Create an Immortal Masterpiece

Today's Post is the last official post for the year 2012.  I will have a brief update of a previous article about a hunger solution posted tomorrow morning.

If we were to study art work that is still being admired centuries or thousands of years old, we would see a commonality between all of these masterpieces.

Rodin's statue The Thinker and the statue of the thinking Maitreya-Bodhisattva from the Shilla dynasty in Korea, are quite different works of art, even though both have the same theme, namely, a man engaged in thinking.







The latter has as its motif, the heart of the people, waiting for the Maitreya, who was said to have been the most excellent disciple of Buddha and is to come again in order to save all humankind. As regards expression of Inner Sungsang, Rodin's statue displays a strong intellectual aspect, whereas the statue of Maitreya is centered on purified emotions, and, as a result, has become a very noble and holy statue.


Object Consciousness

Creation is an activity whereby an artist, in the position of object, gives joy to the subject, namely, God and the whole (humankind, the nation, tribe, etc.), by manifesting the value of beauty. For that, the artist must establish a sense of object consciousness. The attitude of wanting to give joy to God, the highest Subject, and to manifest the glory of God, is the culmination of object consciousness. The content of object consciousness will be discussed next.

First, the artist should seek to comfort God, who has been grieving with sorrow throughout human history. God created human beings and the universe to obtain joy, and even endowed humans with creativity. Therefore, the original purpose of human life is, above all, to give joy to God.

Accordingly, people's creative activity should have been carried out, first of all, as a means to please God. However, people separated themselves from God and lost the consciousness of wanting to give joy to God. That has been the sorrow of God, even until today. Therefore, the artist should, above all, comfort God for His historical sorrow.

Second, the artist should have the attitude of wanting to comfort the many sages and righteous people, especially Jesus, who walked the path of restoration with God. To comfort them is to comfort God, who shared pain and sorrow with them.

Third, the artist should have the attitude of wanting to express the deeds of the good and righteous people of the past and present. That is, the artist should have the attitude of cooperating with God's providence and Will by portraying the deeds of those people who were, and those who still are, persecuted by the sinful world.

Fourth, the artist should herald the coming of the ideal world, Therefore, the artist should create works expressing hope for, and confidence about the future. Through such works, God's glory is manifested.

Fifth, the artist should have the attitude of wanting to praise God, the Creator, by expressing the beauty and mystery of nature. God created nature for humankind's joy. Due to the Human Fall, however, people came to obtain little joy from the beauty of nature. Therefore, while having a feeling of awe toward nature, which is the manifestation of God's attributes, the artist should discover the beauty of nature, praise God and give joy to others.

Artists who have object consciousness and dedicate all their energy in their creative work, can receive blessings from God and assistance from the spirit world. That is how true works of art are produced. Such works. may be considered the fruit of co-creative work between God and the artist.

Among the artists of' the Renaissance, there were many who created their works of art with object consciousness. For example, Leonardo da Vinci (1432-1519), Raphael (1483-1520) and Michelangelo (1475-1564) were such artists. Beethoven (1770-1827), who perfected classical music, composed music with object consciousness. ¹² That is why the works of those artists have become immortal masterpieces to give joy to generation a hundred years later and beyond.


Return for Tommorrow's Post: Update to Hunger Solution

Photos courtesy of: freedigitalphotos.net

Today's Post was based on the teachings of Dr. Reverend Sun Myung Moon from his Textbook: Unification Thought Chapter: Requisites of Creation.

Divine Inspiration, Get It

"Before you dominate the world, first dominate yourself."


Actually, I dedicate this post to an experience that recently happened to me a little over a month ago.  After 35 years telling and writing stories, even becoming a journalist, I received divine inspiration and wrote my book in a 24-hour period. 

When I came across this text for this post, I was able to align myself to God's will as "more than imaginary" things were starting to develop, now are explained to me after reading this.  When it happens, you will know for sure that a good, high-level spirit or angel is guiding you along and it will not be a question. The same for the person God sends you to be the one, there is no question that God is guiding you.  But, with a gift comes responsibility.

When you establish in yourself the proper relationship between your mind as subject partner and your body as its object partner, you become the microcosm that resonates with the macrocosm, the spirit world and the physical world. You stand as the mediator and center of harmony between the two worlds because you have set up that harmony within yourself.

For its part, the spirit world rejoices to find in you a channel to work its will on the physical world. Although countless spirits long to do good works on earth, they require a responsive mediator through whom to act. By establishing yourself in the proper position, centered on God, you can meet the needs of the spirit world and become the focus of its attention.


Spiritual Inspiration and Our Response

Let us take some examples. It is well known that the abilities of psychics vary according to their emotional state and the spiritual environment. In the presence of skeptics, they are often disarmed and unable to show their powers. Healers testify that their healing works best when the patient is open and welcomes the work.

Even Jesus, the greatest of healers, said to the ones who were healed, "your faith has made you well" (Mark j:34), and could not do many healings in the face of pervasive unbelief. (Mark 6:5-6) This illustrates the principle that the subject-object relationship between the spirit world and the physical world is mediated through human beings. Doubt and skepticism block the relationship, and hence block the spiritual work. Faith opens the door for receiving spiritual help.

Spiritual inspiration lies behind the creative work of all great inventors, scientists and artists. In Dr. Sung Lee's tour of the spirit world, he saw spirits working in laboratories creating the stuff of invention that would be communicated to earthly scientists years later. Why is it that so many inventions and scientific discoveries are made almost simultaneously by several researchers in different parts of the world working in isolation from each other? When the time arrives for a new invention to be bequeathed to the earth, the spirit world will work through several channels at once.

Numerous accounts abound of scientists receiving the key to new discoveries in dreams or in flashes of unearthly insight. One celebrated example is the elucidation of the structure of benzene by the German chemist Friedrich August Kekule. He had puzzled for years over how its six carbon atoms and six hydrogen atoms link together. (Ordinary hydrocarbons are built of straight chains of carbon atoms, but a chain of six carbon atoms with the stability of benzene would require fourteen hydrogen atoms).

One night Kekule fell asleep in his chair, and in a dream he saw snakes biting their tails and whirling around like hoops. He awoke and immediately realized that the six carbon atoms of benzene link together in a ring. With that discovery, all the facts of organic chemistry known up to that time fell into place.

Artists, poets and musicians since antiquity have acknowledged the Muse as the source of their creative genius. The words or music just comes to them, as if from a higher source. Take, for instance, this self-description by Mozart:
When I feel well and in a good humor, or when I am taking a drive or walking after a good meal, or in the night when I cannot sleep, thoughts crowd into my mind as easily as you could wish. Whence and how do they come? I do not know and I have nothing to do with it. Those which please me I keep in my head and hum them; at least others have told me that I do so. Once I have my theme, another melody comes, linking itself with the first one, in accordance with the needs of the composition as a whole: the counterpoint, the part of each instrument and all the melodic fragments at last produce the complete work. Then my soul is on fire with inspiration. The work grows; I keep expanding it, conceiving it more and more clearly until I have the entire composition finished in my head though it may be long.
Mozart was graced with the inspiration of music. He received his melodies from the spirit world. Furthermore, he knew what to do with them. He knew what to keep and what to discard, and how to develop them into a composition in accordance with the best of his art. By the time his "soul is on fire with inspiration" he would already be in the midst of co-creating a work of art whose initial seed had come to him as a gift from heaven.
Spiritual Guidance

Spiritual guidance from heaven often arrives cryptic and vague. Even Rev. Moon's directions, which we believe to be accurate in every respect, often are stated in only a few cryptic phrases. How much more uncertain is the guidance through a spiritualist, medium, palm reader or readers of Tarot cards, who has to hazard an interpretation of words and symbols!

The fact is, spiritual guidance must be couched in this way, with meanings hidden in obscure and ambiguous speech. According to the Divine Principle, people must exercise their portion of responsibility to understand the inspiration given from God and the spirit world. We are not meant to be led around by angels-all spiritual guidance is by nature angelic-but to exercise dominion over the angels as responsible agents through our own wisdom.

Otherwise, if spiritual messages were explicit, we would be little more than servants of those angelic beings, only doing their bidding. To give us the dignity of co-creators, God gave us responsibility to chart our own course with limited information, for example:
God could not instruct Cain and Abel on how to properly make their sacrifices because it was their portion of responsibility that Cain make his sacrifice with Abel's help.
God had directly revealed to John [the Baptist] that Jesus was the Messiah, and... he said, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, "Make straight the way of the Lord," and declared that he was the one who had been sent before the Christ. Therefore, John should have realized through his own wisdom that he was the returning Elijah. Even if he not did not realize this fact, since God had revealed to him that Jesus was the Messiah, he should have accepted the testimony of Jesus and, in obedience, proclaimed himself to be Elijah. Our responsibility begins with effort to understand heaven's guidance with a public mind. Any selfishness or conceit may blind us to the will of heaven.
Therefore, when Rev. Moon says not to interpret his directions, he means we should not wriggle out of the path of sacrifice by cleverly reducing Heaven's request into something comfortable. We must anyway interpret what we receive in a cryptic and vague form, but we should do so with a public mind, following the Principle, ready and willing to take on whatever burden may be required. Then we will not go wrong. Our responsibility ends with action. In attempting to carry out a spiritual direction according to the best of our understanding, the direction will often become crystal clear.

All spiritual inspiration goes for naught without the training and motivation of the earthly people to make use of it. Everyone has an occasional flash of inspiration, perhaps the theme for a new song or the idea for a new invention. Usually we don't know what to do with them, so they slip in and out of our heads while we carry on with our ordinary lives. On the other hand, those scientists and artists who received the most exceptional gifts of inspiration invariably knew what to do with them. Because they had trained themselves for many years and had mastered the tools of their field, or because they were at such a high level as to be working on the cutting edge of knowledge, their minds could be responsive to the movement of spirit.

When the inspiration came, they understood its meaning and acted upon it. They had the resources and the motivation to work at turning that inspiration into a physical reality. It is said that invention is five percent inspiration and ninety-five percent perspiration. The spirit world looks for such prepared people to entrust with their most precious knowledge. They want to cooperate with earthly people who will strive every day to bring their spiritual design to fruition in the physical world. Such people will complete the link between the spirit world and the physical world as subject and object partners.


Return for Tomorrow's Post: Create an Immortal Masterpiece


Photos: Courtesy of Freedigitalphotos.net


This text was is based on the teachings of the late Dr. Reverend Sun Myung Moon and taken from the textbook: True Family Value written by Joong Hyun Pak and Andrew Wilson Chapter 5 - Reaching to the Spirit World Part 1

 

 

 

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.