Thank you; good morning, Please be seated. Another
day of judgment. (laughter) That’s how it is.
Today I want to talk about attraction and expectation.
There’re a of young
people here. What are you attracted to, physical things, mental things,
spiritual things? Ultimately in life we have to define where we stand
at every step of the way of our lives. We always have to contend with the
reality that we face which is dealing with ourselves and within ourselves in
our inner selves there is always a conflict of mind and body and ultimately
searching for the greater spiritual truth.
Even when you look at
everything, it’s a single word that we use in casual ways of describing
things, of communicating with one another. Everything should have some
eternal connection to that reality of body, mind and spirit. And
knowing that process, how to go about achieving that union, understanding
that process, I think it’s a life-long endeavor that we all inevitably have
to face, and that we have to answer ultimately in the end. If you
don’t you are going to be lost.
A lot of you are
bringing your children here, If you are lost then obviously your children
will be lost too. It’s important to talk about those things to your
children. Why do people get attracted to certain things. What is the meaning
of this or that, starting with the basic things, simple things that are
important and relevant to children growing up, because whether you
understood it or not, it was important to you too. It’s important that if
you did not question yourself to that extent, maybe it’s time for the sake
of someone else that you try to redefine what you think that you understood
up till now for the sake of someone else that you care about.
Everything doesn’t have
to revolve around you. So attraction… Just talk about physical attraction.
You’re attracted, first of all, to good looking people, right, the beautiful
people on television and in the movies. According to Principle, beauty
is important. People are attracted to good looking people for the sake of
power. Powerful things, powerful this and powerful that, the creature out
there in the wild kingdom or what ever, something that represents or gives
symbolism towards power. They’re attracted to it, and in civilization, money
is also very attractive.
Most of the time if you
look at all the kind of networks that are out there, that are sharing
information in a social setting, pretty much those things (beauty, power and
money) rule the day. It’s very difficult not to see it, to not see
those kinds of images or glorification of it or usage of it in a given
moment. We see it all the time, constantly. because it’s effective. People
do those things because there attractive to them.
Then you go into the
mental stuff, intellectual attraction. You’re attracted intellectually to
people that do creative things with color and sound, riding a horse or
mechanical, something that has to do with creativity, or mastery over some
kind of virtuosity toward some kind of specialty, or just the wealth of
knowledge in general. People are attracted intellectually to those kind of
people.
And obviously, the final
stuff is the spiritual stuff. And the spiritual attraction has to have
eternal purpose and value. In order to be spiritually attractive, that’s
what we’re taught to understand. Something that is spiritually attractive
has that end. And something has to come, and when that is manifest in front
of you, that’s the kind of stuff of inspiration or value that you will
partake from it because it represents… It can be many things it can be all
the greatness that defines what it is eternally great or what is true love.
It can be in many forms.
You can even see it sometimes in the actions of a little child. It doesn’t
matter. You’ll know it when you see it, because it will always ring in you.
This is true, even after you pass. Generations and generations, people who
search and seek out that kind of eternal truth will always get to those
people things of that nature. It will always resonate. It will always
have some value. It will give you purpose from it. Okay that is the basic
outline of what I think.
There’s attraction
physically, intellectually, and spiritually. The next question is: “What are
we going to do with this? If we have these kinds of things, what are you
going to do with it? Before you even get into that type of
questioning, do you have it? Do you have something that you can share
with others; do you have something that is attractive? And if you do, what
are you going to do with it?
When you see television,
people use a lot of attractive things to sell stuff. Elections are
coming up soon. The politicians will go on television try to make them
selves attractive and appealing and sell them selves so that they can get
elected. You see all sorts of them, people that are involved in politics, of
course obviously people that are selling stuff. They always try to make them
selves and their product as attractive as possible.
But is it true?
Unfortunately many times it is the consumer who will find out the hard way.
I wish there was some kind of guarantee that you’re always getting what
you’re promised that you’re getting.
We live in a society
where we really don’t have a clear definition about what is true eternity,
but true love… But when we think about it, Orthodox religions, still they’re
waiting for the Messiah. Whether you are a Jew or a Christian, Catholic or
Muslim, you’re still waiting for the savior to come. And even second
class (new) monotheistic religions like scientology, the Mormons, or the
Unification Church… (Hyo-Jin-nim is smiling because this got everyone
attention.)
As for the Unification
Church, well at least we’re not waiting for any body. He’s already here. We
just have to prove it. (Hyo Jin Nim and the audience are laughing) You
just have to go out and convince people that He’s here. And you need to have
more give-and-take and to learn. There are people out there selling their
stuff every day, every day using their attractiveness.
A funny thing is, in the
metropolis all those smart people, somebody that can show their intelligence
and their intellectual brilliance comes and they work and they try to move
up the corporate ladder. And they show their brilliance, their specialty in
that excellence. But the funny thing is that is pretty much the end.
That’s the pinnacle. That’s the maximum they settle with. They all would
like to have horizontally more, but they don’t want to go up any higher.
They don’t want to pursue spirituality. So they pretty much come down again.
So they use their talent, their brilliance, to indulge in what?
Materialism.
When you have
attraction, it’s very very very easy to be indulgent. It’s very very easy to
exploit things because you have that power. You have that power to attract.
And if you don’t know how to contain that, that attraction can be
devastating to civilization. Because what you’re glorifying is pretty much
self-destructive things, exploitation, indulgence, self aggrandizement,
self-centeredness.
Once you start
exploiting and start enjoying indulgence, you’re going to be self-centered
pretty soon. That’s pretty much the given course. We can 100% expect that
person is going to be self-centered. You can’t become exploitive and
indulgent and be a nice person. You don’t become a nice person by doing that
kind of stuff.
So it’s important
because that is the basic bedrock of trying to be decent and nice and
honest. Even children can understand that stuff. You have to define what
tricks them into becoming that kind of exploitive, self-centered person.
There are things that can encourage people, not just children, even you,
even me, it doesn’t matter, that you will learn till the day you die. Things
that can teach people how to become better persons, by truly defining the
meaning of attraction.
So you need to make the
list of the dos and don’ts in your mind, in yourself. Start from there! What
kind of attraction is “do” and what kind of attraction is “don’t” and see if
it works for you. And if it works for you, teach your children. Start from
there.
You can do that. Right?
For the sake of your children, try and compare notes about what you’re
saying and what you see on television. Sit together and talk about it.
That’s the best way to get to know your kids. That’s the best way to teach
your kids how to respect you and depend on you when it comes to things that
are right and learning what is moral or whatever. They aught to come close
to you when you become that kind of figure in their lives.
You expect somebody that
stands here to be that kind of figure like that. Right? I’m not saying that
I’m that kind of figure, but that’s what you expect. (laughter) It’s the
same thing, You have to have that kind of relationship with yourself first.
You have to define that stuff to yourself, and you have to check does it
make sense to me. “Can I believe that stuff? Do I accept this stuff? Yeah
somebody needs to share, I’ll share with you. How does it sound. Doest it
sound Okay? Okay, I’ll tell the kids then.”
Last week I talked about
team spirit. That’s the kind of things you need to talk to your kids
about. Not stupid stuff. It’s important to us that we have a higher
quality level of defined things, because that’s how you compete, That’s what
people look at when you’re competing. Otherwise you can’t compete, you’re
going to lose. You’re going to lose out on those things.
It’s a small thing that
makes the difference between first place and second place. All those things
matter. But we need to control any thing that we are defining. So before we
think about control, we have to define it properly. Please! If you don’t
define it properly and think about control, you will screw up. It’s not
going to last. Even if you think that you have something, it’s not going to
last,
Start from something
true that people take it for granted , that your children are interested in.
Let it be true to you, that “that definition I can stake my life on it.”
START FROM THERE!
(Tears are welling up in
Hyo Jin Nim’s eyes.)
When your children look
at you they want you to be confident, to be able to define certain things
with confidence. So it’s important. All those little things are important,
and you must define properly. Because that’s God’s expectation; that’s
Father’s expectation to humanity.
You have to know how to
take care of yourself, and starting from your family, take care of them
before you start going out and doing that “I’m going to change the world”
stuff. If you have that opportunity, use it wisely. It’s a great time for
your learning too. Anyway, I am grateful and I going to do my best. I
don’t think it’s ever lost; will all come back someday. With what I’ve got,
with what I’ve got, I’ll do my best. I’ll do better. I have more to do
before I get there.
I want to become an
attractive dad.
Take care of yourself.
I’ll see you next week.
