From Darkness to Light (LDS)

If I had to censor my love for dark humor just to save lives of the suicidal, I'd feel melancholic. So please bear with me.

Keeping that in mind and having saved my soul the LDS way, perhaps suicide might prepare my lost soul for a glory so dark that "Telestial" would only add to the confusion.

Although all Christendom might call it "hell", I'd rather call it a dark glory for the wicked, a murky destination interspersed with flashes of what is mistaken for lightning but is actually the arrival of missionaries sent by God to soothe my suffering in the afterlife.

While this cosmological rationalization of the fate of the suicidal in the afterlife may be considered too deep for my followers to fully comprehend, it is designed counter the idea that the least of the LDS glories is always full of gnashing of teeth.

For my understanding of the least of the three glories of the LDS afterlife is of the fitting end to a miserable life where the term "Telestial" comes to mean "the eventual destination of the unbelievers who enjoyed their descent into the darkest of glories only to endure the home visits of elders who minister to them for all eternity."

After long consideration of such a fate, I find it so ridiculous that my melancholy has left me smiling unexpectedly!

It is not schadenfreude - that joy on realizing that suffering is universal - which inspires my change of mood from melancholy to elation.

Rather, I am thankful to the elders and sister missionaries who I have met and helped guide me towards the Light that outshines mortal understanding.

In gratitude of how the Lord works in mysterious ways, I ask myself how any melancholy withstand Him?

It cannot.

For the unconditional love of God Almighty is such that his mercy brightens the lives of all of us who accept his Only Begotten into their lives.

---

References

Telestial Kingdom: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degrees_of_glory#Telestial_kingdom

Sincere Gratitude (poem)

out of gratitude
i read your poem,
and look past regret
to see how grateful you are.

spiritual blindness
leads to death of spirit,
yet an oasis can
be found in the desert.

thank you for reminding me
to be grateful with sincerity,
even though we each worship
different gods, we are One.

this Oneness applies to all faiths,
for when two or more of us worship,
it is as though the gods protect us.
so thank you once again.

thank you for being just as you are.

Meditation on The Nembutsu

By calling to Amida as He simultaneously calls to her, the devotee consistently affirms one's gratitude through the Name-that-calls.

With consistent affirmation, the Name-that-calls helps her uncover the precious treasure known as Buddha Nature.

Uncovering Buddha Nature, the devotee realizes that she is a sentient being, subject to the limits of existence.

Knowing these limits helps the devotee to devote herself to the Buddha.

In devoting herself to the Buddha, she deepens her faith in Him, His teachings, and the Buddhist community.

In deepening her faith, she continues her affirmation through gratitude to Amida.

This affirmation through gratitude to Amida Buddha is called Buddha Remembrance

Buddha Remembrance helps the devotee to listen with her heartmind.

Listening with her heartmind, she is able to hear Amida Buddha calling, and simultaneously call to Him.

Peace of Mind (poem)

Peace of mind is found
in only a single word,
and that word is Truth.

For truth frees the seeker to
walk the Middle Way
without a doubt, accepting
things as they are, with
gratitude to the Buddha.

Thus Truth takes but faith,
acceptance and gratitude
to make peace of mind.