At the moment of death, the passage into the next life is a nearly impenetrable mystery. Published accounts of near-death experiences by people who have been resuscitated from clinical death may give a clue.
They report passing through a tunnel into another world, meeting a being of light, and feeling great warmth and accepting love. While these people did not, by definition, die, they may have experienced the first stage of the passage.
Who can know how it ends? What can be known with some certainty is that there is survival after death. In fact, many people who die do not at first realize that they are dead, as they continue to experience themselves as conscious, sentient beings.
Physical death is but a transition to a higher stage of existence. It is the putting on of a new body, like the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly. Father Moon calls it a second birth, by analogy to the birth of an infant who must leave the comfortable world of the womb.
As the womb nourishes the fetus until birth, when it is destroyed and the baby leaves it for life on the earth, the physical body nourishes the soul until death, when it expires and the soul departs for life in the spirit world.
Hence there are three stages of life: in the water-world of the womb, in the air-world of earthly existence, and in the spirit world where we breathe an atmosphere of love. Therefore, death is not something to be feared.
On the other side it is celebrated as the soul’s birthday. The chief issue is whether we have adequately prepared our soul with the spiritual faculties to exist comfortably in that world. There, nothing matters but one’s ability to love.
1. The Second Birth
For this perishable nature must put on the imperishable, and this mortal nature must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?” 1 Corinthians 15.53-55
One who identifies himself with his soul regards bodily transmigration of his soul at death fear- lessly, like changing one cloth for another. Pujyapada, Samadhishataka 77 (Jainism)
Look upon life as a swelling tumor, a protruding goiter, and upon death as the draining of a sore or the bursting of a boil. Chuang Tzu 6 (Taoism)
Have you seen the seed which you emit? Is it you who create it, or are We the Creator? We have decreed death to be your common lot, and We are not to be frustrated from changing your forms and creating you again in forms that you know not. And you certainly know already the first form of creation: Why then do you not celebrate His praises? Qur’an 56.58-62
There is birth, there is death, there is issuing forth, there is entering in. That through which one passes in and out without seeing its form— that is the Portal of God. Chuang Tzu 23 (Taoism)
The world beyond is as different from this world as this world is different from that of the child while still in the womb of its mother. When the soul attains the Presence of God, it will assume the form that best befits its immortality and is worthy of its celestial habitation.
Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh 81 (Baha’i Faith)
The silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. Ecclesiastes 12.6-7
As a man passes from dream to wakefulness, so does he pass from this life to the next. When a man is about to die, the subtle body, mounted by the intelligent self, groans— as a heavily laden cart groans under its burden.
When his body becomes thin through old age or disease, the dying man separates himself from his limbs, even as a mango or a fig or a banyan fruit separates itself from its stalk, and by the same way that he came he hastens to his new abode, and there assumes another body, in which to begin a new life.
When his body grows weak and he becomes apparently unconscious, the dying man gathers his senses about him and, completely withdrawing their powers, descends into his heart. No more does he see form or color without. He neither sees, nor smells, nor tastes. He does not speak, he does not hear. He does not think, he does not know.
For all the organs, detaching themselves from his physical body, unite with his subtle body. Then the point of his heart, where the nerves join, is lighted by the light of the Self, and by that light he departs either through the eye, or through the gate of the skull, or through some other aperture of the body.
When he thus departs, life departs; and when life departs, all the functions of the vital principle depart. The Self remains conscious, and, conscious, the dying man goes to his abode. The deeds of this life, and the impressions they leave behind, follow him.
As a caterpillar, having reached the end of a blade of grass, takes hold of another blade and draws itself to it, so the Self, having left behind it [a body] unconscious, takes hold of another body and draws himself to it.
As a goldsmith, taking an old gold ornament, molds it into another, newer and more beautiful, so the Self, having given up the body and left it unconscious, takes on a new and better form, either that of the Fathers, or that of the Celestial Singers, or that of the gods, or that of other beings, heavenly or earthly. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4.3.34-4.4.4 (Hinduism)
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
It is natural to want to resemble God, and for God to want His children to resemble Him. Therefore, there should be a way for God to bring us to where He is. It is inevitable that humans should be reborn as beings that resemble God.
Both God and human beings look forward to that day of our rebirth. How does that happen? Through death. Then, shouldn’t human beings welcome death? We die to experience God’s true love.
Discarding the physical body enables us to participate in the infinite realm of God’s activity, and contribute to the world of God’s love. Death is to be born in the midst of God’s love!
Yet earthly people grieve over death. Does this make God laugh or cry? You should understand that death is the moment of your second birth. It is a joyful moment when you leave the finite realm of love and enter the infinite realm of love.
On which day is God happier, the day of your physical birth or the day when you are born as God’s son or daughter to live and love in the infinite world? Why am I saying this? Unless you are liberated from the fear of death, you cannot establish a relationship with God. (116:172, January 1, 1982)
Humans grow through three stages: formation, growth and completion. Likewise, they pass through three different worlds: the water world where they float in the mother’s womb, the earth world where they walk, and the air world where they can fly. Hence, we live three lives: 10 months in the womb, 100 years of life on earth, and eternal life in the spirit world. (297:257, December 19, 1998)
While in the womb you breathed through the umbilical cord. Meanwhile, your nostrils, a pipeline to the air, were being prepared so that you could breathe after you were born into the physical world.
Likewise, while you live in the earthly world, what should you do to prepare for the next? You should experience love. You should breathe the ‘air’ of love from your father and mother. As you grow, you should pass through all the stages of love as a sibling, husband and wife, parent and grandparent.
The moment you were born, your life was destined to end. When it does, the body will be dissolved. Then, just as you were born as an infant, on the day you die you will experience a new birth as an infant. What happens in that birth? You are pushed out of the world of the second womb and connected to the breathing organ for your third life, to breathe love.
You are pushed out of the womb, a world where you experienced the love of your parents and siblings, to enter a new world of love where you will harmonize with the original Being, the God of the great universe.
The spirit world is filled with the air of love. The air of love! That is why, while you live on earth, you should be installing that pipeline you will depend upon to breathe love.
Know that if you have spiritual experiences and feel spiritual love, if you are able to breathe the air of love—you shall not die. (139:213-14, January 31, 1986)
We cannot remember how difficult it was for our mother to give birth to us.
Why did God make birthing so difficult?
Why isn’t it as easy as speaking or eating? The reason why God made giving birth a life-risking experience for the mother is because He wants her to see His radiant love. In electricity, there is something called a current spike.
The instant a switch is turned on, a twenty or thirty-fold burst of electricity flows through the circuit. By the same token, the moment when human beings are desperate, they generate an explosive amount of energy. A mother gives birth a death-like state with her eyes popping out, as if heaven and earth were being destroyed.
Then the baby utters its first loud cry, and her eyes open wide; she totally forgets her pain. Having given birth in such pain, the mother naturally loves her child more than anything. How difficult is it to be born? The amniotic sack that was our home breaks.
The placenta that had nourished us is cast off. Yet these events are not disastrous; they are rather fortunate, for the sake of our happiness. Yet we do not realize that it was a new beginning of life until after the birth was over…
Again the time comes, after living our earthly life, to kick away from this physical plane and depart for a new world. Nevertheless, as a fetus does not want to leave the safety of its mother’s womb, we would rather continue to live on earth. We do not want to die.
Death comes, and once again we go through a big tumult. Yet we will be born into the spirit world, an infinite world. We will escape from the bounds of time and space, able to travel instantly from one end of the spirit world to the other, faster than the speed of light. (107:42, January 20, 1980)
On the day of your birth the umbilical cord, the lifeline that was linked to your bellybutton, had to be severed. Likewise, in the world of air, the spirit self is attached to the body and sucks nutrition from it like a fetus on its placenta.
There comes a day when the physical body becomes too old to feed it, and it leaves it behind… The fetus that experiences momentary pain as it emerges from its mother’s womb grows to become the object of its parents’ love. In the same way, our spirit self must leave behind our crying physical body in order to be born anew as the object partner of God, who is the eternal Spirit.
On earth, the baby can grow up to become the friend of its father and mother because it was born into the physical world where it can share love with them. Before that, it was merely a fetus swimming around the mother’s womb.
In the same way, life on earth is breathing and living in the swaddling clothes of air… After our second birth into the spirit world, we will share love with God our Parent, who provides our spiritual link with the infinite world. (297:258-59, December 19, 1998)
Once you enter the spirit world, you breathe through the cells of the fontanel located on the top of the head.15 The atmosphere in the spirit world is not earthly air; it is love. We breathe the elements of love. Even while living on earth, it is not enough for us to eat food and drink water.
Our earthly existence is only a shadow of our true self. Therefore, we should use this short time to cultivate a loving character. More than anything else, what we need during earthly life is love. We pity orphans, who have no parents to love them, because they do not receive the love that can connect them to the eternal spirit world.
People without love are lonely, and we pity the single person who lives without a life companion. At death, we lose the organs of the body through which we breathed during our second life. Yet it is necessary that one day we should be released from the body, that we might inherit the elements of love, which are invisible.
Therefore, during earthly life we should prepare for the day of death by cultivating our inner self; this is done through experiencing children’s love, sibling’s love, conjugal love and parental love.
As a fetus in the womb grows healthy and strong in accordance with natural principles, people should grow well on earth by living in accordance with God’s law. Therefore, we should never live a casual lifestyle. (297:260, December 19, 1998)
Consider a dragonfly. First it swims in the water as a larva, next it crawls on the land for a short time, and then it flies, catching prey on the wing. It is an existence it could never imagine when it was a larva. Yet as it flies around, the entire world is its stage…
Why don’t human beings, who are the lords of all creation, have wings? Is it enough that people live limited to the earth? Actually, we have higher-dimensional wings. Once you die and shed your physical body, you will fly. Death is a happy, joyful gate to the second birth. (297:261-62, December 19, 1998)
2. First Moments in the Afterlife
The body which you have now is called the thought-body of propensities. Since you do not have a material body of flesh and blood, whatever may come—sounds, lights, or rays—are, all three, unable to harm you; you are incapable of dying. It is quite sufficient for you to know that these apparitions are your own thought-forms. Recognize this to be the Bardo (the intermediate state after death). Tibetan Book of the Dead (Buddhism)
When the soul departs from this world she knows not by what path she will be made to travel; for it is not granted to all souls to ascend by the way that leads to the realm of radiance where the choicest souls shine forth. For it is the path taken by man in this world that determines the path of the soul on her departure. Thus, if a man is drawn towards the Holy One, and is filled with longing for Him in this world, the soul in departing from him is carried upward towards the higher realms by the impetus given her each day in this world. Zohar 1.99a-b (Judaism)
If we do not improve our time while in this life, then comes the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed. You cannot say, when you are brought to that awful crisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God.
Nay, you cannot say this; for that same spirit which possesses your bodies at the time that you go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world. Book of Mormon, Alma 34.33-35 (Latter-day Saints)
Those who remember me at the time of death will come to me. Do not doubt this. Whatever occupies the mind at the time of death determines the destiny of the dying; always they will tend toward that state of being.
Therefore, remember me at all times… Remembering me at the time of death, close down the doors of the senses and place the mind in the heart. Then, while absorbed in meditation, focus all energy upwards towards the head. Repeating in this state the divine Name, the syllable OM that represents the changeless Brahman, you will go forth from the body and attain the supreme goal.16 Bhagavad-Gita 8.5-7, 12-13 (Hinduism)
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
If while walking down the street you are killed instantly in a traffic accident, you will not know that you have died. You think to yourself, “I have come to a strange place. It is a little better than my own neighborhood. It has things I have never seen before.” A vast space opens before your eyes. Since you see it, you don’t think that you are dead.
But what an odd place it is! Instead of seeing people around you as you normally would, they appear only when you want to see them. Unless you call them, they do not appear. You feel very much alone. Then you meet guides, who explain to you, “You have died. You have come to the spirit world.” Still, you don’t believe them.
You have a feeling that you collided with a car far away somewhere as in a dream, but you do not feel that you have died. You are still connected with the earth.
Dazed, and not believing you are dead and in the spirit world, you think, “I must go home.” You try to go to your house in the physical world, but you cannot.
Then your ancestors from some generations back come and explain, “You are no longer on the earth. You have entered the spirit world.” You finally say, “Ah, so this is the spirit world.” (194:41- 42, October 15, 1989)
What will be your thoughts when you pass into the spirit world? At first you will be welcomed into a vast world. Yet right away, you will recognize that its way of life is not what you were used to in your small hometown. On earth there was racial discrimination and conflicts among people of different backgrounds and cultures.
Some people’s ways were incompatible with yours, and you handled things by insisting on your own viewpoint and affirming that your own values were best. Now that you have arrived in the spirit world, you will want to leave those outmoded values behind. But your past life does not go away.
It revives in the spirit world with all vividness. The more you feel the immensity of the spirit world, the more you long for your home and for life on earth, because you cannot easily absorb the environment of the spirit based on your limited sensibility. Yet there is where you will spend eternity. Still, can you ever forget about your earthly life?
When you first arrive, you will meet only strangers. In the midst of such an unfamiliar environment, how you will long to meet someone you knew in the past! You cannot escape your emotional connection to your past life.
You think about the people you love. You wonder how your mother and father are doing, and how your grandparents are living. Yet it is not easy to meet them. (187:285-85, February 12, 1989)
Suppose through some misfortune, a man died while still searching for the ultimate goal. However, death does not mean the end of the quest. Once in the spirit world, he would say, “I died while searching for love, and now in the spirit world I will find that love.”
If a man dies in the bosom of God’s love, then it is not a miserable death. Did death shatter his love? No. God, the subject of love, will recognize the value of his death, saying: “You died for the sake of the love that I have been searching for.”
Suppose a wife sacrificed her life for her husband. What will happen when he joins her in the spirit world? Or suppose an elder brother arrives in the spirit world after his younger brother had died for him.
Would they be happier or less happy than they were when they were together on earth? Can the depth of love they formerly shared on earth even compare with that precious love for which one offered his life? It would certainly transcend that earthly level of love…
So, in searching for the path of love, death is not a problem. Though you die, it would not be the end, but new life. By this kind of sacrificial death, you would pass through the tollgate to reach a world of love that is eternal and of a higher dimension. From this perspective, there is no reason to fear death. (67:173-74, June 3, 1973)
Sun Myung Moon