Where is "Heaven" and "Hell"?

[Omar B]

Wait a minute, has anyone ever seen Omar, Jesus and Elvis all together in the same place?
Oh my God.
IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW!

Yes they have! I recently had lunch with Jesus and Elvis. Jesus being a Mexican who owes me $20 (It's pronounced Hey-zoos) and Elvis being a Romanian drunk.

I look like the messiah? It's funny you say that because I took that picture to show my aunt that I had shaved and cut my hair, shoulda seen me before, I was actually asked to pose for a painting as Jesus 2 summers ago.

 

[seasoned]

I believe heaven and hell exist in another dimension. Short and sweet but my .02.

Short and sweet was the way it was meant to be, I think. Take it or leave it, our choice.

2 and 2 make 4.

 

[seasoned]

I think part of our various belief systems come from primitive needs to explain things. You'd find a partially buried corpse in a state of decay and think something bad had happened, and come up with evil spirits living 'below' who inflict pain and agony. You'd see lightning and think the 'gods' were showing their anger, or notice that things like the sun would rise and fall consistently and think someone smart was behind it all. Over eons, like anything else, gods and demons were consolidated and downsized until you get monotheistic religions with 1 key god and 1 key 'devil', and as customs and beliefs mix, hades splits into heaven and hell, the departed no longer party in a pasture but walk with god in his astral estate, and somewhere somehow someone makes spaghetti fly.

All of our varied belief systems however share 1 key component, without which they fall apart into illogical chaos: Belief. There is no proof Jesus existed. None. Yet 2.2B people believe. I've never ever seen a person with more than 2 arms, yet 1.2B Hindus have a regiment's worth of gods with 4 or more. They "Believe". Some believe that "God" has hand picked his favored, and no matter what they will be 'saved'. Others believe that ones acts and actions in this life determine their place in the next. Some believe in a system of plusses and minuses that determine if one returns as a person or a bug. Again, it's all 'belief'. No one's ever returned with Gods black book. Some claim to have been dropped off by aliens after some heavy drinking and strange probing, but no one believes them.

Some of us believe aliens are the gods our ancestors saw. Some of us believe they are nuts. It's all belief.

Me, I believe there's something out there beyond what I know...but I don't know what it is.

I think it is important to believe in something beyond ourselves and anything the world has to offer. If there is nothing there then it is the biggest hoax every perpetrated.

 

[72ronin]

Well, there will always be speculation as to what something unknown is.. untill it is known.

Take the anomolies discovered in space for egsample.
As soon as something moves its a UFO lol yet after some time its decifered etc
For egsample "Bucky balls" LOL (NASA terminology people, not mine lol)
Thats those electro magnetic.. things lol that were apparently first discovered during the sts mission and the tether incident and so forth.

Getting back to the subject, look, i see it as a simple thing. Like the Bee and the flower, they cannot exist without each other can they, so they are one. this is diversity within balance, perhaps two from one and soforth.

So its just that simple you see, we break the balance and we are HISTORY..

 

[Xue Sheng]

Attributed to Basho (1644 – 1694) and Hakuin (1686–1769 or 1685–1768)

Basho

Once there was a general of the imperial Japanese army, a brave samurai, who wanted to learn the essence of Zen. He sought out the advice of the renowned Zen Master Matsuo Bashô who lived alone in a mountain hut. He approached the master as he was meditating on a rock, and asked him, “What is the difference between heaven and hell, honorable master?”
Bashô stood up and spat in the general’s face. The general was astonished and overcome with rage. He unsheathed his long sword and raised it, determined to slice off the Zen Master’s head.
Bashô lifted his finger and said, “You are now at the gates of hell.” The general’s face relaxed and he lowered the sword. Bashô continued, “You are now at the gates of heaven.” The general became a disciple of master Bashô and eventually achieved true awakening.

Hakuin

"The Gates of Heaven."
Nobushige, a great samurai, sought out Hakuin and asked: "Is there really a heaven and a hell?"
"Who are you?" asked Hakuin.
"I am a samurai," Nobushige replied.
"You?" Hakuin snorted. "What lord would employ you? You look like a begger!"
A furious Nobushige began to draw his sword, but then Hakuin said, "Here open the gates of hell."
Nobushige took the point, sheathed his sword, and bowed.
"Here open the gates of heaven," said Hakuin.

 

[Big Don]

Over there.

 

[Xue Sheng]

Here it is and you can probably get it at FYE or on Amazon

 

[elder999]

Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation,nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you now."
Luke 17:20-21

There is no hell, save that we make here on earth....

 

[Omar B]

Always love the Sabbath references.

 

[terryl965]

Ok I am shootin gfrom the hip here:

Heaven from what I have been told is located 12 miles south of Willy Wonka's Chocolate factory and you need to bring your own wipes because they refuse to supply them anymore before you enter due to all the chocolate mess they are seeing.

Hell is a bit more tricky to get too: you need to make a north turn in Atlanta until you hit the I-5 then head N.E. a quarter miles and slam on the gas, go down the sewer drain and head north once more until you reach the door with the big knockers and hit them three times and a sexy woman in red undies will let you in if you bee bad. The sad news is if you are good it will cost you two childern or grandchildern souls to get in.

I realy hope this helped some of you and you can really see why it is so confusing to everyone.

 

[Cryozombie]

You all piss me off with this Hell doesn't exist thing.

It's in New Jersey. Duh.

 

[Carol]

You all piss me off with this Hell doesn't exist thing.

It's in New Jersey. Duh.

No it isn't. Hell is in Michigan, or maybe Norway.


Heaven and Nirvana are nowhere to be found...

...but Paradise seems to be everywhere.

 

[Xue Sheng]

No it isn't. Hell is in Michigan, or maybe Norway.

You're only saying that because you can't find maglites there

 

[Carol]

You're only saying that because you can't find maglites there

Nah. They're up North. I like North. Plus, I concealed-carry my own maglites for just such an emergency

 

[xJOHNx]

As Omar Khayyam said it in 1100 in his Rubaiyat:

I sent my Soul through the Invisible,
Some letter of that After-life to spell:
And by and by my Soul return'd to me,
And answer'd "I Myself am Heav'n and Hell"

This particular piece made a big impression on me.

 

[thardey]

Not to be a downer, but this is a question I have spent some time considering, so for a serious answer, see below. For the rest, keep the jokes coming, I am enjoying those too!


As for "heaven and hell:" to be specific, I'll limit my thoughts to the heaven and hell of the Bible. Mostly because that is what is thought of today when people say "Heaven and hell." That is, they don't think of the Greek Hades surrounded by the River Styx, or the Egyptian afterlife, or whatever.

As to those who insist "War is hell" I'm inclined to agree, though I have been fortunate enough to have not experienced that. But what I am talking about here is the place of eternal damnation, in the Bible referred to as the "Second death." That is, events before the 1st death (our natural death) cannot by this definition be hell, as terrible as the situation may be.

In the Bible, there are several terms understood to mean "Hell." The most literal is "Gehenna" which was a garbage dump just outside of the walls of Jerusalem. So, for the non-supernatural readers, there you go. Find a garbage dump, and you have found hell.

To be more esoteric, Gehenna is a place for useless things to be removed and destroyed, so they don't ruin useful things.

Another term is "The Grave" (Hebrew: Sheol, Greek: Hades). Obviously, this is in the ground, or in the sea. (Thus: Down!) Even ashes eventually settle into the ground somewhere. Jesus told a parable about Lazarus going to hades, where he met Abraham, and the rich man. Later letters in the New Testament refer to saints "sleeping." It is a waiting place, some believe you are consciously waiting, some (myself among them) believe you are sleeping. But literally, "Hades" is a hole in the ground where you decompose until the final judgement. (Unless you get eaten, or something. The physical process of decomposition/fertilizer/food is neither here nor there.)

The idea of going straight to heaven and watching over others in their life came later, with the Catholic ideas, but since I'm not Catholic, I won't comment on those.

The "Hell" of the second death is described as a lake of Fire, which is the place of punishment for Satan and his followers. It doesn't exist yet, so there's no point in looking.

As for Heaven -- it often means the same as "sky" or "air" so: up! Technically, that idea of heaven ends with the atmosphere.

Esoterically, it is the home of God. Since God created the heavens and the earth, he would have been around before the big bang, or at least outside of it. So, I would say that the abode of God is "outside" of the space-time continuum as we know it, and not a function of any alternate reality, or parallel universe.

Of course, again the "Heaven" where we are supposed to want to spend our afterlife doesn't exist yet, either. That is introduced in Revelation just after the lake of fire. It's called "The New Jerusalem." So there's no point in looking for that yet, either.

 

[Bruno@MT]

[yt]2WQKtbOJ2EI[/yt]

 

[The Last Legionary]

Hell, MI 48169
Hell, Riverside, CA

Heaven not found.

 

[Vulcan]

Tein (heaven) is everywhere as well as inside of us. It also encompasses hell, as is is the body of all things present, past, and future.


Think in the principles of quantum physics if you are an atheist. As above, so below.


There is no castle in the clouds with a golden gate guarded by St. Peter. Even the Christian Bible itself does not contain such a myth.

 

[Vulcan]

There is no castle in the clouds with a golden gate guarded by St. Peter. Even the Christian Bible itself does not contain such a myth.


There is no lake of fire with a pit of eternal torment guarded by a fallen angel named Lucifer. This is also a Western myth. The Eastern versions of hell are even more fanciful, and also myths.