Authors
True Parents' attitude toward public life
God's Will is to complete His purpose of creation, which is the ideal of creation. In his lifetime, True Father lived for the Will and was ready to die for it at any time.
He thought only of God's Will and acted only for its realization.
To him, there was no distinction between night and day, and even at night, he could not sleep comfortably.
True Mother is the same, having led such a life with Father for more than five decades. Since Father's passing, she has become even more serious about fulfilling God's Will within her lifetime.
True Parents' dedication could be seen during their speaking tours around the world when they traveled from country to country without a break to encourage the members. True Parents have led public lives for God's liberation and humankind's salvation.
Without caring about their living situation, they have sacrificed everything for the public purpose.
1. When I travel, I sanctify every place I go. Wherever I sit, I sanctify that place before taking my seat, and when I depart, I take some measures for protection: I say, 'Having sat in the highest position in this place, I am now leaving.'
Then, Satan cannot follow me. Furthermore, rather than looking for the most comfortable seat, I search for a good place from which to observe my surroundings.
To live like this, I need to keep myself in a state of keen sensitivity. If I step into a bad place, I immediately feel my hair stand on end. I quickly notice what kind of place it is, and, feeling that sensation, I know I must leave. This is how I protect my life. If I know I stay there anyway, I am exposing myself to danger.
That's why I always travel with my spiritual lantern on. In terms of electric light, if daylight is 1,000 watts, I need to emit a light greater than 1,000 watts. Unless my light is brighter than the daytime sunlight, I will cast a shadow.
That is why we need to lead a life of love. Then hundreds of thousands of watts of light directly connect from God to us. Our light comes directly from God's powerhouse. You always have to think like this. (335-252, 2000/10/05)
2. If I had thought of myself first, I would not have been able to come this far. I would have been swept away by the current.
Because I do not think of myself, I yearn for other people. You have no idea how strong my yearning is.
As the head of the church, even when it is approaching midnight, I would rather not be parted from the members. Although we said goodbye, if one of my members returns to the church before I leave for home, I am delighted to stay with him or her even into the morning hours.
I will not interrupt the flow of love from the heart. I yearn for people to that degree. When they are absent, I miss them so much that I shed tears when I meet them.
You cannot go to God's kingdom without shedding tears for people. The path to the kingdom is not to eat well and live a comfortable life. God wants to give everything, even His secrets, to the person who lives a life of shedding tears for others.
As True Parents, we are doing our best to liberate God. You have to think about how to unite with the Will. (308-210, 1999/01/05)
3. I do not think about how hard I have been working. Salmon die after they spawn to feed their bodies to their young. By dying, they want to give their young absolutely everything they have, all the way to the end. They keep nothing for themselves.
I, too, will not keep anything in my possession. Whatever is mine, I want it to belong to my future descendants in all nations. I have no concept of holding on to some secret funds. When someone donates, I never use it for myself. I do not touch it. Instead, I add to it from what I have and use it all for the world.
(322-018, 2000/05/11)
4. Even if I have money, it has never been my dream to use it to build a nice house for myself filled with bodily comforts. However, if I need to use money for people, I am willing to even borrow money.
This is my conviction, and this is how I live. Why? Because I am the Unification Church leader, and my mission is to make conditions to love the Will of God, who loves the world.
As the leader, unless I make such conditions in my daily life, I cannot leave behind the textbook to teach you to do the same. I am responsible for making my life that textbook and leaving it behind for you when I go.
Because I am carrying out the mission of a pioneer, I cannot reveal my sadness when I am sad, or my feelings of having been wronged when I am unfairly treated. (032-274, 1970/07/19)
5. So many people are going hungry throughout the world. Who is going to take responsibility for that?
So many children cannot receive an education. When they live that way, many people end up leading meaningless lives, of less value than even kindling for burning the garbage. I want to give them ample opportunities to study, more than what is available to children from rich families.
Some of the most critical problems we have to solve in the Last Days are to prevent people from starving to death and provide education for children who cannot study because their families cannot afford tuition.
We, True Parents, want to take ownership and solve this problem. We will do what is needed to save them, even if we have to create a special task force. This is my philosophy of life, and I am constantly working on it. No one wants to take responsibility for this task, but as True Parents, we are striving to find ways to help them. (600-105, 2008/10/27)
6. Donated money is a fearsome thing, more fearsome than poison. If you use it for your family and children, you will come to ruin. The offering you received is what others offered for God's kingdom; heaven remembers how they prepared it with blood, sweat, and tears.
Hence, when I receive money that was donated, I think first about whom I should give it to. As long as I use it for a greater purpose, for the world, or the nation, I will not be trapped by it. Yet, many people go to ruin because they do not know the right way to use money. (273-203, 1995/10/22)
7. I never use even one cent of public money for myself. I accurately report my use of money, so these days even the IRS auditors testify that I never use public money for my purpose. They confirm my integrity when it comes to money.
I do not covet the money that you earn through your hard work. I, the man with the title of True Father, am not that kind of person.
When I received a report that a Japanese sister had been wearing the same underwear for seven years while doing church activity, it made me weep bitterly. I cannot forget the Japanese people who made such conditions.
Because they made such conditions, I want to save them. I know very well how much they are suffering. (307-244, 1998/11/21)
8. Do not become dependent on the Unification Church after you join it. You have to be a plus, not a minus, about this movement and the church. You have no idea how much it hinders God's providence when, instead of being helpful to God's Will, you cause heaven to worry about you.
So I determined that I would maintain the standard of being a plus throughout my life. Until the Will is fulfilled on the world level, I have resolved not to appoint as leaders people who might obstruct its advancement. I will not appoint them, even though they may be my countrymen or even my relatives. (337-043, 2000/10/21)
9. There has not been a day when we, True Parents, did not shed tears. This remains true to this day. As people in a public position, we cannot put our feet up or sleep comfortably.
We cannot even eat a bowl of rice with our hearts at ease. Yet, even though we are living that kind of life, I hear all kinds of derogatory remarks, but I have never made excuses.
If God had made excuses for the last 6,000 years, there would be nothing left of heaven and earth. When we look into God's inner heart, our trials and suffering seem so trivial.
They do not justify you making excuses in front of God. On the contrary, you have to comfort God, bowing your head before Him and repenting for how little you have done. You should not expose the difficulties you encounter in your situation or make excuses for them; rather, you should keep them to yourself while feeling ashamed that you have not done enough.
Still, most people first make excuses for themselves. You should not do that.
(026-019, 1969/10/14)
10. The greater our difficulties, the more we need to be centered on God with absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience. We have to center on the Absolute Subject Partner and go to the zero position.
The zero position means that when the sun shines down vertically, no shadows are cast. At noontime, if you stand under the sun, you cast no shadow. When the sun is at its zenith, your shadow disappears.
When there is no shadow because everything reaches the zero position, something new appears.
That is the point where those who live in worries end up failing. But even if you fail, as long as you do not worry, you will go to a higher position.
Even if everyone else retreats, perishes, and disappears, you will advance on a different, higher level if you do not worry. That's my philosophy of life.
The Unification Church has been treated unrighteously, but whatever was brought down by mistreatment was eventually re-established on a higher level. That's what it means to move forward centering on the principle that an absolute subject partner creates its absolute object partner. (292-017, 1998/03/22)
11. I have no time to sleep. Even on Sunday, which for most people is a day off, I continuously push myself. Once I start speaking, I do not stop. I have taken very few naps in my life.
Since 1990, I may nap when I feel exhausted, but it is never for more than an hour. If I nap for more than an hour, I cannot sleep at night. So no matter how tired I am, I do not take a nap.
That has become my habit. I usually wake up at 3:30 in the morning. I may be getting older, but I will not be outdone by young people because I know how to look after my health. (247-052, 1993/04/21)
12. In heaven, you do not live with money. You cannot live on your knowledge either. You need to shed numerous tears of love. Especially religious leaders will have to shed many tears. I have been living my whole life with a heart that will burst into a river of tears if anyone says just one poignant word to me.
Such is the sorrow that I harbor in my heart. If I cannot completely dissolve it while I am on earth, I will have to continue working without rest in the next world.
Because I know there are mountains of work to be done, I complete my day's work even if I have to work late into the night. I do so to preserve the next day as a full one. Tomorrow I will do greater work than today and greater and greater work with each passing day.
We are building heaven's tower, a tower for God. I always think that someone should lay at least one more brick for the construction of Heaven's Tower. Having lived my whole life in this way, forgetting myself, I have reached the pinnacle on the world level. (208-143, 1990/11/17)
13. You should know that many shed their blood and give up their sleep to connect the developments in the Unification Church to their countries and peoples. I know this. And because I am the person who gives them their instructions, I keep going day and night in order not to be indebted to them.
When midnight comes around I do not sleep; instead, I think 'Oh, it's their prayer time!' In this way, I try hard not to be indebted to them. That is why the Unification Church is advancing. (231-066, 1992/05/31)
Devotion and a life of prayer
True Father said that if he were to choose just one word, it would belong, meaning 'sincerity. Father always emphasized the importance of sincere devotion. Sincere devotion refers to conditions to actualize the Word in daily life. It is the basic activity of a life of faith, which can move the hearts of God and the hearts of people.
True Parents always think that people who offer sincere devotion, and the things that come as a result of sincere devotion, are more important than anything else. Moreover, they emphasize that if we pray with faith, God will work to make our prayers come true, and that before we pray we should act.
14. When I was put in prison, I became a parent to my fellow inmates. When I went to a construction site, I became a parent to the laborers. When I spent seven years in Gloucester, in the United States, going out on boats, I went out with that heart.
When I went out on the New Hope boat, even when everyone else was napping, I did not rest. In the morning when I had to go out to sea, I would be at the dockside even if the captain was still sleeping. As long as I was on the boat, I would remain awake.
There was a bed in the cabin, but I lay down there only once when I had a bad headache. That is how hard I pushed myself. I had the responsibility to establish the tradition like the captain of the boat does for his crew. More than that, I should take responsibility as a parent.
When I established Tongil Industries, it took three or four hours to travel from Cheongpa-dong to Sutaek-ri. I cannot count how many times I went back and forth, sometimes twice a day and even three times a day. For three years I went back and forth like that to the Unification Theological Seminary in Barry town.
Whenever I felt I needed to make some special condition, I went there every day. If I had to go somewhere and come back late, the next day I would go again in the early morning. I did this to offer sincere devotion. (117-022, 1982/01/30)
15. Sincere devotion enables God to lower His anchor to a place where there is no anchor line. By offering sincere devotion, the anchor chain is lowered link by link. When it reaches you, and you grasp hold of that chain, you can be freely lifted to God's kingdom.
If you do not make conditions of devotion, you cannot go up. Therefore, you should offer devotion so you can tie yourself to the anchor. If you make a strong tie, you can go to heaven freely. A door will open in your prayer life.
As you offer more sincere devotion, that door will open wider on the earth plane and draw you up on God's anchor. If you often pray, little by little the doorway of your prayer will become larger.
As it gradually widens, the chain will become a ladder. Then as you continually offer more devotion, the ladder will become a mountain, and high on the summit of that mountain you can connect to the kingdom of heaven.
At that point, either you will go higher or heaven will come down. You then extend the ladder, and all the people in the spirit world will work hard for you. Your conditions of sincere devotion bring them down to earth.
Furthermore, if you offer devotion to other people on earth, a mountain will appear before them, showing them a path to ascend to a realm where they can receive benefits. (169-223, 1987/10/31)
16. Those who do not offer conditions of devotion make many excuses for not doing so. People who offer
devotion do not make excuses because they have so many goals for which they need to offer devotion. That is why God does not say even one word by way of an excuse. From the time of the creation to this day, God has hardly spoken; rather, He is occupied with offering His sincere devotions.
He offers them for the sake of the whole, to stand in the position where He can relate with all beings. God is offering ever more devotion, still with the same heart of loyalty, to elevate the lower realms to a higher state.
True Parents are going that same way. We are always making new beginnings. That means we have to keep offering additional devotion. We will not imitate the sorrow of those who have lost out; rather, we will connect to the joy of victors. (276-143, 1996/02/18)
17. I should offer an incredible amount of devotion, and numerous conditions of devotion, to create a strong economic foundation for the liberation of all peoples of the world. Afterward, God and Satan will have to acknowledge what I did. That is why I live my life the way I do.
That is why I have been going to Cheongpyeong every day. I may return home around midnight, but desiring to see that land again I will go back there the following morning.
I am constantly investing my sincere devotion. I need to continue offering devotion. I must gather all the bundles of devotion and offer them to God along with our blood and sweat. Then God the Subject Partner will not be hesitant to provide us with the materials necessary to re-create the nation and the world. This is living by the Principle. (109-182, 1980/11/01)
18. The Unification Church's teaching is fearful. When we went to South America, we had no intention of causing anyone loss. So we had to start everything on our own and build with our hands.
Nevertheless, we never succumbed to fatigue. I could not afford to become tired because I wanted to resurrect South America to become a continent that could help the world.
I resolved that as long as God does not abandon His hope to help the world, I cannot abandon South America. I tell you that as long as there are people who are investing devotion for this, it will work.
I am now approaching the age of 80, but I am adding something more every day. I do not retreat. I should shed one more drop of sweat today than I shed yesterday, take one more step, and do one more thing.
This is how I can advance. The word 'stop' is not in my vocabulary. The word 'stop' connects with retreat and death. The word 'advance' is connected with flourishing and with the kingdom of heaven. (276-146, 1996/02/18)
19. When I give a sermon, I never decide on the title or do research for it in advance. This is because when I begin to speak, I stand in relationship to the vertical realm. Water flows quickest when it falls straight down vertically, at a 90-degree angle to the level surface, and then flows horizontally.
With people listening to me, many stories flow out of my mouth as if opening a water faucet. It's because there are people who need to hear them. As I have many things to say to different people in the audience, it requires much time. A good number of people are revived by my sermons.
Knowing this, I can speak for more than ten hours. For what purpose do I do this? It is to revive my children. (247-032, 1993/04/21)
20. If it takes others one hour and 30 minutes to walk to a destination, I can walk it in one hour and 10 minutes. I save 20 minutes. Others may stroll along, but when I walk I raise my foot only an inch, three inches at the most, above the ground. My stride is 7 to 15 centimeters longer than that of most people.
So I can walk much faster than others. I can complete a distance of 8 kilometers 25 or 30 minutes faster than other people. I need to walk at a high speed to align with this busy time. Now things are moving much faster than before.
If I were to move slowly in such a fast-paced era, it would be as if I were paddling backward. (600-140, 2008/10/29)
21. God sincerely prepared wonderful educational materials, without omitting anything, but you did not know that. I also prepared educational materials. It took great effort to discover the truth about restoration, about death, about the spirit world, and so on.
I have experienced praying continuously for more than 17 hours without taking a break to eat. For me, 10 or 12 hours in prayer are not out of the ordinary. That is why my knees are calloused. Now, even if I do not pray for long because God is very close, we can immediately communicate.
If we do not make the truth known to the world, how can we liberate all the people, all humankind?
Through such effort and hardships, I finally discovered the truth and revealed it. But I realized that God had prepared all of it long ago. (250-318, 1993/10/15)
22. The force of my prayer is strong enough to pull a pine tree out of the ground or dislodge a boulder so that it rolls down a mountain slope. In the past, when I prayed in the sweltering months of May and June in cotton-lined pants, I shed so much sweat and tears laced with blood that often I had to wring the sweat and tears from my clothes.
When I prayed with all of my devotion, struggling to accomplish God's Will even in circumstances that fractured my bones and battered my flesh, God visited me and comforted my heart. (212-039, 1991/01/01)
23. When I pray, I am holding on to the top of the world, fighting to make it turn the right way. Within five minutes I am sweating. That is the hardest battle. When Jesus prayed, knowing he would go to the cross, he shed his sweat and blood. That was a battle. I can say it was the ultimate fight.
Do you know how necessary prayer is? Have you experienced the effects of prayer? You need to have those experiences. You should have the conviction that prayer never fails to accomplish things. I am saying that, after you pray, do not doubt. Do not question, 'Did God listen to my prayer?'
Believe what I told you, and think, 'It will be accomplished!' If you continue praying like this over the next 10 years, the next 100 years, you will go up; you will never go down. And if you tell God that you will never give up on the way, then God will help you. He will help you every time.
The Will that God is working toward cannot be completed after just a few years of work. The Will that He is working toward is certain to be achieved; however, it may require several hundred million years.
So if you are going to uphold God's Will, you must have the conviction that you will not change even over hundreds of millions of years. God wants to see such people because that is the very Will He wants to see fulfilled. (066-213, 1973/05/07)
24. God does not want to be indebted to you. He wants to give you all that He can, and He will try to give you even more. However, you may have to wait, which could be tiresome.
If you still do not receive it, your sons and daughters will receive it. That is why I ask you to have a heart to pray continuously, even for tens of thousands of years.
True Parents are now praying for things that can happen 1,000 years from now. We are offering serious prayers about how the world should be 10,000 years from now.
If we, the founders of the Unification Church, together with the members, offer prayers in all seriousness, then as long as the standard for our prayer rests with heaven, the Unification Church will never perish. Even if everyone wishes us to come to ruin, we will prevail.
So many people have prayed for us to perish, haven't they? Nevertheless, if we pray in the way I have been speaking of, which brings forth predictions about what kind of age is to come, we should strive to qualify to take responsibility for that age.
To achieve this, we should invest in ourselves, forget we invested, and invest in ourselves again. This is what God does, and we should do the same. It is the only way. Be aware of this. This way is the one secret for resolving everything.
(212-272, 1991/01/06)
25. To this day, there have been three things for which I have prayed, based on the mottoes that I have established. The first has to do with faith. When I stand in front of God, I have to believe things that the people of the world cannot believe. There is nothing God can say that I cannot believe.
Second, I have prayed for wisdom. I cannot take charge unless I can show clear leadership qualities in my judgment of situations. That is why I asked God, 'Please give me wisdom greater than the wisdom of Solomon.'
Finally, I have prayed for love. I have gone beyond the level of the Korean people. Now when I appear with love in front of all people, however I do it, my mindset is that there will be no one, irrespective of nationality or ethnicity, who will not desire to receive love from me.
I believe that whoever they are, they will all be attracted to me because of this love that I prayed for. Such love is what is needed the most to carry out a new movement in the Last Days, which is an era when love has dried up.
These are the three things I have been praying for. Ever since I began praying this way, everything I asked for has been realized, despite my not knowing when it would be accomplished. (077-063, 1975/03/30)
Sun Myung Moon