The World Will Become One Family

What are some specific characteristics of the Later Heaven under the transformed order of sangsaeng?

A great many things will change, and as a result, the Later Heaven’s world will possess new and varied characteristics. First of all, the order of the world will be reestablished as a culture of one family. That is, the global village will become one family. The numerous problems besetting the world cannot be solved within existing national structures or within an individual society. Issues such as the global environment, regional disputes around the world, and the debasement of humanity in society defy resolution by a single country or regime. The United Nations cannot resolve these problems by itself, either. In the Later Heaven, as the earth and the universe evolve into a unified order, all such problems will be resolved in a single effort and the global village shall become unified. This is Jeung-san Sangjenim’s dao. We call this future civilization ‘the dao mastery civilization.’ The age of science and technology is about to give way to a dao mastery civilization. As a matter of fact, the world has been moving in this direction for a long time.

Secondly, in the Later Heaven’s world, prodigious longevity shall become the norm. In the Early Heaven, the human lifespan is typically a hundred years at most. However, according to Sangjenim, in the Later Heaven, even people of meager longevity will live seven hundred years, and people of great longevity will live twelve hundred years or even more. This means that in the Later Heaven, human beings—existing in communion with heaven and earth—will enjoy longevity as sublime immortals. At that time, generations of ancestors and descendants will live together. Although three or four generations of some families live together in the present, this cannot compare to the Later Heaven’s world.

Existing religions preach that people should behave well while living if they want to attain heaven after death, but what is the use of going to heaven after death? It is not a blessing to practice religious faith in order to journey to heaven after death. To enjoy blessings while still alive is the true blessing.

What other characteristics does the Later Heaven possess?

Another characteristic of the Later Heaven’s Paradise of Immortality is that the earth’s land mass will exceed that of the sea. The energy that governed the Early Heaven can be expressed as ‘three yang-two yin,’ meaning that yang has been stronger than yin. In the Later Heaven, this will convert into ‘three yin-two yang,’ and with this conversion, the earth’s surface will transform. The land will become larger than the sea. People will be able to spread out as much as they desire because the number of people will sharply decrease while the size of the land will drastically increase. There will be no need to struggle over land.

Moreover, in the Later Heaven, a new children’s culture will be established. The Jeung San Do Dojeon depicts two children, a girl named Ho-yeon and a boy named Bok-nam, as examples of the mature human beings of the Later Heaven.

Bok-nam’s spiritual eye opened when he was still a baby. At age three, he began to leave home, claiming, ‘There is someone I must find.’ Eventually, when Bok-nam was six years old, a heavenly voice told him to travel to a certain village and meet his Father. Obeying the voice, Bok-nam journeyed all the way to Gaengmang-ri Village. Sangjenim tested the boy by treating him coldly for a month and commanding him away, but Bok-nam did not give up. Finally, Sangjenim granted the boy the name Bok-nam, and henceforth He took Bok-nam on travels throughout His life. Bok-nam typified the way men shall be in the Later Heaven; he was the model of the human beings of the cosmic autumn.

And there was also a girl, Ho-yeon. When she reached age nine, Sangjenim had her begin intensive meditation. He ordered a tent built for her in the front yard of her family’s home, and He had her seclude herself inside for four months and meditate day and night. Like Bok-nam, Ho-yeon already possessed some spiritual awareness, and Sangjenim strengthened her spiritual awareness all the more by initiating her intensive meditation. By the time her meditation came to an end, she had acquired the ability to see the spiritual activities of heaven and earth. For example, on one occasion, a baby mouse wanted to eat a boiled rice crust left in a water-filled bowl, but could not do so because there was too much water. The mother mouse told the baby mouse to knock over the bowl and eat the crust, but when the bowl was knocked over, the mice were frightened away. As people scrambled to clean the mess, Ho-yeon burst into laughter, for she had witnessed the entire scene. Her spiritual awareness allowed her to understand everything that animals and spirits said, to read people’s minds, and to even see the invisible world.

Bok-nam and Ho-yeon epitomized the spiritually advanced nature of all children of the Later Heaven. In the Early Heaven, people’s minds have been closed, but in the Later Heaven, people’s minds will open wide. With their minds thus opened, people will become one with heaven and earth. People will be able to look upon a flower and know its thoughts, and they will be capable of conversing with a tree.

What kind of a world will that be? Since people will be able to read each other’s minds, they will be unable to harbor false minds at all. Naturally, a world free of falsehood and quarrels will arise—it shall be a world of knowing the mind. People’s spiritual awareness shall blossom when they are still young, and hence sentiments like agony, greed, hatred, and strife shall never come into being. Sangjenim said, ‘In the Later Heaven, those of the highest level of cultivation will require but seven days to attain enlightenment; those of the middle level, fourteen days; those of the lowest level, twenty-one days.’ How wondrous!

Concerning the saints, Confucius is said to have led seventy-two followers to enlightenment; Shakyamuni Buddha led five hundred; and Jesus led twelve apostles. But in the Later Heaven, all shall open their spiritual eye and attain enlightenment. In the past, it was thought that attaining enlightenment was a precious but exclusive gift from heaven to a certain rare few spiritually awakened ones; but in the future, everyone will attain enlightenment and hence enjoy the life of an immortal. That is, an age will come to pass in which enlightenment becomes a universal phenomenon.