The Golden Eternity, by Jack Kerouac

I have lots of things to share now, in case we ever meet, concerning the message that was transmitted to me under a pine tree in North Carolina on a cold winter moonlit night. It said that Nothing Ever Happened, so don’t worry. It’s all like a dream. Everything is ecstasy, inside. We just don’t know it because of our thinking-minds. But in our true blissful essence of mind is known that everything is alright forever and forever and forever. Close your eyes, let your hands and nerve-ends drop, stop breathing for 3 seconds, listen to the silence inside the illusion of the world, and you will remember the lesson you forgot, which was taught in immense milky way soft cloud innumerable worlds long ago and not even at all. It is all one vast awakened thing. I call it the golden eternity. It is perfect.

The world you see is just a movie in your mind.
Rocks dont see it.
Bless and sit down.
Forgive and forget.
Practice kindness all day to everybody
and you will realize you’re already
in heaven now.
That’s the story.
That’s the message.
Nobody understands it,
nobody listens, they’re
all running around like chickens with heads cut
off. I will try to teach it but it will
be in vain, s’why I’ll
end up in a shack
praying and being
cool and singing
by my woodstove
making pancakes.

Jack Kerouac was a literary iconoclast in the mid-1950s, and sent the text above in a letter to his first wife, a decade after their marriage had been annulled. Excerpted from The Portable Jack Kerouac -- a short collection of his stories, poems, letters, and essays.

Seed Questions for Reflection

What does the golden eternity mean to you? Can you share an experience of a time you felt that everything was alright forever and ever? How do you get your thinking mind to stop getting in the way of this awareness?

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Add Your Reflection

27 Past Reflections

Richard

Nov 5, 2023

I have seen the Golden Eternity. There is a complete absence of time,and form. There is only the light and it is endless. Everything thought to be real has fallen away or has be absorbed into the Golden Eternity. Every prayer answered. Everything. Nothing lacking. Everything is present. A love beyond the world’s understanding. Beyond all ideas. Beyond all thought. And no distance between observer and observed. All one. No more questions. Only The Answer forever and ever.

Eve Reece

May 23, 2022

Go to the heart and listen, the silence in the heart knows.

Ken

Jan 29, 2021

We practice, but for what? Why practice? DO! Enjoy the moment....call it what you want. "Practice" suggests a future intention. Doing is done now. Do it now.

jude

Nov 9, 2018

the moment was when i held my newborn grandson for forever. all there ever has been or will be
was right there in my arms

Mikess

Mar 4, 2017

Golden eternity is a great post, I just loved the poet. It;s the great feel.

JoAnn

Aug 22, 2014

For me the golden eternity is Being Present - consciously in the present moment is timeless or time full. It is my peace, balance, equanimity, surrender, truth and absolute oneness with all that is, or with one, in this NOW moment. When I am here, "everything is alright forever and ever" always. I give the mind one point of focus at a time, i.e. deep active listening to another, carefully observing what's going on around me or studying an object giving it complete attention utilizing all senses where needed in harmony with watching the thoughts go by....living in meditation. What miracles occur!

Rebecca McCarty Aug 23, 2014

Wonderful.

me Aug 23, 2014

Too, wonderful. (Thank you very much!)

Ty Aug 25, 2014

Worth reading again and again. Valuable!

JoAnn Aug 25, 2014

Thank you all :) Living meditation!

Rebecca McCarty

Aug 20, 2014

In theory, the mind belongs to us, not we to it. When we appear, as babes, in this world, mind is a near blank, we are fascinated by it at once, all those sensations rush in to it, noises, tastes, colors, shapes, touches, all are new, each one a fantastic direct experience . Slowly, the mind sorts them out for us, gradually the mind comes to cognize the world for us, it interprets the world, assigns concepts to our sensational impressions. Language arises in for us, in the mind. The mind begins to "think" in concepts, in words...we slowly forget to experience the world directly, or even that we ever even did experience the world directly, without having the mind conceptualizing "meaning" for us. As God let Adam do, in the bible, we allow the mind to assign everything in the world a name. "Bird", "tree", "ball", "house", "dog", "mommy", "eat", "food", "hungry","yes", "no", "me", "you"... everything, from the simple to the abstract. Nouns, verbs, every experience is duly cataloged, by the mind. The mind fills up with ways we "should be", it chooses our opinions, based on what "sounds good" according to its programming, even if direct experience would demonstrate otherwise. The mind says "I", "me"...as if, it were "the master" of the being, who is the true "us". Where are we all this time? We are fascinated by it's doings, so much so, that we come to believe we are the mind, and rarely, if ever, question its validity. Finally we use the interpretations, the concepts provided us by the mind almost exclusively to discern the world, and barely take in enough direct perception to navigate our bodies amongst the objects of this world.
Then one day, something quite extra-ordinary happens, (while we sit beneath a tree in North Carolina for instance), for some reason,which the mind can not fathom, we "come to" have a moment of lucid awakening. Something in a particular moment penetrates through the mind's veil of conceptual interpretation, it touches us to our core being, and like an infant, we have a direct experience once more. When this happens, the mind, quickly begins to do everything to distract us, from having more direct perception, it starts to "explain" the experience away, reducing the experience to a "concept". Yet if we realize what we have forgotten, that is our true "High Self", and its true vocation, which is to experience the world directly, we can wrestle the mind, make it take a second seat to the real us, insist that it assume it's correct place, as our tool, not our master.

To master the mind, requires constant vigilance. It is simple. We gain strength over it every time we directly take in impressions. When we feel our own self, really there, looking out our eyes, at the tree, seeing afresh, allowing the veritable flood of direct impressions to deliver to us the different textures of the bark, shades and tints of color, the changing patterns of the leaves, the tracing of twigs out to the leaf ends, each different, unique. Being here, in the ever-changing moment is our true vocation, recording for us,( like a camera,) the impressions of direct experience, is the job of the mind.

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Aug 19, 2014

"Some" understand and listen. When this connection is made, the "golden eternity" begins.

Syd

Aug 19, 2014

This golden eternity to me is learning to accept uncertainty and ambiguity. This acceptance is letting go of being obsessed with defending myself and living within my nothingness. It is like an inner light is going out and my acceptance offers this faith in my powerlessness. This acceptance is to even feel how everything seems futile and dying. This faith is my hope and it has nothing to do with beliefs or even trying to convince myself that certain beliefs are true. This faith is the actual recognition of support and presence within Being. Faith emerges in this acceptance and it feels like what is true, this inner Essence, cannot be harmed. The Golden Eternity, Essence, gives this unshakable confidence even when everything is going wrong. This faith is “given” and creates this opening to allow life to emerge in deaths grip. The gold is Essence and she offers this confidence to rest in Hope. ... View full comment

This is very good! Aug 19, 2014

Amen.

Rebecca McCarty Aug 24, 2014

Hope, is like a balm, isn't it? It sooths the growing pains of the soul.

always Aug 24, 2014

Yes it is! This is why we all need a lot of it to stay healthy.

Syd Aug 24, 2014

This is very good Rebecca . Hope is this unshakable confidence to rest, as everyone is expressing here. You are all profound!

Lightballplayer Aug 26, 2014

The hope and expectation of heaven, and the absolute assurance of its reality and availability through Christ, is the balm of my whole being, my heart, and spirit. Thanks for your comments.

me Aug 26, 2014

Hebrews 11:1. Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and a confident assurance in what we do not see. Too, my balm. Ty!

Sanjay

Aug 18, 2014

The world is an illusion and yet my story seems so real . Before the story and after the story is nothing , silence . I am so caught up in this story of my life , the pain , the suffering the happiness the joy and yet this story ends. What remains is nothing . 50 years from today all those who read this will be gone , maybe just some pictures on some walls may remain . All the load of worry we carry will mean nothing , the world will still go on without us. Nothing before birth , nothing after death .

ratnakar s

Aug 18, 2014

Jack Kerouac says- "no body understands, no body listens, all running around like chickens with heat cut". My observation is who gave permission to Jack to comment on others? by comparing with head cut chickens, is he implying he is over and above that state? I liked up to golden eternity; if the realisation has come than looking at activities in the world is not fun; it is an object view. One cherishes each and every activity, the learned never condemns nor makes fun of activities. It is concern, it is love, if no one listens the learned strives that much harder to make others listen.

david doane

Aug 18, 2014

For me, the Golden Eternity is another name for the Undefinable, the Incomprehensible Mystery, Eternal Being, Awareness, God, Great Spirit. I see all those terms as interchangeable. Golden Eternity is beyond space and time and manifests through each of us, and in some moments, when we get beyond our thinking and our delusions, when we are still, we get a glimpse of Golden Eternity. It is already here with us, and we are with it, and we don't see it due our busyness or ignorance or whatever. Like the fish that doesn't see the water. I've had a few brief experiences in my life that I guess I was in Golden Eternity and felt everything was alright. Those are wonderful moments. I get my thinking to stop getting in the way of this awareness mainly by being present -- present to what I am experiencing and present to those with me.

Rebecca McCarty Aug 24, 2014

To be present is a golden glory, to be present with one's friends increases the golden glory, to higher level of brilliance.

Abhishek Thakore

Aug 17, 2014

The tricky thing about nothingness is that to describe it is to not describe it, to speak about it is to not speak about it....so being anchored in the 'absolutely nothing happened' includes letting go of the words 'absolutely', 'nothing' and 'happened'....

The other level is existential - where all meaning is created....

I wonder where Kindness sits in both these levels - because in nothingness there is nothing anyways, and at the existential level, all meaning is created (including kindness and its value)

Another level is where there are unintented consequences - where one can never tell. So a locally mean act may have a ripple of good (or we have too narrow a time frame and a space frame to define what is 'good' or 'bad')

So for me to accept the first part of the passage (Nothing ever happened) makes it harder to accept the next one.... :)

Kristin Pedemonti

Aug 15, 2014

Golden Eternity is being here Now. It is not worrying about past or future. There have been countless times when everything was alright forever and ever; those times when I allow myself to truly BE in the moment, to feel the Love than I am and to be Enough in that moment. To share LOVE from the Heart and Kindness is key. To get from the Thinking mind is to Listen more to the Heart; the heart often has far better answers than the head. Our heads may think too much while our Heart feels and knows what is the correct course to take. Love is always the correct course. Hugs from my heart to yours. I LOVE this passage from Kerouac as it truly shows his humanity.

Jagdish P Dave

Aug 15, 2014

Jack Kerouac's poem evoked a poem in my mind.

It is an echo, not the sound.
Do not chase it and call it your call.
Your legs will be tired and your voice will be lost.

Who is to forgive and what is to forget.
It is all the mind's game.
The loser is the winner and the winner is the loser.

Still the body and quiet the mind.
Let a smile flicker on your face.
Let it come and let it go.

Nothing is here for ever.
Even the time!
Nothing to do,
Nowhere to go.
Be here and now-the ever present present.

Jagdish P Dave

Lightballplayer Aug 19, 2014

Our lives here in this reality are meant to be used as a school of sorts so that we can learn to wait on God's will in peace and praise, without being fearful, impatient, striving for anything. We are, everyone, a child of God, and He has an ordered plan for each of our lives.

But it is His plan, not what we or someone else decides for us. If we are willing to be totally aligned to His will, and willing to be human vessels that allow through our faith, love, and obedience His access and control of our bodies and minds to use for His perfect purpose, then we are walking in the golden eternity that will appear to us gradually as He shows us what He made us (each individually) to do in this life to be ready for our unique eternal purpose when He (Jesus) returns to a pristine and lovely earth that has no evil.

But to get to this golden eternity, the cost is the realization that evil is here and very present in our now. And that we by ourselves cannot find or be worthy of the golden eternity without giving up our wants and desires here, in this now, for His work to be done here through us. We must recognize that He is the truth, the way, and the light and that it is He who made us and not we ourselves. Only He can take the evil (our sins) and cancel them, and bring healing here. We have been granted the gift of life, or if you will, the school on earth.

All who live here have the opportunity to bow to His service, and help to vanquish the evil among us. But we have to surrender to a power and redeemer who is much wiser than any of us can ever become. Evil will not be overcome on earth until we all want His will together. We must not be so preoccupied with the illusions of instant gratification and self sufficiency, or so unconscious in our spirits that we don't even care, or, perhaps are truly evil, and are here to help confound the spiritual and educational process of others who are seeking the opportunity of the golden eternity. Which one are you?

We can hasten His return to us and that will be the golden eternity of goodness and kindness, patience and perseverance, hope and love, wellness and wholeness of sound mind and body and spirit. Each person has the choice to elect serving good or serving evil. Not choosing is the same as choosing evil. Here on earth in this life, is not the big "party" of golden eternity. In this life now, we choose, every second, whom we will serve. I have chosen the path of submission and learning, so that I will be prepared for the wonder of the new world, and The Master, when I am able to behold Him. This life is truly bright with cheap shining things, but I want more. I want to feel what it feels like to be loved unconditionally, absolute total acceptance, forever. No evil, anywhere. When I think about that, and know that I have chosen the source of it all,
that, is the golden opportunity to the golden eternity. Why would anyone want anything less?