Go to the truth beyond the mind. Love is the bridge.
Stephen LevineRead
Hell is not fire and brimstone, not a place where you are punished for lying or cheating or stealing. Hell is wanting to be something and somewhere different from where you are.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Hell represents a state of discontent and longing for something different rather than a physical place of punishment.
In this quote, Stephen Levine suggests that true hell is not about the traditional images of fire and punishment, but rather the inner turmoil one experiences when desiring to be in a different situation or state of existence. It highlights the emotional and psychological suffering that arises from lack of acceptance and longing for change, implying that our own dissatisfaction can create a personal hell.
Themes
HellDiscontentLongingAcceptanceSuffering
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech about embracing your current life situation.
More from Stephen Levine
All quotes →In Chinese, the word for heart and mind is the same -- Hsin. For when the heart is open and the mind is clear they are of one substance, of one essence.
Stephen LevineRead
I have seen many die, surrounded by loved ones, and their last words were ‘I love you.’ There were some who could no longer speak yet with their eyes and soft smile left behind that same healing message. I have been in rooms where those who were dying made it feel like sacred ground. (26)
Stephen LevineRead
Our suffering is caused by holding on to how things might have been, should have been, could have been.
Stephen LevineRead
If there is a single definition of healing it is to enter with mercy and awareness those pains, mental and physical, from which we have withdrawn in judgment and dismay. (48)
Stephen LevineRead
I have seem even those who have long since abjured God die in grace. . . . Atheists don't use their drying to bargain for a better seat at the table; indeed they may not even believe supper is being served. They are not storing up 'merit.'; They just smile because their heart is ripe. They are kind for no particular reason; they just love.
Stephen LevineRead
Similar quotes
We worship perfection because we can't have it; if we had it, we would reject it. Perfection is inhuman, because humanity is imperfect.
Fernando PessoaRead
Te Occidere Possunt Sed Te Edere Non Possunt Nefas Est" ("They can kill you, but the legalities of eating you are quite a bit dicier").
David Foster WallaceRead
The first stage of this tranquility consists in silencing the lips when the heart is excited. The second, in silencing the mind when the soul is still excited. The goal is a perfect peacefulness even in the middle of the raging storm.
John ClimacusRead
That is what worship is all about. It is the glad shout of praise that arises to God the creator and God the rescuer from the creation that recognizes its maker, the creation that acknowledges the triumph of Jesus the Lamb. That is the worship that is going on in heaven, in God's dimension, all the time. The question we ought to be asking is how best we might join in.
N. T. WrightRead
It's coexistence or no existence.
Bertrand RussellRead
Where God tears great gaps we should not try to fill them with human words.
Dietrich BonhoefferRead