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Heaven
Virgin Mary statue said to have miraculous properties, photographer unknown, effects by MC
Heaven is a place where nothing… nothing ever happens.
If taken literally, this song lyric from the mid-1970s to early 90s pop group Talking Heads represents a view of heaven that was probably influenced by a particular New York City intellectual/arts scene.
Apart from that kind of Zen outlook, we find as many different ideas about the nature of heaven as there are people who’ve speculated on it.
Heaven is difficult to know about, because it seems that, if it truly does exist, one must pass on to experience its fullness.
The Hebrew Old Testament (OT) emphasizes a select few outstanding individuals who will see God “face to face.” And some passages indicate that God resides in a “high” place (Psalm 19:2-5). But the OT also says that the dead seem to, somewhat like the ancient Greek and Mesopotamian departed, meet their ancestors in an underworld (sheol).
The “heavens” (plural) in the OT is an inverted dome above the disc of the earth, separating the waters above and below (Genesis 1:6-9).
In the Christian New Testament the aim of Jesus’ ministry is to invite all of God’s chosen to join him “at the right hand of the Father” to enjoy a new vision of heaven, a heaven where anyone is welcome.
Several NT passages speak directly to “losing one’s life” in this transient world to gain a lasting, true and happy existence in heaven.
As for the constitution of heaven, Christ speaks in parables and metaphors because it’s too glorious to be described literally. Throughout history orthodox and unorthodox Christians have depicted countless types of heaven, some on the basis of mystical vision, others on the basis of speculation and others, perhaps, on the basis of some combination of mystical experience and cultural filters.
Thomas Aquinas depicted in stained glass flickr.com/photos/e3000/ derivative work: Beao via Wikipedia
Pseudo-Dionysus, or Dionysus the Areopagite, spoke of three levels of heaven, each inhabited by different kinds of spiritual beings. St. Thomas Aquinas notes that Dionysus’ view of heaven is supported by scripture. And the general Christian understanding is also scriptural. The NT says there are “many mansions” in God’s house (John 14:2).
For some saints and (often) ascetic mystics, heaven may be partially experienced as a blessed union with God, united as ‘husband and wife.’ This may involve beholding the “face” and being “illumined” by the glory of God to become like an angel (Matthew 22:30, Mark: 12:25), “neither male nor female” (Galatians 3:28).
For many good and honorable worldly persons, heaven is usually seen as a blissful, carefree environment where one reunites with deceased friends and loved ones.
The Islamic Koran speaks of a land of “flowing, crystal streams” that awaits God’s elect. Some criticize Islam for having a simplistic view of heaven, while others say that the Koranic view is allegorical.
Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism all affirm heavens, although not as permanent abodes. By and large, the heavens of Asian religion are taken as stepping stones for the reincarnating soul whose ultimate aim is to achieve the unity of atman-brahman (Hinduism), nirvana (Buddhism) and jin (liberation in Jainism).
Many schools of Buddhism don’t posit any soul whatsoever, only the illusion of a soul.This matters if one it to see heaven as a union of the personal, created self, with the creator. In Buddhism the self just disappears once one realizes it never was. What happens after – experientially speaking – depends on which Buddhist school one believes in.
Carl Jung by o admirador secreto via Flickr
Contemporary reports about the existence and character of heaven come from those who’ve undergone Near Death Experiences (NDE).
The Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung had a NDE but he didn’t experience heaven in the traditional Christian sense (Jung’s father was a Lutheran pastor). In his Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1963), Jung describes dying as something like “stepping out of a tight-fitting shoe.” He says that after seeing the Earth from space and feeling a deep serenity, Jung was resuscitated and unhappily returned to his body.
Some believe that aliens (ETs) are indistinguishable from angels. But most religious and spiritually-minded people do not uncritically believe that ET’s derive from heaven. The cosmic heavens of astronomical observations, they say, are of a far lower order than the heaven experienced by bona fide saints. Likewise, angels are often said to reside in an entirely different order of reality than the observable universe.
Heaven is also said to lie beyond and above the so-called ‘astral’ realms where New Age enthusiasts tell us that energy beings apparently exist. Some pro-ET figures like Rael believe that angels and aliens are highly similar, if not identical.
The celebrated mythographer, Joseph Campbell, argues in The Hero With a Thousand Faces (1968) that “heaven doesn’t exist” because it would take too long for the Virgin Mary, travelling at the speed of light, to get there. Here Campbell, despite his impressive erudition, entirely misses the point that heaven is a different reality, beyond and above the observable universe and its apparent laws of time and motion.
Related articles
- Heart Sutra (earthpages.wordpress.com)
- Jin (earthpages.wordpress.com)
- I Ching (earthpages.wordpress.com)
- Dad, the weed, and the NDE (thebelletolls.wordpress.com)
- No Minorities In Heaven? (truelogic.wordpress.com)
- “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven” (worryisuseless.wordpress.com)
- How Can I Go to Heaven (wiki.answers.com)
- Secrets to Life, the Shroud of Turin, and Heaven’s Mysteries Revealed (prweb.com)
- Why “Through Him With Him In Him”? (throughhimwithhiminhim.wordpress.com)
- What do you think of religion? (cozyblanketsnowflakerepetitioncompulsion.wordpress.com)
Predestination
predestination: Keith M Avery
Predestination is a theological idea that takes two main forms.
The first is the belief, articulated by St. Augustine, that some individuals are divinely predestined to reside in an eternal heaven. Many believe the following New Testament passage supports this view:
Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father” (Matthew 20:23, NIV).
The second, often called double predestination (sometimes dual predestination), is the belief that God predestines some for everlasting heaven and others for eternal hell.
A much debated question arises here as to whether God would actively endorse or, perhaps, passively permit eternal damnation. This question relates to other questions concerning God’s absolute goodness and power.
Gottschalk of Orbais, an unorthodox theologian of the 9th-century, met imprisonment for holding the view of double predestination.
Later, the Protestant reformer John Calvin made double predestination central to his theology, this being a major point of difference from Catholic theology.
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Tai Chi
Tai Chi (Chinese: “ridge beam”)
An ancient Chinese Taoist concept denoting the ultimate and supreme, consisting of yin and yang which in their dynamic combination create the five elements of metal, water, wood, fire and earth, in turn constituting All That Is.
Chinese Five Elements
Phenomenologically Tai Chi refers to an ultimate mental state or, at least, the highest and most sublime state that the Chinese sages at that time had experienced. We perhaps have no way of knowing whether or not this state is experientially equivalent to, say, the Christian concept of heaven.
The ancient Chinese martial art, often called Tai Chi, is more correctly Tai Chi Chuan.
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Vergil
Vergil or Virgil, properly, Publius Vergilius Maro (70-19 BCE).
Vergil was a Roman poet who studied studied philosophy in Rome before gaining status as a court poet.
His unfinished Aeneid was commissioned by the emperor Augustus to honor Rome’s origins.
Vergil’s grave was treated as a sacred site for centuries and from the Middle Ages up to recent times his Latin works became standard fare for educational institutions throughout Europe.
The poet Dante called Vergil, il nostro maggior poeta (“our greatest poet”)¹ and placed him prominently in his Divine Comedy as a guide leading him through several layers of Hell and upward to Purgatory.
And J. B. Trapp notes that
In the third canto of Purgatorio, Dante’s great mentor reproaches him for his faint trust:
Non credi tu me teco e ch’io ti guidi?²
But Vergil was replaced by Beatrice as Dante’s guide at the gates marking the entrance of Paradise. Quite simply, Vergil could not continue upwards due to his uncoverted pagan roots.
According to legend the apostle Paul wept over Vergil’s grave because he was so close to gaining the opportunity of becoming a Christian.
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¹M. C. Howatson, ed. The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature, Second Edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989, p. 595.
²J. B. Trapp, “The Grave of Vergil,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 47, (1984: 1-31), p. 1.
» Aeneas, Aeneid, Blessed Isles, Furies, Sibyl
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Winnowing
Winnowing
In Old Testament farming this is the separation of the edible grain from the chaff–that is, the inedible stalks and husks (Ruth 3:2).
The grain was either raked with a “winnowing fork” or thrown into the air where the breeze would blow away the chaff but not the heavier grain.
Similar agricultural methods are still used in the 21st century in the Near East, Africa and Asia.
The image of winnowing is found several times in the Old Testament, symbolizing the dispersion of Israel during the exile. It is also used as a metaphor for the judgment of Yahweh.
In the New Testament, which for many Christians fulfills the Old Testament, the image of winnowing designates a final judgment and eternal separation of good souls that enter heaven and evil souls that descend to hell.
Along these lines, John the Baptist await the Messiah (Jesus) who holds a winnowing fork (or fan) to clean the threshing floor, gather the good wheat and throw the useless chaff into the eternal fires of hell.
His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Luke 3:17).
Catholic teaching has to some degree elaborated on this ancient view of ‘salvation vs. damnation’ with the idea of purgatory.
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à Kempis, Thomas
à Kempis, Thomas (1379-1471) Also known as Thomas Hemerken, à Kempis was a German who entered an Augustinian convent in 1400.
In 1413 he was ordained. He spent the rest of his life as a religious, becoming superior of the convent.
He wrote several spiritual works but the most popular is the devotional classic Imitatio Christi (The Imitation of Christ).
This work became so influential that it rivaled the Bible in sales after Johann Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press in the mid-1400′s.
Reading The Imitation today, one cannot help but notice its medieval outlook. While clearly a milestone, times have changed. The pace of technological and psychological development during the last century has been faster than ever before in human history.
As with the Bible on which it is based, the sincere spiritual aspirant of the 21st century might find some of the advice in The Imitation a bit outdated and inappropriate to the conditions and demands of contemporary society.
Image Credit:
- “Poblet Gate.jpg” originally uploaded to flickr.com by Alan Bell » http://www.flickr.com/photos/37935394@N00/373278878/, Creative Commons License (see details)
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Agape
Agape In literary circles the Greek term agapē (Latin: caritas) refers to the ideal of universal love, particularly, charitable Christian love among brothers and sisters of the human family.
As C. S. Lewis suggests in The Four Loves (1960), this is distinct from matrimonial, emotional, passionate-erotic and friendly love.
For many Christians, agape also refers to the institution of the Eucharist by Jesus Christ.
The Eucharist is often connected with the Jewish Passover meal, an event signifying, among other things, fellowship.
Christians tend to stress that the Eucharistic meal is not just a celebration of fellowship. For Christians believing in the Eucharist, agape is a “love feast” that involves a genuine participation in the life, death and resurrection of Christ. The rite is said to pierce through time and space and be sanctified from heaven.
For believers, the Eucharist is not a mere symbol nor memorial; rather, the host is essentially if not visibly transformed into the body and blood of Christ.
The roots of the Eucharist are traceable to ancient Greece and Rome, where it was believed that deceased ancestors partook of food and drink offered at funeral feasts.
Somewhat like the Eucharist, this was not just a memorial feast but an active celebration of the living and the dead. » Consubstantiation, Eros, Philia, Transubstantiation,
Image Credit:
- “Painting of a feast / Early Christian catacombs / Paleochristian art.
Fresco of female figure holding chalice in the Agape Feast. Catacomb of Saints Pietro e Marcellino (Saints Marcellinus and Peter), Via Labicana, Rome, Itally” » http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Agape_feast_03.jpg
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Agnosticism
Agnosticism In the strongest sense of the term agnosticism refers to the belief that we can never know if God, the afterlife, heaven and hell exist because all human experiences, including internal ones, are said to be subjective.
By way of contrast ‘weak agnosticism’ maintains a “maybe, maybe not” position that, until some kind of definitive proof comes along, neither denies nor affirms God, the afterlife, heaven and hell.
The word stems from the 19th-century British scientist Thomas H. Huxley who coined it from the Greek (a = not, not with) + (Gnosis = knowledge). Huxley’s original use of the term referred to only being able to gain knowledge of the so-called empirical world. » Atheism, Idealism, Theism
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Aliens and Extraterrestrials (ETs)
Aliens and Extraterrestrials (ETs)
The belief in aliens from other planets dates back for centuries, as does their alleged sightings.
47,000 year-old rock carvings in the Hunan province of China could be interpreted as evidence for UFOs.
Airborne “fire circles” were reported to the Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose III (1504-1450 BCE).
In the Middle Ages an English abbot and several monks were alarmed when they saw
‘…a flat, round, shining silver discus’ soar over their abbey. And in 1733 a certain ‘Mr. Cracker’ and ‘another gentleman…about 15 miles north of where I saw it’ spied a UFO with color like ‘burnished, or new washed silver.’ It sped ‘like a star falling…but it had a body much larger.’”
Source: Mysteries of the Unexplained (Readers Digest, 1992, p. 209).
Some speculate that the burning force emanating from the Hindu god Siva’s third eye could be an ancient depiction of an alien death-ray, not unlike the lightning bolts of Zeus and Jupiter.
Biblical accounts of the “pillar of light” in the sky that lead Moses out of Egypt are sometimes taken as evidence of alien visitation.
Others maintain that religious miracles stem from an entirely different source than our physical universe and are qualitatively different than ET phenomena.
Along these lines, Keith Thompson in Angels and Aliens (Fawcett: 1991) asks whether angels and aliens belong within the same ontological category.
Today, media coverage on aliens has reached a new level. New theories and claims are appearing on TV and the internet. And ETs are a significant part of pop culture.
ET theorists variously envision aliens as saviors or destroyers of humanity.
Omnec Onec says she is a 246 year-old extraterrestrial raised on Venus who in 1955 traveled to Earth to spread the message of brotherhood and love. Meanwhile some Biblical fundamentalists see all aliens in terms of demonic deception.
It’s been suggested that psi abilities† increase with exposure to aliens. If so, the question remains as to whether such abilities would be used for good or ill. » Alien, Angels, “ET’s, UFO’s and the Psychology of Belief,” Heaven, Possession
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† Along with phenomena such as ‘missing time,’ the apparent forgetting of whole series’ of events and returning to lucidity as if no time had passed.
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Ancestor Cults
Ancestor Cults [ancestor, from Latin antecessor, from ante, before + cedere, to go]
Various traditions around the world venerate and pray to deceased ancestors.
These so-called ‘cults’ believe that familial spirits come to aid in daily life by bestowing spiritual power, protection, wisdom and even practical guidance through individuals acting as mediums.
With roots in Africa, China, Korea, Taiwan, and Japan, ancestor veneration especially appears in folk religions. Ritual is often present.
In Africa ancestors are said to protect living relatives from witches and voodoo curses.
In Asia ancestor veneration is found in varying degrees of importance in Confucianism, Taoism, Shinto and Buddhism.
In China, the graves of ancestors are meticulously kept, despite former Marxist and Communist attempts to squelch out other spiritual practices.
In North American Native religions, the ongoing presence of the dead is taken to be equally as important as the ongoing presence of the living.
Western culture tends to view this as odd and some religious groups deplore it as Satanic, probably because of their focus on the trappings and trends of everyday life.
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