2. Process of Growth of Human Beings

Human beings were created to resemble God. This resemblance, however, does not occur instantaneously from the moment of birth. In order to come to resemble God, they need time to develop themselves, since the created world is a world of time and space. Thus, human beings have the need to grow through the three stages of formation, growth, and completion, and then come to resemble God in perfection, multiplication, and dominion. Human growth, therefore, is the process of coming to resemble God in terms of His personality, harmony of Yang and Yin, and creativity.

The three great blessings, given by God to human beings, imply that it is after their growing completely that they will be able to fully inherit God’s perfection, multiplication, and dominion. Therefore, these three great blessings are, in fact, three great promised blessings. Due to the fall, however, these three great blessings, or commandments, were not fulfilled.

As written in Genesis, these three great blessings were commandments in the form of “Do….” Even though human beings fell away from God, these commandments given by Him have not been annulled, but remain valid even now, today. This means that the will of Heaven has been urging human beings, through their subconscious mind, to fulfill the three great blessings or commandments.

This is why human beings have ceaselessly been endeavoring to fulfill the three great commandments, even if unconsciously. Accordingly, even in fallen society, people have endeavored, according to this will of Heaven, to mature themselves in personality, to find a good spouse and form a family, and to improve society and rule nature. It is for this reason that human beings have the desire to grow, the desire to get married, the desire to rule, the desire to improve oneself, and so on.

Yet, these desires have not been completely fulfilled, even until now, because of the fall of the first ancestors of humankind.

Thus, a human being must grow for the purpose of completing the three great blessings. All things grow through the autonomy and dominion of the principle. This means that they naturally grow as the life force within them propels them to growth.

The autonomy and dominion of the principle refer to the activity of life. In the case of human beings, however, although the physical self grows through the autonomy and dominion of the principle, like all creatures, the human spirit self does not. In order for the spirit self to grow, a certain condition is required.

This is why human beings are given a “portion of responsibility.” This means that human beings perfect their personality only through their own responsibility and effort. Thus, they must make efforts to grow by experiencing God’s love while observing the norm (the principle) with their own free will.

The first human ancestors, Adam and Eve, should have grown by observing God’s commandment, should have become husband and wife after having experienced God’s Heart, and should have actualized God’s love. Since Adam and Eve were to have become the first ancestors of humankind, as the representatives of all humankind they were responsible not only for themselves, but also for their descendants. For that reason, God totally refrained from interfering with their responsibility.

If Adam and Eve had fulfilled such a serious responsibility by observing God’s Word, their descendants would have been able to grow through fulfilling a much lighter condition. In other words, in the case of Adam and Eve, they had to fulfill the three great blessings solely on the basis of their solemn responsibility; in the case of their descendants, however, they would have been able to perfect the three great blessings through a lighter responsibility, that is, simply by following obediently the teachings of their parents.

For this reason, Adam and Eve should have achieved the three great blessings by fulfilling their own responsibility solely by themselves without receiving any help from others. Thus, after Adam and Eve had perfected themselves, their children were supposed to obey their parents’ teachings; namely, children should receive education from their parents.

This is the origin of the need for parents to teach their children, or the need for education: education by parents is necessary for children to fulfill their portion of responsibility. Therefore, in its most fundamental form education is the guidance that parents give to their children so that their children may fulfill the three great blessings. Thus, we arrive at an ideal for education: parents teach and guide their children so that the children may be able to perfect the three great blessings. Therefore, the original place of education must be the family where parents and children live.

Along with the development of culture, however, the amount of information and learning has increased, and it has become impossible for parents to convey the entire scope of education in the family. Naturally, therefore, the place of education was extended from the family to the school, the professional place for education, where teachers educate students on behalf of parents. Therefore, teachers, as the representatives of parents, must instruct students with a parental heart. This is the original way of education.