Posted in Aging and Buddhism, Aging and Meditation, Aging Parents, Baby Boomers and Aging on Sep 5th, 2009
The last post on aging parents garnered more comments than any other in the history of this blog, so clearly this is a topic that touches many people. The experiences people have range from the touching and poignant (“Do you know who I am, Mom?” “Yes, you’re my baby”) to the heartbreaking (the father whose [...]
Posted in Aging and Buddhism, Aging and Meditation, Loneliness on Jul 29th, 2009
Loneliness often increases as we grow older. Certainly when those we know begin to pass away (which may start when we are in our 50s) there is a kind of loneliness that comes and cannot easily be assuaged. Their loss is permanent. I have a thumbnail summary of Buddhism that I have mentioned here before [...]
Posted in Aging and Meditation, Aging and Spirituality on Jul 18th, 2009
The aging brain can learn and grow. This new conventional wisdom—based on the latest neurophysiological research—replaces the old conventional wisdom (which was that the brain has only a fixed number a cells set at birth and that older people cannot learn with the flexibility of younger people). So much for conventional wisdom of any kind. [...]
Posted in Aging and Buddhism, Aging and Meditation, Aging and Spirituality, Baby Boomers and Aging, Death and Dying on Jun 27th, 2009
We are all so fragile. We are, first of all, so fragile physically. When we are born, we can’t even feed ourselves or survive without continuous attention. And throughout our lives there are so many things that can go wrong, but mostly do not. It is actually amazing that the incredible intricacy of body and [...]
Posted in Aging and Buddhism, Aging and Meditation, Aging and Spirituality, Baby Boomers and Aging on Jun 20th, 2009
I often say, paraphrasing my own teacher, that the purpose of Buddhist meditation is not to be calm, but to be real. Being real doesn’t exclude being calm, if that is what is happening. But being real is not some particular state of mind; it is the mind in accord with the actuality of things—“real [...]
Posted in Aging and Buddhism, Aging and Meditation, Aging and Spirituality on Jun 10th, 2009
So what do we do with our aging thoughts? How can we transform them from exercises in comparison and regret into more wholesome insights that nourish us? (If you are tuning in to this blog for the first time, read the last post, “Mindfulness of Aging part I”.) There are three parts to transforming mindfulness: [...]
Posted in Aging and Buddhism, Aging and Meditation, Aging and Spirituality on May 28th, 2009
In this post I’d like to explore the practice of “Mindfulness of Aging.” Mindfulness is one of the basic practices in Buddhism, but the precise reasons why it is effective (particularly in chronic pain management) are not yet well understood. Mindfulness is sometimes characterized in Buddhist texts as “bare noting,” and is often coupled with [...]
Posted in Aging and Meditation, Aging and Spirituality on May 17th, 2009
A woman in her fifties recently told me about a dream she had had. In the dream she was at a party and saw a tall, attractive man in his early thirties standing alone with a drink in his hand. The woman went over to talk to the man; in the dream she was young [...]
Posted in Aging and Meditation, Routines on May 7th, 2009
I remember a remarkable episode of the old Bill Cosby show, in which Dr. Huxtable and his wife surprise Dr. Huxtable’s father on his birthday with the gift of an all-expenses trip for two to Paris. His father is touched, grateful, and a trifle embarrassed. “We can’t go,” he says sheepishly to his son. “Why [...]
Posted in Aging and Buddhism, Aging and Meditation on Mar 26th, 2009
The “thought of enlightenment,” or bodhicitta, is a key doctrine of Great Vehicle Buddhism. Basically it refers that moment in your life when your perspective widens to embrace the big picture, and to ask the big questions. Why am I here? Why is anything here? What is life all about? Why is there evil in [...]
