Difference between revisions of "Heaven"
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== Blessings == | == Blessings == | ||
| − | "From the position and perspective of Heaven, you are the blessed amongst the few, a person who has been given the greatest opportunity | + | "From the position and perspective of Heaven, you are the blessed amongst the few, a person who has been given the greatest opportunity." |
<ref name="init"/> | <ref name="init"/> | ||
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<ref name="tr"/> | <ref name="tr"/> | ||
| − | "The gifts of Heaven are for everyone, even living in a difficult and calamitous world, but who can receive them? | + | "The gifts of Heaven are for everyone, even living in a difficult and calamitous world, but who can receive them?"<ref name="tsotf"/> |
| − | <ref>The Shock of the Future (April 30, 2011)</ref> | + | |
| + | "Awaking from one’s own fearful separation is a tremendous event. It calls the powers of Heaven to you, who are beginning to awake." | ||
| + | <ref name="tsotf">The Shock of the Future (April 30, 2011)</ref> | ||
== Misconceptions About Heaven == | == Misconceptions About Heaven == | ||
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<ref name="tr">The Reconciliation (May 2, 2011)</ref> | <ref name="tr">The Reconciliation (May 2, 2011)</ref> | ||
| − | " | + | "God’s initial impulse and intention for religion—to keep Knowledge |
| + | alive in the world, to teach The Way of Knowledge, to encourage human responsibility and | ||
| + | ethical behavior, not simply as a prescript or as a requirement for admission into Heaven or some other exalted future state." | ||
<ref>The New Message on Religion (July 20, 2009)</ref> | <ref>The New Message on Religion (July 20, 2009)</ref> | ||
| − | "You cannot return to Heaven unwillingly. You cannot return to your Ancient Home ambivalent or with grievances or [[aggravation]] or resentment. These things must all be worked out in time. | + | "You cannot return to Heaven unwillingly. You cannot return to your Ancient Home ambivalent or with grievances or [[aggravation]] or resentment. These things must all be worked out in time."<ref name="wic"/> |
| + | |||
| + | "Some people believe that God, through [[grace]], will just sort of evaporate this [[ambivalence]], this conflict of purpose and intention, and you just enter Heaven as if nothing ever happened. But this is just an attempt to accommodate human expectation." | ||
<ref name="wic">What is Creation? (February 4, 2007)</ref> | <ref name="wic">What is Creation? (February 4, 2007)</ref> | ||
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<ref>''[[Living The Way of Knowledge]]'', Chapter 5: The Pillar of Work</ref> | <ref>''[[Living The Way of Knowledge]]'', Chapter 5: The Pillar of Work</ref> | ||
| − | “The memory of your Ancient Home, though seemingly blotted out by your current experience, is there nonetheless. It shines like the sun beyond the clouds. And though you live in a very cloudy world where this sun seems to barely shine through, it is there | + | “The memory of your Ancient Home, though seemingly blotted out by your current experience, is there nonetheless. It shines like the sun beyond the clouds. And though you live in a very cloudy world where this sun seems to barely shine through, it is there nonetheless."<ref name="h&h"/> |
| + | |||
| + | "There is a lifeline to your Ancient Home. It is kept alive by Knowledge within you. You can deny religion. You can deny God. You can claim that you are an animal only. You can create a very firm belief regarding these things. But Knowledge is still within you.” | ||
<ref name="h&h"/> | <ref name="h&h"/> | ||
“Your return to God may be beyond human comprehension, but the Plan of God makes it inevitable. And God has placed Knowledge within you and everyone else to make the return inevitable. So the focus of your life now, then, is not to continue to reinforce beliefs in heavens and hells. It is not to project upon God the role of the great punisher, the judge who sends those to prison and exonerates others. That is what you do but that is not what God does.” | “Your return to God may be beyond human comprehension, but the Plan of God makes it inevitable. And God has placed Knowledge within you and everyone else to make the return inevitable. So the focus of your life now, then, is not to continue to reinforce beliefs in heavens and hells. It is not to project upon God the role of the great punisher, the judge who sends those to prison and exonerates others. That is what you do but that is not what God does.” | ||
<ref name="h&h"/><!--cannot verify this citation--> | <ref name="h&h"/><!--cannot verify this citation--> | ||
| − | |||
[[File:Celestial stairway.jpg|left]] | [[File:Celestial stairway.jpg|left]] | ||
"The road to Heaven is through [[relationship]]s. It is a road of relationships. You may try your hardest to feel whole and joined with [[life]], and you will have experiences of this now and then, but until you can be joined to another, give yourself and dedicate your resources in conjunction with another’s dedication, you are only flirting with reality." | "The road to Heaven is through [[relationship]]s. It is a road of relationships. You may try your hardest to feel whole and joined with [[life]], and you will have experiences of this now and then, but until you can be joined to another, give yourself and dedicate your resources in conjunction with another’s dedication, you are only flirting with reality." | ||
| − | <ref name="ltw8">'' | + | <ref name="ltw8">''Living The Way of Knowledge'', [https://www.newmessage.org/the-message/volume-3/living-way-knowledge/building-spiritual-community Chapter 8: Building Spiritual Community]</ref> |
"You have to work your way back into Heaven, you see. You have to serve the separated world, the separated universe. You have to work your way back, through contribution and through self-development. You cannot return to your Ancient Home as a miserable, conflicted, contentious, grievous person. Heaven would seem like Hell to you, if that were the case." | "You have to work your way back into Heaven, you see. You have to serve the separated world, the separated universe. You have to work your way back, through contribution and through self-development. You cannot return to your Ancient Home as a miserable, conflicted, contentious, grievous person. Heaven would seem like Hell to you, if that were the case." | ||
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"A mind that is serious in its outward direction and lighthearted in its internal delight will be a mind that is fully integrated. This will be a mind where Heaven and Earth touch." | "A mind that is serious in its outward direction and lighthearted in its internal delight will be a mind that is fully integrated. This will be a mind where Heaven and Earth touch." | ||
| − | <ref>'' | + | <ref>[https://stepstoknowledge.com ''Steps to Knowledge'',] Step 225</ref> |
"You must always be watchful. That is part of being aware; that is part of being alive. This world is not your heavenly state." | "You must always be watchful. That is part of being aware; that is part of being alive. This world is not your heavenly state." | ||
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<ref name="d"/> | <ref name="d"/> | ||
| − | "This | + | "This is not a punishment from God, but it does represent what life means if you are living apart from God, if you are living in Separation. Life will be changing. Life will be difficult. It will be a life unlike your Ancient Home, unlike your heavenly state, and you will have to face many adversities." |
<ref name="nand"/> | <ref name="nand"/> | ||
Revision as of 17:26, 22 December 2018
"This is the gift of Heaven—that your life can be redeemed, but you must allow the pathway to be presented to you. You must respond to the Revelation." [1]
“The memory of your Ancient Home, though seemingly blotted out by your current experience, is there nonetheless. It shines like the sun beyond the clouds.” [2]
Blessings
"From the position and perspective of Heaven, you are the blessed amongst the few, a person who has been given the greatest opportunity." [1]
"The Revelation only comes every few centuries, or perhaps once in a millennium, and you happen to be here at that time. From Heaven’s perspective, that is a great blessing, a great opportunity." [1]
The gifts of Heaven
"You will have moments where you will feel the power and the presence of Heaven, for just moments, for that is enough." [3]
"The gifts of Heaven are for everyone, even living in a difficult and calamitous world, but who can receive them?"[4]
"Awaking from one’s own fearful separation is a tremendous event. It calls the powers of Heaven to you, who are beginning to awake." [4]
Misconceptions About Heaven
"You cannot run home to Heaven or think that if you are a good boy or a good girl, you get to go to Heaven—whatever that looks like in your imagination." [3]
"God’s initial impulse and intention for religion—to keep Knowledge alive in the world, to teach The Way of Knowledge, to encourage human responsibility and ethical behavior, not simply as a prescript or as a requirement for admission into Heaven or some other exalted future state." [5]
"You cannot return to Heaven unwillingly. You cannot return to your Ancient Home ambivalent or with grievances or aggravation or resentment. These things must all be worked out in time."[6]
"Some people believe that God, through grace, will just sort of evaporate this ambivalence, this conflict of purpose and intention, and you just enter Heaven as if nothing ever happened. But this is just an attempt to accommodate human expectation." [6]
“Heaven is full of foreigners! Would that still be Heaven for you? If it were filled with other beings who did not look even like you, would that make you feel uncomfortable, arousing suspicion and judgment and prejudice within you? It is not like every race gets to have its own unique Heaven, as if there is a Heaven for human beings, and then there is a Heaven for all these other races, millions and millions of Heavens.” [7]
Beyond and Through The Greater Community
"The answer is in the heavens, in the Greater Community. Look to the heavens for inspiration. Look to the Greater Community. Heaven itself is beyond the Greater Community, but the Greater Community is where you will instinctively look for the answer." [8]
"Such is the greater reality into which humanity is emerging—a universe filled with wonders and horrors, a universe of influence, a universe of competition, yet also a universe filled with Grace, much like your own world but infinitely greater. The Heaven that you seek is not here."[9]
The Heavenly Host
"Stand in judgment of the New Message and you will not see. You will not hear. And you will not know. You will be deaf and blind and arrogant all at once. And the Heavenly Host will shake their heads." [10]
"All the powers that are true in Heaven and Earth are here to encourage you and to support you so that you can fulfill what you came here to do, to become a man or woman of Knowledge, or Spirit, to engage in the Greater Community of your life, and to learn to gain your freedom and to encourage others to do the same." [11]
"It is not by accident that you happened to come across or even hear about the New Revelation. All the forces of Heaven that support you have been trying to get you to this point of recognition and to keep you from destroying your life in the process, to limit the damage you have already done and the waste you have already created so that you would be available and be able to respond." [1]
The road to Heaven
“The escape from Hell to Heaven is the escape from personal fantasy into meaningful relationship with life. What is Hell but obsession with oneself? What is Heaven but the full involvement with life as an integral part of its overall expression. Heaven and Hell are something you will experience day to day and even moment to moment, depending upon where you stand.” [12]
“Knowledge will not send you to Hell because Knowledge can only prepare you for Heaven.” [13]
“The memory of your Ancient Home, though seemingly blotted out by your current experience, is there nonetheless. It shines like the sun beyond the clouds. And though you live in a very cloudy world where this sun seems to barely shine through, it is there nonetheless."[2]
"There is a lifeline to your Ancient Home. It is kept alive by Knowledge within you. You can deny religion. You can deny God. You can claim that you are an animal only. You can create a very firm belief regarding these things. But Knowledge is still within you.” [2]
“Your return to God may be beyond human comprehension, but the Plan of God makes it inevitable. And God has placed Knowledge within you and everyone else to make the return inevitable. So the focus of your life now, then, is not to continue to reinforce beliefs in heavens and hells. It is not to project upon God the role of the great punisher, the judge who sends those to prison and exonerates others. That is what you do but that is not what God does.” [2]
"The road to Heaven is through relationships. It is a road of relationships. You may try your hardest to feel whole and joined with life, and you will have experiences of this now and then, but until you can be joined to another, give yourself and dedicate your resources in conjunction with another’s dedication, you are only flirting with reality." [14]
"You have to work your way back into Heaven, you see. You have to serve the separated world, the separated universe. You have to work your way back, through contribution and through self-development. You cannot return to your Ancient Home as a miserable, conflicted, contentious, grievous person. Heaven would seem like Hell to you, if that were the case." [1]
Heaven and Earth
"Think of Heaven as where you have come from and think of Hell as where you have been sent to serve—to help reclaim the separated, to support their re-association with Knowledge within themselves and to create a world where Knowledge is more evident than it is today, where inspiration is more evident than it is today, where harmony and cooperation is more evident than it is today. It is like you have come from Heaven, carrying a brick. And the brick is part of the foundation for a greater and more complete and more genuine reality here.” [2]
"The world that you see is really the product of these three things: the reality of Knowledge, the denial of Knowledge and the ignorance of Knowledge. In your heavenly state, there is only Knowledge, but you are not living in your heavenly state." [11]
"A mind that is serious in its outward direction and lighthearted in its internal delight will be a mind that is fully integrated. This will be a mind where Heaven and Earth touch." [15]
"You must always be watchful. That is part of being aware; that is part of being alive. This world is not your heavenly state." [16]
"You can never duplicate what God has created. In this temporary changing reality, it cannot be achieved. There will be no Heaven on Earth but there will be contribution to the Earth and to all worlds like this, of which there are countless." [6]
"To have God simply appear, that would strike terror in the hearts of just about everyone here. You are not ready for that. You are not ready for Heaven. That is why you must come now to serve. That is why God has given you a greater purpose for being here in this life." [6]
"People’s beliefs and assumptions and their metaphysical ideas and their religious values and their speculations all suffer from a kind of level confusion. They try to imagine a permanent blessed state called Heaven, but they cannot see it as it really is. They cannot resonate with it yet as it really is, for they are not ready for that. They have not been yet prepared for Heaven, to return. They are not complete in their service here in the physical reality. They have not completed their mission here." [6]
"You can’t return to your Ancient Home if your mind is set in Separation. You do not simply die and go to Heaven. You have to prepare for your Ancient Home, and that provides you a greater purpose for being in this physical reality, with all of its difficulties and challenges." [17]
"You cannot imagine the heavenly state. It is so very different from your life in the physical manifestation. You just cannot imagine it." [18]
"You are sent into the world to do something that you are not doing now and have no hope of doing unless something greater is given to you, unless you are called out of the crowd, unless your journey is altered by the power of Heaven." [1]
"In stillness all things can be known, for the mind is able to respond to Knowledge. Then, Knowledge will find expression in your specific thoughts and activities. Your mind was meant to serve Knowledge, as your body was meant to serve your mind. In this, the contribution from your True Home is able to express itself in the world of exile. Here Heaven and Earth touch, and when they touch, true communication begins to exist, and the transference of Knowledge is made into the world." [19]
"To re-engage your surface mind—your social mind, your worldly mind—with the deeper mind of Knowledge [is to] become really integrated. This is where you establish and experience your integrity. This is what gives you the strength and power of Heaven as you take your journey here on Earth." [20]
"This is not a punishment from God, but it does represent what life means if you are living apart from God, if you are living in Separation. Life will be changing. Life will be difficult. It will be a life unlike your Ancient Home, unlike your heavenly state, and you will have to face many adversities." [17]
"The return to God is not an intellectual enterprise. You do not come to God on your terms. Reality and Creation are not based on your understanding or evaluation. Heaven does not value your ideas, only your participation." [20]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 The Initiation (June 28, 2011)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Heaven & Hell (January 29, 2008))
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 The Reconciliation (May 2, 2011)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 The Shock of the Future (April 30, 2011)
- ↑ The New Message on Religion (July 20, 2009)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 What is Creation? (February 4, 2007)
- ↑ The Presence of the Teachers, August 26, 2008
- ↑ Greater Community Spirituality, Chapter 18: What is human destiny?
- ↑ The Allies of Humanity Book One, Third Briefing: A Great Warning
- ↑ God’s Power & Presence in the World (April 23, 2011)
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Taking the Steps to Knowledge (April 21, 2000)
- ↑ Steps to Knowledge Level IV
- ↑ Living The Way of Knowledge, Chapter 5: The Pillar of Work
- ↑ Living The Way of Knowledge, Chapter 8: Building Spiritual Community
- ↑ Steps to Knowledge, Step 225
- ↑ Signs from the World (November 7, 2008)
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 Nature and Natural Disasters (September 8, 2008)
- ↑ The Redeemer (January 18, 2010)
- ↑ Steps to Knowledge, Step 285
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 Destiny (April 12, 2011)