Unity Arises Through Love

It is nice just to think about love, to see it and to taste it. That is how love is.

Love is the coming together of East and West, it is the coming together of heaven and earth.

Therefore, love assumes the form of a sphere through these relations.  True love is at the center connecting the vertical and the horizontal.

How enraptured a person's lips would be when they smile as they give themselves over in true love?

How beautiful will the five senses appear when they are enraptured in true love and move toward God?

But God does not experience joy through beauty all by Himself.  He can only experience beauty when He has someone to whom He can relate.

This is why God created humankind.

God's desire is to travel the world of the human heart, with all its infinite beauty, more than He desired to create the heavens and the earth.

Even God breathes. He breathes true love. 

God keeps in rhythm with the universe that continues forever, centering on true love.  Therefore, only when  you are able to reach that level of heart, then you enter the realm of breathing God's love and live forever.

The universe and the sun are both round.  What do round things center upon?

They can only become rounded in a relationship with something else.

The world is a substantial entity that integrates such a relationship.  What is the original source that can form such circular relationships?

The motion of love is the original source of this harmony

Love is like a nerve. 

When one of the hairs are pulled on your head, the whole body moves toward that pulling force.

It is the same way with love.  When you pull on love, the whole universe is pulled towards the pulling force.

When you move love, the whole universe moves in accordance with it.

People must live life enraptured with something. 

A person who is enraptured by something is truly happy.

If you have noticed that artists are enraptured by art.  Those who enjoy literature, are enraptured by the books they write or the great masterpieces they read.  Such people are happy people.

This is why people should live enraptured with the love of God and follow only Him.

Then what is the most precious thing both men and women seek?

It is true love.

Love is something both people and God like forever.  Love is what the whole universe likes most of all and forever.

Although love is invisible, it is the most precious treasure on earth.  This is because love is unchanging in nature the same as diamonds and pearls.

We value gold as precious because it is unchanging in color in any condition.  A diamond is precious because of its unchanging hardness.  A pearl is seen as precious because of the unchanging quality of colors.

Although these are precious treasures, they do not have life in them.  But, true love on the other hand is a treasure that also has and gives life.  Therefore, it is more precious than all of them.

Everyone likes love. Ultimately, through love we come to love more and more. 

Love flows into the heart of individuals.

Love flows into the heart of a family, and of a people.  It flows everywhere.  Wherever love flows, everyone welcomes it.

There is no way to block  love.

Doesn't everyone want something higher than themselves?

God created people to relate with one another through the power of love.

A person connected to the ties of love who lives and breathes along with the universe does not need formalities when they arrive at the palace of God.  A person that lives in love can go to the inner sanctuary where God resides.

He can call out, "Heavenly Father!" And Father would answer, "Come here my child."

What is the only problem of the human world?

The problem is love; whether love burns brightly.  For the light of love to burn bright, that light has to burn internally and externally.

What will make it burn?  It should burn with the desire or want to love.

Then we realize that our life which we deal with in ordinary affairs of the world is just a stopping point on our journey.  Where is God?

To say He is omnipresent means He is not just in one specific place.

God is wherever love is.

We, too can be omnipresent when our central focus is love.  This is a privilege we can enjoy when we possess love.

When we speak about equality, the word is meaningless without love.  True equality is only possible when people live for others centering on love.

Women's equality is based on cutting everything down the middle whether it is possible or fair or not.  Women will say that they are just as strong as men and will assert themselves to enjoy the exact same jobs and privileges as men.

On the other hand, men and women can find equal footing and a mother can be on equal footing with her son  who is president through love.  All things that possess love can have equal status.  We must realize this.

Humankind is at the center at all things of creation.  What then do human beings center upon?

We center upon true love.  God's love forms one vertical line.

To set up the center of heaven and earth, there also has to be lines of love from both man and woman.  The woman's line goes to the man and the man's goes to the woman.

These lines of love thus create a circle.

A man and woman who has true love, it is perfected love with a negative charge. When this perfected love and true negatively-charged love is formed, the positively charged vertical love of God is automatically present.

That is how the principles of the universe work.

You can only form a reciprocal relationship with the universe when you have love.

The reason Love has the quality of gentleness and humbleness is because with those qualities it can be fully put in motion without resistance.

When something is humble and sacrificial, it can relate with anyone and can go anywhere without resistance.

Then in essence, this type of person does not really sacrifice because they can anywhere here and in spirit world.  The key to living without resistance is through living for the sake of others while sacrificing for others and serving others.

Why should we sacrifice and serve others?  

We should live in this way in order to perfect the respiratory organs for our second life in the next world where the atmosphere is love.

All beings that reproduce come together in twos in order to multiply.  Love brings harmony in reproduction. 

This is true for the multiplication of all living things in the natural world.  Even in water.  There is female water and male water where fish do well in areas where these waters mix.

Many fish live in the cold water and warm water mix.  This is ideal.  There must be harmony.

Birds from the north fly south to raise their young while birds that live in the south fly north to raise theirs.  This migrating back and forth follows a rhythm.

Then when they are mature, they return to the place of their birth to have their young.  Fish live in cold water and lay their eggs in warm water.  Fish living in warm water can only lay their eggs in cold water.

A harmonious unity of ying and yang must be established.  This is the process of migration.

Love will not be realized without finding a partner.

This is why God placed efforts to place an absolutely qualified partner in front of Him.  We human beings are the masterpiece of creation fashioned so that even God could find the love He also needs at the same time from us.

When you are intoxicated in the love of God, you would never be bored even if you were to stare at a grain of sand for thousands of years.  The creation has so many deep wonders that any masterpiece in any museum cannot surpass its beauty.  

True love is not something that can be forced.

Love must be willingly expressed.

When you love someone, do not do so with the intention to receive because ideal love is only realized through the action of giving and receiving.

If God created love where it could be seen, touched and its form was known by someone, then you would lose interest in such a love in less than one day.

Fortunately, that is not how love was created.  Love operates the same as a mysterious mirage in all shapes and forms.  Love is something that even if it is not there, it feels as if it is.  And even though it is there it feels sometimes that it is not.

True love perfects the ideal of unity in the universe.

Even though you find a grand masterpiece, if you do not find any flavor of true love in it, you will quickly spit it out.  This is the same with the true love between husband and wife. 

We like love the best because it has the quality to unite everything and make it our own.  People cannot fathom how good love is.

Just as parents who love their children, the more you love, the more your joy increases.

Love brings everything into oneness!

If a person is in oneness with God, noone will be able to separate him from God.  That is how wonderful love is!

 Have you ever observed a bee that concentrates intently on getting the nectar in the flowers?  As they retrieve the nectar their heads are thrust into the flower and their abdomens stick out of the flower into the air.

You would not be able to pull the bee out even if the abdomen breaks off.  Why does the nectar in the flower taste so good?

The nectar tastes good, then the taste of love should be much more powerful and better.  Which would be better.  The taste of honey or the taste of love?

Without love, we cannot obtain unity.  Words alone do not have the power to unite two different people into one.

If those who are united around material things, when the material things disappear, they will immediately separate.

What if a third person introduces them and they unite?  When the third party disappears, they will separate.  Then what is needed for two separate entities to be joined for eternity?

There must be love.

Love has the power to unite the five senses.

Love can make the smell of an old man, which is unpleasant to some, seem sweet and pleasant to a loving wife.  Even if the his face and hands are skin and bones she will like his face and hands.

Love can do this.

When the wind of love blows, the whole world seems beautiful. 

Everyone becomes a poet or a romantic when they fall deeply in love.

A flowing love should form a bond with us and never leave.  It should take place within the very core of our being.  Without love, we do not find anything of value in the world.

But when we are able to vividly feel and sense such a love inside of us, that love can compete with the universe.  A person that holds this kind of love deep in his heart can compete with the universe even though he is just an individual.

Even when we look at a tuft of grass, we must be able to look at it from the standpoint of God.

We should relate to a flower while embodying the heart of God.

We should feel the connection between our inner feelings and the heart of God when we appreciate the things in creation.

Those who live with the love of God within their hearts are the sons and daughters of God.

They are the central figures of the whole universe who can govern heaven and earth.

Love is the essential element needed to enable a person to attain the position.

Our minds infinitely expand through heart rather than knowledge.  A heart full of love is so big that it can embrace the universe.  Once we develop this original and mighty domain, even God will want to come and take naps there.

Since we do not embrace God through knowledge, we must understand how great a heart of love is.

Love transcends all national borders, because God's love know no boundaries.  It transcends two different races drawing no distinction between blacks, whites and yellow races.  This is why the love of God is great.

Despite the environment, the environment adapts to love's flow and develops.  God will be pleased once we have adopted the perspective that makes this happen.   This is why we must walk the path of love.

Return for Tomorrow's Post: Now All Sin Can Leave the Earth

This post was rewritten and derived from True Love Cheon Seong Gyeong Book 3, Chapter 1, section 3

How to Be Grateful for the Little Things

Now summer is here and all of nature is ready. When you come to Belvedere you might look at that one big tree outside here and remark at how big a tree it is.

When you go outside, you will see that some trees will have a special characteristic that will catch your attention, Especially if one is tall and has colorful leaves.  Even in nature, it is hard to find an object that is perfectly beautiful.  It takes a lot of catering and arrangement to create and present beauty.

There is manmade beauty and natural beauty, but beauty created in the natural way is more difficult. 

Even though an oak tree is big, it started from a small acorn.

Over the years that it grew, it had to absorb many elements.  In its growth it took many sacrifices and contributions.

There is an absolute necessary element that the tree needs to do before it can command respect as a great tree.

I must realize that there were several circumstances and elements combined to make its success possible.

It is a heartistic necessity to recognize and bow down to these elements which made it great.  Both internal and external elements made great sacrifices to make just that one tree.

When the tree is grateful and humble before the elements which made him great, those elements would have respect for him knowing his position and then will gladly give more of themselves.

The small blades of grass that reside in the tree's shade would not be able to complain that the tree receives all of the sun light, but would decide to live with the inconvenience because the tree was grateful.

What if the sun decided to stop shining on the tree?

Would the tree still be in the position to be proud and great or would he become worried and anxious how he would survive without the sun?

What if the air stopped existing or any more water?  How would the tree react?

This situation is just an analogy for man's relationships.

Should you walk pridefully and think that you don't need anybody and you exist independently?  Or would you be meek enough to thank the sun and the air for sustaining your existence?

You eat food with your mouth and at the same time your skin is "breathing" sunlight; which is more delicious?

Let us think in a different way.  You may think that you taste with your mouth but without the sun, your eyes would not even be necessary.

Without the air, you would no longer need your nose.  Therefore, without the air, how would soundwaves travel?  Without soundwaves, your ears would not be necessary.

Your mouth sacrifices many things from the outside for your survival.

Can you then be proud?  Where did your arms and legs come from?  They come from your parents and belong to them in reality.  When each of you was in your mother's womb, you stole energy from her as you grew.

When you go to the store, whatever you buy, you receive a receipt, but did you get a small receipt from all of the energy your mother gave you?  This is why you are thieves!

Can you truly say your body belongs to you?

Day and night you kicked and poked your mother, but you never apologized.  Did you complain or did you have gratitude while you were in your mother's womb?  After nine months of acting up in your mother, you were born.

But you still took nourishment and energy as she fed you.

When you were a little older, you were then fed complete meals by others.  Can we still proclaim our bodies truly belong to us and owe no one?  You never earned it.

Americans are prompt to say thank you, but how much more do you owe thanks to your parents who gave birth to you and attended to you while you grew?

If you were a restless or cranky baby and cried all of the time and demanded attention, you parents didn't demand you to stop, they would immediately comfort you.

Then when you became of age, you attended school for education.  Your parents in totality take care of you for 18 years.

When you think deeply about these things, then you know that you are indebted to your parents for your well-being.  Have you ever told your parents how much they served you or gave and terms of dollars.

The debt is so great, you would never be able to pay them back.

American teenagers act sometimes as if their parents magically appeared out of the heavens.  They speak about the gap between the generations, and that they came into being without causing any trouble to anyone.

Many times young people think their parents just bother them and they place them in retirement homes with an attitude that no one needs the elderly.

The universe does not work in this way.

The world must harmonize.

A person never parallels the universal way when they claim things for his own selfish benefit and demand his rights.  

It is a law of nature that while you are growing up, you are deeply indebted to your parents, and after you are grown and responsible then you repay that debt by taking care of your parents.

When you take a look into the past, what is it that you can be proud of?

You can be proud that you are indebted to your father and mother recognizing that you are also indebted to nature.  You would show appreciation for the water, sun and air, because without these elements you could not even survive for five minutes.

We must be thankful for the world of plants and the animal kingdom.

When you pass a pasture, what is the first thing you think when you see a cow?  That she is fat and that she would make good steaks?  You would probably think of food first instead of thanking the cow.

Which person would the cow welcome: the person who thought of him as a potential steak, or the one who shows gratitude toward him?

Even a cow would rather be eaten by a gracious person instead of a greedy person.

God looks down at this self-centered kind of thinking and knows that He did not create this world for man's self-serving needs.

Do you think that your clothes belong to you?  What about the jewelry you wear?

When a person is proud and thinks that they are independent from others and their environment, nature would laugh at such a person.  Nature knows that you could never exist by yourself.

The universe would never show any gratitude toward the person does not observe any thankfulness.  Everyone has something to be thankful for in their life from the moment of their birth.

If there is a person that understands how much they are indebted to nature, parents, the world and knows his position the world gladly harmonizes with him.

What if you lived in the desert and all the sudden woke up to find that a tropical environment was being created before you in your presence.  How much gratitude would you feel then?

Wouldn't you shout for happiness if all of this appeared out of nowhere one day?  Would you take the world of nature for granted after experiencing the wasteland just beforehand?

Have you ever thought that there was a day where nothing was in existence, that time before God brought anything into existence?  God said that everything was good when creation was complete, but what if you as His child took more pleasure and enjoyment in each thing that He did?

Would He gladly appreciate your expression or not?

God has existed from the beginning, so He would remember and appreciate you based on the historical perspective of millions of years.  Would God say with your kind of heart that it was just good, or would He remember and appreciate you within His heart?

He would think that you were better than anyone in all of history for having so much gratitude for His work.

What if this type of person was not so valued in the looks department or was crippled?  Would God appreciate them less?

No, this person would be remembered first in God's heart.

What about you, what is you first impression when you look in the mirror every morning?

Many women will shun looking in the mirror or have their picture taken.  But no matter how you look, you should view yourself in the broader perspective in which God sees us.

Each of us sends out waves or vibrations to the universe and the world can communicate with you through them. 

What kind of vibes would a person who appreciate everything send?

What about people who always complain and use people for their own advantage?  This kind of person would repel everything in the universe because of that vibration.

The person who is always negative and dissatisfied with everything in site, bites everything including friends and family.

A dissatisfied personality always has long nails everywhere around their body to bite or scratch the universe.  Doesn't it feel that way when you are around such a person?

Today there are definitely a great many people that live in such an unhappy state.

What about your heart?

On the other hand, when you realize your position toward your neighbors and relatives, you feel gratitude.  Then instead of biting and scratching others, you only reach out to embrace them all.

This way, you are sending out infinite waves of gratitude out to all corners of the earth.

The ocean is wide, but it could not be greater than your mind of gratitude. 

Your mind can be strong if you make it small, but if you make it large then it is larger than any ocean on earth!

In that case, the entire universe embraces you also with that quality of mind.    

We each have millions of individual cells in our bodies that are similar to employees in a corporation.  Each of these cells send out their own waves which all of nature responds.

Whatever vibe you send out, is how nature will echo you.

What kind of person do you want to be like: the kind that has infinite appreciation, or one that always has infinite disappointment and complaint?

This is why the Bible teaches to always have gratitude, as well as humbleness and meekness.

Can you count how many words you have used in your life up to this point?  Can you measure what portion has been dedicated to speaking gratitude or for complaint?

We have a general tendency to complain, so most people would receive the sign, "I am a complainer."  Don't you think this is the life most people lead?

But when you complain then everything in the universe is repelled by you. 

Even your parents and friends wouldn't want to be around you if you complain all the time.

Would God be happy to hear it?  Are your eyes, nose and ears complaining about the information that comes to them or are they appreciative in what they see, hear and smell?

If your body and mind are always full of complaint, who will welcome you?  Not even your husband or fiancee, there is no exception.  No one likes to be around such negativity.

If you were to place bags holding your complaint or appreciation, which outweighs the other?

Are complainers usually good or bad people?  You don't like to hear this kind of judgement do you?:

But don't you think that evil-minded people also want to hear kind words from others?

Wouldn't nature also want to hear words of kindness and love, or would they tell you to stop?  Even your pet loves to have loving reinforcement when they do something good. Even the simple words, "Good boy" brings such excitement.

Does your balance tilt more on the complaint or gratitude side?

If you are below zero, then nothing will treat you like a human being because you would be substandard, at the animal level of interaction.



Return for Tomorrow's Post: Recreate the Ideal World

This post was rewritten and derived form the speech Reflection Upon Life

Men and Women Need Each Other

 

Man symbolizes heaven and woman symbolizes earth. Man and woman are to come together and realize harmony.  —Sun Myung Moon

 

 

Opposites attract, especially masculine and feminine. The big, muscular Dad is mesmerized by the tiny frailty of his newborn daughter. The petite, refined teenager memorizes every detail of her heartthrob’s rugged face, strong dark eyes, thick hands, and angular physique. The simple, home-loving woman catches the eye of the sophisticated, worldly-wise man.

This tendency of masculinity and femininity to find and balance each other is an expression of complementarity—a principle running throughout all existence. Indeed, the harmony and vibrant tension of these polarities fills the universe with energy, structure, life, beauty and joy. Frosty mountain peaks overlook green, verdant valleys. The peacock carries around his heavy tail feathers to make the colorful display that will attract a peahen, who will in turn bear his young. An electron weighs less than a thousandth of a proton, yet they precisely balance to comprise an atom.

 

Implications of the Reproductive Organs

But perhaps the design most revealing—in a metaphoric way—about masculinity and femininity are the reproductive organs themselves.

The female organ receives the male organ, so masculinity is active and initiating while femininity is receptive and responsive. The male organ angles upward and away from the body when erect. It is often aroused by inspiration solely within the mind. This is symbolic of the masculine propensity towards “heaven,” the world of ideals and vision. In contrast, the female organ is like “earth” in that it opens deep into the body and is subject to monthly cycles.

This represents the feminine concern for immediate, practical matters. The internal structure of the female organs represents the feminine tendency to emphasize the world of feelings and human relations and to solve problems by changing something within herself.

In contrast, the outward thrust of the male organ symbolizes the natural inclination of masculinity to focus on manipulating things in the outer world. In communication, masculinity tends to be direct and assertive, as the male genitals symbolize, while femininity is apt to be more indirect and round-about, like the female organs.

Apart from physical design, observation of the tendencies of men and women suggest other distinctions between masculinity and femininity. Femininity is concerned with context; masculinity is focused on content. Masculinity emphasizes rules and standards; femininity is mindful of individual differences.

Femininity is egalitarian and cooperative; masculinity is hierarchical and competitive.

It must be said in the end that differences notwithstanding, men and women are far more similar than not, of course. Both genders have personality, the fruit of the interaction of mind and body. Both are spiritual and material beings. Both have heart and conscience. What masculinity and femininity do is to impart a certain slant to these universal human components, creating only a difference of style and emphasis.
 

Complementary Virtues

The diverse characteristics of masculinity and femininity can be reduced to certain strengths or virtues. These are reflected in the qualities that are universally prized in men and women. In all the various family roles of men—son, brother, husband, father— and their social counterparts, among the key virtues celebrated are strength, leadership, courage, justice, discipline, self-sufficiency and providing. In their roles as daughter, sister, wife, mother and the like, there are also certain qualities that are celebrated in women.

These include beauty, support, surrender, mercy, modesty, nurturance, and resourcefulness. The Bible provides a succinct description of the virtuous woman when St. Paul says, “train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be sensible, chaste, domestic, kind, and submissive to their husbands, that the word of God may not be discredited” (Titus 2.4-5). These various virtues are complementary to one another, paired in subject and object partnership.

One stimulates or inspires the other and either can be much more difficult to generate or maintain without the other.  Frequently the virtues are masculine and feminine dimensions of the same quality. In any case, the masculine dimension tends to be intrapersonal, that is, related to vertical mind and body unity.

 

For example, chastity in men traditionally is a testament to self-control, for the purpose of being single-minded, able to serve God or otherwise realize a worthy purpose. In contrast, feminine virtue is more often than not an interpersonal quality, related to horizontal, person-to-person unity. Chastity for women has more connotations of fidelity, keeping love undivided for the sake of its fulfillment.

Complementary Virtues

Masculine            Feminine

Strength                 Beauty

Leadership            Support

Courage                Surrender

Justice                   Mercy

Discipline              Modesty

Self-Sufficiency     Nurturance

 

Strength and beauty

Strength encompasses physical power, stamina and the ability to endure physical and emotional pain to provide for and protect others. It means keeping one’s own counsel when necessary and eschewing easy comfort.

Strength is “beauty” in a man, as reflected in a recent song defining manhood as being as “swift as the coursing river, with all the force of a great typhoon, with all the strength of a raging fire, mysterious as the dark side of the moon.”

In the same way, what we call beauty—being a source of pleasure and inspiration—is an important feminine “strength.” Beauty encompasses grace and graciousness, creating comfort and harmony. A woman’s beauty stimulates love in her husband even as it cheers and encourages her children. Beauty also involves creating splendor around oneself, drawing out the attractiveness of other people and things and harmonizing them.

Both of these virtues are often distorted in the world, interpreted in exaggerated, external terms that become oppressive. The truth of Francis Bacon’s words, “The best part of beauty is that which no picture can express,” is readily forgotten. Women are prone to obsessively focus on their appearance. Likewise, men are likely to forget that real strength is a character quality, as the saying goes:

“The strength of a man isn’t in the weight he can lift. It’s in the burdens he can carry.”

 In their true meaning, strength and beauty encapsulate all the good qualities that distinguish masculinity and femininity. That is, all masculine virtues are regarded as enhancing a man’s strength while the feminine virtues are seen as making a woman more beautiful.

Leadership and support

Leadership involves taking command of a situation, being assertive and taking initiative to get something done. Leadership demands sacrificing oneself to protect and provide for others. It means making decisions in spite of uncertainty and others’ disapproval. It sometimes requires taking a stand that disturbs the peace.

Support, on the other hand, is the ability to facilitate leadership, to respond to what is required, fill in what the leader lacks and influence the situation indirectly. Just as leadership is a kind of support, giving support often involves taking leadership, rallying others and harmonizing them with the leader’s purpose and direction.

The male capacity to zero in on the root of a problem and detach from feelings to make more impartial decisions suits many men to be like the CEO and public affairs director of their families, accountable for their direction, protection and overall function.

 

At the same time, the female sensitivity to relationships and capacity for detail makes most women the ideal person in charge of day-today family matters and connections to the neighborhood—the director of personnel and head of public relations, the one to oversee the health and happiness of the home.

Courage and Surrender

 

Courage and surrender are counterparts to one another.  Courage is acting despite fear, which means to surrender to what needs to be done regardless of risk. Its close cousin is heroism. A prerequisite to courage is confidence, the trust in oneself and in one’s God-given strengths.

Conversely, surrender is the willingness to trust in others and in life, to be vulnerable and yield oneself to a person or situation. This also demands considerable courage to put one’s fate in the hands of someone or something that is as yet unproven. Women are called to surrender in countless ways, just as men need to be courageous to exhibit leadership and other qualities.

Justice and Mercy

Justice is promoting fairness through establishing and enforcing standards, rules and boundaries. It involves making distinctions, passing judgment and discerning right from wrong. Justice is to be impartial, “blind.” Mercy, on the other hand, bends rules and permits special consideration for individual cases.

It softens the dictates of justice to allow for the complexities of the heart. Of course both are vital and depend upon one another for balance: “And what does the Lord require of you,” says the prophet Micah, “but to do justice, and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God”.

Discipline and Modesty

 

These virtues represent restraints upon both strength and beauty, respectively.  Discipline involves self-control and moderating one’s passions. It also includes the humility to submit to a superior’s correction and direction. Both are essential if a man would exercise authority over others. St. Paul bids older men to “be temperate, serious, sensible” and younger men to “control themselves” (Titus 2.2, 6). Modesty is the feminine form of self-restraint. It is reserving one’s beauty and sexuality for one’s spouse alone, guarding what God has entrusted. Both are encompassed in chastity, as mentioned above.

Self-sufficiency and Nurturance

Self-sufficiency is the ability to handle one’s own needs and solve one’s own problems so as to be available to be of service. This is related to independence; men are expected to be strong in themselves so others can depend upon them. The complementary virtue of nurturance means to actively attend to that which is young and undeveloped, believing in its potential and patiently awaiting its full unfolding. It includes relieving distress and providing comfort.
 

Patience and gentleness make this possible. Nurturance also connotes an acceptance of a measure of dependence; generally women are more willing to admit their needs and be cared for.

 

Providing and Resourcefulness

These virtues relate to dealing with things. Providing refers to the masculine trait of acquiring what is needed for the people causes ones loves.

“The best of men are those who are useful to others,” reads a hadithm, The traditional requirement for a boy of the indigenous peoples of the arctic North was to slay a seal as a feast for his community, representing this male virtue. Resourcefulness on the other hand involves carefulness in dealing with what has been entrusted, shrewdly conserving resources to meet the needs of those under one’s care.

 

Traditional recipes and quilts are but two examples of the ingenuity of women to make utility and beauty out of limited resources.

Men and Women Combine Both Principles

Masculinity and femininity as principles or archetypes are one thing; real men and women are another. It must be remembered that all people have both masculine and feminine sides to them. This common base allows women to understand men and vice versa. Real people are a blend of masculine and feminine traits—the virtues just described are celebrated in individuals of either sex.
 

Men may have their feminine side quite developed, just as women may have ready access to their masculine traits. The roles that individuals play will demand sometimes more masculine traits and sometimes more feminine ones. For example, a male kindergarten teacher will require qualities that may come more naturally to most women, while a policewoman will need to draw upon dispositions that probably are easier for most men to access.

 

All men and women have the capacity to develop the traits that are the strengths of the opposite sex. A male orderly in a senior citizen facility can learn to pay more attention to details, just as a female manager in a large company can learn to tune certain details out.
 

Yet at the same time, the greater masculinity within men means that they have certain natural strengths as well as limitations that suit them for certain tasks, just as the greater femininity of women gives them certain advantages and disadvantages. Either gender can take on just about any role, but the fit may not be as perfect.

Author Patsy Rae Dawson offers an analogy:

A six-inch brush is better for painting large surfaces and a two-inch brush is ideal for trim. Either can be used for either task, but it may take more effort to do so, such as painting trim with the larger brush.

So it is with the sexes.  Either can fill in for each other’s duties but it may take more exertion to do so.

Men and Women Need Each Other

Thus for every male or female gift, we can understand there is also a corresponding weakness or shadow. The male penchant for achievement sometimes leads to neglect of relationships; the female

sensitivity to feelings can spell difficulty in overlooking negative experiences. Thus, boys and girls, men and women need each other’s companionship and support. One side of this is humorously expressed by Rogers and Hammerstein in the musical “South Pacific”:

“There isn’t one thing wrong with any man here that wouldn’t be cured by putting him near a real live, womanly, female, feminine dame!”

The needs—or “weaknesses”—of a man only serve to draw out and accentuate the strengths of a woman, just as a husband’s unique assets are revealed and highlighted by the needs of his wife. By investing their strengths into each other as a team, the sexes create a powerful and beautiful whole greater than the sum of its parts.

This is symbolized in mythology by androgynous figures that combine masculinity and femininity and as a result have extraordinary abilities, like the blind Tiresias in Greek mythology who can foresee the future.

“A woman is half of the universe,” states Reverend Moon. “When a woman unites with a man, 180 degrees and 180 degrees come together. In marriage they form a sphere equal in value to the universe.

Submit to One Another

 

This is why the marriage partnership, though tradition speaks of well-defined roles, comes down to the interplay of the husband and wife augmenting each other’s strengths and compensating for one another’s weaknesses.

 

The spouses’ horizontal subject and object partnership means that though there is a certain stable nature to their positions, there is also dynamic movement in which roles stretch and switch according to shifting conditions. A husband’s masculine way of living for the sake of his spouse will naturally define his role and likewise with the wife’s feminine way of serving.

Instead of concern about “manly” or “womanly” tasks, the spirit of mutual service and sacrifice carries the day.  Reverend Moon puts it this way:

 

"In true love, both spouses must be obedient to each other and be willing to be united with each other. We may say, “Why do I have to obey my husband or wife? I want to be free.” But in true love, obedience, loyalty, surrender— everything is possible, and you are not humiliated by it.

"You want to be controlled by your love. In true love then, there is a heavenly dictatorship of one to the other, and you want to live that way throughout eternity."

The New Testament asserts both spouses are to “Submit to one another” out of respect for God (Ephesians 5.21). The husband submits to his conscience and the needs of his family as a true servant leader, especially to respect and care for his wife. The wife surrenders to the needs of her husband and family.

The man’s heartfelt care for his partner will tend to elicit the response he desires, just as the woman’s wholehearted support will tend to elicit the qualities she wants from her mate. Thus there is the call for each husband to “love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband” (Ephesians 5.33).
 

 

Web designer Peter Brown says of he and his wife Kim, “We just tell ourselves that, ‘True love is the boss.’ Although it sounds simple, it has a very real impact in our lives ...

[Both] the wife and the husband must bow down to the ethic of true love."


Return for Tomorrow's Post: Divine Inspiration, Get It!

Photos Courtesy of: freedigitalphotos.net

 

Today's text taken from Textbook: Educating for True Love, Explaining Rev. Moon's Thought on Morality, Family, and Society.

Our American Culture Praises Lucifer-like Images

The universe was created beginning with an idea in the divine Mind, followed by the expenditure of energy to make that idea a reality. Likewise, artists and scientists give all their heart and effort to create a new existence that manifests the images and thoughts in their mind.  Artists, scientists and inventors take after the creativity of God.

This section focuses on the arts, and so includes scripture and selected passages from famous artists reflecting on the meaning of their art.

Yet, creativity is not the sole possession of these elite personages; we find creativity in the athlete who plays exuberantly for the love of sport, in the merchant who finds better ways to market his wares, and in children as they dance and sing.

Father Moon, which this posts uses his deep teachings of the bible, who has established ballet companies and art schools and who himself loves to sing duets with his wife, is cognizant of the role the arts can play in creating a God-centered culture. 

Topics include: art as harmony of opposites, art’s emotional core and emotional power; the muse, or spirituality of art; and the problem of art and values.

A culture develops from words. It begins with speech; then the words are written down to become literature. Then they are expressed in paintings and other works of art. Art and culture are thus expressions of the invisible word. This is the principle of creation through the Word, emerging as visible form and substantial existence.

Humankind struggles in frustration, longing in the world of the heart, because they have defiled

the heart’s law. People strive to fill that longing through hobbies, art, knowledge, and love objects,
but they are never fully satisfied. This is the sorrow and tragedy of the human condition since the human fall.

Human Fall

After World War II, the trend developed, especially among American women, to worship Lucifer-like

men. Who are they? Movie stars, singers and actors, etc.  Lucifer seduced Eve away from God and Adam.  When we study the bible as symbolic, we see that he seduced her away through the misuse of love - sex without God symbolized by the fruit. 

We see the terminology used today "to eat" of a woman the same way it was meant in the bible, "to eat of the fruit".  Don't most men that are idolized in the media have this same quality?  Wooing many women, accentuate outside beauty only, and have multiple sex partners outside of marriage.  These people are actually last in line to enter heaven, yet women came to worship them.

What is Lucifer-like?  Sadly, Lucifer's way and will is so ingrained in our culture, that we fantasize about obtaining it.  The music industry, fashion industry and movie business have fashioned the lifestyles of these idols around glorifying sex centered around false love, promiscuity (be with whoever you want), free sex with anything and anyone without relationships and outside the family unit. 

Does any of this sound like the creation and culture that God wants us to have or does it stem from somewhere else?  That someone else is the beautiful Lucifer who has the gift of God's beautiful creation as he is a creation of God.  Lucifer used the gifts God granted him and uses it to sway every human being away from God's path by glorifying his ungodly way and making it desirable even though his type of behavior will place people at the bottom of hell.

Lucifer-like is any behavior outside of God path.  Is wanting to be beautiful or worrying about fashion sinful? 

No, but when beauty alone is placed as a measurement of one person's worth and value - they aren't beautiful, therefore let's trash their value - then it is far from God.  It is a fine line.  To see the opposite sex as beautiful and admiring God's handiwork with someone's external being is not sinful.  To lust after it, go after that person to possess their divinity, their essence through sex, to want what is not ours outside of God's dominion is sinful.  For instance, wanting to be with a person who is not our intended spouse whether we are single or married, plants a seed likened to the bible phrase satan is crouching at the door waiting for a way in. 

Fallen Lucifer waits for us to open that door and when we plant seeds that are small it is only a matter of time.  This is how Lucifer thinks.  With even the hardcore religious, this is how he works, through the small ideas we keep to ourselves until they grow and it is hard to stop the temptation when Satan breaks his way through the door we left open for him.

Father Moon, who passed away this year at 92, had a vision for the arts far beyond secular art. He believed secular world’s art is rotten; especially the recording artists and Hollywood set who are immersed in free sex. Many have contracted HIV/AIDS. He promoted absolute sex, and advocated that members of my ballet company should not be involved in immoral love affairs. It is a wedge to protect American people from rotting away because of artists who promote ungodly behavior.

In America, you can watch movies on television 24 hours a day. You can watch any kind of movie: war movies, movies about love, even pornographic movies. Young people are readily attracted to them and influenced. Since they do not have a clear viewpoint of life or thought, they copy what they see in these movies.

Youth today live in a permissive environment and have abandoned traditional values that might restrain them from seeking out the stimulating positive activities that they see in the movies. Since their parents do not pay them much attention, family ties are not strong enough to sway them. Teachers and public officials avoid giving children proper education on these matters. Therefore, there is nothing to stop them from following the wrong paths that movies made for entertainment makes seductive.

God’s Creation and Human Creativity

What can stop young people from trying free sex, drugs, violence—copying everything they see in the movies?

If this continues, the family will disappear and the world will soon be doomed.

Therefore, we should quickly establish the standard of a new tradition for the building of a new culture. It is a most urgent matter.

 God’s heart of true love—to give and give more, and forget and forget again, to give unconditionally and live for the sake of others—is the foundation of the world of heart.

God’s ideal out of which He created the world began from His heart. The arts, which spring from this Origin, should resemble this heart. Hence, in the world of art, there can be no barriers. Art cannot be used as propaganda or the instrument of a particular ideology.  Harmony and unity are its basic principles. Divisions and conflicts are the fruits of fallen nature. Accordingly, in the world of art, East and West should understand and accept each other through art whose character is universal and inclusive.

When professionals in the art world seek for something profound and need inspiration, they fall back on their religious background. That is why the culture of art developed centered on religion. Take Christian culture, for example. If you have a chance to travel in Europe, you should visit the Vatican. You will see the essence of European culture in each work of art.

Art is worthless unless there is profound emotion in the background. A great work of art should be capable of arousing deep emotion, whether one views it today or a thousand years from now. A

painting that can stimulate such a feeling deep in our hearts is called a masterpiece.

To be an artist is to make one’s life a work of art. Children’s education should be imbued with art. A

wife should be an artist of the emotions in the way she honors and shows appreciation to her husband.
I believe that it is a greater art than the paintings that hang in museums. The greatest value of art is to beautify and elevate love in the family.  When God's love is the center of the family, this spreads to the society, to the nation and to a world of heart.


Return for Tomorrow's post: Why Children Rebel

Today's post was taken from the World Scripture II book chapter God Creation and Human Creativity section Creativity and Art