{"id":458,"date":"2020-07-25T10:23:22","date_gmt":"2020-07-25T00:23:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/the-six-bardos.org\/?p=458"},"modified":"2020-07-25T10:24:44","modified_gmt":"2020-07-25T00:24:44","slug":"aging-as-a-preparation-for-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/the-six-bardos.org\/index.php\/2020\/07\/25\/aging-as-a-preparation-for-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Aging as a Preparation for Death"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>If we\u2019re sensitive to it, aging prepares us for death. Growing old and falling apart is nature\u2019s way of teaching us how to release our obsession with form. It\u2019s humiliating.&nbsp;<em>Old age<\/em>,&nbsp;<em>sickness<\/em>, and&nbsp;<em>death<\/em>&nbsp;are the ultimate insults to your ego, but the best compliments to your spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even before we enter the actual stages of dying, our body, and even our mind, starts to let go as we age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We lose our hair, our teeth, our vision, hearing, mobility, flexibility, endurance, memory, and countless other physical and mental aspects of our form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We lose control, productivity, independence, security, dreams for the future, and even meaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Aging is a preliminary practice (ng\u00f6ndro) for the letting go that is forced upon us at death<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The return movement in a person\u2019s life, the weakening or dissolution of form, whether through old age, illness, disability, loss, or some kind of personal tragedy, carries great potential for spiritual awakening\u2014the dis-identification of consciousness from form \u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since death is only an abstract concept to them, most people are totally unprepared for the dissolution of form that awaits them. When it approaches, there is shock, incomprehension, despair, and great fear \u2026 [But] what is lost on the level of form is gained on the level of essence \u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[If related to properly,] old age or approaching death becomes what it is meant to be: an opening into the realm of spirit. (Eckhart Tolle,&nbsp;<em>A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life\u2019s Purpose<\/em>, [New York: Penguin Group, 2005], 284-287.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Source: Holecek, Andrew. <em>Preparing to Die: Practical Advice and Spiritual Wisdom from the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition.<\/em> Boston &amp; London: Snow Lion, 2013. P. 72.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If we\u2019re sensitive to it, aging prepares us for death. Growing old and falling apart is nature\u2019s way of teaching us how to release our obsession with form. It\u2019s humiliating.&nbsp;Old age,&nbsp;sickness, and&nbsp;death&nbsp;are the ultimate insults to your ego, but the <span class=\"excerpt-dots\">&hellip;<\/span> <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/the-six-bardos.org\/index.php\/2020\/07\/25\/aging-as-a-preparation-for-death\/\"><span class=\"more-msg\">Continue reading &rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-points-to-ponder"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-six-bardos.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-six-bardos.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-six-bardos.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-six-bardos.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-six-bardos.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/the-six-bardos.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":460,"href":"https:\/\/the-six-bardos.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458\/revisions\/460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-six-bardos.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-six-bardos.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-six-bardos.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}