The Words of Jin Sung (Pak) Moon (husband of In Jin Moon)
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The Words of Jin Sung (Pak) Moon (husband of In Jin Moon) |
You have called me here to speak about the True Children.
More than anything, I know how unworthy I am to speak about them. My level of heart and my understanding of them fall so short of the truth, of the reality. It is nearly an impossible task to fit into the True Family, and I have been able to only because of the love, the forgiveness, and the incredible patience of the True Children. Because of the blessing I have been given to be so close to them, I feel a responsibility to convey what has been given to me. It is of the utmost importance that our brothers and sisters come to know and understand and love our True Children.
For as long as there have been True Children, there have been many people watching them very closely, all of their lives, and that has always been a very central and obvious aspect of the way they had to grow up. In a sense, the whole world is looking at the True Parents and the True Children, observing them, wondering about them. The time has come to learn more and more about the True Children and to support them; and in order to support them you must know who they are.
Although there have been many people curiously watching them, there has been nobody who really understands them, nobody who really knows their hearts. Because in a sense, there has never been such a thing as True Children. And of course there has never been such a thing as True Parents. We are constantly battling with the chains of our fallen minds, Satan's temptations that bring in doubts and challenge our love and faith in True Parents. Similarly, when we think about the True Children, many times we try to figure them out by analyzing them, comparing and contrasting what we see with what we already know.
Hyo Jin Nim has often taught me that the characteristic of comparing is not essentially a fallen characteristic, because God has given us that ability, to discern which is the greater love or to choose to act in a more loving capacity. And yet, in Western society, comparing and contrasting have really fallen into the hands of Satan, and act in a way of separation, isolation. Analyzing and isolating something and comparing it with what you already know is such a limited method. You cannot do that with the True Children by watching, for example, the way they dress, the way they walk, or the way they talk, without first understanding their heart or their essence. An incredible amount of gossip goes on about them, and the True Children hear this kind of talk many times. You cannot try to understand them on an external level or compare them with something else. It is impossible, because there has never been such a thing as True Children before.
The True Children's lives are the lives of God's children. They do not live a day without feeling the suffering of the True Parents. They do not live a day without thinking about Heavenly Father's will or about the members.
The True Family represents the ideal family, and the way the True Children are growing up is the ideal way. Of course, part of the mission of the 36 Couples, and actually of all the blessed couples and the blessed children, has been to prepare a pure environment, some kind of calm garden for these precious children to grow up in. But as you know, that could not be. They are surrounded by the bad influences of the fallen world, in New York City and at East Garden and everywhere they go, and the members' preparation of heart wasn't always deep enough. In a way, True Parents' children, God's children, came into the world unprotected. So the True Children suffer incredibly.
In the future the True Children will play a greater and more public role. You ask, how can we know the True Children? How can we relate with the True Children? Actually to get to know them is not so much a matter of seeing them directly or hearing them speak. I know all of these things are very important to Western brothers and sisters. In the Western world, seeing is believing, hearing is believing. But how many thousands of members throughout the world have never seen our True Parents? And yet they know precisely who they are and what they are accomplishing here in the world. They know their relationship with them is absolute.
We are all supposed to be reflections of God, but none of us have accomplished that in substance. But the True Parents and the True Children are the incarnation of Heavenly Father, His will, love, and character. That is not to say that Heavenly Father and True Father are one and the same being in the sense that some Christians believe that Jesus and God are the same. It can be understood in the relationship between parents and children. When parents and children are deeply united, then it is easy to say they are one. But to say they are one means in essence they are two. So in that way True Parents are totally united with Heavenly Father. Think of the True Children as God's children, children prepared to follow in the footsteps of our True Parents more closely than anybody. Our True Parents have set the standard, but the standard must be a living, continuing standard.
Right now in the fallen world, one of the biggest influences is the intellectual institution called the school system. This is the institution in which the True Children are being taught the ways of society. Yet because this is the fallen world, the things that are being taught in school today, under the guise of truth, go against God's Will. The True Children feel this to the bone. They don't have any filters in front of their eyes that trick them into believing false things. They are able to perceive so clearly the difference between truth and non-truth.
School has been one of the greatest sources of suffering for them. Unfortunately there has been a great pressure for them to do very well academically. And isn't that just the way all other children in this fallen world are judged? Whether you are going to be successful or not is determined by how well you do in school. Yet how can you judge the True Children against the standard of such a fallen institution?
Even now they receive so much persecution in school. Some members just gloss over that and insist, "Oh, we go out fundraising every day; we go out witnessing every day and we receive front line persecution." Actually, nobody is more on the front line than the True Children, and that's a fact. I've been fundraising too, and sometimes you can try to avoid persecution, and sometimes when you do have to confront it you say, "Well, it's good for me to receive persecution, its good indemnity!' We can never say that it is for their own good that the True Children receive persecution. Yet the True Children cannot escape it. Persecution is theirs because of who they are. Everyone knows who they are. How would you like to walk into a cafeteria alone, with no friends, and suddenly you hear everyone in the cafeteria chanting quietly but obviously, "Moonie, Moonie, Moonie." How would that make you feel? Do you think the True Children, as deep as their hearts are, are going to try to justify themselves? No, they just keep quiet and bear the persecution all the time.
On one hand you could say they don't have any friends. They don't have true friends with whom they can share the truth. But who isn't looking for true brotherly love and friendship? They are so hungry for that in a way, but in school, they don't have friends in the way you or I understand the meaning of friends.
The True Children, in one aspect, never compromise themselves. Hyun Jin Nim is always standing up for what he believes in. In one of his classes he had a teacher who presented the virtues of communism as an alternative economic system. Hyun Jin Nim watched his classmates mindlessly writing it all down, and to him that was just outrageous. So he raised his hand and said, "I'm sorry, professor, but you are wrong. Communism does not work!' And it turned into a one-on-one debate. I'm sure the teacher thought, "Who is this young son of Rev. Moon, trying to dominate the class and challenge me?" But that was not Hyun Jin Nim's purpose. He wasn't trying to show off, but he just could not bear to let what the teacher said go by unchallenged.
The
True Family at East Garden. Front row, left to right: Nan Sook Nim,
In Jin Nim, Father, Mother, Ye Jin Nim, and Hoon Sook Nim. Back row,
left to right: Kook Jin Nim, Hyun Jin Nim, Hyo Jin Nim, Jin Whi Nim,
and Jin Sung Nim.
Hyo Jin Hyung Nim is studying at Pace University, and one of his professors gave the class some feminist literature to read. They were asked to write a paper on "Motherhood -- Who Needs It?" Did Hyo Jin Nim think, "I must to do well in this class, so I have to write what I know will make the teacher happy"? Not in the least! I know what True Children do. They write the truth. They do not write falsehoods. So he wrote a paper in English, not even his strongest language, about how motherhood is the essence of life itself, and that if you deny the essence of life, you deny everything. Without it there would be nothing, no value. In a society that does not value motherhood, we would end up leading completely individualistic lives, not thinking about anyone else, and free to attack anybody we wanted to just as long as we didn't get caught. He wrote about motherhood in this way. The professor gave him an F.
One of In Jin Nim's professors supports homosexuality and is clearly anti-religious. He used one of his own research papers to illustrate the advantages of separate school systems for homosexuals, so that young homosexuals can grow up and feel confident about themselves and be respected for what they are. There is a very subtle but definite brainwashing going on here. The other students don't dare write anything against homosexuals in this class for fear of getting a bad grade.
A while ago he handed out another essay entitled: "Religion is the opiate of society." He laid out what he thought were perfect ideas to support the thesis. In Jin Nim went to class today for her mid-term examination, and do you know what topic they had to write on? "Religion is the opiate of society." They had one hour and twenty minutes to write, and for twenty minutes In Jin Nim just sat there stunned. She just couldn't write. Of course, since the professor had previously outlined the supporting statements of that thesis, any student who had studied the class notes would be able to do very well on the exam. In Jin Nim could have written a perfect essay. But first and foremost in her mind was the thought, "Heavenly Father, I could never write anything against you." So she wrote on an entirely different topic and came home. And that's what I mean when I say the True Children are suffering. They are the ones on the front line.
One of the strongest differences between East and West, and I find both of them inside me, is that in the West people are constantly looking for specifics, facts, supporting statements. Research professors take a topic and keep slicing things off of it until they come up with one small, narrow question and then write 200 pages on that. That's what formal expository writing is. But every paper Hyo Jin Nim writes will touch on everything from social problems to their causes to the world situation. Isn't that how our Father thinks? Our papers are constantly coming back to me and In Jin Nim and Hyo Jin Nim with the remarks, "This topic is too broad. This statement is unsupported. Where do you get these facts?" You know, it's really funny -- an assumption you can always make in an essay is that God doesn't exist. That's okay. But if you write that God exists, the teacher will say, "Where are your facts? How can you support this? This is unpersuasive' How can you battle something like that?
So why are the True Children going to school? It is so they can prepare themselves to give more to the world. Father knows very well what it will take to teach the truth to society. PhDs from famous universities could say, "How can somebody with no education talk to me about what's true?" The True Children are not going to school for their own good but to be able to give greater love, to be able to communicate with those people who will not listen to God and the True Family on any other terms. The True Children have a very specific profession, all of them do, and that is to be like their Father and represent True Parents to the world, which is a beautiful goal.
Father and Mother and the True Children have an incredible sense of family unity. In this society the idea of family is virtually destroyed. Today he rarely thinks of himself or herself as part of a family, only as an individual. But in the True Family, it is obvious to all of us that the family is the key to harmony in the society -- individuals coming together as families, and families coming together to create a true society and an ideal world. The most important thing to teach children is the understanding that one finds fulfillment, joy, and satisfaction through serving and thinking more about the group than about oneself.
The True Children are united around our True Parents absolutely. Among the brothers and sisters there always has to be a heavenly order. We are taught to respect our elders, and, as you know, that tradition comes from Korea. But do you think we do that only because it's Korean tradition? No. Korea inherited that from God. God enabled the Korean people to understand the value of heavenly order in everything. Whatever situation you are in, you must always understand who is subject and who is object, whether you are two people, a group of people, many people, a nation, a world. The True Children understand that. That is why Hyo Jin Hyung Nim as the eldest son plays a key role. Hyun Jin Nim and Kook Jin Nim are totally united with him.
The time has come for the True Children's age. That's why I said earlier that as deep as our understanding is of True Father, and of course we must always try to make our relationship with him deeper and deeper, we must also strive to deepen our heart of understanding toward the True Children, through sincere prayer and reflection, because they are absolutely united with the True Parents, completely one.
Some members have raised the question, how can Hyo Jin Hyung Nim be appointed by Father to a position of world responsibility just by virtue of inheritance and not have to go through the democratic process of earning a leadership role? That question shows a total lack of understanding of the Principle. Our True Father is only here to serve the world. To do that, the position that Heavenly Father has given him is to be the universal center of love. The True Family is the ultimate center. Only with a central lineage can the ideal world be unified and harmonized.
A lot of people don't understand what that means. As you know, Western society is kind of shaky about anybody trying to take too much centralized power. Why? Because Satan has been in control for the last 6000 years, and every time we have seen an example of an absolute center -- Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Adolf Hitler -- we have not seen God's representatives, but Satan's representatives. This is Satan's way: to control the world with an absolute standard. Satan knows that the only way he can act is through the Principle itself, but he subverts and twists the Principle for his own use. God has been directing the government of this country away from centralized power because He was trying to make it not centralized on Satan. But when the True Parents come, they teach a concept that for the Western world is very difficult to grasp, that there must be an absolute center. Our True Family is that center. Hyo Jin Nim, more than anybody, is united with our True Parents, and inherits their position.
Sometimes the blessed children try to criticize or gauge the correctness of what Hyo Jin Nim or Hyun Jin Nim says against Father's words. Do the blessed children understand Father's words and the True Children's words so well that they can claim inconsistency there? No. Any kind of apparent incongruity they see between what the True Children are saying or doing and what True Parents are saying or doing must be a result of their own lack of understanding. The essence of our True Parents will be found in the True Children. The essence of our True Mother's heart is inherited and will be found in Ye Jin Nim and In Jin Nim and in all of the daughters. The essence of our True Father is most definitely found in Hyo Jin Nim and Hyun Jin Nim and in all of the sons.
We cannot yet truly understand the role of True Mother. True Mother has been unbelievably courageous. She is an incredible symbol of womanhood. Don't you think that True Mother incorporates everything that a woman should be? In Jin Nim is young and very outgoing and is the symbol of a true daughter, and now that she is married, she is also the symbol of a true young wife. You cannot draw a line and say Mother is like this and In Jin Nim is like that. Mother is all. Mother is everything, and In Jin Nim and all the daughters are reflecting a certain stage, a certain aspect of that total whole. If we were somehow to understand Mother in her totality, there would be no problem understanding that. But because we don't, we draw lines of separation where we shouldn't.
Of course, that again comes from the way everyone has been brought up in the West, trying to compare and separate, saying, "There is a difference here. Let's analyze this difference:' In the future, institutions that pursue truth will be pursuing the bigger and bigger picture and putting things together, and then we will see how incredibly harmonious this whole universe is.
Hyo
Jin Nim at the Holy Rock at East Garden after his 40-day prayer
condition.
The True Parents almost never talk about specifics. Father doesn't say things like, "Pick up your shoes; don't leave them there." When Father speaks he always speaks about eternal things. The problem with specific things is that they are not eternal. If I were a parent, suppose I scolded my son and said, "You didn't do that right, and you answered the phone wrong just then, and you said this wrong." If that particular situation ever came up again he would remember what I told him, but that exact situation would probably never arise again. That is not eternal truth. But if I said, "Son, the way you answered that phone was a little bitter, a little selfish. Why don't you try to be more giving?" And his responsibility is to understand that truth and use it to guide all of his actions. It's the same way with the True Family. The communication between the True Parents and the True Children is always based on eternal truths and the perspective of the future, because these are the important things that are needed to lead the world.
How can anyone doubt that the True Children, who are born into such a lineage, have been prepared by True Father and True Mother to stand on the worldwide foundation? Of course they have that capacity. It is our goal to understand and to teach those who try to challenge that with our faith, devotion, and love. The True Children do have that capacity.
One important question I am sure is on the minds of many people is the blessed children's relationship with the True Children. The blessed children are adopted sons and daughters of our True Parents, but they are children without original sin. The True Children are also without original sin, but can you draw any comparison? Never. They are vastly different. Why? The True Children are from the truest of all lineages, whereas the blessed children are from the adopted lineage.
There are so many blessed children now, all over America and Korea, going to high school, college, and even graduate school. What is the blessed children's role in the future? Their role is to totally unite with the True Children. I realize from looking at myself and talking with my blessed children friends that the blessed children in essence do not have value in and of themselves. True Father and True Mother and each of the True Children are wellsprings of truth. Within themselves comes truth, within their hearts lies the deepest understanding of life. The blessed children do not have their lineage, so the blessed children's value comes from unity with the True Children. Without that unity the blessed children are worthless, and they must know that. Blessed children can be claimed by Satan. Nothing says that cannot happen.
Of course all of us have been going to school with the kind of understanding that True Parents want us to do as well as we can in school. But school is not going to teach you how to grow your heart. I don't think most of the blessed children understand deeply why they are going to school and what their true mission is. Sometimes they put their education over everything else. Sometimes they have the attitude: "I have to get good grades and get into, a good profession. How else am I going to make a living?" In other words, they are adopting the standards and ways of fallen society. These are the ways they are being tempted and claimed by Satan, by becoming more and more impure.
The blessed children in the future have a most sacred, a most privileged, and a most beautiful position to fill. That is, to be the ones to really come close to the True Children, serve them, love them, and be their special mediators to convey the True Family's heart to the world. In a way True Parents had nobody. If we fail in this mission, we fail the purpose for which we were created, the purpose we are living.
Anybody, within our church or not, who says he or she is working for God and yet is going against the True Parents' will, is not serving God. The True Children are absolutely united with the True Parents, one in heart, understanding, and love. Can any of the blessed children or any member say that he or she is acting and living for the sake of the True Parents while denying any of the True Children? If you deny the True Children, you deny the True Parents and you deny God.
This past January, soon after Father announced that there would be a 40-day workshop in Korea for the blessed children in the summer, Hyo Jin Hyung, as you know, went to the holy ground in East Garden to pray. He didn't plan it or discuss it with anyone, but one night he just felt called.
After Hyo Jin Hyung Nim finished forty days of prayer he felt that it was not enough. He wanted to do more, so, as you know, he prayed for another forty days and then another forty days-120 days in all. Ultimately it was three times the forty-day workshop. But he didn't do it thinking, "Well, the Principle tells us that the number three is a good number so that's why I should do it three times." No. Hyo Jin Nim's heart was searching out the universe, thinking deeply about the blessed children and about God. After forty days he knew he wasn't finished praying. And after another forty days he knew he still was not finished. After another forty days he felt that the foundation was set. You see, his actions coincide with the Principle because the True Children are the living Principle. They don't do things because Principle says so. They are themselves wellsprings of Principle.
After 120 days of constant tearful prayer for the blessed children, there were only a few weeks left before the workshop, during which time he could hardly sleep.
Father told Jin Whi Nim and Kook Jin Nim and me to be his support at the workshop, because we knew Hyo Jin Nim better than anyone. Kook Jin Nim is young, but he beats me by light years in terms of his pureness of heart and his loyalty to Hyo Hyung. I wanted to give so much to Hyo Jin Nim and be absolute, but it was not easy. There was such incredible confrontation there.
Many of the Korean blessed children had never met Hyo Jin Nim before and didn't know him, and I could feel that some of the older ones were a little individualistic. Thinking about yourself is truly a killer, and it causes separation. It's dreadful for the blessed children to be thinking about whether they want to be a doctor or a lawyer because of how much money you could make. Let the fallen world think in those ways. We should be thinking about preparing ourselves and serving and being there for the True Children. Many of the blessed children had been off on their own too long. The problem was, there had been no center yet. What Hyo Jin Nim was doing at this workshop was establishing the center. Without a center, there is nothing, only confusion. And that is how you can describe the situation of the blessed children.
They were without a center for so long partly because of the lack of understanding of the older members, their parents, in knowing the value and the role of the True Children, which they could not convey to their own children. But I don't want to put blame here or there. Of course there is also the proper providential timing. The children's age is now here and the True Children are coming into a period in which they themselves will establish their foundation. Nobody else can do it for them.
At the workshop Hyo Jin Nim just poured out his love, and sometimes his love would stream down in tears. Sometimes his love came out in the strongest of shouts and scolding and pounding, saying, "You cannot be like this!" It is clear that both of those are just incredible expressions of love, but many people could not understand that.
Sometimes some of the blessed children's parents who were there would say, "How can he come to Korea like that out of the blue and just start screaming at my children?" They didn't understand the depth of Hyo Jin Nim's heart and love. Every time you see a parent spank a child, are you going to say, "That's not love because that causes pain and anguish in the child"? Of course not. Sometimes the greater love is to protect your child or to teach him not to do something dangerous. You can see how easy it is to misjudge.
Some people said he was forcing the blessed children to follow him. At one point he said to them harshly, "You blessed children must follow the True Children. You have to follow me!' Could anyone else say that without sounding selfish? But Hyo Jin Nim doesn't think that way. He's only thinking that the truth must be spoken. How can anyone understand the truth unless it is spoken? In the end the blessed children understood his heart. They knew what Hyung was doing for them.
So in those forty days, Hyo Jin Nim gave everything he had; he really went through incredible hardship. In the end I know that out of those 200 blessed children, many of them began to see how important Hyo Jin Nim was. When he came back and reported to Father, Father said that the workshop could be summed up in two words -- total victory. Hyo Jin Hyung Nim single-handedly brought total victory. I know that many of the blessed children started their lives over again.
The workshop in Korea must be understood in the context of the future. When we talk about the great level of victory he achieved there, we're talking about the foundation that is required in the present for victory to come in the future. It's not to say that the blessed children in Korea have now achieved total unity and have an absolutely clear understanding of the True Children's heart and will, but enough foundation has been set there to be able to claim a victory at this time.
Sometimes members say, "This is supposed to be the church of the Messiah but how come there are so many problems?" Nobody grows overnight. You can't go from A to B just like that. The Principle teaches you that there are three stages -- formation, growth, and perfection. That means you must make constant effort until you get where you want to be, and there is going to be a certain time period. By realizing that, you can understand more clearly what Father was talking about when he called the workshop a success. A certain foundation for the blessed children has been established.
I know many times I live just day by day. But Hyo Jin Nim is always thinking of next year. In January he was thinking about the workshop and about the time when Father would come out of Danbury, and about the three years after that and the five years after that. Often Hyo Jin Nim will ask me, "Do you ever think about what's going to happen ten years from now? How can you mold the future if you're not thinking about the future?" One of True Father's qualities that I see has been inherited by Hyo Jin Nim is the ability to plan and strategize for the future.
I think a unique aspect of the True Family is their joy of giving. There's never a shred of a selfish thought that goes through their minds. Their hearts are so incredibly pure. I have never seen anything like it. And I'm not just talking about the older, more mature ones. Even the youngest ones are very special, always giving. I almost want to call them super-children because they are so unique. Their sensitivity is astonishing. Even their physical sensitivities are amazing, but you can't just separate them out because their physical selves and their spiritual selves are so united.
Members may feel disappointed that they never get a chance to relate personally to the True Children. But even if you saw them once and they saw you, they know you, they know your heart. Very much so. They know your level of understanding and your level of commitment. They can tell all of these things. If they do not seem to respond in such a friendly way it may be because many times what they feel hurts them. They can feel the doubt, the shallowness, or the questioning mind.
I have spent hours and hours each day for the last couple of years with Hyo Jin Nim, talking about the future, about God, about everything. In many of our deepest talks, he will sometimes stop and look at me and say, "You understand?" I don't really have to answer because he can see it in my eyes. He can tell whether I understand or not. Sometimes a question comes into my mind but before I can ask it he will say, "You have a question:' These things may seem like magic, but this is just the way ideal people live -- sensitive to each other. You know, they are able to communicate by other means besides these awkward words. Words are sometimes a difficult way to convey your heart. There is also singing and music and the actions of your physical body. These ways can convey so much, but nobody really understands those languages yet. The True Children do, because they are sensitive to such things. They can just look at you and know your heart.
The True Children are not here for themselves. They are here for the blessed children, and they're here for the world. One special thing about the True Children is that they want to give all the time. Just to offer an example, sometimes I might walk into one of the True Children's rooms and just pick up something and say, "Oh, what's this?" And one of the children would say something like, "Oh, that's my favorite hunting knife. It's really a good one. Made of the best metal. Please have it." And he had just got done saying it was his favorite one! What gives them all the greatest joy is to just give. Many times I was overwhelmed by this. They have no sense of self, no sense of mine. They just have a sense of Tree Parents' love and the whole. When that truth and that standard of loving go out, we will definitely have an ideal world.