3. The Work of Creation Required Love and Sacrifice

World Scripture

The spirit of the valley never dies.
It is called the subtle and profound female.
The gate of the subtle and profound female
Is the root of heaven and earth.
It is continuous, and seems to be always existing.
Use it and you will never wear it out.
Tao Te Ching 6 (Taoism)

At first was neither Being nor Nonbeing.
There was not air nor yet sky beyond.
What was its wrapping?
Where? In whose protection?
Was Water there, unfathomable and deep?
There was no death then, nor yet deathlessness;
of night or day there was not any sign.
The One breathed without breath, by its own impulse.
Other than that was nothing else at all.
Darkness was there, all wrapped around by darkness,
and all was Water indiscriminate.
Then that which was hidden by the void,
that One, emerging, stirring, through the power of ardor (tapas),
came to be. In the beginning Love arose,
which was the primal germ cell of the mind.³⁴
The Seers, searching in their hearts with wisdom,
discovered the connection of Being in Nonbeing.
A crosswise line cut Being from Nonbeing.
What was described above it, what below?
Bearers of seed there were and mighty forces,
thrust from below and forward move above.
Rig Veda 10.129 (Hinduism)

When with the Supreme Being as the offering the gods performed a sacrifice, spring was the molten butter, summer the fuel, and autumn the oblation. On the grass they besprinkled him, the Sacrificed Supreme Being, the first born. With him the gods sacrificed, and those Sadhyas and the sages.
From that sacrifice, fully offered, was gathered mixed milk and butter. And the birds of the air arose, the forest animals and the domestic. From that sacrifice, fully offered, the Rig and the Saman Vedas were born, the Chandas [Atharva Veda] was born of that, and from that were born the Yajur Vedas.
From that were born horses, and the animals with two rows of teeth; yea, kine were born of that, and of that were born the goat and the sheep… From his mind was born the moon, and from his eye the sun. From his mouth were Indra and Agni born, and Vayu (wind) was born from his breath. From his navel came the mid-air, from his head the sky was fashioned, from his feet the earth, and from his ear the quarters. Thus they formed the worlds.³⁵
Rig Veda 10.90.6-10, 13-14 (Hinduism)

Teachings of Sun Myung Moon

God established living for the sake of others as the basic principle of creation. What does this mean? Suppose we take a volume of air where pressure is evenly distributed and create a vacuum in one place. The more the air pressure in that area approaches a vacuum, the faster the high-pressure air will rotate around the area of low pressure. Do you understand what I mean? When God has invested Himself over and over again in search of His objects of love, He can simply remain in His place and everything will naturally come back to Him. This is also the logical basis upon which God created all creatures in a pair system.
(199:276, February 20, 1990)

Which comes first, life or love? Love comes first. Although our planet Earth came into being from God’s life, we do not hold that life comes first; rather, we declare that love is first. Why? Although God began the creation of heaven and earth with life, the source of life and the motive for life is love. The reason life came into being is because of love.
Why did God create heaven and earth? Although He is the Absolute Being, God cannot feel joy as long as He is alone. Although He might sense it, He cannot experience its stimulation; this is why He created. God may say, “I am the Absolute Being, the Master of love and Master of life!” yet as long as He remains solitary, He cannot feel love’s stimulation. He cannot feel the stimulation of life, the experience that all of heaven and earth are within Him.
(38:152, January 3, 1971)

When God created each thing, He invested energy. Investing energy is to deplete oneself. Though God is omniscient and almighty, if He were to give out all His energy with nothing returning to Him, then God would be depleted.
If you engage in strenuous labor right after eating breakfast, you quickly become hungry and tired. Why? Investing energy is a negative for the subject partner. No one likes to suffer loss all the time. Enjoyment comes when there is a positive return on the investment. God created all things in the heavens and the earth for enjoyment, not so that He could weep or be sorrowful. Hence, something must return to God as a positive benefit…
Then, when does God receive a positive benefit? This is the measure of perfection in created beings. A being can be said to have reached perfection at the point when God begins to receive a return on His investment.
Isn’t this the case in business? We plan to invest a certain amount, expecting that after a certain point we will begin to realize profits. Or when we study, we think that after putting in a certain number of hours we will be adequately prepared to pass the exam. This is true with everything; it is a universal law. When we have a desire, if we work hard and challenge our limit to reach a goal, then we can cross the finish line and receive something in return.
The same is true with God. What did He expect to gain by creating human beings? In creating them He invested His energy and consumed something of Himself. God spent everything possible for our sake. Yet there is no loss; once we become perfect, there is a return. We should understand this basic rule.
If 100 units were invested but the return was valued at less than 100 units, God would not have continued His work of creation. The return should be 110, 200, or 300 units, something valued more than the 100 units invested. Even better, the return should be unlimited. When this happens, God experiences joy even as He invests. Considering this, we conclude that the return should be something with a higher dimension of value. What form would it take? What, when it returns, gives joy? The answer is love.
(65:22-23, November 13, 1972)

If God had thought only of Himself, would He have created heaven and earth? To create means to invest energy. The cherished desire of an artist is to create a masterpiece. To do this, the artist will invest all of his heart and soul. He will want to reach the point where he cannot do anything more. Only by thus investing himself completely can he create the perfect masterpiece.
(78:111, May 6, 1975)

God created the universe, first, with absolute faith. Second, He created with absolute love, cherishing each creation as His beloved object partner. Third, God created with absolute obedience, which means that He totally emptied Himself. God gave His total investment, forgetting what He had given and repeatedly giving still more. He gave up even any concept [that something might come of what He had given].After thus emptying Himself, God reached the zero point. Since He had invested all of His absolute faith, God reached the zero point. Since He had invested all of Himself with absolute love, in total obedience to the principle of love, God reached the zero point.
(313:114-15)