Spiritual lessons that ripen with age – a conversation with Terry Patten

Life is a journey. We all know that the more we are walking along the path, one day after the other, from one year to the next, until we find ourselves “old”.

When that point comes in life is different for everyone, but some day there comes the recognition that we have gone ahead, that our life has changed and with that the way we are living it and the expectations and ideas we have about it.

Some of us might have started a spiritual journey in early years. Religious beliefs were available to us from childhood and since the 60ies of the past century also what we call “spirituality”. Many of us call ourselves “spiritual, but not religious” and it seems to make a huge difference. Well, I am not so sure anymore about that, but this is not the topic here.

Terry-Patten

What seems to be a fact from long term observations is the tendency of people getting older to embrace some sort of spiritual ideas and beliefs. It is because of the fear of death, you might say. But studies show that the older people get the less they fear their death. So maybe there is some other reason why spiritual thoughts and practices “stick” more for ageing people?

Terry Pattern is a well known spiritual teacher in “Integral” circles, among people who are inspired by integral theory and tra to live according their insights with the intention to grow up, wake up show up and CLEAN up in service of the evolution of consciousness and for creating a better world. (Watch a short intro to INTEGRAL THEORY here)

In our conversation with Terry we try to explore the topic AGE and ageing from an integral and spiritual point of view. Yes, we learn our lessons during life – and also those who seemingly don’t, do grow in some kind or other. Evolution is unstoppable and in our personal human life ageing allows us to let go of many things which seemed so important in earlier years, to grow ourselves into love and compassion and even become activists for love and joy and a better life for everyone, including us elders.

Enjoy the video which has so many takes on the subject, which is difficult to name in a short paragraph. A more exhaustive summary – the timestamps of what to find where in the video – can be found HERE.