OLD... WISE... YES?

Don’t be old in vain

The other day I was listening to a lecture on Buddhism in which the gentleman made this comment… “don’t be old in vain.”

I have written about not wasting time, this precious life we have, but have never looked at it exactly in this way… So what does this mean?

In many older cultures, even in my own, Italian, the idea of an old person was not nearly as distorted as it is today. Today old means ugly, played out, weak, ineffective, lacking intuition and new ideas.

Of course we see this manifest in a very physical way in all the body modification we see before us; the Botox, face lifts, lifting everything, hating our own flesh and blood for it doing the natural thing, aging…

Some scriptures speak of grey hair as being a crown for the mature person, but we cover it up, many many are trying to stay perpetually young. It is sad the attention given to mindless, superficial, and impermanent things while we ignore our true essence, who we are, the things that can not only benefit us, but others, this is neglected…

Wisdom is a thing learned through life experience; through victories and failures, through bliss and tears. These experiences when lived consciously build character, make one a trustworthy, a reliable and informed counselor, father, friend, employee, and human being…

I’ve written about evolving and this fits right in, for when we are old we should also have grown wise, but wisdom does not come with grey hair or the passing of years. Instead it comes from living those years awake and conscience of the nature of things and ourselves as they really are. When we have lived such a life our wisdom is apparent, our peace comforting, and our counsel will be wise.

So what does it mean to grow old in vain? To me it means to have spent a life, this precious one, and after all those days and years have passed, to have learned nothing of value.

This is living a life in vain, growing old in vain. Don’t do it! The years that have passed should not only be evidenced by the wrinkles on your face or the grey hair on your head, but in the quality of the understanding you have gleaned from the time you’ve lived.

Spend it well my friends… gi