death | Daily Inspiration

Then Comes the Night of Darkness Wherein No Labor Can Be Performed

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Cheon Seong Gyeong 1880

You do not realize how much philosophy can be found in the ocean. People who have only lived on land will face a considerable amount of obstacles when they try to engage in ideal activities in the other world. In the spirit world, you can ride on whales and swim with the fish. But if you do not like the ocean, you cannot do that. (119-252, 1982.9.13)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1985

The Korean peninsula was divided into north and south, not because our people wanted it, but because of the influence of the surrounding powerful nations, including the United States, the Soviet Union, China, and Japan. Consequently, the reunification of North and South Korea does not come to us just because we sit there on the Korean peninsula and wish for unification. We have to transform the existing situation, where the United States, the Soviet Union, China, and Japan play a leading role in the international order as they keep our nation divided. In other words, we should develop the proactive influence of our people and of Korea so the neighboring superpowers can cooperate in the reunification of the Korean peninsula instead of obstructing it. (231-8, 1992.5.11)

Repentance

3. Genuine Repentance Requires Changing Behavior

And whosoever repents and does good, he verily repents towards God with true repentance.
Qur’an 25.71 (Islam)

If a man finds that he has made a mistake, then he must not be afraid of admitting the fact and amending his ways.
Analects 1.8.4 (Confucianism) Continue reading “Then Comes the Night of Darkness Wherein No Labor Can Be Performed”

Educate Your Children with Proper Values

Cheon Seong Gyeong 769

If someone dies of old age, in Korean we say that person “went back.” When someone asks about our deceased grandparents we say, “They went back.” To where did they return? They returned to the spirit world. Since we originally come from the incorporeal God, the incorporeal world is our original homeland. From the incorporeal world we
come to the corporeal world, prosper on this earth and then return to the incorporeal world. We return to the spirit world in this way. We originate from the incorporeal Father, and we are then born through our natural father who lends his body, and we live in the physical world. Later, we discard our physical body and return to the spirit world in our original form. (242-166, 1993.1.1)

Cheon Seon Gyeong 1024

The problems in the relationship between man and woman have always been connected to religion. Spiritual groups have always been faced with the problems of man-woman relationships. Why is that so? It is because when Eve fell, she was dealing with her husband Adam and the archangel. Hence, in the Last Days, women are destined to discern between good and evil in their relations to two men. When a man joins a religion and disciplines himself, at the final summit, a beautiful woman will appear before him to tempt him. If he succumbs to this, he will fall off a cliff into a bottomless abyss. (138-286, 1986.1.24)

Cheon Seon Gyeong 1024

The problems in the relationship between man and woman have always been connected to religion. Spiritual groups have always been faced with the problems of man-woman relationships. Why is that so? It is because when Eve fell, she was dealing with her husband Adam and the archangel.
Hence, in the Last Days, women are destined to discern between good and evil in their relations to two men. When a man joins a religion and disciplines himself, at the final summit, a beautiful woman will appear before him to tempt him. If he succumbs to this, he will fall off a cliff into a bottomless abyss. (138-286, 1986.1.24)

Wisdom

The Primary Ends of Education

Education Broadens the Mind and Opens New Possibilities for Advancement

A good, all-round education, appreciation of the arts, a highly trained discipline and pleasant speech; this is the highest blessing. Confucius said, “By nature men are pretty much alike; it is learning and practice that set them apart.”
Sutta Nipata 261 (Buddhism)

There is no greater wealth than wisdom; no greater poverty than ignorance; no greater heritage than culture.
Nahjul Balagha, Saying 52 (Shiite Islam)

Continue reading “Educate Your Children with Proper Values”

God Created Human Beings to Live Forever

Urban Life Training Newsletter-March 18, 2021

Mark 2

²²No one pours new wine into old wineskins. The wine would swell and burst the old skins.^[f] Then the wine would be lost, and the skins would be ruined. New wine must be put into new wineskins.

Psalm 78

⁵⁶But the people tested
    God Most High,
    and they refused
    to obey his laws.
⁵⁷They were as unfaithful
    as their ancestors,
    and they were as crooked
    as a twisted arrow.
⁵⁸God demanded all their love,
    but they made him angry
    by worshiping idols.

⁵⁹So God became furious
    and completely rejected
    the people of Israel.
⁶⁰Then he deserted his home
at Shiloh,
    where he lived
    here on earth.
⁶¹He let enemies capture
the sacred chest^[f]
    and let them dishonor him.

⁶²God took out his anger
    on his chosen ones
    and let them be killed
    by enemy swords.
⁶³Fire destroyed the young men,
    and the young women were left
    with no one to marry.
⁶⁴Priests died violent deaths,
    but their widows
    were not allowed to mourn.

⁶⁵Finally the Lord woke up,
    and he shouted
    like a drunken soldier.
⁶⁶God scattered his enemies
    and made them ashamed
    forever.

⁶⁷Then the Lord decided
    not to make his home
    with Joseph’s descendants
    in Ephraim.^[g]
⁶⁸Instead he chose the tribe
    of Judah,
    and he chose Mount Zion,
    the place he loves.
⁶⁹There he built his temple
    as lofty as the mountains
and as solid as the earth
    that he had made
    to last forever.

⁷⁰The Lord God chose David
to be his servant
and took him
    from tending sheep
⁷¹    and from caring for lambs.
Then God made him the leader
    of Israel, his own nation.
⁷²David treated the people fairly
    and guided them with wisdom.

Eternal Life

1. Eternal Life in God

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

When a follower asked Jesus if he could go home to bury his deceased father, Jesus said, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead.” (Luke 9.60) From these words of Jesus, it is clear that the Bible contains two different concepts of life and death. The first concept of life and death concerns physical life. Here, “death” means the end of physical life, as was the case of the disciple’s deceased father who was to be buried. “Life” in that sense means the state in which the physical self maintains its physiological functions.

The second concept of life and death concerns those living people who had gathered to bury the deceased man, those whom Jesus called “the dead.” Why did Jesus refer to people whose bodies were alive and active as the dead? He meant that since they had not accepted Jesus, they were far removed from the love of God and were dwelling in the realm of Satan’s dominion. This second concept of death does not refer to the expiration of physical life. It means leaving the bosom of God’s love and falling under the dominion of Satan. The corresponding concept of life refers to the state of living in accordance with God’s Will, within the dominion of God’s infinite love. Therefore, even if a person’s physical self is alive, if he dwells apart from God’s dominion and is in servitude to Satan, he is dead as judged by the original standard of value. A similar conclusion can be drawn from the Lord’s words of judgment upon the faithless people of the church in Sardis: “You have the name of being alive, and you are dead.” (Rev. 3.1)

On the other hand, even though a person’s physical life may have expired, he remains alive in the true sense if his spirit abides in the Kingdom of Heaven in heaven, a realm in the spirit world where God governs through love. When Jesus said, “He who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live” (John 11.25), he meant that those who believe in him and live within the realm of God’s dominion have life. Even after their physical bodies have returned to the soil, their spirits enjoy life in God’s dominion. Jesus also said, “Whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.” (John 11.26) In saying that believers will never die, he meant that those who believe in Jesus during their earthly life will obtain eternal life not in this world, but in spirit, within the bosom of God’s love. They will be alive, both in this life and the next. Jesus’ words assure us that death, in the sense of the end of physical life, has no effect on our eternal life. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Resurrection 1.1)

Eternal life does not mean that we merely exist forever in the spirit world. It means we eternally “live.” How do we cultivate such a life?

As human beings, each of us was created to be an object of God’s love—God’s beloved partner. God cherishes true love more than Himself. Hence, although God is the center of absolute and eternal life, His ideal of true love is even more absolute and eternal. It is the very core of God. We are the object partners of that true love.

How do we come to be in such a precious, eternal position? Love is the attribute that brings subject and object into oneness. Love unites a family. It unites the nation. In the unity of love, we can participate in anything our beloved does, follow him wherever he goes, and inherit everything he or she possesses. In the same way, we can inherit God’s eternal life. We can inherit God’s heart—his heart of love by which He longs to dwell within each of us and also in the creation. How precious it is to find such great value within ourselves!…

What joy! What amazing grace! What an unparalleled blessing! Now we can dwell in the same position as God. Now we can participate in God’s eternal love. (216:115, March 9, 1991)

[Originally,] human beings are born from true love, grow in true love, live in true love and die in true love. We are not meant to just disappear into a void. Since God, the Subject of all created beings, is eternal, unchanging and unique, we who are His partners of love should live eternally. This is the starting-point of the logic of eternal life. Life does not begin from life. Life originates from true love, not the other way around.

If God creates something He regards as most precious, would He discard it ten years or one hundred years later, or would He want to keep it for eternity? Obviously, He would create it to last forever. Thus it is with human beings. Would God create human beings to be born and die, and their death is the end? No, He created human beings to live forever. Why? They are the object partners of the absolute God, with whom He can share joy in absolute true love…

Suppose you were fleeing to a refugee camp; if you had a precious possession, would you take it with you or leave it behind? You would want to take it with you. Once in the camp, you would treasure it. You would not enjoy it for a few days and then throw it away. You would keep it until you die, and then bequeath it to your descendants for eternity. That is human desire.

It is the same with God, the Absolute Being. God is eternal, and He desires that His object partners, whom He loves, should live eternally. That is why human beings want to live forever. For this reason also, the absolute God never ceases to seek for His children. Each human being has the value of eternity. (290:143-44, February 18, 1998)

If God only liked humans for one or two days, or even for one hundred years, and then discarded them, it would not be true love. The more you love, the more you want to be with your beloved one. For this reason you sometimes find a man whose wife died young who never remarries, preferring to live alone until his death while treasuring some article of his wife’s clothing…

That is why God created human beings, His precious children, to live forever. However, for love to last forever, people should stand on the foundation of actions that can generate greater output force. In other words, as time goes by love’s power gets stronger, generating more give and take action instead of consuming energy. Hence, the lovers’ joy never ends, but only grows and develops more and more, to infinity. Such is the ideal world, the Kingdom of Heaven in which God dwells. (39:42)

We Must Know How to Prepare for Life in the Spirit World

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Cheon Seong Gyeong 780

In this way, the Seunghwa Cere-
mony came to be held in the Unifica-
tion Church. It is a ceremony of going
beyond death and onward to joy. Those
who go through the Seunghwa Ceremo-
ny can easily go beyond all the valleys in
the spirit world. Of course, there will be
some who fail to do so and remain in-
between. You have to understand this.
The Seunghwa Ceremony began with
Heung-jin. (212-96, 1991.1.2)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1355

What is the second Seven-Year
Course? It is a period during which
your families must become Abel fami-
lies. In order to fulfill that responsibili-
ty, you must restore Cain families. What
do you form when Abel families restore
Cain families? You form tribes. You
must become tribal messiahs. The 430
Couples are tribal messiahs. This means
to be global. In this way, all conditions
should be met. (34-104, 1970.8.29)

Preparation for Eternity

4. The Finality of Death

You can climb up the mountain and down again;
you can stroll around the valley and return; but
you cannot go to God and return.
Nupe Proverb (African Traditional Religions)

The untrustworthy lord of death
Waits not for things to be done or undone;
Whether I am sick or healthy,
This fleeting life span is unstable.

Leaving all I must depart alone.
But through not having understood this
I committed various kinds of evil
For the sake of my friends and foes.

Yet my foes will become nothing.
My friends will become nothing.
I too will become nothing.

Likewise all will become nothing.
Just like a dream experience,
Whatever things I enjoy
Will become a memory.
Whatever has passed will not be seen again.

Even within this brief life
Many friends and foes have passed,
But whatever unbearable evil I committed for
them
Remains ahead of me…
While I am lying in bed,
Although surrounded by my friends and
relatives,
The feeling of life being severed
Will be experienced by me alone.

When seized by the messengers of death,
What benefit will friends and relatives afford?
My merit alone shall protect me then,
But upon that I have never relied.
Shantideva, Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life
2.33-41 (Buddhism)

Teachings of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon

No friends accompany you on the path of death. You journey without your beloved parents, beloved brothers, beloved spouse or beloved children. You journey all alone. Once you go down that path, you can never return. With what kind of heart will you make the journey?
If you do not have hope that you can overcome death, when you meet your death it will be the end. The numerous people who believed and followed God’s Will did not retreat before death. Rather, they mocked death and overcame it with dignity. Throughout history, such people exalted the way of Heaven.
Each one of you likewise has to maintain hope to overcome the death that awaits you. You should aspire to stand before God with dignity at the end of your journey. You should be able to run with joy to the heavenly world, the original homeland your heart desperately longs for. Then you will conquer death. (6:53, March 22, 1959)

It is not enough to live with a vague belief in the existence of the spirit world. On earth we must know how to prepare for life in the spirit world, where whether we like it or not, we shall live for eternity. Once we know, we should thoroughly prepare ourselves for that day. A child who develops a problem while in the womb will suffer after his birth from a handicap that lasts his entire life. So too, if we fail to recognize Heaven’s Will during our short life on earth and commit sin or carry out evil deeds, we will eventually pay the price in the spirit world according to the universal principle of cause and effect. In the spirit world our souls will have to suffer indescribable pain and make many efforts at atonement. Yet once we shed our physical body, it will be too late.
When the physical body dies, it returns to the earth as a handful of dirt, but do you think that our life, our mind, our heart, and our hopes are also buried? It is absolutely not so. Our 100-year-long life is recorded, photographed and automatically evaluated without fail in our personal supercomputer, built by God, called the spirit self. This is why all of us, during life on earth, should stop and check ourselves again and again, and ask our unsteady mind and heart: “Where are you going?” (May 1, 2004)

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)