"heaven" and "hell"

There is another story that you may have read that has to do with what we call heaven and hell, life and death, good and bad. It’s a story about how those things don’t really exist except as a creation of our own minds. It goes like this: A big burly samurai comes to the wise man and says, “Tell me the nature of heaven and hell.” And the roshi looks him in the face and says: “Why should I tell a scruffy, disgusting, miserable slob like you?” The samurai starts to get purple in the face, his hair starts to stand up, but the roshi won’t stop, he keeps saying, “A miserable worm like you, do you think I should tell you anything?” Consumed by rage, the samurai draws his sword, and he’s just about to cut off the head of the roshi. Then the roshi says, “That’s hell”. The samurai, who is in fact a sensitive person, instantly gets it, that he just created his own hell; he was deep in hell. It was black and hot, filled with hatred, self-protection, anger, and resentment, so much so that he was going to kill this man. Tears fill his eyes and he starts to cry and he puts his palms together and the roshi says, “That’s heaven”.

Pema Chödrön, The Wisdom of No Escape (Shambala Publications, Boston/London, 2001)

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Comment by Daniel Rostand on April 3, 2010 at 7:23pm: Great!!!!!

Comment by Jose David on October 23, 2009 at 10:55pm: Dear Sandra
Believe me or not, heaven and hell is on this earth, created by the Supreme Creator /Director of this wonderful life drama. He created man, earth as a paradise. We, as actors were gods or deities in heaven, that was our kingdom. We were then soul concious. But we fell into hell, lost the paradise when we started becoimg body concious and fell into five vices -sex, lust, greed, anger and ego. Now we are getting back paradise. It,s cyclic. That means, history repeats exactly as a cycle. His kingdom is going to come, where we the gods will reign. I am telling you the truth: You will be with me in the paradise.

Comment by Leah D (Pixie) on June 28, 2009 at 5:38pm: Love this post Sandra! is so so TRUE, I very much enjoyed reading it. Thank YOU for posting
Many Blessings,Peace &Much Love n hugs x

Comment by Sukhpreet Kaur on April 15, 2009 at 2:36pm: Very true Sandra, it all depends upon us that how we make our life heaven or how we make it worse. We should not forget what all we have with us and what God has chosen for us. We are the ones responsible for our belongings and relationships.

Lastly, I would like to say that we must thank God for all the things He has given us.

Thank you.
Sukhpreet

Comment by Sandra Reis on April 15, 2009 at 2:09pm: My dear Sukhpreet

Totally agree! Sometimes we forget to show our gratitude with all things we already have, and the human being even wants more and more....
We all have heaven and hell inside each of us...and we can decide what is most important to us.

Thank for your wise coment.
Peace and love

Comment by Sukhpreet Kaur on April 15, 2009 at 9:02am: Nice post Sandra.

Now I am also going to describe heaven and hell through my own words. Heaven is where the heart is, where you have love in life. Where you have peace, a loving and caring family, someone who cares a lot. It is where you can live happily, enjoy life to the fullest and fulfill the needs of your family. Where you have good food to eat, all the luxuries of life and hell can be described as a place where you do not have all this. No food, no one to care, no place to live, no clothes to wear.

All heaven and hell can be seen in life only. I wish everyone peace in life.

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