Tradition contains the accumulated Wisdom of the generations. It is bequeathed through the study of history, and the recitation of proverbs and folklore, in public ceremonies and at home.
Some of its best teaching material consists of the lives of great men and women, as well as ordinary citizens who lived lives of exemplary goodness and self-sacrifice.
Tradition can be difficult to find in today’s culture of celebrity and instant fame, yet its importance can hardly be overlooked. Family lies at the heart of tradition.
Parents pass on their values and morals to their children through teaching and example. Good parents encourage their children to keep their ways and even surpass them. A stable family structure maintains and strengthens tradition, passing on its wisdom to succeeding generations.
Tradition endures. Akan Proverb (African Traditional Religions)
Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it,) and find rest for your souls. Jeremiah 6.16
Taming Power of the Great: The superior man acquaints himself with many sayings of antiquity and many deeds of the past, to strengthen his character thereby. I Ching 26 (Confucianism)
The teachers… put into his hands the works of great poets, and make him read and learn them by heart, sitting on his bench at school. These are full of instruction and of tales and praises of famous men of old, and the aim is that the boy may admire and imitate and be eager to become like them. Plato, Protagoras 325e (Hellenism)
On Thee alone we ever meditate, And ponder over the teachings of the loving mind, As well as the acts of the holy men, Whose souls accord most perfectly with truth. Avesta, Yasna 34.2 (Zoroastrianism)
The virtues of what the ancients had to say, Akan Proverb (African Traditional Religions) when perfectly digested and thoroughly penetrated, will all be useful for self-cultivation, and they can daily be put into practice and carried out thoroughly and steadfastly. Chu Hsi (Confucianism)
Without proverbs [traditional wisdom], the language would be but a skeleton without flesh, a body without a soul. Zulu Proverb (African Traditional Religions)
Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings so that you shall come easily by what others have labored hard for. Socrates (Hellenism)
If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants. Isaac Newton
He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children; that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments. Psalm 78.5-7
Hear, O sons, a father’s instruction, and be attentive, that you may gain insight; for I give you good precepts: do not forsake my teaching. When I was a son with my father, tender, the only one in the sight of my mother, he taught me, and said to me, “Let your heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments, and live; do not forget and do not turn away from the words of my mouth. Get wisdom; get insight. Do not forsake her, and she will keep you; love her, and she will guard you.” Proverbs 4.1-6
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
Goodness is not realized instantly. If we are to be good people, we have to inherit from the past. This is why we need education. We need to go to a school and learn.
What should we learn?
Throughout history, those who have sacrificed to pave the way for goodness did not have an easy life. We should inherit the spirit of those who made sacrifices in the past. (50:101, November 6, 1971)
For a nation to prosper, it should preserve the inheritance of history. Young children absorb stories from the elderly and enjoy folktales. Like the new buds that receive sap from the tree, children should inherit all the historical essence of their culture.
Though children may be crying with runny noses, if you say you will tell them a fairy tale, they immediately stop crying and wait for the story to begin. They truly enjoy listening to it. Why? It is because they desire to inherit history. It is a principle of heaven and earth. (28:188, January 11, 1970)
What should each nation’s history textbook contain to properly educate its citizens? It should gather accounts of the lives of those citizens who sacrificed the most for their nation.
The people discussed in the textbook should be the rulers and good people who sacrificed and suffered for the sake of the people. Among them should be some who gave their lives. (65:216, November 19, 1972)
There are many traditions that bind together families and nations, but only a tradition based on love can unite them eternally. It can even unite the world. What kind of love? It must be a love that longs for eternity. In the family, this is none other than parental love.
Parental love is not the love of the moment. It becomes an eternal inheritance of children, from generation to generation. Don’t parents want to pass on their tradition completely and see it develop? Hence when parents educate their children, they tell them, “You should be better than me.”
They say, “Become a better person! You should be better than me in at least one thing.” Parents even compel their children to strive in this way, and there is nothing wrong in it.
They constantly pay attention to their children and encourage them to fulfill that expectation. They do not let their children do whatever they please. Not at all! They push them to go in directions not of their own choosing, for their benefit.
They make sacrifices for them so that their children will turn out to be better than they are. (95:49, October 23, 1977)
You are inheriting as a gift all the foundations I have fought to establish throughout my life. However, that is not enough. You should inherit my tradition of practice. You should inherit my way of dying and living as your tradition. Not only that, you should also teach this tradition to others.
Teach it to your children, your husbands, and your wives. For example, it is my tradition that husbands and wives should respect and praise each other, saying, “My husband is a great person; my wife is a great person.” A married couple that practices this tradition will educate their children to do the same. (113:303-04, May 10, 1981)
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