Rearing Monarchs #18:

Dominion and Creativity, part 2
Unification Thoughts, October 2022

Welcome back
In case you’re joining us for the first time, you might want to take a look at the purpose and focus of this Rearing Monarchs series, of which this article is the 18^th.¹

Where we left off and where we’re going

Last time, we’d started looking at developing the third major area of a child’s education: their capacity to achieve “dominion”, i.e., competence and even excellence in a field where their gift lies.² We’d refreshed our understanding of creativity as a divine gift, then described the visualizing process, and indicated the critical role of education in nurturing and enhancing creativity.

Today, we'll continue looking into our creativity, particularly into how we practice it. Because while it can be used for loving purposes, humanity can clearly twist and abuse our creativity to cause harm.³

This might be a shorter article, focusing on just a single point. That won’t be because there’s a shortage of material, but because the point is an important one for our young ones to start learning early on.

As I’ve mentioned before in this series, our young ones often demonstrate creativity and skill in their different activities. And they often receive recognition for it, which encourages them to do more. But there’s a danger and also an important mindset that not only offsets that danger, but can help them understand the right path to consistently invoke Heaven’s support and blessings on their efforts.

The danger is self-pride, which can lead to over-confidence and egoism, for example. Here’s some wise words of warning on that:

“…Whatever your standing in life, the most important thing is behaving in ways that help other people. It’s the same with music: I am a servant of the music, and that makes me your servant, really. I have the responsibility to do the best I can with the gifts I have. And if I get caught up in ego, I’ll lose everything. It’ll burn. And that’s a guarantee.”

This is of course from an older, experienced person. But he does speak from some pretty bad experiences in youth that actually led to the demise of some other luminaries, both in his and in the following generation.⁴

And the mindset that’s the antidote, we’ll get to shortly. But first…

Something to reflect on

Since our concern is a mindset for our young ones’ creativity, and thought is essential to being creative, it’s worth noting something important about thought itself:

“Originally, human thinking is motivated by heart or love. That is, thinking is for the practice of love.”

• New Essentials of UT, p. 462

Before I read UT, this was an idea that actually had never occurred to me. I just took thought for granted as a mixed blessing: it sometimes gave pleasure, but it also often caused pain and grief. But this quote revealed a perspective that stunned me: we were originally to have thought with the heart of Heavenly Parent; it is part of the Divine Character that we were originally endowed with.⁵

It made such a strong impression on me that I’d sometimes ask UT students to reflect on what percentage of their daily thoughts were actually devoted to that high level of purpose. It was always an eye-opening little exercise. It helped them realize that very good people or saints probably spend a larger chunk of their mental time and energy thinking of how they can create or support love in other peoples’ lives.

Related to this matter of thought, there's a revealing quote from UT's Theory of the Original Image which I find quite poignant:

“…therefore, an object partner of love was absolutely necessary for God. Thus Creation was necessary, inevitable and can never be considered as merely accidental.”

• New Essentials of UT, p. 24

This clearly indicates that God’s thought was originally used in the service of fulfilling the desire for love.

So now we can get to the main idea that I hope our young ones can start learning early on: that of purpose or motivation. You'll remember that this first comes up in the Principle:

“All entities have dual purposes.…for the sake of the whole and for the sake of the individual…In God’s ideal, there cannot be any individual purpose which does not support the whole purpose, nor can there be any whole purpose that does not guarantee the interests of the individual.”

• Exposition of DP, p. 33

UT takes that starting point and develops the centrally important idea of purpose and its relationship to creativity.

Purpose and Creativity

Here’s the point then. UT explains that there are actually two activities in the creative process: the act of creating and the act of appreciating. Let’s first look at the activity of Creation. UT says:

“The activity of creation starts with the purpose for the whole, that is, it starts with an intention to please others.”

• New Essentials of UT, p. 303

This may not sound terribly groundbreaking at first, but as UT developed this point, it marked a pivotal point in my understanding. As I mentioned in the last article, my educational background is design. I’d spent nine years studying design. One outcome of all those years is that I’d come to understand art and creative activity as essentially self-expression.

That’s why learning that creative activity is primarily for the sake of others was a fundamental change in understanding. And that fed directly into a fundamental change in practice. It’s no longer primarily about focusing deeply inward and expressing whatever was there. Our young people see a lot of this (and so much of it is unhealthy)…. Rather, the focus was outward, on what could be given to benefit the people who would experience what I’d create; creating became an act of caring, benevolent generosity. According to UT, it’s about this:

“…creation…is the activity whereby the artist…manifests value for the subject (God and humankind)”

• New Essentials of UT, p. 310

It means that creating is the act that results from the desire to provide something of genuine value for the enrichment or enjoyment of a user or participant. It’s focused on the “whole purpose” — It’s essentially for others rather than for oneself. I believe that understanding can transform not only what a young person creates, but that it can transform their own soul. This reminds me of something remarkable that I heard Father Moon say when I worked in jewelry:

“When you make beautiful things, your heart becomes beautiful.”

• Sun Myung Moon, in NJ, sometime in 1979

Here’s a figure that’s inspired by the overhead transparencies that Dr. Lee showed in his UT seminars. It illustrates this connection between whole purpose and creativity:

So that’s the essential point to understand about creating.

But a young person undeniably experiences deep personal satisfaction when they’ve successfully brought something they’d only imagined to life. It’s a wonderful and exhilarating feeling. I’ve certainly seen it at events where some of our young athletes or musicians get into the Zone or the Flow and execute a thrilling performance. The cheers and applause that come only increase their excitement. So then where does that undeniably exalted feeling of personal accomplishment come in? Is there something of self-centeredness in feeling that way? The DP quote earlier in this article begins to touch on this, and UT further explains:

“…appreciation is the activity whereby an appreciator… finds and enjoys value (beauty) in an object…

• New Essentials UT, p. 310”

Looking at it this way, it’s natural that exaltation comes when a young person feels that what he/she has done was their very best. Without doing it consciously, they are nevertheless actually assessing (i.e., appreciating) what has successfully come out of them, the enthusiastic reaction of observers, and enjoying it all! What’s happening is simply that they experience that value, and it’s deeply satisfying at a personal level. It satisfies their innate individual purpose and that’s exactly what Heavenly Parent wants them to experience: joy. And a loving parent naturally feels pride and joy along with them!

Here’s the figure which completes this perspective:

Conclusion

UT does go further to discuss specific attitudes that help a creator fulfill these two purposes. But I don’t want to dilute this primary point about purpose and motivation with more information, so we’ll leave that for next time.

For now, I think there’s a lot to think about, a lot to reflect on, and maybe some adjustment to make when we see to this third area of our grandchildren’s education—the education of “dominion”.

One last time then: we’ve got to make sure that they understand that the first and original purpose for the gift of creative power is that they should use it to bring joy and especially love into the lives of others—their family, their community, their profession and ultimately to Heaven. That’s the primary reason that they’ve been gifted by Heavenly Parent.

And it’s not a matter of self-sacrifice. They can understand that their own fulfillment comes from the act of stepping back a bit to appreciate and enjoy their own good work. That’s what comes out of expressing their own individuality as a unique child of HP.

They just have to get the critical order of priorities right: Of the two purposes—whole and individual—the former is primary. When they create anything—choreography, a sports play, a business, or whatever—the primary concern must be for others. When that succeeds, their own satisfaction naturally follows.

I suppose this isn’t something that some (many?) young folks would appreciate, but I expect that J.S. Bach deeply enjoyed his own compositions. He was however extremely clear about his most fundamental purpose for creating: it was to give joy to people and ultimately to Heaven. He said many things about this, but here’s one that’s short and sweet:

“The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul.”

That sums it up: he created for other people and for Heavenly Parent. For a wonderful example of this, featuring his composition Ode to Joy, please click here.

In the next article, we will continue looking into this beautiful gift of divine creativity. Specifically, we’ll look into Godism’s insight into a few specific creative attitudes and how they can elevate our children’s and grandchildren’s understanding and practice.

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