Chambumo Gyeong - 493. Dominion over oneself
True Parents teach that the conflicts and disputes among human beings arise from the struggle between their mind and body, which became divided due to the Human Fall. Thus, True Father lived by the personal motto, "Before you seek to have dominion over the universe, you must first gain dominion over yourself' The body, which seeks its own comfort and pleasure, must be subordinate to the mind, which is connected to God and His ideal. Accordingly, religion teaches that mind-body unity, where the focus of the mind is the higher purpose, is the necessary foundation for a life of true love, which comes through service to others and self-sacrifice. The body's unity with the mind is the necessarf first step on the path to actualizing the final goal of one world under God.
17 "You must achieve mind-body unity." People have shouted this throughout history, regarding it as the gospel of gospels. If you cannot reach this state, even your love will be in vain. Without it, you have no basis to say anything about what it means to be a human being. Whatever your line of argument, if it is not based on that fundamental foundation within yourself, it has nothing to do with reality. For this reason, you have to be able to state that you have attained complete mind-body unity. But can any of you say that with confidence?
God teaches us that the way to bring our mind and body into unity is through true love. God abides in total oneness of mind and body because, abiding in love, His mind and body live for the sake of each other. God exists perpetually because His mind and body invest in something beyond themselves—the body for the sake of the mind, and the mind for the sake of the body. This is the logical basis of eternal life. It originates in the reality of beings investing in one another and then investing more. (210-239, 1990/12/23)
18 "Before you seek to have dominion over the universe, you must first gain dominion over yourself." This is what Christians and other people of faith need to understand. Everyone wants to be admired as great, but what does it mean to be great? The shortcut to having others regard you as great is first to straighten yourself out. Your mind and body are fighting every day, unable to make a truce. This is a condition that has continued and will continue from generation to generation—from your grandparents to your parents, from your parents to you, then from you to your sons and daughters, then to your grandchildren, and on and on.
Countless saints and sages have come and gone without being able to solve this problem. I, however, have solved it. I can enter the realm where my mind and body are in resonance, united in true love. Once I am there, even without engaging in the path of discipline I can understand everything. There were circumstances where I was driven out and persecuted, but I survived amid those whirlpools. How? It is because I understood the path I had to follow. When I enter that state of resonance, I stand directly under Gods perpendicular line. Hence, I understand what measures to take. Because I understand this, I can keep going on my destined path regardless of any outcry against me. This is why I have not come to ruin despite people saying I would. (248-277, 1993/10/03)
19 You are divided individuals. Your mind and body are divided. Your mind, standing in the position of Abel, has been sacrificing for your body. It has been working your whole life, investing and forgetting, investing again and forgetting. Now it is time for your body in the position of Cain to unite with your mind. When the two become one, in that state God will be with you.
On that victorious foundation, you next stand in a Cain-Abel relationship as husband and wife. Again, when the two of you become one, God will descend and dwell with you. Until you restore the Cain-Abel relationship and establish their oneness based on love, you cannot advance to the next level. We have to establish the victorious foundation of Cain-Abel unity from the individual level to the levels of family, tribe, people and nation. Only then can we bring about the liberation of God, as well as the liberation of Adam and Eve and their children. (207-318, 1990/11/11)
20 Religion does two things: First, it stimulates your mind and strengthens its power. If you have religious faith, your mind will be stimulated to such an extent that its purpose becomes your sole focus. When faith impacts your mind so strongly that you forget everything about your body, then for the first time you will realize that God truly exists. Then you must again apply that strong power to every part of your mind, so that you make an absolute determination, "My lord is God alone. My body will submit only to God, not to the Devil." When you feel the conflict between your mind and body, it is because the power of your mind and the power of your body are almost equal. But if you strengthen your faith to infuse your mind with three to five times more power than it has now, your mind can be victorious over your body.
The second thing religion does is to give you power to strike your body and keep your body under control. Striking the body and supplying strong power to the mind are the two works of religion. As well as making your mind stronger, you need to make your body obey your mind. Do this for three years. Since the power of your mind and the power of your body are about the same, you need to make your body suffer until it just surrenders. That is why religion tells you, "Do a fast. Be meek and humble." By saying things like "be meek and humble" and "sacrifice," religion brings the body to submit to the mind. For the same reason, religion teaches you to accept suffering. (085-310, 1976/03/04)
21 Mind and body must become one, as subject partner and object partner. This is what caused me to suffer the most while I was putting myself through spiritual discipline. The mind and body do not become one easily. The biggest challenges are sleeping and eating. If I felt hungry, my mind got confused. If I felt sleepy, my eyes would not listen to me. Next, as a man, I had to overcome my physical desire for women.
These are the three great enemies of all human beings. So unless you overcome them, you cannot go to God's kingdom. Because we are all confronted with those kinds of difficulties, my personal motto has been, "Before you seek to have dominion over the universe, you must first have dominion over yourself." Even if I ^vere able to unite and command the universe, if I cannot attain unity within myself, I would end up losing everything. (232-123, 1992/07/03)
22 What kind of religion does the world need? It is one that presents the way to peace. It cannot be a religion that stands by while we regard ourselves as important, or that endorses a concept of self-centered ownership, or teaches that we can act based on selfish desires. If that were the case, we would never be able to escape the circumstances where people are dominated by their own subjective concepts of what is right for them, their people, and their native land. We have to overcome this. Therefore religion teaches us to sacrifice ourselves. As long as the world continues its history of people pursuing their own benefit, it can never get away from war.
Heaven knows this, and tells us, "Sacrifice yourself! Deny yourself!" In addition, heaven tells us that when we stand in the position of a subject partner, we must not pursue our own benefit as a subject partner. Instead we must choose the path that will benefit our object partner. We must take the path of a religion that emphasizes the ways of sacrifice, service to others, and self-denial. (172-143, 1988/01/10) |