The Joy of Giving Food to Others

The Joy of Giving Food to Others
I have very small eyes. I am told that when I was born, my mother
wondered, “Does my baby have eyes, or not?” and spread my eyelids
apart with her fingers. Then when I blinked, she said with joy,
“Oh my, yes. He does have eyes, after all!” My eyes were so small that
people often called me “Osan’s Little Tiny-Eyes,” because my mother
was from the village of Osan.
I cannot remember anyone saying, though, that my small eyes make
me any less attractive. In fact, people who know something about
physiognomy, the art of understanding a person’s characteristics and
fortune by studying facial features, say my small eyes give me the right
disposition to be a religious leader. I think it is similar to the way a
camera is able to focus on objects farther away as the aperture of its iris
diaphragm is reduced. A religious leader needs to be able to see farther
into the future than do other people, and perhaps small eyes are an
indication of such a quality. My nose is rather unusual as well. Just one
look and it is obvious that this is the nose of a stubborn and determined
man. There must be something to physiognomy, because when I look
back on my life, these features of my face seem to parallel the way I have
lived my life.
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. food is love .
I was born at 2221 Sang-sa Ri (village), Deok-eon District, Jeong-ju
Township, Pyong-an Province, as the second son of Kyung Yu Moon
of the Nam Pyung Moon clan and Kyung Gye Kim of the Yeon An
Kim clan. I was born on the sixth day of the first lunar month in 1920,
the year after the 1919 independence movement. I was told that our
family settled in the village of Sang-sa Ri during the life of my greatgrandfather.
My paternal great-grandfather worked the farm himself,
produced thousands of bushels of rice, and built the family fortune with
his own hands. He never smoked or drank liquor, preferring instead to
use that money to buy food to give to those in need. When he died, his
last words were, “If you feed people from all the regions of Korea, then
you will receive blessings from all those regions.” So the guest room in
our home was always full of people. Even people from other villages
knew that if they came to our home, they could always count on being
fed a good meal. My mother carried out her role of preparing food for
all those people without ever complaining.
My great-grandfather was so active, he never wanted to rest. If he
had some spare time he would use it to make pairs of straw footwear
that he would then sell in the marketplace. When he grew old, in his
merciful ways, he would buy several geese, let them go in the wild, and
pray that all would be well with his descendants. He hired a teacher of
Chinese characters to sit in the guest room of his home and provide
free literacy lessons to the young people of the village. The villagers gave
him the honorific title “Sun Ok” (Jewel of Goodness) and referred to
our home as “a home that will be blessed.”
By the time I was born and was growing up, much of the wealth that
my great-grandfather had accumulated was gone, and our family had
just enough to get by. The family tradition of feeding others was still
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. as a peace-loving global citizen .
alive, however, and we would feed others even if it meant there wouldn’t
be enough to feed our family members. The first thing I learned after I
learned to walk was how to serve food to others.
During the Japanese occupation, many Koreans had their homes and
land confiscated. As they escaped the country to Manchuria, where they
hoped to build new lives for themselves, they would pass by our home
on the main road that led to Seon-cheon in North Pyong-an Province.
My mother would always prepare food for the passersby, who came
from all parts of Korea. If a beggar came to our home asking for food
and my mother didn’t react quickly enough, my grandfather would pick
up his meal and take it to the beggar. Perhaps because I was born into
such a family, I too have spent much of my life feeding people. To me,
giving people food is the most precious work. When I am eating and
I see someone who has nothing to eat, it pains my heart and I cannot
continue eating.
I will tell you something that happened when I was about eleven
years old. It was toward the last day of the year, and everyone in the
village was busy preparing rice cakes for the New Year’s feast. There was
one neighbor family, though, that was so poor they had nothing to eat.
I kept seeing their faces in my mind, and it made me so restless that I
was walking around the house, wondering what to do. Finally, I picked
up an eight-kilogram (17.6-pound) bag of rice and ran out of the house.
I was in such a hurry to get the bag of rice out of the house that I didn’t
even tie the bag closed. I hoisted the bag onto my shoulders and held it
tight as I ran along a steep, uphill path for about eight kilometers (five
miles) to get to the neighbor’s home. I was excited to think how good it
would feel to give those people enough food so they could eat as much
as they wanted.
11

FOOD IS LOVE, What I Learned about Peace, While Being Carried on My Father’s Back

FOOD IS LOVE, What I Learned about Peace, While Being Carried on My Father’s Back
I have lived my life with just one thought. I wanted to bring about
a world of peace, a world where there are no wars and where all
humankind lives in love. Perhaps some may say, “How is it possible
that you were thinking about peace even when you were a child?” Is it
so astonishing that a child would dream of a peaceful world?
In 1920, when I was born, Korea was under forced occupation by Japan. Even
after liberation, there came the Korean War, the Asian financial crisis, and other
numerous difficult crises. For many years, the land of Korea has not been closely
associated with peace. But these times of suffering and confusion were not matters
related only to Korea. The two world wars, the Vietnam War, and the wars in the
Middle East show that people in the world continuously treat each other with enmity,
point guns at each other, and bomb each another. Perhaps for people who
experience these horrors of bloodied bodies and broken bones, peace has
been something that could be imagined only in a dream. Peace, though, is
not so difficult to accomplish. To begin with, we can find peace in the air we
breathe, in the natural environment, and in the people around us.
As a child, I thought of the meadows as my home. As soon as I could
wolf down my bowl of rice for breakfast, I would run out of the house
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. food is love .
and spend the entire day in the hills and streams. I could spend the
day wandering about the forest with all the different birds and animals,
eating herbs and wild berries, and I would never feel hungry. Even as a
child, I knew that my mind and body were at ease anytime I went into
the forest.
I would often fall asleep in the hills after playing there. My father
would be forced to come find me. When I heard my father shouting in
the distance, “Yong Myung! Yong Myung!” I couldn’t help but smile,
even as I slept. My name as a child was Yong Myung. The sound of his
voice would awaken me, but I would pretend to still be asleep. He would
hoist me onto his back and carry me home. That feeling I had as he
carried me down the hill—feeling completely secure and able to let my
heart be completely at ease—that was peace. That is how I learned about
peace, while being carried on my father’s back.
The reason I loved the forest was also because all the peace in the
world dwells there. Life forms in the forest do not fight each other. Of
course, they eat one another and are eaten, but that is because they are
hungry and need to sustain themselves. They do not fight out of enmity.
Birds do not hate other birds. Animals do not hate other animals. Trees
do not hate other trees. There needs to be an absence of enmity for peace
to come. Human beings are the only ones who hate other members of
the same species. People hate other people because their country is different,
their religion is different, and their way of thinking is different.
I have been to almost two hundred countries. There were not many
countries where I would land at the airport and think to myself, “This
really is a peaceful and contented place.” There were many places where,
because of civil war, soldiers held their weapons high, guarding the airports
and blocking the streets. The sound of gunfire could be heard day
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. as a peace loving global citizen .
and night. Several times, I came close to losing my life in places where
I went to talk about peace. In today’s world, there is an endless series
of conflicts and confrontations, large and small. Tens of millions suffer
from hunger, with nothing to eat. Yet, trillions of dollars are spent on
weapons. The money spent on guns and bombs alone would give us
enough to end hunger for everyone.
I have dedicated my life to building bridges of peace between countries
that hate each other as enemies because of ideology and religion.
I created forums where Islam, Christianity, and Judaism could come
together. I worked to reconcile the views of the United States and the
Soviet Union when they were at odds with each other over Iraq. I have
helped in the process of bringing reconciliation between North and
South Korea. I did not do these things for money or fame. From the
time I was old enough to know what was going on in the world, there
has been only one objective for my life: that is for the world to live in
peace, as one. I never wanted anything else. It has not been easy to live
day and night for the purpose of peace, but that is the work that makes
me most happy.
During the Cold War, we experienced the pain of having our
world divided in two because of ideology. It seemed then that if only
communism would disappear, peace would come. Yet, now that the
Cold War is past, we find even more conflicts. We are now fractured
by race and religion. Many countries facing each other across their
borders are at odds. As if that were not enough, we have situations
within countries where people are divided by race, religion, or the
regions where they were born. People think of each other as enemies
across these lines of division and refuse to open their hearts
to one another.
5
. food is love .
When we look at human history, we see that the most brutal and
cruel wars were not those fought between nations but those between
races. Among these, the worst were wars between races where religion
was used as a pretext. In the Bosnian civil war, said to be one of the
worst ethnic conflicts of the twentieth century, thousands, including
many children, were brutally massacred. I am sure you remember the
terrorist incident of September 11, 2001, when thousands of innocent
lives were lost as the World Trade Center buildings in New York were
completely destroyed after passenger planes were crashed into them.
Recently, too, in the Gaza Strip in Palestine as well as in southern Israel,
hundreds have lost their lives as a result of that intense conflict. Homes
have been destroyed, and people are living on the brink of death. All this is
the grim result of conflicts between ethnic groups and between religions.
What makes people hate and kill each other like this? Of course
there are many reasons, but religious differences are almost always
connected. This was true with the Gulf War, which was fought over
oil. It is true with the Arab–Israeli conflict over control of Jerusalem.
When racism uses religion as a pretext, the problem becomes
extremely complex. The evil ghosts of the religious wars that we
thought had ended in the Middle Ages continue to haunt us in the
twenty-first century.
Religious wars continue to occur because many politicians use the
enmity between religions to satisfy their selfish designs. In the face of
political power, religions often waver and lose their way. They lose sight
of their original purpose, which is to exist for the sake of peace. All
religions have a responsibility to advance the cause of world peace. Yet,
lamentably, we see that religions instead become the cause of conflict.
Behind this evil we find the machinations of politics, with its power
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. as a peace-loving global citizen .
and money. The responsibility of a leader, above all else, is to keep the
peace. Yet leaders often seem to do the opposite and lead the world into
confrontation and violence.
Leaders use the language of religion and nationalism to hide their
selfish ambitions. Unless their hearts are set right, countries and nationalities
will wander in confusion. Religion and love of one’s nation
are not evil in their essence. They are valuable if these impulses are used
to contribute to building a global human community. When the claim
is made that only a particular religion or ethnic group is right and when
other religions and ethnic groups are treated with disdain and attacked,
religion and love of nation lose their value. When a religion goes so
far as to trample on others and treat other religions as worthless, it no
longer embodies goodness. The same is true when love of nation is used
to emphasize the righteousness of a person’s own country over others.
The truth of the universe is that we must acknowledge each other
and help each other. Even the smallest animals know this. Cats and
dogs do not get along, but if you raise them in the same household,
they embrace each other’s offspring and are friendly toward each other.
We see the same thing in plants. The vine that winds its way up a tree
depends on the trunk to support it. The tree, however, does not say,
“Hey, what do you think you’re doing, winding your way up my trunk?”
The principle of the universe is for everyone to live together, for the sake
of one another. Anyone who deviates from this principle faces certain
ruin. If nationalities and religions continue maliciously to attack each
other, humanity has no future. There will be an endless cycle of terror
and warfare until one day we become extinct. But we are not without
hope. Clearly there is hope.
I have lived my life without ever letting go of that hope and always
7

Foreword, AS A PEACE-LOVING GLOBAL CITIZEN, R E V E R E N D S U N M Y U N G MO ON

Foreword, AS A PEACE-LOVING GLOBAL CITIZEN, R E V E R E N D S U N M Y U N G MO ON, 

A steady spring rain fell all last night, ending a winter drought.

It was so nice to have had the rain that I spent all this morning

walking about in the garden. The ground had that fragrant

aroma of moist earth I had missed all through the winter, and the weeping

willow and cherry trees were showing signs of new spring buds.

I felt I could hear the popping sounds of new life sprouting here and

there around the garden. Before I knew it, my wife, who had followed

me out, was picking young mugwort shoots that had managed to poke

their heads up through the dry lawn. The night’s rain had turned the

whole world into a fragrant spring garden.

No matter how much commotion there may be in the world, when

the calendar turns to March, spring is on its way. The older I become,

the more it means to me that in nature spring follows winter and brings

with it flowers in full bloom. What am I that God, in each season, allows

the flowers to bloom and the snow to fall, so I might know the joy of

being alive? Love wells up from within the deepest recesses of my heart,

and I am overcome with emotion. I am moved to tears to think that

everything of real value has been given to me freely. In my life, I have

circled the globe many times over in my efforts to bring about a world

x

. foreword .

of peace, and yet it is here in this garden in spring that I am able to taste

real peace. Peace, too, was given to us by God, but we lost it somewhere and

now spend our lives looking for it in all the wrong places.

To bring a world of peace, I have spent my life going to the most

lowly and secluded places. I met mothers in Africa who could only

watch helplessly as their children died of hunger, and I met fathers

in South America who lived by a river full of fish but couldn’t support

their families by fishing. At first, all I did was simply share my

food, but they granted me their love in return. Intoxicated with the

power of love I went on to plant seeds and cultivate forests. Together we

caught fish to feed hungry children, and these trees were used to build

schools. I was happy even as mosquitoes bit me all over as I fished

all through the night. Even when I was sinking knee-deep into mud,

I was happy because I could see the shadows of despair disappear

from the faces of my neighbors.

Seeking the shortest path to a world of peace, I devoted myself

to inspiring change in the political process and to changing people’s

ways of thinking. I met then-President Mikhail Gorbachev of the

Soviet Union as part of my effort to bring reconciliation between

communism and democracy, and I met then-President Kim Il Sung

of North Korea for a serious discussion on how to bring peace to

the Korean peninsula. I went to a United States in moral decline

and played the role of a fireman responding to a call in an effort to

reawaken its Puritan spirit. I dedicated myself to resolving various

conflicts in the world. In my work for peace among Muslims and Jews, I

was not deterred by rampant terror. As a result of my efforts, thousands

have gathered for rallies and peace marches, with Jews, Muslims, and

Christians all joining together. Sadly, however, the conflict continues.

xi

. foreword .

I see hope, though, that an age of peace is about to be inaugurated in

Korea. The Korean peninsula has been trained through endless suffering

and the tragedy of division, and I can feel in every cell of my body

that a powerful energy has been stored here and is ready to burst out. In

the same way that no one can stop a new season of spring from coming,

no human power can stop heavenly fortune from coming to the Korean

peninsula and spreading throughout the world. People need to prepare

themselves so that they may rise with the tide of heavenly fortune

when it arrives.

I am a controversial person. The mere mention of my name causes

trouble in the world. I never sought money or fame but have spent my

life speaking only of peace. The world, though, has associated many

different phrases with my name, rejected me, and thrown stones at me.

Many are not interested in knowing what I say or what I do. They only

oppose me.

I have been unjustly imprisoned six times in my life-by imperial

Japan, in Kim Il Sung’s North Korea, by South Korea’s Syngman Rhee

government, and even in the United States-and at times I was beaten

so hard that the flesh was torn from my body. Today, though, not even

the slightest wound remains in my heart. Wounds easily disappear in

the presence of true love. Even enemies melt away without a trace in the

presence of true love. True love is a heart that gives and gives and wants

to continuing giving. True love is a love that even forgets that it already

gave love and gives love again. I have lived my entire life intoxicated

in such love. I wanted nothing aside from love, and I threw my entire

being into the effort to share love with my impoverished neighbors. At

times, the path of love was so difficult that my knees buckled under me,

but even then I felt happy in my heart, dedicated to loving humanity.

xii

. foreword .

Even now, I am filled with love that I have not yet been able to give.

It is with a prayer that this love will become a river of peace saturating

the drought-stricken land and flowing to the ends of the earth that

I now place this book before the world. Recently a growing number

of people have been seeking to know more about me. For the sake of

those who are curious, I have looked back on my life and recorded my

candid recollections in this book. As for the stories that could not be

included in this volume, I hope there will be other opportunities for me

to convey them.

I send boundless love to all those who have put their faith in me,

remained by my side, and lived their lives with me—and especially to

my wife, Hak Ja Han Moon, to whom I am deeply grateful for struggling

with me to scale the most difficult peaks.

Finally, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Eun Ju

Park, president of Gimm-Young Publishers Inc., who poured out much

sincerity and dedication in the process of bringing this book to publication,

and to everyone in the publishing company who labored in editing

the words I spoke so that the often complex content could be easily

understood by readers.

Sun Myung Moon,

Cheongpyeong, South Korea, March 1, 2009

AS A PEACE-LOVING GLOBAL CITIZEN R E V E R E N D S U N M Y U N G MO ON

AS A PEACE-LOVING GLOBAL CITIZEN
R E V E R E N D S U N M Y U N G MO ON

Translated and Produced in the United States of America
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Copyright © 2009 By The Washington Times Foundation, Inc.
All rights reserved. Except for use in reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced,
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This edition is a limited advance release for presentation and review purposes, and
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considered final.
Design and layout by PierAngelo Beltrami and Michelle Zambon-Nishiwaki.
Manufactured in the United States of America
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Original publication was in the Korean language by
Gimm-Young Publishers, Inc.
Seoul, Korea
March 9, 2009
Thanks to Mission Foundation, Inc. of the Family Federation for World Peace and
Unification, and Gimm-Young Publishers, Inc. for their permission and support of
this English edition