Eternity

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Eternity is usually thought to mean everlastingness. However, in the course of philosophical discussion the idea has been further refined, and two different concepts were developed--that of "atemporality", which is beyond time, and that of "sempiternity", which denotes infinity in time.[1]

The English word "eternal" derives from the Latin term aevum, "an age or era". This does not seem to convey neither the idea of atemporality nor sempiternity, but a specific cycle of time. This is how the word "eternal" is usually applied in Theosophical literature, which, according to H. P. Blavatsky, is the way Eastern approach:

Eternity with the Orientals has quite another signification than it has with us. It stands generally for the 100 years or "age" of Brahma, the duration of a Kalpa or a period of 4,320,000,000 years.[2]

In the Theosophical view time is always limited and begins with the manifestation<><>, which denies the idea of sempiternity. As to that of "atemporality" is referred to as "duration" in The Secret Doctrine

Notes

  1. Eternity at Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  2. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, "The Voice of the Silence" Glossary to Part 1 (???), ???.


Further reading