Absolute Values and the New Cultural Revolution - True Love and the Unified World

Honorable chairman, committee chairmen, distinguished professors, ladies and gentlemen: I would like to express my sincere appreciation to you for coming to this, the fifteenth International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences. Thank you for accommodating it in your busy schedules.

My topic on this occasion is, "True Love and the Unified World." The fundamental cause of confusion in the world today is the conflict between idealism or spiritualism on the one hand and materialism on the other, which is the conflict between the side of goodness and the side of evil. This conflict in turn can be expressed as the confrontation between the good God and the evil "god."

The hope of humankind is peace, and peace can be realized only through unification. This means unification not only on the world level but on many other levels as well: unification within each nation, within each family and within each individual. Of these, the most important is unification within the individual. In considering all current unification movements of the world at any of these levels, I would like to invite your careful scrutiny of my contributions.

In order to realize the world of peace God desires that the following must be accomplished. First, the unification movement must achieve preeminence in the realm of human thought. It needs to challenge and surpass all narrower philosophical and religious views. Second, this unification movement must rise to the summit of technology and then distribute that technology evenly throughout the world. Up to the present day, technologically advanced North America has dominated South America, while Europe has held sway over Africa. In order to correct this, the level of technology needs to be equalized among all countries.

Third, this movement must deal with global economic problems. Today the world is confronting an international monetary crisis. This can be controlled if numerous conglomerates buy stock in and establish a supra­national bank.

Fourth, it has to take preeminence in the realm of media. With the Washington Times as the core, we are establishing preeminence in the American print media, a field of more than 1,750 American newspapers. By doing so we can include all fields of intelligence. Today we have in this area surpassed the liberal New York Times and Washington Post, and continually gaining important confidential information not only from America but also from other governments all over the world.

However, even if the ultimate unification movement stands on the summit in all the realms of thought, science, technology, economy and media, there remains yet another problem: how to guide through education people who can go beyond their nation and race. The problem is illustrated by the fact that, for example, when an American takes responsibility for a project, he tends to employ all Americans for the task; if the manager is English, he tends to employ only English people; the French employ only French people, and so forth. Therefore, before the peace and unification of the world can be contemplated, one must know how to educate people so they can completely overcome their own sense of nationality in favor of embracing the world.

Even communism, which rules half the globe, cannot rid itself of its own nationalist and racist inclinations, and is reduced to "racist communism."

Turning to the question of God, in the latter half of the twentieth century much of the world's population has inclined toward a humanistic outlook that denies God and has turned toward the worship of mammon, while much of the rest of the population has fallen under communism, which is mere materialism. Philosophy, whose task it is to find God or absolute truth, has failed, and religion, which is supposed to connect humankind with God, is now on the verge of losing God and becoming spiritless.

In the unification of the world, the crucial problem is the individual person. Before the unification of the world is possible, we must achieve the unification of the nation and the unification of the family, and the unification of the family must be preceded by the unification of the individual person -- which means the unification of mind and body. When the individual suffers inner conflict, the family suffers. When the family suffers, the nation cannot help but suffer; and when the nation suffers, the world cannot but suffer. After all is said and done, a true person must be found, a true person whom humankind and the universe can cherish and whom God can trust.

People like things that do not change. Hence they like jewelry. People value the hardness of diamonds, the luster of gold and the iridescence of pearls, all because of their unchangeableness. This is also true of people. The unchangingly good person is precious and true. Therefore, all people want unchangingly good parents, unchangingly good teachers, unchangingly good leaders and unchangingly good nations.

Today, the increase in the number of people who do not recognize God is disturbing. This is because as individuals their minds and bodies are in conflict. But if even those who do not recognize God realize that something must be wrong in human beings, they will come to have a different outlook and see that there may be a God. Then, encountering such religious concepts as the Fall and salvation, they may discover God.

When we discover God, it becomes clear to us what is public and what is private. That which is public means that which is for the whole, and that which is private is for the self. When we reflect on ourselves objectively, we find ourselves in a quandary over what is public and what is private. Because of this, religion teaches us restraint through spiritual practices such as fasting, sacrificial service, modesty and humility in order that the body, which is very much inclined toward the private way of behaving, may be restrained in favor of the mind, which is more public.,

God certainly exists. True people are those who resemble God. To realize the world in which true people abound, not a social or political revolution but a revolution of character must take place in human beings. This character revolution is to transform people into true people who will come to resemble God. This character revolution is to uplift human beings' character and bring it closer to God's own character. God, who is already omniscient and omnipotent, does not need any more knowledge or power, but even He needs His object partners of love, man and woman.

The sixteenth verse of the third chapter of the Gospel of John says, "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son." (John 3:16) This means that God sent Jesus for the sake of all humankind, not just for one particular denomination or segment of believers. Therefore God embraces sons and daughters who love the world with their very life, as does He Himself.

What God loves most is a culture of love. What He wants every man and woman to be is not a person of wealth or a scholar but a person of love. In the Bible we encounter innumerable teachings concerning love: "Love your enemies," "Love your neighbor," of "faith, hope and love,... the greatest of these is love," to name only a few. Do wives truly love their husbands? Do students truly love their teachers? Do citizens truly love their countries?

Ladies and gentlemen, do you know what is most precious to a man? It is a woman. Likewise what is most precious to a woman is a man. The purpose of life for a man is a woman and for a woman is a man, and we are all born into it. Man and woman are born to live for each other. The harmony of their body shapes and of their organs of love reflects this. If you truly understand this, you have mastered more truth and precious wisdom than an entire encyclopedia. Reflecting this mutual preciousness of man and woman, God, the great King of wisdom, has placed our reproductive organs in each other's custody.

Thus the true master of the reproductive organ a man or woman possesses is not the individual at all but his or her loving spouse. Those husbands and wives who are ignorant of this and misuse what they have in an indiscriminate way will surely meet judgment. By realizing this truth, husband and wife can attain harmony, and their children will develop filial piety. The children of such a marriage will grow up to be loyal patriots and faithful husbands or wives. Such couples will grow further to become saints and eventually will become holy sons or daughters who are one with God.

Without finding mutual love between husband and wife, which is a horizontal relationship, we cannot receive God's love, which is a vertical relationship. If humankind had not fallen, heaven would have begun in a family, and all the people populating the world would be the expansion of that family. Thus the family is the training ground of love to qualify men and women for heaven. Only those who possess God's love can inherit the right to heaven and earth. In this regard, which comes first, life or love? The answer is love. Love is the universe's first existence, and life, which only begins as a result of love, is the second existence. In a family, children are born out of the love of their parents. Thus children inherit life from their parents, having been a part of their parents' love. Once two parties are bound together in a relationship of love, they come to stand on an equal level.

Since love comes from the other, "live for the sake of others" is the highest philosophical principle. God created human beings to be His own object partners; thus He created them for the sake of the object partners, human beings themselves. God likewise made humanity to exist for the sake of Himself. However, as a result of the Fall, people have become self-centered, living for the sake of themselves rather than for the sake of others.

Today's human society is corrupt, and philosophies are becoming self centered. To sweep away these philosophies, only God's love, true love, can suffice. True love is the love to give and give without expecting any return. Give and forget. Once we maintain this relationship with God, we are given the privileges of dominion, independence and inheritance. When we establish God's realm of the object, and realize the glory of unchanging love, we can justify eternal ethics centering on human love.

God, truly in a miserable and pitiful position, is still seeking for His realm of the true object. Out of so many clergymen in this country of America, God, recognizing me as an object of love, visited me in prison to tell me to work on Nicaragua's crucial situation.

The unification of the world, including that of divided Korea, can never be accomplished by military power. Unification becomes possible only with God's love, a love which embraces the enemy countries as well.

I have practiced this ideal up to this day. In my ministry in America, I have been teaching people of the mutually hostile countries of World War II to love each other, Japanese and Korean, Japanese and American, and American and German. Without our establishing a firm tradition of being able to love the people of the enemy countries more than one's own, the unification of the world will not become a reality. And only God's love will enable one to love the enemy countries more than his own.

To repeat, before the unification of the world can be achieved, the unification of the country, the unification of the family, and the unification of the individual must precede. The unification of the individual, as I mentioned before, means the unity between the mind and body in love. On this foundation husband and wife can achieve unity in love, and unification of the country and the world will follow. Also, this is the only way to realize a world of new civilization.

It is therefore my fervent wish that all the professors gathered here will also strive for the unity of mind and body. Love your wife or husband deeply, and thereby contribute to the unification of the world, and the building of a world of new culture.

In closing, I hope that this conference will be a very fruitful one for you. Thank you.