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 

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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.

A Loving Family Expands to Loving World

The ideal family alone can serve as the building block of the Kingdom of God.

—Sun Myung Moon

What if every human was raised in a godly, ideal home? 

Where brothers and sisters respected each other, mother and father were devoted to another and were the examples of true love? Abuse, fighting and separation did not exist?

We can easily see that this would mature into the Kingdom of Heaven. Such people raised in a family would understand how to love others in the world based on the teachings of exemplary love within their own family.

When they encountered younger people their sisters and brother's age they would treat them just the same. When they encountered the elderly who are their grandparents' age, they would treat them just like their own flesh and blood.

The family is the primary means through which most people learn about love.

Unfortunately, this is also how evil entered the world.

Through the first family of Adam and Eve, thousands of generations later followed in their footsteps. What if Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel were to have followed in God's ways? 

What kind of society would we be born into in this day and age?

In order to cultivate true love over a lifetime, we need to establish loving relationships and family. The family packs a double punch in a life of love more than any other relationship.

The way one was raised in their family trains him or her in love as a child and sibling. This leads them to their own personal growth and maturity. 

Then, each individual based on their upbringing, takes what they learn to cultivate love in a new family with a spouse and children.

All of these experiences come full circle to educate a person in true love.

Many religions and moral traditions equate a loving relationship in the family as a template for a person's relationship with God.

In the Talmud, for instance, it is written, “When a man honors his father and mother, God says, ‘I regard it as though I had dwelt among them and they had honored me” Kiddushin, 30b

Jesus was the first to encourage his followers to think and relate with God as their father.

Confucius said, “Surely proper behavior toward parents and elder brothers is the trunk of goodness,” Analects 1.2 and “Filial piety is the root of all virtue” Classic of Filial Piety

Hinduism, Shinto, Buddhism, Islam and the traditional Native American and African faiths also echoes this sentiment.

Family life may be seen as a vocation for growing closer to God and allowing Him/Her to manifest and dwell in true love.

A Buddhist master stated that the family is demanding of members responsibilities as any monastery.

From this viewpoint, the family can be a vehicle of holiness and an instrument of salvation.

People within a community of faith refer to one another as 'brothers and sisters' or 'brethren.' Priests lead the members of the Catholic Church and they call him 'Father', and the title of the head of the Catholic Church is the “Holy Father.” 

Such communities are led by nuns who are called 'Sister' and sometimes 'Mother'.

The importance of the family in raising good human beings is corroborated by the findings of social scientists.

Family enhances human and moral development in numerous and positive ways.

Social scientists and policymakers uphold the family as the crucial factor in the physical as well as the mental, emotional, and moral well-being of the children. Therefore, the family is the backbone of social order.

Unfortunately, the status of the family in society in our times have come into question.

Even though times have changed, the fundamental patterns of father, mother and children are still in place showing that the members of the family has basic need for its structure.

Couples live together and raise their children even if they are from previous relationships. Even though there are are the non traditional relationships of same-sex couples, there is still a masculine and feminine role in each relationship. 

Many still want to have their union recognized through a traditional marriage and even adopt children.

Those who do not have a family form surrogate and substitute families. Gangs are joined by youngsters in order to get the same strength and protection they get from the feeling of a family from their 'home boys'.

A convicted criminal leader of the L.A. Crips notorious gang had said in an interview that he turned toward the streets because he did not have a proper family upbringing. 

The same with homeless children, or teenagers of the street, they also form 'families' and band together.

Still, none of these substitutes for the missing qualities in their own homes can fulfill the same benefits as a basic family structure of a father, mother with their biological children.

As far back as our knowledge takes us, anthropologist Margaret Mead affirmed about the centrality of the traditional family, human beings have always lived in families. There is no period where this was not so.

Even though modern society has made proposals for change and there have been actual experiments to dissolve the family or displace the traditional roles, human society still reaffirms their dependence on the family as the basic unit of human living. This is a family with a father, mother and children.

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

Children Represent Their Parents' Love

Children are the incarnation of their parents' love.

Reverend Sun Myung Moon



Children are the substantial evidence of their parents' union of love.

A baby seems to have the reflection of God.  The more you see one's baby, the more mysterious the baby seems.  Mysterious.  This is love.

Parents miss their parents because parents are the home of love.  Parents miss their children because they are the home of perfect love.

All of creation of things, we see in the plant and animal world are composed of relative relationships.  They are made of both male and female elements that look different.

There are male and female aspects in all trees, and in each and every flower.
The relative relationship of male and female exists in the world of mammals, birds, animals and in human beings.

Why does such a relative relationship exist?

This is so they can receive and give true love.  We need a partner because in order for harmony, principles, give-and-take action etc and all of creation to survive and exist, a relative relationship should take place.  No one throughout history has thought of this simple fact.
A seed needs to exist, especially a good seed.

We can say that one needs a good seed and a good fiancée. 

How do you leave behind a good seed?

If you ask any man, they will say, “I want to be a good fiancee.”  This is because they want to leave a better seed.  The conclusion is that one needs a good partner.

Do you agree? You probably never thought of that fact until now.

After looking from this point-of-view, what was God's ultimate purpose for creating Adam and Eve?  Would you answer, “To make them love each other and make them a couple,” or is your answer, “In order to leave a good seed.”

Why do you love someone or something?  It is for happiness.

Children are the result of love.

Children are the resultant beings to continue to exist.

Why do you think you need a fiancee?  You may be right if you think it is because of love, but what is a higher level than this?

It is children.  Parents cannot help but love their children because they are the result of their love for their fiancee.

People on the whole most likely want something that is connected to them to be the best.  They want their family, nation and world to be the best one.

What is the proper way of thinking?  It is the way of thinking in the other person's shoes.

When we think from this point-of-view, what is the best in a family?

The best in the family is not the most money, knowledge or power, but the parents.

Next, is your lovely husband and wife, and finally your children.

The reason why parents, husband and wife, and children are good is because love is involved in each part.

Parental love is essential to children, the complete oneness of love between husband and wife is essential as brotherly love and children's filial heart toward their parents.

You feel a different extent of feeling according to the depth of the relationship.  IT is only natural that some brethren feel more intimate and love based on the historical close relationship that binds them.

Mothers and fathers love their children dearly because the children originate from them.

Therefore, if their parent's character was taken out of their children, there would be nothing left of their own characters left.




Without his or her parents' characters, a child will become a being who has neither
nature nor relationships.






We are born to testify to love.

If you were born to just shop or eat, how sad that existence is.  If you were just born to study in school, what a headache that would be.

However, if you say, “I was born to love,” you will surely move everybody.
Repeatedly, the question is asked, why were you born.

Love is the motive for your birth. 

You were born by the motive of love as the result of love.

Man and woman are to be born and to be loved by his mother and father.  Even birds or animals love their young because they were born as testifiers to love.

All of them originated from love.

To deny your own cause and effect is the same as denying heaven and earth.

Man is namely destined to follow the way of love so that man can't help but loving his own sons and daughters. This is why parents live for the sake of the other.

Children are happy if they live, filled with their parents' love.  It is a good thing when your mother and father live, being in ecstasy of love.

Western children say they do not need their parents.  This means that they have lost their family which is the main foundation and nest of love.

Parents love their children at the sacrifice of their own life.  This is because children show up in the family on behalf of heaven and earth.  This is why God wishes to go to live in the family together with His sons and daughters.

Moral principles teach people to love their parents, husband and wife and their children, but why?
After man went in the wrong direction with the first parents' mistake, we lost the Master who is in charge of love.

When God speaks of love, He is speaking of endless true love.  He says that love will remain forever.  This love is God's love.

You should know the purpose why you miss someone or love someone is not because of yourself, but because of God.

Look at the one who loves other people based on himself alone.  Then see where he goes after he dies.

Return for Tomorrow's Post: What is the True Way of Life?

This speech is rewritten and derived from “Raising Children in God's Will”

A Relationship With God is Fundamental for Life

Throughout history, man has tried to search for the true meaning of everlasting happiness and human behavior through philosophy and philosophers.

This quest leads them to ask the basic question of God's very existence.  Isn't this where every philosophical battle eventually ends up, to whether a being who created this world exists? 

We still have not reached a satisfactory conclusion which every philosopher and scientist can agree upon.  Even if they were to all take a vote and vote that He exist, would he exist from that moment on? 

What if they all voted that God did not exist?

Would such a being come into existence upon human realization that He exists or vice versa?

God does not fit into human logic too well.  Perhaps the last time you tried to explain or prove such an existence showed you how limited words or examples can be to your case.

How about your mind?  Are you able to show it and explain to someone.  If you were able to 100% understand you mind then you would have the capacity to recreate it from scratch from such knowledge.  Because you cannot know your mind totally, this shows the greatness of your mind. 


"Human beings have a mysterious aspect, and human logic can never perceive the greatness of God or human existence."


The same is for the explanation of God.  If you could explain His existence through logic then God would be small enough to fit into human logic. this would mean that humanity would be able to create God and know all about Him.

People of religion already know that there is a God, that He exists from beginning to end, and He exists throughout eternity.  He created all things and He occupies the central position.

We should clearly understand our relationship to God.

Humanity has tried several approaches to bring us closer to an understanding of this relationship, but this question remains unsettled.

Our relationship to God is the fundamental block to our existence.  A true, living relationship to God is fundamental to life that we should clarify this question.

Several religions have to come to the same principle which is common to all religions to clear up the confusion of what our relationship with God should be?

Is it like a friend, daughter/son or should we view God as an equal?  What is our true relationship with Him?

God wants us to understand this relationship to the ultimate sense - He definitely needs us human beings...why else would He create us?  Therefore, He will do everything possible to develop this relationship.


What is the most precious thing in your life?  Did you answer money or power?


When we look at this question deply, other thoughts emerge.  We conclude that the most precious thing is love - what we value most is tied to the element of love.

Second to love is life itself which is most precious.  We value these two things above all else.

If we have love and life, we need one thing further-an ideal.

Love, life an ideals are the most precious and profound in vlue and make our live woth living.

We all in some way wish fo eternal life.  Therefore, we naturally feel that we want our love and ideals to also be foreve, unchanging and unique.

We have seen writers who write about the beauty of eternal love.

Has there been a writer in history that has glorified love that changes day and night or ends forever?

There are many religions in the world which testify to the life beyond this one that we live on earth and testify to our desires for eternity.

The words 'love' and 'ideals' are empty and do not have meaning when they are isolated.  Love can only exist when there is someone to love and someone to be loved by.

Also, an ideal needs to be shared with someone. 

We are always in a position to be loved by someone in the subject position.  Things that are supremely important in human life can only come about through relationships.

Many think that humans are the cause of the universe, but how can we be the cause if we did not create ouselves?  Therefore, a subject or creator must xist.  This subject or cause is the essential reality.

Whatever name you choose for the cause does not matter; we should be certain of the cause as we are of our own existence.

We call the cause "God".  So, let's put our question to God:

God, what is the most precious thing in existence to you God?

 God will answer, "Love, life, and my ideal are the most precious things to me."

Think about this.  Does God need money?  Everything in creation belongs to God anyway.  He does not need money. He is already the Source of all power and knowledge.  God is all of these things, therefore, these two also He does not need. 

Instead, God wants to share and have give and take with someone ina reciprocal relationship.

Even though God is almighty, He cannot have love, life and ideal when He is alone.  This is why He created man and woman.

 

All human traits originate in God.

This is the meaning in the Bible where it states that humans are created in the image of God.

We reflect the characteristics of God like a mirror.  God is the Origin, therefore, our lvoe comes from the love of God.  Our life comes from the life of God, and so do our ideals.

The very dream that you wish to accomplish all your life comes from God.

God is the Subject of love, the Subject of life, and the Subject of ideals. We are the objects of love, the objects of life, and the objects of ideals.

Therefore, since God is an absolute being, we are also absolute.  Since God is eternal, His objects, men and women, are also created for eternity.  Otherwise, we would not reflect he nature of the eternal God.

If God is love, life and ideals, then He would be a God of defeat if He did not create a being with the same qualities.

 

 

God is the Subject to man and woman, and we are the objects to God.

Even though God is absolute, man and woman seem to reflect another type of being that is far from God.

When we as objects are not perfect as our Creator, then we cannot reflect fully the love, life and ideal of God.  God and humans are one.  Humans is incarnate of God. Man and woman are meant to be the visible form of God and God is the invisible form of man and woman.

Because we are the reflection and object of God whom He cannot feel love without us, this gives us as much importance and value as God Himself.

If man had followed God completely, there would be no question of His existence - HGe would have been a living reality to us.

In our present fallen, sinful ways, we should be very careful of our words and actions.  On the other hand, if humanity had obtained perfection, we would automatically reflect the universal, loving mind that is God.

There would be no religion to teach us about how to behave like God, or arguments of His existence.

One that is perfect would not be able to deny God.

If Adam and Eve had followed God and become mature in their love instead of following Lucifer's advice to give into their love in their immaturity they would have become true parents to Cain and Abel.  The good family tradition they envoked would have remained generation after generation.

Our relationship with God would not be a question - it would have been of perfect oneness; you would not be able to separate yourself from your own godly mind.  This would have been human perfection.

Such people who did not fall away from God would have become the nucleus of the universe.

Adam and Eve's perfect home life and children would have expanded to a heavenly society, nation and world.

Who would have been the center of this perfect universe or world of peace?

Instead of creating a hell on earth where "Satan was the ruler of this world", God and Adam and Eve would have formed the central axis of the universe.

Why did God need a perfect relationship with Adam and Eve?

First of all, God could only fulfill His ideal of true love through Adam and Eve.

Secondly, God who does not have a physical body would have been visible through working through men and women.

In other words, Adam and Eve were to be the phsyical manifestation of God through their perfected relationship with Him.  Thus, God could have a relationship with the visible, phsycial world through them.

What is God's reason for creating Adam and Eve?

Once Adam and Eve wre perfected on earth in a relationship of oneness of God, their spirit selves after passing to the next world would be like the body of God.  God would have been the mind of Adam and Eve and they would have been the spirit body of God.  Then God and people in the spirit world would have been eternally inseparable, one body.

Inside them God would dwell in their minds - God Himself would be the mind of Adam and Eve.

Unfortunately, due to our relationship with Lucifer's will and love, we have an inseparable relationship between the two. 

We come to speak about death and dying, but there is no such thing in the context of God's original world.  Instead of dying, we would have just passed to a new realm after giving up the physical body.  Your body would be the spirit and God would be the center of that body.

After we followed the will of Satan through our first human ancestors, all of God's ideals for a world of love and peace was separated from humanity until His first true son on earth fulfilled the responsibility to change the blood lineage to God's.


This post was rewritten and derived from the text of the writings of Reverend Sun Myung Moon.

Grandparents have value

We speak a lot about how the world will be better for the generations to come due to the past sacrifices of many saints and people of faith but what about those who do not get to enjoy the best things life has to offer?

Today in America, we see the trend where the young can enjoy a life in paradise, but not so for the elderly.

It is a great place for young men and women, but not for children or grandfathers and grandmothers.

Everyone else is digging pits of hell that will lead to ruin.  This is happening because the American system does not fit into the original form.

American families require that the grandfather has to call before they can drop by their own children's or grand children's home.  Does such a way of living sound close to the Kingdom of Heaven?

How about a loving daughter-in-law that tries to buy her gray-haired grandparents something that is better than what she buys her husband?  Such a beautiful heart is a lovely sight to see.

When they are able to have even more joy then the joy the daughter-in-law feels, before long the grandparents will giver her everything that hey have kept hidden, even things to do with their love.

The Grandfather is in the Position of God in the Family

Who is the oldest grandfather in the world?  It is God.

You learn the love of the Grandfather of all from your own grandfather.

When you learn such a tradition, you will be able to receive the treasure of love from all the secret storage rooms of the oldest Grandfather, God.

That will be a wonderful time!

As a grandfather and grandmother represent God, they are the most experienced in the world.  They don't sleep long because they are old.

You should think, "My grandfather is God who protects my family without getting any sleep."

If you have such an attentive grandfather or grandmother within your family, your house will not catch fire or ever be robbed.

If your grandparents are not sleeping, then they are praying in those hours.

Your grandparents pray at night for God to bless their sons and daughters.

While they pray, they will guide you saying, hey, so and so, it is dangerous to go out today, please listen to me.  They will let you know, do not go out today!

Do not fight what is thought to be instinct, but are good ancestors!  Son, do not go anywhere, Daughter and daughter-in-law do not go far from home today, there is danger ahead." Don't grandchildren need such grandparents?

Have you ever witnessed such phenomenon?

When the grandmother and grandfather love each other, they will dance, the mother and father will dance, and the brothers and sisters will dance together.

Those who live using this as their model are protected by the universe.

If someone was to try to kill such a person, the universe would do everything to prevent such a crime.

Even parents need to get permission from the grandfather before sending their grandson anywhere.  They simply do not just make decisions on their own even though they are now adults.

This is because the grandfather stands in the position of God.

The Relationship Between Grandparents and Grandchildren

There are a lot of complaints in this day and age of how children are not being taught manners and the big debate whether parents should spank their children or not.

If a grandchild was to demand things in front of his mother and father and his brothers and sisters this is obviously an impolite manner.

The grandparents are over eighty years old, and then this little brat is going to audaciously stand firm in front of his father and mother and elder brothers and sisters who have superiority before him demanding answers about his grandpa and grandma.

Would anyone scold the child who demands where are his grandparents?

Why not?  If someone did the same thing in another situation, you would scold him or her saying, "How can you treat Grandpa like this?"  But if the child stands firm and asks again, you would be pleased.

He asks in such a way because he misses his grandfather.  So, it is a good thing not a bad thing to miss him.  All of heaven and earth misses him.  He misses everyone, too.

A child will understand from experience that his father would become tired after 10 minutes of sitting in his laps, but his grandfather or an elderly person would stay still even after an hour or two.  Of all the family members, his grandfather will embrace him the most.

It is not a bad thing to be embraced and touched by his grandfather who says, "Your nose is like this. Your ears are like that." He is patted, caressed and touched all over, but he does not mind. How great that would be! 

This is awesome!

This is the same as a tree becoming one with the root.  Then, if man is the root and the main sprout comes to like each other, what will happen?

All the other roots and branches attach to the main ones and will not be able to avoid liking one another.  You should think about this.

When the main root and main sprout like each other, that relationship can embrace everything.


Q. So, who is the main root in the family?

The grandfather always has his eyes on his eldest grandson. The main root of the family would be the grandson - the first grandson.

Even though we have as a culture in America lost value in the elderly or even our own grandparents, we must remember that they represent the past.

There is also a connection of how families have secluded themselves away from the tradition of revering grandparents to the fall of the family.

Without this main root or past for which to connect our lineage, all falls away.



Return for Tomorrow's Post: Live as if You May Die in a Year


This post was rewritten and derived from Cheon Seong Gyeong, Book Thirteen,  Chapter 4, Section 4,5

A Prayer for Your Life of Faith

Beloved Heavenly, Father, I thank You for Your grace, and for shielding me while I experience struggle from my childhood until now.  During those years, I have been apprehensive of any humiliation or shame that Heaven might suffer.

There is nothing among all the good things on this earth more precious than connecting to Your original heart.

Knowing this, we should eternally have a longing for that relationship with You.

We should keep in mind that those who experience Your love will have no regrets, even if they forget about all the things of this world.

We must now seek the ideal world which You created, the original homeland where we live by Your love.

We must prepare today while on earth for our third life as liberated children endowed with the authority of freedom.

Just as we needed to be healthy in the womb in order to be born with a healthy life on earth, we need a wholesome earthly life to have a wholesome life in heaven.

The world today is a world of conflict dominated by evil.  

We must be resolved to fight to the death in order to be blessed with the cooperation of heaven and earth and to keep in step with the dynamics of fortunes of the universe.

We must resolve that our descendants will never have to be placed in such a sorrowful position as we have been suffering under the dominion of sin.

Beloved Father, when we reflect on how you have toiled to usher in a new spring, we should become Your infinitely grateful and joyous daughter and sons who lament over the fact we could not offer our entire life and love to You.

In our predestined relationship with You, our lives were meant to be harmonized, and completed by You so that we too may greet the new spring.

Only when we greet spring for the first time is when the flowers bloom.  Just as flowers go through summer and autumn before bearing fruit and blooming, we too are to undergo a similar process to bear fruit.

For a tree to bear any fruit, it absorbs life elements through the roots, trunk and branches in the summer.

There, it concentrates a perfect life to bring forth a second life.

Similarly, we must become sons and daughters who are introspective and determine whether we have a life for which swells up in our hearts capable of rebirth in a new world even if our bodies should die.

No matter how much time passes or how much the storm rages, our inner life force must withstand the intrusions of the environment and persevere persistently on the path of growth.

Only in this way, can we welcome the new spring and become a seed, that is the original source of a second life, which can be planted again.

Even though we may look pathetic externally, if we maintain our value as the original essence that can enhance the spiritual life force as a seed that can be planted in the eternal world, we are no longer miserable people even though we may think we are.

Please allow us to realize that the more miserable we appear, the more the value of our internal selves becomes complete and guaranteed..

Father, we realize that if we do not have the desire to serve and bow humbly before You, we can have no relationship with You in the eternal world.

Please, open the doors of our heart to feel Your heart and hear Your voice welling up from the depths of our hearts.  Guide us to regain our lost bodies today.

Father, help us to appreciate Your historical course of toil and trouble to find each of us that we can then humbly bow our heads before You.

Return for Tomorrow's Post: The Root of Promiscuious Sex

This post was rewritten and derived from the book Cheon Seong Gyeong Book Five, Chapter One, Section 1, 1-4

 

Why Do We Like the Concept Family?

As we witness the chaos of the world, instability in jobs, and relationships, there is one relationship that never changes no matter what - family.

Your siblings, mother, father and extended family will always be tied together by blood ties.

God made this unit of relationships that teach us how to love brothers and sisters, the elderly and the young of the world.

So, why do we like the family?

It is because family provides a base to freely exchange happiness.

This is why we yearn for our hometown where we grew up.  It is the place where our parents and siblings live.

The family is originally a good place.  Why is it good?

Because your parents, siblings and relatives are there.  Therefore, we become homesick for our native land, our hometown.

People think more about their hometown than they think of their nation.  Even living in a large city like New York, people long for their hometown.

Why do you like your families?

It is because the family becomes a free activity center for their parents' love.

God must be able to act freely there.

When God comes upon a society full of people who are more driven internally, and have the shining core of love no matter how shabby they may be, God will be able to act freely around them.

Do you feel uneasy when you visit someone else's home?

Like you are out of place?  This is because there has not been a bond of love established there for you.
You will feel awkward in someone else's dwelling because the love between the people there does not emanate in all four directions but just between the family members.

This was not the original role of the family. Thus we are destined to walk a path in oneness, unity.

The best thing is not decided by you?

Then what would hold the highest value in the family?  

The parents.

You as an individual could have great wealth, knowledge, respect and power, but none of these attributes are superior to the parents' position.

Your spouse would come next and then your children.  When it comes to your family, is there anything more valuable in life than your parents, spouse or children?  There is nothing more precious.

Why do we like our spouse, our parents and our children?

Because love is there.

Parental love is something absolutely needed by the children. 

Also, fraternal love and filial love of the children are absolutely necessary in the family.

Then who are the most beloved people in your families?  Wouldn't they be your parents?  Why do you like them most?

This is because throughout your lives, they are the closest to you in a relationship of love.  Then your beloved spouse comes next.

If husband and wife come to love each other unconditionally rather than set on conditions or circumstances, that love will be the greatest thing that will bring happiness and harmony into the family.

Even if it may not be closely related to an eternal love that is absolutely given by Heaven.  If this love becomes one, that reciprocated between the husband and wife, that is the greatest love in the family.

This is how I see it. Filial love, the love children have toward their parents, is next. If children can sacrifice themselves for their parents and love them with a bright and positive attitude rather than despair, while longing for ideal circumstances in which their love can sprout as the hope of tomorrow, that love will be one with pure and true value for the happiness of that family. 


Thus, if the family that is complete with true parental love, true conjugal love and true filial love, centered on God, then we can only conclude that it is the most ideal family in the world.  A true family.

The Family Is the Base of Eternal Happiness

On what basis can we say that someone is a truly a happy person in our daily life?

Is someone happy because they have some special talent, hold any power or authority?  Do these things alone make a person happy?  They cannot.

Also, can a person that has a lot of money be totally happy because they do not have to envy what others have? No.

Could a person become happy because they obtained a global amount of knowledge or hold some control over the world at will?

As we see in today's climate that, this is not the case.  People cannot truly become happy with just those things.

Even if they do so momentarily, happiness will not be eternal by going this route.  What happens the moments that these material objects are lost?  Can they maintain that state?

Such external things will never be the source of eternal happiness even if a person acquires enough wealth that they do not envy anyone in heaven and earth and sing songs of joy.

They will still feel a gaping hole in their soul and yearn for even more.

Material things may be a means to find happiness, but they are not able to be happiness itself.

Then, what is determined in order to feel happiness?

You must have a beloved spouse, parents and children.  Nobody can deny that the original way to happiness is through the creation of a true family.

We may see that if we lack one of them, we feel sorrow and dissatisfaction will inevitably remain in our hearts.

All people on earth generally feel that the family is a base of happiness. 

A family must have parents as the head of it, like the president of a nation.

People who grow up without parents are called orphans and are seen as pitiful people.  It is pitiful for one to not have parents or a spouse.

The family has parents and a conjugal bond at the same time.

However much the spouses may have loved each other, there will be utter pain and misery when one of them loses the other.

It is the same for when a couple cannot conceive children.

The family must have parents, spouse and children in order to become the foundation for eternal happiness.

God's original purpose for seeking to restore humankind was for His own happiness.

This establishment of happiness cannot take place apart from human beings.  At that point of convergence, it can only be brought about through God's relationship with them.

When all of the ingredients needed for our emotional well-being are present in our family, God also wants to feel happiness in such a setting.

From where does happiness arise?  What kind of setting will allow us to sing songs of joy?  It is in the setting of the family.

This family happiness cannot be attained if there are emotional problems, or if there is no heart or love experienced between the family members.

If a couple cannot have children, also, there cannot be any happiness there.

This is the same for children who do not have parents.  There will be no joy for them.

Where there is a man, there will have to be a woman as his partner. 

This same truth is for the woman.

The husband and wife desire to keep their love at a higher dimension within their subject-object relationship.  Further, they must have children.

A unified family is only realized once a couple has parents above them and children below them.  A family is united vertically (spirit) and horizontally (physical) in this way.

Then upon whom does this family center?

We already know that we center the idea of unity based solely on human beings.

But this method is impossible for two separate beings to come together eternally since they alone cannot pursue a higher value.

But if there is an absolute Subject Partner of love, then the parents will want to become one with this Subject Partner as their center.

That center where all of the family members become one in love, is a place of happiness and hope.

Everything must then be brought into oneness and unified through something more valuable and stimulating.

This is not possible based on our human love alone, but only from God, the true subject partner.

Return for Tomorrow's Post: We Enter Heaven as a Family Unit

This post was rewritten and derived from the textbook, Cheon Seong Gyeong Book Four Chapter Eleven, Section 1 and 2.

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

Through Loving Our Children, Become as God

Why are children so valued to a couple?

It is because children, who are the fruit of their parents' love, stand before them as representatives of the world.

Why do we think of people without children as being lonely?

Because children enable us to deeply experiences the circumstances of the heart of God while He created the entire universe through love.

Our children are born through us based on our motivation.

By having and loving our children we come to realize how God loved and fought for people through this course of restoration.

Children result from a concentration of parental love

Parents sacrifice for their children and return to God through their children.

They come to deeply experience parental love while loving their children.

Then they are led to feel and be aware of God's love, which is a manifestation of something original.  Since those who cannot have children cannot feel this deep parental love nor come to understand God's parental love, their love is always incomplete.

What kind of children can reside in the Kingdom of Heaven?

They are those who have paid off the debt of parental love on their own.

When parents become old and senile, the sons and daughters should endure the difficulties of their care with the same heart their parents had toward them when they were little.

This means cleaning up their urine and bowel movements.  Only then, will they be children of filial piety.

Parents have given their very lives for the sake of their own children.

Therefore, children should sacrifice their lives for the sake of their parents.

Since life comes from love, then sacrificing one's life in front of that love is a logical conclusion.

I say that this is not a contradiction. When children strive not to be indebted to their parents, the parents feel their worth.


If a parent has to discipline their child with a stick using their loving hands, they cry loudly after spanking their child. Would the child fight back and curse them then?

True love carries dual values in harmony.

A great mother will embrace her children while teaching them principles of becoming a person of goodness who will be able to move the world and to endure any difficulties they encounter.

This type of mother penetrates the heavenly principle.

That kind of goodness never perishes.

You give birth to a child, give your milk and think they are cute.  But because of whom do you adore your child?

You should adore your child on the behalf of heaven and earth and on the account of the nation, world and God.

The power of heavenly fortune in accordance with God's love is moving beyond the world to embrace heaven and earth.

A mother should embrace and breastfeed her sons and daughters with the eager heart that she is embracing God's beloved sons and daughters on behalf of heaven and earth.

Parental love is the basis of a child's pride and happiness. 

Children receive life from their parents who have created harmonious oneness in true love.

They want to be raised in such a love.

The most precious responsibility that parents have toward children is not to raise them externally, but to give them life elements of true love that will make their spirituality complete.

No matter how much a father loves his child, his love cannot match the mothers' love.

Why is this?

This is because the mother has devoted herself, even her body, suffered more for the sake of her child. Hence, we can say that she is more loving than anyone else.

In this sense, women have an elevated and precious position in the arena of emotions.

A father cannot know love to that degree that the mother has no matter how much he loves his baby.  For this reason, if anyone goes to heaven, women will go to the heavenly kingdom of heart.  From this standpoint, it is not bad to be born a woman.

You will come to see God is fair!

The way of true children is filial piety

When you come to know your parents, what do you do you need to do for them?

You should have filial piety in return.

Also, by going beyond your parents, you should become patriots in your nation, because your parents have had authority within the nation and the world.

Before you can become a patriot, you must first set the standard by becoming children of filial piety before your parents.

Before you can become a child of filial piety, you should be a member of the family who is proud of true brothers and sisters.

The term "family member" is a title that brings the right to sing the praises of your brothers and sisters.

A child of filial piety is precious because he respects and serves his parents with unchanging love whether he is in childhood, an adult or in old age.  We call such a person a child of filial piety.

How do you become a child of filial piety?

You must align yourself with the direction of your parents' heart.

One who walks this path does not do things separately from his parents.  When his parents go east, he should go east, and when they go west, he should go west.

There so be no question or debate about it.

Even if you are told to go a certain way and are told to turn back ten times, you should again turn back and follow your parents.

In your family, you are asked to offer your filial duty.

This requires that you become a fellow traveler on the path of love your parents walk, centering on your parents.

The parents' path of true love follows along with the heavenly principles.

It is not that just the parents standing by themselves, but there are invisible, vertical heavenly principles that are connected to them and work through them.

Thus, pushing you to be one with your parents is to ask you to follow the way which connects the realms of heart with the tides of history.

This is the reason why you fulfill your duty of filial piety toward your parents.

This path is also connected to the patriot, like the shoot of the bamboo.

What should patriots who faithfully serve their country do? They should walk the path of saints for the world.

If you are unable to fulfill your duty as a filial child, but you manage to become a patriot in your country, your parents will be able to say job well done.

Even if you have abandoned your parents and left home, if you become a patriot to your nation, your mother and father, even though they may have died and gone to spirit world, will praise you saying you have done extremely well.

What is a child of filial piety?

He is a person who takes responsibility for the parents' sorrow by seeking out the difficult places and fulfills his responsibility.  Thereby, he brings joy to his parents.

If the parents have done ten loads of work and the child has made effort to do fifteen loads, the parents will feel joy that corresponds to five loads.

The one who makes effort by serving the parents and thinking how to fulfill such an amount is a child of filial piety.  that knows no limits because they love their children eternally.  Then what are genuine children like?

Genuine children are the ones who reciprocate the love of their parents eternally with a loving heart which overflows with love.  This is the way of a child of filial piety.

If God needs something from His children, what would that be?

Is it for them to make a lot of money and become millionaires?  Is it to be president while holding the most power in the country?

What God wanted from Adam and Eve was for them to grow up and be children of filial piety, patriots, saints and divine sons and daughters.

Have you ever thought that you should be a filial child in the family, to become a patriot in the nation, to become a saint in the world, or a divine son or daughter before heaven and earth in accordance with God's own thinking?

When you look from the viewpoint of history, all of the saints have taught about becoming such children, patriots, saints and divine sons and daughters.

When children grow up in the tradition of love, do you think they could be indifferent if their parents wanted a divorce?

Absolutely not.

The children would insist, "I am your child, I am the one with whom you are combined.  You have to make whatever negotiation necessary, and you have to be great parents for me.  I need you."

We must make young people and parents awaken to the fact that because of their children, parents have no right to divorce.

Return for Tomorrow's Post:


This post was rewritten and derived from the Book, Cheon Seong Gyeong Book Three, True Love Chapter Two, Section 6

Family Protected Through Loving Children

A family where loving parents embrace their children and share in joy will not be able to be attacked by anything in the universe. Rather, your family will have natural protection.  People have not known this fundamental principle. If a child is born crippled or has a terminal illness, it is natural for the deep heart of the parent to flow to the crippled child.  Is that wrong? The heart of such a handicapped person is like a valley, and the heart of the parents like a big area on the hilltop. The heart of such parents flows from the top to that deep valley. There is nothing bad in the heart of parents who live for the sake of their children.  The more miserable their situation and worn out their clothes are, then the further they dig into the deep valley of tears. What would happen if a baby was ashamed of taking a poop?  A baby isn't ashamed if they pee or poop accidentally on their parents. Rather he smiles openly in front of their parents as they watch them clean up after him. This is only possible with love.  In love, there is no such thing as dirty things. Love can overcome everything. A mother who breastfeeds her baby at her bosom has an earnest heart. The parents' heart is such that even when their baby's poop and pee smells, they are able to forget this and overlook instances like this because of their love. If fallen parents have such a heart toward their children, how much more heart does God have as the subject partner of love? God wanted to love Adam and Eve through His original heart.  We should think about this deeply. The parents heart always feels lacking and they feel they can always give something more. They want to love more, wondering if they have loved enough even after giving love and they feel regretful and sorry even after giving. Because of this, their heart can be part of the essential core of eternal love. This is the same heart that was the original motivation at the very beginning of love. When parents divorce, it is the same as cutting their children in half with a knife.  The public law of the universe does not allow this. Parents who violate this will receive punishment and be followed by misfortune wherever they go. They will be unable to find true happiness. When the baby becomes hungry, the mother's breasts becomes swollen with milk.  When the milk swells them up and her breast become sore, there is an abundant pressure. The heart of the mother who embraces her baby and gives him milk is hard to express in words. When her swollen breasts go down, then the mother feels relieved and happy. No one can understand this feeling unless she is a mother herself.  Moreover, as the mother bonds and watches her baby suck her breasts while touching it, love springs up abundantly in her heart. If you were to ask a mother if she would rather lose her husband or her child, if she really loves her child, she will say that should would never give up her child.  She would rather give up her husband if she had to choose. Husbands may be hurt to hear this. These days, some people would say that if a child dies they can just have another one. This is the last option.  In the principle of matters of order, we see that the husband and wife are horizontal and come last.  The history of love is like this. What on earth is the original love? It is the kind of love where a parent would give their life for their child. Their love goes beyond their own life.  Why must this be so?  Originally, the universe was not created for the sake of life, because it was created for the sake of love.  Love came first. Since this is the case, then life goes along with love, and not that love goes along with life. Genuine love sacrifices life and goes beyond life.  This is because this love of Heaven is a love that can connect with the universe. The salmon's life is a great example. The salmon dies after laying its eggs. nevertheless the male and female first become one to lay their eggs. This means that salmon couples are deeply in love.  It is as if they have been sentenced to die. The male makes a hole in the ground once the female lays her eggs and protects them.  This is truly an ideal couple. The body of the mother becomes food for her young. Why would the Creator think to create salmon in such a way?  Seeing this, we see how important our young are.  God created the salmon as a model to show that love, and our young are the most precious things. The life of the salmon is truly a great textbook for humankind. Parents' love is complete even after being shared over and over again Why is it we cannot help loving our children? Because when we love our children, it is like inheriting God's great work of creation the horizontal (earth) and substantial level. Through loving our children, we feel the joy God felt after creating Adam and Eve. We inherit God's love and God's authority to create.   Parents who have raised many children see that their heart of love is wide, large and deep. They can feel on their own that they cannot fight even their wicked enemies.  They stand on that foundation and live according to that broad of a law. When a baby is born, he follows the electric current of love and automatically seeks out his mother's nipple. He does not care how ugly or beautiful his mother is.  To witness such a sight of unmatched harmony and holiness. Each of us are the fruit of our parents' love for one another.  We are born in love, and grow up while receiving love. You are the visible, real fruit of what your mother and father's love is like.  Therefore, it is natural that the parents have to love the person who is the fruit of their love. Through this fruit, the infinite love bears fruit yet again. This is the path where we can be connected to individual love, family love, tribal love, universal love and even the fundamental love of God. You are a unique participant and companion in love in front of your parents. This love makes you equal to your mother and father and you can rise to an equal position. This is the privilege of love. Parents want to bequeath everything they own to their sons and daughters, whom they truly love. You can jump in and inherit a hundred percent of the universe when you have found an equal position of value of love in the tradition of love. This is why all parents want a child of filial piety. Children of filial piety pass on the inheritance of love as participants in the eternal love of their parents. A baby who is born through love can do whatever he wants and you will not dislike him one bit. Rather, no matter what, you will love your baby because he is made from your flesh and blood and is a second you, created through love. Even when he defecates or urinates, has a runny nose, he is still cute and adorable in your eyes. This is because these things are soaked in love. The love between the parents and children comes from the parents.  We receive our parents' love from the moment of our birth. After we receive the parents' love and grow up, then we receive the horizontal love between husband and wife. In order for the love of the husband and wife to continue, they must have children and love them. Parents can feel genuine love only when they have children. Through only the love of brothers and sisters, we cannot learn about parents' love. In other words, we come to know parental love when we ourselves experience the circular course through becoming parents and complete the circle. The love string of our parents and the string of our ideals are connected to each of us.  This cannot be cut off by anyone.  All of the power of the universe protects such a union. Thus, wherever I go, my parents will follow me. My parents always want to be with me, even in the spirit world. Thus, it is a sin to dislike your parents accompanying you. The highest value for human beings is to think of and love our parents like they are our own body and practice filial piety. We are born from our parents' love and are engrafted to their love. Before the connection of life and lineage are made through love, the connections are in place. Why are each of us so precious?  Not because we have life, but because we participated together in our parents' love. Parents have loved, but the individual is the fruit of that love. Each of us are precious because we are born with the beginning point and the fruit.  True parents strive to continue this tradition of love. This is the same for those in the East and the West.  All parents want to have an universal tradition of love by transcending our own tribe. All people want and strive to bring their family into completeness and harmony so they can live a happy and peaceful life. In this case tradition is the essence. Only tradition can connect with the future. Which is greater: conjugal love of husband and wife or the love between parents and child? Westerners value the conjugal love of husband and wife as greater, but this is not so. Love for a child is greater than the love of the spouse. In conjugal love, the husband and wife fight because they think the other does not love them. But parents and children fight thinking that they must love the other more, this is the original heart. The parent and child relationship is such a way because the love of parents and child is the center and vertical.  It follows the road that is close to the heavenly law.  Thus, we find that the love that serves others is closer to the genuine love. However strong a man is, or however tough a woman may be, they will bow down to that love. The reason parents are precious is because they give and sacrifice for the sake of their children.  So things come to be the other way around. When parents get old, they become children. Long before, the parents were their children's first teacher, but they become seventy and eighty years old they become like children again. At the same time, the child takes the place of the father or mother.  The child should love his parents just as the parents have loved them when they raised them.  This is the principle of heaven and earth. Return for Tomorrow's Post: This post was rewritten and derived from the book, Cheon Seong Gyeon Book Three, "True Love' Chapter 2, Section 3