We may have heard of eternal life before. But what actually is it? Does it mean I get to keep this fleshy body forever? Or does it mean something else? How about in Christianity where they talk about eternal life, what do they actually mean?
One Person's Perspective
It was in my teenage years through a combination of extreme anxiety, toying around with my dreams and probably other things that led me to have a sense that life is not unique to having a brain and moving around – in fact it even felt as though the universe itself had a living aspect to it. I could not explain this feeling or even describe it very well at the time, and simply confused my peers every time I attempted to. And I did attempt to – to family and even to my school teachers.
I was going very far off track every time I attempted to rationalise what I felt to the point I was coming up with crazy ideas other people had no hope of understanding. This frustration carried on for nearly 20 years.
Along the way I gave up on trying to figure out the fundamental nature of the universe and focused more on doing something about my own anxiety (which also had very limited success).
An Unexpected Answer
Then my Dad gave me a flyer to this meditation and I decided to give it a go. Initially, I was interested in the idea of being able to get rid of my stress. It also talked about eternal life, which I struggled to understand at first. Still, I had finally found something that was profoundly effective at getting rid of my stress, which I really liked so I continued. It was explained that people can achieve eternal life by getting rid of the false self and being reborn as the Universe. It was also explained that the Universe itself is a never changing, ever lasting and living existence – which perfectly explained what I had begun to feel when I was a teenager.
However the ego took over and I asked a cheeky question – 'If the Universe is never changing, how can a person be reborn as it?' Ironically, I was able to answer my own question – by continuing to discard that ego that was asking it. It is 'never changing' in the sense that it is always infinite emptiness filled with consciousness. We just covered it over by putting pictures of it inside of our heads – pictures that overlap it exactly.
The thing is, the idea we are our bodies is so deeply engrained that eternal life seems silly. The reality is we are not our body. Originally, we were the Universe itself. This human body, which came forth from the Universe just like everything else, took pictures of the surroundings and stored them into the brain. These pictures are false copies. Getting rid of those pictures then reveals the Universe is in fact within us – this is how we are actually able to be reborn as the Universe.
It would then make sense that this would be done by someone who is already this existence, just like only someone who knows something can teach that to everybody else. So then how do we know it's the real thing? When it can be done while we are alive, with this human form – and since the Universe becomes our consciousness instead of false pictures – this eternal life will naturally be understood and felt. Only you can know yourself by actually finding it - no one can tell you. It will be naturally understood that the Universe – the Land of Truth – is within.