To make sure that your future beyond this world is going to be the best it can be, make each day a little more meaningful than the last. That's it! Make each day just a little better, just an infinitesimal amount better than the last. "Better" doesn't mean what you do, but what you notice. Better means being only a little more awake to yourself, every day, and stop worrying about what others do.
This is all it takes! Just the tiniest increased effort and attention each day to make subtle improvements in the way you are - every day. Then, if you are called to heaven suddenly (and we really don't know when that may be), we will know that we were doing our best at the time, and this will make all the difference in the afterlife.
Rather than focusing on making ourselves more secure in this world by making more money than we really need, or having more things than we require just to fill some kind of psychological black hole, make a subtle improvement in something deeper. This development involves a slow steady change of character, where you don't have to make great strides each day, just firm progress in little ways.
This subtle progress is different from the progress that you have made in the past - this progress goes beyond just reading about what is right, or hearing about what is right and trying to copy it by acting right. This involves becoming naturally right - a deep-seated change in the depths of our being.
In the past, we have read about what we should do and how we should act, but this is merely wishful thinking, and wishful thinking keeps us locked into merely a work in progress. Now, however, we are not only going read and listen to spiritual advice; we will go beyond this and actually upgrade our intuition!
Without developing our own intuition, so that we can know right and wrong every moment without the need to check in with some authority, we could become confused, especially if we misinterpret the books we depend upon. We could head down a path that harms our chances for heaven. We need to come to a point where we instinctively gravitate toward lovingkindness, compassion, good will, and generosity, and naturally shy away from anger, hatred, and greed.
Since we cannot make this fundamental change within ourselves intellectually, that is by reading, listening to sermons, or thinking about it, how will we make an infinitesimal amount of progress every day? We can begin with cleaning our windshields so that we can see our own actions clearly.
To clear our windshield means to chip away at the endless opinions and reactions that have filled our current mental library, which is our thoughts and emotions. Each day, all we have to do is become increasingly aware of these thoughts and emotions. The act of seeing them will, by itself, effect the little change each day that we need to make. No longer will we waste time by measuring others, or judging them and trying to change them; that's a waste of our precious time. Now the progress will be dedicated to our own progress and ourselves - it does little good to count another's sheep.
It takes no monumental effort to change ourselves, because monumental effort involves the very thing that we are trying to change, which is our unrealistic view of ourselves, or our egos. Once the ego becomes involved in making our change, the change might take place, but it will not be for the good in the long run.
We refuse to allow the ego to become involved when we simply observe what we are each day, carefully and precisely, without doing anything but reflecting upon our thoughts, speech, and actions. Then the ego loses its influence because it can't go into action, and when the ego, which is our old, stale concepts, can't go into action, then creativity arises. After that, we really see what we are, and what we have become, and that raw seeing in itself is the beginning of change.
When a little creativity arises each day, the effect becomes accumulative, and soon we find ourselves securing a very special spot in the afterlife. And guess what; the world becomes a better place because of your efforts, as you become such a special part of it.
E. Raymond Rock of Fort Myers, Florida is cofounder and principal teacher at the Southwest Florida Insight Center, http://www.SouthwestFloridaInsightCenter.com His twenty-nine years of meditation experience has taken him across four continents, including two stopovers in Thailand where he practiced in the remote northeast forests as an ordained Theravada Buddhist monk. His book, A Year to Enlightenment (Career Press/New Page Books) is now available at major bookstores and online retailers. Visit http://www.AYearToEnlightenment.com