Earthly Life and Spirit World 1

by Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Section 2. Understanding Death (Part 1)

1. The Meaning Of The Words "To Die"

Without question, the spirit world exists. We human beings are born from the spirit world; therefore we cannot help but return to the spirit world.

There is an interesting word in the Korean language, Toh Ra Ganda (to return, to die). Where do they return to? They do not return to the public cemetery. They return to the original place of departure, the original place. The place of departure is not the public cemetery. What it means is that we return beyond the origin of history, which is boundlessly far away.

To return (to die) as a human being does not mean to be born and to return (to die) as a Korean. Although one can die as a Korean, one does not return as a Korean. The path is not designed that way. We return to the world of the origin -- the origin of the ancestors of mankind. What is it? If there is a Creator, we will return to the place where that Creator is. Since we started from there, we will return there.

The universe has circular actions. When the snow covering the mountains melts, it flows down through many small valleys and into the ocean through many streams and rivers. Once it enters the ocean, it is transformed into vapor and returns again.

There are circular movements. When one returns, where does one return to? One wishes to return to a higher, better place, a place that is in a higher dimension. Nobody wants to get smaller through circular movement. But according to the laws of motion of the natural world, things get smaller and smaller through actions. When we roll something, it does not roll eternally. First it rolls rapidly, then it gets weaker and weaker and finally stops. (114:269)


2. The Place We Are Supposed To Go

Although we live in this world, we know that there is a spirit world as well as this world. This world and spirit world are not two worlds. They must be linked as one world. We know this.

Then where is the place we are supposed to go and live? Certainly we live a physical life on the earth, but we are going toward the eternal world. Once people are born into the world, through the course of their life they go through the teens, twenties, thirties, middle age, and senior years. Once one leaves his youth and enters middle age, he goes over a peak and goes into senior age after that. Just like the sunset, they end their life.

But those who know the fact of the existence of the spirit world know that a life is a moment and the world we are going to encounter after death is eternal. Therefore, life is a period of preparation for the eternal world. The world works just like that, doesn't it?

Lets take the example of a student. There is a standard of credits that students have to take in one semester or in one grade year. Students have to take credits in subjects according to the standard the school sets. If we take that standard as a hundred points, the student is recognized by the school according to the degree of accomplishment in reference to the standard. But the higher the percentage of unaccomplished credits, the further the student stands from the standard of values the school sets. It works this way. Therefore, all are measured centering on certain standards.

To live a life in the physical world is just like going through the preparation period of earning one credit at school. We are preparing to gain credits for a life. Through the process of life, we meet responsibilities that we must fulfill whether we like it or not. In other words, there is a standard that demands the fulfillment of the responsibility. You are living an everyday life centering on the standard that measures how much you are in accord with the standard.

We are not certain about the path in this world we must take once we are born. If we are born in the original world, where are we supposed to go? We are not certain about this. Therefore, people in general are not sure about the existence of the spirit world and of God. (140:121)


All of you must go to the spirit world. Everybody must go to the spirit world. Is it one realm or two? It is a single realm, one world. Then, what are the contents of life in that world? Have you thought about it? Fish living in the world of water cannot live outside that world. Water is absolutely vital for their life. Fish living in a river do not live in the river waters alone. They live coming and going to saltwater as well. Why should they live that way? Freshwater fish cannot multiply without tasting water connected with saltwater. You should know this. Do you understand it? Fish living in the ocean come to freshwater and multiply after tasting it. You must know the two worlds. just like mind and body, you must be acquainted with the two worlds. (210:128)

3. The Day You Die Is A Precious Day

If there had been a world-level unified world in which Adam's birthday, his wedding day, and the day of his death were commemorated, the human race who commemorated these days would have become a unified set of brothers and one people. That is to say, they would have become a people who live in one world. If that had happened, all the customs of Adam's life would have been adopted in human history, and the culture formed at that time would have been inherited eternally. (31:231)

4. Ignorance About Death

Man does not know when he dies. Do you know when a traffic accident happens and you die? You will discover after death, "Oh!" What Father said is right," Such a time will come. You must know you will go down such a serious path.

You must shorten the time of preparing for the world of eternity. You cannot waste one hour in which very important things are spoken. All of you must know that you are standing on such a fateful path. Do you understand? (Yes.) (107:60)

5. Two Ways Of Death

Even if you don't want to die, you will die when the time of death comes. Just before President Eu went to the spirit world many spiritual mediums testified about it. I had known it to a certain extent. Everyone has to go to the spirit world when the time comes.

There are several ways to go into the spirit world: those who go there after living their own life span and those who go there without living their own life span. Among those who went to the spirit world without having lived their own life span are those who die early due to punishment and those who go to the spirit world to indemnify the sins of the tribe and the world.

If the three best-known youths around their thirties in town have died, good fortune will come to the town. If three of the most distinguished youth in a clan died, good fortune will come to the clan. In other words, indemnity must be paid. It is the same everywhere. The principle of causality is working everywhere. If God sets one person in a central position who has a value of a thousand men and lets him go the path of death instead Of another, and if these one thousand men are impressed and grieve, learn, and follow his way of life, their tribe enters the realm of his blessing. The reason why people try to learn and follow the thoughts of loyal subjects and sages is to enter into the realm of the same blessing.

Last year, several members went to the spirit world. This year, several more members will go to the spirit world. Although I have not talked about it, I knew it. Why does this happen? When we go one step farther, we always have to pay indemnity. Now there is an indemnity to be paid by a tribe. We, the Unification Church, must pay it. (33: 10)


Among those who are born on the earth, there are two kinds of people: those who live with hope and those who live without hope. But there are two kinds of hope, that centering on man and that centering on heaven.

From the day we are born, we grow up thinking that our mother's bosom is better than anything else. But when we grow up, we eventually leave our mother's bosom. Next we come to have friends and to think that friends are the best thing, and we live our life that way. But eventually we leave our friends. As human beings grow up, they come to know that loving parents cannot be the whole of their hopes, that a loving husband or wife cannot be the whole of their hopes, and loving children cannot be the whole of their hopes.

Although human beings hope for many things, we know that their hopefulness eventually diminishes. Although they have hopes about their family, the nation, and the world, the hopeful mind is gradually weakened as they age. This is reality.

Among those who live on the earth, not many have the firm conviction of having been proud of their hope and living in that hope, even risking their lives. We know this fact. Human beings live in such a manner and eventually face their destiny: that they have to fight and win over death at last.

Throughout his life, a human being lives holding all kinds of hope. But at the last stage he faces death and will go, leaving all the hopes he had been carrying. We desire to live today and tomorrow and seek a new hope. When we encounter death, however, we go down the last path in despair, leaving all hopes behind. We all know this fact very well.

Looking at human life centering upon the self, we seem to have a hope. But we cannot have a hope by which we can go over the summit of death. Without having that kind of hope, we disappear. Do we die taking death as a model of life? Or do we live while enjoying a kind of hope by which we can conquer and laugh about death? Can we find a single hope of this kind? This is a very important problem that people who live on the earth have to think about today.

All things of this world will be gone. Families will pass away, nations, the world, and thoughts. What will remain at last is one hope with which we can fight with death and win over it. If we do not have that kind of hope, we will be doomed as a loser.

On the one hand, there are people who live life as they are. On the other hand are those who reject all secular hopes that people desire, reject humanistic things, and hold a new heavenly hope, an eternal hope that is clearly distinguished from hopes in the secular world.

Heaven has an infinite number of initiatives to make a change in those who are living centering upon secular, humanistic hopes on the earth, so that they can live with a new hope to overcome the peak of death and live a life longing for the eternal world. Therefore, those who live a life of faith should have a dream of the eternal world of hope by which they can even conquer death. (6:44)


Even I will die. And you! While you were in your 40s, you never thought about death. But now you may be seriously thinking about death. Maybe it's tomorrow? Or the day after tomorrow? Looking at your head, hands, and body, you see they are going toward death, so you become serious. Death is the gate of destiny. You cannot help but go over it.

What is going to happen to you after death? You don't know, do you? Most people don't know about it, but how about you, members of the Unification Church? Do you know it? Or do you not know it? (We know.) What do you know about it? Is what you know a descending destiny or an ascending destiny? (Ascending destiny.) You are so greedy. (Laughter.) All of you say ascending destiny. But fate will say, "What? Ascending destiny alone? You scoundrels!" She will say, "Oh! You! It doesn't work that way!" (120:231)

6. The Meaning Of Death

Do you know the purpose of using the word "death"? It is for the purpose of knowing the meaning of death. Who knows the value of life very well? Those who just live do not understand it. You don't know it unless you enter into the crucial circumstance of death, asking the value of human life at the turning point of life and death, while grasping heaven. (74:243)


Today, in this world there are many people who commit suicide by taking sleeping pills and such. Do more women commit suicide or more men? (Women.) Why do more women commit suicide? Women tend to think in only a one-sided way. No matter how awkward it may be, men know how to see and think about things from many perspectives. Women focus on only one commitment. Men avoid the way to death by seeing things from this way or that. Therefore, men have a lower suicide rate than women. We must make things clear.

Why do such people die? Because they don't know why they were born, the purpose of their lives. They don't know why they are born of why they die. Is that true, or not? In the introduction to philosophy, the first issue to raise is what human life is, and the second is why human beings are born. That is right, isn't it? (222:70)

7. Death Is A Process To Connect Three Worlds

When a baby lies down and poos and crawls, does God enjoy seeing that sight? Even crawling? God enjoys it, doesn't He? (Yes. Laughter.) Peeing and pooing over and over again, babies grows up. They lie down and keep eating again and again. They grow gradually, and after a few months they learn to crawl with their stomachs toward the ground. God enjoys all that the baby does. Why does God enjoy these things? With the power of growing up, the rhythm of God's love inside God's mind also grows up, doesn't it? Or does it go down? When God moves around, children move around with God. When God laughs, they laugh together. When God grieves, they grieve together, They come to resemble God step by step.

The children grow up and do whatever their parents do. They can talk and act. When we look at these situations, we can say that they can be equipped with God's deeper, broader love. Now, human beings live on this earth. God lives with them on this earth, and when God flies over, man says to God, "I will follow!" And God replies, "Who are your' Should He take them with Him? Or should He abandon them? (He should take them.)


It is okay if God says He can't take them now but He can take them later. He says, "I will take you when you grow up and become more perfect," Then man can say, "Oh, I see. I can go to that world only when the time comes," In this case alone, although man cannot go there now, he can wait. But if God has gone by Himself, what can man wait for? If God left man and is gone, that is the end of the story. Do you understand? (Yes.) Can human beings who wear a physical body go around following God on the earth? (They can't.)


Then, what is the problem? Man wants to resemble God, and if he is a son or daughter of God, it is inevitable for God to have an idea to let man resemble Him. I want to resemble God, and God wants to take me with Him. Therefore, we will seek the way to make it possible. Therefore, man is born wearing a body by which he can resemble God. God waits for the day of birth and human beings wait for this day as well. Do we need a day of birth when we are born as a being resembling God? Or do we not need it? (We need it.) What is it? It is death. Well, then, should human beings welcome death, or shouldn't they? (We should welcome it.) What is the purpose of our death? We should say, "We die for the sake of God's true love," The reason we take off our physical body is to participate in the realm of God's infinite love.

To be born in God's love is the meaning of death. But in human words, we make a big noise, saying, "Oh, we are dying!" Well, does God merrily laugh or does He say "Oh, no!" ? When God looks at people crying at this in the human world, does He laugh, or what will He do? Does He feel sorrow, or is He joyful? (He is joyful.) Leaving the realm of limited love, man enters the realm of infinite love. Isn't death the moment to welcome this joyfulness? Isn't this the moment of going through the path of death as a second birth?

If this is the case, isn't God joyful about the day your physical body is gone? Is God more joyful when man is born as a son who can act for the sake of love in the second, infinitely expanded, world? (The latter.) Why do I talk about such things? You cannot establish a relationship with God without liberating yourself from the fear of death. I am speaking of this because you must understand this fact. (Applause.)


Among the infinite stars, do you think there is a world of diamond stars? Or isn't there? Think about it. You want to have diamonds, don't you? (Yes.) You can't say there isn't a star made of gold alone. It is possible. How rich God, our Father, is! Have you thought about it? We can travel this infinite universe in a moment. Are you interested in it? (Yes.) Are you truly interested in it? (Yes!) Are you? (Yes!) What should we do to be able to do so? We must observe the normative laws in accordance with God's commands: "Don't do this or do that!" It is possible only when you observe what God says to do or not to do. It is not possible if you live according to your selfish desires. That is logical and theoretical. Can you observe what God says not to do or to do? (Yes.) Since human beings have duality, they consist of mind and body. The mind is the subject, and the body is the object. Unify mind and body! Is that right or wrong? (That's right.)


Man goes through three worlds: the formation stage, the growth stage, and the perfection stage. Man lives in the water world inside the mother's womb, on the earth, and in the world of space in heaven. In other words, man goes through three stages: the water world in the womb, the next hundred years when man lives on the earth, and the world of space where he flies.

While man is inside the womb, does he try to get out to the outside world, or does he want to stay there? If he has to go out through such a small hole, does he say, "oh, no" or, "oh, that's great"? (Laughter.) Suppose you are told, "The house you live in is all destroyed, and the value and source of nourishment where you are is all destroyed. Your head and body have to swell. All this happens when you go out. Is that okay?" Do you say no, or do you say yes? (We say no.) just before the time of delivery, the mother desperately pushes and the baby and says "oh, no!" until the time of childbirth. But at last (laughter) the mother pushes him out. When this happens, one world completely disappears and man begins to breathe in another world.

When man is born, he is born from the deepest place in water. The age of the womb is the age of water. Do you understand this? Isn't that so? When the baby is inside the mother's womb, he is floating in water, isn't he? Looking at this, we may say, "Oh, how can a baby live when he can't breathe?" Is that so? Or not? While a baby lives in water, he lives by a hose connected with the stomach. Through this hose, the baby sends and receives water. You know what I am talking about.

Then how does a baby receive nutrition? From the bellybutton. That is it, isn't it? What is the bellybutton of the tummy? It is an entrance. So don't make fun of it. You should pat your stomach and say, "Bellybutton, you worked so hard in the past," (Laughter.) If you pat your bellybutton many times, you will get healthy. Don't just laugh at it. Do that exercise. If you do a lot of exercise around the bellybutton, you will get healthy. When you sleep in a cold room, if you cover your bellybutton, you won't get diarrhea. Do you understand?

This is the earth. Do you understand? Wind comes in this way. (Father expresses by action.) Therefore, don't forget the contributions of the past. Pat it and love it. (Father is laughing.)

When you say, "Where is your past mouth?" some may say, "You fool, what do you mean, where is your past mouth?" The past mouth is the bellybutton. The breathing organ goes up. It goes up while stepping on the bellybutton. What is the next mouth? It is this mouth. The location of the mouth keeps going up. In Unification Church terminology, this is the formation stage, and this is the growth stage. And the perfection is this. (Father expresses by action.)

Should we use the umbilical cord again, or should we cut it? (We should cut it.) We must cut it. You may say, "It is a rope we cling on to in order to live, so why should we cut this vital rope that connects one human being to another? Why should we cut it?" (Laughter.) The baby cries, saying that he is about to die. But when God looks at this, does He laugh or cry? (Smile.) Smile! (Laughter.)

The situation is exactly the same. In the world of air, the spirit self is attached to the physical self like the embryo in the womb. When the physical body grows old and the spirit self tries to free itself by kicking the physical body out, the physical body may say, "Oh no, I'm not dying! I'm not dying!" When God looks at this, does He smile and sympathize, or does He say, "You fool"? When the embryo is born, he becomes the object of love to the mother and father. Likewise, this physical body must be reborn again as a spiritual person who is the reciprocal object of the eternal God, who is its spiritual Father. This is the conclusion in accordance with the Principle.

After the embryo is born, he can become friends with his father and mother. This, place is the earthly world. Man is born in the earthly world where he can share love with his mother and father. Likewise, man must be born in the spirit world, where he can share love with God as the replacement of parents, by whom he can connect with the spiritually infinite world.

What kind of world is the spirit world? There won't be any mistake if we say that we breathe through the fontanel [the soft area in the skull of a baby] in the spirit world. You call this "fontanel," don't you? There is a word "fontanel," but have you ever breathed with this part? You call this part "fontanel," right? This part of an infant is soft, but how do you call it? Why do we call it "fontanel"? This is all quite revelational. That's why I truly like Korean. There won't be any mistake if we say that we breathe with the top of our heads in the spirit world. Those who exist above the top of the head? Because there is God, we want to whisper looking at God. This is exactly what the word expresses, right? (Father is talking based upon the Korean word for "fontanel," ) (Laughter.) Isn't that so? (Father laughs.) Therefore, when we go to the spirit world, we breathe with the top of our heads.

Look! We have the stage of water and then the stage of land. What's next? We must fly. Is it better if we have the stage of flying or don't have it? How long have we waited to see a man who flies? The people of the world were all united when we saw the man who flew on Apollo 11, right? We were all united when we saw it. We had never seen something in unity.

Those who breathe love on the earth are not dead but are alive. When man is breathing through the bellybutton, he is preparing for the world of air to come. He is living through the umbilical cord, but when he destroys the placenta and comes out into the new, higher-dimensional world, how much does this change? Air is supplied on a higher dimension. He comes out receiving a supply of air.

After you leave this earth, what do you develop? It is not air but love that you breathe. You receive elements of love. Do you understand? You must not just eat meals alone! (Yes.) The bodily part of the self, which eats meals, will die. The place you drank water becomes a water bag. It all dies. After birth, you have a second existence. What should you fulfill during the period on the earth? During the period on the earth, you must form the new character of love! (Yes.)

What you need on the earth is love, isn't it? (Yes.) What is an orphan? Why do you call a child who cannot receive parents' love an orphan? Because there is no love for him that can be eternally connected to the spirit world. Therefore, those who live alone, unmarried single people, are pitiful.

Because your new self has been designed in this way, you must destroy the old self sooner or later. Death means to inherit the elements of love after the destruction of the physical organ through which the body has been breathing. Love is invisible. Your internal structure is growing, centering on children's love, conjugal love, parental love, and all other kinds of love.

Just like an embryo grows well in the womb, when he lives in accordance to God's principles, should he also grow properly on the earth or should he grow without a proper direction? (He should grow properly.)

Look! Insects know how to fly and seeds know how to fly away when the wind blows. I am talking about the seeds of dandelions. They are designed to fly away naturally. In this way, birds fly, insects fly, and the seeds of plants fly. Can't a human being, who is the lord of all creation, fly?

Everybody, do you want to see God and just sit silently? Don't you want to protest and say, "Oh, God, everything else can fly; why couldn't you make me fly?" (Laughter.) When God says, "Whoa, wait a minute. After several decades, you too will become like that, so just wait," we can say, "Oh! I see, that's the way,"

Until that time, what shall we do? We must be trained so that we can fit in that world at that time. Only when we see and enjoy our mother and father can we come to like God. Only when we like our spouse can we come to like God when we go to the next world. The training ground is the world on earth, now. Those who wish it, raise your hands!

Can we receive what we desire without dying? Is it possible without dying? Is it possible without taking off this physical body?

You know what baby cicadas are, right? Before a cicada begins to fly, it is a larva. Even if the larva says, "I want to live as a larva. Oh, I don't want to take off my skin!" it will fly after it takes off its skin. I'm not talking about a bird, but a cicada! Yes, cicada. Cicada, cicada. No, I'm not talking about a mosquito, a cicada! Yes, cicada! When the larva becomes a cicada, does he want to take off his skin, or will he say, "Oh no! What is land? What is air? Oh, I don't want them all," or will he say, "It's good for me. Please, let me take off my skin"? The larva does not think about flying. Dragonflies are the same. A dragonfly starts out as a nymph. It swims around in the water, then comes onto the land and moves around for awhile. After that, the dragonfly flies around; it gets and eats insects that it never imagined eating while it was living on land. It flies around the world as if the world were its own stage. Isn't that so?

Among insects, there are many that go through three stages. Some insects don't have wings, right? But most of them have wings, don't they? Even insects live in water, on land, and in air. Can't human beings, who are the lords of all creation, have wings? Is it sufficient for human beings to live only on the earth? Human beings have higher-dimensional wings.

Although you may not like this, when you take off your physical body, you whiz out. You don't like it? Or you wish for it? Do you want it, or not? (We wish it.) It is factual. You should know that it is not a lie but the truth. You must know that things in the world are designed in the same way. You must know that death is a happy, joyful gate for the second birth. (Applause.)

You once lived in a world of water and once lived in the world of land, didn't you? Now then, do you want to have the experience of living in the world of space? Or don't you want to live there? When you were about to be born from the womb, did you think such things as, "I go out to the world of land, eat honey, rice cakes, rice, beef, and everything with this mouth?" Do you think you gave a thought about that? While you were breathing through the umbilical cord, you might have thought that you would die if you went out. If we think of life in that situation, how irritating must it be? If we think about it now, you may feel like you are choking. Isn't that right?

When a baby comes out from the womb, he might say, "Oh, I don't want to go out," Do you think he said, " I want to go out" or "I don't want to go out"? He would have said, "Oh no, I will die if I go out," He would have said, "Oh no, I can't go out," Although he might have said that he cannot go out, when the time comes, he bursts out. He will come out safely along with the gush of the amniotic fluid. With this method, the baby can be born safely.

We feel sympathy when we look at mothers giving birth. Do they put in a lot of energy, or don't they? You mothers who have gone through childbirth would understand this experience. No matter how nice-looking you are, you make a face. Even the face of an old grandmother is more beautiful than that face. (Laughter.) Even the husband cannot bear to look at that face. If you can took at that face, you can look at almost anything. A wonderful world is presented there at that moment. The mother screams, "Ouch!" and the people surrounding her might wonder if anyone had died.

In the hospital, medical personnel watch over the birth because they know about it from past experience. If it were their first time to experiencing such an event, surely they would all run away, especially when the mother starts to scream. Knowing all this, they can just keep quiet and watch patiently.

What is the meaning of death? Living on earth, which is to be living in air, is the same as swimming around in the womb. Do you understand? Man is living in a blanket of air. Isn't that so? What is death? Death itself is not unique but only the rebirth into the third life. That moment of transition is what we call death. If you look at it in this way, you may feel better. (16:172, 49:285, 139:214)

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