David Chernikoff – Ageing and Awakening: A Buddhist Perspective on Growing Older. 14 June 2023

What does it mean to age consciously?

David Chernikoff explained how his interest in this subject started at a very young age and continuing to grow as he matured. His grandmother’s presence was a great influence on his interest in ageing and dying related issues as were his various spiritual work and life experiences. He feels that we need a new paradigm for the process of aeging, dying and death and that we can all both love and be useful in every stage of life.

We all need to start by looking truthfully and accepting the reality of how we really are at our current age. Meditation always helps. Awakening is about opening our hearts and minds to the whole of reality and means of cutting through our delusions. He gave us a short meditation along with 5 daily recollections on the ageing process. Seeing all this clearly enables us to understand how we relate to change and the importance of our attitudes and responses as we age. He elucidated on various Buddhist and other wisdom teacher’s insights, stressing how important it is to live in the present.

Unfortunately, our Western culture has built in resistance to how ageing is perceived and David explained how our self-perceptions of ageing actually matter in a variety of health aspects including increasing lifespan. He outlined some models of ageing and how there was a need for a spiritual model where elders have a recognised useful role in society.

He ended with the statement that faith and love were the most important features, closing with some wonderful discussions.

Report by Eve Hicks