Cheon Seong Gyeong Ⅱ - 191. Our portion of responsibility and our ideal partner in love
16 How can people receive blessings? It is by loving people, who are God’s greatest masterpieces, in accordance with certain principles and rules. There is an order in loving. It begins not from children, but from parents who give love to their children. What is the most beautiful time for human beings? It is young adulthood, the time of youth when one’s flowering is in full bloom. This period is roughly the seven years from age eighteen through twenty-four. This seven-year period is a time never to be repeated in your life, the time when the flower of your love blossoms. How treasured is this beautiful time that will come only once in your life! The buds of some peonies are of an unusual yellow color, and they are wrapped tightly in dozens of layers so they cannot be opened easily. The same is true for the love of men and women. When should you fully reveal the bud of your love, which blossoms like a golden flower? It is the time of youth, the time when beauty is best revealed in accordance with the harmony of heaven and earth. Even to human eyes, it is the time when a person is most fully blossoming. It is a time when you shine as the centerpiece of God’s masterwork. The period of youth is your best and most beautiful stage of life. (26-152, 1969.10.25)
17 Love moves forward in a spiral. It should not grow smaller; rather, it should gradually grow larger. When it expands as it should, individual love naturally pursues family-level love. But our family alone is not enough; we need a tribe, as love develops and expands through a spiral motion. In the Unification Church we say that the individual exists for the sake of the family and, moving on from this, that the nation exists for the world, the world for the cosmos, the cosmos for God, and God for love, which means that all beings that exist on this earth want to be absorbed by love. If a man lived a private life alone with his wife, even though he loved her very much, what would he do if a love greater than their conjugal love came along? The husband would follow that love. If a person who lived with his or her spouse came to learn that there was a world-level love that could embrace everything, that person would pursue that love, leaving his or her family. This is not a bad thing. This is the path of goodness, because those who set out to follow that greater love come nearer to God’s side. (187-054, 1989.01.06)
18 God wished for Adam and Eve to reach their full maturity. They can be compared to chestnut burrs. Around June or July, the size of a chestnut burr is the same as it will be at the time of harvest. However, if you pry it open at that time, you find no nut inside. You may find something with the form of a nut, but it is not yet ripe and ready to eat. Adam and Eve were like that. There was no edible nut inside. God was waiting for them to ripen. When Adam and Eve reached maturity, they would have become the center of the universe. Everything that exists would then have known its own position in relation to that universal center, Adam and Eve. Therefore God was waiting for them to mature to the age of seventeen, eighteen or older. God did not create Adam and Eve as mature adults from the first, but following His laws of nature, created them as infants. If Adam and Eve had grown to maturity and then loved each other in oneness with God, humanity today would not be in such a wretched state. (143-092, 1986.03.16)
19 Nothing is more precious than the love of God. Once I possess His love, the universe belongs to me. It belongs to God and me both. In like manner, a woman’s organ of love belongs to her husband and a man’s to his wife. That’s why they can say to each other, “Your body is my body, and my body is your body.” In this way, the ownership is exchanged. Even though the man has his reproductive organ, it does not mean he is its owner, and even though the woman has her reproductive organ, it does not mean she is its owner. Therefore, if you use your reproductive organ however you want, you will be in serious trouble. This is absolute. For this reason, the Unification Church does not support premarital relationships, or even dating. God’s Will is for you to give your first love to your spouse. This was true for Adam and Eve; they were supposed to have treasured their first love. God guides the first love. He connects hell and heaven through the bridge of first love. Hell will disappear when this bridge is built. (143-092, 1986.03.16)
20 You need to know that your portion of responsibility is all-important. If God had explained to Adam about his portion of responsibility, as I am doing for you right now, Adam might not have fallen. If God had constantly told him, “You have a portion of responsibility, you little brat! This is why I tell you not to eat of the fruit. It is your portion of responsibility, your own!” and shouted at him night and day about this responsibility, Adam might not have fallen. Many women want to have a husband who is tall and good-looking, not short and slightly built. So I think I should find such women the shortest husbands. That would truly allow for restoration through indemnity. Another benefit is that, when a short man weds a tall woman, his unfulfilled desire is at last satisfied. Similarly, when a skinny woman weds a heavy-set man, her unfulfilled desire will be satisfied. (133-151, 1984.07.10)
21 As the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter differ from one another, so do people. There are some who are born in summer, some in autumn, some in winter, and others in spring. Those who are born in spring need to go through the summertime of life, and those who are born in winter need to adapt to the springtime of life. The directions they should take in life are different. As the earth moves on its orbit, the direction human beings take changes as well. One may follow an ascending fortune, another a descending fortune. If a person whose fortune is declining joins with a person of similar fortune, they will both perish. Events will transpire; for example they may both be killed in an auto accident. Therefore if your fortune is declining, you will be able to survive only if you can join with a person whose fortune is naturally rising. For this reason, a man who has a bleak fortune should, if at all possible, find a woman who is ascending and who can pull him up along with her. (120-317, 1982.10.20)
22 Which season matches your innate nature? Is it a season of descending, ascending, or overcoming? Do you have an agreeable or contrary disposition? Everyone’s nature is different. A primary point is that you need to conform to others, especially your spouse. In doing so, a period of just a few months is not enough. You need to make this effort for at least three years. It is your destiny, and you will have to pioneer it in your life. Getting married itself is not the end of everything. Marriage is not an easy thing. You need to marry well. If you meet someone on the street and marry that person just because he or she looks nice, that marriage likely will not last long. In the eyes of young men and women who gaze at each other, everything looks green and attractive simply because it is summertime. The trees are green and they have beautiful fruit on them, and crows and magpies are flying in and out; it is all alluring. But do you know what kind of fruit it is? Pine trees, for instance, should be engrafted only with pine trees. There are different species and families of trees, with boundaries between them. (120-318, 1982.10.20)
23 When there is a perfect plus, a perfect minus is bound to appear. But even if a perfect minus does not appear, the perfect plus does not cease to exist. If a perfect plus could cease to exist, we would have to conclude that even God Himself, who is in the position of the perfect plus, would have to cease to exist without a perfect minus. Based on this logic, the perfect plus creates the perfect minus. In this regard, the Bible story that God took a rib from Adam and created Eve means that Eve was created with Adam as the pattern. It means that from a perfect plus a perfect minus will inevitably emerge. Thus, if Adam became a perfect plus, Eve, in the position of a perfect minus, was to be born through Adam. This is a principle of heaven and earth. If you understand the Bible story in this way, you will recognize that God is a true scientist. (140-128, 1986.02.09)
24 God created man to become perfect, but not for the perfect man himself. In other words the perfect plus was not created for the perfect plus but for the perfect minus, which is the woman. Since God, the origin, is the absolute subject partner, He needs to create an absolute object partner. In other words, since God is the absolute subject partner and the perfect plus, He needs to create an object partner who is the perfect minus. The perfect plus does not cease to exist; rather He creates the perfect minus. Suppose a person has perfect character. Even if he or she is unobtrusive, conscientious people nearby will flock to that person and try to emulate him or her. All existing things— every part of the material world—will likewise gravitate to that subject partner in order to secure the realm of its object partner. They are attracted because they want to rise to a higher level, a place of higher dimension and higher value. All elements move upward in pursuit of a more complete and more ideal version of themselves on a higher level. (140-129, 1986.02.09)
25 Only when it is determined that you have become a perfect subject or a perfect object can your perfect, ideal partner emerge. So the issue that needs to be settled first is how you can perfect yourself. When you reach maturity, you naturally want to find and love your spouse, but you need first to set the condition of having loved your parents even more than that person. Only when everyone can say of you, “That person is a filial son or daughter,” can you form a relationship of love with God, which is a prerequisite for forming a relationship of love with your spouse. This is a heavenly rule and a principle of creation. Before you start thinking about your ideal partner, you first need to form a bond of love with your parents such that they can proclaim you publicly as a filial child. This means you need to completely unite with your parents. In addition, to practice true filial piety, you must also create unity among your siblings. Everyone in your family should be able to say that you are truly exemplary. Only when you have achieved all this can you begin a relationship with your spouse as his or her ideal partner. (100-149, 1978.10.09)
26 When God looks at people, He first looks into the depths of their heart. Next He looks at their past and then their future, based on the present. Those of you who are young should understand the importance of this. You should not choose friends based on their good looks. Instead, you should choose them based on the quality of their heart, and what their future will be like in light of their way of life in the past and the present. The face is like a window on the heart. The face shows only the four features—eyes, nose, lips and ears. Therefore, whether you are homely or handsome you should conduct yourself well and have a generous heart. If God were searching the world to find one person, what kind of person would He want to find? It would be a person whose heart is as big as the world. But even if such a person existed, what if that person had eyes and hands that were as large as the world? No one would welcome him or her. Harmony comes when a person has a big heart. Rather than priding yourself on a beautiful or handsome face, you should live with a virtuous heart. This being the case, would you rather seek to marry someone with a beautiful face or with a beautiful heart? You should marry a person with a beautiful heart. (100-093, 1978.10.09) |