True Parents' Philosophy of Life

A philosophy based on true love

True Parents walked the model course that all people will have to go. More than anything, they demonstrated their philosophy of life, of true love centered on God.

True Parents set the example that we should emulate in the age of Cheon Il Guk.

Out of their love for God, they took on the course of restoration through indemnity. They did not avoid a life of suffering. True Parents had to pioneer that path, which no one had gone before, even going to the very bottom of hell. Even when they were in situations that others would have tried to avoid, True Parents practiced true love to liberate God and all people.

Moreover, they even forgave and embraced their enemies who had wanted to kill them, and the incomparable suffering they endured moved even the heart of God.

True Father gave and gave again. He invested completely and forgot about it. Even while undergoing forced labor at the Hungnam fertilizer plant, where starvation and the menace of death hovered constantly, he shared his meager ration, which was like life itself, with other inmates.

He always shouldered the heaviest burdens and carried other people's burdens on their behalf. True Mother, also, when she encountered members in difficult circumstances, always loved them and offered help. True Parents consistently gave away what was most precious to them; this has been their way of life.

1. My philosophy of life is to live for the sake of others. Wherever I go, I go there to live for the sake of others. And I invest with sincere devotion to create oneness. When I invest more than 100 percent, oneness comes.

When people experience the love of heaven more intensely than the love of their parents or siblings, they are bound to leave the realm of Satan's love and advance to the side of heaven.

Whatever your actual stage of life, you can double the principled power you can draw on when you connect to the providential view of God's process of re-creation.

That way you can inherit everything with the authority of God's sons and daughters. As God invested in creating, you need to invest to bring oneness.

Furthermore, anyone who receives should never cause any harm to the one who gave. As an expression of gratitude, you must always return more than you received. Then perpetual circular motion is possible, making a relationship between you and the great universe. (417-137, 2003/09/06)

2. If you have two things, do not give the inferior one to your parents and keep the better one for yourself.

After comparing, if you take the better one, you will descend following the tradition of the fallen world; however, if you take the lesser one, you will be elevated without fail.

Thus, you need to love God first and then love your sons and daughters. If you do so, hell will disappear.

The world where you give the better one to your parents and the next one to your children is filled with the hope for a high-noon settlement. This should be the basis of your philosophy of life. The same principle applies to me.

When I have something precious, I do not think of keeping it for myself. Instead, I first think of offering it to God and then of bequeathing it to future descendants. (409-225, 2003/06/28)

3. I understand that you love me. I also love you. Yet, my love for you is centered on God. I love you through His love. His love is for all humanity; it is not love that should dwell only within the Unification Church.

Hence, to plant that love and spread it throughout the world, I cannot help but send you out to the world. The reason I want you Unification Church members to go a sacrificial way is to make you people who can contribute to bearing the fruit of love that represents a global standard, and thereby be loved by all humanity as well as God.

The goal of the Unification Church is to create people who are loved by God and by humankind. You are not supposed to be loved and respected only within the Unification Church. That is why, rather than loving you only in the realm of the Unification Church, I want to love you in the realm of love of all humanity and God.

That is the kind of teacher I am trying to be. Religions until now have not presented this viewpoint. To lead like this, I must become an example and substantiate my philosophy of life. (082-053, 1975/12/30)

4. I do not like to wear a suit. Ordinarily, I do not wear a tie. Why is that? By not wearing suits and ties, I can save up to 10 percent of my household budget. I want to save that money. I am striving day and night to save countless people who are dying of starvation.

The fact that a person with this philosophy exists on earth, even if I am the only such person, should be a hopeful sign for humanity living on earth. That is how I think.

When I go to a hotel, the room is well set up and has a bathroom. There are plenty of towels in the bathroom, but if I use one it is always the smallest one. I never once used the largest, fluffy towel, the one the size of a rug.

It is because I want to save the expense of laundering that towel. I think that saving even one penny will help people who are dying of starvation.

When I am in my house, I do not put on socks. Saving money on socks is an expression of my sincere desire to help people who do not have money to buy clothes. By investing my sincere heart in this, I am trying to pioneer the path to save people who live in misery. Truly, to live up to the name of True Parents is fearful. (240-279, 1992/12/13)

5. Throughout my life I have been thinking, 'How do I become a person who can shed tears of a new kind, fundamentally different from the tears of others, tears that no one has ever before shed in front of God?

How do I become the man whom God feels sympathy for, the man whom God hopes for, the man who walks the path that human beings should have originally gone?' My philosophy of life is that before I die I will shed tears of a new kind, tears that no one has ever been able to shed.

Some people die for the sake of other human beings, but if a person dies for the sake of God, God will never be able to forget that person even after the flow of thousands upon thousands of years. When I die, I must die in that position, having that content of heart.

If I die while being whipped and vomiting blood for God, the pain and distress that God will feel and the tears of sorrow He will shed over me will be far greater than anything I suffered. Nevertheless, I want to survive and triumph over my suffering, so that God will be able to come out of His painful circumstances. For this, I am willing to suffer more than anyone else in history.

Up to the present day, this has been my lifetime wish and hope. I hope that many people in the world are going on this path. But I have not yet found anyone among them who has a heart with my kind of intensity. (031-326, 1970/06/07)

6. Ours is a world of infinite potential for development. But when people live only for themselves, not knowing how to respect the people and things in their environment, they encounter a limit.

The way to break through that limit is to first establish God as the center of our life and as our guide. Then we will be able to rise above the level where we are limited, and enter the world of infinite development. Otherwise, we will not be able to go beyond that limitation.

Occasionally, it appears that everything has reached its limit. With what are we going to live? It is with love.

With love, we can create our environment. If we do not love to create our foundation in the environment, we will not find a place to settle. It is the path of self-destruction.

It does not generate any energy. People in the surrounding environment will not like us, and we will have no energy to do anything about it. Hence, the people in our environment will gradually withdraw and become distant.

Even those who used to like us will come to dislike us. They should like us more, but they will find nothing to like about us. This will be because we have set up a self-centered boundary line.

People who say, 'I am going to put myself first,' who live on a self-centered level, cannot go over that hill and settle. They are unable to enter a space of mutuality in which they can make relationships and be welcomed by the universe.

People are created to live in relationships, but when they are not aligned with the Principle, they will come to nothing. I live with this philosophy of life.
(596-213, 2008/08/29)

7. Heavenly law protects the perfect object partner who has become one with the perfect subject partner.

The ups and downs of history and human circumstances cannot alter this. Even people who use the sovereign power of the Republic of Korea cannot knock down the person who, as the perfect object partner, maintains vertical alignment with the perfect subject partner.

They may use all the power at their disposal to strike him, but because heaven and earth firmly hold the root and trunk, they cannot knock him down. However mighty, those attackers will be broken. That is my philosophy of life.

As long as we attend to God while maintaining a vertical axis, the people who attack us will be the ones who end up coming to grief. When we attend God in this way, we become the pillar that represents the family, tribe, people, nation, world, and cosmos. Heavenly fortune will protect that pillar, while the people who attack it will certainly be broken. (305-285, 1998/08/27)

8. If I obtain money, I do not think of spending it on myself. I may be hungry, but I know there must be someone hungrier than I, and I want to set that money aside for him or her. So I endure my hunger for one hour, two hours, three hours, and on and on, thinking of someone else who may be hungry.

When I finally find someone who is hungrier than I am, I give that person my food and pray for that individual to be blessed. When I see that person eating, I am eating with him or her in spirit. When I pray for someone to receive the blessing of being able to eat, I am partaking of that blessing with that person.

The person who lives for the sake of Cain inherits Cain's blessings. Cain changes, but because I do not change, I am ascending continuously. The person who lives for the sake of the Will ascends higher than Mt. Everest.

He or she puts down roots in the sin of a place deeper than the 10,000-meter depths of the Pacific Ocean. (338-322, 2000/12/01)

9. Whenever Mother has things that she likes, she gives them away to family members. So when she has to go out, she often has no appropriate attire to wear because she gave away all her best clothes. She thinks that she should not be the only one to enjoy the things that she likes the most.

There are three points about Mother for which I am grateful to God: First, she is insightful. Second, she is obedient for the sake of the Will. Third, she doubts that her things belong to her but belong to the world.

So without hesitation, she wants to give them to others. In this respect, God does not need to be concerned. On the contrary, she is too giving, so much so that I become concerned.

The fact that Mother was born with such a nature is an indication that she was destined to become a True Mother. When I think about it, I am grateful that God sent such as blessing as her to my family, not only because she gave birth to so many children but also because of her many good qualities. So I am saying that you should not think of yourself first. (092-329, 1977/05/03)

10. To this day, I have not been indebted to anyone. Even when it comes to investing devotion, for instance in prayer, I am in no one's debt. My philosophy is that I will not be indebted to others.

I do not intend to live a comfortable life either. I am cautious about this, more than anyone. For the sake of the Will, I invest more than any member of the church, both in the quantity and quality of devotion. For that reason, I am not indebted to you. (027-124, 1969/11/30)

11. The person who incurs debt while going the path of the Will is gouging out our Heavenly Parent's flesh and chipping away His bones. I try not to be indebted before heaven. Whatever I do, I constantly try to be at the place where God would appear to me and say, 'My goodness, please take a little rest!'

I know that God, my Father, has not been able to rest. Yet seeing that I keep on pushing myself without resting, He weeps silently to Himself over me. Attending Him with this heart is my philosophy of life and guiding principle.

I am not doing this because no one taught me. I live this way simply because I have a father-son relationship with God. I pour everything into my relationship with Him.

Therefore, He too truly appreciates our relationship from the bottom of His heart, saying to me, 'I love you so much. I know you are so busy with the Will, but I wish we could spend time only for each other.' Because I live for this

relationship, I receive heaven's protection. That is why I have not perished. Still, I do not say I am great.

The more I know about Him, the more I must keep humbling myself. (226-042, 1992/02/01)

12. If you want to become a central figure, you must pay back any debts you have incurred. In addition, the central figure must bear the responsibility. That is why, even though I cannot take care of each of you when I run into any of you on the street while you are doing missionary work, I take out my wallet and give you all the money in it. I give not sparing even one penny. I view that recipient not merely as an individual.

Since I cannot give to every member of the Unification Church, I give everything I have to that one person, considering him or her as the representative of all members of the church.

I want those who strive to help me while I am going on the path of devotion to God to receive at least as much blessing as I do. This is my philosophy. Whoever lives like this will not perish.

I have lived my whole life that way for the sake of the Will. When I was a student, whenever my parents sent me money, I gave it away to people less fortunate than me, and then I walked.

At that time, the streetcar fare was five jeon. Whenever I would go from the Hwashin Department Store in downtown Seoul to the south side of the Han River near the Noryangjin fish market, I always gave my fare to beggars on the street and walked instead of taking the streetcar.

I cannot forget the life I used to live with tears flowing from my eyes, touched by the bitter grief of those miserable people. I would pray, 'Father, now I cannot give much to these people who are living homeless on the street, but in the future may this country be blessed with liberation and prosperity for everyone.

Please enable it to become a nation that all humankind will honor and respect, a nation that dwells amid Your heart.' (227-288, 1992/02/14)

13. I do not ever forget anyone who treated me with sympathy for God's sake, and I do my very best to repay that person by giving the maximum return. I know that I made you suffer on the path of following the Will, but I am not irresponsible. If I drove you on a path to suffer, I will bear the responsibility.

If I cannot bear it on earth, I will bear it after I go to the spirit world. Hence, those who go forward having made an oath to follow me are blessed.

I am a person who does not know how to betray others. I am also a person who cannot live if I incur even a small debt. Such is my nature. God is like that. God is a being who cannot endure incurring a debt.

If someone gives Him ten, He will give back hundreds or thousands. You, too, must have that kind of trait. (049-076, 1971/10/03)

The family life of true owners

True Father often compared his solitary and difficult life to the Dokdo Islands that are mentioned in the lyrics of the song Hollo Arirang. The Dokdo Islands, also called the Liancourt Rocks, are isolated islands in the East Sea.

They greet the morning sun while being pounded by the sea's rough waves. Like those islands, True Parents have been fighting and winning victory all by themselves.

Whether searching for the Principle or pioneering each course in the providence of restoration, they have been advancing step by step as if each were the critical battle that could be their last.

True Father's love for all creation was unbounded. This is because he understood the creation's sorrow and bitter grief at not meeting its true owners. He resonated with the creation and felt joy when giving and receiving its untainted and essential love and beauty.

True Parents understand that God's ideal of creation is realized on the foundation of the family, so the family is more important to them than anything. Hence, True Parents always held hands everywhere they went.

They were together whether in private or at public events. Although the continual demands of public life meant that they had little time to be with their children, they nevertheless prayed for them every day.

14. Even at digging in a mine I am a champion. I know how to set the buttresses in place inside a mine. I thought to myself: suppose I am hounded and end up in prison, and as a prison, I am put to work as a coal miner.

I must be able to gain experiences from all I go through that will enable me to turn the world around and complete the Will before I die. With such a mindset, I learned how to do many things, even how to make charcoal out of wood. I am a jack-of-all-trades, and I can be successful at anything.

Even if I am carried by helicopter and parachuted into an uninhabited gorge, I will not die of starvation.

Where wild animals dwell, there is plenty to eat. I know which mushrooms are poisonous and which plants are edible. If there is water I can fish because I know how to make a hook, line, and rod to fish with.

A person needs to catch only three fish a day to live. Because I've trained myself in this way, I can survive in any situation. So I have no fear whatsoever about survival. That is why my philosophy of life is that Unificationists should experience all kinds of harsh situations before they are 30 years old. (213-136, 1991/01/16)

15. With the sky as my blanket, regardless of where I go, I can live happily. I have many friends. All things are God's creations; I can live with them and make them my friends, so I am not lonely. Hence, I can live happily anywhere, and wherever I go I can live on my own.

That is why I could become the ancestor of happiness and the ancestor of lineage. That is why I can tell you to inherit my lineage and follow my way of life. If you do not, you cannot go to the kingdom of heaven. Since this conclusion is based on my experimentation and personal experiences, I believe it is correct. (2009/09/19)

16. I went empty-handed to South America. Everyone told me not to go. Many people love me in the United States. Many of them warned me not to go, thinking that if I went I would give up and return.

Even some scholars spoke to me like that. So I knew that I might perish, but I went anyway. Did I perish or prosper? If you are determined to do the mission even if you perish, you will not perish. The individual who owns that universal thought and applies it as a personal philosophy of life is a wise person.

This has been my philosophy of life. I never entertain the thought that I will fail. When I throw myself into projects that others say will not work, within three years I make them successful. I tell you, the people who think that things will not work have not done them.

That is why I can go to a fishing spot and set a world record; it is why when I try a sport, I can become a champion. (281-306, 1997/03/09) 17. At home, when I enter my room, I take off my socks. If it is not a special day, I do not put on a tie. It is to save money to help people around the world who are dying of hunger.

When the air is clear, after I wear a shirt for a day the collar does not become dirty. So I do not want a shirt that I have worn for only one day to be washed. Nonetheless, after I take it off someone takes it away and washes it. So I hide the shirt after I take it off so that no one does that.

If they put it in the hamper to be washed, I take it out and wear it again. You need to live such a life. I am always thinking of how to save and conserve, and with the money I save, to help those who are dying of starvation. (575-152, 2007/09/18)

18. Today I came to speak at this public gathering wearing a white shirt and a tie, but the tie is nylon and was inexpensive. I live like this. I bought this jacket for $13 and these pants for $7. All together that is $20. Even the belt that I am wearing is an inexpensive one, but it is stronger than an alligator-skin belt.

You might not have imagined even in a dream that I wear inexpensive clothes like these. I am telling you this because I know that you want to know about my personal life. I live a simple life. About myself, I am a miser.
(227-159, 1992/02/11)

19. I have no possessions whatsoever to my name. Whatever I have I use as resources for the church.

There is no miser comparable to me. You will not be able to find anyone as ruthlessly stingy toward himself as I am. Today, because I told you to come, I am wearing a suit, but I am not wearing a tie.

How much am I saving by wearing simply a jacket and not a tie? The jacket and pants together cost $50. I go around dressed like that. I do not mind going anywhere like that. Why? As the person who carries the name of True Parents, I will not live in debt.

I am living day and night transcending time. On rainy days, Unification Church missionaries must be looking at the water running off the eaves of the houses and shedding tears. They may not have decent food to eat.

They pass sleepless nights while praying for me to have a long life. How, then, can I live a comfortable life, eating three meals a day and sleeping soundly with my limbs stretched out?

You need to understand that having the enormous responsibility of True Parents, we cannot escape the feeling that we could not do enough to care for them, so inevitably we feel like sinners before them.

Thinking like that is precious. So you also need to have such a mindset and invest yourself to save your relatives. Invest in them and then forget about what you have given. If you do that, you will without fail become the central person in your tribe. The central person is the one who takes responsibility for others.
(227-290, 1992/02/14)

20. A human being should speak good words and should behave well. Both your words and your behavior should be proper. Furthermore, your thoughts must be upright, and you should do your work well. Whatever you do, you need to become a good example. Then you can adapt yourself to any environment.

Everyone passes through all kinds of situations. I am giving you these guidelines because I think that you need to value every aspect of your life: as an individual, as a member of society, and as a church member.

Now the time we are living in is different from the past. The time has arrived for us to keep a high standard in every aspect of our lives(131-312, 1984/05/04)

21. You should organize all your things in their proper places so that you can locate them whenever you need to use them. You should know how to put them in order and take care of them so that your things are clean and beautiful.

I once thought of why Japan was given the blessing of wealth. I think one reason is that Japanese people keep their environment well-organized and clean. Evil spirits want things to be in disarray, and good spirits want things to be cared for in divine and clean conditions.

It seems that in the case of Japan, because of those conditions, good spirits have come and helped the nation, and therefore Japan has developed quickly. Following their example, even if you are busy, you need to keep your things clean and well-organized. (131-303, 1984/05/04)

22. I always think it is fun to observe people who live as husband and wife. When I see two people living together while loving each other, giving birth to children, and encouraging each other to overcome their difficulties and carry on through the marathon of life, I wonder, 'What enables them to do that?'

It is certainly not money, nor the ability of either the man or the woman individually. It is the great power of love that makes it possible.

Love is like a sleeping baby who purses his lips, wanting to suck his mother's breast, or like a baby who cries even as he drinks his mother's milk, needing his mother's embrace. This is precious. (183-053, 1988/10/29)

23. No matter how busy I am, every day without fail I go to my sleeping children's bedside and pray.

Fulfilling the role of a father or mother in front of these precious ones is not easy. I whisper to them, 'What will I be able to give you? I cannot be in your debt. Although you are sleeping, I will ask God to bless you as I hug you tightly and kiss you on the cheek.

I feel so sorry that I do not have time to go places with you, holding your hands. Still, with my kisses, I will make this eternal.' This is how I am living.
(085-136, 1976/03/02)

24. You should not make a scene in front of your children, fighting or showing angry or weeping faces that cause your little children to cry out loud. That is not a proper thing for parents to do.

It is a shameful thing to do in front of the children. Your children represent the God of the future. They should be your successors who will step forth and inherit God's ideal and become His substantial object partners. Being so, you should regard them as your greatest teachers.

You cannot deceive your children. It just does not work. They may not say anything to you, but if you are not being truthful with them, they already know it. Because of this, parents must become the best teachers.

You, as their parents, should stand in the position to represent God to them and be their best teachers. You should be the mainstay for their emotional growth. As parents, you should be able to raise your children to say, 'I will become a husband like my father, and I will meet a wife like my mother.

Even if it means I have to raise my wife, I want a wife who is like my mother.' You should be able to provide them with such an education of heart.
(165-095, 1987/05/20)

25. My mother and I constantly try to compose ourselves in front of our children. Likewise, even though you have a squabble, you should not show tears in front of them. You need to regard them as God. As their mom and dad, you should never let your children see you in tears.

When children are young, their mom and dad are number one. They are the greatest people in the world.

To children, their mom, and dad represent God. They are the greatest, greater than the president, greater than Jesus or Buddha, greater than anyone. Families must advance on that basis of heart.

We have stepped forward to build the kingdom of heaven. A nation can never build the kingdom of heaven; it can be realized only through families.

The family is where we, the True Parents, always want to come and dwell, and the family is where God wants to dwell. It is where even the nation's leader wants to live. (115-217, 1981/11/15)

26. Parents are happy to wash their baby's diapers despite the smell because all the while they are thinking of their baby's plump, happy face smiling at them. Just thinking of the image of their baby's face flickering in front of their eyes fills them with joy. Such is the heart of parents who love their children.

By the same token, if you love God, how much do you love Him? If you truly love Him, there should be nothing that you do not like. No matter how difficult the task, you will not find it difficult.

Even in a deep gorge, there is a rope of love buried there; finding it, you will resonate with God's love, which gives you motivation. It is like a mother who comes home after working hard in the field.

She is happy to nurse her baby lovingly and does not notice the pain when the infant bites down on her breast to suck. (025-264, 1969/10/05)