Here's an old Zen story on the difference between heaven and hell.
A samurai warrior.
Came to an old Zen master and asked the question.
What is the difference between heaven and hell?
And the Zen master responded,
Who are you to come to me with a question like this?
If I gave you the answer,
You wouldn't even be able to understand it.
And he continued like this,
Criticizing the samurai warrior.
And he went on and on and the warrior got more and more defensive and angry to the point that he pulled his sword out and went to attack the Zen master.
And here the Zen Master's tone changed,
And he said,
Open the gates of hell.
And the samurai warrior understanding the message,
Put a sword away.
Kneeled to the ground and bowed.
And the Zen master said,
Here open the gates of heaven.
This is how the Zen stories tend to go.
The student,
Or whoever's in the role of the student,
The samurai warrior here,
Comes with some sort of question that lives in the thinking mind.
And then the teacher shows them the answer.
Show,
Don't tell.
That tends to be the teacher's response.
Here open the gates of hell,
This kind of energy.
Here open the gates of heaven.
This kind of energy.
I do think there might be some key to the gates of a living heaven that connects to the energy of humility.
A humility.
A humility that is also incredibly liberating and freeing.
Here open the gates of hell.
Here open the gates of heaven.
