Where Is Heaven?

Yoga doesn't start with a promise of heaven, it starts with the theory of the body. Everybody understands the body, therefore, yoga talks about the nervous system, energy, emotions, intellect, brain, glands, hormones, endocrines. Anybody who has been to school can understand this and they can't deny it at all.  – Swami Satyananda Saraswati

I can imagine some of my friends rolling their eyes at the question “where is Heaven?”  After all it is only naïve people who believe in some “pie in the sky when we die.”  Heaven and Hell are imaginary places promised to us based on our behavior.  It’s all part of a reward and punishment scheme to keep us under control.  The question “where is heaven?” might just as well be “where can I find a unicorn?”  Still, heaven and unicorns persist in our collective consciousness.  I’m sure there are unicorns in heaven.   

The naïve medieval view of heaven positions it somewhere above us in the sky.  Astronomy has taken us to the far reaches of the universe without discovering any heavenly realm.  From a psychological perspective we might say that heaven is a projection of our needs and desires.  It is a place of total security like a return to the womb.  Some might see it as a place of sensual gratification denied in this life.  But there are deeper aspects of this concept, this phenomenon referred to as heaven.

For one thing, it is cross-cultural.  Joseph Campbell says, “The realms of the gods and demons - heaven, purgatory, hell - are of the substance of dreams. Myth, in this view, is the dream of the world.”  Even primitive pre-Christian people had some theory of heaven.  Perhaps there is some celestial origin latent in our collective unconscious to which we long to return.  As the mystical poet Rumi put it, “My soul is from elsewhere, I'm sure of that, and I intend to end up there.”  Many of us have a deep longing for something transcendent, something beyond this experience of separation.

Mythological notions of heaven are necessarily dualistic.  Mystics however are able to enter in a nondual state of consciousness which transcends space, time and becoming.  They have gotten a glimpse behind the veil of illusion.  For the mystic heaven is an experience, a state of consciousness.  Remember, Jesus said that “the Kingdom of Heaven is within.”  It isn’t “somewhere” that we go after we die, but a state of being that we can access here and now.  In fact, there is no future outside of our imaginations.  What exists, exists here and now.  It’s up to us whether it is heaven or hell (or some lukewarm space in between). 

In the Vedantist/Buddhist traditions heaven is recognized as an illusion.  We may accumulate enough “good deeds” in this life time to receive a heavenly reward, but just like all phenomenal existence it is only temporary.  As long as the experience of heaven is dualistic it is subject to impermanence.  As long as we believe in heaven as a separate place it dissolves in front of us.  We can only find heaven by letting go of it.  We have to understand that “heaven” lies within us.

Author, Anita Moorjani, writes about her afterlife experience in “Dying to Be Me.”  In it she recounts her struggle with terminal cancer, near death experience (NDE) and recovery.  She reports that the “afterlife” is a place of absolute, unconditional love.  Among other things she writes of her realization, “In truth, I’m not my body, my race, religion, or other beliefs, and neither is anyone else.  The real self is infinite and much more powerful – a complete and whole entity that isn’t broken or damaged in any way.  The infinite me already contains all resources I need to navigate through life, because I’m One with universal energy.  In fact, I am universal energy.” 

It isn’t somewhere far out in the universe accessed after death, it’s something present within us yet unrecognized.  There is Zen Parable recounted by Daniel Goleman in Emotional Intelligence that truly brings heaven down to earth:

“A belligerent samurai, an old Japanese tale goes, once challenged a Zen master to explain the concept of heaven and hell. But the monk replied with scorn, “You’re nothing but a lout—I can’t waste my time with the likes of you!”

His very honor attacked, the samurai flew into a rage and, pulling his sword from its scabbard, yelled, “I could kill you for your impertinence.”

“That,” the monk calmly replied, “is hell.”

Startled at seeing the truth in what the master pointed out about the fury that had him in its grip, the samurai calmed down, sheathed his sword, and bowed, thanking the monk for the insight.

 “And that,” said the monk, “is heaven.”

The sudden awakening of the samurai to his own agitated state illustrates the crucial difference between being caught up in a feeling and becoming aware that you are being swept away by it. Socrates’s injunction “Know thyself” speaks to this keystone of emotional intelligence: awareness of one’s own feelings as they occur.”

The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.  It is a choice.  It requires awareness.  Which do you choose: Fear or Love?

Yoga is a practical science of awakening.  The physical practices of yoga, or asanas, help us to balance ourselves on a biological level.  They enable us to bring body, mind and spirit into balance.  Hatha yoga is not meant to glorify the body or our identification with it.  It is meant to help us to develop true meditation.  Meditation is the true key to the realm of heaven.