While in Japan to deliver True Mother’s message to Japanese members and others, at True Mother’s request, Sunjin nim, Director General of FFWPU International, also spoke, on October 1, to longtime members of the Japanese church. This was her personal message on that occasion.
This speech is translated and edited by TP magazine Team
Respected and beloved elder blessed members, I am hum bled to be standing in front of you, the great leaders and spiritual pillars of the Unification Church of Japan.
True Mother, more than anything, wanted to be here with all of you. Since she could not be here, she asked me to make sure to take time during this tour to personally pay tribute to all of you and respectfully applaud and venerate you, the elder members in Japan. More than anyone else in the world I believe you, our elder brothers and sisters here in Japan, know True mother’s heart. You have all endured and claimed victory by overcoming all obstacles; you have steadfastly stood your ground as true devoted sons and daughters of True Parents and our Heavenly Parent.
Even though I am True Parents’ direct descendent, none of the True Family members actually were raised by True Parents. Throughout my childhood, I only remember our parents speaking to and meeting with our church members; or leaving home to visit members in other countries around the world. Even though I am True Parents’ daughter, I can only barely glimpse into the suffering course that you, together with True Parents, have followed.
These past few years I have spent more time with True Parents than during my whole previous lifetime as their daughter. I am learning through every precious moment I spend with True Parents. I am also learning through my experiences with all of you. I have learned about the depth of your faith, your pure dedication, sincere offerings and your unwavering perseverance for world peace, which all of us should memorialize in our hearts. I am truly sorry to you all that I am here to greet you, because I fall short in all capacities when it comes to conveying True Mother’s gratitude and love to you. I thank you for your consideration and patience.
I am sure you already know how to say “thank you” and “I love you” in Korean. These two simple expressions convey the heart and the message of love that Mother wanted me to share with you. True Mother began to emphasize the depth and meaning of these words after True Father’s passing.
Seeing True Mother physically, spiritually and emotionally exhausted, I asked if there was anything I could do to comfort her. She said to me, “Don’t worry about me. We need to console and love the members worldwide.” Soon after this time, she sent my husband and me on a worldwide tour to console our members and to collect True Parents’ historical artifacts and prepare them to be delivered and memorialized in the Cheon Jung Gung museum. She then went on tour with True Family members cross‐country in the United States, to give love and hope to all the American brothers and sisters.
Ignoring her physical condition, she carried on tirelessly trying to heal, love, and give hope to all our members, our brothers and sisters, around the world.
After managing and stabilizing all the worldwide foundations, she wanted us to hold what is now known as the Aloha Workshop in Hawaii for all the grandchildren in the True Family. She wanted to secure True Parents’ legacy, to make sure the future generations learn two main teachings. She said, “If you know these two things you can understand everything in the Divine Principle.” The two precious Korean phrases, she taught were “kamsa hamnida” and “sarang hamnida!” As you know, these phrases mean “Thank you” and “I love you.”
Mother always told me that these phrases represent the two most important principles—gratitude and love—that we should embody in our lives and pass on to our children. If we apply these principles, we can bring about true healing, joy and liberation and a peaceful resolution to all conflicts. Only when we are grateful can we become consciously aware that every moment is a blessing. In this awareness, there is only abundance, joy, fulfillment and true love. When we are thus inundated with Heavenly Parent’s true love, we can become sources of love, feeling love in every cell of our bodies, and sharing it as one universal love with all people and all things in creation.
This is the complete harmony, the boundlessness and the absolute unity with the divine. True Mother has asked me to bow to that divine light in you, the light that you have kept lit all these years, passing that flame to countless others so that they too may have this divine light to lead them out of darkness.
Thanks to True Mother’s wisdom, the curriculum for the Aloha Work shop was based on these core essentials, knowing that these two phrases encapsulate everything we need to know.
All my fears and doubts about how to pass on True Parents’ teachings to our young washed away. True Mother’s guidance was simply perfect. We just had the Second Aloha Workshop, where the blessed children from all over the world learned love, gratitude and joy. They learned that we are one family under our Heavenly Parent. I taught these two principles through yoga at the Aloha Workshop. In yoga, we have an expression for this eternal gratitude and love, “namaste.” It means “I bow to the divine light in you.”
I am truly grateful to be here in Japan. Meeting our brothers and sis ters on this tour has been a source of tremendous love, wisdom, inspiration, healing and hope. I have always had great respect for the Japanese members. In many ways, I feel as if Japan is my home. Growing up, it was Japanese sisters, three onnisans, who raised me in East Garden. When I think of how Japan has been like a mother all over the world with missionaries, with funding the world wide providence, giving every part—mind, body, family and soul—for the sake of others, I am truly grateful to our mother nation, Japan.
On this trip, I had the honor of listening to some of your testimonies. I came to realize that your life stories are our worldwide family’s great treasure. You, alongside our True Parents, have been writing with your lives of dedication, the pages of are stored and liberated history that has opened the way for all of us to live with true love and pure joy. To wit ness all the love and hard work you have poured out for the sake of humankind is a deep honor. I can feel your sincere hearts and love for our Heavenly Parent. You inspire us all to serve you in return. If we do not honor our parents and elders, we can never honor our descendants and not even our own selves. In a way, I feel that the elders of Japan understand the heart of True Mother more than the leaders of any other country. You understand responsibility and the role of a mother and being true parents to the world. Everything you do is for the sake of others. We thank you and we love you! Please let us help carry your burden and honor your memory in our hearts forever.
Attending my own mother, I am constantly impressed by her wisdom, her profound heart and her amazing strength. No matter the hardship, Mother always finds a solution through deep spiritual communion with True Father, and by dedicating herself day and night for the sake of God’s will.
Now, True Mother is standing firmly on earth as the center of our movement. She is a living miracle. She has been getting stronger, faster and is likely to live longer. She has become the model of physical, mental and spiritual health, putting one foot in front of the other and leading the way with True Father. They are walking in unison. They stand together as the center, and as the seamless harmony and unity of the spiritual and earthly worlds. Recently, True Mother held twenty one day and forty day workshops for members of the True Family and held a holy Blessing Ceremony in Korea for her two youngest daughters. We, as one True Family, stand united with True Parents and with all of you to up hold and honor your path and pave a brighter future of love, joy and peace for all of Heavenly Parent’s creation.
During the recent Chuseok celebration, we offered our gratitude and remembrances to True Father. True Mother and the whole family sang under the harvest moon, which shined down with loving, gentle moonlit grace. We all felt True Father’s love and energy beaming down illuminating the night sky, as his smiling face seemed to dance on the surface craters of the moon.
After the second anniversary of True Father’s ascension, we felt all the hardships melt away as we were bathed in grace, pure joy, oneness and blessings. Even though the past year was devastating, we could feel a new day beginning, because of True Mother’s resolve, leadership and di vine light. We have all been reborn, revived and reunited as one family under Heavenly Parent and True Parents. It made me realize that with true love as our center, all things can be re turned to Heavenly Parent. That is the legacy that you and our church represents—the res back to Heavenly Parent. Without True Parents’ saving you, without you saving us, without us keeping the embers of light lit for our future generations, no salvation would be possible. This autumn, we felt the true harvest after all the hardships and sacrifice. Together we are writing a new page in our historical saga, one of liberation from indemnity and abundant blessings that surround us every moment that we are conscious. We are writing glorious new chapters about absolute gratitude and love through forgive ness and about true love and unity with all people and all things.
True Mother quotes True Father all the time, saying, “It is not an individual alone that goes to heaven; it must be the whole family that enters heaven together.” This is so true. Could we ever imagine a heaven for ourselves without our loved ones? When True Mother says we need to be one family, which means all four teen True Children, along with all the blessed True Family members and all living beings of the world. All together, we should be one. We are the branches of a tree stemming out of a single trunk.
You all have grown from this trunk, which is secured by the deep roots our True Parents firmly embedded in this blessed ground. Nothing would be born if not for their seed, and the perfected union of our Father and Mother. That seed was Heavenly Parent’s blessing and grace for the world, once
veiled in darkness. For the first time in history, the leaves, flowers and fruit of the next generation are flourishing in a world lit by all components of this living grace and divine light. So when we see this tree of new life in all its glory, we can see the years, the grooves and rings of wisdom, the age, endurance, and the miraculous growth that can bear pure fruit and pure seeds to sustain the world. No single component can live on its own; we are all part of this magnificent tree. We must be one; we must synergize to thrive. Similarly, all the foundations, leaders, members, blessed families, beautiful blessed children and the promising youth that we see today, are results of your sincerity, faith and dedication for Heavenly Parent and True Parents, and we must honor that legacy.
The past has been tumultuous. Some of you may have uncertainty in your hearts and minds today. My sincere hope, however, is that you can tap into your higher consciousness, your original mind, and see beyond all the clouds to who we truly are. You are and always will be true sons and daughters of True Parents.
As mother mentioned in the mes sage today, we lose unity when we lose our center. God sent us True Parents so that we can experience and understand God’s heart, and by that bond of heart, we can become one— one True Family under Heavenly Par ent and True Parents.
My dear respected elders, I would like to tell you, from the bottom of my heart, kamsahamnida and sarang hamnida.
You have carried the cross together with True Parents. You have sacrificed everything to love True Parents and carry on their will.
Mother asked me to bring her gift to you today. Please receive this as a token of her gratitude and love. Please continue to offer sincerity for God’s providence, and as elders, please guide and raise the younger generations, starting from me, passing on the heart and traditions that you inherited from True Parents. Let us march for ward together. Let us attend True Fa ther and True Mother to the end and accomplish their dream together.
Sholi! [Japanese for “victory”]