Without reading more about Mr. Levine (have some references for books or online?), I won't comment on his ideas. His ideas on the subject, which clearly reflect his Buddhist leaning, would seem to be somewhat in harmony with some of mine but I'd need to read more.

I do believe that we condemn ourselves to "Hell" (vs. being condemned) and that "Hell" is more of a state of existence/mind resulting from our "sin" or "spiritual death" (failure to find right relationship with our universe/world/community/selves) than a literal place.

Mendalla

When my Dad died my sister told me we would be living in hell for awhile. She told me when our Grandma died (b4 I was born) she thot that grandma went to heaven and the rest of us were plunged into hell. This fits. We did not want our Dad to be gone so we escaped. I used becoming a workaholic as my form of escapism. When I was at work I didn't have to deal with it. I was in hell for three years. I never reorganized my house. I just cleaned out a closet of my mother's clothes yesterday.

I think my brother has metamorphsed into the devil and that is his escape.

I think hell is very real but I do not believe that it is a physical place.

Hell as being more "self" conscious rather than God Conscious.

Mendella;

Yes I agree we condemn ourselves to hell especially in western society. Imagine living in the middle ages as a slave and being starved and abused daily. With no way out. I get that there is still a choice within the mind like survivors from the concentration camps say.

So the christian theology of salvation. Jesus died to save us from hell. There is no literal or physical hell like I once believed. In fact I have already been to hell and back in my life as I am sure many have. Jesus was not there to "prevent" me from going to hell. So how does christianity fit if it is not literal?

I'd say that Chrisitianity (as taught by Jesus, not necessarily as practiced) and other religious traditions provide paths (the Eightfold Path of Buddhism would be particularly relevant to Mr. Levine, I imagine) to right relationship so that can be "reborn" and escape our individual Hells.

Mendalla

"Our life is composed of events and states of mind. How we appraise our life from our deathbed will be predicated not only on what came to us in life but how we lived with it. It will not be simply illness or health, riches or poverty, good luck or bad, which ultimately define whether we believe we have had a good life or not, but the quality of our relationship to these situations: the attitudes of our states of mind."  Stephen Levine
 

Hi Serena,

What Stephen Levine says in the above quote seems to paint a picture of what hell or heaven for that matter is like. It has to do with our "states of mind" and the "attitudes of our states of mind." 

It seems to me that what we experience here, the lessons we learn have everything to do with our interactions with everything we perceive to be outside of us. Our interactions with God, with each other, with ourselves and with our environment. Our intent behind how we interact is what determines our state of being. 

I think as a sentient being we experience our interactions with each other and our environment to be a taste of both heaven (love based states of being) and hell (fear based states of being). In this world of duality we are able to experience what each is like and choose between the which one is most beneficial to our being.

To me the words you have opened this thread with is simply that presuming we are a preexistent soul, a being created in the image of God (Love) and each time we are in a state of being that is contrary to God (Love) we are in a hellish state of being.  Within each of us resides our connection to God (Love) and each time we create friction, agitation, etc. within our self, we create a wall that separates us from the connection with God at the core of our very being. Death is the creation of the wall and separates us from God. And each time we interact from fearful intent we die a little death. Each time we interact from a loving intent the more we are able to allow God (Love) to flow through us into the world.

Living in the present moment when the moment is filled with fear/pain/suffering is to embrace it with love rather than to create resistence to it. Living in the present moment is to remember our connection to the love that is always within each of us.

Lights;

I particularly like what u said about states of mind. On halloween night I was miserable. It was a week after my break up. I thot my heart would break. I lost my pirate hat at the bar. I slept in my clothes (in my sisters sparebedroom). I almost got picked up by a cute guy at the bar but I rebuffed him.

If I retell the story (like I did last night) minus the break up and prefacing it with "I was miserable" it can sound like I was having the time of my life. I can even project that feeling into that night. So yes it is about a state of mind. Even to myself I can change that night. The new bf thinks I was having the time of my life. Maybe I was and did not see it.

So each time we create a state of being in which we r separated from God we r in hell. Yes I have heard hell described as a separation from God.

I have long believed that Hell is seperation from GOD.

the picture you painted reminds me of the movie what dreams may come.  have you ever seen it?  heaven and hell are literally a state of mind.  "thought is real, physical is the illusion".  theheaven and hell in that movie are very much like that.

great movie.

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Perhaps u is just jealous of e (since it's the one most chosen). I guess that's a type of hell.

Yes, jon71, I agree: If heaven is unification with God, then hell is separation from God.