This training period was a short period, but today it comes to a close. Although the training brought many inconveniences because the environment was not favorable, I believe it became a good opportunity to think deeply again, reflecting on the past, your present position, and the problem of your future course.
If One Were to Make a New Departure
When we look at the present position of our Unification Church, and the method of activity the officers have used until now, one cannot expect innovative development hereafter. That is because, though we have walked forth in that manner with the old way of thinking and the old attitude of living, or even the old method of witnessing and posture of faith, we have not brought a result worth expecting today.
If we had brought a good result, that would be one thing; but seen from a position in which we ourselves publicly acknowledge that we are not so, it means we cannot but escape from a posture of faith, attitude of living, and method of witnessing like those of the past and become a newly changed figure. That is why I consider that without presenting a new posture of faith, a new attitude of living, a new action, it is difficult to bring a new development.
The year 1970 is an important age in which our Unification Church crosses one pass of the second seven-year course. Moreover, we, as the protagonists charged with the Providence of Restoration, have before us the great task of national restoration in this period centered on the second seven-year course. It means that a grave and important time in which one can connect Asia and exert influence upon the world is precisely before us. At such a point, it means it will not do with the posture of faith until now, the attitude of living until now, the method of witnessing until now. It means one cannot help but present something innovative here.
Since God now requires a new direction, if each of you does not face it with a new posture, will it not be that one cannot hold great expectation of us? Seen from this point, you must know that the motive for setting up this training session was that through this training session such an occasion might be prepared. That is why now we say, let us make a new departure; we must make a new departure.
Then if one has known the Principle until now, what must one do from that position of knowing? It means one must cross beyond the standard of faith that knows the Principle and discover something new. For that, you must, transcending the methods you have used habitually until now, be equipped with an attitude of mind from a new angle, or add something new to your posture of living.
Furthermore, in going forward in the life of faith, each of you must fulfill your responsibility. In every respect, one must stand in a subjective position. To become a subject, it means one cannot help but become a being who can exert influence upon one’s own domain.
Accordingly, in order for me myself to receive grace again, I must cast away all the old ways. It means one cannot receive grace by those ways. Furthermore, one cannot receive grace while holding the ways the responsible individuals of the Unification Church have used until now. Therefore, upon welcoming the 1970s, it means you yourselves must be equipped with the right posture of faith so that something new can reach the whole.
Then what must one do for that?
There will be holy ground in the place where you live. How many people keep that place? If there are people keeping that holy ground, it means one must increase the people there more than twofold. For example, if there are ten people, it means one must secure more than those ten people. In this way, without presenting something new and giving influence, one cannot make a new departure.
So it means do not lead a prayer life without a goal in your prayer life. It means set up a goal and live. It means one must set up one goal and, for three years if three years or ten years if ten years, go forward with an attitude of living that invests everything of oneself and settles the matter decisively together with God.
For that, it means something must without fail differ from the life of faith until now. Without setting a substantially renewed self here, one cannot plan new development, and the question becomes how one resolves this.
The Pursuit of a New Purpose and the Necessity of Deciding on an Object
Thinking in this way, you can know at once if you analyze your own single day’s living straight through and think and pray about whether you have come forth so. God is not within the sphere of the habitual. It means God is not within a sphere of social living that has become habitual and customary. Because God is a most high and most great being (지고지대 至高至大), He comes seeking only where one devotes one’s utmost sincerity.
That is why in the Bible it says,
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.”
It means God moves only in a place of sincerity where one gives all one’s heart.
In that standard of “giving all,” it will not do if there is a difference between the standard with which one faced yesterday and the standard with which one faces today. It means God works only when new spiritual content is compounded there, and there is something more that can be added.
In this respect, people who study their field of specialization hold interest and immerse themselves in research because they research with interest in groping for something new. It means one gains strength from finding what is new. It is the same with God.
Unlike the manner and the position in which countless forebears came forth on the course of the Providence of Restoration, and unlike the manner in which we acted in the past, from now on one must be equipped with a new figure and be able to attend God with new conviction. God desires that. God always wishes to face what is virgin and what is new. If it is not virgin, He does not face it. That is why how one connects with something new and goes on forming a bond with God is an important question.
If you would pray, you must do it before beginning the day’s work. So if we ask which time is the most important, dawn is the most important. This time is an important time zone that determines the victory or defeat of the day. One must pray at this time. In praying deeply, to feel some field one has never felt until now, one must not pray centering on oneself. One must pray centering on a great purpose such as the nation if the nation, the world if the world.
In pursuing such a purpose, there will be the nation and the world as requisites forming a relative standard, but in setting up a relative standard in the living environment, it means one without fail needs a partner with whom one can harmonize, setting out one’s own problem of heart (심정). It means a person is necessary. If a man, a man is necessary; if a woman, a woman. It means a relative person is necessary with whom one can feel more new and harmonize newly through a day.
In leading a life of faith centering on such a new aspect, rather than a prayer of vaguely devoting sincerity, a person is necessary with whom one can devote sincerity together while putting it into practice. It means one can feel a deeper value through a person. Even though one has had a mysterious experience, it means it will not do with that experience alone. Because that is in every respect limited from an individual position, it means one cannot form a relationship with the whole centering only on an individual environment.
Then what must one do to form a relationship with the whole?
One must inform the object of every fact one has experienced. That is, one must leave some stimulus so that a man, if a man, or a woman, if a woman, can feel responsibility together. It means that, otherwise, one cannot develop. That is why, if one were to decide a new fact, one must raise a new stimulus in the object.
That is why, with people centered until now on the simple individual, however much one prays and devotes sincerity, no new flavor comes out. It means those people have already prayed all the prayers worth praying, and repented all, and experienced all. It means that with the old thing itself, with that environment, it will not do. That is why one must go on groping for a new direction.
In this way, to widen a new position, there must be new people. Then what must one do? Here one must without fail take the initiative oneself and witness to others. It will not do for another to witness.
If one is dragged along with another taking the initiative, it means that without fail one grows gradually more distant without knowing it oneself. Therefore, one must oneself take the initiative and be able without fail to exert influence upon the object. How one gives such new education is an important question.
If there be a person called A or a person called B, among them there will without fail be a special person. When one faces that person, one will without fail feel that he is a person absolutely necessary in going forth and establishing my Will. It means that if you pay attention to such a point, you know at once what kind of person is a necessary person. When one meets such a person, eating, clothing, and living are not the problem. Transcending faith, one must pour out all one’s sincerity and love abundantly upon him. It means that if one does so, results without fail appear indirectly.
What Developing Faith Is
If, environmentally, you accumulate such achievements of goodness and, without losing the fruit of new inspiration, always cultivate a new position, it means infinite development without fail follows. In doing so, man or woman is not a problem.
If there be no one whom one seeks, one must gather even little children and tell them fairy tales and sing children’s songs and feel a new stimulus by which one can be absorbed in that environment. It means that if one feels that, God is together with that place too. To hold such a new stimulus, you cannot but continually do the work of pioneering a new field within your living. Otherwise, it means one cannot bring new development in the year 1970.
Then what attitude of mind must you hold in facing people?
It means do not stand in a position of asking. It means always hold a mind that says you must without fail give something. It means that if one stands in a position of receiving from every person one meets, one cannot become a responsible person. Therefore, one must without fail give something. It is an “I” who must give. It means one must give something to every person.
If some person comes to visit one’s own home, it means one must without fail send that person off having placed something satisfying in their arms. God is without fail together with such a position.
If one does such a thing for three or more people in a day, it will be said that he has completely set that day before the Will and carried out a central responsibility. In the end one can stand within the sphere of God’s love.
The greatest problem is whether the ministers today can do this. It means it is a great problem for one who has taken responsibility for the problem of another’s life. So it means do not become habitual. It means habit is the most chronic bad practice.
If, after marrying and raising children, you lead a habitual life, that becomes hardened in the body. It means that in such an environment there is no time for special sincerity or prayer. It means there is no time when one can pray because the children are making a racket beside one.
That is why one must innovate the environment. One must always have a time of praying in a quiet place without children, or else go seeking holy ground. And thus, one must settle on a subject position in which one can be stimulated by oneself in one’s own inner field. It means that to expect one’s own development while remaining just as one is in the habitual living environment until now is a delusion. That is why one must always introduce new conditions.
It is likewise the same in the family. If a husband shows his wife some boundary line, she comes to say, “So my husband is such a person,” and to do as she pleases, thinking, “If I do this, he will do this.” It means do not become such a man who, having thus drawn a line, fits exactly what the wife has planned. It means the husband must make his wife always feel something new when she faces him. When it becomes so, that wife will respect her husband more as the days go by, and even if one tells her not to draw near to her husband, she will draw nearer. It means that even if one tells her not to be for that husband, she will be more for him.
Just as when it is exposed in broad daylight, since everything of oneself has come to be seen inwardly and outwardly and one is drawing a clear line, it comes to reach a saturated state in which there is nothing beyond that. If one cannot receive a new stimulus here, one goes down from that standard. When it becomes so, family discord arises.
That is why, if one would face one’s wife, it means one must carry out a careful strategy. It is the same in facing children too. When they have not yet come to their senses, they follow their parents well, so it is all right. But when they gradually grow and come to their senses and can reckon inside and outside, the father as father must present something new. That new thing will become what is necessary for his formation of character. Then he will, on that foundation, feel all the more deeply the value of his father and mother. Without standing in such a position, one cannot develop one’s own family to a hopeful and high-dimensional position.
Live a Life That Becomes a Stimulus
It is the same with the lives of ordinary ministers. When one gives a lecture in one’s own region or district, it means the members all know, saying, “Oh! The regional leader is giving the Principle lecture; after that sentence this sentence will come out.” So it means it will not do to give only the same lecture as three years ago.
In the past, one gave lectures by such a method, but now it means one must know how to attach branches to it and add new explanations and content to a lecture. In its content, one must tell experiences necessary for making spiritual development. It means one must give the lecture necessary to fit the atmosphere at that time. If you have ministered for three years, only by telling a story that can give a stimulus even once does it become a help to the members. Members who have not felt such actual feeling do not attend Sunday worship well. From this viewpoint, we can know that you have until now been far too negligent in lecturing.
Accordingly, one must present something new even from now. One must give a stimulus by whatever means. One must supplement it even by praying. If that still will not do, it means one must settle it decisively, even staking one’s life.
Even in going along the road, you must go holding a mind that seeks something new. Furthermore, it means do not simply go even when you go to church. Even when going to church, one must go holding a mind that one is always coming into contact with a new position and environment for something new to arise. In going to church too, one must not go only by a straight course but must also go around. Though one must go south, it means trying to go north. Why? It is to find a new road.
Furthermore, if such actual feeling does not arise, it means trying to change all the household furnishings. It means do not simply leave them as they are even for several months. It means trying to turn them upside down. Then thoughts change. Doing this is without fail necessary.
Even when praying, the feeling differs in the case of praying before the platform and in the case of praying at the very back. It means the feeling differs again in the case of praying among the audience. That is why the question is how one gropes for environmental change. It means this is necessary. If you try praying a mysterious prayer, it means it differs in every way from an ordinary prayer. It means east and west, south, north, and center each differ.
If one would grasp a new emotion through experience, one must change the living environment. To put it another way, it means that if one would change one’s heart (심정) within one’s own living, a method of remodeling the environmental conditions is without fail necessary.
If there be a husband who goes to a company, it means it is not interesting if one always faces him in the same way, meaninglessly each time he leaves for and returns from work.
Drama, simply put, is laughing and weeping. Drama makes one laugh and makes one weep; then why does one like it and even pay money to go and see it? It means that seeing it, one does laugh, but one laughs from a position of a different angle.
Furthermore, the weeping too is weeping from a different angle. It means that being able to see from such a different angle is necessary. Why does one go to see it paying money? It means one sees it because one can feel something new from a different angle and receive a stimulus that can exert influence upon a new field and obtain a gain.
When you come to stand in a position of standing on the platform and guiding the multitude, it means you must do everything. When praying, one must pray cultured prayers and must pray intellectual prayers. At times one must pray solemn prayers and at times prayers flowing like a clear stream, and one must also try praying from such a position of entering some valley and groping and seeking one’s way step by step as though groaning in pain. Truly, one must go on settling new content of heart (심정) while coming into contact with various circumstances. This is absolutely necessary in a minister’s life.
When such living becomes habitual, one can speak in all four directions with only one topic. It means one can speak in many directions. If one looks westward from the east, that scenery looks different. It means it is the same as scenery looking different according to the difference of light when the sunlight shines, or according to the degree of light and shade.
That is why it means that if one does not feel new emotions and move accordingly, God does not move. That is why one must not like only the time of facing and speaking with fine people, but must be able to like facing an exceedingly worthless person too. Even in facing a worthless person, one must be able to put seolleongtang in an earthen bowl and eat together, and even though there be a manure bin beside one, one must be able to exchange conversation while smelling the odor. When one has done so, it means God is together.
Such a state can be called the highest state and a mysterious realm. If one adds that there is not planar content but three-dimensional content, an explosive impact unfolds. That is why what you must always know is that unless it is new, one cannot make a new departure. It means what is new is absolutely necessary.
When you preach, it means that if the members know that you did that topic once in the old days, they think it unpleasant. It means that when giving the Principle lecture too, if one does it in the old manner, it is unpleasant. That is because it is the same as a person feeling change according to the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn, and winter. It means that it is not that one’s mood is always good because it is morning. It means there are days that are unusually gloomy even though there is no worry at all. It means there are times when one is gloomy by oneself even though the morning sunlight is bright and the weather refreshing. At such times, what must one do to resolve it? It means that if there is nothing stimulating that can suddenly change this, go seeking into a still gloomier position.
In this way, one must supplement it by giving a new stimulus that can be contrary, or by raising a direct new stimulus that can overcome it. If you cannot set up a plan of resolution and go on regulating each day’s living, you will not be able to guide the spirits of the many people hereafter.
What Is Most Necessary in Making a New Departure
It means do not face people carelessly. When you look at that person, you must see the forebears behind him and see the past and present. What shall I newly discover from the position in which I now see? It means one must think of this. One must be able to know what his living is like just by seeing the movement of his pupils. Just as one can know it just by seeing the movement of that person’s pupils when he has done something wrong or done something that pricks his conscience, it means everything appears in the expression. It means that when one faces a person, the expression already differs.
In this way, if one tries to discover something new, it means one can discover something new, regardless of who the object is. Only by discovering something new does a new method come out. When one has not discovered it, one must present a condition to oneself and stand in a position where one can discover something new. It means that, otherwise, one cannot bring new development.
When you give the Principle lecture, it means it will not do to memorize and rattle off only a few contents you have seen and heard before and written down, in the manner of what this Bible verse is and what this is. You must, without fail, before speaking some main point, first know the overall content and be intoxicated in it yourself and feel a new flavor.
For you to move an audience, you must first take hold of the Principle book and shed tears. One must become a person who, taking hold of that Principle book and reading through the night, begrudges the passing of time and grasps through experience the mysteriousness on every page. After feeling that, try preaching intoxicated with the Principle. See how a work of inspiration arises in the audience… Then undoubtedly a new work of inspiration unfolds. That is why what is dead, that is, what has lost vital power, degenerates, and what is alive, without fail, develops. If it develops, something new arises. That is the principle.
Now, in the arena of heading toward the 1970s, centering on this year, what is most necessary to bear the responsibility of leading these 1970s? It is a new departure. “Let us make a new departure.” In making a new departure, it will not do with the old way of thinking. If it is unpleasant to be called by the name Park so-and-so, it means have them call it in reverse. It means make all your thoughts new. If the clothes one always wears are in the wardrobe, it means one should make all those clothes over anew.
For that, a resolve by which one can oneself make a new departure is necessary. Just as a monk shaves his head in Buddhism to enter the mountains and practice, it means that to enter a new road of loyalty, a new figure is necessary. You have, during this period, studied the Principle over again and met many people of society as well. Among you there will also be people who hold a mind of respecting them.
So one may say it is han that one could not study and han that one lacks ability, but it means, absolutely, do not think that your ability is insufficient. It means the Teacher can say in one hour what those people would say in three hours. It means that it is not a problem.
What is the problem? It means the problem is becoming a scholar who can present something new that can resolve every requisite and raise a worldwide event. Only a person who has done much research in such a field becomes an excellent scholar.
If there be a person among the Unification Church members today who escapes from ordinary feelings of living and goes on pursuing something new every day from such a viewpoint, and actually experiences that God cooperates upon that foundation, that person will develop infinitely.
Accordingly, when such of you pray, it will become a solemn prayer time.
Furthermore, if it be a time of conveying the Word, it will become a solemn time of the Word. Such a result will without fail appear wherever you go.
Resolve and Practice
Re-creation is something new being added as a plus. Is that not so? From one, it must become two. Then what must one do for it to become two? It means one must become a matrix that can give newness. Because the history of restoration is a history of re-creation, it means one must present something new here. Who must carry out that subject mission today? It is not God who does it; a person must do it. It means the human being must do it.
Seen from this point, it means that everything at all one sees and hears while living is not accidental. It means all of that becomes material of education that can educate me. When one passes through a village, a fight breaking out too has no relation to me, but it means it is not accidental. It means that through that one must reflect on whether one is not oneself a person with an aptitude for fighting in the street.
You may think it has no relation to me, but can one conclude that such a person will not come out in the time of one’s own sons and daughters or grandchildren? It means one cannot conclude. It means that it is by no means another’s affair. It means such a thing can happen any number of times.
Therefore, in your living centering on a day, you must form good relationships with the given environment and realize something new there, and go on forming a bond of what you have realized together with God. How one plants that bond one has formed before many people is the responsibility one must carry out as a minister.
That is why it means do not lose what you have experienced. One must try it on someone. It means try giving it. Then one can know what the result becomes. Only by doing this is something new obtained. It means in the end one does not become a large vessel all at once. Only after passing through a long time and having the experience of lonely toil does one know how to fathom people. Therefore, only by first settling one’s own position can one appear as a new subject substance in fathoming people.
Now in the arena of finishing the training and returning, there will be people who hold a more troubled mind than when they came up. When they go down to the provinces, there will be people who pant to resolve the difficult circumstances of the regional headquarters, and there will be all sorts of people, such as those agonizing over their problems of living. Then how shall one resolve such problems? It means it will not do to say, “Aigo, I am dying.” It means, go back with a new mind, a new standard, a new resolve, and a new direction.
Until before coming here, it was my figure that had to weep in a difficult position, but for myself, who must now newly depart, one must go on handling things newly from a new angle and must go on being active, having made a new resolve centering on God. It means resolving that one will make any adventure to find a plan of resolution.
You must know the fact that otherwise you will retreat on the road you go. Though there will be much that you obtain through this training period, what has been obtained may, on the contrary, become a counteracting result that can break you.
Now, welcoming the 1970s, we shoulder a heavenly mission of having to develop ourselves anew. This is an unavoidable task the present age requires of us. That is why you must fundamentally change this spiritual living until now and go on making a factor of new inspiration within a day’s sphere of living. It means that only in thus widening a foundation of living through actual experience can one bring new development. It means it will not do to continue in the same manner as now even though the place we must go is still far off.
Accordingly, if you have listened to a talk for one hour, it means speaking for three hours. It means, do it until your voice grows hoarse. You must convey the Word as one who has taken charge of responsibility, but what must one do if one’s voice grows hoarse so that one cannot convey the Word? It means one must be able to give inspiration even by making gestures with eyes and feet like a mute. One must go forward with such resolve.
It means it will not do with the thought of nurturing life in the spare time after normally eating three meals a day. What is wrong must be cut off. Nurturing one life is by no means an easy matter. It means it cannot be done without devoting sincerity. It means it will not do with what is left over after using. It means it will not do with something like dregs left over from eating either. It means boldly cut such things away. God is together with such a position.
The Essential Attitude a Minister Must Hold
You must make your living habits so. The very first thing must be offered before God. It means what is virgin must be offered before God. It means God is not together where there is nothing virgin. It means God is not together where there is nothing new. You must know that. An offering, too, will not do with what another has left over. It means that it is defiled. A person who has received grace can know at once. That is why one is not allowed to go to an unclean place.
So one must directly experience a life in which, centering solely on God, one can stimulate oneself with something new. If one is active while feeling such a heart (심정), multiplication without fail arises there. Then one develops. New sprouts come out on a living tree. It means yesterday and today differ. Vital power without fail throbs there. On the other hand, a tree without roots is a dead tree. It means it changes so that yesterday and today differ.
On the day you lose such a feeling, it means praying for life and death. It means one must accumulate sincerity even by praying through the night. God may deliberately seek to take away that time when you try to lead such a life.
If it becomes so, however much one makes effort, one will be unable to find hope however one would find it. It means there are times when the more one makes effort, the more one enters a darker corner. It means that when it becomes so, one must be able to fight all the more strongly, holding a mind that says one will make even the Satan who follows one about submit to my side and serve God.
If you make one wrong remark, that influence goes on for several days, several weeks. It means that if one feels a pricking of conscience, it goes on even for several months. Though you may not have felt such a thing, you must feel how much anxiety Heaven holds concerning you when you are so. So how important is one remark? In handling the problem of another’s life, one must know well what essential attitude one must take. It means one must keenly feel such a problem.
For the nation’s sake, it will not do with patriotism alone. One must become a patriot. It means only by holding patriotism and acting as a patriot can one bear fruit. It means that it becomes a decisive factor on the actual stage.
You have come forth following the road of the Will for several years until now. But if you pass the time muddling along with a standard like today’s, that time will simply flow away without any worth.
I must dig down to the very bottom of my living and observe everything of reality. It means one must stand in such a position and come out with something new.
Have you ever, at some time, held such a mind?
One must think about how much one has worked centering on the Will in actual living during the twenty-four hours of a day and how much I have pushed forward while feeling the value of it while facing the Will. How many such hours will there indeed be? It means a time when one can do so is necessary.
Also, one must try to have such a time in which one can say one can believe by confirming through the sensations felt through all my sense organs, such as eyes and ears and mouth and nose; that is, through intuition. How many such hours one holds is important. People who center on individual living do not feel it well, but for people who lead a graceful life, it means the created things they always see feel different from before. It means they are always new. It means it is new even when seen in the morning and new even when seen in the evening. It means that when God’s grace slowly comes surging, one feels mysteriousness three-dimensionally.
If there be a person who thus perceives, he is a happy person. Such a person comes to stand in a position where he can praise his nobility while feeling infinite value, just as Shakyamuni said, “In heaven and on earth I alone am honored.”
In going forth following the Will and leading a life of faith, when you look back upon your own past, you will feel that the past is dragging you. So you say the past was good and wish to return to that past. Among those who joined long ago, there will also be people who say the 1960s were good.
You must know what essential attitude you must take and what you must be equipped with. It means to agonize over such a problem. It means it will not do to be as now. You must know that only by standing in a position where one can feel something new even by touch can one make much development.
Become a Matrix That Can Stimulate God
Now when you finish the training and return to your places, you will come face-to-face with your wives and children. Then ask that child, “What kind of father do you wish me to become for you?” How do you think he will answer? It means this is a great problem. Does he wish for you to become a father whom God loves?
Does he wish for you to become a father who receives the citizenry’s love in the Republic of Korea?
Or does he wish you to become a father whom the children or the mother can like? Then at first they perhaps wish you to appear as a father whom they themselves as children can like in their eyes, but it means their inner wish is that you become a father whom the world can like. Is that not your family? Also, they will wish for you to become a father whom God can like. And thus will they not wish you to become a father who can leave every bond of blessing of the heavenly world before later generations? When we think of such things, it means the problem is serious.
And when I said my children were lovely, centering on what was that standard of loveliness? Did I say they were lovely from the position of a physical parent holding physiological feelings? Or did I say they were lovely as sons of God who can penetrate heavenly hearts? It means the problem is great.
It is likewise the same in facing one’s wife. It will not do in the manner of saying that since you are my wife and I am your husband, you must live like this. There the bond of heaven and earth is entwined. It means one must innovate the habitual attitude of living with which countless husbands and wives until now have faced each other. So one must do well.
Whether facing God or facing descendants, you must become the matrix of a motive that can eternally stimulate God and can be a plus before God.
Will it not be that one must become a husband and wife holding such content?
The conclusion is that when a husband faces his wife or a wife faces her husband, they must face each other thinking of it as a bond of husband and wife that cannot be seen even among the greatest masterpieces and must live pledging so to each other before heaven and earth. There is a need to research and a need to seek when such a time will be. When we think from such a viewpoint, it means that for a husband and wife of heart (심정), there is dwelling content that can stimulate other people because they develop infinitely centering on the spiritual world to the degree of having no limit point. So it means excavating that. That is necessary.
Why is the season of adolescence a good time in one’s lifetime?
That time is a time that is not forgotten in one’s whole life. It means that at that time it seems one could lift and set down even the whole under heaven with one’s own hand. It means it seems that if someone handed one the world, it would come into one’s hand. It means everything one faces feels only new. It means that when spring comes and one sees the snow piled in the valley melting and causing a landslide, one greatly marvels. That looks splendid.
Furthermore, it means that seeing a startled fawn running away, one says it is splendid. It means that adolescence is precisely the time when one holds such reserve strength of feeling everything freely and is stimulated by infinite value and also absorbs it and forms a relationship with oneself.
Because the period of standing on tiptoe and developing while setting out such passion of love and a new world is the season of adolescence, at that time one grows luxuriantly in all four directions. It is a time just like spring when barley grows luxuriantly.
But among those luxuriant leaves, one stalk must come out. But one does not know where that stalk will come out. It means the season of adolescence is the same as that. It means that the season of adolescence, centered on new love precisely the time that stimulates a being in a subject position, in which those leaves can stretch out anywhere in the four directions in place of the stalk and can hold within an infinite creative world?
It is likewise the same in the life of faith. However advanced in years a person one faces, one must somehow perceive such a feeling. It means that if it be a grandmother, when one calls her, it does not end with calling, but only by meeting that grandmother with an emotion beyond calling her does one become closer than anyone. Only by holding such an emotion will one be able, in the field of heart (심정), to surpass the chronic ground of heart of the satanic world until now and raise the stimulus of a new spring.
To put it another way, it means one must appear as a subject being who can reproduce the conditions of adolescence and prepare a capacity by which one can be victorious. It means that saying, “This and that…” to boast of the Unification Church is not the problem. It is not that just because one has oneself given and received a new experience together with God, multiplication unfolds at once. It means that only when one has, together with a new experience, prepared a foundation on which one can become one with God from a new position, does a power of multiplication that can newly adapt arise centering on that foundation.
A Unification Church Member Worthy of the Name
You must adapt to this centering on such a principle. Then your attitude of living until now will differ. Think of setting out our Unification Church. It means all is good. It means the Principle too is good. Then how well do we know God? Setting aside the fact that there is or is not a spiritual world, if there be a person who thinks the Unification Church is nothing special, it means that person is a mad fellow.
That you will know well even through the testimony of many people of this age until now. If the Unification Church has the Principle that makes one know the substance of God, that is enough; what more would one wish for!
But people say the Unification Church’s Principle is good and everything is good, but it has no money. Well, what will you do if you have money? Can one exchange God for money? Can one exchange the Principle for money? We hold such infinite value that cannot be exchanged for anything. Can one put this on a scale and weigh it? It means that those who think it cheap, even though it cannot be weighed even if one put the whole under heaven on the scale, are mad. They are mad, and thoroughly so.
When you think, how many people indeed among the world’s humankind until now believe that there is a spiritual world? How many ministers know that fact? It means they do not know. But though you have nothing outwardly and are of a shabby figure, because you know such facts undoubtedly, you are standing in a position where you can assert with a hundred percent confidence on the road we go. That is what it means. Is it not better than those ministers? You must know that it is better than the world’s doctors of learning.
When one thinks of such value, though one could speak from a position that shines brighter and higher than a diamond, it means there are people who set this aside and go seeking a place like a manure bin. So it means kill yourself completely. It means trying to develop anew according to the Principle and making it bloom fully. It means making it so that one can appear under the conditions the Principle has presented. One must make it so that the spiritual world too can appear fully. This is a problem you must think about: What problem is money? Money simply follows along.
To enter such a state, it means one must go into the inner room of another’s house where there is a husband and, insisting for more than a year, take that auntie away. It is not that I say take her away in a bad sense. It means that if one moves her in heart (심정) and in every aspect, that auntie will undoubtedly follow. In this way, Unification Church members must hold the confidence that they can do any work whatever.
Without doing so, one cannot control the great fight that is coming. It means one cannot make the satanic world submit. So one must try any experience, whatever.
For that, it means, disregarding even face, hold confidence and sit upright and convey the Word whatever the husband may say. When it becomes so, he will not be able to speak carelessly. It means only when there is such something does authority arise. When one goes forth centering on such tremendous authority and power, they are made to welcome them.
You are stalwarts who can melt down the whole under heaven, and yet what is this! Being less than a pawn in a game of chess, so trivially, is that a Unification Church member? It means you must not be in such an idle position.
Just as the Teacher has until now carried on worldwide activity and built a spiritual foundation, you too must be active. It means that if you, though you hold such a tremendous background, cannot be active, it is trivial.
Looking only at the relationship of having been born as a child, one is a child of True Parents, so with that alone one might hum in delight. That will be one’s original excitement. It means, even though one eats poor food that not even a beggar would eat, defend to the death the position in which one is placed. It means the time will come before long. It means, overcome until then.
The Difference Between One Who Prospers and One Who Perishes
Seen from this point, what more would you wish for here?
In an age of strategy like the present, one must wear silk clothes inside and rags outside. It means one must go forth having done so strategically. It is not that your fate is such; it means to do so strategically. We have come forth centering on this until now. It means that the Teacher’s being driven wearing handcuffs without any crime at all is all such a strategy. It means do not hold the thought that I must escape from that environment and live. It means one must say, “Just wait and see! However much you strike me, someday I will take an absolute condition by which I can make you completely submit.”
Even though it must be so, this is not taking off the rags but taking off even the silk clothes inside and going about shouting with only a bare body, so who sympathizes? It means such a person deserves to be reviled. It means being kicked wherever one goes and being driven and chased. One must receive indemnity. The Teacher thinks so. It means one goes about missing meals and suffering until now because one is worthless.
The Teacher too had times of being hungry after coming out as a refugee. For a month or two, I went about begging for food. Even when the Teacher fled as a refugee, he left last after the people had fled. That was because in whatever house one went, there was rice to take out. Seeing that, it would look like a thief since one takes another’s goods as one pleases, but if the owner is absent on the refugee road, it becomes the villagers’ own, so even if one takes it all, it does not become a sin. It means that if one takes it, they are rather thankful.
When the Teacher begged for food, he ate at the threshold of that household. Food that is thus begged digests better. It means the more one eats, the tastier it is. You, too, will have experienced it. If one eats one meal after starving for several days, one eats it instantly, does one not? It means one feels good even eating Memorial Day rites' food.
That day is remembered as late January. In the confusion of war, a bedding bundle was unnecessary. Because a bedding bundle would be a burden if one were to go all the way to Busan, we sold it all and exchanged it for a sack of unhulled rice.
Where was there hulled rice at that time?
Since there was no rice, we exchanged it for unhulled rice and, sweating profusely, trod it with our feet and hulled it. At that time we said, with the people who had come down together, let us eat our fill once. At that time it could not be helped to eat. Because it was not to the degree that one would freeze to death lacking bedding. Doing so, we made rice cakes for four days.
Since that was three small mal, it would be about one and a half large mal. We made it all into rice cakes, and the three of us sat and ate it all. We left about one bowl and gave it to the landlady too. Because we had been so unable to eat, we did so and ate our fill.
Even amid such things, when it became truly difficult, God helped. It means He prepared something to eat. At some times, an auntie I did not know would come out from a house and greet me, saying I was an honored guest. When I asked why, she said that in a dream she was told an honored guest was coming, so attend to him. It means the spiritual world was already cooperating through that person. So it means one absolutely does not starve to death. It means the Teacher has truly many such matters. It means there are many. That is why the Teacher does not worry about such problems even now.
How would it feel if I incurred the most debt in the world and collapsed?
It means I have not tried that. When I think about what God would be like gazing upon it if I, thinking I would not repay the debt, incurred much debt and came to be attacked by creditors, it means that too is splendid. So it means that however it turns out, everything is a matter of one’s own inborn fate. There is nothing to think differently about.
A Person Who Prepares for Tomorrow
You saying it is hard is all nonsense. It means it sounds like nonsense to the Teacher. Who set up the standard of living that says it has been hard until now?
Who set up that standard that says one must eat three meals a day?
Did God set it up, or did you yourselves, who are resourceful, set it up? Who set it up? It is unpleasant even to follow this standard, so saying it is hard makes no sense. From now on, the standard of living is one meal a day. What will you do if that one meal is plain barley rice and soybean-paste stew? What will you do if you say that is my fate and my standard of living? I think that that is the standard of living I absolutely hoped for. Must it not be so?
If people of the ancient gathering-economy age who lived eating only fruit ate plain barley rice, is that not a glory? It means how precious is a position where one can, while living in a group, cook even plain barley rice. They would have regarded that as a great boast and given thanks to God. It means returning to such a primitive position where one can give thanks to God even while facing plain barley rice. If one eats plain barley rice that one has farmed and made oneself for the first time, would one feel bad or good? How deliciously would one eat it?
It means, who set up your standard of living?
You have until now habitually eaten three meals a day. But the trouble is that it goes down well. If there is none, one must know how to starve too. It is enough to say that starving is my living.
If by chance one comes to eat one meal a day to the full, it means one need only set that up again as my standard of living. What is there to worry about? Do you think that in carrying out Restoration through Indemnity it will be possible while doing all one does in the world, and seeing all one sees, and feeling all one feels? It means it is out of the question.
The other day Minister Lee set out some work and said there was great trouble. So I asked him to stop it at once. It is not that the Teacher does not know that pain. It means the Teacher too has experienced all such things. Try calling out “God” from such a position. Then that sound of calling differs. When one reaches such a position, one must become serious. Without being serious, a miracle does not happen.
New world-historical inventions come about in the process of war. It means they come about in a time of emergency for the whole world. Why? Because it is serious. Seen in that sense, it means war has greatly contributed to creating wisdom in the history of humankind. It means this is serious.
It means thinking of the moment of deciding, holding a rice spoon: is it my sons' and daughters'? Is it the people? Is it the nation? Which is it? It means there must be such a time. Is it death or life? Does one go or not go? Setting out such a problem, one must go centering on all the toil to which I have devoted sincerity until now. And yet if a result comes out that cannot be achieved, how does one push that away? Even though one is placed in such an environment, one must certainly overcome and go forward. In every environment one undergoes, what shall one set up as one’s standard? Without that standard, there is nothing new. It means, would there be anything to give thanks for? So it means holding a grateful mind even while drinking one bowl of water.
The Teacher, when he receives a meal table, remembers the living in prison where one had to scoop up rice with one’s fingers. That is why, even though the Teacher visits some family, and they prepare a lavish feast and treat him because the Teacher has come, I do not like that. Rather, the Teacher requires a person who is in such a position that, though the clothes worn be shabby and what is eaten be plain barley rice, the whole can become one and all can sympathize and cannot but shed tears. What is there? It means there is tomorrow.
If one is conceited, saying everything is done without any prepared standard, tomorrow is blocked, and hope too ends. That is why a man who dreams of tomorrow and prepares while holding hope is more fearsome than that conceited person saying he has succeeded. One must think so. Then what worry is there to worry about? It means you too suffer hardship beyond what the Teacher has undergone. These days you eat plain barley rice too, do you not? It means try eating it. Pure plain barley rice. It means that if one has eaten this rice until now, try eating plain barley rice too.
It means one thought it would be good upon meeting a husband, but there are times when it is bad too. It will not do to wish only for what is good. Would it do if sunlight shone continuously for twenty-four hours? There must be night. Is that not so? Is it not the principle that what is high becomes low?
The Standard of Living of a Pioneer
Our Unification Church has until now been trodden upon by the people of the world, but even so it means, from that position, be for others even though I cannot eat. It means that if one does so, one comes to be in a position where one can ascend to a high place, so one does not perish. That is why it means that if you would feel much that is new centering on your standard of living, enter the lowest position.
The other day the Teacher came out early to the church, and a night-soil truck had put a hose into the church toilet and was pumping out the excrement. But it seems a rag got stuck at the end of that hose pumping out the excrement.
So we waited about fifteen minutes, but perhaps because of the smell and the tedium, someone beside me said something, so I said, “You fellow, be still; do you know how good that smell is?”; but it means that if one thinks of it badly one cannot endure. It means that if one thinks even of what is bad as good, a new world unfolds there.
Accordingly, the question is how one becomes a subject who can digest everything. The question is how one makes oneself into something that can digest whatever it eats. It means a person who has the ability to eat and digest whatever comes his way survives. That is why it will not do to choose what one eats.
Now let us conclude. It means that you must now make a new departure at the same time as becoming new people. It means see also “newly.” It means that if one has seen some village, recognize that village as new. It means thinking deeply, holding a sense of longing. When one sees a great pond, when summer comes, I will bathe in it to my heart’s content! If there is a very high and broad place, I will roll about there to my heart’s content! It means thinking differently from ordinary people in such a way.
Now is spring, is it not?
Among you there will be many who will go down to the southern provinces. If you go down there, you will be able to see flocks of ducks and flocks of geese flying north past the season. Furthermore, there are many plains there. One must be able to run to one’s heart’s content in such places. There must be such a something. Only when a pioneer holds such a mind can he pioneer.
But will it do to sit still and watch whether members come or not?
When members come, do you think, “Aigo! Will the rice jar be filled or not? It is not that one likes whatever is given, like a beggar’s brat. Do you intend to starve to death if they do not give? Even a wild boar eats well and lives alone…
All of you, do you know how nutritious arrowroot is?
If one is starving, take a pickaxe and climb the mountain and dig up even arrowroot and eat it. If one goes and digs for just a week, even if one cannot eat it all, one will be able to eat for a good month. So what is the great fuss? And what worry is there to worry about? If one only climbs the mountain, one can eat arrowroot and can eat grass roots… So it means one needs only know that well and dig it up and store it. If one does so, one absolutely does not die.
When summer comes, the Teacher can live without absolutely starving, even without a handful of rice. If one has only one needle and two spans of thread, one can eat and live. One fishes with that. Then why would one die? And why would one starve? It means one absolutely does not starve.
In autumn there is much to eat wherever one goes. It means that at the very least, if one gleans even the leftovers in a field from which sweet potatoes have been dug, one can eat and live any amount. Would God, because one does so, say one is not my son and say that because you do such a thing I will strike you from the genealogy? It means there is no such God. Because God can like even such a thing and bless it, it means there are times when such things too are necessary. The Teacher too has done such things.
After doing such a thing, one feels good. When the Teacher dug sweet potatoes, he without fail quietly left a few roots. It means I did all that work in the old days. When one later digs up those sweet potatoes one left, when the bright red sweet potatoes reveal their figure, it feels perfect. That feeling is better than when one wins money at a gambling table. It means there is nothing to compare it with.
What would be bad about doing that a little? It means there is nothing bad. There are various methods in a person’s living. But who set up the principle that says one must eat three meals and live like this? It means, who set it up? Did God tell you to do so? It means do not set up such a view.
Effort and Achievement
The Teacher is not afraid even if he enters prison now. That place is the heavenly kingdom. It means one begins anew from there. So it means it is all right even if they give plain barley rice. It means bringing even rotten and foul-smelling soybean-paste soup. Smelling and eating it, while reciting a thousand years of history, “Truly delicious. What would forebear so-and-so have thought while eating such food? — It means the dimension differs because I think in this way. That moment is earnest.
Furthermore, even though I sleep beside a manure bin, I think, “Truly, it has turned out well. Isn't now a good opportunity by which I can make my lot shine, by which I can take hold of the history of humankind hereafter? It means do not think badly. The Teacher has come forth thinking so. It is the same even now.
Not long ago, when I visited the factory, the production manager reported the situation within the company, but that did not get through to the Teacher. The Teacher gave the instruction to do by the twenty-third the work he thought would take several months. So if one cannot do it as promised, one must take a great scolding. Yet if I say a word, his face and everything would be ruined… So could one act rashly? So I quietly watched for a few days. One day when evening came, he hesitated and hemmed and hawed and came to the Teacher and said that this evening the work could not be done. These fellows met the wrong person. I said that from now on it is a new departure, so everyone assemble. I said that because this is a public matter, if it is not all done before twelve o'clock, one cannot go home. Then they worked again. But in the manner they were doing it, it was work that could not be done even staying up all night, not to speak of twelve o’clock. The time they entered the work then was about nine in the evening, and though I simply left them alone until ten, eleven, and twelve o’clock passed, they did all the work they had to do.
Because the Teacher commanded it, it was made so that they would do it not by twelve o’clock but even staying up all night. It means their manner changed. So they did in a mere three hours work that could take a whole day. They did it all until twelve o’clock struck and finished it all. It means, just as one would expect, no work can be done if one does it.
It means it is so when I set a standard. It means, if one eats the same as others, and wears the same as others, and works fitting the hours the same as others, when can one get ahead of others? It means one cannot but make effort without distinguishing night from day.
Yesterday too I went into the house past twelve o’clock at night, and having gone to bed about twelve thirty, I rose about two fifteen in the morning. Having risen, what is it for? It is to pray. Praying until four o’clock, when the siren sounds, I then knock on Mother’s room. That is because knocking before that would be discourteous. Going into the room about four fifteen and hurrying to prepare to go out to the factory, I arrived at the factory by five thirty.
I was waiting for about three hours until they came to work; how would that flavor of waiting be? It means it was fascinating. It means that if one rises early at this time when others are all sleeping and holds a new mind, it feels good.
If one says, “Since you worked like this yesterday, if you cannot do it like this today too, it is physical discipline (기합),” the workers come to work with enthusiasm. Then it feels excellent. Being tired too, one is tired according to circumstances. It means that if one feels excellent, tiredness all runs away. It means you too try that once.
There are times when the Teacher too grows drowsy if he sits still. But conscience does not permit dozing comfortably alone while sending young people to work. I cannot do that. It means one absolutely cannot do so. But when one is too tired, there are times when one begs God’s forgiveness and closes one’s eyes for a moment, but I do not sleep as I please. It means that however tired one is, one does not simply collapse on the spot. It means one collapses if one collapses only after, without fail, attaining the purpose I desire, and does not collapse before that. Even now I am living, holding such a standard.
That is why it means that experience or living in a good place is not absolute. Discover something new… One must discover something new. Those advanced in years will be tired, but if one stands in a position contrary to what has been customary until now, God comes to be together there. It means God is without fail together.
What One Can Boast of Upon Going to the Spiritual World
What must people advanced in years do hereafter if they would go the road of the Will? When the body grows old, one will receive many restrictions even in physiological functioning, so with what must one supplement this? The Teacher is researching this. In an age in which one must be active, centering on spirit and body, what shall one do if one keeps weakening? The Teacher is now preparing that. Well, shall I teach you that?
Then what is the problem? One must make a new departure. If one were to make a new departure, it would mean discovering something new every day. It means a person who discovers something new absolutely does not become a dropout. It means that even though he meets a difficult matter, he absolutely is not discouraged. On the contrary, it becomes interesting.
A little while ago, Han In-su came and said that sitting in the office doing office work at the Victory-Over-Communism Federation is dry and tasteless, but that seeing the regional leaders he remembers the time when he took responsibility for a church and worked staking his life. When he thinks of the circumstances he exchanged with those members who came seeking because they longed for the church, he says he longs for that time. He has come to know well indeed. Only now has he come to his senses.
It means that when one goes to the spiritual world, there is nothing to boast of but that. In the spiritual world, having held much money absolutely cannot become something to boast of. Nor can one boast of having held power in the world. How much life one has saved, this is the boast. Whether A if A, or B if B, or transcending the clan, how much one has saved countless peoples by relating them to new life? That is one’s property. There is no property but that.
In the spiritual world there is nothing lacking, so there is nothing to long for, but if there be what is most longed for, it is a true person. That is why the meritorious subject who devoted merit to raise true people can properly become a son or daughter of glory in the heavenly world. That is why it means there is nothing to boast of but that.
Among you there will be people who say that as a district leader they have led a district leader’s life for more than ten years, but that is not relevant. It is the same even though one has done it not ten years but several tens of years. The other day I heard a report that there are several people who have received handover as regional leader up to the seventeenth time, but what use is it even if one received it not seventeen times but a hundred eight times? Rather than that, one must try taking hold there, centering on a person. A person who has not tried that will not do. It means he does not qualify.
It means that unless one, centering on God’s love, meets person with person and stays up through the night talking of the future, and also gazes upon the sun and recites poetry, or feels something while gazing upon the flowing river water — unless one feels through the bond of person with person an emotion one has not felt even in any literary work — one cannot become a son or daughter of God. Only by living while feeling that is there is the flavor of living as a person.
Longing for People
When you speak with a person bound in a relationship setting out the problem of life, try speaking while setting up a plan that says you will completely make this person submit within three hours while watching that person’s expression. Ten minutes, twenty minutes, an hour… It means that the flavor of closing in has greater interest than the feeling of drawing the last card at a gambling table, having spent all one’s stake. Gambling at the table ends with that once it is done, but it means the relationship with a person is not so. It develops on and on. It means branches keep stretching out from there. It means that if one raises it well, it stretches out in all four directions. It means, have you felt anything of value beyond such work?
Seen from such a position, the most precious and important position in the Unification Church is district leader. If one becomes a district leader, since one district even so occupies a third within the province, on a stage of about a third it is work worth doing. In the Republic of Korea, one runs for the National Assembly centering on one county, but a district leader is in a position where he can command and move centering on three counties, so is a National Assembly member a problem? It means it is work worth doing. It means one can accomplish anything at all. Furthermore, it means it is a good environment in which one can be employed in each field of the center too.
With such a stage before one, can one not do the work lacking money? And as long as the body is alive, is a blemish a problem? The body growing old is the problem; it is not that it becomes a problem lacking money.
Why is that?
If you do not long for people from your heart, that person too absolutely does not long for me. That is why a minister must always rise early and open the door and wait for people until past four o’clock and must hear the first cockcrow.
If the cock crows first, it means one must also complain, saying, “The cock has risen and crowed before me; you wretched cock.” It means that if you do not do so, the members neither rise at dawn nor long for you as their teacher or their leader, nor do they pray. Where is there a law by which a result appears when there is no motive?
It means you Unification Church people today are so. It means that Unification Church members spread throughout the world too; whenever they have a chance, they only cling, saying, “Teacher, Teacher!” and asking that such and such a problem be dealt with somehow, and do not hold such thoughts. It means holding such thoughts, because if one does not hold such thoughts, one receives punishment. It means you have fallen into debt to the Teacher in this respect.
Since you have fallen into debt, you must repay. One must take even one’s own meal and give it to the sons and daughters there. Since one is in a position of having to give it, if one is to give it, giving it gladly will be one’s own glory. The Teacher thinks so.
It means a tower built with devoted effort does not collapse. The problem lies here. How much has the Teacher longed for people? It means that even though I explain it, you will not understand. How much have you longed? How much have you longed for God’s sons and daughters? How much have you longed for a family of hope, and how much have you longed for a people of hope?
How much have you longed for a nation of hope, a world of hope?
You do not know that. For that, money is not the problem. It means that even though one plays the part of a beggar, if one longs for people, that is glory. Forgetting the world’s splendor and seeking to build Heaven’s road is glory. That is a splendid thing.
The Method of Developing Spiritual Perception
If one holds a heart (심정) that longs for someone, even though a wall be built so that one cannot face that person, the matter of crossing over that wall unfolds.
Even though I keep my mouth shut, such a thing unfolds. The spiritual world fills in that gap. Even when I was in Heungnam prison, I did not witness it by word. I witnessed without words. The spiritual world was mobilized and cooperated. That is because if it did not, there would be great trouble.
It is the same. That is why, even though you go out to the provinces, you must do so in this way. How are the provinces? The Teacher went to all the well-known places in the 1960s. It is my han now that in the past I could not traverse the three-thousand-li land barefoot. This district and that district, all of them… Now if one would do so one cannot do the work one must do, so it cannot be helped.
I have a mind that wishes to become something like a county magistrate and go about house to house in the villages and receive one bowl of water at each. Are you not curious what kind of house there will be if one goes to this village, what kind of person is living if one goes to that village? It means that without doing so, one cannot become a leader.
One must think about what kind of person I will meet while going along the road today and think about what kind of person the first person one meets will be, what kind of person the second person one meets will be, and what kind of person the third person one meets will be, and pray, “Father, what kind of person is it? I wish to meet such a person; what kind of person is it?” It means that if it fits exactly with the standard I thought and I prayed for, it feels good. It means that through having such experiences, your spiritual perception develops.
It means that when one sets out on the road, one already has the feeling that today one will meet such a person. It means a person’s spirit communicates without limit. It means that when one thought today one would meet such a person and actually comes to face such a person, one is startled, saying, “Aigo!” It means that in this way there are many times when one’s own thought and the inspiration taught from the spiritual world fit exactly with fact. One must accumulate such experiences. Do you understand what I mean? “Yes.”
It means that through experience with such intuition and premonition one can know a person’s feelings, and can foresee the fortune of the nation if the nation. It means one must develop spiritual perception with such experience. Then it means what this nation will become in the year 1970 also comes to mind. It means I can think of that even while walking, and it is good even if one is in an empty place or a solemn place.
The True Meaning of Hardship
It means that even though there are some vexing things in the life of faith, there is no problem. If God were to make a procession along this road, how would He make the procession? One may also think differently, saying people would think this way, but I think this way.
And it means you must hold a mind that wishes without fail to record even a page in a diary about a good experience if you have one. It means that the record remains for a long time in your history. It will become an invaluable record beyond words on the course of faith of one’s whole life. Not having been able to do so will become a han.
You will have had times in the past when you rode a stolen train without even a ticket to come up to Seoul from the provinces. Sitting at the very corner end, your heart pounded lest the conductor appear, did it not? When the conductor appeared, you crawled in anywhere like a mouse and hid yourself, and only when the conductor had passed did you at last heave a sigh of relief, did you not? Even so, you will feel that that time was good. The feeling of that time is something one cannot feel however one would in another world.
It means that following along while believing in the Unification Church, such things too came about. In fact, it was wrong not to have paid money and bought a ticket. Instead, one will have to give still greater help for the sake of this nation next time. Inwardly, one must give more than that. As an individual, one would also have to receive the punishment of the law. But even though one comes to receive the punishment of the law, when one works on a public standard, one is caught by no condition at all in the heavenly kingdom. Therefore, it means it was hardship, but that time was good.
The Teacher too has things that remain impressed until now. When I was transferred to Heungnam prison in handcuffs together with a robber, entering a mountain valley and walking along a stream path, it means that time feels truly new. That time of walking the winding mountain valley road is not forgotten even now. It is impressive. That step was a step departing toward a new world.
Where will my road be that I must go day by day hereafter?
What must I do after finishing my sentence and going out? It means one is very curious. How does one go on with prison living? Though it is hard, it means I go. It means that time became a good opportunity in which one could awaken a new self. It means there remains to the Teacher nothing but such things.
At one time I did the work of boring a tunnel in Hamheung. Because I worked while being too hungry, the hand gripping the pickaxe would not rise, and even my spirit was exhausted. When I heard the sound of “Lunchtime!” I cannot tell how welcome that sound was. The food of that time! The feeling of that moment of driving the pickaxe into the ground and turning around to eat that food—it means the Teacher has countless such materials of living history. It means no hardship whatever can compare with such things.
You must know that such wretched circumstances do not make me perish but are what can shine long in the annals of history. That is why it means one must go until the day when one can gather the treasures God holds. It means that if one lays out and speaks such facts of suffering before all the people of the world, if one speaks with this content for just ten minutes rather than preaching for one hour with other content, weeping aloud unfolds. It means, where is there preaching content as good as that?
That is why I tell you not to worry and to suffer hardship until before the age of thirty. Jesus too suffered hardship until thirty-three and then went the road of death. What the Teacher calls the Blessing of the Unification Church is a blessing you hold on loan. You must clearly know that.
If we ask what the conclusion of all such content is, it is, let us realize something new. Only in realizing something new is a new day together with one. It means that if nothing new comes out, there can be no development. Though Mother is sitting here together, though it seems the Teacher speaks with various content, it means that because Mother listens to the Word most earnestly, in the end she knows what it is about. It means the conclusion is a talk about oneself. So it means one must educate oneself much. One must educate oneself much.
A Meritorious Subject Before the Will
In practical living, the Teacher leads a strict life. Those who have attended him closely know well. You must nurture yourselves. You must give yourselves a new stimulus.
If one denies that, one comes to lead a dry and tasteless life. Then God too comes to be dry and tasteless. All of you, is what is dry and tasteless good? When one sees a comedy or a tragedy, dramatic scenes come out, do they not?
What is that dramatic scene?
Because it is a standard of comedy and tragedy that can make people weep with three-dimensional content, all people hold interest. That is why a good film with love as its theme is filled to overflowing.
Likewise, you must become actors for achieving God’s nation. Do you understand? One cannot but come to be in a position where one can exert influence upon many people with moving content, holding a heart (심정) of love.
It is so with preaching too. When one enters a lecture, seeing the atmosphere, one must speak fitting the core to it while thinking what to say to that person and how to lead this person. When you come to experience such a thing, you come to know that God is together. That is necessary. One must experience that God is alive; it means it will not do to feel that God is dead.
When one comes to experience that God is alive, one without fail comes to witness it even if one tells oneself not to witness it. That is because witnessing is the most striking and creates something new.
If there are ten people, it means that if one converses earnestly, setting them apart, ten people become new people. And thereafter, it means trying to come to church and praying. It means that if one does so, when they develop, I too am without fail made to develop. It means I rise.
If one steps on something like grass with the foot, it rises again, does it not?
Likewise, it means that if they leap, I too come to leap. Is that not so? That is why on the road of living for Heaven there is no minus. It means there is no minus because if God is together, one develops. It means that if fruit is not born in that person, fruit is born in me.
Thinking of such a position, when you go down to your churches, you must hold a feeling different from the feeling with which you came up riding the Gyeongbu Line, the feeling with which you came up riding the Honam Line. It means that if, coming up, you looked at Seoul and came, in going down, too, look at Seoul and go down. It means there must be a standard. That is necessary for you. When you step into the train car, you must think about what kind of person you will meet today.
When you have found that person, it means you observe him until you reach the destination. Though one does not know well what it means, try testing once while thinking, “That person will have a quick temper. That person will have a good character. So if I strike that person’s arm, he will undoubtedly respond like this.” It means that if it fits as one thought, it is delightful.
It means trying to do it in the village too. It means thinking, “Ah! That auntie’s character will be like this. If I come out like this, that auntie will be like this; try running out naturally and colliding with her once, pretending not to know. Then what would she do about having been collided with unknowingly? Would she strike? At such a time, one can know that person’s character. It means apologize then. It means one comes to gather material through such things.
Now let us conclude. It means let us all make a new departure. For that, the question is how much of what is new you hold. God does not take what is not the very first, that is, what is not virgin. You must know this clearly and, in facing the Word of the Principle, or in family living, or in witnessing, do away with the notions you have held until now.
Standing in a position of standing in place of the heart (심정) of the Creator, who creates what is new in a new field, one must go forward pledging that one will oneself become a meritorious subject in groping for a new standard that raises infinite value.
If one becomes such a person, he will absolutely not perish. Because Heaven is together with him, he will always develop. Do you understand? “Yes.”
