27/10/2023
TRUE FATHER on „Patience“:
In order for you to avoid unhappiness and misery what frame of mind should you have, and in what way do you have to walk the path of life? In order to be victorious, what word must you be given? PATIENCE. Patience is the most important virtue to embody. At one bitter utterance from another person, you can get angry. But be patient. If someone shouts at you and you shout back, then there will be a quarrel. When there's a quarrel, both of you will be defeated and shattered.
Even though you may not be defeated, some power beats at you, so you are shattered. The moment you frown at someone or stare at him your happiness will leave you. When you are angry at someone, you will frown, even at the notion that the person is around. Even in the physiological sense, you are poisoned inside when you are very angry.
So, be patient and never be angry with anyone. It is poisonous for you to get angry. When you are furious and mad at someone, don't you feel that inside? But train yourself. Just become nonchalant, neglecting the person when he is angry at you. If you want to find out the secret of how to win people over, patience is the utmost knack.
Those who can be patient are many-sided, being able to look in every direction. If you feel yourself becoming impatient, think immediately of your past and say, "I had once been like that when I was in the prime of my life, and when I was in the outside world, I was always getting mad at someone." ..
So, your way of thinking determines whether you are happy or miserable. There are many ways to think of yourself as being happy. If we know that every moment of our life is that singular opportunity to separate happiness from unhappiness, we must change our philosophy. We must always think of that one moment.
So, we are always at a point where we can easily fall into unhappiness, while we can also steer our way to the side of happiness. So, be patient. Don't allow yourself to be made unhappy by another person. Be determined not to think of things in that way. Always think of yourself as being the cause, not other people. Another thing: even though you may have come into a situation which other people would define as unhappy, you make yourself happy and feel the value of being in that position so that you can be trained to create joy. ..
However bitter a situation you may be placed in, immediately think of God's heart when He lost His children, who had betrayed Him, and when He had lost all the world with His children. I immediately become sympathetic with God, and I feel the same sadness in my heart. ..
God could be patient where other people couldn't. He could forgive where other people couldn't. But if God had been angry at that point, erasing all of His creation, what would have happened? Then He would have become a failure, with no creation to praise Him.
So, you realize how important patience is. Patience can be the motivation of recreation and restart. When you are patient, you can forgive your enemy. By forgiving your enemy, you can occupy him. Satan or your enemy will draw a line between you and him. If you keep standing on the other side, there will always be a gap there. But if you step to his side, to embrace him, then he will either retreat or be embraced by you. By your forgiving him and embracing him, you can occupy him.
God is the foremost champion of patience. God was patient when His only son was nailed down on the cross, with all the other people rebellious against Him. At that moment, God did not look omnipotent. But it was His patience that made it possible. When you have done something very ugly against someone, and he pretends that you have not done such a thing, you become low and more humble. ..
Those are the secrets of success. First patience: positive words or action for other people's benefit. In the Orient we have a saying that. "The man of patience is the victor." After patience comes the notion of living for the sake of other people. "I exist ore live for the sake of other people." That's the only philosophy we have to entertain. That means to become humble and to place yourself in a lower place than other people. ..
There have been many saints and prophets who have gone through difficulties, but we cannot imagine anything more difficult than to be crucified on the cross. When we know that he was crucified on the cross for the sake of mankind, we take him as the highest prophet and saint of all. His patience, in the face of difficulties and rebellion, was valuable, as well as his love for other people at the sacrifice of himself. With those two elements, there will be peace, love, happiness and all ideals.
(Excerpts from Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s speech “Opportunity for Happiness or Unhappiness”, March 2, 1975)
