Witnessing Activities
Special Lectures
| Divine Principle Lecture Series Lecture 1 : [General Introduction] The Mission of the New Truth : Show the Path to Happiness | |
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| Date created : 2014-09-03/ Views : 2574 | |
Lecture 1
General Introduction: A New Expression of Truth
SLIDE 1:
I’m Tyler Hendricks, and I’d like to share with you some ideas from the Divine Principle. We look at this as a new expression of truth. Truth is unchanging, but how we express it changes. Truth has a mission, to bring happiness.
SLIDE 2:
We share the earth today with seven billion other people.
SLIDE 3:
Everyone is spending their time doing something.
SLIDE 4:
There is one thing all people share: we are struggling to find happiness and avoid misfortune. Each of us lives to obtain joy and happiness. From the small details of everyday life, to the major events that shape history, every event reflects someone’s desire for a happier life.
SLIDE 5:
We need to find the path to happiness. We cannot afford to be ignorant about life and the world. If it is the real path to happiness, then it can create peace.
SLIDE 6:
If it can do so –authentically—for the individual, then it can do so for the family. And peaceful families will naturally create a peaceful society, and this will extend to nations and the world.
THEY ADDED IMAGES HERE THAT ARE NOT IN THE PPT, SO I WILL NOT INCLUDE THEM IN THE POWERPOINT. THE IMAGES COVER THIS AREA:
But what makes you feel joy and happiness?
• Happiness follows when my desires are fulfilled. I feel happy when I satisfy my desires.
o When I buy something that I saved up for.
o When I received a gift.
o When I was able to do something I wanted to do.
o When I joined the company I wanted to work for.
o When I acquired some sort of certification.
o When someone I love affirmed and accepted me.
o When I dated someone who I respect very much.
o When I married my eternal love, and so on.
o When we fulfill our desires we experience happiness.
SLIDE 7:
The humanistic psychologist Abraham H. Maslow categorized human desire into five stages. People live their lives in order to fulfill these stages of desires.
The first is physiological desires.
The second is the desire for security and safety.
The third is social desire.
The fourth is the desire to be respected.
The fifth is the desire for self-realization. Our level of happiness increases based on the stage of desire we achieve. Fulfilling physiological needs brings temporary happiness, but gratifying desires for respect or desires for self-realization brings a much greater sense of happiness.
SLIDE 8:
But we believe that we have two opposing kinds of desires: good desires and evil desires. People are directed by an original mind, which attempts to achieve good desires. We have also an evil mind, which attempts to fulfill evil desires. We are torn between these two directions.
In order to have happiness, we have to dispel desires that lead us towards evil, and pursue desires that lead us towards goodness.
We require the wisdom to dispel evil desires that originate from our evil mind and pursue good desires that originate from our original mind. The Divine Principle provides us with that wisdom. That means it is a guide towards happiness that can fulfill our good desires.
SLIDE 9:
Within the same individual is a fierce struggle between the original mind, inclined towards good desires and the evil mind, inclined towards evil desires. Whenever something exists that is contradictory in nature will inevitably self-destruct. Imbued with such a contradictory nature, human beings and the world we create are self-destructive.
SLIDE 10:
The self-destructive state is called by Christianity the Fall, and in Buddhism it is known as ignorance. When looking at the human Fall from the intellectual standpoint, it means we fell into ignorance. Let us talk about this ignorance.
SLIDE 11:
We consist of a mind and body, an internal and external aspect, so there exists internal and external knowledge. Accordingly there are two kinds of ignorance, internal ignorance and external ignorance.
Internal ignorance means spiritual ignorance. Where did we come from? What is the value and goal of life? What happens after we die? Does God exist? What is good and what is evil?
And external ignorance means ignorance about the natural world: The physical body, The fundamentals of the material world, The laws of nature.
Humankind has ceaselessly been seeking the truth to go from being ignorant to having knowledge. Religion has been the path of seeking the truth by overcoming internal ignorance. Science has been the path of seeking the truth by overcoming external ignorance. We seek to overcome both types of ignorance through religion and science.
To be completely liberated from ignorance and follow only the desires of the original mind in the direction of goodness one must find a truth that includes both science and religion, both internal and external truth.
SLIDE 12:
For this, we need a new truth, that can become the path to happiness, and that can end conflict, corruption and self-destructive behavior.
What is truth?
Truth is unique, eternal, unchanging and absolute.
Can a book be the truth itself? In Christianity, it was thought that the Bible alone is the absolute truth. But, a book is not truth itself, but merely a text for teaching the truth.
With the flow of time a gradual process took place. In each era, we received and developed higher and higher of the levels of spirit and of knowledge. The range of truth that could be taught and the levels of expression and methods were shaped by the times in which they were delivered.
SLIDE 13:
How to fulfill the mission to create happiness: Answer questions opened up by:
Religion (The Bible, the world’s religions)
Science (Ecological balance)
Historical experience (the struggle between good and evil)
Lead humankind on the path to happiness.
SLIDE 14:
Character of the new truth
o It cannot be only a religious doctrine, but rather an expression of universal truth.
o It must arise from life experience, not just scholarly research or philosophical reflection.
o It cannot be the product of just another person’s mind or experience.
o The new truth must come to us as a revelation from God.
SLIDE 15:
Our proclamation
o God has already sent a person upon this earth who can solve the fundamental problems of life and the cosmos.
o That person is none other than Reverend Sun Myung Moon.
o The Unification Principle of Reverend Sun Myung Moon calls this the path to happiness for the twenty-first century.
o This person has dedicated his life for the liberation of God and the salvation of humankind.
o He built a foundation in 194 countries around the world, left his words as a textbook for the path to happiness, and passed away on September 3, 2012.
SLIDE 16:
From now on you will learn and become familiar with the concrete content of Unification Principle.
I ask for your open-minded interest.
Remove stereotypes and prejudice, and seek to grasp the new truth with a serious mind.
Adopt a posture of hope that this can lead you to good realizations and worthwhile experience for your life. See you next time. Thank you very much.
