When I die, only one of two things can happen: Either this essence which I understand as myself will transform into another being or I will stop being separate individuals and become a part of God. Either possibility is good.

Marcus Tullis Cicero

All that I know about God brings me to the following conclusion: all that [He] did for us were the best things possible.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

You should live your life so that you are not afraid of death, and at the same time do not wish to die.

Count Leo Tolstoy All Cited in A Calendar of Wisdom

The riddle of life and death, purpose and meaning, and any consideration of a life beyond our earthly existence has been the subject of philosopher’s tomes and theologian’s quandaries since time and civilization began. I hardly doubt that my observations will add all that much to the annals of thought that already fill the libraries of the world! 

With this caveat, I will say that whatever Christian perspective I can claim, and whatever theology of life and soul I espouse, includes a belief or a positive consideration of reincarnation. 

Knowing full well that I would have my objections to certain strict Hindu or Buddhist beliefs, or certain attitudes towards life, death and rebirth, I am deeply indebted to the Eastern reincarnational view of having multiple lifetimes to work out my evolutionary path. This takes the existential burden of the pressure that I have “only one life to live.”

Similarly, while I resonate most closely with being a Christian, I fully realize that it is one defined by the prophetic and mystical margins, not by doctrine, dogma, or creed. My Western faith has deep ties to both the Orthodox and the Catholic teachings about the dignity and value of life and affirms the immortality of the soul. 

As a consequence of my spiritual explorations and the accumulated theological insights that I now can confidently declare that I have had to reject most, if not all, teachings about heaven and hell as final destinations! 

I affirm that a truly compassionate God would not set up an ultimate judgment system that gave an individual soul only one chance at attaining a heavenly bliss, or a hellish and tortuous eternal damnation!

While a book of considerable length could follow these statements, I prefer to be concise: If we live according to the universal virtues and values of perennial wisdom, then there is no need for a fear of death. More importantly, there is no regard for any kind of eternal punishment. 

Instead, we are to live with perennial wisdom and the hope, faith, and love it infers; and allow for all necessary corrections and limitless forgiveness, so that how we have lived matters the most to the evolution of our souls.

That we have lived with compassion, justice, mercy, and love etc. will be our lasting legacy or our final judgment.

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