When you look at the world today, you can see that it's full of conflict, contention, struggle, suffering and sorrow. So the Buddhists refer to this world as a sea of bitterness. The founders of all religions, as well as saints and sages, have tried to save humanity from this sea of bitterness, but none of them succeeded and the task remains.

Why do we have to live in a sea of bitterness? It is an obvious contradiction that the world is like this while people have always wished to live in a peaceful, happy, ideal world. If God were omniscient and almighty, He would certainly never create this kind of contradictory world. God is perfect and absolute. So we can see that man fell. Nobody can refute this.

The universal religious worldview is to see the human fall as the cause of this unprincipled world. To say that man fell means that he fell from his original position. Originally human beings were in the position to walk toward God while striving for perfection. As God wished and willed when He created the original human beings, they should have gone through a period of growth in order to blossom and bear fruit. But unfortunately, while within this growth period they fell and failed to blossom. Simply, they fell.

If you fall, what do you have to do? You have to climb back up. God, too, had to save fallen humankind. Because of the fall, humankind is living in this sinful and contradictory world. If God did not care and deserted human beings in this fallen world, then He would be an incapable God. So He must save this world and restore man to his original position.

The main teachings of all religions concern the salvation of this world and restoration to the original ideal world. In order to bring about goodness and justice in this sinful world, and to create an ideal world in which man can enjoy eternal happiness and peace, all religions strive to teach the principle of salvation. This is the essence of religion, and its basic task and mission.