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 misdeeds, 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 leaves 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.
1. 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 Better is one hour of repentance and good 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 morning, 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)
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
As we live out our earthly life, we are at the same time moving toward the eternal world. Most people 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)
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 the comfort of life of the world. God! With Him is a more excellent abode. Say, shall I inform you of something better than that? For those who keep from evil, with their Lord are Gardens underneath which rivers flow, and pure companions, and 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 prepared, whose will they be?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” Luke 12.16-21
I see men of wealth in the world— acquiring property, from delusion they give not away; out of greed a hoard of wealth they make, and hanker sorely after more sense pleasures… Heirs carry off his wealth; but the being goes on according to kamma.
Wealth does not follow him who is dying, nor child or wife, nor wealth or kingdom. Long life is not gained by wealth, nor is old age banished by property. “For brief is this life,” the wise say, non-eternal, subject to change.
Rich and poor feel the touch [of death], fool and wise are touched alike. But the fool, as though struck down by folly, prostrate lies, While the wise, touched by the touch, trembles not. Wherefore better than wealth is wisdom by which one here secures the Accomplishment. Majjhima Nikaya 2.72-73 (Buddhism)
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
The way to riches in the other world is not complicated. Those who invested much love on earth are rich. (205:347, October 2, 1990)
When you die, you leave everything behind, except your love for God and your love for yourself, that is, your effort to cultivate good character, to develop love for your spouse, and to extend the love for your family to the world.
Your record of loving God and loving people remains to the end and becomes the measure to decide your property rights in the next world. (127:38, May 1, 1983)
What gifts will you bring to heaven with you? When you arrive at the spirit world, you will stand before many martyrs and saints of great merit. Can you open your bag of gifts before such great figures?
Please reflect deeply. Could you present gifts that resemble a beggar’s things?…
When you arrive at the spirit world, you should be able to open your gift box and say, “This is what I have prepared all my life, so please receive it.” Even a woman brings a full dowry when she gets married, so how can you go to the spirit world empty-handed? (32:71, June 21, 1970)
In the next world, the result of true love that you accumulated throughout your life on earth appears like a label. You will, therefore, dwell in the appropriate level, depending on the merit that you accomplished during your lifetime. (211:288, December 30, 1990)
To enter heaven, we should live for the sake of others. We can never enter if we live self-centered lives. (91:173, February 6, 1977)
What is the final goal of life? It is not merely a matter of meeting the Lord in heaven. The real issue is whether you are able to dwell together with the Lord.
What will be your condition when you meet Him?
Will you be in a state where you can live comfortably with Him? You will find the Lord in the centermost position. If you want to live with Him, you must be able to live in the central position.
That central position is the place of God’s love. For this reason, the ultimate goal sought by the human conscience is to connect with heavenly fortune11 and follow it to the point where we become one with God and make God’s love our own. (24:17, June 22, 1969)
What you bring to the spirit world is not money… Rather, it is the sons and daughters you restore from Satan’s world and raise to be loved by God. Through them your merit will be connected to your ancestors, making a condition to liberate them.
This is the greatest gift you can obtain in the process of restoration. You should go to the other world after educating many spiritual children on earth. Then the scope of your activity in the spirit world will be great. You will be the center of an expansive network of relationships extending throughout the entire spirit world.
The spiritual standard you made on earth will be the basis for your activities there. If your spiritual standard is lacking, you will be pushed into a corner, barely able to do anything.
Therefore, do you have time to just sleep and idle away your life? Just providing for your family and raising your children does not count for much in the spirit world. Rather, you should be seeking out people whom you can raise to heaven. They will become your assets in the Kingdom of Heaven. (230:24, April 15, 1992)
3. As We Live on Earth, So Shall We Live in Heaven
Tzu-lu asked how one should serve ghosts and spirits. The Master said, “Till you have learnt to serve men, how can you serve ghosts?” Tzu-lu then ventured upon a question about the dead. The Master said, “Till you know about the living, how are you to know about the dead?” Analects 11.11 (Confucianism)
Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”12
Matthew 18.18
Now man is made of determination (kratu); according to what his determination is in this world so will he be when he has departed this life. Shankara, Vedanta Sutra 1.2.1 (Hinduism)
Both life and death of such as are firm in their penance and rules are good. When alive they earn merit and when dead they attain beatitude. Both life and death of such as indulge in sins are bad. When alive they add to malice and when dead they are hurled into darkness. Dharmadasaganin, Upadesamala 443-44 (Jainism)
Here he grieves, hereafter he grieves. In both states the evildoer grieves. He grieves, he is afflicted, perceiving the impurity of his own deeds. Here he rejoices, hereafter he rejoices. In both states the well-doer rejoices. He rejoices, exceedingly rejoices, perceiving the purity of his own deeds. Here he suffers, hereafter he suffers.
In both states the evildoer suffers. “Evil have I done”— thinking thus, he suffers. Having gone to a woeful state, he suffers even more. Here he is happy, hereafter he is happy. In both states, the well-doer is happy. “Good have I done”—thinking thus, he is happy. Upon going to a blissful state, he rejoices even more. Dhammapada 15-18 (Buddhism)
As for that abode of the Hereafter, We assign it to those who seek not oppression in the earth, nor corruption. The sequel is for those who ward off evil. Whoever brings a good deed, he will have better than the same; while as for him who brings an ill deed, those who do ill deeds will be requited only what they did.
Qur’an 28.83-84
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
The value of your life is not determined after living it to the end. It is determined by the life that you live each day. (197:186, January 14, 1990)
A person cannot suddenly change his way of life in the other world. There is a saying that the habit of a three-year old continues until he turns eighty. Inborn personality is hard to change.
Hence, spirit people cannot live very differently from the way they lived on earth. After all, the inhabitants of the spirit world are the souls of people who formerly lived on earth. From this perspective, the spirit world is not so different from the physical world. (141:268, March 2, 1986)
All the sensibilities of a spirit are cultivated through the reciprocal relationship with the physical self during earthly life. Therefore, only when a person reaches perfection and is totally immersed in the love of God while on earth can he fully delight in the love of God as a spirit after his death.
All the qualities of the spirit self are developed while it abides in the physical self: Sinful conduct during earthly life aggravates evil and ugliness in the spirit of a fallen person, while the redemption of sins granted during earthly life opens the way for his spirit to become good.
This was the reason Jesus had to come to the earth in the flesh to save sinful humanity. We must lead a good life while we are on earth.
Jesus gave the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven to Peter, who remained on the earth, and said, “Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven,” because the primary objective of the providence of restoration must be carried out on the earth. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Creation 6.3.2)
Is it easy or difficult to change your habits? Yet you have lived with selfish habits, according to the satanic world’s idea of right and wrong. These habits have congealed in you. They are stronger than the craving we Koreans have for kimchee.
Ever since the day Satan began his reign over humanity, people have been establishing self-centered habits and traditions.
They are like a rotten root. How can we pull it out?
You say you understand the Principle and know what to do. Yet try as you may to dig a hole and pull out that root, you cannot. It is taller than you are. It is so long that even if you were to stand at the top of a tree you cannot pull it out.
Can you, nevertheless, loudly proclaim that you have pulled it out?
This is a serious matter. Do you have the confidence to go to heaven? To go to heaven, you must have God-centered habits and traditions.
(213:20, January 13, 1991)
How much you have lived for the Will of God throughout your life will determine your position in the spirit world.
Therefore, you yourself know very well whether or not you can enter the heavenly realms. For what purpose did you eat and sleep, like and dislike, come and go? This will determine whether you can enter heaven. (Way of God’s Will 1.8)
The Kingdom of God, the hope of humanity, is composed according to the principle of living for the sake of others. Like it or not, you are destined to go to the spirit world. Everyone takes that journey according to his or her way of life.
What is the fundamental issue in your life? It is whether you are living more for the sake of others or for yourself. If you lived more for the sake of others, you will go to the Kingdom of God.
If the opposite is true, you will go to hell. You may be unable to believe this fundamental formula now, but once you die, you will understand. (74:51, November 27, 1974)
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 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.13 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)
Sun Myung Moon