Gateway to Heaven

True Families Gateway to Heaven

Foreword

With great pleasure we present to you this selection of

passages from various speeches delivered by the Reverend

Dr . Sun Myung Moon .

Jesus Christ first appeared to Reverend Moon while

he was praying on a Korean mountainside when he was

sixteen years old . On that Easter Sunday morning, Jesus

revealed to him that the time had come to consummate

the work of establishing peace on earth, and that the key

to peace was to build God-centered families .

During the next several years, God revealed to Reverend

Moon His original purpose of creation, the circumstances

surrounding the human Fall, and His efforts through history

to restore humankind to the original purpose of God . Many

secrets of the Bible were revealed during this period . Notably, Reverend Moon came to know and to inherit the true

love of God and to appreciate the importance of establishing

“true families,” meaning families that practice true love and

are directly connected to God, our Heavenly Parent .

Reverend Moon promised to fulfill God’s purpose and

has tirelessly worked his entire life to accomplish it . For

teaching this new message he was imprisoned six times . He

was misunderstood and persecuted in Korea, and later in 6     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

America, by those who saw the tremendous growth of his

congregation and the impact his teachings had on others .

Nevertheless, Reverend Moon, now 90 years old, has never

wavered from his commitment to God .

Reverend Moon has influenced the lives of millions of

people around the world with his teachings about God’s

suffering heart, the nature of God’s true love, and the holy

sacrament of the Blessing, that is, a marriage blessed by

God and connected to God’s lineage . He teaches that all

people, regardless of their religious denomination, should

unite in their love for God . Today a growing number of

ministers of all faiths use his teachings to guide their

congregations .

Reverend Moon also teaches that world peace can be

established through interracial, intercultural and interfaith marriages . He has been promoting such marriages

for more than 50 years . He even predicted in October

1975 that a future president of the United States, within

his lifetime, would come from an African-American father

and a white mother .

The teachings of Reverend Moon have been published

in collections now numbering over 1,000 volumes . In compiling this booklet, we have taken material from Cheon

Seong Gyeong [Heavenly Scripture], a large collection of

excerpts taken from speeches given from the 1950s to the

present . The selections are from Book Four: True Family

and Book Five: Earthly Life and the Spirit World .

Please keep in mind that Reverend Moon speaks in  Korean; despite our best efforts, the English translation

may be at times awkward and cannot completely convey

the depth of his meaning . We hope that you will explore

this book with an open mind . Our wish is that these words

inspire you to think about and feel closer to our God .

May God bless you and your families .

      C H a p T e r  O n e

The Family Is the Basis and

Pattern for the Kingdom

of Heaven

1. The Pattern for All Relationships

A person is always situated in a context, relating to what

is above and below, right and left, and front and back . This

context determines his or her position . Your life will turn

out better or worse depending on whether you properly

create relationships with those above you and below you,

with those to your right and to your left, in front of you

and in back of you .

Whether it concerns issues in your family or problems

facing the nation or the world, the same formula applies:

we must deal with relationships to those above and below,

on the right and on the left, in front and in back .

You as an individual are responsible to relate properly

to those above you and below you, to your right and to

your left, in front and in back . This is the case whether

you are relating to your parents or your children, to your

husband or your wife, or to your brothers and sisters .

The same applies as you relate to the nation and world .

Your family should take the lead in your nation to embrace

families in the east and west and north and south, and

encourage all families to do the same . Your family should

embrace the civilizations of East and West and of North

and South, and embrace all the people of the world as

your brothers and sisters . This is the way to bring about

one world family .

The family pattern applies to everyone . Each of you is

situated within that pattern . When you live by its logic, you

will be the starting-point of your family, your family can be

the basis of your nation, and so on to the world, to heaven

and earth, and finally to God . Everyone has the desire to

be the center of the universe; moreover, everyone has the

potential to fulfill that desire .

In this way, the concept of the family can be likened to

the core of the universe . Heaven can be likened to parents in giving life to the earth, representing the children .

The relationship between East and West can be likened

to that between man and woman . For example, it is customary that when a woman marries, she goes to join her

husband wherever he lives . This can be likened to the way

the brightness of the east at sunrise illuminates the west

and gives it the same value .

The same is true with sibling relationships . When the oldest brother takes the lead in a task, the younger siblings

join in to help .

Thus, we need to be in a parent-child relationship, a

conjugal relationship and a sibling relationship . The challenge is how all three relationships can meet at one point .

There should be just one central point . There should not

be different central points for above and below, right and

left, and front and back . If the central points are different,

all the relationships will be off balance .

But when the center is aligned, then above and below,

right and left, front and back, and their common central

point add up to the number seven . A family that forms the

number seven in this way is a family of perfect true love

with God at the center, where all these elements form a

complete sphere, bringing harmony and unity . From this

perspective, the phrase “lucky seven” makes sense .

Since true love never changes, this central core will

rotate forever without ever changing . This is how a family

can realize the true family ideal .

Also, because everything is connected to the core, each

position, starting with the core (one) and two, three,

four, five, six and seven, will possess equal value . When

the grandfather wants something, the grandchildren will

affirm it and the sons and daughters will want it as well .

Thus, three generations will share a desire for the same

thing . The grandfather and grandmother, husband and

wife, and sons and daughters will all align with the center .

When such love is present, then parents and children

form loving relationships and become one . Husband and

wife build a loving relationship and become one . Siblings

build loving relationships and become one . They are all

one . Under what conditions can we say that these relationships make us one? They must be infused with the true

love of God . God is the center of love . With true love at the

center, parents and children will become one, husband

and wife will become one, and all the brothers and sisters

will become one . In this way, they all come to have equal

value . (299-114, 1999.2.7)

2. Where We Experience Universal Love

What is the purpose of the universe? God designed

everything in the created world as study materials to help

His beloved sons and daughters understand and fulfill the

ideal of love . This is why everything exists in mutual relationships . Look at the world of minerals: their elements

interact in partnerships one to another . Atoms consist

of protons and electrons interacting in mutual relationships . Without such interactions they could not continue

to exist . Without motion there is no permanence or continued existence .

Nevertheless, the universe is created in such a way that

all things of creation can have access to its central point –

true love – only through human beings . (137-59, 1985.12.18)

1. For passages originating from The Collected Speeches of Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the citation is

given in parentheses at the end of each passage in the order of volume number, page number

and the date of the speech. Dates are in the order of year, month and day. The Family Is the Basis and pattern for the Kingdom of Heaven     13

The world is the family in macrocosm . A family that has

fully realized the ideal of love has an above (parents), a

middle (husband and wife) and a below (children), right

and left (husband and wife), and front and back (siblings) . This is the basic pattern . All relationships of higher

and lower can be likened to that between parents and children; right and left can be likened to husband and wife;

and front and back to relationships between brothers and

sisters .

What can bring all these relationships into unity? Can

money, power or knowledge? These will never do it . Only

true love can do it . This is the clear truth . Without true

love, the family cannot have a spherical shape .

Why is it important for our families to have good relationships between parents and children (higher and

lower), and between brothers and sisters (those on the

same level)? They are study materials for developing our

love . We take the lessons learned from our family relationships and practice them in the wider world .

How should we love? Jesus said, “Love your neighbor

as yourself .” What did he mean? He meant that when you

meet an old man, you should treat him as you would your

own grandfather . Treat women and men of your parents’

age as you would your own mother and father, and treat

young people as you would your own sons and daughters .

As you treat the members your family, so should you treat

all people of the world .

The world can be compared to an exhibition hall filled

with all different kinds of people . Some are older than

you, some are the same age and some are younger . Some

are ahead of you and some are behind, or to the right or

to the left . The world presents you with all these different kinds of people . If you can love each of them with the

appropriate kind of love, God will dwell with you in the

midst of that love . (128-22, 1983.5.29)

What is the Kingdom of Heaven? It is where you love

the people of the world as you love your own family . If

you can do this, you will be a citizen of the Kingdom of

Heaven . Your grandfather and grandmother, your mother

and father, your spouse, your siblings and your children

– four generations of family members – provide life lessons for you to deeply experience love . Citizens of the

Kingdom of Heaven begin to experience the true love of

the universe in their family . Therefore, your family is the

foundation and the study material for learning life’s basic

lessons . (129-98, 1983.10.1)

We cannot live without learning to be people of universal love . God has prepared textbooks and scriptures that

teach us the way .

2

 First He tells us: “Love your grandmother

and grandfather . Your grandmother and grandfather on

earth were sent to you as representatives of all your ances-

2.  For example, Mencius 1.A.7: “Treat the aged of your own family in a manner

befitting their venerable age and extend this treatment to the aged of other families;

treat your own young in a manner befitting their tender age and extend this to the

young of other families...” The Family Is the Basis and pattern for the Kingdom of Heaven     15

tors in the spirit world . By loving your grandparents, I will

credit you as having loved them all .” This is His pledge .

Next God says, “I hold your mother and father to be

textbooks and models representing the countless mothers

and fathers in the world . Therefore, when you show exceptional love for your mother and father, I will credit you as

having loved all mothers and fathers .”

God also says, “I hold that when a man loves his wife, he

represents all the men in the world and his wife represents

all the women in the world . Therefore, when you love your

wife, I regard it as though you have loved all women in the

world .”

Then God says: “When you have loved your sons and

daughters, I will credit you as having loved all sons and

daughters .” In this way, our family is where we are trained

to be people of universal love .

We rely on scripture to guide us in cultivating ourselves

to love the world . After you have received this training,

God will ask you: “Are you ready now to go into the world

and love the grandfathers and grandmothers of the world

as you love your own grandparents?” If you can confidently answer “Yes,” then you are surely capable of saving

the world . (130-273, 1984.2.5)

3. The School of Love

God’s will is to realize the kingdom of love . To develop

the ideal of love and expand it to make the entire globe 16     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

an ideal world of love, God set up the family as the school

of love . There, people earn credits as they progress from

the elementary grades all the way to university and a doctoral degree .

Expand the family, and you have the world . Look at the

world, and you will find grandfathers and grandmothers,

adults like your uncles and aunts, peers like your brothers

and sisters, young people, and children . In the kingdom of

love, people of all ages – the elderly, middle-aged people,

young people and children – live together as a family, like

your own family only with much greater dimensions and

larger numbers of people . (147-281, 1986.10.1)

The family is the smallest unit for entering the Kingdom

of Heaven and the school that provides its study material . It

has all the levels: the grandparents’ level, parents’ level, husband and wife level, siblings’ level and children’s level . You

can extend the love you have for your family members –

your grandparents, your mother and father, your siblings

and your children – to the people in the world at large who

are of similar age . This is the way to extend your love to

encompass all humanity . Only when you love all humanity

with as much love as you give your wife and your parents,

and care for the world as much as you care for your own

sons and daughters, can your family inherit the Kingdom of

Heaven . This is a wonderful truth . Live it, and you will have

the special right to inherit all the power and authority of

God who created heaven and earth . (143-285, 1986.3.20) The Family Is the Basis and pattern for the Kingdom of Heaven     17

The family is a textbook of love . It is where we can

obtain the right to be registered in the Palace of Peace in

the Kingdom of Heaven after we die .

The family is the school of love . It teaches us how to

live in the world, which is nothing but the extension of

the family . There is a world of people who resemble your

grandfather, a world of people who resemble your grandmother, a world of people who resemble your father and

mother, and a world of people who resemble your sons

and daughters . Hence, if you expand your family, you have

the world .

If you love the people of the whole world as much as you

love your family, and as much as you love God who cares

for your family, you will be on the straight road leading to

the Kingdom of Heaven . This is how you should understand the first commandment, “You shall love the Lord

your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and

with all your mind,” and the second, “You shall love your

neighbor as yourself .” If you love God and love humanity

as much as you love your family, that’s the basis for everything . If you cannot do it, all the spiritual training you go

through will be of no use . No matter how great your spiritual discipline as you follow the precepts of religion, you

will fail all the tests if you do not know how to love God,

humankind and the universe .

In the family there is an ordered process for experiencing love, like a course of training . The school that is the

family is a microcosm of the world . Therefore, you can 18     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

expand on its lessons to love the world . God has given you

the family where you were raised and where your mother

and father live as the school where you are trained in the

ways of love .

You love your wife, and rightly so . But if you can love

your parents more than you love your wife, love your

sons and daughters more than your wife, love humanity

more than your wife, and love God more than your wife,

then everything will work out well . This doesn’t mean you

should abandon your wife . If you love everyone this way,

then everyone who received your love will also appreciate

and honor your wife . Wouldn’t that be a wonderful situation? The same goes for loving your husband . If you really

want to love your spouse, this is the best way . (142-242, 1986.3.11)

4. Textbook for the Heavenly Kingdom

Every child should inherit the good fortune of his

grandparents and parents . Why do we need grandparents?

It is because they represent the past . Grandparents represent the living history of the past . Parents represent the

present, and children represent the future .

How can one family encompass East and West and also

North and South? How can it be the center of the whole

universe? Its center must be true love . The center of the

grandparents, the center of the parents, the center of the

children and the center of God – in every case, the center

is true love . The Family Is the Basis and pattern for the Kingdom of Heaven     19

When you love your grandparents and respect them,

you can inherit the past completely and learn about the

world that has gone by . From your father and mother you

learn about the present, and by loving your children you

learn about the future .

What can you inherit from your grandfather and grandmother, and mother and father? You can inherit true love .

You recognize, “Our grandfather and grandmother are old,

but they are as one in true love . Our parents have become

as one, too . Let’s live the same way and inherit true love,

which will give us a bright future .” You should become absolute true families so that you can bequeath such love to your

children, and thus secure your family’s future .

The three-generation family can be likened to the universe . Representing the present and the future, such true

families possess the very love that pulses throughout the

universe . This is the love that we can also learn about by

observing nature’s textbook: the love between male and

female in the animal world .

If your grandmother were suddenly absent, your family

would feel distressed . If your grandfather were absent, it

would be the same . The remaining grandparent just could

not feel good about it . This earthly example indicates something about heaven . When a grandfather and grandmother

have lived happily together on earth, after they pass over they

will live happily together in the Kingdom of Heaven . If they

separated, their dwelling-place would not be heaven . Likewise, a family can live together as a family in the Kingdom 20     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

of Heaven when the grandparents, mother and father, and

children have been living harmoniously together on earth .

Your loving relationships with true grandparents, true parents, true children, true families, a true nation and the true

universe will qualify you to enter the Kingdom of Heaven .

The model and textbook for the Kingdom of Heaven is the

true family . (162-140, 1987.4.5)

The family provides us with lessons that enable us to establish the Kingdom of Heaven . Its lessons were created by God .

Any person living anywhere in the world can enter the

Kingdom of Heaven if he loves every old man he meets

just as he loves his own grandfather . A person who can love

everyone he meets of his parents’ age just as he loves his

own parents will be welcomed everywhere . It is the same

in every country . When he goes to the spirit world, he will

transcend every boundary . Furthermore, a person who has

the heart to regard all the young people of the world as

his own sons and daughters will be able to travel freely

throughout the Kingdom of Heaven . All the twelve pearly

gates are open to him, and the regions in all four directions . Thus, the family provides lessons that teach us how

to connect ourselves to the Kingdom of Heaven .

When you apply these family lessons to loving your

nation, you will become patriots . When you apply these

family lessons to the world, you will become saints . When

you apply these lessons for the welfare of all beings

in heaven and earth, you will become God’s sons and  The Family Is the Basis and pattern for the Kingdom of Heaven     21

daughters – divine sons and daughters . This is a desire that

every person shares . (137-78, 1985.12.18)

You must be able to embrace the sons and daughters

of all races, and their grandsons and granddaughters too .

This means you have to stand as true parents, with God’s

true love, and inspire your family to love all the world’s

people . By abiding in God’s love and in a relationship with

the original True Parents, you will be able to attain that

standard of true love in your family . Only then can you

enter the Kingdom of Heaven . (176-210, 1988.5.9)

5. Uniting the Love of Three Generations

The family that is connected through love and united

in love can encompass past history, the present era and the

future . Such a family has been God’s greatest desire, and

He has sought for it over the history of six thousand biblical years .

The original mission given to Adam and Eve at the time

of creation was to establish such a family, where everything

would come under the dominion of true love . No one

would cut themselves off from a relationship if the love

were inherent and absolute .

God did not want Adam and Eve to remain an individual

man and an individual woman . He looked forward to the

new family they would form through their union . This was

God’s primary point of origin in creating men and women .22     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

You can enter the Kingdom of Heaven without any

problem once you have established a true family . We need

to live in this world feeling fulfillment from the love of

God flowing within our family . Only this will enable us to

transcend the snares of this world . (30-86, 1970.3.17)

To form the family realm of love, you must be absolute .

As parents, you must be able to represent the past . As husband and wife, you must be able to represent the present .

As the children, you must be able to represent the future .

You should consider that to love your parents, your partner or your children is equivalent to God relating to the

world .

When husband and wife and children have become

as one body, they are able to represent the cosmos . They

can instruct others to take their love as an example to

follow, and teach their descendents to follow in their path .

The place where they can make such statements, both to

themselves and to others, and communicate the heart of

heaven, is the homeland of the heart that will be remembered by all heaven and earth . (30-80, 1970.3.17)

What has God been seeking all this time? He has been

seeking ideal object partners . He has been looking for

people who resemble God and who possess the inner and

outer aspects of His world of creation . What is the starting

point that leads to such a result? It is the family . Nothing

represents the universe better than the family . To be one  The Family Is the Basis and pattern for the Kingdom of Heaven     23

with our parents is to bring the past and present together .

You can love the past by loving your parents, love the present by loving your spouse, and love the future by loving

your children . In your family, you can experience the love

of three generations . Your family is the core unit where

these three kinds of love are concentrated . (30-80, 1970.3.17)

Then, where does life in the Kingdom of Heaven begin?

It begins in the family, and not in some other place . The

Kingdom of Heaven is nothing more than a three- dimensional expansion of the family; it does not exist separately

from the family . Thus when you embrace your husband

or wife, you should think of it as leading to the unions of

all men and all women in the world . This is how in your

family you can set the condition of having loved all humanity . This is the path you should follow in your lives .

When you love your parents, you are connecting past

history with the present era, and you are paving a road that

will let God come to you . This is the reason you must love

your parents . To love your parents is to connect everything

in the past to yourself who lives in the present, bringing

together the past and the present so they become as one .

Also, loving your own children connects the present reality with the future .

Unification Thought is the philosophy that extols such

love and teaches how it can be practiced throughout eternity . (30-83, 1970.3.17)24     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

6. Training Ground of the Heart

We cannot live disregarding the heart . Even if you were

the president of a country or possessed all the authority in

the world, you could not live without a place to express the

joy in your heart . The president has people under his command, government ministers to serve him and followers to

meet his every need, but they cannot fulfill the desire of

the heart . Only in the family can you experience such fulfillment . Hence the president returns to his family, where

he and his spouse can rejoice with each other and with

their children . You should be able to boast to others about

this joy . It is a joy that can only be experienced directly, not

secondhand .

The same is true for God . Even if the whole world were

restored, God could not be happy without a family . Therefore, God must have a family of His own . (25-86, 1969.9.30)

In the family, parents should be at the center . In educational institutions which represent society, teachers should

be at the center . Your parents raised you from infancy and

helped you develop physically and emotionally . What is

school, then? It is a place where you are trained for your

future role in society . As the family is the training ground

of the emotions, school is the place where you can try out

different roles and prepare for your future role in society .

But society is not the ultimate end . It is a stepping-stone

to the nation . The nation has a leader . Why is it that people  The Family Is the Basis and pattern for the Kingdom of Heaven     25

want to see the president and be near him? Once people

have learned all they can in the family and then in society,

they desire to go on to the next level .

The president is the fruit of the third stage, following

on the stages of formation and growth . A seed is planted

and sprouts (formation), begins its cycle of growth, and

finally the elements come together to produce a flower

and bear fruit (completion) .

In the course of our growth, we attend school to be

educated to become people who can become important

pillars of society and talented people who are needed by

the nation . What is the purpose of our studies in school?

It is training . The school is a place for training and experimenting . With training, you are not in the actual situation;

it is a time of preparation . Be sure to prepare well .

What sort of training happens in the family? It is cultivation of the heart . Your heart is cultivated by the love at the

center of the family . This prepares you in school to relate to

your classmates with the same affection as you have for your

own siblings . In the nation, too, you should relate to others

with affection . The education you receive from your parents will be important for you in school and in the nation .

Parents should create a foundation of heart for their

children and bequeath to their children everything having

to do with the heart . Then they should teach their children

to live as they have lived, giving them specific guidance on

how to live in the family, in society, and in the nation . (180-

130, 1988.8.22)26     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

A family is not necessarily good just because it lives in

a nice house in an affluent neighborhood . Even a family

that lives in a humble house in a poor neighborhood can

be a good family . A good family affords peace to all its

members, who view their family as the center to which they

want to link all aspects of their lives . In a good family, parents and children have a relationship of heart such that

they live for each other . Their family serves as the original

homeland of their dreams . It is the source of their motivation in all that they do in life . It is the foundation for their

lifelong happiness . (29-17, 1970.2.15)

7. The Original Hometown

The family home is a good place . Why is it good? It is

good because it is where my mother and father have lived .

It is good because it is where my elder sister and elder

brother have lived . It is where my younger brother and

younger sister and where all my relatives have lived . This

is why every human being feels a yearning for his or her

hometown . People feel more deeply about their hometown than they do about their nation . A Korean will love

the nation of Korea and want to live in Korea . But even

when he is in Korea, there is one place where he will yearn

to return to . It is his hometown .

Our hometown! How can we describe our hometown?

It is the place where our hearts are entirely lifted up in four

directions and in three dimensions . What is that heart? It  The Family Is the Basis and pattern for the Kingdom of Heaven     27

is the ties that bind us in love . Above us, we are bound in

love to our mother and father; as right and left, we are

bound in love to our spouse; and below us, we are bound

in love to our sons and daughters . We are bound in love to

our relatives in these three dimensions . This is the heart of

the original homeland .

People treasure above anything else this originating

point of their happiness, where true love is at the center .

This is the reason they cannot help but feel a yearning

for their original homeland . Then, where is God’s original

homeland? Where do you think God’s original homeland is on the planet Earth? This is a question we need to

consider .

Since God is the God of love, He must surely have prepared a starting point on earth where He could reside . So

where is this starting point? To answer this question, we

need to understand how God prepared that starting point .

God wants to reside in the place where He first formed

His family . What kind of place is that? It must be the place

where a son of God dwells, a man who truly understands

that God is his Father . In other words, it is the home of

God’s only-begotten son, who can be the vessel for the

entirety of God’s love . Also, it is a place where a daughter of God dwells, who can be the vessel for the entirety

of God’s love . Where that son of God and that daughter

of God marry and complete their family, that place is the

starting-point of God’s original homeland . (23-151, 1969.5.18)28     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

If you could dwell in that original homeland, who else

should be there? All the people you miss should be there .

Your parents should be there and your brothers and sisters

should be there . All your friends and relatives whom you

have longed to see should be there . Moreover, they should

not be the sort of people that you would want to see just

for a moment . You would want to spend eternity with them

and never grow tired of them . This is the kind of world we

need to establish . This is the Kingdom of Heaven, which

religions are seeking for in this age . (23-81, 1969.5.11)

We long for our original homeland because this is where

we find the people who are closest to us: our parents, our

brothers and sisters, and our relatives . These people will

always guide us . Whenever we visit, they will welcome us

just as they did in the past . When we face difficulties, they

will show sympathy, console us and receive us with joy .

It is important to realize, however, that although you

may return to your original homeland with a heart of longing, if people do not welcome you on your arrival, then

your intense heart of longing will vanish and you will turn

back with feelings of deep regret . You need to have people

there who will welcome you . (23-80, 1969.5.11)

8. The Cosmic Ideology

All things start from one, divide into many, and ultimately come together again as something larger . One  The Family Is the Basis and pattern for the Kingdom of Heaven     29

divides into many, and the many unite again into one .

Then that greater one divides again, and they recombine

into an even larger unit . This process repeats continuously .

Families exist within this process of continual division and recombination, yet the form of the family never

changes . In the family a husband and wife meet, build a

relationship as two people, and become one . The clan

brings many families together as one . Clans combine to

form a tribe, and tribes combine to form a nation . The

family, however, is always at the center . The horizontal

world develops as an expansion of the family .

This is why no society can do without the family . If

family conflicts are not resolved, we cannot solve the conflicts plaguing our world .

Once a family is restored, then through that family

we can fulfill the ideal of a unified cosmos . The cosmos

includes the spirit world (heaven) and the physical world

(earth) . Heaven and earth can be compared to a person’s

mind and body . Mind and body must become one .

Just as a subject partner needs an object partner and

vice-versa, a man needs a woman and a woman needs a

man . The union of a man and a woman leads to a family .

God’s foundation of love will not be attained except

through the family . (26-189, 1969.10.25)

The cosmic ideology teaches that we should first unite

our mind and body, next form a family that embodies

God’s love, and on that basis we can connect the spirit 30     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

world and the physical world – the cosmos . The character

ju (宙) in cheon-ju (cosmos) refers to a house or a home .

We thus understand the term “cosmic ideology” to mean

that unity in the cosmos – between the incorporeal world

and the corporeal world – is rooted in unity in the family .

What does this have to do with us? Everyone needs a

family . If you cannot be united in your family, you will have

no place to stand in a united cosmos . The family serves as

the ultimate standard for fulfilling the cosmic ideology . If

you cannot sing songs of peace and praise the happiness

of your family, you will be miserable, both on earth and in

the spirit world . (26-189, 1969.10.25)

Where does the task of building the Kingdom of Heaven

begin? It begins in our families . Our philosophy for establishing the Kingdom is family-centered . In the word

cheon-ju (cosmos) the character cheon (天) means heaven

and ju (宙) means house or home . Thus the phrase cheonju ju-eui (cosmic ideology) literally means the ideology of

heaven’s family .

Everything in the 66 books of the Bible is God’s word

expressing His earnest desire for an ideal family . Consider,

what is the earnest desire of every man? It is to have an

ideal wife . Also, every person born a woman has the earnest desire to have an ideal husband . She may earn the

highest academic degrees and command influence over

world events, but her deepest desire is still to meet an ideal

man . She wants to meet an ideal man whom she can love  The Family Is the Basis and pattern for the Kingdom of Heaven     31

and with whom she can give birth to sons and daughters

filled with blessings . This is the root of happiness . The

ideal of the Unification Church does not lie anyplace else .

It begins in the family and concludes in the family . (26-103,

1969.10.18)

What kind of teaching is the cosmic ideology? It is chambumo ju-eui, the ideology that teaches us to be true parents .

These teachings uphold the way of life where we relate to

others with the mind of a parent . This is the way of life in

our home, the way of leadership in the nation, and way

each of you should conduct yourselves as individuals .

Had human beings not fallen, Adam and Eve would

have brought the teaching that would have spread all over

the world . The ideology of the original unfallen Adam is

exactly the teaching about how to live as a true parent . It is

the teaching about how to live as a father and as a mother .

There is no higher teaching than this .

This is the reason the Unification Church must link

matters of the heart with the heavenly ideology . Heart is

cultivated through the philosophy of true parents and is

practiced within the framework of the original ideal family .

As long as connections remain to families that have internalized this philosophy, the Unification Church will not

perish . (26-201, 1969.10.25)33

C H a p T e r  T w O

Love: the Basis of Human Life

1. Why Are People Born?

Which came first, life or love? You can argue for either

answer . But which do you think really came first? Love

came first . The Primordial Core of the universe must have

emanated love prior to creating existent beings . Otherwise, existent beings would have no value . (143-277, 1986.3.20)

At the very origin of things, which came first, life or

love? Can you discern the answer? Love came first, then

life . Since what comes second must surrender to what

comes first, it is natural that people give their lives for the

sake of love . This helps us understand the true way of life .

Since love gave birth to our life, we should walk the path

of love and ultimately die for love .

The purpose of human life is to establish a love that can

be welcomed by the macrocosm, not merely the microcosm . It is to live, to love, and to die participating in the 34     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

universal love that is recognized by God, the angelic world,

all things of creation, and our parents . (83-164, 1976.2.8)

Human beings do not choose to be born . Are we born

by our parents’ desire? No . We are born by God’s desire .

We are conceived through the love of our parents, which

represents God’s love . Each of us was created as a new life

by the love of our parents, which represents God’s love .

Love has the power to create the whole . Each of us was

born as a central being of the entire universe, receiving all

the love in the universe . The highest purpose of life is to

be born through love, be raised in love, live by love, and

leave behind a legacy of love . In our family we should live

by this love, which is at the very center of the universe .

Then we become people of the greatest value . (Blessed Families

and the Ideal Kingdom, vol. I, 1063, 1978.9.21)

It is important to understand why human beings are

born . We are not born for the purpose of attaining vast

knowledge or political power . We are born because of love

and for the sake of love . What makes love so great? Love is

the fountainhead of life .

You were born out of your parents’ love . You were

not born from your parents’ desire for money or knowledge . Because you were born from love, you should bear

the fruits of love . This is why you need to have children .

A man and a woman each becomes complete when they  Love: the Basis of Human Life   35

become one as husband and wife and then have sons and

daughters as their object partners .

Human beings cannot exist apart from love . Each of us

lives on the foundation of love . Everything in creation originates from God’s love . Since all things that exist have love

as their foundation, it follows that human beings, as the

center of the created universe, must also have begun from

love . Since we were born from love and mature through

love, it follows that we cannot live separated from the

realm of love . (Blessed Families and the Ideal Kingdom, vol. I, 1062, 1988.8.20)

2. Life in its Original Form

What is the cause of human existence? That cause is

love . Then, what do you think is the purpose of human

life? It is to fulfill the ideal of love . Human beings are conceived through love, so our purpose is to perfect love . First

we should form a foundation of love in the context of our

family . Then we should expand it and connect it everywhere, making it complete .

Since the beginning is love, the end is also attained

through love . For this, a man and a woman begin a

relationship, become one in love, and expand their love

to connect with everyone around them: front and back,

right and left, above and below . (Blessed Families and the Ideal Kingdom, vol. I, 1064, 1986.1.3)36     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

No matter how firmly we have determined to become

an absolute being and live for an absolute purpose, it will

be for nothing unless we are happy . Our daily life should

be joyful .

We may live for the sake of a certain purpose . Yet once

we achieve it, some new, greater purpose may appear that

makes the earlier purpose seem insignificant . On the

other hand, what is this most precious thing for a man or

for a woman? It is love . Love is the key element needed to

experience happiness .

Therefore, no matter how lofty a person’s purpose may

be, if he fails to establish a love that can take dominion

over purpose, once he attains his purpose he will not be

satisfied . So he will embark on another purpose and in the

end not be satisfied with that either . Thus, purpose is limited . It cannot stand above love . (29-130, 1970.2.26)

What are you living for? Some people say they live to

eat . Some people say they live to work . Still others live

without a purpose . What are you living for? Declare that

you live for love; that is the most excellent answer .

We are born as the fruit of love, we spend our lives

loving others, and eventually we return to the eternal love

of God’s bosom . This is the original vision of human life

as God created it . (Blessed Families and the Ideal Kingdom, vol. I, 1064,

1982.4.26) Love: the Basis of Human Life   37

A person is born in love and raised in love . Then he

or she leaves the love of parents behind and seeks out

a love of a partner, which is the love of another dimension . We can say that children’s experience receiving love

from their parents is formation-stage love, and spouses’

experience receiving conjugal love from their partner is

growth-stage love . However, no matter how much love a

husband and wife receive from each other, it is only when

they have children that they can be completed in love .

That is why couples naturally want to have children . Parents’ experience of receiving love from their children is

completion-stage love .

Going through the stages of receiving parental love,

conjugal love and children’s love is fundamental to human

fulfillment . They constitute the path to fulfilling God’s

original ideal of love that He purposed at the creation . (48-

12, 1971.8.31)

Love gives birth to life . A man is born from love, is

raised in love by his loving parents, meets a loving wife

and loves her, and then dies in that love – this is the course

of human life . In this original vision for human life there

would be no sorrow or pain . (Blessed Families and the Ideal Kingdom,

vol. I, 1065, 1982.10.29)38     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

Originally, God designed the focal point of the universe to be the place where every type of love combines

into one . God’s vertical love and human horizontal love

would come together in a comprehensive way that involves

parental love, conjugal love and children’s love simultaneously in an all-encompassing union . This would become

the focal point of the entire universe . Every cell in the universe would turn in its direction .

All the spirits in the spirit world would turn and focus on

this point . They would protect it and not allow anyone to

invade it, since if it were destroyed it would be catastrophic .

This focal point needs a certain structure to maintain

itself and preserve its integrity . In the teaching of the Unification Church, this structure is called the four-position

foundation .

3

(Blessed Families and the Ideal Kingdom, vol. I, 1066, 1982.10.29)

3. The Nutrient of Life

You shouldn’t forget that while you were a fetus, you

not only received nutrients from your mother, you also

received love from her . Similarly, while you live on earth,

you not only receive physical nutrients from nature, you

also receive love from God . Love is an essential nutrient

for life . (Blessed Families and the Ideal Kingdom, vol. I, 1066, 1984.4.24)

3.  The four-position foundation is the Divine Principle’s term for the four-fold

structure of a God-centered family, composed of God, husband, wife and children.

It is called “the fundamental foundation for the life of all beings.” (Exposition of the

Divine Principle, p. 25) Love: the Basis of Human Life   39

Just as plants absorb sunlight as an element of life,

people take in love is an element of life . Our dearest wish

is to live eternally in circumstances where we can love and

be loved . This is the hope of the Kingdom of Heaven on

earth and the Kingdom of Heaven in heaven . (Blessed Families

and the Ideal Kingdom, vol. I, 1066, 1986.3.20)

The paths that men and women walk are for the sake of

love . We each have a path to travel, and it is a path of love .

(Blessed Families and the Ideal Kingdom, vol. I, 1066, 1984.4.24)

We travel this life to obtain love, to keep love, and to

create an environment of love . A woman puts on cosmetics or gets a massage for the sake of love . Our wants and

our work are all for the sake of love . We willingly endure

hardships and press forward in order to obtain precious

love . (Blessed Families and the Ideal Kingdom, vol. I, 1066, 1982.4.26)

From the moment we are born, we receive parental

love . As long as our parents are alive, they will love us at

each stage of our lives, through childhood, young adulthood and middle age . Having received parental love as we

grow up, in time the horizontal love of husband and wife is

bound to blossom within each of us . (Blessed Families and the Ideal

Kingdom, vol. I, 1067, 1973.4.16)

What is marriage? It is like a school where men learn

things they did not know about women and women learn 40     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

things they did not know about men . When all the grades

are A’s, then the husband and the wife will be happy .

Raising sons and daughters is like going to another

school, this time to learn about loving the world . Your children are your connection to the future . They are given to

you to provide you with lessons about how to relate to the

future world .

Acts of filial piety toward your grandfather and grandmother, or to your ancestors, have the purpose of enabling

you to be educated by the spirit world . All your ancestors

are connected to you through love . Love is the central line

that links grandfather and grandmother, husband and

wife, and sons and daughters . As blood circulates through

the human body, these links enable your ancestors in the

spirit world going back even ten thousand generations to

circulate up and down and communicate with you, their

distant descendent . The spirit world, like the universe as a

whole, is organized according to connections of love .

Everything submits to the order of love . This is why

people say that becoming a servant of true love and a slave

of true love is the greatest happiness . (Blessed Families and the Ideal

Kingdom, vol. I, 1067, 1985.10.4)

4. What Is God’s Love?

You should discover God’s love . How can we characterize God’s love? It can be compared to a warm spring day,

with white clouds gently floating in the sky, shimmering  Love: the Basis of Human Life   41

waves of warm air rising from the ground, and insects

flying to and fro . Ants are crawling in and out of their

nests, exploring the ground . Pussy willows are in bloom

by the stream . Frogs sing new songs of spring, bees swarm

and butterflies flutter about . Lying in the grass, you feel

a happy, sleepy intoxication come over you . You feel like

resting there forever .

This is just how God feels when He finds His ideal partner . God likewise feels as if He were in a beautiful flower

garden, with butterflies and bees flying around . When

imagining this, do you feel good or bad? Dull-witted

people may not be aware that God has feelings . But truly,

He feels good .

When you run into someone whom you are pleased

to see, you grasp his hand firmly and shake hands . When

someone greets you joyfully, saying, “Wow, it’s been a long

time!” and shakes your hand firmly, does it make you feel

good or bad? [Audience: “Good .”] If anyone says it feels

bad, go ahead and kick him!

Do you like it when someone grasps your hand firmly?

[“Yes, we do .”] You mean you want to like it . How can you

say for sure that you like it? You have to know the person to

like it . If the person is a stranger, how can you like it when

he grabs your hand? But if he is someone you are fond of,

then when you grasp each other’s hands, you don’t want

to let go .

You young ladies here, think of how it will be when you

are married . If your husband loves you, you feel as if you 42     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

don’t need anything else in the world . You want to live your

whole life staying by his side . I enjoy watching a man and

woman holding hands, especially when the man’s hand is

as rough as a cow’s front hoof . We enjoy seeing scenes like

that in the movies . But if the woman were to say to the

man, “Oh, you have such pretty hands,” the man would be

offended . This is how it is .

Love is eternal . Love is not two; it is one . It is two becoming one . When a man and a woman become a couple and

love each other, they are bonded together . Of course this

does not happen literally, but in heart . In fact, they reach

a level even higher than this; they touch God’s love . If you

live with God’s love, will you become one or not? Think

about it . You are destined to become one . (Blessed Families and

the Ideal Kingdom, vol. I, 1068, 1970.12.22)

When a man and a woman fall in love, they experience all sorts of wonderful things . But if you could taste

the profound experience of God’s love, you would find

it incomparably greater than any worldly love . When a

person has really tasted God’s love, no amount of difficulty

or sorrow can defeat him . He dwells in a realm of absolute

freedom . Such a realm truly exists; the question is how to

find it . (39-240, 1971.1.15)

God’s love can basically be divided into three major

types: parental love, conjugal love and children’s love . Love: the Basis of Human Life   43

God’s love is the core that fills them and unites them all .

(173-278, 1975.11.23)

5. Inheriting Love and Bequeathing Love

A glorious new morning will dawn on the day when

God assumes a physical body . Even more glorious will be

the moment that He has a son and a daughter through

whom He can experience the love of husband and wife .

Still more glorious will be the moment when He can love

His grandchildren . The day God can love His grandchildren will be more glorious than when He can love His son

and daughter .

How do you think God explained to Adam about the

joy He felt at the moment He created him? Was it enough

to say to Adam, “This is how happy I was”? People can only

understand the joy of parenthood when their first baby is

born and they become new parents themselves . Likewise,

we can only understand God’s happiness at the creation

when we give birth to our own sons and daughters . When

children are young they can’t comprehend parental love,

but they come to understand it later in life when they have

a family and begin raising their own children . Then they

understand, “So this is how my parents loved me when

they were raising me .” Therefore, the day your child gets

married is a day of glory, and the day your child has a child

of his or her own is a day of glory . (Blessed Families and the Ideal

Kingdom, vol. I, 936, 1978.1.22)44     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

You need to know God’s love . How can you really know

it? First you need to experience the love of your parents

and learn to express your love for them in acts of service .

Next, you need to experience conjugal love with your

spouse and learn to express your love by serving him or

her well . Next, you need to experience what it is like to

love your children and know how they love you . You will

learn that to be a parent you cannot just give orders to your

children, but must learn to understand and serve them as

well . This is the way you learn about God’s love . Until you

have cared for children like this, you are still incomplete

and will not be able to truly understand God’s love .

Without having the experience of raising your own

children, you cannot begin to fathom how much God

has loved human beings, His children . Similarly, until

you have experienced life as a husband, you cannot know

God’s experience of loving a woman as His wife, and without the experience of being a wife, you cannot know God’s

experience of loving a man as Her husband . Although you

may already know what it is like to be a child of God, you

cannot truly understand God’s parental love until you

become a parent yourself . Therefore, to become a true

parent who knows God’s love, you need to have sons and

daughters . (133-138, 1984.7.10)

Parents want their children to be married because they

want to bequeath to them all their parental love . When the  Love: the Basis of Human Life   45

parents die, they leave behind their substantial selves with

their descendants . This is why we need descendants .

Love continues forever . Since love is the highest human

desire, everyone has their arms outstretched wanting to

inherit it . When parents have bequeathed their love to

their descendants, they can stand proudly before God

when they arrive in the spirit world .

It is in the family that love becomes complete . We say

that the path to the Kingdom of Heaven runs through

the family, because the family is where we can realize the

realm of oneness of love . (Blessed Families and the Ideal Kingdom, vol.

I, 937, 1978.9.21)

The principles that we should follow can be seen in

nature . Seeds are sown in spring, in summer plants reach

their full growth, and in autumn they bear fruit . Winter is

a time for storing up seeds for next spring’s planting . Likewise, when you go through winter-like harsh times, you

should put things in order and carry the essence of the

new seed of life deep within your heart . Only then will you

have seeds to plant again when spring returns .

Having thus equipped yourselves, you will be prepared

to become parents and bear sons and daughters in your

likeness . You will know to raise your sons and daughters to

follow the same principles as you do . (26-158, 1969.10.25)

Why do people feel sad when they do not have sons and

daughters? It is because they cannot complete the circle 46     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

of life . When you see birds feeding their young, you recognize the deep love of the mother bird . People generally

like children more than adults . While they show polite

respect to adults, they demonstrate warm affection to children . You can realize how much your parents loved you

when you have your own sons and daughters and raise

them .

Everyone should get married, have children and raise

them . This is the only way they can know both children’s

love and parental love . It seems that many people these

days avoid having children . They hesitate to have children

because children may limit their freedom to marry and

divorce . But when people fail to establish the four-position

foundation, they cannot go to the Kingdom of Heaven .

This is because they do not fully know God’s heart of love

for human beings . (Blessed Families and the Ideal Kingdom, vol. I, 937,

1982.4.26)

6. Seeking the Center of Love

Human beings are born in love, raised in parental love,

and grow up as they extend their love horizontally to relatives and friends . A stage in the development of horizontal

love is completed when they meet a partner of the opposite sex and grow together as a couple . In their conjugal

union, the couple represents the love of heaven and earth .

The fruit of that love is the children they bear . Children

are the result of love, born from the core of the heart . Love: the Basis of Human Life   47

Those children, born from a man and woman who

share love based on deep heart, create a path for the parents that will take them to the central point of love . When

they follow this path to the center, they will meet God . By

having children as fruits of love, human beings come to

deeply experience the love by which God created human

beings and all things . By loving their children with the

same love that they had received as they grew up, they can

have a deep experience of the parental heart of God .

The love that parents pour out to their children is not

materialistic love . It is an intrinsic love . Though everything

in heaven and earth may change, the love that parents give

their children will never change . In every time and place

parental love is the same .

By becoming a parent and loving your children, you

will understand and deeply experience how God has been

loving human beings, His children . Through the experience of being a parent and loving your children, you will

feel to your bone how much your parents have loved you .

This is why people revere their parents even more in

their old age and fulfill the duties of filial piety to lovingly

care for them . If you do not have the heart to do this, you

are not qualified to be parents, and your love towards your

children can only be considered hypocritical .

We need to feel and understand how much God has

loved us . We can do this by becoming parents ourselves

and loving our children . This will enable us to love God

with greater sincerity .48     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

In this way, it is natural that we should love our elderly

parents more than we love our children, and love God

more than we love our parents . This is the order and law

of love .

As was stated, human beings are born in love and grow

through their childhood years receiving parental love . But

once we grow to a certain level, our parents’ love alone is

not enough for us, and we begin to expand our love horizontally to include love among siblings and relatives . This

is because as we mature, we want to receive all the love that

exists in heaven and earth .

In particular, as we enter the years of adolescence, we

begin to crave the love of the opposite sex . By giving and

receiving love with someone of the opposite sex, we are

able to enter a new and comprehensive realm of love . It is

here that for the first time we are able to set out in search

of the center of love .

The cosmos has a spherical shape . By the give-and-take

of horizontal love with our partner, we begin to revolve

together . The relationship traces a circular shape, the first

step in forming a sphere . Next, having chosen a partner of

the opposite sex and shared love, we bear the fruit of children . By the give-and-take of love with our children, we

begin to revolve on a vertical axis . This vertical love when

combined with the horizontal love creates a three- dimensional spherical realm . At the same time it establishes a

center – the center of love .

The center of love that emerges out of this spherical  Love: the Basis of Human Life   49

motion created by these love relationships is the core of

existence of the entire world of creation . It can be likened

to the Sun, around which the Earth continually revolves

and which provides for its existence . The center of love

possesses infinite force, which enables the motion of love

around it to continue forever . This center, which arises

within a sphere of love, is the dwelling-place of God .

All created beings that exist in the world are given birth

and exist by virtue of God’s love . They all seek the center

of God’s love . God is the furnace of love . (126-245, 1983.4.24)

7. The Three Ages of Human Life

Human beings spend time developing in their mother’s

womb before they are born . They live on earth for a certain period, and then die . Prior to birth, the fetus spends

about ten months

4

 in the mother’s womb . While it is in

the womb, it has limited freedom . It develops by receiving

nutrients from the mother through the umbilical cord .

About all it can do is straighten and bend its fingers, open

and close its mouth, and wriggle its feet . Nevertheless, for

the fetus, the mother’s womb is a world of freedom and

the entirety of its realm of life .

After ten months, the fetus is born into the world as an

infant and begins to grow . Now its world is the wide earth

and human society . (Blessed Families and the Ideal Kingdom, vol. I, 1071,

1983.4.24)

4.  Ten months by the lunar calendar are equivalent to nine solar months.50     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

Love is the purpose of human existence at every stage .

The fetus was conceived in its parents’ love . It develops in

the mother’s womb, the bosom of its parents’ protection

and love . After birth, the child doesn’t know any better

and so may wet her bed, but the parents will not blame

her for it . Parents’ love is such that they do not recognize

ugliness as being ugly . Their love enables them to digest

everything joyfully and without complaint . When a child

reaches maturity, at around twenty years of age, he or she

should meet an eternal partner in love . That is when he

or she is engrafted into a higher love, whose measure is to

live for the sake of the other according to the principles of

Heaven . Continuing their life course, the couple has their

own children and gives love to them .

Thus throughout our life, we can experience the

greatness of God’s love . We do this by participating in

completing the substantial realm of God’s love that exists

between God and us, His object partners . (143-285, 1986.3.20)

Human life in the world can be compared to the life of a

fetus in its mother’s womb . It is our hundred-year sojourn

in the womb of our Mother Earth . Just as the fetus is ignorant of the world outside the womb, people living in the

earthly world are ignorant of the reality of the incorporeal

spirit world that awaits them after death . They only have a

vague sense that a world after death probably exists .

Yet just as the human world exists in the fetus’s future,

even though it did not know about it while in the mother’s  Love: the Basis of Human Life   51

womb, even so the spirit world exists in reality regardless

of our beliefs or feelings about it . Yet since the world after

death cannot be perceived by our five physical senses, we

must overcome our disbelief through religious faith . (Blessed

Families and the Ideal Kingdom, vol. I, 1071, 1983.4.24)

Human beings pass through three ages in the course

of their life: the water age, the land age and the air age .

Don’t animals and all things live in the water, on land, and

in the air? For human beings to stand as the lords of creation and be qualified to have dominion over all things,

we must exist as a complete life form, more complete than

any other creature .

To be the lords of all creatures at home in the water, we

are given an age when we live in water . Next, during the

land age, we exist as the highest being among all the land

animals . It follows that we must also have an air age . But

human beings do not have wings . Without wings, how can

we fly? We should be able to fly higher and farther than

any bird or insect . Then what should we do? This cannot

happen as long as we are in a physical body . No matter

how high we jump, we cannot get far off the ground .

Yet because human beings are the lords of creation, and

because we stand in a reciprocal relationship to God, who

is a spiritual being, we need to have the same stage of operation as God . It is well known that light travels 300,000

kilometers a second . Human beings can travel even faster .52     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

We will have this capability in the air age, when we live as a

spirit . (112-202, 1981.4.12)

This world in which we live is not all that exists . There is

also the spirit world . What sort of place is this spirit world,

where we dwell after we die? It is an eternal world, filled

with the air of love . Your physical life is a time of preparation for life in the eternal world of spirit . (140-121, 1986.2.9)

8. Training to Be in Rhythm with the Spirit World

The spirit world is a place overflowing with the elements of love . On the earth we breathe air, but in the spirit

world people live by inhaling love . The love you give and

receive in the spirit world is not secular human love . It is

true love . (145-267, 1986.5.15)

When you go to the spirit world, this is what you will

find . Those who are well-endowed with love for their parents, brothers and sisters, spouse, and children – that is,

those who experienced deep love in their family life – enjoy

great freedom . They can go anywhere without restriction . On the other hand, those who did not experience

love on earth are narrow-minded, and in the spirit world

they find themselves isolated and alone, with no freedom

whatsoever .

The love between parent and child is a vertical relationship, the love between husband and wife is a horizontal  Love: the Basis of Human Life   53

relationship, and the love among siblings is a relationship

that circles and surrounds . These three relationships differ

from one another . Therefore, only when you experience

deep love through each of these three mutually distinct

interactions on earth can you circulate freely – vertically,

horizontally, and in a circle .

For example, a person who did not taste parental love

because his parents died early is in a rather tragic position

because he is missing an important experience of love .

Likewise, those who did not experience the conjugal love

relationship of husband and wife, as well as love in the

family, live a destitute existence in the spirit world because

they lack those crucial life experiences where they were

supposed to develop their love . Those who had no brothers and sisters on earth will also be in an impoverished

state in the spirit world, because they lacked the opportunity to develop that dimension of love . (Blessed Families and the

Ideal Kingdom, vol. I, 1067, 1977.1.1)

There is a reason why we need to get married . We marry

to have the full experience of parental love, conjugal

love, and children’s love . Such experiences are necessary

because the spirit world is filled with the air of these loves .

The reason you need to have a family is to train yourself

to be in rhythm with the spirit world . Those who go to

the spirit world without these experiences of love cannot

follow the rhythm there . It will be as if they are missing a 54     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

nose to inhale the air . (Blessed Families and the Ideal Kingdom, vol. I, 1067,

1977.4.3)

You are born from your father and mother . On a more

fundamental level you are born from God, who made you

by employing your father’s seed and your mother’s womb .

God is your True Parent . You will find Him by first knowing

the love of your physical parents and then experiencing

the universe as your parent .

Relating to your physical parents is just a temporary

stage . In time you will greet the moment of your death; it is

a jubilant time when you will go to meet your True Parent .

You will meet your True Parent in a place overflowing with His true love . This is the Kingdom of Heaven

in heaven, where the atmosphere is composed of love –

parental love . It is not a love for oneself; rather, it is an

unconditional, giving love in keeping with the principles

of service and sacrifice . To make the grade there, you

must love humanity and love the universe . Life on earth is

the training ground for you to develop such love . (105-108,

1979.9.30)

Do you know how important your life on earth is? You

only live it once . It is a brief moment that only comes once .

Compared to the expanse of eternal life, earthly life is

but an instant . It seems too short . Therefore, during this

moment we must look beyond our physical life and prepare ourselves for the spirit world . (207-99, 1990.11.1)55

C H a p T e r  T H r e e

The Original Vision for Love

between Man and Woman

1. Bringing Joy to God and All Creation

A man and woman may love each other, but is their love

in accord with God’s will and the criterion He requires? Is

their love in accord with the model of love that exists in

the mind of God?

If the first man and woman had become one in love

based on the love of God, then they would have become

that universal model of love . God surely desired that

human beings display such love . The man and woman

surely wanted such love from each other . It would have

been true love, the very core of the universe . It would have

become the standard by which all love is measured . (Blessed

Families and the Ideal Kingdom, vol. I, 335, 1983.6.5)

God’s love and human love are the same in their

essence . Love is the power that strives for oneness . Why

does a man long for a woman, and a woman long for a 56     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

man? It is because only through a woman can a man possess God, and only through a man can a woman possess

God . In other words, when a man and a woman become

one in love, God is in the midst of them . (Blessed Families and the

Ideal Kingdom, vol. I, 336, 1982.4.26)

Remembering that God is the source of the duality of

male and female, whenever men praise the beauty and

worth of women, or women praise the merit and honor of

men, they should give even greater praise to the magnificence of God . (25-277, 1969.10.5)

When a woman whom God loves is in a man’s heart,

and a man whom God loves is in a woman’s heart, and

the two love each other even as they praise God together,

God is delighted with their love and all creation rejoices .

Heaven and earth rejoice to see them embracing, for it is

precious in their sight .

When that man and that woman embrace each other

in mutual affection, the entire universe enfolds them and

supports them . This is the original vision of God’s creation . It will be realized in His ideal . (Blessed Families and the Ideal

Kingdom, vol. I, 334, 1969.2.4)

God’s original design was that each man should meet a

woman with whom he can rejoice, and each woman should

meet a man with whom she can rejoice . More than this,

their budding relationship should bring joy to God and all  The Original Vision for Love between Man and woman   57

things of creation . Then, all creation will be mobilized for

this couple and want to receive their dominion . Birds will

sing for them, and butterflies will flutter and dance with

joy . God will rejoice, people will rejoice, and all of creation

will rejoice .

Had the first human ancestors started off history by fulfilling this original plan of God, the world today would be

the ideal world that God originally envisioned . (Blessed Families and the Ideal Kingdom, vol. I, 336, 1969.2.4)

2. Men and Women Are Born for Each Other

For what purpose is a man born? He is born for the

sake of a woman . This fact cannot be denied . Likewise, a

woman is not born for her own sake, but for the sake of a

man . A woman who does not come to a clear understanding within herself that she is born for the sake of a man will

encounter problems in her life .

God, the Great Administrator of heaven and earth,

established this principle within His Principle of Creation .

We cannot enter the world of goodness, truth, happiness

and peace, or the world of love and ideal, unless we follow

this principle . (Blessed Families and the Ideal Kingdom, vol. I, 338, 1975.1.16)

Every woman is born to one day join with a man, and

every man is born to join with a woman . This is the highest

truth . By following this principle we can find the realm of 58     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

blessing . Deviating from this highest truth constitutes the

highest evil . (21-201, 1968.11.20)

Men and women are physically opposite . While women

tend to focus on one area of life, men often work in three

or four arenas at the same time . Women are more likely to

enjoy staying at home, and men are more likely to enjoy

traveling the world . Their characters are opposite as well,

with men ordinarily more subjective and women more

responsive . How can these opposites become one? They

can become one through love . Love also brings human

beings and God into oneness . (38-255, 1971.1.8)

Why is a man born? He is not born to earn money, gain

political power, or pursue academic learning . He is born

for the sake of a woman . Men have larger physiques for

earning a living not for themselves, but to support the wife

and children .

A man’s sexual organ and a woman’s sexual organ are

different . For whom do they exist? A man’s sexual organ

does not exist for his own satisfaction . It exists for the sake

of a woman . Likewise, a woman’s sexual organ exists for

the sake of a man . Have you ever thought this way? This

is not something to laugh about and then forget . (143-275,

1986.3.20)

What is the symbol of the love between man and

woman? Where is their love consummated? It is their sexual  The Original Vision for Love between Man and woman   59

organs, by which they become one flesh . When the man

and woman love each other, their sexual organs become

the channels through which their minds and bodies completely merge .

The man’s sexual organ is not his, and woman’s is not

hers . The man has what belongs to the woman, and the

woman has what belongs to the man . Men and women are

not born for their own sake . They should know clearly that

they are born for the sake of their partner . (132-146, 1984.5.31)

What are men and women born to do while living on

earth? They are born to love each other . For this reason,

God, the Great King of Wisdom, switched the ownership

of their love organs . A man has a sexual organ, but that

does not mean he is its owner . The same is true for woman .

Those who act carelessly, employing their sexual organ

with no regard for its ownership, will be judged for having

violated love . If men knew that they will face a dreadful

punishment according to this strictest of laws, how could

they dare think about other women instead of their own

wives? Conversely, how could wives think about other men

besides their own husbands? (Blessed Families and the Ideal Kingdom,

vol. I, 340, 1986.3.14)

3. Men and Women Need Each Other

Every person without exception absolutely needs love .

Isn’t that right? To have love, an absolutely necessary 60     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

element is another human being of the opposite sex . A

man needs a woman and a woman needs a man . How

much do they need each other? They need each other

more than they need Korea, more than they need the

world – even more than they need God .

If there were no women, the entire human race would

perish in less than a hundred years . A man may boast that

he has the power to rule the world, but if there were no

women, all would be gone within one hundred years . So

women are absolutely necessary . (25-180, 1969.10.4)

When we say “human beings” we mean men and women

together .

5

 No man should be without a woman, and no

woman should be without a man . A man does not choose

to be born as a man; neither does a woman choose to be

born as a woman . Only after we are born do we discover

that we are either a man or a woman . (67-267, 1973.7.22)

Men, when you were born, were you aware that there

are women in the world? Suppose a man is born and later

finds out that there are only men; would he not feel bad?

And if a woman is born and later finds out that there are

only women, she too would feel bad, wouldn’t she? Yet at

the time a woman is born, does she or does she not have

any awareness that men exist? Although she was born without this knowledge, the One who gave her birth knew it .

5.  The Chinese character for “human being” (人) is made with two brush strokes,

one longer and one shorter, like a man and woman leaning on each other.  The Original Vision for Love between Man and woman   61

The reason she is born as a woman is because somewhere

there is a man who needs her .

Likewise, the reason I am born as a man is because

somewhere there is a woman who needs me . We are each

born for the sake of someone, and God has knowledge of

it . (37-19, 1970.12.22)

A man cannot find fulfillment without a woman . Even

his relationship to God is not complete until he is connected to his human counterpart, his wife . Human history

has been miserable because men have failed to understand

that they absolutely need a woman to love and care for .

Conversely, women have not understood that they absolutely need a man to love and care for .

True love can only be experienced on the foundation

of an ideal relationship between a man and woman . A

man and woman who are absolutely committed to uniting

in true love can attain such unity through single-minded

devotion . When they have achieved absolute oneness, God

dwells in their midst .

God would not like to see a husband and wife joined in

true love separate, so He made the absolute love of man

and woman eternal . (Blessed Families and the Ideal Kingdom, vol. I, 340,

1986.8.20)

God is all-knowing and all-powerful, but if He is alone,

these absolute attributes have no meaning . Similarly, a

man may be handsome and possess a fine physique, but 62     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

these things have no meaning if he is without a woman . A

man who lives fascinated by his own good looks and physique leads an ugly, worthless existence . It is a problem

that so many men have sunk into such narcissism; it is one

reason why history has been full of tragedy . God’s providence works to change and improve the world immersed

in such self-centeredness . (Blessed Families and the Ideal Kingdom, vol.

I, 341, 1986.8.20)

4. Love Comes from Your Partner

I cannot realize love by myself . 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 the origin of the heavenly principle

of living for the sake of others . We must live by this philosophy . It means, when someone worthy and precious comes

to me, I must honor and serve her in order to receive her .

(143-277, 1986.3.30)

I may have love in my heart, but when I am alone it

cannot manifest itself . Love does not appear when a man

is alone . It only emerges when he is with a woman who

can be his partner in love . Only when you have a partner

to love will you experience love springing up in your life .

(Blessed Families and the Ideal Kingdom, vol. I, 342, 1982.10.29) The Original Vision for Love between Man and woman   63

We know that parental love is good and conjugal love

is good, because these genuine loves are not self-centered .

Love is not something I can make for myself; it is something my partner gives to me . Keep this in mind . Love

comes from your husband and from your wife, from your

sons and daughters, and from your brothers and sisters .

Love is not self-made . Your spouse gives it to you . Therefore, who is the owner of love? Your spouse is the owner of

love . (34-331, 1970.9.20)

Where did we say love comes from? It comes from your

partner . Think about it: if your wife neglected her appearance and always had a mean expression on her face, your

love for her would recede . On the other hand, if your wife

takes care to make herself pretty and always approaches

you with a lovely smile, your love for her will develop more

quickly . The way your love functions is determined by your

partner, according to the way she presents herself: her

speech, her beauty, her scent, and so on . (Blessed Families and the

Ideal Kingdom, vol. I, 343, 1982.10.29)

What is the starting-point of love? The starting-point of

love is not “I .” The word love implies a relationship . Even

the most handsome man cannot know love if he is alone

without a partner .

“I love you”: these are words that Satan has been exploiting . The truth is, I cannot create love . You may think that 64     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

you do, but there will be no progress in the future unless

that mindset is totally dismantled and transformed .

Wives have been putting themselves at the center, and

husbands have been putting themselves at the center, both

wanting to be served . This mindset destroys relationships .

Since love does not start from me but from my spouse, if

I am to possess that love I must serve her and live for her

sake . Love requires patience and self-sacrifice .

From this perspective, there is no path anywhere in

heaven or on earth to overcome the satanic world except

by following the principles of love centered on God . That

is why God is holding tightly onto love .

Therefore, love is the basis for the Buddhist virtue of

compassion .

6

 Likewise, love is the basis for the Confucian

virtue of benevolence .

7

 Compassion and benevolence are

realized only in the context of mutual relationships . (46-35,

1971.7.18)

5. The Harmony of Love

Man symbolizes heaven and woman symbolizes earth .

When the two become one, they represent the natural harmony of heaven and earth .

Men and women are different . Men’s muscles are

rugged and women’s are smooth . Men have beards while

6. Jabi (慈悲) is the Korean Buddhist term meaning loving-kindness and compassion. It describes a mind of sympathy rooted in understanding the equality and

interdependence of all beings.

7.  In (仁) in Korean or ren in Chinese may be translated as benevolence or humaneness.  The Original Vision for Love between Man and woman   65

women do not . Women’s voices are high and men’s are

low . Yet we see their contrasting features fitting together

well as harmony unfolds between them .

We may liken them to the human body: the right side

and the left side complement each other to form a whole

structure . The two halves are bound tightly together .

Ladies and gentlemen, do you like only things that

are high or only things that are low? Or do you prefer a

pleasing balance of high and low that creates harmony?

Estimating from the line formed by the horizon, fish live

below the line while mammals and birds live above it .

Women menstruate once a month, like the ebb and flow

of the tides pulled by the moon . In breathing we inhale

and exhale . Likewise, a man and a woman need to establish a line of balance and create harmony .

People like to go to amusement parks with their rides

that go up and down, because their motion duplicates the

motion of the universe .

Which do you think is more pleasing, men socializing only with other men, or men and women socializing

together? Men and women together is better, because it

better 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 Families and the Ideal Kingdom, vol. I, 344, 1984.5.31)

When a man and a woman create loving harmony, they

initiate circular movement . When a man and a woman love 66     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

each other and become one flesh, and then bear the fruits

of love, God descends to them, they ascend towards Him,

and they meet in the middle . They form a sphere with God

at the center and begin spherical movement . Out of that

divine center, family members can make relationships in

all directions .

At the center of the sphere, love’s harmony is realized,

and life emerges and grows . The center of the sphere is the

basis for equality between the sexes and for the philosophy

that family members should hold all things in common .

This is so because the power of love is there . Love is the

force that embraces all the interactions in the universe .

(Blessed Families and the Ideal Kingdom, vol. I, 345, 1982.4.26)

For human beings, love is eternal . It is one, and can

never be 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 persons, but by

revolving in oneness with each other they become as one

body .

When the two people become one, they revolve with

God to form a four-position foundation of love . This is the

ideal realm of love . Only true love dwells there; false love

cannot invade . When a man and woman are blessed by

God and achieve this perfect unity, God comes to them

freely .

In the four-position foundation of love, the husband

and wife will grow to love each other with their hearts by  The Original Vision for Love between Man and woman   67

loving each other with their bodies, and when they love

each other with their hearts, their bodies will follow . (Blessed

Families and the Ideal Kingdom, vol. I, 346, 1984.1.1)

6. Enraptured by True Love

What is the most sacred thing in the world? It is true

love . True love begins with God . Since God exists, there

can be no other way to happiness than the path of true

love . God truly desires that we travel the path of true love,

for without doing so we cannot come into the presence of

God . We have to understand this point .

God wants to see, hear, eat and touch through love . As

for human beings, if we were to receive God’s kiss of love,

our joy would be so great that we would feel as though

we might explode from the inside . To rejoice like this is

God’s only desire . He is not the sort who rejoices to have

diamonds or jewelry . (Blessed Families and the Ideal Kingdom, vol. I, 381,

1986.8.20)

The human body has five senses . We feel and become

aware of true love through the impressions of our five

senses . If our eyes are directed toward true love, they take

on the color of true love and are intoxicated by true love .

How beautifully those colorful, intoxicated eyes shine!

Think about how enchanting our smiling lips would be .

Try to imagine the intense beauty we would experience as 68     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

our five senses, intoxicated in true love, moved in harmony toward God .

Yet when God is all alone, He cannot experience the joy

of such beauty . God can experience joy only by perceiving

beauty in a partner . It was for this purpose that God created human beings .

How would God feel as He observed a handsome man

and a beautiful woman absorbed in each other’s eyes

intoxicated in true love, kissing with lips intoxicated in

true love, their hearts singing the melody of true love?

If Eve had possessed such true love, God would have

wanted to journey through every corner of her world of

heart . He would have desired to find out for Himself just

how wide and how deep was the world of heart of this

beautiful Eve . God would have wanted to dwell throughout both Adam’s and Eve’s world of heart, a world more

beautiful than the heaven and earth that God Himself

created . You can be sure that God much prefers to travel

within the world of heart of a person of true love than to

travel the length and breadth of the universe . Adam’s and

Eve’s world of heart and true love was to be such that God

would never want to leave .

What would have happened if, after God created human

beings, He had plunged into their true love and lost Himself in that love? What kind of world would we have today?

God would dwell in our midst . We would live in oneness

with God, and create a world filled with joy and beauty .

(Blessed Families and the Ideal Kingdom, vol. I, 382, 1986.8.20) The Original Vision for Love between Man and woman   69

God is completely responsive to human beings . If true

love had been perfected in the human world, God would

be living in our midst, totally enveloped by true love . He

would have no second thoughts about it . God’s nature is

such that He is completely happy with anything that happens within the realm of true love . Likewise, if human

beings were living in this world of true love, their entire

lives would be happy and free from regret . In such a world

there would be no history of warfare, no grief, and no misfortune . (Blessed Families and the Ideal Kingdom, vol. I, 383, 1986.8.20)

7. The Natural Way of Love

Here is a story from my childhood . 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 done 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 much later that I came to understand that

love happens in natural settings . Sincere love occurs naturally, in a most natural setting . Only after a long observation

did I come to this correct understanding about love . (Blessed

Families and the Ideal Kingdom, vol. I, 353, 1986.1.3)70     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

If we want to regain the lost value of love, does it help to

pursue a university education? Most likely we would only

accumulate knowledge, become individualistic and come

to worship at the altar of materialism . Just as Korean bean

soup tastes right only when it is served in an earthenware

bowl, so we can find genuine love only by the discipline of

training our character .

The flower of world civilization blossoms on the basis

of artistic harmony . For example, roasted ribs should be

served on a platter and Korean bean paste soup should

be served in an earthenware bowl to bring out the proper

taste of each dish . Once you grow accustomed 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 become used to the earthy, deep,

relaxing taste of love, they will always keep their taste for it .

However, just as we easily tire of instant foods that are usually heavily sweetened, if we could obtain love easily and

anywhere, like instant food, we could not call it true love .

(Blessed Families and the Ideal Kingdom, vol. I, 354, 1986.1.3)

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, who wash themselves in cold water

before going to bed, is purer, longer lasting, and ever

deepening .

A couple that brushes their teeth before kissing is not

experiencing natural love . The toothpaste smell prevents  The Original Vision for Love between Man and woman   71

them from tasting the unique smell of their partner . 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 Families and the Ideal Kingdom, vol. I, 354, 1986.1.3)

When you meet someone you like and you fall in love

with her, you want to embrace her and kiss her . This is

a natural instinct between the sexes . Previously you may

have explored your surroundings and made relationships

with its places and creatures in order to develop feelings of

affection for the universe . It was natural for you to do so,

as a stage on the road to finding your one partner of love .

When we relate to each other in accordance with the

ideal of partnership – with each man relating to one

woman and each woman relating to one man – there will

be no acts or incidents that violate the order of love . A

society that upholds the order of true love will emerge

only when men and women join together on the basis of

the ideal of partnership . (Blessed Families and the Ideal Kingdom, vol. I,

355, 1981.1.13)73

C H a p T e r  F O u r

Our Course of Life

1. The Purpose of Creation

God does not have a body . God created with the intention that all things would represent His body and that

Adam would represent His face .

Originally, God was to be the spiritual focal point and

Adam was to be the physical focal point . These two focal

points were supposed to generate two axes that would

meet at a 90-degree angle: the first is God’s purpose of creation, and the second is the purposes that people desire .

Had Adam and Eve not fallen, then representing the

face of God they would have occupied the positions of

father and mother eternally in the spirit world; yet due

to the Fall, this was not possible . Had there been no Fall,

everyone could have gone to heaven simply by attending

their parents as though they were attending God . (119-109,

1982.7.4)74     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

2. Why We Are Born

The world we live in is round: the sun is round, the

earth is round and the stars are round; even our mouths

are round . Everything has an inherent round aspect . In

fact, every interactive pair in the universe relates by means

of one entity revolving around the other . Such interactive

pairs form a spherical shape through maintaining a relationship with the greater whole .

Why, then, are we born? We are born to beat in rhythm

with this vast universe . Ocean waves lapping against the

shore lap against our hearts as well . Gentle breezes sighing serenely lull our hearts into serenity . Flowers in bloom

release rich fragrances and stir the fragrances in our

hearts . (104-122, 1979.4.22)

To be born in love, raised with love, to live with love and

to die with love makes us grateful for our birth, our life

and our death .

You came to be born because you participated in a

moment when your father and mother expressed the

utmost love for each other . You were participants in that

love . Since you were born out of your parents’ love, you

can consider yourself to be the flag of your parents’ love,

which they planted at your birth .

Your flag flutters to express love . We are all meant to

live for the sake of love throughout our lives . You should

wave the flag of love for your mother, wave the flag of love  Our Course of Life   75

when you see your father, and wave the flag of love for

your siblings . (103-258, 1979.2.25)

3. The Importance of the Moment

Your body cannot be sound and whole unless you have

a continual foothold on life, able to absorb whatever nutrients may come your way at any time . This is the way of all

living things in the natural world . The turning points of

life depend not what happens over a long period of time,

but on how you deal with a single moment .

People who ignore the moment can fail to obtain something precious . They cannot become great people . They

cannot inherit God’s throne and crown . To make each

moment shine, you should exercise care with each word

you utter, each action you take, and even each thought

you think . Deal with life and solve its problems, believing

that how you deal with the day-to-day challenges of life

will remain to determine your connection to the world .

The only way to gain ultimate victory is to do well in each

moment .

Meeting the challenge of each moment will make you

a victor . The same applies if you are fighting for an historical victory or even a cosmic victory . Those who know

the infinite value of one bright shining moment and live

accordingly can become great people, even saints, even

God’s sons and daughters . A single moment can deter-76     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

mine whether you are on the path of life or death . (31-218,

1970.5.31)

Scripture tells us that we should first seek the coming of

the Kingdom of God and pray that God’s will be done . Yet

the more important issue for each one of us is how I as an

individual can move forward in unity with God’s will .

Consider this current hour; how can we spend it in such

a way that it becomes entirely one with God’s will? That is

far more valuable than just sitting there hoping for the

Kingdom of God to appear . Therefore, we should use this

hour to create the conditions that will enable us as individuals, as well as our families, tribes and nations, to inherit

and accomplish God’s will . This is the way we can make a

place for ourselves in God’s coming Kingdom . Thus the

question is this: How do you spend this one hour – if you

are given an hour – to make God’s will your first priority

within the context of your daily life?

The way we spend each moment of our life is a very

important issue . Looking at the history of the providence

of restoration, four thousand years elapsed from Adam’s

family through Noah’s family, Abraham’s family, and

Moses’ family down to Jesus’ family . Yet each of the failures

that prolonged the providence did not happen over the

span of, say, a year . In the case of Adam and Eve, their fall

was not something planned out and put into action over

the span of a year or a decade or several decades . Their

mistakes happened in a flash . Yet the failure of that one  Our Course of Life   77

moment had consequences that have persisted through

eons of time . Considering this, we can understand that a

single moment can have a great and terrible impact .

Due to the failure of that one moment, countless people

who walked the path of righteousness in the course of history had to undergo untold suffering . Due to the failure

of that one moment, many nations could not follow God’s

will and fell into the abyss of destruction . They became

part of a gigantic offering of indemnity that was required

because of that one moment . When we understand this,

we see that each hour we just let tick by can be fraught

with terrible consequences . Even though the Kingdom of

Heaven is eternal, it does not exist apart from what we do

in each single moment .

Eternity does not begin when we die . It begins from the

moment we understand God’s will . From that moment on,

if we interrupt our relationship with God’s will for even an

instant in time, it can create an abyss that interrupts our

walk with eternity .

Therefore, as you walk the path of faith through the

course of your life, do not procrastinate by deferring your

providential responsibilities from this year to the next, and

then to the year after that, or from your 20s to your 30s,

or from your 30s to your 40s, or from your 40s to your 50s .

You should not live like that . If you persist in your secular

lifestyle, you just might end up dying without having lived

for the sake of God’s will for even a single day . In that case,

how can you possibly go to the Kingdom of Heaven?78     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

It doesn’t matter that the country you live in is blessed;

you will have no place in the Kingdom of Heaven if you

were unable to live even one day by a victorious standard .

You may face one crucial day or one crucial year in your

life when, if you fail the test, the consequence will be that

you cannot enter eternal life . Thus, while it is not wrong

for believers to spend their days dreaming of eternity, it is

far more important that they actually join in God’s work to

eradicate evil and become the standard-bearers of goodness in the real world .

Consider that Adam’s momentary lapse resulted in

eons of anguish . Consider Cain and Abel, who were supposed to dissolve the anguish of their parents, demolish

the wall between the brothers and create the starting point

for family unity . It only took a moment for Cain to murder

Abel, yet that brief incident destroyed the providence of

restoration that Abel had been elected to lead .

Noah had toiled 120 years to build the ark . But when

the time came, God issued the command, “Call the people

to come into the ark, for the day of My judgment has

come .” The people had only one brief moment to follow

this order and receive the blessings of the eternal God .

Those who did not were drowned in the deluge .

In Abraham’s case too, God’s promise that his descendants would be “as numerous as the stars in the sky and as

the sands on the seashore” was bestowed in just a single

moment . Abraham’s sacrificial offering did not require

decades but merely a day’s work . The time it took him to  Our Course of Life   79

cut the animals for the offering and place them on the

altar was not more than an hour . Yet the way he spent that

single hour bore the seeds of life and death, blessing and

curse, for subsequent history .

Today’s believers should not be anxious over the

coming judgment in the Last Days . Rather, they should be

anxious about how they can take each day that God has

given them and devote it to the will of God . They should

be anxious about how they can link their lives to God’s

will . (37-217, 1970.12.27)

4. Adam and Eve Grew from Infancy

How did God create Adam and Eve? The Bible says

He created them from the soil, but what kind of soil was

it? Where did He begin? Which part of the body did He

create first? We should not think that God created Adam

and Eve as adults . He created them as babies . We know

that every existence attains maturity after passing through

three ordered stages of growth . Adam and Eve were no

exception to this logic . This leads us to the notion that

God must have gone through the experience of a mother

who conceives a child in her womb, gives birth to it, and

then nourishes it . Logically, Adam and Eve must have

begun as infants and then entered the growth stage . Had

they not fallen, they would have continued to the completion stage . This is natural law .

What was Adam and Eve’s infancy like? We must 80     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

proceed from the concept that the invisible God nurtured

them as babies . Their origin was in the realm of the formless, and by passing through a certain process they entered

the world of form . (225-198, 1992.1.20)

5. The Path of a Victorious Life

Since the society, nation and world in which we live are

far from ideal, all manner of suffering happens . Good and

evil are at cross-purposes . If we take a random sample of

a hundred people, we would find that each of them is jostling for advantage in an “every man for himself” struggle

within their circumstances as they cope with the demands

of their daily lives .

Consider that in ordinary life, most people lack the confidence that the tasks they planned in the morning can be

completed by the end of the day . People who have a wider

range of responsibilities need proportionately greater

drive and determination to bring their daily work to a successful conclusion . If their determination and drive are

below par, their day will not be success . A series of such

bad days can turn into months, and months into years .

Our situation also makes it difficult to meet monthly

goals . To be successful, we need enough drive and determination to overcome all the complicated situations and

circumstances we may encounter during the month . If

that drive and determination are missing, our efforts that

month will not be successful . Our Course of Life   81

Having a successful year requires that we equip ourselves with a fighting spirit, with an inner drive strong

enough to thrust aside all the challenges of each and every

one of its 365 days . We can then celebrate a victorious year .

If we live one year like this, and then the next, and continue in this way, it will eventually add up to ten, twenty

and thirty years . Over time it becomes the path of a victorious life . (31-30, 1970.4.12)

No person living on earth can escape the constraints of

time . It is true today, and it has been true throughout history . Individuals, families, tribes, peoples, nations and the

world all move within the limitation of time .

People everywhere have goals they strive to attain . They

focus on their goal for ten years, twenty years, thirty years,

seventy years, indeed, their entire lives . The greater our

goal, the stronger our inner commitment needs to be if we

are to accomplish it . We need to have an inner determination that surpasses the difficulty of the goal, and maintain

it without faltering through the allotted span of time . Otherwise, the goal will elude us . (31-149, 1970.5.24)

6. The Central Teaching of Religion

You may not know of the reality of the spirit world, but

God has given me special grace to have clear insight into

that unseen world . Digging into the root of that world, I

found its principles to be quite simple . In the spirit world, 82     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

only those who lived altruistically, in line with God’s universal principles, can enter the higher realms . The realm

that is entirely structured along these lines is the ideal

Kingdom of Heaven .

Heaven is humanity’s original homeland . Today we are

exiles from our original homeland and dwell in the fallen

world . Yet we still seek our original homeland, and we are

destined to return someday . But as we could not find the

way back by our own efforts, God in the course of history

has laid out paths for our journey .

That is why God has raised up various religions . God

set up each religion as a training ground to equip people

for one of these paths appropriate to their race, culture,

customs and traditions . Taking into account the diverse

cultures that exist throughout the four corners of the

earth, God set up various religions as the training grounds

for equipping all humankind to become eligible to return

to the original homeland . As people progress upward

along these paths toward higher ground, God is leading

humanity to converge toward a unified religious world .

In all religions, what is the central teaching that guides

people to the original homeland? It is to live for the sake

of others . The more highly developed religions emphasize this principle . Thus they teach their adherents to be

gentle and meek, to place others above themselves and

live for their sake, and to serve others sacrificially . These

teachings serve to instill discipline in us, so that we can

abide by the laws of the Kingdom of Heaven . (78-117, 1975.5.6) Our Course of Life   83

7. The Highest Goal of Life

As we walk along our life’s path, where should we be

heading? Our destination is to possess God’s love – to be

owners of God’s love . To possess the love of God is life’s

highest and final goal . Everyone, men and women alike,

should take the path to this destination .

Our life path should be a journey to the God of infinite love . Of all the ways that human beings live, this is the

loftiest path . On that path we may face life-and-death situations even ten times or a hundred times, and we may have

to continue the search even after we die, yet we never stop

searching for the love of God .

What is our greatest desire? It is to possess God’s love .

You may have met God, but if you did not discover a love

that is even more precious, then you have not made God

your own . Therefore, you must strive to possess God’s love .

Once you have love, there would be no problem even if

God were not with you .

When we possess God’s love, God’s love becomes my

love and my love becomes God’s love . The internal and

the external become one for the first time . A nation based

on such love would be an ideal community . There would

not be upper and lower classes .

When we dwell in that place of love, we feel that everything under the sun is good and exists for our sake . God’s

love has that quality . Therefore the heavenly world, the 84     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

Kingdom of Heaven, is a world filled with love . This is our

final destination . (39-210, 1971.1.10)

8. Our Wrong Birth

People in today’s world boast of their social status or

family background, all the while unaware that they were

misbegotten at birth . They do not know that they were

born from the love, life and lineage of Satan, the enemy of

God . This is a serious problem .

Due to the human Fall, all people have been born from

Satan’s love . Satan’s love has been passed down through

the generations to their parents and then to them . Satan’s

blood is flowing in the life of every mother and in the life

of every father, and that blood now flows in each of us .

Each of us is a fruit of these three .

For this reason, each of you belongs to the linage of

Satan . To put it another way, Satan’s blood is running

through your veins . Therefore, Satan propagates his

“ideal” fruit in the natural course of things . Meanwhile,

God strives to redeem those same men and women and

transform them into the pure and wholesome men and

women of His original vision .

Your beginning was in Satan’s love . You were born from

his lineage . Your starting-point was wrong . Since you came

from the wrong starting-point, you must return to the correct starting-point .

Where is that correct starting-point? How far back do  Our Course of Life   85

we need to go? We need to go back to the origin . As we

originated from false parents, we need to return and start

anew from true parents . How serious is this? It is imperative to inherit God’s love, life and lineage afresh .

That is why, when you receive the Blessing, you undergo

a ceremony for changing your lineage . Just because it is a

Unification Church ceremony, you should not think of it

as some ordinary ritual . It is like a wonder drug, an antidote to restore the dead back to life . You must believe in it

more than your own life .

The mistake our first ancestors made was so serious that

it caused the suffering of countless people throughout

the course of human history . People have paid a ghastly

price for having perpetuated illicit love in the fallen spiritual and physical worlds, with far-reaching consequences

for individuals, families, societies, nations and the world .

Knowing this, we cannot commit that same mistake again .

Never again! (216-109, 1991.3.9)

9. Eternal Life

Eternal life does not refer only to an eternal existence

in the spirit world . It means living for eternity in the

bosom of God’s love . God created each individual to live

with Him in a relationship of Lover and beloved, Subject

partner and object partner . You are the beloved of God .

God cherishes the ideal of true love more than He values

Himself . Although God is the absolute and eternal center 86     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

of life, His ideal is even more eternal, and the center of

that ideal is true love . Love is realized with a partner, and

the partner of God’s love is you .

Love has the power to bring two individuals into oneness . Love can unify a nation . When two people are in a

relationship of true love, they will accompany each other

through any situation . The same applies to your relationship with God . When you live this way, you can inherit

God’s entire fortune and even His entire heart .

I went through a miserable course to discover this reality, and now I stand on its foundation . It is sublime and

lofty . I would not exchange it for anything in the world . It

is an amazing grace . Because God and I love each other in

this way, He lets me stand in the same position with Him,

where we can share true love for eternity .

The spirit world is in a different dimension from this

limited earthly world . We cannot move freely within these

mundane confines, but as the spirit world is a realm of

higher dimension, you can do anything there; you can

even leap across time . You can have whatever you desire

anytime and anywhere, so long as your desire is motivated

by love . We were originally created as eternal beings . If on

earth we become people of true love who enjoy an eternal relationship with God, then when we go to the spirit

world, we will enjoy such freedom .

The first standard of life is the criteria of good and evil,

the second is the original starting point, and the third is

eternal life . (216-115, 1991.3.9)87

C H a p T e r  5 :

The Spirit World and the

Earthly World

1. Prayers

“Beloved Heavenly Father, I thank You for Your grace .

You have protected me through all my struggles from my

youth up to this day, as I fought to prevent Heaven from

suffering any shame or humiliation on my account .

“I have learned that among all the good things on this

earth, there is nothing more precious than to connect to

Your original heart . Enable us to yearn infinitely for that

relationship, knowing that when we truly experience Your

love, we will have no regrets even if we are deprived of

everything in this world .

“Let us prepare today on earth for the day of our birth

into our third life in the heavenly world as liberated children, endowed with the right of freedom .” (49-308, 1971.10.17)

“Loving Father, we know that in order to greet the new

spring, the relationships in our lives must be harmonious, 88     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

that we might be completely absorbed in You . Only then

can we greet the spring season and bloom as beautiful

blossoms . Let us not be pitiful souls who, when asked

whether we have ever greeted a spring season in our lives,

are unable to reply in the affirmative .” (32-37, 1970.6.14)

“Father, we recognize that if we lack the heart to attend

You and bow down humbly to You, we will have no relationship to You in the eternal world . Open the doors of

our hearts to feel Your heart; let us today hear Your voice

welling up from the depths of our hearts so that we may

regain our lost selves . Help us to appreciate Your historical course of toil and trouble to find each one of us, that

we may humbly bow our heads before You .” (4-280, 1958.9.14)

2. Understanding Death

On the earth we have parents, teachers and relatives,

and in the course of our lives we make relationships with

them . In the spirit world the situation is different . In the

spirit world, people are in different realms according to

how much they live for the public good, with the most

public-minded people closest to God who resides at the

center . Those in a higher realm cannot descend to a lower

realm, and it is difficult for those in the lower realms to

ascend to the higher realms .

Human beings were created to become complete while

on earth and then pass over into the spirit world . Hence,  The Spirit world and the earthly world    89

there is no provision for returning to the physical world

once we enter the spirit world . We live just one life, and

then we must die .

Our lifetime on earth is too short . Life is too short .

Even a lifespan of eighty years is too short . It is not even

eight hours in spirit world time . That is why the power of

true love is great . True love transcends time and space,

and moves at a speed that is beyond our comprehension .

(205-65, 1990.7.7)

Without a doubt, the spirit world exists . It surely exists .

We were born from the spirit world, and when we die we

must return there . There is an interesting word in Korean,

toraganda, which literally means “to return” but also means

“to die .” Where do we return to? Not to the soil in the cemetery . To return means to go back to one’s place of origin,

and we didn’t start out in a cemetery . To return means to

go back through the vast expanses of history, back to its

most distant origin .

For a person to return does not mean that if he was

born as a Korean he returns as a Korean . Although you

may be a Korean when you die, your path of returning is

not a Korean path . We all return to the original world that

brought forth the first ancestors of humankind . What does

this mean? It means that since we were made by our Creator, we will return to the place where our Creator resides .

That is where we originated, so that is where we return .

The universe is replete with things in circular motion .90     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

When the snow on the mountains melts, it flows through

many streams down narrow valleys, into larger rivers, and

then enters the ocean . Once in the ocean, it evaporates

and returns to the mountains as snow, thus completing its

cycle . Everything circulates . In a similar way, we return .

When we return, where do we wish to return to? We

wish to go back to a place where we can be higher, a place

where we can be happier . No one wants to become smaller .

Therefore, it would not do to return to the physical world,

where the laws of motion dictate that all things diminish

through activity, and where all motion slows and eventually comes to a stop . (141-269, 1986.3.2)

We live in this world, but it is not the only world that

exists . There is also the spirit world . This earthly world and

the spirit world are not two completely separate worlds .

They are connected as one world .

Then, where is the place where we are to go, the place

where we are to live? We are on earth now, living in our

physical bodies, but we are moving toward the eternal

world .

Ordinary people are born into this world, pass through

their youth, reach their prime, and begin the downhill

slide into old age . They end their lives like the setting sun .

People who know the existence of the spirit world, however, realize that their lifetime on earth is but a fleeting

moment compared to the eternal world that awaits them

after death . Knowing this, they spend their lives on earth  The Spirit world and the earthly world    91

wisely, preparing themselves for the world of eternity . (140-

121, 1986.2.9)

Death illuminates the meaning of life . Who knows

the value of life? Not those who have lived comfortably .

But those who have risked their lives know it well . When

people are hanging at the intersection of life and death,

they cling to God and implore Him, and many times they

are shown the value of life . (74-242, 1974.12.31)

Should we or should we not welcome death? We should

welcome it . If you are about to die, and someone asks you

what you are dying for, you should be able to answer: “I die

for the sake of God’s true love .” You discard your physical

body to participate in the realm where God’s infinite love

is always active . You leave the earthly world for God’s world

of love .

To die is to be born in God’s love . Yet people clamor

in their death throes, “Oh, I’m dying!” Death should be a

moment of joy . It is the joyful moment when you pass from

a realm of limited love to the realm of infinite love . Therefore, the moment of death is the moment of your second

birth .

Which do you think God rejoices over more: the day of

your birth in a physical body, or the hour of your second

birth into the infinite world as a son or daughter of God

whose every action is for the sake of love? You might

wonder why I talk about such things . The truth is, you 92     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

cannot establish a relationship with God unless you liberate yourself from the fear of death . (116-172, 1982.1.1)

3. The Three Stages of Life

During the course of our lives we pass through three

stages: formation, growth and completion . We pass from

the realm of water in our mother’s womb to the realm

of living on planet Earth, and then we pass on to the

aerial realm in heaven . In other words, human beings go

through three periods: the period in the womb when we

live in water, the period that begins at birth and continues

for up to a hundred years when we live on the earth, and

the period when we fly in the heavens . (116-174, 1982.1.1)

Human beings are born from waters deep within the

womb . During their period of gestation they live in water .

Inside the mother’s womb, the fetus is floating in fluid . It

lives by way of the umbilical cord connected to its mother’s

body, through which it draws in and expels fluid .

How does a fetus take in nourishment? It is supplied

through the navel . The navel functions as its mouth . So,

do not be disdainful of your navel . Pat your navel and say,

“Belly button, thanks for your hard work a long time ago .”

Pat your navel often; it will be good for your health . Do it

as an exercise . If you exercise this way often, it will make

you healthier . Even when you sleep in a cold room, if you

cover your navel, you won’t get diarrhea . The Spirit world and the earthly world    93

During your time in the womb, your navel was your

mouth . At birth, a new orifice for breathing opens at a

place above the navel . What is this second mouth? It is the

mouth you use for eating . At this point, what is done with

the umbilical cord attached to the navel? It is cut off .

While we live in the world of air, our spirit self is attached

to the physical self and feeds off the physical body, similar

to the fetus in the womb feeding off nutrients supplied by

its mother . When the physical body grows old, the spirit

self discards the physical body and goes out on its own .

This is its second birth, now as a person who can relate

to the eternal God, the Father who is spirit . Physical birth

and this second birth occur in accordance with the same

fundamental principles .

Once the child is born in the earthly world, it gets

acquainted with its mother and father . The earthly world

is where we can share love with our mothers and fathers .

In a similar way, we must eventually be born a second time

into the spirit world, where we can share love with God,

our Parent . He will connect us to the boundless world of

spirit . (299-69, 1999.2.4)

After coming out of the womb, it is not enough just

to breathe air . You have to develop your love by receiving

elements of love . It is not enough just to eat food . If you

live only to eat, you will begin to die . There is something

more essential that you need to fill yourself with during 94     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

your life on earth – the second stage of your life . What is

it? It is love . You must renew your character with love . (139-

214, 1986.1.31)

Love is what you need during your earthly life . Why do

you call a child who lives without the love of mother and

father an “orphan”?

8

 It is because that child is deprived of

the love that can connect him eternally to the spirit world .

For the same reason, we feel pity for people who live alone

without marrying . (139-214, 1986.1.31)

Dying occurs when the spirit breaks free of the organs

of the physical body, including those that had functioned

in the second kind of breathing . From that time forth, the

spirit subsists by breathing only love elements . The internal self had been developing the ability to engage with

these invisible love elements on earth through experiencing parental love and conjugal love . That is why, just as an

embryo should develop in the womb in accordance with

God’s laws and principles in order to be born as a normal

baby, we must grow in the earthly world in accordance

with God’s laws and principles so that we can be born as a

fully functioning spirit self . (299-69, 1999.2.4)

Dragonflies during their larval stage swim in the water

at first, then crawl about on land for a while . Then they

fly around, preying on bugs that they never would have

8. The Korean word for orphan, go-a, literally means “isolated child.” The Spirit world and the earthly world    95

imagined eating when they were crawling about on land .

They fly about freely; the whole world is their stage .

There are many insects that go through three stages of

life . Insects in general have wings . During their life-cycle

they pass through the stages of living in the water, on land

and in the air . What about human beings, who are called

the lords of creation; do we have wings? We have a set of

wings of a higher dimension .

Death is the blessed gateway to our second birth . What

is the meaning of death? Earthly life, the time of living

in air, parallels the time when we were swimming in the

womb . The air is like our swaddling-cloth; we are eager to

take it off . Death is nothing special; it is merely birth into

the third stage of life . That moment of transition is what

we call death . (299-71, 1999.2.4)

4. The Central Point between the Two Worlds

I imagine you must be very curious about the spirit

world . The many religions of the world provide paths for

us to seek eternal life, the world where we can live together

with God eternally in the good regions of the spirit world .

For religious people, attaining that world is their life’s goal .

However, what has become of religion today? It is on

the decline . In this modern age people think that religion is only for the weak; it is unnecessary for everyone

else . They think that religions were created by people

to push morality . Even Christianity, the central religion, 96     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

has declined . America is the representative of the world’s

Christian nations, yet people who grew up in American

Christian homes have lost their faith and are living each

according to their own way .

Christianity upholds heaven, the dwelling place of God,

who is the Lord of the universe and Source of all good .

Why are so many Christians abandoning their religion?

There are three reasons .

First, people do not have a clear understanding of the

reality of the spirit world . Human beings have the innate

capacity to compare and would abandon a bad situation in

favor of a better one . If they knew that the spirit world contained higher-dimensional realms of greater value, they

would certainly seek them out . That is original human

nature .

Second, people do not truly know God . Our connection with God was severed as a result of the human Fall,

and we have lived ever since as orphans .

Third, people do not understand the centrality of love .

Love is what connects us to God and also to the spirit world .

Even though many people believe in God and the spirit

world, if they do not understand that the eternal world is

ruled by love, they may well abandon their religion .

Where love abounds, you are happy . It doesn’t matter

whether you are promoted to a high position or demoted

to a low position or you just stay at your current level; in

whatever state you are, you are content . Does a wife dislike

her beloved husband if he has a higher position in society  The Spirit world and the earthly world    97

than her? Does a husband dislike his beloved wife because

she comes from a lower class than him? When you are one

with each other you can go anywhere, from the bottom to

the top or from the top to the bottom, or you can just stay

where you are . There are no limitations . It is based on this

concept that many people in the world say, “This world

can become one . There can be unity among all peoples .

We can build a world of peace .” (91-140, 1977.2.6)

God and His love should be at the center; it is the same

for the spirit world and the physical world, for spirit beings

and physical beings . But people in their fallen state as we

usually know them do not have God as their center .

The relationship between the physical self and the

spirit self is different from that between mind and body .

The mind is not the spirit; spirit world exists in a different dimension . In speaking of the spiritual and physical

worlds, we understand that they relate based on God’s

love . For these two worlds to unite as one, God must be

involved . Were it not for God’s love, the spirit world would

not exist . It is by God’s provision that we can have a home

there .

People may think that mind and spirit are the same,

but this is a confused notion . Due to the human fall, the

mind does not have a relationship with the spirit world . To

better understand this, think of the mind of fallen human

beings as analogous to a person whose body has no bones .

Its form is like a boneless body .98     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

The spirit self is composed of a body-like element and

a mind-like element . The mind-like element of the spirit

self is immersed in the spirit world . It always maintains

a relationship with God . Therefore, if you do not make

a relationship with God, this mind-like element will not

form in your spirit self .

Understand that spirit and mind are two different

things . The mind of fallen man has no relationship with

God . God has left it . God can neither relate to the fallen

mind nor exercise His direct dominion over it .

Your mind changes, going one way and then another,

but the spirit world and spiritual beings are not like this .

They set one eternal goal and move steadily in its direction . Why is this so? It is because they stand on God’s side .

But the mind that resides within us fallen human beings is

constantly vacillating .

I’m sure you know this from studying the Principle, but

what is the spirit mind? It is what unites our mind and

spirit and moves them toward a higher goal . When our

spirit mind becomes one with our conscience, centering

on God, it motivates us to become our ideal selves . Therefore, without the spirit mind, we would be unable to find

the inner root that enables us to live in proper relationship with the spirit world and experience true love .

When the spirit mind sprouts within us, our body

rejoices . Everything we think, say and do follows the

promptings of our spirit mind . Then everything begins

to unite spontaneously . The biggest problem for human  The Spirit world and the earthly world    99

beings has been the conflict between our mind and body .

However, when spiritual energy resides within us and

causes our spirit mind to germinate, our mind and body

spontaneously become one .

Unless we experience such a revolution occurring at

the root of our selves, and unless we discover the origin

that can rectify everything from that root, we will have no

way to attain the ideal . Without a motivating cause, there

can be no result . The purpose of religion is to implant a

spirit mind within us . The many religions with all their different forms and doctrines all exist to cultivate the spirit

mind . (91-142, 1977.2.6)

God in His majesty decreed that the spirit world and

the physical world must be united . However, because true

love was not established, the spirit world and physical

world could not become one . This resulted in the separation between mind and body . Also, because true love was

not established, there has been separation between religion and politics .

Where true love is present, everything comes together

as one . Everybody is linked together, from the individual

to the family, society, nation, world and cosmos . We have

to make this a reality with our own hands . Otherwise, we

cannot inherit God’s original Kingdom in heaven and on

earth . How do we establish resonance between the spiritual and physical worlds and make them one? It is with

true love . (216-106, 1991.3.9)100     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

5. Know the Spirit World

Eighty percent of the world’s population does not know

about the spirit world . Even many believers aren’t sure

whether the spirit world exists, or even if God really exists .

But the spirit world does exist .

Imagine a wealthy person who willingly invests his

entire fortune to build a garden of happiness for himself .

With that in mind, we can surmise that God, the Creator

of heaven and earth, made enormous effort to create His

dwelling place – the spirit world – to be a world of beauty

beyond imagining . You could gaze at even just one tiny

part of it for a thousand years and never grow tired of it .

The world’s most prized possessions are nothing compared to the things in the spirit world . Therefore, I have

no desire to accumulate possessions on this earth . If you

were to force me to say which I prefer, I would say that

this earthly world does not conform to my purpose, and I

would rather live in the spirit world . (15-154, 1965.10.7)

People generally do not think about the spirit world .

They think only, “I am alive because I was born . I serve

my parents because I live in their family . I will live just

the way my parents lived .” What are such people’s central

concerns? It is how they can eat and earn a living . They

consider food, shelter and clothing to be the most important things in life . Most people’s main concerns are how  The Spirit world and the earthly world    101

to support themselves, how to feed themselves, and how to

clothe themselves .

Of course, people also uphold the principles of morality and the obligations within human relationships that

enable them to develop their character as individuals and

find satisfaction together . However, the norms of morality

differ from one nation to another . Moral standards and

social systems vary among world’s diverse cultures . In this

light, we recognize that there is a huge difference between

the original standard that God originally envisioned for

humanity to attain and the norms of ethics and morality

that people adhere to today . Yet, these must be made the

same .

Where is it that we are supposed to go, having been

born and lived out our lives on earth in keeping with the

original standard? People are not clear about this . For this

reason, people are doubtful about the spirit world and are

not certain whether God exists .

However, people who have studied the Principle clearly

know that the spirit world exists . They do not just believe

it; they know it . Why is this? They know it through countless spiritual experiences . The members who labored to

construct the global foundation of the Unification Church

went through a course that included many spiritual experiences . If you learn the Principle, I am certain that you,

too, will have experiences such that you will no longer be

able to deny the existence of the spirit world . (140-122, 1986.2.9)102     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

Once we know the Principle, what should be our path?

We must follow the path that God desires for us . We must

follow the path to fulfill God’s will . What is God’s will? First

we must follow the path to fulfill God’s will for us as individuals . Next we must follow the path to fulfill God’s will

for our families . God has also set up paths for the society,

the nation, the world and the spirit world . I am the expert

on this . As you follow these paths, you will see for yourself

that the spirit world definitely exists . (121-146, 1982.10.24)

Why is it important to acknowledge that God exists and

that the spirit world exists? Some people may think, “Even

if God exists, He has nothing to do with me,” but they are

wrong . To say, “Even if the spirit world exists, it has nothing to do with me,” would be like a person who, satisfied

with his family, claims that he doesn’t need his country

and doesn’t need the world .

But since there is a God who is greater than us, and

since there is a spirit world that is greater than us, we

want to have a relationship with these greater entities . Just

having a relationship is not enough . What do we do in this

relationship? We should strive to become one . We should

move in step toward the same goal . (104-119, 1979.4.22)

The Apostle Paul’s experience of seeing the third  The Spirit world and the earthly world    103

heaven became the driving force that empowered him in

his missionary activities for fourteen years .

9

 You, too, need

to have such experiences . This also holds true for me . (27-

128, 1969.11.30)

I don’t fear death . What made me this way? Love did .

It doesn’t matter how many times I am put in jail; I can

digest that . My experiences of God’s love have enabled me

to digest and overcome the opposition that surrounded

me . To this day, I am overcoming every adversity with my

own hands . (202-27, 1990.5.1)

6. How We Should Relate to the Spirit World

The spirit world is equivalent to the angelic world .

Today’s world is in the same position as the world at the

time of Adam and Eve . God created the spirit world before

creating Adam and Eve .

The satanic world came into being because the spirit

world went against God’s will . Therefore, today’s fallen

world can be restored only after the spirit world welcomes

God’s will . Similarly, the Lord cannot come to the earthly

world unless he first subjugates

10

 the spirit world . That

is why the Unification Church has worked until today to

bring the spirit world to natural surrender . Hence, the

9.  1 Corinthians 12:2

10.  By “subjugate” Rev. Moon means to bring the opponent to voluntary submission, winning him over by love, service and sacrifice.104     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

spirit world must help the Unification Church . (25-233,

1969.10.4)

Where is the spirit world? It is within your bodies . You

walk around carrying the spirit world on your shoulders,

attending it . So there is no escaping it . (162-116, 1987.3.30)

The spirit world exists . It exists for the sake of this world,

and this world exists for the sake of the eternal world .

People question, “Where in the world is God? Can God

be in this world? Where on earth is the spirit world?” I say,

God’s dwelling place is the spirit world . (117-307, 1982.4.11)

If our life simply ceased after seventy to eighty years

on earth, then we would not really have any problems to

worry about; but as we continue living eternally it is a different story . Since the spirit world exists, and you will go

there after death, what will you take with you when you go

there? The way to be assured that you will have good rapport with the spirit world is to practice true love during

your earthly life . The spirit world is vast . You have no idea

how vast it is – a world without boundaries . (187-285, 1989.2.12)

The contemporary interest in electricity and space

exploration helps accustom humanity to the ways of the

ideal world of love . We can say by analogy that the spirit

world is a world filled with the electricity of love . The electricity of love makes everything possible . For this reason,  The Spirit world and the earthly world    105

in the spirit world we can govern the form of existence

through the structure of our thoughts .

The spirit world is a place that values eternal elements .

It is a world of harmony, where everything is filled with

love . Thus, the universe goes into operational mode with

just a push of the love button .

What is God’s Kingdom on earth? It is the place where

we can open all the valves of love . Then what about the

Kingdom of God in heaven? It is the place where we can

open all the valves of true love .

As long as you maintain a loving heart, when you tug on

the rope of love, everything will come to you . When you

release the rope, everything will go back to where it came

from . When you pull the rope sideways, everything moves

sideways . You can steer the universe any way you like . It

does not resist, but moves automatically .

Thus we can understand the meaning of the concept

that the spirit world is filled with the air of love . If the

God of love, who with the loving heart to feed all humanity

at once and make them happy, says, “Let there be food!”

then food will appear .

In the spirit world you eat the food of love . People look

at each other with eyes of love . There are no words to

express the mystery of the spirit world . The more you hear

about it, the more you want to hear . There is no concept

there of being sleepy or tired .

The spirit world is the place filled with the electricity of

love . These days, people try to link everything to love . Why 106     True Families, Gateway to Heaven

is that? It is to be in tune with the spirit world . The spirit

world operates in this way, and people on earth inevitably

respond to it . They cannot escape from its influence .

When you see me in your dreams, I appear to you

through the waves of God’s love . For that to happen, you

cannot be asserting your ego . You have to become like pure

gold, which has a very low resistance . There can be no self .

In this state, you create a vacuum . When there is a vacuum,

you can create a realm of resonance . (112-16, 1981.3.15)

Copyright © 2009 HSA-UWC

HSA-UWC

4 West 43rd Street

New York, NY 10036

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in

a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,

mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978-1-931166-31-7

Second Edition

Printed on recycled paper in the United States of America.3

Contents

Foreword .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . . 5

Chapter One: The Family Is the Basis and Pattern

for the Kingdom of Heaven .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . . 9

1 . The Pattern for All Relationships .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .9

2 . Where We Experience Universal Love  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .12

3 . The School of Love .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .15

4 . Textbook for the Heavenly Kingdom .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .18

5 . Uniting the Love of Three Generations .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .21

6 . Training Ground of the Heart .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .24

7 . The Original Hometown .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .26

8 . The Cosmic Ideology .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .28

Chapter Two: Love: the Basis of Human Life .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .33

1 . Why Are People Born? .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .33

2 . Life in its Original Form .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .35

3 . The Nutrient of Life .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .38

4 . What Is God’s Love? .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .40

5 . Inheriting Love and Bequeathing Love .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .43

6 . Seeking the Center of Love .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .46

7 . The Three Ages of Human Life  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .49

8 . Training to Be in Rhythm with the Spirit World .  . .524

Chapter Three: The Original Vision for Love

between Man and Woman .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .55

1 . Bringing Joy to God and All Creation  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .55

2 . Men and Women Are Born for Each Other .  .  .  .  . .57

3 . Men and Women Need Each Other .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .59

4 . Love Comes from Your Partner .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .62

5 . The Harmony of Love .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .64

6 . Enraptured by True Love .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .67

7 . The Natural Way of Love .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .69

Chapter Four: Our Course of Life .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .73

1 . The Purpose of Creation .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .73

2 . Why We Are Born .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .74

3 . The Importance of the Moment .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .75

4 . Adam and Eve Grew from Infancy .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .79

5 . The Path of a Victorious Life .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .80

6 . The Central Teaching of Religion  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .81

7 . The Highest Goal of Life .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .83

8 . Our Wrong Birth .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .84

9 . Eternal Life .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .85

Chapter 5: The Spirit World and the Earthly World .  .  .  .  .  . .87

1 . Prayers .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .87

2 . Understanding Death .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .88

3 . The Three Stages of Life .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .92

4 . The Central Point between the Two Worlds .  .  .  .  . .95

5 . Know the Spirit World .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .100

6 . How We Should Relate to the Spirit World .  .  .  .  . .1035