reply to post by Akragon
I became Christian when I was 21 (I'm in my mid thirties now) and it was completely synchronistic with falling in love for the first time, I felt
that I had been turned inside out, or as if I'd spent a million years face down in the earth and had suddenly woken up, or made some sort of decision
just to turn around and 'see the light'. So yeah, all the cliches apply and I definitely think you have to understand the Christ principle as love
in order to grasp what Christianity is and means in all its mystic, cosmic, psychological and historical implications.
What I understand by 'heaven' is a certain quality and intensity of being that transcends space and time - this means that to be in union with
Christ, in love, at any given point in one's live, is to experience heaven. Most, if not all of us, experience heaven at some stage in our lives. Of
course the reverse is also true in that it is possible as well to experience 'eternal hell' while on this earth, which is something anyone who's
suffered greatly - with the loss of a loved one, depression, or something terrible happening - will readily understand. Most of us, I think, can
understand this - probably all of us.
In terms of what happens when we leave this Earth, I do believe there is also the potential to break the wheel of suffering, as Buddha put it, by the
dual action of Salvation from above (via Christ) and personal upward action of atonement through prayer, purification of karma, good works and so on.
Christianity is a step forward from Buddhism, which set out the methods for a person to save themselves over many, many, many incarnations. Christ
would teach some similar methods in order for disciple to complete the 'great work', to walk the path of return and participate in the saving of the
world by self sacrifice and purification, but the task is infinitely more 'simple' (ie, destined to succeed), because we are met by the redeeming
force of the King of Love and Prince of Peace = the promise of the rainbow.
What I think is sorely misunderstood is the divine feminine aspect of Christianity and indeed Christ, due to the patriarchal state of most churches.
Many consider the Holy Spirit aspect of the Trinity - the active, vivifying force, the wind that blows where it will - to be the feminine....