THE WAY TO WORLD PEACE, REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON

Federation for World Peace Founder's Address, Little Angels Performing Arts Center, Seoul, Korea, August 28, 1991 Today, upon the founding of The Federation for World Peace, I am very honored and pleased by the presence of such distinguished leaders of the world. Please accept my heartfelt gratitude for coming and for making this ceremony most memorable. From the beginning of human history until the present time there has never been a period when people did not long for lasting peace, nor has there ever been a person who did not wish deeply in his heart for true peace during his lifetime. Yet, contrary to the desires of all people and in spite of our great achievements, humanity has yet to secure world peace. Quite the contrary has been the case. At no time has human life been free of war and bloodshed. Why is this so? In contemporary history mankind has experienced two world wars. In 1914 with the assassination of an Austrian archduke at Sarajevo in Bosinia, the first world war was ignited. Eventually this war engulfed the whole of Europe. Sixteen nations were involved. In the end at least 30 million men and women were either dead or wounded. It was Europe's worst tragedy. The inhumanity and severity of this war caused world leaders to acutely realize the need to strive for world peace at all costs, to end all wars. On the wave of this genuine desire for peace and longing for the improvement of human welfare President Woodrow Wilson of the United States spearheaded the founding of the League of Nations. Although the League handled over forty political disputes with varying degrees of success, its inability to resolve major crises between the powers eventually determined its failure. Sadly, President Wilson could not even bring the United States to participate in the League, and his noble dream for peace failed. The world's ardent desire to put an end to war remained unfulfilled. Less than 20 years after the ending of World War l mankind faced another cataclysmic war. At that time, World War ll engulfed not only the Atlantic Region but the Pacific Region as well. Many more millions of human beings were the victims of war, suffering injury, destruction, and death. Only after the atomic bomb was used against Japan did this most tragic world war come to an end. Once more world leaders were alarmed and anguished. They sought to find a means to prevent the world from again becoming a living hell by war. The fruit of their efforts was the United nations which was inaugurated on April 25th, 1945 in San Francisco. The history of the United Nations has thus spanned 46 years until this time. Yet, has the United Nations been able to alleviate the tragedy of war? Is humanity living in peace? Unfortunately the answer to these questions is no. Even after the founding of the United Nations, wars have continued to break out. There have been more than 60 wars and skirmishes since the end of World War ll, including the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Persian Gulf War. The tragic cycle of human destruction continues as before. Why is peace so difficult to achieve? Today we are gathered together for the inauguration of The Federation for World Peace. Before we proceed, however, bearing in mind the previous record of mankind, we must think deeply and analyze accurately as to why peace is so difficult to achieve. Without knowing the causes of war, without a deep analysis of the past, we may very well repeat past history, and the noble goals and ambitions of this Federation would remain unachieved. Ladies and gentlemen, up until this time people have longed for and anguished for peace without having a true philosophy of peace. Without this philosophy of peace, there can be no true methodology for achieving peace. The fundamental reason that peace has constantly eluded mankind is rather simple yet profound. Human beings have lost their relationship with God. Because of that, they have lost the ability to attain true peace. Since that time, men and women have repeatedly tried to restore peace, but have met with failure after failure because they have been trying without God. This is the fundamental error mankind has been committing. This is the real reason why we have not yet achieved peace. God is the source of true love and true peace. Yet in the world which God created, the inhabitants are pitted against each other in war and mutual killing. This is completely paradoxical. God created man in his own image. Furthermore, God created man as a holy temple in which He, God Himself, wanted to dwell. Suppose each individual were a perfected temple of God so that each individual was living every minute of every day with the spirit of God dwelling within him. In this situation could man war against man? In the original world of God's creation men struggling against men would be something like your right hand fighting against your left hand, or even more, your own hand pulling out your own eyes. In other words, in the ideal world of creation it would be impossible to have war among men. In this world, people would only be capable of loving each other and harmonizing together. The only challenge would be in competing in ways to glorify our Creator better and further. No matter how large the population of this world, it should still function like one person's body. In one human body, as you know, there are many billions of cells. Although each cell has its own individuality, among them there is not contradiction. Likewise, each individual in the original world would become a temple of God, and God would dwell in the hearts of everyone. How can God, dwelling in each person, engender a contradiction among men? It would be impossible. In such a world there would be no conflict, no misunderstanding. There would only be harmony, cooperation and mutual assistance. There would be unity among people in the pursuit of truth, goodness and beauty. This is truly the world of peace which man seeks. This world would reflect the nature of God, whose primary characteristic is unselfishness unselfish love, unselfish peace. In religious terms this is called the Kingdom of God on Earth. The basis of such a world is the worldview of Godism, or the headwing ideology. If God is Almighty, He is certainly capable of realizing a world of peace and happiness for all humanity. If this type of world could not be achieved, then we would be forced to conclude that there is no God. At the dawn of human history, when God began to realize His world, something tragic happened. Our first human ancestors lost God. God created one man and one woman to be the beginning point of humankind. In religious terms they are called Adam and Eve. Tragically, at the outset of human history they committed sin, not allowing God to dwell in them, and they were expelled by God from His Kingdom. At that very moment, with their departure from God, man and woman failed to achieve their potential, and were unable to become temples of God. At that moment peace was lost. Instead they became the temples of Satan, whose characteristic is selfishness. Since this occurred at the very start of human history with the very first human ancestors, all their descendants up to the present generations have grappled with the arduous task of finding God. Without the knowledge of God as our True Father and the understanding that all humankind are true brothers and sisters, men have become each other's enemies. Originally if you were to hurt someone else, it would be the same as hurting yourself, since the same God is dwelling in both. But humankind has become spiritually darkened. Under the present tragic conditions when one kills his own brother he feels no pain. Furthermore, to make things worse, since man has become the dwelling place of Satan, he is aware only of himself and not the whole. The natural result if the manifestation of selfishness from the level of the individual to the family, society nation and world. With this limited outlook, when someone's own interest or profit is violated, he is ready to fight. War is thus inevitable. This is the real reason for war on every level. Then what does God intend to do with this fallen world? God is living and God is Almighty. As I said, God is a God of love. God, our Creator, has a Will. That Will is to restore this world into the world of true peace. In other words, He will restore the world of His original nature and ideal by re-creating the present world. For this reason, there is hope for true peace in the future. God's Will is to eradicate selfishness from each individual, then transform or re-create that person into His own temple, and make all men holy. For this reason true world peace between nations begins not at the national level, but with the perfection of the individual. Each person is perfected by becoming the temple of God. This is where world peace is germinated. Each one of you, ladies and gentlemen, is the true beginning point of world peace. Since the Fall of Man, there has been a constant war going on within each of us. It is an inevitable consequence of the Fall of Man that there is continuous struggle and conflict going on within ourselves between mind and body, and between the desire for good and the desire for evil. Originally mind and body were to be one.. The mind and body were to be one. The human mind represents God's mind. The human body is to be a container to accommodate the mind, or a dwelling place for the mind. Separation came between these two when the Fall of Man occurred. The Fall of Man resulted in the body coming under the domain of Satan or selfishness. Thus tragically the human body has become the servant of Satan. On the other hand, the human conscience is the agent of God in the individual person. One's conscience does not exist for the benefit of oneself. The conscience is planted by God for the sake of righteousness. Thus, the conscience always strives toward goodness and unselfishness. Yet the body rebels against this conscience. The body only seeks after comforts and tends to act selfishly, going after carnal desires. The conscience in turn is trying to chastise the body and direct it toward the mind. This is why there is always inevitable conflict and struggle within one's self. This is the reason why the traditional religions of the world unanimously teach the principle of chastisement of the body through fasting, prayer, and other disciplines doing things the body does not want to do. Religion is the training ground where the desire of the body is suppressed, thus bringing the body to the will of the mind. For this reason religion has been the instrument of God to bring men back into the original ideal. However, no one is capable of dominating his body without uniting with God within himself. The only power that enables the mind to have dominion over the body is that generated by the unity of the mind with God's truth and love. Mind is subject and body is object. God's love and truth have the power to bring them together into one harmonious person. This is what religion defines as a man of perfection or a holy man. God-centered men and women in perfection are called men and women of goodness. These good men and women may receive God's blessing of marriage and be united into a couple of husband and wife. This will be the beginning of one ideal family of men on the face of the earth. This model family is what God wanted to have as a building block of the society, nation and world. There is an old saying in the Orient that "once peace is dwelling in the family, everything goes right." A happy and harmonious family is a family of peace and the foundation of the heavenly kingdom. The dynamic of the family is true love. You must love God first, then love your husband or wife and your children with truly pure and sacrificial love. This is the manifestation of true love. God created love as the supreme force in the universe. He has created nothing greater in this universe. True love is supreme. True love, of course, originates from God. God has invested everything, every ounce of His energy, for the creation of all things and mankind. Love is the only thing that when invested fully, returns fully. When you invest true love, no attrition occurs. It will multiply and prosper. Investing 10 per cent of true love will yield or return 120 per cent. One might think that those who practice true love would become poor and miserable, yet the end result is to the contrary. By practicing true love you will acquire prosperity and eternal life. This kind of family of true love becomes the foundation for creating a society, nation and world. That society, nation and world shall be true-love centered, and shall become ideal and peaceful. There you will find harmony instead of contradiction. You will find understanding instead of misunderstanding. You will find unity instead of division. You will find unselfishness instead of selfishness. This is the society, nation and world where sacrifices and good service become the dominant virtues. The realization of the ideal of God is the way to achieve the ideal of true peace in the world. When the Bible says that God sought to create human beings in "His own image," this means that the invisible God wanted to manifest Himself into a visible form. In other words, men and women would have become the personifications of God. If the first man and woman had realized the ideal of God they would have become the first visible form of God and created the first family of man. Then God-centered children and grandchildren would have formed an ideal society, nation and world. In this case the invisible God would become the vertical True Parents of man centering upon true love, and the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, would have become the horizontal True Parents of mankind centering upon that same true love. Centered upon these True Parents of man, humanity would have become one family eternally fulfilling true brotherhood. however, the fall of Adam and Eve meant that humanity lost True Parents. That day we became orphans. Brothers turned into enemies. As a result, nations came to develop antagonistic relationships rather than friendly ones. Accusations abound on every level In the final fulfillment of human history, therefore, God's work of restoration is the restoration of True Parents first, liberating humanity from its orphan status. Today this is the central dispensational work of God to bestow True Parents upon mankind, to create the original family of man centering on God and true love. Ladies and gentlemen, today's creation of the Federation for World Peace must be different from that of the League of Nations and the United Nations. Most important is that we must found this organization upon the true ideal and philosophy of lasting peace as well as the ideal of True Parents. In the final analysis, peace in God and with God is the newest level of awakening. This is therefore a refreshing new beginning toward the attainment of peace. The exclusion of God from human efforts for peace is the core reason for their failure. Therefore we shall make God the center of this movement and the dynamics of this movement will be true love. For men and women who are fervently longing for world peace, today's gathering is a historical gathering. There are many presidents and former presidents here today, as well as prominent religious leaders and leaders from every walk of life. This is truly a rare and extraordinary assembly. Furthermore, there are leaders from the East bloc and the West bloc. Until recently, those leaders were mired in the Cold War and locked in a chilling confrontation. In this auditorium however there is no East no West. Everyone is gathered together in one spirit of cooperation and reconciliation. On November 9, 1989 the Berlin Wall finally came tumbling down. Ever since that event we have been living in a different world. The world is moving quickly toward reformation, change, mutual understanding and friendship. Everyone today feels acutely that the mood of the world is opening up to the blossoming opportunity of peace. If you agree that the principles I have expounded are the fundamental criteria for peace, then true peace is reachable and achievable. The industrialized North must reach out to help liberate the South from pervasive impoverishment. The developed nations must reach out with a helping hand toward the developing countries and the new democracies. Each nation's attitude must be changed from a selfish one to an unselfish one. That in itself is a revolution. Nations can do this when leaders see from the position of parents. The most unselfish and sacrificial love of all is the love of parents. From that perspective, one can see that all nations are brother and sister nations. Then a fresh new vision emerges and new opportunities will open up in front of us. It has already been announced that in September North Korea and South Korea together will become member nations of the United Nations. This is another significant positive development toward the achievement of world peace. Then the number of member nations of the UN will reach 163 countries. What should be the priority of those 163 countries in the days to come? The time of colonialism is over, where the powerful nations exploited the weakest ones. The law of the jungle and Herbert Spencer's "survival of the fittest" do not apply in our world. The age of the superpower arms race that drove the world and humanity into fear and uncertainty has also passed; humanity ought to be liberated from the devastating threat of nuclear arms. What time is it in God's timetable? This is the time that the Holy Scriptures refer to as that of "beating our swords into plowshares." This is the time for developing mutual trust based on a high moral standard. It is a time when all the member nations of the United Nations with a relationship of mutual respect and love should jointly declare one final war against our common enemies the scourges of hunger, ignorance, disease and crime. This is in God's plan. From this time on, the definition of "my country" will expand. Although everyone has their home country where their family lives, in a larger sense, the world now becomes "my country" because it is where God my Father and my brothers and sisters all the people of the world live. From this point-of-view, advanced nations should seek to share high technology with the developing nations and new democracies. To do otherwise would be a moral crime. Things which are good and beneficial must be shared among all nations. When a new discovery is made, it should benefit all nations. If something is good for humanity and the world we must fulfill it transcendent of national boundaries. For a long time, I have been fighting for equal opportunity in the use of high technology by all developing nations. Ladies and gentlemen, your coming to this place is not an accident. Nothing happens by accident. I feel you are ordained to be here. You are chosen by God as champions of peace. Within our lifetime we shall commemorate the year 2000. That year will be history's new turning point. A new era is unfolding. With the cooperation of God and man together the twenty-first century will be a century of peace. In order to make that happen we shall work tirelessly together for the next nine years. If we do, we shall be able to eliminate all obstacles that might hinder the attainment of peace. The twenty-first century shall be a righteous century. In the twenty-first century wealth will not be the dominating factor. Instead the human spirit and human soul shall be dominant. The twenty-first century shall be the era of unity between God and man. It shall be the era where a new awakening will come to every man a realization that he shall benefit himself more when he genuinely lives for the sake of others. In the twenty-first century selfishness will decline. Life, honor, and glory based on unselfishness shall be triumphant. These are the characteristics of the coming twenty-first century. The era for peace is approaching. Even the opportunity for the Kingdom of Heaven on earth is closer. The twenty-first century shall be a hopeful and glorious century. TO make this happen, the Federation for World Peace will provide the ideal and philosophy to educate the world's population. The Federation will assist spiritually, mentally, and financially in the development of needy nations. The Federation will set a high moral standard and take up a dynamic role in building a world of peace. Ladies and gentlemen, you are the apostles of peace. A bright new hope as well as an exciting new future is awaiting us. Today we should fervently feel the desire to fulfill the great mission that is being bestowed upon us. In order to achieve this sacred duty and the historic responsibility of building lasting peace, we should dedicate our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor with total commitment. The very first item on our agenda shall be to invite God into our individual hearts, and those of our family, society, nation and world. When God is with us, who shall be against us? Respected friends, my beloved brothers and sisters, we are called to this sacred mission the building of world peace. Our noble march shall begin today toward that glorious future. Let us build a true world of peace together with God.

RELIGION'S MISSION FOR WORLD PEACE, REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON

Founder's Address Inaugural Assembly of the  Inter-Religious Federation For World Peace, August 27, 1991 Little Angels Performing Arts Center, Seoul, Korea Respected and eminent religious leaders from countries around the world, distinguished representatives of worldwide religious organizations, scholars of religion, and all participants who are present here. From the bottom of my heart I welcome you to this historical Inaugural Assembly of the Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace. In the Founder's Address at the first Assembly of the World's Religions, which was held in New Jersey in 1985, I identified three essential tasks for religious people. First, all religious traditions should respect each other and, at the very least, work to prevent conflict or war between religions. Second, all of us, as cooperating religious communities, should serve the world. And third, in order to fulfill the mission of religion, we should contribute to the development of world peace by means of an organization in which all religious leaders would participate. At the second Assembly of the World's Religions, which was held in San Francisco one year ago, I called for the creation of the Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace. Today, with the co-operation of religious leaders such as yourselves and in the presence of representatives of religions from around the world, the Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace is announcing its historical birth. Now is the time when all the world's religions should keenly feel central responsibility for the realization of world peace and should take action for this purpose. The future happiness of humankind cannot be achieved through the pursuit of economic prosperity alone, but only by overcoming conflicts between ideologies, between cultures and between races through inter-religious understanding and spiritual harmony. Therefore, the main theme of my message at this Inaugural Assembly of the Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace is The Mission of Religion in the Establishment of World Peace. Our purpose God's ideal of creation centers on true love and calls each of us to exist for the sake of others. The purpose of human existence is to realize an ideal family, society, nation and world through individuals who embody this ideal and whose mind and body are harmoniously united into one. However, through Satan's false love and self-centeredness, each human being became an individual with disharmony between mind and body. The family, society, nation and world, consisting of human beings characterized by such contradiction, have troubles and dissensions that are nothing but the multi-dimensional amplification of the disunity and struggle that exists within the individual. The democratic world has become increasingly individualistic and self-centered. This is what Satan wants, and thus Satan is leading most of humankind toward damnation. In order to stop this decline, we cannot rely on left-wing or right-wing ideas alone. We need head-wing thought centered on true love, which transcends ideologies on both the left and the right, and we need Godism, the teaching that human life is to be lived in relatedness to ultimate reality centered on true love. Since the disunity in our society and world originated with Satan's false love, creating the discord between mind and body within individuals, true peace cannot be brought about without harmonious unity within individual human beings. This unity can only result from the experience of true love. The base for realizing the peaceful world is not to be discovered merely by seeking global solutions, but rather through individuals and families. Individuals whose mind and body are harmoniously united by God's true love and who go beyond Satan's dominion, and families, formed by such men and women, these become the delivery room for world peace. The human fall, which came about through false love, created discord between mind and body. As a result we experience disunity and struggle in vertical relationships with God, our parents, our children, our students and in horizontal relationships with our spouse, our siblings, our friends, our co-workers. Instead of being characterized by love, these relationships became distorted due to the confusion within individuals between the mind's desire to serve others and the body's desire to gratify the self. The discord can be seen in the value systems (worldviews) which guide individual and social life. The confusion between mind and body extends to the confusion between religion and science, between idealism and materialism, and between value-seeking and fact-seeking pursuits. According to the ideal of creation, as mind and body unite within an ideal individual through God's true love, mental and bodily worlds, which are extensions of individual mind and body, also should come into a harmonious relationship, not contradiction. Religion and philosophy represent the internal world of the mind; the bodily world is represented by politics and economics. Just as mind is in the subject and leading position, while the body is in the object position to harmonize with the mind, religion and politics also should achieve harmony and unity in a subject-object relationship. Otherwise, the ideal society cannot be created. His Messengers What has been God's purpose in sending saints and prophets? God's desire is to educate all people about His will of true love, by showing a model in personality and lifestyle. In particular, God's will is for the mental and bodily worlds to unify in a great harmony centered on God's will of true love. This can be accomplished by educating rulers and leaders about the Heavenly Way so they will then practice it. But, as the body often does not follow what conscience requires, many rulers have not recognized holy men and saints; have not received their teaching; and have ignored their warnings. Who can take responsibility to solve the misery and the evils in contemporary society: the confusion in values, moral corruption, drug addiction, terrorism, racial discrimination and so on? Can politicians, with political power, completely solve such problems? There is a great responsibility and burden which accompanies the decisions and choices made by politicians. This is true especially in this age when societies are more pluralistic than ever and are so internationally interdependent. I think that rulers, when making an important decision, should humbly listen to the voice coming from heaven and look for solutions through following the Heavenly Way. We should repent that religions themselves, representing the mental world, have not fulfilled their responsibility for bringing about the peaceful world. We cannot deny the fact that religions in their current state lack the life energy necessary for leading and purifying the world, and rather are going against their original mission. Each religion should revitalize its internal purity and life energy through God's true love; reform itself in a determined way; and develop harmonious relationships with other religions according to God's will of true love. Devotion to God and His great will of true love is the mission of each religion. As such, the prosperity of each religious organization alone cannot be the purpose of religion. God demands that we come to know His great will for saving the world and that we practice this in our lives. This is more important than studying scriptures or observing religious ceremonies. Religions, for too long, have failed to relate to the living God and to bear witness clearly to Him. The God that I know has no attachment to the content of doctrines which are put together according to human logic. Since God is the Origin and Parent of all of us, He does not discriminate between races or between religions. Therefore, religious believers should completely follow God's will of true love to realize the ideal world of peace, and the salvation of all people. Given the contemporary reality, religious people should not lead comfortable lives. Instead they must go on the way of a living faith, centered on true love and true life energy, having conversation with the living God. This cannot be achieved in the prevailing atmosphere of religion today. Unprecedented change on a global level, through the motivating power of all religions joined in a movement of a new dimension, is demanded. The hypocrisy of those religious people who were not sincere in their practice of God's true love has led to the proliferation of atheism. This world should be changed. Each religion should make efforts to purify itself and to become the leading actor in a new reform. All religions should leave behind the pursuit of their own benefits; take up the cause of world salvation that God hopes for; stand on the front line in the effort to eliminate poverty, disease and crime in the world; become a bright light in this dark world of the Last Days; and so teach and guide leaders in every field such as politics, economics, or social work. Reforming the World Respected religious leaders. Following the direction of God's providence, I have been devoting all my energy to the work of reforming the world and restoring God's ideal of true love. Through the activities of the International Religious Foundation the Assembly of the World's Religions, New ERA, the Council for the World's Religions, the Religious Youth Service, the Inter- Denominational Conferences for Clergy. and the Youth Seminar on World Religions I have tried to provide a model of inter-religious understanding and harmony, and a model of that practice of God's true love which religious people should embody. I am doing my best for the sake of the ideal of world peace. Today I announce the publication of World Scripture, completed after five years of cooperative effort among scholars of religion and after review and endorsement by heads of the world's religions. World Scripture will become a shining light, a volume of holy scripture that puts together the universally valuable contents of the world's religions. In particular, it will become a precious textbook for educating the younger generation who are to live together as one global family. It will teach them to be able to overcome barriers between religions, between races, and between cultures. I believe that, through this text, all people will not only free themselves from religious ignorance and self-righteousness, but also realize the fact that, among religions, there are shared values and a universal foundation which are of greater significance than the differences which have historically divided religions. I thank those scholars and Editorial Board members from each religions who worked for the publication of World Scripture. Following this Inaugural Assembly of the Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace, which represents the mental world and stands in the subject position for world peace, and International Federation for World Peace, which represents the bodily world and stands in the object position, is to be inaugurated here in this place. Leaders from every corner of the world are arriving for this event. If these two organizations, harmoniously cooperating internally and externally, practice unification through true love in accordance with heavenly will, then the peaceful world will be realized. When the unification of religion and politics, representing the unification of mind and body, comes about through God's true love, the world of peace will soon follow. Respected leaders of religions. When we sincerely reflect on this age, we come to know that now is an urgent time when not only faith, but also practice and action are demanded. The world's problems including such miserable struggles as racial wars and religious wars which have come about through the spread of atheism, hedonism, secular humanism and through the distortion of true religion, are extremely serious. In Western societies there is a tendency to take life easy, especially now that communist atheism has lost its ground. This tendency, however, comes from a superficial assessment of the situation, founded on ignorance about the real essence of the problems that we face. As long as a new awakening movement of true love centered on God does not occur throughout the entire society, the fall of contemporary civilization whose center has been Western society is coming, and that outcome will bring more misery than we can imagine. The world as it is now cannot be left alone. There is no time. Who can take responsibility for this generation? Military leaders? Politicians? New social engineers? We, representing the religions, should take that responsibility. I ask your active cooperation. When, through the movement of the Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace, historical religious traditions harmoniously advance in practice toward world peace, then the spiritual foundation for guiding the world will be firmly laid, and the ideal of peace centered on God's true love will be completed. When all religions of the world have a unified direction, the peace of the unified world will come. I pray that God will protect the future of the Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace and all of you representing the world's religious traditions. May God bless each of you and your families. May you become the people of true love who can bring peace to the world.

APPLY WISDOM TO THE REALIZATION OF GOD'S IDEAL, REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON

Eighteenth International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences Farewell Banquet Speech August 26, 1991 Your busy schedule of these past few days is now over, and now it's time to bid farewell; I want to express my deepest gratitude to our Conference Chairman, Dr. Alvin Weinberg, for his dedicated leadership in the last three conferences. He has continued to raise the level of ICUS to even greater standards of academic excellence. I also want to thank our distinguished Vice Chairmen,Dr. Tor Ragnar Gerholm, D. Michael Higatsberger, and Dr. Se Won Yoon, as well as all Committee Chairpeople and participants. Your very intense discussions and hard work during this conference have borne great fruit. Mrs. Moon and I have been very happy to welcome you here to our homeland of Korea, where you could experience the Korean countryside, the warmth of the Korean people, and continue to forge bonds of friendship across national and cultural boundaries in this radiant land. Over the past twenty years, we truly have become the "ICUS family," composed of scholars seeking to make the world a more ideal place. On each opportunity that we have to be together I have tried to share with you something from my heart centered on the will of heaven. This evening, I would like to share with you something about my thinking in placing such importance on giving encouragement and support to the scholarly community. Scholars serve humankind through their wisdom and knowledge. Scholars enrich our lives and make them more convenient through their advances in science and technology. But even more importantly, realize that they have a mission to accomplish in realizing an ideal world of happiness. In spite of the most earnest desires and fervent efforts of scholars, and in spite of the fact that we have seen a revolutionary improvement in our external material living conditions, humankind has yet to find a way to escape from anxiety and chaos, or from crime and violence. We find today that we need to develop deep wisdom concerning life, much more than we need further quantitative increases in our share of knowledge. Going one step further, we are in a position today where we must apply our wisdom to the realization of God's Ideal of Creation. We who have been born into a fallen world carry within ourselves an original mind, that is, a mind that seeks to live forthrightly and to serve others, and also another mind concerned only with our own selfish gain and individual peace of mind. We have all experienced how the exponents of these two minds contradict and oppose each other in our daily lives. It is God's desire that we follow our original mind in order to fulfill His Will. If only you can control the impetuses of your selfish mind, you will have true peace of mind and you will be able to hear God speak to you with His intimate advice for you. When we come to know the living God and form a heartistic relationship with Him, we can possess the ecstatic happiness of being enveloped in the ideal of God's true love. Unlike knowledge, which is accumulated through a series of steps involving research and study, wisdom is gained through spiritual inspiration received as a result of God's blessing. People cannot develop spiritual faculties of inspiration as long as they follow the course indicated by their selfish minds. I believe the greatest of all wisdom is to know the heart and ideal of God. We in the ICUS family need to develop a forum for our common efforts that will transcend the dimension of conventional research and enable us to possess the wisdom of heaven. If this is accomplished, we will be able to take a central responsibility in bringing about an ideal world of peace that is the ideal of God and the common hope of all humanity. God is eagerly awaiting scholars of good conscience who will take on such a role. In view of the expectations that society places on scholars and of the mission that scholars bear in the education of our young people, it is clear that the role models that you provide will have wide-spread influence. I am deeply touched that you and many other scholars like you are coming together to work for this noble cause, although you may not share all of my ideas. I feel that God is pleased to see you pouring out your wisdom and knowledge in service to the future of the world, and I'm sure His blessing will continue to be upon your efforts. We have made many important contributions over the past twenty years, and I believe there is still much more that we must do. I will continue to support your efforts. The world today way present us with problems that seem beyond our capacities. As long as we root ourselves in the spirit of God's true love, that is, the spirit of living for others, our sacrificial efforts will serve as the primary force in accomplishing a world of peace. I am happy to announce that I have invited Dr. Tor Ragnar Gerholm to become the Chairman of the next International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences, which will be held one year from today, in August 1992, here in Seoul. The 19th ICUS will be a part of the great festival of world culture, which you have heard me speak of before. I am sure Dr. Gerholm will be calling upon your cooperation and assistance in organizing next year's conference. I know you will give him the same active cooperation that you have extended that you have extended to Dr. Weinberg and other chairmen in the past. I look forward to welcoming you, the members of the ICUS family, together with the participants in the other cultural and athletic events that will be held then. God bless you all, your nations, your families and your work. May you have a safe journey home and a prosperous year until we meet again next year at the 19th ICUS here in Seoul. Thank you very much.

ABSOLUTE VALUES AND THE REASSESSMENT OF THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD, REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON

Founder's Address Eighteenth International Conference on the Unity of the ciences August 23, 1991 Seoul, Korea Honorable chairman, vice-chairman, committee chairmen, distinguished scholars, ladies and gentlemen. It gives me great pleasure to greet you again in my home country of Korea. Already, ten years have passed since we held our discussions here in Seoul on "The Creation of the New World". At that time, I proposed the building of an international highway system extending from East Asia and connecting all regions of the world. Also, we began then a project to publish the results of your research in a manner that would give constructive influence to the younger generations around the world.  Ten years ago, such plans seemed like impossible dreams. Today, however, we have established the necessary foundations for their realization, and we are beginning to see emerge the broad outlines of their completed forms. Preliminary plans have been completed for an undersea tunnel connecting Japan and Korea, and an exploratory tunnel is now under construction. For the publication of your papers and books, we now have the publishing house Paragon House and the magazine The World & I. In addition, the International Federation for World Peace and the Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace are to be established here in your presence. I proposed these two organizations last year, and I believe you later received mailings with further information. Ladies and gentlemen, the contemporary world around us is in a period of transition, and is in need of careful reassessment. In the past, the consistent emphasis on values in ICUS conference themes may have been considered prophetic in their nature. Today, however, the cry for new values can be heard from around the world, and the work of this conference has become an important means for dealing with our immediate reality. The dramatic changes occurring in the Soviet Union and in Eastern and Central Europe underscore this fact. Following the collapse of the communist world, there are those who speak with self-assurance of the superiority of the West's existing values and institutions. We must examine, however, the societies of the free world and other non-communist countries that until recently stood in opposition to the communist bloc. Where are these societies going? Does their progress reassure us that the future happiness of the world's people is guaranteed? We can see that, even after the collapse of the communist bloc, many problems still remain in our world. To develop the necessary solutions, we need to look to the deeper origins of such problems. Our task should be a fundamental reassessment of all the institutions and life-styles of our contemporary world. Such a reassessment will enable us to identify those aspects of our world that can be considered suitable and filling by an enlightened and awakened humanity possessing a renewed consciousness. Fundamentally, the confusion in the value systems of today's societies derives from a break in the original vertical order between God and humanity. The various institutions and values we have today lack clear direction and are inherently unstable and mutually contradictory, because they are man-made orders established horizontally, that is, without an axis connecting them to God. The universe does not exist merely on the basis of individual material substances that are its component parts. Our world is not a mere sum total of isolated individual substances. Material substances derive their primary existence from the energy that appears through their relationships with other substances. Societies exist, prosper and develop within the context of mutual give and take relationships. Behind such relationships-that is, behind each relationship between material substances and behind each give and take relationship between individual beings-there is a pre-existing vertical order of a higher dimension that endows these individual substances with a common motivational drive and purpose. For example, human beings have been endowed with freedom in order that we may experience the highest levels of joy and love for God and for our fellow human beings. Thus, if we are to attain the purpose of our existence, we must first inherit the true love of God. In the ideal human society, true love that always seeks "to give to others" forms the basis for all relationship. Such true love is motivated by the experience of the true love of parents. The true love of parents, which is in turn rooted in God's true love, is the means to nurture a child's character to its full completed state. A man and a woman nurtured in this way, and each possessing completed character, come together as husband and wife to form a family, where they will convey true love to their children. This is the original order of Creation. The ideal world on earth is built when one individual possessing completed character is able to expand true love in ever-widening concentric circles of family, society, nation and world. Our world today has a different origin from the ideal world I have just described. Today, we have an expansion of the results of the Human Fall, an event in which human beings departed from the most important of the principles of God's creative act, that is, the discipline of love. Having turned against the order of God's Creation, our world today places value in man-made organizations and structures and in the order of law. These are incapable of raising up ideal individuals, families and peoples. They cannot provide a guarantee for a truly brighter tomorrow for the people of the world. Respected scholars, you are highly educated in fields dealing with the developmental aspects of nature and human society. The natural world around us and our societies are suffering daily violence and injury. With each passing day, the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat become more polluted. Despite advances of science and the increasing convenience of daily life, we find increasing cause for despair. If humanity in the twenty-first century continues to place itself outside the fundamental principles of God, who created the universe, we will no longer be able to exist as master of the planet earth. Closer human relationships, even if some may not want them, are necessary for the future of humanity. We are entering the age of "one global family", in which we will have no choice but to live in much closer proximity to those who religions, nationalities, and skin colors are different from our own. In such a world, we will need to develop a genuine acceptance for-as opposed to simple appreciation of-the wide variety of religions, cultural traditions and life-styles around us. It will be impossible for any individual or group to selfishly choose to possess their own separate haven. Humanity must no longer despoil nature for its own selfish purposes but must utilize and develop nature in accordance with the larger purposes of the world community and future generations. What will be the underlying order of this new age and new society, and how are we to raise up the constructive members of such a global society? This question can only be answered in terms of the order of God's Creation, with the discipline of love as its central axis. Respected scholars, perhaps the points I have raised here will help to explain why I, as one who has consistently sought to realize God's Will, have sponsored eighteen sessions of the International Conference on the Unity of Sciences over nearly twenty years. Decades ago, I foresaw the future toward which society was progressing. Despite the inability of some to appreciate my efforts, I have maintained my spiritual and material support for the conference with conviction. It is because of this ardent desire to serve the future of humanity that, beginning with the first session in 1972, ICUS has had an unconventional structure that brings together scholars in the natural sciences, humanities, and social sciences in a common forum that emphasizes interdisciplinary harmony and unity. I recognize that each academic discipline has its own specific characteristics, and I understand the need of specialization in research. Research conducted in the various individual fields, however, must be brought together through mutually cooperative and complementary relationships in order to serve the purpose of good. This is also the reason I have continued to place in the theme of each ICUS conference the term "absolute values", although scientists frequently find this concept objectionable. I am grateful that you and many other scholars around the world have some to share my vision and are cooperating to organize and continue the work of this conference. ICUS must now develop to a new level. With absolute values as our central axis, we must now begin an aggressive effort to teach and apply the results of the comprehensive research of this conference in ways that will benefit the future world. With this in mind, the ICUS structure already has served as a medium for establishing branches of the Professors World Peace Academy in ninety-five countries, so as to involve the scholars in these countries in a worldwide cultural effort. Many people have expressed great hope in such a practical movement of conscientious scholars. For intellectuals, who form the most respected group in our society, taking the lead in conveying proper values to the young people of the world is no less important a task than you work as professors in your specific fields. I believe it is important to have scholars from around the world form teams to visit various countries and give wide-ranging instruction. A program of this type has already been conducted with significant success in Japan and Korea. There is a need for a worldwide participation of scholars in a movement to give new vision to the people of our contemporary world, particularly the young people, so as to save them from the snares of drugs, hedonism, violence and war. With your ingenuity and practical experience, I know we can build a new world culture. Finally, let me say that I am confident that many valuable discussions and conclusions will come out of this conference being held in my home country. I am proud of Korea for the fact that it has maintained a beautiful cultural tradition, including a strong tradition of families, in spite of its long history of suffering. I also believe Korea can be praised for having risen from the ashes of successive wars to rapidly achieve its current economic prosperity. I hope you will have a fruitful stay here. I pray that God's protection and blessing will be with you and your families. Thank you very much.