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Chapter one
The Existence of Human Beings in the Physical and Spirit Worlds
Section 1. Our Course of Life
1.1. Prayers relating to the life course
“Beloved Heavenly Father, I thank You for Your grace, and for having shielded me in my struggles from my childhood until now; during those years I have been apprehensive of any humiliation or shame that Heaven might suffer. Among all the good things on this earth, there is nothing more precious than connecting to Your original heart. Knowing this, we must infinitely long for that relationship. We must keep in mind that those who experience Your love will have no regrets even if they forget about all the things of this world. Now we must seek the ideal world, the original homeland where we live by Your love. We must prepare today on earth for the day of our birth as liberated children endowed with the authority of freedom of our third life.
We must know that just as we needed to be healthy in the womb to be born to lead a healthy life on earth, we need a wholesome earthly life to have a wholesome life in heaven. As the world today is one of conflict under the dominion of evil, we must we must be resolved to fight to the death in order to be blessed with the cooperation of heaven and earth and to keep in step with the dynamic fortunes of the universe. We must resolve that our descendants will never be placed in the same position as we have been.” (49-308, 1971.10.17)
“Beloved Father, when we think of how You exist and have toiled unremittingly to usher in a new spring, we must become Your infinitely grateful and joyous sons and daughters who lament the fact that we have yet to offer our entire life and love to You. In our predestined relationship with You, our lives are meant to be harmonized, and completely absorbed in and by You so that we too, may greet the new spring.
We must realize that only when we greet spring for the first time will the flowers bloom. We must not become such pitiful souls who have never done so. Just as a flower goes through summer and autumn before blooming and bearing fruit, we too are to undergo a similar process to bear fruit.
We know that for a tree to bear fruit, it first absorbs life elements through its roots, trunk and branches in summer, concentrating a perfect life force to bring forth a second life. Similarly, we must become the sons and daughters who are introspectively determining whether we have a life force welling up in our hearts – one that is capable of rebirth in a new world even if our bodies should die.
No matter how much time flies by, no matter how fiercely the storms rage, our inner life force must withstand the intrusions of the environment and persevere persistently on the path of growth. Only in this way, can we welcome the new spring and become a seed, the original source of a second life, which can be planted again.
Likewise, no matter how pathetic we may look externally, if we maintain our value as the original essence that can enhance the spiritual life force and as a seed that can be planted in the infinite world, we are not miserable people even though we may think we are. Please allow us to realize that the more miserable we may appear externally, the more our internal value is complete and guaranteed.” (32-36, 1970.6.14)
“Father, we have realized that without the desire to serve and bow down humbly to You, we can have no relationship with You in the eternal world. Open the doors of our hearts to feel Your heart and hear Your voice welling up from the depths of our hearts, and guide us to regain our lost bodies today. Help us to appreciate Your historical course of toil and trouble to find each one of us, that we may humbly bow our heads before You.” (4-280, 1958.9.14)
1.2. The purpose that people desire
God does not have a body. Therefore, in order to manifest His body, God used Adam as His body, showing His face through him. That is the ideal of creation.
God is the original spiritual focal point and Adam is the original physical focal point. These two focal points generate a 90-degree angle. This is God’s purpose of creation and the purpose that people desire. Had Adam and Eve not fallen, they would have occupied the positions of father and mother eternally in the spirit world; yet, due to the Fall, this was not possible. Had there been no Fall, everyone could have gone to Heaven simply by attending their parents as though they were attending God. (119-109, 1982.7.4)
1.3. The reason for birth
This created world is round everywhere: the sun, the earth, and the stars; everything is created round. Even our mouth, if we analyze it, is round. No matter what, everything is created that way. Then, the universe makes relationships by going around and around, making circular, cyclical movements. Even if one individual thing has a round shape, it does not exist by itself individually but makes a relational connection with the whole.
Then, why are we born? We are born to beat in rhythm with this vast universe. Ocean waves lapping against the shore lap against our hearts as well. Gentle breezes sighing serenely lull our hearts into serenity. Flowers in bloom release rich fragrances and stir the fragrances in our hearts. (104-122, 1979.4.22)
If we are born, raised, live and die in love, then we can be grateful for our birth, life and death. You were all born by having participated in the place where your father and mother loved and treasured each other exceedingly. You are participants in this love. Since you were born through your parents’ love, you consider yourselves born as the flags planted through your parents’ love. These flags flutter to express love. We are all meant to live for the sake of love throughout our lives. So you should wave the flag of love for your mother, wave the flag of love when you see your father, and wave the flag of love for your siblings. (103-258, 1979.2.25)
1.4. The relationship between a moment and a lifetime
Your living body cannot be perfected unless your entire existence becomes a foothold for absorbing nutrients. This phenomenon occurs in the natural world. The crossroads of life do not appear over a long period of time but in a single moment.
People who ignore a moment fail to obtain something precious. They cannot become great people, nor inherit God’s throne and crown. Thus, for the sake of one bright shining moment, exercise care with each word you utter, each action you take, and even each thought you entertain. Deal with life and solve problems, believing that the contents of your daily life will all remain as phenomena in relationship to the world. That is the only way the realm of victory is determined.
In this way, the realm of victory is determined in one moment. It is the same with the historical realm of victory and the cosmic realm of victory. Those who know the infinite value of one bright shining moment and live accordingly can become great people, even saints or God’s sons and daughters. In this way, the junction of life and death is crossed in a single moment. (31-217, 1970.5.31)
Today, our attitude is the problem. Of course, it is necessary to first desire the coming of the kingdom and wish for the Will to be done. Yet, what is more important is how we ourselves can personally become one with God’s will.
If we take this one hour, we see that how we use it to become one with the Will is more important than to desire the Kingdom of God to come. Therefore, we must first create environments as individuals, families, tribes and peoples that will enable us to inherit God’s will, whereupon we can then proceed to establish a relationship with God’s Kingdom. Then, centered on God, how do we make a relationship with the Will in this one hour - if you are given an hour - within the sphere of your daily living? This is a very important issue.
Looking at the history of the providence of restoration, there were four thousand years from Adam’s family through Noah’s, Abraham’s and Moses’ families down to Jesus’ family. Here, however, what led to their failures did not occur over the span of, say, a year. In Adam’s family, the Fall of Adam and Eve was not something planned out and put into action over the span of a year or a decade or even several decades. Their mistake happened in a flash, and when we think about how that failure of one moment has been perpetuated over eons of time, we can understand the fearfulness and dreadfulness of that instant.
Due to the failure of that one moment, so many people who walked the path of righteousness in the course of history had to undergo untold suffering, and many races that could not follow the Will fell into the abyss of destruction. All these became the origin of a tremendous offering of indemnity. When we understand this, a single hour that we ordinarily live so casually in our daily life becomes fearful; but even more, we have to feel how fearful a moment is, even one second of one hour that goes by as the clock steadily ticks. Even the eternal Kingdom of Heaven does not exist without having an integral relationship with the single moment.
Eternity does not start when we die, but at the moment we come to know God’s will. Here, if for even an instant there is a leap in the relationship of time or an abyss created, eternity will be interrupted. Therefore, while walking the path of faith in the course of your lives, do not procrastinate by deferring your providential responsibilities from this year to the next, and then to the year after that, or from your youth to your midlife and finally into your old age. We cannot live like that. People with such a lifestyle will die without having ever spent even one day of being one with the Will over the course of their lifetime. They cannot go to the Kingdom of Heaven.
However good your country of residence may be, you cannot go to the Kingdom of Heaven if you were unable to live even one day by a victorious standard; you cannot enter the eternal world if you failed to live even one year victoriously. Hence, while it is important for believers to go forth dreaming of eternity, what is even more important is how they actually eradicate evil and whether they become the standard-bearers of goodness. This is preeminently crucial.
From this perspective, Adam’s momentary lapse led to eons of anguish. It was in Adam’s family that Cain and Abel had to dissolve the anguish of their parents and demolish the wall that existed between the brothers and create the origin of one family. Yet the murder of Abel, who was set up as the representative of the providence of restoration, was also an instantaneous incident.
In the 120-year course during which Noah toiled to build the ark, in only a brief moment God issued the command, “The day to fulfill My wish has come: all aboard!” Those who followed this order were able to receive the blessings of the eternal God; those who did not were buried within the realm of eternal judgment.
It was the same with Abraham: God’s promise that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sands on the seashore” (Genesis 22:17) was bestowed in the twinkling of an eye. Abraham’s sacrificial offering did not require decades but rather a mere day’s work. The time it took him to cut the offering and place it on the altar was not more than an hour, yet that single hour historically bore the seeds of all life and death, curse and blessing.
Today, what believers should dread is not the visitation of judgment in the Last Days but the question of how they will harmonize their daily activities and face life’s crossroads in alignment with God’s will. (37-217, 1970.12.27)
1.5. Infancy and the three orderly stages of the growing period
How did God create Adam and Eve? If He used clay, what kind was it? Where did He begin? From which point did Adam and Eve’s lives start? We cannot think that God created them as adults, but rather as babies. Without the notion that God behaved as a pregnant mother who subsequently gave birth to, nourished and nurtured a baby, we cannot logically explain the formation of all existence through the three orderly stages of growth. Logically, Adam and Eve passed through infancy before entering the growth and completion stages. This is heavenly law.
What was Adam and Eve’s infancy like? We must proceed from the concept that the invisible God nurtured a baby whose beginnings were in the world without form and who could pass through the course in the physical realm. (225-198, 1992.1.20)
1.6. Our life path
Since the society, nation and world in which we live are far from ideal, all manner of suffering occurs, and good and evil are at cross-purposes.
If we took a random sample of a hundred men, it would reveal that one hundred percent of them jostle among themselves in “an every man for himself” struggle within their circumstances to cope with the demands of their mundane affairs.
Therefore, in our daily lives, we all acutely lack the confidence that we can complete the day’s work that we planned in the morning. With a wider scope of activities we would need proportionately more drive and determination to bring a victorious result in our everyday life. Lacking these, that day cannot be victorious. Such days turn into months and months into years.
We also lack environments conducive for meeting our monthly goals. To end a month victoriously, we need the drive and determination necessary to achieve breakthroughs in tackling both the details and complexities of that month. Without them, we cannot conclude our monthly activities victoriously.
Getting through a year successfully requires us to be equipped with a fighting spirit or driving force that can thrust aside all the challenges of each and every one of its 365 days. We can then celebrate that year victoriously. If we live a year like that, and continue in this vein, it will eventually add up to ten, and then twenty, and then thirty years, and that eventually becomes our life path. (31-30, 1970.4.12)
People living on earth today cannot escape from the constraints of time. That has been true throughout history. Individuals, families, tribes, people, nations and the world all move within the realm of time.
Wherever people exist, there is always some goal to attain. We are to focus on such a goal for ten, twenty, thirty, seventy years and, indeed, our entire lives. The greater our goal, the stronger our internal commitment needs to be. Unless we maintain an internal determination that surpasses the goal through the process called time, the goal will be unattainable. (31-149, 1970.5.24)
1.7. The original homeland that we must seek
You may not know of the reality of the spirit world, but I enjoy the special benefit from God of having a clear insight into that unknown world. Digging into the root of that world, I found its principles to be quite simple. In the spirit world only those who lived altruistically in line with God’s universal principles can enter the higher realms. The world structured along those lines is the ideal heavenly kingdom. That place is the original homeland that humankind must seek. Today, although we are exiles from our original homeland and live a fallen life, we are destined to return there. God had to create a path for this in the course of history because we could not do so by our own efforts.
This is why God raised up many different religions. They are training grounds through which He has been directing all people along that path, whatever their race, cultural background, customs and traditions. Religions are the training grounds for training people to become eligible to return to the original homeland. Taking into account the diverse cultural backgrounds ranging across the four corners of the earth, God is leading humanity toward a unified world of religion that can progress upward onto higher ground.
What does religion which guides people to the original homeland, centrally teach? It is to live for the sake of others. As highly developed religions tend to emphasize this principle, they teach us to be gentle and meek, to stand in a position to elevate others and live for their sake, and to serve them sacrificially. All this serves to instill discipline in us to abide by the laws of the Kingdom of Heaven. (78-115, 1975.5.6)
1.8. Our highest path in life
What should be our life path? It is the path of possessing God’s love. Possessing God’s love is life’s highest and final destination. Everyone, men and women alike, must go this way. Our life path must lead us to the infinite God of love. The greatest life path consists of finding God’s love by crossing over the peaks of death tens and even hundreds of times, and continuing in that search even after death.
What is the endpoint of our desires? It is the possession of God’s love. If, in that regard, we possess love more precious than our own, God cannot be ours. Thus, we need to possess God’s love. If we possessed only God’s love, then it would be all right even if He were not present. When His love becomes mine and mine becomes His, the internal and the external become one for the first time. A nation based on such love becomes an ideal homeland without upper and lower classes.
When we lie in that place of love, we feel that there is nothing under the sun that does not appear good and that does not exist for our sake. Since God’s love is like that, the heavenly world, which is humankind’s destination, namely the Kingdom of Heaven, is a place filled with love. (39-210, 1971.1.10)
1.9. The standard of birth and the standard of life1.9.1. The wrong standard of birth
People in today’s world who flaunt their pedigrees and parade their degrees as marks of social distinction, are unaware that their births were spiritually sullied. They do not know that they were born with the love, life and lineage of Satan; God’s enemy. This is a serious problem.
Due to the Fall, people have been born from Satan’s love which was passed down to their parents. Satan’s blood has made its way down through the lives of our mothers and fathers to us in the present day. The fruit of those three then, is you. As such, you all belong to the satanic lineage. In other words, Satan’s blood is running through your veins. Therefore, he automatically bears his ideal fruit while God strives to redeem those very men and women and transform them into originally pure and perfect people. You all began from Satan’s love and are born from his lineage.
Since your start was all wrong, you must return to the original point. As we originated from false parents, we need to return and start anew from true parents. How serious is this? It is imperative to inherit God’s love, life and lineage afresh.
That is why, when you receive the Blessing, you undergo the ceremony for changing the lineage. You must believe in this more than your own life. Just because it is a Unification Church ceremony, you should not think of it as some ordinary ritual. It is like a wonder drug, an antidote, to restore the dead back to life.
Our ancestors committed an error so grave that countless people fell victim to its aftereffects throughout the course of human history. Knowing this, we cannot tread that same path again ever again! We paid a ghastly price throughout history for having perpetuated illicit love in the fallen spiritual and physical worlds, with far-reaching consequences for individuals, families, societies, nations and the world. (216-109, 1991.3.9)
1.9.2. The standard of life
When I say life here, I mean eternal life. I am not referring only to the spirit world, but to a life to live for eternity. Each individual was created to be an object of God’s love. You are the object partner of the absolute God, and the partner in His love. God cherishes the notion of true love more than He values Himself. He is the absolute and eternal center of life. His ideal is even more eternal and the center of that ideal is true love. The partner of that love is you.
The attribute of love promotes unity between partners. Such love can unify a nation. Thus, one partner can accompany the other partner in any position and follow unconditionally. You can inherit God’s entire fortune and even His entire heart. I went through a miserable course to discover this and now stand on that foundation. It is sublime and lofty and cannot be exchanged for anything: it is an amazing grace. For that reason, I stand in the same position with God. I share the eternal position of true love. The spirit world is in a different dimension from this limited earthly world. We cannot move freely within mundane confines, but as the spirit world is a higher-dimensional place, you can do anything there; you can leap across time. If you want something based on love, you can have it all anytime, anywhere.
We were originally created as eternal beings. If we become eternal beings of true love and go to the spirit world, we will be free. The first standard of life is the standard of good and evil, the second is the original starting point, and the third is eternal life. (216-107, 1991.3.9)
Section 2. The Status and Character of Human Beings
2.1. God’s purpose in creating humankind
Why did God create humankind? First, it was for God to stand in the position of a parent. A parent, however, is invisible even in the spirit world. There is no model. Thus, in order to become the parent of human beings with a form, God must have a form. Otherwise, He cannot be the center.
Second, a vertical line is one-dimensional and does not generate an area; reproduction cannot take place in the spirit world. A large area or space can only unfold horizontally based on a vertical axis with a 360-degree perpendicular rotation.
Third, it was to maintain the eternality of the realm of the partner of love. It was not only Adam and Eve who were to be God’s partners. Adam and Eve’s children would have stood in the position of God’s partners, just as their parents did. Therefore, God produced people in order to preserve their position as His partners in perpetuity.
Both Adam and Eve called God, “Father”. Then would their children call Him uncle or grandfather? They would call Him Father. The word partner implies equality. We must multiply God’s love horizontally and perfect its value. The value of perfected love is one. That is equality.
To recapitulate, first, God needed a form or shape, namely that of a parent. He acquired that form in order to manifest Himself spiritually as Adam’s father. Second, God needed a production center for the citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. As such, husbands and wives are factories. Using that analogy, would it be better to engage in mass production or small-scale production? Mass production is better. Through automation those factories could definitely produce in mass and pack the Kingdom of Heaven to capacity. That is why women are created to bear many children. (222-337, 1991.11.7)
2.2. Human beings as the interface between spiritual and physical worlds
God made all things and humankind. Everything began with God at the center. Through creating people, He wanted to see Himself in oneness with humankind and all things in a position of equilibrium; such was His will in the creation. There was God and there was the created world, and humankind stood in the middle between them. As such, human beings function as the interface between the spiritual and physical worlds. (67-143, 1973.6.1)
2.3. Body and mind, and spirit self
The cosmos in which we live today has two axes: a visible axis and an invisible one, creating a dual structure. Objects revolve around a subject, which itself rotates, similar to the give-and-take action between mind and body. All beings exist according to this principle. In the same way, in the fallen world today, this axis must be reset in line with the way of restoration.
What is the center of a person’s body? It is the mind. The body revolves around the mind and moves according to its commands. When the mind directs the body to go east, it must do so, and likewise in the opposite direction. The body cannot move at its own whims and fancies. (136-13, 1985.12.20)
We have both mind and body. Above our mind is our spirit and above our spirit is God. We can only perfect ourselves by becoming completely one with God. Despite being such finite entities, we represent all of history and all destinies of the future, and therefore possess cosmic value. (4-267, 1958.8.3)
People must heed their minds in seeking their destinies. This is heavenly law; God strikes those who disobey their minds’ dictates. All throughout history, God has been teaching us to live in conformity with our conscience and not be ensnared by the evils of materialism. Then does our conscience correspond to heavenly law one hundred percent? It does not, due to the innumerable barriers that obstruct it. Before the gateway to heaven are entrances into a labyrinth of challenges. In Christian terms, they are the gates of judgment. The current trend of thought is ushering in a time of fear, insecurity and chaos. It is a time in which people cannot hold on to the center however how hard they try.
We should not allow ourselves to be encumbered by material things. Why not? When God created humankind with a physical self and a spirit self, the spirit was the center. (4-269, 1958.8.3)
2.4. Complete motion and resonance
Resonance means vibrating at the same frequency. Our internal self, which lives for eternity, and our external self, which lives in the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, should be able to resonate centering on love. In resonance, sound waves coincide and become intertwined, all the while oscillating around the core. Likewise, when the spirit self and the physical self harmonize with each other and God’s love, spiritual cells and physical cells engage in perfect motion together.
Therefore, when our eyes become operational, they can see everything in heaven and on earth. This is because they are engaged in perfect motion. Is it not the same with a microphone? If its capacity is good it will resonate a hundred percent. Similarly, once our physical self and spirit self become one and attain a volatile state through the force of love, heaven and earth, God and everything else must resonate sympathetically. (171-102, 1987.12.13)
The human mind-body dichotomy applies to men and women alike. Considering that a man and a woman each have a spirit self as well as a physical self, together they actually represent four entities. Divided they become four people. How do these separate four entities become one? Why did God create four people in this way? With God’s true love as their center, they can achieve perfect union.
All of you possess a spirit that we in the Unification Church call the spirit self and a physical self. The spirit self, though invisible to our eyes, does exist. Then, when do your spirit self and physical self become one? This is the problem. It is the same with a tuning fork: when you strike one of its prongs, then the other prong vibrates at the same frequency.
In like manner, when God’s love acts upon our mind, our body automatically responds. That being the case, it is not God’s wisdom, power or might that brings the mind and body into full resonance, but only His love. What is the focus, the ideal benchmark, which your five physical senses and your five spiritual senses long to reach? It is neither God’s might nor His wisdom. His love is the focus and benchmark for everything. (138-254, 1986.1.24)
Section 3. The Essence of Life
3.1. Spirit is the essence of life
Where there is a nucleus, there must be a reciprocally related being to revolve around it. As electrons revolve around protons, human beings are meant to revolve around God. God can pursue the providence of restoration because the human mind, which is like an electron, naturally relates to God’s mind, which can be likened to the nucleus.
When we seek the word of truth, we can feel God’s life pulsating and the harmony of His love. Similarly, by seeking God’s life and love through the path of truth, we become people of value.
The truth is eternal and unchanging. Then how can we find the truth while distinguishing between good and evil in this fallen world? We do it through eschewing selfishness and through constant self-effacement.
The Bible also teaches us that those who exalt themselves will be humbled and that those who humble themselves will be exalted (Matthew 23:12; Luke 14:11; 18:14). We are essentially spiritual.
Therefore, when you go to the next world, you will realize more deeply that the essence of being human is in living for the sake of others. Yet why do people persist in living selfishly in all things? It is because all humanity became bound in blood ties to the angel, namely Satan, who contravened heavenly law. (2-137, 1957.3.17)
We must now eat spiritual food. Which should be tastier: physical food or spiritual food? In order to survive and stand on God’s side, you need to train yourselves to enjoy the taste of spiritual food more than physical food. The taste of a life centered on spiritual power should far exceed that of a life based on physical might. (131-210, 1984.5.4)
3.2. The meaning of lord of all creation
What is meant by the term lord of all creation? Who is the lord of all creation? Some say human beings, but the fundamental lord of all creation is God. You all know that spirits exist. We all have spirits and, as we are the leaders among the spirits, in the final analysis, we are lords of all creation directly connected to God. Human beings cannot become the lords of all creation on their own. How can they, as created beings, become lords of all creation? Being created makes them reciprocal and resultant beings; as such, they can neither communicate with nor possess the origin, but rather exist to be possessed by it.
Clearly, we are all resultant beings. The lords of all creation I am referring to are those occupying the central position in the spirit world. I am talking about the originally intended relationship of oneness between God and humankind. Those lords of all creation are in the position to communicate with God. Although human beings are called the lords of all creation, not everybody is actually qualified to be one. Those who live individualistically are ineligible to join the club of the lords of all creation. And those who have distinguished themselves by seeking the greater good are eligible. God seeks to fulfill His wishes through such people. When that happens, whose heaven will it be? Not His but theirs. (32-136, 1970.7.5)
How should people live? Eternally. Living some eighty years in this evil world, some people may see no difference between the death of an ant and that of a human being; yet there is a difference. We are different because we are spiritual beings. How is it that we can become the lords of all creation? It is because our mind does not age; it is immutable and therefore carries the highest authority. All other things undergo change; even pure gold weathers away. (159-277, 1968.5.19)
Based on what premises can we be called the lords of all creation? It is neither money, nor knowledge, nor power, but rather God’s sublime love. (210-308, 1990.12.27)
3.3. Inner person and outer person
What is the original destiny of humankind? It is to enjoy perfected love and extol the values of praise and respect within the realm of God’s absolute love. Humanity emerged amidst the complete union and harmony of the destinies of heaven and earth. Hence, we have an invisible mind and a visible body. If we had been born according to our original destiny, would our body and mind be divided in conflict or would they be in total unity? They would be in total unity.
Your inner person and outer person are in conflict. When will this conflict end? After ten years? Or not even by the time you die? If God had created human beings in that way, then He would not be a god with a single purpose but a god with dual purposes. Such a god would be a chaotic god. All the laws of the universe systematically pursue a distinct purpose without being at cross-purposes. From that perspective, we know that we were not originally created in this way. Let us, therefore, cast our body aside and seek our original mind. (44-194, 1971.5.7)
Which is more important, our physical self or our spirit self? Not the flesh, but the spirit. Our flesh has a shelf life averaging seventy to eighty years, within the limited realms of time and space, before disappearing into nothingness. But our spirit has the power to transcend both time and space. Accordingly, it is our original purpose to recognize our historic responsibility and fulfill it.
However well you may live physically, in the final analysis you will all die. Our bodies will perish in any event. That is how we are made. Then which are more important: spiritual standards or physical standards? Our lives are not meant to be based on physical standards. The flesh exists for the spirit and vice versa. Do not get stuck in the rut of a secular lifestyle. You must become entities that combine the spirit and flesh in a position of saving the flesh, and begin from a position of greater worth. (20-324, 1968.7.14)
3.4. The purpose of life on earth is mind-body perfection
What is the purpose of the Will? It is to perfect humankind spiritually and physically. Individually, our spirit represents the past and our body the present. Both worlds were invaded. We are to conquer the present satanic world physically and the past satanic world spiritually. When you triumph over both past and present by upholding the standard of mind over matter, your future will be blessed. (73-96, 1974.8.4)
We need to know that it is the physical world, not the spirit world, which is the subject. The physical world, not the spirit world, is the subject in achieving perfection. The perfection of the physical world encompasses the perfection of both the spiritual and physical worlds. Thus, life on earth is precious. (91-177, 1977.2.6)
Section 4. The Nobility of Life on Earth
4.1. Life on earth is to prepare us for life in the spirit world
When God created humankind and all things and proclaimed them good, He intended that they not fight among themselves. Religion teaches us to strike our body and make it submit to our mind. We must cross over from evil to goodness. The complete victory of our body means that even Satan has been completely uprooted and subjugated. We can go to heaven only after subjugating Satan. We cannot conquer Satan without a physical body. This is because the mishap that befell our body occurred on earth and consequently must be remedied on earth. Unless we accomplish our designated tasks on earth, we will end up in eternal hell. Conversely, when you triumph on earth and stand on the heavenly side of goodness, you can go to the eternal Kingdom of Heaven. (65-293, 1973.2)
Life on earth is short. We do not live long. If you realized that, your hours would become too precious to be spent on sleeping and eating. Eat, sleep and play on the move. The more you live this way, the greater the blessing you will receive; more than anyone else in the whole wide world. (80-225, 1975.10.23)
Although our tenure on earth may be limited to eighty years, our stage is the altar of the world. That being so, our possessions representing the creation belong to the world, our bodies are the bodies of all the people of the world, and our minds are the minds of all the people of the world. Such a heart is one with God. All these combine to make one altar. (75-165, 1975.1.2)
Things do not happen by chance. Preparation is never easy. Viewed against the backdrop of a lifetime, childhood is the time to prepare for adolescence. The prime of life is the time to prepare for old age, which in turn is the time to prepare to go to the spirit world. Our lifetime is a period of training during which we undergo a course that prepares us to acquire a universal personality. (147-188, 1986.9.21)
We live in this world; yet it is not the only world that exists. There is also the spirit world. This world and the spirit world should be integrated together rather than two separate worlds. Where is the place we are to go to and live in? Of course, while living physically on earth, we are proceeding into the eternal world. Ordinarily, people are simply born into this world, pass through youth, reach their prime, and enter old age. Their life passes like the setting sun. Yet those who know of the spirit world realize that a lifetime is but a fleeting moment compared to the eternal life after death. That being given, our lifetime serves to prepare us to welcome the world of eternity.
Student performance is measured by standards set by the school. One standard is based on the number of credits they are expected to take in an academic year. If students achieve a lesser number, they fall correspondingly below the standard of merit set by the school. Everything can be measured by means of some norm. Our life in the physical world is just like the period during which we are preparing ourselves to meet the standard of credits set by the school. We are ever striving to accumulate the achievements of a lifetime. In other words, our life course is measured against the yardstick that determines to what extent we have fulfilled our responsibility. (140-121, 1986.2.9)
Do not digest everything for your own sakes, but rather for the sake of God, your nation, tribe, family and spouse. Self-centered living is fraught with worries. Conversely, altruists always make friends. If you constantly devote yourselves to the welfare of others to the point of emptying yourselves, you become a vacuum, and the truth will come into you. (203-101, 1990.6.17)
What is the pride of our Unification Church? First is true love and second is True Parents. These terms are found only in the Unification Church, not in the dictionary. Third is true children and fourth is true tribe. These relate to our four main goals. (203-103, 1990.6.17)
4.2. The preciousness of our life on earth
If you are liberated, God will be liberated. If your family is liberated, so is the heavenly family. It is the same with earth and heaven. Accordingly, the biblical statement, “whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven,” is elucidated by the oneness of the dual structure.
Understand the preciousness of the days during which you can make use of your body. They give us our one and only opportunity to use our bodies to resurrect God and the universe and to unite the world. The totality of God and all creation cannot be exchanged for the value of life on earth. Why? Because without humankind existing physically on earth, God and the universe combined together would still be incomplete. Realize how precious the human body is. We cannot trade our physical selves even for the universe. It is in this light that we understand the biblical verse, “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what can a man give in exchange for his life?” (91-190, 1977.2.13)
The average lifespan does not exceed eighty years. Within that short space of time allotted to us, we must get a grip on all the historically intertwined realms of goodness that were entangled in history. Realizing the vastness of the realm of goodness with which we are to forge a bond during our brief stay on earth, our mind and conscience must surge urgently forward. If we die we cannot do it. While we yet live, let us find our original homeland and restore the sovereignty of our homeland. Only by serving the heavenly sovereign and living in his nation can we enter God’s Kingdom in heaven. (155-25, 1964.10.6)
The spirit world is infinite and eternal. How shall we manage our affairs in order to go there? We need to put them in order while we are still alive. There will be no other opportunity to straighten things out. A self-centered way of doing this absolutely does not exist. If it did, the Unification Church’s Rev. Moon would never have suffered as he has. (59-50, 1972.7.2)
The way of the Principle presented by the Unification Church is the one and only way to go even after the passage of millennia and tens of millennia. Those failing to fulfill in this way, in their lifetime, will have to make up for it when they go to the eternal spirit world. (135-296, 1985.12.15)
4.3. Habituality is important
Today, let us renounce the habits of the satanic world and institutionalize God’s new order. (213-19, 1991.1.13)
It is very difficult to break a habit. While living in the satanic world until now, you have cherished self-centered habits; these harden and set like cement, becoming even more deeply ingrained than the addiction Koreans have to kimchi (pickled vegetables), doenjang (soybean paste) and kochujang (thick soybean paste mixed with red pepper).
It is a historical fact. Since the emergence of the devil, our habits have become very deeply rooted. How do we eradicate them? However deep a pit you dig, you cannot get to the root of this serious problem. To get to heaven, one needs to replace all those past habits with God-centered habituality. (213-19, 1991.1.13)
4.4. The standard of life on earth
My life is for the sake of God and the world. Do not think of living for yourselves. Live for God, True Parents and humanity. True love is indispensable for you in forming a four-position foundation with God, True Parents and humanity. They all desire true love. You should become people who can inherit this true universe centered on true love. We need to bear this in mind constantly.
Therefore, we have to evaluate the degree to which we have lived in conformity to the heavenly standard until now. You should become people who represent humanity, True Parents and God. People who live that way will not be restricted by any borderline from moving freely between the spirit world and anywhere on earth. If you wish to dine together with a thousand friends, such an experience is possible only in a world of love. When God exercised His ability as the Creator, He did so centered on love. In the spirit world, once you connect with true love, you can regulate and create everything. That is our ideal hometown. Unless you make a connection with true love, everything will be in vain. (147-115, 1986.8.31)
4.5. Everything will be recorded through the physical body
If more than two-thirds of your life have been unspeakably miserable, could you erase that? You cannot. These experiences stay with you. (34-139, 1970.8.30)
We need indemnity for restoration. Restoration is also re-creation. You should leave behind a life of value. Some people say to themselves that when they get old they will believe in Jesus, die and then go to heaven, but when we get old it is difficult to rectify anything. Therefore, the younger the better: it is more valuable for you to know the truth at the age of fifteen rather than twenty, and even more so to grow up knowing the truth from infancy.
Is the water inside your bodies pure or dirty? It would contain sand and pebbles. After heavy seasonal rainfall, rivers and streams become dirty with all manner of refuse floating in them. Likewise, you are full of all kinds of impurities. Thus, you need to go through the stirring and straining processes of a filtration system. Do not be egoistical otherwise there will be blockage. If excessive dirt accumulates, the filter gets clogged up, and the water flow is stopped.
Have you ever thought that you would be inspected by a system like an X-ray machine when you go to the spirit world? God also needs people who have passed through the filter. (97-60, 1978.2.26)
4.6. Life on earth is so important
In the spirit world you will live in a probation realm and wait there for some millennia.
The levels of your Blessed Families are all different, so you go to the place that is consistent with your level and stay there for a long time. Then your ancestors and your sons and daughters will accuse you saying, “Why did you do that? Why didn’t you do better? What is this?” The time you will have to spend in that place will depend on the level of your accomplishments. It is not an easy thing. That is why you have to accomplish on the earth. You have to do everything I tell you.
A bolt requires its corresponding nut to be securely fastened. Only when the nut fits can it be fastened. Do you understand? They have to match.
How important is life on this earth? It is an instant that comes but once. Compared to eternity, life on earth is but a dot, an extremely short moment. It is insignificant. You have to go beyond your physical life and prepare for the spirit world.
You must always be able to control and conquer everything by standing at the center with such a mainstream philosophy. Without doing so you cannot achieve individual perfection. (207-99, 1990.11.1)
4.7. Using our physical selves to fulfill our portion of responsibility
You have to think about God and True Parents in your life. By doing so, your mind and body can stand within a harmonious, stable and fulfilled sphere through love.
Those who lived in such a way can naturally do the same in the spirit world. There is an expanded internal life on earth. The level of the expansion of your internal life will come out on the surface in the spirit world.
Since love is internalized, God and human beings are like one cell of the body. The spirit world is the world where you become one of those cells. Once you enter into such a state, God will surely come inside your heart. When you call, “God!” He will answer in your heart, “Who is calling me? What is it?” In other words, it’s a world in which you live with God.
Therefore, your portion of responsibility is that important. That is why I established the principle of the portions of responsibility. Whenever you look at yourself in the mirror in the morning, you should consider how you, as a man or woman, are going to fulfill your portion of responsibility. It is a serious matter.
Your five senses will find themselves enraptured in the love gained after accomplishing your portion of responsibility. All your senses are to operate within a substantial realm of love. (218-128, 1991.7.14)
In order to accomplish your portion of responsibility, what should you do? What should you do to become people who can fulfill their portion of responsibility? You should stand in a position to deny everything that was born from the emotional connection to and lineage of Satan. (139-249, 1986.1.31)
What happens when a person goes to the spirit world? He becomes God’s body. Adam becomes God’s body. This is what Jesus meant when he said, “the Father is in me.” The First Corinthians verse, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple?” confirms that the body is the holy temple where God dwells; it is His house.
Then, how can you resemble God? When you reach the stage of completion of your portion of responsibility, God dwells within you, creating oneness between you and God. (130-21, 1983.12.11)
Section 5. Blessing and Eternal Life
5.1. Why we need to know about the issue of eternal life
Why are families in this world being destroyed? Why are mothers, fathers and children becoming enemies? It is because there is no true love. The most important thing is eternal life, but people do not know that the spirit world exists. If you knew clearly that you live for eternity, you would not commit a crime even if others told you to. You would not live for yourself even if others told you to. Without knowing this, whether you believe in Christianity or any other religion, you could never go to heaven, God’s ideal world. You cannot go there without investing true love and life. (205-261, 1990.9.9)
If our church is armed with the Principle, the issue of eternal life will become clear. If it were not connected to this issue, even a social revolution would be impossible. Nobody would want to fall into circumstances of greater poverty and ruin than those he or she currently lives in.
If we approach things from the perspective of eternal life, however, we can overcome all environmental conditions. That’s why religion is so great. The issue of eternal life hinges upon this. All you have to do is firmly establish the concept of eternal life. Until now, religions could not digest or overcome their cultural backgrounds that were intertwined with habituality. Why not? It was because they could not establish the concept of eternal life.
Why are Christians shaken as their circumstances change? It is because of their concept of eternal life. They have no confidence regarding that issue. As to the question of whether they can lay down their lives in order to overcome their circumstances, we see them backsliding into living mostly to satisfy their present needs and meet their social obligations, all the while experiencing distractions coming from all directions. Unless the proper concept of eternal life is implanted in these people, they will fall away in midcourse. What can do this? Love alone can do this. Only the Unification Church can completely accomplish this.
The path of faith is not preparation for life on earth but for that in the eternal world. People having this conviction can take care of themselves. As people pass the ages of forty and fifty, and the day of their death draws closer, the more serious they become about the issue of eternal life. The older they get, the more serious they become.
Our thinking dims as we grow older, but when the concept of eternal life is implanted, we become more serious with age. Consequently, in the future, only a religious ideology can lead this world. Regardless of the frequently changing circumstances and ups and downs we face in life, as long as we maintain an absolute concept of eternal life, nothing would be a problem.
Therefore, the point is how you can implant the concept of eternal life. God created Adam and Eve as the objects of His love. There’s no doubt about that. Consequently, we should live as objects of God’s love. You have to not only talk about it but also actually feel it, and experience it deeply.
Once you come to know how great the power of true love is, you would go this way even if someone told you not to. Therefore, if you can only implant the concept of eternal life, everything will be complete. In doing so, when it makes logical sense, it will reverberate in your mind and your body will be resonating in harmony with it to the same level. Adolescence is when such things happen.
The standard of original nature, as it was before the Fall applies fully before the age of sixteen. Since the years leading up to the age at which Adam and Eve fell were unaffected, the standard of original nature remains intact. Therefore, you should acquaint yourselves with God in your adolescence. In so doing, you will realize your inseparable relationship with Him. For this to happen, the concept of eternal life needs to be implanted. If only this were done, our second generation in the Unification Church would go no other way, even if we told them to. Therefore we must save the world quickly and bring everybody to the heavenly nation. The result becomes your possession. Your rank in the other world will be determined according to the number of people you bring in there. That is why heaven is completely empty now. (230-22, 1992.4.15)
5.2. The way of eternal life
5.2.1. Our lifetime and the issue of eternal life
How long do you think you’ll live? Everyone probably thinks they’ll live up to the age of about seventy or eighty; they don’t think that they’ll die before then. You just want everything. Even though you may believe you’ll die when you’re eighty or a hundred, there’s no knowing if you’ll die tomorrow or even today. You may think because you’re young, you will live at least another forty to fifty years. You may want that. Did God guarantee that to you?
You should think that you might possibly die soon, perhaps within a year. Therefore, you should make all preparations during this short time. You should live with such thoughts. The shorter the time you think you have, the happier you will be, and the less you have to lose. Your sincere preparations during this time become the building blocks of your home for your eternal life. Have you ever loved God with such a short time in mind? You want to become one with Him and love Him, but you can not. God says to you, “Love Me!” If you die after having lived this way, then you will become the master of eternal life.
If you thought that you would die two years later, how serious would you be? You would start visiting cemeteries and attending funeral services. It is absolutely necessary to do this in a life of faith. That is why those who seek to gain their life will lose it and those who seek to lose their life will gain it. The Principle applies here. If you think of dying for God’s will and for heaven during the short time of your life, you will live eternally.
Within the same principle, consider how grateful a man would be who, thinking he would die single and unmarried, received a loving wife before his death? How happy would a man, who died without being married to anyone, be if he were suddenly resurrected and able to marry?
Until what age will you live and die? What would you do if you had to go forth to immediate death under God’s order? You should leave something behind that God could praise. Then you would feel that your time is too precious to spend sleeping and eating. You would not have any time to worry even if you wanted to.
With regard to the matters of life and of eternity, you can live your lives with greater value the more you think of life as being short. What value comes from loving an individual, a family and a tribe? It creates a textbook for loving all humankind. It is a textbook for loving everybody in the spirit world that transcends time and space. (102-122, 1978.11.27)
5.2.2. Humankind seeks eternal life
A life of faith consists of seeking the world of eternal life. Faith involves seeking God’s eternal love. In order to unite with eternal life along with eternal love, you must seek the final destination where God’s joy can be felt as your own; this is the way of faith. Therefore, the most important matter above all else for an individual who lives a life of faith, is the degree to which he or she can live life with a progressive love and vitality.
The measure of value you have as a human being depends on how much all the sensations you perceive through your five senses exist in relation to life and love. Therefore, we should think again about the matter of whether we have lived in society with vitality and the heart of added love. If you are not standing in such a position, you should know that you are at a standstill or in retreat. (32-18, 1970.6.14)
5.2.3. Eternal life and religion
Human beings have eternal life. Religion has not disappeared from the earth but has expanded its territory throughout the entire world by passing through all kinds of circumstances, including different cultural backgrounds and customs. That is because the central human issue is about eternal life rather than a person’s earthly lifetime.
People should live together with the universe during their life. Even though life is short, amounting only to about one hundred years, it does not just disappear at the end of one’s life. Once you overcome that boundary line, you can continue to live in a transcendental realm and go beyond the bounds of the global village that once defined our limits.
Although the reality that we have eternal life may be harsh, even if that were not the case, we should proclaim even an imagined eternal life to sympathize with and help humankind who have lived moaning in the midst of suffering until now. From this we have to infer a form of an ideal nation centered on an imagined God. In this way religion is necessary. Therefore, you have to resolve the matter of God along with the matter of eternal life. All these matters are interconnected. (162-263, 1987.4.17)
5.2.4. Why we should live eternally
As what kind of existence did God create human beings? He created them as the objects of His love who could possess His absolute and unique value. This is an amazing fact. How much value does a person’s life have these days? It’s only worth a few pennies. Originally, people were not meant to be such worthless beings. Their value was so precious that life could not be exchanged even for the entire universe.
The backbone of everything in the literary world today is love. People are born from, live in, and die in love. However, they do not just disappear. Since God, the subject being, is eternal, unchanging and unique, human beings, when they come to stand in the position of an object of love in front of Him, can also live eternally. The theory of eternal life originated from this point; it did not begin from life. (142-143, 1986.3.8)
What kind of person is a true person? It is a person who can receive love completely in the position of God’s child by becoming one with Him inside and out. We can say that the way of life of such people is the way of a true life. People, whoever they are, desire the best. When you go and reach the highest position, God belongs to you, and you belong to Him. Then, you become God’s child and you become God Himself and thus, even the universe belongs to you.
If there is something that God loves and treasures most, would God have created it to throw away after He spends one day, ten years, or a hundred years with it or would it to be with Him eternally? God created it to be together with Him eternally. So it is with humankind.
People should live eternally because they are the object partners of the absolute God who can feel joy from them in absolute love. If God were to just have a liking for them for one or two days, ten years, or a hundred years and then throw them away, it would not be love. The more you love someone, the more you want to be with that person. Was there not a man who remained single for life after his beloved wife died, always carrying her handkerchief? Nehru of India lost his wife when she was young. He wore a rose the rest of his life because his wife loved roses.
Then, when God created His most precious only son and daughter, do you think He created them to perish after a hundred years or so? No, and therefore it is a fundamental principle that human beings live eternally. In order to live eternally, we must stand on the foundation of an action where stronger power can be emitted. Therefore, as more days pass and the more love is given and received, rather than being exhausted, the power of love becomes stronger and greater. Life will not end only in happiness but can expand to an unlimited happiness. Such a world is the nation that we idealize and where God dwells.
Do you wish for eternal life? Although perhaps vaguely, you wish for eternal life. If you have something precious, would you bring it with you when you seek refuge or not? You would bring it with you. Do you want to be proud of it or not? You would want to be proud of it. Will you stop being proud of it after a day or two? No. When you are about to die, you will want to leave it to your descendants for eternity. That is the same for God.
If God is an eternal, absolute being, the object partner He can love should also live eternally. That is why people have longed for an eternal life since time immemorial. Therefore, God the Absolute Being, cannot help but look for a loving son and daughter who possess the value of eternal life. (39-342, 1971.1.16)
We human beings resemble God as His masterpiece. Since God is eternal and because we also should have an eternal nature, our heart does not become old. Therefore, human beings should live eternally. Only when they live eternally can they have the value of existence as that masterpiece.
Therefore, human beings are the lords of all creation. Spirit comes from here. Human beings should live eternally. Therefore, we cannot think that our existence ends after we live for about eighty years. (159-279, 1968.5.19)
5.2.5. Living for the sake of eternal life
People are all living their lives in their own way. Living means your everyday life. Lifetime means your entire life. Furthermore, religious people use the words eternal life. Eternal life means not a lifetime but a life that continues eternally. It is important how you connect your life course with eternal life. Doing so is your lifelong responsibility. A lifetime is determined through linking each day to the next. Your entire life is the sum of the continuous days in your life.
Where is it that the content of your entire life is determined to be valuable? It is not determined after you have gone through all your life. Your daily life, day by day, determines it. Therefore, you have to live life well. What exactly is the meaning of living life well? It entails meaningfully living the days that represent the entire course of your life. When you say that you lived life well today, it means that it was a memorable day in your life, one that you can be proud of. When you say that you lived well, that day would surely be the most valuable day in your entire life course. If there were a day that you could live valuably, it would be an unforgettable day in your entire life. (197-186, 1990.1.14)
5.2.6. What is the theory of eternal life?
God is wise. If He had not established the ideology for love, He would be alone and lonely; He would be a god who could not feel joy, anger, sorrow or happiness. God, who lost this absolute love, has stood in a serious, appalling and absolutely miserable position that no one has ever experienced throughout history. No one could ever comfort Him. God is not satisfied by reproducing an ideal form and shape of His dreams and then resurrecting His original son and daughter who are His desire. He should be able to decorate the ideal more brilliantly and express it beautifully as He travels long distances while embracing that ideal. That is how He created the entire universe. (204-100, 1990.7.1)
When the atmosphere falls one hundred percent into an absolute low pressure area, a high pressure area is automatically created which brings about a circulatory movement. God is the King of wisdom.
The theory of eternal life is logically established because eternal circulation begins through that principle of automatic circulation. When you invest, invest, and invest more, the theory of eternal life will begin. Those who live for others will not perish. (204-106, 1990.7.1)
When God looks for a partner of absolute love, that object partner will certainly be humankind; thus, we have the ancient adage, “Among all creation, human beings are most precious.” This brings about the logic that the partner of love who unites with the creator’s eternal love lives forever.
Eternal life is a natural product of this logic. Eternal life begins from here. The problem of how to establish a theory of eternal life based on the relationship of love sets up an extremely precious debate in religion. Eternal life cannot be found in either the man or woman. Eternal life is not found in God, but in His love. (218-210, 1991.7.29)
5.2.7. The most important issue of eternal life
Today’s Christians say that if you believe in Jesus you will attain eternal life. To live eternally one must carry on with a continuous action. In order to walk the path of life eternally, the circulation system such as the veins and arteries of the heart should function normally; the nervous system and all the actions of the cerebrum and cerebellum should also function normally. This requires a tremendous amount of consumption. (121-172, 1982.10.24)
When you go to bed in the evening after taking off your shoes, are you confident that you will be there to put them on again the next morning? No matter how busy you say you are, nothing in this world is more important than the issue of eternal life. There is no quest in this world more serious than to resolving the problem of eternal life on this world. (10-249, 1960.10.21)
5.2.8. Ultimately, human beings must return to eternal life
You should dissolve the anguish of the Fall by establishing the way of True Parents’ love, this new wave and tide, and establish a family of true love over which God can reign. Only then can you go straight to heaven. The rails of God’s Kingdom on earth and in heaven must be the same. A train can run only when the rails are the same. In the same way, the rails on earth and in the heavenly world must be the same.
The path connecting God’s Kingdom on earth with His kingdom in heaven is the path of true love. Consequently, the path an individual takes and the path a family takes should all be connected and their directions consistent with each other.
Therefore, everything a person does in his lifetime is permanently fastened to his rear end as a record of his performances done for the sake of true love. Thus, when a person goes to the spirit world, he naturally comes to dwell at the level corresponding to the meritorious achievements he left behind in his lifetime. (211-287, 1990.12.30)
5.2.9. Faith and the issue of eternal life
How do you live eternally? Christians say that you can attain eternal life and be saved by believing in Jesus but that makes no sense. Only through love can you be saved. From the viewpoint of God’s principles of creation, only a true person is God’s partner in love. Therefore, if someone has true love, he must be able to live eternally. Once you enter the realm of that love, whether you are in the spirit world or on earth, you will come to know where you should live.
If a large ship sailing across the ocean faces the danger of destruction, the rats inside the ship try to escape to dry land. Even though they are nothing but small animals, they can distinguish which is the right way to take and go in that direction when faced with matters of life and death.
How would it be in the case of human beings who should be the lords of all creation? Why have they become the way they are? It was because of the Fall. How will you remove the mask of the Fall or free yourself from the devil’s love, life, and lineage?
To free yourself means to break away from something. It means to completely break away from and stand in an autonomous position with no relation to Satan. (215-53, 1991.2.6)
A mother in her nineties will tell her seventy year-old son when he goes out of the house to be careful of cars, have a nice trip and come back safely. Even if he is seventy, she will still say this to him before he goes anywhere. She can say such things to him. She will continue to say this everyday until she reaches the ripe old age of ninety. She will not get tired of saying it even if she were to continue for eternity.
What is the motivating power behind this? It is love. Even in the fallen world, parental love is like that. What would life be like if we belonged to God’s love that fills the original world? When we achieve that state, the realm belonging to the true object of the God can be established for the first time. When we come to know that God’s love is eternal and unchanging, we can validate the theory of eternal life centering on our human love. We live eternally centering on love. (143-280, 1986.3.20)
5.2.10. Unificationists and eternal life
I intend to have the Unification Church members go through many hardships. They do not run away even though I make them go through hardships. Why do they not escape? It is because they know there is eternal life. The reason that they cannot leave the Unification Church is because there is eternal life. (204-82, 1990.7.1)
People all have desire. They all want to be a son or daughter of God. They do not want to be a grandchild or God’s son-in-law; they want to be a son or daughter of God. The family is where anyone can achieve their desire. (221-23, 1991.10.20)
5.2.11. The concept necessary for eternal life
You should live with the attitude that I am someone who has eternal life. I am someone who practices true love. Whatever you do, you should think that it is for the sake of eternal life and for training yourself for eternal life. You always need the concept of eternal life and true love. You will need it eternally. (216-125, 1991.3.9)
5.3. Love and eternal life
5.3.1. Eternal life is directly connected with love
We want eternal life. We want eternal life, but what is it that does not change? It is love. All other things change according to their environment. So why does love not change? Love does not change because it is the center of all forces of life and because it occupies the central position of the ideal necessary condition. The center does not disappear before all its surroundings disappear. Since love is the center of the universe, anything that unites with that love can remain as long as God remains. (157-267, 1967.4.10)
5.3.2. True love and eternal life
What is true love? When you marry, you want your marriage partner to be better than you are. All parents wish for their children to be better than they are. Who do they resemble in this? They resemble God. God wishes for His object of love to be better than He.
If the absolute God is the father of humankind, can that father order His sons and daughters to absolutely do something while He Himself has not absolutely done it before? He cannot. Based on the view of this principle, that God wishes for His object of love to be better than Him, human beings have the greatest value. Centering on love, they have a higher value than God. That is why your mind desires the highest things. This is not impossible. It would be equally possible for all human beings. It would be possible if the Fall had not occurred.
Human beings were to observe, administer and lead the universe from a lofty and exalted position. They were not to be dragged around and made to obey. Your mind, a liberated mind is like that. No one wants to be controlled. This is equally true for everybody.
Once you acquire the position of true love, you can go freely to God’s position and to His throne in the heavenly nation. You can become God’s friend. God created humankind for the sake of love. Therefore, since God is eternal and absolute, human beings have eternal life themselves. We automatically come to this logic. For this reason, true love is eternal. To attain eternal life, you must live in that realm of true love. (211-272, 1990.12.30)
Through true love, eternal life is possible. It is because the beginning of creation, the motivation, process and goal, and everything thereafter can be completed centered on love. Through a process, results come forth. The perfection of one’s mind and body is fundamentally possible through true love. It is only love that bears the fruit of the ideal. There is nothing but true love. God also exists forever because of true love. Eternal life is connected through love. Therefore you must live centering on the environment of love in order to create an environment of eternal life. To attain the substantial realm of love, we must have a substantial experience of love. (218-134, 1991.7.14)
5.3.3. True love is absolutely necessary
Where does God exist in the spirit world? He exists at the absolute center, the center of love. That love is the true love which takes the shortest perpendicular path. First of all, you have to know God. Second, you have to know eternal life, and third, you must know true love. This is an investment of more than one hundred percent. Eternal life exists where there is an investment of more than one hundred percent. Eternal life cannot exist without true love. Those who do not attain eternal life cannot meet God. (205-128, 1990.7.29)
How will we bring order to the world from now forward? The world will be brought to order firstly through altruism, secondly through true love and thirdly through eternal life.
What is true love? It requires an investment of more than all of one’s life. True love cannot exist where such investment is not made. It materializes from a place where an investment greater than one’s life is made. Without true love coming into being, eternal life cannot exist. This is because you were all born from satanic blood, from Satan’s lineage. Hence the biblical injunction, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment.” What does this mean? It means to love with all your heart and with all your will and with all your life. This is the First Commandment.
The Second Commandment is, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” What does it mean to love your neighbor as yourself? It means to love with your life. You have to invest your whole life. You have to invest your whole life because otherwise, first, you would not be able to make Satan surrender and second, you would not be able to free yourself from satanic circumstances and third, you would not be able to rid yourself of the satanic lineage. Even if you are able to free yourself from satanic circumstances, there is nothing you can do about the satanic lineage. True love goes beyond life.
Men and women were born to live altruistically. Men were born for the sake of women. This is the absolute truth; the eternal truth. This is so for the sake of true love. That’s how it is for both men and women. People say they wish they could be united eternally as couples. Then what will they do once they are one? They will occupy God. They cannot do that without true love.
Who is to be the owner in your home? One who lives one’s entire life for the sake of the whole family will be the central figure representing God and the parents. One who has a hundred friends and lives for their sake during one’s lifetime will earn the respect of those hundred people and will be their center. So an owner who eternally lives for the sake of others in the eternal world will be the eternal owner.
That person is God. Incidentally, God is our father and therefore He declares that He wishes to be together with us and the entire universe. There eternal life can be found. Eternal life does not exist in any other place. The scripture, “He who seeks to gain his life will lose it, but he who is willing to lose his life for my sake will gain eternal life” means that you have to overcome death. Without overcoming death you cannot truly live. (205-258, 1990.9.9)
5.3.4. The world after death is related with love
Where do we ultimately go? To the spirit world. We call it the world after death, but it is not the world after death. It cannot become the world after because it is a world related with love. Since that world is related with love, it is not the world after death. Since it began centering on true love, when we come to practice true love, here now is the spirit world. That is why love is great. (144-198, 220, 1986.4.24)
The directions of up and down, front and back, and left and right can only be harmonized through spherical movement. Without harmony between the vertical and horizontal, harmony cannot be created. Unity could not come about. Only love can bring about unification. Thus, the Unification Church argues the case for a unified ideal world based on true love because this conclusion conforms to the viewpoint of the Principle. (144-219, 1986.4.24)
God is trying to guide humankind. Even God breathes. He inhales love. The universe continues for eternity centering on love. Eternal life is found in love. Even love breathes. Since the pulse of the universe is such, a man or a woman cannot say, “Ah! I hate it!” In order to be synchronized with the rhythm, they should love each other and go in the same direction. Everything should be aligned towards a single direction centering on God. (201-191, 1990.4.1)
5.3.5. Eternal life comes only by living for the sake of others
The formula course for eternal life is the same for grandfathers and grandmothers, as well as descendants thousands of years from now, and even to the spirits who are in the spirit world. Only those who lived for the sake of others can pass through to eternal life. (203-192, 1990.6.24)
5.4. Blessing and spirit world5.4.1. The power of love
Both the spirit world and the physical world operate through love. The environmental conditions automatically act in concert with one another centering on true love. (185-19, 1989.1.1)
What are the qualifications for people in the past and the present to be eternal? What is the necessary factor for all the desires in our world? It is love; not just any love but true love. True love forms a ninety degree angle between the vertical and the horizontal anywhere. It must fit into all homes, whether oriental or western, northern or southern types, regardless of skin color, cultural or religious background. That is true love. (180-86, 1988.8.7)
Among the many people living in this world today, there are not that many who understand the meaning of the Blessing taught by the Unification Church. The Unification Church coined the term Blessing and has performed blessing ceremonies using this term. In the future, humanity cannot go to heaven without going through the gate of the Blessing.
Many people believe in the established churches. But even the established churches themselves cannot go to heaven unless they go through the gate of the Blessing. If I tell them this, the established churches complain that Rev. Moon of the Unification Church is self-righteous. Nevertheless, fallen human beings must surely go through the Blessing taught by the Unification Church. Even though they oppose it, the Blessing is a matter of great importance that should be dealt with by connecting the spirit world with the physical world.
Today the people who believe in ordinary religions think that salvation means individual salvation. It means that they think they will enter heaven if they just have faith individually. Yet based on God’s original ideal, people are not to go to heaven alone, but rather as a loving couple together with their loving family. (143-234, 1986.3.19)
5.4.2. The spirit selves of husband and wife
We are the group that seeks the ideal of love. Therefore, we have to implant the ideal of love in the horizontal realm in order to stand as spokespersons for the spirit world. We should plant it as a seed. We can grow bigger through our give and take action centering on the heart of love. A couple bearing the fruit of love in this way will enter the spirit world becoming one body with God in the realm of His eternal love. (144-224, 1986.4.24)
You have much to learn of the logic of true love. When we look at the faces of the ardent members of the Unification Church, they look like they are in their forties, even though they have reached fifty. Some even look like they’re only in their thirties. That’s why, the more you love, the younger you become.
Our earthly outer shell ages, yet the more we exchange conjugal love, the more our spirit selves are rejuvenated. Let me elaborate further: the longer we live in love, our inner selves, our spirit selves, mature to become handsome men and beautiful women. We are to discard our outer shell like clothing, but what would we do if the shell got younger and clung on to us? Our outer shells begin to malfunction and become useless, but our inner cores become firm and are then transformed into beautiful heirs of the future like autumn chestnuts. When fall comes, the once-hard chestnut ripens while the bur softens and splits, allowing the chestnut to fall. It’s the same for us. (164-101, 1987.4.26)
5.4.3. Marriage and spirit world
Christianity teaches people to love God, but this is a very vague concept. In the Bible Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And the second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself”. All you need are these two commandments. Before you love God you have to love the food you eat, love all things of creation, and love your body.
Your first parents are the parents who gave birth to you. Your second parent is planet earth, this earth. The earth supplies you with all the essential elements for your physical growth. The earth is the second parent of your physical body. Through the second parent, you return to your third parent which means our physical death. However, you cannot go to the third parent as you are. In order to return to the third parent you have to resemble God, who is the original parent.
Then, why do we marry? It is so that we resemble God. God is the uniformly combined being of dual characteristics. Since man and woman are the divided expression of God’s dual characteristics, they have to unite as one body, become like seeds and return to God’s position of original character. However, because we must go the way of love in order to be linked to that seed, we must be born in love, set love as our goal while growing, live centering on love, and walk this path in order to return to love. You will go off in the wrong direction unless you follow the path centering on the goal of living for the sake of others. (138-97, 1986.1.19)
5.4.4. The position of Blessed Families in the spirit world
We Unification Church members are sure about the existence of the spirit world. We do not just believe it, we know it. Based on our many experiences, we cannot deny this... Up to this point where the Unification Church has established its present worldwide foundation, it has undergone a process with many spiritual experiences. Therefore, Unification Church members came to be in a position where they cannot deny the existence of the spirit world.
The spirit world is a world built centering on the absolute God. If that absolute God exists, He is the origin of the universe. There is nothing that does not come from Him. Because everything belongs to God, all that belongs to Him shares the same feelings with Him and lives in connection with Him. (140-121, 1986.2.9)
Satan does not exist in the realm where such love is achieved. Therefore, everyone in the satanic world loves centering on themselves. In this world, heaven is not number one, but rather the self. This began from the denial of heaven and earth. If, however we recognize heaven and earth, and unite under the equal love of the parents, we know that Satan cannot dominate us. That is the original position of Adam. We must recover that standard. (140-201, 1986.2.9)
Blessed couples should become the talk of their villages, just like I am wherever I go. The villagers should say, “We are so grateful to have that couple in our village. All the men and women like the wife. The children like her too.” Be like that. If you cannot, you have to come back to earth from the spirit world. In order to come back you need to get my signature. Do you think that a Blessed Family can come back to earth as they please? It will be possible only after I pray for them. That is why those who went to the spirit world until now are in bondage. All the Blessed Families from the Unification Church in the spirit world are in bondage. Therefore, the cause of the problem resides on the earth. (140-201, 1986.2.9)
5.4.5. The Blessing is a promise
When receiving the Blessing, Unification Church couples pledge to live as eternal families. I am the one who governs eternal families and the eternal nation. I am setting the standard of families in the eternal nation. Those of you who keep your promise can inherit that family, as well as that eternal nation. (205-359, 1990.10.2)
5.4.6. The glory of the Blessing
What should a true woman be like? She should do what the true man asks of her. If she serves the family and the tribe, then all her neighbors will applaud her.
Why do you all like me? Because I go through suffering to save you and liberate all of humanity. Unless I suffer, you cannot receive the Blessing, even if you wait for billions of years in the spirit world. I made the impossible possible through my suffering and enlarged the domain of this precious Blessing. This is something glorious and brilliant for the spirit world and for the physical world. (162-67, 1987.3.27)
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