Pyeong Hwa Gyeong (062) - True Families : Gateway to Heaven - 1
6. A training ground of the heart
We cannot live separately from the heart. Even if you were the president of a country or possessed all the authority in the world, you could not live without a place to express the joy in your heart. The desires of your heart would not be fulfilled through the people under your command, through your ministers of government, or through your followers. Only in your family could you experience such fulfillment. When you return to your family, you and your spouse feel joy through each other and through your children. You ought to be proud of this. This joy can be experienced only directly, not secondhand.
The same is true for God. Even if He were to restore the whole world, without a family He could not feel joy. So we must have families.
In the family, parents are at the center. In educational institutions that represent society, teachers have to be at the center. Your parents raised you from the time you were breastfeeding and helped you develop physically and emotionally. What is school, then? It is a place where you are trained for your future life in society. If the family is the training ground of the emotions, then school is the place where you can practice and train for your future life in society.
However, society is not the ultimate end. It all comes back to the nation, and the nation has a leader. Why is it that people want to see the president of a nation and to be near him? Once people have learned all they can in the family and then in society, they have a desire to go on to the next level.
The president represents the fruit of the third stage, following the stages of formation and growth. Once a seed is planted, it begins a cyclical process by dividing. Later it comes together again to produce a flower and bear fruit. In the same way, schools need to raise people up who will become important pillars of society, talented people who are needed by the nation. What is the purpose of our studies in school? It is training. The school is a place for learning and experimenting. During training you are not in the actual situation. It is a preparation stage. Be sure to prepare well.
What is the family? It is the place in which to train the heart. You train your heart with love at the center. In school you learn to relate to others with affection, as you would your own siblings. In the nation, too, you can then relate to others with affection. The education you receive from your parents will be important for you in school and in the nation.
Parents have to pass on everything having to do with the heart to their children. They need to create a foundation of heart for their children, and teach their children to live as they have lived, giving specific guidance on how to live in the family, in society and in the nation.
A family is not necessarily good just because it has a nice house in an affluent neighborhood. Conversely, even if a family may live in a humble house in a poor neighborhood, it will be a good family if it provides peace and love to all its members. In this family, parents and children will have a relationship of heart that urges them to live for each other. This family will be the original homeland of our dreams. It will be the source of our motivation in all that we do in life. This means it will be the basis for determining our happiness in life. |