WCD#02:

This Is a Big Topic

Hell and damnation.

Whew. Just saying it feels huge and important.

I read that the pope may or may not have said that there is no hell.

Wow, that’s big, too.

I was raised in the Roman Catholic tradition, so I know what it can be like. Mine was not the strictest sense of the upbringing. I mean I never had nuns hitting the backs of my hand in a private school or anything…

And I do not currently adhere to a Roman Catholic life, though my religious childhood is still a part of me. It’s also been a large filter or lens through which I have viewed the world and religion in a general way.

But I have explored and have enough understanding of various religions and spiritual traditions to understand a thing or two about hell.

So I can tell you that, when I hear that the pope may be recanting thousands of years of structured religious doctrine in a belief in a God-made place of hell and damnation for doing wrong in life…

I can tell you that that is huge.

What is hell all about anyway?

Really?

I mean, you tell me. Why does God need hell?

Hmm?

Does a place like hell really teach a soul a lesson?

Perhaps. In a way, perhaps.

Does it need to be a burning lake of fire for eternity?

Anyone’s guess. No one’s ever come back…

I think hell is a place we make in our own lives. In our own minds.

Addictions. Despair. Hate. Jealousy. War.

We make these hells in our own private minds. And if we get really in depth, we share that hell with others around us. Maybe even lots others.

Our hell can spread like a virus to others in our world, and the collective hell that can be unleashed has proven to have some famous and catastrophic results.

Never Forget

World War II for example.

Another interesting tidbit I just read is that more and more people are not familiar with the tragedy of the Holocaust.

How can such a massive hell on Earth be forgotten? Such a shared collective of hate and tragedy and all manner of wickedness that humans enacted on their fellows in flesh.

How could a God want to make any more gruesome a place than that which humankind had already learned how to make for itself?

Hell is where we have taken ourselves and our world. It is time to recognize the hell we create in our own lives, even in our day to day.

What thoughts and feelings are you obsessed with that do not serve you? Self-remorse? Hate towards another? War against your perceived adversary? Addiction to a thing, a choice, a way of life?

What you do to yourself affects the world around you. In a way what you do to yourself you do to all.

To heal the self can also heal all. As you stop creating your own hell, you do not contribute to the global energy of hell on earth.

So how do you contribute to the perceived global crisis many are feeling that all is not well?

By beginning to recognize the hell for what it is. To work on your viewpoint of things, first. To choose new ways of seeing the world. To embrace new thoughts, feelings, and actions that are not aligned to the nature of hell.

And that is know that there is a light that shines above hell that will guide you out.

High above hell.

All Is Not Lost

Knowing that your mind can create your own hell can begin the process of healing your mind and your hell.

Knowing that there is light and love and wisdom and truth that shines high above the dark depths of hell can guide you out and into the realm you may call heaven.

Heaven can be a place on earth, a place you can create. As humans have co-created hells on earth, you can likewise create heavens. And you have and you do all the time.

And you will do more

You will create many kingdoms of heaven. And they will be on this earth and of this earth and for this earth.

And when your fellows witness you doing so, they will be able to follow your example.

The realm of mankind is merging with the light.

The darkness and hellishness will be left behind in the light.

The light clears and transforms the dark shapes and memories.

The light blesses all that it sees and touches.

The light clears the web of fear that overrides your senses.

Fear. Hate. Envy. Deceit. War.

These forces of hellish darkness are having their death throes.

The world is thrashing about as an addict in withdrawal.

For you have been addicted to the wars and the hells.

It is like a drug that administers to your souls and you keep taking it because you cannot stop. You do not see the cure.

The cure is the light.

The love.

The peace.

Be at peace with yourselves and your neighbors.

Be the love and spread love in all that you do.

See with eyes of truth wherever the darkness is and reveal it into the light.

Heal it into the light.

Do not agree with the darkness.

Hell? Hell no!

Look, I made a hell in my own mind. I still remember how it felt. Unfortunately. Or maybe it has taught me something I needed to know.

Have you ever created a hellish way of looking at your life? Please reflect on this question, and if you are bold please share some of your efforts in overcoming your personal hell in the comments.

 

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Thank you for reading.

Blessings to you all,

Matthew