Heard a great story about how heaven and hell expressed though Buddhism is very different to how religions preach heaven and hell. The story is of a Samurai who was sick of hearing mythical descriptions of heaven and hell and wanted to understand what Buddhist monks believed…The young Samurai warrior came across a monk sitting down and asked him:
“Monk. Is there a heaven and a hell? If you know the answer, tell me. If you don’t, don’t waste my time!”.
The monk looked up at him and said “you’re too stupid to understand!”.
The samurai said “Stupid? I’m a samurai warrior!”. The monk replied “You. A samurai? don’t be silly, you’re just a country bumpkin!”.
“That’s twice you’ve insulted me monk!” he rests his hand on his katana handle and sates “one more insult and I will cut you’re head off with this sword in half a second!”.
“With that, stupid rusty blade, you couldn’t cut a slice of bread with that!”. The samurai draws his sword, incensed by the insult of his imaculate sword, squinting his eyes with rage he prepared to swipe with his blade, the monk made eye contact and said:
“Samurai! That’s hell!”.
The samuai then understood at that moment that the anger he felt was what hell was like. He was so moved that he dropped his sword and his eyes welled up and bowed to the monk saying “thank you monk.”. Then the monk said “and that is heaven.” and the samurai understood that the repect, understanding, and compassion he flet was what heaven was like…
// great thing about the story is how the monk literally risked his neck to give the smaurai a lesson on heaven and hell!! (true story, heard story from Ajahn Brahm search on itunes podcasts - great knowledge!).

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