The Concept of Peace

1. What is the most critical issue in the World now? World wars begin and end. Wars between nations end when the fighting stops, but the war between the mind and body is unceasing.

The standard of peace can be found where we Succeed in conquering the body by following the desires of the mind. The foundation for peace develops where the mother and father, husband and wife, parents and children, and the whole extended family become eternally one.

For World peace to be realized, this foundation must go beyond individuals, clans, people, and races to the ends of the earth. To achieve this, we need a revolution to re-create human beings. (203-351, 1990.06.28)

The true meaning of peace

2. The realization of peace means that the subject and object partners are United. The first syllable, pyeong, of the Korean word for peace, pyeonghwa, means horizontal in English, and the second syllable, hwa, means harmony.

This signifies that the central being and its counterpart are not in conflict, but move toward each other and come into harmony. (082-132, 1976.01.04)

3. Humanity has desired peace since the beginning of history, but wars have continued without ceasing. Unfortunately, strong nations and powerful people have misused the word peace.

Even while they spoke of peace, in practice they tormented people in ways that were the opposite of peace. The communists in particular would use peace as one of their favorite catchwords even as they habitually provoked others. In this way, the word peace has been used many times to camouflage injustice.

As conditions in the world change, people become entangled in interests that conflict with those of others, making it impossible to establish true peace. In this world, there is no absolute standard by which worldly interests can be fairly evaluated.

True peace can be established based on true love, and true love relationships can be experienced only when people understand the God-centered absolute values that bind human beings together.

True peace is not dependent on knowledge, wealth, social position, political power, or any other external condition. (130-011, 1983.12.18)

4. Throughout the long course of history to this day, the world has employed every possible method to realize peace and harmony. Yet, this has not been an issue that the political, economic, or military power of any single nation has been able to resolve completely.

There needs to be a fundamental truth, in other words, a philosophy of peace, which can be recognized not only by those in the family, who are closest to the issue, but also by those in the clan, people, nation, and world, and even in the realm that transcends this world. (381-142, 2002.06.12)

5. Peace refers to an even state where there are no wrinkles. It means everything has been harmonized, so it is smooth. When everything is completely harmonized, the result is a spherical shape.

If you take clay and keep rolling it, it becomes rounded and in the end, a perfect sphere is made. It has no wrinkles, every bit of it is completely smooth, and it takes on a spherical form. (109-277, 1980.11.02)

6. God is an absolute being and also is unique. Do you think this unique being sets the standard of perfection for Himself alone? If He had, it would be a big problem! Someone who is in a void, alone, cannot use the words joy and happiness.

Happiness arises from a mutual relationship. A mother is happy when she and her children are one. The very nature of the word peace, which means harmonizing into an even state, includes the idea of a counterpart, or other.

The words peace and happiness refer not to someone alone, but to someone who is in a relationship. (136-104, 1985.12.22)

7. Peace has to do with relationships. An even state can be realized only when two people harmonize with each other. An individual alone cannot realize it. Two people can be happy when they are on an equal footing that pleases them both.

When we speak of freedom, we realize there is no freedom without love. Love itself is boundless freedom. If you rule with love, you can be proud of being absolute about it. (112-316, 1981.04.25)

8. Peace refers to harmonizing in an even state. You cannot bring about peace alone. When people are harmonized with all the people in their lives whether the relationships are up and down, right and left or otherwise, and when nothing is crooked – joy ensues and everything is amicable. This is the only road to peace. (86-098, 1976.03.14)

Peace and love

9. If He is alone, God feels lonely, just as we do. So it is theoretically correct to say that even God likes absolute, true love. He wants a love greater than Himself, an absolute love greater than an absolute being.

If what God needs is a greater and more absolute love, then even God must be obedient to it. What is the root of the universe's existence? Since the root and the origin of the universe is not an absolute being, but rather is absolute love, which itself can bind an absolute being, we can conclude that heaven and earth can indeed form a world of peace.

When we realize that everything in the universe came into existence because of love, then we will automatically deduce that it was love that brought forth peace and ideals. (215-229, 1991.02.18)

10. Given that God is the source of life, on what foundation would He desire to live and continue to exist? He would want to exist on the foundation of peace. The foundation of peace is not something established by life. What can establish it?

It is something by which subject and object partners acknowledge their common value, transcending high and low and the orderly stages of their development. It is true love alone. God maintains life on the foundation of true love. His omniscience and omnipotence are based on true love.

Only in this way can He stand as the ideal subject partner who has transcended history. If He seeks to assume the position of the subject partner with only the power of life, then creation will not want to unite with Him. Even microscopic organisms, animals, and plants wish for a master of love to care for and tend to them. (173-085, 1988.02.07)

11. We can say that people resemble God in their creativity based on their remarkable scientific achievements. However, in the area of love, they do not resemble God at all, so sadness, suffering, and misfortune continue.

Since love is found together with harmony, there can be no love in the absence of harmony, and neither can there be peace nor happiness without harmony. In the realm of disharmony, all sorts of miserable things develop. So both God and human beings desire that people establish an ideal lifestyle and world that takes after God.

The ideal person desired by God and by our original mind is both creative and good. He or she is a person who practices love that revolves around God.

Furthermore, the ideal world desired by both God and humanity is a united world of great harmony, where creative activities to improve the environment are abundant and where the love between individuals and nations is full of overflowing.

When the time comes for a new type of person such as this to finally live in a new, unified world, all the sadness, ordeals, and fighting that humanity has been enduring for so many ages will finally disappear. (65-260, 1972.11.26)

12. Centering on what should we be managing this world? This is a subject of discussion among today's historians and intellectuals, but I tell you, the first necessity is to have a person with the capability to guide the world.

What kind of guidance would such a person offer?

There are plenty of people who can guide based on their power over the economy. There is no shortage of people capable of leading based on politics. But it is neither a lack of money nor a poor political system that keeps us from succeeding.

The problem is that there is no system of love enabling people to connect to God and God's ideal. When we struggle through to find the truth that sustains a proper system of original love and grows it to a global scale, then peace the starting point where our original mind can rest will arise. (125-227, 1983.03.27)

13. The word “equality” cannot be used about a single entity. Equality arises when two entities make a single, horizontal line encompassing the concept of right and left. The word “peace” is always used about mutual relationships.

We speak of peace between East and West. But a peace centered only on the East would be a one-sided peace, and that cannot be total peace. The words pyeongjoon (level, pyeonghyeong (balancer), and pyeonghwa (peace), each of which includes the character pyeong are related concepts.

These are concepts that can only exist when a connection is made between two or more beings. A state of peace is realized when a man and woman are united. When they become one, it does not mean they're the same height, for example. Looking at men and women in terms of their height, men are generally taller.

Furthermore, when we look at them in terms of strength, men are generally stronger. Thus, we cannot find equilibrium based on only external aspects. Then what is the center when a relational realm of equilibrium is formed?

It is not any kind of force or knowledge. No matter how advanced two people may be in the world of knowledge, one will always know more. If there is one single thing that exists that can form a place of equality, it has to be loved.
(166-038, 1987.05.28)

14. Where will we find the standard for evenness (pyeong)? The standard for evenness revolves around love. Love is the absolute, the idea,l and the ultimate. It is demanded by each one of our cells, whether we are men or women.

Love is the standard that unites us in that ultimate ideal, the standard that represents the whole, which means that concepts such as the average (pyeong-gyuti) or equality (pyeongdeung) are not related to an entity's strength or form. These words represent realities that are based on love. (166-039, 1987.05.28)

15. Where are we going? We are going toward the ideal world. Furthermore, we are going toward a peaceful and unified world. When we say “ideal,” “unified” or “peaceful,” what we mean is a world of oneness.

What is the center of the world of oneness?

Love must be the center. Is the communist world a world of peace? Is the democratic world? Regardless of how united a sovereign state may be, it cannot bring forth a world of true oneness without love. There has to be loved.
(124-025, 1983.01.16)

Peace and happiness

16. If there were an essential quality that would not change for a thousand or ten thousand years, only when peace is realized based on that essential quality would that peace be eternal, and only when happiness unfolded based on that essential quality would that happiness be eternal.

Eternal peace and happiness begin from true love. The freedom that has genuine love at its core is eternal; the peace that stems from true love is eternal; the happiness that springs from true love is eternal.

And if the whole unity is centered on true love, we can conclude that this unity will be eternal. In such a case, there will be a connection leading from eternal peace to an eternal society and an eternal world. (130-148, 1984.01.08)

17. What would it be like if you were to become a person who receives the love of God? Would your mind and body be joyful or not? You could not possibly be unhappy. Just as God is an eternal being, we can also live for eternity.

God is the eternal subject of life, the One who endows fully, and you are the object partner of the love of that One who endows. So as long as He is not sad you cannot be sad, and as long as He is joyful you too can be eternally joyful.

Human perfection is simple. It is to be happy. It is to be peaceful and happy. We do not need anything more than that. We are talking about a place where everything is filled to the brim. Of course, there is freedom there too. And everything we desire can be realized there. (128-131, 1983.06.11)

18. What kind of person is miserable? A miserable person tries to give but cannot, who tries to receive but cannot. There can be no happiness or peace for one who is alone.

Peace is something that arises only within a mutual relationship. Love, happiness, and peace are impossible to realize by someone alone. Since these states are realized within a relationship, unless the partner you are relating with is perfect, you cannot experience perfect happiness, perfect peace, or perfect love.
(082-291, 1976.02.01)

19. People have made all sorts of efforts, but the miserable reality is that although we have desired essentials such as true love, true ideals, true happiness, and true peace, and truly yearned for these, we forfeited even the opportunity to attain them.

When we consider the absolute being who is both eternal and unchanging and who transcends changeable human realities, that being cannot but be the God we know. God must be the center of the true hope we desire, the center of true happiness, true peace,e and true love, and the center of true ideals.

God must be the King of love and the King of ideals, happiness, and peace. For God and human beings to enter a place where they can have the same wishes and hopes, and share suffering and joy, human beings have to know God, for He is where true love originates and where true ideals, true happiness, and true peace all begin. (77-181, 1975.04.06)

20. People are today pursuing a world of peace, happiness, and freedom, without even being aware of it. Their lack of awareness proves that they have not been standing on the foundation of essential freedom at the root of peace and happiness.

Since God is an absolute, all-powerful being, everything in nature He created, including human beings, should be as free as God is free. And if God dwells in a peaceful place, then we too should stand in that place with Him.
(135-266, 1985.12.15)

21. Because people to this day have been put in such a lowly position, we have not understood that God's love, ideals, happiness, and peace cannot be attained or perfected without every one of us.

Though we are not enough, we are beings of a high order of value, capable of completing the love of God, of completing God's ideals, and of completing God's happiness and peace. (77-182, 1975.04.06)

22. If we obey the rule to live for the sake of others, then in our families we will realize peace, freedom, happiness, and love, and in our societies, we will also realize peace, freedom, happiness, and love.

The same applies to nations and the world. We naturally conclude that if we focus on this rule, these qualities will certainly dwell with us, regardless of where we are. (070-308, 1974.03.09)

23. If a man and woman who seek to live for the sake of each other become husband and wife, they would be a truly ideal couple that could attain a genuine standard of peace. They would be recognized as a truly happy couple that could become the subject being of eternal and universal true love.

Then what kind of parents would be truly ideal parents? If there are parents who exist not for themselves but for the sake of their children, ready to dedicate themselves to their children until they die, such parents are true parents. Such parents are parents of genuine peace, happiness, and ideals.

If a child were to claim to have been born for the sake of his or her parents, to live for their sake, and to be willing to die for their sake, that child would be called a filial child. He or she would be a child who could receive genuine love, a child of genuine happiness, peace, and ideals. (72-016, 1974.05.07)

24. Where is the origin of peace and happiness? It is where we realize we were not born for ourselves but for the sake of our object partners, for others. There all the difficult issues in this universe will be resolved.

When Adam and Eve became self-aware, they insisted on their way, and that's why they fell. They should have lived for God and followed God's directions, but they did the opposite. Here I can give you one single formula: It is only where people exist for the sake of others that we can find an eternal world of genuine ideals and happiness. (074-164, 1974.12.07)

25. No matter how talented or handsome a man, he was not born for his own sake. He was born for the sake of a woman. Even the most intelligent, beautiful woman was not born for her own sake. She was born for the sake of a man.

We must ponder the fact that the natural origin of existence is the act of creation for the sake of others. Here we find the formula by which God created His ideal world. It is only when we exist for the sake of others that God's true love can begin, His ideal partner can appear, and peace and happiness can be realized.
(77-187, 1975.04.06)

26. Humankind is confronting today's chaotic world and pursuing a peace that transcends nationality. However, to this day, a world of peace for all people has failed to materialize.

Since this is so, if there is one ideal with potential, an ideal that can give people hope, it is the ideal that advocates the logic of a peaceful world with God at its center. This is the only ideal that can give this chaotic world a chance to find a new direction and a new history.

If we think about it logically, the only possible outcome has to be the kingdom of heaven on earth. The kingdom of heaven is a world of peace with God at the center. From that center, all conflicts based on history, religion, race, and any other obstacle can be overcome. God must remain the single, unchanging center.
(210-200, 1990.12.23)

27. How will we find the peace and freedom that can bring forth a world of happiness through the paths of religion, ethics, and philosophy, all of which seek the truth? The hearts of all people today are the same.

And the heart of people thousands of years in the past was the same, as will be the heart of those who will appear hundreds of millions of years from now. There is no changeability in the world of heart.

Can we not find, somewhere on this earth, a heart motivated from the one unchangeable base, so we can develop a world that can realize a garden of happiness, a social standard that can engender such happiness, and a religious mindset that can match that feeling of happiness?

If we conclude that such a thing cannot be found, then where will God go? If we came to that conclusion, we would also have to conclude that God can't be with us. (7-016, 1959.07.05)

28. If there is a heavenly rule that gives Heaven the means to embrace us, to set up the heavenly Providence, to uphold morality and ethics, and cause people to aim for goodness, then there is no question that Heaven will explain to us everything that is related and connected to it.

Moreover, a day will come when men and women of all ages will affirm this in their hearts. The day will come when everyone will harmonize with each other, delighting in freedom, peace, and happiness. If this does not come about, then no relationship exists between us and God or any great thinker. (7-016, 1959.07.05)

Peace and freedom

29. Today it is commonly held by people at all levels of society that this world is not a world of peace. Still, the people of the world yearn for peace. Moreover, everyone without exception wants to live in a free society, a free nation, and a free world.

A man or woman seeking to walk the true path of life wants to enjoy genuine happiness while rejoicing in genuine freedom in an environment of genuine peace. But there can be no genuine happiness unless peace and freedom reside in our minds.

Although people cry out for freedom, they also admit that their surroundings are not free enough for them to live as their hearts desire. Therefore, no human being can deny the fact that he or she has not yet reached the fulfillment that his or her mind eagerly pursues. (7-014, 1959.07.05)

30. Everything seeks partners that have good origins. Moreover, everything seeks places where there is freedom and pursues that which brings peace. Nonetheless, freedom, peace, and happiness are not to be sought separately; they must be sought together.

So, is freedom to be found within peace, or is peace to be found within freedom? Peace is a condition for freedom; freedom comes on the foundation of peace. Peace is where two people harmonize with each other, which is only possible when they make concessions to one another. (182-112, 1988.10.16)

31. There is no freedom under the love of Satan's world. Neither is there peace, happiness, hope, or eternal life. We must restore all these through indemnity. Freedom arises when we restore the creation's rights, human rights, and love's rights.

Therefore, your mind and body must become one. I am saying you should restore human rights. Only when our mind and body are united can we be truly free? If a grandfather and his granddaughter-in-law, for example, were one in heart, then it wouldn't matter even if he had to enter her room unannounced.

What I mean is, that the artificiality would crumble because when there is unity of heart, there is freedom, and only in freedom is there peace and true happiness. (229-357, 1992.04.13)

32. Without a foundation of unity, freedom cannot exist. If your mind and body clash, can you have freedom, maintain it, and be joyful? Can freedom appear? It cannot. Furthermore, where is peace?

True peace is where we are completely free, where everything is smooth and nothing is lacking. Yet when your mind and body clash, is there a place where peace can dwell? No. The same is true for happiness. Can anyone find happiness when his or her mind and body are fighting? There's no way.

When we consider these fundamental issues, we realize that it is only where our mind and body are completely united that we can be free, that a base for peace appears, and that happiness arises.

It is only when a husband and wife become one in heart and body that they can dream about a peaceful world based on peace in their family.
(232-190, 1992.07.06)