Ep 578 - Training Period to Mature Our Hearts and Spirituality Part 3
Training Period to Mature our Heart and Spirituality - May 26, 2022
Even though I am a very busy guy, I really try to read again the one-hour EDP lecture manual. I am really inspired! The word gives us incredible stimulation. I realize again and again, the word is really life and love. It is so powerful.
Now the Clifton Church goal is to encourage at least 1,200 members to finish reading the one-hour EDP reading condition. Now many people are reading here and there and going back to the early church spirit.
The leader needs to originate. When you learn thoroughly and go back to the original point, then I am telling you, you can get God’s incredible guidance. I am so inspired to read the EDP content every day.
Today I’d like to talk about the “Training period to mature our heart and spirituality” from True Mother’s Anthology, Book 1.
The spirit world, which had been dark until now, is brightening up thanks to the liberation of your ancestors, which is possible through the great works of CheongPyeong and Daemonim. You must liberate all of your ancestors. You must also guide and educate those to whom you witness to liberate their ancestors. Only when this is done will the dark spirit world become brighter. When you advance in unity with True Parents, the entire spirit world will be with you. This is what our Heavenly Parent and True Parents are hoping for. It is also your present responsibility. (2013.08.31, Cheon Jeong Gung)
As we work toward opening the Cheon Il Guk era, you must stand in a position of having fulfilled your respective responsibilities. You must become one with True Parents through spirit and truth and through the three holy Cheon Il Guk Scriptures. You should be able to cultivate yourself according to the standard of absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. I am saying you should offer conditions. Just as Daemonim did, you should offer conditions and thus advance yourselves. Therefore, if you live in accordance with the way True Parents lived, you will automatically come to attend True Parents. Wherever True Parents go, you will also be with them. You will not need anyone's help. From this perspective, you have the CheongPyeong Training Center to guide you, since you still have no experience and have much to learn. From now on, your families must resolve their own situations through the programs at the CheongPyeong Training Center (2015.02.21, Cheon Jeong Gung)
Based on this, let’s study Father’s word about Dae Mo Nim.
<265-010, 1994.11.07> Dae Mo Nim is the one who paved the way for Mother to come out of difficult times alone through undergoing the competitive environment of complicated grandmothers and bride qualifications, reaping the grace and course that Mother had to inherit. Dae Mo Nim made unforgettable contributions toward Mother's history. Whenever Mother gave birth to a child, Dae Mo Nim offered more devotion for that child than anyone else. She was a representative mother who, as long as she was alive, served True Parents' family with one heart and one mind, for which reason she was bestowed the name Daemo (Great Mother). In addition, she invested herself fully in offering devotion, so I presented her with the calligraphy, "Choong Shim Bong Cheon ,"meaning "Heart of Loyalty and Service to Heaven.“ Because there is such a deep content, when I look at the contents that can be exhibited in the memorial hall with such permission, I am deeply moved. (cont.)
Even after passing into the spirit world, Dae Mo Nim is continuing her work, together with Heung Jin, as a representative of the various parts of the spirit world. Therefore, if you offer sincere devotion as well, you can be connected to Christian believers centered on Dae Mo Nim, Heung Jin and Jesus in the spirit world, or even other saints. Dae Mo Nim is playing the role of such a bridge. If possible, since I dedicated this memorial to Heaven in the hope that people who have come to this memorial hall offering sincere devotion can pass on such traditions and use this place appropriately to create a foundation for a life of faith in the future. Therefore, since Dae Mo Nim directly established a relationship with the physical world through you, as it grows, the ground for mobilizing numerous spirits to cooperate in the physical world behind the stage of activities will grow even more. When you look at it like this, I know that how much sincere devotion you put in will make a great contribution to the development of the Unification Church in the future.
Among Dae Mo Nim’s Three Great Contributions and works, the first is fulfilling her responsibility of standing in the position of a nanny and bringing up True Mother very well as the only begotten daughter and (to prepare) her (for) the Holy Wedding with True Father.
Second, she fulfilled her responsibility as a great mother in bringing up the True Children of True Parents, and she completely dedicated herself and offered utmost sincerity for the True Family.
Thirdly, she became one with Heung Jin Nim in the spirit world and created a channel connecting the physical world and spiritual world, opening the doors for our ancestors’ liberation ceremony and Blessing ceremony. Dae Mo Nim is truly the model of our faith.
I am truly grateful to Daemo nim. Because of her and of our Heung Jin Nim’s cooperation, all our ancestors can be liberated and receive the blessing. This is incredible.
How can she become such a royal person? While here on the earth, she did her best. After passing away and going to the spiritual world she did her best to help God’s providence, including the earthly providence.
How can we become like this? Even after passing away and going to the spiritual world, how can we really help with the connection between the physical and spiritual world.
That is her unimaginable loyalty and filial heart. This is one of the great lessons we need to learn from Dae Mo Nim.
LIVING DIVINE PRINCIPLE: The Principle of Creation 50 - The Indirect Dominion and the Human Portion of Responsibility
This is very important. The principle of the human portion of responsibility and God’s portion of responsibility is very important. That is why I remind you (about it) again and again based on our True Parents’ guidance. When we think about the human portion of responsibility, “Oh, I need to fulfill the 5% portion of responsibility.” That is fine. But we need to think as a co-creator how to cooperate together with God. This is an important issue.
The Reason for Human Responsibility
• God endowed human beings with a portion of responsibility for the following reason:
• By fulfilling their given portion of responsibility, with which even God does not interfere, human beings are meant to inherit the creative nature of God and participate in God’s great work of creation.
• God intends human beings to earn ownership and become worthy to rule over the creation as creators in their own right, just as God governs over them as their Creator.
• This is the principal difference between human beings and the rest of creation.
Human Responsibility Seen from the Heart of a Parent
If you have given birth to children and have raised them, you will understand. You may want to receive some luck or blessing, or feel happiness through those children whom you have been taking care of. And you may even want to leave behind some happiness with your children if there is a standard of happiness and fortune.
Motherly love, the exquisite motherly love that you feel when your child is at your breast, the love which makes you able to ignore the smell of poo and pee, that is the heart of a parent.
Any parent has the desire to sing a lullaby at the bedside of their child, hoping their children will grow up well. If even fallen parents have this kind of desire, what kind of desire do you think God will have?
The Reason God Gave a Portion of Responsibility to Human Beings
Responsibility is God's Gift and Favor toward Human Beings. God loves humankind and gives them their responsibility with the best love and authority in the world. God is all-knowing and all-powerful, an immortal subject of love, and he gives us our portion of responsibility in order that He can put us into that equivalent position. This is a condition of the great fortune and a kind of key to the whole thing, so this is what has to be given. But you should be aware that you are fallen because the portion of responsibility has become a problem. < June 9, 1968, Japan>
You should understand that God’s giving human beings (their) portion of responsibility is the best gift and blessing to human beings. When humans fulfill their portion of responsibility, He sets us up as co-creators and makes us the owners of all things and gives us the glory of ruling over everything in the world.
In other words, when human beings fulfill their responsibility, God gives human beings the authority to have dominion over all of the world and the best love.
As great as the responsibility of human beings (is), when fulfilling that responsibility, there will be the best glory, gift and blessing; however, if you fail to fulfill that responsibility, there will be great disaster and wrath in proportion to great blessings. Once again, if you fulfill your responsibility, it is glory; if you fail, it is death.
It is said that if you do not eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you will fulfill your portion of responsibility and rise to the position of the Lord, but if you do not fulfill your responsibility and eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you will surely die. The portion of responsibility is this serious. Therefore, our destiny is to surely fulfill our portion of responsibility. If you do not fulfill your responsibility, the price and indemnity you must pay will be great in proportion to that.
In this way, to fulfill your portion of responsibility depends on life and death.
Look at Adam’s family.
Because they could not fulfill their portion of responsibility, all of humankind has been suffering. Not only that. Even God could not completely restore all human beings.
When Noah (and his family) could not fulfill the Foundation of Substance, how much Heavenly Father had to suffer and wait many long years for another central figure.
When Abraham could not fulfill his portion of responsibility when he set up a condition to establish the Foundation of Faith, his descendants had to pay a 430-year indemnity course. Can you imagine?
Our portion of responsibility depends on life and death. We have to be very serious. If we don’t have our portion of responsibility we have nothing to do. As long as (we have) our own portion of responsibility, we need to fulfill (it), no matter what. If I don’t fulfill (it), all of my portion of responsibility will go to my descendants. Even God needs to bear the cross instead of me. Can you imagine? That is why you and I, no matter what, need to work really hard to fulfill our portion of responsibility. That is our destiny.
Nobody can avoid this portion of responsibility, right? Once we fulfill our portion of responsibility, we can become co-creators, owners of true love. Then unimaginable blessings, a kind of benefit from heaven (will come to us). It is not a simple job, but we cannot avoid this.
Even if we die, we cannot avoid it. We will still need to come (back) to the earth. We need to fulfill our portion of responsibility. If we fail, then we need to restore and pay and complete everything some day. We cannot avoid it. Our destiny is to fulfill our portion of responsibility, no matter what, not simply by force or out of duty but happily and joyfully. This is our destiny.
Many people do not know the meaning of responsibility and the meaning of our portion of responsibility. The Divine Principle is a great discovery about the human portion of responsibility. Without (understanding the) human portion of responsibility, we cannot understand why God’s providence is prolonged again and again. We cannot understand why God needed to suffer again and again, why True Father had to go to jail six times, why Jesus had to be crucified.
We cannot understand this without understanding the human portion of responsibility. No one clearly explained the meaning of history. The Divine Principle contains incredible things. (True Father) discovered the human portion of responsibility and God’s portion of responsibility. God and human beings have a common destiny. If you fail, I will fail. If you have a great success, I will have great success. We have a common portion of responsibility between God and me.
How can we divide the relationship between mind and body, between God and me? They are inseparable and cannot be divided.
(Similarly), you and I are brothers and sisters. Even if you fulfill your portion of responsibility, as long as your brother or sister cannot fulfill their responsibility, your mission is not yet complete. That is why God’s concept of salvation is what? It is not (about) one person fulfilling his portion of responsibility. Everybody without exception has to fulfill it. That is why God is talking about total salvation without missing even one guy because he is my brother, she is my sister, you are my father, my mother. We have a common destiny, a common responsibility.
That is why we talk about one great family under God. We are not just thinking about your portion of responsibility. “Oh, I will try to fulfill my own portion of responsibility.” Do not think only of your portion of responsibility. How can we go together, work together, cooperate, because we have a common destiny?
“OK, I fulfilled my portion of responsibility and registered for Cheonbo Won.” So what? Why did you only fulfill your portion of responsibility? Based on your responsibility, you need to help others. We cannot rest. As long as my brothers and sisters have not fulfilled their portion of responsibility, we cannot rest. Even God cannot rest.
We need to have the same heart and truly embrace our brothers and sisters. “Your job is my job. Your responsibility is my responsibility. Your problem is my problem.” When we create that kind of heart, cultivate that heart within our own family, then our Unification Church can grow up.
Now sometimes I can see Unification Church style selfishness. We cannot do that. We are the ones talking about heart, but we cannot create that kind of environment. We cannot cultivate that kind of heart. What are you talking about? A small Kingdom of Heaven, a national Kingdom of Heaven?
Let’s be serious about our own portion of responsibility – not only me. How can we cooperate together? How can we help each other? How can we recognize each other? The Kingdom of Heaven is based on Godism. What is that? Togetherism.
When we think of our portion of responsibility, do we think only of ourself? “How can I fulfill CheonBo Won?” Me. Me. Me. My couple. My family. My children. This becomes very cold. We do not know how to share our heart. I worry about our movement. It becomes colder and colder. We cannot do this. What I learned from True Parents is that the world of the heart is not like that. When we work together, we have more power, more energy.
TODAY’S YOUTH MINISTRY: The Most Important Values of the Unification Church
1.The traditional Korean culture has the nature of considering vertical love to be more important than horizontal love. Even when a man and woman marry, there are many cases when the parents become the center and arrange a marriage. The marriage culture is always centered on the parents. However, in the western society, such parent-child relationships are all severed. Recently, even the Korean society is gradually flowing towards a self-centered culture. It is difficult to find the beautiful vertical culture of Korea. Now Eastern society can no longer criticize Western society. Because such vertical culture is slowly disappearing, and everything is flowing towards a selfish, self-centered culture. That is why we who were educated by True Parents must become the center and establish the standard of the beautiful vertical culture of children being filial to their parents.
2.People who become parents should teach their children the culture of filial piety, but if that does not happen, even if the parents and child live together, the child is like an orphan. Today, children growing under the care of their parents are all like orphans who do not know parental love. As parents, they do not know how to educate their children. As the culture gradually flows horizontally, the sexual culture becomes very disturbing. They engage in sexual relationships like drinking water when thirsty. Today’s ethics have become that way. To have true sexual relationships, you must know how to be patient and the heart of respecting and serving each other centered on original nature must become the foundation. However, if you just follow physical desires without the heart of love and heart of respect, that love will definitely break. Sexual relationships without love and respect can only go so far.
Who is an orphan? A child without parents is not an orphan. In a Principled perspective, regardless of whether or not they have parents, a person who does not properly receive parental love is called an orphan.
Parents should clearly teach their children the culture of filial heart, but if that does not happen, even if the parents and child live together, that child is like an orphan. Children who do not know filial heart towards their parents are all orphans.
If parents do not teach their children filial heart, those children all become orphans. Then what is the method for parents to teach their children filial heart?
It is for parents to not think of controlling them as my own but in the exact same way I practiced filial heart towards my parents, serving my children as I did my parents. Filial heart comes about only when you plant filial heart. Filial heart only comes from filial heart.
That is why, what is the best education for your children about filial love? When you truly love and have respect and are filial to your own parents.
If you have that kind of filial heart, you automatically create that kind of filial heart in your children. That is why this vertical alignment is important.
Jesus asked us to love God the most. Why? If we love God as our own parent, this becomes a vertical standard you can apply to your wife, your children, all things. You can apply it everywhere in the same way. This vertical standard (is) centered on filial heart.
As parents, if you do not teach your children filial heart, children will all be influenced by the horizontal culture and become slaves to the sex culture. Children who are raised not knowing filial heart easily enter a wild path.
If the vertical culture is severed, they will flow towards the horizontal culture and many children will become promiscuous . You cannot just engage in sexual relationships like drinking water when you are thirsty. You must control sexual desires with the filial heart.
Even though you have sexual desires, you need to know how to be patient, to control (them).
“Oh, it is like drinking water. I am thirsty; I want to drink water.”
You need to know how to control (desires), how to be patient, how to respect each other.
Today’s society has lost even the concept of morality. This all stems from the absence of the culture and education of filial heart. If the culture of filial heart was alive, since you regard yourself as belonging to your parents, you know how to be patient, how to wait until you are grown, and you will have the heart of respecting and serving your object partner.
However, if you just follow physical desires without the heart of love and heart of respect, that love will definitely break. Sexual relationships without the heart of love and respect lead to the path of destruction.
3. Jesus’ ethical view was fundamentally speaking of the father-son relationship centered on the Five Moral Disciplines in Human Relations of Eastern ethics. However, since everyone is stained with their own horizontal ethical views, there is no one who follows Jesus' words and puts them into practice. What is the thing that believers of other religions are not able to follow about our church? It is for children to be filial to their parents. It is a heart that has absolute respect for parents. This is the life of the Unification Church. Everyone around the world is surprised when they learn about the Unification Church's ethical view centered on filial heart. Having a joint wedding in the Unification Church itself is a miracle. After receiving True Parents' orders, people around the world move as one. This is historical. This is the authority of True Parents' love.
The Unification Church regards filial piety centered on the vertical culture as most important. It is a lifeline. This is the life of the Unification Church. The Unification Church holds the spirit of filial heart as the basis and practices absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience in front of True Parents.
The reason the culture of filial heart towards God and True Parents was established was because of True Parents’ authority of love. The reason this culture of filial heart was established in the Unification Church is because True Parents showed us the model of absolute filial heart towards God.
Therefore, when we also (develop a) filial heart towards Heaven, True Parents and our own parents, we gain spiritual authority and the authority of love. The Unification Church’s tradition of the culture of filial heart is the most important tradition of all traditions that all of humankind have to inherit. When filial piety lives on, the family will live, the school will live, the church will live, and the country will live.
Having absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience centered on filial piety towards God and True Parents is the Unification Church life.
I would like to reemphasize that when the filial heart toward God and True Parents comes alive, the family will come alive, the school will come alive, the country will come to life, and the world will come to life. Filial heart is like the root of the heart.
LIVING TESTIMONY: I’m a Living Testimony for Whom Anything is Possible
(Testimony of Atsushi Takino. Assistant Pastor of the Clifton Church.)
I am so inspired to work with Takino.
I can feel the culture of heart in the Clifton Church already. Can you imagine? More than 72 people came and are resolved to do witnessing. They go out every day to witness. It is not easy to find such a witnessing environment anywhere. The Manhattan Church is like that. Now all over the United States there is that kind of spirit of witnessing. Once again I really appreciate all of you. You are (trying to meet?) True Mother’s expectation.♦
NOTE: This lightly edited transcription may contain errors and omissions. Indecipherable 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. Some repeated phrases have been eliminated. This text and the powerpoint slides from this speech are available as pdf files at the top of this text and at text.morndev.com & yong.hoondok.com. 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 January 2, 2022 are available as five 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.♦