These words come from Father’s speech to members on the 45th anniversary of the founding of HSA-UWC, May 1, 1999, which was also the 39th anniversary of True Parents’ Holy Wedding, held at Belvedere International Training Center, USA.
The title of this book, Hoon Gyo Kyung means the teaching of the way of filial piety [Father is introducing a new two-volume book for Hoon Dok Hae]. The original relationship between Heavenly Father and humankind is one of parent and children. The 72 speeches in these books will guide you on the way of becoming filial sons and daughters. I selected these 72 speeches not only for our church members but also for world leaders. Anyone who has this book can guide the world leadership.
Have you bought the three hundred volumes of Father’s speeches? If you have those original texts, your descendants will be proud that their ancestors bought these extremely important books in Father’s time. The only way to understand the deep, broad and high contents of Father’s life, character and personality is by studying these texts. Father’s word is like a tower of light in the darkness of Satan’s world.
America is now in a fearful position. Those who choose to go the easy way will lose everything. White people may be proud of the authority they have enjoyed in the past, but if they choose an easy way rather than the more difficult way, if they do not study and practice hard, they will decline, while black and yellow people who are quietly studying hard will be lifted up. After ten years, or a hundred years the situation will be turned upside down. The easy-going way is the way of decline, while the result of working hard will be to end up in the Kingdom of Heaven, and occupying God.
Why we need Father’s words
You have to read Father’s books seriously. You need to find out how to occupy all their contents. No matter how beautiful a content has been taught by others, it does not compare with the serious contents taught by True Parents. No matter how many Unification members disappear, the books will remain. A revival and new start can take place at any time. No matter how difficult it is, God’s living power is behind, pushing upward. You have to study, researching God’s deepest level of knowledge, connecting with that high-level value. The most powerful thing is God’s true love, the core of God’s being.
Do you like Father? First you have to like my words. Then you should be fascinated by and love my attitude to life, which encompasses my thought. Before loving Father you have to love Father’s thought. You have to thoroughly understand the basis upon which a great man has lived. You have to thoroughly understand my thought, my life and my words before coming to understand and perhaps later love me also.
Today’s topic is “Cham Pumonim-eui Malssum Kachi: The Value of True Parents’ Words.” How much have you understood these words and their value? Without having read all three hundred volumes thoroughly, how can you understand Father? Without such a foundation, I don’t think you can listen to my sermons and understand them. Do you go to college and listen to the professor and understand him instantly without studying? No. I spoke many of these words fifty years ago. I am now teaching the world the same things I have taught you.
Who is the most earnest, ardent observer and advocate of Hoon Dok Hae? [Father.] I am always checking to see if I have taught something that I have not done myself. I am listening now to what I have spoken over the past fifty years, checking for the last time to see if I have fallen short of what I said. Have I taken any action that is contrary to the words I have spoken? [No.] In this case, do I have to follow my books or do they have to follow me? It means I myself do not have to be here all the time. What about you? Do you say, “Oh Father, I would rather follow you than your books.” Is that possible? You have to first study and follow the teachings in those books and then follow Father. Even if you lose sight of Father you have to go back to the books and follow them.
You have to transcend the three hundred volumes of books. We can too easily say “Unification Church members, family members.” What do you mean? Who are the family members? Who are the ones who have embraced this, gone beyond this and followed Father? You say you love and like Father. You do, don’t you? [Yes!] Can you really love and follow Father without having gone through this first? You have to go step by step over each rung on the ladder, so to speak, and then follow and love Father in the truest sense.
Now is the time when men of perfection may spring up here and there on the earth. Father’s task now is to prepare heaven for these people to be connected with it.
Understand the value of these celebrations
Today is May 1, which this year happens to be the day of observance of three anniversaries. First of all, it is the fortieth celebration of True Parents’ holy wedding. What kind of path have I walked during these almost forty years? Did I just pass the days in an easy way? How much tribulation have I suffered? How much have I done and how much have you connected with each event that occurred during those forty years?
With regard to the work of a great scholar, it is commonplace in the academic world for other scholars to discuss even one key word of his school of thought. It matters a great deal how one key concept is interpreted. What about you seminary students? Have you read all of your professors’ writings? For scholars it is an everyday thing to read a work in its original language. Isn’t that true? You say yes so readily, but many no’s are hiding right behind you!
It is also 45 years today since the founding of the Unification Church. Have you studied the 45 years of the church’s history since its founding? With how many of those years are you familiar? How can you say then that you have come here to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the founding? This is a tremendous feasting day, a tremendous blessing day and tremendously proud day. Are you attending here without really understanding? You must thoroughly understand what Father went through. You can come to understand those parts we do not know by reading about and becoming familiar with them. Then on that foundation you can come to celebrate this anniversary with Father.
You do not know or understand Father deeply. Please start as soon as possible to go through all 300 books, beginning with Volume One. Unless you do, how can you call yourself a Unification Church member? They contain all that will ensure you a peaceful and prosperous life for eternity. Be a wise Unification Church member. Don’t say, “Oh, I haven’t read that.” Of a sister who is the most beautifully decorated with make-up, God and I cannot say, “Oh, that’s my daughter.” Rather, of the one who is very anxiously doing her very best to read all 300 volumes in order to understand the universe, God and I can say, “This is my daughter. Now she is the embodiment of my words.” Father is looking for that kind of person.
This is the American church, but I see more Oriental faces than Western here. Is that a good or bad sign? Why don’t you chase all the Oriental faces away from here? You can if you outperform them, but don’t you see that there is something to the Orientals? They are higher somehow in their religious quality, we might say. Are you confident that you can catch up with the Oriental religious standard? [Yes!]
Can you surpass the Japanese members? When Japanese members come to America and are fasting, eating less and working harder for longer hours for the sake of this country, whereas American members are playing longer and working less, what will the future of this country be? Do you think America will prosper or perish? American members may think, “Well that is your lifestyle, not ours. We don’t fast; there is plenty to go around. And we have to enjoy ourselves and take vacations.” That is like the grasshopper who says, “Well it’s such a beautiful day, why don’t you sing while you can, and eat while you can?” Then there are the Japanese who are like ants, having very narrow waists because they work so hard and do not eat so much. Who will have the better future, the ants or the grasshoppers? It is serious, because unless you work hard and raise your standard, soon the cold winter will come and the only way will be for you to die. Every single month the Japanese members offer a donation. American members do not understand that standard. This offering should not be made because you feel I am demanding it, but because you understand why you should offer it, and that it is something good for you.
America cannot fail
These Japanese members are guests in this country. American members have not taken such good care of the Japanese members who came. You are indebted to them. When the time comes they will leave America and leave it empty. Now that you know this are you going to be outdone by the Japanese sisters or are you going to go ahead of them? Those who say they will get ahead and do better, stand up. Those who are standing, are you going to be outdone by the Japanese members or outperform them? [Outperform them!] All you need is to do just a little better than them. Those of you who can seriously pledge to do this, raise your hands. Unless you do, there is no assurance for this nation. The Japanese have come here and worked so hard, in a country that is not even their own. For your own country you have to do much better. So you have promised.
America cannot fail. Why? Because America is in the elder son’s position. It is like the inheritance of a responsibility. Those who welcome this transition, say “yes.” [Yes!] I will register your yes in my memory.
Now is the time for husband and wife to serve together, for example as president of a university. We will see now that “parentism” will become increasingly visible, because the spirit world is like that. If a man is the president of a company, his wife is also. The wife of a company president will connect all the wives of its employees together. The owner of a household or a company is the parent. All the assets and property also belong to the children. All categories of organization will stand in the same way. It means the leader of a nation is also in the position of a parent and its citizens in the position of children, and they will be absolutely one in love and give and take. From now on the world will move in that way. You will see. All relationships with those around us, our neighbors, those sitting at our side, will be that of brothers, just like physical brothers. The one who is older will of course be the elder brother. If there are three or more people, one is bound to be the center of that group in the parent’s position. The others have to listen to, obey and respect that person absolutely. This standard of relationship transcends knowledge, or whatever background people have. Of course you might say you don’t know this for sure now, but don’t you think it is likely to be this way in the spirit world? If of two men one is a professor and the other something else, and a third person is a woman, the two men would serve the woman naturally just as they would serve their own mothers, with absolute faith, love and obedience. The one who is even one day older than another is the older brother, even if the other person is a Ph.D. In the spirit world there is no need for Ph.D, however. The one who is deep in heart can be a Ph.D. in heart. God is the king of Ph.Ds of the heart.
[Father calls Mrs. “General” Young Soon Kim and her husband to the stage.] This couple has three children. If they are asked which of their children has the highest spirit, the consensus is that it is their youngest daughter. She is doing the best in Hoon Dok Hae, in going to church, leading the whole family in everything in its religious life. She often advises her father and mother not to do something, or to do something better. In this situation, no matter how young she may be she is in the motherly role in that family, and the mother will serve her as a mother. They will practice the real Principle, a pattern of life of absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. That is the way a family should be.
This is a very important point. Even though it is just a little bit higher, we have to propagate the highest standard in religious attitudes. The household that continues to do so will never perish. But a family that ignores this and lives a poorer sort of scenario will have no chance in the future. So when you greet one another in the morning, you almost have to say “good morning, sir” to your own son whose standard is higher than yours. In the spirit world this is natural. Everyone does this without thinking twice. So we should do this here also. That way wherever you go Satan cannot come near you.
Absolute obedience means having no concept—zero concept. It comes from complete selflessness. I exist, but I do not exist, otherwise I cannot obey. It is like matter waiting to be recreated. This is not my own idea. It is the law existing in the spirit world.
Father dedicates his mind, his effort, to God
Was it right or wrong of Father to initiate Hoon Dok Hae? Hoon Dok Hae is so vitally important, because without understanding these teachings, we do not exist. Those who inherit everything will be those who go through this, understand it and master it.
As head or president of an organization we have to go in earlier, leave later and become the example for that organization. When this principle is really put into practice, efficiency will increase so that 50 percent of today’s public workers would no longer be needed. Who set the rule at working eight hours a day? It certainly was not God, it was Satan. Does God rest? [No.] How much hard work God is doing! Did I lead an easy life for eighty years resting all the time or was I working hard? How old am I? Wherever I go I am out to learn about anything and everything that crosses my path. If I go to a meadow where a small boy is working, I am fascinated and learn about what he is doing. There is nothing we lose by learning. We have to learn throughout our lives. For three days I will watch and talk with the boy and learn how the cows behave, how to ride a cow without falling, all these small things I learn about and actually do. You should learn about things too. If you do this as a habit wherever you go, then within three years you become the center of that society.
If the true value of Father’s words, of the three hundred volumes, was understood then nations would fight to get them. Do you think this is an exaggeration? I foretold what would happen to Communism, did I not? What do you think about America’s future? Do you think it is an exception? Now The Washington Times is getting a reputation as an amazing newspaper, and its capability is understood by all the political parties.
Now that the time has come when there are signs of welcoming Father, I move in such a way that I do not want to stay here any longer. I feel it is about the time for me to leave America. When I leave, probably I will go to the highest mountain in the Himalayas and just close the door, not allowing anyone to come and meet me except maybe those who can come barefoot. Barefoot means bear’s foot. Whoever has a bear’s feet can climb anywhere, no problem. (Laughter.) If the only way to come see me is by going barefoot, would you come to see me or not? In certain places I have been in Africa and South America everyone is walking barefoot. So now I am practicing going around barefoot too. Those who say they will do away with their shoes and go barefoot to the top of the Himalayas just to meet me, those who are inspired like that, raise your hands. I don’t believe eighty percent of you! Maybe not more than two out of one hundred Americans would come barefoot to me.
Democracy is a system of pragmatism, isn’t it? Where there is no profit to be had nothing is done. Pragmatism is not the ideal. Individualism and privacy are actually not godly, but more like the enemy of God. I say so many things that go against American ears, but I am saying this because it is true. Unification Church marriage is not characterized by getting married just as you want, but is arranged by your parents. It is the parents’ responsibility to bequeath all their good assets to their children.
I see everyone as a daughter, or a sister, as sons, as princes and princesses of God. I regard everyone of you in this way. I feel my responsibility is to educate you as best as I can so that one day I can dedicate you to God. All of us are God’s one family. My mind is set completely in that direction. Am I living in this way, or trying to use and entice you for my own benefit?
We are observing a third anniversary today. Twenty-five years ago today I proclaimed a day to do away with God’s han, or resentment (Seung Han Il, Day of Victory Over Resentment)—so that God could be free of all han and regret toward the world.
The value of father’s words
I encourage you from now on, whether I am here or not, to bring all your Christian friends and other people from society every Sunday to attend Hoon Dok Hae. When Hoon Dok Hae in Belvedere has gained a good reputation, the number attending every Sunday will increase. When I hear that news maybe I will come to speak again. But when the opposite is the case and only a few people gather, then even if I am staying at East Garden or even at the Belvedere Main House, I will not come to speak. The reason I come here to speak is not for myself, it is for the church, for America and for the world. I have covered all areas, but I am still speaking in order to give you love.
Soon I have to go to South America for the launching ceremony of two 7,000-ton fishing boats with the capacity to catch 600 tons of krill a day. Many key people representing the fishery industry will attend this ceremony. I will also meet Mother there. Is it because I miss Mother that I am going, or because Mother misses me that she is going there? (Laughter.) Mother will say, “Please come, please come, please come,” and that is why I go.
The contents of the three hundred volumes of books were given in such a nice, smooth flow of well-organized discourse. It is not just fragments of thought put together. Do you think that came easily? I had to invest fully, not only physically but mentally, when no one could see. Do you think Satan or God taught these things to me? Neither taught me. I had to discover this thought. Because humankind fell out of ignorance, I had to start from the position of ignorance, grow in knowledge and then gain the approval of God. If this thought had been introduced in Jesus’ time all the educated rabbis and other Israelites would have served Jesus well. But they were left in the dark—as was the rest of the world—and it was left to me to discover this knowledge.
Who is going to be the middleman to make peace between God and Satan in their discord? It was Adam’s responsibility to gain this knowledge. God could not teach him nor tell him what to do. Satan made all kinds of noise when I came up with the truth, but when I pushed forward, confident that it was correct, Satan had to retreat. Satan retreated many, many times. Then, and only then, would God embrace me. Then God and I together would extend our frontier further and further out. I have moved forward to such an extent that the gates of hell in the spirit world are now open. Do you believe this? Of course one sure way to find out if this is true or not is by going to the spirit world!
Now is the time that the people of the good spirit world can come down. If their descendants are not worthy they will come and chastise them—your own ancestors, those who have been liberated and blessed, will do this to you. If you are good they will give you praise, but if you are bad they will punish you immediately.
If you go to the spirit world without knowledge of this teaching, there will be so many challenges to meet. In other words, they will not let you pass. It means you will remain confined in the territory we call hell. You will not be able to move. No matter how many times you read the Bible, unless you are thoroughly familiar with Father’s teachings you will not be able to enter.
All human beings have to know the Kingdom of God. It will be an orderly life. Just as you have orderliness in life here on earth, in the universe, also, everything has to be done in an orderly way.
Those of you who say you have to buy the three hundred volumes to keep and read, raise your hands. Would you buy the Korean text or the English text. Both probably, but in which order? [The Korean first.] I myself bow down before my own teachings of fifty years ago. I am so thankful to God now that when I prayed to God and spoke, God was so close and I could speak so clearly. It was such a serious life and death situation then. Even now, when I become serious I go back to that highest peak of seriousness in 1957.
You cannot help but cry, with tears rolling down, when you read Father’s words. Now, in 1999, I feel the same spiritual assistance that I experienced fifty years ago. That is why tears roll down when you read these words. Your hearts are moved by the Holy Spirit, by God Himself. That is the experience you need. That is the only way you grow spiritually. We have to understand the value of this. If you read ten books a day, after that you have to really try to read more deeply. You should be the champion of reading fast, but also of reading deeply. When the late Rev. Eu, president of HSA-UWC of Korea, read the manuscript of Divine Principle I wrote, he read and read and dozens of pages were soaked with tears because he wept so profusely.
There are 72 titles in this new work, but if you take just one subject it will be enough to gauge the problems of the world today and identify their solution. Be absolutely confident that in place of Father himself physically, these words will protect all humankind for the rest of history to come. You have to master this, to march through it before you yourselves can reach the position of true parents.