Eternal Life

For many, the goal of religion is immortality or eternal life. People have always chafed under the limitations of mortality, and have found in religion the means to transcend the death which seems to proscribe the possibilities of human existence. As with resurrection, eternal life is not simply about the survival of the soul at death and its journey into the afterlife. Eternal life is not about eternal existence per se, but rather about the quality of that existence.

We find that the scriptures of many religions give two meanings to the terms “life” and “death.” There is physical life—existence on this earthly plane, and there is spiritual life—the state of blessedness which endures from life to life and transcends death. There is physical death—the dropping of the body which is an event in the voyage of every soul, and spiritual death—the condition of distance from God, ignorance, and a hellish existence in the hereafter.

“Eternal life” and “immortality” are thus ciphers to describe the condition of blessedness. This condition is present already in the physical life of the person who realizes Truth or lives in God’s grace, and it will continue, unabated, in the hereafter. The person who gains eternal life has accomplished the goal of life, and hence death is not to be feared as a limitation, as it is for a worldly person who has tied all hopes to his possessions and pleasures in the world. We note, however, that Buddhist scriptures generally avoid speaking of this state of blessedness as eternal life, for Buddhism views the desire for life as a kind of grasping, and hence a fetter to liberation. Instead, they speak of Nirvana.

Father Moon’s teaches that eternal life is rooted in our relationship with the eternal God, based upon God’s love for us and our love for God. “Eternity does not exist apart from true love,” he states.

Then he expands upon this concept to describe the relationship between human lovers as aspiring for the eternal. This is so because we human beings are designed for eternal life, eternal love with God, and eternal community with the ones we love under God.