Good morning! My subject this morning is, literally speaking, "Let us go forward, considering the environment."
We have here both male and female members. The path of human life for women is obviously different from that for men. What women feel is different from what men feel. Within the life of any individual, there is a difference between his or her childhood, youth, middle age, and old age.
Not only in human life, but also in nature, we see four seasons coming one right after another. If you insist that you are always living in summer, and if you are always thinking only of the summer, not preparing for what is coming in the winter, you will be faced with great difficulty.
In winter, those who don't think of the coming spring and confine themselves to snug, cozy rooms will have difficulty when spring comes. Can you insist on wearing winter clothes when either spring or summer comes? No! You want to change your clothes to suit the season.
This is precisely how it happens in our lives. Those who belong to the summer of life, which is the prime of life, or youth, want to have eternal youth. But that is not possible. It's natural that in each of our lives, there must be changes. But are you not inclined to insist on remaining the same age? You are afraid that by changing, you will somehow decline. You know from experience that you don't always go up.
Every day, your mood has ups and downs. After having passed through 24 hours of the day, if you find that you have had more ups than downs, then you can safely say that you have had a good day.
If you have had more downs in a day, you will say that you have had a bad day. You may think that you want to have no downs at all in your life, but that cannot be so.
In the world of change, how to digest what we are faced with and make it into something good is always the question. More than anyone else, young people are faced with constant change because their dispositions are like that.
You want to have stimulating things, and you want to have changes all the time. If you can digest the difficulties and changes and still want to have the changes, that's OK.
Sun Myung Moon
But if you don't have this digestive power and yet desire to change every moment, that's not possible. You, as young people, must learn the difficult job of handling your own problems.
You do not know the future before you, so you have to learn from experienced people how to go through the path of life while you are still young. In other words, you must undergo training to handle those problems in such a way that you can order them and be able to think of things positively, so that you can change yourself in a good way.
If you say you hate to undergo rigorous training because you don't like it or you can't bear it, you are, in a way, defeated. You must have the attitude that you want to face the facts with great concern and interest. You must not look into just one point of focus, but look around at the environment in four directions.
You may look at the Hudson River, and you know the deep water runs silently. But upstream, there have been many particular happenings: sometimes the water swirls in a deep eddy; sometimes it pounds down on rocks, as in the waterfall; sometimes it dodges big past rocks or runs over small pebbles to be gathered into the ocean.
As you may have seen in movies, if you are faced with a very rough current when in a boat, you cannot just look right in front of you, but you must set your gaze far and wide, and you must be quick to manipulate the ship, or else it will be wrecked.
In your life, too, there are waterfalls, and sometimes the water will form walls or cliffs, so you must, in some cases, dodge past a place or steer through the waves.
You must be prepared for the wave. If you are on the wave, however hard you may struggle not to be carried away by the current, you cannot resist it. If your destiny is to float on the current of the Hudson River, you must flow as the wave does. You may very possibly be like the waterfall or the water running past the rocks, but you must not be discouraged.
If you are trained in this course, things will be easier for you to handle. If you take an interest in what you are going through, and if you are thrilled to experience that kind of thing, then in the next moment, when you are faced with more difficulties, you can tackle those things with more zeal and capability.
But if you are unwilling to tackle the problems occurring around you and are afraid, then you will not be well-trained to face the following ones. Only by having gone through the rocks and waterfalls can you lead yourself to the heart of the ocean.
There are many ways of life: the life of a common man, the life of a sacred man, and the life of a great leader. When you are asked which one you want to become, all of you, I am sure, will answer, "I want to become a great leader." But a great leader cannot be made overnight. For one to become a great leader, he has to go through many difficulties and, with desperate effort, must persevere through trials and be ready to face still more.
When you call a person a great leader, there are many factors to be considered. Those who are faced with life at the cost of their very beings, not once, but continuously, would do things at the sacrifice of their lives. Suppose there is a great general in this country.
Looking back into his past, we find many records that show that he fought in many battles and was sometimes defeated and sometimes victorious in the battles. As many experiences as possible would count. If that general, in time of peace, would not be willing to do things for the nation at the sacrifice of his life, his fame would fade away.
His attitude must be that of a patriot; he must always be ready to sacrifice his life in the face of danger. We must always be able to look at how the water runs from the mountaintop. When it runs down and down, it will be faced with many difficulties.
Sun Myung Moon
If we compare our lives to the stream of water, where are we situated?
When we look at the world as a whole, the whole situation is somewhere in the middleânot quite reaching the depth of the ocean. Before it comes to the great ocean, it may still be at Niagara Falls. Can the water say, "I hate to pound down upon the cliff"?
Can it say that?
At the top of the cliff, you must get ready and say to yourself, "It's a thrilling job, and I want to jump down from this cliff and reach the ocean as soon as possible. If you are eager, then you will succeed and attain your purpose.
If you survive after having gone through the Niagara Falls, then every other person who is faced with the waterfall will come to you and ask your advice, because you have had this experience.
Many other people may give the new ones advice, describing how difficult a job it is to run down the cliff, but you, with the experience, are the only one qualified to give such advice.
What must be our way in the Divine Principle movement? In the Christian world under the Roman Empire, they were faced with iron bars when they tried to advance.
If Christianity had not been persecuted by the Roman Empire at that time, I don't think Christianity would have progressed to today's level. Compared to the water, if there is a barrier of lesser height, then the water will overflow it.
If the running water has more power than the stopping power of the Roman Empire, then the power of Christianity would overflow and flood the Roman nation and the world.
When you are tired, you doze off, but you yourself are not aware of that. You try hard to resist your sleepiness, and you mean not to fall asleep, but you do just the same. If the two small openings here, for your eyes, become closed like this, then all the rest of your body will come into harmonized action and fall asleep.
Every cell of your whole body will cooperate with that one action. That is, when you doze off, all the rest of the parts of your body will do the same. In order for you, one individual. To survive the difficulty, you must realize that the whole universe, including your relatives and neighbors, will come to your aid.
If someone pulls out one hair of yours, would that part alone feel the pain, or your whole body?
Every human being is a part of the universe, so if one part is a failure, the whole universe will ache over that failure. If you succeed in a mission, you must not think that the success is yours alone. A river is the accumulation of raindrops, but out of the water, some portion will be gone.
You must want to ride on the current that will beat against the rock, and on that impetus, you can go downward, joining the mainstream, until you reach the mouth of the river so that you can go to the ocean. In the providential course of restoration under God, there is a mainstream. Don't you think so?
Sun Myung Moon
Would you join the mainstream or the tributaries?
Most people will answer, "mainstream." Unless you can dodge past all the obstacles in the tributaries, you cannot join the mainstream.
Our life is something like a stream of water. You are here, going through training, seated side by side, but once you are scattered and sent to your fields, then you are like water running through your own way to reach the mainstream.
Would you, a drop of water, try to join other raindrops, or would you rather absorb other drops of water into yourself to form the mainstream?
Even if you may have to be a tributary for a while, I want you to be the central one to gather other drops of water into yourself until you join the mainstream. We cannot foretell if all of us here will join at the mouth of the river when we reach the heart of the ocean.
Are you confident that you will join the ocean in the end?
If you are faced with any power stronger than your determination, what will you do? If you are faced with a power greater than your own, fighting spirit, or fighting power, will you be absorbed and surrender? It is not easy to answer.
Sometimes, don't you see, you are just so tiny like this; if and when a difference of interest occurs between the two of you, you will get mad at each other and fight.
Then someone else may want to reconcile the conflict between you and say things to you, but you will only become more fierce in fighting against each other.
If you had a broader mind and would let the other go, you wouldn't want to fight any longer and would want to leave. This person will cling to you and solve the problem; you will be of such a broad mind that you can smile and go away to your place, where work is waiting for you.
Then who is the greater person?
If you are like water trying to surmount a wall, you will want to leave the place as soon as possible to join the bigger place. The time element will solve the problem, and if you can leave the difficult place sooner than others, you will succeed. Tell the other drops of water, "You stay there, but I must rush on."
When you become those raindrops scattered in the field, all over the country, you, as drops of water, can write back and forth. Some will say in their letters, "Oh, I am faced with difficulties, and this is not what I expected. It's the most difficult job to witness the people."
Those who receive the letters will be influenced by that. It is very likely. In the life of faith, we must not fix our glances on what is happening right now but toward the distant future, at the goal, where God is hailing us. We must not be settled in one place. As you go along, you must be able to add something to what you are.
For instance, if you pass by a village and there is a great fight taking place, you must get into it, reconcile it, and then go along your way. In that way, you can solve problems and also pave the way so that those following you can tread an easier way.
You have seen many successful people in the history of America. In their backgrounds, they have many interesting experiences. The more adventures in which they have had to fight to prepare the way, the greater they are. If a person has one more experience, he is a little greater than another person with less experience.
Our adventures will be recorded in anecdotes about how we have struggled hard at the cost of our lives in facing difficulties. We speak of movies as being "thrilling." It means the hero is at the point of life or death; then you can say the movie is suspenseful. In deciding on what to eat and how to sleep, would you say there is any thrill? This is just an everyday routine.
Sun Myung Moon
In Western movies, you see Indians pierce cowboys through the heart, and you say that is thrill and suspense; otherwise, the movie would be dry and monotonous. Suppose God is looking at a movie.
Would he like a movie that is thrilling and suspensefulâor just a dry and monotonous one?
Answer me clearly. Why do you laugh? What would Go be like? The movie is full of thrills and suspense.
The viewpoint may be different between males and females. I think that women like sweet and homey movies. But men like movies in which bravery is demonstrated, full of suspense and thrill. In that case, would God be on the side of women or me [men!]? As far as I can imagine, God would like a movie with suspense and thrills. As I understand it, God is full of energy; He is an active being.
I think God liked men more than women, because in working to restore the world throughout history, He has been using males more than females.
Women will be fully appreciated after the war is over and peace is obtained. So when God chooses a bride for the Lord, He will do it right after the close of the age, when peace is about to come. Both in the movies and in reality, when a man is so brave as to sacrifice his own life and his family for the greater cause of his country or the world, then no woman would stop him from doing that.
How are things in the Unification Family?
Are the women braver than the men, or is it the contrary? [Braver!] You can debate the fact. Who will win? But according to the reports coming from the field, the records say that the women are making more members than the men. That is proof that women are doing better, isn't it? As I see it, the women are good in the pioneering stage.
This is because the men are inclined to organize the people in groups, while the women want to look for people and get them into the movement one by one.
The difference is that women can continue to work, repeating the same thing, but men are faced with failure in something that they had first attempted with great zeal; they abandon this and start again, wanting to do greater things.
Women are more attached to what they are doing or have been doing. But men do not want to repeat the same thing over again. That's the difference between male and female.
For instance, there is a man who would go out witnessing, and when he was faced with opposition, he would say to himself about the people, "Be gone with youâI can find better people than you!" But a woman, if rejected, would go around from the rear and would beg again, "Won't you listen to me?" Then she would try the side and then the rear attack, and everything else possible.
Ultimately, if the man continues to object, you will cry, and tears will run down your cheeks. In the United States, men feel bad if they make women weep, so they will become tender toward them. Men insist that the people receive the message, and they can easily deny or reject the men, but people are more tender toward women. But in our movement, men must be braver than women and try to win more souls, more members.
Sun Myung Moon
With a stronger build and physical strength, can you be defeated by women?
God will lose as well as our movement if you fail to do things and are defeated by women, because men eat more and use up more things. This means they consume more things in general. In the future, when you are going to marry, a woman would not want a man who can be easily defeated by women.
On your part, you men would want to have a girl who will surrender to you. A woman is of such a disposition that she would like to have a man who is braver than herself, even though she would be defeated. Men are endowed with more courage and physical strength than women, so you have no reason to be defeated by women.
So you men are in the position to pave the way for women to tread, but when you are defeated by women and let the women pave the way for you to travel smoothly, that's contrary to the way it should be.
Doesn't that sound logical?
When women are desperate to win souls and working for this great cause, while you men are idling away the time, would that be good? In the face of death, would you want a fragile woman to risk her life, or would you choose to die in her stead?
Suppose Jesus were a woman, and you constantly heard, "A woman savior died for mankind." Wouldn't that sound awkward? Women members would want to cry out to the world, "I am the savior. I am going to save the world!"?
You may cry out at the top of your voice, "I am going to die for humanity, but your voice is too sweet to be trusted by other people. But men can cry out to the world, "I am going to save the world!" in a deep voice, and people will trust them. Up to now, in history, men have been in the vanguard of fierce battles. I always think that God must be very intelligent, because He used men for that purpose.
Sun Myung Moon
In the Unification Movement, too, if we are really engaged in fierce battle, I am going to use men instead of women. When there is a great rock before us, would you have men go against it or women? [Men!] If you fight through the difficulties, then victory will be yours.
You have seen on television that the prisoners of war are coming back from North Vietnam. What was your impression of them?
I wanted to ask them, "When you were in prison, were you training yourself to fight against the evil power of communism?"
Were you in such a mood that you hated communism and resolved yourself to fight for freedom and democracy, or did you just exist in captivity with utter despair, and with only the animal desire for food, shelter, etc., keeping you alive?"
What type of person do you think most of them were?
In their prison life, they could have shown the communist leaders that in the democratic world, the spirit is one; it is really their strength. Once they are imprisoned, they no longer have the strength to fight against communism. There, in prison, they could have betrayed their weakness; if so, it's a great sin they have committed.
The communist leaders would have observed and learned that if they fight against the power of democracy, it will collapse instantly. Wouldn't they think that way? In the face of torture, in the face of any difficulty possible to the imagination, if the prisoners had remained strong and persistent and had demonstrated that in the democratic world, people are so strong and hateful of communism, the communists would have been scared and would have learned that they could not win against the democratic world. But if they showed instead their fragility, then the harm they have brought to the world is great and almost unforgivable.
If, among the prisoners of war, there were both a general and a private, and both were so strong that they could not be defeated or even be weakened by any torture coming from the communists, then the communists would have thought that they could not win against the democratic world.
Even at the time of the armistice, they could have taught the people, and in their teaching, they could have defeated them spiritually. But without that, both in prison and after their release, they have been defeated.
In the United States, wives and children were waiting for them, and they received them like victors. In fact, when I looked into what they did while in prison, I noticed that they are all failures.
I wondered how many of the wives and children of those prisoners of war had analyzed what they did in prison and were ashamed of it. That's what I contemplated upon seeing them come back. Was I right in doing it?
Sun Myung Moon
The same thing will be true in our movement.
If I send out a small, fragile-looking girl into one of the cities, where she will have to go through untold difficulties and be faced with persecution, where people will try to scourge her, etc., but she would never be defeated and instead would be thankful to God even when challenged, then she will prove to the people that our ideology is the one to save the world; she will be a living sacrifice and a symbol of the greatness of our movement.
There may be temptation from many brutes. In the movies, when a girl is forced to kiss a male, she may resist at the beginning, but later on, she enjoys it.
Most males will think, "No matter how well trained she may be, if I try to tempt her over and over again, she will yield." But in that case, if one of the males in that vicinity tries to tempt you, but you never fall into temptation, they will learn that you are the stronghold of God and will soon come to their knees before you.
Suppose the female members sent to the front line are as strong as that. Then, male members are sent to be mobile unit commanders and such. If people of that city or town find the males idling away their time, seeming to be playboys and lacking faith, then what would happen?
Since the female members there are test-proof, the men in the town may try to test you by tempting the males, because they think you are vulnerable and that they can tempt you with knowledge, wealth, and other things that seem good in the worldly sense.
They may send a beautiful girl to you to try to tempt you. Then what would you do? If the town has seen the strength and invulnerability to temptation of the women and then finds again in the men the same strengthâstrength is on the side of Godâthen the whole population of the town will think that this movement is the strongest in the world and can finally win over the world. They will think that these young people can even reach God and heaven.
Now that I am sending you out to the battlefront, you will either become captives or victors. Which are you going to be? [Victors!] At the beginning, anybody and everybody would want that. All those in captivity wanted at first to become victors; you must remember that. If you fall into captivity, what will you do? You must be prepared for that too.
You would do better to kill yourselves if you are going to become captives like the prisoners of war that I pointed out. If you are that weak in captivity, the least one in the Satanic world will deride you, be scornful of you, call our movement names, and things like that. Will you be victors, defeated, or captives?
Hak Ja Han Moon
Which would you become? [Victors!]
But if you were taken captive, what would you do? I would not ask you a question like this if you still had a way to escape. If you still had explosives with you, if I were you, I would throw the explosives at the enemy and die with them. In that case, even though you kill yourself like that, you will still be the victor when you have died. Those who die with such bravery will be praised, and people will set up an epitaph there.
Would you rather die in captivity?
In all events, you must become the victor, or it would be better for you to die.
Back in Korea and Japan, the rumor is that the Unification members, though they are young, have tremendous power and are the bravest people in the whole world. But those people are now focusing their attention on what is going on in our movement in the United States.
If you are as soft as pumpkins, easily pierced through, what would they think of you? Would you rather become strong and hard like iron or soft and tender like pumpkins? [Iron!] Is it true? If you really mean that, I want you to put yourself through more hardships, or else I will drive you harder. Are you prepared for that? [Yes!] Do you really mean that? [Yes!] Some of you may grumble in your hearts, saying, "Master has brought so many Japanese brothers and put us in competition with them. I don't like the idea of competing with them, and when we are defeated, we are begrudgedâwhat will we do?
Without doing that, we have enough struggle; why does he have to do that?" Master knows that soon there will be fiercer battles, and he wants to concentrate all the forces to fight against the evil power in that final battle. That's why he wants to train you even more.
The U.S. is still in the stage of remaining on the Hudson River (metaphorically). Before long, you will reach the heart of the ocean, where tribulations are waiting for you.
So I must train you before you reach the ocean. You must become like the waters that rush into the ocean, and with that power coming from you, you can defeat the fleet of enemy nations. Have you ever thought of that? Then would you want to be trained harder than this? [Yes!]
You have had an average of six hours of lecture these days, but if I had to tell you that you must have twelve hours of lecture each day, what would you do?
Then would you complain about it, saying, "I have been educated in primary school, high school, and universities. I am a university graduate; why do I have to go through lectures? I can memorize it in even half this time. I know it; I can give the lecture."
Sun Myung Moon
In that case, would you complain?
Your "no" is too weak to be trusted. Just think: we must turn the whole world upside down, along with heaven and earth, to put them in the right order. I will put you through such hard training as history has never before seen.
I must put heaven and earth together with a wheel here, with a rope of steel plaits, so when I pull it, heaven and earth will come together. The strength exercised on that reel must be as strong as that used by God thousands of years ago. If any part of the steel rope is weaker, it is apt to be disconnected or cut off.
Have you ever thought that, at the back of your belt, there is a rope of your strength, a rope you have made to which other people will cling to follow you?
Would your rope be so weak that when God wants to pull it on the pulley, it will be severed?
Your rope must be so strong that it cannot be cut apart when it is pulled by God and clung to by someone following you. Then are you ready to die for the cause in the Divine Principle movement? [Yes!]
How many times did Peter answer Jesus in the affirmative?
It is easy to answer now. If one of your eyeballs is plucked out in battle, what will you do?
If one of your limbs is cut off, what will you do?
If you lose all four of your limbs on the battlefield, what will you do? Your answer is becoming weaker and weaker. In the face of great work, a great task, you must be ready to sacrifice even your life. A raindrop beginning at the mountaintop and running down through the stream to the riverbed is faced with many difficulties.
If you are not prepared for difficulties while doing great things, you are a fool. You must be prepared to die for the cause, or else you are foolish to say you are following the way. If you are resolved to deny yourself and give up your very life, you will never be afraid of any difficulty.
However strong the enemy's fortress may be, you will never be scared. You will be contemplating how to die a brave death. Are you like that? If you are prepared to die, victory will be yours, and your victory will be proclaimed by the people of the world. You must be resolved, firstly, to deny yourself.
Why do I tell you this? My subject was "Mind the circumstances, mind the surroundings," and when our surroundings are rough and circumstances difficult, we must be determined to face those and win over them.
You must know that you will be defeated if you don't consider the circumstances and become able to either adjust or steer through the way in the face of difficult surroundings or circumstances. That is only too natural.
How to digest how to conquer the environment is the question. Don't ever try to escape from the environment, but feel challenged and steer through the way. On a bumpy road, there are many ups and downs, as we said before, and where there are peaks, there are valleys at another time. So when you are faced with the dungeon, you must expect that in the next moment, God will bless you with more grace.
Sun Myung Moon
When winter comes, we want to try to get over that, and then spring will be there. Then summer comes. That's progressive change. The harder, the more challenging the situation is, the more progress you will make. Do you realize that? [Yes!] You are anxious to be successful, but if you have no zeal to fight through the way in the face of difficulties, your success will not come soon.
So you must realize that only after having gone through difficulties and darkness will you see the light. In our fight in the United States, if there are obstacles and difficulties in our path, then what are we going to do?
Are we going to try to escape or try to go through those? [Go through!] No manmade method will win over it; only a true heart and true zeal coming from God can fight through the way. What is truth or heart? Our entire mind and body must be the incarnation of truth.
What is the power binding those two?
Life is the binding power between mind and body. Life is the truth of truths, and with the investment of our lives, we will fight and make our lives a success.
When there is a force coming from the United States to attack us and we want to stop or repel it, then there must be a consumption of power in a way that means sacrifice. Then either of the two may be an evil power; one is at least better than the other in God's sight. Which will win is more than clear.
The righteous power will win. On the side of righteousness, people are making sacrifices of their very lives, which strengthens them for the fight against the opposing power.
After death, they can be resurrected. Even though you may have to die, if you are granted resurrection, you can fight through. That is why God taught us that those who deny their lives will live, and those who are ready to lose their lives will gain them. That means He is going to give resurrection to those who are ready to die.
Those who would die for the cause of righteousness, even though they die a physical death, will inherit goodness. So they live a long life, in that sense. But if they die on the way, without being able to defeat the Satanic power, after their physical death, they will be denied by God.
Our stage is not only the United States but the whole world. In the environment, there are evil powers all around, but with the power of righteousness and God around, are we confident to fight through and win the victory?
In this country, freedom can be enjoyed; I regret that I cannot send you to Red China or the Soviet Union as spy agents to find out what is happening on the evil side of the world. In case I do that, would there be anyone prepared for that? [Yes!]
The other day, out on the lawn, when I wanted the members to sing and asked them which language they knew, one of the girls answered that she could speak Yugoslavian and Russian. When I asked if she would go to Russia, she was scared. She said, "Don't send me to Russia." Are you also like that?
If you win over Satan and obtain victory in that world, then victory in the rest of the world will be easy.
If we are going to cover the whole world, who will be responsible for that part of the world?
If you are scared, if you are unwilling to go there, how can you be responsible for that? If you are like that, do you think that we will have a final victory? There will be no final victory for us.
If, in the future, we do our work hand-in-hand with the CIA, I am ready and willing to send the strongest members in our movement as spies to the Soviet Union, Red China, etc.
Sun Myung Moon
Then I will have to choose those who have accumulated good deeds in the movement. They are the only ones who are qualified for that job. In your mind, are you saying, "I must not work hard, lest I should be chosen to go," or "I will stop doing work in the movement when he chooses me for that"? You must not think this way.
If and when you are sent to countries like Russia and Red China to smash those things of evil nature and then come back as a victor with spoils to be returned to God, then you will be received in glory.
You are becoming dizzy at what I say. If you are scared, then wrap up your belongings and go away today. Are you going to fall away or go through the way to the end? [To the end!] There is no reservation when I am fighting against the evil power in this nation, even though I may have to be imprisoned. I fancy that there will be bullets coming at me.
If I am scared of bullets, what will happen?
I must receive that kind of thing as a matter of course. I am even contemplating having to go to Russia or Red China and being faced with persecution from them. When you are blessed in marriage, the woman must try to train their husbands to be strong to fight for the cause in the place where the evil power is the strongest.
The men must be able to train their wives to do the same. When her husband is trying to train her like that, if the woman is scared and clings to him and says, "Let us have a happy home life without having to do such things," you must be able to repel her.
Who will be responsible for overcoming the communist power?
Can the United States do it? [Yes!] Can the United States as a whole, in the outside world, do that? [No!] In the United States, only our group of people can do that. Not even in the Christian world can we see such a group.
We must be responsible for the whole population of the world. That is our goal, and I am going to train you to meet that standard, just as in the communist world, the people will move at one command. But in this world, if I command you, you must be ready to obey me for eternity. In the communist world, they aim to win the world for their sakes, but we are doing this for heaven and earthâthe whole world.
Even though we may shed tears, sweat, and blood, we have to carry out our mission until we make it a success or achieve victory. With that idea in mind, we have laid the foundation, and we are on our way toward building the house. Our first task is to conquer or win over the circumstances in both the United States and the communist world.
Before being able to conquer the world of evil power, we must be able to overcome the difficulties. Can you do that? You may say that to go to San Francisco, you must ride a bus, an airplane, or a train, but in our movement, there is no such fixed notion.
Only if you can walk to San Francisco can you say you are victors. However vicious the communist power may be, if you are sent into that country, you will have to conquer the force and come back to return glory to God, or else you cannot be called victors.
When I went to North Korea, which is under a communist regime, and was imprisoned there, it was right in the prison cell that I learned that and became resolved to fight against the evil power.
I was confident that I would win over it. I said to myself, "However strong Kim Il Sung's power may be, if I am well trained in prison and go through difficulties here, I will have the power to be victorious over them." I was ready to eat any food they gave me or even to starve.
In North Korea, the temperature was 23 degrees Fahrenheit. Even though I was clad in thin clothes, without any lining, I could bear the cold. The labor in prison started at 8:00, but as early as 4:00, they would call us out in the open air and check to see if we had anything hidden in our clothes.
Out in the cold air, people would tremble; their trembling sounded almost like thunder. In that situation, Master would always say to himself, "If more cold comes, I will not surrender." He did not feel cold at all. He would try to give thick, heavy clothes to other people and clothe himself in sheer, light clothes. He would look for heavier work and say to himself, "If I don't succeed in doing this, I must die." With that seriousness, he would fight the circumstances; otherwise, he could not have trained himself to be such a strong leader.
So people were very touched. They admired me; even the jail boss bowed down before me in admiration. I would come out on top in everything. You must be able to fancy yourself in a race with that kind of difficulty.
You must be resolved to have more power than the enemy so that you can win over the other power, whatever that power may be, however difficult it may be. I always imagined that I would eat less than other people and do more than other people, sleep less than other people, and wake up earlier than others. You must learn how to go through that. There is a way provided for you.
When you are faced with difficulties that look terrible, you may feel as though you are going to perish, but there is always a way out if you look for one. In that way, even in the prison cells, I would teach the young people. In that field, too, I am an expert. I know how to make fire even when I am alone on the mountainside. I know how to feed myself with wild herbs.
I always imagine that I would be faced with every possible difficulty because I am the central figure and have to go through the indignity for all mankind. Satan, who has hitherto tortured God and all righteous men, will come and attack me. That's only natural. I would study that and learn the secret to winning over that power.
So I hate the idea of anyone not keeping his promise. If you have vowed before God for any great cause, you have to keep it. When you fail to carry out your mission, just as Peter crucified himself upside down, you must be ready for that.
You are brave warriors for the cause of God in the Divine Principle movement, so you have to lay the foundation for yourself, and you must welcome any bitter experiences to win the victory after that to make you stronger.
Do you resemble me? [Yes!]
I don't mean that you should resemble me in outward appearance, but you have to resemble me in ideology. I am the trunk of the tree, and you are the branches. I want you to be leafy, flowery branches so that you will bear much wholesome fruit.
You must have heard that on the battlefield in Vietnam, Korean soldiers were brave warriors. The casualty list shows that Korean soldiers could kill seven times as many of the enemy as the South Vietnamese could.
So, the commanders of the North Vietnamese army told their soldiers to run away when they saw Korean soldiers.
When they went on night assaults, the whole village could be attacked and the people killed, with but a handful of Korean soldiers. All the villagers would be scared and run away. To be as brave as that, they had to go through much training.
Efficiency, capability, and actual deeds always count. There are two ways possible: if you go on and accomplish many things, that's more desirable, but if you cannot do it on your own, I must be harsh on you, drive you out, and train you.
Sun Myung Moon
Wouldn't that be logical?
Which of the two ways would you choose? If you are not willing to do that, it will never be easy. More than the soldiers, you must get training in many ways. You must be able to eat faster, sleep less, and walk speedily when you run, and you must dash like arrows. Are you prepared for that? You are going to try. It's not that you already have that kind of experience.
It is not too late. That stout fellow must work until he becomes thin. Those who are already thin, you must be ready to die; even though you may have to die, you must carry on. It is because for those who are already weak, it's natural for them to be defeated by the stronger ones. So you must be ready to kill yourself -- then you will never die.
Let us conclude. If you cannot master your circumstances, you will be defeated. Women can be defeated as well as men. That failure can come about through temptation by women, through temptation in starvation, through threats by other people, through the sacrifice of shedding blood, or through death.
For you to become a victor, you must welcome what may come. In that case, if you are ready to face that and win over it, you will not be defeated. In the face of death, or before that, you must be able to set up or train a man who can be your heir. Even if you have to die, before your death, you must decide who is to inherit your mission.
What did Jesus do during the 40 days after his resurrection? He tried to pass on his mission to his disciples. If, before his death, he could have appointed an heir, he would not have had to come back to train his heirs to take on his mission. In that case, even without Jesus' resurrection, people could have fought in his place, and there would not have been so many Christian martyrs.
The Jewish nation would not have been ruined as it was. Again, I want you to be the victors, winning over the circumstances, even though it may be difficult. Before your death, before going on to another mission, you must find your own heirs. You must know that victory will be neither mine nor yoursâas individualsâbut will be ours and God's.
So, before going any further, you have to find followers and pass on your mission to someone else. Even after this training, you must not walk all by yourself in the field. In the Bible, we read that two or three or several must become one in prayer, one in anything, and God will answer them.
Even in the fallen world, when you are involved in a lawsuit, at least two or three witnesses must testify for you. Before God can justify your deeds, the people around you must be able to testify to you. However hard you may struggle during your life, if you don't have any heirs, your deeds may be nullified.
Even in prison, I prayed to God, "Don't worry about me; I am all right. I am going to carry out my mission even if challenged." But heaven worried about me and provided many people for me; I would witness and bring in members right there in the prison cell. You will be victors, and that's good, but if you don't have any heirs, you cannot pass on what you have accomplished to your descendants.
Now that you will be sent out to the field, are you going to come back all by yourselves or with other people at your side? That's something like the spoils after victory in the war.
You must always be thinking and deliberating over what to bring back as spoils after the war and what to show to the people of the Christian world. In that way, the Christians will be taught that only by doing it this way can they win over the evil power.
They will say that, without these people, the United States cannot be savedâthe country's future will be nothing. They will know that you will be victors, but if you, as victors, do not have heirs, your victory will come to an end. We must be serious even after we become victors; we must be able to pass on what we have gained to other people. So we must be serious. I want you to know that, whatever circumstances or surroundings you may be faced with, you must be victorious.
Yesterday, you put labels on the boxes of ginseng tea, and some of you may have thought, "We are trainees, and we are here for training. Why on earth do we have to do this?" Maybe you are right in not wanting to spend any of your time at any job other than studying the Divine Principle.
Then, through that experience yesterday, you could have learned a lesson; it's as if you have another branch growing out of you. Sometime later, I may so train you as to have you wake up at zero hour. Then what would you do?
You may grumble and say, "Why do I have to wake up this early?" What if this hour is the very moment when the enemy, in ambush, would come and attack you? That's possible, isn't it? You must be well-trained in that, too.
Maybe just before a meal, you will be called out to the grounds and sent out to fight for a task. You will say, "We can do this after eating; why do we have to go now?" Who knows, but at the very hour you left the place, a bomb may come and destroy the dining room. Those who would complain and eat first would die there.
You must know that enemies will not warn you about the time. They will come to attack you beyond common sense, time, and anything else you can imagine. So we want to be trained beyond common sense, or else we will have no way to win over the fierce enemy. That is the secret; that is the strategy.
So don't ever question what Master wants you to do. He has a good reason for it, which you don't know about. If you go beyond any boundary, just believing in what the Master would have you do, you will be victors. Do you understand?
I hate to see people chewing gum in the lecture. When you are determined or resolved, you will have your lips shut tight, not relaxed like this. When you are grave, you cannot do that. That's not the way you should act. When you chew gum, your spirit is already distracted.
When you are concentrating on one thing, would you be lax like this? In many ways, you must be trained. Up to the present, my missionaries to the United States have taught you a lot, but I am going to teach you more. Compared to what I am going to teach you, what they taught you is under my level. This is like the difference between kindergarten, primary school, high school, and university. There is no comparison.
Try to focus on today, this very moment, and if you are the victor at this very moment, you will be the victor after going through the entire course. So you must be alert in winning the very moment you are faced with the side of God.
You are accustomed to peeling apples, but if you rely too much on your skill and want to peel them with your eyes closed, you are apt to cut your fingers. In anything and everything, there is a standard or central point, even in clothing yourself.
You must know that your circumstances are something you must be fearful of. You must occupy your environment or circumstances and be the master over them.
Circumstances are things to be feared. If you want to control fearful things, you must be more fearful yourself.
Do you know what it means?
I want you to be victors over the circumstances more than anything else. Do you understand? Let us pray.
Sun Myung Moon