The way of inner change to bring peace

Image by melolou via Flickr

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There are these movements in the world that speak about peace and they are holding big conferences about peace and make public statements to contribute to human rights and personal dignity. Sometimes it is impressive how many dignataries and celebrities they gather and one is tempted to believe that world peace finally is at hand.

Sometimes such conferences are attended by the very same people who in their political functions also contributed to wars, or they made friends with others who started wars and who are out to control and suppress human freedom.

These gathered people enjoying their conferences seem to be in high spirit and the pleasance and excitement of their being together in harmony makes them believe that they are the very figures who are at the center of a movement saving the world. It is as if they almost feel to be messiahs whose lives and thoughts are to be models for everyone else.

But let us inquire how peace really should come about. Peace is the opposite of conflict. Conflict arises whenever people are in disagreement. Conflicts also occur in ourselves, in our minds and in our bodies. When conflicts are present in the body, disease results. Enduring conflicts in the mind may lead to mental illness.

How do we go about in the right way to cure such diseases of mind and body? We can distinguish two different types of therapies. One is to cure the symptoms resulting from the disease or conflict. The other one is to find the core and causes of the disease and to try to solve the problems there, meanwhile also attempting to soothen the pains of the symptoms.

I would always choose for the second option, because when only the symptoms are being treated the causes of the illness remain unnoticed and will eventually burst out in untreatable ailments.

So what are the real causes of conflicts and disturbances of peace in the world? Some would say that the destruction of the family institution is the cause. Others believe that racism and lack of understanding between different religions are to blame.

Although i believe that it is commendable to advance the family institution and good understanding between the races and religions, i still believe that here are being addressed symptoms rather than causes.

Some diseases result from being infected with harmful bacteria or viruses. Other illnesses result from wrong habits of eating or lack of moving the body. Would it be wise to ignore these causes? Something has been done wrong on the level of the behavior of an individual. He or she may not always be responsible for attracting a disease, as it may be difficult to prevent coming in touch with viruses, and some illnesses are inherited from ancestors. Yet even in those cases, the way to go about is to first of all strengthen the body's immune system by eating and living and moving in the right way.

So what are the viruses and wrong habits of living on the level of societies? It may not be easy to track these down and people have different opinions on what are the evils that cause conflicts in society. But surely we can point out some dictatorial individuals and forces that always again have gotten the upperhand in history. So it would not be wise to make friends with such individuals or such kind of ideologies.

Peace cannot be reached by just making friends with everyone. Religion doesn't get better when people of different religions come together and make friends. Religion gets better by going to the core of what religion is. When people of different religions do this, they will automatically come together and recognize each other when they meet.

It is not a process of stating the unity of religions or the desire to not discriminate. Almost all of us know that it is wrong to hate and discriminate. The problem is not that we don't know it, the problem is that we don't know how to overcome hatred in ourselves.

This is why each individual needs to live a true life of religion or spirituality, not the type that is organized from above by great movements, but the kind that is practiced in stillness, in a true desire to be good, in a personal relationship with the Creator and in awareness of the spiritual dimension of life.

Massive peace movements carry in them the danger that their participants believe they are doing so much for peace in the world that they ignore the task to really work on perfection of their own inner self.

Parents having tens of thousands of children???

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Sun Myung Moon maintains that he restored the position of the first Adam. He and his wife would stand as the new 'True Parents' of all mankind. They claim to have restored the positions of the first Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

They also speak about the 'true love' in them, coming from God, in contrajunction to 'false love' or self-centered love, coming from Satan. Sun Myung Moon and his wife would together be the channels of true love, passing on that love from God to all their children and even all of mankind.

Now let me ask some questions.

If Sun Myung Moon had to restore the position of first Adam, would he then not have had to build a family like Adam? Adam and Eve being the first ancestors of mankind, could have had a family of maybe 12 children. We cannot imagine that Eve could have given birth to many thousands of children, like Mr. Moon and Mrs. Moon, who claim that the tens of thousands of couples Mr. Moon matched and married and blessed with their love all are their children.

Of course, Mr. Moon would reply that we are living in a time of restoration, that he pays all the extra indemnity in order that he can have so many children. The exceptionality of the love of Rev. Moon (did you notice that he hardly ever speaks about his wife paying a similar amount of indemnity?) would make it possible that he and his wife as true parents could have so many true children.

But could any human being however exceptional in love and wisdom get to know so many children? Is love not something that must be given personally? How can his presumed children feel that he loves them in a personal way when he doesn't even know the names of his many children? He hasn't even one time talked to a majority of his own 'children.'

Because Mr. Moon and his wife are the parents, members of the Unification Church call each other 'brothers and sisters.' Hmmm. How could people be real brothers and sisters if they never have met each other? You can only be brothers and sisters when you have the same parents and the concept has only meaning when you really exchange brotherly and sisterly love, in a real family, not a fake family like Moon's with his tens of thousands of children.

Would Mr. Moon's task not have been to really restore Adam's position? And would he not have done better to take really good care of his own children, giving them the love they needed and deserved? Of course, some more people in archangel's position would also have been there, to complement the restoration of the original family of Adam.

In that case, Moon could really have become the first father of mankind, and his children, growing up in love that really came from God, could have learned from him directly and they could have done what he did and passed all this on to new generations.

But in that scenario Moon would not have been able to become the 'Emperor of the Universe' or the 'King of the World.' Just like once Jacob did, he would have needed to wait for his family and tribe to grow over the centuries until it had become a nation of Israel. I imagine that Mr. Moon was too impatient or too greedy to wait so long for the grandiose results he aspired.

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.

Demystifying the concept of indemnity

'Indemnity' is a concept widely used and, unfortunately misused by Sun Myung Moon and many of his followers. Let's have a look at how this concept is defined in the Unification Church, how it has been misused and what it originally should mean.

Indemnity as explained in Moon's Divine Principle

Here are first some quotes from the main teaching of the Unification Church, the Divine Principle (black-book edition).

"What, then, does "restoration through indemnity" mean? When anything has lost its original position or status, certain conditions must be established in order for the original position or status to be restored. The setting up of such conditions is called "indemnity". For example, in order to restore lost honor, position, or health, we must set up the necessary conditions of sincere efforts, good qualification, and sufficient medical care. Suppose there are two people who have loved each other but who are now on bad terms. In order for them to restore the original state of loving each other, they have to set up the condition of apologizing to each other.

In like manner, man, who lost the original position or status endowed at the creation, must set up certain necessary conditions in order to restore himself. This act of restoring the original position or status endowed at the creation is called "restoration through indemnity". The condition to be set up for restoration through indemnity is called the "condition of indemnity". "

And further on:

"Who must set up the condition of indemnity? As already clarified in the principle of creation, man originally was to dominate even the angels, after having perfected himself by fulfilling his own portion of responsibility. The first human ancestors failed to do so, and, in reverse manner, fell under Satan's domination. Therefore, in order for man to be restored to the position of dominating Satan from the position of being under Satan's domination, man himself must set up the due condition of indemnity by fulfilling his own portion of responsibility."

Here you find the original text.

How is the concept of indemnity being misused?

"Indemnity" is defined as the conditions that must be set up for the restoration of the original position or status of someone or something. The concept is linked to the Unification Church's understanding of how God's ideal can be restored. In order to restore God's original ideal, a course of restoration must be gone. On this road, conditions are necessary to reinstall the ideal situation.

I don't see much of a problem until here, but some darkness seems to be surrounding the sentences above:

"Suppose there are two people who have loved each other but who are now on bad terms. In order for them to restore the original state of loving each other, they have to set up the condition of apologizing to each other."

We have to ask ourselves if apologies are sufficient to restore a broken love relationship. Let me give the following example. Suppose that a boy broke a window of his neighbor. Let's say he kicked a ball through the window to show off to his friends. Would it be enough for the boy to later apologize to the neighbor? There are a number of problems here that the boy has. One problem is that he let himself be influenced by friends. Another problem is that he broke the window. And a third problem is that he broke the friendly relationship with the neighbor. A deeper problem still is that he is going to feel guilty in relationship to God.

Common sense tells us that the boy doesn't only need to apologize. For a full restoration of the situation, he needs to overcome being influenced by friends, he needs to restore the broken window, he needs to restore the good relationship to the neighbor, and, most importantly, he needs to restore his love relationship to God.

Forgiveness can come in at this point when the neighbor forgives the boy. But what good would this do to the boy if he would not also overcome his tendency to be influenced by friends? How can the boy be sure that he won't do something similar again in a new situation?

For the boy to restore trust in himself, much more is needed than just 'forgiveness.' Even if he were forgiven, he needs to come in a similar situation once again, and then not repeat the same mistake. Only after this, after being forgiven and after having proved to himself and to God that he is a different person, restoration has taken place. And of course.... also the broken window needs to be repaired!

The Divine Principle book tells us this by saying:

"Therefore, in order for man to be restored to the position of dominating Satan from the position of being under Satan's domination, man himself must set up the due condition of indemnity by fulfilling his own portion of responsibility."

This sentence can mean nothing else than that you or i need to restore our own mistakes. Forgiveness given by God or by others can help us to restore our mistakes, but doesn't extinguish the need for ourselves to go through a process of restoration.

But in the Unification Church, it is now widely stated by Moon and believed by many followers that Moon were capable of paying huge amounts of indemnity, so that people don't really need to restore themselves anymore. They just need to accept Moon's supposedly great deeds of paying indemnity for them, accept Moon as their Messiah, and all would be in good order.

That just doesn't make any sense. How could what Moon does restore your personal relationship to God? Moon is not God. How could what Moon does restore your good relationship to fellow man after you have hurt that relationship by bad deeds? All these things cannot be restored through indemnity paid by Moon.

What should indemnity originally mean?

In order to clarify all the confusion, i would propose a slightly different concept: 'restoration through correction.'

Whatever was done wrong, whatever got lost, it needs to be restored through a process of correcting all the mistakes. This needs to be done by each individual. Even if you may get help from others, through their forgiveness or help in other ways, you still need to correct your own heart, your own mind, your own body. You need to restore your own relationship to God. This can only be done by working through all the problems that you have in that relationship.

You need to restore all the problems that came in your relationship to other people. This cannot be done by you alone. It needs your effort but also the efforts of those other people, or by people replacing them but standing in a similar position.

Can you still do Home Church?

What is Home Church?

Home Church is a dispensation once given to the Unification Church.

In general, a dispensation given by God is a special task for a certain group of people. In order to fulfill this task, instructions and truth are given so that this group of people will be capable to perform their task well.

There have been several dispensations in the course of the history of the people of Israel. One such a dispensation was the task to build God's Nation. That dispensation was originally given to Moses.

The dispensation of Home Church was given to Sun Myung Moon and his followers on the foundation of Moon's victory as Israel in the Washington Monument rally on September 18, 1976. See Moon's speech on this topic given on September 18, 1978.

What was the meaning of that victory?

For Moon it meant that he had reached the qualification of Israel. He had repeated the same victory once made by Jacob after his fight against the angel when re-entering Canaan after his years of exile in Haran.

Soon after the victory of the Washington Monument Rally Moon made a victory in spirit world, uniting several central figures of the heavenly side. The Washington Monument Rally can be compared to Jacob's fight against the angel. The victory of uniting central figures in spirit world can be see as the actual spiritual restart of building a people of Israel inside of Canaan.

The meaning of Home Church is therefore the restoration of the Dispensation of a people of Israel. It is the task to rebuild a tribe and eventually a nation of people who made themselves free from spiritual evil domination.

What had to be accomplished in Home Church?

In order to fulfill the Dispensation of Home Church, Moon and his followers had to restore what Jacob (the first person who was Israel) and his descendants had lost.

What was built up by Jacob? It was a foundation to be central figure for God. Jacob had built up that foundation by going his course in Haran with his uncle Laban.

The nation of Israel built with Jacob's descendants got lost in the time of Jesus. When Jesus was crucified and the temple of Israel was destroyed some 40 years later, it meant the end of the Dispensation of Israel. The religion of Christianity was meant to restore that dispensation, which did not occur until Moon made his victory of the Washington Monument Rally.

Washington Monument rally - screenshot

In order to fulfill Home Church, each individual doing it had to restore the course that Jacob went in Haran. In Jesus' time, Jesus had to go a similar course as Jacob once did.

There were two main families for Jacob, the 'Abel'-family of Isaac and the 'Cain'-family of Laban. Likewise, for Jesus there two main families, the 'Abel'-family of Zachariah, the father of John the Baptist, and the 'Cain'-family of Josef.

As it was Jacob's task to return to Isaac's family after he had to flee there because his brother Esau attempted to kill him, so Jesus had to task to return to Zachariah's family. Josef's family was for Jesus what Laban's family was for Jacob. (No, i am not mixing up who was the Cain-family and who was the Abel-family in Jesus' life!)

Because each person must go this course, therefore in Home Church you had to go a course of restoration centered on two families, an Abel-family and a Cain-family. You had to do this in the environment of the world, which was represented by 360 homes in your Home Church area.

Externally, to fulfill Home Church meant to build up a tribe in your 360 homes. Internally, fulfillment of Home Church meant to restore your position as Adam or Eve in relationship to your two main families, the Abel- and Cain-family.

In order to fulfill Home Church, you had to reach the qualification of Israel, which means to be victorious in the battle against evil spirits.

How did Home Church get lost?

When you understand the above, you will also understand how Home Church got lost. The foundation for the restart of the Dispensation of Home Church (Israel in Jacob's time, Home Church in recent time), you had to first of all make your victory of Israel. This is a spiritual victory.

Moon had made that victory, but even when such a victory is made, it doesn't mean one could not lose it again later. This also happened to Jacob. He kind of forgot his qualification and new name of Israel. That is why we now speak about 'Jacob' and not about 'Israel' when referring to the person Jacob.

Moon too has lost his qualification of Israel. For those who are familiar with the history of the Unification Church, this happened in the time that great confusion came from spirit world in the years that Sun Myung Moon's son Heung Jin was working from spirit world. Also Moon himself was unable to control the confusion.

A kind of solution for the problems was thought to be found by inhibiting members of the Unification Church to still receive any revelations from spirit world. But you cannot solve the confusion in spirit world by closing your spiritual senses. This would be comparable to solving a problem in the physical world by just closing your eyes.

People have to learn to deal with spiritual phenomena. Adam and Eve once fell because they were incapable of dealing with the archangel Lucifer. In order for Adam and Eve to be restored, they need to grow and develop to a level on which they can deal with spirits. Jacob was capable of this and therefore could make his victory over the angel. Moon has been capable of doing this but lost that qualification.

Can Home Church be restored?

Yes, Home Church can be restored, in principle by each individual who understands the deeper principles of it. You need to go a course like Jacob once did in Haran and you need to qualify yourself as Israel. In order to do this, you should not anymore follow Sun Myung Moon. You can still learn from what he did up to the victory of Washington Monument and some years after that, but you should not follow his way of defeat of later times.

Should Home Church be restored?

Of course, Home Church should be restored. It doesn't matter what name you want to give it, but when you understand the main principles outlined above, you will also know that you as Adam or Eve need to become Israel as absolutely necessary condition in your course to perfection in God's love.

Advice

Firstly, you need to pray about these things. Don't just believe what has been told about this. You cannot become Israel by following leaders. You can only become Israel by having your personal and strong relationship to God.

Secondly, you may want to study the original teaching that was once given about Home Church in the beginning years of that dispensation in the Unification Church. Go to this website to find that information if you have no direct access to Moon's speeches.

Note: In order to understand the above article, you need to get much more background for many of its topics. I cannot explore these all in this one article. Keep following this blog and you will learn more.

Note about the comments 1, 2 & 5 written by Christopherwitt

I have posted these comments as a way of coming to the truth about Mr. Moon. He gets revelations from spirit world and they tell him some truth and some untruth and a lot of confusing stuff.

This is a reality surrounding the world of Mr. Moon. These problems need to be addressed and solved, which is impossible by just denying them. Therefore i posted his comments and replied to them (comments nrs. 3, 4 & 6).