The Vision Behind Tuna Fishing

Basically, this tuna fishing is not just to go out and get the tuna and make some money. That is not the central point at all. This is good basic training for the rest of your life. If you apply the principles you learn faithfully, you can make a success out of your life. Do you understand? Like anything else you do in your life, you have to put a lot of time in. Study everything, discuss it with others and read it again, then put in concentrated effort.

Actually, I didn’t have the time to come here, but I felt so much that I wanted to give you a good start, so I came yesterday and went fishing at four o’clock in the morning. Today I am here with you. Tomorrow I may go out too, but that will be the last day. I cannot stay with you all summer, so please, do your best. The last ten years, I devoted every single day of the season out on the ocean. Rain or shine, I went out. Literally, rain or shine. There were storm warnings and still I went out. One time there was a storm coming and everyone could see it clearly, but in the middle of the night I said, “Let’s go.” The captain obeyed and we went out. I’ve gone out in the midst of a frenzied ocean and endured it. And then, in the morning I came back in, having won over that.

While I was in the boat waiting for the tuna to come, I thought over and over again of the providence in America and planned what to do. I thought about the problem of world hunger and planned what to do step by step. I didn’t just think one or two years ahead, not like that. Instead, I thought about hundreds of years to come and what to do to prepare for that. I thought about how to farm the tuna and how it could be nurtured and used for millions of pounds of nutritional food in the future. I thought like that all the time. There is nothing that I didn’t think of in the long hours while I was waiting for the tuna to come.

Every morning I went out, no matter how early. I was always full of hope and expectation for that day. I came back when the sun was setting, returning with elation that I had done my very best for that day and wondering what the next day had in store for me. I expect you to take pride and to go the same path that I have gone. You are now privileged to tread the very same path that I have walked these past ten years.

Why We Have Ocean Training July 2nd, 1984 — Morning Garden

If you experience how difficult it is to go out on a boat every day, think about my experience on the New

Hope for the past ten years. Never once during any of those ten seasons, did I lay down and sleep on the boat. I put my entire will power and whole heart into this training. Every moment while I was on the boat, during the long tedious wait for the tuna, I was always praying to commit myself even more for the sake of God and mankind. That is what I want you to inherit here.

Don’t let things bother you while you are out on the water. No matter how someone might agitate you, just ignore him. Think to yourself that it’s some neighbor’s dog barking at you.

The spiritual world is like the dark horse in a race. It may be the most unlikely thing, but it happens. Maybe you pick up an old line that someone else threw away. They caught lots of tuna on that line, but finally they made a new one. And you have all new lines, but you put that old one on. Then suddenly you catch a tuna. How can you explain that? It has happened. That’s why I am telling you these things. You have to love your equipment, your hooks and lines. You have to cherish the ones that catch, even bring them to your bed because you never want them out of your sight. That kind of feeling, that kind of love is okay. This love is connected everywhere and it connects in an invisible way, in a most unlikely way.

The Japanese members come around to me and say, “The New Hope is becoming an old boat, it’s more than thirteen years old now, Father, let’s change it.” I don’t want to hurt their feelings, so I say something like, “Oh, you think so?” Actually, I am wondering, “What are you talking about?” Already, if we were to write the history of how we began this training program, 99% of it would center on the New Hope. Even if we got a brand new boat, even if someone donated it to us, we would never write as much about it.

It is like a marriage. If you are married for ten years and your wife gets old, do you try to get rid of her and get a new one? How would the New Hope feel if that happened? Would it be happy or sad? It would cry out! Instead, I am thinking of when I give all these things to the next generation I will change the boat and give the new one to them. At that time, I will retire the New Hope and put her in a special museum. The New Hope will understand because this is normal. The boat knows it cannot live forever and it will agree to a replacement at that time. I truly feel that way. I have that kind of sensitivity to the New Hope. This says something to all of us. How are we different from the rest of the world? Through our heart. We are making a heartistic world which is quite different from what most other people are doing. If we are going to ride on the New Hope and on the One Hope boats, we must really love them.

We have to bear in mind then, that Moonie boats are to be loved with one’s whole heart. Actually, I wondered if you needed me to come and talk to you this year. Then I thought about the New Hope and said, “I’ve been coming to the New Hope every year and it will miss me.” I couldn’t tolerate the thought of that. The New Hope has recently been fishing in Montauk and I have been there fishing on it. I asked for it to come back to Gloucester, however, it has just been sitting here for several days, so I couldn’t help but thinking of coming to Gloucester and visiting it. I wanted to talk to the boat and tell it, “I fished with you all last summer, every day, but this summer I can’t fish as much with you. I hope you can understand.” I know that the New Hope will understand if I am not around so much. I am telling you these things because I want to urge you this year, not to let your loved one, your boat lose its spirit. Don’t let it be damaged. Just as you would protect your own body, take care of your boat with all your heart.