Masculinity and Femininity

by Hyo Jin Moon

Sunday 24 June 2007 7:00 am
Belvedere Training Center
Tarrytown, NY,

Unofficial notes by Joe Kinney
BelvedereTalks@Gmail.com

[Rev. Andrew Compton is the MC.] All welcome Hyo-Jin-nim and Yeon-Ah-nim and offer a standing bow.

[Hyo-Jin-nim bows to the audience as he approaches the stage.]

Good morning. [Good morning] It never ends. [Laughter]

It certainly doesn’t get any easier, and it shouldn’t. Otherwise you’re useless equipment, outdated.

Let’s talk about masculinity and femininity. What is a macho man? I guess pretty much in general throughout the cultures, man does the providing right? They go out and take the risk and do whatever that they have to do to put the food on the table; that’s what they do. And the woman raises the family, right, the best that they can, and every detail matters when you try to raise children. I guess that’s the opposite.

It [man’s responsibility] expands and it [woman’s responsibility] focuses. [Hyo-Jin-nim gestures making an expanding and a focusing “V” shape] So basically that’s what it is, I guess, that we’re supposed to do as a father and mother if you have a family. But where does that concept come from though?

God created mankind in the image of Himself, so that masculinity and that femininity obviously came from God, and is manifested by the creation of humanity. And when you break down the essence of that humanity, then there is man and woman. That is the essence of humanity. That is the essence of masculinity and femininity, and there is a difference, it is opposite.

Opposite in what, for what reason? To learn to come together, that is the most important factor, to learn to unite. Because man learns from woman something that they need to learn to become one with God. And woman too, visa-versa. Because that’s what is the essence of responsibility. You have to put something on the table, you have to earn it. Yes, you have that potential. That’s why it can be learned, but you have to act upon it. It is your responsibility to make the right choices in understanding how things can best work, because you can mess up your whole end of the thing.

When you look at the nature, it is beautiful right? There is so much beauty, but at the same time it also has fury. The reason that it exists in an opposite reality within the domain of the earth itself, the nature itself is because that’s how it grows and expands. That’s how it rejuvenates itself. That’s how it recovers. That’s LIFE!

We have to understand that stuff. How many times did we jump to a conclusion through our arrogance without knowing things? That’s why we make mistakes. That’s why the foretelling, fortune teller stuff, foreseeing stuff, becomes wrong. That’s part of the learning process isn’t it? That’s how you learn. But, in the end, it exists to unite, to create something, teach us something. Nature is there, it is a textbook of learning about basic stuff that makes us who we are to give us the basic understanding of how we can relate to God, because we do have the tools within our physical self, our consciousness and our spirit.

In terms of volume and size there and a degree of expansion, we’re the highest. There’s nothing greater, not on this planet. Maybe somewhere else flying around with flying saucers and stuff, but that’s a different story. [Laughter] I’d love to meet those hermaphrodites. [Laughter]

Even in our practical day-to-day reality why should the government, the political system itself in America, let’s say, why should it be adversarial? You can have two opposing stuff, but why can’t that model be of love, not an adversarial system? Why can’t we just teach each other something and try to learn and come together in union?

Because that’s the model of man and woman coming together. It is so silly. Freedom doesn’t allow you to be stupid, okay? I’ll start from there. And what about racial relationships? What about everything? Anything that you want to talk about in human relationships, why does it have to be adversarial? Because if it is like that, it is like living in a home where the father and mother don’t trust each other, and are always doing crazy stuff to each other, and you grow up in that. That’s just nonsense! How the heck do you make an ideal family in that situation? How is it possible?

Just because somebody does something, that does not mean that it is right. Just because America is the richest nation on the earth: “We have ten trillion dollars in revenue, and top in terms of taxpayers, and our government budget is three trillion dollars. We have so much money and we are the best!” So be it. Who cares? It has nothing to do with making your family correct.

[From this point till the end Hyo-Jin-nim spoke in tears.]

And that’s what you need to question if you’re going to question anything, you have to question that. Why? You want to be good, everybody wants to be good. People take advantage of that goodness. People want to love stuff and throughout history, a lot of manipulative people in power have used that to put those little children to war, because they want love, they want to become something united to something greater, something opposite, something that they’re not. And hopefully that is greater.

Of course you propagandize it, you’re being greater because there’s a relationship of subject and object. Why, because we do have a relationship between God and mankind. That’s why we go to church.

Do you expect God to come to you every day? Who chases after God more, you or God chasing you? So who’s the subject? And there is such a thing, but in love is DOESN’T MATTER! Because you’re one, and it’s a necessary one. You need it. Who cares if I’m the first? Why does that matter when it takes TWO to become one, and make you whole. Why do I have to say to my self “I AM IMPORTANT, I AM THE BEST!” what about the second that I NEED to be whole?

You have to be humble and keep your arrogance to yourself. That’s a humble man. Because you want to grow, you want to learn, you want to love more, I want more, that stuff. That’s why you want to be humble. How can I say that I know everything, that I have everything? Then I’m gone. I’m a dead man walking. Might as well be dead right? Anyway …

You have to learn to come together. We exist for a reason. But that stuff, that opposite, that’s the way to family. It might be the simplest stuff we’ll experience in our human life initially, but there is a whole lot of stuff out there beyond that stuff. That’s just the fundamental stuff.

You have to be willing to whole [?] P-l-e-a-s-e d-o-n-’t b-e a-r-r-o-g-a-n-t [Hyo-Jin-nim punctuated each word with a tap on the podium]

It’s a constant job. It never ends. [Hyo-Jin-nim taps the podium twice as he has done at the close of his past several talks]

Okay, take care.