Heaven and Hell… Heaven on Earth… Can you get to heaven while living on earth?
Let me start with a story from my favorite novel, The Journeys of Socrates:
…a proud and hot-tempered young samurai who routinely cut down any peasant who gave the least offense. In those days, samurai were a law unto themselves, and such behavior was accepted according to custom.
But one day, after another killing, as he cleaned the blood from his blade and returned it to his scabbard, the young samurai began to worry that the gods might disapprove of his actions and send him to a hellish realm. Desirous to know about eternity, he visited the humble abode of a Zen master named Kanzaki. With expected courtesy, the samurai removed his razor-sharp katana (sword) and set it alongside him, bowed deeply, and said, “Please tell me of heaven and hell!”