For those age 50 and older.
Osho tells a story in his commentaries on Buddha’s teachings in the Dhammapada about four stages we pass through in life. The first stage is the first 25 years of life – childhood, education and preparation for adulthood. In the second stage, age 25-50 we live as a ‘householder’ raising a family and earning a living.
From age 50, we enter the phase of ‘turning towards the forest’. This group focuses on the third stage, which I am calling the Forest Years. Our children grow up, leave home, and retirement from work comes closer. We face many changes, in our inner world as well as in our outer lives.
In this group, we will look back at how we have lived our lives—our successes, failures, regrets, and our unfinished business with loved ones. We will also start to face the fears that we all carry within, consciously or unconsciously as we face aging, illness, and ultimately, death.
As the body begins to age, many of us feel to gradually slow down, and spend more quiet time, perhaps alone time. Unexplored parts of ourselves call out to be experienced and expressed.
“What has not been lived fully yet?” Maybe we write a “bucket list”, or at least allow ourselves to consider, “What’s next?”
We will share our journeys, explore our next steps, and encourage each other as we move forward. We will discover our personal visions of how we want to spend the time we have left – possibly more meditatively, lovingly, gracefully for a Transformational Aging.
