The DP from a UT perspective
featured photo, the painting“Rebirth” by Benny Andersson
Last month, we’d explained the last sentences of the First Blessing in the Exposition of the Divine Principle (p. 34). That blessing was to “be fruitful” — the first of the three that were given to the primeval parents in the book of Genesis:
“And God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” • Genesis 1:28
Our interest in these blessings isn’t just academic — the Principle views them as the keys to attaining the very purpose of our life here. And those keys are not only for that first couple, but for every human’s life that would follow, including yours and mine. The injunction to “multiply” is the second key to fulfilling life’s purpose and that’s why it’s called the Second Blessing. But like the first, it receives just a single paragraph of explanation in the Principle:
“God’s second blessing was to be fulfilled by Adam and Eve after they had achieved individual perfection as object partners to God, each manifesting an aspect of God’s dual characteristics. In order to construct the four position foundation in their family, Adam and Eve should have joined in loving oneness as husband and wife and raised children. … (such) A family or society … becomes the substantial object partner to the individual who lives in oneness with God…. The individual feels joy, and likewise… this family or community also becomes a good object partner giving joy to God.” • Exposition of the Divine Principle, p. 34
The very first sentence of this Second Blessing presupposes that a young man and a young woman would each achieve the First Blessing, that is, a level of spiritual maturity where they would respond fully, freely and naturally to God. At that first level, the Principle says they would “experience the Heart of God as if it were their own” (EDP, p. 34). They’d thereby enter a higher stage of life, as young people facing their futures, standing on that solid foundation of connectedness. The infinite possibilities of life would really open up for them at this new beginning point. Additionally, they would each be able to represent one or the other of God’s dual characteristics. Which brings my mind to specific passages in Unification Thought. The first is this one:
“First, a husband and wife each, originally, represents one of God’s dual characteristics of Yang and Yin; accordingly, their conjugal union signifies the manifestation of God. When a husband and wife love each other horizontally, centering on God, His vertical love dwells there, and life is created through the multiplication of love.” • New Essentials of Unification Thought, p. 169
When I first read the opening sentence, I was stunned and had to work at digesting it. That radical redefinition of conjugal union forced me to rethink my understanding of what it means to be blessed in marriage. No matter how beautiful I had thought true love between a man and a woman was, I never imagined it in such supremely exalted terms as this: that a married couple is “the manifestation of God”.
And yet, if I understand 1) that God is a Being in whom the attributes of Original Yang and Original Yin are harmonized, and 2) that men and women originate from these divine attributes, then when two fully-realized people join together, the logical conclusion is this absolutely extraordinary statement.
It’s actually an extension of the position of the Principle and Unification Thought that we’d studied a few posts back: that a fully-realized person is an eternally unique individual, the likes of whom has never existed before, nor will ever exist again. So when two such unique people come together as one in marriage, then together they’d represent God more completely than either one of them could do alone. And then, the fruit of their love is the creation of another new person — someone who’s never existed before, someone of potential uniqueness for all time…
So what has this fine-sounding ideal done for me practically? It has set a new and extremely high bar for the potential of married love. I have two ways to respond: On one hand, I could feel weighted down by the despair of ever attaining such an exalted state of marriage. But there’s the other way: since my wife’s and my life had long ago become a commitment to try to achieve — or at least approach — these Three Blessings, in reality, they have served instead as encouragement and inspiration. Because it’s not just an intellectual thing — it’s experiential: remember, the end result of these Three Blessings isn’t simply satisfaction from duties successfully executed. Rather, the end result is joy — joy for us and for our family and friends who sincerely care about us. And the Principle assures us that God experiences the joy, more deeply and intensely than human parents do.
While it’s true that I’ve never actually heard the pleasure in God’s voice (“This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” • Mark 1:11), there are other ways of sensing when something is in line with Heaven’s plans and intentions. It’s similar to the intuition I have that my Dad or Mom or my wife are pleased by something I’ve said or done, even though they don’t necessarily speak it. They might even quietly do something for me that expresses their unspoken pleasure. You get to recognize those little things as the years and decades roll by.
So, in the three decades since I received my marriage blessing, my entire experience of life has been transformed. Though I’d become a cynic in college, despairing of ever finding purpose and genuine pleasure in life, now, even after more than three decades of trying to make my couple a “manifestation of God”, the rewards from the sustained effort remain a source of inspiration and encouragement.
Of course there’s more to this idea of conjugal love being a manifestation of God. The idea will come up a few more times, and become increasingly clearer as we look into the Second Blessing in several succeeding posts. Till then, I believe that it’ll be more than enough homework for the next few weeks (decades really!) — to recast the idea of your own marriage into your couples’ own unique manifestation of God. ❦
