Nuts please!

The following is an excerpt from Part Two:

We each possess the power to determine if this lifetime will elevate us to the status of heaven or diminish us to the level of hell.

Many organized religions have fantasized heaven and hell as afterlife destinations. Don’t look now, but those obscure getaways are local attractions. Which destination you elect is a personal pronouncement not contingent upon the dictates of others. The option to be sucked down or to rise above is as elementary as “do I want the cream-filled chocolate or the one with nuts?” It is very simple, although it is not at all easy.

The ego is programmed to keep us in our furrows of judgment and persecution. Judging and Not Judging do not play fair. In our unawareness, Judging wins every time. By becoming aware of and choosing the alternative, we hold the combination to heaven’s gates. By remaining in our rudimentary ruts of criticism, we elect the penitentiary of hell.

Bestselling author Joe Vitale  (Permission to reprint granted, John Wiley and Sons, Inc.) tells of his struggle in Zero Limits. For ten years he attempted to avoid the trap of judging. He promised himself a “reward if I could get through one day without having some judgment of someone.” He has never been able to do it. Personally, I would be thrilled making it for a few hours. Habituation is difficult to beat.