Life and Death

I was in Thailand about two years ago and experienced some time with a Buddhist monk. He expressed his life philosophy essentially by asking, “why wait until you die to experience Heaven, when you have the ability to experience it right here, right now?” He believed in Heaven on Earth. What if he is right? What if we are meant to rediscover what our soul already understands and has experienced.

Many of the major Western religions believe in incarnation – that the soul enters the body. I guess that means the soul had existence prior to the body in a state considered heavenly. (This is all a mystery, so I don’t have answers, mostly I live inside questions.) Perhaps, then, our soul remembers. Our Earthly journey, though challenging, can be open to the Divine right here, right now.

Do you know your soul? Is it transcendent, independent from your body, yet somehow connected? Is life when the body is functioning? Death when it isn’t? What about the life of the soul – is there no death? If we can be kind and healthy in regards to our body (nutrition, exercise, medical intervention) can there also be ways to be kind and healthy to our soul?