Heaven, hell and the Oneness

I once heard a story about a visit to heaven and hell. In both places the visitor saw many people seated at a table on which many delicious foods were laid out. Chopsticks over a meter long were tied to their right hands, while their left hands were tied to their chairs. In hell, however much they stretched out their arms, the chopsticks were too long for them to get food into their mouths. They grew impatient and got their hands and chopsticks tangled with one another’s. The delicacies were scattered here and there.
In heaven, on the other hand, people happily used the long chopsticks to pick out someone else’s favorite food and feed it to him, and in turn they were being fed by others. They all enjoyed their meal in harmony. –Shundo Aoyama, Zen Seed (From the book 365 Zen)

There is no separation which means we all are apart of each other. In turn, everything else is a part of everything and that also goes for heaven and hell. To think of a physical place which is called heaven or hell and to think of these places being a part from us and our world is in my opinion the stuff which fairytales are made of. It’s all actually the same exact place but then a big difference between the two is the Oneness of the people whom dwell within them. As we are all One; a way to arrive in heaven is to look at each other in a way that dictates sharing and helpfulness. Just as the Zen tale says, “In heaven, people happily used the long chopsticks to pick out someone else’s favorite food and feed it to him, and in turn they were being fed by others”. In hell however, people though of themselves only, they couldn’t see the Oneness between each other and therefore they weren’t able to achieve there goal which was in this case to get fed. The lesson to the Zen tale is easy, as we live our lives hope for the best for everyone, everywhere, all around and also, help in any way that is within our power which doesn’t cause harm to us personally so that they are able to achieve there goals and in turn you’ll gain the same help and end up just as happy. Be what you want the world to be, know that if you give then you will be given to as well, you just need to maintain a mind state of giving and it WILL occur within your life. Needless to say, when you do share and give you can’t sit there and expect anything back, that is the selfishness and as I said, you will receive what you ARE, this is how it works. It’s how heaven and hell works and its how life works as well. We create our realities, if you want something to be within your world then be that which you want, point blank. Heaven on earth is achievable, just be that heaven which you wish to obtain. In truth we already have and are that heaven which we all want so badly, we just need to claim it for ourselves and the way to do that is to simply BE that which we want.

Namaste