A Good Heart

Loving kindness and compassion spring naturally from a good heart. Hence, cultivating a good heart ought to be a priority in life. Some passages praise a loving heart as superior to faith, knowledge, dedication to the truth, and all other virtues.

A loving heart is rooted in God, what Father Moon calls God’s heart (Korean: Shimjeong). Shimjeong is God’s irrepressible impulse to love—the very motivation for His creation. (See Chapter 1: Divine Love and Compassion)

In human terms, it is closest to the heart of a mother, who cannot help but love her child. A good heart is impartial and all-embracing, able to digest evil and unpleasant people as well as kind and virtuous people. Therefore, it is indispensable for reconciling opponents and resolving conflicts.

Loving-Kindness

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Ephesians 4.32

May I look on all beings with the eye of a friend! May we look on one another with the eye of a friend! Yajur Veda 36.18 (Hinduism)

He who can find no room for others lacks fellow feeling, and to him who lacks fellow feeling, all men are strangers. Chuang Tzu 23 (Taoism)

Treat people in such a way and live amongst them in such a manner that if you die they will weep over you; alive they crave for your company. Nahjul Balagha, Saying 9 (Shiite Islam)

Gentle character it is which enables the rope of life to stay unbroken in one’s hand. Yoruba Proverb (African Traditional Religions)

Monks, whatsoever grounds there be for good works undertaken with a view to [favorable] rebirth, all of them are not worth one-sixteenth part of that goodwill which is the heart’s release; goodwill alone, which is the heart’s release, shines and burns and flashes forth in surpassing them. Itivuttaka 19 (Buddhism)

Even though it be the home of someone who has managed for long to avoid misfortune, we gods will not enter into the dwelling of a person with a perverse disposition.

Even though it be a dwelling where a man be in mourning for father and mother, if he be a man of compassion, we deities will enter in there.21 Oracle of the Kami of Kasuga (Shinto)

Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai said, “Go forth and see which is the good way to which a man should cleave.” Rabbi Eliezar said, “A good eye”; Rabbi Joshua said, “A good friend”; Rabbi Jose said, “A good neighbor”; Rabbi Simeon said, “One who foresees the fruit of an action”; Rabbi Elazar said, “A good heart.” Thereupon he said to them, “I approve the words of Elazar ben Arach, rather than your words, for in his words yours are included.” Mishnah, Avot 2.13 (Judaism)

Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
No matter that you plan to go another way, the heart of love for the sake of others will always point you in the right direction, as a compass always points north. (138:99, January 19, 1986)

Make a habit of liking people. Tell them that you like them even if they do not like you. It is training. (118:116, May 9, 1982)

Have you ever shed tears for others? It is easy for people to weep for themselves, but have you wept for others? There are two kinds of tears. A person who sheds tears for him or herself will go to hell, but a person who sheds tears for others will go to heaven. (96:172-73, January 3, 1978)

Respect all things as holy things. Treat them as sacred objects. Respect all people as holy people, each one the sacred body of God. Respect yourself as a holy person, with the thought that your mind is God’s mind and your body is God’s body. (102:113, November 27, 1978)

Do we say of someone who possesses much knowledge, “He is an outstanding person”? No. He must have a good heart. A good person has an innately good framework of life and original nature. Whether knowledgeable or not, a good person has a good heart. (39:315, January 16, 1971)

Your eyes should become more benevolent. Of course, they shine when you look at a good person, but even when you see wicked people you should add extra effort to look at them with a heart of compassion and love. True love has the capacity to digest even evil things. It possesses such power. (123:225, January 2, 1983)

You may have beautiful eyes, but if they glow with the light of jealousy or personal ambition, seeking to take advantage of others or out for blood, those eyes are fearsome and ugly to behold.

Yet even though your eyes may be unattractive and irregular-shaped, if they shine with the light of love, benevolence and peace, then those eyes will captivate people.

They are charming and possess magnetic power. So when you act with love as the inner motivation, even wearing a mask cannot hide your beauty. (116:53-54, December 13, 1981)

A Loving Heart and Its Roots in God’s Heart

Gentleness and goodness are the roots of humanity. Book of Ritual 38.18 (Confucianism)

To love is to know Me, My innermost nature, the truth that I am. Bhagavad-Gita 18.55 (Hinduism)

All men have this heart that, when they see another man suffer, they suffer, too… Take an example: a man looks out and sees a child about to fall into a well. No matter who the man is, his heart will flip, flop, and he will feel the child’s predicament; and not because he expects to get something out of it from the child’s parents, or because he wants praise from his neighbors, associates, or friends, or because he is afraid of a bad name, or anything like that. Mencius II.A.6 (Confucianism)

The Dwelling of the Tathagata is the great compassionate heart within all the living. The Robe of the Tathagata is the gentle and forbearing heart.22 Lotus Sutra 10 (Buddhism)

As a mother protects her only child at the risk of her own life, let him cultivate a boundless heart towards all beings. Khuddaka Patha, Metta Sutta (Buddhism)

Allah is kind and loves whoever is kind; Allah is clean and loves whoever is clean; Allah is generous and loves whoever is generous. Hadith of Muslim 913.2 (Islam)

What sort of religion can it be without compassion? You need to show compassion to all living beings. Compassion is the root of all religious faiths. Basavanna, Vacana 247 (Hinduism)

Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
Because God is love, let us center our lives on the heart (shimjeng), the essence of love.23 We advance on the path by developing a character that springs from the heart. (84:123, February 22, 1976)

In the heart of love, everything becomes one. It is all-inclusive, not discriminating. Being all-inclusive, it is also embracing. Inclusiveness is the inner core that manifests outwardly as tolerance. Inner and outer engage in circular motion; thus tolerance promotes inclusiveness and inclusiveness promotes tolerance.

Beyond that, love is mutually responsive. “Mutually responsive” means the grandfather is not always absolute. Nor are the grandchildren always absolute. At times, the grandfather may become a grandchild, and the grandchild may become the grandfather. This is what is meant by “mutually responsive.”

Therefore, anywhere that loving hearts and a loving atmosphere prevail, there is no opposition; everyone welcomes it. Neither knowledge nor power can create such a tolerant and embracing environment; only love can do it.

When a hungry child is embraced in its mother’s bosom, it can forget its hunger and go to sleep. What else could be as precious as love? Diamonds?

Suppose your wife or child was ill and on the verge of dying. Would you refuse to take a diamond out of your jewelry box and sell it to cover the medical costs? Would that be love? Genuine love has the power to move anything. (139:196-97, January 31, 1986)

Due to the human fall, nothing about the human realm of the heart entitles us to stand before God except for one condition that remains unchanged: parents’ loving hearts for their children. Children’s love toward their parents cannot be the standard, because in the beginning, we betrayed God from the position of children.

Hence we lost the emotional basis to relate to God as His children. On the other hand, God loved Adam and Eve even at the moment of their Fall.

That original nature remains in our hearts. It remains the basis for parents to act according to their original mind in loving their children.

Therefore, among people living in the fallen realm, only parents’ love toward their children remains as an original, prelapsarian standard of love. It shall remain as an eternal standard. (23:206, May 25, 1969)

If parents have a child with a handicap or birth defect, they are heartbroken yet make special efforts to take care of that child. The love of even worldly parents unmistakably reflects God’s heart.

That is why restoration is possible when you are filial toward your parents. (99:127-28, September 10, 1978)

Right now what we need most is the glow of love. God’s love is like the guide rope of a net. That love should set its anchor in me. Where should we set the center of our character? Not in the truth, but rather in the heart (shimjeng). (33:68, August 8, 1970)