AS A PEACE-LOVING GLOBAL CITIZEN

R E V E R E N D  S U N  M Y U N G  M O O N

Excerpts from the 2009 English language edition

AS A PEACE-LOVING GLOBAL CITIZEN

REVEREND  SUN  MYUNG  MOON

Introduction to this booklet of excerpts from the English language edition, published in the USA

The autobiography of Reverend Sun Myung Moon, known to many UPF Ambassadors for Peace as Father Moon, and to his religious followers as True Father, and with his wife Hak Ja Han Moon as True Parents, was published in Korea in March 2009, by the well-known and highly respected Gimm-Young Publishers, consider by many to be the premier Korean publishing house. The female president took note of Rev. Moon’s contributions to world peace when she was studying in the US in the early 90’s. She says she realized that the bad publicity surrounding Rev. Moon's work was based on disinformation and prejudice. It is then that the idea of publishing an objective book about Rev. Moon entered her mind.

The president herself is a devout Buddhist. People close to her say that before coming to the decision to accept a book for publication the president does serious soul-searching by visiting the temple and asking Buddha whether this is the right course of action. In the case with Rev. Moon’s biography, she reportedly received the inspiration that this was a good and special book and that, yes, she should publish it.

The company is well-known in Korea for producing numerous bestsellers covering wide range of topics including those on historical and contemporary Christian figures. Some have even jokingly called it a “Christian publisher.” The company, however, states that its main purpose is to enlighten Korean society and in, this particular case, those under the spell of religious bigotry. Accordingly, this book, as others put out by GimmYoungSa, should be viewed as a contribution toward the creation of a fairer and more tolerant society.

The book quickly became a best seller in Korea and later in the year a limited English language edition, from which these excerpts are taken, was published in the United States of America.

The English edition runs to more than 340 pages. Rev. Moon not only recounts many events, but gives new insights into his motives and the reasons for his decisions and actions, from his earliest beginnings to today.

This excerpt contains Rev. Moon's Foreword and two sub-chapters, “The Peaceful Family Is the Building Block of Heaven” and “Dreaming of a Peaceful World”, also the chapter & sub-chapter headings to give some idea of the content. The English language edition, re-edited, for Western readers has been republished, and the book is currently being translated into Dutch. Contact UPF Nederland for more information.

We hope you will find this short excerpt interesting, inspiring and enlightening.

Willem A. Koetsier

Secretary General, Universal Peace Federation Nederland

Foreword

A steady spring rain fell all last night, ending a winter drought. It was so nice to have had the rain that I spent all this morning walking about in the garden. The ground had that fragrant aroma of moist earth I had missed all through the winter, and the weeping willow and cherry trees were showing signs of new spring buds. I felt I could hear the popping sounds of new life sprouting here and there around the garden. Before I knew it, my wife, who had followed me out, was picking young mugwort shoots that had managed to poke their heads up through the dry lawn. The night’s rain had turned the whole world into a fragrant spring garden.

No matter how much commotion there may be in the world, when the calendar turns to March, spring is on its way. The older I become, the more it means to me that in nature spring follows winter and brings with it flowers in full bloom. What am I that God, in each season, allows the flowers to bloom and the snow to fall, so I might know the joy of being alive? Love wells up from within the deepest recesses of my heart, and I am overcome with emotion. I am moved to tears to think that everything of real value has been given to me freely. In my life, I have circled the globe many times over in my efforts to bring about a world of peace, and yet it is here in this garden in spring that I am able to taste real peace. Peace, too, was given to us by God, but we lost it somewhere and now spend our lives looking for it in all the wrong places.

To bring a world of peace, I have spent my life going to the most lowly and secluded places. I met mothers in Africa who could only watch helplessly as their children died of hunger, and I met fathers in South America who lived by a river full of fish but couldn’t support their families by fishing. At first, all I did was simply share my food, but they granted me their love in return. Intoxicated with the power of love I went on to plant seeds and cultivate forests. Together we caught fish to feed hungry children, and these trees were used to build schools. I was happy even as mosquitoes bit me all over as I fished all through the night. Even when I was sinking knee-deep into mud, I was happy because I could see the shadows of despair disappear from the faces of my neighbors.

Seeking the shortest path to a world of peace, I devoted myself to inspiring change in the political process and to changing people’s ways of thinking. I met then-President Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union as part of my effort to bring reconciliation between communism and democracy, and I met then-President Kim Il Sung of North Korea for a serious discussion on how to bring peace to the Korean peninsula. I went to a United States in moral decline and played the role of a fireman responding to a call in an effort to reawaken its Puritan spirit. I dedicated myself to resolving various conflicts in the world. In my work for peace among Muslims and Jews, I was not deterred by rampant terror. As a result of my efforts, thousands have gathered for rallies and peace marches, with Jews, Muslims, and Christians all joining together. Sadly, however, the conflict continues.

I see hope, though, that an age of peace is about to be inaugurated in Korea. The Korean peninsula has been trained through endless suffering and the tragedy of division, and I can feel in every cell of my body that a powerful energy has been stored here and is ready to burst out. In the same way that no one can stop a new season of spring from coming, no human power can stop heavenly fortune from coming to the Korean peninsula and spreading throughout the world. People need to prepare themselves so that they may rise with the tide of heavenly fortune when it arrives.

I am a controversial person. The mere mention of my name causes trouble in the world. I never sought money or fame but have spent my life speaking only of peace. The world, though, has associated many different phrases with my name, rejected me, and thrown stones at me. Many are not interested in knowing what I say or what I do. They only oppose me.

I have been unjustly imprisoned six times in my life-by imperial Japan, in Kim Il Sung’s North Korea, by South Korea’s Syngman Rhee government, and even in the United States-and at times I was beaten so hard that the flesh was torn from my body. Today, though, not even the slightest wound remains in my heart. Wounds easily disappear in the presence of true love. Even enemies melt away without a trace in the presence of true love. True love is a heart that gives and gives and wants to continuing giving. True love is a love that even forgets that it already gave love and gives love again. I have lived my entire life intoxicated in such love. I wanted nothing aside from love, and I threw my entire being into the effort to share love with my impoverished neighbors. At times, the path of love was so difficult that my knees buckled under me, but even then I felt happy in my heart, dedicated to loving humanity.

Even now, I am filled with love that I have not yet been able to give. It is with a prayer that this love will become a river of peace saturating the drought-stricken land and flowing to the ends of the earth that I now place this book before the world. Recently a growing number of people have been seeking to know more about me. For the sake of those who are curious, I have looked back on my life and recorded my candid recollections in this book. As for the stories that could not be included in this volume, I hope there will be other opportunities for me to convey them.

I send boundless love to all those who have put their faith in me, remained by my side, and lived their lives with me—and especially to my wife, Hak Ja Han Moon, to whom I am deeply grateful for struggling with me to scale the most difficult peaks.

Finally, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Eun Ju Park, president of Gimm-Young Publishers Inc., who poured out much sincerity and dedication in the process of bringing this book to publication, and to everyone in the publishing company who labored in editing the words I spoke so that the often complex content could be easily understood by readers.

Sun Myung Moon,

Cheongpyeong, South Korea, March 1, 2009

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The Peaceful Family Is the Building Block of Heaven

Many Western people live truly lonely lives. Their children leave home once they turn eighteen, and the parents may only get to see their faces at Thanksgiving or Christmas. Many children never visit their parents to just find out how they are doing. Once people marry, they live with their spouse, independent from their family, until their parents become so old they can no longer take care of themselves. At that point, they move into a nursing home. So it is understandable that some Westerners envy the culture of the East. Many elderly people in the West think, “In the East, the grandparents live in the family as the senior members of the family, and it is really wonderful. The children respect their old parents. This is how people are supposed to live. What good is it to be lying in a nursing home, not able to see my children, not even knowing what day it is, just staying alive?”

Unfortunately, though, the Eastern family structure is also gradually deteriorating. We too are abandoning traditions that have been handed down to us for thousands of years. We have thrown away our traditional clothing, our food, and our family structure. The number of senior citizens living alone in Korea is on the rise. Each time I see stories in the news of senior citizens alone, it makes me sad. The family is where generations live together. If family members are scattered and the parents are left alone, then that is no longer a family. The extended family system is a beautiful Korean tradition.

I recommend that three generations live together as one family. I do so, not simply because it is a way of maintaining our country’s tradition. When a husband and wife have a child, they pass on all they can to that child. There is a limit, however, to how much the parents can pass on. The parents represent the present and the children the future. The grandparents represent the past. So it is only when the grandparents, parents, and children live together that the children can inherit all the fortune of the past and present. To love and respect your grandfather is to inherit the history of the past and to learn from the world of the past. The children learn precious wisdom from their parents on how to live in the present, while the parents prepare for the future by loving their children.

The grandfather is in a position to represent God. No matter how intelligent a young man may be, he cannot know all the secrets of this big world. Young people cannot know all the different secrets of life that come to us as we grow older. This is the reason the grandfather represents the history of the family. The grandfather is a precious teacher who passes on to the grandchildren all the wisdom he has acquired through the experiences he has accumulated during the course of his life.

The world’s oldest grandfather is God. So a life of receiving the grandfather’s love and of living for the sake of the grandfather is a life of coming to understand God’s love and of living for His sake. We need to maintain such a tradition in order to open the secret storehouse of God’s Kingdom and receive His treasure of love. Any country that ignores its old people abandons its national character and ignores its roots.

When autumn comes, the chestnut tree gradually loses its moisture, and its leaves begin to fall. The outer shell of the chestnut falls off, and even the inner shell that surrounds the actual nut dries up. This is the cycle of life. Human beings are the same way. We are born as infants, grow up on the love of our parents, meet a wonderful partner, and get married. All this occurs in the chain of life made up of love. In the end, we become like chestnuts becoming dry in the autumn. Old people are not a separate category of people. We all become old. We must not treat old people disrespectfully, no matter how senile they may become. There is a saying, “Anything can be accomplished when there is harmony in the home.” When there is peace in the family, everything goes well. The peaceful family is the building block of the Kingdom of Heaven. The family operates on the power of love. If we love the universe as we love our families, then there is nothing to stop us from going anywhere we want. God exists in the center of love, as the Parent of the entire universe. That is why the love in the family needs to link directly to God. When the family is completed in love, the universe will be completed.

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Dreaming of a Peaceful World

For years I have called for a world where all religions live together as one, all races live as one, and all nations exist as one. For thousands of years history has seen the continuous increase of divisions. Each time a different religion was adopted or a new regime came into power, more boundaries were drawn and wars were fought. Now, however, we live in an age of globalism. For the sake of the future we must become one.

One way I propose to facilitate that is through the International Peace Highway, a huge undertaking. It will link Korea and Japan by an undersea tunnel and create a bridge across the Bering Strait that separates Russia and North America. These great links can unify the world. When the highway is completed it will be possible to travel by car from Africa’s Cape of Good Hope to Santiago, Chile, and from London to New York. There will be no roadblocks; the entire world will be interconnected as if by capillary vessels.

The world will become one integrated community, and everyone will be able to travel freely across international borders. Borders that give free passage to anyone will lose their significance as borders. Something similar will be true for religion. As the frequency of exchanges among religions increases, greater mutual understanding will arise, conflict will disappear, and the walls of separation will crumble. When different types of people live together in a single global community, barriers between races will come down. Interaction between races will occur despite differences in appearance and language. This cultural revolution will bring the world into one.

The Silk Road was not simply a trade route that people used in order to sell silk and buy spices. It was also a vehicle for the peoples of the East and West to meet and for Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity to meet. These different cultures intermingled and gave rise to a new culture. The International Peace Highway will play a similar role in the twentyfirst century.

Rome could thrive because all roads led to Rome. This illustrates the importance of roads. When a road is built, people use it to travel. It is used to transport culture and ideology. That is why when a road is built it changes the course of history. When the International Peace Highway is completed, the world can be physically bound together as one. The road will make this possible. I cannot overemphasize the importance of bringing the world together. Some may think that this is an idea ahead of its time. Religious people, however, foresee the future and prepare for it. So it is only natural that we are ahead of our time. The world may not understand us and may cause us to suffer, but religious believers must persevere to lead the way to the future. Completing the International Peace Highway will require the cooperation of many nations. China, which was a victim of Japanese aggression, may not welcome the idea of being connected to Japan by a highway. Japan and Korea, however, cannot connect to the rest of the world without going through China, so we need to make efforts to win China’s trust. Who will do this? Those of us who will take spiritual ownership over the International Peace Highway in the twenty-first century need to take the lead in this effort.

How about bridging the Bering Strait? It will cost a great deal, but this should not cause concern. The amount of money that the United States has spent in Iraq would be more than enough to build such a bridge. We must stop waging war and forcing people to suffer. It is perverse to start wars and squander hundreds of billions of dollars. The time has come for us to beat our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks.

The International Peace Highway is a project to bring the world together as one. To become one means more than simply connecting continents by tunnels and bridges. It refers to an equalization of the world’s standards of living. When someone monopolizes a technology and keeps the profit for himself, the balance of the world is upset. The International Peace Highway will rearrange the current inequality by creating access to existing natural and human resources. This will bring about a leveling of wealth. Leveling means that a little is taken off places that are high and added to places that are low. As a result, the two have the same height. This will require sacrifice from those with greater material possessions or knowledge. Building a world of peace cannot be done with one-time charitable acts or donations. Only sincere love and continuous sacrifice is capable of creating a world of peace. We must be willing to offer everything.

Building the International Peace Highway does more than just provide the world with a physical means of communication. Human beings are created so that their mind and body become one. Something similar is true for the world we live in. The world can be completely unified only when there is both physical communication and communication of heart.

The United Nations has done much for world peace. More than sixty years after its founding, however, the United Nations is losing sight of its original purpose and is now an organization that works for the interests of a few powerful countries. The U.N. was created to solve the conflicts that arise in the world, so it must put the world’s interests before the interests of one side or the other. It only leads to further conflict when a powerful country insists on its own way and uses force to pursue it. Unfortunately, the U.N. today is unable to do much about such situations.

In this light, I have proposed a restructuring of the United Nations as a bicameral institution. In addition to the General Assembly there would be a religious, or cultural, assembly or council. This body would consist of respected spiritual leaders in fields such as religion, culture, and education. The members of this interreligious assembly would need to demonstrate an ability to transcend the limited interests of particular religions and cultures and to speak for the spiritual and moral purposes of all humanity. I maintain that the two chambers, working together in mutual respect and cooperation, will be able to make great advances in ushering in a world of peace.

Some may oppose this, saying, “Why should religious people become involved in world affairs?” My answer is that the world today is in a period when the participation of religious people is crucial. Those who have achieved deep self-awareness through religious practice are needed now more than ever. It is only truly religious people who can stand up to the unrighteousness and evil of the world and practice true love. It is only when the knowledge and experience of political leaders are combined with the wisdom of interreligious leaders that the world will be able to find the path to true peace.

Again today I set out on my path with renewed determination to achieve that goal. My prayer is that every person on earth will be reborn as a peace-loving global citizen, transcending barriers of religion, ideology, and race.

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CHAPTER HEADINGS

1: Food is Love; What I Learned about Peace While Being Carried on My Father’s Back; The Joy of Giving Food to Others; Being a Friend to All; A Definite Compass for My Life; A Stubborn Child Who Never Gives Up; Loving Nature to Learn from It; Talking about the Universe with the Insects; Ardent Student

2: A River of Heart Flows with Tears; Between Fear and Inspiration; The More It Hurts, the More You Should Love; A Knife Not Sharpened Grows Dull; A Key to Unlock a Great Secret; Like a Fireball Burning Hot; Befriending Laborers by Sharing Their Suffering; The Calm Sea of the Heart; “Please Don’t Die”; A Command That Must Be Obeyed; A Grain of Rice Is Greater Than the Earth; Heungnam Prison in the Snow; U.N. Forces Open the Prison Gate

3: The Man with the Fullest Stomach; “You Are My Spiritual Teacher”; The Crazy, Handsome Man by the Well; A Church with No Denomination; Two Universities Expel Students and Professors; New Buds Grow on Scorched Branches; We Are Trained by Our Wounds; A Sincere Heart Is Most Important

4: Why We Work Globally; Paying the Ultimate Price to Follow God’s Path; Money Earned Honorably, Used Prayerfully; Power of Dance Moves the World; Angels Open a Path through a Dark Forest; World Tour Last Plane to America; Our Future Lies with the Ocean; Reverend Moon, Seed for a New American Revolution; Washington Monument, 1976; Cry Not for Me but for the World; “Why Does My Father Have to Go to Jail?”

5: True Families Create True People; My Wife, Hak Ja Han Moon; An Incomparable Inner Beauty; Promises That Must Never Be Broken; To Love Is to Give and Forget; The Peaceful Family Is the Building Block of Heaven; Ten Years of Tears Melt a Father-in-Law’s Heart; The True Meaning of Marriage; True Love Is Found in True Families; Leaving Behind a Legacy of Love

6: Love Will Bring Unification; The Power of Religion to Turn People to Goodness; The River Does Not Reject the Waters That Flow into It; “Allow Freedom of Religion in the Soviet Union”; Korea’s Unification Will Bring World Unification; My Meeting with President Kim Il Sung; The Land May Be Divided, but Not Its People; Not by Guns or Swords, but by True Love

7: Future of Korea, Future of the World; World Harmony and the Korean Peninsula; From Suffering and Tears to Peace and Love; The Ultimate Purpose of Twenty-first-Century Religion; Cultural Projects Express God’s Creativity; Master of the Seas and the Future of the World; Great Opportunity in the Oceanic Era; A Single Dandelion Is More Precious Than Gold; Solution to Poverty and Hunger; More Than Giving Bread, Teaching How to Make Bread

8: Message for Young People; Find Your Purpose, Change Your Life; Embrace the World; Everything We Have Is Borrowed from Heaven; Happiness Is a Life Lived for Others; Dreaming of a Peaceful World.

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Some testimonies from readers in Korea

“I am a Christian. My church tells me that Rev. Moon is a devil. I love to read GimmYoungSa books. I felt betrayed by the company, asked why did it sell its soul to the devil? Strange… This is the best company in Korea. It published so many Christian books, too. What a contradiction. They say the company spent three years preparing the publication. I had to find out for myself. So I bought the book. I couldn’t stop reading it. Was this stuff true or a fabrication? This is not one man’s life, this is an epic! I felt sorrow, sadness, pride – I was overcome by a whole range of emotions, and I could not lay down the book until I finished it at 4 o’clock in the morning. My conclusion – this man is real. Next question is – who is this man?! Whatever the answer is, everyone who loves peace and wants to do away with prejudice should read this book. I read it again and underlined all the important passages for myself. Who can persevere through so much persecution, prison, torture other than a saint? Thank you GimmYoungSa - I can believe in you again!”

“Once I started reading, I could not stop until I finished it all. It is not your regular page-turner – the book touches the depth of your soul, pierces your heart… I never believed people like Rev. Moon could live in this day and age... His attitude and the scale of things he accomplished go way out of the range of other contemporary outstanding individuals such as Cardinal Kim Su Hwan or monk Seong Cheol. I feel he is the first real, true religious person.”

“This book is going to be a great hit.  After reading this book myself, I went to the room where my middle-school-aged son was busy preparing for his tests. I gave him Rev. Moon’s autobiography and said, “Son, put down your textbooks, this reading comes first!”

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This booklet is excerpted from  AS A PEACE-LOVING GLOBAL CITIZEN by Reverend Sun Myung Moon, translated and produced in the United States of America, by The Washington Times Foundation, Inc., 3600 New York Avenue, NE, Washington, DC 20002

Copyright 2009 by The Washington Times Foundation, Inc.

All rights reserved. Except for use in reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical or otherwise, without the prior written consent of the publisher.

This edition is a limited advance release for presentation and review purposes, and not for commercial distribution or sale. Effort has been made by translators, editors and the producer to accurately represent the Korean edition, but this edition is not considered final.

Original publication was in the Korean language by Gimm-Young Publishers, Inc., Seoul, Korea, March 9, 2009

Thanks to Mission Foundation, Inc. of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, and Gimm-Young Publishers, Inc. for their permission and support of this English edition

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