The Way to Get to Heaven

Toby has a new book out: an updated, revised and expanded edition of his classic soft sci fi romance novel
SECRET MATTER -- with its quirky and mystical spin on what it means to be gay. Click on the title for info.
There's a funny coincidence/synchronicity about the release of this novel

Table of Contents Search Site Also on this website: Toby Johnson's books: GAY SPIRITUALITY: The Role of Gay Identity in the Transformation of Human Consciousness GAY PERSPECTIVE: Things Our Homosexuality Tells Us about the Nature of God and the Universe SECRET MATTER: updated, revised & expanded edtion from Lethe Press with Afterword by Mark Jordan Read Toby's review of Samuel Avery's The Dimensional Structure of Consciousness Funny Coincidence: "Aliens Settle in San Francisco" GETTING LIFE IN PERSPECTIVE PLAGUE: A NOVEL ABOUT HEALING. Charmed Lives: Spinning Straw into Gold: Reclaiming Our Queer Spirituality Through Story Books on Gay Spirituality: White Crane Gay Spirituality Series   Articles and Excerpts: The Simple Answer to the Gay Marriage Debate Why gay people should NOT Marry Wedding Cake Liberation Gay Marriage in Texas What's ironic Shame on the American People The "highest form of love"  The cause of homosexuality What is homosexuality? What Jesus said about Gay Rights The purpose of homosexuality What the Bible Says about Homosexuality Mesosexual Ideal for Straight Men Varieties of Gay Spirituality Why Gay Spirituality: Spirituality as Artistic Medium "It's Always About You" The myth of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara Joseph Campbell's description of Avalokiteshvara You're Not A Wave Experiencing experiencing experiencing Going into the Light Meditations for a Funeral Meditation Practice The way to get to heaven Curious Bodies What Toby Johnson Believes The Joseph Campbell Connection Campbell & The Pre/Trans Fallacy The Nature of Religion Being Gay is a Blessing Freedom of Religion The Gay Agenda Gay Saintliness Gay Spiritual Functions The subtle workings of the spirit in gay men's lives.  "The Evolution of Gay Identity" "St. John of the Cross & the Dark Night of the Soul." Avalokiteshvara at the Baths.  Eckhart's Eye Let Me Tell You a Secret Religious Articulations of the Secret The Collective Unconscious Driving as Spiritual Practice Teenage Prostitution and the Nature of Evil Allah Hu: "God is present here"   Adam and Steve Gay retirement and the "freelance monastery" Seeing with Different Eyes What are you looking for in a gay science fiction novel? The mystical experience at the Servites'  Castle in Riverside The Great Dance according to C.S.Lewis The Techniques Of The World Saviors Part 1: Brer Rabbit and the Tar-Baby Part 2: The Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara Part 3: Jesus and the Resurrection Part 4: A Course in Miracles The Secret of the Clear Light Understanding the Clear Light Mobius Strip Finding Your Tiger Face How Gay Souls Get Reincarnated About Alien Abduction In honor of Sir Arthur C Clarke The D.A.F.O.D.I.L. Alliance The Rainbow Flag Toby's friend and nicknamesake Toby Marotta. About Michael Talbot, gay mystic About Guy Mannheimer The Gay Spirituality Summit in May 2004 and the  "Statement of Spirituality"

French existentialist playwright Jean Anouilh proposed a scenario for the last judgment:    The good are densely clustered at the gate of heaven, eager to march in, sure of their reserved seats, keyed up and bursting with impatience.      All at once, a rumor starts spreading: “It seems He’s going to forgive those others, too!”    For a minute, everybody’s dumbfounded. They look at one another in disbelief, gasping and sputtering, “After all the trouble I went through!” “If only I’d known this…” “I just cannot get over it!”    Exasperated, they work themselves into a fury and start cursing God; and at that very instant they’re damned. That was the final judgment.                                     (cited in Louis Evely, That Man is You)    The way to get into heaven is to want other people to get in too.    The judgment that there are other people--sinners--who don't deserve to get into heaven will keep you out.    At the Last Supper, Jesus told the apostles: "What sins you forgive on earth are forgiven in heaven,  what sins you retain on earth are retained in heaven." That is taken by Roman Catholic tradition to be the "institution of the sacrament of Penance."    What it really means is that we human beings are responsible for what we make wrong. If WE think other people are sinning, it is WE who are creating that state of sinfulness. And that sinfulness exists in OUR universe.    If you want to get rid of sin in your universe, stop seeing sinfulness. Love other people the way they are. Love them in spite of the way they are. Be compassionate and understand why they are the way they are. Don't judge. Forgive.    That the advice on this page is SO different from the declarations of "How to Get to Heaven" on almost all the other pages that google offers for this search string is just baffling. Almost every other page that comes up is about who isn't going to go to heaven because they're not a member of the right church or haven't had the right spiritual experience.    The way to get to heaven is to see that you are in heaven NOW, and then start living like that matters.    Heaven is a state of consciousness here and now.   As Jesus said in the Gnostic Gospel of St. Thomas: "The kingdom of heaven is spread across the face of the Earth, and men do not see it." "Behold, the Kingdom of God is within you." To find heaven, look within.   For more, see: Toby Johnson's notes for a workshop on the story of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara. Also: The mystical experience at the Servites'  Castle in Riverside About meditation practice You're Not A Wave

Toby Johnson, PhD is author of eight books: three non-fiction books that apply the wisdom of his teacher and "wise old man," Joseph Campbell to modern-day social and religious problems, three gay genre novels that dramatize spiritual issues at the heart of gay identity, and two books on gay men's spiritualities and the mystical experience of homosexuality. In addition to the novels featured elsewhere in this web site, Johnson is author of IN SEARCH OF GOD IN THE SEXUAL UNDERWORLD and THE MYTH OF THE GREAT SECRET (Revised edition): AN APPRECIATION OF JOSEPH CAMPBELL.

Johnson's Lammy Award winning book GAY SPIRITUALITY: The Role of Gay Identity in the Transformation of Human Consciousness was published in 2000.

His Lammy-nominated book  GAY PERSPECTIVE: Things Our Homosexuality Tells Us about the Nature of God and the Universe was published by Alyson in 2003.