Where is Heaven?
“Earth's crammed with heaven... But only he who sees, takes off his shoes.” ― Elizabeth Barrett Browning
(I recently viewed a video on Facebook, a presentation by Bruce H. Lipton. It opens by saying that “it will literally blow your mind.” The hypothesis is that our general conception of the relationship between the body and the spirit is backward. By that, Lipton means that ‘who we are’ does not dwell within our bodies, but our spirit outwardly informs our personhood. Perhaps to say that we are not our body, but we are our spirit. Granting that thought, it seems reasonable because our body eventually dies, while our spirit is eternal. I want to share some of my reactive thoughts to this suggestion to pose questions- for myself and you if you would like to engage.)
The first thought I will share is initially gobsmacking. I did some research (I am not a scholar, just curious) about humans and their relationship to heaven and Earth. Generally, people view heaven as “above” or “beyond,” while we consider Earth a journey for our spirit. The shocking thing Lipton suggests is that our life on Earth is Heaven- actually. Our spirit ostensibly animates our body to experience the range of human experience, to glory in the Creation of God, and to know supreme joy along with the tragic aspects of life. Emotions and feelings range from the worst thing you can imagine to the highest state of mindful living.
I Peter 1:12 says about the Angels we presume to be in heaven (maybe it’s a different quality of heaven if we stay with the idea that Earth is heaven): “It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.”
Chassidic Thought, as expressed by Tzvi Freeman, states: “They (Angels) envy the visceral passion of an endocrine-driven, palpitating, throbbing, sweaty human being. “If only,” they yearn, “the serenity of our songs of love and awe could approach the unbridled ecstasy of that raw animal drive.” The angels glare in envy as the breath of G‑d descends below to become a human soul.” Interesting.
(I reassert at this point that these ideas are not my beliefs. They are ideas worthy of consideration.)
Years ago, I saw a movie titled “City of Angels.” The film depicted the Angels as moving about and observing human life. (Luke 4:10 says, ‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully…) One Angel, played by Nicholas Cage, became determined to know and experience life as a human. I don’t remember how, but he became a human. It was exhilarating and passionate. Of course, he fell in love- hard- with a young doctor, Meg Ryan. It was a supreme high for him. And then (of course) she was killed while caring for the victim of a car accident. As high as he had risen, he was now crushed to oblivion. Was it worth it? I leave that for you to consider.
If you have taken advantage of your life living in “earth Heaven,” I hope these ideas spur you to think about how wonderful your life is. The natural phenomena of this world can be a sensual thrill if you abandon your “programming”- i.e., everything other people ever told you to do or be or value. Allow your spirit self to guide you to actualize your true self. My experience over the past decade (better late than never) has been that letting go of my “training” opened me to wonders I can hardly express. My greatest wonder is “feeling” God embrace me every moment of the day. A wonderful gift we can give ourselves is unlearning what we have learned and, moving into the future, experiencing ourselves in a new, more relevant paradigm.
I didn’t talk about the soul in this essay because it wasn’t an aspect of the video I had viewed. But I will insert this little chart that may help you delineate body-soul-spirit:
Thanks for reading!
“Let’s all ‘chew some cud’ over these ideas. Shall we?”
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it" Aristotle