By Eliezer Sobel | Website
There is much talk on Serene Ambition and elsewhere about
altering one’s perspective and internal conversation about aging so as
to “create a future to live into” that infuses the present with passion
and energy, as distinct from the dreary resignation of merely playing
out the repetitive and predictable habits and tendencies generated by
the past. And yet, while this sounds good in theory, what of the physical limitations imposed by age?
[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Fearless Aging
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By Shae Hadden | Bio
It
might be said that existence isn’t possible without both pleasant and
unpleasant experiences—without pain and pleasure. They are like a
guidance system, helping us navigate through life and orienting us away
from illness and danger and death. I’ve been relating to the physical
pain I’m experiencing since my car accident as a source of learning.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Learning
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Tagged with:
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joy
pain
suffering
If I could give one gift to my children, I think it would be
“acceptance”. It isn’t too hard to understand intellectually that we
should simply accept life on life’s terms and not try to control what
we can’t really control. Yet, it’s a hard lesson to learn. I think not
accepting may be the source of most, if not all, suffering. When we
live with the view that reality ‘should be’ other than it is, we are
living in a dream (at best) and a state of self-deception and denial
(at worst). Not accepting throws us into a relationship with the world
in which we must either control our environment or cope with
circumstances we consider beyond our control.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Wisdom in Action
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I like this word. I don't know why…perhaps because it is one of those
words that seems to express itself in speaking of it. The word means
'anxiety'—a kind of generalized anxiety with being alive. The existential philosophers talked a lot about angst. In fact, we
normally associate angst with existentialism—existential angst. The
word is usually associated with a negative mood such as depression or
what Thomas Merton characterized as "the dark night of the soul". I
think that Heidegger talked about it as the inherent tension between
'being' and 'non-being'. I think that angst underlies the 'suffering'
that Buddha associated with human existence and probably is behind the
concept of 'original sin'. Whatever its origins or deeper meanings, it
is a day-to-day practical reality for most of us in our unending quest
to 'get it right' and 'be happy'. There are lots of strategies for dealing with angst.[ Read More]
Written by Jim Selman at Personal Empowerment
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One of the things we need to learn if we haven’t learned it by the time
we reach retirement and our ‘golden years’ is how to deal with loss.
Aside from the obvious loss of friends and family though death and
incapacitating illness, we have a host of other things we can ‘lose’,
such as systems of support, material possessions, our physical
abilities and perhaps most importantly—possibility. Not everyone
experiences loss and certainly not in the same way. But loss, whether
real or perceived, is one of the primary factors that can either keep
us trapped in the past and living into an ever narrower future or it
can be a source of great learning and freedom as we grow older. Buddha taught that suffering is due largely to our attachments.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Wisdom in Action
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