Excerpted from “Our Standard”

https://tparents.org/Moon-Talks/SunMyungMoon81/810301.htm

Today’s scientific world is confused about what is reality. Thinkers say we have to conquer reality in order to advance, but here is the confusion-what is reality? Religiously and philosophically there is confusion, and we have to clarify this confusion by setting the standard. We need philosophy and religion, but what do “I” need most of all? An active conscience. To determine true reality, we have to restore our consciences to be true ones. Have people in history every lived with true consciences? The common desire of all men has always been to live with true conscience, but how can this be realized?

One important quality in a moral code is filial piety. We value this, but what is it, and why should we exercise it? Filial piety is loyalty to the unchanging value of the family. The son of filial piety pursues the principle of serving his parents and brothers and sisters even if they do not reciprocate. Conscience dictates that this is the right thing to do. But if you do not recognize the value of conscience, you will not recognize the value of filial piety; you have to have some starting point. Conscience values your parents’ welfare more than your own.

On a large scale, a patriot follows the dictates of his conscience by serving his country and caring about its welfare. Again, the common ground is that the conscience dictates the benefit of something higher than yourself. The conscience does not care only for the self first, but pursues something of higher value.

What is a saint, or holy man? He follows the same principle, but obeys his conscience in acting for the sake of mankind, and he recognizes the subject of all-God. In history holy men have always been religious leaders.

Today, materialistic communists say that awareness, or consciousness, is merely a by-product of the material world. So where can they find a moral code? No place. Communism is destructive because that philosophy is based on materialism, and recognizes consciousness only as a by-product. There is no room for a “treasure person” in communism. Because communists don’t recognize the spiritual element, life is expendable in their political system, and they freely sacrifice people’s lives to attain material. There is no everlasting moral standard in the communist world.

Which is first-consciousness or existence? How do we determine that consciousness came first? An eye is material, of course, whether in man or some animal. Would the first eye know that it would encounter dust, or sunlight? Whoever designed the eye must have had an understanding of all these phenomena. Without knowing there would be light, how could the eye have been designed as it is? If anyone tries to say that the eye came about at random, you can show him his mistake. Is it a random event that the eye has tear ducts to keep the eye clean and moist? It is logical that long before the eye came into being a universal consciousness realized the circumstances and designed the eye accordingly. So we can say that consciousness came first.

In school, many of my acquaintances were communists and we discussed dialectical materialism, so I gave them this example and challenged them to answer me. If the eye came first and created the sun and dust and temperature, then their thinking might be correct, but otherwise their theory must die out. Finally those communists just gave up in confusion, and one of the honest ones admitted that there must be a universal consciousness.

I don’t deny the process of evolution in development, but I am saying that there is a creative process going on behind it. In the theory of evolution there are sudden occurrences called mutations, in which something new comes from its parent body. But we have to say that there must have been some energy or willpower that authorized that occurrence. Could evolution itself create a new awareness and make a new design? Absolutely not.

There must be something outside evolution that can supply creative energy. It is true that development occurred between the lowest and the highest stages, but it did not happen automatically. Each stage was the result of a design and input of additional energy. Evolutionists don’t want to recognize that. When they recognize that creative energy was put in, then they have to acknowledge a universal consciousness that provided the know-how. When you talk about man’s conscience then you have to recognize a universal truth that ties into it. Thus, you have to recognize God.

Does conscience also evolve? Communists want to say so. Unless you recognize the unchanging quality of conscience within yourself, it is contradictory to look for unchanging and unique characteristics within gold, gems and pearls. Unless you have that quality in yourself, you have no reason to seek it elsewhere. You appreciate precious things because you have in yourself the qualities of those things. You cannot compare two things unless you have the capacity to appreciate both.

A constitution is the base of all laws of a nation and it is used as a yardstick for determining what is good and evil. When you make a judgment, you are doing so based on a standard which is within yourself. If you are a person without principles and then you say that something is good or bad, your judgment has no value. Random judgments are based on self-centeredness: a true judgment can only come from a basic law or principle within yourself. It is the mind which has unchanging qualities, while the body always changes. The mind should have a permanent foundation.

The body will follow the direction dictated by your five senses, and they are always changing direction. If your eyes see a lovely flower, your body will walk over to it, for instance. But your mind is not bound by the five senses; it can refuse to obey and give other directions to your body instead. The mind is trying to bring the body to the place where all the senses can be contented. If the mind favored only the eyes then the other four senses would complain; the mind thinks of all five senses.

The mind decides how to respond to the desires of each sense, but the mind can only make these decisions based on some principle. Actually we can thank God that we have a conscience as a command post for the body. Before now you only felt it bothered you and limited your activities, but after listening to me this morning you can thank your conscience.