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S. J. Moon: Address to World Summit 2020
Written by Dr. Sun Jin Moon, Executive Vice President, Women’s Federation for World Peace International (WFWPI)
Tuesday, February 4, 2020
Address to World Summit 2020, Seoul, Korea, February 3-8, 2020
Distinguished scientists, scholars and researchers participating in the World Summit 2020 here in Seoul, Korea, we offer you our sincerest welcome! I deeply appreciate and wish to recognize the special presence of the eminent scholars Dr. Gupta and Ambassador Marc Vogelaar.
I am deeply honored to address you today on behalf of my parents and I am grateful that you have made a long, arduous, and unnerving journey to the east in spite of current dangers. Your resolute attendance is a courageous testament to your character, along with thousands of global leaders and experts from all fields of endeavor who are committed to serving humanity in order to bring about world peace! Let us give a warm round of applause to everyone gathered here today!
The 2020 World Summit is the culmination of not only my Father’s eminent legacy and profound works over his 92 years on earth, serving God and humanity; it is also the culmination of my Mother’s equally visionary work, which is expanding day by day, bringing higher enlightenment, mutual prosperity and offering substantive solutions to the suffering around the globe. Although my beloved Father passed away eight years ago, there is not a day that goes by that my Mother and the worldwide organizations that they established, including of course UPF and the organizations of this World Summit, are not working to create a better world.
By convening leaders from all fields, such as the International Association of Academicians for Peace, she has created a multi-sectoral approach to peace and is moving forward pragmatically and wholeheartedly to create a world of harmonious interdependence and mutual prosperity, guided by universal values, to achieve a world of peace in which we all live together as One Family Under God.
As human beings we all stand on common ground and share core ideals and values. We all want a world of peace. Yet, unfortunately, we live in a world that often manifests the polar opposite of our heartfelt hopes. Humanity and creation are in crisis everywhere we look.
No crisis is more real and factual than what is happening to our Earth, our shared habitat and our only current home. I bring up the earth because it is the womb of all life on this planet. It is the nourisher, the nurturer, and ultimate giver of life. But what is happening to our mother earth? Is it being taken care of responsibly? No, we are destroying our planet and we are destroying each other in the process.
Whether you are an esteemed scientist, academic or a courageous youth activist like Greta Thunberg, we are all called to address this crisis, pointing out that climate change poses a threat to our very existence. This threat looms over every man, every woman, and every child with no exception. As the collective web of life and the myriad of species and natural resources on earth are disappearing at an alarming rate, a select few profit, pillage, and pollute, and the rest of creation is left to suffer the consequences. The balance of all life teeters on a dangerous ledge due to ignorant human activity.
We see this happening all around us, as all the elements to sustain life are polluted, causing human harm and loss due to increased chronic illnesses, starvation, malnutrition, and new resistant diseases. We are displaced by habitat and agricultural loss due to devastating floods, storms, drought, fires, and extreme weather events. All these factors combined pose an existential threat to all life on earth. All facets of life are interconnected.
The world’s economy vacillates as securities are evermore insecure, giving rise to desperation and mayhem, protest and unrest, rise in violence and suicides, conflicts and wars, mass migration, refugee crises, and political polarization at the domestic and international levels, threatening past global alliances and cooperative interdependence. As nationalism, political divisiveness, religious clashes, cultural, racial, and social inequalities fracture our communities, we spiral out in a dangerous cycle creating more global unrest.
As the need for survival and self-preservation grow and as the ethics of service to others and cooperation decline, we are dangerously becoming a desperate global family at war with each other. I ask to those of you in this room: where then is the solution? It is in this room. Everyone in this room, you are the solution. You are here united for peace and this is what brings us all together. This is the hope, this is the inspiration, this is the answer.
This is why I applaud everyone in this conference. Each and every one of you and your great works are the keystones to peace and the potential unified solutions to all of these sad realities. Where at the deepest level, there is a crisis of the human heart and conscience, you risked your own safety to serve, educate, and enact real change for the sake of all humanity and creation.
Yesterday we had a session with ICUS and Professor Luc Montagnier gave a speech about his role in science. His Nobel laureate is on viruses, and he was saying that what he created had spurred other research that was potentially harmful to humanity. I was surprised in that moment that he was disclosing this and being so transparent, saying, “I need to tell all of you the dangers that my research spurred on.” As he listed every single one, I was like, “This is a man of groundbreaking human service. How many millions of people did he save? Yet, so humble, accountable, responsible. He was a man with a conscience, and heart to think about “Am I still serving humanity?” and questioning. I was deeply moved by that. And I would say even my Father would be deeply moved by that.
My father in his autobiography, A Peace-Loving Global Citizen, knew that the true value of all life and the preciousness of this earth can only be sustained by people with a higher consciousness who have a sincere heart of true love for all life:
Human selfishness is destroying nature. Competition for the shortest route to economic success is the main reason that the earth’s environment has been damaged. We cannot allow the earth to be damaged any further. Religious [and academic] people must lead the way in the effort to save nature. Nature is God’s creation and His gift to humankind. We must work quickly to awaken people to the preciousness of nature and the urgent need to restore it to the rich and free state it enjoyed at the time of Creation… The best environmental movement, however, is the one that spreads love… The shortcut to protecting nature is to develop a heart that loves nature. We must be able to shed a tear at the sight of even a blade of grass that we see as we walk along the road. We must be able to grab hold of a tree and weep. We must understand that God’s breath is hidden inside a single boulder or a single gust of wind. To care for and love the environment is to love God. We must be able to see each creature created by God as an object of our love. With our spiritual eyes opened we could see that a single dandelion by the roadside is more valuable than the gold crown of kings.
What beautiful words!
It is my sincere hope that your deliberations go well during this important conference and that we can bring these values and words into reality through harmonious action. Nothing is more important than to find solutions to our environmental, human-security crisis. We can only accomplish this noble goal by uniting together, as scholars, and as brothers and sisters, who seek holistic, scientific, spiritual, and educational practices to divert the trajectory of current unsustainable practices that plague our existence. When we lose our universal humanity and spirituality, the sad and tragic issues listed above will escalate.
That is why my parents, especially my amazing mother Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, have invested everything to address the environmental crisis that confronts us all today. She has been at the forefront creating the SunHak Peace Prize, reviving the International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences (ICUS), convening the World Summit and inaugurating this World Peace Academic Conference with esteemed global scholars emphasizing the importance of finding solutions to this crisis, with solutions that are both internal and external in nature.
She knows that the search for practical solutions through scientific, academic, and technological innovation, as well as through prudent and wise government and economic policies, will lead to finding those solutions. But she also knows that ultimately an internal awaking of a higher consciousness is the only solution to all the crises we see today.
Respect for this natural world, this universe, and everything that surrounds us all derive from the same origin, our divine Creator. She has been urging us always to seek fundamental solutions to the global environmental issues; that is, we must pursue the path of science and knowledge, and at the same time the path of spirituality and universal ethics and wisdom.
God, who is the origin of love, created humankind in order to share and multiply love. We were even created to be partners and co-creators with God. If we grow in wisdom and in love – true love, that is – we will come to treat the natural world with the same loving heart that God has toward this world. We will be life-givers who resemble God and, in this respect, we would become worthy to become the true stewards of nature.
We would then help bring about a great harmony among the Creator, humankind, and nature, an organic and integral unity. In this way we are able to protect, maintain, and restore the natural world, creating a sustainable balance between human beings and our wider environment.
Some have argued that religion is a source of our problems, that by positing the existence of a supreme spiritual God, religious people do not respect the material world. Others point their finger at academia, or at a scientific mentality that does not respect the sacred divinity of all creation. However, it is not religion, nor academic knowledge that is the root cause of our environmental crisis. It is the lack of harmony and cooperation between the two.
Academia is one of the greatest instruments that can liberate and emancipate, improving our knowledge and improving our lives. Religion enlightens us to the Divine universal value of loving and living for the sake of all life and creation. Only when there is unity in knowledge and spirituality can we realize our true internal and external potential for peace. That is why, united together, we must overcome this environmental crisis. It affects not only those of us alive today, but future generations as well. That is why your work, your research, your publications, and our deliberations here are so important. We are part of a global team of peacebuilders, working to make this world a better place, and to save each other from disaster. This is the reason why we are all here today, because we care, we are concerned, and we are committed to bring about lasting change. Do you all agree? Yes!
The great themes of the World Summit 2020 are interdependence, mutual prosperity and universal values. I believe these themes are important as we pursue solutions to the global crises. Please consider these points during your deliberations, remembering we are all interconnected.
What happens in China, as we see with the coronavirus, affects the entire planet, and not only the safety and health of the world’s population, but also the economy, politics, and the environment.
In closing I want to say that it has been an honor to address the 2020 World Peace Academic Conference today.
I understand your next sessions include topics such as “Dr. Moon’s Declaration of the End of Communism and the Vision for World Peace,” “The God Conference,” and “World University Presidents’ Conference.” I applaud my parents’ visionary achievements in this providential work.
The organizations CAUSA and PWPA have shown us how to overcome communism and offer a vision for world peace. All of the world’s problems stem from the pervasive influence of atheism – so the “God Conference” is utterly essential in bringing unity and harmony to end religious conflict.
Finally, through university education and using the Hyo Jeong Character Education textbook, True Parents are inspiring young people everywhere with their grand vision for a God-centered bright future.
As a daughter of True Parents, I deeply appreciate the topics of your four sections in commemoration of the great academic achievements of my parents. My mother’s vision for the IAAP and its establishment during this Summit is another milestone on the road to peace.
This 2020 Academic Conference aims at reconciling the fractured human family, long divided by ideology, doctrine and religion with the life-giving love and vision of oneness under our Divine creator. May we come together realizing we are one peace-loving global family under God, which is the only path to true peace. We must all cooperate with each other for the sake of this planet which is our only home and I know this summit will bear wholesome fruits.
As my father said, only “love” can bring us all together as one family, and only God can unify us all. Home is where God’s heart is and where the entire human family and creation are loved, nurtured, cherished, sustained, and guided to prosper. Let this loving ideal heal the earth and be our lasting legacy for future generations to come.
I deeply thank you for your contributions for peace! May God always bless you and your precious families.
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To go to the World Summit 2020 Schedule page, click here.