The notion of heaven requires a corresponding belief that there is an immortal element to creation, something at once intertwined with our material selves and yet able to transcend them. Contemplative practice helps us to recognize what is eternal within us, the “True Self” that is “hidden with Christ in God” (Col 3:3). It can be difficult to describe this True Self: most of our ideas of the self in eternity are little more than a transfer of the self as we presently understand it to an otherworldly realm. We want to imagine life with God as a “have your cake and eat it too” scenario in which we change little and yet find ourselves fully gratified. The reality is that there is much that we think of as “ourselves” which is, by its nature, transient and destined to pass away. This includes not only our bodies as we now perceive them, but also our thoughts and feelings. Stripped of these things, we can scarcely imagine ourselves as “being” at all. Yet, is those moments when we are lovingly detached from our thoughts and feelings in contemplative practice, we find that we are still loved and we still are – and always will be.