Heaven and Hell on Earth

A samurai went to see the Zen Master, Hakuin, and asked, "Does heaven exist? Does hell exist? Where are they? Where can I enter?"

He was a warrior. Warriors only know two things: Life and death. He had not come to learn any doctrine; I just wanted to know where the doors were, so I could avoid hell and get into heaven.

Hakuin replied in a way that only a warrior could understand: "Who are you?" he asked.

"I am a samurai," the warrior replied.

Hakuin laughed and replied "A samurai, you? You look like a beggar."

The pride of the samurai felt hurt and the anger clouded his mind, he forgot so that he had come, drew his sword with the intention of killing Hakuin, when the master added:

"Behold, the gates of hell are opened, this sword, this anger, this ego, open the doors for you."

Immediately the samurai understood. He put the sword back in his belt and bowed bowing to the master, while the latter said: "And behold, the gates of heaven are opened."

"The mind is heaven, the mind is hell and it has the capacity to become any of them, but people still think that they exist somewhere, outside of themselves, heaven and hell are not at the end of the life, they are here and now, at every moment the doors open... in a second you can go from heaven to hell, from hell to heaven, if you look inside yourself, you will find that all your thoughts are creating you and your life, create your hell, create your heaven, create your misfortune and your joy, the negative and the positive that is in you."

Source: Ancient Japanese Fable.

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That is the power of the mind, the power to give a meaning to the things we do and the moments we live, is the only thing that makes a minute of our life pleasant or painful, sad or happy, is what defines the way we feel the present.

It is also the mind that makes us be in our highest aptitudes, and that which makes us fall into the lowest of our existence, be in heaven or in hell. If we do all the time what we believe in ourselves that is right, then we will not have to repent and we can be sure that we have done the best we could do.

Without wanting to bring this to fields relevant to religion, I believe that everyone can easily understand the concept of heaven and hell on earth, and as we are ourselves, those with our actions, decisions, and our way of thinking, we create this atmosphere . Even in the darkest places on earth there is a piece of heaven that we can see, if we are willing to think and act in the way necessary to see it.