2. Helping the Spirits and Gaining Spiritual Merit

World Scripture

Choosing an auspicious day and making purifications you prepare the sacrifices. You present them filially, in spring, summer, autumn and winter, to your ancestors, the former kings… The spirits come, and confer on you many blessings.
Book of Songs 2.1.6 (Confucianism)

Outside the walls they stand, at the crossways and outside doors, to their own home returning. But when a plenteous meal is spread, of food and drink, no man remembers them [the dead]. Such is the way of things.

Wherefore do those who have pity on their kin make offerings due, of choice food and drink at seasonable times, saying, “Be this a gift to kinsmen, may our kinsmen be well pleased with it!” Then do those earth-bound [ghosts], kinsmen, gather there where a plenteous meal is spread of food and drink, and fail not to render thanks, saying, “Long live our kinsmen, thanks to whom we have this gift! To us this offering is made; not without fruit are they who give!”

For [in ghostland] no cattle-keeping, no ploughing of fields is seen. There is no trading there, as on earth, no trafficking with gold. We ghosts that have departed there exist on what is given here. Even as water gathered on high ground flows down into the marsh, so are offerings given here on earth of service to the ghosts…

Of a truth, wailing and grief and all manner of lamentation avail not anything. It helps not the ghosts that kinsmen stand lamenting thus. Moreover, [if] this gift of charity is bestowed on the Order, it is bound to be of service [to the ghosts] for a long, long time.

Thus this duty done to kinsmen has been declared: unto the ghosts it is no mean offering of worship; unto the Brethren of the Order it is strength conferred; unto yourselves no small merit has been won.
Khuddaka Patha, Tirokudda-sutta (Buddhism)

The rice and water no longer are offered, the ancestors also must fall dishonored from home in heaven.
Bhagavad-Gita 1.42 (Hinduism)

All these [saints of the Old Testament Age], though well attested by their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had foreseen something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.
Hebrews 11.39-12.1

It is sufficient to know, in this case, that the earth will be smitten with a curse unless there is a welding link of some kind or other between the fathers and the children, upon some subject or other—and behold what is that subject? It is the baptism for the dead. For we without them cannot be made perfect; neither can they without us be made perfect. Neither can they nor we be made perfect without those who have died in the gospel also; for it is necessary in the ushering in of the dispensation of the fullness of times, which dispensation is now beginning to usher in, that a whole and complete and perfect union, and welding together of dispensations, and keys, and powers, and glories should take place.³⁵
Doctrine and Covenants 128.18 (Latter-day Saints)

Teachings of Sun Myung Moon

According to the Principle of Creation, the growth of the human spirit requires two kinds of nourishment: life elements received from God and vitality elements received through give and take action with the physical self. Spirits can neither grow nor be resurrected apart from a physical self. Consequently, the spirits of people who died before they could reach perfection during their earthly life, can be resurrected, only by returning to earth and completing their unaccomplished responsibility through cooperation with earthly people. By assisting people of faith living on the earth to fulfill their missions, the spirits may complete their mission at the same time. Herein lies the meaning behind the verse, which foretold that in the Last Days the Lord would come “with His holy myriads.” (Jude 1.14)
How do spirits help people on earth fulfill the Will of God? When people become receptive to spirits through prayer or other spiritual activities, the spirits descend to them to form a common base with their spirit selves and work with them. Spirits perform various works. For example, they pour spiritual fire on earthly people and give them the power to heal diseases. They help people enter states of trance and perceive the realities of the spirit world. They give people revelations and the gift of prophecy. They can also give deep inspiration to the soul. In these various works, spirits act on behalf of the Holy Spirit, guiding people on the earth to accomplish the Will of God.
(Exposition of the Divine Principle, Resurrection 2.3.1)

If you went to the other side, to the spirit world, do you think you would see people living happily or people fighting each other? Murderers and their victims are there together. Don’t you think they would be ready to fight, brandishing swords or knives and seeking revenge? However, there are many walls that block them. For this reason, evil spirits go to the descendants of their enemies and cause sudden deaths by accidents in order to fetch them to the spirit world.
The quarrels between spirits should all be resolved. Yet for this to happen, the resolution must first take place on earth. It requires that we offer something precious—something more precious than the memory of their murder or their grudge against their enemy. Only in this way can quarrels among the spirits be resolved.
With what offering can the spirit world be liberated? With what can God be liberated? Our ancestors bound themselves, thus making a mess of the spirit world. Therefore, we, their descendants, should now resolve our ancestors’ wrongdoing.
We have learned the proper tradition of filial sons and daughters: we should pay back our parents’ debts. In that light, who should knock down all the walls that our ancestors erected in the spirit world? We should do it. In doing this work, we have to make our ancestors come down to meet us directly, and teach us. It sounds like a dream, but it is real.
We are not alone. If I look at you, I can see what kind of people your ancestors are, and what they did. The faces of your ancestors appear and quickly disappear. I can distinguish which of them are good spirits and which are evil.
(191:205-06, June 24, 1989)

During Jesus’ advent on earth, there was a special opportunity for good spirits who had lived previously to resurrect. They could rise from the form-spirit level of the spirit world to the life-spirit level of the spirit world. Likewise, your ancestors in the spirit world also have a special opportunity³⁶ to resurrect by returning to earth, based on the condition afforded by your earthly life.
Your ancestors are eager to return to earth and do the work of returning resurrection. Isn’t it wonderful that you give them that opportunity? Among the ancestors of your family and clan were loyal patriots, filial sons and faithful wives. Call them in prayer, and they will come. They can come because the time is right, when your ancestors should cooperate with you.
(14:22-23, April 19, 1964)

The question is whether we have set the standard to mobilize the spirits of the spirit world, and have them bear witness. The spirit world is also demanding to be mobilized. The spirit world is aware of the heart of God. Therefore, if people on earth appeal on behalf of God’s sorrowful heart, then the spirit world will mobilize many spirits. They will help in the work of realizing the teachings of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Why can’t spirits in the spirit world come to this earth plane? It is because the earth is beset by barriers of lamentation. If the earthly environment were free of the conditions of lamentation, if we were free from the miserable conditions that beset our flesh, and if we would enter a state of peace, unafraid of Satan’s threats, then God would help us.
(4:60, March 2, 1958)