Our Life -- the Greatest Offering
Hyo Jin Moon September 10, 1989
Today I would like to share something that I personally uphold and try to manifest in my life. That is: How can I bring joy and happiness to my parents? If there is anything that everyone in the world shares in common, it is the desire for a place where we can live together harmoniously. We want a place that provides joy and happiness for everyone. But this ideal is not easy to attain. Throughout history, various people have tried to fulfill the great ideal of bringing happiness and joy to mankind.
For mankind to experience happiness, there first has to be a common goal that everyone shares. Then everyone must invest all of themselves to reach this goal. So if mankind wants to attain happiness, we must share a common understanding of what happiness means and what the goal of happiness is. Then we have to pursue the goal which we set for ourselves.
It's very easy to gather in special interest groups and experience harmony for a limited time. But we are here for something beyond an individual special interest. The basis of the Principle is that you must sacrifice yourself. There must be self-inducement on your part to bring joy and happiness to mankind, and ultimately to Heavenly Father.
Because we have active imaginations and a physical body, it is very difficult for us not to be aware of our desires and needs. So when some ideal is telling you to transcend your individual desires for a greater goal, it demands a lot from us. However, frankly speaking, many people share the idea that there must be some kind of self-sacrifice in order to achieve harmony. This is easily said but very difficult in practice.
The same is true of my situation. I'd rather be chasing deer than attending school. But my responsibility is to finish my education. For me to fulfill this responsibility, I must eliminate all other thoughts. I must sacrifice and bury any other desires.
We all know this. If each of us is striving to attain a world of harmony, then something must be sacrificed. That sacrifice is our lives. Everyone in this room, without exception, has to sacrifice for the sake of this goal. To meet that sacrifice, we must understand the significant meaning of "offering".
Responsibility to Choose God's Way
When God created Adam and Eve, He gave them everything: "You can have dominion over creation. Everything that you see and touch and feel is yours. But you must refrain from taking the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil." The reason that God created is that He wanted a place where there was only love. He wanted to manifest love. God is omnipotent, therefore He could have created anything you could possibly imagine. But God wanted a place of love, so He gave Adam and Eve the commandment. There had to be a clear separation of good and evil. God knew about the possibility of evil and its consequences. But He had to take the risk if He was to realize a place where love exists.
The creation came from within God and its purpose was for love. The only way that God can ultimately have dominion over the creation is through man. This makes man different from all other creation. In a sense, man is like God in that man has the potential to have dominion over the creation and, ultimately, full dominion if he were to maintain this progress. Our mind is infinite, so if we have the desire to understand the creation, we will eventually realize and comprehend the essence of creation. We have that potential and the power to understand the very essence of God, since God made creation in His image.
Just as God brought the reason for the creation from within Himself, man must have the same foundation within himself if he is to become the recipient and embodiment of God. Therefore, there has to be a possibility where man will choose, through his own accord, the direction which God has chosen. God's ideal came from this infinite possibility. The same must be true for man.
Here on earth, we can do incredibly horrible things or we can choose to do what is right through our own responsibility. Man is standing in a vulnerable position:
If he walks one way, he will disobey God, whereas, if he walks another way, he's obeying God. If man comes up with a reason that ultimately coincides with God's direction, then man is actually manifesting the ideals of God by following the direction that God has offered him. God's direction is to attain the ideals of love, therefore if man becomes one with the ideals of God, he will go forward with God. But man's progress depends on his own effort and motivation.
We will not act without a reason. Many times you would act rebelliously: "I don't want to follow any reason"! That in itself is a reason. When his reason coincides with God, then man will become one with God and will embody God. Then God will have literal physical dominion through man. Man will be an extension of God just as we are an extension of our parents. No one can think that we came from nowhere, but all know that we are extensions of our parents.
So what is an offering and what does it have to do with this? When God told Abraham to make an offering, why did he fail? God told him to offer three animals but he forgot to cut the dove. The reason he failed was because Abraham did not offer himself completely to God. There were some of his own thoughts in his mind which prevented him from cutting the dove.
Extension of Parents' Love
When you are standing on the altar in front of God, you must realize that, "As a son, I am part of my Father. Whatever I do, good or bad, will affect my Father. There is no way I can separate from Him." There has to be that absolute union or love cannot be eternal. If you are an extension of parental love and decide to separate yourself from your parent, then that love ceases to exist.
The reason that eternal love can exist in the physical world is because we can multiply. As long as I have my children, and my children are a part of me, then they will have children who understand and accept this tradition. Then my love, my possession, my value, my ideal, will live on forever. If this world is to become an eternal place of love, separation cannot exist. There must be a complete intactness. The way we can attain this is through love.
Through the possibility of this potential, we are left with the responsibility to choose right or wrong. Many people may ask you, "Who are you to tell me what is right or wrong?" In a way, they have that right because they have been abused and manipulated by many self-serving people. It is very difficult to trust others these days with the existence of so much corruption, wrongdoing and selfishness.
Through the Divine Principle, we can understand the necessity of sacrifice and the value of offering. It means that you must commit yourself. You must realize who you are and that you are an extension of your Father, an extension of His love. You're not separate from it, but one with it. You must make a choice to live your life in a way that will ultimately bring unity.
In a sense, the life of Adam and Eve was an offering. If they could have sacrificed all of their personal thoughts and united with God's ideal, the ideals of God would have been manifested. In other words, they should have offered themselves completely, doing away with individual desire to become one with God's ideal.
So their very life was the greatest offering. They should have realized that they must become one with God's ideal through their own effort and that they must ultimately do away with anything that may distract them in order to purify the path toward unity with God.
Therefore make your offering an absolutely pure offering. Concentrate your focus toward God, your Father. The reason the creation was made was that God wanted to manifest His love. The way that love continues to exist is through reciprocal action. Joy comes through such reciprocal give and take.
You must have some kind of object to experience joy. For example, you can play a guitar and please your ears, but you cannot go into the depth of your feelings. In order to share the deep emotional content that lies within, you must have some object who can understand what you desire. That's the whole point of love.
Uphold Your Commitments to God
Why did God create for the sake of love and why is He willing to endure all of these hardships? If He has the power to create, why didn't He just erase them and start all over? You must realize that God is an absolute God and absolutely with to manifest love. In order to do that, He must have mankind and the creation, which were created for that specific purpose God is a perfect God so whatever He wills must be realized. If it isn't, the existence of Satan is validated.
You must understand that if God made the creation out of love, then everything within the creation must fulfill that criteria. If it goes unfulfilled, that would mean there is some impurity existing within the love of the Creator. Since God created out of love, then every element within the creation must bring forth it's ideal presence and ideal potential to become the ideal element that God intended. Of course, God hates the actions of Satan, but He is also willing to restore Satan. This is also the reason why you must be persistent in loving people.
If we want to bring the people of the world into the Principle, the best way is for us to practice it. We know what Principle and Father are teaching us. Father has sacrificed every step of the way. I realized this more when I started speaking every Sunday at Belvedere. No matter how short my speech may be it is really difficult. Personally, it is torment! So I'm very sensitive in that manner now and I know also Father is very sensitive. I understand how hard it is to go that path.
Every moment of Father's life, he has to speak and give guidance. He always has to think about the future, not just for one goal but everything that must be accomplished. Father gave me life. It doesn't matter how great you may be, your physical life was given by your parents, and your spiritual life was given by God. Thus, you have received something that is valuable and priceless.
I could be happy just hunting for the rest of my life -- I'm a very simple person. Ask anyone who knows me. But the reason I'm standing here, being applauded by you, is because I know the responsibility that my particular position holds. So it is my duty to live up to the position. The fall occurred because Satan looked toward Adam and Eve, desiring their position. He then deviated from his position and caused the fall.
All positions are important. In order for God's ideal to be realized, mankind must become God's ideal object so we must all fulfill our ideal positions.
That's why we're fighting Satan who wants to hold onto his false position. As long as Satan is opposed to God's ideal, His ideal will not be manifested. So we have the responsibility to be strong and bold. That's what Father tells us.
The only way you can realize God's ideal is to make your life a sacrifice. Your life is an offering. Believe in the commitment you have made to God so that offering can stand as pure as the moment you conceived it. That is your responsibility. The only reason you could fail is if your commitment becomes contaminated by some other ideas. Don't let that happen. This is a war and you have to fight Satan all the time.
This is a rather short talk. I guess I'm still in shock because Father said he wants to make me a professional Divine Principle lecturer. I don't know what to say except that I'm trying to find it in my heart to be grateful for whatever direction Father gives me. Your mind must subjugate your body. It's very easy to let your body subjugate your mind. You can see this all around such as through drug abuse, fashion, and so on. It's important for you to apply what you know through the Principle to your life. It's very difficult to think like that, but if you do, then everything is simple. Once you can do that, you just cut right through your opposition.
That's the only way we can march to our goal and attain it. This is the right attitude that we must all share. I sincerely hope everyone can renew their commitment during this short period of time. Please keep it with you, living it for the rest of your life. If you can do this, I can respect you with my arms raised. I am grateful to Heavenly Father and True Parents for giving me the Principle that is making your lives change. That is what means everything to me and it should to you also. Thank you for inviting me here and now I would like to sing some songs for you.