Heaven. Here. Now
Heaven. Here. Now.
by Christopher Lee Nutter
*********This is from Chris's blog on christopherleenutter.com*************
The idea of experiencing heaven here and how is a challenging concept because, let’s face it, we have all been raised to believe that heaven on Earth is impossible.
To begin with, the religious messages we get very early on in life is that Heaven is for after life…that is, if you qualify.
Then there is the added problem of all your problems and the world’s problems: everything that is wrong right now, everything that is wrong with you, everything horrible that might happen, and everything horrible happening in the world.
Supporting the upkeep of these viewpoints is a belief that there is nothing that we can do about it: that God and Heaven are somewhere else, and that problems are “out there” and very difficult if not impossible to solve…not to mention constantly coming at us.
The end result of this programming is feeling anything like you’re in heaven. The very idea that heaven, here, now is impossible is what creates anxiety, fear, depression, anger, frustration, and everything else that we can generally define as “pain” that basically makes it suck, to one degree or another, to be alive at any given time. This is what produces hell here on Earth. When you add to this experience the unquestioned belief that there is nothing you can do about it, well, you’re pretty much screwed.
But are you? There is a way to penetrate the barrier that stands between you and heaven. And it requires a lot of questioning.
HOW TO MAKE HEAVEN POSSIBLE
You have to begin by questioning the notion that you personally and we communally as the human race can’t have heaven here on Earth, and that heavenly feelings are only for later when we die if we earn it. Just question this believe, and open yourself up to find out on your own if it’s possible to have heaven here and now.
Look at this idea not as another belief, but as a premise, and then set out to find out if it’s true. After all, you aren’t dead, and you are here on Earth now. So why wait? And who can say what happens after you die anyway? And have you ever been anywhere but here and now? Could that possibly change? If that can’t change, and you’re always here and it’s always now, then how could heaven be somewhere else and later when somewhere else and later don’t exist. When you look at it that way, the very idea that heaven is somewhere else in the future couldn’t possibly be true. But here and now is true, and you will always be in the here and now, which means that if heaven exists, it only exists here and now.
To sum it up, heaven there and later makes heaven impossible. Heaven, here, now makes heaven possible.
Next, you have to do some tinkering on the way you see your particular here and how.
One of the main things you have to look at anew is the idea that something terrible is going to happen. That belief itself is what creates that perception, and it’s what makes it terrorizing to be alive, which then goes on to invite and create terrorizing experiences. So what I highly recommend is to question the belief that something terrible is going to happen, and replace it with a new premise to explore: maybe nothing terrible is going to happen. Consider that that may be the case, and set out to find out if it’s true. If you begin to let go of the idea that something terrible is going to happen and you feel much, much better, and you then find that something terrible doesn’t have to happen, then you’re on the right track to being in a heavenly state here and now. …And again, nothing happens in the future. It all happens now. So terrible things simply can’t take happen later because there is no later.
You also have to stop believing in punishment. This is a tough-y because we have been raised on punishment from “God”, and punishment from others because we deserve it. We have been raised to believe that not only have we done wrong, but that we are wrong.
But let’s think about this. First of all, everything is wrong from a religious and secular standpoint: being happy is wrong, having sex is wrong, being beautiful is wrong, being ugly is wrong, being successful is wrong, being a woman is wrong, being gay is wrong, being black is wrong…it’s all a sin in somebody’s book, and we all deserve to be punished.
If you want to change this you have to stop believing in punishment. Then you will stop experiencing it. But you have to be willing to let go of the idea that you have done anything wrong. You have done nothing wrong. You have to let go of the idea that there is something wrong with you. There is nothing wrong with you. If you let go of those ideas you find that you no longer deserve punishment, and you will therefore slowly discover that you are no longer waiting around for it. …and you do wait around for the punishment. You absolutely do because we all do. Imagine a life without punishment, and that’s what you’ll experience. Think of it this way: it’s either all a sin, or none of it. Liberating your mind of the entire concept of punishment altogether is what makes “hell” – both now and the possibility of it – go away forever.
HOW TO TAKE DOWN THE WALLS OF HEAVEN
Once you’ve moved through that obstacle course, you’ll find yourself at the next gate standing in the way of you and heaven, and it is the thought that it is selfish to be happy, to be wonderful, to be in heaven. On that note, I would tell you this:
Your heaven is the only heaven you can make. If you have ever tried to “save” someone else, you’ve discovered this to be true. You can’t save anyone else. You can be of help to them if they ask for it, but you are only their servant. If you look out onto the world you see every nation and every culture and every religion trying to change everyone else, and you see the result, which is endless war between us all. Trying to fix someone else creates hell. Allowing yourself to be in heaven creates the one piece of heaven that you can make.
Imagine that every person on the planet is on the same factory floor working on the same factory line, and everyone has one piece of it to make. Each person can make a heavenly piece, or a hellish piece. The only way to contribute to heaven on earth – to getting the ball rolling communally in that direction – is to make your one piece heavenly. People in heaven don’t wage war. They don’t hate. They don’t horde. They are benign, loving, and giving.
So it is not “selfish” to be in heaven in the sense that being in heaven hurts or takes away from others. It is selfish in the sense that your self is the only self you can send to heaven, and by doing so you help others learn that they can do the same. After all, you inspire others with your actions, and if you act in a heavenly way in your own reality, you will uplift the communal perception of us all into a higher order of understanding of our personal power to make of our lives and our planet what we like. Be your own messiah, and you will teach others that they can do the same.
WHAT “GOD” HAS TO DO WITH IT
Lastly, to do all of this, you have to let go of “God”. What do I mean by “God”?
“God” is a concept, and you can make “God” into anything you want. You can make it a Him, or a Her; you can make it angry or loving; you can make it approve or disapprove of anything you want; you can even make it exist or not exist because “God” is just an idea, nothing more.
God on the other hand is your very being. It can not be conceptualized because It is simply is. And It doesn’t have to be conceptualized because It can be known through direct experience of your self – your thoughts, your emotions, your mind, your body, your life. There is no “God” required for you to be. That you exist is the miracle, and therefore You are the miracle. You’re it. You’re in charge. It’s all you. Notice that you are the creator by changing what you create and living in a whole different world, and this fact becomes indisputable.
Now, when you begin to consider this you will most likely find yourself under attack by two mechanisms of your programming that are very successful at keeping you a prisoner of yourself.
The first one is that you have offended “God” and that He will punish you when you stop believing in Him.
To begin with, as Ramtha says, God can not be offended, and it is a joke that whatever it is that you are thinking could “offend” All of time and All of creation. The idea that anything you do could offend God is truly narcissistic. But if you go back to the idea that there is no punishment, and therefore you stop punishing yourself, this fear will dissipate. As the fear dissipates you find that you were indeed in charge all along, and that YOU made “God”, which means there is no “God”. Everything you experience is you, including “God” and God. That is the ultimate answer to the ultimate mysteries of life, and the knowledge is sitting in your waiting to be discovered right now.
The other guard that will attempt to keep you in a prison of fear will be the idea that it is narcissistic and egoistical to realize that you are God. This programming tells you that you are full of yourself to believe that…that you are not humble, or properly respectful. But that’s a lie. Hunkering down and pretending to not be the amazing totally powerful artistic creator that you are is not noble or humble…pretending you are less than what you are comes out of fear that you are the creator, and that you are amazing. This is not about humility, this is about humiliation, which goes back to punishment. You see, it’s all connected.
YOU CAN DO IT
You have to be very brave, a real hero, to walk through the barrier of illusion and fear and into this unknown. But I would suggest to you that that is what it means to be truly alive. Being brave can be tough, but it’s also wonderful because the braver you are, the more unknowns you walk through, the deeper you dig down into yourself, the more you discover, the more you’ll realize who you really are: that you don’t have be scared of anything because you are strong, you are brave, you are powerful. The realization of these things is what makes a hero. The journey itself is how you discover it.
Wake up every day not trying to avoid your fears, but rather facing them. See every day as an adventure. No, you don’t know what’s going to happen. And yes, scary things can happen. But as you discover your strength, and that every day is an adventure, then you learn to love it, and not judge it because it’s just another adventure that is leading you to the promised land of yourself. You learn to love to be alive. You learn to love surprises. Love sex, love your body, love things, love people, love your job, and accept and embrace it all and you will discover heaven, here, now. You learn that though things and people can go, but what makes you you – what makes you powerful – doesn’t leave you.
And that feeling is the very beginning of heaven. I’d never be writing this if I hadn’t begun to discover it myself. I ask myself, why not now? Why not here? Slowly, day by day, I am answering in a new way: why not.
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July 2nd, 2007 at 9:22 pm Visit 3281Heaven and hell and life on earth. Life, I agree, is an adventure and one we should look forward to each morning HE allows us to open our eyes. I am a believer in Heaven and carry no burdens about how to get there. HE sent HIS SON to die for my sins over 2,000 years ago and HIS blood washed away my sins that day I accepted HIM as my savior.
Yes, there is a heaven of sorts here on earth if you choose, a path of peace and fellowship with other Christians who walk a like path. I do not judge nor doom to hell others that follow another path, as He said “we cannot judge others less we be judged ourselves”.
I know, as all should, that we are each perfect and imperfect in too many ways. Our human side displays those ‘failings’ we have as humans, but our spirtual side is the dominant force, warning our human side of what is right and wrong, not making us perfect, but only trying. HIS own diciples doubted Him, and even those closest to Him when the savior walked this earth, denied Him. Why? Because they were human!
But each soon to come to know their savior, each in his own way and in his own time. The Church today, is built on the teachings of our God, through the writings of imperfect men. But the Word is perfect. The path He chose for us comes through man’s imperfect writing because they somehow were ‘endowed’ by their creator, that His words would found the very BOOK now 2,000 years later, sells more copies than anypublication through the ages.
If you allow God and Jesus to speak to you, he will if you open your heart. Your heart does not have to be pure, just open to the word of God and be quiet, and listen. At first, especially to the unbeliever, he will not understand the Bible. But, if you continue, and study and read again and again, and as your faith grows, then God will open your mind so you understand more each day.
I let God enter into my life each day and pray that I will be the best I can be that day. I cannot think of tomorrow, or even the next hour, just let me do my best now. The journey is long, but the path to any great idea or understanding is taken only a step at a time. Even during the worse of times, when bad things do happen, that is when you will find Him nearest to you.
I have recently lost a mom and an aunt not 30 days apart, two sisters that I loved more than anything. What would I have done without Him holding me up during these so very sad times in my life. He loved them and they are now in Heaven, looking down and smiling and most of all, not hurting anymore. God created Heaven so are to have a goal, a destination, where we too may find rest. We just have to live our life, following His rules, and be the best we can be each and everyday. Then Heaven is granted to you here and it will only be small step, a wink of an eye, and when He choses for each of us, we are with Him in God’s Heaven. There are many mansions in His heaven and he went ahead to prepare a place for each of us. If you read your Bible, you know that. I hope when I die, there is enough evidence to convict me of being a Christian. Being a Christian does not mean you lead a perfect life! It means you tried your best and we surrended to Him! 3281.
