Gazing up at the constellations of the night sky or exploring nature around us, we experience awesome and mysterious feelings surging up from deep in our hearts. This state is the starting point of religion.
Sun Myung Moon
Awesome and Mysterious
Topic: The Natural World
“When we look at the creation, we feel a religious emotion welling up from deep in our hearts and naturally bow down before it. Gazing up at the constellations of the night sky or exploring nature around us, we experience awesome and mysterious feelings surging up from deep in our hearts. This state is the starting point of religion. While gazing at living things and the phenomena of nature, we can sing songs that arise from the precious world of the heart within.
Playing nature’s music, displaying nature’s art and reciting nature’s poetry, all living things resonate in our hearts. Then we can relate with God, who rules the heavenly bodies. Experience the feeling that you are intimately connected to everything; then you can enter a state of the heart to rightly appreciate them. You enter a mystical state in which you can experience everything in its reality.”
Sun Myung Moon, born on January 6, 1920, was a renowned spiritual leader hailing from North Korea. He founded the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, better known as the Unification Church, in 1954. Drawing upon elements of Christianity, Confucianism, and anti-communist political philosophy, Moon's teachings centered on love, unity, and peace. He aimed to spark a global spiritual movement that transcended religious and cultural divisions, and his vision resonated with followers all over the world. Through the Unification Church, Moon also promoted interfaith understanding and collaboration, striving for harmony among diverse religious traditions.
Moon's teachings went beyond the realm of the spiritual to touch on the universal human themes of love and family. He emphasized the importance of nurturing strong, loving families as the cornerstone for a harmonious and peaceful world. To this end, he conducted mass wedding ceremonies known as the 'Blessing', symbolizing the unity of all people under God, regardless of their cultural or religious backgrounds. Moon also stressed the value of community service and encouraged his followers to actively contribute to their local communities.
Moon's partner in both life and work was his wife, Hak Ja Han Moon. As co-leader of the Unification Church, she was a pivotal figure in spreading their shared vision of a world unified by love and peace. Affectionately known as the 'True Mother', she embodied the ideal of nurturing and unconditional love in their teachings. After Moon's passing in 2012, Hak Ja Han Moon assumed sole leadership of the Unification Church. In this role, she has tirelessly carried forward their mission, upholding the church's emphasis on peace, interfaith dialogue, and strong, loving families. Under her guidance, the church has continued to flourish, spreading its message of unity and love to people around the globe.
Wilson, Andrew, editor. World Scripture II. Universal Peace Federation, 2011, p. 135 [The Teachings of Sun Myung Moon (5:344-45, March 8, 1959)].
Sun Myung Moon
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Sun Myung Moon (5:344-45, March 8, 1959)
The Sanctity of Nature
Nature is sacred; all creatures great and small are endowed with God’s life and a modicum of God’s spirit. This insight, shared by all religious traditions, is the basis of reverence and respect for all living things. In the Abrahamic religions, God created every creature according to His purpose and imbued with His loving heart. Therefore, every existence, down to a grain of sand or a blade of grass, contains elements of the divine. Furthermore, nature exhibits a marvelous balance. Hence, nature is a reliable source of poetic and religious inspiration. By contemplating nature in its original purity, we can touch God.
As sensitive people recognize, all creatures possess some level of conscious awareness. The diverse species of animals and plants form tribes and nations like the races and nations of man. They are our brothers and sisters, supported by the same Mother Earth that lent us the elements that constitute our bodies and sustain our life. When thinking of all the things nature provides, we have much to be thankful for. Not only that; as Father Moon teaches, each creature, a precious living masterpiece of God, exists for me—for my enjoyment, inspiration and instruction, to love and care for.
–World Scripture II. Universal Peace Federation, 2011, p. 135 [The Teachings of Sun Myung Moon (5:344-45, March 8, 1959)].
“Let us think for a moment about why all life exists in circular motion and a circular shape. In give and take action energy is moving in two opposite directions, and unless the give and take action produces a circular motion the subject and object will only clash. In God’s law, therefore, the creation is based on circular motion. When perfect giving is responded to by perfect receiving, there is complete perfection of circular motion, meaning that no confrontation results and no energy is wasted. When energy is given in less than a perfectly circular motion the reception is also imperfect and the total energy is reduced. This is the law of movement. Why is this universe round? In order to have the perfect conditions for give and take.”
–Sun Myung Moon [June 19, 1977].