When I retired in 2012 and discovered the concept of “the second half of life,” I really enjoyed letting people in on this “well-kept secret” as I taught the class “Spirituality in the Second Half of Life” at Osher Lifelong Institute (OLLI). Then I was even more excited in 2015 when I listened to Ron Pevny’s online interviews in the program “Transforming the Aging Journey,” where I discovered the concept of “conscious aging,” which led me to teach the class “Conscious Aging: A New Paradigm for Aging.”
The description I used for that class was “Instead of unconsciously drifting into old age and worrying about the diminishment and loss it can bring, the conscious aging movement is creating a new life stage of spiritual development in which we as elders can choose to become more conscious, more whole, and happier than we’ve ever been.”
The first book I ever read that used the words “conscious aging movement” (3) was From Age-ing to Sage-ing: A Profound New Vision of Growing Older by Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. In this book, he also calls it “spiritual eldering,” and on P. 5, he says that this “ongoing process…helps us consciously transform the downward arc of aging with the upward arc of expanded consciousness that crowns an elder’s life with meaning and purpose.” And I love the story of how Rabbi Zalman came to write this life-transforming book.
In 1984 at 60, Rabbi Zalman, a prominent Jewish leader, realized that he was growing old, and he didn’t want his later years to be all about diminishment. But when he looked for inspiring role models to emulate, he couldn’t find any. He decided that because he was a leader, he should try to figure it out„ and so he began by going on a 40-day retreat or Vision Quest. When he returned, he began to realize his vision.
In 1987, Rabbi Zalman founded the Spiritual Eldering Institute, and he started offering workshops across the country. In 1992, several leaders in this field met at Omega Institute where they offered a retreat called “From Age-ing to Sage-ing,” and 1,200 people attended. Then in 1995, he published From Age-ing to Sage-ing: A Profound New Vision of Growing Older (published again in 2014 with the subtitle A Revolutionary Approach to Growing Older). In his book, he gives us a roadmap which will help us consciously age. He “proposes a new model of late-life development called “sage-ing,” “a process that enables older people to become spiritually radiant, physically vital, and socially responsible ‘elders of the tribe.’ ” (3)
And Rabbi Zalman tells us how important it is that we begin to “sage.” He says that across the county, people are “hoisting the banner of what gerontologists call ‘successful aging,’ an activity-oriented approach that promises increased physical vigor, continued intellectual growth, and meaningful work during the elder years.” But Rabbi Zalman wants us to go further. He wants them to “transition into…a psychospiritual model of development that enables them to complete their journey, harvest the wisdom of their years, and transmit a legacy to future generations.” And he says, “Without envisioning old age as the culminating stage of spiritual development, we short-circuit this process and put the brakes on the evolutionary imperative for growth that can be unleashed by our increased longevity.” (5)
But what’s even more exciting is that in his book From Age-ing to Sage-ing, Rabbi Zalman gives us some tools to help us make this transition. He gives us six core topics: Images of Aging, Life Review, Forgiveness, Facing Our Mortality, and Sharing gifts of Legacy and Service.
In my future blog posts, I will talk a lot about these six core topics, and I won’t just write about what Rabbi Zalman says about them; many, many other authors who write about “conscious aging” or what Rabbi Zalman calls “Sage-ing” write about these topics.
Please check out the website of the nonprofit organization that is introducing sage-ing to people all over the world. You can join” Sage-ing International” for free at “sage-ing.org,” and you will see how much is going on that you can get involved in.
This is my fourth blog post, and I wrote these four entries as an introduction to the conscious aging movement. I’m hoping that in the future, most of my posts will stand alone, but if they don’t, I will indicate this. I hope you enjoy the journey I’m hoping to take you on, so that like Rabbi Zalman, you’ll come to see this stage of life as “the culminating stage of spiritual development.”
To contact me, call 651–399-9571 or email me at karenw0214@gmail.com.
Please consider registering for the “Online Awakening the Sage Within” workshop in November on the Sage-ing International website– “Sage-ing.org.”
