Sermons of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, Volume 3

The Path, its Purpose and its Value

Former Church Headquarters
Seoul, Korea
September 29,1957
Psalms 23:16

Prayer

Father of love! We know that today is the day that all must come before You and cleanse their every aspect. We know that in the past week there were many things about us that were wrong in Your eyes. Therefore, Father of love, we sincerely wish that during this hour You will forgive all our inadequacies and allow us to have repentful hearts. By doing so, please guide this to be a moment when we can cleanse all of our wrong doings of the past week and unveil before You all the things that we have committed during our life course.

Father, please allow us to first feel the joy and bliss of having found the Father in this hour. Next, please allow us to give thanks for the Father's grace. You made it possible for us to find our previously lost selves and to return the joy and glory of having found the Father. Beloved Father, we beseech You from the depths of our hearts to guide this hour to be a moment when we can sincerely rejoice and be grateful over the grace of the Father, who has led us to find the original self that the Father too has sought.

Before we seek and attend the Father within our hearts, there is no way we can realize the goal of our life or obtain the element of power with which we can fight against Satan. Therefore, Father, we sincerely wish that You can allow our center to be connected to You. Allow us to be the sons and daughters who can exert all of our strength for the sake of the will while our center remains unmoved.

Father, please look upon this nation with compassion. Please give blessing upon the countless altars which are gathered on behalf of these people. Since there are many children who are appealing to You out of desperation, Father, please be their friend and consoler. Beloved Father, we sincerely wish and desire for You to be the leader of all, to let them share in the eternal ideology of life, and for You to allow this to be a time when we can discuss the ideology of love.

Father, the sons and daughters who have gathered here prostrate themselves before the Father having unveiled themselves wholly. Please seek us with a loving and parental heart, and allow us to be equipped with the center of the eternally unchanging character. By achieving this, let us experience the Father's heart and be the ones who can take responsibility for the will in the Father's place. Beloved Father, we sincerely wish for You to allow us to become the children who can receive orders from the Father.

We have entrusted this hour only to You, so please govern it from beginning to end. Hoping that only the glory of victory will be allowed to descend upon all of our heads, beloved Father, we offer all these words in the name of the Lord. Amen.

The title of the speech I want to share with you is "The Path, its Purpose and its Value." I will speak to you briefly upon this topic.

Not only human beings, but all created things that exist on this earth have been seeking the one path. All of the created things we see have been working ceaselessly to realize their individual purposes. Human beings have been unconsciously seeking some central path during the long period of history. Accordingly, if the path you are walking at present is different from that central path, then you must find that central path.

The Reason Fallen Men Could Not Comprehend the Purpose of Life

For human beings, there is a path we must walk as individuals. At the same time, we also must walk a path as a group, a society, a nation and the world. Furthermore, you have to clearly understand that there is one path we must walk through the heavenly principles.

You might feel that you are living in this kind of reality today, and that even if you are the only one, this one self must walk toward the will of the original heavenly principles. Yet you will learn that while you proceed on that path, it is difficult to manage your responsibilities on your own.

If human beings can break out of this kind of situation, take responsibility for themselves for eternity and walk the path of which they can be eternally proud, then they will able to feel many new ideas and facts that others in history could not feel on the earth until now. However, you today probably feel that you are groping in the dark without knowing the destination of the path you are about to take. Similarly, from the fall until now, human beings have been wandering unaware on a path that does not have a purpose.

Seeking the one path, which has been pursued from the time of our ancestors in the past, did not come to a culmination with an individual. Individuals gathered to form families, families joined to form a society, societies came together to form nations, and nations came together to form a world. That world has also come together in search of a certain path it must take. You probably witness this clearly in your living environment.

When one of you tries to pursue an ideology of life, you will certainly have to pass through a path. That path is headed toward a certain point of conclusion which can connect you with the whole. Similarly, you will not be able to deny the fact that, until now, some people of the past have walked a complex path of conflict while heading toward the ideology of unification, which is the concluding point of that conflict.

On the day that the purpose of the conflict is fulfilled, as we become inseparable from that purpose, from a position of immutability, we will find the one great value that can penetrate from one to the whole. We can then finally arrive at the destination of the path humankind is walking on today.

Nonetheless, although each of you is pursuing this kind of universal value of the whole today, because there is no environment that will allow your mind and body to become one with it, conflicts are taking place in many directions. Therefore, only when our minds and bodies can develop a relationship of eternal oneness with the path which heads toward the heavenly principles can we behold that purpose and enjoy our present life. We can then cherish that value and rejoice within the ideology of life. Thus, you who are living in the environment of the end of the century today must reflect on your own initiative about the purpose of the path you are seeking and the distance which lies between you and that path.

Yet that path will come in many different forms. There will be paths that rely on religion; there will be paths that rely on science. In each field in which you find yourselves, politics, economics, philosophy, etc., there will be a different path each of you walk. Even if these paths are different from the eternal path of the whole, when their convergent destinations come together toward the unity that everyone can welcome, a desirable new path will emerge.

When you reflect upon whether you have found the eternal value that will allow you to embark upon a new path from the position you are in today, you will find that no one has yet found that kind of value and purpose. In other words, in religion, science, culture or any other field, we were not able to find the universal value that could establish our new ideology of life and form the power of new life. We were not able to set the one standard that can operate as the universal purpose itself.

Why are human beings still in a position of ignorance toward that kind of purpose and direction, not even aware of the purpose itself? The reason is that our minds and bodies have not been able to set the one standard that can bring them into oneness with the heavenly principles. In other words, before we human beings can set the one standard that can unite our minds and bodies with the heavenly principles, we cannot be in a relationship with the new ideology linked to the universal purpose. Moreover, no matter how much our mind and body become one, we cannot establish a place where we can rest in peace eternally and experience the ideology of unification.

You must be the ones who can connect themselves with the three- dimensional value of the one purpose. When you can center your minds and bodies on the one center that emerges as the ideology of the whole and as the power of life and you move centering on the spirit, you can finally fathom the whole value of God.

This course, which we are traveling through based on our minds and bodies today, is not merely the destination of some ideology. When it can transcend the mind and body to connect with the one subject who is dominating the eternal and all-encompassing value of the heavenly principles, our minds can finally find a resting place. Our bodies can dwell in it also.

Consequently, we human beings today have been seeking this kind of path through religion in an attempt to link the mind, body and the universal principles that stand divided. Furthermore, God has been seeking us through this path to save fallen humanity.

The History of Humanity Moving Toward the Point of Unity

Has scientific or religious truth pointed out the ultimate path that human beings were to travel originally? They have not been able to point the way. Until now, human beings have not been able to establish the one standard that can bring unity between mind and body and enable them to become one with the eternal heavenly principles or the absolute Deity, the Creator.

Therefore, you probably do not know with certainty yet which direction you are traveling toward and in which position you find yourself. You must understand that even if the Creator and the created things have some ideology, they have no relationship whatsoever apart from you. Therefore, you must prepare the one standard based upon which the highest ideology of the Creator and the creation can be manifested through you. Where the purpose of this ideology is realized, you can forget everything and rejoice. If you cannot prepare this kind of standard, you will not be able to break through the secular environment in your practical life. Therefore, in the course of your life, you must find the one being of purpose who can introduce this absolute value.

Many people today are prophesying that the present era is the Last Days. We also are well aware of this fact. We have arrived at the ultimate concluding era of history. Moreover, you must understand that all kinds of social customs and environments, natural phenomena like the weather and the seasons, etc. are being mobilized for the sake of fulfilling this one purpose.

Today, you will feel that you can never accomplish that purpose without the ideology that puts you in harmony with human principles. Moreover, you will also feel that you can never realize the value and purpose of the whole by relying on same processes on which countless people and many sages have relied until now.

If then there is something required of those of us who must stand firm in this kind of environment and position, what could that be? We have to free ourselves from the human principles of the past and reveal the one path which can link us eternally with the heavenly principles during this concluding period of human history. If you cannot achieve this, then your life course will begin and end in despair.

Because the purpose of history is to accomplish this kind of task, this immense universe began from an individual and is moving toward the purpose of the whole. In other words, it is moving toward the point of unity. This point of unity will surely appear in the concluding era of history. Because this point of unity cannot forge an eternal bond outside the one center, it will transcend humanistic standards and appear as the purpose of all power in connection with the heavenly principles or the purpose of the whole. This is the new revolution that will emerge during the concluding period of history.

The Fundamental Problem of Human Beings and the Solution

If we can set the conditions for the new revolution in the twentieth century cultural sphere in which we live or in each field you are in, then that condition can connect the human principles and the heavenly principles. Accordingly, if in your life course you cannot set this kind of revolutionary condition as the central purpose of your life, then you will not be able to forge bonds with the whole purpose of human beings.

Consequently, everything has come to the end today. Politics, philosophy and religion have all come to the very end. Until now religions have been struggling to fulfill their missions, but they have not yet been able to introduce the one standard they should have ultimately established. This is also true for politics, philosophy and for any cultural course of history.

Nonetheless, now is the time that the whole universe must operate centering on the ideology of unification connected to the one purpose. As long as the Creator of the universe still exists, this will remain as the inevitable task. Until the connection is made with the ideology of the Creator, there is no way to make a breakthrough in any of the problems with the beliefs held until now. No cultural conditions revered until now can achieve it.

To put it another way, through the long historical course until now, human beings have tried to solve problems centering on their consciences and their bodies, but they could not completely solve them. In other words, solving this fundamental problem of human beings can never be accomplished with religion, philosophy or science, either those of the past or of the present.

Therefore, even modern people who are proud of the twentieth century scientific culture have to seek some new science that can discover a new religious ideology. In regard to philosophy, they must seek a philosophy of a new ideology that is not limited to philosophy itself. As for religion, they must seek a religion that possesses a new idea that all the religions hitherto have not possessed. That time will arrive at your doorstep without fail.

Consequently, no matter what field you are working in, your heart will not find peace even for a moment. Moreover, you have not set the conditions in your living environment upon which basis you can confidently claim that you have lived for the sake of the whole purpose, the conditions of pride with which you can confidently go before God. This is the reason God did not have any other choice but to lament over people who have been leading this kind of life. This is the reason the course of history had to pass through a miserable course of conflict.

Because you have not arrived at your destination in the reality in which you are living, you have to battle everywhere you dwell. However, you have not been able to win victory in that environment of conflict to proudly step before the Father and other people, as well as before all things of creation. If you cannot deny that you are living amid lamentation, sorrow and grudges, then you should realize that before you remains a path through which you must still travel.

If God exists and He carries on the dispensation by putting forth heavenly principles, there must be one destination that can serve as both the purposes of God and humanity. There must be a point of unity where our minds and bodies can become one on earth. You must seek this.

You probably have certain desires, but those desires will not be limited to the individual. Those desires want to transcend the individual and the world to reach a place we cannot even imagine. When we ask the question whether that desire, revealed through our minds today, has any relationship with an ideology, the answer is that it does. The present living environment has formed a relationship with the ideology of the universe.

You probably feel that you cannot live fully content just centering on your individual self, based on the habits you have developed until now within the sphere of your awareness. This is not the original intent for human beings, and it is not the ideal purpose of pursuing the laws of human principles. Until now humans have transcended the laws of human principles and the laws of heavenly principles and have been demanding the one central figure who rules over all created things with the unifying ideology. Having arrived at today, this is how our mind-set and lifestyle are and how all the things are that we behold in our path. If your individual life ends on the individual level, then you will not be able to manifest your value before the whole. This is because although human beings are living in practical reality, it is the desire of the original mind that they not live alone but that the whole will live together. Moreover, although human beings have desires, they must not be only for their own sake, but for the sake of the whole.

The Unifying Ideology and the Hero Who must Reach the Purpose of Life

What are you walking toward today? Are you walking for your own individual sake? Are you walking to link with society? Are you walking to link with the nation? Or are you walking to link with the world? You must walk the steps which can be connected with the world.

For this reason, in the Last Days, which usher in the concluding period of history, everything must move in the direction where they can be linked to the world ideology. This is true for the business that we make plans for, for our lives and for our ideology.

However, the lives we have lived until now could not link with and introduce that kind of ideology. This kind of environment was not created in the reality in which we live. Furthermore, even if we possess what we consider to be most precious, we do not stand in the position to satisfy our eternal ideals. Therefore, we must understand that, for us today, there remains more course that we must cross.

Countless people who have examined this era with a historical perspective say that these are the Last Days. If, in these Last Days, humanistic demands come to an end, humans will lapse into despair. Accordingly, at such times, humanistic demands must forge a relationship with human history and there must emerge one center that can introduce the one purpose. When this is fulfilled, when that center emerges after linking with each of you and connecting with the new heavenly principles and new universal history, the ideology which will enable you to take a new path will finally be found.

Now you must re-examine the environment in which you live. You must reflect upon your environment. Are there people among you who are doing academic research? You are not to limit yourself to academics. Are there any who are researching religion? You are not to limit yourself to religion. You are to transcend them and endlessly pursue greater things on a new level.

This must be able to bond with everything from any direction. From any direction it must be able to emerge as the one with public value. In any direction it must be able to operate as the center of life or ideology. In this way it must be able to manifest direct power in the sphere of actual life. If it cannot manifest this kind of power, there is no way to recognize that there is a being who provides guidance to the all-encompassing destination of life for which humans long and seek.

When it rains according to natural phenomena, that rain flows down until it reaches the ocean. It passes through rivers to enter the ocean. The water that entered the ocean becomes one there and produces a new work of harmony. Ocean water evaporates and then descends upon the earth again as rain. It then allows all plants and trees to grow.

Similarly, it is the law of Heaven that any thing unites with the whole by passing through a certain path. It does not remain stagnant; it transcends itself to move in search of a new value.

The Accomplishment of the Whole Purpose and Individual Efforts

When we look back upon the history of humanity, we find that individuals have joined to form a whole. They gathered centering on one doctrine. We can understand that now two streams are surfacing. However, when the two streams join as one, we are not to feel content only in that joining. We should move toward some unifying destination. We should manifest something that can reach the whole by forming the environment of new value that is different from the old shape of the past.

Therefore, even if you have the highest skills in your own field today, you must not stop at just having those skills. Because you are in the process of seeking the whole purpose, you are to step over that and rise higher to make another step.

Consequently, no matter what you do, based on science now, you cannot produce the works of harmony which can link with the laws of the heavenly principles. Based on any philosophy of the past or present, you cannot produce a new work of harmony or create a world in which all things can rejoice and be grateful. Yet because human beings are in a position to pursue the center of the universal purpose, we must bring this world together with something that we can call the best. We must establish the new religious ideology that can forge relations with the universe.

Philosophers should understand that not everything can be brought to a conclusion with philosophy. Although human principles have been developed based on philosophy until now, because this is not enough, you must seek a religion that can coalesce with the heavenly principles. The same thing is true for science. Because science today cannot work for the sake of peace for humanity or bring happiness in place of the whole purpose, science must also forge a bond with the one purpose of the whole. If those relations are not formed, then this world cannot be united as one. In other words, if one cannot find and connect to the center that seeks to form one world, the whole purpose of this universe, then the value of that purpose will not have anything to do with that person.

Moreover, if everything ends in such a position, we will not be able to show that God exists. This is because if God exists, then He should be able to replace that purpose of whole value with an ideology on the world level in every field. He should be able to prove the purpose that each individual is pursuing. Therefore, when some great scientists, philosophers or religious men all center on this whole purpose, they will begin to come together.

However, these kinds of problems cannot be solved with the religions and philosophies of the present or the past. Human beings can act on behalf of the whole purpose, no matter who they are. They must one day receive the one center that can represent the value of the whole. Only then can the one standard, which can link with the heavenly principles through each person's mind and body, emerge as the purpose of a certain path on the world level. It will be able to acknowledge the relative value. Through the rise of new laws of harmony in the path that human beings are traveling with respect to purpose and value, the glory of God will begin to be revealed.

Originally, when God was creating Adam and Eve, He created them with this kind of ideology. God who is infinite and absolute created Adam and Eve so they could experience and enjoy that infiniteness and absoluteness in every aspect of their lives.

Therefore, we human beings today must feel the infinite and absolute God through the course of restoration. In the practical realm of finiteness we must establish the infinite and absolute value that we felt in the world of the heart as the element of ideal power. When we do that, the harmony of Heaven and earth can finally begin to take place. When our minds and bodies dwell before the infinite and absolute God and live with Him, we can feel the purpose of the Creator as our own. When we feel joy in the place of dwelling, its value will emerge not relatively but in three dimensions. We must understand that the glory of God finally begins there.

Nonetheless, human beings today are not able to overcome this problem. Instead, they are filled with lamentation, despair and fear. When philosophy, religion and science exceed that limit, they will all sink into pitch darkness. Therefore, in that position, one must without fail build a relationship with some eternal and absolute force. The same holds true for philosophy, religion and science. Therefore, you must understand that all things are moving toward the point of unity. You have to understand that this trend does not just include the history leading up to the present; it also includes all things that exist in this world.

The Place Where God's Glory Begins

We have to find the one base of relationship wherein the path we are traveling will not just stop with human principles, but will make a connection with the laws of the heavenly principles. Even if you might think that you are walking toward the purpose of the world, you are probably demanding to link not only with your own mind but with some absolute mind. You are probably wishing that you could feel the highest universal Being that transcends human relations.

This is the reason that people today say religion is precious. Religion is not just to remain in a certain state of mind that connects only with one's own mind. It recognizes the real existence of a Deity who has transcended this and is pursuing the unlimited and absolute value that exists inside the Deity. Therefore, when our minds form a relationship with this infinite heart of heavenly principles, amazing value will surface.

What then should you do today, in the days that countless people prophesy are the Last Days? When you have pioneered the path that can represent the world ideology there, you can absorb everything of the past and put it forth before all things. Moreover, you are to establish your environment as the environment that can manifest itself as the substitute for the value of the whole.

How can you accomplish these tasks? You cannot do this with any of the academic fields, religions or philosophies of the past or present. This can be determined only through our hearts. Through each one's heart and through the heart of God, this culminating point must manifest itself as the unified purpose. When it manifests itself, it must establish the value of life. You must keep in mind that when this is done, the glory of God can finally be revealed.

What then have human beings been laboriously seeking until now? They have been struggling to find the heart of the heavenly principles that can replace the human principles and connect our minds to that heart in oneness. Because the minds that have become one have secured a relationship with the absolute Heart, no one can carve that heart away. Therefore, in this way we have been searching until now for this Heart that cannot be invaded by any kind of ideology or assertion. Therefore, if you cannot find this, you will not be able to escape from sorrow and sadness.

You have to understand that such a forked path lies before us today. In accordance with the will of the dispensation that must find this, your mind must pursue the heart of a higher realm. By doing so, we must be able to demonstrate this as the eternal purpose in the sphere of our lives, the eternal purpose of all created things, and the substantial embodiment of eternal value. Furthermore, you should be able to show that you yourselves are the ones who possess this kind of value. You should be able to prove that you are the embodiment of the historical value. God's glory will begin to reveal itself from the moment you become one and come out of a state of division.

Accordingly, in the same way that all created things, centered on God, move as one and not two purposes, your minds must not be limited to rejoicing in your own self during moments of happiness. You have to make the connection to have the value of the whole so that the whole can rejoice and be glad.

Similarly, you have to understand that you must walk the path which seeks to bring everyone's hearts into oneness centering on your own heart. In other words, the right path is the one in which everyone can be in harmony and rejoice by making the connections with each other's hearts.

The Value of the Person Who Possesses True Love

Until now, human beings have transcended history and possessed the laws of the unchanging heart. In other words, the original mind of humankind transcends time and remains unchanged both in the past and in the present. However, human beings have not been able to find the precious path on which people with unchanging hearts can travel.

Nonetheless, because my mind and your minds have become one today and established bonds with the universal whole value, you must, without fail, find the one point of unity that can link you with the heart of the heavenly principles. You have to understand that if you cannot find this, no matter what kind of idealism exists on the earth, it will be shattered.

Consequently, until now people have been searching for religion in an attempt to find this. Christianity emerged to take charge of this task. When Jesus, the center of Christianity, appeared on this earth, what did he bring with him? He came centering on love. You have to clearly realize how amazing a grace and gospel it is that Jesus established love as the uniting point that can bring together the hearts of humankind, unify humanity, and even unify the heavenly principles.

Consequently, this love which your hearts can enjoy and can move your hearts must, in these Last Days, passes through daily life and the world. Furthermore, it must reach the standard of manifesting itself as the one relationship of love with the heart of the heavenly principles. Moreover, if a religion has presented this kind of purpose in each field and has been gathering strength to make the move in that direction, then it will certainly require this kind of love.

What must you have to find that kind of love? It cannot be accomplished with the lifestyle, concepts, mindset and ideology we have had until now. You are to liquidate all of this and reflect about whether the heart of the heavenly principles exists within your minds. By doing so, you must liberate your heart and move it without limitation. You have to possess that kind of living environment. If you cannot do this, then you will never be able to possess the heart that can link with the heart of the heavenly principles.

If there is a person who can reach this state, though he is just an individual, as the person who has value connected with the whole universe, he will be able to stand as the central being who can digest all kinds of things any time. He will be able to easily manage that kind of mission. Accordingly, we have been leading our life of faith with this as our purpose.

However, if you cannot find this ultimate destination today, then for eternity you will not be able to free yourself from the eternal conflict on this earth, or from the history of lament, or from the history of sorrow. You have to keep this in mind.  

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