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2. Store Up Treasures in Heaven
Religious scriptures
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Matthew 6.19-21
Men who have not led a religious life and have not laid up treasure in their youth perish like old herons in a lake without fish. Men who have not lived a religious life and have not laid up treasure in their youth lie like wornout bows, sighing after the past.
Dhammapada 155-56 (Buddhism)
O shrewd businessman, do only profitable business: Deal only in that commodity which shall accompany you after death.
Adi Granth, Sri Raga, M.1, p. 22 (Sikhism)
Beautified for mankind is love of the joys [that come] from women and offspring, and stored-up heaps of gold and silver, and horses branded, and cattle and land. That is comfort of the life of the world. God! With Him is a more excellent abode. Say, Shall I inform you of something better than that? For those who keep from evil, with their Lord are Gardens underneath which rivers flow, and pure companions, and contentment from God.
Qur’an 3.14-15
Relatives and friends and well-wishers rejoice at the arrival of a man who had been long absent and has returned home safely from afar. Likewise, meritorious deeds will receive the good person upon his arrival in the next world, as relatives welcome a dear one on his return.
Dhammapada 219-20 (Buddhism)
Leaving the dead body on the ground like a log of wood or a clod of earth, the relatives depart with averted faces; but spiritual merit follows the soul. Let him therefore always slowly accumulate spiritual merit, in order that it may be his companion after death; for without merit as his companion he will traverse a gloom difficult to traverse. That companion speedily conducts the man who is devoted to duty and effaces his sins by austerities, to the next world, radiant and clothed with an ethereal body.
Laws of Manu 4.241-243 (Hinduism)
And [Jesus] told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully; and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns, and build larger ones; and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God will say to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
Luke 12.16-21
I see men of wealth in the world— acquiring property, from delusion they give not away; out of greed a hoard of wealth they make, and hanker sorely after more sense pleasures… Heirs carry off his wealth; but the being goes on according to kamma. Wealth does not follow him who is dying, nor child or wife, nor wealth or kingdom. Long life is not gained by wealth, nor is old age banished by property. “For brief is this life,” the wise say, non-eternal, subject to change. Rich and poor feel the touch [of death], fool and wise are touched alike. But the fool, as though struck down by folly, prostrate lies, While the wise, touched by the touch, trembles not. Wherefore better than wealth is wisdom by which one here secures the Accomplishment.
Majjhima Nikaya 2.72-73 (Buddhism)
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
The way to riches in the other world is not complicated. Those who invested much love on earth are rich.
(205:347, October 2, 1990)
When you die, you leave everything behind, except your love for God and your love for yourself, that is, your effort to cultivate good character, to develop love for your spouse, and to extend the love for your family to the world. Your record of loving God and loving people remains to the end and becomes the measure to decide your property rights in the next world.
(127:38, May 1, 1983)
What gifts will you bring to heaven with you? When you arrive at the spirit world, you will stand before many martyrs and saints of great merit. Can you open your bag of gifts before such great figures? Please reflect deeply. Could you present gifts that resemble a beggar’s things?… When you arrive at the spirit world, you should be able to open your gift box and say, “This is what I have prepared all my life, so please receive it.” Even a woman brings a full dowry when she gets married, so how can you go to the spirit world empty-handed?
(32:71, June 21, 1970)
In the next world, the result of true love that you accumulated throughout your life on earth appears like a label. You will, therefore, dwell in the appropriate level, depending on the merit that you accomplished during your lifetime.
(211:288, December 30, 1990)
To enter heaven, we should live for the sake of others. We can never enter if we live self-centered lives.
(91:173, February 6, 1977)
What is the final goal of life? It is not merely a matter of meeting the Lord in heaven. The real issue is whether you are able to dwell together with the Lord. What will be your condition when you meet Him? Will you be in a state where you can live comfortably with Him? You will find the Lord in the centermost position. If you want to live with Him, you must be able to live in the central position. That central position is the place of God’s love. For this reason, the ultimate goal sought by the human conscience is to connect with heavenly fortune11 and follow it to the point where we become one with God and make God’s love our own.
(24:17, June 22, 1969)
What you bring to the spirit world is not money… Rather, it is the sons and daughters you restore from Satan’s world and raise to be loved by God. Through them your merit will be connected to your ancestors, making a condition to liberate them. This is the greatest gift you can obtain in the process of restoration.
You should go to the other world after educating many spiritual children on earth. Then the scope of your activity in the spirit world will be great. You will be the center of an expansive network of relationships extending throughout the entire spirit world. The spiritual standard you made on earth will be the basis for your activities there.
If your spiritual standard is lacking, you will be pushed into a corner, barely able to do anything. Therefore, do you have time to just sleep and idle away your life? Just providing for your family and raising your children does not count for much in the spirit world. Rather, you should be seeking out people whom you can raise to heaven. They will become your assets in the Kingdom of Heaven.
(230:24, April 15, 1992)
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