Written by Rev. Hyung Jin Moon, Chair, Universal Peace Federation
Monday, February 7, 2011
Excerpts of address to the UPF International Leadership Conference
Seoul, Korea, February 6-10, 2011
When we look at religion, it is Father Moon’s great insight that at the very core, what religion truly seeks is relationship. The Latin etymology of the word is to re-connect back to a relationship first with God, and then heaven, earth, and mankind. Only through relationship can the virtues of love, peace, tolerance, harmony, compassion can exist. Everything is based on relationships. Even the creation of time and space is centered on God’s desire for relationships.
The 13th century Italian mathematician Fibonacci introduced Arabic numerals into the Western world and is known particularly for the Fibonacci sequence. This is created by a sequence of numbers: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233 …. This is also known as the Golden Mean and the perfect proportion. Through this sequence one can create an incredible shape known as the Fibonacci spiral. It can be found all over the universe. One of the great truths that Father Moon has taught us is that God relates to us with numbers.
When you look at the spiral galaxies and the way water spirals down a drain, what you see is the Fibonacci spiral. It also appears in the way sub-atomic particles move in zero gravity. You see it in snails and their shells, how petals grow on flowers and branches form on trees. You see it in the way tendrils of pumpkin vines grow. You see it in the tusks of mammals and horns of animals. You see it in the proportion of the beak of an eagle and parrot. You see it under the water and in flying animals – on the tails of sea horses and chameleons. You see it in snowflakes. You will see the spiral on your fingertips, the cochlea of the ear, 26 curves of brain, the DNA helix, and the umbilical cord of a baby.
Can you see a pattern emerging?
The creator created this universe with the desire for relationship and with a mind. Everyone around the globe looking at something with the proportion of approximately 1:1618 will see it as a proportion of beauty.
The universe starts from a singularity. It moves into the second dimension by extending north, south, east and west — the second dimension of reality. That is the beginning of time, but there is no space yet because there is no way to gauge relative distance without boundaries. So God in his architecture of the universe created boundaries so you can gauge relative distance. When you close off the lines extending outwards, you create boundaries, which form space. When the vertical and horizontal axes are closed off it forms a square, and when the square moves, it forms a circle.
In the Bible we read that God created Adam and from Adam he created Eve. This also is mathematical in the sense that Adam is represented by a square, and Eve by a circle. If you want to create a feminine form, which is curved, you must start with a line. To form a circle from a point, you need a radius. Over the centuries, straight and rigid lines have been described as masculine and curves as feminine.
Male and female move together in what Father calls give and receive action. They set up a four-position foundation, from which families, communities, societies, and nations emerge.
For us, God comes from the center and reveals himself to the world. For us as humanity, our task is to return to the center of our entirety, which is God.
Father talks about left-right and up-down relationships. I thought he was speaking from the Confucian tradition, but he was speaking mathematically. When we take this to the three-dimensional plane, it forms an octohedron. If you rotate this in any direction, you create a sphere.
So God must first have had foundational forms to create a sphere. There is an equation for the Fibonacci sequence (Fn = Fn-1 + Fn-2, with seed values F0 = 0 and F1 = 1). To create the equation you need a perfect square. Its foundational form is a perfect square and perfect circle with a common center.
In the great architecture of all great religions you see overlapping circles with the same radius, intersecting in such a way that the center of each circle lies on the circumference of the other. This is the vesica piscis. One circle can represent God and the other man. Christ comes from the vesica piscis. This is the womb of creation.
From the vesica piscis comes all shapes: ovals, triangles, 60-60-60 degree triangles and 30-60-90 degree triangles emerge from this womb of creation. If you create six circles around a center with overlapping radiuses, you have a six-point star, which you see all around the ancient world. To create this shape you need the foundational circle and square. Every shape in the created world comes from this pattern.
We find these forms in the Principle, the four-position foundation. We find God, and his essence is true love. The whole universe emerges from this, and all relationships come from this.
Your DNA comes from this. When you were conceived by the union of your father’s and mother’s seed, you were one cell. By a process of mitosis, which is cell division, we began to grow: 1 cell, 2 cells, and then 4 cells. Those four cells are not just floating in fluid. They are in a pattern: 3 at the bottom and 1 on top. When you connect the centers of those 4 cells, you get a perfect tetrahedron.
When you were 8 cells, if you connected the centers, you get a star tetrahedron, or the Star of David. When you rotate that, you get a perfect square within a sphere.
Everything is relationships. This is all revealed in Father’s teaching. He teaches us that God created man in his image and the universe in the image of man. That is fascinating teaching. Leonardo da Vinci’s drawing of the circle and square around that man. These are average proportions.
The center of the square is the reproductive organs. Father Moon’s great insight is that all destructive sin comes from destroying the value of this sacred part. There is another man in this drawing, with his hands diagonally up and his legs diagonally out. That center is the navel, not the reproductive organs. When you bring the two centers together you have the same proportions as when you had 8 cells. You are still in the same circle:square proportion as you were when you had 8 cells.
Father Moon has always taught us that the heart is the center. He has taught us that through our children and our lineage we create new life and new lineage. When you create a circle from the heart to reproductive organs, the ratio is 1:365. That is the exact ratio of the diameter of earth to the moon. The distance from the earth to the moon is the same ratio to the diameter of the sun: 1:362. What does it mean that we are in the same ratio with the created universe?
God is our creator and he desires to be in a relationship of give and take with the created world. From that understanding a true relationship can emerge. A true relationship is to sacrifice ourselves for the other; a false relationship is to sacrifice others for ourselves. True peace and compassion can only come about through true relationships: between people and God, husband and wife, parents and children, families and the world.
From all this we can decipher that God wants to be in relationship with us and lead us with truth, beauty, and goodness, which is true love. This is the pathway to true peace. It is the pathway to true relationships, true love, and true family.