Religions/beliefs/ways of life and their ultimate endings, and your take on them.

[Smart_Guy]

Hello guys.

Different religions/beliefs/ways of life have different nature to their endings. Islam, for example, is a religions that has Hell physical, on the one hand, that one would experience pain and suffering similar to the way they do in this life as we know it. Extreme heat and cold is felt, skin burns and bones crack similarly, giving similar pain and agony. Paradise on the other hand is also physical that everything good we want in this life is similarly enjoyed, albeit (on a side note witch is another story) with no constraints and it can be achieved with simple desires.

Hell in the Islamic view is a place that no way in hell I'd visit and I'd try to avoid what could cause that as much as I can. Paradise is a place that no way in hell (or in paradise, lol) I'd NOT want to visit, and accordingly would try to do what could cause that. My way of life is heavily affected by this. It gives a purpose to me, a true meaning of life instead of just living randomly feeling lost.

What about you?

The thread covers all, including the non religious.

 

[Kirran]

I've seen some Islamic traditions vary on this. There a Sufi parable of two Sufis wandering in the desert, when night starts to fall. As it's getting cold, but they don't have a fire starter on them, one of them sends his hawk to go to hell and get some fire. After a time the hawk comes back, and reports that hell isn't a place you can go to, it exists just within you, and heaven likewise.

In my own understanding there is really only God, and we as individuals are currents of evolution going through various experiences life after life as our natural progression towards realisation of that supreme truth.

 

[pearl]

Hell is not a 'place' but a state of being, it is the absence of God.

 

[Sunstone]

No afterlife. Just this life and what you can make of it.

 

[Kirran]

No afterlife. Just this life and what you can make of it.

Why so sure? :O

Not that the sentiment which this is likely to engender isn't one I support

 

[buddhist]

The fact that I can personally observe cause-and-effect (Law of Kamma), in the here and now, gives me purpose to live with more wisdom, to make a better outcome for myself.

 

[Sunstone]

Why so sure? :O

Not that the sentiment which this is likely to engender isn't one I support

The possibility of there being an afterlife seems to me so low as to be insignificant. That's it in a nutshell.

 

[Smart_Guy]

I've seen some Islamic traditions vary on this. There a Sufi parable of two Sufis wandering in the desert, when night starts to fall. As it's getting cold, but they don't have a fire starter on them, one of them sends his hawk to go to hell and get some fire. After a time the hawk comes back, and reports that hell isn't a place you can go to, it exists just within you, and heaven likewise.

In my own understanding there is really only God, and we as individuals are currents of evolution going through various experiences life after life as our natural progression towards realisation of that supreme truth.

The only credible sources for such basic fundamental Islamic details are the Quran and what God inspires The Prophet with. At least the Quran clearly shows that Hell exists physically and that its fuel is rocks and people. I'm not saying that Islamic Sufism is mislead, but I believe the tradition above is, from which the information provided is from a hawk a normal human being (not even the Prophet) sent to get fire from hell, let alone contradicting with the Quran. You can check Quran and how it talks about Hell.

You need to check the source of that tradition. Many sayings taken from other than the Quran are meant to mislead Muslims and give wrong information to non Muslims about Islam, even within Hadeeth and other Islamic beliefs, including by mislead Muslim Sufis among Muslim Sufis themselves.

 

[Smart_Guy]

Hell is not a 'place' but a state of being, it is the absence of God.

In which belief/religion/thought/etc. is that?

 

[Kirran]

The only credible sources for such basic fundamental Islamic details are the Quran and what God inspires The Prophet with. At least the Quran clearly shows that Hell exists physically and that its fuel is rocks and people. I'm not saying that Islamic Sufism is mislead, but I believe the tradition above is, from which the information provided is from a hawk a normal human being (not even the Prophet) sent to get fire from hell, let alone contradicting with the Quran. You can check Quran and how it talks about Hell.

You need to check the source of that tradition. Many sayings taken from other than the Quran are meant to mislead Muslims and give wrong information to non Muslims about Islam, even within Hadeeth and other Islamic beliefs, including by mislead Muslim Sufis among Muslim Sufis themselves.

Haha, nobody's saying the story is literally true, it's a parable to explain a concept.

I respect Sufism more than other traditions, because its source is direct experience.

 

[Smart_Guy]

Haha, nobody's saying the story is literally true, it's a parable to explain a concept.

I respect Sufism more than other traditions, because its source is direct experience.

I respect accepting that too.

 

[Unveiled Artist]

Hello guys.

Different religions/beliefs/ways of life have different nature to their endings. Islam, for example, is a religions that has Hell physical, on the one hand, that one would experience pain and suffering similar to the way they do in this life as we know it. Extreme heat and cold is felt, skin burns and bones crack similarly, giving similar pain and agony. Paradise on the other hand is also physical that everything good we want in this life is similarly enjoyed, albeit (on a side note witch is another story) with no constraints and it can be achieved with simple desires.

Hell in the Islamic view is a place that no way in hell I'd visit and I'd try to avoid what could cause that as much as I can. Paradise is a place that no way in hell (or in paradise, lol) I'd NOT want to visit, and accordingly would try to do what could cause that. My way of life is heavily affected by this. It gives a purpose to me, a true meaning of life instead of just living randomly feeling lost.

What about you?

The thread covers all, including the non religious.

I believe what we do now affects tommorrow and death is another stage of life not the end of it. So what I do affects afterlife too.

On that note, my family in spirit watches over me. I will do the same when I pass. "Spirit" are also memories of those who passed on. Spirit is also our breathe in life for without family we have no breathe. So its all interconnected.

"Our dead are never dead to us until we have forgotten them" ~George Elliot

 

[Jumi]

I can only think of bad things that happen during and after death. If there is paradise, but you're not there, is it a paradise?

a) It's likely to me that we will disappear as personalities life leaves our bodies. b) If something survives death it's not what we are used to know of ourselves.

Most religions seem to work on the premise that human nature, our conscience, loves and hates must be controlled and changed somehow to achieve a good afterlife, so they are almost all with choice b). Most non-religious people and some religious people seem to go with a).

My goal is to live according to my conscience as much as possible, stay true to ideals and honor. A long and meaningful life is preferable.

 

[pearl]

In which belief/religion/thought/etc. is that?

During his weekly address to the general audience of 8,500 people at the Vatican on July 28, 1999, Pope John Paul II rejected the reality of a physical, literal hell as a place of eternal fire and torment. Rather, the pope said hell is separation, even in this life, from the joyful communion with God. According to an official Vatican transcript of the pope's speech, Pope John Paul II noted that the Scriptural references to hell and the images portrayed by Scripture are only symbolic and figurative of "the complete frustration and emptiness of life without God. " He added, "Rather than a physical place, hell is the state of those who freely and definitively separate themselves from God, the source of all life and joy." He said hell is "a condition resulting from attitudes and actions which people adopt in this life." Concerning the concept of eternal damnation, the pope said, "Damnation consists precisely in definitive separation from God, freely chosen by the human person, and confirmed with death that seals his choice for ever." The pope also added, "The thought of hell and even less the improper use of biblical images must not create anxiety or despair." Rather, he stated, it is a reminder of the freedom found in Christ.

 

[jonathan180iq]

I go back and forth on whether I would prefer to live in a sensual paradise for all eternity or to achieve total enlightenment... Maybe that says a lot about me, but I think the high of eternal pleasure is equally amazing when positioned right beside the high of knowing everything.

 

[Smart_Guy]

During his weekly address to the general audience of 8,500 people at the Vatican on July 28, 1999, Pope John Paul II rejected the reality of a physical, literal hell as a place of eternal fire and torment. Rather, the pope said hell is separation, even in this life, from the joyful communion with God. According to an official Vatican transcript of the pope's speech, Pope John Paul II noted that the Scriptural references to hell and the images portrayed by Scripture are only symbolic and figurative of "the complete frustration and emptiness of life without God. " He added, "Rather than a physical place, hell is the state of those who freely and definitively separate themselves from God, the source of all life and joy." He said hell is "a condition resulting from attitudes and actions which people adopt in this life." Concerning the concept of eternal damnation, the pope said, "Damnation consists precisely in definitive separation from God, freely chosen by the human person, and confirmed with death that seals his choice for ever." The pope also added, "The thought of hell and even less the improper use of biblical images must not create anxiety or despair." Rather, he stated, it is a reminder of the freedom found in Christ.

It's in one of the views of Christianity then. I couldn't figure it out since no religion is mentioned in your information.

 

[Kirran]

From the perspectives of most Hindu and Buddhist teachers, as well as those form various other traditions, to hanker after sensual pleasures is a stage that must be moved past if one is to come to know God or attain understanding of reality. So I find the idea of a heaven as a place where all desires are granted to be rather undesirable, inandof itself! I would agree with 'the Kingdom of God is within you' - real heaven is this world upon true realisation of and surrender to God.

 

[arthra]

What about you?

For Baha'is heaven (paradise) is nearness to God while hell is being alienated from Him..

They say: 'Where is Paradise, and where is Hell?' Say: 'The one is reunion with Me; the other thine own self, O thou who dost associate a partner with God and doubtest.'

~ Baha'u'llah, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 132


"The immortality of the spirit is mentioned in the Holy Books; it is the fundamental basis of the divine religions. Now punishments and rewards are said to be of two kinds. Firstly, the rewards and punishments of this life; secondly, those of the other world. But the paradise and hell of existence are found in all the worlds of God, whether in this world or in the spiritual heavenly worlds. Gaining these rewards is the gaining of eternal life."

~ Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith - p. 323