Heaven and hell

"It is not a human universe you are facing, and that is why your notions of Heaven and Hell are so incorrect, so limited and really pathetic."

“In many religious teachings, Heaven is kind of a reward for doing well in life, for believing in God, for following God’s edicts and the edicts of religion—a kind of future reward, a better life awaiting you, but a life that can only be achieved by meeting certain expectations and requirements. And Hell has been created as a kind of place of punishment. For those who fail to meet these requirements and expectations, they go to a much worse place, a place even worse that their physical existence, a Hell which in some traditions has been described in some detail. So Heaven is the reward and Hell is a punishment. So how can there be this notion of Hell if God is all merciful and all loving? This, of course, has led to a rejection of religion and for some, a rejection of God altogether.”

"It must be understood that your role and position in the world is not simply to garner a future reward. If you are a good person, you go to heaven; if you are a bad person, you go to hell. That is not the truth at all. That is what people think because they want to be rewarded for good behavior, and they want to punish others for their bad behavior."

"People imagine heaven to be kind of a perfect version of their physical reality without realizing that should such a reality ever be created, it would be hell itself. To be in a beautiful place where you could never be happy would be a kind of ongoing hell."

“Heaven and Hell is kind of a use, or a manipulation, of this deeper awareness, the awareness of one’s suffering and the awareness that one is connected to a greater life, somewhere, somehow.”

“You imagine Heaven to meet your current needs and expectations and you fear Hell and you imagine Hell as a kind of further fall from grace, a worse condition. And of course, these imagined Heavens and imagined Hells are used by institutions and traditions to try to corral people into good behavior, to try to even inspire good work, good citizenship or adherence to the religious principles or to the religious organization itself.”

"The whole notion of Heaven and Hell is built around the belief and the assumptions about the old God."

"You will have to let go of your notions of Heaven and Hell and your belief in a final Judgment Day and all of these things, for they will not fit with the greater reality that you are entering."

See also

Heaven

Hell

Further study

• The Pure Religion: Heaven and Hell