March 2nd, 2004

by Mr. Yoon, Hong Sik

 

 

 

1. Morality and Culture of Conscience

 

Humans are a being of both ‘Conscience’, which cares for the welfare of all people, and ‘Desire’, which pursues only personal interests. Desire in and of itself is not an evil. Desire as well as Conscience is part of our precious mind that we are supposed to manage carefully. Desire, however, can turn into deadly venom that would harm everyone including oneself the moment one's desire acts against the command of Conscience. Hence, it is imperative that desire, which can never be detached from our mind, should be put under the control of Conscience. When this occurs, desire and Conscience are placed in their rightful places and we shall live in true happiness as human beings. Only Conscience can control desire rationally. Conscience, which represents the cosmic mind, is inscribed with a universal rule, “Do not do to others what you would not like them to do unto you!” It is universally and undeniably true that following that rule is a ‘Virtue’ and disobeying it is a ‘Vice’. ‘The Way’ is manifested when people realize and appreciate the true nature of humans (ie. ‘Love, Justice, Harmony, Wisdom, and Trust’) by cultivating their Conscience. And ‘The Virtue’ is established when people practice ‘Love, Justice, Harmony, Wisdom, and Trust’ and thereby manage their everyday life in accordance with their Conscience. Humanity will then proudly stand before the cosmos by following the path of humans with the practice of ‘The Way and The Virtue.’

 

2. Completion of ‘The Great Humanitarian Ideal’

 

Conscience is our hope, which takes others’ welfare into consideration. One should first have a clear understanding of oneself and then, by extending that understanding, look to others. We must always search for answers that can benefit all people, by putting ourselves in others’ shoes: namely, treat others in the way as you would like to be treated; and do not treat others as you would not like to be treated. The coexistence and mutual improvement of human races would only be achieved through a practice of putting oneself in another person's position. This is what ‘The Great Humanitarian Ideal’, a long-cherished dream of human beings, stands for. Such a great ideal should be underpinned by politics so that it can be thoroughly implemented. ‘The Rule of Might’ would never sustain and enrich all humanity because it is based on the idea of ‘the strong prey upon the weak’ and therefore benefits only the strongest. Consequently, we hereby proclaim that our country should adopt ‘The Rule of Right’ or ‘The Politics of the Great Humanitarian Ideal’ as national policy and thereby strive for the welfare of all humanity.

 

3. Security of the Autonomy of Nations and States

 

A ‘Nation’ refers to a community of people who share a common culture and custom, treading the same path of history. ‘Nations’ take the duty of thriving people, and ‘States’ take the duty of governing people. Nations, in association with states, have thus emerged in history, taking various forms. The autonomy of nations and states should be secured constantly. Just as establishing a truly healthy society is impossible without the independence of individuals, establishing ‘the world as one family’ will be remote without the independence of nations and states. Authentic nationalism is the foundation of cosmopolitanism. An antonym of nationalism is not ‘cosmopolitanism’ but ‘flunkyism’ or ‘imperialism’. We must bear in mind that authentic cosmopolitanism is accomplished not by destroying nations and states but through mutual respect and cooperation among them.

 

4. Self-realization through Labor

 

Heaven, giving birth to all people, endowed everyone with his or her ‘job’. The Heaven's will is that the job enables people to: basically sustain their life with a secure livelihood; and moreover, dedicate themselves to creative work, mentally or physically, by reaching their full potential through their labor; and therefore take part in the greatest work of the universe. Accordingly, human labor makes it possible for people to manifest themselves in the human society and the universe. No less than a human's labor is truly sacred. Furthermore, labor becomes even more highly sacred when it is provided for the benefit of public interest rather than a satisfaction of a private desire. Consequently, a state should provide a wide range of services to its citizen so that they can fully develop their potential.

 

5. Realization of Just Society

 

There is an absolute cosmic truth in the statement, "No reward without labor.", which reflects a sacred law that we should observe: "A deed of any kind produces its result; but no deed does not produce a result of any kind." Consequently, it should be strictly prohibited that anyone unfairly obtains non-labored income, except for those who are incapable of any type of labor. Sane people should earn their livelihood independently, and possess wisdom and courage, with which they take the initiative in creating the universe by means of labor. Furthermore, they should be able to offer benevolence by sharing with others the fruits of their labor. This epitomizes what humans are supposed to do.

 

6. Minimization of Wealth Inequality

 

It is a basic human right that an individual person can possess private property and accumulate wealth. It is also natural that the degree of personal wealth differs among people resulting from different levels of individual efforts. However, these facts should not be used to provide a basis for justifying the extremes of wealth and poverty. Put differently, the state must ensure that wealth inequality does not widen to a great degree, while accepting the fact that wealth inequality per se is inevitable. At the same time, the state must guarantee that people on a low income sustain their minimum livelihood. In the light of our national policy, ‘The Great Humanitarian Ideal’, a government policy itself is a vice if it would make the lower-income class have a serious feeling of comparative deprivation.

 

7. The Stabilization of Livelihood

 

A state should prioritize secure livelihood for its people, and then, meet other human needs for pleasure in life by providing public service, such as transportation, education, entertainment and medical service. In the end, all people should live in an environment where a culture of self-realization is widespread. Policymakers are called for preventing social goods and services from being distributed to a small group of people disproportionately, as best they could. In other words, they are required to implement policies for the benefit of a majority of ordinary people, and not for the benefit of a small privileged group. As such, it is a duty of a state to aim for ‘the politics of the greatest unity’ which would expel any social discrimination or marginalization.

 

8. Holistic Education through Development of Wisdom, Virtue and Vigor

 

All humans are born with two innate qualities: ‘Innate knowing of good and evil‘ and ’Innate ability to do good deeds‘. Anyone, therefore, would be able to perfect ‘Wisdom, Virtue and Vigor’ if he or she, by nurture, can exploit those two qualities to the greatest degree. To this end, one needs to go through a Conscience-awakening and develop wisdom to clearly tell good from evil. In addition, if people also build up ‘Vigor’ commensurate with their cultivated wisdom, they would ultimately exhibit the human virtues (ie. a set of ‘Love, Justice, Harmony, Wisdom and Trust’) in its perfection.  In brief, humans are to recover their innate qualities by nurture and reclaim ‘Natural attributes’ endowed by the Creator along with ‘Heaven and earth’, from the beginning. Given that humans are part of nature, it is natural for humans to submit to ‘The fundamental laws of Nature’, and when one submits to it willingly and spontaneously, he or she would be following the true ‘Human's Way’. Nothing less than nurturing of ‘Wisdom, Virtue and Vigor’ would complete the human's way.

 

9. Election of Conscientious Leadership

 

Why do we always see a political system which is invented for enriching human life adversely turn into a means of oppressing people? Which political regime would bring us authentic democracy that we have been yearning for in ages? The answer is surprisingly simple. Whatever political regime we adopt, people are humanely respected where leaders are conscientious and competent; in contrast, people live in horrible environment, being oppressed or tortured where leaders are corrupt, evil and incompetent. Why is that? In thousands of years of human history, as people came to live in groups, almost all societies were ruled by a small number of leaders; and this is a rational choice in terms of efficiency. Consequently, how we can fairly elect the few who have well-developed consciences and talents, becomes a critical question. If leaders are always elected based on this principle, everyone in the society would be humanely respected; and therefore authentic democracy would come true.

 

10. Realization of the World as One Family

 

In conclusion, we will be striving to achieve our goals that are summarized as follows:

• adopting ‘The Great Humanitarian Ideal’ as national policy;

• stabilizing the household economy;

• providing an environment where people can fully develop their potential;

• electing conscientious leaders; and

therefore, realizing a world of ‘The Great Humanitarian Ideal’ or ‘A World Ruled by Cosmic Law’.

However, how would it be possible that we overlook sufferings and difficulties of other nations and states when we adopt ‘The Great Humanitarian Ideal’ as our national policy? Hence, it would also be our responsibility to consider other nations and states as our brothers and sisters and help them as well; we should never forget that the whole world is one family. In so doing, one day we shall create a world of peace, where there is no war and no violence.