After Death

    As mentioned above in our discussion of the view of the Cosmos, the vast Cosmos is a divine living organism. It follows, then, that the Chondogyo view on life is that the basis for the existence of all the myriad things of the universe is found in the one vast life that is the Cosmos; in other words, in Hanulnim. That is to say, all life is God and therefore is derived from the life that is the vast Cosmos. Therefore, if something dies it returns to the vast life that is the Cosmos. In Chondogyo, therefore, dying is referred to as "returning to the place of one? origin?hwanweon, 還元). It conveys the same meaning of someone dying as the commonly used Korean expression "he(or she) returned?돌아가시다).
    All life, including a human being's life, having entered and lived in the Cosmos, or Hanulnim, ultimately returns to the vast life of the Cosmos that is nothing other than the infinite life of Hanulnim. However, even before the person we call "I?is born into this world, "I?existed as life in the Cosmos, and after the death of the person called "I? his o"r her life resides in the vast living organism that is the Cosmos. Then, if we comprehend this process, we ultimately come to the realization that there is no distinction between life and death, for this life is eternally one with the infinite Hanulnim and the infinite divine spirit. Chondogyo's view of the future, or the hereafter, is rooted in this very same realization.
    Thus our divine spirit does not, after dying, take a separate path to another world such as Heaven, Paradise, or Hell, as it does in other religions. Instead, immediately following death, the divine spirit returns to the divine spirit of Hanulnim, which is the fundamental life of the Cosmos, while at the same time surviving in the psyche of those who live on after them. Stated further, Chondogyo's view of the hereafter lies in whether or not one realizes heaven or hell within the heart.
    Therefore, when a follower of Chondogyo performs a rite for his ancestors he dispenses with the practice of placing the ancestral tablets on a wall and performing the ritual before them. Rather, he performs the ritual by having the ancestral tablets "facing "I ? This ceremonial practice well illustrates the Chondogyo view of after death, and of the hereafter, for the soul or divine spirit of the departed ancestor has not gone to a separate heaven or otherworld in some other dimension but is enshrined within me.
    Furthermore, Chondogyo does not recognize a separate celestial realm for a heaven or hell existing in a different dimension from this world. The Chondogyo way of understanding death and the hereafter begins with"Sicheonju?and "Innaecheon?Human beings are Heaven), which, when understood by a person previously accustomed to addressing existence as finite, allows him or her to realize the limitlessness of existence that is one with the infinite Hanulnim.
    When the physical aspect of all living things is extinguished, that is to say, when it dies, it does not go to a place in another dimension such as heaven or hell, but returns to the vast life of the Cosmos that constitutes the foundation of its being, where it unites as one with the divine spirits of those that follow, which in turn emerge into this world. This is the Chondogyo view of after death and the hereafter.
    Seen from such a perspective, the "Long life?長生) spoken of in Chondogyo does not refer to a long physical life but to the long life of the divine spirit, which is happily realized as being life at one with the limitless Cosmos.