What is Heaven?

[lunamoth]

I regard heaven and earth to be diametrically opposed perceptions of the same phenomena.

This seems kind of like some versions of Gnosticism, where the spiritual realm is good and the material realm is bad. Can you expand on what you mean?

 

[thedope]

This seems kind of like some versions of Gnosticism, where the spiritual realm is good and the material realm is bad. Can you expand on what you mean?

I regard neither one as bad. I think that the teaching of the kingdom of heaven is in response to anxiety in this life. Anxiety is caused by the misapprehension of what is so.
A mind without anxiety is wholly kind. The usefulness of forgiveness is not that it makes up for less than savory phenomena but that it restores situational awareness as you forgive the world your prejudicial perceptions of it. How many times do you forgive, not 7 but 70 times 7. Forgiveness is a practice that functions irrespective of particular events. Judge not lest ye be judged, or by our words we will be justified is not referring to linear reciprocity in time but to the flavor of our current experience.

Further as we "flavor" it ourselves we share that flavor with the world. The kingdom of heaven likened to the grain of a mustard seed, a single moment chosen to exercise mercy expands through practice until the resonant response of the environment at large becomes loving. So much so that the birds of the air come and make their nests in the shade of it's branches. A field effect created by focus.

 

[ImmortalPhoenix]

Jesus said, Behold the Kingdom is within. Paul said, The Kingdom is not eating and drinking but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

 

[Gaura Priya]

"O SON OF BEING! Thy Paradise is My love; thy heavenly home, reunion with Me. Enter therein and tarry not. This is that which hath been destined for thee in Our kingdom above and Our exalted dominion."

-- Hidden Words of Baha'u'llah, I:6

This is my conception of Heaven.

 

[chinu]

What is Heaven?

The place, where you think, is pleasure for ever.

But Beware !, there are many duplicate places, which can entangle one, to choose false "Heaven".

The sign of false "Heaven" is: "There is no endless pleasure, or pleasure for ever"
False "Heavens" have pleasures with ends.

_/\_
Chinu

 

[BruceDLimber]

Baha'is (like some Christians) see Heaven as spiritual nearness to God, and hell as spiritual separation.

As such, they exist here and now as well as after death; and every one of us is in one or the other at each moment as a function of "where our heads are at."

Best!

Bruce

 

[lunamoth]

Baha'is (like some Christians) see Heaven as spiritual nearness to God, and hell as spiritual separation.

As such, they exist here and now as well as after death; and every one of us is in one or the other at each moment as a function of "where our heads are at."

Best!

Bruce

Can one be close to God but not acknowledge it as such (for example, an atheist humanist who works to reduce suffering and improve the well-being of all) and, vv., can one think they are in heaven, but really they are far from God?

 

[thedope]

Can one be close to God but not acknowledge it as such (for example, an atheist humanist who works to reduce suffering and improve the well-being of all) and, vv., can one think they are in heaven, but really they are far from God?

Heaven needs no healing

 

[Gaura Priya]

Can one be close to God but not acknowledge it as such (for example, an atheist humanist who works to reduce suffering and improve the well-being of all) and, vv., can one think they are in heaven, but really they are far from God?

In my personal opinion, the whole purpose of this creation and temple of God, that is, the human being, was made to strive towards advancement and perfection through the virtues and attributes of God...

So, for me, even an atheist progresses spiritually through eir practice of virtues, because they are in themselves divine emanations from God's Essence and Being. In both Sufi Islam and the Baha'i Faith, the practice and development of virtues is in a sense, recognising God's presence in life.

After all, the Afterlife is eternal progression towards God in the spiritual worlds. Heaven and Hell are mere states of the soul's existence in its relation to eir distance from God's Presence.

 

[BhaktiYogi]

Heaven is uniting ourselves with the universal will, therefore combing our aspects, attributes, and personalities with the origin of creation.

This way we align ourselves with the source of all that is and will ever be. To experience our true, pure heavenly nature of oneness.

 

[Where Is God]

Jesus said, Behold the Kingdom is within. Paul said, The Kingdom is not eating and drinking but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

How do you know he said this and how do you this is truthful even if he did say it?