Pyeong Hwa Gyeong (117) Book 7. The World of the Culture of Heart CHAPTER 6. The Youth Culture Must Become a Pure Love Movement
1. The World Culture and Sports Festival is a festival of true love
Since the entire world is paying close attention to you young people who are gathered here today, I hope you will take this event as an opportunity to determine yourselves to take responsibility for the world.
Upon completion of the 1988 Seoul Olympics, I officially announced the vision for the World Culture and Sports Festival in my fatherland of Korea. In many respects, the Seoul Olympics held at that time was a turning point in modern history.
This was because the 1980 Moscow Olympics and the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics were partially boycotted due to the Cold War, so the Seoul Olympics was the first reunion of all nations in the world, who came together once again as one great family.
As I witnessed the youths of the communist realm in the East and the democratic world in the West competing together and competing harmoniously in Seoul, I foresaw that the barriers separating the democratic world and the communist world would soon dissolve.
And I came to believe that all future competitions need to take a step beyond the Olympic Games, which deal only with athletic excellence, and focus on the shaping of well- rounded people who can strive together to enhance their cultural life, morality and spirit.
Furthermore, I emphasized that the nucleus of such a multi-dimensional competition must be the marriage Blessing ceremony, which creates true families that can realize true love at the center of the mind and body.
Therefore, the World Culture and Sports Festival is a festival of true love. There are events where people unite their minds in harmony in a cultural festival of the intellect, bringing together from around the world the greatest leaders from all fields, including academia, politics, religion, the media and art, to dialogue with one another. It is also a sports festival where athletes from around the world compete in a display of their physical talents for the sake of promoting global solidarity.
In a word, the World Culture and Sports Festival is the very place where we seek the harmonious development of the human mind and body. It is where we pool the wisdom of the leaders of all fields from around the world to design a world of peace, and where we look for ways to create the new culture of the twenty-first century, with true love as our main axis. |