CSG 2006, Book 6, Chp. 1, §4.6
Our Life and the Spiritual Realm

…Your grandfather is the special envoy of heaven. If Adam’s family had not fallen, the grandfather would have been attended like God. Your grandfather is the last remaining master amongst your ancestors who have all passed away to the spirit world throughout history. Consequently, he is God’s representative, and your father is the king of the families of this world. Your parents are the king and queen of the families of all the six billion of humankind today. (246-198, 1993.4.16)

The grandfather symbolizes the spirit world, the heavenly world. Therefore, you should attend him like God. He is the ambassador plenipotentiary of heaven. Since the father and mother symbolize the present, they are the king and queen representing all the families of humanity in this world. The parents are the king and queen that represent humanity. The sons and daughters represent the future. They are the future princes and princesses who will inherit the kingships of two worlds: the spirit world and the earthly world. (246-256, 1993.4.18)

The grandfather symbolizes the past. The subject partner of the past ages is heaven, the spirit world. The grandfather can be called the representative who connects the spirit world with the earth. He is God’s ambassador who connects God and all the good things in heaven to his family on earth. Who is the ambassador for the Kingdom of God? It is the grandfather. (249-304, 1993.10.11)

…When you look at a family, you find a grandfather and grandmother, a father and mother, and sons and daughters. This makes three generations. All throughout history, this is the way it has always been. The grandparents represent your ancestors in heaven who have passed away to the spirit world. They are the ambassadors plenipotentiary sent to your household. So, like whom should you attend your grandfather and grandmother? You should attend them like God. By attending them in this way, heaven will begin. (226-56, 1992.2.1)

CSG 2014, Book 3, Chp. 2, §1
Grandparents’ Love

1 The Korean family system is principled. The lineage and history are like that. Three generations live together in one family: grandmother, grandfather, mother, father and I. The Fall meant that God never had a chance to love His grandchildren. Adam never had a chance to love his own children truly. In more and more American families, you cannot go to your own children’s homes freely. You cannot see your grandchildren whenever you like. You cannot go to your children’s homes without calling them first. Where on earth did this tradition come from? If you look, you’ll see how miserable they all are. Grandparents love their grandchildren more than the children’s own parents do. Yet God never had a chance to love His grandchildren. A grandfather is like a heavenly ambassador. He is the representative of God. My grandfather is God’s ambassador, my father and mother represent the king and queen of the world, and I am the future king of the heavenly nation and the world. This is what we in the Unification Church call the three great kingships. (295-272, 1998.09.08)

Grandparents’ love for their grandchildren

2 If you want to make a good family, then help the parents, the children and the grandchildren unite in heart. No matter what complicated problems occur in that family, the parents’ love for their children and the grandparents’ love for the grandchildren will not change. You have to set up this absolute standard, go beyond a fragmented personal view of life and beyond the environment, and adopt a four-directional perspective. (24-137, 1969.07.20)

3 A grandfather and grandmother need to have an affectionate relationship with their grandchildren. Only this will start the vertical line of love. Also, the grandchildren must become one with their grandfather and grandmother. Since the grandfather and grandmother are in the position of God, they should be attended like God. Otherwise the axis of love will not be set in place. Horizontal love arises after this is established. Horizontal love reaches out in four directions, but vertical love moves in only one direction. What is horizontal can move east, west, north and south, throughout 360 degrees. What is vertical comes down from one point alone and cannot be divided up. (298-308, 1999.01.17)

4 There is no fundamental difference between the loving hearts of a grandfather and grandmother, those of a father and mother or those of a son and daughter. It is the same love. If the grandchildren barge into their grandfather and grandmother’s room, the grandparents are happy; and even if the father and mother barge into their room, the grandparents are happy. Because there is such a principle, grandparents love their grandchildren even more than they love their children. So as the grandchildren grow up, they prefer their grandparents raising them to their parents raising them. The logic, principle and formula lead to this. A family based on the ideal of the four-position foundation is a unified realm of rounded, balanced love. The unified world is found within the ideal family. (253-163, 1994.01.23)

5 In the presence of true love, even God can kneel down and fool around. A grandfather will happily become a horse for his grandchild to ride. Even if the child grabs his hair and tries to climb onto his back, the grandfather will say, “Get on! Get on!” Heaven and earth become earth and heaven, father and mother become mother and father, father and son become son and father; this is all fine. In this way, love flows down from above and up from below; all is in harmony. So if you have true love, you can buy everything in the heavenly nation. (210-020, 1990.11.30)

6 God is not someone to fear. He is the one closest to us. If you meet God, even if you ride on His back and pull His hair, He will enjoy it. It is as when a beloved grandson grabs his grandfather’s hair and climbs on his back; the grandfather enjoys this. God is our Parent, is He not? When you know this, He is not someone to fear. He is the one closest to me. God is closer than a parent, closer than a husband, closer than a son. When I come to know God as the one who is closest and most precious to me and who will live with me forever, then everything goes well. (201-307, 1990.04.29)

7 When a grandfather meets his grandson, it is the happiest time. Old people’s forgetfulness is designed to enable them to become friends with little children. That makes their loving heart bigger and more beautiful. Forgetting extraneous things, they raise their grandchildren with that loving heart. This is not a bad thing. It is in tune with the heavenly world and is part of God’s process of creation. Forgetfulness has a downside, but those who are forgetful have a stronger desire to see those they love. Living like this before going to the spirit world means you go to a higher place. This is God’s love. (260-119, 1994.04.28)

Forgetfulness is natural in the elderly

8 You should not ignore your mother and father when they become forgetful. You should not scorn your forgetful mother and father, who are to go to the heavenly world without remembering all the extraneous details of their life on earth. Their original heart right now is to build a bridge and construct a road for their descendants to follow. Parents represent God. Our first ancestor is God. We have to attend four generations of ancestors on earth: our great-great-grandparents, great-grandparents, grandparents and parents. If you attend these ancestors more than you do your own spouse and children, your family will prosper for tens of thousands of years. (200-135, 1990.02.24)

9 People are born through love and become the substance of love; they have to begin in love and end in love. They meet the one they love and have children, love those children, become a child again themselves and then go to the spirit world. Forgetfulness is not a bad thing. We should not view it as a bad thing. When parents become old, it is a good time for the children to give back, without reserve, based on their obligation to their parents for having raised them. (144-240, 1986.04.25)

10 A grandfather and grandmother wish to love their grandchildren more than they do their own children. When they raised their own children, they were too busy and had no spare time to love them, but this is not the case when they become a grandfather and grandmother. They are preparing to go to the spirit world. They become forgetful in order to become friends with children. They themselves return to being pure and childlike. They become pure and childlike, forgetting father and mother and brothers and sisters. (263-062, 1994.10.09)

11 When you grow old, you have to become friends with babies. Your grandchildren become your friends. You have to return to the kingdom of heaven as a pure person with no desires. Children naturally grow, but grandmothers and grandfathers are slowly closing down, day by day. They came from zero and return to zero. That means returning to the origin. Since we begin life without character, pride or desire, we have to return to that place in order to connect to Heaven. In the same way that parents raise children, the family and the country have to take care of the grandparents and help them return to the heavenly world. (278-253, 1996.05.26)

12 Why do the elderly become forgetful? It is because they have to move from the visible world to the invisible world. To prepare to cross that barrier, they become forgetful. They become simple. As a baby is born to meet a flat plane at high noon, the elderly become like newborn babies to meet the three-dimensional God. That means they move from the flat world to the three-dimensional world. When they die, they are reborn with concrete hope. Man and woman unite and advance toward the three-dimensional world. Then they walk into the spirit world. Representing the dual characteristics, they march toward the high noon of love centered on God, the multi-dimensional subject partner with dual characteristics. From there they embark on a new time of youth. (123-216, 1983.01.02)

13 When love is your center, the gap between the spirit world and physical world breaks down and you are liberated from the fear of death. Death is not a fearful thing. You know where you are going. This is why most of the elderly people who are forgetful become more and more interested in the spirit world. They know in advance, “Yes, I will have to go sometime soon. It’s time to prepare.” This means they forget everything on earth, arrange everything neatly and cleanly and then go. Please do not look down on those who are forgetful. Neglecting the present gives people time to correct everything in their past and clean up the sins of their ancestors. (196-270, 1990.01.02)

14 When you become sixty and then seventy, your spiritual awareness develops. This is so you can prepare to go to the spirit world. This is why you don’t remember practical things and become forgetful. Throughout our life, what we most enjoy, remember and store in our consciousness is loving and eating. Therefore elderly grandfathers and grandmothers are fond of looking for things to eat, and when they miss people, they cry. This is human instinct. Life is sustained by eating. The paramount value of life and love is revealed by the fact that the elderly miss those they love and miss eating certain foods. This is inevitable. It is instinctive desire, perfectly in accord with the principle of creation. (258-032, 1994.03.16)