Eternity

Osama bin Laden's death has been announced this morning. NPR was interviewing a man whose wife was killed in the WTC collapse. He expressed satisfaction at the fact that Osama was burning in hell and that his wife was in heaven with the angels. I doubt he really believed this because it makes no sense on the face of it. If the WTC attack really was the proximate cause of his wife being sent to a better place, it would make no sense to be angry about this. Further, how can it make sense for a finite amount of wrongdoing (the result of which was that someone went to paradise) to be punished by an infinite amount of torment without end? It seems incredibly unjust.

Since becoming a Buddhist I've noticed again and again Christian obsession with permanence. When you die, there are two options, black and white, eternal bliss or eternal suffering, no in-between, no change. If this is really the case, then the negligible amount of time we have on this planet seems like a ridiculous fitness test for admittance into either category. It's like you're looking at a 10,000 mile stretch of road and judging it based on the first millimeter.

I was disheartened to see the jubilant reaction at another person's death, even more so when I realized that a lot of people believe that he will be tormented forever in hell. How can one person wish that kind of inconceivable suffering on another?

I have to say that the Buddhist idea that everything is impermanent, unsolid and changing makes a lot more sense to me, and is supported by continued observation of all phenomena. Not once has anyone seen something which is not subject to change. There is no blissful state that lasts for all time, nor is there a state of torment. Everything which arises also ceases.