Sun Myung Moon
July 21, 1975
Barrytown, New York
Translator: Won Pok Choi
Photo date and location unknown
Today I'm going to talk about human death. Sooner or later you are going to die. Nobody wants to talk about death, but because we know that there is a spirit world where we live for eternity, we are serious or concerned about our death.
In my school days I talked of death many times with Communists, and I had a very peculiar way to answer their questions. It was my concept that if one does not know God, one cannot recognize the spirit world because God is the center of the spirit world. When you look at your faces, you find you have two eyes. To prove the existence of God you must say, "Do you know the history of your eyes? Where are they from?" They will simply answer, "My eyes were born out of my mother." Your next question will be, "Then where did your mother's eyes come from?" You keep on asking questions, until you reach the very source of eyes. In terms of the Bible we can say that the eyes of Adam and Eve came from someone. But before Adam, did the eyes know that there would be dust in the air, strong sunlight, etc.? Even Communists would answer no. Communists say that material comes first. But the eyes themselves could not have known that there was going to be dust and sunlight. Eyes were created to feel light. Even before Adam's birth, someone knew that. There was a blueprint. Why do the eyes twinkle? Somehow, someone seems to have known that there would be vapors; your eyelashes brush the vapors away and protect your eyes. Don't you think that there was someone who knew that there were going to be such vapors? (Yes) The eyes themselves could not have known that. Look at your eyelashes. Your eyelashes prevent dust from coming into your eyes. Did they have foreknowledge of dust in the air'? Someone had that. Who could have been that someone'? Did Adam himself know it? (No) Then who else could it be? (God!)
One more question: are you born out of your own will? (No!) Did your parents know who you were going to be? (No) Who planned it? Before your birth did you ever think how you were going to look? (No) Every result comes from motivation. Why are there eyeballs on your forehead? Someone knew that human beings were going to walk standing straight up like this.
Look at your nose. If your nose was upside down, narrowing like this, when it rained raindrops would come into your mouth; sweat, too. You have two deep lines here for raindrops to detour around your mouth. What if your lips were as hard as the soles of your feet? Every part of your body is delicately made to suit its purpose. How can the Communists say they all were created out of nothing? If I ask them questions like that, they cannot answer. They know that in the material world, too, to make something they have to have a blueprint first. From that we can gather that there is someone who planned the blueprint before the coming of humankind; whenever you wash, your face, when you look into the mirror, you feel the wonder of who made you. Even looking at your eyes alone, we know that well before the birth of the eyes there was someone with vast knowledge of natural science including the heavenly bodies, the air, dust, everything existing in the world.
Every one of you is like a museum full of mystery representing the whole of the natural world. If you could enlarge your eyes to absorb the whole world, you could take in all the wonders of nature at one glance. Our bodies are a palace of mysteries. Each one of you is a thing of wonder; just imagine, a thing of wonder and beauty is walking about on the surface of the earth. Do you recognize the value of a human being in that way?
When we consider the source of our lives, we must recognize that someone made it possible for us to exist. Can you deny that? (No) When you debate which comes first-the spirit or the flesh-then your answer must be spirit came first. This alone can repel the materialistic ideology.
What is more important, visible things or invisible things? (Invisible) You answer that way because you are Unification Church members. But when you observe human society closely, you know that anything material is the product of something invisible and internal. This podium is something we can see and touch, but does it come from something invisible and internal? (Yes) We cannot see our mind, but we know it exists and we know that everything starts from something invisible-that table, the trees, the auditorium-everything. When you want to study, first your will tells you to study and then you move about. Without your thinking how to study, you cannot start. From this viewpoint we can say that everything that exists in concrete form started from the invisible.
When you confront Communists you can ask the same questions. If they are defeated in answering you they will finally recognize that you as an individual were born as a result of invisible will and everything else is also the product of invisible cause. When you smile or laugh, is it because your mind is happy or your body is happy? (Mind!) Your laugh is a result. Everything has as its subject something invisible. Anything as simple as a towel is a product of the human hand, but ultimately it comes from the workings of an invisible mind. When you talk about the mysterious human body, isn't that the product of something invisible too? We can safely conclude that our body is the product of something invisible and internal. Every morning when you wash your face, why don't you look into the mirror; when you look at yourself you must find the wonder of life. The most central thing on your face is your eyes. If I had enough time I could talk hour after hour about eyes. But I have no time for that now. Which part of your body is formed first in your mother's womb? Eyes, nose, ears-which one? Your eyes come into existence first. Eyes symbolize God. If you close your eyes can you see anything? (No) Only by opening your eyes can you see the whole world. Your eyeballs can move about in every direction. Your head is attached to your body, and you can turn your neck. Why would it have to turn? Your neck turns because of your eyes. The neck symbolizes the whole world revolving.
Is there a hole inside your nose connecting with your eyes? What about the channel to reach your ears'? What about your mouth and eyes? Every part of your head has channels to connect with each other. That means internally, where things are invisible, you have connections to reach the eyes, to reach God. What did I say the eyes symbolize? (God!) Then the whole human being must symbolize what? If your eyes symbolize God, your nose symbolizes man. Your two nostrils symbolize man and woman becoming one inside. When a man and woman become one, they can be connected to or be united with God. You have your nose high like this to contrast with your eyes, which are deep. God is invisible, deep inside and internal, but man is visible. When you stand up straight like this, which part of your body is more protruding? The nose. So your nose will guide you, always being ahead. Likewise, man is guiding the rest of nature.
Then what does your mouth symbolize, since it makes a vertical line like this? It means the universe. You have 32 teeth. That's the number four multiplied by eight. You eat and talk with your mouth. When you talk a puff of air comes out of your mouth; that means your words are the product of something inside. Your eyes symbolize four directions. Your head symbolizes the whole universe and your whole body also symbolizes the whole universe. Every part on the head is made of three stages. Your eyes are composed of upper lid, eyelashes and eyeball. Even the eyeball has three parts. The ear has the same system of three parts. In the Divine Principle we teach that everything, is made of three stages or three parts.
Your right hand symbolizes heaven while your left hand symbolizes the earth. Your thumb symbolizes God. God has dual characteristics, so your thumb is divided into two parts, not three like the other fingers. The rest of the hand symbolizes the seasons: three months make up one season, symbolized by the three parts of the fingers, and there are four seasons and four fingers. The whole universe is revolving with God in the center.
The Bible says that spirit world has four pearl gates. Everything was created with something invisible as subject and the visible thing as the object, so whenever we see tangible things we can think of their origin as being something invisible. It is a most logical and scientific conclusion. In this light we can say that Communist logic is wrong. We come to the conclusion that God exists. Then why don't human beings see God? The cause and result, the subject and object, must be harmonized into oneness. We are so made as to feel Him and see Him. But why don't we recognize Him or see Him? Because something wrong happened and our whole body is out of gear in that sense. On sunny days you see the sun, but on cloudy days would you say that there is no sun? You know that beyond the clouds there is the sun. But for those who have never seen the sun, would they say that there is a sun when it is not visible'? The Human Fall means that man fell into darkness. But when you get rid of that cloud, the darkness, it is natural for us to see the sun or God. If you don't recognize God, your spiritual eyes are clouded. Due to the Human Fall our spiritual sight is blinded, so we want to recover it. But however hard we may struggle, we cannot do it on our own without the cooperation of God. God and man must work together to recover those things.
In the Principle we are taught that God has been working behind human history, so when we look at history as a whole we can find God's will working. Many of you are from Christian backgrounds but before joining this movement did you know God exists? Did you feel it? Could you prove it? You were full of skepticism, without knowing which was the head and which was the tail in reading the Bible. But after hearing the Divine Principle you can clearly understand that there was something wrong with man, namely the Human Fall. Then you recognized God, and the fact that God has been grievous over our having fallen.
Then what must be the ideal of man? Man's ideal can be produced when we have give and take with someone, with you as the object and someone as subject. Why are you happy when you meet your mate? Males are for females, and females are for males-subject and object. I'm sure American girls would admit that in America everything is centered on women. Why are men not in the position of the subject? You may say no, but it is because you are Unification Church members, but outside women would say that. In every point man excels woman. The average man is taller and stronger than women and what else? Look at the way you laugh; women start laughing and come down. On the other hand, when men laugh, they lift up their heads. Woman confines herself in a small world. She wants to be loved by her husband and by her children, and she's contented with that small world. Men are not like that, they are adventurous. So, while we live here on earth, man is in the position of the subject while woman is in the position of the object. But neither man nor woman is happy without a mate; only when you join with each other do you become happy.
May I ask you a question? You girls, if you find a beautiful young lady as your girlfriend, would you like to live with her all through your life? (No) When you look for your mate would you want to find one who looks like a woman?(No) Back in Korea there is a member who told me the story of how she first met a man introduced by her uncle. She was going to be engaged to him. She only saw a picture of him and he looked quite handsome. But when she looked at him, his hands were so feminine looking, so smooth, white and beautiful, it just appalled her and she felt horrible. She cannot forget that scene even now. Of course she did not marry this man. Men's hands must look rough and masculine. On the other hand men don't like women who look masculine. They like soft, flexible, sweet things.
So when you are asked the question where the ideal comes from, your answer should be that it comes where there is give and take action between a subject and an object in harmony and unity-between subject and object, internal and external, cause and result. That is the very core of truth. Without harmony and unity through the action of give and take between subject and object no ideal can come about. Man's ideals, too, can be realized only when you have the action of give and take between subject and object. Not only that, but when those two are united into one through the action of give and take it should be vertically connected with God, having another action of give and take between you two united and God. The relationship between your parents and you is that your parents are in the position of the subject while you are in the position of the object. Only when you enter into give and take between you and your parents do you feel harmony and love.
In the Principle we call this harmony in the family the perfection of the four positions. Do you have a clear notion of what it really means? Because God is the source of everything, you cannot feel real happiness unless you are united with Him through the action of give and take. Everything in life is revolving around. Suppose God is immobile and you are never moving; there is no harmony, no action or life. The object must revolve around the subject as the core or center. If you really know God and want to revolve around Him it means you occupy God, who is the core of the whole world. But as you look at yourselves, your position now is fixed here without revolving around God. The center will be waiting, but unless you revolve around Him there will be no relationship between you and God.
God is something like electricity. Electricity is invisible, but when you turn on the electricity, the generator comes into action. From the result you can see that the electricity is on. Likewise, you can feel God in operation when you really are connected with Him. Some of you, I'm sure, still don't know God. But sooner or later you must become like that, to know and feel God operating in you. You must always be ready to receive God, to switch on the source of power. The effect should know the origin or else it cannot be connected to it to set it into operation. Even the leaves of the trees face the sun. Vines tend to grow on the sunny side. Only men lack knowledge of God. God is the center of the whole universe, as the sun is the center of the natural world, and we have a tendency to seek out God. When you think of God, do you miss Him and are you happy to think of Him? (Yes)
Now let's talk about human death. Sooner or later we are going to die. How to die is a great problem. If you die without being prepared it's awful. Unless you have a connection or relationship with the source or God, what comes after death will be awful. Have you done that? Are you in continual relationship with God'? (Yes!) God is your eternal existence. Is it clear? (Yes) Are you confident of that? (Yes) You believe that in your imagination, but not with complete knowledge or feeling, isn't that true? (Yes) You must know that you are the result of God's creation, making yourself also an eternal being. Be confident of that. The orbit in which you revolve around God will be eternal. There will be no change. Do you really know that in the Unification movement you will open up the way to reach God so that you'll be united into one with Him? Can you complain or can you relax? (No) Can you march forward in victory every day like that, or do you go sideways and up and down? Is this your spiritual attitude? (Yes) But would God change like that? (No) God is absolute and unique. You must be like that. Are you absolute? (No) If you are really one with God who is unique, you must resemble Him and be unique too. If you really miss God 100 percent, it is natural for you to resemble Him, who is unique, eternal and unchangeable. Sometimes even Unification Church members become skeptical about God's existence and don't act in accordance with God's will, but if you go ahead like that and die a physical death, the place you will go to is hell. Your mind must miss God in order to be united with Him and resemble His unchangeability, uniqueness and absoluteness.
If God is the cause and subject, and if you as the object and result do not resemble Him, you have no relationship with Him. It is something like iron fragments being attracted to the magnet, God being the magnet. If you are not prepared to be iron filings at least, you cannot become one with God. Without your doing that you cannot be safely situated in the spiritual world. If you cannot do all these things you are something like a chestnut shell without the chestnut, just the shell without the flesh. In building your personality you must be prepared to be the object of God. Your personality is the expression of your invisible mind, through which you can be connected with God as the subject. When you do good things don't just pretend to be good. Don't do good things just to look good, but to be one with God -- to resemble God. Do you feel that God is always watchful over you? (Yes) Do you feel you are being drawn to God by magnetic power? (Yes) If you feel that, every moment of your life is wonderful. You still lack that kind of experience, I know, so that's why you want to be trained in that way.
Why can you not operate like that. Always being drawn to God and one with Him? Due to the Human Fall your sinful side is thick. You could not feel electricity or energy through it-much less feel God or see Him or be united with Him. You must peel away your sinful layers. Do you know how snakes get rid of their skins? To remove their skins they have to pass through very narrow places and go the reverse way. So in any and every religion they emphasize living an ascetic life. You must try to light the lamp of your mind, and the light inside you will shine out to multiply people like you. As you do that, as you give out light to other people you will shine more and more, and your personality will become perfect. Why am I telling you to light the lamp of your mind? It is because God is the source of light, and you must at least be small lights. Unless you have something in common with Him, you cannot become one with Him. Your light must grow and grow so as to be as light and as big as God, and then be united with Him. When you want to give out your light you must consume yourselves, like the wick of the candle consumes itself while it burns. When you consume yourself like that to shine out as a light, then your empty part will he filled by God. When I encourage you to do good things for the sake of other people it means to give out your light, to give your whole being out, for you to be filled by another source.
If you are used to feeling happy when other people are happy because of you, then you have the quality of subjectivity, like God. First of all, I want you to be in the position of object to God, and then resemble Him and play the role of the subject for others so that you can leave behind you something valuable, something good. If you die without doing that, you have nothing to bring back to God. If you are self-centered, greedy to grab things from other people without giving them anything, God would not like that kind of person.
On the worldly level, when you want to be educated you start in kindergarten and go on through 12 years of education, four to six years of university, and then graduate school. You spend almost 20 years educating yourself. You prepare yourselves for as long a period as 20 years to make your worldly career a success, but we are going to live in the vast wonderful spirit world. We are going to live there with God through eternity. Then how long and how intensely must you prepare for that? Would you not prefer to live in the spirit world in happiness and glory, rather than living in this world as a small success? (Yes) That's why Saint Paul said, compared to the glory and greatness we are going to have in the spirit world, the tribulations we are going through in this world are nothing. When you are persecuted, go through hardships and difficulties and have many battles to fight, when you win over all those things, those are going to be the foundation for you to be welcomed in the spirit world.
Suppose you have lived a long life and you are at the brink of death. When you look back on your life you will ask yourself, "For whom have I lived my life?" The conclusion, I'm afraid, is going to be, "I lived for myself." Even then, have you lived your life for yourself in a good way, in a wholesome way? What is the definition of living a good life for yourself? In the real sense, if you really want to live for yourself, for you to be glorified, you must live for the sake of other people. If you put more stress on the fleshly side, just living to satisfy your fleshly instincts, that's not the way it should be. You are not capable of living for yourself, in a sense. At the end of your life your conclusion will be, "I have not been able to live for myself and I have not been able to live for others. I have lived in vain." Would anybody like that kind of person? (No) In the spirit world too, all the myriads of saints and spirit men wouldn't like that kind of person.
What is God like? What way of life is God living? God is of course living both for the sake of Himself and for the sake of others, because living for the sake of others is living for the sake of Himself. And in what way should we be living? We must first of all think of living for others. We are here for others. We are living for others and we are dying for others, so the most horrible thing would be to die without doing this. The horror of death is not that you end your physical life but the horror is that you are doomed to hell without having lived for others. We must overcome the way of life in which people live in vain without doing anything for others. In religion we are taught to live our life for others so that we can be entitled to the heavenly kingdom.
As soon as you arrive in spirit world you will be asked by God, "What way of life have you lived?" Can you boldly answer Him, "I lived to earn money for my livelihood, and I lived for my children, and at best I have educated them. That's all I have done in my earthly life." Would God like that? Any animal can do the same thing. What do you have that excels animals? Of course you have to eat and live and educate your children, but in addition you must do something at least -as many things as possible-for the sake of other people.
Is any one of you here confident of living a long life, 70, 80, 90, 100 years? If you say you're confident of that, you are abnormal. How can you be confident of long life? I'm told that 50,000 people a year die in traffic accidents in America. That corresponds to the number of soldiers who died on the front line in the Korean War among the U.N. forces. So living on this earth is something like being in the battlefield. Whenever you ride in cars are you sure you are not going to be killed? Are you confident? Hopefully yes, but nobody is confident of that. I'm always sensitive about death, so I want to be prepared for death. I want to put everything in order-what I have done or what I have. Otherwise one cannot be at ease. You are like a criminal sentenced to death: when the execution will come is the only question. In order to compensate for your sins and in order for you to be forgiven for your sins and accumulate many good things, you must live a good life, without knowing when your death is going to come.
We are without knowledge about the spirit world. It is an unknown world; we must understand that we go there all by ourselves. Your parents have nothing to do with you, your children have nothing to do with you the moment when you die. You are going to the spirit world all by yourself. There is the possibility that you are going to be welcomed by Satan instead of by the saints up there. If you leave something behind after having done good things for the sake of other people, then you are sure to he welcomed by saints and angels up there, guiding your way to the heavens. In which of the two ways would you prefer to be welcomed there? Upon your death messages will be circulated up there and God will order some of the angels and saints to come out and welcome that man with open arms or with music and dancing, all those things. But on the other hand, if you die without accumulating any good deeds, the black hand of Satan will be guiding you to hell. Which of the two would you choose? If you have done many good things on the earth, myriads of saints would come out to welcome you with beautiful music. What do you imagine will happen upon my death? I never forget about the minute of death. It's something like a dream, and you cannot quite visualize what it's going to be like.
I'm sure when you go to the spirit world if you cannot see me around you may think I am in hell. Well I may be somewhere up there where you cannot reach me. Everyone's place is already prepared. What we do on earth will determine our position in spirit world; we must think what we are doing here is most important. If you are already there, after death you cannot say, "Oh, I should have done this and that, and I must come down and live again, and then after having done all those things over again die a second death." No, you cannot do that. You are endowed with only one life. So the fleshly side is not important. Once you die, your flesh will decay. But what is invisible, the good things you have accumulated, is the most important thing. Compared to the vast spirit world, this earthly life is small in scope. Compared to eternity, the span of our life is just a puff, just one breath may be compared to eternity. So should your concern still be about the earthly life? If you do, it is because you don't know about that vast world up there.
In the life of faith you must think, talk, and do things always in connection with the spirit world, in connection with what God thinks of what you are doing. This is just an ephemeral world in which we are endowed with a short life span; to prepare to live through eternity in a good position and glory is of greatest importance. I want you to be prepared for death. When God sent me to the earth, God wanted me to accumulate good deeds to save others. Then when I go back to spirit world I will bring the gifts back to God.
You are studying, but for what? To know how to live for God and others. Don't be so shortsighted as to think. "I must be blessed after three years of work in the movement." things like that. Don't ever think that you are going to be successful in this movement because our movement is expanding all over the world, like that. Don't dream of being indebted to the movement, but try to have the movement indebted to you. Don't dream of being indebted to America but serve America and have America be indebted to you. Ultimately in that way you are going to do things for God and for humanity.
Upon your birth you are given your share of responsibility. You are the product of the cause or origin, God. You are endowed by Him with certain gifts, but if you try your best, then you can cultivate what you have in the field of gifts even more. Don't ever think that physical death is a sad or undesirable thing. We have a vast world up there and I wanted today to talk about death because I want you to be well prepared so that you can bring back a glorious gift to God, to live there with Him through eternity. To date I have taught you many, many things on how to live, how to serve others, but with the problem of death ahead I want you to be really serious about how to live the profitable life for other people so that ultimately you live for and glorify God, to be able to bring back glorious gifts to God. That way alone you will live in a desirable position in spirit world through eternity.
When you join this movement it is something like being given a sack to fill. I want you to fill up the whole bag with good deeds. When you die your physical death you will go to spirit world with that sack on your shoulder. How much you have fulfilled and what are the contents of the fulfillment will be the question. Don't ever think that you do this and that because you are told to do it by God or that you are doing it for me. You are ultimately doing these things for yourself. You must be eternally grateful to the Unification movement, to me and to God, who has taught you how to live life so that you can fulfill. You can fill up your bag to bring it back as a gift to God, which will determine your position there. Look into your own selves. If you are prepared to do things that will please God, please me and please every brother and sister in this movement, you will be welcomed by God up in the spirit world. In order for you to be able to do that, you must welcome other people and do things for other people. If you want to be prepared for death, always closely examine yourselves whether or not you are like that.
I spent my whole life to find this out, and to pave the way for others to follow, doing things for mankind. In that way I've done a great thing for God and for mankind. The spirit world knows that. You enjoy the results of scientific inventions, but you forget that behind the invention were struggles and hardships for the inventor or scientist. Through me the way is already paved and you just have to follow me, but you never imagine how many hardships and tribulations I have gone through to pave the way for you. Do you think God will just teach someone about all the truth? If that was possible my predecessors and many people having lived before me would have done that. I have struggled hard to bring the truth into life and I've done that my whole life. I seriously wanted to find out what life really means, and above all what death really means and what comes after death. So I want you to be prepared for death and to know that after death there is a more glorious life awaiting you. The Unification path is the shortest way to heaven in the history of mankind, but you never dreamed of that because you didn't know anything about that. Life is temporal, life is short, so you must be thinking of what to leave behind you after your physical death. You must hope to live in the eternal world well prepared. If you do as I have instructed you're sure to inhabit the heavenly kingdom. You cannot live in flesh forever. It is natural that your hair will turn gray as you get old. If you think of only the fleshly side of life, you will get discouraged as you get old. But since you know the truth, as you get older you must feel more urgency to work for the sake of other people, to be prepared. By comparison between you and myself, do you think I have more things to leave behind than you? (Yes!) If you feel the quantity and quality of the things you have done is smaller and less valuable than what I have accomplished, you must feel more urgency to follow my example. Whatever may come in the form of persecution or tribulations, don't mind them. Just get over those things and march forward in spite of them.
It is natural, don't you think, for me to be ahead of you in going to the spirit world? (Yes) Don't you want to be someone who can be welcomed by Father Himself? (Yes!) That's what I want, too. I want to be welcomed by God. Our desire must be to be welcomed by God, praised by God, and glorified and loved by Him. I want all of you to become persons like that. To be successful in your worldly careers is nothing, as small as a fragment compared to the greatness of what is waiting for you up there. They're small things when I think of death. Whenever I come here I sometimes think, "Who knows, this may be my last visit to you." In that way I am always prepared for death. You are hearing this kind of thing for the first time from me, and I must repeatedly tell you-be well prepared for death. I want you to be persons so prepared as to have me and God both coming out to meet you and welcome you up there.