Life has its seasons: youth, adolescence, adulthood, and old age. Youth is a time to learn, when one is malleable and most open to instruction; adolescence is a time of exploration that requires self-discipline; the twenties are the time to set up the foundations of family and career; and middle age is the time to accomplish one’s goals.
Old age finally arrives, displaying the fruits of one’s life. It is a time to manifest either the wisdom gained through a lifetime of living a moral life and practicing spiritual discipline, or the decrepitude of a wasted life.
Once it has drawn nigh, it is too late to change. More passages on the stages of the human life cycle are found throughout Chapter 19.
Sun Myung Moon
Childhood and Adolescence
Every child is born of the nature of purity and submission to God. Hadith of Bukhari (Islam)
Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it. Luke 18.16-17
The great man is he who does not lose his child’s heart. Mencius IV.B.12 (Confucianism)
You can only coil a fish when it is fresh. Nupe Proverb (African Traditional Religions)
Elisha ben Abuyah said: If one learns when a youth, to what is it like? It is as ink written on new paper. If one learns when an old man, it is as ink written on erased paper. Mishnah, Avot 4.25 (Judaism)
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of God’s word. You need milk, not solid food; for every one who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their faculties trained by practice to distinguish good from evil. Hebrews 5.12-14
I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one. 1 John 2.14
You will be running to the four corners of the universe: To where the land meets the big water; To where the sky meets the land; To where the home of winter is; To the home of rain. Run this! Run! Be strong! For you are the mother of a people. Apache Initiation Song (Native American Religions)
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
Father! We must become children, children who implore Thee, “We are hungry” when we are hungry. Children are thirsty for their mother’s love. Children are simple and innocent.
The more they are raised, brought up and gently embraced, the more they grow to follow their parents’ standard… Please allow us to have hearts that long for Thee, like hungry babes longing for their mother’s milk. (20:11, March 31, 1968)
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if God had created Adam and Eve complete and perfect? But that is not how the universe works. All things begin from the bottom-most stage and grow to reach their proper level.
Thus, Adam and Eve should begin their lives as babies and grow up. They are not meant to have a complete relationship with the universe instantly.
When a young man reaches the age of fifteen, sixteen and seventeen, he comes to enjoy the world of male-female relationships.
He feels romantic, poetic yearnings. Don’t teenagers feel that way? They would like to leave home, travel all over the world and find adventure on land and sea. That is when their eyes are wide open to find a partner for love. (January 8, 1984)
Adolescence is the time to give off fragrance. It spreads far and wide, attracting the bees and butterflies. That is why young men and women want to become the top champion, the top student, the top everything. (56:262, January 2, 1972)
Today’s teenagers are wild; they hook up with anyone willy-nilly. By doing so, they bring about their own ruin and society’s ruin. Yet, because adolescence is a time of change, teens cannot settle with one partner; they go from one relationship to another.
Therefore, teenagers need to follow a definite discipline and be aware of the dangerous circumstances in which they live. You [parents] need to straighten them out. You need to clear up the complications in their lives. (118:197, June 1, 1982)
Sun Myung Moon
Maturity and Old Age
The Master said, “At fifteen, I set my heart upon learning. At thirty, I had planted my feet upon firm ground. At forty, I no longer suffered from perplexities. At fifty, I knew what were the biddings of Heaven. At sixty, I heard them with a docile ear. At seventy, I could follow the dictates of my own heart; for what I desired no longer overstepped the boundaries of right.” Analects 2.4 (Confucianism)
Respect the young. How do you know that they will not one day be all that you are now? But if a man has reached forty or fifty and nothing has been heard of him, then I grant there is no need to respect him. Analects 9.22 (Confucianism)
If the hair has become white, a man does not on that account become old; though a man may be young, if he is learned, the gods look upon him as old. Laws of Manu 2.136 (Hinduism)
You cannot prolong your life, and therefore, be not careless; you are past help when old age approaches. Uttaradhyayana Sutra 4.1 (Jainism)
The man of little learning grows old like the ox. His muscles grow but his wisdom grows not. Dhammapada 152 (Buddhism)
Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come, and the years draw nigh, when you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”; before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain; in the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look through the windows are dimmed, and the doors on the street are shut; when the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises at the voice of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low; they are afraid also of what is high, and terrors are in the way; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along and desire fails; because man goes to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets; before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. Ecclesiastes 12.1-7
Before the gray descends on your cheek, the wrinkles plow your chin, and the body becomes a cage of bones; Before the teeth fall off from your mouth, the back bends to the earth, and you become a burden to others; Before you hold a stick in one hand and lean heavily with the other on your knee; Before age corrodes your bodily beauty and you feel the pangs of death; Adore our Lord Kudala Sangama! Basavanna, Vacana 161 (Hinduism)
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
What period of human life is most important? It is not childhood. It is the years when you are passing through young adulthood and into middle age, that is, between your twentieth and fortieth year.
Especially during a person’s twenties, before age thirty, he should lay the groundwork for his life’s activities and secure a solid foundation for his life.
He should also create the conditions upon which he can move forward and pursue his goals. Anyone who fails to do these things is bound to live as a mediocre, unremarkable person during their thirties and into his forties. (22:314, May 12, 1969)
The period in a person’s life when he is capable of the greatest amount of activity is from his twenties to his forties, perhaps his fifties. These twenty to thirty years are a person’s peak years.
But once a person crosses forty, he usually start to decline. From this perspective, you should think about how little time you have left to work for God’s Will. (33:186, August 12, 1970)
Of all the precious seasons of life, the bloom of youth is beyond compare. When we enter the prime of life, we have burdens to carry, and if we cannot keep up the fight, we know that our descendants, who are the fruit of that, will be miserable.
Therefore, only if we live vigorously during the prime of life, and continue into old age, will our family have in its bosom descendants who will be able to greet new springs, see new summers, and prevail through the following winters without difficulties. (31:139, May 3, 1970)
Sun Myung Moon