Reverend Moon, Seed for a New American Revolution

The initial warm hospitality shown to me by Americans began
to grow cold, even hostile. They cynically questioned how a
religious leader from Korea, an insignificant country that had
barely survived hunger and war, could dare call on Americans to repent.
It was not just Americans who opposed me. The reaction from
the Japanese Red Army, in league with international communists,
was particularly strong. They were even caught by the FBI trying
to sneak into the workshop center in Boston where I often stayed.
There were so many attempts to harm me that my children could
not attend school without the presence of bodyguards. Because of
the continued threats on my life, I spoke from behind bulletproof
glass for a period.
Despite such opposition, the lecture series by the small-eyed man from
the Orient gathered more and more interest. People began to listen to the
teachings, which were completely different from what they had heard until
then. The content of the lectures dealing with the fundamental principles of the
universe and seeking to reawaken the founding spirit of America was a breath
of fresh air for Americans who had fallen into the hell of immorality and sloth.
Americans experienced a revolution of consciousness through my
lectures. Young people began to follow me, calling me “Father Moon”
or “Reverend Moon” and cutting their shoulder-length hair and their
scruffy beards. When appearances change, minds also change. So God
began to enter into the hearts of young people who had been immersed
in alcohol and drugs.
The lectures were attended by a variety of young people, transcending
denominations. When I would interrupt my sermons to ask, “Are
there any Presbyterians here?” many young people would wave their
hands, saying, “Here. Here.” If I asked, “Are there any Catholics?” hands
would go up again. When I asked, “How about Southern Baptists?”
many people would again answer, “Me. Me.”
“Why do you come to hear me instead of going to hear a sermon in
your own religion?” I asked. “Go home and go to your own church to
hear God’s word.”
When I said this, the audience responded, “We want to hear Reverend
Moon!”
More and more people began gathering, and even some ministers
of Presbyterian and Baptist churches came, bringing with them the
young people of their churches. As time went on, Reverend Moon
became an icon representing a revolution of consciousness in
American society.
I taught American young people how to endure difficulty. I thoroughly
taught them the principle that a person must be able to rule himself before
he can rule the universe. My teachings provided a new inspiration to American
young people living in an age of confusion. They shouted in agreement
with my message of sexual purity and true families. The reception was so
enthusiastic that it made me sweat with excitement as well.
“Do you want to bear the cross of pain?” I asked them. “No one
wants to go the way of the cross. Your heart may want to go that way,
but your body says ‘No!’ Just because something is pleasing to the eye
doesn’t mean it is good for the heart. There are many things that look
good, but an examination of their inner aspect shows them to be evil.
If you catch yourself seeking after only things pleasing to the eye and
try following that path, you must immediately stop yourself and say,
‘You rascal!’ Also, if you feel the desire to eat only things pleasing to
the mouth, you must scold your body, saying, ‘You rascal,’ and block
yourself. You young people are attracted to the opposite sex, aren’t you?
In this case, too, you must make a strong stand against such urges. If
a person cannot control himself, he cannot do anything in this world.
Consider that if you break down, the universe will break down.”
I was teaching them the motto that I had followed as a young man,
which was “Before seeking to rule the universe, first perfect your ability
to rule yourself.” America had great wealth and had become obsessed
with material goods. I stood in the midst of this material civilization
and talked about matters of the mind and heart. The mind cannot be
seen with the eye or held in the hand. Yet, we clearly are ruled by our
minds. Without our minds, we are nothing. Then I talked about true
love, God-centered love, which should guide the mind. I said that true
freedom can be enjoyed only when we have a clear understanding of
ourselves based on a foundation of true love and are able to exercise
self-control.
I taught them the value of labor. Labor is not suffering but creation.
The reason a person can work all his life and be happy is that labor is
connected to God’s world. The labor that people perform is nothing
more than taking things that God created and shaping them in different
ways. If you think that you are making something to give to God as a
memento, then labor is not something to think of in a negative way.
Many American young people were so steeped in the affluent life provided
to them by their materialistic civilization that they didn’t know
the joy of working. So I taught them to work with joy.
I also awoke in them the joy of loving nature. The young people were
caught up in the immoral culture of the cities and enslaved in selfish
lives, so I talked to them about the preciousness of nature. Nature is
given to us by God. God speaks to us through nature. It is a sin to destroy
nature for the sake of a moment of enjoyment or an insignificant
amount of money. The nature that we destroy eventually will make its
way back to us in the form of poison and make life difficult for our descendants.
We need to go back to nature and listen to what nature tells
us. I told the young people of America that when we open our hearts
and listen to what nature is saying, we can hear the word of God.

Our Future Lies with the Ocean

As I toured the world, no one knew that plans were being
made to develop economic foundations on a worldwide scale.
As the church grew and the number of missions increased,
the amount of funds we needed to support these activities increased
dramatically. We needed income. As I toured forty-eight states in the
United States, I gave much thought to the kinds of businesses that could
support the activities we had planned.
What came to my mind then was that Americans eat meat every day.
I checked the price of a cow. I saw that a cow that costs a small amount
in Florida could cost several hundred dollars in New York. But when I
checked the price of tuna, I discovered that one bluefin tuna cost more
than $4,000. Tuna lay more than 1.5 million eggs at a time, whereas a
cow will have only one calf at a time. It was clear that catching tuna
would be a much better business endeavor than raising cattle.
One problem was that Americans did not eat much fish. The Japanese,
however, were extremely fond of tuna. There were many Japanese
living in the United States then, and expensive restaurants operated by
Japanese sold raw tuna at a high price. Also, some Americans who were
learning to enjoy raw fish enjoyed eating tuna.
The earth where we live is covered by more ocean than land. The
United States has two oceans and therefore plenty of fish. Also, beyond
the two hundred–mile limit, no country has territorial claims on the
ocean. Anyone can go out to catch fish. In order to start a farm or raise
cattle, we would need to buy land, but there is no need for that in the
ocean. All we needed was one boat, and we could go as far as necessary
in order to catch fish. The ocean is filled with things to eat. Also, on the
ocean surface, there is an active shipping industry. Ships carry things
made in countries all over the world to be sold elsewhere. The ocean
is a treasure trove that guarantees humankind a bright future. That is
why I teach that those who are concerned with the future of humanity
must be concerned with the oceans. When we can love and inherit the
oceans, we inherit the future.
We purchased several boats in the United States. These were not
the large ships that might be seen in a brochure but boats about
thirty-four feet to thirty-eight feet in length. They could pursue
tuna with their engines turned off. They were fishing boats about
the size of a yacht that would not have major accidents. These boats
were placed in Washington, San Francisco, Tampa, and Alaska. We
also purchased a ship repair facility.
We did a lot of our own research. We placed one boat in each region
and measured the water temperature. We checked to see how many tuna
were caught each day, and placed the data on a chart. We didn’t just take
data that experts had created previously; our members went into the
water themselves to gather the information. The results of studies done
by university-based researchers in the area were used as reference. In
addition, I went to those areas, lived there myself, and checked them
out. No data was more accurate than what we gathered.
We went to a lot of trouble to conduct this research, but we did not
keep it to ourselves. Instead, we shared it with the fishing industry. We also
developed new fishing grounds. If too many fish are caught in one area, it
depletes the fish population. It is important to go to new areas. Within a
short time, we had made a major impact on the U.S. fishing industry.
We entered the business of catching fish on the open sea. Our idea
was that one ship would go out to sea and catch fish for at least six
months without returning to port. When the ship had all the fish it
could carry, a transport ship went out to it, took its fish, and resupplied
it with food and fuel. The ship had refrigeration facilities where it could
store fish for a long time.
The name of our ship was New Hope, and it was well known for being
able to catch many fish. I took that boat out myself and caught tuna.
People were often afraid of getting on boats. When I suggested to young
people that they get on a boat, their first reaction was often one of fear.
“I get seasick,” I often heard them say. “All I have to do is get on a
boat, and I start getting woozy and feel like I’m going to die.”
So I got on the boat myself first. From that day, I went out on the boat
almost every day for seven years. Even now, when I am ninety years old,
I like to go out on the ocean whenever I have the time. Now, there are
more and more young people who say they want to go out on the boats.
More women say they want to do this. With any task, if the leader does
it first, the people follow. As a result, I have become well known as a
tuna fisherman.
It would have been of little use, however, if we had only caught the
tuna. We also needed to be able to sell it at the right price. We created
a tuna-processing facility, and I even sold the tuna myself. We put the
tuna in refrigerated trucks and went out and sold them. If selling was
difficult, we started our own seafood restaurants and sold the tuna
directly to consumers. Once we had our own restaurants, people could
not ignore us.
The United States has three of the world’s four largest fishing
grounds. Three-quarters of the world’s fish population live in waters
near the United States. Yet, the United States has relatively few people
to catch fish, and its fishing industry is extremely underdeveloped. The
government has taken many measures designed to support the fishing
industry, but they have not had a major effect. The government offered
to sell boats at a big discount on the condition that buyers use them for
two and a half years, but few people took advantage of the opportunity.
How frustrating this is. When we started to put money into the fishing
industry, it caused a stir in each port where we went. This was not surprising,
since communities prospered wherever we invested. Our work,
ultimately, was to pioneer new worlds. We were not simply catching
fish. We were taking paths not taken by others. How exciting it is to
pioneer new paths!
The ocean changes constantly. They say people’s minds change
morning and night, but the ocean changes moment to moment. That
is why the ocean is both mysterious and beautiful. The ocean embraces
everything in heaven and earth. It can come together at a particular
spot and form clouds or become rain and fall back down. I am very
fond of nature, because it never deceives. If it is high, it becomes lower;
if it is low, it becomes higher. In every instance, it adjusts its height to
become flat. If I am sitting holding a fishing pole, it seems as though
I have all the time in the world. What is there on the ocean to stand
in our way? Who is there to make us hurry? We have a lot of time for
ourselves. All we need to do is watch the ocean and talk with it. The
longer a person spends on the ocean, the greater the spiritual aspect of
his life will become. The ocean, however, can be calm one minute but
then quickly change its face and send us strong waves. Waves several
times the height of a person will rise up above the boat, as if to devour
it. A strong wind will tear at the sail and make a fearful sound.
Think of this, though. Even when the waves have risen and a fearful
wind is blowing, the fish in the water have no trouble sleeping. They
give themselves over to the waves and don’t resist them. This is what I
learned from the fish. I decided not to be afraid, no matter how strong
the waves were. I let the waves carry me. I made myself one with the
boat, and we rose with the waves. Once I started doing that, my heart
was never shaken, no matter what kind of waves I came up against. The
ocean has been such a wonderful teacher for me in my life that I created
the Ocean Challenge program to give young people the leadership
training the ocean provides.

Last Plane to America

Near the end of 1971, I went to the United States. I had certain
tasks that absolutely needed to be accomplished there, but
getting there was not so easy. It was not my first time to go to
the United States, yet I had to wait an unusually long time to receive my
visa. Some members suggested that I delay my departure, but I could
not do that. It was difficult for me to explain to the members, but it was
important that I leave Korea on the designated date. So I decided to go
first to Japan and receive a U.S. visa while in Japan. I was in a hurry to
leave Korea.
The day of my departure was quite cold, but so many members came
to see me off that they could not all get into the terminal. When it came
time for me to go through the passport control desk, however, it was
discovered that my passport was missing the stamp of the section chief
of the Foreign Ministry’s passport section. This stamp was required as
proof that the government had cleared me to leave the country. Because
of this, I missed the flight I had been scheduled to board.
The members who had prepared for my departure apologized profusely
and suggested that I return home and wait while they tracked
down the section chief and got him to place his stamp in my passport.
“No,” I told them. “I will wait here at the airport. Go quickly and get
the stamp.”
My heart was extremely urgent. It happened to be a Sunday, so the
section chief would not be at his desk. But I could not afford to let myself
be concerned by such matters. In the end, our members went to the
home of the section chief and had him place his stamp in my passport.
So I was able to board the final flight of the day out of Korea. That night,
the government declared a national state of emergency and imposed
heavy restrictions on foreign travel by private citizens. I had boarded
the last flight that would allow me to go to America.
I applied for a U.S. visa in Japan, but again it was refused. I discovered
later what the problem was. The Korean government still had a
record of my being detained by the Japanese colonial police just prior
to liberation on charges of being a communist. The early 1970s was a
time when communism was spreading with ferocity. We had sent missionaries
to 127 countries, but those in four communist countries were
expelled. Evangelizing in communist countries in that era could result
in death. I never gave up, however, and continued to send missionaries
to the Soviet Union and other communist countries.
Our first missionary to Czechoslovakia arrived in 1968. Around 1980,
we began to refer to our mission work in the communist countries of Eastern
Europe as “Mission Butterfly.” A larva must go through a long period of
suffering before it can grow wings and become a butterfly, and we felt that
this was similar to the suffering of our underground missionaries working
in communist countries. It is a difficult process for a butterfly to come out
of its cocoon, but once it has its wings, the butterfly can fly anywhere it
wants. In the same way, we knew that once communism came to its demise,
our missionaries would grow wings and begin to fly.
Missionary Young Oon Kim, who had gone to the United States in early
1959, toured the major universities in that country to convey God’s word. In the
process, she met Peter Koch, a German student at the University of California
at Berkeley, and this young man decided to suspend his studies and travel by
ship to Rotterdam and then start his missionary work in Germany. Missionaries
to the communist countries of Asia were sent out from Japan. These
missionaries had to be sent to places where their lives could be in danger
without so much as a special worship service to mark their departure. This
pained me as much as having to push Bong Choon Choi to try again to
smuggle himself into Japan during our final meeting in the pine forest behind
the Gabsa temple. A parent who has to watch a child being punished
would much rather be allowed to take the punishment himself. I would
have preferred to go out as a missionary myself. My heart was full of tears as
I sent those members to places where they would be watched and possibly
executed for their religious activities. Once the missionaries had left, I spent
most of my time in prayer. Earnest prayers were the best thing that I could
do to help protect their lives. Missionary work in communist countries was
dangerous work. A missionary never knew when the Communist Party
might take him.
People who went as missionaries to communist countries could not
even tell their parents where they were going. The parents knew well the
dangers of going to such countries and would never give permission for
their children to go. Gunther Werzer was discovered by the KGB and
deported. In Romania, where the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu
was at its height of power, the secret police were constantly following
and intercepting the telephone calls of our missionaries.
It was as if the missionaries had gone into the lion’s den. The number
of missionaries going to communist countries, however, kept growing.
Then in 1973, there was a terrible incident in Czechoslovakia where
thirty of our members were taken into custody. One member, Marie
Zivna, lost her life while in prison at the young age of twenty-four. She
was the first martyr who died while conducting missionary work in a
communist country. In the following year, another person lost his life
in prison. Each time I heard that one of our members had died in jail,
my entire body froze. I could not speak or eat. I couldn’t even pray. I just
sat motionless for a while, unable to do anything. It was as if my body
had turned to stone. If those people had never met me, or never heard
what I taught, they never would have found themselves in a cold and
lonely jail cell, and they never would have died the way they did. When
they died, they suffered in my place. I asked myself, “Is my life worth
so much that it could be exchanged for theirs? How am I going to take
on the responsibility for the evangelization of the communist bloc that
they were bearing in my place?” I could not speak. I fell into a sorrow
that seemed to have no end, as if I had been thrown into deep water. I
saw Marie Zivna before me in the form of a yellow butterfly. The yellow
butterfly that had escaped Czechoslovakia’s prison fluttered its wings as
if to tell me to be strong and to stand up. By carrying on her missionary
activities at the risk of her life, Marie truly had been transformed from
being a caterpillar to being a beautiful butterfly.
Missionaries working in such extreme circumstances often received
revelations through dreams and visions. They were isolated and could
not communicate freely with others, so God gave them revelations to
let them know the path they must follow. It would often happen that a
missionary who had lain down to sleep for a short while would have a
dream in which he was told, “Get up quickly and go someplace else.”
He did as he was told in the dream, only to discover later that the secret
police had raided the place where he had been resting. In another instance,
a member had a dream in which a person he had never seen
before came to him and told him how to carry out his missionary work.
Later, when he met me for the first time, he exclaimed, “You’re the person
I saw in my dream.”
This was how I had risked my life and the lives of our members to
overthrow communism and build God’s Kingdom. Yet, the United
States would not give me a visa, because it suspected me of being a communist.
Finally, in Canada, after submitting materials illustrating my claim
to be anticommunist, I was able to receive a visa to the United States.
The reason I went to all this trouble to go to America was to fight against the
dark forces that had caused America’s moral degradation. I left Korea to wage
war on the forces of evil. At the time, all the major problems of the world—
communism, drugs, moral decadence, and immorality—were mixed together
in a hellish stew. I declared, “I have come to America as a fireman and a doctor.
If a house catches fire, a fireman needs to come, and if someone is sick, a doctor
pays a visit.” I was like a fireman who had gone to America to extinguish the
fires of immorality, and like a doctor who had gone to cure America of the
illness that made it lose sight of God and go to the brink of decadence.
America in the early 1970s was embroiled in the Vietnam War, and
activists were protesting. It was a country seriously divided. Young people
searching for meaning experimented with alcohol, drugs, and
free sex and in the process were neglecting their eternal souls.
Mainstream religion, which should have provided guidance to such young
people, was not performing its role. It could not help them end their aimless
wandering and return to proper ways of living. The hedonistic, materialistic
culture dragged many young people down, because they had no place
to rest their hearts.
Soon after I arrived in the United States, I toured the country,
speaking on the topics “The Future of Christianity” and “God’s Hope
for America.” In front of large audiences, I criticized the weaknesses of
America in a way that no one else would.
I spoke about how America was founded on the Puritan spirit and had
grown to be the strongest country in the world in just two hundred years
because it received God’s boundless love and blessing. I reminded the audiences
that America’s freedom comes from God but that today America had
cast God aside. “America has a great tradition,” I said. “All you have to do is
revive it.” I went to awaken America’s spirit, to save America from destruction,
to urge people to repent and return to God.

World Tour

From childhood, my mind has always yearned for faraway places.
In my hometown, I would climb a mountain and long for the
sea. When I arrived in Seoul, I wanted to go to Japan. I have
always dreamed of going to places larger than where I was.
In 1965, I embarked on my first trip around the world. My suitcase
was filled with soil and stones from Korea. My plan was that, as I traveled
around the world, I would plant Korea’s soil and stones in each country
to signify Korea’s linkage to the world. For ten months, I toured forty
countries, including Japan, the United States, and the nations of Europe.
On the day I left Seoul, hundreds of our members came in buses to see
me off, and they filled the departure lounge at Kimpo Airport. In those
days, going overseas was a significant event. Our members thronged to
the airport on that January day with a cold strong wind blowing out of
the northwest. No one had told them to do this. They did as their hearts
told them. I received their hearts with deep gratitude.
At that time, we were performing mission work in ten countries, and
it was my plan to increase that to forty countries within two years. It
was to lay the foundation for this that I decided to visit forty countries
on my trip. My first stop was Japan. I received a tremendous welcome
there, where Bong Choon Choi had risked his life to start our mission.
But looking back, we can only be grateful.
I put the following question to the Japanese members: “Are you ‘of
Japan,’ or have you transcended the state of being ‘of Japan’?”
I continued: “God doesn’t want that which is ‘of Japan.’ He doesn’t
need that which is ‘of Japan.’ He needs people who transcend Japan. You
need to go beyond the limitations of Japan to become Japanese people
who love the world, if you are to be people who can be used by God.”
It may not have been easy for them to hear this, but I made myself
very clear.
My second destination was the United States. I entered the country
through the airport in San Francisco, where I was met by our missionaries.
From there, we toured the entire country. During the time I was touring
America, I felt strongly, “This is the country that manages the whole world.
The new culture that will be created in the future must rise up with America
as its foundation.” I set a plan then to purchase a facility for workshops
in the United States that would hold five hundred people. Of course, this
would not be only for Koreans. It would be an international facility that
would receive people from over one hundred countries.
Fortunately, this hope was soon realized. Many countries sent people
to this workshop facility, where they would study and debate about world
peace for six months at a time. Race, nationality, and religion made no difference.
I believe that the world will develop better societies when people
who have transcended race, nationality, and religion and hold a wide variety
of opinions come together and candidly discuss world peace.
During my tour of the United States, I visited every state except
Alaska and Hawaii. We rented a station wagon and drove day and night.
At times, the driver would be so tired.
“Listen here,” I would say, “I didn’t come here for sightseeing. I’m
here to do important work. We need to go carefully.”
We didn’t waste time sitting down to eat. If we had two slices of
bread, a piece of sausage, and some pickles, then that was plenty of
food for a meal. We ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner like this. We
also slept in the car. The car was our lodging, it was our bed and
our restaurant. We ate, slept, and prayed in that small car. There
was nothing we couldn’t do there. I had a particular purpose to accomplish,
so it was easy for me to endure minor inconveniences to
the physical body.
After the United States and Canada, I went to Central and South
America, and then on to Europe. To my eyes, Europe was in the cultural
sphere of the Vatican. It seemed to me that we could not succeed in
Europe without understanding the Vatican. Even the Alps, which were
supposed to be so difficult to climb, seemed of little significance in
comparison to the Vatican.
I went to the Vatican, where Europeans gather to pray, and prayed
with such fervor that beads of sweat ran down my face. I prayed that
religion, which had become divided among so many denominations
and groups, could be unified quickly. God created one world, but
people have divided it in ways convenient to themselves. I became
more convinced than ever that these divisions must be erased and
the world unified as one. From Europe, I went on to Egypt and the
Middle East and completed my tour after ten months.
When I returned to Seoul, my suitcase was full of soil and stones
from 120 locations in forty countries. When I planted the soil and
stones I had taken from Korea, I took soil and stones from each location
and brought them back to Korea. I connected Korea to these
forty countries in this way to prepare for the day in the future when
the world of peace would be realized centering on Korea. I began
preparations to send missionaries to those forty countries.

Angels Open a Path through a Dark Forest

There are two things we must leave our descendants when we
die. One is tradition, and the other is education. A people
without tradition will fail. Tradition is the soul that allows a
people to continue; a people without a soul cannot survive. The second
thing of importance is education. A people will also fail if it does not
educate its descendants. Education gives us the power to live with new
knowledge and objectives. Through education, people acquire wisdom
for living. Anyone who cannot read will be ignorant, but once educated,
a person will know how to use his wisdom in the world to manage his
own life. Education helps us understand the principles by which the
world operates. To open up a new future, we need, on the one hand, to
pass on to our descendants the tradition that has been handed down to
us over thousands of years and, on the other, to also supply them with
education concerning new things. When tradition and new knowledge
are appropriately integrated in our lives, they give birth to an original
culture. Tradition and education are both important, and it is impossible
to say which takes priority over the other. The wisdom to integrate
the two also comes to us through education.
At the same time that I founded the dance troupe, I also founded the
Little Angels School of the Arts (later renamed Sunhwa Art School).
The purpose in founding this school was to spread our ideals to the
world through the arts. The issue of whether we had the ability to manage
a school was of secondary importance. I first put my plan into action. If the
purpose is clear and good, then it should be put into action quickly. I wanted to
educate children to love heaven, love their country, and love humanity.
I wrote my motto for the school as a piece of calligraphy that said
in Chinese characters, “Love Heaven, Love Humanity, Love Country.”
Someone asked me then, “Why do you put ‘Love Country’ at the end,
when you say your purpose is to show Korea’s unique culture to the
world?”
I answered him, saying, “If a person loves heaven and loves
humanity, he has already loved his country. Loving the country
has already been accomplished in the process.”
If a Korean can cause the world to respect him, then he has already
accomplished the purpose of letting the world know about
Korea. The Little Angels went to many countries and demonstrated
the excellence of Korean culture, but they never made any nationalistic
claims about their country. The image of Korea as a country of
great culture and tradition was planted deeply in the minds of the
people who saw their performances and gave them their applause.
In that sense, the Little Angels did more than anyone to publicize Korea
to the world and practice love for their country. It gives me great
satisfaction every time I see the performances by Su Mi Jo and Young
Ok Shin, graduates of Sunhwa Art School who have gone on to become
world-renowned vocalists, and by Julia Moon and Sue Jin Kang, who
are among the best ballerinas in the world.
Since 1965, when they held their first overseas performance in the
United States, the Little Angels have been introducing Korea’s beautiful
tradition all over the world. They were invited by the British royal family
to perform in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II. They were invited
to take part in the bicentennial celebration in the United States, where
they performed at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
They gave a special performance for U.S. President Richard Nixon, and
they took part in the cultural and performing arts festival that was part
of the Seoul Olympic Games. The Little Angels are known around the
world as cultural ambassadors for peace.
The following is something that happened in 1990, when I visited
Russia. The Little Angels gave a performance on the night before I was
to leave Russia, after having met President Mikhail Gorbachev. Korea’s
little girls stood in the center of Moscow, the center of communism.
After performing Korean dances dressed in their hanboks, the Little
Angels sang Russian folk songs with their beautiful voices. Shouts of
“Encore!” from the audience made it impossible for them to come off
the stage. In the end, they completely exhausted their repertoire of
songs. First Lady Raisa Gorbachev was seated in the audience. South
Korea and Russia had not yet established diplomatic relations, and it
was very unusual for the first lady to attend a cultural performance
from such a country. However, Mrs. Gorbachev sat in the front row and
applauded enthusiastically throughout the program. After the performance,
she came backstage and handed the troupe flowers. She repeatedly
praised the greatness of Korean culture, saying, “The Little Angels
are truly angels of peace. I did not know that South Korea had such
beautiful traditional culture. During the entire performance, it was as
if I was dreaming a dream about my own childhood.” Mrs. Gorbachev
embraced each member of the troupe and kissed them on the cheek,
saying, “My Little Angels!”
In 1998, the Little Angels visited Pyongyang as the first purely private,
nongovernmental cultural exchange program and gave three performances
there. They danced the cute “Little Groom Dance” and the colorful “Fan
Dance.” The eyes of the North Korean people watching the performance
were filled with tears. The image of a woman sobbing uncontrollably was
captured in the lens of a newspaper photographer. Yong Soon Kim, chairman
of North Korea’s Asia–Pacific Peace Commission, praised the Little
Angels after their performance, saying, “They have opened a narrow path
through the dark forest.”
That was exactly what the Little Angels had done. They demonstrated for the
first time that Koreans from North and South, who had turned their backs on
each other for such a long time, were capable of coming together in one place
and watching each other’s performances. People often think that politics
moves the world, but that is not the case. It is culture and art that move the
world. It is emotion, not reason, that strikes people in the innermost part
of their hearts. When hearts change and are able to receive new things,
ideologies and social regimes change as a result. The Little Angels did more
than just advertise our traditional culture to the world. They created narrow
paths between worlds completely different from each other.
Each time I meet the Little Angels, I tell them, “You must have beautiful
hearts to perform beautiful dances. You must have beautiful hearts
to have beautiful faces.” True beauty is a beauty that wells up from
within us. The Little Angels have been able to move the hearts of people
throughout the world, because the beauty of Korea’s tradition and spiritual
culture that are imbued in their dances are beautiful. So the applause for the
Little Angels is actually applause for Korea’s traditional culture.

Power of Dance Moves the World

We were not a rich church. We were a poor church started by
people who couldn’t afford enough food to keep themselves
well fed. We didn’t have the fancy church buildings that
other churches had, but we ate barley when others ate rice and saved our
money a little at a time. We then shared that money with people who were
poorer than we. Our missionaries slept in unheated rooms by laying their
sleeping quilts on the bare cement floors. When meal time came, it was
common for them to stave off their hunger by eating a few cooked potatoes.
In every case, we did our best not to spend money on ourselves.
In 1963, we used the money we had saved this way to select seventeen
children and form a Seonghwa children’s dance troupe called the Little
Angels. Korea in those days had very little in the way of cultural performances.
We had nothing to show people from other countries, let alone
performances that we ourselves could watch and enjoy. Everyone was too
busy trying to survive to remember what Korean dance was like or even the
fact that we had a cultural heritage extending back five thousand years.
My plan was to have these seventeen children learn how to dance and
then send them out into the world. Many foreigners knew about Korea
only as a poor country that had fought a terrible war. I wanted to show
them the beautiful dances of Korea so that they would realize that the
Korean people are a people of culture. We could insist all we wanted that
we were a people of culture with a five-thousand-year tradition, but no one
would believe us if we had nothing to show them.
Our dances—with dancers dressed in beautiful, full-length hanboks,
gently twirling around—are a wonderful cultural heritage that can give a
new experience to Westerners who are accustomed to watching dancers
jump around with bare legs. Our dances are imbued with the sorrowful
history of the Korean people. The movements of Korean dance—in which
dancers keep their heads slightly bowed as if by force and move carefully so
as not be draw attention to themselves—were created by the Korean people,
whose five-thousand-year history has been filled with grief.
As the dancer raises one foot wrapped in white beoseon, the traditional
Korean leggings, and puts it forward to take a single step, she
turns her head gently and raises her hand. As I watch, the gentle subtlety
of her movements seems to melt away all the worries and frustrations in
my heart. There is no attempt to move the audience with a lot of words
spoken in a booming voice. Instead, each dance move, performed with
great gentleness and subtlety, moves the heart of the audience. This is
the power of art. It allows people who don’t understand each other’s
language to communicate. It lets people who don’t know about each
other’s history understand each other’s heart.
In particular, the innocent facial expressions and bright smiles of the
children would be certain to completely wipe away the dark image of a
country that had only recently been at war. I created this dance troupe
to introduce the dances from our country’s five-thousand-year history
to people in the United States, which was the most advanced country in
the world at that time. The society around us, however, heaped criticism on
us. Before even seeing the the Little Angels dance, they began to criticize.
“The women of the Unification Church dance day and night,” went
their outrageous criticism, “and now it looks like they’ve given birth
to children who also dance.” No such rumors could shake my resolve,
however. I was confident of showing the world what Korean dance was
like. I wanted to let the people who accused us of having danced naked
see the beautiful, gentle movements of dancers stepping lightly in their
beoseon leggings. These were not wild dances with twisting and turning
without rhythm. They were gentle dances by dancers clothed in the
traditional dress of our country.

Теологическое значение года, дня и времени перехода Истинного Отца в духовный мир

1. Бог и Божье творение существуют в числовом измерении

Согласно Божественному Принципу вся Вселенная и человек были созданы Богом на основании числовых принципов и законов (Божественный Принцип, часть II, глава 3, раздел 2.4). Поэтому Божественный Принцип говорит, что такие науки как химия и физика развиваются на базе открытий в математике. Согласно Божественному Принципу прародители человечества должны были «завершить период развития, состоящий из определенных чисел и достичь совершенства» (Божественный Принцип, часть II, глава 3, раздел 2.4). Божественный Принцип подчеркивает значимость числа 12, посредством которого Адам должен достичь совершенства: «период развития, необходимый Адаму для создания основания веры, был периодом воплощения числа 12» (Божественный Принцип, часть II, глава 3, раздел 2.4). Число 12 является центральным, поскольку существование и развитие любого существа требует создания четырехпозиционного основания. Далее, Божественный Принцип объясняет, что каждая позиция четырехпозиционного основания проходит три стадии периода развития, что в сумме дает число 12. Более того, Принцип говорит о том, что каждая позиция четырехпозиционного основания должна завершить «цель трех объектов в отношениях взаимодействия с другими тремя, являющимися ее объектами», тем самым образуя 12 объектов (Божественный Принцип, часть II, глава 3, раздел 2.4). Центральные личности провидения восстановления, стремясь к достижению цели творения, должны  были завершить число 12.

Вторым числом, имеющим центральную значимую роль в соответствии как с Принципом творения, так и с Принципом восстановления, является число 10, представляющее единство с Богом, которое достигается на основании прохождения девяти стадий косвенного владычества и достижения десятой стадии прямого владычества: «Если разбить каждую из трех стадий развития на три ступени, то в сумме их получится 9. Так в Принципе появляется число 9. Все в творении, субстанциальном объекте Бога, являясь числовым выражением дуальных свойств невидимого Творца, проходит девять ступеней периода развития, после чего осуществляет цель творения, войдя в сферу прямого владычества Бога и достигнув единства с Ним, т.е. поднявшись на 10-ю ступень. Вот почему число 10 мы называем числом возвращения к началу» (Божественный Принцип, часть II, глава 3, раздел 2.4).

Кроме того, Божественный Принцип объясняет значение числа 144, представленное в библейском упоминании 144 000 праведников, удостоившихся права на «первое воскрешение». Это число представляет первую группу людей, которые уверуют в Христа Второго пришествия, последуют за ним при жизни и станут служить ему: «В ходе Божьего провидения Иаков должен был восстановить семью, и он начал свою миссию с того, что дал жизнь 12 сыновьям. Моисей начинал миссию восстановления нации, имея под своим началом 12 колен. Если бы из каждого колена произошло еще 12, то общее число составило бы 144. Иисус, пришедший с миссией восстановить мир, нашел 12 учеников, с тем чтобы восстановить искуплением число 144 как на духовном, так и на физическом уровнях» (Божественный Принцип, часть I, глава 5, раздел 2.2.7) Далее Божественный Принцип объясняет, что подобный образом Господь Второго пришествия должен в течение своей жизни восстановить искуплением как на духовном, так и на физическом уровнях весь долгий путь провидения, начавшийся во времена первого пришествия Иисуса. Для этой цели Господь Второго пришествия должен найти такое число верующих, в котором было бы представлено число 144, образованное путем умножения 12 x 12.

И, наконец, Божественный Принцип также объясняет значение чисел 7 и 21, которые важны для понимания значения даты перехода Истинного Отца в мир вечности в соответствии с Небесным календарем. Согласно Божественному Принципу, период развития также представляет собой период осуществления числа 21: «Прародителям человечества надлежало создать основание веры, опирающееся на число 21. Таким путем они осуществили бы цель творения и стали совершенными, воплотив в себе это число» (Божественный Принцип, часть II, глава 3, раздел 2.4). Божественный Принцип утверждает, что значение числа 21 опирается на значение чисел 3 и 4. «Когда каждый элемент творения завершает прохождение трех стадий периода развития и формирует четырехпозиционное основание, он становится совершенным, воплотив в себе число 7, совокупность небесного и земного чисел» (Божественный Принцип, часть II, глава 3, раздел 2.4). Вот почему в Библии говорится о сотворении небес и земли как о периоде, занявшем семь дней. Подобно периоду сотворения, любой период, необходимый для достижения совершенства, является периодом воплощения числа 7. «Рассмотрим три стадии периода развития под этим углом зрения. Каждый период, необходимый для завершения стадии формирования, роста и завершения, представляет собой период воплощения числа 7. Таким образом, весь период развития является периодом, необходимым для воплощения числа 21» (Божественный Принцип, часть II, глава 3, раздел 2.4).

2. Взаимосвязь между провиденциальными числами и временем перехода Истинного Отца в духовный мир

Поэтому неудивительно, что время перехода в духовный мир нашего возлюбленного Отца, Истинного Родителя небес и земли, само по себе является осуществлением провиденциальных чисел Бога. День перехода Истинного Отца в духовный мир – 3 сентября 2012 года или 3.9.12. Сумма 3 плюс 9 равно 12. Как говорилось выше, число 12 является центральным провиденциальным числом, представляющим идеал совершенства каждого четырехпозиционного основания, проходящего через три последовательные стадии, а также осуществление каждым четырехпозиционным основанием цели трех объектов. Кроме того, произведение числа 12 (как суммы дня и месяца) и числа 12 (2012 год) образует число 144, представляющее собой завершение миссии Господа Второго пришествия, ответственного найти определенное число своих первых последователей. Сотни тысяч членов Церкви со всего мира, посвятившие свои жизни служению нашим Истинным Родителям, а также возносившие искренние молитвы и делавшие условия поста ради Истинного Отца в течение периода его госпитализации, является ярким свидетельством исполнения этого библейского пророчества Последних дней.

Переход Истинного Отца в духовный мир выпал на 17 день 7 месяца 3 года по Небесному календарю, что тоже является осуществлением чисел 21 и 7, а также числа 12. Число дня и месяца (17 и 7) в сумме дает 24, т.е. 12 умноженное на 2. Если третий год Чхонги умножить на седьмой месяц, то получится 21. Как объяснялось выше, число 7 в понимании Божественного Принципа является числом представляющим совершенство четырехпозиционного основания, проходящего три последовательные стадии периода развития. Кроме того, число 21 представляет 7-летний период роста для каждой из трех стадий периода развития.

И наконец, можно посмотреть на час и минуту перехода Истинного Отца в духовный мир. Истинный Отец перешел в мир вечности утром в 1:54. Эти три числа в сумме образуют число 10 (1+5+4). Как объяснялось выше, число 10 обозначает единство с Богом, достигаемое на основании прохождения 9 стадий периода косвенного владычества и достижения 10-й ступени прямого владычества Бога.

Таким образом, когда мы смотрим на день, месяц, год а также на час и минуту перехода Истинного Отца в духовный мир, мы понимаем, что они свидетельствуют о победе земной миссии Истинного Отца и достижении полного единства с Богом, осуществлении четырехпозиционного основания и восстановления требуемого числа верующих последователей. Мы можем понимать, что 1 час 54 минуты 17 числа 7 месяца 3 года (3.9.12) было время приготовленное Богом для перехода нашего Истинного Отца в мир вечности, когда Истинный Отец может взять победное основание своей земной миссии в духовный мир.

Давайте воздадим благодарность нашему Небесному Отцу и нашим Истинным Родителям, раскрывшим нам, что как и вся жизни Истинного Отца была прожита ради исполнения Божьей воли, так и момент его перехода в духовный мир был уготован Небесами как свидетельство победного завершения и исполнения им Божьей воли.

3. Значение числа дней с момента перехода Истинного Отца в духовный мир, оставшихся до Дня основания

Божественный Принцип объясняет, что прародители человечества должны были пройти период роста, являющийся осуществлением числа 40, образованного от произведения 10 и 4 (число 10 представляет собой 10 стадий, включая сферу прямого владычества Бога, а число 4 представляет четырехпозиционное основание). Как следствие, каждая центральная личность в провидении восстановления должна была восстановить число 40: «Каждая позиция четырехпозиционного основания должна пройти через период искупления, предназначенный для восстановления числа 40, а все вместе они проходят через период искупления, необходимый для восстановления числа 160» (Божественный Принцип, часть II, глава 3, раздел 2.5). Истинный Отец перешел в духовный мир за 172 дня до Дня основания. Число 172 представлено суммой 160 и 12. Число 12 символизирует то, что Истинный Отец достиг совершенства и победно осуществил четырехпозиционное основание, пройдя три стадии периода развития и достигнув единства с Богом. Число 160 представляет путь искупления, который «должен пройти падший человек» (Божественный Принцип, часть II, глава 3, раздел 2.5). Таким образом, Истинные Родители смогут направлять всех своих детей на пути искупления ради осуществления обетований Дня основания. Истинный Отец, находящийся в духовном мире, и Истинная Мать, живущая на земле, будут сотрудничать друг с другом, и будут направлять нас на пути создания условий для восстановления искуплением числа 160. Истинный Отец, находящийся в духовном мире, вместе с Истинной Матерью проведут в День основания церемонию Святого бракосочетания Истинных Родителей небес, земли и человечества, и в тот же день передадут свое последние Благословение всем благословленным семьям. Аджу.

Money Earned Honorably, Used Prayerfully

Funds accumulated through business operations are sacred.
For business profits to be sacred, however, it is important
not to lie or to take excessive profit. When conducting
business, we must always be honest, and we must never take a
profit of more than 30 percent. Money earned in this honorable
manner must, of course, be spent prayerfully. It must be spent
with a clear purpose and intent. This is the principle of business
management that I have promoted throughout my life. I believe
the purpose of business is not simply to make money. It is also to
support the missionary work, which is the work of God.
One reason I worked to create funds for missionary work
through business was that I did not want to take money from our
members for this purpose. No matter how lofty the purpose might
be, sending missionaries overseas could not be accomplished just
by wishing it. It required funds. These funds should be earned
in the name of the church. Funds for missionary work had to
be earned in an honorable way. Only then could we be proud of
everything we did.
As I looked at various options for making money, postage stamps
caught my eye. In those days, I was suggesting to members that they
write to each other at least three times a month. Mailing a letter cost 40
won, but I suggested that they not simply place one 40-won stamp on
their letters. Instead, I suggested they use forty 1-won stamps. We took
the canceled postage stamps from these letters, sold them, and managed
to make 1 million won in the first year. Seeing that used postage stamps,
which seemed insignificant, could bring in big money, the members
continued this work for seven years. We also sold black-and-white
photographs of famous places or popular entertainment personalities
that we had hand-colored with paint. This business also contributed
significantly to the operation of our church activities.
As the church grew, postage stamps and painted photographs were
no longer enough to generate the funds we needed for our missionary
work. We needed to take our business to a higher level if we were to send
missionaries all over the world. In 1962, before the Korean government
redenominated the currency, a lathe that the Japanese had been using
but then abandoned in 1945 was purchased for 720,000 won. Following
redenomination, it was worth 72,000 won. Korean currency was pegged
to the U.S. dollar, then at 125 won per dollar, so the official value of the
investment was $576. We placed this lathe in the coal briquette storage
room of the “enemy property” house we were using as our church and
called it Tongil Industries.
“To you, this lathe may seem insignificant,” I explained. “You may
wonder what kind of business we are going to do by installing one piece
of old and used machinery. This machine that you see here, however,
will be multiplied before long to become 7,000—and even 70,000—
lathes, and the company will develop along with Korea’s defense and
automobile industries. This machine that we installed today will surely
be a cornerstone for building our country’s automobile industry. Have
faith. Have the conviction that this will surely happen.”
This was what I said to those then gathered in front of the coal briquette
storage room. It was a humble beginning, but our purpose was
lofty and great. They responded to my call and worked with dedication.
As a result, in 1963 we were able to start another business on a
somewhat larger scale. This involved building a fishing boat. The boat
was launched at a pier in the Manseok Dong section of Incheon and
christened Cheon Seung Ho, meaning Victory of Heaven. Some two
hundred people attended the ceremony where this fishing boat was sent
out onto the ocean.
Water is the source of life. We were all born from our mothers’
wombs. Inside those wombs is water, so we were born from water. I
launched the boat with the belief that, in a similar way to how we receive
life from water, we need to go out onto the ocean and pass through
a series of trials there in order to become capable of surviving the trials
we will face on land.
Cheon Seung Ho was an exceptional boat. It sailed throughout the
Yellow Sea and caught many fish. The reaction of many, though, was
that we had enough to do on land and that there was no need for us to
be going out onto the ocean and catching fish. I sensed, however, that
the world was about to enter an oceanic era. The launching of Cheon
Seung Ho was a small, but precious, first step in opening that era. I was
already picturing in my mind the vast ocean with boats larger and faster
than Cheon Seung Ho.