation.  This places us near God, but we must not forget to look at it in this way as well: Nature supplied each ingredient that makes us who we are which means that without the universe, humanity could not exist.  How can we be arrogant toward the creation when it is essentially a parent to humanity?

What if nature all the sudden, like the birds in the horror movie, demanded you repay everything that they loaned you.  What would be left of you?  We can feel that the universe gave birth and made us.

Therefore, nature is your first parent.  All the universal formats or formulas can be found in you. You could accurately say that you are a small walking universe that can move, whereas the cosmic universe is stationary. 

In this way, God had planned for humanity to govern the universe which in return the universe would want you to dominate it.  But would nature want to be abused, overused and misused as we are witnessing in the world to this day?  The universe would reject such behavior.

This is why the first duty for humanity to truly achieve the three great blessings is to love nature.  This means, that wherever you are, you will love the creation and appreciate it.

Then, because you love the grass, trees, flowers, birds and running water you would then love your fellow man who is made of these elements as well.

There is this quote that is spreading across the internet that humanity has fallen in love with man-made material things instead of loving man and this is the cause of humanities turmoil.  Another example is when someone drops their phone it seems to affect everyone to the core as a valuable thing of use, but when a young person falls on a crack in the street and lands on their knees we are more apt to laugh at this person.

This is the situation in which society has found itself.

God had such a mind that when man lies on the beach, you can feel that you are lying in the bosom of your parent, or that when leaning against a tree you are leaning against your own brother.

Would nature protest you for living in this manner?

Or, would it sense that you truly love and appreciate it?  Did you know that all things exist for you?  When you observe it, you can take pleasure in them for that reason.  As a man, you are the only begotten son of the universe, and as a woman you are the only begotten daughter of the universe. Then how much love would be possible between the two?

How many songs and words of love have been given to the sun?  Even still, these poems and songs are superficial when compared to the truth of how much nature has given to humanity as a parent.

Love the entire nature as your parent

If nature is your first parent, your second parents are your own father and mother. They represent the universe and labored to bring your life into being.  They, too, gave of themselves in the process of creating you.

Our parents who are representatives of the universe gave us a physical life on this earth, thus we can feel that we are the center of the universe.  Isn't this what every toddler feels in retrospect?

Our parents represent more than just a father and mother.  They represent all of mankind, so when we honor and respect our parents, we are serving mankind, not just these two particular people.  Then when you love and respect your parents, you will be loved by all mankind.

This is the historical background each of us stands on to serve our parents as a filial son and daughter.  When you look at the dynamic of a family, it represents the microcosm of humanity: your sister represents all women, your brothers all men.  

A true person would treat every stranger and look at them in the same way as they do their own family members.  As a true man or woman, you would view every senior citizen as your own parent or grandparent.  You would see other young men and women as your own brothers and sisters.

If you are a true man, then you love not only your own family but also all mankind.

It is against the Principle to care only for your family and not the rest of the world. 

If you happen to be white, then it is a most exciting adventure to become a member of your black family, or to find senior citizens and young men and women whom you love as much as your own grandparents and brothers and sisters.

When you see someone who is in need of help, you want to help them not because they are a fellow man, but because you see them as a brother and sister.  In America, when our parents become old, do go to their childrens' home or to a senior citizens' home?

Which is the more ideal choice when looking at the ideal of the original creation?  Would a grandmother be happier to live where her grandchildren reside or be visited by them in a senior citizens' home?

Are you willing to accept your grandmother into your home?

Would you do it in reality, or are you only saying yes because you are here? As a new wife, would you rather go to live with your husband's family with many in-laws, or to live only with him?

If you want to live up to the public law of the universe, then you want to go live with his family.  American homes before the 50s consisted of grandparents, parents and grandchildren.  This is more like God's ideal.  Many answers to society's problem can be solved in a family of three generations.

Families now consist of barely both father and mother, grandparents live far away.  Grandparents represent the past, parents the present and children the future.  You have your own physical parents, but ultimately you have one most important parent who created you -- God.

Your parents were the instruments that God used to create you. 

Before we search for the original True Parents for humanity, we must first start by loving nature our first parent.  Then we love our physical parents and then we love the ultimate parent which is God our creator.  God is the ultimate destination and eternal Parent.

When we live our lives in the right way, we can't help but end up at the common Parent.  Then the moment of death which we all now fear, was actually meant to be a fulfillment like a butterfly coming out of its cocoon to live in the air.  God did not create this moment for sadness but for liberation to live with Him for eternity.  We were meant to live for eternity with our family and human brothers in sisters and God.  God is the True Parent to us all where His true love never ends.

This life with God is called the Kingdom of Heaven in heaven.

Why distinction?

Because the original world of creation was meant to begin with Heaven on Earth which we have called the Garden of Eden or Utopia.  In this world, the atmosphere would be supreme love, a love that is not self-centered, but based on sacrifice and service. Supreme love flourishes in this environment because it is based on the universal law.


Ideal Public Life

You must become people who can manage all things in a public manner. How do you handle the situation if all grains of rice in the world were to organize a demonstration against you because you eat a bowl of rice without gratitude or waste it.

What if creation had a strike and not go into the mouth of any human being because of not exhibiting love?

We should live a public life of gratitude.  When we eat, we should appreciate the grains of rice and think of it as becoming part of your bone, flesh and energy.  Grains of rice and a leaf of a vegetable are alive, so would they want to be part of a greedy person or one who serves the highest purpose?

Do you think grains of rice want to be eaten by evil people?

In fact, creation does protest those who do not follow the heavenly order.  One who is constantly angry or causes pain to others, the food would protest in his stomach or make him sick.  Isn't this the case?

Every grain of rice wishes to be eaten by good people. 

In other words, all things including humanity wishes to be a part of a public person.  What if the air decided to strike humanity and stop providing itself for five minutes?  Then the entire population of humanity would probably begin to obey its demands to love and have appreciation, wouldn't it?

If God decided that He was tired of waiting for humanity to love one another and wants to force their loyalty, He would definitely do so through sucking all of the air out of the earth.  Everyone in the world would surrender to God then - air is this precious.

The air is such a precious thing to all of you.

You hear people are saying that we must not pollute the air in urban areas. Of course, we must not pollute air. Your health will be affected if we don't clean the air. The same is true for water surrounding us. As you see, all created things are public goods.

We are told not to pollute the air or the water systems because it is a life sustainer.  This means that all of nature is for the public's use - not for one greedy individual.  Also, we enjoy the source of life which the sun provides.  The sun has unlimited value and does not demand for us to give anything in return.  What if we had to pay for the nourishment and illumination of the sunlight?

You would buy it even if you have to give your own life for it.  Humanity must not think of nature as it private possession from which to purchase.


What kind of person does God prefer?

God wants to see a person who has and lives for the public purpose.

One  who manages how they use the resources of nature from a public position.  Also, all things of creation loves such a person because this is the Heavenly logic and Heavenly law.  Isn't it true that people love public figures in society for this reason, but the moment they use public goods or funds or live a very self-centered life their life crumbles away from the public?

Therefore, a person who lives such a public life will never perish.  To become such a person, you should handle all things of creation publicly, deal with people from a public position and attend Heaven with a public attitude.

What if every person in society managed all things and people with a public mind?

When people who live a public life come together and form families, this would become the ideal world which God envisioned from the beginning of His model for creation.  It would become a new race of humanity centered on such public-loving families.  Thus, you must be such a person who lives this kind of public life.


Return for Tomorrow's Post: Why We Need Religion

This post was rewritten and taking from the speeches:
Nature is Our First Parent   and
Become a Person Who Can Have Public Dominion Over All Things
Sun Myung Moon
June 4, 1970
Laws of Public Management

The Family is the School of Love

"The Kingdom of Heaven is a world of love, a world that exists for the sake of God, where people live for the sake of God." 

"The family is an encapsulation of history. It is connected to history, with its origin in God. You inherit the family vertically. However, inheritance must take place in a perfectly vertical manner, at a ninety degree angle.

The grandfather and grandmother, representing God, have already inherited this." 

Your grandfather and grandmother are the encapsulation of your ancestors.  When you think about it, your grandfather is an heir to the traits and bloodline of all the different ancestors who lived at different times in history.  Then he is God's heir who, centered on God, connects us to that history.

The family unit encompasses all of human history.  It connects to history with its origin in God.

The grandfather and grandmother are representatives of the past, the bygone ages, and the mother and father represent the present age. The sons and daughters represent the future. 

Therefore, your grandfather and grandmother are the past, your mother and father are the present and the children are the future.  Then when it is our turn to have children we inherit the past, present and future and pass this down to another generation.  These three set of parents and three ancestors must connect their three loves and love the four generations.

The Fall represents God not being able to see or have a direct relationship with His grandson.

The Kingdom of Heaven starts from the family. 

How is this?  The grandfather represents God, the mother and father represent the present, and the sons and daughters are the future. In this way, the past, present, and future are all condensed in the family.

In the family, the grandfather represents God, the mother and father represent the present and the children the future.  In this way, the past, present and future are all in your family.

Thus, the mother and father represent the world, with the grandmother and grandfather in the position of the past God, the mother and father the present God and sons and daughter are in the position of the future God.

However, through true love, they are all equal.

When the central core is living for the sake of others in true love, they are able to develop a view of essential oneness and equal value.  When the four different directions meld into one, we will be able to live eternally as God's love partner based on this logic of true love because that place is eternally protected by the fortune of God's love.

What is the family? It is a training ground through which we can inhabit the ideal nation and world with love. Furthermore, it is a training ground through which we can even occupy the heavenly kingdom and God.

Wouldn't it be precious to experience the direct relationship with God as our love partner?  Right now only through the Messiah or aid of angels do we communicate with God, but we must return to the state of Adam and Eve before the Fall.

The reason we seek the truth is so we can perfect our families and feel infinite love and happiness when we are there.

If we have not given true love here on this plane, we will choke once we are in spirit world - they will not be able to breathe.  Only true love is the air.  We are to live our earthly life as a training ground that prepares us to breathe in the next world.

Your family is the textbook of love. 

When you see someone of your grandfather's age, you should think that you will love him even more than your own grandfather. 

When you are out in town and you come upon someone who is your grandfather's age, you should think to love him even more than your own grandfather.

The same with if you come upon someone who is the same age as your father or mother, you should welcome him or her whether he is black or white or of a different nationality.  When you see a young person, you should love and relate to them as if they are your own son or daughter.

Imagine a world full of men and women who think of others in this context.

What is the Kingdom of Heaven?

It is the place where you can love the people of the world as you love your family, and such people are the people of the heavenly kingdom. What do the four generations of your grandfather and grandmother, your mother and father, your wife, brothers and sisters, and your children make up? 

It is a place full of people who love strangers as if they were a member of their own family.  Such people are people of the heavenly kingdom.


There are four generations in your family. The grandfather/grandmother, your mother/father, your wife/husband, brother/sisters and your children.  What do they make up?

They make up your family which is a textbook how to relate to the people of the world with true love of the universe as a person of the heavenly kingdom.  This family textbook is the foundation in which you receive such a teaching.

God's love manifests itself in the things of creation. 

Parental love appears in children.  Also, where there's a husband, the wife's love will appear, just as when we can witness the parents' love by looking at their children or seeing the wife's love by looking at the state of her husband's clothes.

What about God?  We can see His love by looking at the things that He created in this world for His children you and me. 

God's love appears in order: First is parental love, next comes conjugal love, children's love and then the love of brothers and sisters.  This is also known as the Four-Position foundation centering on the love of God which creates the kingdom of heaven on earth.

If you only have love, then you can be friends with God and also have him as our Father.

There is a saying that earthly life is just a journey and we are just travelers.  During this journey, we should strive to experience vertical and horizontal love.  After creating a family based on the love of true parents, husband and wife, true brothers and sisters and true sons and daughters, we should expand this foundation on the horizontal plane throughout all families in all directions.  

Then this model of a true family should be expanded to the tribe, nation and world level.  Then this world of true love will connect to God and we call this the Kingdom of Heaven.

God's love opens the gate of salvation.

We must inherit God's true love, true life and true blood lineage which we lost due to the Fall.  We should know that there is no salvation of mankind without this inheritance.  

The worst of all sins is to break something and scatter the pieces in all different directions.  The worst and most hated of all enemies is one that has destroyed love.  There is no devil as bad as the one that causes children to despise their parents and destroys a couple's relationship keeping them from loving one another as husband and wife.

Because of the Fall of our first human ancestors, we first lost brother and sister's love, then conjugal love, then lastly children's love. Without restoring this lost love, we cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

Due to the Fall we lost the four-position foundation: we first lost brother and sister love, then conjugal love, then lastly children's love. This four position begins in the family which we learn how to relate with the world centered on God.

Imagine going to the local cafe and being able to sit with any family of your chose which you never met before and speak to one another like brothers and sisters.  Without having true love as a possession, we will never be able to enter the Heavenly Kingdom.

We must still prepare for this day even if it comes ten thousand years from now.

Since God is the original substance of true love, when we are connected to true love, we all become one. The parents represent God as a living God in their own right. 

Since God is the origin of true love, if we all possess true love then we are connected and become one.  The parents represent God as a living God in their own right representing one aspect of God's divided nature.  The son's and daughters are seen as an additional God.

This family unit built by three generations through true love is the foundation to build the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.

If we do not establish this true standard within the context of the family, we will never realize the Kingdom of Heaven and go beyond Paradise.

The family is the center of the universe.

The perfection of the universe depends on the perfection of the family.  Then, if you love in the universe just as you love in the family, you will be able to travel freely anywhere in the universe.   God, in this case, stands at the center of all love as the parents of the entire universe.  This is the formula for the family.

The basis for an original, God-centered family includes all the love of men, women, sons, daughters, parents and God.

When you love your parents, your husband and your sons and daughters in this place of unity, it will be like living in the heavenly kingdom.  So where does this heavenly Kingdom start?

It starts in every family. It does not magically unfold somewhere else.  The heavenly kingdom is just the 3-D expansion of the family.

It is not outside the family.

When you think of embracing your spouse, you should think that you are a man and a woman becoming one on behalf of the world.

The family is the place where you substantiate your love for humankind through action. 

We should have respect for our own flesh and blood and respect our parents and grandparents as the owners of our house who represent the heavenly right of kingship.  But we despise them because they are old.

There is the old saying the "generation gap" that has created a division between the different generations of the family.  Did God invent such a word?  No, Satan created this word.  Can love dwell in this phrase "generation gap"?

Do we live the way people lived within a family a thousand years ago?  Was there a different way to love then?  The ways are the same and the means of loving are the same.  What has changed are the inner aspects.

If we had not Fallen, the formula for love would have remained unchanged for a hundred million years.  Even if Heaven turns upside down as long as the three generations of grandparents, parents and children strongly unite the same as an iron fortress, then they will be able to bring about the heavenly kingdom anywhere they go.

The fundamental source for the seed of God's love and the seed of life is this lineage. 

If we cannot establish this, then there will be no hope for the heavenly kingdom on earth, the heavenly kingdom of peace or the world of happiness and freedom.

We talk about paradise or the heavenly kingdom, but it is not a place you can go alone. How much peace can you have if your husband is in hell and you are in paradise?

If you have seen the movie "What Dreams May Come", you see it illustrates this very point of a husband who went to hell to bring his suicidal wife to heaven and all of his children back together to live forever.

The Kingdom of Heaven is a place where you go together with your parents, brothers and sisters - your family.  First we learn how to live united in love on this horizontal plane.

What is the heavenly kingdom? You talk about going to paradise or the heavenly kingdom, but you cannot go alone. The Kingdom of Heaven is a place where you must go together with your parents and brothers and sisters. 

Return for Tomorrow's Post: We Come From One Root

Today's text was rewritten and derived from the Textbook: Cheon Seong Gyeong Book Three - True Love Chapter Four - Love and Family written by Dr. Rev. Sun Myung Moon.