True Father gave the following Sunday sermon on September 20, 1959 at the headquarters church in Seoul. The Korean text is in the seventh volume of The Sermons of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time it has appeared in the English language.
Biblical Reading: I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. So then it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I of myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. —Romans 7:15:25
Prayer
Father, though we know we should naturally follow the path our life must take, we continue walking without realizing what path we must follow. Please enable us to realize it through this time.
Some people live centered on the body and some people live centered on the mind. We also know that some people live centered on Heaven and not centered on either the body or the mind. Please enable all of us, present here today, to realize the importance of knowing where we belong.
We feel deep inside our minds that we are each truly precious and that we have to become central beings that can resolve all happiness and sadness. Father! Our minds are yearning for that “I,” the “I” we can truly be proud of, and the “I” that can criticize everything as a subject. Therefore, please enable us to restore the “I” that can subjugate the body. You have struggled and fought until now to restore that “I.” However, the fight is still going on today. Therefore, please enable us to realize today that it is our fate to fight for this at the risk of our lives.
Father, please look on us in gentleness. Father, please command us. Please enable us to understand that the purpose and center of life is to find the instance when we can be completely enraptured by your voice, the instance when we can accompany you and the instance when we can enjoy everything with you. Thinking of how our ancestors could not experience a time, an era, or historical moment when you enjoyed everything with every single person, enjoyed everything with us, and with the Apostles, we cannot help lamenting.
Father, we kneel down and lie face down in front of the heavenly door with our two hands clasped in order to restore “I.” Please enable us to become people that your delicate heart can permeate. I sincerely pray that this time can become one in which you can unconsciously hold our hands and say, “O my loving sons and daughters!” and advise us.
Everything in the world that we believe, is temporary; however, we realize that the world in which we fight with firm belief within our minds, in which we sing centered on the mind, and in which we connect ourselves to you through the mind is infinite and eternal. If asked when we can perfect ourselves to the precious self, the “I” whom we can be proud of, imagine how sad would Heaven be if we were without confidence.
We are so appalled that we cannot appear in front of heaven or earth, and in front of the entire creation. We sincerely pray and hope that through this time we can resolve the past when we lived without purpose and without sensitivity. We sincerely pray that you enable our minds to become close to your mind and that your innermost heart[1] and ours be connected through this time.
The world is filled with things to feel and experience; however, nothing has existed through which we could have feelings and experiences centered on you. Therefore, this has been our hope. Loving father, we sincerely hope and pray that we may get into your bosom and that you may begin a history of re-creation.
We know that without the word, we cannot understand circumstances and without understanding circumstances first, we cannot understand the innermost heart. Therefore, please enable us to have the word, which can pass through circumstances and elevate our innermost hearts. Loving Father, we sincerely hope and pray that you can guide us through the word in order to become one in our innermost hearts.
Please let this time become one in which we can all listen to your soft voice calling us amidst tranquility and when we can bow to you in the delight of hearing your voice. I sincerely pray that today’s word can cause our innermost hearts to surge.
Please, may your touch be in every single place that truly attends you today, particularly the lonely members who are offering bows to you in the provinces. I sincerely pray that your consistent touch of grace reaches every one of them.
I leave everything in your hands from the beginning to the end of this service. Please conduct this service and enable the hearts of the conveyer and the hearts of the receivers to become one. I sincerely pray that this time can become one in which everyone can move when Heaven says move, and become tranquil when Heaven says stay. I pray all this in the name of the Lord. Amen.
Sermon
Even if a person happily lives on earth, we clearly understand that no one has reached the level where the person can say that his or her mind is happy, joyful and blissful. Therefore, we can conclude that if our minds cannot feel any happiness or joy, neither will the subject being that is guiding us, whether it is Heaven or any heavenly law, feel happiness or joy.
Humanity, existing within two worlds
It is a big mistake to think that you are to live in this world centered on yourselves. Our minds pursue the purpose of life and a certain destination that wants to live in accordance with an ideology. We are clearly aware of this through our own lives. Therefore, we cannot deny that “I” am connected with a certain other, purposeful world. Hence, “I” am not living for my own purpose or for myself, but “I” am born and must live for another purpose. We must clearly comprehend this. Therefore, when we look at our individual self, “I” can be quite big or quite small. We must realize that we are linked to history through such a connection.
We find reciprocal and contrary phenomenon that we cannot ignore within the emotions “I,” as a being, feel; within the world projecting from “I,” and within the entire social life of “I.” In other words, when it comes to living for a certain purpose, we find an incompatible, contradictive side to it, but we also cannot deny that there is the side that lives corresponding to it. This is today’s social phenomenon, today’s world trend, and the phenomenon of a certain heavenly act. When we analyze heavenly law and the heavenly worldview, we cannot deny that a being is stipulating these to us in detail—a being we cannot feel with our own senses, a being that does not move from our singular selves, and a being transcending our senses.
In this light, we clearly realize that the position where I stand, the position where I am presently at, is not limited to one world, but covers two worlds. There are two worlds projected from me, the world our minds desire and the world our bodies desire. Hence, we cannot deny that our minds desire happiness, joy and a certain ideology, while we substantially experience pleasures and touch them through our five senses centered on our bodies.
The heavenly mind, human mind and the Fall
We often say that people have a mind. When we say that, we mean people have a human mind. Going a bit further, people say that there is a heavenly mind. Even though we have to become people whose human mind and heavenly mind correspond and who live in accordance with the law and order of heavenly law, we have not had any order until now that could reveal the standard of life of a united heavenly mind and human mind. This is a result of the Fall and our grief.
We often call any act that goes against the human mind, heaven, and our good conscience as emerging from our “evil” or “material” mind. Even when we look at our own selves, the heavenly mind enters into me through the mind and the evil mind penetrates me through the body. We cannot deny that saints and sages, for a long time, have mourned when recognizing that they are in such a conflicted state. Even Paul, who found the law of his mind and the law of his body in conflict lamented saying, “Wretched man that I am!”[2]
What kind of world, then, is the world I have enjoyed until now and the world I continue to live in? You cannot deny that the body and mind cannot live in happiness in the world and that the world cannot live in harmony with the ideology of the mind. You yourselves are struggling and worrying right now within this kind of environment. Bearing this in mind, the principle is that the heavenly mind should move the human mind, but we can say that not once until now has the heavenly mind and the human mind appeared within our lives in a paired united form, nor has there been a moment in our lifetimes when the paired minds have manifested through joy.
If Heaven exists, do you think Heaven would want to live in our minds for just a day? It would want to live in on our minds for eternity. However, our minds and bodies are fighting within ourselves. If asked whether Heaven can live centered on the mind in such a conflicted state, the answer is that it cannot.
Heaven is good. Goodness is eternal, unique and unchanging. However, we continuously fail to enter the mind that heads toward goodness, because we do not have a living concept that is eternal, unique and unchanging. As a result, Heaven can affect us through our conscience but cannot do so within our view of life. Because man could not be elevated to the point necessary to embrace a cosmic ideology, evil has dominated history until now. That is why we cannot firmly say that the world can have an eternal connection with heavenly law. Hence, the world must be judged. Those living in the world must be judged, too.
Religion pursues the heavenly mind
If there is a movement that transcends the human mind in its pursuit of the heavenly mind, what is it? It is religion. Religion has been investing much effort in order to hold on to this. Religion is making great contributions within humanity’s cultural sphere. Religion raised a movement that has stimulated the human conscience to head toward the heavenly mind, thereby conducting a new revolution and a new contribution to history. However, when the human mind united with the evil mind and the materialistic mind in an effort to cut off the heavenly mind, religion failed and was destroyed. We cannot deny these historical facts.
That is why the universal expression, “Live a conscientious life” exists. However, can everything be resolved through this alone? Even if we have lived conscientious lives, we have not been able to live in joy with the cosmos, nor have we been able to live in joy with Heaven, if there is Heaven, centered on the foundation of this conscience. Hence, we must recognize that our individual selves need to be changed. Is that right? If you live with your true conscience, however, phenomena that will stimulate your minds will arise.
Though humans have a conscience, they are not in a position where their conscience and the purpose of the heavenly mind can joyfully coexist. Humans, who carry a destiny resulting from the Fall, hope to relate to the purpose of heavenly law. The Fall caused the conscience to lose its purpose and freedom. In other words, you must understand how lamentable and sad it is that our lives and conscience have lost their purpose and freedom.
If the first ancestors had set up a foundation on which we could all live and enjoy ourselves centered on the purpose of goodness in that place, their descendants would have had joyful experiences with their minds and the heavenly mind. However, the Fall caused the purpose of our lives not to become connected to the purpose of our minds. This descent is what we call having fallen. Then, what was the descent or fall centered on? It was centered on the body.
That is why your bodies and minds are fighting within yourselves. You are standing in such difficult positions. Even if you each have a true mind within yourself, you need at least one instance to resolve it. However, have you been able to find a connection with this history? Have you been able to connect to this history for even a year, or ten years, or for your entire lives? Even if you haven’t, you stand in positions of having betrayed the heavenly mind.
When a person cuts off the heavenly mind and falls in the direction of physical enjoyment, the person will naturally destroy him- or herself, which explains the two types of belief in the world. One looks for an ideology pursuing the joy of the body and another looks for an ideology pursuing the joy of the mind.
Humans can be said to be small universes. Hence, when it comes to the mind, this fighting phenomenon also contains a world form. Something needs to appear with the answers to resolve it, but nothing has emerged so far. Furthermore, a model that can bring a solution going beyond the individual self to the people, nation and world has not yet appeared.
The person who will survive in the Last Days
We must bring great changes in the world by betting our lives as we continue living with our bodies and minds in conflict. A person who fails to be victorious centered on the mind in relation to body–mind conflicts cannot become a citizen of heaven. The person who is ambitious to conquer the world will receive judgment with that world. The person who tries to move the world centered on one’s ideology will perish together with that world. However, the person who holds on to the heavenly ideology and keeps looking and looking for that ideology will survive.
The world of the mind can connect with the infinite world because it is unchanging and unique. Under the connection that the mind alone has become the foothold that can correspond with the heavenly mind, we must clearly understand that a person who holds on to this mind will be able to avoid the day of judgment.
Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven is in our minds. This kingdom of heaven is infinite. If there is heavenly law or a heavenly mind, the person that can bring this heavenly mind within his or her conscience, use it as the driving force of one’s life and conduct one’s life centered on it, will become a prince that can construct the kingdom of heaven.
Heaven is waiting for the day of judgment. It is looking forward to that day of judgment. It is waiting for the day on which the universe will be judged. Heaven is also conducting historic judgment and even at this very moment, you must be aware that heaven is also judging every single one of you.
Saints, who face the Last Days, fear the day of the great judgment. What kind of person can avoid the great judgment? A person that has resolved that conflict within and holds the flag of victory can avoid the great judgment. However, people today are not aware that this fight is occurring on the family level, on the level of people[3] and on the global level in the same form.
Why has this situation arisen? It is because we live in a time when the heavenly mind, the evil mind and conflicts can be successfully dealt with. Hence, we have come out in our desire to have authority over the great judgment. We all yearn to become people acting in the tough judgment passed over the enemy.
In order to become such people, you must be able to conquer yourselves. You must completely conquer your bodies centered on your minds. You must destroy completely all elements that may instigate actions opposed to the mind. If you cannot knock down your bodies with a faith-based ideology, you cannot become people that act on the day of judgment.
A person that is victorious in judging himself or herself on the individual level will be able to judge the family. A person that is victorious over family judgment will be able to judge society. Likewise, a person that is victorious over the judgment of society will be able to judge the cosmos. That person has the authority.
When we look at our own individual selves, “I,” as a being, stand in the midway position between the two worlds. Centering on the mind, the kingdom of heaven is occupying the upper portion of the mind while hell is occupying the lower portion. Hence, these two worlds are parallel to each other in our minds. Heaven is on top while hell is under the parallel[4] line of our invisible spiritual mind.
Brothers and sisters, the nearer we approach the Last Days, the more frequently we will find some people completely ensnared in fear while others are completely enthralled in happiness. Such developments are inevitable phenomena. We may think that only extremely evil people exist, but extremely good people also exist. Extremely evil people cannot invade extremely good people and extremely good people cannot get involved with extremely evil people. Even God cannot hold on to this society. The time is coming when combining these two can no longer be done by anyone, no matter how divine a person is or what kind of heavenly grace the person may have.
When that day comes, people living in extremely evil worlds and people that are in a position unconnected whatsoever to Heaven will certainly all be tried on the day of judgment. A time will come when this reality will take place in your minds. Your minds will want to go in a certain direction while your bodies will want to go in a different direction. Those that cannot find the condition that can connect their bodies and minds and that suffer as a result will all certainly go to hell.
Who decides where I go?
What decides whether a person goes to the kingdom of heaven or to hell? The individual decides. If one lives a life suffering from pangs of conscience amidst the conditions one feels through one’s five physical senses, that person is living in hell. The person whose mind feels joy from living a life centered on the mind is in heaven. Hence, it is right for a person to throw away one’s evil mind and materialistic desires and follow heavenly law centered on the conscience. You must clearly understand this.
History did not start on a day of happiness but on a day of sadness. A time will come when what started in sadness will end in sadness, what started in pain ends in pain and what started in despair ends in despair. You reap what you sow. Our ancestors betrayed the heavenly mind. They violated the way of our conscience and the laws of the heavenly mind, committing the Fall and feeling infinitely sad as a result. Because man fell in this manner, the world has not been able to obtain anything the mind could enjoy.
Therefore, one must defeat or hit all these in order to train oneself spiritually. You must clearly recognize that this battle is occurring within you. Any action one does is either good or evil. You must be aware that our lives today are a course deciding the value, whether goodness-oriented or evil-oriented, of every perception coming in through our five senses—every single instance of perceiving through touch, sight, sound or smell. If this standard of good and evil or concept is not exhaustively established and this concept set up thoroughly even within the emotional world of our five senses, even a person going through the spiritual training of Tao cannot differentiate between the two.
The world is undergoing a fight in the manner I have described. Though evil usually attacks goodness first, it does not last long. Evil does not last long while goodness lasts for a long time. When we look at the long historical progress, this gradually expanded from the individual to the family, people, country and world to the cosmos and is now entering an era of world ideologies. Even if the era of globalism has been ushered in, the individual remains an individual. The scale, however, has been expanded as the flow took shape.
A conscientious person in the past and a conscientious person today is in the same position; however, relatively a broadening has occurred. In the past, people found satisfaction in an individual-oriented life style. However, must we follow that? No. Must life then be family-oriented? No. Should it be society-oriented? No. Should it be nation-oriented? No. Should it be world-oriented? No. It must be a heaven-and-earth-oriented life style.
The trend, form and range of history expand as it flows; however, the standard of the mind alone does not change. If the standard of the mind aligns itself with the direction of heavenly law, everything will be under the dominion of heavenly law. Hence, we will not lose the purpose and direction the mind must pursue. That is why we say, “Live according to your conscience. If you live according to your conscience, you will be blessed.” When we realize that the day of judgment depends on us, receiving blessings will be an excess. One may feel as though one is receiving immediate blessings; however, when the time comes, the person will be punished and those blessings will turn out not to be blessings. You do not receive blessings on earth. You receive blessings when the time comes. A foundation for blessings will exist for the person who survives in the Last Days; hence, people say you will be blessed if you live according to your conscience. You must understand it in that way.
The Last Days will be heaven-and-earth oriented
Today is the Last Days. The era we call the Last Days is ushering in the age of globalism. That does not mean, however, that we are becoming distant from the world. If there is a heavenly mind, we are entering the age of cosmos-ism centered on the heavenly mind.
In light of these circumstances, where should our minds head? The era when one lived for oneself has gone. The era when one lived for the family has passed. The era when one lived for society and for the people has gone. The era when one lived for a country has gone too. We are now in the age of globalism. We have entered a stage where we can only accept a global ideology.
Humankind has two paths: the external path and the internal path. I am standing at the center of these two paths. We have hoped that a time would come when these internal and external paths would unite and become one path, and the era of ideology is the time when this path will appear.
Now, we must find individuals, families, people, nations, the world and the cosmos that desire to relate with the heavenly mind. If we do not understand this, our efforts will merely be a repetition of the course followed by great people or saints in history.
For this reason, the direction of the human mind emerges improved through the heavenly mind; the direction of the body is heading toward the heavenly mind; even the stimulating materialistic world is moving closer to the heavenly mind. As they all come closer, they enter into great tumult from inside and outside, internally and externally. They all end up clashing. When clashing, what do they clash over? They clash over the Earth. After this, what will they clash over? They will clash over people.
History has been overturned and moved in order to remove the external global ideology and to establish the internal global ideology within this conflicting course. Placing the innermost heart in the middle, the two sides are divided into the left and right, thus causing great troubles, a phenomenon of the present day. This phenomenon is certainly happening within each individual and around the world.
If God exists and conducts the providence for humankind, you must understand how much God worked hard to guide it all the way to the era of globalism. Please think about this. When it comes to the body-mind conflict, we (as did our ancestors) allowed the mind to surrender to the body instead of the body yielding to the mind. Under such an ancestral foundation centered on the mind, imagine how hard Heaven worked to bring this foundation to transcend the individual, the people, the nation and come all the way to the world.
When we look into history, that we see and feel how Heaven has struggled all throughout that time is important. Have you ever experienced that? If anyone prays to Heaven, “Heaven, take care of my pain and please remove it from me,” that person cannot go to the glorious kingdom. Those, who pray “Father, please bless us” centered on the family, people and nation will only survive until then. When globalism is ushered in, people-ism will collapse. In the same way, globalism will break when cosmos-ism, based on the heavenly mind, is ushered in.
The Last Days and Satan’s target
Heaven has guided the providence until now toward the major goal, the final goal. We have looked forward to that day when this final goal will be achieved. We must prepare ourselves for that day. It is on this basis that the Last Days will come. What kind of days are the Last Days? The Last Days refer to a time when heaven as the mind and earth as the body meet, globalism and ideology meet, and one’s body and mind meet. What should they sing about once they meet? They must sing about a mind-centered life and a world that is connected to the mind. You must sing this song together with the cosmos. Unfortunately, that world did not appear on that day on Earth.
Heaven is moving toward that world. That world is Heaven’s final goal. It is man’s highest goal. In order for one to stay alive until that day, one has to go through indescribable conflicts with the body. In addition, once one makes a promise, one must keep it at all costs, and once one makes a determination, one must not change it.
If there is a person that emerges with such a determination, the body will naturally defy the person to bring down and change that determination. His or her family will oppose it, society, the country and even the world will defy it. You must know that the whole world is rushing in attack toward that person. Hence, this is pointing out that as we gain a more in-depth understanding of this major ideology, a relative traitor to that ideology is also prepared against it.
Christians say that they are heading back to their heavenly nature. They consider themselves to be finding the kingdom of heaven. However, they have forgotten that when one walks toward a big goal or a major ideology, large enemies are also prepared to counteract that. Remember that you have formidable enemies.
Under those circumstances, what is the enemies’ final goal? It is our bodies. Their target is our physical bodies. They are making their way into the body by life threats, social threats, national threats and even heavenly and earthly threats to the body. Paul experienced this lifestyle. If he appeared in front of his own people, his people became his enemy. When he went overseas, the people in foreign countries became his enemies. When he approached a certain religious group, the religious group became his enemy.
Whether they adhere to Christianity or any other religion, judgment must also come to religious people. They cannot pass through freely. The individual will have to defend himself or herself exhaustively. When it comes to the course of finding an individual centered on the mind, global difficulties will occur, crashing and invading because of one’s connection to the global will.
As the Last Days come ever nearer, worldwide fear will not enter only through one direction, but will come in from different directions. As Last Days approach, fear will surround and enter people of conscience. You all clearly know what this means, because you have heard and seen it. Therefore, a time will come when a trend that is characterized by fear of not being able to live as one wishes will sweep through people of conscience, especially artistic people within the literary field. This is already happening. It is appearing in the form of fear or with similar symptoms.
We, who are in the Last Days, are different from the past when we had risked our individual selves. We are now living in a global age; thus, we must risk everything global, defeat the external side through the heavenly mind and separate it. A person that can say, Father, I have won! must appear. Do you agree? Heaven has worked toward making this one person. Satan has worked to oppose these efforts by Heaven.
The world is not a heavenly world but one under evil dominion. If such a victorious person appears in this evil-dominated world, seeing the phenomenon of the world taking up arms to defy this person is inevitable. However, the attackers will be defeated instead if they try to attack this one person. The day when final judgment is passed is a time when an individual surrenders after attacking the person, the family surrenders when opposing such work, the society surrenders when it opposes the person and the nation and world surrender when they oppose the person. From this perspective, we can understand that the different abstract aspects conducted around the world in relation to this extremely small individual are historical acts.
From the beginning until now, humans have not been able to experience happiness. Mankind has not been able to sing of joy centered on the earth. Not once has a conscientious person, throughout the six thousand years, been able to boast about heaven or earth. Have you ever done that?
The more a person lived according to his or her conscience, the more the person lived a wretched life and was looked down on with contempt by those who ripped the person’s life apart, stepped on the person’s life and even killed the person. What was the hope of these people as they underwent all these hardships? They hoped for the day when they would enjoy living centered on the conscience for eternity. This is how our ancestors built this foundation of blood. Whenever they were knocked down, they stood up again.
When individuals collapsed, God rallied other individuals and connected them to the ethnic group’s level. When an ethnic group[5] collapsed, a different ethnic grouprallied and so on until the whole world rallied. This is God’s providential history.
I will be clearer. When Adam failed, the providence continued centered on Cain and Abel. When Cain and Abel failed, the providence went forward centered on Noah’s family and then centered on Jacob’s family (having passed through the three generations that included Abraham, Isaac and Jacob). The life of the Israelites in the wilderness can be seen as following that path, starting as a family and heading toward becoming an ethnic group and world. Moses, the Israelites’ representative, rallied all the Israelites and led them as an ethnic group out of Egypt, their enemy’s land, to Canaan in order to form their nation.
The individual has to fight to find the family. Once the individual has found the family, the family has to fight to find an ethnic group. Once that is done, the ethnic group must fight to find a country, and the country to find the world. The range gradually expands in that manner.
For an individual to set up his or her own standard of victory is not a simple matter. For someone to become a historic individual, the person has to gain victory amidst historic pain and attacks. Look at Noah. Noah received more persecution than we have received, and that persecution continued for 120 years. Noah had to go through 120 years to discover himself as an individual.
Jacob also went through the same thing. Jacob had to fight through suffering for twenty-one years before his blessings were achieved. As he fought, he did not have even one friend, nor did not he have any siblings or parents with him. He had to realize his family alone. Based on this family foundation, the path to find the ethnic group was the course of entering Egypt. The four hundred years in Egypt was a period to marshal the Israelites as an ethnic group. Moses, who then emerged as the ethnic group’s representative, had to build a national foundation through the people’s foundation.
Jesus and the mission of the returning Lord
What kind of person was Jesus? Based on the national foundation that was set, Jesus was supposed to discover a global foundation. Even though he came with that mission, the country and ethnic group betrayed Jesus, who then had to go through crucifixion. Hence, the path from the individual up through the family, ethnic group and nation to the world had to be conducted again.
To Jesus as he died on the cross, Israel was the enemy. Jews, whom God had chosen after four thousand years of hard work, were the enemies. They had the responsibility to bring restoration to the world, to restore the land of Canaan (worldwide) based on the ethnic group’s foundation, but once this ethnic group’s foothold collapsed, four thousand years of historical effort dissipated into thin air. Then, historical efforts from the time of Adam had to begin all over again. You must come to understand that Jesus has been setting up that foundation again for the past two thousand years.
Though, around the world today, many Christians exist, not one family centers itself on Jesus. Is there one? Jesus, himself, could not welcome the day when he could have a family after passing through the bride-and-groom position. Do you know what this bride and groom refers to? It represents the second family standard, on which one can stand in front of heaven. In order to make restitution for the failure to establish the family standard, which occurred because of the Fall, the second family standard had to be set. On this foundation, Jesus had to become the head of Heaven’s household. Did he become the head of the household on earth? The most important goal for Jesus on earth was to become the head of a family. Only by becoming the head of the household could he have children and only by having children could an ethnic group emerge. Only through an ethnic group could a nation or country emerge. Isn’t that correct?
The time has come for all Christians to wake up. Presently, Christians in the world do not collectively comprise a country. They are not part of a tribe or a family branch. For Jesus to become the head of the family, the twelve Apostles had to become one and form a foothold that would have made it possible for Jesus to establish a family on earth. Unfortunately, the Apostles failed to do this. Hence, the global-level providence of salvation could not end.
For this reason, Jesus and the Holy Spirit underwent adversity, shedding tears and blood, for two thousand years. What was the purpose? To find the first standard, the family standard, was the purpose. God had to find a new Israel, a new Jacob’s family and based on that family standard, set up an ethnic-group-based standard. He then had to set up a national standard and then a world foundation based on that. At that point, we must raise a heavenly-kingdom revolution and liberate even hell in the spirit world based on this global foundation. This is the returning Lord’s ideology. The returning Lord does not come to enjoy glory easily or through devious means. He comes with the mission to realize a cosmic kingdom of heaven and to eradicate even hell in the spirit world based on the earthly foundation. Only after this is done can God rest too.
The world of the mind and of the heart
Even though we have a mind, we do not know the direction of the mind. We are at a loss when looking for the right direction because confusing ideas bind us. Because of the biases in our lives, our minds keep changing. We do not know what is true or what is right. In the beginning, the mind moves in one direction. The mind starts in one place but divides toward the end.
This is our present state. Even if you have a normal start, your direction divides in the end. Division means it has been broken. We have been living in this way until now.
Today, communism and democracy are fighting each other. The world’s problems cannot be resolved between these ideologies. Our minds cannot find the right direction. Today’s world is facing the same problem in reality. We see that trend today. Isn’t that correct?
At what moment do you decide your mind’s direction? The moment when your mind connects to the heavenly mind, through which you can experience joy for eternity. Why did God give man a mind? To unite with man through the mind and find joy were the reasons God gave it to man. With that purpose, God created man. For a mind that has not decided its direction, what it needs is to experience a joy permeating it that it cannot deny. Only by feeling undeniable happiness through the mind can a world of happiness unfold.
The body is finite. The mind, however, is infinite. Hence, the world of the mind does not have any particular outlook. If you go a bit deeper, the world of the heart is bigger than that of the mind. The world of the heart is unrestricted while the world of the mind is restricted. The mind can be restricted depending on relative conditions, but no one can restrict the world of the heart. Who can restrict a mother’s heart of love flowing toward her children? Even a great wall blocking the way cannot cut the world of the heart. The world of the mind can become restricted because it is in the position of an object, while the world of the heart is in the position of the subject. The mind tends to be multi-directional and becomes restricted as a result. However, the world of the heart is different.
What do you think Heaven’s hope is? When Jesus comes in the Last Days, he will say that the kingdom of heaven is in your mind, the kingdom of heaven is to be realized from your heart.
Will having only the mind be enough? You must be able to conclude that the kingdom of heaven is to be realized from the heart.
Why do you think you feel unhappy? You feel unhappy because you are in a position where you cannot harmonize with your mind. No matter how many external hardships you may face, if you were in a joyful position through having harmonized with your mind, you would be a happy person.
In light of that, why do you feel unhappiness? You feel unhappiness because you do not have an unchanging heart at the center to move your mind. The reason lies there.
Finding the garden of happiness
Brothers and sisters are trying to find happiness in holding on to earthly things, but that will end one day. No matter how good a mind or heart you have, without a doubt, all earthly things are meant to end. As long as our minds do not find a clear center, they are open to both sad and happy emotions. In addition, if our bodies do not each have a clear center, we will experience joyful physical emotions alongside sad and happy emotions. All this is relative. Our minds have gone through a sad life course and have not been able to experience a happy life course. Therefore, you must clearly know that people of the Fall are unfortunate people, people that have to be cursed and people that have to receive judgment for not finding such a life course.
Hence, the time has come for us to find this path. Even if Heaven’s purpose in the Last Days is not to bring judgment on man and destroy man, we need to have the owner of the original homeland, the family of the original homeland, the society of the original homeland, the country of the original homeland, the world of the original homeland and the cosmos of the original homeland. However, if we do not have these things, God will cast his judgment on us.
Even though we see in the world individuals, families, societies, nations and the world itself centered on the body, our minds cannot find satisfaction here. We need the owner, family and world where the mind can be happy for eternity, a world that our minds hope for. If that world were non-existent or unobtainable, why do our minds feel this way? Our minds head toward goodness not because they have certain creative powers. Power cannot be applied independently. Power cannot be applied if it does not have an object. We can find this even when observing chemical and physical phenomena. When you observe the state of the application of a clear conscience, you cannot deny that it tries to remove the sad aspect from it and pursue the happy aspect. Humanity hopes for a day when everyone can be happy. Therefore, all problems must be concluded there.
Today, so-called democracy and communism are fighting each other and are finding ways to strengthen policies to rule the world. However, this must not be the outcome. How should that be resolved? We must all go back to the ways prior to Adam and Eve’s fall, to where they were happy, listening to God’s voice and sharing joy with God at the center. We each must have the standard where God is our eternal owner, the head of our family, the owner of our ethnic group, the owner of our country and the owner of our world. This must be a standard where we can each call God “my God,” whom none of us would exchange for anything in the world. Only after establishing this standard can the realization of a garden of happiness on earth occur.
The one that God sought for six thousand years
The world of the mind can be joyful, can harmonize and be moved, but it cannot be forcefully obtained. Moving and agreeing with one another may be possible but they are not obtainable by force.
Love originally is not human love, but love characterized by the essence of our eternal and unchanging God. The moment I encounter God’s love and start attending God as my owner is the moment I become one with God. Once I enter a stage of happiness where I can interact with God, I can conquer the world. A scene where someone shares joy with God is a scene of happiness even greater than the happiness a person feels when possessing all of heaven and earth. If man were able to experience this, all the sensations we feel through our five senses within the body would be nothing in comparison.
What then has Heaven been conducting centered on the mind? Heaven has been conducting the history of developing the universe. We have forgotten that Heaven nurtured the pioneering history of the universe and that he is guiding us. What is Heaven’s goal when instructing our minds? Heaven wants us to become universal beings. Heaven wants us to become people that can embrace the universe and grow further based on everything in the universe. He has been guiding us to become such people.
That is why Heaven tells us to love evil people, good people, the creation and all of heaven and earth. How delightful would that be? We, human beings, have lost the essence of that fundamental ideology. The mind must now be able to become delighted. When our minds are happy, our cells should be happy too. When our minds become intoxicated, our cells must become intoxicated too. The sensation of this intoxication must be able to move the world that I relate to. You must clearly understand that God has been looking for six thousand years for the one man that could realize these expectations and raise these effects.
Imagine there is a mind. What kind of person does the mind yearn for? What kind of person does the world, nation and the entire universe hope for? A person like the one mentioned earlier. Even if the person developed into a conqueror, we would still be infinitely grateful.
Brothers and sisters, you just have to do as your mind directs. You must be delighted in infinitely sacrificing. If we have many of these people, Heaven’s kingdom will come on earth. The sons and daughters of God are people that endlessly give and still want to continue giving, people that endlessly sacrifice and still want to continue doing so.
Isn’t parental love that way? God’s love is this parental love; only, it is a dozen or a hundred times greater. The world that your minds look for and dream of has not arrived yet. The day must come when the world of the heart and human minds on earth become connected. Based on that, once the absolute standard of judgment is set on earth, it will be the end. Judgment will take place based on this heart.
That is why Christianity transcends religions of the mind and is a religion of the heart. God is not the owner of the mind. God is the owner of the heart. No villain of any kind would be able to stop God’s love from emerging from the heart. Everyone likes it when love comes in waves. Satan, the devil, also likes this love. You must be keenly aware of this. We love God’s love but stand in a dark position where we cannot receive it. Being in that position, mankind has the destiny to pioneer the mind at all costs. The question now is, How can mankind pioneer the mind?
The path you must follow has become clear. Some connections will enter through your minds, some through material things, people and the word. Some connections will also unconsciously enter through your heart. The mind is deliberately trying to avoid the world and is yearning for that place. The person that hopes, looks and yearns for this connection to appear in one place and at one time must not forget that Heaven, which has been working alongside history, will find that connection for us.
The course to develop the heart
Since a person following the path of path of tao[6] is someone that heads toward the heavenly mind, the person does not ignore a single word. Nor can you ignore an enemy that tries to stab you with a knife. Yet, you must let it pass, thinking that you have a certain fate connecting you to the enemy. However, the person that complains is wrong. What appears as good in this erroneous world is not from Heaven, but what is from Heaven appears as bad in this erroneous world. Only a person capable of tolerating even these kinds of problems and a person capable of exploring the value of the fate hidden within these problems can take the first steps toward the development of the heart.
Hence, a person can differentiate between good and bad through the mind when one relates to people living in the neighborhood or when one weighs everything one hears, sees and feels. At times, your mind will feel a strong attraction after listening to a certain sermon or meeting a certain person. I may unconsciously be attracted to a certain truth, church or religion that I had never before considered. The mind does this naturally.
Just as a magnetic needle always points to the south and north, our minds also work in that way. Even when it comes to our minds, when a plus mind appears, it always draws a relative minus mind toward it. If you did not feel a sensation drawing you into the religion you now believe in, you are not true believers. For example, if tao does not draw one’s body, mind and heart toward it, one cannot say that one believes in tao. These people will one day stop believing in tao.
In light of that, what is humanity today looking for? Modern people are looking for an ideology. How should that ideology be explained? It must base its explanation on the truth. What is the truth? It is the word. The truth is something my mind can eternally delight in. If a person finds eternal delight in a truth, he or she will always find something new in the truth no matter how many hundreds or thousands of times the person has heard it before. Brothers and sisters, the truest truth among truth is like the taste of rice. Whether I ate it yesterday or today, or eat the same rice for seventy or eighty years, it is always tasty. The same applies to the truth. You must be grateful. Now, through what I have said today, you know that a person lives in two worlds. Jesus said that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from God. Therefore, this truth must be one that intoxicates both my body and my heart.
Therefore, this is not a time for us to sit still. The time has come for us to reverse direction. We must move toward one subject and one direction. Since you will find hindrances if you look to the side or follow a side road, you must cut off everything else. You must completely reject diversions.
Find a universal hero’s standard
We are living in a time when we should reverse direction. Heaven will become earth and vice versa. Man must become the subject. Now is a time of change; therefore, I must become a central being in heaven and on earth and the main character of the entire universe. Heaven is not the main character of the entire universe. You must clearly understand that the purpose for which God created man was to establish man to represent Heaven’s authority as the main character of the entire universe.
In order to reach this standard, I must resolve problems within my own center and must have a foundation enabling me to have experiences from the center of my heart. In order to resolve my mind and the center of my heart, I must find one direction.
What must you do once you find that one direction? Centered on that direction, you must look on every side. After exploring everything around you and familiarizing yourself with your surroundings, you must look to your heavenly nature. By doing this, one can know his or her own status.
Today’s religions and ideologies cannot become the complete standard of a person’s mind, heart and philosophy. Why? Since a new era is said to be dawning, all of those will pass. The time has come for something new to become my center, because today’s religion, ideology, mind, heart and philosophy have not had a complete standard. Now is such a time. You and I are all in the same position. Just as Jesus said, we are not servants but friends; we are in the same position. The universe is not something high up there. The universe and I must be able to put our arms around each other’s shoulders.
Denominations are not equipped with multi-directions but are one sided. Therefore, those who want the heavenly mind as the center of their hearts must be able to criticize their own one-sidedness and become multi-directional people. Should our minds and bodies continue to fight? The mind should be able to draw the body completely to itself. Based on that, a standard with which the mind can lead the body anywhere it goes should be set. It must become this way. If not, a complete solution will never emerge.
For that reason, this is not a time for you to sit still. Just try remaining still. What do you think will come out of that? Do not brag by saying, I am great or I am some kind of scholar. Today, there are many kinds of scholars, but among them, a scientist is a bit better. The high position of scholars other than scientists will begin to decline. Do not brag because the more you become such people, the more important your responsibilities become. If anyone were to connect the human mind to some false scheme and affect Heaven’s way, that person would be accused eternally when he or she entered the spirit world.
Brothers and sisters, you all want to become heroes. Nevertheless, when someone on whom the qualities of a hero were not bestowed tries to be a hero, a great calamity will befall the person. You may all want to succeed greatly in life, however, if you try to do so without Heaven’s permission, you will surely fail. The descendants of that type of person will surely fail….
It is now time that we put our ambitions aside and find “me.” God is yearning for the individuals whose bodies and minds are in a harmonious state, finding delight in each other and singing songs together. Have you ever felt God saying, “Hey! Let me touch your hand” and feeling so much delight as he touches your hand? Are the minds of all those present here today in such state?
God created the real world to enable our minds and bodies to be active. Become people that bet the whole creation and sing, bet all people and sing, bet the future world and sing, bet all of the spiritual and physical worlds and sing. Become people that can welcome God when he takes notice of your delightful minds and visits you. This is neither fiction nor fantasy. This is fact. I, the speaker, am young, but I have certainly felt and experienced that. Therefore, even if heaven and earth were to do a complete volte-face and oppose me, I would follow this path for that reason. What is the current era? It is the Last Days. However, as long as no one has established this standard, the last judgment will not be passed. In other words, the Day of Judgment will not come.
The truth and “I” that the Last Days require
What kind of truth should a religion have? We do not need a truth that just explains things. It must be a truth the body agrees with, the mind agrees with and one that the heart agrees with. We need this kind of philosophy or ideology. If you hear of this kind of ideology from your surroundings or become connected to this type of belief system, your mind will be drawn to it. If your body demands that you go somewhere else because of something you must attend to, even if matters of this type were facts, you must deny all of them, throw them all away and go where your mind is drawn. If there are teachings that give you a sensation transcending time and space and leading you, you must pack your things in a rucksack, put it on your back and go toward them. You will not fail. History will remember a person of this type.
You cannot become an individual like the one I just described by following your old ways. Take off your inappropriate masks. Religion must take off its religious masks. Conscientious people must take off their conscientious masks. All the different religious signs must be taken down. You are coming to the Unification Church now, but I am looking forward to the day when I will take down the Unification Church sign. The reason the Unification Church sign has been put up is because of the existing relative conditions and because opponents have appeared with intentions to fight. Brothers and sisters, do you think the world of our minds needs a sign? The world of the heart does not need a sign either. Even if you remain still, you will come to this realization and take care of matters yourselves. This is the first standard that can bring a solution.
Brothers and sisters, how have you been leading your lives until now? Where do you stand today? You must remember that you are suffering within two worlds and that the only way for you to find delight is to follow the direction taken by your mind and not the direction of your body.
When we look at today’s world, we can give a grade of nearly a hundred points to the courses led by the body and external worldly conditions. Today’s world is completely equipped with them. However, the courses led by the mind cover only a few percent. When we think of the world, Heaven cannot help wanting to bring judgment to it. What can we do about Heaven’s sorrow? Knowing of this sorrow, we must look for and follow the course that brings delight to the mind.
That is why those people that believed in tao in the past persevered even though they were risking their necks. That you come to the Unification Church is not my wish; if your bodies, minds and hearts submit in front of the truth and the teachings spoken here, know that that is the end. What kind of being is God? He is the eternal owner of my body. He is the eternal owner of my heart. In the original world, no matter how much a couple might have loved each other, the husband would have loved God more than he loves his wife, and his wife would not resent that. It is supposed to be like that. In the same way, the wife would have loved God more than she did her husband, and the husband would not have complained about his wife loving God more than she loved him. A world that sees this behavior and likes it is the kingdom of heaven. God who is in a subjective position transcending any love or any worldly concerns is the eternal owner of my body. Dying would be nothing if I could just be within God’s embrace and within his garden. What more is there to wish for other than to be with the eternal owner of one’s mind and heart?
What kind of place is the world your heart dreams of? It is not a world resulting from sensations coming through from something outside through our five senses. Our heart is dreaming of a world imbued with God’s love, a world of compassion and emotion. It is a world of affection where one can feel God’s love even through one tiny particle. Brothers and sisters, you must understand this. Jesus said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” One cannot feel the subjective, the archetypal, world of ideology with conventional sensitivity.
Sublime happiness
We must be able to sing through our bodies. We must also sing through our minds; our heart must be able to sing songs of praise. To whom? To our owner. Who is the owner? God is our owner. God is our father. He is our father.
We are God’s sons and daughters. Therefore, when we talk about God and say—Oh! What is there in the world that we could swap for God?—we must answer Nothing in the world can make us sever our connection to God.
The love that humans like, the ambition humans like and the wealth and honor humans like do not cause a problem at all. What greater happiness is there than having God as our father, the eternal owner whom the entire creation and all living beings want to serve? Women usually make a big fuss about becoming the wife of someone important. Big fusses are made out of something little. But now, God is my father. Nothing in heaven or on earth could be exchanged for this happiness. You must understand that Heaven is looking for sons and daughters that can be comforting at this stage asking, God, since you have followed the arduous path for six thousand years just to find me, how difficult has it been?
You must be able to judge yourself
Heaven has moved our descendants thousands and tens of thousands of times for centuries in order to produce such a son. Yet, do you know how often a member of the human race has betrayed Heaven? You must know that we are the ones that have betrayed our human minds and heavenly minds. Furthermore, we are the ones that have betrayed heavenly law and our Father’s heart. We must repent of these sins.
What has hitherto been violating the heavenly laws? Our bodies have been doing so; therefore, they are sinful bodies. The enemy is not something that will appear in front of you. Your bodies are your enemies. You must suppress your bodies. You must be able to judge yourselves. That is why those people, following the path of tao, are walking in the reverse direction. Buddhist teachings also employ counteracting methods. They are emphasizing reversal, following a reverse course and looking for a counteracting ideology.
Where, up to this point, have you been risking your necks whenever you fought? Many among our members fight in the name of the Unification Church. However, you must be able to fight in your own name. While carrying the cross, Jesus saw women wailing and lamenting the loss of Jesus. Jesus told them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.”[7]
The problems within me must be resolved. I am the problem. One must not curse or blame someone else. One must curse oneself. One must remove one’s false self and receive Jesus, our friend of the original, innermost heart, as the father of our minds, our innermost hearts and our bodies and the father of the universe. Only by following this path can you avoid judgment in the Last Days.
In order to do this, you must find the condition of happiness that can make you forget about worldly aspects of life. To follow this path, you need the teachings that can lead your mind. You must clearly understand that whether something is true or false will be decided by whether you have the truth that can move hearts or not, or whether you have such a religion or not.
[1] Throughout the text, “innermost heart” is a translation of 심정.
[2] Rm 7:24
[3] The term we use today is “ethnic group.”
[4] This is likely an allusion to the Thirty-Eight Parallel that divides the Democratic People’ Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea.
[5] The Korean word rendered as “ethnic group” has often been translated in Today’s World as “people.”
[6] Koreans use an expression (with “tao”) that refers to self-denial or doing what one would rather avoid doing. We take Father’s use to mean “the heavenly path” or “the mind-set associated with the heavenly path.”
[7] Lk 23.28