Discipleship

A student should seek out a good teacher to receive instruction and submit to discipline. He becomes more than merely a recipient of knowledge; he becomes a disciple.

Discipline is a valuable part of education. It recognizes that a good education engages a student’s entire being, to be molded and shaped by a course of training and instruction.

The relationship between teacher and disciple is typical of Eastern religions, which conceive of truth as embodiment more than as words. But we also find it in medicine and any field where learning requires mastering an art through a long apprenticeship.

This section concludes with passages that recognize the variable capacities of students to receive the truth. Again, this is not a matter of intelligence but rather of the heart. God tries to fill us with new wine, but if our wineskins are old, they will burst.

He wants to plant His seed in our hearts, but if our hearts are rocky soil, it will not take root. Therefore, a major task for the student of any spiritual path is to clear away the debris and make his or her heart ready to receive and respond to spiritual truth.

Apprenticing to a Good Teacher

If at any time there is doubt with regard to right conduct, follow the practice of great souls, who are guileless, of good judgment, and devoted to truth. Taittiriya Upanishad 1.11.4 (Hinduism)

Let your house be a place of meeting for the wise, and dust yourself with the dust of their feet, and drink their words with thirst. Mishnah, Avot 1.4 (Judaism)

One not knowing a land asks of one who knows it, he goes forward instructed by the knowing one. Such, indeed, is the blessing of instruction, one finds a path that leads him straight onward. Rig Veda 10.32.7 (Hinduism)

Approach someone who has realized the purpose of life and question him with reverence and devotion; he will instruct you in this wisdom. Once you attain it, you will never be deluded. Bhagavad-Gita 4.34-35 (Hinduism)

Should one see a wise man, who, like a revealer of treasure, points out faults and reproves; let one associate with such a wise person; it will be better, not worse, for him who associates with such a one. Let him advise, instruct, and dissuade one from evil; truly pleasing is he to the good, displeasing is he to the bad. Dhammapada 76-77 (Buddhism)

I will follow the examples of the Buddhas from thought to thought. Even though the void of space has end, and the worlds of beings, the karmas of beings, the sorrows of beings all have end, yet my practice and following the examples of the Buddhas will not be ended. Thought succeeds thought without interruption, and in deeds of body, speech, and mind, without weariness. Gandavyuha Sutra, Vows of Samantabhadra (Buddhism)

Arise! Awake! Approach the great and learn. Like the sharp edge of a razor is that path— so the wise say—hard to tread and difficult to cross. Katha Upanishad 1.3.14 (Hinduism)

One man is much the same as another, and that he is best who is trained in the severest school. Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War 1.84 (Hellenism)

Yen Hui said with a deep sigh, “The more I strain my gaze up towards it, the higher it soars. The deeper I bore down into it, the harder it becomes. I see it in front; but suddenly it is behind. Step by step the Master skillfully lures one on. He has broadened me with culture, restrained me with ritual. Even if I wanted to stop, I could not. Just when I feel that I have exhausted every resource, something seems to rise up, standing out sharp and clear. Yet though I long to pursue it, I can find no way of getting to it at all.”21 Analects 9.10 (Confucianism)

When your view is the same as your teacher’s, you destroy half your teacher’s merit; when your view surpasses your teacher’s, you are worthy to succeed him.22 Mumonkan 17 (Buddhism)

Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
Do you know an earthly person with the character of God?

Someone with the pure disposition of Jesus? Find that person and make him your friend. If you know a person of noble character, please follow him. If you know someone with a God-like disposition who brings harmony wherever he goes, follow him and attend him. Then you will surely gain the path of life. (2:318, July 7, 1957)

There is no life apart from the heart. The path through the valley of life is difficult and grim. When you seek a teacher, seek a teacher of the heart, not a teacher of knowledge. If you dig into the valley of the heart, the more you dig, the more tears you shed and the more your “self” disappears. (9:81, April 16, 1960)

Maybe you are someone with a talent for writing. After you write a particularly fine poem or essay, do you ever think, “I’m grateful to my teachers who taught me how to write well”? Do you ever miss your teachers and wonder how they were doing?

Do you remember a teacher who made a striking impression on you with something he wrote on the blackboard? Truly, they made great efforts to educate you.

Sometimes you resented a strict teacher who chastised you and gave you a hard time, but now you recognize that his training has made you a better writer. (104:278-79, June 1, 1979)

My idea is to give you an extremely hard time, in order to make you into filial children of God and loyal patriots in the service of your nation and the world.

Should I strike you if you do not go this way? In the relation between father and child, elder brother and younger brother, or teacher and disciple, one should say firmly, “Father, please cut off my bone!” “Elder brother, please cut off my bone!” “Teacher, please cut off my bone!” It is true love to make someone overcome his present difficulties by kicking him with your foot. (49:304, October 17, 1971)

A teacher who tells you, “You don’t need to study hard. Just take it easy,” is a fake. Why do your teachers push you to study hard? It is not for the sake of the present but for the future. They want you to prepare for the future. If you do as they say, your future will expand without a doubt. (93:232, June 5, 1977)

President Eu was my disciple; he went through a lot of suffering for my sake. For instance, he was deeply concerned about me when I was in prison.

When I think about him, I reflect on when I was lying in prison. I was pulled by his love. It made me want to see him. Whenever I sent him a note on a scrap of paper, he regarded it as precious as his life. (33:83 August 9, 1970)

Understanding Does Not Take Root without Properly Cultivating the Self

Jesus said to them, No one puts new wine into old wineskins; if he does, the new wine will burst the skins and will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.23 Luke 5.37-38

First, take up the words, Ponder their meaning, Then the fixed rules reveal themselves. But if you are not the right man, the meaning will not manifest itself to you. I Ching, Great Commentary 2.8.4 (Confucianism)

If there is no host on the inside to receive it [the Tao], it will not stay; if there is no mark on the outside to guide it, it will not go. If what is brought forth from the inside is not received on the outside, then the sage will not bring it forth. If what is taken in from the outside is not received by a host on the inside, the sage will not entrust it. Chuang Tzu 14 (Taoism)

There is the man who sees but has not seen Speech [the words of the Vedas]; there is the man who hears but has not heard Her, but to another She reveals her lovely form like a loving wife, finely robed, to her husband. Rig Veda 10.71.4 (Hinduism)

Hear then the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in his heart; this is what was sown along the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is he who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the delight in riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. As for what was sown on good soil, this is he who hears the word and understands it; he indeed bears fruit, and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty. Matthew 13.18-23: Parable of the Sower

When the man of highest capacities hears the Tao He does his best to put it into practice. When the man of middling capacity hears the Tao He is in two minds about it. When the man of low capacity hears Tao He laughs loudly at it. If he did not laugh, it would not be worth the name of Tao. Tao Te Ching 41 (Taoism)

Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
Why did God send me into situations that were very difficult to tolerate, like prison?

Looking back on it, I know it was to broaden my heart.

Why should you broaden your heart?

God wants to enter and live in you. He tries to step in with his [right] foot, but your heart is closed, and he cannot put it in.

Then He kicks you with His left foot again and again to enlarge your mind. God keeps on kicking until He can fit one foot inside, then two feet. Next, He would put His hands inside, and then put His head in. [Bending over to demonstrate.]

God can enter because your heart has enlarged. Eventually, it can become really big. I observe True Mother when she becomes pregnant. In the beginning her belly is small, but as time goes by it grows bigger and bigger. It increases until the baby is born; then it decreases again. It is the same with her womb: it starts out small, but look how it expands!

A ten-pound baby can grow within its watery bag. I thought, “How much can her womb stretch? The sac of my heart should stretch even more.” Ladies, have you ever thought that the baby in your womb might die because your womb could not stretch enough to accommodate it?

Then what about your heart?

When God’s seed is planted in the sac of your heart and starts to grow, it should grow to be as big as God Himself. But what if the sac of your heart cannot expand enough to contain God in all His immensity?

What would happen to God, who is growing inside?

If something goes wrong with the baby in your womb, you have a miscarriage after three months. Would God like to go into the sac of your heart if He thought it would miscarry in the middle of His growth? Would God want to plant His seed there? (110:325-26, January 4, 1987)