I live more in the immaterial now and less in the material. This is one of the benefits of aging. All the old stuff with which one preoccupied oneself (the incessant desire for the merging of genitalia, the making of a name and identity for oneself, the looking for one's own crowd and sense of belonging, etc.) now assumes much less importance or even of no import at all. One is more open to subtler realms. The immaterial becomes more real than that of hard-core matter. You want to know why older people may seem less here? Because we are not.
Yes, yes. I know. Be fully present. Live in the now-moment. Strike while the iron is hot. And so on. But those sayings have a different meaning to one who is not trying to establish their rooting and grounding as an embodying human, who has that pretty much done, and is opening to the adventure of being undone.
In the first part of life, we look to pull it all together, to make something of ourselves. In the latter part of life, we learn to stop pulling and pushing. We are now learning to make nothing of ourselves.
Henry Corbin on this matter: "But when the veil is lifted in the other world, the knot, that is to say, the dogma that binds him to his particular faith, is untied; dogma gives way to direct vision. For the person of authentic faith, capable of spiritual vision, this is the beginning of an ascending movement after death." (Alone With The Alone)
ReplyDeleteYou are an artist with words, George. Beautifully explained. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteLearning to make nothing of ourselves is a great opportunity since eventually the identity to which we learn to cling must slip away.
Have a good one, my friend!
Patrick is so right. That final paragraph is just superb! " ... learning to make nothing of ourselves" ~ wonderful phrasing of a profound concept, George!
ReplyDeleteMaybe the key to being present in the now moment is to be present no where. Ron
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