OCTOBER BLOG - 2020

 ELDERS IN INDIA

TRANSITION – NOT CHANGE

 

Dear Reader,

In the last blog, we examined the topic of LIFE AFTER LIFE. In this October Blog, I am reflecting on the meaning of change and what we can do to make our life a transition to something rather change into something. We can think of ‘changing our clothing’ as we dress in the morning, but what we call transition is a deeper notion.

At some time in our lives, we begin to feel the physical body older (the symptoms are there). Everything in the Universe is going through what the scientists call ENTROPY. This means deterioration break up, collapse, degeneration, destruction, worsening. Just pick your own word.

At this time, we all have a series of anthropic events that indicate a movement toward the end. The COVID-19 epidemic is only one example. Then there is the climate change crisis, cultural and economic upheavals, all direct most of us to the experience of feelings of despair and chaos. At the same time, there is an opening for more sharing on a global scale.

All is impermanent as Buddha said about 3000 years ago. But today this sense of shifting sands is more intense and is experienced on a global level. As I read and watch the world news every day, I cannot but feel deeply the end of life as we knew for centuries.

As an ‘older man or elder,’ I am developing an ‘elder men’ project that will examine the idea of LIFE AFTER LIFE. I reflected on this idea in my last blog and now I am putting this project into action. I have invited about half a dozen men to come for a half-hour video interview with me. These men are of pre-retirement and post-retirement age. All men are known to each other because we meet every Saturday morning at the Brisbane West End market. We sit around a table, drink good café, and just share whatever comes to mind: opinions about politics, own stories, events, and so on. Nothing is sacred or forbidden and we laugh a lot.

So far, the four men that came for the video interview shared amazing stories. Even though we met every Saturday at the Brisbane West End market, the stories impacted me greatly and given me deep insights about the many roads we have traveled in life and the many stories about ourselves we collected. Each man has a unique and original journey offering us an amazing mixture of cultural and educational wisdom. They represent the typical Australian modern people. Finally, I am aware how, despite so many differences, we are all interconnected

My other perspective about the interviews is that we are not old but spiritually ancient. We represent the ancient wisdom of many cultures It is more than living a life, but it is a gathering of each men’s Soul Energy that enables us to grow and develop no matter what the circumstances and a creative way to put forward the creativity and wisdom to others.

My mentor, Michael Meade, the mythologist, speaks of the ancient wisdom referring to the moon phases indicating that as the moon faces change, they represent the movement form new to a three-quarter to full moon and new moon again without any stopping but always changing. Thus, we are being taught by Nature itself how we grow and mature and end to - begin again.

 

Here is a link to Mead’s podcast, please listen.