Mindfulnessinaction’s Blog
An interactive Mindfulness Meditation blogA Meditation on growing older
I would like you to try something over the next eight days. At least three times during the day take a moment to think about your existence. Try not to lean toward a positive or negative view but just contemplate it. Read this post in its entirety and then try to practice the meditation.
Think back as far as you can consciously remember; deep into the memories of your childhood. Gently, without judging, allow your life to flash right before your eyes up to this very moment in time. There will no doubt be painful as well as pleasant feelings associated with any memories that come up. (If you have been a victim of abuse you may want to do this in a safe place. Work may not be the best place so practice at home alone or with a trusted loved one in the event you feel you might be overwhelmed with hurtful memories). Don’t try to change anything or wish that anything were different. Try not to get carried away but instead just watch in a detached manner. Quietly, watch these life events unfold as they are and as they were, not how you would have them to be or would have wanted them to be.
Without even realizing it you are watching the ageing process. Now try to consciously see that ageing is something that has been happening to you all your life. It is a process that is vital to your existence and yet you may have ignored it the entire time you have been alive. Ageing is a fact of life and if you watch mindfully you will gently realize its necessity for the type of existence we have: An impermanent one!
This meditation can lead to a deeper understanding of the first Noble Truth which states our very existence is unsatisfactory by nature; there is always an itch to scratch, if you will. Every moment we live some part of us must age, decay and die off. Initially this process is to make room for new cells, new tissue and all the parts that help this body mind complex function and grow. However, eventually that renewing will decrease and our cells and tissue will lose the signs of youth and give way to ageing. When we live our lives unconsciously, not only does this reality of ageing spring up on us out of nowhere but we revert back to our ingrained habit of denial and refuse to accept or believe this is happening. This refusal leads to an inability to understand the nature of existence and keeps us locked in the wheel of repeated births.
However, when we see the First Noble Truth clearly we can move toward a realization that transcends this process and we can let go of the delusion that our happiness can be found in what is impermanent. Now, we can set our course for Enlightenment and transcend our conventional understanding of what it means to exist.
Take a moment to breathe deeply and think; “I will strive be at rest with this fact of ageing. I will learn to accept it as part of my existence so that I may truly know what it means to exist, for when I see this fact of ageing as it really is I empower myself to live mindfully, love freely and live without fear.”
