This article is the last in a series of three, on the concept of the “three great subjects”. In the Appendix of the textbook New Essentials of Unification Thought, the notion of three great subjects is described in this way:

“The three great subjects thought is an expression coined by Rev. Sun Myung Moon. The three great subjects refer to parents, teacher, and leader. In other words, the three great subjects mean the three great centers: the parents, who are the center of a family; the teacher, who is the center of a school; and the leader, who is the center of dominion …(center of dominion refers to …the central person who is responsible for management or leadership). …The three great subjects thought emphasizes that these three great subjects should all practice God’s true love.” • NEUT, p. 525

Leader — the second of the “Three Great Subjects”

In the preceding two articles, I’ve explained the concept of the subject in the role of a parent and in the role of a teacher. Finally, we turn to the concept of the subject in the role of a leader – the “third great subject”. Unification Thought explains:

“What is the proper role of a leader? The role of the president of a country is to govern the people well and empower them to live well. The role of the governor of a province is to harmoniously govern the province, and the role of the manager of a company is to offer good welfare to employees. Let me briefly explain about the case of a company more concretely. The manager of a company should not have the idea of making employees engage in hard work in order to make money for himself or herself. Of course, a company should make money. However, once the company has made money, managers should return an appropriate share of it to the employees… The manager of a company should have an altruistic spirit of service. He or she should love the employees and have the spirit of giving with a warm heart. The manager should be concerned about the circumstances of the employees, and whether or not they have any difficulties with regard to food, clothing, and shelter. This is a dominion with love. In many cases, however, dominion includes giving orders to subordinates. An order in itself can feel cold; but when a leader gives an order with a warm and sincere heart, subordinates can receive it with gratitude…” • NEUT, p. 527

As with the examples provided by Unification Thought for teachers, the above notions could be easily dismissed as idealistic, romantic, and naive. But as before, personal experience convinced me otherwise. Etched in my memory is one of the first times I tried applying these ideas on a large scale and what happened as a result.

Leadership in Difficult Circumstances

I was once in a leadership position for several years, and the organization I led was for college students in a developing nation. I presided over the national organization and the majority of its leaders — both men and women — were also martial arts practitioners. Many had attained black belts. Their circumstances were difficult in that they not only had to fund-raise for the student activities and other costs of their local chapters, they also had to go “food-raising” at the end of every day. So after a long day of school, homework, organizational activities including fund-raising, they’d visit grocery stores late at night and solicit the food that would otherwise be thrown out because it would be unsuitable for sale the following day. Fortunately, it was possible to gain some relatively steady income from martial arts instruction. Unification Thought explained that profit was essentially an expression of gratitude from the consumer to the producer, for providing a product or service of genuine value.¹ With that in mind, The instructors were directed to charge a fair rate for their instruction, rather than to offer it for nothing. After all, they were teaching the students several nights a week, throughout an entire school year, and they had put in considerable time and effort to learn their black belt skills. The leadership’s hope was that the student leaders could have sufficient income to, at the very least, purchase fresh food. Additionally, when we started to manufacture martial arts uniforms (which were so good that the country’s leading department store chain approached us about becoming their supplier — again, because they were designed and made according to Unification Thought’s Ethics), the instructors were directed to keep part of the profit, so that they could address their living costs. So the concern of leadership was 1) for the quality of student instruction, and 2) for the welfare of the instructors.

Good Leadership Inspires Development

In the end, the result of applying the Unification Thought perspective about leadership and business were that the instructors were bound together in familial heart, purpose, and even pride; and the organization grew and gained national recognition. From a business perspective, we could see that our little uniform-manufacturing operation could have grown into a larger brand-name sportswear business.

Our uniforms bore the name “UMAS”, which stood for “Unified Martial Arts Supplies”. They were the strongest, most expensive to produce uniforms available.

We wouldn’t have been able to have such a clear focus and motivation if it wasn’t for the explicit ideas about leadership expressed in Unification Thought. Leadership that is correctly motivated creates a situation that attracts support and inspires enthusiasm, which naturally translates into concrete profitability. The concepts for these practices were articulated in Unification Thought, and the inspiration to implement them was given by my teachers — Rev. Moon’s disciples — who had a parental approach to their students, and who modeled leadership in the process. In short, they were embodiments of the “Three Great Subjects” thought which they themselves learned from Rev. Moon’s example. In closing, Unification Thought explains that we are to embody the three subjects simultaneously:

“…the true love of God is a love with which one wishes to give, and give again, endlessly to others. Just as hot water flows endlessly from a hot spring, so, too, one should endlessly embrace others with the hot-spring-like-water of true love from a warm heart. The three great subjects should always practice such love in their daily life. This is the core of the three great subjects thought.” • NEUT p. 526

What’s not mentioned is the profound satisfaction this practice provides, which comes from the sincere connections that are cultivated between the hearts of co-workers. The joy and even the memory of joy lives long after any particular leader-member relationship is past. So, although the concept of the Three Great Subjects might appear impractical on paper, in practice it is powerful, effective, long-lasting, and deeply rewarding.

footnote

1. “Profit is the reward which the consumer …gives to the enterprise for having served him through the creation … of value. (which) refers to the fact that someone has created (something useful) by exerting his creativity; or has offered some benefit or convenience to consumers… in other words, by providing service to society.”
   • The End of Communism, p. 285