The Road to Heaven’s Paved With Heart-centered Intentions
As the popular saying goes, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”
Are you familiar with it? It’s even one of the main lines in a current hit song by Madonna and Justin Timberlake.
What does that statement actually mean?
Does it have any validity?
Is it just something people say when they try do something nice, but it ends up backfiring on them?
Let’s take a deeper look at this statement and see if there are some spiritual truths we can uncover in this long-standing statement.
First of all, let’s define “hell” and “good” so that we know what we’re talking about.
“Hell” is basically suffering. It can exist in this very moment while you’re still alive. You can experience “hell on earth” or “a living hell.” It is not limited to something you experience after death.
“Good” is basically the opposite of what we call bad or evil. Thus it’s based in duality and sponsored by the ego.
A good deed is something that makes us feel good. Who is it that “juices” the good feelings out of external situations in order to obtain good feelings? Why, the ego of course!
Who is it that continually needs to do more of what they believe to be good in order to “cause” more good feelings, much like an addiction? If you guessed the ego, you’re right on!
See, people clearly see that acting “bad” leads to “bad” feelings so they attempt to remedy this by acting in the opposite manner and acting good. This works, but only up to a certain level.
This level eventually must be transcended. These are the “good intentions” that lead to hell.
You see, what you believe to be good or bad is literally all made up! It has no bearing on ultimate truth. It’s purely made up.
In this day and age, what’s considered “good” for a woman is to be thin and tanned. Not too long ago, what was considered “good” was to have some meat on your bones and pasty white skin. Why? This signaled that you were wealthy and well fed, as well as that you didn’t have to labor in the fields under the hot sun like most peasants.
See, it’s all relative. It’s all made up.
As you start raising your level of consciousness, you must be willing to question and look beyond ANY AND ALL beliefs, opinions, and expectations. Whatever you’re not willing to look beyond will wind up becoming a mental box that traps your mind.
When the mind is your guiding light towards success, you will inevitably crash, for the mind can never know what is truly in alignment with your highest good or not. It can only see external apperances, but appearances are deceiving. It can never see beyond appearances to the underlying essence, the truth of what is.
Any action that is sponsored by the ego will ultimately lead to suffering.
This is what the statement means, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”
Let’s look at an example. Let’s say you have a boyfriend or girlfriend in life and you want them to feel loved. What do you do? You constantly try to make them feel loved by doing all these nice things for them and trying to almost “buy” their love because you feel you lack it for yourself. Thus you’re, in a sense, using them for their affection.
What generally tends to happen is that the person might start to feel overcrowded, burdened by your constant need for affection, the neediness. This attempt to constantly make them feel good will actually begin to backfire because the intentions of the action feel icky. It’s manipulative. It’s a ploy to grab love and will often times actually drive the other person away!
“What happened,” you may ask, “I was so nice to them, always doing what they wished whenever they asked, constantly giving them gifts and being so loving. How dare they toss all my gifts away! How could they reject me after all I’ve done for them!?”
You see, when one identifies purely with the ego and its inherent insecurities, there is a built-in sense of lack that must be filled and the only source of energy is from other people and the external world. So you begin draining others of their energy, very much like an energy vampire.
This is the energy of duality, of there being a separation, of disconnection from the ultimate Source some people call God, and thus trying to constantly “get” security, love, and affection from others.
Any action that is sponsored by the heart and your higher self will ultimately lead to peace, joy, and harmony.
When Love is given freely, truly without needing anything in return, we see it’s given without strings attached. It is given unconditionally, no matter what happens as a result. Expectations are not tied to the giving of Love.
Love is given for the pure joy of giving, of feeling the energy of Love flow through one’s body.
When one listens to their heart for answers, their intuition for guidance, their higher self for direction, the direction can only lead to higher and higher states of Love.
Your higher self Loves you for it IS you. It will not lead you to hell. There is no reason to take yourself there.
Your higher self can see the whole path ahead and will gently guide you around the obstacles and dangers that lie just around the next bend. All that’s required of you is to let go and trust.
You see, your heart’s intentions are nondualistic. What this means is that it’s not based in a realm of opposites such as good and bad, right and wrong. Real Love is beyond this entirely.
The heart just Loves and allows the Love to flow through any external expression that is most appropriate for the situation.
Both shouting and whispering can be expressions of Love, depending on the circumstances. You see, it is all available to Love. It makes no boundaries, limitations, or restrictions, calling this “right” and that “wrong.”
Now certainly, some actions may generally be more appropriate than others. Of course this is the case.
As for which action is most appropriate, all it takes is simply allowing the mind to quiet down a bit so that the quieter, gentler, more subtle voice of the heart may speak clearly.
This is the Road to Heaven.
The road to hell is paved by the ego.
The road to heaven is paved by the heart.
Which road you’re walking down is a choice you make in every moment of every day. It’s not a one-time choice. In every moment, you have the option of coming from the reactive mind or the responsive heart.
What do you choose?
Are you familiar with it? It’s even one of the main lines in a current hit song by Madonna and Justin Timberlake.
What does that statement actually mean?
Does it have any validity?
Is it just something people say when they try do something nice, but it ends up backfiring on them?
Let’s take a deeper look at this statement and see if there are some spiritual truths we can uncover in this long-standing statement.
First of all, let’s define “hell” and “good” so that we know what we’re talking about.
“Hell” is basically suffering. It can exist in this very moment while you’re still alive. You can experience “hell on earth” or “a living hell.” It is not limited to something you experience after death.
“Good” is basically the opposite of what we call bad or evil. Thus it’s based in duality and sponsored by the ego.
A good deed is something that makes us feel good. Who is it that “juices” the good feelings out of external situations in order to obtain good feelings? Why, the ego of course!
Who is it that continually needs to do more of what they believe to be good in order to “cause” more good feelings, much like an addiction? If you guessed the ego, you’re right on!
See, people clearly see that acting “bad” leads to “bad” feelings so they attempt to remedy this by acting in the opposite manner and acting good. This works, but only up to a certain level.
This level eventually must be transcended. These are the “good intentions” that lead to hell.
You see, what you believe to be good or bad is literally all made up! It has no bearing on ultimate truth. It’s purely made up.
In this day and age, what’s considered “good” for a woman is to be thin and tanned. Not too long ago, what was considered “good” was to have some meat on your bones and pasty white skin. Why? This signaled that you were wealthy and well fed, as well as that you didn’t have to labor in the fields under the hot sun like most peasants.
See, it’s all relative. It’s all made up.
As you start raising your level of consciousness, you must be willing to question and look beyond ANY AND ALL beliefs, opinions, and expectations. Whatever you’re not willing to look beyond will wind up becoming a mental box that traps your mind.
When the mind is your guiding light towards success, you will inevitably crash, for the mind can never know what is truly in alignment with your highest good or not. It can only see external apperances, but appearances are deceiving. It can never see beyond appearances to the underlying essence, the truth of what is.
Any action that is sponsored by the ego will ultimately lead to suffering.
This is what the statement means, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”
Let’s look at an example. Let’s say you have a boyfriend or girlfriend in life and you want them to feel loved. What do you do? You constantly try to make them feel loved by doing all these nice things for them and trying to almost “buy” their love because you feel you lack it for yourself. Thus you’re, in a sense, using them for their affection.
What generally tends to happen is that the person might start to feel overcrowded, burdened by your constant need for affection, the neediness. This attempt to constantly make them feel good will actually begin to backfire because the intentions of the action feel icky. It’s manipulative. It’s a ploy to grab love and will often times actually drive the other person away!
“What happened,” you may ask, “I was so nice to them, always doing what they wished whenever they asked, constantly giving them gifts and being so loving. How dare they toss all my gifts away! How could they reject me after all I’ve done for them!?”
You see, when one identifies purely with the ego and its inherent insecurities, there is a built-in sense of lack that must be filled and the only source of energy is from other people and the external world. So you begin draining others of their energy, very much like an energy vampire.
This is the energy of duality, of there being a separation, of disconnection from the ultimate Source some people call God, and thus trying to constantly “get” security, love, and affection from others.
Any action that is sponsored by the heart and your higher self will ultimately lead to peace, joy, and harmony.
When Love is given freely, truly without needing anything in return, we see it’s given without strings attached. It is given unconditionally, no matter what happens as a result. Expectations are not tied to the giving of Love.
Love is given for the pure joy of giving, of feeling the energy of Love flow through one’s body.
When one listens to their heart for answers, their intuition for guidance, their higher self for direction, the direction can only lead to higher and higher states of Love.
Your higher self Loves you for it IS you. It will not lead you to hell. There is no reason to take yourself there.
Your higher self can see the whole path ahead and will gently guide you around the obstacles and dangers that lie just around the next bend. All that’s required of you is to let go and trust.
You see, your heart’s intentions are nondualistic. What this means is that it’s not based in a realm of opposites such as good and bad, right and wrong. Real Love is beyond this entirely.
The heart just Loves and allows the Love to flow through any external expression that is most appropriate for the situation.
Both shouting and whispering can be expressions of Love, depending on the circumstances. You see, it is all available to Love. It makes no boundaries, limitations, or restrictions, calling this “right” and that “wrong.”
Now certainly, some actions may generally be more appropriate than others. Of course this is the case.
As for which action is most appropriate, all it takes is simply allowing the mind to quiet down a bit so that the quieter, gentler, more subtle voice of the heart may speak clearly.
This is the Road to Heaven.
The road to hell is paved by the ego.
The road to heaven is paved by the heart.
Which road you’re walking down is a choice you make in every moment of every day. It’s not a one-time choice. In every moment, you have the option of coming from the reactive mind or the responsive heart.
What do you choose?