Mystics distinguish between the two concepts of eternity and foreverness, with eternity representing a timeless state, one that exists outside of our temporal experience, rather than basic, vanilla foreverness- time essentially going on and on and never stopping.
Well, I’m no philosopher, and I do not wish to iron out these nuances. We Americans aren’t looking for some new-age interpretation of eternity. We simply want the clock to keep ticking. We want to float up into those fluffy cu-nims and hang out with J. Christ in his dope amusement park in the clouds and ride front seat on the titillating Moses-themed roller coaster and lap that shit over and over. Grandma is gonna be there. Steve Irwin will be wranglin’ a croc in the infinity hot tub. God, how we miss him. Have no fear, there are no sting rays in heaven. They’ll have a cheese buffet with all the fanciest cheeses- all the ones you and I are too cheep to buy. So fancy, they’ll call it fromage. Huntsman, blue, brie, havarti, camembert, fortina- all present. Of course there’s some gouda on that table. No doubt gorgonzola is in the spread. Fondue? Fo sho. Roclette? Heaven yes (We do not say hell up in this bitch). There’s a dessert table, too. All 31 ice cream flavors in existence. All of them! In one place! A banana bread loaf so moist and tasty you won’t know whether to eat or marry it (Unfortunately, human/food relationships are not condoned or allowed in heaven). The moistest rice crispy treats, never too crunchy, oh-so gooey. And there is no diabetes. Fupa is illegal. Naturally, everyone will speak perfect English. Beefcoin will be the one and only accepted currency (God loves dodgy crypto shams), and everyone will have a plentiful supply. Perfection.
Apologies for the ramble, but what a place it will be….
Back to the topic at hand. Most of us don’t want to find eternity in the present moment. We just don’t want to die. We don’t want to be alone. We don’t want to not exist as this exact form of consciousness that we currently inhabit. We want to party with all our friends and family, up in space, for all time.
But until we get the invite (I bet it’s a shiny card) to the forever sky party, we must glean what we can from our earthly existence. Since all these visionaries say there’s something more contained within each waking moment, accessible to all of us with the right ways of perception, then I guess we should consider it, I guess. They say eternity is now. Well, how do I find it?
In my experience, nothing draws out the present moment and makes it feel eternally long quite like misery and suffering.
Any time you think, damn, time flies-it’s moving too fast!- Go run a HARD mile. Do a dead hang. Do five minutes of continuous burpees. You will change your mind. There’s actually plenty of time, maybe too much time. You might even think, I’m ok with the finitude of existence, because that sucked so much. Do I want anything to last forever? Hmmm, maybe I don’t want an invite to the forever skyparty…
Consequently, we must pursue that Goggins-style grind (I know, I reference this dude a lot). Rise and grind, baby. Put your body to work, and make it hurt. Get out there and suffer willingly. Because it is good for you. Because it builds character. Because it will change your perception of time. Because it will allow you to live forever*.
*Not technically forever, but in the sense of experiencing the timelessness of conscious experience, or pain so uncomfortable that any interval of time is too long.
Yolo 69 420 