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We each have both a mind and a body. When the mind and body are united, we do not feel distress… We feel joy.

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We each have both a mind and a body. When the mind and body are united, we do not feel distress… We feel joy.

Sun Myung Moon

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Mind and Body

Topic: Self-Cultivation & Health

We each have both a mind and a body. When the mind and body are united, we do not feel distress. But when the mind and body are disunited, when they are not balanced horizontally, we feel inner torment. The problem arises when either the mind or the body is too overpowering, creating an imbalance. When the mind and body are balanced in horizontal alignment, however, we do not feel anxiety. Also, when the mind and body are aligned with the perpendicular, things begin to move. A lively motion ensues, and we feel joy. That is why everything should be aligned with the perpendicular. The horizontal and the vertical must always be in harmony, joining on the perpendicular.

Sun Myung Moon

Sun Myung Moon (born January 6, 1920, in Jeongju, in what is now North Korea – died September 3, 2012, in Gapyeong, South Korea) was a Korean religious leader, entrepreneur, and founder of the Unification movement. Raised in a rural Confucian-Christian household during the Japanese occupation of Korea, Moon’s early life was shaped by hardship, devotion, and a strong sense of spiritual calling. As a teenager, he experienced a profound vision in which he believed Jesus commissioned him to complete the work of restoring humanity to unity with God. This revelation became the foundation of his lifelong ministry, devoted to the ideal of universal peace and the healing of the relationship between the divine and human families.

In 1954, after enduring persecution and periods of imprisonment under both Japanese and communist authorities, Moon founded the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity in Seoul. His teachings—later presented systematically in the Exposition of the Divine Principle—offered a reinterpretation of Christian theology emphasizing God’s parental love, human responsibility, and the sanctity of marriage and family. Central to his vision was the belief that love is the creative force of the universe and that humanity’s purpose is to build a world reflecting the oneness of God’s heart. Through international missions, interfaith dialogue, and mass wedding ceremonies symbolizing global reconciliation, Moon sought to transcend divisions of race, religion, and nationality.

Beyond his religious work, Moon established numerous organizations in education, media, culture, and humanitarian service, aiming to foster dialogue, moral renewal, and peace. He and his wife, Hak Ja Han Moon, were regarded by followers as the “True Parents,” embodying the ideal of restored unity between men and women, heaven and earth. While his movement inspired both devoted commitment and significant controversy, Moon’s influence on global religion, culture, and peace initiatives remains substantial. His life reflected an unwavering pursuit of the vision of one human family under God—a vision he advanced with conviction, discipline, and enduring faith in the transformative power of divine love.

(1920-2012) Heavenly Parent's Holy Community
Cheon Seong Gyeong

Moon, Sun Myung, and Hak Ja Han Moon. Cheon Seong Gyeong. Seonghwa Chulpansa, 2015, pp. 371-372 [Cheon Seong Gyeong (212-293, 1991.01.08), Book 4 - True Person, Chapter 1].

Sun Myung Moon


Theme: Healing

About This Sun Myung Moon Quotation [Commentary]

Sun Myung Moon begins with something immediate: “We each have both a mind and a body.” When these are “united,” he says, “we do not feel distress.” When they are “disunited” and “not balanced horizontally,” we feel “inner torment.” The difficulty comes when “either the mind or the body is too overpowering,” creating an imbalance. Healing begins with restoring this inner balance so that mind and body can function in unity.

Sun Myung Moon then describes what follows when “the mind and body are balanced in horizontal alignment”: “we do not feel anxiety.” Yet he goes further. When mind and body are also “aligned with the perpendicular,” he says, “things begin to move.” In his teaching, this perpendicular points toward true love and God, joining inner harmony with a spiritual center beyond the isolated self.

This alignment leads to life and joy: “A lively motion ensues, and we feel joy.” Sun Myung Moon closes by saying, “The horizontal and the vertical must always be in harmony, joining on the perpendicular.” Healing, then, is more than relief from distress. It is the restoration of harmony within ourselves and alignment with true love, so that mind and body are united and joy can arise.

Selection of Related Passages about Mind and Body

“Looking at ourselves, our mind represents the vertical aspect and our body the horizontal aspect. We use the expression, “a mind that is upright and straight.” Upright means the mind is correct vertically and horizontally. When it stands vertically it is correct, and when it extends itself horizontally it is correct. To the mind, which we consider to be vertical, the body is horizontal. Hence, if the mind and body reciprocate well according to the desires of the mind, the mind is at peace. In that case, we grow well. Physical suffering is painful, but the suffering of the mind is worse. That is because the vertical is central.”

—Sun Myung Moon [Cheon Seong Gyeong (178-274, 1988.06.08), Book 4 – True Person, Chapter 1, pp. 370-372].

“The mind and body are in different positions. The mind is vertical and the body is horizontal. Yet unless they are united, unless they are made level, we cannot form a perpendicular that is aligned with the direction of God’s essential, absolute love. There can be only one perpendicular, not two. So we have to do our best to unite our minds and bodies with our minds as the center, especially in our life of faith.”

—Sun Myung Moon [Cheon Seong Gyeong (178-045, 1988.06.01)].

“Each person has a mind and a body. The mind represents a person’s vertical aspect and the body his or her horizontal aspect. When you remark, “That person is upright,” you say it with the horizontal in mind. To arrive at such an opinion, you did not look at that person solely from a vertical perspective. Inevitably you considered his or her horizontal standard. Believers in Buddhism, for example, try to comprehend the nature of the mind through meditation, but they have not yet discovered what the mind truly is. In fact, it is simple. The mind is the vertical “I” and the body is the horizontal “I”. I am perfected as a human being when the vertical “I” and the horizontal “I” unite. What is the center that enables the horizontal and the vertical to unite? There must be an essence by which the two can resonate with each other and unite in a state of perfection. Neither money nor knowledge nor power can create this resonance. The only thing that can bring it forth is God’s true love.”

—Sun Myung Moon [Cheon Seong Gyeong (226-075, 1992.02.02), Book 4 – True Person, Chapter 1, pp. 370-372].

“The body represents the horizontal and the mind the vertical. The vertical and the horizontal have to meet at a ninety-degree angle within you. When four ninety-degree angles are combined, they make 360 degrees. Unless this happens within you, you cannot be a perfect person. That is why you have to become one centering on the vertical, the mind. To attain unity of mind and body, the body should not be the center. The mind should not vacillate or change under the body’s influence. You need to control your body, the horizontal, in order to unite completely with your mind, the vertical. When you have done that, you must find the “I” who abides in complete mind-body unity, where they form a ninety-degree angle. You will find that real “I” only when you grow to perfection and experience conjugal love for the first time. In order for a person living in the east to look west and for a person living in the west to look east, they have to attain maturity.”

—Sun Myung Moon [Cheon Seong Gyeong (168-196, 1987.09.20)].

“The mind that takes after the principle of heaven and earth represents the vertical aspect of a human being. That is why we consider that the mind should be high and lofty. Although a mind can be considered broad, within the concept of being broad-minded is also the concept of height. So your mind should be both broad and high. An upright mind should consist of a perpendicular connection reaching to the highest point in heaven and all the way to the ends of the earth. In the world of things in motion, the spherical realm of the great universe, at every point on a plane there can be only one perpendicular. If there is a perpendicular that is desired by all beings in the creation as their ideal, it has to be one. That is true love. That perpendicular, namely, true love, cannot be two. This is so anywhere in the universe. Whether someone is from the East or the West, whether living in the past, the present or the future, there is only one perpendicular of true love. Since God is also connected to that perpendicular, and the action of love takes place at that one point, the ideal that God desires is connected with the realm that arises from the perpendicular. However, this axis, this point of perpendicularity, has not yet been formed on this earth.”

—Sun Myung Moon [Cheon Seong Gyeong (177-327, 1988.05.22)].

“We often use the expression “He has an upright mind.” Upright means standing straight in a line perpendicular to the ground. We do not use such an expression for a tree that is leaning over. Thus, for a person to have an upright mind means that his or her mind stands straight. That is why human beings walk with an upright posture. A person can be spiritually upright only when his or her mind is vertical. Hence, we have to make the mind completely vertical. Then our body becomes a horizontal line. When we establish the vertical and horizontal within ourselves, the force of the vertical that pulls inward and the force of the horizontal that expands outward are in balance and manifest as centripetal and centrifugal forces.”

—Sun Myung Moon [Cheon Seong Gyeong (9-073, 1999.02.04)].

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