Conscious Aging
I recently subscribed to Audible.com and am enjoying some audiobooks. One small book, a promotional copy I think, was recently made available — Conscious Aging, by Ram Dass.
I downloaded it and listened to it while riding to and from a mini-reunion with some college friends over a long weekend.
Sharing the weekend with other men in their 60s, I thought a book/tape developed by Ram Dass when he turned 60 might be useful. I had heard of Ram Dass and knew he was the former Richard Alpert, a colleague of Timothy Leary’s, but I didn’t know much more than that he had moved to India and become a spiritual teacher. See generally http://www.ramdass.org/ for his work and other info.
The lecture (it’s composed of 2 one-hour lectures) is funny, evocative and insightful … especially into aging and death and how to en-joy your life as embraced by the bookends of birth and death. More importantly, he points the listener toward the ongoing Life that is not bounded by the limits of ego or personhood, a life eternal of sorts.
I returned home and joined an email exchange Debi was having with Tyler around the horrible, unfolding mess that is Japan’s earthquake / tsunami / nuclear meltdown / blizzard. She sent along (and linked to) a song / poem she’s quoted (from memory) to me before, but the poem seemed especially poignant to me now:
Death And The Flower
We live between birth and death
Or so we convince ourselves conveniently
When in truth we are being born and
We are dying simultaneously
Every eternal instant
Of our lives
We should try to be more
Like a flower
Which every day experiences its birth
And death
And who therefore is much more prepared
to live
The life of a flower
So think of Death as a friend and advisor
Who allows us to be born
And bloom more radiantly
Because of our limits
On Earth
Think of this until you realize
Eternity
And cease to need
The illusion of Death
But do not do this
Before you lose the first great illusion
The illusion of Life
Because
To do this
You must die
Many times
And live to
Know it
–Keith Jarrett
December 5, 1974