CSG 4.3
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1Life is precious. Jesus said, "For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his soul?" (Luke 9:25) One can be qualified to become the owner of the universe only after experiencing the truth of these words. Have you become an owner with that qualification? When did you love God so much that even Satan praised you? When did you do something that moved even Satan's heart? Because you did not do these things, God, out of His love for humankind, pioneered the course of indemnity and taught that we must follow it until the time we can return to the original world. That is the teaching of the Divine Principle of the Unification Church. The course of restoration is a course you have to seek and then accomplish by following the Principle. My life has been a course of seeking out the path of restoration through indemnity. This means that all you have to do is follow the course that I have already found.
2Why did restoration through indemnity come about? We understand that it was a result of the Fall, but for what purpose did it appear? If there were no portion of responsibility, there would be no need for the term, "restoration through indemnity." Human beings fell during the course of fulfilling their portion of responsibility. At that time, human beings handed over the realm of the portion of responsibility to Satan. It was taken by Satan. Therefore we must regain the realm of the portion of responsibility.
3If God had not established the portion of responsibility, the term "restoration through indemnity" that the Unification Church teaches today would not have appeared. Restoration could have occurred without having to pay indemnity. Why does indemnity have to be paid? It is because human beings have a portion of responsibility. The first human ancestors failed to fulfill their responsibility, and we, their descendants, have yet to fulfill it. To accomplish our given responsibility, we must overcome all the obstacles in Satan's world, and stand in a position to rule over Satan. That is, we must reach the point where we can eliminate the environment in which Satan opposes us and enter the state in which we can receive the love of God with dignity. When that happens, Satan will fall away.
4Restoration through indemnity cannot be avoided. Why do we need to separate from Satan? It is because we need to fulfill the original portion of responsibility and establish the foundation for an environment of freedom. Then Satan cannot accuse us and we will stand in a place where Satan can have no relationship with us. That is why, logically speaking, restoration through indemnity and fulfilling our portion of responsibility cannot be avoided. That is why we must separate from Satan. Thus, we must have the attitude that even if we must go without eating, we will have no relationship with Satan's world. That is the dividing point, the borderline.
5All of you have lived until now without knowing the importance of the human portion of responsibility. Restoration through indemnity is to provide us with the environment of freedom in which we can accomplish our portion of responsibility. Satan seeks to invade, so we must protect ourselves against him. To protect ourselves against Satan, we must love God and humankind more than we love Satan. Satan hates God and humankind, but we must be able to say, "We love God and humankind." We cannot separate from Satan unless we stand in the position of human beings who have nothing to do with the Fall, and meet the standard whereby we can fulfill our portion of responsibility according to the one original way.
6To fulfill our human portion of responsibility, conditions of indemnity are necessary, and I have already made these indemnity conditions. Therefore, if you adopt my viewpoint and purpose of life, when you stand proudly as flag bearers of love in your nation, you will become patriots; when you go to your family, you will become filial children; and when you take your place as husbands and wives, you will be virtuous husbands and wives. In relating to the world, you will walk the path of saints, and you will attain even the position of princes and princesses who live in accordance with the laws of the Heavenly Palace. There is only one way to freely pass through all these gates: by a life of offering everything willingly for the purpose of love. This is an amazing truth.
7Restoration through indemnity is not restoration that is merely conditional. I paid conditional indemnity. Now I am making actual indemnity conditions. This is not written in the Divine Principle. You may be hearing these terms, "conditional indemnity" and conditions which are for "actual indemnity" for the first time. When we look at the course of restoration to the present, we see that God repeatedly raised individuals from Satan's world who were most conscientious. Noah was precisely that kind of person. God called Noah upon the foundation of that one individual's life of absolute faith, and settled His providence through Noah's family. Today as well, God needs such men of absolute faith. He also needs women of absolute faith and four-position foundations of absolute faith.
8The way of restoration through indemnity is the way to separate from Satan. We need to separate from Satan in order to recover the realm of the portion of responsibility. Originally Satan did not exist in the realm of the portion of responsibility. That was Adam's realm. According to the original standard, Satan should not have invaded the realm of Adam's portion of responsibility. Each of you needs to clearly bear this concept in mind as you take this path. You must complete your portion of responsibility and be engrafted amid God's love. If you want to be engrafted amid God's love, you have to separate Satan. You must separate completely everything that is related to Satan.
9Why do we need restoration through indemnity? It enables us to create a realm of freedom wherein we can fulfill our portion of responsibility. Why must we separate from Satan? This is to restore the original environment of freedom, untainted by the Fall, in which we can fulfill our portion of responsibility. This is logical. I, too, am bound by this responsibility. That is why I receive opposition worldwide. I am being persecuted and attacked on the world level. By suffering this worldwide persecution, I can separate Satan on the world level. That is what I did based on my incarceration in Danbury. In Danbury, I loved my enemy and loved my enemy's nation. With love I attended God on the frontline and set all the conditions to declare that I loved humanity more than Satan does. Because of that separation, I declared that I had attained the realm where I can fulfill the human portion of responsibility.
10Because of His heart of love, God, rather than considering the archangel His enemy and ordering him around, has been enduring Satan since the time of Adam. Due to humankind's ignorance of the secrets of Heaven and Satan, people have been living in confusion; but now the True Parents have come and revealed all those secrets. That is why I say that pursuing the course of restoration means finding the way, while pursuing the course of the Principle means following the way. I had to fight my way throughout the course of restoration, but you can speed along the path as though you were driving on a highway. We are entering the age when we can speed through in just a few hours what once took many decades. I have made everything clear; it is all based on this principle.
11How grateful are you to be going the way of restoration through indemnity, the destined way to fulfill your portion of responsibility? You should not say, "I like the words of the Principle of the Unification Church, but I don't like restoration through indemnity!" In order to be admitted to a university and be allowed to walk through its gates, you must take an exam. That may not be something you want to do, but unless you make it through, you cannot enter the school. It is the same with us. The course you must walk in the Unification Church is not easy.
12The Unification Church has been walking the way of restoration through indemnity. In order to restore everything, I created the foundation that we have now. It required me to go through indescribable circumstances in my life. I endured and prevailed without being destroyed and without being caught by Satan's hooks. I made this foundation not for my own sake but for the sake of humankind. It is not to be kept within the Unification Church. The Unification Church will disappear in the future, because everyone will belong to God's one sovereignty. This is what all religions have hoped for.
13Persevering and overcoming means you must patiently endure. No one likes to patiently endure. However, we must do so, even if it requires unbelievable effort. It is difficult because human beings were not originally meant to patiently endure hardships. People have to patiently endure because of the Fall. It is because we must offer restitution. In fact, didn't our first ancestors fall because they failed to patiently endure? So to restore this through indemnity, we have no choice but to patiently endure. That is the rule of indemnity. Satan is helpless in front of those who persevere, and in the end he will surrender to them. So be patient and endure until the very end. It is for this reason that God, our Father, has endured everything for six thousand years. We have inherited His heavenly character and His flesh and blood, so we must become like Him. Therefore our philosophy of life in this fallen world has to be one of patience and endurance. Who is this for? It is for God. The ways of filial piety and loyalty start from this. It is where the movement to liberate the nation and the world begins. That liberated world will be a place that both the good world and the bad world will welcome, and thereby hell will disappear. That is why under this principle, we must be patient and endure.
14The six thousand years of history unfolded from the individual level to the levels of family, tribe, people, nation and world. The Unification Church is going through eight stages to restore love, on the level of the individual, family, tribe, people, nation, world, cosmos and finally God. When we pray, we should do so focusing on these eight stages. Individual restoration takes place within the family, family restoration occurs within a tribe, a tribe's restoration occurs within a people, a people's restoration takes place within a nation and a nation's restoration occurs within the world. The restoration of the world occurs within heaven and earth, and the restoration of heaven and earth is completed within the love of God. This means that everything in heaven and earth should become one, centered on God's love.
15Although we may live for the sake of our families, we must also become people who live for the sake of something greater, our tribe. And although we may live for the sake of our tribe, we also must strive to live for the sake of our whole people. In this way, we need to climb up step by step. We need to continue climbing, even beyond the world. The world in which we live is the fallen world. In it there are realms of fallen individuals, fallen families, fallen tribes, fallen peoples, fallen nations, a fallen world and a fallen cosmos. We can reach God only when we have gone beyond these seven stages. How great it would be if we could leap beyond these stages all at once! That would be ideal. If Adam had gone beyond the twenty-one years of his growing period without falling, he would have gone through all these stages at once, automatically.
16The reason we human beings start from the position of the servant of servants is because we need to walk an internal course of separation from Satan through indemnity. Satan will not have a condition to attack if we fulfill all the vertical indemnity conditions that exist in Satan's world. That is why I have walked the course of restoration through indemnity through all the positions, starting from servant of servants to servant, adopted child and stepchild. After that, I had to restore the son and the mother to arrive at the position of Adam. One man and one woman have to reach the highest position possible as a man and a woman; only then can they fulfill the position of the Parents. This does not just happen. They must completely fulfill the requisite internal indemnity conditions.
17During the course of restoration, world-level persecution and even bloody sacrifice are inevitable. To rise from the position of servant of servants to that of servant, or from the position of servant to that of adopted child, you will have to face persecution. The same principle applies through all seven stages of restoration, and if God is included it becomes eight stages. People change, but God never changes. Thus among the various religions of the world, there are religions in the position of servant of servants, servant, adopted child, stepchild, son, mother, father and true parents. Religions have remained at these different stages, even as they continued through their long histories. In the Last Days, the religion of true parents centered on the True Parents will emerge.
18The Unification Church explains that we return to God by going through the stages of the servant of servants, servant, adopted child, stepchild, child, mother, father and God. These eight stages constitute the vertical standard. The horizontal standard consists of the restoration of the individual, family, tribe, people, nation, world, cosmos and God. These vertical and horizontal standards must match. We must set the standard of indemnity for both. You do not know all this, but if I did not know it, there would be no way to restore this world. It would turn into a den of the devil. I am doing everything possible to survive while the devil is coming at me from all four directions. He is trying to destroy me. Satan is in the position of the father, based on lineage, and he is the chief of all the enemies who oppose God. Yet people act as servants of this Satan, without knowing where they originally came from. Now I have come and finally revealed the root of Satan. I am now leading the movement to lay bare the roots of history.
19We have to go through the eight-stage restoration process, even if we do not complete it. Have you ever been in the position of a servant of servants, as taught in the Unification Church? When you are a servant of servants, a servant is your master. You follow the orders not of the master, but of his servant who is above you, while longing to be in the position of a servant. Once you reach the position of servant, you have to move on to the positions of adopted child, stepchild and child of God's direct lineage. Then you have to pass through the stage of the mother, and then the stage of the father as you are climbing up to the stage of God. Only when you reach the stage of God and unite with Him can you enter the world of love. The kingdom of heaven is the world of love. Longing for that final stage, you should overcome and go over all the preceding stages and enter the world of love.
20What is the Ceremony for the Settlement of the Eight Stages? It is a ceremony that marks the victorious completion of eight vertical stages -- the servant of servants, servant, adopted child, stepchild, child, mother, father and God -- and eight horizontal stages -- the individual, family, tribe, people, nation, world, cosmos and God. The Ceremony for the Settlement of the Eight Stages signifies that I have gone through the vertical and horizontal courses of indemnity according to those eight stages, and settled, and thereby the restoration of the right of the first son is completed and the course of indemnity for all the people of the earth is resolved. That is the result I brought by conducting this ceremony. The right of the elder son is restored, and True Parents can embrace all humankind. This ceremony brings an end to the history of wars and struggles that were necessary to restore the right of the elder son in the realm of the True Parents' love. Now the time has come when indemnity is no longer needed and we can have harmony in love. In order to achieve this, I had to hold the Ceremony for the Settlement of the Eight Stages. Through this ceremony True Parents forgave both the older and younger sons, so we can now enter the age of the realm where fallen parents are forgiven.
21Most people who go to prison feel despair and discouragement from the first moment they step inside. However, I was quite interested in what would result from my time there. You all have learned about restoration through indemnity, so I think you understand why I wondered what would happen after I surmounted each obstacle. Therefore, to me, the pain I would have to go through was not a problem; instead, I always thought about what new historical gift might come after the pain.
22Through the sin of the human ancestors and their failure to fulfill their portion of responsibility, a deep abyss of death came to exist. That is why I am now going beyond the national level in the course of restoration through indemnity, even though the whole world stands against me. I must establish the foundation created by this world-level condition of indemnity when the United States, as the center of the Christian cultural sphere of the democratic world, comes into oneness with the original line of equilibrium, the realm of God's direct dominion. Then the restoration of Cain and Abel will be accomplished.
23Unification Church members have to stand in the central position in their nations and in the world. The Divine Principle and the teachings of the Unification Church must become the center of the nation, the world, and heaven and earth. So what does that have to do with you? If you are to rise to the top and become leading families, you need to stand in a central position and eliminate everything that came about as a result of the Fall. This is necessary. We cannot recover the nation unless we eliminate everything related to the Fall. Even if you are standing at the bottom, you have to rise again to the top, beginning with your family. Earlier in my life, I was unable to finish the seven-year course on the family level. Hence, I had to go through the eras of the individual, family, tribe, people and nation, and then reestablish a family in the ideal position by fulfilling the responsibilities of a filial son, patriot, saint and divine son. Because I went through this process, I had no family during that time. I had do that course over again to recover the family. This has taken me forty years.
24I have forgotten the names of all my enemies. When I go to the spirit world, who could be my enemy? You must love the sons and daughters and the tribe of your worst enemy. That is the way I have lived my life. When the children of my enemies had no money to pay for school, I sent them money. When they had nothing to eat, I bought them food. So my enemy's curse against me has no place to go. Even if my enemy curses me, it does not affect me. Since he will have to pay the debt created by my heart of love for him, his descendants will have to follow me, even if his clan comes to ruin. They will have to serve me as servants while wailing in repentance for his sin. So my enemies are people to be pitied. Because God feels pity for them as well, He chose me to save them -- to be the eternal center, the central person who could set today's world straight and, with God on high, regain the world.
25Make one thousand spiritual sons and daughters, and take the position of their ancestor on behalf of God. Your role as their ancestor is to embrace all your spiritual children and live for their sake every day. That is the way I have lived my life. Because of this, I have shed many tears that no one knows about. I have shed tears for individuals, for families and for tribes. I have shed tears not only for humanity on earth but also for all humanity in the spirit world and also for the liberation of God. Still, paying indemnity is not a simple matter. It is like water that has fallen to the ground and flows toward the ocean. Nevertheless, if people do not have grateful hearts for the Parents of Heaven and Earth, who have made such a contribution to history, I cannot be responsible for their ingratitude.
26The fulfillment of the providence of restoration means the fulfillment of restoration through indemnity. True Parents have been taking responsibility for it, because I know that God cannot intervene or take responsibility unless True Parents take responsibility. Likewise, you have to walk your course of restoration by paying your own indemnity. You can shorten the history of six thousand years to sixty years or even six years. You can do it during your life on earth. I have taught you everything. You must believe absolutely in what I taught you, and love True Parents more than you love your own father and mother. You must resolve that, as sons and daughters who were born in the state of purity that has nothing to do with the blood of Satan, you will make heaven and earth your homeland, your ideal nation. You also must resolve that among your family, you will establish people who will become filial children, patriots, saints and divine sons and daughters by attending True Parents. By accomplishing this, your entire clan will enter the kingdom of heaven, beginning with your own family.
27It is fortunate that I came into this world. You have no idea how hard it has been to sort out all the tangles of mistakes in the bitter grief of human history. This wretched history has been rolling on incessantly, so the question is, who will pave the way and turn it back to Heaven? Behind the few years of Unification Church history stretches a human history that spans thousands of years and hundreds of thousands of years. All that history is connected to the history of our church. Do not forget that the Unification Church has embraced the bitterness of indemnity to restore this sorrowful history.
28God's eternal hope, the moment that God has been yearning for, the one moment that all religions in human history have awaited, has arrived within your lifetime. That long-awaited moment is the moment when the True Parents, who represent Jesus Christ, come into the world. Therefore, it is your responsibility to offer sincere devotion and to welcome that moment without any wavering. Many nations fell, many religions rose and fell, and many sages and saints were sacrificed in order to welcome the Enthronement Ceremony for God's kingship. On top of that, the Lord at the Second Advent had to take on the portion of responsibility that Jesus, who came as the only begotten Son, had left for his return, and conclude restoration through indemnity. Amid all this misery, God has been unable to maintain His dignity as the Creator. Yet you must know that He is none other than our True Father. He is the owner of love, the owner of life and the owner of lineage. His relationship with us is destined to become a relationship of Father and children, a relationship of inseparable oneness.
29Except for Jesus, even the founders of religion never thought of God as their Father. We understand that He is, but the more serious question is, how shall we take this reality and experience Him as our Father? I can represent heaven and earth today because, ever since I knew God and the spirit world, I followed Him, enduring any kind of persecution as if it were nothing. Unless you also live such a life, you cannot become the people whom God will remember forever as victors. True Parents are in this position. As the Savior, this has been their life course. You who received the Blessing also have to follow this course.
1If you want to receive God's love, you have to deny everything of this world and offer your life in loving God, which means entering into a love relationship with God. If you want to receive God's love, you must invest your life; the force of life will enter you in proportion to your investment. If you thus unite your life with God's life, you can finally be restored to the position of a son or daughter before the Fall, a son or daughter whom God can trust. This is the way you build the foundation of faith. Once you have built the foundation of faith, it means that you have conditionally moved from the position of Adam who fell due to his disbelief, to the position of Adam who can be trusted by God, namely, the position God had hoped Adam would take. Afterwards, we have to fight against Satan's temptations and create the foundation of substance. From the position of Abel, we must bring Cain to a natural surrender. We do not fight against Satan with fists; we fight with love. This is because the human ancestors fell through love. If the level of Satan's love is ten, then the level of our love must be fifteen. If Satan's love is fifteen, our love must be twenty.
2Because of the Fall, human beings lost their Heavenly Parent, received Satan's lineage, and came under Satan's dominion. Restoring what was originally intended requires going in the reverse order. We can receive the Messiah only when we have laid the foundation of faith and the foundation of substance. This is what the Divine Principle teaches: we, in our lifetime, have to establish the foundation of faith and the foundation of substance.
3Since Adam lost both faith and substance, he can recover love only after he has restored both the foundation of faith and the foundation of substance. What did Adam lose? First, Adam lost faith, next, he lost substance, and finally, he lost love. He lost these three; therefore we need to restore them.
4In order to go the way of restoration, you first need to establish a foundation of faith. The foundation of faith is necessary to create a solid foundation upon which you can secure your place and stand in the subject partner position. This will enable you to pursue Heaven's goals by yourself; however, that is not enough. You still have to establish the foundation of substance. The foundation of substance is the foundation that makes Cain surrender to Abel. Cain is the son of the enemy, Satan. It was by the hand of Cain that struggles in history came about. Through him evil took root and waves of death swept through history. To block these evil actions and stop the evil side, a person in the Abel position, that is, a person on God's side, must win over a person in the Cain position.
5There are two paths we must take. One is for our sake; the other is for the sake of Cain. That is to walk the path of serving our enemy. This means that, in order to go our own path, we must deal with Cain. What is the foundation of substance? Even though Abel has paved his own way, he cannot stand before God unless he totally wins over Cain. Abel should bring his enemy with him. He should not attack his enemy; rather, he should lead his enemy and bring his enemy with him.
6To remove the original sin, we establish a foundation for the Messiah by restoring the foundation of faith and the foundation of substance. Once we have done that, we are able to newly enter the realms of God's life and love. To remove the original sin requires an engrafting process. In order to make a wild olive tree into a true olive tree, we have to prune it and engraft it with a branch from a true olive tree. Likewise, in order for people who are like wild olive trees to become true olive trees, they have to go through a process of self-denial and then welcome and completely affirm a new self.
7People say they have reached a standard of perfection, but this standard does not straighten out the blood lineage. Since human beings have inherited Satan's lineage, their lineage is not pure. In order to purify it they definitely need the Messiah. Therefore, fallen people absolutely need the foundation of faith and the foundation of substance as the foundation to receive the Messiah. The ultimate question is how to create the foundation to receive the Messiah and change your lineage through the Messiah.
8What should be your standard in living your life of faith? Your goal must be to achieve a higher position than that of our ancestors Adam and Eve. To get there, you must fight. But against whom do you fight? Brothers are not meant to fight against each other. You must fight against Satan. When you are about to do something good, Satan is bound to appear, but so is God. You stand in the middle, between good and evil. In that position, you can become a person of goodness only by conquering evil and following goodness, until evil surrenders to you of its own accord. In the terminology of the Divine Principle, this is called completing the foundation of substance; it is accomplished by fighting with Satan and gaining victory. After you defeat Satan, you will be rewarded. In this world, accomplishments are recognized with plaques or money, but we are not talking about such trivial things. Our reward is unique and of inestimable value; it is the love of God.
9Fallen people must seek the Messiah. The Messiah comes as the True Parents to give us rebirth. It is a rebirth -- not through life, but through love. Where does that love originate? Consider the parent-child relationship: we think of our natural parents, but the original subject partner of love is God. If God is the subject partner of love in heaven, then it is Adam who represents God's love on earth. This means that True Father is in the position of the subject partner of love. Since True Father is in the position of the subject partner of love, True Mother must appear alongside True Father as his object partner. For this, Christianity to this day has been seeking the positions of father and mother, but it has not found them. The decisive teaching that shows how to find these positions is the biblical concept of the bride and bridegroom.
10In the Bible we learn that the human ancestors, Adam and Eve, fell. The Fall means that they failed, and failing means that they did not pass their test. Another way to look at it is that they contracted a sickness. Therefore, history began with sorrow and tears instead of joy. For sure it was not filled with blessings. Where was the word "Blessing" to have begun? The history of the Blessing should have begun with Adam and Eve. There should have been someone to receive the Blessing and someone to give it. If Adam and Eve were the ones to receive the Blessing, then God was the one to give it. In this sense, human beings were created to receive the Blessing from God. By giving them the Blessing, God would have had continuous relationships with all people. Therefore, the Blessing belongs to God and, at the same time, to human beings.
11Since Adam and Eve fell at the completion level of the growth stage, in the course of restoration as well, the originating point of the Blessing from True Parents begins at the completion level of the growth stage. That is the stage when you receive the Blessing. After receiving it, you then have to pass through a seven-year course before you can stand at the level of perfection. Even I have to pass through this course just as you do. It is our common destiny to have to pass through this course.
12The term, "the Blessing" did not begin with the Unification Church. It has been the hope in God's innermost heart -- something He has pursued and strived to fulfill while leading the providence through history. God had wanted to fulfill this hope by giving Adam and Eve the Blessing of marriage after He created them in the Garden of Eden. However, to this day, no one has ever received this Blessing. God has been in the sorrowful position of waiting throughout human history to see the realization of His hope for the Blessing. After working in history for four thousand years, God sent Jesus to this earth for the purpose of finally realizing the Blessing that He had desired to give human beings. Jesus was doing God's providential work, but he was crucified before he could receive the Blessing. Throughout subsequent history, many Christians struggled and shed blood as martyrs, but still God's hope remained unfulfilled. God walked the path of suffering along with them to see His dream come true, but until now He couldn't find that day. Only with the coming of that day will His bitter grief in history be dissolved, and the dream that He has nursed throughout history be fulfilled.
13The Fall occurred at the completion level of the growth stage, and we have to reverse its course to be restored to the original state. Adam and Eve fell through the misuse of love. In the course of our restoration as well, when we reach the stage Adam and Eve were in when they fell, we also must overcome this problem of love. Up to the present, people have been receiving love from the false parent, Satan. To overcome this problem of Satan's love, there is no other way but to connect to True Parents' love, which is centered on God. Therefore, human beings, who have inherited the fallen parent's lineage in the realm of the Fall, must meet True Parents and unite vertically with them to find their way along the path that leads beyond the realm of the Fall. The Divine Principle teaches that we must take that position. However, it cannot be fulfilled alone; it requires that men and women be paired as couples. This is the Blessing conducted in the Unification Church. Therefore, the Blessing cannot be performed based on how you want it; it must be done centered on the Parents, the vertical center.
14Human beings lost all things of creation due to the Fall. Satan also defiled their substance -- their bodies -- and took away their hearts. Everything must be restored through indemnity. Hence, we must put God at the center of our lives and resolve the problem of all things, the problem of substance and the problem of heart. Also, unless we pass through the completion stage, we cannot attain the standard of perfection. This is a principle and law. Thus, all the lost things of creation must be restored and the defiled substance of human beings must be restored. The stolen heart has to be restored as well. When we look at this horizontally, all things represent formation, substance represents growth and heart represents completion.
15People commonly use the word "blessing" to denote the highest value. When businesses are successful, people say they are blessed; it means that they are fortunate. They also say they are fortunate when they have a good son or daughter. However, the Blessing is to be received by men and women. What is great about the Blessing received by a man and a woman? First, it is to begin a relationship of love in the very place where life is created. This is the most precious thing. Next, the Blessing is where a man and a woman connect to the life that does not belong only to human beings, but to God, who is the center of eternal life. It is where they inherit the ideal of love where their love is not only their own love but is connected with God's eternal love. Upon this foundation, they should strive to fulfill the ideal of life. This truly is a blessed life.
16The Blessing is to receive and inherit the bond with the True Parents of Heaven and Earth. Although God could not realize the relationship of heart that He wanted to have with Adam and Eve after the creation, through the Blessing thousands of generations of descendants will come forth, fulfilling God's hope for a world that will last for eternity. God's hope that was not realized in the beginning has been bequeathed to us today. We inherit that hope as representatives of True Father and True Mother. We inherit the glorious medals and plaques that True Father and True Mother received and all their great, victorious achievements in their fight against Satan's world.
17The Unification Church is the only place since the beginning of history that lays out a systematic path to the salvation of the family. That is why families that believe in the teachings and follow the way of the Unification Church will be able to receive salvation and enter the kingdom of heaven. Our mass weddings are the ceremonies that create such families. The world sneers at us and says all kinds of nasty things, but it does not know what an amazing and astonishing thing the content of the Blessing is. We must become true sons and daughters who are one with the principles of heaven and earth and who share in both the heart of heaven and the heart of human beings. We should then form families in the position of God's true first sons and true first daughters, and live our lives on this earth with God as our center. When we do this, we can fulfill the purpose of our life as true human beings born on earth and fulfill God's original purpose for creating human beings. This is the path true people have to follow.
18We stand on the foundation of the merit of True Parents, who have been walking the course of restoration. Our value is now higher than that of Adam and Eve who fell in the Garden of Eden. Therefore you are within the realm of authority where you can represent the standard of a people, tribe, family and couple, all of which Jesus was unable to attain. If you follow the standard of faith that is absolutely united with the Word, and if you are absolutely united with the life and heart of the True Parents, you can receive the Blessing from God without any problem.
19Centering on whom can you receive the Blessing? Centering on the Parents. They are the True Parents, in whom you can place your absolute faith. You would be punished if you received the Blessing without being able to say with absolute conviction, "I have come forth because of my relationship with True Parents, with their flesh and blood. No force in the universe can sever this relationship." In the future, if you violate this condition and fail, your life will become miserable. You have appeared as a representative of history and the representative of your good ancestors. You stand in a solemn position, representing all your good ancestors and your tribe in this era.
20You will be able to return to God only if you can feel from the tips of your fingers to the ends of your toes that you have been completely reborn through the love of True Parents and are grateful for it. However, there are all sorts of things tying you down, so you must kick all of them away and move beyond them. That is the path you are destined to take, no matter how tremendously difficult it may be. How many people without even a twig to grab on have fallen into the abyss? Countless individuals, families, tribes and countless nations have been destroyed, because while on the path they fell off the cliff and died. However, if someone could build a bridge that spans the abyss between the cliffs, such a thing would be worth more than nations and even more than the world. That precious bridge has now been built for you, thanks to your relationship with True Parents. It is more valuable than receiving all of heaven and earth.
21Satan's blood is churning in your veins. Therefore, after cursing and trampling on your unworthy self and repenting in shame for having nothing in you that God can accept, you must come to the place of the Blessing. True Parents suffered to open this way for you, so you need to come with love and gratitude deep in your heart. At the place of Blessing, you must not measure good or bad based on your own thought and brain. Right there your lineage is changed; your bloodline is actually changed. The place of the Blessing is the very best place you can be in the entire world. It is impossible to attain the place of the Blessing on your own; you attain it solely by virtue of the love of True Parents. When a child is born from his parents, whether he is good-looking or not, the child resembles his parents. In the same way, in the Unification Church you are taught the way to become true parents. For you, that is the blessing of blessings.
1A life of true love simply means living for the sake of others. It is a life of giving to others first, for their sake, before wanting others to give to you, for your sake. It is giving to others and then forgetting what you have given to them. It is not a matter of wanting something in return for what you have given. Rather, you feel sorry that you were not able to give more. It is a life of taking a humble position, even as you give to others and live for their sake. That is the love of parents and the love of an owner. Such is the heart of God, the True Parent of humanity.
2If you love people as much as you love God, people will love you just as God loves you. This is why in the Bible Jesus said, "Everyone who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven." (Matt. 10:32) It is the same principle. That is why I am telling you to love people just as you love God. When you invest in something, do not think about it. Do not spare anything, and then do not remember what you invested. You have to become a leader with the heart of a parent, with the heart that if you have something to eat, you would want to save it for others rather than eating it yourself, or you would not eat by yourself, because you think of your members first.
3You should always be in the position of a subject partner, centered on God's love. You should be able to influence others. How can you influence others? By giving. When you give, how should you give? You should not give leftovers. If you give leftovers from your meal, even if people eat them, afterwards they will spit them out in disgust. Let's say you have five rice cakes to give out to people. If you pick up one, put it down and then pick another, wondering how much to give, it is worse than not giving at all. Without any hesitation you should just pick up a handful of them and give them out. Then people will thank you. But if you hesitate in giving, people will criticize you even after you do them that favor. Thus, when you give, you should do so with God's parental heart.
4When you act centering on yourself, it brings evil results, but when you act for the sake of the whole, it brings advancement. When you act for the sake of the whole, every door will open to you. The doors of the individual, family, tribe, people, world and heaven will open; the doors to every path, including the way of love, will open and welcome you. From this viewpoint, the Unification Church teaches the heavenly principle that we are born for the sake of others. So we choose the path of living for the sake of others and actually live our life that way.
5If someone truly invested his or her life and sacrificed everything so you could receive a benefit of 100 percent, would your original heart tell you to repay 50 percent and put 50 percent in your pocket, or would it tell you to pay back as much as you can? Our original heart tells us to repay even more than we received. If we truly know that someone gave us everything with a heart of love, our original heart will tell us to give back more than 100 percent. It is by this process that the concept of eternity is established. It is how eternity originated. The principle of total investment was established in the very beginning. Advancement and prosperity flow from that point.
6Parents' love is good, but if the parents give it for their own sake, the children will not want it. Children's love is good, but if it demands that the parents live for the sake of the children, the parents will not want it. If you gave ten with love for the sake of others, it will return as eleven. Love for the sake of others works that way. If your partner loves you and lives for your sake even in a small way, you want to give back more than you received. This cycle will continue to expand. If the cycle of giving continually expands throughout your life, this sacrificial way of life will extend itself beyond the nation to the world, the heavenly kingdom, and the entire eternal spirit world. When you demand that others live for you, however, your benefit will diminish more and more. If you live like that, what is ten at first will the next time be reduced to eight. If you demand night and day that others live for you, your heart will shrivel up. Since love comes from the other, only when we follow the way of living for the sake of others can pure, ideal love flow back and forth between us.
7There should be no such thing as selfish individualism. The union of Eve and the archangel was based on a self-centered consciousness -- the idea that the self should live for its own sake. That is why we have to deny that path. Up to this point we have been talking about living for the sake of others, but not anymore. From now on, we need to talk about living for the sake of others and the self at the same time. Who are others? "Others" includes "me." We say we have to live for the sake of the Cain world, but that is not exactly so. We must bring them to us because those others and I are actually one body. This is no longer the time for teaching the principle of living for the sake of others; rather, we should teach living for the sake of "others and me." We have to bring our partners to the point that they become one with us, and in so doing, we make something greater -- "us." Then we can go to the kingdom of heaven together. Those who think that they alone are the best will not be able to enter the kingdom of heaven. This is a principle. If there is one model at the center, then everything for 360 degrees around the center must be divided into equal parts. There should be no barriers, only equality, peace, unity and freedom. Thus we are not merely living for the sake of others. Our heart and body have to be united based on a greater heart through the principle of "others and I." In this way, we have to bring Cain to voluntary submission.
8We have to repay our parents who have lived for our sake. Therefore we must be filial children. Life did not begin from us; it came forth from the Origin of the universe. The entire universe exists in the position of living for the sake of others, and any being that denies this is bound to perish. Such a being would have no origin and therefore no basis for existence. Human beings are born to live for the sake of others. This means we must live for the sake of those who love us. We live for the sake of our father and mother until we die, because we need to make their love grow after we first receive it. If we live for their sake until the day they die of old age, our family will grow bigger. In order to inherit the nation, our family has to grow to the level where its love for the nation exceeds the love between the husband and wife. Then it will become a family that the nation can embrace. We must live for the nation, which is greater than the family, and live for the world, which is greater than the nation. Then we must live for heaven and earth, which are greater than the world, and finally we must live for God, who is the greatest of all.
9Satan began his invasion by violating God's heart. Therefore the first step in subjugating and judging Satan is to revive God's heart. In other words, the foundation for victory begins by stimulating God's heart. In the Last Days there is judgment of the Word, judgment of personality and judgment of heart. These three -- Word, personality and heart -- are the standards of judgment. How can we achieve these standards? We have to ascend to a stage higher than that of Adam and Eve when they fell. Otherwise we will not be in the position to raise the flag of victory. As people who were called by God, who is the original being of the Word, we have to stand in the position of people who have recovered the Word, and we have to stand in the position of people who have substantiated the Word and inherited God's heart. These are the standards we have to reach, and to reach them we must be above the level where Adam and Eve fell. That is why the Unification Church teaches about the heart of God in the age of completion.
10When Adam and Eve fell at the completion level of the growth stage, they did not understand the heart of God. However, in this age of completion, the Unification Church teaches about the heart of God. It also teaches what the Will of God is and how to fulfill it. Therefore, unless we stand above the level of Adam and Eve at the time of the Fall, we cannot resolve the problem that caused them to fall. We have to move up to that place. Among all the people in the world, however, until now not even one person has attained this position. That is why I am urging you to reach it.
11You must set your own goals and live according to those goals. You must live your life in a way that God can move with you and history can move with you. Your life should be a model for humanity and for your descendants to follow. Also, you must be courageous and bold in your actions -- as when God told Joshua, "Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed; for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." (Josh. 1:9) Thus God reveals His will to central persons in order to fulfill His providence. When God orders a battle with an enemy, we certainly will win that battle. But if you are set on your own goals and live your life according to secular standards, Satan will invade you. The matter is decided based upon what your goals are. Life goals approved by the secular world will not do. They must be life goals that are approved in the realm of heart.
12Behind your will, life and action there must be heart. Your will, life and action must be based on the heart of history, the heart of restoration, the heart of creation, and the heart for all humanity. Adam and Eve were meant to face the matter of heart only after they reached perfection, after going through the formation, growth and completion stages. The central issue in the new age to come will be heart. You must lead your life centered on the heart of God. His heart consists of the heart of restoration and the heart of creation. If the Fall had not occurred, there would have been no such thing as the heart of restoration. There would have been only the heart of glory -- the heart of creation, which rejoices just to gaze upon it. The heart of restoration came about because of the Fall. We have to fulfill the Will through restoration because of the Fall. That is why, based on God's Will and teaching, we have to relieve the heart of God, who has grieved throughout the course of restoration. Since Adam and Eve fell without being able to complete and offer God even one day of glory, we have to complete and offer that one day of glory for God. With the heart of restoration and the heart of creation, we must offer that one day of glory to God.
13People in England or America should not consider the Japanese or German people who visit their countries as enemies. Even though they are from former enemy countries, the British and Americans should think of them as an extension of their own families. By the same token, wherever you go in the world, if you see an elderly person, you should treat that person with more love than you would give to your own grandfather or grandmother. That is how you come closer to Heaven. If we can, we should create such an environment that American grandmothers treat Japanese children as their own grandchildren. They would even want their grandchildren to intermarry with them, overlooking the difference of nationality. Love is a mighty thing. In the world of love, people keep their loved ones close to their heart, no matter what the circumstances. The family is the training ground for life in heaven. The kingdom of heaven on earth and in heaven is an extension of the family. This is the reason I have worried about America.
14The model family whose members are united by love is like a textbook of the kingdom of heaven. The world is an extension of the family. The people of the world can be differentiated by age: those at the age of grandfathers and grandmothers, those at the age of mothers and fathers, those at the age of young couples and those at the age of children. If the people of these different ages train themselves to unite and harmonize with one another within their own families, they create a formula by which wherever they go, whether on earth or in heaven, they can inherit everything, participate in everything and become the owners of everything. The kingdom of heaven is one family. The kingdom of heaven on earth is a world where people treat one another with love as their own brothers and sisters, beyond the national barriers. People who live such lives then move on to the eternal kingdom of heaven in heaven. That is the greatest success in life and the path of greatest happiness.
15Men and women are supposed to be ideal partners who help each other reach perfection. Without a partner there is no way to find true love and no way to attain perfection. Your mother and father should give you their signatures of approval, your grandmother and grandfather should say, "okay," your spouse should say, "okay," and your sons and daughters should say, "My father and mother are okay." When all of them recognize you as a good couple, your sons and daughters will be happy. They will be happy because they live with you, their parents, who represent God, the King of the Universe. Your home, where they live, is a palace in which they are princes and princesses. Such a family is the kingdom of heaven. I have discovered this, and I am now teaching you by practicing it.
16The kingdom of heaven starts from the family. The grandparents represent the past, the mother and father the present, and the sons and daughters the future. In this way, the past, present and future are condensed in the family. The mother and father represent the current world. The grandfather and grandmother are in the position of God in the past; the mother and father are in the position of God in the present, and the sons and daughters are in the position of God in the future. They all are equal in true love. Based on the logic of true love, they attain equal value and ideal oneness. True love is love for the sake of others, and based on such love, the four directions blend into one. The family where this occurs is eternally protected by the fortune of God's love. Its members are the partners of God's love, and therefore they will never die but live for eternity.
17True parents are horizontal beings, and horizontal beings need a vertical being -- Heavenly Parent. It is our heart that resembles the vertical Parent. It is our conscience that inherits vertical love, life and lineage, and it is our body that inherits horizontal love, life and lineage. God can only settle in the place where human beings join in a virtuous union, where their human hearts and Heaven's heart are joined at a 90-degree angle. From that place all fortune springs and flows, and the world of eternal happiness and blessings begins. We must form this kind of heavenly kingdom in the family. When this kind of life expands, it becomes the world.
18We should know God's love. We should know the love of our parents and learn how to attend them. We should know conjugal love and learn how to serve our spouse. We should know our children's love and learn how to understand and support them, not just give them directions. Only then can we understand God's love. We need parents, spouse and children as the textbooks of love. Unless we have children, we are incomplete and cannot understand God's love, because we cannot understand how much God loves us, His children. Unless you are a husband, you cannot know a wife's love, and unless you are a wife, you cannot know a husband's love. Children do not know what parents' love is like until they become parents. Children, spouse and parents are textbooks to learn from. Hence, without sons and daughters you cannot be true parents. You need your parents, your spouse and your children so you can become first class products that meet the standards of the original Principle. Only then will the universe stamp you with its seal of approval as Grade A products that can experience God's love. Then you will go into the kingdom of heaven automatically.
19One who is always able to discern whether God is happy or sad cannot become an evil person even if he or she thinks to do so. He or she cannot go against the law of Heaven, even if he or she tries. The kind of person God deplores the most is the one who tries to use other people, whether in a private or public setting. Also God deplores those who evaluate matters based only on their self-benefit. The people God cherishes are those who yield to others. To yield means that you continually follow the person to whom you yield. You continually do what that person says. If you keep on doing it, you will find yourself orbiting in a circle, and you will end up acquiring that person's position. In the end you can possess everything that person owns.
20To your partner you should always be meek and humble; you should submit, obey and surrender yourself to him or her. You do this in order to win him or her over completely. It is not just to occupy your partner, but to win him or her over in every respect. Likewise, in the world of faith, you must use the strategy of denying yourself and completely complying with your leader's desires. This strategy is not to make you cease to exist, but to win him or her over completely. This is something of which you should be aware in your everyday life.
21Arrogance is your enemy. Arrogance and insisting on your own way are the essence and character of Satan. So instead of being arrogant, you should be modest; instead of insisting on your own way, you should be humble. Harmony creates friendship. Thus, you should be able to bring harmony to everyone. If you can do that, everything will start to flow. If people fail to unite in harmony, nothing greater can come. Lack of harmony leads to stagnation. Therefore, you must not give in to jealousy or envy, which, along with arrogance and insisting on your own way, are the essence of Satan's nature.
22The work of the Unification Church is to transform people into saints. Great people have to face enemies, but saints do not regard anyone as an enemy. Great people love their own people, but saints love all humankind. Therefore, when great people seek to stand before God, He tells them, "You loved your own people but you failed to love all the people of the world, whom I love and am trying to save. Isn't that so?" Hearing that, they are not able to stand in His presence. On the other hand, those who fulfill the duties of saints can go directly into His presence. The Unification Church works on transforming people into saints.
23Those who worship God need to shed their blood. Those who love God must shed tears. In fact, tears should not dry from their eyes. Those who seek God must shed sweat. Then, with the heart of a parent and in the shoes of a servant, they must sacrifice and serve humanity from the position of Abel, giving everything they have with utmost devotion. In giving, they should not boast to others, but rather feel sorry that they cannot give something better. This is what Godism is all about.
24The reason I stay up all night meeting with people is so that I can love everyone. If I disliked anyone, I could not take responsibility for the work of restoration. I have to love everyone, the good and the bad. Unless I love everyone, I cannot represent God. The Fall means that the first human ancestors fell down from God's world to the opposite place. The Fall caused the world to plummet to a bad place. Nevertheless, if God were to say that this world was bad, He could not be God. He could not fulfill the work of restoration. When God created the world, all the while He said it was good. He could not be God anymore if He said this world had become bad because of the Fall. That is why it is a principle to treat even bad things as good things. That is why Jesus said, "Love your enemy." (Matt. 6:44)
25To love your enemy means that you stand in a position where you do not have an enemy. To stand in that position means that you return to the original position in the original world, to the Garden of Eden which has nothing to do with the realm of the Fall. This is what we are fighting for. We fight so everyone can return to that state. Therefore, when you meet someone for the first time, do not reckon him to be a bad person, even if he is.
26You must become families who can settle at the position of high noon, where no shadow is cast. The Garden of Eden was a place of true love, without any shadows. In love there are no shadows. That is why everything in the world wants to come and be in that place. In the position of high noon, no one asserts his or her self. It is the place of absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. There is no assertion of self. This is what happens to everyone in the presence of true love. Adam's family must be established as a family without shadows. Then from it will emerge Adam's tribe, Adam's people, Adam's nation and Adam's world.
27There must be a place of Sabbath, without shadows, where God can come and freely settle anytime He likes, day or night. Establishing such a place is God's ideal of creation. Therefore, the reason we live as we do, seeking that place, is to attend God as our eternal Father, from the individual level all the way up, even in the heavenly world, and to become families of filial sons and daughters, patriotic men and women, saintly couples and divine sons and daughters. Through such families, God can freely travel anywhere He wants. The kingdom of heaven on earth and the kingdom of heaven in heaven will be realized when the world without any shadows is connected to heaven and earth. This world is where God can travel freely back and forth, visit anyone, from the youngest family to countless generations of our ancestors, all at once, and reach heaven and earth in all four directions, as He pleases. That is why the place of settlement at high noon, where no shadow is cast, must come.
28You are not to live a life with shadows. Therefore, I proclaimed the high noon settlement. It is a marvelous concept. For there to be no shadows, mind and body must be united and the family must be united as a four-position foundation. If the father did something wrong, he would create a father's shadow. If the mother did something wrong, she would make a mother's shadow. If there were four members in the family and the four could not settle down, then the light would be blocked. No one likes the place of shadows. That is why we must achieve the high noon settlement. There shouldn't be any shadows, even after we go to the next world. God travels through the vertical line of eight stages from the shadow-free individual to the shadow-free family, tribe, people, nation, world, cosmos and God. Can there be any shadow cast on God's love? It is purity itself. That is why everyone wants that purity, even in his or her flesh and blood. No one likes shadows. The shadow is Satan. This is why whenever we do wrong, we tend to cover it up. That is the enemy. That is the barrier. You must break down that barrier if you are to have the high noon settlement. I am not saying this just symbolically. It must be done.
29In front of the True Parents, we must fulfill our duties as true filial children, true patriots, true saints and true divine sons and daughters. Only then can God's kingship be established. The kingship of the heavenly nation is based on expanding the authority of the sons and daughters who attend the True Parents. Once the kingship is established, God will be enthroned and Satan's world will disappear.
30From now, we need to establish a new tradition with the family as its center, based on the tradition of those who lived their lives as patriots, saints and divine sons and daughters. For this, we need to replace the traditions that existed during the age of indemnity. This new tradition is what we will follow for eternity in the kingdom of heaven. Centering on the family, we should establish the ways of true filial sons and daughters, true husbands and wives who are faithful to each other, and true patriots, and prepare the ways of saints and divine sons and daughters. We have to prepare these ways here on earth.
End of The Path of Restoration toward God's Original Ideal