Have you ever wondered if the concept of heaven really exists? Well, conceptually of course it does exist. If not, we would not understand this question.
If you grew in a certain tradition of belief that uses the notion of heaven in order to gain security of our future after death, then the question is not where, but does it exist? Does heaven exist? There are some possible answers: Yes, no, irrelevant, or perhaps.
Let’s go with perhaps…
People who live and are raised within a set of traditions and beliefs that claim heaven does exist must ask themselves, where is heaven? If you just answer, heaven is the sky or heaven a special place after death…
Please, ask: Why do you believe in heaven if you have no idea of where it is? How can you believe in something that is impossible to define in a spectrum of locality or space?
You might answer: Well, that is what faith is all about…
I will ask again: Is your reality based on pure belief? Why? Is this a choice you made? Did you family brain wash you with the idea, and now it gives you so much security that you cannot live without such faith? How painful is it to read this? Are you willing to rationalize what is deeply ingrained within your mindset?
If you can’t rationalize, stop reading because I will challenge you. I will make you ask questions you might not want to know about, so please. Stop.
If you are willing to risk your mindset and hard core beliefs in order to know where is heaven, then keep reading.
Let’s define the other case: What happens if you are one of those who believe that heaven does not exist?
In such case, I ask: What is heaven? Should we define heaven as a place where mythological figures sleep and live in pleasure? Could heaven be something abstract, but we tend to create a tangible concept out of it because that is all we know?
Perhaps, but where is it?
If it is an abstraction, then there is no actual locality. If one choose to search for such a place, then one might want to possess the concept in order to believe. In the process of possession, one might lose the reality of the concept in order to feel secure with such concept. What do this mean?
If the concept of heaven, is not a real place but an abstraction, then where is it? Of course, in the mind! Is this true?
All abstractions are in the mind of the one understand such concept. Now if heaven is in the mind because it is an abstraction, can we actually convert an abstraction into something concrete?
Of course, how? Imagine an idea… I have an abstract idea, the idea of happiness. In the back of my mind, there is this concept called happiness. However, it is an abstract idea unless I am experiencing happiness in the actual moment I bring to reality my abstraction.
Therefore, in the same manner, could we create from the concept of heaven, a reality, one that is not in a strange place, but here in the present moment?
If we ask this, then we have another question: Well, what if my abstract concept of heaven is not the same as yours? Does that invalidate my concept of heaven? Is a consensus needed in order to achieve a concept of heaven?
In order to answer, I ask: Does the fact that you feel happiness erase its reality if the person beside you is angry and can’t feel your happiness? Of course not or does it? Take a deep breath, and test this out.
Be yourself heaven! Find heaven as an actuality within yourself as a reflection of your inner haven. The way to achieve this is to realize within yourself that heaven is not a place, but an actual reality expressed and felt within.
The paradigm shift in this idea is to ask: Is heaven inside of yourself? Could it be that heaven is not a place one will find after death, but a reality inside of me? Could I realize through experience that heaven is me? Could it be possible to live a heaven within this reality (i.e. this objective place conceptualized as Earth) through my own experiences of fulfillment and love?
Could heaven be here already, but we are so stubborn with those traditional beliefs that we lose sight of what is actually in front of us always?
Think it out! Observe yourself! Find out through your own experience, and defy my thought after understanding what I mean.
If you simply reject this because you are attached your traditional beliefs, then ask: What will happen if heaven does not exist? What will happen if heaven does exist?
What would change if we were able to live heaven here and now, instead of waiting for a non-reality (i.e. not in the present moment) to occur?
Photo credits: First image By Luz A. Villa
Second by ✿ nicolas_gent ✿
Third By h.koppdelaney