Great Construction

IS THE SPIRIT AFTER DEATH REAL?

　　As to whether the spirit after death exists or not, there have long been various opinions divided and the conclusion has not been offered yet, but I affirm that the spirits after death exist. This is because the spirits after death really exist. Nobody can claim what exists not to exist. The account of Hell and Paradise that the Shakyamuni gave and Heaven, Hell and Purgatory in Dante's Divine Comedy, which I believe are not absurd assumptions by any means. Then what is the spiritual world like? To put it simply, this is a world of thoughts and intentions. There is terrific freedom of movement out there since there is no material barrier of physical body. A spirit can go anywhere faster than an airplane if it intends to. In the Shintoism, when a spirit is invoked, they say," Fly through the sky, run across the land, and come over here to rest in this shrine." Thus, spirits can travel even the distance of thousands of kilometers in several minutes, nay, a few second. But, how soon each spirit can move depends on what grade it belongs in. High-grade spirits, that is, the spirits which attains divinity can move fast; the higher the grade is, the faster the spirit can move, and when it comes to a supreme divine spirit, it reaches any place however long the distance is in a moment shorter than a tens thousandths of a second, while a spirit of the lowest grade takes several tens of minutes to cover four thousand kilometers. That is because the lower the grade is, the more contaminated and heavier the spirit is.

　　Furthermore, spirits can expand and contract freely by their own thoughts and intentions. Hundreds of spirits of ancestors can array themselves in order even in a small family Buddhist alter of thirty centimeters width or so. In that case, their orders, ranks, clothes and the like are very strictly kept, so that each of them are adequately organized corresponding to their position. Those spirits are very pleased, of course, when people heartily perform religious rites, but they are not so pleased with mere formalities. And then, those spirits settle at their posthumous names in Buddhism, and in Shintoism, sacred mirrors, stones, letters or mountain trees. So, in the occasion of such rites, according to your standing, with all your heart as much as possible, you should perform magnificently.

　　Since early times there have been some people who happened to see the spirits after death, though many of them had been dead for a short time. The spirit of a newly dead person is visible to human eyes because it has dense spiritual cells. It is no wonder and quite reasonable to have happened that a number of people saw a figure of the Christ who was ascending to heaven after his resurrection. It was, however, because the spirit of Christ was a high-class one that he was rising up to heaven. And as the spirit of a dead person is going through the years, it gets more purified and rarified, so it becomes difficult to see through human eyes. In addition, the spirit after death is free to go in and out even through a tiny hole such as a pinhole. This is because it has no physical body that makes an obstacle. If you see this aspect only, the spiritual world after death seems to be a Utopia for those who believe in freedom of will, but that is not the case. I mean that there are absolutely imperative laws in the spiritual world, so freedom for the spirits is restricted. Let me mention the looks of spirits; the spirits soon after death have the expressions at the very moment of death as found in pictures. This is because it is not long after death, and as time passes their faces gradually change; they turn into the looks just like their thoughts and intentions. For instance, a negative, pessimistic and solitary person will have a lonesome, skinny, sad and dispirited figure; a person with brutal thoughts and intentions will look like a brute; a devilish person a devil; a person with ugly thoughts and intentions will look ugly, while a person who have a good and beautiful mind will have such virtuous looks. In this world, people can disguise themselves with physical bodies that are the outer blocks, but in the spiritual world, they will reveal themselves all naked, roughly estimated to be put into whole appearance within a year. A certain famous person of religion writes this in his book, "Human spirits will be extinct after death, so the spirits do not continue to exist, nor does the spiritual world exist. The reason is that if so, the spiritual world must have become crowded to capacity, for there have been innumerable dead people since olden days."

　　Though this man is a great figure in the world of Buddhism, he does not know that spirits can expand and contract at will.

Tidings of Great Joy from Heaven, February 5, 1947 (the 22nd year of Showa)
(06/11/18 UL)

               *                          *                          *

This essay, or chapter rather, has previously appeared in translation three times. The citations are given below for reference.

“Spirits and the Spiritual World” [in part], Teachings of Meishu-sama, Volume Two, 1968, page 86.

“Do Ghosts Exist?” Foundation of Paradise, 1984, page 65.

“Are There Ghosts?” A Hundred Teachings of Meishu-sama, no date, page 71.