Fascinating discussion. Thank you for your thoughtful and detailed replies.
I suppose there is quite a range of alignment/nonalignment with the "Truth" of "God's law" (consciousness of morality and right).
And everyone of us find a place along that range in our thoughts and behavior over a lifetime.
How does our placement along that range of alignment affect our afterlife, in your view?
I'm a Christian Universalist. So, I completely track with your view on the religion of fear and hell.
You hit me with hard philosophical questions which I love and don't mind expressing my understandings. This is a big subject and most modern beliefs on Heaven are a misconception or what i would call a deception. True knowlage is always "knowlage of the self". "As within, so without. As without, so within. As above, so below. As below, so above." Everything in existence is merely a reflection of itself.
‘Heed these words, You who wish to probe the depths of nature: If you do not find within yourself that which you seek, neither will you find it outside. In you is hidden the treasure of treasures. Know Thyself and you will know the Universe and the Gods.’
Inscription on the Greek temple at Delphi – Delphi Oracle
Heaven is but one of four realms.
Heaven is the realm of "un manifest" from which everything comes into manifestation. Nothing comes into being but by the Will of the Father through the Son. As we know Truth, we speak it through the Word of God into manifestation. As we know Truth, we act through Wisdom into manifestation. This is where Jesus gets the name "Word of God". Word of God, Wisdom, Son of God, Christ, Jesus are all words for the same thing. Through which came into being. The symboligy and words used for heaven is as follows: White light, wine, life, olive oil, doves, wind, spirit and many others. Some of which are specific to members of the trinity. Heaven can be seen as both the beginning and the end of an eternal cycle. When you witness something revolutionary and your hairs stand up all over your body, this is alchemical resserection or the proccess of water into wine. You have been glorified. This is your True Father.
Hell is the realm often related to evil and destruction. It is the ego that has been consumed by fire and wants the same suffering for everyone else. Although there is such thing as righteous anger and this is what it means when John the Baptist stated that jesus will babtise in both wind and fire. Those who are not willing to accept the Truth grow bitter and resentful and are thrown and baptised in the lake of fire, using the Pharasee for example. The words and symboligy used for Hell are as follows: fire, brimstone, wretch, anger, evil, lake of fire, Satan, Devil, Kill steal and destroy, egyptian Pharaoh and many others. It is critical that we do not relate Hell to the darkness or underworld, for fire produces light. Fire is not its own source of light however because it must burn life in order to create it. This is how we get Lucifer - The bringer of light.
Creation is the realm in which we are most familiar with because its what our five sences can pick up and perceive. It is the physicle fabrics that conceal life within. Our physicle bodies are in fact part of creation. This realm does not need much abbreviation.
Death is the realm after life on earth. We must traverse the valley of the shadow of death if we want to see God. We must go through the darkness in order to see the light. A problem never resolved itself from going around it, we must go through. In baptism we die to our old life to recieve our new. We go into the water which symbolises death and cleansing, and we rise out of it into the wind and spirit. This is also a ritual symbolising alchemical transmutation and resserection.
So to know Heaven we must understand it within ourself. Not of these realms are seperate from each other, they are all working together at the same time right now in this very moment both as a reflection internally and externaly. When we understand the nature of heaven on earth we know that it is "whole" "oneness" "perfection" "unseen". If both of us where 100% aligned with Truth and morality we would both be exactly the same. We would think, speak, act and respond to any given situation in the same way. Therefore in the realm of heaven there is no individuality. Only on earth shall we be individual for perfection is not seperate from itself.
Think of a loved one that have passed away. Somone that has done many sacrifices for you in their physicle life. Find that feeling in your heart. This is indeed Heaven and where that loved one now resides. From this life that they gave you, you also pass on to others. So it is true that the more kind deeds we do, the greater our reward in heaven. Our kind deeds start a butterfly affect of love that is eternal and flows through person to person. You are a product of all existence before you. This is Heaven among us.
Believing we have individuality when we go to heaven takes the centermental value out of life on earth. Therefore we do not cherish our life to its maximum potential, removing a sence of care and suppressing our motive to take proper action.
