The Meaning of the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
God told Adam and Eve there were many trees in the Garden of Eden, and He gave particular instructions about the Tree of Life and the Tree of Good and Evil. He told them they were free to eat any fruit from the other trees but to stay away from the Tree of Life and the Tree of Good and Evil. He said not to even look at them, touch them, or eat them.
Father taught us that the Garden of Eden as described in the Bible does not refer to a specific place. Instead, it refers to the bodies of Adam and Eve. People have thought that it meant a specific location on Earth.
So when God told Adam and Eve that it was “Alright to eat the fruits from other trees,” he was referring to the other parts of the bodies of Adam and Eve. This is a very important concept.
Adam and Eve were growing up as brother and sister. The Tree of Life and the Tree of Good and Evil meant the sexual organs of Adam and Eve. So Adam and Eve, as siblings, could embrace each other, kiss, hug, and give piggyback rides, but God told them not to even look, touch, or eat what was at the center of their bodies until the right time came.
There is something we must correct about the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.”
A leader of our church arbitrarily changed what the Divine Principle said about the “Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil,” which symbolizes “perfected Eve,” to symbolize “Eve to be perfected,” and recorded it as such in the Divine Principle. This is a grave mistake.
The first printing of the Divine Principle clearly states that it is “Perfected Eve.” So I asked Father about it. Father answered, "Do not write it as “Eve to be perfected.”
You are learning the Principle from the fallen position. That is why you do not understand. ‘ Perfected Eve’ means Eve who has perfected herself without falling. Therefore, it should be ‘ perfected Eve.’ "
We must treat each letter in the Divine Principle very carefully. Mr. Hyo Won Eu, the former president of our church, systematized Divine Principle. Yes, but he did so only under Father’s supervision. Therefore, it is obvious that we must ask Father about changing anything in the Divine Principle since Father is the original author.
Let the second generation know clearly about the root of sin
In the chapter about the Human Fall, the issue is the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil” and the “Tree of Life.”
For several years, Father told me, “Gil Ja, You now have to teach the Principle to the second-generation children and train them as Principle lecturers. This is because the Archangel Lucifer tried to seduce Eve beginning when she was 12 years old."
Blessed second-generation children must protect their bodies, beginning when they are 12 years of age. That is why they must learn the Principle and teach the Principle to others. Then the spirit world will be mobilized and the physical world will be liberated. Father told us this.
Father told me to do this some years ago. The biggest problem was how to make them understand what the Tree of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life symbolized and how Eve and the Archangel engaged in an illicit sexual relationship. It is not easy for children to understand. I worried a lot: “How am I going to explain this in easy terms?”
Describing a man’s sexual organ and a woman’s sexual organ as convex and concave, Father said, "Marriage is the coming together of a man’s convex part and woman’s concave part. So, what is the Fall? It is giving a convex or concave part to a counterpart to whom it does not belong."
So, when we receive permission from God through the Holy Blessing and come together with our rightful partner, it becomes a rightful marriage. But, if we come together with the wrong partner, then it becomes the Fall. Children were able to understand it easily with this explanation.
Father has been saying this for a while now. When we rise in the morning, we wash our face. When we wash our face, we must bend down to where the faucet is. Nobody washes his face while standing upright. Everyone bends over. It means that people are extending a morning greeting to God, “God, did you sleep well?” People greet God without even knowing it.
Father said Unification Church members should greet God even more. "God, did you sleep well?" We do this and then we say, "Mr. Convex, Mrs. Concave, did you sleep well? I shall protect you well today." It is because it is the most important thing.
As I taught second-generation children, I’ve told them to tell their parents, "Mom! Dad! The teacher told me to greet my convex part or my concave part." Then, if mom and dad ask "How did she tell you to greet it?" I’ve told them to say "My concave-nim, convex-nim. Hello. I shall protect you well."
Parents were very delighted to find out that I taught the children to run away or yell for help if any boy tried to stare at or touch a girl’s concave part, as he is the thief of the worst kind. Parents were reassured that I was teaching them correctly and could breathe a little easier.
A Japanese mother, however, came to me one day. She was bathing her daughter when she touched her daughter’s genital area. The daughter told her mother, "Mom! The teacher told me to never let anyone touch them. So don’t touch it!" Then she cried. So I was worried. I told the young girl that it was OK since her mother was only trying to wash her.
I told Father one day, "Father, I’ 've been making it easy for the second-generation children to understand. When I taught them about concave and convex, the second-generation children said, ‘ We understand. We will protect it.’ Also, fathers and mothers are very happy too." Father was very happy to hear that. Then he said, "Yes, you are right. Concave and convex is the secret that only the Unification Church knows. Keep educating." You should tell your children that they should not touch others’ genital areas. They should also be taught that they should not touch their genital area either.
Father’s expression of concave and convex is such a good expression. Please teach your children before they commit such a sin.
The Motivation of the Fall
There are a lot of verses in the Bible which speak about angels, which are spiritual beings. We can really believe in their existence when we recall the story of how Abraham offered some food to an angel who visited him and the angel ate the food. Angels are so strong that one of them wrestled with Jacob and broke his thigh bone. It is only because we are fallen that it is difficult for us to imagine such situations.
Let us now discuss the motivation for the Fall. Why did humans fall? Knowing the motivation for the Fall is most important in the path of restoration, so Father’s words about it will be of great use.
God created the angelic world first before he created all things. God could have created all things by Himself, but it was easier when there were helping hands. Would it not be easier if there was someone to talk to and run errands?
There were three archangels: Lucifer, Michael, and Gabriel. These three archangels had different missions. Lucifer’s mission was to receive God’s love and distribute it to the whole angelic world. Michael was the angel of praising God, and Gabriel was God’s messenger. Out of the three archangels, we realize that Lucifer was, without question, the leader of the three when we look at it from the point of view of their mission.
According to Father, the archangel Lucifer was a very loyal servant of God.
Then, what is God’s love? God’s love in the spirit world is the same as the air that we have to keep breathing when we exist in the physical world. Air is something that we need if we are to live. Just as we feel refreshed and joyous when we breathe in fresh and clean air, we breathe in God’s love in the spirit world as we have breathed air in the physical world. We become more happy, satisfied, and joyous when we receive more of God’s love.
Archangel Lucifer was immensely happy with all the love he was receiving from God until God created Adam and Eve.
According to Father, Adam and Eve did not have a mother. He said that God made them personally. In other words, Adam and Eve did not come from a mother’s womb. God created Adam and Eve so that they were able to walk from birth.
Some animals can walk right after they come out of their mother’s womb. Baby cows and horses can do that. So I asked Father, "What did God feed Adam and Eve instead of breast milk?" Father answered that God fed them spiritually. Of course, Adam and Eve would have begun consuming physical food after a while.
How much would God have loved Adam and Eve after creating them as His children? It was because God and the archangels were in a master-servant relationship but God and Adam and Eve were in a parent-child relationship. Adam and Eve were to grow and become the body of God and become the substantial self of God. So the level of love bestowed on them was different. That is why Lucifer, when he looked at Adam and Eve receiving God’s love, felt "Oh, they are receiving more love than me." Lucifer felt that the love he was receiving was diminished.
Father explained that the feeling of diminished love itself is not a fallen nature. God gave all created beings the intellectual ability to compare so that they would want to compete with one another and develop faster. Therefore, the feeling of diminished love itself is not a fallen nature. We need the intellectual ability to compare before we can feel ‘ I want to do it better than so and so.’ So, the feeling that comes naturally from the intellectual ability to compare is the feeling of diminished love.
But what was added in there? Self-centeredness and selfishness were added to his feeling of diminished love caused by the intellectual ability to compare. This became the original nature of fallen nature.
Lucifer realized that though he loved God and God loved him back, God loved Adam more than him. He also realized that he was supposed to love Adam and Eve who were
receiving more of God’s love than him. However, Lucifer began to think about himself. Self-centeredness means that you think from your standpoint. How did Lucifer think? Borrowing from Father’s words, Lucifer thought “What am I?
How could it be that Adam and Eve who never went through any suffering receive God’s love more than me? I went through so much suffering!”
Lucifer had been thinking that he monopolized God’s love. However, when he saw Adam and Eve receiving God’s love more than him, he could not bear the pain caused by the feeling of diminished love, and he began to think centering on himself.
Father said that God had to endure much hardship when He made the creation. He had to invest everything He had, so much so that He was completely exhausted after creating all things. So the archangels who were helping Him must have also been completely exhausted. Lucifer was jealous because he worked so hard for God but God loved Adam and Eve more than him. As such, self-centeredness is “looking back at oneself.”
We must look to others if we are to escape from this self-centeredness. Father asked us one day, "Can you see your face without a mirror?" If we don’t have a mediator called a mirror, we cannot see our face until the day we die. What that means is that God created us human beings in such a way that we can’t see our faces because we don’t need to. Rather, we must look at the faces of others.
Why do we have to look at others’ faces? It is because what I want, my joy and my love does not begin from myself but begins from making others happy and loving others. On the other hand, if we cause others sadness, then we become sad as well. That is why we must look at others first. Be conscious of others before we are conscious of ourselves.
Father said, "How sick and tired would we get if we were to always look at our faces? We should look at the faces of others. Only then will our life not become boring since we always receive new stimulation. It is because God created human beings so that we would live for the sake of others.
After he became self-centered, Lucifer locked up God like a senile old man, treated Him as an obsolete being, and took further steps to deny God's existence.
Communism started when Lucifer denied God and began to fall. Atheism first began when Lucifer thought, “Now I can replace God.” This is the reason why the Messiah has to resolve the problem of atheism which started from the spirit world and communism which is the atheism of the physical world. This is the most important mission.
When the archangel Lucifer fell together with Eve, He insisted that God did not exist and he practiced his false love from the same position as God. However, if Lucifer was to faithfully remain in his servant position, he had to praise God in front of Adam and Eve.
The role and the duty of a faithful servant was to keep praising God, saying "Adam, Eve! God created the beautiful Sun and Moon and flowers and trees and all sorts of things." However, forgetting his duty, Lucifer wanted to receive more respect from Adam and Eve than God and he tried to receive more of God’s love.
He began to have an unrighteous desire to grab Eve’s attention and make her his own, thinking that maybe he could gain the position of God’s child. He then seduced Eve and fell.
The Course of the Fall
Father recently spoke about something new.
At the time when the Fall took place, Adam was not yet at the stage of growth where he could feel stimulation from the opposite sex. He only thought of Eve as his little sister.
God created all things before he created humans. Also, the purpose of all things was centered upon Adam and Eve. All things were designed so that they could not feel the love of God directly. They were to feel God’s love by being consumed by human beings, and then becoming the cells. Only then they could feel the love of God.
God was letting Adam learn from all things. He thought about how to teach Adam to love at a level that is higher than that of animals when he makes love to Eve after perfecting himself. Adam watched the process of mating, giving birth to offspring, and raising the babies of different creatures from small insects to large animals. Adam learned from nature how the creatures cared for each other and made love to each other.
Why did Adam do that? It is because all things are an exhibition of love. Fathers sometimes used to tell us, "You should make love while whispering into your spouse’s ear, cooing like a dove, and the next day make love like tigers while bellowing loudly."
So Adam went around searching for creatures making love so he could learn how to make love through his observations. Adam and Eve did not have another school.
Nature and all things themselves were the schools for Adam and Eve.
As apple trees blossom in the spring, grow their fruit during the summer, and bear ripe fruit in the autumn while giving out a pleasant scent, Adam and Eve, when they perfected themselves, were supposed to be ripe and their body temperature would rise just by looking at each other. Then they would’ve understood that they were meant for each other. In other words, God created Adam and Eve so that they would make love to each other. They were to make love to each other in a way that is of the highest level.
So the term ‘ Lord of creation’ has a very deep meaning. When you look at all things, females and males only get together to reproduce. God restricted them in such a manner. However, human beings have no such restriction in making love. A couple who has received the Blessing can make love as much as they want. Father says that this is the special privilege of love given to humans. Humans are ‘ the Lords of creation’ because they have the privilege of love.
Adam diligently observed nature and learned about love. Father said that for this reason, men have to keep going to different places. So it is good that men don’t have much fat on their buttocks. When a man sits for too long, he starts to get cramps.
According to Father, men are good for moving around since they don’t have much fat on their buttocks and their broad shoulders make them good workers.
However, women have more fat in this area so they want to sit down when there is an opportunity. A woman’s pelvis needs to be bigger if a baby is to stay inside the womb comfortably. Women have more things to do while sitting down such as breast-feeding the baby and that is why they have bigger buttocks and have more fat in this area.
That’s normal. Women don’t get tired no matter how long they sit if they have a good cushion.
So, Adam, being a man, kept going to different places. However, Eve got tired of following Adam and she complained, “Adam, let’s take a break! I’m tired, I can’t continue!" Then she sat under a shady tree and waited until Adam returned.
Then Adam played with snakes or frogs and threw them at Eve like a mischievous child. Eve’s face turned blue as she said, “Ew, nasty. No!" However, Adam only did that because he was bored since Eve didn t follow him. Adam did this to get Eve to continue following him.
Eve still didn’t follow him so what was Adam supposed to do? He had to keep studying so he kept on going to different places. So there she was in the shade, waiting for her older brother to come back. She dozed off at one point and that’s when Lucifer,
who was waiting for the right moment to approach Eve, came over to Eve and played with her, talking to her sweetly.
Adam acted like a mischievous child towards Eve but Lucifer was kinder and treated Eve better than Adam. So Eve felt attracted to Lucifer. Not only that, Lucifer was smarter than Adam. He knew about a lot more things, so Eve probably even respected him. Eve was no match for Lucifer who was determined to seduce her.
I asked Father one day, “Then, wasn t there any way for Eve to repel the archangel’s seduction?” Father answered, “Yes. God could not do anything even though He knew about the archangel’s plan since Adam and Eve were still in the realm of indirect dominion. However, Eve could have avoided falling if she had reported to God or Adam when the archangel seduced her."
Father said that God could have prevented Eve from falling if only Eve had reported to Him or Adam. As the archangel hugged and kissed her, Eve should have known that something was wrong and had to either ask Adam or report to God.
While describing how the fall took place, Father asked us, “Hey, so Adam and Eve were naked. How do you think the archangel was: naked or dressed? Can you answer this?" We answered, "He was naked." Father said, "Yes, that’s right." Then Father asked, "It says in the Principle that the archangel was male, right? Then do you think the archangel had a penis or not?" We answered, "He must have had one!"
So, what happened when Eve and Lucifer ell? Father described it very vividly. He didn’t used to describe it so vividly but I think he does now because the time has come. The naked Lucifer and Eve were sitting facing each other. Father said, "Normally, Lucifer hugged Eve from the side but he was hugging Eve from the front on that day. So, if Lucifer thrust his penis strongly then don’t you think his penis would have gone in? Eve was defenseless.
Eve was surprised. It is only when Lucifer’s sexual organ penetrated her organ that she realized, “This is bad. This is what God told us to not even look at, touch, or eat.” She had a sexual organ but she didn’t even know how to use it.
What did Lucifer say would happen if they ate the Fruit of the Tree of Good and Evil? He said their eyes would open. And that’s ‘ what happened. Eve realized her mistake. “Oh, the archangel who was so nice to me is my servant. He is not supposed to be my partner. My partner is supposed to be Adam who I thought was only my older brother!’ Then she went after Adam.
Eve went to Adam and begged him to eat the fruit together with her. At first, Adam did not give in to her demand. "What are you talking about? God told us not to eat it, remember? He said we shouldn’t look, touch, or eat. Why eat it?" Adam refused. But Eve was persistent.
Adam finally gave in to her persistent demand: “Oh, do as you wish.” Then Adam and Eve commit the physical fall.
Do you think Adam was happy when he fell? No. He thought "No! No!" at first but he fell feeling anxiety and horror.
Father explained that if Adam had not fallen but had pushed Eve away, Eve could have been restored from her fallen position. Adam fell once but what did Adam have? He had God’s lineage, the seed of life. That was lost to Satan’s side. That could not be restored so easily. Since original sin is passed down through the lineage, it cannot be gotten rid of so easily. That is why God had to find the chosen people and the Messiah.
How hard did God have to work to send the Messiah? God was so grief-stricken and angry that he even thought “Should I just create a second archangel and second Adam and Eve and just kill the rest?” He had the power so why didn’t He do it? It was because he couldn’t eliminate the Principle of human responsibility that should have prevented them from eating the fruit.
So Father said, "The second archangel and Adam and Eve could fall again. Because of that, God had to commence the Restoration Providence with the fallen Adam and Eve."
Since the human fall happened to center on the body in such a brief moment, we, who do not know the Restoration Providence, must not lower our guard but instead, follow the Messiah. Only then we can go through the process of restoration.
Eve realized that Adam was her partner only after falling spiritually by the archangel’s seduction. Then she nagged Adam to fall physically.
The physical fall of Adam and Eve became the beginning of conflicting love which led their mind and body to separate. This is the problem. The biggest problem is that Adam and Eve forsook God and fell completely centered on themselves.
What caused the archangel to seduce Eve to fall was his selfish desire and his failure to love God, Adam, and Eve. What caused Eve to seduce Adam to fall was her self-centered judgment which led her to think “Maybe I can be forgiven by God and return to Him” if she fell with Adam even though God did not permit it. Both the Physical Fall and Spiritual Fall happened through self-centeredness.
The meaning and the secret of self-denial
The self-centeredness of the archangel who wanted to receive more love from God was transferred to Eve, and then to Adam, and this ultimately was inherited by their offspring. Today, all humans have become self-centered.
If humanity is to return to God, humans basically have to walk the path that is the opposite of self-centeredness. In other words, we must practice complete ‘self-denial.’ satan stays with those who keep on living in self-centered ways. Therefore, we must deny ourselves and live our lives centered on God.
Father tells us that there are many ways to deny ourselves but the most effective way is to be persecuted by other people. Self-denial is achieved when we endure harsh persecution and achieve victory. So following Father while doing something that we don’t like is an important way of practicing self-denial, and offering sincere jeongseong is another way of denying ourselves.
The reason why Father makes us do impossible tasks, instead of possible ones, is because he wants to help us deny ourselves. We should take the path of as much suffering as possible in order to escape from the grasp of self-centeredness as soon as possible.
Father told us once when he was in America, "The archangel’s self-centeredness was passed onto human beings. God’s Restoration Providence has taken 6,000 years to change the selfishness and self-centeredness that we have received from the archangel to other-centeredness, that is, discarding our selfishness and living for the sake of others.
As mentioned earlier, self-denial is the exact opposite of self-centeredness. Self- centeredness is the attitude that makes us say, ‘ I can do anything I want! Lucifer did what he wanted. Self-denial, however, is the opposite; it’s the attitude that leads us to say “I don’t want to do it but I will! It's difficult to do this but I will make it happen no matter what!” However, self-denial is not so easy.
Then, who received the most training in self-denial? Father said it was him. Father received so much training in self-denial from God that God never allowed him to do the things that he wanted to do, things that he could easily do. God ceaselessly made him do things he didn t want to do, things he couldn’t easily do, training Father to deny himself.
Father told us an example. He said that the hardest time while receiving this training of self-denial was when eight of his most beloved friends and relatives died. Once, Father’s younger sister whom he adored so much died very young.
There was even one time Father met a friend that made him think “I like him, I want to share my heart with him.” Then his friend was struck by disease and died. Eight of those whom Father loved so much passed away, some of them went missing and some of them died in the water when a boat crashed.
Father thought, “Oh, why do I have to go through this kind of hardship? Why does God train me so harshly?” However, in hindsight, Father came to the realization, “Yes!
Adam could not be perfected and become united with God." He realized that, until Father reached the point where he was completely one with God in love, God could not allow so much as a single hair to come between Him and Father.
During his difficult training, he thought “Alright, God has separated Satan from me by putting me through complete self-denial, and I can train the leaders of the Unification Church by putting them in the position of complete self-denial just as God has led me!”
Brothers and sisters, we have joined the Unification Church because we like it, correct? We joined the church because we like the Principle, like the Will of God, and we entered with hopes, yes? However, how do you feel now? The church keeps making you do things that you don’t want to, right? Why is that? That is because Satan likes it when we do things that we like doing, so we must take the opposite path and practice self-denial, doing things that we don’t like, things that are difficult and impossible.
Tithing and economic restoration are difficult, right? However, we still have to do it. Witnessing - difficult, yes? But we still must witness. What about the Blessing?
Receiving the Blessing and making others receive the Blessing is difficult, isn’t it? However, we still have to Bless. It all works as self-denial training for us, training that leads us to return to God.
When somebody reported to Father, "This member worked very hard in the church then left," Father said, "I see. He didn’t know the Principle so well." It is because the Principle requires self-denial from us. The reason why we must know the Principle well is because we must do the things that we must even though they may be difficult, and they are our path of returning to God.
Therefore, we cannot complain if we know the Principle. We must do the things that we must. We have to summon all our energy to just do it. Father even said once "God often made me do things that I just could not do, and every time, I did the task with the determination to throw away my life. You wouldn’t be able to imagine how much I cried and shivered in pain. Unification Church would not be where it is today if it only took the comfortable path. We are here today because God whipped us and forced us to move."
Father even had a special way of thinking - even when he went to prison. Prisoners normally walk very slowly because they would do anything to avoid the prison.
However, Father walks in as if he is running. Father enters the prison with joy, anticipating that someone must be waiting for him in there already because God always prepares twelve disciples for him.
Father enters the prison with great hopes in his heart, thinking ‘ Who has God prepared for me this time?’ That is because Father knew the law of indemnity. But Father is also a human with a physical body. Joy could not have been the only feeling he experienced.
Father told us that the archangel tried to seduce Eve from age twelve. We therefore regularly teach the Principle to second and third-generation children starting at age twelve.
So God’s Restoration Providence is a battle of love between the side of Heaven and the side of Satan. Satan seduced Eve with unjust love, so why shouldn’t we be able to bring the people in the Satanic world to the side of Heaven if we give them true love? Shouldn't we have to invest a lot of jeongseong to bring them to the side of Heaven?
Everyone in the early days of the church was spiritually attracted because the Father bestowed us with the True Love of God, in other words, the love of sacrificing for others. It wasn’t only women who were spiritually attracted to Father. There were many men too.
On the journey of the Path of Will, I have slowly begun to forget myself. Father said that we have to be in such a state of self-denial that when he asks us one day, “Who are you?” we shouldn’t even be able to answer.
Who are the people close to the Heaven’s side? Who are the people close to Satan’s side? People become stubborn and self-centered as much as they are close to Satan’s side. Then, what does it mean to live in self-denial? It means that we are standing in the position of the object partner of God and True Parents.
Father has taught us the way to forget ourselves. Father told us that we must always attend to God and True Parents and never leave for even a brief moment. So he always told us to pray. Father said that we should always have three conditions when praying.
First, when we pray, we must greet God. As His children, we of course have to greet Him first when we pray. In other words, we have to say hello in detail, such as “I am so and so.” Also, we who attend True Family are the Cain-side family, so giving a sincere prayer for True Parents’ Family is, according to Father, a greeting. As praying for the Family of True Parents is joining in the heavenly fortune brought by the victory of True Parents’ Family, we must sincerely pray for True Parents’ Family.
Second, we must report. We have to give reports often, saying, “I am doing such and such things.” We have to report about good things and bad things that happened during the day.
Third, we have to ask God. “God, how shall we solve this problem?” - We have to keep asking. I also live my life in such a manner. I always report and I always ask. Father told us to then wait for the answer that God gave us.
True Parents always work so hard to represent God, so much so that they almost lose consciousness of themselves. As we think of True Parents’ words, always ask Parents as if you live in personal attendance to them. If we live our lives while thinking “I am not the center of my everyday life, it’s True Parents,“ then we can receive inspiration with which we can find the solution. We can solve any problem if we stand in the position of complete object partner in front of True Parents.
Also, something that helps when witnessing is to keep calling the name of the one you are trying to witness. ‘ Young Ja Kim! Young Ja Kim! Young Ja Kim!’ Like this. If you keep calling their names like that, then that person will want to meet you, want to call you and start to miss you. Then they will come and find you out of their longing for you.
Father called our names very diligently during the early days. We didn’t know this at the beginning. We were all hot-blooded 20-something-year-olds at the time of Cheong Pa Dong. After getting expelled from Ehwa Women’s University, I took a break for one year and then entered Sook Myeong Women’s University with a major in medicine. I could’ t come to church in the mornings because there were many mock exams for the state- issued test. I always went to the church on my way back home. If I didn’t stop by the church, I could not focus on studying at home. I couldn’t do anything because I missed Father so much.
Those who had jobs had to stop by the church, and even housewives had to stop by the church. Father came down from the second floor of the old headquarters church at 7 in the morning. Then people, with their eyes wide open see him as if there was a fire. Father told these members "Did you see Teacher in your dream last night? You couldn’t even sleep because you wanted to see him, right?"
It was true. Members broke into tears and sobbed, saying, "Yes, that’s right!" After a while whether asks, "Who made you like that?" and begins explaining. "The reason why you are in such a state is not you but me. I spent the whole night last night calling your names in my prayer." That is why we dream about Father and always find ourselves thinking about Father.
Father offers such sincere prayer and thinks “Let’s wait and watch. I’ 've offered so much that he calling the names of these members. I’ll see how the spirit world helps me.” Then he goes to bed. Then, lo and behold, members came running to the church in the morning.
Some members’ feet moved toward the church on their way to work, and some members took the wrong bus and ended up at the church. Such miracles happened. People were going mad every morning. It was maddening but they still came, even though there was nothing to do at the church. This is the secret of witnessing. We must have within us the heart of loving others, and if we drive ourselves insane in hopes of rescuing them from death, that person will be driven mad too. Then we can open the path.
Unimaginable persecution that I received in the early days of the church made me angry and disheartened but I remained on the path of following the Will. Father asked us when we were still students, "What kind of heart do you go with as you walk the Path of the Will?" So I told him, "I go with cold vengeance in my heart!" He said, "Then you are good."
I was burning with a vengeance. However, after so much time, that vengeance has become the vengeance of love. In other words, I realized that true revenge is to love our enemies and subjugate them naturally.
Shimjeong and Salvation
The moment Adam and Eve engaged in unprincipled love, in other words, the moment when they wondered if they should make love or not, their mind and body became separated.
We normally say that Adam and Eve fell when they were immature. However, what kind of immaturity was it? It was the immaturity of shimjeong.
Would Eve have fallen if she understood how sad God would become if she were seduced by the archangel? Eve could not feel the shimjeong of God. Our distance from God is great when our shimjeong is still immature. That is why Adam and Eve fell. That is also why they could not perfect their conscience. Father taught us that shimjeong can sprout from the ground of perfected conscience, but Adam and Eve failed to enter that stage.
None of the religions can advance beyond the growth period of the completion stage. All religions, including Christianity, work to wake up our conscience. For example, they teach people to "do this, do that, don’t do this, don’t do that." They help people to live according to their conscience. However, Satan keeps stalking religion which tries to guide our conscience.
Father taught us about shimjeong. Our church is a religion of shimjeong.
How is a religion of shimjeong different from a religion of conscience? The religion of Shimjeong goes one step beyond a religion of conscience and lives in attendance to God. It means that because the religion of shimjeong becomes united in shimjeong with God, in other words, achieves the perfection of shimjeong, thus Satan cannot have a base to accuse it. These are Father’s words.
I asked Father, "What is shimjeong?" Father stayed silent for a moment and then replied, "shimjeong is internal love." When we divide love into its internal and external aspects, internal love is love before any expression is made. In other words, it is like the root of love. Therefore, when sungsang love is expressed as hyungsang love, it is manifested into a more concrete action of love.
What is first love? It is the love that we feel for the first time. Then where did the first love of Eve go? It was given to the servant, Lucifer. The first love of Eve was stolen by the spiritual fall she committed with the archangel. Her first love which was supposed to be given to Adam was destroyed.
Therefore, the elimination of original sin means the restoration of the heartistic lineage which Satan cannot invade (Father’s Speech, 13, p. 198). The “restoration of the heartistic lineage” means the restoration of the Spiritual Fall, and it also means the restoration of the Physical Fall.
Father said that all Blessed Families have to enter the Parents’ lineage at one point in its generations. Only then the whole tribe, from the root ancestor, can receive complete restoration.
The meaning and purpose of a Blessed Family lies in raising children to become flawless and then offering them to the Parents’ Family.
I once said to Father:
“How much better things would have turned out if God had married the archangel first so that he didn’t have to seduce Eve?”
Father replied, "There is order in love as well. God’s son and daughter must marry first before the servant can get married!" Father went on to explain that God was going to bless the archangel after blessing Adam and Eve.
Perfection of science is possible only through the cooperation spirit world
.God has placed angels in the sun, moon, and the stars in the universe. There was a sci-fi movie where there were life forms on Mars, a planet similar in condition to Earth, and they invaded Earth, right?
So I asked Father what are the flying saucers? Father said they were angels. Flying saucers came down to Earth and were seen by humans but they never stayed for too long. They only appeared in front of people briefly.
Father said that angels are placed in the universe for us human beings. Space science cannot be perfected in the physical realm. The scientists who study space claim that they can perfect the science because they do not know about God’s purpose of creation. While we are wearing this physical body, there is nowhere for us to live outside of this pouch of oxygen. Earth is the only place that has air. Is there air on other planets? No. Without air, humans cannot survive.
It is designed so that the spiritual body is to travel through the universe that is grand and unchanging. We human beings perfect our spiritual body and escape from our physical body at one point and go to the spirit world. In the spirit world, we are at the sun if we just think about being in the sun. If we just think about being on the moon, we can go to the moon.
What Father is anticipating with joy is his journey to the space with his spiritual body after he sheds his physical body. He said he wanted to go to the space and see everything after shedding his physical body.
As such, space science cannot be perfected in the physical realm. It is impossible while we wear the physical body. One day in Alaska, Father sprinkled the cold sea water on us and told us to look at the distant horizon. "Look at this vast ocean. In the future, ocean science will develop more than space science." Father said that we can touch the ocean water but the entirety of space is too far away from our physical bodies.
Father told us "God still hasn’t revealed two places on Earth." One is the ocean, and the other is the jungles of Africa. According to Father, these two places can only be developed when the cooperation between the spirit world and science is made. The spirit world must tell us what is where in what longitude and latitude so go there and develop, then the science travels to the location, and development is made possible.
Also, Father said that if science is to be developed to that level, it is only possible when they serve the Lord.
The path of True Love that Blessed Families must walk
Fallen humans must receive the Blessing of God to advance from the position of the archangel to the restored archangel, to the restored Adam, and then to the position of perfected Adam.
In this world, spouses fight and many of them end up divorcing. Father told us that the reason why spouses of the world do not last long even though they love each other lies here. However, Blessed Families overcome such obstacles because they are brought together centering on God and True Parents.
A few days after Father blessed me with my husband, Father told me, "Gil Ja, come here." Then he said, "Do you love Teacher? You must love your husband now as you have loved Teacher. The bones inside your husband are Teacher, and the flesh is your husband. I exist inside of your husband’s body."
Then he said, "The unseen bones inside of your body are Mother, and the flesh which you can see is you. Therefore, Mother is inside of you as well. Therefore, when you make love, it is as if Parents are making love too. If Parents open the door and enter the room when you and your husband are making love, do not hide or stop but continue." Then he further told me that I should say, “Welcome, Parents. We are making love in your attendance.” When parents enter the room while we making love.
When waking up in the middle of the night, the husband would see his wife. Then, before calling out to her “Honey!,” he should first acknowledge True Parents by saying “True Parents!” and then begin to touch his wife. The children who are given birth by parents who make love with such a state of mind resemble their parents not only physically but their inner character resembles that of True Parents. We can see this from our second-generation children. Father looks at them and can tell immediately if the children’s parents loved heaven more or loved each other more.
Then why must we do this? It is because it is the restoration of the Spiritual Fall.
Eve was embraced by the archangel Satan before she was embraced by Adam. In other words, she lost her first love to the archangel who was a servant. The loss of the first love meant that the problem of shimjeong arose.
If we are to restore the first love that Satan took away, we must first love True Parents and then love ourselves next. It is only right that we must love our spouse upon the foundation that we have loved our parents first, isn’t it? It is only natural. This is how we, the Blessed Families, are different from other families of the world. Other families only love each other. Since the love of such a family is horizontal, it is not connected to eternal life.
Did the Blessed Families come together because they liked each other? In other words, the husband belongs to Parents, and the wife belongs to Parents too. When we first erect the vertical love centering on God and True Parents, that love is connected on the horizontal level, and then it is further connected to the physical body. The heart of parents and children is to all become united with Parents.
What do you think? Is t that right? We are truly fortunate to have been able to join the Unification Church in this age. It is because we can give birth to better children since you couples are connected by vertical love.
Father told us never to look down on our husband or wife only because he or she is not perfect. As we live our life in attendance to True Parents, we would be looking down on True Fathers if we look down on our husbands.
Deeply loving your spouse and living in attendance to True Parents means that husband and wife serve and love each other as if they are Father and Mother. How happy will God become when He sees such a loving family?
Second-generation children do not have much selfishness. Father said that even though second-generation children are born without original sin, the spirits of newborn children will be clean beginning in the third-generation children since the spiritual bodies of first and second-generation members are stained and blotchy with the sins of our ancestors like dirty clothes. Second-generation children live in an environment where the Fall can take place at any time, so they must be careful.
The reason why first-generation members received the Blessing and lived apart for three years is because only then they could indemnify the sins of their respective ancestors. Father told us that it takes three years for us to completely indemnify our ancestor’s sins.
Father once told us, "As the parent, why would I want to force my children to stay separated for three years? It is because they will suffer a lot of hardships if they live without the three years of separation after receiving the Blessing." We must understand that the three-year period of separation exists for indemnification.
If Blessed Families build their horizontal love after clearly establishing vertical love by loving God and True Parents first during this three-year separation period, then they become aware of how they must practice love.
When people receive the Blessing, at first they don’t even know how to practice love. If a Blessed couple lives together without the separation period, they are heavily bombarded on the spiritual level and they end up hating and leaving each other. True Parents who knew this gave us the three-year separation period because they love their children. We must realize the infinite love of True Parents in the deepest level of our hearts. These days, we have received the grace of having this separation period reduced a lot upon the foundation of True Parents’ victory.
Mrs. Gil Ja Sa Eu
