Maturity: A Doorway to Enlightenment?

I've recently come to a very interesting realization I think radical spirituality is really for older people people in the third stage of life only if we've really lived for some time if we've lived if we've suffered we've lived through one two or three life cycles it takes that long to really find out to really be sure in our souls what's more important than anything else if we are serious about spiritual awakening and we intact seriously intent to become an enlightened person we have to be deadly serious and we have to know what's more important than anything else a mature person has more has more easy access to that kind of confidence and that kind of clarity of purpose than a younger person does and that's why I've come to believe that that truly radical spirituality is more really suited for older people like you and me people in their late 40s 50s and early 60s and I also started thought a lot about what this means about culture and the evolution of culture you know postmodern culture tells us that the the most important time in our lives is when we're 20 in their 20s and our 30s maybe our early 40s but the message we get is when we reach 50 is kind of downhill until we slip and slide out into the Oblivion but what if what if we began to see that the the third and maybe even the fourth stage of life was a time of enormous opportunity the our opportunity to go more deeply into our own spiritual potential an opportunity to activate and cultivate our own spiritual potential than in an earlier time of our life because in an earlier time of our life we're very busy with our careers with our relationships with our children with the idealistic dreams of youth and understandably we're very consumed with actualizing all of them but someone like the Buddha was preaching was truly radical he wanted he was interested in people giving everything to this path I've always felt the same way I thought if we really want to do this if we want to go very deeply we've got to give everything to it and it seems obvious to me that the later stages of our life from a practical point of view there are many more of us who are in a position to actually be able to do that if we come to this path after we've lived a fairly significant amount of time and as a result of that we really know what's more important it's my firm belief that we'll be able to give so much more to it than a younger person Jenna in general would be able to do I imagine that a lot of you are listening to me have been on the spiritual path for a very long time but that means that you still believe that enlightenment is real which is incredibly positive because you know for most people they kind of believe in what the Buddha was pointing to maybe for a few years in our early in early part of our life and we allow ourselves to experience the spiritual idealism utopian idealism the promise of paradise the promise of profound and extraordinary liberation the promise of higher states of consciousness that reveal the ultimate depths of the mystery that lies beyond life and death but believing that such a profound realization is actually attainable usually doesn't last very long and a lot of people most people sort of later give up and become quietly cynical along the way and it's very understandable you may have given up on yourself and your own potential to do this without even being aware of it I've seen it happen many many times it happens to a lot of people but but you're still in it and so a lot of us and this may be your experience I don't know a lot of people end up in a process of Perpetual seeking it almost becomes a way of life unless we're willing to take ourselves seriously in other words our own potential for this kind of transformation deadly seriously staying in the game ultimately isn't gonna lead anywhere I'm sure you've done all kinds of things with all kinds of teachers and all kinds of practices but if you're still seeking it means you haven't really found what you were looking for yet and believe me when you find what you're looking for it changes everything it's not the end of anything it's the beginning of a whole new life and I really mean that with all my heart a completely different life that is pregnant with meaning and purpose spiritual and metaphysical context the palpable living reality of consciousness that's been liberated and become self-aware it changes everything those of us in the third stage of life and including also those of us in the for stage of life may be a lot closer to this possibility than we actually think even if we've been at this for a very long time things can change very quickly if we're willing to take our own potential for this kind of transformation deadly seriously what I'm saying is are we willing to make our own potential for spiritual liberation and extraordinary transformation and absolute and unconditional priority are we willing to put it first without compromise and without excuses are we willing to assume the attitude and the intention of the Buddha himself the Higgs that he expressed when he when he sat down under the Bodhi tree and he boldly declared I will not get up until I'm enlightened if we're willing to bring that kind of attitude that kind of profound awakened and inspired intention to our own development the past that comes irrelevant and whatever has happened in our past doesn't really matter anymore because we know what we want and we're bringing a kind of love to this process and a conviction are we willing at this point in our lives to take on conditional responsibility for ourselves because that's obviously first and foremost for anybody who wants to be free and wants to be free in a context of spiritual integrity if the answer is yes our potential for transformation is very profound are we willing to start paying attention to the reality of what's happening inside us and outside us with the kind of intensity that we've never brought before what I what I really mean to say is are we willing to face everything and avoid nothing as if her life depended on it because if we're serious about becoming enlightened in this lifetime it really does [Music] are we capable of taking the biggest perspective that there is on our own process on life itself the biggest perspective that there is is the perspective of evolution of cosmic evolution the universe started with a very big bang 14 billion years ago and that Big Bang started a process that's been in progress for a very very long time and that process produced your body mind and personality produced the experience you're having right now the experience you're having right now is part and parcel of a cosmic unfolding finally are you spiritually mature enough to realize that this is not about you it's never been about you the universe itself is trying to awaken through you that's really what's happening here the energy and intelligence that created the universe and is creating unity at the universe and they caused the universe to come into existence is trying to become more conscious so when you and I experience what I call the spiritual impulse the vibrating and pulsating inside us it's compelling us to become more conscious that we experiences this compulsion to become more conscious it's not a personal thing it's the universe expressing its need and desire to become more conscious through us so can you can you begin to see that your body mind and personality is really a vehicle through which the universe is trying to awaken and are you willing to give yourself to give your mind to give your body to your part and your personality to this process are you willing to relinquish your egos attachment to all of this so you can become a vehicle through which the universe can become conscious if so life becomes very exciting very full of what I can think and I can honestly say absolute meaning and purpose and purposefulness so please try and see everything I'm saying from the perspective of a potential revolution for people at the third stage of life what if together we gave birth to a new stage of postmodern culture stage beyond at a post postmodern stage where we collectively saw the third and fourth stage of life is maybe the most important time in our life what if the third stage of life was really about cultivating about giving all the time we have and all and all the preciousness of our life experience and our hard-won maturity to the spiritual path and all that self evolutionary and spiritual potential not for our own sake but for the sake of the evolution of culture itself for the sake of the evolution of the interior of the cosmos and imagine many of us coming together for this purpose imagine what we could do what we could bring to the world and imagine how much dignity meaning and purpose we could bring to the third and fourth stage of life the most thrilling and exciting time to be alive again not just for us but for everyone else so this is what turns me on this is what excites me this is what thrills me this is what I'm living for I'm very serious about this and if you're interested in hearing more about what it means to embrace a truly radical spirituality for everyone else's sake that the most important time of your life please take my webinar and I'm gonna speak a lot more about this I look forward to I hope you'll join me there I look forward to seeing you