You’ll find a few of my interesting experiences and opinions on this page.
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You’ll find a few of my interesting experiences and opinions on this page.
NordaVinci 
Concerning the spiritual meaning of numbers, I was thinking some more about the 1, 4, and 13 as being ADM in Hebrew, and that these three letters are actually 1, 11, and 111 in base 3 and that the Mem as the 13th letter in Hebrew is assigned the value of 40, which in base 3 is represented as 1111.
Thinking about the 4 and its meaning in Divine Principle, it is interesting that 1111 base 1 is just 4 base 10 and is associated with the letter Dalet, the fourth letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
The similar process with 1111 base 7 is equivalent to 400 base 10, which is the value assigned to the Tav, the 22nd and last letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
To summarize:
1111 base 1 = 4 base 10 = Dalet (also a double letter, but which one?)
1111 base 3 = 40 base 10 = Mem (3rd mother letter)
1111 base 7 = 400 base 10 = Tav (7th double letter, connecting Yesod and Malchut)
Looking at different bases in general it turns out that:
If the base is X, then if X mod 9 = 1, 3, 4, or 7,
then [1111 base X] mod 9 = 4.
1111 base X is a way to represent the sum of the first 4 powers of any number X.
It’s interesting that because of this rule mentioned above, it’s quite easy to say which 1111 base X is in the mod 4 conguence class, which means that when expressed in base 10, the number adds across to equal 4, which is the same as casting out 9s, or figuring the one digit spiritual significance number.
4 as we know is associated with Direct Dominion (Divine Principle term)since it represents going past the 3 stages of growth during the Indirect Dominion (Divine Principle term).
see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turiya (4th state, return to one body with God)
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Greetings,
There is an important point about the Fall of Man and the Mission of the Messiah regarding the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Firstly note that the Fall of Man defines the Mission of the Messiah, for if there were no Fall of Man, God would not need to send the Messiah.
Although there are many interpretations of the symbolism of the two trees in the garden, the clearest explanation in my opinion is that the Tree of Life represents the perfect man that Adam should have grown up to become. The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil represents Eve during her process of growing to perfection. God foresaw the possibility of the Fall and thus gave the commandment to Adam who should have conveyed it to Eve who should have then resisted the temptation of the serpent. The Book Bahir explains that Eve was tempted and seduced by the angel who had sexual intercourse with her and that then Eve went to Adam and seduced him in the same way.
Also note that the 10 Commandments supposedly map to the 10 positions of the Tree of Life, but that there is disagreement over the order. There is disagreement as well over the numbering of the 10 positions. The older numbering of Yesod is number 7, making it correspond to the 7th Commandment, “Don’t commit adultery.” [See Gershom Scholem references below]
Positions 7, 8, 9 and 10 represent the nefesh level of soul, which is the level of soul that is in the blood and thus represents lineage. Jesus spoke to Nicodemus about the need to be born again and expressed surprise that Nicodemus was a teacher of Israel and yet didn’t know about this. When Jesus said to seek God’s Righteousness and God’s Kingdom he was probably referring to the Yesod and Malkhut which represent the God-centered sexual organs of unfallen Adam and Eve as the Ideal Original True Parents. Indeed the Yesod is associated with Joseph who resisted the temptation of Potiphar’s wife to commit adultery. Yesod as Foundation of the World is the masculine Sabbath, whereas Malkhut as Kingdom is the feminine Sabbath. Possibly references to Jesus having been slain before the Foundation of the World (Sabbath) could be considered in light of this understanding of Yesod.
[References for the above opinions]
See p 215 of Gershom Scholem’s “On the Mystical Shape of the Godhead” and also in World Scripture II p 476
King David, of blessed memory, was a great
sage and recognized transmigrations. When he
saw Uriah the Hittite, he knew that he was the
Serpent who had seduced Eve, and when he saw
Bathsheba he knew that she was Eve, and he
knew that he himself was Adam. Thus, he wished
to take Bathsheba from Uriah, because she was
destined to be David’s mate… And the reason
Nathan the prophet chastised him was because
he hastened, and did not wait… for his haste
caused him to go to her without performing tikkun
(restoration), for he first needed to remove
from her the contamination of the Serpent, and
thereafter to go to her, and he did not do so.
Therefore, his first son Bathsheba died, for he
was from the impurity of the Serpent, but from
there on there was no Satan and no bad effect.31
Sefer Peli’ah
Click to access origins-of-kabbalah.pdf
See Gershom Scholem’s “Origins of the Kabbalah”, Sections 7 and 8 of Chapter Two, especially pp 152 – 156
[Excerpt from p152]
The seventh logos of the Bahir corresponds exactly to the ninth
sefirah in the later canonical sequence. Its symbolism is characterized
by a combination of four motifs, which remained constant even
after its location in the “sefirotic tree” was changed: that of the
righteous, that of the foundation of the world and the soul, that of
the Sabbath, and the symbolism of the phallus. The relation with the
celestial temple which represents “Thought” or that which is within
“Thought” as expounded in section 103 in one of three variations on
the seventh logos of our table (sections 102-104), is completely outside
this particular series of motifs, as we saw above in our discussion
of the first sefirah. Only the notion of the six dimensions, by
means of which the world—space—is sealed, is taken over from the
Book Yesirah. The same notion also figures in section 21 in terms of
the mysticism of letters. In the center of this terrestrial world is the
Temple of Jerusalem; in the center of the corresponding world of
the logoi, the celestial temple. What is novel and so pregnant with
consequences for the Kabbalah is precisely the conjunction of the
other motifs.
The symbol of the righteous goes back to the well-known aggadah
in Hagigah 12b: “The world rests on one pillar, and its name
is righteous, for it is said [Prov. 10:25] that the righteous is the
foundation of the world.”
http://www.hermetics.org/pdf/Sefer_Yetzirah_Kaplan.pdf
The case can be made from the Sefer Yetzirah that the letter Mem represents circumcision of the flesh, the sign of the covenant between God and Abraham. For example, from p 34 of Aryeh Kaplan’s Sefer Yetzirah discussing section 1:3, we have, “The four halves of the two doves, which were not divided, represent the four Sephirot which are normally in the center line.” Only in the GRA version of the Tree (unfallen), however, do the Three Mother Letters correspond to the three divisions between the four halves of the doves. But then on p 150 Kaplan explains in discussing section 3:6 , “According to Rabbi Abraham Abulafia, there is an allusion here to the two covenants mentioned above (1:3). The covenant of the tongue is in the head, while the covenant of circumcision is in the region of the belly.” “Belly” is oriental speak for the sexual organ. Note that the tongue is the seventh hole in the head and is referred to as the main meaning of Sabbath in Kabbalah. Note further that the tongue and the cavity of the mouth parallel the masculine and feminine sexual organs. Similarly the masculine and feminine sexual organs themselves parallel the masculine and feminine aspects of 7 or Sabbath. Counting from the top in the GRA Tree, the Yesod is number 7, and counting the levels, the Malkhut is number 7. There you have it – the masculine and feminine Sabbaths of the GRA Tree of Life.
[Excerpt]
1:3
Ten Sefirot of Nothingness
in the number of ten fingers
five opposite five
with a singular covenant
precisely in the middle
in the circumcision of the tongue
and in the circumcision of the membrum.
3:6
Three Mothers AMSh
in the Soul, male and female,
are the head, belly, and chest.
The head is created from fire,
The belly is created from water
and the chest, from breath,
decides between them.
http://www.servantsofthelight.org/QBL/Books/Bahir_1.html#i05
199. The soul of the female comes from the Female, and the soul of the male comes from the Male. This is the reason why the Serpent followed Eve. He said, “Her soul comes from the north, and I will therefore quickly seduce her.” And how did he seduce her? He had intercourse with her.
200. His disciples asked: Tell us how this took place. He replied: The wicked Samael made a bond with all the host on high against his Master. This was because the Blessed Holy One said [regarding man] (Genesis 1:26), “And let him rule over the fish of the sea and the flying things of heaven.” [Samael] said, “How can we cause him to sin and be exiled from before God?” He descended with all his host, and sought a suitable companion on earth. He finally found the serpent, which looked like a camel, and he rode on it. He then went to the woman and said to her (Genesis 3:1), “Did God also say, from all the trees of the garden [you shall not eat]?” [He said, “I know that He did not forbid all the trees,] but I will seek more – I will add in order that she should subtract.” She replied, “He did not stop us from anything besides” (Genesis 3:2) “the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden. God said, ‘Do not eat from it and do not touch it, lest you die.'” She added two things. She said, “from the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden,” while [God] had only said (Genesis 2:17), “from the Tree of Knowledge.” She also said, “do not touch it lest you die,” [while God had only spoken of eating it]. What did Samael do? He went and touched the tree. The tree cried out and said, “Wicked one, do not touch me!” It is thus written (Psalm 36:12), “Let not a foot of pride overtake me, and let not the hand of the wicked move me. There have the workers of iniquity fallen – they are thrust down, they cannot rise.” He then said to the woman, “See, I touched the tree and I did not die. You can also touch it and not die.” The woman went and touched the tree. She saw the Angel of Death approaching her and said, “Woe is to me. Now I will die and the Blessed Holy One will make another woman and give her to Adam. I will therefore cause him to eat with me. If we die, we will both die, and if we live, we will both live.” She took the fruit of the tree and ate it, and she also gave some to her husband. Their eyes opened and their teeth were set on edge. He said, “What is this that you have given me to eat? Just as my teeth were set on edge, so will the teeth of all [future] generations be set on edge.” [God then] sat down in true judgment, as it is written (Psalm 9:5), “[You have upheld my cause, You have sat on the throne as a] righteous Judge.” He called to Adam and said “Why do you flee from Me?” [Adam] replied (Genesis 3:10), ” ‘I heard Your voice in the garden’ – and my bones trembled. ‘I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid.’ I was naked of works, I was naked of commandments, and I was naked of deeds.” It is therefore written “because I was naked, and I hid.” What was Adam’s garment? It was a skin of fingernail. As soon as he ate from the fruit of the tree, this skin of fingernail was removed from him, and he saw himself naked. It is thus written (Genesis 3:11), “Who told you that you were naked? [Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from it?]” Adam said to the Blessed Holy One, “Master of all worlds: When I was alone, did I ever sin before You? But the woman that You placed with me enticed me from your word.” It is thus written (Genesis 3:12), “The woman that you placed with me [gave it to me, and I ate].” The Blessed Holy One said to her, “Is it not enough that you sinned? But you also caused Adam to sin.” She replied to Him, “Master of all worlds: The serpent enticed me to sin before You.” [God] took the three of them, and decreed upon them a sentence of nine curses and death. He then cast the wicked Samael and his group from their holy place in heaven. He cut of the feet of the serpent and cursed it more than all the other animals and beasts of the field. He also decreed that it must shed its skin every seven years. Samael was punished and made the guardian angel over the wicked Esau. In the Future, when God uproots the Kingdom of Edom, he will lower him first. It is thus written (Isaiah 24:21), “God will punish the host of heights of high.” This statement, death and punishment all came because she added to the commandment of the Blessed Holy One. Regarding this it is said, “Whoever increase diminishes.”
May God enlighten our eyes with the light of His Torah,
May He place in our hearts His fear,
May we be worthy to greet Him.
He will enlighten the ear
Waken the heart with understanding
Make the heart shine with brilliance.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+3%3A1-21&version=ESV
[Jesus and Nicodemus:]
John 3:1-21English Standard Version (ESV)
You Must Be Born Again
3 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus[a] by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again[b] he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.[c] 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You[d] must be born again.’ 8 The wind[e] blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? 11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you[f] do not receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.[g] 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.[h]
For God So Loved the World
16 “For God so loved the world,[i] that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
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Common Ground With Judaism Today
The importance of “If You Were God” essay by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan today is to realize that there exists tremendous common ground in the world view of modern Judaism and Unificationism on such fundamental topics as Purpose of Creation, Fall of Man, Mission of the Messiah and History of Restoration.
[see collected works http://www.aish.com/authors/48865952.html
“If You Were God,” his final work, published posthumously in 1983. Moving beyond superficiality the slender book encourages the reader to ponder topics concerning the nature of being and divine providence.[25] http://www.aish.com/sp/ph/48970646.html [End See . . .]
This document increases my interest in knowing if and to what degree Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, who lived and worked in NYCity in the 1970’s was exposed to Divine Principle. It is hard to believe that he was not, since we Unification Church members unundated NYCity at that time, giving street lectures, giving out free Divine Principle books, fundraising, Rev. Moon speaking at Madison Square Garden and Yankee Stadium, creating English and Spanish daily newspapers, etc.
Reading through this article of Kaplan’s written before his heart attack death in 1983 at age 48, Kaplan talks about The Ideals of the Principle of Creation, The Fall of Man, The Reasons that God did not Interfere in the Fall of Man, The Mission of the Messiah, and The History of Restoration, which outline the entire Divine Principle and the mission, teaching and life’s work of Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon.
******************************************************************
[Kaplan on The Purpose of Creation and Free Will]
To some extent, the answer should be obvious. It is man, not God, who brings most evil to the world. God does not make wars — men do. God did not kill the 6 million — men did. God does not oppress the poor — men do. God does not drop napalm — men do.
But people come back and argue that this does not really answer the question. The basic dilemma still remains: Why did God create the possibility of evil? Why does He allow it to exist at all?
To even begin to understand this, we must delve into the very purpose of creation.
This purpose requires a creature responsible for its own actions. This in turn requires that people have free will.
If God would have wanted a race of puppets, then He would have created puppets. If He would have wanted robots, then He would have made robots. But this is not what God wanted. He wanted human beings, with free will, responsible for their actions.
IMAGE OF GOD
But as soon as you have free will, you have the possibility of evil.
The deeper we probe, the clearer this becomes.
To the best of our understanding, God created the universe as an act of love. It was an act of love so immense that the human mind cannot even begin to fathom it. God created the world basically as a vehicle upon which He could bestow His good.
But God’s love is so great that any good that He bestows must be in the greatest good possible. Anything less would simply not be enough.
But what is the greatest good? What is the ultimate good that God can bestow on His creation?
If you think for a moment the answer should be obvious. The ultimate good is God Himself. The greatest good that He can bestow is Himself. There is no greater good than achieving a degree of unity with the Creator Himself. It is for this reason that God gave man the ability to resemble Himself.
God therefore gave man free will.
[Kaplan on the Fall of Man]
Here too, the fault was man’s. Our sages teach us that the prohibition against tasting the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge was only temporary. Man’s spiritual nature was gradually developing in such a manner that he would have eventually been strong enough to master his animal instincts. When this time arrived, he could have partaken of the Tree of Knowledge without endangering his spiritual essence.
Man was indeed destined to be more angel and less animal. However, this was now to be a gradual process. It was aborted by man’s impatience, his partaking of “knowledge” before its time. It was this knowledge that brought him in conflict with his animal nature, and stunted his spiritual development, making the beast dominant.
[Kaplan on Why God Doesn’t Interfere]
Why doesn’t God open up the heavens and stop all this evil?
Still, the basic question does not seem to go away. Admittedly, man has an evil nature and it is his own fault. But why doesn’t God intervene? Why doesn’t He open up the heavens and stop all this evil? Why didn’t He send down a bolt of lightning and destroy the concentration camps? Why didn’t He send down some kind of manna for the starving babies of Biafra and Bangladesh? Why didn’t He stop the napalm bombs from burning innocent Vietnamese children? Why doesn’t He pull off a miracle and make all the world’s nuclear bombs disappear? After all, He is God. He certainly can do it. So why doesn’t He?
We are taught, however, that an overabundance of light does not rectify the vessels, but shatters them.
What would happen to our society if miracles suddenly started taking place? How would we react to it?
[Kaplan on Miracles]
Many people say that they would believe if only they could witness some sign or miracle. Sinai showed us that even this is not enough, if people do not want to believe.
From all this we can begin to understand one of the most basic restrictions that God imposes upon Himself. He is a hidden God, and does not reveal Himself. This is required by man’s psychology as well as God’s very purpose in creation. God only reveals Himself to such people whose faith is so great that the revelation makes no difference in their belief. As Maimonides pointed out, the only major exception to this rule was the Exodus.
[Kaplan on The Messianic Mission of Israel to unite religions and absorb world cultures]
THE CONCLUSION
As you might have already guessed, examining this microcosm gives us considerable insight into the way that God interacts with the world. He is working to bring the world to a state of perfection, which in our tradition is the Messianic promise. It is a slow process, whereby God constantly maneuvers the forces of history toward this end. This “game” is essentially all of human history.
You might have also recognized the infiltrators. They are the Jewish people, who were given the basis of a perfect society in the teachings of the Torah. A society living according to these God-given principles can set itself up as an example of a healthy society, free of the social diseases of its surrounding culture.
When God first gave the Torah, He told the Jewish people (Leviticus 20:26), “You shall be holy unto Me, for I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the peoples, that you should be Mine.” It is Israel’s mission to set such an example, as the Torah states (Deut. 4:6), “You must observe [these commandments] carefully and keep them, for they are your wisdom and understanding in the sight of the nations. When they hear of these statutes, they will say, ‘Surely, this great nation is a wise and understanding people.'”
It is our task to bear witness to God’s plan for humanity, as we find, “You are My witnesses, says God, and My servant, whom I have chosen” (Isaiah 43:10). Likewise, God told His prophet, “I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness…and have set you for a covenant of the people, for a light unto the nations” (Isaiah 42:6). We are thus taught that Israel is like the heart of humanity, constantly beating and infusing all mankind with faith in God and His teachings.
It was in this spirit that Judaism gave birth to both Christianity and Islam. Although far from perfection, these religions are a step in the right direction away from paganism. The final step is yet to be made.
More important, however, is the fact that the Jewish people, at least those who keep the Torah, continue to stand as an example of a perfect society designed by God. The Torah and its commandments indeed represent the highest wisdom in perfecting human society. The tzaddik is the closest that we can come to the perfect human being.
Israel’s unique position in accepting God’s Torah will eventually result in the [dissolution] of all competing cultures. It would also temporarily result in Israel’s earning the hatred of these cultures. Our sages teach us that just as an olive must be crushed before it brings forth its oil, so is Israel often persecuted before its light shines forth. Thus, God told His prophet, “A bruised reed, he shall not break; a dimly burning wick, he shall not be extinguished; he shall make justice shine forth in truth. He shall not fail nor be crushed, until he has right in the earth, and the islands shall await the teachings of his Torah” (Isaiah 42:3,4).
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I was in Whitehall, NY at the time, accompanying my daughter there to purchase her first car for $4000 with money she earned herself. Afterwards we stopped at the local convenient store to get some gas and buy a cup of coffee. As I perused the Lotto section, I recalled the Lotto Condition I did in the spring of 1984 as I was preparing to go to Korea for the first time. I rarely buy a lotto ticket, maybe once every 5 to 10 years, but in memory of that event I was inspired to buy a lotto ticket for $1 on pick 3 on the number 444. As I did so I was thinking about Father and considering that maybe he had just passed or was in the process of passing into the spirit world and leaving his physical body behind. It was a tangible consideration in my mind’s eye.
The time printed on that Lotto ticket is12:52:05 Sunday September 2, 2012, which in NY is actually known as Eastern Daylight Time because of the hour difference for daylight savings. This time corresponds in Korea to Monday September 3, 2012, at 1:52:05 in the morning. I later learned that the time of Father’s actual passing into the spirit world was within the next 2 minutes.
That’s an extraordinary thing – God allowed me to be in such circumstances and frame of mind to remember my 43 day Lotto Condition from 1984, during which I learned the difference between doing miracles and getting crucified (Jesus) and not doing miracles and not getting crucified (Father). During that Lotto Condition, you see, it came to me that the number on the 21st day would be 666, but I didn’t play that number although I was strongly tempted to, because it would have deviated from the details specified in my combined prayer and lotto condition. Thus I resisted the temptation to “do a miracle.”
Upon arriving in Korea a short time later (1984) and participating in the 7 million IFVOC signature campaign, I heard Rev. Ahn’s lecture covering the same topic. Amazingly he picked me out of 12 people who had given lectures at workshops before, to give the first lecture in front of 120 brothers and sisters from around the world. The topic Rev. Ahn gave me to cover was not the entire Principle of Creation, but only The Purpose of Life and The Spirit World and the Physical World. Miracles don’t fix what was broken at the Fall of Man, but restoration through indemnity via Jacob’s course does.
Since we are in The Age After the Coming of Heaven, which Father reminded me of in a dream two or three months ago, one might wonder what aspect of the Divine Principle we can now apply that will move the world to more quickly embody God’s Ideal of Creation.
The answer is clear, in a word, “Education.” Foundation of Faith and Foundation of Substance still constitute the Inner Four Position Base and the Outer Four Position Base that were required of Adam and Eve, even had they obeyed the Commandment. The dynamics of growth and development of the Individual Truth Body that is established through orderly stages of give and receive action still constitute the dynamics of the spiritual and physical worlds, and will remain the fundamental Divine Principle forever. Thank You HanulChamPuMoNim.
Peter Nordquist
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God has Entangled Us in a Quantum State as His/Her Family.
I got the following insight the other day, upon being reminded of the 12 objects (that the Triple Object Purpose requires):
Since God is in the Subject position for 3 of those 12 objects – when it is God’s turn to be in the Origin or Subject Position to the other three Positions as Object, this then is in fact one fourth, or correlating to the 4th stage which is the Direct Dominion of God, in which the condition of being One Body with God is attained after going through the 9 stages of growth, (during which the other Three Positions of the Four Position Foundation are having their turns in the Subject or Origin Position, as per the fluid motion of the Subject Object Relationships.)
The question of course arises, as to where specifically we find the “fixed” relationships. This might be in the “static” non-developing situation of the identity maintaining four position foundations. However, since the highest dimension of heart is already the fundamental reality at the root of the existence of God, Reality and Nature, then no change should ever take place there. But there must be give and receive action still taking place within the dimension of Heart, since there are still the Inner and Outer Four Position Foundations, but centered on Heart, which transcends time and space.
Still the Triple Object Purpose is inherently involved and the Positions must cycle through as well even though centered on Heart, by definition of the dynamic of the four position foundation whether Inner or Outer type.
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More about meditation: I want to share some experiences of teaching people meditation. Some people first persecuted me and were wary of sitting down for 5 minutes and meditating with me (again, who am I, other than a person who remembers True Parents, God and Divine Principle in association with my heart energy center located around the physical heart region of one’s physical body . . . and who understands about transmission meditation, the four position foundation and Universal Prime Force.) Edmund Bolton at WRIST, for example, at the East Sun Building in Long Island City, NY, was bothered by the fact that he didn’t understand me . . . which he expressed.
I told him all he needed to do was meditate with me for 5 minutes and he would understand me better.
Even though there was a prayer room that had been Holy Salted by Lady Dr. Kim with Holy Salt from Washington Monument on the 3rd floor of the East Sun Building – the prayer room in which Lady Dr. Kim (appointed by Father as the first official spiritualist of the Unification Movement . . . according to Chung Sup Park [Dr. Park appointed by Father to be in charge of WRIST]) had transferred Science and Technology fortune and done Historical Scientists Liberation Ceremonies in . . .
. . . and in which WRIST members did morning service every morning, reading through Divine Principle and the red book of speeches, God’s Will and the World (compiled by Father in Danbury Prison), with Dr. Chung Sup [John] Park (who wasn’t originally a Dr., but Father asked him to get a Dr.’s degree)
. . . the same prayer room that Judas appeared to me in during my silent prayer after a morning service [explaining how he had to carry around 30 pieces of silver for 2000 years to have time to think about the value of a True Man whom he had betrayed to the value of 30 pieces of silver], and that Christa McAuliffe (civilian Challenger Astronaut who died on take-off in Jan. 1986), WRIST member in spirit world, appeared to me in during the silent prayer after morning service, telepathing that she was there to learn Divine Principle.
Edmund wanted to go to Holy Ground in Central Park, Manhattan and meditate there for 5 minutes with me. So one winter morning we went there. Amazingly there was sometimes a homeless man, outdoorsman, who slept in a sleeping bag under the tree at Holy Ground even though it was bitterly cold and his sleeping bag was covered with snow. Sometimes a man in an Australian hat came with a flashlight to check what was happening. Perhaps he wandered around Central Park at night trying to prevent crime.
Anyway, Edmund and I went to Holy Ground one morning. It was light out. We meditated for 5 minutes. I told him to pay attention to his heart and remember True Parents, God, Divine Principle and his mission . . . (as usual for me), not trying to stop thoughts or put himself in any strange state . . . or anything like that. (Heart controls mind and therefore the thoughts that rise to the surface of the mind can often be compared to dust that is being swept up from the heart when it is cleaned. But this should be known from experience, without having to explain it, and I didn’t explain it or say it. Don’t tell people that when you’re trying to teach them about meditation, because after a little bit of meditating, they know it from their own experience.)
Anyway, immediately after the 5 minute meditation, Edmund starting laughing and laughing. He said, “That was so simple, most people would not appreciate that.” or “most people would miss that” or something like that. He said, “Now I understand you.” or something like that.
Edmund, by the way, was born in Germany. His Father was a medical Dr. who was killed on the Russian front. He was evacuated from the hospital in Germany moments before it was bombed, and his grandparents were able to locate him because of the identification band around his wrist. Lokesh Mazumdar is his spiritual father, who met him witnessing door to door one day. Regarding the point about spiritual parentage,
I recall reading in one of Father’s speeches that everyone who joined before 1981 is Father’s spiritual child because his spirit world came and got us, and that we all need to get more spiritual children after 1981, adding new meaning to the Children’s 21 year course or Member-Centered movement, horizontalized and expanding horizontally during which those who need to be a leader or who feel that they need a leader, would begin to struggle.
I remember the first time I saw True Father speak at Barrytown at the workshop at which I joined. I had attended a 3 day workshop 3 months earlier in Massachusetts. Six months earlier than that I had had two dreams with True Father in them. In the first one I was ushered into the back of a lecture room filled with people sitting on the floor. Up front was Father lecturing and drawing Korean characters on the blackboard. In the second dream I was talking to Lady Dr. Kim. I also dreamed about little special kids whom I was being introduced to who must have been some of the True Children. This was 1973 – 1974.
We workshop participants were sitting on the lawn on June 1, 1974. Father was speaking and with the knuckles of his right hand tapped on the head of a brother in front of him and said, “The physical body is the problem.”
I immediately recalled that Ram Chandra of Shajahanpur had said the same thing. I know because I read it in his book “Voice Real” at college. Prior to my one year at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in my last year of high school I had quit my paper route and the wrestling team and come home every day determined to prepare for my future life after high school by going to my room and immediately writing down my deepest question, and then meditating and praying about it until I got the answer. Jesus said, “Seek and you will find.” I knew that I needed to know more than what was in the Bible, especially about modern day world problems, which it would be nice to solve before Jesus returned.
I read Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramanhansa Yogananda during Christmas holiday. It was very inspiring reading about other peoples amazing experiences with God in conjunction with their lives in the world. However, I needed to have my own experiences.
I also had read Padma Sambhava’s explanation of the science of mental concepts in the Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation in the Evens-Wentz series, which my mother had brought into the house when I was in the 9th grade [and I first read in the 9th grade] Interestingly Father explained more recently in agreement with Padma Sambhava that even the Love of God is a Mental Concept and it is pointed out in writing in the Original Divine Principle lecture workbook. Every day I worked through one or two deepest questions before doing my homework, eating dinner and going to sleep. I also taught 4th and 5th grade Sunday school at the First Baptist Church in Glens Falls, NY.
Again the experiences of Jesus, Padma Sambhava, Tibet’s Great Yogi Milarepa etc. are well and good, but cannot substitute for experiences that I have myself. Therefore I came home every day and before doing anything else, I went up to my room, wrote down my deepest question and prayed and meditated about it until I got the answer, which I also of course wrote down.
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In my opinion, Hyung Jin Nim has a long way to go to understand Father’s teaching, or so it appears from this talk posted earlier. My only interaction with him was at his Meditation Retreat that he held at UTS a few years ago, during which he and I had a 45 minute talk. A month or so later as I was meditating, I had a vision of him in which he was realizing that I knew more about meditation than he, and that he would like to meet me again sometime, when he makes more of himself. Then behind him was the big vision of Father who was smiling with a big smile, meaning that this is exactly the situation.
But how can it be that I understand more about meditation than Hyung Jin Nim does? Because I learned “the original method of Buddha” before joining the UC at 19 in 1974, and then practiced this method centering on True Parents ever since then.
And what evidence is there that this was the original method of Buddha? Let me tell you a story . . .
In 1994 or so, the Chang’s were put in charge of the Flushing, Queens, NY church on Ash Ave. That would be Rev. Jonathan and Ella Chang. Rev. Chang was letting my spiritual son, Stephen Peets, teach a beginning parapsychology class as an evening program once a week. He went out on the street and got 5 or 6 people to come every week. The Chang’s also participated.
Rev. Chang also let me do an evening yoga and mediation program once a week. Usually just a few church members particpated, including the Changs. One night at the beginning of the meditation I was inspired to say, “Let’s do this 15 minutes of meditation to liberate John the Baptist.” After the meditation I felt that John the Baptist was more liberated and I said, “From this point, I feel that John the Baptist groups will be able to more easily work with us.” But who was I to say such a thing? Absolutely nobody of any importance, or so it would appear. Rev. Chang couldn’t help but smirk and ask, “How can you say such a thing?”
Just at that moment the phone rang. A Korean Buddhist who had never been to the Unification Church wanted to come over. About 5 or 10 minutes later he walked in the door and stayed for about 5 minutes. Upon leaving he touched my chest above my heart with his index finger and looking at Rev Chang who was also right there one foot away, he said, “Peter has a pure heart.” and he left.
The next Sunday at Sunday Service, Rev. Chang announced at the end, “Peter has a very good method of meditation. Everyone should learn it from him.” But as I expected, absolutely no one even inquired. It’s not for everyone, and some members already do it anyway without calling it meditation.
Later True Mother asked Rev. Chang to attend UTS. Then perhaps it was before he finished UTS, Father assigned Rev. Chang to go back to Taiwan to be in charge of a Buddhist group that accepted Father as the Second Coming of Buddha.
So while Hyung Jin Nim is all excited about Buddhism, he in fact has taken a very long time to come to realize how his own Father is the Second Coming of Buddha, and perhaps has something to learn along that line of interest from members. And perhaps I am one of those members.
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Don’t ever think that what you feel and think cannot significantly impact God’s providence.
I was reading Book 8 Chapter 2 Quote 5 and immediately recognized from these 50 words that I was at the speech in 1994 at Belvedere at which Father spoke them:
[CSG 8:2:5]
“It is wise to seek the most demanding and austere religion in history. Religious life consists of the conscience occupying the body like a torturer, shouting, ‘You depraved body, you depraved body,’ pummeling the fleshly desires in extinction, never to rise again. Our mind has to torture our body.”
At this speech Father spoke about the American Indians having the right idea to torture their bodies and that hardly anybody ever does it enough. I felt that Father was challenging me to do a 7 day fast, and so I consulted with my church director in Queens, NYCity, at the time, Rev. Jonathan Chang (1800 couple, wife Ella Chang, now in Taiwan) and he okayed it, with my stated purpose” to indemnify all Foundation of Faith / Symbolic Offering failures in history.”
More from:
THE IDEAL FAMILY IS THE BASE FOR PEACE AND UNIFICATION
July 24, 1994
Belvedere, International Training Center
Translator – Sang Kil Han
“Our body is always dragging our mind; how miserable it is. You must understand that our body makes our conscience cry and feel terrible. But God cares more about our spirit and mind than our body, because He knows that our mind lives forever, whereas our body will perish eventually. Therefore, body is less important than our mind. Do you really understand and agree with this? (Yes!) When your mouth is longing for good food, your conscience will force bad food into your mouth. Eating that bad food you can feel happy to have won over the temptation of the body and Satan will feel it is no fun to live in that body. We have to follow the religion that tortures the body and is never complacent. We should use the steel rod of the conscience to barbecue that body and eat it up. (Laughter.)
Every single part of the body is on the side of the body, not on the side of the mind. Your eyes, your ears, your nose, your mouth, even your sexual organ. Father wants to insist that your bodily parts are on the side of the mind. (NO.) You are clear about that. The root of this problem is 6000 biblical years deep. In order to pull this root out is not easy. To pull out the false life, love and lineage, we must replace that and graft into the true life, true love and true lineage of True Parents. We have to implant our true love deeper than the depth of the false love. Now you have witnessed the complete expulsion of Satan. Where is he able to remain now if the root is pulled out? It is not difficult to understand that the religion is needed which urges us towards complete penance. The American Indians tortured themselves in order to reach the spirit. Religion regards that kind of torture, that kind of penance, as virtuous. Your mind must act from this point very briskly. Your mind will become the torture master. You have to torture your body and gain surrender from your body.
Each one of your senses must go through a tremendous revolution. They need to become new sense organs. From this time on your eyes are welcome to view anything because you see with original eyes, from God’s eyes. Now you touch, smell, feel and see everything as God does. Many people try this little by little, but never enough. From now on, we must become confident that we can achieve this. The most formidable of all is the sexual organ, because that drive is the most compelling drive in the human being. In the religious life, you are not blamed so much for eating too much, but making a mistake sexually is almost not reparable. This free sex that we see in the world today is an expansionism of hell. Hell wants to expand more and more and this is about the last stage of expansion. This is hell on earth. We have to uproot that false lineage and implant the true lineage. You wait and see when you go to the spiritual world. Don’t doubt it, it is exactly this way. Therefore, religions encourage fasting, humility and service to others. All these things the body hates the most. Many people do seventy or eighty percent. This is never enough; soon you will fall back again. Therefore you have to accomplish this 100 percent.”
http://www.unification.net/1994/940724.html
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After that 7 day fast I got a new insight about Foundation of Faith / Symbolic Offerings throughout the Old and New Testaments, including Christian history up through the present day in America, and that the problem is that God cannot claim ownership of “our stuff,” which includes our physical bodies as representative of Things of Creation (through which as God’s Hyung Sang, God wants to have Dominion over Things of Creation).
Rev. Chang asked me to give the next Sunday Sermon and as I was studying for it along the lines of my insight, I realized the parallel between King Saul and his son Jonathan with Abraham and his son Isaac. It was like discovering a missing page of Divine Principle, and is more Biblical evidence supporting the Truth of Divine Principle, with the difference being that King Saul and Jonathan failed in the offering rather than succeeded – and thus the reason for the change of lineage from Jonathan to David as the second King of Israel.
After giving this sermon, a Japanese brother walked up to me and said that for the first time he understood what the Old Testament stories have to do with modern day America.
Also after this sermon, Rev. Chang explained to me that I had just answered the question that he had been praying about for 7 years, namely why in the Old Testament, Jonathan was such a good guy – but why did he have to die the way he did?. For this reason, Rev. Chang had taken the English name of Jonathan when he had come to America 7 years earlier.
http://tparents.org/Library/Unification/Talks/Nordquist/Nordquist-941102.htm
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Problems of the world are all solved in an orderly fashion known as Divine Principle. Draw three perpendicular lines, the first vertical, the second horizontal, and the third perpendicular to the first two, representing the children line of front and back or brothers and sisters. Thus we have the world as an expression of the cosmic family, which in oriental philosophy is represented by the 8 trigrams. The point where they meet in the middle is the invisible point of Love, Life, Lineage and Conscience.
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A Book About the Kingdom of Heaven . . . It starts by pushing the G4 key. That’s the time/space key.
Let’s start by quoting Jesus who said in John 14:6 “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life and nobody comes to the Father but by me.”
This does not mean however, that this is only a Christian book. since everyone will eventually end up in Heaven, including people whom God inspired who shared their inspirations with others throughout history.
Let’s take a walk along that Way that Jesus embodied. Let’s share the Way of Jesus.
The Way is Love, but it’s more meaningful for people to find that out for themselves.
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Quotes About Conscience From Father
Sun Myung Moon
Compiled by Peter Nordquist
September 5, 2000
The True Family and I – South American Address Given in 16 Countries
June 1995 – July 1995
Rev. Sun Myung Moon
Ladies and Gentlemen:
The fact that the physical body leads the conscience shows us that the problem stems from the moment of the fall.
The force of false love, which tied the first ancestors to Satan, was stronger than the force of the conscience. God who knows very well the situation of human beings cannot abandon fallen humanity. Instead he must establish a strategy to weaken the body-centered force which dominates our conscience …
Therefore, to strengthen the power of conscience, we must dominate the body. We must liberate our conscience, so that it can lead our body with will. We can then return to the bosom of God’s love as original beings free from sin.
Reverend Sun Myung Moon
Parents’ Day Address
April 15, 1991
World Mission Center in New York City
Translator Dr. Bo Hi Pak
So there is God. Let’s say that God is almighty. If almighty God is thinking eternal lasting peace and happiness, He must have devised something other than those items. He must be thinking much more deeply about something that will not endanger or threaten human tranquility and life. What is the most precious thing in human history? Conscience is the most precious, because conscience is the origin of life. Centered upon conscience we can talk about love; and a new element of love comes in.
Throughout history, conscience is also connected to the lineage. Conscience is such a precious treasure for human lives. The conscience is invisible. You have life don’t you? (Yes!) Is it your life? Or whose life is it? (God’s) Universal life or your own private life, what do you think? (Universal). Your mind and body, especially your conscience, belongs to the universe; because it is coming from within the root in the universe it is sharing the root. You ask your conscience, “What kind of ancestor would you like to have? Would you like to have your own father and grandfather, or country or nation and tribe that kind of ancestor would you like to have? Or would like to have a universal ancestor?” Your conscience would respond, “Universal, absolutely. Why don’t I belong to the universe and a universal being?” …
Then what? What is number two then? I don’t know; I’m asking you. I want to hear your answer. What is number two? Number two is love. Conscience is number one, love is number two. The next most important element is love; but love and conscience are virtually one, because conscience exists in love and love exists in conscience. They are working together in one harmony, trying to be number one. Do you know how much love you need? Can you see love? Let me see your love. No one can see the love reality. Love action is a phenomenon. The essence of love cannot be seen; only love can be identified through the phenomenon. It appears through certain loving action. Through action, love can be manifested. …
We came to the conclusion therefore that the root of conscience is Almighty God and that conscience’s goal is love. Love will create all kinds of harmony, all kinds of beauty, all kinds of goodness, all kinds of happiness. Love is so flexible that it can turn and bring the front and rear into one, left and right into one, up and down into one, it’s almost like Disneyland. There is so much turning, riding, going in all kinds of directions with everybody riding in and enjoying the many different kinds of rides. Conscience and love are like that. A roller coaster goes up to the top of the hill and then starts to go down, with everybody screaming and screaming together.
Reverend Sun Myung Moon
March 1, 1981
Belvedere
Translator – Bo Hi Pak
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.
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