Sunday, August 12, 2012

Weapon? or no Weapon?


Ignorance breeds fear, fear breeds war, war breeds resentment and suffering to the killers and to the victims and under mind their ability to think rationally about a world without violence. Ultimately the best weapon of all is education. I am not talking about math and science here, I am talking about learning how to love even those who think differently, pray differently and live differently than I.

Eliminating our ability to be greedy, selfish, intolerant, and afraid of what we don’t know will ultimately be the only way for us to avoid picking up our weapon and shoot because we are scared.

We, as a society, keep on arguing over things that cannot be solved (gun no gun, abort or not abort, gay or no gay, God in school not God in school, etc.) instead of fighting loosing battles why don’t we try to pick battles that actually can be won. Don’t try to educate me about the value of a gun in my house or the value of not having one. Educate me and educate the world about the value of practicing the ultimate act of true love, living my life for the sake of others. What does that mean? Really? Why don’t we discuss this instead? That is a very difficult subject, which we know very little about, but that is the only “weapon” that will save us all.

Friday, June 1, 2012

God's piece of cake!

If there’s no ring on your hand, God will put a diamond ring of the Kingdom of Heaven on your finger.


I have found myself at odds with some Unificationists in the past because of desperation over not being blessed or not having children. There is nothing more important to a follower of Rev. Moon than the marriage blessing and building a family centered on God. So, if one find that they cannot or have not done that, for some reason, they feel failure and more over they feel doom that they will never be able to experience spousal love and parental love.

Experiencing God’s love in all its forms is a pre-requisite in reaching the highest realm of the spiritual world.

On the other end, let’s think some more, God is a parental God; he will never be satisfied unless every individuals that has ever been born has the ability to reach the kingdom of heaven.  Therefore, I don’t have to think very hard to know that there will be a way for people who passed on to the spiritual world without receiving the marriage blessing and/or having children to experience the love of a spouse, the love of children, and the love of a parent. I don’t know the details but I do know that it must be so.

The words I read today from Rev. Moon gives me a hint that I am correct in my thinking and that we must not judge ourselves with things that we may not be able to control but instead make each day count as a day closer to become the loving person God wants us to be.  The rest is just a “piece of cake” for God.

In general when human beings think about eternal life, they think of it not only in terms of decades or centuries, but in millennia, tens of millennia or eons. When people die, they are no different from animals. What use is it to leave anything behind? Nowadays, even atheists and agnostics say to themselves: “Ah, I have to make a name for myself.” Yet, of what use is it to do that? Even if one became an American patriot and were honored with a monument, it would disappear when America perishes. What use is it to leave your name behind? Even if you did so, historically speaking, something that was considered good during a period of prosperity can later be viewed as bad during a period of decline. (103-15, 1979.1.28)

God’s purpose is to have His posterity populate the earth. Therefore, when we go before God in the spirit world, having left behind children of the Living God on earth, we also come to stand in His position. That indeed, is the meaning of the scripture, “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” (146-223, 1986.3.11)

What will you do in your life? Leave a tomb of love behind. Let us leave a tomb of love behind! If you live inside a tomb of love, you will feel no bitter sorrow. You may get tired of living in a place like a tomb, but will feel no bitter sorrow if you live in love. If we leave a tomb of love behind in our lifetime, our life will be a success for eternity. If you live like that and die, God will bring His sons and daughters to welcome you in the spirit world. If there’s no ring on your hand, God will put a diamond ring of the Kingdom of Heaven on your finger. If you’re not well-dressed, God will dress you in the richest apparel fit for the royalty of the Kingdom of Heaven. (97-167, 1978.3.12) CSG page 591 Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Sunday, April 29, 2012

FaceBook

Why do I use FaceBook? Why do I grant access to my pictures and writings to people I have never met? I do not know them. Are they good people? Bad people? I do not know.

I do deny some requests. I deny request if there is no picture identifying the person. I deny request if their multitude of friends are all unknown to me. But, most of the time, I grant the request. I grant the request simply because I recognized the name of some of their friends as being also listed as my friends.

Now that I have explained my criteria for accepting or denying a requests, let me answer the first question that I raised. Why do I use FaceBook. I use FaceBook as a medium to reach out to others. To let them know what I think, to share with them thoughts that I believe are important. I always keep in mind that what ever I post is for the world to see. I want the world to read what I write. I want the world to understand what I say. I want the world to know what I believe. I want the world to know who I am and what are my hopes, my dreams, and my goals.

I am a Unificationist. I have been so for the last thirty-nine years. I have never regretted the path I took at the age of  twenty-one years old. I purposely left behind a job that I could do very well and a family that I loved. I entered a brand new life of an unknown future. However, my religious upbringing had help me to start learning how to relate to God. My faith, thought, at that time strong but uneducated, help me to make the decisions that were life changing.

"When you go out into the world and meet a grandfather, treat him as your own grandfather. Treat people like your own mothers, like your own fathers or like your own sons. When you go out into the world you should all live like this." Sun Myung Moon (128-22, 1983.5.29) CSG page 442.
I posted the paragraph above because I like it, that is all. I read almost daily the teaching of Rev. Moon, like many Christians read the bible on a regular basis. Once in a while I come across a paragraph that I especially like, and I post it.

What are religions for?


"They are training grounds through which God has been directing all people along that path, whatever their race, cultural background, customs and traditions. Religions are the training grounds for training people to become eligible to return to the original home­land. Taking into account the diverse cultural backgrounds ranging across the four corners of the earth, God is lead­ing humanity toward a unified world of religion that can progress upward onto higher ground.

What does religion which guides people to the original homeland, cen­trally teach? It is to live for the sake of others. As highly developed religions tend to emphasize this principle, they teach us to be gentle and meek, to stand in a position to elevate others and live for their sake, and to serve them sacrifi­cially. All this serves to instill discipline in us to abide by the laws of the Kingdom of Heaven." Sun Myung Moon 1975.5.6
Are these words hard to understand? After 40 years as a Unificationist, they are not hard for me but I don't know about people who come across them for the first time. The paragraph before this one was:

"You may not know of the reality of the spirit world, but I enjoy the spe­cial benefit from God of having a clear insight into that unknown world. Dig­ging into the root of that world, I found its principles to be quite simple. In the spirit world only those who lived altruis­tically in line with God’s universal prin­ciples can enter the higher realms. The world structured along those lines is the ideal heavenly kingdom. That place is the original homeland that humankind must seek. Today, although we are exiles from our original homeland and live a fallen life, we are destined to return there. God had to create a path for this in the course of history because we could not do so by our own efforts."
When Rev. Moon speaks about "Original homeland" he means the place that God originally intended when He created Adam and Eve. The place that is described in the Bible as the "Garden of Eden".  The world we live in today is far from that original place, however, the goal remains the same. A world of peace, kindness, forgiveness, compassion, concern for others and the creation will make a world that is utterly pleasant for all, regardless of our aspirations, personalities, and personal desires.

A successful business person will have the right to his or her money because he or she will have earned it with good ethics. He or she will be providing a product or a service that is beneficial to society and promote the welfare of mankind and the creation.

Politicians will be truly servants of their people. The words "Platform" and "Party" will be history. Politicians will work together for the benefit of the whole. They will look at the need of people from a global standpoint and together will try to bring solutions to what ever problems come their way.

Interfaith temple: Rabbi, priest and imam crowd fund ‘House of One’ in Germany



Sunday, February 19, 2012

Great People: Martin Luther King, Jr.

Many years ago Rev. Sun Myung Moon was asked to name one person whom he admired greatly in the United States. His answer was, Martin Luther King, Jr. Recently, I read some comments made by Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy a few months after the death of her husband about Rev. ML King. The comments were not kind and reflected a particular moment in time. They left me with a “bad taste” in my mouth.

Rev. ML King has been regarded with admiration because of his dedication to a peaceful revolution that would bring equality of rights in America to all people. Recently I also read a long letter that was written by Rev. ML King while in jail in Alabama (click here for full text of the letter). The letter is very clear about his thoughts and his plans. I found nothing wrong with his way of thinking. He had a plan he carried out that plan to the best of his abilities. And because of his efforts, basic human rights, long overdue, were granted to a significant segment of our population in this country of America that until his time had been marginalized and badly mistreated.

I think what I am trying to say is that great people are great because of the way they think and because of what they try to achieve due to their great thinking. That does not mean that on the way to accomplishing their goals they will not make mistakes. Should we disregard the greatness of an individual solely because of his or her faults and weaknesses? We may be displeased and we may wish them to be perfect, but, regardless of their imperfections these people, ultimately, helped in the creation of a better world for all.

There are few people that in the course of history, and some in our world today, that through their actions are influencing the whole world for the better. Most of us do not have the ability to emulate them, our responsibility then is to support them and help them fulfill their divine mission. Their victory will be ours as well.