A Brief History of Cultural Hell

Originally Posted by linen53

It takes a lot of bravery to face ourselves. You're doing an excellent job!

..............

[grannymary]

Originally Posted by Gracey

what are you thoughts on it?

I am most familiar with Roman Catholic and Jewish kabalah and yet I had a period where I studied Byzantine history and the Eastern Orthidox religion is closely bound all portions of that life.

It's been a while though since I actually studied scripture and my memory is mostly now emotional threads. And things always find a way of cross mixing. Off the top of my head some thoughts come up.

I never heard of the Jewish purgatory or Sheol as their hell, a place of "shadows and ghosts" but there are so very many many things within that tradition that I'd never know without being brought up in it.

I always associate their version of hell with the condition of "concealment" and I remember that the Hebrew word olam for world also means hidden. The temporary corporal nature of earthly existence as I understood while studying Jewish spiritual scriptures is such that until a person develops a spiritual life, then it would be as though they are experiencing shadows and ghosts. This is due to the belief that anything that isn't eternal is not actually real. This is a state or a condition of existence outside of "world without end"

Like being asleep or in dreaming. Or nightmare.

My lens of understanding is so influenced by this time of my life spent studying the Kabbalah, so when I see all the different kinds of hell lt seems to indicate in mind the degree of enlightenment that is being concealed. The dark side reveals the light. The big picture purpose is revelation from the context of opposites.

Yama is like the dark side of the yin yang symbol and Yamataka the light side. And my mind sees in it then the two faced angel. The angel of death and the angel of life. It's one in the same.

The battles between the two signify the spiritual journey of a soul as it comes to be enlightened. so quota of pain is related to the degree of, or weight/density of, or thickness of, or shade of an ego in the condition of concealment.


[quote=Gracey]“Ignorance is the mother of all evil.”
Jesus said in the Dead Sea Scrolls.
I am reminded of the writing "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" where the question arises whether it's better to be happy in ignorance or to endure the pains that must come to become wise.

I wanted to go for wisdom and the more I studied and tried to understand the more ignorant I became. The darkness inside too dark What a thing. It's been so long since thinking of these things. It seems to me that one day long ago I made a conscious descision to put all books away and forget about all that stuff.

Instead I love the Tao, earthy lore. Just a feminine enjoyment of embodiment and mundane work and simplicity and the divine in it. My mind on the other hand is resting more than working.

I must add a thought about the love of God as hell....
This is like a person being in the direct sunlight and I'm thinking of a dessert like condition, and zero coverage or water. This is certain and very unpleasant death. The pleasure of God is not safe in such a direct way, thus we have many souls all around us who then filter the love of god for us and we may then receive pleasure through it. This filter is called "not for self". Like having a delicious dessert because to not eat this dessert would deprive the chef of the pleasure of you enjoying the dessert. Something like that.

Thanks for asking

It has been a decade or so since I studied religions and philosophies. I wrote this some time ago as well. I did read the Tao about a year ago though. I really like it and have some t-shirts with some Tao sayings on them. :) I also like Hinduism and the Kabbalah. They seemed very familiar to me as I read them.

I was thinking more along the lines that the love of God makes some ill. It is torture for them. Perhaps because they are ignorant of it, dont understand it, fear it and push it away. Think of someone or an animal that has been severely abuse. A normal reaction to love is to reject it due to the conditioning of being hurt.

[grannymary]

Originally Posted by Gracey

It has been a decade or so since I studied religions and philosophies. I wrote this some time ago as well. I did read the Tao about a year ago though. I really like it and have some t-shirts with some Tao sayings on them. :) I also like Hinduism and the Kabbalah. They seemed very familiar to me as I read them.

I was thinking more along the lines that the love of God makes some ill. It is torture for them. Perhaps because they are ignorant of it, dont understand it, fear it and push it away. Think of someone or an animal that has been severely abuse. A normal reaction to love is to reject it due to the conditioning of being hurt.

Yes. People who suffered abuse are more likely to distrust and fear and even recoil from love. Or react in anger. I remember very clearly one time after a sever thrashing how twisted and angry I felt. Everything turned off and it took me some time to return. I feel that it was God who helped me. I used to think it was imagination at first but I feel that I was able to respond to this love bit by bit. but then I was not subjected to continual repeat horrors of the sort I've read about in child abuse cases, or war crime cases, or slave and sexwork traffic organizations. I am full of hope that one day those terrible harmful ways will become obsolete when humanity evolves into a conscious aware integrated life form.

So anyways I want to say how much I loved to look at all the different traditions and religions and When it came to Hinduism I found it hard to navigate because there is a God for everything and there's just so very many and I can't remember the names because the language is so foreign and hard to retain in my brain. So now I've found that instead of studying from the brain I should go into it from the feeling and this is by imagery and sounds like music and yoga. I must say I love this particular tradition for the sensual richness it bears and it honestly feels like heaven on earth. The spice of the world comes from here more than anywhere. And Enlightenment.

Off to work I go. Have a great day.

I just learned about Matt Kahn last week. I have been watching his videos.

For me, the presence of God always has been aware in myself. I studied religions and many other subjects in hopes to understand spiritual happenings that were occurring in my life that I never even fathomed before.

[Macsen1961]

Well, if I may point out a few omissions from the list of hell(s):

Fort Benning GA, Bootcamp and anytime during a Georgia summer.

Newark NJ, Hell Michigan, Hell Norway, and Hell California.

Considering the time and lack of sufficient coffee intake, a better response will be forthcoming.

[linen53]

Houston, Texas in the summer can be added to your list Macsen.

I will have to add Orlando Florida when I was in boot camp for the Navy during July and August.