Hyung Jin Moon
December 12, 2010
Cheon Bok Gung
Yongsan, Seoul, Korea
Today, I want to talk to you about the beauty of love. But before we do that, I have to make a brief announcement, because in my life, there is the most beautiful love and that person is one person, very special. She is my everything, my all. That is my beautiful wife. It was her birthday yesterday. We had a wonderful surprise party yesterday; very cute. They tried to hide in one of the rooms but it was totally obvious that they were hiding. But it was very beautiful so we were very grateful.
Let us start with the world scriptures. Let us start from Confucianism today. This is from Chu Hsi:
Benevolence is simple undifferentiated gentleness. Its energy is the springtime of the universe and its principle is the mind of living things in the universe.
Aju!
This is from the Qur'an, the 39 Sura:
Those who act kindly in this world will have kindness.
Aju!
And from the Judeo-Christianity tradition, this is from Proverbs 8:17:
I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me.
Aju!
Of course, the Word of God, this is from True Parents, Vol. 6 Selections of Sermons of True Father:
First Corinthians 13 states "faith, hope and love abide… but the greatest of these is love." But people do not understand what love is. What does it mean to love with your whole heart and mind and soul? It means that you love even risking your life.
Aju!
And as Father commented on that core scripture, let us move in to the Biblical scripture, upon that scripture, First Corinthians 13:
Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Aju!
When we look at Christian traditions, we see that the description of the love we see is the description of the love of Christ. Yes! It is the love of Christ. And Christians really explain the predicament of man in a simple way, but in a clear way. Number one, God created man to be with Him. That is number one. Number two, because of sin -- that can be anything from the betrayal of Lucifer all the way to the smaller sins we accumulate every day -- we are divided or separated from God. That is number two. And number three, Jesus Christ paid the price so we can walk on the bridge that is the cross to go over the deep chasm and get back to God.
Now as Unificationists, we also agree on this. From the Principle perspective, we know that the path of Christ to go on the cross was not the intended pathway, but through that pathway, by having faith on that pathway, we can actually find spiritual salvation through the love of Christ. God created man to be with Him; we are separated from Him because of sin, divided from Him; Jesus paid the price at the individual level so that we can cross that bridge. I like the metaphor, 'cross the bridge', that is the cross over a deep chasm, so to speak. But we also know that Christ was also be able to liberate the families, the tribes, societies, nations and world, even the spirit world, back to God. And he eventually needed to liberate God as the True Parent.
The Christ himself was to become the True Parent. When we look at True Parents' course and life, we can see that as the continuer of the mission of Christ, who has received the mission of Christ the returning Lord, we can see in True Parents life course many tribulations, we can see seven great tribulations; the different imprisonments and tortures that True Father had to endure through his life. We call this, in short, the Seven Deaths and Resurrections. That through these tribulations, physically he was tortured and beaten and bruised and scorned, but spiritually also; just like Jesus descended into hell, True Parents had to fight, even in this world, thousands of Satan, thousands of evil forces and even descended into hell.
With that kind of heart, he went through those deaths and resurrections. And those signify the different levels of crosses, from the individual level to the family level, to the tribe, society, nation, world, and the cosmos including the spirit world, that he had to hold, so that we could cross the chasm, not only ourselves but with our children. That we could cross the chasm with our clans, that we could cross the chasm with our societies, the nation, eventually even with our spiritual world and get back to God. Eventually, to the point where God Himself can see all of humanity in oneness with Him, in give and receive action with Him, be liberated from the cross.
When we praise and sing songs of praise, we are doing it with this motivation, with this type of heart; when we are talking about the name of True Parents, the holy name, that even True Parents said thousands of times, "Do you know how much suffering God had to shed to even find the name?" We can see that we are praising and we are reflecting on the immense love that allows us to get back over the chasm of sin and death and return into eternal life with God and True Parents. If we understand this love, if we understand this grace, then we understand that the only rational response is to return gratitude and glory, to praise that name, to have a sense of responsibility for True Parents; for their health, for their well-being, for their victory, for their glory, for their happiness [and for] God, of course, being the un-manifested True Parents, and the manifest True Parents being the True Parents of Heaven and Earth.
When we are able to fulfill this kind of give and receive action, then we can feel joy. That is not temporary. But that grows overtime; that can grow everlasting as filial sons and daughters. See, in our life, we have to live for something and many people in our lives, many people in this world, live for money and power, fame, these kinds of things. We have to choose to live for something in our lives. But living for God and living for the One who paid the price for us to reach God once again, when we are able to live with that purpose and move with that purpose, then we are accumulating the stuff, the merit, the good works, the good deeds, the heartistic accumulation, that even when we pass does not stop at the grave like other material things. And this is the motivation out of which we chant and praise and worship and sing worship songs.
It is very important to understand that when we are praising God, when we are praising True Parents, it is not because they have some inadequacy within, or they are weak and they need some encouragement as human beings. It is not because of that. God asks us to praise a higher power. It is for us that God asks us to praise His goodness. Because God knows when we focus on higher things, then the everyday natures of our lives, which are filled with obstacles and challenges and people who are getting in our way are put into perspective. And by focusing on the higher goodness, we are able to overcome those things with a greater grace and a greater power. In the end, God asks us to praise Him not for His own sake, but for ours.
In times of difficulties, when we try to face these endless obstacles that come into our lives, then we can face them one by one. We can try to face them one by one, fight them one by one. Use different methods to get over them one by one. But when we are able to work to focus on the higher purpose, the purpose that truly means something in the afterlife, is how much we have served God as our creator and how much we have served the one that He has sent as His representative. And this is the heart by which we praise, this is the heart by which we worship and have the practice of singing praise. You see, by praising the name of Chambumonim [True Parents in Korean], even Chambumonim Eog Mansei, we are moving into that power that overcame the tribulations of the tortures and the different prisons that True Father had to go through in his lifetime for the nations and for the world. We are tapping into that power that is unseen that is beyond our power.
In the 13th century, there was a man, by the name of Leonardo Fibonacci. He was the one who introduced Arabic numeral system to the western world. He was the first one who brought the Hindu-Arabic system that we all use in the western world. In this numerical system, he also discovered a sequence that is also consistent in nature, which is known as the Fibonacci sequence. That is incredible, it is very simple. You know, 1 + 1 = 2, and from 2 + 1 = 3, 3 + 2 = 5, 5 + 3 = 8, 8 + 5 = 13, etc. This sequence is called the Fibonacci sequence. And this sequence revolutionizes the mathematical world. Totally changed! He discovered something incredible about the natural world and its creator.
Let us take a look at this very interesting video presentation.
[Video is shown]
The Fibonacci Series
Back in the thirteenth century there was a mathematician by the name of Fibonacci. Fibonacci constructed what is called 'The Fibonacci series'. Now you can see this on the screen, It's a very simple thing. In the Fibonacci series you add one number to the next number to get the next number.
1 + 2 = 3, 2 + 3 = 5, 3 + 5 = 8, 5 + 8 = 13, 8 + 13 = 21, 13 + 21 = 34, and on and on and on.
You can follow the sequence across.
Fibonacci pointed out some interesting things there; that if you divide for instance 144 by 233 you get the number 0.618034 and if you divide 55 by 89 you get the same ratio. What's interesting about this is that architects took Fibonacci's material and they started constructing various kinds of objects; buildings, things that have particular design features and one of the things they found was you get what is called pleasing rectangles if you use the Fibonacci scale. So if you look at the rectangle at the bottom of this screen you'll notice that the length and width of it have a certain ratio and, for instance, if you made the length of the thing 13 and made the width of it (or the height of it as you are looking at the screen) 8 feet you would have Fibonacci numbers and this would be called a 'Fibonacci rectangle'.
Now, if you are like a lot of my high school students they say 'so what?' Well, that leads to some interesting things. For instance, if you cut a square off a Fibonacci rectangle what's left is another Fibonacci rectangle. Mathematicians love this kind of stuff. So you see all kinds of things written about how the Fibonacci sequence works.
You can also construct what is called a Fibonacci spiral and what architects have found is that people not only find the Fibonacci rectangle aesthetically appealing but they also found that the spiral that you can construct off a Fibonacci rectangle is aesthetically appealing and we build staircases out of Fibonacci spirals. We use Fibonacci spirals for decorations on things. We have all kinds of artistic things in which Fibonacci spirals have been used because people like and enjoy Fibonacci spirals; but do you know who else apparently enjoys Fibonacci spirals?
Apparently God does, because the Fibonacci spiral occurs over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over (sic) in nature. We see curves in nature that match the equation that you see now on the screen. Let me give you some illustrations of this. When you go out into space and you look at a galaxy, and in this picture what you are looking at is called a 'spiral galaxy', what you find is that the arms of this galaxy curve with exactly the same curvature that you saw in the Fibonacci spiral in the last frame. The mathematical equation which describes the arms of this galaxy fit the equations of the Fibonacci curve perfectly.
When you look at a wave you find that the curl of the wave matches the Fibonacci spiral perfectly. You watch water go down the drain, counter clock wise in the northern hemisphere, clockwise in the southern hemisphere. Do you know what the first thing I did was when I got to Australia? I went into a men's rest room and pulled the plug. Sure enough the water went down the drain the wrong way; but actually that force is too weak for it to be reliable but nonetheless the point is that water goes down the drain in a Fibonacci spiral. The equation describes perfectly what's happening.
And somebody says, 'Alright you got a gravitational something or other going on here'. No, no, no, no, because when you have zero gravity and you have sub atomic particles they curl with a Fibonacci spiral. When you balance gravity by buoyancy like in sea shells the curve of the shell is a Fibonacci curve. The equation describes it perfectly. That's true in fossil forms; it's also true in modern living forms. As a matter of fact in your own garden you can go out and see Fibonacci spirals in the snails in your garden.
You see Fibonacci spirals in the horns of every living thing you can imagine. All of the different animals that inhabit the Earth use Fibonacci spirals for the curvature of their horns and that's also been true of the past because fossil horns show the very same thing. When you take a look at the curl of the teeth of a Ground Hog it curls with a Fibonacci spiral. When you look at the beak of every bird you can imagine, they all curve with a Fibonacci spiral. When you look at the tail of a Chameleon it curls with a Fibonacci spiral. When you look at vines of pumpkins, potatoes and tomatoes they all curl with a Fibonacci spiral. When you take a look at the petals of a Magnolia they curl with a Fibonacci spiral. When you look at Sunflower seeds they curl with a Fibonacci spiral. When you look at the back of a Pine Cone it curls with a Fibonacci spiral. When you look at a finger print, the pattern of the finger print, curls with a Fibonacci spiral.
On the floor of the ocean there is a living thing called a Christmas Tree Worm and its plankton straining mechanism spiral up with Fibonacci spirals. The proboscis of a moth curls with a Fibonacci spiral. A spider web curls with a Fibonacci spiral. The brain has Fibonacci curvature in it. Cortalla algae, inside the little algae fragments, have Fibonacci spirals. The DNA helix has a Fibonacci spiral. We see the Fibonacci spiral in the cochlea of the inner ear. We see the Fibonacci spiral in the umbilical cord of a baby. Are you picking up a pattern?
You see when you look at the natural world, Fibonacci discovered that this sequence occurs everywhere, everywhere in the universe. It occurs how the branches emerge from a tree and even how your heart veins spread out. The interesting thing is that there is no evolutionary advantage to having these shapes. You are no more fit in having Fibonacci spirals on your fingertips than if you had square fingertips and fingerprints. So there is no practical purpose for these shapes other than that they're balanced, they're beautiful and they're aesthetically pleasing; that they have balanced proportions. Through this mathematical perspective we can see in nature that the Creator of the Universe also enjoys beauty, enjoys balance and proportion. He enjoys this because we see it through all of our natures; from the petals, of a tree, of plants, to the different fine textures of the plants, etc. In chapter 1 section 4.2 of the Divine Principle we see that the mind has emotion, intellect and will. Let's read this together. 'When the body responds to the mind's emotion, intellect and will, its actions pursue the values of beauty, truth and goodness, respectively'.
Now when a give and receive action is occurring in the Principle perspective between subject and object, then [through] the love the subject returns, the object will return beauty. Between spouses: of course in Korea they mistakenly call the husband always subject and the wife object. That's not true from a Principle perspective. They can switch! Don't mix this up, husbands, very important. But when we reciprocate love to our spouse, then we receive beauty, either both ways. When parents reciprocate love to their children, they receive beauty in the form of filial piety; that is the beauty that children can return back to their parents. When we reciprocate with nature then we can find beauty in nature just like Fibonacci did in the natural world. So God would feel the greatest joy and experience the greatest beauty; beauty which He seeks, because God is not only a powerful intellect, an organizer that created the universe and all the different factors that had to be incorporated there, but He is also artistic; He seeks beauty.
When He would see His children, freely out of free choice, choose to inherit His true love, not selfish love but selfless love, love of the parent, He then would see reciprocated to Him the greatest beauty. He would enjoy and feel joy from the greatest beauty, from His beautiful creation. When we look at the principles of beauty, truth and goodness, what is the greatest beauty, what is the greatest truth, what is the greatest goodness, out of all things? The most beautiful thing, of course we know the answer to what is the most beautiful thing, is true love. The most true thing is true love, when one acts selflessly for the greater purpose. What is the most good thing, when one lives in accordance with that? To live for the greater purpose, that's the greatest good as we see it.
Love is the center of all these aspects because it is the essence of God Himself. This essence was never described in theology; thousands of years of theology. God is transcendent, unknowable, and in the end, a mystery. His essence cannot be known. But the Principle and True Parents reveal to us the essence of God's nature. This is essential from a mathematical scientific standpoint, because if you cannot define something, you cannot approach it. You cannot approach it. So when we look at the history of the world, then what is the greatest example of God's Love for the world and the universe? Of course up to this point we could see that it was the love of Christ, the love that would sacrifice; the love that He talked about in John 14, the love that would sacrifice His life for His friends. The greatest love He said.
But we can see the greatest love in the life of our True Parents. We can see the greatest love that was manifested for us, for our families, etc. We can ride that cross, get on the cross as a bridge to get back to God. In mathematics, there is something called an asymptote. I know that you all have studied math very diligently and you all love math and there is something called an asymptote.
So the question is: we see in the Principle, very clear, the Messiah is not God. He is not the Creator; whereas in Christianity, Jesus is God the Creator of the whole universe. He's actually the creator God; He's not just the Messiah. He is actually God. But in the Principle, we're very clear on this point, the Messiah is not God. He's not the creator God. He's not God, He is a man. This is very important because right now we see True Parents become one with God.
We also hear the substantial representation of God on Earth. The manifested True Parents. God is the un-manifested True Parents. True Parents are the manifested True Parents. And one would say then, "Well then they're God." We can ask this question. But this is why understanding math and an asymptote is very important. Look at the right side corner; we see that the curve goes up toward the Y axis and it goes right up all the way.
Now when you look at this curve, you are going to assume at some point, because the curve and the Y axis becomes closer and closer and closer…to infinity, at some point it's going to touch, right? It seems like it's going to touch. They are going to get so close that they are finally going to touch. They are going for a long time so finally they are going to touch. But those two lines will never touch. They will infinitely get closer, but they will never touch! They will never touch each other. They will not become one line. This is very important. You'll say, "Wait, when I look at this, it feels like they are going to touch." But when you do it mathematically, we can use a simple equation; 1 divided by 2 is 0.5, 0.5 divided by 2 is 0.25, 0.25 divided by 2 is 0.125, 0.125 divided by 2 is 0.0625, etc.; we can do this for infinity. It will never reach zero.
In the same way, when we go up that curve, it's never going to actually be the Y axis. It's going to get infinitely and microscopically closer forever ad infinitum. But it will never actually be the Y axis. In the same way, when we understand math, we understand Principle is very mathematical, very mathematical. Our theology is extremely scientific, mathematical. In the same way, True Parents have inherited God's essence, His true love. So much so that they can come infinitely closer to God and become so close just like that curve to the Y axis, they are still two, but basically indistinguishable; so close, continuously, that they're basically indistinguishable. They basically look the same, but they're still two. When we understand that this curve is being pioneered by True Parents, the curve itself is being pioneered by True Parents, in resembling God, in getting closer and closer and becoming God's representative. Getting closer, infinitely closer but of course remaining two.
Then we also understand that through this path, through following True Parents, through also understanding their path through praising, adoring the love that they shed upon us, to save the world, then we too can start walking this path like the curve. Now we won't become True Parents, we won't become God but we will be able to become infinitely closer, when we walk in a path of True Love. This is not possible in other systems of theology because God and man, for example in Christian theology, are completely separate. God is perfect and man is imperfect, he is sinful in his nature, God is totally pure. So we can approach God through Christ but we can never resemble God, we can never become God-like. But mathematically that's wrong. Because in this perspective, we can see even in this asymptote, although we don't become that Y axis, we can walk so close, we can get so close. If we throw away our own ego self, we get so close, everything we act, do, think is just how God would act, do or think. It is just how True Parents would act, do or think in that situation; in total selfless, sacrificial True Love. You see how amazing the Principle is when we understand its depth. It has so much incredible…it's so mathematical and scientific. I was never a math fan myself but this is exciting for me to see this. I hated math, I hated math, but now I love it!
Through the seven deaths and resurrections like that True Love of True Parents, that will die, give itself up, die, die, die over and over for the sake that the children will be free. We will do that as our parents maybe once or twice but this is endless, this is the endless love of God. This is the type of love that we talk about in the Unification tradition when we talk about True Love. We're not just talking about, you know, saying nice words all the time, this kind of thing. We are talking about a phenomenal, heroic love that is beyond imagination, beyond what we normally perceive as friendly love. It is a heroic love and this love as we see from the True Parents is beautiful; this is the most beautiful thing in God's eyes.
The most true thing when His creation, when His sons and daughters try to inherit this love. The most good thing, the most true thing, the most beautiful thing, this is what God seeks. This was the purpose of creation to find the one, the reciprocal partner through which He could give and receive love; it's essentially very simply to find the True Parents. That's the purpose of creation. So when we sing the name True Parents, when we praise the name True Parents, when we say Chambumonim Eog Mansei, when we're doing some event and everybody's very tired and it's been going on for three hours and we're sleeping, many of us are nodding off, but then at the end we get up and we do an Eog Mansei, then everybody feels totally refreshed. Are you ready, lets Eog Mansei. (Hyung-jin nim leads three cheers of Eog Mansei for God, True Parents and Cheon Il Guk) Oh Lord have mercy because now you move with a different vibration (applause).
Immediately we feel different because there's a different vibration there, different sequence. When we receive this love and grace with humility and praise, then we can also become more beautiful. Just like God seeks the beauty of the Fibonacci Spiral, then also our love that manifests can be like that, beautiful like a Fibonacci Spiral. Beautiful, aesthetically pleasing, balanced love that returns, that comes back to God. That gives Him joy in the purpose of creation, feeling the goodness of His creation. It is with this heart that we want to practice love and when we go to Yeosu we'll have the time every night to practice on the meditation of Chambumonim Eog Mansei. This can be done at fast speed or slow speed, but let's all get back to one more time understanding the universe itself is all energy, quantum energy. You are quantum energy; everything is vibrating in and out of existence, although you cannot see it. Just like the light spectrum, we cannot see the entire light spectrum, we can only see a little bit. What we can't see is more manifest, is more the reality of what the universe can experience.
When we understand that the purpose of creation was the reciprocal partner of True Love, basically True Parents; what Adam had to do, what Jesus had to do. Basically what we understand, it is True Parents. Then when we connect ourselves with the name of True Parents, with the heart of gratitude and offering praise, then we start changing our vibration. We can start changing what is coming out of us. We can start changing our frequency. We can start connecting to the frequency that moves towards the purpose of creation. Thus we become different. So let's now enter into our brief [meditation]; not a long time, usually we do a little longer time in our morning practice. Let's do it a very short time. Let's all prepare ourselves. Let's close our eyes and straighten our back. I want to ask you to put your hands on your heart, on your chest. Lay two hands on your heart. Let's gently close our eyes and let's feel, first of all our heart beating, the warmth of our heart, the hands.
Then we will also begin to chant the vibration, chant Chambumonim Eok Mansei. We are going to chant together with the Hoonsa Nims. Let's sing together with that type of mindset. (Singing begins)Feel the vibration moving through you. Together we sing. Chambumonim Eok Mansei… feel the heartbeat… feel the energy… you can feel it moving through all your body…focus on the sound, the beautiful vibration of the sound, the waves…one more time…one voice, one voice, altogether, one frequency… one more time… move with the flow of the universe…ride with the sound of the universe… focus on the higher power… one more time… spiral… your thoughts… 7 deaths and resurrections, the love of the parent…praise Him… last time, one more time… change your vibration, change your sound…feel the vibration on your heart… (singing ends) Aju.
Let's finish by reading the last collection of words from True Parent's words Pyunghwa Shingyeong Peace messages 125. Let's read together:
"True love is the well spring of the universe. Once a person possesses it, true love makes that person the center and the owner of the universe. True love is the root of God and a symbol of His will and power. When we are bound together in true love, we can be together forever, continually increasing in the joy of each other's company. The attraction of true love brings all things in the universe to our feet. Even God will come to dwell with us."
Aju.
Let's all stand and let us all rise and let's lift up our hands as we pray a final prayer. And really as we're praying let's muster our energy as if we're sending our strength to True Parents. Let's pray.
Prayer
Dearest most beloved Heavenly Father, thank you so much for all that you have done. For Father, this day, we want to come to know you. Father, we want to come endlessly closer to you, like we saw True Parents, Father, through the endless love that they bestowed upon us; to save us, our families, tribes, nations, world and cosmos to get back to you, to come back to you over the deep chasm that has separated us from you with sin and death; but now, Father, bringing us back into eternal life, a life that we can be together with our family in your presence. Father, this day we want you to know that we want to muster our strength; we want to change our frequency, Father.
We want to change our energy; we want to connect with the energy of the purpose of your creation, the reciprocal partner that you sought for. Father, we want to move with the flow of the universe, the heavenly blessing of the universe that moves towards True Parents spiritually. We want to connect with that power, Father; use us in a great way. Father, we pray that today we can send this energy, this heart of devotion. Let it spiral out from us in beautiful sounds resonating through the universe and give True Parents strength. Father we pray for True Parent's health. We want to have a sense of responsibility for their health, for their victory and for their glory.
We want to be those types of children that can return that beauty and love to them. Father, please anoint us this day so we can come forth as a new creation. We can emerge from this sanctuary with a totally different tone and a totally different sound. We can, through our lives and in difficulties allow the power of calling Chambumonim ok mansei to melt away any fear, any hesitation, any distress, any suffering so that once again we can connect back to you and your songs that you sing to us as your children. Father, we can come back to you eternally and return to your bosom. We pray and are grateful; we follow the path of True Parents. We want to endlessly come closer to you, forever and ever, in our names. Aju.
Thank you.