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1. Originally, the relationship between God and human beings was to have been as parent and child, with God in the position of parent and each person in the position of child. God the Parent and we as His children would have been bound together by love.
Children born from the love of their mother and father begin their lives as participants in their parents' love. That is a great thing. But even more, from the beginning of our existence we would have been participants in our Heavenly Parent's love.
Had we been born from our Heavenly Parent's love, we would have connected to our Heavenly Parent's life path centering on love. Yet, no one living on earth today fully relates to the Heavenly Parent's life or life path.
That is why even human parents walk a path of life that goes over mountain passes of sorrow mixed with joy, as they struggle amid the suffering of humankind.
(135-267, 1985.12.15)
The path of love that human beings must follow
2. We human beings come into this world through love. After growing up in love, we are to connect to another dimension of love. This is because we leave the love of our parents to find love with our life partner.
We can call living in the love of our parents, formation-stage love, and conjugal love, growth-stage love. Yet, no matter how much a couple may love each other, their love is incomplete until they have children. This is why couples want to have children; it is to know completion-stage love.
Therefore, the core of human life is to go through the course of love – love from our parents, love for our spouse, and love for our children. This is the fundamental path of love, to realize the ideal of God's creation. The purpose of a true love family is not only for the family, but also to build the kingdom of heaven.
To achieve the goal of oneness throughout the universe, a family must expand its purpose to the people, nation, world, and cosmos. It must go out to the world and then return. (48-012, 1971.08.31)
3. Which comes first, life or love? Life does not come first. Love comes first. Because what comes second must adjust to what comes first, it is natural that we devote our lives for the sake of love.
We human beings should be born in love, walk the way of love, and die for love. If we live, love,e and die in such a way that God, the angels, all the things of creation, and all human beings – that is, the entire universe – publicly recognize us, then the whole universe will welcome our love. This is the purpose for which we were born. (83-164, 1976.02.08)
4. We are born in love, and so we have to go the way of love. When it comes time to die, we also have to die for the sake of love. Love is not only more precious than life; it precedes life. This is why we willingly sacrifice our lives for the sake of love. Love is eternal.
That is why there are many literary works, novels, and poems about unchanging love, and eternal love. This makes it plain that the love we want is not momentary or temporary. We want eternal love. (298-299, 1999.01.17)
5. Love has such an authority that even God is captivated by it. By that, I mean that God is weak in front of love. The fragrance of human love makes God's face light up with a smile. God delights in stories of love. If God so delights in stories of love, how much more would He delight in the real thing?
The various organs of the human body were made for one purpose, love. The eyes were made to see, but to see what? To seek love. This is the common purpose of all the sensory organs.
The nose was made to smell, but the most important fragrance is the fragrance of love. The ears were made to listen for the sounds of love. Of all the sounds we hear, the ones we never tire of are the sounds of love. It is the same whether we are young or old. (298-300, 1999.01.17)
6. We were born in love, raised by our parents in love, and we learn to love our spouse. We give birth to our children and raise them in love; we love our family and then our tribe. In this way, we connect to the wider world of love, from our love to the love of God.
In other words, love is like the water that begins as a small mountain stream, flows to the sea, and becomes a great ocean current that rejuvenates the globe. It makes for a world of love, which rejuvenates nations of love, tribes of love, families of love, and individuals of love. (205-345, 1990.10.02)
7. Man symbolizes heaven and woman symbolizes earth. As for men, since they are in the position of subject partner, they do not like anyone to interfere with them. As for women, they prefer to respond to love more than to initiate it.
Since men symbolize heaven and women symbolize earth, their union is analogous to the union of heaven and earth – the cosmos. Since love alone can govern the cosmos, and since through love alone, can we become the subject partner of the cosmos, we should respect our partner as greater than heaven and earth?
The only thing that can exist forever and connect these two worlds is unchanging love. Because the spirit world centers on love, people who live amid ties of love on earth will go to heaven. (48-011, 1971.08.31)
8. When God and human beings unite completely, man and woman will unite naturally. When a perfect couple appears, heaven and earth become one. Where does God wish to dwell? Since love arises between a man and a woman, He wants to dwell where a true man and a true woman love each other.
Since God is with them, their love can last forever. They can achieve eternal unity as God bestows on them the ideal of eternal life. Those who attain that love can possess everything. (48-011, 1971.08.31)
9. You should love your family, but you should love your country even more. You ought to love your nation more than your family; you ought to love the world more than your nation; and you ought to love God more than you love the world.
This is the path of a true human being. It is the exemplary and direct route that human beings should have gone as human history unfolded. If you go this way, you will never stumble and fall. With the family as your foundation, you will move forward to the nation, from the nation to the world, and from the world to God. By doing so, you will become filial children, patriots, and saints who will be remembered in history.
Thereafter, you can become God's sons and daughters. Human beings' ultimate purpose is to become God's sons and daughters. When you teach this position, you can attain the highest peak of your desire. It is sublime happiness without limit, not only for you but also for the whole.
When you reach that point, the whole will support you and live for you. Let us follow this way, going straight ahead. (69-022, 1973.08.19)
10. Humankind is walking a path that began with God and should end with Go for us to return to God as an individual, families, tribes, people, nations, worlds, and cosmos, we need to be linked to true love.
Without being linked to true love it is impossible. Neither can we achieve mind-body unity without true love. This is why our mind prompts us to sacrifice ourselves to discipline the body. It does its utmost for the body and repeatedly forgets what it did.
The mind's position represents God; hence, it is our greatest teacher. The mind is the center of the self, sent by God on His behalf. It is the vertical self.
(226-060, 1992.02.01)
11. On the path of life, our final goal should be to possess God's love. Whatever we have, our mind drives us to continue seeking something higher. Even if we possessed the whole world, since God is in a still higher place, we would want to possess God too. But even if we were to possess God, we would lose Him if we failed to possess His love.
Thus, our highest desire should not be to conquer the world, not even to conquer God, but to win God's love. Winning God's love has nothing to do with external talents or skills.
Anyone can become a son or daughter of God and possess God's love if only they follow the right way. In the end, the best life is a life by which we become God's sons and daughters. (38-326, 1971.01.08)
12. We came from our mother's and father's love. We came from our mother and father's life. Because we are connected to our parents' love, we can say, “Father and mother, you are mine!” And our parents can say, “You are the extension of my love and life, so you are mine.”
Likewise, anything that has God's love and life force belongs to God. The hope of fallen human beings is to become God's object partners and to belong to God. However, to become God's object partners, we need God's life and God's love.
This is our cherished hope. Such is the path of human life; we must walk it whether we live or die. This is the path that we should find, and this is our final destination. (116-084, 1981.12.20)
13. The original way of love will lead us to the place where the ideal abides. That ideal was God's original ideal when He created human beings. Love is a most mysterious thing. Because of love, even if we possessed God, our hearts would not rest. Merely possessing God would not make us happy or satisfied.
We want to possess everything in the core of God's heart, even the love in His secret treasure house. Only when we completely possess this love will our heart's hunger subside. Human beings are like warriors standing at the starting gate of a competition to possess God's love. (18-026, 1967.05.14)
14. To get to the kingdom of heaven, we first need to collect all kinds of God-centered love. We must gather the love of the family, the love of the nation, and the love of the world, and then go to the kingdom of heaven and unite with God.
When we unite with God on this foundation, everything will orbit God. How do we human beings arrive at the place where God's love dwells? We must go the way of a filial child, the way of a patriot, the way of a world saint, and the way of a son or daughter of God.
Then, when we arrive at the place where God's greatest love dwells, we will settle there. For anyone born as a human being, this is the happiest way and the way to ultimate perfection. Everything is designed to reach this realm.
(113-164, 1981.05.03)
The true path to life that fallen people must walk
15. God has been leading His long providential history through good individuals, good families, and good people. In the past, ascetics followed a path that Satan could not go.
They went on a path that no one wanted to go. They went on the path of suffering to discover what the mind is, what love is, and what truth is. All people need to go this path. (11-311, 1962.03.05)
16. Human beings should receive God's love and blessings and enjoy a happy life. So how on earth did we end up this miserable? Human beings should be walking paths of hope and victory, so how on earth did we end up going the way of defeat and death?
If you think that it is your fault, and therefore you want to take responsibility on God's behalf, and if your heart is bursting with compassion for the suffering of humanity, you will surely gain victory.
Although you may have to suffer on the way, God will be with you throughout your life, and you will live ever grateful to Him. (13-324, 1964.04.14)
17. Our path as fallen people is the path of repentance. We have to find the path of repentance. Unrepentant people cannot say they love their nation, nor can they say they love the world.
How do you repent? You need to find someone among human beings who can represent God. That person is the Messiah.
What kind of person is the Messiah?
He appears as the friend of friends, the teacher of teacher, and the parent of parents. To love the Messiah with your whole heart means to enter the realm of his love for the world and his love for the cosmos.
Unless you make a relationship with him, even though you strive to love, you cannot truly love. This is about the descendants of the Fall.
(32-026, 1970.06.14)
18. We should be devoting all our hearts and minds to becoming the progenitors of goodness that humankind has been seeking and that God has been seeking. We should be the parents of good parents.
By practicing the right principles of love, we should be examples for humanity. If you have been unable to do so, you should blame yourselves. If you have been unable to do so, you should be sad, even indignant.
You need to understand the reality that you were born from the blood of the enemy. You must extract all that tainted blood from your body so that you can become new people who can offer yourselves before heaven.
No matter what suffering and persecution you endure, if there is a way to find your true self, you should go that path in silence with a joyful heart. We may have to face death a hundred times or a thousand times, but that is our destiny.
Unless we take the path of negating this fallen world, we cannot find the way. This is the path of religion. (41-159, 1971.02.14)
19. The first human ancestors were born into the realm of God's love. Therefore, without fail, we must receive God's lineage so that we may go on the path of true love that is unchanging for eternity. No longer will we go in two different directions, with our minds and bodies divided.
We will exercise self-control on the path of life, with the mind controlling the body. Ultimately, we need to become people who, even without any spiritual discipline or cultivation, can know this path and proceed upon it.
A compass automatically knows north and south and does not deviate in its orientation. Even rats on a ship know when a typhoon that can destroy the ship is coming and escaping along the mooring rope.
Yet how is it that we, who should be the lords of creation, have become such low and insensible brutes? We human beings are a miserable lot, with no sense of direction and no understanding of our purpose. (121-115, 1981.10.24)
20. Nowadays, the paths people follow are all divided: families, tribes, nations, and the world zigzag every which way. Some people follow money, some follow knowledge, and some follow power. All of them are wicked.
The path of true love has one eternally unchanging direction, whether for individuals, families, tribes, peoples, nations, or the world. When God calls out to people, “Come directly to Me!” He is speaking of the path of true love. The path of true love is the shortest and most direct route.
It leads you straight ahead. There is no zigzagging. True love leads individuals to take the direction that benefits their family; it leads families to take the direction that benefits the nation; it aligns a nation with the direction of the world saints; and it aligns the saints with the direction of divine sons and daughters. It is the path of spiritual cultivation, and we have fallen people who must walk it. We must go this one direction our entire life. (211-208, 1990.12.30)
21. All individuals should follow the direction of true love, but fallen people have lost their way. In the devil's work, everything centers on the physical body. The devil's love is always self-centered and self-serving.
Love on God's side does the opposite; it centers on the whole. Thus, following the desires of the flesh is the path that leads to death, but following the desires of the heart and mind is the life path. They are 180 degrees opposite.
(211-311, 1991.01.01)
22. In our life on earth, there is a right path for human beings to follow. What is the right path? It is the path that is good for individuals, families, tribes, peoples, nations, the world, the cosmos, and even for God Himself. We all have to advance on this path. This path is the only way of original love. (147-184, 1986.09.21)
23. Human beings born since the Fall have faced a terrible fate. Therefore, you need to have the heart that you are willing to spend tens of millions of dollars just to find a precious member to whom you can say, “It is wonderful, isn't it, that I could meet you and bring you to God!”
No matter the difficulty and pain, you should have a heart that says, “To find one precious spiritual child, I am ready to go anywhere.”
If you devote yourselves to this ideal with this spirit, then even if, like Jesus, you may have to leave the earth without completing the Will, you will surely encounter God's love after you die. (8-159, 1959.12.06)
24. Fallen people live in regret while asking, “What is the way?” Let us therefore stand before them proclaiming “Hallelujah! Amen!” as victorious brave soldiers who have overcome history and attend our cosmic Parents.
Then we will reach the stage when we will sing as cosmic brides and bridegrooms. Then the stage will come when we will love our cosmic sons and daughters. These are the three great paths that all fallen people must go. National borders will pose no problem.
The gap between East and West will pose no problem. If we become such people, our parents will bow to us; if we become such couples, everyone will bless us; if we have children like that, all people will bow to us and serve us.
This era is destined to come. Where is the place where it appears? It is the place where the Lord of the Second Advent dwells. Those who attend him are the people who will go before the throne of God. (8-110, 1959.11.22)
25. Our path is the way of love. It is one path, whether an individual walks it or a family walks it. The way of love is the same for both. East or West, whatever one's race or nation, the way of love is the same for all.
The direction does not differ. Between the path of love for the individual and the path of love for the family, only the number of people is different; the way is the same. It is one road with the same focal point. It is the path of God's love. Our birth is rooted in God's love.
We all were born within a wonderful path of love, which is connected to the cosmos and rooted in the original love within our parents. Even after the Fall, this root holds strong. Our tendency to pursue goodness and our desire to add value remains. It is what makes historical restoration possible. That origin within us can foster new development. (142-118, 1986.03.06)
26. After God created all things in heaven and earth, He bestowed governing authority upon human beings as His children too realized the Will for the ideal world and the ideal of love. That Will was lost.
Nevertheless, God has led the history of re-creation through the providence of restoration, centered on those who can represent His love and character. This effort is not based on human love or human character but on God's love and divine character. Why do we need God's love and character?
Without God's love, we cannot transcend Satan's worldly love. God cannot intervene if we hold on to Satan's love.
God's character cannot co-exist in a world pervaded by Satan's characteristics. The only way we can make a new beginning and carry out God's Will is together with God, based on His love and character. (120-127, 1982.10.05)
27. In the Unification Church, you learn the law of indemnity. My burden includes the burden of a servant of servants, the burden of a servant, and the burden of an adopted son. As the leader of the Unification Church, I want you to work with me to remove this burden from all humankind and guide them.
This is what is great about the Unification Church. I had to go through the course of indemnity to find the original world of love, so I started from the position of a servant of servants.
Then I took the positions of a servant and of an adopted son. You are responsible for going through this indemnity course only for yourself, but I have to take responsibility for all things and even for God. My entire life to this point has been for one purpose, to carry all this burden. (108-019, 1980.06.13)
28. The world of our fallen, evil ancestors has gates open from the individual level on earth to hell in the spirit world. It is for True Parents to abolish all of that. But to achieve this, they have to receive worldwide persecution. It cannot be done for free.
They have to be struck first, and then they can take back what was lost. That is why after being struck, they are entitled to demand compensation for the damage. The way for good people to go is to be struck first and then to claim what was lost. This is why good people are always struck first.
After they are struck, over time something develops. That is the way of heaven and earth. It happens because good people keep investing. When investing in love, the output is always greater than the input. This is how eternal life can be sustained. (210-245, 1990.12.23)
29. We have to win the fight against Satan. Those who lose to Satan cannot go to God. What must we do to defeat him? That is the question. The problem arose with the Fall of Adam.
Therefore, you should do what Adam could not do. Adam did not believe in God, so to surpass Adam, you need to believe in God's Word. Furthermore, Adam failed to practice God's Word.
Adam fell because he did not believe in God or practice His Word. Only when you practice God's Word can you connect to God's love. The original way for human beings who have nothing to do with the Fall is to believe in God's Word and practice it.
Had Adam and Eve done so, they would have moved on to the next level. There, God's love awaited them. God's blessing awaited them. (76-050, 1975.01.26)
Sun Myung Moon