What is the heart?
In our sacred scripture, the word “Mune” is used to describe an entity in our bodies that serve many functions. Mune is often translated to English as chest, heart, spirit, mind, and soul. For our discussion, we will refer to the mune as the heart. This is not the physical heart that pumps our blood in our bodies, but it appears to refer to an eternal soul or an entity in the soul.
What happens when we die? Is our heart (soul) eternal?
We know that when we die, our physical bodies decay, and we cannot take our bodies with us. But we can probably all agree that we continue our journey because of the soul/heart. It is this heart/soul that leaves our bodies upon our death and ascends to heaven. Many who believe in reincarnation, will also believe that their soul/heart will continue to return back to earth to live many more lives. See figure 1.
Where is the soul, and what is the soul made of?
Scientists have not located and verified the existence of the hearts/souls in our bodies. Some believe that the soul /heart by itself is energy that contains the core of our essence (See figure 1). This amalgam of energies, collects, stores, distributes and transfer information within and outside our borrowed bodies.
Figure 1
What information may the heart/soul contain?
Can it contain our thought patterns and our fates that were created by acting on these same thought patterns? You could compare the heart/soul to a software that is detached from the computer. But when the software is inserted into the computer, the computer can function. This is like the heart/soul, that enters our bodies near birth (see figure 2). It programs the mind with the previous thought patterns from the past life; and also collects and distributes our fates that were created by acting on these same thought patterns. Our fates are eventually distributed as energy, interacting with our environment, including all the living creatures and objects in the world, including the energies from other souls. This is why people and events appear in our lives. It is not by chance, the events that occur in our lives. But it is destined by the interaction of the energies. This is why karma does not occur immediately. It waits for the right opportunities, or when all the energies align. This is why justice is not immediate, and why evil appears to go unpunished. But the passage of time will eventually bring upon justice. We always reap what we have sowed. Some may ask who rewards or punishes us for our actions. In the Ofudesaki, God tells us that God has only been watching us since the creation of human beings.These actions are not caused by God, but by our own souls/hearts.
What makes each of us different?
It is the information that is in our hearts that make us different. Our thought patterns are what makes each of us different as human beings. One may say that our physical appearance makes us different, but our physical appearance is only temporary, and it is not eternal like our hearts. We distinguish ourselves by our pattern of thoughts, and our fates, which were caused by acting on these thought patterns. These negative thought patterns are the dusts of regret, covetousness, arrogance, greed, and self-love (see figure 3). Each of us have different amounts of these dusts, and different amount of fates that are associated with these same negative thoughts.
Figure 3
What is the function of the heart?
The function of the heart is to regulate our behavior, and make our minds pure. In the Ofudesaki, God tells us that the first parents of human beings were given God’s pure mind. This is a mind that will bring upon joy. It is a mind that will make us spirited. But in today’s world, our minds are not pure like the Original mind that was first given. It is the function of our own individual heart to make our minds pure. But most people do not know this. This is why God tells us throughout the Ofudesaki that we do not understand the heart. God tells us that we must understand what comes from our hearts. It is our fates that come from our hearts. These fates are directly connected to the dusts in our minds. They were created by acting on these same negative thoughts. Our fates tell us the condition of our minds. How does this knowledge help us?
What to do when fate appears from our hearts?
God tells us to ponder our own minds, when suffering or obstacles appear in our lives. God tells us not to blame others, but ponder our own minds of evil thoughts. These sufferings are a result of what we have done in the past lives. We reap what we have sowed. If we do not act on our evil thoughts, we can gradually eliminate our evil thoughts, and attain the Original mind that was given to the first parents of human beings. God compares this to the digging of a root to get to the Original mind. It is not easy like digging a root, but upon accomplishing the attainment of the pure mind, our minds will be spirited.
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Heaven's Truths, in Living the Joyous Life 