Earthly Life and Spirit World (Part 1) - 075 [2] Death And The Spirit World 2. Understanding Death
8) Things That Must Be Done Before Death
⑥ Work for the Public - 1
What are the norms of heaven? They are to give priority to public matters. Private matters belong to Satan, and public matters belong to God. You must work for public matters.
While you are on this course, you may receive opposition. But if you do not get damaged from the opposition and go over the difficult path with vitality and prowess, you will become a heavenly person and welcome the spring. (47:272)
In the marketplace, if you are greedy, you don't have customers. People don't come and buy things from you. If you are greedy, nobody likes you. All of us know this.
There is no one who does not know the secret of how to manage one's life concerning the distinction between private and public matters. Therefore, if you are unable to go to the Heavenly Kingdom, you cannot use the excuse that you did not know how to manage your life.
Do you come to know the distinction between public matters and private matters only when someone else teaches you about it? You know it yourself, without being taught.
Suppose your mother divided a delicious rice cake evenly between you and your sister. You ate yours and your sister kept hers without eating it. Suppose you woke up at night and secretly ate your sister's cake, which she had set her heart on.
When you tried to eat it, wouldn't your mind say, "You fool!" Doesn't your mind tell you so? Do you feet what your mind is telling you, or not? If you don't feel it, you are not a human being. You should feel it. Why? Because your mind pursues public matters. If you follow private desires, you will perish.
For those who follow the norms of heaven, there is a mind that protects them from destruction. Because there originally existed such a mind in God, human beings come to have the same mind with its original characteristics.
It is not an artificial, man-made law. Can you say, "Conscience! Be that way, because I want you to be so for my sake," Suppose you gave a command, "You conscience! You should be this way because I think so," Does your conscience act in the way you desired?
We don't know where the command of the conscience comes from, but we receive it from somewhere other than ourselves. When we see how such a feeling in fact controls us, we can see it does so centering on the issue of the public and the private. (31:241)
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