[501] Understanding Death

[대태양/김현수]

Section 2. Understanding Death

2.1. The meaning of the Korean word toraganda

There is no doubt that the spirit world exists. It surely exists, and since we were born from the spirit world, we must return there.

The Korean word toraganda (literal­ly “to return,” but meaning “to die”) is interesting. To where do we return? Not to a cemetery. We return to our place of origin. The place of our departure is not a cemetery. It means to return across the vast expanses of history, even beyond its origin.

To return as a human being does not mean to be born and to return as a Korean. Someone who dies as a Korean does not return on that path as one. We return to the original world that brought forth the ancestors of humankind. What does that mean? As there is a Creator, we will return to the place where that Cre­ator is. That is where we originated, so it is there that we return.

The universe is engaged in circular motion: when the snow covering the mountains melts, it flows down through small valleys and into the ocean through many streams and rivers. Later it enters the ocean where it evaporates and returns to complete its cycle.

Everything circulates. When one returns, where does one return to? We wish to return to a place where we can be higher and better. No one wants to get smaller. However, all the laws of motion of the natural world dictate that things diminish through action. When we roll something, it does not roll eternally. First it rolls rapidly, and then it deceler­ates and finally stops. (141-269, 1986.3.2)

2.2. The place to which we must go

We live in this world, yet it is not the only world that exists. There is also the spirit world. This world and the spirit world should not be two separate worlds; they should be integrated.

Then where is the place in which we are to go to and live? Of course, while living physically on earth we are pro­ceeding toward the eternal world. Ordi­narily, people are simply born into this world, pass through youth, reach their prime, enter old age and end their life like the setting sun.

Yet those who know of the spir­it world realize that a lifetime is but a fleeting moment compared to eternal life after death. That being so, our life­time serves to prepare us to welcome the world of eternity. (140-121, 1986.2.9)

2.3. The day we pass on is a precious day

If a global unified world had been formed in which Adam’s birthday, his wedding day, and the day of his return were commemorated, the human race that commemorated those days would have been a unified brotherhood of one people. That is to say, they would have become a people that lived in one world. If that had happened, all the customs of Adam’s life would have been inherited in the history of humanity, and the culture formed at that time would have been inherited eternally. (31-230, 1970.6.4)

2.4. The spiritual connection of life and death

However hard you may try to avoid death, you will die when your time comes. People enter the spirit world in different states. Some go there after liv­ing to a ripe old age while others die untimely deaths. Among the latter are those who die due to punishment and those who die to indemnify the sins of their people and the world.

If three prominent young people in a village die, good fortune will come to that village. If three promising youths of a clan die, good fortune will come to that clan. In other words, indemnity must be paid. It applies everywhere. The princi­ple of causality operates everywhere.

If God set up someone in a central position with a value equal to that of a thousand people and let him walk the path of death, and if those one thousand people are inspired by his grace and vir­tue so that they aim to live for his sake and follow his way of life, their entire race will enter the same blessed realm as he. The reason people try to discover the thoughts of patriots and sages and follow them is to enter the same realm of their blessing.

Last year, several members went to the spirit world. This year, several more will go there. Although I have not talk­ed about it, I know of this already. Why does this happen? Because when we go up one stage, we cannot avoid paying indemnity. (33-10, 1970.7.28)

Among those born on earth, there are people who live with hope and peo­ple who live without being able to have hope. Yet there are two kinds of hope: humanistic hope and God-centered hope. From the day of our birth, we grow up thinking that our mother’s bosom is the best thing there is, but when we leave our mother’s bosom and come to have friends, we think that friends are the best thing. Nevertheless, we end up parting even from our friends.

As we grow older, neither loving par­ents, nor a loving spouse nor loving chil­dren can completely satisfy our hopes.

People hope for many things, but eventually all these hopes vanish. We have hopes for our family, our country, or even the world. However, as we age, our hopes fade away.

Among those who live on earth, there are not many who live with the firm conviction that the hope they have been proud of, their entire hope, the hope they were unable to live apart from, is worth losing their lives over. People are destined to have to fight and go beyond death after living life as it is known.

People entertain all kinds of hope in their lives. Yet when they face death in the end and pass away, they abandon all the hopes they had fostered. They wan­der about seeking new hope, wishing to live today and tomorrow. When they encounter death, though, all their hopes fade away and they fall into despair as they set out on their final path.

From their own perspective, people seem to have hope, but they are unable to have a hope by which they can go over the summit of death. They disappear without having such a hope. Are we to die understanding this to be the pattern of life, or will we seek a hope that can last, laughing even in the face of death? These are very important questions that all people on earth have to think about today.

All things of this world will pass away. Our families, nations, and even the world itself will pass away. Ideologies and philosophies will pass away. What will remain? It is the hope with which we can fight and win over death. With­out such a hope, we might as well call ourselves failures in life.

On the other hand, there is a group of people who, from their birth, reject all hopes that secular people desire and all humanistic things, and live embracing the heavenly hope, an eternal hope.

Heaven made limitless efforts to enable humanity, living with their earthly, humanistic hopes, to go over the peak of death with a new hope and to live with regard to the eternal world. Therefore, people who live a life of faith should not live embracing earthly hope, but should live dreaming of the eternal world of hope that can even conquer death. (6-43, 1959.3.22)

2.5. Death in relation to the value of life

The word “death” invites under­standing of the meaning of life. Who knows the value of life very well? Those who seek to live do not. Those who seek to fathom the value of life while clinging onto God at the crossroads of life and death understand. (74-242, 1974.12.31)

In today’s world, there are many peo­ple who commit suicide by taking sleep­ing pills or in other ways. Do more wom­en commit suicide or more men? More women. Why? Women tend to have a one-track mind.

However ugly a man might be, he is able to approach a problem from differ­ent perspectives. Women see only one way out of a problem, but men avoid death by finding viable alternatives. As such, they have a lower suicide rate than women. (222-69, 1991.10.28)

2.6. Death is a process to link three worlds

It is only natural that we would aspire to resemble God. God also wants His sons and daughters to resemble Him. That is why we want to resemble God and He wants to take us with Him. We are groping for the way to make this pos­sible. Therefore, people must be reborn into a body that enables them to resem­ble God. Both God and humankind are eagerly awaiting the day of rebirth. Such a day is necessary. What is it? It is the day of our death.

That being the case, should people welcome death or not? They should wel­come it. When asked what the purpose of death is, we should answer, “We will die for the sake of God’s true love.” We discard our physical bodies to partici­pate in the realm of activity of God’s infinite love and for the sake of God’s world of love.

Death leads to birth in God’s love, but in this world, people clamor in their death throes, “Oh, I’m dying!” Death is the moment you can welcome the joy you feel by being able to leave the realm of limited love and enter the realm of infinite love. Therefore, the moment of death is the moment of your second birth.

Then, would God be joyful about the day of birth of your physical body, or would He be joyful about the hour you are born as a son who is to act for the sake of love in the second, infinite world? You might wonder why I talk about such things. You cannot establish a relationship with God without liberat­ing yourself from the fear of death. (116-172, 1982.1.1)

Human beings go through the stag­es of formation, growth, and comple­tion. We go through the realm of water in our mother’s womb, then the realm of the planet earth, and finally the aerial realm in heaven. In other words, people go through three periods: the period of water in the womb, the period of being born and living a hundred years on this earth, and then the period of flying in the aerial world. (116-174, 1982.1.1)

People are born from the depths of water. The period in the womb is the period of existence in water. When the fetus is inside the mother’s womb, it is floating in water. It needs to draw in and expel water as it lives under water. Therefore, it lives by way of a hose con­nected to its stomach.

How is a fetus nourished? It is sup­plied through the navel. Its navel func­tions as a mouth. So, we should not be disdainful of our navel. Pat your navel and say, “Belly button, you took pains for me in the past.” If you pat your navel many times, you’ll improve your health. Do that. If you do that a lot, you’ll become healthy. Even when you sleep in a cold room, if you cover your navel, you won’t get diarrhea. During your time in the womb, your navel functioned as your mouth. The breathing organ then moves up from the navel. What’s the next mouth? It is this one. It continues to go up.

Then what must we do with the umbilical cord that is attached to the navel? We must cut it off. By analogy, in the world of air, the spirit self is attached to the physical self like the embryo in the womb and feeds off the physical body. When the physical body grows old, the spirit self comes out and discards the physical body. When the embryo is to be born, it is born on the earth where it becomes the object of love to its mother and father. Likewise, the spirit self must be reborn as a person who can relate to the eternal God, who is its spiritual Father. This is in accordance with fun­damental principles and laws.

The earthly world is where the embryo can become friends with its father and mother after it is born. Peo­ple are born in the earthly world where they can share love with their mother and father. Likewise, they must be born in the spirit world, where they can share love with God, the Parent, by whom they can connect with the infinite spirit world. (299-69, 1999.2.4)

We have the period of water, then the period of land and the period for flying. How long have people today waited to see a flying human? Such a person would be the world’s greatest attraction. (49-284, 1971.10.17)

Those who breathe in love on the earth are not dead but alive. When they breathe in the mother’s womb, they do so through a pipe-like device. Though they are alive, when they destroy the pla­centa connected to their navel and come out, they rise to a new, higher-dimen­sional world. Air is supplied on a higher dimension. They come out receiving a supply of air.

What will you develop after coming out of the womb? It is not air but love; you receive elements of love. You should not live just to eat, for that is to be dying. Drinking water and living in that way, it is all like filling a bag, a water bag. They are all part of being on the path to death. It is a secondary existence. What should you be filled with during your life on earth? You must form a new character of love during this period. (139-214, 1986.1.31)

What you need on earth is love. Why do you call a child who lives without parental love an orphan? Because the child does not have the love that enables it to be eternally connected to the spir­it world. Therefore, those unmarried people who live alone are pitiful. (139-214, 1986.1.31)

Death means to inherit the elements of love after the destruction of the physi­cal organ through which the body has been engaging in the second type of res­piration. Love is invisible. Your internal self is growing through parental love and conjugal love. That is why, just as an embryo is required to grow in order to be normal in the womb, in the same manner the baby must grow properly on the earth, as God’s laws require. (299-69, 1999.2.4)

Dragonflies swim in the water dur­ing their larval stage at first, then come up to the earth and creep about for a while. Then, by flying around, they prey on bugs that they never would have imagined eating when they were creep­ing on the surface. They flutter about freely in this universe, thinking that it is their stage.

There are many insects that go through three stages of life. Insects have wings in general. They go through their life living in the water, on land and in the air. Yet do human beings who are called the lord of creation have wings? We have a set of wings of a higher dimension. Death is the blessed gateway to our sec­ond birth. (299-71, 1999.2.4)

What is the meaning of death? Earth­ly life, the time of living in air, parallels the time of swimming in the womb. We are living in a wrapping cloth of air. Death itself is not unique, but only our rebirth into the third life. That moment of transition is what we call death. (49-286, 1971.10.17)

2.7. Things to do before we die

2.7.1. Crossing the last border

We will all die once in our lifetime. We must pass over even if we have to brave the fiercest storm. There is no val­ue in doing well most of the way and then collapsing before crossing the fin­ish line. What will you do standing on the border? You did well in joining the Unification Church. You all are such a motley crew, but it is good that you joined. Even if we run with our mind totally focused, we cannot be confident we will make it all the way. So don’t get all flustered and give up in the middle. We win victory only as we dash across the finish line, the last border.

It is an effort worth making for everyone born as a human being. No matter how much opposition and perse­cution there may be from behind, you should continue on your path. We have no latitude to concern ourselves with the opposition. The person who works hard to walk his destined path one step at a time will cross the final border. All of us must go this way. (24-77, 1969.6.29)

2.7.2. Modeling ourselves after God’s external form, heart and divine character

We will all someday have to discard our physical bodies and move on to the spirit world. So we, as human beings born into this world, must be ready for death. Endure hardships to form your good self into your second self in the eternal world. Only when you receive good prenatal education while inside the mother’s womb will you be born as a good and healthy baby. In the same way, your life on earth is similar to your life in the womb.

Therefore, grow by modeling your­selves after God’s external form, His heart and divine character. As you grow, risk your lives in overcoming obstacles. (14-17, 1964.4.19)

2.7.3. Do not sin

We talk about the mind being straight. When we say an electrical pole is straight it means that it is stand­ing upright. The same thing can be said when we say the mind is straight. That’s why people walk upright; they must be vertical.

Make your mind completely verti­cal. Your body will form the horizontal line. There should be a centrifugal force and a centripetal force. The perpendicu­lar force and the force of rotation must be balanced. Accordingly, you must find yourself.

When you say that you are yourself, God should agree with you and the True Parents should also agree. Then your relatives, your clan, and the nation must also agree that what you say is right. The one who is accused by them is the prob­lem. In the future, the continents will be divided between frigid zones and tem­perate zones. A time will come when those who sin a lot will be sent to the North Pole, just as patients with conta­gious diseases are quarantined. (202-280, 1990.5.25)

2.7.4. Live and die for the world

I did not work hard for the sake of the Asian situation or the Korean people. Think about how to fulfill your respon­sibilities in the global field and be will­ing to die for this cause.

Thinking about all these things, you must live and die for the sake of the world, standing on the global level. Then, in what position should you die? Stand on the global level and die for it while embracing your loving spouse, family, tribe and race. The Unification Church has formed tribes and is now forming a race.

How will the founder of the Unifica­tion Church die when he dies? I will die for the sake of the world, while embrac­ing its people and the Republic of Korea also. If the Korean people unite and die for the sake of the world, there will be a path for them to be able to live with the world. That is why I go forward seeking that path. (34-192, 1970.9.6)

2.7.5. Work hard

In what territory will you do your work? If you need money, make it. If you need people, work hard without eat­ing and sleeping to raise them. Never ask anyone for help. Do not rely on the church headquarters for help; you should help them instead. Work more than three times harder than ordinary people.

That is why, if I were to live for 70 years, my life content would actually be equivalent to 210 years. Likewise, don’t think of living for 100 years; instead, think of working three times harder than others. If you were to live that way for 70 years, it would be worth 210 years. Think this way: if you worked ten times harder, you would live 700 years; if you worked twenty times harder, you would live 1,400 years. You should work twenty-four hours a day throughout your entire life. Only when you live that way can you bear fruit and increase your ownership of love in the spirit world. Your fortune of love will grow. Your ownership will grow and your sphere of activities will expand. (102-38, 1978.11.19)

2.7.6. Work for the public good

What are the laws of heaven? They are to promote public righteousness. Private matters belong to Satan, and public matters belong to God. Go the way of public righteousness. Even if everyone opposes you on this course, if you are not disturbed by the opposition but go the way of hardship with vitality, you will become a person of heaven who will welcome spring. (47-270, 1971.8.29)

If you see a greedy shopkeeper in a market, you will notice that the custom­ers don’t come to buy things from him. No one likes a greedy person. Everyone knows the method and secrets of man­aging one’s life in terms of distinguish­ing between private and public mat­ters. Therefore, if you are unable to go to heaven, you can’t use the excuse that you didn’t know how to manage your life. Why? You already know the distinc­tion between public matters and private matters without being taught.

For example, let’s say your mother distributes delicious rice cakes equal­ly between you and your sister. You eat your share, but your sister keeps hers without eating it. Then you wake up at night and are about to secretly eat your sister’s cake, that she had set her heart on. Before you can eat it, your conscience will cry out, “You scoundrel! You devil!” If you don’t feel this in your conscience, you are not a human being. You should feel it. Why? Because your conscience pursues public matters. If you follow pri­vate desires you will perish.

Originally, for those who follow the laws of heaven, there is a mind that defends and protects them from destruc­tion. What does it mean that it origi­nally existed? Because God originally had such a mind, human beings came to have the same mind from the start. It is not a man-made law. Can you say to your conscience, “I do this because that’s the way I am”? If you command your conscience, “Be like this because that’s how I think,” does it follow suit? We may not know where the conscience receives its orders from, but we know it is from somewhere other than ourselves. When we see how such feelings do in fact con­trol us, we can understand that they do so over public and private matters. (31-241, 1970.6.4)

People today struggle internally and externally at the crossroads between good and evil, and public and private, in their daily lives. In many cases, they vacillate between the two and finally fall into a self-centered, private lifestyle. Yet those who do that will perish. Therefore, they must repent for their past self-cen­tered, private lives, grit their teeth, and push themselves back into public life. People tend to waver between these two lifestyles. They are more inclined toward living privately, and end up distancing themselves from the public good. This has been your life of faith until today. Therefore, all those with a private life­style must repent. (31-242, 1970.6.4)

Do you wish to receive good fortune? Do you wish to live eternally? To do so, you must become public people. In edu­cating your children, don’t love them only as your own. Become parents who love their children as offerings for the sake of the people of the world. When holding your babies to your breasts and nursing them, think of yourselves and your babies as representatives of the entire human race on earth. Nurse your babies with such a heart. Instead of caring only for your children and their appearance, cherish other people’s children with a loving heart as if they were yours. Babies who are suckled by such mothers will certainly grow up to become great people. Such results may not surface right away, but after the first and second generations among your descendants there will be born great fig­ures who can rule the world. This is the formula. (31-167, 1970.5.24)

Which of the two would you prefer to devote your entire lives to indemni­fying: private matters or public matters? Both are devoted to some purpose. Those who stand up at the risk of their lives to devote their entire lives for the public good and public indemnity will become great people. A new history will be cre­ated by a group of people like this.

As we are facing that moment, how shall we spend the rest of our lives? This is the course of tribulation you must go from now. When you manage your life, the issue is whether you live individu­alistically or publicly. For whom do you eat, wear, buy and sell things in your daily life? Is it all for you or for God? The issue is whether yours is a private or public life. The question is also whether you have a private or a public mind in all these activities.

Pledge to go the public way. Any­one charged with the mission to indem­nify history must advance to the stage that everyone desires. Therefore, in the course of daily life, transcending private feelings and embodying public feelings is the important issue that all people of faith must concern themselves with.

What is sin? Sin arises from private standpoints. Ruin also comes about in the private sphere. Evil is the same. When private matters are pursued beyond a certain degree, they manifest evil. Pri­vate matters have certain limits; when exceeded, sin, evil and ruin result.

Then, where is the position that can be eternally good, eternally prosperous and eternally fortunate? Where is the position that can prevent sin, evil and ruin? It is the public position. Even when you eat, do so in a public position. When you work, manage from a public stand­point. When you speak, digest the situa­tion with public words. In this way, live connecting all aspects of your lives with public matters. Such people cannot go to hell even if they try. (31-163, 1970.5.24)

2.7.7. Experience love

Do not just think of yourselves, say­ing, “I am the only one!” Are you only limited to your own selves? If all the elements from your mother and father and all elements supplied to you from the things of creation were removed from you, you would disappear. Then, what is the being called the self? It is a position that represents the mother and father. You live through your mother and father by going through the period in the womb, inheriting their blood and flesh, and being provided for by them.

Thus, in our modern age, we use the terms Mother Earth and Mother Nature. This earth, this planet, is our mother who provides us with elements at different levels. How do we breathe when growing in our mother’s womb? Through an umbilical cord. This is our hose linked to our mother’s body.

However, we know that we are now connected to the second world, the world of air. As we emerge from life in the womb, we cause destruction. What are we connected to at the moment of our first cry? We come to be connected with the world of air where we breathe in air through the nostrils. Our nostrils are the absolute supply line. Can we live if our nostrils are blocked? If we can’t breathe, we die. It is made with a dual structure.

When a baby comes out from the womb to connect to the world of air, the umbilical cord, the amniotic sac and the placenta that it depended on for its life in the womb are destroyed and die. What appears at that same moment of death? The baby comes out into the universe, to Mother Earth, and comes to live by the supply of elements through its mouth.

After coming out of the womb, what must our body do? While we are breath­ing through the umbilical cord in the womb, we are also preparing the nostrils as the airway. Then, when we emerge from the womb, we switch the use of the organ and begin to breathe. Like­wise, what must we do in this world now? What we must do after our birth is experience love, inhale the air of love from our mother and father, and under­go all processes by the supply of the air of love. Once we are born as a baby in a fam­ily, we go up and then come down along a sine curve. After we are born as a baby, we grow and age, and then we die and are dissolved. We are born as a baby and return to the stage of being a baby again.

What is going to happen when we die? We have to kick away the second womb and be connected to the third breath­ing organ of love. We kick away paren­tal love and fraternal love and enter the world of love which is in total harmony with the Original Being of the great cos­mos, God. The spirit world is filled with the air of love.

Therefore, we must prepare now in the earthly world a pipe-like device for breathing love. So we need to experience the spirit world. We can be immortal only when we become people who can feel spiritual love and then breathe the air of love.

When we kick away the womb of Mother Earth and come out, we breathe with the respiratory organs of love. We can gain eternal life only when we inher­it the third love. Where do we go after being connected with love? We return to God. We return to the spirit world by being linked to the respiratory organ of love. Yet there remains the way to go to the Original Being, God. Since the seed was initiated by the Original Being, it must bear fruit and return to Him.

The course of life being a traveler’s journey, what do we have to be equipped with here? We must go this path experi­encing love. As the Fall meant that we couldn’t receive parental love, we must form the vertical family centering on true parental love, true fraternal love, true conjugal love, and true filial love. We are also to create the horizontal environment by establishing many fam­ilies in the north, south, east, and west.

These families should form true fam­ilies that can link the vertical with the horizontal. When this is linked to the realm of the tribe, people, nation and world, this world bound by love is what we call the Kingdom of Heaven. (139-212, 1986.1.31)

2.8. What to leave behind before going to the spirit world

2.8.1. Leave a tomb of love behind

In general when human beings think about eternal life, they think of it not only in terms of decades or cen­turies, but in millennia, tens of millen­nia or eons. When people die, they are no different from animals. What use is it to leave anything behind? Nowadays, even atheists and agnostics say to them­selves: “Ah, I have to make a name for myself.” Yet, of what use is it to do that? Even if one became an American patri­ot and were honored with a monument, it would disappear when America per­ishes. What use is it to leave your name behind? Even if you did so, historically speaking, something that was consid­ered good during a period of prosperity can later be viewed as bad during a peri­od of decline. (103-15, 1979.1.28)

God’s purpose is to have His posterity populate the earth. Therefore, when we go before God in the spirit world, having left behind children of the Living God on earth, we also come to stand in His position. That indeed, is the meaning of the scripture, “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” (146-223, 1986.3.11)

What will you do in your life? Leave a tomb of love behind. Let us leave a tomb of love behind! If you live inside a tomb of love, you will feel no bitter sorrow. You may get tired of living in a place like a tomb, but will feel no bitter sorrow if you live in love. If we leave a tomb of love behind in our lifetime, our life will be a success for eternity. If you live like that and die, God will bring His sons and daughters to welcome you in the spirit world. If there’s no ring on your hand, God will put a diamond ring of the Kingdom of Heaven on your fin­ger. If you’re not well-dressed, God will dress you in the richest apparel fit for the royalty of the Kingdom of Heaven. (97-167, 1978.3.12)

2.8.2. Proprietary rights in the spirit world are determined through witnessing

Your proprietary rights in the spirit world will be determined by the num­ber of citizens you have brought into the Kingdom of Heaven. They will be your assets, your eternal assets. Now the time has come to take stock of this. The time will come when millions of people will be witnessed to in a day. The Unification Church has such tremendous potential. Look at the world: how many people are wandering about restlessly like raving lunatics, agonizing over whether to live or die, questioning life and committing suicide? (218-227, 1991.8.19)

The bigger your heart of love is when you enter the spirit world, the more peo­ple will line up to be with you. Such a person will be respected in the spirit world. If myriads of people were to flock around him, wishing that they could live with him, he would become exceedingly wealthy with extensive domains. What sort of person would be wealthy in the next world? The one who invests for the sake of love is a wealthy person.

Witnessing is the way to collect bless­ings of love. With love, we as owners recover the property of heaven stolen by thieves from the satanic world. We go to them with a heart of loving their mother and father more than they do, and bring in all the blessings related to love. Even if you are mistreated, you won’t perish. Myriads of saints and all the things of creation will follow you and you will thereby become wealthy naturally. (205-347, 1990.10.2)

You enter the spirit world without money. Take care of Satan’s children. Each of you is to look after more than 120 people. The Kingdom of Heaven lost all its citizens. By engrafting them, we establish a condition for them not to be lost.

In order to go through the twelve pearly gates in the spirit world, you must, while on earth, recover the citizens of heaven from Satan. To do so, you must shed tears, sweat and blood. With the heart of true love for re-creation, invest your heart more than that of the fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, and sons and daughters of the satanic world, and bring about that transitional process by shedding your tears, sweat and blood. Without doing so, you cannot claim any heavenly citizens as your own. In pro­portion to this number, the conditions for your position of glory and your prox­imity to God in the other world will be established. (211-352, 1991.1.1)

What you take into the spirit world is neither money nor the name of the Uni­fication Church. What should you do from now? It is a question of making as many sons and daughters as possible for God to love. People can procreate only a few babies; anyone can do that.

What must we undergo in the resto­ration process? By recovering from the satanic world many sons and daughters whom God can love, your meritorious deeds will be linked to your ancestors and serve to liberate them. This is the greatest gift you can obtain in the course of restoration.

Even if you served as a regional director, if you have no spiritual sons and daughters, you’ll go to the spirit world with an empty can in your hand, because you won’t have even one person attached to you.

Heaven is an infinite world requir­ing bridges linking up with the heart of love. Thus, the more the people you witnessed to spread over the world, the more extensively you will be able to get around in the spirit world. Everyone will want to link up with you.

The relationships that you are able to resolve in heaven because of having resolved them on earth will create a vast base of activity when you go to the spir­it world. It will all be yours. Thus, your sphere of activity can spread out to the entire spirit world based upon that stan­dard. Without this base, you would be pushed into a corner and your activities restricted, so we have no spare time to be idle or rest.

Eating, living and raising children are no big deal for the spirit world. We must therefore recover heaven’s citizens. They become your assets there.

We must quickly digest all of human­ity and the world. If we do this, all the spirits in the next world will undergo the returning resurrection. If the birth­right now belonging to the satanic foun­dation reverts to God’s foundation – into Adam’s possession – the archangel will listen to Adam and follow him. By standing in the position of absolute obe­dience, the archangel enters the realm of Adam’s love together with God’s love, and thereby naturally enters heaven, fol­lowing Adam. That is the principle.

People on earth did not fulfill this responsibility and caused a mess which they must clean up. We are to open the way for restoration through indemnity. Therefore, you must realize the tremen­dous value of witnessing. It is therefore a question of how many people you bring in for registration into the realm of eter­nal life. Just posting up the Unification Church signboard is useless. We must bear fruit.

On his way to Jerusalem, Jesus went up to a fig tree to see if it had any fruit. When he found it to be without fruit, he cursed it, and it withered and died. That’s exactly how it will be. What use is it to keep up appearances? Thus, the number of Blessed Families you create will become your harvest.

You need to bring 120 people, even hundreds. Without being able to do that, it does not make sense for you to love your own sons and daughters. From the viewpoint of the Principle, we need 120 people. The number 120 represents the nations of the world at the time of Jesus. The 430 families are equivalent to all the surnames in one nation. The 430 fami­lies represent 4,300 years of Korean his­tory. Through them, I opened the gate for the citizens represented by these sur­names to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Although I have opened it, it does not mean they have actually entered.

This is not empty talk; it is logical. Do not kill time. Only when you give birth to sons and daughters and raise them up during your younger years can you leave to your descendants a foundation to be proud of. Only when your chil­dren become great people can you stand proud before history. Without such actual results, you might be accepted at the family or village level, but not at the national level. For that, you need actual results that can be passed on as a tradi­tion.

That is why everyone desires to leave something behind for the nation, the world, and heaven and earth. The same principle applies to you. Have the clear concept that your lifelong purpose is to establish your domain of ownership. Therefore, you cannot think of giving up on the way of God’s will, even if you do not like it.

Why would I take on that respon­sibility even if it means I have to go to prison and suffer there alone? To save people suffering in such circumstances. People in suffering circumstances will follow if it can benefit them. By follow­ing, they are harvested. When I go to the spirit world, because all I have done will be welcomed as something public, I will go to the highest position of the heavenly kingdom.

If citizens are well educated, the nation prospers. The same principle applies to you. It is a question of how much you can reason with people, straighten out their attitudes, and leave behind the achievement of your ideals centering on the realm of life of the heav­enly kingdom. If this is done, the world will be restored quickly. That is why you have to devotedly raise them.

It is the same with me. When I give sermons, I speak for five or six hours at a time. I do not do that because I like to. The gist of a sermon is simple and does not even require a fifteen minute talk. I speak that long because I try to make it easy for different types of peo­ple, for those who have come to hear, to understand the gist by explaining to them using many examples, and to have them participate within that sphere. The purpose is to sow as many seeds as pos­sible in the spring season. If I sow many seeds, many plants will grow.

Where must you sow the seeds, then? It must be an unspoiled place. Where is that? Adolescents. Once you sow seeds in them, they will last a lifetime. They will not be uprooted.

When are people most sensitive? In elementary school. Peoples’ senses dull as they advance through middle and high schools. Once they start going to university, it is like passing through a neighboring village, like an excursion activity. The most difficult time is dur­ing elementary school. Next is during middle and high school. As time goes by, their senses dull. We must sow the seeds of life accordingly.

If, while playing with children at Sunday school, you teach them chil­dren’s songs, tell them stories and so on, such things will accumulate to become eternal assets for your future. Whenever you meet elderly people, testify to God’s Word. Unification Church leaders are not doing these things well.

When on a bus, talk to ten people and ask them where they are going in order to get to know them. Arrange to see them again and when you do, introduce the Principle to them. You can witness to them as much as you like. There are enough materials. If you want to witness to people, it is better to ride on the bus or subway than to drive your own car. As you commute on the same route every­day, twelve months a year, you will get to know people by their faces. By greeting them, you are tapping into an interactive network. Such paths are cleared, so why are you just wasting time?

More important than eating is har­vesting the citizens of heaven, but you are not doing that well. It is our main occupation. It is our principal activity while we live on earth. Among the works you should do in your lifetime, there is nothing more important than that. Landing a job, getting promoted and making money will all be water under a bridge. Money will be useless in the other world; materials and knowledge are unnecessary there. Even if you are not taught, your mind knows ahead of time; you will know everything within a week.

Power is unnecessary in the other world. What is needed there is love-cen­tered harmonizing power, love-centered influential power. Therefore, people lacking that love-centered influential power are intrinsically unable to har­monize with the original world which moves by the influence of love. If they should arrive there, they are repelled and end up in hell.

You say you have lived and worked for the Unification Church ever since you joined it, but you should consider in what position you have worked. Always ask yourselves in which direction you are headed and in which position you are located. If you do that prayerfully, God will be with you. You will know it the moment you close your eyes – even without praying. As you go somewhere to give a talk, the right words just flow out of your mouth. If you come across conscientious people, you are drawn to enter their houses.

Everything seeks relationship. Even flowers have the power of attraction to create relationships, whether as a sub­ject or object partner. Even if you see someone for the first time, it does not mean that you cannot relate to that per­son. That is how a magnet is – its essence is eternally unchanging. By the same token, if you go to such a place, you feel joyful and are inspired to speak. Once you enter that state, your mouth opens even if you were not intending to speak.

When you go to that other world someday, what will you say to God who has been guiding the work of redemp­tion and who took great pains to this day to find one Adam? From the Genesis up to the present day, God has been seek­ing His perfect son Adam. You all know the Principle. This is the weapon that can save countless people. Until now, God could not teach humankind and consequently had to guide the work of redemption amid ignorance. On earth, we work on God’s behalf and are doing greater things than He. The Principle provides us with a path to enlighten and assemble a following of hundreds and thousands of Adams.

That is why we have to connect them to eternal life. The question of eternal life is a serious matter. When spring comes the young women go and look for herbs to pick. Likewise, just as you would go and seek out what you desire, you have to live your whole life in such a way. When your contacts show up while you are doing that, have the heart of want­ing to convey the Principle to them all night. Go all out to inspire them at your first meeting.

You should not be doing anything other than finding sons and daughters whom you can take with you to heaven. Even if you had hundreds of millions of dollars and lived richly, all that would pass away. Do it even to the point of investing all your materials, knowledge, and your very lives. Invest them all at one time, not separately, to create heav­enly citizens. The value of your invest­ment will be proportional to the amount of your input your input.

You so-called Unification Church leaders here: you may stiffen your shoul­ders proudly and fancy yourselves, but that is shameful. The question is how many lives you have saved through your own efforts.

The degree to which you will be praised eternally before heaven for your achievements depends on how many heavenly citizens you harvested. People have not had a spade to harvest them until now. They could not do it because they did not know, but you have an A-frame carrier on your back. You can bring in an explosive harvest once you start spreading God’s words passion­ately. However, because you are wasting time even with that kind of real internal power, God wants to strike you with a thunderbolt.

It matters not whether it is mid­night or dawn, whether night or day. When Heaven is ready to receive you, you cannot say to Him, “Oh, I just want to sleep!” In that position, you just run straight through.

We must provide education concern­ing the issue of eternal life. From now on, assume that responsibility. I cannot curse those who oppose the Unification Church. God wants them to connect with me and commit themselves, but if they drop out that is our church’s responsi­bility and I must assume responsibility for that. This world came to oppose us because of Satan, but it is our responsi­bility to overcome those adverse circum­stances quickly. If we do not, our situa­tion will be all the more miserable from the resultant damage it will sustain.

It is the same as nursing a baby. If you give birth to a baby, you have to nurse it. That is why people come looking for you. When they do, never treat them coldly. I have also lived that way all my life. If people visit me even at midnight, unless they decide to leave, I will stay seated with them and never ask them to leave. They will not want to leave because they are looking for something. Then, I must share God’s words with them. I will live my whole life that way. I will never be businesslike. The spirit world is always awake.

If you Unification Church members fight among yourselves and cause even one person to fall away, the damage would be great. That person could come to understand God’s will and fulfill his responsibility before heaven; he could then go on to save thousands and myri­ads of people, and surprise you by sur­passing you. So if you mismanage your people, everything will go wrong. If you constantly lower yourselves and strive to elevate everyone else, you will have no problems. That is what humility means.

But if you err, you will go down. When entering the room where your wife and children are at night, be a responsible father and husband. If the husband does well, his wife will follow him to the other world. Of course, there is a process of training in order to enter the Father’s house. It is fastest if they can go directly. The other side is an unfor­giving world. We are now preparing to be in step with it.

Do this work even if you have to skip a meal. Do not say you will do it after you eat. If a charge of dynamite was about to explode, you would not be eating. It is a serious question of getting people to connect with the issue of eternal life. A light can burn only when an electri­cal current generated at a power plant is transmitted through various terminals and electrical circuit devices. Only with a connection will it stay on.

Therefore, love your spiritual sons and daughters more than your own children, and do more for your spiri­tual parents than for your natural par­ents. The parents who gave birth to you are parents from the satanic world, but your spiritual parents are parents from the heavenly world. Therefore, serve them more than you would your own mother. Furthermore, spiritual sons and daughters have the responsibility to nurture the children of the people who saved them and to help them get mar­ried. Such is God’s will. They are to raise all those children.

Thus, unless people become linked to eternal life, everything is in vain. It is not over after they have heard God’s Word. Keep encouraging them in order to bring them to the Blessing. They must receive it. If they do and start witness­ing, a connection will be made natural­ly. If they can overcome persecution in the difficult circumstances of the satan­ic world, they are already on the path of life. When they receive the Blessing, your job is done.

Do not give egotistical sermons. Speak while shedding blood and sweat. Go through the pain of giving birth. Do that while shedding tears. If your eyes are not wet with tears, your sermon is contrived. (230-25, 1992.4.15)

2.8.3. Why we should have lots of children

There is not even one Unification Church member who does not know God. We believe in the spirit world. We began from love, separated from God, and will finally return to Him.

If a couple is truly one in heart, when they go to the spirit world, they can inter­change positions anytime. We say love is one. If you look into a woman, there is a man inside. It is exactly the same with God’s dual characteristics. Since inter­nal character and external form arose as separate entities from God, in order to return to the Original Being, they must ascend the ladder of love. As the stan­dard of creation originated from love, one must ascend this ladder to return. After all, our final destination is to be with God.

People do not give birth to babies in the spirit world. It is a vertical, circular God-centered world not requiring the birth of babies. As he needed a horizon­tal base, God created human beings as His embodiment. It is an earthly field of reproduction from which all the citizens of the spirit world originate. From this providential perspective, we can under­stand why people engage in birth con­trol. The evil lineage is not to be propa­gated anymore.

The heavenly citizens that Unifica­tion Church Blessed Families reproduce are their assets. Your own children are more valuable than spiritual children, who do not have a direct relationship to the Blessing. Your position in heaven will be determined by the number of chil­dren you leave behind. (205-97, 1990.7.7)

Perfection must be achieved on earth, not in the spirit world. It can be done based on true love on earth, not in the spirit world. This is why you need to have children. They become heaven­ly citizens, ideal citizens of the heaven­ly kingdom. So give birth to many sons and daughters. Originally, there were to be more than twelve directions, and that is why I desire more than twelve direc­tions. (217-130, 1991.5.12)

Without sons and daughters, the Kingdom of Heaven would not flourish. For this reason Blessed Families should not practice birth control. People who starve to death still end up in the spirit world; if they die in the midst of love, they end up in heaven.

So, the satanic world is now promot­ing birth control, but it should not be practiced in the Unification Church. I underwent hardships for God’s will, but did not die of starvation. Even if I went into a famine-stricken area, I could sur­vive because I am trained to survive. When we sacrifice everything for the sake of absolute love, we can control God, the satanic world, and heavenly fortune. What do I mean by control? It means that God will follow us. God, this world, and heavenly fortune will follow us. (201-133, 1990.3.27)

Raise your children to become great people whom you can bequeath to pos­terity on earth. In the future, they will all go to the spirit world and become cit­izens of heaven. How many people will you offer as citizens of heaven? It was a hardship on earth but becomes a noble, glorious way in the world of eternity.

You go to great lengths to educate and feed your children on earth, but in the spirit world, food, clothing and liv­ing are no problem. You will wish you had as many children as possible. (218-319, 1991.8.22)

You will not be procreating in the spirit world. As God stands in the posi­tion of the vertical Parent, there is but one point. (221-204, 1991.10.24)

What is God doing? He is saving the world. The works that allowed people to enter a higher dimension in spirit world were performed on earth. What kind of place is the earth? It is the manufactur­ing plant for producing the citizens of heaven – the vast unchanging Kingdom of Heaven.

Even if each of you had a hundred children, heaven is so vast that you could never overproduce. That world can accommodate any number of peo­ple. Do not practice birth control. Once you go to the spirit world, the question will be how many citizens of heaven you created and led there. Understand that leading many true sons and daughters to the Kingdom of Heaven establishes your rights and interests, as well as the level at which you will be honored in the heav­enly world. (202-38, 1990.5.1)

2.9. Our attitude in the face of death

Jesus taught everything: “Whoev­er wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” Where will you find such appar­ently groundless remarks in this world? Nowhere. Yet they are true.

Then, why do we die? To what end? To live. There is some purpose to live for. People live for different purposes. For what are you asked to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind”? To become God’s son. It means to offer your head to love God – you have but one – but you must offer it to Him.

Where are we to go and die? In the highest position rather than the lowest. Thus, we should die for the Kingdom of Heaven. It is greater than any nation in this world. We must die in God’s King­dom, the only one in heaven and on earth. Where shall we die? That is the question. Even in dying, there is a way.

There is a proper position in which to die. Don’t die in the ordinary Kore­an way. If you do, however many times you die, it won’t count. Die in the highest position for the nation of God’s heart, at the heart of the heavenly kingdom – the best place to die. Your death should inspire everyone in the universe to raise a flag and welcome you. (34-184, 1970.9.6)

Today, we are yearning for the day of the last resurrection, the day of hope. That time of hope which everyone is yearning for is one that all humankind can delight in, yet it does not come eas­ily. That hope can only be owned by those who conquer death. Only those who fought for God against Satan will take possession of it. Only those who suffered persecution together with God for the sake of heaven will take posses­sion of that hope.

As we contemplate such a time approaching us, we must have ardent hearts to overcome our living circum­stances and even the fear of death. If such ardor does not emanate from with­in you, you cannot draw that one day of hope into the realm of your daily life and go on living.

Therefore, those who are said to be living a true lifestyle will ask themselves, what will be the scenario of my death? Do not wait until you are eighty and about to die to ask yourselves the ques­tion, “In what fashion am I going to cel­ebrate my last day?” When reaching the place of death, Jesus said, “It is finished,” and “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” Indeed, he is the only one who has been victorious throughout all the stages of his life.

You will meet with death one day. While looking back on your past at that moment, think about what kind of words you would wish to leave behind.

This path is one without even friends. It is the path without even beloved par­ents, siblings, a beloved spouse, or chil­dren. It is the path only you must go alone. It is the path you cannot revisit or return to; it is the path, once trod­den, that you can never return to in all of eternity. With what kind of heart do you walk this path? At the moment you face death, if you should lack the hope with which you can overcome it, your end will come right then and there.

The many people who have upheld and established God’s will were not the type to retreat before the path of death, but rather laughed scornfully at death, overcoming it valiantly. Such people have appeared and established the heav­enly way.

All of you must embrace the hope with which you can overcome death when you are confronted by it. After you have traversed that path, you must be able to race joyfully to that original homeland for which you have longed with the hopeful thought of standing tall in front of Heaven. Only those who fervently desire God’s ideal world can overcome death.

All the things of this world will pass away. Your beloved parents, spouses and everything that you love will all pass away, and you will eventually face death. Even so, only those possessed of the vic­torious hope that lets even death go past can stand before Heaven.

People living on earth today do not desire the path of suffering and sor­row. The passing of joyous occasions evokes nostalgia in them. Such is human nature.

This world we live in is mixed with sadness and joy. All the happiness we are experiencing will disappear with death and cannot remain beyond it.

Our heart seeks happiness, longs for better things, and yearns for the eternal world. If sorrow and joy disappear with death, then does our heart also finish with death? No. The fact that our hearts and minds move in that direction is proof that such a world actually exists.

People are spiritual beings and their lives are eternal. People who have loy­ally walked the way of death for heaven, embracing hope as they followed a path repulsive to many people, have done so because they felt something ordinary people could not feel and appreciated something ordinary people could not appreciate. It was for that reason that they could tread even the path of death.

Unless your longing becomes stron­ger than any adversity, hardship, sad­ness, or death that you may encounter in your actual life, you will become people who feel regretful before death and draw back from pain and sorrow. As Jesus sur­mounted the summit of death, entered the eternal world, and built the sphere of resurrection, we today are also destined to surmount the summit of death.

Then what type of people live with heavenly hope? They are those who can joyfully surmount the summit of death that grieves humanity. Such people are the ones who cherish Heaven’s hopes. So, do not become people who covet and grieve after all the things of this world before death. Become those who can stand before heaven and be proud of the value of their death. God seeks such sons and daughters of hope.

If there were people who felt Heaven’s joy in such a position, God could not but love them. If there were a throng of peo­ple that cried out to Heaven from such a position, Heaven could not but answer that cry. (6-52, 1959.3.22)

“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.” What do those words mean? Those placed in the position to die for God’s will must die.

Then what happens when we die? Before we die, we belong to ourselves, but after we die, we belong to God. That is because we inherited the fallen lin­eage. Thus, our lives cannot be freed from satanic bondage before we die, but we bond together with God after death.

Which is stronger: life or death? Is life stronger than death or is death stronger than life? Death is stronger than life in the satanic world. Therefore, after com­ing to know God’s will, do not hate death when you are in the position of having to die. You have to die anyway in the satan­ic world. Unless you die, you cannot res­urrect. Unless we pass through one age, we cannot welcome another.

What kind of death is the Bible refer­ring to? It does not end the life that God has eternally, but that life which inherit­ed the fallen lineage of the satanic world. Thus, those who seek to die for the Will shall live. These words sound paradoxi­cal, but from what we understand about the Fall and restoration, restoration can­not be achieved unless that is done. This is the normal logic of restoration.

The biggest question then is wheth­er we can offer our lives. When I started out on this path, I asked myself if I was resolved to lay down my life.

I was resolved to die. I also thought about how I would die as well as the last words I would utter. I did not think about how I could live.

Since God’s providence revolved around Korea, I sought the position of death. Where was that? It was the place to confront the enemy, that is to say, the place where the enemy was to be found. I went out in search of the enemy head­quarters. Because the foundation of the Will based upon Korean Christianity fell into satanic hands, I went to North Korea, which was Satan’s den, to recover it.

Because I had to fight the world­wide Communist Party from that time on, I went to North Korea. I entered the nation of the implacable foe, fully pre­pared to be chained in irons and impris­oned. Despite the atrocious ordeals that were imposed upon me, I never surren­dered. I never lost God’s dignity even at the point of extreme starvation. No mat­ter how constricted my living conditions were, I never violated heavenly law.

In spite of my confinement, I was able to restore everything within those limited circumstances, and sought after the motivation for a new start and a new meaning of life before God. I started out doing that. Even though I was made to perform all manner of heavy labor, I maintained the conviction that I would never break, and that I would never die even if all others did.

The Unification Church did not start from the place of seeking life but that of seeking death. Yet were you resolved to die after you came to know the purpose of the Unification Church? When Colo­nel Heo, the head of special operations under the Freedom Party, and the gov­ernment’s chief suspect in the murder of Kim Chang-ryong, was executed, he was asked if he felt any remorse for having planned and ordered the murder. He said he felt no remorse and died like a man. When such assassinations or shootings occur, you should compare those execut­ed with yourselves, and ask yourselves how you would die in comparison.

You might be driven by the conspir­acies of your enemies to die as a great traitor, or you might die as a result of your comrades, friends, or loved ones, or others, plotting to harm you, but when you die, do so with the heart of benefit­ing the world. Die without enemies. If you are to die anyway, die after plant­ing something, and without making any enemies. Be resolved to die while loving the enemy as a friend rather than oth­erwise. Jesus’ prayer on the cross for his enemies was great in this way. (34-45, 1970.8.29)

2.10. When entering the spirit world

2.10.1. At the time of impending death

Success or failure in life is not decid­ed over decades, but in a moment. Com­pared to a human lifespan, birth occurs in but a brief moment. Of course, we spent ten months in our mother’s womb leading up to our birth, but that was a period of preparing for that one moment of birth. Ultimately, no matter how good the preparations may have been during those ten months, if the baby does not pass through the decisive moment suc­cessfully, it meets a tragic fate.

Those ten months of constant nur­turing and safeguarding are designed for celebrating the moment of birth. In other words, that period serves the pur­pose of bringing about that moment of birth. Notwithstanding the greatness of the gestation period, an error at the moment of delivery can cause tragic consequences. (31-184, 1970.5.31)

A person who regrets his past at the point of facing that final, fateful moment on earth will see all the details of his life flash across his mind as images. No one needs to explain to him what kind of person he is, he will know by himself. The circumstances he has been associ­ated with through the life he inherit­ed from his ancestors, the situation he leaves behind, and everything from his past will appear as images in his mind at the last moment of his life.

A person who can say, “It was true. I have left behind something more pre­cious than my life,” would have lived a valuable life, no matter how brief. Yet there are people who say to themselves, “My whole life course from birth to death was merely a period I spent as a passer­by.” If such people reflect on all their past situations, they will shake their heads, feeling that they do not want to remem­ber the past, and they will die miserable people. Opposite them, are those people whose faces fill with more and more joy as they more and more reflect on their past; their problems are absorbed into the ideal and even the fear of death will be celebrated as a moment of comfort.

Viewing life in this way, we can see that if one had left something behind and if the moment for that person to reflect on their past is not a moment of fear, then that person’s past and reality will manifest as things not dead. A per­son with such a past is surely destined to be someone that all the people of the nation can follow, one who bequeaths a legacy that all humanity is destined to inherit.

What kind of situation creates that opportunity? When a nation is faced with intractable problems at a time of misery and cruelty, and a person takes responsibility for solving those problems at the risk of his or her life, that moment becomes the unforgettable moment in a life story.

The experience of saving your broth­er, relatives, or other people at the risk of your life, rather than the experience of risking your life for your own sake dur­ing your life course, and the occasion of having faced a moment in which you had to save them, can appear as an image in your mind at the last fateful moment. The times of happiness centered on you and a blessed time of being welcomed and glorified by many people, will have an effect on that moment.

With regard to the question of wheth­er we were good, became true, and could stand alone before God, truth and good­ness do not begin from ourselves or end in ourselves. Only when they begin in us and bring results in others, or they begin in others and bring results in us, can goodness come about. According to the Principle, all beings in the universe are to enter into reciprocal relationships.

If your life up to now has been a life of giving, there should be no fear on the path of death. If you give everything for others, sacrifice for others, shed tears for others while leading a life close to the truth, invest your life for others, find your desires in others, and concentrate all the life force flowing from your pulse and invest it for others, your past will become a shining past.

When you long for such a past and think about the nation, you will come to the conclusion that the nation of hope must also be such a nation. When you come to yearn for such a past, you will sacrifice for others and you will be able to decide how the original goodness you hope for should be like. If you go before God saying “Since I have fought for goodness in the past, then naturally this will bear fruit in the future.” This con­tent becomes the foundation for your eternal life.

The path of saints and sages and the path of ordinary people are different. The saints and the sages are those who sought to live for history, the world, and the future. Ordinary people, however, are those who sought to live for them­selves and to make the world serve them. (31-308, 1970.6.7)

2.10.2. When entering the spirit world

We all live in a similar way after we are born. As life progresses do we gradu­ally become weaker or stronger?

Even if you came to know who you are and made a resolution, that resolve gradually weakens after ten, twenty, and thirty years. As you age through your fifties and sixties and into your seventies and eighties it becomes a problem. Phe­nomena in the world of dynamics dem­onstrate the principle that all motion tends to gradually diminish; any action caused by a force subsequently decays.

Using electricity as an example, the potential energy of any power source diminishes as it powers a motor or produces work. Exhaustion inevitably occurs. Looking at it this way, we cannot stand still all our lives. We must contin­ue moving throughout our life – wheth­er we like it or not. Even when we move, is it in the right or wrong way? There are many ways to move.

Then, in which direction should people go or roll? We roll without even realizing it. If we live like a rolling stone that might smash into a rock or go down the drain, how dangerous that is! How unfortunate! How insecure! It is a prob­lem. Once you enter the spirit world, you can no longer relate to all the things we now measure within the confines of space and time. That world transcends time and space. (141-269, 1986.3.2)

What happens when we enter the spirit world? You have your own spiri­tual level. Everyone has a certain spiri­tual level, within certain limits such as one degree. Since that is the case, even those who were blessed separate when they first enter the other world. Why? Because each person’s spiritual level is different. (194-61, 1989.10.15)

What will you become in the heav­enly kingdom? An ambassador or a ser­vant to run errands at the embassy? Be an ambassador. That is not easy. In a life-threatening situation, the ambassador is the first to die.

We know of the existence of the spirit world. It is more certain than this world. What kind of a world is it? It is one in which everything is possible as long as it is acceptable in God’s plan. (107-55, 1980.1.20)

Do you have a gift to bring along when you go to heaven? When you go to the spirit world, religious martyrs will line up in front of you. Can you unwrap the bundle you brought with you in front of them? What suffering have you and the Unification Church undergone? How can you say you live for the nation and the world without having withstood such hardships? I have suffered, but I do not think of it as suffering. Naturally, we still have a long way to go.

Upon your arrival in the spirit world, you have to be able to unwrap your bun­dle and say, “Here is the gift I prepared all my life; please receive it.” If women must bring a dowry when moving in with their in-laws, how can you go to heaven empty-handed? (32-71, 1970.6.21)

If you are not independent, you can­not enter the spirit world. It has its own world, nations, tribes, families, and individuals. Unless you have the inde­pendence that enables you to say that you are an absolutely necessary individ­ual there, you cannot enter heaven. Be so independent that you can say you are absolutely necessary to your family and tribe. Only when you have such inde­pendence there can you enter heaven. (19-43, 1967.12.24)

In the spirit world, the earth seems like a speck of dust. You would not know how immense the spirit world is. It is an infinite world that transcends time and space. You will only have to call out, “Whoever lived on earth with such and such a heart at such and such a time show yourself!” and that person will appear in the twinkling of an eye. It is a world where intuitive sensations become real.

It will not be a problem to host a ban­quet for a million people at once. You would just have to say, “I want to share with everyone this joy of ideal love by having a banquet in which the women will be dressed in such and such a way and the men will wear such and such clothes and I’d like it to happen now!” No sooner said than done, meals and fruit will appear instantaneously accord­ing to your wishes. If everyone has eaten their fill, what will you do with the left­overs?

There are no kitchens there. You don’t need to worry about anything. There are no food-processing plants or auto-man­ufacturing plants or anything like that. There are all kinds of flowers. You can create as many houses as you want cor­responding to the level of your heart of love. (224-105, 1991.11.23)

When ordinary people think about their past, the memories are dark, but when saints think about their past, they are bright. What is that brightness? It is not for them but something that can draw out the nation of hope. For that reason, if there is the heavenly kingdom of hope, that kingdom has to be started by them. That is heaven.

As you chart your path through the realm of the Fall with its grim surround­ings, you will be anticipating ups and downs, plotting your life course accord­ing to your wishes, saying to yourself that you will go this way one year and that way next year, or this way for ten years and that way for the next ten years. If you experience ups and downs cen­tered on yourselves, when you come to meet your final destiny, all your records of sacrificing others for yourselves will tie you down. (31-308, 1970.6.7)

Have you ever once thought you’ll keep going this way even when you’re seventy or eighty or even in your dying moments? Even on your deathbed, you must be able to present proof, saying, “I have illumined the past in this way and done these things in the present. I would do those things in the future, but I am dying. So, please take care of them on my behalf.” It must not be just lip ser­vice. It should be the case that the peo­ple around your death bed cling to you, crying out, “Don’t go! Don’t go!” (73-114, 1974.8.16)

2.10.3. Documents required for entry procedures into the spirit world

Where do you first get a certificate that enables you to say, “I have become like this. I have done these things. Here is my certificate of victory”? You cannot issue such a certificate yourself. Then who issues it? Satan first. God cannot. You have to obtain the certificate of vic­tory from Satan.

Jesus knew that very well, and that is why, when he started his three-year pub­lic ministry, he summoned Satan and fought him for forty days to have him issue the certificate. There were the three temptations. After Jesus gained victory over them, Satan declared: “You are vic­torious on the national level, so I have no choice but to issue the certificate; other­wise, I would have to give up all my ter­ritory to heaven’s side immediately.”

Thus, you must first obtain a cer­tificate from Satan; then receive anoth­er one from Jesus. Finally, you have to receive one more from God. You need these three certificates. (15-121, 1965.10.3)

2.11. Things you will know clearly only after you die

If you get connected with the spirit world through prayer, you will come to know that in the spirit world, the spir­its are working very hard to bring their descendants closer to heaven. Yet here, people speak ill of their ancestors and just want to live selfishly.

That is something you will know only after you die. If you wonder wheth­er my words are true, die and find out. If you could die and come back to life, that would be good, but once you die, that is the end. So it is said that when Rev. Moon of the Unification Church intimi­dates people, he is doing such a fine job of intimidating people; no one can do it the way he can. Yet watch what hap­pens after you die. I am not saying all this because I have nothing else to talk about. (22-337, 1969.5.11)

Where do you discover God’s supreme love? Not in a palace. The way to occupy the highest love of God is found at the bottom of hell where you are bleeding close to the point of collapse and about to die. When I was in prison under the communists, the spirit world testified to me without my saying even one word. That is why I had disciples who were resolved to do anything for me at the risk of their lives. Given that kind of support, had I been a villain, I would have had many ways to escape from prison. God works with us in such situations. (91-175,
1977.2.6)

2.12. Altruism gets you closer to God

The spirit world consists of three stag­es. Those who lived more for others will go to a higher level in the spirit world. For those who lived for themselves, the opposite world will unfold. There are also three stages there. Those already there will object, saying: “Huh! We don’t want people like you!” Everyone rejects egoists and welcomes altruists.

Among those who go to the spirit world after living on earth, the altruists take the top places. This is especially so for those who apply themselves in, say, forty countries and live for others with the heart that they would have toward their mother and family, and with the heart of a saint to save the people of the world from evil.

That is why I think this way: “As a man, I am the commander-in-chief of the filial sons, patriots and saints of the historical eras. Although everyone else who had the name of God’s son failed, I was born as a victorious son.” Only one thing will enable you to say that. What is it? It is simple: absolute altruism. Only those who give and forget, who do things for others and forget, can digest that world.

Know clearly whether you belong to the group that will go to heaven or the one that will go to hell. These words are not ones I have just thought up. They come from someone who knows the spirit world well.

No one can avoid death. You can­not avoid death. Egoists go to hell, and altruists go to heaven. These two worlds become separated at death. (203-99, 1990.6.17)

What will happen from now on? Peo­ple will offer their properties to heaven. Live for others – for the higher cause and for the greater good. Live for the world and for God, and to liberate humankind. Make people change to the new lineage. Because the lineage got entangled, God has been powerless until now. As we have now entered the era of conversion, you need to know that the free heaven and earth are approaching and there­fore sow seeds of goodness. Know clear­ly how you should act. From now on, be a throng possessing eternal life that can be linked to the clan of the Messiah, the citizens of heaven and the eternal King­dom of Heaven. (203-185, 1990.6.24)

What will be the basis of competition in the future? Living for the sake of oth­ers. Why? Those who live for others go to a higher position in heaven. By serving such people and riding on their coattails one can make great leaps forward. You can be launched from there, just like the satellites that are launched from Cape Kennedy. This is because living for the sake of an individual is comparable to when God created His object partners; you, too, will stand as the object of that individual. For that purpose, we follow someone and live for others.

You serve me to make use of me. Earning my love is your launching pad toward occupying God. Satellites sym­bolize how today’s believers can take off and cross infinite distances to get to heaven.

Eventually, human beings are des­tined to go to the original homeland. They may have their hometown in this world, but when they return to the original homeland – the eternal home­land – those who have nothing to show for their efforts will be miserable. You know how devastating not being able to join a group can be. (213-193, 1991.1.20)

Until now, there was no family, but from now on, the organization of fami­lies will begin. Everyone was separated until now. Why? Everyone was separat­ed because their cultural and emotional backgrounds and customs were all dif­ferent, so a family is the place where we create new customs and a new cul­ture and cast them as habits. Without the family, the society could not exist. A national society could not exist and thus neither the nation nor the world could exist.

For this reason religions now consti­tute the mainstream. People may reside in the Buddhist realm or Christian realm. Where people from different countries cannot peacefully co-exist, people of the same religious realm can. Religious realms all desire one world and believe in one God. Thus, they can stay together. All religions belong to God’s realm. Nations do not.

From the Unification Church, indi­viduals, families, tribal messiahs, national messiahs and world messiahs will come forth. The path the individ­ual takes leads to the path the family takes, and the path the family takes leads to the path the tribe takes. Then what kind of world is the spirit world? It is a place where people live altruisti­cally based on true love – not selfishly, but for the greater good. Even on earth, those who live 100 percent for others say, “Step on me and go on!” However big America may be, if there is someone who lives for the people more than the president, everyone will welcome him even if he steps on the president and goes on. But if someone lives only for his own benefit, everyone becomes an enemy.

It is the same as in the spirit world. If someone lives for a greater cause, he can pass naturally. If something serves a greater cause, it can pass naturally. So, if someone lives for the world, he does not have to live for America alone. America is included in the world. It is the same for Korea. All nations are included.

Then, what would underlie the direction that families would take nat­urally, that everyone can welcome, in going their way? It can only be the way of love to live for others.

These two things cannot be blocked even in the satanic world on earth. Even the satanic world has to absolute­ly accommodate them. Even the most wicked parents and evil people welcome someone who tries to give them some­thing with true love. (215-174, 1991.2.17)

2.13. Judgment

Have you ever thought that an order to appear before the court of judgment in the spirit world would come to you? Someday, that order will be given.

To administer and manage that court, there must be a judge, a prosecutor, and a defense attorney. Then who will they be? The judge is God, the prosecutor is Satan, and the defense attorney is Jesus. (17-176, 1966.12.18)