E22065

     Doubtless there is nothing more serious than the issue of the death of the human being. If death and what happens after death could be explained in empirical, non-fantastical terms, most likely there could not be anything more satisfying. I will enlighten all members of the public, informing them by announcing the results of my study of spiritual research as it concerns the issue of life and death. Regarding this issue are the well-known books of researchers of the spiritual in the West such as Sir Oliver Lodge, Maurice Maeterlinck, and J.S.M. Ward who are authorities in their own right in the field. In Japan as well are individuals such as Asano Wasaburo who was deeply versed in spiritual studies with many books to his name. He passed away about a decade ago, and since I did have some acquaintance with him, his absence is missed.
     One point on which I would like to be clear before discussing the question of spirit and the spiritual is that I will speak mainly from my own personal experience as much as possible. This is because accuracy and preciseness are most necessary and as this is a subject that is invisible and difficult to grasp, it is prone to falling into dogma.
     As I have previously written on other occasions, the spirit of the human being which has separated from the physical body that has become useless returns to the spiritual world, becomes resident, and starts life there. So, to begin, I will describe the situation at the moment of death as it has been described.
     At death, or in other words, the instant the living spirit separates from the physical body, generally speaking, the spirit can leave the body from three locations, the forehead, the naval, or the toes of the feet. The point of separation differs due to the varying degrees of impurities on the spirit. Those who are cleansed leave from the forehead; those moderately cleansed, from the naval; and those overly impure, from the feet. Those who are cleansed have done good during their physical lives, have accumulated virtue, and thus have become purified. Those who are overly impure repeated sinful acts and defiled themselves. The moderately cleansed are those who fall between these two conditions; all aspects of death are governed by the law of spiritual affinity. An example of someone who saw with their spiritual eye the moment of death of an individual is the written description of a nurse, and since it conveys the process very well, I offer it as reference.
     This account is from the West. Rarely there are those, both in the West and in Japan, who can see spirit. I have forgotten the particular details of this account, but as I remember the important parts, I give them here. “On one occasion I was observing an invalid at the moment of death, and from the forehead came something like a column of white-colored mist that rose and slowly spread. The haze seemed to take a form, and soon it developed into a human shape. After a few minutes the mist became the exact form of the person while still alive. The form stood and appeared to observe its corpse and seemed to want to do something to inform of its presence the people gathered around who were sadly mourning. Realizing it was in a different world than they, it seemed to give up and after a while, turned around and headed for the window and effortlessly went outside.” The account aptly depicts the actual moment of death.
     In Buddhism the death of a human being is called “going to be born. When viewed from the physical world, the process is death, but from the viewpoint of the spiritual world, it is coming to be born, thus “going to be born.” That the period before death, that is, one’s lifetime, in Japanese is called “before life” is for none other than the same reason. The life of the human being in the spiritual world will continue for several years, several decades, or several centuries, and then the human being is born into the physical world again. Thus, one repeats life and repeats death over and over again. In Japanese, the ideograms that translate literally as “axle revolves, change life” stand for the Buddhist concept of saṃsāra, or reincarnation.
     The relationship of human beings to the spiritual world is that they have been given life by God and each individual has its own duties to carry out. In the course of that life, whether conscious of the fact or not, impurities accumulate on the spiritual body. As these impurities accumulate, that such as sickness and old age makes sustaining life difficult, so the physical body is abandoned and the spirit returns to the spiritual world. This is death, in Japanese, “return to mystery.” From antiquity in Japan, the body whose spirit has left has been called nakigara or “nothing-empty,” and the living physical body itself, karada, or “it is empty.” When souls enter the spiritual world, most undergo the process of purification of impurities. Of course, depending on the amount of impurities, life in the spiritual world can be of a higher or of a lower level, and the period of purification can be long or short. Short periods may be several years or several decades while long ones can stretch from hundreds of years to several thousands of years. Those souls who have been purified to a certain extent reincarnate by divine mandate.
     The preceding describes the order of the process of death for the ordinary person, but there are others for whom the usual order does not obtain. That is because these individuals have an attachment to physical life. There are instances in which those with a strong attachment to life who encounter death will be reborn in the physical world without sufficient purification in the spiritual world. These individuals follow an unfortunate fate. The unfortunate fate results from insufficient purification of the great amount of sins and impurities that had accumulated and remained, and their fate is the purification of those sins and impurities. We see this principle illustrated on the occasions where people say of another, “He’s a good person but very unfortunate.” Such persons have collected amounts of sin in previous lives and suddenly repent upon encountering death. They firmly determine to forego evil forever, and that thought becomes firmly implanted within their soul, but as they are reborn without having been sufficiently purified, in spite of the fact that they despise evil and undertake good, they follow a path of misfortune. But for these people as well, not few are the cases in which their misfortune will continue for a while, but as their sins and impurities are eliminated, in one leap they become fortunate.
     And then, there are individuals such as the following. These are men who do not know any women besides their wives and are proud to be quite respectable and of good conduct or else there are those who do not want to marry and remain single all their lives. Such people had experiences in their former lives in which conjugal relations became the source of misfortune and at the moment of death they developed a sort of fear towards women. Similar feelings toward that such as birds, beasts, or insects, particularly loathing or fear, results from that creature being involved in death in a former life. Fear of water, fire, or high places are because these were the causes of death.
     There are those with social phobias. For example, the dislike or fear of crowded places. These are people who died from being crushed to death in crowds. One interesting phobia is that in which the person does not like to be alone. One of the patients I treated was such an individual. He could not be depended upon to take care of the home while others were away. By himself, he was lonely and afraid, so he would go outside and wait until someone came home. This condition probably resulted from some time in a former life when, by himself, he came down with a sudden illness, and calling out for help, died without anyone around. As can be seen in the various instances outlined above, one should constantly keep in mind the importance of facing the moment of death without any attachments or fears.
     There are those with congenital deformities from birth, and these are souls that are reborn in the physical world without being sufficiently purified. One example are those that fell from high places, breaking arms and legs who were reborn without being completely healed.
     Another cause for being reborn too early is not due to the attachment of the persons themselves but the influence of the attachment held by the surviving members of the family. We often hear stories where soon after the death of a beloved infant or child, a mother becomes pregnant and gives birth. Such an example is entirely due to the attachment of the mother for the beloved child who is reborn too soon. These children are not very fortunate.
     Individuals are born with varying degrees intelligence. These distinctions derive from the differences between old souls and new souls. Old souls have been reborn multiple times and have gained abundant experience in the physical world. On the opposite side, new souls are only just coming into the spiritual world, so they have little experience and are naturally less intelligent. Furthermore, the souls of newly created spirits also undergo a reproductive process and are born in the spiritual world as well.
     Then there are the occasions probably all have experienced in which they meet an absolute stranger for the first time and immediately feel as though they were parent or child or siblings or felt some close familiarity, and these feelings occur because in previous lives the two were related or else in some close relationship. This feeling is what is called affinity or karma. Another similar example is when going to new areas travelers feel a deep affinity toward a place, sometimes they even want to live there. These feelings occur because in previous lives, they either lived or spent a long period there. In romantic relations, two people will fall into a passionate love and continue blindly forward, and this stems from the fact that in previous lives, the two had feelings for each other but were not able to come together. Because in their current lives, they are able to meet, their love explodes into a passionate relationship.
     When we look over history, we may feel goodwill or familiarity toward that such as a certain era or specific historical personage, or even the opposite, enmity or hatred toward the same, and these feelings arise from the fact that we lived in or else had some form of relationship to those times.

“Sei to Shi” was published as the fifth chapter of the Appendix on Spiritual Science which is part of Gospel of Heaven, February 5, 1947. While Meishu-sama was still alive, “Sei to Shi” was reprinted in the essays anthology for ministers Goshinsho: Shūkyōhen (Divine Writings: Volume on Religion), page 124, March 25, 1954, and has appeared previously in translation.

“Life, Death and Rebirth,” Teachings of Meishu-sama, Volume Two, 1968, page 79.

“Life and Death,” Foundation of Paradise, 1984, page 92.

“Life, Death and Rebirth,” Teachings of Meishu-sama, Volume Two, 1968/2004, page 50.

“Life and Death,” A Hundred Teachings of Meishusama, no date, page 85.