Infinity & Eternity

To be clear, this is not meant to be a “What is the meaning of life and my purpose here?” post. Rather, it is an obsession that has been nagging me lately. Sorry if I lapse into the former a bit.

I would like to begin by sharing a "window on my world". I am sitting in a lounge chair on my 12’ x 24’ wooden deck in the backyard of my house. My lot size is 50’x 100’, a typical size for my neighborhood, and it is enclosed with a 6’ privacy fence. I am writing this on my laptop computer which has about a 1.5 hour battery life and I am connected to the web via wi-fi with about a 50’ line of sight range. I have only lived in this house for 6 months and it is 2,000 sq feet. I have a 6.25% mortgage rate and it is financed for 30 years. I purchased this house because it is only 2.6 miles from my workplace which takes me about 15 minutes to commute to work. I commute daily in a 2002 model vehicle with 35,000 miles on it. I change my oil every 3,000 miles and it is due for one in about another 500 miles. My vehicle gets about 26 miles to the gallon and on the way home, I filled it up. Gas cost $2.86 per gallon and my total was $43.27. Since I just got home after working a 9 hour day, I am ready to relax for a little while. I have just opened a lite-beer which is 12 fluid ounces. It contains 95 calories, 5 grams of carbs, 1 gram of protein, and contains 4% alcohol by volume.

So here I sit, staring up in the sky beyond the wide blue panorama with white puffy clouds and I begin to think, as I am prone to do, that it never ends……ever. Beyond our atmosphere and galaxy and solar system and cosmos, it simply never ends. It is infinite. I start quivering as I attempt to understand “Infinity”. My atom-sized human brain succumbs to a primordial “brain-freeze” as I attempt to understand the concept that the universe is never ending. I can’t relate, I can’t comprehend, I can’t breathe.

So I look downward, back to my laptop, unaware of how long I have just been pondering the infinite universe above me. And then my second phobia kicks in. How long will my battery last? Then, almost immediately, I wonder, how long will my life last? The concept of eternity is now front and foremost in my brain as I begin to ponder that time is forever. It is “Eternal”. Nothing that I know is forever. My lifespan is immeasurable in the infinite yardstick of time. I try to cope. I try to find solace by living my life, “one day at a time” and living in “day-tight compartments” but the fleeting feeling of security escapes me as I realize the obscurity of time without measure and I am once again overwhelmed. Daylight savings time????

For me, the measure of time and space seems to give credence to my being and very existence. I feel “in control” when I show up somewhere “on time” and “get good gas mileage” or navigate to a location that I have never been before. It is almost like relating to time and space in our mini-munchkin-land-world allows us to feel safe and secure. While just outside our “bubble of perception” nothing could be further from the truth. Our universe could simply be the size of a DNA molecule in a petri-dish of some giant lab. Or some tiny lab. Whatever.

I feel small and inconsequential. In all of the things that we hold dear in our society like “spending quality time” and “measuring up” to standards. I feel like I am “one of a billion mites traveling on a cinder through the vastness of space for all eternity”.

So how do you all deal with the concept of Infinity and Eternity in order to cope with daily life? Time for another beer. I look forward to your advice to help me cope.

Regards….kk

P.S. If this post is in the wrong forum, please feel free to relocate it. I have plenty of time.



[edit on 23-8-2007 by kinda kurious]

Great post.

The universe indeed is eternal, and for all practical purposes, infinite. How to deal with this? That surely will be different per individual, but I found that a healthy dose of meditation and maybe some intellectual study of 'eastern mythologies' can help. It is great to meditate next to a large waterfall, and then while away from it always remember that even though you are at work, that waterfall is still flowing, the universal process is always in motion, and you are a part of it, no matter how small. Also, remember that the universe being fractal in some sense, there are things smaller than you as well. I'll think more on your post and add more later.

edit: I re-read your post.

I feel small and inconsequential. In all of the things that we hold dear in our society like “spending quality time” and “measuring up” to standards. I feel like I am “one of a billion mites traveling on a cinder through the vastness of space for all eternity”.

Your feelings are shared by many like minded beings that have opened up to the larger process that we are within.

Understand and accept and embrace the beauty that surrounds you.

Understand ranges of influence, you are not inconsequential within loosely defined ranges of process, you do seem to recognize this, now embrace it.

Breathe, with each breath in realize that you are part of the open systems of the universe, not separate from it. You are eternal, and infinite as well.

The 'you' will change form, you seem to recognize this, now embrace it. We are all process.

Accept that most of your life is lived in an arbitrary control system, influenced by a culture which as a whole has not embraced reality. This, for me, is one of the more difficult parts of enlightenment.




[edit on 23-8-2007 by Ionized]

On the infinite and other imponderables;

I understand the feeling of awe one gets when contemplating the vastness of the greater universe and, conversely, the same never-ending intricacies of nuclear physics. We seem to hold a delicate place somewhere in-between, being neither immense nor miniscule. I know that is not a truth, though... just an observation. An ant on the backside of an elephant would feel the same until the big fellow decided to sit down.

Here we are, spinning on our little planet, so full of ourselves that we rarely take the time to sit back and think about such things. No doubt there are people who live their entire lives without questioning the 'greater environment' or wondering what makes molecules 'stick'. They live their lives day-to-day, unbothered by much else than seasons or lunar cycles for sowing and reaping crops or nomadic ventures to hunting and fishing grounds. It has always been that way for thousands of years and continues even in this technological society we live in today.

Such cultures just accept and are grateful for the continuance of these cycles.

But, there have always been those who looked at the stars and studied their movements too. They recorded the wonder of precession, counting cycles lasting thousands of years and 'inventing' the zodiac. They saw the strange movements of some of the other planets, like Venus and marking the path it took, seeing it as a great symbol. They also noted the Milky Way and postulated theories about it a thousand years ago.

These same great thinkers also dove into the wonders of the microcosm, speculating about what exactly could be the building blocks of life. These are not 'new thoughts', but the stuff Greek philosophers debated about more than 2000 years ago. And yet, today we are still struggling with concepts born from modern experiments. String theory, the multiverse, subatomic particles, dark matter and the Big Bang elude complete understanding, actually creating more debates than facts for us.

We are hopelessly lost in a sea of never-ending intricacies, waiting for the next Einstein to pull the darkness aside and reveal a bit more truth about where, who and what we are, never mind the when and, most importantly, why.

Perhaps most of us could be content with the little lunar and seasonal cycles, planting our corn and sowing our seeds at the appropriate times, waiting until that wise person who watches the rays of the rising sun creeping up a marked stone tells us what to do and when to do it.

And, maybe it would be better if we ALL became like that wise person and stopped being so dependent.

I think the latter, don't you?

After the prior post by masqua and ionized...........

I am wordless........................

Warn me, ban me, expand me.............

masqua. and ionized.......your rock and have helped me immensely.

regards....kk

[edit on 23-8-2007 by kinda kurious]

People are often confused about why I don't really care about things that much. For example if someone does me wrong, takes advantage of me, if my favourite such and such explodes or breaks, etc why I just don't seem to care.
I think since a young age I read quite a few spiritual books, the kinds that help you question things a little and at that point in someones life when you really absorb things into your belief system.

So since then, i've really just kept the mindset of my life being a grain of sand on the beach of time.
Someone stole my rent money a month ago. Yeah okay so what.

Kind of depressing perhaps, but it does give me time to think about more worthwhile things. Although I don't deem much worthwhile

Nice thread and no one will top what Masqua posted.

We all have our realizations. Our moments of clarity.

Have you ever been inside your home in the evening, bustling away at something when you realize that your whole house is illumed in an amberesque light? And you just know instantly there is a magnificent sunset under way, so you run for a door - or a window. You walk out into it and the first thing you see are clouds, that are laced with pink hues and there are layers upon layers of marmelade skies. It's breathtaking and you just know there is more to life than this. You are happy and your soul is happy, so a smile creeps upon your face.

There is always going to be sadness in this world but there is much beauty also, and it is only a preview or teaser of the things that are out there.



[edit on 24-8-2007 by Myrtales Instinct]

Originally posted by T0by
People are often confused about why I don't really care about things that much. For example if someone does me wrong, takes advantage of me, if my favourite such and such explodes or breaks, etc why I just don't seem to care.

I knew there was a reason i've always liked your posts. Seems like we have more than a haircut and facial hair in common.

When my wife and i were dating, she liked that i thought about things like consciousness, the true nature of reality, the vastness of space, and what it all means. We've been married to three years and i'm fairly certain she would rather i spent all my time figuring out our budget and planning for our future. That's not to say i don't set time aside to do those things, but it seems like the things she loved so much about me in the beginning were really only endearing qualities when she didn't have a whole lot vested in our relationship. =)

It's not that i don't care. I just don't see the point in throwing all of my energy into something as limiting as the society in which we live. I prefer to think about the things that will always be as infinite as they are today.

Originally posted by The Cyfre
When my wife and i were dating, she liked that i thought about things like consciousness, the true nature of reality, the vastness of space, and what it all means. We've been married to three years and i'm fairly certain she would rather i spent all my time figuring out our budget and planning for our future. That's not to say i don't set time aside to do those things, but it seems like the things she loved so much about me in the beginning were really only endearing qualities when she didn't have a whole lot vested in our relationship.

Wow Cyfre....that speaks volumes. I am beginning to think that the thing which initially draws us to people is that they are "opposite" from us enevitably becomes the exact thing that repels us from each other in the end. The concept that "opposites attract" falls short in day to day living. In a nutshell, the concept that he/she is so different from me and I find that person so interesting eventually succumbs to the notion we are nothing alike and makes me want to keep my distance.

I am myself in that very relationship even after 15 years of "marriage".

I suppose I need to ponder these things a bit further, but in the meantime,
thanks for expanding my reality and consciousness.

regards....kk

sorry for any typos......i am bombed

You know, as deeply as I have delved into philosophical and spiritual matters in my life, it is amazing, and amusing I suppose, that the whole concepts of infinity and eternity have never really interested me. While they have crossed my mind from time to time, I haven't spent an extraporaneous amount of time pondering them.

Infinity has always, at least to me, been more applicable to distance,to where eternity has more relevance to "time." It is truly overwhelming to even imaginee anything being infinite. While I can imagine something always occuring, or even existing forever in "time," I can't even begin to imagine an object or space being infinite.



[edit on 24-8-2007 by SpeakerofTruth]

i have a question don't be mad if it sounds dumb. how do we know the universe is infinant?

Originally posted by coryblood
i have a question don't be mad if it sounds dumb. how do we know the universe is infinant?

Well, we don't know that with any degree of certainty. What we do know is that it is very expansive..