Authors
1. The family is a textbook for how to build an ideal land and an ideal nation. The nation is a textbook for how to build an ideal world. There are four textbooks—the family, the nation, the world, and the universe.
Yet, you have to teach about these textbooks at home. This basic education should begin in the family. (118-234, 1982.06.06)
2. The family is a textbook to connect us to the kingdom of heaven. It is the educational textbook.
When you apply it to the nation, you will become a patriot; when you apply it to the world, you will become a saint, and when you practice it in the context of heaven and earth, you will become God's child, His divine son or daughter. All people have that desire. (137-078, 1985.12.18)
The family is the school of love
3. Parents should be the center of the family, and teachers should be the center of the educational institutions of society. Parents rear children by nourishing them, and supporting their physical development as well as their emotional development.
The school prepares people for their future life in society. If the family is the emotional training ground, the school is the social training ground, like a laboratory. The family is the training ground of the heart.
Thus, at school, we must interact with love and affection as brothers and sisters, and do so in the nation as well. Parents' education at home is to prepare the children to love their school, their society, and their nation.
Parents should pass on everything in the realm of their heart to their children, who are their heirs. They should lay the foundation of heart for their children by teaching them to follow their way of life in the family, society, and nation.
(180-130, 1988.08.22)
4. Do we ever need to be taught how to go the way of evil? People do not need education to go to the way of evil. Even without any education, they naturally go that way. This is because history started from evil. People were born with an evil inclination.
That is why they need education to act according to the standard of conscience based on morals and ethics. What is the center of that education? It is goodness, based on following the conscience.
Although people are educated about goodness, how many live up to the standards they are taught? People will still tend to do evil things. In doing evil, anyone can get a perfect score. (36-057, 1970.11.15)
5. Parents who stay awake at night out of love for their children are close to Heaven. You need to establish an absolute foundation in your family, and say, “This family is like a factory, a production base for the kingdom of heaven.” That is why I am telling you to educate and protect your sons and daughters to make a happy family. (194-132, 1989.10.17)
6. The family is the model, the foothold on earth for the kingdom of heaven. It has been God's sorrow that He has been unable to prepare a textbook with which to educate human beings to become His true sons and daughters. Why? It is due to the Fall.
When will God be able to raise us to be His true sons and daughters? This has been His hope throughout history. His further sorrow is that He could not prepare a textbook to guide human beings to build a world of love. Among siblings there are brothers and sisters, not necessarily only two; there could be ten or even twenty. But God could not teach brothers and sisters how to live.
After Adam and Eve were born as God's son and daughter, they grew as brothers and sisters. Through them, God wanted to produce the textbook for all brothers and sisters. He then wanted to produce one for husband and wife. But He had no chance to do either, and to this day, we have no such books.
After becoming a couple, Adam and Eve soon became a father and mother. Yet again, God could not produce the textbook to clarify the tradition of parents.
(224-268, 1991.12.15)
7. The system in the ideal world is based on the family unit. The family is the foundation for the kingdom of heaven; it is the cornerstone, the foundation on which to build that kingdom. It does not matter how many people there are; if you love them as your family, you are welcome everywhere in the kingdom of heaven.
That is why you should base your life on the education you receive in your family. In the family are grandfathers and grandmothers, father and mother, husband and wife, and sons and daughters. These represent four generations.
We can apply this wherever we go throughout the world. We will meet people the age of our grandparents, the age of our parents, the age of our spouses, and the age of our children. Therefore, those who have experienced love according to the textbook in their family will have no problem wherever they go.
Since their way of life accords with the book, they will pass every test. The time will come when everyone will provide food and lodging to those who are living like this. All that matters is this education in the family. That is why I am saying the family is the most fundamental textbook.
If you live according to the way you were taught in the family, regardless of where you go, you will not face any barriers and no one will oppose you.
(225-224, 1992.01.20)
8. The family is the center of education. In it, you pass the test that qualifies you to enter the kingdom in the other world. Who is the head of the family? The head is the one who most loves the whole family.
Who is the head of this world? If you view the heavenly nation as one giant family, the one who most loves the people on earth is the head. Each race may think they are the best, but that is not the case.
Although both the East and the West exist, each thinks it is best. Yet, neither can exist without the other. The two are bound in a partner relationship.
(247-312, 1993.06.01)
9. Earthly families are like production plants that create citizens destined for the heavenly nation.
We act as the owners of these plants until we enter the spirit world. The path of life we set up will naturally educate our children. We will not need to intervene; they will naturally learn to walk the right path.
Everyone has God within; we do not need education to put Him there. But we are where we are now because of the Fall. As a result of the Fall, humanity has been ignorant of the fundamentals. (254-246, 1994.02.13)
10. The family is the standard of perfection for the individual and the standard of perfection for the church. No matter how well you do as an individual in pursuing the Will of God, if you do not succeed with your family, it is a problem. That is why the family is the issue. In the family there is not only one side, there are two.
There are men and women, and on the foundation of one man and one woman, there are parents and children. Therefore, four directions appear. Looking at this four-directional pattern, we see that it is not human will that creates the family.
The family is the place God designed for the perfection of the individual, as well as the starting point of the church. If a problem occurs in the family, you should find the solution in the family, not in the church.
If anything goes wrong, you should seek the solution in the family itself, not the church. If you cannot resolve this at home, neither can the church provide a fundamental solution. The kingdom of heaven appears not centered on the individual, but on the family, where four directions and three dimensions meet. (45-216, 1971.07.01)
11. If not for the Fall, men and women would have received perfect love from God as His true sons and daughters in the family. Then we would have been completely one with God. Such men and women would have united totally in love.
Such couples would not exist only for their own sake but to educate their children because they would want to complete all four directions. (53-069, 1972.02.09)
12. The family is the most important school of love in our life. The education of the emotions that only parents can provide equips children with depth and breadth of heart. This is the cornerstone upon which children's character is built. The family is also the school in which virtues and principles are taught.
Children should receive intellectual, physical, and technical education upon this foundation of emotional and principled education. This is the heavenly way.
(271-080, 1995.08.22)
The importance of prenatal education and children's education
13. You should not be happy merely with having given birth to a son, even if you waited a long time for him. As much as you are happy with your son, your concern should be how to rear that son to become a valuable person.
Parents who know the principle of Heaven are concerned about this and balance their affection toward their children. Those who are just pleased with giving birth to their child are making a mistake from the outset.
Our concern should be how we can raise a son who can add value to the nation. If you desire to have a son for this purpose, you set a condition to serve the nation from the outset. This is an important matter. (34-023, 1970.08.29)
14. Where does the vibration of love come from? It comes from the mother's womb. Your mother's love is the first thing you receive. She is the first one to create a loving relationship with you.
Although your father also loves you, while you are in your mother's womb she pays you a great deal of attention, caring more for you than she cares for herself. To protect you from harm, she is careful of what she says, and she does things with a loving heart. Love begins with a mother. (044-106, 1971.05.06)
15. Reflect on yourself and ask, where does my life begin? It starts with your parents. Our life begins in our mother's womb. When a fetus is in its mother's womb, it absorbs elements from the mother to grow.
If there is anything a baby wants while in the womb, it is that his mother be joyful, happy, and singing all the time. That might be the most important wish of the fetus.
That is why prenatal education consists of the pregnant woman listening to beautiful music, looking at beautiful scenes, and thinking beautiful thoughts. That is good for the baby as well. (74-012, 1974.11.10)
16. When a woman is pregnant, she gives prenatal education. The hopes a mother has for her baby will be realized as she does this with her child's future in mind. The mind has great power; this is connected to the power of God's mind when He created all things.
That is why even now, He continues investing again and again, never calculating what He has invested. He invests infinitely, forgetting about His investment. Investing like this does not diminish the amount that remains for Him to give. The more true love is invested, the greater becomes the reservoir.
(224-152, 1991.11.24)
17. We need to attend to God in our hearts. We should educate our children with Him in our hearts. A teacher should never allow children to take the easy way out and submit incomplete work. They should be like a parent. No parents teach their children to do wrong.
Some teachers might let their students do wrong. The teacher could become the enemy and subvert them, to their ruin. There can be two kinds of teachers and two kinds of siblings, but there is only one kind of parent. No matter how evil people are, they teach their children to do what is right. (28-084, 1970.01.04)
18. God has had dual purposes in seeking one man and one woman. He wants to redeem not only Adam and Eve but also to build the four-position foundation by redeeming their sons and daughters as well. Each one of you needs to build your four-position foundation.
That means you must do it yourself. You must become one with God and also make oneness with your sons and daughters. You have to find spiritual sons and daughters, educate them, and give them such faith that they can even go the way of death on your behalf. Only then can you finally prepare the foundation for one place of perfect res? (28-086, 1970.01.04)
19. Parents teach their children to become great people who can serve their country. However, as the world is unfolding before our eyes, the time for teaching children to be great figures for the nation has passed.
Now we need to teach them, “Live for the sake of the world and live with the world.” I know what you want in your hearts, so I am summing things up like this for you. (28-192, 1970.01.11)
20. How can we as parents bequeath to our children our thoughts, such that they will make it their tradition? For God, the issue has been how to bring His children out of Satan's world.
For this, He has been toiling during the six-thousand-year providence of restoration. For us, the issue is how to educate our children while living in Satan's world. We have to carry both crosses. (29-273, 1970.03.11)
21. The best public mission is to work for the cosmos. Our Unification Church is not promoting teachings about the heavens and the earth, but the teaching of cosmos-ism, or the way of thinking that centers on the cosmos, as expressed in the word cheonju (天宙) In these characters, which means cosmos, ju (宙 ) means house. In the cosmos-centered way of thinking, ownership is not by individual human beings; rather, the family is the owner.
Individuals do not build nations; families do. The world cannot be built except from families. When its families fail, a nation will fall into ruin. Therefore, family education determines the nation's fate and whether it will be blessed.
The more families live by public principles, the more the nation will prosper. The more families focus only on their interests, the more that nation will decline.
(31-243, 1970.06.04)
22. If a nation were to begin from one individual, how much would we revere that individual? If that person were to form a family that represented the nation and the world, how much would we cherish and love that family?
With our beloved sons and daughters at the center, we have to create new tribes that are separated from Satan. As parents, we have to create a family that endeavors to promote and cherish the bond with Heaven's heart. To achieve this, we have to devote ourselves with all our heart and effort to educating our children in daily life.
From the viewpoint of education, our life purpose is to show the way for our sons and daughters, to build a foundation for their happiness and the well-being of our nation and people.
Living in this way is how we become the origin of a new world; it is a solemn and noble path. We can begin to fulfill our responsibility as sons and daughters of God only when we put ourselves in this position, valuing it as greater than anything else in the cosmos. (34-061, 1970.08.29)
23. We can love different types of people only after we give birth to children and raise them in the family. If we could love people of all ages, from little children to the elderly — if as a man we knew how to love, purely, all the women in the world, or as a woman we knew how to love, purely, all the men in the world — would this not be an ideal world? What is the family about? It is the educational center to introduce us to the ideal world. (109-287, 1980.11.02)
24. The kingdom of heaven originates from the family, so we have to turn the family around, based on true love. For this, the second generation has an important role to play.
Satan is striving to destroy young people. He herds them into drug dens. Shot by the devil's arrows, they engage in free sex without thought to the consequences. Young people in every town should unite with the police to confront gangsters and expel them.
Our families will bring hope to towns when our second-generation young people take responsibility for dealing with gangsters and educate other young people, together with their parents.
Beginning in the family and expanding to the world, we have to create the foundation for a palace of peace within our families. Those who do this are wise. When there are many such families, they will receive blessings in the future as a people. (208-301, 1990.11.20)
25. Those whose heart is to serve the world just as they serve their grandparents will face no obstacles on the way to the kingdom of heaven. We need a uniform foundation of education for people of all nations to build a world of unity.
For example, as you are about to enter a restaurant, if you see an elderly couple looking worried because they have no money, you should take them into the restaurant with you and treat them well, as if they were your grandparents.
If you live for the sake of others, you will be blessed. Such a legacy will never disappear. When you invest with love, nothing is lost. (215-122, 1991.02.06)
26. What is God's sorrow? It is that He has been unable to secure three generations on the horizontal level. God could never see Adam and Eve become a true couple or true parents, and thus He could not see true grandchildren. Achieving this would have made three generations.
Since these three generations were turned upside down by the Fall that is, since we inherited the wrong life, love, and lineage from the fallen world — we have to turn everything right side up. This brings us to the conclusion that the grandfather should be in the position of the grandson, the father should be in the position of the son, and the older brother should be in the position of the younger brother.
This is unprecedented, as if heaven and earth are turned upside down; it is revolutionary. From the vertical perspective, the grandfather represents the first position, God; Adam and Eve represent the father and mother; and the children represent the princes and princesses.
Hence, we ought to attend to the grandfather and grandmother, who appear in the family on the horizontal level, representing God. This is the original principle of family education. (221-215, 1991.10.24)
27. Parents need to be strict in the family, especially today. These days, parents are required to take responsibility for managing and educating their children, even to employ disciplinary measures so that they will not be tainted by the fallen world.
Free sex, public flaunting of sex, and homosexuality are the devil's tricks. Our way, which takes us to the heavenly nation, is 180 degrees different from the way of this world. Naturally, someone like me would be opposed to this world.
Therefore, unless I proclaim that I have completed all that I had promised in the course of restoration, I cannot enter the realm of perfection in substance. By achieving the eternal standard of the Blessing, as the partner of true love, I can unite with God, the subject partner who is centered on true love, the ideal of creation. (248-079, 1993.07.01)
28. The grandfather is a special envoy of the kingdom of heaven; the parents are the king and queen of the present world, and the children are the princes and princesses of heaven and earth.
That is why a grandfather loves his grandchildren more than he loves his sons and daughters. After becoming a grandfather myself, I found this to be true. We need to create educational institutions where our grandchildren can study. If we cannot do that, we have failed our mission as grandparents.
Our grandchildren will call us to account for this again and again. Our grandchildren should be the parents who begin the re-creation of the kingdom of heaven throughout heaven and earth.
We have to become grandparents and ancestors who can fulfill our mission to make it possible for our grandsons and granddaughters to stand in such a position. (295-243, 1998.08.28)
Sun Myung Moon