Aging is
not wisdom
Just becoming old does not mean that one has
become wise. Age in itself does not make anybody wise. One may grow old; that
does not mean that one has become a grown-up. Growing old and becoming grown-up
are totally different phenomena.
Aging is difficult for us in today’s western world
outlook, because we rarely think about this stage of our life until suddenly,
we find ourselves staring in the mirror at this “old” person. How did this
person get here? What does this mean? Youth is the idol; so much of our culture
is geared toward youth. I was once asked if I had a chance to live
again, would I do anything differently; I had responded, not at all, I would
live exactly the same way as I have done so, so far. As Carl Jung had once said
– old age is the most valuable phase of life.
Unfortunately, old age is also the invisible time
of life. People begin to migrate from the homes where they spent their
householder years (the grihasta stage in the Vedic tradition) to over-sixty
communities, where they are encouraged to age collectively. Then often it is on
to assisted living, where the elderly are even more closed off from the world,
and finally many are shuttled to nursing homes, where, sadly, they become truly
invisible, depriving the young of the opportunity to engage with the elder
spirit.
The Sanatan life cycle talks about Brahmacharya,
Grihastashram, Vanapastashram and finally Sannyasashram. To honour this life
cycle in order to prepare for the sannyasa time—the time when we have renounced the
hurried and often distracted life of the student (brahmacharya) and the sometimes-stressful phase of the
householder - and learn to embrace the slower life that comes with letting go
of the identities formed by our careers.
People go on growing in age but not in maturity.
They don’t become really ripe; they remain as childish as anybody else. And
when we are children and are childish it is not so embarrassing, but when we
have become old and we are childish it is very embarrassing. They hide it, but
deep down they are the same person, nothing has happened - because nothing ever
happens without meditation.
Just accumulating experience of the outside world
does not transform us. It makes us very well informed about many things, but
information is information, it is not transformation.
1 comment:
We See many a times that we are not able to influence our elders much with our thoughts and make them think differently or in our shoes. Generations Differ in their basic thought processes due to the influence of times they have witnessed, the environment that they adjusted themselves while growing up and the mind set that they developed with their life experience. The Point here is that how much we are ready for embrassing a new change if it is for better. But very few accept changes and keep quotient to learn new things after they cross the age of 60 . At the same time , few are ready to learn new things and accept new ways for betterment even at the age of 75 - 80. The former like to live with the status quo whereas the later are curious souls who still want to explore Korean meaning in life before its all over. Age and wisdom is therefore not definitely having a direct proportion.
One needs to be a student in his entire life and keep on learning new things for betterment of self and as a whole.
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