01Parents’ love is the love of the essence
Children are the fruit of their mother and father’s love and the result of their investment. They are the extension of their mother and father’s life and the realization of their mother and father’s ideal. Those who have had children and given their love to them will know. This is why they say about their beloved sons, “This is the substance of my love, the extension of my life, and the realization of my ideals – my second self.”
Since children are born on the foundation of love, life and ideals, the more their parents see them, the more adorable they become, the more their lives are filled with vitality, and the more they appear as ideal partners. (69-78, 10/20/1973)
Can parents change? You should know that, through the ages of history, there has been no time when parents’ love was revolutionized. This means that no matter how many revolutions occur, love has to continue eternally because love is not something that can be revolutionized. Such parents, as subject partners of such love, need you absolutely. They need you uniquely, need you unchangingly, and need you eternally. (74-18, 11/10/1974)
Why do children long for their parents? It is because their house of love is there. (137-140, 01/01/1986)
Why do we respect parents’ love? It is because they sacrifice without expecting anything. They do not want any return from it. They are satisfied with loving, and happy just with that. They are happy just with giving. Receiving everything does not always make you happy. One who gives has more blessing than one who receives. Why is he blessed? It is because he can represent God’s side. (46-35, 07/18/1971)
Parents’ love towards their children is not merely love based on ordinary reality but a love that comes from their bone marrow. They cannot forget, even if they try, and they cannot sever it even if they try; such is the heart of love parents possess. When they feel that they have a connection of life with their children, parents naturally develop a loving heart toward them. (32-14, 06/14/1970)
What is true love? It is a love that lives for the sake of others; it gives and just forgets about it. It does not bother to remember having given. Moreover, it does not become exhausted no matter how much it gives. When parents say to their seventy-year-old son, “Now watch so you don’t get hit by a car!” the son does not feel awkward, nor does he get tired of hearing it, although it has been repeated countless times. If parents are like this even in the fallen world, will people get tired when they give and receive God’s love in the original world? (North South Unification from the Viewpoint of God’s Will-103, 01/28/1986)
In loving their children, parents do not assert themselves but love the children selflessly. Parents do not always love their children in a grand way based on their authority. (59-298, 07/30/1972)
Although parents may sacrifice themselves, they want their children to grow up as wonderful people. Parents are unchanging masters of love. Parents have an unchanging heart towards their children, although the children may do all kinds of unusual things. So the unchanging love of parents is precious. (141-241, 02/26/1986)
Even when parents suffer for their beloved children to the extent that their bones melt away, they do not feel the hardship. Why? It is because they love their children. Do they cut out and give their flesh and blood and then record how much it costs in a notebook? No. Rather, they are anxious and regretful that they cannot give everything. (39-334, 01/16/1971)
What is the parent-child relationship? What kind of relationship is there centering on love? In the parent-child relationship, if the parents’ love is the cause, the children are the fruit and result of love; this is how I see it. The result and the cause did not begin separately but in the same place. What does it mean to say that the love of your parents is the cause and you have appeared as its result? It means that you have come as the result of your parents’ love in the present. So the children, in the parent-child relationship, have been born in equal positions of the cause and result that are one in love. (127-13, 05/01/1983)
The parent-child relationship represents the vertical aspect. Thus, the love in the parent-child relationship cannot change. This has been the case throughout history, hasn’t it? Conjugal love possesses four directions because it is connected with the horizontal aspect. Thus, parents cannot forsake their children, nor can children forsake their parents. (145-274, 05/25/1986)
The joy with which the children relate to their parents should really be a joy that represents the world, and the joy with which the parents relate to their children should be a joy that can satisfy the desire that represents the world. The parent-child relationship really must be the fundamental root of the universe. We can conclude that the fundamental root of joy begins from there, and if sorrow has a beginning, there is no place that is more sorrowful than this. (62-17, 09/10/1972)
What is the parent-child relationship based on? It is blood ties. The word “father” involves love and lineage. To be children of direct lineage, you should be one body in love. You should be connected through lineage. Blood creates life. It possesses the life that has inherited its parents’ traditions. Through what? Through love. (142-266, 03/13/1986)
Where were we born? We were born in a place where our parents’ love blossomed like a flower of great beauty. This flower blossomed beautifully, and, what’s more, it had a fragrance; it blossomed as a perfect flower whose fragrance was loved by the mothers, fathers, God, and even the whole universe. We were born in the middle of this.
Children are planted as seeds in a place of joy, a place where their mothers and fathers born as men and women encapsulating the universe made their love blossom. (83-162, 02/08/1976)
Who are you? You are ones who have participated together in the fundamental root of the beginning of your parents’ love. This relationship cannot be severed because the cause and result started in one place. The source of parents’ love, which is the cause, and the love you have in your life, which is the result, are one. In this sense, it is possible to say that a parent and a child are one body.
Without love we cannot talk about one body or oneness. We receive our parents’ love from the time we are in the womb. The love and all the attention of our parents should be focused on us from the moment our mothers become pregnant with us through the essence of love. Why is that? Because we are the fruit of love. So we were born in love and receive a connection of life through love; when we grow up in love and reach the time when we can meet our partner, we receive our partner. (127-13, 05/01/1983)
Nothing can destroy the parent-child relationship. It cannot be destroyed even by an atomic bomb. It can never be destroyed, broken, or abandoned. (21-68, 09/09/1968)
The parent-child relationship cannot be severed no matter how hard you try. That is because it is your children who have the nature of a subject in your love and life. If you cut that off, you come to stand in a position of denying yourself and denying your life; hence, you cannot deny the fruit of love. This brings us to the conclusion that parents can abandon their own lives for the sake of their children. (83-161, 02/08/1976)
Regardless of how happily a husband and wife live together and love each other, which would be the happy couple, one without children or one with children? A couple without children is an as yet unfinished work, an incomplete couple. Is this so or not? (92-218, 04/17/1977)
There is no principle that strikes parents who love their children. They cannot be hit. The universe naturally protects them. You need to know this. A place where loving parents embrace their loving children and rejoice cannot be attacked by the principles of the universe; rather, it receives its natural protection. People have not known this. (130151, 1984.1.8) (130-151, 01/08/1984)
When a child becomes sick or crippled, is it natural that the noble, deep heart of his parents flows to this crippled child. Is this wrong? The heart of such a handicapped person is like a valley, and the heart of the parents like a big area on the hilltop. The heart of such parents flows from the top to that deep valley. (147-165, 09/07/1986)
There is nothing bad in the heart of parents who live for the sake of their children. The more worn out their clothes, the more miserable their situation, the further they dig into the deep valley of tears. (173-262, 02/21/1988)
Ladies and gentlemen, what would happen if a baby were to be ashamed of taking a poop? He does not feel ashamed even after taking a poop or peeing on the floor; rather, he even smiles openly watching his mother clean up after him. This is possible only with love. In love, there is nothing dirty. Love can overcome everything. (116-84, 12/20/1981)
A mother breastfeeding and raising her baby in her bosom has an earnest heart. The parents’ heart is such that even when their child poops and pees and makes a smell, they forget about these instances because of their love. When such is the heart of even fallen parents toward their children, how much more eager the heart of God must have been, who, as the subject partner of love, wanted to love Adam and Eve through the original heart? We should think about this deeply once more. (20-209, 06/09/1968)
The heart of parents is that they feel as if something is lacking, even after they have given. They want to love more, wondering if they have loved enough even after loving, and feel regretful and sorry after giving. Because this is the case, that heart can be part of the essential core of eternal love. This is the original motivation at the beginning of love. (60-82, 08/06/1972)
When parents divorce, this is like cutting their children in half with a knife. The public law of the universe does not allow this. Parents who violate this will receive punishment and be followed by misfortune wherever they go, unable to find happiness. (298-300, 01/17/1999)
When a baby becomes hungry, its mother’s breasts become swollen with milk. When the milk swells them up and the breasts begin to hurt, there is abundant pressure. The heart of a mother embracing her child and giving him her milk is difficult to express in words. When the swollen breasts go down, the mother feels relieved and happy. No one can understand this feeling unless she is a mother. Moreover, as a mother watches her baby suck her breast while touching it, love springs up abundantly in her heart. (187-99, 01/06/1989)
If you were to ask a mother with a child whom she would rather lose, her husband or her child, if she really loves her child she would say that she would never give up her child but would give up her husband if she had to. Husbands may be sorry to hear this! These days, ordinary people say, “Well, if your child dies you can have another one, can’t you?” However, this is a last option. When we probe into the principle of matters of order, we see that the husband and wife are horizontal and come last. The history of love is like this. (48-212, 09/19/1971)
What on earth is original love? It is the love by which parents can give their life for their child. Their love goes beyond their own life. Why must this be so? Originally, the universe was not created for the sake of life. Because it was created for the sake of love, it is love that comes first. Thus, it is rather that life goes along with love, and not that love goes along with life. Thus, genuine love acts by sacrificing life and by going beyond life. You should know that this is the love of Heaven, a love that can connect with the universe. (132-152, 05/31/1984)
Consider the life of the salmon. The salmon dies after laying its eggs. Nevertheless, the male and female salmon become one in laying their eggs… This means that salmon couples are deeply in love, as if they have been sentenced to die. When the female fish lays her eggs, the male makes a hole in the ground and protects them there. This is truly an ideal couple. After laying their eggs, they die. To see the various situations of male and female salmon dying is very shocking. In so doing, the body of the mother becomes food for her young. (128-260, 08/28/1983)
If there is a Creator, why do you think He created the salmon in this way? Seeing this, we can grasp how important our young are, and how important love is. It is most natural to say that God created the salmon as a model to show that love, and our young, are the most precious things. The life of the salmon is truly an amazing textbook for humankind. (128-260, 08/28/1983)
02Parents’ love is complete even after being shared over and over again
Why is it that we love our children? Why is it that we cannot help loving them? It is because loving our children is like inheriting God’s great work of creation on the horizontal, substantial level. We are feeling the joy God felt after creating Adam and Eve. We are inheriting God’s love and God’s authority to create. (76-45, 01/26/1975)
Although people may not understand this, parents who have raised many children can see that their heart of love is wide, large, and deep. People who have raised many children can feel on their own that they cannot strike even their wicked enemies. They are standing on that broad a foundation and living according to that broad a law. (51-318, 12/05/1971)
When an infant is born, he follows the electric current of love and automatically seeks out a nipple. It does not matter whether she is ugly or beautiful – she just has to be his mother. This is indeed a sight of unmatched harmony and holiness. (298-304, 01/17/1999)
People are born in love and grow up while receiving love. Each of us is the fruit of our parents’ love. You are the visible, real fruit of what your mother and father’s love is like. Parents have to love the person who is the fruit of their love. Through this fruit the infinite love bears fruit yet again. Here is the path whereby we can be connected to individual love, family love, tribal love, global love, universal love, and even to the fundamental love of God. (126-245, 04/24/1983)
You are a unique participant and companion in love in front of your parents. With love, you can be equal to your mother and father and rise to an equal position. This is a privilege of love. Parents want to bequeath everything they own to their sons and daughters, whom they truly love. To inherit the universe, you can jump in and inherit a hundred percent when you have found an equal position of value of love in the tradition of love. This is why parents want to have children of filial piety. Children of filial piety pass on the inheritance of love as participants in the eternal love of their parents. (140-233, 02/12/1986)
A baby, who is born through love, can do whatever he likes, and you do not dislike him; rather, you like him no matter what. This is because the baby is made from your flesh and blood, and is a second you, created through love. So whether he defecates, or urinates, or has a runny nose, he is cute and adorable. This is because these things are soaked in love. (Blessed Family-887)
The love between the parents and children comes from the parents. We receive our parents’ love from the moment of birth. We receive parents’ love and grow up, and then engage in the horizontal love between husband and wife; in order for the love of the husband and wife to continue, they must have children and love them. The parents can feel genuine love only when they have children. The love of brothers and sisters alone cannot tell us what parents’ love is. In other words, we can come to know that love only when we have experienced the circular course starting from your parents and completing the circle by becoming a parent ourselves. (66-119, 04/18/1973)
To each of us, the love string of our mother, our parents, and the string of our ideals are connected, and this cannot be cut off by anyone. Rather, all the power of the universe is protecting it. Thus, wherever I go, my parents will follow me. My parents always want to be with me, even in the spirit world. Thus, it is a sin to dislike your parents accompanying you. Hence, you should know that thinking of and loving our parents like they are our own body and practicing filial piety has the highest value for human beings. (298-300, 01/17/1999)
It is from our parents’ love that we were born. We were born by being engrafted to our parents’ love. Before the connections of life and of lineage are made, through love, the connections of lineage and the connections of life are in place. Why is it that each individual is so precious? Each person is not precious just because he has life, but because he has participated together in his parents’ love. It is parents who have loved, but it is the individual that is the fruit of their love. Each one is precious because he is born having both the beginning point and the fruit. (140-233, 02/12/1986)
Genuine parents will strive to continue the tradition of love. This is the same for Orientals and for Westerners. All parents try to establish the universal tradition of love by transcending their own tribe. People, whoever they are, try to bring together their family in completeness and harmony and live a happy and peaceful life. Regardless of whether one is from the East or the West, everyone thirsts after such a life. In this case tradition is the essence. This is because only tradition is connected with the future. (Tongil Segye 1978-11)
Which is greater, conjugal love or the love between parents and child? Western people think that conjugal love is greater. But that is not so. Love for a child is greater than the love between husband and wife. In conjugal love, the husband and wife fight because they think the other does not love them, but parents and children fight, thinking they must love the other more. This is because the love of parents and child is the center and vertical, and follows the road that is close to the heavenly law. Thus, we find that the love that serves others is closer to genuine love. However strong a man may be, and however tough a woman may be, they will bow down to that love. (90-84, 12/19/1976)
The reason parents are precious is that they give for the sake of their children. So things come to be the other way around: when the parents get old, they become children. Long before, the parents were their children’s teachers, but as they become seventy and eighty years old, they become like children. At that time, the child takes the place of the father or mother. The child should love his parents just as they raised him. This is the principle of heaven and earth. (137-95, 12/24/1985)
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