Hyung Jin Moon
July 12, 2008
Headquarters Church, Chungpadong Seoul
Transcribed by: Pamela Stein
Edited by: Bruno Klotz
Welcome Remarks: Yeon Ah Nim:
Good afternoon brothers and sisters. I'm sure God and True Parents are really happy to see you guys in this sanctuary. We're always honored to have you in this sanctuary. And for those who are joining us via internet, we're welcoming you as well. Welcome brothers and welcome sisters.
Hyung Jin Nim:
Welcome brothers and sisters. I want to share with you today from Cheon Seong Gyeong, page 328, and Father says here, "The love of God is love for the sake of others. Love that seeks to live for others. How did the universe begin? It began from the point of rotation. All existing things by their intrinsic nature have to rotate. And what can keep on rotating forever? The love that is willing to give eternally, that is eternal love, will keep rotating forever." I want to draw your attention to this one statement, "The love that is willing to give eternally.”
You see, what Father is telling us is that love is not something that we may feel or something that we may necessarily receive from another, it is something that we must be willing to give. It is something that we must choose to share. It is something that we have to make a determination, a conscious decision, to hand away or hand to somebody. See, Father is saying to us that really we have to be proactive in our life. Related to true love he's saying that in order for it to exist eternally, we have to continually choose to let it exist eternally.
And I want to ask you all -- when we think about our own lives, when we're thinking about the people around us, our loved ones or our family members, our precious friends and relatives, the people in our lives -- what element, what part of our life, can we be willing, be more proactive in, to invest into our children, and to encourage brothers and sisters, etc.
Brothers and sisters whenever we come out to the service, it's not that we are coming out to observe service, but I really want to invite you to be participating in service. We want to pray with you. We want to meditate with you. We also want to sing songs of praise with you. And really we're here to give our hearts, allow this initial investment in this week to be one of love, one of respect, honor, and whenever we give those things to God, He always returns them back to us in our week. They always find a way back to us as we send them out to Him.
Brothers and sisters once again it's such a joy to see you all here, really beginning the new week. Hey! We start on Saturday! Fantastic! We start one day early; so we're one day younger then, that's even better.
Brothers and sisters, it's always good to see you here. And let's really have a participatory service today. Let's really have a great service. We're here with True Parents, with God. We're here in their presence. Let's really give it our all today. That will return to us in this coming week. Thanks brothers and sisters.
Yeon Ah Nim's Message:
One day my husband told me that he's like a cloud. He comes when he's needed, when there's work but when the work is done he moves on. So I told him, "You know, Appa it's been only two months since you became the World President of this movement, so you don't think it's too early to say such a thing?" I asked him that. His answer was this, "It is important for one to know what one has to do in the short run but it is also important or even more important for one to know what one has to do in the long run."
And he told me about Asian gardening. Some of you may know that my husband likes Asian gardening because he mentioned it once in his sermon. His favorite part of Asian gardening is the rock arrangement and especially right after the rain the rock becomes most beautiful, he says, because its texture, its color and its shine all become different and its print becomes more vivid and clear. That's why he likes that part so much.
He said he's like the cloud that brings fresh rain on True Parents' rock so that our precious True Parents' rock can shine magnificently in its true color in front of everybody. Brothers and sisters we're also that cloud. Let us also bring that refreshing rain on Heavenly Father's and True Parents' rock. We always love you and we believe in you. Aju!
Interesting Story:
I heard a very interesting story. It was about a little boy named Alex, and he was one day in his grandfather's library. On his granddaddy's desk there was an old Bible. Little Alex went over and picked up the Bible and was flipping through it. In the chapter of Genesis an old leaf that granddaddy uses as a book mark fell out. All of a sudden, Alex was overjoyed. He picked up that leaf and he put it in the Bible, and he ran to his mom, and said "Mommy, mommy, look what I found"! Mommy saw this and said, "Yes, of course, that's grandfather's bookmark for his Bible." And little Alex said "Mom it's not a bookmark! I found it in the book of Genesis!" "Honey that is a bookmark. It's simply a bookmark; he has used it for many years." He said, "Mommy, it's not a bookmark. I found it in the book of Genesis and it's Adam's underwear!" (Laughter)
Main Sermon of Hyung Jin Nim:
Brothers and Sisters, today I'd like to talk to you about the unbeatable natural subjugation. Do you enjoy that title? In order to live the blessed life, we must learn to harness the power of natural subjugation. True Father teaches that natural subjugation is the only way, the only way, to overcome the Cain type world. That means simply that it is the only way to overcome people that may be against you, or people who don't believe in you. It is the only way to bring to natural subjugation, through that power. It is the only way to turn somebody around.
It is not necessarily dramatic, not necessarily showy or loud, but it is consistent. It is constant, diligent, humble and persevering. And here's the key: The friend, the closest friend, of natural subjugation is time. Learning to apply natural subjugation in our lives is key for the blessed life.
Confucius taught how there are three types of filial children. The first type of filial child takes care of his parents. He attends his parents. He attends his parents' physical need, their clothing, their health, their food, etc. The second level filial child does not bring shame to his or her parents.
Confucius then talked about the highest type of filial son or daughter. That is the type of child who may not be able to physically attend his parents, but he goes out and brings glory to the parents' name.
See, in the same way, in our faith life, when we become better and better filial children, more victorious in our lives, it's so important that we become this third type of filial child. And we do this by gaining the respect of the world, bringing the world to understand the strength of our community, the power of our potential, the goodness, and the honesty that is here, that is alive in True Parents' community. And we do this by truly excelling in whatever we do, by really exceeding anybody's standard of success.
A very close Buddhist monk friend of mine once described a metaphor. In the Buddhist tradition, and of course -- I've also studied Indian religions -- it's also present in Indian religions, there is the metaphor of the lotus flower. In the Indian tradition this is a very powerful and important metaphor for enlightenment. The seed must usually descend into the dark waters, into very muddy waters. The seed must go into the cold dark mud; it has to be surrounded by that dirty water. The seed has to fight. It has to take everything that it can gain from the mud, anything from that environment that it can receive in order to give itself substance and nurture so that it can bloom. It has to pass through the mud. It has to pass through the water, where there are all sorts of dangerous obstacles. There could be fish, there could be other things that may strike it and block it's pathway toward the surface.
But eventually, over time, with perseverance, with never giving up, the seed is able to reach above the water surface, and the lilies bloom. If you know anything about lotus lilies, they are totally waterproof. As you drop water on them, it bounces off. They're completely waterproof lilies. It starts in a certain environment and eventually becomes a shield for that environment. It eventually changes that environment. It protects the things that are in there as well. Then the flowers come. They bloom not on the surface, not in the water, they bloom outside the water. They completely transcend that world and they bloom in utter beauty. If you've seen the lotus flower, it's really one of the most beautiful flowers.
Now when we think about this metaphor it's so important that we understand that God created us to be this kind of beautiful flower, this kind of beautiful blossom, in this world. He never created us to be little water weeds, lake weeds, on the bottom, saying, "I can't go into the dirty mud. If I go in there, I'm never going to get out; I'm only going to grow two inches." No! We have to start thinking, "Wait a minute. I can go in there, I can still succeed, I can come out, I can shine, I can transcend that environment and bring beauty to that environment."
See, in the same way, when we gain respect from society -- we have the talent, we have the brains, we have the potential in our community -- when we understand that when we gain the respect of society by natural subjugation, not by force, not by might, but by the spirit of hard work, the spirit of persevering, the spirit of professionalism, etc, then we are able to bring back glory to True Parents, then we are able to allow that lotus flower to bloom, and in that lotus flower we can uplift and raise the name of True Parents and our Unification Church community.
Really, it is now the time, brothers and sisters. God doesn't want us to hide any more. It is time for us to be confident in ourselves. We have plenty to offer to society. We have so much talent. We have so much potential. I see so many talented people, so many talented individuals that are just ready to bloom. And it's so important that we understand that now is the time. We are now at a stage in our history that we can now step up to the next level. We may think, "OK, now we must go out, we must fight the world, we must do loud rallies and beat drums and sound trumpets."
But, brothers and sisters, that's not the real way to earn long term respect. In order to earn real long term respect from our community, we must be able to succeed at whatever we do. That may be succeeding in school if you're a young person. It may be succeeding in business if you are a business man. It may be succeeding in your ministry if you are a minister, if you are involved in the church community. It may be succeeding as a scientist, as a parent. Whatever it is that we do, we show that we have a standard of excellence, we live lives of integrity, we Unification Church members have something to offer this world.
And the only way to do that is by this power of natural subjugation. There is no other way to do it; there is no other possible avenue in order to gain the other person's respect. I've heard so many voices that say, “But if the blessed children get too successful they'll leave the church. That's what happens. If they get too successful, they end up leaving, they don't end up contributing back to the church."
But personally I don't feel that our blessed children are that self-oriented, and that they will throw away their parents' tradition, their parents' blood, sweat and tears when they get one opportunity. I believe that they are much more loyal than we think. "Well, society is dangerous; it has all sorts of temptations, all sorts of evil. They'll never make it, they are too pure," we may say.
But remember the story of Moses. God sent a little baby into the Pharaoh's palace, the heart of decadence, the heart of oppression in that Egyptian environment. He sent that baby right into the middle of that, to be able to naturally subjugate that Egyptian community. And eventually Moses became one of the key providential players in the providential time line.
"Well, they'll fall to society's pressure; they'll live fallen lives if they are exposed to society!" But remember, look at the story of Joseph. God had Joseph go through all sorts of ordeals, he was sold into slavery, he was sent to prison for three years for a crime that he never committed. Why did God put him through all those ordeals? He was training Joseph, making Joseph be the one to be able to win the heart of the Pharaoh, be able to win, by natural subjugation, the respect of the Egyptian community.
Eventually Joseph became the second most powerful man in Egypt. And at that time, at that point, that is when the Egyptian people started to recognize the beauty, the potential, of that Israel community.
See, our blessed children are doing the same. In the past when our blessed children really felt that they needed time away from the church, they went out into the world, and really succeeded. I've met blessed children that have succeeded in the work force, that have been out there ten years, fifteen years, enormously successfully, hugely successful. And I see these blessed children, having a desire to want to come back. They want to participate, they want to start investing in their community. It's not enough to just have personal success.
They tell me, "I'm just not content having personal success. I have plenty of financial security, I have plenty of family happiness, but I just want to contribute more. I want to be able to make an impact on people's lives. I want to invest in my own community for my children."
And I see this kind of amazing people starting to come back. And I see people who are starting to nurture their own talents, their potentials, trying to ready themselves to really naturally subjugate, to learn how to earn the respect of society.
And when we think about that, we can see that when we try natural subjugation, it's not a fast thing. We may say, "I've tried. I've tried to work in the outside environment. I've been trying to compete against people that are 'in the outside'. I've been doing it for one or two years, and still nothing is happening. I'm not able to naturally subjugate them."
Remember that one of the keys of natural subjugation is the power of time. It usually takes three to five years, experts say, for somebody to start earning the respect of a community, especially if that person is new in that community. It's so important that we understand that right at the three year point so many people give up, right when they are about to be recognized, right when they are about to earn the respect of that community.
We have to remember that one of the keys of natural subjugation is consistency, is time, is persevering over a duration of time, not only for one or two years, not shining for only one or two years, but continually shining, every year improving yourself, every year accumulating more success, etc.
One CEO told me like this -- he is a Korean CEO -- he said, "People with real success can understand the Divine Principle." He's an outside person, he just joined our membership. He's a CEO, very successful; he worked at huge firms here in Korea. And he said, "I'm a very successful individual, and I understand Principle. When you guys talk about true love, when you talk about naturally subjugating, that's a very important principle in my own leadership skill."
"People with real success," he explained, "understand that there are those who create great value for an organization and that over time, if they continue to create that kind of value, they will be promoted in a fair and just organization. In the modern world we have very fair and just organizations, unlike in the feudal societies of the past."
And I'm so proud of my brother, and my brother-in-law and my sister here, who are fighting that battle. My brother Kook Jin Nim, as you all know, he's out there on the business side. He is fighting that battle of faith, he is fighting for the UC community, and he’s fighting to earn the respect of the business community here in Korea. He just met with the SBS and MBC presidents, and they were telling me how the MBC president was totally amazed how he turned around the business. He brought that business portfolio from a hundred million dollars loss per year to a five million profit in a matter of three years.
When the MBC president and SBS president heard that, they were totally blown away. He's starting to gain respect in the business community among the CEOs here in Korea. And when I see that I'm so proud of him. He's fighting day in and day out. Everyday he goes to work, everyday he tries to professionalize each business, everyday he's trying to bring those up to the new level. He's fighting for our reputation. He's fighting for True Parents' name.
We feel the same way, too, while doing ministry. Everyday we're out here giving services, going out on the internet, we are fighting a battle of faith. We're fighting to show, "Hey, we're not a dangerous cult; we have a lot to offer. Our community is powerful. We have a lot of good potential. We are good people, we're honest tax paying people! There is nothing to fear about the Unification Church."
And we feel that whenever we do media interviews, whenever we have interviews with articles in newspapers, etc, we feel that every time we talk to them, we're trying to battle that preconception that we are somehow a cult. Every time we do that, every time we engage in those things in a professional way, in a respectful way, in a mature way, then that begins to change the image, change the patterns, how people look towards our community.
We've had of course, as you know, many many articles written about the ministry, the developments in the church, and I can report happily that every single article that has come about the ministry, about improvements in the Unification Church, has been positive. About the previous ten to fourteen articles in the past, whenever the media organizations did articles about us, it was always somewhat negative, always at the end some negative person talking about the tradition.
But ever since we started engaging the newspapers, the media, talking about the new movement of the tradition, the new orientation of the tradition, the new leadership of the tradition, every single article, whether it be newspaper, whether it be media, whether it be magazine articles, they have been positive! (Applause)
Brothers and sisters, I do believe we are not here for our personal glory. We are here fighting this battle for faith, we're here fighting this battle to improve the name of our community. We are here everyday to try to battle on the frontline to improve the name of our True Parents, to glorify them, to have them lifted up higher. Like my wife said, we are just clouds, we are here to come and go. We're here to help systematize, to help to improve the church, but when our work is done we have to leave and the next person has to step in.
The organization has to become charismatic, as opposed to leaders, charismatic leaders, leading the church. The organization itself must become charismatic, that is really what we feel.
And in the same way, our blessed children, our first generation, whenever you guys are out there, whenever you're out in your schools -- we have professionals, we have teachers here in our church. Robin is teaching in the universities, we have sisters who are in professional organizations -- whenever you guys are out there doing that, fighting that battle of faith, whenever you are out there being those kind of spiritual warriors, you're changing the tide, you're changing the name, you're changing people's view of our tradition, not by force, not by might, not by power, but you're doing it by consistency, hard work. You're doing it with a loyal heart, a persevering spirit.
Whenever you do that you impress people, whenever you're able to do that, you're able to change the tides in people's minds. One person at a time starts viewing us a little differently. Brothers and sisters, that makes a huge difference, a huge change, over the long run. And I see it right now. I see change coming.
When I was young, I thought society was all evil. I thought it was totally Satan's world. I thought that if society feared us, then they would come to respect us. If they feared us, they would come to respect us. That's what I thought when I was really young, when I was in high school, etc. I thought that if we were able to intimidate society, if we showed them our passion, if we showed them our fire, we'd be able to make them back down; they wouldn't persecute us as harshly.
So I thought of myself as some kind of a warrior. In the time when I was in high school, I always envisioned myself like a samurai warrior. I studied martial arts; I was thinking, "Yeah, I'm a samurai!" I was imagining myself as a samurai warrior out there, battling for the name of True Parents.
But I really misunderstood one big thing. Society will never respect us if they fear us. They will never respect us. I realized that that's not the teaching of True Parents, that's the teaching of Osama Bin Laden. And that's not something that I will attest to. That's not something that I will be able to teach.
We have different types of churches now in our church. We have small pioneer churches. Those churches are in developing nations, those are in different mission countries. They are very passionate, they are very fiery. They do very fist popping style of ministry. And in those pioneer churches that kind of ministry is very important. That kind of charismatic leadership is so important.
But once a church gets large enough, once a religion becomes established enough, maybe in an established nation in the modernized world, then it has to begin to show to society that it's not dangerous. It has to prove to society that it's not a dangerous movement. We are in that situation right now, brothers and sisters. We are at a stage in our development when we are established enough, whether it be in our American church, whether it be in our Korean church, in our Japanese church.
We are here to show, "Look, we are not a dangerous religion. We do not teach fear, we do not teach hatred towards other religions. We teach about true love. We teach about family, blessing, we teach about living the blessed life."
Every time when people begin to change their minds about us, not by what we say, but by how we live, how we live our lives, by living them with honesty and professionalism, by living them with consistency and drive and real internal passion, with humility, always the willingness to learn. If we show these traits, society will naturally be subjugated. We will earn the respect of society.
See, after I went to school and made friends with other traditions, made priest friends in the Catholic tradition, Buddhist monk friends in the Buddhist tradition, etc, after a while I started realizing, "My God, there are such great people out in society! There are such amazing individuals that are not necessarily from our tradition but they are waiting to hand in hand walk with us, when we go out and take a step." It will be defeating if we totally cast away the society and say that it's totally evil, that it's unable to be saved.
When we do look at the people in society, there are of course difficulties, there are problems in society, there are temptations that, when somebody has to go into society, he or she has to face. But there are also beauties in society, there are also very important people that we need to make connections with. There are also very important organizations that want to help in the work that we're doing. That kind of things is what I'm saying, brothers and sisters.
And I do still see myself as a warrior, that's the interesting thing. I still do see myself as a warrior in my own mind, in my own image, when I meditate on myself. I do still see myself as warrior. But I don't see myself anymore as a samurai, wielding a sword -- that was when I was really young. But now I see myself more trying to be like a spiritual warrior, more somebody like True Father, naturally subjugating communism. I see myself more like somebody that's trying to follow in the footsteps of that kind of leadership, a leadership like that of Gandhi, with nonviolent opposition, nonviolent protest, a leadership like the Dalai Lama, standing up with nonviolent compassion, a leadership like Martin Luther King, stepping up for civil rights, speaking out against society, fighting for the respect of their communities -- but not by force, not by might, not by power, but by the spirit of God, by the spirit of love, by the spirit of goodness and peace.
Brothers and sisters, I have the privilege of meeting so many precious people when we do ministry here. We have really the privilege of meeting amazing people in our community. You really have to get to know one another. We have just incredible people here in our community.
We have one brother, a Western man living in Korean with his wife and his beautiful three children. He just graduated, got his MBA from a prestigious Korean university and he has now been recruited by Samsung Securities. He is now on his way into great success as an investment banker. And he was telling me how one day he was sitting next to a manager in Samsung. The manager is a Catholic man, from the Catholic tradition, and he practices Buddhist meditation. And he found out that our brother was a Unification Church member.
And he said, "You know what, I'm proud of you, that you're following such lofty ideals. You come to Korea, you're a totally Western man, you've come to Korea, and you follow the ideals of Rev Moon, and you're living with a Korean wife, and your Korean is fluent, it's fantastic, you know our culture. You know us better than we do. You graduated from a Confucian University!"
When they see that, not only do they see somebody who appreciates their tradition, they see somebody with talent. He has an MBA. He's now working as an investment banker. He's making success in whatever he does, whatever he touches.
He's also investing back into the church. He's always out here in our youth groups, in our seminars, in whatever we are doing, he's always out here to support. Sometimes he's been even out in the morning at 2:30 for meditation and early morning practice! He's out here giving his heart to truly lift up this community, out there in the world fighting for our name, also internally building his spiritual strength, his spiritual life. Whenever I see brothers and sisters like this, I'm totally impressed.
I had the privilege of meeting another tremendous person, somebody that I really respect. She is a Japanese sister. She is a tea master, a tea master in the Urasenke school of Japanese traditional tea ceremony. And if you know anything about tradition of Japanese tea ceremony, Urasenke school is the biggest school. It has a 400 year old tradition. The top head master of that school is the president of the UN council for Japan, and he's an established person in all of Japanese society.
She worked there 20+ years! 20+ years giving her life to that tradition, of course doing everything in our church, going to the services, going to the education programs in Yeosu, doing all the things that all the other sisters are doing, but she was out there as a professional and also raising three kids. She has a Korean husband, and she is out there working with the tea ceremony organization. 20 years! They did not know her identity.
She is now an established teacher in that whole organization, the highest of those who represent our church in that organization. She told me just a few months ago, that somebody was a little jealous of her; somebody didn't like her so much. Somebody was jealous and spread rumors about the fact that she was a Unification Church member. That rumor started filtering up, and eventually it got up all the way to the grand head master. The head master eventually gave her a call and said, "I'm coming to Korea." He's of course from Japan. Her heart literally dropped. She received that call, she said, “I don't know what I'm going to do. I've worked 20 years for this organization and now they find out I'm Unification Church and I'm going to be fired. There is no way they're going to keep me. The persecution in Japan is still heavy."
The grand master came, he arrived at the airport. He had brought some of the biggest tea masters with him. They were all standing there in their traditional kimonos with their solemn samurai faces. Some of them were wearing women's kimonos, but those were women! They were standing around him. They were all tea masters. He said in front of all of them -- she was there; she had her head down, she was totally at the mercy of his mandate -- he said, "I respect religious freedom!" When he said that, it meant to all those tea masters that came with him to judge her, "Don't say a word, I acknowledge her, I respect her, she's a part of our family." Brothers and sisters, let's give that sister a hand. (Applause)
Now she says to me, "I have a totally new fire. I have a totally new fire doing tea ceremony now. I'm still calm, I'm still meditative but I still have an internal fire when I make green powder tea. Now everything I do for that organization, every time I do a ceremony at Yeonsei University, at Seoul University, to show the Japanese tradition, now I'm showing myself as a Unification member with pride. I'm not hiding it. Everybody knows in my organization is. And I 'm happy that I have that pressure, because now everything I do can be for the glory of True Parents."
Brothers and sisters, I'm happy to announce that our Japanese tea master is actually right here in this room. She's right here in this room! (Applause) You see what I mean? And so is our other brother at Samsung Security. (Applause) He's right here in this room, he's sitting back there. I see you constantly.
Brothers and sisters, we have such amazing people in our community. We have so many people that are fighting the battle of faith. They are fighting for our reputation, fighting for our names; they are fighting for True Parents' name in society.
Even us, whenever we do interviews, every time we do it, we feel the same way. Whenever we get publicized in the newspapers, every time when a positive article gets written, we feel it's shedding a different light, a different perspective, on our tradition. We have something to offer. We are capable people. We are talented individuals.
I want to brag a little bit about my sister (Sun Jin Nim). She's here. You know, I want to brag about her a little bit! (Applause). She just graduated from Harvard University. And so did we. Hey! I graduated, too. I got my master's there, my brother got his master's. We all came out of Harvard! But that wasn't all! She came out of Harvard with four Honors' achievements. She came out of Harvard with the Magna cum Laude Honor. She was enrolled into the National Honor Society, that's totally across the nation, across America. She was the representative of the class. Among 7,000 graduating students only eight people are selected. She was one of the eight, and she was the only woman and only Korean! (Loud applause and cheers). "Whoo! Oh my God!" That was also publicized on Yahoo news. That went out in the newspapers. All the people in society said, "Hey! Rev Moon's daughter!"
See, brothers and sisters, what are we trying to say? We have amazing potential in our community. We have so much to offer this world. We have so much burgeoning potential that is coming out. And brothers and sisters, I want to say, that really, we are ready at this time. We are ready to show society: We are capable, we are talented, honest, ethical, compassionate, respectable people.
And of course, when we think about the power of natural subjugation, I always think about True Parents' life course, their whole life investing in society, investing in community, investing in peace, investing in other religions, even at the cost of their own, continually investing in other traditions, in education, in organizations, etc. This has been done over decades of time. Over decades and decades, they have continued to invest. We're now at a stage in society where we just did a blessing about a week ago, we blessed about 200 couples, and next day it was on KBS. See, what am I saying, brothers and sisters? Society already recognizes us as a tradition, they already recognize us as an established community.
I've met one CEO that said, "Rev Moon is the most respectable Korean. He has people from all different nations facing Korea, respecting that homeland, saying that that homeland is the birthplace of True Father, True Mother.
On the street when I meet people, sometimes I ask them, 'Hey have you heard of Rev Moon, what is your impression?' People, even just on the street, people selling little crackers, they say, 'Oh yeah, I heard of that Moon minister, he's a real national patriot. He's out there; he's sending our Korean culture to the world.' "
See, what am I saying? Brothers and sisters, I'm saying that people are starting to change their minds about us. They're starting to say, "Wait a minute, this is not a dangerous cult; this is not some crazy religion." Remember, all major religions started out as "dangerous cults", always labeled like that. People are starting to realize that we are an established organization, that we're honest, that we're professional, that we can be growing, that we're maturing, and that we're getting better over time.
When I see that, brothers and sisters, I really do believe that it is time, it is time for us to be proud of ourselves, to be proud of who we are, and also to develop our talents to bring more pride to our community. It's not about fighting, it's not about changing people by force. It's about changing ourselves, it's about changing other people by the power of how we change ourselves, how we act, how we live, whether we live with integrity and excellence and professionalism.
Whenever we do that, we start changing the whole nature of that environment. See, natural subjugation is a powerful force. When we understand this, we can harness that power in our life. But it doesn't work quickly. It's doesn't work in a year or two. "I tried, worked hard for a year or two, it didn't work out, I got another job; did for another year or two there, it didn't work out, got another job..." No, no, no! It works over time, time is its best friend. Whatever work that you may be doing, please know that you can be successful at whatever you put your mind to. God has given you a particular gift that He wants you to establish, that He wants you to burgeon, that He wants you to let blossom before this world.
But know that time is your friend. If you understand the power of natural subjugation, earning respect, changing people's mind, happens over time. It happens with consistency, hard work, three years, five years, ten years. See our tea ceremony master here, twenty years in the tea tradition, finally getting that respect that she deserves, and being truly a person that can stand proud as a Unification Church member.
Brothers and sisters, I see all the talent in the blessed children's community and our first generation community, really improving themselves, really understanding, “Now is the time!" We can step out. We can still develop our church, and develop our own personal lives. We can become more mature, effective, hardworking, humble, willing to learn, creative, we can be more successful at work and family. We can do these things if we start to believe in the potential of our own selves.
Brothers and sisters, we will not be like that muddy water weed that thinks, "Oh! If I go into the society, if I fall into the mud, I'll never get out. It's too dark in there, it's so muddy, and it’s so dark. If I'll only go two centimeters out, I'll be drowned in the water."
We can't think like that water weed. God created us to be that beautiful lotus flower. We may start in the mud. We may start at a low position in an organization, but we're going to work our way up. We're going to gain all the nutrients that we can. We're going to learn whatever we can to garner that strength, pass through that mud, pass through that water, break that surface and bloom in resplendent glory.
Brothers and sisters, and guess who will be in that lotus flower when it blooms. Check this out! (Showing a picture on the screen). When that beautiful lotus blooms -- check this out! -- There’s True Parents being lifted up! (Applause)
Brothers and sisters, if we do that, we will find ourselves with more victory, more illumination and more peace and we will live that blessed life that True Parents have blessed us to live. Let's give them a big round of applause. (Applause and cheers)