Philosophy of Peace - 3. Reverend Moon's Philosophy of Peace 3

[대태양/김현수]

Philosophy of Peace

(3) Reverend Moon's Philosophy of Peace

3. Philosophy of peace and love

As the source of the universe, which comes first, life or love? When we examine this matter, life cannot be first. God is the source of life. This being the case, on what foundation would God like to live? He would like to live on the foundation of peace. What can establish a foundation of peace? Is it life, or is it something else? It is not life. There is something that can recognize the common base in all things, transcending orderly stages and the rank or position of subject partner and object partner. What is it? It is true love. 
(173-084, 1988.02.07)

What is the ideal core of the universe? It is love. It is the core of peace. Christianity talks about love and Buddhism talks about mercy. Confucianism speaks of benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom. The word "benevolence" speaks of two people. Naturally, it means love. The Chinese character for "heaven" includes the characters for "two" and "person."
(164-153, 1987.05.10)

Where there is no love, there is no peace. Where there is no love, naturally there is no happiness. Where there is no love, there is no joy, as well. That explains why we say, "God is love." The center of the universe can be established only through love and no being can exist without a center. That is why it is natural to say that God is love and human beings are love. 
(076-047, 1975.01.26)

People who live striving to see the object partner of love do not grow old. Only the power of love will transform the universe into a spring-like flower garden of love. Thus, the time is not that far away when we will strive for a peaceful world centered upon the universal and supranational God. 
(086-330, 1976.04.18)

The being who is the core of love is God. Human beings must have a nature that corresponds to God's nature in order to become beings who resemble God. Accordingly, the human mind must possess the nature and character that reflect the core of God. Where does its essence originate? It is rooted in the essence of love. Peace stems from love. Happiness and joy also originate from love and not from money! 
(035-057, 1970.10.03)

The ideal world is one in which God's original purpose of creation is realized. This ideal world must also resemble God. This is why human beings long for a harmonious, peaceful life where love is constantly present. It also why humans strive to improve the environment and ceaselessly create new things. Creation does not simply mean manufacturing something, but includes the entire creative process of formulating, planning, improving and finally producing a new creation. 

We may say that human beings resemble God in terms of creative abilities, which can be seen in remarkable scientific developments. However, our creative abilities have not fully resembled God's unconditional love, and have consequently led to sadness, pain and misfortune. Since harmony is inherent in love, harmony cannot be found where there is no love. Likewise, where there is no harmony, there cannot be peace or happiness. As a result, history has been filled with misery and suffering. 
(065-259, 1972.11.26)

There is no rank or position in love. Therefore, when you exist in the domain of love, you have the authority to possess the whole even though you may not yet stand at the center. There is no discrimination in the world of love. Being large or small or high or low is not a problem since the world has infinite peace, infinite equality and infinite value at all times. These qualities are linked together eternally in a give-and-take relationship for goodness. Therefore, there is nothing that is not united or harmonious in the world of love. So, we must find the place of the victorious leader who is centered on the love that is rooted in such standards. We have so far failed to find such a place; we must strive to do so. 
(014-249, 1965.01.01)

This concept applies to the relationship of parents and children as well. Babies bite their mother's nipples when feeding. Can you mothers let this happen without love? You can't. You feel, naturally, profound happiness when your babies feel their parents' love, as you embrace them. Still more, when you feel that heaven and earth are all entering that state of peace, and things that are good for the general environment are budding around you, you forgive your biting babies and let them do so with a generous mind, no matter how hard they may bite into your breast. That is why parents can love their children infinitely. 
(049-050, 1971.10.03)

Love naturally develops the more it works. This power of love is also a kind of power of nature, but it is a three-dimensional power and one of increasing action. This applies only, however, to human beings. It does not exist in animals. Because of this, we are the lords of all things. We can have a relationship with the universe and can dream of the kingdom of peace. 
(039-334, 1971.01.16)

Peace does not emerge just because one person does well. The energy of men and women have to combine, revolve around each other, and rush toward the center. That rushing toward the center is the power of love. When an object partner appears, the heart that desires to love emerges within the being. 
(019-305, 1968.03.10)

Nobody wants a unity that is centered on a temporary purpose. People want unity to last forever. Then, what is the factor by which people can be united eternally? It is love. Love is the foundation for making unity. It is the basis of happiness that can be pursued forever. Without love, there is no happiness. Without love, there is no peace. Without love, contradictions arise. When love is complete, everything becomes harmonized. 
(050-113, 1971.11.06)

God is the same. If God loves human beings, it is natural that He would not want to love them from a lonely and painful place. We can conclude that God would find a road of love at the place of freedom and peace where all things in the universe can praise the love and glory of God. 

If there is someone whom God can love, He would like to love the person in a free environment and in the original place of a peaceful heaven. What kind of love would He like? It would be the supreme love. Wouldn't God and humans desire the supreme love to which heaven and earth can bow in respect? 
(051-315, 1971.12.05)

Even though you may occupy a part of God's love, you would have to give precedence to the person who can command all of God's love. Can you talk about peace, happiness or the ideal without mentioning love? Needless to say, the supreme place that God desires and we can reach is the place of love. 
(053-108, 1972.02.11)

What is the standard of the common denominator? If someone said, "Let's establish it with God's authority!" and people followed it, equal rights would still be lacking in such a place. One may, of course, force others to follow such a standard and the people may even say, "Yes." However, you would not find the reciprocity or equality there. In short, the factor that can generate the ideal of mutual peace is love and nothing else. 
(083-157, 1976.02.08)

The knottiest problem in the free world today is the order of love. Love that lacks an understanding of the process of history, a view of the future and the proper direction cannot become the source of freedom, unity and peace. 

For example, two people love each other today, but become divided tomorrow. How can there be peace, unity or freedom in such love? Is there freedom there? Is there happiness? Is there peace? Is there unity? Just the opposites are present. Such love would bring about nothing but destruction. and is unforgivable. You have to be aware that this type of love is the strategic weapon of Satan. He twists the original ideal of love in the opposite direction to destroy humanity and the ideal of humanity. We have to know that it is the strategic method of the enemy who takes the real peace, the real freedom and the real unity away from us. 

Seen through this view of history, we can deduce that America will also go to ruin if she does not correct such situations and repent. She is certain to fall. If the correct order of love is not established in America, there cannot be freedom, peace or the possibility of unity. We have to be aware of the fact that confusion, destruction and darkness are enveloping us. 
(104-140, 1979.04.29)

Countless people living on this earth are vaguely hoping for the ideal world to come. What is that ideal world like? People say, "It is a place where freedom and peace exist, so humanity can live together." Look, this is just a vague concept. However, it is not ambiguous in our Unification Church. We present specific content. People say they desire a world of peace, freedom and unity. However, which one comes first and which one is last? Some say that it's freedom and some say that it's peace. Some say, "How can there be unity when there is no peace?" and others say, "Without freedom, there cannot be unity. Without freedom, there cannot be peace, either." I mean, they are all fine ideas. However, what the Unification Church suggests is the content that includes these ideas, but emphasizes that the first source is none other than love. We suggest that the noun called love becomes the center. Freedom that is centered on this love holds true in any place and is warmly welcomed everywhere. Moreover, the peace that is centered on love is welcomed wherever it may go. Unity that is centered on love also receives a warm welcome at all times. 

Without this, one cannot establish an order. The concept of freedom is different in the democratic world and communist world. Their views of peace and unity are also different. Needless to say, however, even though the content might be different, they can be harmonized and appear in one form when love is brought in. Why is this so? What people in the communist world demand is love and what people in the democratic world demand is love as well. It cannot be intrinsically different. What kind of love is that love? It is love, which can connect cause and effect. It means that its nature does not change at all. 
(104-139, 1979.04.29)

You have to know why love is precious. In true love, we find collective responsibility and collective relationships. Bringing the world into unity cannot be done with great power or great knowledge. It can only be done with love. World peace is realized in the place people are willing to fulfill their entire responsibility even at the cost of sacrificing themselves. What is united through force will divide when the force no longer exists. However, what has been united through sacrificial love does not break up even when there is no force. 
(097-162, 1978.03.12)

Love in the satanic world is a love that violates, destroys and ignores everything. However, love in the world of heaven is a constructive love, an ideal and peaceful love in which every life moves actively. It's a reality quite opposite to the reality in the present world. Also, love in the satanic world is momentary. While to the contrary, God's love is an eternal love. When a movement occurs in which these two trends of thought collide and cross each other throughout the world, then one would be the world of hell on earth and the other would be the world of the ideal in heaven. 
(091-199, 1977.02.13)

As long as you fail to establish the order of love, problems will become serious. No matter how strong, powerful and competent one may be one will become a hopeless person when hit by a problem in terms of love. When love is disorderly, there can be no true peace and true happy families. 
(118-295, 1982.06.20)

The foundation of peace cannot be formed unless people are touched and submit tamely in front of love. That's why good always seems to be hit and yet has progressed. The strategy of heaven is to be hit and then receive what rightfully belongs to it. We know that the course of restoration has been a path of blood, sweat and tears through which the side of goodness for God has developed. It is the formula. 
(114-093, 1981.05.17)

True equality, true happiness and true freedom won't exist without love. Freedom exists only when there are equality and peace. One can never be free by oneself but has to find freedom in the relationship of subject partner and object partner. However, no matter how joyfully the subject partner and object partner may dance, taking pride in their freedom, it cannot be true freedom and happiness while they are existing in an evil, selfish realm. It is freedom that will fall and be destroyed. 

Within the absolute authority that can guarantee freedom, there is a peaceful and happy freedom. When it cannot be guaranteed, there is no freedom. For example, when you have loving parents and supportive brothers and sisters, they will protect you from the harsh environment. This can become a type of eternal freedom. However, your freedom cannot be guaranteed in an environment when you are surrounded by enemies. In the end, the environment affects one's freedom. 

We have known that God is the only subject partner who is eternal and unchanging. Equality, peace, happiness and eternal freedom exist within Him. No peace or freedom can be guaranteed in a world that has no love. This is because the spirit itself is changeable. 
(065-290, 1973.02)

Only the unification of thoughts centered on shimjung [heart], which is a unique noun in the Unification Church, can establish the heaven of peace and the kingdom of peace. In other words, it can complete the utopian heaven on earth that humanity has always desired. 
(109-133, 1980.11.01)

Toward where are we moving? We are moving toward the ideal world. We are also moving to a world of peace and a world of unity. What are words like unity, peace or the ideal all about? They mean one world. What is the center of that one world? Love has to be at the center of all of these words. Is the communist world a world of peace? Is the democratic world a world of peace? No matter how well an organization is united, it cannot be a world of true unity unless there is love. There has to be love. 
(124-025, 1983.01.16)

Once you inherit the great accomplishments of the creation, you come to have the authority of true love. By inheriting the great accomplishments of the creation, you obtain the authority to inherit God's true love. With true love, there is nothing you cannot do. You can even love your enemy. The power of true love does not involve fighting or compelling others by force, but brings others to natural submission. This power is stronger than any other power. There is no ideal standard or standard of peace higher than the concept of true love. To what do ostensibly modest women completely succumb? It is nothing other than true men and true love. There is nothing impossible in true love. Everybody welcomes it.
(124-094, 1983.01.30)

How are you going to assure equal rights? By force? Externally? Emotionally? Through love, women can be equal to men. Through love, a mother can be equal to her son even though the son may be the president of a country. We have to know the fact that where there is love, everything can be equal. In that sense, we have to understand that the central core of equality lies in men and women who hope for a family of peace centered on true love. 

When men go home, they say, "I'm going to the house of my beloved wife. I'm going to the bosom of my beloved wife." The wife also says, "My beloved husband, come to my bosom." That is peace and that is equality. They become one right here. Husbands want to return to their wives' bosom and wives want their husbands to come to their bosom and be one. Here, nothing is low or high. They are indeed experiencing equality. Can there be equality at any other place? We have to understand that the equal rights of men and women are only formed in a peaceful family.
(129-049, 1983.10.01)

Historically, humanity has desired for peace, but wars still continue to exist in the world. Unfortunately, powerful countries or men of power have often misused the word "peace." While saying such and such about peace, they have actually caused people to worry and experience something that is not peace. In particular, communists have used the word "peace" as if it were their favorite word, while making it their business to provoke war. This way, the word "peace" has been used in many cases just as a means of realizing injustice. 

True peace does not depend on external conditions such as knowledge, wealth, social position or political power. There is not an absolute standard in the world by which one can impartially judge matters of worldwide concern and interest, so it is impossible to maintain true peace in the changing world. True peace can be established only upon the foundation of true love, and we can experience the relationship of love only when we understand the God-centered absolute value that ties humanity together. 
(130-010, 1983.12.18)

The freedom that asserts itself with true love as its center is eternal freedom. Peace that is started with that true love as its center is eternal peace, and such happiness is also eternal happiness. We can also draw the conclusion that when the whole is united centered on true love, it becomes eternal unity. Then, the eternal peace will be connected to the eternal society and the world. 
(130-146, 1984.01.08)

When black and white are together in God's embrace, they will be united together of their own will. They will assimilate with each other. How peaceful and happy such people, countries and families would be? Why? It is because everybody and everything would then resemble God. Everybody wants to live in love with people of the world. People want to live with true love. This is the correct path, which nobody can change. It is eternal. No matter how difficult that path may be, people choose it. This is the only path of peace and the path that reaches heaven. There is no other path, just this one! 
(149-306, 1986.12.14)

"Poetic sentiment is seen in the face of a smiling grandfather." "Poetic sentiment is seen in the face of a crying grandfather." Which one is correct? The country of peace is developed on the path where laughter exists. However, the day laughter does not exist, the heaven of peace will change into hell. In other words, when we follow the right path of love, heaven will come into being both in heaven and on earth. 
(139-027, 1986.01.26)

Religion strives for things that pertain to the world. With humankind as its focus, religion tries to create the framework of peace. Therefore, religions head toward world peace. However, world peace is not the kind of peace centered only on human beings. God has to be able to feel joy there. This is where the standard of peace that God desires matches the standard of peace that human beings desire. The important issue is what the two are going to be centered upon in order to agree with each other. 

If human beings had created the culture of love and a worldview of love based on love as its foundation, then "bloody liberation" - as communism argues for - would not exist. Democracies center only on people and are all unrighteous. 

While it is difficult to distinguish the front from the rear in a spherical shape, its center is evident. A spherical shape is round, but its center is certain. Every action has to pass through this center. What kind of center is this? It has to be the center of absolute love. So, I see that the origin of peace, the origin of happiness and the origin of the perfection of the whole lie here. 
(139-061, 1986.01.26)

What is it that people need most? People also demand what God needs most. Therefore, one cannot find the standard of perfect happiness as long as humankind fails to complete its task. How can there be happiness when you eliminate love? Can there be peace without love? Can you find happiness when you are exploited and your mind and body are separated? Can people feel happy with each other if there is no power that can pull them up to the place of equality? No matter who you are or where you are, you will receive the privilege by which you can be endowed with equal value when you have formed your realm of object partner with perfect love. Therefore, when you come to form a equal bond with God's love, all that God possesses will become yours. This is an amazing fact. 
(141-108, 1986.02.19)

Why is love necessary? We cannot enter heaven unless we welcome God's love and have a relationship with it. Love is precious, so in order to establish love, we have to love others by living for their sake. The principle of creation is part of God. The love of living for the sake of others therefore gives and forgets, and gives and forgets again. We have to become a couple who can do so, a country that can do so, and individuals who can live for the sake of each other. Only love in which people of the past, present and the future can live for the sake of each other, centered on God, can lead this world into peace. 
(143-283, 1986.03.20)

What would people want to do by loving? That women and men alike can receive the right of inheritance through receiving God's love is a surprising fact. That's your wish, isn't it? To become the master of heaven and earth. Rev. Moon has gone through a miserable course, but he knew this fact. The people said to Rev. Moon, "Don't receive God's love." Now the day has come when they say, "Please receive God's love and the right of inheritance of the universe." If all nations would sing such songs of praise, then the world would become a peaceful world. 
(143-066, 1986.03.15)

Would the road true love follows be a road along which you go as you please or a road you follow according to a certain unchanging law? Would the road have been made casually or would it have a certain order, direction and purpose? Surely, it would have a direction that includes the past, present and future. Therefore, one purpose - joy and peace - has to be realized where there is true love. 
(161-293, 1987.03.01)

When human love has found its center, the world of peace will start and all things will be in harmony centered on love. What would have become of Adam and Eve if they had centered on God's love? God's love would have entered the hearts of Adam and Eve and that husband and wife would have inherited the blood lineage of God by realizing love centered on God's own love. Pastors of established churches still think that God is holy and we, His creatures, are evil. They say so because they are ignorant of this teaching. 

Love is not something someone can have alone. Even God cannot experience love all by Himself. Even though a grandfather has earned the Nobel Prize and might have hundreds of doctorates, there is no peace in him if he is alone. He has no joy. He would feel happiness when he held his small grandson to his bosom. Men and women are born because of love. Then, why would they marry? They would marry to find God's love. The day they found God's love they would stand in a position equal to God's.
(164-149, 1987.05.10)

Men have desire, so they think what is the greatest hope and which way is the best to fulfill that. In the end, they come to realize that everyone has the equal right by which they can make the universe their own. Knowing that they have to occupy God's one and only love, they challenge to do so, even giving up the world. The day you occupy God's love, peace and happiness will come automatically. 
(160-236, 1969.05.17)

Without love we cannot build peace. In love there are no walls. Even the absolute God will demand absolute peace and absolute happiness. Then, what can bring them? Is it money? We can make as much money as we need. Would it be knowledge? God is the king of knowledge. Power? God is omniscient and omnipotent. Then, what would it be? It is love, true love. Even the absolute God attends love absolutely. 
(196-319, 1990.01.12)

Something that one person might think is best may not be the best in the eyes of another. One may consider the worst thing to be the best when one is centered on oneself. However, what is the one common thing that everyone would like? People, of course, like eating, wearing nice clothes and buying things. However, such things are always two-dimensional and not something eternal. They cannot help maintain the nature of your eternal life. Therefore, for human beings themselves to exist forever, men inevitably need women, and women need men. Besides, if they don't prepare a basis for peace through relationships centered on a framework called love, there can be no true family, nation or world either. 
(193-133, 1989.10.03)

In the philosophy of love, there is no sound of two people fighting. The sound of love turns life into peace, unity, harmony and ideal love. When love is ruled out, the concept of eternal life is meaningless. One can achieve unity only in love. The ideal, eternal realm starts from the unification of love. Only then would one say, "I want to live with you forever." 
(191-220, 1989.06.25)

The Last Days are the age of parents. The age of brothers (Cain and Abel) is the age in which people fight one another. There has been a history of conflict, but when the age changes to that of parents, the quarrels will end. The age of parents will come, so children who are in a family that attends the parents cannot fight. The day you are fully aware of such love, you cannot possibly find anyone to fight with. The world of peace comes from there. 

When a boy sits on his grandfather's lap, does the grandfather feel bad or good to see his grandson? In the place where love is shared, love is the master of you and me. You can't be happier than being ruled forever by true love. While being ruled by love you find yourselves spinning around, and you exclaim, "Oh, I thought that I was down, but I'm now up. Oh my, I am now in the east! Now west!" Nobody would object to this. 
(191-063, 1989.06.24)

Everyone wants a world of unity and every country wants a world of peace. Gold cannot be the central focus of peace. If it were, it would cause fighting. You have seen cowboy movies, right? In the final scene, partners who had been searching for gold, face off and shoot at each other in a duel that could cost them their lives. At the end of the movie, they are both corpses floating down the river to become the prey of vultures. How would you attain unity, and after attaining unity, how would you protect it? There are not usually any protective measures. When you make unity through true love, however, you can protect it forever. People would never leave that realm no matter how hard they may be pushed. 
(190-125, 1989.06.18)

You are all individual embodiments of truth, aren't you? Love is the public truth incarnation. The ideal is nothing when love is excluded. Unity, peace and freedom are all empty when love is removed. What is the freedom of wife and husband? It is to strip themselves bare. Stripping oneself bare is liberation, isn't it? When husband and wife occupy each other's most secret place, that is freedom, isn't it? Without love, would that be possible? The fundamental realm of freedom's liberation is love. 
(179-101, 1988.07.22)

Love is the origin of all life in the universe, the origin of ideal management, the origin of every alliance, the origin of everything. Without love, we would not have such things as happiness or peace. 
(183-196, 1988.11.01)

If true love were perfected in the human world, what problems could arise politically, culturally or environmentally? In the world of true love, there is no insurmountable problem. The world of true love is the world of freedom, peace and happiness replete with laughter and dreams - a world in which joy and happiness are infinitely and eternally disseminated through the right of the same position, participation and inheritance that comes through true love. The complex problems that beset humankind today can be fundamentally solved only through the perfection of true love. 
(294-065, 1998.06.11)

Everybody likes unity and peace. However, one cannot achieve unity with money. Then, what is the power which can unite the five sensory organs and all the body's cells and make them go in one direction? The power of true love is the only such force. Only true love can make unity and peace. 
(288-084, 1997.11.16)

When love is removed, the ideal of one body will break apart and all thoughts of equality will fall to pieces. When we say that heaven and earth are in harmony and peace, doesn't that mean that everything is in harmony with nothing left out? Then, what will everything be harmonized by? Nothing will be done without love. 
(209-029, 1990.11.25)

Although God may lay down His own theory of the ideal, He cannot develop a relational theory of the ideal. God cannot discover the theoretical basis for peace on His own. Here, God has to engraft a relational theory. What, then, is that? It is love. He wanted His object partner of creation to be better than Himself. This is an amazing fact. 
(229-319, 1992.04.13)

The standards of peace and unity are not found somewhere else. What is the use of the unification of North and South Korea and the unification of the world if your mind and body are fighting? The standard of peace and the unification of North and South begin from the point where the fight between your body and mind ends. What are we going to use to stop this fight? It cannot be done with the might of nations or the influence of money. Knowledge won't do it. Power can't do it, either. Only true love! True love makes everything into one. True love is that which lives for the sake of others. One has to invest more than one's life. 
(219-066, 1991.08.25)

Where do women try to find utopia and absolute peace? Where are men going to find their utopia? The question of where to find men's happiness, men's peace and men's joy is an important one

Women's utopia cannot exist if men are excluded. Women's happiness and peace cannot exist apart from men. It is because there is love between women and men. Nothing will happen without love. No matter how wonderful a man or a woman may be, he or she must have an object partner. Everything is decided centered on that thing called love. A woman understands love by meeting a man and a man finds love by meeting a woman. Love is the source of utopia and the foundation of happiness and peace

We think that God has absolute peace and absolute happiness since God, who is the absolute being, has absolute love. If He were a changeable God, could He be the base for absolute happiness and the ideal of love? If God were changeable, could the unchanging dwell in Him? Unchanging peace? Unchanging joy? God Himself is an absolute and unchanging standard. He is the one center. Unchanging love, unchanging peace, unchanging happiness and unchanging joy are connected together from there. This is an important conclusion. This is undeniable. This is a formula and standard
(205-202, 1990.09.02)

The thing that can represent the great principles of nature is love. It is love that becomes the center of the universe. Wouldn't even the Absolute God feel like obeying and attending it completely? If God is an Absolute God, He has to become a king there as well. We cannot deny this logic. Since God is in an absolute place, omniscient and omnipotent, He has to be a great king not only in asking others to serve Him but also in attending others as well. If He denied such logic, He would be an absolute dictator. If so, there would be no peace and there would be no good base of logic. There would be no conclusion except that God is a despotic being. The conclusion of harmony, the conclusion of compromise and the conclusion of freedom would all disappear.
(204-029, 1990.06.29)