metaphysical interdependence

I know what you are thinking, what does this have to do with independence? I went to the Old City Cemetery today to paint. Naturally, it got me thinking about life and death. The cemetery represents the conclusion of the cycle of life. According the map at the cemetery many bodies are buried on top of each other.

Only through death are we fully liberated from our material desires, our obligations, and all of the trials and tribulations that make it difficult to be a human being. Every persons cosmology is unique, these days I find myself prone to the belief that only in the conclusion of your life will the universes infinite nature be revealed to you. It seems fair; if we suffer through life and the pain of our incomplete knowledge, when we finally finish we should be rewarded with the truth about the space, time, and the source of life.

The problem with this philosophy is that it doesn't include any kind of punishment for a life of misbehavior. Or...maybe it does, perhaps punishment is never knowing, or maybe even having to suffer through life again and again until you figure it out. To be whole we must realize that positive concepts create negatives concepts. For there to be heaven, or enlightenment, than there must be an absence of heaven. However, an absence of heaven is not hell. IF God does exist, than I think it is a pantheistic God including all of the universe, infinite, all knowing, all pervading, and totally complete.

The bible seems to have it's heart in the right place, but it has created a religious monster! Why would a god that is kind and loving create a place like hell? Hell almost negates what God is! The idea was to create a guide to help us live in harmony, but over time that objective has been lost. IF God is real than I believe that our sole purpose is to be happy. This happiness is achieved through an enlightened understanding of the interdependence of all things. This understanding prevents hatred and fear and promotes living a life of mutual cooperation through the realization that we are equal and necessary parts of the universe. Now here is the part that no one will like, the way we achieve this higher consciousness is through love!

Love is the only thing that gives meaning to our temporal existence, love removes pain, love moves to include the unloving! There is no higher action than selfless love. Our united destiny is to return hatred with love. Being loving is being unafraid, through the action of love we fully realize and embrace our interdependence.

Why love everyone and everything? Why suppress your predispositions? Why should our primary concern be the welfare of the earth and it's inhabitants? Because what is missing in your life is a feeling of wholeness, of a higher level of openness, of inner peace that you can attain(and you know you can attain it). When we are reaching towards this goal we are becoming closer to God(maybe?), closer to being one with our universe, and more importantly, we are becoming closer to the understanding of what will be shown to us at the conclusion of our lives.