Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: Episode 195
Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: A Selection of True Parents’ Speeches
Book 4: The True Family Movement
Speech 14: True Families: Gateway to Heaven, pg 686-690
Chapter 5: The Corporeal World and the Incorporeal World
Section 3. The three stages of our lives
Section 4. The central point between the two worlds
Section 5. How the spirit world was created
Section 3. The three stages of our lives
People go through the stages of formation, growth and completion during the course of their lives. We go through the realm of water in our mother’s womb, then the realm of the earthly world on planet Earth, and finally the aerial realm in heaven. In other words, people go through three periods: the period of water in the womb, the period of being born and living a hundred years on this earth, and then the period of flying in the aerial world.
People are born in the depths of water. The period in the womb is the period of existing in water. When the fetus is inside the mother’s womb, it is floating in fluid. It has to breathe in and exhale the fluid, and it lives by way of a hose connected to its mother’s womb. How is a fetus supplied with nutrients? It is supplied through the navel. The navel functions as its mouth. So we must not be disdainful of our navel. Pat your navel and say, “Belly button, thanks for your hard work a long time ago.” Pat your navel often; it will be good for your health. Do it as an exercise. If you exercise this way often, it will make you healthier. Even when you sleep in a cold room, if you cover your navel, you won’t get diarrhea.
In the womb, your navel is your mouth. At the time of birth, your breathing organ moves upward from the navel. What’s the next mouth? It is the mouth that you use for eating. It has moved upward. Eventually, what do we do with the umbilical cord attached to the navel? We cut it off.
In a similar way, during our life on earth, the spirit is attached to the physical body, like the embryo in the womb, and feeds off the physical body. When the physical body grows old, the spirit discards the physical body and goes out on its own. In accordance with fundamental principles and laws, the spirit must be reborn as a person who can relate to the eternal God, its spiritual Parent.
After being born into the earthly world, a baby becomes friends with its father and mother. We are born into the earthly world, where we can share love with our fathers and mothers. In a similar way, we eventually must be born again into the spirit world, where we can share love with God, our Parent, who connects us to the world of spirit that has no bounds.
What do we need after coming out of the womb? It is not just air, food and water; it is love. We need to receive elements of love. We cannot be fed only food. If food is the only thing you take in, you will start to die. You need to prepare for the next stage of your life. So what do you need to fill yourself with during your life on earth? You must form a new character by filling yourself with love during this period.
What you need on earth is love. Why do you call a child who lives without the love of a father and mother an “orphan?” It is because the child does not receive the parental love during their lifetime that can connect him or her eternally to the spirit world. This is also the reason we feel pity for people who live alone without marrying.
After our physical death, which is the destruction of the body that has been breathing air on earth—the second kind of breathing—we begin breathing elements of love. Love is invisible. While we are on earth, our internal self, our spirit, grows through the love we receive from our parents and our spouse. That is why, just as an embryo develops in the womb in accordance with God’s law so that it grows to become a healthy baby, our spirit must develop within our physical body in this earthly world in accordance with the heavenly principle.
Dragonflies begin their lives by swimming in water during their larval stage, then come up to the earth and crawl about for a while. Finally they are able to fly around and prey on bugs they never would have imagined eating when they were crawling on the ground. They flutter about freely, thinking the whole universe is their stage.
There are many insects that go through these three stages of life. In general, insects have wings. They go through their lives living in the water, on land and in the air. Yet do human beings, who are called the lords of creation, have wings? We have a set of wings that are of a higher dimension. Death is the blessed gateway to our second birth. What is the meaning of death? Earthly life, the time of living in air, parallels the time of swimming in the womb. We are living in a wrapping cloth of air. Death is nothing special; it is only our rebirth into the third life. That moment of transition is what we call death.
Section 4. The central point between the two worlds
I imagine you must be very curious about the spirit world. There are many religions in the world; their purpose is to guide us to the world of eternal life, where we can live together with God. That eternal spirit world is the destination of religion. However, what has become of religion today? It is on the decline. We have entered an era in which people are concluding that religion is a man-made moral idea, appealing only to the weak and unnecessary for everyone else.
Even Christianity, the central religion, has declined. America represents all the Christian nations of the world, yet many people who grew up in American Christian homes have lost their faith and are living according to their own ways. Why are even Christians abandoning their religion, which idealizes Heaven, the dwelling place of God, who is the center of the world and all ideals?
There are three reasons. First, we do not have a clear understanding of the existence of the spirit world. We have the innate capacity of comparison, and we naturally seek to abandon a bad situation in favor of a better one. If we understood the higher-dimensional realms of greater value in the spirit world, we would seek them out. This is original human nature.
Second, we do not really know God. Our connection with God was severed as a result of the Fall, and we have been living as orphans.
Third, we do not grasp the central importance of love, which binds us to both God and the spirit world. We do not clearly know these three points. Even those who know of God and the spirit world do not fully understand that it is a world centered on love.
In a place of love, you are happy to go up or down and even to stay in the middle. Does a wife dislike her husband if he has a higher position in society than she has? Does a husband dislike his wife if her social standing is lower than his? When you are one with each other, you can go anywhere, from below to above, from above to below; you can even stay in the middle. There are no restraints. This is the reason that many people in the world are saying, “This world needs to become one. It ought to be united. It must become a world of peace.”
It is the same for both the spirit world and the earthly world, and for spiritual and physical beings. God and His love are central to both worlds. But fallen people do not recognize this.
We have a mind and a body, and there are differences between these two. They exist in different dimensions. The mind differs from the spirit world. We speak of the spirit and earthly worlds in terms of God’s love. Accordingly, for these two to create oneness, God must be involved. Without God’s love, the spirit world cannot exist. It is linked to God.
People may be confused and think that the mind is the spirit. The mind is not a part of the spirit world. Due to the Fall, the mind does not have a relationship with the spirit world. It may be easier for you to understand if you think of the mind of fallen human beings as a person who has no bones in his body. The mind of a fallen person has a form like a human body that has no bones.
The spirit has a body-like element and a mind-like element. The part that is like the mind of the spirit is immersed in the spirit world. It always maintains a relationship with God. The mind-like element of the spirit does not come into being without a relationship with God. It is important to understand that spirit and mind are two different things. The fallen mind has no relationship with God. He has departed from it. God can neither relate to the fallen mind nor exercise His direct dominion over it. Your mind changes, going one way and then another, but spirit beings are not like this, nor is the spirit world. They have one eternal goal, toward goodness, and move steadily in that direction. Why is this so? It is because spiritually mature beings stand on God’s side. The mind that resides within us as fallen human beings vacillates.
FFWPU, USA