2. A Righteous Person Leads a Public Life and Identifies His Welfare with the Public Good

World Scripture

Do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well.
Matthew 6.31-33

It is not righteousness that you turn your faces [in prayer] to the East and to the West. Righteousness is this: to believe in God, and the Last Day, the angels, the Book, and the Prophets, to give of one’s substance, however cherished, to kinsmen, and orphans, the needy, the traveler, beggars, and to free the slave, to perform the prayer and to pay the alms. And they who fulfill their covenant, when they have engaged in a covenant, and endure with fortitude misfortune, hardship, and peril, these are they who are true in their faith, these are the truly God-fearing.
Qur’an 2.177

I delivered the poor who cried, and the fatherless who had none to help him. The blessing of him who was about to perish came upon me, and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy. I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was like a robe and a turban. I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame. I was a father to the poor, and I searched out the cause of him whom I did not know. I broke the fangs of the unrighteous, and made him drop his prey from his teeth.
Job 29.12-17

He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not fail or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law.
Isaiah 42.2-4

Kung-sun Ch’ou asked Mencius, “May I ask what your strong points are?” “I have an insight into words. I am good at cultivating my ‘flood-like ch’i.’” “May I ask what this ‘flood-like ch’i’ is?” “It is difficult to explain. This is a ch’i (breath) which is, in the highest degree, vast and unyielding. Nourish it with integrity and place no obstacle in its path and it will fill the space between heaven and earth. It is a ch’i which unites righteousness and the Way. Deprive it of these and it will collapse. It is born of accumulated rightness and cannot be appropriated by anyone through a sporadic show of rightness. Whenever one acts in a way that falls below the standard set in one’s heart, it will collapse… You must work at it and never let it out of your mind. At the same time, while you must never let it out of your mind, you must not forcibly help it grow either.”
Mencius II.A.2 (Confucianism)

Teachings of Sun Myung Moon

Do you want to be blessed? Do you want to live eternally? Then, you should become a public person.
(31:168, May 24, 1970)

When you make it your business to serve others and to touch others’ hearts, you are going beyond the life of a private individual.
(241:118, December 20, 1992)

A human being is not meant to live for his or her individual self. Yet, these days many worldly people say, “I work for myself.” In other words, they live for the sake of themselves. How pitiful are these people? They are like orphans without parents or siblings. You should be able to say, “I live for the sake of all the people of the world.”
(24:21, June 22, 1969)

You should be able to declare, “I have tackled the most difficult problem in the nation.” It is not enough to deal with problems within the church. Furthermore, you should be able to declare, “I have tackled the most difficult problem in the world.” Unless you do it willingly, you will remain on a servant level and cannot reach the level of an adopted son.¹² You have to be willing to digest all the difficulties in the world—all the things that servants can do—with joy.
(113:111, May 1, 1981)

There is no need to worry whether something will be done or not. The question is whether you did it or not.
(308:209, January 5, 1999)

The public-minded person speaks from public-mindedness; he sees, hears, feels, thinks, eats and sleeps and does everything from the public-minded standpoint. When you look at the world with a public-minded eye, you come to love everything.
(111:244, February 22, 1981)

Whether your work is small or big, regardless of the task, you should not relate to it personally. In other words, your mind should be intense. Your state of mind should be like a ball that is completely round after the air has been pumped in, with pressure. Your mind should keep that pressure like a completely round ball, and never go flat. If instead your mind is uneasy or self-centered, dominated by personal greed, it is like a sharp edge forming in that round, ball-like mind.
(40:278-89, February 7, 1971)