Eternal Return: Time is infinite--but there are a finite amount of actions in the universe, so all events will recur again and again infinitely. There is no final state of the universe; the universe merely cycles through the same states of matter and time with no destination. Time is circular, cyclical.
"And in this sense, I say, the world was before the Creation, and at an end before it had a beginning; and thus was I dead before I was alive, though my grave be England, my dying place was Paradise, and Eve miscarried of me before she conceived of Cain."
- Religio Medici, Sir Thomas Browne
It requires a sincere Amor Fati (Love of Fate), not simply to endure, but to wish for the eternal recurrence of all events exactly as they have occurred---all of the pain and joy and the embarrassment and glory.
Horrifying, paralyzing. The burden of this idea is the greatest weight imaginable. The wish for the eternal return of all events would mark the ultimate affirmation of life.
"What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: 'This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more' ... Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: 'You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine.' "
- Friedrich Nietzsche
...Perpetual return to the same.
"I die tonight with the certainty that I will find you again someday, and again you will have my loyalty and my love, as ever, as always.
I remain the same in change, even in time, even in death, even now."
To the ashes and from them...
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