Richard Urban | Daily Inspiration

Your Record of Loving God and Loving People Remains to the End

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Cheon Seong Gyeong 107

For this high-velocity light, travel-
ing even one day should be back-break-
ing, numbing the mind and causing it to
say, “I don’t care anymore.” But it speeds
along not just for a hundred years, but for
billions of years. One hundred million
is a hundred times a million. However,
even one hundred million years after it
started, it is still moving. If a person lives
a hundred years, a million people have
lived and died during that time period.
In other words, one hundred million
light-years means that the light is still
traveling even after each person lived
for a hundred years end to end and this
continued for a million people. Then,
how long are 21 billion light-years? Each
person must live a hundred years from
start to finish, so this must continue for
210 million people, and more. Light does
not travel this long distance in a straight
line, but travels in circles. This is our
universe. (181-195, 1988.10.3)

Cheong Seong Gyeong 1189

Cain represents Satan’s side. It is the
position of the elder brother. Abel repre-
sents God’s side. This is the battle. Orig-
inally, God would have loved the first-
born son, and then the younger son. Due
to the Fall, the first son, Cain, stands on
Satan’s side. He belongs to Satan’s side.
In order to save him, God designated
Abel. God designates Abel to restore the
right of the firstborn son. This cannot
be achieved by force; you have to inspire
people by love. You have to achieve res-
toration by melting them with love. If
you cannot stand in the position of hav-
ing loved them, if you cannot win their
heart through offering your love, then
you will not be in a position to truly love
your own son or daughter. As viewed
from God’s ideal of creation, the first-
born son was originally to be loved first
rather than the second child. (140-38,
1986.2.1)

Preparation for Eternity

2. Store Up Treasures in Heaven

Teachings of Rev. 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 pre-pared 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)

Lay Up for Yourself Treasures in Heaven

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Matthew 15

¹⁶And he said, “Are you also still without understanding? ¹⁷Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and so passes on?¹⁸But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a man. ¹⁹For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. ²⁰These are what defile a man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.”

Psalm 7

8 Our Lord, judge the nations!
Judge me
    and show that I
    am honest and innocent.
9 You know every heart and mind,
    and you always do right.
Now make violent people stop,
    but protect all of us
    who obey you.

Preparation for Eternity

2. Store Up Treasures in Heaven

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 your-
selves 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 worn-
out 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 excel-
lent 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 content-
ment 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 pre-
pared, 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)

Not Having Children Causes Unhappiness

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Cheong Seong Gyeong 526

Not having children causes unhap-
piness. Some may think that conjugal
happiness would suffice despite being
childless, but it is not like that. Since the
four-position foundation is a universal
principle, when husband and wife come
together and attain oneness, they must
give birth to children and form that
foundation. This is a universal law. If you
fail to realize a four-position foundation,
you will not be considered as successful.
Also, you should not just have sons. If
you did, you would only have tasted the
love of a son, but not that of a daughter.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1004

Who are the True Parents that the
Unification Church speaks about? If
Adam and Eve had not fallen, God
would have become the vertical form
of love, and Adam and Eve would have
become God’s body. It would have been
as if they were the flesh of God – God as
the bones, and Adam and Eve the flesh.
God would have achieved mind and
body unity through Adam and Eve.

Preparation for Eternity

1. Live this Short Earthly Life in the Light of Eternity

Teachings of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon

As we live out our earthly life, we are at the same time moving toward the eternal world. Most peo-ple pass through life like this: they are born, grow from youth to teen age to their 20s and 30s, reach middle age, and then gradually fade into old age. They live their lives like a setting sun.
We, on the other hand, know the existence of the spirit world. We know that this earthly life is short, while the world after death is eternal. Therefore, we live our earthly lives as the time to prepare ourselves for the eternal world.
Our life in the physical body is a preparation period. It is like taking a course at school where the tuition is the price of our entire life. Knowing this, we cannot but strive to fulfill our responsibility in order to achieve a result that would properly represent our life. (140:121, February 9, 1986)

Which is more important, the flesh or the spirit? It is the spirit. The flesh can live within a limited timeframe of seventy or eighty years, but the spirit transcends time and space.
No matter how good a life you may enjoy in the flesh, you will die in the end. The flesh is meant to die. Hence, we should not live according to measures of physical life. The flesh exists for the spirit, not the spirit for the flesh. You should not cling to physical things as people in the secular world commonly do. (20:326, July 14, 1968)

In spirit world we breathe love. Those who fail to love on earth will suffocate in the other world. Earthly life is a training ground where we train ourselves to breathe in the other world. That is why we should love others more than our own spouse. (121:294, October 29, 1982)

It takes good nurture in the mother’s womb to be born as a good-natured and healthy baby. Likewise, to be born well into the spirit world from the “womb” of earthly life, you should grow by taking after God’s divine heart and character. In the process you should work hard to overcome obstacles, even if it means risking your life. (14:17, April 19, 1964)

Religion is a means for us to learn the laws of heaven while we are alive on earth. It exists to train us while on earth to possess the character whereby we can adapt to the laws of the original homeland when we arrive there one day. (77:189, April 6, 1975)

How precious it is to be alive on the earth! It is only one moment, our only one chance. Compared to eternity, our earthly life is nothing but a dot, so short. Therefore we should rise above any thought for our physical life and prepare for the spirit world. (207:99, November 1, 1990)

You all think, “I am young. Surely I will live another 40 or 50 years.” Do you have a guarantee from God? Rather, it would be better if you thought you might die soon—maybe within a year—and you had only a short time left to prepare everything. Live with this kind of concept. The sooner you expect to die, the better. Then you would be busy preparing the true substance that will enable you to build your “house” of eternal life.
How serious would you be if you really believed that you had only two more years to live? Visit a cemetery; go to a funeral and see death. It is necessary to do this in a life of faith. Jesus said, “Whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Expecting to die soon, you would determine to die for God’s Will and for Heaven. Then you will live eternally. (102:122, November 27, 1978)

Gautama, Be Careful All the While!

John 4

³²But he said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” ³³So the disciples said to one another, “Has any one brought him food?” ³⁴Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work. ³⁵Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see how the fields are already white for harvest. ³⁶He who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. ³⁷For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ ³⁸I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor; others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

Leviticus 25

⁴⁶You may bequeath them to your sons after you, to inherit as a possession for ever; you may make slaves of them, but over your brethren the people of Israel you shall not rule, one over another, with harshness.

Preparation for Eternity

Religions do not expound on the reality of a future life merely as a comfort to the bereaved or as an opiate to the oppressed in this life. rather, the fact of a future life enhances the purpose and sharpens the meaning of earthly existence. how a person lives on earth mainly determines his or her ultimate destiny. a wise person lives in this world with an eye toward eternity.
Indeed, it is generally taught that life in this world is the only chance we have to prepare for life in the next world. the link between deed and retribution is not severed by death; rather we reap in the eternal world the fruits of our actions in this life. Just as importantly, a person’s qualities of character survive death: as a person in this life was hard-working or lazy, generous or miserly, courageous or timid, forgiving or begrudging, so will he or she continue to be in the afterlife.
Therefore, the wise person lives with an eye to eternity by following religious precepts, repenting for mis-deeds, and seeking to clear up all accounts before the day of his death. For one who is prepared, death is not to be feared. but for those who are heedless and do not prepare, death comes suddenly, fearfully and leaving them with regret. as Father Moon teaches, souls in the spirit world breathe the air of love; therefore, unless they have cultivated on earth the capacity for love, they will find the spirit world suffocating. hence, the measure of our future happiness in the eternal world is the ability to love that we cultivate during earthly life.

Live this Short Earthly Life in the Light of Eternity

This world is like a vestibule before the World to
Come; prepare yourself in the vestibule that you
may enter the hall.
Mishnah, Avot 4.21 (Judaism)

The Marrying Maiden:
The superior man understands the transitory
In the light of the eternity of the end. 10
I Ching 54 (Confucianism)

Better is one hour of repentance and good
works in this world than all the life in the world
to come, and better is one hour of calmness of
spirit in the world to come than all the life of
this world.
Mishnah, Avot 4.22 (Judaism)

A rare chance, in the long course of time, is
human birth for a living being; hard are the
consequences of actions; Gautama, be careful
all the while!
Uttaradhyayana Sutra 10.4 (Jainism)

And we see that death comes upon mankind…
nevertheless there was a space granted unto
man in which he might repent; therefore this life
became a probationary state; a time to prepare
to meet God; a time to prepare for that endless
state which has been spoken of by us, which is
after the resurrection of the dead.
Book of Mormon, Alma 12.24 (Latter-day Saints)

If any do wish for the transitory things of life,
We readily grant them such things as We will, to
such persons as We will. But in the end We have
provided hell for them; they will burn therein,
disgraced and rejected. But those who wish for
the things of the hereafter, and strive for them
with all due striving, and have faith—they are
the ones whose striving is acceptable to God.
Qur’an 17.18-19

We are on a market trip to earth:
Whether we fill our baskets or not,
Once the time is up, we go home.
Igbo Song (African Traditional Religions)
As the fallow leaf of the tree falls to the ground,
when its days are gone, even so is the life of men;
Gautama, be careful all the while!

As the dewdrop dangling on the top of a blade
of grass lasts but a short time, even so the life of
men; Gautama, be careful all the while!

A life so fleet, and existence so precarious, wipe
off the sins you ever committed; Gautama, be
careful all the while!
Uttaradhyayana Sutra 10.1-3 (Jainism)

In the evening do not expect [to live till] morn-
ing, and in the morning do not expect evening.
Prepare as long as you are in good health for
sickness, and so long as you are alive for death.
Forty Hadith of an-Nawawi 40 (Islam)

O people! Fear God, and whatever you do, do
it anticipating death. Try to attain everlasting
blessing in return for transitory and perishable
wealth, power and pleasures of this world.

Be prepared for a fast passage because here you
are destined for a short stay. Always be ready for
death, for you are living under its shadow. Be
wise like people who have heard the message of
God and have taken a warning from it.

Beware that this world is not made for you to live
forever, you will have to change it for hereafter.
God, glory be to Him, has not created you
without a purpose and has not left you without
duties, obligations, and responsibilities…

You must remember to gather from this life
such harvest as will be of use and help to you
hereafter.
Nahjul Balagha, Khutba 67 (Shiite Islam)

A Human Being’s Essence Is Spiritual

Cheon Seong Gyeong 194

What kind of person is a wise person?
He is the first to understand and recog-
nize the global era and the time of hope.
The wise person is the one who can bear
the responsibility of being the first to
recognize it, analyze it, criticize it, and
take action. In this way, he takes posses-
sion of it. Although he comes as an indi-
vidual, when the Messiah appears on
earth, he is not just an individual. He is
the fruit of faith, hope, and love that the
whole world desires. This is his value. All
the paths of history are connected to this
fruit. In other words; past, present and
future are all connected to it. Further-
more, all individuals, families, tribes,
peoples, nations and the world are con-
nected, and both heaven and earth are
connected to it. (13-142, 1964.01.01)

Cheong Seong Gyeong 698

The principle of heaven and earth
is very simple – I realized this after
researching and checking all positions,
going around even the back alleys of the
spirit world. The truth is simple. Two
things unite through an absolute force,
creating a vacuum for God to enter that
place and become the core, like the mar-
row of a bone. The two pieces of mascu-
line and feminine love are stuck togeth-
er. This is the core of the universe. The
ideal substance of love unites them to
become the axis of love. (170-170, 1987.11.15)

The Immortal Soul

2. Death: Transition to a New Life

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

In the Korean language, the word toraganda means, “to die,” but its literal meaning is, “to return.” To where do we return? Not to the soil of the cemetery. It means to return to the original place of departure, the place of origin. It is a place beyond the origin of history… even the dwelling-place of the Creator. Since we originated from God, we should return to Him.
The universe has natural cycles. The snow covering the mountains melts, flows down through many small valleys into streams and rivers and on into the ocean. Then it evaporates and becomes vapor. Through this circulation, water thus returns to a higher state. Likewise, we want to return to a higher and better place. (299:61, February 4, 1999)

Humans originate from God’s mind, grow up and mature in God’s bosom of love, and make a family on earth which can embrace the whole world with love. Through this process, they will return to God’s bosom of love as mature persons. This is the path of our life. (135:267-68, December 15, 1985)

A human being’s essence is spiritual. When you go to the spirit world you will recognize more deeply that the essence of being human is to live for the sake of others.Then, why do people deal with everything so selfishly? It is because humans have a blood relationship with Satan, the angel who violated the law of heaven. (2:138, March 17, 1957)

People are meant to live on earth in good families and, after perfecting their internal spirit self, go to the Kingdom of Heaven in the spirit world. The Kingdom of Heaven in the spirit world is our origi-nal homeland, where we live eternally as spirit beings in God’s love. Due to the Human Fall, human beings no longer have a properly functioning spirituality. They live in ignorance of their spirit self and the spirit world. Nevertheless, human beings, unlike any other animal, possess a spirit self and go to the spirit world. If only people understood this! (343:196, January 29, 2001)

We were born as an eternal life, and therefore go to the spirit world after death. Life there will be on a totally different dimension. In this limited world we cannot move freely, but the other world is a higher dimensional place where we can do anything. You can jump beyond time. With true love, whatever you desire you will receive, anytime and anywhere. The spirit world is boundless.
We are created as eternal beings. Each of us is that way because we are the object partners of the eternal God, participating in His true love. If we become such object partners of true love, then when we go to the spirit world we will be completely free.
However, to realize this you must be trained in true love here on earth. You are not yet ready. Without fulfilling your responsibility to prepare yourselves well, you cannot go to the realm of freedom in the spirit world. But once you perfect true love on the earth, you can go there anytime. (216:116, March 9, 1991)