Heaven – Got You!
Since the beginning of recorded history and we might surmise prior to that, we humans have wanted to make sense out of this life journey. Often this engendered some theory about how this planet or this universe came into being. Thus, we find various creation stories and theories ranging from the big bang theory to the creation stories which are posited by mythologies and religions. Most religions and philosophies have envisioned a supreme being or beings – ancestors, spirits, multiples Gods, or a parent like figure who not only authored the universe as we have been able to envision or identify it, but concerned themselves with our earthly behavior. This often led then to a concept of hell or afterlife in which one was rewarded or punished for the choices one made during their current life journey. For some the concept of dharma helped to explain how happened to an individual or a family. Consider, for example, Rpman mythology:
In Roman mythology, Tartarus is the place where sinners are sent. Virgil describes it in the Aeneid as a gigantic place, surrounded by the flaming river Phlegethon and triple walls to prevent sinners from escaping from it. It is guarded by a hydra with fifty black gaping jaws, which sits at a screeching gate protected by columns of solid adamantine, a substance akin to diamond – so hard that nothing will cut through it. Inside, there is a castle with wide walls, and a tall iron turret. Tisiphone, one of the Erinyes who represents revenge, stands guard sleepless at the top of this turret lashing a whip. There is a pit inside which is said to extend down into the earth twice as far as the distance from the lands of the living to Olympus. At the bottom of this pit lie the Titans, the twin sons of Aloeus, and many other sinners. Still more sinners are contained inside Tartarus, with punishments similar to those of Greek myth.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
We could also consider Hindu cosmology:
Attaining heaven is not the final pursuit in Hinduism as heaven itself is ephemeral and related to physical body. Only being tied by the bhoot-tatvas, heaven cannot be perfect either and is just another name for pleasurable and mundane material life. According to Hindu cosmology, above the earthly plane, are other planes: (1) Bhuva Loka, (2) Swarga Loka, meaning Good Kingdom, is the general name for heaven in Hinduism, a heavenly paradise of pleasure, where most of the Hindu Devatas (Deva) reside along with the king of Devas, Indra, and beatified mortals. Some other planes are Mahar Loka, Jana Loka, Tapa Loka and Satya Loka. Since heavenly abodes are also tied to the cycle of birth and death, any dweller of heaven or hell will again be recycled to a different plane and in a different form as per the karma and "maya" i.e. the illusion of Samsara. This cycle is broken only by self-realization by the Jivatma. This self-realization is Moksha (Turiya, Kaivalya).
The concept of moksha is unique to Hinduism and is unparalleled. Moksha stands for liberation from the cycle of birth and death and final communion with Brahman. With moksha, a liberated soul attains the stature and oneness with Brahman or Pramatma. Different schools such as Vedanta, Mimansa, Sankhya, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, and Yoga offer subtle differences in the concept of Brahman, obvious Universe, its genesis and regular destruction, Jivatma, Nature (Prakriti) and also the right way in attaining perfect bliss or moksha.
In the Vaishnava traditions the highest heaven is Vaikuntha, which exists above the six heavenly lokas and outside of the mahat-tattva or mundane world. It's where eternally liberated souls who have attained moksha reside in eternal sublime beauty with Lakshmi and Narayana (a manifestation of Vishnu).
In the Nasadiya Sukta, the heavens/sky Vyoman is mentioned as a place from which an overseeing entity surveys what has been created. However, the Nasadiya Sukta questions the omniscience of this overseer.
(Wikipedia)
Some, such as the Buddhists think in terms of multiple life journeys which give us many opportunities to learn the spiritual lessons we need to learn.
Aristotle posited a prime mover.
In Christian theology, heaven is posited as a place one goes after death if and only if one was a faithful follower of Christ during this life journey. For many who ascribe to the Christian faith, it is very important that one specifically “accept Jesus as one’s personal savior” if one is to gain access to heaven. Others who call themselves Christian would allow for a little more flexibility.
Currently, undoubtedly the most famous Christian is the current pope, Francis.
Pope Francis has gained a lot of attention since his election to this esteemed role as leader of the Roman Catholic church by stressing the inclusivity of the love of God and, thus, the mandate that we take care of and love humans are in that group commonly referred to as “the least of these”. He has very pointedly seemed to refrain from suggesting that God is incapable of embracing even those who the Catholic Church has excluded. Thus, it came as somewhat a surprise and a disappointment to me when I read the following:
Pope: God will judge you on whether you cared for the earth. . .
“Pope Francis warned the rich and the powerful on Tuesday that God will judge them on whether they fed the poor and cared for the earth, his latest exhortation on the environment ahead o his eagerly awaited encyclical on climate change and its effects on the world’s most vulnerable. (St. Petersburgh Tribune, May 13, 2015, page 4. Article by Nicole Winfield)
I do not believe that Grace excludes those who may be attached or addiction to money and, thus, unable to allow themselves to share it
In this statement Pope Francis has reintroduced the concept of judgment and, punishment. Certainly there is a long tradition in the Jewish religion of an Old Testament God who gets very angry when we humans do not behave consistently like the God’s we are to emulate. In point of fact there is some possible scriptural basis for this view in the new testament. Jesus is, for example, reputed to have said that it will be more difficult for the rich man to enter into the kingdom of God than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle.” The are several possible interpretations of this passage:
1. Jesus was referring to the riches per se or our tendency as humans to look to money or possessions as our God; to use money as a way to avoid being with ourselves or to prove our self worth thus insuring that we are separated from ourselves, each other and our higher power/God/Universe?
2. Jesus was referring to the concept of a future heaven when He mentions the kingdom of God?
3. In the recording of this oral history the author interjected his own understanding of what Jesus might have said.
As I have often suggested, we humans seem nearly incapable of accepting that we are already enough; that we are worth loving as humans with all of possibilities of doing good or harming ourselves or others. It is true that we use things, belief systems, sex, alcohol, drugs or power to prove our worth thereby keeping distant from ourselves and thus others When we are attached to any of these we cannot enjoy the connection which fills the avoids and which assures us that we are enough; we are deserving of love and acceptance.
If we truly wanted the rich person to share their wealth we would embrace them. We would lovingly and kindly tell them that are enough.
Many of us have no problem accepting that we could be the person in jail, the person who has a drug addiction or a person for whatever reason ends up in the line at the soup kitchen. Some few would maintain that the only reason that one ends up homeless, other than a natural disaster, is lack of will or lack of responsibility. Most, however, seem to at least give lip service to the belief that any of us could end up being homeless or otherwise destitute. It would seem, however, that those of us who routinely attempt align ourselves with “the least of these” are quite unwilling to include the rich person.
Yet, my very simplistic understanding of the concept of Grace is that it includes all of us. I do think it is true that when we do not accept that we are enough/worthwhile we are separated from ourselves, others and our high power. That is not God’s punishment. That is me being unable to take what Soren Kierkegaard calls the leap of faith.
Since the beginning of recorded history and we might surmise prior to that, we humans have wanted to make sense out of this life journey. Often this engendered some theory about how this planet or this universe came into being. Thus, we find various creation stories and theories ranging from the big bang theory to the creation stories which are posited by mythologies and religions. Most religions and philosophies have envisioned a supreme being or beings – ancestors, spirits, multiples Gods, or a parent like figure who not only authored the universe as we have been able to envision or identify it, but concerned themselves with our earthly behavior. This often led then to a concept of hell or afterlife in which one was rewarded or punished for the choices one made during their current life journey. For some the concept of dharma helped to explain how happened to an individual or a family. Consider, for example, Rpman mythology:
In Roman mythology, Tartarus is the place where sinners are sent. Virgil describes it in the Aeneid as a gigantic place, surrounded by the flaming river Phlegethon and triple walls to prevent sinners from escaping from it. It is guarded by a hydra with fifty black gaping jaws, which sits at a screeching gate protected by columns of solid adamantine, a substance akin to diamond – so hard that nothing will cut through it. Inside, there is a castle with wide walls, and a tall iron turret. Tisiphone, one of the Erinyes who represents revenge, stands guard sleepless at the top of this turret lashing a whip. There is a pit inside which is said to extend down into the earth twice as far as the distance from the lands of the living to Olympus. At the bottom of this pit lie the Titans, the twin sons of Aloeus, and many other sinners. Still more sinners are contained inside Tartarus, with punishments similar to those of Greek myth.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
We could also consider Hindu cosmology:
Attaining heaven is not the final pursuit in Hinduism as heaven itself is ephemeral and related to physical body. Only being tied by the bhoot-tatvas, heaven cannot be perfect either and is just another name for pleasurable and mundane material life. According to Hindu cosmology, above the earthly plane, are other planes: (1) Bhuva Loka, (2) Swarga Loka, meaning Good Kingdom, is the general name for heaven in Hinduism, a heavenly paradise of pleasure, where most of the Hindu Devatas (Deva) reside along with the king of Devas, Indra, and beatified mortals. Some other planes are Mahar Loka, Jana Loka, Tapa Loka and Satya Loka. Since heavenly abodes are also tied to the cycle of birth and death, any dweller of heaven or hell will again be recycled to a different plane and in a different form as per the karma and "maya" i.e. the illusion of Samsara. This cycle is broken only by self-realization by the Jivatma. This self-realization is Moksha (Turiya, Kaivalya).
The concept of moksha is unique to Hinduism and is unparalleled. Moksha stands for liberation from the cycle of birth and death and final communion with Brahman. With moksha, a liberated soul attains the stature and oneness with Brahman or Pramatma. Different schools such as Vedanta, Mimansa, Sankhya, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, and Yoga offer subtle differences in the concept of Brahman, obvious Universe, its genesis and regular destruction, Jivatma, Nature (Prakriti) and also the right way in attaining perfect bliss or moksha.
In the Vaishnava traditions the highest heaven is Vaikuntha, which exists above the six heavenly lokas and outside of the mahat-tattva or mundane world. It's where eternally liberated souls who have attained moksha reside in eternal sublime beauty with Lakshmi and Narayana (a manifestation of Vishnu).
In the Nasadiya Sukta, the heavens/sky Vyoman is mentioned as a place from which an overseeing entity surveys what has been created. However, the Nasadiya Sukta questions the omniscience of this overseer.
(Wikipedia)
Some, such as the Buddhists think in terms of multiple life journeys which give us many opportunities to learn the spiritual lessons we need to learn.
Aristotle posited a prime mover.
In Christian theology, heaven is posited as a place one goes after death if and only if one was a faithful follower of Christ during this life journey. For many who ascribe to the Christian faith, it is very important that one specifically “accept Jesus as one’s personal savior” if one is to gain access to heaven. Others who call themselves Christian would allow for a little more flexibility.
Currently, undoubtedly the most famous Christian is the current pope, Francis.
Pope Francis has gained a lot of attention since his election to this esteemed role as leader of the Roman Catholic church by stressing the inclusivity of the love of God and, thus, the mandate that we take care of and love humans are in that group commonly referred to as “the least of these”. He has very pointedly seemed to refrain from suggesting that God is incapable of embracing even those who the Catholic Church has excluded. Thus, it came as somewhat a surprise and a disappointment to me when I read the following:
Pope: God will judge you on whether you cared for the earth. . .
“Pope Francis warned the rich and the powerful on Tuesday that God will judge them on whether they fed the poor and cared for the earth, his latest exhortation on the environment ahead o his eagerly awaited encyclical on climate change and its effects on the world’s most vulnerable. (St. Petersburgh Tribune, May 13, 2015, page 4. Article by Nicole Winfield)
I do not believe that Grace excludes those who may be attached or addiction to money and, thus, unable to allow themselves to share it
In this statement Pope Francis has reintroduced the concept of judgment and, punishment. Certainly there is a long tradition in the Jewish religion of an Old Testament God who gets very angry when we humans do not behave consistently like the God’s we are to emulate. In point of fact there is some possible scriptural basis for this view in the new testament. Jesus is, for example, reputed to have said that it will be more difficult for the rich man to enter into the kingdom of God than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle.” The are several possible interpretations of this passage:
1. Jesus was referring to the riches per se or our tendency as humans to look to money or possessions as our God; to use money as a way to avoid being with ourselves or to prove our self worth thus insuring that we are separated from ourselves, each other and our higher power/God/Universe?
2. Jesus was referring to the concept of a future heaven when He mentions the kingdom of God?
3. In the recording of this oral history the author interjected his own understanding of what Jesus might have said.
As I have often suggested, we humans seem nearly incapable of accepting that we are already enough; that we are worth loving as humans with all of possibilities of doing good or harming ourselves or others. It is true that we use things, belief systems, sex, alcohol, drugs or power to prove our worth thereby keeping distant from ourselves and thus others When we are attached to any of these we cannot enjoy the connection which fills the avoids and which assures us that we are enough; we are deserving of love and acceptance.
If we truly wanted the rich person to share their wealth we would embrace them. We would lovingly and kindly tell them that are enough.
Many of us have no problem accepting that we could be the person in jail, the person who has a drug addiction or a person for whatever reason ends up in the line at the soup kitchen. Some few would maintain that the only reason that one ends up homeless, other than a natural disaster, is lack of will or lack of responsibility. Most, however, seem to at least give lip service to the belief that any of us could end up being homeless or otherwise destitute. It would seem, however, that those of us who routinely attempt align ourselves with “the least of these” are quite unwilling to include the rich person.
Yet, my very simplistic understanding of the concept of Grace is that it includes all of us. I do think it is true that when we do not accept that we are enough/worthwhile we are separated from ourselves, others and our high power. That is not God’s punishment. That is me being unable to take what Soren Kierkegaard calls the leap of faith.
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