Sharing Wisdom: How You Know What You Do Is Good

Words of wisdom: If you want to be good, make sure you have a clear motive, a sense of direction, and a good purpose

A speech given by Dr. David Hanna, head of the North European subregion of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, at an international prayer meeting on Zoom 22nd January 2025. Slightly edited.

I once taught an elderly “sister” the Divine Principle one to one, and she was overjoyed to find a living Messiah. She’d been searching all her life.

But she had one sticking point to signing membership. She had a long-term attachment to the idea of reincarnation through her research of Buddhism, Hinduism and the practise of meditation. Even though she was brought up in the Orthodox Church, and then as a Catholic, I tried to help her understand through lectures. I even wrote an essay for her to read, but to no avail. She still felt this was an obstacle.

I didn’t really know what to do. But I had a phone call with one wonderful “brother” in the Netherlands who had got to know this lady as well. He recommended that I sit down with her and read together the Exposition of the Divine Principle.

I did this. That is reading the page or so that deals with reincarnation. It’s not a long passage. When we had finished reading, she said, “That’s it!
I finally got it!” And then she went on to sign membership.

This taught me the importance of what I would call “going back to the source”. Often when I’m teaching, I’m painfully aware that I’m giving a reworked and paraphrased understanding which can indeed help people access the material, but it cannot have the spiritual power and clarity of going to the original source.

I was so happy when the True Parents included as number six of the eight great textbooks “World Scripture and the Teachings of Sun Myung Moon” because it contains many quotations from the religions of the world, from African native religions to even Scientology.

It acknowledges and embraces that rich heritage and God‘s word in other holy scriptures. Now of course that’s joined by the three books of the holy scriptures of the Family Federation – Cheon Seong Gyeong, Pyeonghwa Gyeong, and Chambumo Gyeong.

We have available to us an extraordinary wealth of spiritual knowledge and wisdom. I also myself like to read other versions of the Unification Principles. I recommend those and include in lectures also other sources, even non-Unificationist ones.

I noticed in this particular book – you might recognise this one – the Outline of the Principle – Level 4, the old “green book” as opposed to the “black book”. Do you remember? There are still a few around, and you’ll certainly find it online, as I did.

I noticed in this book that there was something that was not included in the Exposition of the Divine Principle, our main text. And I was rather curious – as when one notices these kinds of things. And the text I saw gave rise to this diagram.

Motivation, direction, purpose — *Diagram Dr. Hanna used to illustrate his speech. Based on the section “Good and Evil Seen from the Viewpoint of Purpose” in “Outline of the Principle – Level 4”. Illustration: FFWPU*

It tells us that to do good, three things have to line up. The first is motivation, our reasons and impulse. To do something, our motivation has to be good.

The second is the end goal. The purpose has to be a good purpose. It’s very possible to have a good purpose but not a good motivation, and vice versa.

But that’s not all; something else is talked about. It’s what connects these two. And the term that is used is “direction”. The direction has to be good.

Now, it’s not really explained in the text what that exactly means, but I take it to mean that the way we do things has to be good. It has to be morally good and ethically good.

And it’s not the case that the end justifies the means, which is a justification so often heard.

With these three lined up, then we can pursue beauty, truth and goodness in all things.

I found this to be very revealing, but I wondered where this came from. And I thought it was only to be found in this version of the Unification Principles.

But then I was reading the Cheon Seong Gyeong as an original source and came across this passage right here.

It says there,

“God is the causal being of the universe. He is the causal being behind all action, the causal being who exerts force, the causal being who gives direction, and the causal being who endows purpose.
We call him a God of personality because he always acts with a clear motive, a sense of direction, and a purpose.
Therefore, everything in the world advances in the direction of the purpose that is based on the cause. This is what we mean when we say that God is the being that causes everything.”

I repeat,

“We call him a God of personality because he always acts with a clear motive, a sense of direction, and a purpose.”

This tells me even more. This is not only the way of goodness, but a source of godly personality. If we are to be in the image of God, I reckon that means we too should always work with a pure motive that is is good, a sense of direction that is good, and a purpose that is also good.

Then we are free to do what we want, to contribute in our own unique way with great freedom.

[…] It’s quite amazing how much you all are doing. I hope that the words I shared from the True Parents tonight will serve to affirm the goodness of what you are doing. I hope it will even motivate you to get started on something and do it with joy and with the confidence and feeling of liberation of knowing that what you are doing is good.

Thank you and God bless you all.

Featured image above: Finding wisdom. Illustration: Microsoft Designer Image Creator, January 2025

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