Hyo Jin Moon

 

Belvedere Sunday Service

 

Tarrytown, New York

May 28, 2006

Edited Transcript by Joe Kinney

 

Some people have been commenting that sometimes my talk is a little too short and I kind of run out of place. So from now on, at the end of the stuff if I will give a moment to answer questions if I can help it. If I can’t give you something on the spur of the moment, I’ll catch you next week. Okay? (Thank you.) Alright.

Anyway, it’s supposedly something - how should I put it - it’s a gift. When you have to talk about stuff, there is so much chatter going on out there in the world. You have to try to be almost like a dragon slayer. And you have to know what the dragon is. Because everywhere you look, you are threatened.

Pretty much in a free society where freedom of expression is guaranteed, the dragon or the monster is nothing other than multimedia. That’s about it. Why? Because it gives you medicine and disease.

Under the banner of free expression and freedom of speech, whether you like it or not, they can get away with it unless they flagrantly disobey the law or break the law. Because in the end they can say, “Hey, that’s not my problem. People can turn them off but some people don’t.” And guess what. Guess who those people are. And that’s why it is never ending stuff unless you address the dragon in a free society.

There is nothing that free society or the capitalism produces that actually affects people to the extent that multimedia can. Why? Because they don’t sell refrigerators, they don’t sell cars, they don’t sell airplanes, they don’t sell bombs and gadgets that give you convenience. It basically sells people. It sells people.

However degenerate, however great they are, they sell it for the buck. Period. There is no discrepancy. As long as you can get away with it, you will do it. Somebody is going to do it.

So that’s the dragon. That’s the monster that we face. That’s obvious. It has always been that way. What do you think I was influenced by when I was young, by all this western influence of culture? Especially through multimedia. Because it’s dangerous, it’s powerful.

When you have no direction, it doesn’t matter whether you have no original sin. Obviously in the Garden of Eden, somebody fell. You can make a choice to be evil. But when there are a lot of opportunities out there, for children, regardless of who you are, you are going to make mistakes. Absolutely. Because if it can happen in a primal sense, it can happen in reality. Your reality. That’s about it.

Okay, having said that, so how are we going to deal with that monster? How can you stop that monster? I think the best way to approach that question is to start from yourself, start from you.  And you have to define what you got, the best you got. You have to know what that is. Otherwise, you can’t be a warrior even if you wish that you can. Everybody wants to be a superman and superhero.

You can’t even be one if you don’t know who you are, what your limitations are, how you take, what you are capable of, on and on. The reality. Your reality. No nonsense reality. Something that you can do to change something. If you are so desperate to change it, and you are willing to give your life away. That something - what is that in you?  

Simply, even when you are listening to a Disney movie, people say, ‘follow your conscience.’ What is that? What is your conscience? What does conscience tell you? Does conscience tell you to be arrogant? Does conscience tell you to be rich, be famous, and live for yourself? 

No, the conscience tells you the basic stuff. Basic stuff that affords you to be objective. That’s about it. Basically it reminds you of what your least is, not your greatest. That’s where you start.  And the opposite of that conscience tells you in what you’re bequeathing is, what your inheritance is. Inheritance. What do you think is the greatest inheritance? You think inheritance is money, power? I don’t think so. I see that stuff come and go away. I really don’t care.  

It’s something that is eternal, something that teaches you, reminds you things go on forever. And that’s what you need to inherit whether you call it a heart or whatever. It doesn’t matter.  Inheritance of eternity is important. And the basic premises in which you can start to regain that understanding is starting to have some kind of faith that you are a little more than what you have in your pocket, on your reality - on what you can consume, what you can possess, what you can conquer, what you can take. If you are truly selfish. You have to go beyond that. That’s about it.  

Having said that, what does conscience truly teach you in the end? If you try to listen to your conscience, no matter what, it allows you to appreciate another something in front of you who is supposedly like you. You might not like the way I put it, but to me, it doesn’t matter. It comes in all sizes, all different things. I’ve seen it all.  

You have to try, you have to try. That struggle will never end. It will never end. Not as long as I live. That’s for sure. And I’m not going to tell you [it’s going to go beyond,] it’s going to end with me. No, no, no, no. That’s not true. It’s going to take a long time.  We really have to address the issue even of the essence of stuff. The original sin and fallen nature. I talked about fallen nature. I just kind of tapped into that stuff.  

In order to deal with the fallen nature stuff, you basically have look at things in every situation. You have to know how to separate the extreme first. It doesn’t matter. Before you get into your selfishness or selflessness, before you get morally involved, you literally have to separate it.  

For instance like man and woman. You have to try to define what brings that absolute together because God somehow exists in the center. We don’t know how to define neutron but every living element doesn’t have a form without it. That’s about it. It’s based on difference of plus and minus numbers of it.  

Obviously our limitation is such that we don’t know at this point in time how to define that center properly yet. Because there is so much to learn and we are just basically beginning the basics, scratching the basic surface of it. And we all know that. And it doesn’t matter how arrogant you try to project yourself that you have all the answer. It’s okay. That’s about it. Everybody has all the answers. That’s called the free world, isn’t it?  

Then what? In the end, you have to come to something. Even when you talk about man and woman, there is something that brings man and woman together regardless of your selfishness or your unselfishness, there is something that is inherent that brings man and woman together.  

There is conjugation and procreation. Something like that. You have to define those kinds of elements, factors within the picture. Before you get into your selfishness and unselfishness, getting on your high moral horse. There is always something like that.

And that has to be clearly defined and recognized if you are going to attack it. Otherwise, you have no strategy. It doesn’t matter what you think. You have no strategy; you have nothing to deal with the problem, if that becomes a problem, if that is a problem.  

You have to know how to contain yourself. You have to know your limit. Conscience tells you your least. Why do you need to know your least? Because it’s much favorable for your situation when you start to be objective in certain situation. Whether you like it or not, if you believe there is powers to be that whcih is higher than you, you have to understand that concept of objectivity.  Obviously if you don’t, even in the social world, you are a criminal, right? Well, anyway, but it’s like that. That stuff exists.  

Now, knowing that, know your limitations. Know your absolute limit. And try to understand it. That’s the kind of guessing game that everybody has to go through. Whether my maximum and minimum somehow ranges within the universal normality, some constant, some zero.  

Some might go up and some might go down. Do you know what I’m saying? Some might be literally above something, that maximum and low, and literally above the universal zero. Somebody might be literally under it. And somebody weighing in somewhere in the middle. Plus or minus stuff for maximum and less.  

You have to figure that out. That’s your problem. How can that be anybody else’s problem other than yours? Who knows better than you, yourself? No one. It should be you.  

You get pissed off all the time. I do. Because somebody thinks on my behalf about what my limitations are. I don’t care. So be it. I really don’t care. I really don’t give a hoot. Because in the end, I stand alone not you. That’s about it. I believe in this stuff.  

When you accept also the other aspect of that conscience, which is inheritance, you have to have faith. You know what’s good. And that’s what you want. You want something that lasts forever.  

I’m going to keep somebody anonymous. But they have something, and they get used to a certain kind of lifestyle, lifestyle of certain things, luxury. And they change. They move with that kind of people and they change. They like that kind of lifestyle. They like how they are treated because they have all sorts of money. They can have four of this and four of that, and they change.  

One of the greatest addictions in my eyes is power and money. More than anything else. The other stuff is poor man’s stuff. But even that, you can conquer it. But some people just don’t want to conquer it. That’s why problems happen to the world.  

When people of certain significance hold on to something, without knowing that they have problems, it causes a problem. It trickles out whether you like it or not. It’s hieratical whether you like it or not. It’s a free world, even the so called free world. Trust me. Then what happens? Same problem happens over and over again. The struggle. No matter how well we can try to give each other basic stuff that are obviously... 

One hundred years ago, people used to wipe their butt with straw-weaved rope. They literally used to hang strings from the main-house to the outhouse (motioning a string with hands). And they literally go like this (motioning to walk over the string) and walk and wipe their behind.  

So obviously a lot of things have changed. But that’s not the end, is it? Just because we have more convenience in comparison to whatever. Everybody in culture can always go back. There might be years of differences. But you go back, that’s about it.  And what have we accomplished? Did we get rid of all that stuff? No, we didn’t. Then how are we going to do that? We have to compete with the rest, who are morally righteous. So be it.  

We have some concept, and yes, it’s a good concept. I believe it can happen in 10 generations. It will take time. Trust me. Because I have to let go of a lot of things just to say this to you. (long pause) What you see is what you get. It’s my struggle, not yours. Trust me. But it’s okay. You don’t live that long. Life is short. You take peace and that’s about it.  

Because it never ends. You give, you give, you forget, you give more. Nobody counts how much you give. It’s between you and your God in the end. That’s about it. Worst case scenario. You always have to think about that stuff. And you die. But I control it. Nobody else.  

Any questions? Knock yourself out. You have a question? (RESPONSE: Hyo Jin Nim, when you came last week and spoke, you spoke about fallen nature. We all go through so much pain in different levels. But I always think that’s Adam and Eve and always have this anger toward Adam and Eve. Last week, I wanted to ask you about that. But that’s not what I want to ask you this time. I want to know if there is somebody who is contemporary or already passed on you really look up to and inspired you. Not just Adam and Eve who takes everybody to hell, but someone who is really inspiring and you look towards.)  

You inspire me. That’s why I’m here. People tell me people love me and that’s why they come and you would not come here for another reason.  And I’m the kind of guy - I think based on what I see normally and initially. And I was really pissed off at a lot of things. I really didn’t care. I really didn’t care. Okay, you do it then. And that’s about it.  

The only reason that I started to do this is - I’m sorry for saying this, it might sound selfish but - because I lost my son. And yes, I was blessed with a new family, and I started a new family. That helped me a lot. And that’s about it.  

And people start to respond. And they always try to encourage and try to say, don’t lose hope. Sometimes I’m a stubborn-headed guy. I only brought this because like I said, from now on, I’ll take your questions. If I can help you, give a little more if I can. That’s about it. That’s it.  

Yeah. (QUESTION: You mentioned conscience and inheritance. Could you explain a little more?) Why do you want to make money, do you make money as a family man? You obviously want something for your children. You want something better for your children.  

Inheritance is a very important concept of God. Why? Because God is love. And He is an absolute entity when it comes to His discipline and His discourse and His actions. So obviously when it comes to His inheritance, He has to absolutely mean it. It has to be absolute.  

And what is absolute? It has to reflect the entity. What is the ultimate greatness of God? It’s His eternal capacity. Capacity of what? Omnipotence, omnipresence? More than that, we believe in religious community, love, eternal love. Something like that.  

So that’s what we are trying to inherit from almighty God. Why? Because if God is that kind of God, and He better be, that’s about it. Isn’t it? There is nothing else greater. Because He is already omnipresent and omnipotent. He is the creator of everything. Why does He need you?  

What is the difference between a man and an animal? You can inherit God. That’s about it. An animal at best, maybe, I don’t know, let’s say they can inherit you. But I don’t think they can inherit God. Okay? That’s about it. To me, that’s how I look at God’s inheritance.  

And everything else, we try to take into our own, people’s stupid stuff. Who cares? For me personally, I don’t like to travel because if I go there, I get disappointed. Because it doesn’t look like a postcard. That’s why I don’t like traveling. It’s a waste of my time. Maybe I go to see some people, but that’s about it. Not for sight-seeing.  

America has so many beautiful places, the most beautiful places in the world. America hogs it all, in my eyes. So something like that. To me, that’s the kind of inheritance.  

Conscience? Okay, how many times do you have problems with your conscience? When do you have the most problem with your conscience? Well, knock yourself out. Fill in that blank. It’s like I say, when it teaches you, you should be [humble]. 

Think about your least. You are not that great. Be practical. I’m trying to tell you, trying to ground you, trying to make you more objective, more like a son, not like a father.  

When your head is going all over the place, you will want to conquer your own folks and even God. Try to bring you down a little bit. You know you don’t need to do that. Settle down a little bit. And that’s the time when you learn from your conscience. Because it tells you how to be objective.  

If God didn’t love you, He would not have given you conscience. Think about it. What is the difference between original mind and conscience? It’s similar in my mind, the same thing.  

We just call it differently because we associate Fall with restoring lineage. That’s a very unique concept, tremendous concept. That’s what you guys believe. In the end, we can win. I believe this stuff.

I might think of a lot of fantasy. Many times, at times I think irrational fantasies as well. I wish I wasn’t born into the..., that’s absolutely irrational. You are just blowing off steam, that’s about it.  

Sometimes your mind allows you to go into that moment of psychological babbling or rambling just to blow off steam. Otherwise you are literally going to kill people. The difference between a murderer and sane people is only a paper thin difference.

Just like people say the difference between love and hate is that shallow, that thin. It’s the same thing. You just have to know how to deal with your reality. That happens. It’s okay. Just know how to deal with it. Know when it’s coming.  

Okay, okay. I’m going to use the best so I can to blow it off. Let’s just do something a little more creative and creatively stupid. But it’s only in fantasy land. Do you know what I’m saying?  

Of course it’s irrational. Of course it’s fantasy. It’s only thought. You’re not going to actually go out and carry it out into action. Because you are not that stupid. Why? Because you don’t want to be locked up forever.  

Just know how to take care of it. Just walk away from it. That stuff happens. All those little tools there, just a little jams there. You just have to know how to tinker with it and know how to manage it.  

First thing is to recognize it; it exists for you. Know how to use it for your benefit. But know what is right. What is right? Guess what? You have to do this forever. Whether I like it or not, for me.

Do you like to be appreciated? So does everybody else under the sun. Anyway, do you have any more questions? Can I go now? May I be excused? Okay, I will see you next week.