The Afterlife
Visions of existence beyond death. Whether conceived as eternal heaven, cyclical rebirth, union with the divine, or dissolution into emptiness, the afterlife reveals each tradition's understanding of the soul and ultimate destiny.
“My Father's house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?”
“Those foremost will be foremost. These will be those brought near to Allah in gardens of bliss.”
“As a person sheds worn-out garments and wears new ones, so also the individual soul casts off worn-out bodies and enters new ones.”
Continuous cycle of rebirth
“Vigilance is the path to the Deathless. Heedlessness is the path to death. The vigilant do not die; the heedless are as if dead already.”
Nirvana as ultimate aim
“One moment of repentance and good deeds in this world is better than all of the World to Come.”
“The underworld is a place of no return, where dust covers all and light fades into eternal darkness. Yet the soul endures in the House of Dust.”
Mesopotamian view of afterlife as shadowy, diminished existence
“Those who dwell in the great below are the shades of the dead, eating clay and dwelling in perpetual gloom, yet somehow continuing to exist.”