Heaven Through Hell

Sometimes you just need to go through Hell to get to Heaven.

What do I mean by that?

Simply that without going through very challenging situations and experiences, we often don't allow ourselves to receive the good that we really want. We think or feel that we don't deserve such goodness in our life.

So many of us grew up with our greatness pushed down and repressed inside of us. People telling us to be "realistic" and to "stop dreaming". Reprimanding us with vicious remarks such as "who do you think you are?" when we express some form of longing for something greater. Those remarks from others come from the pain of having their own dreams destroyed and even of the fear of being left behind because they do not believe they can follow you up. They don't want you to abandon them, or become something greater than them, and they also don't believe in their own ability to achieve something more. That is what we could call a self-generated hellish reality.

There is also the phenomenon of enlightenment being achieved spontaneously by many who are in the grips of the greatest suffering imaginable. These people suffer so much that eventually, they cannot go on and they surrender totally. They let everything go. Their ego breaks and the true spiritual power and love takes over. At that moment they may, or may not, continue to live in the physical form. And it doesn't matter at all. Similar things have happened in war, and in times of peace.

This happens everyday. Somewhere, someone has had enough, has suffered to the limits of his or her endurance (which varies greatly) and has released all attachment. They no longer hold on. And interestingly, they find that out of that despair... comes peace.

Now, if you want to put yourself through excrutiating suffering of some kind (ancient monks did it all the time - although they never went far enough to succeed, hehe) I can't stop you. Hell, I love to occasionally push myself to extremes in my physical training because of the effect it has on my ability to let go of limitations, and the way it makes me feel that I have really earned (deserve) my meal and my sleep. Its true for most of us. We all think that we need to earn something to deserve it. It's a good belief to have... except when it comes to happiness. And enlightenment.

For true happiness (and enlightenment), the only way is to let go. Laugh. Breathe. Drop all attachment to needing something in a specific way. Allow yourself to open up and just be here now.

For that to happen, you just have to give up everything.

Just kidding. LOL! You just have to give up your attachment to everything. Once you allow things to be as they are, without needing them to be different, or to change them in some way, you drop the resistance. Drop the resistance that was damming the flow and Life comes rushing in. The change you want arrives once you give up the resistance of wanting to change it, paradoxically.

Let everything go and you will know what it means to really live.
And you don't need to go through Hell for it!

Out of suffering and into joy.

Charles

Copyright © Charles Begin