A person asks God what heaven and hell are like.

First, God opens the door to hell and inside, the man sees a lavish banquet piled high with sumptuous food of all kinds. All the banquet-goers are starving in agony, however, because their eating utensils are all long as yardsticks -- much too long to reach their mouths, and they all try in vain to use their utensils to feed themselves.

Next, God shows the person heaven, which surprisingly looks almost identical to the previous banquet, with heaping mounds of food and drink and they, too, possess yardstick-long utensils. But in heaven, the diners are well-fed and satisfied, because they have learned to feed each other.

Too much independence and obsessively staring at one's own navel comes with a high price: isolation, selfishness, and inadequacy. When we realize that we are all connected, we can become co-creators, deciding to love each other, and experience abundance, peace, and joy.

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There's mental love, the attraction we have towards a thing or an idea.

There's emotional love, the impulse we feel about someone, an animal, or a thing. Sometimes we'll do anything for them without thinking (instinctual action). A form of this is romantic love, which is unpredictable and highly subjective.

There's physical love, the sexual expression of our desire for someone or the companionship we experience with an animal.

But if you truly love someone, you ACT in a conscious, measured way. You:

• Decide to sacrifice for them, putting their needs above your wants.
• Do things out of empathy for them, fully experiencing and knowing the person to determine what is best that you can do for them.
• Realize that although it isn't easy, it always produces good results. An added bonus: What goes around comes around / You reap what you sow / Good Karma, man. (jk, I don't believe in Karma)

Become selfless.

[Last update: 29 June 2009]