The Words of Rev Sun Myung Moon from 1982

The Road Of The Saint And The Righteous Man

Sun Myung Moon
May 2, 1982
Belvedere

We must consider for what destiny we were born. First we consider how you were born -- you were a baby first. When you look at the innocent face of a newborn baby, would you see him as an evil creature, looking very evil? No. Every baby without exception is like a precious jewel. You want to stay with him, embrace him; that means he was born for goodness.

Our beginning of human existence started off pure and innocent, no doubt about that. As he grows he should become nicer, becoming a young boy, an adolescent, and becoming a completely mature adult then a senior citizen. At every level of these classifications there are good people and evil people. All kinds of influences affect one's life, and can change his life, eventually every single innocent baby arrives in one of these two camps. No one can escape this destiny.

Above us is one Eternal Parent watching over us from beginning to end without ever forsaking us. God is almighty so always He knows how you are doing. From the eyes of this Eternal Good Parent, and parents who recognize that you were born a good baby, you are expected to grow up and get better and better through all eternity. Instead of this, these Parents saw mankind going down the road of the Fall, down through degradation. Those who are evil are forgotten, and goodness becomes gathered together; so automatically if you are good, you gravitate toward the central position. What is that center? It means you become a model, a prototype for everyone to follow.

When one becomes that center, he must not isolate himself from the rest of the world; he will become deeply involved and embrace the entire world, to take dominion, to protect it, bringing it to perfection.

The True Leader

A true leader is the one who has a bold and fearless mind, and is the one who heads right toward obstacles and breaks down the obstacles for the rest of the followers!

Even when such a fearful and painful situation, like danger of death, is facing you, the leader will lead, and shudder and break through. The true leader does not think of his own situation at that moment; he thinks of the greatness of the goal and the future. Looking down the long range of the future, the true leader knows his action will benefit the overall public purpose, and the purpose of God. That is the motivation of the true leader.

The leader who is selflessly motivated and goes without any deviation toward that life is truly an optimally good man; and the definition for that kind of person is "Righteous Man."

For his entire life that man lives for the wellbeing of other people.

Wherever he goes, if he lives in the family, he lives for the sake of the family. When he lives among his friends, he lives for their sake. He goes to serve the nation and he lives for the sake of the nation. So far, history has produced a great many righteous men, but always their greatness or their righteousness only goes up to the level of the nation. There are great many patriots who give their life for the sake of the country but not too many go beyond, to the level of the world and the universe.

Those who live for the sake of mankind and the world beyond the boundaries of their nation are call "Saint."

The definition of saint is the one who lives for the sake of God, His will and dominion, which involves living for the sake of the highest level, therefore, a saint, must come from the religious leaders. No other profession goes that far, linking their work to God, except religion.

So is Jesus in the category of saint? Is Buddha or Confucius? The only way to go beyond themselves, linking to God, is through religious philosophy and conviction.

Since saints' goals and standards are so high above the earthly standard, then they oftentimes were misunderstood by the world, because they are acting in the standard of heaven, not the standard of earth. For that reason, they were mostly rejected. Everybody is elevated from this world according to the laws and order of the spirit world. People who live according to heavenly law and principle while here on earth shall be the leaders in that world.

When you organize your thoughts then it is the most logical conclusion. Among the religious leaders we have to evaluate what quality should be the greatest quality for leadership. We can readily assume that we need a kind of revolutionary leadership that leads the people toward more far-reaching, higher goals because the purpose of religion has not yet been fulfilled here on the earth. We cannot even find that purpose of religion yet.

Religion Of Sparrows And Cranes

There are all kinds of varieties of religions here, almost as many as in a department store. The first one is the religion of sparrows. It's a small bird that talks too much, and he's so small that his vision is very limited. They sit there, huddling together saying, "Don't go there, don't go there... you might die! Don't do that, you will go to hell! Stay right here!" This is the sparrow religion.

But let's consider the crane religion. Look at the crane -- he has long wings and a very slim body so it doesn't have to move quickly. But when he does fly, he's almost flying like an airplane over the ocean of air, having almost limitless boundary.

Maybe those from the sparrow religion look at the cranes and say, "You guys are crazy. You don't have to fly that high, you know. Why do you fly so high and go too far? You don't have to go to more than one house, just over to the neighbors is enough, having a little time eating together and talking here and there, back and forth. That's a good enough religion."

The sparrow religion is busy all day, looking for something to eat, some worm to catch, some insect to eat, every day they are busy.

Meanwhile, the religion of the crane is going up to the highest possible goal, so they must get the direction right. For the crane, the most important thing is to get the directional goal, not what is next to eat.

So, what are we in the Unification Church? We are the crane religion. Since we are flying so high and long-distance then we have no time to rest. You have to fly even at night, continuing on.

Since we are flying so very high then the sunrise comes very quickly. But also sundown is coming so late. Because you are flying so high, you stay up long hours because we work so hard. Night is so short but shall we complain? No, because you have joined the crane religion; we have goals and because we have our destination.

In the oriental philosophy the crane is a noble and sacred bird. By the way, Mother's name, Han, means "crane," so the crane becomes the symbol for Mother.

Chinese Character For Saint

When you look at the Chinese character for saint or sainthood you see ears, mouth and king. These three characters combined into oneness mean "saint."

So, we can combine these meanings to mean that the saint is the king of the mouth and the king of the ears; what does it mean? That means, the king of ears, he will hear every bit of information in the world, but he is aloof from it. He will not be swayed by it. He digests it. He understands it.

But although he hears every part of it, he will digest it and speak only the truth, not just repeating it. And the truth shall become classical, principled and become the law of the land.

The greatness of a king is that you hear all kinds of things, but you are laconic; you speak little because you have to have time to digest it. So the elements of goodness is that you wait.

Let's consider this, say there was a king here on earth, very sagacious, very saintly, and he listened to all information. He was very laconic, he spoke with authority. Then he dies and goes up, not very boastfully. He doesn't show himself off; that person is accepted by the spirit world and is welcomed by everybody.

Since that person did not speak too much, he keeps many secrets within himself, so he is a man of depth. People cannot easily figure him out.

In a phonetic language like English, you have king. K -- I -- N -- G. Your spelling doesn't have any meaning... K doesn't mean anything. ING doesn't mean anything. But Oriental language has a profound meaning already before you read it. The Western mind is therefore very analytical mind.

Two Directions

Why did you come this morning to sit in this room? Even though the action of sitting in this room is all the same, the purposes are different. Some of you may say, "Well, I come here to hear Father's good message. I want to become spiritually elevated; I want to be perfect soon." That may be someone's goal.

Someone else may say, "Well, I want to hear Father, then I will work harder and serve this country better. I want to serve mankind better."

Two different directions. Two different purposes here. Which one are you here for?

When you first came here you came for first motivation; when you heard Father you converted to the second one! You proved this because you are laughing! One position is internal; one position is external. Which position do you want to be?

One purpose or goal of Satan is to separate Inside and Outside permanently. God's purpose is to bring Inside and Outside into harmonized relationship, combined into one. Not necessarily is "outside" bad or evil; not at all. It is merely a different role, so God wants to harmonize and bring them together.

New Era Of Harmony: East And West

We have come far, and we Unification Church members are coming to realize that we are at the forefront of human history. We are the pioneers of this new era, the dispensational history of God. Some of you only joined the Unification Church a few months, or few years ago and you don't think you have changed too much. "I look in the mirror and my face is just the same," you may say. Maybe you think Reverend Moon is only saying those things to make you feel good? You have changed! It doesn't matter if your face has changed or not. And that is why those outside people are trying to attack Rev. Moon. What they say does not stop the Providence. Father will apply himself toward the original goal no matter what the people say.

Whatever standard they apply, Reverend Moon is measured as a success in this country; is that true? Yes.

The problem is that America is rejecting me. They are trying to say Reverend Moon is evil, but Moonies are saying that Rev. Moon is ultimately good, and that we support him. Our group is growing; and for them, that is the problem As long as they cannot stop our growth, we keep on growing. The time will come when we will fill the entire United States, entire world and universe.

Continuing With The Original Topic

Traditionally, when we are talking about a righteous man, the standards were different. A righteous man we talk about here in America is not necessarily the righteous man in Germany. So throughout history fighting was going on even among the righteous men from one country to another. From the sainthood point of view, those fighting righteous men, contradicting each other, weren't helping the overall world at all.

God is the King of Wisdom more than anything else. He is always thinking, "How can I solve this problem of contradiction?" We need a universal standard for the definition of "righteous man" so that every family, whether they come from Germany, Japan, Korea, United States, knows the meaning. This universal standard must be adapted to all religions, all societies, all cultures.

God is thinking there has to be one standard criterion that can apply to all! Unless we have some common criteria, even though people may all be righteous, they will fight among themselves. They are fighting at all five levels: individual, family, society level, national and world level right now.

When you say "righteous man," the definition must include that it is his duty to fight this kind of division. There is a common understanding in history that struggle is justified, and that only by struggle is the position of power, of rightness, obtained. That definition must be shattered because it is not true! It is what they call Dialectical Materialism, which says that struggle will make a new culture. That is what Marxism is teaching, and that is absolutely wrong. True righteousness and struggling among themselves cannot go together.

German righteousness should be the same as Japanese righteousness; Japanese should be the same as American righteousness. And righteousness within one religion should be the same as another. One criterion, one universal standard must be working. We need that new kind of ideology, or new religion. Otherwise, the ideal for unity and harmony could never become true. That means we start out in different positions, and we declare to the world, "I was born for the universal prosperity, for the universal well-being, not just for one local area. I was born as a Son of God." That is the starting point.

Then, when you look around you and see Germans you can feel "Germany is within the world, so Germans are my brothers!" or "Japan is within the world, so Japan is part of my family." and "Americans, also are the children of God, so they're my family." Africans, Hispanic people, everywhere you go, you can embrace all mankind as a true brother because you are God's children.

How about religion; has it been doing that? From this standpoint, are we passing this standard of judgment? Have we ourselves gone beyond this description?

So Unification Church way of life is where we are actually doing that. Countries which had been enemies are now coming together. This is the fastest way: When enemies become true brothers. Korea was the enemy to Japan, so I should look at them as the enemy; instead I'm pulling them, as children of God, to come together with me to America to save America.

And actually Japan once declared war against the United States. So Reverend Moon is bringing the three enemy countries together.

No power of politics, no power of economics would bring this kind of harmony and unity. Only the power of new universal religion could do it.

So, why do we do this? Not because of the President of the United States, not because of the Prime Minister of Japan. We do this because of absolute God.

This ideology has become a reality here on earth for the first time in history, to bring entire mankind under one fatherhood of God. this is truly the movement of Reverend Moon. This is the first time in history that unity at this extraordinary level has become a reality, and this is the Unification Church.

Righteousness Key

So what is the difference? In Unification Church you get the certificate as a righteous man in the family, in the society, and in the nation. Whatever level you attain this certificate on, you will get a free pass on that level in the spirit world.

Suppose a man lives his entire life for the sake of the country, and he thinks he has won the title of righteousness. But when he goes to spirit world all kinds of people are shouting "go to hell!" Why? Because he did not break the barriers of the nation. So the patriot of Great Britain could be an enemy to the patriot of France, enemy to Germany and Spain. However, once you become a Reverend Moon-style patriot, then that patriot will be welcomed by those other nations everywhere, even in the spirit world.

No matter how many good things conventional patriots did, his key does not fit any door in spirit world. Do you follow? Once you obtain the universal criterion of this righteous level, no matter what country you are from, in the Unification Church, that righteousness key will fit into any society, anywhere on the earth and in spirit world. If this is true, then there is nothing else which can satisfy you, isn't that true?

We are individuals, we make relationships as individuals now, here on earth, but our goal is way up there, in God's Kingdom. In other words, God is the center of our relationships. And when we marry, man and woman coming together, the purpose of our coming together is to achieve that goal: God's Kingdom. We do very many things, and all our actions are for that very same purpose.

So our way is very clear -- we start out as righteous men, as the individual righteous man in the family, become a righteous man in the society. righteous man in the nation, the world, universe, and cosmos. We become righteous under one principle, no criterion has changed.

What method will we follow?

The most dramatic part is that we are not going this path by staying idle, we are going this path with the worst burden upon our shoulders. We go this way with the sacrificial mind, with the service mind.

When we adopt this method, everybody will have to admire you. American people will have to admire you. Japanese and German people will admire you. As soon as they do, that means that they too break down the barrier of national boundary. That means there's no enemies anywhere.

In order to close the gap between each level of righteousness, we have to pay the price, we have to pay indemnity. Would you like to do it? Or do something else? As soon as something else knocks on your door will you change your mind?

The Road Beyond Righteousness

So, do you think righteousness should be your goal? Or sainthood?

Let's start out with being righteous. The important thing is that you become a patriotic man, a righteous man, for your own country. But you are different from other patriotic people because you do it for the sake of God, so for the sake of the world. Think that you should go on to the next higher level. So what is the ultimate goal? Spirit world? God? God's heart?

This is a dramatic life, no question about that.

What about you, maybe you are thinking that you will work until the Blessing. Next day you will retire. Some blessed couples are saying "already I have two children, still I cannot retire. Still I am given a mission. Oh, what shall I do."

You don't want to stop at the family level, do you? You want to become a righteous man on a world level. On the way to that goal you might drop dead. It might happen. Don't worry. Instantly God will give you a special dispensation that you filled all the levels. That means that you have indemnified everything.

I have fulfilled all the levels, walking that course myself already. Only then, can I ask you to follow. For example, there's the trial. These things are very trivial things trying to torment me. And I didn't have to come back (from overseas) and face this. I'm not a U.S. citizen, so I can stay in Korea. But I walked in voluntarily, because I thought "I want to pay more indemnity. Let me suffer the court trial." Meanwhile there's more benefit, as I pay more intentional indemnity.

Mothers should bless the children who are following my way, dying for that cause, sacrificing his life for it. Those mothers shouldn't feel it is sad and tragic, saying, "why should this happen to my children?" Instead, they should say, "You did it, my son, you fulfilled God's will! Bravo! I'm proud of you. You are the spearhead. I will follow after you."

Once you know the core truth about my teaching, then you know why Jesus said, that the one who loses his life will find it.

So the Unification Church is going the road beyond righteousness. The road to sainthood! 

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