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What is eternal?
How
do you picture the eternal? Views from space, like the one to the left, can
convey a sense of a vastness and mystery but galaxies are finite, whereas, the
eternal has no beginning or end it is, by definition, beyond time. The five
senses we use to experience our surroundings are of no use, only our internal
‘sixth sense’, imagination, can be of help when we consider eternity.
Time arises from our perception of changes in the state of energy but because we can understand that energy cannot be created or destroyed this can make us aware of existence of the eternal. Everything we are conscious of in our life in a state of time results from the conversion of energy from one form (or perceived state) to another. Without energy life cannot exist but the particular life in time that we are conscious of is defined by the direction that energy appears to take when it is converted. There may be other forms of time bounded consciousness but we can at least be sure of this time conscious life and the eternal because they co-exist.
Unlike life in time, the eternal cannot appear to be given or taken away. Neither can it be earned or be something in our future or past because it always is. The eternal is, compared to life in time, whole and complete. In fact, it is the only state that is truly sustainable because it contains everything that is.
My experience of the eternal and my attempts to convey it over the years has been influenced by many sources, including the great international religious traditions. However, much of the earlier work listed below was written for an Anglican Christian audience. Sadly, when ideas about the greatest questions lead to the formation of religions they have a history of setting people against one another rather than seeing themselves as part of one eternity. Some of the worst disagreements have occurred between groups from within religions and I have had personal experience over the last decade of what has been described kindly as ‘a failure to share’. For this reason, I was one of those people who chose to describe their faith as ‘holistic’ in my answers to questions in the personal section of the UK Census in spring 2011. Therefore, what I have included seeks to transcend any one spiritual tradition.
o Creation: eternal and consciousness – an holistic creed
o Creating a Cultural Shift - a new spiritual awareness to solve global problems
o Our Creation, a journey in faith – a slide-show presentation
o Sustainability – a spiritual question
o God & the environment - as above so below
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