My faith understanding of life after death – Falun Dafa

What happens when we die? That depends.

My understanding is that if we are totally evil and have lost our last shred of humanity, we will face the total elimination of body and soul.

 Otherwise, we may, in time, reincarnate within the “Three Realms” which includes heaven, earth, and the underworld and we will continue as another being in that realm.

Those who given up all attachments and have transcended the Three Realms will enter one of the many, many heavenly paradises. Perhaps returning to the paradise he or she originally came from, or perhaps entering another God’s paradise.

 Where we are placed depends not only on what we have done in this lifetime but also in our many previous lives. Our heart is looked at, and our moral quality evaluated. In other words, we believe that good is rewarded and evil is punished.

 Also, in this turbulent era, most of the people now on the earth have come from the heavens, and we have missions to fulfill. We made vows before coming here, and how well or poorly we have fulfilled those sacred vows will be evaluated.

 This is just my limited understanding of the teachings at my level of comprehension at the moment.

 Kathy Gillis

Falun Dafa/Falun Gong practitioner.

 Baha’i Perspectives on Life After Death

“To consider that after the death of the body the spirit perishes is like imagining that a bird in a cage will be destroyed if the cage is broken, though the bird has nothing to fear from the destruction of the cage.  Our body is like the cage, and the spirit is like the bird…if the cage becomes broken, the bird will continue to exist. Its feelings will be even more powerful, its perceptions greater, and its happiness increased…”  - Abdu’l-Baha

Analogy of a Baby in Its Mother’s Womb

The world beyond is as different from this world as this world is different from that of the child while still in the womb of its mother.

 It would be impossible for a baby in the womb to comprehend the life beyond the womb.  Similarly, it is impossible for us to understand the life to come.  This life is itself a womb in which we prepare capacities needed for the life to come in the same way that a baby develops arms, legs, ears and eyes which have no use in the womb but are essential for this life.  The experience in this life that comes closest to the life to come is the experience of our dreams.

 The Rewards and Punishments of the Next World

Know, verily, that the soul is a sign of God…. If it be faithful to God, it will reflect His light, and will, eventually, return unto Him.  If it fail, however, in its allegiance to its Creator, it will become a victim to self and passion, and will, in the end, sink in their depths.

From my readings of Baha’i Writings, there are two aspects of reward and punishment in the next life which follow from how we conducted ourselves in this life; our actions and our condition of faith.

In the next life, we are in a state of higher consciousness and more fully aware of the true value of our actions in this life.  This awareness of the true value of our actions is itself the reward and punishment for those actions and how we have lived our lives.

 The other aspect is that of faith.  The spirit of faith is described as the life and enkindlement of the soul.  A person who has attained the consciousness of faith takes this consciousness into the next life.  A soul passing on to the next world attains eternal life by taking with them the spirit of faith.

 However, those who have allowed themselves to become the victims of self and passion and whose consciousness has become limited to the material world pass on to the next world without this life although they, too, pass on to the next world.

 Other Aspects

The Baha’i Writings state that there is no real separation between this life and the life to come just as there is no real separation between the life of the womb and this life.  For those that have passed on, we are counselled to “pray for them as they pray for us”.

Further, the light which these souls radiate is responsible for the progress of the world and the advancement of its peoples. They are like unto leaven which leaveneth the world of being, and constitute the animating force through which the arts and wonders of the world are made manifest. 

 O SON OF THE SUPREME!
I have made death a messenger of joy to thee. Wherefore dost thou grieve? I made the light to shed on thee its splendor. Why dost thou veil thyself therefrom?