As a Peace-Loving Global Citizen
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AS A PEACE-LOVING GLOBAL CITIZEN AS A · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · PEACE-LOVING GLOBAL CITIZEN · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON CONTENTS ix FOREWORD · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · CHAPTER ONE 1 FOOD IS LOVE 2 What I Learned about Peace While Being Carried on My Father’s Back 8 The Joy of Giving Food to Others 12 Being a Friend to All 16 A Definite Compass for My Life 23 A Stubborn Child Who Never Gives Up 29 Loving Nature to Learn from It 37 Talking about the Universe with the Insects 41 Ardent Student · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · CHAPTER TWO 45 A RIVER OF HEART FLOWS WITH TEARS 46 Between Fear and Inspiration 51 The More It Hurts, the More You Should Love 56 A Knife Not Sharpened Grows Dull 61 A Key to Unlock a Great Secret 66 Like a Fireball Burning Hot 70 Befriending Laborers by Sharing Their Suffering 76 The Calm Sea of the Heart 80 “Please Don’t Die” 86 A Command That Must Be Obeyed 95 A Grain of Rice Is Greater Than the Earth 100 Heungnam Prison in the Snow 105 U.N. Forces Open the Prison Gate CHAPTER THREE 111 The MAN WITH The FUllesT STOmaCH 112 “You Are My Spiritual Teacher” 117 The Crazy, Handsome Man by the Well 121 A Church with No Denomination 126 Two Universities Expel Students and Professors 130 New Buds Grow on Scorched Branches 134 We Are Trained by Our Wounds 137 A Sincere Heart Is Most Important · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · CHAPTER FOUR 145 WhY WE WORK GLOBALLY 146 Paying the Ultimate Price to Follow God’s Path 150 Money Earned Honorably, Used Prayerfully 153 Power of Dance Moves the World 156 Angels Open a Path through a Dark Forest 160 World Tour 164 Last Plane to America 170 Our Future Lies with the Ocean 175 Reverend Moon, Seed for a New American Revolution 179 Washington Monument, 1976 185 Cry Not for Me but for the World 188 “Why Does My Father Have to Go to Jail?” · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · CHAPTER FIVE 194 TrUE Families CREATE TRUE PEOple 195 My Wife, Hak Ja Han Moon 201 An Incomparable Inner Beauty 207 Promises That Must Never Be Broken 212 To Love Is to Give and Forget 215 The Peaceful Family Is the Building Block of Heaven 219 Ten Years of Tears Melt a Father-in-Law’s Heart 223 The True Meaning of Marriage 227 True Love Is Found in True Families 231 Leaving Behind a Legacy of Love CHAPTER SIX 237 LOve Will BriNG UNIFICATION 238 The Power of Religion to Turn People to Goodness 245 The River Does Not Reject the Waters That Flow into It 249 “Allow Freedom of Religion in the Soviet Union” 255 Korea’s Unification Will Bring World Unification 261 My Meeting with President Kim Il Sung 267 The Land May Be Divided, but Not Its People 274 Not by Guns or Swords, but by True Love · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · CHAPTER SEVEN 279 FUTURE OF KOREA, FUTURE OF THE WORLD 280 World Harmony and the Korean Peninsula 286 From Suffering and Tears to Peace and Love 290 The Ultimate Purpose of Twenty-first-Century Religion 295 Cultural Projects Express God’s Creativity 301 Master of the Seas and the Future of the World 305 Great Opportunity in the Oceanic Era 310 A Single Dandelion Is More Precious Than Gold 315 Solution to Poverty and Hunger 320 More Than Giving Bread, Teaching How to Make Bread · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · CHAPTER EIGHT 325 Message FOR YOUNG PEOple 326 Find Your Purpose, Change Your Life 330 Embrace the World 335 Everything We Have Is Borrowed from Heaven 339 Happiness Is a Life Lived for Others 343 Dreaming of a Peaceful World Foreword 5 steady spring rain fell all last night, ending a winter drought. It was so nice to have had the rain that I spent all this morning walking about in the garden. The ground had that fragrant Aaroma of moist earth I had missed all through the winter, and the weep- ing willow and cherry trees were showing signs of new spring buds. I felt I could hear the popping sounds of new life sprouting here and there around the garden. Before I knew it, my wife, who had followed me out, was picking young mugwort shoots that had managed to poke their heads up through the dry lawn. The night’s rain had turned the whole world into a fragrant spring garden. No matter how much commotion there may be in the world, when the calendar turns to March, spring is on its way. The older I become, the more it means to me that in nature spring follows winter and brings with it flowers in full bloom. What am I that God, in each season, allows the flowers to bloom and the snow to fall, so I might know the joy of being alive? Love wells up from within the deepest recesses of my heart, and I am overcome with emotion. I am moved to tears to think that everything of real value has been given to me freely. In my life, I have circled the globe many times over in my efforts to bring about a world ix . foreword . of peace, and yet it is here in this garden in spring that I am able to taste real peace. Peace, too, was given to us by God, but we lost it somewhere and now spend our lives looking for it in all the wrong places. To bring a world of peace, I have spent my life going to the most lowly and secluded places. I met mothers in Africa who could only watch helplessly as their children died of hunger, and I met fathers in South America who lived by a river full of fish but couldn’t sup- port their families by fishing. At first, all I did was simply share my food, but they granted me their love in return. Intoxicated with the power of love I went on to plant seeds and cultivate forests. Together we caught fish to feed hungry children, and these trees were used to build schools. I was happy even as mosquitoes bit me all over as I fished all through the night. Even when I was sinking knee-deep into mud, I was happy because I could see the shadows of despair disappear from the faces of my neighbors. Seeking the shortest path to a world of peace, I devoted myself to inspiring change in the political process and to changing people’s ways of thinking. I met then-President Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union as part of my effort to bring reconciliation between communism and democracy, and I met then-President Kim Il Sung of North Korea for a serious discussion on how to bring peace to the Korean peninsula. I went to a United States in moral decline and played the role of a fireman responding to a call in an effort to reawaken its Puritan spirit. I dedicated myself to resolving various conflicts in the world. In my work for peace among Muslims and Jews, I was not deterred by rampant terror. As a result of my efforts, thousands have gathered for rallies and peace marches, with Jews, Muslims, and Christians all joining together. Sadly, however, the conflict continues. x . foreword . I see hope, though, that an age of peace is about to be inaugurated in Korea. The Korean peninsula has been trained through endless suffer- ing and the tragedy of division, and I can feel in every cell of my body that a powerful energy has been stored here and is ready to burst out. In the same way that no one can stop a new season of spring from coming, no human power can stop heavenly fortune from coming to the Korean peninsula and spreading throughout the world. People need to prepare themselves so that they may rise with the tide of heavenly fortune when it arrives. I am a controversial person. The mere mention of my name causes trouble in the world. I never sought money or fame but have spent my life speaking only of peace. The world, though, has associated many different phrases with my name, rejected me, and thrown stones at me. Many are not interested in knowing what I say or what I do. They only oppose me. I have been unjustly imprisoned six times in my life-by imperial Japan, in Kim Il Sung’s North Korea, by South Korea’s Syngman Rhee government, and even in the United States-and at times I was beaten so hard that the flesh was torn from my body. Today, though, not even the slightest wound remains in my heart. Wounds easily disappear in the presence of true love. Even enemies melt away without a trace in the presence of true love. True love is a heart that gives and gives and wants to continuing giving. True love is a love that even forgets that it already gave love and gives love again. I have lived my entire life intoxicated in such love. I wanted nothing aside from love, and I threw my entire being into the effort to share love with my impoverished neighbors. At times, the path of love was so difficult that my knees buckled under me, but even then I felt happy in my heart, dedicated to loving humanity. xi . foreword . Even now, I am filled with love that I have not yet been able to give. It is with a prayer that this love will become a river of peace saturat- ing the drought-stricken land and flowing to the ends of the earth that I now place this book before the world.