Today in the forest Buddhist monastery a monk gave a very important lecture. Unfortunately, the English translator was very poor, so I wasn’t able to understand all of the speech. But what I understood is so important that I must share this with you.
According to the monk, you can find out right now to which realm you are headed if you were to die now. And you can do so through meditation.
When you get deep into meditation, images, visions and other mental phenomena will arise. In Buddhism such phenomena are called “nimita”. They include not only random images and visions, but also experiences, such as the feeling that you are about to fall into an abyss, or that you are about to be sucked into a void.
If you are unable to get into deep states of meditation and therefore cannot experience the described mental phenomena, you should read my article on why people cannot get into deep meditation. When, by applying the given advice, your mind becomes peaceful, the “lake” of your being will become clear, and images and visions will start arising. You will see them clearly when your mind becomes peaceful.
According to the monk, the kind of images and visions that you see give you a sign where you are headed. For example, if a person is very evil, when he starts meditating he might see demonic images or even hell itself. This is a sign that his energy is very low and if he were to die now, he would end up in hell.
By the way, all cultures and religions have some sort of hell, thus it’s not a uniquely Christian concept. The unique thing about the Christian hell is that you are headed there for ever if you don’t accept Jesus even if you’re a saint.
A more reasonable approach to hell is given by “pagan” cultures – you are headed to hell if you are evil, and you are headed to heaven if you are good.
The problem is that people fool themselves into thinking they are good when they are actually evil (selfish). I too thought myself very good, but due to the rising kundalini I got convicted and my eyes were opened to my selfish nature. I cried when that happened, and I went out of my way to apologize the people that I hurt.
If people don’t have that conviction experience, it’s quite safe to assume that they are selfish beings thinking themselves to be very good. Such self-deceived people might find themselves in hell after this existence – if they fail to look deep within and instead choose to accept the egoic lie that they don’t hurt others in any way.
Buddha, like Jesus, claimed that only very few end up in heaven. Most go to hell or their memories are wiped out and they reincarnate on this earth again. Buddha also claimed that sensual people as well as other evil undeveloped individuals may end up as animals in their next lives.
Although people like to lie to themselves and, without objective analysis, convince themselves to be good, you cannot control the images and visions that you get. Thus, if you think yourself a saint but whenever you meditate, you get frightening images, it’s time to really look deep into yourself.
Dreams also may show you your current state of vibration. If you live at peace with living beings and you have only good thoughts in your mind, your sleep will be peaceful and your dreams will be beautiful. There won’t be an fears either, such as being afraid that someone might break into your house.
If you get nightmares, on the other hand, it means you’re not a kind and selfless person you think yourself to be.
Thus, through meditation, as well as through dreams, one is able to get an objective evaluation of the kind of person that one is. Dreams, visions and mental images during meditation, therefore, must be paid attention to, so that appropriate action can be taken should they be negative.
As long as you breathe, you can change your life. Thus, if you find yourself getting demonic or negative dreams and visions, work hard to change yourself, so that your energy, and thus these mental phenomena change, and once your life comes to an end, you don’t get any nasty surprises in the afterlife.
Hi, I'm Simona Rich, the author of this site.
I'm from Lithuania, though most of the time you'll find me somewhere in Asia.
I write about spirituality and self-improvement, and consult on those topics.
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According to Buddhism, a wordly person can be reborn into heaven but he can also fall into hells once good karma exhausts.
But once we become stream enterer, then we only have at most seven more lives in samsara before passing into nirvana and all the subsequent lives are in either human or heavenly worlds. Path leading to lower realms are closed to those who attain even the kowest stage of enlightenment.
From Sutras:
The sotapanna “may state this about himself: ‘Hell is ended; animal wombs are ended; the state of the hungry shades is ended; states of deprivation, destitution, the bad bourns are ended! I am a stream-winner, steadfast, never again destined for states of woe, headed for self-awakening!'”
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sotāpanna
Thank you, Simona. This is very helpful. I hope you are having a good experience in the monastery.
How do we rise above and understand how we affect others?..”If you are waiting for God to deliver you out of a certain situation, realize that other hearts are involved, and he is working on them.”
Dear Simona, thank you for relayng this information to us. I’m not quite sure There is a a heaven or hell, but what it is, is in your mind. How did you become sure you knew that heaven or hell existed? What made you know? This isn’t intended to be a judgmental question, but an information seeking one. Thank you.
Interesting topic Simona and I’d like to share my experince from a celibacy point of view and also from my kudalini awakening plus dreams.
In many of the books I have been reading it is mentioned that low level spirits or astral beings will see the light of a more pure and true seeker and see that as a threath and sometimes try to scare or attack you in your meditation or even while you are awake so you freak out and will stop your spiritual quest. It have happend to me just a few times awake but mostly in meditation and I normally just see a short second flash and it goes away and if you don¨t react to it it will also go away. I normally see a lot of faces looking at me in my meditation kindly and it must be my guides, see some other worlds and space etc. I do belief that evil people and selfish egoistic people will go to the level where they belong to after death. It has been written a lot about different levels or planes and you get what you deserve.
As an example from a famous guru regarding meditation, Swami Sivananda sums it up in his books that you should march on like a brave soldier and “you will be tested” with scary images and seduction etc. This can happen for many years even though you are rather advanced and you go through different tests and levels along the way.
I notice alot of orbs and spirits around me since my awakening and if you encounter a low level one in meditation or awake, just see them as little children with a halloween mask and just laugh it off 🙂 It woks like magic!
Regarding my now very long celibcy practice and meditation I have seen some projected sexual images with masturbation and once young daemon girls with long tounges and very pretty trying to disturb my meditation touching themselves etc. This is not my level of vibration but an attempt for them to attack me or get me confused and to break my celibacy. It can also happen in your dreams and once a gorgeous young girl was in contact with my astral body and tried to seduce me but I became aware of it so I stopped her. I asked her who she was and she then just showed me a mental picture of the earth from space and then held up her hand and three fingers were glowing brightly and then left me. I couldn¨t understand her message.
Finally I would recommend Simonas book on celibacy that I bought many years ago and I have read it many times and it will help a person to go all the way and finally be free. I think Simona is so wise and angelic in her way. I know she has been criticised and attaked a lot. Try walking in someone elses shoes before you even write a negative line. Look at how many people she helped and in such wonderful ways. Isn’t that a God sent gift! All the best to you Simona 🙂
You’ve been on an incredible spiritual journey, Christopher, and I wish you to continue fearlessly moving forward. Thank you for your lovely comment.