Is ego-consciousness really the hell all the religions are talking about?

[actualizing25]

So as far as I have understood hell refers to the ego-life and heaven would be the state of No-Self or God-Realization. But most people just dont seem to be that unhappy that they would say that their life is hell-like. Most people seem quite satisfied with life. So why is it then that the ego-state is referred to as hell in all the traditions?

 

Thanks for alle the answers, Appreciate them. Peace.

[Shin]

Imagine how good it must feel if ego-consciousness is referred as hell.

[OneHandClap]

Because suffering is not just a "crying in a ditch" phenomenon. It's subtle, too. Craving for new shit all the time, broken heart over breakups, mourning death... egoically driven life is untenable, exhausting, and ultimately fruitless. Religions talk about the abandonment of egoic consciousness in favor of finding one's true identity to cease all forms of suffering, both large and small. However, each religion's specific method of achieving this awakening is different, and some have been muddied more than others by "reinterpretation" and dogma over the centuries. 

[JuliusCaesar]

No, hell is mostly just a teaching to coerce ignorant savages into behaving decently and treating each other fairly.

[Nahm]

1 hour ago, actualizing25 said:

Is ego-consciousness really the hell all the religions are talking about?

So as far as I have understood hell refers to the ego-life and heaven would be the state of No-Self or God-Realization. But most people just dont seem to be that unhappy that they would say that their life is hell-like. Most people seem quite satisfied with life. So why is it then that the ego-state is referred to as hell in all the traditions?

Thanks for alle the answers, Appreciate them. Peace.

The ‘devil’ is said to be a ‘fallen angel’. Still an angel, just ‘fallen’. Fallen is said to mean ‘unwilling to be parallel with mankind’, something which the rest of the angels are happy to be. To perpetuate a self image as above mankind, ‘the devil’, ever-cunning, is never at a loss to reinvent and reconceptualize, and thus we have states, ego-consciousness, ego-life, God-consciousness, etc. For ‘the devil’, there are those, and there is no devil.

Heaven is simply the absence of the devil, and ‘the devil’s tongue’ (always shown like a snake’s, split at the end, dualistic, higher & lower, etc). This is a most difficult pickle for a ‘devil’, because again, what makes the devil the devil, is the firm belief in being above mankind. All beliefs are tricky and a call for compassion, as the holder of the belief can not recognize the belief, precisely because it is a belief / believed. 

Peace indeed. ?? 

[Gregory1]

1 hour ago, actualizing25 said:

So as far as I have understood hell refers to the ego-life and heaven would be the state of No-Self or God-Realization. But most people just dont seem to be that unhappy that they would say that their life is hell-like. Most people seem quite satisfied with life. So why is it then that the ego-state is referred to as hell in all the traditions?

 

Thanks for alle the answers, Appreciate them. Peace.

Hell does not exist.

Hell is what you call hell, and what you use your godly powers for to create.

Hell is the seeming pain (suffering) that you go through when you seperate yourself from God too much.

[The Lucid Dreamer]

2 hours ago, actualizing25 said:

Most people seem quite satisfied with life.

… What? Are we living on the same planet? 

Just kidding, I know what you’re trying to say.  

Though I do disagree that most people are satisfied with life.  Almost everyone I know besides my closest friends is struggling with some kind of dissatisfaction or depression because of something they feel they lack in life and cannot seem to find beauty in life outside of getting all of their carnal and worldly desires met.  Many people I know also have some pretty intense anxiety over the future.  It’s not exactly the same as a fiery pit where you are being tortured by literal demons, but in a sense, you are sort of being subtly tortured mentally by metaphorical “demons”.

Though, you also have to take into consideration the times that these scriptures were written.  Life was much much harder back then.  It actually may have been pretty hellish for many, and so the traditions were meant as a liberation from their grueling existence. 

[BlackMaze]

No religions literally mean that you will get boiled in the afterlife in a certain place. Ask religious friends or family or priests to confirm.