Jesus was once asked when the kingdom of God would come. The kingdom of God, Jesus answered, is not something people will be able to see and point at, instead, he said:
Neither shall they say, Lo here! Or, lo there! For, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. ~ (Luke 17:21)
Jesus spoke a truth that is timeless and universal. I have read through many religious holy books and spiritual scripts and often they all share the same precept — that life’s greatest treasure, its ultimate truth, resides within us.
But what about the Kingdom of Hell and the Devil? Is hell within us?
My experience is that Hell is not a flaming hole under the earth. Hell is actually a spiritual place of torment that we carry around every day.
The Gates of Sin
You see glimpses of Heaven and glimpses of Hell around us every day. We see heaven in the magnificent beauty and acts of goodness we experience, and Hell in the wretched feelings we experience and injustices we perceive.
Few people know that the word ‘sin’ comes from the Greek word Hamartia (ἁμαρτία), which, when translated actually means “to miss the mark” or “to miss the target“. This changes the whole modern day concept of sin. When we are small, we’re taught that to sin is to be a terrible person. So many of us carry around the guilt of the mistakes we’ve made, thinking we’re horrid people.
I grew up in a Catholic household and the discovery of the true definition of Sin revolutionized my perception of life entirely. I had been taught sinning was to do something wrong, to be a bad person. But the true definition means to make a mistake, it means that I wasn’t a bad person (guilt), and I had only done something misguidedly (shame). Sins were meant to be a guideline to help us go through life in such a way as to cause the least amount of harm possible, to ourselves and others.
Deep down before I discovered this revelation, I only felt constant guilt for being a bad person. If sin is seen as an act of badness, it makes you feel guilty and dirty. I couldn’t feel like a religious person at all with this mindset.
In fact, guilt became a barrier to experience any divine feelings of gratitude and love.
The Devil Called Karma
If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. ~ (Matthew 5:29)
If you were to take Jesus’ words literally at face value, he would sound like a ruthless brute. But Jesus was a loving man, and with this new understanding of sin, you see what he was really trying to say: if one eye is making you perceive the world sinfully, get rid of it. It’s a metaphor that tries to teach us to become aware of whatever is making us sin and remove it.
Karma is often thought of as an external force that creates justice, that balances the world out. It teaches us that bad people have bad things happen to them.
The mistake of the ‘sins’ concept is thinking that changing the external acts will change the internal being as well. Changing the surface of something by making you afraid of it cannot change its core, or the source of the behavior. To change where it ends (external actions) you have to change where it begins (the way you perceive it).
You also often see people complain about the same mistakes, for example, women complaining that they always end up with the wrong guys that cheat on them or take them for granted. Repeat offenses are also very common amongst criminals who, according to statistics, re-offend almost 50% of the time (of the ones that are caught).
Why does this happen? The mystical religion of the Upanishads consider the concept of ‘sin’ as darkness. They teach that the reason why we sin, the reason why we cause harm to ourselves and others is because we are unaware. But if you shed some light into your darkness, if you become more alert and start questioning your continuous unconscious habits, then you will stop sinning.
Karma is wrongly confused with the notion of having a fixed destiny. The truth is that Karma is constantly in the making, and we have an accumulation of tendencies (all the way back to childhood) that can lock us into particular behaviour patterns. If I’m a criminal, commit crimes and have surrounded myself with other criminals from a young age, I shouldn’t be surprised if something bad happens to me. Not because I’m a bad person, but because my negative behaviour and perception of life attracts negative forces around me.
If you are alert, if you are mindful of everything that you do, then bad things stop happening as much as they do when you live with unmindfulness. In fact, you begin to see the true consequences of your ‘sinful’ actions or impulses to both yourself and other people, and you begin to make decisions to avoid doing them.
For instance, giving into ‘sinful’ temptation by seeking quick stimulation by cheating on my partner will have long lasting consequences in the form of guilt and negative emotions. These will affect my relationship, possibly resulting in its termination and both of our unhappiness. Instead, with mindfulness, I could become aware of my dissatisfaction, communicate it, and try to create stronger bonds through new activities with my partner to find greater stimulation again.
It’s easy to blame karma for all the bad things that happen to us. It’s easy to attribute our suffering to external forces that are out of our control. But these aren’t responsible, in fact, we carry out karma with our lack of mindfulness and awareness. It’s our actions that cause our mistakes, and our ‘sins’.
The Devil Comes In Many Forms
Aimless television watching, eating fast food instead of preparing your own, playing vacuous games on your smart phone or holding grudges instead of communicating them. There are many ways we commit sins against ourselves every day.
We all carry a Devil inside, trying to trick us into indulging primitive pleasure impulses (violence, stimulation, sex) or habitual addictive behaviours. We’ve all experienced this inner conflict, this duality, of Good versus Evil, refraining ourselves from wanting to do something because we know it’s bad.
Hell is a place that is ever present, it exists when you ‘miss the mark’ of being mindful of your ‘sinful’ temptations that harm yourself and others. Hell is a cycle of endless suffering. If you’ve ever found yourself inside one of those life cycles where you’ve hit rock bottom, making mistake after mistake, it feels eternal with no way out.
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If the Kingdom of Heaven/God is only a mindful action away, then why not try it? Religion’s only concern should be with your behaviour and personal responsibility, and deep down, isn’t that what religion is all about? Yet somehow we always focus on other people and their sins. Preoccupying ourselves with other people’s mistakes is a good way to feel relief by avoiding the focus on our own.
Once you see sin as a transgression to yourself, without the ‘deadly’ religious punishment element, it becomes a very helpful tool to enhance the quality of your life. Start by asking yourself: is what I’m doing right now harming myself or someone else in some way? Could I be doing something that would benefit me more? There’s a reason why Sloth is on that seven sinful mistakes list.
Thinking of ‘sin’ as creating harm against ourselves is much more useful than thinking of it as violating a spiritual ‘code of conduct’ or destined Karma force. You’ll see the results in this lifetime as well.
I’m a TBI (traumatic brain injury) survivor for 7 years now. How can I find my destiny? purpose?
My dear, I’m sure this would help. I know you have been in a very critical situation in which your fight for your life daily. But today you have a good news and that is, you have a hope. I’m not sure if you are a Christian or not and have heard about Jesus or not but today he stands fully prepared at the door of your life to give you deliverance and healing. Find a copy of the bible and read Mathew 11:28 Jesus in his own word said that, “come to me all who weary and burdens, and I will give you rest.” Don’t allow human knowledge to confuse you. Everyone on earth’s a pilgrim that will surely pass on to an eternal destination. Life on earth is just temporary. There is a haven and a hell and you need Jesus Christ in your life. Jesus can even heal you immediately depending on your faith. He is just beside you right now and wants you to accept him into your life. He said in the book of John 14:6 that “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except by me.” He is off course the life that your are so concerned about. Finally, the bible in the book of Romans 8:28 say that “in all things, God works for the good of those who love him and those whom he has called according to his purpose.” So if you don’t know that there is a God that you needs to love him because his love for you is unconditional, you have to love him and offer your breath to him now so that he will tell you your purpose of existence. God of the Holy Bible is the final hope after exhausting all avenues of remedy for your illness. I recommend you try him now, I’ve experienced him working in the lives of thousands like you.
This article is so powerful and sums up every question I had on this issue!! simply dynamic it is!!
Thank you Zaynah :)
Wow. This one really is amazing. Recently I’m going through a divorce because of my missing the mark. For weeks I’ve been letting the inner voice tell me that I’m going to hell. Guess what. I’ve been living in he’ll by my own choice. Unable to forgive myself. My perception of everything around me has been hellish. My kids are continuing to suffer. No more.
Using the same analogy we could very well say the Gates of St Peter have opened for you. It’s wonderful to hear that Joe.
Thank you so much for this powerful article. I’m still wrestling with my inner demons, perhaps like Jacob did. But I know what you have said to be true. I’ve always known it, but until it became Blatant to me, I was really lost and confused. Good Words. Thank you, Mateo.
You’re most welcome Deb, sometimes we require a ‘slap’ of realization to fully accept what we intuitively knew. Thank you for sharing your experience.
Very very insightful !!! ….couldn’t help sharing !!! Thank you so much Sol ..you both are awesome !!!
There are no words to tell you how much I appreciate LonerWolf. Been “cool” if you had existed
many moons ago, but everything happens for a reason, you are here now, How about, “when
one has seen hell, everything else is heaven.” ? Not literalky, of course.
Hola Sea,
Thank you for your kind words, it’s wonderful to have a medium today in which all of us can connect throughout the world.
That’s a good way to look at hell, it’s an essential ingredient in our happiness the awareness of the possibility that sadness also exists.
I love these articles I’ve been saying these exact things for years… keep them coming :)
We definitely will Jodi!
Great read, thank you. Truly hell is something we carry around with us. I would like to recommend a book called the ‘Present’ with religion, it’s online. Do read it, it’s mind-opening. You guys are so wise and awesome, but this book talks about the life and truth and I thought it was pretty interesting. Maybe there are some things you might take in to mind from this book. :)
Hola Jen,
Thank you for taking the time to read it. As Sartre put it; “Hell is in other people” because coming in contact with other people allows us to come in contact with our selves, what we like and dislike, they work as mirrors into our depth.
I’ve come across different pages of TruthContest here and there, it does look like an interesting read and I’ll definitely look into it more when I get some free time.
I’ve personally tried to stay away from religious explorations for now on this website as they do create a lot of friction between different interpretations.
The best path to truth is one of individual experience rather than relying on the words of dead masters but I know it is equally as necessary as many people have been brought up to think of these teachings and the interpretations they have been given as the only paths without anyone providing anything different.
I always want to make a commeny because your articles are just wonderful! Thank you, alot. I hope you keep doing what you do :) It makes me happy and I’m sure it’s the same for others too!
Gracias Jen, it means a lot to me to see how deeply our work affects our readers lives and awakens a newly found thirst for knowledge and self-understanding.
I love this. You touched upon some very important stuff! Your insights are much appreciated :)
Thank you Lib, it’s wonderful to know our experiences are shared by many of our readers.
Hey Mateo, I appreciate you writing out this article and making sense of something that is so complex. It has helped shed light on personal dilemmas for me. I cannot express enough gratitude to you and Luna for creating this website. Thank you.
Hola Jaz,
I gain immense joy from sharing those small personal realizations I have and seeing how many other people find such light for their own paths from it.
Thank you for being open and receptive to my words and having the strength to incorporate it into your life to overcome your dilemmas. :)
Warmly,
Sol
This is an interesting article with mindful thoughts, what tells one secret from our world. Actually I’m happy, that someone is sharing the ideal, what is similar to my mindset. I was seeking many pages, that tells you about loners ideals, but i couldn’t find one that is fit my taste. Well, Lonerwolf does.
I guess there’s still hope…
I want to share my optinion about this too:
The heaven and hell, it is living inside of us, not outside, there are no hell below us, yet heaven is not only in skies…
Humans soul can be divided to two category: the good, and pure, and the evil, and sinner.
If i use christian words, i would call the good one the god, and the evil one the devil.
About the evil one: It is mostly expose itself in desires, anger and fear, and always ends up in suffering. The evil one is caused by divided attention, brings you always to bad results. Desires can be bad, because you never feel yourself satisfied, you always want more, keep feeding yourself with useless things.
Anger is again bad, because you loose your common reasoning, you would say things that you normally wouldn’t, you would even hurt your family member (if you go far).
Fear is the most annoying bug, it prevents you to accomplish anything, you always keep failing, and you will fail, it doesn’t matter how hard you try to not.
Well, what happens when one is not feeded, and doesn’t get any nourishment? Yeah, he will die in no time. Like living beings must get food in order to live, the devils must be feeded, unless he will die. And this is where god comes in…
About the good soul: I can’t say where its expose itself, but its (features) are: eternal, pure, good will, and never fails, or in other word: perfect. It’s the absolute opposite of the devil, it doesn’t have to kept alive, rather it is sleep within us, only the concentrated mind can awaken it. I shall call this the God.
Well, God is eternal, beacuse never dies, cannot be changed, have fix will, unlimited knowledge, and controls everything (this world is cannot function without a god). If you look around in this world, you’ll see, that everything is related to everything, everything makes sense, everything has its own function, everyone has their own activity, for their taste.
I said It never fails. Fear is one of devils activity, and this kind of activities are become habits, if not resisted. Fear is when you afraid to do something, you doubting yourself, and most likely you will fail. But if you not afraid, its have an effect on your whole behavior: you can think clearly, you’re not doubting yourself. I guess this will change something…
Well, that’s enough for a comment.
I believe there are many reasons that drive people to become “Loners”, dissatisfaction with the present way we look at the world and the atrocities that occurs, and seeking deeper understand and wisdom to solve this is a very strong motive.
I whole heartedly agree with your comment, and think is wonderful that you share a great understanding of your inner Heaven and Hell…in turn, it helps you understand others.
To simplify it I guess, we could say the world is composed of two things, Love and Fear. Love basically embodies all the good (or God, as the two words originate from the same place) qualities and Fear/Devil all the bad qualities.
Hate, negative attitudes and self destructive behaviours, when you follow them to their roots, to their very origins, they lead to a sense of fear. Fear of poverty, of ridicule, of death, of the unknown…everything can be traced back to the evil.
Thank you for a great comment!
Wow…wordless in a way, as I have never really had my eyes opened this much before and yet it all makes a kind of sense to me like I have always known. Some might say, “this makes it all sound so easy, heaven and all, and so lighthearted.” But you have made a great point, Sol. “It’s easy to attribute suffering to external forces that out of our control” Wish I went to the church of Sol’s sense and saw the light so clearly before.
I am happy you enjoyed the article! It really changed the way I looked at the world when I discovered this and I feel so many could benefit from such a small thing. This is also the premise behind stuff like the Law of Attraction that has been branded in modern times under teachings like The Secret.
Thank you for leaving your thoughts :)
I’ve made my choice,666.lol
Perhaps the choice was already made for you? Many of our choices aren’t choices at all, they are often symptoms or impulses from a deeper root.
888 sounds like a more infinite and complete number :)
I witnessed HELL and innate EVIL last night when I watched the movie “The Power of One”. I was even afraid to cry.
Hello Tess!
I have been waiting a while to watch that movie, I’m amazed at the power I have heard it has over the viewer.
Deep down though, most of the movies, documentaries and stories I have seen seem to share similar roots of where the evil comes from. Egos that seek power, respect, greed or dominance over others. Evils that emerge from an unconscious mind that is unaware of the forces that enslave their desires and actions.
That is the exact reason I have dedicated much of my work to the awareness of Involution, to make slow changes in many peoples internal Kingdoms of Hell.
This concept of the “kingdom of heaven” or the “kingdom of hell” being an attitude within a person is basically how it was understood by the poorest people of Israel and the middle-east who spoke Aramaic, the language of Christ. All the stuff about sin is basically common sense. You can cheat….but the unclaimed child might inadvertently fuck their own sister, auntie, grandpa, dad, etc… common sense.
Thank you for sharing your understanding of this, it is a shame that this simple message has been manipulated and misguided down through history to turn such a simple thing into such a dangerous ideology, mostly through self destruction.
We need more people to understand much of what is said in the bible and other religious scriptures in its true sense, but unfortunately when the master dies, so do his words, as they are left open to the interpretation of those who still do not understand the meaning of those words in the sense that the master intended.
Sol
How often it seems that the poorest know more wisdom than the richest. This was an interesting fact to add on to an already fascinating article. Thank you!