An inspiring section regarding the relation of self-purpose to whole-purpose. From the sermon of Rev. Sun Myung Moon OUR ONE LIFE March 4, 1979 Man always thinks centering on himself, and so leads his life centering on himself. Where does that tendency to value himself most of all come from? It comes from God Himself. As man finds himself elevated he is happy, and he hates to find things the other way around. Each person always has a past, present and future; in addition he is surrounded by his family, clan and social environment. Farther away is the rest of the world and spirit world. Just as we want to elevate ourselves individually we also want to elevate our families. This extends to other levels, such that an individual would like to see his society elevated; an American would like to see America become more developed than any other country, for instance. All those in spirit world would like to see their world improved and respected by others. That is quite understandable, for certainly God is much like this. When you examine yourself closely you see that you are part of everything else around you and it is part of you; you live in a common realm of existence. How can both you and your family be elevated at the same time? This is an important matter when you seriously consider it. Actually it is rather simple-if an individual is completely united with his family then he will cherish the family and think highly of its other members. In addition, if all the family members want to live for something higher than themselves then we can say they are not only united, but are being constantly elevated. This is not just logical reasoning but is the way our mind naturally moves. If a clan is united then they discover that they are looking upward and desiring to live for a higher cause; in living that way they discover over time that they are gradually being elevated, in the sense of developing or improving. If you desire to be elevated but not to see others elevated in relationship to you, you will always be in conflict. The other person will never give in but will fight back. You will not only find yourself to be ineffective, but actually declining as well. According to the principle of development two people can advance by uniting for a higher purpose. Who among men would be the center in each step along the way? We can generalize and say that it is the one whom God loves most. What is the standard tor finding such a person? Yes, it is the person who always wants to himself, but we have to determine how God wants an individual to elevate himself. We want to elevate ourselves, not by asking other people to do it for us, but by coming under them instead. How does this actually work? If a person places himself in that position then the very environment will lift him up, even though he himself may not want to go higher. We have all experienced dislike for the person who only wants to elevate himself, regardless of whether he has the potential to be higher. This has been true in the past and present, and is a typical problem everywhere. This formula is always present, working on every level. If this element is removed from mans life then no one would get anywhere, for no matter how high a person advanced, it would have no meaning. God took notice of this element and taught people through religion to be humble and to sacrifice themselves. If God is really God then this is likely to be His advice. When a person is like this then he is welcome wherever he goes, in his family, society, nation and in spirit world, and even God will like him very much. Is this understandable? In Unification Church terminology this means to live for the sake of others. Many people cant understand why they shouldnt live only for themselves, but there is the difference of heaven and earth between living for others and for oneself. By living for ourselves we are sure to destroy any possibility of elevating ourselves, while living for others is the surest way of elevating ourselves. What is the significance of living for others? It has the meaning of recreating something. In living for others we must make a commitment and make something out of nothing by adding on. Because of you something will come to exist where there was nothing before. If a person tries to live for others then he has left many works behind him on earth and his achievements are accumulated there to benefit everyone. There are a great variety of ways of living for others-some will do so by giving money, teaching, or doing medical or military work. What is the primary way, however? By giving love. There are many kinds of love and many steps in love. We are not just thinking about the smaller-scale love in a single family between a man and woman, but the largest possible love of God as an infinite subject loving His object. Even in love we find an order; not all love is the same. Love for God would be the highest plane ot love; love of the world would be next, and so on down to love of the family. We find this concept of order in the categories of love: Love of God is the greatest; next to it is love of the nation, society, clan, family and then the individual. Of course, we love ourselves, but if we love the family more then our love remains in greater form. You may sacrifice in loving the family but you are losing nothing by forgetting yourself; the remainder of the family cherish you in your place. That is much better than trying to cherish yourself. By loving ten other people, you have found ten other places to live centering on love. Then you remain in ever greater form in the minds of those ten other people. Wherever such a person goes, those ten people will follow him. Why would they follow him instead of going their own ways ? The explanation is not difficult to understand. When subject and object become one in give and take God joins them there and relates to them both. When God visits there and decides to stay, it means that the family becomes perfect; then it will never perish but remain eternally. If a nation chooses to sacrifice itself for the sake of the world, the world will cherish it and make it the central nation. If the spirit world decides to sacrifice itself for the sake ot God then the degree of love there will become even greater. We have an innate element which pushes us to want to become bigger and bigger and have more and more value. Even after uniting with people of higher value than himself, a person wants to go still higher until he reaches God. We always want to elevate ourselves. Without that desire we would not go ever higher until we reached God. This cannot be accomplished without love. Love is the only way to elevate oneself to God and fulfill the pattern of constantly uniting with a higher value. As we do that we will increasingly resemble God. No one can complain about this; the only complaint could concern a person who doesnt become greater and greater-You are crazy not to become greater! If we have this love then even though we want to remain mediocre we will be lifted up by others, even turned upside down! Can you really imagine that?
Posted on: Wed, 04 Dec 2013 03:16:15 +0000
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