Chapter Nine : Sending on Spirits in Transition 16

The Founding Master addressed the congregation at a New Year’s Day ceremony, “There was nothing special about either yesterday or today, but everything through yesterday we call ‘last year’ and from today on we call it ‘this year.’ In the same way, it is the same spirit when we die as it is when we are alive, but we call its dwelling place the ‘other world’ when we die and ‘this world’ when we are alive. Our physical body that is composed of the four great elements of earth, water, fire, and wind has ‘this world’ and the ‘other world’ because it dies and is reborn. However, the spirit is eternally inextinguishable and thus is never subject to birth or death. Therefore, for the enlightened, birth, old age, sickness, and death are like the changing of the four seasons, and ‘this life’ and the ‘other life’ are like ‘last year’ and ‘this year.’”