Somewhere over the rainbow way up high,
There’s a land that I heard of once in a lullaby.
Somewhere over the rainbow skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true.
Some day I’ll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far behind me
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
Away above the chimney tops, that’s where you’ll find me
Somewhere over the rainbow blue birds fly
Birds fly over the rainbow, why, then, oh why can’t I?
If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow, why, oh why, can’t I? --From The Wizard of Oz
Have you, like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, ever yearned for a land that you heard of? A land where troubles melt like lemon drops? A land where the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true? Have you felt that deep yearning for a perfect place?
The story is told of a young prince, and millions upon millions believe it is true. The prince was young and strong and attractive, but his father protected him against realities of life.
Then, one day it happened that the prince got out among his people. He saw a frail, old man and he realized, “One day I will be old and frail.” He saw a person who was sick and realized health is not guaranteed. And he saw a funeral procession with a dead body on a bier and realized, “One day, I too will die.”
The prince was the young Buddha. Due to his experiences, he spent years contemplating suffering, until he understood suddenly that all suffering is due to desire. Desire for pleasure; desire for wealth; desire for loved ones. Even in death, desire produces a clinging to life that causes us to be born into the world again to suffer another lifetime, then another, and another.
The Buddha concluded that by eliminating desire we can attain Nirvana, and suffering and rebirth will end. He envisioned a perfect place.
As mature adults, we learn to adjust to the tragedies of life:
Yet, from ancient times, men and women have wondered why life is so hard and have yearned for a more perfect place.
The early Jews asked, Why pain? Why conflict? Why hard labor? Why death? And they imagined a perfect place where such things were not so. A garden of joy and happiness, of harmony between man and wife and God, and all you can eat for the picking.
Then came the rupture. You can read about it in Genesis. There were shattered relationships between each other and with God.
“What did you do?”
“It was the woman’s fault!”
“Serpents fault!”
There was loss of innocence and the beginning of shame: “We are naked!” Hard labor, pain of childbirth, death and, even worse, murder between brothers
For 3000 years we have complained, “Adam really did us in us–badly!” And we yearn for paradise lost.
The early Christian imagined a future place where the lamb lays down with the lion, a child plays at the nest of a viper, swords are beaten into plough blades, the water of life flows all around. There are trees of healing and rich, fulfilling relationships
And we yearn for that perfect place
Did the Buddha get it right? Probably not. Did the Garden of Eden exist? I don’t think so. Will we stand around forever chanting, “Holy Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, Who is, Who was, and Who is to come?”
I hope not. As wonderful as that is, it could get monotonous after the first thousand years.
Is there any evidence that the perfect place exists at all? The great philosopher and theologian, CS Lewis, said the key evidence is in the yearning!
Most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise. The longings which arise in us when we first fall in love, or first think of some foreign country, or first take up some subject that excites us, are longings which no marriage, no travel, no learning, can really satisfy. I am not now speaking of what would be ordinarily called unsuccessful marriages, or holidays, or learned careers. I am speaking of the best possible ones.
If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing.
(C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Hope, paragraphs two and five.)
Is there such a place—a perfect place after death? The intuition of most people says, “Yes!” Science cannot prove it, but it is not unreasonable. Perhaps the greatest clue is our yearning. As mature adults, we should continue to adjust to suffering and focus on building a positive life in our imperfect circumstances, but do not discount your yearning for something more.
Dorothy asked this plaintive question:
Somewhere over the rainbow blue birds fly
Birds fly over the rainbow, why, then, oh why can’t I?
The good news is—you can!
