True Love
Volume One, The Restoration of True Love
by Reverend Sun Myung Moon

Chapter 8 - Part 2 of 5
True Love

People should be aware that in our life on earth we receive perpetual nourishment from the universe; without that, we could not survive.

To go to the next stage of life in the spiritual world is the same kind of transition as emerging from our mother's womb into this world. The only difference is the duration of that stage. This life on earth, during which we breathe air and eat food, lasts perhaps a hundred years. Our physical parents' protection extends 50 or 60 years. But once we are born again into the other world, we will live with our eternal Parent for millions and billions of years.

Dwelling in the eternal love of that world, we will become the very incarnations of love. There the invisible, but still very real, umbilical cord will be attached not to our belly but to our head, and we will keep growing and improving, becoming the image of God Himself. We will become the incarnations of love to become subjects of love, like our own invisible Parent.

There we will be freer than ever before, enjoying the greatest conceivable liberty. Nothing will limit or fetter us. In that world we won't have to walk with our head up and our feet down; we could reverse it and still move freely in any position. We can walk any way we wish and it will be perfectly normal. Whatever we want to do, we

Poetry dealing with themes of love is the most beautiful. The most enduring literature deals with love. The greatest science is also done out of love. When political affairs are conducted out of love, certainly that is marvelous to behold. In a tournament of love, no competitor will ever feel resentment because the winner always raises the degree of love. Any country will welcome an increase in its number of loving citizens. And the president of a country should run the government by love.

Suppose you had a handkerchief steeped with the greatest love. It may have cost just a few cents, but you would never exchange it for a million dollars, would you? If you misuse it, the handkerchief would feel sorrowful; but if your heart is filled with love, the handkerchief won't mind if you are too busy to wash or clean and press it. Whatever truly loving eyes behold will always reflect that love.

Even God wants to rest in the embrace of love. He wants to lean on the arms of love, just as everyone else. I feel I am such a small part of the entire universe, but God really wants to come and rest on me. In such a position, I want to offer everything to God because I am so awed by the opportunity to protect and comfort Him. No matter how great God is, He wants to make Himself small enough to be completely embraced in the arms of a loving person. He, too, wants to feel protected. That is the pure love of God. Knowing that, I will do anything to fulfill it. Can you imagine any greater value for human beings?

True love transcends everything. It goes beyond all visible barriers. Where true love exists, nothing else matters.

Our entire purpose is to elevate the value of true love. Something may not be wrong, and we want very much to do it, but we will hold back because if we can overcome it, our level of love will be greater. Do you understand? In front of True Parents, yes is the only proper answer.

Once you choose love, it should last forever and ever. That is the value of love. All human value rests on that.

The world is not an isolated realm; it is part of the continuous universe. You are trying to isolate it, and I am teaching you that it is a continuous one. What makes this world perpetual? What sustains its physical existence and causes it to endure? It is the consistent flow of love; the love that parents feel toward their children, and vice versa; the love of teachers for their students, investing themselves to make sure that they learn, the love a president has for his country, its cities and people; the love saints feel for mankind, present and future; the love God feels for the human race and all things. In all these, the pattern of love is consistent; love alone endures.

Suppose a husband and wife are both perfectionists and they give birth to a child with a deformity. Can they end its existence and say, "Well, we can try again"? Is that true love? No, of course not. By the same token, once a person chooses to marry another, he or she should try to make up for any shortcomings and compensate for whatever faults may show up in their spouse. That is the proper course here, and such love will endure in the spirit world, where love is more visibly dominant than it is here. Such a person is a true husband or wife. True love means that when it is easy to love, you love, and when it is difficult, you still love. This distinguishes true love from false love.

Have you seen true love? Where? Suppose a parent is carrying a bag with a very yummy and tasty treat for his child. Wherever he goes, he carries it in his pocket and won't let go of it -- even in the bath room. Now suppose the bathroom isn't one of the toilets here, but like those in the less-developed countries; just a bucket and natural smells -- nothing artificial! If he stays long enough among those natural smells, some of them will be absorbed through the bag. Later, the father gives the bag to his child and says, "This is the most delicious thing I have ever eaten; have some."

If the child is an American, he will probably refuse to taste it. He will protest. "Oh, Father, why do you think this is the best thing in the world?" But the true child will really appreciate it because he knows his father will bring him nothing but the best. There may be finer things, but in his mind there cannot be better than what his father brings him, so he will eat it. How about that!

In the Presence of God 4-11-82

When a man comes near a woman all his cells wake up and become fully activated. When man and woman touch there is an explosion. That is why our church has a rule that men and women shouldn't get too close, don't shake hands very much, and certainly don't kiss each other. Why? Because such actions can make sparks fly prematurely. Scars caused by premature love have no cure. This is why God gave mankind one strict rule in the beginning: you are absolutely free to do anything except touch the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This was a warning not to misuse love, to wait until the correct time for its expression.

Love fully activates every cell, and without wasting a moment the cells harmonize and seek a higher level. Once your cells are energized by love they want to take off. The power of love is much like the thrust of an Apollo rocket, lifting you off the ground and propelling you into the orbit of God's love. You are meant to find eternal harmony in love with God, but God's love doesn't just stand still. As soon as your love takes off God's love starts to come down toward you, and you meet each other in the middle. So God's love and human love are meant to come together and create a spark, making a dramatic crash. That spark does not cause eternal destruction; it results in a new, harmonized creation. The fusion of human and divine love generates something new.

Once such a love core is created, the entire universe is meant to sing along in its harmony and rhythm. Your every action is meant to harmonize with the universal core. Every hair, every cell in your body is meant to dance together with the universal core. Once you reach that plateau, you will discover the original ideal world, the absolute and true ideal world. Thus we can conclude that God created the universe, including human beings and all things, in order to consummate love.

God and My Home 4-26-82

What is the difference between true and false love? We say that self- centered love is false love and is therefore bad. Why is it bad? In order to call something "true" it most contain four characteristics. It must be unique, eternal, unchanging and absolute. You can measure self-centered love against those four criteria. Certainly it is not unique; it is not eternal; it is not unchanging; and it is not absolute.

When someone desires true love, he desires unique and eternal love. No one wants to have changeable love and everyone wants absolute love, not mediocre love. Why must love be like this in order to satisfy us? To obtain a relationship with the absolute, ultimate plus Being, you must share the same qualities. That ultimate plus Being has those four qualities. Each person is seeking to become an absolute minus to the ultimate plus in a vertical, give and take relationship.

Everything within creation seeks to be included within the central theme of true love. People ask big questions such as, "What is the purpose of life? What is a true man or woman?" However, all these big questions have one simple answer.

The universe is in constant motion and the goal of all that motion is true love.

We can answer the profound question of why God created the universe with a simple statement: God created the universe in order to fulfill His love. Love can only be fulfilled through a subject/object relationship and therefore God created this universe. Can you imagine God being happy and jolly all alone, without creating anything? As soon as God had the humblest of objects with which to relate, He could begin to be fulfilled. Each of you has the potential for constant communication of love with God.

God's position is to consummate the Heavenly four positions of God, man, woman, and children. Why did God divide mankind into two poles of male and female? He wanted to make a substantial world of depth and width so He created the world with global dimensions. What is it that brings men and women together into oneness? As men have give and take with God and women have give and take with God, they can have give and take with each other and unite in the center with God. At that central point of love, men and women become harmonized into one. There everything is a manifestation of love, you talk with love, hear with love, touch with love. Absolute, unique, unchanging, and eternal love is manifested in every aspect of your relationship.

Every part of you is longing to be touched by that absolute, eternal, unique and unchanging love.

The Ideal World of Adam 6-1-82

Love is the true ancestor of creation and the force behind each generation. During my years of searching for the truth, the first question I asked God was about the essential nature of the universe. The answer was rather simple -- the beginning point of the universe is love and the end result is the parent and child relationship. God created mankind and the universe in order to create a world of love through which He could dwell in that parent/child relationship. This is the central truth and essence of the universe.

Look at yourself from that viewpoint. You came into the world as a child, the fruit of the love of your parents, and you must fulfill yourself as a parent. That pattern of love is eternal -- throughout the past, during the present and into the future it will continue.

Why do we say that one man must love only one woman? Some people have different love partners every day and feel they are justified in doing so, but we do not agree. True love requires total devotion, total love and total giving to only one mate.

Blessed Family 6-20-82

For lovers, even something as little as a handkerchief means a great deal. Suppose a man leaving to fight in a war gives a handkerchief to his wife. If the man was killed in action, that handkerchief becomes a memento treasured by his wife for a lifetime. That handkerchief might have cost less than a dollar, but when it is transformed into a symbol of love, its value is priceless.

Who is the king of love in this world today? You know the answer. God is the King of love. The King of love wanted to express His love to His sons and daughters. In order to do that, as a gift to His children, He created all things. Think about it in this way: God is the one great King of love in this universe.

Actually everybody has a treasure, a special safe within them. I have a special safe, just like each of you. You need to dig out that value, that treasure place, and polish it, enhance it, cherish it, and live forever in love. That is the beauty of marriage. Value is something that always needs to be connected. The value of a man needs to be connected with the value of a woman. Mankind's value needs to be connected with the value of nature.

The man is like a positive electrical pole and the woman like a negative electrical pole. When they approach, sparks fly and everything is connected and fulfilled. Don't you like that kind of love? Electricity doesn't stop to evaluate things; when plus and minus come near, sparks automatically fly. All electricity needs is conductivitity, the wire. The Unification Church has always been known as a gathering place of unusual people. We don't need anything other than love. We are the love race. Explosive men and women approach each other and melt everything around them, burning up every foreign object and leaving only the pure essence. Have you ever listened to the sound doves make when they are in love? They coo all night long. Do doves adore each other because of how they look? Does the female say she likes her mate because he looks so handsome? No, not at all. Love is precious in itself We are going to become crazy for love itself!

The Day of All Things 6-21-82

With true love the things which laws require seem natural. True love inspires a sacrificial attitude in a person. It is natural to think, "I will ignore my own needs in order to make that person happy," when you are living with true love. Where love is present, even the laws are humbled. The law is incorporated within true love so law itself wants to be ruled by true love.

With true love you can go unhindered to every level of the universe because you will not be in conflict with anything good. So long as one is living under this principle he does not need any other guidelines for his life. It is very simple. Once you are living sacrificially for the sake of others before yourself, evil will automatically be chased out of your life.

In Search of Our Home 7-11-82

Why do we regard God as the most important of all beings? Because He is subject, even though He is invisible. When you practice the two kinds of love, you are doing all right -- love for the invisible Father and love for the visible Father. Visible love, which exists in the horizontal realm, is love in the dimension of time, while God's love is in the realm of eternity. We can expand horizontal love without limit. but there is only one point where that expansion can begin: at the perpendicular, 90-degree point. That is the mediation point where the love of our invisible Father and our visible parents can begin.

Once you know this, you can use the opportunity to grab that love and hide it in the most secret place in your heart. From that point, you are free to initiate universal action. Everything is free. Then you can expand the circle as much or as little as you want; you are totally free. How can you do that? Since the vertical line has no limit, it can accommodate your direction. God's true love will want to follow you. The supply of true love is only limited by the size of your love. When your love is fused with God's invisible and True Parent's visible love, the Intensity of your love will determine its scope.

When lovers come together, they hold each other tightly and they actually seem to get smaller; they almost want to crush each other. It is the same between you and God and True Parents. In the intensity of your love, you will all be compressed into a small ball, like a marble. That is good because the smaller the ball, the faster it can turn. When God comes closer and closer inside that ball, the speed intensifies, going faster and faster.

When you run fast, you breathe hard. The faster you move, the faster you breathe. God wants to experience suffocating, breathtaking love inside that tiny marble ball. How wonderful that is! All you need is one, invisible little thing called true love. With that ID card you have a free pass to go see kings and queens, or even thieves and murderers and melt their hearts. Don't you feel good just thinking about it?

From God's point of view, the most handsome man and beautiful woman are those who can draw the straightest line of love and thus be the best conveyer belt. The question is whether that line is imitation or genuine. If that line is drawn with 24-karat gold wire, the purest kind, its conductivity is 100 percent. Would you prefer a thick line that was only gold-plated on the outside, or a thin line of pure gold? You have seen men who come from rich families and look handsome, but who are really only gold-plated. Wouldn't you women prefer a poor husband of genuine gold?

Outside our church we see many beauty queens -- Hollywood stars, models and cover girls. But many Unification Church women look like ghosts! Do you want a wife with the gold on the outside or the inside? You men are looking for the genuine qualities of heart. You won't find it in those movie stars or cover girls. What changes more quickly -- the outside or the inside of a woman? What about men? Do you find men and women with unchangeable qualities in the Unification Church?

Can you find such people in the secular world? Why not? It is because they don't have True Parents.

You are your spouse's bridge to the love of God. You are the extension of God's love. The husband is the extension of my image, and the wife the extension of Mother's image. That is how you are to unite all mankind, making a complete circle of love. When two circles come together, truly a new home is born which is an educating ground for the love of Father and Mother and God. The women represent the post of Mother's love, and men represent the post of Father's love; together the represent God's love. You should be absolutely clear that you are making a heavenly home where love can come, where a true husband and wife can be born.

Your smile should be a universal one which can correspond with history. Love goes beyond time. In describing this world of true love, English is inadequate. There are no words to describe the manifestations of true love. You must feel to the bone how precious one man is, one woman is. The love organs of man and woman are the final terminals of the love of True Parents and the love of God.

It is almost like you are fishing for each other with true love as your bait. Men are hooking women and women are hooking men. Even if blood is coming out of your mouth because of the hook, you still feel good. Build this role of husband and wife from now on. Do not be excited by the sensation of physical love, but first by the spiritual contents of love. Then the physical side will follow, subject and object, and be sanctified.

New Family Given by God 9-5-82

Anything less than true love in the home is going to produce something less than the ideal, but most families do not understand the basic, true philosophy of true love. Some Americans protest to me, "Oh, you don't understand anything about America. We are a highly advanced and first-class culture. You have no right to talk about us!" However, by the rule of true love many things can be understood. Do you think true love affects the President of the United States? Is he immune to it because he is so great? Even God himself will never say, "I don't care about true love because I have omnipotence and I don't need it." The almighty God is completely vulnerable to true love. When He is approached with true love, He is helpless to resist.

What is the central force moving God's providence along? Certainly the central theme of the providence has been true love. With true love alone can God fulfill His own ideals and purpose. True love alone can harmonize everything, activate all things, unite and move everything in the universe. How wonderful that is! True love is so powerful and wonderful that once you have the hope of acquiring it for yourself nothing else really matters to you. The taste of true love gives you the power and determination to pursue it further.

The purpose of the Unification Church is to train each of you and graduate you with a "license of true love." Regardless of where your license is printed, the important thing is who signs it. The PhD. candidate can never receive his degree until the professor in charge signs for him. You want to receive the signature of God and True Parents on your true love license. Reverend Moon is like the professor in charge of the members of the Unification Church. The subject of learning is true love; I push you out into situations in society that will train you and season you as true love champions. You do not sit in classrooms but learn through activities. The purpose of all those activities is to enable me to sign your true love certificate.

As an ambitious candidate for your certificate of true love, how will you respond to my pushing you and giving you more and more burdens? Will you accept it willingly or will you complain against it?

True love can overcome anything, so nothing is more important than finding and dwelling in true love! I always sacrifice sleep for the sake of true love. Sometimes I can get up early and speak to members and at midnight I am still sitting in the same chair, haven spoken all day. However, I never get bored with such activities because every minute of the day is so exciting when true love is present.

I have the absolute conviction that anybody who lives his life in total intoxication from true love, forgetting everything else, must receive protection and support from the entire universe. That is what the Unification Church is all about.

The Harvest Season for God's Providence 9-19-82

What is true love? What is the difference between true love and any other kind? The most simple criterion of true love is that it is a giving love more than a receiving love. Parents want to give to their children, out of their heart of love. Should the children just continue to receive from their parents? Women always just want to receive love from everyone, isn't that true? Women always wait to receive more and more love, but at a certain point you start to give that love back. What time is that? It is when you become mothers. It is the mother who expresses most love in the beginning toward the children, rather than the father. The mother gives her love more intensely to her children because it the woman who has been receiving so much love throughout her life.

Husband and wife have dominion over each other out of love, not in any other way. Therefore, the most important criterion is this; more than you love your husbands, you women should love God. The same is true for men; God must come first. When you are united horizontally as husband and wife, you can go upward to the vertical level.

Only through your spouse and the love of your children can you return to your origin, God. Universal truth is based on this. The heaviest center is God; the center of God is true love. When you reach that core center of God and become united with Him, you become a part of Him. You become like Him and become an original magnet, pulling everything toward you.

Your five senses represent the most holy, sacred love. When you touch your lover with your hand, it is like God touching him or her. That is wonderful and holy. Why shouldn't we refer to each other as, "My holy spouse"? Anything Godly is holy, so our husbands and wives should be regarded as holy, too. The saintly couple is such a couple. What is a saint? The saint is the one who concentrates on returning true love to God, his origin. A saintly man and woman make a saintly couple.

When men and women are truly in love, they occupy each other. The man is completely occupied by the woman and vice versa. By the same token, we could say the same thing about God. When you have a true love relationship with God, He will be occupied by you. You will find your resting place right in the center of God.

Where can you find the love of God? You have that longing feeling for the love of your husband or wife which you cannot forget at any time; such a feeling of longing describes God's love. For this reason, you are precious and unique in this universe; you have total dignity and authority to represent God.

The Secret of Total Success 12-19-82

The clothes you are wearing are not yours; your own physical body is not even yours. Your husband or wife is not yours. There is only one way these things can become yours -- by connecting them and yourself with the love of God. When you are totally a part of the love of God and can relate the love of your husband and children with that vertical love, everything will become yours.

Unless you fulfill this process while you are living here on earth, there will be no bridge between you, the physical world and the spirit world. Everything in the Unification Church is done in the name of God. Even our marriages are done in the name of God; they are not for our own sake, but for God's sake. I want you to understand clearly that you claim all things in order to come closer to God; you want to have something to offer to God. You want to get the marriage blessing because you can possess more of the love of God that way. You want to have children so that you can consummate the love of God. Everything is connected with the love of God.

God's Day 1-1-83