Coming of Age… Again
An article appeared in today’s newspaper about a number of social innovators who will be receiving awards this week for work they have done to solve community and world problems in their “encore careers”. According to Civic Ventures, the San Francisco non-profit sponsoring these awards, this refers to people over 60 who are embarking on a “mid-life redirection” of their lives.
What I find so interesting here is not just that a foundation is recognizing the contributions of the over-the-hill gang, but that our society might actually be shedding its fixation on youth and money and re-connecting with a six thousand year old heritage.
Teachings going back to the early Aryan culture of ancient India tell of four different stages of human life – Student, Householder, Forest Dweller, and Sage. The first two are fairly obvious. Student consists in learning what we need to know in order to survive and be productive in society, while Householder, considered by the ancients to begin with marriage and creation of a family, is when we put what we learned as a student into practice. Pretty much the same as it is today. It’s the next two that need some clarification.
To the ancients, a householder’s life ended when his children left home to begin their own lives as householders. The individual’s role at that point was to drop out of society, commune with nature (Forest Dweller) and meditate so as to discover the real meaning of life. The assumption, you see, was that producing goods, earning money, and accumulating stuff was not what it’s all about, unlike our current society with its ‘He who dies with the most toys wins’ mentality.
After presumably achieving that “aha” moment out in the woods, the seeker would return to society as a Sannyasin, a Sage, and share his peace, benevolence, and wisdom with the rest of society, living off the donated generosity of others. (Individuals mostly… foundations hadn’t been created yet.) And what did the old Sage know that the young bucks didn’t? That we really are One… that injury to another is injury to oneself… that life is the consciousness within and not just the body that houses it… truths that have been lost through centuries of chasing the material, fame, money, and glory.
Perhaps sages can no longer live as hermits knocking on villager’s doors with begging bowls. But the new consciousness beckons, evolution continues, and, at least as of today’s paper, everything old is new again.
peace……………..ag
* * *
Experience the new consciousness for yourself at GamesofConsciousness.com
An article appeared in today’s newspaper about a number of social innovators who will be receiving awards this week for work they have done to solve community and world problems in their “encore careers”. According to Civic Ventures, the San Francisco non-profit sponsoring these awards, this refers to people over 60 who are embarking on a “mid-life redirection” of their lives.
What I find so interesting here is not just that a foundation is recognizing the contributions of the over-the-hill gang, but that our society might actually be shedding its fixation on youth and money and re-connecting with a six thousand year old heritage.
Teachings going back to the early Aryan culture of ancient India tell of four different stages of human life – Student, Householder, Forest Dweller, and Sage. The first two are fairly obvious. Student consists in learning what we need to know in order to survive and be productive in society, while Householder, considered by the ancients to begin with marriage and creation of a family, is when we put what we learned as a student into practice. Pretty much the same as it is today. It’s the next two that need some clarification.
To the ancients, a householder’s life ended when his children left home to begin their own lives as householders. The individual’s role at that point was to drop out of society, commune with nature (Forest Dweller) and meditate so as to discover the real meaning of life. The assumption, you see, was that producing goods, earning money, and accumulating stuff was not what it’s all about, unlike our current society with its ‘he who dies with the most toys wins’ mentality.
After presumably achieving that “aha” moment out in the woods, the seeker would return to society as a Sannyasin, a Sage, and share his peace, benevolence, and wisdom with the rest of society, living off the donated generosity of others. (Individuals mostly… foundations hadn’t been created yet.) And what did the old Sage know that the young bucks didn’t? That we really are One… that injury to another is injury to oneself… that life is the consciousness within and not just the body that houses it… truths that have been lost through centuries of chasing the material, fame, money, and glory.
Perhaps sages can no longer live as hermits knocking on villager’s doors with begging bowls. But the new consciousness beckons, evolution continues, and, at least as of today’s paper, everything old is new again.
peace……………..ag
* * *
Experience the new consciousness for yourself at GamesofConsciousness.com