From: William Stoertz
Reply to Questions on Ideals and Perception
In all our work, our research, our discussions, we should
remember one thing, in order to be effective, meaningful, and
7good*: God is the center of our purpose, goal, and method.
Thus our work may be prosperous and beneficial.
Through your study, in your institute, you may give glory
to God and True Parents. You may also learn better than
anyone else, because you have been given the deep-rooted
vision and understanding which opens the eyes to what is
7behind* the existence, phenomena, and appearances of the
visible world.
In so doing, you may think of Plato, the original
Philosopher, and a true Philosopher up to this day, as opposed
to those 7fools* (as the Bible says) which call themselves
7philosophers* and are sincerely interested in the cosmos and
the origins of things, but cut themselves off from truth,
goodness, and beauty by denying God and the Essential World.
Now, most professors in most Philosophy Faculties are
themselves defying or denying God, so they will not respect
such deep, penetrating, and clear thinking. This is true both East
and West. Therefore, you must ask yourself: do you want to
Really know the Truth; or do you want to just satisfy the
professor and get through it as quick as possible? (I can see a
justification for either approach).
7Sophists* were called those speakers and 7thinkers* who
studied merely how to argue convincingly, without seeking
Truth and Goodness. Just as today, those were the types that
Socrates and Plato, the true philosophers of their day, had to
deal with, and so do we.
I want you to know that Divine Principle is extremely
philosophically sound, as is true Christian philosophy and
theology. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of Greek philosophy.
True Parents are the fulfillment of both Hellenism and
Hebraism; Christianity and science. Check it out: True Parents
are philosophically True.
So, you will see that the True Human Being, and the True
Family, stand right in the center and goal of the existence of the
entire physical universe and the whole Cosmos, since the very
moment of Creation, and also embracing the existence of the
spiritual world and the Ideal World of Forms which Plato
spoke of.
In psychology, it is said by some that 7The human being is
the gestalt or essence of all forms in the world of perception, the
irreducible atom of perception and consciousness.*
Now, to your question: 1. What is 7Ideal*?
Very good question. You must know the order of creation
in order to properly answer that question.
The order of creation is: (1) God"s Heart, (2) God"s sung-
sang and hyung-sang, (3) God"s yang and yin, (4) Universal
Prime Force immanent in God, (5) God"s overall Purpose, (6)
The Ideal Realm, (7) God"s overall Plan or Providence, (8)
God"s Logos (Principles), (9) God"s specific Logos (Forms or
Images of Beings), (10) God"s specific Plan or developmental
sequence, (11) Universal Prime Force or origin of matter and
energy, (12) Universal Prime Force as directive energy, (13)
actual creation, starting with (14) the Womb of Creation or the
Cosmic Egg, leading to (15) 7The Big Bang*, (16) Hadron
phase, (17) Quark phase, (18) Plasma phase, (19) Atomic
phase, (20) Stars, (21) Supernovae, creating heavy elements,
(22) Interstellar dust, (23) Secondary stars (like our Sun), (24)
Planets, (25) Solid crust, (26) Oceans, (27) Continents, (28)
Unicellular life, (29) Plants, (30) Single-celled animals with
perception, (31) Invertebrates, (32) Fish, (33) Amphibians, (34)
Reptiles, (35) Birds, (36) Mammals, (37) Monkeys and Apes,
(38) Hominids, (39) Homo genus, (40) Adam and Eve.
Actually, this corresponds well with the Bible account in
Genesis 1 and 2. So much is contained in the simple statement,
7In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.*
There are more or less steps, and it is more or less detailed.
You could also rearrange them.
But the main thing is that God made the plans before He
created the physical world; this is radically different from
evolution theory. It was all done according to purpose and plan.
The 7Ideal Realm* is the realm of God"s planning.
However, it is not the Spiritual World. It is important to
distinguish these three: Ideal Realm, Spiritual World, and Sung-
Sang.
Ideal Realm is within God"s mind. It is the drawing board,
the imaginary space, within God"s mind, where reside His
Principles (Divine Principle, logic, mathematical principles, and
natural and social principles or laws), His Plans (providential
sequence), and Individual Images (designs for species of living
things, shapes and maps of stars, landforms, structures, etc.),
and even Individual Images for individual people.
Spiritual World is a universe created by God, with
dimensions of 7time* and 7space*, with many 7compartments*,
and very flexible for all different manifestations. It is also called
the Invisible Substantial World.
Sung-sang is not the spiritual world, though it is invisible.
It is the invisible or vertical dimension or axis to physical
things. Each Individual Truth Body has a corresponding Sung-
sang. Now, individual beings are composed of smaller
Individual Truth Bodies, which also have Sung-sangs on a
lower level. So there is a hierarchy of Sung-sangs, from greater
to lesser -- from the whole vast physical universe, to humanity,
to nations, cities, each family, each person, each organ, each
living thing, each cell, each molecule, each atom, each particle.
Sung-sang is not the spiritual world; but the spiritual world is
relatively sung-sang, in relationship to the physical world. The
spiritual world has its own sung-sang and hyung-sang, in good
order, just like the physical world.
All we see physically is the external physical (hyung-sang)
manifestations of things. However, not all hyung-sangs are
visible (for example, air, energy, electricity, or the objects
behind the door!).
However, scientists and regular people (even Marxists) all
admit the existence of laws of nature and society. Those are not
necessarily written somewhere. But they are already in the Ideal
Realm. There is, right there, a proof of the existence of some
form of Ideal Realm. Because, why are the laws of nature the
same everywhere? Because there is a unifying principle. It is in
the Ideal Realm, in the realm of God"s Logos. Nobody can
explain the origin of the material world nor of the incredible
order in the world, without ultimately referring to God or to the
Ideal Realm.
The Ideal Realm is part of God"s Logos.
Whatever you contact within the Ideal Realm is wonderful
and satisfying and real to you. You have a sense of
transcendence, leading to something wonderfully more real than
the physical reality we are living in. Love, beauty, goodness,
truth -- all touch upon the Ideal Realm. It is there that such
7ideals* dwell, and are found.
There is a principle of correspondence, analogy, or
reflection between God, man, and the world. Namely, the
structure and order of God is also found within man (in image),
and within the natural world (symbolically). So, we can
understand something about God also by examining the human
mind and body, or nature in general. This principle can be
pursued or investigated to great depth!
The question or issue of Idealism and Materialism touches
upon evolution. Evolution as a theory denying the Ideal Realm
is certainly wrong; however, physical and historical evolution,
in light of God"s Plan, is most certainly correct. The origin,
heart, and motivation is completely different.
Furthermore, knowing God and His Original Purpose and
Ideal, then we realize there is right and wrong, there is good and
bad, there is beautiful and ugly. Not all things are acceptable.
Values are not relative but absolute and ultimate. Socrates and
Plato were right; the Sophists, also Darwin, Freud, Marx, John
Dewey, Masters and Johnson -- are somehow off-center. We
can learn something from them, but we have to get back to God
and the Ideal.
The physical reality is the one you see and touch. It is
7real* to our physical senses and to scientific instruments.
However, it is always changing. Some things are more eternal,
like the orbits of the planets, or the shape of living things from
generation to generation. But those things very directly reflect
God"s eternal principles, found in laws of nature.
So, we tend to think the physical reality is the only real
one. Yet, it is quickly changing and disappearing! We too will
die and vanish, in this sense.
The more fundamental reality is in the Ideal Realm.
Though all phenomena or manifestations disappear, the Ideal,
the Principles, the values, the Heart of God -- never will.
So, which is 7reality*, from the Unificationist viewpoint?
Actually, the answer to that is: both of them. Both the physical
world and the Ideal Realm, and also the spiritual world -- that is
reality.
What is 7reality*? God"s Heart, God"s nature, God"s
personality, the Ideal Realm (or Ideals, Forms, Principles), the
spiritual world with its countless beings and realms, and the
vast physical world which is always changing -- all that is
7reality*. Each realm has a different quality and purpose, but
they all fit together.
What about 7Ideal* as some side of psyche or
consciousness? Yes. God"s Ideals, or the structure of the
existence of the Ideal Realm in relationship to both Heart and to
the observed reality, exists within God, and is reflected in
people. We are like God -- in His Image and Likeness. Read
Unification Thought, first three chapters.
In man, the Ideal is very important and very central. We
touch it in our dreams, our subconsciousness, and our intuition.
It is not obvious or dominant in our waking daily life, but we
must have contact with our own ideals, our personal Ideal
Realm, which reflects God. If not, we become mentally sick,
rootless, in an existential crisis. People without ideals are like
the mafia, destroying human life and violating the conscience
for the sake of money, sex, and power.
Human consciousness touches upon God. God is the root
of all consciousness (the true, essential, ultimate human
consciousness). In the ideal sense, the true human being is one
with God. Then we see as God sees, think as God thinks, speak
as God would speak. Then God hears and sees through our
ears and eyes. Then when we love, our love is complete, and
God enters our union and loves through and with us. Then our
consciousness is God"s consciousness.
However, the fallen, false, or immature human being is not
one with God, and his consciousness is not true or deep
consciousness -- it is off-centered, personal, distorted, limited.
Yet there is a trace of original consciousness. Otherwise we
would be automatons, robots, animals, worse than animals, and
truly dead, in the sense of the ideal consciousness. Such people
who are only half-alive are all around us. More or less, in the
case of all people.
What is perception? You will do very well to read the
Unification Thought on 7Epistemology*. Perception has an
order or sequence, like God"s creation. First there is physical or
sensory input. Light, sound, temperature, chemicals -- impinge
upon the cells of the sense organs. By the way, those organs
and cells have their own sung-sang or consciousness at an
elementary level. Then the signals are integrated and transmitted
to a nerve center in the brain -- centers for vision, speech, smell,
touch, etc. Then a sensation is generated and perceived there.
That is 7perception*, which is already existing on the animal
level. Then there is instinct, or instinctual response, which we
all know, but in human beings it can almost always be
overridden by the conscious mind. That is the reasoning faculty.
That is the next level. Intellectually cognizing, 7Ah -- that is...*
That is called cognition. Finally there is the deep reasoning --
deducing principles, meanings, conclusions, etc. That
corresponds to the more fundamental Logos of God. Logos is
based upon Heart within God, and within man, the root of our
being is heart, love, or a kind of deep, long-term emotion. Read
about this in Principle. So, perception is a multiple-stage
process -- from hyung-sang to sung-sang, to Logos, and finally
Heart.
We feel joy, satisfaction, and completeness, when we
complete this process, and come back to true Ideals, the
knowledge in the Ideal Realm, as Plato spoke of 7forms* and
7ideals*, and, what Father revealed, about God"s Heart, which
no one truly understood before except Jesus Christ.
So, there, my friends and brothers, is a complete
discussion of Ideal from the Principle and Unificationist point
of view. Thank you, and I wish you success and victory in your
studies and your mission. Connect those things, and connect
them with your life and your family in the future.
Please don"t hesitate to ask me more, unless you find my
answers too long or tiresome!
By the way, the person who lives his or her life in
accordance with his ideals, with True Ideals, which come from
God, will go to the highest Heaven, and this I wish for you.
Yours truly, William Stoertz, ITPN
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