Avoiding old age
First the bad news. There is nothing that is going to stop the advance of physical old age. Physically we can grow old gracefully, we can use plastic surgery to pretend we are not growing old, we can grow old healthily or we can go down kicking and screaming, but we will grow physically old.
The old age that can be avoided is the old age that brings redundancy. The old age that means there is nothing more to contribute. This is a very sad form of old age because it means we are redundant, surplus to requirements.
This form of old age can be avoided, and those that follow a spiritual path have probably already learnt many of the skills necessary to avoid it. It is an essential part of the spiritual path that what we do in the physical world remains relevant.
It is essential to our inner growth that we remain relevant. The alternative is to sit cross legged in a cave meditating in the delusion that this will bring us closer to God.
We have this thing called a belief system. Many people believe we are supposed to have a belief system, we are not. The belief system is just a mess of judgments that leaves us stuck in one place.
During our formative year we are bombarded with judgments. These judgments come from our parents, from our teachers and from society in general. Some of these judgements stick and some don't. At some point, usually around late teens or early adulthood, the judgments that have stuck congeal into a blob. That blob of judgments we dignify by calling it a belief system.
The result is that is unless we do something about it wherever we are when the belief system congeals is where we are stuck for the rest of our lives. We are stuck running on automatic according to our fixed judgements in a place that no longer exists.
The 1960's were a lot of fun for many who were there. But those who remain stuck there have become irrelevant fossils, and they tend to start every sentence with 'When I was young…. '. This is what real old age is. It is the difference between when where we are stuck and the present moment. The faster the world changes the quicker people get old, even if they live longer.
If a person is stuck in the sixty's they are fifty years past their use by date. If they are stuck in the seventy's they are forty years past their use by date. The way not to grow old and remain relevant in today's world is to continuously update the use by date.
Things are not better or worse than they used to be, just different. The faster technology and the world changes the faster we grow old unless we work at stay with what is happening now. A few years not keeping up can make us out of date very quickly.
The skills that are needed to keep up are the same basic skills that are learnt in following a spiritual path, or a self help program. Let go and move on. The world is continuously changing. Keeping up is a continuous process of letting go and moving. It isn't hard, just takes a little practice.
The prize is that you will not grow old because you will remain relevant in the world that exists today. Also you spiritual path will not end up stuck in a back water.
A closely related issue is Stasis, which will be the subject of my next article.
David Young.