The Illusion Called "Hell"

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To answer any question about "hell," we must ask and answer, "What was hell in the teachings of the masters, sages, and enlightened luminaries?"

Hell was, for them, a state of Mind, not a "place." Specifically, "hell" was the apparent (but not real) absence of Love. Of course, there can never exist a square nanometer of space in which Love does not exist. But hell is the illusion that your mind can be completely stripped, and absent, of Love. Since no mind can exist without being indwelled by Love, hell is an illusion.

Still, illusions, like nightmares at night, can bring discomfort, even torment. A strong and fervent belief in the absence of Love is exactly such a hell. If we deliberately harm another living creature, we automatically create a hellstate. It might exist so deeply in the Mind that we are unaware of it, but we carry it still, and it will manifest as subconsciously-generated feeling of antsiness, restlessness,
discomfort, or even agony. Deliberately harming others (with intention)creates hell.

The purpose of hell, as might be understood, is not "punishment." God does not treat adults like children. Its purpose is education. Once we have visited the hell that comes from voluntarily harming another, we do not want to return. Once we decide that, we can make an interior vow never to repeat that behavior. Then, with selforgiveness, the shackles of hell drop from our wrists, and we are free. Once we get out of hellstates, we want never to return.

It is the perfect combination of hell for intentional evil and bliss for good activity that form the perfect learning-system of the cosmos.

Hell, as a part of school, usually does not follow into the afterlife. For it is the human, earth-ego that screws up, and it is only usually that part of the mind that needs to be corrected. It has withdrawn Love from another, and so, must know what it is like to have Love apparently withdrawn from it. The soul is so much wiser, and does not require the corrective pain of hell.

Within your mind, during this life, you can create either interior "heaven" or "hell." What is the secret? It is remarkably simple:
Whenever you decide to dislike (or hate) anyone or anything, you increase the internal suffering of "hell." Conversely, whenever you decide to like (or love) anyone or anything, you increase your interior pleasure and delight, inner "heaven." You decide: At this moment, will you increase the burning pain of dislike, or the sweet joy of liking, and embracing?

This does not mean that the good, sound, wise person "likes" evil or the harming of creatures. She will speak up and act against anything or anyone that harms living things, especially human beings. But, at the same time, on a deeper level of Mind, she accepts the "evil" as mere ignorance. She knows that it has its correct cosmic place. It is part of karma, which is education, which is Love. So, even while opposing it, she accepts it as a part of the earthschool. When she cannot change a situation, she finds peace in the recognition that it is a part of the great school of earth. So, at the core of her efforts to change the world, she finds peace.
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