I’m at the departure gate at In Cheon airport, waiting to begin my journey home after 2 nights in Korea. It’s pretty crazy to think that I invested a lot of time and effort just to be in Korea for a couple of days. I did this kind of visit only because True Parents invited us; otherwise I would have stayed at home.

I knew that coming to Cheong Pyeong, I had to be ready for anything and to expect the unexpected. This paid off, as the originally planned visit to the Cheon Bok Gung on Friday had been suddenly cancelled (according to the announcement just before the big event on Thursday morning) and True Father wanted all international visitors to participate on a 2-day Original Divine Principle workshop. It’s a good thing my flight home is tonight, after the workshop finished.

The workshop was intense. There was a lot of shim jung expressed, although not always logically conveyed. I caught myself thinking, “I don’t have to be here – I can do whatever I want, relaxing or resting somewhere else, instead of enduring the difficult environment of this workshop.” Nevertheless, I quickly rebuked such thoughts: “I’m here to attend True Parents. True Parents want me to receive this content. So I will invest to receive this content as sincerely as possible.”

As you can imagine, it wasn’t comfortable. I was sitting on my bottom almost all day, listening to English translation through my mobile phone radio. When my mobile battery died, I had to quickly find a socket to plug in my charger. It was especially hard staying focused (OK, I mean awake) when the climate was hot and humid, and especially yesterday when we had very little rest and had had a long, hard day. I had beef with some of the statements (e.g. “The argument between creation and evolution is finished!”) but nevertheless, I took things with a healthy pinch of salt and tried to digest as much as possible, without getting information indigestion. Rev. Yoo poured his heart out and made me think about who True Parents are and what they have accomplished.

If there’s anything I’m taking away from the past couple of days, it’s to take the word more seriously. Rev. Yoo explained that the ODP isn’t something to be memorised, rather something to become. Of course I should still study the word, as understanding the content will help me to embody the content. Thus I will strive to study the word more – especially the 8 designated scriptures bequeathed to us by True Parents – and pray to embody it more in my life.

…towards balance

This blog is going to be based on my personal experiences…I feel the urgent need to share about what life has taught me about being physically healthy. We urgently need to take proper care of our health! As True Parents showed at the first Original Divine Principle Workshop in Hawaii last year, by inviting an acupuncturist who also uses moksa herbs, we need to take care of our physical bodies, and we need to use natural methods to heal ourselves as much as possible.

Over the next 27 months I am going to tell you some of the highlights of my 36 year journey to health, and the lessons learnt along the way. The emphasis on physical care in no way diminishes my belief in True Parents or God’s Providence…I always kept active ‘on the front line’ as we say, whilst doing all these amazing things. Deepest thanks to God for guidance, and enthusiasm along the way!

There will be the 27 topics:

1. Drink Water; You are Gods’ Temple – Kidney Disease 1974
2. Energy healing through visualisation and music – Naturopath Tracy De Geer, Blessed Sister, Sydney Australia
3. The Joy of Steamed Vegetables (lessons learnt from my first Spiritual Daughter, Gail) 1978
4. The Poisons that make us Unhealthy 1980
5. The Base of Health in the Human Body – elimination and detoxifying the colon: part 1 1980
6. Personal Self Control and Sacrifice: Three Day Juice Fasts and Enemas: part 2
7. Colonic Irrigation raw juices, and mono-diets 1981: part 3
8. What I learnt in the Solomon Islands 1982
9. Radical diet improvement ‘on the road’ ( the MFT road!) 1983
10. Guided Meditation, and the Reversal Course 1983
11. The joys of Water Melon fasting on MFT in Queensland, Australia 1983
12. The Health Institute in New York City and using fruit to clean your digestive tract 1984
13. Exercise and Bioenergetics and being together with Ashley 1986
14. Fresh air, emotional healing and the body, and chiropractic support 1986
15. Friendship for Health – the sister’s meeting, and best friends in mission together 1986-89
16. The Miraculous Saga of our first child Patrick…balancing natural remedies with fertility treatment 1990-91
17. Training as a Massage Practitioner (‘Body Worker’ as they also call it) in California 1991
18. Keeping Healthy in Russia…kidney stones and other lessons from Russian hospitality 1992
19. Preparing to have another Baby, and the ‘total cleanse’. 1997
20. The wonders of skin…how to help it do its job. 2000
21. Healing Childhood Traumas – stage two of the reversal course 2000
22. An answer to prayer at the Tree of Life and discovering EFT 2000
23. Comfort Eating and ‘post-natal depression’ 2001
24. Supplements and their place in the picture 2003
25. Family Constellations and Laughter 2007
26. The Emotion Code 2009
27. Back to the joys of the mono-diet to detoxify and bring discipline to my eating

I offer this, hoping you will find it interesting, enjoyable and useful!

Susan

In one of his passing comments at the ODP workshop, Reverend Eu said that Father Moon should have married an English lady, and that his wedding should have been arranged by the Queen of England. Obviously that didn’t happen, but it set me to thinking about how it could have happened and why it didn’t happen.

One of the most troubling questions for me has been the allegation that Britain had an important role to play in God’s providence, namely that of the Eve nation, but had somehow failed and thus lost its position. Rev Eu reiterated this – after the Second World War the victorious nations should have ‘connected’ to Father and on that foundation the kingdom of heaven could have been quickly established. However Britain didn’t connect and so ‘failed’. But I have never been able to accept that Britain failed as Britain in my opinion never had the opportunity to succeed under this scenario. Father didn’t, as far as I can tell, ever have any meaningful contact with Britain. I asked Rev Eu about this over lunch and he wasn’t able to shed any light on it either although he did provide some interesting details of Father’s life at this time – Father was one of twelve people who were appointed to a special council to support the first president of Korea, Syngman Rhee. The other eleven were Korean Christians who had been abroad during the Japanese occupation. Father had been recommended by his grandfather who knew Syngman Rhee. Unfortunately the others didn’t like Father and he was ejected from the council.

I think there was a possible way for Father to have met and married a prominent English Christian. In 1902 Britain made an alliance with Japan which enabled Japan to occupy Korea. This was to thwart the ambitions of Russia who also wanted to control Korea. Britain was trying to stop the eastward expansion of the Russian Empire. However, if Britain had been able to make Korea a British protectorate the outcome would have been very different. For example, instead of 40 years of oppression and attempted cultural extermination under Japanese occupation, Korea would have been ruled in an enlightened manner, Christianity would have been encouraged along with a liberal educational system, an uncorrupt civil service, the rule of law and the basic institutions of civil society including a love of freedom. Young scholars from the leading families of the colonies and protectorates of the British empire, such as Nehru and Gandhi, were sent to school in England and often went on to university before returning to their own countries. It is not hard to imagine that Father, coming from a prominent family, would had the opportunity to come here to study at Eton or Harrow. In such a world it would have been easy for Father to have entered the highest social circles and even come into contact with the royal family. One knows that Father, being Father, would have made a very favourable impression and . . . . well the sky would have been the limit. A useful bonus for all of us of course would have been that Father would have learned to speak English fluently. Unfortunately it is hard, given the geo-political circumstances at the time, to imagine how or why Britain would have made Korea a protectorate as Koreans had violently rebuffed all earlier western attempts to make contact.

However, had Father married a prominent English Christian this would have produce a couple which would have naturally embodied and integrated the best of the East and West, it would have meant that the fruit of the Abel-type democracy that developed here: the rule of law, civil society, properly run institutions etc. would have been inherited and become the basis for Chung Il Guk.

Instead our polity is based on a very undeveloped, parochial, non-universal, tribal society. If Father should have married an English woman, but was unable to, we should perhaps recognise that the way things are is not the way God wanted things to be. In which case we should be making more effort in the Unification movement to inherit the Judeo-Christian foundation of Abel-type democracies such as the UK instead of thinking that something is best because it is Korean and that Korean political culture should be at the basis of Chung Il Guk whereas the way things are is, like much else, an accident of history.