4. The Sacred Memory of Humanity.

One of the foundational lessons in the early years of your lives is about the human body, which consists of three parts: the head, the torso, and the limbs.

As you grow a little older, you learn that within this body, there are various systems like the circulatory system, the respiratory system, the digestive system, the excretory system, the nervous system, and so on.

Next, you learn about the intelligence and wisdom of human beings, how to interact with the people around you, how to love and respect your parents, your ancestors, your teachers, and even those who share the same nation and ethnicity with you, known as your fellow countrymen.

This intelligence expands your awareness of the world outside. Today, as you enter the Dao, study the Dao, and learn the mystical methods of the Supreme Being, you might ponder: Where does this human intelligence come from?

Consider observing the natural life of a newborn. Nobody teaches it, yet when you offer its mother's breast, it instinctively knows how to suckle and drink the milk to survive.

This wisdom is untaught; it's a natural part of its being. This inner essence enables the baby to react to its surrounding environment: it cries when in pain, cries when hungry or cold, laughs when it's happy, and knows when to sleep and wake to maintain its existence. As it grows a little older, it learns to walk and talk on its own.

The mother leads the child to school for the first time in its life. The child follows the mother's steps, walks on the path to the school, and its spiritual essence records the images of the route, where to start, where to turn, how to get to school. It remembers these images and the next day, it repeats what its memory has captured to find its way to school.

Its inner essence enables it to remember and retrace the path it has previously traveled. When the child does what it has been taught in the past, that is considered being obedient. After becoming familiar with school for some time, the child's curiosity leads it further afield, exploring the area around the school to see what's new, and it discovers a nearby candy store. It starts going there every day to buy food.

Its inner essence helps it repeat what it has been taught, called obedience, and it further fosters creativity and intelligence, known as wisdom.

Its understanding of the past is interconnected with the present and future, forming the foundation of wisdom. This wisdom continues to expand, reaching further and deeper into the objective world. Within the child's spiritual essence, there is a sacred place of memory that propels its progress.

And humans, too, rely on the memory of their Spiritual Essence. This memory makes them agile and sharp, enabling them to recall what they've learned in the past, repeat it, and create and discover new things for life.

Where does this intelligence come from, and does it continue or vanish when the physical body dies? Why do some say it continues, while others say it disappears? These are the mystical questions that I will elaborate on for you today.

Earlier, I mentioned that when a baby is conceived, it already possesses its own spirit, and this spirit guides the baby to instinctively seek its mother's breast to preserve life.

This inner spirit makes the child intelligent, and this intelligence arises from the sacred memory within its spiritual essence.

• This Inner Spirit is the root.
• The Intelligence is the branch.
• The Sacred Memory is the Dharma, the Divine Law of God.

So, where does this Inner Spirit come from?

In the end, all living things have a form of spirit to some extent, not just humans. Scientists have discovered "genes" which are hereditary factors found within the cells of animals and plants.

They explain that the intelligence a child is born with is passed down from its parents through these genetic factors. So, we wonder, where did the intelligence of the parents come from? Perhaps the intelligence of the grandparents, and so on, tracing back to ancient ancestors. Going even further, we ponder the origins of the original human beings.

Leaving aside the physical appearance of primitive humans, we question whether the first humans on Earth possessed this Inner Spirit. They must have! Otherwise, how could we have inherited it until today, every one of us possesses this intelligence.

From the curiosity about the origin of primitive humans, we delve deeper into the origin of the universe. Whether the original humans were apes, another type of animal, or even particles of dust that evolved and transformed into the humans we are today, one thing is certain: there must have been a spirit present within that form for it to be passed down to us today.

Let's continue our inquiry into who or what gave rise to this Spiritual Essence in the first dust particles that formed the universe, what allowed life to possess such a spirit. Human reason has to pause here and collectively acknowledge that, in nature, life has this inherent spirit.

The very nature that Daoism calls Heaven and scientists refer to as Matter is just a matter of linguistic debate about the term used to describe this innate spiritual quality in life. The spirit does not manifest in Nothingness (Void), which is why it's said that Matter gives rise to Spirit. Is this assertion true or not?

Now, let's discuss the element of time in human consciousness. Imagine the following:

Take a thread and stretch it from your left hand to your right hand, starting at your left hand and extending towards your right hand. The concept of time progresses like this, and in front of you, use a finger to mark a point, and that point becomes the reference point in time.

That point represents the moment when the universe first began to take shape, the part of time symbolized by the thread on your left hand being Void, meaning space had not yet taken a Form, and the part of time symbolized by the thread on your right hand is after the universe has been formed, referred to as Later Heaven. So, Void is Prior Heaven, and the Formed universe is Later Heaven.

All living things contain this spirit, and all people believe that it naturally exists. Therefore, if we measure time along the length of the thread, this spirit was present even in the Void of existence.

It was already there when the universe took shape, and it's something we found within the Form of all living things. If there was no spirit in the Void, then when the universe took shape, there wouldn't be any spirit in the formed beings.

Thus, when we use pure reason, the logical reasoning of the human mind, to explore the life that God has ordained for humans, we realize that life within the Void is the primary source of this spirit in all Forms, not that the Forms of all beings give birth to this spirit. This is the reverse of the truth.

Following the sequence of time, parents were born first; they had their physical bodies. The matter of the parents' physical bodies was the medium that created the forms of their children.

So, considering time, what comes into being later is the child. To say that Matter gives birth to Spirit is akin to saying that a child gives birth to their own parents. I hope this clarifies the concept for you.

The profound principle of the Law of God, the Supreme Being, lies in this. And the genetic "genes" within cells are merely the method to preserve the life of myriad beings, a method that God used to transfer wisdom from one generation to the next, and nothing more.

Now you understand the origin of human wisdom, stemming from the Void. Life in that Void extends along the timeline and appears within various Forms. All Forms possess it without losing it; that's why it's called the Eternal Life and the Divine because it originates from the Void.

Now, let's address the question of whether human wisdom remains or is lost after the death of this physical body. You can only understand the cycle of life and death if you comprehend the source of the universe.

As I mentioned earlier, the Essence within all life originates from the Void (Nothingness) and becomes apparent in Later Heaven.

Later Heaven is where the Essence of Creation is displayed for humans to perceive. Therefore, when the form of Later Heaven is broken and disappears, the medium for expressing that Essence is lost, but the Essence itself, the root, that fills abundantly throughout the immeasurable universe, from Prior Heaven to Later Heaven still exists.

When the form of Later Heaven is destroyed, humans can no longer perceive that Essence with their ordinary senses, which is why some believe that death is the end.

However, in reality, it's not the case. Death is the destruction of this material body but doesn't erase the Spiritual Essence. The Essence, which originates from the Void (Nothingness), passes through the stages of the universe from Prior Heaven to Later Heaven. It never disappears; it is the eternal and the divine truth.

To sum it up, in one cycle of human life, what remains after the death of this physical body?

The Holy and Eternal Path has been revealed before you. I have taught in previous sessions that the Essence of the divine soul continues to exist but divides into two paths:

• 1. Ascension (Thăng)
• 2. Rebirth in Suffering (Đọa)

Because of our karmic cycle, some claim that there is nothing after death, no soul, no divinity, nothing at all. This view is based on their perspective, using the form of Later Heaven, the physical world in this universe as the standard, and when the place where the Essence appears is lost, they say it's all over.

On the other hand, the perspective of the Daoist and Caodaist goes further, moving against the flow of time, returning to Prior Heaven, and deducing that there is a spiritual life from Prior Heaven that extends to Later Heaven. Consequently, losing the form of Later Heaven does not mean losing the Essence of Prior Heaven.

From there, we deduce that the physical body, when destroyed, doesn't mean losing their spiritual Essence. The Spiritual Essence has been there since the first humans, originating from the Void (Nothingness) until now, and the physical form disappears, but the Spiritual Essence endures forever.

Each person is a small living unit, and when the conditions are right, the small Essence within their spirit can merge with the greater Essence of the immeasurable universe. This is what we call attaining the Dao, liberation, or returning to the Supreme Being.

In the future, I will teach you about Buddha, Dharma, and Monastics in the context of the material world.