This is the healthiest and longest-lived generation ever. For most of human history, the elder was a highly respected member of society. But this changed with the Industrial Revolution, and now the image of an elder is not so good. So our generation of elders does not really have much of a model as to how to live a fulfilled elder life.
This elder stage of life should crown our lifetime of learning and growth, and finding ways to express ourselves, and contributing to those around us. We don’t really have a good social model for this, so we have to discover it for ourselves.
So I invite you to come take this elder journey with me. This is valuable work. If you take it seriously, it will be a major part of your life for the next few months.
Come, keep learning and growing. What else is there to do?
This book is derived from a course that was developed for the unique elder community that resides in Ajijic, Mexico and on the shores of Lake Chapala. It was presented as a six-session course given over six weeks. This book should be a resource to those who have been through the course. It can also be used by people anywhere who are starting to deal with these issues, opportunities and challenges of aging. This is what the course is about.
Our first eldering course has no particular religious orientation, but was put together by me, working with our Unitarian Universalist (UU) minister, Rev. Matt Alspaugh. We based our work on an Elderhood course I found on-line written by another UU minister, Rev. Patricia Hoertdoerfer. That course, in turn, was based on From Age-ing to Sage-ing a book written by a Jewish scholar and Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. We felt that this Elderhood material was just what was needed for many of us here at Lakeside. The first iteration of the course was offered in the autumn of 2018.
As a result of renewed interest in the first course, I offered the course again, one year later, in the fall of 2019. I have continued my research into the topic of aging, and in particular into the changes that occur in the aging brain. The second year’s material includes more and newer research into the topics. In addition to using Rabbi Zalman’s Age-ing to Sage-ing as recommended reading for the course, I have added the book Buddha’s Brain by the American neuroscientist Dr. Rick Hanson, to emphasize the need for inner development and meditation,
COURSE OVERVIEW WHAT WE ARE GOING TO DO IN SIX SESSIONS
The first session presents an introduction and gets you started on a key element of preparation for Eldering work – meditation.
The second will introduce the life review process that is a key element of this course.
Session three continues this life review with restoring ourselves to wholeness.
Session four takes up the pain you have felt, and gives a way forward from it to your vision of purpose and meaning for your life.
Session five is about having a conscious death.
Session six wraps all this up and asks, “Now what? How can I live a happy and fulfilled Elder life?”
I am a part of this generation of elders. I am an early “Baby Boomer” born in 1943, so I am on the leading edge of the Boomer generation. I have had a life filled with both high-tech work and with spiritual inquiry. I lived and worked in California’s Silicon Valley. I was almost a hippie but got a job at IBM instead. I was Buddhist for 25 years, and then was attracted to the deep teachings of the 20th century Indian sage, Ramana Maharshi. My wife and I lived in India for 8 years before coming here to Lakeside. I have meditated regularly for about the last 35 years. My mother was a family therapist, and living in California, I have been in the middle of a variety of courses and approaches to personal growth, like EST in the 1970s, and many meditation retreats. So one part of the course is from my own life experiences and what I have been able to learn from them. Another part is from the latest scientific research.