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True Family and the Path to True Love
"True love is not something you can realise alone. It can be achieved only through a reciprocal relationship between yourself and someone else; requiring mutual dedication, sacrifice, and divine connection." … Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon
In today’s world, many of the challenges we face—be it personal, societal, or global—stem from a misunderstanding of true love and the breakdown of family structures.
The path to resolving these problems begins with understanding the four great loves and perfecting them within the family unit. This blog explores insights how the four great realms of the heart—marital love, parental love, sibling love, and children’s love serve as the foundation for a peaceful, harmonious world. Read on to gain spiritual and practice insights for families.
The 4 Great Realms of Heart
The essence of human love can be understood through the four great realms of heart, which represent the different facets of connection and love that bind us to one another.
The four great realms of heart include marital love, also known as conjugal love; parental love; sibling love between brothers and sisters and friends; and children’s love towards their parents, also known as filial piety. These different forms of love build the foundation for a well-rounded individual and a thriving family where each person expands their heart and ability to love as they mature and grow.
The true family is the ideal setting where these loves can be perfected. It is here that the bonds of love are nurtured, helping each individual grow in heart and spirit.
When love is perfected in the human world, it transcends all social, political, and environmental problems, creating a world filled with peace, freedom, and happiness.
True love embodies the core values of equal position, participation, and inheritance, providing a foundation for resolving humanity's most pressing challenges.
The four great loves form the blueprint for achieving true peace, where happiness and freedom can flourish across the globe.
Children and Their Role in True Love
The journey toward true love begins in childhood, where individuals first experience the love of parents and siblings.
Born through true love, children initially experience the unconditional love of true parents, the camaraderie of siblings, and children’s love toward their parents, also known as filial piety.
These early experiences shape their understanding of the world.
As children grow, they are meant to evolve in their understanding of love—first experiencing love from their parents and towards their parents, then between siblings and friends, between husband and wife, and later, becoming parents themselves.
Each stage in this progression of love builds upon the previous one, with the culmination being the love for one’s children, creating a perfect cycle of love.
True love only emerges when an individual achieves unity of mind and body, allowing love to emanate outward.
The growth and development of love in children is the foundation for the perfecting of human relationships, culminating in the ultimate love for one’s children.
Couples and the Unity of True Love
As individuals mature, they move into a new phase where true love can be fully realized through the union of husband and wife.
True love cannot be realised alone. It can be achieved only through a reciprocal relationship. True love between a husband and wife is not only for the sake of the couple. It also completes God’s ideal of creation and allows God to be the owner of absolute true love. The absolute true love of God dwells wherever there is a person who desires to unite with his or her spouse as the embodiment of God’s true love.
A true couple embraces God’s true love and moves toward the future with one united hope. The conception of children and prosperity of the family take place on this foundation. God’s ultimate hope is that a couple’s true love will move beyond the mundane realm of the daily environment to form a family that is one with the ideal of true love.
True love between a man and a woman can only exist when both individuals have perfected their mind-body unity. This unity forms the bedrock of their relationship and allows true love to flow freely.
A marriage, rooted in this true love, is not just a personal connection but the embodiment of God’s love in the world. It reflects the unity of masculine and feminine qualities that were originally intended to coexist harmoniously.
Through this marriage, a couple becomes the vehicle for true love, passing it on to their children and creating an ideal family.
The relationship between husband and wife is a reciprocal partnership that serves both partners and, ultimately, contributes to God’s ideal creation.
A true husband and wife represent the unity of heaven and earth, becoming the embodiment of divine love and passing it down to the next generation.
The Revolution of True Love
There is a saying that you reap what you sow. Due to false love based on self-centred desires, our human society has became confused.
Even the parent-child relationship and the basic standard of ethics and morality, which have somehow held human society together, have been gravely weakened. Very sad acts of decadence and immorality continuously occur.
Original, true love is perfect. It does not change over the ages. The origin of such love is true, unchanging, eternal, and absolute. However, the first human ancestors became the origin of self-centred love during the period of their growth, while they were still in a state of imperfection, or spiritual immaturity. A civilisation built upon this foundation of selfish false love is no longer sustainable.
What good are technological developments and material wealth when the foundation of the family is crumbling, and we bequeath our deep problems to our descendants? The time has come for historical mistakes and violations to be resolved at their root.
What is needed most urgently is a revolution of true love initiated by True Parents. We cannot expect to achieve happiness and a peaceful world without fundamental changes. The problems of today must be resolved by teaching a worldview based on true parents, true family, and God’s true love, which transcend nationality, culture, race, and religion.
A nation of peace is needed before there can be a world of peace. And the precondition for peace in a nation is peace in the family. Power, wealth, and knowledge, which worldly people have ordinarily desired, are not the necessary and sufficient conditions for peace and happiness.
True happiness is not proportional to how much property one owns and is not dependent on one’s degree of physical comfort. One can attain true peace and true happiness only when such mundane things are accompanied by true love. Genuine peace and infinite happiness can be gained only when we serve others with true love and when we feel that love returned.
We have created tremendous accomplishments, advancing human welfare and social development in many areas through exceptional dedication. Of course, we will continue to make even greater contributions to society. However, relationships are in peril. Remedies from any single specialised area will be insufficient.
I urge you to become the conscience of the age and lead the world by actively creating true families, which are the prerequisite and fundamental basis of a peaceful world, and by guiding others to do the same.
Conclusion
In summary, the four great realms of heart serve as the foundation for true love, beginning with a child who experiences unconditional parental love from his or her parents, progressing to sibling love between brothers and sisters and friends, and children’s love toward their parents (also known as filial piety), and culminating in the true marital love (also known as conjugal love) between husband and wife.
A true husband and wife represent the unity of Heaven and Earth, becoming the embodiment of Divine Love and passing it down to the next generation. When true love is perfected, it radiates outward, creating families that embody peace and happiness.
To create a world of peace, we must first establish families centred on true love. Let us work toward building strong, loving families where true love is practiced and shared. Through this, we will lay the foundation for a peaceful world and a brighter future for all.
Written by Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon
Edited by Anne Bellavance
Love is the answer for all our needs.
Beautiful
Love is the way we connect
It is a timely message that creating societies and a world of peace relies on establishing loving and values centered families. Dr John Bellavance