In this article, I elucidate “spiritual nature (霊性 reisei)” in the later Nishida philosophy with relation to self-awareness (自覚 jikaku). Self-awareness does not mean a consciousness of oneself but a grasp of the historical task. Although animals act according to some kind of purpose, they do not know the historical end. The grasp of historical tasks is what distinguishes humans from animals. How possible is it to become self-aware? Nishida said, “It is not through self-refection but by facing our eternal death that we become truly self-aware.” In this passage “facing our eternal death” means “facing Absolute Being.” When we face Absolute Being, we must choose between two paths. Either we convert, attain faith, and gain eternal life or we do not and are forever damned to the fires of hell. “Eternal death” means that we understand ourselves as sinful beings and that we are reborn by the death of past selves. “Facing Absolute Being” has two directions. One direction is Judgment, in which God points out our sinful lives, and the other is forgiveness as agapē. We can find these directions in the words of Jeremiah the prophet as follows: “Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place.”
https://ror.org/0496p0503 
