A Hell/Heaven of Our Own — Alma and the Tibetan Book of the Dead
“In the Tibetan Book of the Dead [or The Bardos], when the instructions are given as to what happens when someone leaves their body after death, it says something like, ‘When the clear light of the void comes, it is followed by the vision of the blissful Bodhisattvas; then comes the vision of the wrathful Bodhisattvas,’ and so on. And then it says, ‘Realize, oh nobly born, that all this is but the outpouring of your own mind.”
— Alan Watts, What is Zen? (New World Library, 2000), 23
“I say unto you, can you imagine to yourselves that ye hear the voice of the Lord, saying unto you, in that day, ‘Come unto me ye blessed, for behold, your works have been the works of righteousness upon the face of the earth?’ Or do ye imagine to yourselves that ye can lie unto the Lord in that day, and say, ‘Lord, our works have been righteous works upon the face of the earth,’ and that he will save you? Or otherwise, can ye imagine yourselves brought before the tribunal of God with your souls filled with guilt and remorse, having a remembrance of all your guilt, yea, a perfect remembrance of all your wickedness, yea, a remembrance that ye have set at defiance the commandments of God?
“I say unto you, can ye look up to God at that day with a pure heart and clean hands? I say unto you, can you look up…
