Rearing Monarchs #24:

A Path to the First Blessing, part 1
Unification Thoughts, May 2023

Welcome back
I hope that you’re enjoying the Springtime :) If you’re joining us for the first time, it might help to catch the drift of this series by taking a look at its purpose and focus.¹

Where we left off and where we’re going

Following what we’d done last time, this article isn’t on Unification Thought directly, but rather on how it illuminates our understanding of the Principle.² In this article, I’d like to share something that struck me when I was coaching GPA students to give “napkin lectures”. As I think I mentioned, Unification Thought has sensitized me to look for guidance on original ways of life and love, and when a fellow DP teacher tipped me off on today’s topic, I examined it through the lens of Unification Thought.³

Getting right into it, here’s the quote in the Principle that triggered the important insights of this discussion:

…For Adam to realize the purpose of creation, he was supposed to fulfill two conditions. First, Adam should have established the foundation of faith. …The second condition which Adam was supposed to fulfill to realize the purpose of creation was to establish the foundation of substance… Adam was then to become one with God… the perfect incarnation of the Word, with perfect character, fulfilling God’s first blessing. In this way, had he not fallen, Adam would have completed the purpose of creation.

• Exposition of the Divine Principle, p. 179

The Foundation of Faith, originally

For the decades I’d been hearing and teaching the Principle, I’d always assumed that the Foundation of Faith was a remedial condition to restore failure by paying indemnity. I thought it came into being after, and because of, the Fall, in order to pay the heavy penalties that sin incurred. Yet in the above quote, the Principle clearly states that it was an original condition for Adam to follow, so that he could fulfill the purpose of creation—even before the principle of restoration through indemnity became necessary! The foundations were to have been followed as the original path, when the first humans were still innocent, even before they fell away from Heavenly Parent!

So the Foundation of Faith was originally 1) a way of learning to live with Heavenly Parent on a practical daily, hourly, minute-by-minute basis and 2) the practice of Objective Consciousness that we’d looked at in the sixth article in this series.

Adam’s first condition to fulfill the Purpose of Creation in the Garden, even before the fall.

So let’s look into the two conditions as they were originally intended to be. The Principle gives three parts to fulfill this first condition: a central person, a conditional object, and a time period.

In the original world before the Fall, Adam was the central person, obedience to the commandment was to be his offering, and the time period would have been his youth of 21 years. But in light of Unification Thought’s description of the nature of God and Man, and the place of man in the universe, those first 21 years would have involved growing his heart and divine character—learning how to love, and learning how to live richly, in deep connection to Heavenly Parent, to others, and to the creation. So, the Foundation of Faith wouldn’t have only been not eating, but also learning to include Heavenly Parent in everything he did in his daily life⁴. Engaging Heavenly Parent this way, Adam and Eve would have built a deep foundation of trust and connection between Heavenly Parent and themselves, as true, filial children.

An offering of filial heart

I’m reminded of a remarkable example in a film that was popular in 1981. The film was Chariots of Fire and it’s the remarkable true story of a missionary from England who unexpectedly competed in the 1924 Olympic Games in Germany. At the games, he was shocked to find that his event was scheduled on the Sabbath day. So, to the absolute consternation of his coach and even the King of England, he refused to run it. Fortunately, an understanding teammate swapped events with him. However, that event was one that he’d not trained for—but by the grace of God, he won it. His words that are most relevant to our discussion here are:

I know God made me for a purpose, but He also made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure!

• Eric Liddle, the film’s protagonist

The 4-minute clip is viewable here. I think that this is a wonderful example of the application of the Foundation of Faith as it was originally meant to be practiced: a central person (Eric Liddle), his offering (running), and time period (the duration of the race). It’s not an offering of simply obeying a commandment that forbids one thing, but an offering of involving Heavenly Parent in everything he does.

This video is very valuable because it suggests that living this way is not out of our reach. In fact, there’s a special state of mind that a person enters when they are totally immersed in something they’re good at and love—it’s commonly called the Flow, or being in the Zone. Our young people know of it because they and their friends experience it—in sports or music, for example. They become totally immersed in the activity and can slip into this exhilarating feeling—which explains why they love those things so much.

I find at least two very important lessons here, for our young ones: The first is that Heavenly Parent is pleased not only by obedience, but by our inviting and involving Him in many other things we do in our daily life, particularly those things that we have been gifted in and most love doing! And the second is that Eric Liddle didn't run only for his own enjoyment, but he ran for the enjoyment of others—his king and country, his faith community, and ultimately for his God.⁵

Have you had this experience? Our young children, when they perform well in a school performance and are applauded, immediately look into the audience to see if their parents noticed. And when they see their parents’ excitement, their shared joy is thrilling! If a young person learns to share such moments with Heavenly Parent—as Eric Liddle had learned to do—the excitement of being in the Flow would transcend to an even higher level! The Foundation of Faith then becomes a beautiful and exciting way to live our daily life.

The Foundation of Substance, originally

Next, let’s look into the second condition to fulfill the Purpose of Creation:

…The second condition which Adam was supposed to fulfill to realize the purpose of creation was to establish the foundation of substance. …the condition of indemnity is made by reversing the course of the deviation from the original path.

• Exposition of the Divine Principle, p. 179

As we know, the deviation was behavior which resulted in fallen nature. The Principle names those four: 1) failing to take God’s standpoint, 2) leaving one’s proper position, 3) reversing dominion, and 4) multiplying the criminal act (Exposition of the DP, pp. 73–74). So the original path, i.e., reversing the course of those four would give us the original nature of the First Blessing. This original nature is referred to many times in the Principle.⁶ It’s explained that Cain should have:

…taken God’s standpoint by loving Abel

…received God’s love through Abel…maintained his proper position

…obediently submitted to Abel…accepting Abel’s dominion…rectified the order of dominion

…and learned God’s Will from him…to multiply goodness

• Exposition of the Divine Principle, p. 193

But given Unification Thought’s ideas on the morality and ethics of original human beings, the practice of Original Nature (rather than fallen nature) becomes much more nuanced. Unification Thought puts it this way:

…love has twelve directions, because the person in each of the four positions has a different kind of love for each of the three object partners… Consequently, various kinds of love, with different nuances, come to appear. In order to realize these various kinds of love, various kinds of virtue are required… with each kind of love, there is a corresponding virtue… The aim of… ethics is to fully explain the virtues of love.

• New Essentials of Unification Thought, p. 282

Noting that these nuances are expressed as the virtues of original nature, we can gain valuable insight into it by referring to the Theory of Ethics. For example, there are the moral virtues of an individual and the ethical virtues towards their family’s elders and juniors and towards their siblings. We can then arrive at an understanding like this:

The Foundation of Substance as it was *originally* meant to be practiced.

We can see then that “maintaining position” isn’t a passive action, given the ethical virtues explained in Unification Thought’s Ethics, which is an ethics of “attendance”.

Likewise, “observing dominion” isn’t simply submission but, as Unification Thought’s Ethics also explains, it’s bi-directional—it’s receiving the benevolent care, concern and guidance of one’s subject and it’s also expressing such virtues to one’s own objects. We should remember that the Principle of Creation states:

In interpersonal relationships, the beauty that a subordinate returns in response to the love of a superior is called loyalty, and the beauty that children return in response to the love of their parents is called filial piety.

• Exposition of the Divine Principle, p. 38

Those words describe the ideal motivation for observing order—it’s a response to love.

Looking further to the Theory of Ethics, we could recall its explanation that the core virtue of parental love downward (i.e., dominion) is benevolence. That too inspires a different kind of “obedient submission” than restoration does: this third original nature isn’t an action of overcoming a bad habitual resistance to authority, but it would instead be a more natural response—one evoked by a true subject’s love. That’s the original nature of observing proper dominion.

And finally, the reversal of multiplication of evil is obviously the multiplication of goodness. That clearly involves much more than simply obeying one commandment to “not eat”. Instead, it involves doing many things in a generous, benevolent manner. Which is what we’d touched on earlier, regarding the “offering” of all we do. This is how we were to have originally approached our First Blessing.

Vitally important to remember in the post-Foundation Day CIG Settlement Age!

Conclusion

Based on a careful reading of the Principle’s exact description of the Foundation of Faith and the Foundation of Substance (the quote which we’d started this article with), and the insight into the Principle that Unification Thought provides, these are some thoughts on how the two foundations would have played out in the original world, had there been no fall.

But to the point of today’s discussion, Unification Thought has helped me truly appreciate that these foundations would actually be a wondrous way for anyone to approach life in the post-Foundation Day CIG Settlement Era—particularly during their first 21 years.

I bring this up because of the clear impression I received when coaching our young people, that these two foundations are unfortunately imprinted in their minds as being difficult, unpleasant and a bit punitive(!) They are thought of as conditions that have to be made only when some sins need to be paid for, or when something is being asked for.

But when properly understood—that they are the original path to approach the First Blessing, in the original world before the fall—they become immediately applicable to daily life in this new era.

Just imagine what a young adult could be like if he or she had spent his or her tweens and teens intentionally building these two foundations by respectively 1) learning to engage Heavenly Parent in all their activities and 2) nurturing and practicing their original nature! Folks couldn’t help but notice these kinds of young people. And that their progress with the First Blessing provides them with exceptional foundations for the Third and especially for the Second Blessings…

The original path for a young person to achieve their First Blessing.

In closing, I hope that we can guide and encourage our young ones to start working on their First Blessing—by building their Foundations of Faith and Substance. That way, they won’t waste away their growth period and be caught distressingly short when they suddenly find themselves in their 20s. Instead, they’ll really be ready for the other Blessings (particularly the Second one). Since time is of the essence, it’s worth considering these words:

…do not act like wild olive trees. Take the seed of the true olive tree and bear its fruit wherever you take root in the world. …manifesting God’s ideal of creation.… (1990.05.24)
Cheon Il Guk is the original world having nothing to do with the Fall, the world that God envisioned according to His ideal of creation.… the final destination toward which we are advancing… (2003.12.10)

• Cheon Seong Gyeong, Book 12, Chap. 2

And these as well:

…This is the age of the realm of the Fourth Adam. It is …the age of restoration in a natural way. (1999.10.10)

• Chambumo Gyeong, Book 12, Chap. 3

Restoration in a natural way—that is, according to the original Principle of Creation!⁷

Endnotes

1. This series’ purpose is to offer the perspective of Unification Thought on raising our grandchildren. Our basic premises come from 1) the Realms of True Love—in which Father and Mother Moon explain the five realms of divine love—and 2) the Three Great Kingships—which inspires the title of this series. If you take a look at those two links, you’ll at least understand the perspective of the preceding 22 articles, if not the details.

2. Helping us to understand the Principle was the first of six reasons Dr. Sang Hun Lee gave for Unification Thought. In his paper The Necessity, Character, and Method of Unification Thought he stated that the reasons were in order to:

understand the Principle deeply
universalize the expression of the Principle
protect Unification Principle from outside attack
unify all existing religions and thoughts
present a new direction for all areas of learning
establish a view of value as a guide to new life

(In the original article, each of these is explained more fully.)

3. The teacher was Rev. Kevin Thompson. I went to his room one night after hearing his lecture to the GPA students and noting with some surprise that he didn’t stress the four fallen natures to the young people. He explained that he did this because of his discovery when pastoring that the young ones had been crushed by guilt about their fallen-ness. So he very deliberately and carefully addressed this topic in a way that was much more hopeful and encouraging.

4. I recall Father Moon explaining that he’d made habits of things like putting his right hand into his shirt first, or his right leg into his trousers first. These served to keep him mindful of Heavenly Parent, even in the most mundane things.

5. This idea was previously touched on where Unification Thought explains the dual purposes for creating something.

6. In Exposition of the DP, “original nature” is mentioned on pp. 18-21, 23, 31, 33, 35-36, 41, 68, 73, 75-76, 100, 113, 178, 181, 228, 233, 277, 342, 348-349, 351-354, 356, 371, 376-377. But it’s explained only briefly on page 193. And it’s here where Unification Thought is most helpful with its explanations in Axiology, Ethics and Original Human Nature—which is divine since it comes from Heavenly Parent’s own Divine Character.

7. I understand that the fourth Adam refers to our generation—the first being our ancestor in the Garden, the second being Jesus, the third being True Parents, and the fourth being the couples blessed into their lineage.

Gerry Servito was appointed by Dr. Sang Hun Lee to the Art and Culture section of USA’s Unification Thought Institute. Currently, Gerry is Senior Teaching Fellow of RIIWT. He found Unification Thought after spending college looking into philosophy (especially existentialism), the Gita, and doing transcendental meditation. He was very grateful to find a spiritual path that pursues not only centered mind-body unity, but a second and even a third Blessing—all for the greater purpose! A first granddaughter arrived in October 2022.