Heaven and Hell

Do we create our own heaven and hell in our daily lives?  Here is a story that is food for thought:  A big burly samurai comes to the wise man and says, “Tell me the nature of heaven and hell.” And the roshi looks him in the face and says: “Why should I tell a scruffy, disgusting, miserable slob like you?” The samurai starts to get purple in the face, his hair starts to stand up, but the roshi won’t stop, he keeps saying, “A miserable worm like you, do you think I should tell you anything?” Consumed by rage, the samurai draws his sword, and he’s just about to cut off the head of the roshi. Then the roshi says, “That’s hell.” The samurai, who is in fact a sensitive person, instantly gets it, that he just created his own hell; he was deep in hell. It was black and hot, filled with hatred, self-protection, anger, and resentment, so much so that he was going to kill this man. Tears fill his eyes and he starts to cry and he puts his palms together and the roshi says, “That’s heaven.”

I believe that this story points out that in each moment we are in a position to choose where we will be.  The samurai asks the roshi/holy man to tell him the nature of heaven and hell.  The roshi allows the samurai to experience the difference in the moment of their encounter and to feel both hell and heaven. It then became his reality.

I believe this is a daily occurrence in life.  Feelings of anger and rage can pull us into our own hell, while acceptance, surrender, and love allow us to experience heaven. When something provokes our anger, the reason we get angry is because we are holding on to how we think something should be. We are denying how it really is. It is the expectations of the mind that creates the experience of hell.  Examining our expectations, rather than just our frustrations, we find that much of our emotional suffering is created by what we think should be rather than our being able to accept things as they are.

It seems to me that the samurai in the above story believed the roshi would supply a direct answer to his question, but the holy man let him have his own experience of the nature of these two states.  In a flash the samurai felt rage, drew his sword, prepared to cut off the roshi's head.  When the roshi pointed out that this is hell the samurai realized that his rage created his hell and in that moment he surrendered to love and felt the peace of heaven.

In that moment the samurai examined his expectations of what he thought should happen (he thought the holy man would provide the answer), and surrendered to what was happening (he felt hell and heaven within himself) and surrendered to the reality and wisdom of what was rather than clinging to what he thought should be.  How often do we find ourselves in similar situations, trapped between our expectations and the reality of things? 

I can think of numerous times in a day where my expectations cloud my perception and acceptance of reality.  I find that expectations can often be subtle and when I find myself reacting I realize that my expectations create my agitation.  Learning to be sensitive to myself helps me to realize when my acceptance of reality is being clouded by my expectations.

Expectations are a part of enculturalation; a part of what culture has taught me to believe is truth.  Learning how to think critically helps me to examine and evaluate these encultureated beliefs for myself.  In doing this I begin to step beyond my expectations and the cultural concept of truth.  Shedding these encultureated truths allows me to move out of a state of conflict and into a place of peace.  The journey from hell to heaven, or vice-versa, is generated from within and I am responsible for this.  

  
I make this journey by my choice of hanging on to encultureated expectations, or surrendering to the energy of the moment and going with the flow that allows me to move beyond expectations.  Like the samurai when I accept the wisdom of my experience, not my expectations but my experience, then, as the roshi says, that's heaven. 

It is always our choice.