Eternal Life
As you go, proclaim the good news, “The kingdom of heaven has come near.” Matthew 10:7 (NRSV)
There are mysterious boundaries that emerge as we explore the nature of our physical existence at its apparent extremes. These boundaries are of a different nature than the physical barriers that prevent us from crossing certain thresholds or the legally-defined boundaries that separate states and nations. Rather, these boundaries allow an unrestricted search for the most extreme of whatever we seek, but prevent a resolution because the search field has no edges. For every question answered, additional questions arise. As I have stated previously, the search for the smallest physical building blocks of matter led to the discovery of the atom. As instrumentation improved, protons, neutrons, and electrons were discovered as smaller components of atoms. As instrumentation improved even more, various quantum particles were and continue to be found, all arguably without bringing us closer to finding the smallest building block of the universe. The same is true of our search for the edges of the universe. The more sophisticated our telescopes and analysis abilities become, the farther out the universe appears to extend. My suspicion is that we will never find a smallest or largest particle, nor will we find a galaxy so distant that nothing exists beyond it. These sorts of boundaries are like Sheri Lewis’ song of my childhood, This is the song that doesn’t end.[1] From our perspective, there is an endless procession of smaller, larger, and more distant horizons to explore because the ends we seek do not exist. Our ladders of exploration lean against the wrong walls. Such searches do, however, provide a context for imagining eternal life.
The point is not that our attempts to explore the physical universe in its smallest and largest manifestations are entirely fruitless, but that the never-ending possibilities for discovery will often be distractions from instead of answers to what we seek. There is no finality to the search because the life we explore has no beginning or end. It is eternal. We may have been taught that life on earth was created six-thousand years ago in six days, as in the book of Genesis, or that life on earth evolved from star-dust resulting from a Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago. Both views, however, are only religious metaphor and scientific speculation. What we actually experience in our life on earth is that life is eternal. It extends without boundaries behind and before us. Our perspective is the view from the center, which is wherever we are in the moment. The beginning of what we consider our life precedes immeasurably prior to our birth. The genesis of the DNA that shapes our bodies and the environments that shape our life-experiences have roots that cannot be traced in time and space. From a religious/mythical perspective, they go back to Adam and Eve. From a scientific perspective, our roots go back to the first sea creatures that crawled onto dry land. Both are theoretical explanations of that which is beyond description or discovery. If we attempted to track our origins along either a religious or scientific path to today, our search would become increasingly complex without taking us closer to where we began. The same would be true of attempts to track life-as-we-know-it ahead to some future time when life is no more – the search would become increasingly complex but without resolution. And that is the nature of eternal life – it has no beginning or end – it just is. The entirety of what has been, is now, and ever will be is present here and now in the extreme center of our perception. The seemingly far reaches of what we consider past and future are contained herein, and searches of and for the extremes, while interesting and entertaining, only serve to divide our attention and decenter us.
Related parallels occur as we consider the present moment. How long does a moment last? When does one moment end and another begin? Must we stop time in order to enter a moment? In truth, there is no beginning or end to the present moment, either in space or time. It, too, is eternal. It is always here and now, as it always has been and always will be. The present moment is the gate to heaven, in whatever way we imagine heaven. As Jesus proclaimed frequently, “the kingdom of heaven has come near.” By near he was not referring to a physical distance but to a state of being – being in the moment. Eternal life, like heaven, is near, but to experience it we must enter the moment at the extreme center of our being.
This is the 30thin a series of Life Notes on Time, and Eternity. The opinions expressed are mine. To engage with me or to explore contemplative spiritual direction, contact me at ghildenbrand@sunflower.com.
[1] This is the song that doesn’t end, it just goes on and on, my friend; some people started singing it, not knowing what it was, and they’ll continue singing it forever just because this is the song that doesn’t end…
Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U2zJOryHKQ
Contemplating Grace 