The Starting Point of All Truths

Having listened to you, I feel that perhaps it’s fitting to expand our discussion to talk about nature and heaven and earth, to create a clearer understanding of Jeung San Do. In Jeung San Do, the term ‘heaven and earth’ is used very often. Why so?

Taesabunim once said, “Truths are not necessary the truth. A truth is invariably founded upon a framework. What is this framework? It is the principle of nature.” What he meant is that ‘great nature’—the earth and the universe in which we reside—is the framework of the truth, and we can find the fount of truth only by examining heaven and earth. Really, when we begin our study of the truth, our study must begin with an inquiry into the principle of nature that underlies all change.

Sangjenim taught that before we start learning truth, we must first be able to understand the framework—the very framework of truth that is heaven and earth. To understand this framework of truth is to discover answers to fundamental questions such as: ‘How did heaven and earth come into existence and for what purpose?’ ‘Why are heaven and earth the way they are?’ ‘Why are human beings born within heaven and earth, and what is the purpose of human life?’

One of the main reasons that Jeung San Do’s truth attracts the intellectuals and the young in particular lies in our cosmology. Jeung San Do’s cosmology can satisfy the thirst for truth in a way that religions or grand theories of philosophy or science simply cannot. Once a person gains an awareness about the order of heaven and earth’s change as taught by Jeung-san Sangjenim, that person develops a discerning eye capable of comprehensively understanding world politics, religions, and even the evolution of the varied cultures of all times and places, as well as the distinctive characteristics of these cultures.

How does the universe evolve?

The earth, compared with the boundless universe, is but a tiny dot. Moreover, we human beings residing on earth are all the tinier. It is indeed an arduous labor for beings as tiny as humans to fathom how all the universe—including the earth—undergoes change.

Then what is the overarching concept that must be understood for one to understand the universe? It is this: the universe observes a cycle. Just as breathing and the circulation of blood repeat within the human body—which is regarded as a small universe—heaven and earth observes a cycle, just as does the universe itself. Not only nature undergoes a cycle; time does so as well. The East has held this belief, that the world observes a cycle, since ancient times.