Eternity isn't some later time.
Eternity isn't a long time.
Eternity has nothing to do with time.
Eternity is that dimension of here and now
which thinking and time cuts out.
This is it.
And if you don't get it here,
you won't get it anywhere.
And the experience of eternity
right here and now is the function of life.
There's a wonderful formula
that the Buddhists have for the Bodhisattva,
the one whose being (sattva) is illumination (bodhi),
who realizes his identity with eternity
and at the same time his participation in time.
And the attitude is not to withdraw from the world
when you realize how horrible it is,
but to realize that this horror
is simply the foreground of a wonder
and to come back and participate in it.
Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth
