ELDERING WITH JOYFUL ENTHUSIASM – Tara Khandro

You, me and everyone we know has one fundamental purpose for appearing “Live on Planet Earth for a Limited Time Only!”- To embody the  “ You That You Truly Be.”  This is why I have always enjoyed the journey of aging.  Then in my 63rd year I became aware that others perceived me as ‘Old’.  That is, if I was not invisible to them. I was an amazing woman because ‘At my age’ I could perform high intensity workouts outdistancing those 30 years my junior.  In a life where my age never mattered-to me or others- suddenly it mattered.

Aging describes a natural physical process, as in the aging of grapes into wine. Yet humans have been carefully programmed to reject this organic evolution.   Self-limiting thoughts, beliefs and feelings about the perils of growing older were installed before the age of 7. No matter what our chronological age, no one, no matter how ageless we feel, has escaped this programming. Other’s responses to my ‘Old age’ switched on my dormant “I am afraid to grow old” software. 

In one- week I had three dialogs with twenty- somethings who looked to their elders for guidance, then discovered that being older does not mean being wiser. The cultural program inserts an automatic shut- down demand: ‘At a certain age you will stop Innovating, Creating and Risk-Taking.’ This belief gives rise to thoughts: “I’ve  lived a long time, I’ve nothing left to learn.” ‘I’m too old for ______.   “I’ve given everything I have, what else is there?’  “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” Our self-assurance plummets to zero and we feel ‘Out of Date’.  In ancient times, when we thrived in harmonic diversity with All that Is, we learned to recognize and respect the experiential wise authority of aged men and women. We named them Elders. After those dialogs I chose to transform my one obsessive thought of: ‘I’m Aging’ to ‘I’m Eldering.’  

If our fundamental life purpose is to embody our True Self, then all of our life experiences-no matter how horrible-are divinely designed to awaken this innate sovereignty. Yet the anti-aging programming tells us to reject and mistrust our true thoughts, feelings and perceptions. What creates wisdom? How we choose to relate to our life experiences. The body vehicle ages and we can simply ride along in this aging vehicle on automatic, expecting it to break down.  Or we  can choose to awaken from our victim mind programming and reinstall the Original Creator Mind Hardware-our Original Intelligence.  It is always available, here and now.  Each time we embrace our pain and struggle with- Curiosity, Compassion and Ownership-  we act from the awareness of the transcendent, Ageless Self-our Original Intelligence. 

We become Magicians, transmuting our pain (grapes) into wisdom. (wine)

Eldering can begin at any chronological age. We simply need to move our mind and body into alignment with this Ageless, Original Intelligence.   A woman confessed to me in shame: ‘I’m just beginning to practice yoga. I’m 40.  So old!” What if she chose to listen to her words as if she were her own best friend?  She might  ask: ‘Is it true that you’re old?  What does ‘old’ mean to you? What are you feeling now? What do you believe?  Is that thought truly your thought? Or was it given to you when you were too young to say ‘No!’? 

The correct questions guide us on an inner quest. These questions often lead to   deeper questions such as:   ‘How do I want to live?”

Maybe you want to  live as this person: ‘Wow!  ‘I’m so excited! I’m just starting to learn yoga! I will be 41 in 6 months!” 

The cultural mental programming has entrained us to believe we are separate from the Ageless Self. I have had 3 near death experiences and a few  others that took me to the edge. I have also served as a death midwife. When we are present for one’s final breath, we learn that indeed, the body becomes stiff because the Ageless Self, the infinite energy that fuels the bio-form, has fled the form. 

Look inside of an empty glass-it is space. The space takes on the shape of the glass. When the glass breaks the space in the glass dissolves into Infinite space. This is the Ageless Self, our Original Intelligence. It vibrates as  Light inside of every cell of our body. When we identify with our limitations and perceive the body as limited, we separate ourselves from our boundless True Face.  

Pir Vilyat Inyat Khan, a teacher of the Chisti Order of Sufis was one of my root gurus. Pir Vilyat  knew how to elder. I saw him a few months before he died.  I was in awe of the youthfulness of his energy and the magnitude of Light streaming from his 88 -year- old -body.  Each time we die to our mental programming  we delete a death urge, revealing more of our Light, which strengthens our life urges. 

In this way we learn how to  cultivate joyful enthusiasm as a foundation of inner peace. We allow for natural physical aging adjustments. We learn how to wisely shape our choices to nourish our mental, emotional, spiritual and physical well-being. We increase our self-assured capacity to trust and receive Life flowing through us, becoming full of youthful vitality. 

Life is always going your way.

25 years ago   I dined with the then oldest working small business owner in the United States. He started an athletic store during the depression. This man was 102 years old, and just returned from being  a guest on a late- night television show in New York City.  Each one of us knows or has read about an 80-100 year old person who is expressing the joyful enthusiasm of their Ageless Self. We are living through an unprecedented consciousness re-birth on the planet now.   Humanity has been sleep-walking and now  awakening from this “victim mind” programming towards thriving as the Original Intelligence that is our Ageless Self-our True Face.

It is certain that the body will die. What is uncertain is when the final curtain falls. We can live in the fear of the final moment or we can create the future Now…

With the Wonder of Uncertainty.

My Dad’s hospice nurse told me: “We die the way we live.” 

 

How do you want to live?