“the sun withdraws its rays in order to illumine itself”
We “are aging, uncomfortable and stuck, cut off from the past and no longer optimistic about the future, spurning both memory and ambition while we await some saving innovation or revelation, growing old unhappily together in the light of tiny screens.”[i]
Shakespeare said: “With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.” Good advice, but not well received. Instead of enjoying their later years, many seniors live in fear of death, loss of independence, home or spouse. Most fight mightily against accepting the inevitable.
The principles in Simple Reality help us let go of attachment to body, mind, emotions, status and possessions. We can resist letting go, which causes us more suffering and pain, or we can accept letting go and allow our next adventure to unfold.
Insight # 25 comes to us from C. G. Jung (1875-1961). He was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung’s work was influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, philosophy and religion.
“[For] the aging person it is a duty and a necessity to give serious attention to himself. After having lavished its light upon the world, the sun withdraws its rays in order to illumine itself.”[ii]
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Additional Reading:
- Aging, The ABC’s of Simple Reality, Vol 1
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[i] Douthat, Ross. “The Age of Decadence.” The New York Times Sunday Review. February 9, 2020, p. 4.
[ii] Seldes, George. The Great Thoughts. New York: Random House, 1985, p. 218.
