Excerpts from Recent Hoondokhae Sessions with True Parents in June 2011.
King Garden, Kona, Hawaii, June 15
Of all the difficult things in the world, the most difficult is to make God known. Once you know Him, everything can be done without fail. If you discover the way to remain on that path and reach success, you have accomplished it all. Therefore, now that you are aware of this path, if you follow it to the end, devoting yourselves completely, you will leave your old selves behind and you will see that it will lead you, as individuals, to reach the goals desired by the world. I am also not a fool….
We’re here in Hawaii, as beautiful human beings brought together through the connection of the blessing. Las Vegas is the most difficult place. We are on the road to working out how to educate humanity and open the way that leads to a new world, a beautiful garden of happiness. We will see the results after a few years. Until then I hope that you will continue to fulfill your responsibilities.
Cheon Hwa Gung, Las Vegas, June 17
Just as nature is beautiful and good, Mother grew up with the hopes of having respectful sons and daughters. We will now ask her to tell us something about her past. She has gone through so much and has shed many tears.
True Mother: I gave birth to Hyo-jin on December 3, 1962. At the time, Father liked to go to the mountains. On that day I had stayed in my room, having just given birth. Father came back. We were then living in the old Cheongpa-dong headquarters church. Do you remember it? At back, there was a kitchen in the basement. On top of that kitchen was the room with underfloor heating in which I gave birth. You have to go around to go up the stairs. Father’s room was on the upper floor, and I would hear him come in. I was so glad to hear him return that I went to the door, even though I had just given birth and should have at least put on a coat. I suddenly felt a chill and my teeth chattered. Then I felt very unwell. I also gave birth to Ye-jin in winter. At the time of her birth, I was staying in a member’s home. There was also a strong draft in that house, so I had been unwell then too.
After I gave birth to Hyo-jin, however, I became very sick. I felt chilled all over, my teeth chattered and my whole body trembled. Even after I covered myself from head to foot in a comforter, I couldn’t stop shaking. That’s what it was like.
As he grew up, I saw that he was an unusual child. When we bought him a tricycle, he would not ride it but would turn it upside down and watch the wheels spin. When he started drawing something, maybe a fish, he would repeatedly draw the same thing and nothing else. From a young age, when he set out to do something, he saw it through to the end.
He was also a very affectionate boy. When he was young, Father wasn’t at home most of the time because he had to travel, and I used to keep Hyo-jin near me because he was a very young child. When he was about three years old, we went to Mt. Dobong in the summer and stayed there a while. Though usually daughters rather than sons comfort their mothers, he comforted his mother’s heart so much. He would only speak comforting words to me and was nice to those around us. When we lived in Cheongpa-dong, Won-pil Kim used to live in a house nearby, and we visited his home. On our way back, Hyo-jin fell down and banged his face, and his lips quickly swelled up. It was the first time I had seen such a thing, and I was so shocked. I asked him, “Are you all right? Are you okay?” He answered, “I’m all right. It doesn’t hurt.” He was always like that. He didn’t want to make his mother worry.
Cheon Hwa Gung, Las Vegas, June 18
My two older brothers died. My younger brother, whose name is Yong-gwan, died when he was eight years old. He loved his older brother [Father] so much and just before he died he said to me, while holding my hand, “ Older brother, I will go before you.” I cannot forget this. [Father holds back his tears] I loved him very much. My aunt gave me bread and I wanted him to eat it. I waited all night to give it to him, but he died without eating it. I cannot forget that.”
Cheon Hwa Gung, Las Vegas, June 19
From a young age, God guided me to follow this path and I have come this far. How many difficulties I have had to face!
There is a book that tells you how you can live in the way I have lived since I was young. I want you to read it to others. When you read passages aloud that move your heart, you will cause your towns and villages and even the mountains and rivers to cry. The earth will weep. Has it ever been soaked in the word? Has this nation been soaked in it? The nation has not been soaked in the word. You need to consider that.
I am only passing through, and not much time remains for me. I am ninety-three years old this year. After I reach the age of ninety-five or ninety-seven, I should not appear in public. Instead, this speech should carry out my work. It should be this speech that appears. The word did not appear in the past. The poor, deceased ancestors did not appreciate what was conveyed during the era that the word was to be conveyed. Yet if their descendants learned a valuable lesson, they did not lose out.
You need to become a key that opens the way. That means becoming tribal messiahs and returning to your hometowns.
Las Vegas…. Famous places are unnecessary; you need to go to the mountains and rivers. The owner of all things is the owner that has not fallen and that lived in Eden according to the original model.
You cannot compare nature with anything. With the break of day, the rays of the sun cast their light upon us and warm up everything on earth that was frozen, enabling you to go about your activities freely. The seasons in nature never fail to come round.
Next year, no matter what else happens, all creatures in the mountains and rivers will feel something, the animals will eat and live, whether they live on water or air. Plants will grow on the mountains. That is what it’s like in the countryside. I can make something in common with that¡¦ For instance, I can make flower gardens or plant trees or sow seeds.
There would be nothing I could not do in a village if I lived there. I could plant trees in my garden and share them with others. Try doing your best in your village. Invest yourselves in your counties and in your nations; see what happens over ten years. All it takes is for you to witness to a hundred people. The place where you live will become a verdant garden¡¦.
As it is now time, I need to return to my hometown. Didn’t you receive persecution in your hometowns? Wasn’t that why you couldn’t go there, even if you wanted to? What will you do when you return to your hometowns? I’m not telling you to just go and show your faces. I’m telling you to go and spread the word. Organize yourselves as quickly as possible. You can hold even ten hoondokhae sessions a day.
All you need to do is to create the first spark while oriented toward your clans. The dirty waters will be cleansed, the dirty air will be cleansed and the mountains and rivers will be cleansed. People can also become like the spring butterflies flying amidst newly growing sprouts. This is the hope we have….The sunlight will come again in the morning, and your sons and daughters should read books and enjoy the morning.
You may ask, Why do we need to return to our hometowns? I miss my hometown. I couldn’t go there because I had to go out to the world, but I want to return to my hometown. I want to see how many trees are growing on the hillside and how many people are living in my old village. Although my old home was a small thatched cottage, I can offer jeongseong there and make the mountains and rivers weep. It is a place where what Heaven touches turns to gold, as we would wish. I am yearning for the world after this one. I do not want this world to be the way it is right now. How difficult it is!
The autobiography and the textbooks and teaching materials should be taught from grade school through middle and high school. We will also make movies and animated films about it. You need to make this happen.
In the past, I told you to go to the schools and to the army and teach. Though we lost the nation, we went to the nation, and we went to the army. Though the schools were lost, the time has come when the teachers will welcome us, so you need to go to speak to them. Go and give it a try. Can you imagine how exciting it will be?…
You should write an autobiography. You should return to the rural village you came from[1] and remember the times when you didn’t have any food and used to sit still, gaze out and think about why your mother and brothers and sisters went hungry. You need to remind yourselves of that.
You should compose songs that will help you remember the old times, which include experiences you cannot forget. You should think about your mother, the nation and your family, and construct bridges of affection.
Do you know how important the responsibility of tribal messiahs is?…
You should return to your villages with your autobiographies and leave something to be remembered by. You cannot permit yourself be chased away. You are going in order to set up something that represents you. You don’t know how precious that is. On that basis you give life to your hometown.
Which places do the famous historical patriots come from? Wouldn’t it be nice if they came from your hometown? The descendants of Admiral Soon-shin Lee[2] are great people. You should connect your hometown to the land of your ancestors. Then whatever work you do, your ancestors will come to you from the spirit world and help you night and day.
Do you think I will sit still and do nothing when I go to the spirit world? I will send out my followers. Hyo-jin will do that.
When I say beans will grow, beans will indeed grow. I am not pushing you hard because I want to live in comfort. The ideal these teachings allude to will not die, but will live on forever. What could be more precious than that?
You can return to your hometowns and plant pine trees or bamboo and make them into a green forest. If you lived in a village with quite a number of good people in it, I could give gifts to them. Even if your clan lived very far away, I could come there, visit you and your children and ask your clan to assemble in the village. We could throw a party and invite the district leaders, county magistrates or even the provincial governors to come. More than you could do, I would speak words of hope to them.
[1] Though Seoul now has a quarter of the Korean population, even members much younger than Father likely grew up in rural areas. As late as the 1970s, as Korean developed from an agricultural to an industrial society, Seoul was growing by 300,000 people per year.
[2] He defended Korea against Japanese invasion by sea in the sixteenth century.