I would like to start this post by thanking everyone for their wonderful comments! I know I have joined a great community and I can’t wait to read more of your responses over the weeks.
Last Friday, I found an audio recording by Ram Dass entitled Conscious Aging on our kitchen counter. I felt part of myself hesitate when my mom suggested I listen to it. My immediate thought was: just another self-help tape, right? A Caucasian Jew who converted to Hinduism and changed his name… this seems pretty suspicious. But I have found that suspicion and doubt are definite branching off points for openness. So I decided to listen to the recording.
The tagline for Conscious Aging is On the Nature of Change and Facing Death. But my experience with this dialogue had me learn more about life through its examination of death. Part of me thought (and continues to think while I’m writing this…), what is a twenty year old doing listening to a man talk about aging? But here’s how I see it: whether you are ten, twenty, forty, or even seventy, you are always aging. This is always changing. Being open to this change is one of the simplest ways we can enrich our lives. And though I am young and death may appear far on the horizon, I can start the process of not being afraid of it so that I will not be afraid of life.
I started listening to the CDs on a drive to my friend’s blueberry farm in northern Maryland. The first few tracks had me laughing out loud as I drove through valleys and fields. Ram Dass began with some hilarious stories, focusing on the mockery of old age typically displayed in our society. But eventually his tone changed, and some of what he said had me examining my consciousness in a new way.
Ram Dass, in a calm and reflective voice, graces us with a new way of explaining the world and the spiritual journey we have been on so far. One of the more interesting concepts he explained was different “TV channels” of consciousness. Channel one, he says, focuses on the physical bodies we perceive around us. In other words, your conscious mind seeing a person or object as fat, thin, pretty, ugly, etc… The second channel is when you look at another person or object for their social role, such as seeing someone as a mother or a doctor. The third channel, however, is where the real transformation begins. That is when your conscious mind is able to see the soul in another person or living thing, ignoring the somewhat trivial information coming in from the first two channels. Ram Dass claims that 98% of the people you meet will be satisfied living their conscious lives on the first two channels. My effort this week has been to move more towards channel 3, and I have found it more difficult than you might expect!
Living on the third channel, or being focused on the connective soul underlying this earth, deeply enriches our current situation. Instead of judging others (or ourselves!) immediately, we slow down and remember that important layer underneath superficiality. I believe that must be where a spiritual journey starts: when we first hear the voice that tells us that something is more important than our small selves and many of our automatic thoughts. The journey is learning to allow that voice to be louder.
A drawing from my journal, inspired by this recording
Conscious Aging is a big conversation worth listening to. I have outlined only one of many interesting topics here, but I am curious to hear your thoughts. Do you think most of our current society is stuck on channels one and two? Have you ever spent considerable time or even a moment on three, and how does that change your outlook? What do you think it means to be consciously aging?
I will end this post with a quote from Ram Dass:
The spiritual journey is highly individual, highly personal. It can’t be organized or regulated. It isn’t true that everyone should follow one path. Listen to your own truth.
With patience and openness,
Zoe
