Seven Principles for Loving Relationships Part II

We continue part two of the seven principles for loving relationships:

6. Investing Towards Oneness

In order to realize love, we need to trust in the potential for unity between complementary partners. 

Everything that is complementary to one another first begin as separate beings in the world, but are drawn into oneness.

Despite the complementary nature of men and women, they do not easily get along. Sometimes they can seem like adversaries.

Any group of men or women's conversation at one point turn toward the complaints about the opposite gender.

Men may say that 'women talk too much,' women may say that 'men are so insensitive'. This is the long history of misunderstanding that happens between the sexes. There is also mistrust, abuse, and exploitation.

The ultimate unification of masculine and feminine takes place in marriage and in making a family.

Through a husband and wife embracing one another and through having many experiences with their children throughout the years, a man and woman can come to understand and appreciate the opposite sex.

The husbands and sons represent masculinity in all phases of development as also a man embraces all femininity trough his love for his wife and daughters.

Therefore, married life provides a fascinating, ongoing adventure of bonding of masculinity and femininity.

Through marriage, men and women become better mirrors of the divine.

“In the image of God He created him; male and female he created them,” the Bible reminds us; man and

woman together echoes the Creator’s own “wedded” nature Genesis 1.27.

A Hindu scripture speaks of the original Self or Creator as splitting in two to make man and woman. Thus making each 'like half of a split pea'. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.3

A couple that is an example of this is a full mirror of the Godhead.

Reverend Moon shows the married couple as a smallest unit of humanity. This is in the sense of fulfilling the purpose of human creation as God's complete reflection and love partner.

This is why the love between man and woman can be uniquely edifying.

7. Unity Around a Higher Purpose

People who unify based on a higher purpose, this is a basic context for true love. Every being in creation tends toward unity, based upon shared purposes.

Unity is the beginning point of love, the point where love can come to abide . . . . When both come closer and closer they can meet at one point between them. In other words, by both of them denying themselves for a greater purpose, they can unite with each other. That is the standard of true love.

—Sun Myung Moon

American President Richard Nixon spoke about how one extraordinary moment in time united people of all lands when Neil Armstrong, landed successfully on the surface of the moon:

“For one priceless moment, in the whole history of man, all the people on this Earth are truly one. One in their pride in what you have done. One in our prayers that you will return safely to Earth.”

People united in celebration of what he had done and all were passengers in a spaceship alone in black, cold space. This moment was profoundly moving and gratifying where all inhabitants of the earth united in oneness.

Unity, the sense of belonging to something greater than ourselves, is something we deeply desire.

To bring unity, it also helps to keep problems that are small and tensions in perspective.

“I wanted as little to do with my supervisor as possible,” recallsa medical technician. “But when I saw how hard she worked to throw a Christmas party for the kids in the critical care ward, I just had to give up my grudge and help her.”

When we give ourselves to the greater good, it feeds us self-respect. This supports our ability to love and invest further in the relationship.

Therefore, when people unify centered upon a greater purpose, this is the best context for lasting love

We will discuss more on this principle in the next post..

Return for Tomorrow's Post: Centering on Higher Purpose for Unity

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.