Chapter 3: I See Said the Blind Man

Blessed is the one who learns to see with the eye of the spirit. Physical eyes are quite limited and have no ability to clearly witness truth. We see a cloud and believe it to be a cloud. But when the cloud transforms into rain, we only see the rain. The rain may vanish, but because it gives itself to the earth and plants; it enables grass, trees, and fruit to grow. We see the grass, trees, and fruit, but we no longer see the rain. The rain is still there, it has merely transformed. We eat the fruit and the fruit gives life to our own bodies, but we do not believe our bodies to be fruit. Yet the fruit is still there, continuing its life through other lifeforms. It has not discontinued its being. But the fruit’s being has now become a small part of our own being. And so the cloud, rain, grass, trees, fruit, and ourselves, are all connected. A connection which only the eye of our human spirit is enabled to see.

Humanity, to a large degree, has formed views and beliefs about heaven and hell because of a fear of death. Because we believe we do not know what happens to us when we die, mankind makes heaven and hell into residences of the “afterlife.” But heaven and hell are not residences appointed for our spirits upon death, they are our residences in the here and now. Heaven is made of love, peace, joy, contentment, freedom, compassion, and so on. When we our conscious of these truths, we are conscious of heaven. Hell is made of hate, violence, bitterness, revenge, oppression, and so on. When we are conscious of the spiritual aspects, we live in hell.

I am astounded when I hear a person preaching a message of love whom garners responses from the religious majority at the defense of sin and hell. Often when speaking about the truth found in heaven, I receive responses from others such as; “but what about sin?” or “shouldn’t we be aware of evil in the world to guard ourselves?” I am astounded because heaven is much more interesting than hell, at least in my perception. I would much rather remain conscious at all times of a kingdom with a King whom is the embodiment of love and peace, than a kingdom of sin and hatred. Why do we need to be aware of evil, if not that our mind is need of evil?

This does not mean that we do not see evil. We see evil throughout the earth in the form of people speaking words of hate toward one another, taking revenge through violence, and the crimes of poverty which rages throughout our planet. I certainly do not deny evil’s existence, but in another sense, it is our mission as residents of the kingdom of God to do just that – deny evil’s existence. I would propose that evil’s existence is best denied not by our refusal to allow it any place in dictation of our behaviour, thoughts, and consciousness. Rather than looking away from evil, for fear we may become polluted, we must stand our ground, look evil in the face as it stand before us, and overcome with our consciousness remained on the source of all love and compassion.