How I Love You

You said I don't know anything,
I said I know I love you,
You said that's the only thing,
I smiled and I helped you
Understand everything,
Whatever interests you,

Always teaching something,

Passing my lessons to you.

You're a Rock

    Below the mountain, you were taken from your home, carried up the lofty peak, thinking you were destined for great things. Through the clouds you saw glaciated shapes, an unlimited landscape of opportunity. You thought the person who carried you would always protect you. Until they got to the very top, where despite all the beauty you were witnessing, something didn't feel right. 
    Your keeper took you out of their pocket, raised their arm, and threw you off the mountain. You fell and fell through the icy crevasses, fracturing at your weakest points, with the core still intact. You rolled through some meadows with wildflowers, wishing things would settle, in a happy place like this, until the grade increased again, and life took you by surprise.
    On you rolled, shedding pieces of your innocence, before taking another tumble off a lower cliff. This time a waterfall intercepted you, drowning you in terrifying surrender, plunging you into a shadowy subconscious, where the truth jolted you awake. In this life, nothing will save you, only yourself. The water took you up, pushed you down through intense rapids, polishing your inner strength, rinsing it of the bruises and scrapes. The pain was still there; you knew it would never go away. You had to learn how to harness it as you floated; the rapids would otherwise destroy you.
    Another tumble awaited, another fall down the granite wall, another surrender to gravity that seemed eternal. That time you landed gracefully in a river of forgiveness, a sanctuary of peace that meandered you down a valley. The cold stillness enveloped your broken faces, eroding those sharp edges that hurt into rounded shields, a protective layer built by resilience. 
    They may find you, they may elevate you into the peaks again, they may throw you even farther next time, but now you have the shape to absorb the fall. They can never break you, ever again. You're a rock, settling onto a glossy riverbed with others, your children at your side. You must teach them the way home, in case they are taken next.

Hell and Heaven in Eastern Religions

    Contrary to popular opinion, most religions of the east have a version of Hell. They just aren't as widespread in popularity as they are here in the Christian world, where we seem to be neurotic about eternal suffering. In the West we have also grown accustomed to reincarnation meaning that souls get a "free pass" to transmigrate back to earth for rebirth. But in these religions, rather than returning, you can spend billions of years in a torturous environment. Depending on the transgression, your soul can even be incinerated. So don't piss off the wrong gods.
    The Buddhist Hell is called Naraka; in Chinese culture it is called Diyu; in the Hindu paranas, Hell is segmented into various regions, ruled by Yama. Depending on one's karma, they will arrive at one of the regions of Hell to atone for their sins- much like we do in the West, except it isn't eternal, and they haven't been judged by an Almighty figure. Instead, the judgment comes from a processing of deeds and actions in one's life that "computed" their karma, resulting in their afterworld destination.

    Similarly, there are versions of heaven in these religions; but again- they are only temporary and access is constrained by the laws of karma. Unless a soul reaches Enlightenment, it will eventually return. In Buddhism these realms are called Sagga; in China they are called Tian; in Hinduism they are called Svarga. 

    What's interesting is that in the East, you can spend many billions of years in these afterworld realms, which is far beyond the estimated lifespan of earth (9 billion years). While these ancient beliefs were recorded when science had yet to determine how long the earth would exist, a modern interpretation could be that it doesn't matter. One does not need to return to earth; one could return to any place in the cosmos that supports life. You will just have to come to terms that some things do last longer than eternity.