Twenty first century was a time of tremendous change. More happened in that hundred-year period than during the past two thousand years. It was the century when there were two world wars and when communism rose to great strength and then disappeared. It was also the century when humanity turned its back on God and buried itself in material things. What about the twenty-first century, then? Some say that advances in science have proven that many religious beliefs are mere superstition and irrelevant to the modern world. I contend, however, that the role of religion will always be relevant as long as the spiritual aspect of human beings remains a reality and a world of peace has not been established.
What is the purpose of religion? It is to bring about God's ideal world. The reason religions evangelize is because they desire to increase the number of citizens under God's sovereignty. If everyone were to live under God's sovereignty, we would have a world of peace where there would be no war or division. The ultimate destination of the path followed by religions should be peace.
God created this world out of a desire for love and peace. If we create division by insisting that our own religion is the only path to salvation, we go against God's desire. God wants everyone in the world to work hard for peace, reconciliation, and coexistence. If people say that coming to church creates division in their family, then I do not hesitate to tell them that they should put their family first. Religion is only a means to bring about God's perfect world; it is not an end in itself
Humankind's destiny is to bring together all the points of view that are now divided against each other. The philosophy that will lead humanity in the future must be able to bring together all religions and philosophies. The days have ended when one country stands at the forefront and leads humanity. The era of nationalism has also ended.
If we continue the era of people congregating together only by religion or race, then humanity cannot avoid a repetition of war. The age of peace absolutely cannot come unless we transcend cultural customs and traditions. No ideology, philosophy, or religion that has influenced humanity in the past is capable of bringing about the peace and unification that is needed for the future. We need a new ideology and philosophy that goes beyond Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam. For my entire life, I have called on people until my voice is hoarse to transcend their religious factions and even their religions.
There are more than two hundred countries in the world, and each has its own national borders. A border separates one country from another, but countries separated by borders cannot endure eternally. Only religion can overcome national borders. However, religions that should be bringing people together have instead divided themselves into many factions that are busy fighting each other. They have fallen into a selfish thought process that puts their religion or faction first. They are oblivious to the fact that the world has changed and a new era of selflessness has dawned.
It will not be easy to tear down the religions walls that have stood for thousands of years, but these walls must come down if we are to advance into a world of peace. Religions and their factions must stop their meaningless fighting, find a middle ground for their differing opinions, and develop concrete ways to advance the world of peace. For humanity to be happy in the future, material affluence alone will not be sufficient. It is urgent that the struggles of modern ideologies, cultures, and races be overcome through interreligious understanding and spiritual harmony.
All my life I have made the following appeals to the wide variety of religious people I have met around the world: First, respect the traditions of other religions and do everything you can to prevent conflict and discord among religions. Second, all religious communities should cooperate with each other to serve the world. Third, the leaders of all religions should work together to develop a structure that will let us accomplish our mutual mission of establishing world peace.
The right eye is there for the left eye, and the left for the sake of the right. The two eyes together exist for the sake of the whole body. The same can be said for every other part of the body. Nothing exists for its own sake. Religion, too, does not exist for its own sake but for the sake of love and peace. Once world peace is accomplished,m there will be no further need for religion. The ultimate purpose of religion is to bring about the reality of a human community filled with love and peace. This is God's Will... (As a Peace-loving Global Citizen, p290~292)
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Friday, June 12, 2009
Becoming a Peace-loving Global Citizen
Excerpts from the book translated into English
Foreword
A steady spring rain fell all last night, ending a winter drought. It was so nice to have had the rain that I spent all this morning walking about in the garden. The ground had that fragrant aroma of moist earth I had missed all through the winter, and the weeping willow and cherry trees were showing signs of new spring buds. I felt I could hear the popping sounds of new life sprouting here and there around the garden. Before I knew it, my wife, who had followed me out, was picking young mugwort shoots that had managed to poke their heads up through the dry lawn. The night's rain had turned the whole world into a fragrant spring garden.
No matter how much commotion may be in the world, when the calendar turns to March spring is on its way. The older I become, the more it means to me that in nature spring follows winter and brings with it flowers in full bloom. What am I that God, in each season, allows the flowers to bloom and the snow to fall so I might know the joy of being alive? Love wells up from within the deepest recesses of my heart, and I am overcome with emotion. I am moved to tears to think that everything of real value has been given to me freely. In my life, I have circled the globe many times over in my efforts to bring a world of peace, and yet it is here in this garden in spring that I am able to taste real peace. Peace, too, was given to us by God, but we lost it somewhere and now spend our lives looking for it in all the wrong places.
To bring a world of peace, I have spent my life going to the most lowly and secluded places. I met mothers in Africa who could only watch helplessly as their children died of hunger, and I met fathers in South America who lived by a river full of fish but couldn't feed their children because they didn't know how to fish. All I did was give them a small amount of food, but they granted me their love in return. Intoxicated with the power of love, I cultivated virgin forest and planted seeds. I cut down trees to build a school, and I caught fish to feed hungry children. I was happy even as mosquitoes bit me all over as I fished all through the night. Even when my feet were sinking knee-deep into mud, I was happy because I could see the shadows of loneliness disappear from the face of my neighbors.
to be continued...
Foreword
A steady spring rain fell all last night, ending a winter drought. It was so nice to have had the rain that I spent all this morning walking about in the garden. The ground had that fragrant aroma of moist earth I had missed all through the winter, and the weeping willow and cherry trees were showing signs of new spring buds. I felt I could hear the popping sounds of new life sprouting here and there around the garden. Before I knew it, my wife, who had followed me out, was picking young mugwort shoots that had managed to poke their heads up through the dry lawn. The night's rain had turned the whole world into a fragrant spring garden.
No matter how much commotion may be in the world, when the calendar turns to March spring is on its way. The older I become, the more it means to me that in nature spring follows winter and brings with it flowers in full bloom. What am I that God, in each season, allows the flowers to bloom and the snow to fall so I might know the joy of being alive? Love wells up from within the deepest recesses of my heart, and I am overcome with emotion. I am moved to tears to think that everything of real value has been given to me freely. In my life, I have circled the globe many times over in my efforts to bring a world of peace, and yet it is here in this garden in spring that I am able to taste real peace. Peace, too, was given to us by God, but we lost it somewhere and now spend our lives looking for it in all the wrong places.
To bring a world of peace, I have spent my life going to the most lowly and secluded places. I met mothers in Africa who could only watch helplessly as their children died of hunger, and I met fathers in South America who lived by a river full of fish but couldn't feed their children because they didn't know how to fish. All I did was give them a small amount of food, but they granted me their love in return. Intoxicated with the power of love, I cultivated virgin forest and planted seeds. I cut down trees to build a school, and I caught fish to feed hungry children. I was happy even as mosquitoes bit me all over as I fished all through the night. Even when my feet were sinking knee-deep into mud, I was happy because I could see the shadows of loneliness disappear from the face of my neighbors.
to be continued...
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Love is Realized in a Completely Natural Setting
This is a story from my youth. One day, I caught a pair of birds and tried to make them kiss each other's beaks. To see them kiss I put them in a cage, fed them, and watched them. I did it out of a child's desire to see them love each other and sing happily together. This was an experiment, out of curiosity, to understand the principles of nature. I continued this experiment, which I now understand to have been quite naughty. It was only after a long while that I finally understood that love is realized only in a natural setting. Sincere love is realized naturally, in an atmosphere that is natural to the highest degree. Through a long journey of experiments I came to the correct understanding of love. (Blessed Family - 353, 1986.1.3)
When someone loses love, will having a university education help him to regain love? He will only accumulate knowledge, become individualistic, and come to worship materialism. Just as Korean bean soup tastes right only when it is served in a thick Korean bowl, character training can reach its purpose only when it is based on love.
The flower of world civilization should blossom on the basis of artistic harmony. In this sense, roasted ribs should be served on a heavy platter and Korean been paste soup should be served in a thick, Korean earthenware bowl to bring out their proper tastes. Once you have become used to the rough, deep and refreshing taste of Korean bean paste soup, you will never forget it no matter where you may go.
Likewise, once people have become used to the earthy, deep, relaxing taste of love, they will not change. Just as one easily tires of instant foods that are usually heavily sweetened, if one could obtain love easily and anywhere like instant food, we would be unable to call it true love. (Blessed Family - 354, 1986.1.3)
There are people everywhere today who taste love as if they were eating instant food. This is the problem. Love does not deepen because you bathe in a fragrant bath. I would say that the love of a couple living in the remotest countryside that washes themselves in cold water before going to bed is purer, longer lasting, and ever deepening. A couple that has to brush their teeth before kissing is not experiencing natural love. The toothpaste smell will prevent them from tasting the unique smell of the other. When I look at people who brush their teeth before kissing, I don't know whether they are trying to taste love or taste toothpaste. (Blessed Family - 354, 1986.1.3)
When you meet with someone you like and love, you want to embrace and kiss that person. This is a natural instinct between the sexes. You can think you are meeting your partner in order to love your surroundings - the universe. Finding a partner and establishing a relationship is a natural human behavior.
When man relates to woman and woman relates to man under the ideal of partnership, there will be no acts or incidents that violate the order of love. The true order of love emerges only when man and woman meet on the basis of the ideal of partnership. (Blessed Family - 355, 1981.1.13)
When someone loses love, will having a university education help him to regain love? He will only accumulate knowledge, become individualistic, and come to worship materialism. Just as Korean bean soup tastes right only when it is served in a thick Korean bowl, character training can reach its purpose only when it is based on love.
The flower of world civilization should blossom on the basis of artistic harmony. In this sense, roasted ribs should be served on a heavy platter and Korean been paste soup should be served in a thick, Korean earthenware bowl to bring out their proper tastes. Once you have become used to the rough, deep and refreshing taste of Korean bean paste soup, you will never forget it no matter where you may go.
Likewise, once people have become used to the earthy, deep, relaxing taste of love, they will not change. Just as one easily tires of instant foods that are usually heavily sweetened, if one could obtain love easily and anywhere like instant food, we would be unable to call it true love. (Blessed Family - 354, 1986.1.3)
There are people everywhere today who taste love as if they were eating instant food. This is the problem. Love does not deepen because you bathe in a fragrant bath. I would say that the love of a couple living in the remotest countryside that washes themselves in cold water before going to bed is purer, longer lasting, and ever deepening. A couple that has to brush their teeth before kissing is not experiencing natural love. The toothpaste smell will prevent them from tasting the unique smell of the other. When I look at people who brush their teeth before kissing, I don't know whether they are trying to taste love or taste toothpaste. (Blessed Family - 354, 1986.1.3)
When you meet with someone you like and love, you want to embrace and kiss that person. This is a natural instinct between the sexes. You can think you are meeting your partner in order to love your surroundings - the universe. Finding a partner and establishing a relationship is a natural human behavior.
When man relates to woman and woman relates to man under the ideal of partnership, there will be no acts or incidents that violate the order of love. The true order of love emerges only when man and woman meet on the basis of the ideal of partnership. (Blessed Family - 355, 1981.1.13)
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Original Human Beings Are Enraptured with True Love
What is the holiest thing in the world? True love is the holiest thing in world. True love originates with God. If God exists, there is no other way than the way of true love. God truly desires the way of true love, and without traversing the way of true love, we cannot go before God. We have to know this point.
God wants to see, hear, eat, and touch through love. As for human beings, if they receive a kiss of love from God, their joy will make them feel as if they are going to explode from inside. This is where God's desire lies. God does not rejoice because He has diamonds or jewelry. (Blessed Family - 381, 1986.8.20)
The human body has five senses and every human being feels and confirms true love through the sensations of the five senses. If the eyes are directed toward true love, they will be colored by and intoxicated with true love. How beautifully those colorful, intoxicated eyes will shine! Think about how enchanting the smiling lips of a person immersed in true love are. Try to imagine the intense beauty of the five senses moving in intoxication with true love and the harmony of the five senses moving toward God.
Alone, God cannot experience the joy of such beauty. He can experience such beauty only when He has a partner, and this is the reason God created human beings. How would God feel as He observed a beautiful man and woman absorbed into one another through true love-intoxicated eyes, or kissing with true love-intoxicated lips, and playing the melody of a heart of true love? If there is an Eve of true love, God would want to completely traverse her world of heart. God would have an impulsive desire to explore the breadth and depth of this beautiful Eve's world of heart.
God would want to traverse both Adam's and Eve's world of heart, a world more beautiful than the created heaven and earth. It is certain that God would rather travel within the world of the heart of a person of true love than the universe. God would never want to leave Adam's and Eve's world of heart and true love. If, after God created human beings, He fell into their true love and became a child lost in that love, what kind of world would we have? Since God would dwell in their midst, the world formed by God and human beings becoming one would be a world filled with joy and beauty. (Blessed Family - 382, 1986.8.20)
If the true love of God had been perfected, the God of responsiveness would have no regrets at being totally absorbed by true love. God's nature is such that He would be totally happy with anything that happened within the realm of true love. If human beings were to live in this world of true love, they would live a happy life free from regret. Moreover, this world would be without war and free of complaint and misfortune. (Blessed Family - 383, 1986.8.20)
God wants to see, hear, eat, and touch through love. As for human beings, if they receive a kiss of love from God, their joy will make them feel as if they are going to explode from inside. This is where God's desire lies. God does not rejoice because He has diamonds or jewelry. (Blessed Family - 381, 1986.8.20)
The human body has five senses and every human being feels and confirms true love through the sensations of the five senses. If the eyes are directed toward true love, they will be colored by and intoxicated with true love. How beautifully those colorful, intoxicated eyes will shine! Think about how enchanting the smiling lips of a person immersed in true love are. Try to imagine the intense beauty of the five senses moving in intoxication with true love and the harmony of the five senses moving toward God.
Alone, God cannot experience the joy of such beauty. He can experience such beauty only when He has a partner, and this is the reason God created human beings. How would God feel as He observed a beautiful man and woman absorbed into one another through true love-intoxicated eyes, or kissing with true love-intoxicated lips, and playing the melody of a heart of true love? If there is an Eve of true love, God would want to completely traverse her world of heart. God would have an impulsive desire to explore the breadth and depth of this beautiful Eve's world of heart.
God would want to traverse both Adam's and Eve's world of heart, a world more beautiful than the created heaven and earth. It is certain that God would rather travel within the world of the heart of a person of true love than the universe. God would never want to leave Adam's and Eve's world of heart and true love. If, after God created human beings, He fell into their true love and became a child lost in that love, what kind of world would we have? Since God would dwell in their midst, the world formed by God and human beings becoming one would be a world filled with joy and beauty. (Blessed Family - 382, 1986.8.20)
If the true love of God had been perfected, the God of responsiveness would have no regrets at being totally absorbed by true love. God's nature is such that He would be totally happy with anything that happened within the realm of true love. If human beings were to live in this world of true love, they would live a happy life free from regret. Moreover, this world would be without war and free of complaint and misfortune. (Blessed Family - 383, 1986.8.20)
Friday, March 27, 2009
Men and Women Harmonize in Love
Man symbolizes heaven and woman, earth.Therefore, the two must unite and realize harmony. Men and women are different. Men's muscles are rugged and women's are smooth. Men have beards while women do not. Their voices are also different. If we compare men and women, we see their contrasting features fit together well. Harmony unfolds between them. When we look at the physical structure of human beings, their left and right sides form a correlative pair. These two halves are bound tightly together.
Ladies and gentlemen, do you like only high things or only low things? You like things that create harmony. Judging from the line formed by the horizon, fish live below and mammals, birds, and other creatures live above. Women menstruate once a month, like tidal variations based on the moon. Breathing is similar. A man and a woman establish a line of balance and create harmony. People like Disneyland, with its rides that go up and down, because Disneyland duplicates the motions of the universe.
Which do you think will be more pleasing, a man harmonizing with another man or a man harmonizing with a woman? A man harmonizing with a woman is better because that reflects the harmony of the universe. We should live in step with the beat of the universe, the universe that promotes harmony through the harmony of yin and yang. (Blessed Family - 344, 1984.5.31)
When man and woman create harmony, they initiate circular movement. When man and woman become one body through love and bear the fruits of love, God comes down and they go up and they meet in the middle. God becomes the center of this sphere, and spherical movement begins. The center of the sphere is the place where harmony of love is realized. It is the place where life emerges and moves, and it is the starting point of human equality and communal philosophy. This is so because the power of love is there. Thus, the force that embraces all interactions of the universe is love. (Blessed Family - 345, 1982.4.26)
For human beings love is eternal. It is one and never divided. Once a man and a woman are joined in love they are to live together for a lifetime and then eternally even after death. They are two bodies that become one body by uniting and revolving together. When the two bodies become one, they revolve as God does and form a four-position foundation of love, the expression of the ideal world of love. Only true love dwells there and false love cannot invade. When man and woman becomes blessed by God and achieve perfection, God comes to them freely. When they form a four-position foundation of love, they will come to love each other's mind through each other's body, and when they come to love the mind their body will follow. (Blessed Family - 346,1984.1.1)
Ladies and gentlemen, do you like only high things or only low things? You like things that create harmony. Judging from the line formed by the horizon, fish live below and mammals, birds, and other creatures live above. Women menstruate once a month, like tidal variations based on the moon. Breathing is similar. A man and a woman establish a line of balance and create harmony. People like Disneyland, with its rides that go up and down, because Disneyland duplicates the motions of the universe.
Which do you think will be more pleasing, a man harmonizing with another man or a man harmonizing with a woman? A man harmonizing with a woman is better because that reflects the harmony of the universe. We should live in step with the beat of the universe, the universe that promotes harmony through the harmony of yin and yang. (Blessed Family - 344, 1984.5.31)
When man and woman create harmony, they initiate circular movement. When man and woman become one body through love and bear the fruits of love, God comes down and they go up and they meet in the middle. God becomes the center of this sphere, and spherical movement begins. The center of the sphere is the place where harmony of love is realized. It is the place where life emerges and moves, and it is the starting point of human equality and communal philosophy. This is so because the power of love is there. Thus, the force that embraces all interactions of the universe is love. (Blessed Family - 345, 1982.4.26)
For human beings love is eternal. It is one and never divided. Once a man and a woman are joined in love they are to live together for a lifetime and then eternally even after death. They are two bodies that become one body by uniting and revolving together. When the two bodies become one, they revolve as God does and form a four-position foundation of love, the expression of the ideal world of love. Only true love dwells there and false love cannot invade. When man and woman becomes blessed by God and achieve perfection, God comes to them freely. When they form a four-position foundation of love, they will come to love each other's mind through each other's body, and when they come to love the mind their body will follow. (Blessed Family - 346,1984.1.1)
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Love Comes from One's Partner
Love cannot be realized by oneself. Where does love come from? Love does not come from me but from my spouse. Since love comes from my spouse, I must bow my head and serve her. This is where the heavenly principle of living for the sake of others originates. When something highly noble comes to me, I must honor and serve it in order to receive it. We must practice the philosophy of 'living for the sake of others'. (143-277, 1986.3.30)
Human beings have love. However, when we are alone, love cannot manifest itself. Love does not appear when man is alone, but only when woman appears as his object of love. Only when the object of love appears, does love finally spring forth. (Blessed Family - 342, 1982.10.29)
We say that parental love is good and conjugal love is good because genuine love is not something that is self-centered. Love is not something that starts from me but something that starts from my partner. You need to know this. Love comes from your husband and from your wife, and from your sons and daughters and from your brothers and sisters. Love does not start from your own self but from your spouse. Therefore, who is the owner of love? Your spouse is the owner of love. (34-331, 1970.9.20)
Where does love come from? It comes from your partner. If your partner is homely or ugly, love recedes; if your partner is nice-looking or lovely, love advances more quickly. The way in which love functions is determined according to your partner's attributes: her speech, her scent, her smell, and her taste. (Blessed Family - 343, 1982.10.29)
Where is the base of love? The base of love is not me. The word love must be used in reciprocal terms. No matter how handsome a man may be, if he has no partner, he is stuck because he cannot love alone.
The base of love is not me. "Love comes from me" are words that Satan has been using. I am not the base of love. You may think that you are the base of love, but there will be no progress in the future unless such a mindset is totally dismantled and transformed.
Until now, wives have put themselves at the center, and husbands have put themselves at the center, with both wanting to be served. This has been destroying relationships. Since the basis of love does not come from me, but from my spouse, if I am to possess that love, I must sacrificed myself for that love. Love requires patience and absolutely demands sacrifice. With this viewpoint, there is no place in the cosmos, other than on earth, where we can defeat Satan.
God is holding tightly onto love because it can be found only in accordance with the God-centered principle of love. The word compassion (jabi) cannot be expressed in the absence of love. The world benevolence (in) also cannot stand on its own. The words jabi and in are all used only in reciprocal terms. (46-35, 1971.7.18)
Human beings have love. However, when we are alone, love cannot manifest itself. Love does not appear when man is alone, but only when woman appears as his object of love. Only when the object of love appears, does love finally spring forth. (Blessed Family - 342, 1982.10.29)
We say that parental love is good and conjugal love is good because genuine love is not something that is self-centered. Love is not something that starts from me but something that starts from my partner. You need to know this. Love comes from your husband and from your wife, and from your sons and daughters and from your brothers and sisters. Love does not start from your own self but from your spouse. Therefore, who is the owner of love? Your spouse is the owner of love. (34-331, 1970.9.20)
Where does love come from? It comes from your partner. If your partner is homely or ugly, love recedes; if your partner is nice-looking or lovely, love advances more quickly. The way in which love functions is determined according to your partner's attributes: her speech, her scent, her smell, and her taste. (Blessed Family - 343, 1982.10.29)
Where is the base of love? The base of love is not me. The word love must be used in reciprocal terms. No matter how handsome a man may be, if he has no partner, he is stuck because he cannot love alone.
The base of love is not me. "Love comes from me" are words that Satan has been using. I am not the base of love. You may think that you are the base of love, but there will be no progress in the future unless such a mindset is totally dismantled and transformed.
Until now, wives have put themselves at the center, and husbands have put themselves at the center, with both wanting to be served. This has been destroying relationships. Since the basis of love does not come from me, but from my spouse, if I am to possess that love, I must sacrificed myself for that love. Love requires patience and absolutely demands sacrifice. With this viewpoint, there is no place in the cosmos, other than on earth, where we can defeat Satan.
God is holding tightly onto love because it can be found only in accordance with the God-centered principle of love. The word compassion (jabi) cannot be expressed in the absence of love. The world benevolence (in) also cannot stand on its own. The words jabi and in are all used only in reciprocal terms. (46-35, 1971.7.18)
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Men and Women Absolutely Need Each Other
Love is something you absolutely need, isn't it? Is that right? Human beings, a man and a woman, are an absolutely necessary element for love. Man needs woman and woman needs man. How much do they need each other? They need each other more than Korea, more than the world, and even more than God. Also, if there were no women, the entire human race would perish in less than a hundred years. No matter how much man boasts of unifying the world, all would be gone within one hundred years if there were no women. Therefore, women are absolutely necessary. (25-180, 1969.10.4)
When we say "human beings," we mean man and woman. When we look at a man, he has to be with a woman, and when we look at a woman, she has to be with a man. Man is not born through his own desire, nor is woman born through her own desire. Both need each other. After their birth, they discover they are either a man or a woman. (67-267, 1973.7.22)
When you were born as a man, were you born with or without the knowledge that there are women? If a man were born and found out that there are only men, would he not feel bad? And if a woman were born and found out that there are only women, she would feel bad, wouldn't she? So when a woman is born, is she born with or without the knowledge that there are men? Although I was born without knowing it, the one who gave birth to me knew it. The reason one is born as a woman is that there is a man who needs her.
Likewise, the reason I am born as a man like this is that there is a woman who needs me. Isn't that right? We are all born like this, with God's knowledge. (37-19, 1970.12.22)
Man absolutely needs woman. Man absolutely needs God, but before this he needs a partner called woman. Human history has been miserable because men have failed to correctly understand the absolute need for women. Conversely, women have not understood that they absolutely need men.
Tasting true love requires a realm of ideal, and for this man needs woman and woman needs man. You should know that an absolute man and absolute woman pursuing true love are joined through their efforts of becoming one in heart. When such a man and woman are joined as one, God comes and dwells with them. God does not like to see a couple joined by true love separate; therefore, the love of an absolute man and woman is eternal. (Blessed Family - 340, 1986.8.20)
Although God is omniscient and omnipotent, God's existence absolutely has no meaning when He is alone. Similarly, no matter how handsome and healthy a man may be, these things have no meaning if he is without a woman. A man living in fascination with his own good looks and health leads an ugly existence and has no value before God. The problem is that there are many men in the world who have sunk into such narcissism and this constitutes a reason why history has moved toward tragedy. You have to know that God's providence works to change and improve the world immersed in such self-centeredness. (Blessed Family - 341, 1986.8.20)
When we say "human beings," we mean man and woman. When we look at a man, he has to be with a woman, and when we look at a woman, she has to be with a man. Man is not born through his own desire, nor is woman born through her own desire. Both need each other. After their birth, they discover they are either a man or a woman. (67-267, 1973.7.22)
When you were born as a man, were you born with or without the knowledge that there are women? If a man were born and found out that there are only men, would he not feel bad? And if a woman were born and found out that there are only women, she would feel bad, wouldn't she? So when a woman is born, is she born with or without the knowledge that there are men? Although I was born without knowing it, the one who gave birth to me knew it. The reason one is born as a woman is that there is a man who needs her.
Likewise, the reason I am born as a man like this is that there is a woman who needs me. Isn't that right? We are all born like this, with God's knowledge. (37-19, 1970.12.22)
Man absolutely needs woman. Man absolutely needs God, but before this he needs a partner called woman. Human history has been miserable because men have failed to correctly understand the absolute need for women. Conversely, women have not understood that they absolutely need men.
Tasting true love requires a realm of ideal, and for this man needs woman and woman needs man. You should know that an absolute man and absolute woman pursuing true love are joined through their efforts of becoming one in heart. When such a man and woman are joined as one, God comes and dwells with them. God does not like to see a couple joined by true love separate; therefore, the love of an absolute man and woman is eternal. (Blessed Family - 340, 1986.8.20)
Although God is omniscient and omnipotent, God's existence absolutely has no meaning when He is alone. Similarly, no matter how handsome and healthy a man may be, these things have no meaning if he is without a woman. A man living in fascination with his own good looks and health leads an ugly existence and has no value before God. The problem is that there are many men in the world who have sunk into such narcissism and this constitutes a reason why history has moved toward tragedy. You have to know that God's providence works to change and improve the world immersed in such self-centeredness. (Blessed Family - 341, 1986.8.20)
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