Principle of Creation Part 3.6

It's our conscience. You can't actually control our conscience. Even criminals know what they're doing is wrong; they can't eradicate the sense of what they're doing is wrong, but they just don't feel bad about it anymore. They kind of don't feel conscience-stricken anymore. That sense of guilt is quite a good thing. It's like guilt; when you feel guilty, you feel like you've hurt your soul, you've damaged your soul. It's a bit like sticking your hand on a hot plate. You feel pain and you withdraw it, realising you've made a mistake. If you didn't feel pain and you left your hand on the hot plate, your hand would start smelling like burning flesh. Pain is a good thing, and that sense of guilt is a good thing. Guilt is there to tell you what you did was wrong, to make you feel you've hurt yourself, and to encourage you not to do it again. You have to restore your conscience. Conscience is a bit like a compass, telling us what's right and what is wrong, usually telling us what is wrong. There are lots of different things that are right; only a few things are actually wrong. We should always listen to our conscience, follow it, do what is good, and avoid evil. If we don't do that, then our conscience will judge and accuse us.

So how important is the conscience? Well, the Father said a conscience is higher than your teacher. If your teacher tells you to do something which you feel is wrong, should you do it or not? No, conscience is higher than your parents. If your parents tell you to do something which is wrong, should you do it? No. My mother always tells a story from when she was a little girl. One day, somebody came to the door, and her mother didn't want to meet this person. My grandmother told my mother to go and tell him she's not in. My mother didn't know what to do; how could she tell a lie? But how could she disobey her mother? So what's the way out of it? My mother said yes, she opened the door and said she's not in anyway. If your parents tell you to do something wrong, don't do it. If you know God tells you to do something which you think is wrong, should you do it or not? No. That's why Abraham argued with God about all sorts of things. In that sense, conscience is higher than all of these. This is what Timothy said: by rejecting conscience, certain persons have made shipwrecks of their faith. The basic rule then is never go against your conscience. Make sure you always keep a clear conscience. If somebody tells you to do something you feel is wrong, just don't do it. Just say, 'It's against my conscience; I'm not going to do it.' You never go against your conscience.

It doesn't mean that what they're asking you to do is necessarily wrong, but if you think it's wrong, just don't do it. Never go against your conscience. The other thing is also to make sure your conscience is properly formed. This means ensuring you have a straight conscience. We can make sure our conscience is properly formed through studying scriptures, moral codes, and prayer. We need to ensure we haven't got a deformed conscience. Sometimes, people's consciences are a bit finicky about some things. You need to make sure, by thinking about it reasonably, is this really wrong or not? So what's the original mind? The conscience, as I said, is external; it's the standard of truth. But we also have an original mind which is internal, striving for a higher standard and pursuing absolute goodness. It's just like when you go to school. If you are a serious student and you come across something you don't understand, what will you do? You ask questions. If your teacher doesn't know the answer, what will you do? You go and find somebody else, or you go into the library, get a book, and find that particular book doesn't answer the question. So you go and get a book at a higher level, a university book, and if that hasn't got the answer, then you go to the journals and start looking at the papers. You want to have this irresistible desire to understand the truth, to understand how it really works.

This is like an expression of our original mind. We're not satisfied necessarily with the answer we're given because we want to understand more deeply. Why is this happening? That's our original mind, the pursuit of truth, beauty, and goodness, relentlessly striving for perfection, relentlessly striving for a higher standard. We're not satisfied with the way things are but want to make things better. That's the original mind. St Paul and St Augustine said, 'You made us, O Lord, for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.' Some people, not everybody, have this original mind, which means they fast and pray and do all kinds of things because they want to achieve this kind of relationship with God. This is expressed very well in Psalm 119, which reveals the original mind. It says, 'With my whole heart I seek thee; let me not wander away from your commandments.' This person is saying with his whole heart he's seeking God; he wants to live his life according to God's law and God's will. Further down, it says, 'My eyes shed streams of tears because men do not keep your law.' Again, 'I find delight in your commandments which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes.' This kind of original mind loves goodness, loves to study, loves to worship God, and delights in being good.

In that sense, as one gets older, our conscience should become higher. If you discover a higher standard of truth and a higher standard of goodness, your conscience will change. You'll realise that what you thought was wrong is actually okay, and what you thought was okay is actually wrong. People often have this experience when they hear the Principle. They may have been living a certain way of life, and suddenly they hear God's word. They evaluate their life according to God's word and realise that the way they've been living hasn't been right. Sometimes, they change overnight; their whole life is transformed. That's the original mind. So what's the evil mind? The evil mind is formed again, spiritual mind, physical mind, centred on Satan. Not many people go around worshipping Satan, but this is expressed in our daily life when we enjoy doing things that are evil. For example, some people enjoy making other people unhappy or getting revenge. If somebody hurts you, you can get revenge and feel good about it. You feel happy, experiencing a sort of evil joy. You may see someone who has a cruddy little car, and somebody else you don't like has a Rolls-Royce or a Porsche. If that person's car has an accident, you may feel good. That's the evil mind; it rejoices in evil and is happy when others suffer. The original mind, however, sees people who are not living a good life and sheds tears. You actually feel compassion for that person. The evil mind enjoys doing evil and is happy when people you don't like suffer.