Sun Myung Moon's Philosophy of Peace |
2. How Is Peace to Be Attained? [Part 1 of 2]
2.1 The fall and restoration of humankind, and the world of peace
We know that the history of pain, misery and wretchedness commenced on this earth the day mankind fell. This is not the original purpose God planned at the time of creation. God did not hope for such a world. Nor did man hope to be born and live in such a world. Therefore God has been liquidating this wretched, miserable and painful history, setting up a plan to restore the world of peace, happiness, freedom and goodness that He originally desired, and regaining control of this fallen world. This is the way of restoration and the way of the providence of salvation. (014-047, 1964.05.03)
Man failed to cherish the true ideal in his heart as he should have. Man, who should have lived in an environment of happiness, let the garden of happiness slip away. He should have been singing songs of freedom and peace with a joy-filled heart, returning glory to God, but he failed to do that. We must understand from this that we cannot be more pitiful and sorrowful than this. (006-268, 1959.06.07)
Since the dawn of the history of death, this earth has been a world of agony, not a world of peace. Since the day when destruction started to gnaw at this earth, mankind has been walking through the historical course of conflict, not a course of peace. All of you should know that there has never been a history of peace anywhere in the world, either in an individual, a family, a society, or in any nation. (004-189, 1958.04.20)
Cain and Abel, born from the ancestors of mankind, Adam and Eve, were not children born centered on God's love. Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden by God. "My beloved son, Adam, and my beloved daughter, Eve, I created you in order to build a garden of love and a world fulfilling the purpose of creation of the entire universe. You both are the king and queen of peace and happiness." They should have originally received such blessing from God. No other being on this earth can be its king or queen. Only our ancestors were to be the rulers of the world. Adam could have been the eternal king of heaven and earth. For the first time since the creation of heaven and earth, since the beginning of the relationship between God and man, the title of "King" could have been given to our ancestor, Adam. (009-317, 1960.06.19)
Satan trampled on our true parents, true brothers and sisters, true family, true clan, true tribe, true society, true nation and true world. He is the ringleader who has been driving God to distress and adversity. Until the day we die, we must repel this enemy who has left behind traces of historical resentment in the universe. We have to establish before God the world of peace, love and happiness that He has desired. Let us rouse ourselves to action, knowing well this is our responsibility as His children. (013-245, 1964.03.29)
Centering on God, man originally should have lived in the Garden of Eden while enjoying perpetual freedom, peace and the ideal. Due to the fall of our ancestors, Adam and Eve, the original world was destroyed. Though we are the descendants of the fallen Adam and Eve, we are moving toward the world God desires since we have an original mind that aims for an original world. That hope of ours will remain as an ideal that we must strive to achieve. If a central figure who can move the world does not appear, gathering all people together to work for one common purpose, then true freedom, true peace and the true ideal will not be realized on earth. Mankind then cannot avoid the universally predestined historical course of restoration through indemnity. Under such circumstances, God is unable to come looking for us in glory, with peace, freedom or the ideal. Instead He can only come on the condition of man's sacrificial offerings. (002-111, 1957.03.10)
Fallen man has to regain the original state before the fall. As man lost God, man has to retrieve the position of not having lost Him. As he has lost the true parents of mankind, he has to return to the place of not having lost them. Man must find and enter the position where he can live as God's child in the garden of peace, centering on God and the ideal True Parents. Hence, the providence of salvation remains to be accomplished. (003-047, 1957.09.22)
According to the providence in each age, God has been working to give fallen mankind a new ideal and heart. Man, as the substantial embodiment of both the spiritual and physical realms, was to live in the world of purpose, standing on the absolute standard of heart. Due to the fall, however, he lost that world. Through mankind's long history, he has been searching for that world of purpose "An ideal, happy, peaceful and free world overflowing with joy" where his heart can rest peacefully. If that world were realized without setting up a standard of heart, it would have to be recreated at some time in the future. The ideal world of peace can be established through the unity of the whole world. If an individual does not achieve the standard of heart of becoming one with that ideal world by thinking of and responding to that world and following its movement, that world has no relationship to that individual, no matter how much he or she may desire it. (015-046, 1965.02.07)
Among the many countries in the world, there are some with a bad environment but good seeds, and some with a good environment but bad seeds. It is the same for history. If all countries in the world have good seeds, the world would not be a problem. If the original world had grown in an ideal environment with good seeds taken from a good tree, it would have become a world of peace and hope, where the future is secure. The world we are living in is neither a world of peace and hope nor a world that guarantees a good future, but a world struggling between goodness and evil. Our environment is more evil than good. Even though the seeds may be good, they are surrounded by an evil environment. (033-315, 1970.08.23)
If our human ancestors had lived a life of joy, happiness, satisfaction, freedom and peace, and passing it on to the countless generations that followed, and this had expanded into the eternal world, then that world would have become a world dominated by God through love, a world demanding to walk alongside God, and a world of eternal rejoicing with God. As a result of the human fall, that dream was shattered. The result was wretched and miserable. We are witnessing the realities of life in this world: war and struggle instead of peace, torment and sickness instead of happiness, and confusion throughout the course of history. (078-054, 1975.05.04)
If man had not fallen originally, his mind and body could have stood in an absolute position centering on God's love. Due to the fall, however, he came to stand in a contrary position. To prepare a foundation where world peace could be created and settle, man had to undergo a bloody history of ordeals and sacrifices, coupled with religious rites and rituals known as the providence of salvation or restoration. (113-321, 1981.05.10)
When we look at human history, we see that if man had not fallen, he would have welcomed an ideal garden of spring, and matured as a people whom God could rejoice with. Had man grown up in that way, he would have created a new culture on earth. He would have lived peacefully and happily in the midst of that culture. Just as all things move in a cycle according to the four seasons, the history of mankind should have become an everlasting cycle of spring, summer, autumn and winter. However, the fall saw the departure of the joy with which he would have ushered in the day of glory. (049-318, 1971.10.24)
What would have happened to man if he had not fallen? Every cell of his mind and body would be crazy for love. Even while going through hardships he would be intoxicated with love. A person who lives that kind of lifestyle will surely go to the heavenly palace rather than somewhere else. What did Jesus accomplish on earth? Receiving persecution and going the way of the cross, he never ceased to love mankind. Even as he died on the cross he was enraptured by love. He did not say we should receive love; rather, we should even love our enemy. A world of peace will come when the world changes its direction. A world of peace will never come to the place where people only think of getting love. A world of peace and unity cannot come unless people can love. We have to understand this is God's final proclamation to mankind. Fate is unchanging. Fortune can be changed through one's efforts, but not fate. (148-324, 1986.10.26)
The fall began at the point when Adam and Eve were awakening to themselves. As they brought about the history of destruction, failure and war, we must now make a clean sweep and start looking for the source of God-centered love and of living for the sake of others. Otherwise we will not be able to discover the source of peace. If we cannot discover the source of peace, we will not be able to build a world of peace. (146-102, 1986.06.07)
Society in general does not attach importance to the term "Indemnity." Though there is such a word, people do not understand its contents and meaning. Indemnity would not be needed if there were only God and man, and heaven and earth. It became necessary because Satan exists. Due to the fall, everything went amiss when Satan invaded. (189-046, 1989.03.12)
What is the relationship between God and man? God is the vertical Father and our human ancestors are the horizontal parents. Our horizontal parents fell from 90 degrees to 75 degrees. Struggle between the mind and body occurred due to the difference in angle, so man cannot say peace exists and he cannot be happy. (191-043, 1989.06.24)
Many nations exist in the world. They are not designing the ideal of peace, but their own ideal, and they continue to groan in confusion, sorrow and distress. This is not the nation original man desired, because this world is a consequence of the fall. (172-009, 1988.01.03)
2.2 How does the garden of peace come about?
Today, the world is talking about a world of peace and unity, yet all that sounds like words blowing in the wind. The question is whether I can make a world of unity within myself. If we say that there is an all-knowing God, and that there is a great man with a certain will, we conclude that there is someone who is determined to carry out the task of unification. (102-136, 1978.12.10)
Most of you often talk about loving, serving and sacrificing for each other. That is great. Loving one another means fervently giving to, not taking or requesting love from the other party. The basis of peace emerges in an environment where people serve one another. Flames of revival blaze up when people sacrifice themselves for the benefit of others. Where people mutually serve each other, flowers bloom and spread their fragrance. (112-299, 1981.04.25)
Just like the negative pole of a magnet, which never fails to attract the positive pole, we can perceive and comprehend God by the force of our conscience. The more we approach God following our conscientious mind, the more we can feel the peace, happiness and fullness of our mind. If we follow God's love, which is the womb of peace, our internal organs will receive stimulation and convulse with emotion. (083-038, 1976.02.05)
Having thus lived my life, I should end it gloriously and confidently. Even if I bear a grudge against death, I have to pray desperately that I will pledge my allegiance and fulfill all my responsibilities within my lifetime. If I pray for the world to be saved even at the expense of my life, today's world will not become a pile of rubble like an untended grandmother's grave. No matter how I hate to see your face furrowed by old age, the wrinkles on your forehead symbolize the conditions for peace. Our walking posture may be haggard, but when we realize that in that way lies the beacon of hope, we will stamp out the real identity of resentment on which the foothold of evil broadens. If we work only for ourselves, we become a friend of evil. Our fate is predetermined to reinforce the foundation of goodness in our life just once. You must measure your life against the standard and realize you have a diabolical twin living only for your selfish interests. You must break away from this being who is expanding its influence with each passing day, and bear a bitter grudge against it. You must clearly understand that you are on the pressing path of destiny, that you must make your own foundation of goodness yet a little more before you pass away. Therefore you must constantly busy yourself without taking any breaks. In my lifetime, I was imprisoned six times, was vilified in a foreign country for being a cult leader and have faced intense opposition. If the path of devotion I am walking on is a path on which people of different skin colors can keep pace with me, I will run anywhere. I have always lived my life in this fashion. (065-093, 1972.11.13)
You must keep in mind that only when we become the elite troops of Heaven and win the victory can we rejoice with God eternally and, at the same time, rejoice with Jesus and the Holy Spirit for eternity, and the time of peace when we can also rejoice can come to this earth. (002-179, 1957.04.14)
The individual battle turned into a family battle, the family battle turned into a clan battle, the clan battle turned into a social battle, the social battle turned into a national battle, and the national battle turned into a worldwide battle. If the spirit world exists, there will be a battle between the spirit world and the earth. If God exists, only when the war between God and the countless evil spirits of the earth is over will the age of peace come to this universe. You should realize God's situation, who is working through such a process of the Principle. The age of cosmic peace will come only when God resolves all the problems after a clash with Satan and the evil hordes on the earth. (004-344, 1958.10.19)
If the moment God's sorrowful heart is uprooted and the sadness deeply etched in His heart is liquidated does not arrive, humankind will never find peace and the ideology of Heaven will never come to fruition in this world. (006-206, 1959.05.17)
If a true individual comes who will eliminate this world's sorrow, liberate Heavenly Father? sorrow, and bring forth an ideology capable of establishing a peaceful nation on this earth, that individual will have to pass through every difficulty and experience desperation, starting from the sorrow of personal tribulation, all the way to the sorrow of the tribulations of humanity. Furthermore, he would have to delve into the whole sorrowful and desperate heart of Heaven to come out with something that can resolve it. If that is not achieved, the world of humanity cannot push aside the sorrowful and miserable history to establish the world of peace, the world of happiness, and the garden of freedom inviolable by sorrow. (006-239, 1959.05.24)
If you become the person who can act in place of the ideology of the universal Kingdom of Heaven to unfold the movement of God's love, life and truth, then the world of peace will be built on this earth. Therefore, your own parents are not the only parents, your own siblings are not the only siblings and your own children are not the only children. When you become the person who can regard all people as your parents, siblings and children, when you look upon the many people who are suffering in the world of death, you will not be able to relate with them without tears. When you look at your siblings or someone younger, you will feel a strong sense of responsibility to save them, and with tears you will make every effort to carry it out. If you truly become this kind of person, then the Kingdom of Heaven will be constructed on this earth centering on you. (002-143, 1957.03.17)
God's strategy is to take the first blow from Satan, do everything for his good and love him, and later to deprive Satan of everything. God does not take away by force from the satanic world, but first He freely gives love, sacrifices Himself, accepts the blow and is even willing to lose His life. It is evident that God cannot implant the source of world peace if He does not apply this strategy. (038-219, 1971.01.03)
You must lead your family and live for your nation and the world. Spanning the ages of the individual, family, clan, tribe, society and nation, you have to play the role of showing the world's peoples and nations the right direction based on my experience. Having fulfilled this, you must be able to serve God from a mutually inseparable position. Only then will the spirit world and the physical world become the unified world of peace. For the first time in human history, the guide will establish himself in the position of the eternal leader of the historical age and be awarded the glorious official commendation of the heavenly world. You have to know this indisputable fact. (030-116, 1970.03.17)
A person who fights and bleeds profusely in the harsh process of building a new kingdom of peace, a heaven of freedom, will not perish. The blood he sheds is not the blood of death, but a source of life. What he has achieved in this manner is the base we have to reach, embody in our lives and bequeath to our future generations. It is a painful reality.
"Oh, Heavenly Father! Your divine Will, which You have always wanted to take pride in, centering on the ideal of creation, has reached fruition in me. The man You have appointed has achieved union with the internal heart, which You have eternally wanted to take pride in before the world." You have to pray like this before Heaven and crave for the day of moving into the heavenly kingdom of liberty and peace where God can rejoice. (020-291, 1968.07.07)
Who is the owner of Korea? He is the one who loves and values that nation more than anybody else. Therefore, if Unificationists cherish and love Korea more than anybody else, they will become the owners of its people even if they do not become its owner. Only then will the age of peace arrive. (036-264, 1970.12.06)
We have to liberate God by dissolving His resentment. Even a young man, who takes the responsibility to remove a tiny obstacle offensive to the eye or ear, and who has a heart of serving God as the majestic, absolute being that can govern with the authority derived of freedom for all nations as the heavenly kingdom of freedom and peace, will truly be a great man. The future world will take on a new direction owing to this young man. If you vow to be like him, no matter how ragged you may look, you will not appear ugly. Infinite hope dwells there. That figure will become the foundation for God's hope and happiness. It is the same for us. Being in the position where we can harvest and in the position of the harvested grain, we have to be able to digest all our hardship and emotions with the element of happiness. Expanding that foundation to the nation and the world, as long as our subjective spirit does not deviate from the unified state, is it not true that the heaven of peace will be connected to the world on that foundation? (047-079, 1971.08.19)
Where must the restoration of heaven begin? It has to begin from prison. Have you tried humming a song in jail with an independent heart of peace, a heart with the original standard, and a heart with a standard that has restored subjectivity? When the apostles went through that same woeful ordeal in the past, did God not give them the authority to open the prison doors and freely move about in order for their situation to be transformed into Heaven? Have all of you become the people in whom God can have hope and expectation that is higher than that for the apostles? (049-072, 1971.10.03)
In the Last Days, there will be no way to survive if the direction of history is not reversed. To change its direction, we have to understand in what direction it is moving now. Since history has drawn to an end through the sacrifices of a third party, peace will definitely not come to the world if man does things in the same way as he has until now. (049-196, 1971.10.10)
How can we get over the crossroads? We have to put the nation before our spouses and ourselves, the world before the nation, and heaven and earth before the world. If we walk unhindered down a path in normal stages, the crossroads where all our enemies are waiting will vanish. Reaching the flat highway, liberation brings forth freedom, and the kingdom of peace in heaven and on earth, the ideal world desired by God, will be realized. (059-107, 1972.07.09)
We have to look for a God-centered pattern in that world too. The parental duty of loving the children has become the moral obligation of humankind. How do we gauge the standard of the ideal, original state grounded in parental, conjugal and filial ties, and the principle of the four-position foundation, which God designed and the Unification Church teaches? This is the issue. In dreaming of world peace and unity, this fundamental question remains. If it is not resolved, a world of unity cannot come. You must know that centering on the individual male and female patterns, a world of unity will emerge where the familial pattern shall be established. (059-105, 1972.07.09)
Even if you, your family and your nation become a sacrifice, if there is an ideological system which can launch a new set of values capable of benefiting all nations of the world, then through that ideological structure, a new gate of history will undoubtedly open before our very eyes. Like the law that states that what goes up must come down and vice versa, you must know that since this world is a world of sin and evil, the time to build a victorious heaven in the evil world according to a single direction, in which we can be delivered from sin, will come. (059-202, 1972.07.16)
The strategy for creating a realm of equality, as there has never been one, is sacrificing for others, wishing them luck, subjugating those who strike you and giving them the same amount of blessing in return. The history of a realm of total equality will begin here. Since the stage for eliminating the final showdown with the enemy was set up in this way, the notion of founding a nation of peace will be established for the first time. An ideal model of world peace and unity will start out from here. (056-332, 1972.05.18)
To shorten the way to heaven, the Messiah, a specific people or individual must take responsibility through self-sacrifice. Many saints have given up their lives for this cause. The rise and fall of many nations was to fill the valleys and level the hills. History to this day has consisted of people making themselves merry, thus it is a history of ups and downs. It goes on a spree, rising and falling. Equality like that of the present was established in this manner. Equality is peace. (072-253, 1974.06.30)
Originally, Adam and Eve, on perfecting themselves centering on God's love, could come to stand in a God-centered position by becoming one. This is called the four-position foundation in the Unification Church. The base for completing the four-position foundation was lost. As long as it remains to be established, no matter what historical age has been traversed, even if the peace of mankind, a utopia or an ideal world has been designed, it is of no avail. There cannot be an ideal situation that denies, breaks away from and opposes the principle.
For two thousand years, Christianity developed in the vortex of untold pressure such as during the period of persecution under the Roman Empire. Why did Christianity, which had absorbed Rome as well, decline and fall away like that in the course of a few decades in freedom loving modern-day America? This is a riddle. Judaism taught belief in God and all Jews loved God, yet Hitler massacred six million Jews. Why? This is an incomprehensible mystery. This was because religions did not go the original way they should have.
So, what should our central focus be in order to reorganize the world? As historians and intellectuals have mentioned today, we need someone who can lead the world. How should he guide us, what should he teach? There are plenty of people qualified to teach us how to live with politics or political power as our central focus, though they cannot lead without money or a political system. There is no order of love that can be connected to God and His ideal. If we find a truth by which the order of original love and the source of peace can grow on a worldwide foundation, then man's original mind can rest for the first time. (125-226, 1983.03.27)
The beginning and the end of the truth must be the same. Today, we do not need religion. A person who can connect his heart directly to heaven and earth would be enough for that purpose. Peace comes from the heart too. When my mind expresses happiness, the vast expanse of the universe becomes my bosom friend and runs wild within the world of my mind. (154-052, 1964.03.23)
In what manner will the ideal world come to the human world in the future? If the proper use of our sexual organs is not laid bare, the world is doomed to perish. We cannot find a world of peace. Look at Rome and America. The degeneration of the United States was not due to lack of money. Until now they have not been able to recognize the owner of the sexual organ, its origin and the manner of its creation. They did not know these things because of Satan. To bring that to light and to clear up all the chaos caused by that vicious and treacherous cosmic Satan, I will hoist my banner and sally forth. (193-147, 1989.10.03)
As the wintry wind from a frigid zone blows into the temperate zone, the trees stand bare, stripped of their foliage and fruits. However harsh its blast, it cannot suppress the life-bearing seeds. Yet, breaking out of these very seeds, that demonstrate such hardiness and strength, a new spring garden of peace for mankind can be found. As the spring garden of liberation and hope is found when seeds of new life are sown on the earth in this new age of mankind, let us move into the temperate zone of liberation where there is no winter. It will fit in perfectly with the teachings of the Unification Church. (182-090, 1988.10.14)
To improve myself, we have to go the way of difficulty. Unifying Korea is nothing. Is North-South Unification an easy thing to do? Is unifying ourselves easy? However much we may be able to unite the North and South, we still fail to achieve unity within ourselves. However much we may achieve world peace, we still fail to achieve peace within ourselves.
If the direction the world takes on tomorrow can unify the past, the present and the future, the hope for unification can be found anytime, anywhere. In the light of the past and present, we can see we must head toward one purpose. That one purpose is one peace and unity, not two. That is as easy as A-B-C. The question is: When will I unify myself? Am I qualified to govern the unified world without first unifying myself? It cannot be achieved logically. The issue of unification is a serious one. It is the historical problem of the universe. (273-218, 1995.10.29)
There were no nations in Adam's world. Managing just his own family would have sufficed. Therefore, Rev. Moon instructed you to organize for your families based on tribal messiahship. It will be enough if your family stands upright. The ultimate is the unity of the conscience and the physical body and the family. The problem is whether a couple becomes one, whether a man and woman unites. If that is achieved, the world will enter the land of peace. The world's problems are not difficult, as long as the mind and body are one and men and women are one.
As this is an evil and belligerent world, it loves to engage in struggle. This is because the mind struggles with the body. The battle of the sexes has become the norm. Where in the world is the base of peace? Not in Japan nor the world nor in heaven but in oneself. If we do not bring peace between the warring mind and body, there never will be world peace. (257-112, 1994.03.13)
How will the world of peace come? What is the most necessary condition? A unified source. If we cannot locate this, it would mean parting from the world of unity for all eternity. Your mind is at odds with your body, is it not? A man and woman cannot be happy when they quarrel. There can be no peace or hope. In the end, the mind and body become divided into two separate parts. A couple is divided into four parts, there being two pairs of mind and body, and there is conflict among them.
A woman tries to become one centering on her mind, but her mind repels her body. She then tries to become one centering on her body, but this time her body drives away her mind. There is no possible place to establish a stronghold. We cannot find the starting point of peace on this earth. Can two people meet and find the concept of peace by having money as the center of their focus? Do you think they will want to keep money for themselves, or not? The money my father keeps in his tobacco pouch is worthless to me compared to the little penny wrapped in a rag in my tattered pocket. Still, doesn't my father want to put the money from his pocket into mine? He even wants to put his children's money into my pocket. Until everyone discards covetousness, there will never be unity.
The Unification Church is different, though. Equipped with a logical, organized system, which no religion or ideology can imitate, it can become the base of world peace, a base for individuals, couples, families, tribes, races, nations, the world and, ultimately, the cosmos. The Unification Church teaches that since heaven and earth are divided, a man can find true happiness if he unites with God in a unified world of peace; that there is hope; and it strongly encourages man to earnestly seek a world of peace. Everyone welcomes these ideals. (230-315, 1992.05.10)
What will become of the world in the future? Regardless of sex or age, all people living in the world today are longing for a world of unity. That world of unity is not a world of war, but a world of peace and freedom. There are no such things as national segregation, racial strife and barriers ensuing from cultural differences. The world's people are yearning for a nation of peace and freedom corresponding to a cultural sphere of unity.
The question is how to integrate everything into one. A world of peace is a world of unity. There is only one way, not two, in aiming for a world of peace. A world of hope and peace that men and women, young and old are craving for is a world of unity. Even within the different nations, we see various organizations, each having its unique thought, methodology and objectives. Surveying the political landscape of Korea, the ruling and opposition parties seek to run their own party in their own way. How many directions will there be? Problems stem from this.
Since the dawn of history, a great number of people has worked for world peace. Those capable of leading humankind with hope into the sublime unified world of tomorrow are gradually dwindling, however. (227-215, 1992.02.14)
Human history is interwoven with recurring warfare because it takes place in the realm of Satan's dominion. It has to be completely liquidated no matter what. How can we transform this fallen world into a world of peace? Among the many religious groups, ideologies and individuals, those claiming superiority have all collapsed. Communism collapsed; democracy, and many religions too, have lost their power and gone into decline. (225-015, 1992.01.01)
From where do we start to determine the structural system of society, going beyond all studies, research and conventional practices? This is a problem. The starting point must be God. God made man from the beginning, having passed through different stages. If we do not rediscover the Creator, the ideal of creation as known in the Unification Church, the realization of the ideal and the destination we can reach, a world of peace cannot be established.
Why? This is so because a world of peace is a world of unity. If man moves in a direction different from that of God, the unified world of peace cannot come. The conclusion is that the two directions have to inevitably become one. Breaking down the man-centered world, if we do not decide on a God-centered world, we cannot discover the way to the unified world of peace.
Students graduate from first-rate or third-rate universities based on having evaluated human values. Can knowledge be the center of our focus in forming a relationship with God and in attaining a world of peace? Can knowledge be a bridge on the path of peace? Knowledge is multidirectional and multifarious. The humanities are subdivided into innumerable major disciplines. The question is which one to opt for. (223-136, 1991.11.10)
In the world of mind and body, the issue of setting up a standard of peace is the most valuable thing in life. The mind is battling against the body. Those whose mind and body are not at war, raise your hands. Are your mind and body harmonized, unified and equalized?
Looking at this problem squarely in the face, where is the standard of peace? Not in the world, the nation, religion, or anywhere. To be religious leaders, you must be able to establish the standard of peace within you to create the absolute mind and body unity. All the education and all the training are to realize that very humanitarian purpose. You may believe in any religious teaching or you may be a wonderful religious leader yourself, or a great saint reigning over this world, but you will not be able to achieve unity from the same standpoint as the eternal God.
All of you have heard the Divine Principle many times. The problem is that if I do not establish the source of peace beginning from my individual level, I would be talking about ideal religions, heaven or whatever, and it would be nothing but a pipe dream that has nothing to do with me. Where is the standard of peace? Is it in Islam, Christianity or Judaism? No, it cannot be found in any religion. Is it in an individual? You must know that it is ideal people who precede religions. As everything has broken down, are you not seeking an ideal man, an ideal woman, an ideal family and an ideal nation? (217-179, 1991.05.27)
The obverse and reverse of a body experience alternating brightness and darkness. Is that not true for the earth? Do not day and night constantly stand in opposite positions? Revolving, the earth achieves equilibrium, mutuality and peace. When we consider the issue of uniting East and West, as day is one and night is one, it does not denote that the two would merge into one. How do we connect them? The unified body of the interior and the exterior is analogous to a substantial body and its shadow. (213-217, 1991.01.21)
The mind as the stronghold of peace
If God is alive today, He has to drag us to the right position of motive, of purpose, in order to bring a solution to the path of our lives. Thus, He has carried out this providential work by means of religions, and has stressed the paramount importance of living a life centering on the mind. At the same time, He did not command us to live a worldly life but emphasized life in the afterworld. Not even Christian dogma teaches about living a life centering on this realistic world. Nobody tells men to eat and live well in this world. Our minds will surely come clamoring for peace in the world of spirit, thus teaching us, "There is heaven." Not in the world, but within our mind. Heaven is in the world of mind, and will be realized in the Last Days. Heaven in the Last Days refers to heaven realized from a position that has nothing to do with this world. Therefore, it requires mankind to walk through the course of history, but does not teach the valuable contents of the historical course. Religions should originally have done that. (049-024, 1971.10.03)
We desire to harmonize with and praise Heaven and that the whole world is equal and lives well together. When we ask where the source of that desire is, the answer is that it does not exist in our body but in our mind. The desire of the mind based on goodness is not that people treat one another as enemies, fight with or even kill one another, but that we can have a love relationship with one another in an environment where freedom, peace and happiness dwell. This is the hope of all men. Does hope come from the body? No. If the body hungers for food, it will desire to snatch away even the only remaining morsel from the hand of our brother or sister and eat it. Our physical desire is like that. On seeing that, our mind hopes that our body would stop doing such things. (041-068, 1971.02.13)
Our minds tend to thirst for a perfect origin, passing over imperfect ones. Going beyond the historical environment and strong waves of the era, this tendency is throbbing actively in the human mind. The stimulus and source of such a force remain. The original body, the causal existence, the original stronghold, which can be the subject of that force, is the absolute existence. Mankind is always seeking for something new, ideal, peaceful and happy through his mind. (027-218, 1969.12.14)
With what strategy does the omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent God make this world peaceful? Where will He look for the stronghold of peace? Not in America, Russia or any other country but in the original human mind. That means abandoning all things belonging to this mundane world and returning to the standard of the original mind. It means entering the inner mind. Therefore, Jesus said the Kingdom of God is in your heart and mind. If we do not liberate the goodness in our mind, it is impossible to achieve an ideal world or a world of happiness. (023-125, 1969.05.18)
The wider the gap between our mind and body is, the more grief expands. Agony is interposed between them and tragedy dwells there. Therefore we have to unify our mind and body by narrowing the gap between them, or else peace and happiness cannot exist in the human world. A person, who cannot bring his own battle, the battle in his individual self, to a halt, even if the world's battle has ceased and he is living in that world, cannot secure the conditions for hope, happiness and peace. The problem lies in me. I must resolve my fundamental problem. When I welcome the ideal environment of the external world, I can, for the first time, feel peace and happiness soaking into my mind. Only if it is connected to the world on that foundation will a free and happy heaven be realized. I cannot deny the fact that even though I may have the environment ready, I cannot harmonize in a happy environment if I have yet to resolve my own problem. (020-167, 1968.06.09)
Many people on this earth today are living life without knowing what the mind is. In other words, man is unaware that the mind itself is the foundation for shaping his personality, and for it to rest centering on God's love. The mind is boundless and great. There is room at the core of the mind to welcome and let God in. So long as a man has an upright mind, he would like to move the people of all nations of into the palace of peace all at one time. (037-116, 1970.12.23)
The fundamental problem is the unity of our individual self. Achieving unity of the mind and body, we can say that the fundamental mind has fulfilled the condition for happiness, which is not exchangeable for the entire world. If you do not become a person with a center that does not give way or break even in a collision with something in the world, you cannot find the source of world peace. (020-168, 1968.06.09)
From the starting point from which I can share happiness and sadness with God, I must uphold the standard by which I can prepare the foundation for peace, freedom and happiness in my mind. With that standard as the central focus and totally suppressing the body, I have to initiate a movement on the surface of the earth with the ability of unifying the world. Putting it in another way, this movement is the new ideal Jesus had come with. Please do not forget this. (020-173, 1968.06.09)
Those who hope for world peace: please raise your hands. Where does the standard of peace start? In East and West Germany, Russia and America? Where is it? [In the mind and body of man.] None of you has the ability to unify them. If God exists, there is only one God. That is not a pretext; it is a logical and definite conclusion. (196-029, 1989.12.24)
The world of peace to which many are dreaming of going is not located elsewhere. Jesus emphatically taught that the Kingdom of Heaven is within us. A person who does not have heaven in his mind cannot be moved to tears even if heaven is in the world of another party that has planted happiness in his heart. A relationship cannot be formed there. (206-059, 1990.10.03)
Your mind is God's sentry post and your body the battle line of Satan. Just as the Panmunjom truce village [at the demilitarized zone which divides North and South Korea], the confrontation point of democracy and communism, exists, all of you have to know there is a Panmunjom, a boundary line, in the world of your mind. The Panmunjom of the world of the human mind has become the world's Panmunjom. It is the only one in the whole world. From that viewpoint, Korea is a country of great significance. (156-221, 1966.05.25)
Is there peace in your mind? Just imagine an eternal center appearing in the world, saying, "There is already everlasting peace in me." It would become the center of everything. Nothing and nobody could change that center. If such a foundation has been established, nobody, not even God, could ever change it. No matter how evil a world is, it cannot occupy that center. On the establishment of such a foundation, God will look down and trust you. What about all of you? Is there peace in your minds? I cannot even see the root! That which wanders about anytime is not a root and cannot settle down in one place. If I let peace take deep root, nobody, not even God or myself, could uproot it. Neither your parents, nor history, nor America, nor humankind, nor knowledge nor authority-not even love could pluck it out. Looking at this as a foundation, unless I commanded you to follow me, re-creation would be impossible. There are no other methods. Is the base of peace in your mind? This is your responsibility.
Nobody could take your foundation away by force. You have to build your own foundation. Others cannot assist you. You have to erect the throne of your palace alone. Only then, would all things on all sides acknowledge it, saying, "Please take your seat at the center." After that, sitting there is the natural thing to do. You achieve this by force. Each of you must build the foundation for the base of peace in your mind. It is of vast importance. No matter how much you think of heaven, you cannot be connected to God's original ideal without such a foundation. This is a historic conclusion. No matter how much history flows, it cannot alter today's conclusion. (205-145, 1990.08.12)
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