Aging is not wisdom

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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.