Thank you, Jeff, for the very amazing responses to this important topic.
If you’re comfortable, and it doesn’t fatigue you, I’d like to continue asking/unpacking more of these questions.
So, from what I’ve read, it appears the spirit world is infinite, far vaster than the physical cosmos. The inhabitants of it take on all different forms, such as fairies or fey folk or nature spirits (there is a chapter of Bob Monroe’s book describing this), to celestial halls like Valhalla with beautiful cities, to even “extraterrestrial” pseudo-technological worlds as well (the latter not being my preferred place, if it exists…
). The Buddha also describes sex heavens with gods and nymphs, and other worlds with devas who “delight in creation,” which I always interpreted as the “thought responsive” worlds Buhlman alluded to. As a painter and writer I always found that one of the most interesting possibilities, myself. Has this wide variety of worlds been your experience?
Perhaps an odd question: given there are technological worlds, could a computer work in the spirit world? I read once about the “astral university district” where atheist souls go in death. Do they recognize they are deceased there? Do they have an “Internet” and play “local-area network” computer games with each other there? I was thinking of someone who would ask, “What is heaven without World of Warcraft?”
The other idea I have gotten from my readings, is there is an approximate hierarchy based on the jhanas, where the positive spiritual worlds are broken up by jhana 1, 2, 3, and 4, and then the very high worlds are broken up by jhana 5, 6, 7, and 8. The big difference between these is 1-4 are “form based,” for example having a human form, and 5-8 are formless, for example being a singular point of consciousness in a transcendent domain. Is this generally how it works?
In regard to devas - my conclusion is we are all actually devas once we leave the body, and that it is simply a matter of belief, knowledge, and delusion that manages us in the post-death state. So a regular person, though they have the same spiritual power of an angel, we call simply a “spirit” due to a lack of knowledge. A psychologically or spiritually ill person, we call a “ghost.” An ill-meaning and worldly person, we call a “demon.” Would you agree with this?
Previously we articulated most people’s post-death fate is a product of “like attracts like,” that the malicious, greedy, and materialistic get attracted to a similar domain, while the wise, benevolent, and transcendental get attracted to a similar domain. For instance I think of Dante who placed Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle in a similar domain, a similar-to-Earth “heaven” of the Elysian Fields. Has this been your experience?
“Angels are eternal.”
Exactly. That would be my conclusion also. So I have a few questions from this statement:
1 Would the danger thus arise in incarnation, where an angel coming to Earth develops amnesia, and has to face a life in the harsh physical world?
2 In death are you able to recall your previous lifetimes and existences, including angelic ones, and remember any previous spiritual attainment (even if, say, the world sent you astray on a worldly path)?
3 And I just want to reconcile an angel’s immortality with this statement: “However, through attrition because the material world is so full of cruelty, abuse, and trauma, not many of these angels/jinns/devas who are close associates of the "world cycle Buddha" will be survive long enough to assist the "world cycle Buddha" in his or her work on the planet.” — Are you referring to when these devas descend to Earth? Or that the devas cease working on helping alleviate human suffering and go elsewhere in the spirit world?
