Note 1. To the Section “I. Divine Principle Foundation for Ethics”
At this point, I can explain “vertical love and horizontal love.” I can also explain certain other terms that Rev. Sun Myung Moon, in referring to love, has often used, such as the “vertical and horizontal axes of love.”
Since the relationship between God and human beings is like that between heaven and earth, or that between parents and children, it can be described as a relationship between above and below―in other words, it is a vertical relationship. On the other hand, since the rela-tionship between husband and wife is that between man and woman of the same generation, it is a horizontal relationship. Accordingly, God’s love is vertical, and the love between husband and wife is horizontal God’s love derives from the impulsive, emotional force of His Heart; once it starts, it travels in a straight line―much in the same way as light travels in a straight line. This means that God’s love does not travel in a roundabout or curved manner. This characteristic of love is called “the axis of God’s love.”
So, the form of God’s vertical love moving in a straight line is expressed as “the vertical axis of love.” Love between husband and wife also moves in a straight line. So, the form of conjugal, horizontal love moving in a straight line is expressed as “the horizontal axis of love.”
In the same way as the light traveling in a straight line is expressed as a “beam of light,” the love moving in a straight line is expressed as a “beam of love” or “axis of love.” The vertical beam of love is the “vertical axis of love,” and the horizontal beam of love is the “horizontal axis of love.”