Humility

An attitude of humility is essential on the path to God. Any self-conceit, whether nurtured by superior intelligence, wealth, high status, or the praise of others, is an obstacle blocking our way.

Genuine humility requires a constant willingness to deny oneself, to be critical of oneself, to endure hardship without complaint, and to be open to Heaven’s guidance even when it differs from one’s preconceived concepts.

Humility requires sincerity and honesty; thus some passages liken the humble person to a little child, whose natural spontaneity and acceptance of life is the antithesis of the often-complicated personality of the adult with its many masks, hidden resentments, and prejudices.

Other scriptures teach us to cultivate humility by meditating on the insignificance and transience of the human being, who is nothing but a puff of wind, a bag of excrement, or food for worms.

Here, too, is the paradoxical wisdom that the humble and self-effacing person ultimately prospers and wins more respect from others than the person who is arrogant and powerful.

We have the example of Jesus, who took the path of humility to triumph over the Devil’s most deadly attack. Father Moon explains this in terms of the principle that humility, being in accord with the original way of life in Eden, aligns us with God and His creative power, while arrogance places us in Satan’s camp—ultimately a losing cause.

In another passage, he alludes to the natural cycle of rise and fall, where arrogance places us at the peak of the cycle, where the only way forward is to decline, while humility places us at the bottom, where all roads lead upward.

Blessed Are the Meek

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Matthew 5.5

Successful indeed are the believers who are humble in their prayers, and who shun vain conversation, and who are payers of the poor-due, and who guard their modesty. Qur’an 23.1-5

If you desire to obtain help, put away pride. Even a hair of pride shuts you off, as if by a great cloud. Oracle of Kasuga (Shinto)

Turn not your cheek in scorn toward folk, nor walk with pertness in the land. Lo! God loves not each braggart boaster. Be modest in your bearing and subdue your voice. Lo, the harshest of all voices is the voice of the ass. Qur’an 31.18-19

This is the man to whom I will look: he that is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. Isaiah 66.2

Now, in exile, the Holy Spirit comes upon us more easily than at the time the Temple was still standing. A king was driven from his realm and forced to become a wayfarer. When in the course of his wanderings, he came to the house of poor people, where he was given modest food and shelter, but received as a king, his heart grew light and he chatted with his hosts as intimately as he had done at court with his high courtiers. Now that He is in exile, God does the same.1 Dov Baer of Mezirech (Judaism)

Be humble, be harmless, Have no pretension, Be upright, forbearing; Serve your teacher in true obedience, Keeping the mind and body in cleanness, Tranquil, steadfast, master of ego, Standing apart from the things of the senses, Free from self; Aware of the weakness in mortal nature. Bhagavad-Gita 13.7-8 (Hinduism)

All men are children of Adam, and Adam was created from soil. Hadith of Tirmidhi (Islam)

Be of an exceedingly humble spirit, for the end of man is the worm. Mishnah, Avot 4.4 (Judaism)

O Lord, what is man, that thou dost regard him, or the son of man, that thou dost think of him? Man is like a breath, his days are like a passing shadow.
Psalm 144.3-4

Reflect upon three things, and you will not come within the power of sin: know from where you came, to where you are going, and before whom you will in future have to give account and reckoning. From where you came—from a fetid drop; to where you are going—to a place of dust, worms, and maggots; and before whom you will in future have to give account and reckoning—before the Supreme King of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He. Mishnah, Avot 3.1 (Judaism)

The Prophet said, “Have I not taught you how the inhabitants of Paradise will be all the humble and the weak, whose oaths God will accept when they swear to be faithful? Have I not taught you how the inhabitants of hell will be all the cruel beings, strong of body and arrogant?” Hadith of Bukhari (Islam)

It is humble people whom God protects and liberates; it is the humble whom He loves and consoles. To the humble He turns and upon them bestows great grace, that after their humiliation He may raise them up to glory. He reveals His secrets to the humble, and with kind invitation bids them come to Him. Thus, humble people enjoy peace in the midst of many vexations, because their trust is in God, not in the world. Hence, you must not think that you have made any progress until you look upon yourself as inferior to all others. Thomas á Kempis, Imitation of Christ 1.2 (Christianity)

Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
God’s love dwells upon the foundations of meekness, humility, fasting, sacrifice, and even martyrdom. (282:227, March 26, 1997)

The higher the religion, the less it stresses the self and the more it stresses meekness, humility, and one step further, sacrifice and service. Why must it do that? Those are the laws of the original homeland.

People are like wanderers searching for their original homeland. To train people in the laws of that homeland, the higher religions teach the way of sacrifice. (77:190, April 6, 1995)

Satan’s basic nature is arrogance and wrath. That is the way he deals with people in the world. Jesus, on the other hand, came before the people with meekness and humility.

Satan ultimately acknowledged Jesus because he knew that humility is in accord with the heavenly law. When you act with gentleness and humility, the satanic world naturally surrenders.

Jesus knew this principle, and therefore, he assumed the posture of gentleness and humility. You, too, can open up a new way to reach God… when you remain always gentle and humble.

Examine yourself: are you living by Jesus’ teachings of gentleness and humility, meekness and obedience, and sacrifice and service? If you are not practicing these teachings in your daily life, know that you still belong to Satan’s tribe. (3:187, October 27, 1957)

I examined the Book of Life in heaven. I saw that the people whose names are recorded in that book were all simple and lowly. Millionaires, famous preachers and politicians are not found there. (107:21, February 21, 1980)

The Garden of Eden is not a world filled with disputes. It is not a world where people promote themselves, but a world full of humility and love. (98:31, April 8, 1978)

How can we hold on to individualism?

There is not one part of us that we can claim as our very own. When we were conceived from our parents’ love and grew beginning from our mother’s ovum, 99.999 percent of our being was our mother’s bone, blood and flesh, and the other 0.001 percent was added from our father’s sperm. No one at the time of their birth has the concept, “I belong to myself.” (299:113, February 7, 1999)

At the Fall, evil began first and rose up, so we must carry out a strategy to push evil down and pull goodness up. How shall we carry this out? First, we must take control of our arrogance.

The Fall occurred when the archangel Lucifer and human beings pushed God aside and attempted to elevate themselves. Arrogance was Satan’s original nature. Arrogance is the desire to elevate oneself without regard to law, discipline, obligations, or the effect on the surrounding environment.

It is the desire to live unconstrained by justice or law. How do we describe a person who lives in accordance with the law? Do we say he is arrogant? No, we say he or she is as an honest person…

We must put a stop to behavior that ignores the law and disregards one’s position and surroundings. We must suppress arrogance and take on the quality of humility. (37:112, December 23, 1970)

When you are in a high position, there is no way to unite your mind and body. It is better to let yourself be stepped on. God has trampled on me for forty years, lest I get above myself. As you are stepped on, those elements in you that want to exalt themselves are smashed and brought back to unity.

Do you understand this? You should be cursed, trampled on and mistreated, just like the vagrant Bamboo Hat Kim. Regardless of how you are treated, you should discover the self that can accept all these tribulations gratefully. (144:231, April 25, 1986)

I never asked for blessings in my prayers. I never said, “God, please give me some money.” I thought, “I need to suffer more since I have not undergone enough hardships.” God likes such thinking. (102:314, February 21, 1979)

A Simple and Lowly Heart, Like that of a Child

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them, and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”2 Matthew 18.1-3

For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit and puts off the natural man and becomes a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becomes as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord sees fit to inflict upon him, even as a child submits to his father. Book of Mormon, Mosiah 3.19 (Latter-day Saints)

The great man is he who does not lose his child’s heart. Mencius IV.B.12 (Confucianism)

Within the world the palace pillar is broad, but the human heart should be modest. Moritake Arakida, One Hundred Poems about the World (Shinto)

Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
What kind of person does God choose to carry out His works?

There are eminent and powerful people who are ambitious to influence the world, but God does not choose them. He selects ordinary people, even laggards. God does not choose the people on top, but people on the bottom. (102:300, January 21, 1979)

Jesus said, “I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to babes.” (Matt. 11.25)

He was lamenting over the spiritual ignorance of the Jewish leadership of his time, while on the other hand, he was grateful that God bestowed grace upon pure and uneducated believers by revealing His providence to them.

In today’s Korean Christianity, at a time parallel to Jesus’ day, similar phenomena are taking place, albeit in more complex ways. Through pure and innocent lay believers, God has been revealing many heavenly secrets concerning the Last Days.

However, because they would be chastised as heretics if they were to proclaim them in public, they are keeping these truths to themselves.

Meanwhile, like the priests, rabbis and scribes of Jesus’ time, many Christian clergy take pride in their knowledge of the Bible and their ability to interpret it.

They take pleasure in the reverence they receive from their followers; they are content to carry on the imposing duties of their offices; yet, to God’s grief, they are entirely ignorant of God’s providence in the Last Days. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Second Advent 3.3.4)

May we lay down before Thee, Father, all the rituals, ideologies and concepts of the world. We ask that Thou dost grant us meek, humble minds like those of children. May we have humble minds that can be molded as Thou wouldst mold us. (7:7, July 5, 1959)

Father! Allow us to open our hearts, and to have hearts that long for Thee, like hungry babes longing for their mothers’ milk. (20:7, March 31, 1968)

Taking a Humble Position and Placing Others above Oneself

Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than yourselves. Philippians 2.3

Whoever proclaims himself good, know, goodness approaches him not. He whose heart becomes dust of the feet of all, Saith Nanak, pure shall his repute be. Adi Granth, Gauri Sukhmani 12, M.5, p. 278 (Sikhism)

A gentleman does not grieve that people do not recognize his merits; he grieves at his own incapacities. Analects 14.32 (Confucianism)

Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, “God, I thank thee that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I get.” But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, “God, be merciful to me a sinner!” I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for every one who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted. Luke 18.10-14

He does not show himself; therefore he is luminous. He does not justify himself; therefore he becomes prominent. He does not boast of himself; therefore he is given credit. He does not brag; therefore he can endure for long. It is precisely because he does not compete that the world cannot compete with him. Is the ancient saying, “To yield is to be preserved whole” empty words? Truly he will be preserved, and all will come to him. Tao Te Ching 22 (Taoism)

He who knows the masculine but keeps to the feminine, Becomes the ravine of the world. Being the ravine of the world, He dwells in constant virtue, He returns to the state of the babe. He who knows the white but keeps to the black, Becomes the model of the world. Being the model of the world, He rests in constant virtue, He returns to the infinite. He who knows glory but keeps to disgrace, Becomes the valley of the world. Being the valley of the world, He finds contentment in constant virtue, He returns to the Uncarved Block.3 Tao Te Ching 28 (Taoism)

In the barren north, there is a sea, the Celestial Lake. In it there is a fish, several thousand li in width, and no one knows how many li in length. It is called the leviathan. There is also a bird, called the roc, with a back like Mount T’ai and wings like clouds across the sky. Upon a whirlwind it soars up to a height of ninety thousand li. Beyond the clouds and atmosphere, with only the blue sky above it, it then turns south to the southern ocean. A quail laughs at it, saying, “Where is that bird trying to go? I spurt up with a bound, and I drop after rising a few yards. I just flutter about among the brushwood and the bushes. This is also the perfection of flying. Where is that bird trying to go?” This is the difference between the great and the small. Similarly, there are some men whose knowledge is sufficient for the duties of some office. There are some men whose conduct will benefit some district. There are some men whose virtue befits him for a ruler. There are some men whose ability wins credit in the country. In their opinion of themselves, they are just like what is mentioned above. Chuang Tzu 1 (Taoism)

Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
If you stay in a low position and try to put everyone else in a higher position, no walls will block your way. (230:35, April 15, 1992)

Goodness is quiet when evil is active because it cannot act in conjunction with evil. Goodness emerges only after the evil departs. (Way of God’s Will 1.1.2)

Evil started from one being who was arrogant and put himself in a high position.

The opposite of arrogance is humility. Our first task is to be humble. We must take the position opposite to what Satan takes delight in, or else we cannot succeed.

Instead of being arrogant, we must put ourselves in the position to sacrifice and do things at the cost of our lives. (52:302, January 9, 1972)

People who justify themselves cannot enter the Kingdom of God. The position of absolute faith is not a place to justify yourself. Rather, someone else should defend you while you keep silent. In the Kingdom of Heaven, you cannot be proud of your achievements.

What you thought was one hundred percent might, from God’s viewpoint, be only one percent. Therefore, a self-centered person cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

The Kingdom of God starts from absolute faith. When you live by absolute faith, you cannot insist on your own opinion… Instead, you must rely on other people who defend you and declare that you are correct.

That is the only way to establish the correctness of your opinion according to the standard of absolute faith. If you are not living this way, than you had better change and live by the absolute standard; only this way can you establish the Kingdom of Heaven. (46:79-80, July 25, 1971)

If you are clinging to God, it is okay to boast that God is helping you. God likes to hear people proclaiming His works. However, if you boast about your own doings, everything you did will be shattered. (342:11, December 29, 2000)

What kind of being is God?

Does He say, “I am God Almighty! I created you to serve Me. Love Me and sacrifice everything for Me!”? A being who says such a thing is not the true God.

God has set the tradition of sacrifice and service by changing babies’ soiled diapers and cleaning up after feeble and doddering parents. God wants you to live by this tradition and be His textbooks for education in meekness and humility. (116:68, December 20, 1981)

Some people follow God’s Will for a time but then abandon it. Some people when they learn of God’s Will do not want to separate from the secular world; they may go back and forth for a time but end up living no differently than secular people. Some people think that they are living for God’s Will, but whenever they do something good they brag about it.

Finally, there are people who sacrifice for God’s Will yet still feel ashamed that they did not do more. They are always looking at things from the perspective of God’s Will, not from their own perspective. Among these four categories of people, only those in the last category will last all the way to the end. (89:232, December 1, 1976)

America emerged as the fruit of history, but now she must go back and connect with the Cause of history. In other words, she must rediscover God. America is the most powerful nation in the West, but on its way back, should it continue increasing? Or should it decrease? This is a question. In seeking God, America should lower itself.

Why do arrogant people need to learn humility?

It is to return to the Cause. However, you [who are returning to the Cause] should not only be humble. Sometimes you need to assert yourself. You cannot just be humble all the time. Powerfully march forward! This means advancement to the result. (117:93, February 14, 1982)