Zen koan on life and death

Yes, the clouds are fleeting, but the Zen master is saying so is life. It comes and goes too, like a cloud. The tree certainly stands for longer, but life will eventually leave it too. The cloud has no life, but it gives to life when it rains. When we live fully, we also give back to life, a bit like that too.

Some forms last for billions of years too, like the Universe, that we live in. Yes, the promise of everlasting life is a carrot held out for most people, hoping to achieve this. It is hard for me to accept that one small life of a few years could be the ticket for a continuing life in eternity. The parable of Lazarus and the rich man, told by Jesus tells of this. The rich man went to Hell, Lazarus, the poor man, went to Heaven. Why is God's punishment, as depicted in the bible, so severe? The rich man did not rob, steal or kill, but he neglected looking after his fellow man poor man Lazarus at his gate, of his mansion, even though, at least, he didn't drive him away, but let him stay there. Why send him to eternal damnation in hell just for that? I guess that as with a lot of Jesus's parables, this has an inner and an outer meaning. The outer is literal for those who need that statement about life, and the inner is that inwardly, when we do not love enough, it burns us up inside continually, because we are trying to put out the real fires of love, and then they are replaced by the inner burning of our mind in turmoil from our soul, or God, trying to get us to change our ways.

@innertalks That makes me recall what Jesus said - it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into heaven. It is good to understand and follow such to guide us to the very basics of life rather than avoid, side-step, truths that are inconvenient! siva

@Shiva49 A rich man cannot take his riches to heaven, but trying to do so keeps him out, because he must pare himself down to be his real self, not his false self be-laden with gold and richness of outerness. The essential soul-self enters heaven, when it is ready and humble enough endowed to do so. All outer riches must be seen for what they really are. Not a means to an end.

Yes, only God, the creator is permanent, eternal, but he seemingly granted this same permanence to his creation too out of his great love for us, but he has partly hidden this gift, because it is given to our soul, not to our Earthly body. We are truly spiritual beings having a physical experience, as some say.

@Shiva49 Yes, the outer life is only the 1 % life. The greater 99 % of life comes from within. The light burns inwardly, not outwardly, so we can never find it in the outer world.

@innertalks "Almost 99% of the mass of the human body is made up of six elements: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus. Only about 0.85% is composed of another five elements: potassium, sulfur, sodium, chlorine, and magnesium. All 11 are necessary for life." Then we have the inner knowing activated by our soul and that should lead to spiritual existence and awareness. We seem to be oblivious to this most important ingredient in us which we should be carrying forward beyond this shore. Our clarion call should be "look within" away from "go west, young man" - siva