Oh, you can go to BLEEP!
I even do it myself. I see something horrible, and I wish a nasty afterlife on the person. Sometimes, you just want to believe the person is somehow, in some way going to pay for what they do. However, I don't believe it will happen.
I think afterlifes are a hedge against the possibility of death or eternity being something we don't want. We fear the idea that we may at some point close our eyes and not be able to open them again, that there will be absolutely nothing.
I find the idea of actually WANTING to damn people, WANTING to believe that they're going to rot in hell or suffer a bad afterlife or anything like that, morally reprehensible. You want something bad to happen to someone, fine. Sit there and wish an anvil would fall on their head. But wishing someone to suffer FOR ETERNITY .. ugh. If we are the Universe, and what we wants reverberates into the Universe, us wishing any part of the Divine ill for eternity is wishing ourselves to suffer as well.
If there is such a thing as hell, or karma and reincarnation, or anything like that, the Divine will handle it. What matters is living THIS life as best as we can.
Questions:
Why do we wish bad lives/afterlives on people? Because we're not very nice. Only we like to think we're nice, so we dump it on the Divine and then claim it's out of our hands. But mostly because we're not very nice people. There's always been more interest in Hell than Heaven .. in punishment rather than reward. Reward bores us. Punishment for people we don't like, though .. that's interesting!
As far as controlling actions .. that's why we have laws and moral suasion. Sure, you can do something I don't like .. then I get to not like you, tell you it was bad, whatever seems appropriate. Wishing someone to suffer for all eternity for doing something I don't like seems a bit overkill .. who am I to get the power to do that to someone?
Controlling the afterlife .. I think most people confident of going to Heaven tend to be jerks, honestly. There's a feeling of entitlement. And for Hell, people convinced they're going THERE have nothing left to lose .. nothing. It's a control mechanism, but once it snaps, everything goes out the window. When we use karma, we start paralizing ourselves for the fear of what might happen from what we do. (By karma, I'm using the Western notion .. I don't understand it in context well enough to make a statement). And when we assume that "karma" will take care of a person, we don't necessarily protect ourselves or pay attention to our own actions.
In short, we need to take responsibility for our own lives and our own communities. We can't let people go because karma will get them or they'll go to hell, and we can't do what we want in this life in the comfort that we'll be rewarded in heaven later. Life is our responsibility. Now we have to live it.
I think afterlifes are a hedge against the possibility of death or eternity being something we don't want. We fear the idea that we may at some point close our eyes and not be able to open them again, that there will be absolutely nothing.
I find the idea of actually WANTING to damn people, WANTING to believe that they're going to rot in hell or suffer a bad afterlife or anything like that, morally reprehensible. You want something bad to happen to someone, fine. Sit there and wish an anvil would fall on their head. But wishing someone to suffer FOR ETERNITY .. ugh. If we are the Universe, and what we wants reverberates into the Universe, us wishing any part of the Divine ill for eternity is wishing ourselves to suffer as well.
If there is such a thing as hell, or karma and reincarnation, or anything like that, the Divine will handle it. What matters is living THIS life as best as we can.
Questions:
Why do we wish bad lives/afterlives on people? Because we're not very nice. Only we like to think we're nice, so we dump it on the Divine and then claim it's out of our hands. But mostly because we're not very nice people. There's always been more interest in Hell than Heaven .. in punishment rather than reward. Reward bores us. Punishment for people we don't like, though .. that's interesting!
As far as controlling actions .. that's why we have laws and moral suasion. Sure, you can do something I don't like .. then I get to not like you, tell you it was bad, whatever seems appropriate. Wishing someone to suffer for all eternity for doing something I don't like seems a bit overkill .. who am I to get the power to do that to someone?
Controlling the afterlife .. I think most people confident of going to Heaven tend to be jerks, honestly. There's a feeling of entitlement. And for Hell, people convinced they're going THERE have nothing left to lose .. nothing. It's a control mechanism, but once it snaps, everything goes out the window. When we use karma, we start paralizing ourselves for the fear of what might happen from what we do. (By karma, I'm using the Western notion .. I don't understand it in context well enough to make a statement). And when we assume that "karma" will take care of a person, we don't necessarily protect ourselves or pay attention to our own actions.
In short, we need to take responsibility for our own lives and our own communities. We can't let people go because karma will get them or they'll go to hell, and we can't do what we want in this life in the comfort that we'll be rewarded in heaven later. Life is our responsibility. Now we have to live it.
posted by Vieva | 1:26 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home