Good morning.
Let's talk about love.
What do you want to love? (Hyo-Jin-nim
waits for an answer) Say Something! (Laughter) What do you want
to love? (God) You want to love God, what else? (Everybody) I
guess this is the kind of answer you'd expect in a religious setting, right?
What about people who are not religious?
What do you think that they want to love,
money, fame, power, beauty? And so I guess we all have our definition
of love. It depends on a kind of tribal reality. The particulars are
obviously stressed.
That's kind of the basic difference in
that make it difficult at times to unite everybody because a lot of us all
around the world based on that kind of reality, tribal reality, what we
value as love, the concept of it, it varies. So when everybody knows
love is good, however the value of love differs. There is obviously a
potential for conflict, and that difference makes it difficult at times.
But certain things are fundamental
regardless of how you may like a particular thing, desire a particular
thing. One could translate that desire as the definition of love.
Certain particulars are universal. And
anytime you talk about unity, we have to understand, if it exists, what that
particular is. Otherwise we have no grounds for unification. There is no
foundation. There is no basis. So that recognition, if there is such a
thing, that it should be the grounds in which we plant the seed. Otherwise
it won't happen.
When you talk about love, who do you want
to love; what kind of people do you want to love? Beyond the kind of
material thing that we like to love if there is a type of people what kind
of people do you want to love? What type of people can we think about
universally and have a kind of mutual understanding in the basis of whom you
want to love? There has to be some kind of quality there.
It's very difficult to unite something
unless you have that understanding unless you want to love something.
When you try to show love to your children, first of all there has to be a
basis in which they can understand and they can reciprocate with you. That
becomes the cause of understanding or realizing love. What is that?
You can start with giving right? What kind
of giving? Based on the level of understanding and maturity that is the
first thing that teaches us of the concept of love. It might start
with the frivolous things for children because they're still immature. Their
maturation level is relatively low, however it starts with giving.
Giving what? It varies. But the concept of
giving is the basis of learning about love or making love, the realization
of love. So what do you want to give? When you talk about the concept
of giving what is actually happening? If that is the cause, what is the
effect?
When you give something to somebody
hopefully you give because you want that person to what? To become better,
right? And that completion of cause and effect, action and reaction,
makes you realize love. And it has to be better, to make you better in
the end.
When you give certain things to children,
that giving or that understanding, feeling better might be temporary because
you're giving candy or what not. You make them feel better. They're sad and
all of a sudden you give them candy and they feel better. It might be very
short in terms of duration; however through that little child, by the action
of giving, something has turned in their little moment of life, in their
head, something better.
So when we mature to the point of
understanding eternity or start to ponder or try to understand God obviously
the value of giving or the quality of giving, the stuff that you want to
receive takes on a value or takes on a meaning that is equal to that
pursuit. Right?
You want to learn about eternity. You want
to learn about God. Then the giving, the something that makes you better
should possess that kind of eternal quality.
So it changes as we mature. And as we
mature to the fullest adulthood so we can start to understand those things,
the things of value in terms of making you better takes on those definitions
because it must. That is what's valuable in giving.
You talk about unconditional giving, but
the funny thing is that even unconditional giving has conditions. Why?
It has to make you better in the eyes of God. It has to make you a better
person who can co-relate and co-exist with God for eternity. You can't
just unconditionally give money to terrorist so that they can kill people.
That's not unconditional giving.
Even forgiveness too, There is no such
thing as unconditional forgiveness. It has to have meaning, purpose. If it
has a purpose it has a condition. How can you forgive somebody if he
doesn't have in his heart the wrong that he has committed? What is the
purpose? There is no purpose then. There is no meaning. It has to have
conditions. Even in giving someone unconditional love, unconditional
forgiveness, it has conditions because it must serve a purpose.
Purpose of goodness right? Eternal
goodness. Otherwise there's no meaning. They'll do it again and again and
again right? What is the purpose of forgiving wrong if it's going to
be done over and over and over again? It has no purpose. We want
to love people who make us better, right? That's the kind of love that
we want, right?
Someone who can help you to be better.
Because when you receive that kind of love you know it's meaningful to you
as much as to the person who gives it away. And that's the kind of
meaningful thing, and that's the kind of people you want to love in the end,
for a long time, the longer the better right? (Yes) And that's not
easy. Who said it was easy right? (Laughter)
Anything that is meaningful, anything that
is worthwhile holding onto forever is challenging, will be difficult to
achieve, but it can be done. If God can endure all sorts of misery and
pain, that we've ... in our life time. If God's allowing us to understand
and make that happen, then he will assist us in every which way.
That's a pretty good deal isn't it? (Laughter)
And it can be done if we understand the
value of love and how it's done, and if we take responsibility to try to be
the kind of people for people around you, around us want to truly love you,
it can be done.
That's the grass-root thing. You know what
I'm saying? (Yes) It will grow. That stuff, if it grows that way, it
will last because it will take root first and it will grow. And I
believe everybody can do that, be valuable to someone else, because you can
give to someone else something of value and make someone else better,
hopefully better than you.
Now that is the Ideal World; that's how
you build it. If there is a way, that's the way. You can do it.
You might get addicted to it. Who knows? Certain personality types
gravitate to those things much quicker than the other people you know?
So it varies, but it can be done.
The more people like that we have, the
better for our movement.
OKay?
Take care you guys.
