The Way For Students

by Rev. Sun Myung Moon

If we ask ourselves what the universe is, we realize that all the things of creation are all educational materials to enable God's beloved sons and daughters to discover the ideal of love. All these things, therefore, are reciprocal constructs. Even minerals function in subject and object relationships. Aren't even atoms like that? They are things in which protons and electrons function in the relationship of subject and object. If they did not function in this way, they could not continue to exist. Without movement, there could be no eternal existence. That is why the universe may be described as the world that has been created centering on humankind in order to arrive at this central point. (137-59)

What is the universe? It is like the one body of God. It is like God's visible body. This kind of logic comes into being here. It is God's other self. Because of this, a concept that I can truly love has come into being. It is loving the universe in a realistic way. Shall I stroke everyone's head like this? If there is something on my clothes, I brush it off, don't I? Why do I do that? Because the clothes are mine. Because they are together with me. It is this kind of concept. Do you understand?

What do all of you have to do in the future? You have to attend God in the center of your heart and become one with God's heart, one with God's body, and one with all the things of creation. You have to accomplish this kind of world of unity. (86-174)

Just how big is this universe? It is at least twenty billion light-years across. Light travels 300,000 kilometers in one second. How far then is 300,000 kilometers? It is the same distance as if you went seven and a half times around the world. In astronomy the distance that light, which travels that far in one second, traverses in one year is known as a "light-year." Based on this unit of calculation, even though light may travel for several hundred million years, it could still not arrive at the end of the universe. The universe is that big. Do you understand? (127-216)

Until recently stars at a distance of 10 billion light-years had all been discovered at Greenwich Observatory, but now the age when we are able to see stars at a distance of 15 billion light-years has arrived, and we are entering the age when we will be able to see stars at an even greater distance. So how big is this universe? What did I just say? Ten billion, roughly speaking. Well, that is also a principled number, but actually it is as big as 21 billion light-years.

So what does that mean? If light travels from here, what should we call the distance it travels in one day? In one day? Hmm? "The distance it travels in one year is called a light-year." Ah, so what should we call the distance it travels in a day? It's not a light-year. What do we call the distance traveled in a day? One what? One light-day. In a month one what? "One light-month." I don't know. It's too complicated. You work it out. This thing sets off and travels 3 billion meters in a second. The speed of light and electricity is the same. It travels 3 billion meters. In terms of distance, that is the same as seven and a half times around the world. A distance seven and a half times as much as the circumference of the world. In a flash it's already gone seven and a half times around the world.

If we were to travel as far as light travels even in one day, our backs would be bent over and we would be completely senile. It would not just take one hundred years, so how many ten thousand times one hundred would it be? How many ten thousand times a hundred? Ten million times a hundred is a hundred million. Is that right? Is it ten million times? It's one million times a hundred. One hundred million light years is like one million people all living to the age of one hundred. One hundred million light-years is like one hundred people being born and all living to be one hundred years old one after another. Even after one million people had died, the light would keep on going.

In that case how much is twenty-one billion light years? How many times one hundred people? Hmm? Two thousand? Two hundred million? Is that right? Two hundred and one million? Two hundred and one million; how many people is that? Hmm? Oh, I don't know. All of you work it out. If those people lived and died one after another, each one living to be a hundred years old, even after two hundred and one million people had lived and died the light would still keep on going. That long distance is not a straight line. It goes round and round in a circle. It is this kind of a universe. Do you all need money? Those of you who need diamonds put your hands up. Hmm?

Let's try and think about this. This huge amount of people is in front of me people, but even after they have all died, the light keeps on going. How far would that distance be? How far is that? That distance is so far that even if you lived several thousand years, several ten thousand years, then died and were resurrected you still could not cover it. It is that kind of world. It is not moving without a purpose. Everything centers on reciprocal relationships of giving and receiving. Even our cells function in that way. According to communist ideology all this just happened of its own accord. (181-195)

The perfection of the universe -- the words "perfection of the universe" are easy to say, but what on earth is the perfection of the universe?

In order for the universe to be perfected, I must be perfected. No matter how perfect the universe may be, if I am not perfect, it is of no consequence. We all know that no matter how good the world is, no matter how much the external world is happy and dances about, if you yourself are overwhelmed with suffering in the present, then even if you go out into that rejoicing environment of the external world, it has no relationship with you.

Concerning the perfection of the universe, even though the external world may rejoice, the internal world of my own self must also rejoice. To rejoice, both my mind and my body must rejoice. If I look at my cells, they are all rejoicing. The cells of the eye and the cells of the sole of the foot are different, aren't they? But even though they are different, those cells are all rejoicing. So are the cells of the hand and all the other cells. The perfection of the universe comes about when we have a world in which we can feel the joy of love, resonating centered on the mind and body, not isolated but united into one, with neither one being left out, and both being able to rejoice. (166-210)