Tag: death

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

The Richard Urban Show #55
The Family Rooted in Absolute Sexual Ethics-Part 1 with Stacey Urban

WV Elections 2020:
Interview with Mary Ann Claytor-Democratic Candidate for Auditor

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)

Man’s Real Nature is Primarily Spiritual Life

Ezekiel 45

15 Finally, they must bring one sheep out of every two hundred from their flocks.

These offerings will be used as grain sacrifices, as well as sacrifices to please me and those to ask my blessing. I, the Lord, will be pleased with these sacrifices and will forgive the sins of my people.

Job 5

26 You will live a long life,
and your body will be strong
    until the day you die.

The Immortal Soul

2. Death: Transition to a New Life

The hour of departure has arrived, and we go
our ways—I to die, and you to live. Which is
better God only knows.
It is We who give life, and make to die, and to
Us is the homecoming.
Qur’an 50.43

Socrates, in Plato, Apology 42 (Hellenism)
The dust returns to the earth as it was, and the
spirit returns to God who gave it.
Ecclesiastes 12.7

Now my breath and spirit goes to the Immortal,
and this body ends in ashes;
OM. O Mind! Remember. Remember the
deeds.
Remember the actions.
Isha Upanishad 17 (Hinduism)

Man’s real nature is primarily spiritual life,
which weaves its threads of mind to build a
cocoon of flesh,
encloses its own soul in the cocoon,
and, for the first time, the spirit becomes flesh.
Understand this clearly: The cocoon is not the
silkworm;
in the same way, the physical body is not man
but merely man’s cocoon.
Just as the silkworm will break out of its cocoon
and fly free,
so, too, will man break out of his body-cocoon
and ascend to the spirit world when his time
is come.
Never think that the death of the physical
body is the death of man.
Since man is life, he will never know death.
Nectarean Shower of Holy Doctrines (Seicho-no-Ie)

One man believes he is the slayer, another
believes he is the slain. Both are ignorant; there
is neither slayer nor slain. You were never born;
you will never die. You have never changed; you
can never change. Unborn, eternal, immutable,
immemorial, you do not die when the body dies.
Realizing that which is indestructible, eternal,
unborn, and unchanging, how can you slay or
cause another to be slain?

As a man abandons his worn-out clothes and
acquires new ones, so when the body is worn
out a new one is acquired by the Self, who lives
within.
The Self cannot be pierced with weapons or
burned with fire; water cannot wet it, nor can
the wind dry it. The Self cannot be pierced or
burned, made wet or dry. It is everlasting and
infinite, standing on the motionless foundation
of eternity. The Self is unmanifest, beyond all
thought, beyond all change. Knowing this, you
should not grieve. 7
Bhagavad-Gita 2.19-25 (Hinduism)

You prefer this life, although the life to come
is better and more enduring. All this is written
in earlier scriptures; the scriptures of Abraham
and Moses.
Qur’an 87.16-19

I inquired of Africanus whether he himself, my
father Paulus, and others whom we look upon as
dead, were really living. “Yes, truly,” replied he,
“they all enjoy life who have escaped from the
chains of the body as from a prison. But as to
what you call life on earth, that is no more than
a form of death. But see, here comes your father
Paulus towards you!”
Cicero, On the Republic 6.14 (Hellenism)

Onyame does not die; I will therefore not die.
Akan Proverb (African Traditional Religions)

Meet the Fathers, meet Yama, and meet with
the
fulfillment of wishes in the highest heaven;
casting off imperfections, find anew thy
dwelling,
and be united with a lustrous body.
Rig Veda 10.14.8 (Hinduism)

Though our outer nature is wasting away, our
inner nature is being renewed every day. For this
slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an
eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,
because we look not to the things that are seen
but to the things that are unseen; for the things
that are seen are transient, but the things that
are unseen are eternal.
For we know that if the earthly tent we live
in is destroyed, we have a building from God,
a house not made with hands, eternal in the
heavens. Here indeed we groan, and long to put
on our heavenly dwelling, so that by putting it
on we may not be found naked. For while we are
still in this tent, we sigh with anxiety; not that
we would be unclothed, but that we would be
further clothed, so that what is mortal may be
swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us
for this very thing is God, who has given us the
Spirit as a guarantee.
So we are always of good courage; we know
that while we are at home in the body we are
away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not
by sight. We are of good courage, and we would
rather be away from the body and at home with
the Lord. For we must all appear before the
judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may
receive good or evil, according to what he has
done in the body.
2 Corinthians 4.16-5.10

Are the Battles Being Fought or Not?

Cheon Seong Gyeong 586

What is the meaning of death? Earth-
ly 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)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1526

Pledge number two signifies that
our family pledges to represent and
become central to heaven and earth by
serving God and the True Parents, to
fulfill the way of filial piety in our fam-
ily, patriotism in our nation, saints in
the world, and a family of divine sons
and daughters in heaven and earth. This
means that we will complete everything
desired by God in our family. Through
it, we are making a vow that as parents,
we will educate the children in our fam-
ily, the citizens in our nation, and the
people living in the world, and in heav-
en and earth, so that they may become
eligible to become the family members
of God’s Kingdom. (260-190, 1994.5.8)

Let Us Fathom the Heart of Heaven
Rev. Sun Myung Moon
September 13, 1959

Matthew 10:24-39

God came to us and taught us in the following way: He said that He was the father of individuals, families, people and the world. As long as a people possessed a father, they all had the same father. As long as the world had a father, the world had the same father. This is what God wants.

God came to us. He came to each one of us, prisoners in Satan’s sovereignty. However, even after raising up Abraham as the father of faith, God could not share all that He wanted to tell us. Although He raised up a family, He could not tell them all He wanted. Although he chose Moses to lead the people, He could not reveal all He wanted to. Although He sent Jesus, He could not convey all that He wanted to at that time. He could not. It is written clearly in the Bible that He could not speak all that He wanted to.

Why is this so? Jesus represented the God of the world and of the universe and all of Heaven and earth. He could not accomplish this mission without a foundation. Thus, Jesus said that he will return in the Last Days.

Please reflect upon yourselves. You owe an historical debt.

To instruct you and teach you, Heaven came to your people and sent prophets countless times. Do you understand this?

What did Jesus bring with him? Jesus came with the desire to elevate all people as the children of God and to judge Satan’s world. He came to build a garden of happiness as the King of Kings, centering on the Father. He came with this desire, situation and heart of love. Have you ever had such a desire? Have you ever experienced such a situation? Have you ever felt such a heart? If you have not, then you cannot avoid judgment.

Therefore, we should not call out, “God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob. God the Father who called Moses and the prophets of the past, Father whom Jesus called upon!” We should pray, “God of Abraham, God of Jacob, God of Moses and God of Jesus! Please be my God.” God should not be the God of someone else. He must be our own God. This is what we must do.

The time that we call out to the historical God has passed. Thus, the God of the past must have a relationship with us and the God of the future must have a relationship with us. You have to build a relationship in which you can say, “God of the past, isn’t this the current situation? God of the present, isn’t this the situation? God of the future, isn’t this the situation? Isn’t this Your desire?” and God will say, “Yes.”

To do this, first we have to understand that we live in Satan’s world. You are the descendants of Satan. You are prisoners of war captured not by God’s side but by Satan’s side. The Savior is the chief communications representative on the world scale who has the responsibility to bring you back. The “Savior” means that he will save you. The Savior is the person with the mission to save all the prisoners of war. He encourages them and goads them to fight. For this reason, it is written that Jesus came not to bring peace to the world but to provide weapons and provoke battles. Yet are the battles being fought or not? Please examine this carefully.

Entertain the Hope that Conquers Death

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1868

I built a boat in Korea named Boat of
Heavenly Victory. What victory? Heav-
enly victory, of course, is where Heaven
has won victory because God’s will has
been fulfilled. I had already begun ful-
filling God’s will from long ago. I made
the Boat of Heavenly Victory and talk-
ed about occupying the oceans of the
world. One member, Eu Hyo-young,
was constantly saying, “Boat, boat!” So I
made him one, but he did not like going
on boats – maybe because he was old.
He said, “Father, I cannot go out to sea
when the waves surge like that.” How
can a fisherman think like that? He must
go out to the sea until his death. (294-175,
1998.6.14)
2.3.2. Ilheung marine
Aren’t you church leaders? In the
future, no exceptions will be made,
even for company workers. Unification
church families share the same fate.
Unification Church means a church
where everything is united. That is why
if you have a company, it should be called
Company Unification Church. Unifi-
cation Industries would mean a Unifi-
cation Industries Church. Yesterday I
came back from Jejudo where I had vis-
ited the company there called Ilheung
Marine Industries. I told the president
of that company, “You must now create
an Ilheung Marine Church. As a church,
you should prepare to serve and attend
the women divers in Jejudo more than
you would your own mother or bride.”
(178-131, 1988.6.1)

Richard:  This captures Rev. Moon’s vision for home church (the second paragraph).  “Church” is not a building.  Church is where you serve your community and work to build the Kingdom centered on Godly families.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 988

You should know that God exists
near you and is concerned about each
of you more than anyone else. People
think that the love of their own fam-
ily is the greatest in this world. How-
ever, you should know that God’s love
is greater and deeper than that love; it is
deeper and greater than any human love
in this world. You should be embraced
in God’s love and be able to call Him,
“Father.” You should become such true
sons and daughters who deeply expe-
rience God’s internal heart in a posi-
tion that says, “I know the Father’s sor-
row.” If you can become such sons and
daughters, and possess the Kingdom of
Heaven in which you attend God, no
one would be able to take that kingdom
away from you. (2-234, 1957.6.2)

The Path of Life We Must Go, Entertaining Hope

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
March 22, 1959

Romans 8: 18-21

We must understand that this statement is a request for us not to make earth-bound hope our own, but to adopt eternal hope. Jesus walked that path in person himself. We must know that he set up hope on this hopeless earth, opened up the path of life on this lifeless earth, and cultivated the path of resurrection on this unredeemable earth.

Until when must you go forth with that hope? It is until you step forward in front of the Father’s throne and receive the Father’s true love, after going beyond the path of death and the hill of resurrection. The question is whether you can march on holding onto that hope until that time. It is easy to make a resolution while embracing a hope and looking at it, but it is difficult to fight holding onto that hope. It is easy to embrace a hope of some kind, but it is difficult to live to the end keeping that hope, and to stand and die for the path of that hope so that all humankind lives with that hope. Yet Jesus walked such a path in high spirits.

Today we look forward to the last day of resurrection, the day of hope. The time of the hope that all of us are looking forward to is the time in which all humankind can take delight. Yet that time does not come easily. That hope can be owned only by those who have won over death. Only those who have fought along with God against Satan will take possession of that hope. Only those who have received persecution, together with God, for the sake of Heaven will secure that hope. As we think that such a time is approaching, we must have an ardent mind to overcome this living environment and overcome even the fear of death. Unless such an ardent mind emanates from you, you cannot draw the day of that hope into the realm of your life and go on living. Continue reading “Entertain the Hope that Conquers Death”