The great beyond

By Mary Kaye Ritz
Advertiser Religion & Ethics Writer

Travis Matsuzaki, 10, of Kaimuki Christian School, draws his vision of the afterlife. Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser

And there, the Kaimuki Christian School 9-year-old says, she will someday see her uncle, who died of cancer last November in Australia.

Naomi Aweau's fourth-grade class was drawing "trees of life" and talking about the Book of Revelation this week, but heaven as it's been pondered by poets and pundits is a concept as old as the Greeks' Mount Olympus.

The fading days of winter finds many in Hawai'i contemplating death and what comes beyond.

In The Empty Mirror, the quarterly newsletter from the Tibetan Buddhist Meditation Center in Nu'uanu, Lama Karma Rinchen wrote in February about "What Happens When We Die?"

Rabbi Avi Magid mused about death and dying in his newsletter for Temple Emanu-El last month, with followup talks to come.

So, what's up with heaven?

A 2003 survey revealed most Americans believe there is a heaven, a hell, and life after death, and nearly two-thirds figure they're going to the good place. The survey, by California's Barna Research Group, limited its survey of 1,000 Americans to the 48 Mainland states.

Where does that leave Hawai'i?

"Hawaiians were excluded, probably because they know they're already in heaven," a Los Angeles Times editorial writer joked recently.

There's nothing new under heaven. It's all been imagined before, explained Carol Zaleski, author of "The Book of Heaven" (2000), though similar imagery emerges from different quarters. Many Eastern and Western religions envision heaven as a garden; the word "paradise" comes from the Persian word for "garden," she said. (As she and other scholars note, the Zoroastrian religion of ancient Persia influenced many a Jewish and Christian belief, notably contributing angels and heavenly imagery.)

"What's fascinating about the garden is that it's the perfect combination of nature and culture," said Zaleski, a religion professor at Smith College in Massachusetts.

There's also the Heavenly City, this world in its perfect form, often overseen by some kind of king. For ancient Icelanders, that would be an extraordinary land of ice bridges and flaming mountains.

Zaleski's favorite imagery comes from the Pureland Buddha tradition, of afterlife realms filled with gems, flowers and amazing birds.

"I'm also fascinated by island heavens," she said, where heaven touches down as earthly paradise.

Beyond the Greek's Mount Olympus, there's the mythic Isle of the Blessed (Greek and Roman); and the Celtic Tir na n-Og, where the people are immortal and have a perfect society.

"Island realms are perfect for capturing utopian visions," she said. "It also suggests our world might be intercepted by heaven, that heaven might not be so far away."

Don't ask her to pass judgment on the Islamic story that the martyred get unlimited sex with 72 virgins in heaven. That, she says, is just a metaphor:

"The essential idea is that the martyrs are described as having reward," she said. "The righteous, generally, having gone through judgment, have gone through tests, (and they'll end up in a place) where every pleasure is being satisfied."

If you've spent your life not concerning yourself with pleasures, and led the righteous life, saying you'll be rewarded is a way of saying you had priorities straight, she said.

Though the Eastern and Western religions share some imagery, there are differences, too.

University of Hawai'i religion professor George Tanabe points out that the body and spirit are more entwined in the Eastern perspective than in the Western view. "The Japanese view of the afterlife is rooted in the belief that the dead continue to live with their bodies," he said. "... Rather than being split in two, the body is attached to the spirit."

Lama Rinchen of the Nu'uanu temple said in his February newsletter that Buddhism does not see "a long-term heaven or hell that we go to, taking up a permanent residency there, but sees lifetime after lifetime of going from realm to realm, dying in one life and taking rebirth in another."

Here in Hawai'i, where it's not uncommon for a Buddhist altar to share a home with a crucifix, we see a range of concepts of the afterlife, explored through cultural and religious events as varied as Easter, Obon and the Taoists' Chun Yuan (similar to Obon).

"Each religion addresses the universal human impulse of survival after death, then expresses it in their cultural forms," explained professor Cromwell Crawford, the chairman of the religion department at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa.

When it came time to talk about Jewish versions of the afterlife, Rabbi Magid referred us to Rabbi Morris Goldfarb, who said Jews and Christians share similar beliefs.

"We believe in some kind of afterlife, but we don't know what," said Goldfarb, resident scholar at Temple Emanu-El. "... It must be something that would be fulfilling our lives, which are not fulfilled here. What that is has many stories and thoughts about it."

Judaism concerns itself with the matters of this world, Goldfarb said. The pious believe that if God thought it so important to talk about the next world, he would have revealed it to the Jews, professor Crawford notes — and though there is the promise of an afterlife, there is little concentration on it in the Torah.

Such ambiguities end with the 170 B.C. book of Daniel, found in the Hebrew Bible. Christians concentrate on a passage in Daniel, which talks of corpses returning to life and says the righteous will be installed in everlasting glory, and the wicked will be destroyed, the professor said.

SACHS

And where is that heaven? Luke's gospel admonishes disciples they'll go "straight up" to heaven.

"Literally," said Crawford. "Heaven is above in the three-decker universe. God is in upper deck; we are in middle; the lower level (is) for those who reject God and Christ."

Sometime after death, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe, they will be reunited with their bodies ("with a full head of hair," adds spokesman Jack Hoag with a laugh) and with their families. They view rewards coming in threes, too: a celestial kingdom for the most pious; a terrestrial place for those who can work their way up; and a telestial place, for those who haven't been so good, but still can be redeemed.

"All religions have speculations about the afterlife," said Crawford, who teaches a class on death and dying that routinely fills during registration. "For most religions, this is essential part of the belief system."

The fourth-graders at Kaimuki Christian had lots of ideas what to expect in the celestial beyond: Heaven is where there's no pain or suffering, says Karis Kochi.

And there's no sun or moon, because God provides the light, adds Joshua Masai, 10.

Karis looked over Chandelle Kanetoku's prettily sketched and nicely colored poster, pointing to the angels.

"Where are their feet?" Karis asked.

Chandelle responded with a look that said, "DUH!" and replied that angels don't need feet.

But it was a boy (who shall remain nameless) who drew the biggest laugh of the day.

"What won't there be in heaven?" asked Mrs. Sandy Simmons.

"Teachers!" a voice shot out.

Reach Mary Kaye Ritz at mritz@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8035.

Celestial references

Books

• "Travel Guide to Heaven," 2003 book by Anthony DeStefano. Uses Christian-based research.
• "The Five People You Meet in Heaven," 2003 novel by Mitch Albom. An 83-year-old man learns in heaven the effect he had on people on earth.
• "The Lovely Bones," 2003 novel by Alice Sebold. A murdered girl watches her grieving family from above.

Movies

• "Wandafuru raifu (After life)," 1998 Japanese feature film (whose Japanese name refers to the Frank Capra classic). After a week in counseling, the newly dead choose one memory they can relive through eternity.
• "Defending Your Life," a 1991 Albert Brooks movie ; a yuppie must prove his worthiness to enter heaven.

Music

• "Stairway to Heaven," 1971 song by Led Zeppelin.
• "Heaven," 1979 song by the Talking Heads. (Best line: "Heaven is a place where nothing happens.")

TV

• "Angels in America," the 2003 HBO miniseries, looked at heaven, AIDS and conservativism.
• "Riverworld," a 2003 SciFi Channel movie (and part of a fictional book series) about a separate reality after death.