taijasi
Gnōthi seauton
Yes, I was just looking this up (and listening to it) the other day, George being my favorite Beatle.Dondi said:Actually I'm partial to George Harrison's The Inner Light
As for the Biblical discussion of hell, I simply agree with lunamoth where she says, "I believe that when the Bible says that we will all be baptized with fire this means that our sin will be burned away so that all will be left is that which is pure and can merge with God's Love. I don't think that this baptism is reserved only for Christians, but is for all."
The only real hell is this one, here on earth, inasmuch as we are farthest away from God ... literally, as we inhabit the flesh. In the afterlife, I think we draw near, but first (and this is the important part), we must face the world on the other side of death through the lens of belief that we have formed during earthly living. And while this may sound like a statement of greatest subjectivity and relativity ... if you think deeper, it would only be possible if there was/is a truly objective world - a life after death, where there is one set of rules which applies to all!
My belief in this objectivity (wherein our experiences are reaped exactly in accordance as we have sown) allows me to take to heart and also into meditative contemplation the account as provided in the Bardo Thodol, the Book of Liberation through Hearing in the Intermediate State ... which is not unlike the Book of Coming Forth By Day (Egyptian "Book of the Dead," which is of course, really a book for the dead, as is the Tibetan book of the same name).
And neither of these accounts, if we study them objectively, differs in basic principles from the teachings of Christ Jesus. The details may seem quite dissimilar, and this must needs be the case, yet Jesus sought to prepare us in much that same way that the texts I mention do. I grew up with a clairvoyant sister. She witnessed, directly, my Grandfather at his own funeral ... when she was 4 (and I was 9). This past Saturday, I attended my Grandmother's funeral, and my sister could not make it - largely because she was not comfortable dealing with my Grandmother, who has already visited her at least once.
So you see, this question is more than a purely philosophical one for me, it is quite poignant, and I even confirmed my intuitive knowledge a few minutes before the funeral by asking my cousin if she, too, was "extra perceptive," as I phrased it. She didn't need me to explain; she understood perfectly, and nodded. Not so much as my sister, but she does sometimes see.
I base my faith not simply upon these eyewitness testimonies, for I have been aware of the presence of the deceased on many, many occasions throughout my life. I think we all have. We can sense them usually with that "hair rising on the back of the neck" sensation. To be honest, I have worked quite hard at tuning this out - and I believe that this kind of receptivity represents primarily the lowest, densest, slowest, most material vibrations of a world which is as material as this one ... yet which is also pervaded by a greater measure & quality of what we call "Spirit" - speaking Universally, and not purely in terms of the "Holy" Spirit. Holy it is, but it is diffuse(d), and is in principle all-pervasive ... though UNREALIZED (key word) in the darkness of the next world - equally (even more so) as it is in this one.
Please forgive my usual verbosity, but I trying to meet on neutral ground, as I think these ideas are not in the least incompatible with an overall Christian framework. I do not mean the slightest offense, but I would ask - what profit us to maintain a conception, image, vision, or focus upon "hell?"
To drive my point home, I would just say this - IF God offered us the chance, through some strange miracle and inexplicable act of mercy ... IF He offered us the chance to once and for all abolish a supposedly-existing "eternal hell," would we even allow Him to do so? Or could there be something that would hold us back? What if, in addition, God said, "TRUST ME, all will be well. Things are well in hand. You do not need to concern or burden yourself with Justice, and the notion of reward. Leave that to ME." What if.
After all, this is not a blank check to do as we will in this world, or in any, just as being "born again" does not relinquish us of our Responsibility - but rather, increases it. We are our Brother's Keeper, yet I would agree that only Christ may go after the "one lost lamb." We ourselves have neither the power nor the responsibility of tackling this problem. In truth, we can save only ourselves. But to think that our actions, our thoughts, our prayers, our intentions and our aspirations do not strongly affect all those around us - in this world and the next - is to live blindly.
I do not say that hell does not exist, I only say that I think it is the natural and inevitable result of our actions during earthly life. The very wicked will indeed undergo a great deal of torment, yet it is their own "demons" which they will face - not some type of externally imposed punishment, which only a wicked and spiteful god would be capable of administering. The True God is the God of Love, eternally abiding within the Heart of Love, AS the Heart of Love ...
And so, even amidst the utmost torment and hellish suffering (in ANY world), I believe with every fiber of my being that anyone who earnestly cries out, looking for Good and for Redemption - under whatever name or expression s/he has known it during earthly life - in just such measure and capacity as this person has for receiving the Love of God (ahhh, have we built this vessel, this Chalice, this CUP, this Grail, during our years UPON the earth?) ... in that capacity shall s/he be filled with God's mercy and grace in the beyond. IF this enables the person experiencing torment to REALIZE and RECOGNIZE that s/he is, after all, only facing what he or she has generated - then that suffering might not be ended immediately & completely, but it shall be lessened, and his/her capacity & strength to press on shall be augmented tenfold, a hundredfold, even a thousandfold!
My apologies for the lengthy rambling. Again, I am attempting to be neutral and respectful of views, yet my hope is to show that this kind of understanding is in every way - compatible with the idea of a Loving, Parent-God ("Our Father in Heaven"), as also with a faith and a belief in the Love of Christ Jesus and in the Teachings of the Holy Bible. Forgive me for not quoting Scripture ad infinitum to support all of this ... I have taken a different approach instead.
In Love and Light,
taijasi