Heaven and Hell

Karma is a notion I’ve always liked. Not so much literally. Not necessarily because I believe that I used to be Cleopatra’s bartender–but more metaphorically.

The karmic philosophy appeals to me on a metaphoric level because even in one lifetime it’s obvious how often we must repeat the same mistakes, banging our heads against the same old addictions and compulsions, generating the same old miserable and often catastrophic consequences, until we can finally stop and fix it.

This is the supreme lesson of karma (and also of Western psychology, by the way)–take care of the problems now, or else you’ll just have to suffer again later when you screw everything up the next time. And that repetition of suffering–that’s hell.

Move out of that endless repetition to a new level of understanding–that’s where you’ll find heaven.