Heaven is perhaps the ideal existence we spend our lives trying to define and to seek - one characterized by peace, satisfaction, joy, equilibrium etc. While this may sound like a simple definition, the truth is one could spend several lifetimes searching for the meaning of any one of those words. This definition of heaven allows us to look at purgatory as a positive feedback loop of self-deception - where one convinces oneself, falsely, that one has discovered the path to the ideal, to heaven or worse still that one has reached that destination. What often follows such a phase is the descent into hell - a crushing realization of reality and a tidal wave of self loathing that follows in its wake. Painful, yes. Inescapable, not at all.
Just a thought...
2 comments:
Dude..sorry for sounding didactic -
I think the problem you allude to can be dealt with, decisively (as you do too...as your words indicate) by not placing a premium on the 'outcome'...heaven or hell.
The idea is to break loops...and to keep the journey open ended, for we all know that it we have only a limited time before entropy conquers our biology :)
I always liked the idea of Hell put forth in the movie What Dreams May Come. Robin Williams plays the main character, who dies early on. When his wife suicides, he wants to find her and is told she's in Hell. He flips out (understandably) and is told that Hell isn't a judgment from someone else. It's getting so caught up in one's own crap that it becomes the reality one lives and experiences.
Definitely painful. And definitely NOT inescapable.
Sean
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