The Divine Principle 1: General introduction - The contradiction in man of good and evil desire

Good and evil

Text from Divine Principle, General Introduction, first set of paragraphs:

Everyone, without exception, is struggling to gain happiness. The first step in attaining this goal is to overcome present unhappiness. From small individual affairs to history-making global events, everything is an expression of human lives, which are constantly striving to become happier. How, then, can happiness be attained?

Every person feels happy when his desire is fulfilled. The word "desire" however, is apt to be misinterpreted. This is because everyone is now living in circumstances which can drive desire in the direction of evil rather than in the direction of goodness. The desire which results in unrighteousness does not come from the "original mind of man"; that is, one's inmost self which delights in the law of God. The path to happiness is reached by overcoming the desire which leads to evil and by following the desire which pursues goodness. Man's original mind knows that evil desire will lead only to unhappiness and misery. This is the reality of human life: man gropes in the shadow of death as he searches for the light of life.

Has any man, by pursuing evil desire, been able to find the happiness in which his original mind could take delight? The answer is no. Whenever man attains the object of evil desire, he feels conscience-stricken. Would parents teach their children to do evil, or a teacher instruct his students to pursue unrighteousness? Again the answer must be no. It is the nature of man's original mind to hate evil and to exalt goodness.

In the lives of religious men we can see an intense and relentless struggle to attain goodness by following the desire of the original mind only. Yet, since the beginning of time, no man has completely followed his original mind. For this reason the Bible says, "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands, no one seeks for God." (Rom. 3:10-11).

The apostle Paul, who was faced with such wretchedness of heart, said in lamentation, "For I delight in the law of God, in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am!" (Rom 7:22-24).

There is a great contradiction in man. Within the same individual, the power of the original mind, which desires goodness, is at violent war against the power of the wicked mind, which desires evil. All life, all matter is doomed to destruction as long as it contains such a contradiction. Every man who contains such a contradiction within himself lives on the brink of destruction.

Can it be that man was created with such a contradiction? The answer again is no. Nothing could ever have been created with such an inherent contradiction. The contradiction, therefore, must have developed in man after the creation. In Christianity, we call this development the "Fall of Man".

Due to his fall, man is always near the point of destruction. For this reason, he makes a desperate effort to remove the contradiction by following the good desire of his original mind and repelling the evil desire of his wicked mind.

There is a contradiction in man. This essentially is the contradiction between the desire to do good and the desire to be self-centered. This contradiction is plaguing every single person. The desires of our heart are torn between wanting to do good and wishing to take it easy and to pursue selfish goals.

Each person who is honestly researching the depth of his or her heart will recognize this inconsistency. There is in each individual the original mind who wants to do good, but there also is the mind that wants to do wrong.

At the deepest level this contradiction must be sought at the level of the heart of love and desires. It is in our heart where we desire to do good and where we also desire to do what is wrong. Our thoughts and feelings result from these desires.

The problem needs to be solved at the level of heart and desires, otherwise the mind and body will always again be infected and polluted by their source, which is to be sought in the motivation why we do things.

The problem of evil can only be solved when it is done at this deepest level of desires and motivation. We could say that this level can be found in the human heart. It is through our heart that we relate to God the Creator, but it is also through our heart that we may connect to evil desires.

These evil or self-centered desires do not come from the Creator. They come from sources or a source that is called 'Satan' in many religions. Satan is thought to be a spiritual being, or better said: 'Satan is a word that refers to the combined force of evil as generated by all beings living in the spiritual world who deviated from God's ways.' Although these influences from 'Satan' do originate in the spiritual realms, they also have their effects and working in the physical world.

The problem of selfish motivation can be studied in the heart, mind and body of man, and it can also be understood on a spiritual level. One main reason why it is so difficult to overcome the tendency to be selfish is that it again and again is stimulated and reinforced by evil spiritual influences.

The contradiction between good and evil in ourselves is apparent. It needs to be solved in order that we all can attain our happiness as purposed for us by God the Creator. The problem must be solved in ourselves by investigating and cleansing our heart of desires, our mind of feelings and thoughts and our body of actions. It is also necessary to solve these problems at a spiritual level by overcoming the influences that come to us from egoistic spiritual forces.

The next blog in these Divine Principle series

Do you understand the spiritual fall?

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Based on the Divine Principle book that is the main teaching of the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of Worldwide Christianity (HSA-UWC, otherwise known as Unification Church), followers of Sun Myung Moon believe the fall of man to have taken place in two stages. The first stage was the spiritual fall, which was an illicit spiritual relationship between the archangel Lucifer and Eve. The second stage was the physical fall, which was a premature sexual relationship between Eve and Adam.

Here i am going to explain in more detail what the spiritual fall exactly means. Understanding of both the spiritual and the physical fall is rather limited for many followers of Moon. They tend to see the spiritual fall as a kind of unusual relationship that could hardly happen to them, and they see the physical fall mainly or even exclusively as a physical sexual relationship that could only take place between people who are not married or blessed under God.

The truth is that the spiritual fall is very widespread among most people, and that the physical fall entails more than just an illegitimate sexual relationship.

What is spiritual fall?

Spiritual fall can be seen as any give and take between two spirits that is not centered on God. There are many degrees of spiritual fall. A full spiritual fall would mean a full spiritual union between two spirits not centered on God. But spiritual fall can also take place when there is not yet a full union of spirits.

Why do i speak about spirits here and what do i mean with that? Spiritual fall can take place between spirits dwelling in the spirit world. It can however also take place between a spirit dwelling in a body in the physical world and a spirit in spirit world. And it can even take place between two spirits who are both living in their bodies in the physical world.

The essence of the fall, wether spiritual or physical, always is a sharing of love that is not centered on God. You are calling that love 'false love' distinguishing it from 'true love' which is God's love.

Do you realize that if you make friendship with another person who is egoistic, you exchange love with that person? Through the exchange of false love selfish elements are transfered from one person to the other. These selfish elements don't come from God and they make trouble to your spiritual life.

There are many degrees of spiritual fall. All spiritual fall starts with what i would call 'internal fall.' In that early stage of spiritual fall, evil desires and emotions and thoughts are exchanged between two people. How must this be understood? If a person near to you is for example angry in a bad way, you could pick up his or her emotions. Such emotions, which can be of many different kinds, are brought to you in the form of energy. If you don't keep your heart and mind centered on God in such a situation, you might become influenced by these emotions. If these emotions are wrong, not centered on God, you already are engaging in the first stage of spiritual fall.

In further stages such type of fall can develop until a sort of spiritual completion of the spiritual fall.

In case that an evil spirit attacks you from the spiritual world, either by accusations or temptations, you can come under influence. This is why we always need to be aware of the spiritual atmosphere and the spiritual entities around us. You don't need to be able to see spirits or speak to them to come under the influence of emotions and love of spirits. Always when such love, desire and emotions are not centered on God, there is the danger for the beginning of a spiritual fall.

In the completion of the spiritual fall between the evil archangel and Eve, there was a full union of the spirit bodies.

The physical fall

When we understand how the spiritual fall works, we realize that each physical fall also always is a spiritual fall. When two bodies touch each other in unwanted sexual behavior, in those bodies there are spirits. There cannot be physical fall without a spiritual aspect.

This means that physical fall doesn't necessarily need to imply full sex. A beginning stage of physical fall can also already take place by holding hands, for example. I am not trying to say that holding hands has to be dangerous. But each physical contact between two people could lead to fall in case there is simultaneously taking place a spiritual fall in whatever stage.

To think that the fall always and only takes place in unwanted sex means to lose your awareness for how fall really takes place, especially in the spiritual sense.

Conclusion

The discovery of Reverend Moon about the fall being a sexually illicit relationship in two stages, spiritual and physical, is a most meaningful one. Yet when we understand what is written above, it is also clear that it is not easy to know how fall really takes place. We need to have deep understanding of the spiritual reality and of how energies of false love and desire can flow between two beings.

There is much danger in the thought that when your marriage has been accepted by God, you could not fall anymore with your spouse.For example, if your spouse has come under influence from evil spirits, you need to keep some spiritual and physical distance until the problem is solved.

Only when you have your personal relationship to God, when you are sure that God in each situation is with you and speaks to you, you can trust yourself to do what is right. You cannot just assume that because Rev. Moon has blessed you, you would be safe.

Notes about the comments nrs. 1, 2, and 3 and 7 below of Christofferwitt

I am publishing his comments for now, not because i agree with him but because i think that what he writes tells something about what has happened to the Unification Church.
There's a lot of spiritual confusion due to inability to deal with the spiritual world.
You may think that this person has nothing to do with the Unification Church, but fact is that he gets revelations about Mr. Moon, from spiritual entities who are both deceiving and confusing and who have to do with the Unification Church.
When you follow Mr. Moon, you have to deal with such a reality and find how to master it, rather than simply rejecting it as pure nonsense.

I replied to each of Christofferwitt's comments. My replies are the comments nrs. 4, 5, 6 & 8.