Conscious Aging

Books on Conscious Aging

Posted on by Dr. Toni

A “senior boom” is happening in American life, and it’s getting bigger by the day. Until very recently, most of the attention paid to this phenomenon has focused on retirement options, pension plans, health care challenges, medical ethics, and research on the biology of aging and the prolongation of life. Surveying recent books, films, and spoken-word audios about later life, we have noticed a number of hopeful signs that signal a broadening and deepening of the way we see the senior years. The added element is an interest in their spiritual dimensions. Here’s a sampling of these new views of aging. (Click on the link to read the full review.)

BOOKS

Age Power: How the 21st Century Will Be Ruled by the New Old by Ken Dychtwald (Tarcher/Putnam, 1999)
Here is a wakeup call intended to offer preventative solutions to the age-related questions we face as individuals and as a society. “How we decide to behave as elders will,” writes Dychtwald, “in all likelihood, become the most important challenge we will face in our lives.”

Another Country: Navigating the Emotional Terrain of Our Elders by Mary Pipher (Riverhead, 1999)
This informative and salutary work is designed to help forge ties between the baby boom generation and their parents, who are now residing in the country of old age.

The Force of Character and the Lasting Life by James Hillman (Random House, 1999)
This imaginative, compelling, and always thought-provoking volume turns conventional ideas about aging upside down. In three bold sections, the best-selling author of The Soul’s Code shows how our characters are enriched, deepened, and made meaningful by long life.

From Age-ing to Sage-ing by Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and Ronald Miller (Warner, 1997)
The Jewish elder who coined the term “spiritual eldering” presents his thoughts on the last stage of life. This is a time to for men and women to “contemplate their life journey, harvest the wisdom of their years, and transmit a legacy to future generations.”

Gray Heroes: Elder Tales from Around the World by Jane Yolen, editor (Penguin Books, 1999)
The editor has gathered a fascinating batch of stories from different cultures about “elders who wear their years well.” The tales are divided into four sections: wisdom, trickery, adventure, and a little bit of love.

On Women Turning 70: Honoring the Voices of Wisdom by Cathleen Rountree (Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1999)
Sixteen extraordinary women tell their stories and share their feelings on turning 70.

Passion for Life: Lifelong Psychological and Spiritual Growth by Anne Brennan and Janice Brewi (Continuum, 1999)
With the doubling of life expectancy since the beginning of the twentieth century, men and woman are challenged to become “architects of their own aging.” The second half of life has become an arena for continued growth and development, i.e. soul-making.

Spiritual Passages: Embracing Life’s Sacred Journey by Drew Leder (Tarcher/Putnam, 1997)
The author taps into all the world’s religions for insights into qualities which can be unfurled by elders. He presents a substantive and sacred model for aging that celebrates self-exploration, change, service, suffering, transformation, and facing death.

A Time to Live: Seven Steps of Creative Aging by Robert Raines (Plume, 1998)
The former director of Kirkridge Retreat and Study Center has written a bright and buoyant volume about the art of creative aging. He masterfully sets anecdotes from his own life alongside poignant illustrative material from contemporary novels, films, and political events.

Toward Holy Ground: Spiritual Directions for the Second Half of Life by Margaret Guenther (Cowley, 1995)
The author uses St. Anne as a model and wisdom figure for later life when ambiguity, service of others, and wonder are given free play.

Understanding Men’s Passages: Discovering the New Map of Men’s Lives by Gail Sheehy (Ballantine, 1999)
The bestselling author presents a rounded portrait of the different stages of “second adulthood” for men including “the fearless fifties” and “the influential sixties.”

VIDEOS

I’m Not Rappaport (MCA/Universal, 1996)
This feisty drama revolves around an 81-year-old Jewish radical who is a modern-day Don Quixote fighting injustice. He and his best friend have to stand up for themselves in a society that seems determined to treat elders as if they were invisible.

Men With Guns (Columbia TriStar, 1998)
A common task in old age is to secure one’s legacy. A wealthy physician in an unnamed Latin American country who is nearing retirement decides to visit the medical students he trained to serve poor villagers in the countryside. His quest opens and softens his heart.

Nobody’s Fool (Paramount, 1995)
This movie shows that the last stage of life can be one of personal renewal. A crusty and cantankerous handyman in a small town discovers that it is never too late to stir the ashes and light up your life with the glow that comes from love of family and friends.

The Shell Seekers (Republic Pictures, 1994)
A 63-year-old Englishwoman suffers a heart attack and is compelled to review her life and her view of happiness.

The Straight Story (Walt Disney Home Video, 1999)
Alvin Straight is a stubborn and highly principled 73-year-old Iowan who sets out on his John Deere lawnmower to visit his estranged brother who has suffered a heart attack in Wisconsin. His deep yearning for reconciliation gives him the energy and strength he needs to fulfill his mission.

Strangers in Good Company (Touchstone, 1991)
A group of long-lived women take shelter in an abandoned farmhouse when their tour bus breaks down. While they wait for other transportation, they share the stories of their lives with each other.

Waking Ned Devine (Fox, 1999)
In this comedy set in a small village in Ireland, two of the town’s elders creatively expand the possibilities for community life.

SPOKEN-WORD AUDIO

Conscious Aging: A Creative and Spiritual Journey by Various Speakers (Sounds True, 1992)
Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Marion Woodman, Maggie Kuhn, Ram Dass, and Bernie Siegel present their ideas on elders as bearers of wisdom, healing, creativity, and vision. This audio program was taped during a conference at the Omega Institute.

The Second Half of Life: The Blossoming of Your Creative Self by Angeles Arrien (Sounds True, 1998)
This teacher and cultural anthropologist explores the three major themes of elderhood: generativity, intimacy, and creativity. This six-cassette package is filled with soul-stirring stories and spiritual practices from indigenous peoples and Greek mythology.

 

From Ram Dass on Dying

Posted on by Dr. Toni
From Ram Dass . . .

Dying is the most important thing you do in your life. It’s the great frontier for every one of us. And loving is the art of living as a preparation for dying. Allowing ourselves to dissolve into the ocean of love is not just about leaving this body; it is also the route to Oneness and unity with our own inner being, the soul, while we are still here. If you know how to live and to love, you know how to die.

In this book, I talk about what I am learning about death and dying from others and from my getting closer to it. And I talk about what I have learned from being at the bedsides of friends who have died, including how to grieve and how to plan for your own death as a spiritual ceremony. I talk about our fear of death and ways to go beyond that fear so we can be identified with our spiritual selves and live more meaningful lives.

I invited my friend Mirabai Bush into a series of conversations. Mirabai and I share the bond of being together with our guru, Neem Karoli Baba, and over the years, we have taught and traveled and written together. I thought she’d be able to frame the conversations for you, the reader, and also draw in some of what I’ve said in the past about dying, while keeping my current words fresh and immediate. And I wanted to discuss her thoughts on dying as well.

From Mirabai Bush . . .

This is a book about loving and dying and friendship. It is a conversation between old friends, in which we talk about love and death in an intimate setting. I hope we’ve captured Ram Dass’s wisdom, expressed in a new way now that he is 86.

Why are we writing this? Who are we writing it for?

“I want to help readers get rid of their fear of death,” Ram Dass answered. “So they can be,” a long pause, “identified with their spiritual selves and be ready to die. If you know how to live, you know how to die. This will be a link between my teachings about Maharaj-ji and about death. And people who are living who can see that they are dying each day, that each day is change and dying is the biggest change—it could help them live more meaningful lives.”

Okay, I thought. This will be a good book to write. We’ll be exploring the edge of what we know.

I invite you to watch this short video of us reflecting together on a few of these very topics on love and death.

With love,
Ram Dass and Mirabai Bush
Walking Each Other Home
Conversations on Loving and DyingLearn More and Buy Now
| Amazon |

The Three Secrets of Aging

Posted on by Dr. Toni

In his book, The Three Secrets of Aging,   John Robinson clearly shows evidence of having LIVED what he talks about.

My  approach to aging is to be real – it views the challenges but also finds ways to see the aging process itself as  an acceleration of wisdom and consciousness expansion. Since all human beings are aging, this book is for everyone, but it is especially relevant to those of us past 50 – even way past 50!
I’ve studied the ways adults develop and recently took a course on the higher stages of development and it’s becoming clearer and clearer that as we grow up, we also have the opportunity to wake up and ultimately live now as awakened human beings.
I’ve noticed my own changes and growth over these last few years and I also note that I still have a long way to go.  I’ve been inspired by those who I believe are leading the way  I think John Robinson is one such guide.Rev. Robinson describes the three secrets of initiation, transformation, and revelation that produce enlightened elders who have the insight and wisdom necessary to guide the world toward a more sacred and spiritual reality. This book offers a powerful and inspiring blueprint for this profound path, and is a gift for all those who are responding to the call of awakening.
GET YOUR COPY by CLICKING HERE

About the Author

Dr. John Robinson holds doctorates in clinical psychology and ministry and is an ordained interfaith minister. Along with three decades of clinical practice, he has taught extensively and published four previous books.

Arnold Patent – on Universal Principles

Posted on by Dr. Toni

Universal Principles

Universal Principles are the guidelines that govern our lives perfectly…

1. Energy

The basic component of the Universe, energy, occurs in either materialized or un-materialized form. All that we see and feel is an expression of energy. All energy is the love of the Divine flowing through us. When we resist the flow of love, we experience discomfort. When we align with the love, we feel joyful and at peace.

2. Infinite Intelligence, or God

Within all energy is an intelligence that is infinite, eternal and purposeful. This Infinite Intelligence, which we sometimes refer to as God, or simply love, is the source of all creative expression and the essential Power in the Universe. The way we view our Infinite Intelligence, or God, is precisely the way we see and feel about our Self and the way we experience life. When we perceive God as an unconditionally loving and supportive energy at all times and under all circumstances, we experience our world as totally safe, and everyone in it as loving and supportive.

3. Oneness

Since the essence of everything is pure loving energy, in the truest sense, we are One. Oneness, love, is indivisible. Whenever we attempt to withhold love from anyone, we withhold love from everyone, including our Self. The truth of this principle becomes clear as we allow our hearts to open and feel our interconnectedness.

4. There Is Nothing Outside Of Us

In order to have our human experiences, we have created the apparent reality that we are living outside the Oneness; that there are things and people that can affect us without our consent. The truth is that there is nothing outside of us; all that we see is our Self. This becomes our new reality when we open the belief in separation and accept the truth that we are One.

5. Perfection

God is perfect and expresses this perfection as unconditional love and support. Whatever unfolds is God happening. When we see and feel other than unconditional love, we are seeing and feeling the disguises we have created with our beliefs. We create disguises to explore the experiences that make up our human journey. When we are ready to see and feel with greater clarity, we embrace whatever is before us in unconditional love, trusting that the Universe, in Its constant expression of unconditional love, is sending us the perfect support to expand our joyfulness. With practice, our clarity grows, along with our gratitude for the unconditional love, support and joyfulness that is always present.

6. Beliefs

A belief is a thought hooked to a feeling. The feeling gives the thought a perception of power and creates an illusion that is experienced as real. Under the guidance of our Souls, we adopt beliefs to provide us with the precise experiences we are having, and that we planned before we entered this realm. The urge to explore life beyond our beliefs is a signal that our Soul Selves are ready to guide us in freeing the flow of Divine Love, disguised by our beliefs.

7. Feelings

Our Soul communicates to us through our feelings. The more willing we are to feel our feelings, the more able we are to connect with the love that resides in them. Love, fully, freely and joyfully felt is the true Power in the Universe—a totally peaceful Power. This Power does not belong to each of us; It emanates from the Divine and manifests through us when we surrender to It.

8. Mutual Support

Our Universe functions as a mutual support system in which each and every thing in existence relates to and affects every other thing. Every person and circumstance in our lives is there to support us by reflecting back to us the beliefs we hold in our consciousness. The prevalent belief that we are naturally competitive and adversarial is just a mirroring back to us of our acceptance of that belief. Releasing beliefs from our consciousness frees the love of God to flow through us and to those with whom we interact. Mutual support then reflects more of our natural state of Oneness, and becomes the foundation for rebuilding community based on love, from family to village, city, state, nation and world. The more we look for the love that is present in each event and circumstance in our lives, the more we appreciate how perfect the Universe’s support for us truly is.

9. The Mirror Principle

Everything we see and feel is a reflection of the state of our own consciousness. Every person we attract into our lives is showing us a perception we hold about ourselves. Every feeling expressed by another mirrors a feeling deep within us. This reflection is a gift, for it allows us to be aware of the beliefs we hold, and the ways we have blocked the free flow of Divine Love through us.

10. Non-judgment

At our request, we have been carefully taught to evaluate and judge much of what we experience. However, “right” and “wrong,” “good” and “bad” are just beliefs, disguises for the unconditional love that is always present. The truth is that everything that occurs is just another event or circumstance that we have created in our imagination. Judging something keeps whatever we judge the way we judge it. Also, judging anyone or anything tells us that we are judging ourselves in the same way. Judging creates discomfort that can only be relieved by opening our hearts, first to the judgment and then to the person or thing we have judged. Freeing this open-hearted energy leads to the joyful feeling of unconditional love for ourselves as the wholeness and completeness of who we really are.

11. Purpose

The Universe’s purpose for each of us is to direct us to Oneness. When we align our individual purpose, what we love to do (our talent), with the Universe’s purpose, the flow of Divine Power fills what we love to do with passion. This prepares the way for achieving fulfillment in career and relationships.

12. Comfort and Discomfort

Our bodies are magnificent instruments that we create to support us in having the experiences we come to the human to have. Our bodies are created and maintained in consciousness. They mirror the state of our consciousness, beliefs in how to look, act, age and die. Unencumbered by beliefs, our consciousness is unlimited. The natural state of our consciousness is perfect ease, as is the natural state of our bodies. The beliefs we have about our bodies are there to love and embrace just the way they are. The resulting expansion of consciousness shifts the bodies’ state from that of un-ease to ease.

13. Abundance

Abundance is our natural state. Everything we experience is an aspect of the abundance. When limitation appears, we are seeing a reflection of our beliefs, a resistance we have created to knowing we have it all. Opening these beliefs provides us with a clearer view of the abundance that is all around us awaiting our feeling of gratitude. Feeling gratitude for what we presently have opens us to knowing we have it all.

14. Giving and Receiving

Giving and receiving always occur in balance. It is natural to receive gratefully and to give generously: an expression of appreciation for the gift we have received. The corollary to the principle of giving and receiving is that we give only to our Selves knowing we already have it all.

15. Non-attachment and Freedom

Our perceived need to hold on to anything or anyone demonstrates our belief in shortage and personal incompleteness. Holding on to anything—people or possessions—blocks the flow of love through us thereby reducing the joy of our experience with the person or object. Holding onto what we have also inhibits new people and new things, along with the new experiences they bring, from coming into our lives. As we open our hearts, feel our state of Oneness and expand our trust in the natural abundance of the Universe, we give ourselves and everyone else the gift of freedom.

16. Means and Ends

Means and ends are the same. The action and outcome are one. To achieve peace, we feel and express inner peacefulness. To enjoy a life that works perfectly, we see and feel the perfection of everything and everyone, including our Selves. To experience the natural abundance of the Universe, we feel and express gratitude for the abundance we already have.

17. Harmony in Relationships

Our primary relationship is with God. How we see and feel about God determines the quality of all our relationships. Knowing that God loves and supports us unconditionally, allows each of us to feel unconditional love and support for our Selves. We are then able to feel and express unconditional love and support for everyone. Aligning with this sequence allows you to see your Self and others as who you really are: the Power and Presence of God eager to surrender to all possibility. When you hold this Truth in your consciousness that is what is reflected to you.

18. The Universe Handles the Details

The Universe handles the details of our lives in accordance with the beliefs we hold in consciousness. Our core belief is to supersede the Divine in how we live our lives. The sole purpose of that belief and all the others we have created is to give us a life opposite to our natural state. As we open the energy in our beliefs, we increase the flow of Divine Love into all aspects of our lives. We can then rest in the arms of the Divine and observe the details of our day reflect the joy that the Love releases.

19. What You Focus on Expands

The flow of Divine Power (Love) through the beliefs you hold in consciousness manifest as limitations in your physical reality. Focus on the physical brings you more of the limitations your existing beliefs are creating. Focus on releasing beliefs and surrendering to all possibility frees the flow of Divine Power to manifest more richness, beauty and joy in your life.

Growing Up or Growing Old?

Posted on by Dr. Toni

Does aging mean growing up or growing old? When we think of being young, we usually think of outer appearances: a beautiful face and a supple body. But what if being young has nothing to do with biological age? Qualities like being just oneself, at the moment, spontaneous, exhilarated and excited, can belong to any age, as long as we stay vital, creative and interested in life. So how can we cultivate these qualities in ourselves?

“If you look within can you feel the age, how old you are? If you close your eyes and look within, the emptiness within seems to be ageless, without age. Are you a child? Are you young? Are you old? The inner space seems to be non-temporal – it is! That’s why you become old through others’ eyes. You become old because of the mirror. If mirrors disappear and nobody talks about your age, and there is no calendar and no time measurement, you will remain young longer….

“If you are too concerned with the body, you become the body. If you go on looking in the mirror, you become the body. That’s why women age faster than men – the mirror. And the miracle is, basically they live longer than men, but they age faster. On average, all over the world, they live four years longer than men. They lose their beauty and their youth quickly. The mirror kills them – continuously meditating on the body.

“Meditate on the inner being, not on the body. Find a mirror which reflects you, not the body. That mirror which reflects you is meditation. The more you meditate, the more ageless you become.”

Osho, Returning to the Source, Talk #2

Is there really a secret of eternal youth?

“To be young is the greatest joy, the greatest bliss that is possible to human consciousness, and to know the secret of eternal youth is the real discovery. The alchemists in the past used to call it their search: the search of eternal life and the search for keeping people always young. They were not talking about chemistry – they have been misunderstood. They were talking about the secrets of religiousness.”

Osho, Snap Your Fingers, Slap Your Face and Wake Up, Talk #27

“Don’t waste your youthfulness on other ordinary revolutions – political, social, economic. Don’t waste your life energy on those stupid games. Put your total energy, focus your total energy, on a single point: the spiritual revolution – because that is a radical change, and other changes can follow that change.

“If your inner being changes, your whole outer life will be totally different. It will have a different fragrance, a different beauty, a different grace. And when your inner being is changed and becomes a flame of light, you will become a light unto others too. You will become a beckoning light, a great herald of a new dawn. Your very presence will trigger revolutions in other people’s lives.”

Osho, The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol. 8, Talk #1

Sometimes it feels as if my body is aging, but I don’t feel any different inside.

“And that is one of the greatest experiences of life: when your body becomes old, but your inner being keeps its youthfulness. That means you have not lost track of life, that you are keeping yourself in step with life.”

Osho, The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol. 8, Talk #1

“I have not been able to discover anybody in the whole literature of the East talking about old age. On the contrary, old age has been praised immensely, because in the East it has been thought that you are not old. If your life has simply moved on the horizontal line, you are only aged. But if your life, your consciousness, has moved vertically, upwards, then you have attained the beauty, the glory of old age. Old age in the East has been synonymous with wisdom.”

Osho, The Invitation, Talk #27

What does growing up really mean?

“Man is born to achieve life, but it all depends on him. He can miss it. He can go on breathing, he can go on eating, he can go on growing old, he can go on moving towards the grave – but this is not life. This is gradual death from the cradle to the grave, a seventy-year-long gradual death. And because millions of people around you are dying in this gradual, slow death, you also start imitating them. Children learn everything from those who are around them; and we are surrounded by the dead.

“So first we have to understand what I mean by life. It must not be simply growing old; it must be growing up. And these are two different things. Any animal is capable of growing old. Growing up is the prerogative of human beings. Only a few claim the right.

“Growing up means moving deeper into the principle of life every moment; it means going farther away from death – not towards death. The deeper you go into life, the more you understand the immortality within you. You are going away from death; a moment comes when you can see that death is nothing but changing clothes, or changing houses, changing forms – nothing dies, nothing can die; death is the greatest illusion there is.”

Osho, Beyond Enlightenment, Talk #28

“And it is right that you are feeling ageless. Meditation starts taking you beyond time because it is going to take you beyond death.

“You will be surprised to know that in Sanskrit there is only one word for both death and time. It is kal. Kal also means tomorrow – tomorrow there is only death and nothing else; life is today.

“As you become peaceful…. Your tensions are your weight. When the tensions are not there, you become weightless.

“And the consciousness which is your reality has no time-space limitation. Your body grows from childhood to youth to old age to death – these changes are happening only to the body. These are the changes of the furniture in the house… painting the house, changing its architecture. But the man who lives in the house – the master of the house – is unaffected by all these things.

“Consciousness is the master.

“Your body is only the house.

“So the moment you enter meditation you have touched within yourself something of the universal – which has no age, which has no limitation either of time or space.”

Osho, Sermons in Stones, Talk