Father’s Speech on May 8, 1994 at East Garden, Irvington, New York
UNTIL now we have been reciting “My Pledge” every Sunday and the first day of the month. Forty years ago, Christianity was the bride who was supposed to prepare for the bridegroom and the Kingdom of Heaven. Since this failed, the Unification Church emerged and spent forty years re-indemnifying that foundation. The failures of individuals, families, clans and nations on the horizontal level had to be restored vertically. Twice before, the Kingdom of Heaven on earth had failed to be established. On the third try, the Unification Church succeeded in establishing it.
True Parents established the Kingdom of Heaven on all levels, including the worldwide base. The Second Advent differs from the first in that everything is on the worldwide level. The Lord of the Second Advent came to re-indemnify everything, suffering persecution on all levels from the individual to the worldwide level. This was necessary for the perfection of True Parents.
Restoration should have been completed within Adam’s family. Since this did not happen, and humankind expanded to the world level, persecution had to be endured from the individual level to the world level. Father suffered all the persecution on each level before he reached perfection.
When restoration is completed, Satan has to go back to his original position as archangel-even hell has to be liberated. This is the purpose of religion. Once this happens, religion has no reason to continue. It was necessary to restore fallen people. Once this is established, then religion is no longer an institution, but God-centered daily life.
THE MEANING OF SETTLEMENT
This year’s motto is “The Safe Settlement of True Parents and the Completed Testament Age.” The many nations and many families in the world have been floating around, unable to settle down in one central place. Unless there is a center, there can be no settlement. Now families and nations that have been wandering around the world can find the center, become one with it and begin to settle down with God.
When you settle down, you must settle around the center. You do not just settle down by yourself or without following the Principle. That center has been established, from the individual level to the levels of family and clan, up to the world level. All families will settle down based on that center.
The satanic world has lost its place and is in decline. God-centered families have begun.
America, of course, is not the center; neither is Japan. No advanced nation is the center of the world around which people have to cluster. This world of chaos, sorrow, sadness, misfortune and tragedy will gradually come to an end. No longer will human beings have to go through that misery.
The Unification Church was once a dark place. Because of worldwide opposition, it was a most difficult place to live in; a place of misery, both physically and spiritually. However, this has ended. The sun is beginning to rise. The dawn is coming. The Unification Church, which had experienced sorrow, will be full of happiness.
We know very clearly that God’s purpose of creation is the family. The four position foundation encompasses three generations: God, parents and children. The original four position foundation was centered on God and Adam’s family. Adam’s family is the formula family.
CONNECTION WITH THE TRUE FAMILY
As we recite the Family Pledge, we promise to connect all families to the True Family. The Unification Church achieved this through mass weddings that transcend the boundaries of nation, religion, creed and race. Overcoming those boundaries, we have established new families.
The Kingdom of Heaven centering on God is not subordinate to America, but America must be subordinate to the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. The ideal is not one nation alone under God, but one world under God. We must turn things upside down and rearrange them.
The fall took place in Adam’s family. The result of the fall is the separation between mind and body, separation between parents and children, and separation between husband and wife.
Since the first family was lost, we must regain it. This is the inevitable course. The barriers separating mind from body, parents from children, husband from wife, and brothers from sisters must be broken. The divisions between clans, nations and blocs of nations must be overcome. All the walls raised as a result of the fall must come down. True Parents must accomplish what Adam and Eve failed to do in their family.
TRUE LOVE UNIFIES
When we recite the Family Pledge, it means we have crossed over the barriers and are now on God’s side. It means that our mind and body have come into unity and are no longer separated. Individuals whose mind and body have been united can unite with their spouse, through true love. We must have a clear understanding of true love. True love brings people back into unity, whereas false love creates separation. All the levels separated by false love will be reunited through true love.
When you say “true love,” you think of the power that unites an individual and unites husband and wife, parents and children, and brothers and sisters. True love unites three generations. When people ask you what true love is, you should be able to answer that it is the power of love that can bring a divided mind and body into unity, separated husband and wife into unity, and separated parents and children into unity.
Do we have an example of such a united family on earth? Even the strongest-knit family does not have this qualification.
The absence of true love is hell. Hell is the state of separation. Hell is being separated from God. Hell is being unable to recognize your own parents. Hell is being unable to recognize your own spouse. Hell is being unable to recognize your own children.
All over the world, people are searching for their identity. Unable to find their family, people wander around and become hippies, searching for their position and their relationship to others. America has been drifting, and its ideals reduced to individualism. Individualism without relationships with others is hell. America has exemplified Satan’s ideal instead of God’s ideal.
The solution is to turn around 180 degrees. We have been going in one direction. Now we have reversed and are going in the other, more godly, direction. No one can come to this clear solution unless he understands the Divine Principle. Everyone knows that something is wrong. Everyone knows they are sick, but they do not know the cause of their sickness. Therefore, they cannot cure it.
True love is the power that brings unification between mind and body, and husband and wife. People have always experienced separation between their minds and bodies. Between husband and wife, there is a big wall. Without unity, they fight with each other like enemies. Parents and children go through the same situation. Conflicts take place vertically, between parents and children, and horizontally, between husband and wife, or mind and body. Conflicts take place between front and rear, between brothers and sisters. In all dimensions-vertical, horizontal and lateral-there is conflict. Where there is conflict, God can-not reside. God dwells wherever there is unity. Before we can expect God to live within us, we have to achieve unity between mind and body, then God can make His initial visit. When the family is united, God comes to live with them. However, when harmony is lacking between parents and children, between husband and wife, and between mind and body, God cannot come there.
Often you have listened to me teach about true love. When someone asks you what true love is, you can immediately give the correct answer. The main focus of God’s restoration providence is to bring separated entities into unity. The core of God’s work is unification. Though we are fallen individuals and families, still we are God’s own individuals and families. However, God could not dwell with us because we lacked unity. When the three dimensions of the family are united, it will become a true family.
FAMILIES ARE THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF HEAVEN
True families, of course, are the building blocks of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, based on God and True Parents. Centering on God and True Parents, we can establish the true family, the true nation and the true world. Where does heaven on earth begin? With my family and me.
True love can cut me off from Satan’s lineage and bring me back into God’s lineage. To eradicate the fallen root is the role of religion. Millions of people of all religions are going through the process of uprooting the satanic lineage. The desires of the body must be overcome, so that mind and body can become one. Once the body is subdued, it has no problem following the mind. This is what religious life is all about. People know in their conscience that when the body is subdued they can go to heaven.
There are seven components to the Family Pledge. You can accomplish each of these seven aspects only after you bring your mind and body into unity and your family into unity. Otherwise, you can recite the Pledge, but you cannot accomplish it. When you first saw the Family Pledge, you recited it without under-standing it deeply. Now you understand that it is all based on the family.
When you begin to pray, first recite this Pledge, understanding its true meaning. A person whose mind and body have not become united cannot even begin praying to God. We are not qualified; our conscience does not allow us to call God “our Father.”
However, we are different from the rest of the world, because we know where the fall began Therefore, we can remedy it.
Those who can confidently say, “I am completely united with my spouse,” raise your hands. That means that even though you are not qualified, you are reciting the Pledge and praying to God. If you are not united with your spouse, how can you complain about external difficulties? It is not because the world is bad that you are having difficulty. You are having difficulty because of your family.
THE KEY TO HEAVEN
Unless we recite this Pledge, we can-not enter the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. Most Christians feel that since they believe in Jesus they can get into the Kingdom of Heaven. Getting into the Kingdom of Heaven is not that simple or easy. Christians have been hoping to enter the Kingdom of Heaven on earth; instead, they are ending up in hell on earth, aren’t they? We see problems everywhere. Ask people whether they are closer to heaven or hell. They are somewhere other than heaven. Believing in Jesus does not enable one to go to the Kingdom of Heaven just like that. Each individual knows where he or she is situated.
All seven paragraphs of the Family Pledge begin with the phrase “centering on true love.” Now we understand why. Unless the family and the individual become united, we cannot speak about true love. Does God experience conflicts between mind and body as we do? [No.] How about you? You must answer yes. No and yes are completely opposite. How can you change from answering “no” to answering “yes”? It is difficult. If you do not know the way to change, you can never do so.
The world actually turns upside down when we accomplish this Pledge. It is difficult to become able to say yes, because you are changing the whole world. Uniting mind and body is never simple. It is so difficult because we are about to change the whole world. Since it is so difficult, does that mean we do not have to do it? Everyone should do it.
My lifetime work is to build a paved highway, including bridges and tunnels, through which you can run quickly. Before I established this highway, nobody could travel fast. While I was paving this highway, did you help me? No. You opposed me. The very people who opposed me are the ones for whom I am making this highway. Without understanding, people oppose me. I did not do all this work for my sake. I never toiled to save myself. I worked so hard to save each of you.
My teachings are the keys to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Before you enter it, you have to open the door. To open the door, you need to obtain the key from me. If you try any other means stand the value of that key.
You must understand how blessed you are to be permitted to recite the Family Pledge. This is truly the gospel of all gospels.
1. Our family, centered on true love, pledges to establish the Kingdom of God on earth and in Heaven, the original ideal of creation, by restoring the original homeland.
Centering on true love and the land where we were born, we pledge to the build the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and in heaven. What does it mean to establish the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and in heaven? It means to realize the ideal of God’s creation. We begin from God’s point of view, or God’s position.
2. Our family, centered on true love, pledges to perfect the way of filial sons and daughters in the family, patriots in the nation, saints in the world and holy sons and daughters in the cosmos, by dedicating ourselves to God and True Parents and by becoming a central family that represents the cosmos.
When we say “centering on true love,” we must automatically think of uniting mind and body, uniting husband and wife, and uniting parents and children. When we go to the spirit world, we will be judged according to whether we carried this out. If we do not, we will have no excuse. This Pledge is that important. To accomplish it is heaven; not to accomplish it means judgment.
The whole family is responsible for its accomplishment. When Adam and Eve failed, the children suffered.
We pledge to attend God and True Parents. The Korean word moshieo, translated as “attend,” does not have any English equivalent. It means to serve with dedication, living for the sake of another. God is the vertical parents, and True Parents are the horizontal parents. From them you are born. Both vertical parents and horizontal parents are needed for unification, to connect with heaven and God. Without dedicated service to God and True Parents, people do not even have a beginning.
Unified individuals and families represent the whole cosmos before the fall. We pledge to become the core, central families, which means going through all eight steps of restoration. We then can become filial sons and daughters in the family, patriots on the national level, saints on the worldwide level, and holy men and women on the cosmic level. To be a family of true love, dedicated to God and True Parents and representing the whole world, means to educate your whole family and all the people of your nation.
3. Our family, centered on true love, pledges to perfect the Four Great Realms of Heart, Three Great Kingships and the Realm of the Royal Family.
We pledge to perfect all these levels. The “royal family” means what Adam and Eve were supposed to become. We need to restore what was lost at the fall and reach the point where Adam and Eve were supposed to be. Before a woman can expect to be loved by a man, she must qualify herself. Before a man can expect to be loved by a woman, he must qualify himself to stand in this position. We can truly love each other only on the foundation of the four heartistic realms and three kingships. Without true love, the four heartistic realms and three kingships cannot develop.
This is the goal toward which all of our blessed couples must strive every day, reciting this pledge every minute of the day. You have worked very hard to understand this concept and connect to it. However, it should not remain a concept but become a living reality.
4. Our family, centered on true love, pledges to fully realize the world of freedom, peace and happiness by creating one great family on the cosmic level, which is God’s ideal of creation.
This pledge stresses “our family, centering on true love.” We pledge to realize God’s goal of creation. Everything begins centering on true love and my family.
When you say, “I pledge,” it means that you literally pledge. You must accomplish what you pledge. Compare your standing to this goal. You can go to heaven when you accomplish this. If you do not, then you have to wait.
We pledge to form one great cosmic family, united around God’s ideal of creation. It means no two families are separate families anymore; they are one family; 200,300, 1000 families-still they are all one family, centering on God. The Pledge talks about an entire cosmic family. Though yours is a small family, you are the cosmic family.
In nature, a high-pressure mass will fill the low pressure mass automatically. This is natural law. Water from a higher elevation will flow into water at a lower elevation. However, do resources flow naturally from a rich nation to a very poor nation? For a rich nation to withhold resources from the needy goes against the law of the universe.
God is warning the advanced nations through AIDS and drug problems. Homosexuality is unlawful in God’s eyes. God hates it, but Satan loves it.
Let us encourage Americans even to fast, and with the excess food saved, we can help the starving people in the poor nations. Just like the natural world, human society must come into harmony, under the natural law.
By forming this cosmic family, we are making the world of freedom, peace and happiness. We are talking about freedom, peace and happiness, not just for ourselves but for everyone. Obviously, it is very difficult for us to achieve this literally and physically, but the spirit world has no boundary. When we see suffering, we shed tears and pray. By doing so, we help the world to escape judgment.
This year it will be twenty years since I started fish enterprises. Food resources are available; the problem is distribution. Some-body has a lot, and somebody else has little. The Unification Church will be in every comer of the world; as the center of the universe, we will work toward this goal. With all of us working toward the same goal, adequate distribution is possible and easy.
5. Our family, centered on true love, pledges to strive daily for greater development toward the unity between the spiritual world (subject) and the physical world (object).
The whole world is my family. The world and my family are not separate. The spirit world is not restricted by national boundaries. Social groups in the spirit world contain all nationalities, and the person who can connect to any direction will be the center of that society. While we are on earth, we must work to-ward that goal. Once we then reach the spirit world, we will become the center of that world. All of this, again, will be possible after our mind and body become one. You need true love to do that.
In this world, people strive ruthlessly to make money. In the spirit world, such a person is crushed by his conscience, and the money will retaliate against him. No matter how much knowledge we have on earth and how much we are respected because of that knowledge, unless we use it for the sake of the whole, that very knowledge will blame us in the spirit world.
Each individual family must achieve this standard to fit into the spirit world. Regardless of how much your family accomplishes, it does not matter unless all the families of the world become like that.
The heavenly world is the subject world. People living on earth do not even think about the heavenly world being the subject. They miss out on the center of the cosmos. The spirit world has a hundred times more people than the physical world.
Because of the fall, human beings do not even know the subject world exists. As we recite the Pledge, we are immediately conscious of the subject world. Mind is plus and the body is minus, not the other way around. Our world is a very fantastic world, but it is only a small world. The mind is the representative of the spiritual world. It is plus, while the earth is minus. Just as the body rebelled against the mind and mistreated it, we have completely ignored the world of subject. Therefore, we have to repent. The world of subject and the world of object must become one.
We pledge to “strive daily for greater development.” I put this clause in here because if we move slowly, movement stops. We must have thrust. Once we no longer advance, we are going down toward hell. We pledge to accelerate movement toward the heavenly goal. There is no place for a comfortable and easy life. Life is short, so during this short span we must work toward progressive development.
When you are near the center, it is easy to make one revolution of a circle. However, when you are on the edge, you have to travel a long distance to complete one revolution. On an automobile, the axle revolves very easily, but the surface of the wheel has to go very fast. We must synchronize the center and the surface. Comparing my life in the past and in the present, I have never stopped. I never slow down. I am always on the move, always seeking to move faster.
You can be connected to the world that you are thinking about. If you are not thinking of something, you are not connect-ed to it. Here we pledge to unite the spiritual world, which is subject, and the world we live in, which is object. We focus our consciousness on harmonizing and eventually unifying the world we are living in as well as the spiritual world, which is the subject world.
6. Our family, centered on true love, pledges to become an ideal family that multiplies God’s blessing to our surroundings, by being the family the represents God and True Parents that can mobilize heavenly fortune.
Again, we begin with “our family,” and again, the phrase “centering on true love.” We pledge to become representatives of God’s family and True Parents’ family and have an influential family, having an effect on heavenly fortune. This may seem abstract, but it is very concrete and very realistic in the Oriental concept. My life is not my life alone, and my family life is not my family life alone. They have a visible influence on the future development of heavenly fortune. You pledge to do that too, connecting all the blessings to each family.
We do not expect blessings for our family alone but for every family we represent. We pledge to connect all the families of the world to the blessings of God and True Parents. There are mil-lions and millions of families on earth. We pledge to become a representative family whose function is to connect the blessings horizontally to restore all the rest of the families on the earth.
7. Our family, centered on true love, pledges to fully realize a world of shimjung culture that is connected to the original blood lineage.
My family, centering on true love, will maintain its connection to the original lineage. This original lineage is of the utmost importance. Through the fall, our lineage was changed. Unification Church blessed couples must never make any mistake that distorts this lineage.
We pledge to accomplish the heartistic cultural sphere. God’s mind in heaven and God’s mind on earth is the same. Parental heart is the same in heaven and on earth. A brand new culture is beginning, the culture of love. Fallen culture is materialistic and individualistic. Heavenly culture has nothing to do with that. Unless we have this heartistic attitude, we cannot elevate ourselves to the higher levels of family, clan, nation, world and cosmos. We cannot connect to those levels without the culture of heart. Without the culture of heart, we cannot go in one consistent direction from the individual level to the huge cosmos. This is what heartistic civilization means.
Contemporary culture rises and falls; it takes a zig-zag course. However, the new culture that I envision moves in a straight-forward, consistent direction. Only true love can do that. This heartistic culture moves according to true love. Unless our minds and bodies become united, our family cannot exist. Heartistic culture begins with the family.
These seven pledges encompass everything from the restoration of this world to the perfection of the ideal world. All the goals are there; all the steps are explained. We make our pledge every morning to achieve these historic goals.
I value Korea most. Yet I am explaining this most important Pledge not in Korea, but in America. You cannot understand the value of that blessing because your spirit is not that high and bright. However, all of your ancestors in the spirit world will shout mansei, because you are all here receiving this gospel for the first time in history.
You may say, “Oh, Father, you gave us enough. How can I catch up with that? Today is Mother’s Day, I have to go fundraising. I have to make some money.” You grumble, but once you understand what I am bringing to you, you should be punished for even thinking that way. The words I have spoken this morning were never given in the past and will never be repeated in the future.
Do not think of yourselves as individuals. I said a thousand times that you are not just individuals; you represent the whole universe. Your family is not just your family; it represents the entire universe. You represent history. Your pledge must be followed by working toward this goal. I bless you not as individuals but as representatives of the whole. Even when you recite the Pledge, you are not reciting it by yourself. You are making the pledge representing everyone and representing history. Those who understand this clearly and can say, “Father, I pledge I will become that kind of individual and that kind of family,” raise your hands. Let us pray.