We’re not dead!
If you knew, really knew, that your past loved ones were just around the corner and you’d see them very soon, wouldn’t that change everything? Then let it. Rest assured that in the love of the Universe they are now alive, well, and—perhaps surprising to you—very busy. Their wish for you is to be the same on all three counts. They will prepare a seat for you at your homecoming banquet that will be quite unimaginably grand, yet for now there’s a much greater celebration at hand: your life. Until then, know there’s nothing to fear in death, least of all a devil in hell, which just so happens to be what the dead want to tell you about next.
There’s no such thing as a devil or hell
There has perhaps been no lie greater than the one told of a devil awaiting sinners in hell. Any good it may have done in preventing people from sinning has surely been offset by the mass manipulation it makes possible, extracting subservience from what become confused, unhappy lives filled with regret, guilt, and fear.
Of course, for sinners discovering the lie while crossing the threshold between worlds, instead of having to meet their maker—or worse, a big red devil—it makes possible a delirium of joy that is quite unrivaled. They are elated to find that not only are they immortal, but they’re approved of, appreciated, forgiven, and adored, just exactly as they are. If only, they solemnly think to themselves, I’d known this while living … how different things might have been.
Fortunately, they see clearly that eternity still beckons and happy opportunities abound and maybe, just maybe, they can take what they’ve discovered and share it with those who are still living.
We were ready
When the caterpillar awakens as a butterfly, the young sparrow finally leaps from her nest, or the infant gasps its first breath, three things happen:
There is relief.
There is joy.
There is expansion.
And it’s plainly obvious, given this trifecta of gains that have come from a prolonged physical struggle, that there ain’t no going back, nor would there ever be any desire to do so. And the same is true of the most sublime of all transitions: passing from the physical into the nonphysical, the condition called “death.” And while the many stories reported the world over of “near-death experiences” are entirely true, they uniquely involve life adventurers who found themselves in the rather unusual position of having expanded choices that included an immediate return to the “living” as who they recently were. More often, however, the transitional opportunity, however accidental, bizarre, or forced upon them it may have appeared, was created because they were unequivocally ready to go.
You’re not ready
Being dead may be cool, but cooler still is to be alive in the jungles of time and space—which is why you are.
You came from “dead” and back to dead you’ll return, and on the whole, you’ll spend far more time “there” than “here.” Yet while “there,” your main focus will be to hone and perfect the art of getting “into body” (as opposed to your celebrated “out-of-body” experiences).
And now, as you read these words, for just a little while longer it’s still your turn on stage. Yet because all this may be challenging for you to believe, perhaps you’re skeptical. Maybe you’re unconvinced that today is packed with meaning and that you are who and where you most wanted to be. That you’re the magician of your life, master of the illusions that dance around you, and an intergalactic tidal wave of love and pure energy. After all, sometimes finding a parking space seems to be asking for too much, while losing weight, paying off debt, and finding Mr. Right can sometimes seem like a cruel joke. No wonder the living love to lament, “I plan, God laughs.”
We’re sorry for any pain we caused
Not only do those who adventure into the jungles inevitably get hurt, but invariably it’s by someone else!
And more often than not, a loved one; sometimes even the one they loved most.
When the time comes, of course, you will learn that you sometimes hurt others as much as they hurt you. And that the ones you hurt were often the ones you loved the most. So naturally, from the lofty views of the afterlife where deep, natural empathy puts you in the shoes of those you hurt, you’re overcome by wanting to share the truths that will ease their burden, change their focus, and send them on a happier way. The dead are truly sorry for any pain they may have caused in your life.
Your dreams really can come true
As good as you now are at deducing truth, consider: if life was just about surviving, then how would you explain imagination? If it was just about sacrifice, then how would you explain desire? If it was just about thinking, reflection, and the ethereal, then how would you explain the physical world? Quite the case, eh?
Finally, if you are the eyes and ears of God, couldn’t you, wouldn’t you, dream up a place to rival Pandora in the movie Avatar? A place of adventure and intrigue, bursting with harmony and love, where you could communicate with the animals and be one with the planet as you learn to master the art of mind over matter? You would! You so would!
“Heaven” is going to blow your mind!
That white light you hear of people seeing during near-death experiences? It’s love. Seen by “tired” eyes. You sense both that it emanates from intelligence and that in some uncanny way it is that intelligence. You get that it knows you far better than you know yourself; it understands you; it adores you. Like a doting parent, times infinity.
This white light is as close to God as any of us can get before finally knowing we are God.
This recognition, being so understood, is “heaven.” You also grasp that it was your misunderstandings that created the disconnect in the life you just left, preventing you from feeling what was there all along. This white light is as close to God as any of us can get before finally knowing we are God. In it you will marvel.
Life is more than fair
Understanding is the elixir of life, the soothing balm that helps dry tears and erase wrinkles. No one’s judged for their shortsightedness, but they are severely handicapped by it, whereas the enlightened one, far from being your stereotypical hermit, can run faster, jump higher, and has more friends, laughter, and abundance. Hence the joyful urgency the “dead” have for reaching you with insights that reassure and inspire.
The sage doesn’t feel sorrow in parting, whether it precedes days or lifetimes of absence. He knows that to think of someone is to be with him, while the space created will make possible new adventures. He knows that any separation the eyes perceive is a lie. The prophet does not feel anger at betrayal. She saw it coming. She understands that for some, the need for recognition can be greater than their desire to serve. And she knows that her own happiness and greatest mission do not depend on the behavior of others. The mystic does not blame or find fault in others because, seeing himself as a Creator in a world of illusions where nothing happens by chance, he knows that all pain is self-inflicted and that life is fair, even when circumstances are not.
Your “old” pets are as crazy as ever
Would you have thought less?
If things like cancer actually impart life-changing gifts, if setbacks are really setups for greatness, and if even “death” is actually a rendezvous point for loved ones, surely you’d guess that the Divine’s idea for its own furry companions would be no less stunning—God particles themselves, lit up in love, best friends for life and beyond?
Yes, and more. Not only are you loved through the packages and bundles that are Fido and Fifi, but their presence in your life is just one more invitation for you to love as you could not have loved otherwise, even as they teach you lessons of compassion, tolerance, patience, or whatever else you stand in need of. Not that they’re there to test you, but as you create your own tests through misunderstandings, these friends can help you weather the storm.
Losses are only devastating when you think they’re permanent. They never are.
Love is the way; truth is the path
No one knows how it all began, not even the dead, but everyone knows that it did.
Actually, no one knows much of anything at all, except:
- Everything is God,
- Thoughts become things, and
- Love is all.
Concerning love: not the kind that’s given or received by others. Although beautiful, that kind of love is triggered by conditions. It’s an emotion that requires stimulus and reason.
Instead, a love:
- That’s always, everywhere on,
- With a benevolence that does not need approval or judgment to be shared,
- Bearing gifts that do not need to be earned or deserved, and
- Consisting of a uniting, healing, intelligent superjoy.
No one knows how it all began, not even the dead, but everyone knows that it did.
Yet this is a love that often blurs into obscurity or goes unnoticed through folly, chaos, or naïveté. A love, therefore, that must be known to be felt. And its “unknowing” is a consequence of living in the hypnotic jungles of time and space, which, not so accidentally, makes possible the journey from knowing into unknowing into knowing that you call “life.”
