The path to peace requires a revolution of heart from the selfish love of brothers to the sacrificial heart of parents.
The Quest for World PeaceEveryone, without exception, is struggling to attain happiness1. Throughout history human desire has been to live in freedom, peace and harmony with our fellow man. The prophet Isaiah spoke of the day when, “Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. (Isaiah, 2:4) In our own age the same sentiment is held by the 14th Dalai Lama who has stated that “Human Beings, indeed all sentient beings, have the right to pursue happiness and live in peace and freedom.”
Yet even as I write and as you read this, people are dying in wars, violent struggles are taking place in societies around the world, murders are taking place and families are feuding. The Twentieth century saw humans achieve the most advanced civilization ever. Yet it was a century that also saw two world wars and more conflict than all past history. Karl Marx’s false ideology of communism alone led to violent revolutions and the deaths of more than 200 million people.
The horrors of World War II led to the creation of the United Nations. UNESCO is an agency of the U.N. Part of the UNESCO Constitution reads, “Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed.”
What are the basic “defenses of peace” in the minds of men?
Black Elk (Heȟáka Sápa), the Ogala Sioux holy man calls us to look inward, “The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that at the centre of the universe dwells the Great Mystery, and that this centre is really everywhere, it is within each of us. Truth is unchanging, so it is little surprise that almost two thousand years before Black Elk Jesus told us more simply that “The kingdom of God is within you.”Lk 17:21 KJV
Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon goes a step further. He invites us “to enter into a transcendent state and prayerfully ask God, “What is the center of the universe?” The answer, he says, will undoubtedly be, “the parent-child relationship.” Nothing is more important or more precious than the relationship between parent and child. This is because it defines the fundamental relationship between the Creator God and human beings.”
As we recognise our unity with the Creator, we realise that the family is the basic building block of any society, tribe or nation and we are all one family under God. Ever since the Renaissance the “Brotherhood of Man” has been a major theme in man’s struggle to bring harmony and peace. The French Revolution raised the cry of “Liberté, égalité, fraternité, French for "Liberty, equality, fraternity (brotherhood)", that has been the shout of all revolutionaries since.
Why has brotherhood alone failed to bring lasting world peace? The answer according to Rev. Moon, is that the parent-child relationship is the primary vertical axis, while that between siblings is secondary and horizontal in nature. The family is not created and led by brothers but by the parents.
Let us look for a moment to the relationship between siblings in the family. Children frequently compete for their parent’s love. Jealousy is a natural part of this process and this leads to power struggles which often ends in fighting. The early Renaissance humanist Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374) noted this competition that often plagues siblings. “Five enemies of peace inhabit us - avarice, ambition, envy, anger, and pride; if these were to be banished, we should infallibly enjoy perpetual peace.”
Furthermore brothers use power and force to keep peace, as we see in the very first recorded murder, that of Abel by his brother Cain. God accepted Abel’s offering and rejected Cain’s. Cain was jealous of his brother and killed him Gen.:4.
Families expand into clans and tribes and nations. Therefore the nations of the world relate to each other as extended families. The United Nations, the ultimate conclusion of the ideal of a brotherhood of nations, is frequently unable to bring peace because of the self centred interests of each nation, including the U.S.A.
The nineteenth century English Prime Minister William Gladstone said, “We look forward to the time when the Power of Love will replace the Love of Power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace.”
How can we achieve this?
Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon has constantly promoted the family as the basic unit of a happy and peaceful society. He is clear that the ideal family consists of a man and a woman, their children and the grandparents—the "three-generational family." 2
Rev. Moon gives us a paradigm shift from the mindset of brotherhood to that of Parenthood. He teaches that the path to peace requires a revolution of heart from the selfish love of brothers to the sacrificial heart of parents.
The Vision Fulfilled
Let us study a little what Rev. Sun Myung Moon has to say on Parenthood. Here is an excerpt from the first of his Peace Speeches in 2005.
Rev. Moon asks us, “What defines the parent-child relationship?”
“Three things: love, life and lineage.”
“The first is love. We can love with true love because God, our True Parent, first loved us with true love. God created human beings out of His absolute love, to be His partners in love. This relationship forms an axis of love, linking God the Father with human beings as His sons and daughters.”
“Could there be anything higher or more precious than to be a son or daughter of God? If anything were higher, then surely human beings would aspire to attain it. But there is nothing higher. Do you think that when the all-knowing and all-powerful God created Adam and Eve, He secretly reserved the highest position for Himself and made Adam and Eve to be only second best? We cannot imagine that God would do that to His children, to His partners who share absolute love with Him.” Why does Rev. Sun Myung Moon ask this question? This is the view of humanists, Rev. Moon clarifies that God is our Heavenly parent of love and God’s love is absolute. He then builds on this as follows:
“As our eternal True Parent, God invested Himself 100 percent in the creation of human beings and endowed us with the right to equal status with Him, to participate in His work as equals, to live with Him, and to inherit from Him. God bestowed upon human beings all of His attributes.”
Sun Myung Moon gives us the rational conclusion: “Though God is the absolute being, He cannot be happy alone. Adjectives such as “good” and “happy” cannot apply to any being that lives in isolation. They apply only where there is a dynamic mutual relationship. Imagine a professional singer who finds herself on an uninhabited island. She may sing at the top of her voice, but with no one to listen, will it bring her happiness? In the same way, even the self-existent God absolutely needs a partner with whom to share love in order to experience joy and be happy.” Ponder on this last sentence for a moment. Rev. Dr. Moon has just answered the age old question about the purpose of human life!
When we attain this relationship with our Creator God and share His parental heart towards our fellow man , world peace will be the natural state of affairs. As a solution to the problems "Rev. Moon has proposed a "second house" at the UN composed of representatives of the major religious and cultural groups. This would ensure that the UN can fulfill a wider and hopefully more successful role in dealing with international and even intra-national dispute. It is a message which deserves much greater recognition3"
I conclude with a quote by Chief Segun Olusola, Founder, African Refugees Foundation, Nigeria: This is the core of Rev. Moon’s contribution. He teaches us that the root causes of conflict are not primarily political or economic but rather are embedded in the relationships that human beings encourage and expect from their families, neighbors and communities with whom they relate. This is why peace must begin from within."
1happiness: Exposition of the Divine Principle, introduction
2 Sir Peter Tapsell, Speaker of the House, New Zealand, 1993 -96
3 Sir Peter Tapsell, Speaker of the House, New Zealand, 1993 -96
Great research. Only take out all these colors... they disturb reading.. make it look unofficial.
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