Ep 866 - The Path of Life for All Humankind Part 7
The Path of Life for All Humankind - March 10, 2023
PDF Printable Text and Images + Testimony Rev. Neville Labrooy
Key Points
Because we will breathe love, not air, in the spiritual world, while still on earth we need to accumulate the fruits of love.
Specifically we need to accumulate actual achievements of loving our family (fulfilling the Four Great Realms of Heart and Three Great Kingships), of loving our neighbors (Cain), and of subjugating our enemies.
To enter heaven we need a “document of love” for our enemies from our archenemy, Satan.
We need to have earned that document in order to experience the heart of God and True Parents.
Loving Cain is training for loving one's enemy.
It is also the foundation to welcome the messiah, True Parents.
Through loving our enemies we shed our fallen nature, our vessel of love expands and our spiritual growth accelerates.
An enemy is the best teaching material for training us as a person of true love. So, we must thank God for him.
Abandoning rules and principles is not freedom, but indulgence, which results in destruction.
The principle of principles is the principle of true love. All beings are truly free within the universal law of true love.
There is freedom within the principle of creation.
The principle of creation does not include indulgence in self-centered thoughts and actions, which lead to ruin.
Faith begins with the firm belief that “I am God’s child. I belong to God.”
Our heart belongs to God, and we need to treat our body as his temple.
We should strive to be an object of joy and filial piety before heaven.
We should constantly live with the “spirit of worship” that lives with a heart of hyojeong to please God and those around us.
Because God cannot tolerate even 1% of evil, we need to constantly practice self-denial, seek to please others, communicate heartistically with them and pursue total harmony.
We should renew our mind and heart by differentiating right from wrong, not being governed by the environment, not living habitually, not being indifferent to people, and not doing anything out of a sense of obligation.
Rather we should live with a sincere, invested heart that values and creates joy for others.
Then we will foresee what is right and wrong in advance.
If we work hard and live with a new heart, we will be happy and proud of ourself.
Transcripts from November 3, 2021 to the present, personal notes from November 11, 2020 until November 2, 2021 and slides from August 29, 2021 to the present are available at MD.Hoondok.com as PDF files.♦
Today I’d like to talk about “The Path of Life for All Humankind” from True Mother’s Anthology, Book 2.
<This speech was given by Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon between February 11 and May 29, 1999 at events promoting the Global Expansion of True Families in Japan, the United States and around the world.>
Human life can be divided into three periods: life in the womb of about ten months, a physical life of about a hundred years, and life in the spirit world that lasts for eternity. If we look at our own face, we also see three stages: the mouth, the nose and the eyes. These reflect the three periods of our lives. The mouth symbolizes the period in the womb, which is a world of material. The nose symbolizes the period on earth, which is the world of humanity. The eyes symbolize the period in heaven, which is the spirit world. To the unborn child, the aquatic world of its mother's womb is a world of total freedom. Interestingly, although it is constrained within the confines of the womb, the fetus feels completely free. In the womb, it can't stretch its legs, and it relies on an umbilical cord to breathe and receive nutrients for survival. Its nose and mouth are both useless in that world. Nevertheless, to the baby, the world in the womb is one of complete freedom.
Would a baby in the womb say, “I can't wait until I get out into the world where I can eat all kinds of delicious things!” when it was time to be born? No. The opposite is the case. It would say, “Oh no! I don't want to leave!” However, even if the baby doesn't want to leave its mother's womb, when the time comes it has no choice. As the amniotic fluid flows out, the baby follows soon thereafter. This is what happens in a normal birth. As soon as the baby is born, it begins to cry. At the same time, it starts to breathe through its nose and becomes linked to the second world, the world of air.
As the baby leaves the womb to enter the world of air, the umbilical cord is discarded along with the amniotic sac and everything it needed in the world of the womb. With the destruction of these things, the baby is born into the bosom of its new mother, the planet Earth. Once born, the baby begins to eat with its mouth and breathe through its nose. The food we eat on earth nourishes our physical body, but it does not contain the essential element of life. This life element is nothing other than love. Thus, while we are in this world, we also need to breathe the air of love. We need to inhale this air of love from our mother and father.
Let’s summarize:
Human Beings were Created to Live in Three Worlds
Human beings were created to live in three worlds. Firstly, we spend around 10 months breathing water in our mother’s womb. Secondly, we spend perhaps one hundred years on earth breathing air, and lastly, we shed our physical bodies and live for eternity in the spirit world. Then, how can we breathe in the spirit world? We breathe love in the spirit world. Since the spirit world is indeed the world of love, we cannot live without love. Therefore, we need to live a life of accumulating our actual results of love on earth.
The Spirit World Requires Your Actual Achievement of True Love
Specifically what does the spiritual world require?
1. Actual achievement of loving our family.
> The four great realms of heart and the three great kingships.
Without experiencing the Four Great Realms of Heart and the Three Great Kingships we do not know God’s heart at all, we have no experience of God’s love at all. That is why we need to have the actual achievement of loving our family.
> The Kingdom of Heaven is not a place where one can go alone.
2. Actual achievement of loving our neighbors (Cain).
> Our spirit selves are supposed to grow through receiving love and by moving the hearts of others.
This is the second commandment: “Love your neighbor.” Father says we need to love our tribe. Everybody needs to have an actual achievement of loving their tribe. We have to be a tribal messiah and we need to vertically liberate our ancestors.
How much did we love Cain? When we go to the spiritual world, we need to bring the substantial result of having loved our Cain.
Number 3 is really challenging.
3. Actual achievement of loving our enemies.
> We need to subjugate our enemy.
Regarding this let’s study Father’s word.
If you Wish to go to the Kingdom of Heaven, you Must Obtain a Document of Surrender from THE Enemy (Satan)
If you wish to go to the Kingdom of Heaven, you must obtain a document of surrender from Enemy(Satan)). Without getting a document that proves you have loved even Enemy(Satan)), you cannot go to Heaven. Even though we could treat those who oppose us as enemies, we have to love them, which is an astonishing way of doing things. We have to love our enemies. We have to pray that they receive blessings. There is no other way. (48-317, 1971.9.26)- Cheon Seong Gyeong p. 724
If we do not have a document of loving our enemies, we cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Anyone loves a person who can be loved.
Loving Cain is the training to love one's enemy. If I, standing in the position of Abel, become one with Cains who are our enemies, the foundation to welcome True parents (Messiah) will be created. In other words, the foundation to welcome the Messiah is created.
The reason we still can't experience the heart of God and True Parents is because we lack the document of loving our enemies.
If we do not love our enemies, we must pay indemnity. This is because we can get rid of our fallen nature by loving our enemies. The more we love our enemies, the more our vessel of love expands and the more our spiritual growth accelerates.
Without loving our enemy, there is no way to remove our fallen nature. It is the best way to remove our fallen nature. Without loving our enemy, we cannot upgrade our spiritual level to another dimension. How much we love our enemy is how much we can remove our fallen nature.
The shortcut to perfecting our spirit self is to subdue the enemy naturally with love. In that respect, we must thank God for giving us an enemy. The enemy is the best teaching material for training us as a person of true love.
LIVING DIVINE PRINCIPLE: The Human Fall 26: The Meaning of Freedom from the Viewpoint of the Principle #1
Freedom and the Human Fall
• What is the meaning of true freedom? In light of the Principle, three characteristics of freedom stand out. First, there is no freedom outside the Principle.
• Freedom requires both free will and the free actions pursuant to that will.
• Free will and free actions have the relationship of internal nature and external form, and perfect free dom is achieved when they are in harmony.
• Therefore, there cannot be any free action with out free will, nor can free will be complete without free actions to accompany it.
• Free actions are generated by free will, and free will is an expression of the mind.
• The mind of an original, sinless person cannot operate outside of God’s words, that is, the Principle.
• It will never express free will or generate free action apart from the Principle.
• Undoubtedly, the freedom of a true person never deviates from the Principle.
• There is no freedom without responsibility.
• Human beings, created according to the Princi ple, can reach perfection only by fulfilling their res pon si bility based on their free will.
• Accordingly, a person pursuing the purpose of creation as prompted by his free will ceaselessly strives to carry out his portion of responsibility.
• There is no freedom without responsibility.
• There is no freedom without accomplishment.
• When human beings exercise freedom and carry out their responsibility, they strive to accomplish re sults which complete the purpose of creation and bring joy to God.
• Free will ceaselessly pursues concrete results through free actions.
Based on this let’s study Father’s word.
Freedom Cannot Exist Without Principles, Responsibility and Results
<182-111> Comparing this with a tree, there are big branches and small branches, and does a small branch say, “I bear no relation to a big branch”? Small branches are not safe and cannot decide their positions without big branches. They should be harmonized in all directions – east, west, north and south; when there are branches in the East, there must be branches in the West; when there are branches in the North, there must be branches in the South; there must be shoots and roots. In such a place, the freedom will be guaranteed. Do you understand? Otherwise, even if branches in the East look good, the tree cannot stand straight. It will be curved. Is it freedom that a tree grows? Is it its own purpose? Therefore, freedom cannot exist without the Principle and the responsibility. There should be good results in your action.
Trees determine their location by forming a reciprocal relationship between large branches and small branches, protecting each other, and harmonizing in the north, south, east, and west.
When there are branches in the East, there must be branches in the West; when there are branches in the North, there must be branches in the South; there must be shoots and roots.
In this way, the freedom of a tree is guaranteed when each branch, shoot, and root takes its place in the place (where) it is set. Freedom cannot exist outside the Principle.
Therefore, the freedom cannot exist without the Principle and responsibility. There should be good results in our action.
Leaving rules and principles is not freedom, but indulgence, which results in the destruction of everything. The Principle of principles is the principle of true love. All beings are truly free within the universal law of true love.
Freedom and Responsibilities as a Woman
<182-111> Even though there is a path that a woman goes, can she say “I will do what men do because I have freedom as a woman”? Women have no whiskers. Do women have the freedom to wear whiskers? If you say “I want to wear whiskers,” wear whiskers. It doesn’t work. That is the path of Principle. The path of Principle (is the path) that women have to go. What does the freedom mean? The menstruation cycle is once a month, isn’t it? If you say, “It’s a bother. I want to stop doing it”, you can try it. But, can you stop doing it? You have to follow the Principle. If you are a woman, you have to follow the Principle for a woman. Then, you have to take responsibility as a woman. As women’s breasts are big, they have responsibility to nourish babies. That is the freedom. The best freedom is to give birth to and nourish children. Those women who cannot give birth to children are half-paralytics. They don’t belong to women.
Women have principles to follow as women, and men have principles to follow as men. All of this must conform to the cosmic law of God's principle of creation.
Therefore, human beings must conform to God's principle of creation. There is freedom within the principle of creation. However, self-centered actions and thoughts that deviate from the principle of creation are not freedom, but self-indulgence. Indulgence only leads to ruin.
TODAY’S YOUTH MINISTRY: Renew Your Mind
The Fundamental Attitude and Start of Faith
1. The fundamental attitude of faith begins with treating ourselves as heavenly. We must treat ourselves not as us, but as children of God. That's why you shouldn't stick with the habits of your past. A new life of faith begins only when you treat yourself as the God's. Wherever you are, you must treat yourself as the God's. That becomes the first start of faith.
You must live by always confirming that you are the sons and daughters of heaven. In order to do that, you cannot take care of your habits or thoughts that you have had until this day.
If you are God's son or daughter, you should always be an object of joy in front of Heaven and True Parents. Wherever you go, you should be proud. Romans says, “You are a living sacrifice to God” (Rom 12:1). It means that it is not your mind, or your body, we belong to God. So you can't do whatever you want. Those who still do as they please are immature. You must make the parent-child relationship between God and you the foremost creed in your life. As long as you don't break away from this, you will begin to receive God's love.
Wherever we are, we should treat ourself as God's. That becomes the first start of faith. Believing that God is our irreplaceable parent and that we are God's irreplaceable child is the first step in faith.
Therefore, just as much as we believe that we are God's son or daughter, we must completely get rid of our thoughts and habits centered on the fallen nature of the past. We must absolutely deny ourselves in the past and have the conviction of absolute affirmation that we are the sons and daughters of God.
Therefore, if we are a son or daughter of God, we must always be determined to become an object of joy and filial piety in front of Heaven and True Parents, and we must be proud of our life wherever we go.
Romans says, “You are a living sacrifice to God” (Rom 12:1). It means that our heart must become God's and our body must become the holy body of God.
What is the first article of our life of faith? It is absolute faith that God is our parent and we are a child of God. As long as we do not deviate from this, we will begin to receive God's love. If we have this principle, we can't assert ourself and we can't do anything carelessly.
A Person Who Lives in Worship
2. You are not someone who can just do what you want. Now that we are all grown up, we must all become filial sons and filial daughters. You need to know that it is not you who will determine the course of your actions. Take a good look at your front, back, left and right; will your actions please God and those around you? Will those around you see your life and admit that you live a righteous life? You have to live by checking this all the time. This is a true believer, a person who lives in the spirit of worship. A person who has the spirit of worship is someone who always checks whether or not their actions cause concern to those around them. After living such a life, you have to attend Sunday worship services. If a person who has led a self-indulgent life centered on themselves attends worship services, that person is a hypocrite. What is the spirit of worship? It is the spirit that says “I am my father’s child,” “I am my father’s." So, you must be a person who has kept these teachings of True Parents in your heart. You are the ones who should make True Parents happy. Go further and become people who bring joy to those around you. Those who cannot do this become the living proof that they are self-indulgent.
The faith that confesses God as our parent and ourself as God's child takes a good look at the front, back, left, and right, and lives by always checking whether God and those around us will be pleased with our actions.
What is the spirit of worship? It is the spirit that says, “I am my father’s child,” “I am my father’s." This is a true believer, a person who lives in the spirit of worship. People who live in the spirit of worship always live in the spirit of hyojeong.
We must live with the spirit of worship on a daily basis and attend Sunday worship services with a record of love and joy. If a person who has led a self-indulgent life centered on themselves attends worship services, that person is a hypocrite.
We are the ones who should make True Parents happy. Those who cannot do this become the living proof that they are self-indulgent.
I Should Exist for the Joy of the Whole
3. There was a flood judgment of Noah. God left only those who believed in and obeyed Him, leaving all the rest of the self-indulgent people to be judged. The lesson learned from Noah's judgment is that God was a God who only wanted to have people who had a parent-child relationship with Him, lived good lives and showed joy living on earth. It is the same in our family. Even in a family, we want the children to not become the object of concern for their parents. The parents really hope that the whole family can live a happy life. It is not only God, but also our hearts today want to live in an environment where the whole can rejoice. In order to do that, you cannot please the people around you by doing your own thing and asserting yourself. So, if you want to please the people around you, you have to communicate with them heartistically. If you insist and assert, you will deviate from the quest for total harmony. When you see something like that, don't you know that you can't just think about yourself? Those who worried their parents in the past cannot hear the Word in their hearts even when they try to listen. People who engage in self-indulgent behavior, people who affirm themselves a lot, and people who have strong self-doubt do not feel the circumstances and feelings of the subject. To those people, the Word of God does not touch their hearts. That's always a problem.
What we can know from Noah's judgment on the flood is that God left only those who believed in (him) and obeyed, and all the rest of the self-indulgent people were judged. As an absolute being, God cannot compromise even 1% with evil.
In the Old Testament, God educated the Israelites to believe in only God absolutely. In some sense he was an absolute dictator. Of course, we cannot (normally) use this kind of language. He was an absolute dictator centered on true love and goodness.
God does not want to see even 1% of satanic elements in us. He wants human beings to become 100% God's.
In that sense, God is an absolute being centered on goodness. Therefore, we cannot do whatever we want and cannot assert our own opinion. We can't please those around me if we keep asserting our point. So, if we want to please the people around us, we have to communicate with them heartistically.
If we insist and assert, we will deviate from the quest for total harmony. When we see something like that, don't we know that we can't just think about ourself?
I realized about self denial: how can we create harmony and unity? We need to deny ourself and really respect the other person’s opinion, even if it does not seem principled. We need to put our object partner first. That means we have to be silent and try to serve and attend him first with our utmost sincerity. If something is wrong, God will guide him.
In the family relationship between husband and wife, why are there often problems? Because we insist on our opinion; we assert ourself. That is the issue. We need to think that we do not exist. “I do not exist. I want to live for and serve my spouse.” If we practice that way for three or four months, our lifestyle will surely change. So will our object partner. Because we always asserted our opinion, that was a problem. That cannot create harmony.
Father often spoke about salt. It dissolves in the water and appears like nothing. But then the water has the taste of salt. There is no name of father or mother, no child’s name. Everybody becomes like salt that dissolves in water and only (becomes a) taste. We need to become like salt. It appears not to exist but shows (up) as taste.
In this way we can create harmony and unity.
Only Renew Your Mind
4. Romans 12:2 says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” How can I renew my mind? You must first distinguish between right and wrong in your life, and then you will gain a new heart. You cannot find a new heart in a place where you say, "I'm not honorable," "I'm not proud," or "I'm ashamed." We must find a new heart. If we do not want to imitate this generation, we must first be good at judging right and wrong. And don't imitate or do the wrong thing. This means that you should not become a person who is governed by circumstances. It means not to live habitually. It means not being indifferent to people. It means not doing the work compulsorily. It is a new mind that has a heart that gives more jeongsong, a heart that invests more, a heart that values people, a heart that wants to live more proudly, and a heart that will create joy for others. This kind of heart must always come from my shimjeong.
If You Live with a New Heart, You Will Have a Premonition
5. You will always live proudly with a new heart. Only when you have a new heart can you discern good from evil, know right from wrong, know what to worry about and what not to worry about, and foresee what you will be proud of and what you will not be proud of. Our minds are wired to foresee. If you live with a new heart, you already know before you act. “This will worry your parents,” “The school will be worried.” If you live with a new heart, Heaven will inform you in advance and you can discern good from evil. It is not knowing after taking action, but knowing what is right and wrong in advance. If you work hard with a new heart, you will be happy and proud.
How Do We Live with A New Heart?
[Romans 12:2]
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
1. First of all, if we do not want to imitate this generation, we must be able to differentiate right and wrong.
2. Do not imitate the wrong thing. We should not be a person who is governed by the environment.
3. Do not live habitually.
4. Do not be indifferent towards people.
Do not ignore people, yellow, black or white. Do not be indifferent to them.
5. Do not do the job obligatorily.
Don’t do anything by force. We need to do things voluntarily and heartistically.
6. Live with a more sincere heart, a more invested heart, a heart that values people, a heart that wants to live more proudly, and a heart that will create joy for others.
You need to make an effort. Otherwise, we cannot create our new heart.
7. Let our hearts come from our shimjeong.
8. If we live with a new heart, we know how to distinguish between good and evil, and we will foresee what is right and wrong in advance.
9. If we live with a new heart, we know in advance what is right and wrong, not what we know after we act.
10. If we work hard and live with a new heart, we will be happy and proud of ourself.
(Testimony Neville Labrooy, Activities in Bellingham, WA)♦
NOTE: This text and the PowerPoint slides from this speech are available as a link at the top of this text. Transcripts from November 3, 2021 to the present, personal notes from November 11, 2020 until November 2, 2021 and slides from August 29, 2021 to the present are available at MD.Hoondok.com as PDF files. Books of the transcripts and notes are available as PDFs at MDBooks.Hoondok.com.
This lightly edited transcript may contain errors and omissions. Indecipherable, inaudible or uncertain words and guesses are tagged with a “(?)” and indecipherable phrases, with an ellipsis “...”. First, second and third person pronouns have been left as spoken if the meaning is clear, and other apparently Korean English expressions have been preserved if understandable. Some repeated phrases have been eliminated.
Audio only is available at anchor.morndev.com, spotify.morndev.com & audio.morndev.com. Notes or transcripts of Dr. Yong’s Morning Devotion speeches from November 11, 2020 through March 29, 2022 are available as six paperback books at cost at Lulu.com/Shop -- search for Dr. Chung Sik Yong -- and as PDF downloads free of charge at MDBooks.Hoondok.com.♦