Heaven Is Not A Destination
Heaven is a place we create through the practice of forgiveness.
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I live a life of relative peace. I don’t concern myself with the end of my life. I am only concerned with the present. I order my actions and my intentions with a prime directive: err on the side of peace. I am certain that I will make mistakes today. So if I’m going to make mistakes, I will at the very least, err on the side of peace.
Today is Sunday. Sunday is usually a very peaceful day for me. There is nothing to do, nowhere to go, a day to relax. I could choose to stir up a pot of drama. It’s not that difficult really. But I’ve seen so much drama in the past that now I can see it coming a mile away. And when I do, I consider my options. Every time I have done so, I come back to the same resting place: err on the side of peace.
I don’t try to win arguments or make other people suffer to get what I want. I guess I’m a bit more passive in that respect. I think in terms of math and logic. It’s not possible to be happy while making others unhappy. I can’t even make other people unhappy. I can inconvenience them, sure. But ultimately, we all must decide to be happy. It’s difficult for me to be in the same room and be happy if I’ve gone out of my way to make someone else unhappy.
1 x -1 = -1
We are all doing the best we can. We can strive to do better, sure. But after we’ve done what we’ve done, that’s it. We can’t go back and do better than we did at that very moment. We can only learn from our mistakes and do better by them next time.
But that’s not what I see in the news or in social media. Out there, I see something else. I see a transactional world filled with punishment and reward. So I’m channeling Albert Einstein today. He has been quoted as follows:
If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed. The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge. (emphasis mine)
